Rematch of last season's College Football Playoff championship game highlights Big Ten slate

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Rematch of last season's College Football Playoff championship game highlights Big Ten slate

2024-10-03 18:10 Last Updated At：10-04 00:30

Things to watch this week in the Big Ten Conference:

No. 10 Michigan (4-1, 2-0) at Washington (3-2, 1-1), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

It’s a rematch of last year’s national championship game that Michigan won 34-13, but a whole lot has changed in the nine months since.

Both head coaches are gone, as Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh left for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers while Alabama hired Kalen DeBoer away from Washington. The quarterbacks from that game have departed as well after Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. went eighth and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy went 10th in this year’s NFL draft.

The teams combined for three losses by the end of September. Last year, they both carried unbeaten records into the championship game.

Michigan lost 31-12 at home to No. 2 Texas but has won three straight since. Sherrone Moore’s Wolverines are relying on a Kalel Mullings-led rushing attack, as they totaled just 118 yards passing the last two weeks in victories over Southern California and Minnesota.

Washington has lost two of its last three games, including a 21-18 setback at Rutgers last week, as the Huskies endure growing pains under new coach Jedd Fisch.BetMGM Sportsbook still has the Huskies as 2 1/2-point favorites.

Iowa (3-1, 1-0) at No. 3 Ohio State (4-0, 1-0).

The Hawkeyes have scored at least 31 points in three of its first four games under new coordinator Tim Lester, a big step forward for a team that exceeded 26 points just once last season and got shut out in its final two games. Ohio State allows the fewest points per game (6.8) of any Bowl Subdivision team. Iowa’s a 19 ½-point underdog, according to BetMGM, and will need another big performance from Kaleb Johnson, who ranks second in the nation in yards rushing (685) and is coming off a 206-yard performance against Minnesota.

Penn State DE Abdul Carter had four tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble in No. 7 Penn State’s 21-7 triumph over No. 24 Illinois. He was the first Penn State player to have four tackles for loss in a game since 2018.

Indiana LB Aiden Fisher had 12 tackles in a 42-28 victory over Maryland. He has collected at least eight tackles in each of No. 23 Indiana’s first five games and has a Big Ten-leading 50 this season.

Oregon WR Tez Johnson caught 11 passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns in the sixth-ranked Ducks’ 34-13 victory at UCLA. After setting a school single-season record with 86 catches last year, Johnson already has 33 receptions through four games.

Wisconsin will try to beat Purdue for an 18th straight time on Saturday. Purdue’s last victory over Wisconsin came in 2003. … Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith has plenty of familiarity with Oregon – the Spartans’ opponent Friday - as a former Oregon State quarterback and coach. Smith went 2-4 against Oregon as Oregon State’s head coach and was 2-2 in his years as Oregon State’s quarterback. … Purdue QB Hudson Card has thrown as many touchdown passes to the opposing team (3) as to his own over the last three weeks. He has thrown a pick-6 in each of Purdue’s last three games. ... Minnesota is allowing just 96.8 yards passing per game, the fewest of any FBS team.

Indiana is 5-0 for only the third time in program history and the first time since 1967. The Hoosiers enter Saturday’s game at Northwestern as a 13 ½-point favorite, according to BetMGM. That number seems a bit large, considering the history of this series. Indiana has lost each of the last eight times it has visited Evanston and hasn’t won at Northwestern since 1993.

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Israel intensifies bombardment of Gaza and southern Lebanon ahead of Oct. 7 anniversary

2024-10-07 08:18 Last Updated At：08:21

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs late Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque killed at least 19 people.

A year after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Israel has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has traded fire with Israel since the war in Gaza began.

Israel’s military confirmed a Hezbollah attack on the northern city of Haifa, though it was not immediately clear whether shrapnel from “fallen projectiles” was from rockets or interceptors. Hezbollah said it tried to hit a nearby naval base. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated 10 people, most of them hurt by shrapnel.

Israel also has vowed to strike Iran after a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week. The widening conflict risks further drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

Israel is on high alert ahead of memorial events for the Oct. 7 attack, while rallies continue around the world marking the anniversary.

Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Israel confirmed the strikes and says it targets Hezbollah. The militant group, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, has called its months of firing rockets into Israel a show of support for the Palestinians.

A separate Israeli strike earlier Sunday in the town of Qamatiyeh southeast of Beirut killed six people, including three children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 30 strikes overnight into Sunday, while Israel’s military said about 130 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

“It was very difficult. All of us in Beirut could hear everything,” resident Haytham Al-Darazi said. Another resident, Maxime Jawad, called it “a night of terror.”

One strike killed three sisters and their aunt in the coastal village of Jiyyeh. “This is a civilian home, and the biggest evidence is those martyred are four women,” said a neighbor, Ali Al Hajj.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.

The Israeli military is now setting up a forward operating base close to a U.N. peacekeeping mission on the border in southern Lebanon, a U.N. official told The Associated Press. The base puts peacekeepers at risk, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

UNIFIL, created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion, refused the Israeli military’s request to vacate some of its positions ahead of the ground incursion.

An Israeli strike hit a mosque where displaced people sheltered near the main hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Another four were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter near the town. The military said both strikes targeted militants. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue.

Israel's military announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, home to a refugee camp dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel has carried out several operations there only to see militants regroup. The military said three soldiers were severely wounded in Sunday's fighting in northern Gaza.

Israel reiterated its call for the complete evacuation of heavily destroyed northern Gaza, where up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.” A later statement said three projectiles were identified crossing from northern Gaza into Israeli territory, with no injuries reported.

Frantic residents fled again. “Since Oct. 7 to the present day, this is the 12th time that I and my children, eight individuals, have been homeless and thrown into the streets and do not know where to go,” said one, Samia Khader.

The Civil Defense — first responders operating under the Hamas-run government — said it recovered three bodies, including a woman and a child, after a strike hit a home in the Shati refugee camp.

Residents mourned. Imad Alarabid said on Facebook an airstrike on his Jabaliya home killed a dozen family members, including his parents. Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera, was killed in shelling on his home in Jabaliya. Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif confirmed his death.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little over half were women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They still hold around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

The United Kingdom on Sunday advised its citizens against non-essential travel to Israel due to the violent clashes in the Mideast. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also advised against all travel in parts of northern and southern Israel, most of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Last week the UK advised its citizens against all travel to Lebanon.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel, which had prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu had described such calls by Macron as a “disgrace.” Macron's office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Netanyahu's remarks “excessive."

Later on Sunday, Netanyahu's office said the two leaders had spoken and agreed to promote “a dialogue” on the matter. Macron's office called the discussion “frank” and said both leaders “accepted their divergence of views.”

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war