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Adventures on special teams made the Washington-Dallas showdown a clumsy affair, yet Joe Davis and Greg Olsen saw to it that the broadcast of the chaotic finish was pure gold. After Terry McLaurin weaved his way past five defenders for an 86-yard touchdown catch from Jayden Daniels to cut the Cowboys lead to 27-26 with 21 seconds left, Fox's No. 2 broadcast crew captured the chaos before admonishing the audience not to count on anything as a certainty on this helter-skelter afternoon. "Lightning strikes twice in Washington!" Davis shouted in an homage to Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown that stunned the Bears last month. "They dropped 11 guys in coverage," Olsen marveled. "If they just tackle him inbounds the game is over. I don't even know what to say. I'm absolutely speechless." Not for long he wasn't. Olsen quickly cautioned the audience that "Automatic" Austin Siebert had already missed an extra point along with a field goal Sunday in his return from a right hip injury. "Before anyone in Washington gets too fired up, remember, we've seen a missed PAT already," Olsen said. "Yeah, you hold your breath with anything special teams-related on this day," Davis agreed. After all, this was the first game in NFL history to feature two kickoff returns for touchdowns, two errant extra points and a blocked punt. In the 41-point fourth quarter that erased the game's snoozer status, Washington allowed KaVontae Turpin's 99-yard kickoff return for a score. Earlier, the Cowboys missed a field goal and saw another one blocked along with a punt. Sure enough, the snap was low ... the hold was better ... "It is no good!" Davis hollered. "And the worst special teams day in history has a fitting finish!" Actually, no. More ruckus remained. Siebert's onside kick bounced twice in front of safety Juanyeh Thomas, who gathered it in and returned it 43 yards for Dallas' second kickoff return for a touchdown. If Thomas takes a knee short of the goal line, he effectively seals the Cowboys' win. Instead, the score, while pushing Dallas' lead to 34-26, also left enough time for Daniels and the Commanders for a shot at yet another miracle touchdown. Austin Ekeler returned the kickoff to the Washington 36 and after a short gain, Daniels' Hail Mary was intercepted by Israel Mukuamu as time expired. And that's how what Davis called the "worst special teams day in NFL history" came to an end. "What a wild special teams moment of blocked punts, kicks, kickoff returns, blocked field goals," Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. In keeping with the not-so-special-teams theme, there were several foibles in the kicking game across the NFL in Week 12, where the Broncos gave up a 34-yard pass completion on a fake punt that Denver coach Sean Payton swore the team saw coming — and not as it was unfolding, either, but five days earlier. "We met Tuesday as a staff. It wasn't a matter of if, it was when they were going to run a fake punt," Payton said. "You're struggling as a team like this, we had it on the keys to victory, so credit them, they executed it." Thanks to AJ Cole's 34-yard pass to linebacker Divine Deablo that set up a second-quarter field goal, the reeling Raiders took a 13-9 advantage into the locker room, just their second halftime lead of the season. In the second half, the Raiders succumbed to surging rookie QB Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton in their 29-19 loss. That's seven straight losses for the Raiders, their longest skid in a decade. The Broncos (7-5), who blew a chance to beat the Chiefs in Week 10 when their 35-yard field goal try was blocked as time ran out, also allowed a 59-yard kickoff return that led to Las Vegas' only touchdown Sunday. The Texans (7-5) lost for the third time in four games after Ka'imi Fairbairn shanked a 28-yard field goal try that would have tied the Titans just after the two-minute warning. Like the Broncos, the Vikings (9-2) overcame a special teams blunder and escaped Soldier Field with a 30-27 overtime win against the Bears after allowing Chicago (4-7) to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left. Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos' tying 48-yard field goal as the fourth-quarter clock hit zeros. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Linda McMahon ’s longtime relationship with her ex-husband Vince McMahon is a complicated one. The couple dated throughout high school and wedded when Linda was 17. Together they founded the sports-entertainment company that eventually became known as World Wrestling Entertainment—WWE for short—that made them billionaires . Below is a look back at the couple’s decades-long relationship, including reports of infidelity, bankruptcy, and, most recently, the announcement of a separation just as Linda is poised to lead the Department of Education as a Donald Trump appointee. ADVERTISEMENT Linda, 76, and Vince, 79, are both natives of North Carolina. Vince had a turbulent childhood and was raised by his mom and numerous stepfathers—including one who abused him and his mother—after his biological dad, the big-shot wrestling promoter Vincent J. McMahon, abandoned the family when he was a baby. Linda, meanwhile, was the only child in a conservative Baptist family. Linda first met Vince when she was 13 and he was 16. They connected through her parents, who worked in the same building as Vince’s mom at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Vince said in 2010 that he enjoyed spending time with Linda’s family because her household was filled with “stability and love” and he “wanted more of it.” Linda and Vince started dating while they were in high school, despite their schools—a military academy in Virginia for Vince, a public school near the North Carolina coast for Linda—being hundreds of miles apart. After graduation, Vince moved back to his home state and attended East Carolina University to study marketing. Vince asked Linda to marry him after she graduated high school and they got hitched shortly after, with Linda saying “I do” when she was just 17 in 1966. She then joined Vince in enrolling at East Carolina that same year to study French. Linda graduated from ECU in three years and the couple moved to Maryland. There, Linda worked at a corporate law office where she translated French documents, trained as a paralegal, and studied intellectual property rights. At the same time, Vince said he worked as many as 90 hours a week at a nearby quarry. Vince wanted to be a promoter like his father, who he first met when he was 12, and he invested his earnings into a number of failed business ventures. That included financing a stunt by Evel Knievel and investing in a construction company that Linda said went “belly up.” By 1976, the couple was on the ropes financially. They briefly relied on food stamps and, by the year’s end, filed for bankruptcy. Linda said she watched in agony as her car was repossessed from her driveway while she was pregnant with Stephanie, her second child and only daughter. The McMahon’s house was eventually auctioned off, too. The McMahon’s didn’t let that setback kill their big business dreams. Instead, as Linda explained to CNBC in 2017, they needed to “go right back into it, on the mission and the plan and the strategy that we knew and understood.” That strategy, it turns out, was pro-wrestling. Vince had already been working for his father’s World Wide Wrestling Federation in a number of roles—as a promoter, play-by-play commentator, and as a ring announcer—but they made their big break in the early 1980s when the couple officially founded Titan Sports. That company, which later was renamed to the WWE, employed Linda as its “co-chief executive” and exploded in popularity after the McMahon’s purchased the WWF in 1982 from Vince’s ailing father. The McMahon’s transformed professional wrestling from an industry controlled by regional promoters and turned it into a national spectacle, with super stars like Hulk Hogan and The Rock central to its takeover. The first of many scandals in Vince’s career came in the early 