ROVEN

Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as first black woman on US top court Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in as the newest associate Supreme Court justice, becoming the first black woman to serve on the nation's highest court. The appointment follows one of the most consequential Supreme Court terms in recent memory, with significant rulings on abortion and gun rights. Ms Jackson, 51, will replace Justice Stephen Breyer, joining the court's three-member liberal minority. She accepts "the solemn responsibility" of the role, she said in a statement. The former public defender joins the court at a tumultuous period in its history. The nine-member court is currently split between six Republican-appointed justices and three picked by Democrats. In recent weeks it delivered several blockbuster decisions - overturning the 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision on abortion, striking down a New York law restricting gun-carrying rights, and limiting the US Environmental Protection Agency's power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The lifetime appointment will likely see Ms Jackson on the bench for decades but will not shift the current ideological balance of the court. The addition of Ms Jackson to the court means that its liberal minority - with Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor - will be made up entirely of women. Mr Breyer congratulated his successor on Thursday, saying "her hard work, integrity, and intelligence have earned her a place on this court." "I am glad for my fellow justices. They gain a colleague who is empathetic, thoughtful, and collegial," he said. US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, announced her nomination in February. In April, three Republicans crossed the aisle to seal her appointment in the US Senate. During her confirmation, Democrats touted Ms Jackson's experience working as a public defender. She will be the first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall - the first black man to appointed to the highest judicial body - to have career experience representing criminal defendants. Ms Jackson, a Washington DC native, previously sat on the influential US court of Appeals for the DC circuit. She has two degrees from Harvard University and once served as editor of the Harvard Law Review. She worked as a public defender in Washington before joining a private practice prior to her judicial appointments. bbc.com/news

170

generator

#gazaunderattack

About a year ago we got the first look at the sequel to horror survival game Sons of the Forest, sequel to The Forest, a sleeper hit of a survival game that has a lot of adoring fans. That's because it blends horror with its survival for a truly, gruesomely horrific game that just kind of... gets worse and worse the more you delve into it. Worse in a good way, mind you. A scary way. Anywho, a new trailer released this week showing off the sequel. It's a bit more gameplay-focused than the last, showing off a fidelity of chopping wood and digging and building and carrying logs in a way that would have boggled our forebears in the world of gaming. Like just watch them diggin animations at the 41 second mark. Check out the part where a guy cuts through a log in the constructed wall to make a window. Look at the wood chips fly. Hot damn. The three-legged, three-armed ballerina lady from the first trailer is back, by the way. She's not dancing this time, but she is just kind of standing around creepily, so... there's that. There's also some extra-horrible behaviors for a few characters, like a cannibal mutant trying to make off with one of the player's already felled logs, or crawling on the ground begging for mercy. Great! Humanize the monsters, that's fine! Just what I need! The Forest first released in 2014 as an Early Access title, then had its official release in 2018. It's likely that Sons of the Forest is a sequel following the events of the first game's ending.

Millions of Americans have temporarily lost their unemployment benefits after President Donald Trump failed to sign the Covid relief bill into law. US President-elect Joe Biden had warned of "devastating consequences" if Mr Trump continued to delay signing but the Saturday deadline has now passed. Unemployment benefits and a ban on evictions will be affected. The package worth $900bn (£665bn) was approved by Congress after months of difficult negotiations and compromises. Mr Trump says he wants to give people bigger one-off payments. The bill includes the payment of $600 to Americans earning less than $75,000 a year. Mr Trump says he wants Americans to receive $2,000 but Republicans in Congress refused to agree to the change. In a tweet late on Saturday evening local time, Mr Trump again defended his position on the issue, blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak. Hunger spikes, demand rises for US food banks Unemployed in the US: 'I don’t know what to do' Counting down the days to losing a home The coronavirus economic relief is part of a $2.3tn spending package that includes $1.4tn for normal federal government spending. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday unless legislators pass a stopgap bill before then - but this would not include coronavirus aid and Mr Trump would still have to sign it. About 14 million Americans would be affected by a lapse in unemployment benefit payments and new stimulus cheques. What did Biden say? In a strongly worded statement published on the transition website on Saturday, Mr Biden described Mr Trump's refusal to sign the bill as an "abdication of responsibility". "It is the day after Christmas, and millions of families don't know if they'll be able to make ends meet because of President Donald Trump's refusal to sign an economic relief bill approved by Congress with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority," Mr Biden said. He praised the example of members of Congress in compromising and reaching a bipartisan agreement, adding: "President Trump should join them, and make sure millions of Americans can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads in this holiday season." What's Trump's position? On Twitter earlier, the president had reiterated his objection to the bill, saying: "I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill." The coronavirus aid relief bill - with the larger budget bill rolled in - overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives and Senate on Monday but, a day later, Mr Trump issued an implied veto threat, describing the package as a "disgrace" full of "wasteful" items. image captionA woman and her daughter receiving food aid in Florida this month He baulked at the annual aid money for other countries in the federal budget, arguing that those funds should instead go to struggling Americans. Mr Trump's decision to bat the measure back to Capitol Hill stunned lawmakers since he has largely stayed out of negotiations for a coronavirus aid bill that had stalled since last July. His top economic adviser, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, had proposed the $600 payments early this month, and many have questioned why the president waited until now to object. What happens next? The fate of the spending package remains in the balance while Mr Trump refuses to sign it. He spent Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida with his family, where he held "many meetings and calls", according to his schedule. The White House said it had no update on the prospect of Mr Trump signing the bill by Monday, an official quoted by Reuters news agency said. Because it includes money to fund the federal government through to September 2021, a government shutdown looms on Tuesday unless a stopgap bill is passed and signed by the president. But that would not cover the coronavirus aid package, leaving millions of families in peril. The House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, plans to vote on Monday on a standalone bill that would provide the $2,000 cheques to Americans. On the same day, the House is also expected to vote on an unrelated, $740bn defence spending bill, which Mr Trump vetoed on Wednesday instead of signing into law. Lawmakers plan to override the president's veto and enact the legislation anyway, but to do so they need two-thirds of votes in both the House and Senate.

What is it? Despite several notable virtues, the Toyota GR Supra is not the sharpest-handling or quickest device in the circa-£50,000 sports car clique. Toyota may yet remedy this itself. Indeed, we very much hope it will. But in the meantime, the new Supra’s Bavarian roots (the hardware is mostly shared with the Z4) have left Germany’s pre-eminent BMW tuner unable to resist tinkering. And the result is an unambiguous improvement, if also an expensive one. AC Schnitzer's menacing package for the Supra costs £20,000 if you go for everything. Bodywork, chassis, powertrain: there are plenty of aftermarket avenues to go down. However, the most salient element of the kit is the ‘piggyback’ ECU that takes BMW’s 3.0-litre B58 straight-six from 335bhp to 395bhp and from 368lb ft to an eyebrow-raising 443lb ft. Straightaway that makes the Supra look a little less benign on paper, and brings the package closer to the car's 400bhp+ rivals. But AC Schnitzer also fits bespoke coilover suspension supplied by KW. It's manually adjustable for both bump and rebound, and drops the ride height by 30mm, so there’s no confusing AC Schnitzer’s take on the Supra with the original product, even at a glance. The car we drove also wore Schnitzer’s 21in wheels, which, despite their size, save around 3kg per corner compared with the regular 19in items. They also look surprisingly good in the metal, which is something even traditionalists would have to admit, with an increase in negative camber signalling extra intent. Stick to the engine, suspension and wheels and your outlay will be around £10,000 – by forgoing the sports exhaust system and carbonfibre body addenda, including the new wing and front splitter. What's it like? The most obvious improvement over the regular car is that, while the firmer suspension doesn’t completely cure the problem, the sense that the standard Supra’s initial steering response is too quick for the body’s more relaxed roll movements has mostly disappeared. Combine this with greater body control across the board and you have a car that’s more immediate and confidence-inspiring, and not just at the limit of adhesion. The aim hasn’t been to transform the Supra into an edgy, prickly thing designed to induce sweaty palms, and it’s for that reason that you still get the same gentle understeer balance and obvious weight transfer through direction changes. However, the dynamic package is simply more coherent. Which is handy, because with so much more torque, AC Schnitzer’s Supra feels if not quite BMW M2 Competition quick then at least coat-tails close, and superbly tractable at all times. It’s a very fast car, and a very stable one, too. Elsewhere, you’ll find that the steering weight, despite no changes to the EPAS tuning, ebbs and flows a little more naturally, and the brake-pedal response is subtly softer and feels less servo-assisted. Both are likely the result of the switch to larger but lighter wheels, and AC Schnitzer’s decision to stick with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber means playfulness hasn’t been ritually sacrificed for speed. With the extra torque it's easier to tease the car slightly out of line, though equally, this isn't something that's likely to happen unless you want it to. Impressively, ride quality also seems to have improved, although the caveat here is that the German Landesstraße routes we drove on are kept in uncommonly good nick. They really are race-track smooth, although like Alpina, AC Schnitzer has a habit of delivering suspension compliance completely out of whack with the huge size of the wheel it fits, so I wouldn’t bet against this Supra riding almost equally well in Britain. Should I buy one? Schitzer's modifications shift the Supra's character to something more steely, enjoyable and convincing, which is exactly what you would expect from this particular tuner. And of course the fact that the Supra’s original ECU is retained wholesale also means the engine can continue to be serviced by Toyota, while all the additional parts are warranted by AC Schnitzer. But of all the modifications, the KW suspension makes most sense, not only because it works brilliantly but also because if it’s power you want, reputable British tuner Litchfield will liberate even more from this 3.0-litre engine, and do it for far less than the £4000 AC Schnitzer asks. And ultimately, this car still wouldn’t tempt us out of an M2 Competition, although AC Schnitzer’s alterations bring the Supra closer to – and in some ways surpass – what it should have been originally, if you’ll excuse the cliché.

