Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen has won the Australian Open for his first major professional title. On Sunday, he secured victory with a par on the final hole, defeating hometown favorite Cam Smith. Both players were tied at 15-under going into the last hole. Neergaard-Petersen managed a tricky par, while Smith missed his putt, handing Neergaard-Petersen a one-shot victory. Smith, the 2022 British Open champion, was seeking his first win in over two years. Rory McIlroy struggled with 11 bogeys over four days, including a mishap involving a banana peel, which kept him out of contention.

From the moment Curt Cignetti took Indiana’s head coaching job, he made it clear this would be a different program. He refused to tolerate any moral victories or close calls and instead expected to win, to win big and win immediately. In just 737 days, he turned what had been the Football Bowl Subdivision’s losingest program into the nation’s No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs, a legitimate championship contender and a Big Ten champion for the first time since 1967.

The Nordic countries are no strangers to the long, dark winter. Despite little to no daylight, people who live in parts of northern Europe have learned how to cope mentally and physically with the annual onset of the winter blues. The winter solstice will occur Dec. 21, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. While daylight increases after that, winter won’t be over for a while yet. The Associated Press spoke to experts in Norway, Sweden and Finland about the winter blues. Here’s how they suggest finding light, literally and figuratively, during the darkest months of the year.

Petr Yan stunned Merab Dvalishvili with a dominating effort to capture the bantamweight championship by unanimous decision at UFC 323 on Saturday night. With punishing strikes and several crushing kicks to the rib cage, Yan (20-5) ended Dvalishvili’s 14-match win streak. Dvalishvili (21-5) hadn’t lost since April 21, 2018, when Ricky Simon won by submission. It was his fourth title match of 2025.

Refugees from Mali have told The Associated Press that a new Russian military unit, Africa Corps, is committing abuses like rapes and beheadings. This unit replaced the Wagner mercenary group and is working with Mali's military to fight extremists. The AP gathered these accounts at the Mauritanian border. Africa Corps took over from Wagner six months ago, but refugees say the brutality continues. Two refugees showed videos of burned villages, and others described finding mutilated bodies. The Russian government has not responded to AP questions about the allegations. Legal experts say the Russian government could be held accountable for Africa Corps' actions.

Survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor have long been the center of a remembrance ceremony held each year on the military base’s waterfront. But today only 12 are still alive. All are centenarians, and this year none is able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii to mark the event, scheduled for Sunday. That means no one attending will have firsthand memories of having served during the attack, which killed more than 2,300 troops and catapulted the U.S. into World War II. The development comes as the survivors fade from the scene and their descendants and the public increasingly turn to other ways to learn about the bombing.

Duke has won its first outright Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1962 and thrown the College Football Playoff into chaos. Darian Mensah connected with Jeremiah Hasley for a 1-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play in overtime, and the unranked Blue Devils held on to beat No. 16 Virginia 27-20 in the ACC championship game on Saturday night. The Blue Devils are unlikely to make the playoff field with their 8-5 record, opening the door for a second Group of Five team — likely James Madison — to make it. Duke last won a share of the ACC regular-season title in 1989. Virginia would have made the playoff with a win.

The Associated Press has spoken to over 30 refugees from Mali who say they witnessed beheadings, rapes and other abuses committed by Africa Corps, a new military unit under Russia's direct command. The Africa Corps this year replaced the Wagner mercenary group in working with Mali's army to fight militants in West Africa's Sahel region. The Sahel has become the deadliest place on earth for extremism, and Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger have turned from Western allies to Moscow for help in fighting back. Legal analysts say that because Africa Corps is under Russian government control, Moscow is directly responsible.

A federal judge has rejected a request from the Trump administration to toss a lawsuit challenging the detention of migrants at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case and has set a hearing for next week for both sides to discuss next steps in this case. President Donald Trump in January announced his administration would use a detention center at Guantánamo to hold tens of thousands of the “worst criminal aliens,” as part of his wider immigration crackdown.

Cameron Boozer scored 18 points, including 16 in the second half, and Caleb Foster added 12 points to help No. 4 Duke hold on for a 66-60 victory over No. 7 Michigan State in a game that had the intensity of an NCAA Regional Final. Boozer, who entered averaging nearly 27 points a game, also had 15 rebounds for the Blue Devils (10-0). Duke’s start is its best open to a season since winning the first 11 games in 2017-18. Carson Cooper led Michigan State (8-1) with 16 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

President Donald Trump is hosting the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees in the Oval Office for a medal presentation ceremony. The recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford. The Republican president said he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the honorees when he announced the slate in August at the Kennedy Center in his new role as chairman of the performing arts venue. After Saturday's event at the White House, Trump was also set to attend an annual State Department dinner recognizing the honorees.

Authorities are hunting for the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall. St. Landry Parish sheriff's Maj. Mark LeBlanc said detectives were still searching Saturday for 24-year-old Keith Eli, who had been jailed on a charge of second-degree murder. Officials say Eli was among three inmates who escaped Wednesday by removing concrete blocks from a wall after wearing away the degrading mortar that held those blocks together. Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said one of the escapees,  Jonathan Jevon Joseph, was captured without incident Friday. Police say the third inmate, Joseph Allen Harrington, killed himself Thursday when a tip helped police find him at a home.

California officials are warning foragers about a deadly outbreak linked to wild mushrooms. The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely from death cap mushrooms. These toxic mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones. One adult has died, and several patients, including children, have suffered severe liver damage. Wet weather fuels the growth of these mushrooms, and officials advise against foraging. Symptoms like nausea and vomiting can appear within 24 hours, but serious complications may develop later. For guidance, contact the poison control hotline.

Top law enforcement officials in the Trump administration had a clear message when they announced the arrest of a man charged with placing pipe bombs outside political party headquarters in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. The message was that people coming to the nation’s capital to attack citizens and institutions of democracy would be held accountable. Yet Justice Department leaders who announced the arrest Thursday were silent about the violence that had taken place when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and clashed with police on Jan. 6, 2021, one day after the pipe bombs were discovered.

The San Diego city attorney’s office has agreed to pay $30 million to the family of a 16-year-old youth who was fatally shot by police last January in what would be one of the largest settlements of a police-involved killing case in U.S. history. Konoa Wilson was Black, and the family alleges the shooting was an act of racial violence. The San Diego City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed settlement Tuesday. If approved, it would top the $27 million the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay the family of George Floyd.