1990s. The bombastic CEO was indicted for allegedly overlooking the distribution out steroids to his wrestlers—a charge that could have sent him to prison for up to 11 years. In the trial, wrestlers attributed their drug use to wanting to meet the demands of Vince and their fans. Vince was ultimately acquitted, but the scandal shined a light on the darker side of his rapidly-growing wrestling world. Just prior to the scandal going public, Linda penned a memo to the company’s vice president ordering him to terminate the on-call physician and warn him about imminent charges he faced over steroid distribution. Linda’s political opponents later used this letter—nicknamed the “tip-off” letter—against her during her failed 2010 Senate campaign. Not long after, in 1992, a former referee in the WWF accused Vince of raping her in a limousine after she allegedly refused to give him oral sex. McMahon has long denied that accusation. Fallout from that allegation lingered into the 21st century, with the ex-wrestler Leonard Inzitari corroborating the claim in a 2022 interview with New York magazine. That interview came just after Vince’s accuser, Rita Chatterton, filed a sexual abuse lawsuit that was ultimately settled outside of court. Vince grabbed unsavory headlines again in 2006 after a woman told police the WWE boss had showed her naked photos of himself, groped her, and tried to kiss her inside a Florida tanning salon. The woman allegedly fled in distress to a Papa John’s location at the end of a Boca Raton strip mall before calling authorities. The alleged incident was recorded by police, who wrote in a report that there is “probable cause to believe that Vince McMahon did actually and intentionally touch against the will” of the victim. However, authorities ultimately decided to not press charges against the celeb, who’d been in town for the Royal Rumble in nearby Miami. The former WWE writer, Chris DeJoseph, revealed this year that he was at the McMahon family home for a meeting when the allegation first became public. He said both Linda and Stephanie were peeved. “The meeting was completely cut off,” DeJoseph said . “We were all thrown out. We all had to go home. We got halfway throughout our meeting and that was it, and we didn’t see him for another three days. And I remember Stephanie, I think she was red hot. I think Linda was pretty hot, too.” McMahon denied any wrongdoing through his lawyers in 2006. The McMahons were longtime supporters of Trump and made a pair of donations in 2007 and 2009 that totaled $9 million to his foundation. It was around that time when Trump appeared on Wrestlemania in 2007 and famously shaved off Vince’s hair on live TV. Years later, Linda went as far as donating $6 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC just before Trump was elected to his first term in office. Shortly after winning the election, Trump announced in December 2016 that he’d nominated McMahon to lead the Small Business Administration. She was easily confirmed for the role and served in the position until 2019, when she resigned to lead a Super PAC that sought to get Trump re-elected. Her tenure was widely viewed as successful and was scandal free. Perhaps that’s why she is—so far—the only member from Trump’s first term to be appointed to his cabinet a second time. In the meantime, she’s serving as a co-chair on Trump’s transition team. Perhaps the darkest year for the McMahon family came in 2022. That’s when Vince was slapped with bombshell allegations of sexual assault and secret settlements. The WWE’s board launched a probe into a supposed $3 million settlement McMahon made to a former employee he allegedly had an affair with. The woman, who’d been hired as a paralegal, reportedly saw her salary double once their relationship began. Once it ended, the Wall Street Journal reported that the woman was pressured to sign an agreement that silenced her. That probe opened the floodgates for a deluge of sordid allegations. The WWE’s board said it uncovered that he’d paid a combined $12 million to four women over the years in exchange for their silence over allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Among the worst allegations came from a former wrestler who accused Vince of coercing her into performing oral sex on him. When he allegedly pushed for more and the woman declined, she claimed that Vince demoted her and then let her contract expire. He was also accused of sending unsolicited nude photos to a woman in the company. McMahon and WWE declined to comment at the time to the Wall Street Journal . McMahon’s image had been tarnished and pressure grew for him to step down at WWE. He did just that in June, but he was back at the company by January 2023. That second stint didn’t last long. A little over a year later, Vince resigned from his role as CEO of the TKO Group—the name of the merged company between UFC and WWE—after he was hit with more sexual misconduct allegations. Those allegation came from Janel Grant, a woman who worked in WWE’s legal and talent departments. She alleged that Vince had forced her into a sexual relationship—threatening to fire her if she didn’t oblige—and passed around pornographic pictures and videos of her to other men in the company. Vince has denied those accusations. Both Linda and Vince have been named in the most recent sex scandal involving the McMahon name. Five former ring boys accused the couple of inaction in a sex abuse lawsuit. The anonymous men alleged that between the 1970s to the 1990s, the former WWE announcer Melvin Phillips Jr. groomed and sexually assaulted them and other minors—abuse they allege was known about by the company’s executives but was not acted upon. Phillips’ “peculiar and unnatural interest” in young boys prompted the couple to fire the announcer in 1988, the lawsuit said. However, they quickly reinstated him on the condition he “steer clear from kids,” which the lawsuit claims he didn’t. Linda’s lawyer, Laura Brevetti, called the lawsuit’s complaints “baseless” on Wednesday. It was in that very statement that Brevetti revealed Linda and Vince, after nearly six decades together, were separated. “This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” Brevetti said in a statement to the Daily Beast. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation. Ms. McMahon will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.” The Daily Beast Podcast episodes are released every Thursday. Like and download on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , YouTube , or your favorite podcast app. And click here for email updates as each new episode drops.BEIRUT (AP) — Insurgents' stunning march across Syria accelerated Saturday with news that they had reached the suburbs of the capital and that government forces had withdrawn from the central city of Homs. The government was forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad had fled the country. The loss of Homs is a potentially crippling blow for Assad. It stands at an important intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base. The pro-government Sham FM reported that government forces took positions outside Syria’s third-largest city, without elaborating. Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian troops and members of different security agencies have withdrawn from the city, adding that rebels have entered parts of it. The capture of Homs is a major victory for insurgents, who have already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama , as well as large parts of the south, in a lightning offensive that began Nov. 27. Analysts said Homs falling into rebel hands would be a game-changer. The rebels' moves around Damascus, reported by the monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. In their push to overthrow Assad's government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army. For the first time in the country's long-running civil war, the government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus. The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad's chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people.” In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria's border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country. Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told The Associated Press, and those still open ran out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price. “The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions. “People are worried whether there will be a battle (in Damascus) or not.” It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The U.N. said it was moving noncritical staff outside the country as a precaution. Assad's status Syria’s state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the country, saying he is performing his duties in Damascus. He has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia, is busy with its war in Ukraine . Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad's forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation a U.N. resolution, adopted in 2015, and calling for a Syrian-led political process, would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with U.N.-supervised elections. Later Saturday, foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit to discuss the situation in Syria. No details were immediately available. The insurgents' march Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were marching toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaida, ditching hard-line officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance. The shock offensive began Nov. 27, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama , the country’s fourth largest city. Opposition activists said Saturday that a day earlier, insurgents entered Palmyra, which is home to invaluable archaeological sites had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic State group in 2017. To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra including the main Baath City, activists said. Syrian Observatory said government troops have withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces. The Syrian army said in a statement that it carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists." The army said it was setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area,” apparently to defend Damascus from the south. The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since conflict broke out in March 2011. Diplomacy in Doha The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey, meeting in Qatar, called for an end to the hostilities. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels. Qatar's top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country’s underlying problems. “Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he said. Sheikh Mohammed said he was surprised by how quickly the rebels have advanced and said there is a real threat to Syria’s “territorial integrity.” He said the war could “damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start a political process. ____ Karam reported from London. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report. Bassem Mroue And Zeina Karam, The Associated Press

Montana transgender lawmaker on Capitol Hill's bathroom ban: 'Do not cede ground'A look at how some of Trump's picks to lead health agencies could help carry out Kennedy's overhaul

JERUSALEM — Israel approved a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes meanwhile carried out the most intense wave of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs since the start of the conflict and issued a record number of evacuation warnings. At least 24 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities, as Israel signaled it aims to keep pummeling Hezbollah before the ceasefire is set to take hold at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Another huge airstrike shook Beirut shortly after the ceasefire was announced. Israel's security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement late Tuesday after it was presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire would mark the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza, where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East without saying how. The Biden administration spent much of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza but the talks repeatedly sputtered to a halt. Still, any halt to the fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and exchanged direct fire with Israel on two occasions earlier this year. Netanyahu presented the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers after a televised address in which he listed a series of accomplishments against Israel’s enemies across the region. He said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran, which backs both groups. “If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.” The ceasefire deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troopsand U.N. peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor all sides’ compliance. But implementation remains a major question mark. Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Biden said Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce, but that the deal "was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” Netanyahu’s office said Israel appreciated the U.S. efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security.” Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday that it had not seen the agreement in its final form. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state.” of Lebanon, he said. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.” Even as Israeli, U.S, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism over a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah’s military capabilities. An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in the central Beirut district of Basta — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near the city’s downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs killed at least one person and wounded 13, it said. Three people were killed in a separate strike in Beirut and three in a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media said another 10 people were killed in the eastern Baalbek province. Israel says it targets Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure. Israel also struck a building in Beirut's bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site that is around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli military said it struck targets in Beirut and other areas linked to Hezbollah's financial arm. The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously have not been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, and some cars had mattresses tied to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead. Hezbollah, meanwhile, kept up its rocket fire, triggering air raid sirens across northern Israel. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that peacekeepers will not evacuate. The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometers (miles) from the Israeli border. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border. Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages ever since. Israel escalated its campaign of bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes. More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.Dolphins defense comes up big without Tagovailoa as Fins stomp Browns, keep playoff hopes alive

