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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Gratifying as it was for Sean McDermott to catch up with his family and get some rest during Buffalo’s bye week, the Bills coach on Wednesday found comfort returning to his weekly routine and familiar wardrobe — a gray T-shirt and sweatpants. “When I’m not wearing those, I go to my closet and I don’t know what to wear. I’m kind of like not myself,” he said before pulling up his hoodie for emphasis to reveal the gray shirt he had on underneath. “So I was telling some of the guys this morning, ‘It’s good to be back.’” Though there remain challenges ahead, these are upbeat times in Buffalo . The Bills (9-2) are off to their best start since 1992. They remain in contention for the AFC’s top seed by entering their break following a 30-21 win over Kansas City (10-1). And Buffalo is in position to clinch its fifth straight AFC East title as early as Sunday. To do so, the Bills would need Miami to lose to Green Bay on Thursday night, and Buffalo to win its game over San Francisco (5-6) on Sunday night. Buffalo has won six straight since back-to-back losses at Baltimore and Houston, and scored 30 or more points in each of its past five outings. Refreshed as McDermott sounded and appeared, it didn’t take long for him to revert to his game-at-a-time script when assessing what’s on the line this weekend. “We’re mostly focused on our level of play this week against a good football team,” he said. McDermott shed little light on the status of Buffalo’s lengthy list of injured players. There’s no timetable yet on Matt Milano being activated off injured reserve, even though the starting linebacker practiced fully for the first time since tearing his left biceps during a training camp practice in mid-August. Milano has actually missed nearly 14 months since sustaining a season-ending injury to his right leg in Week 5 last season. Milano revealed little during a brief interview following practice. “I feel all right. Getting back into it with the team,” said Milano, who no longer wore a red non-contact jersey in practice. Meantime, rookie receiver Keon Coleman, who has missed two games with a right wrist injury, and starting right tackle Spencer Brown, who missed one game with an ankle injury, were limited in practice. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (knee) was Buffalo's only player not practicing. The Bills also opened the three-week window for backup rookie defensive tackle DeWayne Carter (wrist) and backup offensive lineman Tylan Grable (groin) to return. McDermott has another positive going for him revolving around the bye week. The Bills are 8-0 coming out of their break since McDermott took over as coach in 2017. “I don’t really have the, hey, this is exactly what we do formula,” McDermott said on whether he’s changed his bye week approach. “It’s more of us really just getting back to what we do, getting back to basics.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflJulen Lopetegui says West Ham were worthy winners at Newcastle
No. 22 Xavier unbeaten but looking for more effort vs. South CarolinaUNITED NATIONS (AP) — Myanmar’s desperate military junta is ramping up attacks on villages that have fallen to opposition groups, carrying out beheadings, gang rapes and torture, with women, children and the elderly among the victims, the U.N. independent human rights investigator for Myanmar said in a new report. Thomas Andrews, a former U.S. congressman from Maine, said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Friday that the junta has responded to military defeats and the loss of territory by using sophisticated weapons against civilians and seeking to destroy towns that it cannot control. Calling Myanmar “an invisible crisis” because the world's attention is focused elsewhere, he said, “Escalating atrocities against the people of Myanmar are being enabled by governments that allow, or actively support, the transfer of weapons, weapons materials, and jet fuel to junta forces.” Andrews didn’t name the governments. But he praised Singapore for cracking down on weapons transfers that has led to a 90% reduction by Singapore-registered companies, and said sanctions imposed by the United States on junta-controlled, state-owned banks have disrupted military supply chains. The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar lamented, however, that their actions remain an exception. He called on all countries to address Myanmar’s “devastating human rights and humanitarian crisis” by stopping the flow of weapons to the junta, stepping up humanitarian aid to millions in need, and supporting efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for human rights violations. Myanmar is racked by violence that began when the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and brutally suppressed nonviolent protests. That triggered armed resistance and combat across the country, with the military increasingly using airstrikes to counter the opposition and secure territory. The army is on the defensive against ethnic militias in much of Myanmar as well as hundreds of armed guerrilla