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  • From Wordle to sweets, holiday gift ideas for the grown-ups

    From Wordle to sweets, holiday gift ideas for the grown-ups

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Adults. They, too, need fun stuff for the holidays.

    From sweet treats to things with wheels, some ideas for pleasing a child at heart this holiday season:

    BOARD GAMES

    The Shakespeare Game: This bard-in-a-box extravaganza has players collecting characters and racing around London’s theaters. The idea is to put on as many plays as possible before others “steal your ideas, burn down your theaters or spread the plague!” The winner rakes in the most box office bucks and is the fastest to fame and glory. $35.

    Wordle: The Party Game. Did you see it coming? Hasbro and The New York Times have made the get-it-in-six daily treat a board game. In each round, a player picked as host writes down a five-letter word. Others must figure it out in, you guessed it, six tries, competing to do it in the least number of attempts. Dry erase boards and familiar color coding are used. $19.99.

    Paco Sako: This chess variant was originally the subject of a Kickstarter by Felix Albers, the Dutch dad who created it. Played on a regular chess board with regular chess pieces, there are unions that look like hugs and the winner “embraces” the opponent’s king, as opposed to capturing it. Pieces move the same as in chess but generally don’t leave the board. Still don’t get it? Have a look at reviews and how-tos before you plunk down $49.99.

    EDIBLE TREATS

    Dylan’s Candy Bar is a sugary, gifty playground year round, and especially at the holidays. The company’s clear plastic tackle boxes offer a little something for everybody. There’s one for $125 full of festive, shiny-wrapped candy bling. Another for $85 is a trip down memory lane for boomers with Zots, Mallo Cups, Chick-O-Sticks and more. Millennials have their own sour feast at the same price.

    Got a licorice lover? The Danish confectionery Lakrids by Bulow has brought back their Advent calendar filled with 24 days of licorice covered in chocolate. I repeat. Licorice encased in chocolate, with flavors like raspberry and salted caramel. The goodness comes in a sleek, black-and-white packaging design. $55.

    COLLECTIBLES & NOSTALGIA

    A prize baseball card. A treasured stamp or coin. Figurines, vintage kitchenware. Surely you know at least one gift recipient with a collection of some sort. No? Then go the way of TikTok and embrace minis. They’re everywhere in those round wrapped eggs and other mystery containers (You never know which mini in a set you’ll get). For the truly obsessed, one company makes minis in minis featuring beloved candy brands. Those aren’t actually edible. $7.99.

    For the beer lover, Etsy seller Pretentious Beer Glass has on offer four hand-blown Pilsner glasses for $162.

    Big fans of Little People alert: Fisher Price has a six-piece collector set of figures from the hit “Ted Lasso.” The gang’s all here: Ted Lasso, Rebecca Welton, Keeley Jones, Coach Beard, Roy Kent and Sam Obisanya for a hit of toy nostalgia. $29.97.

    Feeding the taste for nostalgia, Build-a-Bear has launched “The Bear Cave” line of plush bears and other characters partaking of Champagne, cocktails and beer. All are under $60.

    Lite Brite sells a line of ’50s and ’60s pop art sets intended to be hung on a wall after they’re created. They’re in the $100 range. Ho ho ho.

    WHEELS

    The American icon Schwinn makes something called the Shuffle Deluxe Scooter. It has two wheels and bicycle-like handlebars but retains scooter status with a nostalgic wood step board. With kickstand. $249. Razor recently launched the Razor Icon. It’s bigger, faster and electric.

    If scooters aren’t how your giftees roll, try a longboard. They’re everywhere. Koastals are plentiful and come in a range of prices and designs. They’re handcrafted in Southern California. From $99 to $280. Buy complete or customize.

    THEATER

    At $129.99 a year, the streaming service BroadwayHD serves up full-length stage plays and musicals, including exclusive livestreams. It’s an unlimited, on-demand library of more than 300 theater productions from Broadway, the West End and beyond. Some ballets and concerts, too. Not looking to spend that much? Buy a month or two at $11.99 each.

    Or you could pick up an original cast recording of a favorite musical, or a biography on a theater legend. “Free for All: Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told ” by Kenneth Turan and Papp himself holds up. It’s been out since 2009 so shop around for a good price.

    BOOZE

    Can’t think of anything unusual? Research and reach for a special bottle. There are too many variables and options for too many palates to make one solid recommendation, but special splurges abound. Consider Garrison Brothers Distillery for bourbon. It has a range of price points.

    Look for “premier cru” or “grand cru” on Champagne labels noting top vineyards, as in the Krug Grande Cuvée Brut. It’s in the $180 range. Got a wine buff? How about the 2019 Insignia from the Napa Valley Joseph Phelps Vineyards. $330.

    “THE OFFICE”

    For whatever reason, considering all the Lego sets and all the TV shows in the land, folks are frothing for Lego’s 1,164-piece set based on the Emmy-winning “The Office.” It’s Dunder Mifflin down to the tiniest detail and includes 15 mini-figures of the show’s main characters. A dozen of the figures have two facial expressions when the heads are turned around. Classic scenes come to life in Jim’s teapot, Michael’s World’s Best Boss mug and Dwight’s Jell-O-encased stapler. $119.99.

    Lots of big-kid sets are out there if this one doesn’t do it. Among the Lego Ideas sets: a manual typewriter, the “Seinfeld” apartment set and a shoutout to “The Flintstones.”

    OUTDOORS

    Remember the cozy hygge phenom? Well, the Scandinavian concept of friluftsliv (roughly FREE-loofts-leeve) is another Nordic secret that’s spreading. It’s the idea of enjoying slow nature, and being kind to the Earth. Swedish-American Linda Akeson McGurk has written a book, “The Open-Air Life,” sharing the 10 principles of friluftsliv. She explains how to make a more meaningful relationship with the great outdoors. $20.

    Searches for all things sporty chic, mountainside-style, are up on Etsy, said Dayna Isom Johnson, the handmade marketplace’s trend expert. Sellers there, and their buyers, are “looking to the mountains and snowy caps for inspiration,” she said. That includes folks looking for vintage ski gear.

    A cheaper alternative to feed the outdoor trend? One Etsy seller, Cai Cai Handmade, offers mountain soy and beeswax candles that can be customized by color and scent, including pine forest.

    To further friluftsliv a female giftee, wrap up some Moment mints by MotherBar. They’re nearly 100% organic and each includes 40 mg of full-spectrum CBD, along with Szechuan flower, peppermint and Bulgarian rose. $65 for 10. Recommended to start with one at a time, but who’s counting. The packaging and marketing are gender specific.

    THE VIBRATIONS

    Know somebody who needs a little help shaking off their pandemic funk?

    Gift a card deck of affirmations and good vibes. Two sisters, Shanna Cancino and Cherish Wilson, have created The Vibe Check Deck of 52 cards with prompts to help people perk up. Such as: “Give someone a hug for 20 seconds” and “Explore your senses. Name five things you see, four things you feel, three things you hear, two things you smell, one thing you taste.” Not feeling those? How about: “Send a positive wish to your water and drink.” Surely, your gift recipient will at least smile, wryly or otherwise. $29.99.

    Tarot decks are bountiful. For beginners, Clarkson Potter sells “Illuminated: A Journal for Your Tarot Practice.” It offers ways to more meaningfully engage with a deck and log observations and reflections. $16.

    NETS & MORE NETS

    Move over pickleball, Jazzminton Sport is on your tail. It’s an indoor-outdoor game played with paddles and birdies and a unique net with a horizontal cut out. There are no boundaries. No court is required. Set up is simple. Two people play. Just bat the birdie back and forth through the hole until the winner reaches an agreed-upon point number. $199.99.

    If one net isn’t enough, go for four with Crossnet. It’s a four-square-meets-volleyball game for indoors, outdoors, on sand or concrete, in water or on grass. Play is, uh, complicated. In a nutshell: Four people are up or break into teams of two. Play goes around one hit per return across four nets until the ball hits the ground or goes out of bounds. People are rotated in and out. The net height is adjustable. $149.99 at Crossnetgame.com.

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    For more AP gift guides, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gift-guide.

    ___

    Follow Leanne on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

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  • Rent stabilization measures win in US midterm election

    Rent stabilization measures win in US midterm election

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    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Ballot measures in the U.S. to build more affordable housing and protect tenants from soaring rent increases were plentiful and fared well in last week’s midterm elections, a sign of growing angst over record high rents exacerbated by inflation and a dearth of homes.

