Top: A photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press

Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike

early Friday. The Pentagon said that the U.S. military killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, above, the head of Iran’s

elite Quds Force.AP photos

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stripes.com Free to Deployed Areas Volume 78, No. 185A ©SS 2020 CONTINGENCY EDITION SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2020

US attacksIran vows ‘harsh’ responseUS plans to deploy 3,000

additional troops to region BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AND ZEINA KARAM

Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Iran vowed “harsh retaliation” for a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport that killed a top Iranian general who had been the architect of its interventions across the Middle East.

The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Wash-ington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the U.S. after the airstrike, call-ing Soleimani the “international face of resistance.” Khamenei declared three days of public mourning and appointed Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani’s deputy, to replace him as head of the Quds Force.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the killing a “heinous crime” and vowed his country would “take revenge.”

SEE RESPONSE ON PAGE 4

BY CHAD GARLAND

Stars and Stripes

IRBIL, Iraq — A U.S. airstrike killed the general in charge of Iran’s elite Quds Force early Friday in Baghdad, a move that prompted threats from Iran and plans for the deployment of 3,000 additional U.S. troops to the Mideast.

“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken de-cisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing [Qassem] Soleimani,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and ser-vice members in Iraq and throughout the region.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared three days of mourning for Soleimani, stating “severe revenge awaits the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his blood and other martyrs’ in last night’s incident,” according to news reports.

SEE STRIKE ON PAGE 4

American strike kills top Iranian general Soleimani

PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

American Roundup ..... 14Comics ...................... 16Crossword ................. 16Health & Fitness ........ 11Movies ..................12-13Opinion ..................... 15Sports ...................17-24

T O D A YIN STRIPES

BUSINESS/WEATHER

Some flavors exempt from Trump’s vaping ban Military ratesEuro costs (Jan. 6) ............................ $1.1425Dollar buys (Jan. 6) ...........................€0.8753British pound (Jan. 6) .......................... $1.36Japanese yen (Jan. 6) ........................ 107.00South Korean won (Jan. 6) ............1,130.00

Commercial ratesBahrain (Dinar) ....................................0.3770British pound .....................................$1.3080Canada (Dollar) ...................................1.2989China (Yuan) ........................................6.9662Denmark (Krone) ................................6.6929Egypt (Pound) ....................................16.0403Euro ........................................ $1.1166/0.8956Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................. 7.7780Hungary (Forint) .................................295.73Israel (Shekel) .....................................3.4757Japan (Yen) ...........................................108.21Kuwait (Dinar) .....................................0.3031Norway (Krone) ...................................8.8199Philippines (Peso)................................. 51.09Poland (Zloty) .......................................... 3.80Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ........................... 3.7521Singapore (Dollar) ..............................1.3493South Korea (Won) ..........................1,165.34

Switzerland (Franc)............................0.9713Thailand (Baht) ..................................... 30.15Turkey (Lira) .........................................5.9771(Military exchange rates are those available to customers at military banking facilities in the country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., purchasing British pounds in Germany), check with your local military banking facility. Commercial rates are interbank rates provided for reference when buying currency. All figures are foreign currencies to one dollar, except for the British pound, which is represented in dollars-to-pound, and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)

EXCHANGE RATES

INTEREST RATESPrime rate ................................................ 4.75Discount rate .......................................... 2.25Federal funds market rate ................... 1.553-month bill ............................................. 1.5030-year bond ........................................... 2.34

WEATHER OUTLOOK

Bahrain76/70

Baghdad62/44

Doha83/64

KuwaitCity

68/61

Riyadh82/66

Djibouti83/74

Kandahar55/40

Kabul34/11

SATURDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN THE PACIFIC

Misawa31/26

Guam83/79

Tokyo43/33

Okinawa69/65

Sasebo53/44

Iwakuni48/44

Seoul36/26

Osan37/27 Busan

46/32

The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,

2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

46/37

Ramstein39/35

Stuttgart41/36

Lajes,Azores65/61

Rota57/48

Morón54/43 Sigonella

55/37

Naples50/42

Aviano/Vicenza48/31

Pápa38/34

Souda Bay56/52

SATURDAY IN EUROPE

Brussels45/37

Zagan35/30

Drawsko Pomorskie

39/35

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials will begin cracking down on most flavored e-cigarettes that are popular with underage teen-agers, but their plan includes major exceptions that benefit vaping manufacturers, retailers and adults who use the nicotine-delivery devices.

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavors from small, car-

tridge-based e-cigarettes favored by high school and middle school students. But menthol and tobac-co-flavored e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on the market.

The targeted flavor ban will also entirely exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.

Together, the two exemptions represent a significant retreat from President Donald Trump’s original plan announced four months ago, which would have

banned all vaping flavors — in-cluding menthol — from all types of e-cigarettes. The new policy will spare a significant portion of the multibillion-dollar vaping market. And the changes mark a major victory for thousands of vape shop owners who sell the tank-based systems, which allow users to mix customized nicotine flavors.

Anti-tobacco advocates imme-diately condemned the decision, accusing the administration of caving to industry pressure.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3Saturday, January 4, 2020

BY TRACY WILKINSON,MELISSA ETEHAD

AND CHRIS MEGERIAN

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — In ordering the killing of Gen. Qassem Solei-mani, one of Iran’s highest-rank-ing officials, President Donald Trump has taken one of the big-gest gambles of his presidency — a step that appears to lead the

U.S. on a path to-ward escalated warfare and that marks a sharp break from his

often-stated desire to pull Ameri-can forces out of conflicts in the Middle East.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has made fiery state-ments but has typically resisted dramatic belligerent actions. He has promised his supporters that he would use decisive violence against U.S. enemies, but he also promised to stay out of wars in the Middle East and to bring U.S. troops home.

Outside analysts — and some of Trump’s former advisers — have repeatedly warned that those two pledges could not be reconciled.

Until now, when his goals clashed, Trump has typically pulled back. In June, for example, he gave a last-minute order to stop an airstrike against Iran planned in retaliation for Tehran’s shoot-ing down of an unmanned Ameri-can drone. Nor did he order a military response to attacks on Saudi oil installations in the fall that U.S. and Saudi officials blamed on Iran.

The decision to kill Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolu-tionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, who was sometimes de-scribed as the second-most pow-erful official in Iran, marks a radical shift. It appears to rep-resent a bet that Iran, faced by a decisive U.S. military action, will back down, not escalate.

Iran will now have to “reexam-

ine the limitations of the violence they can bring to the table,” said one senior congressional Repub-lican official, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity. The official predicted “some face-saving re-taliation in Yemen or Lebanon, maybe Afghanistan,” but not more.

Others were deeply skeptical of such assertions. While the U.S. undoubtedly has overwhelming superiority in conventional mili-tary power, the Iranians, even without Soleimani, will be able to launch guerrilla-style operations throughout the Middle East and possibly beyond, they said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei, said in a state-ment that “a harsh retaliation is

waiting.”“The U.S. and Iran have been

engaged in a dangerous tit-for-tat for months now, but this is a mas-sive walk up the escalation lad-der,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “There really is no underestimating the geopoliti-cal ramifications of this.”

While U.S. forces have killed leaders of al-Qaida and other mil-itant groups, targeting high-rank-ing officials of other governments has been a line that American officials have seldom crossed ex-cept during wars.

Not since President Ronald Rea-gan ordered an airstrike against Libya in 1986 that came close to killing that country’s leader at the

time, Moammar Gadhafi has the U.S. taken an action comparable to the attack on Soleimani.

To heighten the political risk, Trump appears to have acted without advance consultation with Congress, breaking with long-standing practice. Congressional Democrats quickly criticized the president for acting unilaterally.

Administration officials say that Trump authorized the strike because Soleimani, who has long directed the actions of Iranian-backed militia groups that have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere, was planning further attacks on American personnel.

Critics, however, accused Trump of recklessness.

The immediate chain of events

leading to the strike began late inDecember when a missile attackagainst an Iraqi military base killed an American contractor. U.S. officials blamed the attack on Iranian-backed militia groupsand responded with airstrikesthat killed 25 people.

That, in turn, led to the storm-ing this week of the U.S. Embassycompound in Baghdad by pro-Iranian militia members. At thatpoint, a senior administration of-ficial said Thursday, the “gamehas changed.”

Administration supporters said the strike would be a major set-back to Iran.

Soleimani’s “death is a huge loss for Iran’s regime and its Iraqi proxies, and a major operationaland psychological victory for the United States,” said James Cara-fano of the conservative Heritage Foundation, which often advisesTrump on foreign policy.

Ariane Tabatabai, a MiddleEast expert at Rand Corp., said Soleimani “single-handedly con-trolled Iran’s relationships withvarious militia groups and ter-rorists in the region.” From Af-ghanistan to Lebanon and Yemen and Syria, he played a key role inbuilding Iran’s network of alliedgroups across the Middle East, which included Shiite militias in Iraq and groups such as Hezbol-lah in Syria and Lebanon.

Soleimani was a major figure inthe highest levels of Iranian deci-sion making, reporting directly tothe supreme leader and oversee-ing military training and financ-ing as well as weapon sales andtransfers. He also took a highlypublic role as an Iranian symbol, often photographed on regional battlefields to underscore Iran’s support for its allies.

“He would run around the battlefield in Syria and talk to the fighters and try to boost their mo-rale,” Tabatabai said.

As a result, killing him sent a strong symbolic message to Iranand its allies, she said.

ANALYSIS

BY HANNAH KNOWLES

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The U.S. airstrike that killed a powerful Iranian commander Thursday has sharply divided Washing-ton lawmakers and revitalized a debate over presidential war powers.

Republicans praised President Donald Trump for a decisive blow against a general the United States regards as a war crimi-nal responsible for hundreds of American deaths.

Democrats expressed concern that the escalation of tensions with Iran is a dangerous step to-ward war and complained that Trump ordered the strike against Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani without congressional input.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized “provocative and disproportionate actions,” saying in a statement that the air-strikes were conducted “without the consultation of the Congress” and that the full body “must be immediately briefed on this se-rious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the de-ployment of additional troops to the region.”

“America — and the world

— cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return,” Pelosi said.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., praised the killing of Soleimani as a “state-ment to those seeking to attack America.” Trump, McCarthy said, had responded appropriate-ly to violence by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, including an at-tempt to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

“In a display of resolve and strength, we struck the leader

of those attacking our sovereign U.S. territories,” he said.

Senate Foreign Relations Com-mittee Chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, offered his “congratula-tions to President Trump on his decisive action and successful outcome” and said in a statement that “the U.S. will always vigor-ously defend our interests and allies in the face of terrorist con-duct and provocations.”

House Foreign Affairs Commit-tee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., had a different outlook. Soleimani “had the blood of Americans on his hands and I won’t grieve his death,” he said in a statement. “But many will consider him a martyr and I’m deeply concerned about the repercussions of to-night’s strike.”

Echoing Pelosi, Engel added that the strike “went forward

with no notification or consul-tation with Congress. To push ahead with an action of this grav-ity without involving Congress raises serious legal problems andis an affront to Congress’s powersas a coequal branch of govern-ment. Even if this strike was inself-defense, no current congres-sional authorization covered itand the President needs to notify Congress within 48 hours pursu-ant to the War Powers Resolution. The law requires notification sothe President can’t plunge the United States into ill-considered wars.” But Sen. Lindsey Gra-ham, R-S.C., said Friday morn-ing on Fox News that he had been“briefed about the potential oper-ation when I was down in Florida.I appreciate being brought intothe orbit.”

MIDEAST

Trump takes gamble with death of Soleimani

Congress divided over US strike on Iranian commander

KHALID MOHAMMED/AP

Pro-Iranian militiamen and their supporters set a fire during a sit-in in front of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday . The embassy assault was part of the chain of events leading to the U.S. strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

‘ In a display of resolve and strength, we struck the leader of those attacking our sovereign U.S. territories. ’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

FROM FRONT PAGE

Iran twice summoned the Swiss envoy, the first time de-livering a letter to pass onto the United States.

Thousands of worshippers in the Iranian capital Tehran took to the streets after Friday Mus-lim prayers to condemn the kill-ing, waving posters of Soleimani and chanting “Death to deceitful America.”

The targeted strike, and any retaliation by Iran, could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heav-ily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel’s doorstep.

However, the attack may act as a deterrent for Iran and its allies to delay or restrain any potential response. Oil prices surged on news of the airstrike and markets were mixed.

The killing promised to fur-ther strain relations with Iraq’s government, which is allied with both Washington and Tehran and has been deeply worried about becoming a battleground in their rivalry. Iraqi politicians close to Iran called for the country to order U.S. forces out.

The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani, 62, because

he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It also ac-cused Soleimani of approving the orchestrated violent protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The strike, on an access road near Baghdad’s airport, was carried out Friday by an Ameri-can drone, according to a U.S. official.

Soleimani had just disembarked from a plane arriving from either Syria or Lebanon, a senior Iraqi security official said. The blast tore his body to pieces along with

that of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Irani-an-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forc-es. A senior politician said Solei-mani’s body was identified by the ring he wore. Iran’s state TV said Friday 10 people were killed in the airstrike, including five Revo-lutionary Guard members and Soleimani’s son-in-law, whom he

did not identify.While Iran’s conventional mili-

tary has suffered under 40 years of American sanctions, Iran can strike asymmetrically in the re-gion through its allied forces like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraqi mili-tias and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nas-rallah called on “the resistance the world over” to avenge Solei-

mani’s killing. Frictions over oil shipments in the Gulf could alsoincrease, and Iran’s elite Revolu-tionary Guard has built up a bal-listic missile program.

Iran’s Supreme National Secu-rity Council said it in a statementFriday that it had held a special session and made “appropriatedecisions” on how to respond,though it didn’t reveal them.

FROM FRONT PAGE

The Associated Press reported later Friday that the U.S. planned to deploy nearly 3,000 more troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Mideast, citing defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision not yet announced by the Pentagon.

The troops are in addition to about 700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne who deployed to Kuwait earlier this week after the storm-ing of the U.S. Embassy com-pound in Baghdad by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters.

Also reportedly killed in Friday morning’s attack was Abu Mahdi Muhandis, a senior leader of a paramilitary wing of Iraq’s secu-rity forces and founder of Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shi-ite militia group with a long his-tory of fighting American forces in Iraq. The Pentagon blamed the group for a rocket attack in Kirkuk that killed a U.S. civilian contractor last week.

Defense Department officials accused Soleimani of orchestrat-ing last week’s Kirkuk attack, as well as many others in re-cent months that have killed and wounded both American and co-alition service members.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution-ary Guard Corps confirmed the

deaths in a statement to the coun-try’s state-owned Tasnim news agency.

The attack reportedly hap-pened at about 1 a.m. Social media users said they heard ex-plosions, followed by sounds of military aircraft.

The strike was confirmed about 45 minutes later by the Iraqi gov-ernment’s security information cell, which posted photos of burn-ing vehicles near the airport on its Facebook page, attributing the damage to a rocket attack.

A drone actually conducted the strike, a security official with knowledge of the event who spoke on condition of anonymity told Stars and Stripes.

Seven people were killed in Friday’s strike, an official with an Iran-backed paramilitary force told the AP.

Also among the dead was Mo-hammed Redha, a senior mem-ber of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units — an umbrella group of paramilitary forces that Mu-handis was deputy commander

of, and which included Kataeb Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militias, as well as other groups that have fought the Islamic State since 2014.

A State Department security alert Friday urged all Americans to leave Iraq immediately due to the “heightened tensions in Iraq and the region,” reiterating an advisory issued Wednesday after Iran-backed militias attacked the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.

The militia members breached the embassy gates on New Year’s Eve, withdrawing from the area the next day after a contingent of about 100 Marines arrived from Kuwait to bolster the diplomatic compound’s security.

The attack on Soleimani came hours after Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged Iran and its proxies to stand down.

“We will not accept continued attacks against our personnel and forces,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Attacks against us will be met with responses in the

time, manner, and place of our choosing.”

Soleimani’s Quds Force trains, funds and equips Iranian proxy groups, including Kataeb He-zbollah and others that fought American forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Both the Quds Force and Kataeb Hezbollah are U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations.

After rocket attacks on bases housing American troops in early December — some of the 11 car-ried out in the past two months that have mostly wounded Iraqis — U.S. officials called on the Iraqi government to do more to prevent them and warned of decisive ac-tion if they continued.

Then, last Friday, a barrage of rockets hit the K1 base in Kirkuk, killing an American civilian con-tractor and wounding four U.S. and two Iraqi service members. The Defense Department coun-tered with airstrikes targeting five Kataeb Hezbollah sites in Iraq and Syria.

The air raids killed at least 25 and wounded dozens more, which spurred the U.S. Embassy militia attack.

“General Soleimani also ap-proved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad,” the Penta-gon said in its statement confirm-ing the attack that killed him.

“This strike was aimed at deter-ring future Iranian attack plans.”

Iraqi Prime Minister AdilAbdul-Mahdi, whom Esper had warned of the strikes on KataebHezbollah shortly before theywere carried out, criticized thePentagon’s strikes as a violationof the country’s sovereignty.

Mahdi, who is acting in a care-taker role after recently resigninghis post, has called for a review ofIraq’s relationship with the Unit-ed States. Iran-backed militia groups also promised to press theIraqi parliament to move to evict the U.S., which has been aidingIraq in the fight against ISIS.

The U.S. has sent roughly14,000 troops to the Middle Eastsince last summer. In response to the embassy siege, Esper orderedsome 750 infantry troops fromthe Army’s 82nd Airborne Divi-sion to deploy to the region.

The first wave of the troopsfrom the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team arrived at Ku-wait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base onThursday.

“The United States will con-tinue to take all necessary actionto protect our people and our in-terests wherever they are aroundthe world,” the Pentagon saidearly Friday.chad.garland@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

Saturday, January 4, 2020

MIDEAST

PHOTOS BY VAHID SALEMI/AP

Protesters in Tehran, Iran, burn a U.S. flag during a demonstration over the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Friday.

Response: Iranian council conducts special session to make ‘appropriate decisions’

Strike: US plans to deploy troops from 82nd Airborne to Middle East‘ This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. ’

Pentagon

Protesters demonstrate in Tehran over the U.S. airstrike .

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5Saturday, January 4, 2020

MIDEAST

Iranian commander blamed for US deaths BY NASSER KARIMI AND JON GAMBRELL

Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran — For Irani-ans whose icons since the Islamic Revolution have been stern-faced clergy, Gen. Qassem Soleimani widely represented a figure of national resilience in the face of four decades of U.S. pressure.

For the U.S. and Israel, he was a shadowy figure in command of Iran’s proxy forces, respon-sible for fighters in Syria backing President Bashar Assad and for the deaths of American troops in Iraq.

Solemani survived the horror of Iran’s long war in the 1980s with Iraq to take control of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign campaigns.

Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing. A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recog-nizable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but becoming as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.

“The warfront is mankind’s lost paradise,” Soleimani recounted in a 2009 interview. “One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise...The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”

A U.S. airstrike killed Solei-mani, 62, and others as they trav-eled from Baghdad’s international airport early Friday morning. The Pentagon said President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to take “decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing” a man once referred to by Iran’s Supreme Leader Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei as a “living martyr of the revolution.”

Soleimani’s luck ran out after being rumored dead several times in his life. Those incidents included a 2006 airplane crash that killed other military officials in northwestern Iran and a 2012 bombing in Damascus that killed top aides of Assad. More recently, rumors circulated in November 2015 that Soleimani was killed or seriously wounded leading forc-es loyal to Assad as they fought around Syria’s Aleppo.

