Bill Belichick confirms talks with UNC, maps out vision for college football program
Youngkin: We're making progress combating fentanyl deathsOWINGS MILLS , Md. — Asked if there was any special meaning to playing on Christmas for a second straight season, Lamar Jackson paused for several seconds before answering. That said it all. “I mean, it is,” he finally replied, trying to be diplomatic. “That means we're good, but at the same time, I do want to celebrate at home sometimes with my family now. I don't want to be playing on Christmas all the time — not all the time.” That sentiment seemed common among the Baltimore Ravens players this week as they prepared for their second consecutive Christmas road game. Jackson and his teammates will face the Houston Texans on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the Kansas City Chiefs play at Pittsburgh. Games on Christmas aren't new to the NFL. The Miami Dolphins famously beat the Chiefs in a playoff game on Dec. 25, 1971 — a double-overtime classic that still holds the record for the NFL's longest game. In 2020, New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara tied an NFL record with six touchdowns in a game when the Saints beat Minnesota on Christmas. Lately, however, the league has been much more aggressive about scheduling games on Christmas. There were three last year on a Monday, and this week there are two. The four teams in action this Wednesday all played this past Saturday, giving them a little more time to prepare. But each is still wrapping up a stretch of three games in 11 days. And for Baltimore and Kansas City — the teams spending the holiday on the road — this means a bit of a scramble to find time to celebrate with loved ones. “Santa hasn’t come yet, but as far as my family, we traded gifts (over the weekend),” Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “(His wife) Brittany’s a champ because I’m not there to help build the toys my family got, and the kids have opened up every single one of them.” The Chiefs are playing on Christmas for a second year in a row, although they were at home last season. Baltimore tackle Ronnie Stanley said there is an offensive line Christmas party planned for Friday at center Tyler Linderbaum's house. Jackson’s plan is to celebrate on Thursday. “I already celebrated Christmas with my family this past week," Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton said. "It’s more about the thought of calling people Christmas morning and just going out there and being able to go out in front of my whole family and do what I love. That’s how I’ll celebrate.” The Ravens also have celebrated a bit as a group already. “We actually had a team dinner last night here, which was really neat. And our chefs were incredible (with) what they put out there, so that was fun,” coach John Harbaugh said Monday. "And we are going to have the ability for family members from the Houston area to come over for the team snack after we do a walkthrough (Tuesday) night.” Don't expect Christmas games to go away any time soon. Netflix agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Playing on the holiday certainly gives teams a chance to be in the spotlight, although the Chiefs and Ravens already get plenty of that. The Ravens-Texans game features a halftime performance by Beyoncé. “Wasn't there a time when somebody was out peeking outside the locker room door during the Super Bowl or something like that? Was there some story on that?” Harbaugh said. “He got in trouble for it? There will be big trouble. I like Beyoncé, though. I can't say I'm a huge Beyoncé fan, but I think I like her.” (Harbaugh was referring to Bengals kicker Evan McPherson during the Super Bowl in 2022 when he watched Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar perform at halftime in Los Angeles.) Jackson, seemingly unaware of Harbaugh's attempt to lay down the law about the halftime show, arrived at the microphone immediately after the coach. “I'm going to go out there and watch,” the star quarterback said. “First time seeing Beyoncé perform, and it's at our game — that's dope. I'm going to go out and watch. Sorry Harbaugh, sorry fellas.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflRob Cross hails Scots manager with 'no bulls***' style for saving his darts career
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired center Philip Tomasino from the Nashville Predators in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2027 draft. The move gives the struggling Penguins another young player to work with as the franchise tries to emerge from its roughest start in two decades. The 23-year-old Tomasino had one point in 11 games this season for Nashville. The former first-round pick in the 2019 draft had 23 goals and 48 assists in 159 games for the Predators since reaching the NHL during the 2021-22 season. The Penguins sent a fourth-rounder that belonged to the New York Rangers to Nashville for Tomasino. Pittsburgh is off to its worst start in nearly two decades. The Penguins are dead last in the Metropolitan Division and their minus-34 goal differential is the worst in the NHL. While there have been occasional bright spots — star captain Sidney Crosby becoming the latest member of the 600-goal club. General manager Kyle Dubas is starting to lean into an overdue youth movement for one of the league’s oldest teams. He sent veteran center Lars Eller to Washington in exchange for multiple draft picks.Ohtani wins third AP Male Athlete of the Year award
