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Many American consumers do not understand the basic calculations of inflation

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Many American consumers do not understand the basic calculations of inflation

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A large-scale survey on financial literacy found that many American consumers do not understand the basic calculations of inflation.

In recent months, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, a financial education nonprofit, administered a seven-question quiz to 25,500 adults to test their knowledge of consumer finance. Results: 3 out of 10 test takers missed a simple question about interest rates. Two out of five people stumbled on a question about inflation. The item about compound interest confused 71% of consumers.

Regarding questions regarding inflation,

Imagine if the interest rate on your savings account was 1% a year and inflation was 2% a year. After a year, how much money will you be able to buy with the money in this account?

  • more than today
  • exactly the same
  • less than today
  • I don’t know

The correct answer is “less than today.” If inflation is higher than the interest rate on your savings account, your purchasing power will decline over time.

In a FINRA Foundation quiz conducted in 2024, 58 percent of respondents answered the questions correctly. The group published its findings in April 2025.

Many Americans don’t know how inflation and interest rates interact

The idea that two-fifths of Americans may not understand the relationship between inflation, interest rates, and purchasing power has financial experts concerned.

“I think it’s a failure to connect the dots between economic factors like inflation and how it applies to our daily lives,” said Caleb Silver, editor-in-chief of financial journalism site Investopedia. “I trace this back to what was taught, or not taught, in high school.”

Experts say U.S. consumers need to learn about the sometimes difficult calculations of inflation and interest rates, as both indicators are trending upward.

Inflation soared to a 40-year high in 2022, and interest rates hit a 20-year high in 2023.

Financial literacy can save consumers from credit card debt

According to Bankrate, consumers who don’t understand interest rates risk incurring debt on credit cards, which have an average interest rate of 20%.

Another question from the FINRA quiz is:

Let’s say you have a $1,000 loan and the interest rate you’re being charged is 20%, compounded annually. If you don’t pay anything back, how many years will it take for your loan to double at this interest rate?

  • less than 2 years
  • 2-4 years
  • 5-9 years
  • over 10 years
  • I don’t know

The correct answer is “2 to 4 years.” At a 20% interest rate, a $1,000 debt will become a $2,000 debt over that period.

Approximately 3 out of 10 test takers answered correctly.

The problem with not understanding interest rates is that you run the risk of “compounding your debt out of control,” says Gary Mottola, director of research at the FINRA Foundation. FINRA stands for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an organization that oversees brokers.

Financial education helps consumers make investment choices

Consumers who don’t understand interest rates may also miss out on opportunities to make money by opening high-yield savings accounts or investing in the stock market.

One item on the FINRA quiz tested consumers’ understanding of a fundamental investment concept: diversification.

True or False: Buying stock in a single company typically provides safer returns than stock mutual funds.

Only two-fifths of the quiz participants guessed the correct answer. Generally, it is riskier to invest in a single stock and safer to spread the risk across many stocks within a mutual fund.

“Many people don’t understand what it means to have a truly diversified portfolio,” says Investopedia’s Silver.

One of the easiest quiz questions is

Let’s say you have a savings account with $100 and it earns 2% interest per year. How much will you have in 5 years?

  • Over $102
  • just $102
  • less than $102
  • I don’t know

The correct answer is “more than $102.” More than 30% of respondents were wrong.

And this is the quiz’s most difficult question, with only 25% of consumers getting it right.

What typically happens to bond prices when interest rates rise? Do they rise, fall, stay the same, or have no relationship?

Bond markets are notoriously complex. Investopedia explains that bonds have an inverse relationship to interest rates. When interest rates rise, bond prices typically fall.

Nationally, 27% of quiz takers answered at least 5 out of 7 questions correctly. Only 4% answered all seven correctly.

Here are the states with the strongest and weakest financial literacy

The FINRA Foundation received enough respondents to rank all 50 states and the District of Columbia on financial literacy. The states with the most quiz takers getting at least 5 out of 7 questions correct are:

  • Minnesota (34.8% of respondents answered 5 or more questions correctly)
  • Wisconsin (34.5%)
  • District of Columbia (34.4%)
  • Colorado (33.9%)
  • Wyoming (33.9%)

And the states with the lowest financial literacy are:

  • Louisiana (18.1% of respondents answered 5 or more questions correctly)
  • Mississippi (19.2%)
  • Alabama (20.2%)
  • West Virginia (21.4%)
  • New Mexico (23.2%)

Industry leaders are pushing to improve financial education in schools.

Twenty-seven states now guarantee personal finance courses to all high school students, up from 11 states in 2021, according to a dashboard maintained by financial education advocates.

“There’s an interest and a real, genuine desire to have this taught in schools,” said Lindsey Toriko, executive director of the American Bankers Association Foundation.

Most American consumers (87%) think financial concepts should be taught in high school, according to a new survey released in April by the ABA Foundation.

However, only 15% of Americans in that survey cited school as their primary source of financial literacy.

Mottola said the FINRA Foundation has been testing consumers’ financial knowledge since 2009.

This study was last conducted in 2021. Between that year and 2024, the percentage of respondents who correctly answered the same question about inflation rose from 53% to 58%. Foundation leaders took this as a sign of progress.

“There’s probably some experiential learning going on as a result of living with inflation,” Mottola said.

See the lineup of advent calendars available at Target and Trader Joe’s

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See the lineup of advent calendars available at Target and Trader Joe’s

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Counting down to Christmas is fun, but it’s even more fun with an advent calendar. Or two.

The exact person behind the concept is unknown, but Sky History says the tradition of marking the days until Christmas likely began in Germany in the 19th century.

In recent years, advent calendars have become even more popular because they offer surprises. Traditional advent calendars usually include chocolate, wine, cookies, or ornaments, and each year brands compete to create the most appealing one.

We’ve rounded up advent calendars from major retailers like Target, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi.

Unique Advent Calendar: View Pickles, Furby, and Red Bull products

trader joe’s

Trader Joe’s offers a variety of advent calendars, including:

  • chocolate advent calendar – $1.49
  • 12 days of beauty – A curated collection: According to Trader Joe’s, this set, which retails for $19.99, includes “a rotating assortment of skin and hair products, everything from body butters and facial oils to masks, balms and creams.”
  • dog and cat advent calendar – $7.99

Trader Joe’s holiday and advent calendars are available in stores in 42 states. Find your nearest store here.

aldi

Aldi’s Advent Calendar range for the 2025 holiday season is a mix of old and new favorites, with over 30 unique items included in this year’s range.

  • Fun Moments 12 Days of Crafting ($7.99): Available in two variations: snowman and sledding, this kit lets your family assemble 12 unique festive-themed ornaments.
  • Kirkton House Candle Advent Calendar ($34.99): A gorgeous collection of 25 candles. Each offers a different festive scent.
  • Winter Wonderland Cheese Advent Calendar ($16.99): This pack includes a wide variety of cheeses sourced from around the world, including Whiskey Cheddar and Bruschetta Gouda.
  • Winter Wonderland Wine Advent Calendar ($59.99): The 24-day Wine Advent Calendar includes a selection of great wines from around the world.
  • Winter Wonderland Moser Roth Chocolate Advent Calendar ($17.99): This calendar offers “24 days of decadent chocolate bliss,” with each day unveiling “a new handcrafted treat made with premium European chocolate, from rich dark milk to creamy milk varieties.”
  • Heart to Tail Pet Advent Calendar ($12.99)
  • lego city advent calendar ($29.99)
  • Suxmallow 12 Day Advent Calendar ($29.99 – $39.99)
  • Kinder mix advent calendar ($17.99)
  • Barissimo Coffee Advent Calendar ($7.99)
  • Benner Assorted Tea Advent Calendar ($42.99)
  • Connelly’s 12 Days of Irish Cream ($69.99)

Aldi’s advent and holiday calendars are available at Aldi stores in 38 states, subject to availability, with in-store pickup options available. You can also order online and have it delivered. Supplies of advent calendars are limited and Aldi says it may limit the number of certain calendars purchased per person. A full list of Aldi’s advent calendars can be found on the supermarket chain’s website.

target

Target has “all your advent calendar needs” covered, the retailer says, with a brand lineup that includes decorations, toys, pets and beauty products, as well as some “lovely classics.”

Here’s what Target is offering this holiday season.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

Northwestern Airlines pays $75 million in agreement with Trump administration to restore funding

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Northwestern Airlines pays million in agreement with Trump administration to restore funding

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Northwestern University has agreed to pay a $75 million settlement with the Trump administration to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds that were withheld during an investigation into allegations of civil rights violations and anti-Semitism on campus.

The settlement announced Nov. 28 would restore nearly $800 million in federal funds that were frozen in April as the administration cracked down on universities such as Northwestern University and Cornell University. The funding freeze comes after the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers last year scrutinized college campuses over their response to pro-Palestinian protests.

The agreement calls for Chicago-area schools to pay $75 million to the U.S. Treasury over three years, according to a news release from the Department of Justice and the schools. It also concludes an investigation into complaints about the school’s admissions, policies regarding transgender students and its handling of allegations of anti-Semitism on campus.

Northwestern University interim president Henry Bienen said federal funding should be fully restored within 30 days, adding that the agreement “brings an end to a very painful and destructive period in the university’s history.”

Bienen, who took over as interim president after Michael Schill resigned in September, comes at a politically fraught time in Northwestern’s history. He said payments to the government were not an admission of guilt.

“Today’s settlement represents another victory in the Trump administration’s fight to ensure that America’s educational institutions protect Jewish students and prioritize their merits,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

more: Ivy League universities face liquidation after Columbia University and President Trump deal

Bienen said Northwestern maintains control over who it hires, who it accepts as students and what its faculty teach.

“The North West runs through the North West, that’s right,” he said.

As part of the settlement, Northwestern will establish a commission to ensure compliance with terms, abide by federal anti-discrimination laws (which Bienen noted it has already done) and terminate an agreement reached with pro-Palestinian protesters last year. The university said recently enacted policies to support Jewish students will continue under the terms of the settlement.

The settlement also requires Northwestern to comply with its Title IX policies by providing “safe and fair opportunities for women, including women-only gender-based housing, women-only housing for those who request such accommodations, women-only sports, locker rooms, and shower facilities.” Northwestern University said it would not impose new restrictions on transgender members of the school community.

Earlier this month, Cornell University, which was also subject to a federal funding freeze, agreed to pay the government $30 million to restore $250 million in frozen grants and invest the same amount in agricultural research.

Contributor: Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY. Reuters

Miss Universe had all the makings of a great reality show.

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Miss Universe had all the makings of a great reality show.

