Sony continues to dominate console gaming and if nothing else 2024 showed that even in a relatively quiet year, PlayStation can just keep on trucking. We didn’t get a whole heap of exclusives, but the ones we got were meaningful additions to the publisher’s portfolio (except that one), and while the new hardware still feels a little superfluous, it sets up an exciting 2025 for the likes of Ghost of Yotei . The brand also celebrated its 30th Anniversary, with hardware variants and fan-favorite themes thanking players for their part in its journey - and with such a comfortable lead over Xbox, it feels it’ll continue ever onwards. Did we need the new hardware? The PS5 remains a very capable console that, while not as strong as the Xbox Series X on paper, certainly doesn’t feel like it needed a hardware revision - but that’s what we got. The PS5 Pro is a tougher sell than the PS4 Pro , though. That console promised 4K , which made sense at the time given the surge in 4K TV adoption. The PS5 Pro offers new graphical modes in some games, and while it’s largely been successful in finding a balance when having to choose between 4K resolution and 60fps fluidity, it’s really in developers’ hands now. On the one hand, that means the likes of Insomniac can get even more out of 2023’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 , but equally Bungie hasn’t released any PS5 Pro enhancements for Destiny 2 - despite being a Sony first-party studio now. More developers are adding PS5 Pro patches, but at such a high asking price, it makes it a tough sell right now. As games start to see upgrades and new releases like Monster Hunter Wilds arrive, expect adoption to pick up, but for now the PS5 Pro is a “nice to have” rather than a “must have”. Sticking with hardware, PSVR 2 added some fresh features and PC compatibility, but it remains a niche product that feels like Sony has begun to move away from already. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. We also saw the release of the new PlayStation Pulse Elite headset, which we dubbed “the next evolution of official PS5 headsets” in our review. It’s pricey and hefty, but it offers fantastic sound quality and comes with a really interesting development in gaming headsets in the form of planar magnetic drivers. Finally, Sony celebrated its 30th Anniversary in style. Besides the nostalgic themes that cover PlayStation’s history from 1994 onward, the company released PS5 consoles, controllers, and a hardware bundle in the iconic grey of the PlayStation 1 - albeit in limited numbers which have proved incredibly popular and hard to get hold of, selling out each time stock appeared. An unlikely hero On the first-party side of things, Sony’s games-as-a-service push saw polarized fortunes (more on that shortly), while the company tied up deals for the likes of Stellar Blade , Rise of the Ronin , and Black Myth: Wukong - all of which were great games, if not system sellers by themselves. That put pressure on first-party exclusives to deliver, and while it’d be fair to say Lego Horizon Adventures is fun enough and the Until Dawn Remake still feels somewhat unwarranted, Astro Bot handily offered some of the most fun you can have on PS5. The little robot has grown from starring in tech demos to becoming a bona fide PlayStation mascot in a world where those things don’t seem to exist as much, offering a fantastic, imaginative platformer that’s right up there with Nintendo’s best. Sure, it’s not a genre that sees much love on the system (or on Xbox, for that matter), but if Sony has finally realized the power the diminutive droid has, we could be seeing a lot more of him. Especially after Astro Bot took home Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024 . Games as a service stumbles Has a publisher ever had two titles with such conflicting responses in the same year before, released within similar genres? Helldivers 2 caught many off guard in the best way. A sleeper hit that spread like wildfire through word of mouth, the fascism-lampooning PvE shooter became that rare title that captured the imagination of players worldwide as they dropped, dropped, and dropped again on console and PC. And, while Sony almost killed its golden goose by shifting the goalposts as far as PSN account requirements for PC play were concerned, it proved Sony’s shift to live-service titles wasn’t as foolhardy as some have suspected... at least for a few months. Concord demonstrated the other side of the coin. A game seemingly developed in a vacuum, it launched in August following a tepid reception to its beta, with promises of weekly story content and excruciatingly detailed cutscenes for players willing to log in. Then, after just two weeks, Sony pulled the plug on the entire game and proceeded to shutter developer Firewalk Studios in October. It casts doubts on titles like FairGame$ and Marathon , the latter of which comes from Bungie which laid off over 200 