Tencent Games subsidiary LightSpeed Studios has announced Hideaki Itsuno, who recently left Capcom after 30 years working for the company, will be leading a new video game studio called LightSpeed Japan Studio.

LightSpeed Japan Studio will have two locations in Tokyo and Osaka and is focused on developing original AAA games.

"Joining LightSpeed Studios is an exciting new chapter for me," said Hideaki Itsuno. "With LightSpeed’s strong development capability and global network, I look forward to creating original AAA action game titles together with the amazing team and building aesthetic and innovative experiences for the global player community. We welcome all talented and passionate game creators from the world over to join our vision."

LightSpeed Studios president Jerry Chen added, "It is our great honor to have Hideaki Itsuno join LightSpeed Studios. The establishment of LightSpeed Japan Studio is a significant step in LightSpeed Studios’ expansion and demonstrates our commitment to bringing the best possible games to our players."

Itsuno directed entries in the Rival Schools, Power Stone, Capcom VS. SNK, Devil May Cry, and Dragon’s Dogma franchises.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463041/hideaki-itsuno-to-lead-new-aaa-developer-lightspeed-japan-studio/

The Pokémon series is no stranger to mobile games, being responsible for one of the most successful ever (Pokémon Go), as well as many others with different takes on the massive franchise, but this time it’s a Pokémon card game - a tradition nearly as old as the original games - that has taken the spotlight in Pokémon TCG Pocket.

For the physical version of Pokémon TCG, the collecting has always been as big or bigger than the battling, and right off the bat we can see that TCG Pocket has made plenty of room for both these aspects in its design. In fact, the battling isn’t even available until you level up a few times, which, while a bit limiting, is a fine way for players to get their bearing and collect a few cards before they start competing. The game does suffer from just a tad bit too much forced tutorialization in the early stages, particularly when getting to the battles, but it’s still hardly the worst sinner among mobile titles in this regard.

The collecting all starts with the opening of packs, an infamously addictive part of any card game, and they’ve done a good job of making the process quite satisfying TCG Pocket. More importantly, the number of packs given for free is quite generous - at least two packs a day by default - meaning the game is perfectly playable without spending money, regardless of whether you’re in it for the collecting or battling aspect. Whenever you obtain new cards, they also get filled out in a sort of card Pokédex, which adds to the fun of collecting new ones.

A lot of what makes the collecting in TCG Pocket enjoyable, however, is quite simply the excellent card art. This is, of course, borrowed mostly from the game’s physical counterpart, and strengthened by little touches like being able to being able to zoom in and tilt the cards, with a slight holographic on the rarer ones. Whether they’re cute or cool, the Pokémon themselves are at the heart of this franchise and with the generally splendid art the game does a great job of bringing them to life, in some ways doing them more justice than recent mainline entries with low-detailed 3D models.

As for the other part of aesthetics, namely sound design, the game is also passable in this area but nothing special with slightly boring battle music. It's not the biggest issue perhaps, as most are likely to play mobile games with sound disabled, but with all the cosmetic unlockables (which we shall get to) it   seems like a wasted opportunity not to have unlockable battle themes when the Pokémon series has so many great ones to draw upon from its legacy.

Looking for a moment at the less positive side, while Pokémon TCG Pocket is fairly generous to free-to-play players, it does still suffer from some of the pitfalls that are typical of that type of mobile game; namely, the amount of noise that comes with too many currencies, constant quests and rewards, and perhaps a few more types of cosmetics than is necessary. Again, I wouldn't describe Pokémon TCG Pocket as the worst sinner of this type of issue, mostly just that it can be a bit overwhelming at first, and of course knowing that it’s intended to add to the addictiveness of the game can be a bit iffy, but ultimately it isn’t too hard to ignore aspects you don’t care about and simply enjoy the ones you do.

It might be high time to touch on the battles themselves, which to many players might be their first encounter ever with the actual rules of these pretty collectible cards. While it might not be simplest card game ever invented, I’m happy to say the TCG Pocket variant is still intuitive, fun, and quite strategic once you get the hang of it. To summarize it in very brief: you play and evolve Pokémon from your hand onto the field and charge them up with energy types to allow them to attack. Just like in the RPGs, only one Pokémon is active at a time and can use one move per turn, while you can assign others to your “bench”, where they await their turn in the spotlight. Unlike in the RPGs, switching Pokémon won’t cost you your turn (only some energy), meaning benched Pokémon can potentially step into action immediately - if you have the energy necessary. Rather than any form of life-points, you win the battle by defeating three of your opponents' Pokémon, which each award one point.

