WASHINGTON (AP) —Former President Donald Trump and some other Republicans are twisting minor voting problems in <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">U.S. midterm elections</a>
 into conspiracy theories and false claims to sow doubt about Democratic
 victories, continuing efforts since 2020 to undermine Americans’ 
confidence in voting.

Election Day unfolded without major or 
widespread voting snags, yet some GOP candidates sought to distort the 
severity of the few hitches that occurred, such as voting <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-arizona-4e15278b82452878d6f6aa45b2984579">machines temporarily malfunctioning in Arizona’s largest county</a> and some Detroit voters wrongly being told they had already cast ballots.

“The
 most concerning thing is the way those isolated incidents are being 
used to spread mis- and disinformation and lies around the election in 
an attempt to undermine people’s confidence and faith in the election,” 
said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the nonpartisan
 group Common Cause.

In 2020, conspiracies about a rigged election
 were fueled by bogus reports of suitcases stuffed with fraudulent 
ballots at a Georgia vote-counting operation and ‘’ballot mules’’ 
loading up drop boxes with fraudulent ballots.

The GOP has kept up the rhetoric since then and laid the groundwork for contesting this year's midterm elections. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-lawsuits-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-b5bbd44a2fe3ade45a1f6cf2a59c0639">More than 100 lawsuits were filed</a>
 across the country before Election Day, targeting mail-in voting rules,
 voting machine security and access for partisan poll watchers.

After
 Trump lost Arizona to President Joe Biden by just over 10,000 votes, he
 and his supporters peddled a string of allegations about election 
wrongdoing that crumbled under scrutiny.

Two years later, the state remains pivotal. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-governor-race-2022-midterm-elections-274fa547d321f88762954f8f8806c88d">Democrats held narrow leads early Wednesday</a> in too-close-to-call races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Trump
 and some of his supporters sought to amplify problems with 
vote-tabulation equipment in roughly 25% of polling places in Maricopa 
County, home to Phoenix and the majority of the state’s population.

Codes
 on ballots that were printed too lightly to be be read by tabulating 
scanners caused the confusion. Impacted voters were given a choice: 
Leave their ballots in a locked box at their polling place to be counted
 at a central office on Wednesday, or take them to another voting center
 on Tuesday.

Trump seized on the problem in a message on his 
social network. He said the problem, which appeared similar to a voting 
issue in New Jersey’s Mercer County, was an effort by Democrats to 
“steal the election.”

“Every national election you have problems 
like these somewhere,” said Lawrence Norden, senior director of the 
Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The
 fact that we’re talking about them the next day speaks to the fact that
 there was an organized effort to weaponize these types of things.”

The
 Republican official overseeing the election in Maricopa County 
apologized for the inconvenience and pledged that every legal vote would
 be counted no matter which method voters chose.

But Kari Lake, 
the Republican candidate for governor, told her supporters that they 
should leave the ballot to be counted later only if they couldn’t wait —
 and that they should not take it to another polling place.

In a late-night speech to supporters, Lake focused entirely on election issues.

“The
 system we have right now does not work,” she said. “We the people 
deserve to know on election night the winner and the loser and we will 
bring that kind of election back to Arizona. I assure you of that.”

Election
 critics also focused on a glitch in Detroit. Some electronic poll books
 used for signing in voters displayed an error message stating that 
numbers on ballots already had been assigned to an absentee ballot. Poll
 workers were able to use paper backup poll books when the electronic 
ones had problems.

Detroit is a Democratic stronghold in a swing state, so turnout there can be key in election outcomes. On Tuesday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-governor-race-2022-midterm-elections-a91578081bc2141151efdf74bb4b3ccb">Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected</a> as governor. Democrats also won races for attorney general and secretary of state, defeating <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-donald-trump-0ee9afeb304662dcec28e8af0f18bc1d">Republicans who questioned the 2020 election results</a>.

“It
 was identified and resolved quite quickly” and voters who were wrongly 
flagged were given ballots, said Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the 
Michigan Secretary of State office.

But that didn’t keep Trump from urging his supporters to protest in Detroit — actions that did not materialize on Tuesday.

“We
 have seen misinformation spread about nuances and complexity of 
elections for more than two years,” Rollow said. “It continues to be a 
threat to our democracy, a threat to voters’ faith in our elections and 
really just an unfortunate part of the current political era.”

WASHINGTON (AP) —Former President Donald Trump and some other Republicans are twisting minor voting problems in <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">U.S. midterm elections</a>
 into conspiracy theories and false claims to sow doubt about Democratic
 victories, continuing efforts since 2020 to undermine Americans’ 
confidence in voting.Election Day unfolded without major or 
widespread voting snags, yet some GOP candidates sought to distort the 
severity of the few hitches that occurred, such as voting <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-arizona-4e15278b82452878d6f6aa45b2984579">machines temporarily malfunctioning in Arizona’s largest county</a> and some Detroit voters wrongly being told they had already cast ballots.“The
 most concerning thing is the way those isolated incidents are being 
used to spread mis- and disinformation and lies around the election in 
an attempt to undermine people’s confidence and faith in the election,” 
said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the nonpartisan
 group Common Cause.In 2020, conspiracies about a rigged election
 were fueled by bogus reports of suitcases stuffed with fraudulent 
ballots at a Georgia vote-counting operation and ‘’ballot mules’’ 
loading up drop boxes with fraudulent ballots.The GOP has kept up the rhetoric since then and laid the groundwork for contesting this year's midterm elections. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-lawsuits-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-b5bbd44a2fe3ade45a1f6cf2a59c0639">More than 100 lawsuits were filed</a>
 across the country before Election Day, targeting mail-in voting rules,
 voting machine security and access for partisan poll watchers.After
 Trump lost Arizona to President Joe Biden by just over 10,000 votes, he
 and his supporters peddled a string of allegations about election 
wrongdoing that crumbled under scrutiny.Two years later, the state remains pivotal. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-governor-race-2022-midterm-elections-274fa547d321f88762954f8f8806c88d">Democrats held narrow leads early Wednesday</a> in too-close-to-call races for governor and U.S. Senate.Trump
 and some of his supporters sought to amplify problems with 
vote-tabulation equipment in roughly 25% of polling places in Maricopa 
County, home to Phoenix and the majority of the state’s population.Codes
 on ballots that were printed too lightly to be be read by tabulating 
scanners caused the confusion. Impacted voters were given a choice: 
Leave their ballots in a locked box at their polling place to be counted
 at a central office on Wednesday, or take them to another voting center
 on Tuesday.Trump seized on the problem in a message on his 
social network. He said the problem, which appeared similar to a voting 
issue in New Jersey’s Mercer County, was an effort by Democrats to 
“steal the election.”“Every national election you have problems 
like these somewhere,” said Lawrence Norden, senior director of the 
Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The
 fact that we’re talking about them the next day speaks to the fact that
 there was an organized effort to weaponize these types of things.”The
 Republican official overseeing the election in Maricopa County 
apologized for the inconvenience and pledged that every legal vote would
 be counted no matter which method voters chose.But Kari Lake, 
the Republican candidate for governor, told her supporters that they 
should leave the ballot to be counted later only if they couldn’t wait —
 and that they should not take it to another polling place.In a late-night speech to supporters, Lake focused entirely on election issues.“The
 system we have right now does not work,” she said. “We the people 
deserve to know on election night the winner and the loser and we will 
bring that kind of election back to Arizona. I assure you of that.”Election
 critics also focused on a glitch in Detroit. Some electronic poll books
 used for signing in voters displayed an error message stating that 
numbers on ballots already had been assigned to an absentee ballot. Poll
 workers were able to use paper backup poll books when the electronic 
ones had problems.Detroit is a Democratic stronghold in a swing state, so turnout there can be key in election outcomes. On Tuesday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-governor-race-2022-midterm-elections-a91578081bc2141151efdf74bb4b3ccb">Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected</a> as governor. Democrats also won races for attorney general and secretary of state, defeating <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-donald-trump-0ee9afeb304662dcec28e8af0f18bc1d">Republicans who questioned the 2020 election results</a>.“It
 was identified and resolved quite quickly” and voters who were wrongly 
flagged were given ballots, said Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the 
Michigan Secretary of State office.But that didn’t keep Trump from urging his supporters to protest in Detroit — actions that did not materialize on Tuesday.“We
 have seen misinformation spread about nuances and complexity of 
elections for more than two years,” Rollow said. “It continues to be a 
threat to our democracy, a threat to voters’ faith in our elections and 
really just an unfortunate part of the current political era.”

Minor poll problems twisted into false US election claims

GENEVA
 (AP) — A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity sold at a
 Geneva auction for 28.4 million Swiss francs ($28.8 million), including
 fees and taxes, on the lower end of the expected range.

The 
“Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, said to be the largest of its 
kind and shape to go on the block, headlined Christie's latest Geneva 
sale of jewelry. It had been expected to fetch between $25 million and 
$35 million.

The auction house said an unidentified Asian buyer snapped up the diamond.

Max
 Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said the 
stone with a strong, saturated pink color was mined in Brazil more than 
15 years ago. He declined to identify its owner, but described the 
diamond as “a true miracle of nature.”

Christie’s says the first 
pink diamonds ever recorded were found in India’s Golconda mines in the 
16th century, before others turned up over the centuries in places like 
Africa, Australia, Brazil and Russia.

The pink stone’s auction followed a showroom tour in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan before its arrival in Geneva.

Managing director Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds, an online diamond jeweler, called the sale price disappointing.

“The
 extraordinary Fortune Pink diamond sold in Geneva, with its auspicious 
18.18 carat weight, which signifies prosperity in Asia, sadly didn’t 
bring the luck or uplift in fortunes many had hoped for," he said.

He
 suggested the result could be reflection of a “shaky global economy” 
and other financial factors, which have been “giving rise to worries 
creeping in, even among the top echelon of wealthy buyers.”

The 
auction comes six months after Christie's sold “The Rock” — a 228-carat 
egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for 
auction — for more than $21.75 million, including fees. That was also at
 the low end of the expected range.

GENEVA
 (AP) — A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity sold at a
 Geneva auction for 28.4 million Swiss francs ($28.8 million), including
 fees and taxes, on the lower end of the expected range.The 
“Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, said to be the largest of its 
kind and shape to go on the block, headlined Christie's latest Geneva 
sale of jewelry. It had been expected to fetch between $25 million and 
$35 million.The auction house said an unidentified Asian buyer snapped up the diamond.Max
 Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said the 
stone with a strong, saturated pink color was mined in Brazil more than 
15 years ago. He declined to identify its owner, but described the 
diamond as “a true miracle of nature.”Christie’s says the first 
pink diamonds ever recorded were found in India’s Golconda mines in the 
16th century, before others turned up over the centuries in places like 
Africa, Australia, Brazil and Russia.The pink stone’s auction followed a showroom tour in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan before its arrival in Geneva.Managing director Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds, an online diamond jeweler, called the sale price disappointing.“The
 extraordinary Fortune Pink diamond sold in Geneva, with its auspicious 
18.18 carat weight, which signifies prosperity in Asia, sadly didn’t 
bring the luck or uplift in fortunes many had hoped for," he said.He
 suggested the result could be reflection of a “shaky global economy” 
and other financial factors, which have been “giving rise to worries 
creeping in, even among the top echelon of wealthy buyers.”The 
auction comes six months after Christie's sold “The Rock” — a 228-carat 
egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for 
auction — for more than $21.75 million, including fees. That was also at
 the low end of the expected range.

