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��Rtݵ_���K��6׷M���J>b��6����ݚ:A hundred years ago | Soviet to take in non-CommunistsMohamed Salah extended Liverpool’s perfect Champions League record as they won 1-0 at Girona to claim a sixth victory out of six. Salah nervelessly converted a 63rd-minute penalty, his 16th goal of the season, after French referee Benoit Bastien had been advised to take another look at Donny van de Beek’s clumsy challenge on Luis Diaz. In the process, he became just the 11th man to score 50 goals in the competition – Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe later also joined that exclusive club – on a night when victory at the Estadi Montilivi meant the six-time European champions will enter 2025 sitting proudly at the top of the table. ⭐️ A ???? STAR PERFORMANCE ⭐️ #FCBayern #MiaSanMia | #SHAFCB #UCL pic.twitter.com/WELoxugaGn — FC Bayern (@FCBayernEN) December 10, 2024 England international Michael Olise produced a moment of magic to set the seal on Bayern Munich’s demolition of Shakhtar Donetsk and ease them towards the knockout stage. Olise’s brilliant stoppage-time run and finish capped a 5-1 victory for the Germans, in which he had early scored from the penalty spot, in Gelsenkirchen. Kevin’s fifth-minute strike had given the home side the perfect start, but Konrad Laimer levelled before Thomas Muller’s 55th goal in the competition sent the visitors in ahead at the break and set the stage for Olise’s double either side of Jamal Musiala’s strike. Jude Bellingham breathed life back into Real Madrid’s campaign as they held off Atalanta to earn a 3-2 victory in Bergamo. ? @BellinghamJude ? #UCL pic.twitter.com/jTynK04akR — Real Madrid C.F. ???? (@realmadriden) December 10, 2024 After Charles De Ketelaere had cancelled out Mbappe’s opener from the penalty spot, second-half goals from Vinicius Junior and Bellingham in quick succession put the visitors in charge, although Ademola Lookman’s 65th-minute strike meant the contest was alive until the final whistle. Ross Barkley took Aston Villa a step closer to automatic qualification with a late winner against RB Leipzig in Germany. Villa had led twice through John McGinn and Jhon Duran, but equalisers from Lois Openda and Christoph Baumgartner kept Leipzig in it until substitute Barkley struck five minutes from time to snatch a 3-2 victory. Goals from Goncalo Ramos, Nuno Mendes and substitute Desire Doue – his first in the competition – handed French champions Paris St Germain a much-needed three points after a comfortable 3-0 win at RB Salzburg. He’s making a list and checking it twiceB04 won and Nordi scored – nice! ? pic.twitter.com/8bs6FGUaHz — Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) December 10, 2024 Nordi Mukiele left it late to end Inter Milan’s unbeaten Champions League record as Bayer Leverkusen claimed a dramatic 1-0 victory at the BayArena. Mukiele struck in the 90th minute to inflict a first defeat across six games in this season’s competition on the Serie A champions – it was also the first goal they have conceded. Casper Nielsen came off the bench to fire Club Brugge to a 2-1 home victory over Sporting Lisbon after Eduardo Quaresma’s own goal had handed them a way back into the game following Geny Catamo’s early opener. Julien Le Cardinal’s first-half strike was enough to handed Brest a 1-0 victory over Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven, while Kasper Schmeichel’s save from Marko Pjaca’s close-range 80th-minute header ensured Celtic returned from Dinamo Zagreb with a 0-0 draw.

