As Manchester United begin their preparations ahead of a crucial transfer window, a report by ESPN reveals Old Trafford officials will be seeking to exploit players with expiring contracts this summer.
Rob Dawson reveals the club are “paying particular attention” to targets whose contracts will expire next year and may be available at a cheaper price as a result.
Sources point towards the signing of Mason Mount last summer as an example of this approach. The Chelsea midfielder was entering the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge when United were able to strike a deal to steal the academy graduate from his boyhood club.
Dawson believes United will be seeking to “take advantage of similar situations at the end of the current campaign.”
As such, The Peoples Person has analysed a host of players across Europe who are set to the free agency market in the summer of 2025 with a view to finding the three best targets for United this summer. We also identified suitable alternatives, should the primary options prove too difficult to sign.
And while there are a number of world-class talents entering the final year of their contract, we thought it prudent to disregard unrealistic names who will likely be re-signing with their current club or moving elsewhere this summer. Eder Militao, Alphonso Davies, Leroy Sane and Warren Zaire-Emmery were dismissed with this in mind.
Similarly, players like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Mohammed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne were also rejected for reasons that do need to be spelt out.
The fact Lionel Messi’s current deal with Inter Miami is set to expire in 2025 was briefly considered, though mainly because of the hilarious meltdown this would cause a certain forward in Saudi Arabia.
With this in mind, therefore, the three players Old Trafford officials should be realistically targeting this summer are as follows:
Joshua Kimmich
Federico Chiesa
Ivan Toney
1) Joshua Kimmich
While Davies and Sane will prove too difficult to convince to relocate to Manchester, their teammate in midfield is a different story. Though it may have appeared unthinkable in recent years, Kimmich has been linked with a move away from Bavaria this summer; and United have been suggested as a possible destination, with good reason.
The German international is the quintessential modern footballer.
He is technically sound, physically capable, tactically astute, and possesses a strong work ethic with leadership qualities. Kimmich is also positionally versatile. He’s able to be deployed in either the number six or number eight role in midfield, or at right-back.
With Erik ten Hag’s squad in desperate need of upgrades in both positions, Kimmich appears a strong fit. When we factor in how keen the Dutch manager is to improve the mentality of the Old Trafford dressing room, an experienced winner with an exemplary attitude in his prime becomes a perfect fit.
The INEOS sporting team – who are set to assume full control over the United sporting operation once Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s co-ownership deal is ratified by the Premier League next month – are believed to want to target younger recruits. Kimmich, who will be 29 by the summer, should be the exception to this rule.
Kephren Thuram (OGC Nice) and Youssouf Fofana (Monaco) are two central midfielders whose contracts are also expiring in 2025 and may be more realistic pursuits than Kimmich.
2) Federico Chiesa
Chiesa would likely be a player targeted by most clubs across Europe, if not for injuries, given his quality.
The Juventus star is a throwback winger; a player who attacks opposition fullbacks with a refreshing directness and devastating simplicity. He is as comfortable on the left wing as he is on the right, demonstrating speed and skill in equal measure from either wing.
With six goals for the Old Lady in Serie A this season, Chiesa would be United’s top scorer in the league if he recreated this at Old Trafford.
The Italian international – a key part of Italy’s successful EURO 2020 win – is also excellent without the ball. He’s a willing presser who defends from the front. He diligently tracks back and ranks highly across defensive contributions, including tackles and interceptions.
With United in need of an option on the right wing, in place of the wholly unsuitable Antony, Chiesa would be an excellent option to supplement Ten Hag’s transitional style. His versatility would also complement Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo perfectly.
Injuries have been a persistent issue for Chiesa throughout his career in Turin, however.
A cruciate ligament tear at the beginning of 2022 ruled the winger out for the remainder of the 2022/23 season. He returned in October of the same year but has been plagued by niggly problems since this point. These have combined to mean Chiesa has missed around fifteen games for Juventus across this season and last.
While this is not an irredeemable injury rate, it is one to be mindful of when considering an approach for the winger this summer. However, if a deal can be struck at a cheaper price – given his contract situation and Juventus’ serious issues with Financial Fair Play – Chiesa’s profile would be an almost perfect addition to United’s right-hand side.
Leon Bailey (Aston Villa) is a more Premier League-proven option at right-wing while Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan) is a right-midfielder who could offer United a more attacking option at right-back. Both players contracts expire in 2025.
3) Ivan Toney
United’s struggles up front this season are as well-documented as they are severe.
Only Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Burnley have scored fewer goals than Ten Hag’s side in the league. Scott McTominay is United’s top scorer in the league – a nine-word statistic which tells a thousand-word story.
Old Trafford officials are thought to be targeting a new forward in January but, owing to the constraints of FFP, will be limited to loan deals. As such, a new centre-forward is likely to be a priority in the summer, with the INEOS team reported to want a “top-class forward” in the mould of Harry Kane.
While this is an unrealistic pursuit as the England international is in a class of his own, one pre-existing option from the Premier League may provide a reasonable tribute act up front at Old Trafford next season.
Toney – who returned to the league this weekend following his extended gambling ban – has been a constant source of goals for Brentford since their promotion. Indeed, the striker opened proceedings yesterday with a brilliant free-kick as he captained his side to their first win in eight games.
Brentford have desperately missed a striker whose link-up play and general presence up front are as crucial to his teammates as his goals. Yet Toney’s contract will enter its final twelve months this summer.
The 27-year-old would provide Ten Hag with the perfect compliment to Rasmus Hojlund – signed last year from Atalanta in a deal worth £72 million. Though the Dane is the joint top scorer in the Champions League, he has struggled domestically; but, at only 20 years of age, these issues are to be expected.
Realistically, Hojlund has shown enough in his debut season at Old Trafford to be more than optimistic about his long-term prospects at the club. The Danish striker simply needs more support from a front line which has been misfiring in general, rather than only because of him.
Toney would be an ideal centre-forward to have in a squad with Hojlund, rather than instead of.
The England international’s ability to combine with teammates is excellent as if his hold-up play. As such, the two could likely play in the same starting eleven given Hojlund’s raw speed and dribbling ability could be deployed more towards the wing.
Similarly, Toney’s profile and current club, with no disrespect to Brentford, mean there would be no uproar from the media should United sign him but start him from the bench. Their ages (27 vs 20) would also pair together well, rather than two players competing in their primes.
If Toney does not agree to a contract extension before July, this summer would be the last opportunity for Brentford to attain a transfer fee for their striker. United should exploit this situation to provide their squad with a complimentary forward who does not drain funds from the other areas of need in the team.
Jonathan David (LOSC Lille) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) are two cheaper names whose contracts are expiring in 2025. Both forwards offer a similar profile to Toney in terms of link-up play and suitability with Hojlund, rather than in the Dane’s place.
Sarah Ferguson has been diagnosed with skin cancer, months after she underwent a single mastectomy to treat breast cancer.
The Duchess of York’s rep issued a statement about her latest ailment Jan. 21.
“Following her diagnosis with an early form of breast cancer this summer, Sarah, Duchess of York has now been diagnosed with malignant melanoma,” the spokesperson said in a statement to multiple outlets. “Her dermatologist asked that several moles were removed and analyzed at the same time as the Duchess was undergoing reconstructive surgery following her mastectomy, and one of these has been identified as cancerous.”
According toThe Telegraph and other outlets, Sarah was diagnosed with skin cancer days after Christmas—and after she made a surprise appearance with Andrew and the rest of the royal family at a Christmas Day service in Sandringham, Norfolk—and has been has been recuperating at a medical spa in Austria.
“She is undergoing further investigations to ensure that this has been caught in the early stages,” the author’s rep said. “Clearly, another diagnosis so soon after treatment for breast cancer has been distressing, but the Duchess remains in good spirits.”
The statement added that “the Duchess wants to thank the entire medical team which has supported her, particularly her dermatologist whose vigilance ensured the illness was detected when it was. She believes her experience underlines the importance of checking the size, shape, color and texture and emergence of new moles that can be a sign of melanoma.”
Envisioning an alternate-universe, retro futuristic apocalypse teeming with mutated monsters, soldiers in hulking power armor and sinister human experiments disguised as bomb shelters, the Fallout franchise has spent over two decades establishing one of the richest settings in video games. Fans will next dive into that world later this year when Prime Video releases thefirst-ever live-action Fallout TV show, which will present an original, canon story set in the series’ desolate wasteland.
With the show’s April release date steadily approaching, there’s never been a better time to strap a Pip-Boy to your wrist and reacquaint yourself with the world of Fallout, but where’s the best place to start? Below, we’ll run through the franchise’s entire chronological history, as well as some advice on where to start for those embarking on their first-ever Fallout adventure.
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Every IGN Fallout Review
How Many Fallout Games and Expansions Are There?
In total, there are nine main Fallout games – eight on home console and one on mobile devices. There are also thirteen major expansions spread across Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4. The Fallout franchise is a core Bethesda game that will likely continue to receive support.
Which Fallout Game Should You Play First?
For newcomers, the best starting point is arguablyFallout 4, although Fallout 3 and New Vegas are still great ways to enter the franchise. Fallout 4 is the most recent single-player addition to the series, and as a result, is the most modern-feeling take on the universe. More importantly, it’s the only mainline single-player Fallout game still easily accessible on all modern consoles bar Nintendo Switch.
As for those worried they might be behind on the story, each Fallout game tells a fresh narrative with a new lead character and setting, and Fallout 4 is no different. Although you may miss a few references to the events of previous games, it’s pretty easy to jump in without any prior knowledge of the lore.
How to Play the Fallout Games in Order
These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
One thing to note before we get started: We will not be counting two games on our chronological timeline. The first is the mobile vault management simulator,Fallout Shelter. Although the game does follow the lore of Fallout’s vaults, it also features characters and items hundreds of years before they appear in the Fallout storyline, making it non-canon.
We also didn’t countFallout: Brotherhood of Steel, which Bethesda has confirmed takes place in its own chronology. That being said, we have included Fallout Tactics, despite its canonicity being questioned. Although Bethesda has since retconned elements of Tactics’ story, certain events from its narrative have been referenced in future games, making it at least semi-canon to the timeline.
Finally, we won’t be including any expansions that don’t contain story content. For example, Fallout 4’sWasteland andContraptions Workshop expansions aren’t featured on the list. The same goes for New Vegas’ Courier Stash DLC.
1. Fallout 76
Bethesda’s most recent addition to the Fallout canon is the first on the chronological timeline.Fallout 76 is an online experience that follows the first vault dwellers to enter the wasteland 25 years after nuclear war eviscerated the world.
Taking on the role of one of these pioneers, the player’s journey begins as they exit the titular Vault 76 and embark on a journey through Appalachia in search of their missing overseer. Along the way, they discover the world they once knew has been transformed into a nuclear hellscape, complete with mutated monstrosities, long-dormant killer robots, and zombie-like irradiated humans known as Ghouls. To survive, they can team up with other survivors, build bases, complete quests, and reestablish a community among the ruins of a fallen world.
Fallout 76 was Bethesda’s attempt at creating a fully online Fallout game for the first time, allowing players to explore the wasteland with friends. Although it was received poorly at release, it has been updated frequently in the years since, with theWastelanders andSteel Reign updates adding NPCs and new questlines.
2. Fallout
Fast forward 59 years and we reach the events of the first game in the series. Developed by Interplay Productions,Fallout follows a vault dweller living in a bomb shelter known as Vault 13. Hiding away from the apocalyptic wasteland outside their doors, the player’s peaceful lifestyle is thrown into chaos after the vault’s water systems stop working, threatening the lives of everyone living in Vault 13.
They’re tasked with a seemingly simple mission: venture into the wasteland, recover a new water chip, and return home to save their fellow survivors. However, the stakes of the vault dweller’s mission become far grander after they encounter an army of mutated abominations known as Super Mutants and their leader,the Master. Not only do these monsters jeopardize the future of Vault 13, but they pose a major threat to the entire wasteland.
Offering a markedly different gameplay style to the Bethesda-developed Fallout games released years later, the first Fallout was an in-depth CRPG, featuring turn-based combat and a top-down camera. That being said, much of Fallout’s future was present in its first entry, including a heavy focus on player choice and immersive role-playing.
3. Fallout Tactics
Three decades later, we reach the events of Fallout Tactics: a strategy spin-off developed by Micro Forté. Although some of the lore of Fallout Tactics has since been retconned and is considered non-canon by Bethesda, certain events from its story have been referenced in future games, making it at least partially part of the timeline.
The game itself sees players lace up the boots of an initiate of the iconic power-armour-clad faction, the Brotherhood of Steel. Joining the army’s ranks and leading a group of fellow soldiers, they complete various missions across the Wasteland.
Fallout Tactics took the gameplay of Fallout in a new direction, as players command their squad through a series of strategic battles against iconic foes such as Super Mutants, Ghouls and Deathclaws.
4. Fallout 2
Fourty-four years after Fallout Tactics concludes, the events of Fallout 2 take place. With Black Isle Studios taking the reins as developer, Fallout 2 was the series’ first major sequel, this time following a descendent of the Vault Dweller from the original game known as the Chosen One.
After their settlement is hit by a long drought, the Chosen One is selected to leave the confines of their home in search of a terraforming device known as a G.E.C.K. Their adventure takes them across the vast reaches of the Wasteland, landing them in the sights of a highly advanced faction known as the Enclave. As the Chosen One dives deeper into the faction’s goals, they discover the group’s hard at work on a sinister experiment.
5. Fallout 3
After Bethesda purchased the rights to the Fallout license in 2007, Bethesda Game Studios took its first crack at the franchise with Fallout 3. Set three decades after Fallout 2, Fallout 3 picks up the story in the new setting of the Capital Wasteland, casting players as a vault dweller known as the Lone Wanderer.
Living a mundane life within the sealed walls of Vault 101, the Lone Wanderer’s life is thrown into chaos after their father mysteriously disappears, causing the protagonist to be exiled from their home. Beginning a journey across the Capitol Wasteland in search of their father, they discover his disappearance may be more significant than it first seemed and eventually become embroiled in a sinister plot concocted by the Enclave.
The first expansion for Fallout 3, Operation Anchorage offers players a series of new quets set during the events of the main campaign. The story follows the Lone Wanderer helping the Brotherhood of Steel enter a sealed pre-war armory. The only way in is to survive a simulation of the infamous Battle of Anchorage, which took place in Alaska prior to the nuclear war that destroyed Fallout’s world.
Throughout the campaign, the player steps inside the simulation and takes on the role of an American soldier fighting against Chinese troops, experiencing Anchorage firsthand. The DLC allows players a lengthy glimpse of a previously unseen part of Fallout’s lore, as well as offering plenty of new combat encounters.
7. Fallout 3 – The Pitt
Fallout 3’s second major expansion, The Pitt also takes place during the events of the main campaign. It adds a new locale for players to explore in the titular Pitt, a ruthless, plague-infested city found amongst the ruins of Pittsburgh.
After meeting a slave that escaped the city, the expansion begins with the Lone Wanderer venturing to The Pitt to find a cure for a rampant disease that’s been transforming the population into blood-thirsty monsters. Along the way, they become involved in the conflict between the enslaved citizens and their raider masters, making tough decisions that will forever alter The Pitt and its inhabitants.
8. Fallout 3 – Point Lookout
Fallout 3’s fourth add-on, Point Lookout is set during the events of the main campaign and takes players to an all-new setting, with the Lone Wanderer setting sail for the haunting swamps of the titular coastal town. The expansion begins with the Lone Wanderer offering to help a mother find her missing daughter, Nadine, who recently embarked on a journey to Point Lookout.
Upon arriving in the town, they quickly discover the truth behind Nadine’s disappearance runs much deeper than expected. Lodging themselves in the center of a long-standing rivalry between the owner of a local mansion and a tribe of cultists, the Lone Wanderer is forced to contend with the swamp’s eerie mutated inhabitants, confront buried secrets, and even endure impromptu brain surgery in a bid to survive.
9. Fallout 3 – Mothership Zeta
The last expansion added to Fallout 3, Mothership Zeta is set during the events of the main campaign and offers a unique, B-movie sci-fi spin on the franchise.
After responding to a radio signal out in the wasteland, the Lone Wanderer is abducted by a UFO, experimented on by aliens, and imprisoned on their craft. Escaping their cell, the player teams with the aliens’ other human prisoners to overthrow their extraterrestrial captors and return to Earth.
10. Fallout 3 – Broken Steel
The third expansion for Fallout 3 but the only add-on to take place after the events of the main story, Broken Steel acts as an epilogue with a new ending. Although players were originally unable to continue their Fallout 3 save after the credits rolled, Broken Steel added the ability to resume their adventure, alongside delivering a short series of new missions.
Surviving their encounter with Colonel Autumn in the Purity Project control room, the expansion sees the Lone Wanderer team once again with the Brotherhood of Steel, assisting the group in eradicating the Enclave from the Capitol Wasteland for good.
11. Fallout: New Vegas
In the years following Fallout 3, Obsidian Entertainment took its crack at the Fallout license with a spin-off titledFallout: New Vegas. Set four years after the events of the previous game, New Vegas tells the story of a courier who’s ambushed, shot, and left for dead in the Mojave Wasteland while transporting a priceless package to the glitzy, reclaimed streets of Las Vegas.
Found and patched up by a group of local settlers, the courier rises from their grave and proceeds to track down the man who attempted to kill them, unwittingly becoming the center of a power struggle between the various factions vying for control of the New Vegas strip. As they dig deeper into the package they carried and the man who stole it from them, the Courier realizes their decisions have the potential to change the Mojave Wasteland forever.
12. Fallout: New Vegas – Dead Money
The first expansion released for Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Money is set during the events of the main campaign and offers a new locale to explore. Taking players to the Sierra Madre, the story sees the Courier kidnapped, fitted with an explosive collar, and forced to rob a seemingly impenetrable pre-war casino with the help of three unlikely allies.
The task, by all accounts, is a suicide mission. The casino is surrounded by a cloud of deadly toxic gas, while a faction of ruthless survivors known as the Ghost People patrol the streets eliminating any and all treasure hunters. It falls to the Courier to organize a daring heist with the help of their allies to bypass the casino’s defenses and access the legendary loot behind its walls.
13. Fallout: New Vegas – Honest Hearts
The second expansion to hit Fallout: New Vegas, Honest Hearts falls within the events of the main campaign and sees the Courier venture to Zion National Park. There, they stumble across Joshua Graham, the legendary “Burned Man” who has become something of a bogeyman to Caesar’s Legion after surviving a seemingly fatal run-in with the faction’s ruthless leader.
Finding themselves in the center of a war between the Burned Man’s army and a rival tribe known as the White Legs, the player must team with Graham to save Zion and its people.
14. Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues
The third New Vegas expansion, Old World Blues takes place during the main campaign and begins with the Courier tracking down a crashed satellite projecting a mysterious message. After interacting with the satellite, the Courier is knocked out and taken to a scientific facility contained within Big Mountain, where they discover they’ve undergone a mysterious surgical procedure.
Exploring the facility, they meet a panel of nonsensical AI scientists, who inform them that their brain has been stolen by a nefarious robot known as Doctor Morbius. Teaming with their new AI allies, they adventure across the research facility to defeat Morbius, retrieve their brain, and learn more about Big Mountain’s secrets.
15. Fallout: New Vegas – Lonesome Road
The fourth and final New Vegas expansion, Lonesome Road takes place prior to the conclusion of the main campaign but wraps up a lot of outstanding story beats established during the main game and previous DLCs.
The adventure sees the Courier venture into a new area known as The Divide in search of Ulysses, the courier originally designated the job of transporting the platinum chip before it was entrusted to the lead protagonist. Promising answers about his real identity, Ulysses summons the Courier for one final confrontation, putting the pair on a crash course that will unveil their dark pasts.
16. Fallout 4
Returning to the IP for the first time since 2008’s Fallout 3, Bethesda released Fallout 4 in 2015. Beginning on the day the bombs fell, players take on the role of a civilian known as the Sole Survivor who takes refuge in Vault 111 with their spouse and son. Cryogenically frozen inside the vault, the Sole Survivor wakes up two hundred years later, finding their spouse dead, their son missing, and the world destroyed.
Emerging into the Commonwealth, Bethesda’s apocalyptic take on the Greater Boston region, they begin a tireless journey to track down their son. Along the way, they lock horns with a mysterious, scientifically advanced faction called the Institute, which kidnaps wastelanders and replaces them with sentient robots known as synths.
As their fight against the Institute rages on, the Sole Survivor learns the dark secrets behind the Institute’s plans, eventually teaming with the various factions of the wasteland to bring the group down.
17. Fallout 4 – Automatron
The first story expansion for Fallout 4, Automatron takes place during the events of the main story and sees the Sole Survivor go up against an antagonist known as the Mechanist.
It features a short chain of new quests in which the Sole Survivor battles the Mechanist’s robots and eventually tracks their foe down to their lair. The main purpose of the add-on, however, is adding the ability to build and mod robots you can take with you around the wasteland.
18. Fallout 4 – Far Harbour
The second story expansion for Fallout 4, Far Harbour is set during the events of Fallout 4’s main campaign, and sees the Sole Survivor sail to the eerie titular island in search of a missing girl. There they find a secret community of independent synths led by advanced AI known as DiMA.
As DiMA reveals new information about his community and Far Harbour, it becomes clear that the island is caught in a struggle between the locals and a radiation-worshipping cult known as the Children of Atom, who are attempting to cover the island in radioactive fog. It doesn’t take long for the Sole Survivor to get caught up in this dispute, giving them the power to make decisions that will irreversibly change the spooky locale and its citizens.
19. Fallout 4 – Vault-Tec Workshop
A small expansion released after Far Harbour, Vault-Tec Workshop takes place during the campaign and sees the Sole Survivor take on the task of building their very own vault. After liberating Vault 88 from raiders, the Sole Survivor meets an overseer trapped within the ruins who intends to revamp the abandoned bomb shelter.
Assisting her, the player is able to build their dream vault, recruit dwellers to live inside it and increase the shelter to maximum efficiency.
20. Fallout 4 – Nuka World
The final story expansion for Fallout 4, Nuka World is set during the events of the main campaign and hands the Sole Survivor the keys to an all-new area containing a massive, Nuka-Cola-themed amusement park.
After arriving and immediately being pitted against a series of ruthless raiders, trap rooms and robotic enemies, the player is granted the title of Nuka-World overboss. However, the position is hardly the dream job it’s cracked up to be. Their new-found leadership requires that they deal with three raider factions living in the park, forcing the Sole Survivor to decide whether to appease them and grow their territory or eradicate them altogether.
All Fallout Games and Expansions in Order of Release
1. Fallout (1997)
2. Fallout 2 (1998)
3. Fallout Tactics (2001)
4. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)
5. Fallout 3 (2008)
6. Fallout 3 – Operation Anchorage (2009)
7. Fallout 3 – The Pitt (2009)
8. Fallout 3 – Broken Steel (2009)
9. Fallout 3 – Point Lookout (2009)
10. Fallout 3 – Mothership Zeta (2009)
11. Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
12. Fallout: New Vegas – Dead Money (2010)
13. Fallout: New Vegas – Honest Hearts (2011)
14. Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues (2011)
15. Fallout: New Vegas – Lonesome Road (2011)
16. Fallout Shelter (2015)
17. Fallout 4 (2015)
18. Fallout 4 – Automatron (2016)
19. Fallout 4 – Far Harbour (2016)
20. Fallout 4 – Vault-Tec Workshop (2016)
21. Fallout 4 – Nuka-World (2016)
22. Fallout 76 (2018)
What’s Next for Fallout?
As mentioned earlier, the next major addition to the Fallout universe is the upcoming Fallout TV show, which is set to launch on Prime Video on April 12. Telling a new story, it will take place in the ruins of Los Angeles with a vault dweller played by Anna Purnell venturing out into the wasteland. The show has a stacked roster of talent behind it, including Westworld creatorJonathan Nolan.
As for video games, Bethesda has made it clear Fallout 5 is on the way, thought it won’t be anytime soon. Speaking to IGN back in 2022, Fallout director Todd Howard confirmed Fallout 5 will come after The Elder Scrolls 6. Considering Bethesda Game Studios has only just wrapped up work on its most recent release, Starfield, it seems we’re going to be waiting several years before stepping back out into the wasteland.
Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.
Nikki Haley had been serving in the South Carolina legislature for less than two years when she applied for a job in late 2006 as an accounting clerk at Wilbur Smith Associates, an engineering and design firm with state contracts.
She needed work. Her parents’ clothing business, where she and her husband, Michael Haley, had both worked, was winding down. Ms. Haley was earning a salary of just $22,000 as a part-time state legislator. And her husband’s own enterprise, involving businesses swapping goods and services, was losing money.
Wilbur Smith executives regarded Ms. Haley as overqualified for the accounting job. But because of her wide-ranging network, they would later say, they put Ms. Haley on a retainer, asking her to scout out potential new business. She never found any, a top executive later said. Over the next two years, the firm paid her $48,000 for a job the executive described as “a passive position.”
That contract, and a subsequent, much more lucrative one as a fund-raiser for a prominent hospital in her home county, allowed Ms. Haley to triple her income in just three years. But they also led her into an ethical gray area that tarnished her first term as South Carolina’s governor.
Ms. Haley did not disclose her Wilbur Smith contract until 2010, keeping it secret for more than three years. She also pushed for the hospital’s top priority — a new heart-surgery center — at the same time she was on its payroll. And Ms. Haley raised money for the hospital’s charitable foundation from lobbyists and businesses who may have had reason to curry favor with her.
The donations, one lobbyist wrote, were a way of “sucking up” to a rising political player.
The blurry line between Ms. Haley’s personal and public interests became the subject of a State House ethics investigation in 2012. The Republican-led committee concluded that Ms. Haley, by then the governor, had not violated any state ethics rules. But ethics experts and even some of her past supporters say the outcome was more an indictment of the lax rules and cozy ties between lawmakers and special interests than a vindication of her actions.
“Was Nikki Haley acting unethically? Maybe,” said Scott English, who was chief of staff to former Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican and Ms. Haley’s predecessor. “Was she acting unethically according to the jungle rules of South Carolina politics at the time? Not at all.”
Ms. Haley’s early ethics controversy is a far cry from the legal morass entangling her top rival for the Republican nomination, former President Donald J. Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Mr. Trump is also facing civil penalties for a yearslong fraud scheme involving his real estate business.
Yet Ms. Haley’s actions broke ethical norms, according to Kedric Payne, who directs the ethics program for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group. In most states, at least some of her conduct would have been out of bounds, he said, because it created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
A core principle of most state ethics laws is that “you cannot have outside employment that could in any way conflict with your official duties,” Mr. Payne said.
In South Carolina, the ethics investigation of Ms. Haley undermined her image as a broom-sweeping crusader working to shake up the political establishment — a persona she is still cultivating. Campaigning in New Hampshire on Saturday, Ms. Haley dismissed her lack of endorsements from politicians in her home state and in Washington as a result of her stances on transparency and ethics.
“I’ve called elected officials out because accountability matters,” she said.
The questions about Ms. Haley’s potential conflicts revealed how her work in politics had produced financial dividends almost from the beginning of her career in public life.
In recent years, Ms. Haley has made millions from consulting fees, paid speeches, stock and seats on corporate boards. In the year leading up to her presidential bid, she made around $2.5 million in income on speaking engagements alone, according to her financial disclosures.
This account of Ms. Haley’s early ethics troubles is drawn from testimony, filings and exhibits released by the South Carolina House in response to a public information request from The New York Times, as well as other documents, interviews and media accounts.
Ms. Haley’s presidential campaign did not respond to questions about the controversy. She said at the time that she had followed the existing rules and cast the episode as an attempt by her political enemies to keep her from fighting South Carolina’s pay-to-play culture.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong,” she told the ethics committee in 2012.
Yet when she campaigned for a second term as governor, Ms. Haley worked to rehabilitate her image and ran on a promise to reform the state’s ethics rules. Once re-elected, she signed a law that outlawed secret sources of income like her Wilbur Smith contract.
The lean years
In 2010, prodded by her opponent in her first run for governor, Ms. Haley disclosed six years of her joint tax returns with her husband, Michael Haley. They showed a stretch of modest earnings, thousands of dollars in penalties and interest for late tax payments, and close to $21,000 in business losses from Mr. Haley’s brief business venture, according to published accounts and summaries of the tax returns given to House ethics committee investigators.
(Although Ms. Haley has repeatedly said that candidates for president should release their tax returns, she has not released her own, nor have her opponents in the Republican primary race.)
As young adults, both Ms. Haley and her husband had worked for her parents’ clothing business, Exotica International, she as the firm’s chief financial officer, he in charge of men’s wear. But the Haleys’ income from the store petered out in 2006, two years before it closed. The couple, who then were both in their mid-30s, had two children. Ms. Haley’s legislative job was only a part-time position. Mr. Haley joined the South Carolina National Guard that fall, but initially earned little.
The Wilbur Smith contract helped fill in the financial gaps. The tax documents suggest that the engineering firm’s retainer amounted to nearly half of her family’s income of $64,000 in 2007.
A top executive at the firm testified that he could recall only one or two meetings with Ms. Haley and that they never discussed state contracts. Ms. Haley said a House lawyer had advised her that she was not required to report the payments. She recused herself from a vote on one of the firm’s projects out of an abundance of caution, but voted on a second bill that canceled the project. She testified she didn’t see a conflict in that vote.
Wilbur Smith ended her retainer in late 2008.
Wearing two hats
By then, Ms. Haley was onto something new. That summer, she asked Michael J. Biediger, then the chief executive of Lexington Medical Center, to hire her.
Ms. Haley said her parents were either losing or selling their business, Mr. Biediger testified. Her job application listed her salary at Exotica as $125,000 and requested the same amount. But her tax returns indicated she never earned more than $47,000 a year from the clothing firm.
Ms. Haley did not fill out or sign the application, a top aide told reporters, although the application stated that her typed name constituted a signature.
Mr. Biediger created a $110,000-a-year position for Ms. Haley as a fund-raiser for the hospital’s foundation, a subsidiary of the hospital. At the time, she was a member of the powerful House Labor, Commerce and Industry committee and was also majority whip.
He told the ethics committee he had hired her for her networking skills and personality and relied on a consulting firm’s recommendation to set her salary. A survey by the state’s Association of Nonprofit Organizations found that her salary was two and a half times as high as the average for similar organizations.
The job came with inherent ethical dilemmas. Legislators were prohibited from serving as lobbyists, but now Ms. Haley was wearing two hats: as a lawmaker trying to help the hospital win state approval to open the heart-surgery center, and as a paid employee of a hospital subsidiary.
Ms. Haley continued to work with other lawmakers on a plan to build support for the heart-surgery center, according to emails. She also spoke with an official on the state board with decision-making authority over the center, and communicated with hospital officials about the proposed project.
Asked about her dual roles, Ms. Haley, who disclosed her hospital work on her financial disclosures, told the ethics committee she had kept her jobs separate.
“I never had a legislative conversation in any way mixed with a foundation conversation,” she said.
Ms. Haley also brushed off concerns that her fund-raising job opened up a potential avenue for special interests that might want to influence her. She solicited donations from various corporate interests, including an association of financial services firms and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.
To contact Blue Cross executives, Ms. Haley first reached out to a prominent lobbyist, Larry Marchant, she testified. Mr. Marchant told her that if the company contributed, “You are going to owe me,” she said, and she replied, “You know I don’t work like that.”
The health insurer’s donations grew from $1,000 in 2007, the year before Ms. Haley joined the foundation, to $20,000 in 2010.
In January of that year, as Ms. Haley was running for governor, Mr. Marchant advised the firm not to lower its donation, writing to one company official: “I’m still sucking up to Nikki in the event she comes on strong in the primary.”
Blue Cross officials told the ethics committee they had conducted an internal investigation and determined that the donations were not an attempt to influence Ms. Haley, but a typical effort to build good will with the community.
‘The people deserved to know’
Ms. Haley and Lexington Medical cut ties during her campaign. As governor, she attacked the House ethics inquiry as a distraction engineered by Democrats. A surprise witness in her own defense, Ms. Haley accused the influential Republican lawyer who had filed the initial ethics complaint, John Rainey, of being a “racist, sexist bigot” and of suggesting that her family was related to terrorists. Mr. Rainey later said that Ms. Haley, whose parents are Indian immigrants, had misconstrued the remark.