untries. Hungary has become the first in the EU to vaccinate people against the virus. The country's state news agency said the first recipient of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine there was a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital. France, Germany and Spain are among the nations where vaccinations are expected to start on Sunday. Coronavirus variants: The science explained UK has two cases of variant linked to South Africa Fresh air: The forgotten coronavirus weapon Scientists say the new variant of Covid-19 could already be circulating - or have originated from - outside the UK but it was spotted there first because of the strength of the UK's surveillance system. The new variant is considerably more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected, experts say. What's the latest from Europe? In the Spanish capital Madrid, the confirmed cases of the new variant involved three relatives of a man who flew from the UK on Thursday, the city's deputy health chief Antonio Zapatero said. The fourth case concerned another man, who had also travelled from the UK. None of the patients were seriously ill and there was "no need for alarm", Mr Zapatero said. There were three further suspected cases, he said, though test results will not be ready before Tuesday or Wednesday. Hours earlier, France confirmed its first case of the new variant - a French citizen in the central town of Tours who had arrived from London on 19 December, the health ministry said. The man, who had been living in the UK, was asymptomatic and currently self-isolating at home, the ministry said. France closed its border with the UK after the new variant was confirmed in Britain but ended its ban for EU citizens on Wednesday, providing people tested negative before travelling. Thousands of lorry drivers spent Christmas Day in their cabs in Kent waiting to cross the English Channel. Switzerland identified three cases, two of which are known to be British citizens currently in the country. Switzerland is alone in Europe in keeping its ski slopes open to tourism over the Christmas and New Year period, and thousands of tourists from Britain have arrived in the last couple of weeks. In Sweden, the health agency said a traveller there was ill with the strain but had been self-isolating since he returned from the UK. Cases in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia had been reported earlier. On Friday, Japan confirmed five infections in passengers who had all arrived from the UK. What is the new variant? The new variant first detected in southern England in September is blamed for sharp rises in levels of positive tests in recent weeks in London, south-east England and the east of England About two-thirds of people testing positive in these areas could have the new variant - but this is only an estimate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says. Three things are coming together that mean the new variant is attracting attention: It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells All of these build a case for a virus that can spread more easily, says the BBC's health and science correspondent, James Gallagher. Experts say the leading vaccines developed in recent months should still work. How did the world respond to the UK's new variant crisis? More than 40 countries banned all UK arrivals earlier this month. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait went even further, closing their borders completely for a week. On Saturday, Japan followed suit, banning entry into the country for almost everyone until the end of January. Japanese nationals and non-Japanese residents who are abroad will be allowed to return.

Microsoft Word (and Outlook) in Windows 10 is getting a fancy new grammar checker, known as the ‘Microsoft Editor’, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to better spot grammar and typing mistakes. While the Windows 10 version of Word already checks your grammar and highlights errors, the new tool goes even further, by using AI to check your writing and make advanced suggestions based on clarity, formality, inclusiveness and more. It will also highlight sensitive geopolitical references, and overall, it could make your writing a lot better. These are the best Microsoft Word deals Best free office software 2020: alternatives to Word, PowerPoint and Excel We pick the best free word processor The Microsoft Editor has actually been part of the web version of Word for a while now, but it’s finally coming to the desktop Windows 10 version, though it will initially be rolled out to people using the Insider program, which gives them early access to new features to help test them out. Using the Editor As Windows Latest explains, the new Microsoft Editor will highlight errors as usual, but you can also select a word, then press Shift + F10 or Alt + Down, which will show a new menu with suggestions about the word, including synonyms and meanings. There is also a plagiarism checker that will make sure that your work is properly cited, and not too similar to published works. If you’ve signed up to the Insider program, then make sure you’re running Version 2010 (Build 13328.20000) to try out the Microsoft Editor in Word. Hopefully the new feature will roll out to regular users soon.