This bench system and charging up of your Pokémon before they can take action might in some regards make the game slower compared to other card games, but it also adds a strategic element, since you can generally see what moves you and your opponent have available in the immediate future and can only really be caught by surprise by item or support cards (which can be quite useful but rarely complete game changers). It’s not the type of game where you perform crazy one-turn game-winning combos, but it’s fun for the strategic aspect and of course the satisfaction that comes from evolving your Pokémon throughout the battle - and sometimes pulling off an impressive comeback.

Adding to this are the EX-cards, extra powerful cards that come with the added risk of rewarding the opponent two points if defeated rather than one. I’ve seen complaints that this risk is too big in a game when it only takes three points to win (unlike the physical version of the game where you need six points), but when the card is extra strong and you have the option of switching it out it seems justified, plus you still have that golden window of playing it when your opponent already has two points, at which point the extra risk is nullified.

Ultimately there is one distinct issue with the battle system, however, which is how type weaknesses are handled. Pokémon TCG, whether physical or digital, has condensed Pokémon down to nearly half as many types (a tad too few in my opinion, though all 18 would definitely have been overwhelming), while the weaknesses and resistances are reduced to one type per card, and in TCG Pocket resistances are removed so you only have the weaknesses. This, for example, means that (most) Water types are weak to Lightning   but not Grass, while Fire types are weak to Water but not Ground (which has been combined with Fighting). The issue however is not so much the differences from the RPGs as it is simply having these basic and pretty consistent weaknesses in a game that, unfortunately, strongly encourages mono-type   decks in its design (or one type + colorless), since you’ll be needing specific energy types to charge your Pokémon and receive them at random if your deck uses multiple types.

While there is something to be said for having to commit to certain types, it’s a bit unfortunate that it’s taken to the degree where dual-type decks can feel awkward and triple-type decks, while allowed, require very specific cards or a lot of luck to pull off. The result is that when most players play with only one type and all types have one weakness, online matches will often either play out without weaknesses playing any role or with one player having an advantage before the first card is even played. One can always hope that this is somehow redesigned a bit in the future, but for now it’s an unfortunate though not game-breaking issue, as the weaknesses are at least a bit milder here, adding only a flat amount of damage rather than a multiplier.

Lastly it wouldn't review this game without mentioning the nostalgic aspect, which to many a player might add an extra appeal to the experience. Even as someone who hasn't dabbled in Pokémon cards for nearly 20 years, I can still recognize many that I’ve owned myself at some point, and it’s also great to revisit the first generation, which has smartly put front and center for now (with a small mix from other generations on top). I consider it a good call to start off with a single set of a manageable size for now - one that doesn’t seem too daunting - while leaving plenty of room to grow in the future.

All in all, Creatures Inc. and Dena Co. have done a great job adapting the Pokémon card game to mobile in a way that can appeal to both old and new players, and to those who want to collect and those who want to battle. It brings Pokémon to life with great card art and, contrary to unfortunate trends, the game is also fairly generous to its free-to-play players (and certainly a cheaper alternative to collecting the physical cards). While it does suffer from a few design issues and some classic pitfalls, it’s overall one of the better mobile games out there at the moment and certainly worth checking out for those who have nostalgia for the Pokémon TCG or old school Pokémon in general.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463039/pokemon-tcg-pocket-android/

Publisher Xbox Game Studios and developer Compulsion Games have released a 30-minute long documentary on for South of Midnight titled "Weaving Hazel's Journey."

The video share a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming third-person action-adventure game. It explores the development and world building, as well as providing a look at new gameplay.

View the documentary below:

South of Midnight will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, and Xbox Game Pass in 2025.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463044/south-of-midnight-gets-30-minute-weaving-hazels-journey-documentary/

Nintendo has announced its Black Friday 2024 deals. 

Dozens of games will be discounted including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pikmin 4, Nintendo Switch Sports, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Mario Odyssey, Pikmin 1 + 2, and more.

The Neon Red and Neon Blue Joy-Con controllers and the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller will be discounted by $20, while the Nintendo Switch Carrying Case & Screen Protector - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition will be discounted by $10.

The Nintendo Switch: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle will once again return for $299.99, while the new Nintendo Switch – OLED Model: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle will be available for $349.99. Both bundles include a digital download of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online Individual Membership.

The Nintendo Switch Lite: Hyrule Edition with Bonus Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will be available for $209.99. The bundle includes a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack Individual Membership.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463045/nintendos-black-friday-2024-deals-revealed/

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pennsylvania—At a campaign rally in the most important swing state in the country, anti-Trump activist George Conway told the Daily Beast why he thinks Kamala Harris can win over Republicans.