Miss Universe has become a reality show. What really happened?

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In many ways, Miss Universe and other pageants were our original reality television.

Over the course of three hours, we watched as women from all over the world competed in gowns, swimsuits, and traditional costumes, and were interviewed.

But over the years, Miss Universe has come to feel mechanical, routine, outdated, and even boring. Reality TV has caught on, showing modern versions of gowns (“Selling Sunset”), swimsuits (“Love Island”), ethnic costumes (“The Masked Singer”) and interviews (“Love is Blind”).

Now, Miss Universe is bringing the drama.

Suddenly the competition is interesting again and we can’t stop watching.

In the week since Miss Mexico was crowned the winner, we’ve had all the ingredients for a season of your favorite reality show, including a confession and a surprise ending. And the conversation about this pageant goes beyond the usual discussion about outdated pageants that require poise and perfection from women to win scholarships.

This year, even the annual allegations of sexual harassment and jury misconduct at the Miss Universe pageant were swept under the rug.

1 failure

Before the winner was crowned, Jamaica’s Gabrielle Henry fell off the stage during the evening gown competition. She remains hospitalized a week later. At first, pageant officials said she had not broken any bones and had only come to the hospital for observation. (Miss Jamaica’s leaders blamed her, Melissa Sapini of Haiti told People magazine. “The first thing[pageant leaders]said was that she wasn’t paying attention.”)

2 Call your name

At the sash award ceremony, where contestants are given their countries’ official sashes, the director of the Thai national pageant slammed Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch Fernandez, who was later crowned Miss Universe, for not following promotional guidelines earlier this month.

As Bosch left the event, the director called security to try to stop her. Other women also took part, including last year’s winner, Miss Denmark.

Bosch later told a Thai reporter: “Your coach’s actions lack respect. He called me stupid.” “If it takes away your dignity, you have to leave.”

“And I think the world needs to understand this because we are empowered women and this is a platform to express our opinions,” she said. “And no one can silence our voices, and no one will do that to me.”

The director tearfully apologized, saying, “It’s a lot of pressure, and I’m only human.” The competition’s president, Raul Rocha Cantu, criticized him for trying to “silence and exclude Bosch”.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum praised her.

She shared a phrase that many girls who grew up in Mexico or Mexican families heard: “calladita te ves más bonita.”

“Gone are the days when people used to say it was cleaner to be quiet,” Sheinbaum says. “Women become more beautiful when we talk and participate.”

Former Miss USA Noelia Vogt Miss Universe Thailand director’s comments ‘disgusting’

3 Allegations of voter fraud

Omar Harhoush withdrew from eight jurors, claiming that a secret ballot, rather than among the judges, was used to pre-select the top 30 of the 136 contestants. Harfoush said she is considering suing the Miss Universe Organization for psychological trauma and reputational damage. Another judge also resigned, but he cited personal reasons.

4 Internet swarm

This year’s death threats were not about the trial, but about religion.

The first Miss Palestine contestant, Nadine Ayoub, wore a gown featuring Israeli religious sites, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Israeli Melanie Shiraz told Fox News she received death and rape threats after she said the video had been edited to make it look like Ayoub was giving her dirty looks.

“My social media was flooded with hateful comments and clips of this video where it was like I was standing next to her,” she said.

5 Investigation and arrest

Four days after the new Miss Universe was crowned, a Bangkok court issued an arrest warrant for Ang Jakaphon Jakrajtatip, co-owner of the Miss Universe organization. She was suspected of defrauding a company out of bonds and had been deemed a flight risk and had missed a court date.

And Cantu is under investigation for drug, gun and fuel trafficking between Guatemala and Mexico.

6 Last Rating

Yet, through it all, Bosch wore the crown and its ratings rose.

The broadcast was the best in years, according to Nielsen, and NBC reported 2.6 million total viewers, making it the most-watched prime-time entertainment special on Spanish-language television in 2025. A week after all this, on the official Miss Universe Instagram account, Bosch posted a photo of herself looking over her shoulder in a black silk halter-neck dress with a floral pattern. She captioned it, “Just breathe.”

Perhaps next year, pageant officials should take a cue from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders reality show and turn the competition into a full season.

See prices, accessories and where to buy LEGO’s 2025 Advent Calendar.

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See prices, accessories and where to buy LEGO’s 2025 Advent Calendar.

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The coveted Lego Advent Calendar is back on the market, offering the perfect opportunity to countdown to Christmas.

Priced from approximately 1000 yen to $32.99 and $44.99, each calendar includes 24 mini-builds or Lego accessories to brighten up the days leading up to Christmas. This year’s themes include Star Wars, Minecraft, Harry Potter, and more. Lego Advent Calendars are available for purchase on the Lego website as well as at retailers nationwide including Target, Amazon, and Walmart.

Introducing LEGO’s 2025 Advent Calendar lineup.

Star Wars Advent Calendar – $44.99

The Droidsmith Workshop-themed advent calendar includes a buildable Star Wars droid, additional droid parts, and workshop gear with “festive details.”

Minecraft Advent Calendar – $44.99

A new release, this set includes “24 build-and-play gifts to create a Minecraft winter village set.”

Disney Frozen Advent Calendar – $44.99

Enjoy the cold weather with Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven as part of the LEGO Frozen Advent Calendar. It also turns into an interactive game thanks to the built-in game board.

The ultimate LEGO gift guide: Sets for all ages, budgets and fans

Friends Advent Calendar -$34.99

Featuring five mini-dolls including Arya, Autumn, Leanne, Nova and Leo, as well as Lego animals including two dogs, a guinea pig, a gecko and a cat figure, this advent calendar is meant to “inspire holiday merriment and cozy times.”

“Open the door every day and build your holiday sleepover story,” LEGO says of this set.

Harry Potter Advent Calendar – $44.99

A must-have for Potter lovers, this advent calendar includes LEGO minifigures of Harry Potter, Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy, Hannah Abbott, Angelina Johnson, Luna Lovegood, Blaise Zabini and Cedric Diggory, all dressed in Hogwarts Christmas sweaters. Also part of the set are “fun collectible mini-builds” of iconic items such as an admission letter to Hogwarts, a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans™, the Sorting Hat, and various magic potions.

According to Lego, the advent calendar offers the opportunity to “unlock a playful wizarding adventure every day in the lead up to Christmas.”

LEGO City Advent Calendar 2025 – $34.99

The brand says the LEGO City Advent Calendar 2025 is “packed with surprises for kids who love creative play” and is “brimming with festive fun.” Characters in the set wear polar bear, reindeer and holiday tree costumes and come with seasonal mini-builds and other fun accessories.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

President Trump’s approval rating hits new low in second term

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President Trump’s approval rating hits new low in second term

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President Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to decline, hitting their lowest point in his second term in the latest Gallup poll.

A Gallup poll conducted Nov. 3-25 found that 36% of people approve of President Trump’s job performance, down from 41% in October. That’s close to Trump’s all-time low approval rating of 34% in 2021, near the end of his first term after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to Gallup. Trump’s approval rating so far in his second term was low at 37% in July, according to Gallup.

President Trump’s approval rating declined not only among Democrats but also among Republicans and independents. Republican approval ratings have fallen from 91% during President Trump’s second term (84%). President Trump’s approval rating among independents was 25%, down from 33% in October. Democratic President Trump’s approval rating was 3%, down from 6% last month.

What 2026 means in 2028: Why JD Vance cares about midterm elections

Trump approval rating declines, disapproval rating rises in Gallup poll

Trump’s approval ratings have been relatively stable for several months, but they have declined over the past month. The RealClearPolitics polling average reached a new low of 42.3% on November 14, as the 43-day government shutdown ended and the controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s emails intensified. According to RealClearPolitics polling average, President Trump’s approval rating currently stands at 42.7%.

According to the New York Times polling company, President Trump’s approval rating for his second term is 41%, down from 52% in January.

President Trump’s disapproval rating also rose from 54% in October to 60%. The decline in approval ratings comes as concerns about rising prices continue, while the Trump administration continues to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities, plans to ramp up military operations against Venezuelan drug traffickers internationally and pressures Ukraine to accept a peace deal.

The Gallup poll was completed the day before two West Virginia National Guard members were gunned down in a “targeted” ambush while on duty in Washington, D.C., and Sarah Beckstrom, an Army specialist from Summersville, West Virginia, died of her injuries on Nov. 27.

Trump administration approval rating declines on economy and Ukraine

According to Gallup, since March, President Trump’s approval rating has dropped 12 points on the federal budget and 10 points on the situation in Ukraine. According to Gallup, President Trump’s handling of immigration has declined by 9 points since February. The administration’s response to the situation in the Middle East and the economy also declined, dropping 7 and 6 points, respectively, from February.

Polling numbers suggest MAGA voters may be reconsidering their support for Trump. Republican Gray Holland said he voted for Trump in the last presidential election but is “not a big fan” of the president anymore.

He cited continued high costs as one of the main reasons, but also cited financial aid to Israel and the failure to fully release investigative files on convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“We need to put America first and focus on what we’re going to do on our own turf…That’s what President Trump’s campaign was about, and I haven’t seen much of that,” Holland, a 24-year-old sales representative from Birmingham, Alabama, told USA TODAY in an interview.

However, some Trump supporters are softening the president’s stance a bit. Justin Fernandez, a registered Democrat, said he tends to vote in a more conservative direction and supported Trump in all three presidential elections. “I don’t agree with everything he does, and I don’t like how he acts like a high school kid online, but overall he has the best ideas and is willing to try different things,” the 66-year-old writer from Ohio said in an interview.

“And, you know, every president fails or succeeds in some way,” Fernandez said.

Contributor: Kinsey Crowley

Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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Everything you need to know about Sephora Ulta’s Beauty Advent Calendar and more.

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Everything you need to know about Sephora Ulta’s Beauty Advent Calendar and more.

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The holiday season is in full swing and December is just around the corner. What better way to count down to Christmas than with an advent calendar, especially a beauty calendar?

The exact person behind the concept is unknown, but Sky History says the tradition of marking the days until Christmas likely began in Germany in the 19th century.

In recent years, advent calendars have become even more popular because they offer surprises. Traditional advent calendars usually feature chocolate, wine, cookies, or ornaments, but lately beauty brands have also been jumping on the bandwagon to treat their customers.

