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2025 shockers: The biggest moments that rocked the campaign trail

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It was an off-year when it comes to elections, but 2025 was on fire on the campaign trail, as next year’s looming midterm showdowns took shape.
While it was never expected to match the intensity of the tumultuous 2024 battles for the White House and Congress, this year’s off-year elections grabbed outsized national attention and served as a key barometer leading up to the 2026 midterm contests for the House and Senate majorities.
Here are five of the biggest moments that shaped the campaign trail.
5. Trump pushes mid-decade congressional redistricting
Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, President Donald Trump in June first floated the idea of rare but not unheard of mid-decade congressional redistricting.
HERE ARE THE NEXT BATTLEGROUNDS IN REDISTRICTING FIGHT
President Donald Trump first floated the idea of mid-decade congressional redistricting in June. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
Trump’s first target: Texas.
A month later, when asked by reporters about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, «Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.»
The push by Trump and his political team triggered a high-stakes redistricting showdown with Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape in the fight for the House majority.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.
Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)
California voters earlier this month overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Right-tilting Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
SETTING THE STAGE: WHAT THE 2025 ELECTIONS SIGNAL FOR NEXT YEAR’S MIDTERM SHOWDOWNS
Republicans are looking to GOP-controlled Florida, where early redistricting moves are underway in Tallahassee. A new map could possibly produce up to five more right-leaning seats. But conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP legislative leaders don’t see eye-to-eye on how to move forward.
«We must keep the Majority at all costs,» Trump wrote on social media this month.
In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge this month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of a vote to redistrict the state’s congressional map, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)
But Trump scored a big victory when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court greenlighted Texas’ new map.
Other states that might step into the redistricting wars — Democratic-dominated Illinois and Maryland, and two red states with Democratic governors, Kentucky and Kansas.
4. Jay Jones text messages revealed, rocking Virginia’s elections
Virginia Democrats were cruising toward convincing victories in the commonwealth’s statewide elections when a scandal sent shockwaves up and down the ballot.
SHOWDOWN FOR THE HOUSE: DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS BRACE FOR HIGH-STAKES MIDTERM CLASH
Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones instantly went into crisis mode after controversial texts were first reported earlier by the National Review in early October.
Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, when he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

Jay Jones addresses supporters after winning the Democratic nomination for Virginia attorney general as wife Mavis Jones looks on in Norfolk, on June 17, 2025. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
But Jones faced a chorus of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race.
And the GOP leveraged the explosive revelations up the ballot, forcing Democratic Party nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, back on defense in a campaign where she was seen as the frontrunner against Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Earle-Sears didn’t waste an opportunity to link Spanberger to Jones. And during October’s chaotic and only gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his attorney general bid.
«The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent,» Spanberger said at the debate. But she neither affirmed nor pulled back her support of Jones.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE 2025 ELECTIONS
While the scandal grabbed national headlines, in the end it didn’t slow down the Democrats, as Spanberger crushed Earle-Sears by 15 points. Democrats won the separate election for lieutenant governor by 11 points and Jones even pulled off a 6-point victory over Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.
3. Democrats overperform at the ballot box
Just eight days into Trump’s second term in the White House, demoralized Democrats had something to cheer about.
Democrat Mike Zimmer defeated Republican Katie Whittington in a special state Senate election in Iowa, flipping a Republican-controlled vacant seat in a district that Trump had carried by 21 points less than three months earlier.
Zimmer’s victory triggered a wave of Democrats overperforming in special elections and regularly scheduled off-year ballot box contests.
Among the most high profile was the victory by the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin’s high-stakes and expensive state Supreme Court showdown.
With inflation, the issue that severely wounded them in the 2024 elections, persisting, Democrats were laser focused on affordability, and the wins kept coming.
In November’s regularly scheduled elections, they won the nation’s only two gubernatorial showdowns — in New Jersey and Virginia — by double digits. And they scored major victories in less high-profile contests from coast to coast.