employees in August - despite Destiny 2 ’s latest expansion, The Final Shape , being a critical success. Elsewhere, with The Last Of Us ’ multiplayer title being canceled, we didn't know what flagship studio Naughty Dog was up to until The Game Awards on December 12th . Days Gone ’s Bend Studio has been quiet for some time, while Bluepoint’s next project, remake or otherwise, is still unknown. Perhaps most exciting is the future of Insomniac and Housemarque. While the former’s Marvel’s Wolverine game is surely getting closer to a full reveal, the latter has been quiet since 2021’s excellent Returnal - here’s hoping we hear more from each in due course. Sony’s year has been relatively quiet, but its new hardware sets up an exciting 2025. Still, its commitment to live-service titles feels like it’ll be under further scrutiny - for every Helldivers 2 , there is likely to be more than one Concord , and it remains to be seen whether the publisher will stay the course set by outgoing CEO Jim Ryan. The best PS5 games to play right now The best PS4 games to go for if you're still rocking the last-gen PlayStation PS5 Pro vs PS5 : comparing specs, design, dimensions, features, and more4-star QB Peyton Falzone decommits from Virginia Tech
Trump calls Florida meeting with Trudeau productive amid stiff tariff threatEMERGENCY drivers can rush to crash scenes faster thanks to new artificial intelligence tech. Ambulances, snow plows, and public transportation have access to smarter, safer routes through a platform that cuts the number of red traffic lights they meet. LYT uses AI and cloud-based technology to communicate with traffic signals and request green lights when certain vehicles come to intersections. The traffic solution is already installed in multiple cities across America, as Laramie Bowron, LYT's vice president of sales, said the tech is "widely used" on emergency vehicles. "Our sweet spot is really using AI and being completely hardware-free," Bowron told The U.S. Sun. "So being able to give the right traffic signal to the right vehicle at any time." READ MORE ON CARS The company reports a 69% increase in how quickly the average emergency vehicle can get to a crash site. It even shaved over a half hour off the average response time in one city. Fremont Fire Department in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California , previously took 46 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other, Bowron said. Now, it only takes 14 minutes to cross town, FFD confirmed. Most read in Motors "It saves lives," Bowron said. "So that agency doesn't need to build another fire station, actually, because they can [travel] so much broader. "It's so cool to see this in action." A Fremont Fire spokesperson told The U.S. Sun, "In the tests that have been conducted you can clearly see that LYT-AI has improved the Fremont Fire Department’s ability to respond. "The amount of time reduced during each response, as a result of LYT-AI, is dependent on the time of day and traffic." HOW IT WORKS The tech functions by connecting with GPS devices on vehicles. Everything you need to know about the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence How does Artificial Intelligence work - and is it always correct? What is the popular AI Chat GPT and how does it work? How do you use Google's latest AI chatbot Bard? What is the AI image generator Lensa AI and how can you use it How do you use Snapchat's My AI tool? What are the best things to ask Chat GPT? What are the funniest things to ask Chat GPT? Then, LYT sends messages to the traffic signals that are connected to the internet. The outcome is a consistent, reliable green light for emergency vehicles, giving them a clear and quick path to where they're needed. Plus, LYT has a route prediction tool that leads drivers to take the best path possible. "We can see where an incident is, we can see where the vehicle is, and based on historical travel patterns, we can predict the route that the vehicle will take and clear each corridor," Bowron said. "We can actually help guide the vehicle to where we think it's going to go." CONCERT CONGESTION Aside from minimizing first responders' reaction time, the tech was also used to eliminate traffic outside Taylor Swift concerts. Swift's wildly popular global Eras tour filled stadiums across the country - leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic surrounding venues. This created a perfect opportunity for LYT to clear up chaos. In addition, LYT is currently working to help snow plow drivers travel through intersections more easily. "I would say that our technology on snow most closely mirrors the technology that we give to fire police and services," Bowron said. Read More on The US Sun The company is testing LYT.snow to quickly clear roads and save money for cities with the improvements. The tech is currently implemented on a 70-mile toll road as it's piloted in major cities across America.
