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Published 4:58 pm Monday, November 25, 2024 By Data Skrive Ranked squads are on the Tuesday college basketball schedule in four games, including the Arizona State Sun Devils taking on the Kentucky Wildcats. Watch women’s college basketball, other live sports and more on Fubo. What is Fubo? Fubo is a streaming service that gives you access to your favorite live sports and shows on demand. Use our link to sign up for a free trial. Get the latest news sent to your inbox Catch tons of live women’s college basketball , plus original programming, with ESPN+ or the Disney Bundle.NowThis laid off about half its unionized newsroom, marking the second deep round of cuts this year. The layoffs affected 13 of NowThis' 21 WGA East members. A decline in advertising has led to widespread media layoffs in recent years. NowThis recently laid off about half its unionized newsroom, the second round of deep cuts this year at the progressive digital news outlet. Thirteen of NowThis' 21 members of WGA East, which represents the newsroom, were impacted, a union representative told Business Insider. Laid-off staffers were notified on November 15. Three people on the sales side also were let go recently, a person close to NowThis said. They asked for anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the cuts. Their identity is known to BI. A spokesperson for NowThis confirmed the layoffs to BI and said the company remained committed to making "impactful content." In September, NowThis hired a new editor-in-chief, Michael Vito Valentino, formerly of Fallen Media and MTV, as it looked to shift focus to Gen-Z audiences. NowThis was once a fast-growing digital news outlet aimed at young consumers that soared in popularity by making short-form, text-on-screen videos that it amplified on social media. It joined Vox Media through Vox's 2021 acquisition of Group Nine Media. Vox spun NowThis off in 2023 through a deal with Accelerate Change, a nonprofit focused on promoting civic engagement among underrepresented groups. Vox retained a minority stake in the company and has an arrangement to sell advertising for NowThis . A Vox Media spokesperson referred a request for comment to NowThis. At the time of the spinoff, the plan was for NowThis to ramp up to cover the 2024 election. Accelerate Change is backed by progressive organizations such as the Open Society Foundations , which was founded by George Soros, the billionaire investor and major Democratic political donor. It also backs other news outlets, including ParentsTogether, PushBlack, Pulso, and Noticias Para Inmigrantes. The earlier round of layoffs at NowThis, in February, curtailed some of the company's coverage ambitions, though. That round impacted 26 of its 50 members of WGA East. At the time, the company said the reduction was meant to ensure the business was sustainable and that no more cuts were planned. Many news media outlets have been hit by layoffs in recent years amid a general pullback in advertising spending. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas tracked 3,402 job cuts in news so far this year through September, up 40% from 2,423 cuts during the year-earlier period.METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Dejounte Murray plans to return to the New Orleans Pelicans ' lineup on Wednesday night for the first time since fracturing his left hand in a season-opening victory over Chicago on Oct. 23. And when Murray takes the court against the Toronto Raptors , his mother will be on his mind. After practice on Tuesday, Murray discussed his impending return and disclosed more details about the previously unspecified “personal matters” that caused him to leave the team during the final days of the preseason. His mother had a stroke, he said. “It was tough to leave and go deal with that. As she got better, she wanted me to come play,” Murray said of his last-minute decision to start against Chicago. He added that his hand injury near the end of that game was God's way of telling him, “‘Nah, you need to stay with your mom.’” “I was more concerned about my mother. That was my priority,” Murray continued. “I wasn’t really worried about my recovery.” Murray's mother has recovered well, he said, while he is “healthy and ready to help this team.” “I’m ready to hoop. Play for my mother — she’s going to be watching," Murray said. “I’m ready to compete, bring that winning spirit.” The Pelicans (4-14) certainly could use the help, having lost 14 of 16 games since opening the season with a pair of victories. Injuries have ravaged the roster. At times, all five starters have been out. Star power forward Zion Williamson has missed 12 games this season — one with an illness and 11 with a hamstring injury. Herb Jones has been sidelined by a shoulder strain and Brandon Ingram's status is in doubt after he sat out practice on Tuesday with calf soreness that also sidelined him during a loss on Monday night at Indiana. But at least two starters — Murray and fellow guard CJ McCollum — are expected to play against the Raptors. “I don’t care how many games we’ve lost. I just know every time I step on the floor I feel like we can win games,” said Murray, who had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in his lone game with the Pelicans. "That’s just my mentality, and I feel like it can carry over to a lot of guys.” AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Eagles-Steelers Week 15 injury report, with analysis
Election workers defamed by Giuliani pen scathing letter accusing him of an ‘obvious attempt to intimidate’President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexico’s 32 governors signed a National Human Right to Water Agreement on Monday, a pact that aims to ensure equal access to water for Mexico’s public while also increasing agricultural and industrial efficiency and sustainability. The private sector joined as a voluntary participant, committing to cede contractual rights to at least 126 million cubic meters of water and promising to invest 21 billion pesos (more than US $1 billion) in infrastructure and technology improvements. Federal water districts and irrigation sectors have also agreed to cede control over 2.8 billion cubic meters of water. During the signing ceremony, Efraín Morales, director of Mexico’s National Water Commission (Conagua), said the accord seeks to “move past the mercantilist vision of water and recognize it as a human right and a strategic asset.” President Sheinbaum and other speakers at the event emphasized the need to recognize the intrinsic link between social equality, economic growth and the environment. “We must no longer view water as a commodity. It is a right,” Sheinbaum said, according to Radio Fórmula . “Every Mexican should have access to adequate water ... We must guarantee sufficient water for food production, for social and industrial development ... and institute a plan that provides sustainability and equitable development for the long term.” The agreement is derived from the government’s National Water Plan 2024–2030 — presented by Sheinbaum at her press conference last Thursday, a federal initiative to reassess hundreds of thousands of Mexico’s water concessions, clean up some of Mexico’s most polluted rivers, improve agricultural irrigation technology available to the nation’s farmers, and build water infrastructure projects – including a desalination plant in Baja California and flood mitigation projects in Mexico’s flood-prone southeast. The historic accord signed Monday by Mexico’s governors recognizes access to water as a human right, declares water a national asset and outlines benchmarks for sustainability, as well as reclamation and purification. “This agreement is just the beginning of a permanent effort to ensure Mexico has a sustainable and equitable future with regard to water,” Morales said, according to the magazine Fortuna. The pact includes plans to reinforce the nation’s hydraulic infrastructure, sets standards for water treatment plants, conserves and protects wetlands, establishes river cleanup projects and promotes reforestation and forest conservation endeavors. Last year, Conagua’s Drought Monitor indicated that more than 80% of Mexico’s territory is facing a water crisis, one that, according to the newspaper La Jornada, affects more than 35 million people. Last year, Mexico City’s water supplies were so low that the global press was talking about a “Day Zero” when the metropolis would run out of water . The drought is threatening 104 of the nation’s 757 drainage basins. In addition, of Mexico’s 653 aquifers, 114 are overexploited, according to Conagua. Plus, two-thirds of sites that Conagua monitors were classified as contaminated or heavily contaminated last year. “It is past time that we manage water more efficiently, that we incentivize treatment and re-use,” Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena told La Jornada. “The willingness to participate voluntarily is a great sign, and it should result in more productive agricultural and industrial sectors while also ensuring a more equitable distribution.” In addition to the give-back from the private sector, Sheinbaum said water contracts for industrial use would also be restricted and even restructured, the news outlet Infobae reported. Going forward, concessions would strictly prohibit alternate uses of water that do not benefit the public. With reports from Fortuna , Radio Fórmula , Infobae and La Jornada
By Brendan Marks, Michael Silver, Jeff Howe and Dianna Russini Bill Belichick, the longtime NFL coach who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots but has not led a team in a year, will be the next football coach at the University of North Carolina, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic on Wednesday. The deal is expected to be for $30 million over three years, according to sources briefed on the matter. Advertisement Belichick, who left the Patriots after the 2023 season, will move to the college ranks after spending his entire coaching career in the NFL. He agreed to fill the vacancy left by Mack Brown , the winningest coach in North Carolina’s history, who was fired just before the end of a tumultuous 2024 regular season in Chapel Hill. During his 24 seasons with the Patriots, Belichick won six championships while paired with Tom Brady at quarterback, a run that cemented Belichick as one of the NFL’s most decorated coaches. He has 333 wins, including games in the regular season and playoffs, and is 14 victories away from tying Don Shula for the NFL career record for head coaches. Belichick has worked in the media since departing New England, but it has long been clear that he was looking to coach again. The opportunity to do so comes in Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels have not won a conference title since 1980 . The program has been to 14 bowl games since 2008 but has won 10 games in a season just once since 1997, the final year of Brown’s first stint as head coach. Belichick, 72, spent some time in college football this year at Washington, where his son Steve Belichick joined the Huskies as defensive coordinator under first-year head coach Jedd Fisch. Sources briefed on Bill Belichick’s interactions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said Washington successfully used Belichick’s full Patriots defensive scheme this season. Steve Belichick is expected to join his father’s North Carolina staff after one year with Washington, per sources. Steve’s expected role with the Tar Heels is not finalized yet, but the 37-year-old previously coached as a defensive assistant, safeties coach, defensive backs coach and outside linebackers coach with the Patriots. Advertisement Bill’s father, Steve, worked in college football for more than 40 years (including a stop at UNC). Belichick also maintained a close relationship with Nick Saban, the longtime Alabama head coach who retired in January . Saban won seven national titles in his college career as a head coach – and also was a defensive coordinator for Belichick with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s. Still, UNC will be Belichick’s first college coaching position of any type; he began his career with the Baltimore Colts and also had stints with the Detroit Lions , Denver Broncos , New York Giants and the New York Jets along with the Browns and the Patriots. In an appearance Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Belichick made his pitch for what a college program could look like under his leadership. “The college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” he said. “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 (at) the end of their college career or at the end of their pro career. GO DEEPER Mandel: North Carolina is going to regret hiring Bill Belichick “But it would be geared toward developing the player, time management, discipline, structure and all that, that would be life skills, regardless of whether they’re in the NFL or somewhere in the business.” By moving to the college ranks, Belichick might sacrifice the pursuit of a record he once appeared destined to break. For a long time, surpassing Shula’s NFL wins record was a driving force for Belichick, a chance to one-up the coach who once said that Patriots scandals “diminished” what Belichick built in New England. But sources close to Belichick say he was turned off by the NFL’s hiring cycle last winter , when only the Atlanta Falcons opted to interview him even though eight teams had openings. Belichick was expected to have a stronger NFL market this offseason; three franchises have already fired their coaches — the Jets, the Chicago Bears and the New Orleans Saints — and another five to seven openings are expected. Whether a stop at UNC weakens or burnishes his chances of returning to the NFL, his shift to the college game is a late twist in the career of an NFL lifer. The buzz around Belichick hit a fever pitch in the past week. For the Tar Heels, finding someone to replace Brown, who was fired in late November, had proved more difficult than anticipated. Several names had been linked to the job without panning out, including Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall, arguably the top candidate from the Group of 5 level, who declared Sunday that he would stay put. Advertisement Amid discussions about several candidates, UNC had ongoing contact with Belichick, which hung over the search as a wild card. His hiring ultimately capped a dramatic process to fill one of the most enticing vacancies available in the college ranks. A long-simmering power struggle at UNC between athletic director Bubba Cunningham and North Carolina’s Board of Trustees played a major role. After Brown was fired, Cunningham appeared on UNC’s “Carolina Insider” podcast and detailed what he was looking for in the Tar Heels’ next football coach. “We have to develop this program,” Cunningham said. “As we’ve said, we’ve been right at the cusp of really great seasons: getting to eight, nine wins. How do we get to 10, 11? Who can get us to that level?” The Tar Heels also had reason to replace the 73-year-old Brown with a younger coach more suited for the long haul of elevating the program to contend for conference championships and the College Football Playoff. With help from an advisory committee, Cunningham hoped to cull an initial list of roughly 30 names – which included Belichick, per a senior school official familiar with the search process — down to 10-12. GO DEEPER Did Bill Belichick abandon his quest for the NFL victories record? Never say never “But all the coaches we’re talking to right now are playing, and so they’re continuing to be in championship games or in the playoffs,” he added. “So it’ll probably take a week or so.” North Carolina officials, including Cunningham, spoke with Belichick last Wednesday and met with him in person on Thursday. Sources familiar with the board’s thinking believed that it, as well as UNC’s highest-profile boosters, preferred that Belichick be the one to succeed Brown. But multiple people briefed on the school’s conversations with Belichick described a disconnect between the coach’s and the school’s expectations for