Then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill celebrates during an election night event in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The year ended with Democrats winning a mayoral election in Miami, Florida for the first time in a quarter-century, and flipping a state House seat in Georgia.
The Democratic National Committee, in a year-end memo, touted, «In 2025 alone, Democrats won or overperformed in 227 out of 255 key elections — nearly 90% of races.»
But Democrats are still staring down a brand that remains in the gutter, with historically low approval and favorable numbers.
ELECTION REFLECTION: ‘DEMOCRATS FLIPPED THE SCRIPT’ ON AFFORDABILITY IN BALLOT BOX SHOWDOWNS
Among the most recent to grab headlines: Only 18% of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey this month said they approved of the way congressional Democrats were handling their job, while 73% percent disapproved.
That’s the lowest job approval rating for the Democrats in Congress since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question 16 years ago.
2. Democrats’ primary problem
The Democrats overperformed in this month’s special congressional election in a GOP-dominated seat in Tennessee — losing by nine points in a district that Trump carried by 22 points just a year ago,
But there were plenty of centrist Democrats who argued that state Rep. Aftyn Behn, the Democratic nominee in the race, was too far to the left for the district.
Republicans repeatedly attacked Behn over her paper trail of past comments on defunding the police.
‘FULL-BLOWN BATTLE’ BREWING IN DEM PARTY AS MAMDANI-STYLE CANDIDATES RISE IN KEY RACES
And the U.S. Senate campaign launch this month in red-leaning Texas by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal Trump critic and foil, compounded the argument by centrists.
«The Democratic Party’s aspirations to win statewide in a red state like Texas simply don’t exist without a centrist Democrat who can build a winning coalition of ideologically diverse voters,» Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, a group which advocates for moderate Democratic candidates, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Democratic nominee State Rep. Aftyn Behn speaks to supporters at a watch party after losing a special election for the U.S. seventh congressional district, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)
And the center-left Third Way, in a memo following the Tennessee special election, argued that «there are two projects going on in the Democratic Party right now. One is winning political power so we can stop Trump’s calamity. The other is turning blue places bluer.»
«If far-left groups want to help save American democracy, they should stop pushing their candidates in swing districts and costing us flippable seats,» the memo emphasized.
1. Mamdani wins NYC mayoral primary
It was the story that has dominated campaign politics for the past six months.
Zohran Mamdani‘s convincing June 24 victory in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary was the political earthquake that rocked the nation’s most populous city and sent powerful shockwaves across the country.
The capturing of the Democratic nomination by the now-34-year-old socialist state lawmaker over frontrunner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates propelled Mamdani to a general election victory.

Zohran Mamdani delivers a victory speech at a mayoral election night watch party, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)
Mamdani’s primary shocker, and later, his general election victory, energized the left.
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But it also handed Republicans instant ammunition as they worked to link the first Muslim New York City mayor with a far-left agenda to Democrats across the country, as the party aimed to paint Democrats as extremists.
But Trump, who had repeatedly called Mamdani a «communist,» appeared to undercut that narrative with a chummy Oval Office meeting with the mayor-elect last month.
2025 2026 elections coverage,virginia governor race,nyc mayoral elections coverage,midterm elections,donald trump,zohran mamdani,campaigning
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Anti-Iran regime protests grow across country as Trump admin boosts demonstrators offering support

