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Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government survives no-confidence vote The Czech government survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote on Thursday after the opposition challeneged its widening budget deficit and raised conflict of interest concerns over populist billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. Read More.

France gripped by spreading student protests as PM calls crisis meeting France's prime minister convened a crisis meeting Thursday and canceled ministers' trips to focus on the nationwide spread of protests, some violent, by high school students venting about under-resourced schools, long hours and other complaints. Read More.

Hurricane Rachel strengthens to a Category 3 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast Hurricane Rachel has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast, according to the National Hurricane Center, as northern Mexico and parts of the U.S. Southwest were reeling from flooding and damage from the remnants of Hurricane Polo earlier this week. Read More.

3 billionaires give Republican Tom Tiffany a big cash boost in the Wisconsin governor's race In an election year awash with billionaires' money, there are few places where their influence has been as stark as the hotly contested race for Wisconsin governor. Read More.

Concepts of a Plan (Evan Vucci / Pool / Reuters)   View in browser Pete Hegseth seems to imagine himself as a man of big ideas. Perhaps you’ve worked with someone like that: Every organization has “idea hamsters,” who spin in their wheels and toss out suggestions of wildly varying quality. Sometimes, such folks can be innovators—but more often, their scattershot enthusiasm and admiration of their own creativity result in half-baked proposals that create more work, less productivity, and distractions from the real problems. Hegseth had a lot of ideas during his State of the Force address to troops at the Marine Corps Base Quantico yesterday, and some of them, at least as a starting point for policies, had merit. Unfortunately, these few moments of sense were lost in a fog of clichés, culture-war resentments, and trademark Hegseth corniness. The secretary may have a point, for example, that the U.S. military has become top-heavy with generals and admirals. Hegseth is not the first person to notice this: Congress legislates the number of general and flag officers in the military, a cap that was set at 962 for years, until the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, written in Barack Obama’s last year as president, mandated it be 11 percent smaller by the end of 2022. Hegseth wants to reduce that number even more, by 20 percent, ostensibly to reduce the size of the Pentagon’s bureaucracy. So far, so good. But Hegseth’s message was less about seeking a more streamlined command structure than it was, as he put it, about keeping generals who “heard the message” and firing those who didn’t. (That “message” wasn’t clarified yesterday, but it likely includes classic Hegseth tropes such as “maximum lethality, not tepid legality.”) Hegseth complained that the media—and he complained about the media a lot—called these reductions “a purge,” but he calls them “accountability.” Exactly what these fired officers did to trigger such “accountability” remains unclear. It’s one thing to get rid of an admiral because his or her office is just some bureaucratic zombie position left over from a previous program or initiative; it’s another to fire someone because the secretary thinks they’re disloyal to him. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s history—his statements, and his often-adolescent temperament—suggest that his efforts to downsize the senior ranks are about politics, not efficiency. Hegseth also announced that he intends to create a new command dedicated to autonomous warfare. He is right to want to direct more attention to these weapons; the wars in Ukraine and Iran have been bloody lessons in the power of asymmetrical warfare. But he gave no explanation for why these issues require an entire command, or how it might work. All he offered was a cool name—Autowarcom—that makes it sound like it’s meant to fight the Transformers. And for someone who has repeatedly declared himself “in a war of attrition” with the Pentagon’s bureaucracy, the secretary is more than willing to create a new command that would require more senior officers and civilians to staff it. (He also wants to establish an Office of Religious Affairs that reports directly to him; not only would this be more bureaucracy, but the last thing America needs is an office dedicated to religion that reports to a man who has made repeated efforts to imbue the military with his brand of Christian evangelicism.) Once Hegseth got rolling, the ideas got sillier. He announced Project Meridian, an effort to engage in creative thinking about the military of the future. This is not a new concept; the military regularly works on such issues with various groups, including think tanks, civilian defense firms, and academics. But then Hegseth announced the three wise men who would lead all this brainstorming about the future of warfare: Elon Musk, Newt Gingrich, and Palmer Luckey. Of the three, Luckey—who co-founded the defense firm Anduril Industries—seems a reasonable choice, but Musk has crackpot ideas on any number of issues, and Gingrich’s big plan for technological advancement when he ran for president in 2012 was to build a moon base. Fortunately, the damage this project could do will be somewhat limited because Hegseth has set a deadline of just 120 days for these men to report back. Then again, if Gingrich, Luckey, and Musk can’t redefine the future of national defense in four months, who can? It was a day for acronyms and project code names, but the best was FORTRESS America, meaning “Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability.” The expensive idea behind this one is that every major military base should be self-sustaining, including producing its own energy—apparently, in case of attack within the United States. You can almost hear the meeting where someone said “Fortress America,” and then a committee had to figure out what the acronym would stand for. (I am reminded of the classic TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E., whose creators thought “U.N.C.L.E.” sounded cool and then had to find words to fill the letters.) Speaking of bases, Hegseth would like every governor to come to the Pentagon and pitch him, personally—and maybe even the president!—in a competition to win a brand new military base, a state-of-the-art facility with great housing and lethal capabilities. Does America need such a base? Would this effort draw money and time away from improvements to other military installations? None of that was spelled out, but Hegseth seemed excited about choosing the location in a military version of a reality-TV competition. And on it went, with Hegseth spinning one bad idea after another, and managing to insult any number of Americans in the process. He did his usual riff of wanting “no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals” in his macho military. (“The ideological clowns are out,” he said. “The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”) He also denigrated the graduates of America’s ROTC programs by implying that today’s universities are producing unreliable and unpatriotic officers. He wants to establish new military programs at six colleges, including Liberty University, Louisiana State University, and Hillsdale College—institutions, according to the secretary, that understand “the faith of Jerusalem,” and the Greco-Roman “pillars of our republic.” Hegseth could not ignore ongoing problems such as the war in Iran, but rather than presenting a sober-minded and responsible discussion of the challenges to a military at war, the secretary instead leaned into his usual culture-war gripes. He also eagerly sowed division between the U.S. military and the society it serves: He told the assembled troops, repeatedly, that the media and higher education were their enemies, at one point saying that the American media were worse than Iran’s state media. Our press, he said, “intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they are undertaking,” actions that are “fundamentally anti-American. It’s sick. It’s a national betrayal. It’s treason.” Hegseth’s speech proved, yet again, that he is manifestly unfit for his job. America can endure a bloated Pentagon with some generals in make-work jobs. It can stand to trim the waste in expensive programs and root out incompetent bureaucrats. What a democracy cannot—and should not—tolerate is a secretary of defense who trucks in propaganda and wants the people who serve in America’s military to be the armed instrument of his own resentments and biases. Related: Pete Hegseth, cornball in chief Hegseth’s war on America’s military

