Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego are among the world’s least affordable cities for homebuyers, a recent report says.
When the price of a regular home is compared to regular local salaries, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San José were among the five least affordable cities in the world, according to a survey from financial services provider Remitly conducted late last year.
Relative to local pay scales, the cities are more expensive for homebuyers than New York, Paris and Singapore, Remitly’s analysis says.
In Los Angeles, a single buyer earning the local average salary could afford a home worth only 28% of the average property in the region, according to the survey. Residents of San José can afford to buy a home worth only about a quarter of the average.
“This could mean they would have to stretch themselves financially, often finding larger down payments or asking for financial help from family to be able to make their dream of owning a home a reality,” the report said.
Two additional Bay Area cities appeared on the “20 least affordable” list. San Francisco came in at 10th place, while Oakland ranked 19th.
California homes are about twice as expensive as the typical midtier U.S. home, according to a recent report from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office. As of December, the average home price in California was $755,000, the report said.
Researchers looked at property prices, average salaries pre-tax, mortgage, interest rates and down payments and deposits to compare housing affordability across 151 cities in 11 countries.
Countries were chosen as they ranked in Remitly’s previous study of the most popular countries to move to. The study included the 50 U.S. cities with the highest populations. It excluded the United Arab Emirates and Japan because of insufficient data. The only Asian city the researchers included was Singapore.
Property prices were taken from national statistics agencies and real estate databases, the study said. Income figures were from national and regional datasets.
Detroit — where a person making the local average salary could afford more than two times the average property price — was named the world’s most affordable city to become a homeowner. It was the only U.S. city to make it onto the list, which otherwise consisted of German and Italian cities.
Michael Lens, professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, said the “writing has certainly been on the wall” for California’s housing market to be considered the most expensive in the world.
California’s draws include its “unparalleled amenities” and strong job market, Lens said. But “we make it very challenging to build enough homes to satiate the demand,” he said.
“That combination of low supply and relatively high affluence for some parts of our country make the baseline of an entry-level home very expensive,” Lens said.
Detroit’s ranking as the most affordable city in Remitly’s list reflects the city’s decades-long population loss, driven by white flight and a decline in the auto industry, Lens said. Vacancy rates are high because it was built to house a population that was once much larger.
WASHINGTON — Justice Department leadership has directed the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism” by the start of next year, and to establish a “cash reward system” that incentivizes individuals to report on their fellow Americans, according to a memo reviewed by The Times.
Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo, dated Dec. 4, to identify “domestic terrorists” who use violence, or the threat of violence, to advance political and social agendas, including “adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity.”
Although the memo does not mention protests against President Trump’s immigration crackdown directly, it says that problematic “political and social agendas” could include “opposition to law and immigration enforcement, extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders.”
The memo, sent by Atty, Gen. Pam Bondi to federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, follows on a presidential memorandum signed by Trump in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative figure, that gave civil rights groups pause over the potential targeting of political activists, donors and nonprofits opposed to the president.
The memo also outlines what it says are causes of domestic terrorist activity, including “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality.”
“Federal law enforcement will prioritize this threat. Where federal crime is encountered, federal agents will act,” the memo states.
Some national security experts said the memo represents a dramatic operational shift, by directing federal prosecutors and agents to approach domestic terrorism in a way that is “ideologically one-sided.” At worst, critics said, the memo provides legal justification for criminalizing free speech.
“I think this causes a chilling impact, because it definitely seems to be directing enforcement toward particular points of view,” Mary McCord, a former acting assistant attorney general for national security, said in an interview.
The memo, for example, primarily focuses on antifa-aligned extremism, but omits other trends that in recent years have been identified as rising domestic threats, such as violent white supremacy. Since Trump resumed office, the FBI has cut its office designated to focus on domestic extremism, withdrawing resources from investigations into white supremacists and right-wing antigovernment groups.
The memo’s push to collect intelligence on antifa through internal lists and public tip lines also raised questions over the scope of the investigative mission, and how wide a net investigators might cast.
“Whether you’re going to a protest, whether you’re considering a piece of legislation, whether you’re considering undertaking a particular business activity, the ambiguity will affect your risk profile,” Thomas Brzozowski, a former counsel for domestic terrorism at the Justice Department, said in an interview.
“It is the unknown that people will fear,” he added.
Protesters in 1980s style aerobic outfits work out during a demonstration dubbed “Sweatin’ Out the Fascists” on Sunday in Portland, Ore.
(Natalie Behring / Getty Images)
Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed alarm over the new policy, which could be used by the Justice Department to target civil society groups and Democratic individuals and entities with burdensome investigations.
But the White House argues that Democratic appointees under the Biden administration targeted conservative extremists in similar ways.
Members of Trump’s team have embraced political retribution as a policy course. Ed Martin, the president’s pardon attorney, has openly advocated for Justice Department investigations that would burden who Trump perceives as his enemies, alongside leniency for his friends and allies.
“No MAGA left behind,” Martin wrote on social media in May.
Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo to “zealously” investigate those involved in what it calls potential domestic terrorist actions, including “doxing” law enforcement. Authorities are also directed to “map the full network of culpable actors” potentially tied to crime.
Domestic terrorism is not an official designation in U.S. law. But the directive cites over two dozen existing laws that could substantiate charges against domestic extremists and their supporters, such as conspiracy to injure an officer, seditious conspiracy and mail and wire fraud.
Only in a footnote of the memo does the Justice Department acknowledge that the U.S. government cannot “investigate, collect, or maintain information on U.S. persons solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment.”
“No investigation may be opened based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment or the lawful exercise of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States,” the footnote says.
Some tension could arise when citizens report what they believe to be suspected domestic terrorism to the FBI.
The memo directs the FBI online tip line to allow “witnesses and citizen journalists” to report videos, recordings and photos of what they believe to be suspected acts of domestic violence, and establish a “cash reward system” for information that leads to an arrest.
“People will inform because they want to get paid,” Brzozowski said. He added that some information could end up being unreliable and likely be related to other Americans exercising their constitutional rights.
State and local law enforcement agencies that adhere to the Justice Department directive will be prioritized for federal grant funding.
A man dressed as a bee participates in the No Kings Day of Peaceful Action in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 18.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
One of the directives in the memo would require the FBI to disseminate an “intelligence bulletin on Antifa and Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremist groups” early next year.
“The bulletin should describe the relevant organizations structures, funding sources, and tactics so that law enforcement partners can effectively investigate and policy makers can effectively understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by these extremist groups,” the memo states.
The mission will cross several agencies, with the FBI working alongside joint terrorism task forces nationwide, as well as the Counterterrorism Division and the National Threat Operations Center, among others, to provide updates to Justice Department leadership every 30 days.
With every new Call of Duty title comes the grind for collecting as many weapon camos as possible. While some of Black Ops 7’s camos share simple challenges to unlock, others will take much more effort.
Black Ops 7 has three different subsections of camos per gun: Military, Special and Mastery. Each camo type increments on the last one, so you can’t unlock any of the Mastery camos without unlocking all the Special camos, and you can’t unlock any Special camos until you unlock all the military camos for that weapon.
Black Ops 7 Assault Rifle Multiplayer Military Camos
Screenshot by Twinfinite via Treyarch
The Military camos for all the Assault Rifles in Black Ops 7 are unlocked by focusing on headshots as you play. To unlock these camos, you’ll need 80 total headshots before moving on to the Special ones.
Underbrush – Get five headshots
Woodland – Get 10 headshots
Slate Digital – Get 20 headshots
Redwood – Get 30 headshots
Poison – Get 40 headshots
Toxic – Get 50 headshots
Mountain – Get 60 headshots
Stalker – Get 70 headshots
Ruby Snake – Get 80 headshots
M15 Mod 0 Multiplayer Special Camos
Screenshot by Twinfinite via Treyarch
To unlock the Diamondback camo for the M15 Mod 0, you need to get 50 kills while moving after having unlocked the final Military camo.
The Raptor camo requires 30 Objective Kills with the M15 Mod 0, so focus on objective game modes like Hardpoint and Domination.
The Mainframe camo is unlocked by getting 20 kills with the underbarrel launcher attachment equipped to the M15 Mod 0.
AK-27 Multiplayer Special Camos
Screenshot by Twinfinite via Treyarch
To unlock the Diamondback camo for the AK-27, you’ll need 30 hipfire kills, as well as all the military camos unlocked.
The Raptor camo for the AK-27 is unlocked by getting at least two kills without reloading on 10 different occasions.
You can unlock the Mainframe camo for the AK-27 by getting 20 kills with the underbarrel launcher attachment on the gun.
MXR-17 Multiplayer Special Camos
Screenshot by Twinfinite via Treyarch
The Diamondback camo for the MXR-17 is unlocked by getting 50 eliminations while the gun has five or more attachments equipped.
You can get the Raptor camo for the MXR-17 by getting 30 kills while or shortly after sprinting.
Unlocking the Mainframe camo for the MXR-17 takes 20 kills with the underbarrel launcher attachment.
Black Ops 7 Assault Rifle Multiplayer Mastery Camos
Screenshot by Twinfinite via Treyarch
The mastery camos for all the assault rifles in Black Ops 7 are the same, requiring you to have the previous camo unlocked on multiple different guns, rather than only focusing on the weapon that you’re collecting camos for at the moment. These take extensive playtime to unlock, but will be easier to collect once you’ve gotten the first one.
The Shattered Gold camo can be unlocked by obtaining all the Special camos for the current gun and then getting three kills without dying 10 different times with that weapon.
The Arclight camo is unlocked by getting the Shattered Gold camo on all six Assault Rifles, then also getting 10 double kills or better with the gun you’re currently using.
The Tempest camo requires you to have the Arclight camo on 30 different guns, followed by five kills without dying on three different occasions with the current weapon.
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Former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine received the endorsement of a prominent Democratic women’s group on Monday that backs candidates who support abortion rights. The organization could provide significant funding and grass-roots support to boost Porter’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign.
“Katie Porter has spent her career holding the powerful accountable, fighting to lower costs and taking on Wall Street and Trump administration officials to deliver results for California’s working families,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY’s List. “At a time when President Trump and his allies are attacking Californians’ health care and making their lives more expensive, Katie is the proven leader California needs.”
The organization’s name stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast, a reference to the importance of early fundraising for female candidates. It was founded four decades ago to promote Democratic women who support legal abortion. The group has raised nearly $950 million to help elect such candidates across the country, including backing Porter’s successful congressional campaign to flip a GOP district in Orange County.
“There’s nothing that Donald Trump hates more than facing down a strong, powerful woman,” Porter said. “For decades, EMILY’s List has backed winner after winner, helping elect pro-choice Democratic women to public office. They were instrumental in helping me flip a Republican stronghold blue in 2018, and together I’m confident we will make history again.”
It’s unclear, however, how much the organization will spend on Porter’s bid to be California’s first female governor. There are multiple critical congressional races next year that will determine control of the House that the group will likely throw its weight behind.
At the moment, Porter, a UC Irvine law professor who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate last year, has a small edge in the polls among the multitude of Democrats running for the seat. The primary is in June.
The U.S. Justice Department sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Thursday for failing to hand over the state’s voter rolls, alleging she is unlawfully preventing federal authorities from ensuring state compliance with federal voting regulations and safeguarding federal elections against fraud.
The Justice Department also sued Weber’s counterparts in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, who have similarly declined its requests for their states’ voter rolls.
“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement on the litigation. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”
In its lawsuit against Weber, who is the state’s top elections official, the Justice Department argues that it is charged — including under the National Voter Registration Act — with ensuring that states have proper protocols for registering voters and maintaining accurate and up-to-date rolls, and therefore is due access to state voter rolls in order to ensure they are so maintained.