Up until recently, AMD's burliest consumer CPU was the Ryzen 9 3950X. It has since been replaced by the Ryzen 9 5950X at the top of the stack, though if you want to save a few bucks (and build a PC right now, rather than wait for Zen 3 inventories to normalize), the Ryzen 9 3950X is a compelling option at its current discount. You can get it for $694.99 at Newegg currently, after applying coupon code 93XQC55 at checkout. As an added bonus, it qualifies for AMD's "Equipped to Win" game promotion, which gifts you a code to download Far Cry 6 when it releases next year. For whatever odd reason, the game promo is only valid with Ryzen 3000 series purchases, and not the Ryzen 5000 series. This is not a gigantic savings, but if you need and/or want 16 cores and 32 threads of computing muscle, it does not get any cheaper than the Ryzen 9 3950X. And at this discount, it is more than $100 less expensive than the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X. Whether you should wait and splurge an extra Benjamin on the Zen 3 part is up to you, but you could certainly make an argument for the Ryzen 9 3950X if wanting to build or upgrade today. I would not necessarily recommend either one strictly for gaming, though they are suitable for that. Instead, these are some of the best CPUs for gaming and serious streaming combined, or any tasks that will tap into all of those cores and threads at their disposal (like video encoding and other content creation workloads). Incidentally, the Ryzen 9 3950X is even cheaper at Ant Online, where it can be bought for $679.99. It's not clear if that listing will qualify for the Far Cry 6 freebie, though. In theory it should—AMD lists Ant Online as a participating retailer—but there is a separate product page, that specifically mentions Far Cry 6, for $759.99.

It's fascinating to watch Steam and the Epic Games Store as they follow very different trajectories through the holiday season. Epic, the young upstart, is wildly gunning out free games in every possible direction in a bid for your attention, while Valve, the long-reigning champion, has rolled out a new Steam Labs experiment called "Faceted Browsing" that provides more granular control over what you see in the Steam Winter Sale. The new feature is a bit like Steam's broader search functionality, but more quick-and-dirty and aimed solely at big sales, which—let's be honest—can be overwhelming. The menu on the sale page offers a range of categorized filters, enabling users to find deals more selectively than in the past. So if you want, for instance, a funny, first-person singleplayer RPG, you can dial that up. You won't find anything (it came back with "no matches found" for me, anyway), but if you loosen it up to just a funny first-person RPG you'll be informed that both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel are both currently on sale. Valve has also added more "themed pages" to the Winter Sale, so you can dive directly into categories ranging from RPGs and shooters to Pixel and Retro, Female Protagonist, Anime, Soundtracks, and Software—a catch-all category for non-game stuff. Themed pages were actually added during the Autumn Sale, and were so successful—"We found these themed pages drove more game store page visits during the sale than all but one other Steam store point of discovery," Valve said—that they were expanded for the Winter Sale. Steam has grown into a massive, unwieldy beast over the years, and finding interesting and relevant games during its big sales that aren't splashed across the front page (which are generally games that are already well-known anyway) can be a chore. The addition of more filters to fiddle with may not the flashiest Steam update of all time—"New ways to browse during the holidays" isn't the most hype-filled headline I've ever run across—but I expect that it will prove very useful for bargain hunters in the mood for something new.

Ducati is red, Kawasaki is green, Yamaha is blue… motorcycle manufacturers are creatures of habit and for many it is the colour that signifies a brand, not least KTM which will be associated with a vivid orange to infinity and beyond. Naturally this is reflected in anything related to brand exercises, so despite Red Bull’s best efforts to get its ubiquitous branding all over the RC16, KTM’s bright MotoGP machines are recognisable from the top of the back straight at Motorland Aragon. But taking a step for a moment, does a KTM ‘have’ to be orange? Well, not according to this cheeky render from multiple motocross champion Stefan Everts, who raised a brief titter of excitement by ‘announcing’ his own KTM into MotoGP complete with this very eye-catching livery. Before you start punching digits into Google frantically to find out if a mystery new team is entering MotoGP, it’s merely a (pretty effective) stunt for publicity… For some context, since Belgian racer Everts - winner of 101 motocross Grand Prix and a record 10 world championships between 1988 and 2006 - retired he’s turned his attention to developing his own brand of gin named ‘72 Gin’, which in turn wears purple and yellow branding. It’s hard to overshadow KTM’s paint jobs but this rendition is bright, bold and silly - something you just don’t get in motorcycle racing anymore... EDIT: Here's one for the MotoGP buffs, when was the last purple livery to race in the premier class. Answers on a postcard... or the comments below.

EU ambassadors have received a Christmas Day briefing on the post-Brexit trade deal reached with the UK. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier updated them on the agreement, reached after months of fraught talks on fishing rights and business rules. MPs will vote on the deal in Parliament on 30 December, with the UK set to exit existing trading rules on 31 December. The 1,246-page document, which includes about 800 pages of annexes and footnotes, has been seen by the BBC. A 34-page summary of the deal has been published on the UK government's website, but not the complete text. Labour said it was a "thin agreement" but they would back it as the only alternative to no deal, meaning it should win approval. The European Parliament needs to ratify the deal but it is unlikely to do so until the new year, meaning its application will formally be provisional until then. IMAGE COPYRIGHTEPA image captionEuropean ambassadors during the briefing of European Union member states in Brussels on 25 December Sebastian Fischer, a spokesman for the German presidency of the Council of the EU, joked ahead of the EU diplomats' meeting that he was looking forward to it "because nothing is more fun than to celebrate Christmas among socially distanced colleagues". Meanwhile, French Europe minister Clement Beaune said it was a "good agreement", adding that the EU had not accepted a deal "at all costs". In a Christmas video message, posted on Twitter on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson brandished a draft copy of the document. He said: "Tonight, on Christmas Eve, I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy because this is a deal. "A deal to give certainty to business, travellers, and all investors in our country from January 1. A deal with our friends and partners in the EU." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the agreement as "fair" and "balanced", saying it was now "time to turn the page and look to the future". The UK "remains a trusted partner," she added. Struck four and a half years after the UK voted to leave the EU, the deal will define the future relationship for decades. Goods will continue to be traded free of tariffs and quotas and there will be independent arbitration to resolve future disputes. It will mean big changes for business, with the UK and EU forming two separate markets, and the end of free movement. Five thoughts on the Brexit trade deal What just happened with Brexit? How EU leaders reacted to post-Brexit trade deal But it will have come as a major relief to many British businesses, already reeling from the impact of coronavirus, who feared disruption at the borders and the imposition of tariffs, or taxes on imports. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer - who campaigned against Brexit - said the deal did not provide adequate protections for jobs, manufacturing, financial services or workplace rights and was "not the deal the government promised". But with no time left to renegotiate, the only choice was between "this deal or no deal," he added. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said his party needed to see the full text, but would not support a "bad deal". Parliament will sit on 30 December to vote on the trade deal. Dr Joelle Grogan, senior lecturer in law at Middlesex University London, told BBC News: "To put this in real context, if I spend the next five days before Parliament is recalled on Wednesday spending 10 hours a day just reading that document, I will have a maximum of two minutes and 30 seconds to fully understand, analyse and comment on it." These were pretty much the first words out of the mouth of the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, as he announced the just sealed EU-UK trade and security agreement on Thursday. No more looming "no-deal" threats; no more almost painful uncertainty about future relations across the Channel. This was a historic moment. A fair and balanced deal for both sides, said the European Commission. But you'd have to have been half-asleep (or halfway through a bottle of eggnog, cava or pint of Glühwein) to miss the stark difference in tone between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's triumphalist announcement on Thursday afternoon and the sombre statement by the European Commission. Read more from Katya. At a press conference on Thursday, Mr Johnson said the agreement would "protect jobs across this country". He said the UK had not got all it wanted on financial services, a vital part of the UK economy, but insisted the deal was "nonetheless going to enable our dynamic City of London to get on and prosper as never before". The basics A Brexit deal has been agreed, days before a deadline. It means that the UK and the EU can continue to trade without extra taxes being put on goods - but we don't know all the details yet. What took so long? The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 and actually left on 31 January 2020, but leaders had until the end of 2020 to work out a trade deal. There are big changes ahead. Although it's a trade deal that has been agreed, there will also be changes to how people travel between the EU and UK, and to the way they live and work. What happens next with Brexit? The prime minister also acknowledged he had been forced to give ground on his demands on fishing. Fishing makes up 0.12% of the UK's economy but the negotiations went down to the wire over what EU boats were allowed to catch in UK waters. In future, 25% of EU boats' fishing rights in UK waters will be transferred to the UK fishing fleet, over a period of five-and-a-half years. Barrie Deas, the head of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, said "significant concessions" meant there would be "a lot of disappointed and frustrated fishermen". Brexit: Firms ‘need guidance’ to keep goods moving Why a Brexit trade deal is different for NI What the PM's mistake tells us about our future Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said fishing got a "bad deal", adding: "Brexit is happening against Scotland's will... It's time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation." Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford said a deal was better than no deal but said it was "thin" and not what Wales was promised. The deal also means that, except for Northern Ireland, the UK will no longer participate in the Erasmus student exchange scheme. Mr Johnson said it was being replaced with the Turing Scheme, which will include universities outside the EU. In another development following the deal announcement, the UK Mission to the EU said people with a driving licence issued in the UK would not need to use an International Drivers Licence in the EU, and that the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) would be replaced by a similar scheme. Current EHIC cards will remain valid until their expiry date.

