France and The US seek to mend rift Caused by the Aukus pact
France and The US have made efforts to end a row which started last week with the announcement of the Aukus defence pact between the US, the UK and Australia.
The pact cost France a deal worth $37bn (£27bn) to build submarines for Australia.
Paris said it found out only hours before the public announcement.
The American and French presidents have now issued a joint statement saying the situation would have benefited from open consultations between allies.
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone for half an hour on Wednesday. They will also meet in Europe at the end of next month.
French anger was palpable - the French defence minister called it a "stab in the back".
In a rare step among allies, Mr Macron ordered the recall of the French ambassadors to Washington and Canberra.
However, the ambassador to Washington will now return to his post. There was no word on whether the ambassador to Canberra would do the same.
The agreement involves the sharing of information and technology in a number of areas including intelligence and quantum technology as well as the acquisition of cruise missiles.
But the nuclear submarines are key. They are to be built in Adelaide in South Australia and will involve the US and the UK providing consultation on technology for their production.
"A nuclear submarine has enormous defence capabilities and therefore ramifications for the region.
Only six countries in the world have nuclear submarines. They are a really powerful deterrent capability without giving them nuclear weapons," Michael Shoebridge, director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said.
President Biden reaffirmed the importance of French and European engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.
And the statement underlined US recognition of the importance of stronger European defence to complement Nato - one of President Macron's flagship projects.
Earlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Mr Macron to "donnez-moi un break" and get over his anger about Aukus.
Brokered last week, Aukus is widely seen as an effort to counter China's influence in the contested South China Sea.
Analysts have described it as probably the most significant security arrangement between the three nations since World War Two.
However, a meeting next week between senior EU and Australian officials is now in doubt.
It is the third event - between the EU and Australia or the EU and the US - that could face postponement following the announcement of the Aukus pact.
Source - BBC
Marlon Samuels charged under ICC anti-corruption code
Retired West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels was charged on Wednesday with breaching the anti-corruption code of the International Cricket Council.
The ICC said in a media statement that it charged Samuels, on behalf of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), with breaching four counts of the anti-corruption code for participants in a Ten10 league the Board hosted.
The alleged offences include failing to disclose the receipt of any gift, payment, hospitality, or other benefit that was made or given in circumstances that could bring the participant or the sport of cricket into disrepute; failing to disclose receipt of any gifts and hospitality worth $750; failing to cooperate with the anti-corruption investigation; and obstructing or delaying the investigation by concealing information.
Samuels, 40, was given 14 days from September 21 to respond to the charges, the ICC statement said.
Cricket West Indies (CWI), the governing body for the sport in the Caribbean, said in a separate statement that it had been made aware of the charges.
“While CWI has yet to receive detailed information relating to this ICC investigation, The CWI remains firm in denouncing any such activities within the sport, and fully supports the ICC anti-corruption unit in their efforts to rid the sport of all corruption,” CWI said in a statement.
CWI said the charges related to Samuels’ involvement in a T10 league staged two years ago in Abu Dhabi.
Samuels represented the Karnataka Tuskers, but he did not play a single match.
The West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) also said it had conducted extensive anti-corruption seminars as part of its player development and welfare programme over the past seven years.
“We have further conducted joint seminars with CWI and have partnered with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) to have such information accessible at any time via an online platform,” WIPA said in a statement.
“WIPA will continue to educate cricketers about pertinent issues that contribute to their personal and professional development and help to safeguard the sustainability and integrity of the sport.
“We take this opportunity to again urge all West Indian cricketers to play their part in protecting the sanctity of the sport we all love.”
Samuels played 71 Tests, 207 One-day Internationals and 67 Twenty20 Internationals for West Indies, scoring 11,134 runs and taking 152 wickets across all formats, and retired from international consideration in November last year.
The highlight of his career were two sparkling half-centuries that earned him Player-of-the-Match awards in the finals of the 2012 and 2016 ICC Twenty20 World Cups in Sri Lanka and India respectively, that helped the Windies claim the titles.
Samuels, however, spent two years on the side-lines 13 years ago, when he was handed a two-year ban by the ICC for “receiving money, or benefit or other reward that could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute”.
Source - CMC
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association says travel advisories paint distorted picture of Caribbean tourism destinations
The Director General of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Vanessa Ledesma, says while travel advisories have been placed on several Caribbean destinations due to the increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, travel to the region is safe because of effective health safety measures and a continued commitment to protect employees and visitors.