“The United States has now been forced to bring the instant action to seek legal remedy for Defendants’ refusal to comply with lawful requests pursuant to federal law,” the lawsuit states.
Weber, in a statement, called the lawsuit “a fishing expedition and pretext for partisan policy objectives,” a “blatant overreach” and “an unprecedented intrusion unsupported by law or any previous practice or policy of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
“The U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to utilize the federal court system to erode the rights of the State of California and its citizens by trying to intimidate California officials into giving up the private and personal information of 23 million California voters,” Weber said.
She said California law requires that state officials “protect our voters’ sensitive private information,” and that the Justice Department not only “failed to provide sufficient legal authority to justify their intrusive demands,” but ignored invitations from the state for federal officials to come to Sacramento and view the data in person — a process Weber said was “contemplated by federal statutes” and would “protect California citizens’ private and personal data from misuse.”
The Justice Department has demanded a “current electronic copy of California’s computerized statewide voter registration list”; lists of “all duplicate registration records in Imperial, Los Angeles, Napa, Nevada, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, and Stanislaus counties”; a “list of all duplicate registrants who were removed from the statewide voter registration list” and the dates of their removals.
It has also demanded a list of all registrations that have been canceled because voters in the state died; an explanation for a recent decline in the recorded number of “inactive” voters in the state; and a list of “all registrations, including date of birth, driver’s license number, and last four digits of Social Security Number, that were cancelled due to non-citizenship of the registrant.”
The litigation is the latest move by the Trump administration to push its demands around voting policies onto individual states, which are broadly tasked under the constitution with managing their own elections.
The lawsuit follows an executive order by Trump in March that purported to radically reshape voting rules nationwide, including by requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship and requiring states to disregard mail ballots that are not received by election day.
The order built on years of unsubstantiated claims by Trump — and refuted by experts — that the U.S. voting system currently allows for rampant fraud and abuse, and that those failures compromised the results of elections, including his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
Various voting rights groups and 19 states, including California, have sued to block the order.
Advocacy groups say the order, and especially it’s requirements for proving citizenship, would disenfranchise legal U.S. citizen voters who lack ready access to identifying documents such as passports and REAL IDs. They have said barring the acceptance of mail ballots received after election day would also create barriers for voters, especially in large state such as California that need time to process large volumes of ballots.
California currently accepts ballots if they are postmarked by election day and received within a certain number of days after.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has called Trump’s executive order an “illegal power grab” that California and other states will “fight like hell” to stop. His office referred questions about the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against Weber to Weber’s office.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, defended the need for the lawsuit, saying in a statement that clean voter rolls “protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse, and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law.”
Weber, who in April called Trump’s executive order “an illegal attempt to trample on the states and Congress’s constitutional authority over elections,” said Thursday that she would not be bowed by the lawsuit.
“The sensitive data of California citizens should not be used as a political tool to undermine the public trust and integrity of elections,” she said. “I will always stand with Californians to protect states’ rights against federal overreach and our voters’ sensitive personal information. Californians deserve better. America deserves better.”
Greater St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, St. Pete Beach, Gulfport, Treasure Island)
Datz – St. Pete $$ 180 Central Ave Website | (727) 202-1182 Downtown staple serving comfort food classics like the “Roger’s Rockin’ Reuben” and “Memphis on My Mind.” Open daily with rotating specials and a popular weekend brunch.
Social Roost $$$ 150 1st Ave N Website | (727) 202-6113 Globally inspired menu with standout plates like Shrimp & Grits, Short Rib, and Red Snapper Escovitch. Small plates, bold flavors, and stylish ambiance.
Society Table – Don CeSar $$ 3400 Gulf Blvd Website | (727) 360-1881 Laid-back yet refined spot at the Don offering Florida Gulf fare all day. Favorites include fried green tomatoes, grilled ribeye, and seared scallops.
Maritana – Don CeSar $$$ 3400 Gulf Blvd Website | (727) 360-1882 Elegant fine dining with coastal sophistication. Veal ravioli, duck confit, and lobster gnudi highlight the upscale, regionally sourced menu.
Allelo $$ 300 Beach Dr NE Website | (727) 851-9582 Mediterranean-Aegean concept emphasizing shared plates and connection. Try the Rack of Lamb, Eggplant, or Meatballs with an extensive wine list.
Birch & Vine $$$ 340 Beach Dr NE Website | (727) 896-1080 Chef-driven menu inside The Birchwood. Ribeye carpaccio and fresh seafood shine. Great for brunch or a romantic dinner—reservations recommended.
Stillwaters Tavern $$ 224 Beach Dr NE Website | (727) 350-1019 Lively hangout with 20+ craft beers and a scratch American kitchen. Land & Sea entrees pair well with Pier views.
The Library $$ 600 5th St S Website | (727) 369-9969 Literary-themed space with elegant vibes and book-lined walls. Cozy yet upscale, offering refined American cuisine and craft cocktails.
Perry’s Porch $$ 335 2nd Ave NE Website | (727) 256-0121 Coastal café with wraparound porch and Italian-inspired dishes. Pays tribute to C. Perry Snell with charming waterfront views and relaxed vibes.
Fortu $$$ 97 Central Ave Website | (727) 256-0268 Sleek pan-Asian steakhouse with lantern-lit ambiance. Offers wagyu, seafood plates, and upscale energy perfect for a lively night out.
Juno & The Peacock $$$ 400 Beach Dr NE Website | (727) 258-4222 Retro-coastal setting with terrazzo floors and plush seating. Highlights include seafood towers, dry-aged steaks, and polished cocktails.
Concrete Jungle $$ 475 Central Ave Website | (727) 475-5440 Tulum-inspired underground spot with Latin cuisine, tropical cocktails, photo ops, and live music. Ideal for nightlife or weekend brunch.
Brick & Mortar $$ 539 Central Ave Website | (727) 822-6540 Rustic, cozy eatery with seasonal New American plates, house-made pastas, and curated beer and wine list.
Tiki Docks Skyway $$ 3769 50th Ave S Website | (727) 810-8454 Tropical waterfront spot offering seafood, burgers, rum drinks, and family-friendly vibes. Laid-back escape with water views.
Teak $$ 800 2nd Ave NE, 4th Floor Website | (727) 513-8325 Nautical-inspired rooftop with 360° views. Dishes like Paella and Sirloin complement craft cocktails in a serene setting.
Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille $$ 610 2nd Ave NE Website | (727) 857-8118 Casual seafood joint at the Pier. Highlights include Yucatan Oysters, Captiva Crab Cakes, and Panko Grouper, with scenic waterfront seating.
IL Ritorno $$ 449 Central Ave., #101 Website | (727) 897-5900 Italian for the discerning palate. Il Ritorno brings a new taste of fresh Italian cuisine to the community by. introducing new, interesting flavors and combinations. Open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order designating a decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, though whether he can actually do that remained unclear. Trump blames antifa for political violence.The Republican president said on social media last week during a state visit to the United Kingdom that he would be making such a designation. He called antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER” and said he will be “strongly recommending” that its funders be investigated.The White House released Trump’s executive order shortly after he departed for New York, where he was addressing the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.Here are a few things to know about Trump and antifa:What is antifa?Short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.Can Trump designate it as a domestic terrorist organization?Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. Dozens of groups, including extremist organizations like the Islamic State and al-Qaida, are included on that list. The designation matters in part because it enables the Justice Department to prosecute those who give material support to entities on that list even if that support does not result in violence.But there is no domestic equivalent to that list in part because of broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States. And despite periodic calls, particularly after mass shootings by white supremacists, to establish a domestic terrorism law, no singular statute now exists.The executive order did not specify how Trump would go about designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.What does antifa do exactly?Literature from the antifa movement encourages followers to pursue lawful protest activity as well as more confrontational acts, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report.The literature suggests that followers monitor the activities of white supremacist groups, publicize online the personal information of perceived enemies, develop self-defense training regimens and compel outside organizations to cancel any speakers or events with “a fascist bent,” the report said.People associated with antifa have been present for significant demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in recent years, including mobilizing against a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. They were also present during clashes with far-right groups in Portland, Oregon.Why did Trump label antifa as domestic terrorists?He says it’s a very bad and “sick” group. The executive order says antifa “uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide” to accomplish its goal of overthrowing the U.S. government. The order calls on relevant government departments and agencies to use every authority to investigate, disrupt and dismantle any and all illegal operations, including terrorist actions conducted by antifa or anyone claiming to act on its behalf.Trump’s history with antifaIn Trump’s first term, he and members of his administration singled out antifa as being responsible for the violence at protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes and held it there even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air.Then-Attorney General William Barr described “antifa-like tactics” by out-of-state agitators and said antifa was instigating violence and engaging in “domestic terrorism” and would be dealt with accordingly.At the time, Trump blamed antifa by name for the violence, along with violent mobs, arsonists and looters.He recently began singling out antifa again by name following the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk, who was a big supporter of the president.In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office last week, Trump said he would pursue a domestic terrorism designation for antifa if such a move had the support of Pam Bondi, the current attorney general, and other Cabinet members.“It’s something I would do, yeah,” Trump said. ”I would do that 100%. Antifa is terrible.”He previously had called for antifa to be designated as a terror organization after skirmishes in Portland, Oregon, during his first term.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order designating a decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, though whether he can actually do that remained unclear. Trump blames antifa for political violence.
The Republican president said on social media last week during a state visit to the United Kingdom that he would be making such a designation. He called antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER” and said he will be “strongly recommending” that its funders be investigated.
The White House released Trump’s executive order shortly after he departed for New York, where he was addressing the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
Here are a few things to know about Trump and antifa:
What is antifa?
Short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
Can Trump designate it as a domestic terrorist organization?
Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. Dozens of groups, including extremist organizations like the Islamic State and al-Qaida, are included on that list. The designation matters in part because it enables the Justice Department to prosecute those who give material support to entities on that list even if that support does not result in violence.
But there is no domestic equivalent to that list in part because of broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States. And despite periodic calls, particularly after mass shootings by white supremacists, to establish a domestic terrorism law, no singular statute now exists.
The executive order did not specify how Trump would go about designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
What does antifa do exactly?
Literature from the antifa movement encourages followers to pursue lawful protest activity as well as more confrontational acts, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report.
The literature suggests that followers monitor the activities of white supremacist groups, publicize online the personal information of perceived enemies, develop self-defense training regimens and compel outside organizations to cancel any speakers or events with “a fascist bent,” the report said.
People associated with antifa have been present for significant demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in recent years, including mobilizing against a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. They were also present during clashes with far-right groups in Portland, Oregon.
Why did Trump label antifa as domestic terrorists?
He says it’s a very bad and “sick” group. The executive order says antifa “uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide” to accomplish its goal of overthrowing the U.S. government. The order calls on relevant government departments and agencies to use every authority to investigate, disrupt and dismantle any and all illegal operations, including terrorist actions conducted by antifa or anyone claiming to act on its behalf.
Trump’s history with antifa
In Trump’s first term, he and members of his administration singled out antifa as being responsible for the violence at protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes and held it there even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air.
Then-Attorney General William Barr described “antifa-like tactics” by out-of-state agitators and said antifa was instigating violence and engaging in “domestic terrorism” and would be dealt with accordingly.
At the time, Trump blamed antifa by name for the violence, along with violent mobs, arsonists and looters.
He recently began singling out antifa again by name following the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk, who was a big supporter of the president.
In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office last week, Trump said he would pursue a domestic terrorism designation for antifa if such a move had the support of Pam Bondi, the current attorney general, and other Cabinet members.
“It’s something I would do, yeah,” Trump said. ”I would do that 100%. Antifa is terrible.”
He previously had called for antifa to be designated as a terror organization after skirmishes in Portland, Oregon, during his first term.
