USC survives a tough battle against Colorado, while Penn State pulls away and Florida suffers an upset. Get all the details and see how the Top 25 rankings could shift.

The Tennessee Volunteers struggled mightily against Austin Peay early and fans on message boards had a clear scapegoat.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2023--

As seen in surveillance footage, Khadijah Muhammad attacked the five-year-old and shoved him across the hallway after the child threw a piece of paper

England players have only four more international games in which to impress Gareth Southgate before the manager names his squad for Euro 2024. Southgate’s team qualified for the tournament, which will be hosted by Germany next summer, with a stylish 3-1 win over reigning champions Italy at Wembley Stadium, the venue for that agonising shootout defeat by the Azzurri in 2021. Now England can look ahead to the Euros, with two final qualifiers against Group C minnows Malta and North Macedonia to come in November, before two friendlies at Wembley in the spring. Competition for places is fierce, made even more so by Uefa’s announcement that squads will return to containing 23 players, after 26 had been allowed for the Covid-affected Euro 2020 and at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Here is a closer look at who is heading to Germany and who might miss out. On the plane Harry Kane England’s captain remains their talisman on the pitch, both with his leadership and with his goals as he continues to add to his record tally. Kane has hit the ground running at Bayern Munich, and the 30-year-old has talked up the virtues of the Bundesliga’s winter break and playing one fewer domestic cup competition. Southgate will hope Kane is fit and fresh when the Euros come around. Jude Bellingham The 20-year-old has quickly elevated himself to be one of England’s essential players. He is consistently producing outstanding performances both for his country and his new club, Real Madrid, racking up goals and assists after driving runs from midfield. Southgate likes Bellingham as a No 10 off Kane, and this could be the start of a fruitful partnership between England’s current captain and his likely successor. Declan Rice Rice has made a good start to life at Arsenal, and his importance at international level has grown immeasurably over the past few years to the point where he is crucial to how England play. John Stones The Manchester City defender has been a stalwart for Southgate over the years, integral to deep runs at the 2018 World Cup and the last Euros. Only Kane and Harry Maguire have won more than Stones’ 56 caps since the manager took charge in 2016, and the lack of centre-back alternatives only strengthens his position in the squad. Kyle Walker Experience, recovery pace and ability to play on the right of a back three all make the Manchester City defender an essential part of Southgate’s plans. Jordan Pickford The Everton goalkeeper has been England’s No 1 for a long time and that position looks safe, particularly given the challenge Aaron Ramsdale now faces to keep his Arsenal place against competition from new arrival David Raya. Bukayo Saka Saka is a popular and trusted member of the current group who is becoming a senior player, with 11 goals in 30 appearances, despite being only 22. His versatility down both the left and right flank, and ability to play as an attacking wing-back, is handy for a manager who likes to chop and change systems. Phil Foden Foden is often still talked about in terms of potential, but he will be 24 when the Euros come around and is becoming increasingly essential to Pep Guardiola’s City team. His velcro control is unique in the England squad and Southgate’s only conundrum is how to fit his best attacking talents into the same team. Marcus Rashford The Manchester United forward is the third highest goalscorer of the Southgate era, with 15, behind only Kane and Raheem Sterling. His pace and direct runs towards goal from the left wing complement Kane’s preference to drop deep and link play, and he can also offer an option as a No 9 should it be needed. Jack Grealish The City winger took time earning Southgate’s trust but, at 28 and with a treble on his CV, is now a regular squad member. The only question is whether the manager sees him as an important part of the first XI or a game-changing finisher off the bench. Kieran Trippier One of Southgate’s favourites, Trippier is a certainty to be part of the squad for his experience, versatility to play full-back on both sides and his set-piece delivery. He may find himself on the bench when England play a back four, but tends to start at wing-back when Walker joins the back three. Nearly there Harry Maguire The Manchester United defender is one of Southgate’s most trusted players and he was given another vote of confidence with a start against Italy in Euro 2024 qualifying. But a lack of playing time for his club will bring scepticism from fans and the media as the tournament nears. Aaron Ramsdale The goalkeeper is battling for a starting place at Arsenal with David Raya, but Mikel Arteta’s messaging suggests that the Spaniard has arrived to share rather than steal the gloves, and so long as Ramsdale continues to play and play well, he will be on the plane. Luke Shaw When fit, Shaw is the preferred left-back in this England team, bringing attacking threat on the overlap as well as long-standing relationships with both Maguire and Rashford at Manchester United. He has been out with a leg injury since mid-August and will need to reestablish himself amid competition from Ben Chilwell and Trippier. Kalvin Phillips Like Maguire at United, Phillips is a firm favourite with the manager but there is a growing issue around his lack of game time for Manchester City. Phillips has admitted he might need to make a decision over his future, but he remains a leading option in a shallow pool of central midfielders and now has plenty of major tournament experience. James Maddison The midfielder struggled with an injury at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which prevented him from making an appearance, but his early-season form for Tottenham has demanded a place in recent squads and Maddison is poised to travel as deputy to Bellingham in the No 10 role. Ben Chilwell The Chelsea left-back didn’t play a single minute at the last Euros and watched on as Shaw (and occasionally Trippier) filled that spot. He has been sidelined with a hamstring injury this season but a fit and firing Chilwell should be on the plane. Jordan Henderson The midfielder was booed by England fans in recent internationals at Wembley following his move to the Saudi Pro League, but that only seemed to strengthen Southgate’s loyalties to the player. The manager values Henderson’s professionalism, experience and leadership in a youthful squad. In contention Raheem Sterling Southgate has talked up Sterling’s chances of figuring in his plans to the media, but the Chelsea winger has not been involved in recent camps and faces a fight against Rashford and Grealish, among others, to figure on the left side of England’s attack. Sam Johnstone The Crystal Palace goalkeeper has overtaken Nick Pope in the running to be England’s third-choice goalkeeper and played well in a recent friendly with Australia. Lewis Dunk Brighton’s captain had to wait five years for his second international cap but has done well with the opportunities presented to him in recent months. Dunk’s aerial dominance and ball-playing ability, honed at Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi, are valuable traits at centre-half, one of England’s most uncertain positions. Reece James The full-back is one of the best in the world when fully fit but his lack of reliability is a concern, particularly with the smaller 23-player squad this time around. What’s more, James is fighting for a place against a competitive field of Walker, Trippier and Alexander-Arnold. Marc Guehi The Palace defender is highly rated by the England coaching team and, at 23, could be a future cornerstone of the back line. Centre-back is a position that’s up for grabs at Euro 2024 and Guehi has a real chance. Conor Gallagher Gallagher has been bright and energetic in his cluster of England caps and is clearly valued by the manager, but other central midfielders are well-established internationals who will be tricky to usurp. Ollie Watkins Watkins is in pole position to play the role of Kane’s deputy at the Euros, with a consistent stream of goals and assists since Unai Emery took over at Aston Villa… Callum Wilson …But Wilson is not far behind and when the Newcastle striker stays fit, the goals usually flow. Work to do Mason Mount Like Sterling, Mount has found himself pushed out of the England team by emerging talent and his own unconvincing form for new club Manchester United – although injuries have interrupted his season. Needs some goals and assists to earn a recall. Fikayo Tomori Southgate criticised the Milan defender last year for making too many mistakes, but Tomori has shown good form in Serie A and earned an autumn recall to the England squad. James Ward-Prowse The West Ham midfielder is in form for his club but out of favour for his country, having just missed out on the past two major tournaments and having been excluded from recent squads. There have been calls for him to usurp Henderson in midfield, but Southgate remains as yet unmoved. Nick Pope The goalkeeper has lost his place as England’s third-choice keeper and needs a strong season for Newcastle to win back his spot. Jarrod Bowen Another West Ham player in form. Bowen has showed bright attacking intent in his five caps to date, but faces stiff competition in the winger roles. Ivan Toney The Brentford striker will return from a betting ban in January with five months to prove himself to Southgate. He will need to hit the ground running. Levi Colwill The Chelsea defender has established himself in Mauricio Pochettino’s team and has the ability to play both centre-back and left-back. Aged 20, this tournament may come just too soon with more established players ahead in the pecking order. Outside bets Curtis Jones Liverpool’s 22-year-old midfielder had earned a regular place in Jurgen Klopp’s team earlier this season before injury struck. If he can impress regularly at Anfield, he will give Southgate something to consider. Ben White The Arsenal defender left the 2022 World Cup for personal reasons and has not returned to the England setup. It is unclear whether White would want to, but continues to perform to a high level for one of the best teams in the Premier League. Eberechi Eze The Palace midfielder has a couple of international caps but will need a stellar season to break into the Euros squad. Morgan Gibbs-White Gibbs-White worked up through the England age groups but is still to be recognised at senior level. Played a big part in England’s success at the Under-21 Euros in the summer. Dominic Calvert-Lewin Once seen as the natural understudy to Harry Kane, Calvert-Lewin has struggled with form and primarily fitness and has fallen down the pecking order behind Watkins and Wilson. Ezri Konsa Konsa is a vital part of an improving Aston Villa team under Unai Emery, but is yet to earn a senior international call-up. Eddie Nketiah England Under-21s’ record goalscorer has only made one senior appearance so far and he would need a special season for Arsenal to break into the Euro 2024 squad. Predicting England’s Euro 2024 squad Goalkeepers: Pickford, Ramsdale, Johnstone. Defenders: Walker, Alexander-Arnold, Trippier, Guehi, Stones, Dunk, Maguire, Shaw, Chilwell. Midfielders: Rice, Phillips, Henderson, Maddison, Bellingham. Forwards: Saka, Foden, Rashford, Grealish, Kane, Watkins. Read More Declan Rice reveals how Rugby World Cup has helped England’s ‘mentality’ Jude Bellingham’s latest masterclass has got the whole world talking England reveal the flaws of Italy’s high-risk Spallettiball Jude Bellingham once again proves he is the key for England’s Euro 2024 hopes England have qualified for Euro 2024 — now it’s about winning it England player ratings as Marcus Rashford shines but Kalvin Phillips struggles

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 9, 2023--

While Craig Melvin was away from the 'Today' show, Sheinelle Jones and Ally Love filled in to take care of his duties

'Running in movies since 1981,' wrote Tom Cruise in reference to the year he appeared in his first onscreen roles in 'Endless Love' and 'Taps'

The NBA's Mexico City Game 2023 will feature the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic on November 9...

More than 160,000 Indians were killed in road accidents last year, government data shows.

“Ja so eisern wie Granit, so wie einst Real Madrid und so zogen wir in die Bundesliga ein und wir werden auch mal deutscher Meister sein (Irgendwann).” “Yeah, so iron, like granite, just like Real Madrid, so we’ll move into the Bundesliga, and we’ll also become German champions.” They could sing that at Union Berlin, safe in the knowledge they would never actually play Real Madrid. It was a fanciful chant, from a different footballing universe. In 2005-06, when Sergio Ramos was making his Real debut, Union were playing in the Oberliga-Nord, a regional league of clubs in the old East Germany. Less than two decades later, Union’s players and staff and their families gathered to watch the Champions League draw. Eventually, there were two possible pools for them: B and C. They were placed in the latter. And then it became clear: they would meet Real as peers. “Surreal and overwhelming,” said Christian Arbeit, the matchday announcer at Union’s Alte Forsterei ground and a lifelong fan. “For the very first time we are playing the biggest competition in club football and meet the biggest club in the world and it is the very first game.” For Union, life as a Champions League club starts at the Bernabeu. It caps the rise of Union, the underdog club from East Berlin. They haven’t become German champions yet, though they led the table after two games of this campaign and finished fourth last season. They have gatecrashed the European elite with an old-fashioned formula, an almost defiant anti-commercialism that has given them an authenticity that, paradoxically, some corporations find attractive and with a ground that was rebuilt by the fans. Arbeit is one of them, a supporter for almost four decades who took a few days’ leave from his job at a cinema company. “I knew I could never come back if I wouldn’t have helped,” he recalled. Without Arbeit, without the 2,333 supporters who provided 140,000 hours of voluntary work in 2008 and 2009, it is safe to say Union would not have reached the Bundesliga, let alone the Champions League. There was nothing inevitable about this, about the organic, improbable surge of the people’s club from the DDR. The people saved Union when the city of Berlin and the district of Kopenick, each having done nothing to maintain the Alte Forsterei, handed it over to the club, but at a point when the German Football Federation denied it a licence to host matches; unless it was refurbished, anyway. “A very heartwarming 13 months of a building site,” Arbeit remembered. “There was around about 100 people each day – you couldn’t employ more – and 80 of them had never built something before. They were like me – cinema people, teachers, sales people – and you had 20 guys, proper building people, and they had to guide us through this building site. It is kind of a miracle. We have told this story a million times but still when I do talk about it, it gives me goosebumps because it is such a crazy story.” The miracle had its roots in a different country and a different time. Union were not the dominant club in the East German capital; that mantle resided with Dynamo, who were in a run of 10 consecutive titles when a 12-year-old Arbeit first went to a game in 1986 with his father, an engineer who tended to spend his spare time playing the trombone in a Dixieland jazz band. “Until that day I was not interested in football and we came to the stadium and it was a strange world I had never experienced before,” Arbeit said. “There were grown-up men singing and chanting and shouting and swearing and using words I was not allowed to use at home so it was a huge impression of a strange way of freedom.” That freedom brought a contrast with Dynamo Berlin, the club of the notorious Stasi chief Erich Mielke and who benefitted from his patronage. “You don’t go to the secret police unless you have to,” Arbeit rationalised. And so Union attracted a different crowd. “It was more what we nowadays would call alternative culture: the young guys with longer hair, with parka jackets. The club was not an opposition club or a rebel movement because that would not have been possible. But I remember when my classmates noticed I go to Union. It was: ‘They are so-called rowdies and hooligans.’ They were considered a wild bunch, the Union fans. But I experienced them mostly like they are today, very engaged in supporting the team. In funny ways, of course.” Relegation was an occupational hazard for Union back then. German reunification brought other problems. “We played in the third division and it was very regional, it was more or less a Berlin-based league,” Arbeit said. “You had to play on Sunday at 11 in the morning in the drizzling rain and it was about 700 people turning up; it was really depressing. The people had so many more existential problems: How can I find a job? How can I feed my children?” And Union disappeared off the radar of many people, re-emerging with a first indication of their 21st-century propensity to upset more fancied teams. They had spent the 1990s acquiring the nickname of Unpromotables as, stuck in the third division, they found a range of ways not to go up. They were “Unaufstiegbar”. Twice even winning their league was not enough; financial issues meant they were not granted the licence needed to play in a higher division. And then, in 2001, they got promoted and reached the German Cup final, knocking out Borussia Monchengladbach and Bochum on their way. “It was like, wow, how did we do that?” Arbeit recalled. “After many years of being ignored, everyone noticed us.” The route to the Bernabeu nonetheless involved going backwards. Union were relegated twice in four years after the German Cup final. Short of funds, they needed the unpaid labour of their supporters to ensure they could keeping playing at the Alte Forsterei. But it helped they had a loyal fanbase: their status as outsiders may have benefited them whereas Dynamo, the former secret-police club, are now found in the Regionalliga-Nordost. Along the way, Union have acquired different rivals within the same city. They went up to the Bundesliga in 2019, a year after the appointment of the catalytic manager Urs Fischer. And then Hertha BSC got in touch. “I remember when we first got promoted to the Bundesliga, even in the congratulations was included, ‘congratulations, Union, we are happy and we are looking forward to six points,’” said Arbeit. Last season, as Hertha propped up the Bundesliga, Union took six points at their neighbours’ expense. There was long the sense that Berlin, one of Europe’s great capitals, ought to have a Champions League club. Hertha thought it should be them. No one thought it would be Union. The investor Lars Windhorst put €374m into Hertha and got just €15m back. Hertha spent more than €100m on signings in 2019-20, a season of four managers and a bottom-half finish. The most expensive of those buys, Lucas Tousart, joined Union for a cut-price fee this summer. “They manoeuvred themselves into financial and organisational instability,” Arbeit said. “We had not that much money but we had a very stable organisation.” Hertha’s grandiose dreams extended to Union territory. Dirk Zingler, Union’s president since 2004 and another lifelong fan, has described them as an East Berlin club; in a city that was divided for almost three decades, the distinction matters. “We would never go out with the approach to say we are the one club for Berlin,” Arbeit said. “The funny thing is Hertha did that for a very long time. They tried a lot of public campaigns to say that: ‘one city, one club, we are the club for the whole city’.” Instead, Hertha’s members are largely in the west, Union’s generally in the east. Now Champions League football will come to Hertha: or their ground, anyway. When Union first qualified for Europe, Uefa did not allow them to play their 2021-22 Conference League games at the Alte Forsterei. Now they had a choice: a ground with a capacity of 22,000, with fewer than 4,000 seats, but a home of symbolic importance, or a massive venue. Real Madrid, Napoli and Braga will go to West Berlin, to the Olympiastadion. So will thousands of fans, with cheap tickets. “The Champions League is for all Unioners,” said Zingler at the time. “It was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make,” said Arbeit. “We always say it is the people we are doing it for. It is something extraordinary, it is possible it is the only time in our history we reach that competition and that is why we decided to show it to as many people as possible. Still we are a bit sad.” Even Union have to compromise sometimes. But not often. Their matchday is a different experience. “We want to keep the dignity of the football match itself,” Arbeit said. “We don’t want any advertising Zeppelins flying around at the half-time break and no kiss-cam and no T-shirt gun. We don’t make any noise or any announcements in a commercial way and just a little bit, this is already something special in German football. We don’t do a half-time show with sponsored games or quiz shows. You can’t win some products. You have no entertainment before the game. “The people come here and meet their friends and they can have their beer and sausage. Just 20 minutes before kick-off, I just come on the pitch and say hello and introduce the guest team and then our team.” Union nevertheless have a corporate shirt sponsor, Paramount, and JD Sports on their sleeves, but on their own terms. “We develop in sponsorship terms from regional and local companies to international,” Arbeit said. If Union may be Germany’s least commercial club, their opposites are the other East German representatives in the Champions League: RB Leipzig, propelled by the Red Bull group. “From the view of our fans, it was about establishing a monumental marketing piece in football for a product which is Red Bull,” Arbeit said. “We are the last protesting audience: whenever we play against Leipzig our fans spend the first 15 minutes in silence.” If Leipzig – parachuted into a city with two established clubs, Chemie and Lokomotive – are the break from the past and Union a link with it, that still did not bring Ostalgie, the nostalgia for East Germany; DDR flags have been seen at other grounds behind the old Iron Curtain, but not Union’s. But they were born in the DDR. About three-quarters of off-field staff are supporters, some converts after they start working for the club. For most, it is not a stepping stone. A community club nevertheless display their ambition. As a newly-promoted club, they signed the former double Bundesliga winners Neven Subotic and Christian Gentner. A year later, Max Kruse, once the enfant terrible of German football, joined: he ended his first season with an injury-time goal on the final day to take Union into Europe. “Since then, everyone in our surroundings believes we can sign whoever we want. We are not afraid of calling someone up and asking,” Arbeit said. That policy reaped a reward this summer. Enter Robin Gosens, whose final contribution in an Internazionale shirt was to almost equalise in last year’s Champions League final, and, most remarkably, Leonardo Bonucci. The Euro 2020 winner and Italy captain left Juventus to play Champions League football with Union, a sentence that would long have sounded ludicrous. “He was perfectly prepared,” Arbeit explained. “When we had talks with him, he knew almost everything about our club; that was for us kind of a surprise because we didn’t expect this guy to know we have three sides of standing terraces. That meant to us that this person might perfectly fit because he could have gone to America or Saudi Arabia to take the next 20 million or anything but it looked like that he wanted for himself something special as well. When I was a boy, I always thought, why don’t players in the late years of their career, when they made their money already, why don’t they do something nice? And now I experienced that.” Union’s unique sales pitch is to offer less money. After all, they have no billionaire backer, a small stadium, low ticket prices and eschew some commercial deals. They have got players to buy into them, into the dream. Their wage bill last season, before bonuses for Champions League qualification, was in the bottom half of the Bundesliga’s, perhaps the bottom third. The chances are that striker Kevin Behrens can afford a car but, after he scored an opening-day hat-trick against Mainz this season, he was spotted cycling home. Only at Union, perhaps. But then the Unpromotables have done it their way as they have kept on going up and up. Union are the antidote to the worst excesses of 21st-century football. And for the fans who gravitated towards them 40 or 50 years ago, the long-haired and the parka-jacketed who sought some freedom and some wildness in communist East Germany, they don’t need to sing about playing Real Madrid anymore. It’s really happening. Read More Harry Kane is Bundesliga’s greatest weapon in battle for eyeballs Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti hails ‘consistent’ Jude Bellingham Jude Bellingham’s captaincy credentials are in evidence with England on and off the pitch Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti hails ‘consistent’ Jude Bellingham Mohamed Salah, Sven Botman and 5 players to target for FPL Gameweek 6 Big-spending Chelsea rarely threaten in drab goalless draw at Bournemouth

By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States and China will look to revive efforts to combat global warming this