jili slot 777 Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powel l adopted a hawkish stance during his Wednesday press conference after the December Fed meeting, sparking a market bloodbath as the New York session headed to the close. Although the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 0.25% to a range of 4.25%-4.5%, as widely anticipated, the updated economic projections suggest just two potential rate cuts in 2025 — down from four projected in September and fewer than the three anticipated by markets before the meeting. Powell described the shift as “a new phase” for monetary policy, emphasizing that after 100 basis points of rate cuts in 2024, rates are now significantly closer to a neutral stance. Stocks tumbled across the board, the U.S. dollar soared to two-year highs and Bitcoin BTC/USD cratered over 5%, as investors digested the reality of a shift in the monetary policy stance by the Federal Reserve. The CBOE Volatility Index, known as the VIX and Wall Street’s fear gauge, skyrocketed 58% to 25, reflecting a spike in investor uncertainty and heightened anxiety over the future of interest rates. Wall Street Wipeout: Major Indices Slammed The Dow Jones Industrial Average, as tracked by the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA , dropped 1,123 points, falling 2.6% to close at 42,326, marking its worst one-day drop since September 2022. Amazon.com Inc. AMZN recorded the worst performance among blue-chip stocks, down 4.6%. The S&P 500 index — tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY — fell 178 points, down 2.9% to 5,872, also marking its worst day since September 2022. Paycom Software Inc. PAYC was the major laggard within the S&P 500, down 10%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 QQQ , experienced an even sharper drop of 3.6%, closing at 21,209 as interest rate-sensitive technology stocks took a beating. Tesla Inc. TSLA tumbled 8.1%, marking the worst performance within the Nasdaq 100. Every Magnificent Seven company ended the day in the red, collectively erasing more than $600 billion in market value on Wednesday. Small caps in the Russell 2000 posted the steepest losses, plummeting 4.7% to 2,225. With Wednesday’s move, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM has fully erased the post-election rally. All major U.S. equity sectors finished in the red. Consumer Discretionary stocks suffered the most, plunging 4.5%, followed by Real Estate, which dropped 4% as rising rates weigh heavily on growth-oriented and interest-rate-sensitive industries. Technology, the largest sector by market capitalization, fell 3.2%, with chipmakers and software companies bearing the brunt of the selloff. Communications and Materials both declined 2.9%, while Financials dropped 3%, reflecting pressure across cyclical areas of the market. Even traditionally defensive sectors failed to escape the selloff. Utilities and Consumer Staples fell 2.4% and 1.5%, respectively. Dollar Surges To 2-Year Highs, Hammers Gold And Bitcoin The U.S. dollar emerged as the day's clear winner, with the dollar index (DXY), followed by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP , climbing 1.2% to reach its highest level since November 2022. As the greenback rallied, gold failed to provide a safe haven, falling 2.1% to $2,580 per ounce, while silver dropped 3.5%. Risk-off sentiment extended into alternative assets. Bitcoin plunged 5.5%, trading just above $101,500. During the press conference, Powell was asked whether the U.S. government should consider building a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. Powell quickly dismissed the idea, making it clear that such a move is not on the Fed’s radar. "We're not allowed to own Bitcoin," Powell said, emphasizing the legal and structural limitations of the Federal Reserve. "The Federal Reserve Act dictates what we can own, and we're not seeking any changes to that law." Read Next: Fed Slashes Interest Rates By 0.25% As Predicted: December Dot Plot Flags Only 2 Potential Cuts In 2025 Illustration generated with AI via Dall-E. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.South Florida defeats Portland 74-68PUNE After the assembly election results on Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis, credited the Mahayuti’s resounding success to government introduced welfare schemes that benefited women and farmers. Among these, a critical factor was the strong backing of Maharashtra’s onion farmers. The shift in loyalty has been striking. During the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, resentment among onion farmers in Shirur, Nashik, Dindori, Ahmednagar, Shirdi, and Solapur dealt a severe blow to the Mahayuti, with losses across all these constituencies. However, just six months later, the same region overwhelmingly supported the alliance, securing victories in around 45 assembly constituencies. Relaxation on onion export norms The turnaround was driven largely by the central government’s relaxation of onion export norms, which helped farmers earn better prices. Reacting to the poll result outcome, NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday said he had expected 175 seats but was surprised by the alliance’s stellar performance, which nearly doubled its tally from the 2019 assembly elections. “Farmers and women solidly backed us,” Pawar said. The Mahayuti’s effort to address farmers’ grievances appears to have played a decisive role. During his state tour in August, Pawar began by acknowledging the government’s earlier misstep of banning onion exports. “I admit the ban was a mistake and apologise for it. I have assured the central government that onion exports will not be banned again,” he had told farmers. His apology, coupled with the government’s subsequent action, seems to have rebuilt trust among the state’s onion growers. Around two weeks before the elections, onion prices in Nashik’s wholesale markets surged from ₹ 40 to ₹ 60 per kg, providing a much-needed boost for farmers. Nashik, India’s largest onion-producing district, is home to the Lasalgaon wholesale market, the country’s biggest hub for onions. Farmers earned over ₹ 6,000 per quintal for their summer crop, with prices expected to remain high until the arrival of fresh stock. Ladki Bahin and other welfare schemes In Marathwada and Vidarbha, where low market rates for soya beans and cotton had triggered discontent, schemes like free electricity and Majhi Ladki Bahin helped offset the damage. The scheme is for women aged between 21 and 60 years whose families have an annual income of less than ₹ 2.5 lakh. The Mahayuti alliance announced that the amount of the scheme will be hiked to ₹ 2,100 per month from the existing ₹ 1,500 per month if the alliance comes back to power. This economic upswing translated into electoral gains for the Mahayuti. In Nashik district, the alliance won 14 out of 15 seats, while the remaining seats went to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). Neighbouring Ahmednagar district delivered 10 of its 12 seats to the Mahayuti. In Pune, parts of which are also known for onion farming, the alliance won 18 out of 21 constituencies. Sambhajinagar district saw a clean sweep with Mahayuti winning all nine seats, while in Solapur district, the BJP secured five of the 11 seats, with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP taking four and one seat each going to Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). Special Onion Express trains The continuation of the Onion Express, a government-backed train transporting onions from Nashik to other states, also played a key role. The government purchased onions at high rates from farmers and sold them at lower prices to consumers, ensuring a win-win for all. This initiative significantly boosted the morale and trust of onion farmers, further consolidating their support for the Mahayuti. The 2024 assembly elections highlight how swiftly political fortunes can change when pressing grievances are addressed effectively. For Maharashtra’s onion farmers, the promise of better prices and decisive policy interventions proved instrumental in transforming discontent into unwavering support for the Mahayuti alliance.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and a witness in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara made the announcement in a terse message late Thursday, saying the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the “Uvda” investigative program into Sara Netanyahu. The program uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Mrs. Netanyahu appears to instruct a former aide to organize protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in the trial. The announcement did not mention Mrs. Netanyahu by name, and the Justice Ministry declined further comment. But in a video released earlier Thursday, Netanyahu listed what he said were the many kind and charitable acts by his wife and blasted the Uvda report as “lies.” “My opponents on the left and in the media found a new-old target. They mercilessly attack my wife, Sara,” he said. He called the program ”false propaganda, nasty propaganda that brings up lies from the darkness.” It was the latest in a long line of legal troubles for the Netanyahus — highlighted by the prime minister's ongoing corruption trial. The pair have also had a rocky relationship with the Israeli media. Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of cases alleging he exchanged favors with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates. Netanyahu denies the charges and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by overzealous prosecutors, police and the media. The report obtained correspondence between Sara Netanyahu and Hanni Bleiweiss, a former aide to the prime minister who died of cancer last year. The messages indicated that Sara Netanyahu, through Bleiweiss, encouraged police to crack down violently on anti-government protesters and ordered Bleiweiss to organize protests against her husband's critics. She also told Bleiweiss to get activists in Netanyahu's Likud party to publish attacks on Klein. Klein is an aide to billionaire Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and has testified in the corruption case about her role in delivering tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and gifts to Netanyahu for her boss. According to the report, Bleiweiss also was instructed to organize demonstrations outside the homes of the lead prosecutor in the corruption case, Liat Ben-Ari, and then Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who had issued the indictments, and protests and social media campaigns smearing political opponents. According to the report, Bleiweiss was a loyal aid to Netanyahu for decades. But while she was ill, it said Sara Netanyahu mistreated her, prompting her to share the messages with a reporter shortly before her death. Sara Netanyahu has been accused of abusive behavior toward her personal staff before. This, together with accusations of excessive spending and using public money for her own extravagant personal tastes, has earned her an image as being out of touch with everyday Israelis. In 2019, she was fined for misusing state funds. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees police and has repeatedly said the attorney general, Baharav-Miara, should be fired over a series of grievances against her, said the latest announcement was another reason for her to be dismissed. “Someone who politically persecutes government ministers and their families cannot continue to serve as the attorney general,” he said. And Justice Minister Yariv Levin, another Netanyahu ally and critic of Baharav-Miara, accused her of focusing on “television gossip.” “Selective enforcement is a crime!” he said in a statement.The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% after spending the day wavering between small gains and losses. The tiny loss ended the benchmark index’s three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. Trading volume was lighter than usual as US markets reopened following the Christmas holiday. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, slipped 0.2%. Meta Platforms fell 0.7%, and Amazon and Netflix each fell 0.9%. Tesla was among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500, finishing 1.8% lower. Some tech companies fared better. Chip company Broadcom rose 2.4%, Micron Technology added 0.6% and Adobe gained 0.5%. Health care stocks were a bright spot. CVS Health rose 1.5% and Walgreens Boots Alliance added 5.3% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks. Several retailers also gained ground. Target rose 3%, Ross Stores added 2.3%, Best Buy rose 2.9% and Dollar Tree gained 3.8%. Traders are watching to see whether retailers have a strong holiday season. The day after Christmas traditionally ranks among the top 10 biggest shopping days of the year, as consumers go online or rush to stores to cash in gift cards and raid bargain bins. US-listed shares in Honda and Nissan rose 4.1% and 16.4% respectively. The Japanese car makers announced earlier this week that the two companies are in talks to combine. All told, the S&P 500 fell 2.45 points to 6,037.59. The Dow added 28.77 points to 43,325.80. The Nasdaq fell 10.77 points to close at 20,020.36. Wall Street also got a labour market update. US applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week, though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years, the Labour Department reported. Treasury yields mostly fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.58% from 4.59% late on Tuesday. Major European markets were closed, as well as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. Trading was expected to be subdued this week with a thin slate of economic data on the calendar.

AP Business SummaryBrief at 1:00 p.m. ESTCam Carter put LSU ahead for good with a jumper 1:08 into the third overtime and the Tigers came away with a wild 109-102 win over UCF on Sunday in the third-place game of the Greenbrier Tip-Off in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Carter's make sparked a 5-0 spurt for LSU (5-1), which mounted a ferocious second-half rally that began after Darius Johnson drilled a 3-pointer to put the Knights up 52-34 with 12:57 to play in regulation. UCF (4-2) got back within two in the third overtime, but it never found a way to draw even. Vyctorius Miller and Jordan Sears sealed the victory, combining for three buckets down low that gave the Tigers a 106-99 cushion with 17 seconds remaining. Carter was the late-game hero for LSU, scoring the final four points of regulation to forge a 70-70 tie. He also knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the first extra session to give the Tigers a 76-75 advantage. Sears gave LSU a four-point edge with a triple of his own with 2:10 to go, but the Tigers failed to stay in front, and UCF's Keyshawn Hall kept the game going by sinking two free throws with six seconds remaining to make it 82-82. Neither team led by more than three in the second overtime, with Hall again coming to the Knights' rescue. He made two layups in the final 52 seconds of the frame to knot things at 93 and send the teams to a third OT. Few could have predicted 15 minutes of extra basketball after UCF put together a 25-3 first-half run that lifted it to a 38-18 advantage with 2:12 left until the break. LSU responded with seven unanswered points, but the Knights still led comfortably, 40-25, at intermission. Sears finished with a game-high-tying 25 points to go along with nine boards, while Jalen Reed recorded a 21-point, 13-rebound double-double for the Tigers. Carter netted 20 points, Miller had 16 and Dji Bailey chipped in 14. Johnson collected 25 points, six rebounds, eight assists and five steals for UCF. Hall totaled 21 points and 10 boards, and Jordan Ivy-Curry supplied 20 points. LSU outshot UCF 43.2 percent to 40.7 percent and had narrow advantages from behind the arc (12 made shots to 10) and the free-throw line (21-18). --Field Level MediaThis year’s best prediction for the game industry in 2025 already came from Swen Vincke , CEO of Larian Studios, maker of Baldur’s Gate 3, the Game of the year in 2023. At The Game Awards this year, Vincke got to announce the new Game of the Year (Astro Bot), and he made a prediction. “The oracle told me that the Game of the Year 2025 is going to be made by a studio who found the formula to make it up here on stage,” Vincke said. “It’s stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost. A studio makes a game because they want to make a game they want to play themselves. They created it because it hadn’t been created before. They didn’t make it to increase market share. They didn’t make it to serve the brand. They didn’t have to meet arbitrary sales targets, or fear being laid off if they didn’t meet those targets.” The audience erupted into applause at his words, and he was not drummed off the stage for taking too much time. He added, “Furthermore, the people in charge forbade them from cramming the game with anything whose only purpose was to increase revenue and didn’t serve the game design. They didn’t treat their developers like numbers on a spreadsheet. They didn’t treat their players as users to exploit. And they didn’t make decisions they knew were short-sighted in function of a bonus or politics. They knew that if you put the game and the team first, the revenue will follow.” He closed with, “They were driven by idealism, and wanted players to have fun, and they realized that if the developers don’t have fun, nobody was going to have any fun. They understood the value of respect, that if they treated their developers and players well, the same developers and players would forgive them when things didn’t go as planned. But above all they cared about their games, because they love games. It’s really that simple.” Back to my own comments here. I wish the industry would follow that logic. My predictions are foolish Predictions are foolish to make and yet the temptation to rush back into the breach is always a pull for me. The future is terrifying the more unknown it is, and so I and many other prognosticators try to see a pattern in the darkness ahead. All I can say once again is that I hope you are well and that we’ll all have a better year in 2025 than we had in 2024. I am not optimistic. This year was marked by 14,000 layoffs, bringing the total laid off in the past 2.5 years to 34,000. I was hoping that would not happen, and I hope the bleeding stops in 2025. Let’s review what we’ve seen in recent years that threw off our predictions. The pandemic created a whipsaw, where we saw a huge growth in online demand for games as people couldn’t go out. Then it contracted again as people were able to travel and do other things again. Game venture capitalists poured money into game startups in hyped areas such as blockchain, metaverse and AI. Geopolitical tensions also changed many markets like Russia, China and Israel, and new funding sources emerged in the Middle East in places like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Many game startups that couldn’t raise secondary funding rounds went belly up. There were too many games arriving on platforms such as Steam, and only a handful came out as winners. So the winners and losers concept is alive and well in the game industry. Now we’ll see if there is a chance for a broader recovery. The structure of the industry will likely further change thanks to the closing of the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and its first full year of operation under Microsoft. We’ll see if the addition of Call of Duty to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will move the needle on the subscription business model. And we’ll see if only the massive game companies, with their massive marketing muscle, will get all of the attention from players. I’ll continue to wager we can expect games to continue to outgrow other forms of entertainment. I expect that trends such as Hollywood transmedia, the metaverse, Web3, cloud gaming, esports, mixed reality, user-generated content and other trends will come along to reinvigorate the game industry — as well as great new games in the core areas of the PC, console and mobile game industries. I’m so glad that we have one beacon ahead: Grand Theft Auto VI is likely coming in the fall of 2025. For the usual comparison and embarrassment, here are my predictions for 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , 2013 , and 2012 . At the bottom of the story, I’ve also given myself grades for the predictions I made a year ago for 2023. This year, I got nine “A” grades and two “C” grades. I got a lot of help from friends on social media for these predictions and there were a lot more than I could write about. Among those I left out? Larry Pacey’s suggestions on “fewer new live-service launches” and “the rise of double-A games”; and Chris Heatherly’s whether game revenues will stagnate or grow. I appreciate the suggestions and regret I can’t credit everyone here. My predictions for 2025 (1) Grand Theft Auto VI will be the game of the year Rockstar Games has superb mindshare among gamers, and it has done a great job building buzz for Grand Theft Auto VI. The first trailer generated more than 228 million views on YouTube when it came out a year ago. There is so much pent-up demand for this title, as the previous game Grand Theft Auto V debuted in 2013. After 11 years, that title has sold more than 205 million copies to date, generating perhaps $12 billion at retail. Thousands of developers are working on the latest version. And while superstar developers on Grand Theft Auto V — Leslie Benzies and Dan Houser — have left Rockstar, Houser’s brother Sam Houser is still running Rockstar and so you can expect a lot of continuity in the game’s production values. The game trailer showed the title will take place on familiar ground in a fictional setting in Miami, it features strong characters from the criminal underworld, and it is loaded with realistic 3D graphics and pop culture. That’s a formula that Rockstar created years ago and it will likely work again, given the power of franchises in today’s gaming business. I think the only thing that could derail this from being Game of the Year would be if it were delayed into 2026. That is possible, but the forecasts from parent company Take-Two Interactive have been getting more and more specific. We don’t know the launch date yet (other than the fall of 2025), but you can bet every other game will avoid coming out at the same time as Rockstar’s latest title. And I expect that Rockstar will continue with its games-as-a-service strategy, where it would likely launch a new version of Grand Theft Auto Online once GTA 6 comes out. (2) Game layoffs will continue, but the game job market will get better We have a wide and diverse gaming economy now where there will be both improvements and setbacks at the same time. This mean game layoffs will continue, but it’s still possible to have an improvement in the overall job market for game companies as revenues recover. Amir Satvat, the game job champion (who was honored as a Game Changer award winner at The Game Awards) has provided the most transparent information on supply and demand for game jobs, and he has been predicting for a while that job hires and losses will hit an equilibrium on a 60-day trailing basis in December 2024, though he has now moved that to January. If that’s true, there will be more hiring than firing in January, for the first time in about 31 months. We’ll see if that holds true for 2025. How this really goes depends on a lot of things, like the health of the global economy and whether AI will create or eliminate jobs. There are too many companies working on too many games. Many of them won’t be winners and they will likely lay off staff. But I believe that demand will pick up as we near the launch of new devices (like Nintendo’s Switch 2) and games on my most-anticipated games list of 2025 get released. If anything, I believe in the law of gravity. We’ve had such a long down cycle that it feels like things can only get better. The demographics favoring games — especially titles like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and mobile games — are only going to get stronger and the pie will get bigger. Such tidal change that comes with that generational force is hard to spot, but I am still optimistic that game developers of all types will surprise and delight us with their creativity when it comes to making outstanding games. (3) AI games will come on strong All game companies are working on this technology in some way. For the longest time, AI has made a big difference in making games more fun. Just look at Left 4 Dead and No Man’s Sky, which have used AI to create adaptive and procedurally generated content. But the onset of generative is spurring more AI in gaming. Electronic Arts recently demoed a variety of AI tools in the works at the company, such as a large language model consisting of only EA’s copyrighted content going back decades. To make its EA Sports College Football on time, EA used machine learning to help its artists create more than 11,000 college football athlete likenesses in just three months. That’s a lot more efficient than what used to happen. Based on all of the pronouncements from big companies and statements from game startups, you can bet that game companies are kicking the tires on AI tools from game startups aimed at making game development faster, cheaper and easier. They may, like EA, be making their own or they may be betting on startups like Inworld AI that have talent from both AI and games in-house. AI can make our worlds more dynamic and personalized to exactly what we want. The game startups are using generative AI to make non-player characters (NPCs) smarter in their games. They could be working on AI art generation, with tools like those from Didimo designed to make it easier to create a thousand variations of NPCs to fill out a crowd in a game. And they could be trying to come up with new types of gameplay where they can give players smart AI companions to help them finish games in a more satisfying way. I think there will be vast ramifications from the use of AI in games. We already see that in the ongoing strike by SAG-AFTRA’s voice actors, who want control over and fair payment for the use of their voices when it comes to AI generation of voice in games. But the genie is coming out of this bottle, and a brave new world awaits. AI is already getting used a lot in gaming, but I really have no clue what’s going to happen with its myriad consequences down the road. (4) Blockchain gaming will face its biggest test in the market There are arguments on both sides about whether blockchain games will fail or take off in 2025. Many seasoned game devs like Josef Fares have gone on the record saying that blockchain games are fad with too many scams that will fade because there just isn’t enough utility for Web3 gaming. Chainplay found in an analysis that 93% of Web3 gaming projects are dead. On average, 316 new Web3 gaming projects launch each year, but 262 projects disappear, indicating that a significant number struggle to stay afloat for more than a few months. About 95% have see their token prices drop after hitting their trading peaks. Altogether, 3,200 such projects have been announced. But Chainplay noted that some venture funds like Alameda Research have navigated this environment well, earning a 713% return on invested capital. Such firms can plow their proceeds back into Web3 game startups to keep trying for the big score. The market capitalization for blockchain games sits at $25 billion today, acccording to Coin Gecko . That means not everyone has given up. Again, that’s plenty of money to experiment with. Meanwhile, blockchain games like Hamster Kombat have generated hundreds of millions of downloads on Telegram, which is an unfettered and crypto-friendly messaging service favored by the crypto crowd. That demand can go poof in an instant as soon as tokens related to those games launch and fall short. But Telegram and new chains like Base are providing a lifeline to some companies as they experiment with new models and creativity. Hardcore games like Off the Grid are also arriving on the blockchain, and casual fare like Pixels and Pirate Nation continue to pick up where Axie Infinity left off. The big-budget games take years to gestate, and some of them are finally coming out of a long development pipeline, said Yat Siu, executive chairman of Animoca Brands, which has invested in 540 Web3 gaming companies. Many of these companies that have raised money have big war chests, as blockchain games have commanded as much as half of all game fundings in any given year during the past three years. And crypto is likely to get a pass from the incoming Trump administration. Depending on your point of view, for good or bad, 2025 is likely one of the years that will make or break this much-castigated trend. If you’re wondering which titles could take off, check out the Gam3 awards list. (5) Other regions will continue to emerge with triple-A games Black Myth: Wukong sold more than 25 million copies since August, according to Niko Partners . It was a rare triple-A game that succeeded on the global stage, even though it was made with local Chinese content by local Chinese game developers. It turns out this resonated far better on the global stage than many predicted, and it’s a sign that games are following in the footsteps of the global film and TV industry, where we’ve long seen huge international audiences for fresh content like South Korea’s Squid Game. While China has been huge in free-to-play games like Genshin Impact, it has lagged the West and Japan in making triple-A titles, Niko said. But Black Myth: Wukong is now the most-played single-player game in Steam history, with more than 37 million people logged into it on August 25. For more on this subject, check out a fireside chat I had with Matthew Ball, author of the bestselling book The Metaverse, CEO of Epyllion and a seer of the game industry. We spoke at our recent GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood & Games event on December 12 in Los Angeles. Ball also wrote a great essay on the trend of how he expects games will follow Hollywood with more international content. We’ve seen growth of game development in unexpected regions as those regions come online and participate in the global economy. For instance, India game VC firm Lumikai predicts the Indian game market will grow from $3.8 billion in 2024 to $9 billion by 2029. Gaming is already 30% of India’s entertainment market, and it’s on the verge of becoming bigger than Bollywood. With growing revenues will come bigger budgets, more talent and more creativity. (6) Switch 2 will breathe new life into hardware sales Last year, I was right that Nintendo would announce that it would unveil the Switch 2 hybrid home/portable game console in 2024 and launch it in 2025. Nintendo updated its forecast saying it plans to launch the system in 2025 and it will be backward compatible with the original Switch, which debuted back in 2017. This means it will be eight years since Nintendo launched a game console, and that period of time is really pushing the limit in terms of technological obsolescence and gamer patients for new gear. Hopefully, the conditions will be right as well. Assuming there won’t be a China-U.S. tariff war, and that’s a very big if given the statements of incoming President Donald Trump, the conditions should be good for launching a new machine. The supply chain should be ready to produce such a device in large numbers, and gamers are likely to be more amenable to a Nintendo console, which typically carries a lower price compared to its rivals Sony and Xbox. Nintendo has big games like a new Metroid 4 game in the works, and you can guess that it’s probably got big Mario and Zelda games coming for the console transition too. (7) Game and TV movies will widen demand for games Years ago, Hollywood moguls were skeptical that game adaptations would ever suceed. But Dmitri M. Johnson, cofounder of Story Kitchen (an instigator of the Sega movies including holiday hit Sonic the Hedgehog 3) and a speaker at our Hollywood and Games event, noted that we have so many proof points now that great game adaptations can be done . On top of that, the movies and shows have been increasing game sales. Executives at Microsoft said that the Fallout streaming series on increased sales of Fallout games, even though Bethesda didn’t have a show-related game ready at the same time. Older games saw sales improve. Nintendo said the same about the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which generated $1.3 billion in box office revenues and increased interest in Mario games. And Sony said that The Last of Us streaming show on HBO also had the same effect. This means that execs in Hollywood no longer have to be persuaded that transmedia adaptations can be a great idea, especially if the focus is on what fans want. Borderlands didn’t take off as expected. But game leaders also no longer need to be completely skeptical that a movie or TV show about their games will ruin the properties. Game developer Richard Dansky (franchise narrative director at Crytek) did a Facebook post on this subject that conveyed the point well. “Narrative works on an emotional level,” he wrote. “It takes time and resources to come to fruition, and skill to do it effectively. Its purpose is to drive four things: attachment, anticipation, identification and investment.” He added, “Get those four things going and you build an audience that likes your stuff, shares their takes on your stuff with the world, wants more of your stuff, sticks around because they’re looking forward to the next bit of your stuff, and thus continues to spend money on your stuff.” OK, the word “stuff” isn’t so eloquent here, but this is a great argument on behalf of narrative’s power for persuading bean counters of the value of great stories. (8) Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft will keep gaining share on traditional games At its recent Roblox Developer Conference, Roblox executives said more than 400 brands had moved into making games on the platform, which skews toward younger Generation Z and Generation Alpha audiences. Fortnite has also gotten traction with brands, and Minecraft has its own unique appeal too. Magid reported that the youngest audiences are now encountering gaming for the first time on smartphones, not on Nintendo game devices. If you want to reach them, you have to find them in gaming where they are, not on traditional media. Tim Sweeney , CEO of Epic Games, says there are more than 600 million players who have joined these games with user-generated content at their core, essentially making the metaverse destination that so many of these brands want. Companies that cater to the brands, making games for the brands which work on the platforms, are generating a lot of hits. Gamefam has five of 15 top brand-related games on Roblox, with the No. 1 game Sonic Speedrun getting more than a billion plays. Halo co-creator Alex Seropian’s Look North World launched a game for Twitch on top of Fortnite. And Disney’s CEO Bob Iger said that Disney was making a universe on top of Fortnite with Epic Games because Disney isn’t reaching the youngest players and audiences anymore because it doesn’t have a huge presence in such games. As Joe Ferencz, CEO of Gamefam, told me in our interview from the story above, the brands that aren’t on these platforms are going to be dying brands. (9) Disney and big media companies will buy big game companies Speaking of Disney, Iger has reportedly begun the succession process as he plans to retire once again from the top job at the kingdom of Mickey Mouse. Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, was mentioned as a candidate to replace Iger in a Wall Street Journal story. We don’t know if it’s true. But why not? The big media companies have made runs at game companies like EA, Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft in the past. We should expect more of the same to happen. We don’t know when and where it’s going to happen. There aren’t many healthy entertainment companies that could buy the likes of EA. Tencent is reportedly talking with Ubisoft about taking the French game publisher private. Disney could also bring its Disney Universe project in-house by buying Epic Games. And Pitchbook said there is a 93% chance that Discord, the game communications company, will go public in 2025. Someone else could stop that from happening by acquiring Discord, but I don’t think that is likely. Eventually, the game companies will become so big that they may be the ones doing the acquiring. This is all speculation, but it’s not so crazy when you think about the chess game of the game industry. (10) Politics in games will become a bigger trend Video games have evolved from simple entertainment to complex narratives that can rival the depth of literature and film. As interactive media, they offer unique opportunities to explore and engage with political issues in ways that other forms of storytelling cannot. They can make you feel what it’s like to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, like in games like The Last of Us Part II, which depicts a relationship among lesbian lead characters and captures the pointlessness of the cycle of violence. Or games can generate narratives for more aggressively partisan political games like This War of Mine, Bury Me My Love and Papers, Please. Critics found fault with Detroit: Become Human, but it did a great job exploring how humans will interact with AI beings. Games play with our emotions and immerse us in believable worlds. Why not immerse us in political realities? Commercial-focused games that simply want to monetize everyone don’t run the risk of injecting politics into games because they’re afraid they might alienate half the player base if they take a side on a political issue. But they also risk becoming irrelevant to the things that concern us. Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs: Legion and Far Cry 5 skated close to the political edge, but they also stopped short. I am hoping this will change as politics has become more important than ever in our lives. Anima Interactive , started by a daughter of immigrants Karla Reyes, wants to push the political discussion about the reality of immigration into the mainstream with a game about the journey of migrants, dubbed Take Us North. This is an excellent idea for a video game, even though some may find it shocking to make a game about a journey in which some migrants don’t survive. News flash. Games can tackle difficult subjects and tell narratives in a more sensitive way than you hear on mainstream news shows. And if we want to educate our younger populations about politics, there’s no better way to reach them than through games. One of my usual favorites is The Political Machine series from Stardock Entertainment, which tries to educate us about how the electoral process works through a political game. Serious Games used to be a big deal, and we should make sure that it becomes a mainstay of our gaming appetite. Games can be a serious medium to tell political stories, and to get facts and the narratives right. (11) Gaming’s edge will survive but face a long road Our GamesBeat Next conference surfaced a lot of hot trends at the edge of the game industry, as opposed to the core industry of mobile, PC and console gaming. We all know about efforts to take game technology and expand it into things like blockchain, metaverse and AI. They will succeed if they put gamers and fun first, and find a true utility to make things easier, better and more enjoyable. But there are a lot of other edges to the frontier of games, including user-generated content, movies and film, cloud gaming, subscriptions, and platforms like Roblox and more. Mobile has by far eclipsed console and PC games, but we aren’t sure which trends at the edge will become explosive in the coming years. That’s the fun about the game industry. It’s always changing, and there are lots of landmines that derail plans for quick growth. In Europe, we’re seeing the emergence of regulator-sanctioned alternative app stores that will enable developers to avoid big fees from Apple and Google. Subscription game platforms like GeForce Now, Netflix, Xbox Game Pass and Apple Arcade are freeing individual game makers from being slaves to monetization. They also get gamers to try out a lot more games than they ordinarily might play. UGC is making game platforms more viable and turn into huge entities. Ad and reward models are taking off. Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite could be forerunners of the metaverse. As these technologies mature and become part of mainstream gaming, they could redefine how games are developed, distributed, and experienced. Just as PCs, consoles, and mobile devices have become central to gaming today, these emerging technologies will shape the future, offering new possibilities and transforming the industry in profound ways. Change is good. We don’t have to reject these ideas before they get their true tests in the market. Sure, there will be failures. But once in a while, something can succeed and take the market by storm. Just look at the Nintendo Wii, with its Wiimote, or the Nintendo Switch, which made hybrid portable and console gaming a thing. I love writing about the intersections of games with tech, science fiction and entertainment. The edge is always more fun. And one day, the edge will become the core. (12) Alternative app stores will start to get traction Apple and Google have operated a duopoly on mobile app stores for years. They take a 30% cut of every transaction and that has made game developers like Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney really mad. He sued both companies and brought down the antitrust heat on them. In the U.S., he mostly lost an antitrust trial against Apple but won one against Google. Among the rights he won: the ability to advertise the existence of an alternative app store from within your game on the Google or App stores. In Europe, the victory was more pronounced as European Union regulators approved the Digital Markets Act to force “gatekeeper” companies to allow developers to create their alternative app stores. On top of that, as HTML5 web games become more capable, it’s easier than ever for some game developers to directly distribute their games via web links. Blockchain game companies are also trying to make an end run around the major platforms through decentralized technologies. These efforts are gaining momentum and market share, and it’s not unreasonable to expect that one day the whole world will be like China, where Google stayed out of the market and, as a result, tons of app stores sprouted to take its place. The result can be more diversity of content, better discovery and lower fees charged to developers. Matthew Ball, who we mentioned above, wrote in his book, The Metaverse, that the metaverse will never get built so long as platforms can charge game devs 30% fees. ( Ernesto Pagano of BCG and Matt Tubergen of Digital Turbine suggested this as a major trend for 2025). Grading my predictions for 2024 1) Gaming layoffs will continue It’s sad but very likely that layoffs will continue in gaming in 2024. The top 20 economies of the world are expected to grow at a range from minus 1.3% (Argentina) to 6.1% (India) while the U.S. is expected to stay out of a recession but produce weak growth of just 1.5%. In this environment, consumers’ pocketbooks will likely be under pressure again. That will likely weaken demand for games. I can foresee that we still have too many good games coming in a packed calendar for 2024, if the first two months of the year’s release schedule are an indication of what’s to come. Amir Satvat’s estimates are the best we have to go by for now. With 11,000 layoffs in 2023 out of a total population of 300,000 game developers (just 3 percent cut so far), you could still argue that more drastic layoffs are possible. Given the layoffs, it is inspiring that Satvat was able to find jobs for more than 1,000 gaming people via his employment resources. Given the uncertainties around demand, gamer tastes and the effects of AI on the workforce, I think companies will be in a cautious mode until either really good news materializes, or the companies realize that they don’t have enough people to get their games done. Sean Kauppinen foresees this lasting into the second quarter, when leaders will realize they don’t have enough of a pipeline of games coming. And Satvat himself thinks it may be August 2024 before we see an uptick in hiring. That all makes sense to me, though I can’t say I would be any good at predicting what quarter things will turn around. Meanwhile, look for the entry-level jobs in gaming to switch more to user-generated content (UGC) for platforms such as Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite. Letter grade: A. I didn’t want to be right with this prediction, but as noted, the 14,000 layoffs in 2024 exceeded the 11,000 that happened in 2023. We’ll hope for better again. Sadly, I was right there would be more layoffs in 2024. There were 14,000 layoffs in 2024 in the gaming industry, and 2) AI will surge It was just a year ago that OpenAI launched ChatGPT-3 and made the benefits of conversational AI and large language models (LLMs) obvious for all of us. Generative AI applications came out enabling ordinary folks to create imaginative concept art, and that took an immediate toll on the jobs for concept artists in gaming. It also enabled more non-artist developers to create their own concept art. And that’s the nature of the creative destruction of AI, taking away opportunities for some and creating new chances for others. We can expect more adoption of AI to help rein in the budgets of triple-A games — something that Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney sees as a positive change, as no game developer wants to be one of thousands of people working in a content factory. Yet AI could very well be a force that puts more professional game developers out on the street even as it enables more UGC to prosper. We see early tools enabling neophytes to create videos and 3D animations from a text prompt. We can expect more dynamic conversations from non-player characters thanks to generative AI, based on work being done by Inworld AI . And we can expect to see AI characters become the star of Westworld-style games — rather than human players — as envisioned by companies such as The Simulation by Fable . With such games, we will discover if it’s still fun to play games when you’re managing a simulation, rather than moving around in the game world as a player. On the industry level, we can expect that game startups innovating with AI tools will be the ones that get investment from venture capital firms, much like the metaverse and blockchain and VR rode the hype curves in the past. Our own Game Changers list, put together with Lightspeed Venture Partners, highlights the quality startups being funded in the modern VC funding environment. I do expect that issues like copyright concerns — which prompted the New York Times to sue Microsoft — and labor issues could disrupt the whole AI party. Let’s hope the outcome will be good for games, and good for humanity. Letter grade: A. Given the powerful changes that AI is bringing to every industry, it wasn’t hard to make the forecast that it would impact games. The fact that EA used AI to help create 11,000 likenesses for college football game characters in three months is a case in point of that impact. 3) Great games will still emerge Out of the mess of layoffs, economic doldrums, and technological change, we’ll still get amazing games that set a new bar for quality entertainment. Don’t forget that we saw billions of dollars invested into games by game-focused venture funds that didn’t exist before. We saw investors of all kinds come into games a few years ago as a kind of shelter from the pandemic. That money went to work and it is still being used by game developers to iterate on great ideas and eventually bring some of them to market. Good games take time to make, and great teams continue their work even if the economy turns weak for a couple of years. Remedy Entertainment weathered 13 years before it brought the outstanding Alan Wake 2 ( my favorite game of 2023 ) to the market. Starfield was in the works for a decade at Bethesda, and by the time Grand Theft Auto VI lands in 2025 it will have been in the works for around 13 years. Great games find a way to get to the market and gamers discover them. That part of the industry isn’t broken. Letter grade: A. I was so glad to play titles like Alan Wake 2 in 2023 and see awesome new franchises like Starfield emerge at the same time. This year, I loved titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops VI and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It’s an industry of winners and losers. I expect the winners will win bigger and the losers can lose bigger too. But I never expect a year with only losers. 4) Franchise games will dominate In the meantime, it will still be tough for brand new intellectual properties to pierce through the noise and become popular with gamers on their own. That’s why big companies from Warner Bros. to Playtika are all focused on franchise games, or those that come from well-known gaming properties like God of War or hit entertainment properties like Spider-Man. It takes so many game developers to create these games on a regular cycle that there aren’t enough talented teams to spare for untested brand new properties — or so the conventional thinking goes. Since we’re in a downturn, you can bet that leaders of game companies will think in a safe and conservative way to preserve their own jobs, rather than take huge risks on something new. Even when we get a brand new idea for a game, like Hogwarts Legacy or the upcoming Suicide Squad, you’ll see that its attached to an existing IP like Harry Potter or DC. Activision Blizzard has a large chunk of its workforce — 3,000 or so people out of perhaps 13,000 — across 10 studios focused on Call of Duty. That’s how it ensures Call of Duty comes out every year as a premium game and it gets steady content for Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile. That means there aren’t a lot of people left for secondary games like Skylanders or brand new IP. And this is reflected in what gamers want to play. Players want the franchises, and the game companies are serving it up to them. Sequels and remasters are filling the calendar for next year. I don’t expect too much of this to change in 2024, and you’ll see below that indies are the solution. Letter grade: C. I foresaw big hits like the new Call of Duty and the Indiana Jones hit. But I didn’t expect to see such a hole in the triple-A launch schedule for companies like Sony in 2024. The failure of games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Concord left openings for surprise hits like Palworld, Helldivers 2, Black Myth: Wukong, Balatro and more. That meant I was only half right. 5) User-generated content will continue to grow User-generated content used to signal poor quality. But in the age of AI, automated tools can help take a user’s idea and make something good out of it. That’s why I expect UGC to continue to take off. It already has amazing platforms in Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft. Dave Baszucki, CEO of Roblox, said at the recent Roblox Developers Conference that he predicts a Roblox developer will be valued at $1 billion in the next five years. There are big Roblox dev studios with 200 people — like Marcus Holmström’s The Gang — with professional game developers. There are also home-grown Roblox studios run by CEOs who are 23 years old and have 10 years of Roblox experience. Some of the games, like Maximillian Games’ Frontlines, feature graphics like triple-A games. On top of that, Overwolf has enabled modding to scale on the PC, with more than $201 million in payments to modders during 2023 alone. Letter grade: A. Roblox hit an astounding 89 million daily active users in its most recent quarter, up nearly 27% from a year ago. We’ve also seen great growth for Fortnite, Minecraft and modding on platforms such as Overwolf. It’s a UGC world. Ignore it at your peril. 6) Switch 2 will be announced Nintendo launched its Switch hybrid console in March 2017, nearly seven years ago. By any measure, it’s due for an update soon, as in the good old days consoles showed their age by their fifth year. Of course, things are different now and consoles may last for 10 years. But there are plenty of things that Nintendo could add to its capabilities to capture new sales in the market, like getting a Call of Duty game to run on the Switch 2 hardware. Of course, I don’t have inside information here and I don’t even know if Nintendo plans to launch the console during 2024. Nintendo has been pretty good about keeping secrets and figuring out ways to surprise and delight its customers. But just like Apple, Nintendo needs to start telling developers how to make games for its new platform if it wants those games to show up in a timely manner. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it signals the Switch 2 is coming in 2024 and then ships it after that. Letter grade: A. In November, Nintendo’s president announced the Switch 2 is coming in 2025 and it would be backward compatible with games for the original Switch. Of course, we don’t know the name of the machine yet. 7) The Apple Vision Pro debuts to good reviews but poor sales The word is that Apple will start shipping its initial mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, as early as February. You can expect good quality from Apple in terms of an experience that delights users. The Vision Pro will likely be focused on the high end of the market, with target customers including enterprises that might normally buy a Magic Leap 2 headset for training purposes. There will be some consumer apps, but I wouldn’t expect any miracles in terms of outstanding games at the outset. Like AR and VR, I expect a slow burn in this market in 2024, and then it will turn into something more interesting over time as costs come down and technology advances. I can’t imagine that many people beyond the core will want to buy the headset at its initial price of $3,500. Apple has priced it that high to see what the market of enthusiasts will bear, but it mainly expects developers to buy those headsets at the outset and deliver great apps and games. Once those start to appear, Apple will hone the manufacturing, lower the costs and start to bring the price down. It will also count on deals with wireless carriers to bring the costs down via subscriptions. Letter grade: A. This prediction was on the money. The core technology of the Apple Vision Pro wowed those who were big enthusiasts. But the $3,500 sticker price shocked everyone and Apple is reportedly scaling back its ambitious plans on a successor. 