Here we present a list of trending beauty advent calendars and their respective calendars.

unique advent calendar Pickles, Furby, Red Bull

sephora

  • Sephora Favorite Advent Calendar ($99) – Priced at $269, the brand says the “curated advent calendar” is “packed with best-selling and trending essentials in makeup, skin care, and hair.” Sold only in stores.
  • Sephora Collection Premium Makeup & Skincare Advent Calendarr ($95): Sephora says the limited-edition set, which comes in a gold tin, “includes a wide range of makeup, skin care, bath products, and accessories.”
  • Sephora Collection Advent Calendar ($55) – Sephora is bringing back its “long-awaited” advent calendar, saying it’s “better than ever with 24 days of surprises including makeup, skincare, bath, and new accessories.”
  • Sephora Collection After Advent Makeup & Skin Care ($35): The calendar offers customers the opportunity to “extend the holiday season and the joy of discovering new surprises until New Year’s Eve,” offering “seven additional boxes” to “end the year with the perfect beauty routine.”

Ulta

Macy’s – $99

Macy’s 25 Days of Beauty Advent Calendar boasts “a collection of 25 exciting days of beauty treasures.” Set contents:

  • bobbi brown vitamin enriched face base
  • Bumble & Bumble Thickening Dryspan Texture Spray Light
  • Buta Cocosia Revitalizing Cream
  • Kardon Cactus Soothing Face Mask
  • Carolina Herrera Very Good Girl Elixir Eau de Parfum
  • Caudalie Vino Perfect Brightening Dark Spot Serum
  • Clinique Moisture Surge 100H Automatic Refill Hydrator Gel Moisturizer
  • Diana Madison Beauty Matcha Green Tea Collagen Eye Brightening Gel Patch
  • Elemis procollagen marine cream
  • Elizabeth Arden Visible Brightening Clearly Radiant Spot Correcting Capsules, 0.11 oz.
  • iblom foaming cream cleanser
  • fat boy styling cream
  • Fre Recover Me Restorative Night Cream
  • Guerlain Shalimar L’Essence
  • Jimmy Choo I Want Choo Le Parfum
  • Jo Malone London Wood Sage & Sea Salt Cologne
  • Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturizing Cleanser
  • Kiehl’s Since 1851 Ultra Facial Cream
  • Lancome Genifique Ultimate Recovery Face Serum
  • lovely sandalwood candle
  • Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Serum
  • Sutra heat guard hair mask
  • Tarte light, camera, eyelashes platinum mascara
  • TONYMOLY Sushmallows Benny’s Pedi Shea Butter Foot Mask
  • Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

MAC Cosmetics – $245

MAC Cosmetics’ Holiday Exclusive 24 Mystery Must-Have Advent Calendar includes 24 full-size and mini surprises that “offer best-selling and limited-edition products at M·A·Cnificent prices that can be unboxed every day,” according to the brand.

Benefit Cosmetics – $149

The Benefit Cosmetics Glam Cube Makeup Advent Calendar Gift Set is described as a beauty puzzle with “24 days of holiday glam hidden inside.”

“Each twist reveals a new full-sized, mini-sized or fun-sized surprise that will add a big twist to your beauty routine,” Benefit says of the product.

  • BADgal volume mascara
  • Benetint lip and cheek stain
  • 24 hour brow setter
  • original hoola powder bronzer
  • Willa Brush
  • sherry blush
  • dandelion blush
  • Christa Blush
  • PORE Professional Smoothing Primer
  • POREfessional Smooth Sip
  • It’s real! Beyond mascara
  • roller lash mascara
  • fan fest mascara
  • badgal bounce mascara
  • POREfessional: Super Setter Makeup Setting Spray
  • POREfessional Deep Retreat Clay Mask
  • POREfessional Good Cleanup Foaming Cleanser
  • POREfessional Get Unblocked Cleansing Oil
  • Luna’s Durarara Liquid Glow
  • fluff up brow wax
  • Gimme Brow+
  • Eye Gotta Glow Under Eye Mask
  • makeup remover
  • hair scrunchie

seagram

SheGlam’s Sugar, Spice & Everything Glam Advent Calendar includes “12 full-sized beauty surprises featuring viral bestsellers to keep you glowing all season long,” according to the brand. Box contains:

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

The number of deaths in Hong Kong apartments could rise further. 14 people arrested

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The number of deaths in Hong Kong apartments could rise further. 14 people arrested

Jesse Pang and Greg Torode
|Reuters

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On November 29, Hong Kong mourned the loss of 128 people killed in a massive fire in a high-rise apartment building. With more than 150 days left unaccounted for, the death toll could rise further.

Authorities are investigating possible corruption and the use of dangerous materials during renovation work at the Wang Fu court complex and have arrested 14 people in connection with the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years.

Rescue operations at the scene in Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, ended on November 28, but police say more bodies may be found in the coming weeks as they search dangerously burnt-out buildings.

Police revised down the number of missing from 200 to 150 on November 29 after confirming with some relatives that they had managed to reunite with loved ones who had originally been reported missing.

Police officials said at a news conference that the hundreds of officers who were called out to search for the bodies were unable to find any more bodies, but they did rescue three cats and a turtle.

The fire broke out in the afternoon of November 26 and quickly consumed seven of the complex’s eight 32-storey blocks. The blocks were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh, and layered with foam insulation for the renovation.

Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation into the dangers of fire in high-rise buildings, especially in residential areas undergoing renovation.

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body ICAC announced on November 29 that it had arrested three more people. They ranged in age from 52 to 68 and were working as contractors on a complex renovation project.

Hong Kong mourns as body search continues

Authorities said the fire alarms at the Wangfu Court House, which is home to more than 4,600 people, were not working properly.

Hong Kong leader John Lee and other officials and civil servants, dressed in black, observed three minutes of silence outside central government buildings with flags lowered to half-staff early on Nov. 29.

Condolence books have been set up at 18 locations around the former British colony for the public to express their condolences.

Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “horrible tragedy”: “My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one, and to those who are currently living with shock and anxiety.”

At the Wangfu courthouse, police officers wearing white overalls, hard hats and oxygen masks were seen climbing into the building by climbing over piles of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles that had formed after firefighters sprayed water on the building for several days to cool the building.

Hong Kong’s Home Affairs Minister Alice Mak said the search operation could take three to four weeks to complete. Police said the two blocks searched on November 29 were the least affected.

Family members and mourners gathered nearby and laid out hundreds of bouquets of flowers, but some faced the grueling task of viewing photos of the dead taken by rescue workers.

Christy Tan, 67, was looking for a friend who is an outgoing retiree who enjoys singing and sports. “We have examined photographs of her body in an attempt to identify her, but to no avail,” he said, laying flowers in memory of her.

Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also involved in the tragedy. There are about 368,000 such workers in Hong Kong, most of them women from low-income countries in Asia, who often live in close quarters with their employers.

Indonesia announced that seven of its citizens were killed in the incident. The Philippines said one of its nationals was seriously injured and another was missing, and 28 people believed to be residents of the area were missing.

Injured Filipino worker Lodra Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employer’s 3-month-old baby with a wet blanket and was trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Rachelle Loreto told Reuters.

As the situation worsened, she sent panicked voice messages to her sister via Facebook, crying and muttering, “I’m so weak. I can’t breathe.”

Worst fire since 1948

The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when a warehouse fire killed 176 people, and has drawn comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in 2017.

The city’s Ministry of Labor told Reuters that residents of Wangfu Court were told by authorities last year that the “fire risk is relatively low” after they repeatedly complained about the fire risk from ongoing renovations.

Residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the possibility that the protective green mesh used by contractors to cover the bamboo scaffolding was flammable, a department spokesperson said.

Hong Kong anti-graft groups announced on November 28 that they had arrested eight people, including engineering consultants, scaffolding subcontractors and intermediaries.

Earlier, police arrested two directors and a technical consultant of Prestige Construction, a company identified by the government as having been maintaining Wang Fu Court for more than a year, on suspicion of manslaughter for using dangerous materials such as flammable foam board to block the windows.

Prestige did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Activists call for independent investigation

Public anger over the fires has so far been subdued, in contrast to massive pro-democracy protests in 2019 that prompted the Chinese government to tighten its grip on the city.

Still, some disgruntled volunteers were handing out leaflets on November 28, calling for government accountability, an independent investigation into possible corruption, proper resettlement of residents, and a review of construction oversight.

An online petition expressing their demands had gathered around 10,000 signatures by the afternoon of November 29th.

As with other major fires like Grenfell, pressure for answers could spread quickly beyond construction companies to government regulators.

A spokesperson for China’s National Security Office in Hong Kong said in a statement on Saturday that it firmly supports the city government in harshly punishing those who use the “disaster to disrupt Hong Kong.”

Reporting in Hong Kong by John Geddie, Jesse Pang, James Pomfret, Farah Master, Mei Mei Chew, Tyrone Siu, Artoon Pukasuk, Edmond Ng, Nicoko Chan and Yudi Kaya Budiman. Written by: John Geddie Edited by: Stephen Coates, William Mallard

Hegseth slams reporting on Caribbean boat attack as ‘massacre’

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Hegseth slams reporting on Caribbean boat attack as ‘massacre’

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US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has slammed reports that the Trump administration ordered military officials to “kill everyone” during an attack on a ship believed to be carrying drug cargo in the Caribbean.

“As always, fake news is spreading more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reports to discredit our great warriors who are fighting to protect our homeland,” Hegseth, 45, told X in a Nov. 28 post.

The defense secretary was responding to a Washington Post article citing two unnamed sources who claimed that a missile hit the ship as it sailed off the coast of Trinidad, and that two people clinging to the smoldering wreckage were hit by a missile and that he ordered his troops to leave no survivors.

Since September, the Trump administration has attacked at least 21 boats in international waters, killing 83 people. President Trump and other officials have defended the ship attack as an attempt to crack down on illegal drugs entering the United States, but lawmakers of both parties have criticized the administration for not providing any intelligence reports or other evidence about what the ship was carrying.

“At this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in an Oct. 26 television appearance. fox news sunday. “This is similar to what China is doing and what Iran is doing with drug dealers. They summarily execute them without presenting the evidence to their citizens. So it’s wrong.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who shared a story about Hegseth’s alleged orders, raised similar concerns about the constitutionality of the strike in a Nov. 28 post about X.

“If you want to know why Hegseth is panicking over warnings that he is responsible for giving or carrying out illegal orders, it’s probably because he knows he has given illegal orders to kill people,” Murphy said.

The report comes amid a U.S. military buildup near Venezuela that President Trump says is necessary to fight gangs such as Torren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. For example, the Venezuelan criminal organization known as Cartel de los Soles was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States on November 24th.

Hegseth defends abandoning ‘kid glove approach’ to drug war

The 1949 Geneva Conventions, the core of humanitarian rules and international standards, require injured or sick combatants to be recovered and treated by either side in a conflict.