18-carat pink diamond reaps $28.8 million at Geneva auction

By JAKE COYLE Associated Press

Made in the wake of tragedy, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3QKkl1WyM">“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”</a>
 reverberates with the agony of loss, piercing the usually less 
consequential superhero realm. Like someone going through the stages of 
grief, Ryan Coogler’s movie is at turns mournful and rootless, full of 
rage and blessed with clarity. In the fantastical Marvel Cinematic 
Universe where mortality is almost always a plaything, wrestling with 
the genuine article, in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-race-and-ethnicity-ca-state-wire-entertainment-sc-state-wire-5f4352111fdead278da3651b44d311b8">the death of T’Challa star Chadwick Boseman</a>, makes for an unusually uncertain, soul-searching kind of blockbuster-scale entertainment.

It’s
 a fine line, of course, between paying tribute and trading on it. I did
 cringe a little when the Marvel logo unspooled with images of Boseman 
within the letters: Eulogy as branding. That “Black Panther,” a cultural
 phenomenon and a box-office smash, would get a sequel, at all, was 
momentarily in doubt after Boseman’s unexpected death from colon cancer 
in 2020. Radically reworked by Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, 
“Wakanda Forever” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-health-movies-covid-6852dcc0e6cc687a42a45907cff1bfac">pushed ahead in hopes of honoring both Boseman and the rich Afrocentric world of the landmark original.</a> In its admirably muddled way, it succeeds in both.

Part of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-film-reviews-north-america-ap-top-news-ryan-coogler-90ba27dfd7ed46a98092857ab92dda27">the profound appeal of Coogler’s first “Black Panther”</a>
 resided in its deft channeling of the real world into mythology. It fed
 centuries of colonialism and exploitation into a big-screen spectacle 
of identity and resistance. In an invented African nation, Coogler 
conjured both a fanciful could-have-been history and emotional right-now
 reality.

“Wakanda Forever,” which opens in theaters Thursday, 
expands on that, weaving in a Latin American perspective with a similar 
degree of cultural specificity in the introduction of the Aztec-inspired
 antagonist Namor (Tenoch Huerta), king of the ancient underwater world 
of Talokan. At the same time, Boseman’s death is poignantly filtered 
into the story from the start, beginning with off-screen death throes.

“Time
 is running out,” we hear whispered while the screen is still black. 
Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s tech-wiz sister, is frantically 
trying to craft something in her AI lab to save her brother. But in a 
moment, their mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), informs her: “Your
 brother is with the ancestors.” He’s laid to rest in a glorious, 
celebratory procession, carried through a multi-tiered channel of 
white-clad, singing-and-dancing Wakandans. It’s as stunning as anything 
Coogler has shot.

After this prologue, “Wakanda Forever” shifts to
 a year later. “Black Panther” took some of the spy-thriller shape of a 
Bond movie, and the sequel carries that on in a new geopolitical 
context. At the United Nations, the United States and France are 
pressuring for access to vibranium, the rare metal that Wakanda has 
built its empire on. Soon after, a U.S. military expedition discovers 
vibranium at the bottom of the ocean. But just as they’re celebrating, a
 mysterious tribe of blue underwater people, led by Namor, a 
pointy-eared monarch in green short-shorts with wings on his ankles, 
ruthlessly wipe out the entire expedition.

You can feel “Wakanda 
Forever” searching for a way forward in these early scenes. After such 
an anguished beginning, how much care can we summon for the whereabouts 
of magical ores? And more blue people? “Avatar,” you might think, has 
already laid claim to them. What steadies the film is Bassett. Her 
awesome presence leads “Wakanda Forever” through grief with a staunch 
defense of Wakanda that rebalances the newly king-less kingdom. She 
carries on.

What follows is a globe-trotting plot that draws the 
film away from perhaps its greatest asset in Wakanda but uncovers new 
places of latent power among historically exploited people. Shuri and 
Okoye (Danai Gurira), the Dora Milaje general, travel to Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, to seek the student (Dominique Thorne) who created a 
vibranium detector. In the Washington D.C. area, Wakanda’s friendly CIA 
officer (Martin Freeman) experiences new scrutiny from his boss, played 
by an unannounced comic actress familiar to Beltway politics.

But,
 mostly, a series of exchanges draw Wakanda and Talokan closer. Are they
 friends and foes? They are, at least, a captivating tweak to the 
mythology of Atlantis. Talokan, dark and watery, is no Wakanda, though, 
and there’s less hint this time of a larger society. Still, Huerta 
brings a magnetism to Namor. In many ways, he’s a corollary to Michael 
B. Jordan’s Killmonger, a non-villain whose fury is in many ways 
justified. His anger appeals to the still-grieving Shuri who finds 
herself ready, after T’Challa’s death, to “burn the world.”

As in 
the first “Black Panther,” the question again hangs in the balance of 
whether, in a pain-ridden and prejudiced world, rage is the answer. This
 time, it applies to another powerful civilization, too. "Wakanda 
Forever,” where the role of Black Panther is passed down, is in more 
ways than one about the transfer of power.

Wakanda and Talokan are
 brought together a little haphazardly in conflict, as Namor pressures 
the African nation to join his brewing surface war. “Wakanda Forever” 
proceeds as a murky, middle-act film that may ultimately serve as a 
bridge to future “Black Panther” chapters. But along the way, there are 
countless marvels that Coogler conjures with returning magic-workers 
like production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. 
Carter. How the Talokan are flung into the air by whales. The fierce 
friendliness of Gurira’s performance. Lupita Nyong’o is unfortunately 
less central here, but every time her Nakia (who has been laying low in 
Haiti) is present, she graces the film.

“Wakanda Forever” is 
overlong, a little unwieldy and somewhat mystifyingly steers toward a 
climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic. But Coogler's fluid 
command of mixing intimacy with spectacle remains gripping. He extends 
the rich detail and non-binary complexity that distinguished “Black 
Panther” in sometimes awkward but often thrilling ways. “Wakanda 
Forever," grappling in the aftermath of loss, ultimately seeks something
 rare in the battle-ready superhero landscape: Peace.

"Black 
Panther: Wakanda Forever,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by 
the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of strong 
violence, action and some language. Running time: 161 minutes. Three 
stars out of four.

By JAKE COYLE Associated PressMade in the wake of tragedy, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3QKkl1WyM">“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”</a>
 reverberates with the agony of loss, piercing the usually less 
consequential superhero realm. Like someone going through the stages of 
grief, Ryan Coogler’s movie is at turns mournful and rootless, full of 
rage and blessed with clarity. In the fantastical Marvel Cinematic 
Universe where mortality is almost always a plaything, wrestling with 
the genuine article, in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-race-and-ethnicity-ca-state-wire-entertainment-sc-state-wire-5f4352111fdead278da3651b44d311b8">the death of T’Challa star Chadwick Boseman</a>, makes for an unusually uncertain, soul-searching kind of blockbuster-scale entertainment.It’s
 a fine line, of course, between paying tribute and trading on it. I did
 cringe a little when the Marvel logo unspooled with images of Boseman 
within the letters: Eulogy as branding. That “Black Panther,” a cultural
 phenomenon and a box-office smash, would get a sequel, at all, was 
momentarily in doubt after Boseman’s unexpected death from colon cancer 
in 2020. Radically reworked by Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, 
“Wakanda Forever” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-health-movies-covid-6852dcc0e6cc687a42a45907cff1bfac">pushed ahead in hopes of honoring both Boseman and the rich Afrocentric world of the landmark original.</a> In its admirably muddled way, it succeeds in both.Part of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-film-reviews-north-america-ap-top-news-ryan-coogler-90ba27dfd7ed46a98092857ab92dda27">the profound appeal of Coogler’s first “Black Panther”</a>
 resided in its deft channeling of the real world into mythology. It fed
 centuries of colonialism and exploitation into a big-screen spectacle 
of identity and resistance. In an invented African nation, Coogler 
conjured both a fanciful could-have-been history and emotional right-now
 reality.“Wakanda Forever,” which opens in theaters Thursday, 
expands on that, weaving in a Latin American perspective with a similar 
degree of cultural specificity in the introduction of the Aztec-inspired
 antagonist Namor (Tenoch Huerta), king of the ancient underwater world 
of Talokan. At the same time, Boseman’s death is poignantly filtered 
into the story from the start, beginning with off-screen death throes.“Time
 is running out,” we hear whispered while the screen is still black. 
Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s tech-wiz sister, is frantically 
trying to craft something in her AI lab to save her brother. But in a 
moment, their mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), informs her: “Your
 brother is with the ancestors.” He’s laid to rest in a glorious, 
celebratory procession, carried through a multi-tiered channel of 
white-clad, singing-and-dancing Wakandans. It’s as stunning as anything 
Coogler has shot.After this prologue, “Wakanda Forever” shifts to
 a year later. “Black Panther” took some of the spy-thriller shape of a 
Bond movie, and the sequel carries that on in a new geopolitical 
context. At the United Nations, the United States and France are 
pressuring for access to vibranium, the rare metal that Wakanda has 
built its empire on. Soon after, a U.S. military expedition discovers 
vibranium at the bottom of the ocean. But just as they’re celebrating, a
 mysterious tribe of blue underwater people, led by Namor, a 
pointy-eared monarch in green short-shorts with wings on his ankles, 
ruthlessly wipe out the entire expedition.You can feel “Wakanda 
Forever” searching for a way forward in these early scenes. After such 
an anguished beginning, how much care can we summon for the whereabouts 
of magical ores? And more blue people? “Avatar,” you might think, has 
already laid claim to them. What steadies the film is Bassett. Her 
awesome presence leads “Wakanda Forever” through grief with a staunch 
defense of Wakanda that rebalances the newly king-less kingdom. She 
carries on.What follows is a globe-trotting plot that draws the 
film away from perhaps its greatest asset in Wakanda but uncovers new 
places of latent power among historically exploited people. Shuri and 
Okoye (Danai Gurira), the Dora Milaje general, travel to Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, to seek the student (Dominique Thorne) who created a 
vibranium detector. In the Washington D.C. area, Wakanda’s friendly CIA 
officer (Martin Freeman) experiences new scrutiny from his boss, played 
by an unannounced comic actress familiar to Beltway politics.But,
 mostly, a series of exchanges draw Wakanda and Talokan closer. Are they
 friends and foes? They are, at least, a captivating tweak to the 
mythology of Atlantis. Talokan, dark and watery, is no Wakanda, though, 
and there’s less hint this time of a larger society. Still, Huerta 
brings a magnetism to Namor. In many ways, he’s a corollary to Michael 
B. Jordan’s Killmonger, a non-villain whose fury is in many ways 
justified. His anger appeals to the still-grieving Shuri who finds 
herself ready, after T’Challa’s death, to “burn the world.”As in 
the first “Black Panther,” the question again hangs in the balance of 
whether, in a pain-ridden and prejudiced world, rage is the answer. This
 time, it applies to another powerful civilization, too. "Wakanda 
Forever,” where the role of Black Panther is passed down, is in more 
ways than one about the transfer of power.Wakanda and Talokan are
 brought together a little haphazardly in conflict, as Namor pressures 
the African nation to join his brewing surface war. “Wakanda Forever” 
proceeds as a murky, middle-act film that may ultimately serve as a 
bridge to future “Black Panther” chapters. But along the way, there are 
countless marvels that Coogler conjures with returning magic-workers 
like production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. 
Carter. How the Talokan are flung into the air by whales. The fierce 
friendliness of Gurira’s performance. Lupita Nyong’o is unfortunately 
less central here, but every time her Nakia (who has been laying low in 
Haiti) is present, she graces the film.“Wakanda Forever” is 
overlong, a little unwieldy and somewhat mystifyingly steers toward a 
climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic. But Coogler's fluid 
command of mixing intimacy with spectacle remains gripping. He extends 
the rich detail and non-binary complexity that distinguished “Black 
Panther” in sometimes awkward but often thrilling ways. “Wakanda 
Forever," grappling in the aftermath of loss, ultimately seeks something
 rare in the battle-ready superhero landscape: Peace."Black 
Panther: Wakanda Forever,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by 
the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of strong 
violence, action and some language. Running time: 161 minutes. Three 
stars out of four.

