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Hurricane Melissa tracker

admin - Latest News - October 26, 2025
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Watch a live tracker of Hurricane Melissa as it moves toward Jamaica and Southeastern Cuba.



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Sept. 29, 2025, 1:52 PM EDTBy Angela YangA comedy festival in the capital of Saudi Arabia has become a cultural flash point as major comedians face criticism for accepting seemingly lucrative deals to perform in a country that was virtually impossible to visit until 2019 and a pariah in much of the West for its human rights record.The Riyadh Comedy Festival, which began Friday and runs through Oct. 9, features a variety of big names such as Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Pete Davidson, Andrew Schulz, Jo Koy, Bill Burr, Jessica Kirson, Jimmy Carr and Louis C.K.These comedians, most of them American, are now encountering resistance from some fans, human rights advocates and fellow comics in the industry.Marc Maron, host of the “WTF” podcast, blasted the festival in a recent stand-up clip, joking that it was easy for him to “take the high road on this one” considering he was not invited to perform.“I mean, how do you even promote that?” Maron said. “Like, ‘From the folks that brought you 9/11, two weeks of laughter in the desert. Don’t miss it.’ I mean, the same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a f—ing suitcase.”The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., declined to comment. Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, which announced the festival in July, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.“The festival is the largest of its kind globally, bringing together a selection of award-winning comedy stars known for their outstanding performances on international stages and streaming platforms,” the Saudi Press Agency wrote in its announcement for the General Entertainment Authority. “It reflects the efforts to amplify Riyadh’s status as a leading destination for major cultural and artistic events.”Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich home of Islam’s two holiest sites, was for years among the most socially conservative nations on Earth with a morality police enforcing a strict interpretation of Shariah. In recent years under the rule of de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country expanded its cultural and political influence by diversifying its economy and investing in sports, entertainment and tourism to improve its global image. Along with this, the crown prince oversaw a sweeping crackdown on dissent — imprisoning disgruntled royals, women’s rights advocates, and reforming clerics as well as adherents to previously government-sanctioned proponents of strict Wahhabi Islam.Celebrities and influencers have often been criticized for performing in the country or participating in tourism campaigns, and FIFA drew condemnation last year for selecting Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup.Shane Gillis, who said he was offered an invite, claimed that the organizers “doubled the bag,” or the amount of money offered, after he declined to participate.“It was a significant bag, but I’d already said no,” Gillis said on his podcast. “I took a principled stand.”On TikTok and Instagram, verified accounts that appeared to belong to Turki Al-Sheikh, a royal court adviser who has emerged as a powerful figure in sports and entertainment as part of Saudi Arabia’s push into the global culture industry, posted videos of Chappelle and Hart.In a news release last week, Human Rights Watch wrote that the Saudi government is using the festival “to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations” and called on the performers “to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists.”The nonprofit watchdog organization noted that some of the events land on the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by intelligence operatives with close ties to the crown prince. The festival also takes place just months after Saudi authorities executed Turki al-Jasser, a journalist known for exposing corruption within the Saudi royal family.“The seventh anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder is no laughing matter,” Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “And comedians receiving hefty sums from Saudi authorities shouldn’t be silent on prohibited topics in Saudi like human rights or free speech.”Other listed performers for the festival include: Sebastian Maniscalco, Maz Jobrani, Tom Segura, Whitney Cummings, Jimeoin, Russell Peters, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Chris Distefano, Mark Normand, Gabriel Iglesias, Hannibal Buress, Sam Morril, Jeff Ross, Omid Djalili, Ali Siddiq, Zarna Garg, Chris Tucker and Ben Hart.These performers did not respond to requests for comment.The Saudi government has been censured by dozens of countries, and in 2024 it was denied a second attempt at scoring a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. In the U.S., relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks have accused the Saudi government of having potential ties to the attack. (A direct link has not been proven.)But it has also made significant inroads with some powerful figures in the West, most notably the Trump family. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner worked with the Saudis to secure a $2 billion investment in his firm and recently partnered with the country’s public investment fund to strike a $55 billion deal to take the video game giant Electronic Arts private. Trump has maintained a close relationship with the crown prince throughout the Saudi royal’s fraught tenure. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TURKI ALALSHIKH تركي آل الشيخ (@turki) The festival and subsequent fallout has also provided a rare window into these events and, in particular, the money and self-censorship often involved.One comedian, Atsuko Okatsuka, posted screenshots to Threads of what she said was her invite to the festival, including a section on “Content Restrictions” that prohibited the artists from performing material that “may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule” the country, its royal family or any religion.“A lot of the ‘you can’t say anything anymore!’ Comedians are doing the festival 😂” Okatsuka wrote. “they had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.”Mike Birbiglia and Leslie Liao were among the comics who responded to her post, sharing that they had rejected the offer as well.Stavros Halkias similarly revealed in a podcast episode with Distefano, who did agree to perform, that he didn’t take the deal. Distefano told Halkias that while he “didn’t want to do it either,” his fiancée had ultimately urged him to “take that f—ing money.”At least one comedian, however, appears to have changed his mind despite initially agreeing to perform. Nimesh Patel, who was slated to get on stage Sunday, posted a TikTok video over the weekend sharing that he recently canceled his appearance after “having a change of heart.” That video has since become unavailable.“I’ll just do 40 shows that I had not planned on doing here in the perfectly clean, moral, above-everyone-else, United States of America — I’m tired just thinking about it — to make up for the lost bag,” Patel said.Meanwhile, comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon said in an episode of his podcast that he was dropped from the festival for making a joke about the country “having slaves.”“I’m gonna get fired again from people that are not even Saudis. I’m gonna get fired by people who don’t chop hands off. I’m gonna get fired by reasonable people. I’m gonna get fired by people that don’t practice Shariah law,” Dillon said. “This is the most controversial the people who fire me will ever be. Let me relish in this. Let’s take this win.”The Saudi Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation about the cancellation of Patel’s and Dillon’s shows.Angela YangAngela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.Natasha Lebedeva contributed.
November 11, 2025
Nov. 10, 2025, 10:30 PM ESTBy Zoë RichardsPresident Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his criticism of air traffic controllers who have been absent during parts of the record-long government shutdown, when they’re required to work without pay.During a Fox News interview, Trump roundly dismissed the employees who in some cases have had to take on second jobs to pay their bills amid a funding lapse that will hit the six-week mark on Tuesday.“You know, a lot of people who showed up also had a second job. They took a second job temporarily. But they all know the money’s coming, and the money was coming,” Trump told host Laura Ingraham.Air traffic controllers are classified as essential government workers, meaning they must show for work during a shutdown, even though they’re not getting paid. Members of the military, who are also essential workers, have received paychecks during the funding lapse.Trump has been inconsistent in recent remarks about backpay for federal employees when the government reopens.He said last month that “it depends who we’re talking about,” when asked whether he supported back pay for federal employees, and that there “are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”The Trump administration has also explored ways to prevent furloughed workers from getting back pay, despite a 2019 federal law requiring back pay, including through a draft memo last month that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said did not entitle federal workers to retroactive pay.The memo appeared to contradict the Office of Management and Budget’s earlier guidance which indicated that in the event of a shutdown, federal workers would be paid for any lapses in pay.Trump’s comments Monday on Fox News came after he urged air traffic controllers in a social media post earlier in the day to return to work, days after the Federal Aviation Administration began canceling flights at dozens of major U.S. airports in a move that officials said was intended offset staffing shortages.Trump threatened to dock the pay of those who didn’t report to work, while saying that he would recommend $10,000 bonuses for those who hadn’t been absent during the shutdown.“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He reiterated that sentiment on Fox News, saying, “I want to reward the people that showed up without a lot of nonsense, without a lot of talk.””They did their job and in many cases, they worked longer hours to get us through this period,” Trump added.Asked how he would pay the bonuses, Trump said: “I don’t know. I’ll get it from some place.”More broadly, Trump dismissed growing concerns about the economy among voters. After declaring that “the economy is the strongest it’s ever been,” Ingraham asked Trump why people are saying they’re anxious about the economy.”I don’t know what they are saying,” Trump responded. “I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”A recent NBC News poll found that about two-thirds of respondents nationwide said Trump hasn’t delivered on his promises to curb inflation and improve the economy.The president also weighed in on the legal fight over funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, saying the program “really puts the company, the country, in jeopardy.”He then expressed disdain for “able-bodied people” whom he claimed were leaving their jobs to obtain SNAP benefits.”People that need it have to get it. I’m all for it, but people that are able-bodied, can do a job, they leave their job because they figure they can pick this up, it’s easier,” Trump said. “That’s not the purpose of it.”The Trump administration on Monday filed a supplemental Supreme Court briefing seeking to extend a pause imposed last week to block full federal funding of food assistance program’s benefits to its roughly 42 million recipients.The Senate passed a bill Monday night to reopen the government, with a provision that would ensure SNAP benefits are available through next September. The measure now heads to the House.Zoë RichardsZoë Richards is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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