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The Jan. 6 committee hearings kicked off on Thursday, and they were an instant ratings powerhouse. Super Bowl-sized crowds tuned into numerous networks to watch as House members began to lay out their case that Donald Trump knowingly pushed 2020 election lies, all while allies coordinated with various groups to descend upon D.C.

One of the bombshells found a deer-in-headlights Ivanka Trump, with careful wording, admitting she believed then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s belief that there was no fraud. The next day her father, in a less carefully worded statement, pushed back, claiming Ivanka didn’t know what she was talking about and was “only trying to be respectful” to Barr, whom he said “sucked!”

Was he essentially — and perhaps accidentally — calling his daughter a liar? Who therefore lied under oath? That’s what Mary Trump, the former president’s niece and one of his sharpest and fiercest critics claimed when appearing Sunday on MSNBC.

“I think Ivanka walked a very fine line,” Mary said. “She did not say anything necessarily incendiary but, as we thought would happen, she decided she needed to come down on the side of what the facts support.”

Mary said pointed out that “Donald didn’t entirely throw her under the bus.” Instead he did something perhaps worse. “But I think it’s really important to point out the fact he said that she checked out, although that is kind of rude, isn’t really the issue. He is accusing her of perjury, really.”

Host Alex Witt responded, “That’s interesting, I hadn’t read it that way.”

Trump is famously not great with words, as witness that time he accidentally told the truth about losing the 2020 election. But his former close associates have indicated that he’ll absolutely throw his beloved kids under the bus to save his hide. Meanwhile, Donald, Don Jr., and Ivanka will all be doing something else together: spending hours sitting for a deposition pertaining to the New York State investigation into the family business’ dealings.

You can watch their relative point out what Donald inadvertently did in the video below.

(Via Raw Story)

The Chicago Cubs got absolutely shelled on Sunday afternoon in Yankee Stadium, as New York continued its assault of opposing pitchers, mashing four more home runs as they extended their league lead in dingers on the season.

Two of those long balls came off of the bat of catcher Kyle Higashioka, including an exclamation point on one of the funniest home runs you’ll see all season. The Cubs, trailing 17-4, trotted first baseman Frank Schwindel out to the mound in the latest example of a position player getting thrown to the wolves in a blowout. Schwindel wasn’t exactly throwing gas, as his pitches looked more like they belonged on a slow pitch softball field than a Major League Baseball diamond.

When Schwindel lobbed a 35 mile per hour (!!!) eephus pitch up there to Higashioka, the big man turned and burned on it, launching it into the left field bleachers in a pretty incredible display of power.

It is easier to create home run power when you square up a fastball, as speed coming in means speed going out, but this one was all Higashioka as Schwindel wasn’t giving him any help in the power department with that lob. It’s the slowest recorded pitch to ever be hit for a home run, per Codify Baseball, and truly was something to behold.

As the month of video game reveals, trailers, and announcements continue we now move on to the Xbox and Bethesda showcase, where Microsoft got to show everything it has coming to the world of video games over the next 12 months. This was one of Microsoft’s most streamlined presentations yet with a little over an hour and a half of games to look at. What made it particularly enjoyable was how it cut out a lot of the fluff that slowed down previous presentations. There were fewer people talking, fewer trade show-like announcements, and more video games.

As for the video games themselves, there were very few weak points or games that felt like they might not be up to snuff. Everything seemed like something that was worth checking out, and considering Xbox’s policy of releasing games day one on Game Pass it’s hard to argue against playing any of the games shown. With that in mind, we’re focusing on what we felt were some of the bigger or more important announcements that were shown during the presentation.

Starfield

This was the elephant in the room throughout the presentation. Everyone knew an update for Starfield was coming and after its recent delay we all wanted a big hook to tell us why we should still be interested in the game. There are always going to be people who play a game made by Bethesda Game Studios no matter what it is, but the rest of us definitely needed something to prove that Starfield wasn’t going to be the next big AAA flop.

They delivered. This doesn’t mean that the game is going to be good or that it’s going to release in a perfect state, but Xbox and Bethesda did a great job in showing why it is that Starfield is going to be interesting. Yes, the big hook of a “massive universe to explore” has burnt many of us before, but the idea of exploring space in the universe that is being shown off sounds really enticing. The space travel is intriguing, the space combat looks fun, and every sci-fi element is hitting the right notes. Obviously, we need to see how the game looks when it launches to make any final judgments, but after the delay, we’re happy to see a potentially exciting game.