Iranian officials quickly vowed to take revenge amid months of tensions between Iran and the U.S. following Trump pulling out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. While Soleimani was the Guard’s most prominent general, many others in its ranks have experience in waging the asymmetrical, proxy attacks for which Iran has become known.

“Trump through his gamble has dragged the U.S. into the most dangerous situation in the region,” Hessameddin Ashena,

an adviser to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, wrote on the so-cial media app Telegram. “Who-ever put his foot beyond the red line should be ready to face its consequences.”

Born March 11, 1957, Soleimani was said in his homeland to have grown up near the mountainous and the historic Iranian town of

Rabor, famous for its forests, its apricot, walnut and peach har-vests and its brave soldiers. The U.S. State Department has said he was born in the Iranian reli-gious capital of Qom.

Little is known about his child-hood, though Iranian accounts suggest Soleimani’s father was a peasant who received a piece of

land under the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, but later became encumbered by debts.

By the time he was 13, Solei-mani began working in construc-tion, later as an employee of the Kerman Water Organization. Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the shah from power and Soleimani joined the Revolution-ary Guard in its wake. He de-ployed to Iran’s northwest with forces that put down Kurdish un-rest following the revolution.

Soon after, Iraq invaded Iran and began the two countries long, bloody eight-year war. The fight-ing killed more than 1 million people and saw Iran send waves of lightly armed troops into mine-fields and the fire of Iraqi forc-es, including teenage soldiers. Solemani’s unit and others came under attack by Iraqi chemical weapons as well.

Amid the carnage, Soleimani became known for his opposition to “meaningless deaths” on the battlefield, while still weeping at times with fervor when exhorting his men into combat, embracing each individually.

After the Iraq-Iran war, Solei-mani largely disappeared from public view for several years, something analysts attribute to his wartime disagreements with Hashemi Rafsanjani, who would serve as Iran’s president from 1989 to 1997. But after Rafsan-jani, Soleimani became head of the Quds force. He also grew so close to Khamenei that the Su-preme Leader officiated the wed-ding of the general’s daughter.

As chief of the Quds — or Jeru-salem — Force, Solemani oversaw the Guard’s foreign operations and soon would come to the at-tention of Americans following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

In secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, U.S. of-ficials openly discussed Iraqi ef-forts to reach out to Soleimani to stop rocket attacks on the highly

secured Green Zone in Baghdadin 2009. Another cable in 2007outlines then-Iraqi PresidentJalal Talabani offering a U.S. offi-cial a message from Soleimani ac-knowledging having “hundreds”of agents in the country while pledging, “I swear on the graveof (the late Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini I haven’t authorized abullet against the U.S.”

U.S. officials at the time dis-missed Soleimani’s claim as theysaw Iran as both an arsonist anda fireman in Iraq, controllingsome Shiite militias while simul-taneously stirring dissent andlaunching attacks. U.S. forces would blame the Quds Force for an attack in Karbala that killedfive American troops, as well as for training and supplying the bomb makers whose improvisedexplosive devices made IED— improvised explosive device— a dreaded acronym amongsoldiers.

In a 2010 speech, U.S. Gen.David Petraeus recounted a mes-sage from Soleimani he said ex-plained the scope of Iranian’s powers.

“He said, ‘Gen. Petreaus, youshould know that I, Qassem Solei-mani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan,’” Petrae-us said.

The U.S. and the United Na-tions put Soleimani on sanctionslists in 2007, though his travels continued. In 2011, U.S. officialsalso named him as a defendant inan outlandish Quds Force plot toallegedly hire a purported Mexi-can drug cartel assassin to kill aSaudi diplomat.

The attention the West gave So-leimani only boosted his profile athome. He sat at Khamenei’s side at key meetings. He famously metSyria’s Assad in February togeth-er with the supreme leader — butwithout Iran’s Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif beingpresent, sparking a momentaryresignation by the top Iranian diplomat.

Polling data routinely showedSoleimani rated more favorably than other public figures, accord-ing to the Center for InternationalStudies at the University of Mary-land. But Soleimani always re-fused entreaties to enter politics.

Soleimani’s greatest notoriety would arise from the Syrian civilwar and the rapid expansion of the Islamic State. Iran, a majorbacker of Assad, sent Soleimaniinto Syria several times to leadattacks against ISIS and othersopposing Assad’s rule. While a U.S.-led coalition focused on air-strikes, several ground victories for Iraqi forces came with pho-tographs emerging of Soleimani leading, never wearing a flak jacket.

“Soleimani has taught us thatdeath is the beginning of life, notthe end of life,” one Iraqi militiacommander said.

OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER/AP

The commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, sits in a religious ceremony at a mosque in the residence of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran. A U.S. airstrike Friday near Baghdad’s airport killed Soleimani, who was considered the architect of Iran’s policy in Syria.

Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi mili-tant who was closely allied with Iran and rose to be a senior militia commander during the war against the Islamic State group, was killed overnight Friday in a U.S. strike that also felled Iran’s top general.

Al-Muhandis was the depu-ty commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an um-brella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries. He was also the founder of the Kataeb Hezbol-lah, or Hezbollah Brigades. The U.S. blamed the group, which is separate from the Lebanese

Hezbollah movement, for a rocket attack in northern Iraq last week that killed a U.S. contractor.

The mili-tias, many of which are backed by Iran and trace their roots back to the Shiite insurgency against U.S. forces following the 2003 invasion, mobilized in 2014 when the Islamic State group swept across northern and western Iraq.

Al-Muhandis, who had spent much of his life as a secretive operative in Iran’s regional

shadow wars, emerged as a public face of the force, a tall man with a gray beard and thick glasses who was often seen on the front lines directing his fighters by radio.

He was killed in an Ameri-can airstrike near Baghdad’s international airport around midnight along with Gen. Qas-sem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the architect of its regional military alliances. Also killed was al-Muhandis’ son-in-law Mohammed Rida al-Jaberi.

The PMF said in a statement that al-Muhandis’ body was de-stroyed beyond recognition.

Founder of Kataeb Hezbollah killed in Friday airstrike

Al-Muhandis

Gen. Qassem Soleimani crafted policy in Syria, Iraq for more than a decade

PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

BY BEATRICE DUPUY

Associated Press

A video of Democratic presi-dential candidate Joe Biden that was selectively edited to falsely suggest he made racist remarks during a recent speech made the rounds Thursday on social media, raking in more than a million views on one tweet alone.

Experts have been warning about the dangers of selectively edited videos being used as a mis-information tactic ahead of the 2020 presidential election. They are easier to make and do not re-quire the sophisticated technol-ogy needed to produce deepfake videos, which are fabricated to look realistic.

In the edited clip, which was less than 20 seconds long, Biden says, “Our culture is not import-ed from some African nation or some Asian nation.” Social media users paired the video with com-ments like “It’s almost like Joe Biden is a Racist.” Posts with the video surfaced across social media platforms on Wednesday.

The clip was taken from ABC News coverage of Biden speaking for more than an hour in Derry, N. H. , on Monday. A review of the full video shows that Biden was commenting on changing the culture around violence against women. In discussing the dif-ficulty victims face reporting sexual assault on college cam-puses, he said, “Folks, this is

about changing the culture, ourculture, our culture, it’s not im-ported from some African nationor some Asian nation. It is ourEnglish jurisprudential culture,our European culture that says it is all right.”

Earlier in the discussion,Biden, when asked about his workwith women and sexual assaultvictims, talked about the need tochange an entrenched “cultural problem,” that dates back cen-turies, noting that in the 1300smany wives were being beaten todeath by their husbands withoutrepercussions.

Biden’s campaign confirmedto The Associated Press that the presentation in the edited videowas inaccurate.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

NATION

Dems call for key witnesses after release of report

Trump looks to boost evangelical support despite searing editorial

Video edited to suggest former VP Biden made racist remark

BY JOHN WAGNER AND FELICIA SONMEZ

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Democrats on Thursday seized on a new re-port citing unredacted emails that bolster the case that Presi-dent Donald Trump was directly involved in withholding military aid to Ukraine as he was seeking investigations that could benefit his reelection bid.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in pressing for key witnesses and documents to be included in a Senate impeachment trial of Trump after the report’s release.

Senate leaders remained at an impasse Thursday over the scope of a trial, and aides to Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the two men had not spoken over the holidays about the stand-off. Pelosi has yet to send the articles of impeachment — alleg-ing abuse of power and obstruc-tion of Congress — to the Senate as Democrats seek guarantees about witnesses and documents that would be subpoenaed re-garding Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine.

The report by Kate Brannen, published by Just Security, ref-erenced an email from Michael Duffey, associate director of na-tional security programs at the Office of Management and Bud-get, to Elaine McCusker, the act-ing Pentagon comptroller, on Aug. 30, a little more than a month after Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for investigations during a phone call.

In the email, which followed a

meeting with Trump that includ-ed senior administration officials, Duffey told McCusker, “Clear di-rection from POTUS to hold.”

A redacted version of that email — and several others cited in the report by Brannen, a vet-eran Pentagon reporter — had previously been made public as the result of Freedom of Informa-tion Act litigation.

“The newly-revealed unre-dacted emails are a devastat-ing blow to Senator McConnell’s push to have a trial without the documents and witnesses we’ve requested,” Schumer said in a statement Thursday. “These emails further expose the seri-ous concerns raised by Trump administration officials about the propriety and legality of the president’s decision to cut off aid to Ukraine to benefit himself.”

Schumer has sought guaran-tees from McConnell that several administration officials will be subpoenaed to testify in a Sen-ate trial who declined to par-ticipate in House impeachment proceedings, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national se-curity adviser John Bolton and Duffey. McConnell has said the Senate should decide on what if any witnesses to call after hear-ing opening statements from House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers.

Schumer said the unredacted emails raise “questions that can only be answered by having the key Trump administration of-ficials … testify under oath in a Senate trial.”

“The American people deserve a fair trial that gets to the truth, not a rigged process that enables a cover-up,” Schumer said.

BY JONATHAN LEMIRE AND ELANA SCHOR

Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In his first campaign move of the 2020 election year, President Donald Trump on Friday will visit a mega-church in Miami to highlight his support among evangelicals as he aims to shore up and expand support from an influential piece of his political base.

The president will host the kickoff meeting of “Evangelicals for Trump” just days after he was the subject of a scathing editorial in Christianity Today magazine that called for his removal from office. But Trump’s campaign believes that his record in office, including the installation of two Supreme Court justices, will ce-ment the votes of religious con-servatives this year.

“I think his record in the past three years is rock-solid in things that the faith community cares about ...,” said Jentezen Frank-lin, a pastor to a megachurch in

Georgia. “We used to see politi-cians once every four years but this one is totally different in con-

stantly reach-ing out to the faith com-munity and we even get a chance to tell him when we disagree.”

Campaign officials said the Miami event was in the works well before the Christian-ity Today op-ed that raised fresh ques-tions about the durability of his support among the conservative

evangelicals who have proven to be a critical component of his po-litical base.

The magazine’s editorial, writ-ten by editor-in-chief Mark Galli,

envisions a message to thoseevangelical Christians who haveremained stalwart Trump back-ers “in spite of his blackened moral record.”

“Remember who you are andwhom you serve,” Galli’s editorial states. “Consider how your justi-fication of Mr. Trump influencesyour witness to your Lord and Sav-ior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoralwords and behavior in the causeof political expediency.”

The piece, which comes in a magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, was denounced by Trump, who tweeted “No presi-dent has done more for the evan-gelical community.“

Graham’s son, Franklin Gra-ham, a major Trump supporter, also criticized his father’s formermagazine. But most political ob-servers doubt it will cause manyevangelicals to desert Trump,who received more than 80% oftheir vote in 2016.

More than 5,000 people are ex-pected to attend the event .

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP

Former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a community event Thursday in Anamosa, Iowa. An edited video of Biden seemingly spouting racist remarks was seen across the internet.

JAE C. HONG/AP

Pastor Joshua Nink, right, prays for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Jan. 31, 2016. Trump aims to show his support to evangelicals in a bid to expand support in his 2020 presidential campaign.

‘ I think his record in the past three years is rock-solid in things that the faith community cares about. ’Jentezen

Franklinpastor

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7

BY BECKY BOHRERAND MARTHA BELLISLE

Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska — Calls to loved ones in the lead-up to the sinking of a crab boat in the cold waters off Alaska revealed the rough conditions the crew faced, including icing that did not seem to rattle the boat’s captain.

Gary Cobban Jr., the captain, was among five fishermen miss-ing and feared dead after the Scandies Rose sank late Tues-day. Two others aboard were rescued. The Coast Guard did not release details Thursday on a possible cause, saying that talk-ing to the survivors is part of the investigation.

Cobban’s ex-girlfriend, Jeri Lynn Smith, told the Anchorage Daily News he called her in North Carolina about two hours before the boat sank to wish her a happy new year. She said the conditions hadn’t seemed to worry him.

“When I talked to him, he told me the boat was icing and it had a list to it, but he didn’t sound alarmed. He didn’t sound scared,” Smith said. “The boat ices. The boat ices every winter. It’s just something they deal with. I didn’t worry about it.”

Smith said she wouldn’t have hung up if she thought he was in

a crisis.Others listed as missing were

David Lee Cobban, Arthur Ga-nacias, Brock Rainey and Seth Rousseau-Gano, according to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said it used helicopters, planes and a boat as part of a search ef-fort that covered 1,400 square miles and ended Wednesday evening.

Ashley Boggs of Peru, Ind ., said Rainey called her shortly before the ship sank and said conditions were bad. The two had planned to marry after Rainey returned.

“I’m just praying and hoping they find him on land or some-thing,” Boggs told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Those rescued told authorities they were the only ones who made it into a life raft, the Anchor-age Daily News reported. Dean Gribble Jr., who’s appeared on the Discovery Channel documen-tary series “Deadliest Catch,“ and John Lawler suffered hypo-thermia but were released from a hospital.

The boat was carrying a load of crabbing pots for the start of the winter season, Dan Mattsen, a partner in the vessel managed by Seattle-Based Mattsen Manage-ment, told the Seattle Times.

The 130-foot Scandies Rose was traveling in an area with

warnings about strong winds and heavy freezing spray, said Lou-ise Fode, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Its last known position was 170 miles southwest of Kodiak Island, and it sank about 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Coast Guard said. The vessel

had sent out a mayday call.Rescue crews battled winds of

more than 40 mph , 15- to 20-foot seas and visibility that was lim-ited to a mile , Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa McKenzie said.

“That’s rough conditions,“ she said.

The Coast Guard said it

suspended the search after“exhausting all leads and care-ful consideration of survivalprobability.”

McKenzie said the air temper-ature was about 10 degrees . Theestimated water temperature was43 degrees , the weather servicesaid.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

NATION

BY JAMIE STENGLE

Associated Press

DALLAS — A Texas judge on Thursday sided with a hospital that plans to remove an 11-month-old girl from life support after her mother disagreed with the decision by doctors who say the infant is in pain and that her condition will never improve.

Trinity Lewis had asked Judge Sandee Bryan Marion to issue an injunction in Tar-rant County district court to ensure that Cook Children’s Medical Center doesn’t end her daughter Tinslee Lewis’ life-sus-taining treatment. Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that is advocating for Tinslee, said the girl’s mother will appeal the judge’s decision.

Doctors at the Fort Worth hospital had planned to remove Tinslee from life sup-port Nov. 10 after invoking Texas’ “10-day rule,” which can be employed when a fam-ily disagrees with doctors who say life-sus-taining treatment should be stopped. The law stipulates that if the hospital’s ethics committee agrees with doctors, treatment can be withdrawn after 10 days if a new provider can’t be found to take the patient.

In a statement issued by Texas Right to Life, which opposes the “10-day rule,” Lewis said she was “heartbroken“ over the judge’s decision. “I feel frustrated because anyone in that courtroom would want more

time just like I do if Tinslee were their baby,” she said.

The hospital said in a statement Thurs-day that in order to keep Tinslee alive, she’s on a constant stream of painkillers, sedatives and paralytics. She currently has severe sepsis, which isn’t uncommon when patients require deep sedation and chemi-cal paralysis, it said.

“Even with the most extraordinary mea-sures the medical team is taking, Tinslee continues to suffer,” the hospital said.

Tinslee has been at Cook Children’s since her premature birth. The hospital said she has a rare heart defect and suffers from chronic lung disease and severe chronic high blood pressure. She hasn’t come off a ventilator since going into respiratory ar-rest in early July and requires full respira-tory and cardiac support.

BY SCOTT BAUER

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. — A conservative law firm on Thursday asked a judge to find the Wisconsin Elections Commission in contempt and impose $12,000 a day in fines until it immediately purges more than 200,000 voters from the rolls, a move Democrats are fighting in the key battle-ground state.

A judge last month ordered the purge of voters who may have moved and didn’t re-spond within 30 days to notification sent by the elections commission in October. The bipartisan commission has deadlocked twice on attempts by Republicans to do the purge immediately while an appeal to the court order is pending.

Rick Esenberg, leader of the conser-vative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty that brought the lawsuit, said the commission must purge the voters now. The judge in December ruled that the commission was breaking state law by not removing voters who did not respond to the October mailing asking that they confirm their address.

“Court orders are not suggestions,” Es-enberg said on WISN-AM. “They are not rendered inoperative by the fact that you filed an appeal.“

Esenberg filed a motion Thursday in Ozaukee County Court asking the judge to fine the commission and five of the six commissioners $2,000 each, or $12,000 total each day, for being in contempt of the order. The motion does not name one of the three Republicans on the commission who

was not on the panel when the legal fightbegan.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is representing the elections commis-sion in the case, said it “strongly disagrees”with arguments in the contempt motion.

“This case should not effectively be ended before the appeals process plays out,” Kaul said in a statement.

The affected voters come more heav-ily from Democratic areas of Wisconsin, a key state in the 2020 presidential elec-tion. President Donald Trump narrowlywon the state in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes and Wisconsin is expected to againbe one of the most hotly contested statesthis year.

Democrats fear forcing voters whoseregistration was nullified to re-register would create a burden on them and hurtturnout. Republicans argue that removingthe voters would ensure that the rolls are not full of people who shouldn’t be voting.

Esenberg’s group has asked that the con-servative-controlled Wisconsin SupremeCourt immediately take the state’s appeal of the case. The case is currently before astate appeals court. The commission hasasked the appeals court to put the originalruling on hold, but it has not yet acted. The Supreme Court has not said yet whether itwill take the case.

The League of Women Voters of Wiscon-sin also has filed a federal lawsuit to stopthe purge. That lawsuit argues that it wouldbe a violation of constitutional due process rights to deactivate the registrations of the voters without proper notice.

TED S. WARREN/AP

Fishing boats and boats used for other purposes are shown parked near the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial on Thursday . Items left at the memorial Thursday included a ball cap with the name of the crab fishing boat Scandies Rose , from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, that sank on New Year’s Eve.

5 crew members of Alaska fishing boat feared dead; Coast Guard ends search

Calls reveal rough conditions before sinking

TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE/AP

A Texas judge sided with a hospital that plans to remove Tinslee Lewis from life support. Her mother disagreed with doctors who say that the girl is in pain and that her condition will not improve.

Conservatives seek purge of Wis. votersJudge says hospital can take baby off life support despite her family’s wishes

PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

BY ASTRID GALVAN AND CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

Associated Press

PHOENIX — The U.S. govern-ment on Thursday began sending asylum-seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly 350 miles away in Juarez, Mexico.

Authorities are expanding a program known as Remain in Mexico that requires tens of thou-sands of asylum seekers to wait out their immigration court hear-ings in Mexico. Until this week, the government was driving some asylum seekers from Nogales, Ariz. , to El Paso, Texas, so they could be returned to Juarez.

Now, asylum-seekers will have to find their own way through dan-gerous Mexican border roads.

About 30 asylum seekers were sent to Nogales, Mexico, on Thurs-day, said Gilda Loureiro, director of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora.

Loureiro said the migrants hadn’t made it to the shelter yet but that it was prepared and has

a capacity of about 400.“We’re going to take up to the

capacity we have,” she said.Critics say the Remain in

Mexico program, one of several Trump administration policies that have all but ended asylum in the U.S., puts migrants who fled their home countries back into dangerous Mexican border towns where they are often kidnapped, robbed or extorted.

A Human Rights First report released in December document-ed at least 636 public reports of violence against asylum-seekers returned to Mexico including rape, kidnapping and torture. Human Rights First said that was a steep increase over October when the group had identified 343 attacks, and noted the latest figure is surely an under-count because most crime victims don’t report.

The government calls the program Migrant Protection Protocols.

Nogales is now the seventh bor-der crossing through which U.S. authorities returns migrants to

Mexico to await court hearings. The policy was introduced in Jan-uary 2018 in San Diego.

More than 56,000 people were sent back to Mexico by the end of November, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Re-cords Access Clearinghouse. Of the more than 24,000 cases that have been decided, only 117, or less than 1%, have been granted asylum or some other form relief allowing them to stay in the Unit-

ed States.But U.S. authorities have laud-

ed the program, saying it’s helped to significantly reduce illegal border crossings. The Border Pa-trol apprehended just over 33,000 people along the Southwest bor-der in November, compared to 144,000 in May, when border crossings peaked.

In a statement, acting De-partment of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the

program has been “an extremely effective tool.”

“I am confident in the pro-gram’s continued success in adjudicating meritorious cases quickly and preventing fraudu-lent claims,” Wolf wrote.

A three-judge appeals courtpanel heard arguments Oct. 1 inSan Francisco on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil LibertiesUnion to block the policy. The court has yet to rule.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

NATION

US starts sendingasylum-seekers to wait in Mexico

4th inmate killed within a week in Miss. prison system

Change sought for Minn. constitution’s approval of slavery for convicts

BY JEFF AMY AND EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. — Another Mississippi inmate has died at the hands of a fellow inmate, bring-ing the death toll to four in distur-bances over the past week in the state prison system. The violence comes even as a federal judge has rejected claims that conditions in one Mississippi prison are uncon-stitutionally harsh.

Sunflower County Corner Heather Burton told The Asso-ciated Press a 32-year-old male prisoner died before noon Thurs-day at the Mississippi State Peni-tentiary at Parchman. Burton said the inmate, whom she de-

clined to identify pending noti-fication of relatives, had multiple stab wounds.

Sunflower County Sher-iff James Haywood said other in-mates were injured. Deputies from mul-tiple coun-ties and state agencies re-sponded to the sprawling and iso-lated Parchman prison, Haywood said.

Earlier in the week, prisons statewide were put under lockdown after what the department called

a “major disturbance” Sunday at the South Mississippi Correction-

al Institution in Greene County. In-mate Ter-randance Dobbins, 40, was killed and two oth-ers were hurt.

On Tues-day evening at Parch-

man, inmate Walter Gates, 25, died and several others were in-jured during a fight among pris-oners. The fight broke out in one unit and spread to others around the prison, Burton told news out-

lets. Burton said Gates, who had a 2015 burglary conviction, re-ceived multiple stab wounds.

Then one inmate was killed and two were injured in a fight early Thursday at Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility, a county-run facility that holds state inmates.

“We had it under control in three minutes,” Chickasaw Coun-ty Sheriff Jim Meyers told The Associated Press.

Meyers identified the dead in-mate as Gregory Emary, 26, of Hernando, serving a 16-year sen-tence for burglary.

Another inmate was in inten-sive care after surgery at a Tu-pelo hospital, Meyers said, and a third was at another hospital with

cuts to the head. The violence came even as U.S.

District Judge William Barbour ruled Tuesday that while condi-tions may have previously beenpoor at East Mississippi Correc-tional Facility near Meridian, there’s no longer any evidence that the privately run prison isviolating inmates’ rights.

A lawsuit suit filed in 2013 al-leged that inmates were beingsystematically denied health care and mental health care, were indanger of violence from guardsand other prisoners, and wereforced into long stretches in soli-tary confinement, where cellswere often dark and where in-mates often set fires.

Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota police chief said he wants to change state con-stitution to remove a pre-Civil War refer-ence to slavery being an acceptable form of punishment.

Even though slavery has been illegal throughout the country for more than a century, St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday that his goal is to “ignite a movement” to have the reference dropped from the Minnesota Constitution.

“For some time now, I’ve been troubled by a clause in the Minnesota State Consti-tution. It involves the word slavery, which doesn’t reflect our state values.” Axtell said, referring to a section of the state constitution that reads: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the state otherwise than as punishment for a crime of which the party has been convicted.”

It is “beyond time to move forward to-gether and strike out slavery from our shared constitution,” he wrote.

The phrase is among the first sentences

in the 14-article constitution that ushered Minnesota into statehood in 1858. It drew Axtell’s attention a few months ago when he read about other states confronting slavery passages in their constitutions.

Axtell’s campaign got off to a fast start. Minnesota Rep. John Lesch responded that he intends to draft a document to remove the slavery reference and give it a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.

Although Axtell and Lesch are push-ing to remove slavery references from the Minnesota Constitution, the 13th Amend-

ment to the U.S. Constitution, featuressimilar language, stating that slavery isbanned throughout the country, “except asa punishment for crime whereof the partyshall have been duly convicted.”

Steve Linders, a spokesman for Axtell,said the chief “is focused on the state con-stitution but would support any effort thatthat helps ensure that the U.S. Constitutionreflects our country’s shared values.”

Lesch said he hopes to see the documentpass through the Legislature and appear on the 2020 general election ballot.

JOSH GALEMORE, ARIZONA DAILY STAR/AP

Asylum seekers load into the back of a Mexican police vehicle as they are returned to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, after making claims in the United States, on Thursday.

EmaryGates

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9

BY JIM MUSTIANAND RYAN TARINELLI

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The man charged in the machete attack on a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City had been ques-tioned by local authorities in con-nection with an earlier stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish man in the same town, police said Thursday.

Grafton Thomas faces state and federal charges in Saturday’s Hanukkah attack, which wound-ed five people at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.

That attack came as police in the same town were investigating a Nov. 20 stabbing in which a man was critically injured while walk-ing to a synagogue.

Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said police questioned Thomas based on video evidence that suggested a Honda Pilot may have been involved in the Novem-ber stabbing. Thomas’ mother drives a Honda Pilot, and authori-ties said they seized and searched that vehicle following Thomas’ arrest in Saturday’s attack.

Weidel said investigators have not tied Thomas to the earlier stabbing.

“We have to operate with evi-dence,” Weidel told reporters at a news conference. “We had no evidence, and we had no probable cause to do anything other than follow a lead.”

The police chief’s remarks came as local prosecutors were preparing to present evidence on Friday to a grand jury that will be asked to indict Thomas in connec-tion with the Hanukkah attack.

Thomas’ defense attorney, Mi-chael Sussman, said he asked the district attorney to delay that proceeding and allow Thomas to undergo an inpatient psychiatric evaluation.

The Rockland County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the request.

Marine Corps officials said Tuesday that Thomas also had begun boot camp but was sepa-rated from the service a month later for “fraudulent enlistment.”

A Marine Corps spokeswoman would not provide details. “Those specifics are administrative in nature and therefore information we are required to keep private,” Capt. Karoline Foote said.

Military law defines fraudulent enlistment as a “knowingly false representation or deliberate con-cealment as to” a recruit’s quali-fications. That could involve a recruit failing to disclose certain medical conditions, past drug use or an arrest record, including cases that are sealed because the recruit was a juvenile or for other reasons.

Sussman said he learned more about Thomas’ history of men-tal health problems after visit-ing Thomas’ former residence in Sullivan County and finding “rambling writings” and un-opened bottles of psychotropic medication.

He said none of the writings contained signs of anti-Semitism, though he added he has not seen the materials federal authorities seized from Thomas’ home in Greenwood Lake.

Authorities have said Thomas, 37, had handwritten journals con-taining anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues.

Sussman described Thomas as a man with “tremendous men-tal derangement who never re-ceived the care and treatment he needed.” He provided new details about a September 2018 incident in which Thomas was arrested at

his mother’s home after refusing to put down a knife that a police officer ordered him to drop.

Thomas did not undergo a psy-chological evaluation following that arrest, Sussman said, though mental health treatment was made a condition of the case’s dismissal.

Sussman said Thomas had been “mischaracterized” as an anti-Semite by elected leaders who do not yet know all the facts.

“There’s something here that’s seriously wrong,” he said, refer-ring to Thomas’ lack of sufficient treatment. “How it manifested is a great tragedy.”

Sussman spoke hours after the daughter of a man gravely wound-ed in the machete attack made an emotional plea to end hatred and anti-Semitism.

“We want our kids to go to school and feel safe,” Nicky Kohen, the daughter of Josef Neumann, told reporters in front of her home in Rockland County. “We want to go to synagogues and feel safe. We want to go to grocery stores and malls and feel safe.”

Neumann, 72, has been uncon-scious since Saturday’s attack and remains in intensive care at Westchester Medical Center, where he was undergoing sur-gery Thursday.

The family released a state-ment this week saying Neumann, a father of seven, may have per-manent brain damage. They also released a photograph of Neu-mann showing his head injuries.

“The doctors do not have high hopes for him,” Kohen said. “If he wakes up he may never be able to walk, talk or even process speech again.”

“We hope he wakes to a changed world with peace, unity and love for all,” she added. “Let’s stand up together and stop the hatred.”

More scrutiny for Tesla tech after 3 more crashes

BY TOM KRISHER

Associated News

DETROIT — Three crashes involving Teslas that killed three people have increased scrutiny of the company’s Autopilot driving system just months before CEO Elon Musk has planned to put fully self-driving cars on the streets.

On Sunday, a Tesla Model S sedan left a freeway in Gardena, California, at a high speed, ran a red light and struck a Honda Civic, killing two people inside, police said.

On the same day, a Tesla Model 3 hit a parked firetruck on an In-diana freeway, killing a passenger in the Tesla.

And on Dec. 7, yet another Model 3 struck a police cruiser on a Connecticut highway, though no one was hurt.

The special crash investigation unit of the National Highway Traf-fic Safety Administration is look-ing into the California crash. The agency hasn’t decided whether its special-crash unit will review the crash that occurred Sunday near Terre Haute, Indiana. In both cases, authorities have yet to de-termine whether Tesla’s Autopilot system was being used.

NHTSA also is investigating the Connecticut crash, in which the driver told police that the car was

operating on Autopilot, a Teslasystem designed to keep a car inits lane and a safe distance fromother vehicles. Autopilot also canchange lanes on its own.

Tesla has said repeatedly that itsAutopilot system is designed only to assist drivers, who must still pay attention and be ready to in-tervene at all times. The companycontends that Teslas with Autopi-lot are safer than vehicles withoutit, but cautions that the systemdoes not prevent all crashes.

Even so, experts and safety ad-vocates say a string of Tesla crash-es raises serious questions aboutwhether drivers have become tooreliant on Tesla’s technology and whether the company does enoughto ensure that drivers keep payingattention. Some critics have said it’s past time for NHTSA to stopinvestigating and to take action, such as forcing Tesla to make suredrivers pay attention when the system is being used.

NHTSA has started investiga-tions into 13 Tesla crashes datingto at least 2016 in which the agen-cy believes Autopilot was operat-ing. The agency has yet to issueany regulations, though it is study-ing how it should evaluate similar“advanced driver assist” systems.

‘Affluenza teen’ jailed for parole violation

Saturday, January 4, 2020

NATION

Suspect questioned in prior anti-Semitic stabbing in NY

JULIUS CONSTANTINE MOTAL/AP

Police officers escort Grafton Thomas to a police vehicle Sunday in Ramapo, N.Y. Thomas is accused of stabbing multiple people as they gathered to celebrate Hanukkah at a rabbi’s home in the Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas man who used “affluenza“ as a defense at his trial for killing four people while driving drunk was arrested Thursday after au-thorities say he violated the terms of his probation.

Ethan Couch, 22, was booked into a jail in Fort Worth after he tested positive for THC, the psy-choactive compound in marijua-na, court records show.

Couch’s attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said their cli-ent has been intensely monitored for alcohol and illegal substance use for more than 20 months and “has never been positive for the use of any substance before.”

“We cannot make any further statement until we have the op-portunity to conduct an investiga-tion to determine if, in fact, Ethan ingested THC and, if so, if it was a voluntary act on his part,“ Brown and Wynn said in a statement.

Jail records did not indicate whether his bond had been set Thursday afternoon.

Couch became known as the “affluenza teen“ during his man-slaughter trial for the 2013 crash. Couch, 16 at the time of the crash, was found to have a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit for adult drivers after the crash. But a psychologist told a juvenile court that he was affected by “affluenza,” or irresponsibility caused by family wealth.

A judge originally sentencedCouch to 10 years of probation.But he was later jailed after at-tending a party where alcohol was served and then fleeing to Mexico with his mother to avoidpunishment. He was released in 2018 after serving a nearly two-year sentence. In 2013, Couchlost control of his family’s pickuptruck after he and his friends hadplayed beer pong and drank beerstolen from a Walmart. He veered into a crowd of people helping thedriver of a disabled vehicle on theside of the road. Authorities laterestimated that he was going 70 mph in a 40 mph zone.

The crash fatally injured thestranded motorist, a youth min-ister who stopped to help her and a mother and daughter who came out of their nearby home.

TARRANT COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE /AP

Ethan Couch appears in a 2016 booking photo.

PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11Saturday, January 4, 2020

BY JILL U. ADAMS

Special to The Washington Post

These cold, dark winter days make me want to curl up with a book, perhaps while munching on holiday cookies.

One could describe my conduct this way: sedentary behavior combined with snacking on sugary treats. A regular practice of these things might well lead to weight gain.

Is winter weight gain a thing? Yes, says Larry Che-skin, who chairs the nutrition department at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. “There is good evidence that it is a thing.”

On average, research shows that people gain one to two pounds over the winter months. For instance, a study of 195 people at the National Institutes of Health found weight gain of about one pound between late September and March.

A study of 248 U.S. military personnel, who were enrolled in a weight-loss program, found that people added about two pounds from fall to winter.

Here’s something else. There also is evidence that American adults gain one to two pounds each year, gradually accumulating weight over decades. Winter weight gain might be a major culprit, so perhaps we should view the season as a particularly risky time for adding excess padding.

Indeed, 165 subjects in the NIH study returned for a September weigh-in and, on average, were 1.4 pounds heavier than the year before.

A note: One to two pounds on average means that some people don’t gain any weight, while others gain fi ve pounds or more. And in a rude twist of fate, the people who gain the most are more likely to be already overweight or obese.

Why does winter weight gain happen? “The reasons are not that clear,” Cheskin says. “I suspect that much of it is what we would call behavioral.”

That means eating more and exercising less.“The change in eating behavior is key,” says Mi-

chael Gavin, a physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Overeating, snacking and choosing

comfort foods over fruits and vegetables are some of the eating habits that could occur.

Some researchers have narrowed the time win-dow to look at weight gain over the weeks spanning Thanksgiving through New Year’s. In the NIH study, people gained 0.8 pounds, on average, during that period. And in a second study with military personnel, it was 0.4 pounds.

People celebrate a variety of things over the holi-days — seeing family, religious events, the turning of the calendar — and they do it with rich foods, desserts and drinks. Perhaps we should mention the holiday spirit — a spirit of permission to overindulge. I mean, we’re celebrating!

“The holidays are not insignifi cant,” Cheskin says. There are more social events, an increase in the vari-ety of foods and more drinking. Alcohol adds calories and undermines self-control.

But it’s not just overeating at holiday parties that’s to blame. When it’s cold and snowy — or slushy or icy — outside, people spend more time indoors, which in turn can mean get-ting less physical activity.

Research backs up the exercise slowdown. A review of 37 studies found that people are most physi-cally active in spring and summer and least in winter.

Also, it’s easy to feel bored when you’re cooped up in-side — and boredom may lead you to snack more.

So if wintertime in general, and the holidays in particular, are a precarious time for gaining weight — weight that you might keep forever — then what can be done?

First, be aware that winter weight gain can happen. Pay attention to your diet and try to keep your activity level up.

Weighing yourself every day is key, says Marg aret Fahey, a doctoral student at the

University of Memphis and fi rst author on the military personnel’s weight-gain studies. Study participants used electronic scales that sent data directly to the researchers. Fahey and her colleagues observed that during the winter months, people often skipped their daily weigh-ins.

The researchers also noticed that the participants who had most recently enrolled in weight-loss inter-vention gained the least weight. That suggests that when motivation is high, winter weight gain can be avoided.

Motivation can help you stick to good weight main-tenance behaviors, such as daily weigh-ins, as well as tracking diet and activity. There are a number of apps that can make it easier to track what you eat and how much you move.

“Winter weight gain is common,” Fahey says. “Which might indicate that weight maintenance strat-egies are important to implement during winter.”

Gavin recommends being mindful of your eating habits, but not overly restrictive. Don’t try to avoid

cookies altogether, he says, but limit yourself to one or two cookies.

Cheskin says it’s important to understand your own tendencies. When

counseling patients who want to lose weight,

he starts by ask-ing them what they think has

contributed to their weight gain.

Do you eat when you’re sad or bored? Do you plan your

meals? Do social outings — or family — interfere with healthy eating? Are there medical issues involved?

“You hear about lots of factors relating to weight,” Cheskin says. You don’t need to attend

to all of them, he says — just the ones that are specifi c to you.

HEALTH & FITNESS

Ward off weight gain this winteriStock illustrations

PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

MOVIESTOP

FILMS OF THE 2010s

BY LINDSEY BAHR AND

JAKE COYLE

Associated Press

The last 10 years will probably go down as the decade of Marvel’s domination and Netfl ix’s ascension. But despite all the tumult and the perpetual rumors of cinema’s supposed demise, good stuff — no, great stuff — kept getting made.

It can be harder to fi nd. Mega-blockbusters suck up most of the big screens and the small ones are increasingly crowded with infi nite choice. Yet the medium is as vibrant as ever, thanks to the infl ux

of new voices (though still not enough of them) and the undying need of fi lmmakers to tell stories with light and sound. The movies abide.

The impossibility of an exercise like this is only a reminder of just how very alive cinema is. The next 50 movies on our list, or yours, might be just as good.

2. ‘Phantom Thread’Paul Thomas Anderson was al-ready having an incredible decade with “The Master,” from 2012 and “Inherent Vice,” from 2014. Then, three years later, “Phantom Thread” came along and with its lush haute couture, blushing heroine, ornery genius and poison mushrooms, he somehow blew all the others out of the water. Ander-son made a black romantic comedy for his eighth feature but imbued it with enough prestige dressings to elevate it above such a “pedes-trian” form.

— Lindsey Bahr

3. ‘Margaret’Kenneth Lonergan’s other two, also exceptional, features (“You Can Count on Me,” “Manchester by the Sea”) are better known partly because “Margaret” was tied up for years in a legal battle and an editing nightmare. But Loner-gan’s longer cut (not what was briefl y released in theaters but what’s available on DVD) is a New York masterwork of great depth and scope. A teenager (Anna Paquin) comes to question everything after witnessing a traffi c death. Culmi-nating with an embrace in a theater (with an extraordinary J. Smith-Cameron), “Margaret” is about a self-centered young woman awakening to the dramas all around her.

