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Kirk Cousins' time in Atlanta appears to have run its course.

Cousins is expected to be released by theFalconsbefore the NFL's new league year begins in March, a person close to the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

ESPN was the first to report the news.

Cousins' contract was amended at the end of the regular season to pave the way for his imminent release from the Falcons, a person familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the of the sensitivity of the matter.

ESPN reportedthat Cousins and the Falcons modified the final two years in his contract, changing his 2026 base salary from $35 million to $2.1 million but adding the leftover $32.9 million to his 2027 base salary to now make it $67.9 million. The $67.9 million would become guaranteed if Cousins is still on Atlanta's roster at the start of the league year, per ESPN.

2026 NFL Honors: Best of the league's awards ceremony red carpet

USA TODAY Sports interviewed Cousins this week in San Francisco at Super Bowl 60's radio row. The quarterback was measured and vague about his playing future with the Falcons.

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Cousins began the 2025 season as a backup to Michael Penix Jr. However, the veteran quarterback took over as Atlanta's starter when Penix suffered a season-ending torn ACL in November. Cousins registered eight starts and played in 10 games. He averaged 172 passing yards per game and threw 10 touchdowns and five interceptions. He went 5-3 in his eight starts.

The Falcons originally signed Cousins to a four-year deal worth up to $180 million in 2024. But Cousins lost his starting job to Penix before the end of the 2024 season.

Cousins' expected release from Atlanta currently makes Penix the early front-runner to resume the starting role. But the Falcons' new regime has been noncommittal about Penix being the team's starting quarterback following an up-and-down campaign.

The biggest question for Falcons president of football Matt Ryan, general manager Ian Cunningham and new coach Kevin Stefanski is who's going to be Atlanta's starting quarterback in 2026? The new regime, however, has apparently figured out it won't be Cousins.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Tyler Dragon on X@TheTylerDragon.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Falcons, Kirk Cousins split on the horizon

The Dallas Cowboys have no plans to let George Pickens hit free agency this offseason.

The team is expected to place the franchise tag on the Pro Bowl wide receiver,according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, which would lock him in for next season on a one-year contract worth roughly $28 million. The tag can be officially applied anytime between Feb. 17 and March 3.

The decision is hardly a surprise. Playing alongside All-Pro CeeDee Lamb, Pickens enjoyed the best season of his career in 2025 after being traded to Dallas from the Pittsburgh Steelers, with 93 catches, 1,429 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns on 137 targets.

BothCowboys owner Jerry Jonesand his son,team COO Stephen Jones, have said they want Pickens back long-term, with Jerry saying he expects a long-term extension to get done:

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"I'm talking to George all the time by virtue of my excitement for him," Jones said when asked if contract extension talks have begun with Pickens. "He's better than, as far as what he contributed to our team, showing the potential that he could contribute. I'm looking forward to getting things worked out so George can be a Cowboy a long time."

The franchise tag ensures that however negotiations go, the Cowboys can plan for Pickens to be in the fold for the 2026-27 season.

Hitting Pickens with the franchise tag does mean the Cowboys would have the NFL's second-most expensive receiver duo next season between him and Lamb, who is currently on a four-year, $136 million deal. Combined with the average annual value of that contract, Dallas will be paying the pair $62 million, behind only the $69 million AAV currently going to the Cincinnati Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

Pickens is one of several notable Cowboys to be hitting free agency this offseason. Starters Javonte Williams, Jadeveon Clowney and Donovan Wilson are all unrestricted free agents, while All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey is a restricted free agent and is likely seeking the richest kicker deal in NFL history.

Signing Pickens to an extension instead of the tag would free up a significant amount of money for this upcoming offseason, in addition to retaining a star at a premium position for years to come.

Houston Rockets star center Alperen Sengun was remorseful on Saturday for making a sexist remark to a female referee during a game on Wednesday.

Sengun made his first public comments following the Rockets' 112-106 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday. The 23-year-old had been ejected from Houston's 114-93 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday after calling official Jenna Reneau a "b----" multiple times.

"That was immature by me," Sengun said, per ESPN. "That was just in the moment, and I said some stuff I shouldn't say, but I felt bad about it."