1 for the road: Wildlife bridge a "huge success" Greenland Overpass in Colorado. Photo: Robert Sanchez/Axios Pronghorn and elk are taking the high road in Colorado, Axios Douglas County's Robert Sanchez reports. The animals are crossing I-25 on the Greenland Wildlife Overpass — a promising sign that the project is helping animals find one another for breeding opportunities, as intended. 📸 The overpass opened in December, and the first elk appeared on camera in June, officials say. Pronghorn are making the trip, too — along with mule deer, black bears, mountain lions and more. Colorado DOT environmental manager Chuck Attardo says: "Based on the video feed that we're collecting, huge success." Go deeper ...

⚖️ A judge threw out the Trump administration's case against former Olympian David Hearn, two months after the DOJ revealed that "flawed installation," rather than vandalism, led to damage at the Reflecting Pool. Go deeper. ps:The only crime here is charging this guy!! 👮 Renee Good's family filed two civil lawsuits over her killing during Operation Metro Surge — one against the U.S. government and another against six current and former Trump administration officials, as well as the ICE agent who shot and killed her. Judge denies defense motion asking Lindsay Clancy be found not guilty due to a lack of evidence BOSTON (AP) — The judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder case on Thursday refused to declare her not guilty, turning down a defense motion that had argued there wasn’t enough evidence to prove she was responsible for killing her three children. https://apnews.com/article/lindsay-clancy-trial-evidence-defense-c0820645056a7e25f66853f3a91b61fa?