Review: In 'Wakanda Forever,' an empire mourns and rebuilds

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Houston Astros' six-game victory over the 
Philadelphia Phillies finished as the second least-watched World Series 
on television.

The six games averaged 11,784,000 on Fox, down 1.3%
 from the 11,940,000 for the Atlanta Braves' six-game win over the 
Astros last year and ahead of only the 9,946,000 for the Los Angeles 
Dodgers' six-game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020.

Houston’s
 3-1 win in Game 6 on Saturday night was seen by 12,549,000 viewers on 
Fox, down 11% from 14,140,000 Atlanta’s 7-0 victory over the Astros in 
last year’s finale, played on a Tuesday night. Including Fox Deportes 
and streaming, this year's Game 6 was viewed by 12,871,000.

Game 6
 was played opposite several college football games, including 
Alabama-LSU on ESPN, Clemson-Notre Dame on NBC and Florida State-Miami 
on ABC.

The Series finished with a 6.1 Nielsen rating and 17 
share. The rating was the second-lowest behind the 5.2 for 2020, which 
had a 12 share. This year's share marked a 1% increase from last year.

Including Fox Deportes and streaming, this year's Series averaged 12,023,000 viewers.

Viewers peaked at 51,560,000 for Game 7 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds.

Totals declined with the rise of cable television and then of streaming services, giving viewers more choices.

The Series had a 25.0 rating and a 52 share in Philadelphia and a 24.0/55 in Houston.

The
 rating is the percentage of television households tuned in to a 
broadcast. The share is the percentage viewing a telecast among those 
households with TVs on at the time.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667851581822.jpeg" alt="Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, foreground, a prolific Texas gambler, and the Houston Astros players gather before a victory parade for the Houston Astros' World Series baseball championship Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/David Phillip)" />
 <figcaption>Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, foreground, a prolific Texas gambler, and the Houston Astros players gather before a victory parade for the Houston Astros' World Series baseball championship Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/David Phillip)</figcaption>
 </figure>LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Houston Astros' six-game victory over the 
Philadelphia Phillies finished as the second least-watched World Series 
on television.The six games averaged 11,784,000 on Fox, down 1.3%
 from the 11,940,000 for the Atlanta Braves' six-game win over the 
Astros last year and ahead of only the 9,946,000 for the Los Angeles 
Dodgers' six-game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020.Houston’s
 3-1 win in Game 6 on Saturday night was seen by 12,549,000 viewers on 
Fox, down 11% from 14,140,000 Atlanta’s 7-0 victory over the Astros in 
last year’s finale, played on a Tuesday night. Including Fox Deportes 
and streaming, this year's Game 6 was viewed by 12,871,000.Game 6
 was played opposite several college football games, including 
Alabama-LSU on ESPN, Clemson-Notre Dame on NBC and Florida State-Miami 
on ABC.The Series finished with a 6.1 Nielsen rating and 17 
share. The rating was the second-lowest behind the 5.2 for 2020, which 
had a 12 share. This year's share marked a 1% increase from last year.Including Fox Deportes and streaming, this year's Series averaged 12,023,000 viewers.Viewers peaked at 51,560,000 for Game 7 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds.Totals declined with the rise of cable television and then of streaming services, giving viewers more choices.The Series had a 25.0 rating and a 52 share in Philadelphia and a 24.0/55 in Houston.The
 rating is the percentage of television households tuned in to a 
broadcast. The share is the percentage viewing a telecast among those 
households with TVs on at the time.

This year's World Series is 2nd-least watched on TV

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in 
Southern California has won a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot 
after more than three months without anyone hitting the top prize.

The
 winning numbers drawn Tuesday morning at the Florida Lottery draw 
studio in Tallahassee were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the 
red Powerball was 10.

The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service
 Center in Altadena, an unincorporated community in the foothills 
northeast of Los Angeles. A voicemail left for Joe’s Service Center was 
not immediately returned.

The jackpot was by far the largest 
lottery prize ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize
 won by three Powerball ticketholders in 2016. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-d074aec16d0f17eba2cc51c814faa99e">Only four previous jackpots</a>
 have topped $1 billion, but none of those are close to the current 
prize, which started at $20 million back on Aug. 6 and over three 
winless months has grown massive. No one has won the jackpot since Aug. 
3.

The jackpot was initially reported as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-drawing-today-what-to-know-75a57b3d83a5c5d1e0264c55261671cf">an estimated $1.9 billion</a> on Monday, but the prize was increased to $2.04 billion Tuesday morning after updated calculations.

The
 Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday night’s scheduled drawing 
was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating 
lottery had issues processing sales.

The problems in holding a 
drawing Monday night were blamed on one participating lottery's 
inability to process its sales data. After the lottery, which wasn't 
identified, completed its pre-draw procedures, the drawing was able to 
go ahead.

“Protecting the integrity of the draw is of upmost 
importance, and we were able to do that during this historic drawing 
with the cooperation of all participating lotteries,” said Drew Svitko, 
the chairman of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of 
the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Terry Rich, a former director of the 
Iowa Lottery who also served on the Powerball board, said the delay was 
likely due to a two-part verification system of ticket sales that makes 
use of an outside vendor to ensure all is in order before the game's 
numbers are drawn.

“Each state must verify through a dual process 
that all of the sales and dollars match before the Multi-State Lottery 
Association can do the draw," said Rich, who headed the Iowa Lottery for
 10 years and was president of the North American Lottery Association. 
“This is a state-by-state procedure, which separates the whole process 
and has been very effective."

Rich said state lotteries deal with 
similar problems several times a year but the delays usually don't 
attract much attention because the potential jackpots are far less than 
was up for grabs this week.

The winning numbers and recorded video of the drawing were posted to the Powerball's YouTube channel.

The $2.04 billion prize is for a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-annuity-vs-cash-0e741f164106c0f4dba89707c5763c99">winner who chooses an annuity</a>, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners instead opt for cash, which was valued at $997.6 million.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

The game is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667933043117.jpeg" alt="AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes" />
 <figcaption>AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</figcaption>
 </figure>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in 
Southern California has won a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot 
after more than three months without anyone hitting the top prize.The
 winning numbers drawn Tuesday morning at the Florida Lottery draw 
studio in Tallahassee were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the 
red Powerball was 10.The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service
 Center in Altadena, an unincorporated community in the foothills 
northeast of Los Angeles. A voicemail left for Joe’s Service Center was 
not immediately returned.The jackpot was by far the largest 
lottery prize ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize
 won by three Powerball ticketholders in 2016. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-d074aec16d0f17eba2cc51c814faa99e">Only four previous jackpots</a>
 have topped $1 billion, but none of those are close to the current 
prize, which started at $20 million back on Aug. 6 and over three 
winless months has grown massive. No one has won the jackpot since Aug. 
3.The jackpot was initially reported as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-drawing-today-what-to-know-75a57b3d83a5c5d1e0264c55261671cf">an estimated $1.9 billion</a> on Monday, but the prize was increased to $2.04 billion Tuesday morning after updated calculations.The
 Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday night’s scheduled drawing 
was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating 
lottery had issues processing sales.The problems in holding a 
drawing Monday night were blamed on one participating lottery's 
inability to process its sales data. After the lottery, which wasn't 
identified, completed its pre-draw procedures, the drawing was able to 
go ahead.“Protecting the integrity of the draw is of upmost 
importance, and we were able to do that during this historic drawing 
with the cooperation of all participating lotteries,” said Drew Svitko, 
the chairman of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of 
the Pennsylvania Lottery.Terry Rich, a former director of the 
Iowa Lottery who also served on the Powerball board, said the delay was 
likely due to a two-part verification system of ticket sales that makes 
use of an outside vendor to ensure all is in order before the game's 
numbers are drawn.“Each state must verify through a dual process 
that all of the sales and dollars match before the Multi-State Lottery 
Association can do the draw," said Rich, who headed the Iowa Lottery for
 10 years and was president of the North American Lottery Association. 
“This is a state-by-state procedure, which separates the whole process 
and has been very effective."Rich said state lotteries deal with 
similar problems several times a year but the delays usually don't 
attract much attention because the potential jackpots are far less than 
was up for grabs this week.The winning numbers and recorded video of the drawing were posted to the Powerball's YouTube channel.The $2.04 billion prize is for a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-annuity-vs-cash-0e741f164106c0f4dba89707c5763c99">winner who chooses an annuity</a>, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners instead opt for cash, which was valued at $997.6 million.The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.The game is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Powerball ticket sold in California snags record $2.04B win

HOUSTON — Fans were celebrating the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-astros-world-series-champions-phillies-af94071eece8c17cb91322a0bd398cd9">Houston Astros' World Series</a> win with a downtown parade on Monday.

Houston
 Mayor Sylvester Turner said he encouraged fans coming to the victory 
parade to “arrive early, wear Astros' colors, be loud and celebrate 
safely.” The parade started at noon.

Yordan Alvarez hit a towering
 three-run homer and the Astros clinched their second World Series title
 in six seasons on Saturday, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in 
Game 6.

The city said in a news release that the downtown <a href="https://apnews.com/article/parades-ap-top-news-baseball-houston-george-springer-2685ff95965d4e178480bceafea3166f">parade after the Astros' 2017 win</a> brought in about 1 million people, and organizers expected about that many people to attend Monday's parade.