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Who is Jeanette Núñez? The first in line to replace Ron DeSantis as Florida governorWhen Comcast swallowed NBC and Universal Studios 14 years ago, the sibling cable channels USA Network, Bravo and CNBC were considered diamonds in the rough. USA Network had gained traction with its ”Blue Skies” programming strategy: sunny and upbeat TV programs infused with a buoyant energy and natural light. The cable channels were NBCUniversal’s equivalent of blue skies, routinely delivering three-quarters of the company’s profit. In 2012, cable networks threw off a robust $3.3 billion in cash flow. Times have changed. Comcast this week announced its plans to jettison all but one cable channel into a separate, stand-alone publicly traded company that will take shape over the next year. “This is a reminder that the cable television network business is yesterday’s news,” analyst Craig Moffett said Wednesday. “If it feels like Comcast is shedding itself of an albatross — that’s because it is.” For now, Comcast’s cable channels remain a viable business by generating $7 billion in annual revenue. But you have only to look at the properties the Philadelphia cable giant is keeping to see how the top brass has picked future winners and losers in a fast-changing media landscape. Comcast will hold on to the NBC broadcast network, with its NBC News and NBC Sports units, along with its prolific Los Angeles-based Universal film and television studios, Universal Studios theme parks, local TV stations, including KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, and streaming service Peacock, which now has 36 million subscribers. The lone cable outlet set to remain within NBCUniversal is Bravo, which has a bold brand, cultural cachet and the “Real Housewives” franchises. Company executives reviewed data that showed NBC and Bravo shows had strong viewership on Peacock, insiders said. The spinoff company will be composed of the remainder of the cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Syfy, E! and the Golf Channel as well as digital properties, including Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and SportsEngine. Comcast’s move is the strongest sign yet of alarm reverberating throughout Hollywood’s traditional companies. Cable channels have long been a key economic pillar by generating billions of dollars in cable distribution fees that more than covered up the misses when big-budget movies flopped or during advertising recessions. No more. Rampant cord-cutting has roiled the television business and linear cable channels — once a mighty draw for couch-potato viewing — have become endangered species. Industry executives privately acknowledge that they unintentionally contributed to the erosion by making cable channels less appealing — stuffed with endless sitcom reruns, dated movies and extended commercial breaks, contributing to the rise of on-demand streaming services. Millions of consumers have switched to streaming platforms that offer fewer commercials, or none at all, and lower subscription prices. In the first six months of the year, an additional 4 million customer homes dropped pay-TV, according to a recent MoffettNathanson report. That’s a 30 percent decline since 2012, when there were more than 100 million pay-TV homes in the U.S. Consumers also can cancel streaming services with a click of a button — without haggling with a customer service representative at a pay-TV company call center. The toll has been enormous. Thousands of entertainment company workers have been laid off in the last four years in seemingly endless waves of restructuring. Traditional media companies have struggled to shore up their slumping stock prices. In August, Warner Bros. Discovery took a $9-billion write-down on the value of its basic cable portfolio, which includes CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network. That same month, Paramount Global wrote down $6 billion in value for its cable channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, VH-1 and Comedy Central. Pay-TV channel blackouts have become more common. And pioneering satellite TV company DirecTV two months ago announced its plan to buy competing Dish Networks for $1 . That merger is expected to face regulators’ scrutiny. More separations and roll-ups may be coming. Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav has telegraphed his desire to wheel or deal assets now that President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to take office. Zaslav’s company is desperate to pay down debt taken on two years ago when the smaller Discovery merged with WarnerMedia, relieving AT&T of its entertainment headache. Although Comcast’s move is bold, the reckoning began seven years ago after Netflix had become the go-to destination for younger viewers. That’s also when Rupert Murdoch, the now 93-year-old media baron, decided to sell much of 21st Century Fox to Walt Disney Co. Some investors and analysts believe the $71-billion price for the Fox assets was wildly overvalued. Since then, Disney has taken steps to de-emphasize cable distribution , and the Burbank powerhouse is planning to launch ESPN directly to consumers next year — a move that many in the industry believe will mark the tipping point for the cable channel business. “Comcast is accelerating this pressure [in the cable business] with its success with Peacock, which makes the legacy pay-TV model with multi-channel bundling of cable networks a much more difficult prospect going forward,” Raymond James analyst Frank G. Louthan wrote in a note Wednesday. Comcast executives say they are not entirely pulling the plug on their cable channel business, noting that the new company will have resources to buy additional channels or other properties. “The company will have significant cash flow, a strong balance sheet, and the financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities, both organically and potentially through acquisitions,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said in a note to employees. The spinoff company, which doesn’t yet have a name, will continued to be controlled by Brian Roberts, chair of Comcast. Mark Lazarus, who currently serves as chair of NBCUniversal Media Group, will shift to the new company as its chief executive. Comcast shareholders will receive stock in the new company in tax-free transactions. Moffett, the analyst, said the cable channel company will face considerable challenges maintaining the channels’ position in the pay-TV and advertising markets. “This [spinoff] is good news for investors but it’s not a guaranteed success,” Moffett said. “We’ve seen this movie before with Viacom and CBS. Separating the broadcast network from the cable channels could leave the cable channels adrift.” In 2006, the late mogul Sumner Redstone split his media empire consisting of the cable channels and the Paramount film studio. CBS forged forward with its broadcast network, television studio, Showtime and a book publishing house. Five years ago, Redstone’s daughter, Shari, reunified the company . In July, she decided to unload the entire enterprise, now called Paramount Global, to the Larry Ellison family . That transaction also faces a regulatory review. Moffett and other analysts say the spinoff company could struggle to maintain the size of distribution fees that Comcast was able to wrangle from pay-TV operators, thanks to the muscle of NBC and its marquee program, “Sunday Night Football.” Some analysts wonder whether Comcast is preparing the cable channels to be absorbed by another company or a private equity firm. “It looks like this is set up for (another) transaction,” Moffett said of the Comcast spin.Bill Belichick selected this touchdown as his favorite Tom Brady Patriots play

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As president-elect Donald Trump considers Ron DeSantis to lead the Pentagon, many Floridians may be wondering: Who will be governor if he takes the job? The answer is Jeanette Núñez.

