ResidentialBusiness

Two increasingly different countries are contesting the AshesView the full article

Company founded by former Revolut executives was valued at $1bn at a fundraise earlier this year View the full article

Branches of armed forces press their case for greater investment but views diverge on where conflict may ariseView the full article

US president threatened primary challenge against the Republican firebrand over her campaign to release the Epstein filesView the full article

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of President Donald The President who has become a critic, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January. Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.” Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with The President in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and healthcare. My message to Georgia’s 14th district and America. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/tSoHCeAjn1 — Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 22, 2025 The President branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year. She said her last day would be January 5, 2026. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday night. Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career in 2020. In her video, she underscored her longtime loyalty to The President except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing. “Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,’” she said. Greene swept to office at the forefront of The President’s “Make America Great Again” movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views. As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by The President. He called her “a real WINNER!” Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023. While there has been an onslaught of lawmakers from both parties heading for the exits ahead of next fall’s midterm elections, as the House struggles through an often chaotic session, Greene’s announced retirement will ripple throughout the ranks—and raise questions about her next moves. —By Michelle L. Price and Lisa Mascaro View the full article

Treat hosting as strategic SEO infrastructure, not a cost line, because no optimization can outrun a slow or unstable server. The post Why Web Hosting Is A Critical Factor To Maximize SEO Results appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

State media celebrate turnaround but experts warn it will not reverse demographic declineView the full article

On episode 331 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Dale Olorenshaw, Head of Paid Media and Search at StrategiQ, who shares a painful but valuable experience involving a high-budget test campaign and a critical oversight. The costly PPC mistake The story centers on a test campaign with a £15,000 budget. Despite strong clicks and engagement, the campaign delivered almost no conversions. After a month, the client emailed to point out that traffic had been sent to the wrong landing page. The dedicated test page they built had never been used. What went wrong internally The error happened for several reasons. Dale bypassed the internal QA process because he managed the campaign alone. He ignored early instincts that something felt off. And because top-line metrics looked normal, he didn’t dig deeper into the conversion issue. The biggest blow was realizing the client found the mistake first. How Dale handled the fallout Although panic set in immediately, Dale avoided sending a rushed, emotional response. He replied with a simple acknowledgment saying he would investigate, stepped away to reset, and waited until he had all the facts. The next morning, he informed his account director with full honesty: “I’ve messed up.” The recovery plan StrategiQ supported Dale fully and focused on solutions. The agency reconciled part of the wasted budget, delivered additional work at no extra cost, and offered reduced fees for the next project phase. The test was relaunched correctly, and the client relationship ultimately remained strong. What Dale learned This experience changed how Dale works today. He always follows QA processes, even as a department head. He trusts his instincts when numbers look unusual. And he encourages team accountability by asking for second opinions and double-checks, demonstrating that seniority doesn’t eliminate human error. A common PPC mistake Dale still sees Beyond his own error, Dale highlights a frequent PPC issue: overcrowded Responsive Search Ads. Google encourages advertisers to add many headlines and descriptions, but with small budgets, this creates thousands of ad combinations that never receive enough data to learn from. His recommendation is to reduce the number of assets and focus on clarity and quality. Why talking about mistakes matters Dale believes the PPC community needs more honest discussions about failure. Newcomers often only see success stories online and assume mistakes indicate incompetence. Sharing real experiences helps normalize errors, reduce pressure, and show that most growth comes from finding solutions. Building a supportive culture Dale closes with leadership advice: create a team environment where mistakes don’t feel career-ending. Encourage honesty, remove blame, and make it clear that challenges are addressed together—not left to individuals to carry alone. Dale’s Final Message If there’s one lesson to take away, it’s this: Don’t be rash, be honest, and treat client money like your own. View the full article

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: Wreck, by Catherine Newman. A woman in middle age has a delightful family, a mysterious rash, and a preoccupation with a local train accident. The family is the same one from Newman’s earlier novel, Sandwich, but this book is 10 times funnier, and you don’t need to have read the first one to enjoy this one. (Amazon, Bookshop) * I earn a commission if you use those links. The post weekend open thread – November 22-23, 2025 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

President’s latest peacemaking effort in Ukraine involves another quest for a payoutView the full article

