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Thousands of protesters marched through Barcelona on Saturday demanding lower rents in Spain's second city. Barcelona, which has already taken action to stop the spread of holiday rental apartments, is the latest Spanish city to see protests for cheaper housing. Backed by left-wing parties and unions, the demonstrators gathered in central Barcelona behind a giant banner declaring "Lower the rents". "Today a new political cycle starts concerning housing," Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for the Catalan Tenants Union, the main organiser, told reporters. "Investors must not be allowed to come to our cities and play with the apartments like a game of Monopoly," she added. The union would target "profiteers" who are taking "half of our salaries", Arcarazo said. The demonstrators demanded a 50 percent cut in rents, leases with an unlimited term and a ban on "speculative" sales of buildings. They threatened to start a rent strike. An estimated 22,000 people took part in a similar demonstration in Madrid on October 13. Campaigns have been launched in other cities. According to the Idealista specialised website, rental prices per square metre have risen 82 percent across Spain over the past decade. The average salary has gone up by 17 percent in that time, according to the national statistics institute. Facing pressure over a housing crisis, the government in 2023 passed legislation calling for more social housing, greater restrictions on rents in high demand areas and penalties for owners who do not occupy properties. But rents have continued to rise while the government has battled city and regional authorities to get some parts of the law applied. vid-vab/tw/jm
Why queer characters often feel ‘too safe’Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with Rashtriya Bal Puraskar awardees
The Dallas Cowboys ruled out right guard Zack Martin and cornerback Trevon Diggs with injuries on Saturday, one day prior to a road game against the Washington Commanders. Martin has been dealing with ankle and shoulder injuries and didn't practice at all this week before initially being listed as doubtful to play on Friday. He also physically struggled during Monday night's loss to the Houston Texans. Martin, who turned 34 on Wednesday, has started all 162 games played in 11 seasons with the Cowboys. He's a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and a seven-time first-team All-Pro. Diggs has been dealing with groin and knee injuries. He was listed as questionable on Friday before being downgraded Saturday. Diggs, 26, has 37 tackles and two interceptions in 10 games this season. The two-time Pro Bowl pick led the NFL with 11 picks in 2021 and has 20 in 57 games. The Cowboys elected not to activate receiver Brandin Cooks (knee) for the game. He returned to practice earlier this week and he was listed as questionable on Friday. Dallas activated offensive tackle Chuma Edoga (toe) and defensive end Marshawn Kneeland (knee) off injured reserve Saturday, placed safety Markquese Bell (shoulder) on IR and released defensive end KJ Henry. Tight end Jake Ferguson (concussion) was previously ruled out. Tight end Princeton Fant was elevated from the practice squad to replace him. Cornerback Kemon Hall also was elevated from the practice squad. --Field Level MediaRams can take huge step toward NFC West title by avenging 31-point loss to Cardinals
Aaron Rodgers is feeling healthy and will be the New York Jets' starting quarterback as long as that remains the case. Whether he's in the huddle beyond this season is still to be decided — by the Jets and Rodgers. “Football life is interesting because there’s no guarantees,” Rodgers said Wednesday. "Even with injuries, obviously, with contract situations, with age, with coaching changes, new scheme possibly, new system. There’s a lot of unknowns, so that stuff is out of my control. “I’m just going to enjoy these times here and let the future take care of itself.” Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said Rodgers returned from the team's bye-week break appearing physically refreshed and ready to go. The quarterback was not on the Jets' injury report Wednesday for the first time since Week 4. “Definitely, as long as he’s healthy, my plan is to play him,” Ulbrich said. “And I know talking to him, that’s the way he wants to do it, too.” Rodgers, who turns 41 on Monday, has dealt with various injuries to his left leg, including a sore knee, sprained ankle and balky hamstring. And that’s after coming off a torn Achilles tendon in the same leg that limited him to just four snaps last season. “He’s doing better today than he has for quite a while now,” Ulbrich said. “After my conversations with him the last five or six weeks, he has felt healthier today than he’s felt in that time span.” That echoes what Rodgers said during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, when he said he “feels good.” Rodgers said he's still contemplating whether he wants to play football next season, but would prefer it be with the Jets if he does return. He reiterated that Wednesday after practice and explained why his tone has changed a bit from a few weeks ago when he said “I think so, yeah,” when he was asked if he planned to play next year. “If you look at what transpired in those two weeks, Joe (Douglas) got axed,” Rodgers said, referring to the Jets' former general manager who was fired last week. "Joe brought me in here. There’s uncertainty with, you know, everybody on the staff, so I’m not naive to what the situation is. And if a new GM comes in and they don’t retain Brick, I have to fit in those plans, so that’s kind of the first part. “Like I said, on ”The Pat McAfee Show," this is my first option. I’d love to play here if I end up deciding to play. But there’s got to be a want for them to want to bring me back, and for me to want to play. But ‘I think so’ was the truth, and ‘I’m not 100% sure’ is also the truth today." Rodgers, who is having a subpar season statistically, has been noticeably affected by his leg ailments — and that's something that could be much improved starting Sunday against Seattle. “I’m super excited about getting him going, whether it’s the keepers, the boots, a little bit more quarterback movement,” Ulbrich said. “Taking advantage of the stuff that he’s done at a Hall of Fame level his entire career. So, excited to see a healthier version of Aaron out there.” There was some speculation that the Jets, who are 3-8 and close to falling mathematically out of the playoff hunt, could opt to sit Rodgers in favor of Tyrod Taylor with his playing future uncertain. “He is a very prideful person,” Ulbrich said. “He wants to finish this thing off right. He wants to celebrate this team that we have and have a good taste in our mouths as we leave this season.” Rodgers has been very complimentary of Ulbrich as a leader, saying he's “definitely all-in” on the interim coach and would like to see him get the full-time job for next season. “Again, that’s out of my control,” Rodgers said. "I mean, I’m not going to say Brick or nothing. I need to see how I’m feeling. Obviously, I would love to play for Brick again. He’s a fantastic human being, but there’s a lot of things that can change in the next six weeks. “There could be some really good feelings coming out of this or there could be wholesale changes — and I might be a part of that.” Those changes could include two coaches Rodgers is closest with in offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and passing game coordinator Todd Downing. “Them not being here would not be a deal breaker for me,” Rodgers said, “although I obviously love them.” Owner Woody Johnson is using The 33rd Team, with former GMs Mike Tannenbaum and Rick Spielman leading the project, to identify and analyze candidates for the Jets' coach and GM searches. Rodgers is unsure if Johnson will seek his input on those decisions. “I’m always available if my opinion is wanted, but I’m going to focus on playing right now,” Rodgers said. “If I get drawn in those conversations, fantastic. If I don’t, that’s fantastic, too.” ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Dennis Waszak Jr., The Associated Press
The College Football Playoff selection committee enters its final two weeks of deliberation with a host of consequential decisions thrust on the 13 members. (1) Who are the final at-large selections into the field? (2) Which teams receive a first-round game at home? (3) Which four conference champions receive a first-round bye? The first two are causing plenty of angst. But it is the third stress point that, perhaps, offers the most intriguing debate. The five highest-ranked conference champions earn a bid into the 12-team field, and the top four champions are seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Many presumed that the champions of the four power leagues would annually get those first-round byes. The CFP selection committee’s last rankings paint a different picture. In , Boise State (10-1) was ahead of all Big 12 teams, paving the way for the Broncos to receive the No. 4 seed and the first-round bye in a Group of Five-over-Power Four leap. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said such a decision would be the wrong one. “Based on where we sit today, I see no rationale for the Big 12’s champion not getting a first-round bye,” Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “The winner of our championship should receive a bye. I have a lot of trust in the selection committee and I’m sure they’ll see it that way. Just look at the data. The data doesn’t lie. From a strength-of-schedule standpoint, all four of our schools at the top of the standings are ranked ahead of Boise State.” At the center of the debate is a comparison not only of the individual teams but of the two leagues. The argument is fascinating in an era of college football where the power leagues continue to separate themselves from the five others: the Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA, American and Mid-American. Yormark is loaded with Big 12 data points. His league has 42 wins over teams with a winning record. The Mountain West has 11 (five of those from Boise and UNLV). Nine Big 12 teams are bowl eligible. The Mountain West has five. Boise’s strength of schedule is ranked 81st, 12 spots behind the worst of the Big 12’s top four teams (Iowa State at 69). The two leagues have actually met on the field eight times this season. The Big 12 is 6-2 with an average margin of victory of more than three touchdowns. UNLV holds both of the Mountain West wins (at Houston and Kansas). “Arizona State defeated Wyoming by 41 points. BYU beat them by 20. Boise struggled against Wyoming in a four-point win,” Yormark said. “There is no rationale for us not getting the bye.” In an interview Monday with Yahoo Sports, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson isn’t looking that far ahead — a message he hammers home to his team. "We still have two more games to even continue this conversation,” he said. "That’s where I am with it. We’ve been playing playoff football since the Oregon game. I believe in our schedule. We’ve played well. We played well against Orgon. Are we suited for a bye? That’s up to the committee." Seven of Boise State’s 10 wins have come by at least two scores, including a 21-point victory over a Washington State team that beat Texas Tech by three touchdowns in Week 2 of the season. But Boise State’s strongest arguments are, perhaps, its one loss and its best player. The Broncos led No. 1 Oregon for much of their game on Sept. 7, eventually losing on a last-second field goal. Boise State has the nation’s leading rusher, Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty, who has run for nearly 600 yards more than the next best rusher. "There have been multiple teams in the rankings that are no longer in the rankings because they got caught up in this stuff,” Danielson said. “It’s hard for me to lobby on things with two games left. You control what you can control." Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez declined comment aside from gesturing to similar data points for the Broncos, most notably that three-point loss in Eugene. The CFP selection committee meets again early this week before its rankings are revealed Tuesday night on ESPN. Over the weekend, the . Boise State, ranked No. 12 last week, survived that scare from Wyoming. In the , Arizona State was the highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 14. Boise was No. 11. “What's going on right now isn't fair to the Big 12,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman told reporters on Monday. “Other teams can lose in other leagues and it’s ‘That league is really good!’ We lose in this league and it’s ‘This league stinks!’ I don’t understand that. As a conference, we need to get together and figure some things out. For a bunch of teams to be 9-2 and we can’t get any (benefits) in the College Football Playoff, then we need to cancel one of these (conference) games and then go to eight games.” The decision from the selection committee related to the first-round bye is not insignificant. The fourth highest-ranked conference champion, the No. 4 seed in the bracket, gets an additional week to rest. The team would play the No. 5-12 seed winner in a bowl site quarterfinal matchup. The fifth highest-ranked conference champion, at least according to how the rankings project, is likely to be seeded No. 12. That means playing a first-round game at the No. 5 seed on the road. The No. 5 seed, for now, projects to be the Big Ten championship game loser, likely Oregon or Ohio State, the two top-ranked teams in the nation. Before any decision from the committee, though, the remaining schedules must be played out. Boise State hosts Oregon State (5-6) and then meets Colorado State or UNLV in the Mountain West championship game, played in Boise. The Big 12, meanwhile, is a lot less certain. Billed as having the most parity of any power league, the 16-team conference is certainly delivering. , with four of them in the best position. BYU (9-2), Iowa State (9-2), Arizona State (9-2) and Colorado (8-3) are tied at 6-2 in the conference atop the standings. All four are favored to win their regular season finale, a result that would put Arizona State and Iowa State in the title game. “I said in July we have great depth and parity and I thought it would play out and it has,” Yormark said. “I said that the month of November would be magical and it has. It’s been made-for-TV viewing.” The debate over the CFP’s final first-round bye is an extension of a long-running tussle between the power leagues and those from the lower-resourced level of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The gaps between the two continue to grow, both from decisions made by power leaders and from the courts. The decisions have accelerated the concept of schools directly compensating athletes — a much more difficult endeavor for Group of Five programs. Their budgets are normally fractions of those schools in power conferences that reap more lucrative television contracts and generate more internal revenue through donations and ticket sales. In fact, the Group of Five is having its most difficulty winning games against the power leagues this season, according to data from ESPN. Group of Five programs - including independents UMass and UConn, as well as Oregon State and Washington State — are 8-87 against power teams. The winning percentage of .084 is believed to be the worst in modern history. The decision to incorporate a fifth conference champion into the field — assuring a Group of Five spot — is a subject that has drawn heated debate and scrutiny over the years from leaders of the power leagues. Craig Thompson, the former Mountain West commissioner, was part of a four-man working group that originally created the current 12-team format. He was the only representative from the G5 ranks. “What’s happening with Boise State possibly getting a bye is not surprising,” Thompson said in a recent interview with Yahoo Sports. “The Group of Five champion, if they have a big year, gets rewarded in the system.” The five auto-bids and the first-round byes were not designated to specific conferences to avoid the scrutiny of congressional lawmakers, who, in the past, skewered the old BCS concept for creating a caste system. This past spring, CFP leaders — the 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director — re-evaluated the format when they agreed on a new six-year extension that begins with the 2026 playoff. They didn’t settle on a format, instead only agreeing to protections that guarantee (1) the five highest-ranked champions an automatic berth, (2) the field to be 12 or 14 teams in size and (3) Notre Dame to receive an at-large bid if it is ranked inside the top 12 or 14, depending on the field size. During discussions, debate raged over whether to keep the Group of Five’s access spot. Speaking to Yahoo Sports from her conference football media days in July, Nevarez said that power conference leaders “threatened” to remove the G5’s bid in the spring. But, “to their credit, it never came off the table.”
Arizona (7-8) at Los Angeles Rams (9-6) Saturday, 8:15 p.m. EST, NFL Network BetMGM NFL odds : Rams by 6 1/2. Against the spread: Cardinals 9-6; Rams 8-7. Series record: Rams lead 50-41-2. Last meeting: Cardinals beat Rams 41-10 in Glendale, Ariz. on Sept. 15. Last week: Cardinals lost to Carolina 36-30, OT; Rams beat New York Jets 19-9. Cardinals offense: overall (11), rush (5), pass (20), scoring (14). Cardinals defense: overall (20), rush (22), pass (13), scoring (T-13). Rams offense: overall (15), rush (20), pass (13), scoring (17). Rams defense: overall (24), rush (25), pass (19), scoring (21). Turnover differential: Cardinals minus-4; Rams plus-5. WR Marvin Harrison Jr. has had a relatively productive rookie season with 51 catches for 726 yards and seven touchdowns. But it’s also true that he hasn’t always looked like the true franchise changing force the Cardinals expected when they took him with the No. 4 overall pick. Arizona might be out of the playoff race, but Harrison’s development continues to be a major focus for the team down the stretch. RB Kyren Williams is coming off his best game of the season after rushing for 122 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries to help Los Angeles grind out a win at the Meadowlands. He hardly factored into the first meeting against Arizona, a game the Rams trailed 14-0 halfway into the first quarter and 24-3 at halftime, getting 12 carries and running for 25 yards and a touchdown behind a battered offensive line. Cardinals QB Kyler Murray vs. Rams defensive line. Los Angeles had no answers for Murray in September as he threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns without an interception and added 59 yards rushing. But their defensive front is much more cohesive than it was in the second week of the season, with rookies Jared Verse and Braden Fiske proving to be menaces in the backfield. If Murray feels that pressure and can’t keep his eyes downfield, the Rams will be in much better shape to limit Arizona’s passing game. The Cardinals have been beat up over the past two games. Both of the starting tackles — Paris Johnson Jr. (knee) and Jonah Williams (knee) — are out for the season after they were put on injured reserve this week. Others such as RB James Conner (knee), LB Baron Browning (neck), LB Mack Wilson Sr. (concussion) and DL Darius Robinson (calf) have been limited during practice. ... The Rams are in good shape, a far cry from where they were to start the season. RT Rob Havenstein was the only name on their injury report through Wednesday, when he was limited because of a shoulder injury. Arizona has not swept the season series since 2014 when the Rams were playing in St. Louis. ... The Rams and Cardinals have split the past four meetings. Arizona had dropped 11 of the previous 12 in the series. ... Los Angeles is 3-2 against Arizona since moving into SoFi Stadium in 2020, kickstarting its run to the Super Bowl after the 2021 season with a 34-11 win in an NFC wild-card game. The Cardinals have lost four of their past five games and were eliminated from the playoff race after last week’s 36-30 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The Cardinals have made the playoffs just once over the past nine seasons. That was in 2021 ... Harrison had four catches for 130 yards and two TDs vs. the Rams in Week 2. All of that production came in the span of seven plays in the first quarter. ... The Cardinals are No. 5 in the NFL with 145.8 yards rushing per game. They also rank No. 2 with 5.28 yards per carry. ... Chad Ryland has made 25 field goals since his debut in Week 5, which ranks fourth in the NFL over that span. ... Safety Budda Baker has a career-high 148 tackles this season, which broke his previous high of 147 set in 2019. ... James Conner has 1,500 yards from scrimmage this season, including 1,090 rushing and 410 receiving. ... Trey McBride has caught 91 passes this season, which is a franchise record at tight end for the Cardinals. ... The Rams can clinch a playoff spot with a win and either a Seahawks loss or tie or a series of results elsewhere to secure the strength of victory tiebreaker. ... Rams QB Matthew Stafford threw for 110 yards against the Jets. Los Angeles has won all four games this season where Stafford has finished with fewer than 200 yards through the air. ... WR Puka Nacua had a record-setting rookie season, but Arizona was the one team that kept him in check. Nacua made four catches in each of the two meetings in 2023, finishing with 26 and 27 yards. ... The Rams didn’t have LT Alaric Jackson (suspension), LG Steve Avila (knee) or Nacua (knee) in the Week 2 game against the Cardinals. ... Los Angeles has run for at least 132 yards in four straight games, with Williams accounting for at least 87 yards in each outing that span. Cooper Kupp likely sank many a fantasy title push with his limited production over the past month, and the Rams WR should remain on benches this week for any owners still in the mix. Kupp has topped 44 yards receiving once in his past five games against Arizona. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
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