PARIS — Howling winds couldn’t stop Notre Dame’s heart from beating again. With three resounding knocks on its doors by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, wielding a crosier carved from fire-scorched beams, the cathedral roared back to life Saturday evening. For the first time since a blaze engulfed it in 2019, the towering Gothic masterpiece reopened for worship. Unusually fierce December winds whipping across the Île de la Cité, flanked by the River Seine, forced all the events inside. Yet the occasion lost none of its splendor. Inside the nave, choirs sang psalms, and the cathedral’s mighty organ thundered back to life in a triumphant interplay of melodies. The evening’s celebration, attended by 1,500 dignitaries, including President-elect Donald Trump , Britain’s Prince William and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, underscored Notre Dame’s role as spiritual and cultural beacon. For President Emmanuel Macron, who championed the ambitious restoration timeline, it was a rare moment of unity amid profound political crises and threats to his presidential legacy. Amid global unrest, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East , the cathedral’s resurrection emerged as a symbol of resilience and unity. “Notre Dame is not just a French monument — it is a magnificent sign of hope,” said its rector, the Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas. “What seemed impossible has become possible.” Ukrainian pastor Andriy Morkvas, attending his first Mass at Notre Dame in more than a decade, found hope in the cathedral’s rebirth. “God is powerful; he can change things,” he said. “I hope Notre Dame and Mary will help resolve our conflict.” Guests entered through Notre Dame’s iconic western façade, whose arched portals adorned with biblical carvings were once a visual guide for medieval believers. Above the central Portal of the Last Judgment, the Archangel Michael is depicted weighing souls, as demons attempt to tip the scales. In the restoration, more than 50,000 square yards of stonework — an area equal to six soccer fields — were cleaned, revealing luminous limestone and intricate carvings long cloaked in soot. Above the nave, 2,000 oak beams, nicknamed “the forest,” were used to rebuild the spire and roof, restoring the cathedral’s iconic silhouette. The ceremony began with Ulrich symbolically reopening Notre Dame’s grand wooden doors, tapping them three times with his fire-scarred crosier. A prerecorded concert featured luminaries such as pianist Lang Lang, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and soprano Pretty Yende. Their performances offered a message of harmony, celebrating the cathedral’s role as a sanctuary of faith and art. Personal stories of faith punctuated the evening. Huguette Euphrasie, attending with her cancer-stricken mother, gazed at the cathedral’s illuminated towers. “It has huge spiritual value for me,” she said. “It’s very moving.” For Patricia and Cyrille Brenner, who traveled overnight from Cannes, the reopening felt like a pilgrimage. “The fire was a call to renew our faith,” Cyrille said. For Macron, the reopening offered a rare reprieve from political turmoil. Just days earlier, his government collapsed in a historic no-confidence vote, plunging France into uncertainty. The achievement of restoring Notre Dame within five years — a timeline dismissed as overly ambitious by many — was a political win for Macron. Macron described the reopening as “a jolt of hope.” Security was tight, with police vans and soldiers in body armor patrolling embankments, while a special detail followed President-elect Donald Trump. Public viewing areas along the Seine accommodated 40,000 spectators, who watched the ceremonies unfold on large screens. After the reopening, the cathedral is expected to welcome 15 million visitors annually, up from 12 million before the fire. As the evening drew to a close, the cathedral stood as a testament to what collective will and faith can achieve. “It’s the soul of Paris,” Dumas said. “And tonight, its heart beats again.” Adamson and Leicester write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Sylvie Corbet, Yesica Brumec, Marine Lesprit and Mark Carlson in Paris contributed to this report .AP News Summary at 5:17 p.m. EST
Apple plans to stop selling the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and third-generation iPhone SE in European Union countries later this month, to comply with a regulation that will soon require newly-sold smartphones with wired charging to be equipped with a USB-C port in those countries, according to French blog iGeneration . All three of these iPhone models are still equipped with a Lightning port for wired charging. In a paywalled report today, the website said the iPhone models will no longer be sold through Apple's online store and retail stores in the European Union as of December 28, which is when the regulation goes into force. Apple may begin phasing out the iPhones even earlier in Switzerland, which has a close relationship with the European Union market. There, the report states that the devices will be removed from Apple's online store as of December 20. Apple Authorized Resellers in the European Union will be able to continue selling these iPhones until their remaining inventory is depleted, the report added. Apple plans to stop selling some other Lightning-based products in the European Union as well, including its extended Magic Keyboard without Touch ID , according to the report. That keyboard is still equipped with a Lightning port for charging. There are 27 countries in the European Union, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. While the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, the report said Apple will stop selling the devices in Northern Ireland, which continues to follow many of the European Union's trade laws. As far as the source of this information, the report said Apple shared these details with its relevant internal teams. Apple did not respond to our requests for comment, but we will update this story if the company confirms or denies the report. According to a guide published by the European Union in 2022, the USB-C port regulation will apply to any individual iPhone that is placed on the market after the regulation goes into force, even if they are models that launched beforehand, like the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and the current iPhone SE. At a minimum, that means Apple would not be able to sell any iPhones with a Lightning port manufactured after December 28. The relevant passage from the guide: Even though a product model or type has been supplied before new Union harmonization legislation laying down new mandatory requirements entered into force, individual units of the same model or type, which are placed on the market after the new requirements have become applicable, must comply with these new requirements. While the European Union has suggested that the regulation does not prevent existing stock from being sold, which explains why Apple Authorized Resellers would be able to sell through their remaining inventory, it is not entirely clear to us how the regulation applies to any iPhones that Apple may have already stockpiled in factories. In any case, the report said that Apple's decision is to stop selling the devices soon. Apple is expected to announce a fourth-generation iPhone SE with a USB-C port in March , so the device would quickly return to the European Union. Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus likely would have been discontinued in September, so sales of those devices would be ending in the European Union around nine months early.CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Bill Belichick spent time after his NFL exit talking with college coaches wanting his thoughts on managing new wrinkles at their level that looked a lot like the pros. The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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There was a time not all that long ago when the United States would be seeking clearly to drive and define a particular narrative and outcome for the events unfolding in the Middle East. Seeking to mould events to its own benefit has been a central tenet of American foreign policy. But the remarkable and fast-moving developments in Syria, come at an unusual moment for America. In Washington DC, there is a vacuum of leadership. We are in the midst of the transition between President and president-elect President Biden is still running things at the White House but his ability to influence events in the Middle East, if he is even inclined to, has been shown to be limited. He is the lamest of lame duck presidents. Mr Trump does not become president until 20 January and so is unable officially to do anything. And yet he is already THE leading player on the world stage right now. What he does (and doesn't do) and what he says (and doesn't say) carries enormous weight. - invited by President Emmanuel Macron - is as important as it is remarkable. I can't think of a precedent; a moment in recent history where a president-elect would hold such influence. Of the events in Syria, the Biden White House has said only that the administration is closely monitoring developments. Donald Trump however, on social media, on brand, has declared his hand. " is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!" he wrote. On President Bashar al Assad's fate, his words were only marginally ambiguous. It "may actually be the best thing" for Mr Assad to be toppled, he said. Mr Trump will not take over as president for another six weeks. And yet already it feels like he is more of a player and moulder of global events (because of what he does and doesn't choose to do and say) than at any time in his last presidency. There's another difference this time too. During Mr Trump's last presidency, there were powerful European counterbalances. But now, Angela Merkel is long gone and Mr Macron is weak, despite his diplomatic masterstroke in inviting Mr Trump to Paris.
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Timothée Chalamet is an Oscar-nominated actor who has brought to life a diverse set of characters such as Willy Wonka , space saga messiah Paul Atreides in the "Dune" films , and even an embodiment of Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown," coming to theaters later this month. But he's not really known as much of a sports fan – evidently he follows the New York Knicks and Mets, The Sporting News says – so his selection as a panelist on ESPN's College GameDay Saturday may have seemed somewhat softball. Wrong. Add football analyst to Chalamet's resume because he wowed not only fellow panelists but also viewers with his picks and reasoning. Chalamet quickly got fellow panelists Pat McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit's attention with his first pick: Jackson State over Southern in the Southwest Athletic Conference championship. "I'm going Jackson State. Eight wins in a row. 11 all-conference players. It should be a comfortable easy win for them," Chalamet said. WNBA: Golden State Valkyries pick their players for 2025 in WNBA expansion draft. See list "This guy's a great actor," declared panelist Desmond Howard.Referring to Chalamet, Herbstreit added, "He said, 'I only got six picks. I'm bringing the heat.'" College GameDay's X account posted a highlight reel of Chalamet's picks and analysis on games ranging from the SWAC Championship to the SEC title game. "ELITE BALL KNOWLEDGE," the account noted. The actor maintained his moxie with his assessment of the Mid-American Conference championship matchup : Ohio University Bobcats vs. Miami (Ohio) RedHawks. "These teams are 2-2 in the last four matchups. The RedHawks' defense looks good but I'm looking at 4th year Bobcats quarterback Parker Navarro (who has a) 65% completion rate," Chalamet said. "If he can get going it will tilt this in favor of the Bobcats. I'm going underdog Bobcats here." Chalamet references 'movie dad' Matthew McConaughey Chalamet upset University of Georgia fans crowding around the GameDay set in Atlanta ahead of the afternoon's SEC Championship game when he chose the University of Texas Longhorns over the Bulldogs. "You know it's hard to beat the same team twice," he said, referring to Georgia's 30-15 win over Texas two months ago. "Adjustments are made. It's like a game of chess," Chalamet continued. "(Former Alabama) Coach (Nick) Saban knows this better than anyone on this dais. Listen, I'm going with my movie dad (and "Interstellar" co-star Matthew) McConaughey," a noted Longhorns fan who often prowls the Texas sideline during games. 'I'm sorry to everybody here (in predicting) a Longhorns victory," Chalemet said, but showed a Hook 'em Horns sign with his right hand. Chalamet – who also put up $400,000 for the show's field goal challenge – certainly didn't disappoint viewers at home who quickly took to social media to pronounce the actor's football knowledge. Earlier this week when Chalamet's appearance was announced, many were skeptical. "That man has never watched a college football game in his life ..." posted one person on X. "You couldn't find a famous football fan that went to Georgia or Texas," another asked. The fact Disney owns ESPN and Searchlight Pictures, which is releasing "A Complete Unknown," was brought up as the obvious connection. "LISAN AL GAIB!" declared the College GameDay X account on Thursday. "Timothée Chalamet is joining us in Atlanta as this weekend's guest picker." After Chalamet's performance, many were happy to eat crow and Chalamet's name became a trending topic on X . "I’ve never been more wrong about anything in my life than I was about Timothee Chalamet college football knowledge. Im speechless. This guy knows ball," one viewer posted on X . Another noted that only Chalamet on the panel chose Ohio to beat Miami (Ohio) before the Bobcats went up big in the third quarter. Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider . What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day