President Donald Trump said early Thursday that he plans to designate antifa as a “major terrorist organization.”Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. They consist of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.It’s unclear how the administration would label what is effectively a decentralized movement as a terrorist organization, and the White House on Wednesday did not immediately offer more details.Trump, who is on a state visit to the United Kingdom, made the announcement in a social media post shortly before 1:30 a.m. Thursday local time. He called antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER.” He also said he will be “strongly recommending” that funders of antifa be investigated.Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. Dozens of groups, including extremist organizations like the Islamic State and al-Qaida, are included on that list. The designation matters in part because it enables the Justice Department to prosecute those who give material support to entities on that list even if that support does not result in violence.There is no domestic equivalent to that list in part because of broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States. And despite periodic calls, particularly after mass shootings by white supremacists, to establish a domestic terrorism law, no singular statute now exists.In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he would pursue a domestic terrorism designation for antifa if such a move had the support of Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in his Cabinet.“It’s something I would do, yeah,” Trump said. ”I would do that 100%. Antifa is terrible.”Wednesday night, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., praised Trump’s announcement, saying: “Antifa seized upon a movement of legitimate grievances to promote violence and anarchy, working against justice for all. The President is right to recognize the destructive role of Antifa by designating them domestic terrorists.” In July 2019, Cassidy and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a resolution in the Senate to condemn the violent acts of antifa and to designate the group a domestic terror organization.In 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, Trump also raised the idea of designating antifa as a terror organization.Trump’s previous FBI director, Christopher Wray, said in testimony that year that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump said early Thursday that he plans to designate antifa as a “major terrorist organization.”
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. They consist of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.
It’s unclear how the administration would label what is effectively a decentralized movement as a terrorist organization, and the White House on Wednesday did not immediately offer more details.
Trump, who is on a state visit to the United Kingdom, made the announcement in a social media post shortly before 1:30 a.m. Thursday local time. He called antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER.” He also said he will be “strongly recommending” that funders of antifa be investigated.
Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. Dozens of groups, including extremist organizations like the Islamic State and al-Qaida, are included on that list. The designation matters in part because it enables the Justice Department to prosecute those who give material support to entities on that list even if that support does not result in violence.
There is no domestic equivalent to that list in part because of broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States. And despite periodic calls, particularly after mass shootings by white supremacists, to establish a domestic terrorism law, no singular statute now exists.
In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he would pursue a domestic terrorism designation for antifa if such a move had the support of Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in his Cabinet.
“It’s something I would do, yeah,” Trump said. ”I would do that 100%. Antifa is terrible.”
Wednesday night, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., praised Trump’s announcement, saying: “Antifa seized upon a movement of legitimate grievances to promote violence and anarchy, working against justice for all. The President is right to recognize the destructive role of Antifa by designating them domestic terrorists.” In July 2019, Cassidy and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a resolution in the Senate to condemn the violent acts of antifa and to designate the group a domestic terror organization.
In 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, Trump also raised the idea of designating antifa as a terror organization.
Trump’s previous FBI director, Christopher Wray, said in testimony that year that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.
The Department of Justice published a new list Tuesday of “sanctuary” jurisdictions that it claims have policies, laws or regulations that obstruct enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Although the list includes the Trump administration’s typical targets — the city of Los Angeles and the state of California — it is much shorter than a previous list issued by the Department of Homeland Security. And at least one local area that has become a major battleground over immigration is not on it: L.A. County.
In a news release, the Department of Justice said Tuesday that the new federal list of 35 cities, counties and states — a much lower figure than the hundreds of jurisdictions that appeared on the previous Homeland Security list — is “not exhaustive” and “will be updated as federal authorities gather further information.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not answer specific questions from The Times about why L.A. County was not on the list.
“These designations were made after a thorough review of documented laws, ordinances, and executive directives by the listed jurisdictions,” the agency states on its website. “This initial list of designated Sanctuary Jurisdictions will be reviewed regularly, to include additional jurisdictions and remove jurisdictions that have remediated their policies, practices, and laws. Each state, county, and city will have an opportunity to respond to its placement on the list.”
The new Justice Department list is just the latest effort by the Trump administration to ramp up pressure on cities, counties and states that have policies or laws that restrict collaboration with federal immigration authorities.
But it also represents a more targeted focus. The previous Homeland Security list, which included most of California’s 58 counties, sparked ridicule for its errors. It even included the conservative city of Huntington Beach, which declared itself a nonsanctuary city a few days after Trump took office and sued the state of California over its sanctuary policies.
Gov. Gavin’s Newsom office dismissed the new Department of Justice list Tuesday as “another PR stunt by the federal government to scare people.”
“Like their last failed attempt at this ridiculous and meaningless list, which they were forced to pull down within days because of the backlash, this was created without any input or criteria,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the governor, said Tuesday in a statement. “California is confident in the balance of our law.”
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass also seemed committed to her city’s sanctuary status.
“Los Angeles’ law is legally sound and we will always stand with the people of Los Angeles, especially in the face of continued assaults on our city,” Bass told The Times.
Now that the Department of Justice has winnowed down its inventory of offenders, California is one of 13 states, mostly on the West Coast and in the Northeast, that the Trump administration has identified as having policies or laws that impede federal immigration agents.
Only four county jurisdictions across the country are included in the Department of Justice list: Baltimore County, Md.; Cook County, Ill.; San Diego County and San Francisco County. Three of the 18 cities on the list — Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Francisco — are in California.
“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement Tuesday. “The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”
In April, Trump signed an executive order, “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens,” directing the Justice Department to work with Homeland Security to publish a list of jurisdictions that “continue to use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.”
The Justice Department has since taken legal action against a number of sanctuary jurisdictions — including L.A., where the City Council voted unanimously in November to declare the city a sanctuary jurisdiction and block any city resources from being used for immigration enforcement.
In June, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and the L.A. City Council that described L.A.’s sanctuary law as “illegal.” Officials, the lawsuit said, “refuse to cooperate or share information, even when requested, with federal immigration authorities.”
“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level,” Bondi said in a June statement. “It ends under President Trump.”
Last month, Bondi announced a “major victory” for the Department of Justice: the city of Louisville, Ky., she said, was ditching its sanctuary policies after receiving a letter from her office.
“This should set an example to other cities,” Bondi said on X. “Instead of forcing us to sue you — which we will, without hesitation — follow the law, get rid of sanctuary policies, and work with us to fix the illegal immigration crisis.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a news release that “the federal government will assist any jurisdiction that desires to be taken off this list to identify and eliminate their sanctuary policies.”
L.A. County leaders have at times taken steps to oppose Trump’s aggressive clampdown on immigrants. Last week, for example, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 0 to direct county lawyers to draft an ordinance that prohibits officers, including federal agents, from concealing their identities with masks, except for medical reasons or when working in an undercover operation.
But county officials have stopped short of declaring the county a sanctuary jurisdiction. And on Tuesday few L.A. County leaders responded publicly to the news that the county was no longer on the federal government’s official list of sanctuary jurisdictions.
In a statement to The Times after the Justice Department released its list, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who abstained from last week’s vote on masked law enforcement, said she had “worked hard to advance a thoughtful approach to governance — one that upholds the law while respecting the dignity of all individuals.”
“I remain committed to leading with transparency, accountability, and a balanced perspective that prioritizes both public safety and community trust,” Barger said.
During his ultimately victorious campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump made no bones about his intention to use the legal levers of government to go after his perceived enemies. When he takes office in January, we should therefore expect him to launch a reign of terror against dozens of people he sees as having crossed him. And his vengeance will be enabled by the Supreme Court opinion granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
A recent National Public Radio analysis determined that Trump has threatened more than 100 federal investigations or prosecutions to settle scores. They run the gamut from President Biden and his family, whom the president-elect has promised to pay back on Day 1 of his tenure by appointing a special prosecutor to investigate unspecified crimes; to former Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he recently suggested should face something like a firing squad; to judges involved in his prosecutions; and journalists who refuse to give up their sources.
Granted, Trump frequently gives the impression that he has little understanding of or even interest in many of the policies he pressed on the campaign trail. But retribution against his enemies is clearly something that gets him up in the morning. From well before his entry into politics, Trump has been single-minded in intimidating and exacting retribution against his opponents.
A passage from one of his tacky books that was read into evidence at his New York criminal trial declares, “My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.”
Trump is in this respect not unique in the annals of the American presidency. The desire to “screw” one’s enemies, a hallmark of the insecure leader, is the impulse that brought down Richard Nixon. Watergate originally sprang from Nixon’s vendetta against Daniel Ellsberg, whom he was determined to embarrass for exposing the Pentagon Papers.
In the wake of Nixon’s abuses, the country put in place a series of laws, regulations and norms designed to prevent government by vengeance. These included a prohibition on White House meddling in Justice Department prosecutions that took on canonical status.
I was a Justice official at the beginning of what became the Whitewater scandal, and it would have been unthinkable at the time for a White House official to try to direct the department to investigate a political enemy. No administration would have dared, and no department official would have acquiesced.
Since Watergate, the only administration that failed to fully respect that principle was Trump’s. His political appointees repeatedly pushed the department to at least provide information about continuing prosecutions. In those difficult years, the department sometimes resisted but sometimes relented. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, made it a priority to rebuild the wall between the White House and the Justice Department.
Trump has made it clear that he intends to raze that wall in his first days in office. Working off the blueprint of Project 2025, Trump has announced that he plans to hollow out the department’s career staff and replace them with political appointees who will serve at his pleasure and be loyal to him, not the Constitution.
At that point, there will be no real impediment to the use of federal power for revenge against Trump’s long list of enemies. It will be the opposite of the department’s proud aspiration to do “justice without fear or favor.”
Moreover, Trump has said he will rely on the Supreme Court’s immunity opinion to provide full cover against any legal resistance. When asked recently how he would handle special counsel Jack Smith, who led his two federal prosecutions, Trump replied, “It’s so easy — I would fire him within two seconds,” adding that he would enjoy “immunity at the Supreme Court.”
The irony and tragedy of Trump’s invocation of the opinion is that the court declared it was ruling not for Trump but “for the ages.” But it is indeed Trump whose unscrupulous ambition it has served. And while the court reasoned that immunity is needed to safeguard aggressive, nimble and presumably lawful presidential action, Trump takes the lesson that he can violate the Constitution with impunity.
The corrupt use of prosecutorial power can amount to a crime. For starters, the federal code criminalizes conspiring to injure any person because of their exercise of constitutional rights or their race. But the Supreme Court has ensured that Trump could carry out unlawful prosecutions: He can commit crimes but can’t be made to answer for them.
Trump’s retribution agenda may encounter other roadblocks. Grand juries may not go along with prosecutions that reek of vengeance, and trial juries and judges are more likely to resist.
Also, presidential immunity doesn’t extend to other executive branch officials, and Trump will need confederates in the Justice Department to do his bidding. But with a clear Republican majority in the Senate, Trump is likely to get any senior official he wants confirmed. That could include the likes of the right-wing activist and attorney general hopeful Mike Davis, who wrote Wednesday of Trump’s opponents, “I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall. (Legally, politically, and financially, of course.)”
As a practical matter, by far the most important protections against vengeful prosecutions are career federal prosecutors’ nonpartisan professionalism and the norms forbidding the White House from telling them whom to prosecute. Trump is plainly fixing to lay waste to those safeguards. That alone would constitute a giant step away from the rule of law and toward autocracy.
Regretfully, the golden age of the ringtone is behind us. Now everyone is on full vibrate 24/7 but back when cell phones were were starting out, your custom ringtone was a form of self expression. (And a way to overspend on an mp3 chunk of song.) How were people supposed to react when you got a call in the grocery store? Did you want a jam? A joke? A knowing nod?
We asked our followers on Facebook, X, and Threads and here are your answers.
One of the staples of Call of Duty’s weapons has always been the Assault Rifle category. ARs can deal lots of damage across medium distances, but start to lose their accuracy at long and close ranges. As of the open beta, there are only three assault rifles to choose from, so here are the best Black Ops 6 Assault Rifles ranked.
AK-74
Image Source: Activision via Twinfinite
Of Black Ops 6‘s assault rifles, the AK-74 has proven to be the best option of the three. While the rate of fire is slower than the other two, the firepower that it brings to the table is more than enough to compensate. Making sure to get the first shot off in an encounter becomes the main priority, and as long as you’re hitting your target, you should be able to get the kill.
Running and gunning isn’t the best style for the AK-74, but it can serve you well in most gunfights. The main disadvantage comes from encounters with more than two players at once. It can be difficult to get enough shots off to take out multiple enemies, so it’s best to hold a position and focus your fire at a set point. If you’re looking for consistency, the AK-74 does a great job as an all-around option.
AMES 85
Image Source: Activision via Twinfinite
While more powerful than the XM4, the AMES 85 doesn’t pack quite the punch it needs to to top the list. While it throws lead downrange, it rarely has enough in the tank to take on even two enemies at once. Oftentimes it’ll run out of ammo at the worst moment or it will get beat out head-to-head at close range. The other Black Ops 6 assault rifles have their strengths and weaknesses, but the AMES 85 is almost too far in the middle of the road.
With an extended magazine, the AMES 85 has a better chance in combat. That way, you’ve got enough to take out an enemy without needing to reload before your next fight. It’s certainly not a bad gun, but needing as much modification as it does puts it in the middle of the pack. Even if it carried five more rounds, it would bring it to the top of the list.
XM4
Image Source: Activision via Twinfinite
On the other end of the spectrum from the AK-74, the XM4 has a quick rate of fire that doesn’t pack all that much punch. While it’s not a bad gun at mid-range, it doesn’t quite stack up as enemies get further away. You’ll need to land more hits per target to successfully get a kill, so if you’re aiming at an enemy running across the map, it might be hard to finish what you started.
Black Ops 6’s assault rifles don’t offer much diversity as of the open beta, but that’s not to say that what gets added next won’t improve the selection. As of now, the XM4 is the weakest of the bunch, but it’s also the first one that’s available to use. After applying a few attachments it’s more usable, but those first few matches might be a struggle.
As of the open beta, there is a limited selection of assault rifles in Black Ops 6. There are going to be plenty more when the full game launches on October 25.
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It’s an almost daily occurrence that gamers talk about the crushing weight of their backlog. Especially considering seasonal price cuts like the Steam Summer Sale, these ballooning libraries of games are not getting any smaller, and have caused games to miss out on some genuinely phenomenal titles.
However, the holiday season is hyped up with upcoming releases from the big three console manufacturers. As such, there are already so many titles – from indie passion projects to AAA blockbusters – that have slipped through the cracks. Through combing through the last half-year of titles, we have crafted a list of the top 15 games that you’ve already slept on in 2024.
15. Alone in the Dark
Image Source: THQ Nordic
Alone in the Dark is a franchise that – despite its unshakeable place in video game history – has struggled to find its own place in the market. Its 1992 3D horror design inspired the likes of Resident Evil. However, Alone in the Dark has been rebooted not once – in 2008 – but now twice, in its 2024 adaptation.
Despite the acting chops of Stranger Things star David Harbour, this title was panned by gamers and critics alike. As such, many gamers seemingly decided to give it a miss. Its so-so combat and slower pace were widely disliked. Beyond that, the core puzzle gameplay of the title was widely seen as the title’s saving grace. However, not even some dastardly challenges could save Alone in the Dark from the clutches of its biggest adversary – instability.
“2024’s iteration of Alone in the Dark is a full reboot of the series, loosely adapting the 1992 original … If the Resident Evil series stuck to the original’s survival horror roots during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, this is exactly what it would look and play like.”
While the game itself was not perfect, not every game has to be a 10 out of 10 experience. However, the state in which it launched was not even remotely excusable. In the months since its May release, THQ Nordic has released multiple patches for the game. These have not only vastly improved stability but actively tackled almost every bug that plagued the game. Beyond that, features such as a photo mode and New Game+ mode have been added to the game.
What remains is a game that is no longer another botched attempt at reinvigorating a leviathan of the horror genre. Instead, players stand in the wake of a powerful statement about the long-standing quality of this quintessential IP.
With the rise of the ‘Cozy Games’ genre, the blending of rural and urban landscapes of Minami Lane is a perfectly portioned dose of serenity, especially considering its $4.99 price tag.
There are no massive narrative shifts, or overly complex systems in Minami Lane. Instead, you are tasked by an anthropomorphic Tanooki with sprucing up the eponymous street. Due to its slow pace and cutesy charm, it’s understandable that some gamers decided to miss it. Players must choose the stores and stalls that occupy the sidewalk while managing the items they sell. Beyond this, players must also decide on the ramen they serve, and the prices everything goes for.
“As a cozy gamer, I immediately put Minami Lane on my Steam Wishlist due to its Japanese-inspired art style and intricate gameplay mechanics … but this entry goes further by customizing the inventory and pricing of ramen shops, bookstores, and boba cafes.”
All of this is in the constant drive to provide the human inhabitants of Minami Lane with what they want. This is so that players can earn good grades and continue to improve the street. With an Animal Crossing-esque use of twinkling motifs and ambiance, it may be a short experience but it is a chance to stop and take a breather at a little slice of the Japanese vista you can call your own.
With the upcoming high-profile release of another two-word titled IP with Astro in its name – Astro Bot – it’s not surprising that many gamers’ minds immediately went to PlayStation’s cutesy platformer. However, those who are able to peel their eyes away from Sony’s much-hyped upcoming release will find themselves in the pixel-perfect world of Astro Pig – a title gamers shouldn’t miss.
This 2D platformer holds a cutesy yet introspective tone similar to games like Celeste. However, while such titles focus on grueling difficulty, Astro Pig is a game that doesn’t ask much more of you than just letting it naturally move forward.
“A 90’s nostalgia inspired lo-fi adventure with a relaxing atmosphere and wholesome story, paced between tiny planet platforming and puzzle-solving.”
Players are tasked with collecting keys to open up the way forward. Yet, while an increase in the challenge does exist, through new gameplay elements like portals and switches, Astro Pig never even begins to approach hair-pulling levels of frustration.
Circumnavigating the individual push-and-pull of a planetoid’s atmosphere is strikingly similar to what Super Mario Galaxy pulled off in 2007. In this respect, Astro Pig is unashamedly alike. Of course; only if Mario Galaxy was 2D, and had a chiptune lo-fi soundtrack, and the titular plumber was a spacefaring pig.
When the gaming landscape shifted from the fourth to the fifth generation, games turned from 2D experiences to polygonal affairs. It stands to reason then, that if golf enthusiasts hope to inject the sport with more creativity then all that is needed is another dimensional leap.
In that sense, 4D Golf is less of a sports title and more of a puzzle game. The game does include traditional and fictional obstacles to overcome, such as divots and moving surfaces. However, the main roadblock for golfers is navigating the fourth dimension.
“4D Golf is a mind-bending golf game unlike any other because it’s set entirely in a 4-dimensional space. Complete fun and unique golfing challenges as you gain hands-on experience of the 4th dimension and beyond!”
While it may sound overwhelming, Code Parade is well aware of its title’s steep learning curve. As such, it gives the player the ability to easily spot the hole and their own ball through keyboard prompts. As a result, things shouldn’t get too mind-meltingly complicated all at once.
Words simply won’t be able to properly explain the process of playing golf in 4D, but don’t miss out on this reality-bending sports game – especially if playing Golf With Your Friends was starting to become a little samey, then be prepared to take a leap into a new dimension.
KinnikiNeko: Super Muscle Cat is a title that – even just by looking at some key art – you’re already halfway to enjoying its unique charm. Its Sailor Moon-esque intro cinematic is cheesy enough to instill an immediate sense of bonkers enjoyment.
Gamers interact with the anime-inspired world by playing as a blue cat. This eponymous feline can then be transformed from its cat form into that of a glistening bodybuilder. This allows for some genuinely creative platforming design as both styles of play afford varied approaches to levels that complement one another.
“Get ready to enjoy this crazy 2D platformer adventure starring KinnikuNeko! A cat with the body of a bodybuilder who will fight against a big alien army that has invaded planet Earth and captured all its inhabitants.”
Your bulging abs may be competent at prying doors open and boffing enemies. However, you’ll have to transform back into a kitten if you’re to traverse up walls or over plunging chasms. The gameplay is varied enough even just with the two playable forms, but the platforming challenges also give way to autoscrolling levels, rhythm games or even challenging a foe to an arm-wrestle.
Yet, if the anime-inspired absurdity of it all is something you’re not quite sure about, then you’re in luck. Don’t just give it a miss, gamers can play a free demo of the bonkers title that is available on its Steam page.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was not beloved by gamers, as many snuffed their excitement at its adherence to the series’ 2D platforming roots rather than the 3D action-platforming of more recent titles. However, as a AAA experience, it’s seldom going to be lost to time like some of the other titles on this list.
The move of the franchise back to the series’ 2D roots enamored those who played it. The problem is that not many people gave it the time of day, and decided to give it a miss. It may not have been the route many fans wished for the series.
However, its lack of commercial success is a shame, especially as it may impact publisher Ubisoft’s confidence in taking similar creative leaps in the future.
“All in all, the game is a welcomed surprise that still holds onto the original’s core fundamentals. Though it doesn’t look it, it feels like a Prince of Persia game with all of its challenges and unique powers.”
Many 3D Prince of Persia titles forgo much of the series’ puzzle-platforming core in favor of all-out action. In contrast to those third-person titles, effectively every leap in The Lost Crown requires a unique strategy. Retaining the quick loading following a failed jump or combat encounter, the time-warping origins of the series are also still intact for this soft reboot.
As such, if the franchise has ever been of interest to you, and you don’t feel comfortable venturing into the series’ past, then The Lost Crown is a great place in the series to jump into.
It’s a common turn of phrase that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’. In the challenge to be the best of 23 other writers vying for the top spot, you’ll find out if you have what it takes.
“24 writers, and you’re one of them. Challenge yourself to become the best writer in the world. Write books, create characters, choose endings, team up with rivals, answer letters from readers, and don’t let other authors beat you!”
In Writer’s Rush, players create their own stories by selecting themes, plot devices, and target audiences from a limited selection. Gamers then rattle through the editing and marketing process to out-sell their competitors.
If you feel like writing a gritty noir mystery set in the Renaissance, then that’s doable. If you want to make it a kid’s book, go ahead. Perhaps there may be a hidden market for a 16th-century Bugsy Malone.
Lil Guardsman is a title that can be succinctly described by just four words; a cutesy Medieval Papers, Please.
Players control 12-year-old protagonist Lil who has taken over her drunkard dad’s place at the guardpost at the city’s border. The game’s silly and metanarrative comedy makes sure that while effectively all you are doing is questioning a selection of fantasy applicants day after day, you’re constantly engaged.
“Question humans, elves, goblins, cyclopes, and other fantasy creatures using your powers of deduction to determine who to admit or deny … but be careful: who you let through the castle gates will determine the kingdom’s fate.”
The hand-drawn aesthetic of the title does a lot to convey who the ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ are. The challenge then comes in using the varied selection of tools at your disposal. You use these to assess what they are telling you and make sure you don’t miss anything.
Despite the laid-back atmosphere, you do have a limit of three questions, so you’ll have to make the best use of them before you need to give a binary yes or no answer.