the terms of the job, as well as discord within UNC about whether its conversations between Belichick and members of the board had followed its normal procedures. Advertisement There is also another major apparent tension: NFL and college football are not the same sport, despite college football’s recent elements of professionalization since the legalization of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals, along with more freedom in player movement. Those significant developments have prompted universities to hire general managers, who handle roster management and bring on analysts to scrutinize finances much in the way professional sporting leagues hire salary cap experts. Of course, college sports are not nearly as regulated and regimented as professional sports. There are no multiyear contracts. Players can transfer every year. While there will be a cap on upcoming revenue sharing (around $20 million), it’s possible and perhaps likely that NIL payments will keep the sport from having a true salary cap. In college, coaches are at the top of their programs. But they must spend much more of their time fundraising with donors, recruiting high school players on the road, making sure players attend class and other duties away from on-field coaching. One of Belichick’s close friends, Saban, just left the sport in part because he didn’t want to deal with it anymore. The NFL and college calendars are also very different. In college football, it’s more of a marathon than a sprint, despite the NFL season being much longer. The offseason for coaches in college football is more demanding and time intensive. As one former NFL coach who transitioned to life as a college staffer in the past year told The Athletic : “There’s not a big summer break, like you get in the NFL, when coaches can truly unwind, like phone is off. College isn’t as hard of a season — not even close — but it’s much more year-round.” But for Belichick, the autonomy given to a college head coach could be a draw. One reason Belichick didn’t yield much NFL interest last offseason was the way the Patriots roster fell apart in his final few seasons. In New England, Belichick ran the entire football operation, serving as the sole and final decision maker. And the resulting roster in his final years was among the worst in the league, resulting in the split when New England went just 4-13 in 2023. The Patriots’ downturn disincentivized NFL teams from offering the total control Belichick seeks. Belichick’s final years in New England were also defined by drama, first due to a deteriorating relationship with Brady, who won his seventh Super Bowl at quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after leaving the Patriots in 2020, then amid tension with Robert Kraft, the team’s owner. At UNC, Belichick can run the program without answering to anyone about football decisions. There will be other challenges — like NIL, the transfer portal and navigating boosters — that are more complicated than reporting to one owner, but football decisions in college go through the head coach, and now Belichick can yield that kind of power again. In its best form, it lets Belichick flex an unrivaled knowledge of the game, built from studying football and reading books on the sport as a young kid at the Naval Academy while his dad coached with the team. Bill Belichick emphasized "IF" he was coaching in a college program, it would be "a professional program." 👀 @PatMcAfeeShow "The college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that have the ability to play in the NFL." pic.twitter.com/p2raPzm2DN — ESPN (@espn) December 9, 2024 With the transfer portal open, Belichick now must simultaneously hire a staff — something people familiar with his thinking say he has already begun doing — and evaluate the Tar Heels’ roster to figure out which incumbent players are worth fighting to keep. Then there’s the matter of high school recruiting, something Belichick has never done before. UNC’s class, which is ranked 90th nationally per 247Sports, only has nine commits right now — and arguably its most important recruit, four-star quarterback Bryce Baker , opted not to sign during the early signing period last week in the wake of Brown’s firing. (Baker has since visited Penn State , and LSU also remains in the mix.) Keeping him in UNC’s class should be a priority for Belichick and whoever he hires to run the Tar Heels’ offense. Advertisement North Carolina has never been mistaken for a football school, with its men’s basketball team playing top fiddle with its six Division I national championships. Belichick won’t change that historical standard, but his name recognition has the potential to do for UNC what Deion Sanders has done for Colorado. “Coach Prime” obviously brings much more energy and flash than a 72-year-old Belichick will, but the pure curiosity — how Brady’s longtime coach deals with teenagers — will be high. And as was the case with Sanders, UNC doesn’t necessarily need to be good under Belichick, at least not immediately, to garner more attention than it has in quite some time. The Tar Heels will be a nationwide object of fascination, as college and pro football fans alike tune in to see how the experiment turns out. Required reading — Additional reporting by The Athletic ’s Bruce Feldman, Ralph Russo, Chris Vannini and Chad Graff. (Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
