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(Note to subs: amends byline error) The world stands at the dawn of a “third nuclear age” in which Britain is threatened by multiple dilemmas, the head of the armed forces has warned. But alongside his stark warning of the threats facing Britain and its allies, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said there would be only a “remote chance” Russia would directly attack or invade the UK if the two countries were at war. The Chief of the Defence Staff laid out the landscape of British defence in a wide-ranging speech, after a minister warned the Army would be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict. The admiral cast doubt on the possibility as he gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) defence think tank in London. He told the audience Britain needed to be “clear-eyed in our assessment” of the threats it faces, adding: “That includes recognising that there is only a remote chance of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia on the United Kingdom, and that’s the same for the whole of Nato.” Moscow “knows the response will be overwhelming”, he added, but warned the nuclear deterrent needed to be “kept strong and strengthened”. Sir Tony added: “We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age, which is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.” The first nuclear age was the Cold War, while the second was “governed by disarmament efforts and counter proliferation”, the armed forces chief said. He listed the “wild threats of tactical nuclear use” by Russia, China building up its weapon stocks, Iran’s failure to co-operate with a nuclear deal, and North Korea’s “erratic behaviour” among the threats faced by the West. But Sir Tony said the UK’s nuclear arsenal is “the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on (President Vladimir) Putin than anything else”. Successive British governments had invested “substantial sums of money” in renewing nuclear submarines and warheads because of this, he added. The admiral described the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers on Ukraine’s border alongside Russian forces as the year’s “most extraordinary development”. He also signalled further deployments were possible, speaking of “tens of thousands more to follow as part of a new security pact with Russia”. Defence minister Alistair Carns earlier said a rate of casualties similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the need to “generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis”. In comments reported by Sky News, Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers killed or injured a day. “In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our Army for example, on the current casualty rates, would be expended – as part of a broader multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” Mr Carns said in a speech at Rusi. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger Army, but it does mean you need to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.” Official figures show the Army had 109,245 personnel on October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Mr Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” to place greater emphasis on the reserves. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defence Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces that were inherited from the previous government”. The spokesman said: “It’s why the Budget invested billions of pounds into defence, it’s why we’re undertaking a strategic defence review to ensure that we have the capabilities and the investment needed to defend this country.”As the final buzzer sounded, the Shanxi Loongs celebrated their hard-fought victory, knowing that they had made a statement with this win. With their sights set on climbing even higher in the league standings, the team is poised to continue their winning ways and cement their position as a top contender in the league.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — Brandon Nunez threw just two passes, each for a score, and New Mexico State beat Middle Tennessee 36-21 on Saturday to end a three-game losing streak. Nunez tossed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Seth McGowan to give the Aggies a 20-7 lead midway through the third quarter. After Middle Tennessee pulled to 26-21 early in the fourth, Nunez tossed a 4-yard TD pass to Cooper Sheehan that made it 33-21 with 7:43 left. Parker Awad completed 12 of 16 passes for 221 yards for New Mexico State (3-8, 2-5 Conference USA). McGowan finished with 83 yards rushing. Mike Washington also had a touchdown run and Dylan Early a 30-yard pick-6 for the Aggies. Nicholas Vattiato was 30-of-45 passing for 277 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Middle Tennessee (3-8, 2-5), which has lost three of its last four. __ Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here ___ AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballIn terms of gameplay, Marvel's Vanguard offers a seamless blend of action, combat, and exploration. Players can engage in thrilling battles with a diverse roster of heroes and villains, each with their unique abilities and powers. The combat system is fluid and responsive, allowing for strategic and dynamic battles that keep players challenged and entertained.

In conclusion, Charles Aránguiz's reunion with former teammate Kai Havertz was a heartwarming moment in the intense battle between Leverkusen and Inter Milan. As they shared a brief embrace before competing against each other, their friendship and camaraderie transcended the rivalry on the field. With Aránguiz wishing Havertz success in the Champions League and expressing hope for Inter Milan's advancement in the competition, their bond remains unbroken, a testament to the enduring connections that football creates among players worldwide.

When Comcast swallowed NBC and Universal Studios 14 years ago, the sibling cable channels USA Network, Bravo and CNBC were considered diamonds in the rough. USA Network had gained traction with its ”Blue Skies” programming strategy: sunny and upbeat TV programs infused with a buoyant energy and natural light. The cable channels were NBCUniversal’s equivalent of blue skies, routinely delivering three-quarters of the company’s profit. In 2012, cable networks threw off a robust $3.3 billion in cash flow. Times have changed. Comcast this week announced its plans to jettison all but one cable channel into a separate, stand-alone publicly traded company that will take shape over the next year. “This is a reminder that the cable television network business is yesterday’s news,” analyst Craig Moffett said Wednesday. “If it feels like Comcast is shedding itself of an albatross — that’s because it is.” For now, Comcast’s cable channels remain a viable business by generating $7 billion in annual revenue. But you have only to look at the properties the Philadelphia cable giant is keeping to see how the top brass has picked future winners and losers in a fast-changing media landscape. Comcast will hold on to the NBC broadcast network, with its NBC News and NBC Sports units, along with its prolific Los Angeles-based Universal film and television studios, Universal Studios theme parks, local TV stations, including KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, and streaming service Peacock, which now has 36 million subscribers. The lone cable outlet set to remain within NBCUniversal is Bravo, which has a bold brand, cultural cachet and the “Real Housewives” franchises. Company executives reviewed data that showed NBC and Bravo shows had strong viewership on Peacock, insiders said. The spinoff company will be composed of the remainder of the cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Syfy, E! and the Golf Channel as well as digital properties, including Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and SportsEngine. Comcast’s move is the strongest sign yet of alarm reverberating throughout Hollywood’s traditional companies. Cable channels have long been a key economic pillar by generating billions of dollars in cable distribution fees that more than covered up the misses when big-budget movies flopped or during advertising recessions. No more. Rampant cord-cutting has roiled the television business and linear cable channels — once a mighty draw for couch-potato viewing — have become endangered species. Industry executives privately acknowledge that they unintentionally contributed to the erosion by making cable channels less appealing — stuffed with endless sitcom reruns, dated movies and extended commercial breaks, contributing to the rise of on-demand streaming services. Millions of consumers have switched to streaming platforms that offer fewer commercials, or none at all, and lower subscription prices. In the first six months of the year, an additional 4 million customer homes dropped pay-TV, according to a recent MoffettNathanson report. That’s a 30 percent decline since 2012, when there were more than 100 million pay-TV homes in the U.S. Consumers also can cancel streaming services with a click of a button — without haggling with a customer service representative at a pay-TV company call center. The toll has been enormous. Thousands of entertainment company workers have been laid off in the last four years in seemingly endless waves of restructuring. Traditional media companies have struggled to shore up their slumping stock prices. In August, Warner Bros. Discovery took a $9-billion write-down on the value of its basic cable portfolio, which includes CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network. That same month, Paramount Global wrote down $6 billion in value for its cable channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon, VH-1 and Comedy Central. Pay-TV channel blackouts have become more common. And pioneering satellite TV company DirecTV two months ago announced its plan to buy competing Dish Networks for $1 . That merger is expected to face regulators’ scrutiny. More separations and roll-ups may be coming. Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav has telegraphed his desire to wheel or deal assets now that President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to take office. Zaslav’s company is desperate to pay down debt taken on two years ago when the smaller Discovery merged with WarnerMedia, relieving AT&T of its entertainment headache. Although Comcast’s move is bold, the reckoning began seven years ago after Netflix had become the go-to destination for younger viewers. That’s also when Rupert Murdoch, the now 93-year-old media baron, decided to sell much of 21st Century Fox to Walt Disney Co. Some investors and analysts believe the $71-billion price for the Fox assets was wildly overvalued. Since then, Disney has taken steps to de-emphasize cable distribution , and the Burbank powerhouse is planning to launch ESPN directly to consumers next year — a move that many in the industry believe will mark the tipping point for the cable channel business. “Comcast is accelerating this pressure [in the cable business] with its success with Peacock, which makes the legacy pay-TV model with multi-channel bundling of cable networks a much more difficult prospect going forward,” Raymond James analyst Frank G. Louthan wrote in a note Wednesday. Comcast executives say they are not entirely pulling the plug on their cable channel business, noting that the new company will have resources to buy additional channels or other properties. “The company will have significant cash flow, a strong balance sheet, and the financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities, both organically and potentially through acquisitions,” Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said in a note to employees. The spinoff company, which doesn’t yet have a name, will continued to be controlled by Brian Roberts, chair of Comcast. Mark Lazarus, who currently serves as chair of NBCUniversal Media Group, will shift to the new company as its chief executive. Comcast shareholders will receive stock in the new company in tax-free transactions. Moffett, the analyst, said the cable channel company will face considerable challenges maintaining the channels’ position in the pay-TV and advertising markets. “This [spinoff] is good news for investors but it’s not a guaranteed success,” Moffett said. “We’ve