Hardline message over US-Russia plan at volatile meeting in Kyiv sparks alarm among European allies View the full article

The gap between the release of the movie musicals Wicked: Part I and Wicked: For Good feels like the longest intermission ever. Eager fans had to wait a year before seeing the story’s conclusion, which premieres November 21. The creative team behind Wicked claims to have tried to condense the plot down to just one film, but an overabundance of material led to the decision to split it into two. Financial considerations also likely came into play as two films will make more money than one. As fans celebrate Wicked: For Good’s release week, let’s get you up to speed on everything you need to know, including projected box-office figures. Who’s in the movie? Since Part I and For Good were shot back-to-back, many actors are reprising their roles. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lead the way as former besties Elphaba and Glinda. “Sexiest Man Alive” Jonathan Bailey smolders as Prince Fiyero. Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Marissa Bode, and Ethan Slater all return as the Wizard, Madame Morrible, Nessarose, and Boq, respectively. There are some new additions to the movie as well. Young Glinda is played by Scarlett Spears. Colman Domingo lends his voice to the Cowardly Lion. Bethany Weaver rocks the iconic blue gingham dress as Dorothy. What new songs have been added? Expanding the musical into two movies gave composer Stephen Schwartz the opportunity to write new music. Both Glinda and Elphaba have solo songs that were not featured in the original stage production. Glinda sings “The Girl in the Bubble” while Elphaba performs “No Place Like Home.” Several other songs, such as “Wonderful,” have been expanded. Do you need to see ‘Wicked: Part One’? The blunt answer is yes. Wicked: Part I is the first half of the stage musical. It would be hard to follow if you have never seen the beginning of the story. Plus, the first installment received 10 Academy Award nominations and two Oscar trophies—for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Director Jon M. Chu was snubbed in the Best Director category last time around. If you need to get up to speed quickly, YouTube has plenty of recaps. What are critics saying? While award season is not yet upon us, critics have given the film mixed reviews leaning toward the positive. As of publication, the film received a Tomatometer score of 72% and a Popcornmeter of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri liked the second film better than the first. He argued that the conclusion “was more somber, more focused, more human than the first film. And it brings the Wicked cycle to a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, at least for now.” The BBC’s Caryn James agreed wholeheartedly. “This latest installment is more captivating than the last and enjoyable to watch throughout.” David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter was particularly moved by Grande’s performance of the new song. “Grande floods it with so much feeling that it humanizes and enriches the character and, by extension, the whole movie,” he mused. Not everyone was so enthusiastic. William Bibbiani from TheWrap called it “quite bad” because of the plot holes failing to explain its Wizard of Oz origins. The AP’s Jake Coyle said the film just “doesn’t delight.” Even though both Bibbiani and Coyle did not enjoy the film as a whole, they agreed that the actors gave amazing performances. What are the box-office predictions? Expectations are high for Wicked: For Good. The first film grossed more than $758 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Its debut weekend alone brought in more than $112 million and set the record for the best opening ever for a movie based on a Broadway musical. Deadline predicts that the global opening weekend for Wicked: For Good will exceed its predecessor and bring in around $200 million. Comcast-owned Universal Pictures, which is releasing the film, is projecting a more conservative estimate of $125 million, Variety reports. According to Variety, the movie cost around $150 million to make before advertising costs. The long interlude has allowed audiences to anticipate the film. Time will tell whether they follow the yellow brick road back to movie theaters this holiday season. View the full article

Judge Leonie Brinkema said a ‘dramatic’ forced sale may not be ‘easily enforceable’View the full article

Billionaire investor seeking to take investment group public as early as the first quarter of next yearView the full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the new oath was necessary because prior leadership engaged in what it describes as "thuggery" during exams. Former CFPB officials rejected the agency's characterization of past actions. View the full article

A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled the debtor could not prove she was injured by any alleged conduct by Nationstar or other defendants WSFS and A&D. View the full article

Saul Van Beurden, Wells Fargo's consumer banking CEO and former head of technology, will lead the way on harnessing artificial intelligence. View the full article

