Today is Sunday, Dec. 7, the 341st day of 2025. There are 24 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 7,1972, America’s last crewed moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

Also on this date:

In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United States declared war against Japan the following day.

In 1982, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people.

In 1993, six people were killed and 19 wounded in a mass shooting aboard a Long Island Rail Road train in New York.

In 2004, Hamid Karzai (HAH’-mihd KAHR’-zeye) was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.

In 2018, James Alex Fields Jr., who drove his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer, an anti-racism activist. He was later sentenced on that and other convictions to life in prison plus 419 years.

In 2024, the newly-restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was reopened to the public after a devastating blaze nearly destroyed the beloved Gothic masterpiece in 2019. World leaders attended the reopening ceremony amid great fanfare and celebration.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 97.
• Actor Ellen Burstyn is 93.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 78.
• Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 76.
• Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins of Maine is 73.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 69.
• Actor Jeffrey Wright is 60.
• Actor C. Thomas Howell is 59.
• Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is 52.
• Football Hall of Famer Alan Faneca is 49.
• Actor Shiri Appleby is 47.
• Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (bah-REHL’-es) is 46.
• Actor Nicholas Hoult is 36.
• MLB All-Star Pete Alonso is 31.
• Olympic swimming gold medalist Torri Huske is 23.

ROCHESTER HILLS – The banked 3-pointer by Rochester Adams senior Josiah Fazecas to close the first quarter of Saturday’s MAC/OAA Showcase game against Dakota had teammates in a frenzy and the Highlanders feeling good.

Dakota head coach Paul Tocco, whose team trailed 13-6 at that point, wasn’t quite as enthused about those opening eight minutes.

“I thought we came out lethargic and a little lazy in the first quarter,” Tocco said. “Credit to Adams, who played really hard. They moved the ball well, played disciplined basketball. We didn’t come out with our normal enthusiasm.”

The tables turned swiftly as the Cougars outscored Adams 17-2 in the second quarter, the catalyst for their 60-53 win over the Highlanders at Rochester High School.

Simply put, Tocco said his team “played Dakota basketball” in that second stanza.

Highlanders junior Cannon Flynn scored his team’s only points early in that second quarter, but he collected his third foul that subjected him to the bench for the final four minutes before halftime.

“They got up and pressured us and we couldn’t get into any of our sets, our actions,” Highlanders head coach Isaiah Novak said. “We really rely on attacking closeouts, getting into space and knocking down shots, and we had a really tough time creating advantageous situations for ourselves. Then when we did and got the open shot, they just weren’t falling for us tonight. I think we probably missed five layups in the first half. And it was hard to get those layups, right? So we just didn’t take advantage of the options we did have.”

Novak was reluctant to place too much blame on the foul trouble of his standout player and lone returning starter for his team’s struggles, though it was clear what impact he had when he was on the floor. Flynn scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the second half of the loss.

“A lot of what we do goes through (Cannon), but in some ways, these early season challenges are a good thing,” Novak said. “There’s gonna be times throughout the season where he’s in foul trouble or something else happens and he’s got to be on the bench. Although they’re difficult when you reflect on one game, I think in the overall season, things like that can be challenges that can be good for us in the long run.”

Photos of Dakota vs. Rochester Adams in boys basketball action at the MAC/OAA Showcase

While that disparity in the second quarter didn't put the game away for the Cougars, they continued to utilize a balanced offensive effort in the third when they outscored Adams 21-13 to effectively put the game to bed.

"I've got nine seniors, and I've never coached (that many seniors) before," Tocco said. Five (start) and any one of them can play on the floor at a time. I have really good underclassmen as well, so we've got a really deep team."

One of those seniors, Tovin Williams, led Dakota with 13 points, while classmates Brayden Lee and Benji Jackson added 11 and nine, respectively. Seniors Daniel Terski and Zeke Wilson each finished with 10 for Adams.

The Cougars (2-1) also won at this event last year, beating Lake Orion as part of an 8-1 start. They finished the year just 14-10, though Tocco attributes that just as much to a difficult set of league opponents as anything. "If you look at the Red, you're looking at Warren Lincoln, back-to-back state titles. Grosse Pointe South, a very well-coached team, a lot of good pieces. Chippewa's athletic, Roseville are a really good team this year, and Port Huron Northern, they beat us last year (in districts), it was tough to beat them. So it's a tough MAC Red, and coming back (this year) it's even tougher, so we've got to get ready for that play, and that's what we're doing playing in tournaments and and against good teams like Adams right now."

As to what the Cougars can do to improve upon last year's 3-7 league mark and how they're better this go-around, he added, "We're better defensively this year in our half-court defense. We have five guys that are locked in like we were in that second quarter. And we probably want to start and finish quarters a little better, or start and finish games better. I won't say I'm not happy to win, but we didn't start well and didn't finish well (tonight)."

Novak didn't want to use the fact that his team was coming off a game against Clarkston (a 68-44 loss) on Friday night, though said it could have played into some tired legs for the Highlanders (1-1). "It's possible, but we know the challenges that come with scheduling the way we do," he said. "You're playing Clarkston and Dakota, those are two of the best teams in Macomb and Oakland County, and playing back-to-back makes it even more difficult, but I think it's an opportunity for our kids to come out and know where we're at compared to the best. It exposed our weaknesses early, and now we can identify them and work on them, hopefully correct al ot of those things before we get into the league."

Adams continues with another non-league game on Tuesday at home against Birmingham Seaholm. The Cougars resume play on Wednesday with a MAC Crossover at Utica Ford.

DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham had 23 points and 12 assists and the Detroit Pistons beat Milwaukee 124-112 on Saturday night to end the Bucks’ 15-game winning streak in Detroit.

Milwaukee came into the season with a 13-game winning streak against the Pistons, but Detroit has won two of three this season.

Jalen Duren had 16 points and 16 rebounds for Detroit, which has won four of five to improve to 19-5, with the only loss coming on Wednesday night in Milwaukee. Isaiah Stewart added 19 points.

Kevin Porter Jr. had a season-high 32 points for the Bucks, who have lost 10 of 12. Kyle Kuzma added 15 points.

Detroit shot 57.1% (20-35) from the floor in the first half, including 50% (7-14) on 3-pointers, but only built a 61-56 lead thanks to 13 turnovers that led to 20 Milwaukee points. Cunningham had 15 points and eight assists while Porter scored 19 on 7-8 shooting.

The Pistons started the third quarter with a 13-3 run to take a 74-59 lead, and Milwaukee was still down by 10 going into the fourth.

The Bucks never threatened in the fourth, trailing by 25 when both teams started emptying the benches. Pistons guard Marcus Sasser made his season debut, having missed the first 23 games with a hip injury.

Up next

Bucks: Host Boston on Thursday night.

Pistons: Host Atlanta on Friday night.

Dakota trailed after the opening quarter, then jumped out to a big lead by halftime and went on to beat Rochester Adams 60-53 in the MAC/OAA Showcase on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 at Rochester High School.

AUBURN HILLS (AP) — Ziare Wells led Oakland with 21 points, including the game-winning jump shot with 10 seconds remaining, and the Golden Grizzlies knocked off Toledo 98-97 on Saturday.

Oakland (5-5, 1-0 Horizon League) has won four straight since a 1-5 start.

Wells added five rebounds for the Golden Grizzlies. Brody Robinson scored 19 points while shooting 8 for 14, including 3 for 7 from beyond the arc and added six assists. Tuburu Niavalurua had 18 points and went 9 of 16 from the field.

