Joe Douglas is gone. Robert Saleh already was fired. Aaron Rodgers could be next to leave the New York Jets. Douglas lost his job as the general manager on Tuesday, six weeks after the head coach was replaced following a 2-3 start. The Jets have gone 1-5 under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich so owner Woody Johnson sent Douglas packing. Rodgers has played more like a 40-year-old quarterback coming off an Achilles tendon injury than a four-time NFL MVP. He's expressed a desire to play another season. The big question is whether the Jets will want him back. Maybe they'll decide to take one more shot at a playoff run with Rodgers while having him mentor a rookie quarterback. Or, they could start fresh. There are significant contract ramifications either way. Rodgers is slated to make a non-guaranteed $37.5 million in 2025 with a dead cap hit of $49 million as his salary cap total goes from $17.1 million to $23.5 million. The Jets could spread the dead money over two years by releasing Rodgers with the use of post-June 1 designation. He has a no-trade clause in his contract so they would need his permission to make a deal. If Rodgers doesn't retire and New York's new regime wants a clean slate, here are potential destinations for the future first-ballot Hall of Famer: SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS: This could only happen if Brock Purdy's shoulder injury is more significant than is known. Rodgers is a native of northern California and grew up a Niners fan. Returning home to help San Francisco win its sixth Super Bowl has to be attractive. Playing for coach Kyle Shanahan surrounded by playmakers Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle would be a quarterback's dream. Again, Purdy is the team's present and future. And, he's resilient. Purdy rebounded from elbow surgery following his rookie season to start Week 1 last year and ended up finishing fourth in MVP voting, leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl. Purdy also is due for a contract extension and a major raise so the salary cap makes this even more of a longshot. But never say never in the NFL. MINNESOTA VIKINGS: Sam Darnold has been more than a stopgap, helping the Vikings (8-2) to an impressive start. J.J. McCarthy is the future, however, and Darnold will be a free agent after the season. If the Vikings fall short of a Super Bowl and Rodgers shows over the final six weeks that he can play championship football, this could be a fit. The Vikings could let McCarthy sit and learn for another year, especially coming off a knee injury that required a second surgery earlier this month. NEW YORK GIANTS: Rodgers wouldn't have to move. The Giants will need a quarterback after benching Daniel Jones and eventually releasing him. They could draft a quarterback in the first round and have him learn behind Rodgers for a season. That'll depend on which pick New York ends up with because it's a thin draft class. Unlike the Jets, the Giants (2-8) haven't made any coaching or GM changes yet. If it's status quo with GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll, one year with Rodgers isn't unrealistic. LAS VEGAS RAIDERS: They also need a quarterback. Brock Bowers could set an NFL record for most catches by a tight end if he had Rodgers next season. The Raiders (2-8) are aiming for a high pick to get a shot at a quarterback of their choice. New minority owner Tom Brady believes rookie quarterbacks need time to develop and learn. The seven-time Super Bowl champion would have to be in favor of having Rodgers start and tutor a youngster. TENNESSEE TITANS: If Will Levis doesn't prove over the final seven games that he can be a No. 1 quarterback, the Titans (2-8) will be in the QB market and likely have a high draft pick. It's another scenario where Rodgers would fit as a one-year bridge. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Damascus : The death toll from a powerful explosion at a Syrian weapons depot near the Adra Industrial City in rural Damascus rose to 11, with most of the casualties believed to be civilians, a war monitor reported. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local media, search and rescue teams remain at the scene to recover bodies and clear debris. The blast sent debris flying and caused extensive damage to the facility associated with the now-ousted Bashar al-Assad’s government, Xinhua news agency reported. Initial reports indicated at least two people were killed, but the death toll continued to rise throughout the day. A video posted online showed significant destruction and multiple fatalities. Guterres underscored that Israel and Syria must uphold the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, which remains fully in force. “This is a decisive moment — a moment of hope and history, but also one of great uncertainty,” the UN Chief told reporters. The observatory said the suspected raid was part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to destroy remnants of the old regime’s armaments. This incident follows a series of reported Israeli attacks on former regime-affiliated sites, as Syria’s new administration consolidates power after the collapse of the previous government on December 8. Earlier in December UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Israel to stop violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Speaking at a press conference, Guterres condemned Israel’s extensive airstrikes on Syria aimed at destroying strategic weapons and military infrastructure and its troops’ entry into a demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. “They are violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and they must stop,” he said.