Ledesma, who is also the acting chief executive officer of the CHTA, said that there has been no indication that the increase in travel to the region over the past several months has contributed to any significant spread of the virus.
“According to contact tracing analysis provided by several of the region’s destinations which are monitoring this, the level of COVID-19 transmission between residents and visitors has been negligible,” said Ledesma, adding that testing of departing travellers returning to major source markets has shown insignificant positivity rates.
She warned that warnings based on COVID-19 positivity levels can be misleading.
“We have gone to great lengths to produce the safest possible corridors in our tourism-related communities,” she assured, adding that “Caribbean travel is safe and continues to get safer.”
The United States-based Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has been at the forefront of institution travel advisories on Caribbean countries coping with the impact of the virus that has killed and infected thousands of people since March last year.
Ledesma said that the Caribbean had been committed to health safety started long before the beginning of the pandemic, and its multi-agency collaborative approach helped to jumpstart the training of nearly 8,000 of the region’s tourism industry supervisors, managers and owners.
Last year, the CHTA joined the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Global Tourism Resiliency and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) to form the COVID-19 Caribbean Tourism Task Force.
CHTA said that recognizing that the Caribbean is the world’s most tourism-dependent region, a priority was placed on establishing protocols to ensure that interpersonal interactions within tourism communities and between members of the tourism community and visitors were as safe as possible.
It said that the next priority for the regional organizations is to continue managing the pandemic’s risks and rebuild the region’s economic mainstay by protecting lives and livelihoods.
Ledesma said speeding the momentum of vaccinations throughout the Caribbean in the upcoming weeks is part and parcel of the process as she congratulated governments for prioritizing vaccines for travel- and tourism-related employees.
But she warned that “the pace of recovery still rests in the hands of the public and we encourage all employees who are able to be vaccinated to do so, to help fast-track the region’s recovery”.
CHTA’s First Vice President, Chair of its Advocacy Committee, Nicola Madden-Greig, said the people of the Caribbean can control their own destiny, “accelerate our recovery, and help to get our people back to work faster, while generating the revenue our governments desperately need to provide basic services.
“There is no question that the rate of vaccination within the tourism and related communities is higher than the national averages, and we know that vaccination provides that extra level of protection for our team members and their families,” the Jamaican hotelier said, while pointing to efforts by many Caribbean hotels to assist health authorities with administering vaccines to tourism employees, who along with essential workers, were given priority.
She applauded the work of CARPHA, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Caribbean governments for placing high priority on securing vaccines: “We’ve been advised that vaccines are now readily available throughout the Caribbean, so there is little excuse for those who are able to receive one not to do so.”
“A number of destinations in our region rely on tourism for more than 70 percent of their GDP and over 50 percent of employment. That is what makes it deserving of special consideration for vaccines,” she added.
CHTA said that despite the challenges which the delta variant has presented to global travel, the Caribbean’s industry performance numbers have been among the best in the world.
CHTA’s Data Partner, ForwardKeys, which tracks air travel globally, indicates that through August 31, 2021, the Caribbean and Mexico have been reliable destinations for international visitors, with seven of the world’s top airlift performers coming from the region.
Hotel occupancy rates for the Caribbean, while still below the 2019 strong performance, increased to 53.6 per cent in July 2021 from 19.5 per cent the year before according to CHTA Strategic Partner STR, which gathers global hotel performance data.
“While advance bookings have slowed globally, demand for travel to the Caribbean this upcoming winter is strong as indicated by advance bookings, buoyed by flexible cancellation policies and travel insurance as added assurances to give travellers confidence,” the CHTA added.
Source - CMC
Angry scenes at Haiti airport as deported migrants arrive
Angry scenes broke out at Haiti's main airport after migrants were deported to the country from the US.
On Tuesday, migrants at the airport in Port-au-Prince rushed back towards the plane they had arrived on, while others threw shoes at the jet.
Last weekend, the US started flying out migrants from a Texas border town which has seen an influx in recent weeks.
About 13,000 would-be immigrants have gathered under a bridge connecting Del Rio in Texas to Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.
Chaos unfolded at Toussaint Louverture airport as one man attempted to re-board the aircraft. The plane's crew rushed to close the jet's doors in time, Reuters news agency reports.
Video footage taken a the airport shows people scrambling for their personal belongings after their bags were dumped out of the plane.
There are reports that some migrants were not told they would be returning to Haiti.
media captionThousands of people are camped out at the US-Mexico border bridge in poor conditions
According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there were two separate incidents at the airport on Tuesday.
A source told NBC News that the pilots on board one of the flights was assaulted on arrival in Haiti and three US immigration officers were also injured.
In a separate incident in Texas, a group of Haitians reportedly fought Border Patrol agents and attempted to escape after realising they were being deported.
At the time, the migrants were being transported on a bus from the town of Brownsville to Del Rio.
"When the migrants found out they were going to be sent back to Haiti, they took the bus over and they fled," Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, said at a news conference late on Tuesday.
The removal of migrants has been criticised by Partners In Health, an NGO that has been working in the country.
"During a challenging and dangerous period for Haiti, it is unthinkably cruel to send men, women and children back to what many of them do not even call 'home' anymore."
About 4,000 people have either been deported or moved to other processing centres, according to DHS.
From Thursday, flights could be ramped up to as many as seven a day, according to the Washington Post.
Quoting an unnamed US official, the Associated Press also reported on Tuesday that authorities are also releasing Haitian migrants into the US "on a very, very large scale".
The official added that many of the migrants have been given notices to appear at immigraiton offices within 60 days. The official said this approach requires less processing time than having them appear before an immigration court.
The migrants have been waiting in a makeshift camp in temperatures of 37C (99F).
Local officials have struggled to provide them with food and adequate sanitation.
Most of those at the camp are Haitians, but there are also Cubans, Peruvians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans present.
Source - BBC
CARICOM countries say COVID pandemic has wrecked their economies
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Wednesday said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has wrecked the economies of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping as the United States announced it is doubling its purchase of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots to share with the world to one billion doses.
Browne, who is also the chairman of the 15-member grouping, told the virtual Global COVID-19 Summit organised by the White House, that in in some Caribbean countries, more than 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been lost; unemployment has risen; poverty has expanded and demands on the state have multiplied, even as revenues have declined steeply.
He told the summit, taking place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly UNGA) that recovering from the economic effects of COVID-19 will be protracted, because hard won economic progress has been greatly reversed.
“Therefore, building back will be longer and harder for CARICOM countries, than it will be in larger economies with greater resources. Thousands of our people have been infected and thousands have died, many who had not yet begun to enjoy life, and others who had much to contribute.”
Browne said that the disease must be stopped, and nations must act together to build a stronger, better, and more prosperous world.
He said CARICOM governments are committed to a global drive to inoculate 70 per cent of the world’s population by September 2022, “including in our own countries.
“From the onset of the pandemic, our 15 governments took joint approaches to tackling the virus, including the pooling of our resources in the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), and negotiating together, access to vaccines from friendly countries, including the African Union and the United States. “
Browne said that the region is resolved to strengthen the Trinidad-based CARPHA, “and we will do so to the best of our ability, but we recognise that we will need more help from our international partners, to strengthen our infectious disease preparedness and response capabilities”.
He said in his own country, “we have made inoculations against COVID-19 mandatory for all public sector workers to protect the lives of all, including tourists who visit our shores.
“As a region, CARICOM is determined to overcome the baselessly flawed arguments, of those who promote resistance to vaccines despite the fact that, sadly, the number of hospitalisations and deaths are rising daily.
“We will continue to educate and inform our people at home to get vaccinated in their own interest and for the public good. Additionally, we continue to raise our voice internationally for the equitable distribution of vaccines at affordable prices and for the reduction in the price of COVID testing.”
The CARICOM chairman said that vaccines are a global good and they should not be a commodity for profit at the expense of human life.
“We have already enlarged our health facilities and we are resolved to continue doing so within our means, in building a resilient health infrastructure. None of us are safe until all of us are safe.
“Therefore, we will work unrelentingly for better, coordinated global planning and preparation for any future pandemic, including the provision of resources to poor and vulnerable countries, recognising the imperative of collaboration for the safety of all peoples.”
Browne said that the Caribbean will cooperate with all governments “to protect our world and our human civilisation, giving our young people the chance to live a safe, secure, and enjoyable life”.
In his address to the summit, President Joe Biden said Washington would be doubling its purchase of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots to share with the world embracing the goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of the global population within the next year.
World leaders, aid groups and global health organizations are growing increasingly vocal about the slow pace of global vaccinations and the inequity of access to shots between residents of wealthier and poorer nations.
The US purchase will bring Washington’s the total vaccination commitment to more than 1.1 billion doses through 2022.
At least 160 million shots supplied by the U.S. have been distributed to more than 100 countries, including the Caribbean, representing more donations than the rest of the world combined.
“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said, adding that with the new commitments “for every one shot we’ve administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world.”
Biden is also pressing other countries to do more in their vaccine-sharing plans.
“We need other high-income countries to deliver on their own ambitious vaccine donations and pledges,” Biden said, calling on wealthy countries to commit to donating, rather than selling the shots to poorer nations, and to provide them “with no political strings attached.”
More than 5.9 billion COVID-19 doses have been administered globally over the past year, representing about 43 per cent of the global population. But there are vast disparities in distribution, with many lower-income nations struggling to vaccinate even the most vulnerable share of their populations, and some yet to exceed two per cent to three per cent vaccination rates.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says only 15 per cent of promised donations of vaccines — from rich countries that have access to large quantities of them have been delivered.
It wants countries to fulfil their dose-sharing pledges “immediately” and make shots available for programmes that benefit poor countries.
Source - CMC
The Weeknd sued for allegedly ripping off his triple-platinum hit "Call Out My Name"
The Weeknd is being accusing of stealing music for one of his biggest hits.
The three-time Grammy winner is being sued for allegedly plagiarizing another song for his 2018 triple-platinum single, "Call Out My Name."
Songwriters Suniel Fox and Henry Strange filed a copyright lawsuit claiming that the hit lifted elements from their 2015 track "Vibeking," according to Law 360. They also say they have records of correspondence with Eric White, the Weeknd's DJ and playback engineer, who told them that the singer described their track as "fire."
Fox and Strange are seeking all profits from "Call Out My Name" as well as legal fees, and they want to prevent The Weeknd from performing or distributing the song until a verdict is reached.
While the Canadian artist copes with the legal action, his career is being recognized by an academic institution, along with another star from Toronto.
Meanwhile, the Weeknd and his longtime friend Drake are the subjects of a new course at Ryerson University in their hometown.
"Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd" will begin in 2022, taught by Professor Dalton Higgins.
"Why Drake & The Weeknd one might ask?," Higgins wrote on Instagram while mentioning courses taught in the United States examining the music of Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Prince and Outkast.
"It's time to get our Canadian rap & R&B icons recognized & canonized academically or otherwise," the professor maintained. "And it is CRITICAL for scholars, historians, to examine the Toronto music scene that birthed Drake/Weeknd and helped create the conditions for them to become mega successful."
Source - ABC
Government of Canada and CDB Establish New Fund to Support Disaster Risk Management
Governments in nine Caribbean countries will still be able to maintain their disaster risk management efforts even with national finances stretched by the demands of responding to the COVID-19
pandemic.
This is because the Government of Canada has partnered with the Caribbean Development Bank to offer assistance through a new CAD$20 million fund - the
Canada-CARICOM Climate Adaptation Fund (CCAF). The Bank’s Board of Directors approved the establishment of the Fund last Thursday. CCAF will be financed through Global Affairs Canada, while CDB will provide in-kind contribution valued at CAD $1.2 million.
The projects to be financed will run from July 2020 to March 2022. CDB Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) which are eligible for CCAF assistance are Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.
The fund will support both short-term and longer-term measures to maintain and strengthen the disaster risk financial management capacity of the countries. The nine countries will have their Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) insurance premium payments for either 2020-21 or 2021-22, covered through the fund.
CDB’s Director of Projects Daniel Best lauded the Government of Canada for increasing its support for the Caribbean’s climate resilience efforts in a difficult time, stating: “We know the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic has been placing severe pressure on BMCs’ public finances which could redirect resources away from planned investments in climate resilience. We are also conscious that the Caribbean is vulnerable to natural disasters; so it is equally critical that countries remain adequately protected against disaster risk. We
appreciate the intervention of the Government of Canada which recognised this and quickly stepped up to support Caribbean countries in maintaining their ongoing disaster risk reduction and climate resilience efforts.” Through risk-pooling and access to reinsurance and capital markets, CCRIF has enabled Caribbean countries to
purchase catastrophe risk insurance at 40-50% less than they would have paid had they approached the insurance market individually. Since its inception, CCRIF has made an estimated USD$ 150 million (mn) in payouts to 13 BMCs, within the guaranteed
14 days of an insurable event. A key longer-term focus of the CCAF is the support for technical expertise to help identify and design new innovative financing instruments to support disaster risk financing and climate resilience initiatives for all BMCs. The project is consistent with CDB’s policy on disaster risk management, which encourages and supports BMCs to use measures that offer protection even before an event takes place.
Ministry of Health issues warning on hand sanitizers manufactured by Eskbiochem
The Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Sports and Human Services (MoHASHS),in response to an US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory, is advising all local healthcare facilities, other local suppliers and the general public to discontinue the sale and/or use of any hand sanitizers manufactured by Eskbiochem SA de CV in Mexico.
The advisory results from information gathered that there is a potential presence of methanol (wood alcohol) – a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin oringested – in these hand sanitizers.
The hand sanitizers in question have been identified below:
- All-Clean Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-002-01)
- Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-007-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC:
74589-008-04)
- Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-006-01)
- The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-010-10)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC:
74589-005-03)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC:
74589-009-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC:
74589-003-01)
- Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-001-01)
Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects. Therefore, consumers who have been
exposed to hand sanitizers containing methanol should seek immediate treatment. Immediate treatment is vital to reverse potential toxic effects
of methanol poisoning. Symptoms associated with methanol exposure/poisoning include nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness,
seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death.
The MoHASHS therefore implores all local healthcare facilities and other local suppliers to:
1. Stop supplying the brands listed above immediately.
2. Notify your overseas suppliers.
3. Quarantine all remaining stock(s) of the identified brands for disposal by the Environmental Health Department.
Additionally, the MoHASHS wishes to implore members of the public not to flush or pour these products down the drain and recommends that consumers
dispose of them immediately in separately labelled containers. Persons may contact the Environmental Health Department at 338-2142 for more
information on how best to dispose of these hand sanitizers.
The MoHASHS further reminds consumers to wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially:
- after going to the bathroom
- before eating
- after coughing, sneezing, or blowing one’s nose.
If soap and water are not readily available, the MoHASHS recommends that consumers use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60%
ethanol or 70 % isopropyl alcohol.
The MoHASHS’ top priority is to ensure public health safety and will therefore continue to monitor this situation as investigations continue.
WATER SERVICES GRAND TURK, SALT CAY AND SOUTH CAICOS
The General Public of Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos are hereby
informed of the recent changes made within the Water Undertaking
Department, which was passed at the House of Assembly on 22nd June 2020.
It was necessary for the government to increase the efficiency of the Water
Undertaking office and establish a legal framework that would allow a more
effective operation and service delivery.
Therefore, on the coming into effect of the Bill, the legislation will
support the following:
*(a) *the functions and powers of the Director who shall be responsible for
the management and administration of the Department;
*(b) *the powers to abstract water, to fix rates, fees and charges
to collect rates, fees and charges, to require the installation of
meters and to enter premises to provide services;
*(c) *the ability of the Director to diminish, withhold, suspend stop,
turn off or divert the supply of water when the Director thinks fit to
conserve water or to repair the water undertaking;
*(d) *the prohibition of customers from willfully injuring or fraudulently
altering any meter and to prohibit customers from fraudulently connecting
to the water undertaking;
*(e) *the power to disconnect when customers are in arrears;
*(f) *the Director to allow for the payment of large arrears by
installment by agreement in writing, where large arrears owed are—
· over $500 for residential customers; (ii) over $1000 for
commercial customers.
· to provide for a penalty of 5% where any bill remains unpaid;
*(g) *the establishment of a Complaints Board to resolve disputes arising
from a complaint between the Director and a customer.
Customers are also reminded that with effect from 1st July, 2020, the
provision of *“free water”* services under the Government Stimulus Plans in
response to Covid-19 will have expired and water supply will attract a
charged in the normal manner.
As we continue to provide more efficient services, we seek your cooperation
in adherence to the provisions detailed in the Ordinance, and to make every
effort to conserve water, where possible.
Please contact 649-338-3520 Water Undertaking Department for any inquiries
you may have as the relates to the above changes.