Although you don’t have to balance resources to keep your family alive like in Papers, Please, there is still plenty to do in between sections of active gameplay. In your downtime, you can traverse the city’s establishments and even enjoy a few minigames on your well-earned time off.
Like Bushido Blade or Nidhogg, First Cut: Samurai Duel is a game where swords are actually as deadly as they should be.
It may, at first, seem like a weird concept to have to spell out. However, in a sea of titles where enemies can sponge multiple high-explosives to the face, it’s a necessary one. Similarly to games like For Honor, you can attack from any direction but if you and your enemy’s blades cross then your attacks are blocked.
While First Cut: Samurai Duel allows you to parry and dodge, the rest is up to you.
“A high-intensity arcade sword-fighting game where every strike is lethal. Slash, clash, parry, dodge and watch limbs fly in the atmosphere of historical feudal Japan. Choose your move carefully – the first cut is also the last.“
It may take some time to get used to the controls, especially as the game is more than happy to just throw you in the deep end. However, the result of mastering the combat is a truly unique and satisfying experience.
Despite the gore seen within the game, it is a genuinely beautiful title. First Cut: Samurai Duel shows just how expressive and emotive pixels can be in the right hands.
If it sounds like a cut above the rest, then the original game, simply named ‘First Cut’ is available free on itch.io. The full game, First Cut: Samurai Duel – can be found on its Steam Store page here.
6. Still Wakes the Deep
Image Source: The Chinese Room
Still Wakes the Deep was a big win for Microsoft. Coming from a massively popular initial reception, they were able to get this much-hyped eldrich-horror game on their Game Pass subscription service day and date with its worldwide release
The title was seen by gamers as a particularly competent title, with some genuinely spine-chilling environmental storytelling. However, Still Wakes the Deep did struggle to keep its pace moving. While players were seemingly engaged in their first run-through, the title didn’t provide much reason to return to it.
“It’s a great sign that even without the monsters, the game would still stand on its own two feet … you’ll find yourself revisiting some areas over and over again, but the gradual destruction of the Beroa means they often feel unfamiliar.”
The Lovecraftian horrors of the rig, along with the deafening isolation of the North Sea create a Bioshock-like atmosphere. Alongside the Scots tongue of many of its characters, it retains its place as one of the most engaging titles of the last half-year. However, it’s just a shame that not so many gamers have engaged with it as perhaps should have.
It appears that the 2020s are seemingly a hallmark decade ear for claymation to make a comeback. On the feature-film side of things, Aardman is back in the creative pipeline with releases like Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, and a new Wallace and Gromit film coming this year.
A similar amount of creativity and passion is on display from Slow Bros. in their claymation game, Harold Halibut. Although this project is, of course, in interactive form.
“a handmade narrative game … Harold Halibut takes place in a city-sized spaceship that left Earth 250 years ago, but is now stuck underwater on an alien world … also, that part about the game being handmade is pretty literal, as the clay-looking in-game models were actually created by hand”
The slow pace and fixed angles of Harold Halibut are akin to the very best scenes of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr Fox. Light puzzles and interactivity are the name of the game, as the dense atmosphere of the title starts to unravel around the player.
After escaping a desolate Earth, humanity has crash-landed on a new planet with a choking atmosphere. Yet, after 250 years, tightly wound order starts to fall apart and show the cracks beneath.
There are too many games to count that are absolutely superb experiences that would be a shame to be missed. However, a game that mixes genres and introduces multiple playable instances of the player-character in real-time? Well, that’s definitely something to talk about.
Timemelters isn’t just a third-person defense game, an army-builder, or a time-bending experiment gone wild. It’s all of these things and more.
Set in 16th-century Scotland, where many innocent women were being rounded up and tried for the crime of supposedly being witches, Timemelters doesn’t leave its narrative behind in its dedication to its gameplay. Although, its gameplay is certainly the central focus of the experience.
“a strategy and hero defense hybrid game that allows you to unleash the power within and become a time-warping witch … rewind time and fight alongside yourself, not as an AI, but in a fully deterministic fashion. Plan out truly custom strategies and play to your own style!”
Players can create instances of themselves to distract enemies while your past itself attacks them as they run. Beyond that, players can shift genre from a third-person title. By floating above the battlefield, gamers can bring trees and elemental spirits to life to protect characters or settlements. As such, gameplay changes on a dime to be more akin to a 4X strategy title like Total War.
Considering Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II‘s development team, Ninja Theory, is a Microsoft-owned Xbox Games Studio, to call this game even remotely indie would be a lie. However, it’s seemingly nigh-on impossible that so few people have played this title when it had the opportunity to be played by millions of Game Pass users. It’s extremely disheartening that its AAA release has seemingly just moved right past a vast swathe of them.
As arguably the most graphically impressive title in the video game industry this generation, Hellblade II needs to be seen to be believed. Its slow pace and focus on character and atmosphere may not be for everyone. However, its critical and user reception has been that of admiration and adoration.
As with the first game, audio is – once again – a pivotal sense in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. The Furies are voices in Senua’s head, however, they constantly create shades of doubt and self-loathing in the original game. It seems that they too have even matured for the sequel; they not only provide context-dependent combat notification but apply their multi-voiced narration to almost everything Senua sees or does.
“Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is intense, captivating, and breathtaking. From the moment I began to play, the beauty and quality of this game has enthralled me. It was difficult at times to even consider it ‘just a game’.”
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is not just a visual novel with puzzle elements, as its genre is almost the least important aspect you can use to describe it.
It’s a visually stunning game with a cyberpunk aesthetic straight out of something like Neon Genesis: Evangelion or Ghost in the Shell. In keeping with this inspiration, many of the core themes of the cyberpunk genre are here, with conversations surrounding body modification, personal freedom, and technological evolution.
“2064: Read Only Memories looked beautiful too, but the next installment features even more detail than the first … this simultaneously gives Read Only Memories: Neurodiver a retro and modern art feel to it, making for some really unique visuals.”
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver lets gamers take control of a psychic detective. In this role, players are tasked with, jumping into memories and combing through the witness’ innermost thoughts. In them, you scour for the truth hidden behind layers of mental blockage.
The cyberpunk, anime-inspired narrative throughline is engaging and has as many twists and turns along the way. While there are enigmatic antagonistic forces at play, they hardly steal the limelight as Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a game that is as audibly and visually engaging as its genre-defining inspiration.
Point-and-clickhorror is not a niche genre, and not a style of game that ever seems to struggle with creating dark, twisted atmospheres around their slowly maligning narratives.
With a tone and theming similar to other Brothers Grimm-inspired stories, Tales From Candleforth tasks gamers with controlling Sarah. At 16 years old, Sarah is tasked with keeping the family apothecary afloat when her grandmother goes missing. As Tales From Candleforth is imagined as the starting block from which a series of macabre tales are bound, of course, things start to go awry.
“Tales from Candleforth is a collection of fairy tales that were written on top of a forbidden book many years ago to hide its content. Years later, the dark text is bleeding out and onto the pages of the tales, mixing with them and twisting the stories.”
A hauntingly catchy orchestral soundtrack and some genuinely head-scratching puzzles flesh out the gameplay and atmosphere of the title. However, in the end, the priority was clearly on atmosphere and gameplay. In this respect, Tales From Candleforth succeeds valiantly.
As Sarah slowly unravels the world around her, she ventures into the depths of the occult and comes out scarred but stronger from her ordeal.
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With an entire franchise leading into Assassin’s Creed Shadows, features have come and gone over the years. All good things learn from their predecessors, so it’s important to highlight some of what should and shouldn’t be included, so here are 5 features we hope to see in AC Shadows and 5 we don’t.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Features We Want to See
It’s easy to look at any feature in the franchise now and say it’s good or bad in retrospect. Some things made sense for the games and their titles, while others improved their games from the ground up.
1. Stealth-Focused Combat
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I can’t lie, when I play Assassin’s Creed 3, it’s loads of fun to run up to a group of Redcoats and start a fight I know I can win. However, something about that doesn’t feel like Assassin’s Creed at its best. Assassin’s Creed Mirage brought back the combat mechanics from the days of old where stealth is more your ally than the sword at your hip. Hopefully, Yasuke can satisfy the large-scale combat, while letting Naoe remain stealthy.
While losing any fight with more than five enemies gets disheartening, it drives players to play the game using stealth, the way it should be. It makes you think about your environment and use it to your advantage, rather than brute force. When I want to tear through enemies, I’ll hop into AC3 or Black Flag, but I’d rather be sneaky.
2. Those Who Came Before – Isu
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One of the common threads throughout the Assassin’s Creed games is the precursor race often referred to as Those Who Came Before. They’re the basis for why the Templars and Assassins have anything to fight over. Different games have touched on them to varying degrees, but the earlier games dove deeper than the new ones.
Some titles like Assassin’s Creed 3 would have the historical protagonist and Desmond interacting with characters like Juno to give backstory to the Isu. Games like Syndicate and Mirage didn’t take any time to go forward to the present day, so the period characters had all of the interaction with them. While I don’t want Assassin’s Creed Shadows to feature the Isu too heavily, I’ll miss them if they’re gone.
3. Playable Side Games
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One of the smaller Assassin’s Creed features playing games in a bar or saloon is a nice touch that brings the world together. Certain in-game locations have people playing games either for money or pleasure. The franchise has seen games like Checkers, Men’s Morris and Hazard, so Japan opens the door for Shogi, Go or Sugoroku.
These games add to the world-building, as much as having a codex with paragraphs of information. The codex is great, but having interactive games incentivises players to dive deeper into the history. You’re immersing yourself deeper into the world, which connects you more with the characters. Plus it’s a great way to make a little money.
4. Eagle-Based Scouting
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The Assassin’s Creed franchise has introduced plenty of mechanics that make the overall game easier or more connected. One such feature is the eagles used for scouting the environment. AC Origins employed Senu and Origins employed Enkidu as their scouts, and it feels right at home in the franchise. Sure, it’s not using the Assassin’s skills per se, but I can suspend my disbelief if it means flying around the map.
The marksmen that shoot at your bird are a brilliant counter to the ability, not making it feel too overpowered. If you try to use your bird and they get shot at, you’ll have to manage on foot until you eliminate those enemies. Then, you’ll be able to use the feature to its fullest, which adds an extra layer to the gameplay. If you want to use your eagle’s vision, you’ll have to use your Eagle Vision.
5. Efficient Sprint Feature
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As a self-proclaimed completionist, I do my best not to fast-travel very much. I love running around the map to find the collectibles and side missions scattered throughout. That said, my patience thins quickly when a game doesn’t have a sprint button like Assassin’s Creed Origins. Games with oversized maps like some of the AC franchise can’t get away with not letting me run fast enough to explore the map efficiently.
I say “efficient” sprint mechanic as a direct callout to AC Mirage. It’s a great time to explore Baghdad, but the sprint feature didn’t make me feel like I was running much faster. Most of the other Assassins (who weren’t hulking warriors) had the advantage of being fast and deadly. Basim felt a bit slow after playing the whole game, but he’s a very different character.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Features We Don’t Want
There’s no inherent issue with Ubisoft giving Assassin’s Creed Shadows features that can keep things fresh. However, sometimes features are added to the franchise that it could do without, or that are only appropriate for the title they’re originally featured in.
1. Grappling Hook
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One of the most game-changing mechanics introduced to Assassin’s Creed would have to be the grappling hook from AC Syndicate. Don’t get me wrong, there was something satisfying about being able to grapple up the face of most buildings. However, it does go against what makes Assassin’s Creed feel the way it does. Fearlessly scaling buildings by hand makes the Assassins feel capable and threatening. Having a grappling hook do all the work feels like taking a shortcut.
