King ‘charming and funny’ as he attends Royal Variety Performance alone
Big Ten slate features Indiana-Ohio State showdown and Penn State-Minnesota matchup Things to watch this week in the Big Ten Conference: No. 5 Indiana (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten, No. 5 CFP ) at No. 2 Ohio State (9-1, 6-1, No. 2 CFP), Saturday, noon ET (Fox) This marks the 98th matchup between these two teams, but it's only the fourth time both teams have been ranked. Although Indiana is unbeaten, its soft schedule means the Hoosiers aren't assured of making the 12-team field if they lose this game. The only team with a winning record that Indiana has beaten is Washington (6-5). Ohio State needs a win to have a realistic shot at a rematch with top-ranked Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. Ohio State has beaten Indiana 28 straight times since the Hoosiers posted back-to-back victories in 1987-88. No. 4 Penn State (9-1, 6-1, No. 4 CFP) at Minnesota (6-4, 4-3), Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (CBS) This is likely Penn State's biggest obstacle on its way to a potential playoff berth. The Nittany Lions' lone remaining regular-season game is a Nov. 30 home matchup with Maryland (4-6, 1-6). Minnesota has had an extra week to prepare this game since its 26-19 loss at Rutgers on Nov. 9, which snapped a four-game winning streak. Penn State and Minnesota have split their last four meetings, with the home team winning each time. Penn State DE Abdul Carter has multiple tackles for loss in each of his last three games. He ranks second among all Bowl Subdivision players in tackles for loss (17 1⁄2). Southern California RB Woody Marks rushed for a career-high 146 yards in a 28-20 win over Nebraska. Marks has six 100-yard rushing performances this season. Rutgers RB Kyle Monangai is the first Scarlet Knight to rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons since Ray Rice did it three straight years from 2005-07. Monangai has run for 1,028 yards this season and rushed for 1,262 yards last year. Oregon OLB Matayo Uiagalelei recorded a sack and had a game-clinching interception as the top-ranked Ducks won 16-13 at Wisconsin last week. He has 8 1⁄2 sacks this season to rank second in the Big Ten. Four of the top seven Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks in passer rating are from the Big Ten. Indiana's Kurtis Rourke is second, Ohio State's Will Howard is third, Penn State's Drew Allar is fifth and Oregon's Dillon Gabriel is seventh. ... Illinois QB Luke Altmyer has thrown 18 touchdown passes with only three interceptions. The only Power Four quarterback with a better touchdown/interception ratio while throwing at least 10 touchdown passes is Clemson's Cade Klubnik, who has 26 touchdowns and four interceptions. ... Rutgers' three Big Ten wins matches its largest total since joining the league in 2014. Rutgers also had three conference wins in 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023. A victory Saturday over No. 24 Illinois would give Rutgers three straight Big Ten wins for the first time. ... Washington's 31-19 win over UCLA was its 20th straight home victory, representing its second-longest such streak in school history. The Huskies won 45 straight home games from 1908-17. ... Wisconsin heads to Nebraska this week having won its last 10 matchups with the Cornhuskers. Penn State justifiably is favored on the road against Minnesota, but Bet MGM's 12 1⁄2-point spread seems way too big. Expect this game to have a single-digit margin. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Land near Dow's Lake being cleared in advance of new Civic Campus constructionNone
In Azerbaijan, the oil is cheap, the skyscrapers are shaped like fire and donuts, and the ruling elite have got rich quick from its abundant fossil fuels. It could be the Dubai of the Caspian Sea. This former Soviet state is blessed with such abundant fossil fuels it oozes out of the soil, and in some places has been burning for decades . On a still day, the smell and taste of oil from the dozens of oil wells engulfing Baku catch in the back of your throat. Delegates at the COP29 climate summit are now leaving the country with a bad aftertaste for another reason. Rich countries that have done far more to cause climate change just agreed to channel $300bn a year by 2035 to developing nations that are footing the bill for more savage droughts and floods. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player The deal came as a relief after talks almost collapsed. And it sounds like a staggering sum of money. But it is a drop in the warming ocean of the $1.3trn that everyone at COP29 accepts developing countries urgently need so they can both curb climate change and cope with its impacts. Read more: Why is the Caspian Sea shrinking? Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of negotiations The $300bn figure looks smaller still when you consider it is just a third of the US defence budget. It is only about 4% of the money the world pays to subsidise fossil fuels. Countries including the UK are trying to reform financial systems to send money to clean energy instead. It's a slow process. By 2035, given inflation, the $300bn will seem even less. The shortfall of at least $1trn will lead to an "unacceptable" number of deaths, as one negotiator put it. Another nail in the coffin for the Paris Agreement That sounds dramatic, but it's what the science says. The less spent, the more people are likely to die because the weather is worse and protections are worse. And the more people will leave their homes or their countries - that's why rich countries also see this as an investment in security and migration. It is also another nail in the coffin for the 1.5C global warming target set in the Paris Agreement, which scientists this year have all but declared dead. Because developing countries need that money to help them switch from fossil fuel to clean power, which is expensive upfront even though it saves money in the long run. Yet it's also true that tight public finances, a swing to the right politically and inflation in many rich countries make any figure a hard sell at home. Even though for places like the UK the money is already allocated: it comes out of the aid budget. It's a slightly easier sell to the electorate that UK, EU, and US succeeded in getting China to pay in, something it was kind of doing already but just wasn't counted. And the $300bn is not all from public coffers, it also comes from banks and beyond. A victory for multilateralism Despite all of these shortcomings, this COP summit inside a windowless tent in Baku Stadium was at least a victory for multilateralism, when the world outside is so dangerously fractured. A rare moment when warring countries - including Russia and Ukraine - come together to agree on something. Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News Be the first to get Breaking News Install the Sky News app for free But the fact COP decisions are based on consensus, meaning any country can veto them, also means they tend to move at the pace of the least ambitious. Many foreigners were at least cheered by the phenomenal warmth and generosity of Baku's people - if only COP summits were a little more like everyday Azerbaijanis.AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Any Texas or Texas A&M player has heard the lore of the rivalry between the two schools, a grudge match that dates to 1894. But for more than a decade — two generations of college football players — that's all it has been: Ghostly memories of great games and great plays made by heroes of the distant past. That changes this week when one of college football's great rivalries is reborn. Third-ranked Texas (10-1, 6-1) and No. 20 Texas A&M (8-3, 5-2) meet Saturday night for the first time since 2011, with a berth in the Southeastern Conference championship game on the line . “Guys that have been in my position and bleed burnt orange, they have not gotten to play this game,” said Texas fourth-year junior safety Michael Taaffe, who grew up in Austin. “Remember them when you step on Kyle Field.” For Aggies fans, who have carried the misery of Texas' 27-25 win in 2011, getting the Longhorns back in front of a frenzied crowd in College Station is a chance for some serious payback. “I was born and raised an Aggie, so I’ve been dreaming about playing in this game my whole life,” Texas A&M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III said. Zuhn played high school football in Colorado, but his parents and grandparents attended A&M. At SEC media days back in August, Zuhn said his family would turn Texas gear upside down in stores. He keeps a picture of a longhorn in his room, hanging upside down, of course. “It should be the most amazing atmosphere that I’ve ever experienced,” Zuhn said. "I can’t wait for that, and I feel bad for Texas having to play in that." Texas players said they are ready. “That place is going to be rocking,” Texas senior cornerback Jahdae Barron said. “It's good to go on the road and play in hostile environments.” The Longhorns have overcome big and loud road crowds before. They won at Alabama in 2023. They won at Michigan and Arkansas, another old rival, this year. The Longhorns have won 10 in a row on an opponent’s home field. “When the hate is on us, we love it. We enjoy it,” Taaffe said. But some former Texas players say the current group has faced nothing like what awaits them in College Station. Playing at Texas A&M is more than just noise and a lot of “Horns down” hand signals. The “Aggie War Hymn” fight song calls for Aggies to “Saw varsity’s horns off." Beating Texas is their passion, said former Longhorns All-American offensive lineman Dan Neil, who won at Texas A&M in in 1995. He calls that win one of the best of his career. “I was done showering and getting ready to leave, and their fans were still standing outside the locker room screaming and throwing things,” he said. “The (Texas) players have no idea what they are walking into. They have no clue. No one on that team has walked into that stadium in burnt orange.” The rivalry broke up when Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012. The Aggies have twice finished tied for second but have otherwise found little success there. Texas is in its first year in the SEC and has smashed its way to the top. Texas is the only SEC team with one loss this late in the season, which would make beating Texas that much sweeter for A&M. “The hype is definitely saying it's a rivalry. History says it's a rivalry, but for us, it's the football game we have this week,” Texas senior center Jake Majors said. “It's important for us to not let the environment, the game, get the best of us. ... I get to go out there and play not only for me and my team, but for the guys who came before me, so that's a true honor to have.” Even though the game hasn't been played since 2011, there has always been an element of the rivalry simmering under the surface, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. Elko is in his first year as the Aggies' coach, but he was the Texas A&M defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher from 2018-2021. “Even though it hasn’t been played, it just doesn’t feel like it’s ever really left the fabric. I really don’t think it’s as removed from the psyche as maybe it feels,” Elko said. “I think our kids are very much aware of what this is all about.” Rieken reported from College Station, Texas. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballDramatic Eagles-Panthers finish takes 'years' off gambler's life as $3.1m bet hangs on game's final drive
ERIKA AHERN: RFK Jr. Has Abortion Issues To Tackle At HHSBy SARAH PARVINI, GARANCE BURKE and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case. “The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote. Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location. Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending. In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app. Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits. DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI , but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January. “DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP. Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history. Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.” SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers. ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people. In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.” But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.” Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said. On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead. The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.” “In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said. That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs. “It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call. GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.BIG TEN THIS WEEK
SNP's defence snub shame as ministers fail to attend key UK-funded national security projects for THREE YEARS