The native of Turkey was upset with a no-call on a drive to the basket in the fourth quarter. His comments went viral on social media, with enhanced audio revealing what he said to Reneau, in her first season as an NBA staff official.

Sengun said he apologized to Reneau after the game.

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"Sometimes you can't control yourself, but I should have known better," Sengun said, per ESPN. "But I fixed it and then I went to the locker room and I apologized. I shake (her) hand and said that would never happen again. It just happened in the heat of the moment. Then she understood, and it was good on both ends."

An All-Star for the first time last season, Sengun averages 20.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 33.9 minutes through 43 games (all starts).

The native of Turkey entered Sunday with career averages of 16.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 29.1 minutes in 329 regular-season games (267 starts).

Oklahoma City selected Sengun with the 16th overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft and traded him the next day, July 29, to the Rockets.

--Field Level Media

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will get two very different receptions when he arrives in Australia on Monday – a warm welcome by a government determined to show solidarity with itsgrieving Jewish community, and mass protests by activists who consider him a war criminal.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invited Herzog to visit as a gesture of unity with Jewish Australians after15 people were killedat a Hanukkah festival near Sydney's Bondi Beach – the worst terror attack committed in the country.

In the weeks after the December 14 attack, the government has repeatedly pushed the need for social cohesion. However, Albanese's decision to invite Herzog – the head of state of a country accused of genocide in Gaza, a claim Israel's government denies – has angered many Australians and even led to calls for the visitor's arrest.

"I really do understand the depth of feeling about this visit, the depth of feeling in the community about what we've seen in Gaza over the last two years… but this visit is about a mourning Jewish community, and I would ask Australians to recall that," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told ABC Radio.

Like many nations across the world, Australia has experienced sharp divisions over Israel's war in Gaza that have spilled into protests – with more planned in as many as 30 cities nationwide on Monday to mark Herzog's visit.

The largest will be outside Sydney Town Hall, where up to 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to gather, despite restrictions on protests in the area imposed after the Bondi massacre.

Police say the protesters risk arrest if they move beyond the Town Hall square. Protest organizer Josh Lees, from the Palestinian Action Group, says demonstrators will not be intimidated.

"We will be there in huge numbers for a peaceful protest to say Herzog is not welcome," he said in a message posted to Instagram.

Major Jewish groups in Australia, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Association, have welcomed Herzog's visit and condemned the planned protests.

"President Herzog is a patriot and a person of dignity and compassion and holds an office that is above party politics," said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive ECAJ, which represents some 200 Jewish groups around the country.

"He is a person who has sadly had to comfort families, police and first responders after terrorist attacks many times, and will know how to reassure and fortify our community in its darkest time."

What the UN commission said about Herzog

As Israel's head of state, Herzog occupies a largely ceremonial role removed from the executive decision-making led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose stated aim to destroy Hamas following the group's October 7 massacre has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The International Criminal Court issuedarrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Then last September, an independent UN inquiry found Netanyahu and Gallant – as well as Herzog – had"incited the commission of genocide."

The inquiry commission pointed to comments Herzog made less than a week after Hamas militantskilled and kidnapped hundreds of Israelison October 7, 2023. Herzog said "an entire nation" had been responsible for the Hamas attack.

His words "may reasonably be interpreted as incitement to the Israeli security forces personnel to target the Palestinians in Gaza as a group as being collectively culpable," the commission found.

After the report's release, Herzog angrily dismissed it as suffering from a lack of legitimacy.

The president's office has not responded to a CNN request for comment. But Herzog has previously rejected claims he blamed all Palestinian people for the attack.

One of the authors of the report, UN commissioner Chris Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner, says the country has a legal and moral imperative to detain Herzog on arrival, though he doesn't think it'll happen.

"I feel quite confident that he would not even be attempting this trip if he had not received assurances from the Australian government that he would not be arrested," he said. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed that Herzog is protected by diplomatic immunity.

An Israeli official told CNN that Israel's justice ministry had assured Herzog and his delegation there was no threat of arrest, partly because it was a state visit and also because no warrants existed for anyone in their party.

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One of Herzog's entourage, Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, is also the subject of a formal complaint filed with the AFP by four legal groups including the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.

Almog, a former general in the Israel Defense Forces, reportedly canceled a planned trip to South Africa for fear he'd be arrested there by a country that took a genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.

