The rise in use of ChatGPT over the past year’s been huge. Even though investors need to be careful about basing any decisions purely on artificial intelligence (AI) sources, I thought it would be interesting to see which passive income stock it would select for me to consider buying now. The result might surprise some.
The stock pick
ChatGPT first informed me of a disclaimer, noting that dividend yields are subject to change. It told me to conduct thorough research or consult with a financial adviser before making investment decisions. So far, so good.
Then it outlined the case for buying British American Tobacco (LSE:BATS). The FTSE 100 stock’s up 25% over the past year, with a yield of 7.95%. As such, it’s one of the highest yielding options in the entire index.
The generous yield was one of the main reasons why the chatbot suggested it could be a good share for passive income. Further, it noted that the company operates in an area that produces strong cash flow. It’s also considered a defensive stock.
The cash flow should enable dividends to be easily paid. As for the defensive nature of the stock, it could help cushion share price falls during a market crash. The constant demand for the products could help the dividend to be maintained even during difficult times.
The other side of the coin
Somewhat surprisingly, it didn’t really flag up any material risks, simply saying that “regulatory risks in the tobacco sector are a factor to weigh”.
I’m slightly surprised it didn’t expand more on the risks associated with the company. In my view the risks are the main reason why I wouldn’t say British American Tobacco is the best income share to buy now.
The trading update in December noted that full-year performance was being driven by New Categories innovation. This includes vapes and other e-cigarettes. It’s trying to pivot away from traditional tobacco sales, given that globally there’s a push from governments to curb smoking.
Yet this trend of lower tobacco demand has been in tact for several years, hindering revenue growth for the business. For example, 2024 projected revenue’s £26.28bn. In 2019 it was £25.88bn. So the firm hasn’t really grown in the past five years.
Human wisdom
Although some wouldn’t see this as a massive risk, I think it’s a big enough concern to not give it the title of being the best income stock. I’d rather pick a company with a slightly lower yield that’s growing revenue and profitability, in a sector that’s increasing in size. This provides a more sustainable source of income going forward, in my view.
ChatGPT goes on more objective information, so I understand why it picked this stock. But when I add in my subjective view of the sector outlook, it causes me to stop and think. It shows that even with the best AI in the world, the need for humans will remain in the investment process for a while yet!
Shares in Greggs (LSE:GRG) are down 11% on Thursday (9 January) after the company’s Q4 trading update. And looking at the report, I don’t think it’s hard to see why.
Overall, revenues increased by just under 8%, with around 2.5% coming from like-for-like sales growth. That’st strong, but is the big drop in the stock the buying opportunity I’ve been waiting for?
Sales growth
While 8% growth might seem pretty good, context is everything when it comes to the stock market. It means the firm’s rate of sales growth has been slowing consistently since 2021.
Greggs revenue growth 2015-24
Created at TradingView
Furthermore, Greggs is a growth stock – and is priced like one. At the start of the week, it was trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 21, which indicates investors are expecting solid growth ahead.
Greggs P/E ratio 2024-24
Created at TradingView
On top of this, like-for-like sales increasing by 2.5% is a slightly worrying sign. It means that the rest of the increase has come from Greggs opening more stores, which it won’t be able to do indefinitely.
When the firm reaches its eventual capacity in terms of stores, the only way it will be able to keep growing will be like-for-like sales. And the most recent update coming in below inflation is a concern.
Outlook
The outlook for 2025’s also fairly underwhelming. Greggs is expecting to open between 140 and 150 new outlets this year, as well as relocating 50 of its existing stores.
Again, context is key. The company currently has 2,618 venues, meaning the anticipated new openings will only increase the existing store count by around 5.5%.
That means like-for-like revenues are going to have to pick up in order to generate significant sales growth. Given the difficulties in the last quarter, I’m not surprised to see the share price falling.
Is this my opportunity?
From an investment perspective, I think there’s a lot to like about Greggs as a stock. Despite weak Q4 sales, its business model of providing low-cost food to people is one I think’s going to prove durable.
Over the long term I expect this to also be relatively resilient in difficult economic environments. And the firm has a very strong balance sheet with £125m in net cash, which should add to its resiliency.
The big question in my mind is what price I’m willing to buy it at – and that comes down to its future growth prospects. The company’s aiming for 3,000 outlets, but it’s rapidly closing in on that level.
That doesn’t leave a lot of room for further growth, especially if same-store sales don’t do much more than offset the effects of inflation. And that’s why I’m not rushing to buy the stock right now.
It’s getting close
Even after the latest decline, the Greggs share price is still around 10% higher than where I’d like to buy it. But given the pressure UK stocks have been under, it might well get to this level.
Given the competitive pricing of its products, I think overpaying for Greggs shares would be an ironic mistake. So I’m looking to be patient with this one – but I am hoping for a buying opportunity.
With the best VPN installed, you’ll be able unlock cheaper flight prices (Image: GETTY • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS)
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Want to find the cheapest flights for your next trip?
While you might start by checking the best Jet2 deals, best TUI deals, or a comparison tool like Google Flights and Skyscanner to find cheaper flights … there’s an easy trick to unlock the biggest discounts in seconds.
The trick? You need to download a VPN onto the device you’re using to book your tickets.
This only takes a few seconds, but it can unlock dramatically cheaper prices on all airlines. These prices are not usually available to you, with research showing that VPN users regularly save an average of £130 per flight.
This clever travel trick works because many airline companies, search engines, and booking sites serve up different rates based on a whole host of information on you – like the country you’re based in when you visit its website. Some brands go as far as to drill down on the specific geographic region within each nation to tweak airline ticket prices.
“Why are airlines and flight comparison sites so bothered where I am?” you might be wondering.
It’s because these companies use location data – with a slew of other signals gleaned from your browsing habits, web browser, and device – to dynamically alter the prices shown on-screen.
For example, if you’re visiting a flight search engine or airline website from a country with a high average income, you could see higher prices. Other factors, like demand in the country and the home countries of airlines, can also impact the price of international flights.
With a few taps, VPNs can make it appear as if you’re located in any country on the planet. That makes these applications a superb way to find cheaper flights you wouldn’t ordinarily see.
The best VPN will offer a stable, speedy connection and a wide choice of server locations dotted across the planet. That means you’ll be able to browse as normal – all while spoofing your location to appear as if you’re located in different countries around the globe.
And that’s not all, sign-up for a longer contract and you’ll enjoy up to a 69% discount on your subscription. ExpressVPN has 24/7 customer service and offers a 30-day no-quibbles money-back guarantee, which essentially functions like a free trial.
Dynamic pricing from airlines can work to your advantage …or it can cost you a small fortune (Image: GETTY)
ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers found in 94 countries worldwide, so no matter what airline you’re trying to book with, or where you trying to book flights from …you should be able to lower prices by switching between dozens of VPN locations.
There’s more detail on ExpressVPN and some of its closest competition below.
We’ve also got information on how VPNs work, instructions on how to use a VPN for cheaper flights, the best locations for low-cost flights, and whether it’s legal to use a VPN to find cheap flights. Scroll down for our complete guide to the ultimate cheap flight VPN or use the links above to immediately jump to the relevant section.
How to get cheaper flights with a VPN
Unlocking cheaper flights with a VPN is incredibly simple. We’ve broken down the process into a few easy-to-follow steps below.
Launch your chosen VPN – we’d recommend ExpressVPN – on the device you want to use to book flights
Next up, choose a location
As soon as your traffic is successfully routed via a different country, clear the cookies in your web browser
And that’s it
Navigate to your favourite booking site, comparison tool, or airline website and start searching for flights
We’ve got a little more detail on each point below.
First of all, you don’t need to worry about which device you’re planning to use to book tickets. After all, the best VPNs all offer dedicated apps for all of your favourite gadgets, including Windows PCs, Mac, laptops and desktops, Android tablets and iPads, iPhone, Android, Google Chrome web browser, Fire TV Stick, as well as Wi-Fi routers so that every single device that connects to your home internet will be routed via the secure VPN connection.
When it comes to choosing a server location …things get a little tricky. Unfortunately, there’s no single country that always guarantees the cheapest flight deals, so you’re going to have to experiment a little bit. However, if you’re flying with a flag carrier – like Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, Air Canada, Qatar Airways, and others – it might be advantageous to locate yourself in that country. Likewise, if you’re flying from an airport abroad, local rates might differ.
Keep in mind some of the data that booking services take into consideration when tweaking their pricing.
With a few taps, you can change your IP address and feign being in another location (Image: EXPRESSVPN)
Clearing your browser cookies is a crucial part of the process.
There’s no point going to all the trouble of manually changing your IP address, only for the prices to remain consistent because the cookies stored in your Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge have kept a record of how many times you’ve checked a particular route, your online shopping habits, and more.
You’ll need to clear your cookies every time that you switch to a new server location, otherwise, there’s no way to be sure that airline prices shown on-screen are not a reflection of your browsing history rather than your current country.
Another useful tip – if you want to switch to another VPN server location, you’ll need to clear the cookies stored in your browser each time. Keep screenshots (Ctrl + PrtScn on Windows, Shift-Command-3 on Mac, Side button + Volume Up on iPhone, Power button + Volume Down on Android) of the different prices so you can keep a record of how much ticket prices have changed, especially since there are a few steps each time you want to switch back to check at another location.
Why are flights cheaper with a VPN?
Airlines don’t typically set an RRP – Recommended Retail Price – for their flights in the same way that, say, an iPhone or a car has a price tag set by the manufacturer.
Instead, airlines are constantly tweaking the price of routes based on the demand, events taking place at that time (half terms, festivals, concerts, etc), the location where you’re visiting its booking system, the location of its planes, and much more.
As mentioned above, airlines and booking sites use your IP address – the number every device is assigned when it connects to the internet – to identify the brand and model of your device, your operating system, and your location to dynamically alter the prices too.
This information is used to influence the prices shown on-screen. For example, the travel website Orbitz admitted to showing more expensive hotel rooms to those visiting its service from a Mac over a Windows PC since the former tends to cost more money (and therefore suggests a higher income)
It’s widely rumoured that cookies, software that tracks your movements around the web, are also used to adjust price tags. Although a number of the biggest travel search engines and booking sites deny this practice, anecdotally, users often report that plane and train tickets rise in cost when revisiting a previously-visited listing to book at a later time.
There are a number of reasons to use a VPN …but a discount on your next flight is a nice bonus (Image: GETTY)
As mentioned above, location (determined by your IP address) is another factor that can impact pricing. For example, if you’re visiting a website from a country with a high average income, you’re likely to see higher prices. Other geographical factors – like the level of demand in the country and where the airline is based – can also influence the prices listed.
Many of these techniques were publicly confirmed for the first time in 2018 when airline revenue management software firm PROS revealed that its clients rely on dynamic pricing structures – using indicators like user location, previous flight data, shopping trends, and more to tailor individual flight prices. This confirmed suspicions that prices differed from customer to customer. Popular airlines such as Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Emirates, Southwest, and many more rely on PROS.
The practice was also revealed in research published in October 2016 by Consumer Reports which showed that across nine of the top travel search sites “42 pairs of different prices on separate browsers for the same sites retrieved simultaneously.”
Is there a VPN flight discount that applies the moment you load up one of these apps? No, of course not.
‘A VPN should be at the top of everyone’s travel packing list’
Using a VPN to create an encrypted tunnel to funnel all of your web traffic so that it’s hidden from criminals, trackers, and advertisers will not lower the cost of flights.
But the ability for VPNs to re-route encrypted web traffic via servers dotted across the globe can unlock cheaper flights. Of course, you’d have the same impact on prices by travelling to different countries, opening your laptop, connecting to a local Wi-Fi network, and booking a flight from there… it’s just that that would be a lot more expensive as you’d need to factor in the cost of all of that travel (and that’s literally what we’re trying to reduce!)
In comparison to that, the best VPN deals are incredibly affordable.
Research from ExpressVPN has shown that, on average, its users save around £130 per flight. Speaking about this phenomenon, Harold Li, Vice President at ExpressVPN told us: “A VPN should be at the top of everyone’s travel packing list. It’s essential for protecting the privacy of your daily digital life, so you can use the questionable free wifi in the hotel with less security stress. Our research into airline and hotel bookings has also confirmed that the travel benefits of VPNs can extend to much earlier in the vacation planning process. Choosing a different server location can provide a notable advantage when making travel plans, in some instances allowing people to save money on their vacation budgets and avoid price discrimination.”
What is a VPN?
Chances are, you’re familiar with the term “VPN” …but what does it actually mean? Well, in a very literal sense, VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”, but that likely doesn’t make things much clearer.
A VPN adds an extra layer of protection to everything you do online by encrypting your data.
Without a VPN, the information sent between your device and the website you’re using is like a postcard – everything is clearly visible as it travels to its final destination. The encrypted tunnel for your online traffic created by a VPN is like a sturdy, triple-padlocked envelope around the metaphorical postcard. It means that only you and the intended recipient can see the information.
VPNs route all of your internet traffic via an encrypted tunnel – keeping everything private (Image: EXPRESSVPN )
This protection works regardless of whether you’re connected via Wi-Fi, ethernet, at home, or in using a public Wi-Fi network in a coffee shop or airport. Since all of your data is encrypted, your online activity will be completely hidden – like Incognito Mode mode on Google Chrome, but cranked up to 11.
As well as the huge boost to privacy, this has other perks too.
If your broadband provider places restrictions on certain types of internet traffic (this is quite common when connected to Wi-Fi networks in coffee shops or University campuses) this can be avoided by masking the nature of your web traffic with a VPN.
But the biggest single perk of using a VPN is the ability to manually change your IP address, which contains information about your current location. This allows you to spoof your location to countries around the world. This allows you to access sites and services that aren’t usually available in your country, unlock new shows and films on streaming services, and access cheaper flights when booking your next trip.
Is it legal to use a VPN for cheap flights?
Using a VPN to re-route your traffic to different server locations around the world is not illegal in the UK. In fact, most company laptops provided to employees working from home likely ship with a VPN installed to protect sensitive information.
VPNs have been an essential part of day-to-day life for enterprise or government workers for years but, as we rely on the internet for more tasks in our daily lives, these apps are becoming increasingly common with individuals to enhance their privacy, bolster streaming, and unlock cheap flights.
There are only 10 countries in the world where VPNs are outlawed
VPNs aren’t legal everywhere. At the time of writing, there are 10 countries in the world where VPNs are specifically outlawed: China, Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Iraq, Turkey, UAE, and Oman.
Other countries have certain rules around VPNs that undermine the ability of VPN providers to maintain a quality VPN service with servers in the country. For example, in 2022, the Indian government ordered VPN companies operating in the country to start collecting and storing user data. In some cases, VPN companies may be compelled to share this information with the authorities.
If you’re travelling to any of these, you might want to uninstall the app from your device. Anywhere else on the planet, you’re allowed to connect to the internet using a VPN.
That said, it’s worth checking the Terms and Conditions of each service that you intend to use with your VPN to ensure that you aren’t breaking any of its rules. For example, streaming boxsets, live television, and movies from BBC iPlayer is restricted to those located within the UK who are covered with a television licence – with the use of VPNs to unblock the streaming service from mainland Europe, the USA, and elsewhere, specifically called-out are against its T&Cs in the small print.
It’s the responsibility of the user to check whether using a VPN with your favourite airline companies, booking tools, flight search engines and comparison sites is outlawed.
Best VPN for cheaper flights
If you’re searching for best VPN to find discounts and deals on flight prices that you wouldn’t usually be able to access …look no further than ExpressVPN.
This nifty software is already ranked in the Gold Medal position in our in-depth guide to the best VPN and earned the full five stars in our ExpressVPN review, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that this superb service is our recommendation for travellers.
ExpressVPN has a minuscule impact on download speeds – perfect for those without the fastest home broadband connection – despite connecting to far-flung server locations on the other side of the planet. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you join risk-free and receive a full refund if you’re unhappy with the service. It’s essentially a free trial.
For a limited time, ExpressVPN customers can enjoy 48% off their subscription, with 3 free months of the service bundled for free. As such, you can get 15 months for the cost of just 12.
Need more detail? Our in-depth ExpressVPN review has all of the answers.
2024 was one of the best years in memory for the Western genre. There were excellent and accurate Westerns like The Dead Don’t Hurt, The Settlers, and The Thicket, expensive, bloated epics like Horizon: An American Saga, fun genre-benders like The Last Stop at Yuma County and Place of Bones, and interesting true stories like End of the Rope and The Night They Came Home. It seems like the trend is continuing, with the first great series of 2025 being a barn-storming historical Western with unforgettable performances. American Primeval is a phenomenal Netflix series with enough action, intrigue, history, and artistry to please nearly everybody.
Feeling like a mix between The Searchers, Deadwood, A Fistful of Dollars, and The Revenant (which was also written by Mark L. Smith), American Primeval has a large cast spread out across multiple storylines that all intersect in fascinating ways. Jacques Jouffret’s cinematography oscillates between brutal intimacy with the series’ characters and staggeringly beautiful compositions of nature, which iterates one of the show’s main themes — how violence and civilization are connected. People say January is the throw-away month of the year, where films and television go to die, but American Primeval will surely remain one of the best shows of 2025.
The Dangerous West of Utah’s Frontier, 1857
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A mother and son fleeing from their past form a found family while confronting a harsh landscape of freedom and cruelty in the American West.
A brilliantly constructed narrative that connects various members of the great ensemble to tell a distinctly American story.
Surprising and vicious action that’s filmed and choreographed with precision.
Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, and Kim Coates are specifically excellent in unforgettable roles.
A fascinating study of the intersections between religion, civilization, culture, and morality.
American Primeval begins with a simple quest — Sara Rowell (the inimitable Betty Gilpin) and her son Devin (Preston Mota) are traveling through the turbulent frontier to reconnect with her husband. Her first guide is murdered, and the next one, an enigmatic loner named Isaac (Taylor Kitsch), turns down her offer at first.
Sara and Devin eventually team up with a caravan of Mormons headed to Utah, a territory which the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) has taken over under the leadership of Brigham Young (a terrific Kim Coates). Unbeknownst to them, a mute young Indigenous girl named Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) has snuck into their wagon, running away after killing her sexually predatory father.
Netflix is loaded with several highly anticipated series next month.
The choice to ride with the Mormons will catch Sara and Devin in a vast web of death, lies, and politics. It’s 1857, and tensions are rising between the rebellious Mormons (seeking territorial autonomy) and the American government, leading to the Utah War. Unfortunately, Sara and Devin joined the wagon train headed to a temporary settlement that would become the location of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. American Primeval follows the few people who survive this awful incident (filmed with visceral gusto) — Sara, Devin, and Two Moons; Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) and his soon-to-be-captured wife, Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon); and Isaac, who sees it all and helps Sara, Devin, and Two Moons escape.
The Silent Taylor Kitsch and the Suspicious Betty Gilpin
Kitsch is honestly badass in the kind of role we’ve seen before (a solitary man of few words, with a mysterious past, incredible fighting skills, and surprising connections), but he brings a ton of soul and anger (and eventually vulnerability) to the role of Isaac. His journey with Sara and Devin makes up some of the most thrilling parts of American Primeval, taking them through snowy forests, hidden caves, vast plains, and Native American villages. Every action scene he’s in is fantastic.
The actress, who stars in the upcoming drama Three Women, explains why her former Peacock comedy thriller struck a chord.
Betty Gilpin matches his intensity with a sly, emotional performance of great gravity. Sara, too, has a mysterious past, one which quickly compromises and threatens Isaac’s life, binding them together. Gilpin does fierce physical work here, and manifests the very kind of desperation for survival that American Primeval captures so well. In a sense, she is civilization personified, with a sophisticated artifice and a logical pursuit of safety and comfort, but morally compromised and building her life upon violence.
The Conflict Between Religion and Civilization Paints the Snow Red with Blood
Elsewhere in American Primeval, we follow the perpetrators of the massacre — a group of violent Mormons (and some Indigenous people they hired to help them). See, a decade prior in Illinois, the LDS church faced a major crisis after their founder, Joseph Smith, was accused of perjury and polygamy. He declared martial law and ordered the Mormon militia (the Nauvoo Legion) to ‘keep the peace,’ which resulted in the State of Illinois arresting Smith on charges of treason. Smith was then killed by an angry mob of people who were sick of living among Mormons.
And so, after a schism in the church, new leader Brigham Young led the Mormons to Utah to establish their own little Eden. Their demand for complete autonomy and refusal to accept federal laws led to a rift between them and the American government, and fears of persecution led to the Nauvoo Legion exterminating many settlers, soldiers, and others who crossed their land. This very specific historical moment (and what it says about faith, morality, and civilization) helps make American Primeval stand out from similar gritty Westerns.
In American Primeval, Brigham Young is brilliantly portrayed by Kim Coates as an intimidating paranoiac who preaches peace but quietly works with his militia to eliminate any perceived threats. The wagon trail that Sara and Devin were part of enters the Mormons’ crosshairs as a result, and the Nauvoo Legion stages the massacre to look like it was perpetrated by Native Americans.
Joe Tippett is fantastic as James Wolsey, a Mormon man leading a militia of others who absolutely don’t share Christ’s message of peace and turning the other cheek. He’s caught in a difficult situation. Brigham Young realizes that there are survivors from their massacre and tasks Joe with hunting them down and taking them out so that nothing traces back to the Mormons. Unfortunately, two of the survivors were Mormons themselves. Dane DeHaan gives a painful performance as a devout Mormon who survives a scalping without realizing that the LDS church was responsible. His journey with James Wolsey and the Nauvoo Legion to try and find his wife is fraught with tension and uncertainty.
Netflix’s new limited series is set in the Old West, but it’s much more than a Western, says star Kim Coates, who plays Brigham Young.
Incredibly Intense & Immersive Action Filmmaking
Another thing which distinguishes American Primeval from other Westerns is its dynamic camerawork and direction. Peter Berg directs every episode, and it’s probably his best work to date. Berg is known for his big (and basic) action dramas, but he’s usually very focused on the dramatic arc of a main character. For his past five films, that main character has been played by Mark Wahlberg, but Hancock is another great example.
In American Primeval, he’s taken the scope and production value of those films and filtered them through the aesthetically diverse and emotionally captivating approach he’s taken to directing television (The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights). The result is something that’s accessible to the mainstream but frequently surprising in its boldness and vision.
YouTube has a great selection of classic Westerns you can watch for free.
Berg is aided by his previous collaborators, the great post-rock band Explosions in the Sky, who provide a thrilling score. Director of photography Jacques Jouffret (another previous Berg collaborator) works in tandem with the score and direction, creating unforgettable shots through bizarre angles and framing. With editors Hugo Diaz, Jon Otazua, Art Jones, and Jeffrey M. Werner, Jouffret constructs incredible action sequences that feel like 360-degree immersions into chaos. It’s even better whenever Kitsch is involved.
Don’t Believe the Cynics: This Is a Unique Western Experience
While some will groan that we’ve seen all this before, pointing to Deadwood, The Proposition, The Nightingale, and other Westerns, American Primeval really is different if you consider the elements of its narrative. The series explores notions of autonomy (for a woman, a church, a tribe), locating the inherent violence of that autonomy and how it intersects and clashes with civilization, the family unit, state and federal governments, and organized religion. All of these things are formative aspects of the transition between the Wild West and modern America, bifurcated by the Civil War, which looms on the horizon of American Primeval like a foreboding omen.
Ferocious entertainment on the surface but deep to dig into, the series is great evidence for why Westerns remain popular and vital to our cultural history. American Primeval begins streaming on Netflix today, Jan. 9, 2025. Watch it through the link below:
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Squid Game season 2!With Squid Game season 3 confirmed to be on the way in 2025, the Netflix show’s final season is shaping up to be very different due to the twist involving Lee Byung-hun’s Front Man. Masquerading as a regular competitor, the Front Man thrust himself into the games among the other Squid Game season 2 players under the moniker of Player 001. Although the audience is aware of the deception throughout, Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun is still unaware of the truth by the end of Squid Game season 2. So, Gi-hun’s revelation will deeply impact Squid Game season 3’s story.
Although the show’s latest season continued to revolve around the deadly games, there were still plenty of twists in Squid Game season 2 to keep viewers on their toes. Some of the unexpected plot developments were entirely original to the show’s second season, but others had been repurposed for the story’s continuation and were already pretty familiar. In the case of the Player 001 twist, the latter is true. Therefore, Squid Game season 3 risks becoming predictable if it’s not careful.
Squid Game Season 3 Can’t Repeat The First Two Seasons’ Plant Player Twist
Il-nam & the Front Man have now both inserted themselves into the games as Player 001
Although it unfolded the twist in clear view of the audience this time around, planting the Front Man as an undercover player in Squid Game season 2 is the same twist as Player 001’s true identity in Squid Game season 1. In the show’s inaugural season, Oh Il-nam (O Yeung-su) turned out to be the tournament’s founder, who was seeking excitement one last time as he succumbed to a terminal illness, and he was Player 001 that year.
Throwing another disguised player into the mix for Squid Game season 3 would feel predictable and repetitive.
Three years later, when Gi-hun returned to the island to try and take down the Front Man and end the games, Lee Byung-hun’s character filled a very similar role to Il-nam. Just as Il-nam was, the Front Man is a senior figure in the criminal organization. Although there is the major difference of the Front Man taking a specific interest in Gi-hun and actively trying to deceive him and break his spirit, throwing another disguised player into the mix for Squid Game season 3 would feel predictable and repetitive.
Will The Front Man Reveal Himself As “Young-il” To Gi-hun In Season 3?
The Front Man hasn’t yet removed his mask around Gi-hun
The Front Man falsely introduces himself as “Oh Young-il” in Squid Game season 2. So, there is no reasonable way for Gi-hun to make the connection between his impostor of an ally and the villain Lee Jung-jae’s character is seeking out. The Squid Game season 2 finale ends with Gi-hun coming “face-to-face” with his nemesis once more, but this time the man calling himself Oh Young-il is back in his mysterious black mask. It remains to be seen if the Front Man will share the extent of his deception, and whether he’ll let Gi-hun know that he’s been deceived.
The Front Man’s real name is Hwang In-ho.
The Front Man removing his mask in front of Gi-hun would hugely impact another possible storyline for Squid Game season 3. If Gi-hun were to be returned to the games and forced to finish the tournament, the Front Man revealing his true identity would make it pretty much impossible for Lee Byung-hun to continue to compete and psychologically manipulate Gi-hun. So, what is perhaps more likely is that the Front Man delays removing his mask in front of Gi-hun. This way, he can maintain his cover and return both himself and Gi-hun to the dormitories ready for the next game.
Squid Game Season 3 Will Be Unlike Anything We’ve Seen From The Show So Far
There is still half a tournament to go when the Netflix show returns
Squid Game season 1 was essentially a self-contained narrative. It had to introduce several concepts for the story to be easily followed, but it did so efficiently and allowed the events to breathe. Squid Game season 2 began very differently, and Gi-hun’s motivations for competing in the games were drastically different this time around, but the tournament itself and the recruitment process remained largely the same. There were also shades of the same blueprint from the show’s inaugural run. Ahead of Squid Game season 3, audiences should expect a very different experience.
A bunch of the new characters for Squid Game season 2 have their own unique behaviors, but a specific quirk is lost if the Korean audio isn’t chosen.
Squid Game season 3 is essentially just the second half of season 2’s story. So, events will presumably pick up where they left off. When the show returns in 2025, the tournament will still be active, and there are three games left to be played before a winner can be decided. Additionally, the victor of the games will have a huge impact on the tournament’s future. If Gi-hun succeeds in winning and also taking down the Front Man, it would be difficult to imagine the contest continuing beyond the events of Squid Game‘s final season.
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In Squid Game, a mysterious invitation to join a competition is sent to people at risk who are in dire need of money. Four hundred fifty-six participants from all walks of life are locked into a secret location where they play games to win 45.6 billion won. Games are selected from traditional Korean children’s games, such as Red Light and Green Light, but the consequence of losing is death. To survive, competitors must choose their alliances carefully – but the further they go in the competition, the more likely betrayal will rear its ugly head.
The Lakers were again buried under an avalanche of Cleveland Cavaliers three-pointers, the spacing and the gaps on the court pulling the Lakers’ defense to all corners before it eventually snapped under tension.
The result was the same, but the process and team the Cavaliers beat 122-110 Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena in the final game of 2024 was fundamentally different from the one they blew out on Oct. 30 in Cleveland.
The version of the Lakers that got smoked in Cleveland was the one trying to get the most out of a formula that had shown it has a ceiling, losing to the Denver Nuggets during the previous two postseasons. It was one that hoped a core of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell paired with a new coach could find another gear, another level.
This week the Lakers decided that vision wouldn’t end well. This week the Lakers, at the very least, fundamentally changed.
Laker Austin Reaves drives to the basket against the Cavaliers during the fourth quarter at Crypto.com Arena Tuesday.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
While the team with the NBA’s best record swatted every Lakers push away, usually with some combination of backbreaking threes from Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley or reserve Max Strus, the Lakers showed glimpses of the ways they’ll be different. For better or worse? That remains to be seen.
Reaves, again seeing his volume of shots spike with Russell now playing for the Brooklyn Nets, led the Lakers with 35 points and 10 assists, bouncing back from a bad first shift. Davis had 28 points and 13 rebounds. And James, playing for the first time since turning 40, scored 23.
But Cleveland took 11 more threes than the Lakers and made nine more. They scored 24 points off offensive rebounds to the Lakers’ 12. And, despite playing Monday in San Francisco, they set the tempo and physicality early as the Lakers quickly trailed by double digits.
Dorian Finney-Smith played 21 minutes in his Lakers debut, scoring on a putback dunk but coming up empty on his other three shots. Shake Milton, playing because guard Gabe Vincent missed Tuesday’s game because of an oblique injury, hit a pair of threes in 10 minutes, but the Lakers’ second unit without Russell was badly outscored 32-12.
Cleveland (29-4), looking very much like a fully-formed team as the calendar flips over to 2025, managed to have five players with at least 15 points led by 27 by Jarrett Allen.
“We certainly had our chances. And I really believe this against teams as good as Cleveland: You have to play close to perfect basketball,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “They’re not gonna let you beat them. They’re not gonna beat themselves.”
The way forward for the Lakers seems like it’s going to have a lot to do with Reaves, the backcourt leader and primary ballhandler in Redick’s offense. That shift, which looked fully realized for the first time in a Christmas win against the Golden State Warriors, got cemented with a 26-point, 16-assist game against the Sacramento Kings that helped the Lakers decide it was OK to trade Russell for Finney-Smith and Milton.
Tuesday, the Lakers got off to a pretty rough start, with Reaves turning the ball over three times in the first six minutes on offense and committing a pair of bad fouls on defense, the Cavaliers going up by as many as 15 in the first quarter.
Laker Rui Hachimura has the ball stripped away by Cavalier Max Struss, right, as Sam Merrill tries to grab the ball at Crypto.com Arena Tuesday.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
“Are you saying I was bad in the first five minutes?” Reaves said in response to a question about his start. “[Because] yeah, I was. Great question. You make good plays, you make bad plays. Unfortunately, I came out and made some really bad plays.
“And I knew that, if we wanted to claw our way back into it and give ourselves an opportunity, then I had to be better.”
He was — he had only one more turnover, tied his career high for points and finished one rebound shy of a triple-double.
“He’s gonna get a lot of opportunities to play on and off ball with actions on it in both ways,” Redick said. “There’s a nature to his game that you have to be willing to live with some of his stuff because of the way he attacks and the change of pace and the quick decisions and the quick bursts, like there’s gonna be some of that and you have to live with that. It’s sort of the unforced stuff [where he] will grow.”
His teammates say they’re on board.
“What’d he have, 36 tonight? 35? … looked good to me,” Davis said. “He’s a hooper. I mean obviously he has a little bit more on his plate with ballhandling responsibilities when Gabe is out and when LeBron is out of the game, but he’s used to it. He’s been in the league long enough now where he knows how to run the point guard position. So it’s going to be more reps. He’s ready for it, and we got the utmost confidence in him to run the point.”
The Lakers, an organization not built on moral victories, left their locker room knowing that a couple of open threes that that rattled in and out might’ve made a difference. There were other issues — namely on defense, where the Lakers were too often out of position and too late to challenge at the three-point line and at the rim. And they were not good enough there to make up for the disadvantage their three-point volume and disparity created.
“Well, we just got to defend. I mean, obviously, we could shoot more threes, but our key to winning will be the defense. And [if] we’re not going to shoot more threes, than we have to defend, which we’ve been doing as of late,” Davis said. “I don’t think we need to jack more threes just to compete with other teams. If our defense is there, we’re running teams off the line, holding them into one shot. We did our job and now we go down and try to score.”
The Lakers think they have the blueprint to start winning games like this, to put themselves in the right positions by the end of the season. Of course, they’ve thought it before too — and they just decided that version of the roster isn’t good enough.
These Lakers (18-14) weren’t good enough either Tuesday. But, as with Reaves, there’s time and room to grow.
“We’re trending in the right direction. Tonight was a good night for us. We just missed a ton of shots. Wide-open looks that we missed. We make half of those, it’s a different game. So, I like where our ballclub is,” Davis said. “… I think we could definitely be better on both ends of the floor, but I’m not disappointed where we are right now.”
Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal and his agent have had no talks about waiving his no-trade clause and his only focus is helping the team climb out of its recent slump, agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPN.
The Suns have been linked to Jimmy Butler after the Miami Heat suspended him and announced they would seek trade options last week. That led to speculation and reports that Beal could be involved.
The situation drew more attention Monday when Suns coach Mike Budenholzer, in an unexpected change, decided to move Beal to the bench to jump-start the team after it had lost 17 of its past 24 games.
“There have been no discussions about trades with the Suns or any other team,” Bartelstein said. “Bradley’s total focus is on helping the Suns turn things around.”
Bartelstein said Beal, who has two years and $110 million left on his contract after this season, would never give up the no-trade clause he got when he signed a five-year, $251 million contract with the Washington Wizards in 2022.
Because of trade restrictions for being a second apron team because of its $216 million payroll, Phoenix would have no functional way to acquire Butler unless it used Beal as part of the trade.
Bartelstein did not rule out possibly of waiving the clause for an approved deal, as Beal did in 2023 when he was traded to the Suns, if a “perfect” situation came up. But that action is not currently under consideration, Bartelstein reiterated.
Beal played 31 minutes off the bench Tuesday, scoring 10 points with five assists in a 115-104 loss in Charlotte to drop the Suns to 16-19 on the season. He scored 25 points off the bench Monday in the win in Philadelphia. He is averaging 17.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
We’ve all seen the tickets. The bettor who places a small wager in January with a parlay filled with a number of cross-sport champions. As the year progresses and championships are lost, some of those tickets emerge on social media as a few lucky bettors gets closer to a big payout.
But let’s be clear: it’s highly unlikely that these bets hit, and that’s the general expectation with most parlays. They’re about dreaming big, making predictions, having the receipts to back them up and having the answer to the question that inevitably gets asked when the improbable happens… what were the odds?
So with the CFP semifinals upon us and the NFL playoffs set to begin, we’ve got championship parlays on our mind. From the Super Bowl to the Stanley Cup to the Wanamaker trophy, every title for 2025 is up for grabs. We asked our betting team for their top picks for each sport and, just for fun, a parlay with as many champions as they’d like to create a wager to root for all year long. Here’s what they came up with.
All odds as of time of publication. Latest odds available on ESPN BET
College Football Playoff National Championship (Jan. 20)
Should Ohio State be the betting favorite to win the CFP?
Pamela Maldonado explains why she likes Ohio State to not only beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl, but also win the entire College Football Playoff.
