Category: News
Bills refuerzan su defensa al fichar al veterano Matthew Judon para el equipo de práctica
Por JOHN WAWROW
ORCHARD PARK, Nueva York, EE.UU. (AP) — Los Bills de Buffalo reforzaron su mermado ataque de pase al firmar el sábado al veterano ala defensiva Matthew Judon para su escuadra de práctica.
El movimiento se produce después de que el jugador de 33 años realizara una prueba para el equipo un día antes, y tras ser liberado el miércoles por los Dolphins de Miami.
Judon fue cortado después de no registrar ninguna captura y ser acreditado con solo tres golpes al mariscal de campo en 13 juegos, incluyendo tres como titular para los Dolphins. Combinó 9 1/2 capturas en las últimas tres temporadas después de terminar con un récord personal de 15 1/2 durante su temporada All-Pro en 2022 con Nueva Inglaterra.
Con una estatura de 1,91 metros pulgadas y 120 kilogramos, Judon está ahora en su tercer equipo en dos temporadas después de una estancia de tres campañas con los Patriots y pasar sus primeros cinco años con Baltimore. Tuvo 5 1/2 capturas en 2024 con Atlanta.
En general, el seleccionado en la quinta ronda del draft de 2016 de Grand Valley State se ubica en 13mopuesto entre los jugadores activos con 72 capturas en su carrera.
Judon pasa de los Dolphins, que han sido eliminados de la contienda por los playoffs, a los Bills (10-4), rivales de la AFC Este, que están en posición de asegurar su séptima participación consecutiva en los playoffs tan pronto como el domingo, cuando el equipo juegue en Cleveland (3-11).
Aunque la producción de Judon ha disminuido, los Bills esperan que su incorporación pueda llenar un rol a tiempo parcial en su rotación de alas defensivas.
El coordinador Bobby Babich ha expresado su deseo de reducir el tiempo de juego de Joey Bosa para mantener fresco al líder en capturas del equipo. Bosa, de 30 años, ha promediado jugar el 60% de las jugadas defensivas mientras lidia con una lesión en la muñeca en su primera temporada en Buffalo.
El aumento en el tiempo de juego de Bosa se debe en parte a que Buffalo perdió a Michael Hoecht, quien se rompió el tendón de Aquiles en la Semana nueve el mes pasado, y al novato cazamariscales Landon Jackson por una lesión de rodilla que puso fin a su temporada una semana después.
Los Bills liberaron un lugar en la escuadra de práctica para firmar a Judon al liberar al ala defensiva Morgan Fox.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
US forces stop a second merchant vessel off the coast of Venezuela, American officials say
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces on Saturday stopped a second merchant vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, two American officials told The Associated Press.
The move comes days after President Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country and follows the Dec. 10 seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
The officials were not authorized to discuss publicly the ongoing military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/20/merchant-vessel-vevenezuela/
Fuerzas de EEUU detienen segundo buque mercante frente a costa de Venezuela
Por KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fuerzas estadounidenses detuvieron el sábado un buque frente a la costa de Venezuela por segunda vez en menos de dos semanas, mientras el presidente Donald Trump continúa aumentando la presión sobre el presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro.
La medida, que fue confirmada por dos funcionarios estadounidenses familiarizados con el asunto, se produce días después de que Trump anunciara un “bloqueo” de todos los petroleros sancionados que entran y salen del país sudamericano y sigue a la incautación el 10 de diciembre por parte de las fuerzas estadounidenses de un petrolero frente a la costa de Venezuela.
Los funcionarios no estaban autorizados para discutir públicamente la operación militar en curso y hablaron bajo condición de anonimato. La acción fue descrita como un “abordaje aceptado”, con el tanquero deteniéndose voluntariamente y permitiendo el abordaje de las fuerzas estadounidenses, indicó una de las fuentes.
El Pentágono y los funcionarios de la Casa Blanca no respondieron a solicitudes de comentarios.
Trump, a principios de este mes, anunció que la Guardia Costera había incautado un petrolero en el Mar Caribe y prometió que Estados Unidos llevaría a cabo un bloqueo de Venezuela. Todo esto ocurre mientras Trump ha intensificado su retórica hacia Maduro y advirtió que los días del líder venezolano en el poder están contados.
