Unions attack 2.8% Government pay rise proposal for NHS workers and teachersIndiana tries to snap 3-game losing skid to NebraskaRussia changes tactics of missile attacks on Ukraine – UK Defence Intelligence
This is the story of “Brandy” and brandy. The song title came from the leader of Looking Glass, Elliott Lurie.
It’s official: Dodgers sign Blake Snell for 5 years, $182 millionSpace mission set to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth by having satellites flying in close formation. Final preparations for the landmark Proba-3 mission are underway, according to The Guardian. The mission is European Space Agency’s first attempt at precision formation flying in orbit and prompts two spacecraft to loop around the planet that does not deviate by more than a millimetre throughout the formation. The spacecraft will blast into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on the Bay of Bengal coast on Wednesday at 4:08pm local time. “It’s an experiment in space to demonstrate a new concept, a new technology,” said the Proba project manager at ESA Damien Galano. “It’s very challenging because we need to control very well the flight path of the two spacecrafts,” he added. The satellites are intended to line up with the sun with the lead spacecraft casting a controlled shadow on its partner, allowing the latter to measure the corona of the sun. Data collected and provided by the mission could also shed light on the mystery of why the sun’s corona is hotter than the sun itself. The surface of the star is about 5,500°C but the corona can exceed the temperature of 1m°C Moreover, the Proba-3 spacecraft will swing around Earth after every 19.7 hours for two straight years. For six hours, the satellites will fly in formation, using optical sensors and flashing LEDs to locate one another and a laser system that is precise to see track their distance and orientation. The first images from the two-year-long mission are expected to be received by March 2025.
Retailers coax Black Friday shoppers into stores with big discounts and giveaways NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers in the U.S. have used giveaways and bigger-than expected discounts to reward shoppers who ventured out on Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving still reigns for now as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season even if it’s lost some luster. Analysts reported seeing the biggest crowds at stores that offered real savings. They say many shoppers are being cautious with their discretionary spending despite the easing of inflation. Stores are even more under the gun to get shoppers in to buy early and in bulk since there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Online sales figures from Thanksgiving Day gave retailers a reason to remain hopeful for a lucrative end to the year. Trump and Republicans in Congress eye an ambitious 100-day agenda, starting with tax cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans swept to power on Election Day and now control the House, the Senate and the White House, with plans for an ambitious 100-day agenda come January. Their to-do list includes extending tax breaks, cutting social programs, building the border wall to stop immigration and rolling back President Joe Biden's green energy policies. Atop that list is a plan to renew some $4 trillion in expiring tax cuts that were a signature domestic achievement of Republican Donald Trump’s first term as president. It's an issue that may define his return to the White House. The ruble's in a slump. For the Kremlin, that's a two-edged sword Russia’s ruble is sagging against other currencies, complicating the Kremlin’s efforts to keep consumer inflation under control with one hand even as it overheats the economy with spending on the war against Ukraine with the other. Over time a weaker ruble could mean higher prices for imports from China, Russia's main trade partner these days. President Vladimir Putin says things are under control. One wild card is sanctions against a key Russian bank that have disrupted foreign trade payments. If Russia finds a workaround for that, the ruble could regain some of its recent losses. Why your favorite catalogs are smaller this holiday season PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — While retailers hope to go big this holiday season, customers may notice that the catalogs arriving in their mailboxes are smaller. Many of the millions of catalogs getting sent to U.S. homes were scaled down to save on postage and paper. Some gift purveyors are sending out postcards. In a sign of the times, the American Catalog Mailers Association rebranded itself in May as the American Commerce Marketing Association. Despite no longer carrying an extended inventory of goods, industry experts say catalogs help retailers cut through the noise and still hold their own in value because of growing digital advertising costs. Massachusetts lawmakers push for an effort to ban all tobacco sales over time BOSTON (AP) — A handful of Massachusetts lawmakers are hoping to persuade their colleagues to support a proposal that would make the state the first to adopt a ban meant to eliminate the use of tobacco products over time. Other locations have weighed similar “generational tobacco bans.” The bans phase out the use of tobacco products based not just on a person's age but on birth year. Lawmakers plan to file the proposal next year. If approved, the bill would set a date and ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after that date forever, eventually banning all sales. Vietnam approves $67 billion high-speed railway project between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has approved the construction of a high-speed railway connecting the capital Hanoi in the north with the financial capital of Ho Chi Minh in the south. It is expected to cost $67 billion and will stretch 1,541 kilometers (957 miles). The new train is expected to travel at speeds of up to 350 kph (217 mph), reducing the journey from the current 30 hours to just five hours. The decision was taken by Vietnam’s National Assembly on Saturday. Construction is expected to begin in 2027 and Vietnam hopes that the first trains will start operating by 2035. But the country has been beleaguered by delays to its previous infrastructure projects. Inflation rose to 2.3% in Europe. That won't stop the central bank from cutting interest rates FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency rose in November — but that likely won’t stop the European Central Bank from cutting interest rates as the prospect of new U.S. tariffs from the incoming Trump administration adds to the gloom over weak growth. The European Union’s harmonized index of consumer prices rose 2.3 percent, up from 2.0% in October, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. However, worries about growth mean the Dec. 12 ECB meeting is not about whether to cut rates, but by how much. Market buzz says there could be a larger than usual half-point cut in the benchmark rate, currently 3.25%. Stock market today: S&P 500 and Dow post gains and close out best month of 2024 NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed with solid gains as Wall Street put the finishing touches on one of its best months of the year. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 188 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq added 0.8%. Friday was an abbreviated trading day, with stocks closing at 1 p.m. ET and the bond market an hour later. Investors were looking to see how much shoppers are willing to spend on gifts for the holidays. Black Friday unofficially kicked off the holiday shopping season, although retailers had been offering early deals for weeks. Macy’s and Best Buy each gained around 2%. From T-shirts to thongs, how indie film merchandise became a hot commodity LOS ANGELES (AP) — Merchandise is nothing new. But in recent years, movie-inspired streetwear has exploded in popularity among film buffs, thanks in part to viral marketing campaigns put on by independent film studios. Take the hourslong line for one-day-only “Anora” pop-up in Los Angeles, for instance. Clothes are promoted as trendy and in limited supply and are often made in collaboration with popular brands. The experience of watching movies has become a less collective one in recent years. For many fans, repping their favorite films in public is a way to combat that. Santa's annual train visit delivers hope and magic to one corner of coal country ON BOARD THE SANTA TRAIN (AP) — Since 1943, the people of Appalachian Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee have looked forward to Santa’s arrival. Not in a sleigh on their rooftops, but on a train. At each stop of the CSX Santa Train there are dozens to hundreds of people. Many crowd around the back, where Santa and his helpers toss stuffed animals. Meanwhile groups of volunteer “elves” fan out with gifts, making sure every child goes home with something. Many of the children who line the tracks on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, waiting for Santa, are the third, fourth or fifth generation to do so. Sandra Owens has been coming for 43 years and now brings her grandchildren. She says, “The faces of the kids, that’s what makes me happy. You can’t see anything better.”FOXBOROUGH – The 3-peat is complete. Behind 16 rushing attempts for 97 yards and multiple touchdowns from Dominick Renzoni, the No. 2 West Boylston football team held on for an impressive 22-16 win against No. 1 Randolph in the Division VIII state championship at Gillette Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Elections BC is drawing scrutiny which threatens to undermine taxpayer’s faith in our elections. That’s a problem. Here’s the solution: call a public inquiry into Elections BC, not a politicised process through legislative committees working behind closed doors. There is nothing to suggest the B.C. provincial election was stolen. There is nothing to suggest Elections BC was in cahoots with one party or another. But that doesn’t mean we can afford to turn a blind eye to its mishandling of the most important day in our democratic cycle. In a democracy, taxpayers must have faith in elections and repeated errors from Elections BC erodes that trust. And make no mistake, Elections BC did mess up its handling of the provincial election. The problems with Elections BC range from bad to worse. It took Elections BC more than a week to finish the preliminary tally of votes. Voting closed Oct. 19, but the final count didn’t occur until Oct. 28. British Columbians shouldn’t be left in limbo because Elections BC workers didn’t stay late to count votes. And it shouldn’t take an extra week for the final count to begin. Then came the revelation that Elections BC officials were storing ballots in their personal homes. Think about that for a moment. When you cast your ballot, did you imagine it would find its way into the basement of someone’s home? British Columbians generally believe Elections BC acts in good faith. But why allow questionable chains of custody for the most important pieces of paper in a democracy? Why risk storing ballots in home basements instead of secure government buildings? In three-quarters of B.C.’s 93 ridings, mistakes by Elections B.C. led to unreported votes. That’s unacceptable. To be fair, all the votes were eventually accounted for and counted. But our elections are too important to risk with these kinds of blunders. Both the ruling NDP and Opposition BC Conservatives agree there needs to be an investigation into Elections BC’s mistakes. The NDP wants an all-party committee made up of MLAs to probe Elections BC. But that’s not good enough. Legislative committees are political and are made up of politicians fighting for the spotlight. They can hide behind in camera meetings the public doesn’t have access to. For the public to have faith in our elections, the public needs to be involved in the inquiry. That’s what the BC Conservatives are calling for: an independent public review. British Columbians need to have faith in our elections, so the public must be a part of the investigation. This is far too important an issue for taxpayers to be shunted off to the side while politicians play partisan games. Carson Binda is the B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.Republicans are more willing than Democrats to spread fake news—particularly during times of greater "political polarization," or competition between the parties—because they want to win more. That is the conclusion of a study, published in the Journal of Marketing , by marketing researchers Xiajing Zhu and Connie Pechmann, a professor at the University of California , Irvine. Zhu is a Ph.D. candidate in marketing at the university. They found that Republicans respond to political competition more aggressively, communicating information that is likely untrue, if not definitively false, to boost their side. "Although Republicans may understand the content is very likely false, they are willing to spread it because they strongly value their party winning over the competition," Zhu said in a statement. "Democrats do not value winning nearly as strongly. They place more value on equity and inclusion, seeing the world in a fundamentally different way than Republicans," she said. Zhu and her colleagues came to their conclusion after a series of studies—the first two of which focused on fact-checked statements by U.S. public figures made in the news media and on social media between 2007 and 2022. Statements were sourced via the fact-checking website PolitiFact, which allows journalists to rate each statement on a six-point scale ranging from "true or accurate" to "pants on fire." The team's analysis indicated that at times when competition between the parties was heightened in the news, Republicans were 21 percent more likely to communicate misinformation than their Democrat counterparts were. The difference was reduced to just 9 percent during periods of low political polarization. To verify these findings, the team next conducted three online surveys in which participants—who identified explicitly as Democrat or Republican —were first placed in either a highly politically polarized or a low-polarization scenario. This was achieved by presenting the subjects with real quotes from existing Democratic and Republican Senate leaders that framed the relationship between the two parties as competitive and oppositional or cooperative and bipartisan. Next, each respondent was presented with misinformation about the other party. For example, conservative subjects were shown posts such as "A Democratic Senator is under investigation for helping Russian billionaires" and "Democratic Senators are deliberately creating the global food shortage." Liberal participants, on the other hand, were given posts like "A Republican Senator is under investigation for helping Russian billionaires" and "Republican Senators are deliberately creating the global food shortage." Finally, the subjects were asked, "How likely are you to make a Facebook post like these?" They were also asked if such a post would make their party stronger, better or more motivated. The results indicated that when political polarization was high, Republicans were significantly more willing to communicate misinformation to gain an advantage over the opposition party than Democrats were. In their final study, the researchers analyzed the speeches made by U.S. presidents of both parties between 1929 and 2023, spanning the period from the 31st president, Herbert Hoover, to the 46th, Joe Biden . The team found that during times of political polarization (such as during election periods), Republican presidents were more likely to speak in partisan terms—using terms such as "we" and "us"—than Democrat leaders were. "We acknowledge that the use of first-person plural (e.g., 'we') in speeches could sometimes refer to the U.S. citizenry as a whole rather than a partisan ingroup (Democrats or Republicans)," Zhu and Pechmann write in their paper. "But the U.S. citizenry is arguably another ingroup. Thus, it appears that conservatives are motivated to attain ingroup dominance given polarization, and liberals less so, possibly regardless of the ingroup," they said. "Republicans react to political polarization by putting out partisan misinformation," Pechmann said. "This can have a deleterious effect on the state of democratic institutions and processes." For example, the two researchers said, following misinformation on election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, 400 restrictive voting bills were introduced in 47 state legislatures. "Worse, 14 states passed restrictive voting bills that, for instance, shortened the mail-in voting period, eliminated election day registration and/or reduced ballot dropbox access," the researchers wrote. "These changes have decreased voter turnout and engagement, particularly among minority voters." The researchers have some suggestions for how the harmful effects of misinformation might be combated. Trying to dampen political polarization in the news and on social media would be an obvious approach—although an impractical one, the two say, given how polarization has marketplace benefits in boosting audience sizes, engagement and political donations. Alternatively, they suggest, more money might be invested in fact-checking. At present, this is a service largely performed by volunteer organizations with minimal resources. Greater support could allow fact-checkers to concentrate their efforts during periods of heightened political polarization, such as around elections. "Media literacy education can also be used to combat misinformation," the researchers wrote in their paper. At present, 18 states have introduced mandatory media literacy education to help students identify misinformation. It is estimated that 84 percent of U.S. adults support the introduction of media literacy into school curricula—even though only 38 percent of said adults had received such education themselves. "With polarization rising globally," the researchers conclude in their paper, "we hope our insights will help nations, communities and individuals better prepare for the effects on misinformation spread to preserve truth, trust and democracy." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about misinformation? Let us know via science@newsweek.com . Reference Zhu, X., & Pechmann, C. (2025). Political Polarization Triggers Conservatives' Misinformation Spread to Attain Ingroup Dominance. Journal of Marketing , 89 (1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429241264997
Vikings will be without cornerback Stephon Gilmore against FalconsNo matter what becomes of Elon Musk’s out-of-government “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, Musk himself isn’t going anywhere for a long while. The 53-year-old world’s richest person (at least as of this writing) has too many fingers in too many pies, the ear of President-elect Donald Trump, and too much in the way of ideas, energy and influence to be ignored. He’s too big to be “canceled,” although apparently some will try. Last week offered two starkly different examples of how Trump’s opposition can respond to Musk. Rick Wilson, a former Republican political strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, announced that he’s a senior adviser to a new group called the Two Plus Two Coalition. According to the New York Times, the group plans to target Musk and Rupert Murdoch by uncovering “the hidden sources of disinformation and expose them for what they are,” and operating “as an opposition research firm but with a military-grade intelligence-gathering operation that went far beyond the document vetting typical of a political campaign.”
Pioneering model Dayle Haddon dies after suspected carbon monoxide leak
When filmmaker Chris Sanders began to imagine what his fifth animated film, might look like on the big screen, he was stuck on one crucial idea: how to turn Peter Brown’s deep-feeling and beautifully rendered YA novel about a caring robot and the baby goose she adopts into a movie for everyone. “One of the things we talked about a lot, was for a broad audience?” Sanders said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “We’ve talked a lot about who you work to not , but you also don’t try to target anybody specifically. Anytime I’ve been near that, when you try to deliberately target any particular group of people, I think inevitably you miss and it throws things into a very strange place.” That meant crafting a film that could appeal to all ages, not just the built-in audience of kiddos who would naturally gravitate toward a colorful world mostly populated by chatty forest animals and the charming robot ( ) who brings them together. “One of my most critical concerns from the very beginning was making a movie for adults,” the filmmaker said. “I absolutely knew by nature of the story that kids were going to be interested. A robot in the wilderness and these really adorable animals? It’s naturally going to be interesting to kids, very kid-friendly. I was really concerned that the style of the movie and the storytelling be something that adults would really engage with in a big way, and that’s where the whole style of the island came from.” For Sanders, the recipient of this year’s , dedicated to honoring those who advance and delight in the craft of animation, that meant a combination of both the look and the feel of his lauded film. “Visually, I think that was the biggest challenge: to find an artistic and aesthetic altitude that was worthy of the story,” Sanders said. “It’s just natural for me to operate in those kinds of zones because I came from ‘Mulan,’ ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ where I love to attend to the big emotional wavelengths of these things and to not shy away from it.” Sanders, who has directed animated hits like “Lilo & Stitch” (he even voices the cuddly blue alien) and “How to Train Your Dragon,” pointed to a wide variety of other animated classics as his creative waypoints: everything from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to “My Neighbor Totoro” and the “always inspiring” classic “Bambi.” Even during production on a new film, Sanders said he likes to watch other movies to keep his brain fresh and his imagination bold. “You get so busy on your particular film, you get so into the details, sometimes you just need to remind yourself what a movie is,” he said. “I’ll go to see a movie, it can have nothing to do tonally with the thing I’m working on, it can be a drama, it can be a comedy, it can be almost a near documentary. It could even be a horror film. It just reminds you of what a movie is, the audacity of it, the boldness of it.” Mostly, Sanders and his team — as you can see, the filmmaker nearly always says “we” when chatting about his creative choices, rarely just “I” — wanted to tell a story they would all enjoy. Perhaps that was the ticket. “We were just so busy making a movie that entertained ourselves, because I think we’re very representative of the core audience,” he said. “All of the things that people were feeling when they watched it, we felt when we were making it. ... Our wish was that, when the movie was over, people would walk out of the theater and just have a moment of, ‘Oh, I’m back,’ to really try to immerse people and beguile them with the environment.” Sanders, who also adapted the script for the film from the first book in Brown’s beloved trilogy about the wondrous robot Roz and the lush forest (and all its furry friends) she eventually makes her home, was so struck by Brown’s book that he could instantly “see” some of the key scenes he wanted to bring to the big screen while reading. “It absolutely happens,” he said when asked about those “lightbulb moments.” “As I’m reading a book, if I see [even one moment] very clearly in my head, I get very anxious that other people will see what I just saw. In ‘The Wild Robot,’ there were several places like that. One of the most notable would be in the very middle, the migration. It isn’t the climactic finish of the movie, it’s just the midpoint, and yet it’s one of the most compelling things I’d ever worked on.” In the film, Roz is unexpectedly shipwrecked on an uninhabited island while she’s out for delivery to the wider, decidedly human world. While the animals that live on the island — foxes (like one voiced by Pedro Pascal), squirrels, bears, beavers, falcons — are initially scared of their new mechanical citizen, Roz finds sanctuary when she adopts young Canadian goose Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) after she (oops) accidentally kills his entire family. Ever driven by her programmed directives, Roz makes it her job to get Brightbill ready for an upcoming migration. “I liked the complexity of it, the spectacle, the scale,” he said. “I always work to music and immediately as I was reading this, music was going through my head, visuals were going through my head. What an incredible moment.” Of course, Roz and Brightbill (plus Pascal’s fox Fink) eventually