Pamela Maldonado’s CFP bet: Ohio State Buckeyes (-145) The Buckeyes have been playing at an elite level. They’re dominating their playoff opponents with a potent offense, led by quarterback Will Howard and freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith, while their defense is the best in the country in limiting scores. It’s a lethal combo.
Maldonado’s 2025 parlay:
College Football: Ohio State (-145)
Tennis: Novak Djokovic to win Australian Open (+350)
Golf: Will Zalatoris to win Masters (+3300)
Three-leg parlay odds: +25752 Payout: $10 bet wins $2,575.20
Ben Solak’s NFL championship bet: Minnesota Vikings (+1400) The Vikings fell from +800 to +1400 to win the Super Bowl now that they must play three road games instead of two home games after their Week 18 loss to the Lions, but I’m still confident they’re one of the best three teams in the NFC playoff field. I like how they match up against the Eagles in a potential contest between the two, and if they draw the Lions a third time, I have to imagine they’ve learned plenty from those two losses. It’s a tough climb from the wild-card round to the Super Bowl, but the Vikings are the first 14-win wild card we’ve ever seen. They could absolutely get it done.
Solak’s 2025 parlay:
NFL: Minnesota Vikings (+1400)
College Football: Notre Dame (+450)
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers (+900)
Three-leg parlay odds: +82400 Payout: $10 bet wins $8,240
Seth Walder’s NFL championship bet: Detroit Lions (+300) If there’s a single lesson I’m taking away from 2024, it’s that coaching matters. A lot. And given how hot Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has been all year, I want to back the Lions offense in the postseason even with the team seriously banged up on the other side of the ball. And defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn had that unit finish strong against the Vikings, anyway.
Walder’s 2025 parlay:
NFL: Detroit Lions (+300)
PGA: Collin Morikawa to win U.S. Open (+1400)
F1: Charles Leclerc to win Driver’s Championship (+450)
Three-leg parlay odds: +32900 Payout: $10 bet wins $3,290
Men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournament (April 6 and 7)
Dalen Cuff’s NCAA championship bets: Florida Men (+1200) and Notre Dame Women (+425) There are no great teams in Men’s college hoops this year, but a lot of really good ones that can win the title. Florida has three elite guards (Walter Clayton Jr, Alijah Martin and Will Richard) along with a mix of bigs who protect the rim, crush the offensive glass and can step outside and make 3s. The Gators are great value for a team that I think will improve as they go through the gauntlet of the SEC schedule.
Notre Dame has two of the 10 best guards in the country in Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, who continues to improve coming back from last year’s season-ending knee surgery. They’ve been tested in the nonconference, will likely get a No. 1 seed as ACC conference champs and have the pedigree to cut down the nets in Tampa.
Cuff’s 2025 parlay:
NCAAM: Florida (+1200)
NFL: Buffalo Bills (+550)
NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder (+300)
UCL: Arsenal (+600)
EPL: Liverpool (-400)
LaLiga: Real Madrid (-120)
Six-pick parlay odds: +542108 Payout: $10 bet wins $54,210.83
UEFA Champions League Final (May 31)
play
2:11
What does Arsenal need to do to catch Liverpool?
Nedum Onuoha breaks down Arsenal’s recent fixtures and what the club needs to do to catch Liverpool at the top of the table.
Dan Thomas’ UEFA championship bet: Inter Milan (+1600) It is without a doubt one of the hardest Champions Leagues to call. Liverpool and Real Madrid will of course be in the mix, but if you want value, look no further than Inter, an experienced, talented side who are extremely difficult to beat.
Thomas’ 2025 parlay:
Four-bet parlay odds: +4352 Payout: $10 bet wins $445.24
Sean Allen’s Stanley Cup pick: Toronto Maple Leafs (10-1) All you want in a Stanley Cup pick is a team destined for the postseason because once the puck drops in the playoffs, it’s anybody’s trophy to win. This year, the Leafs are a different team under head coach Craig Berube, emphasizing a defense-first approach. They’ve also already weathered significant time missed by Auston Matthews. For a fun parlay, let’s bet that the celebrations won’t stop in Toronto.
Allen’s 2025 parlay:
Three-bet parlay odds: +31965 Payout: $10 bet wins $3,196.50
Victoria Matiash’s Stanley Cup pick: Vegas Golden Knights (12-1) Why not back the best team in the NHL (.716 winning percentage) to win it all next spring? Boasting a top-tier star in Jack Eichel, depth scoring, one of the league’s best defensive corps and a solid one-two punch between the pipes, Vegas should be considered the favorite to win its second Cup in three years. Even if the oddsmakers don’t peg it that way.
Matiash’s 2025 parlay:
NHL: Vegas Golden Knights (+1200)
EPL: Nottingham Forrest (+4000)
NFL: Green Bay Packers (+2000)
Three-bet parlay odds: +1119200 Payout: $10 bet wins $111,930
Eric Moody’s NBA championship pick: Cavaliers (10-1) The 29-4 Cavaliers are a legitimate title contender. Donovan Mitchell has the ability to take over any game, with solid role players around him and one of the most productive second units in the league. Having two bigs like Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen provides defensive dominance, strong rebounding, interior scoring and matchup flexibility, all of which are crucial in the postseason and set up the Cavs to take a run at the Celtics.
Moody’s 2025 parlay:
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers (+900)
NFL: Kansas City Chiefs (+350)
WNBA: Indiana Fever (+1000)
Three-bet parlay odds: +49400 Payout: $10 bet to win $4,940
Three-bet parlay odds: +3866200 Payout: $10 bet wins $386,620
Tristan H. Cockcroft’s World Series pick: Texas Rangers (25-1) Champions only two seasons ago, the Rangers’ 2024 was plagued by injuries, particularly on the pitching side. Still, the pieces for another title run are there, from MVP candidate Corey Seager to up-and-coming star Wyatt Langford to prospective staff ace Jacob deGrom, and the lineup remains strong. The team probably needs to bolster the pitching staff with some in-season trades, but they did that in 2023. For these odds, the Rangers look pretty enticing.
Cockcroft’s 2025 parlay:
MLB: Texas Rangers (+2500)
NFL: Buffalo Bills (+500)
Wimbledon (Men): Jack Draper (+1400)
Three-pick parlay odds: +233,900 Payout: $10 bet wins $23,390
2025 Golf Majors
Tournaments: The Masters, (April 6-13), PGA Championship (May 11-18), U.S. Open (June 7-15), The Open (July 13-20) Favorites (to win at least one Major):Scottie Scheffler (-130), Rory McIlroy (+175), Xander Schauffele (+175)
Anita Marks’ Major pick: Justin Thomas (+650) The past two seasons have been a roller-coaster ride for JT, but 2025 will be his year. His iron play is back and so is his confidence.
Marks’ 2025 parlay:
Golf: Justin Thomas to win a Major (+650)
College Football: Texas Longhorns (+475)
NFL: Philadelphia Eagles (+650)
NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder (+300)
Four-bet parlay odds: +332244 Payout: $10 bet wins $3,234.38
Dulce, a popular Mexican balladeer, soap star and TV personality known for the songs “Lobo,” “Tu Muñeca,” “Déjame Volver Contigo” and “Soy una Dama,” has died. She was 69.
The pop icon and “Siempre Reinas” reality star, whose name was Bertha Elisa Noeggerath Cárdenas, died Wednesday from health complications, according to the Associated Press. In early December, Dulce was admitted to a hospital in Mexico City for lung problems and underwent pleuropulmonary decortication surgery on Dec. 7, her team previously said. The procedure, also known as a pleurectomy, removes all or part of the thin membrane that surrounds the lungs as well as visible tumors from the chest cavity.
Her hospitalization came on the heels of her reluctantly postponing a series of concerts from her 2024 tour because of her health issues. She said in a Dec. 2 statement that she was treating a health condition that required care and rest.
“I am calm, in good hands and confident that I will soon be fully recovered,” she said in a Spanish-language statement at the time.
In a Christmas Day statement announcing her death Wednesday, Dulce’s family and team called her an exceptional artist and a wonderful person who left an indelible mark. The statement also asked the public to give them the space and understanding to grieve in privacy and peace during this difficult time.
Her sister, Isabel Noeggerath, also confirmed the singer’s death on Facebook, writing: “Sister, you are already with our mother in heaven singing to her, I will miss you, rest in peace, I love you.”
Dulce, one of Mexico’s famed female voices in the 1980s, made appearances on popular local TV shows and at international festivals and most recently starred in the Netflix reality show “Siempre Reinas.” She hailed from Matamoros, a city in the northern state of Tamaulipas and launched her career in Monterrey before moving to Mexico City. She started as a member of the band Toby y Sus Amigos in the 1970s, according to Remezcla, then teamed up with singer José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, better known by his stage name José José.
She won the top prize at the Mallorca Music Festival in 1978 with “Señor Amor,” which was composed by Armando Manzanero.
Dulce also starred in several Spanish-language soap operas, beginning with “Muñeca Rota” in 1978. She also starred in 1999’s “Mujeres Engañadas,” the early 2000s’ “Las Vías del Amor,” “Mundo de Fieras,” “Muchachitas Como Tú.” She made her feature film debut in 1984 with “No vale nada la vida” and more recently starred in the TV series “Vencer la Culpa” and “Vecinos” and in a few episodes of “Quiéreme Tonto.”
“Today we remember a woman who not only achieved her dreams, but also inspired generations with her voice, her passion and her determination,” said a Thursday post on her Instagram. The post also featured a retrospective of Dulce’s career. “With a career that transcended borders and genres, Dulce became one of the most emblematic voices that Mexico has given … But beyond her talent and her success, Dulce was a woman who taught us to believe in ourselves, to pursue our dreams and to never give up. Thank you, Dulce, for your music, your inspiration and your legacy.”
On Friday, a mass will be held in her honor at the Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexico City.
“We invite you to join us in paying tribute to her memory and praying for her soul. Her memory will always live in our hearts,” the Noeggerath Cárdenas, Mírcoli Noeggerath, González and Mírcoli families said.
The season three premiere of Celebrity Jeopardy! took an unexpected turn when all three contestants failed to identify Usher’s career-defining hit “Yeah!” during the Triple Jeopardy round.
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The question, featured in the category “2004, What a Year!,” prompted contestants with, “We got so caught up in this Usher song that it spent 12 weeks at the top of the charts.”
Max Greenfield (New Girl) responded first, incorrectly guessing, “What is ‘Caught Up?’” – a different Usher track from 2005. Camilla Luddington (Grey’s Anatomy) then followed with the incorrect “What is ‘All Caught Up?’”.
W. Kamau Bell (United Shades of America) chose not to respond, letting the timer expire. Bell later joked, “Feels so awkward to be the Black guy who doesn’t know the Usher song. I was listening to Rage Against the Machine at the time, sorry everybody.”
Released in January 2004, “Yeah!” was an instant cultural and commercial phenomenon. Featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, the single spent 12 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 45 weeks, becoming the longest-running No. 1 single of that year. It ranked No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songs of the Decade (2000–2009), second only to Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together,” as the top song of that decade.
The track served as the lead single from Usher’s fourth studio album, Confessions, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over 10 million copies in the U.S., earning a diamond certification from the RIAA. “Yeah!” also won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards and garnered widespread critical acclaim for its fusion of crunk and R&B.
“Yeah!” achieved global success, topping charts in over 12 countries and earning platinum certifications in markets such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Norway. In Australia, the song was certified 5× platinum by ARIA for selling 350,000 units. In 2024, the track achieved a milestone when it was certified 13× platinum by the RIAA, reflecting 13 million units sold in the U.S.
Its resurgence in popularity was further fueled by Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performance, which caused his overall Spotify streams to increase 550%. Specifically, “Yeah!” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris saw a 520% streaming boost following the performance. The Super Bowl performance was the most-watched halftime show in history, drawing 129.3 million viewers.
Later in the Celebrity Jeopardy! game, Bell redeemed himself by correctly answering a question about N.W.A.’s historic chart achievements.