    Voters approved capping rent increases at below inflation in three U.S. cities: Portland, Maine, and Richmond and Santa Monica in California. Another measure was leading in the vote count in Pasadena outside of Los Angeles. In Florida, voters in Orange County, which includes Orlando, overwhelmingly passed a rent stabilization measure but a court ruling means it’s unlikely to go into force.

    There were also dozens of proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot raising money for and authorizing construction of affordable housing, said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Many passed.

    “Housing is a winning campaign issue. It’s one that voters show up for and it’s one that should cause policymakers at all levels to act,” said Yentel, adding that even a loss can be a win.

    “The act of organizing itself builds strength, it builds power, and it builds connections and it builds momentum,” she said.

    Calls for more affordable homes and policies to keep tenants housed have been growing as homelessness increases even in places outside coastal urban centers such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. Moreover, teachers, police and other public servants say they cannot afford to live in the places where they work, resulting in nightmare commutes and staffing shortages.

    Backers say rent control policies are needed to curb sharp increases that put tenants at risk of eviction. They say protections are especially needed now as more corporations snap up rental housing for profit. As of 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau found businesses owned nearly half of rental units.

    “The market is out of whack, the government needs to step in and regulate it so there can be stability,” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, a tenants rights attorney and chair of the rent board in Berkeley, California.

    Opponents say rent control increases costs for landlords, the majority of whom are mom-and-pop operations with a handful of units each. Restricting rents will spur disinvestment in rental stock and discourage construction of affordable housing.

    “Decades of empirical research have shown this policy does not help the underlying cause of the housing shortage that we have now. If anything, it makes the housing challenge more acute,” said Ben Harrold, public policy manager at the National Apartment Association.

    Most states preempt cities and counties from enacting rent stabilization, the result of lobbying by the real estate industry in the 1970s. Still, in cities accustomed to rent regulation voters approved stronger rent caps and more tenant protections.

    The California cities of Richmond and Santa Monica easily approved measures to tighten existing rent increase maximums to 3%, significantly less than the state cap of 10%. In Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, voters expanded eviction protections for tenants.

    In Portland, Maine, 55% of voters approved a measure to slim down an existing rent cap, from 100% of the consumer price index to 70%. The proposal also dictates a host of other tenant protections, such as limiting security deposits to one month’s rent and requiring 90 days notice for a rent increase or lease termination.

    A ballot measure in Pasadena to cap annual rent increases at 75% of the consumer price index had more than 52% of the vote late Tuesday, and the campaign declared victory. The campaign’s finance coordinator, Ryan Bell, said organizers went all out to reach voters but also, the timing was right.

    “The pandemic really made it clear that people who are renting their housing are insecure by definition. Their housing could be taken away from them in some cities for no cause and a massive rent increase is functionally an eviction,” he said. “There’s just more and more stories.”

    Meanwhile, the rent cap overwhelmingly approved by voters in Orange County, Florida, is on hold. A court ruled it didn’t meet what it acknowledged was an “extremely high bar” set by a state law that requires a housing emergency be identified before a rent cap can be put in place.

    Nearly 60% of voters approved the measure after rents that jumped 25% between 2020 and 2021 and another double-digit increase this year. The Board of County Commissioners in Orange was scheduled to meet Thursday to decide whether to appeal.

    Tenant advocates and landlords do agree on the need for more affordable housing, and cities and counties in Arizona, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio were among those that approved bond measures for more units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

    In Colorado, voters approved a sweeping measure to set aside roughly $300 million a year for programs that curb homelessness and promote affordable housing. But in Denver, where Zillow data shows median rental prices jumped $600 in two years, 58% of voters rejected a $12 million proposal to expand free legal counsel for all tenants facing eviction.

    The eviction fund would have been financed by a $75 annual fee on landlords.

    For Drew Hamrick, vice president of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, the opposing argument “that resonated the most was that this $12 million tax was going to end up being paid for by the consumer regardless of what political outlook you have.”

    ——

    Michael Casey in Boston, Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, and Jesse Bedayn in Denver contributed.

    ___

    Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • For movie fans, a gift guide that goes beyond the cinema

    For movie fans, a gift guide that goes beyond the cinema

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    For the film buff in your life, there are plenty of gift options that go beyond a ticket to the cinema. Here are some ideas to get the reels rolling.

    ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES VISIT (from $25)

    Any cinephile worth their salt should have the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on their list of places to visit, and you could surprise them with tickets (starting at $25 for adults) or even an annual membership (which start at $100/year).

    LIMITED EDITION GODFATHER VINYL ($40)

    In conjunction with the Academy Museum’s new “Godfather” exhibit, which runs through March 17, the museum’s store has a trove of exclusive “Godfather”-themed merchandise like a limited two-LP set of the trilogy’s music, performed by the Prague Philharmonic. Cannolis not included.

    TOP GUN: MAVERICK ($29.99)

    You probably already caught “Top Gun: Maverick” in the theaters, maybe even multiple times, during its blockbuster 23-week run. Now that the dust has settled from Maverick’s Mach 10 test flight, it’s finally available to watch in your home theater in glorious 4K. Or, if you wait a little bit, on Dec. 6, Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing a two-movie SteelBook edition ($132.99) with 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs of both “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” with bonus behind-the-scenes features and Cruise’s Masterclass from the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

    YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS PATREON (starts at $2/month)

    Chances are if you love film, you’ve come across the podcast “You Must Remember This” in some way. Maybe it was the Charles Manson episodes that got you hooked, the dishy season about the life of Polly Platt, or the most recent installment analyzing what exactly led to the films of the “Erotic ’80s.” Film historian Karina Longworth has been churning out episodes of her addictive, insightful and deeply researched podcast about movies, movie stars and the culture around them since 2014, for free. YMRT also offers bonus content for Patreon subscribers, including posts about what Longworth is consuming and previews of upcoming seasons that help support its behind-the-scenes operations.

    “BEYOND THE BEST DRESSED” BOOK ($22)

    Culture writer Esther Zuckerman takes a fun and novel approach to the Oscars red carpet in her coffee-table book “Beyond the Best Dressed: A Cultural History of the Most Glamorous, Radical and Scandalous Oscar Fashion” (Running Press). In 25 essays, with illustrations from Montana Forbes, Zuckerman looks at everything from Hattie McDaniel’s turquoise gown, worn to the segregated ceremony in 1940, to Sharon Stone’s white Gap T-shirt, to the dress Rita Moreno wore in both 1962 and 2018.

    A24 CROSSWORD PUZZLE BOOK ($34)

    The cool kids know to keep an eye on the A24 store for some of the best film merchandise out there. Their vintage editions tend to sell out immediately (as did the “Everything Everywhere All At Once” Hot Dog Finger Gloves), but they also have a lot of other options for film fans, including a movie-themed book of 99 crossword puzzles with themes running the gamut “from stoner movies to Soviet cinema.” Anna Shechtman edited contributions from the likes of Jenny Slate and filmmakers Lulu Wang and David Lowery. There’s also hats, water bottles and a Marcel the Shell pin.

    TICKETS TO THE TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL (starting at $349)

    Dust off that fedora and break out the screen siren red lipstick. The TCM Classic Film Festival is coming back to Hollywood Boulevard from April 13-16, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studios. Passes go on sale Dec. 8 with some early bird discounts, which tend to go quickly.

    GIRLS ON TOP TEES (£25.00)

    Broadcast your favorite female filmmaker, from Norah Ephron to Ava DuVernay, and support the next generation with a Girls on Tops T-shirt. Timely options include Sarah Polley (whose “Women Talking” arrives in November), Greta Gerwig (starring in “White Noise” and putting the finishing touches on her “Barbie” movie), Joanna Hogg (who has “The Eternal Daughter” coming in December) or Sofia Coppola (currently filming a movie about Priscilla Presley). And you’ll be in good company: These soft shirts have been worn by the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Rooney Mara and Laura Dern, who has her own tee too.

    CRITERION COLLECTION’S INFERNAL AFFAIRS BOX SET ($76)

    If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s “Infernal Affairs,” or its two follow-ups, just know that the 2002 film from Hong Kong inspired Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.” Tony Leung and Andy Lau star in the crime saga, which got a 4K restoration and a Criterion Collection box set.