groups collectively called the People’s Defense Forces, formed to fight to restore democracy. The military has said in the past that it only attacks legitimate targets of war and has accused the resistance forces of being terrorists. Andrews called the military junta’s plan to hold an election in late 2025 “a farcical parody” and “thinly veiled attempt to create an impression of legitimacy and relieve international pressure.” He warned, “Not only is this fraudulent attempt outrageous, it is dangerous, as it could lead to even greater levels of instability and violence.” He ticked off grim statistics: Over 3.1 million people are displaced by conflict and the junta’s human rights violations, and 18.6 million people need humanitarian assistance, including 13.3 million facing emergency levels of food insecurity. He said the junta's military forces have killed more than 5,800 civilians, destroyed over 100,000 homes and other civilian structures, and have kept more than 21,000 political prisoners languishing behind bars. “Junta troops have killed civilians in ground assaults, including the mass killing of individuals already in the custody of junta forces,” Andrews said. “Victims have been tortured, raped and beheaded, and their bodies burned." Andrews, a human rights fellow at Yale Law School who was appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, said the situation was most “desperate and dangerous” in Rakhine state in western Myanmar. Last November, the Arakan Army, which is seeking autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, began an offensive against the military in Rakhine and has gained control of more than half of its townships . The Arakan Army, which is the well-armed wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, is also a member of the armed ethnic group alliance trying to topple the military. In the report, Andrews said: “The Arakan Army has been implicated in grave human rights abuses, including indiscriminate attacks, killings, sexual violence and arbitrary arrests.” He also said the military has responded to the Arakan Army's steady losses in Rakhine by attacking civilians and raising tensions between the ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya communities. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982. In August 2017, attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on Myanmar security personnel triggered a brutal campaign by the military, which drove at least 740,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh. The military is accused of mass rape, killings and burning thousands of homes. Meanwhile, the military junta has conscripted thousands of Rohingya men and deployed them to the front lines to fight the Arakan Army, he said. And Rohingya militant groups have “cynically aligned with the junta” and committed human rights abuses against the ethnic Rakhine population. “Hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State are completely cut off from humanitarian assistance and threatened by exposure, starvation and disease,” Andrews warned. “Failure to act immediately to provide emergency humanitarian aid will be a death sentence for untold numbers of innocent men, women and children.” A month ago, he said, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh where 1 million Rohingya refugees live, called on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to convene a conference with all key players in the Rohingya crisis. Yunus has pressed for their repatriation to Myanmar. Andrews urged Guterres to call a conference that could help “seize the attention of a distracted world and mobilize the resources and action necessary to save the many lives that hang in the balance.”It was not what John Harbaugh had envisioned as the pinnacle of his sport. Growing up, he watched Super Bowl-winning coaches being carried off the field by their players or drenched in Gatorade showers. But when the beat the to capture Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, John was surprised to find himself alone on the field. Then it dawned on him. He knew what he had to do. After the only Super Bowl featuring siblings as head coaches, John found his younger brother Jim and shook his hand. Then, he started to lean in for an embrace, but Jim put an outstretched forearm into John's chest. "There will be no hug," he told John. On Monday, John and Jim will meet again as opposing coaches for the first time since that historic and emotionally taxing matchup over 11 years ago. John will take his Ravens (7-4) across the country to face Jim's (7-3) at SoFi Stadium ). The feeling among family members is this won't be Har-Bowl, Part 2. The stakes aren't nearly as high this time around. John and Jim's teams are battling for AFC playoff seeding, not football's biggest prize -- the Vince Lombardi Trophy. But for brothers who competed in the backyard and on the biggest stage in football, bragging rights will always be on the line. When people point out John is 2-0 against Jim, John makes a correction: He's 3-0. John beat Jim in a preseason game between the Ravens and 49ers in 2014. John recently recited what he heard Jim say during the