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Bears-Vikings game could be a 2-person quarterback scramble with Fields and Dobbs both bound to run

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Joshua Dobbs first discovered his ability to run with the ball — and fondness for it — when he started playing the sport as a 6-year-old growing up in Georgia. That scrambling speed and instinct for pass rush evasion are vital skills in the NFL these days, an unexpected jolt of energy for the Minnesota Vikings after the season-ending Achilles tendon injury to Kirk Cousins threatened to veer off course their bid for the playoffs.Sometimes there’s a simpler explanation, too.“There’s a lot of large individuals on the other side of the football, and it’s painful when they hit you, so it’s more of running not to have to be hit by those guys,” Dobbs said. “It’s always been part of my game, and now the key is always finding ways to make sure that aspect of the game is never lost.”Dobbs has 389 rushing yards this season, including his totals with the Arizona Cardinals before he was acquired by the Vikings in an emergency trade, that’s second only to Baltimore’...

Biden says 4-year-old American hostage Abigail Edan has been released by Hamas. ‘She’s free and she’s in Israel’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — Biden says 4-year-old American hostage Abigail Edan has been released by Hamas. ‘She’s free and she’s in Israel.’Source

Garnacho scores acrobatic wonder goal for Man United to revive memories of famous Rooney strike

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho scored an acrobatic wonder goal in the Premier League on Sunday off a bicycle kick that revived memories of a similar strike by Wayne Rooney in a Manchester derby 12 years ago.With his back to goal, Garnacho met a deep cross from near the byline by Diogo Dalot with a flying overhead kick that sent the ball beyond Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and into the top corner of the net at Goodison Park.It came in the third minute of the match to give United a 1-0 lead.The goal had echoes of Rooney’s famous overhead kick against City in 2011 that secured a 2-1 win at Old Trafford.Garnacho looked astonished that he had pulled off the effort, which was slightly further away from goal than Rooney’s. The Argentina international ran off to deliver a Cristiano Ronaldo-style pirouette celebration in front of Everton’s fans.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerSource

Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence inactive against Patriots with hamstring injury

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — New York Giants Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence was inactive for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots because of a hamstring injury.Lawrence was hurt in the waning minutes of the Giants’ win over Washington last week and did not practice this week. He was listed as doubtful Friday.Lawrence has been a force on the defensive line, getting 41 tackles, 17 quarterback hits, four sacks and four tackles for loss. This is only the third time Lawrence has missed a game in his five-year career. He did not play on Jan. 2, 2022, because of COVID-19 and he was rested in last season’s finale to be ready for the playoffs.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflSource

Angry Everton fans march to Goodison Park in protest at 10-point deduction in Premier League

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Everton fans marched in their thousands to Goodison Park ahead of the match against Manchester United on Sunday, protesting against the decision to dock the team a Premier League-record 10 points for breaching financial rules.Supporters on the march held up pink cards featuring the word “corrupt” and the logo of the Premier League, and chanted “We shall not be moved.” On one huge banner read the message: “Where there is power, greed and money … there is corruption.”There is widespread anger at the Merseyside club at the severity of the sanction handed out by a disciplinary commission for going less than 20 million pounds over the maximum losses allowed of 105 million pounds ($130 million) across a three-year period, according to the league’s profit and sustainability rules.This was Everton’s first match since the club received a punishment that many in soccer feel doesn’t fit the crime. It made for a hostile atmosphere inside Goodiso...

The Skeleton Park Arts Festival kicks off fundraising efforts for The Skeleton Press

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

The Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF) team has launched fundraising efforts to keep the beloved Skeleton Press going.The Skeleton Press is a quarterly paper serving the Skeleton Park neighborhood and surrounding area. They distribute over 6,000 issues throughout the Skeleton Park (also known as McBurney Park) neighborhood and the rest of the city each season. The Skeleton Press is unique publication, filled with content produced by community members.“Fortunately, there’s a lot of great writers in this neighborhood, also artists, illustrators, photographers. We’re an arts neighborhood and arts organization, so there’s a lot of content about that. And politics and neighborhood politics, but it’s just a really fun way for sharing ideas, sharing stories and also just kind of presenting a broad and diverse perspective of different people’s voices in this area,” explains Greg Tilson, Director of the Skeleton Park Arts Festival.The project originally launched...

Fragile Gaza truce appears to hold as Hamas release more hostages

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

The fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to hold on Sunday as the Palestinian militant group freed 17 more hostages in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners released from Israel jails, in a third set of releases under a four-day truce.The released detainees included 14 Israelis and and three foreign nationals, including the first American detainee. Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt, the Associated Press reported.The U.S. said it hoped the pause in fighting would be extended.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier Sunday received a list of the names of the hostages set to be freed and informed the families, Israeli media reported on Sunday. According to Haaretz, at least one of the hostages to be released was Russian and part of a deal between Hamas and Moscow. The exchanges are part of a four-day truce agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. that started on Friday. Overall, Hamas is set to free...

Russia, Ukraine trade drone attacks

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

Ukraine overnight tried to attack Moscow with dozens of drones, Russian authorities said Sunday, just a day after Ukrainian officials reported that Russia had launched its most intense drone attack on Kyiv since the beginning of its full-scale war in 2022.Russian air defenses brought down at least 24 drones over the Moscow region — which surrounds but does not include the capital — and four other provinces to the south and west, the Russian Defense Ministry and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported in a series of Telegram updates. Neither referenced any casualties.Andrei Vorobyev, governor of the Moscow region, wrote on Telegram that the drone strikes damaged three unspecified buildings there, adding that no one was hurt.One drone crashed into a 12-story apartment block in the western Russian city of Tula, about 113 miles south of Moscow, lightly wounding one resident and causing limited damage, local Gov. Aleksei Dyumin wrote on Telegram on Sunday morning.Moscow’s Vnukovo and...

Nebraska woman bags marriage proposal shortly after killing big buck on hunting trip

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman bagged a marriage proposal earlier this month along with a big buck during a recent deer hunting trip.Samantha Camenzind’s boyfriend not only gave her the first shot at the deer they had spotted on a trail camera south of Lincoln, but then surprised her by popping the question in the middle of a photo shoot with the prized trophy — a giant buck with 11 tines on one side of its antlers and nine on the other.“Everybody has been saying they would marry him, too, if he let them shoot this big of a deer,” Camenzind, 28, who lives in Omaha, told the Omaha World-Herald.In three years of dating one of the things the couple bonded over is their shared love of hunting. They process and eat the meat of what they kill.Cole Bures said he didn’t have any problem letting Camenzind take the first shot at the buck“I was just as excited as she was when she got it,” the 32-year-old from Filley, Nebraska said.Then Bures told Camenzind that he wanted a pro...

Syria says an Israeli airstrike hit the Damascus airport and put it out of service

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:50:21 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike Sunday hit the international airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus and put it out of commission, Syrian state media said. Israel has struck Syria’s Damascus and Aleppo international airports several times since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza on Oct. 7. Israel has also struck parts of western Syria after rocket fire landed on the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said Israel fired missiles from the direction of the Golan Heights, striking Damascus International Airport and other areas in the Damascus countryside causing material damage. There was no mention of casualties.Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes came just hours after the airport resumed flights after a monthlong hiatus following a previous Israeli strike.Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in...