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    For more AP gift guides go to https://apnews.com/hub/gift-guide.

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  • Happy hygge! Scrabble dictionary adds hundreds of words

    Happy hygge! Scrabble dictionary adds hundreds of words

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    This photo shows the cover of the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” released in November. The latest edition adds about 500 new words for Scrabble play. (Merriam-Webster via AP)
    This photo shows the cover of the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” released in November. The latest edition adds about 500 new words for Scrabble play. (Merriam-Webster via AP)
    This photo shows the cover of the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” released in November. The latest edition adds about 500 new words for Scrabble play. (Merriam-Webster via AP)

    1 of 2

    This photo shows the cover of the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” released in November. The latest edition adds about 500 new words for Scrabble play. (Merriam-Webster via AP)

    1 of 2

    This photo shows the cover of the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” released in November. The latest edition adds about 500 new words for Scrabble play. (Merriam-Webster via AP)

    NEW YORK (AP) — Here’s the sitch, Scrabble stans. Your convos around the board are about to get more interesting with about 500 new words and variations added to the game’s official dictionary: stan, sitch, convo, zedonk, dox and fauxhawk among them.

    Out this month, the add-ons in the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” join more than 100,000 words of two to eight letters. The book was last updated in 2018 through a longstanding partnership between Hasbro and Merriam-Webster.

    The new words include some trademarks gone generic — dumpster for one — some shorthand joy like guac, and a delicious display of more verb variations: torrented, torrenting, adulted, adulting, atted, atting (as in don’t at me, bro).

    “We also turned verb into a verb so you can play verbed and verbing,” said Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, Peter Sokolowski, a smile on his face and a word-nerd glitter in his eye during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

    Fauxhawk, a haircut similar to a Mohawk, is potentially the highest scoring newbie, he said. Embiggen, a verb meaning to increase in size, is among the unexpected. (Sample sentence: “I really need to embiggen that Scrabble dictionary.”)

    Compound words are on the rise in the book with deadname, pageview, fintech, allyship, babymoon and subtweet. So are the “uns,” such as unfollow, unsub and unmute. They may sound familiar, but they were never Scrabble official, at least when it comes to the sainted game’s branded dictionary.

    Tournament play is a whole other matter, with a broader range of agreed-upon words.

    Sokolowski and a team of editors at Merriam-Webster have mined the oft-freshened online database at Merriam-Webster.com to expand the Scrabble book. While the official rules of game play have always allowed the use of any dictionary that players sanction, many look to the official version when sitting down for a spot of Scrabble. Some deluxe Scrabble sets include one of the books.

    In the last year or two, the Scrabble lexicon has been scrubbed of 200-plus racial, ethnic and otherwise offensive words — despite their presence in some dictionaries. That has prompted furious debate among tournament players. Supporters of the cleanup called it long overdue. Others argued that the words, however heinous in definition, should remain playable so long as points are to be had.

    Despite home play rules that never specifically banned offensive words, you won’t find the notorious 200 in the Scrabble dictionary, with rare exceptions for those with other meanings.

    The new Scrabble book includes at least one old-fashioned word that simply fell under the radar for years: yeehaw.

    “Yeehaw is like so many of the older, informal terms. They were more spoken than written, and the gold standard for dictionary editing was always written evidence. So a term like yeehaw, which we all know from our childhood and in movies and TV, was something you heard. You didn’t read it that often,” Sokolowski said.

    Yeehaw, meet bae, inspo, vibed and vibing, all new additions to the Scrabble dictionary. Ixnay, which was already in the book, has been promoted to a verb, so ixnayed, ixnaying and ixnays are now allowed.

    Welp, thingie, roid, skeezy, slushee and hygge (the Danish obsession with getting cozy) also made the cut. So did kharif, the Indian subcontinent’s fall harvest.

    The Merriam-Webster wordsmiths have added a slew of food-related words: iftar, horchata, kabocha, mofongo, zuke, zoodle, wagyu, queso and marg, for margarita, among them. Many Scrabble players couldn’t care less about definitions — only points — but informatively:

    Iftar is a meal taken by Muslims at sundown to break the daily fast during Ramadan. Mofongo is a traditional Puerto Rican dish made of fried or boiled plantains. Horchata is a sweet drink and kabocha is a winter squash.

    Zonkey joins zedonk among new words using a Z, one of the highest scorers in Scrabble along with Q (each has a face value of 10 points). The difference between those two wacky-sounding animals, you ask? A zonkey is sired from a male zebra and a female donkey. The parentage of a zedonk is the other way around. Zedonk even has a playable variation: zeedonk.

    Zoomer, for a member of GenZ, is also new. Familiar with the Middle Eastern spice blend za’atar? A less common variant, zaatar, is now in the Scrabble dictionary. Words with apostrophes aren’t allowed.

    And there’s more where all of that came from:

    Oppo, jedi, adorbs, dox variant doxxed, eggcorn (a misheard slip of the ear), fintech, folx (inclusive alternative to folks), grawlix, hangry, matcha, onesie, spork, swole, unmalted, vaquita, vax and vaxxed were added.

    Yes, jedi need not be capitalized. Wondering what grawlix means? It’s this: $%!(asterisk)#, a series of typographical symbols used to replace words one doesn’t want to write, usually those that got you into trouble as a kid.

    Among other new eight-letter words, the kind that help players clear their seven-tile racks for 50 extra points: hogsbane, more commonly known as giant hogweed. Another: pranayam, a breath technique in yoga.

    Sokolowski wouldn’t reveal all 500 of the new words, challenging players to hunt them down on their own. Are your Scrabble senses scrambled, so to speak?

    “All of these are words that have already been vetted and defined and added to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, and now we’ve determined they’re playable in Scrabble,” Sokolowski said. “You’ve got some fun new words.”

    So which new entry is the word master’s favorite? It’s the one that sounds like the way acorn is pronounced.

    “I like eggcorn,” Sokolowski said, “because it’s a word about words.”

    ___

    Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

    —-

    For more AP Lifestyles stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/lifestyle.

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  • Estee Lauder to buy Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8B

    Estee Lauder to buy Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8B

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    The Estee Lauder Cos. is acquiring luxury powerhouse Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, marking the beauty firm’s biggest acquisition yet.

    As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Marcolin S.p.A. will enter long-term license agreements for Tom Ford fashion and Tom Ford eyewear, respectively.

    While Estee Lauder said the deal values the total enterprise at $2.8 billion, the New York-based beauty company is expected to pay roughly $2.3 billion, after a $250 million payment from Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin SpA.

    The purchase, subject to regulatory approvals, is slated to close in the first half of 2023.

    Under the agreement, Tom Ford, founder and CEO of Tom Ford International, will remain the brand’s creative visionary through the end of 2023. Domenico De Sole, chairman of Tom Ford International, will stay on as a consultant until that same time.

    Estee Lauder introduced its Tom Ford Beauty line in 2006. In Estee Lauder’s fiscal year that ended June 30, the brand’s net sales grew nearly 25% compared to the prior year. The beauty company said that in the next few years it expect the beauty line to bring in net sales of $1 billion.

    “This strategic acquisition will unlock new opportunities and fortify our growth plans for Tom Ford Beauty,” said Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estee Lauder in a statement. “It will also further help to propel our momentum in the promising category of luxury beauty for the long-term, while reaffirming our commitment to being the leading pure player in global prestige beauty.”

    Estee Lauder said it aims to finance the acquisition through a combination of cash, debt and $300 million in deferred payments to sellers that become due beginning in July of 2025.

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  • G-20 summit casts spotlight on Bali’s tourism revival

    G-20 summit casts spotlight on Bali’s tourism revival

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    NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — Bali wants the world to know it’s back.

    Dozens of world leaders and other dignitaries are traveling to the Indonesian island for the G-20 summit, drawing a welcome spotlight on the revival of the tropical destination’s vital tourism sector.

    Tourism is the main source of income on this idyllic “island of the gods,” which is renowned for its tropical beaches, terraced rice paddies, mystical temples and colorful spiritual offerings.

    The pandemic hit Bali harder than most places in Indonesia.