The average premium increase is 64% or $600 a year more, and in some states the rate would go up by more than $1,000, the comparison shopping platform found. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Black Friday sales officially start Friday, November 28, and run through Cyber Monday, December 1, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over. Follow our live blog to stay up-to-date on the best sales we find. Browse our editors’ picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change. Black Friday deals aren't just on physical products. While you can find discounts on everything from fitness trackers to Kindles, subscriptions also have Black Friday sales, too. Case in point: Apple TV—not Apple TV+ anymore, mind you. Apple's own subscription service typically costs a relatively expensive $12.99 per month. But as of today, Nov. 21, new and returning Apple TV customers can snag a six-month subscription to Apple TV for $5.99 per month. That amounts to more than a 50% discount on each month (53.89%, to be precise). You have some time to claim this price cut. This is a Black Friday deal, after all, so you'll be able to sign up now through Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. PT (Cyber Monday). Once you do, you'll be set for six months, but just make sure to keep an eye on the calendar: Once those six months are up, Apple will go back to charging you the full $12.99. You'll also need to subscribe through a method where Apple bills you directly. You won't be able to take advantage of the discount if you sign up for Apple TV through a third party. Finally, you won't be eligible if your account qualifies for a free trial. If you haven't been tuned in to Apple TV, now's a great time to check it out. The platform has surprisingly great catalogue, including popular shows like Severance, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking. Plus, there are a number of shows airing new episodes right now, like Pluribus, The Morning Show, and The Last Frontier. You can redeem the offer from any device that bills directly to Apple, or from Apple TV's official site. Does Apple do Black Friday?Yes, Apple participates in Black Friday, though you may want to compare its sales with other retailers like Best Buy and Walmart. Apple is offering an exclusive $250 gift card for eligible purchases, but so far, the best Black Friday sale on an Apple product is the M4 MacBook on sale for cheaper than ever. Are Black Friday deals worth it?In short, yes, Black Friday still offers discounts that can be rare throughout the rest of the year. If there’s something you want to buy, or you’re shopping for gifts, it’s a good time to look for discounts on what you need, especially tech sales, home improvement supplies, and fitness tech. Of course, if you need to save money, the best way to save is to not buy anything. Are Cyber Monday deals better than Black Friday?Black Friday used to be bigger for major retailers and more expensive tech and appliances, while Cyber Monday was for cheaper tech and gave smaller businesses a chance to compete online. Nowadays, though, distinction is almost meaningless. Every major retailer will offer sales on both days, and the smart move is to know what you want, use price trackers or refer to guides like our live blog that use price trackers for you, and don’t stress over finding the perfect timing. Our Best Editor-Vetted Early Black Friday Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $219.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $279.00 (List Price $349.00) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248.00 (List Price $399.99) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $24.99 (List Price $49.99) NEW Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones — $298.00 (List Price $429.00) Shark AI Ultra Matrix Clean Mapping Voice Control Robot Vacuum with XL Self-Empty Base — $249.99 (List Price $599.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $349.99 (List Price $399.00) Western Digital 14TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive — $169.99 (List Price $279.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Want to block ads on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad? wBlock is quickly becoming my favorite solution: it's free, open source, fast, and customizable. Ad blocking is in a weird place. Google, the company that makes more money from advertising than any other on Earth, is actively working to make ad blockers worse on Chrome while it also makes it harder to block ads on YouTube. Basically, it's a good time to not use Chrome. So it's nice that Apple users have another choice: Safari. And, as luck would have it, Safari has an extremely efficient API for ad blocking built right in. The ad blocker wBlock uses this, and the result is ads are blocked in a way that doesn't slow down your browsing. I wrote a few months ago about uBlock Origin for Safari, which doesn't use Apple's native blocking feature. I enjoyed how effective that application was at blocking ads, but over time I've found it does impact the performance of my browser a little. After setting up wBlock, everything feels snappy. You can install wBlock from the App Store on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. After doing so, you can choose which filter lists you want to use. Several are offered, or you can just stick with the defaults. Credit: Justin Pot You will also be asked if you want to enable any userscripts. The ones offered bring back YouTube's old interface and bypass paywalls. You can also install custom userscripts, if you want, meaning you won't need a separate application for that functionality. After that, you'll need to open Safari, head to the settings, and turn on all the wBlock entries you see on the extensions page. Do that and you should be able to browse the web without any ads. If you're curious about how this extension works and how it compares to other Safari ad blockers, I recommend checking out the documentation on Github—it goes over how this tool works and how it differs from other applications. I also encourage you to think about the pros and cons of blocking ads overall. View the full article

Expected move by chancellor Rachel Reeves next week faces strong pushback from businessesView the full article

Pew’s data shows YouTube and Facebook lead U.S. social media use, while TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reddit grow and newer platforms remain niche. The post Pew: 84% Of Adults Use YouTube As Platform Growth Continues appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

If you've spent years curating playlists in Apple Music or another streaming service, you can now easily transfer your playlist to your Spotify library without needing to start from scratch or pay for a third-party service. Playlist transfers are now built into Spotify thanks to a new integration with TuneMyMusic, which facilitates music syncing, sharing, transfers, and backups across platforms. To initiate a playlist transfer from Apple Music or another streaming service (YouTube Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, etc.), open the Spotify mobile app and tap Your Library. Scroll to the bottom of the page, tap Import your music > Get Started, and follow the on-screen prompts to connect with TuneMyMusic. You can choose which platform to transfer music from, and your playlists will populate in Spotify. Your playlists will remain on the original platform, as they are simply being copied into Spotify. (This feature is currently rolling out to users, so you may need to update your Spotify app.) Data portability across music streamers has been very limited, but it's getting better: TuneMyMusic was already compatible with Spotify, but users had to sign up for a free trial with the service and were capped at just 500 songs before needing to upgrade to a paid plan. (Other third-party playlist transfer tools include FreeYourMusic and Soundiiz.) Apple Music has a music transfer feature built into its iOS and iPadOS (under Settings > Apps > Music) as well as the Apple Music app for Android and via the web. YouTube Music supports playlist imports and exports but requires a third-party service for platforms that don't permit direct transfers. View the full article

Silicon Valley’s giants crowd the list of the world’s most valuable companies, but drugmaker Eli Lilly is hot on their heels. The company topped a market capitalization of one trillion dollars on Friday, becoming the first business in the health industry to hit that milestone. Lilly’s achievement comes during a tense week for stock watchers. AI chipmaker Nvidia, which itself became the first $5 trillion company less than a month ago, beat expectations with its latest quarterly earnings. But with AI overrepresented among the world’s top businesses and massive AI investments making headlines every day, investors remain skittish that excitement over the tech might be overblown. While Lilly still sits just outside the global top ten most valuable companies, its rise demonstrates that non-tech businesses can still chart a path to the stock market’s upper echelons. In Lilly’s case, that rise was powered by spiking interest in weight loss drugs – a trend that has nothing to do with the white hot world of AI. Rise of GLP-1s The Indianapolis-based drugmaker enjoyed a massive 35% boost in its stock price this year, tapping into the rise of weight loss drugs with its own offering, tirzepatide. Lilly’s star drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, both package tirzepatide, with the former approved to treat Type 2 diabetes and the latter prescribed for weight loss or sleep apnea. Tirzepatide works by simulating two naturally-occurring gut hormones that influence digestion, appetite and help the body regulate blood sugar. Lilly’s two hot weight loss drugs earned the company more than $10 billion in the third quarter of the year, accounting for more than half of its $17.6 billion in sales during the same period. By the end of October, Mounjaro and Zepbound had already made the company $25 billion – more than the drugmaker’s total revenue in 2020. Keeping its growth going after such a landmark year poses a challenge, but Lilly is already deep into the development of a new weight loss drug in pill form that offers a convenient alternative to regular injections. That drug, orforglipron, is a candidate for early FDA approval, a process that could put it on the market very quickly. Eli Lilly bests the competition As Lilly races to release its weight loss pill, rival drugmaker Novo Nordisk is doing the same. Novo Nordisk is also currently awaiting FDA approval for its own oral weight loss drug under the agency’s new expedited process. Both drugmakers are also slashing the price of their injectable weight loss drugs after the The President administration called on them to lower prices. “I’m thrilled to announce that the two world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, have agreed to offer their most popular GLP-1 weight-loss drug—I call it the fat drug, remember—at drastic discounts,” The President said. While Eli Lilly is riding high on the weight loss craze this year, Novo Nordisk isn’t enjoying the same confidence from investors. Novo Nordisk’s value more than quintupled heading into last year, but the company’s shares fell sharply in 2025 as its first-mover advantage in the weight loss market dissolved and compounding pharmacies took a bite out of its business. Eli Lilly wasn’t first to market, but it made up ground quickly, securing FDA approval for diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight-management counterpart Zepbound. Eli Lilly shares have soared since those drugs started hitting the market, showing no sign of flagging. “We’ve spent 150 years going after some of the hardest-to-treat disease states—like [developing] lifesaving insulin [for diabetes], eradicating polio, revolutionizing depression with Prozac—and we’re still laser-focused on innovation,” Eli Lilly’s Global Chief Customer Officer Jennifer Oleksiw told Fast Company recently. “But the game has changed. It’s not delivering medicine; it’s taking that medicine and adding the right solutions, services and content, and making it personalized, accessible and scalable.” View the full article