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Protests spread across Iran on Tuesday after President Donald Trump and other administration officials voiced support for demonstrators. Speaking Monday, Trump pointed to Iran’s economic collapse and long-standing public discontent while stopping short of calling for regime change.
Inside Iran, demonstrations entered a third consecutive day, expanding beyond the capital’s commercial center. The exiled opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported widespread strikes and student protests across Tehran and multiple provincial cities, describing clashes with security forces and anti-government chants. A video obtained by the NCRI appears to show protesters pushing back security forces, forcing them to leave the scene on Tehran’s Jomhouri Street.
Iran International reported that universities emerged as major protest hubs, with rallies at Tehran University, Sharif University of Technology, Shahid Beheshti University, Elm-o-Sanat University and Khajeh Nasir University. Security forces tightened entry controls at campuses and reinforced offices linked to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
IRANIAN PRESIDENT SAYS HIS COUNTRY IS AT ‘TOTAL WAR’ WITH THE US, ISRAEL AND EUROPE: REPORTS
Strikes spread across Tehran’s Shoush and Molavi districts and into Isfahan’s Naqsh-e Jahan Square, while parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and the gold market shut down. Mobile phone traders gathered outside major shopping centers after closing their stores. Protests turned violent in several locations, with tear gas fired in Tehran and Malard and reports of live fire in Hamadan. Nighttime demonstrations were reported from Qeshm Island in the south to Zanjan and Hamadan in the north, with videos showing chants of «death to the dictator.»
Speaking at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Trump said he was «not going to talk about overthrow of a regime.» Instead, he focused on Iran’s deteriorating economy and the state’s violent response to protests. «They’ve got tremendous inflation. Their economy is busted, the economy is no good,» Trump said.
He said that when Iranians gather to protest, the regime responds with lethal force.
Nooses with red roses are displayed during the Anglo-Iranian community rally to support the Iranian people’s push for a new revolution. Members of the Anglo-Iranian community, along with supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), commemorated the 45th anniversary of the revolution in Iran that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime and eventually led to a theocratic Islamic republic in 1979. (Loredana Sangiuliano/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
«Every time they have a riot or somebody forms a group, little or big, they start shooting people,» Trump said. «You know, they kill people. All of a sudden people start getting shot and that group disbanded pretty quickly.»
Trump said he has watched the unrest build for years, describing Iran’s leadership as brutal.
«I’ve watched this for years — there is tremendous discontent,» he said. «I’ve watched it for years, and vicious, vicious people.» His remarks came as protests intensified following the collapse of Iran’s currency to historic lows. The rial fell to roughly 1.45 million per U.S. dollar on the open market, triggering strikes and demonstrations centered on Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and spreading to other major cities, according to Iran International’s live reporting. Videos and eyewitness accounts described heavy security deployments, clashes with demonstrators and the use of tear gas as unrest widened.
TRUMP VOWS TO ‘KNOCK THE HELL OUT OF’ IRAN IF NUCLEAR PROGRAM IS REBUILT AGAIN AFTER HIGH-STAKES MEETING
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz issued a direct message of support. «The people of Iran want freedom,» Waltz wrote on X. «We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.»
A parallel statement from the U.S. government’s Persian-language account, @USAbehFarsi, said Washington supports the Iranian people’s efforts «to make their voices heard,» urging the Islamic Republic to respect fundamental rights rather than suppress protests.
Iranian officials acknowledged the unrest but defended the government’s approach. Reuters reported that government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said Tehran recognizes protests and that officials would set up a mechanism to engage with protest leaders. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian directed his interior minister to address protesters’ «legitimate demands» and engage in dialogue with their representatives.
Independent analysts warned the unrest reflects deeper structural strains. The OSINT research group SpecialEurasia said in an assessment on Tuesday that Iran’s internal stability has reached a «critical threshold,» citing the convergence of currency collapse, renewed international sanctions and chronic water and energy shortages. The group noted that the participation of bazaar merchants, traditionally a pillar of regime support, signals declining confidence in the state’s economic management and raises the risk of prolonged unrest.
NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi said the protests reflect the anger of «tens of millions» driven to the breaking point by inflation, corruption and clerical rule. NCRI’s claims reflect opposition reporting and cannot be independently verified due to restrictions on access inside Iran.

Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP)
Cameron Khansarinia, vice president of the National Union for Democracy in Iran, said the latest demonstrations underscore a growing shift in public sentiment. «Iranians have once again taken to the streets.» Citing President Donald Trump’s remarks this week, he added that «each time they do, the regime tries to crush it,» but argued that «Iranians’ desire to be free is increasingly becoming greater than their fear of the regime.» Khansarinia claimed that chants in support of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi have been growing in the protests, saying the protesters showed «remarkable bravery.»
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Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP)
As protests continue, verification of casualties and arrests remains limited, but the scale and spread of the unrest underscore mounting pressure on Iran’s leadership amid economic free fall and growing public defiance.
iran,world protests,donald trump,wars
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Crece la tensión en Irán: estudiantes se sumaron a los comerciantes para protestar contra la crisis económica