✈️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot involved in yesterday's attempted hijacking of a flight from Dubai to Israel underwent Islamic radicalization in recent months. More from Barak Ravid.

📰 WSJ: DOJ reviewing Nixon treatment Former President Nixon salutes during a 1968 campaign stop in El Paso. Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive The Justice Department is "reviewing whether the special prosecutor's office that investigated the famed Watergate break-in committed misconduct," The Wall Street Journal reports. That comes after former Nixon aide Geoff Shepard "recently gave a two-hour presentation" at the DOJ on "his theory that the deep state took Nixon down," per the paper. 🧑‍⚖️ The WSJ reports: "Shepard has served as a sort of godfather for the Watergate revisionists." "His scholarship has unearthed a number of primary-source documents which he says show Nixon and his associates weren't treated fairly." A DOJ spokesperson tells Axios: "Given his expertise and scholarship on Watergate, [Shepard] was recently invited to give a presentation to [the Office of Professional Responsibility], but that presentation does not constitute an investigation." The big picture: Nixon is hot these days among some conservatives (especially "Nixonmaxxing" youth), who see parallels between his treatment and the investigations into President Trump. Gift link. ps:Just pathetic!!!!!

Hot new space experiments Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios Several futuristic space experiments launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this afternoon, Alex Fitzpatrick reports. 🚀 Among the 130 payloads aboard the Transporter-18 "rideshare" mission: Google's MVP satellite, designed to test the concept of solar-powered data centers in space. (N.Y. Times gift link) Protostar, a satellite from startup Star Catcher meant to transmit energy to another satellite — to bear out the idea of an orbital power grid. (Go deeper.) Reason-1, a satellite from startup Cowboy Space designed to collect solar energy in space and beam it to Earth. 🔌 Cowboy Space founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt tells Axios that the idea is to provide power in places without an existing power grid — a kind of Starlink for energy — while also working toward orbital data centers. There are also potential military applications, Bhatt adds — powering high-endurance surveillance drones, for example. 🤔 Reality check: It's early days for all of these concepts, which have long existed on drawing boards and in sci-fi novels but have yet to be borne out. The big picture: It's a boom time for intriguing commercial efforts in Earth orbit, though SpaceX's plan to wind down its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has left the space industry scrambling for launch alternatives. Go deeper.

New ICE guidance bans high-speed car chases and sets tighter rules for traffic stops, a memo shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been ordered not to engage in high-speed car chases and to make vehicle stops only if they have completed specific training, under new internal guidance issued after several drivers were shot in encounters with ICE. https://apnews.com/article/ice-officers-car-chases-vehicle-stops-training-ded50fcee99efab90e55e580250ba2ab?

Dual UK-Iranian national arrested over security incident at US-run air base in England LONDON (AP) — Police on Thursday arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a U.S.-run military air base in England that British authorities have linked to Tehran. https://apnews.com/article/arrest-raf-fairford-iran-uk-us-700446a74cd3107d2e16e75642431bf9? 🚔 British police have arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a U.S.-run air base. Go deeper.

