Lala Kent would like to thank her Vanderpump Rules co-stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss. Since their secret monthslong affair dubbed Scandoval went public in early March, the Bravo reality shows heat meter has skyrocketed.

First, a primer: Vanderpump Rules follows former and current staff of LA restaurants owned by former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump. Sandoval cheated on fellow VPR castmate Ariana Madix the pair had been together for nine years, co-own a home and, this season, Sandoval was filmed making plans to fertilize Madixs eggs. Madix and Leviss were close friends. By this 10th season, seemingly everyone in the tight-knit, drama-ridden cast had dated, dumped, cheated on, befriended or feuded with each other (and sometimes all of the above).

Since Scandoval broke, its been breathless fodder for social media and mainstream media alike, with viewers combing through episodes to find hints of the affair (theyre there). But the cast members have also capitalized on the drama, with dozens of TV interviews, their own podcasts, endorsement deals and merch sales. Madix, Vanderpump and Kent even attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner (A lot of them said, We have a separate group chat only for (the show), Kent says of the politicians who approached the trio).

In an April interview with Howie Mandel, Sandoval complained about his co-stars profiting off his breakup. Kent, though, has some appreciation for him.

Since Scandoval, (Toms) given me so much to work with and I will be forever grateful. I feel like when life hands you something, youve got to find the silver lining. Were having a moment. We have to monetize every second, Kent, clad in her own merch, said recently over Zoom from her office in Los Angeles.

Sandoval didnt cheat on Kent, but shes not a stranger to betrayal of this kind. She left her former fiance, controversial Hollywood producer Randall Emmett, in late 2021 after allegations surfaced that he had cheated on her throughout their relationship. Kent and Emmett are now embroiled in a custody dispute over their daughter Ocean, now 2.

Emmetts own problems have snowballed. Known for his geezer teasers low-budget action films starring iconic actors of yesteryear like Bruce Willis  hes been accused of business misconduct and mistreatment of staff. Hes also the subject of a new Hulu documentary, The Randall Scandal: Love, Loathing, and Vanderpump, produced with the LA Times and ABC News. Kent did not sit for an interview for the documentary (her mother and brother did), but it heavily features clips of her recounting her story elsewhere.

I had my own situation that was as dark as it gets, Kent told the AP. When I start fixating on all the time that I feel I wasted because Im obviously still upset about everything, I just think of Ocean.

Emmett has denied all allegations against him.

Ahead of the final episode of the three-part VPR reunion, which airs Wednesday, Kent spoke with the AP about building her brand, friendship, sobriety and the time she worked with Al Pacino. Answers have been condensed for brevity and clarity.

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AP: What have your conversations with Ariana Madix been like since her breakup?

KENT: At the very beginning I felt like maybe I was a little too abrupt for her. She needed to take time to process. But we do have conversations about how once youre with someone and you dont even realize theyre holding you back until you get rid of them and see what your life turns into. So we have weve had moments where we like to reminisce and laugh about that, and its great that I can make fun of him now in front of her and she thinks Im funny instead of wanting to, you know, slit my throat (laughs).

AP: Youve said Tom and Raquels affair is triggering for you because you were engaged to be married to Randall Emmett and had a newborn with him when you learned he had allegedly cheated. How did your reaction differ from Arianas?

KENT: My guard was immediately up and I was ready for war. You know, it was like Theres no conversation to be had. This is where I burn your house down to the ground. Theres a part of me that wishes I did have a little bit of Arianas mentality, where she could sit down and have a productive conversation with Sandoval and still slice him every which way, which we all saw in the finale episode.

AP: The Vanderpump show really had a resurgence this season, thanks in large part to Scandoval, but Seasons Eight and Nine were kind of lacking. Were you all worried the show was winding down?

KENT: I think every season, especially after Season Eight, when we tried to introduce a new cast is like, Have we maybe lost it? Season Nine, we got by the skin of our teeth and people didnt really take to it. Season 10 we really got by the skin of our teeth and it was absolutely incredible. So every season I go into it like, Im going to enjoy this moment because it will not last forever.

AP: Do you worry how next season will be since at this point hardly anyone wants anything to do with Tom and Raquel? How will scenes happen?

