6 pst to philippine time LAS VEGAS -- After securing his fourth world championship at the age of just 27, has firmly entered 's greatest of all time debate. He is now in exalted company. Only Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and had won four championships. Verstappen's next goal is to join Fangio, Schumacher and Hamilton as a winner of five -- if he did it next year, he would emulate Schumacher in winning five consecutively. The Dutchman's record-breaking 2023 season had already firmly established this decade as the Verstappen Era, but his follow-up in 2024 was special for a number of reasons. Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races, seeming ready to cruise to his fourth title before Red Bull's campaign began to crumble, with an increasingly erratic car, and the rise of McLaren in the middle of the season. This was when Verstappen showed his mettle, though, extracting important performances from the car at every weekend and then in the pouring rain in the São Paulo Grand Prix to move himself to the brink. That Interlagos performance, which saw him race from 17th on the grid to victory, was a feather in the cap. F1's other candidates for the GOAT also have had career-defining performances in similar conditions: three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, considered by many to be F1's greatest ever, had Monaco 1984 and Donington 1992; Schumacher had Spain 1996; and Hamilton had Silverstone 2008. Verstappen's career now checks multiple boxes. A title against another all-time great, Hamilton, in 2021. Two dominant seasons in an unmatched car. And now a championship with a car that you can consider to have been inferior for much of the season. Few drivers can point to all three of those types of championship-winning campaigns, and that is why 2024 has been so significant to Verstappen's legacy. Dominant Formula 1 winners always have to deal with the suggestion that they are the benefactors of a great car. If that were the case, teams like Red Bull would pay average drivers a lot less money than they are paying Verstappen. There is a reason teams always want a superstar driver. This subject is something that has irked Verstappen recently. He took a playful (but clearly thought-out) jab at McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who earlier this year claimed seven or eight current drivers could win the title in the Dutchman's Red Bull. Verstappen went on to claim if he were driving Brown's McLaren, which doubled up as a dig at title rival . "Last year I had a dominant car but I always felt not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team. Of course the car was dominant, but it wasn't as dominant as people thought it was," Verstappen said in Las Vegas. "I will always look back at it because, even if in places we didn't have the best setup in the races, we were still capable to win races because the car was quite strong. But I am also very proud of this season because for most of it -- I would say for 70% -- we didn't have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead, so that is something I am very proud of." Fans and pundits can get into the weeds of who had the best car where until the end of time, but Verstappen is right to say his car did not look like a title-winning one for much of the year. Norris has been criticised for failing to properly use the strength of his McLaren at various points in the season, and it was that contrast to Verstappen that proved most telling. Another mark of the new four-time world champion's greatness can be seen by looking at the other side of the Red Bull garage. Much has been made of 's abysmal form in the second RB20, but plenty within the team feel the car is likely somewhere between his and Verstappen's performances; there is a suggestion that one driver is overperforming and the other is underperforming. Verstappen's reputation as a teammate killer is well founded and is built on his incredible ability to drive just about anything beyond the limits of what other drivers might be able to. That's why 2024 felt like the cherry on top of his achievements so far: he wasn't just beating a teammate to the title, he was battling an erratic car against quickly improving rivals. At this stage, it's hard to imagine Verstappen retiring as just a four-time world champion. McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes will take renewed hope of challenging for the drivers' title in 2025, but this season has demonstrated that Verstappen is the driver to beat, regardless of where his car is in the competitive order. While at times this year -- something that was true of other GOAT candidates, including Senna and Schumacher -- it is difficult to find times when Verstappen has made unforced errors. Most worryingly of all for his rivals is that, in the decade since he made his debut as a 17-year-old, he appears to have gained the wisdom to settle for second, fourth or sixth when he needs to. Is Verstappen the GOAT? Assigning GOAT status to anyone is circumstantial and subjective and often suffers from recency bias. Some sports have obvious candidates for how they completely reshaped the game they played, like Michael Jordan. Some were utterly unmatched by their peers, like Serena Williams or Wayne Gretzky. Others, like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, divide opinion but stand alone in the argument. While it is always difficult and slightly unfair to compare different eras, with standards of play and professionalism improving with every decade that passes, Formula 1 has an added layer of complexity to it. The best example of this is to compare the greats of today with Fangio, the legend of the 1950s. The Argentine won five championships for four different teams in an era when a season would span fewer than 10 races -- the 2024 season will finish at 24. But there were more glaring differences as well. Fatality rates in F1 races during Fangio's day were awful, and that fact hung over drivers every time they stepped into the cockpit. That is not to say the same danger does not exist today, but safety standards have improved massively. The stats show