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CHICAGO (AP) — Two-time NBA scoring champion Joel Embiid returned to the Philadelphia 76ers' starting lineup against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. After missing his first seven shots and ambling deliberately in his left knee brace in the first quarter, the 2023 MVP went on a tear to propel the Sixers to a 108-100 win over the Chicago Bulls. Embiid connected on eight of his next 10 shots in the second quarter for his first 19 points of the game, which lifted Philadelphia to a 62-50 halftime lead. The Sixers stretched it to 19 before holding on for their fourth win in five games, and Embiid finished with 31. “I just got lucky and started making shots,” Embiid deadpanned when he talked to reporters almost 90 minutes after the game. “We just missed shots and we adjusted and we got them in.” Embiid, a seven-time All-Star, added 12 rebounds in his fifth game this season. The 7-foot center had missed the previous seven games because of knee injuries and a three-game suspension for pushing a sports columnist. Embiid finished slightly above his career average of nearly 27.8 points per game in 33 minutes. The Sixers don't play again until Friday thanks to the NBA Cup, so coach Nick Nurse planned to give his star ample work Sunday with a break and recovery time ahead. “All of a sudden he certainly caught fire there with a little bit of variety,” Nurse said. “I know a lot of it seemed like foul-line jumpers, which it was. He snuck in a roll or two and a couple of post-ups. It gave us a lot of confidence.” The Sixers trailed 33-23 after the first quarter. Behind Embiid and a 16-0 run in the second, they took the lead for good. Chicago got within four points twice in the fourth, but Philadelphia closed it out. “We guarded really well and we rebounded extremely well at both ends,” Nurse said. Tyrese Maxey got his first career triple-double as part of the winning formula and clicked with Embiid. Maxey finished with 25 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds. “It was great, that's who he is,” Maxey said of Embiid. “After he got in the game it's easy, it was easier, man. There was a lot more space out there.” The All-Star trio of Embiid, Maxey and Paul George (12 points) played together for only the second game this season. “Obviously we've got the connection,” Embiid said. "We know when things are not going right, what we need to do. Now it's up to us to make the shots and the plays. “After that first quarter, it just felt like we needed to take more of an ownership as far as getting us back in the game. They're great players.” AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nbaSouth Dakota scores with 12 seconds left to beat FCS top-ranked North Dakota State 29-28

The losses were made worse by sharp declines for the Big Tech stocks known as the "Magnificent 7," which can heavily influence the direction of the market because of their large size. The S&P 500 fell 66.75 points, or 1.1%, to 5,970.84. Roughly 90% of stocks in the benchmark index lost ground, but it managed to hold onto a modest gain of 0.7% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 333.59 points, or 0.8%, to 42,992.21. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 298.33 points, or 1.5%, to 19,722.03. Semiconductor giant Nvidia slumped 2.1%. Microsoft declined 1.7%. Each has a market value above $3 trillion, giving the companies outsized sway on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. A wide range of retailers also fell. Amazon fell 1.5% and Best Buy slipped 1.5%. The sector is being closely watched for clues on how it performed during the holiday shopping season. Energy stocks held up better than the rest of the market, with a loss of less than 0.1% as crude oil prices rose. "There's just some uncertainty over this relief rally we've witnessed since last week," said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial. The S&P 500 gained nearly 3% over a 3-day stretch before breaking for the Christmas holiday. On Thursday, the index posted a small decline. Despite Friday's drop, the market is moving closer to another standout annual finish. The S&P 500 is on track for a gain of around 25% in 2024. That would mark a second consecutive yearly gain of more than 20%, the first time that has happened since 1997-1998. The gains have been driven partly by upbeat economic data showing that consumers continued spending and the labor market remained strong. Inflation, while still high, has also been steadily easing. A report on Friday showed that sales and inventory estimates for the wholesales trade industry fell 0.2% in November, following a slight gain in October. That weaker-than-expected report follows an update on the labor market Thursday that showed unemployment benefits held steady last week. The stream of upbeat economic data and easing inflation helped prompt a reversal in the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy this year. Expectations for interest rate cuts also helped drive market gains. The central bank recently delivered its third cut to interest rates in 2024. Even though inflation has come closer to the central bank's target of 2%, it remains stubbornly above that mark and worries about it heating up again have tempered the forecast for more interest rate cuts. Inflation concerns have added to uncertainties heading into 2025, which include the labor market's path ahead and shifting economic policies under incoming President Donald Trump. Worries have risen that Trump's preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade. Amedisys rose 4.7% after the home health care and hospice services provider agreed to extend the deadline for its sale to UnitedHealth Group. The Justice Department had sued to block the $3.3 billion deal, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S. The move to extend the deadline comes ahead of an expected shift in regulatory policy under Trump. The incoming administration is expected to have a more permissive approach to dealmaking and is less likely to raise antitrust concerns. In Asia, Japan's benchmark index surged as the yen remained weak against the dollar. Stocks in South Korea fell after the main opposition party voted to impeach the country's acting leader. Markets in Europe gained ground. Bond yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.62% from 4.59% late Thursday. The yield on the two-year Treasury remained at 4.33% from late Thursday. Wall Street will have more economic updates to look forward to next week, including reports on pending home sales and home prices. There will also be reports on U.S. construction spending and snapshots of manufacturing activity.

Mid-American Conference football goes all in on November weeknights for the TV viewersIN a glitzy new-look tournament, a grimy old-school game. This was ramshackle football in tumbledown surroundings, 90 minutes as ugly as the damp-streaked concrete of the Maksimir’s unloved stands. 3 Celtic picked up another point in the Champions League Credit: Kenny Ramsay 3 Bill Leckie reckons Celtic fans should be proud of their players Credit: John Kirkby - The Sun Glasgow But if beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, then none of this will matter to Celtic . Because in the context of their season, this result might turn out like finding a diamond in a dungheap. This was a priceless Champions League point, plotted with patience and managed manfully, the kind of performance that playing away in Europe always used to be about. That it was their second away 0-0 on the bounce speaks volumes for how much they are — finally, finally — maturing at this elite level. read more football stories FINAL FEARS Johnston gives injury update after he emerges as doubt for Rangers cup final MEGA OFFER Get £50 in free bets to spend on football when you stake £10 with Betfred That it takes their unbeaten run in the competition to four, their longest since 1986, is huge credit to manager Brendan Rodgers and his players. The fact that there were plenty who moaned at full-time that they should have been winning? Well, they should take that as a compliment, not a criticism. Remember, they’d lost on all three previous visits here. Remember, they’re haunted by a catalogue of fives and sixes and sevens shipped in Paris and Madrid and Barcelona and back again. Most read in Football 'S****' My dad is Scotland’s greatest ever player but he rinsed my career at my OWN wedding FINAL FEARS Johnston gives injury update after he emerges as doubt for Rangers cup final WORRYING SCENES FA Trophy clash ABANDONED after player rushed away in ambulance MAN BYS Celtic player ratings vs Dinamo Zagreb: How Rodgers' Hoops ranked in Euro stalemate So put this result, off the back of the one against Europa League champs Atalanta in Italy last month, in that perspective and it surely can only be seen as a positive one. Since a battling 1-1 at home to Club Brugge a fortnight ago, they’ve won three league games on the spin to extend their lead at the top of the Premiership to nine points, haven’t lost a goal along the way, and are in good shape for Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final against Rangers . Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers turns on Lennoxtown Xmas lights As for the biggest trophy of all? Beat the whipping boys of Bern in front of a baying Parkhead on January 22 and they’d surely be into the play-offs with a shot at earning a glamour-dripping, money-spinning last-16 tie. That’s a successful first half of the season in anyone’s language , even if this game in itself was a four-letter-ing bore. Three shots on target all night, one from Celtic , was the lowest tally in any Champions League group stage game this season. Long before the end, you got the feeling Callum McGregor was marshalling a unit quite happy for it all to drift away into nothing-nothingness. Yet maybe even that tedium is a clear sign of their growing maturity at this level. After that 7-1 hammering in Dortmund on matchday two, they were faced with a clear choice — either to put their fingers in their ears and keep on leaving themselves wide open, or sacrifice their natural instincts and get a little bit meaner. Atalanta and now Zzzzzzzz-agreb tell the world for sure which they plumped for. They didn’t try to force the game here, didn’t go out of their way to make things happen. HOW THEY RATED By DEREK MCGREGOR KASPER SCHMEICHEL: Off his line to gather at the feet of Sandro Kulenovic as Dinamo tried to break the deadlock. Tipped over a header from Marko Pjaca late in the game 6 ALISTAIR JOHNSTON: Caught late by Marko Rog in front of the dugouts as the Dinamo star landed a booking. Canada star never fully recovered and was replaced at break 5 CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS: Looked uneasy after his Club Brugge own goal and had problems keeping his footing in first half. Close-range shot deflected well over 6 AUSTON TRUSTY: Good header out of the six-yard box early on then repeated the feat from Dinamo inswinging free-kick. Great block from Pjaca’s shot 6 GREG TAYLOR: Early yellow card for a late challenge in the Dinamo box. Heaved a huge sigh of relief when his miscue on the edge of his own box wasn’t punished 5 CALLUM McGREGOR: Captain’s 100th Euro game for the Hoops. Had the ball pinched off his toe by Lukas Kacavenda as the game started to become stretched after the hour 5 PAULO BERNARDO: In ahead of Arne Engels and flashed early free-kick just off target. Near-post corner also caused chaos. Couldn’t tame ball into box from Daizen Maeda 6 REO HATATE: Great ball from own half freed Kuhn down right. Lost footing as he tried to drill in a shot — which was his final act as Brendan Rodgers shuffled midfield 5 NICOLAS KUHN: Hit the byeline on the halfway mark but delivery was slapped away for a corner. Cut in on to his left foot after break but shot was deflected over top 6 DAIZEN MAEDA: Was booked for late challenge on Maxime Bernauer as tensions began to rise late in first half. Showed trademark energy going both ways but couldn’t find spark 5 KYOGO FURUHASHI: Great energy as he constantly pressed goalkeeper Daniel Zagorac. Didn’t get a real glimpse of goal and rested late on ahead of Sunday’s cup final 5 Anthony Ralston (4) half-time sub for injured Johnston, booked. Luke McCowan (4) tested keeper. Arne Engels (4) got last half-hour. James Forrest (3) lashed shot off target. Adam Idah (3) on as Celts chased late winner. They didn’t try to force the game here, didn’t go out of their way to make things happen. They just played steadily, stayed organised, probed when they went forward and got into shape when Dinamo forced them back the way. On the one occasion when he was properly called into action, Kasper Schmeichel once again proved himself calm in a crisis, flying high and stretching elastically to tip Marko Pjaca’s back-post header over from right under his crossbar. Off the back of the half-a-dozen big stops that had spared his mates from serious complications at home to Hibs on Saturday, the great Dane had set up his fourth clean sheet in ten days. And, as it went, he very nearly inspired them to snatch all three points at the death , too, when three of the subs Rodgers had promised came so close to combining for a brilliant winner. James Forrest picked out a brilliant reverse ball down the left to Arne Engels , who flashed a fabulous ball across the front post , where Adam Idah was only denied by a magnificent sliding challenge from Kevin Theophile-Catherine. Now that would’ve been the perfect climax to a hugely imperfect night. Instead, German ref Felix Zwayer brought it to end soon after, and Rodgers marched on to the turf to congratulate a bunch who seem to have bought 100 per cent into his thinking, both tactical and mental. After that win over Hibs , the performance as shambolic and shoddy as the scoreline was eventually convincing, he spoke about how the ability to “win and win and win” was as much in the mind as it was in the boots . 3 Here, amid the unspeakable pile that is Croatia’s national stadium, that same mindset came into play once again. Once again, Celtic were far short of their fast, flowing, imposing and imperious best. But unlike on so many European away nights of the past, they used their brains to pick their way through a tricky test and come out the other end unscathed. The Maksimir really is unspeakable, too. One whole side lying disused ever since an earthquake hit the city in 2020, fans behind each goal hover a good 30 feet above the action because of massive boundary walls, the main stand a mess of rickety press facilities, a perilous-looking TV gantry and an impossibly-steep batch of seats open to the elements. I’ve never met anyone who likes playing there. Not Dinamo, not the Croatia national team — and certainly not any visitors. Read more on the Scottish Sun SCOT MY FIRST RODEO! Popular music festival coming to three Scots cities for first time CHILL OUT Scots to be gripped by grim -10C freeze as weather map reveals temperature plunge To be honest, it’s not fit to stage football at this level. No, not even football this dull . . . Keep up to date with ALL t h e latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

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Laos methanol poisoning victim Bianca Jones 'was on the trip of a lifetime' says heartbroken dadWHEN Princess Andre was born to pop culture royalty Katie Price and Peter Andre in 2007, everyone was wondering if she’d follow in her mum or dad’s career footsteps. Fast forward to now, the answer is neither. Instead, the 17-year-old is crafting out a unique career for herself on social media and actually drawing inspiration from outside of the family. 10 Princess Andre is following a five-step plan to become the next Molly-Mae Credit: Instagram 10 Both influencers have hoards of female fans tuning in to their social media posts Credit: Instagram 10 Princess, 17, shared these images on Instagram earlier this week Credit: Instagram 10 Self-confessed "cosy girl" Molly-Mae shared similar snaps with a similar vibe Credit: Instagram The teen influencer has a whopping 733,000 followers on Instagram, and is often regarded as a “real life princess by fans”. The clue's in the name, we guess. Some supporters have also compared her to influencer royalty, Molly-Mae Hague, 25. The symmetry between both girls stretches beyond their looks, though - and it’s likely Princess has studied Molly-Mae’s spectacular rise to fame. Mum-of-one Molly-Mae starred in the fifth series of the ITV2 dating reality television show Love Island back in 2018. read more on fab celebs ROYAL DIARIES Kim Kardashian is copying Princess Di to secure her 'legacy', experts claim FOOTLOOSE How to rock the leggy trend stars like Louise Redknapp are making sexy in winter Since then, she’s become Britain’s most recognisable influencer with 8.3 million Instagram followers and an estimated net worth of £6 million. Her ascent from reality star to British Vogue interviewee is a path that Princess can easily replicate, experts believe. “Princess has parents who are commercially aware and have been in the public eye since they were young,” Pam Lyddon, publicist at Bright Star Digital, tells Fabulous. “I suspect they have given her great advice and looked to Molly-Mae for inspiration.” Most read in Celebrity COL'S PLAN Coleen Rooney is trying to rebrand Wayne in IAC, says body language pro JAB MANIA From sunken eyes to bulldog features - the scary things Ozempic does to your face SON'S STRUGGLE Katie Price shares heartbreaking message from Harvey as he begs to come home MONEY TALKS I was a millionaire by age 12 - I paid my parents salary & sister's allowance And while most influencers don’t have a big plan and instead try to cram as many deals in as possible, Pam believes that “it’s obvious that Princess has a clear vision”. This vision is expected to help her achieve her goal of having £1 million in the bank by age 20, something which she revealed as our cover star in October . Peter Andre as he opens up about life as a family of five and Junior and Princess on music and modelling “She’s in this for the long run,” Pam says. “And when the time is right, I’m sure she’ll start to expand elsewhere to increase her profile.” Molly-Mae was candid about her “game plan” after leaving the iconic ITV villa in summer 2018. So, it's likely Princess is adapting that strategy to secure herself as influencer royalty too- and there's five obvious steps that experts have pointed out. 1: Going Au Naturel Molly-Mae executed a dermal and lip filler U-turn in 2020 when she decided to get everything dissolved after being trolled for looking like an “Xbox controller” and being facially “warped”. Now, the mum-of-one is proudly more natural in her appearance after admitting to “making that many mistakes when she was younger” when it came to aesthetic tweakments. Princess isn’t anti-filler per se, but it’s not something she ever plans to experiment with - a far cry from her mum and more in keeping with Molly-Mae’s current stance . Katie has said in the past she reckons her 17 boob jobs and everything else in between - including face lifts, fillers, fox eye threads and more - has put Princess off going under the knife for life. What has Katie said about Princess getting surgery? MUM-of-five Katie Price has previously said it is "normal "Princess doesn't want any surgery and she doesn't need it either," Katie told OK! Magazine . "I know people say I didn't need it, but I'm in my forties and I want it and I'll do it. "[Princess] has seen me have enough done to put her off. "Surgery is just the norm for my kids, the amount of times they've seen their mum get it. "If I haven't put them off, then I don't know what will!" “I think it’s important, especially for the younger generation on social media, to embrace natural beauty,” Princess told Fabulous . “I don’t change my opinion of someone if they choose to have surgery. “Yes, I do know people who want to do that, but it’s just not something I want to do.” According to PR expert Luana, refusing botox and fillers is a great move for Princess’ influencer career as it’s something that helped catapult Molly-Mae’s popularity. 10 Princess, pictured at The Pride of Britain Awards 2024, doesn't plan to get any tweakments done when she turns 18 Credit: Getty 10 Molly-Mae famously began dissolving her dermal and lip fillers at the start of 2020 Credit: Getty 10 The young influencer was trolled for "looking like an Xbox controller" at the peak of her filler era Credit: YouTube “Challenging unrealistic standards and promoting self acceptance will be a winner among her target audience,” she predicts. “They may benefit from the encouragement to embrace and love their natural features without feeling pressure to conform to a specific look.” 2: Brand Partnerships Molly-Mae was fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing’s core brand ambassador after leaving Love Island. She was then infamously promoted to Creative Director in August 2021, before stepping down from the position in June 2023 to focus on being a mum. Interestingly, Princess has been building a relationship with the Manchester-based brand since April 2023. The teen has been invited to a number of its star-studded events, shopped in its Los Angeles showroom and promoted outfits from the brand on social media. 10 Princess works closely with fast fashion giant, PrettyLittleThing Credit: Splash 10 Molly-Mae was the e-retail giant's Creative Director between 2021 and 2023 Credit: Rex But one PR expert has issued her a warning for "mimicking" Molly-Mae’s fame strategy to a T. When looking at her plan to partner with PrettyLittleThing, Princess needs to consider partnerships with those who match her brand values,” comments Luana Ribeira, founder of Dauntless PR. “She needs to work out who is a fit audience-wise rather than just mimicking what Molly-Mae did.” 3: Style Stealing Molly-Mae is a self-confessed cosy girl. Her Instagram grid comes to life in autumn and winter, with the mum-of-one holding an unparalleled ability to sell out any jacket on the high street. She’s famed for posing in Uggs, dark-toned loungewear sets, tracksuits and oversized scarves. A quick glance at Princess’ grid this winter proves that her fashion taste leans into the Molly-Mae hype. 10 Princess' fashion very much emulates Molly-Mae vibes Credit: Instagram Earlier this week, the teen beamed about “cosy season” as she posed in a brown loungewear set and leather jacket. Of course, all three items are from PrettyLittleThing. One fan commented: “Very autumnal. Looking on point young lady.” Another quipped: “You’re a beautiful girl, never change a thing.” 4: Relatability Princess isn’t your typical influencer - or nepo baby, a label she’s given due to having famous parents but not once she’s bothered by. She’s long been in the spotlight and was thrust onto the nation’s screens as a newborn in her parents’ ITV reality series, Katie & Peter: The Baby Diaries. But that hasn’t stopped her from striving to be relatable on social media - the same winning strategy that Molly-Mae employs in her YouTube vlogs and Instagram stories. “Princess is very privileged but her content comes across as family and home-loving,” tells publicist Pam Lyddon. “And that’s very relatable.” Princess is very privileged but her content comes across as family and home-loving Pam Lyddon publicist From showcasing inside her messy make-up drawer (which it’s worth noting is full of products cheaper than a tenner ) to snaps from family dinners and looking after her younger siblings , the teen is appealing to an audience who want ‘realness’ from influencers. Away from the whirlwind of photoshoots and red-carpet events, Princess is one of eight siblings in a big, blended family. Her dad Peter married doctor Emily MacDonagh , 35, in 2015, and they have three children together: Amelia, 10, Theo, seven, and six-month-old Arabella. Katie had two - Jett, 11, and Bunny, 10 - with now-ex Kieran Hayler as well as Harvey, her 22-year-old son from a relationship with former footballer Dwight Yorke . 5: Building Brands Princess founded a small-time jewellery brand, named Sparkle, when she was just 16-years-old. Similarly, Molly-Mae launched fake tan brand Filter shortly after her Love Island stint. The beauty label, which initially started as a single mousse product, now flogs spritz, drops, tonics and scrubs - and is stocked in Selfridges and Boots. This business growth isn’t out of the picture for Princess, according to PR expert Luana. “Launching her own brand, in her own style, and selling what she is passionate about is a great idea,” she tells Fabulous. Read more on the Scottish Sun SNOW AWAY Met Office shares amber warning list of 6 Scots areas to be worst hit with snow ROD RAGE Celtic fan slams Rod Stewart as he says 'I've invested more and I'm a pensioner' “Princess already has an audience who are likely to buy her jewellery. “This will increase her credibility and connection with her audience as long as the jewellery is of great quality.”The wine , finally, was on the move. For two weeks, a team of 14 professionals had been in the mountains, methodically transferring thousands of rare bottles from a cavernous cellar into a nondescript box truck that shuttled the cargo to a pair of tractor trailers several miles away, tucked in a private way station overseen by an armed protection detail. Even the security team didn’t know what they were guarding. All they saw were scores of black-wrapped pallets slowly filling the giant holds. When the last of the wine was finally secured and the drivers strapped in, the semis, each escorted by an armored truck, rumbled past the steel gates and then diverged, assigned to separate routes down the mountain, across more than a thousand miles and three state lines, headed for California. In Boston, Brahm Callahan received a GPS ping every 30 minutes with the trucks’ locations and the temperatures inside the cargo bays; they were holding steady at 55 degrees. The deal had been nearly two years in the making and killed and resurrected over half a dozen times during that span. Callahan, master sommelier, 35 years old, had seen some of the most incredible wine collections in the world, but never anything like the cellar he had just bought. He knew from the moment he stepped inside it that he would never encounter another collection so miraculous, so meticulously curated, so impeccably cataloged and stored, and so impossibly stocked with unheard-of rarities. Now he and his partners were about to take possession of the entire haul. The first step of the plan was nearly complete. The trucks would converge again at a bonded warehouse in Sonoma County, where Dan O’Brien, 40, was waiting to take possession of eight figures’ worth of wine while trying not to think about all the money they owed, or everything that needed to happen before they could pay it back. First, the wine had to show up as planned—the convoys were taking separate routes at the insistence of the insurance companies, to mitigate risks such as avalanches and hijackers—and then the designated portion, several thousand bottles of valuable rare wines, had to make its way by boat to Hong Kong in time to be received and cataloged for a Sotheby’s auction in February. The various lots needed to sell for enough to cover the money they owed to the hard-money lender who had financed the deal at terms that would make a loan shark shudder. From his condo in Boston, Scott Leverenz ran the numbers again, out of habit. He took into account the projected auction figures, that Mafia rate of monthly interest, the roughly $700,000 they had already accrued in legal fees, the potential appreciation of the remaining portfolio, and every other variable he could think of. As usual, Leverenz, 34, was gaming out the worst-case scenario, but the numbers looked good: Even if the total from the auction came in at the low end, and even assuming it took the full 90 days to collect all the money, the three of them would hit their target: They could use the sale of the bottom two-thirds of the cellar to clear the debt and keep the most valuable top third—millions of dollars of wine—for free. The wine arrived in Sonoma as scheduled, where it was stored for 72 hours before being taken to Oakland and put on a container ship headed to Hong Kong, due to dock just before Christmas. It was late November 2019 and the juice was running. The loan would reset every 30 days, the principal growing each month alongside the compounding interest in a convoluted death trap of penalties, fees, and clawbacks. Time was not on their side. Shortly after the wine arrived, the news began reporting an unknown respiratory illness killing people in China. The country would lock down a few weeks later. Callahan, Leverenz, and O’Brien had just borrowed $12.5 million to buy a store of wine that now might as well be on the moon. The Crew Callahan first outlined his plan to Leverenz one morning in 2016 in the Amtrak bar car heading back to Boston from Philadelphia. They were fending off hangovers after a Guns N’ Roses concert; neither had slept. But kicking ideas back and forth across a bartop was how they had always done their best thinking, going back to when they first met as Boston sommeliers in 2009. Callahan had made master sommelier by 30, pin number 222 of 228 in the world at the time. There is nothing achievable in the wine world above it. The final examination, administered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, is like trying to prove a physics thesis by doing backflips, meant to plumb the depth of one’s theoretical understanding, sensory abilities, and practical skills simultaneously. Callahan had lived like a monk while studying for it, forgoing shaving and taping laminated study guides throughout his apartment—on tables and mirrors, lining the cupboards, inside the shower—so there wasn’t a minute he couldn’t be learning. In the blind-tasting portion alone, candidates must correctly identify six different wines by grape variety, country of origin, district, appellation, and, finally, vintage. Not only had Callahan passed the test, he had eventually become a member of the Court. Leverenz had a head for numbers. He and Callahan had both passed through Grill 23 & Bar , a revered Boston steak house that operated as a sort of elite boot camp for those forging a career in wine. Unlike most restaurants with encyclopedic wine lists, Grill 23 actually moved the juice, and opportunities to taste rare and notable vintages were frequent. Leverenz went on to become a somm and wine director for some of Boston’s top restaurants before managing national sales for major importers; he also traded in rare and fine wines. Having experience in both buying and selling had stripped away the varnish of romance that dazzled so many people into ostensibly bad business decisions: Leverenz liked to say that the best way to end up with a million-dollar winery was to start with a $2 million winery. He loved the industry and wasn’t immune to the glamour, of course—he just preferred to understand it for what it was, and to make a profit off of it when he could. Like Callahan and Leverenz, O’Brien had cut his teeth at Grill 23 and had a natural allergy to all of the stupid money sloshing around the wine industry, though unlike the other two, he wasn’t much for sitting on appreciating assets for the sake of a tidy profit down the line—he’d rather drink a Dujac Grand Cru immediately after buying it, maybe with a burger. With his beard and glasses and easygoing grin, the onetime Boston somm now looked the part of an affable San Francisco garage winemaker, but there were few areas of the industry he hadn’t touched, from developing wine programs for luxury hotel groups to producing blends for private-label clients to revamping a historic Calistoga vineyard as COO. He had extensive experience buying, storing, and transporting wine—easier said than done given that alcohol is a highly regulated substance, which makes moving it across state lines a costly, time-consuming, and tediously complicated bureaucratic process. He had the bonded storage, insurance premiums, and drawers full of licenses and permits to attest to that. Callahan had worked with both separately, but despite all being Grill 23 alums, the trio had never worked together until now. They sealed their partnership over omelets and coffee at a grungy diner down the street from an impound lot. The Plan What Callahan pitched was this: Raise enough money to buy a white whale of a cellar, a highly secretive monster collection somewhere in the Rocky Mountains—one of those murmured opportunities that surface from time to time in the tight, clubby world of master somms and elite collectors. It supposedly contained vast quantities of vanishingly rare wine, the kinds of bottles that simply didn’t come to market anymore or were never supposed to have existed in the first place: unheard-of large-format Burgundies; decades of Hermitage; massive stores of cult Champagne. The collector had started acquiring in the ’80s, back when you could just show up in Vosne-Romanée, knock on the door of some family producer that had been making Burgundy in the region for hundreds of years, and walk off with however many cases you felt like shipping home. Provenance and documentation were said to be perfect. And yet the cellar had been quietly on the market for some time, with no takers. Why? First, the asking price, a vast sum even in the voracious world of high-stakes wine collecting, kept rising—first $8 million, then $10 million, now likely more—the longer the collection sat and the more the wines inside kept appreciating. More challengingly, it had to be all in one go, to one buyer: no cherry-picking, no allocation, a single check for the entire lot, non-negotiable. The seller didn’t need the money and seemed in no rush to part with the wine. Normally, anyone walking into a cellar with an eight-figure check is going to expect to set some of the terms of the deal, so the sheer ego slap delivered by the take-it-or-leave-it nature of the offer cleared a host of private buyers from the table. Resellers are more pragmatic, but it was still a huge amount of cash, and a significant chunk of the inventory wouldn’t reach peak profitability for years; gray-market prospectors rarely buy and hold, preferring to flip bottles for quick profit rather than leave capital tied up in a basement. Callahan figured he had a way to leverage the volume of the cellar. A collection of that size and caliber would otherwise take decades to procure, and this one was said to be composed of some of the best-performing wines on the market, heavily over-indexing for Burgundy, Northern Rhônes, and Champagne. If you could price the inventory correctly, acquire it at reasonable value, then engage an auction house to move the most immediately profitable tranches of wine in one push, you could repay the loan plus interest while holding on to the best long-term investments. Essentially, between loan, acquisition, and auction, you could triangulate an extremely small aperture through which it would be possible to come into a few million bucks’ worth of unbelievable rare wine, for free—but if you miss the window, don’t bother preparing for impact. Taking on the whole thing at once meant they could play the long game. The cellar had such vast stores of specific vintages that you could effectively corner the market, taking advantage of short-term price fluctuations by strategically liquidating bottles at their most lucrative while continuing to accrue yearly appreciation on the rest. The remaining top slice of inventory, the cream of a once-in-a-lifetime crop, could be used as the basis for a wine-backed investment fund, or a high-end wine retailer. Or, put the profits into a négociant winery, buying grapes or juice and bottling under their own brand, and for private labels. Or, depending on how the auction went, all three. But first they needed to get their hands on a whole lot of cash. The Money You can’t just walk into a bank and ask for, say, $10 million to buy a bunch of fine wine—or Picassos or vintage Ferraris or ancient Sumerian manuscripts—even if everyone knows they’re going to appreciate. It’s just not what banks are set up for, which mostly is to deal in simple, stable assets like homes and cars and small businesses. So Callahan went to Dave S. instead. Callahan first met Dave S. over a magic trick of sorts at Grill 23. A bearded, broad-shouldered hedge-fund type, he had ordered a beguiling 1998 Bordeaux, a great Right Bank vintage—enough to pique Callahan’s interest. Either this guy made a lucky guess, he thought, or he knew something about wine. Dave S. knew enough to see an opportunity to stump the somm. He pulled out his phone and flashed a picture of himself from a recent shooting weekend, barely hoisting a gargantuan Nebuchadnezzar of ’67 Château d’Yquem—had Callahan ever seen a bottle like that in person? Callahan said he had, and then did Dave S. one better: He told him where the picture had been taken. The hedge funder, who was a professional magician in his youth, felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck—now that was a magic trick. Callahan explained that he knew the total number of bottles of ’67 Yquem in the 15-liter format in existence, plus who owned them around the world—including a certain prominent billionaire with three in his New Jersey cellar, which is where Dave S. was standing in the picture. He and Callahan became fast friends after that. Yet despite his decades allocating capital and executing complex financial deals, Dave S. wasn’t the one to finance this play—but he knew who was. The guy who connects the pipes that make the money flow. The man they called the Plumber. When the federal government needs to underwrite some sprawling, unprecedented, staggeringly complex program—say, a nationwide rebate for used-vehicle trade-ins, with all the labyrinthine financing that entails—the secretary of the Treasury picks up the phone and calls the Plumber. A math whiz since his teens, he was legendary in New York banking for never assuming risk and always making money, a deal-structuring genius who could put 28 hooks into you without your ever realizing, until God forbid something bad happened and suddenly your pecuniary guts were sliding all over the floor. The Plumber had a sideline in exotic investment plays—heady, esoteric, out-of-the-box stuff. Like backing the acquisition of a multimillion-dollar wine cellar for an unprecedented flip. Dave S. didn’t mince words: The numbers would have to work, down to the penny. These people didn’t care about wine except insofar as it represented collateral for the deal—and as a regulated substance it made for complicated surety. The path of custody would need to be rigorously established and precisely controlled, and execution would have to be flawless or the various frictions would eat them alive: First, the buyer needed to assess and document over 12,000 bottles of wine, checking fill rates and bottle stamps and backtracking the ownership trail, then take and retain legal control of it through several stages of storage and transport across state lines and national borders—a notorious minefield of red tape—all while insurance, taxation, fees, governmental regulation, and the rest gnawed away at the bottom line from all angles. Every shipment, every transaction, every license, every insurance policy, every fee—thousands of variables—had to be accounted for, across all conceivable scenarios, until the sale was complete, the money collected and transacted, and everyone repaid. And the three of them were going to be put through their paces. The Plumber’s people needed to understand who they were giving their millions of dollars to. Did they have a grasp of the details? Could they problem-solve under pressure? Were their industry contacts as solid as they claimed? The Plumber only dealt with people vibrating at the highest frequency, Dave S. said, and his crew would mess with them—changing deadlines at the last minute or giving them 24 hours to turn around a half dozen pages of analysis for no reason—just to see how they reacted to stress. The deal would come down to numbers, sure, but it wasn’t the only consideration. The Plumber wanted to know: How badly did they want it? Which meant, even as Callahan and Leverenz were cautiously wooing the seller with polite correspondence and the occasional highly orchestrated visit, and O’Brien was laying the groundwork for the eventual possession and transport, they were simultaneously being put through rigorous crash courses in debt financing and tax law. The seller, meanwhile, was rarely available and seemed to have a knack for going dark the moment they felt any momentum begin to build. The deal was always under threat of collapsing from one end or the other—either because the seller had walked away or because the loan-to-value ratio had tipped a cent into the red and the money did. At one point, the deal hinged on whether Callahan could procure luxury portable toilets on short notice; at another, the cost of an overlooked California permit—the difference of maybe a few thousand dollars in a deal worth millions—was enough to get the Plumber’s people to start packing up, until O’Brien realized he had the necessary paperwork via another company he owned. This dragged on for months. Then a year. Then longer. The motivation to press on, reenergized every time Callahan and Leverenz were able to inspect the wine, was that the cellar was even more impressive than advertised, unlike anything either had seen in both quality and scale, in fundamentally pristine condition. The attrition rate of unsellable bottles due to oxidation, lack of proper documentation, breakage, or improper storage was basically nil; even the small percentage of bottles they couldn’t send to auction—say, due to a detached label—they knew to be genuine. And then, just like that, a switch flipped and it was go time. The seller agreed to the terms; in response, they wired $1 million into an escrow account as a sign of good faith. A short time later, a cashier’s check in the low eight figures was delivered by hand to the seller’s lawyer; there was the flurry of planes and trucks and boats; and the plan for a massive 90-day flip was in motion at last—until Covid reared its head and the entire world came screeching to a halt. The Auction The early days of pandemic lockdown for Callahan, Leverenz, and O’Brien were pretty much the same as for everyone else—awkwardly wiping down groceries, uncertain about whether you were supposed to buy masks or not buy masks because medical personnel needed them. Without its normal daily punctuations, time became a run-on—except for that charged moment every month when they recalculated what they owed to the Plumber. That always had a way of standing out. The monthly interest alone, which had started around $110,000, had jumped to $115,000, then to over $125,000, then to $130,000. The months dragged on. February came and went. Then March, then April, then May, then June, the debt ballooning. Dave S. kept the mood up: Keep finessing the numbers, keep working the plan, these are just obstacles, you’ll find your way around. The Sotheby’s people pushed the auction, then pushed it again, then said they weren’t quite sure when it would take place despite being very upbeat that it would, in fact, happen; they were storing a gargantuan haul of wine they weren’t selling and so were as desperate as anyone to see it all across the auction block. Finally, the dates were set—a two-day affair, July 5 and 6, 2020. There was only one problem: Online auctions were still a fairly new format, and a remote wine sale of this size was unprecedented. Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S. and 16 hours ahead of the west, which meant that it was July 4, America’s Independence Day, when the Summit: A Complete Cellar auction kicked off in Asia. O’Brien was at a backyard cookout in California wine country; Callahan and Leverenz were at a party at Dave S.’s house in Massachusetts. Everything they had done to this point, work now measured in years, hinged on these results. Had their proprietary valuation system—based on an intricate matrix of scarcity, reputation, current and future market interest, time to peak drinkability, and profit potential—priced the wine correctly? Difficult enough to gauge under normal circumstances, but this situation was sui generis. There was literally nothing to compare it to. As it turned out, it was a perfect storm. The stir-craziness of isolation, collector appetite bottled up to bursting, and a global customer base newly comfortable with spending serious cash over the internet meant that the entire wine world was watching—and desperate to bid. It was a frenzy from the opening hammer. The guys streamed the action on laptops, O’Brien holed up in a TV room as the party carried on outside, Leverenz and Callahan roaming the halls of Dave S.’s sprawling house and dipping into his pool in between calculating conversion rates. The numbers exploded from the jump and never relented, with world records shattering one after the other. In the six-liter format alone, a 1989 Ramonet Montrachet hammered for over $61,000, a 1999 La Tâche for over $90,000, and a 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg for over $154,000. The final sale clocked in over $15.6 million; they would clear $3.1 million in profit, minus some additional friction, while still holding what they considered to be the most valuable third of the original cellar, calculated to be worth between $3.5 million and $4 million. Of course, they couldn’t actually get their hands on the money yet, which would be collected in dribs and drabs by the auction house over the next 90 days and deposited into a Hong Kong bank, in Hong Kong dollars. That currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar and therefore reliably stable—unless the President of the United States starts antagonizing China by threatening to decouple the HKD, as then-President Trump did later that month. It was a new emergency: If Trump carried out his threat, the stroke of a pen would catastrophically evaporate their profits—meaning that, despite an auction bonanza far beyond their most optimistic projections, which set scores of world records, the three would still find themselves deeply in the red. The bulk of the wine was gone, they were out of money and had paid off virtually none of the debt—which was still accruing all sorts of replicating interest and spring-loaded fees. Even the inventory they had held back was out of reach: Until he got his money back, everything belonged to the Plumber. This was the point at which O’Brien tapped out. Whatever happened between now and the end, he said to Callahan and Leverenz, whether it all worked out or everything collapsed, he didn’t need to know. He would be in California. Wake him when it was all over. Coda On a warm Boston night this past May at Grill 23 & Bar, I sat with the three cofounders of Faucet Wine —CEO Brahm Callahan, CFO Scott Leverenz, and COO Dan O’Brien—as they recalled the party they threw when the dust finally settled. Callahan and Leverenz had gone back to the Plumber asking for a $1 million hedge against the currency decoupling, and he was only too happy to oblige: The move further protected his investment, and the interest charged on the extra million would net him even more profit. In the end, Trump moved on from poking China, all of the auction money was collected, a check was issued from the Hong Kong bank and converted to U.S. dollars. All outstanding bills were paid. The Plumber was made whole. For the first time, some four years after Callahan had initially launched his scheme on the train, they were money good. They even wound up making a tidy six-figure profit from the hedge thanks to all the volatility. The victory party took place in November 2020, still at the height of Covid, when congregating in person required nasal swabs and temperature checks and weeks of negotiation. A small group gathered at O’Brien’s house. The celebration was wine-country casual—tiki torches, a sprawling deck overlooking a creek, dogs clambering up and down stairs, a rap-heavy playlist bumping in the background—though few if any Sonoma Valley cookouts before or since have poured a magnum of 1990 Bâtard-Montrachet alongside a 1949 Musigny from Camille Giroud. Or a dream-haunting 1974 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet “Les Ruchottes.” And these were just some of many astonishing and wondrous vintages. They were the best of the authentic but unsellable stock, plus a small number of bottles they had held back for themselves, even if it sliced into the profit margin. The three had survived a long swim with some of the biggest sharks in the financial world, but they were ultimately all wine geeks at heart: If now wasn’t the time to finally taste your greatest-hits list of once-in-a-lifetime vintages, when would be? O’Brien in particular relished the chance to share these treasures with his friends and neighbors—farmers and blenders and small winemakers who otherwise might never get the chance to experience a 1971 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-St.-Vivant or a 1991 Chave “Cuvée Cathelin.” As he watched the fall sun inch below the horizon, sitting with friends and contemplating some of the greatest wines ever made, all seemed right with the world. They were in the black. He could exhale at last. And now, finally, they could get to work. Securing the auction money wasn’t the end of things, after all, but the beginning. They still had a company to build. The profit from the sale eventually produced Faucet, a wine-focused venture-capital fund with a portfolio of proprietary businesses, from négociant winery Where With All to investments in rare bottles to the Sonoma Valley producer Gail Wines . There’s even a fine-wine purveyor, Berkeley and Stuart , named after the intersection where Grill 23 sits, and where each of the partners got his start in the industry. Where, in some sense, it all began. Callahan is now an investor in that restaurant and stores some of the group’s wine there. After dinner, he walked me through the cellar, showing off various bottles. One label stood out, faded yellow and black, with an image like an Art Deco clamshell opening over a twinkling cosmos. It read: “25th Anniversary, Windows on the World, 1976–2001,” part of a store Faucet had acquired of custom Veuve Clicquot produced for the famous restaurant that once straddled the 106th and 107th floors atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which collapsed into rubble along with everything else on September 11, 2001. Another marvel in a seemingly never-ending saga of them. As I walked down the steak-house steps into a humid late-spring evening, passing under the lamplit street signs, a snippet from the auction catalog popped into my head: “Put simply,” wrote Serena Sutcliffe, honorary chairman of Sotheby’s Wine, “it would be beyond comprehension if it did not exist in reality.” Exactly so.Percentages: FG .518, FT .909. 3-Point Goals: 6-19, .316 (Waddles 3-5, Sutton 2-6, Thomas 1-3, Glover 0-1, Osburn 0-1, White 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: None. Turnovers: 12 (Waddles 3, Glover 2, Sutton 2, White 2, Ondekane, Streit, Thomas). Steals: 3 (Glover, Sutton, White). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .530, FT .444. 3-Point Goals: 18-39, .462 (T.Johnson 4-7, Hardman 4-10, Lyles 3-6, Gray 2-3, N.Johnson 2-3, Harris 2-4, Young 1-1, Scott 0-2, S.Wilson 0-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 3 (Lyles 2, Okonkwo). Turnovers: 8 (T.Johnson 3, Scott 2, Gray, Lyles, Okonkwo). Steals: 7 (Lyles, N.Johnson, Okonkwo, S.Wilson, Scott, T.Johnson, Young). Technical Fouls: None. .

Manitoba’s only youth correctional centre is under provincial review, after Winnipeg police arrested and charged a pair of staff members with sex offences against inmates. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * Manitoba’s only youth correctional centre is under provincial review, after Winnipeg police arrested and charged a pair of staff members with sex offences against inmates. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Manitoba’s only youth correctional centre is under provincial review, after Winnipeg police arrested and charged a pair of staff members with sex offences against inmates. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe confirmed the provincial justice department has launched a probe into the Manitoba Youth Centre, where up to 150 young offenders are held in custody at any given time. “I am deeply concerned by any reports of abuse, especially when they involve vulnerable children,” Wiebe said in a statement to the Friday. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS The provincial justice department has launched a probe into the Manitoba Youth Centre, where up to 150 young offenders are held in custody at any given time. “As the (Winnipeg Police Service) has laid charges and continues to investigate, Manitoba Corrections is also conducting an internal investigation ... to ensure the needs of vulnerable youth are prioritized and met.” The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth has been informed of the probe, Wiebe added. The independent office has the legislative ability to issue formal recommendations to improve public services. The youth advocate did not respond to a request for comment Friday. The probe comes after city police announced charges against a 26-year-old female corrections officer on Monday. Investigators believe the accused sexually assaulted a youth multiple times inside the Winnipeg facility. She’s been charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation and has been released on conditions barring access to anyone under 18, police said. The gender of the victim has not been revealed. Police have not released the identity of the accused woman because the charges have yet to be formally laid in court. The arrest followed similar charges against another guard, announced by police last month. Troy David Wensel of Winnipeg, 51, was arrested Nov. 12 and charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation and obtaining sexual services from a person under 18 years. He, too, was released with conditions prohibiting access to anyone under 18. Investigators said the corrections officer formed a relationship with a female inmate between 2022 and 2023. During that time, he provided her with extra canteen items, and in exchange, he sexually assaulted her, police said. A review of court records showed Wensel has no prior charges. Corrections officers inside the youth facility are referred to as juvenile counsellors. Everybody hired as a juvenile counsellor is subject to pre-screening, including a criminal record check, child and adult abuse registry check, a vulnerable sector search and other enhanced security measures, a provincial spokesperson said Friday. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Successful candidates complete a mandatory, eight-week training program. “Qualifications for juvenile counsellors include post-secondary education with direct related experience or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience,” the spokesperson said. “Other qualifications include experience working with Indigenous peoples, an understanding of Indigenous culture/spirituality and the ability to meaningfully engage with diverse cultures and backgrounds.” The Manitoba Youth Centre became the only juvenile correctional facility in the province in 2022 when the province shuttered the Agassiz Youth Centre. It is a co-ed facility, capable of housing 105 boys and 45 girls. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the ‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the , and before joining the paper in 2022. . Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the ‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the , and before joining the paper in 2022. . Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement Advertisementhe game between the and the will be a matchup between two disappointing teams who were expected to be . However, both franchises are far from that and even , but their meeting on Monday night has raised interest and not precisely because of the brand of the . The game will have an additional ingredient, as the duel will feature live animation and a transformation of the two teams in the style of . will be broadcast on and platforms worldwide, and fans will be able to see players from both teams, as well as coaches, referees and even commentators, transformed into the iconic characters of in real time. While , home of the Cowboys, the animated game between the two teams will take place at . As with previous alternate presentations of games, will be presented alongside the traditional MNF broadcast, giving fans a fun and very different way to enjoy the game with all the characters from the famous TV series. According to the NFL's announcement, the creators of The Simpsons have collaborated with the league "to ensure the authenticity of the longest-running scripted primetime series, with more than 750 episodes." How is the conversion done and how will the characters from The Simpsons appear? Each Bengals and Cowboys player . The tracking technology used by and , which will be combined with optical tracking to ensure fans see "every play, run, pass, score and more" from the real-life Bengals vs. Cowboys game on Monday live. , while , creating a true family dynamic as father and son will be cheering on their respective teams. The iconic duo will even jump into the game at select key opportunities, "replacing a player and joining their 10 other teammates on the field." In addition, throughout the game, while . In addition to the Simpson family, dozens of the show's iconic characters will also appear in the broadcast, all voiced by their respective real-life voice actors. Additionally, will each have their own group of followers who will join them in cheeringTrump taps his attorney Alina Habba to serve as counselor to the president

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad fled to Moscow on Sunday, Russian media reported, hours after a stunning rebel advance took over the capital of Damascus and ended the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule. The Russian agencies, Tass and RIA, cited an unidentified Kremlin source on Assad and his family being given asylum in Moscow, his longtime ally and protector. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the reports but contacted the Kremlin for comment. RIA also said Moscow had received guarantees from Syrian insurgents of the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria. Assad reportedly left Syria early Sunday, and Syrians have been pouring into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule. The swiftly moving events have raised questions about the future of the country and the wider region. Russia has requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council discuss the situation in Syria, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the U.N., Dmitry Polyansky, posted on Telegram. Joyful crowds gathered in squares in Damascus, waving the Syrian revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war. Others gleefully ransacked the presidential palace and residence after Assad and other top officials vanished. Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al-Qaida commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance, leads the biggest rebel faction and is poised to chart the country’s future. In his first public appearance since fighters entered the Damascus suburbs Saturday, al-Golani visited the sprawling Umayyad Mosque and called Assad’s fall “a victory to the Islamic nation.” Calling himself by his given name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and not his nom de guerre, he told hundreds of people that Assad had made Syria “a farm for Iran’s greed.” The rebels face the daunting task of healing bitter divisions in a country ravaged by war and still split among armed factions. Turkey-backed opposition fighters are battling U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State group is still active in some remote areas. Syrian state television broadcast a rebel statement early Sunday saying Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been released. They called on people to preserve the institutions of “the free Syrian state.” The rebels later announced a curfew in Damascus from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m. The rebels said they freed people held at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where rights groups say thousands were tortured and killed. A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing dozens of female prisoners, many of whom appeared shocked. At least one small child was seen among them. “This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where is he,” said one relative, Bassam Masr. “I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.” Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi later appeared on state TV and sought to reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.” “We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did,” he added. Damascus residents prayed in mosques and celebrated in squares, calling, “God is great.” People chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teenage boys picked up weapons apparently discarded by security forces and fired into the air. Revelers filled Umayyad Square, where the Defense Ministry is located. Some waved the three-starred Syrian flag that predates the Assad government and was adopted by the revolutionaries. Elsewhere, many parts of the capital were empty and shops were closed. Soldiers and police left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Videos showed families wandering the presidential palace, some carrying stacks of plates and other household items. “It’s like a dream. I need someone to wake me up,” said opposition fighter Abu Laith, adding the rebels were welcomed in Damascus with “love.” At the Justice Ministry, where rebels stood guard, Judge Khitam Haddad said they were protecting documents from the chaos. Outside, some residents sought information about relatives who disappeared under Assad. The rebels “have felt the pain of the people,” said one woman, giving only her first name, Heba. She worried about possible revenge killings by the rebels, many of whom appeared to be underage. Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, which was historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood.” It added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing past government statements, saying it “only carried out the instructions.” A statement from the Alawite sect that has formed the core of Assad’s base called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.” The rebels mainly come from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities. In Qamishli in the northeast, a Kurdish man slapped a statue of the late leader Hafez Assad with his shoe. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government. A video shared on Syrian opposition media showed armed men escorting him from his office and to the Four Seasons hotel on Sunday. Anwar Gargash said Assad’s destination at this point is a “footnote in history,” comparing it to the long exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after World War I. The rebel advances since Nov. 27 were the largest in recent years, and saw the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs fall within days as the Syrian army melted away. Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which provided crucial support to Assad throughout the uprising, abandoned him as they reeled from other conflicts. The end of Assad’s rule was a major blow to Iran and its allies, already weakened by conflict with Israel. Iran, which had strongly backed him throughout the civil war, said Syrians should decide their future “without destructive, coercive, foreign intervention.” The Iranian Embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been abandoned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said Israeli troops had seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights established in 1974, saying it was to protect Israeli residents after Syrian troops abandoned positions. Israel’s military later warned residents of five southern Syria communities to stay home for their safety, and didn’t respond to questions. Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it. The international community, except for the United States, views it as occupied, and the Arab League on Sunday condemned what it called Israel’s efforts to take advantage of Assad’s downfall occupy more territory. The rebels are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, which has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. Al-Golani, has sought to recast the group as a moderate and tolerant force. “Golani has made history and sparked hope among millions of Syrians,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group. “But he and the rebels now face a formidable challenge ahead.” The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called Saturday for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and top officials from eight countries with interests in Syria late Saturday. They included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey. Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said they agreed on the need “to engage all parties on the ground,” including the HTS, and that the main concern is “stability and safe transition.” ___ Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Sarah El Deeb and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Samar Kassaballi, Omar Sanadiki and Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus; Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain; Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar; and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, contributed. To remove this article -

By HALELUYA HADERO, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general. The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table. He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew. Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it. The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute , leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.” In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates. The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information. But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks. In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.