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A wild first season of the expanded Big 12 is down to what should be a chaotic final weekend. Through all the upsets, unexpected rises and falls, there are nine teams still in the mix to play in the conference championship game. No. 14 Arizona State and No. 17 Iowa State have the best odds, yet a multitude of scenarios could play out — 256 to be exact. There's even the possibility of an eight-team tie. It may take a mathematician to figure out which teams are in the Dec. 7 game in Arlington, Texas — even for the ones who win. Travis Hunter, Colorado. The Buffaloes' two-way star has excelled on both sides of the field, making him one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. Cam Skattebo, Arizona State. The senior running back can do a little of everything, but excels at punishing would-be tacklers. He's one of the nation's leaders in yards after contact and the focal point of the Sun Devils' offense. Shadeur Sanders, Colorado. If it weren't for Hunter, Sanders might be the Heisman favorite. The son of coach Deion Sanders, Shedeur is fifth nationally with 3,488 yards passing and has been a big part of the Buffaloes' turnaround. DJ Giddens, Kansas State. The Wildcats' running back is one of the nation's most versatile players. He is ninth nationally with 1,271 rushing yards and has added 21 receptions for 258 yards. Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona. The Wildcats have struggled this season, but McMillan has not. He is third nationally with 1,251 receiving yards with seven touchdowns on 78 catches. Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech. The Red Raiders' junior linebacker leads the Big 12 with 68 tackles, averaging 10.2 per game. He also has four sacks. Brendan Mott, Kansas State. He's a menace to opposing quarterbacks, leading the Big 12 with 8 1/2 sacks. The Big 12 has nine teams already bowl eligible and two more a win away. The winner of the Big 12 championship game will be in the mix for a College Football Playoff spot. Arizona State, Iowa State, No. 19 BYU, Colorado, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia have already clinched bowl berths. Kansas and Cincinnati can get into the postseason with wins this weekend. Gus Malzahn, UCF. Despite successes in recruiting, the Knights are 10-14 in two seasons since moving to the Big 12. Maybe not enough to get shown the door this year, but another mediocre season could lead UCF to make a change. Kyle Whittingham, Utah. Whittingham was one of the Pac-12's best coaches, leading the Utes to consecutive conference titles. Utah was expected to contend for the Big 12 title its first year in the league, but enters the final weekend 1-7 in conference play, which could push Whittingham toward retirement since it's doubtful he'd be fired. Neal Brown, West Virginia. The Mountaineers' coach was in a precarious spot at the end of last season and West Virginia hasn't lived up to expectations this season. The Mountaineers are eligible to go to a bowl game for the second straight season, but Brown could be on the hot seat even after signing a contract extension before the season. Josiah Trotter, West Virginia. The redshirt freshman is the latest Trotter to have success at the linebacker position, following the footsteps of his father, former Philadelphia Eagles player Jeremiah Trotter, and brother Jeremiah Trotter Jr., a current Eagles linebacker. Sam Leavitt, Arizona State. The Michigan State transfer has been just what the Sun Devils' needed: an agile quarterback who extends plays with his legs and rarely makes bad decisions. Bryson Washington, Baylor. The Bears' running back has rushed for 812 yards — 196 against TCU — and 10 TDs. TCU has the Big 12's highest rated 2025 recruiting class with six four-star players among 26 commitments, according to the 247 Sports composite. Receiver Terry Shelton of Carrollton, Texas, is the highest-rated recruit at 71st nationally. Baylor is next with five five-star players among its 20 commitments, including running back Michael Turner, rated 13th at his position out of North Richland Hills, Texas. Texas Tech is ranked seventh in the Big 12, but has four four-star recruits. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Play now Get the latest Belfast Live breaking news on WhatsApp Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Join us on WhatsApp I'm A Celebrity accused Dean McCullough of being 'faker than a Premier League footballer' following his unexpected composure during the latest episode of the hit reality show. In Tuesday's episode (November 26), the campmates endured a harrowing journey on the Fright Bus, with each contestant bracing themselves for a particularly nasty ride. Yet, it was Dean's reaction, or lack thereof, that caught the attention of fans. Accusations flew from viewers suggesting the Radio 1 presenter might be 'faking it' on the show. This speculation has been fuelled by Dean being chosen for a Bushtucker trial five consecutive times, even saying the iconic line 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here' twice, and at one point failing to win any stars. However, in his most recent trial, he finally hit double figures and he remained calm and composed on the Fright Bus. Fans were suspicious of Dean's behaviour (Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock) Read More Related Articles ITV I'm A Celebrity's Dean McCullough leaves Ant and Dec 'disappointed' as fans send trial warning Read More Related Articles ITV I'm A Celeb's Dean McCullough's 'dark' past from hidden homelessness to health battle Despite the general hysteria among the celebrities, Dean remained much calmer than he has been in previous episodes, prompting surprise and suspicion from viewers, reports OK! . One fan questioned on social media: "Dean screaming the least? Is he ok?", as another comment read: "Na the difference in Dean doing the fright bus compared to the trials is actually embarrassing! Just shows how much he's been overdramatic and playing on it for the camera time/attention!" A third viewer expressed their scepticism more bluntly, writing: "Suddenly Dean has no fear.... cementing the suspicion of his dramatics being faker than that of a premier league footballer." After witnessing the campmates' antics on the Fright Bus, fans speculated that Deans actions were a calculated move for screen time as one viewer remarked: "Oh Dean has just proved all our points he was doing it all to get the votes to do the trails to get the screen time." All the campmates were aboard (Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock) The recent episode has many betting that Tulisa is set to be voted for the next Bushtucker trial, especially after Barry had to repeatedly assist her by removing critters during their latest challenge. Revelations on I'm A Celebrity Unpacked showed that Maura and Jane are up for the next trial, with the new nerve-wracking challenge appropriately titled the Fright at the end of the Tunnel. I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow BelfastLive Facebook Twitter Comment More On BBC Radio 1 I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here Tulisa Contostavlos Dean McCullough“I am excited to introduce our next step in this journey,the Webex AI agent. This is in pilot right now, it will be available to our customers in an early calendar quarter in 2025. This AI agent brings together conversational intelligence and generative AI to deliver natural conversations with hyper-personalization.” Those words came from Cisco, the enterprise digital communications and technology company; specifically from Anurag Dhingra, SVP and GM of Cisco Collaboration. The words sounded strangely familiar. In the same month of October, we had heard about similar initiatives from Oracle, which also primarily serves the enterprise, as well as from Zendesk which serves mid-size to enterprise customers and has a narrower offering very much focused on the customer experience. Something was in the air. On the one hand, the aim of automating the customer experience (including automating the work of service reps) seemed very ambitious. At the same time, if everyone starts doing it, it will soon be table stakes. But is it a realistic aim? And is customer experience really reducible to the service (or support or success) experience? We spoke to an expert, Isabelle Zdatny, head of thought leadership at the Qualtrics XM Institute. Defining experience management First, its useful to clarify the relationship between Qualtrics, an experience management software vendor, and the Institute. The first thing to know is that the Institute is product-agnostic. “Our role is like a think tank inside Qualtrics,” said Zdatny. “We are focused on CX and EX [employee experience] professionals and providing them with the insights, practices and principles they need to be successful in their role — to grow their personal skills as well as help to build an effective and sustainable experience management program. Unlike other internal experts at Qualtrics, we’re less client-focused and more focused on category building — what is experience management and what do people need to know to do it well?” The XM Institute was formed in 2018 when Qualtrics acquired Temkin Group, a boutique consulting firm founded by Bruce Temkin, who Zdatny calls “the godfather of customer experience.” She had been with Temkin Group since 2013. Zendesk’s intention of providing AI agents across all channels, working either autonomously or in harness with humans to field customer queries, is an approach to what it calls “customer experience management.” Certainly, customer experience “refers to all the interactions between a business and its customers,” but its explanation of its new capabilities always seems to circle back to the call center or to digital customer service channels; the same could be said about the announcements from Oracle and Cisco. Isn’t that perspective narrow? “It absolutely is,” said Zdatny, “because that’s just reactive fire fighting. Experience management is about more than responding to customer complaints. You have limited resources as an organization. There are probably thousands of