    Before the pandemic, 6.2 million foreigners arrived in Bali each year. Its lively tourism scene — fueled by hard-partying clubgoers, chilled surfers and spiritual bliss-seekers alike — faded after the first case of COVID-19 was found in Indonesia in March 2020. Restaurants and resorts shut and many workers returned to their villages to try to get by.

    Foreign tourist arrivals dropped to only 1 million in 2020, mostly in the first few months of the year, and then to a few dozen in 2021, according to government data. More than 92,000 people employed in tourism lost their jobs and the average occupancy rate of Bali hotels fell below 20%.

    The island’s economy contracted 9.3% in 2020 from the year before and shrank further in 2021.

    “The coronavirus outbreak has hammered the local economy horribly,” said Dewa Made Indra, regional secretary of Bali province. “Bali is the region with the most severe economic contraction.”

    The island is home to more than 4 million people, who are mainly Hindu in the mostly Muslim archipelago nation.

    After closing to all visitors early in the pandemic, Bali reopened to Indonesians from other parts of the country in mid-2020. That helped, but then a surge of cases in July 2021 again emptied the island’s normally bustling beaches and streets. Authorities restricted public activities, closed the airport and shuttered all shops, bars, sit-down restaurants, tourist attractions and many other places on the island.

    Monkeys deprived of their preferred food source — bananas, peanuts and other goodies given to them by tourists — took to raiding villagers’ homes in their search for something tasty.

    The island reopened to domestic travelers a month later, in August, but in all of 2021 only 51 foreign tourists visited.

    Things are looking much better now. Shops and restaurants in places like Nusa Dua, a resort area where the G-20 meeting is being held, and in other towns like Sanur and Kuta have reopened, though business is slow and many businesses and hotels are still closed or have scaled back operations.

    The reopening of Bali’s airport to international flights and now the thousands coming for the G-20 summit and other related events have raised hopes for a stronger turnaround, Dewa said.

    More than 1.5 million foreign tourists and 3.1 million domestic travelers had visited Bali as of October this year.

    Embracing a push toward more sustainable models of tourism, Bali has rolled out a digital nomad visa program, called the “second home visa” and due to take effect in December. It’s also among 20 destinations Airbnb recently announced it was partnering with for remote work, also including places in the Caribbean and the Canary Islands.

    The recovery will likely take time, even if COVID-19 is kept at bay.

    Gede Wirata, who had to lay off most of the 4,000 people working in his hotels, restaurants, clubs and a cruise ship during the worst of the pandemic, found that when it came time to rehire them many had found jobs overseas or in other travel businesses.

    The G-20 is a welcome boost. “This is an opportunity for us to rise again from the collapse,” he said.

    There’s a way to go.

    “The situation has not yet fully recovered, but whatever the case, life has to go on,” said Wayan Willy, who runs a tourist agency in Bali with some friends. Before the pandemic, most of their clients were from overseas. Now it’s mostly domestic tourists. But even those are few and far between.

    Bali has suffered greatly in the past. At times, the island’s majestic volcanos have rumbled to life, at times erupting or belching ash.

    The dark cloud of the suicide bombings in Bali’s beach town of Kuta that killed 202 mostly foreign tourists in 2002 lingered for years, devastating tourism on the island usually known for its peace and tranquility.

    Recent torrential rains brought floods and landslides in some areas, adding to the burdens for communities working to rebuild their tourism businesses.

    When the situation started to improve, Yuliani Djajanegara, who runs a business making traditional beauty items like massage oils, natural soaps and aromatherapy products under the brand name Bali Tangi, got back to work.

    She had closed her factory in 2020 when orders from hotels, spas and salons in the U.S., Europe, Russia and the Maldives dried up, taking orders for her products from more than 1,000 kilograms (1 ton) to almost nothing.

    So far, Djajanegara has rehired 15 of the 60 workers she had been obliged to lay off during the dark days of the pandemic.

    She’s hopeful, but cautious.

    “Tourism in Bali is like a sand castle,” Djajanegara said. “It is beautiful, but it can be washed away by the waves.”

    ___

    AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

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  • Japan to reopen to cruise ships after 2 1/2-year ban

    Japan to reopen to cruise ships after 2 1/2-year ban

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    TOKYO (AP) — Japan will lift a more than 2 1/2-year ban on international cruise ships that was imposed following a deadly coronavirus outbreak on the cruise ship Diamond Princess at the beginning of the pandemic, transport officials said Tuesday.

    The Transport Ministry said cruise ship operators and port authorities’ associations have adopted anti-virus guidelines and that Japan is now ready to resume its international cruise operations while receiving foreign ships at its ports.

    “Japan is now ready to start receiving international cruise ships again,” said Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito. “We will create an environment that allows tourists to enjoy their cruise without worry while in Japan.”

    Exact schedule for cruise ships has not been announced. Among the first is a Japanese ship departing from Yokohama in December for Mauritius and returning in January.

    Japan has barred international cruise ships since March 2020, after the outbreak on the Diamond Princess forced 3,711 passengers and crew members to quarantine on board for two weeks, during which 13 people died and more than 700 others were infected.

    Japan chose to isolate the crew and passengers while keeping them on board as a way of border control, but was also criticized for turning the ship into a virus incubator.

    Cruise ship operators are expected to discuss with local authorities further details about their port entry plans. Japan’s resumption of international cruise liners comes more than a year after they returned to the United States and Europe.

    Under the new guidelines, all crew members must have three received three coronavirus vaccine shots while most passengers must be vaccinated at least twice. The guideline also calls for thorough ventilation, distancing and disinfecting of common areas.

    Japan, after much delay compared to many other countries, reopened its borders to individual foreign tourists in October and a resumption of international cruise ship operations will further help revive the country’s tourism that has been badly hit by the pandemic.

    Prior to the pandemic, more than 2.15 million cruise ship passengers visited Japan in 2019, according to the Transport and Tourism Ministry.

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  • Mass transit extension to Dulles Airport opens at tough time

    Mass transit extension to Dulles Airport opens at tough time

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    CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — It’s taken 60 years and billions of dollars. One man went to prison over shoddy construction. Now, mass transit is finally coming to Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital.

    The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will open the second and final phase of its Silver Line Metrorail extension on Nov. 15. The six new stations will for the first time connect the airport and the outer suburbs of Loudoun County to the region’s flagship mass transit system.

    But the extension comes at a tough time for Metro. Ridership remains at roughly half of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic in a region where more people continue to work from home than anywhere else in the country. Metro also is working to regain the public’s confidence in its safety and reliability after multiple derailments and collisions over the years, including a 2009 crash that killed nine people.

    Metro has faced enormous hurdles in building the Silver Line, although planners envisioned a line connecting the then-rural Dulles airport to the city when it was built in 1962. Land was even set aside for that purpose.

    But the second phase of the line didn’t qualify for federal money under cost-benefit analyses that were conducted, so state and local officials had to cobble together other funding sources. Those included taxing property owners along the line and sharply increasing tolls on the Dulles Toll Road.

    Some of the strongest opposition to the Silver Line has come from motorists who use the toll road and have carried much of the burden of paying for the line’s construction.

    “Under no circumstances should the cost of the Silver Line be paid for by individuals not using the Metro,” northern Virginia resident Matt Ondeck said in public comments over a plan to again raise toll rates in January, from $4.75 to $6.

    Battles ensued over labor deals to construct the project and where the airport station should be. To save money, it was built near an airport parking garage rather than at the terminal, requiring a short walk of a few minutes, aided by moving walkways.

    Construction began in 2014 and was supposed to be complete in 2018. But the project faced delays and cost overruns, with the final price for phase two construction exceeding $3 billion.

    A contractor failed to mix some of the concrete properly and falsified records to hide the error. One man was sentenced to a year in prison, and Metro will have to apply a special solution to keep the concrete from cracking.

    Now that it’s built, some question whether it’s a viable option for commuters and travelers. Riding from the airport to Metro Center in the city will take an estimated 53 minutes; riding from the farthest station, at Ashburn, to Union Station in D.C. will take 74 minutes.

    Metro’s new general manager, Randy Clarke, said the opening of the Silver Line extension is a chance for the system to reintroduce itself to commuters.

    “We don’t look back. We look forward,” Clarke said when asked about the difficulties getting the extension up and running.

    Looking forward, though, Metrorail faces challenges. Ridership that exceeded 300 million annual trips before the pandemic now stands at 142 million. Even with the Silver Line, Metro projects ridership to increase only to 235 million by 2025.