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As one 26-year-old defendant slipped out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg 's grasp this week, another landed squarely in it. Daniel Penny, the former Marine who put homeless man Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a New York City subway car, walked free on Monday after he was acquitted in Neely's death. Around the same time, about 275 miles away, officials arrested Luigi Mangione , the suspect accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan last week. Mangione is now in the process of being extradited from where he was arrested in western Pennsylvania to Manhattan, where the assassination took place on the morning of Dec. 4. That process could take weeks, but once it is completed his case will land squarely on the lap of Bragg's office. All of this comes just seven months after that office put on one of the biggest trials in American history: the hush money case against now President-elect Donald Trump that ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts. These days, it seems Bragg can't catch a break on these high-profile cases. Or depending on your level of cynicism about the role of a big city DA up for reelection next year, perhaps he can't stop catching breaks. "The role of an elected district attorney is not for the faint of heart or the thin-skinned," former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek . "The size and diversity of Manhattan translates to an ever-changing caseload for the local prosecutor's office, from routine misdemeanors to the most serious and complex crimes." Even before he indicted Trump, Bragg had overseen a number of cases that brought with them national attention, including the fraud case against The Trump Organization, the fraud case against Steve Bannon and his "We Build the Wall" fundraising group and the reopened investigation into the death of Eric Garner, a Black man who died in 2014 after a police officer put him in a chokehold during an arrest. "The prospective murder case against Luigi Mangione for the assassination of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is another violent act that has attracted the attention of the country," McAuliffe said. The investigation into Mangione and the assassination of Thompson remains ongoing, yet immediately following the shooting, the suspect received an outpouring of support from Americans across the political spectrum who viewed the cold-blooded execution as a watershed moment for the nation's healthcare industry and the insurance companies that seem to run it. It's not entirely surprising that Bragg's caseload has included cases that have spurred national conversation. District attorneys of any major U.S. city face tough decisions over who to prosecute. Nathan Hochman, who took office as Los Angeles' district attorney last week, will have to make a decision on the infamous Menendez brothers case his first month on the job. "High profile cases come with the territory," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek . But there's one key factor that differentiates the United Healthcare shooting case from Penny's case and Trump's hush money case, Rahmani said. "Trump and Penny arguably shouldn't have been filed at all," the former prosecutor said. "Mangione has to be prosecuted, and although he has received more sympathy than other murderers, he doesn't have much of a chance to acquittal absent jury nullification. He may even take a plea." But McAuliffe countered, "Whether another DA would have brought the case is not the point; Bragg was, and is, the one elected to make those charging decisions." Sympathies for Mangione could dissipate over time, especially by the time that the specifics of the murder are being recounted in court, but emotions remain the biggest challenge for Bragg's team, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner told Newsweek . Kirschner said while Mangione's case is more "clearcut on the facts and the law," it's "less clearcut on the emotions." "We living in a time of the rise of the American oligarchy. I don't think there's any disputing that and so, I think that conjures up all kinds of feelings and emotions in people," he said. "The biggest challenge for Bragg's team will be making sure they conduct a searing jury selection and as much due process as they can to make sure there's nobody on that jury who will allow their emotions to control their decision when they see the evidence." Still, Kirschner believes its still possible to seat that prospective jury. "The Manhattan District Attorney's office found a fair and impartial jury to try Donald Trump, who is one of the most polarizing, emotion-inducing human beings on the planet," he said. "Prosecutors can find somebody to sit fairly and impartially in the case against this young man for killing a healthcare executive." Newsweek reached out to Bragg's office for comment on Tuesday.
MORGANTOWN – The window to postseason eligibility is quickly closing for both the West Virginia University and UCF football teams. There’s still some room left for the Mountaineers to wiggle into a bowl game, though not much. They need to win one of their last two games to qualify for the postseason. For the Knights, the window is almost shut. UCF must sweep their last two games to earn the six wins necessary to guarantee eligibility. Both teams understand the stakes of today’s 3:30 p.m. matchup at Milan Puskar Stadium (ESPNU). The Mountaineers and Knights are both backed against the wall. If the Mountaineers lose, they enter their regular season finale at Texas Tech with everything on the line. If the Knights lose, they slump into their last game with nothing to play for but pride. “We’re looking forward to two more opportunities that are guaranteed,” WVU tight end Kole Taylor said. “You can’t dwell upon what happened in the past.” Yet it’s past play that put both the Mountaineers (5-5, 4-3 Big 12) and the Knights (4-6, 2-5 Big 12) in their current predicaments. Both teams entered the season with much higher hopes than they have right now, wanting to finish at or near the top of the conference standings with a chance at the Big 12 title game. Inconsistency and poor defense has done WVU in. The Mountaineers have pulled off some good road wins, but have fizzled at home, thanks in large part to a pass defense ranked near the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision in several key categories. If WVU falls today in Morgantown, it will be only the second season in program history with five losses. The Knights opened the 2024 campaign strong with three straight wins, but have lost five of their last six, including five in a row midseason. UCF’s pass defense has struggled this year, too. It has allowed 19 passing touchdowns so far, tied for 108th in the FBS, compared to the 21 allowed by WVU which is tied for 120th. The Knights are 96th nationally allowing 239.5 passing yards per game, compared to WVU’s 269.6 passing yards allowed per game, which ranks 127th. As it stands, both teams lean on their running games to carry their respective offenses. WVU ranks 27th at 197.2 rushing yards per game. Only Army gains more on the ground than UCF’s 262.8 yards per game. The Knights are led by running back R.J. Harvey, who is tied for third nationally at 132.8 rushing yards per game. WVU coach Neal Brown sees the strengths in his team, but said the Mountaineers are still searching for a game when all those strengths come together and show out at the same time. “I don’t mean to sound like a broken record but, to me, it’s about playing well – special teams, offense and defense at the same time, and we haven’t done that enough consistently,” he said. “We’ve been an inconsistent football team. That’s why we’re 5-5, because we’ve been inconsistent. And so to me, it’s how do we finish out this month? Playing at our best in those three phases together? All right, if we can do that, then we’ll be a really good football team.” The Mountaineer players agree that they need complete games in their last two contests to make sure they can play in their fourth bowl in five seasons. There is a greater sense of urgency around the locker room, Taylor said, as the players understand what another inconsistent performance can cost them. “We understand that there’s two (games) to win one,” he said, “just to get an extra game and have an opportunity to play in the postseason. We understand that’s where we’re at and that’s the team we are. “Whether we want to be in that situation or not, that’s the situation we’re in,” Taylor continued. “We’ve got to win at least one more to get a bowl game, but we want to win out.”McGill runs for 2TDs and North Texas becomes bowl eligible by beating Temple 24-17
Trump’s tariffs in his first term did little to alter the economy, but this time could be differentSalman Khan, the Bhaijaan of Bollywood, is turning 59 today, and the actor kicked off the celebrations at his sister Arpita Khan's house. Happy Birthday Salman Khan Salman arrived in style and fans cannot keep calm! The actor looks dapper in black shirt, grey jacket as he waved for his fans from his car. Joining the actor are Sangeeta Bijlani, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Sohail Khan among others. Many pictures and videos of Salman's arrival are going viral on social media. His car was escorted by high security as Police cars were covering the actor. Fans were waiting outside Arpita's house for him and the actor waved for them on his birthday. Salman Khan's Sikandar Yesterday, he dropped the first look from his 2025 release Sikandar. Sharing the first poster of Sikandar on Instagram and dropping info on film's teaser, Khan wrote, "See u again kal subah theek 11.07 baje... SikandarTeaserTomorrow #SajidNadiadwala’s #Sikandar Directed by @a.r.murugadoss Releasing in cinemas EID 2025" Salman Khan, known for his larger-than-life roles, will be stepping into a character that blends intense action with emotional depth—a hallmark of Murugadoss’s filmmaking. The collaboration has fans buzzing, with many anticipating the director’s signature storytelling prowess to shine through. Salman Khan is set to return on Eid 2025 with Sikandar, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by AR Murugadoss. Sikandar features a stellar supporting cast, including Sathyaraj, Prateik Babbar, Kajal Aggarwal, and Sharman Joshi in pivotal roles. The female lead of the film is Rashmika Mandanna. A source close to the project shared with Pinkvilla that Sajid Nadiadwala was looking for a fresh pairing, and Rashmika was the perfect fit for the script. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Bollywood, Entertainment News and around the world.
