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43 jili How the police hunt for NY shooting suspect unfolded over six daysPhoto Credit: RomarioIen/Shutterstock Jade Smith, Noelle Garbaccio, Samuel Lin, MD, FACS The contemporary standards of youth and beauty are smooth, supple skin and a contoured jawline. To preserve the youthful features of their 20s, many celebrities are turning to baby facelifts, also known as mini facelifts—a subtle alternative to the more invasive, traditional facelifts. In general, facelifts reposition skin, fat, and/or muscle to tighten the face and reduce signs of aging, removing any excess skin or fat. Unlike threadlifts, which lift skin but do not remove the excess, facelifts achieve a more lasting and natural rejuvenation. Full facelifts are distinguished from mini facelifts by 1) parts of the face treated, 2) amount of area of facial dissection, and 3) recovery time. A full facelift is designed to address moderate-to-severe skin laxity and jowling in the midface, lower face, and neck. By manipulating multiple layers of tissue—skin, fat, and muscle—full facelifts create a dramatic result that lasts 10-15 years. The surgery typically requires general anesthesia, and the scar starts in the hairline at the temples, reaches around the ears, and extends to the back of the scalp. The recovery time is long: most people return to work in two weeks, and the face will feel “normal” again after two to three months. According to RealSelf, an online patient community for plastic surgery, the average reported price of a full facelift is $16,465, though costs range from $10,000 to more than $35,000. Mini facelifts offer a more targeted approach, treating mild-to-moderate skin laxity in the lower face only. The procedure can be done under local anesthesia, making the surgery quicker and less invasive than a full facelift. The surgeon makes small incisions around the ears, pulls the skin taut, and then removes the extra tissue. Because the incision is so small, the effect is subtle. Mini facelifts are, therefore, appropriate for early signs of aging around the mouth, jawline, and sometimes the neck. Unlike full facelifts, mini facelifts cannot reposition deeper facial planes, so the effects are shorter-lived at 5-10 years. However, some patients may consider this a worthy trade for a mini facelift’s short recovery and cheaper price. Affectionately referred to as the “weekend” facelift, mini facelifts allow most patients to return to work within one week after surgery, and the face feels “normal” after about one month. The average reported price tag is $10,129; costs vary from $4,000 to over $28,000. Ultimately, the best choice depends on the patient’s aesthetic goals. Older patients with prominent wrinkles, jowls, and sagging skin in the midface require full facelifts for noticeable rejuvenation. Young patients with early signs of aging may prefer the mini facelift for its small scar and subtle effect. The mini facelift is best suited to patients in their 30s to 40s as a preventative measure against age-related changes. For patients who use fillers and botox, mini facelifts can achieve similar effects with less maintenance– although a mini facelift won’t affect crow’s feet. Patients as young as their 20s are getting mini facelifts, preferring a subtle lift over the upkeep of dermal fillers. After any type of facelift, skin still ages normally, so skincare and sun protection are vital to preserving results, and repeat surgeries are needed to correct new drooping in the future. Mini facelifts are behind many of social media’s most coveted faces, for whom the understated effect and fast recovery are invaluable. Celebrity Kylie Jenner, 27, is rumored to have a mini facelift, hinted by photos of skin-tethering around her ears. Singer Courtney Love confirmed she underwent a facelift at age 35. The “Real Housewives of Orange County” star Emily Simpson was watching reruns when she realized her once-sharp jawline had faded, so at age 46, she restored the contour of her neck and lower face with a mini facelift, praising the results as “meticulous and top-tier work.” Although Tom Brady and Jennifer Lopez have denied any cosmetic surgeries, rumors persist that they, too, have undergone mini facelifts. The choice between a full facelift and a mini facelift ultimately depends on individual aesthetic goals, the extent of aging, and personal preferences for recovery and cost. As society embraces a broader range of cosmetic options, these procedures cater to distinct age groups and lifestyle needs, from preventative measures to comprehensive rejuvenation. For more information, visit Dr. Samuel Lin's social media:

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TORONTO — Canada's main stock index pushed higher to end Monday up almost 150 points on light trading action, while U.S. stock markets also gained ahead of the Christmas break. "Today is a quiet pre-Christmas Day of trading," said Kevin Burkett, a portfolio manager at Victoria, B.C.-based Burkett Asset Management. While markets in both Canada and the U.S. were mild, Burkett suggests watching the markets closely during the holiday season, a contrast to what's typically a sleepy period for markets. "We're continuing to watch markets very closely here because you've got some tectonic plate shifting in terms of the macroeconomic backdrop," he said. "It's all the political conversations both in Canada and in the U.S." Burkett added fiscal policy seems to be disconnected from monetary policy in the post-pandemic period. "The fiscal policy may shift and that shift absolutely has market implications both in the short and long term," he said. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 149.50 points at 24,748.98. Statistics Canada released its latest numbers on Canada's economic growth, up 0.3 per cent in October — driven by the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector. The loonie continued its slide, trading for 69.47 cents US compared with 69.61 cents US on Friday. The telecom sector was the biggest loser at the closing on TSX, which Burkett attributed to "tax loss selling happening at the end of the year." Competition Bureau Canada announced on Monday it was suing Rogers Communications Inc. for allegedly making misleading claims about its infinite wireless plans. The stock price for Rogers, which is hovering near 52-week lows, fell 0.7 per cent on Monday. Meanwhile, BCE was down almost 1.4 per cent and Telus dropped 0.9 per cent. Burkett suggested the day's poor performance among telecom companies was likely tax loss selling since it's almost the end of the year. "It's been a tough year for the communication services sector," he said. South of the border, communications services was the top-performing sector, led by large-cap tech companies. Several big technology companies helped support the gains, including chip companies Nvidia and Broadcom. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 66.69 points at 42,906.95. The S&P 500 index was up 43.22 points at 5,974.07, while the Nasdaq composite was up 192.29 points at 19,764.89. The February crude oil contract was down 22 cents at US$69.24 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was down six cents at US$3.35 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was down US$16.90 at US$2,628.20 an ounce and the March copper contract was down one cent at US$4.09 a pound. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX: GSPTSE, TSX: CADUSD, TSE: BCE, TSE: RCI. B) Ritika Dubey, The Canadian PressIsrael launches new strikes on Lebanon as leaders draw closer to ceasefire with Hezbollah

It’s doubtful anyone in Liverpool ever walked into a dressing room saying: ‘We wanted Winston Churchill.’ No matter, they may have their own Dutch version of him anyway. Among his many qualities, Arne Slot evidently knows how to deliver a half-time rally cry. While securing victory in Girona to guarantee qualification to the Champions League round of 16, Liverpool continued their happy knack of improving with time. Twenty of the past 24 Liverpool goals have arrived in the second half – most after the 60th minute – which depending on your point of view means they are worryingly slow starters or love a big finish. Slot is unimpressed by this contradiction and issued rousing messages post-match too, criticising his players for their lack of application in a first half in which they were grateful goalkeeper Alisson marked his comeback with the kind of performance that underlined his status as the world’s number one. “If you ask me about all the six [Champions League] games, I’m really pleased with all the results,” said Slot. “I’m really pleased with the first five games, but I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight. “If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football and knows how to bring the ball out from the back like some of the teams we’ve played recently, such as Real Madrid and Manchester City, you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them. “But if you are waiting a few seconds to press them then this team can cause you a lot of problems. Every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough and they could go almost all the way to our goal and have a shot.” This is not the first public dressing down from Slot to remind his players of standards. There are occasions – albeit rare – when this extraordinarily talented group of players looks like it wants to win in second gear. They are at their most thrillingly effective at their famed ‘full throttle’ without the ball as much as with it, and Slot does not want them to slack off. He must be tired of giving the same speech during the break. Whatever messages he and his coaching team are dispatching during the intervals, his team keeps re-emerging re-energised with tactical problems solved, the momentum of games more often than not irreversibly shifting towards the Champions League and Premier League leaders. Such attention to detail is becoming a feature of Slot’s debut campaign, like a grandmaster making the necessary adjustment having rapidly assessed where his opponent is trying to strike. After Alisson’s first-half brilliance, Mohamed Salah was the inevitable attacking catalyst for victory here, his 63rd-minute penalty ending Girona’s resistance to preserve Liverpool’s 100 per cent Champions League record. That followed a prolonged period of Liverpool possession which, while also a feature of the first half, had included several lapses where the home side could have benefited from counter-attacks. Such frequent surges were snuffed out as the game progressed. This still wasn’t as straightforward as previous European victories, the evening putting one in mind of a tight away fixture at an unfashionable English stadium more than an intimidating Uefa tie. That is not surprising given how many players familiar to Premier League football were in the home line-up. Slot’s decision to pick his strongest available XI and leave out the unlucky Caoimhin Kelleher was vindicated. Alisson was called upon five times in the first 50 minutes, his capacity to make the difficult look straightforward asserting his class. This excellence laid the foundation so when former Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek fouled Luis Díaz, Mohamed Salah could take the points. Salah strikes again from the penalty spot! 💥 📺 & — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) “We have an incredible goalkeeper. Alisson has been so important for so many years and showed why he is, in my opinion, one of the best or the best in the world,” said Slot. Liverpool could have led sooner but squandered numerous first-half chances. Darwin Núñez remains the great Liverpool enigma, the arguments still raging as to whether Slot’s side can maintain their dominance at home and in Europe without a free-scoring number nine. No Anfield striker has embraced the phrase ‘hit and miss’ so eagerly as Núñez, his moments of quality so often caveated because of his tendency to squander routine chances, albeit while converting the spectacular. In any normal season, a central striker scoring just three goals heading to Christmas would be a cause for concern. The issue has been camouflaged by the reliability of others, especially Salah who continues to press home his case for that new deal. Diogo Jota has more goals than Nunez in this campaign and he has not played for six weeks. Nothing has happened in Jota’s absence to suggest he will not assume senior status when he returns in the coming weeks. Núñez’s defenders will point out he is working harder than ever and still making the runs beyond defenders in the hope of a decisive pass. For much of the season, he has cut a frustrated figure when not receiving the necessary assists. This was more of the Núñez of last season as opportunities came and went, the Uruguayan embracing the hit-and-hope theory to shoot directly at keeper Paulo Gazzaniga after perfect through-balls from Ryan Gravenberch and Salah. Rather than pay the penalty for wastefulness and carelessness, Liverpool won with one. The fixer Slot is recognising and correcting flaws as Liverpool march on. 07:50 PM GMT Liverpool have won six out of six And top the group by five points from Inter. 07:40 PM GMT Mo’s half-century Mo Salah is the first player in Liverpool's history to score 5️⃣0️⃣ goals in European competitions 👑 — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) 07:36 PM GMT Full time: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Salah plays a neat one-two with Szoboszlai, the latter’s contribution a cute flick, and then bends a left foot shot into a defender and behind for a corner, that comes to naught and prompts the ref to blow for time. 07:34 PM GMT 90+3 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Stuani is penalised for grabbing Gomez round the neck as they fought to head Asprilla’s cross. 07:33 PM GMT 90+2 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Frances jumps into the back of Gakpo with no hope of winning the ball. Having just been yellow-carded that was stupid. But the referee lets him off. 07:31 PM GMT 90 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Liverpool have hardly been mesmerising but they have been efficient, Alisson showed his class and they exploited a daft mistake form Van de Beek. We will have four minutes of stoppage time. 07:29 PM GMT 88 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Booking for Frances for wrestling Gakpo over as he tried to power past him. 07:28 PM GMT 86 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Alexander-Arnold bends the free-kick over the wall and Gazzaniga moves a yard to his right to tip it over. Then Gazzaniga starts going mad because there are now two balls on the pitch and makes out that Liverpool are timewasting by ignoring it and refusing to boot the interloper off. Girona defend the corner solidly. 07:26 PM GMT 84 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Elliott shimmies and gulls Juanpe who brings him down rather than let him go past. Free-kick 25 yards out, dead centre. Gazzaniga protested swearily that he couldn’t line up his wall because Alexander-Arnold would not place the ball. He was holding it in his arms. 07:24 PM GMT 82 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Shot from Martin after a cute lay-off from Stuani is blocked on the 18-yard line and then Van Dijk heads Asprilla’s resulting cross out. 07:22 PM GMT 80 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Liverpool are doing a fine containment job now. Taking off Gil and Danjuma has robbed Girona of pace. 07:21 PM GMT 78 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Salah floats a deep cross out. Booking for Gomez for standing on the veteran Stuani’s heel. His screams would make the dead shiver. 07:19 PM GMT 76 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Gakpo is playing down the left and Diaz in the middle. Elliott as a kind of inside-right. 07:18 PM GMT 74 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Van de Beek is penalised for a foul on his former Ajax team-mate Gravenberch. That’s the last contribution of Van de Beek who is hooked off along with another former Ajax man. More subs: Elliott → Jones and Solis → Van de Beek Martin → Blind 07:16 PM GMT 72 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Szoboszlai ‘wins’ a corner that should have been a goal-kick but the referee did not see the double rebound. Girona head it out to the right where Van de Beek is knocked off the ball much to his disgust and he protests when the referee waves play on. But Girona see off the second phase of Liverpool’s attack. 07:13 PM GMT 70 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Stuani → Gil Portu → Danjuma. Slot, who had Elliott and Gakpo stripped before the goal, opts for only the one change: Gakpo → Nunez. 07:09 PM GMT 67 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Diaz is fouled by Frances as he ran down the Liverpool left but the ref, inexplicably to these eyes, waves play on. Twenty of the last 23 Liverpool goals have come in the second half. Slot’s half-time team talks must be Churchillian. He certainly goes to the same barber, Chris. 07:08 PM GMT 65 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 1 Girona rally well from their disappointment twice to get in shooting distance without finding the guile or luck to beat Alisson. 07:03 PM GMT GOAL! Left corner about halfway up the post, having sent Gazzaniga the other way. Salah strikes again from the penalty spot! 💥 📺 & — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) Not saying they took ages to review that penalty decision, but Salah could have signed two more contract extensions before the VAR finally advised the referee to take a look. 07:03 PM GMT Liverpool penalty Van de Beek throws up his arms. It was a daft decision to try to tackle him from that position. 07:02 PM GMT 59 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Diaz wants a penalty and there is a VAR check when he seems to slip in the box when shaping to shoot and Van de Beek steps on his heel with one foot and hooks the second around him. Lengthy delay. The ref is sent to the screen. 06:59 PM GMT 57 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Alexander-Arnold pings over a dipping cross from the right that seems to be arrowing towards Nunez but Krejci gets there first. Slot sends his subs out to warm up, Gakpo at their head. Can only be a matter of time before Cody Gakpo comes on. Reckon Nunez has ten minutes to make sure he isn’t the one hooked. 06:57 PM GMT 55 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Diaz is booked unjustly for slipping, his momentum taking him into Frances as he fell and clipping him at most. 06:55 PM GMT 53 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Nunez receives the ball, back-to-goal, on the right of the box after Diaz wriggles through on a diagonal run and hits a pass that Szoboszlai dummies. Nunez receives it and then tries to dink it over the centre-halves for Diaz, who had continued his run, but wafts it out for a goal-kick. 06:52 PM GMT 51 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Brilliant from Danjuma with his dribble down the left, bursting past Szoboszlai and then nutmegging Alexander-Arnold but when he goes one-on-one with Alisson, albeit at an angle, he pokes his foot too far under the ball and scoops it miles over the bar. From the sublime... 06:50 PM GMT 48 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Danjuma sprays a left-foot shot wide after Van de Beek won the ball off Jones, made 35 yarsd and then laid it off to Asprilla to tee up the former Everton loanee. 06:48 PM GMT 46 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 No half-time changes and Girona pile forward from the kick-off down the left after a Liverpool error and Danjuma thunders a shot that Alisson bats away with his raised forearms. Liverpool break from the rebound and fly up the right but Szoboszlai, who has not had much impact, shanks a cross/shot that falls between both stools. 06:43 PM GMT Inspired Girona Raring to go 🔥 A look inside the Girona's changing room moments before kick off 👀 📺 & — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) 06:34 PM GMT Half-time verdict Plenty of chances in a game which has shaped up how one might have anticipated last weekend’s Mersey derby had it gone ahead, Girona sitting back and waiting for counter-attacks while Liverpool try to break a low block defence. Nunez should have had a couple, but Alisson has been the visitors’ best player. 06:33 PM GMT Half-time: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Very enjoyable first half in terms of competitive balance, much better than a lot of the unbalanced dreck we have seen in some games in this bloated phase. Liverpool are crying out for Jota’s return given the erratic nature of Nunez’s finishing. he could have had a couple of goals but then again So could Girona but for Alisson’s sharpness. 06:31 PM GMT 45 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Chance for Liverpool at the death when the left-wing cross from Robertson is back-headed by Nunez but it won’t come down quick enough for Salah who has to have a swing at it instead. The block ends the half, bang on 45 minutes. 06:29 PM GMT 44 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Danjuma breaks into a broad smile when Romeu wins the ball in midfield and triggers a counter and he uses Blind’s decoy run down the left to come infield and shoot... towards the corner flag. 06:28 PM GMT 42 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Gil hits the deck when brushed off by Diaz and earns a free-kick. May have been a foul but he hammed that dive up disgracefully. 06:26 PM GMT 40 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Alisson catches the corner. He’s had a proper workout on his comeback. 06:24 PM GMT 38 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Fine save from Alisson, diving to his left to stop Asprilla’s pile-driver with his left from the left of the D. Liverpool are not managing the space between defence and midfield well, Jones at fault that time for losing the ball. 06:23 PM GMT 36 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Alisson backpedals to catch the cross and then bowls the ball out to Salah who storms up the right and feeds Nunez with the kind of cross that John Toshack would have devoured. Nunez looks to lay it off instead and it goes away. Back come Liverpool and they work it back to the No9 who smashes his shot into a pair of white-socked shins. If Liverpool had a No9 with a killer instinct, they might win the quadruple. Nunez remains hit and miss and miss and miss... 06:20 PM GMT 34 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Girona corner on the left after Miguel’s whippy cross hit the first defender. Alisson swat the corner out but Girona win the second ball and push forward. Diaz goes to sleep and lets Frances lurk alone at the edge of the box and when the ball falls to him Gravenberch has to put it behind for another corner. 06:18 PM GMT 32 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Nunez’s very high and quick press puts Krejici under a bit of pressure and his clearance loops up off Nunez’s leg and swirls across the six-yard box. Gazzaniga catches it at full stretch. 06:16 PM GMT 30 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Girona are giving Liverpool a proper battle now. I feared for them after 10 minutes. 06:15 PM GMT 28 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Alisson comes out of the area to the edge of the D to stop Alexander-Arnold’s softish header being stolen by Danjuma. Earlier Gazzaniga diddled Nunez in his own six-yard box with a drag-back and pass. Had it not come off, Nunez would have had an open goal. Cojones. 06:13 PM GMT 26 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Diaz scoots up the byline from the left with dazzling feet. He is pursued by Frances who cannot catch him but Juanpe gets over to effect a jammy double rebound that stops it going for a corner and gives Girona a goal-kick instead. After a submissive start, Girona are growing in confidence, although suspect a couple of their chances would have been ruled out for offside had they taken them. Left back Miguel Gutiérrez looks decent. One to watch. 06:10 PM GMT 24 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Good defending at the subsequent corner should have triggered another raiding party from Girona but Asprilla messes up the release pass, Liverpool intercept and send Salah down the line to whip a cross in that Nunez cannot turn in under heavy pressure from Juanpe. 06:08 PM GMT 22 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Liverpool with a short one-two at the corner to change the angle for Alexander-Arnold who whips a cross through the six-yard box from a spot about parallel with the 18-yard line. Miguel heads it behind for a corner. 06:06 PM GMT 20 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Liverpool corner earned by the underlapping Robertson. Impressive how Girona have managed their tempo and clicked into rapid counters when given the chance. 06:05 PM GMT 18 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Girona have been troubling Liverpool in the inside-left channel and Miguel is flourishing there, striding between Gomez and Alexander-Arnold to blast a shot on goal. Alisoon slaps it away with one hand and Gil blazes over having trapped the ball nicely to set up a left-foot shot from 18 yards. 06:02 PM GMT 16 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Gil’s tenacity after running on to a pass from Asprilla gets him up off the floor having slipped 18 yards out to stab a shot into teh scrambling and horizontal Alisson’s chest. 06:00 PM GMT 14 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Liverpool break like lightning themselves from Alisson’s throw and Salah bombs down the right, two v two but opts for the shot rather than playing in Nunez who was peeling towards the far post, but slices it wide. 05:59 PM GMT 12 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 But now Girona do break and fly into the counter-attack with Miguel down the left after exchanging passes with Danjuma and beating Alexander-Arnold’s attempt to catch him offside. He fizzes a left-foot cross that Blind swings and misses at in the centre and then Gil mis-hits his shot, scuffing it and Alisson grabs it at the second attempt. 05:57 PM GMT 10 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 It’s all Liverpool who are encamped 40 yards out and Girona simply can’t hold on to the ball when they win it back, so snappy is Liverpool’s press. Joe Gomez’s shot to goal ratio in his Liverpool career is probably 100 to 0. He’s getting closer though... 05:54 PM GMT 8 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Darwin Nunez has a very good opportunity down the inside left of the box when played in by Gravenberch but he puts his laces through it, opting for sheer power rather than placement, and fires it straight at Gazzaniga. 05:52 PM GMT 7 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Blind hooks a pass up the left for Miguel to chase but he loses control by the touchline and though he claims a throw-in, he had the last touch. 05:50 PM GMT 5 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 A delay while Blind is told not to manhandle Gravenberch and/or block Van Dijk. Then Robertson whips the corner to the near post. Gomez gets on his pogo stick to meet it with a towering header that Gazzaniga bats over. From the second corner Gazzaniga runs through the six-yard box to slap it away, not entirely convincingly. 05:48 PM GMT 3 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Miguel Gutierrez makes a mess of his attempt to play out from the back and concedes a corner on the right to Liverpool. 05:48 PM GMT 2 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Gravenberch looks for Nunez with a long, aerial pass down the inside-left that floats down Gazzaniga’s throat. 05:47 PM GMT 1 min: Girona 0 Liverpool 0 Apologies – it’s not checks. It’s some kind of pattern I cannot name. Liverpool kick off and give Alisson an immediate touch and the returning keeper chips it long up the left. Girona give it straight back and Liverpool sweep the ball across defence then across midfield, Alexander-Arnold joining both lines. 05:44 PM GMT Out come the teams Girona are wearing their home kit of red and white checks, Liverpool in what the club, I kid you not, says is ‘Night Forest green and Anthracite with flashes of Washed Teal and Sail’ 05:35 PM GMT Arne Slot speaks to TNT Sports It feels really good to have Alisson back, firstly for him but also for us. We didn’t want to take any risk with him but we believe he’s absolutely ready. They have all these flags here so it’s a special occasion for Girona. It’s always a special occasion when Liverpool come. Our players are so experienced, they’ve played in so many different environments, so many stadiums. They know what it’s like to play Champions League. Some of them have won it, some have been in finals, some have been at the club when they haven’t qualified. The stadium is not so big but the style of play of Girona is something to be aware of. 05:20 PM GMT Small ground, big wages Girona’s owners have clearly invested more on players’ salaries than the infrastructure of their stadium. This is comfortably the smallest Champions League venue I can remember watching Liverpool play in. Around 10,000 fans expected this evening as some of the temporary stands are closed. Liverpool were allocated about 500 tickets. 05:12 PM GMT Girona’s tactic Michel generally prefers 4-2-3-1 so I presume Miguel will play alongside Romeu in the central two with Van de Beek in the 10 role and the three ostensibly wide forwards, Gil, Asprilla and Danjuma rotating or leaving Danjuma to play through the middle mainly. Danjuma scored two goals in the opening two games of the season starting as a central striker for Villarreal this season before being sent out on loan for the third season in succession. 04:58 PM GMT Looks familiar Girona resemble an ex-Premier League journeyman XI. Donny van de Beek probably has the most to prove as you can be sure many viewers will be watching the coverage tonight and asking: ‘Didn’t he used to play for Manchester United?’ To which the right answers will, of course, be ‘yes’ and ‘well, sort of’. 04:56 PM GMT And now for those of you watching in black and white... Gazzaniga; Frances, Juanpe, Krejci, Blind, Miguel; Van de Beek, Romeu; Asprilla, Gil, Danjuma. Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz; Nunez. Benoit Bastien (France). 04:46 PM GMT Girona’s team news LINE-UP! ❤️🤍 — Girona FC (@GironaFC_Engl) 04:43 PM GMT Kelleher’s misfortune Is Caoimhin Kelleher the unluckiest keeper in the world? The Irish No 1 has been outstanding since deputising for Allison – the late equaliser for Newcastle in his last match his only blemish. But it’s back to deputising for the Brazilian. It speaks volumes for Kelleher that Arne Slot has had no need to rush Alisson back. Slot has picked a strong line-up, which is no doubt a response to last weekend’s derby cancellation. Win tonight and Liverpool are sure of being in the knockout stages. 04:37 PM GMT Liverpool team news Alisson returns: How we line up to take on Girona 💫🟢 — Liverpool FC (@LFC) 03:29 PM GMT Betting on the match today? Take a look at for free bets and betting offers 03:26 PM GMT Preview: Liverpool eye six in a row Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the Champions League match between Girona and Liverpool from Estadi Montilivi. This match is the sixth round of bloated group-stage fixtures and features the teams who were third in their national leagues last season but their fortunes so far could scarcely be more contrasting: Liverpool, who have won five out of five, sit top of the 36-team group and have already qualified for the knockout stage following victories over Milan, Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid; Girona are 30th with one won – over Slovan Bratislava – and defeats by Paris Saint-Germain, Feyenoord, PSV and Sturm Graz. The Catalans are ninth in La Liga and it’s not hard to see why they have struggled compared with last year. One should note that historically, they are punching well above their weight even if their profile and clout have been transformed since the City Football Group’s takeover in 2017. But the driving forces of last year’s standout season – Artem Dovbyk, who scored 24 goals, Savinho, who bagged 11 and Aleix García, their ‘Rodri’ – have all been sold and their replacements, the returning Oriol Romeu, Bryan Gil and Abel Ruiz, are yet to click. Their squad is rammed with familiar names from England’s top two tiers – Daley Blind, Donny van de Beek, Paulo Gazzaniga, Arnaut Danjuna, Christhian Stuani, Romeu, Gil and Yáser Asprilla – and Michel is such a terrific coach it is not inconceivable that he could succeed Pep Guardiola if they are willing to hire on reputation rather than name. Victory for Liverpool, who play Lille and PSV in their final two matches after Christmas, would put them one point away from an automatic bye into the last 16 which will save them two matches as they plot their charge for a Premier League and European double. Alisson is available again after 66 days out but the loss of Ibrahima Konaté‘s aerial power is not easily covered and ought to be something to consider in the January window. Yes, they are flying but the squad still looks thin to me with Konstantinos Tsimikas, Conor Bradley, Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa – as cursed as Arthur a couple of years ago – continuing to recover from injuries and Alexis Mac Allister suspended.IAXUSS: Empowering Cryptocurrency Investment and Shaping the Future of the Digital Economy

Best Black Friday Thunderbolt dock deals

Building the perfect home gym starts with finding the right equipment—but the steep price tags on most machines, weights, and high-tech gadgets can quickly add up. Luckily, the best Black Friday fitness deals are already here, so you can easily refresh your workout corner without blowing your budget. We’ve already found some impressive discounts on treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines , and even a few fitness trackers (a.k.a. everything you need to start getting good sweat sessions in at home). Shop our top picks below and check back soon—we’re betting more great deals will drop between now and Cyber Monday (which falls on December 2 this year). Our favorite Black Friday fitness deals right now ProForm Carbon Pro 2000 —originally $3,199; now $1,499 Xterra Fitness MB550 Indoor Cycle —originally $1,000; now $400 WalkingPad C1 Foldable Walking Machine —originally $499; now $299 Echelon Reflect 50” Fitness Mirror —originally $2,500; now $2,000 BowFlex SelectTech 1090 Adjustable Dummbells —originally $799; now $599 Shop the best Black Friday fitness sales Treadmills and walking pads Exercise bikes Ellipticals Rowing machines Weights and benches Smart mirrors Fitness trackers Small equipment FAQs about Black Friday shopping for fitness gear Treadmills and walking pads A well-made treadmill or walking pad can make getting your steps in a lot easier (and dare we say more fun?) when the temperature starts to drop. Lots of our favorites are on sale for hundreds of dollars off, including the Peloton Tread and the ProForm Carbon Pro 2000 . ProForm ProForm WalkingPad Peloton Horizon Fitness Sole Fitness Xterra Fitness Exercise bikes It’s true—right now, you can save over $700 on a brand new Peloton Bike+ starter kit , which includes the bike, a bike mat, cycling shoes, light hand weights, and a water bottle. Looking for something under $1,000? We recommend Xterra’s MB550 , which you can get for 60% off, or Horizon Fitness’s 5.0 Recumbent Bike , which is just $649 (while it’s still in stock). Peloton Xterra Fitness Horizon Fitness Aviron Interactive Ellipticals For a workout that’s a little easier on your knees (and other joints), hop on one of these discounted ellipticals. Sole Fitness’s E35 has a built-in touchscreen, water bottle holder, cooling fan, and speakers to blast your favorite playlist—all for $100 less than usual. Also worth checking out: Echelon’s Ellipse EL-5 , which is currently $400 off and has a step-up plate to help you get on and off easily. Sole Fitness Echelon Rowing machines The SELF Certified Hydrow Pro Rowing Machine is a great investment for beginners, according to our tester: “The Hydrow is sleek, smart, and super user-friendly, so if you’re new to rowing or really love guided workouts and expertly curated programs, you’ll be stoked with this purchase,” she wrote in her review. “As a rowing newbie, I really enjoyed immersing myself in a totally new world and feeling supported along the way by experienced but friendly, down-to-earth instructors who led me through some stunning destinations.” You can also save big on the Wave (Hydrow’s slightly smaller, lighter rowing machine), the water-powered Ergatta Rower , and Aviron’s high-tech Strong Go Rower , which turns every session into a game. Hydrow Amazon Hydrow Aviron Interactive Ergatta Weights and benches Yes, you totally can get a gym-quality strength training workout in your living room—with help from these deals. Bowflex and Nüobell are offering hundreds of dollars off on adjustable dumbbell sets for Black Friday, while Major Fitness just slashed the price on its highly rated adjustable bench. Bowflex NÜOBELL Major Fitness Smart mirrors Smart mirrors offer the convenience of virtual fitness classes while also making one-on-one personal training sessions possible right in your home gym. Two popular models are on sale right now: Grab Echelon’s Reflect Mirror for $500 off the usual price, or save a whopping $1,000 on the SELF favorite Tonal . “Not only has my strength improved significantly since I started using Tonal—thank you, AI-guided progressive overload—but I’ve also made big strides in my balance through workouts like Pilates and barre,” our tester wrote in her review. “It’s allowed me to create a comprehensive fitness routine that delivers both steady progress and variety.” Echelon Fitness Tonal Tonal Fitness trackers Our fitness director’s new favorite smartwatch, Garmin’s Venu 3S , delivers dozens of statistics (as well as texts, calls, and calendar notifications) straight to your wrist. She’d recommend it any day—especially now that it’s on sale for over 20% off. “I can’t think of anything it’s missing that’d tempt me to look for an upgrade in a couple of years—so it’s the kind of fitness tracker that’ll keep you in the know for the long haul,” she wrote in her review. Slightly less pricey (but just as capable), Fitbit’s Charge 6 and Amazfit’s Band 7 are also deeply discounted through the holiday weekend. Fitbit Amazon Best Buy Amazon Amazon Small equipment It’s not all about heavy machinery this Black Friday—we’ve found some great deals on smaller accessories too, like Manduka’s Eko yoga mat and Therabody’s Theragun Pro . Fans of the viral fitness brand Bala should also check out The Starter Kit , which includes a set of Bala Bangles for your wrists and ankles, two three-pound Bala Bars, and a 10-pound Power Ring (all for $20 less than usual). Bala Manduka Amazon Zappos Dick's Manduka Amazon FAQs about Black Friday shopping for fitness gear Absolutely. Many popular brands like NordicTrack , Therabody , and Bowflex will drop their prices over the holiday weekend. If you’re searching for a new treadmill or thinking about picking up an elliptical, now’s the time to shop. Some of these are the best deals you’ll see all year (until next Black Friday, that is). You can find some major markdowns on almost any kind of gym equipment this Black Friday. Here, we’ve rounded up the best discounts on large machines (like treadmills, ellipticals, and exercise bikes), high-tech gadgets (like smart mirrors and fitness trackers ), strength training equipment (like dumbbells and weight benches), and more. Yes, you can save hundreds on a new treadmill this Black Friday. We’ve listed some of our favorite treadmill and walking pad deals here, but you can bet that even more models will go on sale later this week. The best Black Friday fitness deals are already in full swing! Start shopping now, and watch for even more sales to drop as we get closer to the big day (which is November 29 this year) and Cyber Monday ( December 2 ). Yep—lots of weights, weight benches, and other strength training equipment are on sale for Black Friday. We’ve spotted some serious sales on adjustable dumbbells and weight benches , and we’ll refresh this list with new deals on weights as they pop up. Related: Shop These 67 Early Black Friday Deals Now FYI, Lots of Cute Shoes Are Already on Sale for Black Friday 8 Really Good Dyson Deals Happening Now Some of Our All-Time Favorite Products Are On Sale at Nordstrom Right Now 41 Lululemon Black Friday Finds You Can Already Shop Walmart Has Tons of Sneaky-Good Wellness Deals Right Now Get more of SELF’s great deal alerts and product recommendations delivered right to your inbox (for free!).The UN now says 207 people were killed in a slum neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, earlier this month. The United Nations has raised the death toll of a recent mass killing in Haiti, saying its investigation found that 207 people were killed by a gang , including dozens of older people and Vodou religious leaders. In a report published on Monday, the UN office in Haiti detailed events that took place between December 6 and 11 in the Wharf Jeremie neighbourhood of Cite Soleil, a coastal slum in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The gang took people from their homes and a place of worship, interrogated them and then “executed” them with bullets and machetes before burning their bodies and throwing them into the sea, the report found. Earlier this month, human rights groups in Haiti had estimated that more than 100 people were killed in the event, but the new UN investigation concluded that a total of 134 men and 73 women were slaughtered. “We cannot pretend that nothing happened,” said María Isabel Salvador, the UN secretary-general’s special representative in Haiti. “I call on the Haitian justice system to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them,” she said in a statement. The Haitian government acknowledged the killing of older people in a statement issued earlier this month, and promised to prosecute those responsible for this act of “unspeakable carnage”. The UN Security Council issued a statement on Monday condemning the latest gang killings and expressing their “deep concern” over the crisis in Haiti, highlighting food insecurity and gang recruitment of children . Insecurity and isolation The insecurity has deteriorated so far in Haiti that the UN recently ordered some of its personnel to leave the country or relocate from the capital to safer areas. The country is increasingly isolated after the Port-au-Prince international airport was closed due to commercial passenger planes being struck by gunfire . The UN is in discussions over what steps to take in Haiti after an international security mission led by 400 Kenyan police has struggled to restore law and order. One option being considered is a return to a full-scale peacekeeping operation, despite mixed results by previous deployments, including a “stabilisation” mission, MINUSTAH, which ran from 2004 until it departed in 2017. ‘King Micanor’ Human rights groups in Haiti said the Wharf Jeremie killings began after the son of Micanor Altes, a local gang leader, died from an illness. Witnesses told the groups that Altes, alias “King Micanor”, accused people in the neighbourhood of causing his son’s illness by casting an evil spell on him. In Monday’s report, the UN said that people were tracked down in their homes and in a place of worship by Altes’s gang, where they were first interrogated and then taken to a site where they would be killed. The killings are the latest humanitarian tragedy in Haiti, where gang violence has intensified since the nation’s president, Jovenel Moise, was killed in a 2021 coup attempt . The Caribbean nation is currently governed by a transitional council that includes representatives from the business community, civil society and political parties, but its government has no control over many areas of the capital city, and gangs are constantly fighting over ports, highways and neighbourhoods. According to the UN, more than 5,358 people have been killed in Haiti’s gang wars this year and another 2,155 injured. More than 17,000 people have been killed or injured in gang-related violence in Haiti since the beginning of 2022.

Is darts the best sport in the world? If it isn’t, it’s certainly a heavyweight contender and it’s bang in form, with the coming of the current golden age confirmed during the extraordinary 2024 PDC World Championship. Game of Throws, a three-part reminiscence about those three dramatic weeks in London a year ago, successfully bottles the moment. More of a collective mania than a game, darts asks participants to throw tiny metal spikes at targets the width of a fingertip from more than two metres away, a ludicrously difficult discipline that requires years of diligent practice. Wins and losses are measured in millimetres. So one might expect elite tournaments to take place in a reverential hush, like chess or snooker. But no: the major career landmarks of darts pros happen in cacophonous halls full of drunk punters in fancy dress. Game of Throws correctly celebrates darts as a working-class festival, a supersize cartoon of the ideal British pub: somehow the blokes in the corner, playing a fiendish game to impossible standards, fit right in to a room stuffed with steaming revellers. The crowd at Alexandra Palace, home of the PDC, are silly and free, turning up to the party dressed as chickens, superheroes, penguins and Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses; uniquely in sport, the most popular chant, bellowed while the players are trying to concentrate, is “stand up if you love the darts”, a song for the shared experience rather than any particular player. That this jubilant anarchy enhances the game rather than spoiling it is a miracle because, for the players, darts is unforgiving. Game of Throws starts by following Kevin Doets, a part-timer from the Netherlands who checks into a poky Airbnb not far from the venue before his first-round match, where defeat will mean the loss of his professional tour card. Victory, meanwhile, promises the sum of £15,000. Steeling himself as his anxious father and bullish mother look on, Doets wins. Modern darts has been known to break its big stars. An admirably frank interview is given in the second episode by James “the Machine” Wade, whose diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder has helped to explain two occasions in televised matches where he clouded over, lost the will to throw and ended the game in tearful defeat. For Nathan “the Asp” Aspinall, problems with his wrist and back – darts may not look like a physical test, but you try leaning forward on one leg for hours at a time – have been compounded by “dartitis”, the sport’s equivalent of the “yips” in golf: a psychological condition where the brain refuses to let the hand release the dart. Darts can be a dark place, although in a literal sense it’s a brightly lit place full of people in nun costumes carrying trays with 22 pints of beer on them. But the mental battles are what make it compelling. To throw without wavering demands total self-belief. Maintaining that is supremely hard, which creates a singular, lurching suspense, especially when the sport is blessed with a talented generation of players. As the 2024 championship begins, the leader of the new generation is “Cool Hand” Luke Humphries, a mild-mannered 28-year-old from Crewe who has not won this title before, but has won every other big trophy in the season just gone. He lacks the outlandish charisma darts fans favour, but soon, Humphries is no longer the story. Among the unknown outsiders is Warrington’s Luke Littler, who is 16 years old at the time, a fact that becomes increasingly astounding as he progresses through the tournament, smashing established players to pieces. With its juicy behind-the-scenes insights, Game of Throws is there for every small moment. Littler can be seen saying “wow” to himself the first time he looks out across a sea of happy, boozy people waiting for him to play. But his debut match has barely got going before the kid, having taken an unassailable lead, is putting on a show, waving in time to the “oy, oy, oy” of the crowd singing the darts anthem Chase the Sun, and celebrating hitting a double by miming heading a football into a net. After the game, Littler’s dad, who spent years driving around Britain to youth competitions in the hope that his hunch about his son was correct, is as stunned as anyone: he knew his boy was good, but this is ridiculous. As Littler blazes towards his destined final against Humphries, beginning a rivalry that looks like it will define the sport for the next decade, we are there to see a superstar born – and to see darts take its game to a new level. • Game of Throws: Inside Darts aired on Sky Documentaries and is on Now.

Trump amenaza con arancel de 100% a países del BRIC si intentan sustituir al dólar estadounidense

Joonmo Kwon , a former CEO of Nexon, is an example of an established game developer who decided to march into the wilds of Web3 gaming. He started Delabs Games in South Korea back in 2020 and moved into Web3 at the end of 2021. He raised a round of funding March 2023 ($12 million to date) and then went to work on a variety of games. He is also chairman of 4:33 Creative Lab (parent company of Delabs Games), which saw 70 million downloads for its hit game Boxing Star. Earlier this year, his company launched Rumble Racing Star, a Web3 kart racer on both PC and mobile. The game has reached nearly 10,000 daily active players who have played 2.4 million races during that time, and I had a chance to catch up with him on the state of blockchain gaming. We had an interesting conversation, especially around why Web3 gaming is taking a while to catch on in the West. Rumble Racing Star is one of the games that bridges Web2 free-to-play gaming with Web3 player ownership. Kwon thinks of it as “challenge to earn” when it comes to Web3 gaming. Kwon said the company’s Metabolts NFTs sold out in May and the firm is working on Space Frontier. Key partnership include Ambrus Studio, Batching AI, Cow Cup, and Proof of Play. Delabs is building on the Arbitrum protocol and is working on the the Delabs Playable Layer. What has he learned? Web3 gaming has a loyal following but a relatively small community. The games need to be fun, have a sensible economy, and they also need marketing. And while it has taken a lot longer to reach the mass market in the West than imagined, there are bright spots like the viral nature of mini-games on Telegram, Kwon said. The company has 30 people, and it’s working on an RPG survival game, an anime game and updates to the racing game. The game has nearly 10,000 daily active users and retention is high. He expects real success will come in 2024 or 2025. And Kwon is pivoting to focus on games on Telegram using the TON blockchain, with launches coming for Ragnarok (not the same as Ragnarok: Monster World from Zero X/Gravity) and Boxing Star on Telegram, which has seen a surge in blockchain gamers in 2024 because of the success of other companies’ games like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin. Delabs Games’ titles will see beta tests soon. This past July, Delabs Games launched its first game on Telegram with the baseball game Giga Chad Bat . The idea is to take games to where gamers are already connecting. The company is planning to launch the Delabs Games Platform Mini App, designed as a gateway for Web3 integration in its games. This platform is set to debut in December, initially targeting Telegram users to build momentum before the official game launches. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. GamesBeat: We spoke when you first announced Delabs Games. Joonmo Kwon: Yes, Delabs founded in May 2020. We started out in Web3 games at the end of 2021. This year we’re marketing aggressively. GamesBeat: What’s happened since you started? How much progress have you made since unveiling the web3 focus? Kwon: In Web3 gaming, the product is most important. You need sensible economics around NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the game economy. But we also need marketing. We’ve been doing a lot of marketing and building community. We have a very solid, loyal community on Twitter and elsewhere. We launched our first game, Rumble Racing Star, last December and in January on PC and smartphones. We’ve had very good traction so far. The users are very engaged. We’ve seen good revenue. We launched a mini-game on Telegram. We’ve been polishing that. We plan to launch more games this year and early next year, including more Telegram games in the fall. ( He explained this move in a recent tweet). GamesBeat: In the spring of 2023 you mentioned a racing game, an RPG survival game, and an anime-style game. Kwon: Right, those are our three major games. Rumble Racing Star is an arcade racing game. It’s good for streaming, tournaments, and esports. The second game, Space Frontier, is a survival MMORPG game, and the third game is also an MMORPG. They’re in good shape and ready to be launched soon. GamesBeat: How many people work for you now? Kwon: We have 30 people in-house now. We outsource some graphics work, but 90% of the work is done in-house. GamesBeat: How much money did you raise altogether? Kwon: It was about $12 million. GamesBeat: The Web3 element, how does that work? You mentioned NFTs. What do people get that they can use in a racing game? Kwon: We like sport value tokens (SVTs) and achievements. They get SVTs and NFTs. We have the genesis NFT for Delabs called Adventure Pass. If you have this Adventure Pass, you get special parts for the racing game. You also get multipliers for boosting your points. It’s like a pass in Disneyland. Every game will have benefits for the Adventure Pass. GamesBeat: Part of the game is free to play, and then part of the game relates to the Web3 purchases? Kwon: It’s mostly free to play. That’s much more easily accessible to users. We have three billion gamers around the world. We wanted to make it much easier to access. A smooth experience for gamers is the most important thing. GamesBeat: When did Rumble Racing Star first launch? Kwon: Last November we launched the PC version. The mobile version followed in January. GamesBeat: How many races have you had now? Kwon: It keeps growing. We’re at (2.4 million) now. GamesBeat: In what context do you consider that to be a success? Is it the engagement? Kwon: Not only engagement, but also the core gameplay loop. This is our first web3 game. We have about 10,000 DAUs, which is very satisfactory. Our users enjoy playing the game. Retention is pretty high. A lot of them stream. In terms of revenue, we’re not super successful yet, but in terms of gameplay and user satisfaction and community satisfaction, we’ve been very successful. We’ve gained a lot of experience and learned a lot on this game. GamesBeat: How widely available is the game now? Is it worldwide? Kwon: It’s worldwide on both mobile and PC, except for a few countries that prohibit Web3 gaming. In those cases we just block the web3 parts. You can still enjoy the game without any Web3 elements. GamesBeat: How large a market cap does the game have, the token market cap? Kwon: We plan to have more than five games, but we won’t launch them all until early next year. We use only one native token. But the token isn’t out yet. GamesBeat: How are you able to get on the app stores? Are there limitations related to the Web3 functions so you can get on the app stores? Kwon: Yes, we don’t include the Web3 elements on the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. You have to connect through our website, Star Garage. Then you can play with the Web3 features – connect your wallet, access NFTs, get the SVTs and so on. GamesBeat: I talked to the folks who do the NFL Rivals game. It’s another Web3 game on iOS and Android. Apple lets them on the App Store because the functionality stays the same between Web2 and Web3. Players don’t get a different game or more features in the Web3 version. That gives them access to the App Store, but it’s a limitation on what the Web3 game can be. Is it the same with what you have to do with your Web3 version? Kwon: Exactly. We separate the Web3 and NFT elements. To connect your Web3 wallet you have to use our separate website. It’s not a very smooth experience for users. GamesBeat: The way this stays within the rules of the app stores, you have to buy a virtual currency with a credit card or some other way that allows Apple and Google to get their 30%? Then you can use that currency in the web3 game if you want. Kwon: Yes, that’s right. GamesBeat: Are you satisfied with this? Do you think being able to access the app stores this way will help you have successful games in the longer term? Kwon: No, I don’t think so. Gaming is all about experiences. We analyze our data and look at the funnel our users enter. When there’s any kind of friction around login or payment, or something like a tutorial that players feel is too long, they just leave. It’s free to play. It takes about a minute to download a new game. If players aren’t satisfied after a few minutes, they can just delete it and move on. Added friction is not good for the user experience. There’s still a lot of friction in Web3 games. That’s why the Telegram platform is getting a lot of attention from web3 game developers. They find much less friction there. GamesBeat: I’ve heard that about Telegram, that it feels like the old Facebook with how frictionless it is. Games can spread very easily. Kwon: Exactly. There’s much less friction. They have more than a billion users. Chat apps like WeChat, Kakao, the old Facebook, or LINE have been very successful platforms for games. In terms of friction, it’s easy to log in. It’s easy to make and connect a wallet. It’s a social platform. It has that virality. You can do things like set up leaderboards with your friends. GamesBeat: How far along are you with Telegram? What have you done there so far? Kwon: We launched a game called Giga Chad Bat, a Pokemon-like battle game. There’s a PvP element with scoreboards and guilds. The important part is the virality. You can invite your friends and play together. It’s just a test launch so far. We’ll keep polishing the game. We got a new build yesterday. We’re going to launch a major future project in Telegram. What we’re doing right now is very simple, but we’ve been watching the evolution of these chat app games. They started with hypercasual, but the user base has expanded. With mass adoption, they’ve slowly evolved into casual and mid-core games. GamesBeat: Do you expect Telegram games to progress in terms of the kind of gameplay you can create? Or do you think it will still stay relatively casual? Kwon: It’ll definitely evolve. If you look at what’s happened with WeChat, which is the largest chat app in China with 1.3 billion users, or Kakao, which has something like 99% adoption in South Korea, it’ll definitely evolve. We’re looking at the next generation of Telegram games. They’re going to be more like mid-core games, but with very short game loops, around five minutes, and very social. You can invite your friends, collaborate with your friends, play with your friends. GamesBeat: How large do you think Web3 games can get in terms of audience size, given the friction involved for new players? Do you think it’s still possible for them to grow to very large sizes through the mobile app stores? Kwon: Web2 gamers aren’t very happy right now. The Web2 industry is shrinking. We’ve seen about a 10% minus trend in the Korean market. Games have been commodified by the platforms, and there are so many games. We’re seeing as many as 250,000 or 300,000 new games every year. Games are becoming more and more aggressive with their monetization because the platforms take too much, and because they have to spend so much on marketing. They need to find ways to make more money. We see broader changes in media consumption, too. A younger generation is used to things like TikTok and YouTube shorts. When I ride the subway in Korea, I used to see people playing smartphone games, but these days I feel like 80-90% of what I see is people watching short videos on their phones. Their attention spans are very short, and they want to engage with socially interactive media. GamesBeat: In South Korea, what is the Web3 audience like? Can you compare it to the western or American view of web3 gaming? Is it more accepted in South Korea? Kwon: Koreans are always early adopters of technology. In terms of the crypto market, Korea is the second-largest individual country in the world. The Korean won is the second-most traded currency on crypto exchanges. We have about six million active crypto investors. That’s about 20% of the voting population in Korea. There have been times, during a bull market, that the daily trading volume of the crypto market in Korea was bigger than the stock market. At the same time, South Korea is the fourth-largest gaming market. There was a backlash around the collapse of Terra, though. Investors lost a lot of money on Terra and Luna in Korea. The government tried to create more clarity through regulation. I think that’s a good thing in the long term. GamesBeat: Are there things that you can or can’t do in the Korean market when it comes to Web3, compared to other markets like the U.S.? Are there restrictions you have to work around? Kwon: Right now, play-to-earn games are not allowed. But I think this is going to change. The government’s outlook right now is pretty harsh about crypto games after the Terra experience and some other scam tokens. Again, though, we expect it to change. GamesBeat: Where are most of your Web3 players, then? Are they in the U.S. or elsewhere? Kwon: They’re all over the world. We have players in the U.S., Russia, southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. We have some in Japan. A few Chinese users come in through VPNs as well. GamesBeat: What’s your expectation as far as how your company can grow and how this market can grow? What do you see in the coming years when it comes to web3 games? Kwon: I’m bullish on Web3 games. In Web2 games, the market is already a red ocean. Users aren’t satisfied. A lot of Korean game companies are spending a lot of money on security, real-world security, because of angry users. We’ve had users coming to companies to demonstrate. Web3 feels like the direction that the game industry will go. But we need good products. We need fun games. We need smart economics to make these economies work, inside and outside of our games. We need the right marketing for web3. I’ve been through many years of innovations in the game industry. I’ve experienced stand-alone online games, paid downloadable games, free-to-play games. The innovation around web3 can be much bigger than those combined. GamesBeat: There are some very interesting features web2 games can’t match, like player ownership and the ability to resell items. Wreck League had a very interesting structure, where the Web2 players needed the Web3 players, because they could buy more special mechs from the Web3 players, while the Web3 players had that ability to create their own mechs and sell them, but also enter those mechs into esports tournaments. They could fight for pink slips, essentially. But each side benefited. There was a symbiotic relationship between both groups of players. (Editor’s note: The game did not quite go as expected). Kwon: It’s a smart way to structure a game. I believe that in the near future, though, players won’t necessarily even know that they’re playing a game that’s Web2 or Web3. They’ll engage with a game, and they won’t look at an item as an NFT. It just won’t be a rental from a company. They’ll truly own it, and they can trade it or use it to participate in a community, in a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). I believe in user-generated content as well, and in interoperability, where items from one game can be used in other games. That’s how the ecosystem of Web3 gaming as a whole can expand. GamesBeat: Are there other successful Korean Web3 game companies so far? It feels like Koreans have been much more aggressive at moving into Web3. Kwon: Korea is a small country, with only about 50 million people, but it’s been leading innovation in the game industry for years. Free-to-play was invented here. The first esports competitions here were in 1998. We had some of the first pro gamers. Parents were freaked out at the time. We had the first 24-hour cable TV gaming channel. We had some of the first internet cafes, 30,000 internet cafes by 2000. Japan is still big in animation and in console games, but in terms of online games and free-to-play games, Korea and China have been innovating much faster. There’s been a leapfrog effect. When you look at the hit rate in games, the chances of making a blockbuster, it’s very low. Even with the best team, the best developers. With a web3 game there are more things you have to do right. You have to get the economics right. You have to get the Web3 part right. It’s a much bigger challenge. GamesBeat: I wonder if something like Hamster Kombat could end up being the biggest Web3 game. Kwon: It’s an interesting movement. Those kinds of games–can you even call it a game? But it’s off to a good start. I’ve looked at the data on one of the biggest Telegram games. I heard from the founder that 40% of their new users have never experienced Web3 games. That’s a very interesting, exciting data point. That might be a platform where mass adoption can happen. GamesBeat: Do you see a major benefit to having that adoption happen on mobile or PC instead of Telegram? Kwon: I don’t really care where that mass adoption happens, which platform. Once players experience Web3 gaming, then it’s hard for them to go back. It’s like free-to-play. Once players experienced that, once they didn’t have to pay, the market just got bigger and bigger. You can truly own your in-game items. You can participate in governance. You can make your own content, your own skins and costumes, and sell those items. Why would you go back to centralized games? Once people experience Web3, whether it’s through browser or PC or smartphone or Telegram, they’ll keep looking for Web3 games. GamesBeat: Looking back at the history of free-to-play, what was the moment when that succeeded? When did that overcome the friction, or the fear of change? Kwon: The first free-to-play game was invented by Nexon. That was QuizQuiz. It was very small at first. I think the monthly revenue was maybe $10,000. But everyone could access it without any payment. They could play it and decide whether they wanted to keep going or stop. Online games grew alongside free-to-play. With online games, you needed more users, more concurrent users. It’s a virtual society, or a virtual party. The more, the merrier. Everyone enjoys these games in a different way. A doctor, one hour of his time is worth more to him than, say, a high-school kid. Spending some money to reduce your grinding time just creates a more fair competition. I like spending an hour or so playing a game, but I don’t have the time to grind. An earlier generation of gamers, especially console gamers, they criticized free-to-play at first. They said that it was just paying to win, that it wasn’t fair. But look at it now. Three-fourths of the market is free-to-play. GamesBeat: Do you expect a similar moment for Web3 games any time soon, when we can say this is clearly successful? Kwon: I think it will be this year or the next. Once we have a huge, successful game–that’s what happened in Korea. The first free-to-play games was very small in terms of revenue. But when Maple Story launched, when all the FPS games launched in 2003 to 2005, they built a critical mass of users. The paradigm shift happened very quickly. It’s all about user experience. The big challenge for Web3 is that smooth experience, a frictionless experience. I think Telegram can be one of the platforms that provides a catalyst to create that. GamesBeat: I caught up with the nWay people recently when they launched a new game, and I asked them about Wreck League. They felt like the Web3 players right now are not as hardcore. They like more casual games. It’s more difficult to make a hardcore Web3 game succeed. That was one of their interesting observations about launching Wreck League. They haven’t given up on it, but they feel like it might be too early for that style of game in Web3. It takes a lot of skill. It’s not a super easy game to play. What do you think? Kwon: Yeah, I agree. I know the founder of nWay (Taehoon Kim, who is now former CEO) very well. He’s a very insightful developer. Web3 gamers are not highly committed gamers yet. They don’t necessarily want complicated games. The big difference in Web3 is about true ownership of in-game assets. If it’s too casual a game, there isn’t an opportunity to own those assets. We need games that involve progression, like RPGs, where you grow and collect items and upgrade equipment and level up your characters. But it should start very casually. As you progress and own more assets, you’re likely to settle down in a game. In real life, you’re more likely to stay someplace once you have more assets there – a car, an apartment. It’s the same in a game. Once you’ve invested more of your time and energy, you’re going to stay with it. A lot of Web3 gamers aren’t necessarily even gamers at all, in a way. They’re grinders. It’s not a game. It’s more like a job for them. That’s okay. They’re just extrinsically motivated users. As they grow and progress and gain more items and so on, they’ll settle down as well. That extrinsic motivation can convert into an intrinsic motivation. It happened to me when I was young. My mom wanted me to read books, so she’d give me some money every time I read a book and told her about the story. Later on she stopped giving me money, but I still loved to read. It’s just about finding that primary motivation. It can be extrinsic, earning money and trading items, and intrinsic as well, enjoying that activity more than other ways of making money. It’s a primary and secondary thing, not 100% one way or the other. GamesBeat: We had a lot of Web3 game companies that got started, and they found a lot of funding. When I looked at that funding, at one point 50% of all the companies receiving venture capital were Web3 game companies. It hasn’t taken off as fast as some of those companies and investors expected, though, and a lot of those companies just went out of business. The market has taken off too slowly. How many successful Web3 game companies do you think we’re going to see? Kwon: Number one, when you look at Web2, it’s really tough, as I say, to launch a game and be successful. The same is going to be true with Web3 games. You need a good product, a fun game, and that’s tough. Plus, with Web3 you have to have smart economics, inside and outside the game. You need to build a community. You have to maintain that decentralized governance. There are so many more things you have to do. A lot of the Web3 game projects I see — some of them don’t have the product. They just have hype and speculation. For a time it was easy to draw investment that way. Some companies have a good product, but they don’t know how to make it a good Web3 game. But once one of these games hits big, the returns will be huge. This can be a perpetual game, an autonomous world. Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily By subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service. Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, Pat Verhaeghe didn’t think highly of Donald Trump as a leader. Then Verhaeghe began seeing more of Trump’s campaign speeches online and his appearances at sporting events. There was even the former president’s pairing with Bryson DeChambeau as part of the pro golfer’s YouTube channel series to shoot an under-50 round of golf while engaging in chitchat with his partner. “I regret saying this, but a while ago I thought he was an idiot and that he wouldn’t be a good president,” said the 18-year-old first-time voter. “I think he’s a great guy now.” Verhaeghe isn't alone among his friends in suburban Detroit or young men across America. Although much of the electorate shifted right to varying degrees in 2024, young men were one of the groups that swung sharply toward Trump. More than half of men under 30 supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast , a survey of more than 120,000 voters, while Democrat Joe Biden had won a similar share of this group four years earlier. White men under 30 were solidly in Trump’s camp this year — about 6 in 10 voted for Trump — while young Latino men were split between the two candidates. Most Black men under 30 supported Democrat Kamala Harris, but about one-third were behind Trump. Young Latino men’s views of the Democratic Party were much more negative than in 2020, while young Black men’s views of the party didn’t really move. About 6 in 10 Latino men under 30 had a somewhat or very favorable view of the Democrats in 2020, which fell to about 4 in 10 this year. On the other hand, about two-thirds of young Black men had a favorable view of the Democrats this year, which was almost identical to how they saw the party four years ago. “Young Hispanic men, and really young men in general, they want to feel valued," said Rafael Struve, deputy communications director for Bienvenido, a conservative group that focused on reaching young Hispanic voters for Republicans this year. “They're looking for someone who fights for them, who sees their potential and not just their struggles.” Struve cited the attempted assassination of Trump during a July rally in Pennsylvania as one of the catalyzing moments for Trump’s image among many young men. Trump, Struve said, was also able to reach young men more effectively by focusing on nontraditional platforms like podcasts and digital media outlets. “Getting to hear from Trump directly, I think, really made all the difference," Struve said of the former president's appearances on digital media platforms and media catering to Latino communities, like town halls and business roundtables Trump attended in Las Vegas and Miami. Not only did Trump spend three hours on Joe Rogan's chart-topping podcast, but he took up DeChambeau's “Break 50” challenge for the golfer's more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. Trump already had an edge among young white men four years ago, although he widened the gap this year. About half of white men under 30 supported Trump in 2020, and slightly less than half supported Biden. Trump's gains among young Latino and Black men were bigger. His support among both groups increased by about 20 percentage points, according to AP VoteCast — and their feelings toward Trump got warmer, too. It wasn’t just Trump. The share of young men who identified as Republicans in 2024 rose as well, mostly aligning with support for Trump across all three groups. “What is most alarming to me is that the election is clear that America has shifted right by a lot,” said William He, founder of Dream For America, a liberal group that works to turn out young voters and supported Harris’ presidential bid. With his bombastic demeanor and a policy agenda centered on a more macho understanding of culture , Trump framed much of his campaign as a pitch to men who felt scorned by the country’s economy, culture and political system. Young women also slightly swung toward the former president, though not to the degree of their male counterparts. It's unclear how many men simply did not vote this year. But there's no doubt the last four years brought changes in youth culture and how political campaigns set out to reach younger voters. Democrat Kamala Harris' campaign rolled out policy agendas tailored to Black and Latino men, and the campaign enlisted a range of leaders in Black and Hispanic communities to make the case for the vice president. Her campaign began with a flurry of enthusiasm from many young voters, epitomized in memes and the campaign's embrace of pop culture trends like the pop star Charli XCX's “brat” aesthetic . Democrats hoped to channel that energy into their youth voter mobilization efforts. “I think most young voters just didn’t hear the message,” said Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a liberal group that engages younger voters. Mayer said the Harris campaign’s pitch to the country was “largely convoluted” and centered on economic messaging that he said wasn’t easily conveyed to younger voters who were not already coming to political media. “And I think that the policies themselves were also very narrow and targeted when what we really needed was a simple, bold economic vision,” said Mayer. Trump also embraced pop culture by appearing at UFC fights, football games and appearing alongside comedians, music stars and social media influencers. His strategists believed that the former president’s ability to grab attention and make his remarks go viral did more for the campaign than paid advertisements or traditional media appearances. Trump's campaign also heavily cultivated networks of online conservative platforms and personalities supportive of him while also engaging a broader universe of podcasts, streaming sites, digital media channels and meme pages open to hearing him. “The right has been wildly successful in infiltrating youth political culture online and on campus in the last couple of years, thus radicalizing young people towards extremism,” said He, who cited conservative activist groups like Turning Point USA as having an outsize impact in online discourse. “And Democrats have been running campaigns in a very old fashioned way. The battleground these days is cultural and increasingly on the internet.” Republicans may lose their broad support if they don't deliver on improving Americans' lives, Struve cautioned. Young men, especially, may drift from the party in a post-Trump era if the party loses the president-elect's authenticity and bravado. Bienvenido, for one group, will double down in the coming years to solidify and accelerate the voting pattern shifts seen this year, Struve said. “We don’t want this to be a one and done thing,” he said. Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, and AP polling editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed to this report.