“She’s kind of done it already,” he said. “Look at all those people who voted for [Nikki] Haley when she was already done. I actually think there’s kind of a hidden Harris vote for Republicans who are just exhausted by Donald Trump.”

Turnout is another factor that plays to Democrat’s advantage, Conway predicted. “I also think that even the people who are still for Trump and won’t vote for Harris, I don’t think the turnout’s going to be great for him.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance boldly said “no,” Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election, when pressed on the issue at a campaign event Wednesday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The Ohio senator has avoided directly denying the results over the past few weeks.

When quizzed by The New York Times about the results over the weekend, for example, he refused multiple times to answer the question, on one occasion claiming he was “focused on the future”—echoing an answer he gave to Democratic opponent Tim Walz at the vice presidential debate.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A hotel worker called 911 to request urgent assistance before musician Liam Payne fell to his death from the third floor of the building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old British singer and former member of the boy band One Direction died after he “jumped from the balcony of his room,” Buenos Aires Security Ministry Communications Director Pablo Policicchio told the Associated Press. He added that police had been called to the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital after receiving an emergency call shortly after 5 p.m. local time about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

A transcript of a 911 call published by the BBC shows a worker at the hotel telling the operator that they have “a guest who is high on drugs and who is trashing the room” and the staff therefore “need someone to come.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, a “stupid,” “ill-tempered,” and “despicable human being,” according to his own records.

McConnell made the withering assessments in a series of private “personal oral histories” that he gave to Michael Tackett, the deputy Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press, who has a forthcoming biography about the Kentucky senator called The Price of Power. The AP conveniently reported the book’s juicy details.

McConnell’s remarks were made after the 2020 election that Trump lost, and the senator was apparently elated to see the backside of the former president, musing, “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until he leaves office.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Today in "person you already like says something you already agree with, but it’s still good to hear them say it" news, Arkane founder and im-simmy RPG studio WolfEye head Raphael Colantonio has spoken on Microsoft’s decision to shutter Prey (2017) studio Arkane Austin - alongside a handful of others - back in May.

Colantonio, who founded Arkane in 1999 and departed in 2017 to form Weird West studio WolfEye, recently chatted to Jeremy Peel for PC Gamer about Arkane’s closure, saying:

I think if you look a little bit, it's obvious that Arkane Austin was a very special group of people that have made some cool things and that could pull it off again. I think it was a decision that just came down to, 'We need to cut something.' Was it to please the investors, the stock market? They're playing a different game.

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Part of the fun of Dragon Age's fantasy is that it's inconsistent - or at least, inconsistent by the standards of fantasy RPGs, which often break down into a million neatly organised and interlocking codex entries. It all rides on who you speak to. The humans believe one thing about the origins and workings of Thedas, the elves another, the qunari something else entirely. These differences are the basis for many factional disagreements and thus, many core series plot developments. According to former lead writer David Gaider, however, there's an "uber-plot" behind it all that may one day be resolved and bring the series to a close, assuming BioWare continue to refer to his original (and closely guarded) narrative documents.

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You remember Lucas Pope, right? He who casually dropped two of the most influential puzzle games ever then got distracted by yellow cranks for six years, occasionally popping up to drop a demake of Papers Please? Well, Pope has ceased hogging that crank, for now at least, and just released Haloween-y adventure game Moida Mansion. It’s on Itch here, and it’s completely free to play in your browser.

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Some extremely fresh vintage workwear that I bought for entirely practical reasons aside, I’m not exactly a fashion person. I have nobody to impress most days but my cat, and the only item of clothing she appears to have an opinion on is my Oodie, which is very comfortable for both of us and also smells like a chicken shop, which I imagine is more pleasant for her than me.

This aside, I found myself taking a whole bunch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshots as I played just to capture the RPG’s various outfits. They are ridiculous. Incredibly intricate and detailed, as well as being obscenely impractical for the most part. I do not like any of them in the sense I would wear them, but I like all of them in the sense that they display artists allowed to run free like caffeinated weasels and indulge their every whim.

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Like a plague doctor delicately administering another handful of leeches, Ice Pick Lodge have shared a bit more about the recently announced Pathologic 3, explaining how their plans for the cult epidemic-battling series have progressed since the release of Pathologic 2.

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Typing Of The Dead released in arcades 25 years ago remains a masterpiece - funny, absurd, tense, and novel. I am keen on any game that aims to follow in its footsteps, and there are a few. The latest is Blood Typers, a horror game where you tippity-tap on your keyboard to fight montsters in a spooky mansion, but this isn't a rail shooter, so you'll be typing to explore and navigate, too.

It's now got a release of February 2025, and there's a demo you can play now.

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Minor spoilers for the first few hours of Veilguard and heavy spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3

For all the things I ended up enjoying about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it isn’t much of an RPG. What little roleplaying it does offer revolves around what flavour of supportive hero you prefer, and you can count the number of impactful dialogue decisions on a three-fingered hand. This might sound utterly damning in the wake of Baldur's Gate 3’s incredible reactivity, and if I approached games as some sort of tedious comparative intellectual exercise rather than just, y’know, seeing how I felt about them, then I suppose it would be. Weirdly, though, the recent memory of Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t diminish my time with Veilguard at all. It was actually the opposite: it freed Dragon Age from having to carry the torch for a certain period in Bioware’s history, and let me enjoy Veilguard for what it was.

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Ogres, Orcs, and Khorne are all on the way in the upcoming expansion for strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3, and Creative Assembly have just released their latest dev vlog with a few more details on what to expect. There’s still no word on the exact title, although given the established naming convention (Shadows Of Change, Thrones Of Decay), I’m tentatively calling it “Sniffers Of Glue” in honour of the No Think, Only Krump faction selection.

You’ll find the vlog in its full glory below. What’s interesting about this one is that vlog mainstay director Rich Alridge has brought along some new faces: battle designer Josh King and audio director Chris Goldsmith. And, yes, so no-one can accuse me of burying the lede: that audio design involved the enthusiastic, deeply disgusting slurping of porridge and yoghurt, and the jangling of real bones. The source of the bones is not revealed.

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We’re still a week away from Blizzard’s Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct next Wednesday the 13th of November, but art from an apparent remaster of 1995 real time strategy game Warcraft II: Tides Of Darkness has leaked online, via Xibbly user Stiven. It’s a thin one, as far as leaks go, but does show what looks to be cover, logo art, and a Battle.net icon. Thanks for the spot, Percy Coswald Gamer.

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Steam's built-in game recording feature has been usable in beta since the summer, but it has now been properly launched for every user, following a client update to Steam yesterday. It's basically another method of capturing funny ragdoll glitches and posting them on the "lol-games-are-dumb" channel of your friend's Discord. Or for posting that flukey knife throw in Call Of Duty to Twitter, as if you really meant to kill the man from across the map all along. Or saving a clip for your personal records, like the footage of that time you yeeted an innocent citizen off the 50-foot wall of a castle town in Dragon's Dogma 2. We all do that, right? Right?

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We'll have a review of Planet Coaster 2 soon, but I keep making Brendy do other tasks so he's not had enough time yet to ride the rails. That means it falls to me to at least let you know that Frontier's theme park builder is out now.

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Putting aside my natural annoyance at Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for almost beating out the Twarhammer series in the headline real estate wars, I am more than a little excited to play. Some days, you simply must feast on a tree frog, and while we still don’t have a solid release date, that day doesn’t feel too far away. Good news for stealth fans, and perhaps gooder news for a dozen strapline writers sweating profusely, soiling themselves in anticipation of using “kept you waiting, huh?”.

Until then, I at least have a steady drip feed of new information to keep me sated, the latest of which is the substantial hint that there'll be some new dialogue in the game, as per the video below. Alongside that, the previously pseudonymous Suzetta Miñet - who was credited with voicing EVA in MGS3 and Peace Walker - has revealed herself to be Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Cheers for the spot, Automaton West.

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Calling a game ‘no frills’ or ‘no nonsense’ is always a back-handed compliment, because it sounds like you're saying it's a bit straightforward and simple. And yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying here. Acts Of Blood feels like a spiffy PS2 action brawler; a slightly tighter old Yakuza game, or a stripped-back Sifu. It’s snacky and a bit janky, but it’s also great coffee break fodder, assuming you want to spend your break breaking a selection of heavy objects over the crumbly skulls of ne’er-do-wells. I mean, they might have done some things well, I don’t know them. But they aren’t doing any well to my character in the game, so violence it is.

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A few months ago, the rumour took root that GTA 6's release date would slip back from 2025 to 2026. An anonymous insider averred that studio heads were "worried" about the new open world game's progress - hence, perhaps, Rockstar's decision to mandate a full return to in-office work. Pshaw, say publishers Take-Two CEO. They announced a fall 2025 launch in March and have just doubled down on it in their latest financial briefing, with CEO Strauss Zelnick subsequently going on the tellybox to say that Take-Two are "highly confident in the timing", though he still has nothing to share about GTA 6 on PC.

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Could tower defence be the ultimate "it's Friday and I am here in body only" genre? I haven't really thought about it before, but Rift Riff's effusively laidback crowd control has me pondering those optimal moments in any tower defender when the incoming horde hits the flamer-MG triangle just right, and you can settle back comfortably into the role of clockwatcher.

Rift Riff encourages this behaviour by being nice to look at. Created by a trio of developers including Hidden Folks designer Adriaan de Jongh, it's a world of spacey, sun-carved mountains, forests and monoliths. The towers resemble the sacred architecture of Monument Valley, and the colour scheme and general ambience remind me of Cocoon. There's a demo, if you fancy it.

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GeForce Now, Nvidia’s PC-focused game streaming service, will begin calling time on its most muscular of power users. A post on the GFN subreddit announced the introduction of a 100-hour monthly cap (or "allowance"), effective from January 1st 2025 for anyone who signs up after that date. Existing streamists, or anyone who signs up by the end of 2024, will get a year’s grace period before the limit kicks in from January 2026.

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The Rise Of The Golden Idol will crack its new case wide open on November 12th, but the detective sequel is just the beginning. Color Gray Games are planning another tranche of DLC akin to that received by the first game, The Case Of The Golden Idol: four standalone mysteries that introduce more mysteries to solve.

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Here’s a Steam quote for you: ‘The Rise Of The Golden Idol is the best game I’ve ever played where I spent most of my time staring at the screen going “well what chuffing well is it, then?!” Fiendish but fair, this detective puzzler demands a heady mix of observation, deduction, and logic, but rewards you with a progressively engaging story, and steadily more infuriatingly brilliant puzzles. Despite teaching you everything you need to know in the tutorial, it still manages to introduce new wrinkles and twists on the formula with each fresh chapter. My verdict? Imagine me lying my floor, massaging my temple with one hand and giving a fat thumbs up with the other.

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After nearly a year of public beta honing, the Nvidia App – Team Green’s new one-stop shop for desktop GPU management – is out in full. Not alongside the upcoming RTX 50 series, as rumoured, but right-now-today-this-minute. I’ve been testing out the launch version and while it’s not without some dud features, it does agreeably achieve its stated goal of combining the functions within Nvidia Control Panel and GeForce Experience. And if installing it means never having to use the latter again, well, that’s 149MB well spent.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: The hashtag #MeToo has millions of women sharing stories of abuse, shining a spotlight on a troubling reality in our society.

It was first used in 2007, but when actor Alyssa Milano tweeted it Sunday night to talk about sexual harassment and assault in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein story, it went viral. The hashtag was tweeted nearly a million times in just 48 hours. Facebook reported 45 percent of its users have friends who posted #MeToo, as women wrote about their experiences about the workplace and culture, and what should change.

We explore some of those issues with Fatima Goss Graves. She’s president of the National Women’s Law Center. Lisa Senecal wrote about her own experience for the online news site Daily Beast. She’s with the Vermont Commission on Women. And Melissa Silverstein is the founder of the blog and Web site Women and Hollywood.

Thank you all for joining us.

Lisa Senecal, I’m going to start with you.

You have had a personal experience with sexual harassment. That’s in part what has drawn you to this #MeToo campaign movement.

Just tell us briefly about what happened.

LISA SENECAL, Member, Vermont Commission on Women: Sure.

Like most women, I have had a number of experiences with sexual harassment, beginning with my first job, when I was 15 years old. And it’s really been a threat off and on throughout my entire professional career.

The most egregious offense was an actual assault that occurred with a male executive. Unfortunately, because of an NDA — and we can go into the evils of nondisclosures another time — but because of that, there isn’t a lot that I’m able to say about the specific event.

But the issue of sexual harassment and finally having this come to the fore, so many women are already familiar with it from being on the receiving end. And I think, especially with the #MeToo campaign, it’s been really wonderful and an eye-opening experience for men to realize just how pervasive an issue this is.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, in your experience, it was a business setting.

Melissa Silverstein, you have been writing about women in Hollywood for 10 years. Of course, that’s where the Harvey Weinstein story came from.

If it’s been going on in Hollywood forever, why hasn’t it been talked about more before now?

MELISSA SILVERSTEIN, Founder, Women and Hollywood: Well, I think there was a culture of silence created around this man and also within this industry.

People were afraid. People are afraid for their jobs. It’s a very relational industry, where if someone is going to blacklist you, you are not going to get your next job.

So I think the way that a person was able to conduct himself for 30 years like this was to build a culture of fear, to make people sign nondisclosure agreements, and to get them to shut up.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fatima Goss Graves, here with me in Washington with the National Women’s Law Center, we have been talking about Hollywood.

We have talking about the business workplace. Is there any field of work where this isn’t going on?

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES, President, National Women’s Law Center: Right.

