OXON HILL, Md. — The best young spellers in the English language are competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. The bee is now held just outside the nation’s capital, at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River. It starts Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.

This is the 97th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s champion will be the 110th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.

How can I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.

Tuesday, May 27: Preliminary rounds streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. EDT.
Wednesday, May 28: Quarterfinals streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Semifinals streamed on Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Semifinals broadcast on ION on tape-delay from 8-10 p.m.
Thursday, May 29: Finals broadcast on ION from 8-10 p.m.

Who is competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

The bee features 243 spellers, with at least one from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; as well as spellers from U.S. territories Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands; and from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.

Participants stand up as they compete during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Faizan Zaki, last year’s runner-up, is back after losing to Bruhat Soma in a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off.” He’s a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Allen, Texas. If he falls short again, he would have one more year of eligibility. He has won several online bees that top spellers compete in as preparation, including the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee and the South Asian Spelling Bee.

Other possible contenders:

Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Concord, North Carolina, and winner of the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee.
Avinav Prem Anand, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Columbus, Ohio, who finished second to Faizan in the Words of Wisdom bee.
Vedanth Raju, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Aurora, Colorado, and the younger brother of 2022 runner-up Vikram Raju.
Harini Murali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Edison, New Jersey, a finalist last year and the younger sister of Navneeth Murali, who would have been a top contender in the 2020 bee had it not been canceled because of COVID-19.
Tarini Nandakumar, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Round Rock, Texas, a previous finalist who is competing for the fifth time.

What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?

Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.

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Spellers must get through two preliminary rounds, quizzing them on words from a list provided in advance: one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.

Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.

Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.

About a dozen spellers advance to the finals. When only two spellers remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a “spell-off” to determine the champion. However, Scripps has taken away the requirement that the spell-off begin at a specific time, giving bee judges more discretion to let the competition play out.

What are the prizes for the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion?

The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Here are the prize payouts:

First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, and a $1,000 contribution to a school of the champion’s choice.
Second place: $25,000.
Third place: $15,000.
Fourth place: $10,000.
Fifth place: $5,000.
Sixth place: $2,500.
All other finalists: $2,000.

Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

Wave upon wave of fans clad in purple and in a celebratory mood will make their way to Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday evening. In this place where professional men’s teams win championships roughly as often as Halley’s Comet makes an appearance, fans of the local pro women’s hockey club, the Minnesota Frost, will party like it’s 2024 and watch their favorite players hoist the Walter Cup, just like they did a year ago at this time.

All seemed right in the State of Hockey one year ago, as the Frost — then known simply as PWHL Minnesota — took the stage in their home rink, with speeches from coach Ken Klee, general manager Natalie Darwitz and key players in the team’s first title run, which saw Minnesota defeat Boston in five games to claim the league’s inaugural championship.

Klee had joined the Minnesota team just days before their first game when their initial pick for a head coach, Charlie Burggraf, stepped down. Living in Denver, Klee was offered the job by PWHL officials, and a few days after Christmas 2023, he hopped in his pickup truck for the 14-hour drive to St. Paul.

One can only hope that what comes next after the 2025 title celebration is a bit more calm than what happened a year ago.

Just days after that 2024 celebration, Darwitz was ousted from her position with the team, revealing an internal conflict between the former prep, Olympic and Gophers star and Klee, among others behind the scenes. With that drama fresh in everyone’s mind and Minnesota hosting the 2024 PWHL draft in St. Paul, Klee took over as the general manager on a temporary basis. From an optics standpoint, draft night could hardly have gone worse for the local hockey club.

While the league’s five other teams had their first round picks on stage, Frost first rounder Clair Thompson wasn’t there, and she spoke to reporters via Zoom an hour or so after her name was called.

With some fans holding signs in support of Darwitz and booing Klee when he would come on stage, the Frost took controversial Wisconsin standout Britta Curl-Salemme in Round 2. Curl’s on-ice acumen has never been questioned, but her past social media history has drawn the attention of the LGBTQ+ community, and questions were immediately raised about how she would fit in the Minnesota locker room.

In Round 3, the Frost picked Czech standout Klara Hymlarova, who had played collegiately at St. Cloud State. They specifically did not grab former Hill-Murray and Gophers standout Abigail Boreen, who had played a key role in Minnesota’s 2024 PWHL title run, but had to re-enter the draft because she had been signed under a series of 10-day standard player agreements.

