SEC THIS WEEK
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons are back in first place in the NFC South and again in control of their playoff hopes. Rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. showed the poise in his first NFL start the Falcons will need to take advantage of their opportunity to end a six-year playoff drought. Powered by a big-play defense that produced two pick-6s, a solid starting debut by Penix and two rushing touchdowns by Bijan Robinson, the Falcons cruised past the hapless New York Giants 34-7 on Sunday. On Sunday night, the Falcons (8-7) received the assist they needed when Tampa Bay lost at Dallas . Because the Falcons swept the Buccaneers, they hold the tiebreaker advantage if they remain tied atop the division. The Falcons have games remaining at Washington on Sunday night and at home against Carolina to close the regular season. If Atlanta wins both games, it would win the division and have a home playoff game. The Falcons are assured of their best record since a 10-6 finish under coach Dan Quinn in 2017, their most recent playoff season. Quinn is in his first season as Washington's coach and has led the Commanders (10-5) to three straight wins, including Sunday's 36-33 victory over Philadelphia. Penix, the No. 8 overall pick in this year's NFL draft, was promoted after coach Raheem Morris benched Kirk Cousins. Penix completed 18 of 27 passes for 202 yards with one interception on a pass that should have been caught by tight end Kyle Pitts. Penix is not a dual-threat quarterback, but he showed the ability to escape pressure in the pocket that Cousins lacks following his 2023 Achilles tendon injury. The left-hander's superior arm strength also was immediately obvious. What’s working Robinson's production provided a safety net for the offense which helped make for a smooth transition to Penix. Robinson had scoring runs of 2 and 4 yards. Robinson has rushed for 10 touchdowns this season. He's the first Atlanta player with 10 more more rushing touchdowns since Devonta Freeman during the 2016 Super Bowl season. Robinson ran for 94 yards on 22 carries and had 103 yards from scrimmage. His 11th game this season with at least 100 yards from scrimmage are the most for the Falcons since Warrick Dunn's 11 in 2005. Morris said Robinson deserves to be considered with Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley in discussions regarding the league's top running backs. “Bijan has been outstanding all year in the things that he’s able to do," Morris said. “He’s special. If it wasn’t for this other guy out in Philly, he’d get a lot more recognition across the league. But that guy is having a special year, and Bijan’s not far behind him.” What needs help With kicker Younghoe Koo on injured reserve and watching from the sideline, Riley Patterson was wide left on his first field-goal attempt from 43 yards. Patterson rebounded to make attempts from 52 and 37 yards. Stock up Jessie Bates III and Matthew Judon each had a pick-6 to highlight a day of big plays for the defense. Arnold Ebiketie had his fifth sack of the season and added a fumble recovery. Kaden Ellis added a strip-sack. He also has five sacks this season, including sacks in four consecutive games. It is the longest streak for Atlanta since Patrick Kerney had sacks in five straight games in 2001. Stock down There was some thought that a change at quarterback could be good news for Pitts, who often seemed to be missing in action with Cousins running the offense. After all, a tight end often is a natural target for quick passes from a rookie making his first start. Instead, Pitts had a poor start to the Penix era when he bobbled his first pass from the left-hander, creating an interception by cornerback Cor’Dale Flott. Pitts caught a 7-yard pass on his only other target. For the season, Pitts has 41 catches for 543 yards and three touchdowns. Injuries There will be much interest in this week's injury report after WR Drake London (hamstring) was hurt in the second half. Morris provided an optimistic postgame outlook on London. CB Antonio Hamilton (quad) did not return after leaving the game in the first half. Key number 8: Bates has four interceptions and four forced fumbles. His combined eight forced turnovers lead the NFL. Next steps The game against Jayden Daniels and the Commanders is a reminder Penix was only the fourth of six quarterbacks selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Daniels, from LSU, was the No. 2 overall pick behind Caleb Williams by Chicago. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Charles Odum, The Associated PressDecision by committee: How uncertainty shapes negotiations
None
As they traverse their financial paths, affluent people actively seek out the best private wealth management possibilities and tools because they have high aspirations for both them and their wealth. However, their wealth managers typically provide this group with the typical financial advisory expertise. Approximately 46% of wealthy respondents stated that wealth management companies do not provide them with value-added services, and nearly one-third thought that robo-advisory services did not adequately address their inquiries. They genuinely want individualized assistance in making investment choices, to be involved and informed about value-added solutions, and to have someone who can respond to inquiries that a pure-tech model cannot. With DBS Treasures Private Client, DBS Bank has accelerated the wealth path of prosperous professionals and entrepreneurs around the region by utilizing this physical method to uncover opportunities and technologies that were previously exclusive to ultra-high net worth clients. Additionally, customers can effortlessly switch to the bank’s upscale private wealth management services when the time comes. About 2,000 clients have migrated up the wealth continuum over the last two to three years, from the DBS Treasures Singapore platform, which has an investible asset minimum of S$350,000 (US$257,011), to the Treasures Private Client platform, which has an investible asset minimum of S$1.5 million (US$1.1 million). Accelerate Your Path to Wealth DBS Treasures uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to deliver timely, personalized advice and services that align with their clients’ personal and financial objectives. From hedge fund investments and structured securities to international property finance options and estate planning, these include a range of alternatives intended to assist them in producing returns in accordance with their risk tolerance. In order to create robust portfolios with a mix of stability and growth, clients can also take advantage of the bank’s in-house wealth management solutions, which are founded on a “Core-Satellite” methodology. Along with other assets to spread and efficiently manage risk, the core component is made up of a diverse mix of asset classes, such as bonds for steady cash flow and stocks for possible high returns. The satellite component, meanwhile, provides the adaptability to seize transient market opportunities and raise total investment returns. Under the Core-Satellite concept, the bank uses a variety of investing methods aimed at improving the resilience of a portfolio. By making significant investments in assets at both extremes of the risk spectrum, the Barbell strategy, for example, aims to strike a balance between risk and profit. Another approach called I.D.E.A., which is divided into Innovators, Disruptors, Enablers, and Adapters, seeks to pinpoint industries and businesses that are most likely to succeed in the digital economy. Additionally, the Wealth Management Account allows clients to easily examine and manage their portfolios, trade stocks, buy funds (including those that are only accessible to accredited investors), and conduct foreign currency operations. They also have prompt access to expert views and well-chosen investment ideas. Always put safety first. The wealthy investors of today don’t mind taking chances, but in a world that is unpredictable and always changing, protecting one’s fortune is just as crucial as increasing it. DBS Treasures is supported by the globally recognized strength of the DBS Group, which has been rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA- by S&P Global Ratings. Among other honours, DBS has been named Asia’s Best Bank for Wealth Management by Euromoney and the World’s Best Bank and Safest Bank in Asia by Global Finance for 15 consecutive years. Having Access to a Worldwide Network In a more unstable global environment, diversity has gained more attention as a strategy for generating profits and reducing risk. In order to better diversify their portfolios, wealthy investors are increasingly looking for access to markets outside of their native countries. Many DBS Treasures clients will eventually reach a point where they are prepared to start a new chapter with DBS Treasures Private Client and the capabilities provided on that higher platform as their wealth increases. This change can be made by clients without affecting their experience.
By Matt Barrows, RJ Kraft and Jenna West The San Francisco 49ers plan to place running backs Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason on injured reserve after suffering injuries in the team’s Week 13 loss to the Buffalo Bills . McCaffrey suffered a PCL injury but will not need surgery, coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday. The injury is about a six-week recovery time, which sidelines the 2023 Offensive Player of the Year for the remainder of the regular season. Additionally, Mason suffered a high ankle injury in the loss and will be placed on IR. Both must miss a minimum of four games; the 49ers have just five games left this season. GO DEEPER 49ers look a lot like their 2020 snakebit selves in snowy, blowout loss to the Bills These latest injuries mean the 49ers’ top three running backs from the start of the offseason — McCaffrey, Mason and Elijah Mitchell — are all on injured reserve. Rookie Isaac Guerendo is the only healthy running back, not including fullback Kyle Juszczyk , on the roster, though Patrick Taylor Jr. is on the team’s practice squad. The 49ers will have to go outside the building to sign at least one more back. Matt Breida , who played for the team from 2017 to ’19 and spent three weeks on the roster during training camp, would seem to be a potential option. Advertisement McCaffrey left Sunday night’s game early in the second quarter. Taking a carry on a first down play, McCaffrey took a few slow steps before sliding to a stop for a 5-yard loss. he left the field under his own power and went to the medical tent, then attempted to jog along the 49ers sideline before heading to the locker room. Sunday was just McCaffrey’s fourth game of the 2024 season. He returned in early November after missing most of training camp and the 49ers’ first eight games because of tendonitis in both Achilles. He had seven carries for 53 yards and two catches for 14 yards before exiting Sunday’s game. For the season, McCaffrey had 202 rushing yards along with 15 receptions for 146 receiving yards. Mason was the team’s primary running back for the first two months of the season while McCaffrey was out with his initial injury. The third-year back leads the team in rushing with 789 yards and has three touchdowns. Guerendo, a fourth-round pick out of Louisville, has shown promise while filling in for Mason when he was hurt against the Seattle Seahawks (Week 6) and the Dallas Cowboys (Week 8). He has 246 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the season. Additionally, defensive tackle Kevin Givens suffered a torn pec in Sunday night’s loss. He is out for the season and will also be placed on injured reserve. The 49ers (5-7) have lost three in a row and sit two games behind the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West. What do the 49ers have in Guerendo? The injuries to McCaffrey and Mason mean Guerendo suddenly will become the 49ers’ lead tailback, and it likely also will prompt the 49ers to promote Taylor from the practice squad. Guerendo seemed to be starting to find his stride when McCaffrey returned from his Achilles injury and immediately received nearly all of the tailback snaps. Advertisement Now, Guerendo will get an opportunity to resume his NFL education. He’s shown flashes of potential, including on Sunday when he had a 15-yard touchdown against the Bills. But he’s also fumbled twice on kickoffs (losing one) this season and it’s not quite clear whether he’s fully shaken the injury bug that plagued him in college. In short, Guerendo — and the 49ers — will benefit from him getting more snaps. It will better prepare him for the 2025 season and ought to give the team a better idea on how to approach Mason’s situation — he’ll be a restricted free agent in March — when the season is over. — Matt Barrows, 49ers beat writer Required reading (Photo: Timothy T Ludwig / Getty Images)Mikaela Shiffrin suffers abrasion on hip during crash on final run of World Cup giant slalomATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons are back in first place in the NFC South and again in control of their playoff hopes. Rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. showed the poise in his first NFL start the Falcons will need to take advantage of their opportunity to end a six-year playoff drought. Powered by a big-play defense that produced two pick-6s, a solid starting debut by Penix and two rushing touchdowns by Bijan Robinson, the Falcons cruised past the hapless New York Giants 34-7 on Sunday. On Sunday night, the Falcons (8-7) received the assist they needed when Tampa Bay lost at Dallas . Because the Falcons swept the Buccaneers, they hold the tiebreaker advantage if they remain tied atop the division. The Falcons have games remaining at Washington on Sunday night and at home against Carolina to close the regular season. If Atlanta wins both games, it would win the division and have a home playoff game. The Falcons are assured of their best record since a 10-6 finish under coach Dan Quinn in 2017, their most recent playoff season. Quinn is in his first season as Washington's coach and has led the Commanders (10-5) to three straight wins, including Sunday's 36-33 victory over Philadelphia. Penix, the No. 8 overall pick in this year's NFL draft, was promoted after coach Raheem Morris benched Kirk Cousins. Penix completed 18 of 27 passes for 202 yards with one interception on a pass that should have been caught by tight end Kyle Pitts. Penix is not a dual-threat quarterback, but he showed the ability to escape pressure in the pocket that Cousins lacks following his 2023 Achilles tendon injury. The left-hander's superior arm strength also was immediately obvious. Robinson's production provided a safety net for the offense which helped make for a smooth transition to Penix. Robinson had scoring runs of 2 and 4 yards. Robinson has rushed for 10 touchdowns this season. He's the first Atlanta player with 10 more more rushing touchdowns since Devonta Freeman during the 2016 Super Bowl season. Robinson ran for 94 yards on 22 carries and had 103 yards from scrimmage. His 11th game this season with at least 100 yards from scrimmage are the most for the Falcons since Warrick Dunn's 11 in 2005. Morris said Robinson deserves to be considered with Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley in discussions regarding the league's top running backs. “Bijan has been outstanding all year in the things that he’s able to do," Morris said. “He’s special. If it wasn’t for this other guy out in Philly, he’d get a lot more recognition across the league. But that guy is having a special year, and Bijan’s not far behind him.” With kicker Younghoe Koo on injured reserve and watching from the sideline, Riley Patterson was wide left on his first field-goal attempt from 43 yards. Patterson rebounded to make attempts from 52 and 37 yards. Jessie Bates III and Matthew Judon each had a pick-6 to highlight a day of big plays for the defense. Arnold Ebiketie had his fifth sack of the season and added a fumble recovery. Kaden Ellis added a strip-sack. He also has five sacks this season, including sacks in four consecutive games. It is the longest streak for Atlanta since Patrick Kerney had sacks in five straight games in 2001. There was some thought that a change at quarterback could be good news for Pitts, who often seemed to be missing in action with Cousins running the offense. After all, a tight end often is a natural target for quick passes from a rookie making his first start. Instead, Pitts had a poor start to the Penix era when he bobbled his first pass from the left-hander, creating an interception by cornerback Cor’Dale Flott. Pitts caught a 7-yard pass on his only other target. For the season, Pitts has 41 catches for 543 yards and three touchdowns. There will be much interest in this week's injury report after WR Drake London (hamstring) was hurt in the second half. Morris provided an optimistic postgame outlook on London. CB Antonio Hamilton (quad) did not return after leaving the game in the first half. 8: Bates has four interceptions and four forced fumbles. His combined eight forced turnovers lead the NFL. The game against Jayden Daniels and the Commanders is a reminder Penix was only the fourth of six quarterbacks selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Daniels, from LSU, was the No. 2 overall pick behind Caleb Williams by Chicago. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
An 81-year-old granny has told the BBC she hopes she lives long enough to get her autistic grandson out of the hospital he has been stuck in for two years. Dorothy Lafferty said doctors had long ago agreed that 28-year-old Andrew does not need to be cared for in hospital but there is nowhere suitable for him to go. He needs a team of carers and a house that is quiet because noisy environments make his anxiety worse. New figures due out later are expected to show there has been an increase in the numbers of people with learning disabilities and autism who are stuck in hospital or inappropriate placements far from home. This is despite ministerial pledges to have remedied the problem by March this year. Ministers first promised to move the majority of people stuck in hospital to a home of their own in the community in February 2022. They started recording the figures and a year ago the first dynamic support register was published. It revealed there were 1,243 people in hospital, far from home or at risk of their placement breaking down. By June 2024, rather than reducing, that had figure increased to 1,515. Andrew has been in a 20-bed adult mental health unit at Stobhill hospital in Glasgow for two-and-a-half years. For two of those years he has been recorded as a delayed discharge and should have been allowed home - but there is no suitable house for him to go to. His 'nana' Dorothy has cared for Andrew since he was two, when his mother needed support to help her deal with brain cancer. His mother died from the cancer when he was 12 and Andrew became extremely anxious and struggled to cope. Dorothy, from Bishopbriggs in East Dunbartonshire, says Andrew went to a mainstream school and was doing well but the loss of his mother left him distraught. She says he could not understand how someone he prayed for could have died. After leaving school, he struggled in placements and flats because they were too noisy for him. He was then placed on a mental health ward when his symptoms became severe but was assessed as being fit to leave with the right support two years ago. Like the hundreds of others with learning disabilities or autism who are stuck in units or hospitals, there is still nowhere for him to live. Experts say there is a lack of suitable housing, a shortage of care staff and sometimes a failure to prioritise those behind locked doors. In a note to the BBC, Andrew wrote: “I would like a place of my own with not a lot of people there." He said he felt scared of leaving hospital because he had been there for so long. His autism means he struggles to eat hospital food and is often too anxious to sit with others in the dining room. His gran regularly makes him tuna sandwiches and takes them to him in the hospital. Dorothy says Andrew finds many situations too stressful and worries about who will look after him when she is gone. "I keep thinking I’m so lucky at 81 to be like I am," she said "I’m able to get out and about and that’s a big plus for me. "If I can keep this going until I see Andrew out of there I’ll feel like I’ve achieved something in life." Andrew has a care team in place but no home to go to. Dorothy says she has spent hours in the library researching accommodation and has been to dozens of meetings but there has been no progress. She says she and Andrew are very worried about what will happen next. “He said to me last week: ‘Nana, is there a chance that you could live until you're 100?’". When Dorothy told him not many people live that long, he said: "I’ll feel as if my life’s ended if anything happens to you because I depend on you so much. "I can’t imagine what life would be like without you." Dorothy said: "I want to live long enough to see Andrew settled. That’s my one aim in life. That’s all I want.” The dynamic support register which monitors how many patients are in unsuitable accommodation was meant to be accompanied by a national oversight panel. This was meant to hold local authorities and health and social care partnerships to account but it has never happened. Government advisor Dr Anne Macdonald said not enough progress had been made and that the system was “failing” people with complex support needs. "People have the right to live in their local community, to live near family and friends and have an ordinary life like the rest of us would want," she said. "Those with complex support needs who are currently stuck in hospital or living hundreds of miles from home in inappropriate out of area placements – we’re not doing enough for those people and I’d go as far as to say we’re failing them and their families.” The Scottish government said in 2013 that within five years people with learning disabilities, autism and complex care needs who were in facilities outwith Scotland should be supported to live nearer their family in Scotland. The policy to move people out of institutional care and closer to family follows decades of promises to get people with learning disabilities out of big hospital institutions and into the community - but a number seem to have become stuck in the system. Social Care Minister Maree Todd said she was "very disappointed at the slow progress" that was being made. "The Coming Home report told us that we needed to do some things in central government and we’ve pretty much completed those things," she told the BBC. "We’ve created the dynamic support register, that gives us a really good idea of data. We know now who is in the system and where they are, and that’s informing local authorities and local health boards. "But we haven’t made the progress in driving down the numbers and that is very disappointing to me.” Derrick Pearce, the chief officer of East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), which is handling Andrew's case, said it supported a wide range of social care provision in the local community. "However there are times when identifying a care provision which will be successful in meeting complex care needs may take longer than we would like in order to ensure a successful long-term discharge from hospital," he said. “In all cases, including Andrew's, significant multi-disciplinary assessment and care planning with consideration to both medical and social models of support is carried out to establish a bespoke model of care in partnership with family and carers." “By continuing to work closely together we are hopeful we will establish a person-centred care plan whilst identifying suitable accommodation based on specific housing and health needs whilst ensuring and safeguarding the success of these plans to enable safe and independent living within the community.”