8) More consolidation will happen With the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King by Microsoft now approved, we can expect more of the same to happen. Rivals will likely need to bulk up with more game studios in order to stay competitive with Microsoft, which may have more than 20,000 people working in games. Microsoft will likely push its subscription business even harder, hoping to gain an advantage over rivals like Sony and Nintendo that aren’t trying as hard to push that business model. Game companies will also have other reason to get bigger, like acquiring AI talent or new technologies in the ever-changing industry. I would expect a drive for openness to rise as well in tandem with this consolidation. You can expect to see efforts to create a fully open source game engine , AI tech, or metaverse to emerge as a counter to the walled gardens that the biggest companies and the tech giants can create. The good thing is that this won’t be just an investment in acquisitions. If the game industry continues to be financially attractive, it will attract funding not only for mergers and acquisitions, it will also draw money for startups. And so the never-ending battle between small game startups and big corporations will continue and that will give a chance for the best ideas to emerge from either type of company. Letter grade: A. In November 2024, Drake Star Partners reported that game M&A grew for the fourth quarter in a row. We didn’t see another mega-merger like Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but there was still plenty of deals like Playtika’s acquisition of SuperPlay for $700 million at close ($1.95 billion including the full earn-out over time). Other notable acquirers included Tencent (Aojue Digital), Warner Bros. Discovery (Player First), Krafton (Tango Gameworks), Capcom (Minimum Studios), Keywords (Wushu Studios), Nazara (Fusebox, Deltias Gaming) and Infinite Reality (LandVault). 9) Weakness in China China’s government will likely continue to reign in the gaming business that has otherwise had stellar growth to date. The government has already restricted the number of hours that young people can play in a week. Last week, China also cracked down on monetization, sending the market value of Tencent, NetEase, Krafton and others downward. The new rules limit spending by players on online games and institute a ban on daily login rewards, first-time purchase bonuses and any incentives game developers create for repeat spenders. Loot boxes are also going to be restrained and games in China must now store their data on servers in side the borders of China. The drop in the market value is ominous as both Tencent and NetEase have been heavy investors in the games industry, particularly as they expanded beyond Asia into the West. If that source of funding dries up, then game startups around the globe could feel the impact. On the plus side, China says it will take less time for the approval of new games coming to the market. Letter grade: C. Black Myth: Wukong surprised me and it was one reason why China had a good year. Overall, China’s game revenues were up 7.5% to $44.8 billion in 2024. 10) Hardware companies will get a competitive advantage with user acquisition for games When Apple cracked down on privacy violations with the deprecation of the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), it hurt the ability for game companies to target advertising for specific users. That sent mobile game sales into a decline and made the business of acquiring users much harder. But we’ve seen some new kinds of loyalty programs emerge. Consider the playable ads enabled by cloud gaming at Samsung. Samsung is of course a rival to Apple in a variety of ways. But ads were broken on its smartphones, as 90% of people who clicked on a game ad didn’t wind up playing the game due to the friction of having to register and download the game. So Samsung came up with cloud-enabled playable ads, which, with the Samsung Game Launcher , take you directly into a game to try it out. This will likely be more successful when it comes to friction. And since Samsung sold you the smartphone, it already knows who you are. If you have games in the Samsung store, it knows what you like. And so this will give it a leg up in acquiring new users via its alternative store, which is more viable given the legal victory that Epic Games just score against Google. Of course, Apple could do something like this too, as can other hardware vendors. Letter grade: C. Samsung launched the launcher and it gave a new alternative for mobile games to reach the market, but I wouldn’t say this set the gaming world on fire. 11) Indies will be the source of original gaming hits Now that game powerhouses are focused on franchise games and even innovation-minded triple-A firms like Ubisoft can take a long time to launch a new IP (think Skull & Bones), the indies are going to be the saviors of gaming originality. Every year, I thank the indies for producing games like this year’s Dave the Diver from Mintrocket. Other 2023 indie hits included Sea of Stars, Cocoon, Gorilla Tag, Jusant, The Last Faith, Pizza Tower and Bramble: The Mountain King. Established indie teams that move on to original work after original work can take the risk out of that kind of game and might attract more investment. For 2024, I look forward to titles like Light No Fire, which was announced by No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games at The Game Awards. I was amazed that this procedural graphics game was created by a team of six over the past five years. We’re not sure when it will ship, but it looks beautiful already. Letter grade: A. This prediction was so vague that I had to get it right. Among the indie hits this year were great titles like Balatro (Playstack), UFO 50 (Mossmouth), Animal Well (Bigmode), Another Crab’s Treasure (Aggro Crab), I Am Your Beast (Strange Scaffold), Nine Sols (Red Candle Games), Dungeons of Hinterberg (Curve Games) and Thank Goodness You’re Here (Panic). See more here . 12) Transmedia hits will continue The success of The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie will inspire more games to get the Hollywood treatment. There are many such films already in the works like BioShock and Borderlands, but it takes a while for such works to land. We know that Arcane’s second season will be coming to Netflix. Fallout is coming as a streaming TV series, as is the second season of Halo. Tomb Raider is coming. We may expect new seasons for The Last of Us and Twisted Metal. And possibly even hints of a Zelda film. But I’m pretty sure that not every one of these is going to succeed. The ratio of duds and hits will probably start to even out, as gaming fans have no patience for work that is rushed to the market. Letter grade: A. Again, this wasn’t a hard prediction to make. I was surprised to see the Borderlands movie fail, but we had a lot of hits like Arcane Season 2, Fallout, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and surprise documentaries like The Secret Life of Ibelin on Netflix. If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.

If you’re worried about your dog’s noise levels causing a nuisance, there are ways to prevent them from barking excessively. Dr. Mary Burch, an animal behaviorist and family dog director at the American Kennel Club, offers suggestions for calming them down. Burch said the prevention trick you use depends on what type of barking they’re doing. The four most common reasons a dog barks: To alert: To communicate: Excitement: Separation: When they are left alone. Burch said some dogs use barking as a way to react to moving objects such as cars, vacuum cleaners or even other dogs. She said this barking can be controlled by using treats to teach your dog how to do the following. Bark on cue: When you notice your dog barking at an object, wait for them to stop. After they are quiet, say the command “quiet” out loud and reward them a treat. But “whatever you do, don’t give the dog the food reward when it is barking,” Burch said. It’s important not to do this, because you are trying to associate an activity that is incompatible with barking (like sitting quietly) with the reward. Sit and watch: This tip is particularly useful if your dog is barking at a household object like a vacuum cleaner. When you start vacuuming, sit your dog on the other side of the room. After your dog stops barking, go over to them and say a command like “good boy, quiet” and give them a treat. Over time, Burch said your dog should be able to get closer to the vacuum cleaner or other items without constantly barking. It’s unavoidable. You have to go to work, buy groceries or a number of other situations where you have to leave your dog home by themselves. In response, your dog barks awaiting your return, possibly disturbing your neighbors. Dr. Burch said a common suggestion for separation barking is to turn on the television or radio to help them calm down. “If you try this and it works, you are lucky,” she said. “It is an easy solution (but), unfortunately the television and radio solutions don’t often work.” What does work is finding out why your dog is barking, and shaping your prevention strategies around that. Excitement: Boredom: Separation anxiety: And if you don’t know exactly why your dog is barking, Burch said setting up a camera might help you find out. Overall, Burch said the best solution to help prevent your dog from barking excessively is a combination of training and involving them in activities for their mental well-being. This includes regular exercise and enrolling them in programs where they can socialize with other dogs and people. “There is a saying that a tired dog is a happy dog,” she said. “Your dog might be more likely to relax and rest peacefully (minus barking) if it is provided with training that results in mental stimulation and exercise. A skilled trainer or animal behaviorist can help you if you are not having success on your own.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!BEIRUT — Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the militant group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war. An Israeli bomb squad policeman carries the remains of a rocket that was fired from Lebanon on Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, northern Israel. Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the militants. Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war. Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups. The Israeli police bomb squad inspects the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area Sunday in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing. The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors. Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later. Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. A flock of birds flies above the smoke from Israeli airstrikes Sunday in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to the Lebanese c... The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.” U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week. Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate $208 million to assist the Lebanese military. But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a cease-fire" and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the cease-fire's implementation. The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. With talks for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war's only hostage-release deal. “It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin," said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year's cease-fire. Talks for another deal recently had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive. The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. How often do you buy something online ? A couple of times a month? A couple of times a week? A couple of times a day? Everybody's answer will be different, but collectively, it's done a lot: Online retail accounted for over $1 trillion of purchases in the U.S. in 2022 and a record $277.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Retailers ranging from titans like Amazon and Walmart, down to local small-town shops work very hard to land their share of that business. Sadly and inevitably—so do criminals and scammers. At any given moment, they operate millions of bogus sites. So how can you spot those fake online shopping sites? Spokeo provides a guide. In the early days of the internet , it took some genuine skills to set up a website, but those days are gone. A quick search will show that there are lots of apps and services offering websites on a prefabricated "fill in the blanks" basis, and most web hosts provide those tools as part of the service when someone signs up with them. It's even easier on social media . If you were opening a "side hustle" business tomorrow from your home, you could set up your own Facebook page tonight in under an hour, with exactly zero knowledge of websites. Once that page is set up, you just need to throw a few dollars in the direction of Facebook's advertising department, and they'll start advertising your page to users. It's no harder to promote a website, except in that case, you'd give your advertising dollars to Google. This is a simplified overview, but the main point holds: Establishing a presence online has become a very democratized process, open to anyone with minimal skills and even the smallest budget for advertising. That's been a boon for legitimate entrepreneurs, but it also makes life very easy indeed for scammers. There are multiple types of bogus websites . Some are imposters, created to look very much like a legitimate commercial or government site that you're familiar with, such as Amazon or Netflix. Others don't imitate a specific site, but instead attempt to capture the look and feel of those sites in general (whether that be a retail site, a government or bank page, or even something relatively shady like a gambling or porn site). Next, scammers find ways to drive traffic to their site. Often that's through phishing texts or emails, but deceptive ads on social media or search engines like Google and Bing work just as well. Once a browser arrives at the criminals' site (or, in some cases, downloads their app), any number of bad things can happen. One is that they'll download malware onto your devices, which can capture passwords or steal personal information. A more straightforward risk is that the browser will cheerfully enter their personal and banking/credit card information, thinking they're making a legitimate purchase. That's largely why fake online shopping sites are so dangerous, and so useful to scammers and identity thieves. Most bogus sites share some or all of those characteristics, but shopping sites are a very specific type of bogus site with some quirks of their own. One characteristic to count on—whether the website directly impersonates a major retailer like Amazon, a niche retailer like MEC, or just positions itself as an anonymously general retail site—is that it will offer unusually low pricing on high-demand products. That might be a mass-market item like the latest gaming console, a suddenly in-demand item that's unavailable through normal channels (remember trying to get masks and sanitizing wipes during COVID-19?), or something as mundane as disposable diapers or high-capacity computer drives. Whatever the product, the advertised price will be low enough to get attention. The bogus site will have any number of ways to transfer a browser's money to its coffers, depending on the scammers' intentions and skillset. A few of the most common include: These are all aside from the potential to infect devices or steal payment information . Sites focused on identity theft might consider a faux purchase to be just the added gravy. How common is online shopping fraud? Well, the news is pretty bad. The FTC's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded over 327,000 online shopping complaints, the fourth-highest category for overall complaints and second among fraud categories. You would expect these sites to be more prevalent during the final quarter of the year, corresponding to the holiday gift-giving season—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas itself—and they are, but that doesn't mean you can relax during the other nine months of the year. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, or APWG, identified nearly a million fake or phishing websites during the first quarter of 2022 alone (not a busy time of year for shopping), for example. To be clear, only 14.6% of those were eCommerce sites, but that still translates to well over 140,000 bogus shopping sites. The true number is almost certainly higher because the APWG only tracks the ones that use a phishing approach. Many opt to simply buy advertising instead (or as well), and those won't be captured in the APWG's statistics. However you slice it, there's a definite risk of encountering these sites when you shop. The good news is that bogus shopping sites aren't hard to spot, once you're aware of the risk. They aren't built for permanence; scammers pull them together quickly and cheaply and then abandon them once they stop producing.That "just good enough" approach leaves plenty of visible signs you can detect. Below, here's what to look for when recognizing fake online shopping sites. Bad images Bogus sites don't have direct access to the real products' manufacturing images, so they resort to copying and pasting from legitimate sites. \That means bogus sites' product images (and often their fake logos, if they impersonate a legitimate site) are fuzzy and low-res. A URL that's slightly "off" Imposter sites obviously can't have the same URL as the legitimate site, so they'll usually have a URL that looks right, but isn't quite. They might have a typo in the name, or incorporate the real company's name into their URL in a non-standard way ("myfakesite.amazon.com.123xyz.com"), or—sneakiest of all—use a letter from a different language's character set , which looks the same to the eye, but not to the computer. Broken links The scammers may have simply copied and pasted user interface elements from a legitimate site, in which case many links on the site may be broken (or simply not clickable). Lots of missing elements A legitimate retail website will have several pages of legalese, often starting with a pop-up about its cookie policy or privacy policy. You should certainly expect to see a detailed document spelling out shipping policies, return and refund policies, and similar details. If those are missing or brief and vapid, it's probably a fake site. Limited options for payment Sites that plan to take your money and run will often show oddly specific payment options, from wire transfers to gift cards to cryptocurrency. The thing those payment methods have in common is that it's very difficult to get money back once it's spent. Sites geared around capturing your personal or payment information, on the other hand, may insist on getting your credit card. Typos, grammar, and linguistic errors Simple, silly language errors are often a red flag. Scammers may not be native English speakers, and it shows up in awkward or sometimes inappropriate phrasing. Errors in actual product listings aren't necessarily a smoking gun—you'll see them frequently on real Amazon pages—because they come from the manufacturers, who are often not English speakers. Language errors on the rest of the site are more of a concern. HTTP vs. HTTPS In the address bar of your browser, a legitimate retail site's URL will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP, and will show a closed lock symbol. The majority of fake sites now also have an HTTPS URL and will show the lock (so this isn't as helpful as it used to be), but less-sophisticated scammers may miss that detail. You can automatically rule those ones out. And, of course, the biggest red flag of all is an unrealistically low price on the product you're looking for. We all want to get a really good deal, but that impulse will often lead you astray. If a shopping site fails those basic "eyeball" tests, the smart thing to do is just close that browser tab and walk away. If you want to dig deeper, or if you aren't sure, there are a few quick and easy ways to verify a site's legitimacy. Use a URL/website checker Remember those really sneaky fake URLs that use a letter from another alphabet? The best way to check those (and other problematic elements in a URL) is through a URL verifier/website reputation service, like the ones from URLVoid and Google . Just copy (don't click!) the link, and paste it into the checker. If the site is sketchy, they'll tell you. Look up the site on a registry Domain names all need to be registered and there are several lookup tools to check this, like ICANN's registration lookup (think of it as Spokeo for websites). If a site claims to be Amazon but was registered just a few weeks ago, that's a really big red flag. Similarly, if the site isn't located where it should be, or if the ownership data is obscured, that's grounds for concern. Turn to Google If you have a bad feeling about a particular site, do a quick Google or Bing (or whatever) search that pairs the site's name with keywords like "scam," "fraud," "bogus" or "ripoff" and see what comes up. If you get a lot of hits, that's definitely grounds for concern. Go Forth and Shop (Safely) If a given site fails any or all of those tests, then keeping your wallet in your pocket is definitely the smart choice. Instead of making the purchase, report the site instead to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC's Report Fraud website. That will get the investigative wheels turning and may help protect someone less wary from falling victim to the scammers. As always, wariness and skepticism are your friends when it comes to avoiding scams. Don't click on links in emails, texts , or social media messages; instead, go to the company's site by typing the URL directly. If you search a company's page on Google, scroll down through the actual search results until you find it instead of clicking on the sponsored results or advertisements at the top. Most of all, remember the golden rule of scam avoidance: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keeping those principles in mind, and using the tips given here to screen out dubious sites means you'll be able to shop 'til you drop (safely), despite the vast number of scammers out there. And that—as the credit card ads like to say—is priceless. This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

I'M A Celebrity viewers are certain they know which star will quit the show first. Fans are currently watching as 12 famous faces grapple with the ITV show's twists and turns. Radio 1 DJ Dean McCullough has faced the bulk of this year's Bushtucker Trials - but viewers don't think he'll be the first to quit. Instead, they've pointed to former boxer turned promoter, Barry McGuigan . A fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Barry isn’t enjoying himself at all. "I predict he’ll quit before Sunday." Read more on I'm A Celeb The 63-year-old has already been through a lot during his time in the jungle. Along with Jane Moore , he was one of only two campmates to not receive his luxury item. Danny Jones and Alan Halsall managed to secure the eight other family gifts. He was also left irritated after contraband led to a negative impact on the camp. Most read in I’m A Celebrity 2024 Show bosses discovered Dean had smuggled teabags into the camp. Melvin Odoom won 10 cupcakes in a challenge, but only received five as a direct punishment. Speaking in the Bush Telegraph, Barry aired his frustrations to the camera. He said: "Unfortunately, we were punished and ten became five. "So, I'm pretty annoyed about that." Early on, the boxing legend showed a vulnerable side by opening up about his late daughter. Danika, an actress, passed away in July 2019 as a result of bowel cancer . i'm A Celebrity is back for its 24th series, with a batch of famous faces living in the Aussie jungle. The Sun's Jake Penkethman takes a look at the stars on the show this year.. Coleen Rooney - Arguably the most famous name in the camp, the leading WAG, known for her marriage to Wayne Rooney , has made a grand return to TV as she looks to put the Wagatha Christie scandal behind her. The Sun revealed the mum-of-four had bagged an eye-watering deal worth over £1.5million to be on the show this year making her the highest-paid contestant ever. Tulisa - The popstar and former X Factor judge has made her triumphant TV comeback by signing up to this year's I'm A Celeb after shunning TV shows for many years. Known for being a member of the trio, N-Dubz , Tulisa became a household name back in 2011 when she signed on to replace Cheryl on ITV show The X Factor in a multi-million pound deal. Alan Halsall - The actor, known for playing the long-running role of Tyrone Dobbs on ITV soap opera Coronation Street , was originally signed up to head Down Under last year but an operation threw his scheduled appearance off-course. Now he has become the latest Corrie star to win over both the viewers and his fellow celebrities. Melvin Odoom - The Radio DJ has become a regular face on TV screens after rising to fame with presenting roles on Kiss FM, BBC Radio 1 and 4Music. Melvin has already been for a spin on the Strictly dancefloor and co-hosted The Xtra Factor with Rochelle Humes in 2015 but now he is facing up to his biggest challenge yet - the Aussie jungle . GK Barry - The UK's biggest social media personality, GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, has transformed her TikTok stardom into a lucrative career. Aside from her popular social media channels, she hosts the weekly podcast, Saving Grace, and regularly appears on ITV talk show, Loose Women . She has even gone on to endorse popular brands such as PrettyLittleThing, KFC and Ann Summers. Dean McCullough - A rising star amongst this year's bunch of celebs , Dean first achieved notability through his radio appearances on Gaydio and BBC Radio 1. He was chosen to join the BBC station permanently in 2021 and has featured prominently ever since. He has enjoyed a crossover to ITV over the past year thanks to his guest slots on Big Brother spin-off show, Late & Live. Oti Mabuse - The pro dancer has signed up to her latest TV show after making her way through the biggest programmes on the box. She originally found fame on Strictly Come Dancing but has since branched out into the world of TV judging with appearances on former BBC show The Greatest Dancer as well as her current role on ITV's Dancing On Ice . Danny Jones - The McFly star was drafted into the programme last minute as a replacement for Tommy Fury. Danny is the second member of McFly to enter the jungle , after Dougie Poynter won the show in 2011. He is also considered a rising star on ITV as he's now one of the mentors on their Saturday night talent show, The Voice , along with bandmate Tom Fletcher . Jane Moore - The Loose Women star and The Sun columnist is braving the creepy crawlies this year. The star is ready for a new challenge - having recently split from her husband . It will be Jane's first foray into reality TV with the telly favourite having always said no to reality shows in the past. Barry McGuigan - Former pro boxer Barry is the latest fighting champ to head Down Under following in the footsteps of Tony Bellew and Amir Khan . It comes after a tough few years for Irish star Barry, who lost his daughter Danika to bowel cancer . He told The Late Late Show in 2021: "She was such an intrinsic part of the family that every day we ache." Maura Higgins - The Irish TV beauty first found fame on Love Island where she found a brief connection with dancer Curtis Pritchard . Since then, she has competed on Dancing On Ice as well as hosting the Irish version of the beauty contest, Glow Up. Since last year, she has been working on building up her career in the US by being the social media correspondent and host of Aftersun to accompany Love Island USA. She even guest hosted an episode of the spin-off, Love Island Games, in place of Maya Jama last year. Rev. Richard Coles - Former BBC radio host the Rev Richard Coles is a late arrival on I’m A Celebrity , and he's ready to spill the beans on his former employer. The former Communards and Strictly star , said the BBC did not know its a**e from its elbow last year. An insider said: "Rev Coles will have a variety of tales to tell from his wild days as a pop star in the Eighties, through to performing on Strictly and his later life as a man of the cloth." Viewers and campmates alike were moved by Barry's emotions - with Tulisa offering him reassurance. The N-Dubz star said: "Barry, you are a man going through pain and you're being vulnerable and that takes strength." READ MORE SUN STORIES She added: "There is no rules to grieving Barry, it's a reflection of your love." I'm A Celebrity continues on ITV1 and ITVX .