The grappling hook being a feature in AC Syndicate does fit that time nicely, but it’d feel out of place as a feature in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The Industrial Revolution was a boom in technological advancement, so it only makes sense that the Assassins might get some new kit. However, having a grappling hook in feudal Japan might pull players out of the story, so it’d be best to omit one this time.
2. Glider/Flying Machine
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Speaking of faster methods of transportation, Ezio‘s glider in Assassin’s Creed 2 is another thing that should be left out of AC Shadows. Depending on the size of the map, my opinion on this might shift because sometimes you need to cover large distances quickly. Traversal shouldn’t feel like a cop out, and luckily the glider wasn’t a main feature, so it didn’t become distracting.
Rise of the Ronin was a recent game set in Japan with the protagonist using a glider, so it’s safe to say that AC Shadows won’t want to mimic it. Depending on the map size, it might be worthwhile to have some method for speedy travel, but I’m a fan of the classic horse. As long as you can make the horse sprint, I’ll be happy.
3. Naval Combat
Image Source: Ubisoft
Naval combat was introduced to the Assassin’s Creed franchise in Black Flag. It consists of captaining a ship and its crew to board and destroy enemy ships while traveling on the seas. While the mechanic is interesting and done uniquely, it can tend to slow some of the gameplay. There’s a learning curve, with patience being key to success.
There is plenty to appreciate about the naval combat in the AC games that have it. Listening to your crew singing sea shanties was a great touch in Black Flag, and boarding a ship is always satisfying. It just feels like using large-scale transportation like ships isn’t as discreet as the Assassins aim to be. Assassin’s Creed Shadows could feature some boats, but I can’t see Naoe captaining a vessel to the cheers of her crew.
4. Modern-Day Cutaways
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This one is a struggle even for me to choose, but I’ve got to go with my gut. I understand the parts of the game that cut back to Desmond or an Abstergo employee are the way to tie everything together. When I first started playing AC games, I became more compelled by the historical settings than the meta-story. Even though I like the precursor details, after Desmond’s story I haven’t been impressed by anything in the modern day.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t enjoy a new modern storyline if it were done well. I only feel that Ubisoft should focus its resources more on the part of the game that people are buying it for. Blag Flag’s Abstergo cutaways were my least favorite part of the game, but not playing them at all felt like skipping out on the full experience. As much as I loved Nolan North’s performance, I found myself racing to get back in the animus whenever I could.
5. Freerun Up/Down
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Assassin’s Creed Unity revamped the freerunning mechanics for the franchise to allow for more precise traversal. This continued into Syndicate, although later games abandoned it to pursue a different style. The introduction was much needed in the franchise to smooth out some of the traversal mechanics, and it succeeded.
That said, at this point in the franchise, the mechanic is dated. While it did solve some of the former issues regarding traversing the map, it’s since been modernized in a way that makes sense for the franchise. The newer games have implemented a smoother, implicitly directional system allowing for a more natural experience. Freerunning up or down is a feature Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t be needing.
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The student newspaper at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento published a list late last month of anonymous quotes dubbed “some of the weirdest stuff” heard on campus.
The listicle included odd but innocuous lines like: “My hamster ate its babies last night,” overheard in a hallway. And, “Please, stop licking my armpits,” heard in a history class.
Then there was this: “Hitler’s got some good ideas” — a line purportedly overheard in a government class.
The decision by student editors at the newspaper, the Prospector, to publish the remark has sparked a debate about cavalier antisemitism on campus and the rights of the press — including the student press — to publish offensive speech.
In an email to families Sunday night, Principal Andrea Egan called the quote “deeply offensive” and said she promptly met with the journalism students to discuss “the importance of exercising good judgment in their editorial decision-making.”
“Please know that I am navigating this to the best of my ability within student publications’ laws governing free speech,” Egan wrote. “Nothing is more important to me than the wellness of the students and staff who come to our schoolhouse daily.”
Brian Heap, a spokesman for the Sacramento City Unified School District, said in a statement that the remark, allegedly overheard in a classroom, was not reported to a teacher or administrator prior to publication.
It was published as part of a listicle titled “What Did You Say?”
The introduction to the list of nine quotes read: “Have you ever heard something while walking in the school hallways and thought, ‘That is the strangest and weirdest thing I have ever heard in my life’? Well, we asked you to share with us some of the weirdest stuff you’ve heard. Here are some of our favorites.”
In an email to The Times, Samantha Archuleta, the faculty advisor for the journalism program, emphasized that the Prospector’s staff is composed of “14-17 year olds learning to navigate journalism.”
“All choices — topics, writing, editing, publishing — are made by students, so there will be inevitable errors,” Archuleta wrote. But she stressed that their right to publish is protected by California law and the 1st Amendment.
“Yes, our ‘explainer’ was too simplistic and unsophisticated, given the sensitivity of the quote, and we’ve discussed this error as a staff and addressed how to avoid it in the future,” she wrote. “But to be clear, the offending quote was from a student on campus, not a Prospector journalist — the Prospector was merely reporting what the student said.”
In a statement on the Prospector’s website, the student journalists said their intent was for the listicle to “expose things that are said on campus that are inappropriate at different levels.”
“While some quotations may be innocuous or even funny, none of them were meant to be seen as light-hearted, celebrated, or condoned. Instead, we hope to hold up a mirror to our richly diverse community and expose the things we and others on campus overhear daily,” the statement reads.
The statement said the Hitler comment was made by a student who was speaking among friends and was not part of a classroom discussion.
“We do believe that addressing the quotes has sparked a much-needed conversation, but the situation has escalated into something we did not intend. … It’s deeply concerning that these remarks are being said on campus without proper action from staff,” the statement reads.
The controversy at McClatchy High School comes at a volatile time, with protests over the Israel-Hamas war roiling university campuses nationwide and student journalists providing some of the most detailed, up-to-the-minute coverage of the unrest.
At UCLA last week, four student journalists who work for the Daily Bruin were attacked — sprayed with Mace and pummeled — by pro-Israeli counterdemonstrators who violently clashed with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in an encampment on campus.
The decision by the Prospector staff to publish the quote also comes amid a surge in antisemitism on school campuses — as well as a rise in vandalism at synagogues and Jewish stores, restaurants and institutions. There also has been a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks nationwide.
Jay Schenirer, president of Congregation B’Nai Israel, a synagogue in the same neighborhood as McClatchy High School, told The Times that children and teenagers in his congregation were hurting and scared because of the rhetoric at their schools and that they were taking the publication of the pro-Hitler quote seriously.
It was particularly alarming, he said, that the quote was published in a list of seemingly lighthearted quotes.
“It’s hard to imagine anyone would find this funny,” said Schenirer, a former Sacramento City Council member whose adult children attended McClatchy.
On Sunday, he said, some 70 people attended a meeting at Congregation B’Nai Israel to discuss the incident, antisemitism at local schools, and how to make sure students feel safe.
They composed a list of recommendations for schools, including: designating an adult to whom students can report incidents of antisemitism; “provide administrators with additional education about free speech and where is the line, when it is crossed, and how to deal with it”; and standardizing high school ethnic studies curriculum throughout the district.
Schenirer said he had spoken multiple times with Principal Egan since the student newspaper’s publication of the offensive quote.
“We need to take this seriously,” he said. “We can’t stand by on the sidelines. We need to be very proactive about this.”
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to craft The Town’s first ever Hollywood Power List: their definitive (and subjective!) ranking of who has the most “juice” a.k.a. the most influential figures in the entertainment business. Matt and Lucas debate who deserves to be in the top 10, who doesn’t, whether an actor will break the top 10, and who currently deserves the coveted top spot.
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, What I’m Hearing …, click here.
Since its launch, Infinite Craft has taken the world by storm with the near-infinite amount of combinations you can make. With that, plenty of combinations that were beyond my wildest dreams were suddenly being generated before my eyes, so I figured it would be best to compile those that struck me the most.
10. Radioactive Kanye West
Image Source: Neal.fun via Twinfinite
“What was I doing combining Chernobyl and Kanye West?” you might ask. The answer isn’t quite as simple as the results, but it expanded my horizons and showed me that you can do quite a bit with only a little in Infinite Craft. Getting Kanye West was the hard part, mainly because I can’t remember how I got my way to Kardashian. However, getting the string of “Divorce, Husband and Marriage” meant I could pull the rapper from the weeds of wherever he hangs out nowadays.
Chernobyl wasn’t too difficult to get, especially after getting Kardashian, because I was able to get Kim Jong Un, and therefore Nuclear War shortly afterward. That led me to radiation, which I combined with Disaster, which I had from earlier experimenting, and it gave me the famous meltdown as a result. I didn’t intend to combine Radiation and Kanye West, but I was curious to see what the game would do if I placed him at the event scene and rolled the dice.
9. Yakinstein
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This is one of those combinations that I could see coming from a few different places. Vomit and Frankstein? Yakuza and Frankenstein? Nope, although getting Frankenyakuza was a pleasant surprise, I made my way here by combining Yak and Einstein. Not quite as discreet as the other options, but still one of those combos that caught me off-guard.
I found myself with Yak long before I even had Einstein, and I had tried plenty of combinations before finding one that stuck, and it just so happened that it stuck with Einstein. Something about it almost feels like an insult you could say to someone who’s acting a little too smart, but trying to explain where that came from might give them more reason to be a Yakinstein.
8. Kim Jong-Kardashian
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This was the result of a rather strange train of thought which also included Kim Jong-dead, which felt a little darker than I had anticipated. On a lighter note, I was trying to combine Kim Jong-Un and Kardashian to get at least one of the famous family members, but Infinite Craft had something a little bit different in mind.
This became a classic example of some of the dead ends you can find yourself in while playing Infinite Craft. Sometimes you can just combine various terms and see what they create, but every once in a while, it’ll just loop you through the same couple of terms. Instead of giving a bunch of diverse results, it might get confused and dial into a single thread, giving you results like Kim Jong-Kardashian.
7. Super Hobbitman
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In a world with both Hobbits and heroes, it can be hard to determine who is the Superman of the Shire. Sometimes Infinite Craft will take a combination of the two terms you enter and give you the representation of what that combination would be – if you combine President and Wall, you’ll get Trump. However, other times it takes your input so literally that you get things like Super Hobbitman.
I wondered what would happen if I were combining different IPs like Assassin’s Creed and Attack on Titan, and I quickly learned that doing this would confuse Infinite Craft into just combining terms as though they belong together. Combining Superman and some of the X-Men proved to be a futile gesture until I also found my way to Super Phoenixman and had to simply call it quits.
6. Zombie Barad-dur
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In a train of thought that had me wanting to know if the game knew where certain characters lived, I managed to create the Batcave by combining Batman and House, so when I tried to combine Sauron and House, I was already surprised to find that it gave me Barad-dur. Further experimentation led me to add House back into the mix and I got House of Barad-dur, and when I combined that with Zombie Davis (long story), I was met with Zombie Barad-dur.
This rabbit hole somehow managed to continue deeper, as I felt the urge to combine it with Yak, giving me the refined Yak-dur. Whether or not this is some alternate universe where Lord of the Rings was represented by wild oxen, it makes me want to combine Yak with every other option I’ve come across so far.
5. Harry Potter and the Pie Terrorist
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Sometimes Infinite Craft is pretty quick about either kicking two terms back at you or giving you a combination, but when I combined Harry Potter and Pie Terrorist, the game took a moment to process what it was about to do. I didn’t think it would put the two together, no more did I expect it to give me the next book in the franchise. It feels very much like something that would be a great time if you plugged it into Chat GPT.
This led me down a full train of thought, combining all of the terms I’ve got with Harry Potter to see what different film names I could make. Interestingly enough, you actually can’t make all that many, so it’s amazing that out of all the terms that worked, Pie Terrorist was the one. I can’t tell you just why I would be so interested in seeing this film, but I would be waiting in line just to see how it turned out.
4. Zombama
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This one is short, sweet, and to the point. As soon as you read it, there’s a clear understanding of what this result has to offer. Zombama is the setup and the punch line at the same time while raising questions in the back of your mind for later. Adding Zombie to other terms doesn’t always result in Zom- and the term, so the fact that Infinite Craft chooses to indulge in the former president makes for a fascinating thought experiment.
I managed to get Zombie Lincoln, Zombie Terrorist, and Zombie Truck, but the game seems to be pretty fair between combining the words and keeping them separate. I created Zombillionaire alongside Zombama, but then I figured that I could get away with stretching a bit more and also created Zombama Truck for yet another first discovery.
3. Frankenkim 8
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When it comes to the results that you can get in Infinite Craft, sometimes it’s a bit more on the nonsensical side of things than reasonable. Frankenkim is the perfect example of this, and after having found a bunch of different devices like iPhones, I was ready to go crazy seeing what I could get. Turns out, if you combine Frankenstein and Kim before adding Windows 8, you’ll be met with a string of characters that represents the very essence of those terms.
I don’t know what else I must’ve been expecting, but I figured that the game would’ve just kicked the terms back at me and not given a result before it responded to such arbitrary input. It’s things like this that make you wonder the exact extent of the game, and just what makes it behave the way it does. How much of the game is generated automatically and how much is hand-written seems to get fuzzy when you’re getting this far into the weeds.
2. Chuckledore
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Chuckledore is funny for more reasons than one. Firstly, it rolls off the tongue pleasantly and at first, could sound like it means a lot of different things. Then, when you think a little more about it, you realize that it’s from combining Chuckle and Dumbledore…Or is it? Without having come across the term Chuckle, I had to settle for the next best thing – Chuckmon.
Chuckmon was a product of my curiosity running rampant and turned out to be the love child of Pokemon and the one and only Chuck Norris. I didn’t even get a chance to try combining Dumbledore with Chuck Norris before I used Chuckmon instead, and the result was just as incredible as what happened when I combined the two.
1. God
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Frankly, while I had a feeling that this would be an option to make in Infinite Craft, I never knew how I could create God. As it turns out, it wasn’t anything like combining Cosmic and Man or anything you would expect. Rather, you can create God by combining Chuck Norris and Anime Hitler. Read that again. Now, I finally see the league that this game is playing in. To be fair, it seems like Chuck Norris is the fastest route to God in the game because you can use him to make God with other terms, so once you’ve got him you should be golden.
Having recently made Pokemon as well as Chuck Norris, I had to combine the two to give myself Chuckmon, and with having then created God (no, not Taylor Swift), I combined those two and found myself with Jesus himself. Just these two terms alone can be combined for plenty of other rabbit holes like Adam, Eve and other biblical figures, and you’ll find shocking results that just might leave you speechless as well.
Over the years, as the Harry Potter IP grew in popularity, the franchise has had its run in all forms of content, including video games. The most recent title Hogwarts Legacy has been a major success since its launch, but the games haven’t always been such smash hits.
There have been game releases for at least every movie released, with some being more enjoyable than others. The games have branched into almost every aspect of the wizarding world, so here are all of the Harry Potter games, ranked.
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One
Image Source: Electronic Arts
While a different take on the series than the other games had been, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One was a darker, more action-based game than what players have experienced. The problem came partially because the series is not necessarily suited to being a third-person shooter, but the theme of this game is nothing but Harry blasting away at everything that moves.
There are certainly some fascinating mechanics introduced like using Polyjuice Potion and the Invisibility Cloak for stealth sections, but the game’s missions don’t follow what happened in the movie or the book. It might be interesting if the game was used as a way to fill in some of the gaps in the movie, but instead, the developers just created some arbitrary missions with characters from the movie to assail with spells.
The game just doesn’t play like a Harry Potter game, other than the fact that the characters shout words like “Horcrux” and Voldemort now and again. Luckily the music is still just as great as it was for the previous few games, but the feeling of exploration and magic was essentially lost. It just makes you want to go back to Hogwarts, but I guess if Harry could talk to us he would be saying the same thing.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
Image Source: Electronic Arts
Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is equally as uninspired as Part One had turned out to be. The main mechanic of the game is just aiming and blasting, which even still doesn’t carry much emotion because the game does a great deal of auto-locking for you. You just aim your cursor where you want magic to potentially go, and blast as rapidly as you possibly can.
While the story follows the same general tale as the movie, there isn’t much that isn’t wildly distorted and abridged. Cutscenes simply toss information at you, and there’s not much creativity in how they deliver the plot points. You do get to play some part of the game as other characters than Harry, but a lot of it becomes more filler than actual story content.
As far as the rest of the games go, Deathly Hallows Part 2 feels like one of the less polished titles, but that’s likely got a lot to do with how the book was split up into two different movies. There was plenty in the books that could’ve been tapped into, similar to how Peeves was never in the movies but they incorporated him into the earlier games. Whether it was a time issue or just questionable writing, watching the movie will provide a better experience than trying to play through it.
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Image Source: Electronic Arts
The fifth game in the series seemed to be the point at which the games started to fall off a little bit. While there were some technological improvements like more accurate facial scans for the characters and a new physics system, these new elements are not the most well-refined. The story got a bit distorted with how they bring the player between plot points, and overall the gameplay experience was a bit lacking. It’s nice that some of the actual film cast like Rupert Grint voiced their characters in the game, making for some pleasant continuity.
The physics system was rather jittery, causing objects and people’s arms to flap wildly depending on how they wound up oriented. The spellcasting was a little hard to handle, with each spell being bound more to gestures than to a given button press. Luckily, the castle is still free to be explored, with plenty of secrets and collectibles hidden around to add some extra depth to the game and the way the world feels.
What could be considered a saving grace for the game was the minigames, which added some fun ways to spend a little extra time other than following the story or exploring the castle. You could play Wizard’s Chess, Gobstones, or exploding snap, which could distract from but not make up for some of the rest of the game’s flaws. Still, something must be said for a game trying to incorporate new elements where there hadn’t been room for them prior.
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Image Source: Electronic Arts
When it comes to which of the main Harry Potter games I put the most hours into, the answer is without question Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This has less to do with how much I enjoyed the game but with both the game’s length and difficulty compared to the prior three. It wasn’t hard in a way that’s unbeatable by any means, but there are some odd features like having card slots for each character that made it a bit tough to get fully into the game.
The fourth entry remained in third-person but pulled the camera back a bit to accommodate more on the screen at once. There was more to explore in the environment, but you could also play with two other people as the main three, which was a technical step up from the other games. In the first three games, to cast spells you only had to press a single button and the game would choose the spell for you, but the fourth game put the spell choice in the players’ hands.
Playing the game required more focus and attention than the other titles had previously, with the players having to make more complicated decisions, solve larger puzzles, and explore more expansive locations in the world. The enemies were harder to beat than ever before, but the feeling of doing so wasn’t as rewarding as you would hope. Unfortunately, the overall gameplay was a bit clunky, the spellcasting wasn’t satisfying and some points were so dry that I just wanted the game to end.
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Image Source: Electronic Arts
Further continuing with the evolution of the games to that point, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a much more involved title than the first two, incorporating a form of fast travel, more challenges and more collectibles. The games often tend to stray from the details of the actual books and movies in some regards, but interestingly, they will incorporate characters and details from the books that weren’t brought up in the films.
An example of this is Peeves the Poltergeist, who doesn’t make any appearances in the films but plays a large role in the books and games. He generally has to do with the collectibles or fast travel systems, so it’s one of those extra features added in to flesh the games out a little bit better. The third game incorporates all three of the main characters as being playable to a small extent, but multiplayer capabilities still weren’t in a place where you could play with your friends.
The Prisoner of Azkaban game incorporated some fun new Hippogriff flying minigames, and it also massively improved upon the other games from a technical and graphical perspective. The characters are a bit more lively, the voice actors have more enthusiasm and the music makes the experience feel much more well-rounded and thrilling.
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Image Source: Electronic Arts
After the relative disappointment of the Order of the Phoenix game, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was a surprisingly good time. After a while of playing it, there came a point where it felt a bit repetitive, between the dueling and minigames, but the first few times you did them, they were enjoyable and creative.
I played this one on the Wii, and it must’ve been just the right time to do so because it did for a moment capture that feeling of waving a wand. That feeling didn’t always carry through for the rest of the game, but the potion-making minigames were some of the most memorable by far with that control scheme. The Quidditch sections are also a blast, making the game feel thrilling and fast-paced — more than some of the combat.
Another highlight is the music in the game, never giving you a moment to feel like you’re playing anything other than a Harry Potter game. Some of the setpieces are clever and fall right into place with the world, even if they’re not a one-to-one recreation of the films that they’re based on. As always though, it’s nice to have some of the main actors lend their voice to the project, but some of the ones that are fill-ins do leave something to be desired.
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone
Image Source: Electronic Arts
Released in 2001, it’s a bit hard to look back at the first Harry Potter game in the franchise and not see its age immediately. The graphics are blocky, the animations are dated and the sound quality isn’t the most enjoyable, but when you look at the overall gameplay, there’s plenty to be pleased with. You get to learn many different spells, explore a surprisingly in-depth Hogwarts, and even fly on a broomstick.
Looking back at the game flooded me with memories of seeing cutscenes, but more than anything I was struck by the three or so different variations of saying each spell, and boy do they get grating after a while. I can’t imagine how parents must’ve felt listening to screams of “Flipendo!” and “Alohamora!” at all hours of the day, but at least they could sleep well knowing that they got their kids a game that’ll entertain them for hours.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is simple yet rewarding, and while made for kids, it’s a great first step into the realm of gaming given that it came out directly alongside the movie. There was no guarantee it would do well at all, but the game was reasonably well-received and sold enough copies to justify making a game for every single other film release, and plenty more.
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Image Source: Electronic Arts
Serving as a technical upgrade from the first game, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets smoothed up some of the textures and refined other quality-of-life matters like sound quality and voice acting. There are more collectibles than the first game, and the overall gameplay experience is more refined than the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Certain aspects of the game became more evolved from the Socerer’s Stone game, like the spellcasting QTEs changing from drawing a symbol to pressing arrows along the path of a symbol. This is likely to quell some of the frustrations the first game instilled, but it also gives the impression that the games are maturing along with the characters.
Because it looked so much better than the first game in the series, Electronic Arts wound up remastering the first game in 2003, with more assets and technical features that were introduced in the second game. Playing through Chamber of Secrets is probably where I developed my compulsion to break and interact with every single item in whatever game I’m playing because I grew so used to earning countless Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.
2. Hogwarts Legacy
Image Source: Avalanche Software
The newest installment in the Harry Potter series of games does what hasn’t been done before, being that it has nothing to do with Harry or the standard cast of characters. The game takes place long before the events of the books and films, meaning that you get to explore the world of Hogwarts without having the pressure of saving the world on your back. Sure, you’ve got some big priorities alongside your classwork, but they pale in comparison to being the Boy Who Lived.
Getting to explore the grounds and the castle is everything that I’ve always wanted to do as a fan, but the previous games were limited. Obviously, in 2003 it simply wasn’t possible for games to be what Hogwarts Legacy is today, but luckily I was able to hold out until 2023 — or rather the year after — to get the experience I always wanted. The map is vast and inclusive, and being able to ride mounts or brooms makes getting around a breeze. That and the floo powder.
Having the freedom of being a student makes the whole world feel like it’s something you can be a part of. You aren’t a first-year, meaning that you have some idea what you’re doing, but you still have so much to explore and so many people to talk to, uncovering some of the secrets of the environment. Even for someone who’s not a Harry Potter fan, there can be a lot to love just exploring the world with fresh eyes.
1. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
Image Source: Electronic Arts
When it comes down to all of the Harry Potter games, the one that I’ve sunk the most hours into is the one that feels the most replayable: Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. The main tie to the franchise is that you start in Hogwarts, but once you’ve conquered the school you’ll have the whole world to take on. Weirdly, it plays like a sports game while managing to master the magic of the universe and allow you.
For a game released in 2003, there’s a lot to unpack. The PC controls are certainly not the most intuitive, but a controller can help to steady your broomstick as you soar through the different positions on the Quidditch pitch. You’ll play as a Chaser, Seeker, Beater and Keeper, and each has challenges for you to overcome. Each position is diverse and different, and it gives you a good level of variety that drives the replayability of the game.
Although I played the game at a time before E-Sports rose to popularity, even as a child I found myself drilling the challenges until I got them right. I would play game after game until I beat every team in the school and on the world stage, even though I wasn’t earning achievements for doing so. The game feels dynamic and alive, and after downloading a copy in 2024 to see how it feels, it still holds up over 20 years later which gives it the top spot on the list.
With another day of rain drenching soggy Southern California, multiple evacuation warnings and orders are in effect Tuesday for residents in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and San Bernardino counties.
An evacuation order, which carries the force of law, is a command to leave the area right away because of an immediate threat to life. An evacuation warning is an alert about a potential threat to life or property, and leaving the area is voluntary.
Los Angeles County
Authorities issued evacuation orders for the following areas with burn scars from past wildfires that increased the risk of mud and debris flows, urging residents to gather family members, pets and medications and leave immediately.
Santa Maria Road north of Topanga Canyon Boulevard
Soledad Canyon Road east of Agua Dulce Canyon Road
Culver City issued an evacuation warning to residents in the Upper Crest neighborhood Monday evening. The warning will be in effect until the end of Tuesday and extends to residents on the following streets:
Cranks Road (Tellefson Road to St James Drive)
Tellefson Road (Cranks Road to Stubbs Lane )
Ranch Road (Tellefson Road to Cranks Road)
Stubbs Lane (in its entirety)
Lugo Way (in its entirety)
Youngworth Road (Ranch Road to Flaxton Street)
Flaxton Street (Youngworth Road to Drakewood Ave)
Drakewood Avenue (Ranch Road to Northgate Street)
Bernardo Road (Tellefson Road to the end)
The Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works issued a mudflow alert for homes in the burn scar of the 2020 Ranch 2 Fire. Emergency officials issued an evacuation warning to four homes in the Mountain Cove community, which will be in effect through Tuesday morning.
Other areas with burn scars received evacuation warnings, instructing residents to leave now if they need extra time to evacuate or have animals that need shelter. The warnings, which are in effect through at least 6 p.m. Tuesday, include:
The Juniper Hills and Valyermo areas hit by the Bobcat fire
The Lake Hughes and King Canyon areas hit by the Lake fire, particularly the 20000 block of Pine Canyon Road, the 18000 block of Ellstree Drive, the 46000 block of Kings Canyon Road, the 18000 block of Newvale Drive and the 43000 block of Lake Hughes Road
All of Topanga Zone 4 in the northeastern part of the canyon not under an evacuation order
In the city of Duarte, along Mel Canyon Road between Fish Canyon Road and Brookridge Road
According to L.A. County officials, shelters are available in two places: ONEgeneration at 18255 Victory Blvd. in Reseda and Marie Kerr Park at 39700 30th St. West in Palmdale. For animal sheltering, the county directs people to the Agoura Animal Care Shelter at 29525 Agoura Road in Agoura Hills and the Castaic Animal Care Center at 31044 Charlie Canyon Road in Castaic.
Ventura County
An evacuation warning is in effect for:
The unincorporated region around Ojai, Matilija Canyon, North Fork and Camino Cielo. There is no access to the area due to the storm damage, according to emergency officials.
Orange County
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department issued evacuation warnings for the following areas:
Irvine Lake
Black Star and Baker Canyon
Silverado Canyon
Williams Canyon
Modjeska Canyon
Live Oak and North Trabuco Canyon
Trabuco, Rose, Holy Jim Canyon
For more information, call 211. Residents who need shelter are encouraged to make arrangements with relatives or friends, or by calling the American Red Cross at (855) 891-7325.
San Bernardino County
Evacuation warnings have been issued for three communities in the mountains: Seven Oaks, Angelus Oaks, Barton Flats and Forest Falls. The county also warned of potential flooding in and downstream of burn scars in Oak Glen, Yucaipa and Mountain Home Village.
Residents in those communities who need a shelter for their small animals can take them to the Devore Animal Shelter at 19777 Shelter Way in San Bernardino. For help, call San Bernardino Animal Care at (800) 472-5609.
Road closures
A list of road closures as of Tuesday morning included:
Near Dodger Stadium just north of downtown Los Angeles, the connector between the southbound 5 Freeway and the southbound 110 Freeway was closed indefinitely by multiple mudslides. So was the onramp from Riverside Drive to the southbound 5.
Near Lake Los Angeles, 110th Street East from Avenue K to Avenue I because of flooding.
In South Los Angeles, the westbound 60 Freeway connector to the westbound 10 Freeway was closed indefinitely because of an accident.
In the Santa Monica Mountains, State Route 27 is closed from Topanga Canyon School Road to Robinson Road indefinitely by overflowing waters from Topanga Creek. Also, mudslides closed a portion of Hillside Drive east of Summit Road.
In Covina, Covina Hills Road from Rancho Del Monico Road to Rancho La Carlota Road was closed because of flooding.
In Palmdale, East Palmdale Boulevard was closed at 87th Street East.
In the Lancaster community of Roosevelt, Avenue I was closed from 60th Street East to 70th Street East because of flooding. In the community of Quartz Hill, 45th Street West was closed from Avenue K to Avenue K-8 because of pavement failure.
In Sylmar, the westbound 210 Freeway onramp was closed indefinitely because of weather conditions.
In Southeast Antelope Valley, Mt. Emma Road was closed from Cheseboro Road to 87th Street East because of storm activity.
In Castaic, Lake Hughes Road was closed from Pine Canyon Road to Dry Gulch and from Lake Hughes Road to Three Points Road by mud slides.
In the San Gabriel Mountains, the Angeles Crest Highway was closed in two stretches: from Mount Wilson Road to just west of Upper Big Tujunga River, and from the State Route 39 junction to Big Pines Highway. Also, State Route 39 was closed from the Angeles Crest Highway south to two miles north of Crystal Lake Road.
South of Seal Beach, Pacific Coast Highway was closed indefinitely from Warner Avenue to Seapoint Street because of flood control.
In downtown Ventura, one of the three southbound lanes of the 101 Freeway near California Street is closed indefinitely by flooding.
In and out of Ojai, State Route 33 is closed indefinitely in both directions from Fairview Road to the Ozema Fire Station by mudslides. A video of the area showed chunks of mud and rocks splayed across the road.
Also in Ojai, McNell Road from Reeves Road to Grand Avenue and Camino Cielo from State Route 33 to the end.
In North Star Ranch, the ramps connecting the 15 Freeway to Main Street were closed for emergency work.
North of Silverwood Lake, State Route 173 was closed from State Route 138 to Lake Arrowhead Road for emergency work.
In South Fontana, the eastbound 10 Freeway offramp at Citrus Street was closed due to emergency work.
Sandbags
If you need sandbags to protect your home or property, the Los Angeles County Fire Department makes empty sandbags available free to residents at all of its stations, with free sand to fill them at selected locations. To find sandbags and sand near you, go to the county Public Works website or check out this list from the Fire Department.
In Orange County, sand and sandbags are available from certain fire stations, the county yard and some city public works departments. A list with links is on the Orange County Fire Authority’s website.
In Ventura County, two dozen fire stations offer free sandbags for residents, although you’ll have to fill them yourself. The Ventura County Fire Department website has a list of participating stations. The Ventura County Public Works Department also offers a list of retailers that sell sandbags, along with instructions for how to fill and handle sandbags safely.
In San Bernardino County, residents can obtain free, empty sandbags at fire stations across the county, although only some of those stations also offer sand. To find a station near you, consult the list on the San Bernardino Fire Protection District website.
The California Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday outlined the first set of reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved in the United States, with proposals that include a call for the state to issue a formal apology, to prohibit involuntary servitude in prisons and to return property seized by governments under race-based eminent domain.
The caucus is not yet calling for cash payments in a list of 14 reparations bills it hopes to pass this year that would enact wide-ranging reforms in education, civil rights, criminal justice, health and business.
The package of legislation is based on recommendations issued by California’s Reparations Task Force at the conclusion of a two-year historic process to study the effects of slavery and suggest policy changes to state lawmakers.
Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, said the apology is the first priority on the list of bills that she hopes will begin the conversation at the Capitol about reparations as she and her colleagues launch a campaign to educate the public about the state’s legacy of racism.
The decision to forgo an immediate call for cash payments comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers struggle to offset a budget shortfall of at least $37.9 billion. Newsom has proposed dipping into the state’s rainy-day reserves, cutting $8.5 billion from climate change initiatives and reducing more than $1.2 billion for housing programs as means to reduce spending to account for lower than expected tax revenue.
“We started realizing with the budget environment we were going to have to do more systemic policy change to address systemic racism versus big budget asks because there just wasn’t the budget for it,” Wilson said. “Our priorities centered around policy changes or creating opportunities.”
Newsom has echoed statements from the task force and Black lawmakers that reparations are about more than cash payments. In a recent interview, he said he finished reading through the task force’s report at the end of the year and his office is working on a detailed 30-page analysis of the recommendations that examines the work the state has already done and what more can be done.
When asked why his budget didn’t include reparations proposals, he said he knew the Black Caucus planned to share its own list of priorities and he didn’t want to get ahead of the group’s process.
“So we wanted to engage them,” Newsom said. “Remember, this was initiated by the Legislature. This is a partnership, and they recognize that there are a lot of things in that report they recommended that we’ve already done and that we’re doing. This gave us time to assess all that. So, it’s been actively worked on.”
Cash payments, in particular, have struggled to earn support among California voters, according to recent opinion polls. Newsom disregarded the idea that reparations could be tough to pass in an election year.
“That’s not been part of my thinking,” Newsom said. “My thinking is just accountability to be honest and responsible and to take seriously the recommendations.”
Wilson described the legislative package as the first phase of a multi-year effort to pass reparations. She said she hopes educating the public about California’s role in slavery and the harm caused by racist policies will help her colleagues and Californians understand the need for the state to atone.
The list of proposed bills the California Legislature Black Caucus wants to pass this year would do the following:
ACA 7 — Amend the California Constitution to permit the state to fund programs for specific groups of people that help to increase life expectancy, improve educational outcomes and lift them out of poverty.
ACA 8 — Amend the California Constitution to prohibit involuntary servitude for incarcerated people.
ACR 135 — Formally recognize and accept the state’s responsibility for the harms and atrocities of state representatives who promoted, facilitated, enforced and permitted slavery.
AB 1815 — Prohibit discrimination based on natural and protective hairstyles in all competitive sports within California.
AB 1929 — Offer competitive grants to increase enrollment of African American descendants in STEM-related career technical education.
AB 1975 — Offer medically supportive food and nutritional interventions as permanent Medi-Cal benefits in California.
AB 1986 — End the California prison system’s practice of banning books without oversight and review.
Proposals that the caucus intends to introduce in the next two weeks would seek to:
Offer career education financial aid to redlined communities.
Restore property taken under race-based eminent domain or offer other remedies to the original owner.
Issue a formal apology for human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.
Restrict solitary confinement in correctional detention facilities.
Offer state-funded grants for African American communities to decrease violence.
Require notification to community stakeholders before the closure of a grocery store in an underserved community.
Eliminate barriers to occupational licenses for people with criminal records.