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LINCOLN — Young men, start your engines. Rev ‘em up, too. You’re the 2025 Nebraska football recruiting class — 20 strong — and probably should have been the story of NU’s Signing Day press conference. But you were at least the third story, and maybe fourth, behind the coaches who left, the ex-Huskers who hit the transfer portal and perhaps the players your school might take from the transfer portal. When you started high school, back in 2021, there was still some pageantry around this day, in late December though it may have been. Now, first week of December, you’re practically a doctor’s appointment squeezed into a Wednesday afternoon. You’re rookies in a sea of perpetual free agents. Most of you are enrolling early and that’s a good thing; the quicker you learn the playbook and hit the weight room, the better chance you’ll have to impress coaches. Coach Matt Rhule thinks you’ll succeed in that effort, as well. He likes you guys. For a couple of you, Dawson Merritt and Cortez Mills, he and his staff kept going back to the well again and again to flip you from Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively. How often does Nebraska beat those two schools for any recruit? This could be one of the strongest Husker recruiting classes in years. “We’ve got some guys who can come in and play early,” Rhule said, “because this class is going to have to come in and play early.” Hear that? He means it. Rhule has playing time to offer. For the 2025 team to win big, some of you have to step into major roles. On defense, so many seniors exhausted their eligibility, and so many other guys hit the transfer portal, that the coaches will be choosing between, say, sophomores, redshirt freshmen and, well, you. On offense, your coordinator is Dana Holgorsen, and he surely doesn’t care how old you are. At the skill spots, he’ll play whoever competes the best. Of course, he also said on NU’s in-house Signing Day special that he’s bringing “20 or 30” transfers in for visits and selecting the best from that pool. Maybe Holgo’s exaggerating. Do you want to test him? So you need to impress these guys. In an era of revenue sharing, NIL and unlimited transfers, you might get two spring camps to develop on a roster before you’re asked to be a key contributor. Three, maybe, if you’re a quarterback or a raw offensive tackle. After that, you’re a revenue-sharing dollar figure on a spreadsheet that might be replaced by another rookie — or transfer. Yeah, it is cutthroat. This isn’t 1986. Or even 2006, perhaps the golden age of the prep recruiting era, when the recruiting sites got big, the all-star games got max publicity, ESPN had a big blowout special in early February and drama practically dragged into the start of the next spring camp. It was hard to transfer back then even once, particularly if the coach wanted to block your release or you didn’t have a redshirt season to sit out one year of eligibility. In 2006, if seven guys left in December, before a bowl game, it was a mass exodus — cause for concern at the health of the program. In 2024, seven guys leaving is called “Monday and Tuesday.” And here you are in the midst of the chaos, not knowing for sure what the college football system will look like in 2025, much less 2027. You probably wouldn’t have teed it up this way. But here’s your swing. Over the next nine months, you’d be wise to make an impression. Good thing you can, Dawson Merritt. Nebraska needs a versatile edge rusher who can drop into coverage, and Princewill Umanmielen, athletic as he may be, did not quite develop into that guy before hitting the transfer portal. Ditto, Christian Jones. You looked the part at linebacker for years leading the state’s best defense, and Mikai Gbayor just hit the transfer portal. Can you step into a role quickly? Same for you, Jamarion Parker. At running back, you can turn an eight-yard run into an 80-yarder, and that’s a skill Nebraska sorely needs. Malcolm Simpson and Kade Pietrzak, you’ve seen this program is unafraid to plug a freshman defensive lineman into a game. Your frames seem sturdy enough to play. Cortez Mills and Isaiah Mozee, you’re four-star receivers who flashed electric run-after-the-catch skills in high school. Bring those to campus like Jacory Barney did, and you might play as much as Jacory Barney has. TJ Lateef, you’re a quarterback and may have to wait your turn behind Dylan Raiola, but you’ll likely be doing so as Raiola’s backup, given Rhule’s openness to moving Heinrich Haarberg to different spots. Some of you need time with the nutrition and weight staffs — 18-year-old tackles rarely walk into a program ready to block 23-year-olds — but those guys are the exception at every school. Most of you will play, or transfer, by this rule: When you’re getting compensated more than anyone 10 years ago could have imagined, the standards for keeping that salary rapidly change. You’re a recruiting class full of promise and opportunity. You’ll face a heap of the other thing, too, though. “There’s bunch of these guys we expect to play,” Rhule said. “You don’t want to put that on the guys until they get here, but I want them to have the expectation.” Even if you don’t, the coaches will. Get local news delivered to your inbox!