Examined: How, When & Why Aircraft Have Their Engines ReplacedThe Israel-Gaza war is arguably the most crowdsourced conflict in human history. Its atrocities are being broadcast globally in real time, while social media has enabled anyone with internet access to voice their opinion – often distilled into hashtag-able slogans and merch-friendly symbols.
On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. For more On Football analysis, head here . Saquon Barkley has become the Shohei Ohtani of the NFL. There’s no better home run hitter playing football right now. Barkley had touchdown runs of 72 and 70 yards for the Philadelphia Eagles in a 37-20 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. He now has five runs of 50-plus yards this season and is on pace to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 yards set in 1984. Barkley’s historic performance against the Rams — his 255 yards set a team record — captivated a national audience and turned him into a fan favorite for the AP NFL MVP award. He’s not the betting favorite, however. Josh Allen has the best odds at plus-150, according to Bet MGM Sportsbook. Two-time MVP Lamar Jackson is next at plus-250 followed by Barkley at plus-400. Running backs have won the award 18 times, including three-time winner Jim Brown, who was the AP’s first NFL MVP in 1957. Quarterbacks have dominated the award, winning it 45 times. Only three players who weren’t QBs or RBs have been MVP. It takes a special season for a non-QB to win it mainly because the offense goes through the signal caller. Quarterbacks handle the ball every offensive snap, run the show and get the credit when things go well and the blame when it doesn’t. Adrian Peterson was the most recent non-QB to win it when he ran for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns for the Minnesota Vikings in 2012. Playing for a winning team matters, too. Nine of the past 11 winners played for a No. 1 seed with the other two winners on a No. 2 seed. The Vikings earned the sixth seed when Pederson was MVP. Barkley is a major reason why the Eagles (9-2) are leading the NFC East and only trail Detroit (10-1) by one game for the top spot in the conference. Does he have a realistic chance to win the MVP award? Kicker Mark Moseley was the MVP in the strike-shortened 1982 season when he made 20 of 21 field goals and 16 of 19 extra points in nine games for Washington. If voters once selected a kicker, everyone has a chance, especially a game-changer such as Barkley. Defensive tackle Alan Page was the MVP in 1971 and linebacker Lawrence Taylor won it in 1986. Running back Christian McCaffrey finished third in voting last year and wide receiver Justin Jefferson placed fifth in 2022. The Offensive Player of the Year award and Defensive Player of the Year award recognize the best all-around players on both sides of the ball, allowing voters to recognize non-QBs if they choose. Wide receivers and running backs have won the AP OPOY award seven times over the past 11 seasons. McCaffrey was the 2023 winner. The AP’s new voting format introduced in 2022 also gives non-QBs a better opportunity to get MVP recognition. Voter submit their top five picks for each award, with a weighted point system. Previously, voters made one choice for each award. A nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league vote for MVP and seven other awards. The awards are based on regular-season performance. The Chiefs (10-1) and Bills (9-2) already are in position to lock up postseason berths right after Thanksgiving. Kansas City clinches a playoff berth with a win over Las Vegas on Black Friday and a loss by Miami on Thursday night, or a win plus a loss by Denver on Monday night. Buffalo can wrap up a fifth straight AFC East title with a victory over San Francisco on Sunday and a loss by the Dolphins. It’s not a given that the Dallas Cowboys will be looking for a new head coach after this season. Owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday on local radio that Mike McCarthy could end up getting a contract extension. “I don’t think that’s crazy at all. This is a Super Bowl-winning coach. Mike McCarthy has been there and done that. He has great ideas. We got a lot of football left,” Jones said. McCarthy led the Cowboys (4-7) to three straight 12-win seasons, but they went 1-3 in the playoffs and haven’t reached the NFC championship game since winning the Super Bowl 29 years ago. Injuries have contributed to the team’s struggles this season, but Dallas was just 3-5 before Dak Prescott was lost for the rest of the season. The Cowboys upset Washington last week and their next four games are against teams that currently have losing records. If they somehow end up 9-8 or even 8-9, Jones could make a case for keeping McCarthy. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
(The Center Square) – The U.S. House is set to vote on a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act which authorizes nearly $900 billion to support U.S. military service members, infrastructure, and defense capabilities during the 2025 fiscal year. The 1,813-page document released Saturday by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees outlines U.S. defense policy priorities and their costs for 2025. Most of the proposed funds, $849.9 billion out of the $895.2 billion topline, would go to programs within the Department of Defense. Though the result of a bipartisan compromise, some provisions remain a point of contention, including a Republican addition that would prohibit the military’s health program from covering any gender dysphoria treatments on minors that could "result in sterilization.” Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, D-Wash., has urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to “abandon” the provision and allow the House to bring forward a bill that “doesn’t attack the transgender community.” Johnson has argued that the current NDAA will “restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military.” If the legislation passes, junior enlisted service members would receive a historic 14.5% pay raise and all other service members a 4.5% basic pay raise. The NDAA plan would also address multiple quality of life issues for service members, highlighted in a September report from the Government Accountability Office that revealed unsanitary and rundown living conditions for military personnel. It authorizes $2.7 billion to improve housing conditions, build more housing, and increase oversight. It also increases healthcare access and childcare services for military members by cutting red tape and approving $176 million for the construction of new childcare centers and $110 million for the construction of new schools. “Funding our military is one of Congress' most important responsibilities,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority Chairman, Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on X. “Our brave men and women in uniform and their spouses allow us to enjoy the freedoms we have today. They deserve every benefit in this bill.” The legislation authorizes hundreds of billions in defense-related infrastructure and technology investments, including approximately $17.5 billion for military base or industrial construction projects; $33.5 billion to build seven battle force ships; and more than $161 billion for innovation and technology research and related programs. Nearly $16 billion would go to the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, funding new technologies like hypersonic weapons and AI to deter the Chinese Communist Party and mitigate espionage and cybersecurity risks. Anti-terrorism initiatives in the Middle East and overseas U.S. military construction projects countering North Korea and Russia would also receive funding, as well as a U.S.-Israel missile defense program and the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. “We remain determined to confront increasingly hostile threats from Communist China, Russia, and Iran, and this legislation provides our military with the tools they need to deter our enemies,” Johnson said in a statement. “The safety and security of the American people is top priority, and this bill ensures our military has the resources and capabilities needed to remain the most powerful force in the world.” U.S. border security receives a relatively small portion of funds from the NDAA, with $90 million authorized for the construction of a new command and control facility at the U.S.-Mexico border and a $10 million increase in funding for the DOD’s counternarcotics activities. The House Rules Committee is set to vote Monday afternoon on advancing the measure to the House floor, where it can pass with a majority vote. The Senate must vote on it by the end of the month for it to take effect.
B.C. RCMP detachments begin rollout of body worn cameras
Hyderabad: In a socially concerning incident, Shadnagar Congress MLA Veerlapally Shankaraiah has used filthy words to threaten the people from the ‘Velama’ community of dire consequences in a video which has gone viral on Friday, December 6. In response to the video, BRS MLC K Kavitha, whose family’s lineage is from the Velama community, has questioned whether Shankaraiah’s remarks were the Congress’ official stand on the community, and sought to know if chief minister A Revanth Reddy and TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud endorsed the MLA’s remarks against the community. In the video, Shankaraiah could be seen threatening the community members that if they (apparently directing his threats at BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao’s family) tried to conspire against the Congress government, he would break their backs. Using filthy language unbecoming of an elected people’s representative, he said that even without the knowledge of the chief minister, “strong leaders” like him will launch physical attacks against the Velamas. “As the Shadnagar MLA I’m telling you, I myself will resort to physical attacks against you Velamas,” he threatened. Shockingly, the remarks of the people’s representative came on the day of Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar’s death anniversary on Friday, December 6. Shankaraiah is a known close confidante of Revanth Reddy, who had contested from Shadnagar assembly constituency in 2018 on a BSP ticket, but had lost to Yalganamoni Anjaiah of BRS. He came third when the results were announced, securing 27,814 votes out of the 1,66,527 votes polled. In 2023 assembly elections, he won with a small margin of 7,128 votes against his nearest rival Anjaiah.BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s GOP-dominated legislature passed tax cuts on personal and corporate income on Friday in exchange for a statewide sales tax increase, giving Gov. Jeff Landry much of what he wanted after his original tax reform package faced mounting resistance from lawmakers and lobbyists. The final passage of the tax measures wrapped up a special legislative session launched Nov. 6 by the governor and his allies. They said their purpose was to make the state’s tax code more business friendly, create jobs and reverse trends of outward migration from the state. It was the third special legislative session called by Landry, a Republican, since he assumed office in January. Critics warned the tax reforms would primarily