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Former Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah has already found a new program in Duke, while Mississippi State's Michael Van Buren Jr., Wisconsin's Braedyn Locke and Cal's Fernando Mendoza are exploring changes of their own in the transfer portal. Mensah, a redshirt freshman with three years of eligibility remaining, told ESPN on Wednesday he has transferred to Duke. He attended the Blue Devils men's basketball game against Incarnate Word on Tuesday night. The Blue Devils (9-3) will face Mississippi in the Gator Bowl, but without 2024 starting quarterback Maalik Murphy and backup Grayson Loftis, who also entered the portal. Mensah, viewed as one of the top players in the portal, threw for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns and completed 65.9% of his passes. He led the Green Wave to a 9-4 record and the American Athletic Conference championship game, where they lost 35-14 to Army. Tulane will play Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl on Sunday. Van Buren, Mendoza and Locke announced on social media they had entered the portal. Van Buren started eight games as a true freshmen for the Bulldogs. He threw for 1,886 yards on 55% passing with 16 total touchdowns and seven interceptions for the Bulldogs (2-10, 0-8 Southeastern Conference). He took over as the starter when Blake Shapen suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in a 45-28 loss to Florida on Sept. 21. Shapen has said he plans to return next season. Van Buren, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound passer from St. Frances Academy in Maryland, had two 300-yard performances for the Bulldogs, including 306 yards and three touchdown passes in a 41-31 road loss against Georgia. Mendoza threw for 3,004 yards in 2024 with 16 TDs, six interceptions and a 68.7 completion percentage. "For the sake of my football future this is the decision I have reached," he posted. Locke passed for 1,936 yards with 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for Wisconsin this season. He said he will have two years of eligibility remaining at his next school. ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan cornerback Will Johnson has joined defensive tackle Mason Graham in the NFL draft. Johnson declared for the draft on Wednesday, one day after Graham decided he would also skip his senior season with the Wolverines. Both preseason All-America players are expected to be first-round picks. Johnson was limited to six games this year due to an injury. He had two interceptions, returning them both for touchdowns to set a school record with three scores off interceptions. Johnson picked off nine passes in three seasons. Graham played in all 12 games this season, finishing with 3 1/2 sacks and seven tackles for losses. He had 18 tackles for losses, including nine sacks, in his three-year career. Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson is The Associated Press offensive player of the year in the Southeastern Conference and South Carolina defensive lineman Kyle Kennard is the top defensive player. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia was voted the top newcomer on Wednesday while the Gamecocks' Shane Beamer is coach of the year in voting by the panel of 17 media members who cover the league. Sampson led the SEC and set school records by rushing for 1,485 yards and 22 touchdowns. He is tied for third nationally in rushing touchdowns, recording the league's fifth-most in a season. Sampson was chosen on all but two ballots. Mississippi wide receiver Tre Harris and his quarterback, Jaxson Dart, each got a vote. Kennard led the SEC with 11-1/2 sacks and 15-1/2 tackles for loss. He also had 10 quarterback hurries and forced three fumbles. Beamer led the Gamecocks to just their fifth nine-win season, including a school-record four wins over Top 25 opponents. They've won their last six games and ended the regular season with a win over eventual ACC champion Clemson. South Carolina plays Illinois on Dec. 31 in the Citrus Bowl. Pavia helped lead Vandy to its first bowl game since 2018 after transferring from New Mexico State. He passed for 2,133 yards and 17 touchdowns with four interceptions. He ran for another 716 yards and six touchdowns, directing an upset of Alabama. AMES, Iowa — Matt Campbell, who led Iowa State to its first 10-win season and became the program's all-time leader in coaching victories, has agreed to an eight-year contract that would keep him with the Cyclones through 2032. University president Wendy Wintersteen and athletic director Jamie Pollard made the announcement Wednesday, four days after the Cyclones lost to Arizona State in the Big 12 championship game. “Given all the uncertainty currently facing college athletics, it was critical that we moved quickly to solidify the future of our football program,” Pollard said. “Matt is the perfect fit for Iowa State University and I am thrilled he wants to continue to lead our program. Leadership continuity is essential to any organization’s long-term success." The Cyclones won their first seven games for their best start since 1938 and are 10-3 heading into their game against Miami in the Pop Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 28. BRIEFLY FLAG PLANT: Ohio Republican state Rep. Josh Williams said Wednesday on social media he's introducing a bill to make flag planting in sports a felony in the state. His proposal comes after the Nov. 30 fight at the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry football game when the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 13-10 and then attempted to plant their flag at midfield. MALZAHN: Gus Malzahn, who resigned as UCF’s coach last month to become Mike Norvell’s offensive coordinator at Florida State, said he chose to return to his coaching roots rather than remain a head coach distracted by a myriad of responsibilities.Joonmo Kwon , a former CEO of Nexon, is an example of an established game developer who decided to march into the wilds of Web3 gaming. He started Delabs Games in South Korea back in 2020 and moved into Web3 at the end of 2021. He raised a round of funding March 2023 ($12 million to date) and then went to work on a variety of games. He is also chairman of 4:33 Creative Lab (parent company of Delabs Games), which saw 70 million downloads for its hit game Boxing Star. Earlier this year, his company launched Rumble Racing Star, a Web3 kart racer on both PC and mobile. The game has reached nearly 10,000 daily active players who have played 2.4 million races during that time, and I had a chance to catch up with him on the state of blockchain gaming. We had an interesting conversation, especially around why Web3 gaming is taking a while to catch on in the West. Rumble Racing Star is one of the games that bridges Web2 free-to-play gaming with Web3 player ownership. Kwon thinks of it as “challenge to earn” when it comes to Web3 gaming. Kwon said the company’s Metabolts NFTs sold out in May and the firm is working on Space Frontier. Key partnership include Ambrus Studio, Batching AI, Cow Cup, and Proof of Play. Delabs is building on the Arbitrum protocol and is working on the the Delabs Playable Layer. What has he learned? Web3 gaming has a loyal following but a relatively small community. The games need to be fun, have a sensible economy, and they also need marketing. And while it has taken a lot longer to reach the mass market in the West than imagined, there are bright spots like the viral nature of mini-games on Telegram, Kwon said. The company has 30 people, and it’s working on an RPG survival game, an anime game and updates to the racing game. The game has nearly 10,000 daily active users and retention is high. He expects real success will come in 2024 or 2025. And Kwon is pivoting to focus on games on Telegram using the TON blockchain, with launches coming for Ragnarok (not the same as Ragnarok: Monster World from Zero X/Gravity) and Boxing Star on Telegram, which has seen a surge in blockchain gamers in 2024 because of the success of other companies’ games like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin. Delabs Games’ titles will see beta tests soon. This past July, Delabs Games launched its first game on Telegram with the baseball game Giga Chad Bat . The idea is to take games to where gamers are already connecting. The company is planning to launch the Delabs Games Platform Mini App, designed as a gateway for Web3 integration in its games. This platform is set to debut in December, initially targeting Telegram users to build momentum before the official game launches. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. GamesBeat: We spoke when you first announced Delabs Games. Joonmo Kwon: Yes, Delabs founded in May 2020. We started out in Web3 games at the end of 2021. This year we’re marketing aggressively. GamesBeat: What’s happened since you started? How much progress have you made since unveiling the web3 focus? Kwon: In Web3 gaming, the product is most important. You need sensible economics around NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the game economy. But we also need marketing. We’ve been doing a lot of marketing and building community. We have a very solid, loyal community on Twitter and elsewhere. We launched our first game, Rumble Racing Star, last December and in January on PC and smartphones. We’ve had very good traction so far. The users are very engaged. We’ve seen good revenue. We launched a mini-game on Telegram. We’ve been polishing that. We plan to launch more games this year and early next year, including more Telegram games in the fall. ( He explained this move in a recent tweet). GamesBeat: In the spring of 2023 you mentioned a racing game, an RPG survival game, and an anime-style game. Kwon: Right, those are our three major games. Rumble Racing Star is an arcade racing game. It’s good for streaming, tournaments, and esports. The second game, Space Frontier, is a survival MMORPG game, and the third game is also an MMORPG. They’re in good shape and ready to be launched soon. GamesBeat: How many people work for you now? Kwon: We have 30 people in-house now. We outsource some graphics work, but 90% of the work is done in-house. GamesBeat: How much money did you raise altogether? Kwon: It was about $12 million. GamesBeat: The Web3 element, how does that work? You mentioned NFTs. What do people get that they can use in a racing game? Kwon: We like sport value tokens (SVTs) and achievements. They get SVTs and NFTs. We have the genesis NFT for Delabs called Adventure Pass. If you have this Adventure Pass, you get special parts for the racing game. You also get multipliers for boosting your points. It’s like a pass in Disneyland. Every game will have benefits for the Adventure Pass. GamesBeat: Part of the game is free to play, and then part of the game relates to the Web3 purchases? Kwon: It’s mostly free to play. That’s much more easily accessible to users. We have three billion gamers around the world. We wanted to make it much easier to access. A smooth experience for gamers is the most important thing. GamesBeat: When did Rumble Racing Star first launch? Kwon: Last November we launched the PC version. The mobile version followed in January. GamesBeat: How many races have you had now? Kwon: It keeps growing. We’re at (2.4 million) now. GamesBeat: In what context do you consider that to be a success? Is it the engagement? Kwon: Not only engagement, but also the core gameplay loop. This is our first web3 game. We have about 10,000 DAUs, which is very satisfactory. Our users enjoy playing the game. Retention is pretty high. A lot of them stream. In terms of revenue, we’re not super successful yet, but in terms of gameplay and user satisfaction and community satisfaction, we’ve been very successful. We’ve gained a lot of experience and learned a lot on this game. GamesBeat: How widely available is the game now? Is it worldwide? Kwon: It’s worldwide on both mobile and PC, except for a few countries that prohibit Web3 gaming. In those cases we just block the web3 parts. You can still enjoy the game without any Web3 elements. GamesBeat: How large a market cap does the game have, the token market cap? Kwon: We plan to have more than five games, but we won’t launch them all until early next year. We use only one native token. But the token isn’t out yet. GamesBeat: How are you able to get on the app stores? Are there limitations related to the Web3 functions so you can get on the app stores? Kwon: Yes, we don’t include the Web3 elements on the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. You have to connect through our website, Star Garage. Then you can play with the Web3 features – connect your wallet, access NFTs, get the SVTs and so on. GamesBeat: I talked to the folks who do the NFL Rivals game. It’s another Web3 game on iOS and Android. Apple lets them on the App Store because the functionality stays the same between Web2 and Web3. Players don’t get a different game or more features in the Web3 version. That gives them access to the App Store, but it’s a limitation on what the Web3 game can be. Is it the same with what you have to do with your Web3 version? Kwon: Exactly. We separate the Web3 and NFT elements. To connect your Web3 wallet you have to use our separate website. It’s not a very smooth experience for users. GamesBeat: The way this stays within the rules of the app stores, you have to buy a virtual currency with a credit card or some other way that allows Apple and Google to get their 30%? Then you can use that currency in the web3 game if you want. Kwon: Yes, that’s right. GamesBeat: Are you satisfied with this? Do you think being able to access the app stores this way will help you have successful games in the longer term? Kwon: No, I don’t think so. Gaming is all about experiences. We analyze our data and look at the funnel our users enter. When there’s any kind of friction around login or payment, or something like a tutorial that players feel is too long, they just leave. It’s free to play. It takes about a minute to download a new game. If players aren’t satisfied after a few minutes, they can just delete it and move on. Added friction is not good for the user experience. There’s still a lot of friction in Web3 games. That’s why the Telegram platform is getting a lot of attention from web3 game developers. They find much less friction there. GamesBeat: I’ve heard that about Telegram, that it feels like the old Facebook with how frictionless it is. Games can spread very easily. Kwon: Exactly. There’s much less friction. They have more than a billion users. Chat apps like WeChat, Kakao, the old Facebook, or LINE have been very successful platforms for games. In terms of friction, it’s easy to log in. It’s easy to make and connect a wallet. It’s a social platform. It has that virality. You can do things like set up leaderboards with your friends. GamesBeat: How far along are you with Telegram? What have you done there so far? Kwon: We launched a game called Giga Chad Bat, a Pokemon-like battle game. There’s a PvP element with scoreboards and guilds. The important part is the virality. You can invite your friends and play together. It’s just a test launch so far. We’ll keep polishing the game. We got a new build yesterday. We’re going to launch a major future project in Telegram. What we’re doing right now is very simple, but we’ve been watching the evolution of these chat app games. They started with hypercasual, but the user base has expanded. With mass adoption, they’ve slowly evolved into casual and mid-core games. GamesBeat: Do you expect Telegram games to progress in terms of the kind of gameplay you can create? Or do you think it will still stay relatively casual? Kwon: It’ll definitely evolve. If you look at what’s happened with WeChat, which is the largest chat app in China with 1.3 billion users, or Kakao, which has something like 99% adoption in South Korea, it’ll definitely evolve. We’re looking at the next generation of Telegram games. They’re going to be more like mid-core games, but with very short game loops, around five minutes, and very social. You can invite your friends, collaborate with your friends, play with your friends. GamesBeat: How large do you think Web3 games can get in terms of audience size, given the friction involved for new players? Do you think it’s still possible for them to grow to very large sizes through the mobile app stores? Kwon: Web2 gamers aren’t very happy right now. The Web2 industry is shrinking. We’ve seen about a 10% minus trend in the Korean market. Games have been commodified by the platforms, and there are so many games. We’re seeing as many as 250,000 or 300,000 new games every year. Games are becoming more and more aggressive with their monetization because the platforms take too much, and because they have to spend so much on marketing. They need to find ways to make more money. We see broader changes in media consumption, too. A younger generation is used to things like TikTok and YouTube shorts. When I ride the subway in Korea, I used to see people playing smartphone games, but these days I feel like 80-90% of what I see is people watching short videos on their phones. Their attention spans are very short, and they want to engage with socially interactive media. GamesBeat: In South Korea, what is the Web3 audience like? Can you compare it to the western or American view of web3 gaming? Is it more accepted in South Korea? Kwon: Koreans are always early adopters of technology. In terms of the crypto market, Korea is the second-largest individual country in the world. The Korean won is the second-most traded currency on crypto exchanges. We have about six million active crypto investors. That’s about 20% of the voting population in Korea. There have been times, during a bull market, that the daily trading volume of the crypto market in Korea was bigger than the stock market. At the same time, South Korea is the fourth-largest gaming market. There was a backlash around the collapse of Terra, though. Investors lost a lot of money on Terra and Luna in Korea. The government tried to create more clarity through regulation. I think that’s a good thing in the long term. GamesBeat: Are there things that you can or can’t do in the Korean market when it comes to Web3, compared to other markets like the U.S.? Are there restrictions you have to work around? Kwon: Right now, play-to-earn games are not allowed. But I think this is going to change. The government’s outlook right now is pretty harsh about crypto games after the Terra experience and some other scam tokens. Again, though, we expect it to change. GamesBeat: Where are most of your Web3 players, then? Are they in the U.S. or elsewhere? Kwon: They’re all over the world. We have players in the U.S., Russia, southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. We have some in Japan. A few Chinese users come in through VPNs as well. GamesBeat: What’s your expectation as far as how your company can grow and how this market can grow? What do you see in the coming years when it comes to web3 games? Kwon: I’m bullish on Web3 games. In Web2 games, the market is already a red ocean. Users aren’t satisfied. A lot of Korean game companies are spending a lot of money on security, real-world security, because of angry users. We’ve had users coming to companies to demonstrate. Web3 feels like the direction that the game industry will go. But we need good products. We need fun games. We need smart economics to make these economies work, inside and outside of our games. We need the right marketing for web3. I’ve been through many years of innovations in the game industry. I’ve experienced stand-alone online games, paid downloadable games, free-to-play games. The innovation around web3 can be much bigger than those combined. GamesBeat: There are some very interesting features web2 games can’t match, like player ownership and the ability to resell items. Wreck League had a very interesting structure, where the Web2 players needed the Web3 players, because they could buy more special mechs from the Web3 players, while the Web3 players had that ability to create their own mechs and sell them, but also enter those mechs into esports tournaments. They could fight for pink slips, essentially. But each side benefited. There was a symbiotic relationship between both groups of players. (Editor’s note: The game did not quite go as expected). Kwon: It’s a smart way to structure a game. I believe that in the near future, though, players won’t necessarily even know that they’re playing a game that’s Web2 or Web3. They’ll engage with a game, and they won’t look at an item as an NFT. It just won’t be a rental from a company. They’ll truly own it, and they can trade it or use it to participate in a community, in a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). I believe in user-generated content as well, and in interoperability, where items from one game can be used in other games. That’s how the ecosystem of Web3 gaming as a whole can expand. GamesBeat: Are there other successful Korean Web3 game companies so far? It feels like Koreans have been much more aggressive at moving into Web3. Kwon: Korea is a small country, with only about 50 million people, but it’s been leading innovation in the game industry for years. Free-to-play was invented here. The first esports competitions here were in 1998. We had some of the first pro gamers. Parents were freaked out at the time. We had the first 24-hour cable TV gaming channel. We had some of the first internet cafes, 30,000 internet cafes by 2000. Japan is still big in animation and in console games, but in terms of online games and free-to-play games, Korea and China have been innovating much faster. There’s been a leapfrog effect. When you look at the hit rate in games, the chances of making a blockbuster, it’s very low. Even with the best team, the best developers. With a web3 game there are more things you have to do right. You have to get the economics right. You have to get the Web3 part right. It’s a much bigger challenge. GamesBeat: I wonder if something like Hamster Kombat could end up being the biggest Web3 game. Kwon: It’s an interesting movement. Those kinds of games–can you even call it a game? But it’s off to a good start. I’ve looked at the data on one of the biggest Telegram games. I heard from the founder that 40% of their new users have never experienced Web3 games. That’s a very interesting, exciting data point. That might be a platform where mass adoption can happen. GamesBeat: Do you see a major benefit to having that adoption happen on mobile or PC instead of Telegram? Kwon: I don’t really care where that mass adoption happens, which platform. Once players experience Web3 gaming, then it’s hard for them to go back. It’s like free-to-play. Once players experienced that, once they didn’t have to pay, the market just got bigger and bigger. You can truly own your in-game items. You can participate in governance. You can make your own content, your own skins and costumes, and sell those items. Why would you go back to centralized games? Once people experience Web3, whether it’s through browser or PC or smartphone or Telegram, they’ll keep looking for Web3 games. GamesBeat: Looking back at the history of free-to-play, what was the moment when that succeeded? When did that overcome the friction, or the fear of change? Kwon: The first free-to-play game was invented by Nexon. That was QuizQuiz. It was very small at first. I think the monthly revenue was maybe $10,000. But everyone could access it without any payment. They could play it and decide whether they wanted to keep going or stop. Online games grew alongside free-to-play. With online games, you needed more users, more concurrent users. It’s a virtual society, or a virtual party. The more, the merrier. Everyone enjoys these games in a different way. A doctor, one hour of his time is worth more to him than, say, a high-school kid. Spending some money to reduce your grinding time just creates a more fair competition. I like spending an hour or so playing a game, but I don’t have the time to grind. An earlier generation of gamers, especially console gamers, they criticized free-to-play at first. They said that it was just paying to win, that it wasn’t fair. But look at it now. Three-fourths of the market is free-to-play. GamesBeat: Do you expect a similar moment for Web3 games any time soon, when we can say this is clearly successful? Kwon: I think it will be this year or the next. Once we have a huge, successful game–that’s what happened in Korea. The first free-to-play games was very small in terms of revenue. But when Maple Story launched, when all the FPS games launched in 2003 to 2005, they built a critical mass of users. The paradigm shift happened very quickly. It’s all about user experience. The big challenge for Web3 is that smooth experience, a frictionless experience. I think Telegram can be one of the platforms that provides a catalyst to create that. GamesBeat: I caught up with the nWay people recently when they launched a new game, and I asked them about Wreck League. They felt like the Web3 players right now are not as hardcore. They like more casual games. It’s more difficult to make a hardcore Web3 game succeed. That was one of their interesting observations about launching Wreck League. They haven’t given up on it, but they feel like it might be too early for that style of game in Web3. It takes a lot of skill. It’s not a super easy game to play. What do you think? Kwon: Yeah, I agree. I know the founder of nWay (Taehoon Kim, who is now former CEO) very well. He’s a very insightful developer. Web3 gamers are not highly committed gamers yet. They don’t necessarily want complicated games. The big difference in Web3 is about true ownership of in-game assets. If it’s too casual a game, there isn’t an opportunity to own those assets. We need games that involve progression, like RPGs, where you grow and collect items and upgrade equipment and level up your characters. But it should start very casually. As you progress and own more assets, you’re likely to settle down in a game. In real life, you’re more likely to stay someplace once you have more assets there – a car, an apartment. It’s the same in a game. Once you’ve invested more of your time and energy, you’re going to stay with it. A lot of Web3 gamers aren’t necessarily even gamers at all, in a way. They’re grinders. It’s not a game. It’s more like a job for them. That’s okay. They’re just extrinsically motivated users. As they grow and progress and gain more items and so on, they’ll settle down as well. That extrinsic motivation can convert into an intrinsic motivation. It happened to me when I was young. My mom wanted me to read books, so she’d give me some money every time I read a book and told her about the story. Later on she stopped giving me money, but I still loved to read. It’s just about finding that primary motivation. It can be extrinsic, earning money and trading items, and intrinsic as well, enjoying that activity more than other ways of making money. It’s a primary and secondary thing, not 100% one way or the other. GamesBeat: We had a lot of Web3 game companies that got started, and they found a lot of funding. When I looked at that funding, at one point 50% of all the companies receiving venture capital were Web3 game companies. It hasn’t taken off as fast as some of those companies and investors expected, though, and a lot of those companies just went out of business. The market has taken off too slowly. How many successful Web3 game companies do you think we’re going to see? Kwon: Number one, when you look at Web2, it’s really tough, as I say, to launch a game and be successful. The same is going to be true with Web3 games. You need a good product, a fun game, and that’s tough. Plus, with Web3 you have to have smart economics, inside and outside the game. You need to build a community. You have to maintain that decentralized governance. There are so many more things you have to do. A lot of the Web3 game projects I see — some of them don’t have the product. They just have hype and speculation. For a time it was easy to draw investment that way. Some companies have a good product, but they don’t know how to make it a good Web3 game. But once one of these games hits big, the returns will be huge. This can be a perpetual game, an autonomous world. Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily By subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service. Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.
CAMDEN, N.J. , Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Subaru of America, Inc. announced pricing today on the rugged 2025 Forester Wilderness SUV. The go-anywhere 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness is based on the previous-generation model and features increased capability, including 9.2 inches of ground clearance for adventure-seekers starting at $34,995 MSRP. In addition to longer coil springs and shock absorbers, the 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness adds 17-inch matte-black alloy wheels wrapped in All-Terrain Yokohama GEOLANDAR® tires for increased traction on muddy, wet, or snowy roads or trails. A full-size spare is tucked underneath the cargo area for added confidence off the pavement. The 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness includes a unique front fascia with a hexagonal grille and hexagonal LED fog lights, larger cladding around the wheels, and a front skid plate to help protect the SUV off-road. A useful anti-glare, matte black decal helps diffuse light from the hood for better outward vision and gives the Subaru Forester Wilderness a visually distinctive appearance on the road and the trails. Water-resistant StarTex® seating surfaces are easily cleanable, while all-weather mats and a standard cargo tray are well-suited for muddy gear and boots. The Wilderness also boasts more robust, ladder-style roof rails that can support up to 800 pounds while stationary, including a rooftop tent. Inside, the Subaru Forester Wilderness' standard 60/40-split folding rear seats open up to 69.1 cubic feet of cargo space with a wide 51.2-inch rear gate opening width to help load bulky gear. With the rear seats upright, the Wilderness comfortably seats up to five people with 39.4 inches of rear seat legroom and 26.9 cubic feet of cargo room behind the second row. For even more gear, the Subaru Forester Wilderness has a towing capacity of up to 3,000 pounds and comes standard with Trailer Stability Assist. Standard EyeSight® Driver Assist Technology features Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control; Pre-Collision Braking; Pre-Collision Throttle Management; Lane Departure and Sway Warning and Lead Vehicle Start Alert. Automatic Emergency Steering works with EyeSight and Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert to assist with steering control to help avoid a collision at speeds slower than 50 mph. Every 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness is powered by a 2.5-liter SUBARU BOXER® engine paired with a Lineartronic Continuously Variable Transmission. The efficient engine sends 182 horsepower and 176 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels via standard Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive. A SUBARU STARLINK® 6.5-inch Multimedia system with a high-resolution touchscreen, Apple CarPlay® and AndroidTM Auto compatibility, and Bluetooth® hands-free streaming connectivity is standard. The front center console comes equipped with dual UBS-A input/charge ports, while the rear center console is equipped with dual USB-A charge ports for second-row riders. A single option package is available for the 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness and adds an 8.0-inch SUBARU STARLINK® 8.0-inch Multimedia Navigation System, Harman Kardon® premium audio with 576-watt equivalent amp and nine speakers, and Power Rear Gate for $2,000 MSRP. The 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness is assembled alongside the all-new 2025 Subaru Forester in Gunma, Japan . The Forester Wilderness will arrive at Subaru retailers in early 2025. 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness Model/Trim Transmission Applicable Option MSRP MSRP plus Destination and Delivery ($1,420) i Forester Wilderness CVT 31, 33 $34,995 $36,415 2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness Option Packages Code Description MSRP 31 Standard Model N/A 33 STARLINK 8.0-inch Multimedia Navigation System + Harman Kardon Premium Speaker System + Power Rear Gate $2,000 Destination & Delivery is $1,420 for Forester Wilderness and may vary in the following states: CT, HI, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI and VT. D&D is $1,570 for retailers in Alaska. About Subaru of America, Inc. Subaru of America, Inc. ( SOA ) is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered in Camden, N.J. , the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts, and accessories through a network of about 640 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill plants, including Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. , the only U.S. automobile manufacturing plant designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise , which is the company's vision to show love and respect to everyone and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA and the SOA Foundation have donated more than $320 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged over 100,000 volunteer hours. Subaru is dedicated to being More Than a Car Company® and to making the world a better place. For additional information, visit media.subaru.com . Follow us on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , TikTok , and YouTube . Dominick Infante Director, Corporate Communications 856.488.8615 dinfante@subaru.com Aaron Cole Product Communications Manager 720.231.0809 acole1@subaru.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/subaru-announces-pricing-on-2025-forester-wilderness-302313781.html SOURCE Subaru of America, Inc.From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turnBill Clinton hospitalized with fever, aide says he 'remains in good spirits'
CTV National News: Trump's dig at Canada
The Denver Gazette sports business insider is a reader’s guide to understanding the influence of money, politics and power behind their favorite leagues, teams and players: Sports business insider: The top 10 highest-paid Colorado professional athletes will combine to earn more than $260 million in 2024-25. Short version: The Denver Gazette gathered public salary cap data (via spotrac.com ) to determine the top 10 highest-paid professional athletes in Colorado. 1. Nikola Jokic, C, Nuggets: $51.4 million cap hit (2024-25) 2. Jamal Murray, PG, Nuggets: $36 million cap hit (2024-25) 3. Michael Porter Jr., PF, Nuggets: $35.8 million cap hit (2024-25) 4. Kris Bryant, 1B, Rockies: $28 million payroll salary (2024) 5. Aaron Gordon, F, Nuggets: $22.8 million cap hit (2024-25) 6. Garett Bolles, LT, Broncos: $20 million cap hit (2024) 7. Kyle Freeland, LHP, Rockies: $15 million payroll salary (2024) 8. Charlie Blackmon, DH, Rockies: $14.5 million payroll salary (2024) 9. D.J. Jones, DT, Broncos: $12.9 million cap hit (2024) 10. Nathan MacKinnon, C, Avalanche: $12.6 million cap hit (2024-25) Folsom Field beer sales nearly double with CU football coach Deion Sanders | Sports Business Insider Long version: The Nuggets have four players ranked among the five best-paid athletes in Colorado. Jokic — a three-time league MVP — is tied with Sixers center Joel Embiid as the second-highest paid NBA player this season. The league’s flexible salary cap is currently at $140 million per team. The Rockies' payroll ranked No. 17 among MLB teams at $147.7 million and it didn’t lead to success. Colorado lost 100-plus games in back-to-back seasons. Bryant, the top-paid baseball player, appeared in only 117 games over that span due to injuries. There is no MLB salary cap. The Broncos overcame significant salary cap challenges (more on that later) with help from the strong play of quarterback Bo Nix on a rookie contract. Bolles is in the final year of his current deal with a front office decision looming on his future in Denver. Jones will also be an unrestricted free agent this summer. The NFL’s hard salary cap is currently at $255.5 million per team. The Avalanche boast the reigning Hart Trophy winner. MacKinnon is the NHL’s second-highest paid player this season. And yet, he barely cracks this list. That is because the league’s hard salary cap is just $88 million per team. However, on Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters in Florida that it is expected to hit $92.4 million next season . Key context: The highest-paid Colorado professional athlete does not live in the state. The Broncos released ex-quarterback Russell Wilson in March and Denver incurred a $53-million cap hit this season ($85 million total over two years). Translation: the Broncos are paying Wilson more than any professional athlete in Colorado this season to quarterback the playoff-bound Steelers (10-3). The good news is that both teams appear better off from the Broncos-Wilson split with Nix leading the Broncos (8-5) to a likely playoff berth, too. How the Denver Broncos aim to lift Colorado small businesses | Sports Business Insider Looking ahead: Expect a handful of young stars to join this list in the near future. Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain signed a four-year, $96-million extension that begins in 2026. Outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper agreed to a four-year, $60-million deal that also starts next year. Offensive Quinn Meinerz also signed a four-year, $80-million contract. Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen has yet to reach a contract extension. He’s earning $9.25 million on his current deal that expires after this season with Rantanen anticipated to increase that number on his next deal. The Nuggets have long-term commitments from their core four players: Jokic, Murray, Porter and Gordon. The Rockies have Bryant under contract through the 2028 season.None
Casey concedes U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania
Wall Street stocks were little changed on Thursday while Asian equities rose in thin Boxing Day trade, extending their "Santa Claus Rally" with several bourses still shut for the holiday. Japan's Nikkei index closed up 1.1 percent, boosted by comments from the Bank of Japan governor and share price gains for top-selling automaker Toyota. China's plans for massive bond issuances in 2025 also bolstered investor sentiment. "Even though many in the region are still shaking off a bit of a holiday hangover, with several markets closed for Boxing Day, Asian stocks opened higher, riding a favorable wave from China's financial bond juggernaut," said Stephen Innes from SPI Asset Management. In New York, major indices veered in and out of positive territory in a sleepy post-Christmas session. The broad-based S&P 500 finished down less than 0.1 percent. Large technology companies that have led the market in much of 2024 mostly took a breather. These included Netflix, Tesla and Amazon, all of which declined. "What's interesting today is that we're seeing small stocks bounce back a little bit," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers, noting that the Russell 2000 index put on 0.9 percent. Holiday consumer data showed a 3.8-percent increase in US retail spending from November 1 to December 24, according to a Mastercard SpendingPulse review of a key period for retailers. London Stockton, an analyst at Ned Davis Research, noted that the "Santa Claus rally could still be alive, with strong seasonality into the end of the year." Stock markets have traditionally fared well in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in the new year, a trend known as the "Santa Claus rally." Among a number of possible reasons advanced by experts include the festive holiday mood and purchasing ahead of the end of the tax year. Innes said remarks from Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda in which he refrained from signaling a potential interest rate hike next month also "influenced bullish regional sentiments." Japanese market heavyweight Toyota ended nearly six percent higher after reports in the Nikkei business daily said it aimed to double its return on equity -- a key measure of a company's financial performance. New York - Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 43,325.80 (close) New York - S&P 500: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 6,037.59 (close) New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,020.36 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.1 percent at 39,568.06 points (close) Hang Seng: UP 1.1 percent at 20,098.29 points (Tuesday close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,398.08 points (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0424 from $1.0414 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2526 from $1.2538 Dollar/yen: UP at 158.00 yen from 157.06 yen Euro/pound: UP at 83.19 pence from 83.05 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $69.62 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $73.26 per barrel bur-jmb/ahaAndreyPopov I have been covering FTAI Aviation ( FTAI ) common stock since September 2023 and the share price return even after the recent pullback has been phenomenal with a 251% return compared to 32.9% for the S&P 500. In due time, I will be If you want full access to all our reports, data and investing ideas, join The Aerospace Forum , the #1 aerospace, defense and airline investment research service on Seeking Alpha, with access to evoX Data Analytics, our in-house developed data analytics platform. Dhierin-Perkash Bechai is an aerospace, defense and airline analyst. The Aerospace Forum Learn more Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Zahir Abdus-Salaam ran for a touchdown and caught another as Western Michigan defeated Eastern Michigan 26-18 on Saturday to become bowl eligible, snapping a three-game losing streak. Abdus-Salaam scored on a 22-yard run for a 23-8 lead in the third quarter and he celebrated by jumping into a snowbank bordering the end zone. The Broncos (6-6, 5-3 Mid-American Conference) blocked a punt for safety that started a run of 16 points in under four minutes. Abdus-Salaam scored on a 31-yard screen pass then Joey Pope recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to set up Jalen Buckley's 15-yard TD run with 19 seconds before the half ended. Eastern Michigan's Delmert Mimms II scored two third-quarter touchdowns. The teams exchanged field goals for the only fourth-quarter scoring. The Eagles got the ball back with 2:18 remaining but on their first play Bilhal Kone intercepted a tipped pass. Eastern Michigan (5-7, 2-6) lost its last five games. Abdus-Salaam rushed for 135 yards and Buckley 103 on 19 carries apiece. Hayden Wolff threw for 126 yards and a score. Abdus-Salaam had 40 yards receiving. Mimms rushed for 127 yards on 18 carries. Cole Snyder was only 7 of 22 for 91 yards passing. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football . Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25