come to love each other, seeing each other as their own chosen, slightly weird but deeply adorable family. And while Brightbill is, at first, angry at Roz for forcing him to migrate (and thus, take him away from his new clan), his goose mentor Longneck (voiced by Bill Nighy) offers him some key context to her choices as his surrogate mom, just as they — and hundreds of other geese — finally take to the skies. “At that moment of truth, when Longneck lays this big last piece of information on him to consider, there’s no longer time for him to apologize, there’s no time left to make things right,” the filmmaker said. “This is something that I have experienced in my life, that I’ve waited too long to say something, and the regret that I carry is huge. So I love the complexity of the moment and these two characters are doing their best to navigate that moment while this really huge thing is going on and time has run out and the train is leaving the station and Brightbill has to be on that train.” What was thrilling for Sanders was “not only these big, magnificent events that were visually compelling, but the incredible complexity and power of the emotional wavelengths that were flowing” through them. And, yes, those first sparks of an idea, those lightbulb moments, are very close to what we see onscreen. “In the case of the migration, pretty close, because I actually [story] boarded it,” he said when asked about how closely his vision and the final product align. “I thought, ‘I know exactly what I want, let me just jump in there, I’ll board it, and I’ll get it up there.’ I had a very specific series of shots that I really wanted to get up on screen, some of those high angles with all the birds and Roz running with her arms out and stuff like that. I usually have a pretty clear thought for what I want, and in that particular case, I took the extra step of, I’ll just board it. That one didn’t shift very much at all, it pretty much stuck.” That look is essential, because while “The Wild Robot” was computer-animated, it also comes with a distinctly painterly look. A combination of technological advancements and old-school attention to details, which included hand-painted elements (artists used styluses, not brushes, in a 3D environment, but the look and feel are wonderfully familiar), made it possible. “I hadn’t been on a film that did that since ‘Lilo & Stitch,'” Sanders said of the hand-painted elements. “The idea that we had matte painters painting the sky, painting the trees, . It made such a gigantic contribution to the emotional resonance of that film. It cannot be understated. We are so at the verge of another Renaissance, as far as seeing new styles of things now. I’m really thrilled by it.” Given the tremendous success of the film — it has so far made nearly $320 million at the global box office, with glowing reviews from both critics and audiences to boot — talk of a sequel is only natural. After all, “The Wild Robot” part of a trilogy of novels. We have not yet begun to do anything on a sequel yet,” Sanders said. “I think we’re very hopeful. I’ve definitely read the second book, and I plan to actually re-read it because his books have many, many chapters. When I read it the first time, I just it. I just needed to digest it. And the second time through, I’m actually going to make some notes to myself that, perhaps, may come in handy.” Whatever the filmmaker tackles next, Sanders believes animation is returning to “more handmade-looking things.” “I am not somebody who is lamenting the disappearance of traditional animation,” he said. “I love traditional animation and I know it’ll always be there. I was just watching ‘Robot Dreams,’ and it’s hand-drawn and it’s the perfect style for that story, but the fact that we have now finally broken away from that gravitational hold that we were under technologically is the thing that’s so thrilling to me about where we are right now. I feel like we’ve come through a tunnel and we are looking at a big open field and mountains, and we can finally see the sky, and now we can finally go back to more broad, stylistic choices.” He credits “with a Sherman tank.” “That was such a revelation, that film worked so well because of it, it got the Oscar,” Sanders said. “It so deserved it. That just let everybody know, ‘Oh, we are open and free to maneuver, should we be able to get our software to the point where we can do it.'” While audiences might not be too fussed about the mechanics that make this all possible, they do it in the final product. That’s what really gets Sanders going. “People noticed the difference on ‘The Wild Robot,'” Sanders said. “I was wondering, well, we are so attuned to it within the studio, saw it as looking like a radically different thing, and I actually wasn’t sure, when we show this to a general audience, are they going to see the same things that we are? And they sure did, people would comment on it, and , that made me happy.” Sign up for . For the latest news, follow us on , , and .Minnesota looks to stop skid vs. Bethune-Cookman
FOXBOROUGH – The 3-peat is complete. Behind 16 rushing attempts for 97 yards and multiple touchdowns from Dominick Renzoni, the No. 2 West Boylston football team held on for an impressive 22-16 win against No. 1 Randolph in the Division VIII state championship at Gillette Stadium on Friday afternoon.
