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NoneThe Swans stunned Pride Park into silence with less than two minutes on the clock when Zan Vipotnik sent a bullet past Jacob Widell Zetterstrom before Ronald slotted home his first of the season in the 14th minute. Cyrus Christie brought Tom Barkhuizen down inside the box and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing dispatched the resulting penalty to cut the deficit in half and, despite piling on the pressure, Derby succumbed to a second home defeat of the season. Williams told a press conference: “We started the game very well, we were good up until we scored the second goal then we lost the grip on the game and I thought Derby were the better team. “The next thing for us we have to be able to maintain that level throughout the game and we weren’t able to do that to be quite honest today. “They made it difficult, reacted very well after the second goal and didn’t go under, far from it.” Swansea leapfrogged their opponents into the top half of the table with their sixth win of the season and took three points back to south Wales following two last-minute defeats by Burnley and Leeds heading into the match. Williams added: “We’ve recently conceded late goals but they’re a very resilient group and we saw it out in the end. “We’ve dominated games a lot but probably failed to score when we’ve been that dominant and tonight we managed to score the goals when we were dominant. “We scored the goals at the right time today.” Derby had been unbeaten in their last three matches coming into this one but Paul Warne put defeat down to a poor start. He said: “We conceded two and didn’t get close enough, weren’t aggressive enough, not enough body contact and looked soft, that’s my fault. “Maybe I didn’t message it properly. Sometimes it doesn’t come down to shape and tactics but I thought that was what the difference was. “Credit Swansea for the win but after the 25 mins it looked like we would score. I really enjoyed it, that’s the truth. I had 70 minutes of a team giving everything, I don’t think we’ve had that many attempts in the Championship this season. “It’s a rude awakening, last year we would’ve won that 4-2.”
Roy Keane and Ricky Gervais shared a hilarious moment on the latest episode of Stick to Football this week. The actor/comedian shared his pet hate and one that former Ireland star Keane has spoken about before on previous episodes on the show on The Overlap YouTube channel. Keane has voiced his distain for leaf blowers and it seems he has found an ally who shares his hatred in Gervais. READ MORE: Ambitious Bohemians to host Shamrock Rovers at Aviva Stadium on opening weekend of the new season READ MORE: Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley confirms the worst as scan results return on key player Speaking alongside Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott, Ian Wright and Keane, Gervais said: “I want to ban leaf blowers. Why have they got leaf blowers? What are they doing? They’re blowing leaves into the street, well they’re going to blow back.” Keane reacted to Gervais outspoken burst by smiling and shaking his hand. “The last episode, he (Keane) spoke about leaf blowers,” Scott said in response. “Especially early in the morning, if it’s early in the morning,” Keane said. Gervais added: “Honestly, I want to go to the council, can we ban leaf blowers? It’s bad for the environment, its noisy, its pointless. Do you know what I think? I think that gardener that’s doing it, he can hear that its working because it’s not doing anything.” Keane couldn’t help himself in showing his frustration: “The bit that annoys me is that one does it, he blows the leaves down there and then the other garderner blows them f***ing back, they just keep doing it every day blowing leaves back. They’re getting lazy.” “Vacuum it up,” concluded Gervais. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts .
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LeBron James is going to have to make room for the NFL. Wednesday's doubleheader on Netflix set records as the most-streamed NFL games in U.S. history, with numbers nearly five times more than the NBA. The Baltimore Ravens' 31-2 victory over the Houston Texans averaged 24.3 million while Kansas City's 29-10 win at Pittsburgh averaged 24.1 according to early viewer figures released by Nielsen on Thursday. Nielsen also said there were 65 million U.S. viewers who tuned in for at least one minute of one of the two games. The NBA's five-game slate averaged about 5.25 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and its platforms, according to the league and Nielsen. “I love the NFL,” James said in his televised postgame interview Wednesday night. “But Christmas is our day.” While the NBA's Christmas lineup has its best viewer numbers in five years, the NFL has made Christmas one of its tentpole events during the regular season, joining Kickoff Weekend and Thanksgiving. “The numbers speak for themselves and LeBron can have his own view, and I’m sure more people will look at that because of this," said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media. "But, you know, we’re focused on the NFL and we’re thrilled with the results this year with the Christmas on Netflix and we’re excited to continue to build that over the next couple of years.” Both NFL games surpassed the previous mark of 23 million for last season’s AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs on Peacock. Viewership for Ravens-Texans peaked with the Beyoncé Bowl. The 20-minute halftime performance averaged over 27 million viewers. The viewer figures include the audience on Netflix, mobile viewership on NFL+ and those who tuned in on CBS stations in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore and Houston. Global ratings and final U.S. numbers are expected to be available on Tuesday. The NFL's Christmas numbers decreased from last season, but not at the rate that usually happens when something goes from broadcast to streaming. Last year’s three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million on CBS. Once global and Netflix's first-party data is released, both Christmas games should surpass 30 million. The NBA's lineup saw an 84% rise over 2023. One reason for the increase is that all five games were on ABC, compared to two last year. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 115-113 victory over the Golden State Warriors — a game pitting Olympic teammates LeBron James and Stephen Curry — averaged 7.76 million viewers and peaked with about 8.32 million viewers toward the end of the contest, the league said. Those numbers represent the most-watched NBA regular season game in five years. The NBA said all five Christmas games on its schedule — San Antonio at New York in Victor Wembanyama's holiday debut, Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, Denver at Phoenix and Lakers-Warriors — saw year-over-year viewership increases. Wednesday's numbers pushed NBA viewership for the season across ESPN platforms to up 4% over last season. The league also saw more than 500 million video views on its social media platforms Wednesday, a new record. For the NBA, those are all good signs amid cries that NBA viewership is hurting. “Ratings are down a bit at beginning of the season. But cable television viewership is down double digits so far this year versus last year," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month. “You know, we’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programing on streaming than they are on traditional television. And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which we enter into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service.” Part of that new package of television deals that the NBA is entering into next season also increases the number of regular season games broadcast on television from 15 to 75. AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA
Downing throws for 2 TDs, runs for another, Elon tops North Carolina A&T 31-21Jeffrey Fleishman | (TNS) Los Angeles Times The national furor in recent years around banning books on race and gender in public schools is intensifying as President-elect Donald Trump threatens to shut down the Department of Education, emboldening conservatives to end “wokeness” in classrooms. Battles over books in school libraries have become emblematic of the country’s larger culture wars over race, historical revisionism and gender identity. A new report by PEN America found book bans increased by nearly 200% during the 2023-24 school year, including titles on sexuality, substance abuse, depression and other issues students face in an age of accelerating technologies, climate change, toxic politics and fears about the future. Book censorship has shaken and divided school boards, pitted parents against parents, and led to threats against teachers and librarians . It is part of an agenda driven by conservative parental rights groups and politicians who promote charter schools and voucher systems that could weaken public education. The issue goes to the heart not only of what students are taught but how federal and state education policies will affect the nation’s politics after one of the most consequential elections in its history. “It’s not just about taking a book off a shelf,” said Tasslyn Magnusson, an author and teacher from Wisconsin who tracks book censorship across the U.S. “It’s about power and who controls public education. It’s about what kind of America we were and are. We’re trying to define what family is and what America means. That comes down to the stories we tell.” She said she feared Trump’s return to the White House would further incite those calling for book bans: “I don’t have lots of hope. It could get a lot worse.” Over the last year, PEN counted more than 10,000 book bans nationwide that targeted 4,231 unique titles. Most were books dealing with gender, sexuality, race and LGBTQ+ storylines. The most banned title was Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” about a school shooting that included a short description of date rape. Florida and Iowa — both of which have strict regulations on what students can read — accounted for more than 8,200 bans in the 2023-24 school year. “This crisis is tragic for young people hungry to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read Program, said in a statement. “What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives.” Trump’s calls to close the Department of Education would need congressional approval, which appears unlikely. Although public schools are largely funded and governed by state and local institutions, the department helps pay to educate students with disabilities, provides about $18 billion in grants for K-12 schools in poor communities and oversees a civil rights branch to protect students from discrimination. But Trump’s election has inspired conservative parental groups, including Moms For Liberty and Parents Defending Education, to strengthen efforts to limit what they see as a liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate children with books and teachings that are perverse, amoral and pornographic. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, has criticized schools that she says spend too much time on diversity and inclusion when only about one-third of U.S. children are reading at grade level: “We’re talking about public school libraries and content for kids,” Justice told NewsNation after Trump’s victory. “I think it’s very clear that there are certain things that are appropriate for kids, certain things that are appropriate for adults. We’re just getting back to commonsense America.” Trump’s threat to deny federal funding to schools that acknowledge transgender identities could affect curricula and the kinds of books school libraries stock. During his rally at Madison Square Garden in October, Trump — who has has accused schools of promoting sex change operations — said his administration would get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.” Vice President-elect JD Vance has accused Democrats of wanting to “put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.” Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Newsmax that she was excited about Trump’s calls to remake education and “clean up a lot of the mess” he has inherited from the Biden administration. Trump “has centered parental rights back in his platform, which is incredible. He has prioritized knowledge and skill, not identity politics,” she said. “American children deserve better, and it is time for change.” In nominating Linda McMahon to be his secretary of Education, Trump appears to be pushing for more conservative parental control over what is taught and read in classrooms. A former professional wrestling executive, McMahon chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-connected organization that has criticized schools for teaching “racially divisive” theories, notably about slavery and a perspective about the nation’s founding it views as anti-American. “Today’s contentious debates over using classrooms for political activism rather than teaching a complete and accurate account of American history have reinvigorated calls for greater parental and citizen involvement in the curriculum approval process,” the institute’s website says. Culturally divisive issues, including race and LGBTQ+ themes, cost school districts an estimated $3.2 billion during the 2023-24 school year, according to a recent study called “The Costs of Conflict.” The survey — published by the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA — found that battles over books and teaching about sexuality and other topics led to increased expenses for legal fees, replacing administrators and teachers who quit, and security, including off-duty plainclothes police officers. “Are we really going to spend our tax dollars on these kinds of things?” asked Magnusson. “After Trump was elected, I saw a bunch of middle-class white ladies like me who were saying, ‘This isn’t America.’ But maybe it is America.” One school superintendent in a Western state told the study’s researchers that his staff was often consumed with correcting misinformation and fulfilling public record requests mainly from hard-line parental rights activists attempting to exploit cultural war issues to discredit the district. “Our staff are spending enormous amounts of time just doing stupid stuff,” the superintendent said. “The fiscal costs to the district are enormous, but [so are] the cultural costs of not standing up to the extremists. If someone doesn’t, then the students and employees lose. ... It’s the worst it’s ever been.” The survey found that 29% of 467 school superintendents interviewed reported that teachers and other staff quit their profession or left their districts “due to culturally divisive conflict.” Censoring books in school libraries grew out of opposition to COVID-19 restrictions. A number of conservative parental groups, including Moms for Liberty, which invited Trump to speak at its national convention in August, turned their attention to lobbying against “liberal indoctrination.” Their protests against what they criticized as progressive teaching on sexuality and race were focused on increasing conservative parental control over a public education system that was struggling at teaching children reading and math. That strategy has led to a national, right-wing effort that is “redefining government power to restrict access to information in our schools,” said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. “This movement to protect the innocence of our children believes if children never read it in a book they won’t have to know about it and can go on to lead harmonious lives. But books teach us cautionary tales. They instruct us. You can’t protect innocence through ignorance.” School districts across the country have removed “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, which are about gender identity and include graphic depictions of sex, along with titles by renowned writers such as Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Maya Angelou and Flannery O’Connor. Related Articles National Politics | Trump vows tariffs over immigration. What the numbers say about border crossings, drugs and crime National Politics | Trump promised mass deportations. Educators worry fear will keep immigrants’ kids from school National Politics | Trump team says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal brokered by Biden is actually Trump’s win National Politics | How Trump’s bet on voters electing him managed to silence some of his legal woes National Politics | After delay, Trump signs agreement with Biden White House to begin formal transition handoff Surveys show that most Americans do not favor censorship. The Florida Freedom to Read Project and similar organizations around the country have called for thorough public reviews of challenged books to prevent one scene or passage from being taken out of context. Moderate and liberal parents groups over the last two years have also become more active in school board politics. They have supported school board candidates who have defeated those backed by Moms for Liberty in Texas, Florida and other states. “People say the pendulum will swing back,” said Ferrell. But, she said, conservatives want to “stop the pendulum from swinging back.” Picoult is accustomed to conservatives attempting to censor her. Her books have been banned in schools in more than 30 states. Published in 2007, “Nineteen Minutes” explores the lives of characters, including a girl who was raped, in a town leading up to a school shooting and its aftermath. “Having the most banned book in the country is not a badge of honor. It’s a call for alarm,” said Picoult, whose books have sold more than 40 million copies. “My book, and the 10,000 others that have been pulled off school library shelves this year, give kids a tool to deal with an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners aren’t helping children. They are harming them.” ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.The River Irwell in Ramsbottom, near Bury, has reportedly burst its banks as Storm Bert continues to bring heavy rain and lashing winds to the region. Images show large areas of Nuttall Park in Ramsbottom under water, with flooded roads also captured in images being shared on social media. Flooding is also being reported in the Stubbins area. A number of urgent Environment Agency 'act now' flood warnings are in place in the surrounding areas. They warn: "Rising river levels are expected to cause flooding from now until daybreak Sunday 24 November 2024." READ MORE: LIVE UK weather: Storm Bert brings snow, wind, rain and flooding to Greater Manchester - latest updates The warning areas cover the River Irwell at Bacup and the River Irwell at Irwell Vale. "Flooding is forecast to affect locations near the River Irwell, with low lying land and roads expected to be most affected, particularly around Irwell Vale, Aitken Street, Bowker Street, Chapel Terrace, Hardsough Fold, Milne Street and Parkinson Fold," reads the Environment Agency warning for the Irwell Vale area. "Start acting on your flood plan if you have one. Take care and avoid walking, cycling or driving through flood water." Flooding at Strongstry Bridge (Image: Jake Lindley / Manchester Evening News) A third warning also covers the Irwell at Rawtenstall. Properties on and adjacent to Burnley Road; south of Constable Lee Bridge; Bocholt Way and Bacup Road, from Bury Road to Lench Road; properties near Hareholme Mill, Victoria Works and Holme Lane, including parts of New Hall Hey Road, are covered. A fourth warning covers the Irwell at Summerseat. "Areas at risk include land and properties alongside the river at Summerseat, including some properties on Waterside Road, Riverside Drive and The Island," said the Environment Agency. Areas affected also include Waterfoot and Buckley Wells. Parts of nearby Edenfield, meanwhile, are also being hit by flooding. The Irwell at Ramsbottom (Image: Jake Lindley / Manchester Evening News) Residents in Gincroft Lane told how they've called the emergency services to ask for sandbags. Images also showed cars ploughing through water by the roundabout near Bury Road and Rochdale Road in Edenfield. Another image sent to the M.E.N. shows cars braving floodwater near to Park Farm in Ramsbottom. Residents, meanwhile, have also placed a number of sandbags on Strongstry Bridge north of Ramsbottom near Stubbins. Ramsbottom councillor Gareth Staples-Jones said on social media: "Aware the river Irwell has burst its banks in Ramsbottom and flooded Nuttall Park and is threatening other areas. The scene in Ramsbottom (Image: Jake Lindley / Manchester Evening News) "I’ve spoken to the emergency team at the council and spoken to our Forward Response Officer who is working with other agencies on this incident. "If you do have any concerns please contact the emergency response team on 0161 253 6606 or 999 where someone’s life may be in danger. Please be careful and look out for your neighbours." Nationally, 27 flood warnings - meaning flooding is expected - are in force, together with 83 flood alerts warning of possible flooding. Weather warnings from the Met Office remain in place.