    Some question whether a rail line that was envisioned in the 1960s fits current commuting needs. A September report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government found that 51% of the region’s workforce was still teleworking, compared with a national average of just 29%.

    Matt Letourneau, a Loudoun County supervisor who also serves on the Metro board, said commuters may soon be ready to return to Metro. Road traffic is starting to return, and the automotive gridlock that once gripped the region may push people to consider mass transit again, especially Tuesdays through Thursdays, when employers are more likely to require work from the office.

    “There’s no question things have changed” in terms of commuting patterns, Letourneau said. But he said land-use decisions by Loudoun County will only make the Silver Line more appealing in the future, as jobs and high-density residential and mixed-use development build up around the stations.

    “It will start slowly, but over time it’s going to build,” he said.

    He said people in his district are excited to have the line running — not just for daily commutes but for special events and airport access.

    Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs Dulles and Reagan National Airport, said the rail line is a game-changing development for Dulles.

    “International travelers expect to be able to take transit to the center city,” Potter said. “We’ll have that for them going forward.”

    U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who pushed for the Silver Line for decades, back to his days as a Fairfax County supervisor in the 1990s, said construction required overcoming skeptics. But he said the long-term vision of those who wanted the extension will be vindicated.

    “Doing big things is difficult,” he said. “The world is filled with naysayers.”

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  • Iranian who inspired ‘The Terminal’ dies at Paris airport

    Iranian who inspired ‘The Terminal’ dies at Paris airport

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    PARIS (AP) — An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.

    Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

    Nasseri lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.

    Year in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.

    Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.

    “Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”

    Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.

    He applied for political asylum in several countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen in a Paris train station.

    French police later arrested him, but couldn’t deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.

    Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man’s land for years.

    When he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.

    Those who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a prisoner incapable of “living on the outside.”

    In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.

    Nasseri’s mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004′s “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called “Flight.”

    In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia continues.

    No information was immediately available about survivors.

    ___

    Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nasseri’s first name to Mehran, not Merhan.

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  • Swedish cyclist pedals to Egypt to raise climate awareness

    Swedish cyclist pedals to Egypt to raise climate awareness

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    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — She has pedaled thousands of miles from Sweden to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to deliver a simple message: Stop climate change.

    The trip took 72-year-old activist Dorothee Hildebrandt and her pink e-bike — which she fondly calls Miss Piggy, after the temperamental character from The Muppet Show — more than four months. She crisscrossed Europe and the Middle East until she arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.

    Her mission is to raise awareness and urge world leaders gathered at the annual U.N. climate conference known as COP27 to take concrete steps to stop climate change, she said. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and scientists say the amount of heat-trapping gases needs to be almost halved by 2030, to meet temperature-limiting goals of the Paris climate accord of 2015.

    Since her arrival a week ago, Hildebrandt and her e-bike have become a fixture at the summit. From a friend’s place where she is staying, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the conference center, she bikes to the COP27 venue every day, meeting other activists and attending events. Many are keen to take photos with her around the conference venue.

    “They really have to stop climate change,” Hildebrandt says of the world leaders. “Even if it is uncomfortable.”

    “It was uncomfortable for me … this long ride,” she told The Associated Press. But she wanted to show that if there’s a will, “you can do it,” she said.

    Past climate talks have traditionally seen very large protests at the end of the first week of the two-week summit, often drawing thousands. This year has been mostly muted, with sporadic and small demonstrations during the first week. Activists have blamed the high cost of travel, accommodation and restrictions in the isolated Egyptian city for limiting the numbers of demonstrators.

    The largest demonstration so far was on Saturday, a day after U.S. President Joe Biden made his stop at the summit. Hundreds of protesters chanted, sang, and danced in an area not far from where the negotiations were taking place amid tight security.

    Born in the town of Kassel in central Germany, Hildebrandt says she got her first bicycle at the age of 10 and never stopped pedaling. In 1978 she moved to Sweden to marry her ex-husband.

    She retired in 2015. Her activism and biking, which she documents on social media, is for the children and further generations of the world, she says. A sign on her bike reads, “Biking for Future and Peace.”

    In her hometown of Katrineholm, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Stockholm, the Swedish capital, she founded “GrandmasForFuture – Katrineholm” in the town. The group focuses on raising awareness on climate change among other things.

    Hildebrandt says she also wants Western industrialized nations to pay for the destruction they have caused so far — an issue called loss and damage, about reparations from big polluters to the global south that have been hurt the most.

    Unhappy with results from the previous climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, she saw her chance in Sharm el-Sheikh.

    Starting out on July 1, Hildebrandt cycled through 17 countries, covering 8,228 kilometers (5,112 miles), averaging about 80 kilometers (49 miles) a day. Her Facebook posts got thousands of views and she says she received positive feedback both from followers and people she met along the way.

    In the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, her bike broke down. A cyclist, who works in tourism in the city, took Hildebrandt and her bike to a mechanic for repairs, and she was able to continue on.

    And in Lebanon, she took taxies from the port city of Tripoli to Beirut for her safety. She then had a mandatory guide with a vehicle and a driver to travel to the Jordanian border through Syria.

    “I could have used my bike throughout Syria, but the costs would have been too high for me,” she said.

    Even in Sinai, local authorities barred her from cycling from the port of Nuweiba to Sharm el-Sheikh, apparently for her safety, she said.

    Still, she is confident she has gotten her message across.

    On Thursday, she was invited to cycle with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, an avid cyclist. She asked the president about the lack of large protests, compared to previous summits. She said el-Sissi said protests are not barred in Egypt.

    “Everyone is allowed to demonstrate everywhere in Cairo and Sharm el-Sheikh” he told her, Hildebrandt says.

    COP27 has turned a spotlight on a yearslong crackdown on dissent in Egypt, where most public protests are effectively banned by authorities.

    After the summit ends Nov. 18, Hildebrandt will bike to Cairo, then on to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria before going to Israel’s port of Haifa and from there, on to Greece.

    ___

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Home Depot Sales Up 5.6% in Third Quarter

    Home Depot Sales Up 5.6% in Third Quarter

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    Home-improvement retailer logs sales increase even as it again records fewer transactions

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  • World Population hits 8 billion, creating many challenges

    World Population hits 8 billion, creating many challenges

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    LAGOS, Nigeria — The world’s population is projected to hit an estimated 8 billion people on Tuesday, according to a United Nations projection, with much of the growth coming from developing nations in Africa.

    Among them is Nigeria, where resources are already stretched to the limit. More than 15 million people in Lagos compete for everything from electricity to light their homes to spots on crowded buses, often for two-hour commutes each way in this sprawling megacity. Some Nigerian children set off for school as early as 5 a.m.

    And over the next three decades, the West African nation’s population is expected to soar even more: from 216 million this year to 375 million, the U.N. says. That will make Nigeria the fourth-most populous country in the world after India, China and the United States.

    “We are already overstretching what we have — the housing, roads, the hospitals, schools. Everything is overstretched,” said Gyang Dalyop, an urban planning and development consultant in Nigeria.

    The U.N.’s Day of 8 Billion milestone Tuesday is more symbolic than precise, officials are careful to note in a wide-ranging report released over the summer that makes some staggering projections.

    The upward trend threatens to leave even more people in developing countries further behind, as governments struggle to provide enough classrooms and jobs for a rapidly growing number of youth, and food insecurity becomes an even more urgent problem.

    Nigeria is among eight countries the U.N says will account for more than half the world’s population growth between now and 2050 — along with fellow African nations Congo, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

    “The population in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double between 2022 and 2050, putting additional pressure on already strained resources and challenging policies aimed to reduce poverty and inequalities,” the U.N. report said.

    It projected the world’s population will reach around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.

    Other countries rounding out the list with the fastest growing populations are Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and India, which is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation next year.

    In Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, where more than 12 million people live, many families struggle to find affordable housing and pay school fees. While elementary pupils attend for free, older children’s chances depend on their parents’ incomes.

    “My children took turns” going to school, said Luc Kyungu, a Kinshasa truck driver who has six children. “Two studied while others waited because of money. If I didn’t have so many children, they would have finished their studies on time.”

    Rapid population growth also means more people vying for scarce water resources and leaves more families facing hunger as climate change increasingly impacts crop production in many parts of the world.