Two picks later, Montreal drafted Boreen, prompting another cascade of boos from the Minnesota fans in attendance.

By the time Klee met with reporters in the waning minutes of draft day, it was clear that the Minnesota Frost were now his team, and his alone. While Melissa Caruso was named the Frost’s new general manager in September, the title defense effort was clearly on Klee’s shoulders, with fans expecting nothing less than another lap around the rink with the Walter Cup.

With a week to go in the 2025 regular season, it looked like a failed effort.

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Boreen was one of the top point producers for a Montreal team that was best in the PWHL in the regular season. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, following a 2-0 loss to last-place New York in their home finale on April 27, the Frost were on the outside of the playoff picture. But they went on the road for decisive wins at Ottawa and at Boston to close the regular season, just barely squeaking into the four-team postseason field.

The Frost won a high-scoring, first-round playoffs series with Toronto, then switched gears and won three out of four games versus Ottawa in the championship round with each game ending 2-1 in overtime. Thompson, Curl-Salemme and Hymlarova all made important contributions, with Curl scoring the tying and winning goals in Game 2, all while hearing a cascade of fan derision every time she touched the puck in Ottawa.

In the victorious postgame locker room on Monday, Klee was doused with a tub of water, as has become a standard practice when celebrating a title.

Starting a year ago, the Frost coach tuned out all of the noise from a hockey-mad, and quite provincial, Minnesota fanbase that doesn’t always welcome outsiders, and directed another somewhat improbable title run.

Klee has earned the celebration that follows.

FRANKFURT, Germany — Top officials at the European Union’s executive commission says they’re pushing hard for a trade deal with the Trump administration to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods. Trump had threatened to impose the tariffs on June 1, but has pushed back the deadline to July 9, repeating an oft-used tactic in his trade war.

European negotiators are contending with Trump’s everchanging and unpredictable tariff threats, but “still, they have to come up with something to hopefully pacify him,” said Bruce Stokes, visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Stokes also sees more at play than just a disagreement over trade deficits. Trump’s threats “are rooted in frustration with the EU that has little to do with trade,’’ Stokes said. “He doesn’t like the EU. He doesn’t like Germany.”

What exactly does Trump want? What can Europe offer? Here are the key areas where the two side are squaring off.

Buy our stuff

Over and over, Trump has bemoaned the fact that Europe sells more things to Americans than it buys from Americans. The difference, or the trade deficit in goods, last year was 157 billion euros ($178 billion). But Europe says that when it comes to services — particularly digital services like online advertising and cloud computing — the U.S. sells more than it buys and that lowers the overall trade deficit to 48 billion euros, which is only about 3% of total trade. The European Commission says that means trade is “balanced.”

One way to shift the trade in goods would be for Europe to buy more liquefied natural gas by ship from the U.S. To do so, the EU could cut off the remaining imports of Russian pipeline gas and LNG. The commission is preparing legislation to force an end to those purchases — last year, some 19% of imports — by the end of 2027.

That would push European private companies to look for other sources of gas such as the U.S. However the shift away from Russia is already in motion and that “has obviously not been enough to satisfy,” said Laurent Ruseckas, a natural gas markets expert at S&P Global Commodities Insights Research.

The commission doesn’t buy gas itself but can use “moral suasion” to convince companies to turn to U.S. suppliers in coming years but “this is no silver bullet and nothing that can yield immediate results,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy analyst at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

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Europe could buy more from U.S. defense contractors as part of its effort to deter further aggression from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, says Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. If European countries did increase their overall defense spending — another of Trump’s demands — their voters are likely to insist that the purchases go to defense contractors in Europe, not America, said Stokes of the German Marshall Fund. One way around that political obstacle would be for U.S. defense companies to build factories in Europe, but “that would take time,” he said.

The EU could also reduce its 10% tax on foreign cars— one of Trump’s longstanding grievances against Europe. “The United States is not going to export that many cars to Europe anyway … The Germans would be most resistant, but I don’t think they’re terribly worried about competition from America,” said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. ”That would be a symbolic victory for the president.”

A beef over beef

The U.S. has long complained about European regulations on food and agricultural products that keep out hormone-raised beef and chickens disinfected with chlorine. But experts aren’t expecting EU trade negotiators to offer any concessions at the bargaining table.

“The EU is unwilling to capitulate,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The EU has repeatedly said it will not change its sanitary rules, its rules on (genetically modified) crops, its rules on chlorinated chickens, things that have been longtime irritants for the U.S.’’

Backing down on those issues, she said, would mean that “the U.S. gets to set food safety (standards) for Europe.’’

Value-added tax

One of Trump’s pet peeves has been the value-added taxes used by European governments, a tax he says is a burden on US companies.

Economists say this kind of tax, used by some 170 countries, is trade-neutral because it applies equally to imports and exports. A value-added tax, or VAT, is paid by the end purchaser at the cash register but differs from sales taxes in that it is calculated at each stage of the production process. In both cases, VAT and sales tax, imports and exports get the same treatment. The U.S. is an outlier in that it doesn’t use VAT.

There’s little chance countries will change their tax systems for Trump and the EU has ruled it out.

Negotiating strategy

Trump’s approach to negotiations has involved threats of astronomical tariffs – up to 145% in the case of China – before striking a deal for far lower levels. In any case, however, the White House has taken the stance that it won’t go below a 10% baseline. The threat of 50% for the EU is so high it means “an effective trade embargo,” said Brzeski, since it would impose costs that would make it unprofitable to import goods or mean charging consumers prices so high the goods would be uncompetitive.

Because the knottiest issues dividing the EU and U.S. — food safety standards, the VAT, regulation of tech companies — are so difficult “it is impossible to imagine them being resolved by the deadline,” Alden said. ”Possibly what you could have — and Trump has shown he is willing to do this — is a very small deal” like the one he announced May 8 with the United Kingdom.

Economists Oliver Rakau and Nicola Nobile of Oxford Economics wrote in a commentary Monday that if imposed, the 50% tariffs would reduce the collective economy of the 20 countries that use the euro currency by up to 1% next year and slash business investment by more than 6%.

The EU has offered the US a “zero for zero” outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that but EU officials have said it’s still on the table.

Lovely of the Peterson Institute sees the threats and bluster as Trump’s way of negotiating. “In the short run, I don’t think 50% is going to be our reality.’’

But she says Trump’s strategy adds to the uncertainty around U.S. policy that is paralyzing business. “It suggests that the U.S. is an unreliable trading partner, that it operates on whim and not on rule of law,’’ Lovely said. “Friend or foe, you’re not going to be treated well by this administration.’’

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Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington.

By Vinod Sreeharsha, Miami Herald

Cruise ships are trying to navigate murky waters.

Do travelers want more and faster waterslides? Or the number of decks to reach the 30s? Do they still want to hike on all seven continents? Or just stay on the ship and sip fruity cocktails?

Growth in cruise ship travel is starting to slow compared to the post-pandemic boom. That trend has cruise lines looking at several ways to keep people coming on board.

Some are creating new private resorts. Others are doubling down on super high-end luxury trips. Still others are offering river cruises.

How all this unfolds affects South Florida and the Sunshine State, home to the three largest passenger cruise ports in the United States: PortMiami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The industry fills about 130,000 jobs in Florida.

Private islands

In December, Royal Caribbean will debut its third all-inclusive resort, the Royal Beach Club Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The company is promising the resort will include the “world’s largest swim-up bar.” It spans 17 acres of land with seven beach bars and “pools for every vibe.” The project is a partnership with the Bahamian government.

This will be Royal Caribbean’s third private island, following Perfect Day at CocoCay in the Bahamas and Labadee in Haiti, where the company has suspended travel.

Interior view of the new MSC Cruises’ Terminal AA, designed by Miami’ s Architecture Studio Arquitectonica, that includes an art piece by artist Lauren Shapiro, at PortMiami, which is the world’s largest cruise terminal, capable of accommodating three ships simultaneously and processing up to 36,000 guests daily, on April 5, 2025. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/TNS)

MSC Cruises remodeled its private island, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, in the Bahamas in 2024, adding a private yacht club and solar farm. Now, the cruise line will be creating a second private island near the original thanks to a dredging project at Ocean Cay.

Ryan Rea, a 37-year-old frequent cruiser from Miami, is drawn to that idea.

“I prefer the private island because I’ve been to the ports so many times,” Rea said.

“They’re comfortable, safe and relaxing,” he said. “You know you won’t get bothered.”

Luxury trips

Several cruise lines are creating more high-end luxury cruises, in part because that’s where the money is. And MSC Cruises, which opened a modern new terminal in April at PortMiami, is betting on it.

Explora Journeys, the luxury company it owns, will have its two ships, Explora I and Explora II, sail from Miami starting in November through the winter season. Each offers over 20 trips that are either 8 or 16 nights. Many sail to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. That includes Greater and Lesser Antilles, St. John’s and the lagoons of Tortola.

MSC Cruises officially named its highly anticipated new flagship, MSC World America, at the line’ s new state-of-the-art MSC Miami Cruise Terminal on April 9, 2025, at the PortMiami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald/TNS)

The Explora III, a new vessel that will start sailing during the summer of 2026, will have 13 trips from PortMiami starting in November 2026, mostly to San Juan and the Caribbean but also, for the first time, La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

The publication Cruise Critic has noted that all cabins on Explora I are suites, and each has an outdoor terrace. “Suites mirror public spaces, designed to feel like a boutique hotel or room at a luxury resort, rather than a cruise ship,” one reviewer wrote. “The line has achieved this not just in the décor — modern and neutral — but in scale.”

Of course, these journeys aren’t for everyone — eight-night trips start at about $3,000 per person.

One catalyst for MSC pushing more into high end is how costly things are on land.

Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman for MSC Group’s cruise division, recounted in April to an audience in Miami Beach at the yearly Seatrade Cruise Global conference how expensive he found things on land when he visited.

“When I see the prices … it’s incredible,” he said. “The dinner alone cost the same as a day on a luxury ship.”

That helped convince him that MSC was on the right track.

“How can we be wrong?” Vago asked.

Euphoria ending for the cruise ship industry?

The cruise industry experienced massive growth as the COVID-19 pandemic faded and millions decided to jump into their bucket lists.

In 2024, 35 million people took an ocean cruise worldwide, up 9% from 2023, according to a new report from the trade group Cruise Lines International Association. That’s nearly twice the NFL’s total attendance for the 2024 regular season.

Yet the growth rate is slowing. The report forecasts 3% growth in 2027 and 2% in 2028.

The 310 ocean vessels operating in 2025 is just a 2% increase from the year before. That’s the smallest annual growth since at least 2018, excluding the pandemic year 2021.

And there are other challenges.

Cities throughout the world are imposing restrictions on large ships docking at their ports.

In January, the mayor of Nice, on the French Riviera, issued a decree barring cruise ships with 900 or more passengers from docking at its ports. Last year, Juneau, Alaska, had a ballot measure that would ban ships from docking on Saturdays. While voters rejected it, that has given life to other ways to limit cruise tourism. In November, voters in Bar Harbour, Maine, chose to maintain their limit of 1,000 passengers per day.

Cities making it tougher for big cruise ships to dock is one concern. But even busy ports have finite space, industry analysts say, and will soon have to cope with congestion.

PortMiami, for example, will be able to handle 12 ships simultaneously once it finishes all three berths at MSC’s new terminal inaugurated in April. Earlier this year it set a record when 10 ships arrived one morning.

A view of Cunard’s Queen Anne while it is docked at PortMiami on Jan. 21, 2025, in Miami. (Photo by Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS)

“They may have room to build one or two more docks,” said Stewart Chiron, a cruise expert. “But then what?”

The author of The Cruise Guy, who takes at least 10 cruises a year, wonders: “You can build new ships but where are you going to put them?”

PortMiami’s Florida neighbors to the north have already had to face that question. Last year, Port Canaveral suspended an effort to expand its port after state departments of commerce and transportation objected, saying it would bother the Space Coast. The port in Tampa has height restrictions.

This may be leading to one of the biggest trends in cruising: visiting private islands held or built by the cruise companies.

The first one, Great Stirrup Cay, launched by Norwegian Cruise Line, dates back to 1977. Those were early days for cruise companies. That was also the year “The Love Boat” debuted on ABC television. But they are now in vogue like never before.

“The cruise lines are limited” in where they can dock, Chiron, the Cruise Guy, said. “That’s why they have to create these destinations.”

New places and faces on a cruise

Next year, Royal Caribbean will open another private port, Royal Beach Club Cozumel, in Mexico. Guests can snorkel, kayak and enjoy tequila tastings and cooking classes. The resort will include swim-up bars, street markets and private cabanas. In 2027, it’ll launch what it dubs Perfect Day Mexico. Each allows for “new adventures in the western Caribbean,” the company said.