Trump’s AI Goons Busted Committing Anti-American Blunder A new AI federal government portal is anything but American, the Daily Beast has uncovered. Donald Trump launched a new AI website on Tuesday intended to promote services provided by the federal government. America.gov boasts that it will improve “the citizen experience” at the culmination of “250 years of American progress” with a “modern interface worthy of the American people.” Americans, however, were apparently not worthy of featuring on the new website. A Daily Beast analysis of America.gov found that most of the photos on its home page actually depict families and individuals living happy lives in foreign countries. The Beast analysis found that, in the carousel of 11 photos on the chatbot’s page, at least six, and possibly more, were shot abroad, including in countries Trump has publicly railed against, and in China, which he publicly said he wants to beat in the artificial intelligence race. The America.gov site greets users with the words, “Hello, America. Whatever you need from government, start here.” It was launched by JD Vance in Washington, D.C., at an AI conference, which was overshadowed by Trump’s own AI event at the White House. Vance credited the work of Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who is now in charge of the White House’s “National Design Studio.” The vice president launched the website with a gaffe, saying that he had told Gebbia, “Don’t let it be a clusterf--- like America.gov.” He then had to explain that he actually meant the glitch-stricken Healthcare.gov, launched by President Barack Obama after the passage of Obamacare. America.gov offers artificial intelligence answers to questions about the federal government. Beneath the place to ask your questions is a sliding set of pictures which are supposed to match suggested questions, and apparently to show off the best of America. The only issue is that they show people living in Madrid, Warsaw, Beijing, Tallinn, and British Columbia. All cities with wonderful sights, no doubt. But not America. A photo of a young child in silhouette, with a case, looking plaintively at passengers boarding a plane could have been taken at one of the many airports across the United States. This one, however, is from Madrid, Spain. There is a man checking his phone as he makes his way down an escalator. The photo could have been taken in any U.S. city, but instead Trump’s lackeys opted for one in Warsaw, Poland.Another shot shows a boy jumping off rocks while his friends watch, a scene from childhoods all over America. This scene was from Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada.A mother reads from a digital tablet to her daughter in a room lined with moving boxes. There’s a small chance they are moving to America, but the photo was definitely taken in Beijing.Of all the bicycle mechanics working in repair shops around the country, America.gov chose to picture one in Tallinn, Estonia.A young couple pictured inside a home could have come from anywhere. In fact, they were from Vigo, Spain.A beach scene of an elderly man with a metal detector looked remarkably like Wasaga Beach in Ontario, though we couldn’t be certain. Among those praised for the rollout of America.gov in Washington on Tuesday was Edward Coristine, 20, who was nicknamed “Big Balls” while working for Elon Musk’s DOGE during the early months of Trump’s second presidency.“The lead engineer, Ed Coristine, Ed, thank you,” the president said during the ceremony at the Mellon Auditorium. Trump added that the AI team had been “working 20-hour days in government on behalf of our country, and we salute them.” The president launched the National Design Studio, which employs Coristine and created America.gov, with an executive order in August, 2025. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment. Even the purchase of the six stock images confirmed to be non-American is hardly America First. One might have thought a U.S. company would provide the homepage photos, but they are licensed through Stocksy, based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The company is hardly MAGA. Stocksy’s CEO, South African-educated Trace Cohen, has served as a board member of Phluid Project, a non-binary fashion brand grounded in community and activism, and Defy Ventures, a non-profit providing entrepreneurial training for incarcerated populations to prepare them for post-release work.The company’s team, like the photos they provide, reflects the world’s diversity, saying online that they are from countries including Canada, the U.K., South Africa, and Romania. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goons-busted-flooding-americagov-with-pictures-that-arent-america/?

Trump Explodes in Foul-Mouthed Meltdown Over Telling Question The president went into full tantrum mode during an interview. President Donald Trump launched into a foul-mouthed tirade over a question about Mitch McConnell. TIME Magazine interviewed the president at the White House on Sept. 28. The topic of pardons came up before Senior Political Correspondent Eric Cortellessa and Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs moved on to questions about the Kentucky senator, who went AWOL for weeks before reemerging in a frail state. The 80-year-old president was asked whether he’d seen footage of McConnell on Capitol Hill, and whether he thinks the longtime lawmaker should resign because of his health issues. “It was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans,” Trump began to answer, before flipping back to the subject of pardons. “So that’s just—well, Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to [Chief Medical Adviser to the President, 2021 to 2022, Anthony] Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them?” he said, growing clearly irate. Then his tantrum worsened, and he began to swear. According to a transcript of the interview, he said, “This ain’t gonna be much of a story. Here we are doing this. You haven’t asked me one f---ing positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative. Why are you devoting all this time to the White House?” He then made a plea for more credit. “You know how I do, I do that out of my back pocket. I pay for a lot of it, but I fix it because the White House should look like that. It shouldn’t look like—if you would have stood in that balcony and looked at that wall, half the wall was falling. It’s actually dangerous. “People are walking under, c--p was falling off it all the time. Every time it rained, it was leaking, horrible. Now it’s perfect, and I would say that I should be given credit for fixing the White House because I’m also doing very well with the war. I’m doing very well with another war that we already won, Venezuela. Do you notice you haven’t asked me a question about Venezuela?” “We did earlier,” one journalist responded. Trump snapped back, “No, no, I brought it up, and then you said—” “You beat us to it. But yeah,” the journalist responded, prompting another Trump rant. “No, but I’m just thinking to myself, fake news. But I have a lot of respect. I like the owner, good guy,” he said. The outlet is owned by billionaires Marc and Lynne Benioff. “But I don’t understand. I’m sitting here. I’ve done all this stuff. Look, this is nothing compared to what I’ve done, but I took the White House and made it beautiful again,” he continued, before turning to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House last week. “OK, and people look at it. People came up. President Xi looked at it two days ago. He said, ‘This is beautiful. Much better than I…’ He was here 25 years ago with [former president Barack...] Obama. Think Obama knows it? Obama would not. He doesn’t know if something’s dirty or clean.” Xi was not in D.C. with Obama 25 years ago. Obama was an Illinois state senator in 2001. The reporters changed the subject to Xi’s health, and Trump finally moved on. However, not for long. When discussing what he’ll miss about the White House when his term ends, he returned to his chagrin about the press. He said he’d miss the Oval Office, then added, “Well, I hope I get a decent story. I don’t think—you know, it’s hard to get a good story. Every question’s a hit. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong.” The easily rattled head of state has been on the warpath with the press and has lashed out at individual reporters lately, too. He took his beef with the media to new heights last month when he declared that CNN, Politico, and MS NOW would be banned from the White House. However, a judge issued a temporary order allowing the publications to return. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the outlets “constantly write or report fiction or lies” about his administration. Just last week, Trump snapped at a reporter for asking him about his attacks on the press. In a tense exchange outside the White House Saturday morning, Trump loomed over MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner and lashed out in response to her question. “Sir, do you only want outlets that support you to be a part of the press corps?” asked Gardner, who kept reporting from near the White House this week even after she was denied entry over Trump’s media ban. “I want real news, not fake news like you,” Trump replied, jabbing his finger at her and at one point telling her, “Quiet!” Trump has repeatedly lashed out at female reporters over questions he doesn’t like. He infamously said “quiet piggy” to Bloomberg News’ Catherine Lucey on Air Force One last year, and he has told others to be quiet and used his Truth Social platform to attack them by name. CNN’s star reporter Kaitlan Collins is a frequent punching bag for Trump. In fact, he brought her up unprompted during the TIME interview. He was asked about his White House ban on her employer, as well as Politico and MS NOW, and he moaned about being the target of their “fake news.” “So at a certain point, you say, ‘What’s the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlan Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen. If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-explodes-in-foul-mouthed-meltdown-over-telling-question/? ps:What a pathetic foulmouthed criminal-in-chief!!!!!

The Health Benefits of Zinc Zinc is a trace mineral, which means you only need a very small amount of it daily. You can get this essential nutrient by eating a balanced diet, but sometimes you may need to take a zinc supplement. https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/what-to-know-about-benefits-of-zinc?

I fail to see why there is such opposition to W.O. in the SDA Church - this seems to be an extremely small potato type of thing compared to the SDA required belief that Christ could have sinned, lost his salvation and have become as if he never existed. It stuns me that W.O. creates such a passion within SDA people but the teaching that God is 3 separate beings that could, if it came to it, be eternally reduced to 1 or 2 beings doesn't even come up for discussion unless someone outside the organization brings it up.

A Mexican influencer, her partner and three kids were reportedly discovered shot to death in what is being investigated as a murder-suicide. Cinthia Abigail Tamez Rivera — a 34-year-old content creator known on TikTok as Cindy Tamez — and her 2-year-old son Gustavo were found dead at around 9:40 a.m. on Sept. 30 inside a Jeep in Montemorelos, Mexico, reported local outlets Reforma, Meganoticias, Milenio and El Financiero. Her two other children, Christian, 12, and Bruno, 11, as well as her partner, Leodegario Moya, were also found shot to death at their home three blocks away, the outlets also reported. Tamez maintained a following of over 71,000 on TikTok, where she was known for sharing her fashion and dispatches from her life in Mexico. According to the Attorney General’s Office of Nuevo León, prosecutors believe that Tamez killed her three children and her partner before dying by suicide, though authorities are still collecting and analyzing evidence in the case, including from a recovered firearm and security footage, per Reforma, Meganoticias, Milenio and El Financiero. Tamez shared her final post to her account on Sept. 30, the same day she was reportedly found dead. “Not everyone knows my s---- side,” she wrote in Spanish text overlaying a video of a car dashboard. “I am capable of burning down my house just to see the neighbor’s burning, even knowing that I’ll get f---ed too.”

For the last 50 or so years, the leadership has all been college educated. I have to wonder what effect this had on ministry. What if the qualification for ministry was only a H.S. diploma and 4 years missionary experience? I think we would have a different looking church.

SBC Disfellowships 2 Churches at February Executive Committee Meeting for Appointing Women as Pastors What the Disfellowship of Saddleback Church from the SBC Really Means | Christian Research Network

Renee Good’s family sues US government and immigration officials over her killing in Minneapolis MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Renee Good’s family sued the U.S. government and the architects of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown Thursday, saying “the time is absolutely now for accountability” for her killing in January by a federal agent in Minneapolis. https://apnews.com/article/renee-good-lawsuit-6fbc82cd33b6f9f67514b47f138e23c6? DC judge permanently dismisses case charging ex-Olympian with vandalizing Reflecting Pool WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge in the nation’s capital agreed on Thursday to permanently dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a move that could prevent federal prosecutors from reviving the case under political pressure from President Donald Trump. https://apnews.com/article/trump-reflecting-pool-olympian-david-hearn-8404849d27c85e210cc5a895c150645a?

Supreme Court grants review of Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping crackdown. https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-detention-supreme-court-f8ee63bcb11f1be3d7d6300022f3bc88?

🎃 Good morning! Happy October. In today's edition: 61 straight days of football, White Sox, Padres and Yankees complete sweeps, NFL power rankings, NHL valuations, Fantasy Basketball is back, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Wings survive, Dream advance: The Wings beat the Valkyries, 108-100 (OT), to force Game 3 behind a WNBA postseason-record 45 points from Arike Ogunbowale; the Dream cruised past the Mystics, 93-75, to complete the sweep and advance to the semifinals. 🏈 CFP inches closer to expansion: College Football Playoff leaders met on Wednesday for the first time since entering into a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN over an expanded field. The consensus: A doubling of the CFP to 24 teams feels like a foregone conclusion. 🏀 Historic viewership: In the first year of its new media deal, the WNBA posted its best regular-season viewership numbers since 2000. Games averaged 771,000 viewers, up 17% compared to last year, and a total of 51 games eclipsed 1 million viewers. 🏒 Penguins 7, Flyers 0: Wednesday's Battle of Pennsylvania was a bit of a lopsided affair, with the visiting Penguins recording the largest road shutout in a season opener in NHL history. ⚽️ Ronaldo leaves camp: Cristiano Ronaldo left Portugal's national team training camp on Wednesday following a reported rift with manager Jorge Jesus. His decision came after learning he wouldn't be starting today's Nations League match against Denmark.   🏈 HAPPY FALL FOOTBALL HEAVEN IS UPON US (Giphy) Summer may be over, but the football gods have provided us with very fair compensation as fall gets underway: Starting today, there's at least one NFL or college football game every day for the next 61 days. Hallelujah. Games we're most excited for: There are nearly 1,000 games scheduled between tonight's "Thursday Night Football" matchup in Cleveland and "Monday Night Football" on Nov. 30 in Tampa Bay. Here are five in the NFL and five in college we're particularly excited to watch. Chiefs at Raiders (Oct. 4): For the first time since both franchises debuted in 1960, they've both started the season 3-0. And they just so happen to be squaring off this Sunday. No. 2 Georgia at No. 7 Alabama (Oct. 10): The Bulldogs or Crimson Tide have won each of the last six SEC championships, and look plenty capable of making that seven in a row. No. 8 Florida at No. 1 Texas (Oct. 17): The resurgent Gators and top-ranked Longhorns might have something to say about that, though. No. 5 Ohio State at No. 6 Indiana (Oct. 17): The Big Ten title game rematch doubles as a very likely Big Ten title game preview. Ravens at Bills (Nov. 1): I defy you not to get excited about Josh Allen vs. Lamar Jackson. No. 4 Miami at No. 3 Notre Dame (Nov. 7): The Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney show visits CJ Carr and the Irish in a battle of Heisman hopefuls. Steelers at Bengals (Nov. 15): Love him or hate him, Aaron Rodgers is one of the greatest players this game has ever seen. You could do worse than watching him take on Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase. Vikings vs. 49ers (Nov. 22): "Sunday Night Football" in Mexico City? Between arguably the two best teams in the NFC? Yes, please. NFL on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26): This trio of games is too good to pick just one. Bears at Lions, Eagles at Cowboys, and then Chiefs at Bills in prime time. Fill your plate, find a seat on the couch, and enjoy. Michigan at No. 5 Ohio State (Nov. 28): Doesn't matter the year. Doesn't matter their ranking or records. "The Game" is always appointment television. Honorable mention: No. 23 UCLA at No. 15 Oregon (Oct. 10); No. 9 Ole Miss at No. 1 Texas (Oct. 24); Chiefs at Seahawks on "SNF" (Oct. 25); No. 8 Florida at No. 2 Georgia (Oct. 31); No. 7 Alabama at No. 11 LSU (Nov. 7); Raiders at 49ers (Nov. 😎; Bills at Vikings on "MNF" (Nov. 9)   ⚾️ SURVIVE AND ADVANCE IN PHOTOS: WILD CARD WEDNESDAY (Connor Jalbert/MLB Photos via Getty Images) Four teams had a chance to clinch their spot in the Division Series on Wednesday, and three got the job done. Sorry, Braves — you've still got some work left to do. Houston Just when it looked like the Astros might claw back into this one, White Sox 2B Chase Meidroth crushed a towering 3-run homer to give Chicago the cushion it needed for a series-clinching 7-3 win. It's the first playoff series victory for the Southsiders since the 2005 World Series. Quote of the year: "Imagine a Jewish kid from Brooklyn getting a letter from the Pope," White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said after the game, referencing the mail he received on Tuesday from Chicago native and Sox fan Pope Leo XIV. "I'm going to convert." (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) San Diego The best offense in baseball was no match for the sport's hottest team, as the Padres again dominated the Cubs in a 4-1 win to complete the sweep behind a pinch-hit homer from Gavin Sheets and 5.2 shutout innings from the bullpen. Disappearing act: The cruelty of the postseason is that anything can happen over a small enough sample, and the Cubs just became the first team in MLB history to lead the majors in scoring during the regular season and then score one or fewer runs in a playoff series. (Michael Urakami/MLB Photos via Getty Images) New York Well, that wasn't even a little close. After winning 9-0 in Game 1, the Yankees finished the job with a 9-2 rout in Game 2, eliminating the Red Sox for the second straight season. The exclamation point came courtesy of Cody Bellinger, whose 3-run homer turned the win into a laugher. By the numbers: The Yankees out-hit the Red Sox in this series, 26-7, and outscored them 18-2, proving they did not need Aaron Judge to sweep their bitter rivals. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Atlanta There's never a dull moment when the Braves and Phillies meet on the diamond, and this was no exception as Philly kept its season alive with three late homers — including the unlikely game-winner from Alec Bohm — to secure a 4-3 comeback victory in the 10th inning. They'll be back out there tonight for Game 3. Bryce's redemption: Philly nearly fumbled the game away after Bryce Harper's misplayed fly ball in the seventh inning gave Atlanta the lead. But then Kyle Schwarber and Harper went back-to-back to open the eighth inning and set the stage for Bohm's later heroics. "I wasn't not trying to hit a homer, I can tell you that," he said with a smile postgame.   🏈 RISERS AND FALLERS NFL POWER RANKINGS (Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports) This week's NFL power rankings feature two newcomers to the Top 10, with the Broncos climbing to No. 8 and the Raiders — make that the undefeated Raiders — jumping all the way to No. 10 after matching their entire 2025 win total just three weeks into the season. Up and down: The biggest risers this week were the aforementioned No. 10 Raiders (up 8 spots), the No. 23 Falcons (up 8), the No. 17 Steelers (up 6) and the No. 21 Commanders (up 6). The biggest fallers were the No. 22 Patriots (down 11), the No. 12 Bengals (down 7), and a quartet of teams who fell five spots each: No. 14 Eagles, No. 24 Texans, No. 25 Packers and No. 30 Buccaneers.   