— Coyle

5. ‘Moonlight’Barry Jenkins’ coming-of-age tale is separated into three sections — “Lit-tle,” “Chiron” and “Black” — but its lyricism, beauty and ache is undi-vided. There’s a haunting, even radical intimacy to “Moonlight.” Years later, Chiron feels like someone you once met and will know forever. The movie’s soft blue light shines and shines and shines.

— Coyle

4. ‘Lady Bird’A Sacramento teen navigating her senior year of high school in the early aughts doesn’t necessarily sound like “important cinema,” but that’s exactly why Greta Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical solo directing debut is so great. The naivete and angry restlessness of young adulthood is given a crackling form in Chris-tine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a per-fectly imperfect heroine who clashes with her mother and desperately yearns for something — anything — that takes her away from the familiar, whether that’s a boy on the nice side of town or a college on the other side of the country. It is, ultimately, a loving look at a young woman who hasn’t yet become her fully re-alized self and the town that, despite her best efforts, has shaped her to her core.

— Bahr

FOX SEARCHLIGHT/AP

Brad Pitt is pictured in a scene from director Terrence Malick’s ambitious, experimental 2011 epic, “Tree of Life.”

A24/AP

Saoirse Ronan, above, is a high school senior at odds with her hometown in Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird.”

A24/AP

Mahershala Ali, left, and Alex Hibbert are two of the reasons “Moonlight” shines so brightly.

1. ‘Tree of Life’All the mystery and harmony of life, in the memory-tinged detail of a small-town 1950s Texas family but writ across time and the cosmos. Terrence Malick’s radiant 2011 fi lm maps individual existence against eternity, turning an intimate tale epic. It’s got Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain and dinosaurs and it’s one of the most sublime and soul-stirring movies ever made.

— Jake Coyle

CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13Saturday, January 4, 2020

MOVIES

7. ‘Cold War’Pawel Pawlikowski made two stag-gering masterpieces in the last decade, both expressively black-and-white, both devastatingly taut. First was “Ida,” then came “Cold War.” It’s a stunning back-to-back. The two fi lms, so austere yet so expres-sive, feel like they come from anoth-er time. Choosing one isn’t fair, but I gravitate more to “Cold War” for the sensual performances of Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot as lovers brought together and torn apart in postwar Poland. It’s a romantic and bleak portrait of love and art under totalitarianism.

— Coyle

8. ‘Certified Copy’Can a fi ction be truth? That’s the heady question behind the great Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certifi ed Copy,” in which an antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche) and a writer (Wil-liam Shimell) debate the essence of authenticity in art and what, exactly, constitutes a reproduction (perhaps everything). The fi lm has its own metamorphosis of sorts too as the nature of even their rela-tionship becomes amorphous and obscured when a farce about the two being married ends up becoming very real. It was an audacious and provocative fi lm to kick off a decade of cinema and while the answers remain elusive, the experience and ideas are those that nine-plus years on have continued to provoke.

— Bahr

9. ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’As they were in the two previous decades, the Coen brothers were as vital as any fi lmmaker over the past 10 years. Their output: “True Grit,” “Hail, Caesar!”, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and, most of all, this melancholy gem set in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the winter of 1961. The title charac-ter (Oscar Isaac) is a musician, recently made solo by the death of his singing partner, whose talent isn’t quite enough, whose luck is lacking and whose cat-wrangling abilities are defi nitely insuffi cient. Llewyn never catches a break. Thank God the Coens did.

— Coyle

10. ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’Wes Anderson’s precise and beautiful aesthetics have a way of becoming the only thing people talk about or seem to remember from his fi lms, which is

unfortunate because it’s also something that can be weaponized against him. But “The Grand Budapest Hotel’s” mastery is undeniable. Within this fun and sumptuous caper confection about a dandy concierge, Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), who presides over a splendid old-world hotel that is quickly becom-ing as much of a relic as his aristocrat-ic-servant values, is an unexpectedly moving commentary on the last vestig-es of civilization in a time between two dehumanizing world wars. It’s the kind of fi lm that has the audience yearning for and mourning something that never even really existed.

— Bahr

Also: “Dawson City Frozen Time,” “Melancholia,” “The Florida Project,” “The Social Network,” “Timbuktu,” “Cameraperson,” “The Immigrant,” “A Separation,” “I Am Love,” “Burning,” “Senna,” “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” “Phoenix,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Faces Places,” “At Berkeley,” “The Deep Blue Sea”

FOX SEARCHLIGHT/AP

From left: Paul Schlase, Tony Revelori, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes are pictured in a scene from “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

6. ‘Somewhere’Writer-director Sofi a Coppola has always been able to see the dreamy banality in the sensational, whether it’s in the life of Marie Antoinette, the suicides of fi ve sisters, or, in the case of “Somewhere,” the life of a movie star (Stephen Dorff) living in the most tabloid-ridden hotel in Los Angeles: the Chateau Marmont. Quiet and restrained and with the roads and cars and excess of Los Angeles as the backdrop, “Somewhere” gazes in on a father coming to the realization that very soon his almost teenage daughter (Elle Fanning) won’t need him at all. It’s neither cold nor depressing, however, but a warm-hearted look at the isolation, the silliness and even the universality of this rarefi ed world.

— Bahr

FOCUS FEATURES/AP

Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning, right, are shown in a scene from Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere.”

CBS Films

Oscar Isaac is the titular folk singer in “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

Female-led ‘Black Widow,’ ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ are among ’20’s most anticipated

BY NARDINE SAAD

Los Angeles Times

The future is female ... at least when it comes to the cineplex.

For the fi rst time, four fi lms starring and direct-ed by women — “Wonder Woman 1984,” Marvel’s “Black Widow” and “Eternals” and Disney’s live-action “Mulan” — topped a Fandango audience survey of the most anticipated movies of the new year, the fi lm hub announced Dec. 27.

The movies, helmed by Patty Jenkins, Cate Shortland, Chloe Zhao and Niki Caro, respec-tively, were selected in an online survey con-ducted in the last weeks of December. More than 2,000 millen-nial fi lm fans cast their votes for the top movies and performances they were most looking for-ward to seeing on the big screen in 2020.

Rounding out the top 10 are a bevy of sequels, spin-offs and adaptations, including the next James Bond installment (“No Time to Die”), John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place II,” the female superhero team-up fl ick “Birds of Prey,” the musical “In the Heights,” Pixar’s animated fi lm “Soul” and the ninth chapter of the “Fast & Furious” franchise. “Soul,” about a middle-school music teacher who dreams of playing at a New York jazz club, appears to be the only original fare.

But it’s the “Wonder Woman” sequel that fans seem particularly stoked about, topping the most anticipated actress (Gal Gadot), actor (Chris Pine) and villain (Kristen Wiig) categories as well.

Here’s how those four fi lms fared and the other releases moviegoers can expect in the new year:

MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIE“Wonder Woman 1984” (directed by Patty Jenkins, June 5)“Black Widow” (Cate Shortland, May 1)Marvel’s “Eternals” (Chloe Zhao, Nov. 6)“Mulan” (Niki Caro, March 27)“No Time to Die” (Cary Joji Fukunaga, April 10)“A Quiet Place Part II” (John Krasinski, March 20)“Birds of Prey” (Cathy Yan, Feb. 7)“In the Heights” (Jon M. Chu, June 26)Pixar’s “Soul” (Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, June 19)“Fast & Furious 9” (Justin Lin, May 22)

MOST ANTICIPATED ACTRESSGal Gadot (“Wonder Woman 1984”)Scarlett Johansson (“Black Widow”)Emily Blunt (“A Quiet Place Part II,” “Jungle Cruise”)Margot Robbie (“Birds of Prey”)Zendaya (“Dune”)MOST ANTICIPATED ACTORChris Pine (“Wonder Woman 1984”)Paul Rudd (“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”)Ryan Reynolds (“Free Guy”)Daniel Craig (“No Time to Die”)Robert Downey Jr. (“Dolittle”)MOST ANTICIPATED FAMILY FILM“Mulan”Pixar’s “Soul”“Sonic the Hedgehog”“Dolittle”“Jungle Cruise”

MOST ANTICIPATED VILLAIN1. Kristen Wiig as Cheetah (“Wonder Woman 1984”)2. Rami Malek as Safi n (“No Time to Die”)3. Ewan McGregor as Black Mask (“Birds of Prey”)4. Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivo Robotnik (“Sonic the Hedgehog”)5. Charlize Theron as Cipher (“Fast & Furious 9”)MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR FILM“A Quiet Place Part II”“Halloween Kills”“The Invisible Man”“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It”“The Grudge”MOST ANTICIPATED LIVE-ACTION COMEDY“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”“Bill & Ted Face the Music”“Bad Boys For Life”“Legally Blonde 3”“The Lovebirds”

Gal Gadot

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

were located, and it was deter-mined that no shots had been fired.

A 23-year-old Lakewood man told police he had set off the fireworks as part of his friend’s marriage proposal at the other business.

Skiers evacuated from lift after chair incident

MT MISSOULA — Mon-tana authorities have

confirmed dozens of people were evacuated from a chairlift at Mon-tana Snowbowl after an empty chair separated from the cable.

Two skiers had just gotten off the chair when it caught on part of the lift and completely ripped off the cable, the Missoulian reported.

No one was injured.

Hershey is retiring fleet of Kissmobiles

PA HERSHEY — The Her-shey Co. will soon retire

its vehicles that are shaped like its Hershey’s Kisses.

The Hershey Kissmobiles, which are each made up of three massive Kisses candies, have traveled across the country since 1997. The chocolate company has confirmed that the 26-foot-long vehicles won’t return in 2020.

The company decided to pull the aging Kissmobiles out of safe-ty concerns for employees and the public, Hershey Co. spokes-man Jeff Beckman said. It has also become more difficult to find replacement parts for the custom vehicles.

One of the Kissmobiles will be available for public viewing at the AACA Museum in Hershey.

Server at restaurant gets $2,020 tip

MI ALPENA — The res-taurant bill was $23.

But the tip at a small-town res-taurant in Michigan was much larger: $2,020.

“Things like this don’t happen to people like me,” server Dani-elle Franzoni told The Alpena News.

Franzoni, 31, got the tip while working Sunday at Thunder Bay River Restaurant in Alpena. The credit card receipt said “Happy New Year. 2020 Tip Challenge.”

Franzoni, a single mother,

couldn’t believe the number, but her manager assured her the tip was legitimate.

She said she was living in a homeless shelter a year ago. Franzoni plans to use the money to reinstate her driver’s license and build savings.

“They don’t know nothing about my story. They don’t know where I’ve come from. They don’t know how hard it’s been,” Franzoni said of the couple who left the tip. “They’re really just doing this out of the kindness of their heart.”

Franzoni later went to a restau-rant and left a $20.20 tip.

Man flees solo car crash and gets stuck in ditch

FL CLEARWATER — A Florida man tried to flee

a traffic accident only to require rescuing when he got stuck in a ditch, authorities said.

The Tampa Bay Times report-ed that the 42-year-old fled a sin-gle-vehicle crash scene but soon found himself in trouble Sunday

night when he became trapped ina concrete retention ditch. He hadto be rescued by the fire depart-ment and taken to a hospital.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’sOffice said Dustin Anthony De-moss was later taken to jail andbooked on charges of drivingunder the influence and leavingthe scene of an accident.

Couple heats up frozen pizza – and a snake

NC WAKE FOREST — A couple in North Caroli-

na say they popped a frozen pizzainto the oven only to discover thata snake was burning inside about10 minutes later.

Amber Helm told the Raleigh News & Observer on Wednesdaythat her family had hoped to have an easy dinner on Monday night in Wake Forest.

But Helm said the oven started smoking and smelling terribleas they waited for their pizza tocook.

“I opened up the oven andthought, ‘Is that part of the oven?’ I looked more closely and it was asnake,” she said.

She said she left the pizza be-hind and took her young sons outto eat. Her husband stayed behind to deal with the snake.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

AMERICAN ROUNDUP

From wire reports

The number of cars that were shot at while driving along Inter-states 4 and 95 in central Florida, authorities say. No injuries were reported and the damage by the Wednesday shootings ap-pears to have been caused by a BB or pellet gun, according a statement by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

Police: Woman uses dog urine for screening

KY PINEVILLE — A Ken-tucky woman gave her

probation officer a dog urine sample during a drug screening, police said.

Julie Miller, 40, of Arjay, was arrested Monday on a charge of tampering with physical evidence, the Pineville Police Department said in a release on its Facebook page. She also was charged with a parole violation and trafficking in a controlled substance.

Miller admitted she tried to use the dog urine as her own sample given to officers at the Bell Coun-ty Probation and Parole Office during a regular probation visit, the statement said.

Corvette speared by a flying highway sign

FL HALLANDALE BEACH — A flying

highway sign gave a driver an unwelcome New Year’s Eve gift when it impaled the rear window of his Corvette during a highway mishap that left multiple vehicles damaged in south Florida.

The large highway merge sign speared the rear window of the car Tuesday afternoon on the northbound lanes of Interstate 95, about 20 miles from Miami, WSVN-TV reported.

Investigators think the sign flew into the air when it was struck by another vehicle and was launched into the Corvette’s windshield, authorities told the station.

Police: Man robbed Domino’s with machete

NC ASHEVILLE — Police in North Carolina say

a man robbed a Domino’s Pizza with a machete and then tried to set the store ablaze.

The Citizen Times reported that the alleged incident occurred late Monday night in Asheville.

Police said in a statement that Curtis Andrew Wallace Jr., 29, told Domino’s employees that he would “chop heads off” before locking them in an office and then a freezer.

Police said that Wallace took nearly $700 from a safe. They said Wallace then tried to start a fire in one of the pizza ovens when the employees were still trapped. He was taken into custody when police arrived after an employee called 911.

Marriage-proposal fireworks cause panic

NJ HOWELL — A man who set off fireworks near a

movie theater as his friend made a marriage proposal created panic among moviegoers who mistook the fireworks for gun-shots, leading to 911 calls and an evacuation, authorities said.

Howell Township police re-sponded to the Xscape Theater around 6 p.m. Wednesday and soon learned the theater manag-er had confronted a man who had set off fireworks outside another business near the theater, author-ities said.

The remnants of the fireworks

THE CENSUS

Making a splashAshley Piskorski, right, tumbles off of siblings Cole, left, and Kayla Piskorski during the 43rd annual Ski Freeze at Mud Island River Park in Memphis, Tenn., on Wednesday . Hosted by Collierville Ski Club, water skiers, barefooters and wakeboarders braved the Wolf River’s cold water to raise money for The Dream Factory of Memphis, which grants wishes for critically and chronically ill children ages 3 through 18.

JIM WEBER, DAILY MEMPHIAN/AP

15

Saturday, January 4, 2020 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15

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BY DANIEL W. DREZNER

Special to The Washington Post

Iraqi state television reports that an airstrike has killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani as well as Naim Qassem, the second-

in-command of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in Baghdad. Multiple reporters confirmed Soleimani’s death, and Newsweek’s James LaPorta reported that it was from a U.S. drone strike. The Defense Department an-nounced that it carried out this attack “at the direction of the President.”

Soleimani, an important figure in the re-gion, had been destabilizing U.S. interests for decades. His death will have conse-quences, and those should be explored.

But there are three factors that make me reticent to opine with any confidence. The first is that we still do not know an awful lot about how this went down. The second is that the greater Middle East is its own special policy morass and I am loath as a non-area expert to enter those waters. The third is that the variance of possible out-comes is huge.

So rather than make any confident pre-dictions about what will happen, let me in-stead pose some questions that need to be answered:

1) Just how much planning has the Trump administration done for the after-math? This escalated very quickly from the breach of the U.S. Embassy grounds in Baghdad two days before . We know from the Trump years that any time this admin-istration has increased pressure on the Iranian regime, there has been an asym-metric response that involves attacks on U.S. forces and the strategic assets of its allies. We also know that Iran has a pretty large network of loyalists across the region that could be activated for such an attack.

The probability of further escalation from the Iranian side is high. How prepared is the Trump administration for such escala-tion? Is the DOD rushing Marines to every embassy and consulate in the region, as it did in the wake of the breach in Baghdad?

Based on the hypotheses I have about his decision-making style, it would not sur-prise me in the slightest if this was an im-pulse decision. If that is the case, this will be an excellent test of how well the D-team national security machinery will work during a crisis.

2) Does a decapitation strategy work on a state actor? Iran is a state with sig-nificant capacity to make mischief in its neighborhood. The death of Soleimani does not wish the Quds Force, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Islamic Re-public of Iran out of existence. An awful lot of Iranians and other Shiites will want to retaliate. Standard international relations theory suggests that decapitating a key leader would not fundamentally affect that state’s capacity to act.

On the other hand, if one believes Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Soleimani was a uniquely networked actor in the region.

“For two decades, Suleimani has been the most powerful, savvy & effective terror-ist on the planet. He’s enjoyed full backing of powerful terrorist state. Irreplaceable,” Dubowitz tweeted Jan. 2. “It’s like losing your JSOC commander, CIA director & foreign minister — all at once.”

Andrew Exum, who served as the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy during the Obama ad-ministration, made a similar observation in the Atlantic: “From a military and dip-lomatic perspective, Soleimani was Iran’s David Petraeus and Stan McChrystal and Brett McGurk all rolled into one. And

that’s now the problem Iran faces. I do notknow of a single Iranian who was more in-dispensable to his government’s ambitionsin the Middle East.”

This really depends on whether you think Iran’s power projection in the regionneeded Soleimani to be the vital node orwhether that node can be easily replaced.If Dubowitz and Exum are correct, thenSoleimani will be extremely difficult to re-place and this represents a major setback for Iran. If not, then one would expect acoordinated ramping up of attacks on U.S. assets across the world.

3) What are the limits of escalation? TheU.S. just killed an agent of another govern-ment. That is escalating tensions with Iran.On the other hand, Soleimani had been di-recting attacks against U.S. personnel in the region for at least a decade, so relationswere already pretty tense. Furthermore, neither President Donald Trump nor Iran’sleadership wants a full-scale conventionalwar. What will both sides do short of out-right war to weaken the other side? The United States has already imposed punish-ing sanctions. What Iran might do in thePersian Gulf in response bears watching.

4) What are the wild cards? Will there be spontaneous violent reactions from theShiites across the region? Iraq’s govern-ment has been wobbling for months — will this cause it to collapse? If it does collapse,what happens then?

So there are lots of ways this could go badly in the next few weeks. But not every predicted bad thing happens. Soleimani’s death in the abstract is not the worst thingfor U.S. interests in the region. We areabout to see whether the abstract matchesthe real.Daniel W. Drezner is a professor ofinternational politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

BY DAVID IGNATIUS

Washington Post Writers Group

WASHINGTON

When it comes to international cybersecurity issues, you have to credit Russia for its bald-faced hypocrisy. The fox, as it

were, has just managed to get itself elected chairman of the committee to protect the henhouse.

Last week Russia won approval from the U.N. General Assembly for its resolution to begin drafting a new global treaty to com-bat cybercrime. Yes, that’s right, the coun-try that hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and various European campaigns is now leading the process to write interna-tional rules about hacking.

What’s the Russian word for “chutzpah”?

The Russian plan was opposed — fee-bly, it must be said — by the U.S. and some European countries. A State Department official warned reporters on Dec. 19, eight days before the measure passed, that the U.S. had “very serious concerns” about such a treaty that would “stand against fundamental American freedoms.” A similar caution came from a coalition that included the European Union and promi-nent nongovernmental organizations. “The approach taken ... is fundamentally flawed and would restrict the use of the internet for human rights, and social and economic de-velopment,” an open letter signed by NGOs said. But the measure, backed by China, passed 79 to 60, with 33 abstentions.