Estudiantes se sumaron al movimiento de protesta de comerciantes contra el elevado costo de vida y la hiperinflación que golpea a Irán, un país afectado por severas sanciones occidentales.
La República Islámica sufre desde hace años un encarecimiento de productos básicos y una irrefrenable caída de su moneda, el rial. La inflación interanual se situó en diciembre en 52%, según el Centro de Estadísticas.
Leé también: Trump aumentó la presión sobre Venezuela: sancionó a un fabricante estatal de drones vinculado con Irán
En el tercer día de protestas, el presidente iraní, Masud Pezeshkian, pidió a sus ministros escuchar “las demandas legítimas” de los manifestantes y “actuar con todas sus fuerzas para resolver los problemas”.
Irán atraviesa una grave crisis económica agravada por las sanciones internacionales, en un año en que sufrió además ataques israelíes y estadounidenses en sus plantas nucleares.
Las protestas se extienden al interior del país
Pero el llamado presidencial no aplacó las protestas. Estudiantes universitarios se sumaron a las movilizaciones en Teherán y en la ciudad de Ispahan, en el centro del país, según la agencia de prensa Ilna, cercana a los sindicatos.
Agobiados por el efecto en sus negocios, vendedores de la capital cerraron sus tiendas el lunes y marcharon contra el deterioro de la situación económica. Manifestantes recorren una avenida del centro de Teherán. (Foto: AP)
Las movilizaciones comenzaron el domingo en el mayor mercado de teléfonos celulares de Teherán. Imágenes de la agencia de noticias estatal Fars mostraron que las fuerzas de seguridad lanzaron gases lacrimógenos para dispersar las protestas.
“Pedí al ministro del Interior que escuche las demandas legítimas de los manifestantes” para que el gobierno “pueda actuar con todas sus fuerzas para resolver los problemas y hacerlo de manera responsable”, aseguró el presidente Pezeshkian en la red social X.
Aumenta la vigilancia policial
Este martes por la mañana, la mayoría de las tiendas y cafeterías estaban abiertas en la avenida Vali-asr, que atraviesa la capital de norte a sur a lo largo de 18 kilómetros.
Policías antidisturbios vigilaban las principales plazas del centro de la ciudad.
Leé también: “No quería ver morir a nadie”: el hombre que enfrentó a un terrorista en Bondi Beach rompió el silencio
Para el miércoles, las autoridades decretaron el cierre de escuelas, bancos y establecimientos públicos en Teherán y otras partes del país por el frío y para ahorrar energía, indicó la prensa estatal, que no lo vinculó a las protestas.
El presidente del Parlamento, Mohamad Bagher Ghalibaf, pidió a los diputados y políticos a tomar las “medidas necesarias para aumentar el poder adquisitivo de la población”.
Sin embargo, también alertó contra el riesgo de instrumentalización de estas protestas para sembrar “el caos”. El presidente iraní Masud Pezeshkian (Foto: REUTERS)
Moneda en caída libre
El rial iraní alcanzó el domingo un nuevo mínimo histórico frente al dólar, según el tipo de cambio informal en el mercado negro, a más de 1,4 millones de riales por dólar (frente a los 820.000 de hace un año) y 1,7 millones por euro (frente a los 855.000).
El lunes, la divisa se recuperó ligeramente.
Esta depreciación crónica llevó a una hiperinflación y a una fuerte volatilidad en Irán, donde algunos precios aumentan considerablemente de un día para otro.
Leé también: China inició maniobras militares con fuego real para simular el bloqueo de puertos de Taiwán
Esta situación paraliza las ventas de algunos productos importados. Tanto vendedores como compradores prefieren posponer cualquier transacción a la espera de que la situación se aclare.
“Ningún dirigente nos ha apoyado ni ha tratado de averiguar cómo afecta el tipo de cambio del dólar a nuestras vidas. Tuvimos que manifestar nuestro descontento”, lamentó un manifestante citado por el diario local Etemad.
La economía iraní, ya debilitada por décadas de sanciones occidentales, sufre además por el restablecimiento a finales de septiembre por parte de la ONU de las penalizaciones internacionales relacionadas con su programa nuclear, que habían sido levantadas hace diez años.
(Con información de AFP)
Irán, Protesta
INTERNACIONAL
Japón proveerá drones y tecnología a Argentina, Uruguay, Perú y Ecuador para frenar la pesca ilegal china