The issue of harassment and assault, it’s a Hollywood problem, but really it’s an everywhere problem. It infects industries across the board, whether you’re high-wage jobs, low-wage jobs, male-dominated fields, but also female-dominated fields.

Restaurants are some of the areas where you have some of the highest rates of EEOC charges. And that’s not a male-dominated field.

JUDY WOODRUFF: EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Lisa Senecal, some people are saying that they’re uncomfortable with this #MeToo campaign movement because they’re saying, once again, women are being asked to go public with what happened to them, but there is no promise that there is going to be anything done about it. How do you see this?

LISA SENECAL: I don’t necessarily believe that women are being asked to come forward.

I think this is an opportunity to come forward, if that’s something that women want to do, but there’s no obligation to do it. And there’s been a lot of support for letting women know that if this isn’t something you’re comfortable with at this time, no one is obligated to tell their story, and no one is allowed to force you to tell your story before you’re ready.

But the stories are important. Without them, the degree to which this happens across all industries, across genders as well — we know that this happens to men. This happens to the transgender.

It’s not specific to women, although it affects us most frequently. Until we have a critical mass of women who are able to get the men in their lives, the men that they work with to understand how pervasive a problem it is, and then can get men to begin to act on this, because this isn’t a women’s issue.

This is a violence issue, and an issue of power and who has the power. So until the people who still primarily do hold the power, which is primarily men and primarily white men, until they’re going to begin to act, then the problems are going to persist.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Melissa Silverstein, how do you see that? What is it going to take for this to be a change?

MELISSA SILVERSTEIN: The fact that we’re having a global conversation about sexual harassment — I have been doing media for the last week all over the world.

People are really enthralled by this and want to see change. This is a global issue. And, also, Hollywood is a global industry. Seventy cents of every dollar of Hollywood studio movies are made outside the United States.

So what people are looking for is Hollywood to step up. And, today, we had a leader in Hollywood, Kathleen Kennedy, to say we need to have a commission, cross-industry commission, of people who are going to look into this and put a stop to it once and for all.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And pick up on that, Fatima Goss Graves. Just across the board, what is it going to take?

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: Right.

We know that there are things that would make a difference here. If employers had processes that their employees actually use, you wouldn’t have harassment in the shadows. Right now, most people don’t report harassment to anyone. And it’s because they think their employers won’t do anything, or, worse, that they would experience retaliation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And that’s — because that’s been what happened.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: And that is. They’re right to believe that they will experience retaliation, because they do. They’re shamed. They’re blamed.

But employees could make a difference. Right? They can be — take it seriously and communicate that to their workplace. They can also have the right policies that are in place. And, finally, they could, when someone comes forward, be really clear that they take it seriously and that they will not tolerate retaliation.

Those are things that aren’t happening among employers frequently enough.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lisa Senecal, as somebody who had it happen to you in a business environment, what changes need to be made in the workplace? What has to happen?

LISA SENECAL: Well, I agree completely with what was just said.

Too often, the workplace education that goes on is incredibly insufficient. It’s more of companies wanting to be able to check the box and say that they did their sexual harassment training. And it isn’t truly something within the culture of companies that they believe that this is a problem and that it is a right of all people working at that company not to be harassed.

So, until it starts to be taken more seriously, and when a woman or anyone comes forward with an accusation, it does have to be taken so much more seriously. And the knee-jerk response, as was in my case, cannot be to shame the woman, can’t be to blame her for somehow bringing this on herself, and putting women back in a position of being victimized a second time because they’re not taken seriously when they come forward.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Melissa Silverstein, yes, go ahead.

MELISSA SILVERSTEIN: I just wanted to add, one of the things that’s so fundamental about this is how this — how it’s so normalized for all of us to go through this kind of harassment, especially in Hollywood, and how people kind of laugh off, oh, you know, that’s locker room talk, or, you know, this is the movie business, get used to it.

And what we need to do is really pierce that veil of the normalization of this kind of conduct, because it starts with, you know, the comments, and then it can escalate very quickly.

So we really need to just change people’s attitudes and get rid of the toxic masculinity. Hollywood has no much institutionalized sexism that sometimes I feel like we need to just start over, if possible.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Joining us also is Leigh Gilmore, a professor at Wellesley College who’s written a book about why — titled “Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives.”

Leigh Gilmore, why don’t women — why haven’t women been believed and taken seriously on this, and could we now be at a moment when they are?

LEIGH GILMORE, Wellesley College: It’s good to be with you, Judy.

I think we have a persistent and a pervasive culture of doubting what women say, especially when they’re bringing forward accounts of harm into the public sphere. So we have these pre-made default cultural narratives of women’s unreliability. We have he said/she said, which is a false equivalence narrative.

