Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: USD/JPY rallies for a second day, AUD struggles after RBAA new year’s resolution for progress: Focus on what worksLuigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation's top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-old Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy,” and pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have diverged from this path to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. The killing sparked widespread discussions about corporate greed, unfairness in the medical insurance industry and even inspired folk-hero sentiment toward his killer. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply refuted that perception after Mangione's arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald's restaurant in Pennsylvania spotted Mangione eating and noticed he resembled the shooting suspect in security-camera photos released by New York police. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.” Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather, Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report. Nick Mangione had 37 grandchildren, including Luigi, according to the grandfather's obituary. Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes, including Catholic organizations, colleges and the arts. One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesman for the lawmaker’s office confirmed. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media by Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.” Mangione, who was valedictorian of his elite Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press. He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication. His social media posts suggest he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations. The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. The children of some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have attended the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.” Mangione took a software programming internship after high school at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs on the hit strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, said it would not comment on former employees. He more recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, but has not worked there since 2023, the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company confirmed to the AP. From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Honolulu. Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin. “Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.” At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, including surfing, Ryan said. “He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym. Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment. An image posted to a social media account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into someone's lower spine. Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago. An X account linked to Mangione includes recent posts about the negative impact of smartphones on children; healthy eating and exercise habits; psychological theories; and a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti about the dangers of becoming “well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Mangione likely was motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by AP. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, based on a review of the suspect’s handwritten notes and social media posts. He appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown, asserting in his note that he is the “first to face it with such brutal honesty,” the bulletin said. Mangione called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski a “political revolutionary” and may have found inspiration from the man who carried out a series of bombings while railing against modern society and technology, the document said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore; Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Michael Kunzelman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report."NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix" begins with a two-hour pregame show at 11 a.m., before Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City. Baltimore faces Houston in the second game. The streaming giant agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Where will the games be available? Netflix's 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix will have the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. The games will also air on CBS affiliates in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston. NFL policy dictates that games on cable or being exclusively streamed must also be on an over-the-air station in the competing teams' markets. It will also be available on mobile devices in the U.S. for those who have NFL+. Why is the NFL putting Christmas Day games on a streaming platform? The biggest reason is money. The league is getting $150 million from Netflix for the two games this season. It also continues the NFL's moves into streaming — Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video and the "Sunday Ticket" package moved to YouTube TV last year. But Christmas is on a Wednesday when games usually aren't played. That's true, but the league wasn't about to give up Christmas after seeing the ratings. Last year's three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million. The Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and Texans played on Saturday, giving them the same turnaround they would have if they played on Sunday and then Thursday. What is at stake for the teams playing? All four have clinched playoff spots in the AFC, but seeding remains up for grabs. Kansas City (14-1) can clinch the top seed — which would mean a first-round bye and home field throughout the playoffs — with a win over the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied atop the AFC North at 10-5, with the Steelers holding the tiebreaker due to a better conference record. Houston (9-6) has wrapped up the AFC South and holds the fourth seed. Has Netflix fixed its streaming problems from the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight? Netflix hopes so. Brandon Riegg, Netflix's vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the system was stress tested, and then some, during the Nov. 14 bout, along with internet service providers reporting they were also overwhelmed by the surge that occurred before and during the fight. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight. Could there be the same number streaming the games that there were during the fight? Possible? Yes. Likely? No. The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season's AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs. Nielsen will measure the ratings for the Christmas Day games, with early numbers expected late afternoon on Thursday. When could there be surge in demand on Wednesday? It will probably be at kickoff for both games, but especially around 5:45 p.m. EST. That would be near halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, and when Beyoncé will be performing. What other celebrities will appear? Mariah Carey will kick off the day with a taped performance of "All I Want for Christmas is You." There is no word if Taylor Swift will make the trip to Pittsburgh to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has been spending time in Kansas City since she wrapped up her Eras Tour two weeks ago. How many Christmas games will Netflix carry in the next two seasons? The NFL will have at least two games on Dec. 25 in 2025 and '26, with Netflix slated to have at least one each year. Amazon Prime Video will have a night game with Christmas on a Thursday next year. Does Netflix have an interest in other sports? Netflix's worldwide partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment will begin on Jan. 6 when "Monday Night Raw" moves to the streaming service. On Friday, Netflix secured the U.S. rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup.
From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turnATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey gambling regulators have handed out $40,000 in fines to two sportsbooks and a tech company for violations that included taking bets on unauthorized events, and on games that had already ended. In information made public Monday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement fined DraftKings $20,000. It also levied $10,000 fines on Rush Street Interactive NJ and the sports betting technology company Kambi. According to documents released by the state, Rush Street accepted 16 bets worth $1,523 in Nov. 2021 on a college basketball game between the University of North Carolina-Asheville and Tennessee Tech University after the game had already concluded with a UNC victory. Kambi told the enforcement division that a trader had failed to manually remove that game from its betting markets, saying it had stopped receiving messages from its own sports data provider due to a network connectivity error. Kambi said it has updated its guidelines and retrained its traders to prevent a recurrence. Kambi, which is based in Malta, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Monday. Rush Street declined comment, and DraftKings had no immediate comment Monday. DraftKings stopped using Kambi in 2021. In March 2022 Rush Street took seven bets totaling just under $2,900 on three Magic City Jai Alai games after the results were already known. Kambi told the division it experienced a connectivity issue that allowed the bets to be accepted after the games were over. An explanation of what Kambi did to address the situation was blacked out in documents released by the division. A month earlier Rush Street took 13 wagers worth $8,150 with pre-match odds on a Professional Golf Association match after the event had already begun. In this case, Kambi told the division a newly hired trader failed to enter the correct closing time time for bets on the event. The trader and a supervisor underwent retraining. DraftKings was fined for taking bets on unapproved events including Russian basketball for nine months in 2020 and 2021. It eventually voided over $61,000 in bets and returned the money to customers after being directed to do so by the state. In this case, Kambi told the division it misidentified this particular Russian basketball league as one that was approved for wagering in New Jersey. DraftKings told the state it did not catch the error, either. In 2020, DraftKings accepted 484 wagers on unapproved table tennis matches. Kambi incorrectly enabled the events for wagering without conditions required by the state, the division said. In Feb. 2022, the division said DraftKings took pre-season NFL bets involving specific players but did not give the state specific information on what information was to be included in the bets, drawing 182 wagers worth nearly $7,000 that were later voided and refunded to customers. Follow Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryACChess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolved
A landmark $600 million deal for a Papua New Guinea team to enter the National Rugby League comes with an escape clause allowing the Australian government to immediately terminate the agreement if PNG strikes a security or policing pact with China or other rival nations over the next decade. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape announced at a joint press conference in Sydney that a Port Moresby-based team will enter the NRL from 2028. The PNG team is likely to want Xavier Coates to be its inaugural marquee signing. Credit: Getty “Australia and PNG are the nearest of neighbours and we are the truest of friends,” Albanese said. “We are bound by a history of shared sacrifice and a common commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific. And we are united of course by a love of rugby league. That’s why I’m delighted to announce the Australian government is supporting a PNG team to join the NRL competition from 2028.” “Rugby league is PNG’s national sport and PNG deserves a national team. The new team will belong to the people of PNG and it will call Port Moresby home. It will have millions of people barracking for it from day one.” The leaders hailed the deal as a historic milestone for the PNG-Australia relationship that will bond the nations together and provide a major economic boost to the Pacific’s most populous nation as it seeks to lift much of its population out of poverty. There’s no questioning Papua New Guinea’s passion for rugby league. Credit: Getty “What this is about, isn’t just the elite level,” Albanese said. “This is about the grassroots level. It’s about economic development. It’s about the relationship between our peoples. It provides, as sport often does, an opportunity for people to succeed, not just in sport but in life. “That is why this partnership isn’t just about Papua New Guinea, it’s also about our relationship with the Pacific.” Australian taxpayers will provide $600 million over the next 10 years to help establish the team, with $120 million coming from existing Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funding. The PNG government has committed to building compound-style accommodation for players and offering tax-free salary benefits to lure star players to its capital, Port Moresby. The Australian and PNG governments have signed a separate agreement on “shared strategic trust” that sits beside the franchise agreement between the NRL, Australia and PNG. The exact terms of the strategic trust agreement are confidential and will not be released to the public. “Today also confirms ... our bilateral security agreement, which was signed just over a year ago in Canberra,” Albanese said. “Since signing that agreement, we’ve made real progress with Australia providing tangible support to PNG’s internal security priorities ... I think that today is a day where people will look back in five years, 10 years, 20 years and see that this was a day where the relationship between our nations was cemented even further into a new level.” While there is no explicit clause granting Australia veto rights over security deals between PNG and other countries, government sources said the NRL agreement was “contingent” on PNG continuing to support the principle that security and policing arrangements are handled by Pacific nations including Australia. The sources, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said the agreement allows the Australian government to withdraw financial support for PNG’s NRL team without supplying a reason until 2035. The NRL would be required to terminate the PNG team’s franchise if the Australian government removes its support under the terms of the agreement. “This is about diplomacy, this is about making Australia safer, this is about securing our status as the security partner of choice in the Pacific,” a senior government source said. The government announced a new treaty earlier this week with Nauru that allows it to block China and other countries from striking any security or telecommunications deals with the tiny Pacific nation in exchange for $140 million in financial support from Australian taxpayers. PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told this masthead last week that the agreement has “nothing to do with China” but Australian government officials have insisted there was a security element to the agreement. A separate clause prohibits the NRL from asking the Australian government for more money within or after the 10-year funding period. The logo, colours and name of the PNG team are yet to be determined. One option is for the club to be called the PNG Hunters, the name given to the team that has been playing in the Queensland Cup competition since 2014. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG counterpart James Marape discussed PNG’s NRL bid while walking the Kokoda Track in April. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer “I want to indicate to everyone here in Australia and back home, we’re not just filling the numbers for Anthony [Albanese] and James [Marape] to feel good,” Marape said. “Far from it. We want to win the competition. Just like the Dolphins did in their first year of entry [in 2023], we will field a very strong team in the first game in 2028. “As South Sydney lives on 100 years on from its birth, this one will live on way after you [Albanese] and me are gone. Our people forever bound in not only a shared love for rugby league, but a shared love for each other.” It remains unclear whether PNG will be the NRL’s 18th or 19th team, given there is a desire to add another side as early as 2027. The NRL remains in negotiations for a Perth-based franchise, which are continuing directly with the WA government after a consortium bid was rejected. Sources said negotiations over the PNG team were up in the air until the May NRL “magic round” in May, when Pacific Minister Pat Conroy and Australian Rugby League chairman Peter V’landys struck an in-principle agreement for a team to enter the competition. One of the likely signing targets for the franchise is Xavier Coates. The Melbourne, Queensland and Australian star was born in Port Moresby, has previously represented Fiji and, given he is only 23 years old, will likely be in his prime when the team enters the NRL. His younger brother, Phillip, is also a rising star who represented the PNG Junior Kumuls in their recent draw with the Australian Schoolboys team. As a sweetener to sign with PNG, players and staff will be granted tax-free status. That will allow a marquee signing on a $1.2 million deal to save up to $550,000 a year. The expansion of the NRL competition is expected to bring more money into the game and the existing clubs have argued for a share. They have been placated by the division of a $60 million license fee, which will come out of the $600 million Australian government payment. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — For the second time this season, the Washington Commanders gave up points in the final two minutes of regulation and came back to win on a last-gasp touchdown. It was not a Hail Mary this time. Instead, it was rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels engineering a 57-yard drive and finding Jamison Crowder in the end zone with six seconds left on the clock to beat Philadelphia and get the Commanders to 10-5. “Just a regular Sunday afternoon again,” coach Dan Quinn said moments later. Quinn’s team is now on the verge of making the playoffs after again showing its mettle in wacky, back-and-forth games with wild finishes. Playing in and winning those has sort of become Washington’s calling card. “We didn’t flinch at all,” receiver Terry McLaurin said. “We didn’t panic. Not to say we did that in the past, but it was like, we’ve been here before. When you’ve been through something, you know what it looks like. You know what it feels like. You do everything it takes to get over the hump.” The Commanders have won three in a row, including holding on at New Orleans by stopping the Saints on a 2-point conversion attempt at the end of the fourth quarter. They’re in the postseason if they beat Atlanta on Sunday night or if Tampa Bay loses to Carolina earlier in the day. RELATED COVERAGE On Football: Falcons and Buccaneers flip spots atop the NFC South and playoff races tighten up Jayden Daniels throws for 5 TDs as the Commanders end the Eagles’ winning streak at 10 Jared Goff throws 3 TD passes as Lions beat Bears 34-17 for franchise-record 13th win But what has gotten this team so accustomed to falling behind, huddling up and getting the job done when it matters most? “I think we just believe in one another,” said six-time All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner , a Super Bowl champion in Seattle who’s in his first season with Washington. “Coach Quinn puts in a lot of positions at practice, and we have confidence in everybody to make those plays. I think it just shows our confidence in one another and our confidence to pull the game out.” Daniels is an X-factor in that. The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner , No. 2 draft pick out of LSU and runaway favorite for AP Offensive Rookie of the Year may be from Southern California but seems to have ice water in his veins colder than the 31 degree Fahrenheit temperature during his comeback. “He was poised: cool, calm, collected under pressure,” Crowder said. “A lot of times you don’t get that from a lot of quarterbacks.” What’s working Practice makes perfect, apparently. When Daniels connected with Noah Brown on the Hail Mary TD to beat Chicago on Oct. 27, it went exactly as the offense planned after rehearsing it in practice the previous Friday. Daniels to Crowder was the same thing. “It’s crazy,” Crowder said. “Friday we actually ran it, and I caught the same pass. We got the same look that we thought we were going to get.” Crowder knew he needed to slip past the linebacker covering him and found a wide-open spot in the end zone. Then the muscle memory took over. “I had already hit this in practice, so it was time to just make the throw in the game,” Daniels said. “I just put the ball in the air, and he made the grab.” What needs help It’s hard to turn the ball over five times and win a game, especially against a first-place team with the NFL’s top defense, but that’s exactly what the Commanders did. Daniels threw two interceptions — including one that set up Jake Elliott’s field goal to put the Eagles up 33-28 with 1:58 left — while Brian Robinson Jr. fumbled twice rushing and Dyami Brown once after making a catch and turning to run upfield. “That’s not our standard at all,” McLaurin said. “We’ll get that cleaned up.” Stock up Crowder made one catch on one target for 5 yards in the season opener and played a combined 12 snaps in Weeks 1-3. A calf injury put him on injured reserve in early October, and that easily could have been it for the 31-year-old wideout in his second stint with Washington. Instead, Crowder rehabbed to get back on the active roster, and a kidney injury to Noah Brown opened the door for real playing time. After making three receptions for 27 yards in the victory at New Orleans, his two catches against the Eagles were touchdowns. “Being on the IR for as long as Jamison had been, it takes a lot of grit to stay in it,” Quinn said. “He might have been out of football technically for 2-3 months, and this is not an easy thing to do, so for him to come back and make the impact he’s had, that’s a man I respect a lot.” Crowder was a fourth-round pick in 2015 and played his first four seasons in Washington before three with the New York Jets, one with Buffalo and a return in the fall of 2023. He thinks watching from the sideline helped him dissect football better to give him a chance to make an impact on the field again. “I knew once I got my opportunity I’d be able to just fit right in,” Crowder said. Stock down Cornerback Marshon Lattimore affected the Saints game by not being thrown at once in 31 passing attempts in his Commanders debut against his former team. He struggled defending Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown and was flagged three times for pass interference before aggravating the hamstring injury that kept him out since the trade from New Orleans and leaving the game. “I love his competitive nature, honestly, down on the field,” Quinn said. “It’d be good to see what the NFL says about one of the ones that they called a PI. Let’s find out, but he’s the type of person you want to put on that player.” Injuries Dyami Brown also left with a hamstring injury in the fourth quarter, and starting right tackle Andrew Wylie was sidelined by a groin injury. Those bear watching. Key number 1991 — The last year Washington started a season 10-5. It ended with the franchise’s third Super Bowl championship. Next steps Get ready for prime time with No. 8 pick Michael Penix Jr. and the Falcons coming to town. The Commanders opened as a 4-point favorite on BetMGM Sportsbook. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl