The docuseries that relives manmade and natural disasters ends its first season with survivors relating the horror story of the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in 2012, which generated worldwide headlines when the vessel sailed too close to an island off the Tuscany coast and struck a rock formation. During the rescue effort, 32 people died, including 27 passengers and five crew members, with a member of the salvage team dying later from injuries. Compounding the tragedy, the Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, left the ship early, abandoning hundreds of passengers. He would later be found guilty of manslaughter and sent to prison.
VH1
Wild ‘N Out
With improv games including “Let Me Holla” and “Kick ’em Out the Classroom,” the raucous music/comedy series hosted by Nick Cannon resumes its 21st season with back-to-back episodes featuring guests including rapper Jim Jones, American Idol alum Geena Fontanella and R&B group Dru Hill. Stay tuned for performances following the climactic Wildstyle freestyle rap battle.
Food Network
Worst Cooks in America
The cooking competition’s Season 29 season finale is especially poignant, because this was the last season filmed before celebrity chef Anne Burrell‘s untimely passing in June. She and fellow chef Gabe Bertaccini guide the finalists through a Shakespeare-inspired showdown before they embark on the ultimate challenge for kitchen amateurs: preparing a three-course meal worthy of being served in a restaurant.
Prime Video
The Runarounds
Hey, hey, it worked for The Monkees. Why not The Runarounds, a North Carolina rock band formed in 2021 by five local musicians—William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock and Jesse Golliher—during a casting call for the Netflix hit Outer Banks. Executive producer Jonas Pate liked what he heard, and now the band and its musicians are playing versions of themselves in a dramatic series about young rockers dreaming of success over an eventful summer. “I want to write love songs that change the world,” says one of the Runarounds. We’ll see what happens when Arista Records drops the soundtrack to coincide with the eight-episode series’ binge release.
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
American Ninja Warrior (8/7c, NBC): Following last week’s season finale, it’s the women’s turn, with 16 elite female ninjas navigating the obstacle course in head-to-head races to decide this year’s champion.
Tarzan, the Ape Man (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): To mark Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 150th birthday, TCM airs the first seven of Johnny Weismuller’s Tarzan films, starting with the 1932 origin story and continuing through 1943’s Tarzan Triumphs.
The Chrisleys: Back to Reality (8/7c, Lifetime): It’s hardly a surprise that reality-TV stars have no shame when it comes to craving the spotlight, but even by the genre’s icky standards, this comeback vehicle for the cloying and corrupt Todd and Julie Chrisley—convicted of bank and wire fraud and tax evasion, later pardoned by the president—marks a new low. Can Dancing With the Stars be far behind?
LEGO Masters Jr. (8/7c, Fox): The teams take on a Harry Potter challenge, building rooms for the Hogwarts Houses that are anything but common.
Ruby & Jodi:A Cult of Sin and Influence (9/8c, Investigation Discovery): A four-part true-crime docuseries, continuing Tuesday, dissects the toxic relationship between former mommy vlogger Ruby Franke and YouTube therapist Jodi Hilebrandt that led to charges of aggravated child abuse of two of Franke’s children.
Driver (10/9c, PBS): A documentary from POV profiles Desiree Wood, a long-haul trucker who leads a workers’-rights movement from the cab of her truck.
Irish Blood (streaming on Acorn TV): After discovering her late father’s hard drive, Fiona (Alicia Silverstone) begins to suspect his death wasn’t a suicide. You think?
Great Kills (streaming on Tubi): The mock-documentary dark comedy starring Steve Stanulis as a Staten Island hitman returns for a second season.
Ms. Rachel (streaming on Netflix): The popular YouTube children’s entertainer is back on the streamer with new episodes.
Get This In Your Inbox Every Day
Subscribe to our Matt’s Worth Watching newsletter:
When I think of iconic British brands, the likes of Burberry and Marks & Spencer come to mind. At the same time, Dr Martens (LSE:DOCS) is also on the list. The latter FTSE stock has struggled in recent years but has risen significantly in the past few months. Here are the main drivers behind it and why I believe the growth stock has further upside.
Getting the background information
For context, the Doc Martens share price has declined by 80% since the IPO in early 2021. A key driver behind this collapse has been a sharp weakening in US sales, where wholesale revenue suffered steep double-digit declines and order bookings slumped significantly. That prompted multiple profit warnings over the past few years, which have caused sharp declines in the share price on each announcement.
Decisions by management have also compounded problems. The opening of a new distribution centre in Los Angeles in 2023 created bottlenecks and elevated costs. This ended up costing the company millions and sapping operational efficiency. To make matters worse, inventory levels ballooned while net debt surged, pushing interest payments to consume as much as 25% of operating income.
However, with the stock up 25% over the past year and up 65% in three months, the winds of change could be picking up.
The direction from here
New CEO Ije Nwokorie has introduced a clear turnaround plan focused on addressing the core business issues. He’s said he’s putting the consumer first as part of his strategy. In practical terms, it aims to reduce over-reliance on boots and wholesale channels by expanding into shoes, sandals and leather goods.
Last year, the business put in place a £25m cost-saving programme. In the full-year results released in June, management confirmed that this target had been met. This, along with inventory reduction and more careful cash flow decisions, has helped slash net debt. The debt level as of the June results was £94.1m, down from the £177.5m from a year ago.
The biggest compliment I can pay the company is that management’s positioning itself for renewed growth rather than retrenchment. It acknowledges that, despite being a classic British brand with an iconic product, it needs to diversify and try new things to stay relevant. That’s one of the main reasons why I think the stock can keep going from here.
Don’t get me wrong, the US market remains an ongoing risk for the company, as do issues with fashion’s fickleness. But the company has now turned a page from the past few years, with a new CEO and a new game plan. Nwokorie’s clearly taking things seriously. As he mentioned in the latest report, he is “laser-focused on day-to-day execution, managing costs and maintaining our operational discipline while we navigate the current macroeconomic uncertainties”.
On the basis that the turnaround continues to yield results, I think it’s a stock for investors to consider buying.
It was a July evening when Elyse Pahler, 15, sneaked out her bedroom in the Central Coast town of Arroyo Grande, planning to get into some mischief. A boy from school had gotten her number from a friend and invited her to smoke weed in the woods near her family’s home.
The boy was Jacob Delashmutt, also 15, and he brought along two friends. Delashmutt and his schoolmates Royce Casey, 16, and Joseph Fiorella, 14, all shared a passion for death metal, and they formed their own band called Hatred.
One of their favorite groups was Slayer, a popular metal act that featured a song with lyrics about worshiping Satan and sacrificing a blonde, blue-eyed virgin.
Pahler fit that description as she walked to join the three metal heads that night in 1995. Three decades later, Delashmutt described what happened next to a state parole board.
Delashmutt, now 45, said that once they had smoked marijuana, he and the two other boys attacked Pahler when she was distracted by the sound of a passing car. He wrapped his belt around her neck, strangling her while Fiorella stabbed her and Casey held down her arms. Then they each took turns stabbing her with a 12-inch knife, according to his testimony, first in the neck then in the back and shoulders.
Casey told state parole officials this year that Pahler begged for her mother and Jesus before he stomped on the back of her neck. They had planned to violate her remains, Delashmutt testified to the parole board, but instead hid her body in the woods and fled the scene. She wasn’t found until eight months later, when Casey confessed to his pastor.
Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt and Joseph Fiorella pictured as teens after their arrest in March 1996. They were convicted of murdering Elyse Pahler, a teenage peer, in a satanic ritual. Casey and Delashmutt were released on parole recently, 30 years after the murder in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
(U.S. District Court for the Central District of California)
Today, two of the killers — including the admitted ringleader — are walking free after receiving parole. But the youngest of the group, Fiorella, remains behind bars despite claims that he is intellectually disabled and that his case was mishandled.
The releases of Casey and Delashmutt this year have come amid a surge of high-profile murder cases from the 1990s entering the parole process. Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted of killing their parents in 1989 as teens, were denied parole this month after a months-long resentencing effort.
Pahler’s murder occurred while the Menendez brothers were on trial, and the grisly killing of a young, white girl provoked a similar level of media frenzy. Prosecutors alleged the death-metal-obsessed teens had plotted to commit the murder as part of a “Satanic ritual.”
Pahler’s family has fought against letting out any of the men over the past decade, with her father, David, often bringing a picture of his daughter to show the parole board.
David Pahler told the board at a 2023 hearing that he believed Casey still lacked remorse, reading from a transcript of Casey’s journal taken when he was arrested in which the teen wrote about believing Satan had “taken my soul and replaced it with a new one to carry out his work on earth.”
“If you give up your soul to Satan, how do you get it back? How do you get it back? I — I don’t have an answer for that,” Pahler said, according to a transcript of the hearing.
Casey and Delashmutt pleaded no contest to first-degree murder in 1997, each receiving 25 years to life in prison. Fiorella, also charged with being armed with a deadly weapon, got 26 years to life. Since they became eligible for parole, their paths through the system have led to vastly divergent outcomes.
Casey was denied twice by the board, then approved in 2021 and 2023, only to have Gov. Gavin Newsom reverse the decision. Newsom argued Casey needed to do more work to ensure he would make healthy relationships outside prison and learn the “internal processes” that led him to kill Pahler.
Delashmutt was also denied twice by the parole board in 2017 and 2022 and once by the governor’s reversal in 2023. The rejections often referenced his tendency to shirk responsibility onto his co-defendants for his role in the murder.
Although Delashmutt was the one who called Pahler and invited her into the woods, at the time of his arrest he blamed the other two for orchestrating the murder and recruiting him to carry it out.
This year, however, Delashmutt told the parole board he was the “ringleader” of the group.
“I know that I am the most responsible for this crime. I had every opportunity to put a stop to it, and I didn’t. I was involved in the planning from the beginning and I made this crime happen. Elyse Pahler was safe in her home that night when she received a phone call from me,” Delashmutt said.
The teens were influenced by death metal music — specifically by Slayer — to channel their anger at the world into physical violence, Casey told the parole board.
“That music, especially Slayer, was all about suicide, murder, sacrifice. So, I started learning a specific way to express those things,” he said.
Pahler’s family unsuccessfully sued Slayer and its record company for its lyrics in 2001, claiming they incited her murder, but lost on 1st Amendment grounds.
Casey was released from Valley State Prison in early August to transitional housing in Los Angeles County, his lawyer told The Times. “Our legal system is not based on emotion,” his lawyer and prison advocate Charles Carbone said.
Despite what was “one of the most notorious crimes committed in San Luis Obispo County,” Carbone said, there has been an “enormous consensus” over the last few years among prison psychologists, the full parole board and the governor that Casey should go home.
Delashmutt, who was released in late July, didn’t believe he had a future when he was a teen, said parole hearing lawyer Patrick Sparks.
“His background was about a lot of poor decisions,” he said. “He started to change his life, and it gave him hope for the future again.”
Both apologized.
“I want to acknowledge all of the pain and the trauma that I’ve caused,” Delashmutt said. “It is impossible for me to understand the magnitude of the crime, the impact that it’s had on the Pahler family.”
Casey said he remembered how David Pahler often brought a picture of his daughter to the hearing.
“Something that I remember hearing over time when Elyse’s dad has come, is that she has a face. And I try to remember every day, whatever decision I’m making or whatever I do, that the ongoing impact of what I did is present all the time.”
Fiorella, unlike the other two men, has yet to participate openly in a parole hearing, according to hearing transcripts from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He waived attendance for a 2019 hearing, and, according to the transcripts, was advised by his lawyer, Dennis Cusick, not to speak or answer questions in his most recent hearing in 2023.
Cusick declined to comment on whether his client would attend or participate in an upcoming parole hearing scheduled for next year.
Court filings show Fiorella has long looked to overturn his conviction, arguing that a court-appointed defense attorney failed to give his due diligence prior to accepting the plea deal.
A complaint filed in the Central District of California in November 2023 argues that Fiorella’s first trial lawyer, David Hurst, waived a fitness hearing after receiving a neuropsychologist’s report that Fiorella was developmentally disabled and had an IQ score of 68, indicating a mild intellectual disability.
Hurst said in a 2020 deposition that he “felt that we would lose the fitness hearing and it would be a waste of time,” despite knowing about the report and other circumstances of Fiorella’s life, the complaint said.
Hurst was terminally ill at the time of his deposition, the complaint notes, and died by the end of the year before an evidentiary hearing.
Fiorella scored at just above an eighth-grade level on a basic education test, according to a transcript of his 2023 parole hearing. He earned a GED more than two decades prior, in 2002, but the parole board noted a report from a doctor who alleged he could not pass it and paid someone to take it for him.
Cusick argued to the parole board that Fiorella is still developmentally disabled and “is not the kind of person to take on a leadership role in anything.” The habeas corpus complaint repeatedly characterized a teenage Fiorella as a shy, quiet child who was teased by peers for being “slow.” It also challenged the idea that he orchestrated the murder, instead placing blame on Delashmutt.
Fiorella’s complaint has gone through several levels of state and federal courts, with most agreeing that the challenge to his conviction was years past the statute of limitations. Courts also said it was questionable whether the forgone fitness hearing, as his trial lawyer suggested, would have resulted in any action.
The complaint was dismissed and then appealed in March to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That case is awaiting an opening brief due in November.
Fiorella’s federal public defender, Raj Shah, did not respond to requests for comment.
In his 2023 hearing, a representative of the San Luis Obispo County district attorney’s office, Lisa Dunn, opposed Fiorella’s release, arguing he had not done the work necessary to prove he was ready for parole.
“Mr. Fiorella, frankly, is a dangerous individual,” Dunn said. “He’s been dangerous since he was 15, and there’s no evidence to support a finding that he’s less dangerous now.”
The most important event of the conquest of Peru was the conversion of Inca Atahualpa to Christianity. This act had immediate juridical consequences, since if the Inca converted and accepted the Catholic religion, his entire kingdom and subjects would do so as well.
Atahualpa’s conversion took place between November 16, 1532, and August 29, 1533, the date on which he was executed after a trial that found him guilty of murdering his brother Huáscar and of other acts of barbarity.
The Spanish Monarchy, and the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, devoted themselves passionately to the task of evangelizing the world and confronting the Muslim, who represented a constant political and economic threat.
The Ottoman Empire controlled the Mediterranean trade routes to the East, as well as the ports along the North African coast. The gigantic—and until then impossible—task of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to reach China, evangelize it, trade, and attack the Turk from the rear was carried out by Spain, with its faith in God and in the Catholic Church.
Eratosthenes, three centuries before the Christian era, had already speculated about the Earth’s diameter, but it was the Spaniards who confirmed it.
LA CONVERSIÓN DEL INCA ATAHUALPA El acontecimiento más importante de la conquista del Perú fue la conversación del Inca Atahualpa al cristianismo. Este acto tuvo consecuencias jurídicas inmediatas, pues si el Inca se convierte y acepta la religión católica, todo su reino y sus… pic.twitter.com/Ed49W7OEf4
Speculation is what differentiates us from animals; only humans possess it. In the end, it was not necessary to attack the Ottomans from the rear: the Spanish Monarchy defeated them at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
On the journey of the Catholic Monarchs’ enterprise, the Indies appeared in Columbus’s path, an event that changed the history of humanity and gave an unprecedented boost to Christianity, as well as to its enemies within.
The work of conquest and evangelization of the new territories was carried out according to the law.
The priest and the notary accompanied the soldier of the Tercio, whose military tradition went back to the Roman legions stationed in Hispania.
During his captivity, the Inca used to dine with Francisco Pizarro and play chess. Someone among Pizarro’s troops must have taught him. Perhaps it was Fray Vicente de Valverde, from Oropesa and Toledo, a Spanish nobleman, relative of Pizarro, of the Dominican Order and student at the University of Salamanca, where he studied under Francisco de Vitoria.
Fray Vicente was not just any priest; on the contrary, he was the best Europe could offer the world and, precisely, the one in charge of explaining the Gospel to the Inca.
The religion of the Inca nobility was not very far from Catholic doctrine: they had a single supreme god, the Sun, and, more importantly, Inca religion had a place where their god dwelled, the Hanan Pacha; the Kay Pacha, the world inhabited by the living; and the Uku Pacha, where life originates, with seeds and trees, and where the ancestors dwell and births are conceived.
It is the earthly paradise, from which one emerges to inhabit the Kay Pacha. It was not a difficult task for the Inca to understand the meaning of the Catholic Gospel, especially when observing how the Spanish soldiers knelt devoutly before the cross and before Valverde to receive communion.
It is also said that Atahualpa wept much during his process of conversion. This is not a sign of cowardice; noble is the one who weeps in recognizing his errors and sins.
Atahualpa had committed acts of extreme cruelty against his own brother and family, killing entire populations. “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). Valverde, the theologian, must have explained to him the value of repentance and forgiveness.
Fray Valverde would later become the first archbishop of Cuzco and of the Kingdom of Peru. That archbishopric, the one of Cuzco, extended from Tierra del Fuego to present-day Nicaragua.
Both the Inca nobility and that of the nations that collaborated with the Spanish conquest accepted the Catholic religion immediately.
The first buildings constructed in the Kingdom of Peru were churches, with engineering and design of Roman tradition and local, indigenous labor, who worked in the art of the viceregal churches of Peru.
The common Indian was the most devoted, since the Catholic Church elevated him, for the first time, to the level of a human being, created in the image and likeness of God.
It also told him that he could become a saint and, most importantly, that he was free; no one could enslave him. Queen Isabella the Catholic freed the Indians of the Americas.
The conquest of the Kingdom of Peru was carried out with the word of God, with the Bible. There were no great battles for power, because it continued to be held by the local nobles.
The structure of authority did not undergo major alterations; on the contrary, the local nobility joined in marriage with the European nobility, expanding its influence.
The Indians abandoned their idolatrous customs immediately, beginning to celebrate their patron saints with dances and European garments, which are still practiced and worn in daily life today.
Thus, the Kingdom of Peru, from Atahualpa’s conversion onward, became a land of saints: Saint Rose of Lima, the first saint of the Americas; Saint Martin de Porres, a Black saint; Saint Toribio of Mogrovejo, also a nobleman, graduate of the University of Salamanca, who baptized half a million Indians in the Kingdom of Peru, a missionary work still unmatched.
Peru, land of saints, now land of Pope Leo XIV, who lived there most of his life, forty years, more than enough to understand that the idolatry of Pachamama is a modern, urban phenomenon of the New Age movement from the United States, introduced into the Americas along with hippie indigenism of the 1960s.
It is not part of the tradition or idiosyncrasy of the Indians of the Americas, but it is offered to unwary tourists who visit Peru. I remember that, in 2024, I was offered a Pachamama ceremony as a Peruvian experience. I could do nothing but be horrified by the pagan proposal and reject it. Just another product of ideologies.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of Gateway Hispanic.
Jeffrey M. Kihien-Palza es abogado y consultor internacional de negocios con más de 30 años de experiencia en banca, finanzas y estructuración legal en Perú y Estados Unidos. Es egresado de la Universidad Privada de Tacna y cuenta con una Maestría en Derecho Internacional por American University, así como un MBA por Johns Hopkins. Ha representado al gobierno de EE. UU. en el extranjero y liderado proyectos en el sector energético en América y África. Colabora regularmente con medios como PanAm Post, La Abeja, Agencia Católica de Noticias y Hispanic Gateway. Además, es autor de la novela El Evangelio Según Marcel.
Jeffrey M. Kihien-Palza is an attorney and international business consultant with over 30 years of experience in banking, finance, and legal structuring in both Peru and the United States. He graduated from the Universidad Privada de Tacna and holds a Master’s degree in International Law from American University, as well as an MBA from Johns Hopkins. He has represented the U.S. government abroad and led energy sector projects across the Americas and Africa. He is a regular contributor to outlets such as PanAm Post, La Abeja, Agencia Católica de Noticias, and Hispanic Gateway. He is also the author of the novel El Evangelio Según Marcel.
A nutritionist has revealed the best food to snack on before bed to improve your sleep – and it’s surprising. While many people reach for herbal teas or supplements, nutritionist Brenda Madole from MyOrThrive says the secret to good sleep could be sitting in your kitchen.
Brenda said that what you eat in the evening can have a huge impact on your sleep quality. Certain foods naturally contain compounds that support the production of melatonin and serotonin – the hormones responsible for regulating your body’s sleep–wake cycle. She explained that choosing the right evening snack could help you “drift off faster and sleep more soundly”, adding: “The key is to keep evening snacks light. Overeating or having heavy, fatty foods before bed can actually disrupt your sleep. A handful of almonds, a small bowl of oats, or a kiwi are ideal choices if you’re looking for a natural sleep aid.”
Brenda’s top recommendation is grapes. She said they contain melatonin, a direct source of the sleep hormone that “helps regulate your circadian rhythm”.
The skin of red and purple grapes contains the most melatonin. They are also nutrient-rich, making them a healthy choice when it comes to providing vitamin C, vitamin K, and antioxidants.
Her second odd recommendation was kiwi. The serotonin and antioxidants can boost your own sleep hormone levels and “help improve sleep onset and duration”.
Also on Brenda’s list was tart cherries, a fruit that has gained a following online. These contain melatonin and tryptophan, and drinking the juice became a TikTok phenomenon for improving sleep.
The TikTok trend involves a “Sleepy Girl Mocktail” made with tart cherry juice, magnesium powder, and sparkling water or a prebiotic soda.
It’s important to note that the scientific validity of this drink is limited to the properties of individual ingredients, rather than combined studies on the mocktail itself.
Brenda also recommends bananas, almonds, and oats. The first two contain magnesium, which can aid in relaxation, while the latter helps with serotonin production and contains melatonin.
Her final recommendations are old classics – warm milk and chamomile tea. Warm milk contains calcium, which supports melatonin synthesis, and the tea contains an antioxidant.
One of the greatest retirement fears Americans face is outliving their savings and investments, according to a June study from the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
A new report published earlier this month by the senior living platform Seniorly highlights these concerns by finding that retirees in nearly every state are expected to fall short of enough income to cover their retirement costs.
The study found that in 41 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C., seniors do not have enough financial resources saved up for retirement. Retirees have an average life expectancy of 18.2 years at retirement age (65 years old) and are expected to bring in $762,000 across their retirement lifetime from Social Security, savings, and investments. However, their average living expenses are $877,000, leaving a gap of $115,000.
The study found that New York was the highest risk state for retirees running out of funds. Expenses in the state were $1.1 million, and income was $670,000, leaving a shortfall of $430,000. Washington is the top state where seniors are least likely to outlive their savings, with a surplus of about $146,000.
A Northwestern Mutual report added to the findings by discovering that Americans believe they need $1.26 million to comfortably retire — that’s the magic number for retirement savings. The majority of Americans (51%) said that it is somewhat or very likely that they will not have enough money to cover retirement expenses.
Here are the 10 states where seniors are most at risk of outliving their retirement savings, according to Seniorly, based on average income across a retirement lifetime and average expenses across a retirement lifetime for each state.
1. New York
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.1 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $670,000
Shortfall: $430,000
2. Hawaii
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.7 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.3 million
Shortfall: $400,000
3. District of Columbia
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.1 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $736,000
Shortfall: $364,000
4. Alaska
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.1 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $712,000
Shortfall: $388,000
5. California
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.3 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $926,000
Shortfall: $374,000
6. Massachusetts
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1.3 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $1 million
Shortfall: $300,000
7. Rhode Island
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $960,000
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $676,000
Shortfall: $284,000
8. Vermont
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $771,000
Shortfall: $229,000
9. Louisiana
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $724,000
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $479,000
Shortfall: $245,000
10. Connecticut
Expenses Across Retirement Lifetime: $1 million
Income Across Retirement Lifetime: $851,000
Approximate shortfall: $149,000
One of the greatest retirement fears Americans face is outliving their savings and investments, according to a June study from the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
A new report published earlier this month by the senior living platform Seniorly highlights these concerns by finding that retirees in nearly every state are expected to fall short of enough income to cover their retirement costs.
The study found that in 41 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C., seniors do not have enough financial resources saved up for retirement. Retirees have an average life expectancy of 18.2 years at retirement age (65 years old) and are expected to bring in $762,000 across their retirement lifetime from Social Security, savings, and investments. However, their average living expenses are $877,000, leaving a gap of $115,000.
A free-spending hedge fund boss who has been sued by his own mother over unpaid bills has thrown one of his investment funds into bankruptcy — even as he faces a past-due American Express tab worth $370,000, The Post has learned.
Jason Ader — a one-time Wall Street mogul who used to appear on CNBC and who helped bring down ex-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer — threw his fund 26 Capital Acquisition Corp into Chapter 11 in July after a botched $2.5 billion takeover of the biggest casino in the Philippines, according to court papers.
To make matters worse, the 57-year-old investor allegedly blew $370,000 using a collection of American Express credit cards — including two Platinum accounts, a Delta Sky Miles card and the uber-exclusive, invite-only ‘Black’ card.
Jason Ader and partner Hana at the uber-exclusive Monte-Carlo Country Club last year. Instagram/Hana Ader
According to statements filed in court, Ader splashed out just over $9,000 in August 2024 on his ‘Black’ Amex Centurion at a Christian Dior boutique in posh Monaco on the Mediterranean.
As previously reported by The Post, that was the same month that Jason and his partner Hana posted pictures on his now-private Instagram account from their summer vacation.
They posed together at the members-only Monte-Carlo Country Club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the Cote d’Azur and the Olympic beach volleyball tournament at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Approached by The Post for comment, Ader said he was unaware of the lawsuit.
Jason Ader and partner Hana in Miami in 2022. Getty Images for PAMM
“I have no record of receiving service, and this is the first time I’ve seen the complaint,” Ader said in a statement.
“This is a routine commercial matter, and if valid, will be addressed through the proper legal channels,” he added. “To be clear: there is no judgment, and no indication of wrongdoing.”
The revelations are the latest in a line of legal woes for the one-time rising star of Wall Street — most famously a lawsuit from his 82-year-old mother last summer when she accused him of ripping off his late father Richard’s estate.
Jason is being sued by his mother, Pamela Ader. Facebook/Pamela Ader
Pamela Ader took her son to court in August 2024 after he failed to keep up with repayments on a $13 million mortgage linked to his dad’s swanky Upper East Side townhouse. That left Richard’s estate on the hook for the crippling principal as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and unpaid taxes, according to court papers.
Jason’s father died in September 2023 at age 81 and made his fortune founding US Realty Advisors, which claims to manage $18 billion of assets nationwide. His widow’s lawsuit fails to spell out how much his estate is worth. That case is still ongoing because Pamela is suing her son in a personal capacity, rather than his investment firms.
A transcript of a recent court hearing, published Aug. 1, describes how Ader griped that his parents “stopped paying at some point in time in 2021 for the education expenses” of his children.
Ader had taken out a $13 million loan backed by his now-deceased father Richard’s Upper East Side townhouse. Google Maps
Ader’s ill-fated firm 26 Capital Acquisition Corp filed for Chapter 11 on July 11, listing a slew of unpaid lawyers, accountants, translators, tax officials and PR firms that have lost six-figure or seven-figure sums. The firm also lists two of Ader’s companies, SPAC parent 26 Capital Holdings and SpringOwl Asset Management, as being owed $14 million.
“Throughout this process, I took extreme care to ensure that not a single public shareholder lost any money. In fact, over $275 million in trust proceeds were returned,” Ader told The Post in a written statement.
“SpringOwl and its affiliates are listed as creditors because they provided loans and services to 26 Capital. Those claims, along with certain disputed invoices, are being addressed transparently and lawfully through the bankruptcy process,” he added.
But a US bankruptcy judge in Delaware, Karen B. Owens, stepped in on Aug. 22 to strip Ader of his control of the process, appointing a US Trustee administrator to take charge of settling his debts.
Ader’s woes appear to be linked to his SPAC’s failure to close a $2.5 billion takeover of the Okada casino in Manila in 2023. AFP via Getty Images
The watchdog was set up in 1978 to “prevent fraud, dishonesty, and overreaching in the bankruptcy system.”
“There is no evidence I have seen to date that his related companies provided any services worthy of the billings asserted in the Chapter 11 filing,” said one source close to the situation. “It reeks of gamesmanship and bad faith.”
After making a name on Wall Street in the 1990s as a gaming analyst, Ader co-founded Spring Owl in 2013.
He also once served as a board member of Las Vegas Sands, the Nevada-based casino giant founded by the late Sheldon Adelson.
Delaware judge Travis Laster stopped the casino deal closing NYU Law
26 Capital never disclosed to the casino owners that one of its deal advisers, Zama Capital hedge fund founder Alex Eiseman, also owned more than 60% of a 26 Capital affiliate.
A lowball deal for the casino would therefore benefit Eiseman’s investment and Judge Laster described Eiseman’s work with 26 Capital as “a conspiracy to mislead Universal,” the Japanese gaming firm that owned the property.
Ader’s main investment firm, SpringOwl Asset Management, was originally founded in New York, but SEC filings from 2023 show that it is now headquartered at the upmarket 701 Brickell skyscraper in downtown Miami.
Florida property records lists Ader’s main residence at a swanky apartment condo on the city’s Biscayne Boulevard, where English soccer icon David Beckham also has a plush pad.
The Issue: Extremist DSA-NYC positions that DSA member Zohran Mamdani refuses to repudiate.
It’s no surprise that Zohran Mamdani is avoiding detailed questions about his socialist agenda. If you already have a hook in the fish’s mouth, why tell it you’re going to eat it for dinner (“You can run but you can’t hide!” Aug. 29)?
Mamdani’s platform — driven by the socialist lens of equality for all — promises free stuff and radical reforms. But his policies would suppress law enforcement, hinder capitalism and stifle economic growth.
Mamdani, heaven forbid his election, would be the last nail in the coffin for New York City.
Phil Serpico
Queens
New Yorkers must ask themselves if they really want a socialist who wants to control grocery stores, overtax businesses and the middle class and ultimately drive everyone out of the city.
Dori Harasek
Staten Island
The content of Mamdani’s manifesto is now public knowledge. If these revelations don’t rattle the public, then nothing will.
Nonetheless, his run for mayor shows many parallels to the condensed Kamala Harris campaign: short on meaningful substance and weighed-down with far-fetched policies.
My prediction is that Mamdani will achieve the same result as Harris and slip into the realm of obscurity.
Ronald Frank
West Orange, NJ
Kudos to The Post for enlightening its readers with Mamdani’s socialist agenda. Keep up the pressure and hopefully a light bulb will go off in his young supporters’ heads.
Mamdani is a snake-oil salesman who uses young voters as useful idiots.
Joseph Valente
Staten Island
When my 6-year-old grandson saw Zohran on the cover of the New York Post, he asked me, “Grandpa, who’s that crazy guy?” Well, out of the mouths of babes.
Every legal, eligible voter in New York City should read The Post’s article on the leftist looney who wants to be mayor. The fact that socialism has never worked anywhere doesn’t seem to have seeped into the pea-brains of the fools who support this nut.
If Mamdani is elected, everyone in the city can take a free bus to the free grocery store and hope they make it home safely, because all the criminals will be roaming the streets.
Bill Lewis
Danbury, Conn.
The Issue: Miranda Devine’s column calling out Minneapolis politicians’ approach to crime.
Miranda Devine is right in saying Minnesota’s three stooges — Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — “find political profit in chaos and disorder” (“Dems’ latest Minny horror,” Aug. 28).
Of course, the woke social-justice-warrior crowd will have crickets to say about the Annunciation Catholic School shooter’s descent into transgender fanaticism.
“It’s the guns,” they say like clockwork. For sure, common-sense gun control measures must be enacted — but sick, evil people are the ones who pull those triggers.
James Hyland
Beechhurst
Yet again, the elephant in the room will not be addressed: the mental illness of a transgender lunatic.
This aberration didn’t occur overnight; it followed years of a dysfunctional upbringing.
Devine’s message to the sickening leftist Minnesota politicians and those who laud them is simple: Do the lives of these murdered children matter?
The Minneapolis police force is half of what it should be just because of the Democrats in charge.
Kevin Judge
Naples
Want to weigh in on today’s stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to letters@nypost.com. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy, and style.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s stock leapt more than 19% after reporting a surge in revenue from AI, underscoring the steady headway it’s making against rivals in a post-DeepSeek Chinese development frenzy.
China’s e-commerce leader posted a triple-digit percentage gain in AI-related product revenue as well as a better-than-anticipated 26% jump in sales from the cloud division—the business most closely tied to the artificial intelligence boom.
That helped assuage investors nervous about the fallout from a worsening battle with Meituan and JD.com Inc. in internet commerce. Alibaba’s shares gained their most intraday since November 2022 in Hong Kong, boosting the company’s market value by more than $50 billion. Turnover in the stock marked a record high as of early afternoon. The rally helped energize the broader AI sphere: Ernie-developer Baidu Inc. gained as much as 5.8%, while Tencent Holdings Ltd. also climbed.
“Alibaba’s earnings underscore a bifurcation within China tech: AI is delivering scalable growth, while traditional consumer-facing segments remain mired in destructive price competition,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets.
“The triple-digit surge in AI revenue and robust cloud sales show Alibaba is repositioning for longer-term relevance in the tech stack, not just retail dominance,” she added.
Alibaba’s progress in AI—where it is considered among the front-runners in Chinese artificial intelligence development—helped gloss over concerns about the three-way battle gripping online commerce.
That dealt more damage than anticipated to some of the country’s e-commerce leaders: JD’s profit halved in the quarter while Meituan warned of major losses, triggering a $27 billion selloff of the three companies’ shares last week.
The AI element helps explain why Alibaba’s stock has easily outpaced its more commerce-reliant rivals this year. Alibaba has also leveraged the growth of an international arm that encompasses some of the world’s most-recognized online shopping platforms from Lazada to AliExpress.
It has “China’s best AI enabler thesis,” Morgan Stanley analysts including Gary Yu wrote in a research note. That’s as losses from meal delivery and instant commerce peak this quarter, they said.
Investors are now focused on whether Alibaba will pursue that margin-eroding competition, at a time it’s declared record amounts of spending toward developing AI services and computing.
On Friday, commerce chief Jiang Fan argued that investments in quick commerce—food delivery and instant shopping—had already driven 20% growth in users on its main Taobao marketplace. The fledgling division has in four months grown to the point that it can begin to achieve economies of scale, he added.
Alibaba is simultaneously making substantial investments in the AI field, developing large language models to avoid falling behind in a critical technological race.
The company views AI as essential to its future, whether in terms of providing cloud computing, powering its core business or coming up with services to challenge OpenAI and DeepSeek. CEO Eddie Wu went as far as saying in February that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is now the company’s primary objective.
Just last week, Alibaba updated its own open-source video generating model, part of a string of recent upgrades that span the gamut from agentic AI services to chatbots.
It remains to be seen if Alibaba can turn AI into a money-spinner in an increasingly competitive field. From Baidu to Tencent, Chinese firms are enhancing and releasing AI models at a frenetic pace, increasing the pressure on Alibaba to deliver breakthroughs.
“Alibaba’s breakout reinforces a broader theme in Asia: while global tech remains preoccupied with geopolitics and valuations, parts of China tech are quietly reaccelerating—driven not by hype, but by real revenue growth in AI and cloud,” Chanana said. “This isn’t a broad-based rotation yet—but the divergence is real.”
“Alibaba’s breakout reinforces a broader theme in Asia: while global tech remains preoccupied with geopolitics and valuations, parts of China tech are quietly reaccelerating—driven not by hype, but by real revenue growth in AI and cloud,” Chanana said. “This isn’t a broad-based rotation yet—but the divergence is real.”
More than 600 people have been killed and at least 1,500 others injured after an earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan, according to Taliban state officials.
The quake hit the country’s rugged northeastern province of Kunar, near the Pakistan border, at roughly midnight on Sunday, destroying several villages, officials said.
Rescuers are continuing to work in several districts of the mountainous province where the quake hit, while officials in the capital city of Kabul have warned the number of casualties could rise.
A 6.0 quake hit Kunar at around 11.47pm local time (8.17pm UK time) on Sunday.
The quake’s epicentre was near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, at a depth of 8.7 miles (14km). Jalalabad is situated about 74 miles (119km) from Kabul. It is considered a remote and mountainous area.
Image: The large red circle shows the earthquake near Kabul. Pic: German Research Centre for Geosciences
A second earthquake struck in the same province about 20 minutes later, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 6.2 miles (10km). This was later followed by a 5.2 earthquake at the same depth.
Homes of mud and stone were levelled by the quake, with deaths and injuries reported in the districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi and Chapadare, according to the Kunar Disaster Management Authority.
The first quake hit 17 miles east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the US Geological Survey said. Jalalabad is a bustling trade city due to its proximity to a key border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Image: Afghanistan earthquake map
It has a population of around 300,000 people, according to the municipality, but its metropolitan area is believed to be much larger.
Most of its buildings are low-rise constructions predominantly made from concrete and brick, though its outer areas include homes built of mud bricks and wood.
What have officials said so far?
Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s ministry of public health, said: “Rescue operations are still underway there, and several villages have been completely destroyed.
“The figures for martyrs and injured are changing.
“Medical teams from Kunar, Nangarhar and the capital Kabul have arrived in the area.”
He said many areas have not been able to report casualty figures and that “numbers were expected to change” as deaths and injuries are reported.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:52
More details on the aftermath in Afghanistan
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said: “Sadly, tonight’s earthquake has caused loss of life and property damage in some of our eastern provinces.
“Local officials and residents are currently engaged in rescue efforts for the affected people. Support teams from the centre and nearby provinces are also on their way.”
According to earlier reports, 30 people were killed in a single village, the health ministry said.
“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” said health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman.
The Afghan Red Crescent said its officials and medical teams “rushed to the affected areas and are currently providing emergency assistance to impacted families”.
Quake measures slightly lower than the country’s deadliest disaster
Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
The country is also one of the world’s poorest, having suffered decades of conflict, with poor infrastructure leaving it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.
Image: Strong earthquake in eastern Afghanistan near Pakistan border kills hundreds. Pic: AP
Image: People carry an earthquake victim on a stretcher to an ambulance at an airport in Jalalabad. Pic: Reuters
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake and strong aftershocks struck Afghanistan on 7 October 2023.
The country’s Taliban government said at least 4,000 people had been killed, but the United Nations said the death toll was around 1,500.
The 2023 earthquake is considered the deadliest natural disaster to hit Afghanistan in recent memory.
A series of other earthquakes in the country’s west killed more than 1,000 people last year.
Disaster adds to ‘multiplicity of crises’ for Afghanistan
The earthquake is a “perfect storm” in a country that is already suffering a “multiplicity of crises,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has told Sky News.
Filippo Grandi said the situation in the country was “very tragic” and added: “We have very little information as of yet, but already, reports of hundreds of people killed and many more made homeless.”
“That’s a country that is already suffering from a multiplicity of crises.”
He said Afghanistan is suffering from a “big drought”, while Iran has “sent back almost 2 million people” and Pakistan “threatens to do the same”.
Image: Ambulances prepare to receive victims of an earthquake. Pic: Nangarhar Media Centre/AP
“It’s extremely difficult to mobilise resources because of the Taliban. So it’s a perfect storm,” he added.
“And this earthquake, likely to have been quite devastating, is going to just add to the misery.”
He appealed to “all those who can help to please do that”.
A foreign office spokesperson for the Afghanistan government said no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work so far.