Esta semana, Trump exigió que Venezuela devuelva los activos que incautó a las compañías petroleras estadounidenses hace años, justificando nuevamente su anuncio de un “bloqueo” contra los petroleros que viajan hacia o desde el país sudamericano que enfrentan sanciones estadounidenses.
Trump citó las inversiones estadounidenses perdidas en Venezuela cuando se le preguntó sobre su nueva táctica en una campaña de presión contra Maduro, sugiriendo que los movimientos de la administración republicana están al menos en parte motivados por disputas sobre inversiones petroleras, junto con acusaciones de tráfico de drogas. Algunos petroleros sancionados ya están evitando Venezuela.
“No vamos a dejar pasar a nadie que no debería pasar”, declaró Trump a los periodistas. “Recuerden que se llevaron todos nuestros derechos energéticos. Se llevaron todo nuestro petróleo no hace mucho tiempo. Y lo queremos de vuelta. Lo tomaron — lo tomaron ilegalmente”.
Las capturas de barcos se producen mientras Trump ha ordenado al Departamento de Defensa llevar a cabo una serie de ataques a embarcaciones en el Caribe y el Océano Pacífico oriental que su administración alega están contrabandeando fentanilo y otras drogas ilegales hacia Estados Unidos y más allá.
Al menos 104 personas han muerto en 28 ataques conocidos desde principios de septiembre.
Los ataques han enfrentado escrutinio por parte de legisladores y activistas de derechos humanos, quienes dicen que la administración ha ofrecido escasas pruebas de que sus objetivos son realmente narcotraficantes y que los ataques fatales equivalen a ejecuciones extrajudiciales.
La Guardia Costera, a veces con ayuda de la Marina, ha interceptado frecuentemente barcos sospechosos de contrabandear drogas en el Mar Caribe, buscado cargamentos ilícitos y arrestado a las personas a bordo para su enjuiciamiento.
El gobierno de Trump ha justificado los ataques como necesarios, afirmando que está en “conflicto armado” con los cárteles de la droga con el objetivo de detener el flujo de narcóticos hacia Estados Unidos. Maduro enfrenta cargos federales de narcoterrorismo en Estados Unidos.
En los últimos meses, Estados Unidos ha enviado una flota de buques de guerra a la región, el mayor despliegue de fuerzas en generaciones, y Trump ha declarado repetidamente que los ataques terrestres llegarán pronto.
Maduro ha insistido en que el verdadero propósito de las operaciones militares es derrocarlo.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
ICE Announces ‘Most Successful’ Recruitment Campaign In US History
ICE Announces ‘Most Successful’ Recruitment Campaign In US History
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received more than 220,000 applications for more than 10,000 open positions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ICE said in a statement on Dec. 18.
DHS has officially hired 11,751 law enforcement officers, attorneys, criminal investigators, and mission support staff, the agency said. This is the “most successful federal law enforcement agency recruitment campaign in American history,” the agency said.
DHS launched the ICE “Defend the Homeland” recruitment drive on July 29. The recruitment effort is backed by funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, which allocates $170 billion to border security and immigration enforcement initiatives.
OBBB had granted ICE $76.5 billion, of which $30 billion was to be used to hire 10,000 additional staff members.
In a Dec. 18 post on X, ICE said it hit its goal of hiring more than 10,000 personnel in less than a year.
ICE Deputy Director Madison D. Sheahan praised the OBBB for providing the agency with necessary resources to enforce immigration law “as it’s been written and codified by Congress.”
“The president and Secretary Noem set a goal, and we exceeded it, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We continue to call on American patriots to serve the homeland because we know that there’s still more work to do—and we will not stop until every community in this nation is safe,” Sheahan said, referring to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
ICE said it was offering “unparalleled” incentives to recruits, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000, up to $60,000 in student loan repayment, and an attractive benefits package that includes health insurance, paid federal holidays, and a retirement plan.
Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced new recruitment and retention incentives on Dec. 18 to attract skilled individuals to key law enforcement positions in the agency.
CBP is offering new border patrol agents up to $60,000 in incentives, with current agents eligible for up to $50,000 in retention incentives, the agency said.
New Air and Marine agents can become eligible for up to $10,000 in signing bonuses once they complete academy training. Both new and current agents are also eligible for retention incentives of up to 25 percent of their salary.
For new CBP officers in the Office of Field Operations who sign up for hard-to-fill and most difficult-to-fill locations, incentives of up to $60,000 are being offered. Experienced supervisors and officers eligible to retire in certain locations also may qualify for up to $60,000 in retention incentives.
“CBP is committed to recruiting and retaining top talent for our critical mission,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said.
“By offering competitive incentives, we are investing in skilled professionals who will help secure America’s borders and advance national security.”
The strong recruitment numbers come despite immigration enforcement officers facing unprecedented violence against them. On Dec. 12, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said that officers were facing an 8,000 percent increase in death threats along with a 1,150 percent increase in assaults.
Federal Immigration Enforcement
Democrats have criticized ICE and CBP for their part in federal immigration enforcement.
This month, a group of Democratic senators introduced the “Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act,” which seeks to grant individuals the right to sue law enforcement agencies and officers in civil court for any constitutional or civil violations, according to a Dec. 15 statement from the office of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
This right to sue will be made available to all individuals in the United States “regardless of citizenship,” it said.
“For months, ICE and CBP officers have terrorized communities across the country, deploying violent and excessive tactics against immigrants, U.S. citizens, journalists, and bystanders alike with no accountability,” Padilla said.
“These abuses of individuals’ constitutional rights without consequence shatter public trust and stoke fear among hardworking members of our communities.”
DHS says ICE arrests target illegal immigrants with a history of criminal activities and has recently launched a website to boost transparency regarding the arrests.
DHS operates the website, “Worst of the Worst,” which allows users to search, based on location, for criminal illegal immigrants who have been arrested and removed from communities. On Dec. 18, the agency said it had added another 5,000 criminal illegal immigrants to the growing list of 15,000 profiles on the website.
“This new update represents just a small sample of the total number of arrests we’ve made—70 percent of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens that have been charged or convicted of a crime in the United States,” McLaughlin said.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/20/2025 – 14:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ice-announces-most-successful-recruitment-campaign-us-history
EEUU detiene a otro buque comercial frente a costas de Venezuela, dicen funcionarios de EEUU
WASHINGTON (AP) — EEUU detiene a otro buque comercial frente a costas de Venezuela, dicen funcionarios de EEUU.
Pope Leo XIV summons world’s cardinals for a key assembly to help him govern the church
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has summoned the world’s cardinals for two days of meetings to help him govern the church, the Vatican said Saturday, in the clearest sign yet that the new year will signal the unofficial start of his pontificate.
The consistory, as such gatherings are called, will be held Jan. 7-8, immediately following the Jan. 6 conclusion of the 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter century celebration of Christianity.
Leo’s first few months as pope have been dominated by fulfilling the weekly Holy Year obligations of meeting with pilgrimage groups and celebrating special Jubilee audiences and Masses. Additionally, much of his time has been spent wrapping up the outstanding matters of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
As a result, the January consistory in many ways will mark the first time that Leo can look ahead to his own agenda following his May 8 election as the first American pope. It is significant that he has summoned all the world’s cardinals to Rome.
Francis had largely eschewed the consistory tradition as a means of governance. He had instead relied on a small group of eight or nine hand-picked cardinal advisers to help him govern and make key decisions.
The Vatican said Saturday that Leo’s first consistory “will be oriented toward fostering common discernment and offering support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and grave responsibility in the government of the universal Church.”
Other types of consistories include the formal installation of new cardinals. But no new cardinals will be made at this meeting, which is purely consultative.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/20/pope-leo-worlds-cardinals-assembly/
Netanyahu Wants To Attack Iran Again, Will Lobby Trump In Mar-a-Lago Visit
Netanyahu Wants To Attack Iran Again, Will Lobby Trump In Mar-a-Lago Visit
Many analysts agree that the last round of fighting between Israel and Iran last June was not the final conflict the two regional powers will face.
Despite President Trump having declared that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program had been completely obliterated in the US knock-out strikes against three nuclear facilities which came at the end of the 12-day war, Israel suspects the Iranians are still conducting nuclear development activity in secret, and are busy reconstituting and expanding their ballistic missile arsenal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the United States yet again, from December 28 to January 4, and will meet with President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate. Netanyahu will reportedly lobby the president to take more military action against Tehran.
NBC reports Saturday, “Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.”
“Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said,” the report continues. “But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns.”
But the timing of potential new Pentagon action against Iran couldn’t be worse, given the concentration of American military assets currently in the southern Caribbean at a moment the US is threating regime change actions against Venezuela’s President Maduro and cartels in Latin America.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group was even recently moved from the Mediterranean, where it was closer to the Middle East and CENTCOM region, to join operations threatening Venezuela in the Caribbean.
However, the Pentagon has just this week engaged in new ‘counter ISIS’ strikes in Syria, and so presumably would have enough or limited support assets in the region if it chose to assist with some new Israeli anti-Iran operation.
Still, all of these unprovoked attacks on foreign powers and adventurism abroad could grow increasingly unpopular with the American people, and certainly there’s a large chunk of the MAGA base which is dead set against the US entering new wars and conflicts, also at a time the Ukraine proxy war shows no signs of slowing.
The Trump administration is still standing by its assessment that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been destroyed. “The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian government corroborated the United States government’s assessment that Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly has said in a statement.
There’s widespread acknowledgement that Iran’s ballistic missile capability is among the most advanced in the broader region, and that it did real damage against Israel in the June war:
Iran has not just developed one of the most advanced ICBMs in the world
(New video on the Qaem ICBM has just been released on the DDD YT-Channel)
➡️ Israeli sources now claim that Iran was close to mastering what no other country has ever masted:
Purse-Fusion nuclear weapons… https://t.co/qvq1nnLW46 pic.twitter.com/bUrnOIvB0X
— Patarames (@Pataramesh) December 20, 2025
She further warned: “As President Trump has said, if Iran pursued a nuclear weapon, that site would be attacked and would be wiped out before they even got close.” So while Trump might be open to mulling new action, the official US stance is that there’s no need to at this point.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/20/2025 – 13:25
Man arrested for vandalizing Whiting Christmas decorations
An Illinois man has been arrested for acting out the Grinch’s shtick on Whiting City Hall’s Christmas decorations last Sunday afternoon.
Whiting Police arrested the man Thursday after officers identified him from video footage, Whiting Mayor Steve Spebar said Friday. The man, who Spebar didn’t identify, also has a warrant out of Illinois, he said.
Holiday decorations on the east side of Whiting’s City Hall were untouched when a lone vandal came through Sunday night. (Michelle L. Quinn/Post-Tribune)
Video footage of the incident from a City Hall camera showed a younger man in a knit beanie, black coat and khaki pants walking west on 119th Street around 4:50 pm December 14. He disappeared from view, then came back into view appearing to be fighting with light cords and a candy cane.
Spebar said the man broke one of the reindeer decorations, and though maintenance tried to piece it back together, it’s nonfunctioning. The damage will cost the city $300 to replace, he said.
“Someone has to be in a really bad state of mind to wreck Christmas decorations,” Spebar said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
FBI Issues Warning As Sports Gambling Surges Around The US
FBI Issues Warning As Sports Gambling Surges Around The US
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
The FBI sounded the alarm on Dec. 17 regarding the risks associated with sports gambling as its popularity continues to gain steam across the United States.
The law enforcement bureau noted that 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized some variant of sports betting, but it said that “illegal sportsbooks and illegal online gaming sites” are still widespread.
Some $673.6 billion is wagered each year by Americans via illegal or unregulated gambling markets, the FBI said, citing data from the American Gambling Association.
“Individuals engaged in illegal gambling risk funding organized crime activity and becoming vulnerable to violence, extortion, and fraud,” the FBI said in its bulletin released on Wednesday, adding that it is working to target “organized crime and illegal gambling operations.”
Some gambling sites operated in other countries have advertisements that target Americans and seek to obscure their respective countries of origin, the agency said. These offshore sites do not follow the same legal regulations as licensed sports books in the United States, it added.
Furthermore, the bureau said that the gambling profits gained by these organized crime groups can fund human trafficking, drug smuggling, and weapon smuggling activities.
“Unregulated sportsbooks and offshore gambling websites put U.S. consumers at risk of losing their money and earnings,” the FBI warned.
“Illegal betting can also lead bettors to other criminal activity, such as tax evasion and money laundering, due to the illicit nature of the financial gains. It is each bettor’s responsibility to play with a licensed and regulated sportsbook operator.”
It was more than a month ago that several high-profile figures, current and former NBA players—such as Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier—and coaches, were charged in illegal sports betting and money laundering schemes, prosecutors have said.
In late October, former NBA star and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was also charged in an alleged scheme to rig illegal poker games, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
Rozier pleaded not guilty earlier this month to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges stemming from accusations that he helped some friends win bets that revolved around his statistical performance in a game played in March 2023.
Billups also pleaded not guilty last month to charges related to a separate scheme to fix high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker games.
In Major League Baseball, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were arrested in November, the DOJ said.
The pair was accused of gambling on individual pitches that they threw in MLB games.
A poll from NBC News released on Dec. 17 found that 70 percent of Americans believe that the rise of sports betting is damaging the integrity of games or could cause games to be rigged.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Dec. 16 that the league is taking the cases seriously, stating that “if this game isn’t viewed as being honest and the competition being on the level and at the highest integrity, over time we will lose our fan base.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/20/2025 – 12:50
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/fbi-issues-warning-sports-gambling-surges-around-us
Pejcinovic anota un triplete y pierde mientras Freiburg vence a Wolfsburg en la Bundesliga
WOLFSBURGO, Alemania (AP) — Dženan Pejčinović anotó una tripleta, pero no evitó que el Wolfsburg perdiera el sábado 4-3 ante el Freiburg, que sacó la victoria con una impulso al final.
Pejcinovic no había marcado en la Bundesliga antes, pero el delantero de 20 años, que jugó en lugar de Mohamed Amoura, quien disputará la Copa Africana de Naciones, dejó su huella con tres goles aprovechando los errores defensivos del Freiburg.
Los propios errores del Wolfsburg también resultaron costosos, ya que el defensor Jenson Seelt, cedido por el Sunderland, concedió un penal y desvió un salvamento del portero Kamil Grabara hacia su propia red.
Eso permitió al Freiburg igualar el marcador dos veces antes de que el suplente Derry Scherhart anotara el gol de la victoria a los 78 minutos.
Empate de Frankfurt
El Eintracht Frankfurt terminó 2025 en el séptimo lugar con una victoria en sus últimos seis partidos en todas las competiciones, después de empatar 1-1 con el Hamburger SV.
Un mal pase a través de la defensa del Frankfurt fue interceptado por Albert Sambi Lokonga para darle la ventaja a Hamburgo antes de que Hugo Larsson igualara para el Frankfurt con un centro de Nathaniel Brown.
Fábio Vieira, cedido por el Arsenal, pensó que había puesto a Hamburgo nuevamente por delante al 81, pero su gol de contraataque fue anulado por un fuera de juego ajustado tras la revisión del video.
Undav negado
Un cabezazo en fuera de juego de Deniz Undav del Stuttgart en el tiempo de descuento fue lo más cerca que su equipo y el Hoffenheim estuvieron en su empate 0-0, un resultado que no ayudó a ninguno de los equipos que buscan sus boletos a la Liga de Campeones.
András Schäfer anotó un dramático gol de la victoria en un tiro de esquina en el tiempo de descuento cuando el Unión de Berlín, octavo en la tabla, finalmente superó 1-0 al Colonia, que se quedó con diez hombres tras la tarjeta roja anterior de Rav van den Berg por mano.
Augsburg y Werder Bremen empataron 0-0.
El Leipzig puede subir al segundo lugar con una victoria sobre el Bayer Leverkusen más tarde el sábado.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