“If you walk away from this basketball game thinking ‘Oh, my gosh, I don’t ever want to watch basketball’, something’s wrong with you,” OU coach Greg Kampe said. “That was an unbelievable basketball game played by 13-14 players that can really play basketball. Two great programs who let their players play. We beat a really well coached team today. We beat a really good team today.”

Saturday’s win was the 900th in Oakland’s program history.

Leroy Blyden Jr. led the Rockets (5-4) in scoring, finishing with 20 points. Jaylan Ouwinga added 16 points and seven rebounds for Toledo. Sonny Wilson also had 16 points and six assists.

Wells scored 10 points in the first half and Oakland went into the break trailing 48-45. Michael Houge scored 13 second-half points. Oakland outscored Toledo by four points over the final half.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

ANN ARBOR (AP) — Morez Johnson Jr. scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting, and No. 3 Michigan won its fifth consecutive game by 25 or more points, beating Rutgers 101-60 on Saturday.

The Wolverines scored more than 100 points for the third consecutive game, a feat last accomplished during their 1989 national championship season.

Yaxel Lendenborg had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Wolverines (8-0, 1-0) in their Big Ten opener. Trey McKenney added 13 points, and Elliot Cadeau had 11 points and nine assists.

Michigan shot 60% from the field while making its case for the No. 1 spot in the AP poll after No. 1 Purdue lost earlier in the day. The Maize Rage student section did its lobbying with several “No. 1” chants late in the game.

Freshmen Harun Zrno and Kaden Powers led Rutgers (5-5, 0-2) with 13 points apiece. Zrno, a 21-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina, made his first career start.

EAST LANSING (AP) — Cameron Boozer scored 18 points, including 16 in the second half, and Caleb Foster added 12 points Saturday to help No. 4 Duke hold on for a 66-60 victory over No. 7 Michigan State in a game that had the intensity of an NCAA Regional Final.

Boozer, who entered averaging nearly 27 points a game, also had 15 rebounds for the Blue Devils (10-0). Duke’s start is its best open to a season since winning the first 11 games in 2017-18.

A combination of missed open shots and tight defense kept the game close. The teams traded the lead nine times and were tied four times in the second half.

Isaiah Evans gave the Blue Devils a 55-53 lead with 3:59 remaining, but Jeremy Fears tied it at 55 with a pair of free throws with 1:59 left. Boozer then hit two free throws with 1:35 to go to put Duke up for good. Evans then was fouled by Fears on a 3-point shot and made all three free throws to give Duke a 60-55 advantage.

Carson Cooper had a layup with 46 seconds left to cut the margin to 60-57 but that was as close as Michigan State could get.

Cooper led Michigan State (8-1) with 16 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Jaxon Kohler had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Spartans.

Neither team could get into an offensive rhythm in the first half. Duke led through the first 12 minutes, up by as many as six points. Michigan State grabbed the lead on a 3-pointer by Jesse McCulloch with 5:02 left and held on for a 34-31 halftime advantage.

Both teams struggled with their shooting from the field in the first half, combining for 22 of 63.

Up next

Duke: Hosts Lipscomb on Dec. 16.

Michigan State: Visits Penn State on Dec. 13.

— By BOB TRIPI, Associated Press

By NOAH TRISTER, AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Cup final will kick off at 3 p.m. EDT next July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

FIFA announced the start times for the tournament’s 104 matches on Saturday, a day after the draw for the expanded 48-nation tournament. The kickoff time allows for prime-time viewing in Europe, where it will be 9 p.m., and Britain, where it will be 8 p.m.

The average 3 p.m. temperature over the past 30 years in East Rutherford on July 19 is 83 degrees (28 Celsius) with a RealFeel index of 89 (32), according to AccuWeather.

Nine of the 10 World Cup finals from 1978 through 2014 started in the 2-3:30 p.m. EDT range, the exception 2002 in Japan, which began at 7 a.m. EDT. The 2018 final started at 11 a.m. EDT and the 2022 championship of a tournament shifted to winter in Qatar at 10 a.m. EST.

The 1994 final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, kicked off at 12:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. EDT).

FIFA announced the schedule and sites after factoring in travel and broadcast.

“Let’s just say it’s been a long night — or a short night,” chief tournament officer Manolo Zubiria said. “As I explained earlier to some of the coaches, we’ve tried to basically strike the right balance looking at the preparation, the recovery that the teams have to do in this very large footprint, the biggest World Cup ever, 16 cities, three countries, different climatic conditions, time zones.”

Zubira said goals included “trying to minimize travel for the teams and the fans to try to see their teams play, and obviously trying to see how to best expose this competition to the world, trying to find the right times for the kickoff times in specific cities, taking into consideration some restrictions.”

The opener at Mexico City on June 11 between El Tri and South Africa will start at 1 p.m. local (3 p.m. EDT).

Semifinals will start at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT) on July 14 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and 3 p.m. the following day at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, both of which have retractable roofs.

Quarterfinals will begin at 4 p.m. on July 9 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and noon (3 p.m. EDT) the following day at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The last two quarterfinals are on July 11, starting at 5 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, and 8 p.m. (9 p.m. EDT) at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Of the quarterfinal venues, SoFi has a roof but air from the outside can flow in, and the other three are open air.

FIFA announced on Feb. 4 last year that the final was scheduled for New Jersey and that June 12 revealed site-specific matchups for games in the new round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.

Seventy-eight games will be in the U.S., including all from the quarterfinals on, and 13 apiece in Canada and Mexico.

During an event at the Capital Hilton, FIFA also announced sites of the 54 group stage games not finalized with Friday’s draw, which fixed venues for only Groups A, B and D — which include co-hosts Mexico, Canada and the United States.

South Korea is the only team other than Canada and Mexico with no games in the U.S., playing its opener in Guadalajara against the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland or North Macedonia, then facing El Tri at the same venue and finishing the round against South Africa in Monterrey.

The U.S. first-round games will be a 6 p.m. local start (9 p.m. EDT) against Paraguay at Inglewood on June 12, a noon kickoff (3 p.m. EDT) vs. Australia at Seattle seven days later and a 7 p.m. start on June 25 at SoFi against Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo.

Japan’s Group F game against Tunisia at Monterrey, Mexico, on June 20 will be the 1,000th World Cup match.

Germany’s June 14 Group E opener against Curaçao will kick off at noon local (1 p.m. EDT) at NRG Stadium. Curaçao has the smallest population of a country to reach the World Cup at about 150,000.

“It will be played in Houston, which is a closed venue, indoor, so nobody can complain about heat or weather or wind or whatever,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.

AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

2026 World Cup Schedule

United States, Mexico, Canada

FIRST ROUND

GROUP A

Thursday, June 11

Mexico City

Mexico vs. South Africa 2000 GMT

Guadalajara

South Korea vs. Denmark/North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Ireland, 0300 GMT Friday

Thursday, June 18

Atlanta

Denmark/North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Ireland vs. South Africa, 1700 GMT

Guadalajara

Mexico vs. South Korea, 0200 GMT Friday

Wednesday, June 24

Mexico City

Denmark/North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Ireland vs. Mexico, 0200 GMT Thursday

Monterrey

South Africa vs. South Korea, 0200 GMT Thursday

GROUP B

Friday, June 12

Toronto

Canada vs. Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales/Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2000 GMT

Saturday, June 13

Santa Clara, California

Qatar vs. Switzerland, 2000 GMT

Thursday, June 18

Los Angeles

Switzerland vs. Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales/Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2000 GMT

Vancouver

Canada vs. Qatar, 2300 GMT

Wednesday, June 24

Vancouver

Switzerland vs. Canada, 2000 GMT

Seattle

Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales/Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Qatar, 2000 GMT

GROUP C

Saturday, June 13

East Rutherford, New Jersey

Brazil vs. Morocco, 2300 GMT

Boston

Haiti vs. Scotland, 0200 GMT Sunday

Friday, June 19

Boston

Scotland vs. Morocco, 2300 GMT

Philadelphia

Brazil vs. Haiti, 0200 GMT Saturday

Wednesday, June 24

Miami

Scotland vs. Brazil, 2300 GMT

Atlanta

Morocco vs. Haiti, 2300 GMT

GROUP D

Friday, June 12

Los Angeles

United States vs. Paraguay, 0200 GMT Saturday

Saturday, June 13

Vancouver

Australia vs. Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo, 0500 GMT Sunday

Friday, June 19

Santa Clara, California

Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo vs. Paraguay, 0500 GMT Saturday

Seattle

United States vs. Australia, 2000 GMT

Thursday, June 25

Los Angeles

Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo vs. United States, 0300 GMT Friday

Santa Clara, California

Paraguay vs. Australia, 0300 GMT Friday

GROUP E

Sunday, June 14

Houston

Germany vs. Curacao, 1800 GMT

Philadelphia

Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador, 0000 GMT Monday

Saturday, June 20

Toronto

Germany vs. Ivory Coast, 2100 GMT

Kansas City

Ecuador vs. Curacao, 0100 GMT Sunday

Thursday, June 25

East Rutherford, New Jersey

Ecuador vs. Germany, 2100 GMT

Philadelphia

Curacao vs. Ivory Coast, 2100 GMT

GROUP F

Sunday, June 14

Dallas

Netherlands vs. Japan, 2100 GMT

Monterrey

Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania vs. Tunisia, 0300 GMT Monday

Saturday, June 20

Houston

Netherlands vs. Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania, 1800 GMT

Monterrey

Tunisia vs. Japan, 0500 GMT Sunday

Thursday, June 25

Dallas

Japan vs. Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania, 0000 GMT Friday

Kansas City

Tunisia vs. Netherlands, 0000 GMT Friday

GROUP G

Monday, June 15

Seattle

Belgium vs. Egypt, 2000 GMT

Los Angeles

Iran vs. New Zealand, 0200 GMT Tuesday

Sunday, June 21

Los Angeles

Belgium vs. Iran, 2000 GMT

Vancouver

New Zealand vs. Egypt, 0200 GMT Monday

Friday, June 26

Seattle

Egypt vs. Iran, 0400 GMT Saturday

Vancouver

New Zealand vs. Belgium, 0400 GMT Saturday

GROUP H

Monday, June 15

Atlanta

Spain vs. Cape Verde, 1700 GMT

Miami

Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay, 2300 GMT

Sunday, June 21

Atlanta

Spain vs. Saudi Arabia, 1700 GMT

Miami

Uruguay vs, Cape Verde, 2300 GMT

Friday, June 26

Houston

Cape Verde vs. Saudi Arabia, 0100 GMT Saturday

Guadalajara

Uruguay vs. Spain, 0100 GMT Saturday

GROUP I

Tuesday, June 16

East Rutherford, New Jersey

France vs. Senegal, 2000 GMT

Boston

Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname vs. Norway, 2300 GMT

Monday, June 22

Philadelphia

France vs. Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname, 2200 GMT

East Rutherford, New Jersey

Norway vs. Senegal, 0100 GMT Tuesday

Friday, June 26

Boston

Norway vs. France, 2000 GMT

Toronto

Senegal vs. Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname, 2000 GMT

GROUP J

Tuesday, June 16

Kansas City

Argentina vs. Algeria, 0200 GMT Wednesday

Santa Clara, California

Austria vs. Jordan, 0500 GMT Wednesday

Monday, June 22

Dallas

Argentina vs. Austria, 1800 GMT

Santa Clara, California

Jordan vs. Algeria, 0400 GMT Tuesday

Saturday, June 27

Kansas City

Algeria vs. Austria, 0300 GMT Sunday

Dallas

Jordan vs. Argentina, 0300 GMT Sunday

GROUP K

Wednesday, June 17

Houston

Portugal vs. DR Congo/Jamaica/New Caledonia, 1800 GMT

Mexico City

Uzbekistan vs. Colombia, 0300 GMT Thursday

Tuesday, June 23

Houston

Portugal vs. Uzbekistan, 1800 GMT

Guadalajara

Colombia vs. DR Congo/Jamaica/New Caledonia, 0300 GMT Wednesday

Saturday, June 27

Miami

Colombia vs. Portugal, 0030 Sunday

Atlanta

DR Congo/Jamaica/New Caledonia vs. Uzbekistan, 0030 GMT Sunday

GROUP L

Wednesday, June 17

Dallas

England vs. Croatia, 2100 GMT

Toronto

Ghana vs. Panama, 0000 GMT Thursday

Tuesday, June 23

Boston

England vs. Ghana, 2100 GMT

Toronto

Panama vs. Croatia, 0000 GMT Wednesday

Saturday, June 27

East Rutherford, New Jersey

Panama vs. England, 2200 GMT

Philadelphia

Croatia vs. Ghana, 2200 GMT

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tyler Adams has set a bold goal for the U.S. soccer team, aiming to reach the World Cup semifinals for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1930.

“Everyone’s going to want us to say winning it is obviously the goal,” the American midfielder said Friday after the World Cup draw, “but I think setting the benchmark of the furthest the U.S. team has gone is also realistic.”

The 14th-ranked U.S. will start Group D against No. 39 Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, California, and then play 26th-ranked Australia six days later at Seattle. The Americans conclude the group stage on June 25 back at SoFi Stadium against the winner of playoffs among Turkey (25), Slovakia (45), Romania (47) and Kosovo (80).

“Getting three points right off right off the bat like that would be would be an amazing start for us and just put us in a great position in the group,” star Christian Pulisic said.

It appears to be among the less difficult of the 12 groups. The top two in each advance to the new round of 32 along with the best four third-place teams.

“Listen, we all want to win a World Cup,” defender Tim Ream said. “You don’t play a tournament just to be there and so we’ve had conversations, Chris and I have had conversations about, yeah, we wan to win. I think people can laugh and say whatever they want.”

In recent friendlies, the U.S. lost 2-1 to Turkey in June, beat Australia 2-1 in October and defeated Paraguay 2-1 last month.

“Potentially we played all three of these teams in the last six months but that can be a little bit of a false kind of sense of security,” defender Ream said.

In nearly a century of World Cup play, the U.S. is 1-7 in knockout games, getting outscored 22-7. The Americans’ only win was 2-0 over Mexico in 2002’s round of 16, which was followed by a 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Germany. The Americans are winless in their last 12 World Cup matches against European teams, outscored 20-10.

“There’s no easy game in a World Cup. In fact, I think some of our hardest games in the previous World Cup were against the lesser opponents,” Adams said.

At the 2022 tournament in Qatar, the U.S. tied Wales 1-1 and England 0-0 before beating Iran 1-0 on a Pulisic goal to advance.

“It’s fair to say that the last World Cup we couldn’t set a bar or standard for anything. We didn’t know what to expect,” Adams said. “Now looking back on it, I think we have more experience. We’re a lot more mature. We’ve grown a lot as individuals and as a team.”

Coach Mauricio Pochettino has scheduled friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in March and vs. a team to be determined and Germany just before the tournament.

As he mulls his roster, Pochettino thinks about “Miracle,” a 2004 movie he watched last month about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team of young players that upset the heavily favored Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal. Coach Herb Brooks’ decisions made an impression on Pochettino.

“We don’t need the best players, we need the right players to make a team a strong team,” Pochettino said. “The right players to build a powerful team with the possibility to fight with any team in the in the world. Good and right are completely different.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Ferris State right tackle Tim Anderson, a Rochester Adams graduate, was named a finalist Friday for the 2025 Gene Upshaw Award, given yearly to the best lineman in NCAA Division II football.