Saturday's win gave the Astros' <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dusty-baker-world-series-most-games-bb60066be88e056332df1bb637b77d7f">73-year-old manager Dusty Baker</a> his first title in 25 seasons as a manager, the last three in Houston.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667851581822.jpeg" alt="Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, foreground, a prolific Texas gambler, and the Houston Astros players gather before a victory parade for the Houston Astros' World Series baseball championship Monday in Houston. (AP Photo/David Phillip)" />
 <figcaption>Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, foreground, a prolific Texas gambler, and the Houston Astros players gather before a victory parade for the Houston Astros' World Series baseball championship Monday in Houston. (AP Photo/David Phillip)</figcaption>
 </figure>Associated PressHOUSTON — Fans were celebrating the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/houston-astros-world-series-champions-phillies-af94071eece8c17cb91322a0bd398cd9">Houston Astros' World Series</a> win with a downtown parade on Monday.Houston
 Mayor Sylvester Turner said he encouraged fans coming to the victory 
parade to “arrive early, wear Astros' colors, be loud and celebrate 
safely.” The parade started at noon.Yordan Alvarez hit a towering
 three-run homer and the Astros clinched their second World Series title
 in six seasons on Saturday, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in 
Game 6.The city said in a news release that the downtown <a href="https://apnews.com/article/parades-ap-top-news-baseball-houston-george-springer-2685ff95965d4e178480bceafea3166f">parade after the Astros' 2017 win</a> brought in about 1 million people, and organizers expected about that many people to attend Monday's parade.Saturday's win gave the Astros' <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dusty-baker-world-series-most-games-bb60066be88e056332df1bb637b77d7f">73-year-old manager Dusty Baker</a> his first title in 25 seasons as a manager, the last three in Houston.

Fans celebrate Houston Astros' World Series win with parade

&nbsp;By LINDSEY BAHR Associated Press

Jimmy Kimmel is ready to host the Oscars again, completing a trilogy 
that started with him presiding over the chaotic “envelope-gate" 
ceremony.

The late-night talk show host will preside over the ceremony in March, the show’s producers said Monday.

“We’re
 super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,”
 executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner said
 in a joint statement. “We know he will be funny and ready for 
anything!”

Kimmel has hosted the show twice before, in 2017, when he managed the chaotic final moments in which the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/62158a8bf146420784f738fefd9505fe">wrong best picture winner was called</a>, and then the next year, which came just months into the #MeToo reckoning.

“Being
 invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a
 trap,” Kimmel said. “Either way, I am grateful to the academy for 
asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”

After the 90th 
Oscars in 2018, which Kimmel hosted to generally positive reviews, the 
Academy Awards went without a host until the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-show-9a69424884de11649b68a12a284353a1">94th ceremony earlier this year</a> when Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes shared the stage.

“Jimmy
 is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and 
films of our 95th Oscars,” added academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy 
President Janet Yang. “His love of movies, live TV expertise, and 
ability to connect with our global audiences will create an 
unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.”

Molly
 McNearney, who is the co-head writer and executive producer of “Jimmy 
Kimmel Live!” and is married to Kimmel, will also serve as an executive 
producer <a href="https://oscars.org/">on the Oscars broadcast.</a> Ratings have been a bit a of a rollercoaster for the esteemed Hollywood awards show. The 94th Oscars was an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-ratings-ed962eb7824c0d994e8a86b15d69abbd">improvement with 15.36 million viewers</a>, but that was also in comparison to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-arts-and-entertainment-entertainment-academy-awards-television-d17308440bfa7388a2d21ca8c2d7fee8">previous year’s record low</a>, which befell many COVID-modified awards shows. As always ratings will be paramount for broadcaster ABC.

“Having
 Jimmy Kimmel return to host the Oscars is a dream come true. As we see 
every night on his own show, Jimmy can handle anything with both heart 
and humor, and we know that he will deliver the laughs and celebratory 
moments that define the Oscars,” said Craig Erwich, president of ABC 
Entertainment, Hulu &amp; Disney Branded Television Streaming Originals.
 “We love being the home of Hollywood’s biggest night and can’t wait to 
toast the success of this year’s cinema and storytelling.”

This 
next event is a landmark anniversary year for the show, and the first to
 follow The Slap, in which Will Smith struck presenter Chris Rock on 
stage. Smith, who went on to win best actor that night, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/will-smith-oscars-ban-664346ac2d2441939764f35be2d8026b">was banned from the Oscars for 10 years as a result</a>. The organization's leadership has said that they'd like to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chris-rock-entertainment-movies-will-smith-7eb32aa3cb65a1deecdbfcabebc4d8b8">move on from the slap</a> and focus on a ceremony that celebrates cinema.

The
 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in 
Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on ABC in more than 200 
territories worldwide.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667851376804.jpeg" alt="Associated Press graphic" />
 <figcaption>Associated Press graphic</figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;By LINDSEY BAHR Associated PressJimmy Kimmel is ready to host the Oscars again, completing a trilogy 
that started with him presiding over the chaotic “envelope-gate" 
ceremony.The late-night talk show host will preside over the ceremony in March, the show’s producers said Monday.“We’re
 super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,”
 executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner said
 in a joint statement. “We know he will be funny and ready for 
anything!”Kimmel has hosted the show twice before, in 2017, when he managed the chaotic final moments in which the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/62158a8bf146420784f738fefd9505fe">wrong best picture winner was called</a>, and then the next year, which came just months into the #MeToo reckoning.“Being
 invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a
 trap,” Kimmel said. “Either way, I am grateful to the academy for 
asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”After the 90th 
Oscars in 2018, which Kimmel hosted to generally positive reviews, the 
Academy Awards went without a host until the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-show-9a69424884de11649b68a12a284353a1">94th ceremony earlier this year</a> when Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes shared the stage.“Jimmy
 is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and 
films of our 95th Oscars,” added academy CEO Bill Kramer and academy 
President Janet Yang. “His love of movies, live TV expertise, and 
ability to connect with our global audiences will create an 
unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.”Molly
 McNearney, who is the co-head writer and executive producer of “Jimmy 
Kimmel Live!” and is married to Kimmel, will also serve as an executive 
producer <a href="https://oscars.org/">on the Oscars broadcast.</a> Ratings have been a bit a of a rollercoaster for the esteemed Hollywood awards show. The 94th Oscars was an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-ratings-ed962eb7824c0d994e8a86b15d69abbd">improvement with 15.36 million viewers</a>, but that was also in comparison to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-arts-and-entertainment-entertainment-academy-awards-television-d17308440bfa7388a2d21ca8c2d7fee8">previous year’s record low</a>, which befell many COVID-modified awards shows. As always ratings will be paramount for broadcaster ABC.“Having
 Jimmy Kimmel return to host the Oscars is a dream come true. As we see 
every night on his own show, Jimmy can handle anything with both heart 
and humor, and we know that he will deliver the laughs and celebratory 
moments that define the Oscars,” said Craig Erwich, president of ABC 
Entertainment, Hulu &amp; Disney Branded Television Streaming Originals.
 “We love being the home of Hollywood’s biggest night and can’t wait to 
toast the success of this year’s cinema and storytelling.”This 
next event is a landmark anniversary year for the show, and the first to
 follow The Slap, in which Will Smith struck presenter Chris Rock on 
stage. Smith, who went on to win best actor that night, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/will-smith-oscars-ban-664346ac2d2441939764f35be2d8026b">was banned from the Oscars for 10 years as a result</a>. The organization's leadership has said that they'd like to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chris-rock-entertainment-movies-will-smith-7eb32aa3cb65a1deecdbfcabebc4d8b8">move on from the slap</a> and focus on a ceremony that celebrates cinema.The
 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in 
Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on ABC in more than 200 
territories worldwide.

Jimmy Kimmel to host Oscars again: 'Great honor or a trap'

By JOSH WOODS <a href="https://theconversation.com/pickleballs-uphill-climb-to-mainstream-success-193052">The Conversation</a>

Most newer sports are hybrids of older ones, and pickleball is no 
exception. The progeny of tennis, badminton and pingpong, pickleball is 
played by singles or doubles teams who hit a ball back and forth over a 
3-foot-high net until one opponent commits a fault.

In 1965, the <a href="https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/">inventors of pickleball</a> played with what they had – a repurposed badminton setup, pingpong paddles and a perforated plastic ball.

Today’s <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">4.8 million</a> American pickleballers have much more to play with: In the U.S. there are <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">38,140</a> courts, <a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">300</a> manufacturers of pickleball equipment and
<a href="https://usapickleball.org/get-involved/pickleball-clubs/">hundreds</a> of grassroots clubs.

There’s been a good amount of speculation about the explosion of 
pickleball’s popularity. But now the sport seems poised to burst into 
the mainstream, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/sports/major-league-pickleball.html">Lebron James</a> and other luminaries of the NBA and NFL recently announcing large investments in the professional circuit.

Still, the young sport is not immune to growing pains. As I argue in my book “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">Emerging Sports as Social Movements</a>,”
 the popularity of some fledgling sports may seem self-evident in 
splashy headlines. But their less visible social undercurrents 
ultimately shape whether they’ll continue to attract new players and 
fans.

For an organized sport to grow, it needs structure – a common set of 
rules, rankings, equipment standards, scheduled events and a sense of 
identity that can unite players and fans.

At present, pickleball’s social fabric is spread thin and woven 
together by a network of competing interests. For every headline about 
pickleball’s miraculous growth you can also find stories about conflicts
 and infighting among various leagues and governing bodies, as well as 
between pickleballers and tennis players.

The sport has three professional leagues battling for control of the 
pickleball kingdom. It has two international governing bodies: the 
International Federation of Pickleball and the World Pickleball 
Federation. The lesser lords of pickleball also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/can-pickleball-save-america">feud with tennis players</a> over dual-use courts and plans for expansion in public parks, with reports of “<a href="https://jezebel.com/pickleball-turf-wars-are-the-niche-drama-ravaging-the-c-1849678697">turf wars</a>” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/">a tug-of-war</a>” between the two racket sports.

“<a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">Picklebalkanization</a>,” anyone?

Internal squabbles are common in emerging sports movements. Cornhole, disc golf and esports, for instance, have faced <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">similar challenges</a>.
 In some cases, conflict can be a good thing. It may spur innovation. 
But it can also leave some would-be fans, sponsors and players wondering
 whom they should watch, invest in or play for.

Compared with traditional racket sports, pickleball is less 
expensive, requires less space and may be more compatible with the aches
 and pains that come with age. And unlike other emerging sports, 
pickleball’s future seems bright. But for now it has more in common with
 <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03781-3.html">French feudalism</a>
 of the ninth century – when territorial disputes were commonplace – 
than a modern unified sport movement headed for the Olympics.

If two strangers meet in a bar and happen to share an interest in 
pickleball, they won’t be strangers for long. Shared passion is the glue
 and fuel of emerging sports communities. But the human tendency to bond
 with those who are like us also poses a problem for sports seeking to 
achieve widespread popularity.

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415">Sociological studies</a>
 show that our love of sameness partly explains why our groups and 
social networks tend to be homogeneous, such as male-dominated 
occupations, predominantly white community groups, and friendship 
circles united by a single religion. For grassroots sports, which spread
 through social networks, the sameness problem can limit growth by 
narrowing the flock to those with similar feathers.

Pickleball insiders like to talk about the sport’s relatively balanced <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">gender ratio</a>,
 which stands at roughly 60% to 70% men and 30% to 40% women. The newest
 professional league, Major League Pickleball, is promoting the sport 
through <a href="https://www.majorleaguepickleball.net/mlp-descriptions">mixed-gender competitions</a>, with teams comprising two men and two women – a unique format in the male-dominated world of pro sports.