This week's NFL Round-up
Rookie Michael Badgley kicked a 29-yard field goal with no time left Sunday night to give the visiting Los Angeles Chargers a 33-30 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At the game’s end, Badgley missed a 39-yard attempt and had a 34-yard try blocked, both with no time left, but the Steelers were offside both times.
The Chargers (9-3) erased a 16-point halftime deficit to win for the eighth time in nine games. The Steelers (7-4-1) have lost two straight following a six-game win streak.
Philip Rivers threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns for the Chargers. Ben Roethlisberger passed for 281 yards for Pittsburgh, with scoring passes to Antonio Brown (10 catches, 154 yards) and Jaylen Samuels, and James Conner ran for two touchdowns before leaving in the fourth quarter with a lower right leg injury.
Cardinals 20, Packers 17
Green Bay’s home loss to Arizona cost coach Mike McCarthy his job. The Packers (4-7-1) fell at Lambeau Field despite being 14-point favorites over the Cardinals (3-9).
Josh Rosen led the Cardinals to the go-ahead field goal, a 44-yarder by Zane Gonzalez, with 1:41 remaining. On third-and-23 earlier in the drive, Rosen scrambled to his right and found timeless veteran Larry Fitzgerald, who made a diving, 32-yard reception.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers subsequently converted a fourth-and-5 with a 7-yard pass to Jimmy Graham, moved the chains with a completion to Robert Tonyan and gained 11 on a scramble. That got the Packers into field-goal range, but Mason Crosby was wide right from 49 yards out as time expired.
Rams 30, Lions 16
Todd Gurley rushed for 132 yards and two touchdowns as Los Angeles clinched the NFC West title by pulling away from host Detroit.
Jared Goff completed 17 of 33 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown for the Rams (11-1) while getting picked off once. Robert Woods caught five passes for 67 yards and a score.
Matthew Stafford completed 20 of 33 passes for 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception for the Lions (4-8).
Patriots 24, Vikings 10
Tom Brady threw for 311 yards and the tiebreaking touchdown as New England retained the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture by subduing Minnesota in Foxborough, Mass.
Brady, who completed 24 of 32 passes, found Josh Gordon over the middle for a 24-yard scoring strike with 35 seconds left in the third quarter that made it 17-10. James Develin added his second short scoring run on the next drive for the Patriots (9-3), going 2 yards with 10:54 remaining in the game to set the final margin.
Kirk Cousins completed 32 of 44 passes but for just 201 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for Minnesota (6-5-1).
Texans 29, Browns 13
Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked five field goals, and host Houston converted all three Baker Mayfield interceptions into points in a victory over Cleveland.
The Texans (9-3) extended their franchise-best winning streak to nine games by capitalizing on the Browns’ error-prone rookie quarterback. By the time Mayfield engineered a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the second half, the Browns (4-7-1) trailed 23-0.
Deshaun Watson completed his opening 11 pass attempts as Houston scored to conclude its first two possessions. Watson passed for 224 yards but was sacked four times. Mayfield opened the second half 10 of 10 for 219 yards and finished 29 of 43 for 397 passing yards and a touchdown pass.
Giants 30, Bears 27 (OT)
Odell Beckham Jr. threw one touchdown pass and caught another score, and New York held on for an overtime win over Chicago in East Rutherford, N.J.
Aldrick Rosas kicked a tiebreaking field goal from 44 yards on the Giants’ first possession of overtime. New York (4-8) then relied on its defense to stop the final drive from the Bears, who forced overtime by erasing a 10-point deficit in the final 75 seconds.
Adam Shaheen, Akiem Hicks and Anthony Miller scored touchdowns for Chicago (8-4), which had its winning streak snapped at five games. Tarik Cohen took the ball on a reverse and tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to Miller to even the score on the final play of regulation.
Seahawks 43, 49ers 16
Russell Wilson threw four touchdown passes, and Bobby Wagner returned an interception 98 yards for a score as Seattle defeated visiting San Francisco.
The Seahawks (7-5) won their third straight game while the 49ers (2-10) took their third consecutive loss.
Wilson completed 11 of 17 passes for 185 yards. The Seahawks, who have the league’s top rushing offense, added 168 yards on the ground. Chris Carson had 13 carries for 69 yards, and first-round draft pick Rashaad Penny had 65 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.