Japón implementará un programa de asistencia a países sudamericanos que enfrentan flotas pesqueras chinas operando ilegalmente en sus aguas, proporcionando drones de vigilancia y otro equipamiento para reforzar los patrullajes marítimos, anunció el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores nipón.
Ecuador, Perú, Argentina y Uruguay recibirán la ayuda a través de la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito, según informó este lunes Nikkei Asia. El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores japonés destinó 300 millones de yenes (1,9 millones de dólares) para la iniciativa, que incluye botes patrulleros inflables y equipos que analizan imágenes tomadas por drones. Esta tecnología permitirá identificar el registro de las embarcaciones, el tamaño de la tripulación y las rutas que siguen los buques.
Las flotas pesqueras chinas mantienen una presencia activa en las aguas alrededor de las Islas Galápagos de Ecuador. Con sus transpondedores GPS aparentemente apagados, estas flotas navegan hacia el sur frente a las costas de Perú y Chile. En el Atlántico, se ha confirmado actividad de flotas chinas en aguas cercanas a Argentina y Uruguay.

Estas flotas chinas son sospechosas de pesca ilegal, no declarada y no reglamentada, así como de actividades de recopilación de información, incluyendo el mapeo del lecho marino. .
Cuando una flota pesquera desactiva el rastreo GPS, determinar la trayectoria y el número de embarcaciones involucradas se vuelve extremadamente difícil. Tomar medidas de aplicación requiere capacidades superiores de guardacostas, de las cuales muchos países sudamericanos carecen.
Los buques pesqueros chinos también operan ilegalmente en el Banco de Yamato del Mar de Japón, y embarcaciones pesqueras japonesas han estado involucradas en incidentes frente a la costa del Pacífico del noreste de Japón. El gobierno japonés busca apoyar a países que enfrentan problemas similares.
La presencia de la flota china en aguas sudamericanas ha generado gran preocupación en la región. En Argentina, la actividad pasó de 61.727 horas por cada 500 kilómetros cuadrados en 2013 a 384.046 horas en 2023 en la zona conocida como “Milla 201”, al borde de la Zona Económica Exclusiva del país, según datos de Global Fishing Watch citados por Infobae.
La Prefectura Naval Argentina informó recientemente que reforzó el monitoreo de “más de 500 buques pesqueros extranjeros que arribarán a la Milla 201 en la próxima zafra del calamar”, de los cuales ya detectó 148 “en tránsito”. La mayoría proviene de China, Corea del Sur y Taiwán, reportó Infobae.
Investigadores locales han denunciado además actividades sospechosas de mapeo de la Plataforma Continental Argentina por parte de buques chinos. El arrastrero Lu Qing Yuan Yu 205, que en 2016 había realizado pesca ilegal dentro del Mar Argentino, fue detectado este año realizando movimientos en cuadrículas que sugieren prospección del fondo marino, según Milko Schvarzman, investigador del Círculo de Políticas Ambientales, citado por Infobae.
En Ecuador, el episodio de mayor tensión tuvo lugar en 2017, cuando las autoridades capturaron el carguero chino Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 dentro de la reserva marina de Galápagos cargado con 6.623 tiburones de diversas especies.
También se han planteado preocupaciones sobre posibles abusos a los derechos humanos de trabajadores en embarcaciones pesqueras ilegales en Sudamérica. Según reportes, estos trabajadores enfrentan largas jornadas en condiciones difíciles en barcos sin control de temperatura.
Muchos de los trabajadores son del Sudeste Asiático, según el ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores japonés. Intensificar la aplicación de medidas contra las flotas pesqueras ilegales en Sudamérica podría ayudar a proteger a esos trabajadores, según Nikkei Asia, proporcionando potencialmente una oportunidad para que Japón refuerce las relaciones con los países del Sudeste Asiático.
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