The Republican-led committee dismissed each of the charges with little explanation. Democrats argued that the lawmakers never fully investigated the allegations because they were loath to go up against a sitting governor.
In South Carolina, the episode was soon overshadowed by a barrage of other corruption scandals. John Crangle, the former head of South Carolina’s chapter of Common Cause, said that Ms. Haley’s conduct didn’t “smell good,” but that it paled in comparison to the convictions of half a dozen legislators, including the speaker of the House, of crimes involving misuse of campaign funds and payments from lobbyists.
The Center for Public Integrity, in a state-by-state survey of ethics rules, gave South Carolina an F rating in 2012, saying the state’s loopholes were “large enough to dock a Confederate submarine.”
Soon after the ethics investigation, Ms. Haley went on a whistle-stop tour of the state promoting an ethics overhaul. In 2016, she signed two bills that required lawmakers to disclose the sources, but not the amounts, of private income, and revamped the process for reviewing allegations.
Mr. Crangle said the changes did not go far enough.
“Special interests want to invest large amounts of money to buy legislation and legislators, and Nikki never really challenged that institutional system of corruption,” he said.
In her own retelling of her political rise, Ms. Haley made no mention of her ethics issues. In a 2012 memoir, she wrote that she believed that letting lawmakers hide the sources of their income — as she herself had done — was wrong.
“It breeds conflicts of interest,” she wrote. “The people deserved to know who paid us.”
Kitty Bennett and Susan Beachy contributed research. Jazmine Ulloa and Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.
Hugh Jackman, 55, is getting ready to play the role of Wolverine in the upcoming film, Deadpool 3, and looking great while doing it! The actor took to his Instagram account to share a new video of himself sitting down and lifting weights in a gym while showing off his huge muscles. He revealed the workout session was a part of his preparation for the highly anticipated movie.
“No days off – except for tomorrow. 💪🏻#becomingwolverineagain,” he wrote alongside the clip. The hunk wore a dark blue tank top and black shorts as he focused intensely in the moment. He had a short hairstyle and also rocked some facial hair.
As soon as the video went public, Hugh’s fans didn’t hesitate to compliment him in the comments section. “This LEGEND is 55 years old and people (most of them never worked out) have the audacity to tell Wolverine to work out more his legs? Come on 😂,” one fan wrote, referring to other comments asking about his leg workout. “Great physique sir,” another fan wrote, while a third shared, “Wow. You are in perfect shape.”
Hugh’s workout comes as Deadpool 3 is set to hit theaters on July 26, 2024. Ryan Reynolds will star alongside the talented star in the role of the superhero once again and Shawn Levy is directing the project. Shawn recently addressed rumors that Taylor Swift is set to appear in the film. “I’m going across the board. ‘No comment’ because that’s a double whammy. That’s Taylor-related. And it’s MCU-related. I’m no dummy. You’re going to have to wait and see,” he told The Wrap in October.
In addition to working on Deadpool 3, Hugh seems to be busy with writing a memoir. “Hugh is currently working on a memoir,” a source told Us Weekly. “He is in the early stages of writing it.” Part of his inspiration for the book was his split from wife Deborra-Lee Furness, the source further claimed, and details about their love story may be included. “Hugh’s choosing to [write this book] now because he’s finally [being] honest with himself [and] the divorce,” the insider said. “This book is the first step.”
Donald J. Trump has won just a single nominating contest, but his potential running mates already outnumber his presidential rivals on the campaign trail.
As he pursues a victory over Nikki Haley in New Hampshire that would send him on a glide path to the nomination, Mr. Trump seems to be holding casting calls for possible vice-presidential contenders onstage at his rallies and at other events.
His goals are clear: Show off the sheer breadth of his institutional support in the Republican Party. Inject a sense of inevitability into the race. And, of course, see which underling will butter him up the most.
On Friday alone, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Representative Elise Stefanik of New York rallied supporters for him. Ms. Stefanik held a second event on Saturday.
The presence of all three, each of whom maintains a close relationship with Mr. Trump, generated headlines and fired up his base.
But joining Mr. Trump’s ticket can come with risks. Former Vice President Mike Pence twice ran with Mr. Trump, but his refusal to violate the Constitution to help overthrow the 2020 election led to Trump supporters storming the Capitol and threatening to hang him. Mr. Pence and his family were forced into hiding inside the Capitol to avoid the mob.
Mr. Scott’s stock seemed to rise with Mr. Trump after his endorsement of the former president on Friday, a move that showed the genial senator’s fealty and his surprising capacity for ruthlessness. In choosing Mr. Trump, Mr. Scott dealt a brutal rejection to Ms. Haley, his home-state compatriot and the woman who appointed him to the Senate.
Mr. Scott’s remarks at the Trump rally on Friday in Concord projected a stirring energy often lacking in his own presidential bid, which he ended in November.
The crowd matched his excitement with shouts of “V.P.,” and Mr. Scott ended his fiery call-and-response speech by shouting with the audience, “We need Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump noted Mr. Scott’s transformation.
“He was great, don’t you think?” Mr. Trump said after the rally to a Republican consultant, who insisted on anonymity to describe the private conversation.
Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm was a marked change from a year ago, when, after a lackluster debate performance by Mr. Scott, the former president raised eyebrows among some associates with offhand comments that the South Carolinian had not received much coverage.
