President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press. WRAY RESIGNS: FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday that he will resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI. ECONOMY: The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier, up from a yearly figure of 2.6% in October. And on Thursday, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-year mortgage dropped to 6.6% from 6.69% last week. SUBWAY DEATH: Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider, was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism. A Manhattan jury cleared Penny of criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 killing of Jordan Neely. Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad fled to Moscow last Sunday, Russian media reported, hours after a stunning rebel advance took over the capital of Damascus and ended the Assad family’s 50-year iron rule. The Russian agencies Tass and RIA cited an unidentified Kremlin source on Assad and his family being given asylum in Moscow by his longtime ally. Assad reportedly left Syria early Sunday, and Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire. The swift events raised questions about the future of the country and the wider Middle East region. TRUMP STAFF: President-elect Donald Trump made another flurry of job announcements on Tuesday, selecting Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Ron Johnson for ambassador to Mexico, Kimberly Guilfoyle for ambassador to Greece and Tom Barrack for ambassador to Turkey. INFOWARS SALE: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet late Tuesday, criticizing the bidding process as flawed. GROCERY MERGER: The proposed merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons floundered on Tuesday after judges overseeing two separate cases both halted the merger. The companies proposed in 2022 what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history, but the Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the deal. — Associated Press 17.29M Average viewers for the Dec. 5 football game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, which Detroit won 34-31. It was the most-streamed NFL regular-season game in history. This looks like every other set of dietary guidelines since 1980: eat your veggies and reduce consumption of foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat.” — Marion Nestle, a food policy expert, after the 2025 federal dietary guidelines were released Tuesday. GOLDEN GLOBES: Nominations for the 82nd Golden Globes were announced Monday, and Jacques Audiard’s audacious musical “Emilia Pérez” led with 10 nods, more than other contenders like the musical smash “Wicked” and the papal thriller “Conclave.” The awards show will be televised by CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Jan. 5. MERRIAM-WEBSTER: Merriam-Webster announced Monday that its word of the year is “polarization.” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, said the choice reflected the nation’s political climate. “Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center,” he said. CONTRACT RECORD: Star outfielder Juan Soto and the New York Mets agreed last Sunday to a record $765 million, 15-year contract, a deal that could escalate to $805 million and is believed to be the largest contract in team sports history. Soto’s deal, which equals $314,815 per game, is the largest and longest in Major League Baseball history. GEORGE J. KRESGE JR. (1935-2024): George Joseph Kresge Jr., who was known to generations of TV watchers as the mesmerizing entertainer and mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, died Tuesday at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey, according to his former road manager Ryan Galway. He was 89. SUSPECT ARRESTED IN DEATH OF UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO Get local news delivered to your inbox!Okay, we’re doing this. Today we’re launching a subscription that lets you get rid of a bunch of ads, gets you unlimited access to our top-notch reporting and analysis across the site and our killer premium newsletters, and generally lets you support independent tech journalism in a world of sponsored influencer content. It’ll cost $7 / month or $50 / year — and for a limited time, if you sign up for the annual plan, we’ll send you an absolutely stunning print edition of our CONTENT GOBLINS series, with very fun new photography and design. (Our art team is delightfully good at print; we’ve even won a major magazine award for it.) A surprising number of you have asked us to launch something like this, and we’re happy to deliver. If you don’t want to pay, rest assured that big chunks of will remain free — we’re thinking about subscriptions a lot differently than everyone else. Let me explain. 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We know so many of you depend on us to curate the news every day, and we’re going to stay focused on making a great homepage that’s worth checking out regularly, whether you pay us or not. Our original reporting, reviews, and features will be behind a dynamic metered paywall — many of you will never hit the paywall, but if you read us a lot, we’ll ask you to pay. Subscribers will also get full access to both and , our two premium newsletters from Alex Heath and Tom Warren, which are packed full of scoops every week. I’m also delighted to say that subscribing to delivers a vastly improved ad experience — we’ll get rid of all the chumboxes and third-party programmatic ads, cut down the overall number of ad units, and only fill what’s left with high-quality ads directly sold by Vox Media. It will make the site faster, lighter, and more beautiful — more like the site we