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  • Warner Bros. Discovery confirms it has received buyout interest and is considering its options

    Warner Bros. Discovery confirms it has received buyout interest and is considering its options

    NEW YORK — Warner Bros. Discovery — the home of HBO, CNN and DC Studios — has signaled that it may be open to selling all or parts of its business, just months after announcing plans to split into two companies.

    In an announcement Tuesday, the entertainment and media giant said it had initiated a review of “strategic alternatives” in light of “unsolicited interest” it had received from multiple parties, for both the entire company and Warner Bros. specifically.

    Warner Bros. Discovery did not specify where that interest was coming from, and a spokesperson said the company couldn’t share additional information when reached by The Associated Press. But its review arrives after growing reports of a potential bidding war — including from Skydance-owned Paramount, which closed its own $8 billion merger in early August.

    Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Paramount approached Warner Bros. Discovery about a majority-cash offer in late September — but that Warner Chief Executive David Zaslav had rebuffed those first overtures. According to the outlet, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison later considered taking a more aggressive approach, such as going directly to shareholders.

    CNBC has also reported that Netflix and Comcast are among other interested parties, citing unnamed sources. Comcast declined to comment Tuesday. Paramount and Netflix did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for statements.

    If a sale of all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery arrives, it would mark a considerable shift in the U.S. media landscape that is “already trending towards a concerning level of consolidation,” said Mike Proulx, a VP research director at Forrester.

    He pointed to the streaming space in particular — noting that, on one hand, a potential transaction could help scale the company’s streamers to better compete with other platforms. But on the other hand, consumers could see fewer choices controlled by just a handful of corporate giants.

    “When just a few conglomerates, like Skydance, increasingly control the lion’s share of some of the most popular platforms, it raises all sorts of questions around the future of content diversity and expression,” Proulx said over email Tuesday. “Bigger is better might be good for shareholders but will consumers ultimately benefit with better quality content, lower prices, and accessibility?”

    Still, he added, much of that will depend on if a sale happens and who ends up buying Warner Bros. Discovery.

    Back in June, Warner Bros. Discovery outlined plans to split its cable and streaming offerings — with HBO, HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, to become part of a new streaming and studios company; while networks like CNN, Discovery and TNT Sports and digital products such as the Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report would make up a separate cable counterpart.

    Warner expected the split to be complete by mid-2026 — and said Tuesday that continuing to advance this separation was still among the options it’s considering.

    “We took the bold step of preparing to separate the Company into two distinct, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best path forward,” Zaslav said in a statement. Still, he added, “it’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market.”

    The company said that there’s no definite timeline for its review process — and noted that, beyond the separation that is already underway, “there can be no assurance” that a transaction will emerge.

    Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, headquarted in New York, were up nearly 10% by Tuesday afternoon trading.

    Warner Bros. Discovery was created just three years ago when AT&T spun off WarnerMedia, which was merged with Discovery Communications in a $43 billion deal. An even bigger transaction could attract antitrust scrutiny — but like other recent mega-mergers and proposed transactions, could find success under the Trump administration.

  • Vance expresses optimism about the ceasefire in Gaza while noting ‘very hard’ work to come

    Vance expresses optimism about the ceasefire in Gaza while noting ‘very hard’ work to come

    KIRYAT GAT, Israel — Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday called progress in Gaza’s fragile ceasefire better than anticipated but acknowledged during an Israel visit the challenges that remain, from disarming Hamas to rebuilding a land devastated by two years of war.

    Vance noted flare-ups of violence in recent days but said the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that began on Oct. 10 is going “better than I expected.” The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, added that “we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time.”

    They visited a new center in Israel for civilian and military cooperation as questions remain over the long-term plan for peace, including when and how an international security force will deploy to Gaza and who will govern the territory after the war.

    Vance tried to downplay any idea that his visit — his first as vice president — was urgently arranged to keep the ceasefire in place. He said he feels “confident that we’re going to be in a place where this peace lasts,” but warned that if Hamas doesn’t cooperate, it will be “obliterated.”

    Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, noted its complexity: “Both sides are transitioning from two years of very intense warfare to now a peacetime posture.”

    Vance is expected to stay in the region until Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.

    On Tuesday, Netanyahu fired his national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, but gave no reason for the decision. Israeli media said Hanegbi had opposed the renewal of Israel’s Gaza offensive in March, and Israel’s failed attempt to assassinate Hamas’ leadership in an airstrike in Qatar in September. In a statement, Hanegbi noted “times of disagreement” with Netanyahu.

    Hamas hands over remains of 2 more hostages

    Late Tuesday, Israel’s military said the remains of two more Gaza hostages had been returned to Israel, where they would be identified.

    Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over.

    On his visit to Israel Tuesday, Vance urged a “little bit of patience” amid Israeli frustration with Hamas’ pace of returning the hostages.

    “Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are,” Vance said.

    Israel is releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each dead hostage, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It said Tuesday that Israel had so far transferred 165 bodies since earlier this month.

    As he faced journalists’ questions over the ceasefire’s next steps, he said “a lot of this work is very hard” and urged flexibility.

    “Once we’ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we’ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is,” he said. ”Let’s focus on security, rebuilding, giving people some food and medicine.”

    Although some 200 U.S. troops were recently sent to Israel, Vance emphasized that they would not be on the ground in Gaza. But he said officials are beginning to “conceptualize what that international security force would look like” for the territory.

    He mentioned Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to participate. The flags of Jordan, Germany, Britain, and Denmark were on the stage where he spoke. Britain said late Tuesday it would send a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire.

    While the ceasefire has been tested by fighting and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and Hamas have said they are committed to the deal.

    Aid into Gaza increases, while prices rise

    International organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces cracked down against what it called price gouging by private merchants.

    The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. That’s well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war.

    The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points across Gaza and hopes to scale up to its previous 145 points as soon as possible.

    Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after militants killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened to halt humanitarian aid.

    At a market in the central city of Deir al-Balah, a 55-pound package of flour was selling for more than $70 on Sunday, up from about $12 shortly after the ceasefire. By Tuesday, the price was around $30.

    Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of taking advantage of the perilous security situation. “They are exploiting us,” he said.

    On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing some and forcing merchants to lower prices. Hamas also has allowed aid trucks to move safely and halted looting of deliveries.

    Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers’ union, said there was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started.

    But other significant challenges remain as Gaza’s financial system is in tatters. With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people pay exorbitant commissions to a network of cash brokers to get money for daily expenses.

    On Tuesday, dozens of people in Deir al-Balah spent hours in line at the Bank of Palestine hoping to access their money but were turned away.

    “Without having the bank open and without money, it does not matter that the prices [in the market] have dropped,” said Kamilia Al-Ajez.

    Gaza doctors say bodies returned with signs of torture

    A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel bore “evidence of torture” and called for a United Nations investigation.

    Muneer al-Boursh, the health ministry’s general director, said on social media late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with ropes and metal shackles, and had deep wounds and crushed limbs.

    It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been prisoners; they are returned without identification or details on how they died. The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.

    The Israel Prisons Service denied that prisoners had been mistreated, saying it had followed legal procedures and provided medical care and “adequate living conditions.”

    Israeli hostages released from Gaza have also reported metal shackles and harsh conditions, including frequent beatings and starvation.

    In the 2023 attack on Israel that started the war, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

    The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

  • U.S. finance ban takes effect after already crippling Mexico firms

    U.S. finance ban takes effect after already crippling Mexico firms

    An unprecedented order by the U.S. Treasury to cut off three Mexican financial firms for allegedly helping drug cartels launder funds takes effect Monday. But its impact has already swept through the country’s banking industry.

    The three designated firms — CIBanco SA, Intercam Banco SA, and Vector Casa de Bolsa SA — have been broken up and sold for parts. Their clients have decamped with their business — a big chunk of which was foreign exchange — to other banks or brokerages.

    And beyond those firms, the banking system at large is on high alert: Lenders have purged clients, bolstered internal controls, and upped communication with both Mexican and U.S. regulators in an effort to avoid becoming the next example of the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels.

    U.S. officials have made their intentions clear: There’s a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to helping traffickers launder funds connected to America’s fentanyl crisis. The ban on the three firms — announced in June — was the first use of powers given to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network by last year’s Fend Off Fentanyl Act. High-level Treasury officials have repeatedly visited the country to hammer home the message.

    “This was a shot across the bow in terms of telling banks that Treasury has this tool and intends to use it,” said Craig Timm, a former Department of Justice lawyer and senior director at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. “You don’t want to be next, because as we’re seeing with these institutions, it’s an existential threat the moment it becomes public.”

    Among the order’s knock-on effects: Kapital Bank is acquiring a significant part of Intercam’s operations while Vector has transferred some assets and clients to Casa de Bolsa Finamex SAB.

    CIBanco had its banking license revoked earlier this month and BanCoppel, part of Grupo Coppel, is buying the firm’s portfolio of auto loans. Banco Multiva SA is taking over CIBanco’s trustee business — an operation of substantial importance in Mexico’s financial system. CIBanco was trustee for most of the country’s issuances of private equity certificates and real estate investment trusts. Intercam also had a significant trustee business.

    While the U.S. order had downplayed the potential impact on the Mexico banking system and economy, saying that CIBanco and Intercam together represented less than 2% of the country’s commercial bank assets, it made no mention of the significant size of CIBanco’s trustee offering.

    In the wake of the order, Mexican real estate trusts and U.S. private equity firms had rushed to change trustees in investment vehicles to avoid potentially running afoul of the U.S. designation.

    Unconventional arsenal

    The FinCEN orders are among the Trump administration’s unconventional arsenal of tools it has been deploying both domestically and abroad, such as the recent deadly military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats from Venezuela.

    The move against the Mexican banks was part of a broader U.S. administration strategy for the “total elimination of cartels” using powerful tools with a relatively low bar for action. There was no recourse to the order by FinCEN, and just last week Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the U.S. had not delivered convincing evidence that linked the firms to drug trafficking. She said Mexican regulators found only administrative faults and “nothing to do with money laundering.” The banks were fined in late June, in tandem with the U.S. orders, by local regulators over anti-money laundering controls while Vector faced fines related to updating fund information.

    Amid the deeper clampdown by U.S. officials, banks in Mexico and globally are enhancing their scrutiny of transactions, particularly those involving Chinese companies that could be linked to the trade in precursor chemicals, Timm said.

  • Letters to the Editor | Oct. 21, 2025

    Letters to the Editor | Oct. 21, 2025

    Murder on the high seas

    Donald Trump is executing human beings. By blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea, he is targeting vessels he deems are “suspected” of carrying contraband, and authorizing the military to blow them up in international waters. Please, let that sink in for a minute. We have the Navy, the Marines, and the Coast Guard patrolling our seas. How about securing our ports and turning the ships away, or confiscating the ships and their contents? Where is the proof of any criminal acts? I can’t believe what I am witnessing. How does this stand?

    K. Mayes, Philadelphia

    The irony

    Not looking good for John Bolton regarding accusations of mishandling classified material. But, oh, the irony! I can’t get the photos out of my mind of boxes full of classified material in the ballroom and bathroom of Mar-a-Lago. I can’t forget the outrage when Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon dropped that case. I can’t forgive the U.S. Supreme Court for giving Donald Trump immunity from any illegal activity as president. Then there is the irony of former Attorney General Merrick Garland delaying any prosecution of Trump to avoid the appearance of weaponization of the Justice Department — only for Trump to take office again and do exactly that. And now, I can’t sleep worrying about the fate of our democracy and our country.

    Sylvia Metzler, Philadelphia

    Offensive Young Republicans

    Nine Young Republican activists in New York, Arizona, Kansas, and Vermont were recently outed for the revelation of eight months of their disgusting, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic texts covering 2,900 pages of material that were obtained by Politico. The texts and the writers were quickly distanced by the Republican establishment, but one has to wonder why these individuals felt perfectly comfortable exchanging such abhorrent views. Are these the views all Young Republicans have when they speak to each other behind closed doors or online? And if these rising stars expressed remorse for their texts, is the remorse only that they were caught and their bigotry was exposed for all the world to see?

    Larry Skvir, Delran

    Refreshing representation

    I was delighted to see diversity on display in the performing and marching units celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Navy and Marine Corps earlier this month. Truly remarkable that citizens of all persuasions and ethnic backgrounds have chosen to serve their country and build such strong fighting forces. This has not happened overnight and has been years in the making. It would be a shame for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s misguided efforts to actually tear things down.

    Roger Smith, West Chester

    Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.

  • Horoscopes: Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

    ARIES (March 21-April 19). Externalize your stress. Write it, speak it, move it out. Don’t let it stay trapped in your muscles and stomach. You don’t prove you care by suffering. You prove it by being loving, which is easier when you’re lighter.

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20). It’s not necessarily pessimistic to see problems that don’t (yet?) exist. This kind of mental exercise can actually be a form of optimism. It’s your belief in solutions that allows you to imagine a full range of future scenarios.

    GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Even as you aim for efficiency, you know that it’s not always the most effective way. People need to feel seen and safe to open up. If you’re not getting an authentic version of them, you probably won’t get the best connection or contribution either.

    CANCER (June 22-July 22). Your natural appeal is working for you now; the more quirks you lean into, the stronger your magnetism. Being appealing doesn’t mean everything works smoothly right away. Your first efforts might stumble or meet resistance. That’s normal. You’re just warming up.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). A performance doesn’t have to be onstage to get applause. The way you present yourself today wins fans. Warmth is your default, just like the sun that is your guiding luminary, and you’ll have orbits today.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). People underestimate the courage it takes to ride the rollercoaster of a creative life. Exciting experiments, connections that spark or disappoint, risks galore — all part of the creative process. You have the stomach for it today.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You will not be fooled by what is technically clever but morally hollow. What erases context, compassion and reality does not erase your awareness. You point to the real problem. Nothing can stop you from seeing it.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You sense the unspoken currents in the room and respond with heart. This gift doesn’t obligate you to carry anyone else’s load, only to witness with compassion, which is often just what is needed to facilitate healing.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Fresh perspective comes with fresh context. Change the scenery, even slightly, and your mind loosens from its old grooves. You’ll see a problem in a whole new light. You may even solve the issue instantly.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Sometimes it’s about getting into the mix and handling things. And sometimes it means staying out of the mix and observing things. Your instinct about which tactic to take is what makes you a stellar leader.

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). The more time you spend in front of a screen, the more important it becomes to touch what’s real. Paper, stone, leaves, skin — textures recalibrate you in ways no feed or algorithm ever could.

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Consider the role of silence. Not absence, but the active nothingness, pure potential, presence without interruption. In a blank space, priorities will get rearranged. Energy will be restored. Questions will be answered. The hush speaks louder than any conversation.

    TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Oct. 21). Welcome to your Year of Delicious Contrasts. You’ll be busy, but sweet pockets of stillness are where you get your most remarkable work done. Personalities you have friction with lead you to award-winning accomplishments. The challenges you endure for love produce astounding beauty. More highlights: a shift in worldview that makes you lighter, cultural events, and being photographed for all the right reasons. Libra and Taurus adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 2, 9, 24, 38 and 46.

  • Dear Abby | Spouses paired with others in friends’ wedding party

    DEAR ABBY: Two years ago, a close friend of my husband’s and mine asked us to be the “best couple” in their wedding. After being postponed for a year due to some family issues, the wedding is coming up soon. My husband and I have been married 25 years. We have a strong, faithful bond.

    Last weekend, we were informed that we won’t be paired together. Neither of us is happy with this news. We feel that our friends are not respectful of our relationship. I’m baffled about why the “best couple” wouldn’t be paired together. I’m so upset that I have cried for days. I feel disrespected, betrayed and unvalued.

    I don’t want us to be paired with other partners. I told our friends I’m not comfortable with my husband walking with another woman, and me walking with another man, but I was ignored. I no longer want to even go to the wedding. Am I being unreasonable?

    — COMMITTED BUT UNHAPPY

    DEAR COMMITTED: Please dry your tears. You may have blown this out of proportion. For the last quarter of a century, you and your husband have been known to be a solid couple. I don’t know why the bride and groom are asking you to walk down the aisle separately. It could be something as simple as pairing attendants who are similar heights. Participate in the wedding and support your friends. It is only for one day and, I assume, you will be seated with your husband after the ceremony.

    ** ** **

    DEAR ABBY: I have read your column for 40 years. Now I have an issue. I have been taking care of my wife’s uncle for the last two years. He had a stroke, and I became a certified nursing assistant. I stay home and take care of him 24/7. My wife does not help. Recently, her sister decided to return to college to finish her RN and moved in with us. She does not help at all.

    I decided to go back to school to get my master’s. I work 60 hours a week and also work on my master’s in cybersecurity. I told my wife that if her sister doesn’t move out by the end of the year, I am moving out. We are putting her uncle back in a nursing home. I CANNOT DO IT ANYMORE. In the last two years, I have had only four days off. When I had the flu, no laundry was done.

    Am I a bad person for wanting a career? Am I a bad person for wanting a house with just my wife and me?

    — EXHAUSTED IN THE EAST

    DEAR EXHAUSTED: It was loving and generous of you to enroll in classes to become a CNA so you could give your wife’s uncle the care he needed. That she did nothing to lighten your burden, and then invited her sister to move in without first clearing it with you, was wrong.

    Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, and it appears you have been doing all the heavy lifting. You are not a bad person for wanting a career and the financial benefits it will bring, and you should not be made to feel guilty for it.

  • Massive Amazon cloud outage has been resolved after disrupting internet use worldwide

    Massive Amazon cloud outage has been resolved after disrupting internet use worldwide

    LONDON — Amazon says a massive outage of its cloud computing service has been resolved as of Monday evening, after a problem disrupted internet use around the world, taking down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms.

    The all-day disruption and the ensuing exasperation it caused served as the latest reminder that 21st century society is increasingly dependent on just a handful of companies for much of its internet technology, which seems to work reliably until it suddenly breaks down.

    About three hours after the outage began early Monday morning, Amazon Web Services said it was starting to recover, but it wasn’t until 6 p.m. Eastern that “services returned to normal operations,” Amazon said on its AWS health website, where it tracks outages.

    AWS provides behind-the-scenes cloud computing infrastructure to some of the world’s biggest organizations. Its customers include government departments, universities and businesses, including The Associated Press.

    Cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple said “a slow and bumpy recovery process” is “entirely normal.”

    As engineers roll out fixes across the cloud computing infrastructure, the process could trigger smaller disruptions, he said.

    “It’s similar to what happens after a large-scale power outage: While a city’s power is coming back online, neighborhoods may see intermittent glitches as crews finish the repairs,” said Chapple, an information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

    Amazon blames domain name system

    Amazon pinned the outage on issues related to its domain name system that converts web addresses into IP addresses, which are numeric designations that identify locations on the internet. Those addresses allow websites and apps to load on internet-connected devices.

    DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, said in a Facebook post that it received over 11 million user reports of problems at more than 2,500 companies. Users reported trouble with the social media site Snapchat, the Roblox and Fortnite video games, the online broker Robinhood and the McDonald’s app, as well as Netflix, Disney+ and many other services.

    The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the Signal chat app both said on X that they were experiencing trouble related to the outage.

    Amazon’s own services were also affected. Users of the company’s Ring doorbell cameras and Alexa-powered smart speakers reported that they were not working, while others said they were unable to access the Amazon website or download books to their Kindle.

    Many college and K-12 students were unable to submit or access their homework or course materials Monday because the AWS outage knocked out Canvas, a widely used educational platform.

    “I currently can’t grade any online assignments, and my students can’t access their online materials” because of the outage’s effect on learning-management systems, said Damien P. Williams, a professor of philosophy and data science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

    The exact number of schools impacted was not immediately known, but Canvas says on its website it is used by 50% of college and university students in North America, including all Ivy League schools in the U.S.

    At the University of California, Riverside, students couldn’t submit assignments, take quizzes or access course materials, and online instruction was limited, the campus said.

    Ohio State University informed its 70,000 students at all six campuses by email Monday morning that online course materials might be inaccessible due to the outage and that “students should connect with their instructors for any alternative plans.” As of 7:10 p.m. Eastern, access was restored, the university told students.

    Record of past outages

    This is not the first time issues with Amazon cloud services have caused widespread disruptions.

    Many popular internet services were affected by a brief outage in 2023. AWS’s longest outage in recent history occurred in late 2021, when a wide range of companies — from airlines and auto dealerships to payment apps and video streaming services — were affected for more than five hours. Outages also happened in 2020 and 2017.

    The first signs of trouble emerged at around 3:11 a.m. Eastern time, when AWS reported on its “health dashboard” that it was “investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region.” Later, the company reported that there were “significant error rates” and that engineers were “actively working” on the problem.

    Around 6 a.m. Eastern time, the company reported seeing recovery across most of the affected services and said it was seeking a “full resolution.” As of midday, AWS was still working to resolve the trouble.

    Sixty-four internal AWS services were affected, the company said.

    Just a few companies provide most internet infrastructure

    Because much of the world now relies on three or four companies to provide the underlying infrastructure of the internet, “when there’s an issue like this, it can be really impactful” across many online services, said Patrick Burgess, a cybersecurity expert at U.K.-based BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

    “The world now runs on the cloud,” Burgess said.

    And because so much of the online world’s plumbing is underpinned by so few companies, when something goes wrong, “it’s very difficult for users to pinpoint what is happening because we don’t see Amazon, we just see Snapchat or Roblox,” Burgess said.

    “The good news is that this kind of issue is usually relatively fast” to resolve, and there’s no indication that it was caused by a cyberattack, Burgess said.

    “This looks like a good old-fashioned technology issue. Something’s gone wrong, and it will be fixed by Amazon,” he said.

    There are “well-established processes” to deal with outages at AWS, as well as rivals Google and Microsoft, Burgess said, adding that such outages are usually over in “hours rather than days.”

  • Trump says he’s doubtful Ukraine can win the war with Russia as he prepares for Putin meeting

    Trump says he’s doubtful Ukraine can win the war with Russia as he prepares for Putin meeting

    KYIV, Ukraine — President Donald Trump said Monday that while he thinks it is possible that Ukraine can defeat Russia, he’s now doubtful it will happen.

    The comments from Trump added a fresh layer of skepticism toward Kyiv as he plans to meet again in the coming weeks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for face-to-face talks in Budapest, Hungary, on ending the war.

    “They could still win it. I don’t think they will, but they could still win it,” Trump told reporters on Monday at the start of a White House meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

    Trump caves again to Putin rather than strengthening Ukraine | Trudy Rubin

    Trump last month reversed his long-held position that Ukraine would have to concede land and could win back all the territory it has lost to Russia.

    But after a lengthy call with Putin last week followed by a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump made another reversal and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war.

    Asked on Monday about his whiplashing opinion on Kyiv’s position, Trump offered the dour assessment about Ukraine’s chances. He added, “I never said they would win it. I said they could. Anything can happen. You know war is a very strange thing.”

    Earlier Monday, Zelenskyy said that during the White House meeting Trump informed him that Putin’s maximalist demand — that Ukraine cede the entirety of its eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions — was unchanged.

    Still, Zelenskyy described the meeting as “positive,” even though Trump also rebuffed his request for long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.

    In public comments in the weeks leading up to his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump had appeared to warm to the possibility of sending the Tomahawks, which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian territory.

    But the U.S. leader’s tone changed after his latest call with Putin and he made clear that he was reluctant to send Ukraine the missile system, at least for the time-being.

    “In my opinion, he does not want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Sunday. His comments were embargoed until Monday morning.

    Zelenskyy also expressed skepticism about Putin’s proposal to swap some territory it holds in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions if Ukraine surrenders Donetsk and Luhansk, saying the proposal was unclear. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the Donbas.

    Ukraine’s leader said Trump ultimately supported a freeze along the current front line.

    “We share President Trump’s positive outlook if it leads to the end of the war,” Zelenskyy said, citing “many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with him and his team.”

    Zelenskyy was diplomatic about his meeting with Trump despite reports that he faced pressure to accept Putin’s demands. The meeting followed the disastrous Oval Office spat on Feb. 28 when the Ukrainian president was scolded on live television for not being grateful for U.S. support.

    Zelenskyy said he hopes that Trump’s meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal.

    Zelenskyy said he has not been invited to attend but would consider it if the format for talks were fair to Kyiv.

    He also took a shot at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying he does not believe that a prime minister “who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution.”

    Zelenskyy said he thinks that all parties have “moved closer” to a possible end to the war.

    “That doesn’t mean it will definitely end, but President Trump has achieved a lot in the Middle East, and riding that wave he wants to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he added.

    Ukraine is hoping to purchase 25 Patriot air defense systems from U.S. firms using frozen Russian assets and assistance from partners, but Zelenskyy said procuring them would require time because of long production waits. He said he spoke to Trump about help procuring them more quickly, potentially from European partners.

    Zelenskyy said the United States is interested in bilateral gas projects with Ukraine, including the construction of an LNG terminal in the southern port city of Odesa. Other projects of interest include those related to nuclear energy and oil.

  • Regional banks’ bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street

    Regional banks’ bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street

    NEW YORK — Wall Street is concerned about the health of the nation’s regional banks, after a few of them wrote off bad loans to commercial customers in the last two weeks and caused investors to wonder if there might be more bad news to come.

    Zions Bank, Western Alliance Bank, and the investment bank Jefferies surprised investors by disclosing various bad investments on their books, sending their stocks falling sharply this week. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon added to the unease when he warned there might be more problems to come for banks with potentially bad loans.

    “When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” Dimon told investors and reporters on Tuesday, when JPMorgan reported its results.

    The KBW Bank Index, a basket of banks tracked by investors, is down 7% this month.

    There were other signs of distress. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that banks tapped the central bank’s overnight “repo” facilities for the second night in a row, an action banks have not needed to take since the COVID-19 pandemic. This facility allows banks to convert highly liquid securities like mortgage bonds and treasuries into cash to help fund their short-term cash shortfalls.

    Zions Bancorp shares sank Thursday after the bank wrote off $50 million in commercial and industrial loans, while Western Alliance fell after the bank alleged it had been defrauded by an entity known as Cantor Group V LLC. This came on top of news from Jefferies, which told investors it was might experience millions of dollars in losses from its business with bankrupt auto parts company First Brands.

    All three stocks recovered a bit Friday. Jefferies’ CEO told investors that the company believes it was defrauded by First Brands and that there were no broader concerns in the lending market.

    The last banking flare-up, in 2023, also involved midsize and regional banks that were overly exposed to low-interest loans and commercial real estate. The crisis caused Silicon Valley Bank to fail, followed by Signature Bank, and led to the eventual sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase in a fire sale. Other banks like Zions and Western Alliance ended up seeing their stocks plummet during that time period.

    While banks do fail or get bought at fire sale prices, all bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, up to $250,000 per account, in case of a bank failure. In the nearly 100 years since the FDIC was created in 1933, not one depositor has lost their insured funds.

    Still, even the larger banks aren’t immune in this latest round of trouble. Several Wall Street banks disclosed losses this week in the bankruptcy of Tricolor, a subprime auto dealership company that collapsed last month. Fifth Third Bank, a larger regional bank, recorded a $178 million loss from Tricolor’s bankruptcy.

    That said, the big banks believe that any losses will be manageable and do not reflect the broader economy.

    “There is no deterioration, we’re very confident with our credit portfolio,” Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said, in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Friday.

    While the big Wall Street banks get most of the media and investor attention, regional banks are a major part of the economy, lending to small- to medium-sized businesses and acting as major lenders for commercial real estate developers. There are more than 120 banks with between $10 billion and $200 billion in assets, according to the FDIC.

    While big, these banks can run into trouble because their businesses are not as diverse as the Wall Street money center banks. They’re often more exposed to real estate and industrial loans, and don’t have significant businesses in credit cards and payment processing that can be revenue generators when lending goes south.

  • Letters to the Editor | Oct. 20, 2025

    Letters to the Editor | Oct. 20, 2025

    The death of Ellen Greenberg

    Try as I may, I can’t wrap my head around Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon’s recent ruling that 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg’s stabbing death was by suicide.

    You most likely are familiar with the details of the case: In January 2011, Greenberg was found on the kitchen floor of the Manayunk apartment she shared with her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, a politically connected producer at NBC Sports. Greenberg had been stabbed 20 times, and she was discovered by Goldberg, who was never considered a suspect or charged with any crime.

    Simon, in her recent review, which was prompted by two lawsuits Greenberg’s parents filed against the city, discovered 20 additional bruises and three additional “perforations of her skin” never before documented, raising the number of bruises to 31 and stab wounds — including one in the back of her neck — to 23. Well, I’m not a medical examiner, a criminal investigator, a police officer, an assistant DA, or an attorney. But I have so many questions.

    Although Simon states that all of the wounds and bruises could have been self-inflicted, it seems to me that only a skilled contortionist could accomplish what was described. Did Simon conduct further interviews to validate her conclusions? Did she examine Greenberg’s emails?

    Mostly, though, I remain clueless about how, through the long years since Greenberg’s death, her parents, Joshua and Sandra Greenberg, have held on to any semblance of the ability to rest, to sleep — or even breathe.

    SaraKay Smullens, Philadelphia

    U.S. strikes again

    Donald Trump claims he won the election in 2020. He didn’t. He fumes that he didn’t receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which was given for accomplishments in 2024, a year in which he didn’t serve as president. Trump, who was handed more money at birth than most of us will ever earn, has an overdeveloped sense of victimhood while completely lacking in humanity.

    Another six people who were suspected of being drug smugglers were killed on their boat, bringing the total to 27. We don’t know their names. We haven’t been presented with evidence of their crimes. We do know there was no due process. These strikes are accelerating. I worry this might turn inward, as the administration militarizes our cities. Our Congress on both sides of the aisle must wake up and act. We must make sure they do.

    Elliott Miller, Bala Cynwyd

    Rebuilding the Middle East

    The ceasefire in the Middle East brings relief, but there is ongoing pain and trauma to address for those of us who have witnessed it. When I look at the areas to which the people of Israel and Gaza will be returning, it resembles the destruction and loss of life in Western Europe after World War II.

    I am reminded of the Marshall Plan, the U.S.-led initiative that was meant to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War. It seems the world community needs to unite and do something similar now to restore infrastructure, finance reconstruction, and stabilize governments. Can East and West join forces to make life better for the people of Gaza and Israel now?

    Mary McKenna, Philadelphia

    The ebb and flow

    It is starting to really weigh me down — not too much chocolate or an inadequate amount of exercise in the rain, but the day-to-day headlines about everything from American citizens “being disappeared” to drastic cuts in special education funding and the dissolution of a functioning Congress.

    Like countless other people around the world, I was so happy for the families of the Israeli hostages who came home. All that elation, though, was not far removed from the prospect of generational wealth exhibited by the very deliberate presence of Jared Kushner and other allies of President Donald Trump. Trump’s plans for a playground for the rich in the ruins of war now seem more likely than ever — the ebb and the flow.

    The coming days and weeks will continue to illuminate for us all whether or not we can stand up for the weakest, most disconnected and challenged citizens in this country while we can still vote, or are we already too worn out by all the daily blasphemies toward the oppressed and the routinized dismissal of the rule of law?

    Mary Kay Owen, Downingtown

    Dems’ stance on ACA

    Our national shutdown is a fight about restoring tax credits to the Affordable Care Act marketplace and reversing the pending Medicaid cuts. For a public largely indifferent to health policy, it is a gamble for Democrats, who have to explain how these programs might impact them. Even today, most Americans do not understand Medicaid or the ACA marketplace. A criticism of the Dems is, what do they stand for besides being against Donald Trump? Now is the time to stand up for a policy that goes beyond restoring cuts to a bureaucratic, dysfunctional, irrational system to one that is simple enough that all Americans can understand — a properly funded, national health insurance covering everyone.

    Walter Tsou, Philadelphia

    The writer is a former health commissioner of Philadelphia.

    . . .

    I am not surprised to see so many Republican politicians beginning to support the idea of keeping the income caps removed from receiving premium tax credit subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. And this policy, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, will undoubtedly receive more and more support from them if they consider it thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively.

    However, I find it puzzling that Democrats are making the continuation of this policy part of their platform at all, much less a central component of the government shutdown. Obamacare was designed to expand access to healthcare for low- and middle-income Americans who had previously struggled to afford insurance, and removing the income caps contradicts the original purpose of the law. It also raises questions about fiscal responsibility and equity, as without the income caps, many wealthy families without employers effectively receive five-figure bonus checks each year from Obamacare that are paid for by everyone else.

    Meanwhile, due to the Big Beautiful Bill, married couples with student loans on income-driven repayment will now qualify for $0 in Obamacare premium tax credit subsidies if they wish to limit their student loan payments to a 1,000% increase instead of 2,500%, as this requires filing their federal taxes as “married filing separately” — which also disqualifies them from various other benefits, including the child tax credit.

    It is baffling how Democrats have become so misaligned with their priorities that they are doing the work of Republicans for them.

    Calvin J. Haneline, Paragould, Ark.

    Love for the Phillies

    Like letter writer Peter Schmidt, I find I have a new perspective on the epic saga that is the Phillies. For most of my seven decades, I have been only a casual fan of city teams. Still, I’ve acquired that shell so many in our region wear — a shield against disappointment built of cynicism and a grumbling.

    But the last few seasons have been different. My daughter lives 700 miles away in Georgia, but we share our thoughts on games almost every night by a stream of text messages, stats, and emoji-decorated cheers and groans.

    Though I questioned if the Phils had the stuff to win the World Series, I grew to love everybody involved, heroes and goats alike. When we took my grandsons (13 months and 3 years old) to a game this summer at their aunt’s insistence, the whole family reveled in the boys’ enjoyment. Despite their lack of understanding of the game, they delighted in the general fun at the Bank: the Phanatics’ antics, the massive pile of ice cream in a miniature batting helmet, and the chance to yell “Go Phillies!” without being shushed.

    Even at its most serious, the game is just a game, and our disappointment is not tragedy. But the bond fans have with the team — and with each other — bridges gaps of miles, age, and unfamiliarity. That sense of sharing, almost in spite of ourselves, is why I love the Phillies.

    Joe Jones, Mount Holly

    Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.