Le Journal

Green Bay Packers replacement starting center Sean Rhyan, in for Elgton Jenkins, who has been on injured reserve since Week 11, went down with an injury on the Packers’ final drive against the Chicago Bears. Because he wasn’t able to get off the field under his own power in time, Green Bay had to take a 10-second runoff to get Rhyan off the field, which ultimately cost the Packers some precious clock at the end of the game and changed the situation dramatically. Until Monday, we did not know the extent of the Rhyan injury. Today, he revealed that he suffered a bone bruise after the side of his knee was knocked, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Per Silverstein, tests showed no ligament damage. A bone bruise may sound like a light injury. Structurally, everything is intact. With that being said, it can be very painful. Remember, this is the same pain-related issue that running back Josh Jacobs dealt with for all 10 of the final weeks of the regular season this year. It’s also the same injury that quarterback Aaron Rodgers left the action for in the 2018 season opener, before coming back to the field and being a little loopy post-game after taking what I can only imagine were horse pills in the locker room. The good news here is that there is nothing structurally wrong with Rhyan, a 2026 free agent whom the Packers probably want to at least get a number for on a potential contract extension. Jenkins is highly likely to be a cap casualty next year. Without Rhyan, the next man up in 2026 would be Jacob Monk, a 2024 fifth-round pick whose only NFL start came in Week 18 against the Minnesota Vikings, when the team tried to absorb as many snaps as they possibly could with their backup units.

Former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi defected to ‌Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK Party from the Conservative Party on ‍Monday, saying the country was broken and needed Farage as prime minister to fix it. Zahawi, who had a short spell in charge of the nation’s finances under former prime minister Boris Johnson ⁠in 2022, becomes the latest in a long line of former Conservatives to switch to Farage’s populist Reform UK. Reform is currently leading the polls in Britain, far ahead of...

On Monday, Green Bay Packers right tackle Zach Tom, who last played against the Denver Broncos in Week 15, revealed that he tore his patellar tendon in his knee and will have surgery to repair the injury soon, per Packers.com’s Weston Hodkiewicz. The good news is that it’s a partially torn patellar tendon instead of a full rupture. The bad news is that it’s still a patellar tendon tear, which is always a serious injury. A recent study showed that the return to play rate for patellar injuries, which are rising for NFL offensive linemen in recent years, is 55.4 percent, but the return to play rate is also higher for players who have spent more than four years in the league than for those who have spent fewer than four years in the NFL. In their words: “PT injuries may be even more devastating for a player’s career than previously reported.” Carolina Panthers left tackle Ickey Ekwonu just ruptured his patellar tendon in the team’s wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons, a 2025 draft pick, was considered to be a top-10-ish pick before rupturing his patellar tendon last season. Eventually, he was drafted with the final pick of the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs. Tom avoided a full rupture, which makes his case different from Ekwonu and Simmons, but it’s not exactly like he just sprained his MCL or got a bone bruise on his knee, either. Last week, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that the expectation was that Tom was going to be able to play against the Chicago Bears. Tom was even limited for Tuesday and Wednesday practices, before being held out for a “rest day” on Thursday. He was officially listed as questionable going into the game, but I received a tip (that I posted in our elevation thread) three hours before gametime about how Tom was going to be held out of action on Saturday, three hours before kickoff. In short, this wasn’t a game-time decision. Something obviously had changed between LaFleur’s initial comments and Saturday morning. LaFleur said on Sunday that the team hoped that Tom would avoid surgery, but that “all options” were on the table. LaFleur added, “He went through the week, and we didn’t feel like he could go out there and compete to the level that he needed to and protect himself.” Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported that Tom received a platelet-rich plasma injection to his knee (essentially using your own plasma as an injection into the tendon to stimulate healing), but “didn’t feel he could pass block with it.” Per Silverstein, Tom expects the recovery to last six months, which would put Tom back on the field around the start of training camp. In other injury news, defensive end Micah Parsons (torn ACL) is aiming to be back on the field by the first month of the 2026 regular season, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt confirmed that he broke his fibula and tore an ankle ligament.

Integrated space-air fighters featured in China’s Nantianmen science-fiction project represent the future of aerospace technology, and it is only a matter of time before they are realised, according to state media. The comments appeared on Friday in a programme on CCTV’s military channel that repositions the Nantianmen Project – a research initiative dating back to 2017 that focused on future air and space warfare – from a collection of fantasy concepts to attainable future tech. In the...

Europe made a “misjudgment” in categorising Russia as its top security threat and instead the continent’s real danger lay in Europeans’ inner “demon”, according to China’s longest-serving ambassador to the US. Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese foreign vice-minister, also claimed Nato had outlived its relevance and argued that the transatlantic security alliance no longer served the long-term interests of its members. Cui’s comments came during a discussion examining US relations with its allies...