But in a Nov. 28 post condemning the report, Hegseth said, “Each of the traffickers we kill has ties to a terrorist group,” and argued that current U.S. operations in the Caribbean are legal under both U.S. and international law.

“The Biden administration has favored a kid-gloves approach, allowing millions of people, including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans, to flood our communities with drugs and violence.”

“The Trump administration closed the border and launched an attack on narco-terrorists. Biden coddled the terrorists, but we will kill them.”

But legal scholars and others continue to question the legality of the boat attack, and spokespeople for the White House, Justice Department, and Pentagon did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment on what laws the administration is using to justify the attack.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement on Nov. 28 that his powerful committee had ordered a Department of Defense investigation into the air strikes. “We will conduct vigorous oversight to uncover the facts about these situations.”

Mr. Wicker, along with Sen. Jack Reed (DR.I.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, sent multiple requests to Mr. Hegseth for basic information, including legal legitimacy and information supporting individual strikes.

Several legal experts also spoke out, saying President Trump and his administration’s rationale is an unprecedented step for the United States to use the military rather than law enforcement to enforce its drug war with Congressional authorization.

During Trump’s first term, he expressed admiration for foreign leaders who instituted the death penalty for drug traffickers, including former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose drug war policies have led to charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

In response to questions about the boat strike, President Trump said last month that he saw no reason to involve Congress, suggesting that lawmakers and voters would not mind such an action in the name of interdicting illegal drugs.

“I don’t think we necessarily need to seek a declaration of war,” Trump said. “I think we’re just going to kill the people who are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be like, dead.”

Snoopy and Charlie Brown donuts are now available from Krispy Kreme. How to get it.

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Snoopy and Charlie Brown donuts are now available from Krispy Kreme. How to get it.

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You’re a donut, Charlie Brown!

Krispy Kreme is set to launch a collaboration with Peanuts this weekend on sweet treats centered around Charles Schulz’s favorite characters.

This release extends an already memorable year for this popular comic. October 2nd marks the 75th anniversary of the cartoon and its beloved characters, the inspiration behind Krispy Kreme donuts.

If you’re looking to satisfy your Snoopy sweet tooth this weekend, here’s what you need to know about the new donut collection and how to get your hands on it.

Past coverage: You’re a donut, Charlie Brown! Krispy Kreme and Peanuts are teaming up.

When and where can you buy Krispy Kreme x Peanuts donuts?

The collection is available in Krispy Kreme stores or for pick-up or delivery starting this Saturday, November 29th. Prices vary by store.

Krispy Kreme x peanut donut. What does it taste like?

This collaboration features a combination of fresh flavors and flavors from past holiday seasons. This season, we’re introducing three new peanut-focused flavors.

  • Snoopy cookie & cream donutis a Snoopy-shaped donut filled with cookies and cream filling, dipped in vanilla-flavored icing and decorated with Snoopy’s face.
  • charlie brown ornament donutA shell donut filled with a brownie batter-flavored filling, dipped in yellow vanilla-flavored icing, and topped with chocolate-flavored buttercream zigzags and an ornament hook to look like Charlie Brown’s shirt.
  • christmas wreath donutKrispy Kreme Original Glazed Donuts are topped with buttercream-flavored green swirls, yellow nonpareil sprinkles, and Snoopy and Woodstock sugar pieces.

Fans can order donuts and receive them in a special box decorated with Peanuts characters such as Charlie Brown, Woodstock, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and Sally.

The collaboration also brings back two flavors: Santa Berry Donut and Holiday Sprinkle Donut. The Santa Berry Donut is an unglazed shell donut filled with white cream filling, decorated with a chocolate-flavored buttercream Santa belt, and topped with Santa buckle sugar. “Holiday Sprinkle Donuts” are original glazed donuts dipped in chocolate icing and decorated with festive sprinkles.

Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary with a cruise through historic cities

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Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary with a cruise through historic cities

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A big birthday is coming up in the United States, and travelers can celebrate on land or at sea.

On July 4, 2026, the United States will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, or the 500th anniversary. Cruise lines, from large ship brands to small riverboat lines, are offering a variety of sailings throughout the next year to commemorate the occasion.

These include week-long Holland America Line voyages from Boston to Virginia, New York and other ports, as well as a series of longer itineraries on American Cruise Lines that immerse guests in Revolutionary War and Civil War history, national parks and more.

However, that’s not all. Here’s what other cruise lines are doing for America’s 250th anniversary.

carnival cruise line

Carnival ships make two rendezvous at sea. The cruise line offers 10 themed cruises lasting three to eight days from ports in California, Florida, and New York.

On July 4, 2026, seven ships will converge near Celebration Cay, the cruise line’s new private destination in the Bahamas, and three others will converge near Ensenada, Mexico, each with their own onboard festivities.

“While the highlight is a special America’s Birthday Deck Party, the fun continues throughout the cruise with themed dance classes and trivia, live music sets focused on American rock ‘n’ roll, special balloon drops, and even a craft class focused on iconic color palettes (you know, check out the flag!),” Carnival said on its website.

Cunard line

Cunard guests will enjoy New York’s 500th anniversary celebrations from the ocean liner Queen Mary 2. The July 3, 2026 voyage begins with an overnight stay in the Big Apple.

“This special event will not only feature some of the biggest ships and naval vessels ever seen in the city, but also spectacular military flyovers will fill the skies overhead,” the company said on its website. Sit in your favorite spot on deck and watch a breathtaking finale as dazzling fireworks decorate the iconic Manhattan skyline.

The seven-night cruise then sails to Newport, Rhode Island and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada before returning to New York.

princess cruise

The cruise line’s Sapphire Princess will sail a 14-day Canada and Colonial America itinerary from Quebec City, Canada, to Fort Lauderdale, departing on October 23, 2026. The itinerary includes stops in historic American cities such as Boston, Newport, New York, and Charleston, South Carolina, where the ship will host overnight stays.

You can also extend your Canada and New England voyage with a seven-night overland Historic America cruise tour, visiting landmarks like Colonial Williamsburg and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. Please contact us at ndiller@usatoday.com.

Social Security Payments for December 2025. When will I receive my check?

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Social Security Payments for December 2025. When will I receive my check?

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Social Security payments will be made in December on a regular schedule and will be the final check before future cost-of-living increases take effect.

Social Security benefits, which are paid primarily to elderly or retired beneficiaries, are typically paid on Wednesdays. If your birthday falls between the 1st and 10th of the month, your payment will be made on the second Wednesday of the month (December 10th this month), according to the Social Security Administration’s calendar.

According to the SSA calendar, beneficiaries born between the 11th and 20th will be paid on the third Wednesday (December 17th), and beneficiaries born after the 20th will be paid on the fourth Wednesday (December 24th). Social Security recipients who began receiving benefits before May 1997 will receive payments on December 3rd.

Following the December payment, recipients will receive larger checks due to a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase. When the COLA goes into effect in January 2026, your payments will increase by about $56 a month on average, according to the Social Security Administration.

Penny’s inscription: What should you do with the pennies in your coin purse if you run out of them?

Social Security Payment Schedule for December 2025 and January 2026

The Social Security Administration’s 2025 and 2026 benefit payment calendars are available online so you can review the schedule for budgeting purposes.

Regular Social Security retirement benefits for December will be shipped according to SSA’s regular schedule.

  • Wednesday, December 10th: The date of birth is from the 1st to the 10th of the month.
  • Wednesday, December 17th: Birthdays are between the 11th and 20th of every month.
  • Wednesday, December 24th: Birthdays from the 21st to the 31st of each month.

Social Security retirement benefits for January 2026 will also be remitted on SSA’s regular schedule.

  • Wednesday, January 14th: The date of birth is from the 1st to the 10th of the month.
  • Wednesday, January 21st: Birthdays are between the 11th and 20th of every month.
  • Wednesday, January 28th: Birthdays from the 21st to the 31st of each month.

SSI payment schedule from December to 2026

Recipients of Supplemental Securities Income checks will generally have their payments issued on the first business day of the month, Monday, December 1st. Because January 1, 2026 is a holiday (New Year’s Day), your January payment will be due on Wednesday, December 31, 2025. SSI checks will be mailed on the following dates according to the SSA calendar through early 2026:

  • Monday, December 1, 2025 (confirmed in December 2025)
  • Wednesday, December 31, 2025 (confirmed for January 2026)
  • Friday, January 30, 2026 (confirmed for February 2026)
  • Friday, February 27, 2026 (check for March 2026)
  • Wednesday, April 1, 2026 (confirmed in April 2026)
  • Friday, May 1, 2026 (Please check May 2026)
  • Monday, June 1, 2026 (confirmed in June 2026)

What is SSI?

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a benefit program for people age 65 or older, with limited income or assets, and who are blind or have a qualifying disability. Children with eligible disabilities are also eligible, according to the SSA website. Adults who qualify for SSI typically earn no more than $2,019 per month.

If you think you may be eligible for SSI, you can begin the application process online, in person at your local Social Security office, or by calling 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time on weekdays.

Contributors: USA TODAY’s Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Mary Walrus Holdridge And Medora Lee.

Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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How Los Angeles is discussing banning the N-word in meetings

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How Los Angeles is discussing banning the N-word in meetings

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  • Actress Alley Mills Beane supported banning certain racial slurs after hearing them being used by the Los Angeles City Council.
  • The ban, passed in July, has sparked a First Amendment debate and free speech groups say it is unconstitutional.
  • Some residents and community leaders support the ban, arguing that hateful language prevents public participation in government meetings.
  • Mills Bean, known for his work on The Wonder Years, pointed out the complexity of the issue and acknowledged the importance of freedom of expression.

One day in June 2024, Alley Mills Bean approached the podium at the Los Angeles City Council meeting with Councilmember Tracy Park, holding her recently won Emmy award.

She had won the award the previous year for her role as hook-wielding serial killer Heather Webber on “General Hospital.”

Park acknowledged both Mills Bean’s “incredible professional accomplishments” and her “selfless volunteerism and selfless duty” to the Venice community. Mills Bean is the chair of the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Homelessness and Housing Committee.

The actress, known for playing Norma Arnold on “The Wonder Years,” told USA TODAY that the recognition was “a great honor.”

But what she also remembers was the recognition that others received that day. − Including local high school academic decathlon teams − He also described how the offensive language used by some at the gathering could tarnish the memory of the celebration.

At the same meeting, a speaker addressing Congress used the N-word twice in his remarks.