FBI ‘most wanted’ arrested after 20 years on the runNEW YORK (AP) — He's making threats, traveling abroad and negotiating with world leaders. Donald Trump has more than a month and a half to go before he's sworn in for a second term. But the Republican president-elect is already moving aggressively not just to fill his Cabinet and outline policy goals, but to achieve those priorities . Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, prompting emergency calls and a visit from Canada's prime minister that resulted in what Trump claimed were commitments from both U.S. allies on new border security measures. The incoming president has warned there will be “ALL HELL TO PAY" if, before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, Hamas does not release the hostages being held in Gaza . He has threatened to block the purchase of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company, warning "Buyer Beware!!!” And this weekend, Trump was returning to the global stage, joining a host of other foreign leaders for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by a fire. On Saturday, he met with French President Emmanuel Macron — joined at the last minute by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — and had plans to see Britain's Prince William also in Paris. Absent in Paris: lame duck President Joe Biden, who has largely disappeared from headlines, except when he issued a pardon of his son , Hunter, who was facing sentencing for gun crimes and tax evasion. First lady Jill Biden is attending in his place. “I think you have seen more happen in the last two weeks than you’ve seen in the last four years. And we’re not even there yet,” Trump said in an over-the-top boast at an awards ceremony Thursday night . For all of Trump's bold talk, though, it is unclear how many of his efforts will bear fruit. The pre-inauguration threats and deal-making are highly unusual, like so much of what Trump does, said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University. “Transitions are always a little complicated in this way. Even though we talk about one president at a time," he said, “the reality is one president plus. And that plus can act assertively sometimes." Zelizer said that is particularly true of Trump, who was president previously and already has relationships with many foreign leaders such as Macron, who invited both Trump and Biden to Paris this weekend as part of the Notre Dame celebration. “Right now he’s sort of governing even though he’s not the president yet. He’s having these public meetings with foreign leaders, which aren't simply introductions. He's staking out policy and negotiating things from drug trafficking to tariffs," Zelizer said. Trump already has met with several foreign leaders, in addition to a long list of calls. He hosted Argentinian President Javier Milei in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club in November. After the tariff threat, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago for a three-hour dinner meeting. Canadian officials later said the country is ready to make new investments in border security, with plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers. Last Sunday, Trump dined with Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli prime minister. Incoming Trump aides have also been meeting with their future foreign counterparts. On Wednesday, several members of Trump's team, including incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz, met with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelenskyy, in Washington, as Ukraine tries to win support for its ongoing efforts to defend itself from Russian invasion, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Yermak also met with Trump officials in Florida, he wrote on X . That comes after Trump's incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Qatar and Israel for high-level talks about a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza, according to a U.S familiar with the efforts, meeting with the prime ministers of both countries. There is no prohibition on incoming officials or nominees meeting with foreign officials, and it is common and fine for them to do so — unless those meetings are designed to subvert or otherwise impact current U.S. policy. Trump aides were said to be especially cognizant of potential conflicts given their experience in 2016, when interactions between Trump allies and Russian officials came under scrutiny. That included a phone call in which Trump's incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed new sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, suggesting things would improve after Trump became president. Flynn was later charged with lying to the FBI about the conversation. Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that, “All transition officials have followed applicable laws in their interactions with foreign nationals.” She added: “World leaders recognize that President Trump is returning to power and will lead with strength to put the best interests of the United States of America first again. That is why many foreign leaders and officials have reached out to correspond with President Trump and his incoming team.” Such efforts can nonetheless cause complications. If, say, Biden is having productive conversations on a thorny foreign policy issue and Trump weighs in, that could make it harder for Biden “because people are hearing two different voices” that may be in conflict, Zelizer said. Leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu may also anticipate a more favorable incoming administration and wait Biden out, hoping for more a better deal. It also remains unclear how extensively the Biden administration has been kept apprised of Trump transition efforts. Although there is no requirement that an incoming administration coordinate calls and meetings with foreign officials with the State Department or National Security Council, that has long been considered standard practice. That is, in part, because transition teams, particularly in their early days and weeks, do not always have the latest information about the state of relations with foreign nations and may not have the resources, including interpretation and logistical ability, to handle such meetings efficiently. Still, the Biden and Trump teams have been talking, particularly on the Middle East, with the incoming and outgoing administrations having agreed to work together on efforts to free hostages who remain in held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official, who, like others, was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive talks and spoke on condition of anonymity. That includes conversations between Witkoff and Biden’s foreign policy team as well as Waltz and Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Last month, Biden administration officials said they had kept Trump’s team closely apprised of efforts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border. “I just want to be clear to all of our adversaries, they can’t play the incoming Trump administration off of the Biden administration. I’m regularly talking to the Biden people. And so, this is not a moment of opportunity or wedges for them," Waltz said Friday in a Fox Business interview. But when it comes to immigration, Biden administration officials haven’t been entirely in the loop on discussions around how to execute on Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants, according to four administration officials with knowledge of the transition who spoke on condition of anonymity. That’s not terribly surprising given how differently the teams view migration. Trump’s team, meanwhile, is already claiming credit for everything from gains in the stock and cryptocurrency markets to a decision by Walmart to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion policies Trump opposes. “Promises Kept — And President Trump Hasn’t Even Been Inaugurated Yet,” read one press release that claimed, in part, that both Canada and Mexico have already pledged "immediate action” to help “stem the flow of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and deadly drugs entering the United States." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stopped short of saying Trump mischaracterized their call in late November. But she said Friday that Trump “has his own way of communicating, like when we had the phone call and he wrote that we were going to close the border. That was never talked about in the phone call.” Earlier this week, Mexico carried out what it claimed was its largest seizure of fentanyl pills ever. Seizures over the summer had been as little as 50 grams per week, and after the Trump call, they seized more than a ton. Security analyst David Saucedo said that "under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is willing to increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.” Biden, too, tried to take credit for the seizure in a statement Friday night. ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.‘Grow Up You Ludicrous Imbecile’: Piers Morgan Slams Madonna For Disrespecting Pope

