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Lewandowski joins Ronaldo and Messi in the Champions League century club with goal No. 100Conor McGregor’s ‘Billionaire Strut’ was inspired by a WWE legend. Conor McGregor is known for wild finishes, pre-fight trash talk, and his ascent to the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history. After making a massive fortune with his performances in the Octagon, McGregor made it a significant part of his UFC walkouts beginning at UFC 205. McGregor’s coined ‘Billionaire Strut’ debuted as McGregor made the walk to the Octagon as he vied for ‘champ-champ’ status at UFC 205 . He defeated UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the main event to make history as the promotion’s first simultaneous two-division titleholder. McGregor went on to utilize the strut in the leadup to fights with Khabib Nurmagomedov , Donald Cerrone, and Dustin Poirier throughout his career. Fans were in awe of McGregor’s swagger when he first introduced his signature cage walk, but not many fans and pundits know the story behind it. READ MORE: Incredible Ilia Topuria KO rumor addressed by UFC star who refutes claims made by Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Burns The roots of Conor McGregor’s ‘Billionaire Strut’ linked to WWE legend It turns out that McGregor’s infamous strut came from former WWE headman Vince McMahon. “I perfected it. Vince is a legend. I love Vince. Vince McMahon is a mad b**tard, he’s a mad man,” McGregor said in a 2017 interview with Fight Hub TV . ( h/t SportsKeeda ) McMahon made the strut part of his persona during his long career as the main promoter of WWE. No one copied McMahon during his stint until McGregor did a spin-off on it at UFC 205. Several top UFC fighters, including McGregor’s fellow countryman Ian Machado Garry, have nodded to the ‘billionaire strut’ in recent years. It’s also been used as a touchdown celebration by several players in the NFL. READ MORE: ‘I apologise to all Kimbo Slice fans’...Tik Tok star Bryce Hall vows to land upset in BKFC comeback against legend’s son Conor McGregor in preliminary talks to fight one of the Paul brothers McGregor hasn’t competed in the Octagon since a doctor’s stoppage loss to Poirier at UFC 264. He’s targeting a late-2025 comeback against a to-be-determined opponent. McGregor has also been in recent discussions to face either Jake or Logan Paul in a boxing match next year in India, sometime in the summer. While nothing is official as of this writing, both Paul brothers are linked to the potential McGregor fight, as McGregor seemed to confirm in a series of social media posts. While McGregor has had some late struggles in the UFC, he remains the biggest superstar in the promotion’s history. His infamous ‘billionaire strut’ captured the aura of McGregor’s fighting prime. READ MORE: Dana White names his four top MMA fighters including Jon Jones and other UFC legends
The Dallas Cowboys ended five weeks of frustration with a 34-26 win at Washington in a Sunday decision overflowing with both hilarious and historic moments. And one guy who obviously feels he's earned an at-least temporary last laugh? Micah Parsons, who not once but twice last week in the buildup for this game proclaiming that his Cowboys are a "damn good football team.'' Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) stunning issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity is a major game changer. After years of impunity, the chickens unleashed by Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza have finally come home to roost. These charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are momentous. This is the first time the ICC has issued arrest warrants against an Israeli official for crimes against the Palestinian people. It is only the second time in its 22 years of existence that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for someone who is not from the African continent. Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called the ICC’s decision “a historic and pivotal moment in the battle against Israel’s impunity, in which the Palestinian people have been denied justice, and subjugated for decades under a genocidal, settler-colonial apartheid regime.” The United States had a fraught relationship with the ICC even before it opened for business in 2002. As President Bill Clinton was leaving office, he signed the court’s Rome Statute, stating , “I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.” But Clinton urged incoming President George W. Bush to refrain from sending it to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. Bush went even further and, in an unprecedented move, unsigned the treaty on behalf of the United States. Since then, the U.S. has consistently tried to undermine the ICC. In 2003, Congress passed and Bush signed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act , which is known as “The Hague Invasion Act.” It says that if a U.S. or allied national is detained by the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, the U.S. military can use armed force to extricate them. This would apply to close U.S. ally Israel. The Bush administration effectively blackmailed 100 countries that were parties to the Rome Statute by forcing them to sign bilateral immunity agreements in which they promised not to turn over U.S. persons to the ICC or the United States would withhold foreign aid from them. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has introduced bipartisan legislation to sanction ICC prosecutors who try to file charges against Israeli officials. Forty-two Democrats voted for the House version of Thune’s bill. When he was president, Donald Trump imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors in a reprisal against the court’s investigations of Israeli leaders, and investigations of U.S. officials for war crimes committed in Afghanistan. Although President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s order in 2021, he reiterated the U.S. government’s “longstanding objection to the Court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction” over Israeli and U.S. personnel. The Biden administration, which has sent at least $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023, denounced the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant. A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, the U.S. is consulting with Israel on “next steps,” and “The United States fundamentally rejects the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials.” By providing military support and diplomatic cover to Israel, U.S. leaders could be charged under the Rome Statute with aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. But the ICC is unlikely to file such charges. Will the U.S. government play spoiler of international justice by invading The Hague to extract the Israeli officials if they are arrested? Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) responded to the arrest warrants by invoking The Hague Invasion Act. “Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants,” he warned. “Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.” On November 21 — Day 441 of Israel’s genocidal campaign which has killed more than 44,000 Palestinian people — the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I announced that it found reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were co-perpetrators of the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, committed from at least October 8, 2023, until at least May 20, 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for arrest warrants. The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.” The Chamber noted the role of Netanyahu and Gallant “in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law and their failure to facilitate relief by all means at its disposal.” In addition, the decisions by the two Israeli officials to allow or increase humanitarian aid “were not made to fulfil Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law or to ensure that the civilian population in Gaza would be adequately supplied with goods in need,” the Chamber concluded. They were, rather, “a response to the pressure of the international community or requests by the United States of America.” The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population. Pre-Trial Chamber I found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were co-perpetrators of the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the same time period. “[T]he lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies, created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza, which resulted in the death of civilians, including children due to malnutrition and dehydration,” the Chamber concluded. Thus, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of murder was committed in relation to these victims.” Moreover, “by intentionally limiting or preventing medical supplies and medicine from getting into Gaza ... the two individuals are also responsible for inflicting great suffering by means of inhumane acts on persons in need of treatment,” the Chamber stated. “This amounts to the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts.” The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct of Netanyahu and Gallant “deprived a significant portion of the civilian population in Gaza of their fundamental rights, including the rights to life and health, and that the population was targeted based on political and/or national grounds.” It therefore concluded that they committed the crime against humanity of persecution. Netanyahu’s denunciation of the arrest warrants was swift and strong. He called the ICC’s decision an “antisemitic move with one goal: to deter me, to deter us, from exercising our natural right to defend ourselves against our enemies who seek to destroy us.” He denounced the court as “biased” and said its accusations of “fictitious crimes” are “absurd” and “distorted,” adding, “This is a moral bankruptcy” that impairs the “natural right of democracies to defend themselves against murderous terrorism.” Israel’s claim of self-defense is spurious. In its 2004 advisory opinion on the “Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the ICJ established the non-applicability of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter in the situation between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Indeed, the Fourth Geneva Convention requires Israel, as Occupying Power, to protect the occupied Palestinian people. And it is Israel’s genocidal actions, not the ICC’s arrest warrants, that are fomenting antisemitism. The widespread opposition to the genocide is not based in antisemitism, but rather revulsion at the atrocities Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. The Chamber rejected Israel’s claim that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Situation in Palestine. The fact that Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute is not a bar to the ICC’s jurisdiction, the Chamber concluded. The State of Palestine has been a state party to the Rome Statute since 2015. The court cited its February 2021 decision, in which Pre-Trial Chamber I held that the court could exercise criminal jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine and that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extended to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Now, all 124 states parties to the Rome Statute have a legal obligation to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant and send them to the ICC if they are caught in the state’s territory. Several states parties — including Canada, Italy, the U.K., Belgium, France and the Netherlands — have expressed their intention to comply with this legal duty. “The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional,” High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said while in Cyprus for a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. But if any country sends Netanyahu and Gallant to The Hague, the U.S. may well send troops in to extract them.