Activision Blizzard

It has been quite a two years for Activision Blizzard. Not only has their release of new games and content slowed down to a crawl, but internal misconduct allegations, the company being sold, and multiple leaders leaving the company has made development on games a challenge.

Despite this, they were still able to get two major announcements out there during the showcase. Overwatch 2 has an early access release date and Diablo IV has one set for 2023. After having so many of their games feel like they were in endless development it has to feel great for those developers to finally have some game releases on the horizon. Especially when those two releases in particular are from highly anticipated franchises like Overwatch and Diablo.

Redfall

The other major delay from Bethesda/Xbox, Redfall, led off the entire showcase with a gameplay trailer of its own. The game is a hero shooter where the enemies are vampires and cultists. That may sound basic, but the gameplay didn’t feel that way with the start of the trailer being a really intense gunfight between one of the major characters and some hard-to-kill vampires. The cultists provide an opportunity for some more traditional shooter action, but it looks like gunplay is going to be more than the usual pump bullets into the enemy until they stop moving type games we’ve seen in the past.

The big selling point of the game is that instead of being a multiplayer hero shooter, which is everywhere these days, it’s a story-focused one instead. That said, it doesn’t look all that fun to play on your own. This feels like one of those games where it’s going to be at its most fun when with a group of friends. That said, Arkane Austin is the studio behind it and their work on games like Prey and Dishonored tells us this is a team capable of making a strong single-player game. It has a 2023 release date so we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer to check it out.

Persona and reaching out to Japan

It is hard to put into words just how shocking it was to see Persona, a franchise that has been pretty much a guaranteed exclusive on the PlayStation, finally appearing on the Xbox. It also is a sign of a very important step for Microsoft and the Xbox, and that’s trying to fix the issues they’ve been having in Japan ever since their first console launched there in 2002. Microsoft has struggled to make much headway among Japanese gamers, for a variety of reasons, but one of the big ones is a lack of Japanese developed video games.

During the presentation, not only did Microsoft announce that Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal, are all coming to the Xbox but they’re also entering a partnership with legendary Japanese developer, Hideo Kojima.

None of this is going to fix their relationship with Japan overnight, but Microsoft has been getting trounced in sales over there for two decades. When the Series S outsold the PS5 in Japan, it was the first time that had happened in eight years. Any type of outreach is necessary and it’s good to see they haven’t abandoned the region.

Game Pass

One thing that was notable throughout the presentation was how often Microsoft mentioned that these games were available on Game Pass day one. It’s been made clear many times before, so we don’t need to rehash it, but this is the business model Microsoft is going to continue moving forward with. The ability to play these games immediately through a service is always going to be extremely appealing because even someone that was not interested in a single game shown today will have a way to try them out. That is always going to be a strong sell for developers to continue putting their games on the service.

The next step for Xbox and Bethesda will of course be releasing their games. Microsoft has spent years buying development studios and promising new games, but so far their track record of consistent releases is spotty at best. They’ve had some absolute gems make no mistake about it, but with so many delays it’s made them inconsistent. Game Pass is a great service and will continue to be the reason to own an Xbox, but that doesn’t make the delays any less frustrating.

Confrontation, family ties, and what is beginning to feel like a never-ending game of cat and mouse continued in ‘Game 4’ of NBA Finals.

Co-director Ime Udoka is new to this kind of Adam Silver production, but the director he’s sharing the stage with, Steve Kerr, isn’t, and Kerr paired with Silver have been known for their drawn out series in the past. This is not to knock the pacing of Finals in its entirety, because there has been some interesting off-beat action unfolding, only to point out that the major quibble with Conference Finals and Playoffs before it was that much of the action felt lopsided and entirely too fast. For Finals to swing so far in the opposite direction is clearly a nod to viewers but what have thus far saved it from being a slog are the more interesting storylines and conflicts that have been given the time and space to develop.

In ‘Game 4’ the most notable POV shift was to the series celebrated hero, Steph Curry (Steph Curry) who, after a slow burn build-up that was handled deftly by Kerr, erupted in this episode. Steph Curry stepped out into the ‘Celtics’ headquarters literally screaming. He shouted at the crowd, still decked out in costumes of green that resembled all the hues in an early summer forest, after heaving back-to-back “threes” through that brooding, inanimate apparatus both groups have shown episode after episode they are striving to protect.

Steph Curry has been a character, up to now, that appeared to be content to carry the star protagonist’s burden without drawing the same kind of attention to himself that his co-stars have been, and Finals has done a decent job in getting us to think it hadn’t been wearing on him at all. It may be the kind of accelerated bildungsroman Silver has given us before, to varying degrees of success — I think of Aaron Gordon (Aaron Gordon) in NBA All-Star Chicago: Dunk Contest and the way that character aged before our very eyes over the span of 20 or so tense, self-aware minutes, akin to the antagonist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’s misplace choice in drinking chalice — but carried in the quiet, watchful performance of Steph Curry, his sudden bombast in ‘Game 4’ is believable.

We watch him make eye contact with a raving, green garbed man in the middle distance and we understand immediately that he has carried this series out of pride and, to a degree, a personal fixation on routine and that he is tired. Tired of being the failsafe, the good-natured workaholic, “old reliable”, and while that burden is a choice he understands, he won’t be bullied by a stadium’s worth of adults who pay solemn allegiance to a leprechaun.

Incensed, he flung the symbolic orange orb of human folly through the circle of protection 43 times.

This energy was picked up by actor-director, Steve Kerr, who barreled onto the parquet living room floor set of the ‘Celtics’ home demanding an act of “travel” had been committed. As an aside, it’s been very well-done by Finals’ writers to implement language and terminology unique to this universe so fluidly, without any clunky explainers.

“The heart on that man is incredible,” Klay Thompson (Klay Thompson) later said of his co-star, in a post-episode production that can still be counted as a cinematic extension of Finals, “The things he does, we kind of take for granted at times, to go out there and put us on his back. We’ve got to help him out on Monday.”

Klay Thompson’s allusion to help “on Monday” of course refers to the next episode of NBA Finals (9pm ET/6pm PT), but before we get to ‘Game 5’ and whether the notes of emotion and intensity evident in Steph Curry’s arc remain at the forefront or revert to smoldering just under his exterior, we have to sift through some of the more confusing beats of ‘Game 4’.

For one, an actor who looked as if he may have just walked in from outside the studio to substitute as an extra, Nemanja Bjelica (Nemanja Bjelica), had a string of confusing moments three quarters of the way through ‘Game 4’. But upon rewatch, it appears he had been there all along.

It makes sense that Klay Thompson would allude to the absence of those around Steph Curry in ‘Game 4’ via a promise to be there in the next episode, given the real-time subversion on display by the person we’ve come to understand to be the final part of a ‘Warriors’ trifecta. Draymond Green (Draymond Green), at this point, can be considered an active saboteur. He continued the storyline that was building across ‘Game 2’ and ‘Game 3’ where it seemed he was hapless against what the bigger, better familial dynamics of the ‘Celtics’ had. We understand that this is a character not accustomed to being bullied or left behind, and yet we are seeing it again and again. Draymond Green has so far responded by retreating into himself, seeking refuge in putting a great distance between himself and the band he’s meant to be an important part of, but ‘Game 4’ saw this behavior heightened enough that the actor’s mother gave some thought to a theory in-line with one floated in my ‘Game 3’ review, that this is an alternate timeline version of the character. It’s a theory that holds water, mainly because in past Silver productions we’ve not seen this kind of drastic shift from a character. Though with the recent commercial flops of such sci-fi productions like Raised By Wolves and Terminator: Dark Fate, it’s a risky move for a studio with perennial broadcast concerns on the brain, echoed by the narrators at one point who cautioned that a late-episode performance by one of the ‘Celtics’ group was, “Understanding your customers”.

While the narration of Finals continues to work in the abstract, a running commentary removed from the action of the series and the motives of its characters (for example, yelling “Bang!” as abruptly as someone might sneeze), one did allude to not being able to “wait for the podcast” that Draymond Green would deliver. It’s another experimental move by Silver which feels, a little, like a move toward the literary tool of autofiction.

Though a lot of the storyline of ‘Game 4’ was centered around the ‘Warriors’ characters, their shortcomings and motivations, it left off with a feeling that the ‘Celtics’ side will be seeking their due next episode. With the setting due for another change, back to the more demure framing of what’s been Finals’ interpretation of San Francisco, let’s hope that the most memorable thing in that reveal doesn’t turn out to be how much we miss the clamor and strain of all those incensed green people.

This year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was led by Dr. Dre who brought on a star-studded cast of acts for the show. Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Anderson .Paak, and 50 Cent all joined him on stage for the epic performance. Afterward, it appeared that The Game, who’s collaborated with some of the aforementioned artists on multiple occasions, implied that he should’ve been among the performers for the show. However, he later denied that he was upset about being left out of the show. “I don’t feel no way about not being included,” he said at the time.

A few months later, The Game has now backtracked on his denial. The topic came up in an upcoming episode of the I Am Athlete podcast — led by Brandon Marshall, Pacman Jones and Nick “ Swaggy P” Young. The episode was teased in a preview clip. “The real reason I wasn’t on the Super Bowl [Halftime Show] is because I’m not a ‘safe’ artist,’” The Game said. “You don’t know what the Game gon’ do when he get up there. So, it’s just like, ‘He not safe,’ so they went with the safe artists.”

He continued, “We, on the West Coast, are the only motherf*ckers who have this crab-in-a-barrel mentality, where we wanna keep n****s down. Snoop Dogg is icon. Dre is icon. Em is an icon, but Em is not from L.A. 50 is not from L.A. I’m not taking away from the fact that they’re were on the Super Bowl, but L.A. [artists] wouldn’t have been in the Detroit Super Bowl or New York Super Bowl. It just wouldn’t have happened … L.A., L.A., L.A. all around the Super Bowl and I didn’t get the call.”

The Game then admitted he was “hurt” that he was left out of the lineup. “I talk to Dre often. I just know if I was Dre and he was Game, he would’ve been up there,” he said. “That’s just it. It’s L.A. I am L.A. I’m in the streets … So, yeah, I was hurt. Now am I bothered by it today? I’m not bothered by it today.”

You can watch the preview clip above.

It was just a month ago that Kodak Black made a trio of surprise appearances on Kendrick Lamar’s fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Due to the rapper’s controversial past, many thought that a collaboration between him and Kendrick would never come to fruition, but as we saw last month, that was far from the case. On Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kodak appears on “Worldwide Steppers,” “Rich (Interlude),” and “Savior,” but now, the Florida native is looking to share some music with another rap superstar: Drake.

“Me and Drake we got some more music,” Kodak said during a press conference for his Kodak Black Day music festival in his hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida. “It’s really on whenever bruh might feel like he ready and stuff.” He added, “They be like, ‘Is we gone drop the album? We gon’ do this?’ It’s really on him. We got a lot of songs though.”

Kodak’s past collaborations with Kendrick and his possible releases with Drake continues the trend of the rapper receiving love from some of the industry’s biggest names. Jay-Z included Kodak on his memorial Day playlist for Tidal and Future recruited him for an appearance on his I Never Liked You album.

You can watch Kodak talk about his collaborations with Drake in the video above.

Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Who’s more unhinged: Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert? Usually it seems it’s the former. Other times they even team up. But every now and then Boebert one-ups her by doing something truly creative. On Saturday, she did just that, telling the audience at a Christian center after hoping President Joe Biden wouldn’t be around much longer.

The Colorado representative was speaking at the Family Camp Meeting at Charis Christian Center, located in her state, when she decided to be truly Christ-like. “I do want you to know that I pray for our President,” she told the crowd. “Psalm 109:8 says, ‘May his days be few and another take his office.’” The joke earned huge raves from the crowd, prompting Boebert to beam and throw in a mock-“Hallelujah!” as well as a “Glory to God.”

Boebert was being a little ambiguous. Did she mean she hoped Biden would be somehow removed from office, only a year-and-a-half into his four-year term? If so, would that person be the former president who may end the Jan. 6 committee hearings with reams of lawsuits against him? Did she mean something worse?

Biden isn’t the first person to be condemned by Republicans with the same Bible verse (which is usually translated into “place of leadership,” not “office”). Early in Barack Obama’s term, when Biden was Vice President, his detractors started using it, even putting the it on bumper stickers and the like, prompting some to worry about an assassination. Those using it tended to leave off the words that immediately follow the verse: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

In other words, everything old is new again.

Boebert’s antics come shortly after audio was made available of her being angrily confronted after dangerously posting the whereabouts of Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 riot.

(Via Yahoo! News)

One of the best dungeon looter franchises ever made is Diablo. Every game that involves dungeon crawling, looting, and the addiction of playing the same level constantly with friends has to thank the Diablo franchise in some way. It perfected the formula that everyone is still emulating to this day.

