jili games legit The South Carolina women's basketball team has been defeated for the first time since March 31, 2023. The No. 1 Gamecocks fell Sunday in Los Angeles as Lauren Betts posted a double-double effort to lead No. 5 UCLA to a 77-62 triumph. The Gamecocks (5-1) suffered their first defeat after 43 consecutive victories, dating back to the loss to Iowa 77-73 in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. South Carolina defeated Iowa last season for the national championship. Betts finished with 11 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks to power the Bruins (5-0) to a historic victory. UCLA also got 15 points from Londynn Jones on 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point range, 13 points from Elina Aarnisalo and 11 each from Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jacquez. It's the first time UCLA has beaten South Carolina since 1981. The Bruins lost twice to the Gamecocks in the 2022-23 season, including in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Te-Hina Paopao had 18 points for South Carolina on 4-of-4 3-point shooting, while Tessa Johnson had 14 points. UCLA won the rebounding battle 41-34, marking the second time this season the Gamecocks have been outrebounded. South Carolina also got outscored in the paint 26-18. It's rare that a Dawn Staley-coached team -- units that typically revolve around dominant centers from A'ja Wilson to Aaliyah Boston to Kamilla Cardoso -- gets beat in the paint and on the glass, but with 6-foot-7 Betts, UCLA had the recipe to outmuscle the Gamecocks in those areas of the game. South Carolina never led after UCLA began the game with an 18-5 run, capped off by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jones. The Gamecocks cut the deficit to nine points in the second quarter, but the Bruins responded with a 17-5 run and entered halftime ahead by 21 points. Aarnisalo scored seven points during that run. From there, the Gamecocks never got within single digits of the lead in the second half. It's the first time in 21 tries that UCLA has beaten an AP-ranked No. 1 team. And it's the first time South Carolina lost a true road game since 2021, a streak of 33 games. The schedule doesn't get any easier for South Carolina. While UCLA faces UT Martin next on Friday, the Gamecocks play No. 8 Iowa State on Thursday. --Field Level MediaLawmakers gather inside the hall of the National Assembly, after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, in Seoul, Dec. 4. Reuters-Yonhap President Yoon Suk Yeol's shocking late-night declaration of martial law brought years of clashes with domestic opponents, the media and even his own conservative party to a head and threw his political future into doubt. He promised to roll back that order only hours later after parliament, including some members of his own party, voted to block the move. Yoon squeaked out a victory in the tightest presidential election in Korean history in 2022 on a wave of discontent over economic policy, scandals and gender wars, reshaping the political future of Asia's fourth-largest economy. He was embraced by leaders in the West as a partner in the U.S.-led effort to unify democracies against growing authoritarianism in China, Russia and elsewhere. But even as he talked up a foreign policy of shared democratic values, Yoon drew increasing accusations of heavy-handed leadership at home, and fears of more strident crackdowns have percolated for some time. During his confirmation hearing as defense minister in September, Kim Yong-hyun, then Yoon's head of presidential security, denied opposition lawmakers' suggestions that his appointment was part of preparations to declare martial law. A spokesman for Yoon did not respond to repeated phone calls. Yoon's move comes as Korea tries to shore up its position before the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who clashed with Yoon's predecessor over trade and paying for U.S. troops stationed in Korea. "For a president who has focused so much on Korea's international reputation, this makes Korea look very unstable," said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. "This will have a negative effect on financial and currency markets and Korea's diplomatic place in the world." One Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive politics, said the martial law declaration would complicate conversations about Korea joining more multinational diplomatic efforts. Jenny Town of the U.S.-based Stimson Center think tank said the move appeared "desperate and dangerous" and could spell the beginning of the end of Yoon's presidency. "He was already unpopular, but this might just be the final straw to move impeachment processes forward," she said. People surround a military vehicle outside the National Assembly in Seoul after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in Seoul, early Dec. 4. EPA-Yonhap Erosion in democracy Democracy in Korea took a step backward since Yoon took office, the Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden said in an annual report in March, citing legal cases against figures associated with the previous administration and assaults on gender equality and freedom of expression. Yoon has responded to criticisms by declaring them fake news, filing more defamation cases than other recent presidents and in some cases restricting media access. Under Yoon, Korea dropped from 47th to 62nd in the global press freedom index unveiled this year by Reporters Without Borders. In some cases he claimed "pro-North Korean" or "anti-state" forces were behind criticism of him — language he used on Tuesday to justify his martial law order. "The forces of communist totalitarianism have disguised themselves as democracy activists, human rights advocates and progressive activists," Yoon said in speech last year. The president's ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP) suffered a heavy loss in April's general election as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) took 175 out of the 300 seats in the National Assembly. DPK, which is in disarray with its leader convicted of election law violations and facing charges of corruption, clashed with Yoon over budgets and investigations into Yoon's wife and top officials. In November, Yoon denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that has driven his approval ratings to record lows. Yoon has also taken a hard line against labor unions, as well as striking doctors who oppose a major healthcare reform plan that would add 2,000 medical students a year to make up what the government says is a severe shortage of physicians. Tuesday's martial law decree ordered those doctors back to work. Yoon's handling of the scandals as well as the doctors' strike led to public rifts with Han Dong-hoon, his former confidant and current leader of Yoon's People Power Party. Han and the PPP called for Yoon to roll back the order. David Rhee, 48, said he was a PPP supporter but came out to protest outside the parliament on Wednesday because Yoon's move was beyond comprehension. "Communist forces? That is Yoon's dogma, not fact," he said. (Reuters)Jude Bellingham “really disappointed” – Liverpool were “just more up for it” - This Is Anfield

Global Classroom Scheduling Software Market Size, Share and Forecast By Key Players-EMS Software, Skedda, Lantiv, Appointy, Prime TimetableUpdate: SD 27 facility rental fees halved, but fundraisers see increase in costsNo. 5 UCLA snaps No. 1 South Carolina's 43-game win streak

Electrolyte Mixes Market Size Expected to Reach $30.1 Billion by 2031All three major indices are now positive on the day. The gains are led by the S&P index which is up 0.41%. The NASDAQ index is up 0.39%. The Dow industrial average which was down by as much as -309.91 points is now back in positive territory with a gain of 59.23 points or 0.13%. Both the S&P and the Dow industrial average are on pace for record closes. For the Dow industrial average, it closed at a record level yesterday so anything positive today, would be a new record. For the S&P index it's all time high close was reached on November 11 at 6001.35. The current index is trading at 6012 up 25 points or 0.41%. The NASDAQ index is trading up 73 points or 0.39% at 19128. It's all time high closing level was at 19298.76 also reached on November. 11. The Russell 2000 is trading down -20.69 points or -0.85% at 2421.35. Yesterday the index closed at 2442.03. That was just short of its all-time high close of 2442.74 reached back in November 2021. Some big winners today include: Microsoft, +2.01% Amazon, +2.69% Meta , +1.21% Oracle, +1.26% Alphabet, +1.08% Novo Nordisk +1.38% Walmart +2.56% Salesforce, +1.0% Palo Alto networks+2.66% Dell will announce its earnings after the close. Its shares are currently down $2.95 or -2.05% at $141.37. Shares of Dell are up around 85% this year. Dell EPS is expected at $2.06 on Revenues of $24.67B. That compares to $1.88 (+9.04%) on revenues of $22.25B (10.8%). Earnings have been expectations in 10 straight quarters. Revenues they been expectations on eight of the last 10 quarters. Key Items to Watch: Dell's AI Growth Momentum Dell emphasizes AI growth as a critical focus, mirroring industry trends. AI-optimized server demand reached $3.2 billion in Q2 , a 23% increase from Q1. Backlog for AI-optimized servers stood at $3.8 billion at the end of Q2. Dell's pipeline for AI solutions has expanded to multiples of its backlog , signaling strong future demand. Shares of Dell peaked at $179.80 on the day before its earnings announcement on May 30, 2024. The price gap lower the next day opening at $143.80. The price stepped lower from there bottoming on August 7 at a low of $86.93 before starting its rebound back to the upside. Recently, Dell's shares have benefited from the turmoil from Super Micro Computer as they struggled with accounting issues

PUNE After the assembly election results on Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis, credited the Mahayuti’s resounding success to government introduced welfare schemes that benefited women and farmers. Among these, a critical factor was the strong backing of Maharashtra’s onion farmers. The shift in loyalty has been striking. During the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, resentment among onion farmers in Shirur, Nashik, Dindori, Ahmednagar, Shirdi, and Solapur dealt a severe blow to the Mahayuti, with losses across all these constituencies. However, just six months later, the same region overwhelmingly supported the alliance, securing victories in around 45 assembly constituencies. Relaxation on onion export norms The turnaround was driven largely by the central government’s relaxation of onion export norms, which helped farmers earn better prices. Reacting to the poll result outcome, NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday said he had expected 175 seats but was surprised by the alliance’s stellar performance, which nearly doubled its tally from the 2019 assembly elections. “Farmers and women solidly backed us,” Pawar said. The Mahayuti’s effort to address farmers’ grievances appears to have played a decisive role. During his state tour in August, Pawar began by acknowledging the government’s earlier misstep of banning onion exports. “I admit the ban was a mistake and apologise for it. I have assured the central government that onion exports will not be banned again,” he had told farmers. His apology, coupled with the government’s subsequent action, seems to have rebuilt trust among the state’s onion growers. Around two weeks before the elections, onion prices in Nashik’s wholesale markets surged from ₹ 40 to ₹ 60 per kg, providing a much-needed boost for farmers. Nashik, India’s largest onion-producing district, is home to the Lasalgaon wholesale market, the country’s biggest hub for onions. Farmers earned over ₹ 6,000 per quintal for their summer crop, with prices expected to remain high until the arrival of fresh stock. Ladki Bahin and other welfare schemes In Marathwada and Vidarbha, where low market rates for soya beans and cotton had triggered discontent, schemes like free electricity and Majhi Ladki Bahin helped offset the damage. The scheme is for women aged between 21 and 60 years whose families have an annual income of less than ₹ 2.5 lakh. The Mahayuti alliance announced that the amount of the scheme will be hiked to ₹ 2,100 per month from the existing ₹ 1,500 per month if the alliance comes back to power. This economic upswing translated into electoral gains for the Mahayuti. In Nashik district, the alliance won 14 out of 15 seats, while the remaining seats went to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). Neighbouring Ahmednagar district delivered 10 of its 12 seats to the Mahayuti. In Pune, parts of which are also known for onion farming, the alliance won 18 out of 21 constituencies. Sambhajinagar district saw a clean sweep with Mahayuti winning all nine seats, while in Solapur district, the BJP secured five of the 11 seats, with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP taking four and one seat each going to Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP). Special Onion Express trains The continuation of the Onion Express, a government-backed train transporting onions from Nashik to other states, also played a key role. The government purchased onions at high rates from farmers and sold them at lower prices to consumers, ensuring a win-win for all. This initiative significantly boosted the morale and trust of onion farmers, further consolidating their support for the Mahayuti. The 2024 assembly elections highlight how swiftly political fortunes can change when pressing grievances are addressed effectively. For Maharashtra’s onion farmers, the promise of better prices and decisive policy interventions proved instrumental in transforming discontent into unwavering support for the Mahayuti alliance.MP CM Mohan Yadav Announces Bridge Project, Highlights Rural Development At Rural Technology Conference In Khargone (WATCH)

Bashar Barhoum woke in his prison cell in Damascus at dawn, thinking it would be the last day of his life. The 63-year-old writer was supposed to have been executed after being imprisoned for seven months. But he soon realized the men at the door weren’t from former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s notorious security forces, ready to take him to his death. Instead, they were rebels coming to set him free. As the insurgents swept across Syria in just 10 days to bring an end to the Assad family’s 50-year rule Dec. 8, they broke into prisons and security facilities to free political prisoners and many of the tens of thousands of people who disappeared since the conflict began back in 2011. Barhoum was one of those freed who were celebrating in Damascus. “I haven’t seen the sun until today,” Barhoum told The Associated Press after walking in disbelief through the streets of Damascus. “Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.” Barhoum couldn’t find his cellphone and belongings in the prison, so he set off to find a way to tell his wife and daughters that he’s alive. Videos shared widely across social media showed dozens of prisoners running in celebration after the insurgents released them, some barefoot and others wearing little clothing. One of them screams in celebration after he finds out that the government has fallen. Syria’s prisons have been infamous for their harsh conditions. Torture is systemic, say human rights groups, whistleblowers and former detainees. Secret executions have been reported at more than two dozen facilities run by Syrian intelligence, as well as at other sites. In 2013, a Syrian military defector, known as “Caesar,” smuggled out over 53,000 photographs that human rights groups say showed clear evidence of rampant torture, but also disease and starvation in Syria’s prison facilities. Syria’s feared security apparatus and prisons did not only serve to isolate Assad’s opponents, but also to instill fear among his own people, said Lina Khatib, Associate Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at the London think tank Chatham House. “Anxiety about being thrown in one of Assad’s notorious prisons created wide mistrust among Syrians,” Khatib said. “Assad nurtured this culture of fear to maintain control and crush political opposition.” Just north of Damascus, in the Saydnaya military prison known as the “human slaughterhouse,” female detainees, some with their children, screamed as men broke the locks off their cell doors in the early hours Sunday as insurgents entered the city. Amnesty International and other groups say that dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, estimating that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. “Don’t be afraid ... Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?” said one of the rebels as he tried to rush streams of women out of their jam-packed tiny cells. Tens of thousands of detainees have so far been freed, said Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based pro-opposition war monitor. Over the course of 10 days, insurgents freed prisoners in cities including Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Damascus. Omar Alshogre, who was detained for three years and survived relentless torture, watched in awe from his home far from Syria as videos showed dozens of detainees fleeing. “A hundred democracies in the world had done nothing to help them, and now a few military groups came down and broke open prison after prison,” Alshogre, a human rights advocate who now resides in Sweden and the U.S., told The Associated Press. Meanwhile, families of detainees and the disappeared skipped celebrations of the downfall of the Assad dynasty. Instead, they waited outside prisons and security branch centers, hoping their loved ones would be there. They had high expectations for the newcomers who will now run the battered country. “This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is,” said Bassam Masri. “I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years,” since the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011. Rebels struggled to control the chaos as crowds gathered by the Court of Justice in Damascus. Heba, who gave only her first name while speaking to the AP, said she was looking for her brother and brother-in-law who were detained while reporting a stolen car in 2011 and hadn’t been seen since. “They took away so many of us,” said Heba, whose mother’s cousin also disappeared. “We know nothing about them ... They (the Assad government) burned our hearts.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Suppose you haven’t heard the groundbreaking news by now. In that case, you must have been sleeping under a rock as Belleville High School quarterback Bryce Underwood , the nation’s top recruit for the 2025 class, has flipped his commitment from LSU to Michigan. Recommended Videos What got lost in the groundswell Thursday (Nov. 21) night was many people’s role in Underwood’s decision to join the Michigan Wolverines , which came to light Friday afternoon. According to CBS Sports , seven-time Super Bowl champion and Wolverines alum Tom Brady contacted Underwood to seek help re-establishing his former football team’s success. During the recruitment process, which started back in the spring of 2024, Brady, who many believe is the G.O.A.T, especially at the quarterback position, Facetimed the dual-threat phenom and started building a relationship with him. According to people close to the recruitment process, those talks were one of many factors that helped the Belleville High School star land in Ann Arbor . For those of you who’ve never seen teen Brady don the maize and blue, he was buried on the depth chart but worked up to the backup position before battling former No. 1 recruit Drew Henson for the starting role. Brady became the starter in 1998 and 1999 when he capped off his career with a win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl. The future Pro Football Hall of Famer went to the New England Patriots in the 2000 NFL draft at pick 199. Brady spent 20 seasons with the Patriots, winning six Super Bowls. He signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for three seasons, where he won his seventh during the COVID-19 season, which just so happened to be his first with the NFC. Who better than to have Brady as a new friend who could guide you through this whole process on which Underwood will embark? With the greatest of all time in his back pocket, Underwood still needed more guidance through the process of flipping to Michigan, so unbeknownst to the college football world, he took a private visit to The Big House, where he shadowed head coach Sherrone Moore and the program. Reports indicated that he sat in on meetings and went to team practices as The Wolverines are gearing up for their matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats in their battle for the George Jewett Trophy . By Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, the 6′3′′ 205-pound dual-threat quarterback who led Belleville to a 10-2 record with 2,095 yards passing, 29 touchdowns, and three interceptions while also toting the rock for 489 yards and one touchdown informed the program that he was ready to be a Michigan man. --> Here’s what Bryce Underwood’s commitment means for Michigan football

Legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick will be named the next coach of the North Carolina football program, sources tell CBS Sports , completing one of the biggest surprises in recent football history and pausing -- if not potentially ending -- Belichick's chase for the NFL all-time wins record. Belichick has agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal, according to The Athletic , which will reportedly be approved by the UNC Board of Trustees on Thursday. Belichick brings to college perhaps the best coaching resume in history: 333 NFL wins, eight total Super Bowl victories (two as an assistant) and 12 Super Bowl appearances. At age 72, he will be making his first foray into college football after a half-century in the professional ranks, and he does so promising to deliver a pro-like program for the Tar Heels. Belichick's interest in UNC and the finalization of this deal were first reported by Inside Carolina , marking the earliest known contact he had with a college job since leaving the New England Patriots in 2023. For North Carolina, a school best known for its men's basketball program, the football team credibly moves from a national championship coach in Mack Brown to a multi-time Super Bowl winner in Belichick whose resume can be used to further entice recruits and transfer players hoping to make it to the NFL. The Tar Heels have produced just one double-digit win season since the turn of the century, and the school now appears poised to spend millions of dollars hoping to break through into the upper echelons with Belichick leading the charge. The UNC community has spent the last week split about the Belichick hire. His age and perceived level of commitment were at the forefront of those worries given Belichick is only eight months younger than Brown, 73, who was jettisoned six years into his second stint leading the program. Brown in 2024 was the only FBS coach age 70 or older. Some prominent members of UNC's Board of Trustees, led by chairman John Preyer, championed Belichick's candidacy, sources told CBS Sports. Preyer, who led that charge while making the ambitious run at Belichick, rubbed some the wrong way. University chancellor Lee Roberts, who just received his post earlier in 2024, had to weigh Preyer's desires alongside those of athletic director Bubba Cunningham. The hiring of Belichick ends the most newsworthy head-coaching search process for North Carolina since then-AD Dick Baddour lured Roy Williams away from Kansas in 2003 to lead the storied men's basketball program after a previously failed recruiting attempt. Belichick and UNC initially spoke early last week. At the time, sources believed there wasn't much to the conversation. The belief was that Belichick wanted to coach in the NFL while UNC was simply looking to make its opening appear as a more desirable option. Interest between the sides escalated as the week continued, though. Cunningham and Roberts met with Belichick in New York on Thursday, as previously reported by CBS Sports . That led to another in-person meeting in Massachusetts on Sunday that lasted nearly five hours, sources said. The latter meeting dealt mostly with program structure -- "an organizational flow chart," one source said. On Monday, Belichick confirmed his talks with North Carolina during an interview on "The Pat McAfee Show" but declined to go into specifics. He did interject with a general pitch -- primarily directed at UNC -- about what a college program would look like under his direction. "If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick said Monday . "It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was the end of their college career or the end of their pro career." A source within UNC texted immediately after Belichick's appearance: "Sign me up." Not everyone was convinced, though. A source familiar with Belichick disputed the notion of a "pipeline" in a world where the transfer portal dominates college athletics. The idea of developing players is more difficult with one-year rentals. "He's talking about draft-and-develop when the game now is free agency," a source said. North Carolina had shown interest in other coaches during its hiring process. The school interviewed former Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks, a Charlotte native who is well respected in the area for his time with the Panthers both as a defensive coordinator and interim head coach. Wilks had the support of Julius Peppers, a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer who spent his college career in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Before Belichick entered the picture, and even throughout the process, UNC kept its eye on Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, one of the hot names in a coaching cycle that didn't have many major openings. Sumrall dropped his last two games at Tulane and opted to stay with the Green Wave over the weekend following an infusion of money from the school and donors. By Sunday evening, Belichick became he sole focus for North Carolina, which was facing the opening of the transfer portal the next day. Army coach Jeff Monken had drawn some interest as well, but Belichick remained the goal. Sources said the school needed to make a "respectable" offer for Belichick's salary. In his final years with New England, he was making upwards of $20 million per year. Georgia's Kirby Smart, a two-time national champion, is the highest-paid coach in college football with compensation falling just shy of $14 million. As one university source put it, UNC has been blessed in recent years by having great coaches on below-market deals. Williams won three titles but didn't ask for John Calipari money. Before his firing, Brown was one of just three active coaches who had won a national championship, and he was on a deal averaging $5 million. Belichick also required a financial commitment from UNC as a means of attracting players. From revenue-sharing to NIL, Belichick needed the Tar Heels to be willing to compete players at the highest level -- one comparable to other programs competing for national titles. Clearly he was satisfied with that commitment; however, there are unique challenges to coaching at UNC. What makes coaching at North Carolina unique The men's basketball program is a blue blood, and many within the university community fear a financial commitment to Belichick and football will take away from basketball as it seeks a seventh NCAA title. North Carolina also has a proud Olympic sports program. The women's soccer team just won its 23rd national championship Monday night, and field hockey is going for its 12th overall title this year. Baseball, men's and women's tennis, soccer and lacrosse regularly compete for national titles as well. There was a hesitation to potentially drain the well for programs at the top of their class simply to finance football. Furthermore, as much as Belichick knows football, he's an outsider in Chapel Hill. His father, Steve, was an assistant coach at UNC in the mid 1950s where a young Bill sat on the steps of Kenan Stadium. Belichick has connections with some in the Heels' lacrosse program, and he made some stops to Chapel Hill on the pro day circuit in years past. But North Carolina is a school that doesn't typically hire coaches so far outside the family. The last time UNC made a big football coaching hire from the NFL was Butch Davis, who wound up delivering a Music City Bowl victory and an NCAA scandal that lasted the better part of a decade. Why not the NFL? North Carolina's yearning for Belichick has been obvious, but his fascination with the position is not. First, there is no path toward breaking Don Shula's all-time NFL wins record in Chapel Hill. Belichick stands 15 wins shy of eclipsing the mark, and that could have been accomplished with two solid seasons in the NFL. The Chicago Bears, New York Jets and New Orleans Saints all have vacancies; however, league sources have not believed Belichick would be a fit for any of those teams (and he would not have entertained coaching the Jets). Sources anticipated the Jacksonville Jaguars will have an opening at the end of the year, and most have believed that was the place he fit the best given he could have full control over a program with a great new facility, relatively weaker divisional competition and a franchise quarterback with several talented, young players on the roster. Some thought Belichick wanted his conversations with UNC to be made public so he would get more NFL job interviews. Sources said Belichick would not have necessarily demanded full organizational control to coach an NFL team . Whether Belichick could have gotten an NFL job this cycle will never be known. Because he was't under contract with another team, a club with an opening could have interviewed him before the end of the season. Instead, his foray to North Carolina comes a year after Belichick went through an entire NFL coaching cycle after not being hired following his mutual parting in New England. There were six openings -- not including the Patriots -- and only the Falcons interviewed Belichick. Atlanta hired Raheem Morris to be its next coach, and Belichick spent the year collecting information from various colleagues across football preparing for his next opportunity. During that time, Apple TV's "The Dynasty: New England Patriots" premiered and left a bad taste in Belichick's mouth, sources said. The 10-part docuseries chronicled his two-plus decades of success in New England but went short on a few of the Super Bowl wins and long on controversies. There was an overwhelming feeling that Belichick got too much of the blame and not enough of the credit, and sources said that impacted the coach. Though Belichick will have people to answer to at North Carolina, there is no equivalent of an NFL owner equivalent within the university's structure. He expects to run the program how he sees fit, and that's what the week-plus worth of conversations have been about. Belichick's removal from the NFL coaching pool could shake up that coaching cycle. Agents have mused that his move to college weakens a candidate pool that is bottom heavy. If there are ultimately six to eight openings, as has been anticipated, are there credibly six to eight candidates who will be better than those who previously held the post? That's not Belichick's problem anymore. Now he gets to focus on NIL, the transfer portal and cutting the sleeves of his North Carolina hoodies ensuring the Jumpman logo remains visible.Idaho State men’s head basketball coach Ryan Looney said before this season began, his goal for the Bengals’ “money games” against Power Conference schools is to come back a better team. If the second half of Wednesday night’s game against the Big Ten’s UCLA is any indication, it was mission accomplished. No, the Bengals didn’t win, nor did it ever really feel like they were going to contend for that matter. But they put together probably their best offensive half of the season, considering the opposition, while losing 84-70. It was the most points UCLA has given up at home this year by a wide margin — the previous high was 50 to Rider. And the Bengals, who had been in an early-season shooting slump, rose up to shoot 55% from the field in the second half, after hitting just 32% and trailing 41-27 at halftime. Unfortunately for ISU, the Bruins, now 4-1, were pretty hot from the field themselves. They shot 57% for the game, including a red hot 64% from 3-point range (9-of-14). Tyler Bilodeau, a 6-foot-9-inch transfer forward who scored only three points for Oregon State against the Bengals last season, lit it up from outside Wednesday. He was 4-for-4 from distance, and wound up with 20 points. Meanwhile, Sebastian Mack, a powerful 6-3 guard, made a living at the free throw line for the Bruins, hitting 15-of-16 foul shots on his way to 21 points. His backcourt mate, Eric Dailey, Jr., added 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. So UCLA had plenty of firepower to put the game away. What was encouraging for the Bengals, however, is how well they performed offensively against a team that was holding opponents to 51.8 points a game, and forcing 19 turnovers a contest. ISU forward Isaiah Griffin was the Bengal offense in the first half, scoring the team’s first 12 points. He wound up with 16 total on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range. Then in the second half, guard Dylan Darling, struggling from beyond-the-arc, starting take the ball inside and wound up with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Guard AJ Burgin came off the bench to hit three 3s on the way to 11 points, and redshirt freshman Jaedyn Brown had his best game as a Bengal, hitting a pair of treys and finishing with 10 points. As a team, the Bengals only turned the ball over 12 times versus the Bruins’ full-court, man-to-man pressure. ISU was outrebounded for the first time this season, 25-23. But it still had more offensive rebounds, 10-8, than UCLA, which was playing before a sparse crowd of 4,029 fans in historic Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins, who used to be the “gold standard” in college basketball decades ago, haven’t played before a home crowed larger than 5,108 fans so far in their four home games this season. The Bengals fall to 2-4 on the season, but their tour of “money games” is now over. They return home to take on Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Monday at 7 p.m. at Reed Gym.

In the final days of the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking White House approval to propose a drastic reduction in the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, a long-standing goal of public health experts that has faced stiff opposition from the powerful tobacco lobby. The FDA submitted the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget only on Tuesday, a sign that the move was perhaps more wishful and symbolic than realistic for a White House juggling many late-term agenda items. And traditionally, the budget office's review of agency proposals can take months. "I think it's a milestone in progress toward the single most game-changing tobacco regulatory policy, in terms of lives that could be saved, that FDA could ever do," said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the agency's tobacco center. "Having said that, it's only a proposed rule, and we're obviously in the waning days and weeks of an outgoing administration." Even if the FDA receives clearance from the White House to advance the proposal, whether it can survive once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January is unclear given the sustained opposition from the industry. The tobacco lobby was also a significant donor to Trump's campaign; cigarette maker Reynolds American had given $8.5 million to his main super political action committee by late October. Trump is known to personally oppose cigarette smoking, but has not weighed in recently on agency issues such as nicotine levels in cigarettes. He has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his likely nominee to run the nation's top health agency, and Kennedy has railed against federal subsidies given to tobacco growers, saying they eclipse those sent to other farmers who grow fruits and vegetables. He listed the problem as evidence that "we are just poisoning" people and contributing to chronic disease. "It makes no sense if we want a healthy country," he said in a speech in August. A World Health Organization study estimated in 2023 that the U.S. Agriculture Department allocated $437 million in subsidies to tobacco farmers from 2015 through 2020. Dr. Robert Califf, the FDA's commissioner, announced the agency's intent to require tobacco companies to significantly reduce the amount of nicotine in traditional cigarettes in June 2022. The agency's aim was to slash the addictive nicotine to a level that would make cigarettes undesirable, helping people to quit smoking and cutting the rate of smoking beyond its current, historic low. The FDA confirmed Wednesday that its proposed rule had reached the White House. An agency spokesperson said that if it were finalized, it "would be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco-product regulation." Cigarette smoking is linked to about 480,000 premature deaths a year. To Califf, who spent decades working as a cardiologist, reducing smoking death and disease has been a central goal in improving the health of the nation. But he has aired frustration about getting proposals to the finish line. This year, the Biden administration abandoned years of work on a proposal to ban menthol cigarettes, which make smoking more appealing to many people. It was fiercely opposed by Reynolds American, which makes billions of dollars in revenue from its Newport menthol cigarettes. Opponents of the plan framed concerns by Black people who smoke menthol cigarettes as an issue that could potentially cost Biden votes. Neither the White House nor Trump transition officials responded to a request for comment. The draft proposal to reduce nicotine levels elicited more than 7,700 comments from the public, including industry. The agency has since refined the plan, although it remains unclear whether the proposal would also affect nicotine levels in cigars, hookahs or e-cigarettes. If the plan advanced, it would be a landmark change, said Erika Sward, the assistant vice president of national advocacy at the American Lung Association. "We know that candy flavors and the marketing that tobacco companies do are what attracts kids and young adults to try tobacco products," she said. "But it's the nicotine that attracts them and addicts them in this lifelong battle with attempts to quit and with tobacco-caused disease." Major cigarette companies including Reynolds American and Altria have responded to the proposal by saying they prefer harm-reduction efforts that include helping smokers make the transition to e-cigarettes, which are believed to be less harmful. Companies have argued that such restrictions as requiring sharp nicotine reductions would be tantamount to product bans, which would violate a tobacco control law passed by Congress. "Smoking rates are at historic lows and reducing nicotine content in cigarettes will not make these products less risky or improve public health," Luis Pinto, a spokesperson for Reynolds American, said in an email Wednesday. "These actions would effectively eliminate legal cigarettes and fuel an already massive illicit nicotine market." This article originally appeared in The New York Times .Three of these images are fake. Can you spot the real image? Some images generated by artificial intelligence have become so convincingly real that there is no surefire way to spot the fakes. But experts say there are still things we can try to detect fakes. "Media literacy is super awesome," said Matt Groh, assistant professor at Northwestern University. "But it needs to extend to AI literacy. Like the classic kind of things that you want to teach in media literacy, we still need to teach those same things. We just need to add the AI portion to it now." RELATED STORY | Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 2 scientists for discoveries that enabled artificial intelligence Groh's team at Northwestern released a guide on how to spot AI generated images. The full preprint paper was released in June. "So what we've done is we've articulated 5 different categories of artifacts, implausibilities," Groh said. "Ways to tell AI-generated image apart from a real photograph." The academic preprint guide offers detailed tips, tricks and examples on spotting AI-generated images. It also teaches important questions to consider when consuming media. Anatomical implausibilities The first and easiest telltale signs: anatomical implausibilities. Ask yourself: Are the fingers, eyes, and bodies off? Are there extra limbs or do they bend strangely? Are there too many teeth? Stylistic implausibilities Ask yourself: Do images seem plastic, glossy, shiny or cartoonish? Are there overly dramatic or cinematic? Functional implausibilities Ask yourself: Is text garbled? Is clothing strange? Are objects not physically correct, like how this backpack strap merges into clothing? Violation of physics Ask yourself: Are light and shadows off? Are there impossible reflections? Sociocultural implausibilities Ask yourself: Are there images that are just too unbelievable or historically inaccurate? RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone "What we're trying to do is give you a snapshot of what it looks like in 2024 and how we can help people move their attention as effectively as possible," Groh said. "Education is really the biggest thing. There's education on the tools," said Cole Whitecotton, senior professional research associate at the National Center for Media Forensics. Whitecotton encourages the public to educate themselves and try AI tools to know their capabilities and limits. "I think everybody should go out and use it. And look at how these things do what they do and understand a bit of it," he said. "Everyone should interact with ChatGPT. In some way. Everyone should interact with Midjourney. And look at how these things do what they do and understand a bit of it." Whitecotton suggests being inquisitive and curious when scrolling through social media. "If you interacted with every piece of content in that way, then there you would be a lot less likely to be duped and to be sort of sucked into that sort of stuff, right?" he said. "How do you interact with Facebook and with Twitter and all these things? How do you consume the media?" Whitecotton added. RELATED STORY | Biden's AI advisor speaks on AI policy, deepfakes, and the use of AI in war While AI-generated images and videos continue to evolve, Groh and his team offer a realistic approach to a changing technological landscape where tips and tricks may become outdated quickly. "I think a real, good, useful thing is we build this. We update this every year. Okay, some of these things work. Some of these things don't. And I think once we have a base, we're able to update it," Groh said. "I think one of the problems is we didn't have a base. And so one of the things we're really excited about is even sharing our framework, because I think our framework is going to help people just navigate that conversation." So were you able to guess which image is real? If you guessed the image of the girl in the bottom left corner, you are correct! "It sucks that there's this misinformation in the world. But it's also possible to navigate this new problem," Groh said. If you want to test yourself even more, the Northwestern University research team has released this site that gives you a series of real and AI-generated images to differentiate.