Nico Iamaleava throws 4 TD passes to lead No. 10 Tennessee over UTEP 56-0A plan for Australia to end racism has been delivered, but some refugees 'wish they never came'

PM Images Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Handling market volatility with long-term dividend growth investing. Prioritizing future dividends over immediate income, companies drowning in cash like Visa and Microsoft. This is an excerpt from a recent Investing Experts conversation . Transcript Rena Sherbill: Eli from Dividendology, welcome to Seeking Alpha's Podcast. It's great to have you. Thanks for joining us. What stocks are you most focused on? What would you say your top stocks that you're focused on these days? Dividendology : Obviously, we want to start with looking for quality companies that can grow their free cash flow . And I would actually make the argument that the highest quality businesses in the entire world all pay out dividends. Think of companies like Microsoft ( MSFT ) or Visa ( V ), and now we can even throw companies like Meta ( META ) and like Google ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) into that conversation. These are companies that generate really high levels of return on invested capital. They have high free cash flow growth rates. And so typically when you hear those things, you think, well, wouldn't paying out dividends prohibit their ability to grow? Wouldn't they just be better off reinvesting that capital back into the business? But here's what you have to understand. These companies have massive cash positions on their balance sheet. They are drowning in cash. And in fact, they generate so much cash, they can't intelligently reinvest it all back into the business. And a good example of this again is going to be Meta . They just burned $50 billion with no return on that 50 billion by investing into the metaverse. They would have been much better off actually paying that out as a dividend. And I think the management team has realized that because obviously like we've seen over the past year, they're now paying out a dividend. So we're not sacrificing growth for these dividend payments that we're receiving, we're actually receiving them because these companies are such quality companies, they’re generating so much cash that I can receive growing dividend income year-over-year. So I would say, one of the main companies I've been really building up over the past year is Visa. It's going to have a low starting dividend yield. So it depends on what your goals are. If you're someone closer to retirement or someone closer to living off dividends, maybe that's not the best investment for you. You want to look for a starting higher yield. But if you have a long-term time horizon , you look at the earnings projected growth rates for a stock like Visa, and it's going to allow them to grow dividends at a very high rate over the next few years, over the next few decades. So I'm looking for companies like that. Visa is a huge position in my portfolio. Microsoft is a huge position in my portfolio. And then, of course, I also have the Dividend ETF, ( SCHD ). I'm a long-term dividend investor. I wouldn't necessarily have a high risk tolerance, but I know that I can handle volatility because I'm investing for the long term. What do we know about the market over the long term? Well, the average return is somewhat between 8% to 9% and inflation adjusted maybe closer to 7%. But here's what's interesting about this. When we think about when it comes to retire, when it comes time to live off dividends, again, my long-term goal is to one day live off dividend income. If somebody were to try to retire in a year when the market goes down 20%, that can be pretty financially devastating for their ability to retire at that point. So what does this mean? If I'm willing to live off dividends, well, I actually don't have to worry about that sequence risk. I don't have to worry about what the market is doing at that specific point in time.A private mission to the moon will launch next month to pave the way for humanity's return to the lunar surface. Ghost Riders in the Sky - the mission name chosen by US start-up Firefly Aerospace - will target a landing in the Sea of Crisis, a dark patch the size of Britain on the near-side of the moon. The Blue Ghost lunar lander will carry 10 scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the surface as part of NASA's partnership with commercial operators. Jason Kim, chief executive officer of Firefly Aerospace, said the space agency had paid a fixed price of $101m (£80m) for the mission, a low cost only achievable with technology innovation. "We believe in a future of a very robust lunar economy," he said. "It is the gateway to other planets, like Mars. And so enabling the frequency of very affordable and high science-value missions is what private industry is doing with this first Blue Ghost mission." The spacecraft, which is the size of a large shed, will launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in mid-January, or soon after, and take 45 days to reach the moon. It'll land autonomously on shock-absorbing feet and short legs to reduce the risk of it toppling over, a fate suffered by Intuitive Machine's Nova-C spacecraft in the south pole region of the moon last February. Several of its technology demonstrations are for dealing with regolith, or lunar dust. A 'PlanetVac' will vacuum up and analyse lunar samples and an electromagnetic dust shield will be tested to see if it can protect delicate instruments. Ryan Watkins, a NASA programme scientist, said: "The moon is quite a dusty area. As we design technologies for the lunar surface, regolith needs to be better understood. "Lunar dust can affect mechanical components and human health, so we need to know how to account for its effects." Blue Ghost will remain operational on the surface for 14 days. One of its final tasks will be to record high-definition video of a lunar sunset. It should provide the first quality imagery of the lunar glow, a phenomenon caused by dust particles floating several centimetres above the surface. Mr Kim said the video would be a fitting tribute to the last man to walk on the moon, who sketched what he saw in the fading light. "We expect to capture a phenomenon seen and documented by Eugene Cernan during his final steps of Apollo 17, where he observed a glow as the lunar dust levitated on the lunar surface," he said.

BREAKING: Dundee v Hibs kick off delayed by at least 10 minutesMINNEAPOLIS — The brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has captivated the nation this week, as authorities continue to search for the man who fatally shot the Maple Grove resident outside an investors’ meeting in Manhattan earlier this week. As of Friday afternoon, police were testing DNA from a water bottle and examining a fake New Jersey ID and a cellphone that may be connected to the suspect, the New York Times reported . Friday evening, investigators found a backpack in Central Park like the one that had been carried by the shooter, police said. According to the Times, it was unclear if the gun used in the shooting was found in the bag. Investigators believed the gun possibly was fitted with a suppressor, or might have been a veterinary gun used by farmers and ranchers to put down animals without making a loud sound. The FBI also announced Friday night a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Here’s what else we know about the case, the company and Thompson himself: No motive as manhunt continues Authorities continue searching for the man who shot and killed Thompson in Manhattan. They have not released a name or motive. The shooter approached Thompson from behind and fired several times before he fled into an alley nearby and then hopped on an e-bike and rode north to Central Park, police said. The day after Thompson’s death, Maple Grove