“I think this is a pretty big deal, espe-cially in how we control the internet and who gets to govern it,” says Michael Cher-toff, a former secretary of homeland se-curity who runs a large cyber consulting

group. Chertoff notes that although State and Justice Department officials have tried to counter Russian efforts, there has been little top-level focus from the Trump White House. “I don’t think cybersecurity has been elevated to a priority in the way that tariffs have been, even though it’s more important to the global economy in the 21st century.”

“The Russians see information secu-rity as security against information they don’t like,” Chertoff explains. Russia tries to block reporting that challenges its gov-ernment narratives, just as China uses its “Great Firewall” to restrict the flow of negative information inside its borders. Both countries are exporting these censor-ing technologies to other nations that want to suppress dissent.

“People should pay attention,” agrees Chris Painter, who was the Obama admin-istration’s top cyber diplomat. He notes that the Russians have been trying for two decades to shape global internet rules that match their interests. But with the cyber-crime treaty, “they’ve taken it to the next level.”

The Russians never joined the U.S.-led 2001 Budapest Convention on cybercrime, signed by 67 nations, viewing it as too in-trusive. They took part in a U.N. “Group of Governmental Experts” on the inter-net and embraced its consensus norms in 2013 and 2015, but they balked in 2017 and formed a rival U.N. oversight organization called the “Open-Ended Working Group” in 2018. The working group has received submissions from nations that suppress internet freedom. China inevitably called for “win-win cooperation” but insisted that “the principle of sovereignty applies in cyberspace.” Iran, which closed off the internet in November to try to suppress do-

mestic protests, argued that it has been “avictim of cyber weapon[s],” presumably areference to the alleged Stuxnet attack bythe U.S. and Israel.

A leading architect of Russia’s inter-net strategy has been Andrey Krutskikh,a special representative of PresidentVladimir Putin for information security.Sources described a comment he made toa Moscow audience in February 2016, asthe Russians were about to launch theirhacking assault on the U.S. presidentialelection: “I’m warning you: We are at theverge of having ‘something’ in the infor-mation arena, which will allow us to talk tothe Americans as equals.”

Krutskikh and his Russian colleagues have been wooing foreigners toward whathe described in March as “depoliticized expert dialogue” about cybersecurity.One example was his meeting in Mos-cow in November with Henri Verdier,France’s ambassador for digital affairs.The two agreed on “the need to develop international cooperation” in cyberspace,within a U.N. framework, according to aRussian press release . How’s that again?Isn’t France one of America’s digital allies,and wasn’t President Emmanuel Macron avictim of Russian hacking during his 2017 presidential campaign? It’s complicated,apparently. Kommersant, the Russian newspaper, quoted Verdier saying after themeeting: “France has not officially attrib-uted cyberattacks to anyone.”

As I said, you have to hand it to the Rus-sians when it comes to information wars.They are masters of deception and denial, never more effectively than in the internetage. They pick your pockets, and then they offer to help you call the police.

Killing Soleimani might’ve opened Pandora’s box

Russians are masters of deception on cyberwars

PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17Saturday, January 4, 2020

Go to the American Forces Network website for the most up-to-date TV schedules.myafn.net

Sports on AFN

College basketball College football

Deals

Golf

SCOREBOARD/COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Thursday’s transactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballMLB — Announced New York Yankees

pitcher Domingo German accepted an 81-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sex-ual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.

American LeagueBOSTON RED SOX — Signed C Kevin

Plawecki to a one-year contract. Desig-nated 1B-OF Sam Travis for assignment.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Agreed to terms with OF Luis Robert on a six-year contract.

TEXAS RANGERS — Named Doug Mathis bullpen coach and Darwin Barney manager of Nashville (PCL). Signed OF Henry Ramos to minor league contract.

BASKETBALLNational Basketball Association

NBA — Fined Sacramento C Dewayne Dedmon $50,000 by the NBA for public statements detrimental to the NBA and its teams.

FOOTBALLNational Football League

ATLANTA FALCONS — Announced the resignations of defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach Jerome Henderson and assistant defen-sive line coach Travis Jones.

DETROIT LIONS — Announced the res-ignation of defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni. Announced defensive line coach Jeff Davidson is taking an indefi-nite leave from coaching.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS — Named Jack Del Rio defensive coordinator.

HOCKEYNational Hockey League

ANAHEIM DUCKS — Recalled D Chris Wideman from San Diego (AHL).

ARIZONA COYOTES — Assigned F Mi-chael Chaput to Tucson (AHL).

BUFFALO SABRES — Traded D Marco Scandella to the Montreal Canadiens for a fourth-round draft pick. Acquired F Mi-chael Frolik from the Calgary Flames for Montreal’s fourth round draft pick.

DALLAS STARS — Recalled LW Joel Ki-viranta from Texas (AHL).

SOCCERMajor League Soccer

LA GALAXY — Signed D Emiliano In-sua.

PORTLAND TIMBERS — Acquired M Yimmi Chara from Clube Atletico Mineiro (Brazil).

COLLEGEARMY — Named Nate Woody defen-

sive coordinator.MISSISSIPPI — Named D.J. Durkin as-

sistant defensive coach.NORTH CAROLINA — Announced

outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Scott Boone won’t re-turn next season.

PURDUE — Named Bob Diaco defen-sive coordinator and linebackers coach.

RUTGERS — Named Tiquan Under-wood wide receivers coach.

Bowl scheduleFriday, Dec. 20Bahamas Bowl

Buffalo 31, Charlotte 9Frisco (Texas) Bowl

Kent State 51, Utah State 41Saturday, Dec. 21Celebration Bowl

NC A&T 64, Alcorn State 44New Mexico Bowl

San Diego State 48, Central Michigan 11Cure Bowl

Liberty 23, Georgia Southern 16Boca Raton (Fla.) Bowl

FAU 52, SMU 28Camellia Bowl

Arkansas State 34, FIU 26Las Vegas Bowl

Washington 38, Boise State 7New Orleans Bowl

Appalachian State 31, UAB 17Monday, Dec. 23Gasparilla Bowl

UCF 48, Marshall 25Tuesday, Dec. 24

Hawaii BowlHawaii 38, BYU 34

Thursday, Dec. 26Independence Bowl

Louisiana Tech 14, Miami 0Quick Lane Bowl

Pittsburgh 34, Eastern Michigan 30Friday, Dec. 27Military Bowl

North Carolina 55, Temple 13Pinstripe Bowl

Michigan State 27, Wake Forest 21Texas Bowl

Texas A&M 24, Oklahoma State 21Holiday Bowl

Iowa 49, Southern Cal 24Cheez-It Bowl

Air Force 31, Washington State 21Saturday, Dec. 28

Camping World BowlOrlando, Fla.

Notre Dame 33, Iowa State 9Cotton Bowl Classic

Arlington, TexasPenn State 53, Memphis 39

Peach BowlAtlanta

LSU 63, Oklahoma 28Fiesta Bowl

Glendale, Ariz.Clemson 29, Ohio State 23

Monday, Dec. 30SERVPRO First Responder Bowl

DallasWestern Kentucky 23, Western Michi-

gan 20Music City BowlNashville, Tenn.

Louisville 38, Mississippi State 28Redbox Bowl

Santa Clara, Calif.California 35, Illinois 20

Orange BowlMiami Gardens, Fla.

Florida 36, Virginia 28Tuesday, Dec. 31

Belk BowlCharlotte, N.C.

Kentucky 37, Virginia Tech 30Sun Bowl

El Paso, TexasArizona State 20, Florida State 14

Liberty BowlMemphis, Tenn.

Navy 20, Kansas State 17Arizona BowlTucson, Ariz.

Wyoming 38, Georgia State 17Alamo BowlSan Antonio

Texas 38, Utah 10Wednesday, Jan. 1

Citrus BowlOrlando, Fla.

Alabama 35, Michigan 16Outback Bowl

Tampa, Fla.Minnesota 31, Auburn 24

Rose BowlPasadena, Calif.

Oregon 28, Wisconsin 27Sugar Bowl

New OrleansGeorgia 26, Baylor 14

Thursday, Jan. 2Birmingham (Ala.) Bowl

Cincinnati 38, Boston College 6Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, Fla.Tennessee 23, Indiana 22

Friday, Jan. 3Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

BoiseOhio (6-6) vs. Nevada (7-5)

Saturday, Jan. 4Armed Forces BowlFort Worth, Texas

Southern Miss (7-5) vs. Tulane (6-6)Monday, Jan. 6

Lendingtree BowlMobile, Ala.

Miami (Ohio) (8-5) vs. Louisiana-La-fayette (10-3)

Monday, Jan. 13College Football Championship

New OrleansClemson (14-0) vs. LSU (14-0)

Saturday, Jan. 18East-West Shrine Classic

At St. Petersburg, Fla.East vs. West

NFLPA Collegiate BowlAt Pasadena, Calif.

American vs. National

NCAA FCS playoffsChampionship

Saturday, Jan. 11At Toyota Stadium

Frisco, TexasNorth Dakota State (15-0) vs. James

Madison (14-1)

Thursday’s men’s scoresEAST

Boston U. 73, Lafayette 72Brown 85, Rhode Island 75Bryant 67, St. Francis (Pa.) 63Bucknell 67, Army 65Colgate 65, American U. 51Dayton 84, La Salle 58Duquesne 73, Saint Louis 59Loyola (Md.) 80, Holy Cross 70Maine 75, Columbia 72Marshall 89, Rice 69Merrimack 65, Sacred Heart 57Navy 64, Lehigh 58Northeastern 77, Elon 68Robert Morris 89, CCSU 78St. Francis Brooklyn 79, Fairleigh Dick-

inson 63Vermont 77, Dartmouth 68Wagner 66, Mount St. Mary’s 47William & Mary 88, Hofstra 61

SOUTHAustin Peay 78, SE Missouri 63Charleston Southern 89, SC-Upstate 75Charlotte 51, UAB 44Coll. of Charleston 81, Towson 69E. Kentucky 74, Tennessee Tech 59FAU 79, UTSA 64FIU 69, UTEP 67Gardner-Webb 67, Campbell 65Georgia Southern 70, Coastal Carolina 67Georgia St. 69, Appalachian St. 60Jacksonville St. 76, Morehead St. 72James Madison 64, UNC-Wilmington 60Lamar 74, New Orleans 67Liberty 59, Florida Gulf Coast 46Lipscomb 66, Stetson 63Louisiana-Monroe 79, Troy 63Murray St. 89, UT Martin 76Nicholls 76, Incarnate Word 60North Alabama 62, Jacksonville 57North Florida 76, Kennesaw St. 57Old Dominion 70, Middle Tennessee 60Presbyterian 79, UNC-Asheville 77Richmond 84, Saint Joseph’s 52SIU-Edwardsville 79, Belmont 69Sam Houston St. 94, McNeese St. 75South Alabama 60, La.-Lafayette 57Stephen F. Austin 82, SE Louisiana 71Tennessee St. 84, E. Illinois 79VCU 64, Fordham 46W. Kentucky 93, North Texas 84Winthrop 91, Longwood 67

MIDWESTMichigan St. 76, Illinois 56N. Dakota St. 94, W. Illinois 74Purdue 83, Minnesota 78S. Dakota St. 96, Oral Roberts 79UMKC 90, Seattle 86Utah Valley 94, Chicago St. 73

SOUTHWESTHouston Baptist 111, Cent. Arkansas 107Texas A&M-CC 67, Northwestern St. 62Texas-Arlington 73, Arkansas St. 52UALR 72, Texas State 68

FAR WESTCalifornia Baptist 76, Rio Grande 67Colorado 74, Oregon 65Gonzaga 85, Portland 72Idaho 72, Portland St. 61Loyola Marymount 64, San Diego 58Montana 60, S. Utah 58N. Colorado 68, Montana St. 59North Dakota 82, Denver 71Pacific 59, Pepperdine 56Saint Mary’s (Cal) 69, San Francisco 58Southern Cal 65, Washington St. 56Stanford 68, California 52UC Santa Barbara 87, Westmont 66UCLA 66, Washington 64Utah 81, Oregon St. 69

Thursday’s women’s scoresEAST

Albany (NY) 58, Vermont 49American U. 63, Colgate 61Bucknell 63, Army 52Fairfield 65, Siena 35Fairleigh Dickinson 62, St. Francis

Brooklyn 57Holy Cross 64, Loyola (Md.) 56Iona 75, Quinnipiac 71Lafayette 59, Boston U. 57Lehigh 70, Navy 40Maine 87, Hartford 73Manhattan 68, Canisius 50Marist 76, Monmouth (NJ) 66Mass.-Lowell 58, New Hampshire 53Mount St. Mary’s 78, Wagner 63Notre Dame 60, Pittsburgh 52Penn 90, Chaminade 39Rider 79, Niagara 75Robert Morris 86, CCSU 56Sacred Heart 63, Merrimack 60St. Francis (Pa.) 63, Bryant 60Stony Brook 57, UMBC 45Syracuse 90, Florida St. 89UConn 83, Wichita St. 55Yale 68, Mercer 60

SOUTHBelmont 69, SIU-Edwardsville 48Charlotte 83, UAB 75E. Illinois 73, Tennessee St. 52Furman 62, Newberry 43Georgia 58, Mississippi 51Georgia Southern 64, La.-Monroe 47Georgia Tech 61, Miami 54LSU 71, Alabama 60Louisiana-Lafayette 75, Georgia St. 65Louisville 75, Clemson 50Mississippi St. 93, Florida 47Morehead St. 67, Jacksonville St. 48N. Kentucky 75, Youngstown St. 56NC State 76, Virginia Tech 69North Carolina 65, Virginia 47Old Dominion 67, Middle Tennessee 56SE Missouri 79, Austin Peay 66South Alabama 81, Appalachian St. 66South Carolina 99, Kentucky 72Tennessee 77, Missouri 66Tennessee Tech 60, E. Kentucky 42Texas A&M-CC 72, Northwestern St. 59Troy 84, Coastal Carolina 77UT Martin 89, Murray St. 64Vanderbilt 77, Auburn 55Wake Forest 60, Duke 58Wofford 82, Brevard College 34

MIDWESTDetroit 70, Ill.-Chicago 62IUPUI 76, Oakland 41S. Dakota St. 58, Oral Roberts 44W. Illinois 79, N. Dakota St. 78Wright St. 78, Cleveland St. 62

SOUTHWESTFAU 80, UTSA 53Incarnate Word 53, Nicholls 51New Orleans 62, Lamar 57North Texas 61, W. Kentucky 54Rice 81, Marshall 43Sam Houston St. 92, McNeese St. 59Stephen F. Austin 77, SE Louisiana 51Texas A&M 84, Arkansas 77Texas-Arlington 71, Arkansas St. 44UALR 78, Texas State 66UTEP 64, FIU 34

FAR WESTCal Poly 100, Holy Names 35Gonzaga 55, BYU 43Montana 81, S. Utah 74Montana St. 91, N. Colorado 58New Mexico St. 57, California Baptist 56Pacific 76, Loyola Marymount 67Portland St. 74, Idaho 53Saint Mary’s (Cal) 85, Pepperdine 78San Diego 74, Portland 55UMKC 76, Seattle 65Utah Valley 89, Chicago St. 58

Tournament of ChampionsThursday

At Plantation Course at KapaluaKapalua, Maui, Hawaii

Purse: $6.7 millionYardage: 7,596; Par 73 (36-37)

First RoundJoaquin Niemann 32-34—66 -7Justin Thomas 35-32—67 -6Matt Kuchar 33-35—68 -5Rickie Fowler 33-35—68 -5Tyler Duncan 36-33—69 -4Matthew Wolff 35-34—69 -4Patrick Cantlay 34-35—69 -4Jon Rahm 34-35—69 -4Xander Schauffele 34-35—69 -4J.T. Poston 36-34—70 -3Brendon Todd 37-34—71 -2Lanto Griffin 33-38—71 -2Nate Lashley 34-37—71 -2Collin Morikawa 38-33—71 -2Ryan Palmer 36-35—71 -2Sebastian Muir 35-37—72 -1Dylan Frittelli 37-35—72 -1Sung Kang 35-37—72 -1Dustin Johnson 35-37—72 -1Kevin Kisner 36-36—72 -1Patrick Reed 38-34—72 -1Jim Herman 35-38—73 ECameron Champ 37-36—73 ECorey Conners 36-37—73 EGary Woodland 36-37—73 EMartin Trainer 37-37—74 +1Adam Long 36-38—74 +1Graeme McDowell 39-35—74 +1Paul Casey 38-36—74 +1Chez Reavie 36-38—74 +1Max Homa 38-37—75 +2Kevin Na 38-38—76 +3Keith Mitchell 36-40—76 +3J.B. Holmes 37-41—78 +5

AP sportlightJan. 4

1970 — The Minnesota Vikings become the first expansion team to win the NFL title by beating the Cleveland Browns 27-7 in 8-degree temperatures in Blooming-ton, Minn.

1970 — Kansas City’s defense, high-lighted by four interceptions, three in the final quarter, carries the Chiefs to a 17-7 victory over Oakland Raiders in the last AFL title game.

1976 — The Dallas Cowboys become the first wild-card team to make it to the Super Bowl with a 37-7 rout of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC title game.

1986 — Eric Dickerson shatters the NFL playoff record with a 248-yard rush-ing performance and two touchdowns to lead the Los Angeles Rams to a 20-0 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

1992 — Mike Gartner of the New York Rangers scores his 1,000th NHL point with a power-play goal in the third peri-od of a 6-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

1997 — The Jacksonville Jaguars, in their second year, beat the Broncos in Denver to advance to the AFC Champion-ship game.

2000 — Top-ranked Florida State, the preseason No. 1, holds off Virginia Tech 46-29 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 12-0 and win the national championship. Florida State is the first team to go wire-to-wire in The Associated Press’ poll since pre-season rankings began in 1950.

2002 — Michael Jordan becomes the fourth player in NBA history to score 30,000 points, reaching the milestone for the Washington Wizards in an 89-83 win over his old team, the Chicago Bulls.

2003 — Bode Miller wins his second straight World Cup giant slalom in Kranjs-ka Gora, Slovenia, to move into first place in the World Cup overall standings. It’s the first time an American man has held the overall lead since Phil Mahre in 1983.

2005 — Matt Leinart throws five touch-down passes and Southern California overwhelms Oklahoma 55-19 in the Or-ange Bowl. USC (13-0) is the first team to repeat as AP national champions since Nebraska in 1994-95 and joins Florida State in 1999 as the only teams to go wire-to-wire — from preseason to post bowls — as No. 1.

2006 — Second-ranked Texas ends Southern California’s 34-game winning streak, beating the two-time defend-ing national champion 41-38 in the Rose Bowl. The Longhorns also snap USC’s re-cord string of 33 consecutive weeks as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25. The Longhorns, a unanimous choice, wins a national championship for the first time since 1969.

2012 — Geno Smith ties a record for any bowl game with six touchdown passes, including four to Tavon Austin, and West Virginia sets a bowl scoring record by beating Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl.

2013 — Heisman Trophy winner John-ny Manziel runs for two touchdowns, passes for two more and has a Cotton Bowl-record 516 total yards as Texas A&M wraps up its first SEC season with a 41-13 win over Oklahoma. Manziel sets an FBS bowl record with his 229 yards rushing on 17 carries and completes 22 of 34 passes for 287 yards.

2013 — Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the first American woman to win two World Cup races before turning 18. The 17-year-old captures a slalom in Zagreb, Croatia by a massive 1.19-second margin. Her first victory came last month in Sweden.

2016 — Colorado’s Jarome Iginla be-comes the 19th member of the 600-goal club, scoring a power-play goal in the third period, and the Avalanche beat Los Angeles 4-1.

Vols’ lateTDs stunHoosiersin Gator

Bowl roundup

Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ten-nessee sure knows how to get outof a huge hole.

The Volunteers scored twice in a 30-second span late, using an onside kick to help escape a 13-point deficit, and then held on tostun Indiana 23-22 in the GatorBowl on Thursday night.

The rally was indicative of Ten-nessee’s season, which started 1-4 and ended with six consecutivewins.

“Everybody in the country hadgiven up on these guys,” second-year coach Jeremy Pruitt said.

Pruitt was talking about theseason. He could have been talk-ing about the game.

The Hoosiers (8-5) looked to bein control in the second half afterscoring two touchdowns in a 1:03 span, the second one coming onJamar Johnson’s 63-yard inter-ception return, and later adding apair of field goals.

Indiana was up 22-9 before Tennessee (8-5) shocked most ofthe nearly 62,000 fans on hand.

Quavaris Crouch scored on a 1-yard plunge and then fellow run-ning back Eric Gray recovered asurprise onside kick that barelywent the mandatory 10 yards.Gray scored from 16 yards out a few plays later to put the Vols ontop for good.

“Obviously, very very disap-pointing to have a fourth-quar-ter lead and let it slip away,” said Indiana coach Tom Allen, whoseteam was seeking its first nine-win season since 1967. “I’m notgoing to sit here and point fingersand blame. At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility for us to finda way to win the game. We didn’tdo that.”

Gray was named the game’sMost Valuable Player.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “When adversity hits, you got to put on more steam.”

No. 23 Cincinnati 38, Bos-ton College 6: Desmond Rid-der ran for 105 yards and threetouchdowns and threw a scoring pass to lead the Bearcats past the Eagles in the lightning-delayedBirmingham Bowl.

Cincinnati (11-3) reached 11 wins for the second straight sea-son and fourth in program history,bouncing back from two straightlosses to No. 15 Memphis. BostonCollege (6-7) was outgained 459-164 in total yards to finish a tur-bulent postseason.

Coach Steve Addazio was firedafter seven seasons and star tail-back A.J. Dillon declared for theNFL Draft and skipped the bowl game.

Dillon was clearly missed. Bos-ton College got its only points onspecial teams.

PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Challenged by Portland to open conference play, top-ranked Gonzaga leaned on the experience and leadership of Killian Tillie.

Tillie had 22 points, Corey Kispert added 18 and the Bulldogs rallied from a second-half deficit to beat Portland 85-72 on Thursday night for their 12th straight victory over the Pilots.

“I tried to tell them, ‘We’re good, we’ve been like that before. We’ve just got to answer. We have to get the crowd going and get ourselves going with hustle plays on the floor,’ ” Tillie said about his team falling behind at halftime. “And we did that.”

The senior from France scored 18 points in the second half.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few said Tillie’s leadership calms the team, even though Tillie has been slowed by injuries again this season. After the game, his left ankle was wrapped in ice.

“Tillie’s leadership has been great,” Few said. “He’s really been fighting a lot of things, but his leadership has been spectacular, his toughness has been spectacular, and just his ability to calmly make plays.”

Ryan Woolridge had 15 points for Gonzaga (15-1), which began West Coast Conference play with its seventh straight win. The Bulldogs’ lone loss this season came in the Bahamas on Nov. 29 to Michigan.

It was the fifth consecutive loss for Portland (8-8, 0-1). JoJo Walker led the Pilots with 15 points.

The Bulldogs entered as the highest-scoring team in the nation, averaging 88.5 points per game, but the Pilots surprisingly took a 42-35 lead into half-time, stunning the sizable contingent of Zags fans at the Chiles Center.

A 16-0 run early in the second half gave the lead back to Gonzaga, which led by as many as 18.

“Obviously, they’re the No. 1 team in the nation. Having the chance to host them in our building, (it was) a pretty special opportunity for us and I thought our guys in the first half did a great job of stepping up to the challenge,” Portland coach Terry Porter said. “But in the second half they just turned it up, we just started getting loose with the ball, start turning over and some intangibles, some injured players, and that allowed them to get back in and allowed them to build a lead.”

Portland led 32-27 following Isaiah White’s three-pointer, and the Pilots’ bench celebrated wildly when Walker’s fast-break layup fell to make it 34-29.

The Pilots shot 6-for-8 on three-pointers in the first half, while Gonzaga was 2-for-10 from the pe-

rimeter. The teams finished with eight three-point-ers apiece in the end.

The Bulldogs closed the gap early in the second half on Woolridge’s layup and three-pointer to pull to 47-46. Tillie’s layup and dunk gave Gonzaga back the lead at 50-47. Tillie’s free throws capped the 16-0 run, which made it 55-47.

Tillie’s three-pointer extended Gonzaga’s lead to 67-55. Five Zags finished in double figures.

“Listen, Portland, they did a good job, man. They took it to us in every facet of the game,” Few said. “They played harder than us, they were way tough-er than we were, and they were executing better and stepping up and making tough shots and mak-ing free throws, and we weren’t. They deserve a lot of credit for that.”

Colorado 74, No. 4 Oregon 65: McKinley Wright IV scored 11 of his 21 points in the final 5 minutes, and the host Buffaloes beat another ranked team, taking down the Ducks.

Tyler Bey added 15 points and grabbed 14 re-bounds as Colorado (12-2, 1-0 Pac-12) improved to 9-0 all-time against Oregon (11-3, 0-1) in Boulder.

Colorado also moved to 2-1 against ranked teams this season. The Buffaloes are 19-32 under coach Tad Boyle against teams in the AP Top 25 since he took over in 2010-11.

This was a matchup between the teams picked to finish first (Oregon) and second (Colorado) in the Pac-12 preseason media poll.

Payton Pritchard had 21 points to lead Oregon, while Chris Duarte added 10. The Buffs held Or-egon to 3 of 18 shooting from three-point range.

No. 14 Michigan State 76, Illinois 56: Cassius Winston had 21 points and Xavier Tillman scored 19 to lead the host Spartans past the Illini.

Michigan State (11-3, 3-0 Big Ten) has won six straight and has won its first three conference games to stay alone in first place.

The Spartans pulled away early in the second half with a 15-3 run.

Ayo Dosunmu scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half for the Illini (9-4, 1-2) .

No. 20 Dayton 84, La Salle 58: Obi Toppin scored 20 points and the visiting Flyers used a big first-half run to cruise past La Salle in their Atlantic 10 opener.

Toppin was one of five Dayton players to score in double figures as the Flyers clamped down de-fensively on the Explorers, holding them without a three-pointer until midway through the second half.

The Flyers (12-2, 1-0) broke the game open mid-way through the first half with an 18-0 run .

Top 25 roundup

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

BY JOHN MARSHALL

Associated Press

The holidays gave teams a chance to recover, recharge and reset from the first two months of the season.

As the calendar flips to 2020, conference play begins for some leagues, heats up for those that already started.

The road to March is about to heat up.

This weekend features four games between ranked opponents and several other Top 25 teams facing stiff tests.

It starts Saturday with a Big 12 bruiser: No. 16 West Virginia at No. 3 Kansas.

The Jayhawks (10-2) won the Maui Invitational, knocked off a ranked Colorado team and stomped Stanford on Sunday. Kansas has one of the most formi-dable front courts in the country with Udoka Azubuike and David McComack, and talented guards to play with them.

The Mountaineers (11-1) are back to playing don’t-give-an-inch defense under Bob Huggins after missing the NCAA Tourna-ment last season. West Virginia won the Cancun Challenge by knocking off No. 24 Wichita State and pushed around No. 5 Ohio State in a 67-59 win on Sunday after laboring in a win against Youngstown State.

“I think it’s that old adage of respect all and fear none,” Hug-gins said after the Ohio State vic-tory. “We came off not respecting Youngstown and they gave us a heck of a game. Hopefully our guys learned from that. We’re not afraid to play people, obviously, or why would we do this?”

Rivaly renewed

No. 12 Michigan (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) has fallen back since match-ing a record by debuting at No. 4 in the AP Top 25 on Dec. 2. The Wolverines lost to Louisville after their monumental poll climb and followed with losses to Illinois and No. 4 Oregon.

Following a pair of easy victo-ries, Michigan gets a huge test on Sunday, facing rival Michigan State.

The 14th-ranked Spartans (10-3, 2-0) are trying to figure things out since star guard Cas-sius Winston’s brother was hit by a train and killed in early Novem-ber. They may also be without the All-American senior against the Wolverines.

Winston suffered a bone bruise in his left knee during practice last week and did not play in Michigan State’s win over West-ern Michigan on Sunday night.

ACC showdown

The ACC is always tough and Saturday will be no different for No. 7 Louisville and No. 18 Flor-ida State.

The Cardinals (11-2, 2-0 ACC) are smarting after losing to rival Kentucky on Dec. 28, but held

Michigan to 43 points earlier inDecember, They also have one ofthe nation’s best players in JordanNwora, who averages 20.2 pointsand 7.2 rebounds.

The Seminoles (11-2, 1-1) madea Sweet 16 run last season afterbeing overlooked and have thetype of experienced team thatcould prove projections wrongagain this year.

Nittany Lions andthe Hawkeyes

The Big Ten will have a match-up of ranked teams on Saturday,when No. 21 Penn State facesNo. 23 Iowa at The Palestra in Philadelphia.

The Nittany Lions (11-2) were blown out by Ohio State, butbounced back by beating then-No. 4 Maryland.

The Hawkeyes have losses to No. 13 San Diego State and No. 12 Michigan, but beat No. 22 TexasTech.

Both teams have dynamic scor-ers. Penn State’s Lamar Stevensaverages 16.4 points and 7.2 re-bounds after testing the NBAwaters during the offseason. Iowa forward Luke Garza leads theleague in scoring at 21.5 pointsper game and averages 10.0 re-bounds. This one should be fun towatch.

Tough tests

A handful of Top 25 teams face difficult games against unrankedopponents this week.

Oregon climbed to No. 4 this week to match it highest ranking, with the 2017 Final Four team. The Ducks have a difficult startto the Pac-12 season. They lost atColorado on Thursday and play atUtah on Saturday.

The Buffaloes were picked rightbehind Oregon in the Pac-12 pre-season poll and were ranked ear-lier this season. Utah has been upand down, but one of the ups wasa victory over No. 17 Kentucky in Las Vegas.

No. 25 Arizona (10-3) hasdropped off some since a strongstart to the season, losing at No.18 Baylor, at home to top-rankedGonzaga and to St. John’s in SanFrancisco.

The Wildcats open Pac-12 playwith a rivalry game, facing Ari-zona State on Saturday. The SunDevils have been inconsistentand were run out of the gym in aloss to Saint Mary’s, but have tal-ent and will certainly be up forplaying their biggest rival.

No. 13 San Diego State is one oftwo remaining undefeated Divi-sion I teams — with No. 8 Auburn— but will face a big challengeSaturday, playing at Utah State.The Aggies were ranked ear-lier this season and have one ofthe nation’s top guards in Sam Merrill.

Conference races prepare to heat up

Tillie sparks Gonzaga’s rally

STEVE DIPAOLA/AP

Portland’s Quincy Ferebee, left, and Theo Akwuba, right, pressure Gonzaga’ Ryan Woolridge during the first half on Thursday in Portland, Ore. The top-rannked Bulldogs had to rally for the victory.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19Saturday, January 4, 2020

BY TIM REYNOLDS

Associated Press

The West is used to being loaded at the top.

The East, not so much.But a new year has

arrived with a new look in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The league woke up Wednesday — the first day of 2020 — with six East teams with winning percent-ages of .600 or better, the first time that’s been the case on New Year’s Day since 1998.

“This is a tough part of the country, a tough part of our league,” Philadelphia coach Brett Brown said.

He didn’t say “finally,” but he could have.

Just last spring, Brooklyn got the No. 6 seed in the East play-offs at 42-40. This season, it won’t be inconceivable if two teams in the East reach 50 wins and start the playoffs on the road anyway — which would be amazing, con-sidering that every 50-win team in the East since 1998 has gotten a top-four seed.

Has there been a power shift from one conference to another? And can what seems to be hap-pening in the East race last until April?

“My gut feel is, I think it can,” Brown said. “To your overall question, is there a power shift, I’m biased but I think quite possibly.”

That one could easily be ar-gued. Going into 2020, the basic structure of the standings in each conference is basically the same.

There’s a team that has broken a bit away atop the pack — Mil-waukee in the East; the Los An-geles Lakers out West.

Then there are five teams jostling for spots 2 through 6 — Miami, Boston, Toronto, Phila-delphia and Indiana in the East; Denver, the Los Angeles Clip-pers, Houston, Dallas and Utah in the West.

There’s a team around .500

hovering in seventh — Brooklyn in the East, Oklahoma City in the West.

Then there’s a below-.500 team in eighth — Orlando in the East, San Antonio in the West.

The East and West have split the past eight NBA Finals, so it’s not like there’s been a huge dis-parity in talent at the very top. But the West, top to bottom, has unquestionably been the stronger side of the league for some time.

Things seem different now.“It’s really competitive and you

have to like this,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You have to enjoy it as a competitor. People have been disparaging the East-ern Conference for so long. You have some really good teams here in the East and the teams are proving it.”

Decade in reviewThere were seven franchises

with at least one NBA champion-ship in the 2010s.

Golden State led the way with three, followed by Miami with two.

San Antonio was one of the five clubs with one — but a case could be made for the Spurs being the team of the decade.

The Spurs had the most wins in the 2010s, whether just count-ing the regular season or adding the regular season and the play-offs together. Oklahoma City was No. 2 in regular-season wins, fol-lowed by Golden State, Houston and Miami.

The fewest wins? That would be Sacramento, followed by Minne-sota, Brooklyn, Phoenix and New York. But a special decade long award for futility should go to De-troit — the only team in the NBA that didn’t win a playoff game in the 2010s. The Pistons have lost 14 consecutive postseason con-tests since winning Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals.

NBAAround the NBA

Teams rising in the East

Roundup

Associated Press

MIAMI — Bam Adebayo had 15 points and 14 rebounds and the Miami Heat put together their best defensive performance of the season in an 84-76 vic-tory over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.

The Raptors’ total was their lowest in more than four years — also coming in a game at Miami on Nov. 8, 2015 — and the second-lowest by any team in the NBA this season.

“We took it to heart,” Adebayo said. “We need to defend and that’s what we did tonight.”

Tyler Herro and Goran Dragic each scored 13 for Miami. The Heat are 2-0 against the Raptors this season and improved to 9-0 after a loss. Miami and Milwau-kee are the only teams to not lose consecutive games this season.

Derrick Jones Jr. scored 10 points and Jimmy Butler finished with eight points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for Miami.

Serge Ibaka had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto. Kyle Lowry scored 15 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 13 and OG Anunoby had 12 points and 12 re-bounds. The Raptors shot 31.5% and were 6-for-42 from three-point range.

Nuggets 124, Pacers 116: Michael Porter Jr. scored a ca-reer-high 25 points and Jamal Murray added 22 in visiting Den-ver’s victory over Indiana.

The Nuggets have won three of four and earned this one despite having Nikola Jokic in serious foul trouble all night. Jokic finished with 22 points, 12 in the fourth

quarter, and seven rebounds. Clippers 126, Pistons 112:

Montrezl Harrell scored 23points and Los Angeles survivedwithout Paul George in the sec-ond half to beat visiting Detroit,winning consecutive games forthe first time since Dec. 13.

George didn’t return after half-time because of left hamstring tightness. He scored 12 points.

Thunder 109, Spurs 103: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points and Oklahoma City over-came 30 by DeMar DeRozan to beat the Spurs, snapping a nine-game skid in San Antonio.

Chris Paul had 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter tohelp Oklahoma City win its fourth straight.

Timberwolves 99, Warriors84: Shabazz Napier and Robert Covington each scored 20 pointsto help host Minnesota beat Gold-en State in a matchup of injury-ravaged teams.

Hornets 109, Cavaliers 106: Devonte’ Graham hit a three-pointer with 26 seconds leftto break a tie and cap visitingCharlotte’s late rally againstCleveland.

Kings 128, Grizzlies 123: De’Aaron Fox scored 10 of his 27points in the final five minutesand host Sacramento overcame a 20-point deficit in the first half tobeat Memphis, ending an eight-game losing streak.

Mavericks 123, Nets 111: Luka Doncic scored 15 of his 31points in the fourth quarter ashost Dallas beat Brooklyn.

Jazz 102, Bulls 98: Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 points andvisiting Utah held off Chicago .

Heat edge Raptors in defensive battle

LYNNE SLADKY/AP

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler, left, reacts after center Bam Adebayo scored against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday in Miami. Adebayo had 15 points and 14 rebounds as the Heat won 84-76.

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBBoston 23 8 .742 —Toronto 23 12 .657 2Philadelphia 23 13 .639 2ABrooklyn 16 17 .485 8New York 10 24 .294 14A

Southeast DivisionMiami 25 9 .735 —Orlando 15 19 .441 10Charlotte 14 23 .378 12AWashington 10 23 .303 14AAtlanta 7 27 .206 18

Central DivisionMilwaukee 31 5 .861 —Indiana 22 13 .629 8AChicago 13 22 .371 17ADetroit 12 23 .343 18ACleveland 10 24 .294 20

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBHouston 23 11 .676 —Dallas 22 12 .647 1San Antonio 14 19 .424 8AMemphis 13 22 .371 10ANew Orleans 11 23 .324 12

Northwest DivisionDenver 24 10 .706 —Utah 22 12 .647 2Oklahoma City 19 15 .559 5Portland 14 21 .400 10AMinnesota 13 21 .382 11

Pacific DivisionL.A. Lakers 27 7 .794 —L.A. Clippers 25 11 .694 3Phoenix 13 21 .382 14Sacramento 13 22 .371 14AGolden State 9 27 .250 19

Wednesday’s gamesOrlando 122, Washington 101New York 117, Portland 93Milwaukee 106, Minnesota 104L.A. Lakers 117, Phoenix 107

Thursday’s gamesCharlotte 109, Cleveland 106Denver 124, Indiana 116Miami 84, Toronto 76Minnesota 99, Golden State 84Utah 102, Chicago 98Dallas 123, Brooklyn 111Oklahoma City 109, San Antonio 103Sacramento 128, Memphis 123L.A. Clippers 126, Detroit 112

Friday’s gamesAtlanta at BostonMiami at OrlandoPortland at WashingtonPhiladelphia at HoustonNew York at PhoenixNew Orleans at L.A. Lakers

Saturday’s gamesMemphis at L.A. ClippersToronto at BrooklynUtah at OrlandoIndiana at AtlantaOklahoma City at ClevelandBoston at ChicagoDenver at WashingtonCharlotte at DallasDetroit at Golden StateSan Antonio at MilwaukeeNew Orleans at Sacramento

Sunday’s gamesNew York at L.A. ClippersPortland at MiamiMinnesota at ClevelandMemphis at PhoenixDetroit at L.A. Lakers

Scoreboard

Briefs

Top pick Williamson returns to practiceAssociated Press

METAIRIE, La. — Zion Williamson returned to practice with the New Orleans Pelicans on Thurs-day for the first time since he had arthroscopic knee surgery shortly before the season.

The NBA’s top overall draft choice out of Duke cannot yet say when he’ll make his regu-lar-season debut

“I felt really good out there,” he said.

Williamson, 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds, said he first must pass “assessments” by team medical staff before the decision can rest solely with him.

Coach Alvin Gentry said Williamson participated fully in the on-court work, but the practice wasn’t particularly strenuous. Gentry said Williamson is not expected to play Friday or Saturday.

Doncic, Antetokounmpo lead votingDallas’ Luka Doncic received more fan votes than

any other player in the opening week of balloting for the NBA All-Star Game.

The NBA released the first voting totals Thursday and Doncic has received 1,073,957 — 599 more than Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is the only other player to top a million votes so far .

James, Lakers teammate Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard are the run-away leaders in the Western Conference frontcourt. Doncic and Houston’s James Harden also are off to enormous leads in the West guards race.

In the East, Antetokounmpo, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Toronto’s Pascal Siakam are the lead-ers for the starting frontcourt spots. Atlanta’s Trae Young has gotten the most votes so far in the East guard race, about 11,000 ahead of Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving.

Williamson

PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

Associated Press

DENVER — With a big of-fensive push, the Colorado Ava-lanche turned the page on a tough stretch at home and against the St. Louis Blues in particular.

Nazem Kadri scored twice, Na-than MacKinnon had a goal and three assists, and the Avalanche beat the Blues 7-3 Thursday night to snap a four-game skid at home.

Rookie defenseman Cale Makar added a power-play goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who also ended a six-game losing streak to the Blues, including two losses earlier this season in St. Louis. Mikko Rantanen J.T. Com-pher also had power-play goals, and Joonas Donskoi had the other goal for the Avalanche. Samuel Girard finished with four assists.

“Today was a good start in the right direction,” said Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer, who had 24 saves. “Everybody was going. We need that. (The Blues) are a really good team, so huge points for us. We didn’t do well the last couple games against them. It was a good statement game for us. We need to keep collecting points and playing the right way. You miss a point here and there, it’s going to cost you in the end.”

MacKinnon said he liked the way the Avalanche responded with a big third period after the Blues had fought back from a three-goal deficit to make a game of it.

“I think we were just due, hon-estly,” MacKinnon said. “We were giving all the opponents their goals in the third, we had bad breakdowns. Something just felt kind of different tonight when they made it 3-2. There was no panic and Cale had a big goal, and that kind of iced it. We knew we needed some maturity from everybody at that time.”

Robert Thomas had two goals and Alex Pietrangelo also scored for St. Louis, which lost its second in a row after winning the previ-ous eight.

Sabres 3, Oilers 2: Jack Eichel scored on a penalty shot 1:09 into overtime and host Buffalo rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Edmonton.

Eichel was awarded the pen-alty shot after Edmonton’s Oscar Klefbom interfered with the Sa-bres’ captain as he attempted to break in alone across the Oilers’ blue line.

Eichel then scored when he drove in on net from the left wing and snapped a shot inside the far post.

Reinhart and Curtis Lazar also scored for Buffalo, which snapped a four-game skid .

Sharks 3, Penguins 2 (OT): Brent Burns’ power-play goal just more than two minutes into over-time gave visiting San Jose a win over Pittsburgh.

Burns picked up his seventh goal of the season when his slap shot from high in the slot beat

Tristan Jarry 2:02 into the extra period to give the Sharks only their third win in 14 games. Joe Thornton got the primary as-sist to move past Adam Oates for seventh place with 1,080 career assists.

Patric Hornqvist scored twice for Pittsburgh, which lost for just the second time in nine games.

Blue Jackets 2, Bruins 1 (OT): Pierre-Luc Dubois scored 52 seconds into overtime, Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 shots and visiting Columbus beat Boston.

Sonny Milano also scored for the Blue Jackets, tying the game two minutes into the third period. Dubois won it by finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Seth Jones.

David Pastrnak scored his 30th goal of the season for Boston, and Tuukka Rask made 31 saves as the Bruins lost in overtime or a shootout for the third time in four games.

Lightning 2, Canadiens 1: An-drei Vasilevskiy stopped 38 shots and Tampa Bay extended its win-ning streak to five games with a win at Montreal.

Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov scored for the Light-ning (22-13-4), who improved to 15-2-0 against Atlantic-division opponents this season.

Defenseman Jeff Petry scored for the Canadiens (18-17-6), who have lost four games in a row.

Devils 2, Islanders 1: Nico Hischier scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots, and visiting New Jersey beat the Islanders.

P.K. Subban also scored to help the Devils win their third straight and improve to 6-2-1 in their past nine games.

Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves as the Islanders lost their fourth straight at Nassau Coliseum.

Panthers 6, Senators 3: Frank Vatrano scored the deciding goal as part of visiting Florida’s

four-goal outburst in the second period.

Evgenii Dadonov scored his second power-play goal of the game to tie it at 2-all for Florida (21-14-5), and 89 seconds later Noel Acciari gave the Panthers the lead. Vatrano and Colton Sceviour scored 44 seconds apart in the final minute of the second period to put the game out of reach.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves and earned his first road win since Oct. 30.

Maple Leafs 6, Jets 3: Wil-liam Nylander had two goals and an assist and Toronto extended its points streak to nine games with a win over host Winnipeg.

Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and assist, and Travis Dermott, Pierre Engvall and Mitch Marn-er also scored for the Leafs, who are 8-0-1 during their streak.

The Jets have one win in their last five games (1-3-1) and have lost five straight (0-4-1) at home.

Coyotes 4, Ducks 2: Chris-tian Dvorak triggered a three-goal third period by scoring in the opening minute, Antti Raanta stopped 27 shots and host Arizona rallied past Anaheim.

The Coyotes came out of the locker room buzzing to start the third period and cashed in on Dvorak’s goal. Brad Richardson followed with his second goal and Carl Soderberg had his 12th a minute later.

Jakob Silfverberg scored his 15th goal of the season for the Ducks, who have lost six of eight.

Flames 4, Rangers 3: Johnny Gaudreau opened the scoring and then set up the winning goal mid-way through the second period as Calgary snapped a five-game los-ing streak at home.

Less than three minutes after New York tied it 3-all, Sean Mo-nahan gave the Flames their third lead at 8:22 of the second when he neatly finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing sequence.

New York fell to 1-2-0 on a four-game road trip that wraps up Sat-urday night in Vancouver.

Canucks 7, Blackhawks 5: Adam Gaudette scored a third-period goal and host Vancouver rallied from a two-goal deficit, extending its winning streak to six games.

Bo Horvat had two goals, in-cluding an empty-netter, and an assist. J.T. Miller had a goal and three assists, while Elias Petters-son had a goal and two assists for the Canucks (21-15-4).

Patrick Kane scored twice for the Blackhawks (18-18-6), who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

Golden Knights 5, Flyers 4: Max Pacioretty scored two goals and host Vegas beat Philadelphia.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves, including a penalty shot, and the Golden Knights improved to 14-6-3 since Nov. 17 and lead the NHL with 31 points in that span.

Sean Couturier scored twice for the Flyers, who played their fourth game on a six-game trip — with the first five against Pa-cific Division teams.

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GABoston 42 24 7 11 59 139 107Toronto 42 23 14 5 51 152 135Tampa Bay 39 22 13 4 48 139 121Florida 40 21 14 5 47 145 137Buffalo 42 18 17 7 43 124 133Montreal 41 18 17 6 42 132 133Ottawa 41 16 20 5 37 114 138Detroit 41 10 28 3 23 89 157

Metropolitan DivisionWashington 41 27 9 5 59 146 122N.Y. Islanders 39 25 11 3 53 115 102Pittsburgh 40 24 11 5 53 138 107Carolina 40 24 14 2 50 136 112Philadelphia 41 22 14 5 49 131 123Columbus 41 19 14 8 46 107 113N.Y. Rangers 40 19 17 4 42 132 136New Jersey 40 15 19 6 36 104 139

Western ConferenceCentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GASt. Louis 42 26 10 6 58 131 114Colorado 41 24 13 4 52 151 122Dallas 41 23 14 4 50 111 103Winnipeg 41 22 16 3 47 128 126Minnesota 41 19 17 5 43 126 137Nashville 39 18 15 6 42 134 131Chicago 42 18 18 6 42 123 139

Pacific DivisionVegas 44 23 15 6 52 139 129Arizona 43 23 16 4 50 122 110Vancouver 41 22 15 4 48 139 124Edmonton 43 21 17 5 47 127 137Calgary 43 21 17 5 47 118 130San Jose 42 18 21 3 39 112 141Los Angeles 42 17 21 4 38 109 132Anaheim 41 16 20 5 37 105 128

Note: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Thursday’s gamesColumbus 2, Boston 1, OTBuffalo 3, Edmonton 2, OTTampa Bay 2, Montreal 1New Jersey 2, N.Y. Islanders 1San Jose 3, Pittsburgh 2, OTFlorida 6, Ottawa 3Toronto 6, Winnipeg 3Arizona 4, Anaheim 2Calgary 4, N.Y. Rangers 3Colorado 7, St. Louis 3Vancouver 7, Chicago 5Vegas 5, Philadelphia 4

Friday’s gamesWashington at CarolinaDetroit at Dallas

Saturday’s gamesEdmonton at BostonFlorida at BuffaloSan Jose at ColumbusWinnipeg at MinnesotaSt. Louis at VegasPittsburgh at MontrealColorado at New JerseyTampa Bay at OttawaN.Y. Islanders at TorontoPhiladelphia at ArizonaN.Y. Rangers at VancouverNashville at Los Angeles

Sunday’s gamesSan Jose at WashingtonTampa Bay at CarolinaFlorida at PittsburghCalgary at MinnesotaDetroit at ChicagoNashville at Anaheim

Monday’s gamesWinnipeg at MontrealColorado at N.Y. IslandersEdmonton at TorontoColumbus at Los Angeles

NHL roundup

NHL/SPORTS BRIEFSNHL scoreboard

Avs top Blues to snap skid Wyche, innovative NFL coach,dead at 74

JACK DEMPSEY/AP

Avalanche right wing Joonas Donskoi, left, battles Blues center Brayden Schenn during the second period on Thursday in Denver.

Associated Press

Sam Wyche, who pushed theboundaries as an offensive inno-vator with the Cincinnati Bengals and challenged the NFL’s proto-cols along the way, has died. Hewas 74.

Wyche, who had a history of blood clots in his lungs and had aheart transplant in 2016 in Char-lotte, N.C., died Thursday of mel-anoma, officials with the Bengals confirmed.

“Sam was a wonderful guy. Wegot to know him as both a playerand a coach,“ Bengals president Mike Brown said. “As our coach,he had great success and took usto the Super Bowl. He was friends with everyone here, both duringhis tenure as head coach and af-terwards. We not only liked him,we admired him as a man. ”

One of the Bengals’ originalquarterbacks, Wyche was knownfor his offensive innovations as acoach. He led the Bengals to theirsecond Super Bowl during the1988 season by using a no-huddleoffense that forced the league to change its substitution rules.

And that wasn’t the only way hemade waves throughout the NFL. A nonconformist in a button-downleague, Wyche refused to complywith the NFL’s locker room poli-cy for media, ran up the score to settle a personal grudge, and be-littled the city of rival Clevelandduring his eight seasons in Cin-cinnati. He later coached TampaBay for four seasons.

Yankees’ Germansuspended 81 games

NEW YORK — Yankees pitcher Domingo German will miss thefirst 63 games of the 2020 season as part of an 81-game ban for vio-lating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy.

The league announced the sus-pension Thursday. German hasagreed not to appeal.

German was put on adminis-trative leave on Sept. 19 whileMLB investigated an alleged do-mestic violence incident involv-ing his girlfriend, with whom hehas at least one child. He missed the final nine games of the 2019regular season and all nine of New York’s postseason games.Those missed games will count toward his ban.

In other MLB news:� The Chicago White Sox and

Luis Robert agreed Thursday toa $50 million, six-year contract,clearing the way for the prizedoutfielder to open the season inthe majors.

The deal, which also includesclub options for 2026 and 2027,removes the incentive for theWhite Sox to keep the 22-year-old Cuban off their opening day ros-ter to limit his service time and delay his eventual free agency.

Briefl y

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21Saturday, January 4, 2020

BY PAUL NEWBERRY

Associated Press

The New Orleans Saints looked around in disbelief, searching for a yellow flag that never came during the NFL playoffs.

The Auburn Tigers were sure they’d get the ball after a Virginia player appeared to double-dribble in the closing seconds of a thrill-ing Final Four game, but the refs let it go.

Not long after, the guys in stripes weren’t so lax, whistling a disputed foul that sent the Cava-liers to the line for the winning free throws.

Some of the year’s most memo-rable games were decided by con-troversial calls — or, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, the calls that didn’t get made.

Let’s take a look back at the Top 10 from 2019:

Bayou bungle

The Los Angeles Rams advanced to the Super Bowl with an overtime win against the Saints that would not have been possible without an egregious mistake by the officials in the closing minutes of regulation.

Los Angeles cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman committed a blatant interference penalty with a helmet-to-helmet hit on Tommylee Lewis well before the pass arrived inside the 5, forcing the Saints to settle for Wil Lutz’s 31-yard field goal.

“I got away with one,” Robey-Cole-man conceded.

Jared Goff had enough time to lead the Rams down the field for Greg Zuerlein’s tying field with 15 seconds remaining.

Then Zuerlein won it, 26-23, with a 57-yard kick in overtime.

“It happened right there in front of the person who would be the one to make the call, and everyone in the stands saw it, everyone watching at home on TV saw it,” Saints quarter-back Drew Brees said.

In response to the uproar, the NFL changed its rules to allow video reviews of interference calls, though that has seemingly led to even more confusion and complaints this season.

Final Four two-step

One year after becoming the first top seed to lose to a No. 16 seed, Virginia appeared headed for more heartbreak in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cavaliers squandered a 10-point lead in the final five minutes to Auburn. But they managed to pull it out, with a big helping hand from the officials.

Virginia’s Ty Jerome appeared to dou-ble-dribble for what could have been a decisive turnover. Or Jerome might have been fouled before the mishandle. There was no whistle for either.

With 1.5 seconds left and in need of some magic, Virginia got the ball to Kyle Guy in the corner. He turned and fired as Samir Doughty, hands straight up in the air, bumped into Guy’s hip. The shot was short, bouncing off the rim as Auburn started to celebrate.

Game over? Nope.Official James Breeding called a foul

on Doughty, sending Guy to the free-throw line. He calmly knocked down all

three shots to give Virginia a disputed 63-62 win. Two nights later, in another overtime thriller, the Cavaliers captured their first national title by beating Texas Tech.

“We kind of thought we had it sealed,” Auburn’s Bryce Brown said. “I just didn’t agree with the call.”

Pavelski payback

Auburn and New Orleans weren’t the only teams to gripe about the officiating,

The NHL season ended for the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 7 of the play-offs after a major penalty sparked the San Jose Sharks to a 5-4 overtime victory.

On a faceoff in San Jose’s offen-sive zone with Las Vegas leading 3-0 midway through the third period, Cody Eakin cross-checked Sharks captain Joe Pavelski in the chest. Paul Stastny then bumped Pavelski as he fell to the ice, his helmet slamming down. Pavel-ski was knocked out and bleeding on the ice.

The officials huddled as a dazed Pavelski was helped to the locker room. They gave Eakin a five-minute major for cross-checking and a game

misconduct.The Golden Knights were livid — es-

pecially after the Sharks erupted for four goals during those five minutes with an extra skater.

“They called five minutes for that?” Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “It’s a joke, that’s what it is.“

The Golden Knights tied the game with a goal late in regulation, but Bar-clay Goodrow’s overtime goal won it for the Sharks, 5-4.

“The boys got together and said this is for Pavs,” San Jose’s Joe Thornton said. “It was just a matter of will, and we willed that one for him.”

The Sharks became just the second team to overcome a three-goal deficit in the third period to win a Game 7.

As for the Golden Knights, they had to be content with a call from the NHL apologizing for a penalty that was too harsh.

Miracle at Anfield

Add another entry to Liverpool’s long list of storied comebacks.

This time, Lionel Messi and mighty Barcelona were on the receiving end in the semifinals of soccer’s European Champions League.

After romping to a 3-0 win in the first game of the home-and-home, total-goals series, Barca seemed a lock for the final.

But, back on their home turf at An-field, Liverpool pulled off a stunning 4-0 victory that propelled the club to its sixth European title.

“This club has a big heart, and to-night the heart was pounding like crazy,” manager Juergen Klopp said. “You could feel it all over the world.”

Twenty-four hours later, Tottenham overcame a three-goal halftime deficit on the road, stunning Ajax in the other Champions League semifinal.

“We saw Liverpool last night,” Totten-ham fullback Danny Rose said. “It goes to show it’s not over until it is over.”

Super over

After more than nine stomach-churn-ing hours, the first Super Over in Crick-et World Cup history — and perhaps the most extraordinary over ever played — came down to one last ball.

England calmly prevailed in the fad-ing sunlight of Lord’s as New Zealand’s desperate scramble to score what would have been the winning run came up short. So ended the home team’s agonizing 44-year wait to be crowned world champion of the sport it invented.

“The most ridiculous game of cricket to have ever been played,” said Jos Buttler, England’s wicket-keeper.

“The guys are shattered,” countered New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. “It’s devastating.”

Follow the bouncing ball

Kawhi Leonard got the bounce. Then another. Then another. And, yes, one more.

Finally, the shot fell through, giving the Toronto Raptors a 92-90 victory that bounced the Philadelphia 76ers out of the NBA playoffs.

Leonard’s shot from the corner over Joel Embiid was the first winning buzz-er-beater in a Game 7 in NBA history. The ball danced on the rim four times before dropping. It was quite a capper to Leonard’s 41-point masterpiece.

The Raptors went on to claim their first NBA title by beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

“It was great,” Leonard said. “It wasa blessing to be able to get to that point and make that shot and feel that moment.”

Megan’s moment

Megan Rapinoe capped a remark-able year of sporting excellence and social activism by leading to UnitedStates to its second straight Women’sWorld Cup title.

Rapinoe broke a scoreless tie in thefinal with a second-half penalty kick, and the Americans went on to beat theNetherlands 2-0.

Rapinoe won the Golden Ball as topplayer and the Golden Boot as top scor-er in the month long tournament, but her impact went far beyond the field.She sparred with U.S. President Don-ald Trump and was one of the leading voices on a squad that loudly demand-ed equal pay with the men’s team.

“We’re such a proud and strong anddefiant group of women,” Rapinoe said.

Her trademark victory pose, lookingskyward with arms outstretched, also became a worldwide sensation.

Brave blossoms

In the wake of Typhoon Hagibis, host Japan turned in a thoroughly inspiringperformance at the Rugby World Cupin its final group stage match againstScotland.

A brilliant display by the team knownas the “Brave Blossoms” gave them abig halftime lead. Then they held off a furious Scottish comeback to preservea 28-21 victory.

Japan advanced to the quarterfinalsfor the first time. Even though they lostto eventual champion South Africa,their tournament run was just whattheir battered nation needed after theferocious storm.

Burrow bests Tua

Joe Burrow propelled LSU to the Col-lege Football Playoff and himself to theHeisman Trophy with a dazzling display against Tua Tagovailoa and Alabama in college football’s game of the year.

Burrow passed for 393 yards andthree touchdowns, answered challengeafter challenge, and helped end LSU’seight-year string of futility against theCrimson Tide.

After the Tigers’ 46-41 victory, Bur-row was carried off the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium by his teammates.

“We’ve finally got the tools that weneed to beat those guys,” coach Ed Orgeron said. “To have a championshipteam, you’ve got to have a champion-ship quarterback.”

Angel on the pitcher’s mound

In their first home game after thedeath of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, the LosAngeles Angels honored his memorywith a combined no-hitter from TaylorCole and Felix Pena in a 13-0 victoryover Seattle.

The Angels played a practically per-fect game on the day before what wouldhave been Skaggs’ 28th birthday.

“He was definitely looking over us tonight,“ said Mike Trout, who contrib-uted a 454-foot homer and six RBIs.

Later, officials ruled that Skaggs’died from an accidental drug overdose,prompting Major League Baseball tostart testing for cocaine and opioids.

GAMES OF THE YEAR

YEAR IN REVIEW

GERALD HERBERT /AP

Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman interferes with Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis as he breaks up a pass late in the NFC championship game. A penalty was not called, and the Rams won 26-23. The NFL changed its rules to allow reviews of interference calls.

Some made memorable by blown calls

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP

Members of the Los Angeles Angels place their jerseys with No. 45 in honor of pitcher Tyler Skaggs on the mound after the team combined for a no-hitter on July 12 against the Seattle Mariners.

PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, January 4, 2020

BY JOHN WAWROW

Associated Press

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Whatever bad memories Bills quarterback Josh Allen had of his first and only game NFL game at Houston have been pushed aside some 14 months later.

There’s no need to remind the second-year player of leaving the game in the third quarter with a sprained throwing elbow that eventually led to him miss-ing five weeks. And Allen doesn’t need to hear of the telltale rookie awkwardness he displayed after being thrust into a starting role ahead of schedule as a result of Nathan Peterman’s turnover-prone issues.

However raw Buffalo’s first-round draft pick looked in the weeks leading up to a 20-13 loss to the Texans on Oct. 14, 2018, Allen believes he’s made considerable strides in preparing to make his playoff debut in an AFC wild-card game at Houston on Saturday.

“Obviously, going through that game there’s not great memories. Nobody likes getting hurt,” he said following practice Tuesday.

“I feel like a different player from last year ... just as far as see-ing things, seeing defenses, trust-ing the guys around me and not trying to make the big play all the time.”

Allen’s progress has been ap-parent during a season in which he’s posted five fourth-quarter comebacks and helped Buffalo (10-6) to its best finish in 20 years. He’s doubled his touchdown pass-ing total to 20; his completion per-centage has jumped by 6 points to 58.6; and his 3,089 yards passing are the most by a Bills player since Ryan Fitzpatrick had 3,400 in 2012.

Having shown a flair for per-forming in national settings by beating the Cowboys at Dallas on

Thanksgiving and the Steelers in Pittsburgh in prime-time, Allen can appreciate how the playoffs represent the next step in his development.

“It’s a new game. It’s a differ-ent situation,” he said. “All the marbles are on the table.”

No pressure, said Allen, who can become Buffalo’s first quar-terback to win a playoff game since Hall of Famer Jim Kelly oversaw a 37-22 wild-card victory over Miami on Dec. 30, 1995.

“I don’t have to be the best quarterback out there,” Allen said. “I have to be the best quar-terback for this team to help us win a football game regardless of the circumstances.”

Allen’s comments echo what his coaches have emphasized on

maintaining an even keel.“The juices get flowing, it’s

a competitive time of year and you’ve got to do a good job of try-ing to stay as level-headed as youcan,” offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said. “You want to win itso bad, but you’ve got to stay con-sistent with your routine and the things you’ve done all throughout the year.”

If there’s a concern, it’s Allen acknowledging he’s experienced early game jitters, most recently following a 24-17 loss at NewEngland two weeks ago. It wasa game in which he went 6-for-13 for 62 yards and a touchdownin the first half, before finishing13-for-26 for 208 yards and twotouchdowns.

Slow starts have been an issuethis season.

Buffalo’s game-opening driveshave produced just one touch-down and four field goals. And the Bills have combined to score just 12 points in the first quarterof their past eight games, and 43 overall.

“That’s on my shoulders. We’ve got to go and start faster,” Allensaid.

As for the jitters?“Just got to ride it,” he said.

“It’s OK to be hyped at times. It means that you care.”

Backup Matt Barkley cred-ited Allen for showing growth and maturity. Barkley noted howAllen is no longer scrambling out of the pocket at the first sign ofpressure, and has cut down on trying to force plays which lead tonegative gains or turnovers.

That’s different to the player Barkley saw when he first arrivedin Buffalo two weeks after Allenwas hurt against the Texans.

“I do think there was a drastic change from the first half of the season and when he came back,” he added.

NFL PLAYOFFS

DAVID DERMER/AP

In making his NFL playoff debut against the Texans this weekend, second-year Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen gets an opportunity to show how far he’s come since his last trip to Houston 14 months ago.

This Bill is now due: Allen comes into his own in his second season

85.3Passer rating this season

for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who has 20 touchdowns and

10 interceptions.

By the numbers

SOURCE: NFL.com

67.9Passer rating last season

for Allen, who had 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions as

a rookie for the Bills.

Texans’ Watt willplay ‘quite a bit’All-Pro DE returns from injury and wants‘to create that magic’ from rookie season

BY KRISTIE RIEKEN

Associated Press

HOUSTON — J.J. Watt was a rookie in the 2011 playoffs when his spectacular performance against the Cincinnati Bengals led the Houston Texans to the first postseason win in franchise history.

The spotlight will be on Watt again on Saturday, when he’ll re-turn to the field a little more than two months after surgery to re-pair a torn pectoral muscle when the Texans host the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the playoffs.

Watt had a good first season in the NFL but was relatively un-known nationally when he made his playoff debut against Cincin-nati. The game was tied at 10-all in the second quarter when Watt tipped a pass from Andy Dalton and grabbed it for an intercep-tion, which he returned 29 yards for a touchdown to put Houston on top for good. The defensive end also had four tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit in the 31-10 victory.

Watt recalled that game this week and said the energy and at-mosphere in the stadium that day was incredible.

“As a guy who’s been here for nine years, that feeling is what I want to capture and magnify,” he said. “I feel like, not that we haven’t had that (since), but there was something magical about that and I want to create that magic again. The only way to do that is by winning. There’s no special sauce. You just have to win.”

After sitting out since October, it’s unclear how much impact Watt will have on the game. But coach Bill O’Brien said Thursday that Watt would play “quite a bit,” which should help a pass rush that ranked 26th in the NFL with just 31 sacks.

Watt and the Texans will face an offense led by Josh Allen, who will make his playoff debut after finishing the regular season with 3,089 yards passing with 20 touchdowns and 510 yards rush-ing and nine more scores.

“(It’s) still the game of football, the dimensions are the same, we have the same plays that we’ve had in all year,” Allen said. “We’re not trying to do anything different ... we got to go out there and execute.”

24 years and waitingThe Bills have lost five straight

playoff games since a 37-22 win over Miami in a wild-card game on Dec. 30, 1995. The Jim Kelly-led team followed with a 40-21 loss at Pittsburgh the next week.

Buffalo’s drought is the third longest active playoff drought in

the NFL.The Cincinnati Bengals haven’t

won a playoff game since January 1991. The Detroit Lions have the second-longest streak, with their last win coming in January 1992.

Members of Buffalo’s 1990 teams, who made and lost four consecutive Super Bowl appear-ances, are rooting for the Bills to finally break the streak.

“We’re all about these guys. We love them. We think they’re great,” former Bills receiver and special teams star Steve Tasker said, noting he was speaking for numerous teammates. “The cul-ture and feel around the building reminds us of us.”

Watson’s opportunityHouston quarterback Deshaun

Watson is looking for his first playoff win after struggling in his playoff debut last season, a 21-7 loss to the Colts.

“We earned this opportunity and it’s real dope,” he said. “No one in our locker room wants it to end and we’ll continue to keep working and keep fighting for-ward to try to improve and get to the next week.”

Though Watson is only in his third season, he’s the undisput-ed leader of the offense and has worked this week to make sure his teammates are focused. Running back Carlos Hyde said Watson sent a group text to the players on offense with the simple message of “let’s be great.”

Hello again, HoustonBills cornerback Kevin John-

son and rookie defensive tackle Ed Oliver have ties to Houston. Johnson spent his first four sea-sons with the Texans after being selected with the 16th pick in the 2015 draft. Oliver, Buffalo’s first-round pick, grew up and spent his three-year college career at Houston.

Oliver shrugged off questions about his homecoming, saying, “The most exciting part besides playing Houston is (it’s) my first playoff game.”

He’s treating it like any other road game despite having family and friends in the stands.

“Doesn’t matter where we play,” Oliver said. “My fans and people can’t come down on the field and help me play.”

As for Johnson, he said he’s focused on the outcome and not holding a grudge against the team that cut him last offseason.

“It’s a good opportunity and the goal is to win the game,” he said. “That’s what my focus is.”AP Sports Writer John Wawrow con-tributed to this report.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23Saturday, January 4, 2020

Buffalo Bills (10-6)at Houston Texans (10-6)

AFN-Sports10:35 p.m. Saturday CET

6:35 a.m. Sunday JKT

Tennessee Titans (9-7)at New England Patriots (12-4)

AFN-Sports2 a.m. Sunday CET10 a.m. Sunday JKT

Minnesota Vikings (10-6)at New Orleans Saints (13-3)

AFN-Sports7 p.m. Sunday CET3 a.m. Monday JKT

Seattle Seahawks (11-5)at Philadelphia Eagles (9-7)

AFN-Sports10:30 p.m. Sunday CET6:30 a.m. Monday JKT

Playoff glanceWild-card Playoffs

Saturday, Jan. 4Buffalo at HoustonTennessee at New England

Sunday, Jan. 5Minnesota at New OrleansSeattle at Philadelphia

Divisional PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 11

Philadelphia, Seattle or Minnesota at San Francisco

Houston, Buffalo or Tennessee at Bal-timore

Sunday, Jan. 12New England, Houston or Buffalo at

Kansas CityNew Orleans, Philadelphia or Seattle

at Green BayConference Championships

Sunday, Jan. 19AFCNFC

Scoreboard

NFL injury report NEW YORK — The National Football

League injury report, as provided by the league:

SaturdayBUFFALO BILLS at HOUSTON TEXANS

— BILLS: LIMITED: DE Shaq Lawson (ham-string), T Ty Nsekhe (ankle), WR Andre Roberts (foot), CB Levi Wallace (ankle). FULL: LB Lorenzo Alexander (not injury related), DE Jerry Hughes (not injury re-lated). TEXANS: LIMITED: S Jahleel Addae (achilles), TE Jordan Akins (hamstring), WR Will Fuller (groin), CB Johnathan Joseph (hamstring), CB Bradley Roby (hamstring). FULL: TE Jordan Thomas (ill-ness), LB Jacob Martin (knee), WR Kenny Stills (knee), T Laremy Tunsil (ankle), DE J.J. Watt (shoulder).

TENNESSEE TITANS at NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — TITANS: DNP: WR Adam Humphries (ankle). LIMITED: S Dane Cruikshank (Illness), WR Cody Hollister (ankle), WR Kalif Raymond (concussion). FULL: T Jack Conklin (knee), LB Daren Bates (shoulder), CB Adoree’ Jackson (foot). PATRIOTS: LIMITED: LB Ja’Whaun Bentley (knee), S Terrence Brooks (groin), T Marcus Cannon (ankle), LB Jamie Col-lins (shoulder), WR Julian Edelman (knee, shoulder), CB Jonathan Jones (groin), CB Jason McCourty (groin).

SundayMINNESOTA VIKINGS at NEW ORLEANS

SAINTS — VIKINGS: DNP: CB Mackensie Alexander (knee), S Andrew Sendejo (ill-ness), DE Stephen Weatherly (illness). LIMITED: LB Eric Kendricks (quadri-cep), CB Mike Hughes (neck), DE Ifeadi Odenigbo (hamstring). FULL: RB Dalvin Cook (shoulder), S Jayron Kearse (foot), RB Alexander Mattison (ankle), CB Xavi-er Rhodes (ankle), DT Shamar Stephen (knee). SAINTS: DNP: CB Eli Apple (an-kle), RB Zach Line (knee). FULL: S Vonn Bell (knee), WR Michael Thomas (hand), RB Dwayne Washington (knee), WR Mar-cus Williams (groin).

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS at PHILADELPHIA EAGLES — EAGLES: DNP: WR Nelson Ag-holor (knee), RB Miles Sanders (ankle). LIMITED: DE Derek Barnett (ankle), DT Fletcher Cox (triceps), TE Zach Ertz (ribs, back), T Lane Johnson (ankle). FULL: CB Sidney Jones (back), CB Avonte Mad-dox (abdomen), CB Jalen Mills (ankle). SEAHAWKS: DNP: T Duane Brown, WR Jaron Brown, DE Jadeveon Clowney, G Mike Iupati, LB Marvin Kendricks, WR Malik Turner. LIMITED: G Phil Haynes, C Joseph Hunt. FULL: S Quandre Diggs, TE Luke Willson.

NFL PLAYOFFS

Carrying: Titans rank third in rushing yardage

‘Patriot Way’ squares off with burgeoning ‘Titan Way’

The ties that bind

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER

Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When Tennessee GM Jon Robin-son fi red coach Mike Mularkey after he lost to the Patriots in the divisional round of the playoffs following the 2017 season, he leaned on his past to plot a course for the Titans’ future.

Five days later Robinson, who got his NFL start as a scout with New England from 2002-13, hired Mike Vrabel — winner of three Super Bowl rings as a linebacker with the Patriots — as his new coach.

With former Patriots corner-back Logan Ryan already on the roster, Vrabel added more play-ers and staff with ties to New Eng-land. That group included former Patriots assistant Dean Pees as his defensive coordinator, 2015 Super Bowl savior cornerback Malcolm Butler, and running back Dion Lewis.

It seemed like a transparent ef-fort to plant seeds in Tennessee of New England coach Bill Belich-ick’s disciplined, team-fi rst “Do your job” culture that has come to be known as “The Patriot Way.”

“Isn’t that the street the movie theater is on?” Vrabel joked this week when asked what the moni-ker meant to him.

Two seasons later the efforts of Robinson and Vrabel, combined with a boost from former Miami Dolphins quarterback and Patri-ots’ AFC East nemesis Ryan Tan-nehill, have culminated in a wild-card matchup Saturday with the franchise the Titans appear to be striving to emulate.

True or not, Vrabel said the ties between the teams aren’t on his mind.

“This isn’t about my career, my eight years in New England,” said Vrabel, who coached the Titans to a 34-10 victory over New England in Nashville last season. “This is

about the Titans and our prepara-tion to go up there and face a team that’s won three Super Bowls in the last fi ve years. They’re 8-0 at home in that span. They’ve got the No. 1 defense, they’ve got the best coach, they’ve got the best quar-terback, so it’s quite a challenge.”

The Patriots will face one of the hottest teams heading into the postseason. The Titans won seven of their fi nal 10 games to earn their second playoff berth in three seasons and fi rst under Vrabel.

Ryan was drafted by the Patri-ots in 2013 and spent the fi rst four seasons of his career in New Eng-land, winning Super Bowl rings during the 2014 and 2016 seasons. He said he’s carried lessons from his time with the Patriots that stick with him.

“It’s a new season, and we have to play well on Saturday. That’s the one thing I learned from being a Patriot,” he said. “It doesn’t mat-ter what you did, it doesn’t matter

if it’s ‘on to Cincinnati’ or what-ever it may be. It’s one game at atime in the playoffs. You’ve got to give all you got. It’s not a best of seven, it’s not a best of fi ve.”

New England’s loss to Miami in its regular-season fi nale relegated it to the wild-card round for the fi rst time since 2009, when it lost33-14 to Baltimore. The Patriotsare 2-1 in wild-card games underBelichick and that “best quarter-back,” Tom Brady, but have never made it to the Super Bowl when opening the playoffs as a wild-card team during their era.

“We have a chance to go on a revenge tour,” Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. “What better way than to start out with Tennes-see, who we lost to last year. It’s a big motivation. We weren’t happy about our performance. They’recoming into our house. What bet-ter way to get it started for the playoffs.”

FROM BACK PAGE

Coach Mike Vrabel told his Titans before they clinched the AFC’s second wild card that being able to run is how teams win in the postseason. Tennessee (9-7) ranks third in averaging 138.9 yards a game.

“You control the ball, control the tempo,” Vrabel said. “I would say that there’s prob-ably less turnovers on running plays than there are on passing plays, and turnovers at this point in the year are critical. The last game the Patriots lost was Jan. 20, 2013 in the playoffs at home, and they had three turnovers and the Ravens had zero. So, that’s a telling stat.”

How well Tennessee runs Saturday night against the Patriots will hinge on Henry, who averaged 20.2 carries in 15 games played this season. He is averaging 5.1 yards per carry, and also has had three touchdowns on runs of 53 yards or longer this season.

Henry knows that.

“You have to run the ball to get to the Super Bowl, so I think running the ball ef-fectively is a big key to winning games in the playoffs,” Henry said.

New England (12-4) finished sixth against the run, allowing only 95.5 yards a game. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said it’s impossible to mimic the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry’s size, speed and physical play in practice, though there’s not many guys like him in the NFL. The Patriots have seen Henry up close most recently during joint practices in August, which helps.

“He can make you miss in space, he can drop his pads and run with power and run over you. He’s a good inside runner, good outside runner, and catches the ball well and he’s got speed to go the distance. He doesn’t get caught much. He gets a step and then he’s able to finish it off,” Belich-ick said.

“He’s got a good stiff arm. He breaks a lot of tackles in the secondary from guys

that just can’t get close enough to wrap him up — he just pushes them away.”

Henry’s best season yet is perfect timing. The running back who lasted until the No. 45 pick overall in the second round before Tennessee selected him out of Alabama is in the final year of his rookie contract. Henry made clear during the offseason that his contract status was not an issue.

His motivation is simple: “I love playing.“

Henry and the Titans had to balance an injury over the past month. A sore left ham-string prompted Tennessee to hold him out of a Dec. 22 loss to New Orleans, and he is averaging 149.3 yards rushing over his past six games, including a season-high 211 yards in last week’s win in Houston.

“We like to call that being a professional — trying to make the hard look easy,” Vra-bel said.

Henry is very good at that, and he’s not on the injury report this week.

MARK ZALESKI/AP

Titans running back Derrick Henry is introduced before a game against the Houston Texans on Dec. 15 in Nashville, Tenn. Henry averaged 20.2 carries in the 15 games he played this season.

AP

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, left, greets New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick before a game in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 11, 2018. Vrabel played for Belichick for eight seasons in New England and won three Super Bowls.

CARRYINGTHE LOAD

S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S Saturday, January 4, 2020

SPORTS

Blown calls factored into some of 2019’s biggest games » Page 21

NFL PLAYOFFS

New Year, new lookEastern Conference has gotten tougher at the top » NBA, Page 19

Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry averaged 5.1 yards a carry during the regular season.BEN MARGOT/AP

BY TERESA M. WALKER

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

No one is a harsher critic of Titans running back Der-rick Henry than himself.

“I just want to do my job very well,” Henry said Wednesday. “If I don’t, I’m hard on myself. I just keep

working until I get it right.”The NFL rushing leader and first-time Pro Bowl running

back will get a chance Saturday night to improve on his last performance against the Patriots in the playoffs. Henry ran 12 times for 28 yards — a 2.3-yard average per carry — with noth-ing over 4 yards. He did catch three passes for 21 yards, but the Titans lost 34-14 in the divisional round on Jan. 13, 2018.

He ran better the last time Tennessee played New England, averaging 5.3 yards on just 11 carries, as the Titans routed the Patriots 34-10 on Nov. 11, 2018, in Nashville.

Since then, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner has been pun-ishing defenders, piling up yards in his best year yet. Henry capped his fourth season with 1,540 yards rushing and tied for the league lead with 16 rushing touchdowns, which he calls a “team accomplishment.”SEE CARRYING ON PAGE 23

League rushing leader Henry ready to take ball often against Patriots

Inside:� Patriots, Titans share ‘do your job’ philosophy, Page 23� Bills QB Allen ready to show how far he has come, Page 22� Texans’ Watt set to return from surgery to face Buffalo, Page 22