    “There is also a greater pressure on the environment, increasing the challenges to food security that is also compounded by climate change,” said Dr. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India. “Reducing inequality while focusing on adapting and mitigating climate change should be where our policy makers’ focus should be.”

    Still, experts say the bigger threat to the environment is consumption, which is highest in developed countries not undergoing big population increases.

    “Global evidence shows that a small portion of the world’s people use most of the Earth’s resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions,” said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India. “Over the past 25 years, the richest 10% of the global population has been responsible for more than half of all carbon emissions.”

    According to the U.N., the population in sub-Saharan Africa is growing at 2.5% per year — more than three times the global average. Some of that can be attributed to people living longer, but family size remains the driving factor. Women in sub-Saharan Africa on average have 4.6 births, twice the current global average of 2.3.

    Families become larger when women start having children early, and 4 out of 10 girls in Africa marry before they turn 18, according to U.N. figures. The rate of teen pregnancy on the continent is the highest in the world — about half of the children born last year to mothers under 20 worldwide were in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Still, any effort to reduce family size now would come too late to significantly slow the 2050 growth projections, the U.N. said. About two-thirds of it “will be driven by the momentum of past growth.”

    “Such growth would occur even if childbearing in today’s high-fertility countries were to fall immediately to around two births per woman,” the report found.

    There are also important cultural reasons for large families. In sub-Saharan Africa, children are seen as a blessing and as a source of support for their elders — the more sons and daughters, the greater comfort in retirement.

    Still, some large families “may not have what it takes to actually feed them,” says Eunice Azimi, an insurance broker in Lagos and mother of three.

    “In Nigeria, we believe that it is God that gives children,” she said. “They see it as the more children you have, the more benefits. And you are actually overtaking your peers who cannot have as many children. It looks like a competition in villages.”

    Politics also have played a role in Tanzania, where former President John Magufuli, who ruled the East African country from 2015 until his death in 2021, discouraged birth control, saying that a large population was good for the economy.

    He opposed family planning programs promoted by outside groups, and in a 2019 speech urged women not to “block ovaries.” He even described users of contraceptives as “lazy” in a country he said was awash with cheap food. Under Magufuli, pregnant schoolgirls were even banned from returning to classrooms.

    But his successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, appeared to reverse government policy in comments last month when she said birth control was necessary in order not to overwhelm the country’s public infrastructure.

    Even as populations soar in some countries, the U.N. says rates are expected to drop by 1% or more in 61 nations.

    The U.S. population is now around 333 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The population growth rate in 2021 was just 0.1%, the lowest since the country was founded.

    “Going forward, we’re going to have slower growth — the question is, how slow?” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “The real wild card for the U.S. and many other developed countries is immigration.”

    Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, says environmental concerns surrounding the 8 billion mark should focus on consumption, particularly in developed countries.

    “Population is not the problem, the way we consume is the problem — let’s change our consumption patterns,” he said.

    ———

    Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal; Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India; Wanjohi Kabukuru in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt; Christina Larson in Washington; Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed.

    ———

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • TV role helps Mayan Lopez heal relationship with dad George

    TV role helps Mayan Lopez heal relationship with dad George

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    Mayan Lopez’s co-star in her new NBC sitcom “ Lopez vs Lopez ” happens to be her real-life dad, George Lopez.

    The two play a father and daughter who are repairing their relationship after years of not getting along. As is the Lopez way, art imitates life: George’s previous TV roles in “The George Lopez Show” and “Lopez” were also based on his real life. After divorcing her mother, Ann, in 2012, Mayan Lopez says she felt resentment toward her dad and the two didn’t have much contact until they reconnected during the pandemic.

    “Two years ago my dad and I weren’t really talking, but family became something that was really important when the whole world was up in flames,” she said. “As you grow older, you start to see your parents as people.”

    Mayan Lopez recognizes her dad didn’t always know how to relate to her because he was abandoned by his own parents and raised by his maternal grandmother, whom he did not get along with. “He didn’t always know how to relate to me. I get to kind of have that (perspective) now.”

    The genesis of “Lopez vs Lopez” came about when TV producer Debby Wolfe stumbled upon Mayan’s TikTok account.

    “Someone was talking about my dad, the past things that have happened, you know that my dad was unfaithful, about my parents’ divorce, and it was getting a lot of likes. And I was like, ‘You know what? I want to say something about it because some of the facts aren’t right.’ And I thought, ‘What will get people’s attention?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, let me just twerk upside down (against) a wall. Why not? I’m a comedian. I’ll go for the joke.’”

    Wolfe saw that, plus Mayan’s other content, including videos with her dad and even posts of both her parents together, bickering like they were still married and thought, “This is a show.”

    The opportunity was a dream come true for Mayan who studied sketch comedy and improv and also trained at Second City. She’s also respectful of her dad’s talent and showbiz experience.

    “I have a world-class comedian to be able to learn from,” she said. “I take his advice and his knowledge and I have my own things that I bring to the table. He even says we make each other better because he’s like, ‘Oh, there’s another one of me.’ We bounce off of each other and collaborate on set. We’ll write things and even improvise as we’re performing. It’s been great to work with him in that way.”

    Mom is also around too and “so proud.”

    “We perform in front of a live audience and my mom’s there every week,” said Lopez. “She was there for ‘The George Lopez Show’ that was based on (dad’s) life. And now we have another show. It’s kind of the Lopez way of doing things, making our life art so that people can enjoy and also be able to be a representation of the Latin community.”

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  • 4 Things You Can Do To Truly Disconnect From Work Over The Holidays

    4 Things You Can Do To Truly Disconnect From Work Over The Holidays

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Managing email anxiety is especially challenging for entrepreneurs when taking a much-needed break. You might be taking time off over the holidays to spend time with family, but mentally, you’re back in the office because you can see your emails are piling up. Escaping the pressures of building and growing your business is almost impossible when you don’t effectively manage your inbox.

    While the idea of deleting your inbox is a satisfying thought, I think most of us can agree that may not be the best customer service move. I don’t think my clients would enjoy learning that their emails are being deleted simply because I’m trying to relax and recharge. Fortunately, we don’t have to take such drastic measures.

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    Amanda Haddaway

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  • 5 Crucial Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Traveling the World

    5 Crucial Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Traveling the World

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Any entrepreneur could tell you that the road to success is paved with blood, sweat, tears and many lessons learned. While you can learn some of these lessons from home, there is a level of personal and business growth that can only come from traveling to new places.

    According to the Brightpark Edu-Travel report, 94% of U.S. business leaders believe that world travel gives them a competitive edge in the workplace. From opening your eyes to different perspectives to learning how to effectively communicate with people from all walks of life, travel offers a broad spectrum of valuable benefits for entrepreneurs everywhere. Here are five crucial lessons entrepreneurs learn while traveling:

    Related: Why Travel Should Be a Top Priority for Every Entrepreneur

    1. Traveling teaches you to be open to the unexpected

    Starting a new business venture comes with a lot of ambiguity. After all, you’re signing up for a truckload of the unpredictable. Will the business succeed? Will this year be a good one? Can I trust this investor? Is this the right move? Embracing the unpredictable can be a tall order, but doing so will afford you a much better chance at success.

    Traveling can be brutal at times. You’re forced to say goodbye to the comfort of your home and family, you have to trust strangers along the way, and you are constantly off balance as your mind and body adjust to a new time zone, new surroundings and new people.

    When you travel, you quickly learn that it’s imperative to be open to the unexpected. There are many variables in travel that cannot be controlled, and how you react to those challenges will determine how you can move forward — just like in business. As an entrepreneur, you must be open to the unexpected. Traveling the world is a fantastic way to learn that lesson early.

    2. Traveling can prevent burnout

    Taking calls or responding to emails when you should be sleeping doesn’t make you a better entrepreneur. On the contrary, devoting every minute of your existence to your career can actually prevent you from reaching your full potential and lead to burnout early on.

    Sleep deprivation has several adverse effects on your body, including:

    Lack of sleep will eventually catch up with you, causing you to hit a wall both physically and mentally. The effects of workplace burnout are real and can significantly hurt your chances of success. Likewise, stress and sleep deprivation can be detrimental to your business growth.

    Leading a healthy lifestyle is essential for entrepreneurs seeking success, and sometimes this means taking some much-needed time off to avoid burnout. Taking a vacation can give your mind and body the break they crave while allowing you to get a fresh perspective in a new environment. Traveling gives you time to reflect, come up with new ideas and gain focus.

    Burnout can quickly become the nail in the coffin for a hopeful entrepreneur, especially since it commonly leads to poor decision-making in the workplace. If you are feeling excessively fatigued, stressed or irritable, it may be time for you to hit the road for a refresh.

    Related: 5 Reasons Why Travel Should Be an Essential Part of Building Your Business

    3. Traveling gives entrepreneurs new ideas

    Traveling to new destinations around the world is an incredible way to benefit from the shift in perspective that can only come from experiencing different cultures and places. As entrepreneurs, we never stop searching for new ideas and business solutions.

    When you explore somewhere new, you gain a new understanding of what people in different parts of the world are interested in and what they worry about from day to day. If you’re stuck creatively or looking for inspiration, traveling abroad is the best way to form new ideas.

    Well-traveled people are more likely to think outside the box since their thoughts and beliefs are constantly being challenged. A curious mind is a creative one, and sticking to your daily routine forever is bound to lead to an eventual drop in productivity and innovation.

    4. Travel teaches entrepreneurs how to form valuable relationships

    During our daily lives, much of our communication is limited to colleagues, friends and family. When you travel, you’re forced to step out of your shell and communicate with strangers in all sorts of situations. It could be the man sitting next to you on the plane to Denmark, the hotel manager in Prague or the waitstaff at a sushi restaurant in Japan.

    These immersive experiences cause a mental shift to occur as you converse with people from different backgrounds, participate in new adventures, try new foods and adjust old habits. While it may not seem like much at the time, learning how to connect with different types of people and embrace new connections is a valuable lesson that will prove to be beneficial in the workplace.

    Your opinions and beliefs are re-evaluated when you travel. The more you learn about how others live and think, the more open-minded and curious you become. When your mind is flexible and void of rigid ideas about the world, it’s much easier to connect with those around you.

    As you gain insight into unique cultures and the common struggles of people in various parts of the world, you learn more about how you can support different people through your business ventures. The more you travel, the more you stray from your comfort zone, leading to a powerful transformation into an entrepreneur who is more willing to take risks and try new things.

    5. Traveling teaches entrepreneurs how to use body language effectively

    You have less than seven seconds to make a first impression. In business interactions, making a positive first impression is crucial. Once someone labels you — whether it’s as trustworthy, suspicious, powerful or submissive — everything you do is viewed through this lens.

    While it’s impossible to stop anyone from making a snap decision about you, you can use effective body language to sway the decision they make in those first few seconds after meeting you. It is widely believed that non-verbal cues are significantly more influential than verbal cues.

    Past studies have found that individuals who communicate through active gestures are generally perceived as warm, energetic and agreeable. On the other hand, those who remain still or whose gestures are more likely to come off as stiff or robotic are viewed as cold, dull and analytical.

    When traveling to foreign places where you don’t speak the language, you’re forced to rely more on nonverbal cues to communicate with those around you. By researching the culture ahead of your trip, you can determine how to use body language to your advantage. This knowledge can later be used in the workplace to help form positive interactions with peers and clients.

    Related: Traveling the World Is an Adventure That Makes You a Better Entrepreneur

    Travel offers a staggering number of benefits to anyone, but entrepreneurs are uniquely capable of turning these benefits into actionable ideas and solutions. Plan a trip — maybe even one without a set travel itinerary — and write down everything you learn during the journey.

    You might just be shocked by how many fresh ideas you bring back home. Perhaps you’ll even be inspired to start a whole new business. After all, variety is the spice of life, and what better way to discover variety than by exploring the world?

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  • University of Virginia shooting suspect in custody, university police announce

    University of Virginia shooting suspect in custody, university police announce

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    CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The three students killed in a shooting at the University of Virginia were all members of the school’s football team, the school’s president said.

    President Jim Ryan told a Monday morning news conference the shooting happened Sunday night on a school bus of students returning from an off-campus trip.

    The suspect has been identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who is also student.

    The incident occurred Sunday near a university parking garage. In addition to the three football players killed, two others were reported to have been wounded.

    Police went on a manhunt Monday in search of the student suspected in the attack, officials said.

    During a press conference in the 11 o’clock hour local time, the university police chief, Tim Longo, was given word that the suspect was in custody. He immediately returned to the microphone and reported that update to the assembled reporters.

    Classes at the university were canceled Monday, following the violence Sunday night, and the Charlottesville campus was unusually quiet as authorities searched for the suspect, whom university President Ryan identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.

    A shelter-in-place order to the university community had been lifted less than an hour earlier after a law-enforcement search of the campus.

    In a letter to the university posted on social media, Ryan said the shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

    The university’s emergency management issued an alert Sunday night notifying the campus community of an “active attacker firearm.” The message warned students to shelter in place following a report of shots fired on Culbreth Road on the northern outskirts of campus.

    Access to the shooting scene was blocked by police vehicles Monday morning.

    Officials urged students to shelter in place and helicopters could be heard overhead as a smattering of traffic and dog-walkers made their way around campus.

    The university police department posted a notice online saying multiple police agencies including the state police were searching for a suspect who was considered “armed and dangerous.”

    In his letter to campus, the university president said Jones was suspected to have committed the shooting and that he was a student.

    “This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” Ryan wrote. “This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community.”

    Eva Surovell, 21, the editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, said that after students received an alert about an active shooter late Sunday night, she ran to the parking garage, but saw that it was blocked off by police. When she went to a nearby intersection, she was told to go shelter in place.

    “A police officer told me that the shooter was nearby and I needed to return home as soon as possible,” she said.

    She waited with other reporters, hoping to get additional details, then returned to her room to start working on the story. The gravity of the situation sunk in.

    “My generation is certainly one that’s grown up with generalized gun violence, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your own community,” she said.

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said agents were responding to the campus to assist in the investigation.

    The Virginia shooting came as police were investigating the deaths of four University of Idaho students found Sunday in a home near the campus. Officers with the Moscow Police Department discovered the deaths when they responded to a report of an unconscious person just before noon, according to a news release from the city. Authorities have called the deaths suspected homicides but did not release additional details, including the cause of death.

    On April 16, 2007, another Virginia university was the scene of what was then one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech were gunned down by Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old mentally ill student who later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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  • Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

    Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

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    DALLAS — Officials have released the names of the six people killed in a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show.

    The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, on Monday identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.

    They died Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames, horrifying spectators who had gathered for the air show, which opened on Veterans’ Day.

    Several videos posted on social media show the fighter plane flying into the bomber.

    Armin Mizani, the mayor of Keller, Texas, said Barker was a retired pilot who lived in Keller, a town of 50,000, where many of the residents know each other.

    “It’s definitely a big loss in our community,” he said. “We’re grieving.”

    Barker was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service. He later worked for American Airlines for 36 years before retiring in 2020, Mizani said.

    Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, did air shows several times a year because he fell in love with WWII aircraft, Keller said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, including why both aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said at a Sunday news conference.

    The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes flying in the Wings Over Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.

    Investigators will examine the wreckage from both aircraft, conduct interviews of crews present at the air show and obtain pilot training and aircraft maintenance records.

    “We’ll look at everything that we can and we’ll let the evidence basically lead us to the appropriate conclusions. At this point, we will not speculate” on the cause, Graham said.

    A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, while a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.

    The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

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  • G20 summit casts spotlight on Bali’s tourism revival

    G20 summit casts spotlight on Bali’s tourism revival

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    NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Dozens of world leaders and other dignitaries are traveling to Bali for the G-20 summit, drawing a welcome spotlight on the revival of the tropical island’s vital tourism sector.

    Tourism is the main source of income on this idyllic “island of the gods” that is home to more than 4 million people, who are mainly Hindu in the mostly Muslim archipelago nation.

    So the pandemic hit Bali harder than most places in Indonesia.

    Before the pandemic, 6.2 million foreigners arrived in Bali each year. Its lively tourism scene faded after the first case of COVID-19 was found in Indonesia in March 2020, with restaurants and resorts shuttered and many workers returning to villages to try to get by.

    Foreign tourist arrivals dropped to only 1 million in 2020, mostly in the first few months of the year, and then to a few dozen in 2021, according to government data. More than 92,000 people employed in tourism lost their jobs and the average occupancy rate of Bali hotels fell below 20%.

