Steelers believe they're Super Bowl contenders. The next 3 weeks will see if they're rightAstro Adventure' programme to unveil wonders of space
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Preseason's over. Now the real work begins for the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the past three months have been promising and productive for the first-place Steelers (10-3), it has come largely at the expense of teams who will likely watch the playoffs on TV. Six of Pittsburgh's victories have come against teams who currently have losing records. The other four wins — Denver , the Chargers , Washington and Baltimore — are solid resume-builders with a small caveat: none of them lead their respective divisions. To be clear, Pittsburgh's play is part of the reason those four clubs find themselves looking up to others in the standings. That will change on Sunday when the Steelers travel across the state to face NFC juggernaut Philadelphia , the start of an 11-day sprint in which Pittsburgh also faces a rematch with the Ravens and spends Christmas Day at Acrisure Stadium against Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs . "It’s just going to show us how good we can be," safety DeShon Elliott said. It's a testament to the weekly tunnel vision Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin creates that wide receiver Calvin Austin III needed to be reminded about the daunting stretch that awaits after Sunday's relatively drama-free 27-14 win over Cleveland. “Who do we play again?" Austin said. When reminded it was three teams that fully expect to be in New Orleans on the second Sunday in February, Austin laughed. “That's a tough little stretch, but at the end of the day it's a five-star matchup as Coach T says because we're in it,” he said. “We know that when we’re out there, it’s going to always be a big-time performance.” One Austin and his teammates believe they're ready for after a workmanlike victory over the Browns in which the Steelers were only too intent to let Cleveland self-destruct behind a flurry of penalties, missed field goals and turnovers. More will likely be required in the coming weeks, which is fine by the Steelers. They have put themselves in a position to do things the franchise hasn't done in a while. And for all the good things they've done since early September, they're only too aware their season will be defined by what comes next. Sure, they'd love a little more time between games to rest up. The scheduling gods didn't give them that option. So be it. “I feel like the league kind of hates us already, man,” Elliott said. “It’s all right. We’re going to go out here, play those games, work our butts off, go out and be 3-0.” What's working Letting everybody eat. Russell Wilson seems to be almost pathological in his determination to get every eligible skill position player involved. A week ago against the Bengals , he connected with 10 different players. In the rematch with the Browns, it was eight, including Mike Williams and Scotty Miller, veterans who have largely been afterthoughts of late. Tomlin greeted Miller after an acrobatic 20-yard third down grab on the sideline in the third quarter with “this isn't a lightning strike,” a popular Tomlin-ism that means simply Miller did all the work necessary to succeed, so it shouldn't be a surprise when it comes. Asked if he felt compelled to mention this to Tomlin the next time Miller is a candidate to be inactive on game days — as he has often been in recent weeks — Miller smiled. “If you could tell him that, that'd be great,” he said with a laugh. What needs help George Pickens' maturity. While Pickens believes opponents haven't found a way to get under his skin, the evidence suggests otherwise. How else to explain why nearly three years into his career, Pickens still frequently finds an envelope in his locker from the league telling him he's been fined for everything from unsportsmanlike conduct to unnecessary roughness? Pickens' teammates respect his talent and understand his importance — look at how disjointed the offense looked on Sunday for proof — but will he “cut out the stupid stuff” before the playoffs arrive? That will be entirely up to Pickens. Nothing seems to have gotten through so far. Maybe watching the team win without him while nursing a hamstring injury — as Pickens did on Sunday — will do the trick. Stock up The Steelers may have found their heir apparent to the seemingly ageless Cam Heyward in second-year defensive tackle Keeanu Benton. While Benton will likely never come close to matching Heyward's impact as a pass rusher, he can do just about everything else and his first career interception on Sunday — a leaping pick of an ill-advised screen pass by Jameis Winston — showcased his spiking football IQ. Stock down Everyone who put money down during the offseason on the Steelers missing the playoffs . It looked like a good investment over the summer with two new quarterbacks, a new offensive coordinator, no second big-play wide receiver to complement Pickens and playing in what was viewed as the best division in the league. Not so much anymore. Pittsburgh has a 99% chance of reaching the postseason for the fourth time in five years. Injuries Defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi — selected as the team's Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee last week — left in the second quarter with a groin injury. Defensive tackle Montravius Adams (knee) is trending toward playing for the first time since October and could be available in Philadelphia. Key number Plus-28 — the Steelers' turnover margin since the start of the 2023 season, tops in the NFL. Next steps Try to do something they haven't done in nearly 60 years: beat the Eagles on the road. Pittsburgh's most recent victory in Philadelphia was on Oct. 24, 1965. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
The military’s on his gravity-defying sweep across the globe will carry on this Christmas Eve, , officials said Friday. Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. . “We fully expect for Santa to take flight on Dec. 24 and NORAD will track him,” the U.S.-Canadian agency said in a statement. On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens , such as last year’s . But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?” The endeavor is supported by local and corporate sponsors, who also help shield the tradition from Washington dysfunction. Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer, told The Associated Press that there are “screams and giggles and laughter” when families call in, usually on speakerphone. Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.” NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since , predating and . Here’s how it began and why the phones keep ringing. The origin story is Hollywood-esque It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number. A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war. Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list. “He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999. Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?” Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said. In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80-foot (18-by-24-meter) plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole. The tradition was born. “Note to the kiddies,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.” In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from “those who do not believe in Christmas.” Is the origin story humbug? Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup’s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy’s call. In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo from Dec. 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number. “When a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should — considering the season: ‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,'” Shoup said in the brief piece. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations. Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955. A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “You leave it right there,” and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost morale for the troops and public alike. “Why, it made the military look good — like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said. Shoup died in 2009. His children that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls. “And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People saying ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.’” A rare addition to Santa’s story NORAD’s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010. Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and views it through a technological lens. In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada — known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa. He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night. “That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every single day start to kick in,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.” NORAD has an app and website, , that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, mountain standard time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time. Ben Finley, The Associated Press
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Rwanda's Marburg Virus Outbreak Declared OverWith Donald Trump winning back the White House, his Big Lie that Jan. 6 was just an enthusiastic rally that got out of hand, rather than an insurrectionist mob he unleashed to disrupt the count of the 2020 electoral college, has new currency. A new congressional Republican report, spearheaded by MAGA lapdog Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) has recommended a criminal probe of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for co-chairing the House Jan. 6 investigation. Loudermilk’s report reached a through-the-looking-glass conclusion that Cheney & co. had promoted “a false, pre-determined narrative that President Trump was personally responsible for the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and should therefore be held accountable.” Trump is returning to the Oval Office with an explicit agenda to rewrite history — and upend convictions. He has vowed to issue “Day One” pardons to Jan. 6 criminals and defendants, whom he has called “great patriots,” “hostages,” and “warriors.” During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump referred to Jan. 6 itself as “a day of love.” And when he recently summoned tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to Mar-a-Lago, Trump reportedly prompted his guests to rise and place their hands over their hearts, while listening to a rendition of the national anthem sung by jailed Jan. 6 defendants. It is not precisely clear whom Trump wants to pardon . But the list of Jan. 6 convicts includes many serving long sentences for serious felonies — ranging from injuring police officers to sedition. In mid-December, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has handled many Jan. 6 criminal cases, spoke out from the bench. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said the idea that Trump could pardon the former head of the Oath Keepers militia haunts him: “The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved is frightening — and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy,” Mehta said , per a courtroom report in Politico . In 2023, Mehta handed down an 18-year sentence to Rhodes for “seditious conspiracy.” (The prison term included a terrorism enhancement.) Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Asked by Rolling Stone if Trump planned to pardon Rhodes — or others imprisoned on seditious conspiracy charges, like Enrique Tarrio, the ex-honcho of the Proud Boys — the presidential transition team didn’t rule it out. “President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis for those who were denied due process and unfairly targeted by the justice system,” says Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. In the buildup to Jan. 6 and in its aftermath, Rhodes spearheaded militia activity that that saw Oath Keepers lieutenants stockpile weapons across the border in Virginia, creating “Quick Reaction Forces” or QFCs, that could be activated in the hoped-for scenario that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and summon militia groups to battle his enemies to help him cling to power. Rhodes was outside the Capitol during the rioting, but communicated with members in the building. When Rhodes received a report that members of Congress were in danger and looking to flee, he replied, per court documents, “ Fuck ‘em. ” At sentencing, Rhodes compared himself to the Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Mehta told Rhodes to his face that he was no “political prisoner” — but rather an “ongoing threat and peril to this country.” Rhodes and the Oath Keepers were tangentially linked to MAGA world — with Oath Keepers providing security for VIPs at “Stop the Steal” rallies. (The licit reason for militia members being on the ground on Jan. 6 was to beef up security at the Trump rally at the Ellipse.) Trumpworld had a tighter relationship with the Proud Boys. The fighting club’s honcho Enrique Tarrio had been the Florida director for the grassroots group, Latinos for Trump. He was also an associate of Trump ally Roger Stone — and got his picture taken with MAGA luminaries including Donald Trump Jr., Sens. Ted Cruz and Rick Scott, and former Trump aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who’s now the governor of Arkansas. Trump infamously called on the fight club to “Stand back and stand by” during a September 2020 debate with Joe Biden, rather than denounce them. Related Content Trump Ally Laura Loomer Says Elon Musk Is ‘Silencing’ Her Amid Immigration Spat Supreme Court Poised to Gut Bedrock Environmental Law in Oil-Train Case Musk, Ramaswamy Face MAGA Uproar After Saying Tech Firms Need Foreign Workers Trump ‘Border Czar’ Plans to Separate Families or Let Them Leave Together Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison in September 2023 — like Rhodes, on seditious conspiracy charges. Tarrio was not in Washington, D.C., for the violence of Jan. 6; he had a court order to stay out of town stemming from a previous arrest in the district. But Tarrio directed an elite Proud Boys faction called the “Ministry of Self Defense,” which “participated in every consequential breach” on Jan. 6, per court documents, including a Proud Boy deputy who smashed out the first window at the Capitol, providing a point of entry for rioters. During the violence, Tarrio posted on social media, “Don’t fucking leave.” After the violence died down, he crowed: “Make no mistake... we did this.” Trump’s first pick for attorney general, the disgraced ex-congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), had called Tarrio’s sentence “ Orwellian .” Trump’s current choice, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, is more of a cipher on Jan. 6 sentences. However, Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel has written that the notion that that Jan. 6 was an insurrection is “gaslighting at its finest” — insisting: “It was NOT a coup. It was NOT an assault by domestic terrorists on our democracy.” Rhodes and Tarrio are not alone in being convicted for seditious conspiracy over Jan. 6. Their co-conspirators include many other Proud Boys and Oath Keepers deputies. Trump’s own messaging on who in the Jan. 6 crowd merits his compassion has — in typical form — been all over the place. “If somebody was evil and bad, I would look at that differently,” he said in an April Time interview. But in comments at a 2023 CNN town hall, Trump said he would “look at” the sedition convictions for Proud Boys, in particular, signaling he was open to the idea they deserved clemency: “I will say in Washington, D.C., you cannot get a fair trial. You cannot.” At a recent press conference, Trump was, once again, non-committal on the scope of his Jan. 6 pardons, but vowed that he’d move quickly once in office. 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By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill on Wednesday, governing a record $895 billion in annual military spending, despite inclusion of a controversial policy targeting gender-affirming care for transgender children. The tally was 281-140 in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, sending it for consideration by the Democratic-led U.S. Senate. In addition to the typical NDAA provisions on purchases of military equipment and boosting competitiveness with archrivals like China and Russia, this year's 1,800-page bill focuses on improving the quality of life for the U.S. military. It authorizes a 14.5% pay increase for the lowest-ranking troops, and 4.5% for the rest of the force, which is higher than usual. It also authorizes the construction of military housing, schools and childcare centers. The bill bans the military health program, TRICARE, from covering gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members if it could risk sterilization. Including the provision in the bill, which sets policy for the Department of Defense, underscored how much attention transgender issues have gotten in U.S. politics and indicated Republicans plan to continue to highlight the politically polarizing topic. President-elect Donald Trump and many other Republicans blasted Democrats for supporting transgender rights during the 2024 election campaign, which ended with Republicans keeping control of the House and taking control of the Senate and White House starting next month. 'WOKE IDEOLOGY' After it passed, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the measure as refocusing the military on its core mission. "Our men and women in uniform should know their first obligation is protecting our nation, not woke ideology," he said in a statement. The measure did not include some other Republican proposals on social issues, including an effort to prohibit TRICARE from covering gender-affirming care for transgender adults and a measure that would have reversed the Pentagon's policy of funding travel for abortion for troops stationed in states where the procedure is banned. The massive bill is one of the few major pieces of legislation that Congress passes every year and lawmakers take great pride in having passed it every year for more than six decades. The bill is a compromise between Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, reached during weeks of negotiations behind closed doors. House passage sends the measure to the Democratic-led Senate. Passage there would send it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law or veto. The NDAA authorizes Pentagon programs, but does not fund them. Congress must separately pass funding in a spending bill for the fiscal year ending in September 2025. That bill is unlikely to be enacted before March. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and David Gregorio)
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