Ruben Amorim has just had his Jose Mourinho moment to raise Man United hopesIf the best time to strengthen is from a position of strength, then Vitor Pereira has helped put Wolverhampton Wanderers in the right spot. Certainly compared with the bedraggled outfit he inherited three games ago, Wolves’ new head coach has inspired a new-found fight and togetherness that has put the club in a much better position than they could have dreamed they would be in heading into 2025. Advertisement A battling point in north London, featuring a dramatic late equaliser — and a final flourish that gave Tottenham Hotspur a serious scare about losing — completed a fine start to his time in charge. But if he and the club needed any reminders of the issues that must be addressed when the January transfer window opens, they got it during an eventful afternoon. When Pereira arrived at Molineux in the wake of Gary O’Neil’s sacking, he took on a squad in need of at least one central defender. Ten days and three games later, despite clean sheets against Leicester City and Manchester United , nothing has changed in terms of what the squad needs. The game against Tottenham underlined this, despite the fixture ending on a huge high for Pereira and his players. With Toti ruled out through injury, Pereira started the game with a three-man central defence featuring just two fit central defenders. Matt Doherty has acquitted himself superbly since moving into the back three but remains a makeshift option. By the end, with Craig Dawson withdrawn as part of Wolves’ desperate chase for an equaliser, Pereira had a back three comprising two players — Doherty and Nelson Semedo — who perform best as wing-backs and a defender in Santiago Bueno who has yet to fully prove his Premier League credentials. In Pereira’s short reign, the first half at Spurs was the weakest 45 minutes so far. The deficiencies at the heart of defence were exposed on a number of occasions, most notably with the concession of another soft goal from a corner. Ten of the 42 goals Wolves have conceded this season have come from corners — the highest figure in the Premier League, one clear of Manchester United and Southampton and five more than anyone else. The 22 goals conceded overall from set pieces, including five from non-direct free kicks, one from a throw-in and five more from penalties, is comfortably worse than Southampton (nine) and Manchester United (10). While defending set pieces takes more than commanding central defenders, they certainly help. As if to underline the point, the data from Opta also shows the 10 headed goals conceded by Wolves is the worst in the league, two ahead of United and Leicester and at least four worse than everyone else. Just a few minutes after Rodrigo Bentancur had nipped away from all of Wolves’ defenders to plant home a free header and cancel out Hwang Hee-chan’s opener, Radu Dragusin was given an equally free ride at another corner and gave Wolves a reprieve by heading just wide. Advertisement Both statistically and with the naked eye, the issue is clear and Pereira reiterated in his post-match press conference that he wants a centre-back next month, especially with Toti’s hamstring injury ruling him out for three to four weeks. “With time, we can have more solutions because we have two young players, two young centre-backs on the bench,” he told his post-match press conference, referring to Bastien Ndemeni, 18, signed in the summer from Nantes, and Alfie Pond , 20, who was on loan at Stockport in League Two last season. While Pereira said he is happy to use full-backs in the outer positions in his back three, he stressed that Wolves are still looking to add an experienced central defender to their ranks. “We are a bit (short of options). It’s a position that we need to bring someone in with some expertise.” There are plenty of positives, though, with Wolves two points clear of the bottom three ahead of what looks like a testing run of fixtures early in the new year. While the display at Spurs was tactically and technically the weakest of the three under Pereira, a team that looked mentally shot in the final weeks of the O’Neil era discovered levels of spirit and resilience rarely seen this season to rescue a point through Jorgen Strand Larsen ’s seventh goal of his debut Premier League season. “I think it’s a good result for us,” said Pereira. “It was a difficult week because we lost Toti before the game, we lost (Matheus) Cunha at half-time, and this is not a big squad. “We knew we must find solutions and the spirit that I saw in the second half (pleased me). “The team tries to play more with the ball, the team tries to create situations to score, and because of this spirit, the personality, I’m very happy and I’m proud of the work.” In less than a fortnight, the mood around Wolves has changed beyond belief thanks to a new voice in the dugout and an injection of simplicity into a team that had begun to look muddled. But the issues that put them in trouble have not gone away. If they want to climb away from it, those issues still need addressing. (Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
The state’s top road safety bureaucrat has rejected suggestions that new high-tech cameras that can catch wrongdoers on West Australian roads en masse are revenue-raisers. Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner joined Road Safety Minister David Michael on Monday to announce the rollout of the six mobile cameras from Australia Day. Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner and Road Safety Minister David Michael. The smart cameras, leased for five years at a cost of $22 million, can easily spot motorists using their phones or driving without a seatbelt and will be deployed to deter the behaviours that make up a large reason for so many of the fatalities on WA roads. A camera pointed at just one lane on the Kwinana Freeway near Salter Point last month spotted more than 6300 people using their mobiles while driving, and 5100 not wearing their seatbelts. Had that camera been used to issue fines, it could have netted the Road Trauma Trust account anywhere from $5 million to $10 million, depending on the severity of the offences. The rollout of the new cameras will coincide with a three-month grace period where motorists breaking the law will be issues with a caution instead of a fine. Warner said this demonstrated the cameras were not about revenue-raising, but changing behaviours. “It’s anything but revenue raising, that’s why we’re doing caution notices,” he said. “This is about drivers changing their behaviour. We have a culture problem. We need to address it, and these cameras are the first step in doing that.” Warner said 99 per cent of people wore seatbelts, but 20 per cent of people who died in crashes weren’t wearing seatbelts. Loading “That should tell you something,” he said. The announcement comes as WA records its worst road toll in almost 10 years, with 182 deaths. Michael said in this context now was the time for the technology to become a vital and permanent tool to be used across the state. “The message is clear and simple: these cameras are coming, slow down, buckle up and put your phone away,” he said. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article Road safety Roads Hamish Hastie is WAtoday's state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism. Connect via Twitter or email . Most Viewed in Politics LoadingLawyers for a Missouri man facing the death penalty for sexually assaulting and killing a child are seeking clemency, claiming that he has "structurally abnormal" brain due to physical and sexual abuse he endured in his youth. Christopher Collings, 49, is scheduled to die by an injection of pentobarbital Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre. He was convicted of killing 9-year-old Rowan Ford, a fourth-grader from the tiny southwestern Missouri town of Stella, on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a sinkhole six days later, the Associated Press reported. Collings confessed to the crimes. The clemency petition states that the abnormality of Collings' brain causes him to suffer from "functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition, and emotional regulation." It also notes that he suffered from frequent and often violent abuse as a child. Arizona to resume executions after 2-year pause - with first inmate facing possible death named Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson has execution halted minutes before lethal injection "The result was a damaged human being with no guidance on how to grow into a functioning adult," the petition states. The clemency petition and the Supreme Court appeal both challenge the reliability of the key law enforcement witness at Collings' trial, a police chief from a neighboring town who had four AWOL convictions while serving in the Army. Failure to disclose details about that criminal history at trial violated Collings' right to due process, Collings' attorney, Jeremy Weis contends. "His credibility was really at the heart of the entire case against Mr. Collings," Weis told AP in an interview The petition also challenges the fairness of executing Collings when another man was charged in the crime, Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, also confessed but was allowed to plead to lesser crimes. Spears served more than seven years in prison before his release in 2015. Collings confesses to strangling the child with a rope and taking her body to the sinkhole. He told investigators he burned to rope, the clothes he was wearing, and his blood-stained mattress, prosecutors said. Spears also implicated himself in the crimes, according to court documents and the clemency petition. A transcript of Spears' statement to police, cited in the petition, said he told police that Collings handed him a cord and that he killed Rowan. "I choke her with it. I realize she's gone. She's ... she's really gone," Spears said, according to the transcript. Spears was also the person who led authorities to the sinkhole where her body was found, according to court documents. Republican Gov. Mike Parson was still weighing the clemency petition on Monday. The former county sheriff has overseen 12 executions and has never granted clemency. Weis said another appeal is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, but various courts have rejected several of his previous appeals. Three men have been executed in Missouri this year - Brian Dorsey on April 9, David Hosier on June 11 and Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24. Collings would be the 23rd execution in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri. DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter.GUELPH, Ontario, Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: HPS.A) The Board of Directors of Hammond Power Solutions Inc. (“HPS”) declared a quarterly cash dividend of twenty-seven and a half cents ($0.275) per Class A Subordinate Voting Share of HPS and a quarterly cash dividend of twenty-seven and a half cents ($0.275) per Class B Common Share of HPS payable on December 20, 2024, to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 13, 2024. The ex-dividend date is December 13, 2024. Important Income-Tax Information for Canadian Resident Shareholders HPS designates the entire amount of this taxable dividend to be an “eligible dividend” for purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada), as amended from time to time. This notice meets the requirements of the Income Tax Act (Canada). Please contact your tax advisor if you have any questions with regard to the designation of the eligible dividend. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees or assurances of future performance. Because forward-looking statements are related to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified, but not limited to, the use of words such as “may”, “will”, “could”, “should”, “would”, “likely”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “objective” and “continue” and words and expressions of similar import. Although HPS believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The declaration, timing, amount and payment of any future dividends remains at the discretion of HPS’ Board of Directors. HPS undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, except as required by applicable securities laws. ABOUT HAMMOND POWER SOLUTIONS INC. Hammond Power Solutions Inc. (“HPS” or the “Company”) enables electrification through its broad range of dry-type transformers, power quality products and related magnetics. HPS’ standard and custom-designed products are essential and ubiquitous in electrical distribution networks through an extensive range of end-user applications. The Company has manufacturing plants in Canada, the United States (U.S.), Mexico and India and sells its products around the globe. HPS shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trade under the symbol HPS.A. Hammond Power Solutions – Energizing Our World For further information, please contact: David Feick Investor Relations (519) 822-2441 x453 ir@hammondpowersolutions.com