This bothered Mills Bean so much that she wrote to Parliament in support of a motion to ban the use of the N-word and C-word in Parliament. The proposal was finally passed in late July. She wrote that it is not only sad but completely unacceptable for young people to be subjected to “this type of vitriolic and hateful language.”

“It was heartbreaking. It felt like I was walking down Skid Row in a weird way,” she told USA TODAY, referring to an area of ​​downtown Los Angeles that has become a homeless encampment. “Why did this happen to us?”

The ban sparked a First Amendment debate over whether the right to use offensive and hateful language at city council meetings interferes with the right of others to be heard on issues that affect them at government meetings.

But the debate extends far beyond Los Angeles.

In recent months, there have been reports of similar actions taken by government agencies across the country, including a ban on “language of a personal nature” about public officials in Richmond, Virginia, a rule banning complaints and accusations against city employees in Houlton, Maine, and a proposal to permanently end public comment in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

In Mills Bean’s case, she moved to the area for acting nearly 40 years ago and has watched Skid Row expand by leaps and bounds in the years since.

At one point more than 30 years ago, she was invited to wash the feet of people experiencing homelessness as part of a street clinic set up by a group of young doctors in collaboration with the Union Rescue Mission. At that time, they asked about housing and medical needs and connected them with resources, she said.

Mills Bean said the break from the way people usually interact seems like a welcome departure.

“It’s amazing how quickly you can lose your dignity, your hope, everything. That’s why people want to get high,” she said. “I just look into their eyes and see this incredible sadness. It’s devastating.”

Those experiences stayed with her and inspired her current work with the neighborhood association.

But in the dozens of City Council meetings she attended to address homelessness and other issues, she regularly heard members use “offensive” language, including the N-word.

She acknowledged that it was a “difficult question” to consider whether and to what extent such statements would be punished in government meetings, but she believed her late husband, comedian Orson Bean, would disagree with her on the issue.

Although Mr. Bean was not a communist, he said in a 2014 interview that he had been “blacklisted” for years after showing up at Communist Party meetings in the early 1950s trying to woo women.

In a posthumous interview with Newsweek magazine, Mr. Bean said that over time he received criticism from the other side of the political spectrum as others in his industry learned of his conservative politics, and that Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart, who died in 2012, was his son-in-law.

“I still smell the blacklist just as much as I felt it then,” Bean said. “It’s impossible to put that on paper.”

Mills Bean said her late husband would have been similarly concerned about the way some people expressed themselves on the city council, but ultimately opposed censorship.

“We have the freedom to be unkind,” she said. “We have the (expletive) freedom to do whatever we want. And that includes being mean. That’s the weird thing about freedom.”

Free speech group warns of possible lawsuit against city

The council passed the bill despite warnings from First Amendment advocates that the ban was unconstitutional.

Wayne Spindler, an attorney with a long history of disrupting city and neighborhood association meetings with the N-word and other inflammatory language, told USA TODAY that efforts to protect the right to use offensive language are “for young people.”

“If people don’t stand up now, there will be nothing left in this country,” Spindler said.

Spindler previously promised to sue the city over the council’s ban on speaking. He said they may continue to do so in the future, but believes the burden should be borne by the groups that publicly opposed the ban.

Stephanie Jablonski, senior program advisor for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), said the organization “absolutely could get involved” in the matter, but added that FIRE will take on cases based on submissions from the website.

David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said the organization is “monitoring” the situation “for now.”

“As a general matter, I would say the city is very likely to be held liable,” he said. “This ordinance is clearly unconstitutional.”

The City Council previously told USA TODAY the motion was not intended to stifle free speech.

“This motion aims to maintain access and safety for everyone, not censor ideas and protect the ability of all residents to speak and be heard without intimidation or abuse,” a council spokesperson said.

A spokesperson reiterated that idea in an email to USA TODAY on Sept. 16, saying Congress is a place of limited public access where “reasonable decorum applies.”

“This motion maintains public access by allowing all residents to safely engage with government,” they said.

Interruptions make the meeting participation process ‘very discouraging’

Norma Chavez has a three-hour round trip commute to get to City Council meetings. She told USA TODAY that even once she gets to City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, finding a parking spot, putting her name on a list to speak during public comment and waiting perhaps hours before being given a three-minute block to address the City Council can be an added ordeal, she told USA TODAY.

She attended one meeting, but had to leave before it was her turn to speak because she had to make the long drive home to pick up her daughter from school.

It can be a “very discouraging” process, made even more difficult, she said, when someone interrupts a meeting with foul language.

The ban is a welcome development for Chavez, who said such epithets do not meaningfully address local issues and are instead “close to assault on people.”

No matter what you think about council members or city policies, “we all deserve respect,” she says.

This is also a personal issue for Chavez, who currently serves as vice president of the Sun Valley Regional Neighborhood Council.

She said she has received harassing emails and, like city council meetings, neighborhood association meetings can be disrupted by people using offensive language. One councilor even resigned from his council position because of it, she said.

There’s a time and a place for obscene language, she says.

“Maybe it’s OK at a bar or at a party with friends, but I don’t think it’s OK at a city council meeting,” Chavez said.

“There’s really no easy answer to this.”

Shakir Saeed, executive director of the Los Angeles-area group South Asian Network, said the language and demeanor of some speakers turned the City Council into “political theater.”

“This is a fight for all of us,” he said. “There’s no really easy answer to this.”

Said submitted a statement on behalf of the organization in support of the ban. He said the group “relies on being able to provide public comment and advocacy” during City Council meetings, and that its members are “exposed to hateful language” in its work.

He estimates members of his organization attend four to six City Council meetings each year. The topics they like to address usually revolve around immigrant rights, health and public benefits, and tenant rights, but they recently appeared to address the presence of military and federal law enforcement in the city as part of the response to protests over President Trump’s immigration raids.

He doesn’t have a problem with people making angry speeches or shouting at city council members. “Because that’s what they signed up for,” he says.

However, he acknowledged it could cause “a sense of discomfort and anxiety” among spectators.

“I believe we have an obligation as a society to seriously address these types of challenges where there is no clear answer or multiple answers,” Said said, adding that he hoped such efforts would lead to solutions that protect free speech and promote “civility and mutual respect.”

Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. Please contact bjfrank@usatoday.com..

USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

Bears beat near No. 1 seed Eagles

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Bears beat near No. 1 seed Eagles

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USA TODAY Sports will provide timely updates on the NFL’s evolving playoff picture each week during the 2025 regular season. It typically starts on Sunday afternoon and continues through the rest of the week (Monday and Thursday games, or Saturday games if applicable). And I plan to watch it again after the holidays.

What the hell happened? What does that mean? As the seven-team brackets for each conference begin to take shape, what will be the relevant factors (and perhaps the tiebreakers)? Everything will be explained and analyzed leading up to the postseason berths being decided on Sunday, January 4th.

Here’s how week 13 went:

AFC playoff photos

1. New England Patriots (10-2), AFC East leader: Sunday’s close loss to the Bengals gave the Pats the league’s best record and moved them past Denver into first place in the conference. There’s a good chance they keep it going into their off week. remaining schedule: vs. Giants, BYE, vs. Bills, at Ravens, at Jets, vs. Dolphins

2. Denver Broncos (9-2), AFC West Leader: The Week 12 hiatus cost them the No. 1 spot in the conference, but the break was certainly welcome, especially for a team that needs to be near-fully charged for a grueling four-game series at the end of the regular season. remaining schedule: Commanders, Raiders, vs. Packers, vs. Jaguars, Chiefs, vs. Chargers.

3. Indianapolis Colts (8-3), first in the AFC South: They have dropped two of their last three games to fall behind the conference pace and are currently just one game ahead of Jacksonville and two games ahead of Houston in the division. The next two divisional matchups should be important. remaining schedule: vs. Texans, vs. Jaguars, vs. Seahawks, vs. 49ers, vs. Jaguars, vs. Texans

4. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5); AFC North Leader: Baltimore lost on Thanksgiving and is back in first place. A win against Buffalo on Sunday would help even more. remaining schedule: vs. Bills, at Ravens, vs. Dolphins, at Lions, at Browns, vs. Ravens

5. Los Angeles Chargers (7-4), Wild Card No. 1: They needed the rest last week…and the Buffalo loss moved the battered Bolts up in the standings. remaining schedule: vs. Raiders, vs. Eagles, at Chiefs, at Cowboys, vs. Texans, at Broncos

6. Jacksonville Jaguars (7-4), 2nd wild card: Wins over the Chiefs and Chargers could help when it comes to resolving tiebreakers. Despite defeating the Volts in Week 11, the Jags are close behind. That’s because LA has priority in the current three-way wild-card tiebreaker, as LA has a 6-2 record in AFC play. remaining schedule: Titans, Colts, Jets, Broncos, Colts, Titans

7. Buffalo Bills (7-4), Wild Card No. 3: QB Josh Allen took a hit. After losing to Houston last week, the Bills had similar hopes of beating the Patriots in the AFC East race. Currently at 4-3 in conference games, Buffalo sits behind the Chargers and Jags for the wild-card seed spot. remaining schedule: Steelers, vs. Bengals, Patriots, Browns, vs. Eagles, vs. Jets

8. Houston Texans (6-5), chasing: They have won four of five games, including three straight without injured quarterback CJ Stroud. The Texans will likely have to continue their surge and dominate the Colts if they want to win the AFC South for a third consecutive year…but the pieces are falling into place for a late charge to the top. remaining schedule: Colts, Chiefs, vs. Cardinals, vs. Raiders, Chargers, vs. Colts

9. Kansas City Chiefs (6-6), chasing: Not only is it almost certain they won’t win the AFC West for the first time since 2015, but there’s also a good chance they’ll miss the postseason for the first time since 2014 – Andy Reid’s second year in KC And don’t forget they’ve lost to the Broncos, Chargers, Bills, and Jags ahead of them. remaining schedule: vs. Texans, vs. Chargers, at Titans, vs. Broncos, at Raiders

10. Baltimore Ravens (6-6) in the hunt: Their sloppy performance against the Bengals cost them first place in the AFC North and an expected playoff spot. Unlike some other teams, the Ravens are also at a disadvantage in the head-to-head tiebreaker with Kansas City. remaining schedule: vs. Steelers, vs. Bengals, vs. Patriots, vs. Packers, vs. Steelers

NFC Playoffs Photos

1. Los Angeles Rams (9-2), NFC West Leader: Even though Philadelphia holds the direct tiebreaker, it doesn’t matter now that the Rams have a better record after losing to the Eagles in Week 12. Still, LA has little breathing room between itself and the Seahawks and 49ers in the division. remaining schedule: Panthers, Cardinals vs. Lions, Seahawks, Falcons vs. Cardinals

2. Chicago Bears (9-3), NFC North leader: With back-to-back wins against perennial opponents, they not only sit in second place in the conference, but are in danger of home-field advantage and a first-round bye. remaining schedule: Packers, Browns, Packers, 49ers, Lions

3. Philadelphia Eagles (8-4), NFC East leader: A second straight loss not only means more scrutiny, but it also means the team could fall to the Cowboys in the division if they’re not careful. remaining schedule: Chargers, vs. Raiders, Commanders, Bills, vs. Commanders

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-5), NFC South leaders: The division lead against Carolina was (barely) restored on Monday night, but it may not be worth much if injured QB Baker Mayfield is severely limited on the field. remaining schedule: vs. Cardinals, vs. Saints, vs. Falcons, at Panthers, at Dolphins, vs. Panthers

5. Seattle Seahawks (8-3), Wild Card No. 1: All three of the Hawks’ losses have come against NFC opponents, two of which are in-district losses, which doesn’t help them much in the tiebreaker department. remaining schedule: vs. Vikings, at Falcons, vs. Colts, vs. Rams, at Panthers, at 49ers

6. Green Bay Packers (8-3-1), Wild Card No. 2: They only maintained their spot (so far) with a Thanksgiving win in Detroit, but a loss would have dropped them out of the field entirely. It’s certainly close for the Pack, but they’re still only half a game out of the NFC North lead. remaining schedule: vs. Bears, at Broncos, at Bears, vs. Ravens, at Vikings

7. San Francisco 49ers (8-4), third wild card: It wasn’t a great win on Monday night, but the Niners will take it to seal the conference’s final playoff spot. remaining schedule: Browns, BYE, vs. Titans, Colts, vs. Bears, vs. Seahawks

8. Detroit Lions (7-5), on the hunt: With the sweep by the Packers, Detroit, which had a chance to earn a wild-card spot if it won on Turkey Day, further solidifies its position off the field. remaining schedule: vs. Cowboys, vs. Rams, vs. Steelers, vs. Vikings, vs. Bears.

9. Dallas Cowboys (6-5-1), on the hunt: Three straight wins will further increase Big D’s playoff aspirations. Next week’s game in Detroit looms as a huge, potentially must-win game for the Cowboys and Lions. remaining schedule: Lions, Vikings, Chargers, Commanders, Giants

10. Carolina Panthers (6-6), on the hunt: The Panthers currently have just one win against a team above .500 (Green Bay) after Monday night’s loss at Silicon Valley. However, Carolina defeated the Cowboys, who were virtually tied. remaining schedule: vs. Rams, BYE, vs. Saints, vs. Buccaneers, vs. Seahawks, Buccaneers

NFL teams will be eliminated from playoff contention in 2025

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Who will replace Powell? What you need to know before nominating the Fed chair

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Who will replace Powell? What you need to know before nominating the Fed chair

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As President Donald Trump prepares to name the next Fed chairman, economists and former Fed officials say they worry that loyalty to the president will be a factor in future decisions.

The White House pushed back, saying President Trump is committed to appointing “the best and most qualified people” to key public institutions, including the central bank.

“It is the Fed’s self-proclaimed goal to make monetary policy decisions based on data,” White House Press Secretary Khush Desai said in comments to USA TODAY. “The data objectively shows that inflation is cooling and the environment is ripe for further rate cuts to provide much-needed cost relief to American businesses and homebuyers.”

Still, Fed watchers aren’t so convinced, even though Trump has been railing against the current Fed chairman for months.

A presidential choice can happen at any time. The last time President Trump announced a nomination to chair the Federal Reserve was on November 2, 2017, when he selected Jerome Powell.. Powell will be reappointed by former President Joe Biden, and his term as chairman will end in May 2026. Since retaking the White House in January, Mr. Trump has insulted Mr. Powell, calling him nicknames such as “too slow” and posting a slew of social media posts calling for lower interest rates.

Meanwhile, the FOMC is preparing for its final meeting of 2025, scheduled for December 9th and 10th. It’s unclear whether officials will adjust the benchmark interest rate, given the cooling labor market, persistent inflation and recent signs of divergence in government data.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC there are “five very strong candidates” and said there is “a very good chance” the president will make an announcement before Christmas.

more: Fed faces tough interest rate decisions again due to lagging inflation and employment data

Why this appointment matters

The Federal Reserve Chair is the most visible position at the nation’s central bank and is responsible for leading U.S. monetary policy efforts to promote price stability and maximum employment.

“All Americans understand the importance of both of these things in this current situation, this affordability crisis,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “No one is better positioned to achieve these goals for the American people than the Fed chairman.”

As a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, he also helps oversee the regulation of banks and other financial institutions.

Few companies have comparable influence over the U.S. economy. The Fed chair’s comments can move markets within minutes, impact borrowing costs and shape economic expectations.

“The risks here are very high because global investors and capital markets are watching,” said former Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart.

They report to Congress, testify before Congress, meet regularly with the Secretary of the Treasury, and often speak directly to the American people after Federal Open Market Committee meetings.

Traditionally, they also chair the committee that sets the target range for the federal funds rate, the benchmark that influences interest rates on credit cards, loans, and savings accounts across the country.

What President Trump is probably looking for

David Beckworth, a senior fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, said Trump is looking for loyalty and someone he can trust to help push for rate cuts.

Bessent is leading the search, although the final decision rests with the president. Narayana Kocharakota, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said he believes Mr. Bessent wants someone who can run the Fed without wasting resources and accomplishing the goals Congress set for the organization.

“On the one hand, I think President Trump’s view is that he’s looking for people who are loyal to his administration,” Kocharakota said. “It’s a real divide.”

Peter Conti-Brown, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said Mr. Bessent understands that the credibility of the United States depends on the credibility of the Fed, and that is reassuring “in a sense.”

But Trump’s past nominations have not inspired confidence in Contee-Brown. He said the president’s recent appointee to the Federal Reserve Board, Stephen Millan, “didn’t have the relevant expertise.” So did Judy Shelton, Trump’s board nominee who failed to pass Senate confirmation in 2020, he added.

“If that’s a precursor to them making an appointment like this to the Fed chair, that’s not a good sign,” Conti-Brown said.

Beckworth added that he believes the interest burden on the national debt is a motivating factor for President Trump’s call for interest rate cuts. The president may want a chairman who understands the growing fiscal pressures and someone who supports greater crypto facilitation at the Fed.

Who fits the profile?

On November 18, President Trump told reporters that he thought he already knew his choice. He pointed to Mr. Bessent and said he wanted the Treasury secretary to take on the role, but Mr. Bessent rejected the offer.

“Some of the names are surprising, and some are standard names that everyone is talking about,” Trump said. “We might go the standard route. It’s good to be politically correct once in a while, but we have some great names.”

In August, President Trump confirmed he was considering former Federal Reserve Board member Kevin Warsh and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett for the role. Bloomberg recently reported that Hassett is the frontrunner.

Mr. Beckworth said a “surprise” name could mean someone like Mr. Milan, with the frontrunner being Christopher Waller, the Fed’s director. Beckworth said Waller has recently advocated lowering interest rates and is respected by other Fed officials.

“He could probably lead a divided FOMC better than any other option,” Beckworth said. “Kevin Hassett or Kevin Warsh — they’re going to come in as outsiders, as people who were really critical…Now you have to come and lead the people you’ve been critical of.”

How the Fed could change under new leadership

Kocharakota said if the next Fed chair is seen to set interest rates in line with the president’s political goals, markets will assume rates will stay low even when they should rise, potentially raising long-term inflation expectations.

“For example, people who take out mortgages will feel that they have to be compensated for any future inflation,” Kocharakota said, adding that if the new chairman “is seen as too beholden to the president, long-term interest rates could rise very significantly.”

The Fed chair has tremendous influence, but he cannot act alone. The FOMC, which sets the federal funds rate, has 12 voting members.

“The new chair must earn the trust and respect of the Federal Open Market Committee and its staff, be resolutely nonpartisan and apolitical, and respect the prevailing ethics of making decisions by consensus and relying on data,” Lockhart said. “If the chair doesn’t have that respect, and I’m going to speculate here, there’s a good chance that someone else on the committee will become an important informal voice on that committee.”

He said he believes the current lineup of Fed directors can be expected to maintain the central bank’s independence.

Beckworth added that even if Trump’s appointees ultimately form a majority of the seven-member Fed board, its members won’t always agree.

what happens next

Once Trump nominates, that person must be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Lockhart said he is not confident that senators will confirm just the people Trump wants.

“Behind closed doors, senators are very responsible for the quality of the people they put into the job,” Lockhart said. “If a ‘surprise’ candidate is recommended who senators did not think was qualified, there could be significant backlash.”

Because President Trump is likely to announce his nominations far in advance, a candidate’s views on the economy and monetary policy may begin to carry more weight before they take on the role.

“I hope the candidates will try to stay out of Jay Powell’s way while he’s in the chair,” Zandi said. “It will also indicate how independent the Fed will remain. If Jay Powell’s voice is respected, that’s a good sign that independence will remain.”

Contact Rachel Barber rbarber@usatoday.com X Follow her at @rachelbarber_

Zoran Mamdani’s transition to center

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Zoran Mamdani’s transition to center

After winning on a progressive platform, democratic socialists are reaching out to the political establishment.

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NEW YORK – Following a shocking upset of the Democratic establishment, New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani is courting skeptics before taking office.

The democratic socialist continues to mend fences with right-wing establishment figures after winning on a progressive platform to address affordability in the nation’s largest city.

Mamdani, 34, took office Jan. 1 and appears to be trying to address concerns about his age, lack of experience and being a progressive leading the city in a transition period filled with past City Hall veterans and a diverse panel of voices.

And he is backing Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked successor, against challenges from the left.

He once made divisive comments, criticizing pro-Israel movements, and later condemned language spearheaded by pro-Palestinian protesters.

Mamdani goes to Washington

Mamdani called for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump to focus on addressing the cost of living.

“I’m willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone as long as it benefits New Yorkers’ economic policy,” Mamdani said before an Oval Office event on Nov. 21.

Mamdani called Trump a “fascist” and a “tyrant,” but stressed that he was actually interested in working together on an affordable basis.

The charm attack seemed to work, at least temporarily. President Trump threatened to cut funding to New York City if Mamdani was elected. But President Trump has said directly that he wants to see Mamdani succeed in his homeland.

intervene on behalf of Jeffries

Mamdani then contested the primary to unseat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

On November 17, Councilman Chi Ose, 27, a left-wing Democrat from Brooklyn who supported Mamdani’s candidacy, applied to form a campaign committee to oppose Jeffries, who had resisted supporting Mamdani until the very end.

The left wing of the Democratic Party has had problems with Jeffries over his support for Israel and his perceived inability to stand up to Trump.

The New York Daily News reported that Mamdani went to a Democratic Socialist Party of America support forum in New York City on Nov. 19 and asked the group not to support Osse’s candidacy.

“This is not a question of the ballot box, this is not a question of who you want to vote for,” Mamdani later said on the left-wing podcast “Majority Report with Sam Seder.” “This is a question of how you want to spend your next year. Do you want to spend your next year pursuing the agenda that is at the heart of this movement, or do you want to spend it defending a caricature of that movement?”

Instead, he wants to focus activist energies on achieving his policy goals, including a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, faster and free busing, and universal free child care.

On November 22nd, NYC-DSA members reportedly voted by a narrow margin not to endorse Mr. Océ in a citywide election working group. Mr. Océ told reporters that he had no intention of challenging Mr. Jeffries without DSA’s support. Mr. Océ did not respond to requests for comment.

The next day, Mamdani said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if Democrats take control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections, he would support Jeffries to remain party leader and become speaker of the House.

Going mainstream

Mr. Mamdani’s transition advisers include veteran city officials who served under Mr. de Blasio and current Mayor Eric Adams, as well as antitrust scholar Lina Khan, who served as chair of the Federal Trade Commission under former President Joe Biden.

Mamdani also announced the appointment of more than 400 people to 17 transition committees, which make recommendations on personnel and policy matters. The group included a small number of fellow DSA members and grassroots organizers focused on tenant rights and racial justice, but it included representatives from the real estate and financial industries as well as heads of established unions.

Members include Kathy Wilde, an alleged billionaire whisperer who heads the business organization Partnership for New York City, and Carlina Rivera, a former City Council member who now heads the New York State Affordable Housing Association, a nonprofit trade group representing developers.

On November 26, the race for City Council president appeared to be over, as Julie Menin, a moderate council member from Manhattan’s wealthy Upper East Side, said she had enough support to lead the 51-member City Council.

Mamdani’s spokeswoman, Dora Pekek, said Mamdani looks forward to working with her and the City Council to achieve “affordable policies for New Yorkers.”

retracts anti-Israel statements

In another test, Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, had to respond to a pro-Palestinian protest outside a Manhattan synagogue on Nov. 19.

The religious space hosted events by groups promoting Jewish immigration to Israel and the occupied West Bank. According to media reports, the chant includes phrases such as “Death to the IDF” and “Globalize the Intifada,” references to the Israel Defense Forces, and is interpreted by many as a call for violence against Jews even outside of Israel. Protesters reportedly blocked the entrance to the temple for a time.

Mamdani reportedly admonished the protesters for their language and said New Yorkers should have free access to places of worship, but said places of worship should not violate international law, referring to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. His comments drew immediate backlash from many Jewish groups, who said they were quick to condemn the synagogue rather than the protesters.

A few days later, he issued a new statement to the New York Times. He said he would protect First Amendment rights, making clear that nothing justifies asking someone to die. The language was unacceptable, he said.

On his way to his meeting with President Trump, Mamdani spoke with the synagogue’s rabbi and his son, who is also a rabbi and a prominent Mamdani critic.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Contact us via email (emcuevas1@usatoday.com) or Signal (emcuevas.01).

Why JD Vance cares so much about the 2026 midterm elections

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Why JD Vance cares so much about the 2026 midterm elections

Vice President J.D. Vance is issuing a midterm warning to Republicans to better motivate the voters who helped bring President Trump back to the White House.

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WASHINGTON – J.D. Vance is very excited about next November’s midterm elections.

The vice president is seen as the front-runner for the next Republican nomination for the White House, but faces the immediate challenge of becoming one of the party’s main messengers as Republicans seek to maintain their six-seat majority in the House.

For the Republican Party to succeed, Vance has warned at-risk lawmakers that they need to energize working-class voters who helped retake President Donald Trump’s White House and who don’t typically come to vote for anything other than the president. This challenge is reflected in Republicans’ poor results in recent gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, where Democrats won by larger margins than they won in those states in the 2020 presidential election.

“I think one of the lessons we learned in Virginia and New Jersey is that when Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot, you have to give people something to actually believe in and something to be inspired by to actually go out and vote,” Vance said at a recent Breitbart News event. “Just because you have an ‘R’ next to your name doesn’t mean you’re going to vote.”

A national Republican victory would be a useful springboard for Mr. Vance’s expected White House campaign, and he has said he would talk to Mr. Trump after the midterm elections.

“I think he’s right to be worried about next year,” said Matt Bennett, a former senior adviser to former Vice President Al Gore and executive vice president of the center-left think tank Third Way. “What we don’t know after next year, into 2028, is whether the Trump administration can survive without him. And there’s evidence that it won’t.”

If President Trump’s coalition collapses next fall, it will pose a major challenge for the 41-year-old Vance, who is preparing for the expected 2028 presidential election. He is a new politician who has had less time to build up a track record than his recent predecessors. He will rely heavily on Trump’s legislative success and involvement in his campaign for high office.

The former Ohio senator served for two years before being elected vice president. He has molded himself as someone with the ability to unite conservative Republicans and MAGAs and unite voters without alienating any constituency. It will test his current and future ability to lead the administration’s mid-term message on domestic policy and serve as the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman.

Trump cannot do it alone, Republican strategists say. He says Republicans will have to campaign in areas where they need a large number of voters to vote.

more: JD Vance is President Trump’s top messenger. This may be the vice president’s toughest sales pitch yet.

TW Arrighi, a former spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and several members of Congress, told USA TODAY that in his comments to Breitbart, “I think JD hit the mark in a way.” “But I also think Donald Trump needs to be more involved. Even if he enters a lame duck era, he will have a big role to play.”

Vance has been warning Republicans about complacency since last summer. In an interview with Lara Trump on Fox News in early September, he said the president’s pollsters told him that anger often wins in midterm elections.

This will be a problem for Republicans next year, he noted, because “our people are not angry.” The left is “very angry right now, and they’re very motivated,” he reflected.

This motivation gap was also seen in Virginia, New Jersey, and California, where ballot measures backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom were passed. Democratic socialist Zoran Mamdani won with a high turnout in New York City, where left-wing energy was evident.

Republicans have branded Mamdani a “communist” over his pledge to provide free services to New Yorkers and are promoting him as the face of the Democratic Party in hopes of energizing their base.

President Trump undermined that approach by hugging Mamdani in the Oval Office during a joint press conference with the rising progressive star. President Trump said, “If things go well, I think we’ll have a really great mayor.”

Vance faces an uphill climb

Since his election defeat in early November, the White House has waged a messaging war aimed at convincing a skeptical public that President Trump is committed to lowering prices, including cutting some tariffs. He is considering expanding the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were at the center of the government shutdown that ended earlier this month.

“We understand that and we’re listening to you, and we know there’s a lot of work to do,” Vance said at a Breitbart event. “Even though we’ve made a lot of progress, it’s going to take some time for Americans to realize it.”

The push has done little to improve voters’ feelings about President Trump or the economy. President Trump’s approval rating of 41% in a November Fox News poll was the lowest of his second term and lower than former President Joe Biden’s 44% approval rating during the same period of his term.

more: President Trump’s brawler, Vice President J.D. Vance, avoids Harris-Pence mistake

More than three-quarters of voters view the economy negatively, according to a Fox News poll. Among Republicans, 42% say President Trump is to blame for the current state of the economy, compared to 53% who say Biden, the administration’s regular boogeyman, is to blame.

None of that bodes well for Republicans. When Trump last took office in 2018, Democrats gained a net gain of 40 House seats, giving them control of the House. Republicans won a net gain of nine seats in 2022 under President Biden. Democrats performed better than expected that year, and Biden’s party narrowly maintained a majority in the Senate.

Bennett said Biden’s subsequent decision to run for re-election turned out to be a “fatal mistake” and the result was a “false positive” for Democrats.

“The results of the midterm elections are related to the next president, so it could be easily interpreted in a wide way,” he said. “But losing badly is not good for Vance.”

Jahan Wilcox, a longtime Republican strategist in the first Trump administration, said the same could be said of Virginia and New Jersey.

“I think if Republicans run against Trump, he has the ability to get people to the finish line,” Wilcox said. “And in 2018, which is often forgotten, he expanded his majority in the Senate.”

That year, Republicans gained two seats in the Senate. Republican strategists say there’s a good chance the party will repeat that performance in 2026.

But their House majority is in serious jeopardy. The Democratic Party needs to win three more seats to take control. A majority in the House would be able to block most of Trump’s policies.

“The investigation will be non-stop and administration officials will be at risk of being charged with contempt of Congress if they do not testify,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at Brookings University who worked on Mr. Gore’s presidential campaign. “So he has every reason to jump off his feet.”

Arrighi, a Republican strategist, said Democrats “could be shooting themselves in the foot” with an investigative approach and could end up becoming a foil for Vance. “Donald Trump may be willing to negotiate on a number of very big issues to preserve his legacy,” he said.

But he added: “We don’t want to go down that path if we can avoid it.”

Internal strife divides President Trump’s support base

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the president’s most powerful allies, felt threatened and abruptly resigned from Congress on Nov. 21 after feuding with President Trump over his opposition to releasing government files on the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. She criticized his policy of granting visas to foreign workers with certain skill sets and the amount of energy he devotes to international issues.

MAGA influencers seen as potential challengers to Vance are linking her resignation to the possibility of major Republican losses in the midterm elections. He said he was wasting his parliamentary majority and said, “If we are likely to lose in the midterm elections, there will be an all-out and complete political war and stalemate.”

“What is the compelling message for 2026 and perhaps 2028?” she asked in a Nov. 24 social media post. “Americans are going to be asking candidates, ‘What tangible thing have you done for me? How has it improved my life, or will it make my life better?'” And they’re actually trying to get them to vote after both parties have rejected it. ”

Green was not alone in his frustration. Controversy within the conservative movement over Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, a far-right white supremacist with a history of racist and anti-Semitic comments, and the Trump administration’s proposals to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which have been criticized as too favorable to Russia, have also divided supporters.

Neither Trump nor Vance disavowed Fuentes. In a recent post on X, Mr. Vance attacked the “Gulf Republicans” and “political class” in Washington, saying they should be more diligent about American crime, health care and housing costs than about the war in Eastern Europe.

At the Breitbart event, Vance said Republicans should debate on podcasts and op-ed pages, but urged them to “focus on the enemy” rather than internal divisions.

In subsequent remarks, he argued that the working-class voters who joined the coalition didn’t care about the Republican Party’s orthodoxy from 25 years ago and were pushing the party in a different direction.

“We need to lean into this new coalition, and we need to do a better job for it, so we can get it to deliver in the midterm elections so we can win,” Vance said.

Shop early deals on Amazon, Best Buy, and more

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Shop early deals on Amazon, Best Buy, and more

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Black Friday may have passed, but holiday shoppers still have a chance to shop the biggest deals of the year on Cyber ​​Monday.

Thanks to the love of online shopping, sales once reserved for the day or weekend after Thanksgiving have expanded beyond the original Cyber ​​Monday holiday to include the days before and after. In some cases, sales can last throughout “Cyber ​​Week”, giving consumers even more shopping opportunities.

Whether you want to upgrade your technology, buy toys and games for your kids, add chef-worthy tools to your kitchen, or finally splurge on beauty products and trendy fashion items, Cyber ​​Monday sales at major retailers like Amazon, Target, and Best Buy give shoppers a chance to stock up on everything they need for the holidays.

Here’s our guide to preparing for Cyber ​​Monday, including when and where to shop the hottest deals.

When is Cyber ​​Monday in 2025?

Cyber ​​Monday is held on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. This year it will be Monday, December 1st.

This year Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 27th, and Black Friday is Friday, November 28th.

What is Cyber ​​Monday?

Cyber ​​Monday is one of the biggest sales events of the year. What started out as a response or complement to Black Friday ended up being beneficial for retailers as well.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the official term was coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005. The organization noticed a flurry of online shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving as people returned to work and began their vacation lists, taking advantage of faster internet connections at the office than at home at the time.

Similar to Black Friday, retailers profited by turning this into a full-fledged sales event. As its name suggests, Cyber ​​Monday is commonly associated with online sales and Black Friday’s traditional in-store sales, but as time goes on, both shopping holidays tend to offer both digital and in-store options.

When does Cyber ​​Monday sale start?

Just as Black Friday became more of a “Black November” by starting sales earlier, Cyber ​​Monday has expanded its reach beyond a single day.

The biggest sales from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart are often reserved for Cyber ​​Monday itself, but are often available for at least two days, if not the entire “Cyber ​​Week.”

When does Cyber ​​Monday start on Amazon?

Amazon’s Cyber ​​Monday event starts on Saturday, November 29th and runs for three days until Monday, December 1st. As always, there’s a sale on everything, including up to 50% off tech products from JBL, Canon and Bose audio, 40% off select floor care from BISSELL, iRobot and Dyson, and up to 50% off kitchen essentials from Ninja, Bentgo, Vitamix, Staub and Nespresso.

Holiday gift shopping is made easy with up to 40% off toys from brands like Little Tykes, Play-Doh, NERF, Hasbro Gaming, Fisher-Price, and American Girl, as well as up to 30% off popular makeup products from NYX PROFESSIONAL MAKEUP, Milk Makeup, and Tarte.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Best Buy?

Best Buy’s Cyber ​​Monday sale runs from Sunday, November 30th to Monday, December 1st.

Sneak peeks include up to 63% off Lenovo and HP Chromebooks, up to 24% off AirPods and MacBooks, and up to 55% off TCL and Samsung TVs.

My Best Buy Rewards members can get additional deals and offers and earn points during their holiday shopping. The retailer also has the Best Buy Holiday Price Match Guarantee, which allows customers to match prices if Best Buy lowers the price of an item during the holiday season.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Target?

Target’s Cyber ​​Monday event begins on Sunday, November 30th and runs through Monday, December 1st. Some sales will extend into the rest of the week.

The sale includes up to 50% off clothing and shoes from Champion, Crocs, Lands’ End, Cat & Jack, UniversalThread, Wild Fable, A New Day and more, up to 50% off tech products from Bose, Sony, Beats, Meta and more, up to $200 off select Apple devices, up to 50% off small appliances and cookware, plus Ninja and Cuisinart. Get an extra 15% off select items like.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Walmart?

Walmart’s Cyber ​​Monday sale will be available online only on December 1, 2025. Walmart+ members will get early access on November 30th at 7pm ET.

Deal previews include 29% off furniture like Beautiful Drew by Drew Barrymore, 28% off leisure and sports deals like Callaway Men’s 12-Piece Golf Club Set, 38% off toy deals like Donner Kids Electric Drums, 44% off homewares and tools deals like the Greenworks 24v Brushless 4-Tool Combo Kit, and 44% off discounts on jewelry, watches, and accessories. Includes Movado Men’s Bold Large Sunray. 33% off Dial Analog Quartz.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Macy’s?

Macy’s Cyber ​​Monday sale is online only and runs from Sunday, November 30th to Monday, December 1st.

Shoppers can find great deals on apparel, home goods, beauty products, jewelry and accessories. Sale items include 60-70% off bedding from Charter Club, Oak, and more, 60% off Lauren Ralph bath towels, bathrobes, and rugs, 50-60% off men’s coats and jackets, 40% off women’s Levi’s, 40-50% off fragrances, and 50-60% off handbags, wallets, and women’s shoes.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Kohl’s?

Kohl’s Cyber ​​Monday runs from Sunday, November 30th to Monday, December 1st.

Shoppers can expect sales across a variety of departments, including up to 40% off shoes and activewear from Skechers, up to 50% off women’s and junior sweaters, up to 70% off bedding sets, memory foam pillows and mattress toppers, and up to 40% off kitchen appliances from Ninja, KitchenAid and Cuisinart.

To make this deal even better, shoppers can use coupons to get an additional 20% off eligible items and earn $15 in Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Ulta?

Ulta’s Cyber ​​Monday sale begins Sunday, November 30th at noon CT (1pm ET) and runs through Tuesday, December 2nd at 2am CT (3am CT).

Ulta will share more details starting November 30th at ulta.com/cybermonday.

When does Cyber ​​Monday start at Sephora?

Beauty industry competitor Sephora is opting for a full Cyber ​​Week (or two weeks) in 2025 starting on Monday, November 24th, with early access starting on Saturday, November 22nd on its app.

The 30% off sale on a variety of brands is happening every day until Thursday, December 4th, all online. Additional sales will be available until Monday, December 1st, including 50% off select beauty products and 50% off fragrances. Beauty Insiders can also receive free gifts with select purchases, including free sample bags and 4x points on fragrances.

What is Muse Film? Melania Trump launches her own production company

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What is Muse Film? Melania Trump launches her own production company

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Producing and starring in a high-profile documentary about her famous but little-known life was just the beginning for Melania Trump, who is now starting her own production company.

The first lady announced the launch of Muse Films on social media with a short video revealing the official logo.

The company will make its debut with the new film “Melania,” which will be released in U.S. theaters on January 30th and then on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.

The documentary depicts the former model’s 20 days leading up to her return to the White House following President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.

The film’s logline reads, “Step into Melania Trump’s world as she orchestrates her inauguration plans, navigates the complexities of the White House transition, and returns to public life with her family.” “With exclusive footage of important meetings, private conversations and never-before-seen environments, ‘Melania’ marks Mrs. Trump’s return to one of the world’s most powerful roles.”

‘Rush Hour’ director leads documentary after assault allegation

Melania Trump will serve as executive producer and Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”) will direct. According to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the documentary will be produced by Paramount, which is currently developing Rush Hour 4, in which Ratner will be starring alongside Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

In 2017, amid the #MeToo movement, six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, accused Mr. Ratner of sexual harassment and assault. A fourth film was put on hold.

According to Semaphore, the green light for “Rush Hour 4” was given in response to a specific request from President Trump.

The Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission recently approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. The new chairman and CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a close ally of President Trump.

Contributor: Anna Kaufman and Jay Stahl, USA TODAY

Mega Millions winning numbers for November 28th drawing: $80 million jackpot

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Mega Millions winning numbers for November 28th drawing: million jackpot

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The Mega Millions jackpot increased to $80 million for the Friday, Nov. 28 drawing because no one matched all the winning numbers in the Tuesday, Nov. 25 drawing.

If someone matches all six numbers, they have the option to pay $36.9 million in one-time cash.

The most recent winner on November 14 took home a $983 million jackpot, making him the fifth Mega Millions winner of 2025. This year’s four other winners bought winning tickets in Virginia, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona, and collectively won jackpots of more than $900 million.

The winning numbers for the Friday, November 28, 2025 Mega Millions drawing are:

Mega Millions winning numbers for 11/28/25

Winning numbers for Friday, November 28th: 6-7-13-39-48 And the gold mega ball: 4

The lottery winning numbers sponsors are: Jackpocket, USA TODAY Network’s official digital lottery delivery company.

Has anyone won at Mega Millions?

Mega Millions winners will be posted here as soon as they are announced by lottery officials.

To view a list of past winners, go to Visit the Mega Millions website.

How to play Mega Millions

To play Mega Millions, you must purchase a ticket. This can be done at a variety of locations, including local convenience stores, gas stations, and grocery stores. In some states, you can purchase Mega Millions tickets online.

Once you have your ticket, you have to choose six numbers. Five of them are white balls numbered 1-70. The golden mega ball ranges from 1 to 24.

If you’re feeling particularly unlucky or don’t want to go through the hassle of picking, you can request a “quick pick” or “easy pick.” When you use these options, your computer randomly generates numbers.

Mega Millions tickets have built-in multipliers that increase your non-jackpot prize by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 times. Previously, players had to pay an extra dollar to add a “Megaplier”.

Where can I buy lottery tickets?

Tickets can be purchased directly at gas stations, convenience stores, and grocery stores. Some airport terminals may also sell lottery tickets.

You can also order tickets online Jackpocket, USA TODAY Network’s official digital lottery delivery companythe following states and territories of the United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington DC, and West Virginia. The Jackpocket app allows you to choose your lottery games and numbers, place your order, check your tickets, and claim your winnings, all using your phone or home computer.

Jackpocket is the official digital lottery carrier of USA TODAY Network. Gannett may earn revenue from viewer referrals to the Jackpocket Service. Must be 18 years or older, 21 years or older in Arizona, 19 years or older in Nebraska. Not affiliated with any state lottery. Gambling problem? Call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 1-800-327-5050 (MA); 1-877-MYLIMIT (OR); 1-800-981-0023 (PR); 1-800-GAMBLER (ALL OTHERS). visit jackpocket.com/tos Over the entire period.

This story has been updated with new information.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact us at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow us at X @fern_cerv_.

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