My vote DH2

same to me

Up until recently, AMD's burliest consumer CPU was the Ryzen 9 3950X. It has since been replaced by the Ryzen 9 5950X at the top of the stack, though if you want to save a few bucks (and build a PC right now, rather than wait for Zen 3 inventories to normalize), the Ryzen 9 3950X is a compelling option at its current discount. You can get it for $694.99 at Newegg currently, after applying coupon code 93XQC55 at checkout. As an added bonus, it qualifies for AMD's "Equipped to Win" game promotion, which gifts you a code to download Far Cry 6 when it releases next year. For whatever odd reason, the game promo is only valid with Ryzen 3000 series purchases, and not the Ryzen 5000 series. This is not a gigantic savings, but if you need and/or want 16 cores and 32 threads of computing muscle, it does not get any cheaper than the Ryzen 9 3950X. And at this discount, it is more than $100 less expensive than the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X. Whether you should wait and splurge an extra Benjamin on the Zen 3 part is up to you, but you could certainly make an argument for the Ryzen 9 3950X if wanting to build or upgrade today. I would not necessarily recommend either one strictly for gaming, though they are suitable for that. Instead, these are some of the best CPUs for gaming and serious streaming combined, or any tasks that will tap into all of those cores and threads at their disposal (like video encoding and other content creation workloads). Incidentally, the Ryzen 9 3950X is even cheaper at Ant Online, where it can be bought for $679.99. It's not clear if that listing will qualify for the Far Cry 6 freebie, though. In theory it should—AMD lists Ant Online as a participating retailer—but there is a separate product page, that specifically mentions Far Cry 6, for $759.99.

Tencent has acquired Leyou Technologies in a $1.5 billion deal, meaning the enormous Chinese corporation now owns even more of the games you know. The deal had been hinted at earlier this year, with Sony also reported to be interested, but was signed-off by Leyou shareholders on December 11 and finalised today. Leyou was a chicken processing company until, in 2014, it began to diversify into videogames by acquiring a majority stake in Canadian developer Digital Extremes, developer of Warframe. Subsequently Leyou went all-in on this strategy, selling off the chicken business in 2016 and acquiring British developer Splash Damage, which most recent has been working on Gears multiplayer and Gears Tactics, and a 20 percent stake in developer Certain Affinity, which in recent times has worked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, and Halo Infinite. Finally, Leyou established Athlon games, which is currently working with Amazon on the Lord of the Rings MMO as publishing partner. Leyou's maybe not a household name, but that's some idea of the scale of this acquisition. The full list of Tencent's holdings in games grows ever more comprehensive: as well as outright ownership of developers like Riot Games and Funcom, it owns just under 50 percent of Epic Games, plus stakes in Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Paradox Interactive, and many more. “We’ve always been dedicated to creating team-based games that spark friendships and build passionate communities, and we strive to work with partners who believe in that mission," says the Splash Damage co-founder and CEO, the appropriately-named Richard Jolly, "In our many discussions with Tencent, it became clear that they not only believe in that mission but will do everything they can to enable and empower us to realise it. This is going to be a bold new phase for our studio, with an amazing line-up of ambitious games that deliver on what Splash Damage is all about. We couldn’t be more excited." Digital Extremes has always maintained that its deal with Leyou ensured the studio's creative independence, which to be fair does seem to have been the case with Warframe. The studio's blogpost addresses the question of whether Warframe will continue to be developed in this manner: "Yes, we will continue to create great content for Warframe and we will remain creatively independent. Our focus will remain on listening to you, our community, upgrading Warframe based on your feedback, and developing the kind of great stories, gameplay, and incredible new space ninja action you’ve come to expect from us. Tencent is well known for respecting the creative decisions and integrity of its studios, and for giving them the autonomy and independence to experiment, innovate and thrive." Companies like Epic have in the past responded robustly to any suggestion that Tencent is an overbearing or censorious partner, though the Chinese conglomerate's holdings are now so wide and deep that it's attracting attention from the U.S. government. There remains suspicion among western audiences about Tencent's enormous holdings in gaming: after all, in recent weeks we've seen that Western digital storefronts are too scared to sell a Taiwanese horror game for fear of offending China. But its continued growth and reach seem unstoppable.

McLaren's latest creation is the Sabre, a highly-limited bespoke model that will only be sold to 15 pre-allocated customers in the US. The Sabre, revealed by the Woking brand's Beverly Hills dealership rather by than the manufacturer itself, is created by McLaren's Special Operations divison. It's said to be capable of 218mph flat-out, making it the fastest two-seat model the brand has yet produced. Although many technical details of the Sabre are yet to be provided, we know it puts out 824bhp from (we expect) a highly-tuned version of McLaren's venerable 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. That figure is 35bhp more than the Senna, with an identical torque figure of 590lb ft. It's assumed to be based on a Senna underneath, with extensive body modifications enabled by relatively lax homologation requirements in the US. The Sabre's aero package is said to reach "new limits" via an LMP1-style fin running down the centre of the roof, giant rear diffuser and distinctive three-slat wing. It is alleged that customers had a hand in setting up the cars dynamics to suit their requirements during prototype track testing earlier this year. The first example has been delivered at an undisclosed price estimated to be well into seven figures, with the other 14 examples due to find homes in the coming weeks.