week leading up to their Super Bowl. "'When that game starts, my brothers are going to be the guys on the sideline with me,'" John said. "That is the way it works. When you get on that sideline, you stake out your territory on a football game and you're with your family over there." The Harbaughs are the only brothers to face each other as head coaches in the NFL's 105-year history and in the championship game of a major American sport. The first meeting happened on Thanksgiving in 2011, when the Ravens beat the 49ers 16-6. The next came in the Super Bowl a season later, which was another triumph for John -- but this is rarely spoken about between the brothers. John didn't hear Jim speak positively about that game until three years ago. Jim had driven with his son Jack in an RV from Michigan to John's house in Maryland. They went into John's recreational barn, which has a picture from the Super Bowl hanging inside. "We don't really talk about that, do we, Dad?" said Jack, now 12 years old. Jim replied, "It's okay to talk about that. That was a great day for Uncle John. We're happy to celebrate that." Others are unsure whether Jim has fully come to terms with that loss. "I think he's still working on it," said their father, Jack. father has become the subject of the most debated Super Bowl story in the family. According to Jim, he couldn't sleep after losing the Super Bowl and started channel surfing when he saw his father on TV celebrating at the Ravens' victory party. Jim said Jack was doing the twist while smoking a cigar. "That's not true," John said. Jim shot back, "I don't lie." Jack pushed back as well, saying, "I've never had a cigar in my mouth." Super Bowl XLVII is remembered as Hall of Fame middle linebacker Ray Lewis' final game and for a power outage that caused at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. But for Jim it's the pivotal non-call in the final minutes that has stuck with him. With San Francisco trailing by three points, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's fourth-down pass from the 5-yard line sailed over wide receiver Michael Crabtree's head in the end zone. Officials determined that Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith's contact with Crabtree was incidental, but Jim insisted a holding penalty should have been called. Jim didn't speak to John for five days after the Super Bowl. John was on a train to New York, heading there to appear on the "Late Show with David Letterman," when he finally got a call from Jim. To this day, John believes Jim called him out of fear that his older brother would tell a national audience that he hadn't heard from him. John recalls it being a great conversation until Jim brought up the officiating. "It was kind of left at that over the years," John said. John is in his 17th season coaching the Ravens, making him the second-longest tenured coach in the league, behind only coach Mike Tomlin. Jim spent four seasons with the 49ers from 2011 to 2014 before leaving to coach at Michigan for nine years. Both usually send game film to their father, a longtime college coach who won the Division I-AA title at Western Kentucky in 2002. Jack watches the tape and calls his sons with his thoughts. Those calls with Jack have been different since January, when Jim left Michigan after winning the national championship and returned to the NFL. There is an understanding that you can't tell any team secrets to Jack, especially this past week. "It's both of them," Jack said. "They say, 'I would like to tell you this, but if there's any thought that you would share it with the other one, I'm not going to do it.'" says, "They're almost like twins." Born 15 months apart, John and Jim mirror each other, from football philosophy to wardrobe to personnel and coaching staffs. Both want to play a physical brand of football by establishing the run, typically wear ball caps and khakis on the practice field and love parroting the mantras their father shared with his players. In his first news conference, Jim told reporters, "We're going to be a tough team, a resilient team, a relentless team, a physical team; that's what we're going to aspire to be. Don't let the powder blues fool you." In postgame speeches, John has shouted to his players, "Who's got it better than us?" The similarities extend to the locker room. Jim is coaching seven of John's former players -- running backs and , center , safety , cornerback , tight end and center -- all of whom joined the Chargers after Jim became coach in January. John's backup quarterback is , who was coached by Jim at the University of San Diego. Even the coaching staffs are intertwined. Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman served as John's offensive coordinator for the Ravens (2019-22) after he was the 49ers' OC during Jim's four seasons. Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter received his first NFL job under John, serving as a Ravens defensive assistant (2017-20). Three other Chargers coaches -- Andy Bischoff (tight ends), Mike Devlin (offensive line) and Marc Trestman (senior offensive assistant) -- previously worked under John. Chargers GM Joe Hortiz also spent 26 years in the Ravens' front office, where he helped build the Super Bowl-winning team that beat Jim. When the Ravens needed a defensive backs coach this offseason, John hired Doug Mallory, a college teammate of Jim's who spent the past three seasons as a defensive analyst at Michigan. Mallory remembers being in a coaches meeting with the five years ago and being asked who was the most competitive person he knew. Mallory said Jim at the time, but he would probably include both Harbaugh brothers after working with John this year. "They don't like to lose," Mallory said. "They're going to do everything they can to win." During this year's training camp, a video of a 60-year-old Jim participating in reverse sled pulls went viral. Not to be outdone, two weeks later, the 62-year-old John joined a fumble recovery drill that involved a player jumping on the ball while others douse him with water hoses. John injured a shoulder. "They're very passionate about the game of football," Josh Johnson said. "It's the environment that they create. The winners are the workers. They're going to work you in a way where your team is going to be ready to compete and can will your way to victory." competed in billion-dollar NFL stadiums, they tried to best each other in their backyard. John and Jim played a childhood game of "chicken," firing a football at each other from increasingly close range until one of them dropped it or quit. There were also one-on-one battles in the driveway. Armed with tennis balls and hockey sticks, John and Jim took turns aiming at a goal made of chicken wire, though many of the shots ending up hitting the windows of their one-car garage. "We didn't have any pads or anything, and we would go for hours and just tabulate who could score more against the other guy," John said. "Knocked out every window eventually. I think Mom put cardboard on all those windows." Jim was the bigger and stronger athlete. He starred as quarterback at Michigan and became a starter for the Bears, Colts, Ravens and Chargers. John was a partial-scholarship defensive back at Miami (Ohio). "Jim was one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League," John said. "And I've said this many times." The Harbaughs have always had each other's backs. When John was a junior cornerback at Pioneer High in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jim was a freshman who watched from the stands, too young to play on varsity. There was a game when John was dominating, knocking down a couple of passes on out patterns. Jim sensed the opposing team was setting up John for a double move, and their father urged Jim to go tell his brother. After running down the steps, Jim yelled from the fence: "Out-and-up! Out-and-up!" When the other team tried the double move, John was all over it. "I'm glad we got to him," Jim said. Eventually, Jim made varsity, and when he threw a pass to John (who also played receiver in high school), the announcer declared, "Harbaugh to Harbaugh." "That was one of those moments that stay with me for a long time," Jackie said. The only time they played on opposing teams growing up was in baseball, as teenagers. John got recruited to play for a higher-level travel team, and Jim played for a team that was coached by their father. When they faced each other, John's team came out on top 1-0. "So I won that one, too," John said with a smile. announced its 2024 schedule in May, Jackie couldn't believe the date for the Ravens-Chargers game. It's Nov. 25, Jackie and Jack's 63rd wedding anniversary. "What the heck is the NFL trying to do here?" Jackie remembers asking. Jack and Jackie don't watch games together anymore. Jack sits in front of the upstairs TV, while Jackie watches the downstairs one. Jackie has to be on her feet when the game is on, calling plays out and criticizing the officials. Jack is the quieter one -- who has one complaint when they're in the same room. "Sometimes she gets in the line of vision where I can't see," Jack said. Upon hearing this, Jackie cried out, "For God's sake." When the Ravens and Chargers play in Los Angeles, Jack and Jackie will be in Florida with their daughter, Joani Crean, and her family. (Crean is married to former Indiana and Georgia men's basketball coach Tom Crean, currently a TV analyst for ESPN.) The plan is for everyone to watch the game together -- in the same room. Asked how her father and mother will handle this latest game between John and Jim, Joani recalls the Super Bowl when the family was in NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's box. "It was the quietest any of us have ever been watching a game," she said. "So I think I'm expecting that ... maybe." For the first time since that Super Bowl, football's greatest sibling rivalry will be rekindled. But those closest to John and Jim don't expect the same level of drama. "I guess everybody's more weathered to it," Joani said. "It's not something you circle on your calendar." Earlier this year, John told Jack that Monday night's game has to be easier on everyone because it's not the Super Bowl. This time, whatever happens, John and Jim still have a chance to lead their teams to the postseason and an NFL title. "So, when he said that, it made sense," Jack said. "I kind of shook my head and I said, 'There's probably a lot of truth to that.'"