On Sunday, during the Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Activision Blizzard unveiled a new trailer for Diablo IV. The trailer not only gave us a potential release date for the game, sometime in 2023, but it also gave us a new class with the Necromancer. After this unveil, the showcase spent a lot of time diving into how the new open world of Diablo IV is going to change the franchise in a new way.

“We can’t wait to open the gates of Hell next year—the talented team behind Diablo IV puts gameplay first in everything they do, and they have built the biggest and most ambitious vision of Sanctuary yet,” said Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, via an official press release. “This sprawling world draws deeply from the dark well of the franchise’s 25-year history and is designed around the philosophy of player choice, offering an adventure unlike anything Diablo players have experienced before.”

Also mentioned in the press release was how Diablo IV will have cross-play and cross progression. No matter the console players will be able to carry over their progress and that’s a fantastic addition to a franchise where loot matters so much.

Even the innovators eventually have to innovate and that’s what Diablo IV being an open world game feels like. While it’s certainly fun exploring the same dungeons and looting to our hearts’ content, the world of video games have changed. The freedom of an open world and the fun of exploration are what many fans desire and this has the potential to be a great new step for this franchise. It’s a chance to experience Diablo in a new way and that is never a bad thing.

Overwatch 2 is finally going to be playable this October. During the Xbox and Bethesda showcase on Sunday, Activision Blizzard announced during the showcase and a press release that Overwatch 2 would be hitting early access this October. Unfortunately, this means that the single-player for the game is still in development but the PvP multiplayer will be available to players.

Not only was a release date announced for the multiplayer of Overwatch 2, but we also got new information about a brand new hero. The often rumored, and fan requested, Junker Queen is finally a playable character. She’s going to be a tank in the game’s new 5v5 setup.

“We can’t wait to roll out the beginning of the Overwatch 2 experience on October 4 and introduce an exciting new competitive vision, featuring amazing new content and a reimagining of the iconic heroes, maps, and gameplay that made the original game so compelling,” said Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment, via an official press release. “This is the beginning of an always-on and always-evolving era for the franchise, and a recommitment to serving players with frequent and substantial updates planned well into the future to keep Overwatch 2 fresh and fun for many years to come.”

After an extremely tumultuous development, Overwatch 2 finally releasing is going to be a relief for many fans of the franchise. The original Overwatch stopped receiving major support around the time Overwatch 2 was announced and it’s led to a lot of apathy among the fanbase. This could be the boost it needs to get people excited about playing Overwatch again.

At worst, the multiplayer is supposed to be free-to-play so the barrier to entry to try it out is fairly low.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, it’s been hit with untold sanctions that have all but isolated them from much of the world. Their exports are not being exported. Businesses that were once all over the country have pulled out. That includes McDonald’s, which shuttered hundreds of outposts nationwide. But Russia has found ways to deal with the crippling of their economy. In the case of their long-gone McDonald’s outposts, they simply rebranded.

On Sunday, as per Reuters, 200 of the 850 former McDonald’s locations had reopened, this time with a new name: Vkusno & Tochka, which roughly translates to “Tasty & That’s It.” (“Tochka” means “period,” as in the end of a sentence.) The menu, though smaller, is largely the same. The Golden Arches are gone, replaced by a new logo that looks like two fries and a little burger patty. Also MIA are the Big Mac and McFlurry. The Filet o’ Fish is now simply a fish sandwich. There’s also a new slogan: “The name changes, love stays.”

But the composition of the food offerings largely remains the same. According to The New York Times, the Russian McDonald’s are more or less self-sufficient, minus the name and key menu items:

When McDonald’s opened in the Soviet Union in 1990, the Americans had to bring in everything. Soviet potatoes were too small to make fries, so they had to acquire their own russet potato seeds; Soviet apples did not work for the pie, so the company imported them from Bulgaria.

But by the time McDonald’s pulled out this year, its Russian stores were getting almost all of their ingredients from Russian suppliers.

Reuters talked to a teenager who weighed on in how Vkunso & Tochka compares to McD’s. “The taste has stayed the same,” he remarked. “The cola is different, but there really is no change to the burger.”

It’s rare mostly good news for Russia, which has struggled to pull off an invasion that they once thought would be over in a flash. Morale is reportedly so low that soldiers have been trying to set up sham marriages to get out of duty, while President Vladimir Putin himself is reportedly losing what’s left of his sanity. Maybe he can refuel by recreating one of those disastrous menu hacks.

(Via Reuters and NYT)