envisioned from the start, and something so many of you have asked us to deliver. Subscribers will also get access to full-text RSS feeds and early access to some big ideas about the future of media. Our vision has always been to build like a software product, and we have a big roadmap of features to come, like a true dark mode toggle, the ability to personalize the homepage feed, and a lot of wacky ideas about what it might mean to follow authors, topics, and streams across the site and — eventually — decentralized social platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. We have big plans here, and we’re excited to test them out with all of you. is 13 years old now, which feels remarkable to say — we’ve outlasted a lot of our peers, and we’ve mostly done it because we’re stubborn as hell. We’ve never chased metrics, we’ve never taken money to say what other people want us to say, and we’ve never shied away from caring deeply about technology and how it makes people feel. Launching a subscription is a big change, but it’s the foundation of how we’ll stubbornly make it another 13 years. I hope you can help support us — and if you can’t, we’ll do our best to earn your support in the future. Get unlimited access to , read our subscriber-only newsletters, and cut down on the ads.NEW YORK (AP) — If anybody knows Deion Sanders' mind, it might be Travis Hunter. And the two-way Colorado star says Coach Prime is indeed staying put with the Buffaloes. “I got a lot of insight. He ain’t going nowhere. He’s going to be right where he's at right now,” Hunter said Friday in Manhattan, where he's a heavy favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night. In his second season at the school, Sanders coached No. 20 Colorado to a 9-3 record this year and its first bowl bid since 2020. Hunter, Sanders and the Buffaloes will face No. 17 BYU (10-2) in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28. Sanders' success and popularity in Boulder has led to speculation the flashy and outspoken former NFL star might seek or accept a coaching job elsewhere this offseason. Sanders, however, has dismissed such talk himself. Hunter followed Sanders from Jackson State, an HBCU that plays in the lower level FCS, to the Rocky Mountains and has already racked up a staggering string of individual accolades this week, including The Associated Press player of the year. The junior wide receiver and cornerback plans to enter the 2025 NFL draft and is expected to be a top-five pick — perhaps even No. 1 overall. But he backed up assertions from Sanders and his son, star Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, that both will play in the Alamo Bowl rather than skip the game to prepare for the draft and prevent any possible injury. “It's definitely important because, you know, I started this thing with Coach Prime and Shedeur and most of the coaches on the coaching staff, so I want to finish it off right,” Hunter said. "I didn't give them a full season my first year (because of injury), so I'm going to go ahead and end this thing off right. It's going to be our last game together, so I'm going to go out there and dominate and show the loyalty that I have for him. “Definitely looking forward to it. I'm just excited to go out there and play football one more time before the offseason.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Swift's daily impact on Vancouver may have exceeded 2010 games, says industry figure
Opposition fighters are closing in on Syria’s capital in a that has taken much of the world by surprise. Syria’s army has abandoned key cities with little resistance. Nervous residents in Damascus describe security forces on the streets. The state news agency has been forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad has left the country. Who are these ? If they enter Damascus after taking some of , what then? Here’s a look at the stunning reversal of fortune for Assad and his government in just the past 10 days, and what might lie ahead as Syria’s 13-year . This is the first time that opposition forces have reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital since 2018, when the country’s troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The approaching fighters are led by the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, , or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Both have been entrenched in the northwest. They launched the shock offensive on Nov. 27 with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest. The HTS has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. But the group said in recent years it cut ties with al-Qaida, and HTS has sought to remake itself in recent years by focusing on promoting civilian government in their territory as well as military action. HTS leader Abu told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government. The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge. The Turkish-backed militias also have an interest in creating a buffer zone near the Turkish border to keep away Kurdish militants at odds with Ankara. has been a main backer of the fighters seeking to overthrow Assad but more recently has urged reconciliation, and Turkish officials have strongly rejected claims of any involvement in the current offensive. Whether the HTS and the Syrian National Army will work together if they succeed in overthrowing Assad or turn on each other again is a major question. While the flash offensive against Syria’s government began in the north, armed opposition groups have also mobilized elsewhere. The southern areas of Sweida and Daraa have both been taken locally. Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze religious minority and had been the site of regular anti-government protests even after Assad seemingly consolidated his control over the area. Daraa is a Sunni Muslim area that was widely seen as the cradle of the uprising against Assad’s rule that erupted in 2011. Daraa was recaptured by Syrian government troops in 2018, but rebels remained in some areas. In recent years, Daraa was in a state of uneasy quiet under a Russian-mediated ceasefire deal. And much of Syria’s east is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group backed by the United States that in the past has clashed with most other armed groups in the country. Syria’s government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus. Much depends on Assad’s next moves and his forces’ will to fight the rebels. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. And Syrian troops withdrew Saturday from much of the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, according to a pro-government outlet and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. If that city is captured, the link would be cut between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where he enjoys wide support. “Homs to the coastal cities will be a very huge red line politically and socially. Politically, if this line is crossed, then we are talking about the end of the entire Syria, the one that we knew in the past,” said a Damascus resident, Anas Joudeh. Assad appears to be as allies Russia and Iran are distracted by other conflicts and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has been weakened by its war with Israel, now under a fragile ceasefire. Related Articles The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, seeks urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition,” saying the situation is changing by the minute. He met with foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran on the sidelines of the Doha Summit. President-elect Donald Trump in his on the developments in Syria said the besieged Assad didn’t deserve U.S. support to stay in power. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump posted on social media. ___ Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.While President-elect Donald Trump is working overtime assembling his White House Cabinet, Democrats in some circles are still concocting ways to elevate Kamala Harris. They need to follow the advice of ice queen Elsa from the movie “Frozen.” Let it go. One nutty idea has President Joe Biden resigning from office and allowing Harris to take over and become the 47th president before Trump steps up in January and lays claim to the number. “He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris the president of the United States,” Jamal Simmons, Harris’ former communications director, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” If the goal is to disrupt some of Trump’s merchandising, it’s a great idea. All the red MAGA hats and T-shirts that say “47” would have to be changed to “48.” But if the goal is to move the needle forward for a party that lost the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, it has that closing-the-barn-door-after-the-horses-get-out feel to it. The time for Biden to have resigned was over the summer, when the momentum of history and incumbency could have done Harris some good. All it would be now is a quirky consolation prize, which is the last thing America and Black women need. Nearly as short-sighted is a long-shot plan to put Harris on the U.S. Supreme Court before Biden’s term expires. The problem with this plan is that there is no vacancy. To create one, proponents suggest convincing Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, to step down because she has some health problems. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, died in the final months of Trump’s presidency, allowing him to nominate Amy Coney Barrett and moving the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority that in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling. In just four years, Trump was able to put three justices on the court. Biden has nominated only one person to the court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the nation’s female first Black Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor, the senior member of the court’s liberal minority, has given no indication that she would go along with the plan, one that would do nothing to change the court’s balance of power. Biden, who showed his own reluctance to step aside, doesn’t appear likely to ask Sotomayor to give up her lifetime appointment. “When it comes to those types of decisions, those are personal decisions, regardless of if it’s Justice Sotomayor or any other justice on the bench,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in March, when the idea of targeting Sotomayor’s seat was first floated. This is backward thinking. If the Democrats, Biden included, were so determined to keep Trump from having another opportunity to put someone on the court, they should have come up with a better strategy — and message — to keep him out of the White House again. But the damage has been done, and no amount of resignation roulette is going to fix it. These aren’t real ideas. They’re internet memes. They’re intricate plots for streaming political dramas on Hulu or Netflix. They are page-turning fiction novels. They’re candy. Meanwhile, Trump is appointing his Cabinet. Next on his list of nominees is the My Pillow guy. What the Democrats have needed to do, from the moment the electoral votes were counted, was start looking and planning ahead. No more wound licking. No more finger pointing. No more kooky ideas. Harris fought a great fight. But she lost. It’s over. It’s time to let it go.