TORONTO — Everything changed for Kia Nurse when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 WNBA playoffs. The basketball star from Hamilton was locked in as starter for a team in the semifinals. She’d been selected as an all-star just two years prior. But in one awkward fall three years ago, she was plunged into the depths of surgery and rehab. Nurse would miss the entire 2022 season due to the injury. She signed with the Seattle Storm for the 2023 campaign before a trade landed her with the Los Angeles Sparks last season. Meanwhile, Nurse represented Canada at the Paris Olympics in August, but she struggled as the team failed to reach the knockout round for the second straight time. The common thread throughout Nurse’s recent basketball journey? She just hasn’t quite felt like herself. “I still love basketball with all of my heart, and it's my favourite thing that I get to do. And I'm so privileged to be able to say that I get to do it as a job,” Nurse said. "But the last two years for me have been just really rocky, up and down.” Nurse, 28, will become a WNBA free agent as of Feb. 1. For now, she’s continuing her Raptors broadcast work with TSN and, on Monday, announced a new playing gig. In February, Nurse will join fellow WNBAers Alysha Clark and Sydney Colson among 37 others for Athletes Unlimited’s third basketball season in Nashville. Athletes Unlimited was founded as a women’s professional softball league in 2020 before expanding to basketball, volleyball and lacrosse. Its 24-game hoops campaign switches teams weekly and concludes by crowning a season-long individual champion. Players earn points through a fantasy-style system that rewards team successes like wins as well as individual accomplishments from made three-pointers to steals to drawn fouls. Outside of the unique scoring system, the game looks like traditional basketball — a major appeal to Nurse as she attempts to tap back into her roots. “I am not proud of my performance at the Olympics and not necessarily proud of how I’ve been playing over the last two years. I just have goals of finding my true love of the game and kind of coming back and being stronger physically, being more fit and just ultimately having a good year,” Nurse said. When Nurse’s career began in 2018, many WNBA players would ply their trade overseas during the off-season as a way of staying in shape and making additional money. But over the past half-decade — and perhaps expedited by Brittney Griner’s 2022 detainment in Russia — more options have emerged stateside, including Athletes Unlimited. “The (WNBA) now has a lot of the teams that have practice facilities, so they have full-time player development, practice-facility access and that's a big piece as well. But now ultimately we have these leagues at home like AU,” Nurse said. Athletes Unlimited will not be the only professional women’s basketball operation in North America this winter. A three-on-three league called Unrivaled, founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will tip off in January in Miami. Nurse said Unrivaled was an option for her, but she preferred Athletes Unlimited. “I wanted a place where I'm happy with basketball again, really happy with myself and how I'm playing and a having a little more confidence boost from what I've had over these last two years. And I feel like AU, for me, that five-on-five setting was a big piece of it,” Nurse said. The timing of the Athletes Unlimited schedule — deep enough into the WNBA off-season but with enough leeway to fine tune things before the 2025 campaign begins — also stood out to Nurse. Ahead of AU, Nurse said she moved her training from Toronto to Hamilton, where she could stay closer to home and avoid the long highway drives. And following two seasons in which Nurse’s WNBA teams suffered a combined 61 losses, she’s hoping to find a landing spot in free agency with a winning franchise. “I want to ... have an opportunity make a deep playoff run, be kind of like an X-Factor player, somebody who can go out there, be a three-and-D player, can help make winning plays,” she said. Nurse said she and fellow WNBA veteran Bridget Carleton have discussed what went wrong in Paris and how it can be fixed ahead of Los Angeles 2028. Management changes have already occurred with the retirement of GM Denise Dignard and a mutual parting with head coach Victor Lapena. The national team recently met up in Toronto for an informal training camp where Nurse and Carleton aimed to lay the groundwork for the culture they hope to create over the next four years. “Getting back to the basics and just enjoying playing for Canada Basketball, but also creating a really strong, bonded culture where everybody does what they need to do for our team to win," she said. "We understand our roles (and) we understand the commitment piece of it because now there's so much going on and people are all over the place." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2024. Myles Dichter, The Canadian Press