NZ tumbles in international adult literacy, maths rankingsNoneBy HILLEL ITALIE NEW YORK (AP) — Even through a year of nonstop news about elections, climate change, protests and the price of eggs, there was still time to read books. Related Articles The Five Minute Read Hundreds of bookstore staffers receive holiday bonuses from author James Patterson Nikki Giovanni, poet and literary celebrity, has died at 81 Percival Everett, 2024 National Book Award winner, rereads one book often Gift books for 2024: What to give, and what to receive, for all kinds of readers U.S. sales held steady according to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the print market, with many choosing the relief of romance, fantasy and romantasy. Some picked up Taylor Swift’s tie-in book to her blockbuster tour, while others sought out literary fiction, celebrity memoirs, political exposes and a close and painful look at a generation hooked on smartphones. Here are 10 notable books published in 2024, in no particular order. Asking about the year’s hottest reads would basically yield a list of the biggest hits in romantasy, the blend of fantasy and romance that has proved so irresistible fans were snapping up expensive “special editions” with decorative covers and sprayed edges. Of the 25 top sellers of 2024, as compiled by Circana, six were by romantasy favorite Sarah J. Maas, including “House of Flame and Shadow,” the third of her “Crescent City” series. Millions read her latest installment about Bryce Quinlan and Hunter Athalar and traced the ever-growing ties of “Maasverse,” the overlapping worlds of “Crescent City” and her other series, “Throne of Glass” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” If romantasy is for escape, other books demand we confront. In the bestselling “The Anxious Generation,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt looks into studies finding that the mental health of young people began to deteriorate in the 2010s, after decades of progress. According to Haidt, the main culprit is right before us: digital screens that have drawn kids away from “play-based” to “phone-based” childhoods. Although some critics challenged his findings, “The Anxious Generation” became a talking point and a catchphrase. Admirers ranged from Oprah Winfrey to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee, who in a letter to state legislators advocated such “commonsense recommendations” from the book as banning phones in schools and keeping kids off social media until age 16. Bob Woodward books have been an election tradition for decades. “War,” the latest of his highly sourced Washington insider accounts, made news with its allegations that Donald Trump had been in frequent contact with Russian leader Vladimir Putin even while out of office and, while president, had sent Putin sophisticated COVID-19 test machines. Among Woodward’s other scoops: Putin seriously considered using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, and President Joe Biden blamed former President Barack Obama, under whom he served as vice president, for some of the problems with Russia. “Barack never took Putin seriously,” Woodward quoted Biden as saying. Former (and future) first lady Melania Trump, who gives few interviews and rarely discusses her private life, unexpectedly announced she was publishing a memoir: “Melania.” The publisher was unlikely for a former first lady — not one of the major New York houses, but Skyhorse, where authors include such controversial public figures as Woody Allen and Trump cabinet nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And its success was at least a minor surprise. Melania Trump did little publicity for the book, and offered few revelations beyond posting a video expressing support for abortion rights — a break from one of the cornerstones of GOP policy. But “Melania” still sold hundreds of thousands of copies, many in the days following her husband’s election. Taylor Swift was more than a music story in 2024. Like “Melania,” the news about Taylor Swift’s self-published tie-in to her global tour isn’t so much the book itself, but that it exists. And how well it sold. As she did with the “Eras” concert film, Swift bypassed the established industry and worked directly with a distributor: Target offered “The Eras Tour Book” exclusively. According to Circana, the “Eras” book sold more than 800,000 copies just in its opening week, an astonishing number for a publication unavailable through Amazon.com and other traditional retailers. No new book in 2024 had a better debut. Midnight book parties are supposed to be for “Harry Potter” and other fantasy series, but this fall, more than 100 stores stayed open late to welcome one of the year’s literary events: Sally Rooney’s “Intermezzo.” The Irish author’s fourth novel centers on two brothers, their grief over the death of their father, their very different career paths and their very unsettled love lives. “Intermezzo” was also a book about chess: “You have to read a lot of opening theory — that’s the beginning of a game, the first moves,” one of the brothers explains. “And you’re learning all this for what? Just to get an okay position in the middle game and try to play some decent chess. Which most of the time I can’t do anyway.” Lisa Marie Presley had been working on a memoir at the time of her death , in 2023, and daughter Riley Keough had agreed to help her complete it. “From Here to the Great Unknown” is Lisa Marie’s account of her father, Elvis Presley, and the sagas of of her adult life, notably her marriage to Michael Jackson and the death of son Benjamin Keough. To the end, she was haunted by the loss of Elvis, just 42 when he collapsed and died at his Graceland home while young Lisa Marie was asleep. “She would listen to his music alone, if she was drunk, and cry,” Keough, during an interview with Winfrey, said of her mother. Meanwhile, Cher released the first of two planned memoirs titled “Cher” — no further introduction required. Covering her life from birth to the end of the 1970s, she focuses on her ill-fated marriage to Sonny Bono, remembering him as a gifted entertainer and businessman who helped her believe in herself while turning out to be unfaithful, erratic, controlling and so greedy that he kept all the couple’s earnings for himself. Unsure of whether to leave or stay, she consulted a very famous divorcee, Lucille Ball, who reportedly encouraged her: “F— him, you’re the one with the talent.” A trend in recent years is to take famous novels from the past, and remove words or passages that might offend modern readers; an edition of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” cuts the racist language from Mark Twain’s original text. In the most celebrated literary work of 2024, Percival Everett found a different way to take on Twain’s classic — write it from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. “James,” winner of the National Book Award, is a recasting in many ways. Everett suggests to us that the real Jim was nothing like the deferential figure known to millions of readers, but a savvy and learned man who concealed his intelligence from the whites around him, and even from Twain himself. Salman Rushdie’s first National Book Award nomination was for a memoir he wished he had no reason to write. In “Knife,” he recounts in full detail the horrifying attempt on his life in 2022, when an attendee rushed the stage during a literary event in western New York and stabbed him repeatedly, leaving with him a blinded eye and lasting nerve damage, but with a spirit surprisingly intact. “If you had told me that this was going to happen and how would I deal with it, I would not have been very optimistic about my chances,” he told The Associated Press last spring. “I’m still myself, you know, and I don’t feel other than myself. But there’s a little iron in the soul, I think.”
BOULDER, Colo. — A 72-year-old lifelong Colorado fan with end-stage kidney failure waited to the side of the field in his wheelchair for Travis Hunter and the rest of the Buffaloes. One by one, players strolled over and signed a football for Riley Rhoades, his face lighting up with each signature. Standing close by and taking in the scene was Jeremy Bloom. He's become a wish facilitator for older adults. Bloom, the former Colorado wide receiver and Olympic freestyle skier, started the Wish of a Lifetime foundation in 2008, which has made thousands of aspirations turn into reality for older adults. The list of granted wishes range from taking veterans back to the beaches of Normandy to helping late-in-life authors publish a book. He's staged concerts for musicians, assisted some in daredevil feats such as jumping out of an airplane and even lined up a meeting between an Olympic medalist and former President Barack Obama. For Rhoades, his wish was simply to return to Folsom Field again, the place where he used to have season tickets but hasn't attended a game since 2004. "Everybody has somebody in their life —a grandparent, friend, neighbor — at that age where you wish you had more resources to help," said Bloom, whose college career was cut short two decades ago when the NCAA denied his reinstatement to play football and still ski professionally after receiving endorsement money to fuel his Olympic dreams. "Nothing can compare to seeing someone else's eyes light up because you helped make their dream come true." The foundation is a tribute to his grandparents. But the concept began to take root when he was a teenager. He was in Japan for a World Cup freestyle skiing competition when a woman tried to hop on a crowded bus. There was no room, but everyone in front rose from their seats to make space. That stuck with him, along with seeing these acts of kindness for older adults all over Europe and Asia as he traveled. An idea formed — bring that same level of appreciation to the United States, with a wish-granting element. Bloom's organization has been a charitable affiliate of AARP since 2020. It was the yearning of Rhoades that brought the two of them to Folsom Field last weekend. Rhoades, who had season tickets at Colorado for 27 years, wanted to see the Buffaloes in person after watching the team's resurgence on television. A few years ago, Rhoades, who was born with spina bifida, was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure. Being among the 54,646 fans Saturday stirred up plenty of emotions for Rhoades, as he watched the 16th-ranked Buffaloes (8-2, 6-1 Big 12, No. 16 CFP) beat Utah. Colorado remains in the race for not only a conference title but a spot in the College Football Playoff. "It's just great to be back here again," Rhoades said as he pointed out the section where he used to watch games. "It's just ... so cool." For Bloom, the success that coach Deion Sanders has brought to the program means more reunions with teammates as they pass through town. "I've been through many years where nobody comes to visit," Bloom said. "It's fun that Boulder has become the epicenter of college football." Leading the way for Colorado this season have been quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Hunter, who's the Heisman Trophy frontrunner. But what particularly pleases Bloom is that Sanders, Hunter and the rest of college football players are able to finally profit through name, image and likeness. In his day, Bloom got caught in the NCAA crosshairs for wanting to play both sports and to have sponsors in one (skiing) so he could fund his Olympic aspirations. How time have changed. "I'm just really grateful that this generation of athletes gets to monetize their skills and ability," said Bloom, who finished sixth in moguls at the 2006 Winter Games in Italy. "It's the right thing." He's thrown his passion into fulfilling wishes such as learning ballet, riding in a Formula 1 pace car or taking a flight in a fighter jet. He's also helped reconnect families and friends, including a reunion for a trio of centenarian sisters who hadn't seen each other in more than a decade. This granted wish has stuck with Bloom: A person in Alabama wasn't able to travel after being diagnosed with end-of-life emphysema. So he asked for postcards to be sent, just to learn what made someone's town so special. He received 2,000 postcards from 26 different countries. "There's no end to the things that they've done for us in the world," Bloom said of older adults. "We're one of the organizations that reminds them that their dreams still do matter and that we still appreciate them and we cherish them." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
In a notable development within the financial technology sector, Brigit, a fintech startup backed by high-profile investors including Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Durant, is negotiating its sale to Upbound Group. The deal, reportedly worth $460 million, may be finalized and publicly announced as early as Thursday. Sources familiar with the confidential discussions indicate that the acquisition will involve both cash and stock. The acquisition is expected to bolster Upbound's capabilities in delivering financial services to credit-challenged consumers, while also capitalizing on Brigit's sophisticated data modeling and technology infrastructure. This strategic move comes against a backdrop of rising inflation and financial pressure on low-income Americans, who are seeing diminished liquid resources. Brigit, since its founding in 2017, has gained a user base of over 7 million through its digital app, offering services like cash advances and credit building. (With inputs from agencies.)The Nagpur South-West constituency , a BJP stronghold in Maharashtra, is shaping up for a closely contested battle in the state assembly elections, as results are due to be released Saturday. While BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remains the favourite to win, experts and local residents predict a tough fight from his Congress opponent, Prafulla Gudhade Patil. Fadnavis, who has held the seat since 2004, faces significant challenges this time around. Political analysts note that while his influence in the region remains formidable, factors such as inflation, unemployment, and dissatisfaction over last year’s flooding have given his Congress rival, Patil, an opportunity to make inroads. BJP vs Congress in Nagpur South-West region Nagpur South-West, home to over 400,000 voters, has witnessed local discontent , especially after severe flooding in September 2023. Heavy rains overwhelmed the Ambazari lake, causing significant damage to homes and property. Residents in areas like Shankar Nagar have expressed frustration over the slow response from local authorities and the government. Dr. Archana Deshpande, a local resident, voiced her disappointment, citing inadequate support during the flood crisis and poor infrastructure in the area. 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Inflation is another major issue on voters’ minds. However, despite these grievances, many locals still seem likely to back Fadnavis, citing a lack of viable alternatives. Joseph John, a resident of Ajni, commented, "Though inflation and local issues are a concern, Fadnavis has the edge, being the former CM and current Deputy CM. He has never lost here." Fadnavis faces Prafulla Patil The constituency includes key developments such as the Multi Modal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN), AIIMS, and IIM Nagpur, all of which are expected to benefit Fadnavis. The BJP hopes to leverage these achievements, alongside welfare schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana, which provides financial aid to poor women, to shore up its support base. However, Patil, an ex-corporator and son of former BJP MLA Vinod Gudhade Patil, is banking on anti-incumbency sentiments. Analysts point out that his quiet, grassroots work could resonate with voters who are disillusioned with the current government. Vivek Deshpande, a political analyst, was quoted as saying, “Patil is not a novice, and although Fadnavis has a strong track record, Patil’s appeal among certain sections of voters, including the Kunbi community, is growing.” Patil's challenge is not just to win over disillusioned voters but to counter Fadnavis' development narrative. The constituency's voter demographics, including significant Dalit, Kunbi, Brahmin, Teli, and Mali populations, suggest a more fragmented electorate this time, which could work in Patil’s favor. "The election will not be a walk in the park for Fadnavis," Deshpande added. Some residents in the constituency, like one who preferred to remain anonymous, are dissatisfied with BJP’s decisions and would like to see a change in leadership. This voter raised concerns about alleged illegal constructions near Ambazari lake and expressed frustration over the BJP's alliance with the NCP, questioning the party's commitment to its core values. Fadnavis’ strong position, but a tight race While Patil’s campaign gains momentum, Fadnavis remains the more prominent figure in the race, buoyed by his tenure as Chief Minister and his role as Deputy CM. Political analyst Pradip Kumar Maitra pointed out that Fadnavis' legacy, including job creation through MIHAN and his role in launching the Nagpur Metro, strengthens his position. "Fadnavis has a strong development record, and nearly one lakh jobs have been created in the region, which will likely translate into electoral benefits," Maitra said. However, despite his advantages, Fadnavis is unlikely to secure the same high winning margins as in previous elections. "Patil is a capable youth leader who is giving Fadnavis a strong fight," Maitra concluded. "The final result may see Fadnavis winning, but by a narrower margin." The Nagpur South-West seat, once considered a BJP fortress, is shaping up to be a much closer contest. (With inputs from PTI) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )