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Firefly to enter European market in first half of 2025 trough dealers, Nio CEO says Nio will launch Firefly electric hatchback in Europe in the first half of next year, Nio’s CEO William Li confirmed on Sunday. Unlike the Onvo or Nio brands, Firefly will rely on a third-party dealer network. Firefly is the brand name and name of the first model. It is a compact electric hatchback aimed at young buyers. Firefly is Nio’s smallest and cheapest car, which comes with some challenges: The new electric hatchback won’t be able to use Nio’s battery swap network of 2,900 stations because its battery pack is smaller than that of Nio and Onvo. Nio also doesn’t build swap stations for Firefly in advance; they will install it “per user’s needs.” The container swap stations are smaller, cheaper, and easier to install, according to Firefly CEO Alan Ai. Nio didn’t share many details about the Firefly EV during the launch conference, which was mainly focused on the Nio ET9 launch. The battery capacity, car dimensions, powertrain, and whether it is RWD or FWD weren’t disclosed. We know the car was designed in Munich by the European team led by ex-BMW veteran Kris Tomasson. From the pictures and presentation, it has hidden door handles, nine airbags, 92 liter frunk, and 1,250 liter trunk with rear seats down. The turning radius is 4.7 meters, and the car will be equipped with Nio’s autonomous driving technology. Nio says it is a global EV that will launch also in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The tri-circular headlights in the front and rear, arranged like iPhone cameras, sparked much discussion in China. When asked about comments at media events, Li explained, “In terms of design orientation, you must consider global users’ preferences. Sometimes, one side may like it more, and the other may like it less. I think this is completely understandable.” The Firefly brand was launched on December 21. The first model will be launched in China in April 2025, and deliveries will follow shortly. The pre-sale price of Firefly’s first EV is 148,800 yuan (20,400 USD). Based on Li’s H1 announcement, the European launch will happen in May or June. In Europe, Firefly will compete with Volkswagen ID.3, BMW’s Mini, and Smart #1 from the Mercedes-Benz & Geely joint venture. It will rival BYD Dolphin, Zeekr X, and the recently launched Lynk & Co Z20 in China.SAP SE (SAP) Presents at UBS Global Technology and AI Conference (Transcript)OpenAI is reportedly readying an artificial intelligence (AI) model offering more evolved humanlike reasoning. The company’s o3 model devotes more time to computing an answer before replying to user queries, with the aim of resolving more complicated, multistep problems , Bloomberg News reported Friday (Dec. 20) from an OpenAI livestream event . During its event, OpenAI offered some details on how o3 is superior to o1, the reasoning model launched in September. The company also wants safety and security researchers to apply to test the models before unveiling new software, the report added. OpenAI plans to release a smaller version of the model, dubbed o3-mini, at the end of January and the o3 model soon after that , CEO Sam Altman said during the event . A company spokesperson says there is no o2 model , “ out of respect” for the British telecommunications firm of the same name. As Bloomberg noted, the launch comes as other leading AI companies are moving forward with increasingly advanced versions of their models. For example, Google recently rolled out a new version of its flagship model, Gemini, said to be twice as fast as the past model and can “think, remember, plan and even take action on your behalf.” And Meta recently hinted at plans to put out its Llama 4 model in 2025 . Still, the report added, a number of these companies are seeing diminishing returns from their costly efforts to create newer models. Tactics such as putting greater focus on “reasoning” help them get around the challenge of finding new, untapped sources of high-quality, humanmade data for training, Bloomberg said. In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about an AI system developed at MIT that could let warehouse robots deftly handle odd-shaped packages and navigate crowded environments without putting human workers in danger. Although robots excel at repetitive tasks such as moving pallets, the new PRoC3S technology could finally solve the long-standing problem of robots safely performing more complex warehouse jobs requiring human dexterity and spatial awareness. “In theory, PRoC3S could reduce a robot’s error rate by vetting its initial LLM [large language model]-based assumptions against more specific and accurate understandings of the warehouse environment,” Erik Nieves , CEO and co-founder at Plus One Robotics , told PYMNTS. “Think about it like this: A warehouse robot operating solely on LLM guidance has been described how to complete a task. The PRoC3S concept goes one step further by placing a digital robot in a simulated environment of that task. It’s essentially the difference between classroom instruction and a really good field trip.”
Perimeter solutions director Cool Tracy Britt sells $640,500 in stock
SPOTLIGHT | MUSK AND TRUMP Elon Musk is easily the world's wealthiest man, with a net worth topping $300 billion. But even he stands to make more money from his association with the federal government after placing a winning bet on Donald Trump's election to the presidency. "It's going to be a golden era for Musk with Trump in the White House," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said. Musk's aerospace company SpaceX received billions of dollars in federal contracts, and could be in line for more, while his five other businesses could gain from a lighter regulatory touch. Trump named Musk to cohead a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — a nod to the cryptocurrency Musk adores. However, federal law bars executive branch employees, which can include unpaid consultants, from participating in government matters that will affect their financial interests, unless they divest of their interests or recuse themselves. Trump's transition team has sought a work-around, saying he would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government" with the work concluding by July 2026, according to a news release. Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota Law School professor and former chief White House ethics lawyer, said that if Musk is truly working outside the government he doesn't have to sell his assets, but that limits his influence. "He can make recommendations, but ultimately the decisions are made by government officials," Painter said. Trump's campaign and Musk's companies didn't respond to requests for comment. Here's how Musk could benefit from Trump's presidency. SpaceX If there's one Musk business that could profit the most from the incoming Trump administration, it's SpaceX. The company, which announced this year it would move its headquarters from California to Texas, already received at least $21 billion in federal funds since its 2002 founding, according to government contracting research firm The Pulse. That includes contracts for launching military satellites, servicing the International Space Station and building a lunar lander. However, that figure could be dwarfed by a federal initiative to fund a Mars mission, which is the stated goal of SpaceX. "Elon Musk is wealthy, but he's not wealthy enough to completely fund humans to Mars. It needs to be a public/private partnership, because of the tens of billions of dollars that this would cost, or even hundreds of billions dollars," said Laura Forczyk, executive director of space industry consulting firm Astralytical. SpaceX already made big strides testing Musk's Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built. NASA envisions employing the rocket in its Artemis program to return humans to the moon, but it has been designed to have enough thrust to propel a spacecraft to Mars. What's more, Trump, during his first presidency, speculated on Twitter about why the United States was focusing on the moon instead of Mars. Still, there are technical challenges, with SpaceX yet to complete the $4 billion Starship lunar lander, which would have to be modified for Mars. And without a pressing geopolitical threat, Congress may be unwilling to spend more on space exploration, as it did during the 1960s with the Apollo program, Forczyk said. Should a Mars project not materialize, SpaceX could still reap rewards in the next four years. For example, the Federal Communications Commission denied SpaceX nearly $900 million in federal subsidies to provide rural broadband access through its Starlink satellite network. Under new FCC leadership, Forczyk sees that being reversed. Tesla Trump's policies could reduce the sales of electric vehicles, but with Musk's influence, his administration's policies could boost Tesla — though not with federal funding. For example, Trump, who tempered criticism of electric vehicles after Musk backed him, might end a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles. That would hurt Tesla's unprofitable rivals that rely more on the tax credits to lure customers. "Tesla is the only automaker that has the scale and scope to price vehicles in a $30,000-to$40,000 range and make significant profits," Ives said. "It would essentially take competition out of the market." Trump's Republican administration also is considering imposing tariffs on Mexico and China, which could make cars more expensive. Ives said he expects Trump to make exceptions for Tesla and Apple so they're not hit by a tax on imported goods. Tesla receives only a smattering of federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov , a database that tracks U.S. government spending. This year, Tesla received at least $2.8 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation through a federally funded program to deploy EV charging stations. xAI and X Musk's startup xAI doesn't appear to have federal government contracts, but artificial intelligence companies could benefit in other ways under Trump. Republicans and Musk have expressed support for cutting regulation to fuel AI innovation, a crucial part of the future of tech companies. But Musk has also warned that AI could pose a threat to humanity, and it's unclear how Trump plans to address potential safety risks that come with technology including fraud, bias and disinformation. X, formerly known as Twitter, served as an online megaphone for Musk, who constantly shared his support for Trump during the election season. The social media site, which recently relocated its San Francisco headquarters to Texas, doesn't appear to have any federal government contracts, but X could benefit from policy changes that affect its rivals such as Meta and TikTok. Musk, who has declared himself a "free speech absolutist," recently shared an old Trump video with the words "YES!" In the video from 2022, Trump says he would change Section 230, a law that shields platforms from liability for user-generated content. Platforms would qualify for immunity only if the companies "meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness and nondiscrimination," Trump said. The Boring Co. Fed up with Los Angeles traffic, Elon Musk launched The Boring Co. with two tweets in 2016, promising "to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging." The Bastrop, Texas, company, formerly headquartered in Hawthorne, has completed a 1.7-mile loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center and is building a larger citywide loop — both without federal funding. Projects in some other cities didn't get past the proposal stages. However, at Trump's urging, congressional representatives could earmark local transportation projects to the benefit of Boring Co., though the company would still have to compete to win them, said Greg Griffin, a former urban planning professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who studied that city's proposed Boring Co. project. Neuralink Controlling robotic limbs. Seeing without eyes. Those are the kinds of miraculous advances Musk's Neuralink startup has been trying to achieve. The Fremont, California, company he co-founded in 2016 doesn't receive federal money, but its technology and clinical trails are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The more hands-off approach favored by Trump could aid such medical device developers. "We're concerned that regulation in general in the FDA will be weakened under the second Trump administration, and particularly concerned about medical devices," said Dr. Robert Steinbrook, health research group director for the consumer rights group Public Citizen. Get local news delivered to your inbox!WA’s Liberal party leader has thrown down the gauntlet to challengers after polling predicted the “immediate appointment” of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas as leader would allow the flailing party to gain back five seats at the election. Libby Mettam has labelled the polling, commissioned by a mystery Perth business person with links to the party, as ‘flawed and clearly biased’, and has challenged anyone who wishes to be leader to move a no confidence motion against her during a meeting today. Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas and Liberal Party leader Libby Mettam. Credit: Holly Thompson/ Supplied “Constant undermining of leaders, especially from the shadows within, is a sad reality in politics today,” she said. “But rather than weaken me it has made me stronger and more determined to succeed - not for myself - but for the people of Western Australia who deserve better. “I’m not a quitter, I’m a fighter.” The polling, published in The West Australian today, suggested another catastrophic election for the Liberals come election day in March. The party currently holds just three out of 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with the polling predicting the party has gone backwards since the 2021 election bloodbath, losing ground in 14 key metropolitan seats. Under Mettam, the party is predicted to suffer a 4 per cent drop, with the Liberal primary vote falling to 31 per cent in blue-ribbon seats like Churchlands and Nedlands. On the flip-side, the polling suggests a 3 per cent swing towards the Liberal party under Zempilas’ leadership, and a 38 per cent primary vote. The research, carried out by Sodali and Co, said Zempilas’ leadership could deliver wins in Churchlands, Nedlands, Carine, Bateman and Scarborough. Here’s what’s making news this morning. Former Hancock Prospecting employee James Radford, Sam Bjelke-Petersen, Gina Rinehart and former Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen at a Trump rally in Virginia. Mostly sunny today with a top of 25 degrees. Good morning readers, and welcome to our live news blog for Tuesday, November 26. Making headlines this morning, Perth is tipped to outperform the rest of the country in property price growth with forecasts predicting double figure jumps in 2025. Meanwhile, cast your mind back to your school days – or, rather, the very end of your school days and the next step you took. Did you get a high score to enrol in the university degree of your choice? Did you decide to bypass the ATAR exams – or the equivalent of the era, for those older readers – and go straight into an apprenticeship? What about if you got a high ATAR score, but decided to go down the vocational pathway? That’s the situation Ellie Wotherspoon found herself in, having graduated from school with an impressive ATAR of 91. With an ATAR like that, Wotherspoon could have studied law, or medicine, or molecular science. But currently, she’s an electrician working on one of oil and gas giant Woodside’s offshore rigs. Wotherspoon tells WAtoday education reporter Holly Thompson what made her choose the sparky life here. Ellie Wotherspoon, from WA, has attended TAFE and university after receiving an ATAR over 90. And regular readers of this blog – and WAtoday more broadly – would know we’ve got our fingers on the pulse of this great state’s dining scene. And today, food writer Max Veenhuyzen fills you in on the latest happenings in the world of pastry cases with, er, fillings. From creative fillings to stocking choc milk and ginger beer in the fridge, a cosy nostalgia-fuelled takeaway in Leederville celebrates both the past and the future. Always on the lookout for a great pie? Read the latest from Max here. Thanks again for joining us today, stay with us as we bring you all the news you need to know.
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Ireland lost 2-1 against Wales at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday and in the process, ended all hopes of an Irish debut at the Euros next summer. After ending their first Euro qualifier against the Welsh team with a tie in Cardiff, the night shaped up to be an optimistic one for the Irish national team. However, the girls in green failed to materialise a victory that would have been an epic sequel to qualifying for the World Cup two years ago. Ireland dominated possession over the first half and made several attempts on the Welsh net. Denise O'Suillvan hit the crossbar also. With a 0-0 scoreline at halftime, anything seemed possible for the remainder of the game. However, minutes into the second half, Ireland’s hopes were crushed when a penalty was given away to Wales due to a handball by Anna Patten. It was then that Hannah Cain subsequently scored the first goal of the match. Things worsened for Ireland when Carrie Jones, who had just been subbed on, kicked the ball into the Irish net past Courtney Brosnan, making it 2-0 to Wales. Despite this, the hosts refused to back down. In the end, it was Patten who managed to score a goal for Ireland off the back of a corner from Katie McCabe and a failed clearance by Welsh keeper Olivia Clark. Ireland huffed and puffed after their goal. Patten’s header was nodded off the line, and Megan Campbell caused chaos in the Welsh box with her long throws. Wales then nearly made it 3-1, but Brosnan made a smart save to keep the tie alive with minutes to go. However, Wales held on for the win to ensure they made it to the Euro finals for the first time ever at the expense of Eileen Gleeson's Irish side. FT | Devastated. Congratulations to @Cymru . #COYGIG pic.twitter.com/RvUSgo4gFI — Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) December 3, 2024 After setting up an impressive goal in Cardiff last week, Ireland midfielder Ruesha Littlejohn spoke to RTE Sport about this unfortunate defeat. “We’re devastated; the team’s devastated,” she said. “We fell short tonight. credit to Wales, they took their chances. I thought we played well in the first half; we had a few good moments, but scoring in these big games, I thought you get punished, and we’ve been punished.” Littlejohn went on to talk about what lies ahead for the Irish national team. “That’s the journey we’re on now. I think it’s going to start with the young ones coming through; everyone’s going to get better in football. “Yes, but no, we can be hard; we can be resilient; we put our bodies on the line; we’ve got Megan’s throw; we’ve got big girls that can win headers, but yeah, we need to do more; if we want to consistently go to these tournaments, we need to do more.” Ireland's next game will be against Türkiye in the Nations League on February 21st. See More: Football, Ireland
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Bill Belichick spent time after his NFL exit talking with college coaches wanting his thoughts on managing new wrinkles at their level that looked a lot like the pros. The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. People are also reading... UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." A changing college course The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." The value of a hire And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Investing in football Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic’s magnificent seven grand slam finals
In late November, $140 billion of American savings disappeared into thin air. This was the result of a revision to the U.S. personal savings rate by the BEA. Of course, the money only ever existed in a government-published report. But the original “bullish” data was widely cited as a sign that all was well with the economy. In truth, Americans are burning through their savings at a rapid pace. During the pandemic citizens reached record savings levels due to stimulus checks and programs, but since then all those excess savings have been burned through. Biden’s inflationary and anti-growth policies have taken their toll. U.S. credit card debt recently surpassed $1.14 trillion, a new record, while growing at unprecedented speed. Compounding the problem, APRs on credit card debt are also at record highs, well over 20% on average, with certain cards reaching APRs of over 33%. That’s not far away from payday loan APRs. And it’s not just American savings data that has been manipulated to appear healthier than it truly is. New home sales data for the U.S. over the summer was also recently revised sharply downwards. Payroll data and job openings have also been revised downward this fall. All sorts of bullish economic beats have been quietly revised to misses . It appears that the Biden administration broadly exaggerated economic statistics in an attempt to make the economy appear healthier than it truly was. Strangely, these data corrections don’t get nearly as much attention as the original (incorrect) reporting did. Once the “good” headline number comes out, traders and algorithms react immediately to the news. But they largely ignore subsequent bearish revisions, which don’t get nearly as much coverage in the news. It’s just the way the world works. When investors want to see positive economic data, they’ll find it. But eventually, the country will have to address these underlying issues head-on. Fortunately, we will soon have a competent leader in the White House to do so. A Renewed Sense of Purpose If this economy was a game of poker, Donald Trump would have been dealt a 2-7 off suit. It’s a bad hand, statistically speaking. But I believe that the Trump administration will, in time, overcome the subpar cards they were dealt. President Trump is set to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and make smart infrastructure investments. These aspects alone will have a highly significant impact on our financial outlook. Moreover, since the election, there’s a renewed sense of purpose in the country. Investors and business people understand how important this outcome was for the country. Before Trump’s win, there was widespread malaise throughout the country. There simply wasn’t much cause for optimism. Now the nation feels reinvigorated. The country is excited about the idea of Elon and Vivek’s DOGE slashing government waste. The people want to see widespread agency corruption ended. And when was the last time you saw this much attention paid to cabinet picks? Never. Americans have finally re-engaged with their government. This morale boost will be immensely helpful as we work through these headwinds. In economics, attitude matters almost as much as fundamentals. I still expect a recession to hit soon, if we’re not already in it, due to the Biden administration’s economic fumbles. It remains to be seen just how bad things might get in the short run. In terms of Trump’s policy plan, the new tariffs will encourage foreign companies to manufacture in the U.S. It’s simple: if you want to sell to America, set up shop here and create jobs. Trump made some progress on this during his first term, but now that the GOP has control of Congress and a mandate from the American people, it should be a smoother process this time around. Tariffs can also be a powerful bargaining tool, as Trump has already shown with Canada and Mexico. Importantly, Trump’s team understands that it is impossible to tax our way out of this situation. The only path forward is to grow the economy faster than the debt. Once we turn that corner, the problem begins to address itself. I’m not saying it’s going to be all smooth sailing. True reform is always a challenging process. There will almost certainly be more inflation on the horizon (but not nearly as bad as if Kamala had won). This is an unavoidable consequence of decades of reckless government spending. Still, the outlook for the nation has improved dramatically since November 5th. We have a rare chance to make meaningful, lasting change in America. It’s exciting to see it finally taking shape.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Bill Belichick spent time after his NFL exit talking with college coaches wanting his thoughts on managing new wrinkles at their level that looked a lot like the pros. The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report.DAMASCUS (AP) — Thousands of Syrians gathered Friday in Damascus' historic main mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since the ouster of President Bashar Assad, while giant crowds celebrated in the capital's largest square and across the country. The gatherings were a major symbolic moment for the dramatic change of power in Syria, nearly a week after insurgents swept into Damascus, ousting the Assad-led state that had ruled the country for a half century with an iron grip. It came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with allies around the region looking to shape the transition, calling for an “inclusive and non-sectarian” interim government. Blinken arrived in Iraq on a previously unannounced stop after talks in Jordan and Turkey — which backs some of the Syrian insurgent factions. So far, U.S. officials have not talked of direct meetings with Syria's new rulers. The main insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has been working to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus early Sunday. The group has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad's fall and concerned over extremist jihadis among the rebels. The insurgents' leadership says it has broken with its extremist past, though HTS is still labeled a terrorist group by the United States and European countries. HTS's leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, appeared in a video message Friday congratulating “the great Syrian people for the victory of the blessed revolution.” “I invite them to head to the squares to show their happiness without shooting bullets and scaring people,” he said. “And then after we will work to build this country and as I said in the beginning, we will be victorious by the help of God.” Huge crowds, including some insurgents, packed Damascus' historic Umayyad Mosque in the capital's old city, many waving the rebel opposition flag — with its three red stars — which has swiftly replaced the Assad-era flag with with its two green stars. According to Arab TV stations, the Friday sermon was delivered by Mohammed al-Bashir, the interim prime minister installed by HTS this week. The scene resonated on multiple levels. The mosque, one of the world's oldest dating back some 1,200 years, is a beloved symbol of Syria, and sermons there like all mosque sermons across Syria had been tightly controlled under Assad's rule. Also, in the early days of the anti-government uprising in 2011, protesters would leave Friday prayers to march in rallies against Assad — before he launched a brutal crackdown that turned the uprising into a long and bloody civil war. “I didn’t step foot in Umayyad Mosque since 2011," because of the tight security controls around it, said one worshipper, Ibrahim al-Araby. “Since 11 or 12 years, I haven’t been this happy.” Another worshipper, Khair Taha, said there was “fear and trepidation for what’s to come — but there is also a lot of hope that now we have a say and we can try to build.” Blocks away in Damascus' biggest roundabout, named Umayyad Square, thousands gathered, including many families with small children — a sign of how, so far at least, the country's transformation has not seen violent instability. “Unified Syria to build Syria,” the crowd chanted. Some shouted slurs against Assad and his late father, calling them pigs, an insult that would have previously led to offenders being hauled off to one of the feared detention centers of Assad’s security forces. One man in the crowd, 51-year-old Khaled Abu Chahine — originally from the southern province of Daraa, where the 2011 uprising first erupted — said he hoped for “freedom and coexistence between all Syrians, Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites and Druze.” The interim prime minister, al-Bashir, had been the head of a de facto administration created by HTS in Idlib, the opposition's enclave in northwest Syria. The rebels had been bottled up in Idlib for years before fighters broke out in a shock offensive and marched across Syria in 10 days. Similar scenes of jubilation took place in major cities across Syria, including in Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia and Raqqa. Al-Sharaa, HTS' leader, has promised to bring a pluralistic government to Syria, seeking to dispel fears among many Syrians — especially its many minority communities — that the insurgents will bring a hard-line, extremist rule. Another key factor will be winning international recognition for a new government in Syria, a country where multiple foreign powers have their hands in the mix. The Sunni Arab insurgents who overthrew Assad did so with vital help from Turkey, a longtime foe of the U.S.-backed Kurds . Turkey controls a strip of Syrian territory along the shared border and backs an insurgent faction uneasily allied to HTS — and is deeply opposed to any gains by Syria's Kurds. The U.S. has troops in eastern Syria to combat remnants of the Islamic State group and supports Kurdish-led fighters who rule most of the east. Since Assad's fall, Israel has bombed sites all over Syria, saying it is trying to prevent weapons from falling into extremist hands, and has seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, calling it a buffer zone. After talks with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken said there was “broad agreement” between Turkey and the U.S. on what they would like to see in Syria. That starts with an "interim government in Syria, one that is inclusive and non-sectarian and one that protects the rights of minorities and women” and does not “pose any kind of threat to any of Syria’s neighbors,” Blinken said. Fidan said the priority was “establishing stability in Syria as soon as possible, preventing terrorism from gaining ground, and ensuring that IS and the PKK aren’t dominant” — referring to the Islamic State group and the Kurdistan Workers Party. Ankara considers the PKK within Turkey's borders a terrorist group — as it does the Kurdish-backed forces in Syria backed by the U.S. A U.S. official said that in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fidan both told Blinken that Kurdish attacks on Turkish positions would have to be responded to. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks. The U.S. has been trying to limit such incidents in recent days and had helped organize an agreement to prevent confrontations around the northern Syrian town of Manbij, which was taken by Turkey-backed opposition fighters from the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces earlier this week. In Baghdad, Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, saying both countries wanted to ensure the Islamic State group — also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh — doesn't exploit Syria's transition to re-emerge. “Having put Daesh back in its box, we can’t let it out, and we’re determined to make sure that that doesn’t happen," Blinken said. The U.S. official who briefed reporters said that Blinken had impressed upon al-Sudani the importance of Iraq exercising its full sovereignty over its territory and airspace to stop Iran from transporting weapons and equipment to Syria, either for Assad supporters or onward to the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon. Lee reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