We have that notion that nobody knows what really happened. We have that notion that you can’t really trust what women say. None of these are based in fact, but they are part of a kind of cloud that enables us to doubt any woman before she speaks up.

And it’s quite intimidating. And so, if we’re at a point of change, we really are at a moment where I think we have a new level of visibility, and we have the opportunity to amplify the voices of women who are speaking out.

So, insofar as we have that opportunity, there is a form of solidarity, and more women speaking can lead to change.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fatima Goss Graves, as somebody who works on these issues from a legal standpoint, are we, could we be at a watershed point, or is it just a whole lot more complicated?

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: Well, the culture change typically has to go together with both the enforcement of the laws and the policy change.

And so we’re at a tipping point, surely, on culture change. But I will tell you, you know, the National Women’s Law Center runs a hot line. And over the last two weeks, we have had double the intake on harassment.

And we have a new network called the Legal Network for Gender Equity, so we’re — attorneys are joining with us and will be ready to take these cases. But those people who are making these calls and contacting us, I think that that shows that you have people who are ready to come forward on social media, and there is power there, but it seems like there are people who are ready to come forward in other ways, too.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I want to quickly go around and ask each one of you about the role of men in all of this.

Lisa Senecal?

LISA SENECAL: Oh, I think it’s critical for men as allies to be coming forward and supporting women who do come forward.

Men also need to be willing to call out other men, whether that’s one-on-one, whether it’s in a group setting within a company, or socially. If a man hears, sees someone doing something inappropriate, they need to have the courage to stand up, even in front of other men, and say, it’s not OK, it’s inappropriate behavior, and it’s not going to be tolerated.

And until it’s also men joining in, women can’t do this by themselves. There is an organization, A Call to Men, that I’m a big fan of. And one of their mantras is, if women could have stopped abuse and assault, they would have done it already.

And that’s completely true. It’s not something that women are going to be able to do alone. It shouldn’t be looked at as only a women’s issue. And until people look at this on a larger scale and understand that this affects the bottom line of companies, it affects productivity, it affects, you know, absenteeism, just across the board, this is not a women’s issue.

It is a human issue.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

Melissa Silverstein, what about that?

And we should point out that men are themselves the victims of sexual harassment and abuse at times.

MELISSA SILVERSTEIN: I feel that this is on men.

The men are most of the perpetrators. They’re also the collaborators. And, at The Weinstein Company, their board was all men, and they were all complicit in creating an environment that allowed this to thrive.

In Hollywood, there’s not a single woman, even the people at the tippy-top of the industry, who don’t report to men. This is also about getting more women into leadership positions and getting the men — and holding the men accountable.

The men in this industry need to step up. They need to say, we want to be — we want to create this industry in a way that women can thrive and don’t have to experience this anymore.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Leigh Gilmore?

LEIGH GILMORE: We’re talking about awareness and accountability.

So, as wonderful as it is to have increased visibility, and it enables us to connect the dots and to see the long histories of sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination, we need new levels of accountability.

I will echo the notion that Harvey Weinstein’s board certainly knew about these accusations. There’s a DA who failed to charge him. We have ample examples of failures.

And what we really need to do is to correct those. The role of men is certainly important here. Minimally, they can show up and be witnesses.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, Fatima Goss Graves, the role of men and how we prevent this.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: We have had a little bit of conversation about men as survivors, but the conversation we haven’t really had is about what happens when men are abusers or enablers or allow this to happen in the workplaces, in schools, or in women’s everyday lives?

And so now we have an opportunity culturally for that conversation. That culture is going to have to hit where policy-makers are. It’s going to have to hit where employers are in order to make a real difference.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, it’s clear that everyone is hoping this is a watershed moment, that things will change as a result of what’s happened here. But we will see.

And we appreciate all of you joining us in this conversation, Fatima Goss Graves here with me in Washington, Lisa Senecal, Melissa Silverstein, and Leigh Gilmore.

We thank you all.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: Thank you.

MELISSA SILVERSTEIN: Thank you.

The post As survivors say #MeToo, what will it take to stop widespread sexual harassment? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: new questions surrounding the deaths of four Green Berets in the Western African nation of Niger and the role of the president as consoler in chief.

John Yang has the story.

JOHN YANG: Sending young Americans into harm’s way can be the most serious decision a president makes. Consoling the families of the fallen has become the latest controversy to engulf President Trump.

To bolster his claim that he does more than his predecessors, Mr. Trump today invoked the dead son of his chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: To the best of my knowledge, I think I have called every family of somebody that’s died. Now, as far as other representatives, I don’t know. I mean, you could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?