But grassroots sports sprout from the ground up, and long-term growth
 depends partly on the demographic diversity of core players. Pickleball
 may be trending younger, but one-third of its avid players are of <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">retirement age</a>.
 Roughly half the population of pickleball players probably saw the 
Apollo 11 moon landing. Calculating accurate statistics on niche 
communities is difficult, but based on my review of multiple academic 
and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/19/1081257674/americas-fastest-growing-sport-pickleball">journalistic sources</a>,
 pickleballers are predominantly older, white, affluent and suburban. 
For instance, two survey-based studies with large samples estimated the 
proportion of white players at <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31629346/">93.5%</a> and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/japa/27/1/article-p28.xml">94.1%</a>.

Demographic homogeneity is a tough trend to buck. Of course, some sports, like golf and NASCAR, have expanded their reach <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/which-sports-have-the-whitest-richest-oldest-fans/283626/">without solving the sameness problem</a>.
 But given the nation’s reckoning around race and gender, a successful 
push for greater diversity could be the one thing that separates 
pickleball from the crowd of dreamer upstarts.

Will the revolution even need to be televised?

That sports grow when mainstream media pay attention to them seems 
obvious. Increased media coverage from ESPN or CBS attracts more 
participants and consumers, enticing sponsors and fostering stronger 
sport institutions.

Yet, as a growth strategy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744775904/cornhole-and-other-less-traditional-sports-gather-more-attention">buying airtime</a>
 on ESPN – which sports like cornhole and ax throwing are doing – may 
provide little more than airy hope. As pickleball strives to expand its 
audience, it faces stiff competition from traditional sports brands like
 the NFL and NBA, as well as emerging brands like esports, mixed martial
 arts, disc golf, cornhole, drone racing, round net, darts and ax 
throwing.

With so many options, some sports just won’t make it big. The history
 of emerging sports is filled with booms and busts. Interest in gambling
 sports like jai alai and horse racing has <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/2/28/4036934/jai-alai-sport-in-america-miami">declined tremendously</a> since the late 20th century. ESPN’s X Games popularized alternative sports like <a href="https://www.goskate.com/top/47-facts-about-x-games-skateboarding/">skateboarding</a> in the late 1990s, but some disciplines, like <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/x-games">street luge</a>, were left behind. Drop “poker” in a <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> search box and you’ll see that the Texas hold ‘em boom lasted for about three years, from 2004 to 2006.

The next big thing in sports may not boom at all. Given that younger consumers are <a href="https://www.theringer.com/sports/2021/4/15/22385705/live-sports-streaming-wars-future-industry">migrating to streaming services</a>, the revolution may not be televised to a mass audience but instead will be streamed to die-hard fans.

Niche sports like pickleball may have an advantage as sports 
spectatorship fragments. For small sports, a modest audience with slow 
but steady growth could be a recipe for sustainable success. There are 
numerous options for watching pickleball matches, such as YouTube 
channels, livestreams via Facebook, fuboTV, and some coverage on 
broadcast and cable channels, but demand for live coverage <a href="https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/zane-explains-3/">remains modest</a>.

Ultimately, with so many shiny new sports to choose from, the winners
 will be determined not by flashy media exposure or top-down commercial 
forces but rather by bottom-up community development. No matter how hot 
the publicity gets around pickleball, the consumer base for watching the
 sport will draw heavily on people who already love playing it. The love
 of any sport has roots in culture – not commerce.

If pickleball lives up to the hype, it will do so on the backs of 
volunteers and grassroots organizers who can transform a loose network 
of casual players into an international community of pickleball 
fanatics.

Josh Woods is a Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667837607677.jpg" alt="For every headline about pickleball’s miraculous growth, you can also find stories about conflicts and infighting. Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>For every headline about pickleball’s miraculous growth, you can also find stories about conflicts and infighting. Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By JOSH WOODS <a href="https://theconversation.com/pickleballs-uphill-climb-to-mainstream-success-193052">The Conversation</a>Most newer sports are hybrids of older ones, and pickleball is no 
exception. The progeny of tennis, badminton and pingpong, pickleball is 
played by singles or doubles teams who hit a ball back and forth over a 
3-foot-high net until one opponent commits a fault.In 1965, the <a href="https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/">inventors of pickleball</a> played with what they had – a repurposed badminton setup, pingpong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. Today’s <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">4.8 million</a> American pickleballers have much more to play with: In the U.S. there are <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">38,140</a> courts, <a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">300</a> manufacturers of pickleball equipment and
<a href="https://usapickleball.org/get-involved/pickleball-clubs/">hundreds</a> of grassroots clubs.There’s been a good amount of speculation about the explosion of 
pickleball’s popularity. But now the sport seems poised to burst into 
the mainstream, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/sports/major-league-pickleball.html">Lebron James</a> and other luminaries of the NBA and NFL recently announcing large investments in the professional circuit.Still, the young sport is not immune to growing pains. As I argue in my book “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">Emerging Sports as Social Movements</a>,”
 the popularity of some fledgling sports may seem self-evident in 
splashy headlines. But their less visible social undercurrents 
ultimately shape whether they’ll continue to attract new players and 
fans. <h2>Pickleball’s feudal period</h2>For an organized sport to grow, it needs structure – a common set of 
rules, rankings, equipment standards, scheduled events and a sense of 
identity that can unite players and fans.At present, pickleball’s social fabric is spread thin and woven 
together by a network of competing interests. For every headline about 
pickleball’s miraculous growth you can also find stories about conflicts
 and infighting among various leagues and governing bodies, as well as 
between pickleballers and tennis players.The sport has three professional leagues battling for control of the 
pickleball kingdom. It has two international governing bodies: the 
International Federation of Pickleball and the World Pickleball 
Federation. The lesser lords of pickleball also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/can-pickleball-save-america">feud with tennis players</a> over dual-use courts and plans for expansion in public parks, with reports of “<a href="https://jezebel.com/pickleball-turf-wars-are-the-niche-drama-ravaging-the-c-1849678697">turf wars</a>” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/">a tug-of-war</a>” between the two racket sports.“<a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">Picklebalkanization</a>,” anyone?Internal squabbles are common in emerging sports movements. Cornhole, disc golf and esports, for instance, have faced <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">similar challenges</a>.
 In some cases, conflict can be a good thing. It may spur innovation. 
But it can also leave some would-be fans, sponsors and players wondering
 whom they should watch, invest in or play for.Compared with traditional racket sports, pickleball is less 
expensive, requires less space and may be more compatible with the aches
 and pains that come with age. And unlike other emerging sports, 
pickleball’s future seems bright. But for now it has more in common with
 <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03781-3.html">French feudalism</a>
 of the ninth century – when territorial disputes were commonplace – 
than a modern unified sport movement headed for the Olympics.<h2>Birds of a feather dink together</h2>If two strangers meet in a bar and happen to share an interest in 
pickleball, they won’t be strangers for long. Shared passion is the glue
 and fuel of emerging sports communities. But the human tendency to bond
 with those who are like us also poses a problem for sports seeking to 
achieve widespread popularity.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415">Sociological studies</a>
 show that our love of sameness partly explains why our groups and 
social networks tend to be homogeneous, such as male-dominated 
occupations, predominantly white community groups, and friendship 
circles united by a single religion. For grassroots sports, which spread
 through social networks, the sameness problem can limit growth by 
narrowing the flock to those with similar feathers.Pickleball insiders like to talk about the sport’s relatively balanced <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">gender ratio</a>,
 which stands at roughly 60% to 70% men and 30% to 40% women. The newest
 professional league, Major League Pickleball, is promoting the sport 
through <a href="https://www.majorleaguepickleball.net/mlp-descriptions">mixed-gender competitions</a>, with teams comprising two men and two women – a unique format in the male-dominated world of pro sports.But grassroots sports sprout from the ground up, and long-term growth
 depends partly on the demographic diversity of core players. Pickleball
 may be trending younger, but one-third of its avid players are of <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">retirement age</a>.
 Roughly half the population of pickleball players probably saw the 
Apollo 11 moon landing. Calculating accurate statistics on niche 
communities is difficult, but based on my review of multiple academic 
and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/19/1081257674/americas-fastest-growing-sport-pickleball">journalistic sources</a>,
 pickleballers are predominantly older, white, affluent and suburban. 
For instance, two survey-based studies with large samples estimated the 
proportion of white players at <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31629346/">93.5%</a> and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/japa/27/1/article-p28.xml">94.1%</a>.Demographic homogeneity is a tough trend to buck. Of course, some sports, like golf and NASCAR, have expanded their reach <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/which-sports-have-the-whitest-richest-oldest-fans/283626/">without solving the sameness problem</a>.
 But given the nation’s reckoning around race and gender, a successful 
push for greater diversity could be the one thing that separates 
pickleball from the crowd of dreamer upstarts.<h2>Will the revolution even need to be televised?</h2>That sports grow when mainstream media pay attention to them seems 
obvious. Increased media coverage from ESPN or CBS attracts more 
participants and consumers, enticing sponsors and fostering stronger 
sport institutions.Yet, as a growth strategy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744775904/cornhole-and-other-less-traditional-sports-gather-more-attention">buying airtime</a>
 on ESPN – which sports like cornhole and ax throwing are doing – may 
provide little more than airy hope. As pickleball strives to expand its 
audience, it faces stiff competition from traditional sports brands like
 the NFL and NBA, as well as emerging brands like esports, mixed martial
 arts, disc golf, cornhole, drone racing, round net, darts and ax 
throwing.With so many options, some sports just won’t make it big. The history
 of emerging sports is filled with booms and busts. Interest in gambling
 sports like jai alai and horse racing has <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/2/28/4036934/jai-alai-sport-in-america-miami">declined tremendously</a> since the late 20th century. ESPN’s X Games popularized alternative sports like <a href="https://www.goskate.com/top/47-facts-about-x-games-skateboarding/">skateboarding</a> in the late 1990s, but some disciplines, like <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/x-games">street luge</a>, were left behind. Drop “poker” in a <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> search box and you’ll see that the Texas hold ‘em boom lasted for about three years, from 2004 to 2006.The next big thing in sports may not boom at all. Given that younger consumers are <a href="https://www.theringer.com/sports/2021/4/15/22385705/live-sports-streaming-wars-future-industry">migrating to streaming services</a>, the revolution may not be televised to a mass audience but instead will be streamed to die-hard fans. Niche sports like pickleball may have an advantage as sports 
spectatorship fragments. For small sports, a modest audience with slow 
but steady growth could be a recipe for sustainable success. There are 
numerous options for watching pickleball matches, such as YouTube 
channels, livestreams via Facebook, fuboTV, and some coverage on 
broadcast and cable channels, but demand for live coverage <a href="https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/zane-explains-3/">remains modest</a>.Ultimately, with so many shiny new sports to choose from, the winners
 will be determined not by flashy media exposure or top-down commercial 
forces but rather by bottom-up community development. No matter how hot 
the publicity gets around pickleball, the consumer base for watching the
 sport will draw heavily on people who already love playing it. The love
 of any sport has roots in culture – not commerce.If pickleball lives up to the hype, it will do so on the backs of 
volunteers and grassroots organizers who can transform a loose network 
of casual players into an international community of pickleball 
fanatics.Josh Woods is a Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193052/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

Pickleball’s uphill climb to mainstream success

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lionel Richie soared. Pat Benatar roared. Duran Duran stumbled but stayed sophisticated. Eminem was Eminem.