US President Trump has urged Congress to amend a $900bn (£670bn) coronavirus relief bill to more than triple its stimulus payments to Americans. In a video message posted on Twitter, he said the package "really is a disgrace", full of "wasteful" items. "It's called the Covid relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with Covid," he said. The $900bn bill includes one-off $600 payments to most Americans, but Mr Trump said the figure should be $2,000. His statement stunned Capitol Hill. Republicans and Democrats have been negotiating a coronavirus stimulus rescue package since July and Mr Trump - who has largely stayed out of the talks - had been expected to sign the legislation into law following its passage through Congress on Monday night. Hunger spikes, demand rises for US food banks Unemployed in the US: 'I don’t know what to do' Counting down the days to losing a home The package of measures is linked to a bigger government spending bill, which includes foreign aid funding as well as a $1.4tn spending measure to fund federal agencies for the next nine months. Those agencies will have to shut if the president vetoes or refuses to sign it by midnight next Monday. Most legislation that comes from Congress requires the approval of the president before becoming law. If the president rejects this bill, it would require at least a two-thirds majority in each chamber - the House of Representatives and the Senate - to override the veto. However, Mr Trump has not specifically said he would veto the bill. While Congress has overridden fewer than 10% of all presidential vetoes, US media say there could be enough votes from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to do so in this instance. What did Trump say? In Tuesday night's message from the White House, Mr Trump baulked at spending in the bill on other countries, arguing that this money should go to struggling Americans. He said: "This bill contains $85.5m for assistance to Cambodia, $134m to Burma, $1.3bn for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment, $25m for democracy and gender programmes in Pakistan, $505m to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama." The president questioned why the Kennedy Center, a performing arts complex in Washington DC, was set to receive $40m when it is not open, and more than $1bn has been allocated to museums and galleries in the capital. Mr Trump concluded: "Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it. It wasn't their fault. It was China's fault. "I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. "I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package." What's in the aid bill? On Monday afternoon, congressional leaders unveiled a 5,593-page package and voted on it several hours later. Several lawmakers protested that they had not been given an opportunity to read the contents. Nevertheless the bill sailed through the House of Representatives by 359-53 and the Senate by 92-6. The relief package contains a number of provisions that will help tens of millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet in the pandemic-battered economy. The one-off payments of $600 are half the sum provided by the last major coronavirus aid bill in March, which contained $2.4tn in economic relief. Monday's package extends federal jobless benefits of up to $300 per week for 11 weeks, although this again is half the amount provided by the previous bill. The package contains $25bn in rental aid and extends an eviction moratorium that was due to expire at the end of this month, a lifeline for millions of Americans. The bill also bans surprise medical billing - where hospital patients get slapped with often exorbitant stealth fees because they were treated by a doctor who was not covered by their health insurer. But after poring over the mammoth legislation, journalists and critics have highlighted a string of alleged giveaways for lobbyists. The Washington Post, for example, reports that the package contains $110bn in tax breaks for sectors such as the liquor industry and motorsports entertainment. How have politicians reacted? On Tuesday, President-elect Joseph Biden said the coronavirus bill was merely a "down payment" and vowed he would press lawmakers to pass another stimulus bill after he enters office next month. "Congress did its job this week," the Democrat said, speaking from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, "and I can and I must ask them to do it again next year." The most powerful congressional Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, usually a fierce antagonist of the president, said she agreed with Mr Trump's call for $2,000 one-off stimulus payments for every American. "Let's do it!" she tweeted, pledging that her party would bring the proposal to the floor this week. Such a plan would need to be passed by the Republican-controlled Senate, where it may well face resistance. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of President Trump, responded to Ms Pelosi with his own tweets welcoming her support for increasing payments, and saying "let's go further" and "agree with President Trump that Big Tech needs to be reined in by winding down Section 230 liability protections". The Democratic minority leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, tweeted: "Trump needs to sign the bill to help people and keep the government open and we're glad to pass more aid Americans need".

More updates are coming to Microsoft Teams, following the announcement of a new History Menu for desktop users. The new feature appeared quietly as part of the Microsoft 365 roadmap but will undoubtedly be welcomed by Teams users that want a faster way to navigate back and forth between frequently visited parts of the platform. “The History Menu for Teams desktop clients displays your recently visited locations when hovering over the backward and forward navigation options,” the 365 roadmap explains. “Using the menu you can quickly jump back to previous locations, making it much easier to quickly get back to nested locations like tabs or documents. The menu is also accessible via keyboard shortcut.” The History Menu is currently in development but is expected to be launched in February of next year. It will be available worldwide. Check out our list of the best video conferencing software available The best business webcams for home working Here's our list of the best headsets for conferencing Recent history Microsoft has worked hard to provide incremental improvements for its Teams video conferencing software, which has seen a huge increase in user figures this year. The coronavirus pandemic has meant that employees and students have often had to work and learn remotely. For the most part, digital tools have worked well but challenges have remained. The addition of a History Menu will prove particularly useful for individuals that use Teams on a regular basis, making it easier and quicker for them to access areas of the platform that they have visited previously. Microsoft has announced regular Teams updates over the last few months, including a Large Gallery view, all-day video calling, and enhanced mobile functionality. The Redmond-based firm is under pressure to continually improve its platform to maintain its market share in an increasingly competitive market. And here's a list of the best online collaboration software

In a perfect world, there would be no hardware shortages, and you could build a PC around whatever components you want. If you are patient, and are wanting to build a Ryzen 5000 series PC, you still can—you just have to wait a bit. However, if you are looking to upgrade right now, this deal for an Intel 10th Gen Core i7 10700K processor is certainly worth considering. The same would be true even if the Ryzen 5000 series was in stock. The Core i7 10700K is on sale at Best Buy for $319.99. To put that price into perspective, it's $10 cheaper than Micro Center's in-store pricing, which often has the best deals on CPUs if you are lucky enough to live near one of its brick-and-mortar locations. It's also $90 below its list price. The Core i7 10700K is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and has suddenly become an excellent value proposition as well. It is an eight-core processor with HyperThreading support (meaning 16 threads), with a 3.8GHz base clock, 5.1GHz turbo clock, and 16MB of L3 cache. As for performance, it trades blows with AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X, which is also an 8-core/16-thread processor, but priced at $449. The 5800X is still the overall better chip, and if pricing were the same, I'd build around Zen 3 (in part for the PCI Express 4.0 support). But pricing isn't the same—you're looking at spending $130 more on the Ryzen 7 5800X, and having to wait for it to be in stock. There's nothing at all wrong with doing that if you have your heart set on Zen 3. However, for gamers looking to stretch their budget and build now, the discounted Core i7 10700K is a worthy CPU to build a PC around. Related note: you can get the Core i7 10700KA Avengers Special Edition package for $329.99 on Newegg, after using coupon code 93XQC36. It's the same processor, but with Avengers packaging and a couple of free gifts—Crysis Remastered game bundle (includes Crysis Remastered, Serious Sam 4, Street Fighter V, and a few other bits of software), and an Intel software bundle.

Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2 have begun their festive celebrations, the most obvious sign of which is the snowfall carpeting southern San Andreas and all five states of the Frontier. Red Dead's grumpy cowpokes now have Christmas trees illuminating their jowels in what I'm sure is a period-appropriate fashion, and GTA Online's cash-happy outlaws can sprint about in Christmas jumpers to sprinkle some cheer amidst the homicide. Until December 30 both games' environments will be decked with boughs of holly, carolers will be going around, and there's a bunch of gifts waiting for those who log in. GTA Online players get a bunch of clothing, including the Green Cluckin' Festive Sweater seen above, some vehicle liveries, a 'holiday care package' filled with enough ordnance to take out an army compound, and a free vehicle, the Grotti Brioso 300. Full details of the trinket-stuffed stocking here. If you're more the rootin-tootin' type, Red Dead Online's gunsmiths are giving out a new gun variant for free, the Winter Evans Repeater, plus all players will receive a coupon for a free Coat to keep the chill out, and a free Repeater. There's a bunch of triple-cash and triple-XP bonuses running across various modes, new horses, a bunch of in-game discounts, and a new legendary target for bounty hunters. Here are the full patch notes, and doesn't the Red Dead Christmas card look nice? GTA Online continues to show incredible longevity, with the recent Cayo Perico heist its most substantial update since launch (it was generally well-received by players, though most agree the stealth sections can do one). Of partiicular note was the ability to play this content as a solo player, something Rockstar says GTA Online will see more of in the future. Red Dead Online recently launched as a standalone game on Steam and the Epic Store (and is available for $5 until February 20, 2021), and isn't quite at the scale of its older brother. Indeed, Red Dead players look at GTA Online's post-launch support, hawk a loogie into the spittoon, and mutter something about how it must be fine to be one of them folks with modern ways, but we likes the Frontier jest fine. Only kidding: They dress up as clowns to protest a lack of updates. To be fair it seemed to have some effect, as this year's Hallowe'en event was one of RDO's best.