benefit corporate shareholders and wealthy taxpayers while the sales tax increase would exacerbate Louisiana’s regressive tax system where poorer households pay a higher percentage of their income on taxes. Landry called the tax reforms “historic” and said that they allowed all Louisianans to keep more money in their pockets and would spur business investment. “Today we have made generational change in this state,” Landry said. “We now stand at the threshold of a new era for Louisiana.” A flat 3% income tax Lawmakers approved a flat 3% individual income tax rate, leading to a $1.3 billion cut. Previously, the personal income tax rate had stood at 4.25% for people earning $50,000 or more. Louisiana Republicans said the measure advanced their goal of ultimately eliminating the income tax in the future. “Income tax is a mandate; you have to pay it. You get punished for making more money,” said Republican Rep. Julie Emerson, who spearheaded the legislation. She argued consumption-based taxes were fairer: “Sales tax is a choice,” Emerson said. Lawmakers also noted that other Southern states like Arkansas , Mississippi and North Carolina have recently reduced their income taxes. “We’re on the same trajectory as other states around us to be competitive,” Republican Sen. Franklin Foil said. As part of the legislative package, lawmakers doubled the standard deduction for seniors and nearly tripled the standard deduction for individuals, effectively eliminating income tax on the lowest income households. Lawmakers also redirected $280 million in vehicle sales tax funds from several major infrastructure projects for the next two years in order to help offset the income tax cut. Corporate tax cuts The state’s new corporate income tax rate will be a flat 5.5%, reducing the highest tier from 7.5%. Landry had wanted a 3.5% flat rate. Louisiana’s corporate income tax rate had been the highest in the South according to the Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank. Lawmakers repealed the 0.275% corporate franchise tax, a levy on businesses operating on the state worth more than $500 million in annual revenue that went to a state savings account. Republican lawmakers had decried the tax as an arbitrary penalty on business. Landry and other Republican lawmakers had touted these tax cuts as crucial to removing obstacles to attract job-generating companies to the state and to improve Louisiana’s place on Tax Foundation’s rankings for business climate. “Louisiana just became a much more attractive place to do business,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said. Sales tax hike With the personal income tax reductions reducing annual revenue by $1.3 billion, Landry’s original plan had called for applying sales taxes to dozens of services like car-washing, dog-grooming and lobbying. He also sought to eliminate large tax incentives for the restoration of historic buildings and the film industry. Those proposals were defeated — except for a new sales tax on digital goods and services — following stiff opposition from Republicans and special interest groups, leading to a bigger sales tax hike than Landry initially proposed. Lawmakers raised the state sales tax to 5%, equivalent to an increase of one cent on every dollar spent. In 2030, the state sales tax will be reduced to 4.75%. The state’s current sales tax stood at 4%, along with a temporary 0.45% sales tax that had been set to expire next year. Louisiana already had the highest combined state and average local sales tax in the country at 9.56%, according to the Tax Foundation. Louisiana has the 10th most regressive tax system in the country, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Jan Moller, executive director of the liberal think tank Invest in Louisiana, said the sales tax hike and other changes take the state “in the wrong direction.” “I think it will ensure that low- and moderate-income families continue to pay a higher effective tax rate in Louisiana than those at the very top,” he said. Republican leaders said they did not believe the increased sales tax would cancel out the benefits of the income tax cut for lower- and middle-income families. Sen. Minority Leader Gerald Boudreaux said the Democratic Caucus had supported the bills — only one Democratic Senator dissented — in order to have a seat at the table in shaping the process, such as pushing to preserve the film industry tax credit. “All of those changes represent what’s best for the state, and they’re now in a document — that was not previously there,” Boudreaux said on the Senate floor. House Democrats were more fractured than their Senate counterparts, but many still voted in support of the overall tax package. Constitutional changes The tax reform package included a significant rewrite to a notoriously convoluted section of the state’s constitution, Article 7. The amendment, which will go before voters on March 29, removes large amounts of tax exemptions from constitutional protection and intends to give lawmakers more latitude to end these exemptions in the future. The constitutional amendment also enables a permanent $2,000 raise for teachers, made possible by liquidating several education trust funds to pay off early nearly $2 billion in school district debt. And it inserts a “growth limit” on the amount of money lawmakers can direct to recurring expenses each year based on calculations of economic growth in the state — a measure proposed by conservative lawmakers. ___ Associated Press writer Kevin McGill contributed to this report. ___ Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96The Latest: Police believe gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City