that to be the case: 15 F1 drivers died in the 1950s, 14 in the 1960s, 12 in the 1970s, four in the 1980s and two in the 1990s. Jules Bianchi's death in 2015, from injuries sustained at the previous year's Japanese Grand Prix, remains the only one this millennium. Improved safety is not something to hold against modern drivers; it simply complicates trying to compare a Verstappen or Hamilton with someone of Fangio's era. There are many who saw Jim Clark race in the 1960s who felt he was the greatest ever. The Scot was killed in a Formula 2 race in 1968 as a two-time F1 champion but at the time of his death held the record for wins, pole positions and fastest laps. Enzo Ferrari considered Gilles Villeneuve, who died at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix having not managed to win a title, as the best driver he ever saw race one of his famous cars. Senna is revered as one of the greatest, but his death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix stopped any chance of him adding to his three championships. The darker side of motor racing makes an easy debate on the topic difficult to have. It is not just the deaths, either. While the basic rules of a soccer game and the dimensions of a pitch have remained the same, Formula 1 is an ever-evolving championship. Rules change, cars change, safety standards change, even the circuits change. Technology's continued, rapid evolution is what allows the sport to change as often as it does. Senna, Prost and Schumacher raced in a time with limited data available to them. Drivers today have an almost-unbelievable amount of information at their fingertips: insights into their own performance and those of their teammates and rivals. You could use that to knock the modern generation, but there is a flip side to that. The modern batch of F1 racers compete in an era of significantly limited testing; gone are the days when Schumacher and Ferrari could travel home from a race and complete 300 laps the following day at the Fiorano test track in Maranello. The current budget cap has added another layer of difficulty drivers of old simply did not have to deal with: power units need to be managed to stretch over a long season, rather than dropping in a freshly built engine ahead of each grand prix, and crashes can now have a direct impact on what can be invested in development. The more you pull at the threads of different factors over the years, the more complicated it becomes to assign the "greatest" status to anyone. The outright greatest will always be subjective and often can be limited to whether you saw particular drivers competing at their best, but Verstappen is doing something few before him have done and is raising the bar every year he competes. There might even be greater talents on the horizon, but, like Schumacher and Hamilton before him, Verstappen continues to move the goalposts they'll be tasked with reaching Verstappen is also good enough that, in a few years, there might not even be a debate left to have. He has repeatedly spoken about not wanting to race into his late 30s, but in the here and now, he goes into 2025 as the favourite. Whether he is still racing with Red Bull in 2026 or beyond will be a fascinating narrative to follow in the coming seasons, and it is clear the best route to success for any team right now is to have Verstappen in the cockpit. That isn't going to change any time soon.Cork man making waves with drone start-up to restore seagrassRedshirt junior Febechi Nwaiwu was named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week, junior R Mason Thomas was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the week and running back Xavier Robinson was named Freshman of the Week. Here is what the SEC had to say about Nwaiwu, “Nwaiwu, a Coppell, Texas, product, was Oklahoma’s highest-graded offensive lineman by the OU coaching staff in the Sooners’ win over Alabama, helping pave the way for an offensive attack that finished with 257 rushing yards. It was the most rushing yards allowed by the Crimson Tide in 26 games and just the ninth game in the last 20 seasons it surrendered at least 250 rushing yards. Nwaiwu and his offensive linemates helped the Sooners become just the fifth team going back to at least 1996 to have two players each rush for at least 100 yards against Alabama. OU surrendered just one sack and did not allow a tackle for loss until the 3:56 mark of the third quarter.” The SEC had this to say about Thomas, “Thomas registered three tackles, including 1.5 for loss and 1.0 sack while adding two QB hurries (one directly leading to an interception) in Oklahoma's defensively dominant win. On one of his hurries, he hit the arm of the quarterback, causing the ball to fly into the air and be intercepted by teammate Woodi Washington. Thomas' play helped spur an OU defense that kept Alabama from scoring a touchdown for the first time since 2011 and that held the Crimson Tide to its fewest points since 2004 and its fewest offensive yards (234) since 2014. Thomas, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., product, leads OU and ranks fifth in the SEC with 8.0 sacks and 12th with his 10.5 tackles for loss (both career highs).” And this is what the SEC has to say about Robinson, “Robinson, from Yukon, Okla., rushed 18 times for 107 yards and two TDs (all career highs) and caught a career-high four passes for 20 yards to pace Oklahoma’s offense on Saturday. Playing in just his fifth career game (third in which he registered a carry), he averaged 5.9 yards per rush against an Alabama defense that entered the game permitting 3.6 yards per run on the season. Robinson rushed for 40 yards on his first carry of the game, his longest run of the season and the second longest by an OU running back this year. His touchdowns came from 18 yards (gave OU a 10-3 lead in the second quarter) and 1 yard (17-3 lead in the third quarter). His effort helped the Sooners maintain a 34:11 to 25:49 advantage in time of possession, and his 3-yard rush on fourth-and-2 with 2:00 minutes remaining allowed OU to run out the clock for its first home win over an AP top-10 opponent when unranked since 1990.”

ITV shares in demand amid takeover talkMissed kicks. Poor tackling. Costly penalties. Week 12 was filled with sloppy play around the NFL, leading to some upsets and surprising outcomes. Jayden Daniels nearly led Washington to an improbable comeback down 10 in the final two minutes against Dallas only to fall short because Austin Seibert's extra point sailed wide left. After a field goal and successful onside kick, Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin on an 86-yard catch-and-run touchdown to bring the Commanders within one point with 21 seconds remaining. But Seibert's point-after attempt failed and the Cowboys returned the ensuing onside kick for a touchdown to seal a 34-26 victory. Special teams were atrocious for both teams. Seibert also missed his first extra point and Washington allowed KaVontae Turpin's 99-yard kickoff return for a score earlier in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys missed a field goal, had another blocked and had a punt blocked. "What a wild special teams moment of blocked punts, kicks, kickoff returns, blocked field goals, just a number of things going to that spot," Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. Washington (7-5) was a 10 1/2-point favorite over the undermanned Cowboys (4-7) but ended up losing a third straight game. The Houston Texans were 8-point favorites against the lowly Tennessee Titans and let the game come down to Ka'imi Fairbairn missing a 28-yard field goal that would have tied it with just under two minutes left. C.J. Stroud threw two interceptions, was sacked four times and the Texans (7-5) committed 11 penalties, including an illegal shift that negated a go-ahead 33-yard TD pass to Nico Collins on the drive that ended with Fairbairn's miss in the 32-27 loss. The Titans (3-8) averaged just 17 points per game before putting 32 on the scoreboard against Houston's defense that entered No. 4 in the league. "We didn't do anything well enough to win this game," Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. "Out of all the positives that we did have, there were way too many negatives. Too many negative plays. Score, get a penalty, get touchdowns called back. Get penalties on special teams. Just way too many negative plays defensively, like unexplainable explosives for touchdowns. We just didn't play good across the board." The San Francisco 49ers didn't have quarterback Brock Purdy, star edge rusher Nick Bosa and All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams against Green Bay. That was no excuse for their undisciplined performance. The Niners committed nine penalties and their tackling was shoddy in a 38-10 loss to the Packers. The defending NFC champions are 5-6 with a trip to Buffalo (9-2) coming up. They're still only one game behind Seattle and Arizona in the NFC West. "I'm really not concerned right now about how many guys were missing. We didn't play good enough, so that's not a factor. But, when you are missing some guys, you do have to be better. When you have those penalties and we didn't stop the run like we did and we had those three turnovers in the second half, that's how you get embarrassed." Coming off their first loss of the season, the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs needed Patrick Mahomes' heroics on the final drive to beat Carolina 30-27. Mahomes ran 33 yards to set up Spencer Schrader's 31-yard field goal as time expired. Kansas City had 10 penalties, including a pass interference that gave the Panthers (3-8) another chance to make the 2-point conversion that tied the game with 1:46 remaining. On defense, the Chiefs (10-1) suddenly shaky unit gave up 334 total yards against Bryce Young and an offense that entered last in the NFL. "We've got to do better. We're doing good in the red zone but that's only a third of the field," Chiefs safety Bryan Cook said. "We will go back and look at the film to see what we're doing week to week, and see the tendencies that we're giving up, and just move forward from there. At the end of the day, we're all vets in the room for the most part. ... got to go back to the drawing board and see what we're doing and correct it from there." The Vikings allowed the Bears to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left and Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos' tying 48-yard field goal. But Minnesota won in overtime, 30-27. The Chiefs and Vikings overcame their mistakes in narrow victories. The Commanders, Texans and 49ers couldn't. They have to be better down the stretch to make a playoff run. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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Longest-lived US president was always happy to speak his mindIt was the final day, at the 2024 edition of the annual Sheikh Abdullahi Fodio Public Lecture, which was part of the events scheduled for Gwandu Emirate Annual Horse Racing and Cultural Festival in Birnin Kebbi, concluded last Saturday. The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar chaired the occasion, attended by some first class traditional rulers, prominent politicians, captains of industries, distinguished academics and highly respected Islamic Scholars from different parts of the country. The testimonies of the dignitaries at the event, centred on the unique leadership qualities of Sheikh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio, some of which were identified in the leadership approach of Comrade Governor Nasir Idris. Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar spoke first with clear elements of surprise, stating that it was uncommon to see a serving state Governor bringing all his predecessors together in the overall interest of the state, since the inception of the present democratic dispensation. He observed that the unimaginable exhibition of wisdom by Comrade Governor Nasir Idris in uniting leaders for unity of purpose was responsible for the glaring unity among the leaders in Kebbi State, revealing that it was such important attributes he noted that made him conferred the prestigious traditional title of “Gwarzon Daular Usmaniya” on Kauran Gwandu. He advised the present generation of Nigerian politicians to emulate the important virtues of Comrade Governor Nasir Idris. Professor Bello Bada of Usman Danfodio University sokoto, who was the first guest speakers observed that the ability to assembled nationally recognised bureaucrats, academics and highly respected religious and traditional leaders from different sectors of human endeavour to reappraised the works of Sheikh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio,underscores the commitment of the Governor Idris to Abdullahi Fodio’s project. A Sokoto based renowned Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Isah Talata Mafara who delivered the second paper couldn’t mince words while relating Comrade Nasir’s reception, educational development policies, fairness and equity in governance to some of the qualities of Sheikh Abdullahi Fodio. Another university Don Professor Jafar Kaura presented the last paper in which he extolled the leadership qualities of Sheikh Abdullahi Fodio and was of the opinion that Comrade Kauran Gwandu was on the part of promoting the good works of Sheikh Abdullahi Fodio which remained important and very useful to the Muslim Ummah. In their separate goodwill messages ,the Chairman of Enugu state council of traditional rulers, His Majesty Igwe Samuel Ogadagidi of fEdem Aniogwugwu Kigdom and his Ekiti state counterpart His Majesty Oba Adekunle Adeagbo Oore of Otun Ikiti were on the same page on what they described as humility and foresight of Comrade Governor Nasir they were of the opinion that from the beautiful roads and standard edifice of different shapes and sizes they have seen in the state capital, in addition to the hospitality and warm reception of the people, they strongly believed that the people of Kebbi State are undoubtedly, enjoying the dividends of of democracy. In his brief remarks, the visibly overwhelmed Comrade Governor Kauran Gwandu could not hide his joyful feeling of the encomium poured on him by the various speakers at the ceremony. Comrade Governor Nasir Idris, however, attributed the cordial relationship between him and his predecessors to mutual respect and genuine commitment to peace and development of Kebbi State, which he stressed has come to stay,adding that ” after all, i had happily worked with all of them at different times and capacities “ He assured that the Argungu Annual Fishing and Cultural Festival, the Regatta Festival in Yauri and the Annual Uhola International Cultural Festival will not only be sustained but also improved in order to attract more international tourists and investors. He concluded his address by announcing the renaming of the State University of Science and Technology to Abdullahi Fodio University.

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Despite a resounding defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Democrat forged a new path promoting causes such as electoral probity abroad, social justice and drives to rid the world of medical conditions. His first foreign visit as president was to the UK where then prime minister James Callaghan, as well as the usual visits in London, took his guest to the North East with a visit to Newcastle, Sunderland and Washington – the village bearing the name of the first ever president. Mr Carter delighted crowds in the North East by saying “Howay the lads” during a speech to the assembled throng. He also received a miner’s lamp from 12-year-old Ian McEree in Washington. The 39th US president also carried out more traditional presidential duties, including meetings with western European leaders during his time in London while the Cold War was still ongoing. The practising Baptist continued his globetrotting ways after leaving power, even without Air Force One as his vehicle. He was also part of the Elders, a group of experienced statesmen and women drawn from all corners of the world.An Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan’s audacious creation of a banana duct-taped to a wall has been sold for a staggering $6.2 million. The piece, titled Comedian, was auctioned on November 20, 2024, at Sotheby’s in New York and purchased by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun. First making waves at Miami’s Art Basel in 2019, Comedian gained fame for its simplicity and provocation. Speaking to the Italian daily La Repubblica, Cattelan explained, “It’s a provocation that invites us to reflect on the value of art and the dynamics of (this) market, pushing us to question what this work says about us as viewers.” Originally crafted with a 25-cent banana, the artwork’s value soared from an initial $800,000 to $5.2 million, plus additional buyer’s fees. Commenting on the art market’s reaction, Cattelan remarked, “It’s the market that has decided to take a banana stuck on the wall so seriously. If the system is so frail to slip on a banana skin, maybe it was already slippery.” The 64-year-old artist, renowned for hyper-realistic installations, has previously stunned audiences with creations such as a marble hand with a raised middle finger outside Milan’s Stock Exchange and a sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite. Reflecting on Comedian’s success, Cattelan called it “a laugh against a tired system, an invitation to rediscover the power of irony and simplicity.” He added that he was asleep during the auction, dreaming about his football team, Atalanta, beating AC Milan in an upcoming Serie A match. ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE Get real-time news updates from Tribune Online! Follow us on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive stories and interviews, and much more. Join our WhatsApp Channel now