police reported bomb threats against two homes the family owns in the city. Investigators on Thursday released photos that partly reveal the face of a person of interest in the case. Authorities found at least one bullet casing on the scene with the word “deny” on it, reviving criticism of a company and industry that became known for denying medical care claims. Minnesota health care companies step up security Minnetonka-based Medica temporarily closed its headquarters Friday amid a “general feeling of vulnerability and concern” as insurers faced mounting online vitriol in the wake of Thompson’s killing. UnitedHealth Group’s note of remorse about Thompson’s killing has attracted more than 83,000 laughing emoji reactions on Facebook. A spokesperson said the company’s offices will be closed through Dec. 13, citing safety concerns that sprang up following Wednesday’s shooting. Other insurers have taken similar steps to reduce the visibility of top executives. While Minneapolis-based UCare remains open, its front doors were locked Friday morning. “Of course Brian Thompson’s murder — and the ensuing vitriol on social media — sent shockwaves throughout our industry,” UCare said in a statement. “We have no reason to believe there is any danger specifically to our team. At the same time, there is a general feeling of vulnerability and concern.” Thompson’s killing has prompted companies, especially those in health care, across the country to step up security. “It’s a wake-up call for a lot of companies,” said Glen Kucera, the New York-based president of Enhanced Protection Services, an arm of security company Allied Universal. “Unfortunately, it sometimes takes an event like this to impact change in the threat landscape.” What we know about Brian Thompson Thompson lived in Maple Grove . His wife, Paulette, works as a physical therapist with HealthPartners. They have two teenage sons, 19 and 16. Thompson worked at UnitedHealthcare for 20 years and was named its CEO in 2021 . The Minnesota Star Tribune reported this year that Thompson was among the state’s top-paid executives with a total compensation of $9.1 million. Both Thompson and his wife graduated from the University of Iowa, where he got a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1997. He graduated with special honors. While Thompson wasn’t well-known to his neighbors — one said he was “very quiet” and another said “no one really knew him” on the block — his killing shook co-workers and local business leaders. He was known as a champion for UnitedHealthcare’s support of the Special Olympics and an advocate for American Sign Language access across health care. “Brian was a principled leader and a true champion in the healthcare community,” Roberta Antoine Dressen, CEO of local trade group Medical Alley, said in a statement. UnitedHealthcare is one of Minnesota’s largest employers UnitedHealthcare is the largest insurer in the U.S. It’s owned by Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group, which employs more than 400,000 people. It’s Minnesota’s 10th-largest employer — approximately 19,000 of its employees are stationed here. The company has its roots in the development of the health maintenance organization model of health care pioneered by Dr. Paul Ellwood in the 1960s and ‘70s. UnitedHealthcare has been criticized by media and elected officials because of the way the company reviews and denies requests and claims for medical care. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations announced in October that UnitedHealthcare and two other major Medicare insurers inflated profits by denying seniors stays in care facilities while they recovered from injuries and illnesses. The company went from denying 10.9% of cases in 2020 to 22.7% in 2022, according to a report from the subcommittee. Minnesota lawmakers barred UnitedHealthcare and other HMOs from the state’s Medicaid program earlier this year. ©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

After Terry McLaurin weaved his way past five defenders for an 86-yard touchdown catch from Jayden Daniels to cut the Cowboys lead to 27-26 with 21 seconds left, Fox's No. 2 broadcast crew captured the chaos before admonishing the audience not to count on anything as a certainty on this helter-skelter afternoon. "Lightning strikes twice in Washington!" Davis shouted in an homage to Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown that stunned the Bears last month. "They dropped 11 guys in coverage," Olsen marveled. "If they just tackle him inbounds the game is over. I don't even know what to say. I'm absolutely speechless." Not for long he wasn't. Olsen quickly cautioned the audience that "Automatic" Austin Siebert had already missed an extra point along with a field goal Sunday in his return from a right hip injury. "Before anyone in Washington gets too fired up, remember, we've seen a missed PAT already," Olsen said. "Yeah, you hold your breath with anything special teams-related on this day," Davis agreed. After all, this was the first game in NFL history to feature two kickoff returns for touchdowns, two errant extra points and a blocked punt. In the 41-point fourth quarter that erased the game's snoozer status, Washington allowed KaVontae Turpin's 99-yard kickoff return for a score. Earlier, the Cowboys missed a field goal and saw another one blocked along with a punt. Sure enough, the snap was low ... the hold was better ... "It is no good!" Davis hollered. "And the worst special teams day in history has a fitting finish!" Actually, no. More ruckus remained. Siebert's onside kick bounced twice in front of safety Juanyeh Thomas, who gathered it in and returned it 43 yards for Dallas' second kickoff return for a touchdown. If Thomas takes a knee short of the goal line, he effectively seals the Cowboys' win. Instead, the score, while pushing Dallas' lead to 34-26, also left enough time for Daniels and the Commanders for a shot at yet another miracle touchdown. Austin Ekeler returned the kickoff to the Washington 36 and after a short gain, Daniels' Hail Mary was intercepted by Israel Mukuamu as time expired. And that's how what Davis called the "worst special teams day in NFL history" came to an end. "What a wild special teams moment of blocked punts, kicks, kickoff returns, blocked field goals," Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. In keeping with the not-so-special-teams theme, there were several foibles in the kicking game across the NFL in Week 12, where the Broncos gave up a 34-yard pass completion on a fake punt that Denver coach Sean Payton swore the team saw coming — and not as it was unfolding, either, but five days earlier. "We met Tuesday as a staff. It wasn't a matter of if, it was when they were going to run a fake punt," Payton said. "You're struggling as a team like this, we had it on the keys to victory, so credit them, they executed it." Thanks to AJ Cole's 34-yard pass to linebacker Divine Deablo that set up a second-quarter field goal, the reeling Raiders took a 13-9 advantage into the locker room, just their second halftime lead of the season. In the second half, the Raiders succumbed to surging rookie QB Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton in their 29-19 loss. That's seven straight losses for the Raiders, their longest skid in a decade. The Broncos (7-5), who blew a chance to beat the Chiefs in Week 10 when their 35-yard field goal try was blocked as time ran out, also allowed a 59-yard kickoff return that led to Las Vegas' only touchdown Sunday. The Texans (7-5) lost for the third time in four games after Ka'imi Fairbairn shanked a 28-yard field goal try that would have tied the Titans just after the two-minute warning. Like the Broncos, the Vikings (9-2) overcame a special teams blunder and escaped Soldier Field with a 30-27 overtime win against the Bears after allowing Chicago (4-7) to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left. Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos' tying 48-yard field goal as the fourth-quarter clock hit zeros.Boston College football beats North Carolina to become bowl eligible

By BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.MINNETONKA, Minn. — A Minnetonka woman is helping connect the ALS community through an app. On Jan. 5, 2022, Faith's son, Scott, was diagnosed with ALS. ALS is a fatal neurological disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Scott was 50 years old at the time of his diagnosis. He was a marathon runner and avid cyclist. "For parents with children with ALS, no one wants to think they're going to watch their child die before them. It's just not the way it goes, right?" Faith said. "Our children are supposed to outlive us." Scott is what doctors call a "slow progressor." So right now, he doesn't need as much help from caregivers. It was his diagnosis that inspired Faith to do more. "I'm going to spend as much time as I can working for the great ALS community and working to make their lives as good as we possibly can under the circumstances," Faith said. Faith thrust herself into research and organizations supporting the cure for ALS. She started getting involved with Everything ALS . It's a nonprofit that's committed to bringing technology innovations and data science to support efforts from care to cure for people living with the disease. Everything ALS does that through patient-driven research, and most recently — an app. The organization launched an app-based program called "Pathfinders" a few months ago. It's aimed to empower, connect and offer essential resources to the ALS community. Those impacted by the disease know it can be isolating. Through the app, the ALS community can connect with one of nine pathfinders. Faith is one of them. "When you give, you get," Faith said. "So for me, giving to other people the love and response that I get from them, knowing that I've helped them, it just warms my heart. That feeds me." Both caregivers and people living with ALS can reach out to a pathfinder about anything — from anticipatory grief to catheter recommendations to other ALS-related resources. "People can read our bios and say, 'Oh this is the mother of someone with ALS. That's who I want to talk to because my child has ALS. They will truly understand my situation.' Or, 'Oh this pathfinder is a veteran. I need to learn more about the VA benefits. I'm going to connect with this pathfinder.'" she said. Right now, Everything ALS is still working to add more pathfinders to cater to more people and ultimately connect more people. The goal is to be able to provide the person on the other side of the app chat with whatever information, resources, or listening ear they might need. If you're interested in the program, click here or reach out to Faith at faith@everythingals.org . Beret Leone is a native Minnesotan who joined the WCCO team as a reporter in September 2022 - and she's thrilled be back home in the Twin Cities! Beret grew up in Chaska and graduated from Bethel University.

Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’The UH-60 Black Hawk is not just an icon of the US military but of modern helicopters as our world knows them. The prolific whirly-bird was built by Sikorsky at the behest of the US Army and Air Force. The family of variants has grown over the years to include the SH-60 Seahawk of the US Navy , the US Air Force's MH-60 Pave Hawk and MH-60T Jayhawk of the US Coast Guard . It has served as the U.S. Army's primary utility helicopter since 1979. Renowned for its versatility, the Black Hawk is the go-to battlewagon that gets troops on the battlefield from point A to point B. It also serves as the workhorse for many missions like medical evacuation (medevac), search and rescue (SAR), cargo airlift and fire support. Time and time again, the rugged helo has proven it can take any mission the Army throws at it. As time marches on, combat continues to evolve, and the Black Hawk has kept pace with many phases of upgrades and modifications to integrate new technology. However, the landscape is changing, and new threats demand ever-increasing performance from the Army’s Air Corps. As reported by Defense News , the US Army plans to reduce the Black Hawk fleet significantly over the next decade to prioritize modernization efforts. This modernization effort focuses on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA)program, which seeks a next-generation rotorcraft capable of meeting 21st-century operational demands. The Bell V-280 Valor and other tiltrotor platforms are top contenders for replacing the Black Hawk . Sikorsky's project, which combines autonomy and fly-by-wire technology, is another candidate. However, the notable gains in speed, range, and payload capacity offered by tilt-rotors have the potential to completely transform the Army's vertical lift capabilities. Because the platform choice will influence the Army's aviation capabilities for many years, it is a crucial strategic decision. Black Hawk legacy The Black Hawk family has been the backbone of the Army’s rotary-wing fleet for over four decades. The UH-60 was created during the Cold War to meet the demand for a dependable, durable, and adaptable helicopter. The helicopter has deployed on every mission from disaster relief in the States to counterinsurgency ops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Famously immortalized by the movie “Black Hawk Down,” for its central role in the peacekeeping operations in Somalia where the Army relied on its fleet to rapidly ingress special forces like Rangers and Green Berets to execute tactical strikes. The Black Hawk's rotors are designed to withstand extreme conditions, including medics & direct arms fires, making it a powerful lifeline in combat. One recent upgrade program tested a semi-autonomous, fly-by-wire MH-60M variant that would allow the pilot to focus on tactical tasking and leave the flying primarily up to the autopilot. “We’re going to have a tablet. You push a button, and it’ll go through all the pre-flight checks, it’ll start, it’ll take off, and perform that [assigned] mission,” said Dan Tenney , Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for Lockheed Martin for Rotary and Mission Systems. Even with its legacy of service and achievement, the Black Hawk is becoming seen as unsuitable for threats in the future. It is less resilient than it once was for operations under fire, as today's adversaries have more sophisticated air defense weaponry than ever before. Bell Valor’s promise The Bell V-280 Valor was developed under the Army’s FLRAA program. The Valor holds the potential for a paradigm shift in rotary-wing aviation. The V-280 employs tiltrotor technology to transition between vertical takeoff and higher-speed horizontal flight. Bell V-280 Valor specs : Cruise speed: 320 mph (520 km/h) Range: 500-800 nautical miles (926-1,482 km) Maximum payload: 12,000 lbs (5,443 kg) Valor versus the Hawk Although decades of service have demonstrated the Black Hawk's worth, the V-280 outperforms it in critical metrics critical to maintaining the battlefield advantage in future conflicts. Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk specs : Cruise speed: 183 mph (295 km/h) Range: 320 nautical miles (593 km) Maximum payload: 10,350 lbs (4,694 kg) The Black Hawk's capabilities have made it one of the world's most versatile military helicopters with a diverse range of roles. Implications for Army aviation The choice to switch to a next-generation platform and replace over 2,000 Black Hawks will have a widespread impact on how the Army allocates resources for many programs. Tiltrotor aircraft will require infrastructure changes that provide maintenance and training, which necessitates an investment of funding and time. The promise of improved survivability in contested environments, increased range, and quicker battlefield response times may provide operational advantages that outweigh these difficulties. Only time will tell which course the top brass in the Army choose will be the new direction for their air cavalry. Until then, we will have to wait and watch.BOSTON — Forty years ago, Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie rolled to his right and threw a pass that has become one of college football’s most iconic moments. With Boston College trailing defending champion Miami, Flutie threw the Hail Mary and found receiver Gerard Phalen, who made the grab while falling into the end zone behind a pair of defenders for a game-winning 48-yard TD. Flutie and many of his 1984 teammates were honored on the field during BC’s 41-21 victory over North Carolina before the second quarter on Saturday afternoon, the anniversary of the Eagles’ Miracle in Miami. “There’s no way its been 40 years,” Flutie told The Associated Press on the sideline a few minutes before he walked out with some of his former teammates to be recognized after a video of The Play was shown on the scoreboards. A statue commemorating Doug Flutie's famed "Hail Mary" pass during a game against Miami on Nov. 23, 1994, sits outside Alumni Stadium at Boston College. Famous football plays often attain a legendary status with religious names like the "Immaculate Reception," the "Hail Mary" pass and the Holy Roller fumble. It’s a moment and highlight that’s not only played throughout decades of BC students and fans, but around the college football world. “What is really so humbling is that the kids 40 years later are wearing 22 jerseys, still,” Flutie said of his old number. “That amazes me.” That game was played on national TV the Friday after Thanksgiving. The ironic thing is it was originally scheduled for earlier in the season before CBS paid Rutgers to move its game against Miami, thus setting up the BC-Miami post-holiday matchup. Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie rejoices in his brother Darren's arms after B.C. defeats Miami with a last second touchdown pass on Nov. 23, 1984, in Miami. “It shows you how random some things are, that the game was moved,” Flutie said. “The game got moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving, which was the most watched game of the year. We both end up being nationally ranked and up there. All those things lent to how big the game itself was, and made the pass and the catch that much more relevant and remembered because so many people were watching.” There’s a statue of Flutie winding up to make The Pass outside the north gates at Alumni Stadium. Fans and visitors can often be seen taking photos there. “In casual conversation, it comes up every day,” Flutie said, when asked how many times people bring it up. “It brings a smile to my face every time we talk about it.” A week after the game-ending Flutie pass, the Eagles beat Holy Cross and before he flew off to New York to accept the Heisman. They went on to win the 49th Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie evades Miami defensive tackle Kevin Fagan during the first quarter of a game on Nov. 23, 1984, in Miami, Fla. “Forty years seem almost like incomprehensible,” said Phalen, also standing on the sideline a few minutes after the game started. “I always say to Doug: ‘Thank God for social media. It’s kept it alive for us.”’ Earlier this week, current BC coach Bill O’Brien, 55, was asked if he remembered where he was 40 years ago. “We were eating Thanksgiving leftovers in my family room,” he said. “My mom was saying a Rosary in the kitchen because she didn’t like Miami and wanted BC to win. My dad, my brother and I were watching the game. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody remembers where they were for the Hail Mary, Flutie pass.” Mike Tyson, left, slaps Jake Paul during a weigh-in ahead of their heavyweight bout, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) In this image taken with a slow shutter speed, Spain's tennis player Rafael Nadal serves during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A fan takes a picture of the moon prior to a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 between Uruguay and Colombia in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich) Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark reacts after missing a shot on the 18th hole in the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) Taylor Fritz of the United States reacts during the final match of the ATP World Tour Finals against Italy's Jannik Sinner at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Tolbert (1) fails to pull in a pass against Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dee Alford (20) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/ Brynn Anderson) Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, top right, scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) India's Tilak Varma jumps in the air as he celebrates after scoring a century during the third T20 International cricket match between South Africa and India, at Centurion Park in Centurion, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski warms up before facing the Seattle Kraken in an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Kansas State players run onto the field before an NCAA college football game against Arizona State Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Manhattan, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) A fan rapped in an Uruguay flag arrives to the stands for a qualifying soccer match against Colombia for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) People practice folding a giant United States flag before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Brazil's Marquinhos attempts to stop the sprinklers that were turned on during a FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying soccer match against Venezuela at Monumental stadium in Maturin, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Georgia's Georges Mikautadze celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the UEFA Nations League, group B1 soccer match between Georgia and Ukraine at the AdjaraBet Arena in Batumi, Georgia, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Tamuna Kulumbegashvili) Dallas Stars center Mavrik Bourque, right, attempts to score while Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) and Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) keep the puck out of the net during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt) Mike Tyson, left, fights Jake Paul during their heavyweight boxing match, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Italy goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario misses the third goal during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and France, at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Cincinnati Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki (88) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders during the second half of an NFL football game in Cincinnati, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President-elect Donald Trump attends UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Fans argue in stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova hits a return against Danielle Collins, of the United States, during a tennis match at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Malaga, southern Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) St. John's guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) falls after driving to the basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against New Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith) England's Anthony Gordon celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between England and the Republic of Ireland at Wembley stadium in London, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Katie Taylor, left, lands a right to Amanda Serrano during their undisputed super lightweight title bout, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver DJ Turner, right, tackles Miami Dolphins wide receiver Malik Washington, left, on a punt return during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) UConn's Paige Bueckers (5) battles North Carolina's Laila Hull, right, for a loose ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown) Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Hail Flutie: BC celebrates 40th anniversary of Miracle in MiamiJoe Welch on Technology Stack for Army’s Next-Gen C2 Capability

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