Good Evening ! It's Friday November 7 . Welcome to The Front Cover, your gateway to the world of Mencari News and we're covering the pro-palestine protest in Sydney.

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Today's reading time is 5 minutes. - Miko Santos

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When Cortney Clegg wanted to take her family to Costa Rica, she braced herself for sticker shock. She hoped to mitigate some of the cost by using the points she’d accumulated from her credit cards, but she was surprised to find she had more than enough to cover all of the flights — and then some. “We ended up getting six flights for 136,000 miles total,” she says. “It was like finding $6,000 I didn’t know we had.”

The windfall was so substantial that Clegg could upgrade her family’s hotel and even bring along her in-laws. “I was absolutely shocked that we could book this trip using the points and miles that we already had. I had thought it would take us years to save up for it.”

In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a miner digs for his dreams hoping the “grey gold” of coltan, used in much of today’s electronics, can bring his family back together.

Rising prices have been top of mind for consumers for several years, especially coming off the high inflation after the pandemic. Now, rising global tensions in 2025, including new tariffs, are starting to impact people’s wallets.

In fact, the Harvard Business School Pricing Lab, which has been tracking the effect of tariffs on more than 350,000 goods, has found prices are around 5% higher as a result of them.

As you’re preparing for your holiday shopping this year, you may see higher price tags on items from children’s toys to electronics, especially given the portion of products on the store shelves that come from China.

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