Dusty May, No. 14 Michigan try to continue strong start vs. Arkansas

A handful of have been nominated for the industry's top gong at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. or signup to continue reading In a massive year for Nicole Kidman, she was nominated for 'Best actress in a drama motion picture' for her role as CEO Romy Mathis in the erotic thriller . Guy Pearce has been nominated for the 'Best supporting actor in a motion picture' award for his part as wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren in . Naomi Watts continues to be praised over her role as New York socialite Babe Paley in with a nomination for 'Best actress in a limited series, anthology series or television motion picture'. Comedian Nikki Glaser has been booked to host the "Hollywood's party of the year", airing live in the United States at 5pm on January 5. Australians will be able to stream the ceremony from midday on January 6. Anna Houlahan reports on crime and social issues affecting regional and remote Australia in her role as national crime reporter at Australian Community Media (ACM). She was ACM’s Trainee of the Year in 2023 and, aside from reporting on crime, has travelled the country as a journalist for Explore Travel Magazine. Reach out with news or updates to anna.houlahan@austcommunitymedia.com.au Anna Houlahan reports on crime and social issues affecting regional and remote Australia in her role as national crime reporter at Australian Community Media (ACM). She was ACM’s Trainee of the Year in 2023 and, aside from reporting on crime, has travelled the country as a journalist for Explore Travel Magazine. Reach out with news or updates to anna.houlahan@austcommunitymedia.com.au Advertisement Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. We care about the protection of your data. Read our . Advertisement

Juan Soto agreed to a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets on Sunday, heating things up at baseball’s winter meetings. Ashley Landis/Associated Press DALLAS — The major league winter meetings started with a bang. Juan Soto agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets broke a logjam that had some of the top-spending clubs waiting for a decision. There wasn’t a flurry of announcements in the immediate aftermath Monday, but plenty of rumors were flying. The Boston Red Sox were one of several teams that just missed out on Soto, offering him a deal reportedly worth over $700 million. The Red Sox, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were all in on Soto; now all three AL East teams are pivoting to Plan B. For Boston, that means pitching. Top-line starting pitchers are now taking center stage, with Corbin Burnes and Max Fried looking at nine-figure contracts. It’s a lot of money, but a lot less than what Soto got. And the Sox need a starting pitcher more than they need a left-handed bat, even if it’s in the hands of one of the game’s top hitters. Talking to Red Sox front office staff in Boston, it would seem the left-handed Fried is a slightly better fit than Burnes. The Sox rotation is stocked with righties, and a left-handed ace would give Manager Alex Cora more versatility in any series. Make no mistake, either would help Boston. The Red Sox are reportedly interesting in adding left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried. John Bazemore/Associated Press So would a right-handed bat. That’s why talk of a Teoscar Hernandez or Alex Bregman signing picked up just moments after the Soto announcement. Either free agent would help balance Cora’s lineup, which is predominantly left-handed. Having a right-handed bat between Rafael Devers and Triston Casas would help fire up the engine that powers the Red Sox offense. The Sox could add to either the offense or pitching staff via a trade. They have one of the top farm systems in the game, and certainly have the prospect capital to bring in a top-of-the-line starter like Garrett Crochet or a veteran slugger like Nolan Arenado. Hitting on two or three of these plans could make the Sox a contender next year. Imagine an offense bolstered by Fried and Crochet, and a lineup with Hernandez driving bombs over the Green Monster. You could argue that’s a far more successful offseason than one that saw Soto and Soto only coming to town. In recent years the meetings have been a bore. Deals are done before or, more often, after the meetings themselves. Last year teams waited months before top free-agent pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery signed. That’s why the activity – even though it’s only in the discussion stage – is so much fun. This is a big week for the baseball industry. When news breaks at the winter meetings, there is a massive contingent of media on hand to cover it. Those reports fuel the hot stove discussions that teams want people to have over the holidays. Last year the winter was hamstrung by free agents who waited well into the winter to make decisions. The Montgomery and Snell signings didn’t happen until spring training was starting. Teams were waiting to see if they could land either. Those who didn’t had little time to move on to other plans. That’s not the case here. Soto made his decision early. Now we’ll see if the Red Sox are willing to use some of the money they offered him to improve the roster in other ways. The buzz here in Dallas is that the Red Sox are acting like one of the most aggressive teams this offseason. Back in Boston, that’s good news. But after three years without a playoff appearance, fans want to see an official announcement before buying into the plan. That plan, even if it’s Plan B, is coming together behind closed doors. Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. Comments are not available on this story. Send questions/comments to the editors. « PreviousThe Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which is now poised to remain in his control for at least the near future. What's next for Infowars and Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site . U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them. “Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said in a phone interview Wednesday. The families, meanwhile, were preparing the mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting. The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case , which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid. He also said the amount of money offered in the only two bids was too low and there needed to be more effort to try to raise as much money possible from the selling of Infowars' assets. The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody . The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors. Lopez called it a complex arrangement that led to different interpretations of the bid's actual value as well as last-minute changes to a proposed sale order. The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected the allegations, saying that while mistakes were made there was no wrongdoing. Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors. The next steps remained unclear Wednesday. The judge directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy. He said Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company. He also said Murray could abandon the efforts, which could allow the Sandy Hook families to return to the state courts where they won their lawsuits against Jones and begin collection proceedings against him. The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan to move forward. Mattei, who represented the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said everyone is waiting to see what plan the trustee comes up with. Jones, meanwhile, continued to allege fraud and collusion on his show Wednesday and threatened legal action over what he called an attempted “rigged auction.” On the social media platform X, he called the judge's ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process." “I don’t want to have to go after these people, lawsuit-wise, but we have to because if you don’t then you’re aiding and abetting and they do it to other people. They made some big mistakes," he said. It's a solemn and heartbreaking week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence on Wednesday evening. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye. Many of the families said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats. Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed, testified at the Connecticut lawsuit trial in 2022 that the decade of abuse his family suffered made them move across the country to Washington state, and even there he was accosted in person. The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials. Jones has been appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments, and has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Last week, a Connecticut appeals court upheld most of the judgment in that state but reduced it by $150 million. Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

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