problems you could go fix. Experience management is going to help you figure out which ones to focus on, where you should be allocating attention and resources. And it’s not just about fixing what’s broken,” she emphasized. “It’s about how we are delivering the emotionally engaging, innovative experiences that will help us to stand out in a crowded market.” How does Zdatny think about customer (and employee) experience? She had two definitions, first a “scholarly” one used internally at the Institute; the second, one used in conversation with the C-suite. First: “The discipline of driving actions using an ongoing flow of insights into how customers and employees are thinking, feeling and behaving. It is a systematic business practice, not a set of isolated activities.” Second, and more simply: “Understanding and optimizing the experiences of customers and employees.” How should experience management evolve within organizations? “What we see in early stage organizations is a fragmented approach,” said Zdatny. “Product, sales. “What makes for a good program is a centralized group that is able to consolidate and coordinate experiences across the entire organization; you call a contact center or walk into a store, you are having the same type of experience.” For very small companies, she said, centralizing responsibility for experience in one person can work just fine. Key to optimizing the customer experience, as Qualtrics has long emphasized, is gathering feedback. That isn’t necessarily straightforward. “Early stage CX programs focus really heavily on feedback. Unfortunately, they don’t take a lot of action based on that feedback. They’re collecting a lot of insights but not using those insights to make changes,” explain Zdatny. “An effective CX team has that data and analytics but also other supporting functions like experience design and change management. Feedback is foundational but you can’t have an effective experience program if the insights are just being passed over the wall for other teams to deal with.” The road to fully the automated experience Perhaps the simple solution to centrally organizing and continually optimized CX, whether in the broad sense or the narrower sense of support and service, solves for a lot of these challenges. That’s a view enthusiastically advanced by Jeff Wartgow, VP product management, Oracle CX service. But he agrees it’s a matter of advancing along a continuum. First comes improving service by switching from traditional chatbots to conversational AI. Second, improving the performance of human service reps by providing them with AI assistance (or, indeed, assistants). Third and fourth: improving execution by automating service processes and transforming service with automated execution plans. I asked Wartgow to distinguish between the latter two. The third stage is: “I know how to fix this, I’m going to automate how we fix it.” The fourth: “What if I don’t know how to fix it, can I automate the planning for how to fix it?” In other words, it’s the difference between using AI to automate a known response to a service issue and using AI to figure out the response to a service issue.” One challenge businesses will face in pursuing this path is that it will need to have its knowledge base in order for the AI agents to be successfully trained. Two years ago, said Wartgow, Oracle completely rebuilt the knowledge base in Oracle Fusion Cloud. “Say there are 15 service requests and we fixed them all the same way. Shall we just turn that into a knowledge article? You just press a button and genAI will write the article and put it in the knowledge database.” Wartgow agrees that the knowledge base will also need to be constantly refreshed and says that Oracle has a mechanism to “put fresh water in the fish tank.” Oracle’s knowledge base can also ingest large quantities of legacy knowledge, even hidden in large manuals, and create knowledge articles tuned to specific tasks. “We had to do all this first before we could even start talking about these agents,” he said. Oracle will encourage clients to use the Oracle knowledge base rather than some internal alternative as the main source of truth for Oracle service agents. The holistic experience When asked, Oracle, like Zendesk, will agree that the customer experience is not reducible to the service experience. “I’m the service guy at Oracle,” said Wartgow, “so I talk a lot about service. But 70% of the interactions a customer will have, whether it be B2C or B2B, will be with the service department. But I don’t feel like I am talking to a brand’s service center, I feel like I’m talking to the brand. I should be able to change from a sales, to a service, to a marketing conversation as fluidly as possible.” Oracle and Zendesk, then, have blueprints for an almost entirely automated future, at least for the service part of customer experience. How will that sit with a world in which customer experience is more holistic than that? “Consumer concern about having a human to connect to is the only concern that went up over the last year and it was over 50% that were concerned,” said Zdatny, referring to (registration required). Indeed, she points out that there are regulations in Europe that say you have to make it easy to reach a human. “I understand from the company’s perspective it’s more efficient if you’re deflecting calls away from high cost call centers. Right now, consumers are saying pretty clearly that’s not what they want.” But Zdatny agrees that it’s hard to say what consumers (or B2B clients) will want three years from now, if the AI agents get really good at their jobs. “Over the long term, that is the direction we’re moving. In the short term, I think a lot of companies are out over their skis,” she said.Nebraska defensive lineman Kai Wallin enters the transfer portal
Arsenal defender Gabriel kept Viktor Gyokeres quiet — then had the audacity to steal the in-demand Sporting Lisbon striker's trademark goal celebration. After heading in Arsenal's third first-half goal in the Champions League on Tuesday, Gabriel linked the fingers of his hands and placed them over his eyes, before laughing with his teammates. It was most likely a dig at Gyokeres, the Sweden striker who has quickly become one of European soccer's hottest properties . Because that is how Gyokeres celebrates his goals. “It's fun that he likes my celebration,” Gyokeres told Viaplay after the match. “He can steal it if he cannot come up with his own.” Gyokeres has scored 24 goals for Sporting in all competitions and was coming off netting four for Sweden in a Nations League match against Azerbaijan. Earlier in the first half, Gabriel had enjoyed tackling and dispossessing Gyokeres near the Arsenal area — waving both his arms in a gesture to the crowd. Gabriel's goal made it 3-0 to Arsenal at halftime and the English team went on to win 5-1, with Gyokeres failing to score. He did hit the post with a shot late in the game, however — after Gabriel had gone off with an injury. “Today he wasn't that dangerous,” Arsenal striker Kai Havertz said of Gyokeres, “but I think it's because we defended very well.” AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerA post shared on social media purports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can fill the House of Representatives vacancy of Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Verdict: False The seat must be filled by a special election process. Fact Check: The House Ethics Committee did not reach a decision on whether to release the investigation into the allegations made against Gaetz, several Senate members stated they want to review the report, NBC News reported. Sexual misconduct allegations were made against Geatz, who was recently announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, according to the outlet. A post shared on X, formerly known Twitter, purports that DeSantis is prepared to replace Gaetz’s vacant seat. The claim was made in a response tweet. The post reads, “Gaetz resigned immediately so Gov. DeSantis can fill the seat by Jan 3. Johnson has already placed a call w/ DeSantis. Clock starts.” The claim is inaccurate. A vacancy in the House of Representatives must be filled by a special election. The 17 th Amendment allows the Governors to temporarily fill Senate vacancy until a special election can occur . DeSantis is instructing the start of a special election process, which has “no timeline,” to fill Gaetz’s seat since he resigned, Wear News reported. DeSantis is considering a replacement for Marco Rubio, Fox News reported. Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump has been speculated as a potential replacement. (RELATED: Is Trump Set To Make Great Britain A State?) This is not the first time misinformation surrounding Trump’s picks has circulated online. Check Your Fact recently debunked a claim Elon Musk said that Trump will do anything he tells him to.
NoneJudge hears closing arguments on whether Google's advertising tech constitutes a monopoly ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Justice Department and Google have made their closing arguments in a trial alleging Google’s online advertising technology constitutes an illegal monopoly. The arguments in federal court Monday in northern Virginia came as Google already faces a possible breakup of the company over its ubiquitous search engine. The Justice Department says it will seek the breakup of Google to remedy its search engine monopoly. The case in Virginia focuses not on the search engine but on technology that matches online advertisers to consumers on the internet. A judge is expected to rule by the end of the year. ‘Busiest Thanksgiving ever’: How the TSA plans to handle record air travel DALLAS (AP) — The Thanksgiving travel rush is expected to be bigger than ever this year. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million people in the U.S. will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday — most of them by car. Thanksgiving Day falling so late this year has altered traditional travel patterns. At airports, the Transportation Security Administration says it could screen a record number of U.S. air travelers on Sunday. Meanwhile, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration says a shortage of air traffic controllers could cause flight delays. Transportation analytics company INRIX says roads could be congested on Monday with both commuters and returning holiday travelers. Macy’s says employee hid up to $154 million in expenses, delaying Q3 earnings Macy’s says it’s delaying the release of its fiscal third-quarter earnings results after it discovered an up to $154 million accounting-related issue. The company did provide some preliminary results for its third quarter, including that net sales fell 2.4% to $4.74 billion. It anticipates reporting its full third-quarter financial results by Dec. 11. Newsom says California could offer electric vehicle rebates if Trump eliminates federal tax credit SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California could offer state tax rebates for electric vehicle purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Gov. Gavin Newsom says Monday he'll propose creating a new version of the state’s successful Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which was phased out in 2023 after funding nearly 600,000 new cars and trucks. Officials didn’t say how much the program would cost or how the rebates would work. Newsom’s proposal is part of his plan to protect California’s progressive policies ahead of Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. But a budget shortfall could complicate California’s resistance efforts. Warren Buffett gives away another $1.1B and plans for distributing his $147B fortune after his death OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investor Warren Buffett renewed his Thanksgiving tradition of giving by handing out more than $1.1 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to four of his family's foundations Monday, and he offered new details about who will be handing out the rest of his fortune after his death. Buffett has said previously that his three kids will distribute his remaining $147.4 billion fortune in the 10 years after his death, but now he has also designated successors for them because it’s possible that Buffett’s children could die before giving it all away. Buffett said he has no regrets about his decision to start giving away his fortune in 2006. Stock market today: Dow hits another record as stocks rise NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose, with those benefiting the most from lower interest rates and a stronger economy leading the way. The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% Monday to pull closer to its record set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 440 points to its own record set on Friday, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. They got a boost from easing Treasury yields after President-elect Donald Trump said he wants hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent to be his Treasury Secretary. Smaller companies can feel a big boost from easier borrowing costs, and the Russell 2000 index of small stocks finished just shy of its record. Workers at Charlotte airport, an American Airlines hub, go on strike during Thanksgiving travel week CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — American Airlines says it doesn’t expect significant disruptions to flights this week as a result of a labor strike at its hub in Charlotte, North Carolina. Service workers there walked out Monday during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to protest what they say are unlivable wages. Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services authorized the work stoppage. Union spokesperson Sean Keady says the strike is expected to last 24 hours. The companies contract with American Airlines to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs. The companies have acknowledged the seriousness of a strike during the holiday travel season. At the crossroads of news and opinion, 'Morning Joe' hosts grapple with aftermath of Trump meeting The reaction of those who defended “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for meeting with President-elect Trump sounds almost quaint in the days of opinionated journalism. Doesn't it makes sense, they said, for hosts of a political news show to meet with such an important figure? But given how “Morning Joe” has attacked Trump, its viewers felt insulted. Many reacted quickly by staying away. It all reflects the broader trend of opinion crowding out traditional journalist in today's marketplace, and the expectations that creates among consumers. By mid-week, the show's audience was less than two-thirds what it has typically been this year. Eggs are available -- but pricier -- as the holiday baking season begins Egg prices are on the rise again as a lingering outbreak of bird flu coincides with high demand during the holiday baking season. The average price for a dozen eggs in U.S. cities was $3.37 in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was up 63% from October 2023, when a dozen eggs cost an average of $2.07. Avian influenza is the main culprit. The current bird flu outbreak that began in February 2022 has led to the slaughter of more than 111 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens. But the American Egg Board says egg shortages at grocery stores have been isolated and temporary so far. Detroit's iconic Renaissance Center could see 2 towers razed in $1.6B redevelopment plan DETROIT (AP) — Two towers at Detroit’s iconic Renaissance Center would be razed and the complex converted to a mix of housing and offices under an ambitious $1.6 billion plan announced on Monday. GM will move its headquarters out of the complex next year. The towers are a symbol of Detroit, with aerial views often shown on television sports broadcasts. GM announced that it would join forces with the Bedrock real estate development firm and Wayne County to turn the partially vacant property into a roughly 27-acre entertainment complex across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario. Bedrock would invest at least $1 billion, with roughly $250 million more coming from GM and another $250 million in public money, possibly from the state of Michigan.
Boeing plane makes emergency landing at Montreal's Mirabel airport after landing gear malfunctionAuthored by Jeffrey Sachs via CommonDreams.org, When a nation is very sick, we need multiple and overlapping remedies... America is a country of undoubted vast strengths—technological, economic, and cultural—yet its government is profoundly failing its own citizens and the world. Trump’s victory is very easy to understand. It was a vote against the status quo. Whether Trump will fix—or even attempt to fix—what really ails America remains to be seen. The rejection of the status quo by the American electorate is overwhelming. According to Gallup in October 2024, 52% of Americans said they and their families were worse off than four years ago, while only 39% said they were better off and 9% said they were about the same. An NBC national news poll in September 2024 found that 65% of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, while only 25% said that it is on the right track. In March 2024, according to Gallup , only 33% of Americans approved of Joe Biden’s handling of foreign affairs. At the core of the American crisis is a political system that fails to represent the true interests of the average American voter. The political system was hacked by big money decades ago, especially when the U.S. Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign contributions. Since then, American politics has become a plaything of super-rich donors and narrow-interest lobbies, who fund election campaigns in return for policies that favor vested interests rather than the common good. Two groups own the Congress and White House: super-rich individuals and single-issue lobbies. The world watched agape as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person (and yes, a brilliant entrepreneur and inventor), played a unique role in backing Trump’s election victory, both through his vast media influence and funding. Countless other billionaires chipped into Trump’s victory. Many (though not all) of the super-rich donors seeks special favors from the political system for their companies or investments, and most of those desired favors will be duly delivered by the Congress, the White House, and the regulatory agencies staffed by the new administration. Many of these donors also push one overall deliverable: further tax cuts on corporate income and capital gains. Many business donors, I would quickly add, are forthrightly on the side of peace and cooperation with China, as very sensible for business as well as for humanity. Business leaders generally want peace and incomes, while crazed ideologues want hegemony through war. There would have been precious little difference in all of this with a Harris victory. The Democrats have their own long list of the super-rich who financed the party’s presidential and Congressional campaigns. Many of those donors too would have demanded and received special favors. Tax breaks on capital income have been duly delivered by Congress for decades no matter their impact on the ballooning federal deficit, which now stands at nearly 7 percent of GDP, and no matter that the U.S. pre-tax national income in recent decades has shifted powerfully towards capital income and away from labor income. As measured by one basic indicator, the share of labor income in GDP has declined by around 7 percentage points since the end of World War II. As income has shifted from labor to capital, the stock market (and super-wealth) has soared, with the overall stock market valuation rising from 55% of GDP in 1985 to 200% of GDP today! The second group with its hold on Washingtons is single-issue lobbies. These powerful lobbies include the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, Big Oil, the gun industry, big pharma, big Ag, and the Israel Lobby. American politics is well organized to cater to these special interests. Each lobby buys the support of specific committees in Congress and selected national leaders to win control over public policy. The economic returns to special-interest lobbying are often huge: a hundred million dollars of campaign funding by a lobby group can win a hundred billion of federal outlays and/or tax breaks. This is the lesson, for example, of the Israel lobby, which spends a few hundred million dollars on campaign contributions, and harvests tens of billions of dollars in military and economic support for Israel. These special-interest lobbies do not depend on, nor care much about, public opinion. Opinion surveys show regularly that the public wants gun control, lower drug prices, an end of Wall Street bailouts, renewable energy, and peace in Ukraine and the Middle East. Instead, the lobbyists ensure that Congress and the White House deliver continued easy access to handguns and assault weapons, sky-high drug prices, coddling of Wall Street, more oil and gas drilling, weapons for Ukraine, and wars on behalf of Israel. These powerful lobbies are money-fueled conspiracies against the common good. Remember Adam Smith’s famous dictum in the Wealth of Nations (1776): "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." The two most dangerous lobbies are the military-industrial complex (as Eisenhower famously warned us in 1961) and the Israel lobby (as detailed in a scintillating new book by historian Ilan Pappé). Their special danger is that they continue to lead us to war and closer to nuclear Armageddon . Biden’s reckless recent decision to allow U.S. missile strikes deep inside Russia, long advocated by the military-industrial complex, is case in point. The military-industrial complex aims for U.S. “full-spectrum dominance.” It’s purported solutions to world problems are wars and more wars, together with covert regime-change operations, U.S. economic sanctions, U.S. info-wars, color revolutions (led by the National Endowment for Democracy), and foreign policy bullying. These of course have been no solutions at all. These actions, in flagrant violation of international law, have dramatically increased U.S. insecurity. The military-industrial complex (MIC) dragged Ukraine into a hopeless war with Russia by promising Ukraine membership in NATO in the face of Russia’s fervent opposition, and by conspiring to overthrow Ukraine’s government in February 2014 because it sought neutrality rather than NATO membership. The military-industrial complex is currently—unbelievably—promoting a coming war with China. This will of course involve a huge and lucrative arms buildup, the aim of the MIC. Yet it will also threaten World War III or a cataclysmic U.S. defeat in another Asian war. While the Military-Industrial Complex has stoked NATO enlargement and conflicts with Russia and China, the Israel Lobby has stoked America’s serial wars in the Middle East. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, more than any U.S. president, has been the lead promoter of America’s backing of disastrous wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria. Netanyahu’s aim is to keep the land that Israel conquered in the 1967 war, creating what is called Greater Israel, and to prevent a Palestinian State. This expansionist policy, in contravention of international law, has given rise to militant pro-Palestinian groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Netanyahu’s long-standing policy is for the U.S. to topple or help to topple the governments that support these resistance groups. Incredibly, the Washington neocons and the Israel Lobby actually joined forces to carry out Netanyahu’s disastrous plan for wars across the Middle East. Netanyahu was a lead backer of the War in Iraq. Former Marine Commander Dennis Fritz has recently described in detail the Israel Lobby’s large role in that war. Ilan Pappé has done the same. In fact, the Israel Lobby has supported U.S.-led or U.S.-backed wars across the Middle East, leaving the targeted countries in ruins and the U.S. budget deep in debt. In the meantime, the wars and tax cuts for the rich, have offered no solutions for the hardships working-class Americans. As in other high-income countries , employment in U.S. manufacturing fell sharply from the 1980s onward as assembly-line workers were increasingly replaced by robots and “smart systems.” The decline in the labor share of value in the U.S. has been significant, and once again has been a phenomenon shared with other high-countries. Yet American workers have been hit especially hard. In addition to the underlying global technological trends hitting jobs and wages, American workers have been battered by decades of anti-union policies, soaring tuition and healthcare costs, and other anti-worker measures. In high-income countries of northern Europe, “social consumption” (publicly funded healthcare, tuition, housing, and other publicly provided services) and high levels of unionization have sustained decent living standards for workers. Not so in the United States. Yet this was not the end of it. Soaring costs of health care, driven by the private health insurers, and the absence of sufficient public financing for higher education and low-cost online options, created a pincer movement, squeezing the working class between falling or stagnant wages on the one side and rising education and healthcare costs on the other side. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans did much of anything to help the workers. Trump’s voter base is the working class, but his donor base is the super-rich and the lobbies. So, what will happen next? More of the same—wars and tax cuts—or something new and real for the voters? Trump’s purported answer is a trade war with China and the deportation of illegal foreign workers, combined with more tax cuts for the rich. In other words, rather than face the structural challenges of ensuring decent living standards for all, and face forthrightly the staggering budget deficit, Trump’s answers on the campaign trail and in his first term were to blame China and migrants for low working-class wages and wasteful spending for the deficits. This has played well electorally in 2016 and 2024, but will not deliver the promised results for workers in the long run. Manufacturing jobs will not return in large numbers from China since they never went in large numbers to China. Nor will deportations do much to raise living standards of average Americans. This is not to say that real solutions are lacking. They are hiding in plain view—if Trump chooses to take them, over the special interest groups and class interests of Trump’s backers. If Trump chooses real solutions, he would achieve a strikingly positive political legacy for decades to come. The first is to face down the military-industrial complex. Trump can end the war in Ukraine by telling President Putin and the world that NATO will never expand to Ukraine. He can end the risk of war with China by making crystal clear that the U.S. abides by the One China Policy, and as such, will not interfere in China’s internal affairs by sending armaments to Taiwan over Beijing’s objections, and would not support any attempt by Taiwan to secede. The second is to face down the Israel lobby by telling Netanyahu that the U.S. will no longer fight Israel’s wars and that Israel must accept a State of Palestine living in peace next to Israel, as called for by the entire world community. This indeed is the only possible path to peace for Israel and Palestine, and indeed for the Middle East. The third is to close the budget deficit, partly by cutting wasteful spending —notably on wars, hundreds of useless overseas military bases, and sky-high prices the government pays for drugs and healthcare—and partly by raising government revenues. Simply enforcing taxes on the books by cracking down on illegal tax evasion would have raised $625 billion in 2021, around 2.6% of GDP. More should be raised by taxation of soaring capital incomes. The fourth is an innovation policy (aka industrial policy) that serves the common good . Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley friends have succeeded in innovation beyond the wildest expectations. All kudos to Silicon Valley for bringing us the digital age. America’s innovation capacity is vast and robust and an envy of the world. The challenge now is innovation for what? Musk has his eye on Mars and beyond. Captivating, yet there are billions of people on Earth that can and should be helped by the digital revolution in the here and now. A core goal of Trump’s industrial policy should be to ensure that innovation serves the common good, including the poor, the working class, and the natural environment. Our nation’s goals need to go beyond wealth and weapons systems. As Musk and his colleagues know better than anybody, the new AI and digital technologies can usher in an era of low-cost, zero-carbon energy; low-cost healthcare; low-cost higher education; low-cost electricity-powered mobility; and other AI-enabled efficiencies that can raise real living standards of all workers. In the process, innovation should foster high-quality, unionized jobs—not the gig employment that has sent living standards plummeting and worker insecurity soaring. Trump and the Republicans have resisted these technologies in the past. In his first term, Trump let China take the lead in these technologies pretty much across the board. Our goal is not to stop China’s innovations, but to spur our own. Indeed, as Silicon Valley understands while Washington does not, China has long been and should remain America’s partner in the innovation ecosystem. China’s highly efficient and low-cost manufacturing facilities, such as Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, put Silicon Valley’s innovations into worldwide use ... when America tries. All four of these steps are within Trump’s reach, and would justify his electoral triumph and secure his legacy for decades to come. I’m not holding my breath for Washington to adopt these straightforward steps. American politics has been rotten for too long for real optimism in that regard, yet these four steps are all achievable, and would greatly benefit not only the tech and finance leaders who backed Trump’s campaign but the generation of disaffected workers and households whose votes put Trump back into the White House.