A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.UPDATE 3:24 PM PT -- TMZ Sports has obtained more footage from the incident ... which shows the two ladies chatting with cops as they were escorted off the field. It's rather funny -- one of the women begs an officer to not "hate" her -- but based on his reaction, that probably wasn't the case. The cop was a good sport over it all, saying they weren't going to get in too much trouble ... and admitted the crowd probably "appreciated" the whole ordeal. As for whether the stunt made it to the Prime Video broadcast ... they got the bad news that the league makes an effort to keep acts like thee off the air. Two models made the 49ers vs. Rams game a bit more memorable -- hopping a fence and running around on the field in some skimpy Santa-ish outfits, and naturally, the stunt got 'em on the "naughty" list ... with cops. The ladies -- Toochi Kash and Amberghini -- had lower-level seats Thursday night for the NFC West showdown ... but at one point in the action, they took matters into their own hands to get a field-level view. The models -- who have social media followings in the millions -- rocked festive one-piece ensembles, white snow boots and Santa hats ... with the word "$treak" written on the back. We're told the stunt was meant to make some noise for a meme coin that recently launched ... but stadium staffers on site were a bunch of Grinches. Amber tried to dash onto the field first after jumping over the railing, but Levi's Stadium security chased her down right before she reached the playing field. Toochi was caught rather quickly and held up a sign while security restrained her ... but she remained jolly like St. Nick himself through it all. We reached out to law enforcement to get more details on the legal trouble they'll be in -- as far as the North Pole goes, though, they can expect coal under their trees this year.
Their subsequent free fall has been even more jarring. The Cardinals could have moved into a tie for first place in the NFC West with a home win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Instead, they were thoroughly outplayed in a 30-18 loss and are now tied for last in the tightly packed division. Arizona has lost three straight and will face an uphill battle to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Seahawks (8-5) are in first place, followed by the Rams (7-6), Cardinals (6-7) and 49ers (6-7). Even more daunting for their playoff hopes, the Cardinals lost both of their games against the Seahawks this season, meaning a tiebreaker would go to Seattle. Four games remain. “I just told them we put ourselves in a little bit of a hole now, but all you can do is attack tomorrow, learn tomorrow and have a good week of practice,” second-year coach Jonathan Gannon said. There are plenty of reasons the Cardinals lost to the Seahawks, including Kyler Murray's two interceptions, a handful of holding penalties, a porous run defense and a brutal missed field goal. It all adds up to the fact Arizona is playing its worst football of the season at a time when it needed its best. “I’m sure we’ll stick to our process, but we have to tweak some things,” Gannon said. "I have to tweak some things.” It's probably faint praise, but the Cardinals did make the game interesting in the second half while trying to fight back from a 27-10 deficit. Murray's shovel pass to James Conner for a 2-yard touchdown and subsequent 2-point conversion cut the margin to 27-18. The Cardinals had a chance to make it a one-score contest early in the fourth quarter, but Chad Ryland's 40-yard field goal attempt bounced off the left upright. “I thought we spotted them a lot of points there, but then we battled back,” Gannon said. “I appreciate their effort. That was good. We battled back there, had a couple chances to even cut the lead a little more, but ultimately didn’t get it done." Murray's in a bit of a mini-slump after throwing two interceptions in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. He also didn't do much in the run game against the Seahawks, with 16 yards on three carries. The quarterback's decision-making was nearly flawless for much of the season and the Cardinals need that good judgment to return. “I’m not looking at it like I have to try to be Superman,” Murray said. “I don’t think that’s the answer. I just need to play within the offense like we’ve done for the majority of the season. Today, I didn’t. Like I said, throwing two picks puts yourself behind the eight ball.” Said Gannon: “I thought he stuck in there and made some big time throws, though, but he has to protect the ball a little bit better. That’s not just him, that’s all 11. So there’ll be a lot of corrections off those plays." The defense didn't have its best day, but it's not Budda Baker's fault. The two-time All-Pro safety is having another phenomenal season and was all over the field against the Seahawks, finishing with 18 tackles. Baker's energy is relentless and he's the unquestioned leader of a group that has been better than expected this season, even with Sunday's mediocre performance. Left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. had a tough day, getting flagged for holding three times, though one of those penalties was declined by the Seahawks. The second-year player moved from right tackle to the left side during the offseason and the transition has gone well, but Sunday was a step backward. The Cardinals remain fairly healthy. DL Roy Lopez (ankle) and P Blake Gillikin (ankle) left Sunday's game, but neither injury is expected to be long term. 9 — It looks as if the Cardinals will go a ninth straight season without winning the NFC West. The last time they won the division was 2015 with coach Bruce Arians and a core offense of quarterback Carson Palmer, running back David Johnson and receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The Cardinals are in must-win territory now for any chance at the playoffs. They'll host the New England Patriots on Sunday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