The 6-foot-6, 305-pound Anderson — named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Year — is among eight finalists, two from each region, for the award named after the Oakland Raider Hall of Famer, and former executive director of the NFL Players Association.

Along with his twin brother, Bob, Anderson leads a Ferris State offensive line — nicknamed The Nasty Boys — that has helped the Bulldogs to the No. 1 scoring (699 points, 53.9 per game) and total offenses (518.5 yards per game) in NCAA Division II, ranking third in rushing (3,984 yards, 306.5 per game) and fewest sacks allowed (eight total, 0.62 per game) entering this weekend’s play.

Anderson also earned first-team all-GLIAC (second time) and all-region honors.

Ferris (14-0), which has won Division II national titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024, is headed to the semifinals of the D2 playoffs, after beating Minnesota State, 52-29, on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs ran for 307 yards as a team — and five touchdowns — and allowed no sacks on the afternoon.

The Upshaw Award is voted on by D-II sports information directors across the country. The winner of the award, given out by the Manheim Touchdown Club, will be announced on Dec. 12.

The other seven finalists, pared down from a group of 29 nominees, include: Kutztown OT Ryan Schernecke, Wingate OG Will Hart, Catawba OT Avery Swinton, Ashland DE Michael Shimek, Central Washington center Slade Edwards and Harding OT Jake Mitchell.

Previous winners include three Ferris players — Caleb Murphy (2022), Dylan Pasquali (2021) and Austin Edwards (2019) — three from Grand Valley — Matt Judon (2015, West Bloomfield HS grad), Brandon Barnes (2007) and Mike McFadden (2005, 2006) — and one from Wayne State — Joe Long (2011).

DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham had 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter and the Detroit Pistons rallied to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 122-116 on Friday night.

Cunningham also had three assists in the quarter and finished

with nine. Jalen Duren added 18 points and eight rebounds.

Detroit allowed 22 points off turnovers. The Pistons averaged only 15.0 points off turnovers in their 15-2 start, but have been over 20 in seven straight games while going 4-3.

Deni Avdjia had 35 points for Portland. Jeremi Grant had 29, and Shaedon Sharpe 28 — and the rest of the team had 24.

Detroit took a 112-110 lead on Cunningham’s steal and layup with 2:22 to play, and Duncan Robinson scored five points in the next two possessions to make it a seven-point game.

Avdija had 29 points in the first three quarters, helping Portland to an 85-84 lead. The Pistons scored 65 in the first half, but only got 19 points in the third.

When Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior quarterback Sam Stowe’s injury prevented him from finishing last weekend’s D5 state championship, it gave those unfamiliar with the Irish a chance to see one of the other cannons at the team’s disposal.

Fellow senior Drake Roa, one of Stowe’s most-preferred targets this season, let it rip for another, classmate Brody Sink, for a 60-yard touchdown reception on the first play of the fourth quarter of the 42-14 loss to Grand Rapids West Catholic.

It’s not the first time the pair have played pass and catch this year, either. The Irish opted for some trickery in the first quarter of their Week 3 loss against Gibraltar Carlson and Roa found Sink on a crossing route for a 35-yard gain.

Baseball knowers are aware of the arm that Roa has. Earlier in the fall, he committed as a shortstop to Michigan.

But Irish head coach Pat Fox has had the scouting report long before most, and indicated that at one point, it looked like it would be Roa, not Stowe, who would lead offensive coordinator Jason Whalen’s unit.

“Initially when (Drake) and Sam came in, we thought Sam was going to be a tight end and Drake was gonna quarterback,” Fox said.

“After about two weeks, we figured out that’s probably not how it’s gonna roll.”

It worked out pretty well for both. Stowe led the Irish to the state title in his first year as starter in 2024, completing over 71% of his passes for 2,751 passing yards and 37 passing touchdowns (to go with seven rushing TDs).

This season, Stowe tossed over 40 TDs, with Roa hauling in 16 scores as he also accounted for nearly 1,000 of Stowe’s passing yards.

The injury suffered late in the first half at Ford Field marked an unfortunate ending to a brilliant two-year run for Stowe.

“Sam’s a tremendous quarterback, so fantastic of a young man,” Fox said. “It was hard to see him get hurt. He wanted to come back in and he couldn’t. We couldn’t let him come back in. We didn’t want to put him at risk, and he’s going to be shooting 3-balls in two weeks playing basketball.”

West Catholic head coach Landon Grove was very complimentary of Notre Dame Prep’s QB1, too, saying, “I don’t know how Sam Stowe doesn’t have a scholarship somewhere. He’s one of the better quarterbacks we’d seen on film. He’s a fantastic player and it was a testament to our defense (how we) defended him.”

Fox was choked up once or twice when elaborating on the legacy that this year’s senior team has left considering how far he’s watched them come, or perhaps more appropriately, watched them grow.

“I remember Sam whipping off his sweater and dancing at the Christmas concert and his sister tackling him trying to get it back on him when he was four years old,” Fox said. “I’ve known Brody since he was in fifth grade. Anthony Tartaglia, Ben Liparoto, Jack Williams, and Logan Tuttle, I’ve known all of them since they were little boys, little teeny kids.”

Fox has boasted about being one of Oakland County’s winningest programs over the past seven years, and the senior class specifically helped ND Prep compile a 39-9 record over the last four seasons, including that coveted title win last year over Frankenmuth, who Fox admitted he was glad not to face again in the final.

“My sophomore season, we had a great team,” Sink said following the championship loss. “We had a great quarterback, some great players, and we ended up losing to a really good Corunna team. But I knew. Because we have a strong senior class, I didn’t hang my head. I knew we’d come back the next year. We had a great senior class last year, and at the beginning of last year we started rolling, and I was like, ‘This is going to be something special the next two seasons.’ We stayed the course and it was a very special past two years.”

Asked whether the next generation of Irish who witnessed this group accomplish all it did might be more inclined to dream big, Fox responded, “You would hope they do. But every group is different. Every challenge is great. We have great kids.”

Replacing the current bunch becomes Fox’s next task, but one he knows won’t come easy.

“We’ve got five juniors,” Fox said. “We’ve got work to do.”

By COLLIN BINKLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is bringing back dozens of Education Department staffers who were slated to be laid off, saying their help is needed to tackle a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints from students and families.

The staffers had been on administrative leave while the department faced lawsuits challenging layoffs in the agency’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates possible discrimination in the nation’s schools and colleges. But in a Friday letter, department officials ordered the workers back to duty starting Dec. 15 to help clear civil rights cases.

A department spokesperson confirmed the move, saying the government still hoped to lay off the staffers to shrink the size of the department.

“The Department will continue to appeal the persistent and unceasing litigation disputes concerning the Reductions in Force, but in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers,” Julie Hartman said in a statement.

In the letter to employees, obtained by The Associated Press, officials said the department needs “all OCR staff to prioritize OCR’s existing complaint caseload.” The office handles everything from complaints about possible violations of disability rights to racial discrimination.

More than 200 workers from the Office for Civil Rights were targeted in mass layoffs at the department, but the firings have been tied up in legal battles since March. An appeals court cleared the way for the cuts in September, but they’re again on hold because of a separate lawsuit. In all, the Education Department workforce has shrunk from 4,100 when President Donald Trump took office to roughly half that size now, as the president vows to wind down the agency.

The department did not say how many workers are returning to duty. Some who have been on administrative leave for months have since left.

The Office for Civil Rights had a backlog of about 20,000 discrimination cases when Trump took office in January. Since then, with a significantly reduced workforce, the backlog has grown to more than 25,000, AP reporting has shown using department data.