The
 four acts found very different ways to celebrate on Saturday night, but
 all can now forever say they're Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Famers. So are 
Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Harry Belafonte, Judas Priest and Dolly Parton,
 who gave the honor an enthusiastic embrace after temporarily turning it
 down.

The first act inducted at the Microsoft Theater in Los 
Angeles after a memorable speech from a shaven-headed Robert Downey Jr.,
 Duran Duran took the stage and launched into their 1981 breakthrough 
hit “Girls on Film.”

The shrieking crowd was there for it, but the
 music wasn't. The band was all but inaudible other than singer Simon Le
 Bon, whose vocals were essentially a cappella.

It was a fun if inauspicious beginning to a mostly slick and often triumphant show.

“The wonderful spontaneous world of rock ‘n’ roll!” the 64-year-old Le Bon shouted as the band stopped for a do-over.

They
 kicked back in at full volume, playing a set that included “Hungry Like
 the Wolf” and “Ordinary World," quickly snapping back into what Downey 
called their essential quality: “CSF — cool, sophisticated fun.”

Lionel
 Richie brought both chill and warmth to the room hours later, opening 
his set with a spare rendition of his ballad “Hello" that seemed to make
 him nearly break down from the weight of the moment.

“His songs are the soundtrack of my life, your life, everyone’s life," Lenny Kravitz said in inducting Richie.

After
 “Hello,” Richie breezed into his 1977 hit with the Commodores, “Easy.” 
The vibe went from smooth to triumphant when Foo Fighters front man Dave
 Grohl made a surprise appearance to play a guitar solo and swap vocals 
with Richie. That led into a singalong, celebratory rendition of 1983's 
“All Night Long” that brought the night's biggest reaction.

In his acceptance speech, Richie lashed out at those during his career who accused him of straying too far from his Black roots.

“Rock
 ‘n’ roll is not a color,” he said. “It is a feeling. It is a vibe. And 
if we let that vibe come through, this room will grow and grow and 
grow.”

Eurythmics took the stage next with a soulful, danceable rendition of 1986's “Missionary Man.”

“Well
 I was born an original sinner, I was born from original sin,” singer 
Annie Lennox belted, bringing the audience clapping and to its feet four
 hours into the show. It was followed by a rousing rendition of their 
best-known hit, “Sweet Dreams.”

Moments later her musical partner,
 Dave Stewart, called Lennox “one of the greatest performers, singers 
and songwriters of all time.”

“Thank you, Dave, for this great adventure,” a tearful Lennox said.

As
 he has been throughout his career, Eminem was the outlier. He was the 
only hip-hop artist among the inductees, the only one whose heyday came 
after the 1980s, and he brought an edge to the evening that was 
otherwise missing outside of the heavy metal stylings of Judas Priest.

He
 also took the guest star game to another level. After opening briefly 
with 1999's “My Name Is,” he brought on Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler to sing
 the chorus of “Dream On” for 2003's “Sing for the Moment,” which 
samples the Aerosmith classic. Then he brought on Ed Sheeran to sing his
 part on the 2017 Eminem jam “River” as rain fell on the stage.

“I'm
 probably not supposed to actually be here tonight for a couple of 
reasons,” Eminem, wearing a black hoodie, said as he accepted the honor.
 “One, I know, is that I’m a rapper and this is the Rock &amp; Roll Hall
 of Fame.”

He's only the 10th hip-hop artist among well over 300 members of the Hall of Fame.

He was inducted by his producer and mentor Dr. Dre, whom he credited with saving his life.

But hitmakers of the 1980s defined the night.

“Pat
 always reached into the deepest part of herself and came roaring out of
 the speakers," Sheryl Crow said in her speech inducting Benatar.

Benatar,
 inducted along with her longtime musical partner and husband Neil 
Giraldo, took the stage with him and displayed that power moments later.

“We
 are young!” the 69-year-old sang, her long, gray hair flowing as she 
soared through a version of 1983's “Love is a Battlefield."

Inductees
 absent from the ceremony included Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, 
who is four years into a fight with advanced prostate cancer, the 
95-year-old Belafonte and Simon, who lost sisters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-joanna-simon-new-york-obituaries-8d3e1b9f8dd0b2ed1c19b5671dfbf0a0">Joanna Simon and Lucy Simon</a>, both also singers, to cancer on back-to-back days last month.

Carly
 Simon was a first-time nominee this year more than 25 years after 
becoming eligible. Olivia Rodrigo, 60 years Simon's junior and by far 
the youngest performer of the night, took the stage to sing Simon's 
signature song, “You're So Vain.”

Janet Jackson appeared in a 
black suit with a massive pile of hair atop her head, remaking the cover
 of her breakthrough album “Control," as she inducted the two men who 
made that and many other records with her, writer-producers <a href="https://apnews.com/article/britney-spears-entertainment-travel-music-8ee900272c36979c2d64e4fa79bd12b4">Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.</a>

When the nominees were announced in May, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-travel-music-arts-and-lifestyle-0f9e881aa60f31f1f1550d340315b70c">Parton “respectfully” declined</a>,
 saying it didn't seem suitable for her to take a spot as a 
country-to-the-core artist. She was convinced otherwise, and ended up 
the headliner Saturday night.

“I’m a rock star now!” she shouted as she accepted the honor. "This is a very, very, very special night."

Parton said she would have to retroactively earn her spot.

She
 disappeared and emerged moments later decked out in black leather with 
an electric guitar and broke into a song she wrote just for the 
occasion.

“I‘ve been rockin’ rockin' rockin' rockin' since the day I was born,” she sang, “and I'll be rockin' to the day I'm gone.”

She
 closed the night leading an all-star jam of her fellow inductees on her
 country classic “Jolene.” Le Bon, Benatar and even Judas Priest singer 
Rob Halford took a verse.

“We got a star-studded stage up here,” Parton said. “I feel like a hillbilly in the city.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lionel Richie soared. Pat Benatar roared. Duran Duran stumbled but stayed sophisticated. Eminem was Eminem.The
 four acts found very different ways to celebrate on Saturday night, but
 all can now forever say they're Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Famers. So are 
Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Harry Belafonte, Judas Priest and Dolly Parton,
 who gave the honor an enthusiastic embrace after temporarily turning it
 down.The first act inducted at the Microsoft Theater in Los 
Angeles after a memorable speech from a shaven-headed Robert Downey Jr.,
 Duran Duran took the stage and launched into their 1981 breakthrough 
hit “Girls on Film.”The shrieking crowd was there for it, but the
 music wasn't. The band was all but inaudible other than singer Simon Le
 Bon, whose vocals were essentially a cappella.It was a fun if inauspicious beginning to a mostly slick and often triumphant show.“The wonderful spontaneous world of rock ‘n’ roll!” the 64-year-old Le Bon shouted as the band stopped for a do-over.They
 kicked back in at full volume, playing a set that included “Hungry Like
 the Wolf” and “Ordinary World," quickly snapping back into what Downey 
called their essential quality: “CSF — cool, sophisticated fun.”Lionel
 Richie brought both chill and warmth to the room hours later, opening 
his set with a spare rendition of his ballad “Hello" that seemed to make
 him nearly break down from the weight of the moment.“His songs are the soundtrack of my life, your life, everyone’s life," Lenny Kravitz said in inducting Richie.After
 “Hello,” Richie breezed into his 1977 hit with the Commodores, “Easy.” 
The vibe went from smooth to triumphant when Foo Fighters front man Dave
 Grohl made a surprise appearance to play a guitar solo and swap vocals 
with Richie. That led into a singalong, celebratory rendition of 1983's 
“All Night Long” that brought the night's biggest reaction.In his acceptance speech, Richie lashed out at those during his career who accused him of straying too far from his Black roots.“Rock
 ‘n’ roll is not a color,” he said. “It is a feeling. It is a vibe. And 
if we let that vibe come through, this room will grow and grow and 
grow.”Eurythmics took the stage next with a soulful, danceable rendition of 1986's “Missionary Man.”“Well
 I was born an original sinner, I was born from original sin,” singer 
Annie Lennox belted, bringing the audience clapping and to its feet four
 hours into the show. It was followed by a rousing rendition of their 
best-known hit, “Sweet Dreams.”Moments later her musical partner,
 Dave Stewart, called Lennox “one of the greatest performers, singers 
and songwriters of all time.”“Thank you, Dave, for this great adventure,” a tearful Lennox said.As
 he has been throughout his career, Eminem was the outlier. He was the 
only hip-hop artist among the inductees, the only one whose heyday came 
after the 1980s, and he brought an edge to the evening that was 
otherwise missing outside of the heavy metal stylings of Judas Priest.He
 also took the guest star game to another level. After opening briefly 
with 1999's “My Name Is,” he brought on Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler to sing
 the chorus of “Dream On” for 2003's “Sing for the Moment,” which 
samples the Aerosmith classic. Then he brought on Ed Sheeran to sing his
 part on the 2017 Eminem jam “River” as rain fell on the stage.“I'm
 probably not supposed to actually be here tonight for a couple of 
reasons,” Eminem, wearing a black hoodie, said as he accepted the honor.
 “One, I know, is that I’m a rapper and this is the Rock &amp; Roll Hall
 of Fame.”He's only the 10th hip-hop artist among well over 300 members of the Hall of Fame.He was inducted by his producer and mentor Dr. Dre, whom he credited with saving his life.But hitmakers of the 1980s defined the night.“Pat
 always reached into the deepest part of herself and came roaring out of
 the speakers," Sheryl Crow said in her speech inducting Benatar.Benatar,
 inducted along with her longtime musical partner and husband Neil 
Giraldo, took the stage with him and displayed that power moments later.“We
 are young!” the 69-year-old sang, her long, gray hair flowing as she 
soared through a version of 1983's “Love is a Battlefield."Inductees
 absent from the ceremony included Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, 
who is four years into a fight with advanced prostate cancer, the 
95-year-old Belafonte and Simon, who lost sisters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-joanna-simon-new-york-obituaries-8d3e1b9f8dd0b2ed1c19b5671dfbf0a0">Joanna Simon and Lucy Simon</a>, both also singers, to cancer on back-to-back days last month.Carly
 Simon was a first-time nominee this year more than 25 years after 
becoming eligible. Olivia Rodrigo, 60 years Simon's junior and by far 
the youngest performer of the night, took the stage to sing Simon's 
signature song, “You're So Vain.”Janet Jackson appeared in a 
black suit with a massive pile of hair atop her head, remaking the cover
 of her breakthrough album “Control," as she inducted the two men who 
made that and many other records with her, writer-producers <a href="https://apnews.com/article/britney-spears-entertainment-travel-music-8ee900272c36979c2d64e4fa79bd12b4">Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.</a>When the nominees were announced in May, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-travel-music-arts-and-lifestyle-0f9e881aa60f31f1f1550d340315b70c">Parton “respectfully” declined</a>,
 saying it didn't seem suitable for her to take a spot as a 
country-to-the-core artist. She was convinced otherwise, and ended up 
the headliner Saturday night.“I’m a rock star now!” she shouted as she accepted the honor. "This is a very, very, very special night."Parton said she would have to retroactively earn her spot.She
 disappeared and emerged moments later decked out in black leather with 
an electric guitar and broke into a song she wrote just for the 
occasion.“I‘ve been rockin’ rockin' rockin' rockin' since the day I was born,” she sang, “and I'll be rockin' to the day I'm gone.”She
 closed the night leading an all-star jam of her fellow inductees on her
 country classic “Jolene.” Le Bon, Benatar and even Judas Priest singer 
Rob Halford took a verse.“We got a star-studded stage up here,” Parton said. “I feel like a hillbilly in the city.”

Duran Duran stumbles, Dolly Parton rolls into Rock Hall

By DÉBORA REY Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — In the middle of the concrete jungle that is Argentina's bustling capital, <a href="https://youtu.be/DBG_CCmByPw">a huge mural</a> has emerged of Diego Maradona wearing a national team jersey, his right hand in a fist and a defiant expression on his face.

The
 massive artwork, 148 feet high and 131 feet wide (45 meters by 40 
meters) and painted on the side of a 14-story building in Buenos Aires, 
is one of several tributes that Argentines have dedicated to their 
soccer “God” shortly before the start of this year's <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup</a> in Qatar, the first since Maradona's death on Nov. 25, 2020.

Maradona's
 feats and defeats as a player on the national team are being 
remembered, from the famous and infamous goals against England before 
the county won the 1986 World Cup to the failed final against West 
Germany four years later, and the doping test that got him expelled from
 the following World Cup in 1994.

Well-known street artist Martín 
Ron was behind the world's largest mural, inspired by a photograph of 
the then-Argentina captain that captures his expression shortly before 
he sang the national anthem at the 1990 World Cup final against West 
Germany, which Argentina lost 1-0.

“It's a photo of Diego when he 
was close to winning the country's third star,” Ron told The Associated 
Press during a break from the work he began a month ago.

Argentina also won the World Cup in 1978, but Maradona didn't make the team for that tournament.

“This photo summarizes everything Diego was,” Ron said. “Beyond the player, he was the guts, the motor, the heart.”

To
 one side of Maradona's face, Ron painted a constellation of stars in 
the shape of a kite, a reference to his nickname “cosmic kite," which is
 what one well-known radio commentator called the soccer star following 
his second goal against England in 1986.

“His absence will be 
felt, Diego was always a star. In all the World Cups he did his own 
thing, inside and outside the field," Ron said. “And in Qatar, he will 
sadly not be there.”

Ron's mural was officially unveiled on Sunday to coincide with the soccer great's birthday.

Days earlier, the Argentine soccer association received the original <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-business-b48b459b4d01a1b975805cfdc41d8a07">jersey that Maradona wore</a>
 in the 1986 World Cup. It was a gift from Germany great Lothar 
Matthäus, who exchanged jerseys with Maradona after the final that 
Argentina won 3-2 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

“One of 
the happiest moments with him was when (Brazilian referee) Arppi Filho 
blew the whistle during the final in Mexico. I just happened to be very 
close to Diego, I was lucky that he hugged me before anybody else,” 
former player Ricardo Giusti recalled during a recent event alongside 
other former World Cup champions outside Buenos Aires.

“We enjoyed
 it so much, everybody enjoyed Diego. That's what's sad. It makes us 
feel a lot of sadness, sorrow and disillusion,” the former midfielder 
said.

Matthäus' donation was a sort of reparation for Argentina 
after it failed to win an auction for the jersey Maradona wore in the 
match against England in the quarterfinals of that World Cup tournament.
 An unknown bidder from outside the country bought the iconic item at 
auction for a record $9 million in May.

In 1994, Maradona played 
his last World Cup match against Nigeria in the group stage. He was 
suspended for 15 months following the 2-1 victory after a positive 
doping test.

As Argentina coach, Maradona led the national team to
 the quarterfinals at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but the team 
lost to Germany 4-0.

One of the most disturbing images came eight 
years later at the 2018 World Cup in Russia when an overweight and 
somewhat disoriented Maradona collapsed at the stadium in St. Petersburg
 following a 2-1 victory over Nigeria.

Maradona died at the age of
 60 while he was under hospital care in his home following brain 
surgery. Judicial authorities continue to investigate if medical 
negligence was involved.

“He is missed, Diego's image has been, 
and is, very strong,” said Carlos Tapia, another member of the 1986 
championship team. “He was our reference, captain, everything. He was 
always close to each one of us. Let's hope he can be a guiding light 
from above in Qatar."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667832396107.jpeg" alt="Women play with balls during the inauguration of a mural of Diego Maradona by artist Martin Ron in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. Sunday marks the birth date of Maradona who died on Nov. 25, 2020 at the age of 60. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)" />
 <figcaption>Women play with balls during the inauguration of a mural of Diego Maradona by artist Martin Ron in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. Sunday marks the birth date of Maradona who died on Nov. 25, 2020 at the age of 60. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)</figcaption>
 </figure>By DÉBORA REY Associated PressBUENOS AIRES, Argentina — In the middle of the concrete jungle that is Argentina's bustling capital, <a href="https://youtu.be/DBG_CCmByPw">a huge mural</a> has emerged of Diego Maradona wearing a national team jersey, his right hand in a fist and a defiant expression on his face.The
 massive artwork, 148 feet high and 131 feet wide (45 meters by 40 
meters) and painted on the side of a 14-story building in Buenos Aires, 
is one of several tributes that Argentines have dedicated to their 
soccer “God” shortly before the start of this year's <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup</a> in Qatar, the first since Maradona's death on Nov. 25, 2020.Maradona's
 feats and defeats as a player on the national team are being 
remembered, from the famous and infamous goals against England before 
the county won the 1986 World Cup to the failed final against West 
Germany four years later, and the doping test that got him expelled from
 the following World Cup in 1994.Well-known street artist Martín 
Ron was behind the world's largest mural, inspired by a photograph of 
the then-Argentina captain that captures his expression shortly before 
he sang the national anthem at the 1990 World Cup final against West 
Germany, which Argentina lost 1-0.“It's a photo of Diego when he 
was close to winning the country's third star,” Ron told The Associated 
Press during a break from the work he began a month ago.Argentina also won the World Cup in 1978, but Maradona didn't make the team for that tournament.“This photo summarizes everything Diego was,” Ron said. “Beyond the player, he was the guts, the motor, the heart.”To
 one side of Maradona's face, Ron painted a constellation of stars in 
the shape of a kite, a reference to his nickname “cosmic kite," which is
 what one well-known radio commentator called the soccer star following 
his second goal against England in 1986.“His absence will be 
felt, Diego was always a star. In all the World Cups he did his own 
thing, inside and outside the field," Ron said. “And in Qatar, he will 
sadly not be there.”Ron's mural was officially unveiled on Sunday to coincide with the soccer great's birthday.Days earlier, the Argentine soccer association received the original <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-business-b48b459b4d01a1b975805cfdc41d8a07">jersey that Maradona wore</a>
 in the 1986 World Cup. It was a gift from Germany great Lothar 
Matthäus, who exchanged jerseys with Maradona after the final that 
Argentina won 3-2 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.“One of 
the happiest moments with him was when (Brazilian referee) Arppi Filho 
blew the whistle during the final in Mexico. I just happened to be very 
close to Diego, I was lucky that he hugged me before anybody else,” 
former player Ricardo Giusti recalled during a recent event alongside 
other former World Cup champions outside Buenos Aires.“We enjoyed
 it so much, everybody enjoyed Diego. That's what's sad. It makes us 
feel a lot of sadness, sorrow and disillusion,” the former midfielder 
said.Matthäus' donation was a sort of reparation for Argentina 
after it failed to win an auction for the jersey Maradona wore in the 
match against England in the quarterfinals of that World Cup tournament.
 An unknown bidder from outside the country bought the iconic item at 
auction for a record $9 million in May.In 1994, Maradona played 
his last World Cup match against Nigeria in the group stage. He was 
suspended for 15 months following the 2-1 victory after a positive 
doping test.As Argentina coach, Maradona led the national team to
 the quarterfinals at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but the team 
lost to Germany 4-0.One of the most disturbing images came eight 
years later at the 2018 World Cup in Russia when an overweight and 
somewhat disoriented Maradona collapsed at the stadium in St. Petersburg
 following a 2-1 victory over Nigeria.Maradona died at the age of
 60 while he was under hospital care in his home following brain 
surgery. Judicial authorities continue to investigate if medical 
negligence was involved.“He is missed, Diego's image has been, 
and is, very strong,” said Carlos Tapia, another member of the 1986 
championship team. “He was our reference, captain, everything. He was 
always close to each one of us. Let's hope he can be a guiding light 
from above in Qatar."

A giant Maradona emerges in Argentina, days before World Cup

By VINAYA MANCHAIAH and CORY PORTNUFF <a href="https://theconversation.com/over-the-counter-hearing-aids-offer-a-wide-range-of-options-here-are-things-to-consider-before-buying-192936">The Conversation</a>

Following the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-finalizes-historic-rule-enabling-access-over-counter-hearing-aids-millions-americans">U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ruling</a> in August 2022, nonprescription over-the-counter hearing aids went on sale <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/17/hearing-aids-are-now-available-over-the-counter-from-walgreens-cvs-and-best-buy.html">at pharmacies, supermarkets and consumer electronic stores</a> on Oct. 17, 2022. These devices are intended only for people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.

For millions of Americans, these over-the-counter hearing aids are <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/over-counter-hearing-aids">easier to access and less expensive</a> than prescription versions. Some people view them as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/over-the-counter-hearing-aids/">tremendous innovation</a>. Yet others say <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/333943-sen-warrens-not-listening-otc-hearing-aids-will-do-more-harm-than-good/">they won’t work optimally</a>, as the device may be of poor quality, or consumers may not self-diagnose or customize the device appropriately.

As <a href="https://som.ucdenver.edu/Profiles/Faculty/Profile/36711">audiologists specializing</a> in <a href="https://www.uchealth.org/provider/cory-portnuff/">hearing care</a>, we are actively involved in <a href="https://scholar.google.at/citations?user=rgECg40AAAAJ&amp;hl=en">health care research</a> and the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JdYxmRoAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">clinical care</a> of people with a range of hearing disorders. We have also conducted research on <a href="https://virtualhearinglab.org/">over-the-counter hearing aids</a>.

Our aim is to present a balanced view on what is known about 
over-the-counter aids based on academic research – and provide you tips 
on what to know when shopping for these devices. 

The newly available <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/08/17/2022-17230/medical-devices-ear-nose-and-throat-devices-establishing-over-the-counter-hearing-aids">over-the-counter hearing aids</a> add to a range of existing devices, including <a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/guidance-documents-medical-devices-and-radiation-emitting-products/class-ii-special-controls-guidance-document-transcutaneous-air-conduction-hearing-aid-system-tachas">conventional prescription hearing aids</a> and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/28/2019-23464/medical-devices-ear-nose-and-throat-devices-classification-of-the-self-fitting-air-conduction">self-fitting hearing devices</a>.
 Conventional hearing aids are tailored to fit by a hearing care 
professional. But over-the-counter devices come either in self-fitting 
types – meaning they adjust to the wearer’s hearing after self-testing –
 or preset, a type that is less individualized.

In addition, there are three other categories of hearing-related devices to be aware of. These include <a href="https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/hearing-aids-and-personal-sound-amplification-products-what-know">personal sound amplification products</a>, which serve as hearing enhancement devices for individuals with normal hearing. A second type are called <a href="https://www.hearingtracker.com/hearables">hearables</a>,
 like wireless earbuds designed for listening to music or tracking 
fitness. The third fall under consumer audio, like headphones.

None of the products in those categories are regulated, because they 
are not considered medical devices. But as technology advances, many of 
them may have functions similar to hearing aids. In other words, all the
 hearing devices listed above may look similar to one another and may be
 hard to distinguish just by their appearance. 

Because of the variety of devices on the market, you should read 
product labels to make sure you’re not confusing over-the-counter 
hearing aids with other technologies. It is not uncommon to see <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1995/11/ftc-settles-false-advertising-charges-against-maker-miracle-ear">false advertising claims</a>, such as personal sound amplification products or hearables advertised as over-the-counter hearing aids.

As noted, over-the-counter hearing aids come in two types: 
one-size-fits-most, with preset listening programs, and self-fitting, 
which can be more finely adjusted using apps on a smartphone. The latter
 type goes through a more rigorous <a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/device-approvals-denials-and-clearances/510k-clearances">government approval process</a>
 and generally costs more. The least expensive ones cost around US$200, 
with the most running about $800. For comparison, prescription hearing 
aids start at roughly $1,000 and go up to approximately $6,000 per pair.
 The difference in cost is based on the technology level of the device 
as well as added services provided by hearing care professionals.

<a href="https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S135390">Our review of the literature</a>
 on over-the counter aids revealed the following: First, several studies
 looking at their acoustic characteristics – that is, the degree of 
sound distortion and self-generated noise – found mixed results. Some 
over-the-counter hearing products <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/827463">don’t measure up to acceptable standards</a>, whereas others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/MAO.0000000000001414">do provide appropriate amplification</a>.

Second, several <a href="https://hearingreview.com/hearing-products/marketrak-viii-utilization-of-psaps-and-direct-mail-hearing-aids-by-people-with-hearing-impairment">large-scale consumer surveys in the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.ehima.com/surveys/">Japan</a>
 suggest that users are less satisfied with over-the-counter aids than 
with conventional prescription hearing aids. This lower satisfaction can
 be primarily attributed to consumers choosing inappropriate devices or 
being unable to personalize or handle them.

Conversely, several clinical trials <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216519900589">measuring the self-fitting process</a> and the benifits of over-the-counter hearing aids <a href="https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJA-16-0111">generally report positive outcomes</a> for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. More <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Hearing+Loss%2C+Sensorineural&amp;term=OTC+hearing+aid&amp;cntry=&amp;state=&amp;city=&amp;dist=">clinical trials are ongoing</a>.

To add to the confusion, there is another caveat to those studies: 
Most examined early generations of direct-to-consumer hearing devices 
such as the personal sound amplification products – not the 
over-the-counter hearing aids that are now on the market. That is why 
consumers should take the results of those early studies with some 
skepticism. What’s more, as the market matures, a combination of 
competition and regulation will likely improve the quality of the 
devices.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667752867123.jpg" alt="Now that over-the-counter hearing aids are available, it’s important to know what questions to ask. Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Now that over-the-counter hearing aids are available, it’s important to know what questions to ask. Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By VINAYA MANCHAIAH and CORY PORTNUFF <a href="https://theconversation.com/over-the-counter-hearing-aids-offer-a-wide-range-of-options-here-are-things-to-consider-before-buying-192936">The Conversation</a>Following the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-finalizes-historic-rule-enabling-access-over-counter-hearing-aids-millions-americans">U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ruling</a> in August 2022, nonprescription over-the-counter hearing aids went on sale <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/17/hearing-aids-are-now-available-over-the-counter-from-walgreens-cvs-and-best-buy.html">at pharmacies, supermarkets and consumer electronic stores</a> on Oct. 17, 2022. These devices are intended only for people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.For millions of Americans, these over-the-counter hearing aids are <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/over-counter-hearing-aids">easier to access and less expensive</a> than prescription versions. Some people view them as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/over-the-counter-hearing-aids/">tremendous innovation</a>. Yet others say <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/333943-sen-warrens-not-listening-otc-hearing-aids-will-do-more-harm-than-good/">they won’t work optimally</a>, as the device may be of poor quality, or consumers may not self-diagnose or customize the device appropriately. As <a href="https://som.ucdenver.edu/Profiles/Faculty/Profile/36711">audiologists specializing</a> in <a href="https://www.uchealth.org/provider/cory-portnuff/">hearing care</a>, we are actively involved in <a href="https://scholar.google.at/citations?user=rgECg40AAAAJ&amp;hl=en">health care research</a> and the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JdYxmRoAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">clinical care</a> of people with a range of hearing disorders. We have also conducted research on <a href="https://virtualhearinglab.org/">over-the-counter hearing aids</a>. Our aim is to present a balanced view on what is known about 
over-the-counter aids based on academic research – and provide you tips 
on what to know when shopping for these devices. <figure>
 <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WgUdp_LgVBQ"></iframe>
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Hearing device categories</h2>The newly available <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/08/17/2022-17230/medical-devices-ear-nose-and-throat-devices-establishing-over-the-counter-hearing-aids">over-the-counter hearing aids</a> add to a range of existing devices, including <a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/guidance-documents-medical-devices-and-radiation-emitting-products/class-ii-special-controls-guidance-document-transcutaneous-air-conduction-hearing-aid-system-tachas">conventional prescription hearing aids</a> and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/28/2019-23464/medical-devices-ear-nose-and-throat-devices-classification-of-the-self-fitting-air-conduction">self-fitting hearing devices</a>.
 Conventional hearing aids are tailored to fit by a hearing care 
professional. But over-the-counter devices come either in self-fitting 
types – meaning they adjust to the wearer’s hearing after self-testing –
 or preset, a type that is less individualized.In addition, there are three other categories of hearing-related devices to be aware of. These include <a href="https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/hearing-aids-and-personal-sound-amplification-products-what-know">personal sound amplification products</a>, which serve as hearing enhancement devices for individuals with normal hearing. A second type are called <a href="https://www.hearingtracker.com/hearables">hearables</a>,
 like wireless earbuds designed for listening to music or tracking 
fitness. The third fall under consumer audio, like headphones. None of the products in those categories are regulated, because they 
are not considered medical devices. But as technology advances, many of 
them may have functions similar to hearing aids. In other words, all the
 hearing devices listed above may look similar to one another and may be
 hard to distinguish just by their appearance. Because of the variety of devices on the market, you should read 
product labels to make sure you’re not confusing over-the-counter 
hearing aids with other technologies. It is not uncommon to see <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1995/11/ftc-settles-false-advertising-charges-against-maker-miracle-ear">false advertising claims</a>, such as personal sound amplification products or hearables advertised as over-the-counter hearing aids. <h2>About over-the-counter aids</h2>As noted, over-the-counter hearing aids come in two types: 
one-size-fits-most, with preset listening programs, and self-fitting, 
which can be more finely adjusted using apps on a smartphone. The latter
 type goes through a more rigorous <a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/device-approvals-denials-and-clearances/510k-clearances">government approval process</a>
 and generally costs more. The least expensive ones cost around US$200, 
with the most running about $800. For comparison, prescription hearing 
aids start at roughly $1,000 and go up to approximately $6,000 per pair.
 The difference in cost is based on the technology level of the device 
as well as added services provided by hearing care professionals. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S135390">Our review of the literature</a>
 on over-the counter aids revealed the following: First, several studies
 looking at their acoustic characteristics – that is, the degree of 
sound distortion and self-generated noise – found mixed results. Some 
over-the-counter hearing products <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/827463">don’t measure up to acceptable standards</a>, whereas others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/MAO.0000000000001414">do provide appropriate amplification</a>. Second, several <a href="https://hearingreview.com/hearing-products/marketrak-viii-utilization-of-psaps-and-direct-mail-hearing-aids-by-people-with-hearing-impairment">large-scale consumer surveys in the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.ehima.com/surveys/">Japan</a>
 suggest that users are less satisfied with over-the-counter aids than 
with conventional prescription hearing aids. This lower satisfaction can
 be primarily attributed to consumers choosing inappropriate devices or 
being unable to personalize or handle them.Conversely, several clinical trials <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216519900589">measuring the self-fitting process</a> and the benifits of over-the-counter hearing aids <a href="https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJA-16-0111">generally report positive outcomes</a> for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. More <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Hearing+Loss%2C+Sensorineural&amp;term=OTC+hearing+aid&amp;cntry=&amp;state=&amp;city=&amp;dist=">clinical trials are ongoing</a>. To add to the confusion, there is another caveat to those studies: 
Most examined early generations of direct-to-consumer hearing devices 
such as the personal sound amplification products – not the 
over-the-counter hearing aids that are now on the market. That is why 
consumers should take the results of those early studies with some 
skepticism. What’s more, as the market matures, a combination of 
competition and regulation will likely improve the quality of the 
devices.<h2>Questions to consider before purchasing</h2>You’ll want to take into account the look, feel and capabilities of 
the device. Ask yourself: Do you want a hearing aid that looks more like
 a wireless earbud – small and not noticeable? Is it comfortable to wear
 or irritating after several hours? Will it work with a smartphone and 
Bluetooth? How often does it need to be recharged?Also: What is the warranty? How can I get the device fixed if it 
breaks? What’s the return policy? Is there free customer support after 
the purchase? Is the device appropriate for my particular kind of 
hearing issue?Only a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/reviewed/2022/10/17/otc-hearing-aids-buy-now-bose-lively/10523887002/">handful of companies</a>
 now offer over-the-counter hearing aids. Some may not be in the 
business for very long. So choose a brand with a good reputation that 
stands behind its product, offers customer service assistance and lets 
you return the device and receive a refund if it doesn’t work for you.Studies show that people often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.15009">underestimate the severity of their hearing loss</a>.
 For these people, the over-the-counter devices may not provide adequate
 amplification. Remember, they work only for those with mild to moderate
 hearing loss. In addition, some people may have treatable hearing 
problems, like earwax buildup, that need medical treatment instead of 
hearing aids. That’s why we strongly recommend consumers get a hearing test from an
 audiologist before purchasing the over-the-counter hearing aids. If 
that is not feasible, you can take a <a href="https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/hearwho">free online hearing test</a> and also <a href="https://sites.northwestern.edu/cedra/">screen yourself for risk of an ear disease</a> or other conditions that may affect hearing. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-H-18-0370">online consumer reviews</a> provide user reports on the perceived benefits and limitations about specific products. If you find the over-the-counter devices don’t work for you, there may be <a href="https://www.hearingloss.org/hearing-help/technology/otc-hearing-devices/otc-hearing-aids/">some issues that are fixable</a>. But if not, don’t forget: You always have the option to return them – and then, make an appointment with <a href="https://theconversation.com/newly-available-over-the-counter-hearing-aids-offer-many-benefits-but-consumers-should-be-aware-of-the-potential-drawbacks-189041">a hearing health care professional</a>.Vinaya Manchaiah, Professor of Otolaryngology – Head &amp; Neck Surgery , University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.Cory Portnuff, Assistant Clinical Professor of Audiology, Clinical Audiologist, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192936/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

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