Image: Electronic Arts

You’ve overhauled the home theater, the TV and sound system are hooked up, but you’ve still got a launch day Xbox One sitting there gathering dust. It’s not 4K, so why bother hooking it up? But good news: it’s Black Friday, so it’s finally time to take the plunge into 4K gaming, and Best Buy has just the thing.

The Xbox One X Battlefield V Bundle is $429.99 at Best Buy right now, $70 off the original $499.99 price. Along with the system, you’ll be able to get an additional controller for free with this particular bundle.

If you’re looking for something to provide all your 4K content needs, the Xbox One X is ideal. Whether it’s a new game release with 4K upgrades available, streaming 4K from Netflix, or filling out your movie collection, you’ll be able to fulfill all your 4K desires.

Battlefield V is also the perfect game to give you an idea of the power the X is packing under the hood. Graphically, it uses the latest iteration of developer DICE’s Frostbite engine for some of the best in-game graphics of any game on PC or console. And on a 4K console, you can imagine how good those tanks and explosions are going to look.

It doesn’t hurt that Battlefield V is also one of the biggest game releases of Fall 2018. On the single-player side, you can play through the War Stories campaign to experience different sides and theaters of World War II. 

But if multiplayer is more your speed, there’s Grand Operations or Firestorm. Grand Operations is a beefed-up version of Operations from Battlefield 1, with two teams battling over multiple maps and themed after actual campaigns. Firestorm is Battlefield’s take on Battle Royale, with players dropping in and fighting to the center of the map, and the last person or team standing wins.

And hey, you get an extra controller, which is always useful whether you play with other people on the couch or burn through controllers regularly. Just make sure to pick this up while Best Buy can still offer this Black Friday special.

Black Friday 2018 deals by store

Black Friday 2018 deals by category

The long-delayed and long-awaited race for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) presidency shifted into a new gear this week with the official launch of the candidates’ electoral campaigns.

Exactly a month from now, some 40 million people, about half of the resource-rich country’s population, are expected to finally elect a new president after two years of postponements, uncertainty and turmoil.

Outgoing President Joseph Kabila has controversially remained in office even though his second consecutive and final constitutional term officially expired in 2016. While Kabila insisted the election delays were due to challenges enrolling millions of voters and financial constraints, his refusal to step down led to the opposition accusing him of trying to cling to power and sparked violent rallies in which dozens of protesters were killed.

The DRC has not has a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, and there are still several questions over how the upcoming polls will be conducted – from logistical and financing difficulties to various threats to peace and security, including militia violence and a deadly Ebola outbreak in the country’s east.

Still, electoral officials maintain that the vote will go ahead as planned on December 23, when at least 20 candidates will vie to succeed Kabila.

Among them is Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a die-hard Kabila loyalist who was chosen at the 11th hour as the candidate for the outgoing president’s recently-minted electoral coalition, the Common Front for Congo (FCC).

Surprising but ideal pick?

Kabila’s choice of Shadary took most – including many in the FCC – by surprise. A largely unknown political figure in the vast country, Shadary has meagre finances and no independent power base. The 57-year-old is also under European Union sanctions for his role in the repression of deadly anti-Kabila protests in 2016, when he was interior minister, and is seen as someone with extremely limited ties to the international community.

“These are all factors that would significantly disadvantage a candidate for high political position in the DRC,” says John Mukum Mbaku, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

But it’s these exact factors, coupled with his hard-core loyalty, that likely “endeared” Shadary to Kabila and made him “a perfect choice” for the outgoing president’s potential political ambitions, Mbaku adds.

Indeed, some observers see Shadary’s choice as a deliberate move by Kabila to create “a new political class”, one that will remain under his control and loyal to him, even as he steps down from the presidency after 17 years.

“For the last years, we see an alienation between Kabila and the pillars of his regime. He had a strong team around him in the first decade of his reign, but for different reasons, these people disappeared,” says Kris Berwouts, a political analyst and DRC commentator.

“Over the last two-three years, Kabila has tried to create new leaders – people who do not have their own electoral base, no international network, no considerable financial means to deploy; people who are basically indebted to him. Ramazani Shadary is one of them.”

Kabila’s moves

Analysts say Shadary’s anointment was only the last in a series of moves by Kabila to secure his political future and interests before the August 8 announcement that he would not seek a third term – a decision he took amid increasing regional and international pressure.

Firstly, Kabila got the National Assembly to pass a law granting immunity to former presidents for crimes committed while in office, as well as providing them with a permanent security detail and a residence at the expense of the state. Secondly, he packed the federal bureaucracy, including the judiciary and the military, with loyalists. Thirdly, at Kabila’s request, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the FCC’s biggest and most influential group, created the post of the president, which he is expected to hold after leaving office. Finally, Kabila – who will be a senator-for-life, as per the constitution – will also remain the FCC’s leader. 

Along with these safety and legal guarantees, Berwouts says Kabila wanted to “remain influential in [the DRC’s] politics and economically active. In the last years, he has purchased a lot of land, for instance”.

Mbaku, who is also a professor of economics at Weber State University, says these moves ensure that Kabila will be able to retain significant political influence, while remaining “the power behind the throne” and hence not having “to fear any retribution from a hostile regime”.

“Of course, given the fact that Kabila is eligible to return in 2023 and compete for the presidency, he may have chosen loyalist Shadary to keep the presidential ‘seat’ warm for him until he returns in 2023,” he adds.

Fractured opposition

Such a scenario would mark an audacious comeback for Kabila, who took power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who had forced out Mobutu Sese Seko, an authoritarian president who led for decades a corrupt, brutal, and dysfunctional government.

Joseph Kabila went on to win elections in 2006 and 2011, but both polls were marred by accusations of widespread fraud.

Next month’s vote will be conducted in a first-past-the-post system, which means, in theory at least, that a win by Kabila’s hand-picked successor is not a foregone conclusion if the vote is free and fair – especially when considering Shadary’s low public profile and widespread grievances over poor services, chronic financial mismanagement and corruption.

Despite its huge natural resources endowments – the DRC is the world’s top miner of cobalt and Africa’s leading copper producer – the country is mired in grinding poverty and several humanitarian and economic crises.

“Congolese people, especially those who reside in the urban areas, are quite frustrated with their extremely poor living conditions, which have not improved since the dictator Mobutu was ousted in 1997,” says Mbaku.

“They continue to complain about high rates of unemployment, lack of decent and affordable housing, inability of the poor to have effective access to basic healthcare and opportunities for education and job training.”

In what was seen as a major drive to give the traditionally fractured opposition a fighting chance in the upcoming polls, seven key DRC political leaders met earlier this month in the Swiss city of Geneva to select a joint candidate.

At the time, Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe were seen as the likely figures to unite and lead the anti-Kabila front. But after several days of negotiations under the auspices of the Lamuka Coalition, the opposition heavyweights announced Martin Fayulu, a member of parliament with a lot of grassroots credibility in the capital, Kinshasa, as their alliance’s flag-bearer.

Barely 24 hours later, this rare instance of opposition unity was shattered. Tshisekedi, son of the late opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, withdrew his signature from the agreement after protests by his supporters in Kinshasa. Kamerhe followed him just a few hours later.

“The attempt to create a common platform with a joint candidate was, of course, very ambitious,” says Berwouts, author of Congo’s Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle since the Great African War.

“The fact that two of the seven leaders who signed the agreement withdrew their signature 24 hours later was a major blow and affected the credibility of the opposition as such.”

Still, the other members of the coalition have continued to support Fayulu’s candidacy while also hoping to broaden their alliance by joining forces with civil society groups and working together with the influential Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, Kamerhe announced on Friday that he was throwing his support behind Tshishekedi, in a move that has created a second opposition bloc to Shadary’s candidacy.

“This is the winning ticket,” Kamerhe told reporters alongside Tshisekedi in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

An opinion poll last month showed Tshisekedi well ahead in the race, with 36 percent. Kamerhe (17 percent) and Shadary (16 percent) followed, while Fayulu’s projected share of the vote stood at eight percent.

Voting machines, bias allegations

The race, although crowded, is still marked by the absence of leading opposition figures who have been prevented from taking part in the elections.

Key among them are Moise Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and a popular ex-governor who says he was prohibited from entering the country and file his candidacy in time; and Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president who did manage to register after being acquitted of war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court in June but saw his candidacy later disqualified by election officials.

Opposition figures and international observers meanwhile have expressed concern over the use for the first time of a new electronic voting system, saying it is more vulnerable to vote-rigging than traditional ballots.

Electoral officials have dismissed the criticism, saying the use of the 106,000 South Korean-made touchscreen voting machines are meant to slash both election costs and the waiting period for results.

Critics also accuse the government, which has refused all forms of international assistance to carry out the elections, of controlling public debate to silence dissent in the lead-up to the vote and refusing access to any potential watchdogs.

In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty International said election campaigning will take place in a “hostile political environment” that leaves little room for the DRC’s citizens “to freely and safely exercise their human rights”.

“The authorities have shown outright bias and selectivity in allowing the ruling party’s public rallies while cracking down on dissent, rallies and protests by the opposition supporters and critics of the government,” Joan Nyanyuki, the rights group’s director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said.

Looking ahead, Mbaku expects the next few weeks to be dominated by efforts by the ruling coalition to “demonise the opposition and enhance Shadary’s ability to win the election”.

He also warns of “serious violence” in the case the government mishandles the election amid opposition anger over the expected “domination of the airwaves by the FCC and their candidate”.

Amidst this climate, Berwouts says he expects “difficulties” for opposition candidates eager to rally support in the coming weeks.

“The chances on free and fair elections are nil,” he says. “If elections are postponed, there will be violent protests, and if they take place, there will be violence too – and the results will be contested in all scenarios.

“Congo has some difficult weeks and months ahead.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has agreed to return “without delay” 26 African artworks claimed by Benin, according to the president’s office.

The decision on Friday came shortly after Macron received a report detailing how former colonisers can return looted artworks to Africa.

Governments from Ethiopia to Senegal eagerly awaited the report, commissioned by Macron and complied by French art historian, Benedicte Savoy, and Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr. 

It recommends that the thousands of items in French museums taken without consent during the colonial period be returned to the continent.

Unless it can be proven that the objects were obtained legitimately, they should be returned to Africa permanently, the report’s authors say.

Savoy and Starr also recommend changing the French law to allow the restitution of cultural works to Africa, after Macron announced that he wanted the process to begin within five years. 

French law currently forbids the government from ceding state property, regardless of how it was obtained. 

“I cannot accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France,” Macron said during a visit to Burkina Faso last year. 

“There are historical explanations for this but there is no valid, lasting and unconditional justification. African heritage cannot be only in private collections and European museums – it must be showcased in Paris but also in Dakar, Lagos and Cotonou. This will be one of my priorities,” he said.

‘A new era of thought’

At the height of its colonial empire, France controlled large swathes of the African continent, removing art produced there for display in museums in the French capital, Paris, and elsewhere.

Objects that arrived in France went on to influence the work of major figures in European art, such as Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, and Italian painter and sculptor, Amedeo Modigliani. 

According to the report, about 90 percent of African art is currently housed in museums and private collections outside the continent, including statues, thrones and manuscripts.

There are about 90,000 African artworks in French museums, most of them housed in Paris’ Quai Branly museum, which also boasts a large collection of Asian art.

The museum was established by former French President Jacques Chirac, an avid collector of African art.

While the decision has been welcomed by officials in some African countries, European art dealers have expressed concerns that repatriation will leave some French museums nearly empty.

The dealers have also questioned who the objects should be returned to when many of the kingdoms and civilisations they were taken from no longer exist.

However, the head of Ethiopia’s Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage had said the report heralded “a new era of thought” in Europe’s relations with Africa, while Senegal’s culture minister Youssou Ndour said it was “entirely logical that Africans should get back their works”. 

Thorny diplomatic issue

France’s decision could up the pressure on other European governments and museums to return looted artefacts, which can become a diplomatic headache as well as a painful reminder of colonialism. 

According to the AFP news agency, approximately 180,000 African artworks are held in Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa, while 37,000 more are in the Weltmuseum in Austria. 

The British Museum in London is also in talks to return artefacts, looted from the ancient Benin kingdom, to Nigeria, which now occupies the territory. 

This month, a Chilean delegation travelled to the United Kingdom to request the return of artefacts from two London museums.

The UKis also embroiled in a prolonged standoff with Greece over the Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from Athens in the 1800s.

Museums frequently cite concerns over whether countries have a suitable place to display repatriated treasures, as well as the skills to maintain them.

However, in recent years, some European museums have returned a number of items to their countries of origin. 

In August, the British Museum repatriated a trove of 5,000-year old objects looted from an ancient site in  Iraq  shortly after the United States’ invasion in 2003.

France returned 20 mummified Maori heads to New Zealand in 2012, as part of a repatriation programme of the National Museum of New Zealand, which also secured the return of Maori objects from other countries.

The Masters is a tradition unlike any other. The Match will be an event unlike any other.

After months of hype and trash talk, it’s time for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to put their money where their mouths are. At an oasis in the middle of the Las Vegas desert, Woods and Mickelson are all set to tee it up at the majestic Shadow Creek with $9 million on the line.

The match-play event is something the golf world – or sports world, for that matter – has never seen. If the $19.99 pay-per-view price tag was too much for you, USA TODAY Sports’ Adam Woodard and Martin Rogers are here to track the match and highlight it’s biggest moments for you. The fun begins at 3 p.m. ET.

Hole 4 – Par 5

Phil: Driver is useful here for Phil, and he may just have the green-light to go for this one in two. A 2-iron from 253-yards out runs short of the green into the rough, just missing a bunker.

Tiger: “No” said Tiger after contact, as this drive lands in the fairway but runs right into the gallery. His second shot comes up well-short in the first-cut rough, 107 yards from the green. He stuffs his third short right next to the cup for a great birdie chance, should be a gimme. 

Hole 3 – Par 4

Phil: First driver of the day and Phil crushed this one down the fairway. His approach “came off low and spinning” and lands left of the cup, around 20-feet away. “Dive, dive, dive” he says as his putt just slides by left. Par.

Tiger: The Big Cat pulls driver as well, but misses right. 165-yards to the green on a hill in the rough, Tiger planned on leaving this short and it is. His chip gets up and close, right around the same distance from where he missed on No. 2. Par (but this one rolls around the cup, too). 

Phil 1-up thru 3.

Hole 2 – Par 4

Phil: Another iron for Lefty right down the middle off the tee. The second shot misses a little right, but he’s just off the green, pin-high. Known for his short game, Phil’s chip ran long and left, leaving a difficult 4-footer for par, which he converted.

Tiger: Tiger’s 3-wood goes a bit further, also in the fairway. The door was open for Tiger, who flew his approach off the back of the green. It’s a back pin-placement, so no real harm with Phil also off the green. Tiger left his chip short, and then lipped-out his 3-footer for par. He was reaching into the cup before it kicked out. Yikes. Bogey.

Phil 1-up thru 2

Hole 1 – Par 4

Cupcakes and muffins are neatly arranged on a table by the first tee box, just in case Tiger or Phil – or anyone else – gets hungry. As if we didn’t already eat enough yesterday. Phil won the coin toss – and took the coin after – and will get us started here on No. 1. 

With $200,000 on the line here at the first tee, Phil ripped a 2-iron down the right-center of the fairway. Woods followed suit with an iron of his own, dead straight, but it ran through the fairway and just into the rough.

As they walked towards their balls, the two talked about how “cool” Samuel L. Jackson is, marveled at the course, and even talked about how special it is for their kids to join them.

Tiger’s second shot nestles up just short of the cup, setting up a great look at birdie. Phil’s landed just inside of Tiger, but rolled a bit left. They’re both inside 10 feet.

“Didn’t break” said Tiger, who missed just right. Phil’s didn’t either.

“That hurts the pocket,” said Tiger with a grin. All-square thru 1, except in the wallet, where Tiger’s now plus $200,000.

Fun fact: two Taiwanese businessmen gambled $2,000 with each other on the hole, as well.

Pre-match

No tickets were made available for sale but around 400 people are on the grounds and will follow the match, many of them through affiliation with either sponsor Capital One or broadcaster TNT/BR Live.

Woods showed up to Shadow Creek at 8:56 a.m. local time, with Mickelson arriving just over an hour later at 9:53 a.m. The trash talk began on the putting green, with Tiger showing up in his classic Sunday red.

“You decided to go with red today?” asked Mickelson.

Woods’ response to Lefty, who is wearing his signature all-black: “Black’s very slimming.”

Both Woods and Mickelson were fiddling with the mic sound pack on the back of their trousers during their putting sessions. Could be a comfort issue and will likely take some getting used to.

Image: Getty Images/EyeEm

Overstock is getting out of ecommerce.

One of the internet’s earliest online retailers, Overstock, is preparing to sell off its entire ecommerce business in February according to its founder and CEO Patrick Byrne. 

Overstock’s future? Cryptocurrency and blockchain startups.

Speaking to the , Byrne detailed his Overstock sale plans and discussed the company’s $175 million investment so far into its subsidiary Medici Ventures, which backs blockchain startups.

Overstock was founded in 1999 and initially focused on selling surplus, returned, and liquidated merchandise of all types. As of today, the company’s ecommerce focus has shifted to home decor, bedding, kitchen appliances, and jewelry.

The company has been known for attention-bringing stunts like its short-lived 2011 rebranding of Overstock to ‘O.co’. In 2014, Overstock became the first major retail store to accept Bitcoin as payment for its merchandise. While the company admitted Bitcoin transactions largely dropped off after the initial announcement, that the ups-and-downs of the company’s stock have seemingly correlated with the rise and fall of the price of Bitcoin.

So far this year Overstock has lost $163 million. Its investment in Medici hasn’t paid off either, with the subsidiary losing $22 million last year and $39 million so far this year. Making matters worse, Medici’s most well-known investment, tZero, a trading system startup, still has yet to launch to the public.

Byrne doesn’t seem bothered by any of this. 

“I don’t care whether tZero is losing $2 million a month,” said the Overstock founder and CEO to the Journal. “We think we’ve got cold fusion on the blockchain side.”

By selling off the business that built Overstock and fully pivot to the blockchain, Byrne’s proving that this is no stunt.

Pakistani authorities have arrested the leader of a religious party which had disrupted daily life with nationwide rallies following the acquittal of a Christian woman in a blasphemy case.

The son of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, leader of the right-wing Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party, said his father was taken away on Friday in a nighttime raid on his religious school in the eastern city of Lahore.

“Police raided our school and arrested our revered leader,” Saad Rizvi told the Reuters news agency.

The TLP said in a statement that Rizvi was arrested along with scores of supporters, according to a report by The Associated Press.

In a tweet, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Rizvi “has been taken into protective custody and shifted to a guest house”.

“The action was prompted by TLP’s refusal to withdraw its call for protest on November 25. It’s to safeguard public life, property and order,” the minister said.

Rizvi has called his party members to observe “martyrs’ day” on Sunday by holding a rally in capital, Islamabad, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said.

Chaudhry, however, said the arrest “has nothing to do with the Aasia Bibi case”.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been taken into protective custody by police and shifted to a guest house.They insisted to come to Rwp refusing Governments proposal for alternative arrangements
It’s to safeguard public life, property and order and has to do nothing with Asia Bibi case

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) 23 November 2018

Right-wing protests over blasphemy

Rizvi’s TLP was at the forefront of a nationwide protest against the acquittal of Pakistani Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, in a blasphemy case by the country’s Supreme Court last month.

The TLP had demanded Bibi’s public execution, while the party’s founder, Mohammad Afzal Qadri, called for the death of the three Supreme Court judges who ruled to acquit her.

Qadri had also called for the overthrow of the Pakistan government over the controversy.

The protests ended only after the government agreed to a Supreme Court review of Bibi’s acquittal.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan went on the national television to say that the Supreme Court’s decision will be final and upheld.

The chances of the apex court’s acquittal being overturned are slim, according to Bibi’s lawyer, who fled Pakistan following the verdict.

Blasphemy is a massively inflammatory issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and Prophet Mohammed can lead to lynchings and murders.