Trump officials have defended the layoffs even as complaints pile up, saying the office wasn’t operating efficiently, even at full staff.

The Office for Civil Rights enforces many of the nation’s laws about civil rights in education, including those barring discrimination based on disability, sex, race and religion. It investigates complaints from students across the country and has the power to cut funding to schools and colleges that violate the law, though most cases are resolved in voluntary agreements.

Some former staffers have said there’s no way the office can address the current backlog under the staffing levels left after the layoffs. Families who have filed discrimination complaints against their schools say they have noticed the department’s staffing shortages, with some waiting months and hearing nothing.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

A federal law enforcement operation at an Arizona taco shop resulted in a fracas on Friday, with agents deploying pepper spray as a group of protesters tried to stop authorities.

Two agents were injured, and U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva was in the vicinity as protesters were sprayed. The Democratic congresswoman from Arizona took to social media, claiming she was sprayed in the face and accused immigration enforcement officers of operating without transparency or accountability.

“While I am fine, if that is the way they treat me, how are they treating other community members who do not have the same privileges and protections that I do?” she said in a statement.

It was less than a month ago that Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of Congress. She won special election in September to fill the House seat last held by her late father.

In a video posted to social media, Grijalva said she, two members of her staff and members of the media were harassed and sprayed by agents during a federal immigration raid that local residents had interrupted “because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

The video shows a man stepping in front of Grijalva, raising his arm and turning the congresswoman away as a federal agent sprays nearby protesters. Later in the video, as Grijalva continues walking in the street, a projectile is seen landing near her foot.

She said she did not know what substance she was sprayed with, but it was “still affecting” her with a cough.

Federal officials confirmed that Grijalva was not pepper sprayed and that agents with Homeland Security Investigations were targeting multiple Tucson restaurants as part of a years-long investigation into immigration and tax violations. Several search warrants were served across southern Arizona on Friday as part of the operation.

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the group gathered in Tucson as a mob. She said two agents were seriously injured during the clash and took issue with Grijalva’s account of what happened.

“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel. But they’re not true. She wasn’t pepper sprayed. She was in the vicinity of someone who (asterisk)was(asterisk) pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement,” McLaughlin wrote. “Presenting one’s self as a ‘Member of Congress’ doesn’t give you the right to obstruct law enforcement.”

Authorities used yellow tape to cordon off the restaurant and its parking lot as agents removed boxes from the building early Friday. By mid-morning, protesters had gathered outside with signs and whistles. Some in the group were hit with pepper spray as they tried to keep federal vehicles from leaving the area.

Tucson police said federal tactical agents responded to extract investigative special agents from the area where the protesters were gathered. After deploying chemical munitions, police said federal agents then requested emergency support from local authorities to help with exiting the area.

Grijalva thanked officers from the Tucson Police Department for “making sure everyone is safe” and stressed that the local officers had not interrupted traffic or harassed local residents. They did not make any arrests. “They were not the aggressors here,” she said.

The Arizona Democrat’s experience is the latest incident this year of members of Congress being stonewalled by or put in physical altercations with federal law enforcement officers while attempting to conduct congressional oversight. The incidents have typically involved congressional Democrats appearing at federal immigration facilities or at immigration raids.

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, is in an ongoing legal dispute with the Trump administration after a May altercation at a Newark immigration facility in her district. And Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was thrown to the ground and detained by federal agents in June after appearing at a press conference for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

By RIO YAMAT

U.S. airlines were notified this week that an investigation is underway into whether they complied with an emergency order requiring flight cuts at 40 major airports during the record government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

The FAA warned in letters sent Monday that the airlines could face fines of up to $75,000 for each flight over the mandated reductions, which fluctuated between 3%, 4%, and 6%. The airlines have 30 days to provide documentation showing they complied with the order, the agency said Friday in a statement.

The 43-day shutdown that began Oct. 1 led to long delays as unpaid air traffic controllers missed work, citing stress and the need to take on side jobs. The FAA said requiring all commercial airlines to cut domestic flights was unprecedented but necessary to ensure safe air travel until staffing at its control towers and facilities improved.

After the shutdown ended Nov. 12, airlines seemed to anticipate that the FAA would lift or relax the restrictions. With the order still in place on Nov. 14 requiring 6% cuts, just 2% of scheduled U.S. departures that day were canceled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

More than 10,000 flights were canceled between Nov. 7, when the order took effect, and Nov. 16, when the FAA announced it was lifting all flight restrictions. Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it lost $200 million, the first disclosure by a major airline regarding the shutdown’s financial impact.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hasn’t shared the specific safety data that he and the head of the FAA said prompted the cuts, but Duffy cited reports during the shutdown of planes getting too close in the air, more runway incursions and pilot concerns about controllers’ responses.

Large hubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta were impacted by the cancellations. The FAA originally had a 10% reduction target.

By JOSH FUNK and RIO YAMAT

The government picked a company with little experience working with the Federal Aviation Administration called Peraton to oversee the roughly $31.5 billion overhaul of the outdated air traffic control system.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday evening that Peraton was chosen in the hope that its innovative approach will make it possible to complete the upgrades within the next three years before the end of President Donald Trump’s term in office ends. Peraton was chosen over Parsons Corp., which does have extensive experience with FAA contracts.

“Working together, we are going to build on the incredible progress we’ve already made and deliver a state-of-the-art air traffic control system that the American traveling public — and our hard-working air traffic controllers — deserve,” Duffy said in the announcement.

Here’s what to know about the modernization project and the company hired to oversee it:

A $12.5 billion down payment on the project

Earlier this year, Congress approved $12.5 billion as a down payment on the project after technical problems twice knocked out the radar for air traffic controllers managing planes around Newark Liberty International Airport. This year began with the worst American aviation disaster in years when an airliner collided with an Army helicopter over Washington D.C., killing 67 people.

Duffy has said he’ll need roughly $20 billion more to complete the upgrade.

This effort to upgrade the technology controllers use is on a much more aggressive timeline than the previous NextGen effort that began shortly after the turn of the century and failed to deliver all the benefits it promised even after an investment of $36 billion. The Biden administration had estimated that upgrading the system might take more than a decade.

The FAA hasn’t yet released the details of how much Peraton will be paid for this contract, but the agency said it includes incentives to reward good performance and penalties for shortcomings.

Upgrades needed to avoid delays and prepare for drones and flying taxis

The technical problems that disrupted flights at the Newark airport in the spring demonstrated just how fragile the nation’s aging air traffic control system is. And Duffy has said those kind of technical failures in a system that too often still relies on copper wires and floppy discs could happen anywhere unless the system is upgraded.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed in Newark. After the radar outages, the facility in Philadelphia that controls the flights in and out of Newark had a half dozen controllers go on leave, which forced the reductions in flights.

The number of flights across the country each day that the FAA has to safely manage is expected to continue growing in the years ahead. And drones will continue to proliferate across the country as flying taxis start to take to the air.

Everyone agrees that the air traffic control system must be modernized to be able to handle those future demands.

Ambitious timeline for the upgrades

John Rose, chief risk adviser for global travel management company ALTOUR, said the three-year timeline is “extremely aggressive” but partially realistic. He said it’s plausible for the FAA to build the foundation for a modern air traffic control network in its tight timeline, with more advanced capabilities layered on later.

“You need to build the base before you can have all the bells and whistles,” he said. “If the project gets to the core structure in three years, I think we’ve accomplished the mission.”

He likened it to an iPhone where once you have a robust base system you can upgrade the software like when the phone gets an iOS update. “If they build the infrastructure, then as things change from a technology capability, it’s almost like a plug and play,” he said.

Air Traffic Control Association President and CEO Stephen Creamer represents the companies that make the gear that Peraton and the FAA will use to complete the upgrades. He said it helps that the new system won’t have to be built from scratch.

“The technology that’s needed in the system is not cutting edge technology. It’s been tested and trialed all over the world in various places. We know what the capabilities of it are. We know what the risks of those installations are in a way that we wouldn’t know if we were trying to do it and be the first one out of the gate,” Creamer said.

Why is this contract needed?

Duffy said that putting a private company in charge should help this project get done more quickly, and Peraton’s expertise with complex technical systems and artificial intelligence will help.

Peraton has said the fact that it doesn’t have a history of work at the FAA might actually help because it won’t be biased to working with the same companies that have failed in the past.

And after all the cuts to the federal workforce Trump made this year and the early retirements. Creamer said that FAA needs the help to complete this project because it no longer has the staff to do it.

The expectation is that Peraton will be able to award contracts to other companies more quickly than FAA would be able to because it won’t be limited by the same process. That does introduce the possibility that mistakes could be made, but Creamer said “I think there’s plenty of checks and balances in the administrative system to ensure that there’s not gonna be substantial waste or fraud or abuse.”

Peraton has worked on other government tech upgrades

Peraton has worked on multibillion-dollar technology contracts for the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Special Operations Command and the National Park Service along with the military and other agencies.

The company is owned by Veritas Capital private equity firm, so it doesn’t have shareholders. Its board of advisers is full of an assortment of former military and intelligence officials. A Peraton spokesman said the company was too busy getting started on the contract to do any interviews Friday, but its CEO Steve Schorer promised in a statement that his team is committed to completing this project.

“Our highly-skilled, dedicated, and talented team of engineers, technologists, and mission experts stands ready to hit the ground running to deliver a system Americans can count on — one that is more secure, more reliable, and a model for the world to follow,” Schorer said.

The company’s political action committee donated a quarter-million dollars to politicians last year with a little over half of that going to Republicans, according to www.opensecrets.org.

Improvements already underway

Duffy said that the FAA has already been working on making improvements and more than one-third of the old copper wires that air traffic controllers were relying on have been replaced with fiber optic lines or other modern connections.

But some of the advancements like installing new systems to help controllers keep track of planes on the ground at 44 airports began during the last administration.

And significant work remains ahead to install more than 27,600 new radios and 612 new radar systems. The old connections still need to upgraded at thousands of additional facilities, and six new air traffic control centers are scheduled to be built.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — The clock is ticking for the U.S. government to open up its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

After months of rancor and recriminations, Congress has passed and President Donald Trump has signed legislation compelling the Justice Department to give the public everything it has on Epstein — and it has to be done before Christmas.

A federal judge on Friday took one step toward making this happen by giving the department permission to release transcripts of a grand jury investigation into Epstein’s abuse of underage girls in Florida. The judge said the new law overrode the usual rules about grand jury secrecy.

While there’s sure to be never-before-seen material in the thousands of pages likely to be released in the Florida transcripts and other Epstein-related records, a lot has already been made public, including by Congress and through litigation.

And don’t expect a “client list” of famous men who cavorted with Epstein. Though such a list has long been rumored, the Justice Department said in July that it doesn’t exist.

Here’s a look at what’s expected to be made public, what isn’t, and a refresher on how we got to this point:

Who is Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein was a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite who was accused of sexually abusing underage girls.

His relationships with powerful men, including Trump, former President Bill Clinton and the former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, have been the subject of endless fascination and speculation. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing. Andrew has denied abusing anyone.

Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. The FBI then joined the investigation, but Epstein made a secret deal with the U.S. attorney in Florida to avoid federal charges, enabling him to plead guilty in 2008 to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

In 2019, during Trump’s first term, Manhattan federal prosecutors revived the case and charged Epstein with sex trafficking, alleging he sexually abused dozens of girls. He killed himself in jail a month after his arrest.

In 2021, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Epstein’s longtime confidante and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

What’s in the Justice Department’s Epstein files?

Records related to the aborted Florida investigation, the Manhattan investigations, and anything else the Justice Department did to examine Epstein’s dealings in the time in between.

They could include notes and reports written by FBI agents; transcripts of witness interviews, photographs, videos and other evidence; Epstein’s autopsy report; and some material that may already be public, such as flight logs and travel records.

The law, dubbed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, mandates the Justice Department to release all unclassified documents and investigative materials, including files relating to immunity deals and internal communications about whom to charge or investigate.

The transcripts that will be released after Friday’s ruling by a Florida federal judge could shed more light on federal prosecutors’ decision not to go forward with their case from two decades ago. It’s not known when the transcripts will be made public.

What isn’t authorized for release under the law?

Anything containing a victim’s personally identifiable information.

The law allows the Justice Department to withhold or redact records that, if made public, would constitute “a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” It also bars the release of any materials depicting the sexual abuse of children, or images of death, physical abuse, or injury.

That means that if videos or photos exist of Epstein or anyone else sexually abusing underage girls, they can’t be made public.

However, the law also makes clear that no records shall be withheld or redacted — meaning certain parts are blacked out — solely because their release would cause embarrassment or reputational harm to any public figure, government official or foreign dignitary.

When will the files be available to the public?

The legislation requires the Justice Department to make the documents public in a searchable and downloadable format within 30 days of Trump signing it into law. That means no later than Dec. 19.

However, the law also allows the Justice Department to withhold files that it says could jeopardize an active federal investigation. That’s also longstanding Justice Department policy. Files can also be withheld if they’re found to be classified or if they pertain to national defense or foreign policy.

While investigations into Epstein and Maxwell are long over, Attorney General Pam Bondi last week ordered a top federal prosecutor to lead an investigation into people who knew Epstein and some of Trump’s political foes, including Clinton.

That investigation, taken up at Trump’s urging despite the Justice Department previously finding no evidence to support such a probe, could give the government grounds to temporarily withhold at least some of the material.

What about the so-called client list?

Epstein’s so-called “client list” — a purported collection of his famous associates — has been the white whale of Epstein sleuths, skeptics and conspiracy theorists alike.

Even Bondi got in on the act, telling Fox News in February that the “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

The only problem: the Justice Department concluded it doesn’t exist, issuing a letter in July saying that its review of Epstein-related records had revealed no incriminating “client list.” Nor was there credible evidence that Epstein had “blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the unsigned memo said.

Why are these records being released now?

Congress is forcing the government to act after Trump reneged on a campaign promise last year to throw open the files. The Justice Department did release some records earlier this year — almost all of them already public — but suddenly hit the brakes in July after promising a “truckload” more.

That prompted a small, bipartisan group of House lawmakers to launch what was initially seen as a longshot effort to compel their release through legislation. In the meantime, lawmakers started disclosing documents they’d received from Epstein’s estate, culminating in a 23,000-page release last week.

As public and political pressure mounted, including from some Trump allies, Congress swiftly passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Nov. 18 and Trump signed it into law the following day.

Haven’t some Epstein files already been made public?

Yes. Before Congress got involved, tens of thousands of pages of records were released over the years through civil lawsuits, Epstein and Maxwell’s public criminal case dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Many documents — including police reports written in Florida, state grand jury records, depositions of Epstein’s employees, his flight records, his address book — are available already. In July, the Justice Department released surveillance video from the jail on the night Epstein died.

Even the FBI has previously released some Epstein-related files, posting more than 1,400 pages to its website, though much of the material was redacted and some hidden because it was under seal.

EAST LANSING – Michigan State has received a historically large financial commitment from an East Lansing husband and wife that university leaders say position the school’s athletic department to become – and remain – one of the best in the nation.

Michigan State announced Friday a commitment of $401 million from East Lansing’s Greg and Dawn Williams, including a $301 million gift – making it, by nearly 10 times, the largest private donation in the university’s history.

The gift includes $290 million earmarked specifically for the athletic department. Another $100 million is an investment by the couple in the coming-soon Spartan Ventures initiative, which, among other interests, aims to significantly boost NIL offers for student-athletes.

The $290 million donation to MSU’s athletic department was the big seed that was used to launch Michigan State’s FOR SPARTA campaign, which was announced earlier this week, and has set an ambitious goal of raising $1 billion from donors, with plans to use that money to significantly upgrade the university’s athletic arenas, including Spartan Stadium and Breslin Center.

“This tremendous gift will serve as a catalyst to return Michigan State athletics to the top 10 athletic department that it can be and where it belongs,” Michigan State athletic director J Batt said in an interview with The Detroit News. “The vast majority of this will support FOR SPARTA. … And it really answers the question of if Michigan State athletics will be able to realize its ambitious goals.

“This answers the question emphatically: Yes.”

Batt and Williams told The News there are no set naming rights associated with the gift, and Batt said the gift isn’t being used to pay the $30-million-plus buyout for fired head football coach Jonathan Smith. That money, Batt said, is coming from other athletic department resources, including other donors.

Friday’s announcement came during a pep rally on the floor of the Breslin Center, where Greg Williams regularly sits courtside for men’s basketball games. Coaches, administrators, athletes and donors were all in attendance, including Tom Izzo, a longtime friend of the Williams family who was visibly choked up by the donation. It adds to an already big week for MSU athletics, after new head football coach Pat Fitzgerald was introduced Tuesday. Fitzgerald, too, was in attendance Friday.

Greg Williams, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Grand Rapids-based fintech and insurance giant Acrisure, met Fitzgerald on the tarmac at the Lansing airport on Tuesday morning, and sat near the front during Fitzgerald’s press conference later that day.

In an interview with The News, Williams said there have been discussions about the financial commitment and historic gift for several months, and the decision was made by the family in recent days. He said a big reason for the commitment: His comfort with the new leadership at Michigan State, including president Kevin Guskiewicz, hired two years ago, and Batt, hired six months ago.

“You want to contribute in a meaningful way, and we’re fortunate enough that we’re in a position to do that,” said Williams, who founded Acrisure in 2005, and has seen it balloon to more than $5 billion in annual revenues. “This is something you don’t do without an awful lot of thought. And part of that is, we are aligning ourselves, personally, with the right people, the right causes, the right institution, and we couldn’t have any higher conviction about doing just that. We feel very good about the whole thing.”

Batt and Williams, in interviews with The News, didn’t specify how the money would be disbursed, other than Williams saying some will be short-term and some will be long-term. Some is expected to be a part of estate planning for Greg and Dawn Williams, both 64.

The donation will become the largest in Michigan State history, by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The previous record donation was from former basketball player Mat Ishbia, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage and owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, who donated $32 million to the athletic department in 2021. The record before that was $30 million, donated by alum and real-estate developer Edward J. Minskoff in 2018, for the Eli Broad College of Business.

For the entire fiscal year 2024-25, Michigan State athletics took in $44 million, from 6,919 individual donors.

New athletics era

The gift couldn’t come at a better time for Michigan State, given the arms race that is college athletics, and given the athletic department’s money crunch – it has run a deficit in recent years, and is carrying a debt of more than $100 million.

“This is a gift and an investment that will shape the future of our athletic and academic programs for generations to come,” Guskiewicz told a crowd of coaches, donors, athletes and media Friday. “Not only is it the largest in our university history, it is one of the largest to any athletic program in the nation and one of the largest to any university in the nation. It reflects Greg and Dawn’s belief in what Michigan State stands for: opportunity, grit and a shared responsibility to lift one another.”

The money isn’t just appreciated by Michigan State athletics, it’s much-needed, for a school that was among 16 in the Big Ten on board with the conference taking on a $2.4 billion investment from West Coast-based pension fund in exchange for a 10% stake in the league. That deal – recently paused and possibly dead without Michigan and Southern Cal on board – would have resulted in a cash infusion of more than $100 million per school.

The nine-figure debt Michigan State athletics is carrying includes a loan for the lion’s share of the first round of $20.5 million revenue sharing with student athletes, COVID relief loans, and a significant donor shortfall on the $26.7 million Munn Ice Arena renovation project, as well as personnel buyouts.

Smith, fired two years into a seven-year contract, will be paid through 2031; that money is offset if he finds employment elsewhere. MSU just signed Fitzgerald to a five-year contract worth at least $30 million, which could grow to an eight-year deal worth at least $54 million if he reaches multiple but attainable victory benchmarks in the incentive-laden contract.

MSU remains in litigation with former head football coach Mel Tucker, who is claiming wrongful termination as he seeks the $80 million remaining on his contract when he was fired. MSU also remains in litigation with Brenda Tracy, who is suing the Board of Trustees for allegedly mishandling her 2022 sexual-misconduct claims that led to Tucker’s firing early in the 2023 season.

Batt declined to get specific when asked by The News if this gift would be a cure-all for the department’s recent and serious money issues.

“What I would just say is that this represents a transformative moment for the future of Michigan State athletics,” Batt told The News this week. “However, for us to continue to drive forward and reach our rightful place as a top-10 athletic department, we need every Spartan in the Spartan athletic family to step up and follow Greg and Dawn’s lead, and do what they can to help us drive forward.”

The big focus of the $401 million commitment – there’s no meaning behind it being $401 million, as opposed to $400 million, Williams said, other than that’s what the needs called for during the family’s discussion with Guskiewicz and Batt – is football. Batt and Guskiewicz have made no bones about the fact that football is the engine for any big-time college athletics department, even one with a blue-chip men’s basketball program like Michigan State.

“They didn’t attend Michigan State University. Yet, they recognize their position in this community and what this community is all about,” Izzo told the crowd Friday. “Michigan State is a big thing in this community. They certainly recognize the ability to impact people, and particularly students across our great campus. And in supporting Michigan State today, they’re supporting students for decades. Making an impact on somebody is nice when they come into your office and you feel that they’ve left your office in a better place. You’re leaving decades of people in a better place.”

‘Incredible, inspiring’ gift

FOR SPARTA, a wing of the university-wide $4-billion capital campaign, will address the needs of all Michigan State teams, Batt said, but the most significant renovations will be for 102-year Spartan Stadium, including the long-needed replacement of the east tower, after west tower renovations were finished and new scoreboards were installed before the 2025 season. There also are plans to upgrade Breslin Center, which opened in 1989. Renderings were released Tuesday.

The $100 million toward Spartan Ventures is considered a financial stake, or investment, and not a traditional gift. That will help launch that initiative, similar to one pioneered by Clemson of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Batt was hired away from Georgia Tech, also in the ACC.

Spartan Ventures is a third-party corporation that Michigan State announced in late October, and will launch mid-2026. Its focus will be generating revenues, via a non-profit, tax-exempt entity that also is designed to consolidate NIL opportunities for student-athletes. Michigan State will maintain compliance oversight of over the corporation, with a board of directors likely to be led by Guskiewicz. Spartan Ventures lifts some of the red tape by which public universities must abide.

Batt declined to be specific about Spartan Ventures when it comes to media rights or corporate partnerships, other than to say, “It’s simply helping us to modernize and optimize all of our revenue generating opportunities.”

Said Guskiewicz, in a recent interview with The News: “It will allow us to … bring a structure that looks like a private-sector, world-class (organization). Competitive advantages are going to come to us as a result.”

The additional $11 million from Greg and Dawn Williams will be a gift, to be used for academic and extracurricular initiatives, including the Spartan marching and pep bands, the Sparty program, the MSU Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Eli Broad College of Business’ Risk Management and Financial Insurance Program.

“As we were kind of debating what we were going to do and what programs,” Greg Williams said Friday at the pep rally, “I will just tell you whether you know it or not, Dawn was going to say the Spartan marching band and Sparty are the ones that are non negotiable in her mind.”

Greg and Dawn Williams are long-time Michigan State athletics donors, having previously donated more than $25 million, including a $10 million gift in 2021 that went toward the football building project. That project was completed and dedicated in 2024, and their names are on the Greg and Dawn Williams Lobby in the Tom Izzo Football Building. Fitzgerald was introduced in that lobby Tuesday.

Izzo described the meeting that led to that big donation: He saw Dawn Williams mowing the grass of their Walnut Hills Country Club estate with a brush hog, and he got to use the machine. After Izzo parked the mower, Greg and Dawn Williams pledged the donation, and Izzo could hardly contain his emotions. Nor could he Friday, when Greg Williams called him “our national treasure.”

“I’ve gotten a chance to meet a lot of important people in my days here,” Izzo said. “Never has one impacted me the way he (Greg) has.”

Acrisure, which reportedly is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026, has a lengthy resume of sports investments, especially when it comes to naming rights. Acrisure is the name on the stadium for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, and the coming-soon amphitheater in downtown Grand Rapids, among several other venues.

That’s business. Friday’s announcement was much more personal for Greg and Dawn Williams, who grew up together in Laingsburg, northeast of Lansing. Williams recalled attending his first MSU sporting event in seventh grade, on a school trip to watch men’s basketball at Jenison Fieldhouse – another building, opened in 1940, that will get significant renovations, after MSU recently scaled back its plans for the Spartan Gateway project, and scrapped plans for a new arena.

“When this first got discussed, there’s moments you have where my wife and I look at each other and say, ‘Are we really going to do this?’” Williams said. “And the more we talked about it and explored the whole thing, again, we just got more and more committed to the whole thing.

“The whole thing’s been exciting, and it’s the kind of impact that were looking to make.”

Batt, hired to replace former athletic director Alan Haller in June on a six-year contract that pays him more than $2 million a year, was Guskiewicz’s choice in part for his reputation as an elite fundraiser.

Batt has been an athletics administrator since 2005, at eight different schools.

He’s had his fair share of successes, but nothing quite like this.

“I would just say, incredible, inspiring, humbling, when somebody – Greg and Dawn – make that sort of commitment. It’s incredible,” Batt, whose department operates on a $192 million budget, told The News. “And that moment when they shared with us what they were going to do is probably one of the most incredible moments in my college athletics career, and something that I’ll never forget.”

By NOAH TRISTER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the United States danced to the Village People, Wayne Gretzky struggled to pronounce the names of underdog soccer nations from Europe and the Caribbean — and the head of FIFA declared his governing body to be humanity’s official provider of happiness.

And yes, teams were divided into groups for next year’s World Cup. That was, after all, the stated purpose of the gathering.

After Friday’s ceremony began, it took about 90 minutes — the length of a regulation soccer match — for the draw to begin in earnest. By then, casual fans who tuned in out of curiosity had learned that FIFA doesn’t really do understatement. Not for an event like this, at least.

President Donald Trump loomed over the proceedings, as expected, receiving a peace award from FIFA that seemed to have been created specifically for him. FIFA President Gianni Infantino called his group “the official happiness provider for humanity” — which is certainly one way of describing an institution that’s been in the middle of any number of corruption allegations through the years.

In addition to Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — who drew their countries into predetermined World Cup groups before the rest of the spots in the 12 four-team groups were filled — Friday’s festivities included plenty of big names.

Comedian Kevin Hart co-hosted the broadcast alongside Heidi Klum. Gretzky, Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal and Aaron Judge helped with the draw itself. Singers Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Lauryn Hill performed.

Over the top? Yes. One can only imagine the fan revolt if, for example, the selection shows for the NCAA basketball tournaments were handled this way. But there was no denying how many fans were tuning in — and FIFA was determined to make this a full-fledged entertainment event.

The Trump show

When the U.S. last hosted the men’s World Cup in 1994, then-president Bill Clinton didn’t even attend the draw. But Trump is no usual politician, and the former real estate mogul and reality show host ensured — with plenty of backup from FIFA — that he was the effective star of the event.

First, the event was held at the Kennedy Center, the longstanding arts institution in Washington whose leadership was ousted earlier this year and replaced with Trump loyalists. The president has jokingly called it the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”

Then the U.S. president was awarded the inaugural FIFA peace prize from soccer’s governing body.

“You definitely deserve the first FIFA Peace Prize for your action for what you have obtained in your way,” Infantino told Trump, who wore the prize’s gold medal around his neck.

The draw even opened and closed with some Trump musical favorites. Opera legend Andrea Bocelli, set to perform at the White House on Friday night, began the draw with a rendition of Puccini’s “Nessun dorma.”

Near the end, organizers brought the Village People on stage to perform “YMCA,” which, like “Nessun dorma,” is often performed at Trump campaign rallies. From his seat at the Kennedy Center, Trump stood up and did his signature dance.

Quite a production

FIFA looked to elevate the ceremony with comedy, music and star-driven moments. The organization packed the two hour-plus event with comedians, music stars, sports legends, roving interviews and commercials featuring popular actors Matthew McConaughey and Salma Hayek.

Some moments dazzled, others drifted. But together they signaled FIFA’s growing effort to turn the draw into entertainment.

Williams and Scherzinger earned a standing ovation with a rousing performance of FIFA’s official hymn, “Desire.” Hill followed with full-band renditions of “Lost Ones” and “Doo Wop (That Thing),” pausing to acknowledge Bob Marley’s deep connection to the game before bringing out his grandson, YG Marley, for a reggae-soul collaboration.

Klum and Hart introduced a rotation of sports legends as part of the extended broadcast. Hart welcomed Gretzky and Judge. Klum followed by introducing O’Neal, whose 7-foot-1 frame provided an instant visual contrast to Hart, before rounding out the sequence with Brady.

Expanded field

Gretzky stumbled over the pronunciations of North Macedonia and Curaçao, two teams whose qualification hopes — North Macedonia isn’t actually in yet — were boosted by the fact that the World Cup expanded from 32 teams to 48. That meant the number of groups increased from eight to 12.

It also made for an even more complex draw, with six of the 48 teams not even known yet. Those six will come from March playoffs, which forced the draw to use placeholders.

Then there was FIFA’s policy of not putting multiple teams from the same continental confederation in the same group, with the exception of Europe. For an avid fan who’d studied the process, it wasn’t too hard to follow. For the uninitiated, there was probably a fair amount of confusion.

Nuts and bolts

The expanded field also meant there was little chance of multiple powerhouses ending up in the same group. However, France has to contend with goal-scoring star Erling Haaland and Norway in Group I. Senegal is also in that group. In 2002, Senegal beat France as the French fell apart trying to defend the title they’d won four years earlier.

Scotland has never made it past the group stage, and it won’t be easy this year. Group C also includes Brazil — the fifth time in its last seven appearances Scotland has been drawn with Brazil — and Morocco, which is No. 11 in the FIFA rankings.

The U.S., meanwhile, is in Group D with Australia (the lowest-ranked team in pot 2 of the draw) and Paraguay (the lowest-ranked South American team in the field so far). The Americans also avoided the possibility of facing Italy or Denmark from out of the European playoffs.

AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. and Associated Press Writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer