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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his inauguration next month — an unorthodox move that would fold U.S. allies and adversaries into a very American political tradition. Trump said Thursday during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange , where he was ringing the opening bell to kick off trading for the day, that he’s been “thinking about inviting certain people to the inauguration” without referring to any specific individuals. “And some people said, ‘Wow, that’s a little risky, isn’t it?’” Trump said. “And I said, ‘Maybe it is. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.’ But we like to take little chances.” His comments came soon after his incoming White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed during a Thursday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends” that Trump had invited Xi and other world leaders to attend his inauguration. No head of state has previously made an official visit to the U.S. for the inauguration, according to State Department historical records. The unprecedented invitations come at a moment when much of the world is bracing for what comes next when Trump and his “America First” worldview return to the White House. The president-elect has vowed to levy massive tariffs against the United States' chief economic competitor, China, as well as neighbors Canada and Mexico unless those countries do more to reduce illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. Trump's also pledged to move quickly to end Russia's nearly three-year war in Ukraine and press NATO allies who are spending less than 2% of their GDP on defense to step up or risk the United States not coming to their defense, as required by the transatlantic alliance's treaty, should they come under attack. “We’ve been talking and discussing with President Xi some things, and others, other world leaders, and I think we’re going to do very well all around,” Trump said. “We’ve been abused as a country. We’ve been badly abused from an economic standpoint, I think, and even militarily, you know, we put up all the money, they put up nothing, and then they abuse us on the economy. And we just can’t let that happen.” Xi is likely to see the invitation as too risky to accept, and the gesture from Trump may have little bearing on the increasingly competitive ties between the two nations as the White House changes hands, experts say. Danny Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Xi would not allow himself to “be reduced to the status of a mere guest celebrating the triumph of a foreign leader — the U.S. president, no less.” Still, Leavitt saw it as a plus. “This is an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just our allies, but our adversaries and our competitors, too,” she said on "Fox & Friends." “We saw this in his first term. He got a lot of criticism for it, but it led to peace around this world. He is willing to talk to anyone, and he will always put America’s interest first.” Asked at a Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing Thursday about Trump's invitation, spokesperson Mao Ning responded, “I have nothing to share at present.” Leavitt did not detail which leaders beyond Xi have been invited. But Trump's decision to invite Xi, in particular, squares with his belief that foreign policy — much like a business negotiation — should be carried out with carrots and sticks to get the United States' opponents to operate closer to his administration's preferred terms. Jim Bendat, a historian and author of “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President,” said he was not aware of a previous U.S. inauguration attended by a foreign head of state. “It's not necessarily a bad thing to invite foreign leaders to attend,” Bendat said. “But it sure would make more sense to invite an ally before an adversary.” Edward Frantz, a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis, said the invitation helps Trump burnish his “dealmaker and savvy businessman” brand. “I could see why he might like the optics," Frantz said. “But from the standpoint of American values, it seems shockingly cavalier." White House officials said it was up to Trump to decide whom he invites to the inauguration. “I would just say, without doubt, it's the single most consequential bilateral relationship that the United States has in the world,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said. “It is a relationship both fraught with peril and responsibility.” It's unclear which leaders, if any, might show. A top aide to Hungarian President Viktor Orban, one of Trump's most vocal supporters on the world stage, said Thursday that Orban isn't slated to attend the inauguration. “There is no such plan, at least for the time being," said Gergely Gulyás, Orban's chief of staff. The nationalist Hungarian leader is embraced by Trump but has faced isolation in Europe as he's sought to undermine the European Union's support for Ukraine, and routinely blocked, delayed or watered down the bloc’s efforts to provide weapons and funding and to sanction Moscow for its invasion. Orban recently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Every country's chief of mission to the United States will also be invited, according to a Trump Inaugural Committee official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Such invitations to diplomats stationed in Washington has been customary during past inaugurations. Xi, during a meeting with President Joe Biden last month in Peru, urged the United States not to start a trade war. “Make the wise choice,” Xi cautioned. “Keep exploring the right way for two major countries to get along well with each other.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also pushed back on Trump's threats, warning that such tariffs would be perilous for the U.S. economy as well. Trudeau earlier this week said Americans “are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive” and said he will retaliate if Trump goes ahead with them. Trump responded by calling Canada a state and Trudeau the governor. In addition to the tariff dispute, U.S.-China relations are strained over other issues, including what U.S. officials see as Beijing's indirect support of Russia's war on Ukraine. The Biden administration says China has supported Russia with a surge in sales of dual-use components that help keep its military industrial base afloat. U.S. officials also have expressed frustration with Beijing for not doing more to rein in North Korea's support for the Russian war. China accounts for the vast majority of North Korea’s trade. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has dispatched thousands of troops to Russia to help repel Ukrainian forces from the Kursk border region. The North Koreans also have provided Russia with artillery and other munitions, according to U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials. Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is set to take place a day after the U.S. deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of social media giant TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban in the United States. Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington and Balint Domotor in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.Developer: Nightdive Studios, Computer Artworks Publisher: Nightdive Studios Release: Out On: Windows From: Steam / GOG Price: TBC Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10 Nightdive, you done good. The Thing: Remastered is an ultra-sharp and commendably playable update to a game that history will remember as ‘actually a pretty good pick at Choices when you really just popped in to get some Revels but got embarrassed when the till staffer said “is that everything?” in a tone that could have been neutral but equally could have been a damning indictment of your character’. I’m being slightly facetious here, of course. History actually remembers Computer Artworks’s 2002 shooty horror game for how incredibly ambitious and conceptually inventive its proto-sus social squad system was. In homage to the body-snatching alien paranoia of Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic, The Thing tasks you with not just assembling and directing a squad, but keeping them from breaking down or turning on you - in fear you might be hosting the titular molecular stowaway. I’m happy for you, history, but I have played the game now , and I say this: the most remarkable feature of The Thing, in retrospect, is how it predicted the entire Dead Space trilogy in miniature. And by ‘in miniature’ I mean with overwhelming weight given to the part where someone decided to throw in modern military elements and bollocks the whole thing up. Again: Nightdive have delivered a fantastic remake. Every instance of a 2002 sound engineer pitching down a Nokia recording of their cat growling is crisp and distinct, and every face coming out an armpit hanging from a stalk is vivid. Controls and menus feel modern and intuitive, and the only change I made to the default settings was to turn on ‘old school aiming’. I had one recurring crash when an engineer kept dying on one level, otherwise, things went as smooth as the nose of a Swedish forest cat. Sorry. Norwegian. The question, then, is whether you’ll actually want to play it, which is sort of like asking if you want to spend your weekend at a museum. Full of live crabs covered in rotting meat. And you’re the janitor. And you’re not allowed to leave until you’ve cleaned all the crabs. With a malfunctioning electric toothbrush. But! It’s still a museum, and so contains exhibits both enriching and educational in how they contextualize the present state of button pushing and preserve older ideas on how button pushing could be done. In short: It’s an interesting game! It’s almost a really good horror game, but then it becomes a bad action game quite early on and basically stays that way for the rest of its runtime. It starts very strong, though. You play as Captain J.F. Blake, a pint tray runoff cocktail of several different military-type dude archetypes, sent to investigate the fallout of the film's events. A kind of Kurt Russel six degrees of character separation manifests here in the fact that Blake is effectively Solid Snake, minus all the camp and wit and doofy wisdom and self reflection and basically all charm or charisma. Still! when he asks what a noise was, he asks it with his entire ass. The film isn't required watching any more so than normal, which is to say: yes, it's required watching even if you don't plan to play this. Even if you watched it last week. Go watch The Thing again. The game's noteworthy peculiarity comes not from any of its myriad half-baked ideas in a vacuum, but the sheer number of half-baked ideas it has. You’ll use torches and flares to light darkened areas, fire extinguishers to access previously very on-fire areas, and syringes to calm panicking squadmates. You’ll find a thousand weapons per level, but give most of them to those same squadmates, alongside ammo. You’ll hijack security cameras to reveal door codes and occasionally do a turret section. Sometimes, you’ll lead your panicked squad for a nice jog outside to calm them down, making sure not to stay too long in case your ‘it’s cold!’ meter drains and you start taking health damage. You can even, in the most The Thingly thing The Thing does, take samples of your own blood to hold aloft in front of your squad to convince them you haven’t been taken over. Each squad member has a specialisation, a health bar, and a trust meter. Medics heals your squad, engineers can fix tricky fuse boxes, and so on. Accidentally shooting them makes trust go down, healing them and giving them guns makes it go up, as does the aforementioned “look at my blood!” trick. That this is maybe the only instance that waving a vial of your own blood at a stranger might logically result in increased good vibes is a testament to the premise’s enduring brilliance. So, early on, you walk slowly through corridors and dimly-lit research stations. Maybe one of your squadmates will see a corpse of a colleague, puke on the floor, and refuse to press on until you comfort them. You take care to keep everyone stocked on ammo and to not accidentally shoot anyone. It feels slow, deliberate, and atmospheric. You go on like this for about an hour, after which the game just runs out of ideas and starts chucking dozens upon dozens of the smallest, speediest, crawliest enemies at you every five minutes. There’s the occasional bit of lively tension when you have to flamethrower one of the bigger monsters without also cooking your squad in tight environs, but there’s also just so much ammo and so much bad shooting that it starts to smother all the other stuff. We're all very tired. But it's fine. We have like, 10 billion shotgun shells. Then, just when you feel it can go either way, the game doubles down on its commitment to ignoring the best parts of its own premise by throwing umpteen dudes with guns at you. They’re not an issue to deal with - keep your squadmates armed and they’ll snipe anything that comes within 100 feet of you more or less instantly. But their frequency does start to leech away the game’s flavour until all the previously echoing, dismal hallways just start to resemble bland boxes. Sometime after your second boss, the game responds to a clear opportunity to introduce a new type of monster with “ah, but, what if we gave the gun dudes flamethrowers now?”. As I said, it’s that Dead Space trilogy speedrun feeling: measured and effective horror giving way to action horror before being drowned out by several buckets of gun-having men. Occasionally, things get interesting in terms of stage design. A mission that sees you escape from a lab with no weapons, trapping enemies behind doors and ordering squadmates past security lasers feels downright inspired, and an earlier submarine jaunt represents that game’s claustrophobic horror at its best. But even early on, it’s easy to tell that shooting is the worst part - made interesting through context and other stressors - so as soon as the game doubles down on it, it really does fall apart. Which, to make clear once again, is absolutely no shade to Nightdive. The Thing stays interesting in its foibles even when it’s nowhere close to entertaining. And, on balance, I don’t regret my time with it. It’s a worthwhile bit of in-amber preservation, even if I don’t necessarily want to touch the insect inside if I can help it.www rich9 art 。

What's New CNN legal commentator Elie Honig said Luigi Mangione's murder case in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's death carries the "highest risk" of jury nullification due to the popularity surrounding the man charged in the killing. Why It Matters Mangione has risen to fame as the charged defendant in the high-profile killing. Despite being charged with alleged crimes, Mangione has amassed a large fan base with some even hailing him as a hero for seemingly taking action against the American health insurance industry. What To Know Jury nullification occurs when a jury reaches a verdict of "not guilty" despite believing the defendant is guilty of the charges. This happens when jurors disregard the law, either because they think it is unjust, its application in the specific case is unfair, or they think the punishment would be disproportionate. Jurors cannot be punished for passing an "incorrect" verdict. Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside a New York City hotel on December 4. He faces multiple federal charges, including one that could result in the death penalty, as well as six state charges in New York with penalties ranging from one year to life in prison. In Pennsylvania, he also faces charges for possessing a fraudulent ID, a gun, and a silencer. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Tuesday, Honig told CNN host Rahel Solomon that while he "wouldn't necessarily lose sleep" over Mangione's level of fame impacting his chance at a fair jury, he would be "nervous" about the possibility of jury nullification. "And, for sure, this is the highest risk of nullification that I have seen in a long time, given the fame and fandom that this guy has somehow gained over social media. But it's important to keep in mind, there are checks in place, first of all, the jury selection process," Honig said. "People who are overtly biased in his favor, people who have posted on social media, that kind of thing, they will be weeded out. They will never even make it onto a jury. The other thing is, the whole trial process has the effect of sort of forcing people to get serious." Honig continued, "It's really hard to sit through weeks worth of overwhelming evidence that this person shot his victim in the back and then just say, ah, heck with it, I kind of like this guy or I saw some social media meme. So it's always in play, but I think it's important to understand we do have processes that sort of filter that kind of thing out." What People Are Saying Mangione's attorney Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo to reporters after Mangione arrived in New York, which Agnifilo called "the biggest perp walk I've ever seen": "He is being treated like political fodder. The mayor should know about due process, given his own problems. I think he was there to try to take away from those issues. He wanted to show symbolism. But my client is not a symbol." Mercedes Colwin, a criminal defense attorney, was asked about Donald Trump's death penalty comments surrounding the case by CNN on Tuesday: "Certainly, that's going to be a question raised by the defense, that there were reportings of the president-elect making comments about the death penalty being imposed.... That has to be vetted to that jury. The jury has to make an acknowledgment that, one, they did hear the comments and it doesn't impact their thinking at all and they can still sit and be a fair and impartial juror in that trial.... So comments from the president-elect may impact their thinking. That's something that absolutely has to be vetted." What Happens Next Mangione continues to assert his innocence in the case despite prosecutors saying they have a significant amount of evidence. It is unclear if he will pursue an insanity plea . His next court appearance is scheduled for February 21, 2025. Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com

College football talk this week is focusing on the playoff bracket that was revealed Sunday, the bowl lineup that followed and potential coaching moves. While there’s plenty to ruminate over regarding all of those subjects, that will have to wait. There have recently been a couple of other interesting tidbits that have popped up regarding three local high school standouts — Amari Washington, Harrison Bey-Buie and Rusty VanWetzinga — who are figuring out their college football futures. Washington has signed with the Northern Illinois University Huskies, while VanWetzinga and Bey-Buie have already tasted college action but are looking to change their fortunes through the transfer portal. Here is information on them: Amari Washington People are also reading... The athletic Washington was among 18 freshmen and two transfers to ink letters of intent with the NIU football program last week. The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive tackle was a disruptive force for the 8-2 Bettendorf Bulldogs this past season, finishing with 42.5 tackles (35 solos) while leading the team in tackles for loss (17) and sacks (6). He also logged three pass breakups, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. He also caught two passes for 16 yards as a tight end. The all-state selection was a three-year varsity starter at Bettendorf, totaling 103.5 tackles in his prep career (84 solos) to go with 47 TFLs and nine sacks in his last two seasons. As a junior, he caught nine passes for 96 yards and rushed for two TDs and scored a pair of two-point conversions. He is also in his third year of varsity basketball this season for the Bulldogs. Rusty VanWetzinga VanWetzinga has been with the University of Iowa program the past two years but will not be around when his younger brother, Joey, joins the Hawkeyes in January as an offensive lineman. “Thank you Iowa for a great 2 years,” he posted on social media last week. “After a coaching/system change over the past year on offense I have decided it is in my best interest to enter the transfer portal with 3 years of eligibility left as a Linebacker/Fullback.” Fullbacks were less utilized in the Tim Lester offense this year, and that had the former Pleasant Valley prep and 2022 state wrestling champion looking for a new path. The 6-foot, 235-pound redshirt freshman played in four games for the Hawkeyes this year without accruing any statistics. Harrison Bey-Buie Bey-Buie, a 5-foot-10, 220-pound running back out of Bettendorf, transferred to UNI after his freshman year at Eastern Illinois University. He saw limited action this season for the Panthers, playing in two games and rushing 17 times for 74 yards without finding the end zone. In 2023, he played in six games, rushing 43 times for 209 yards and scoring four times. In four games in 2022 he totaled 115 yards on 27 carries. “First I would like to thank god for allowing me to play the game love! With that being said, I appreciate the opportunity to play at the University of Northern lowa,” he wrote on X. “I will be entering the transfer portal as a grad transfer with 1-2 years left!” His freshman season at EIU was his most productive as he rushed for 479 yards in 11 games and was one of 11 players selected to the Ohio Valley Conference All-Newcomer Team. Similar to the VanWetzingas at Iowa, a younger Bey-Buie — Hyson — is still on the UNI roster. He is a 6-4, 250-pound redshirt defensive lineman for the Panthers. Bey-Buie Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! sports writer/golf editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Raiders and Saints meet with prominent players nearing statistical milestones

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