seen this movie before with Viacom and CBS. Separating the broadcast network from the cable channels could leave the cable channels adrift.” In 2006, the late mogul Sumner Redstone split his media empire consisting of the cable channels and the Paramount film studio. CBS forged forward with its broadcast network, television studio, Showtime and a book publishing house. Five years ago, Redstone’s daughter, Shari, reunified the company . In July, she decided to unload the entire enterprise, now called Paramount Global, to the Larry Ellison family . That transaction also faces a regulatory review. Moffett and other analysts say the spinoff company could struggle to maintain the size of distribution fees that Comcast was able to wrangle from pay-TV operators, thanks to the muscle of NBC and its marquee program, “Sunday Night Football.” Some analysts wonder whether Comcast is preparing the cable channels to be absorbed by another company or a private equity firm. “It looks like this is set up for (another) transaction,” Moffett said of the Comcast spin.WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House adviser , who served prison time related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, will return to serve in Donald Trump’s second administration, the president-elect announced Wednesday. Navarro, a trade adviser during Trump’s first term, will be a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, Trump said on Truth Social. The position, Trump wrote, “leverages Peter’s broad range of White House experience, while harnessing his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills.” The appointment was only the first in a flurry of announcements that Trump made on Wednesday as his presidential transition faced controversy over , Trump’s choice for Pentagon chief. Hegseth faces allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, and Trump has considered replacing him with another potential nominee. As he works to fill out his team, Trump said he wanted Paul Atkins, a financial industry veteran and an advocate for cryptocurrency, to serve as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He wrote on Truth Social that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.” Trump also said he was changing course on his choice for White House counsel. He said his original pick, William McGinley, will work with the Department of Government Efficiency, which will be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with the goal of cutting federal spending. Now David Warrington, who has worked as Trump’s personal lawyer and a lawyer for his campaign, will serve as White House counsel. In addition, Trump announced the selections of former Rep. Billy Long of Missouri as IRS commissioner; former Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia to lead the Small Business Administration; Daniel Driscoll, an Army veteran who was a senior adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, as Army secretary; , a tech billionaire who conducted the first private spacewalk on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket, as ; and Adam Boehler, a lead negotiator on the Abraham Accords team, as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Navarro was for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated Jan. 6. Sentenced to four months in prison, he described his conviction as the “partisan weaponization of the judicial system.” Hours after his release in July, at the Republican National Convention, where he told the crowd that “I went to prison so you won’t have to." Navarro, 75, has been a longtime critic of trade arrangements with China. After earning an economics doctorate from Harvard University, he worked as an economics and public policy professor at the University of California, Irvine. He ran for mayor of San Diego in 1992 and lost, only to launch other unsuccessful campaign efforts, including a 1996 race for Congress as a Democrat. During Trump’s initial term, Navarro pushed aggressively for tariffs while playing down the risks of triggering a broader trade war. He also focused on counterfeited imports and even helped assemble an infrastructure plan for Trump that never came to fruition. Navarro often used fiery language that upset U.S. allies. In 2018, after a dispute between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Navarro said “there’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.” Canadians were outraged, and Navarro later apologized. Issacman has reserved two more flights with SpaceX, including as the commander of the first crew that will ride SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship, still in test flights out of Texas. He said he was honored to be nominated. “Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet from space, I am passionate about America leading the most incredible adventure in human history,” he said via X. Trump kept rolling out positions on Wednesday afternoon. He announced Gail Slater as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s antitrust division. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector.” Slater worked for Trump’s National Economic Council during his first term, and she's been an adviser to Vance. Trump also said Michael Faulkender would serve as deputy treasury secretary. A professor at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, Faulkender was the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for economic policy during Trump’s initial term. He has also been the chief economist at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank formed to further the Trump movement’s policy agenda. Outside the White House, Trump said that he had asked Michael Whatley to remain on as chair of the Republican National Committee. during the election along with Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son Eric. ___ AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington and Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report. Chris Megerian, The Associated PressAs the investigation into the shooting continues, more details are expected to emerge about the events leading up to the attack and the motivations behind it. The apprehension of the suspect marks a significant step forward in the pursuit of justice for the victim and those affected by the senseless act of violence. While the road to healing will be long and challenging, the community can take solace in the fact that those responsible for the crime are now in custody and will be held accountable for their actions.