Marc Casado has revealed the player who has surprised him most at Barcelona after cementing his place in the first team this season. The midfielder has been a revelation so far in the 2024-25 campaign and has become a key player for Hansi Flick. He’s been asked about life in the first team and had no hesitation when asked about the first teamer who has surprised him most. “Lamine Yamal, but that was when I saw him for the first time. I think I played with him against AZ in the Youth League, I think it was in the round of 16,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “And the truth is that he surprised me. You could see a lot of things in him. Nowadays, the people who come up do so with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of quality.” Casado also revealed how much he loves playing alongside Pedri in the first team at Barca. “Well, it’s clear that he’s a world-class player,” he added. “I think he’s one of the best in his position and he shows it in every game. He makes my job on the pitch much easier. Playing with him makes everything easier. And I’m very happy to be able to share the midfield with him.” Pedri has looked back to his very best this season under Flick and formed a fine partnership with Casado. The two will be back in action in January for Barca, while Yamal is also expected to return from injury early in the New Year .
Teens bailed after allegedly fighting with machetes near Christmas carols eventNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. consumers who were “tricked” into purchases they didn't want from Fortnite maker Epic Games are now starting to receive refund checks, the Federal Trade Commission said this week. Back in 2022, Epic agreed to pay a total of $520 million to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and payment methods on its popular Fortnite game. The FTC alleged the video game giant used deceptive online design tactics to trick Fortnite players, including children, into making unintended purchases “based on the press of a single button." Consumers could be charged while doing something as simple as attempting the wake the game from sleep mode, for example, or by pressing a nearby button when trying to preview an item, the agency said. The FTC also accused Epic of blocking some users who disputed the charges from accessing the content they purchased. Beyond a $275 million fine related to collecting personal information on players under the age of 13, the settlement included $245 million in customer refunds. Now, the first batch of those refunds are being sent out. On Monday, the FTC announced it was sending over 629,00 payments to eligible customers who submitted claims. About half of those refunds are PayPal payments, which should be redeemed within 30 days, and the rest are checks, which should be cashed within 90 days. The average refund is about $114, the FTC noted. This first round of payments amounts to a total of more than $72 million, according to the agency — leaving about $173 million left to be distributed. Impacted consumers can still apply for a refund online . People who are eligible for these payouts include Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency for items they didn’t want or saw their account locked after complaining to a credit card company about wrongful charges between January 2017 and September 2022 — as well as parents whose child made charges on their credit cards without their knowledge from January 2018 through November 2018. You can learn more about applying for a refund on the FTC's website . The deadline for submitting a claim is January 10, 2025. At the time the settlement was announced in December 2022, Epic said it accepted the agreement because it wanted "to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.” The Cary, North Carolina-based added that it was already rolling out changes “to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry.”
Early morning crash involves teen, Phoenix police sayAuthored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The 2024 presidential election may be remembered as the moment Americans abandoned the issues that defined the post-Cold War era and formed new political coalitions based on class, some experts say. President-elect Donald Trump solidified his hold on the working class in his second electoral victory, even as voters with higher incomes and education levels moved to the left. Whether those shifts will be permanent depends largely on how both parties respond to the emerging politics of class, according to analysts. Some believe Democrats can recapture their historic working-class base by listening to the voters who have been drifting away from their party for a decade and crafting a new liberal vision based more on class than on race, gender, or social issues. Republicans, on the other hand, might keep this new party configuration together if they deliver on the promises that won the majority while forming a governing philosophy based on Trump’s America First agenda without alienating traditional Republicans of the Reagan-Bush era. Here’s what happened in 2024 and what it means for both parties. The composition of the major political parties has been shifting since 2012, but that shift reached a tipping point in 2024. The movement was seen most clearly in working-class voters, who supported Trump in even greater numbers than in 2016 and 2020. Analysts commonly use education and income levels as indicators of class identity. By both measures, working-class voters across racial lines shifted right. College graduates favored Republican candidates in every election from 1988 through 2004. That began to change in 2008 when President Barack Obama earned 50 percent of the college vote . The shift accelerated in 2016 when Democrats gained 55 percent of the vote among college graduates and held a majority for the next two elections. In 2024, 53 percent of voters with a Bachelor’s degree voted for Harris, as did 59 percent of those holding an advanced degree, exit polls showed. Over the same period, voters who never attended college, a traditional mainstay of the Democratic coalition, increasingly voted Republican. In 2016, 46 percent of voters having a high school education or less voted Republican, which was consistent with the two previous election cycles. By 2024, the number of Republican voters who never attended college had risen to 63 percent, the polls revealed. A similar migration occurred in terms of income. In 2012, 60 percent of voters with household incomes less than $50,000 voted Democrat. By 2024, that number had dropped below half. At the same time, a majority of voters from households earning more than $100,000 per year favored the Democratic candidate for the first time since the data was tracked in 1988 . The Republican share from this group in 2024 was 46 percent, the lowest ever. Minorities’ support for Democratic candidates has been strong since the 1970s, reaching a high point in 2008 with the election of Obama. Since then, however, the dropoff has been significant, especially among black and Hispanic men. Support for Democrats by black voters fell from a high of 95 percent in 2008 to 85 percent in 2024. The drop was greatest among black men, 77 percent of whom voted for the Democratic candidate in 2024, the same percentage as in 1972. Black women, the most reliable Democratic voters, voted 91 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris, 5 percent lower than for Obama in 2008. Hispanic support for the Democrats hovered around 65 percent for over 40 years. In 2024, the level dropped by 13 percentage points. The decline was more pronounced among Hispanic men. Just 43 percent of them voted Democratic this year, a lower percentage than that of white women. Asian voters supported the Democratic candidate by 73 percent in 2012. That number dropped steadily over the next three cycles, reaching 54 percent in 2024. Muslim voters, 74 percent of whom had supported Democrats in 2016 and 69 percent in 2020, all but abandoned the party in 2024, according to exit polling conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. That was due largely to the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Only 20 percent of Muslim voters chose Harris. In Michigan, home to the nation’s highest concentration of Muslim Americans, the number was 14 percent. Shifts in the electorate by class and race in 2024 were significant enough to create movement, if not a landslide, in regional voting patterns. The Blue Wall of industrial states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, had been solidly Democratic in presidential elections from 1992 until 2016, when Trump won all three. Though President Joe Biden rebuilt that wall in 2020, Trump again carried those states again in 2024. Trump also eroded Democratic support in traditional party strongholds like New York, New Jersey, and California . While Harris carried all three by a comfortable margin, she gained a smaller share of the vote than either Biden in 2020 or Hillary Clinton in 2016. In Wayne County, Michigan, home to Detroit, Harris drew about 38,000 fewer votes than Biden did in 2020. In Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Harris received about 36,000 fewer votes than Biden had. In Queens County, New York, the deficit was nearly 165,000, and in Los Angeles County, California, it was 621,000. “Harris, in Democratic strongholds in Michigan and Pennsylvania, simply underperformed Biden’s vote totals,” Ken Kollman, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, told The Epoch Times. Though Harris still won those counties by a large margin, the erosion of support in traditionally strong democratic areas fueled Trump’s victory, according to Kollman. According to William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the upshot of these shifts is that class has again become a powerful force in electoral politics. “We are witnessing the emergence of a new politics of class,” Galston said in a Nov. 12 panel hosted by the Brookings Institution. “Class, defined as educational attainment, dominates the scene in the United States and throughout the industrialized world.” This new reality undercuts assumptions that have informed both parties for decades, and experts say both will need to make adjustments before the next election. Self-reflective statements by Democrats in the wake of the election have centered on the need to listen to voters. “ The country wanted change, and the vice president’s campaign decided they would not offer that ,” longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said in a PBS interview on Nov. 13. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian and Democratic commentator, focused on the need to reengage the people who have given the party its strength for generations. “The most important thing that the Democrats have to take away from this loss is that they lost the working class base, and that’s been the foundation of the Democratic Party ever since FDR,” Goodwin said in a Fox News interview on Nov. 8. “I think the working class felt invisible. They felt forgotten.” David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, told The Epoch Times that Democrats should talk to real working-class people. “More importantly, go out and listen to them,” he said. A likely takeaway from those conversations, Schultz said, could be that identity politics seems less important to working-class voters than basic questions of economic survival. “ Hispanics, at the end of the day, are saying, ‘We want jobs. We’re not thrilled about illegal immigration, and we want higher wages. ’” Schultz said, noting that this does not conform to the general perception of “Hispanic issues.” Gabriel Sanchez, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, reached a similar conclusion. “ Overwhelmingly, the economy is what Latino men have actually been talking about for three election cycles in a row ,” Sanchez said in the Nov. 12 panel discussion. That may be, in part, because Hispanics are a diverse group comprising a mix of national origins and cultures. As a result, “they do not have nearly as strong a sense of linked fate,” Aaron Dusso, a professor of political science at Indiana University Indianapolis, told The Epoch Times, referring to the sense of common identity and interests that characterizes some demographic groups. The sense of linked fate is more pronounced among black Americans, according to Dusso. Yet an increasing share of black men voted Republican in the 2024 presidential election—for a fourth consecutive time. And that was despite direct appeals to black men from both Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, to vote for Harris based on their identity. One explanation for that shift may be that younger blacks seem less concerned with the civil rights issues of a previous generation and more concerned with economic opportunity. Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit-area pastor who spoke at the Republican National Convention, said his decision to support Trump was rooted in disappointment with the economic results of Democratic leadership for the black community. Noting that many are routinely forced to choose between paying rent, repairing their car, or paying child support, Sewell told the Epoch Times, “We’ve had Democrats running this city for 56 years. I’m not saying Democrats are wrong. I’m just asking, ‘Where’s the change?’” Harris campaigned heavily on a promise to protect access to abortion as a civil right. Democrats had success with that issue on several state ballot initiatives after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Yet in the presidential contest, Harris drew the smallest share of the women’s vote, 53 percent, since 2004. Trump, with 45 percent, received the highest share of the women’s vote by any Republican since President George H.W. Bush. “It’s a clear indication to me that, ultimately, the Dobbs decision is not going to have a political effect,” Dusso said. Read the rest here...
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. consumers who were “tricked” into purchases they didn't want from Fortnite maker Epic Games are now starting to receive refund checks, the Federal Trade Commission said this week. Back in 2022, Epic agreed to pay a total of $520 million to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and payment methods on its popular Fortnite game. The FTC alleged the video game giant used deceptive online design tactics to trick Fortnite players, including children, into making unintended purchases “based on the press of a single button." Consumers could be charged while doing something as simple as attempting the wake the game from sleep mode, for example, or by pressing a nearby button when trying to preview an item, the agency said. The FTC also accused Epic of blocking some users who disputed the charges from accessing the content they purchased. Beyond a $275 million fine related to collecting personal information on players under the age of 13, the settlement included $245 million in customer refunds. Now, the first batch of those refunds are being sent out. On Monday, the FTC announced it was sending over 629,00 payments to eligible customers who submitted claims. About half of those refunds are PayPal payments, which should be redeemed within 30 days, and the rest are checks, which should be cashed within 90 days. The average refund is about $114, the FTC noted. This first round of payments amounts to a total of more than $72 million, according to the agency — leaving about $173 million left to be distributed. Impacted consumers can still apply for a refund online . People who are eligible for these payouts include Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency for items they didn’t want or saw their account locked after complaining to a credit card company about wrongful charges between January 2017 and September 2022 — as well as parents whose child made charges on their credit cards without their knowledge from January 2018 through November 2018. You can learn more about applying for a refund on the FTC's website . The deadline for submitting a claim is January 10, 2025. At the time the settlement was announced in December 2022, Epic said it accepted the agreement because it wanted "to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.” The Cary, North Carolina-based added that it was already rolling out changes “to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry.”