Month: September 2025

A news bulletin is a very important element of a radio station’s programme. Many people listen to several bulletins every day, and they expect them to be fresh, lively and interesting. The key to making a bulletin is to have a clear idea of the criteria that makes something newsworthy. It must be new, unusual, interesting or significant, and about people. Then it must be written clearly and well. The best way to do this is to write each story as if you were telling it to your friend. Short sentences with simple words convey the main ideas and the rhythm of the piece.

A good lead story will grab the attention of your listeners and encourage them to stay tuned. It is usually a dramatic story which has happened in the local area and may involve people. Alternatively it could be the death of a celebrity.

If you have an important, urgent story to share with your audience it is often better to use a news flash rather than waiting until the end of the bulletin. However you must carefully decide when to make this decision, as a news flash should be used only for extremely serious stories.

It is useful for the newsreader to know his or her reading rate, so that he or she can judge how long it will take him or her to read each line of copy. With practice a newsreader should be able to glance at a piece of text and estimate within two seconds how long it will take him or her to get through it.

A startup’s financial future hinges on how much funding it secures. Every business needs funding to survive, but how startups get their money makes a significant difference in their chances of success. The most successful startups are able to grow rapidly and quickly achieve profitability. This requires a lot of capital, which is often well beyond what founders and friends can raise on their own.

Getting investment-ready starts with having a clear understanding of your startup’s needs. This includes a realistic business plan, financial projections and model, and a roadmap that shows how your company will scale and generate sustainable revenue. If possible, demonstrate a prototype or minimum viable product to prove that you’ve moved beyond the conceptual stage and can execute on your vision. Showcase your team’s skills and experience to build trust with potential investors.

Investors also want to see transparent financials. This means being able to explain key metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), and annual recurring revenue (ARR). A platform like Digits allows you to track your business’s finances with real-time data, automated transaction classification, and customizable reports.

Finally, it’s essential to provide regular updates to your investors. This keeps them engaged and gives them a sense of community. It can also help set you apart from competitors vying for their attention. Keeping your investors informed can build trust and even inspire them to support your business through future rounds.

The US-China trade war is shaping global supply chains and hurting household incomes. It may also undermine global economic growth. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid or mitigate the damage.

The most obvious consequence of a trade war is that it raises the price of imported goods (even if Trump insists they aren’t). Importers and consumers respond to higher prices by buying less, a reduction in demand known as “elasticity.” Depending on how much the tariffs rise, this could cut imports by up to 4 percentage points.

Countries with overall trade deficits, like the United States, spend more than they save, and so are prone to a drop in aggregate demand if they get hit by higher import prices. But that impact is not symmetrical: The cost of the imported items they buy is not as fungible or easily substitutable for money as are savings, so the impact is concentrated in specific industries, locations, and households. And it is worse for deficit nations if their trading partners retaliate, because then they have to spend even more to buy what they need.

To prevent this, the United States should negotiate bilateral concessions and rely on WTO dispute settlement, not unilaterally impose new tariffs. The US should also encourage firms to shift production from China to other countries in its supply chain, and it should not impose export bans or antitrust investigations on Chinese companies. It is a dangerous strategy to risk losing access to critical raw materials and components, and it would be even more reckless to provoke a military conflict with China before securing alternative supplies.

A special report is a customized financial report that deviates from standard reporting. These unique reports address specific information needs while maintaining professional standards and clarity. They may be prepared to comply with contractual agreements or regulatory provisions and include certain sections, accounts, or items of a financial statement.

When writing a special report, it is important to keep in mind the audience. This will help determine the tone of the report and how technical or field-specific terms are used. Specialized reports can be used in a variety of contexts, including research, journalism, and corporate communications. They can also be published as part of a larger research project or to present the results of a systematic investigation.

In the case of journalism, a special report is an in-depth and thorough investigation of a particular subject. It can expose wrongdoing or corruption or provide analysis of a complex issue for a general audience. Similarly, in a scientific research paper, a special report provides an in-depth account of a research project. It often includes illustrations and other visual representations to convey the significance of the findings.

In 1996, Fox News launched a new political program called Special Report with Brit Hume as host. He remained on the air until December 2008, when he retired from the network. Bret Baier succeeded him as the show’s full-time host and Chris Wallace and Shannon Bream are occasional substitute anchors. The program is primarily broadcast from the network’s studio in Washington, although it occasionally broadcasts from a location outside of the United States, such as when covering an international election or event.

Local news has long been a vital part of American communities, but it is increasingly endangered. Since 2018, more than 1,800 communities have lost their local newspaper, and many of the remaining ones are served by newsrooms half the size they were 20 years ago. The future of local news will depend on strategies that build and sustain community engagement, as well as new business models for this form of journalism.

Americans continue to believe that local news matters, though they may follow it less closely than in the past. More than three-quarters of Americans say local news is extremely or very important, but those figures have fallen for younger adults. This trend may be driven by a perception that local news is less relevant to their lives, or it could be a sign of broader waning interest in politics and civic life.

Many Americans get their local news online, and more of them are highly satisfied with the quality of the information they receive. While most get local news on TV, online forums (such as Facebook groups and the Nextdoor app) are growing in popularity. While most of these sites provide general information, a few have become known for their politically conservative propaganda.

Local news organizations are exploring new ways to raise money for their work, and there are some signs of success. For example, the nonprofit digital news organization Lookout Santa Cruz won a Pulitzer for “detailed and nimble coverage” of flooding and mudslides. Another successful strategy is to collaborate with other newsrooms or nontraditional sources (such as universities) to tell complex, in-depth stories over a longer time frame.

A big part of Infoplease’s mission is getting people the information they want and keeping them informed about current events. Each week we look for news articles that explore relevant themes in U.S. History and Government classrooms, and connect those stories to BRI resources.

* 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has a very different look and feel than it did then. Some say it’s been a good change, others are less certain. * The lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongly deported to El Salvador and back to the United States, says his client is now being targeted for deportation again. * The Pickett Fire continues to roil through parts of California’s wine country, forcing residents to evacuate.

The Bill of Rights Institute curates contemporary news articles that explore topics in U.S. History, Government and Civics.

An economic forecast is a prediction of future national output—including the amount of goods and services produced, how much is spent on them, and the level of employment. It is often used in monetary and fiscal policy. Several approaches are used for producing economic forecasts, from judgmental methods that depend on the experience and understanding of individual forecasters to sophisticated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models that use modern economic theory.

The main concept of output most commonly forecasted is gross domestic product, which is a measure of the value of all finished goods and services within the borders of a nation. Other important concepts include consumption and income, which have a presumed causal relationship. The behavior of these variables as a group is generally studied by economists using a variety of techniques, such as econometric models and surveys that report business investment plans and commitments to invest in new equipment.

For the world economy as a whole, growth is expected to remain subdued this year and into 2026-27, with a weaker-than-expected recovery in advanced economies and a further slowdown in commodity exporters. In addition, a rise in trade barriers could dampen activity in low-income countries, where growth is already constrained by high debt and rising interest costs.

Economic activity in the United States is strong, supported by robust consumer spending and high business investment, but geopolitical risks and inflation concerns persist.

The recent controversies surrounding Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s affair with a nightclub bellydancer who was also his paramour, his involvement in an unsolved murder case, and his connections to organized crime highlight a number of scandalous behavior patterns that are gaining increased public attention. These trends reflect several forces that have contributed to the rise of political scandal: harmful Supreme Court decisions, cynical public discourse, and a hostility to checks and balances by the Trump administration.

In response, scholars have conducted a wide variety of political scandal research, from exploring the causes of scandal (e.g., corruption, ethical violations) to examining how scandals are framed and mediated (Entman & Stonbely, 2018). Most scandal studies have taken a topical approach—that is, they study one specific scandal(s).

This article explores the role of polarization in the political arena’s tendency to produce scandal, which is often exacerbated by ideological differences. The authors use a model of two political parties and one elected official to examine how the alignment of the politician’s party with its voters influences her vulnerability to being caught up in a scandal. They find that the more polarized a voting electorate is, the greater the aligned party’s incentive to shield its member from a scandal and the opposing party’s incentive to make false accusations. This reduces the value of political discourse and diminishes voters’ ability to determine the truth about their politicians.

Moreover, the authors show that political polarization increases the likelihood of early government dissolutions by both parties involved in a scandal. They conclude that this increase in dissolutions is a result of politicians strategically withdrawing support from the scandal-hit party and the opposing party, as well as a decrease in the perceived credibility of the scandal-hit politician among voters.

Asylum is protection granted by a sovereign entity (in this case the United States) on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution in one’s country of origin, such as on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, or mental or physical disability. Asylum is different from refugee status, which is granted by the UNHCR and regulated by federal law (see our article Refugee Status: What You Need to Know).

The United States has a history of granting asylum both before and after World War II, with Congress establishing the current statutory framework in 1980 (the Refugee Act) that guarantees family reunification rights and provides asylees with a path to citizenship after a year of residence. To qualify for asylum, a person must meet both the international law definition of a “refugee” and the U.S. statutory requirements for asylum, withholding of removal, and/or protection under the Convention Against Torture.

Generally, people apply for asylum affirmatively, through USCIS, at the place where they enter the United States, such as an airport or border checkpoint. In addition, some people, referred to as defensive asylum seekers, apply for asylum through immigration court.

With limited exceptions, certain factors bar people from receiving asylum, including failing to apply within a year of entering the United States or committing serious crimes. In addition, individuals found to pose a danger to the country or have persecuted others themselves cannot receive asylum.

Working in foreign policy requires a strong knowledge of international law and the ability to understand broad and complex scenarios. It also demands an understanding of the need to represent the interests of citizens. Diplomacy, a major component of foreign policy, involves negotiating treaties, making official declarations, and presenting the government’s views on an issue. This is a time-consuming and labor intensive part of governing. Many great military minds, like George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, have been successful diplomats.

Other facets of a country’s foreign policy include economic relations, including trading with foreign countries and supporting development of less-powerful nations. Security and defense are also important, with military alliances, arms control, and peacekeeping efforts. Managing global issues, such as the environment, pandemics, and terrorism, also requires an understanding of foreign affairs and working with international organizations.

It is also critical to promote a liberal world order, which relies on open markets and democracy to achieve its goals. This will require the United States to lead as well as listen, to give as well as take. It will require engaging with more countries and forming broader coalitions instead of seeking retrenchment and unilateral action.

It will also involve recognizing that the challenges of our time transcend borders, and that there are no longer just friendly or enemy states. Terrorism, climate change, and international slave trade are among the most pressing problems that have no clear territorial boundaries that would allow for swift intervention by a single nation.