The allegations have led to at least 74 killings in Pakistan since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Meanwhile, hardline groups continue to hold sporadic, albeit peaceful, rallies across the country and calling for Bibi’s execution.

The TLP has also vowed to return to the streets if Bibi leaves the country.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly stated that Bibi is being held in a secure location in Pakistan after being released from a prison in central Multan earlier this month.

The exact whereabouts of the 54-year-old woman are unknown. Her family has requested asylum, which has been offered by several countries including Canada, Spain and France.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

The Trump administration released a massive report on climate change Friday, one that emphasizes the dire threat that human-caused global warming poses to the United States and its citizens.

“Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities.” the report states.

The 1,600-page report details the climate and economic impacts U.S. residents will see if drastic action is not taken to address climate change.

“The impacts of global climate change are already being felt in the United States and are projected to intensify in the future,” the report notes.

The federal report says the last few years have smashed records for damaging weather in the U.S., costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. It also said that in a worst-case scenario, climate change could deliver a 10 percent hit to the nation’s GDP by the end of the century.

It also found that climate change threatens the health and well-being of the American people by causing increasing extreme weather, changes to air quality, the spread of new diseases by insects and pests and changes to the availability of food and water.

Report co-author Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University said it shows the dangerous weather that scientists said will happen in the United States is already happening.

The report is officially called Volume II of the National Climate Assessment. As first mandated by Congress in the late 1980s, the assessment is prepared every four years by the nation’s top scientists from 13 agencies. It’s meant as a reference for the president, Congress and the public. 

Volume I was released in 2017.

The White House report quietly issued Friday also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump, who took to Twitter on Wednesday night to again express his doubts about climate change, using the especially cold Thanksgiving forecast as an example.

“Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global Warming?” the president tweeted.

But weather isn’t climate, the report said, noting that cold snaps can occur even as the planet warms overall: “Over shorter timescales and smaller geographic regions, the influence of natural variability can be larger than the influence of human activity … Over climate timescales of multiple decades, however, global temperature continues to steadily increase.”

Environmental groups quickly reacted to the report:

“Any remaining debate on the reality of climate change is over,” said Lou Leonard of the World Wildlife Fund. “The Bush, Obama, and now Trump Administrations have all published reports showing the current and future impacts to the United States from climate change. Each report is increasingly dire.” 

More: UN report: ‘Unprecedented changes’ needed to protect Earth from global warming

More: Climate change to trigger widespread hazards to Earth and humanity – many at the same time

Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists and one of the report authors, said that “this report makes it clear that climate change is not some problem in the distant future. It’s happening right now in every part of the country.

“U.S. residents are now being forced to cope with dangerously high temperatures, rising seas, deadly wildfires, torrential rainfalls and devastating hurricanes,” she said. “The report concludes that these climate-related impacts will only get worse and their costs will mount dramatically if carbon emissions continue unabated.” 

The Thanksgiving-holiday release comes more than two weeks earlier than the original planned release at the American Geophysical Union annual conference in December, according to Climate Nexus.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Image: Sony

Not all 4K is created equal, but you wouldn’t know that from the Black Friday deals. You can find some of the best TVs available from some of the top names in the space at prices that will melt your eyes, Indiana Jones style. And if you want that experience (why wouldn’t you?), Amazon has three TVs that live up to the quality 4K is known for.

You can save over 20% on select Sony X850F 4K Smart TVs on Amazon for Black Friday. The available TVs are:

65″ Sony X850F 4K Smart TV — $998 (list price $1398)

75″ Sony X850F 4K Smart TV — $1798 (list price $2298)

85″ Sony X850F 4K Smart TV — $2998 (list price $3998)

When it comes to quality, Sony TVs usually live up the name, and the X850F is no different. The TV sports the 4K HDR X1 processor, delivering the kind of 4K picture you’d expect from one of the best names in the space, even compared to its own lower-tier models.

The TV also comes packing the Triluminos color display for bright, crisp colors. It’s the “lowest” model that comes packed with this color display, which should clue you into the quality of this TV. Along with better HDR integration thanks to the X1 processor and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, everything from the the NFL’s game of the week to the latest Marvel film will look their best. 

If you’re a gamer, the response time will be snappy and fast, especially ideal if you enjoy the odd multiplayer game here and there, too. Since the PlayStation is one of Sony’s backbone products, it makes sense that the TVs would be perfect for most console gamers out there.

And with those three sizes available, you’ll be able to enjoy that glorious 4K content, no matter what your space limits may be. Just make sure to act quickly, we don’t how long Amazon will have these TVs available.

Black Friday 2018 deals by store

Black Friday 2018 deals by category

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump may have poked a congressional bear with his repeated refusal to condemn Saudi Arabia for its role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Lawmakers have until now done little to push back against Trump’s approach to foreign policy – standing aside as he launched a trade war, picked fights with long-time U.S. allies and embraced dictators from North Korea to Russia.

But the Khashoggi killing has riled Republicans and Democrats alike, sparking a nascent legislative rebellion that promises to escalate when Democrats take control of the House in January. A clash over Trump’s handling of the journalist’s murder – and his broader embrace of Saudi Arabia – could unfold as early as next week, when Congress is set to reconvene.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has requested a classified briefing from top Trump administration officials – including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis – on Khashoggi’s murder as well as the U.S. support for a Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen.

In that closed-door session, tentatively set for next week, lawmakers are expected to grill Pompeo and Mattis about the CIA’s reported conclusion that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, ordered Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The journalist had gone into the diplomatic facility to get documents he needed for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman. 

Trump has publicly questioned the CIA’s assessment, emphasizing Salman’s denials even as the Saudi government’s account of Khashoggi’s fate has shifted. On Thursday, Trump said the crown prince “regretted the death more than I do” and reiterated his position that there was no conclusive evidence tying the crown prince to Khashoggi’s murder. 

“The CIA doesn’t say they did it. They do point out certain things, and in pointing out those things, you can conclude that maybe he did or maybe he didn’t,” the president told reporters in Florida, where he is spending Thanksgiving weekend with his family.

Earlier this week, Corker and Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, responded to Trump’s equivocation by forcing the administration to determine whether the crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. The senators used a provision in the Magnitsky Act to trigger that assessment.  

In the House, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is poised to chair the Intelligence Committee come January, has also vowed to scrutinize Trump’s statements downplaying the CIA’s assessment, as well as the broader U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia. 

“Certainly we will be delving further into the murder of Khashoggi, and I want to make sure that the committee is fully debriefed on it,” Schiff told The Washington Post. “We will certainly want to examine what the intelligence community knows about the murder.”

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who is likely to snag the gavel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Democrats take control, has also promised to re-examine the U.S-Saudi alliance in the wake of Khashoggi’s death. 

“It’s unacceptable to murder a journalist,” Engel said in a statement earlier this week. “When the United States is leading on the global stage, we can apply the sort of pressure that advances our values. Instead, the president is acting as though the United States is dependent on Saudi Arabia and not the other way around.”

One element of the U.S-Saudi relationship that is ripe for legislative push back is the war in Yemen, a deadly conflict that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The war is a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and its archenemy in the region, Iran. The U.S. has supported a Saudi-led coalition that is trying to defeat the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who overthrew Yemen’s previous government.

With millions of Yemeni civilians on the brink of starvation, the war has become increasingly controversial – and the U.S. role has grown increasingly unpopular on Capitol Hill. Khashoggi’s murder has galvanized opponents to press for an end to the conflict. 

Sens. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont liberal, and Mike Lee, a Utah conservative, are hoping to force a vote on a war powers resolution that would force the Trump administration to end its military role in the conflict. That measure could come up for a vote as early as next week.

Khashoggi’s murder “underscores how urgent it has become for the United States to redefine our relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Sanders said in a statement promising to push for a vote on his proposal.

It’s not clear if that measure has enough support to pass the Senate. House Republican leaders blocked a similar measure in that chamber earlier this month, but proponents hope to revive it. 

“Should they be able to pass it in the Senate, that would put pressure on the House once again,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., a chief backer of the war powers measure. “Otherwise if that doesn’t happen, we will in the next Congress be in a better position to move it forward.”

More: ‘Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!’ Trump says US will stand by Saudis despite Khashoggi murder

 

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Black Friday 2018 deals by store

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