Nascent right-wing venture capitalist has become the leading Trump family member in his father’s inner circle during the presidential transition period. A half dozen sources told Reuters that President-elect ’s eldest child has been a key advisory figure as his dad has put forward a string of controversial cabinet nominees, marshalling some of the wildest picks himself. Trump, who steadfastly advocated for his good pal and Ohio Senator as Trump’s running mate, blocked former Secretary of State from returning to Trump’s cabinet, the news agency reported. He is also, apparently, a driving force behind two the planned nominations of Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary and former Rep. as Director of National Intelligence. Kennedy is the anti-vaxxer conspiracist black sheep of the famous Massachusetts clan that has produced three generations of Democratic politicians. Gabbard is a former Democratic politician turned MAGA diehard who surprised Don Jr.‘s dad with the news that she’d joined the GOP at a rally in North Carolina last month. Kennedy’s habit of spreading scientifically disproven nonsense and Gabbard’s habit of downplaying alleged crimes by Russian President and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have made both controversial picks. Don Jr. is said to pride loyalty to his father and an anti-establishment worldview that includes a desire to implement protectionist economics and cut back on foreign military intervention, Reuters reported. His dad has not, however, taken Don Jr.‘s counsel as gospel. Trump chose Senator (R-FL), whose foreign policy views are more in line with the mainstream GOP, as his nominee to lead the State Department. Don Jr. wanted his friend Ric Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, a source told Reuters. Don Jr. is set to join right wing venture capital fund 1789 Capital and is listed as a “Web3 ambassador” for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto venture. He plans to continue advising his father when he is back in the White House, though not on a day-to-day basis, and won’t give up . That means he will likely remain the most active and influential Trump family member in the president’s inner cloister. During his first term in office, that role went to Trump’s son-in-law and daughter —the married couple were both tapped as presidential advisors. Kushner will be informally involved in the second Trump term, advising on Middle East policy, the half dozen sources Reuters spoke to said. Kushner confirmed he has already been briefing real estate investor Steve Witkoff, Trump’s planned special envoy to the region. Kushner, Ivanka and sibling , the executive vice president of the , don’t plan to join the administration. Teenage son —who advised his father on which bro-y podcasts to appear on during the campaign—is busy with his studies at New York University. While Don Jr. has emerged as an influential voice, he’s not currently advising his father full-time, and a source told Reuters that Trump’s second term may find him leaning less on his family than before. They noted Susie Wiles, Trump’s co-campaign manager who is poised to be his White House Chief of Staff, as having built a disciplined organization that can operate without Trump leaning on his family. “Stuff is really buttoned down,” the source told Reuters. “He may not need the family this time like he used to.”US stocks experience mixed fortunes on quiet day of trading

If a matrimony ad were to be written for Mustafa Zaidi at his peak it would read: Poet, Bureaucrat, Recipient of Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Romantic, Suicidal. Shahnaz’s ad would read: Fair, Beautiful, Claim to Fame is Afghan Royalty. It is through this pairing of unlikely personalities that we have Society Girl by Saba Imtiaz and Tooba Masood-Khan, a multilayered, multidimensional story of two starkly different people as an insight into how lives despite socio-economic differences can intertwine to create webs of deceit and disloyalty in the name of romance that ultimately lead to double lives, the cost for which can be too much. What should have been a mere love affair became a sordid scandal, yet Another Pakistani Tragedy that love as an ideal can only ever remain an ideal and rarely, if ever, experienced. Best to stick to the long and narrow. Skilfully swimming through the narrowness of Lahore’s bloodlines to finding liberation in Karachi’s cosmopolitanism and glittering nightlife, this is a jigsaw galaxy made up of thousands of scattered pieces from different planets. Truly, Imtiaz and Masood-Khan have set the bar with their stellar investigative skills and proven to be master storytellers. A masterclass in objectively telling the story without the temptation to judge, there is a kindness with which they reveal the two main characters - Mustafa and Shahnaz - a desperately needed form of reporting that is non-existent in today’s Pakistani media. Solving a mystery in a country that thrives on ‘chaska’ is no easy feat and where politics, conspiracy theories, love affairs, bloodlines, power games, sex, slander and revenge come in with a heavy penchant for moralising, Imtiaz and Masood-Khan limit Sherlock Holmes’ techniques to Baker Street. The trial scene alone is worth using to teach writing on how to navigate a potent but sensitive situation where two people’s lives are not just at stake but also national security, international economic trade and the revelation of the carefully crafted world of high society with all its debauchery and nobility. Ali Amin Gandapur: Proving Critics Wrong Imtiaz and Masood-Khan grant Mustafa, a complex character, the space to be as he is and they view him with a kind lens that perhaps there was a mental health issue that kept cropping up especially during times of distress. Shahnaz is mostly explored through the lens of other women, perhaps in the hope they may empathise with a woman who for all her flaws was essentially mimicking high society in its behaviour but never realising how high the stakes are and not everyone can afford them. A masterclass in objectively telling the story without the temptation to judge, there is a kindness with which they reveal the two main characters - Mustafa and Shahnaz Mustafa for all his brilliance as a poet and intelligence toyed with life to see how far he could push it, till it finally retaliated. It could never tame his need to shatter every limit and so he kept getting away with it. Surviving suicide, lamenting a lost love to the extreme, mocking a Civil Service Academy as an asylum, referring to Jhelum as Jahannum, bringing home a mistress and seducing her in a bedroom with his wife standing outside, nothing was off limits for Mustafa when it came to tempting fate - he kept winning. Masterfully toying with words as poetry and using couplets to manipulate friend’s minds when confronted about his infidelity and behaviour, Mustafa knew he could charm his way to everyone’s heart and anyone’s bed. Yet, for all his identity as a poet, there was a pragmatic side and after a stint at teaching he joined the bureaucracy. From there on did he reach his professional high and low. It was at his lowest, Shahnaz entered, a sort of a lifeboat as he tread a sea of bad luck. Often creatives transcend the mundaneness of life to explore the vastness of their minds. Was she a distraction from his career disgrace? Or just another piece that fed his hunger for sex? The fire in his loins for yet another conquest to counter the disrupted domestic life he enjoyed with his beloved wife Vera? Shahnaz is beautiful, giggly and dazzled by the fancy Karachiites who accept that this ordinary couple, Saleem and Shahnaz, are harmless folk merely adding to the crowd of their appreciators. Uncultured, she is dismissed as being anything but a housewife who makes the most of her life after getting out of purdah in Gujranwala. Let’s Try Love What could possibly have caused Shahnaz, married to stable, secure but old (30 years her senior) husband to fall for Mustafa? Could it also have been she was looking to counter domestic life with a dull husband? Or was she too simple minded to recognise Mustafa for who he was as he swept her off her feet with his silver tongue? Or was she never given the chance to bloom, viewed as a second tier socialite only and keen to move higher up? As Imitiaz and Masood-Khan write: “ Mustafa’s young friends were fairly dismissive of Shahnaz. They thought she was just a pretty woman; charming, sure, but not Mustafa’s intellectual equal. This seemed like a relationship borne out of lust, not literature.” Imtiaz and Masood-Khan critically analyse society’s initial understanding of the situation as “a homemaker who had fallen in love with a romantic, charming poet.” But sadly they were never really free from judgement which played out in the media. As Imtiaz and Masood-Khan note the media circus surrounding the couple: “she had had an affair despite being a mother of two was seen as shocking. It didn’t matter that Mustafa was also a father of two.” As the investigation into Zaidi’s death picks up, a new dimension of crime, a desi favourite - smuggling - opens up. Here again, Zaidi’s manipulation and manoeuvring comes in leaving one horrified, not at the beings that lurk in shadows or the ones that operate in broad daylight but are strong enough to play with people’s lives even in death. As Imitiaz and Tooba write, “ In fact, no one would have connected a trip to London with smuggling in the first place, had it not been for the person who had spread the rumour – Mustafa Zaidi – who was now seemingly directing this investigation from beyond the grave.” But the question is: did Mustafa ever know he had gone too far? As thoughts of Shahnaz moving on swirl in his head, he is reduced to a mere ex. How could she do this to him? Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing Career gone, family gone, no love interest - Mustafa decides to go for revenge. With the printing of Shahnaz’s nude as a flyer, had he finally broken every rule? And did she decide to take matters into her own hands? Did either one of them deserve the tragedies of fate they were dealt? Having sunk to the lowest form of desperation, ultimately Mustafa couldn’t fight his own mind as dark as it became. Shahnaz chasing reflections in the water ventured out too far into the sea, never found the shore that was promised. Sand is never as solid as earth and actions speak louder than words. Tremendously expensive lessons for Shahnaz and Mustafa.A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House saysBottle shop gets a cheer from leading planner ahead of decision day

Sports on TV for Thursday, Dec. 19

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs’ recent layoff led to renewed health. Sources tell cleveland.com that defense-first swingman Isaac Okoro, listed as questionable going into the night, will return Sunday against the Toronto Raptors. More Cavs coverage Cavs vs. Raptors: preview, odds, injury report, TV Special Streakin’ Cavs Edition: Lots of thoughts, scribbles and fun – Terry Pluto Cavs provide injury updates on Max Strus, Dean Wade and Caris LeVert Who are The 40 Most Influential People in Cleveland Sports when it comes to fan happiness? See our list and how we ranked them.

RUBEN AMORIM is certainly not stupid and he can read the room at Old Trafford. Although, in his previous appearance at the Theatre of Dreams, this also saw him witness a leaking roof in his post-match press conference... which sums up the state of Manchester United right now. 2 Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim expects a 'nervous' Old Trafford against Newcastle Credit: Reuters 2 Amorim also admitted Man Utd fans are 'tired' amid a woeful season Credit: PA Yet the Portuguese coach knows all about the importance of having a connection with supporters and he can clearly see Red Devils’ fans are all “tired” with the situation at their shambolic club. Amorim has only been at United just over a month but the 2-0 Boxing Day defeat at Wolves was his fifth in seven games since taking charge in the wake of Erik ten Hag’s sacking. And now he must prepare for Monday’s visit of in-form Newcastle . The former Sporting Lisbon chief, 39, has a contract until 2027 and maintains that is enough time for him to be judged. Read More on Man Utd SUPER BAD NEWS Supercomputer predicts all-time low for Man Utd in horror end to season NU LEFT-BACK? Man Utd 'launch transfer bid for left-back Mendes who is ready to QUIT PSG' He is not being helped by arriving in such a toxic situation with fans disillusioned at the way United have been run on and off the pitch. Yet Amorim ’s problem is that, over the last few weeks, the team has gone BACKWARDS . United’s last home game was Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Bournemouth — which is when the roof started leaking on him . Incredibly, it was the club’s fourth Prem defeat at Old Trafford this season. Most read in Football KRIS BOYD Philippe Clement has two games to save his job, if this is still Rangers I knew BAL ROLLING Clement delivers injury update on Balogun ahead of Motherwell & Celtic clashes GREEN LIGHT KMI review panel rules on Celtic-Motherwell penalty row and Butland yellow card KEEP CAM Celtic hero Cameron Carter-Vickers 'emerges as shock target for European giants' BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKER S Eddie Howe’s team will arrive on a run of four successive wins, so a game against Newcastle is the last thing United need. Yet Amorim insisted: “We have to fight against everything because our supporters are always there, but they are tired of this moment. Ruben Amorim says Man Utd must find way to end struggles after Wolves loss “It’s part of football to have these difficult moments. I already knew that it was going to be tough. “You expect to win more games, to have players with more confidence to sell the idea and to work and improve things. “At this moment it’s really hard. We have to survive to have time and then to improve the team.” Amorim cannot be faulted for his honesty. He also conceded that the mood at Old Trafford could be tense whenever Newcastle attack. He added: “We have to expect that any play from Newcastle near our box is going to make the stadium nervous and our players have to cope with that. “It’s a very strong team with a lot of pace, with a lot of time working with the same coach. We want to be competitive and try to win the game, that’s all.” 'Worst Man Utd in half a century' This is currently the worst United team in half a century — which is incredible when you consider how much money has been spent in recent seasons. It is not just the absence of quality, either. There is a lack of belief and energy and the team is so predictable. There is no reason why United cannot beat Newcastle. But equally, it would not be a surprise if they were crushed 4-0. After the loss against Wolves, Amorim admitted that the side had to “survive” in the Premier League as they sit 14th in the table, eight points off the relegation zone. Another worry is that United are struggling at corners and free-kicks. They have conceded ten goals from set-pieces this term — five of them coming under Amorim’s command. Goalkeeper Andre Onana was beaten by Matheus Cunha’s corner at Molineux seven days after Tottenham’s Son Heung-min did the same to Altay Bayindir in the Carabao Cup quarter-final. Set-piece problem The fact that Wolves had practised trying to score direct from corners during the week showed there is an issue as Onana is not being protected by his defenders. Amorim admitted: “Set-pieces are becoming so important. We have to learn, even with the small guys.” United’s new coach was also asked whether Red Devils’ fans can play a part against Newcastle by ramping up the atmosphere on Monday. But he said: “I would not dare to ask anything of our fans. They give us everything: a full stadium, they’re always supporting, clapping loss after loss. “I just want to give something to the fans, not ask something of them.” Fernandes walking disciplinary tightrope United will be without captain Bruno Fernandes after his red card at Wolves . Although the Portuguese playmaker’s dismissal at Spurs in September was overturned, he continues to walk a disciplinary tightrope and cannot be trusted. Asked if former skipper Harry Maguire could be reinstated, Amorim said: “He will have to wait until the game. Read more on the Scottish Sun SNOW WAY Weather maps show heavy snow for Scotland in DAYS – with -2C New Year’s chill NO CRIME Orange Order slam cops after Celtic activist was cleared over 'sectarian rants' “He works really well. He’s focused on the job, not what people say. He does not make excuses, even if he had some tough moments. “I think in that department he is an example, so he is there to play to help the team. He’s trying to do that.” Man Utd ratings vs Wolves By Ken Lawrence WOLVES landed a shock Boxing Day knockout as Manchester United's struggles continued. The 2-0 defeat means Ruben Amorim has won just two of the seven Premier League games he has taken charge of. United find themselves 14th in the table and today were not helped by Bruno Fernandes' red card and Andre Onana letting one in direct from a corner. Here is how SunSport rated the performances... ANDRE ONANA: 4 He needed to make an agile save from Jorgen Strand Larsen in the first half, but badly misjudged the flight of Cunha’s corner for the opening goal - his claim that he was obstructed by Matt Doherty was rejected. LENY YORO: 5 Recalled but booked after only four minutes for a foul on Cunha, so he was walking on eggshells and was tested by Wolves throughout. Subbed just after the hour mark. HARRY MAGUIRE: 6 The England defender did his best to keep United in the game when they were under pressure for long periods - at least he helped to stem the tide until the dying seconds and had a header on target in stoppage time. LISANDRO MARTINEZ: 6 Teamed up well with Maguire to stop Wolves from winning this more easily, he stood his ground and produced some important challenges in the latter stages before Wolves caught him on the break with the last action of the game. NOUSSAIR MAZRAOUI: 5 Tenacious and determined, but was one of several players given a torrid time by the best player on the pitch - Cunha. MANUEL UGARTE: 5 Dispossesed too easily at times, struggled against a lively Wolves attack and was eventually taken off as one of Amorim’s subs following Fernandes’ red card. KOBBIE MAINOO: 5 Looked a threat early on, created some good openings, but he was booked after the break as United looked short on ideas. Faded and was subbed. DIOGO DALOT: 6 Brought a tremendous save from Jose Sa in the first half in what was a rare bright spot for United - but he had no major influence on a poor team display. AMAD DIALLO: 5 Lacked awareness of his team-mates sometimes and looked a shadow of the player who turned the Manchester derby around less than two weeks ago. BRUNO FERNANDES: 3 Sent off early in the second half for a second yellow after a challenge on Nelson Semedo, but the captain had cut a frustrated figure before that. RASMUS HOJLUND: 5 Became visibly annoyed at times at a lack of service from his team-mates, he had no joy up front and was subbed with 10 minutes left. SUBS Casemiro (for Mainoo, 63 mins): 6 Christian Eriksen (for Ugate, 63 mins): 6 Antony (for Yoro, 63 mins): 6 Alejandro Garnacho (for Amad, 79 mins): 5 Joshua Zirkzee (for Hojlund, 79 mins): 5LSU outlasts UCF 109-102 in triple-OT affairImagine stopping by a stand doling out free bananas and being provided a brand new latest generation Kindle device instead, completely free. What’s more, none other than Panos Panay himself extended the generosity by personally handing out the Kindle devices to the public and company employees who stopped by the banana stand at the Amazon headquarters in Seattle. Panos Panay shouldn’t be a stranger to tech enthusiasts, having served in key positions at Microsoft and is credited with having developed the Surface line of products there. At Amazon, he is serving as the senior vice president of Devices and Services. Here he is involved with not only e-readers but a host of other devices and services. That includes Alexa, Fire range of tablets, Echo devices, Fire TVs, and Zoox self-driving taxis. Apart from these, Panay is also looking into Project Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite business. Meanwhile, the Kindle Paperwhite device being provided otherwise costs $159. Imagine the glee on the faces of those who got a new Kindle Paperwhite who had just been expecting bananas instead. The icing on the cake is receiving it from Panay himself. The senior vice president also took pride in describing the new Kindle Paperwhite as the fastest and yet the thinnest Kindle they have ever come up with. The company described it as a surprise giveaway and a fun way to connect with their prospective customer. However, it ruled out organizing any such giveaway anytime in the foreseeable future. The new 2024 Kindle Paperwhite comes with a 7-inch e-paper display. Battery lasts several weeks while the device offers 25 percent faster page turns along with a higher contrast ratio. The built-in front light can turn from white to amber to match the ambient lighting conditions so that you always have the most optimum reading experience. The Paperwhite also boasts a waterproof build while the device itself is made from 29 percent recycled materials. The internal structural frame is made from 90 percent recycled magnesium. Right now, it is selling for post a 16 percent discount. With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.

Kendrick Lamar surprises with new album 'GNX' LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present with a new album. The Grammy winner released his sixth studio album “GNX” on Friday. The 12-track project is the rapper’s first release since 2022’s “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Lamar’s new album comes just months after his rap battle with Drake. The rap megastar will headline February's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans. The 37-year-old has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize. NBA memo to players urges increased vigilance regarding home security following break-ins MIAMI (AP) — The NBA is urging its players to take additional precautions to secure their homes following reports of recent high-profile burglaries of dwellings owned by Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis and Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. In a memo sent to team officials, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the NBA revealed that the FBI has connected some burglaries to “transnational South American Theft Groups” that are “reportedly well-organized, sophisticated rings that incorporate advanced techniques and technologies, including pre-surveillance, drones, and signal jamming devices.” Ancient meets modern as a new subway in Greece showcases archaeological treasures THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, is opening a new subway system, blending ancient archaeological treasures with modern transit technology like driverless trains and platform screen doors. The project, which began in 2003, uncovered over 300,000 artifacts, including a Roman-era thoroughfare and Byzantine relics, many of which are now displayed in its 13 stations. Despite delays caused by preserving these findings, the inaugural line has been completed, with a second line set to open next year. Conor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rules LONDON (AP) — A civil jury in Ireland has awarded more than $250,000 to a woman who says she was raped by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel penthouse after a night of heavy partying. The jury on Friday awarded Nikita Hand in her lawsuit that claimed McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in 2018. The lawsuit says the assault left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. McGregor testified that he never forced her to do anything and that Hand fabricated her allegations after the two had consensual sex. McGregor says he will appeal the verdict. At least 19 people are sick in Minnesota from ground beef tied to E. coli recall U.S. health officials say at least 19 people in Minnesota have been sickened by E. coli poisoning tied to a national recall of more than 167,000 pounds of potentially tainted ground beef. Detroit-based Wolverine Packing Co. recalled the meat sent to restaurants nationwide. Minnesota state agriculture officials reported multiple illnesses and found that a sample of the product tested positive for E. coli, which can cause life-threatening infections. No illnesses have been reported outside of Minnesota. Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and signs of dehydration. Actor Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend drops assault and defamation lawsuit against once-rising star NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend has dropped her assault and defamation lawsuit against the once-rising Hollywood star after reaching a settlement. Lawyers for Majors and Grace Jabbari agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice Thursday. Jabbari is a British dancer who had accused Majors of subjecting her to escalating incidents of physical and verbal abuse during their relationship. Representatives for Majors didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday. Jabbari’s lawyer said the suit was “favorably settled” and her client is moving on with “her head held high.” Majors was convicted of misdemeanor assault and harassment last December and sentenced to a yearlong counseling program. Hyundai, Kia recall over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix problem that can cause loss of power DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are recalling over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix a pesky problem that can cause loss of drive power, increasing the risk of a crash. The recalls cover more than 145,000 Hyundai and Genesis vehicles including the 2022 through 2024 Ioniq 5, the 2023 through 2025 Ioniq 6, GV60 and GV70, and the 2023 and 2024 G80. Also included are nearly 63,000 Kia EV 6 vehicles from 2022 through 2024. The affiliated Korean automakers say in government documents that a transistor in a charging control unit can be damaged and stop charging the 12-volt battery. Dealers will inspect and replace the control unit and a fuse if needed. They also will update software. Christmas TV movies are in their Taylor Swift era, with two Swift-inspired films airing this year Two of the new holiday movies coming to TV this season have a Taylor Swift connection that her fans would have no problem decoding. “Christmas in the Spotlight” debuts Saturday on Lifetime. It stars Jessica Lord as the world’s biggest pop star and Laith Wallschleger, playing a pro football player, who meet and fall in love, not unlike Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. On Nov. 30, Hallmark will air “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.” Instead of a nod to Swift, it’s an ode to family traditions and bonding, like rooting for a sports team. Hallmark’s headquarters is also in Kansas City. Top football recruit Bryce Underwood changes commitment to Michigan instead of LSU, AP source says ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Top football recruit Bryce Underwood has flipped to Michigan after pledging to play at LSU. That's according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the recruit’s plans to join the Wolverines. Underwood pinned a post on his Instagram account, showing a post in which On3.com reported that he has committed to Michigan. The 6-foot-3 quarterback played at Belleville High School about 15 miles east of Michigan's campus, and told LSU nearly a year ago he intended to enroll there. Emperor penguin released at sea 20 days after waddling onto Australian beach MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia has been released at sea 20 days after he waddled ashore on a popular tourist beach. The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on sand dunes in temperate southwest Australia about 2,200 miles north of the Antarctic coast. He was released Wednesday from a boat that traveled several hours from Western Australia state's most southerly city of Albany. His caregiver Carol Biddulph wasn't sure at first if the penguin would live. She said a mirror was important to his rehabilitation because they provide a sense of company. Biddulph said: “They’re social birds and he stands next to the mirror most of the time.”