🏒 NHL TEAM PRICES THE PUCK DROPPED, BUT VALUATIONS DIDN'T (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports) Before the season's first puck dropped on Tuesday night, Kurt Badenhausen and the team at Sportico released their NHL team valuations. Unlike the puck, none of those dropped. By the numbers: The average NHL team valuation is $2.43 billion, up 16% from the prior year. Collectively, the league's 32 franchises are worth $78 billion. Most valuable: Maple Leafs ($4.8B) Least valuable: Blue Jackets ($1.5B) Biggest gainer: Islanders (+40%)* In good company: NHL team valuations have grown 160% over the last five years, trailing only the NFL's 166% among the "Big Four" leagues and climbing into competition with MLB. The NHL's lowest team valuation (Blue Jackets, $1.5B) is now slightly higher than the lowest in Sportico's MLB rankings (Marlins, $1.45B). The NHL's appeal has increased in part because of a comparatively stable and ownership-friendly CBA. This piece first appeared in Wednesday’s edition of Yahoo Sports Biz, our new sports business newsletter. Sign up here to get on the list. *The Islanders recently reached an agreement to sell approximately 15% of the team to multiple investors at a $3 billion valuation, according to Sportico.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: THURSDAY, OCT. 1 Alec Bohm rounds the bases after his 10th-inning homer in Game 2. (Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images) ⚾️ Phillies at Braves, Game 3 Atlanta hosts Philadelphia tonight (8pm ET, NBC) with the last spot in the Division Series on the line. Winner moves on to face the Dodgers, loser goes home. Can Atlanta end its drought? The Braves are 0-3 in postseason series since winning the 2021 World Series, and two of those three losses came against the Phillies. Will their NL East rivals get the best of them again? 🏀 WNBA Playoffs It's win or go home tonight in Sin City (9pm, USA), where the defending champion Aces host the Fever for a spot in the semifinals. Stars collide: In Game 1, A'ja Wilson became the first player in WNBA history with at least 35 points, 15 rebounds and 75% shooting in a game. In Game 2, Caitlin Clark became the first player in WNBA history with at least 25 points and 15 assists in a game. What kind of history will we see tonight? 🏈 Steelers at Browns Cleveland hosts Pittsburgh on "Thursday Night Football" (8:15pm, Prime) in a matchup of two teams unexpectedly sitting at 2-1. Pittsburgh's road woes: Can the Steelers reverse their fortunes at Huntington Bank Field? They've won just one of their last eight games in Cleveland dating back to 2018, with three of those losses coming on Thursday nights. More to watch: 🏒 NHL: Lightning at Rangers (7pm, ESPN+); Panthers at Sharks (10pm, ESPN+) … Reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov (TB) and young superstar Macklin Celebrini (SJ) make their season debuts. ⛳️ PGA: Bank of Utah Championship (9:45am, ESPN+; 5pm, Golf) … Jackson Koivun and Max Homa headline the field at Black Desert Resort. ⚽️ Women's Champions League: Man City vs. Real Madrid (3pm, Paramount+) … One of four games to close out Matchday 2. Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   🏀 LET'S PLAY TRIVIA TIME Russell played in 26 games for the Mavericks last season. (Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images) D'Angelo Russell, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, is leaving the NBA and signing with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association. Question: Who was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 Draft? Hint: Timberwolves. Answer at the bottom.   🏀 DRAFT NOW FANTASY BASKETBALL IS BACK! Yahoo Fantasy Basketball is back! The NBA season tips off in just under three weeks, but there's no time like the present to draft your squad. Play in a private league or join a public one to compete against other fans all season long. Try "High Score": Traditional formats remain available, but High Score offers a streamlined version of the game if you feel like a change of pace that's less of a daily grind. Rosters are trimmed to 10 players and weekly lineups are limited to just six starters, with only their highest-scoring game of the week counting toward your total.   Trivia answer: Karl-Anthony Towns