DETROIT – A woman was shot while she was driving a vehicle carrying two children in Detroit. Michigan State Police in Detroit responded to the scene on westbound I-94 near Mt. Elliott Street at 1:40 p.m. on Thursday after receiving a call that a female driver had been shot. It was reported that the women had been shot and that the vehicle had multiple bullet holes in it. There were also shell casings on the freeway, police said. The woman was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment. The two children in the car were not injured, police said, and were taken from the scene by family members. The freeway was closed for an investigation but has been reopened. Police are investigating the alleged shooting. “Currently, we don’t know why the driver was shot at and do not have any information on the suspect or suspect vehicle.” said F/Lt Mike Shaw. “While detectives are using all the technology available to investigate this shooting.” Anyone with information is asked to call either 855-MICH-TIP or Crime Stoppers at 800-SPEAK-UP.California to consider requiring mental health warnings on social media sites
The midseason four-game winning streak that lifted the Arizona Cardinals into the playoff picture seemed as though it happened fast. Their subsequent free fall has been even more jarring. The Cardinals could have moved into a tie for first place in the NFC West with a home win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Instead, they were thoroughly outplayed in a 30-18 loss and are now tied for last in the tightly packed division. Arizona has lost three straight and will face an uphill battle to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Seahawks (8-5) are in first place, followed by the Rams (7-6), Cardinals (6-7) and 49ers (6-7). Even more daunting for their playoff hopes, the Cardinals lost both of their games against the Seahawks this season, meaning a tiebreaker would go to Seattle. Four games remain. “I just told them we put ourselves in a little bit of a hole now, but all you can do is attack tomorrow, learn tomorrow and have a good week of practice,” second-year coach Jonathan Gannon said. There are plenty of reasons the Cardinals lost to the Seahawks, including Kyler Murray's two interceptions, a handful of holding penalties, a porous run defense and a brutal missed field goal. It all adds up to the fact Arizona is playing its worst football of the season at a time when it needed its best. “I’m sure we’ll stick to our process, but we have to tweak some things,” Gannon said. "I have to tweak some things.” What’s working It's probably faint praise, but the Cardinals did make the game interesting in the second half while trying to fight back from a 27-10 deficit. Murray's shovel pass to James Conner for a 2-yard touchdown and subsequent 2-point conversion cut the margin to 27-18. The Cardinals had a chance to make it a one-score contest early in the fourth quarter, but Chad Ryland's 40-yard field goal attempt bounced off the left upright. “I thought we spotted them a lot of points there, but then we battled back,” Gannon said. “I appreciate their effort. That was good. We battled back there, had a couple chances to even cut the lead a little more, but ultimately didn’t get it done." What needs help Murray's in a bit of a mini-slump after throwing two interceptions in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. He also didn't do much in the run game against the Seahawks, with 16 yards on three carries. The quarterback's decision-making was nearly flawless for much of the season and the Cardinals need that good judgment to return. “I’m not looking at it like I have to try to be Superman,” Murray said. “I don’t think that’s the answer. I just need to play within the offense like we’ve done for the majority of the season. Today, I didn’t. Like I said, throwing two picks puts yourself behind the eight ball.” Said Gannon: “I thought he stuck in there and made some big time throws, though, but he has to protect the ball a little bit better. That’s not just him, that’s all 11. So there’ll be a lot of corrections off those plays." Stock up The defense didn't have its best day, but it's not Budda Baker's fault. The two-time All-Pro safety is having another phenomenal season and was all over the field against the Seahawks, finishing with 18 tackles. Baker's energy is relentless and he's the unquestioned leader of a group that has been better than expected this season, even with Sunday's mediocre performance. Stock down Left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. had a tough day, getting flagged for holding three times, though one of those penalties was declined by the Seahawks. The second-year player moved from right tackle to the left side during the offseason and the transition has gone well, but Sunday was a step backward. Injuries The Cardinals remain fairly healthy. DL Roy Lopez (ankle) and P Blake Gillikin (ankle) left Sunday's game, but neither injury is expected to be long term. Key number 9 — It looks as if the Cardinals will go a ninth straight season without winning the NFC West. The last time they won the division was 2015 with coach Bruce Arians and a core offense of quarterback Carson Palmer, running back David Johnson and receiver Larry Fitzgerald. What’s next The Cardinals are in must-win territory now for any chance at the playoffs. They'll host the New England Patriots on Sunday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
HAMISH MCRAE: There's method in the Bitcoin madness By HAMISH MCRAE Updated: 21:53 GMT, 7 December 2024 e-mail View comments It is madness that bitcoin should break through the $100,000 barrier, as it did briefly on Thursday. But as Polonius observes in Hamlet: 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.' The madness is easy to chart. This is an asset that is intrinsically worthless. It's just a line of computer code that generates no income and is backed by nothing. It is hard to identify any real investment that results from it: no houses are built, no companies launched, no medicines discovered. But it has extrinsic value in that people are prepared to buy, trade, and hold it. A year ago they put the value at $44,000. Two years ago it was $17,000. Go back another year to 2021 and it was $50,000. Five years ago it was $7,500. So it's all over the place. You can have a debate about why people should want to hold it, but it gets nowhere. Why should an anonymous buyer pay $142 million for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Coupe, as someone did two years ago? That was the highest price ever paid for a classic car. Or $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall at an auction in New York last month? Bitcoin is like every other asset. It is worth what a purchaser will pay for it at a particular moment of time. It's as simple as that. Warning: The Bitcoin boom does carries a message that this is a time for caution The 'method' – what this surge in the price of Bitcoin tells us about global markets – is more complicated. The recent surge has been fuelled by hopes that the Trump administration will lead to a friendly regulatory system for crypto-currencies, for the price has shot up by nearly 50 per cent since the election. This is likely to broaden the range of holders. But behind the surge is strong performance of financial assets more generally. To pick just a few, US equities are close to all-time peaks, the German DAX index is there too, and here in the UK the Halifax house price index shows prices are up 4.9 per cent on the year and are reaching a new record. There are laggards, of course, and the poor old FTSE100 index is one of them. But it is up 8 per cent this year, so even unloved investment sectors have been pulled up by their more fashionable cousins. There are lots of reasons why asset prices should be so strong. We had a decade of central banks printing industrial quantities of money under their quantitative easing programmes. That had to go somewhere. With generative artificial intelligence, we have a technological revolution that looks like bringing huge improvements to the efficiency of service industries and the quality of their output. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Bitcoin tipped to rocket to $120,000 early next year after... Bitcoin tops $100,000 for the first time as Trump fuels... Share this article Share HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP How to choose the best (and cheapest) stocks and shares Isa and the right DIY investing account There are likely to be even more expansionary economic policies in the US, and there is the prospect of further cuts in interest rates next year if inflation keeps falling. The global policy-makers, notably in the US, have created a financial boom. There is, however, a fine line between a boom and a bubble. So where are we now? It is hard to feel comfortable about what has happened to the price of bitcoin. If the most speculative assets are soaring, that shouts bubble. And even the most doughty supporters of cryptocurrencies would have to acknowledge they are towards the speculative scale. US equities are towards the top end of their historical values. But they are not yet at extreme levels, so that says boom rather than bubble. We know, too, that booms generally carry on much longer than people expect, then end more suddenly. My guess is there will be some big event that will signal the bull market for assets has gone over the top. We haven't had that yet. Bitcoin topping $100,000 is a warning that markets have become frothy, but cryptocurrencies are not important enough to rock the global boat. We could have a crypto-crash without a wider collapse in mainstream assets, notably equities. Indeed there may be no sudden collapse in global share prices – just a topping out and gradual drift downwards before eventual recovery. We cannot realistically follow Polonius's advice: 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be.' But the Bitcoin boom does carries a message that this is a time for caution. 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