Ms. Stefanik has also seemed like an increasingly decent bet to be Mr. Trump’s running mate, winning acclaim throughout the conservative world for her role in taking down two presidents of elite universities after a contentious hearing on antisemitism and campus protests.
At his Friday rally, Mr. Trump praised Ms. Stefanik, a one-time backbencher who rocketed to the party’s No. 4 House leadership job.
“Elise became very famous,” he said of her prodding of the college presidents, describing her questioning as surgical. “Wasn’t it beautiful?”
One potential hitch with a Stefanik pick: Mr. Trump mispronounced her last name as “STEH-fuh-nick” instead of “steh-FAH-nick.”
On Saturday, Trump supporters also greeted Ms. Stefanik with “V.P.” chants as she visited with volunteers at the former president’s campaign office in Manchester.
“I’d be honored — I’ve said that for a year — to serve in a future Trump administration in any capacity,” she told reporters.
At the Saddle Up Saloon in Kingston, N.H., Mr. Vance mingled with dozens of Trump supporters as reporters asked about his prospects to join the presidential ticket.
Mr. Vance, the best-selling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” suggested he would be better utilized in the Senate during a second Trump term than as vice president. Still, Mr. Vance said, he would have to think about such an offer.
“I want to help him however I can,” he said.
Mr. Trump agonized over his pick for vice president in 2016, toggling potential picks until almost the moment of the announcement.
But during this campaign, Mr. Trump teased his vice-presidential pick before the first nominating contest last week in Iowa, where he said on Fox News that he had decided on a running mate but declined to offer a name. Still, a formal announcement could remain far off: Several people close to Mr. Trump have privately suggested that his comment was more showmanship than serious.
In Iowa, Mr. Trump also recruited a series of potential running mates to campaign for him: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona; and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
But the V.P. chants have grown much louder in New Hampshire.
At an event in Atkinson on Tuesday, Vivek Ramaswamy made an impassioned defense of Mr. Trump — less than a day after ending his own White House bid, most of which he spent glorifying the former president.
When the crowd chanted “V.P! V.P!” for Mr. Ramaswamy, an Ohio entrepreneur, Mr. Trump returned the approval.
Mr. Ramaswamy, the former president said, is “going to be working with us for a long time.”
Ms. Haley, who served in Mr. Trump’s administration as ambassador to the United Nations, has long been mentioned as a potential running mate.
But during Friday’s speech in Concord, Mr. Trump seemed to rule out that possibility.
“She is not presidential timber,” he said. “Now, when I say that, that probably means that she’s not going to be chosen as the vice president.”
Neil Vigdor contributed reporting from Kingston, N.H.
How fetch is this passing of the torch on Saturday Night Light? The limit does not exist.
Mean Girls worlds collided on NBC’s SNL Jan. 20 whenRachel McAdams, who originated the role of Regina George in the 2004 movie, made a surprise appearance to support musical guest Reneé Rapp, who plays the queen bee character in the new musical film.
Rachel, 45, began by introducing the 24-year-old’s second and final song of the night, “Not My Fault” with Megan Thee Stallion, from the Mean Girls soundtrack.
The rapper later shared a photo of herself and the two actresses re-creating the triple Spider-Man meme, marking the first photo of Rachel and Reneé together. “Cause huhhh,” Megan captioned the Instagram post, “all the Reginas in one room #snl.”
Reneé had told E! News earlier this month that she wanted “so bad” to meet and hang out with Rachel, adding, “I’m so obsessed with her. She’s like, one of my favorite actors, ever. She’s actually so talented, it’s insane.”
Trae Young is now undergoing the NBA’s concussion protocol after sustaining an injury while drawing a charge in the fourth quarter of the Atlanta Hawks’ defeat against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
The protocol outlines procedures that Young must complete before resuming basketball-related activities. Throughout each stage, Young needs to be free of any concussion symptoms.
Trae Young In Concussion Protocol https://t.co/F34FPPZc6z
The Dixmude, a French helicopter carrier, has been docked in the Egyptian port of El Arish, 50 km (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, since November. The vessel is equipped with wards, operating theatres and 70 medical staff.
Nearly 120 injured people have been hospitalised on board, while hundreds more have been seen for outpatient consultations, including follow-ups on injuries and psychiatric issues, said Captain Alexandre Blonce, calling it an “unprecedented mission”.
Israeli forces launched all-out war to eliminate Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, after its fighters carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel. At least 1,139 people were killed in the October 7 attack, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics, and some 240 others were seized as hostages and taken back to the enclave.
More than 25,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities.
Palestinians in Gaza have struggled to get medical care at home as tens of thousands have been wounded, with most of Gaza’s 36 hospitals no longer functioning, and those remaining operating at far over capacity, the World Health Organization says.
Israel has targeted the largest remaining hospitals, saying Hamas fighters are operating there, something Hamas denies.
Those lucky enough to cross into Egypt, like 16-year-old Ahmed Abu Daqqa, who was injured on November 1, faced long waits for medical care.
Doctors in Gaza “took out the shrapnel and put in two rods, but a month later they discovered more shrapnel in my knee. They told me they’ll handle it later because there were too many surgeries,” he said on board the Dixmude.
Abu Daqqa said he tried many times to get a transfer” before finally crossing into Egypt.
He was then able to undergo further surgery where the rods and shrapnel were removed and a resulting infection dealt with. He also received physical therapy.
Abu Daqqa and others on board the French ship were awaiting further transfers to hospitals in Egypt or abroad.
Italy sent a similar floating hospital to the Egyptian coast in December.
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