JOHN YANG: Kelly’s 29-year-old son, Robert, a Marine lieutenant, was killed in 2010 when he stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan, an episode Kelly rarely talks about publicly. Kelly and his wife did attend a 2011 Memorial Day breakfast President Obama hosted for Gold Star families.

President Trump ignited the furor when he was asked about his public silence on four Green Berets killed two weeks ago in Niger.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.

JOHN YANG: Reporters pressed him to back up the claim.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. That’s what I was told. All I can do — all I can do is ask my generals.

JOHN YANG: The response from former Obama officials was swift and forceful.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted this photo and insisted: “Stop the damn lying. I went to Dover Air Force base with 44 and saw him comfort families,” a reference to one of Mr. Obama’s late-night trips to pay his respects to troops killed in Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush often visited wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals, a practice Mr. Trump has continued. In February, the president and his daughter Ivanka went to Dover for the return of the remains of a Navy SEAL killed in Yemen, the first casualty of his administration.

So far this year, the Pentagon says 16 Americans have been killed in action. Another 17 sailors died in accidents. In the first year of the Obama presidency, 344 were killed in action.

During last year’s campaign, Mr. Trump publicly feuded with the Khans, the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq, after they criticized him at the Democratic Convention.

Today, the Khans said: “President Trump’s selfish and divisive actions have undermined the dignity of the high office of the presidency.”

The current controversy comes as questions are being raised about how and why the four soldiers died in Niger.

Senator Jack Reed is the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

SEN. JACK REED, D-R.I.: I think the administration has to be much more clear about our role in Niger and our role in other areas in Africa and other parts of the globe.

JOHN YANG: The Pentagon is investigating the deaths. Reportedly among the questions, did commanders adequately assess the risk, and was there ready access to medical support?

Today, President Trump called the families of the four dead Green Berets.

For the PBS NewsHour, I’m John Yang.

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HARI SREENIVASAN: In the day’s other news: Attorney General Jeff Sessions insisted he never lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign. At a hearing today, he bridled at Democratic Senator Al Franken’s accusation that he’d — quote — “moved the goalposts” on the nature of his discussions.

SEN. AL FRANKEN, D-Minn.: First it was, I didn’t have communications with Russians, which wasn’t true. Then it was, I never met with any Russians to discuss any political campaign, which may or may not be true.

Now it’s, I didn’t discuss interference in the campaign.

JEFF SESSIONS, Attorney General: Well, let me just say without hesitation, that I conducted no improper discussions with the Russians at any time regarding the campaign or any other item facing this country.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Sessions has recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling.

President Trump had new criticism today for former FBI Director James Comey over the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe. He complained again that Comey decided to clear Clinton before she was even interviewed. That’s based on newly released draft statements by Comey from May of 2016. FBI officials say it was already clear that no charges were warranted.

On another issue, the president faced fallout over the death of Army Sergeant La David Johnson in Niger this month. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson says she was with Mrs. Johnson when the president called. The Florida Democrat told The Washington Post that Mr. Trump said — quote — “He knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway.”

The sergeant’s mother confirmed it, but the president denied it, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders went after Wilson.

SARAH SANDERS, White House Press Secretary: This is a president who loves our country very much, who has the greatest level of respect for men and women in uniform and wanted to call and offer condolences to the family, and I think to try to create something from that, that the congresswoman is doing, is, frankly, appalling and disgusting.

HARI SREENIVASAN: The Post also reported on another incident today. It quoted the father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan as saying the president offered $25,000 from his personal account, but never followed through.

We will get more detail on all of this after the news summary.

The death toll in Northern California’s wildfires rose to 42 today. Officials in Sonoma County found the remains of the latest victim, as they searched hundreds of burned homes. Meanwhile, fire crews made new gains overnight with the help of cooler weather and low winds.

A two-time Olympic medalist says the former team doctor for U.S. women’s gymnastics sexually abused her for years. McKayla Maroney is the highest profile athlete to come forward in the scandal. In a statement today, she said Dr. Larry Nassar began molesting her when she was just 13. He’s awaiting sentencing on a child pornography charge, but has denied any sexual abuse.

More questions tonight about drug pricing. A new study finds the costs of injectable cancer drugs, approved since 1996, rose an average of 25 percent over eight years. That’s far higher than the rate of inflation. The study was based at Emory University and published in “The Journal of Clinical Oncology.”

And on Wall Street, health insurers and IBM fueled a surge in stocks today. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 160 points, more than half-a-percent, to close above 23000 for the first time. The Nasdaq rose just a fraction, and the S&P 500 was up two points.

The post News Wrap: Sessions insists he didn’t lie about Russian contacts to Senate appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

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