JQJO — General news · Page 18

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Democrat Abigail Spanberger is running a low-drama, centrist campaign for Virginia governor, fixating on rising costs and soybean farmers while sidestepping Donald Trump and playing down the prospect of being the state’s first woman governor. She warns Democrats against overpromising, criticizing student debt pledges, as a new party report and ally Gov. Josh Shapiro echo her pocketbook focus. Internal rifts sharpen as progressives back New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his proposals including government-run grocery stores, free transit and rent freezes, while Republicans cast Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill as out of touch.

Microsoft's latest quarter undercut hopes for Xbox. Gaming revenue slipped 2% as Xbox hardware plunged 22%, while growth was a scant 1% and largely lifted by better-than-expected third-party titles like Clair Obscur Expedition 33. CFO Amy Hood forecast another low to mid single digit decline next quarter, citing a lack of landmark first-party releases, despite launches like Ninja Gaiden 4, The Outer Worlds 2, and Double Fine's The Keeper, and a push behind Asus's ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X. Meanwhile, cloud and AI rose 28%, even as gamers voiced displeasure with their wallets.

Universal’s Wicked: For Good is tracking for a $112 million to $115 million debut on November 21, echoing last year’s $112.5 million start for Jon M. Chu’s first chapter. Polling shows strong female interest, with first-choice levels among women over and under 25 outpacing the original and ahead of Lilo & Stitch; unaided awareness matches the film. The sequel runs 2:18, shorter than the 2:40 original, which set Broadway-musical adaptation records with $473.2 million domestic and $756.4 million global. Zootopia 2 tracking arrives next week, while Running Man and Now You See Me 3 open the prior weekend.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Nikola Topic has begun chemotherapy for testicular cancer, general manager Sam Presti said Thursday. Doctors are "extremely positive" about his long-term outlook. Topic, the No. 12 pick in the 2024 draft who missed last season recovering from a torn ACL, had a biopsy at MD Anderson Cancer Center in early October and asked the team to delay disclosure until treatment began. He has been able to work out, but there is no timetable for the 20-year-old Serbian to make his NBA debut. Presti said the organization’s focus is his recovery and offered full support.

Stocks slid Thursday as Meta plunged about 12% and Microsoft fell more than 3% despite solid results and higher spending plans. Jim Cramer called Meta’s drop a buy and the CNBC Investing Club lifted both Meta and Microsoft to its top 1 rating. He applauded the Federal Reserve’s quarter-point cut and Powell’s restraint on December guidance, noting housing stocks were doing better, citing Home Depot. Starbucks ticked higher after reporting positive same‑store sales last month and momentum into October; CEO Brian Niccol said the turnaround is ahead of schedule. Amazon and Apple report after the close.

Canva is relaunching Affinity as a single, all in one creative app for photo editing, vector illustration, and page layouts, promising it will be free forever with no subscription. Available now on Windows and Mac and coming to iPad, the app uses one universal file type and links directly to Canva accounts; Premium subscribers can access AI tools inside Affinity. Older Affinity apps will keep working, though support is unclear after V2 editions were pulled, and some creatives may resist the AI integrations.

A famed Montana find known as the Dueling Dinosaurs, first uncovered on a summer day, has upended decades of T. rex dogma. In Nature, paleontologists Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli report that the carnivore entangled with a triceratops isn’t a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex but a grown Nanotyrannus lancensis, based on robust arms, dental and tail differences, and growth-ring analysis showing maturity around age 20. While modeling other fossils, they identify a second species, Nanotyrannus lethaeus. The work at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences suggests multiple tyrannosaurs shared Cretaceous ecosystems, a view welcomed by an outside expert.

The Senate passed a 51–47 resolution to end President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, with Republicans Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and former GOP leader Mitch McConnell joining Democrats. It was the third such vote this week, after measures targeting tariffs on Canada and Brazil. The resolutions would unwind the tariffs by ending the president’s emergency declarations. Co-sponsor Rand Paul backed the effort, while McConnell said tariffs make building and buying costlier. Sponsor Tim Kaine argued Congress must exercise oversight. Still, the effort is symbolic, with the House unlikely to act, though Kaine says GOP defections can sway Trump.

A randomized trial of 850 adults with mild to moderate depression found that as-needed text or email psychotherapy led to similar 12 week improvements as weekly video sessions, according to JAMA Network Open. Though not an equivalence study, researchers saw no outcome differences and no adverse events. Participants were more likely to drop out of video therapy, yet reported a slightly stronger bond with video clinicians. The findings fuel debate over insurer reimbursement for text therapy; experts call the evidence encouraging but incomplete, noting the exclusion of higher risk patients and gaps in tracking response speed or volume.

Paramount is moving ahead with a live-action Call of Duty movie, tapping Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg to co-write and produce, with Berg directing. The filmmakers, longtime collaborators on projects like Hell or High Water and Wind River, will join Paramount and Activision to build a feature aimed at the franchise’s huge global audience. The project promises the series’ military-driven intensity while courting new viewers. Call of Duty has been the top-selling U.S. video game series for 16 straight years, with over 500 million copies sold worldwide.