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Ben Affleck, Jamie Ding win $1 million for charity on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’

Jamie Ding and Ben Affleck celebrate winning a million dollars on ‘Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.’ (Eric Mccandless/Disney)

Ben Affleck and Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding scored the winning prize on the ABC television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Wednesday. The pair earned $1 million for the nonprofit Eastern Congo Initiative.

Affleck and Ding clinched the win on a Thanksgiving trivia question.

The final question read, “In an annual Thanksgiving tradition, all but which of these have been the names of turkeys pardoned by a U.S. president?”

The four options the pair could choose from to answer the question were “Peanut Butter & Jelly,” “Tater & Tot,” “Mac & Cheese” and “Spaghetti & Meatball.”

Affleck and Ding selected the correct answer, “Spaghetti & Meatball.”

Lights flickered across the stage and confetti fell as Affleck and Ding celebrated the win with host Jimmy Kimmel, receiving an oversized $1 million check written out to Eastern Congo Initiative.

At the start of the round, which aired the previous week, Affleck shared why the Eastern Congo Initiative holds a special place in his heart.

“I’ve been working with them for about 15 years,” Affleck said of the nonprofit. “And right now, of course, as I’m sure most people know, there’s an Ebola crisis there, and so this is in large part designed to try to relieve that, contain the spread of Ebola.”

According to the Eastern Congo Initiative website, Affleck co-founded the charity with businesswoman Whitney Williams in 2010 to “elevate local solutions” in eastern Congo.

The group says its mission is to “transform humanitarian aid into a locally driven model by directly funding community-based organizations and advocating for greater international visibility for the region.”

“We support locally led organizations to expand access to essential services, strengthen economic opportunities, and promote justice,” the website states. “Our work is designed to create scalable, sustainable impact across eastern Congo.”

Affleck and Ding’s big win for charity comes one year after Affleck’s longtime friend and collaborator Matt Damon earned $1 million on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire alongside Jeopardy! star Ken Jennings, benefiting Damon and Gary White’s nonprofit, Water.org.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Very special stone’: Trump unveils another White House construction project

By CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump unveiled a new White House construction project Wednesday, issuing an impromptu invitation to reporters to join him on the South Lawn and tour the replacement of the White House driveway as well as progress made on his new helipad.During the tour, an animated Trump highlighted his personal investment in the projects with painstaking attention to details theoretically far below his pay grade: the placement of stanchions, the radial cut of granite, the elimination of potholes. The tour concluded with him signing a giant slab of granite that he said would be “flipped” and laid into the helipad.But first, he detailed another project — previously unannounced — that was already finished.“This was always asphalt, which is very basic, not appropriate for a great house — for a great place like the White House,” Trump said over the clanging noise of construction, gesturing at the surface he was walking on. The driveway has been redone, he added, with a California-mined white granite he described as a “very special stone.”Trump also suggested he had been involved in the decision earlier this month to disassemble progress made on his helipad.Construction on the landing zone began shortly after his UFC fight in June, but CNN observed the dismantling of the stone weeks later. The White House has previously declined to provide an explanation for the changes, but the president said Wednesday he was unhappy with its slope.“I felt it was too much slope. It’s a slope for the rain, but I felt it was too much slope,” Trump said, announcing that it was now “dead flat.”Later addressing a group of workers, Trump said, “Sorry to take an extra week-and-a-half, but lifting it up was one of the best things we’ve ever done, lifting it up, right? I’m sure you didn’t like that.”The president guided the press toward an opening in a fence around the helipad, pausing the tour to direct attention to updates to the White House facade, where he said paint had been stripped and redone.“If you take a look at the stone, look how perfect the stone is,” he said, adding he’s “very proud to do it.”He stopped the tour again before reaching the unfinished helipad, touting the fresh topsoil and grass.“If you’re grass, you’re very happy,” he said.Trump’s favorite White House project — construction on his 90,000-square-foot ballroom — was not a stop on the tour, but the president still brought it up repeatedly. His administration has taken the project to the Supreme Court, arguing the structure and state-of-the-art bunker facility that would be housed underneath is a matter of national security. Recently, he and the White House have tried to emphasize that argument by referring to the ballroom as the “military complex.”Trump downplayed any concerns that the nation’s highest court would rule against him and potentially halt construction, saying he “can’t imagine it happening.”Construction has been progressing rapidly on the ballroom, with a 250-person crew working 20-hour days, seven days per week, according to a court filing submitted earlier this month. The filing put the complex at “65% complete in its entirety.”The president continued along his granite path, joining construction workers in neon vests and hard hats atop the new carved granite helipad emblazoned with the presidential seal, which he compared to his restoration of the Wollman Rink in Central Park. He signed the back of a carved image of an eagle that will soon be placed inside the seal.Trump’s tour of the ongoing projects, his second such impromptu excursion with reporters this year, underscored how central construction is to how he views his presidential legacy.“One thing I know how to do is build. … I love construction, I love seeing things properly taken care of,” he said, adding that the projects “will be here long after we’re gone.”A recent review from Politifact found that in 2026, the president has spent significant time talking about those projects during public remarks — more than any other topic, except for his war with Iran.Trump also offered a holistic vision for how the new projects would be utilized when the White House welcomes dignitaries for state visits.“Without even having to go into the White House, they get out of the car on the beautiful new roadway. They get out of the car and they walk down this path onto that [helipad], and they can have cocktails and everything outside of the White House, and then they go into the ballroom,” he said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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