Alienware's most recent Black Friday deal is a good one. As part of the Alienware Black Friday Sale , Dell (which owns the Alienware brand) is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 4070 Ti Super gaming PC for only $1,499.99 with free shipping after a $600 instant discount. This is currently the least expensive Black Friday deal on an RTX 4070 Ti gaming PC so far . The RTX 4070 Ti GPU is powerful enough to handle gaming at up to 4K at a solid 60fps, even with the recently released games like Black Myth: Wukong or Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. This Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC features an Intel Core i7-14700F CPU, RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU, 16GB of DDR5-1600MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. The Intel Core i7-14700F Raptor Lake Refresh CPU boasts a max clock of 5.4GHz with 20 cores, 28 threads, and a 33MB cache. If you plan to use this PC as a gaming rig, then an i7 is a better choice in terms of value than an i9. Performance is nearly identical because games cannot utilize the extra cores that the i9 has and at higher resolutions, games are almost always GPU-bound. The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super is about 10% more powerful than the RTX 4070 Ti. This is a great card for gaming at any resolution, from 1080p all the way to 4K. At 1080p and 1440p you'll be able to achieve 144fps or beyond in most games, so it's a great complement to FHD or QHD monitors capable of achieving high refresh rates. 4K is a much more demanding resolution, but you should still be able to run most games at a consistent 60fps. The RTX 4070 Ti Super also has more VRAM than the RTX 4070 Ti (16GB vs 12GB), which means it's a great economical option for AI work. A note on Alienware's newest "R16" desktop chassis The R16 is Alienware's current 2024 desktop PC design. It's 40% smaller in volume compared to previous iterations. It features a simple yet proven airflow pattern; air is drawn in through the side intake vents over the GPU area and a 120mm fan at the front of the case, and exhausts by way of a 120mm rear fan and two 120mm top fans. A 240mm radiator for the all-in-one liquid cooling system is mounted to these top fans. Some configurations don't actually include the liquid cooling system, but we rarely include them in this roundup. That's because Alienware's liquid cooling solution is far superior to their stock air cooling and is easily worth the price premium. Alienware isn't the only brand that's on sale for Black Friday. Check out all of the best gaming PC deals from vendors like Best Buy , Amazon , and Walmart . If you want to stick with an OEM manufacturer, HP has a Black Friday Sale going on. In most cases, we would say that Black Friday has the best deals of the year . Dell, however, is quite the opposite. Dell likes to push its best Black Friday deals well in advance of Black Friday, sometimes even as early as October. There are very specific "doorbuster" deals that go live on Black Friday, but they aren't necessarily on gaming PCs. If you find a great deal on a configuration that's exactly what you're looking for at a price you're happy with, you should jump on it early. Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Aztecs Use Early Run to Surge Ahead of No. 21 Creighton, Win Opener at Players Era Festival
( MENAFN - IANS) Washington, Dec 25 (IANS) US President-elect Donald trump slammed outgoing President Joe Biden's decision to commute the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. "Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country. When you hear the acts of each, you won't believe that he did this. Makes no sense," Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. Trump's remarks came one day after Biden made the announcement that he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole, Xinhua news agency reported. "Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss," Biden said in a statement. "But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level," Biden said. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted," said the outgoing President. In another post Tuesday, Trump said that as soon as he is inaugurated, he will direct the Justice Department to "vigorously pursue the death penalty" to protect American families and children from "violent rapists, murderers, and monsters." "We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!" Trump said. The commutations are only for the 37 facing federal death penalty and not in the States. There are in all - including those on death row in the states - 2250 prisoners on death row across the US, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, a non-profit organisation that says its mission is to serve the media, policymakers, and the general public with data and analysis on issues concerning capital punishment and the people it affects. MENAFN24122024000231011071ID1109028628 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the criminal charges against President-elect Donald Trump that accused him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election and to abandon the classified documents case against him, citing longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. The decision by special counsel Jack Smith, who had fiercely sought to hold Mr Trump criminally accountable for his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, represented the end of the federal effort against the former president following his election victory this month despite the election-related cases and multiple other unrelated criminal charges against him. The move, announced in court papers, marks the end of the Justice Department’s landmark effort to hold Mr Trump accountable for what prosecutors called a criminal conspiracy to cling to power in the run-up to his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021. The Justice Department says that Donald Trump cannot be tried in accordance with a policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted (Evan Vucci/AP) Mr Smith’s team emphasised that the move to abandon the prosecutions, in federal courts in Washington and Florida, was not a reflection of their view on the merits of the cases but rather a reflection of their commitment to longstanding department policy. “That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind,” the prosecutors wrote in Monday’s court filing in the election interference case. The decision was expected after Mr Smith’s team began assessing how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case in the wake of Mr Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. The Justice Department believes Trump can no longer be tried in accordance with longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. Mr Trump has cast both cases as politically motivated and has vowed to fire Mr Smith as soon as he takes office in January. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP) However, it quickly stalled amid legal fighting over Mr Trump’s sweeping claims of immunity from prosecution for acts he took while in the White House. The US Supreme Court in July ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, and sent the case back to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which allegations in the indictment, if any, could proceed to trial. The case was just beginning to pick up steam again in the trial court in the weeks leading up to this year’s election. Mr Smith’s team filed a lengthy brief in October laying out new evidence they planned to use against him at trial, accusing him of “resorting to crimes” in an increasingly desperate effort to overturn the will over voters after he lost to President Joe Biden.
Charlotte Flair is recognized as a 16-time world champion in WWE and one title reign from breaking the record. Appearing on Busted Open Radio (per Fightful ), Ric Flair commented on the significance of his daughter breaking the record. “It’s time. John Cena doesn’t want to break the record, he doesn’t given a shit about that. John is in a different world now. Wrestling will always be his passion, but he doesn’t care about beating (the record). I still think the biggest thing in the business, when it happens, it’ll be a real game changer, just like she is in real life, is her breaking the title record or even tying it. I believe it’s in the cards. I can look at the show and watch. It’s a woman’s world now and she’s the best woman’s wrestler alive. I think maybe this time off, as unfortunate as it was because of the severity of the injury, I think she’s been able to look back and realize just how damn good she is. I guarantee, when she walks back in the door at whatever show, SmackDown or Raw, it’s a game changer. I would bet $10,000 that the first match she wrestles, if it’s a good opponent, would get a rating that will be the highest women’s rating in a long time in a singles match,” he said.
The spokesperson of the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, Paul Ibe, has stated that any qualified Nigerian has the constitutional right to contest the 2027 presidential election. Naija News reported that Akume, who spoke on Sunday while featuring on a TVC programme, advised Atiku and other northern political bigwigs to shelve the ambition of contesting for the 2027 presidency and wait till 2031. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, Ibe said it was wrong for Akume to kidnap the ambitions of Atiku and other northers because of the second-term interest of his principal, President Bola Tinubu. Ibe also stated that since Nigeria’s return to democracy in May 1999, the north had ruled the country for 11 years, while by 2027, the south would have been in power for 17 years, which he claimed was not in tandem with the rule of equity and fairness. He said, “It appeared that Akume’s job in that particular interview was very clear: kidnap the aspiration of Atiku Abubakar and any other northerner and that was very irresponsible of him. “The north has the right to present itself for election in 2027. It is wrong for SGF Akume to kidnap the ambition of the northerners. “The reality as I speak is that the south has ruled for 17 years versus the 11 years of the north.” Paul Ibe questioned the desperation of Tinubu’s administration, especially when Nigeria is at a crossroads measuring core indices of food inflation, cost of doing business, and cost of living crisis, among others. He said, “ Must we be playing politics with their wellbeing? Why must we reward a student who does not pass his exam with a promotion? “Why the desperation of the Tinubu administration to be talking about 2027 when they have not completed 2024? 2025 beckons and 2026. Two more years to impact on the lives of Nigerians. “Why are they so desperate? Every calculation is focused on 2027 so the question is when will they have time for governance? “What we are getting now, is that the best that we Southerners have to offer?” Ibe said contrary to insinuations that Atiku is not physically fit for the rigour of the president’s office, his principal is very healthy and sound in mind.Nordstrom tops Wall Street’s earnings expectations, as shoppers buy more clothes and shoes