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Studs and Duds from Knicks’ Christmas Day win over the SpursFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. Is it a plan in motion or more rhetoric? On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Death row inmates are mostly sentenced by states Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Could rape now be punishable by death? Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. What were the cases highlighted by Trump? One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. _______ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report. Adriana Gomez Licon, The Associated Press

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Brazil's top court takes on regulation of social mediaFans of global superstar Beyoncé who missed her Christmas Day NFL halftime performance, or want to relive the moment, are in for a treat. Netflix Inc. NFLX is set to feature one of the standout moments from its debut NFL game streams. What Happened: For the first time ever, Netflix streamed two live NFL games on Christmas Day. The games, which are part of a three-year deal, saw Netflix as the exclusive home of the Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans matchups on Wednesday. Beyoncé performed a 12-minute set during halftime of the Ravens and Texans game, which took place in her hometown of Houston. Being labeled the "Beyoncé Bowl" by Netflix, the halftime performance featured the first-ever live performances of songs from the singer's "Cowboy Carter" album. The performance featured guest appearances by Shaboozey, Post Malone and Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Netflix announced that "Beyoncé Bowl" will be released as a standalone special on the streaming platform later this week. The streaming company did not provide an exact date or additional details on whether the special would just be the halftime performance or include behind-the-scenes or additional footage. Read Also: Streamers Max, Paramount+ Won November: Here’s Why Analyst Expects Netflix, Amazon To Win December Why It's Important : Netflix appears poised to leverage the star power of one of the world's most popular singers, featured during halftime of its inaugural Christmas Day NFL games. Beyoncé previously performed at halftime of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, a performance that featured her Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, and in 2016 with Coldplay and Bruno Mars at Super Bowl 50. Both halftime performances rank among the most watched in NFL history. The singer teased that there is more coming from her next month. An Instagram post featured Beyoncé on a horse with an American flag and ends with the screen showing the date of Jan. 14, 2025. While the teaser post may not be in relation to Netflix, the streaming company has more coming from Beyoncé. The singer and streamer signed a $60 million deal in 2019, which included "Homecoming," a documentary concert film about the singer's 2018 Coachella performance. Several reports suggest that the NFL Christmas Day performance and subsequent "Beyoncé Bowl" release are the second of the three projects, leaving one more Netflix special coming from the global superstar. NFLX Price Action : Netflix stock is down 1.2% to $920.78 on Monday versus a 52-week trading range of $461.86 to $941.75. Netflix stock is up 97% year-to-date in 2024. Read Next: Netflix Adds Women’s World Cup Media Rights: From Football To Futbol, Streamer All-In On Live Sports Photo: Shutterstock © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.It’s here. American Thanksgiving. While most of our friends south of the border look at the late-November holiday and think NFL when it comes to sports, most Canadians view it through a different lens. They examine the NHL standings – hoping that their team is above the playoff line. Why? Since realignment occurred over a decade ago, 80% of the teams that are in playoff spots at Thanksgiving qualify for the post-season. For those that are mathematically challenged, that’s 13 out of 16 teams. That was the case last season as well as Edmonton, Nashville and the New York Islanders were the only teams to make the playoffs despite being on the outside looking in on Nov. 23, 2023. Last year on that date, the Vancouver Canucks had 27 points and only the Vegas Golden Knights — with 30 — had more. The Canucks performance in those first 20 games basically clinched a playoff spot. This season the Canucks haven’t been as fortunate. Not having the services of all-star goaltender Thatcher Demko since the start of the season due to a knee injury was the first issue that the hockey club had to deal with. Dakota Joshua also missed the first 14 games recovering from off-season cancer surgery. Brock Boeser suffered what appeared to be a concussion on Nov. 7 and missed seven games but was set to return to the lineup in Boston against the Bruins on Tuesday night. Then there’s J.T. Miller, who took a leave of absence on Nov. 19 for personal reasons. Add it all up and it’s a Canuck team that has been treading water without their three All-Stars from a year ago. After Monday’s games, Vancouver was below the playoff bar with 23 points, trailing both Colorado and Edmonton by one point for the two wildcard spots. The Canucks are also two points behind the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division. The good news with all of these scenarios is that the Canucks have played the least number of games — 19 — of any team in the National Hockey League entering Tuesday’s game versus Boston. They have three games in hand on Edmonton, Colorado and Los Angeles. However, the question remains: will the Canucks make the playoffs? Many assume once the team gets 100% healthy, they will find a way to get it done but you know what they say about people who assume. Let’s start with Demko, the 28-year-old who compiled a 2.45 goals-against-average and a .918 save percentage last season to go along with 35 wins in 51 games. Since March 10, he has played a grand total of four games; that’s four games in eight months. After such a lengthy layoff, the biggest concern for Demko will be timing and getting used to the intensity level of NHL games. As we often say when it comes to football, nothing duplicates game speed. For Demko, getting used to the speed and regular chaos of NHL games will be a challenge. Then there is Boeser, who had been out of the lineup for almost three weeks after taking a headshot from Tanner Jeannot in a game against the Kings in early November. Hopefully, there won’t be any lingering symptoms from that injury and Boeser can regain the pace that saw him score 40 goals last year and which he was duplicating this season with six goals in 12 games. As for Miller, when he does return, what player will the Canucks be getting? His play had dipped to the point where he was benched for the last 14:40 of the third period in his final game versus Nashville on Nov. 17. Miller’s production had waned with only six goals and ten assists in 17 games – well off the levels from a year ago when he tallied 37 goals and 66 assists. Then there are other issues that are of concern as well. The second defensive pair of Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy has struggled this season to the point where the organization is checking in with other teams as they look to get help for their blue line corps. What has compounded the problem is that Tocchet has emphasized since training camp that he wants his defencemen to be more involved in the offense and generating more chances. That doesn’t exactly fit into the skill set of either Myers or Soucy so it’s been noted that the Canucks are talking to other teams with Pittsburgh’s Marcus Pettersson being a player of interest. Although Pettersson is a solid defender, he’s not exactly the answer to the Canucks problems when it comes to offence from the back-end. While we are on the topic of Petterssons, the enigma known as Elias Pettersson will need to regain the form that saw him be a dynamic play-driver who scored 30-plus goals the last three seasons. Tocchet and the organization wanted to see more of an investment from Pettersson and the Swede has shown signs of improvement with four goals and six assists in his last seven games. There are other positive signs as well. Quinn Hughes continues to play at a Norris Trophy-calibre level while Kevin Lankinen has provided consistent goaltending during Demko’s absence. Conor Garland continues to play like Conor Garland and Pius Sutter and Teddy Blueger continue to provide good depth while new additions Kiefer Sherwood and Erik Brannstrom have exceeded expectations. Given what we know about the U.S Thanksgiving Day playoff trend, it’s not a slam dunk that the Canucks will make the post-season but it’s not a slam dunk they won’t either. Unlike last year when the team had enough of a cushion in the standings to play games pressure-free for the most part in the second half, it appears they won’t have that luxury this season. As Tocchet always likes to say, things are going to just keep ‘getting tougher’ and the Canucks are going to have to ‘embrace the hard’ as they deal with the grind of an NHL season. Their playoff hopes will depend on it.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan National Politics | Biden says he was ‘stupid’ not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump did National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.None