KENT: I think about that all the time. Before, even though certain people didnt like each other, there was always one bridge or another connecting the group. Right now, we are very, very separated so I dont know how it will look like. Ill show up and give them Lala, no matter what situation you put me in. Im just going to be me.

AP: Youve been upfront about your sobriety. Do any of these stressors with your ex or even the drama on the show make you worry about maintaining that?

KENT: I was already strong in my sobriety. Thank God I became stronger when all of this happened. I know that those days are looming. Im not saying that I will never have the urge to pick up a drink, Im only human. I can only be grateful for today when I complete another day of not picking up a drink. But Im telling you, I wouldnt be doing anything that Im doing right now if I were drinking.

AP: You recently signed with talent agency CAA, host a popular podcast, have a beauty, skincare and baby clothes line. What else do you want to accomplish?

KENT: The biggest thing is, I want to turn my brand into a freaking empire. I know that I can do that. I am very inspired by Bethenny Frankel. I watched her since the first season of The Real Housewives of New York, sitting in a supermarket, hawking (baked goods) and everyone rejecting it to where she is now. Then to see how she is as a mother and with her charity B Strong, I just feel like shes got it really figured out.

AP: Youve also acted. You were in the 2021 movie American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally (co-produced by Emmett) and had scenes with Al Pacino. What was that like?

KENT: That was a surreal experience and we had the best time. He (Pacino) said to me, Im having a lot of fun with you. Lets do this scene a few different ways. And I was like, Im dreaming right now. How is this my life? But Im funny about it because I thought I was really being put in movies because I was a good actress, and then I learned many women who I was on set with were actually hooking up with my fiance. I was like, Wow, I did not get in this movie because Im a good actress. That is a moment that I look back on and I talk to my mom who reassures me a lot. Im like, Do you think that (Pacino) said that to me because he meant it? and my mom talks me off the ledge.

Just hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission raised questions about the future of crypto in the U.S. by suing Binance and Coinbase, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said shes very supportive of the agency using its enforcement powers.

In an interview on CNBC on Wednesday, Yellen pointed out that under U.S. law the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have tools at their disposal to protect consumers and investors.

Im supportive, very supportive, of seeing those agencies use the tools they have, she told CNBC.

Although she wouldnt comment specifically on the Binance or Coinbase suits to CNBC, Yellen added that the agencys actions were certainly appropriate.

The Treasury Secretary also said that after President Joe Biden issued an executive order on digital assets last year, the department outlined in reports a number of risks, some of which could threaten consumers and investors. In October, the Financial Stability Oversight Council chaired by Yellen said that crypto-asset activities could pose risks to the stability of the U.S. financial system if their interconnections with the traditional financial system or their overall scale were to grow without adherence to or being paired with appropriate regulation, including enforcement of the existing regulatory structure, according to a summary of a larger report on the issue.

Although she voiced support for regulators, Yellen also said there were still gaps in how crypto is regulated that lawmakers must address.

I see some holes in the system where additional regulation, I think, would be appropriate, and we would like to work with Congress to see additional legislation passed, she told CNBC.

Following the collapse of FTX, crypto-related bills in Congress have stalled, including a revamped version of a bipartisan crypto bill sponsored by Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). 

On Friday, the chairmen of the House Financial Services and Agriculture committees released a draft bill intended to bring some clarity and structure to crypto market regulation. By Monday, the legislation was overshadowed by the SECs lawsuits, Fortune reported. 

If the SEC succeeds against Coinbase, it could bring about a major change to how cryptocurrencies are used in the country and significantly alter the companys future in the U.S.

Learn more about all things crypto with short, easy-to-read lesson cards. Click here for Fortunes Crypto Crash Course.

Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said the US Securities and Exchange Commission started to change its tone in its questioning of the company last year, before filing its lawsuit against the crypto exchange this week. 

We had many discussions within the last year when their tone started to change. They started to come to us with more questions about the business, so we were very forthcoming, Armstrong said in an interview at the Bloomberg Invest conference Wednesday. Unfortunately we were met with silence. 

Asked if Coinbase is starting to lose customers or its banking partners, Armstrong said on Bloomberg TV, so far we havent seen any risk of that happening. I think all of our partners have been very thoughtful working with us.

Shares of Coinbase gained 3.2% to $53.28 as of 1:13 pm in New York on Wednesday, after falling 20% the previous two days. Cathie Woods funds boosted their holdings in the crypto firm on Tuesday. 

I think were gonna be fine going to the court, Armstrong said, noting that the company has more than $5 billion on its balance sheet to sustain operations and pay for legal fees. Even if this takes some time, thats OK. 

Coinbase trades over 200 assets on its platform, and the SEC complaint mentioned just 13 of them as securities, Armstrong said, so a relatively small percentage of the assets we trade.

This week, the SEC widened its crackdown on crypto through a one-two punch against the biggest industry players. On Tuesday, it accused Coinbase of running an illegal exchange. Just a day earlier, the regulator sued rival Binance Holdings Ltd., alleging it mishandled customer funds, misled investors and regulators, and broke securities rules. 

Coinbase is also facing scrutiny from state regulators. Several regulators from California to New Jersey demanded that Coinbase halt its staking service. 

We are not going to wind down our staking services. As these court cases play out, its really business as usual, Armstrong said.  

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Germany blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the destruction of the Kakhova dam in Ukraine, and was joined by other European NATO members in denouncing it as a war crime.

The statements added to rising outcry over the biggest man-made disaster in Europe in decades as Ukraine said it was mounting rescue efforts for tens of thousands of people affected by the floodwaters unleashed by the demolition of the dam on Tuesday.

This is a crystal clear war crime, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to Mumbai. This is an unbelievable act of violence and destruction which I thought even Putin would not be capable of.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also directly blamed Russia for the suspected attack, saying Moscow destroyed the dam to stop Ukraines long-awaited counteroffensive aimed at taking back territory from Putins invading forces. He said the incident was just the latest of the many, many crimes which we have seen in Ukraine and which were committed by Russian soldiers.

Other allies, including the US, are still assessing who is responsible, but theyre leaning toward Russia, a Western official said on Tuesday. Analysts say Moscow stood to benefit most militarily because the flooding would swamp a potential avenue for attack by Ukrainian troops, making it impassible.

The Kremlin denied responsibility and said Ukraine was behind the breach at the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which held back a reservoir that provided water to the cooling systems of one of Europes largest nuclear power stations, as well as irrigation for farms in Ukraines south.

Putin ordered his emergency situations minister to organize work to help people and eliminate consequences of the disaster, the Interfax news service reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He blamed the catastrophe on sabotage from the Kyiv regime.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said British military and intelligence teams were working to establish who was responsible.

He refused to preempt the results of that process but added what I can say is that what weve seen from Russia throughout this war is, on multiple occasions, deliberate acts of aggression against civilian infrastructure.

I think its abhorrent, and if indeed this attack does turn out to be intentional, it will represent a new low in the form of Russian barbarism, he told TalkTV during a trip to Washington. Its causing enormous suffering to the Ukrainian people.

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In a good month, Celina Chanthanouvong has about $200 left after rent, groceries and car insurance. That doesnt factor in her student loans, which have been on hold since the start of the pandemic and are estimated to cost $300 a month. The pause in repayment has been a lifeline keeping the 25-year-old afloat.

I dont even know where I would begin to budget that money, said Chanthanouvong, who works in marketing in San Francisco.

Now, after more than three years, the lifeline is being pulled away.

More than 40 million Americans will be on the hook for federal student loan payments starting in late August under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress last week. The Biden administration has been targeting that timeline for months, but the deal ends any hope of a further extension of the pause, which has been prolonged while the Supreme Court decides the presidents debt cancellation.

Without cancellation, the Education Department predicts borrowers will fall behind on their loans at historic rates. Among the most vulnerable are those who finished college during the pandemic. Millions have never had to make a loan payment, and their bills will soon come amid soaring inflation and forecasts of economic recession.

Advocates fear it will add a financial burden that younger borrowers cant afford.

I worry that were going to see levels of default of new graduates that weve never seen before, said Natalia Abrams, president of the nonprofit Student Debt Crisis Center.

Chanthanouvong earned a bachelors in sociology from the University of California-Merced in 2019. She couldnt find a job for a year, leaving her to rely on odd jobs for income. She found a full-time job last year, but at $70,000, her salary barely covers the cost of living in the Bay Area.

Im not going out. I dont buy Starbucks every day. Im cooking at home, she said. And sometimes, I dont even have $100 after everything.

Under President Joe Bidens cancellation plan, Chanthanouvong would be eligible to get $20,000 of her debt erased, leaving her owing $5,000. But she isnt banking on the relief. Instead, she invited her partner to move in and split rent. The financial pinch has them postponing or rethinking major life milestones.

My partner and I agreed, maybe we dont want kids, she said. Not because we dont want them, but because it would be financially irresponsible for us to bring a human being into this world.

Out of the more than 44 million federal student loan borrowers, about 7 million are below the age of 25, according to data from the Education Department. Their average loan balance is less than $14,000, lower than any other age group.

Yet borrowers with lower balances are the most likely to default. Its fueled by millions who drop out before graduating, along with others who graduate but struggle to find good jobs. Among those who defaulted in 2021, the median loan balance was $15,300, and the vast majority had balances under $40,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Resuming student loan payments will cost U.S. consumers $18 billion a month, the investment firm Jefferies has estimated. The hit to household budgets is ill-timed for the overall economy, Jefferies says, because the United States is widely believed to be on the brink of a recession.

Despite the student loan moratorium, Americans mostly didnt bank their savings, according to Jefferies economist Thomas Simons. So theyll likely have to cut back on other things travel, restaurants to fit resumed loan payments into their budgets. Belt-tightening could hurt an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending.

Noshin Hoque graduated from Stony Brook University early in the pandemic with about $20,000 in federal student loans. Instead of testing the 2020 job market, she enrolled at a masters program in social work at Columbia University, borrowing $34,000 more.

With the payments paused, she felt a new level of financial security. She cut costs by living with her parents in New York City and her job at a nonprofit paid enough to save money and help her parents.

She recalls splurging on a $110 polo shirt as a Fathers Day gift for her dad.

Being able to do stuff for my parents and having them experience that luxury with me has just been such a plus, said Hoque, who works for Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that supports student debt cancellation.

It gave her the comfort to enter a new stage of life. She got married to a recent medical school graduate, and theyre expecting their first child in November. At the same time, theyre bracing for the crush of loan payments, which will cost at least $400 a month combined. They hope to pay more to avoid interest, which is prohibited for them as practicing Muslims.

To prepare, they stopped eating at restaurants. They canceled a vacation to Italy. Money they wanted to put toward their childs education fund will go to their loans instead.

Were back to square one of planning our finances, she said. I feel that so deeply.

Even the logistics of making payments will be a hurdle for newer borrowers, said Rachel Rotunda, director of government relations at National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Theyll need to find out who their loan servicers are, choose a repayment plan and learn to navigate the payment system.

The volume of borrowers going back on the system at the same time this has never happened before, Rotunda said. Its fair to say its going to be bumpy.

The Education Department has promised to make the restart of payments as smooth as possible. In a statement, the agency said it will continue to push for Bidens debt cancellation as a way to reduce borrowers debt load and ease the transition.

For Beka Favela, 30, the payment pause provided independence. She earned a masters in counseling last year, and her job as a therapist allowed her to move out of her parents house.

Without making payments on her $80,000 in student loans, she started saving. She bought furniture. She chipped away at credit card debt. But once the pause ends, she expects to pay about $500 a month. It will consume most of her disposable income, leaving little for surprise costs. If finances get tighter, she wonders if shell have to move back home.

I dont want to feel like Im regressing in order to make ends meet, said Favela, of Westmont, Illinois. I just want to keep moving forward. Im worried, is that going to be possible?

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AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Countries such as India should back research on artificial intelligence in ways that can improve government services like health care, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said.

Some nationally funded AI effort feels like a good idea, Altman said Wednesday at a New Delhi event host by Indias Economic Times newspaper. 

India is the latest stop for Altman on his world tour, and he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials. He will be in South Korea on June 9.

The main thing that I think is important is figuring out how to integrate these technologies into other services, Altman said. And that is an area that I think governments are behind on, and dont have the answers yet.

India, which currently holds the presidency of the group of industrialized and emerging economies known as the G20, can play a major role in shaping global AI regulations, Altman said. He has previously called for more regulations and said his greatest fear is that the technology would cause significant harm. 

Building local-language capabilities is important for OpenAI, Altman said.

We had a big step forward from GPT 3.5 to 4 at non-English languages, so GPT 4 is pretty good at say the top 20 languages and OK at maybe the top 100, he said. We will be able to push this much further.

OpenAI is focused on building a better, faster and cheaper model of its generative AI ChatGPT product, Altman has said previously. The product made AI a buzzword and kicked off a global race among tech companies to build their own versions of the chatbot technology. 

For instance, Alphabet Inc.s Google is rolling out new AI tools to help marketers create advertisements, seeking to capitalize on growing business demand for the emerging technology.

In the key growth market of India, Google has been developing an AI model that would be able to handle more than 100 Indian languages across speech and text, a drive that would widen internet access beyond the countrys urban English-speaking minority.

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One in four I.T. leaders believe infrastructure outages are the most likely source of disruption for their organization, according to a recent report from Splunky. Such outages have an estimated cost of $365,000 per hour of downtime for businesses. Perhaps more worryingly, half of the respondents organizations dont have a digitally resilient infrastructure designed to mitigate or outright prevent the impact of a cloud service outage.

In the increasingly complex digital age, cloud outages arent merely possible, theyre likely.

The centralized data center problem

All cloud services are dependent on centralized management and data centers. If these centers experience problems, cloud users across the infrastructure can be affected. This is actually one of the most common causes of cloud outages. A power failure in these data centers, for example, could impact millions of people.

Another reason for cloud outages is software updates that leave gaps for bugs or malicious players to attack the technology. Cybersecurity is becoming more and more sophisticated, but so too are hackers. If cloud providers management systems are attacked, users access is not only restricted, but their cloud data is also possibly compromised.

Natural disasters cant be ruled out. Unpredictable and extreme weather has wreaked havoc on data centers, causing millions of dollars of damage and contributing to cloud outages. Heatwaves in Europe last summer recorded temperatures of 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit, causing Google and Oracle data centers to go offline. The physical hardware for cloud infrastructure has to be built to withstand more intense conditions, while also meeting sustainability effortsa difficult line to toe.

While many cloud providers are developing systems to mitigate outages, the fundamental challenge is that a centralized system creates a weak point in cloud services as a whole. Unsurprisingly, resiliency concerns are growing among business leaders and politicians. 

The cloud as a political pawn

Censorship laws can fuel cloud outages. Governments are cracking down on tech activity and in some cases, have blocked cloud platforms that dont align with the political ideology of a location. For example, Chinas Great Firewall censorship means Google Drive is banned in the country. VPNs to circumvent the blockage are banned.

Export restriction laws are similarly problematic for the cloud. GitHub has faced setbacks in Crimea, Syria, and Iran due to U.S. trade restrictions that reduce the platforms cloud capabilities in these places. While Iran has recently restored GitHub operations, developers in Crimea and Syria can only utilize portions of the service.

In Europe and further afield, businesses have experienced cloud downtime from attacks on internet submarine cables. In France, suspected sabotage of underwater cables by a Russian sub impacted the U.S., Europe, and Asia, as cloud providers reported increased latency and intermittent service downtime. In Egypt, damaged cables resulted in temporary outages for businesses in South East Asia. Though no cause was concluded, the event shows the value of underwater cables in geopolitics.

While, according to NATO, the war in Ukraine has led Russia to begin mapping out critical undersea infrastructure for a potential attack on the underwater sea cables. With 200 of the 400 cables around the Atlantic and North Sea area deemed critical infrastructure and the ambiguity of responsibility for the Nord Stream gas pipe attack, clearly, we are moving into uncertain times on the safety of our critical infrastructure.

Though damage to sea cables in the North Sea is much closer to home, the Google Cloud outage from April caused downtime in Japan, India, and Indonesia, demonstrating that the interconnectivity of the cloud providers has already led to ramifications in other regions.

A now very plausible scenario considered by security experts is the cutting of submarine cables around the island in the event of a conflict, effectively cutting off Taiwan from the internet. Establishing cloud data centers in Taiwan may not be sufficient to achieve resilience in the event of partial destruction of critical cloud infrastructure.

As cloud services become even more necessary for all functions of a business, businesses need to ensure their digital infrastructure is resilient and able to navigate expected cloud downtime.

Jean-Paul Smets is the CEO of Rapid.Space, a fully open cloud provider offering resilient edge infrastructure and private 5G.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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