    The island’s economy contracted 9.3% in 2020 from the year before and again contracted nearly 2.5% year-on-year in 2021.

    “The coronavirus outbreak has hammered the local economy horribly,” said Dewa Made Indra, regional secretary of Bali province. “Bali is the region with the most severe economic contraction.”

    After closing to all visitors early in the pandemic, Bali reopened to Indonesians from other parts of the country in mid-2020. That helped, but then a surge of cases in July 2021 again emptied the island’s normally bustling beaches and streets. Authorities restricted public activities, closed the airport and shuttered all shops, bars, sit-down restaurants, tourist attractions and many other places on the island.

    Monkeys deprived of their preferred food source — bananas, peanuts and other goodies given to them by tourists — took to raiding villagers’ homes in their search for something tasty.

    The island reopened to domestic travelers a month later, in August, but in all of 2021 only 51 foreign tourists visited.

    Things are looking much better now. Shops and restaurants in places like Nusa Dua, a resort area where the G-20 meeting is being held, and in other towns like Sanur and Kuta have reopened, though business is slow and many businesses and hotels are still closed or have scaled back operations.

    The reopening of Bali’s airport to international flights and now the thousands coming for the G-20 summit and other related events have raised hopes for a stronger turnaround, Dewa said.

    More than 1.5 million foreign tourists and 3.1 domestic travelers had visited Bali as of October this year.

    Embracing a push toward more sustainable models of tourism, Bali has rolled out a digital nomad visa scheme, called the “second home visa” and due to take effect in December. It’s also among 20 destinations Airbnb recently announced it was partnering with for remote work, also including places in the Caribbean and the Canary Islands.

    The recovery will likely take time, even if COVID-19 is kept at bay.

    Gede Wirata, who had to lay off most of the 4,000 people working in his hotels, restaurants, clubs and a cruise ship during the worst of the pandemic, found that when it came time to rehire them many had found jobs overseas or in other travel businesses.

    The G-20 is a welcome boost. “This is an opportunity for us to rise again from the collapse,” he said.

    There’s a way to go.

    “The situation has not yet fully recovered, but whatever the case, life has to go on,” said Wayan Willy, who runs a tourist agency in Bali with some friends. Before the pandemic, most of their clients were from overseas. Now it’s mostly domestic tourists. But even those are few and far between.

    Bali has suffered greatly in the past. At times, the island’s majestic volcanos have rumbled to life, at times erupting or belching ash.

    The dark cloud of the suicide bombings in Bali’s beach town of Kuta that killed 202 mostly foreign tourists in 2002 lingered for years, devastating tourism on the island usually known for its peace and tranquility.

    Recent torrential rains brought floods and landslides in some areas, adding to the burdens for communities working to rebuild their tourism businesses.

    When the situation started to improve, Yuliani Djajanegara, who runs a business making traditional beauty items like massage oils, natural soaps and aromatherapy products under the brand name Bali Tangi, got back to work.

    She had closed her factory in 2020 when orders from hotels, spas and salons in the U.S., Europe, Russia and the Maldives dried up, taking orders for her products from more than 1,000 kilograms (1 ton) to almost nothing.

    So far, Djajanegara has rehired 15 of the 60 workers she had been obliged to lay off during the dark days of the pandemic.

    She’s hopeful, but cautious.

    “Tourism in Bali is like a sand castle,” Djajanegara said. “It is beautiful, but it can be washed away by the waves.”

    ———

    AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

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  • Antitrust battle over iPhone app store goes to appeals court

    Antitrust battle over iPhone app store goes to appeals court

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is heading into a courtroom faceoff against the company behind the popular Fortnite video game, reviving a high-stakes antitrust battle over whether the digital fortress shielding the iPhone’s app store illegally enriches the world’s most valuable company while stifling competition.

    Oral arguments Monday before three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals are the latest volley in legal battle revolving around an app store that provides a wide range of products to more than 1 billion iPhones and serves as a pillar in Apple’s $2.4 trillion empire.

    It’s a dispute likely to remain unresolved for a long time. After hearing Monday’s arguments in San Francisco, the appeals court isn’t expected to rule for another six months to a year. The issue is so important to both companies that the losing side is likely to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, a process that could extend into 2024 or 2025.

    The tussle dates back to August 2020 when Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, filed an antitrust lawsuit in an attempt to obliterate the walls that have given Apple exclusive control over the iPhone app store since its inception 14 year ago.

    That ironclad control over the app store has enabled Apple to impose commissions that give it a 15% to 30% cut of purchases made for digital services sold by other companies. By some estimates, those commissions pay Apple $15 billion to $20 billion annually — revenue that the Cupertino, California, company says helps cover the cost of the technology for the iPhone and a store that now contains nearly 2 million mostly free apps.

    U.S. District Judge Barbara Gonzalez Rogers sided almost entirely with Apple in a 185-page ruling issued 13 months ago. That followed a closely watched trial that included testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, as well as other top executives.

    Although she declared Apple’s exclusive control over iPhone apps wasn’t a monopoly, Gonzalez Rogers opened one loophole that Apple wants to close. The judge ordered Apple to allow apps to provide links to payment alternatives outside the app store, a requirement that has been put off until the appeals court rules.

    Monday’s arguments are expected to open with Epic lawyer Thomas Goldstein trying to persuade the trio of judges — Sidney R. Thomas, Milan D. Smith Jr. and Michael J. McShane — why Gonzalez Rogers should have looked at the iPhone app store and the payment system as distinctly separate markets instead of bundling them together.

    A lawyer for the Justice Department will also get a chance to explain why the agency believes Gonzalez Rogers interpreted the federal antitrust law too narrowly, jeopardizing future enforcement actions against potentially anti-competitive behavior in the technology industry. Although the department technically isn’t taking sides, its arguments are expected to help Epic make its case that the appeals court should overturn the lower court decision.

    Another lawyer for the California Attorney General’s office will present arguments defending the law that Gonzalez Rogers cited in ordering Apple to provide links to alternative ways to pay outside its app store.

    Apple lawyer Mark Perry will get the chance to make the final arguments, giving him an opportunity to tailor a presentation aimed at answering some of the questions that the judges may ask the lawyers preceding him.

    Much of what Perry says is likely to echo the successful case that Apple presented in the lower court.

    During his testimony in lower court, Cook argued that forcing Apple to allow alternative payment systems would weaken the security and privacy controls prized by consumers who buy iPhones instead of devices running on Google’s Android software. That scenario would create “a toxic kind of mess,” Cook warned on the witness stand.

    Even as he railed against Apple’s ironclad grip on the app store, Sweeney acknowledged he owns an iPhone himself, partly because of its security and privacy features.

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  • This Smart Dog Toy Is $10 off Now

    This Smart Dog Toy Is $10 off Now

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    You love your dog, of course. You love your dog so much that you bring her to the office every day, and your team thanks you for it. While there’s good reason to believe office pets are good for productivity, you still need a fallback for when your dog gets a little too amped up and needs to settle down and stop distracting people.


    Cheerble

    You’ve got things to do, so leave it to Wicked Ball to keep your pooch entertained. Successfully funded on Indiegogo and Kickstarter and featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and more, Wicked Ball is the interactive dog toy that entertains your dog when you’re otherwise occupied.

    This smart toy is 100 percent automatic with three interaction modes: gentle, active, and normal. It’s designed to help eliminate your dog’s feelings of loneliness and boredom when you’re not around, and also gives them the exercise they wouldn’t otherwise get during the day. In Intelligent Companion mode, you can balance activity and rest with 10-minute play and 30-minute rest cycles to keep your dog occupied all day. Plus, there’s a built-in snack hole for added excitement.

    You might worry that Wicked Ball would set your dog loose like a bull in a China shop, but the built-in collision sensor automatically avoids obstacles to keep the play in a safe area. And, of course, it’s durable and resistant to all the biting, gnawing, and scratching it’s bound to endure from your dog. Basically, it’s the smartest tennis ball you’ve ever seen and it can save you and your office a whole lot of distractions.

    Let your office go to the dogs, but keep tabs on your dog when you need to. For a limited time, you can get Wicked Ball for 18 percent off $49 at just $39.99.

    Prices subject to change.

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