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LOS ANGELES — The entire USC football team has been doing tackling drills this week. Not just the defense. It’s everybody. “We’re doing a couple things on the field as a whole team,” defensive end Braylan Shelby told reporters after practice on Wednesday. “We’re just doing it on the bags and things like that, but it’s just getting back to being in those positions because you never know when you’re going to end up on offense doing something like that. It’s good to have everybody do that and just be better collectively as a team.” USC (5-2 overall, 3-1 Big…

TORONTO — With four aces, the Dodgers are playing a very different hand in this year’s postseason. “We’ve talked about this a lot,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said as the team celebrated its National League Championship Series victory and became the first defending champ to make it back to the World Series since the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008-09. “There’s just a lot of different ways to win a World Series. Last year we did it in a very different way than we have so far this year. We had a dominant bullpen. Our starters weren’t as accomplished…

By ALEXA ST. JOHN and JENNIFER McDERMOTT Artificial intelligence has caused concern for its tremendous consumption of water and power. But scientists are also experimenting with ways that AI can help people and businesses use energy more efficiently and pollute less. Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption last year, and those facilities’ energy consumption is predicted to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That increase could lead to burning more fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases that contribute to warming temperatures,…

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders completed their remapping of the state’s U.S. House districts on Wednesday, intent on picking up one more seat for President Donald Trump’s push to retain GOP control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. The boundaries approved by the state House aim to thwart the reelection of Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who currently represents more than 20 northeastern counties in what’s been the state’s only swing seat. The state Senate already approved the plan in a similar party-line vote Tuesday. Republicans hold…

MILAN (AP) — The Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic organizing committee on Wednesday unveiled two official posters for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games — bold graphic depictions that officials said were meant to represent “the character of the destinations.” Posters have been commissioned for the Olympics since the early 20th century, becoming a piece of Olympic history. This year’s designs are the work of Italian artists Olimpia Zagnoli and Carolina Altavilla. Artist Olimpia Zagnoli unveils the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics iconic poster during a press conference at Milan’s Triennale permanent exhibition in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)…

By DEE-ANN DURBIN Beyond Meat’s shares briefly sizzled Wednesday before heading back down again. The plant-based meat company’s shares more than doubled early Wednesday before closing at $3.58 per share, which was down 1%. Still, it was a surprising comeback for a stock that was trading at an all-time low of 50 cents per share late last week. Investors cheered Beyond Meat’s announcement Tuesday that it’s increasing the availability of some of its products at U.S. Walmart stores. Beyond Meat said that its chicken pieces, Korean BBQ-style steak and burger six-packs will now be easier to find in more than…

By MIKE SCHNEIDER ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal lawsuit that temporarily had interrupted operations at an immigration detention in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” was paused Wednesday by an appellate court because of the government shutdown. Earlier this month, U.S. government attorneys had asked the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to stay proceedings in the case because funding for the Justice Department, as well as the Department of Homeland Security which is a defendant, had expired because of the government shutdown. They requested the pause until appropriations were restored by Congress. The appellate court on Wednesday granted…

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Coyle first knew Tim Skipper in 1997 as the “sawed-off” undersized middle linebacker he met during spring camp, whom he thrust into a starting role after an off-the-field roughhousing incident left Fresno State’s starter injured on the sidelines. Coyle watched as Skipper developed into a “field general” on the gridiron, becoming an extension of the Bulldogs’ coaching staff as a leader on the field. Coyle might have called the plays, but Skipper made the calls, the checks. Late in his career, 69 years old and gruff with a white stubble, Coyle returned to Syracuse as an analyst, where…

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Meta Platforms is cutting roughly 600 artificial intelligence jobs even as it continues to hire more workers for its superintelligence lab, the company confirmed on Wednesday. Axios first reported the cuts, which will affect Meta’s Fundamental AI Research, or FAIR unit, as well as product-related AI and AI infrastructure units. Its newer TBD Lab unit won’t be affected. Citing a memo sent to workers by chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, Axios said the company is encouraging employees affected to apply for other jobs at Meta, with most expected to find other roles. The Menlo Park,…

A Los Angeles Angels human resources official, after learning that team communications staffer Eric Kay was facing criminal charges for providing a pill that led to the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, texted a former colleague that Kay had “tweaker vibes,” according to testimony Wednesday, Oct. 22 in the ongoing wrongful death trial against the ballclub. Mayra Castro, an Angels’ HR director, admitted that she initially deleted the text about Kay when she was turning records over to attorneys for the Skaggs family in connection to their wrongful death lawsuit. But Castro said she quickly realized that she shouldn’t have…