Someone stealing your credit card information is the absolute worst. Opening your statement to see expensive charges you didn't make is stressful, and canceling your card—and dealing with all of your attached subscriptions—is a nightmare. So if you get a call about an unauthorized charge for a brand new iPhone, you're probably going to want to get to the bottom of it. Here's the thing: It's likely a scam. I speak from experience: My wife keeps getting calls from unknown numbers, all of which leave voicemails about charges for iPhones. The voicemail starts off with what sounds like standard holding music. Suddenly, a voice pops in, saying something to the affect of: "This is Amazon. This call is to authorize the payment of $999 for the recent order of Apple iPhone 16 Pro on your account. If you do not authorize this payment, please press "one" to speak to our customer support representative." Your call may also be about, "the payment of $1,099 for the recent order of Apple iPhone 17 Pro on your account." We are inundated with the calls, and besides the payment amount and the specific iPhone model, the rest of the message is identical. As you might expect, no such charges are actually present on either our Amazon account or in our credit card history. That's because no one bought an iPhone in our name, or by using our financial information: This was simply a scam. Had we answered the phone and pressed "one" to speak with a "customer support representative," or called the number back after listening to the voicemail, this is what would have likely happened: The "representative" would have assured us that they would be able to dispute the charge, but of course they'd need some information from us first. Perhaps they would have needed us to confirm the credit card information, and would ask us to read our digits out loud. Maybe they'd need to make sure we actually owned the Amazon account in question, and would ask for our two-factor authentication code to "confirm our identity." No matter what the case, the scammers would have been praying on our concern about the charge to extract some type of sensitive information from us, all for their own financial gain. Had we called back and complied, we would have almost assuredly handed the scammers the money we thought they were helping us get back. What to do if you get this voicemailIf you get a voicemail like this, don't call them back. If you pick up the phone, and you get this message, don't press "one;" just hang up. You are definitely being scammed, and there's no risk in simply ignoring the caller completely. If you'd like to verify their claims, don't involve the caller at all. Instead, head to your Amazon account, and check your order history. You'll be able to see if any such iPhones were ordered under your account—and, if they were, you can cancel the order here. Similarly, check your credit card history: If you don't see a charge for an iPhone, there wasn't one. If you do see one, reach out to the credit card company directly through their official contact information. Scammers rely on pressure tactics that stress you out, and make you feel like time is of the essence. It rarely ever is. While it might seem common practice for companies like Amazon to call customers about large charges, it really isn't. If you ever receive unsolicited communications from someone claiming to represent a company you belong to, you can always end the conversation, and reach out directly yourself. If you contact Amazon's official customer support, or the company that issues your credit card, they'll be able to confirm or deny the claim for you. While you can block the number, it might not do much good. Each time we've received a call, it's been from a different number, so my guess is they're not reusing numbers when calling you back. Instead, you should strongly consider using one of Apple's built-in anti-spam tools. If you're running iOS 26, you can choose to have your iPhone screen calls from unknown numbers, and ask for information before sending the call your way. No matter which version of iOS you have, you can also choose to silence unknown callers en masse, so you're never interrupted by any caller that isn't in your contacts. View the full article