Notably, the islands in Mexico will be closer to Galveston, Texas, than other destinations. That could create a test of whether Galveston can compete with South Florida’s main ports. Galveston is about 50 miles from Houston, which is home to about 2 million people.

Doral-based Carnival told the Miami Herald it expects to have ready Celebration Key, its own private development in the Bahamas, for sailing trips starting in July. On the southern side of Grand Bahama island and about 17 miles northeast of Freeport, the resort will have its own pier with two berths where Carnival’s largest ships can dock.

MSC Cruises officially named its highly anticipated new flagship, MSC World America, in a dazzling ceremony at the line’ s new state-of-the-art MSC Miami Cruise Terminal on April 9, 2025, at PortMiami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald/TNS)

In 2026, the pier at Celebration Key will add two more berths so a total of four Carnival ships can dock at the same time. Costing $600 million, the area will feature water slides for kids, scuba diving and other sports, and excursions. And there will be more than 30 restaurants and bars that passengers can reach by walking or swimming.

Carnival is so keen on Celebration Key that 20 of its 27 ships plan to sail there, including all five ships that call PortMiami home: Carnival Celebration, Carnival Horizon, Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Conquest and Carnival Magic. Ships sailing from Baltimore, New Orleans and Galveston will also head there this year.

In addition to giving the ships additional and alternative places to dock, the private resorts give travelers more beach time, expand group activities and bring in more money to the cruise lines.

The business justification was expressed by Josh Weinstein, president, chief executive officer, and chief climate officer of Carnival Corp. He said in April at the cruise conference in Miami Beach that the private island or resort “gets a broader audience, it gets more customers, and it will ultimately result in more demand.”

Cruise companies are hoping that’s also true for luxury travelers.

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Royal Caribbean is also making a play in that space, all the way in Antarctica.

It expects to have an “Antarctica Bridge fly-cruise program” ready by the end of 2025 that allows travelers to fly directly from Santiago, Chile, to Puerto Williams before getting on a cruise. But before that, guests can stay at a 150-room hotel, The Cormorant at 55 South in Puerto Williams, which is in the Beagle Channel and near Ushuaia.

The site, self-proclaimed as the “southernmost hotel on Earth,” is planning to open by the end of this year. It overlooks the channel and is surrounded by forest and water and the snow-capped Patagonian mountains. Amenities include a fitness center, gift shop, lounge and a large restaurant.

The hotel and the expedition cruise ships are being organized by Silversea Cruises, an ultra-luxury and expedition cruising company Royal Caribbean acquired in 2018. Silversea has three expedition ships.

Then there are river cruises.

In 2027, Royal Caribbean will start offering trips along European rivers on its subsidiary company Celebrity River Cruises. It has already ordered 10 ships and will go up against better-known river carriers like Viking.

Whether these trends will fend off the uncertainty is another question.

Trump tariffs

President Donald Trump has used executive power to raise tariffs against China to 145%. He’s put a 10% tax in place against all imports from most countries including close allies and those who hold trade deficits against the U.S. He later suspended some of them for 90 days. Still, businesses are reporting slowdowns.

At the Seatrade cruise conference in April and in subsequent earnings calls, cruise executives have acknowledged they aren’t immune to the policies.

“The uncertainty, and the ripple effects absolutely have an impact on the industry,” Carnival’s Weinstein said.

Still, he noted that “we had more bookings in the first quarter than we have ever had.”

Meanwhile, on a conference call on April 29 to discuss first-quarter results, Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty said the company is over 86% fully booked for the year and “we see really no impact, no change in cancellation rates and no real change in how our consumers are acting.” The company reported serving 2.2 million guests in the first quarter, up 9% from the same period in 2024, and said travelers’ spending on board was higher than a year ago.

That may be due in part to travelers like Ryan Rea. The Miami resident has averaged taking four to five cruises in past years.

“This year will remain the same,” he said.

He already has one trip booked on Virgin Voyages in October to the Dominican Republic.

Rea said he still finds cruising the most economical way to vacation and he regularly receives promotions because he’s a regular and he gambles while on board.

But he also believes cruise companies can stave off tariffs because of their influence with government leaders.

“The cruise lines,” he said, “are pretty powerful.”

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.