You may have encountered the term “ bird flu” increasingly online and in the media. It refers to a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A, classified as H5N1. Wild birds carry and transmit this flu, though most do not get sick from it. However, it has been detected in birds and mammals at farms such as poultry and dairy cows and has the potential to cause disease in people. Given this, is there a danger the virus will end up in the milk that we buy at the store? Fortunately, recent testing of pasteurized dairy products has been negative for viable HPAI H5N1, suggesting that risk in such cases is exceedingly small, if any at all. Let’s look at the situation for what it is and perhaps with an eye toward what it could become. There are numerous types of avian flu viruses. The letters and numbers represent how they are classified, with the first two symbols describing one type of protein and the second two symbols describing another type of protein. Influenza viruses are crafty: They are constantly changing to avoid recognition by the immune system of their hosts. Such changes, referred to as antigenic shift and drift, make them a moving target for our immune system and for vaccines. The H5N1 avian flu’s recent transmission pattern concerns epidemiologists and public health officials. The virus has been transmitted from poultry and dairy cows to farm workers and others in close contact and proximity with these birds and animals. As of Monday, 55 people have tested positive for H5N1, with all but one infection, which remains unresolved in Missouri, traced to contact with farm-infected poultry or dairy cows. The majority of these cases have been in California, Colorado and Washington state. By comparison, H5N1 has been detected in more than 10,000 wild birds, nearly 110 million poultry in 49 states and more than 600 dairy herds in 15 states. The H5N1 virus recently infected dairy cows for the first time, raising concerns about the bird flu's potential implications for humans. The good news is that all these infections have been mostly benign, with each person fully recovered. However, with only around 50 cases reported in the United States since April, such a small sample cannot tease out what sectors of the population would be at highest risk of severe disease. Of course, it is certain that many more infections have gone undetected, given the results of antibody testing among dairy farm workers. This is concerning, since more infections increase the possibility of mutations that may lead to widespread transmission and more severe disease. On the other hand, this has almost certainly not occurred, or at least not yet, since almost all infections to date have been related to farm bird and animal exposure with mild symptoms, appearing to pose little, if any, risk to the broader population. The one exception is in Canada, where its first H5N1 case is in a teenager who is now hospitalized. Officials believe that the person was exposed either to an infected bird or animal. Such a case raises concerns that H5N1 has the potential to create severe disease. What is most concerning about H5N1 is the uncertainty surrounding its spread. If the virus began widespread transmission between people, then the number of cases could jump. Creating vaccines that would protect against H5N1 is possible. Given the usual six-month lead time required, using traditional egg-based technology, efforts are underway to shorten this window. An initiative to develop an mRNA H5N1 vaccine has also been launched, which would speed up vaccine availability. Of course, as this situation continues to evolve next year, it is unclear what the U.S. response will be, particularly given the health policy role that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may assume in the new federal administration. Some may be thinking that this season’s flu vaccine may provide some protection against the H5N1 avian flu virus. It contains three antigen components, including influenza A H1N1 and influenza A H3N2, but not H5N1, which means that it will provide no protection against H5N1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to monitor the situation. As new cases are detected and confirmed, more information can be gathered to assess if the virus has become more prone to human-to-human transmission and produce more severe disease. The biggest challenge the CDC faces is effective, broad and timely surveillance that will detect escalation of infections in the population, an indicator that human transmission is occurring. Let’s not forget that the risks posed by seasonal flu are far greater than the risks posed by H5N1 at this time. This warrants people getting their seasonal flu shot as soon as possible, as we fast approach the holiday season with people gathering to celebrate and enjoy the festivities. Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor in computer science who teaches in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Janet A. Jokela, MPH, is an infectious disease and public health physician and a dean in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!
McConnell to head subcommittee overseeing defense spending as he prepares to step down as GOP leader
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present Friday with the surprise drop of a new album. The Grammy winner's 12-track “GNX” is his first release since 2022's “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” and his sixth studio album overall. It also comes just months after his rap battle with Drake. Lamar first teased the album with a cover art and video snippet of “GNX,” which features multi-instrumentalist Jack Antonoff as a co-producer on every track except for “Peekaboo.” Other notable producers include Sounwave and DJ Mustard , who both contributed production on the hit “Not Like Us,” the ubiquitous diss track emanating from the Drake feud. Lamar's former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA appears on a couple songs including “Gloria” and “Luther,” which also features sampled vocals from Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn through “If This World Were Mine." On the opening track “Wacced Out Murals,” Lamar raps about cruising in his Buick GNX (Grand National Experimental) car with listening to Anita Baker. He brings up Snoop Dogg posting Drake's AI-assisted “Taylor Made Freestyle” diss track on social media and Nas congratulating Lamar for being selected to headline February's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans. Lamar also shows admiration for Lil Wayne, who expressed his hurt feelings after being passed over as the headliner in his hometown. Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album “DAMN.” The surprise release caps a big year for Lamar, who was featured on the song “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin — a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. Lamar is up for seven Grammys, fueled by “Not Like Us,” which earned nods for record and song of the year, rap song, music video as well as best rap performance. He has two simultaneous entries in the latter category, a career first: “Like That” is up for best rap performance and best rap song, too. 1. “Wacced Out Murals” 2. “Squabble Up” 3. “Luther” (feat. SZA) 4. “Man at the Garden” 5. “Hey Now” 6. “Reincarnated” 7. “TV Off” 8. “Dodger Blue” 9. “Peekaboo” 10. “Heart Pt. 6” 11. “GNX” 12. “Gloria” (feat. SZA)South Sudan’s Kiir says Tumaini Initiative complements peace deal