Unlike Herzog, Almog does not have diplomatic immunity, the lawyers said.

CNN has reached out to the Jewish Agency for comment.

'This does not make Jews safer'

In an interview with The Australian newspaper prior to his arrival, Herzog said he wanted to use the trip to confront "lies and false information" about Israel.

"It's the time to get out of that brainwash campaign that has been going on within the Australian public for quite some time, both against the Jews and against Israelis."

But not all Jewish groups in Australia are poised to welcome him.

The Jewish Council of Australia, a progressive advocacy group, accused Albanese of using Jewish grief as a "political prop and diplomatic backdrop."

Hosting Herzog "risks entrenching the dangerous and antisemitic conflation between Jewish identity and the actions of the Israeli state," Sarah Schwartz, the group's executive officer, said in a statement. "This does not make Jews safer. It does the opposite."

On Monday, the group says a full-page open letter signed by "hundreds of Jews" will be published in two major Australian newspapers to "send a loud message that Herzog is not welcome here."

After the Bondi attacks, many in the Jewish community said Albanese had not done enough to stamp outantisemitism that had worsenedsince Israel sought to avenge Hamas' murderous attack.

In the two years to September 2025, as Netanyahu's government turned much of Gaza to rubble and the Palestinian death toll grew, Jewish groups recorded more than 3,700 "anti-Jewish incidents" in Australia, including arson attacks onsynagogues, car fires, and antisemitic graffiti.

The shaken Jewish community was forced to increase its own security for fear that hatred could turn to bloodshed.

In the days after the Bondi Beach massacre – allegedly committed by afather and sonwho had embraced Islamic State ideology – the government announcedsweeping new gun laws, tougher rules on hate speech, and stronger powers for the home affairs minister to cancel visas on character grounds.

As his political opponents demanded he recall parliament and hold a special federal investigation into the attacks, Albanese asked Australia's governor-general to formally invite to Herzog to the country.

Just over a month later, police spent this weekend in talks with the Sydney-based Palestinian Action Group to try to convince it to accept a compromise protest location, away from the Town Hall.

Sidoti, the UN commissioner, said the Australian government had made a "tragic mistake" by inviting Herzog to the country at a time of deep division.

"This mistake should have been corrected weeks ago. It's still not too late to correct it, but it's increasingly unlikely with every hour that passes, and that's a grave pity," he said.

"This is a visit that will have serious consequences for social cohesion in Australia."

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — It is pre-dawn in the historic Podil district of the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, and warm light from the Spelta bakery-bistro's window pierces the darkness outside. On a wooden surface dusted with flour, the baker Oleksandr Kutsenko skilfully divides and shapes soft, damp pieces of dough. As he shoves the first loaves into the oven, a sweet, delicate aroma of fresh bread fills the space.

Seconds later the lights go out, the ovens switch off and darkness envelops the room. Kutsenko, 31, steps outside into the freezing night, switches on a large rectangular generator and thepower kicks back in. It's a pattern that will be repeated many times as the business struggles to keep working through the power outages caused by Russia's bombing campaign onUkraine'senergy grid.

"It's now more than impossible to imagine a Ukrainian business operating without a generator," said Olha Hrynchuk, the co-founder and head baker of Spelta.

The cost of purchasing and operating generators to overcome power outages is just one of many challenges facing Ukrainian businesses after nearlyfour years of war. Acute labor shortages due to mobilization and war-related migration, security risks, declining purchasing power and complicated logistics add to the pressure, officials say.

Hrynchuk, 28, opened the bakery 10 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. That winter was the first yearRussiatargeted Ukraine's energy system. Hrynchuk says they barely know what it is to work under "normal" conditions, but have never faced the challenges they do now.

Production is entirely dependent on electricity and the generator burns about 700 hryvnias ($16) worth of fuel per hour.

"We run on a generator for 10 to 12 hours a day. You have no fixed schedule — you have to adapt and refuel it at the same time," Hrynchuk said.

'Operate at a loss'

Olha Nasonova, 52, who is head of the Restaurants of Ukraine analytical center, says the industry is experiencing its most difficult period of the past 20 years.

While businesses were prepared for electricity cuts, no one expected such acold winterand it's been especially tough for small cafés and family-run establishments, because they have the least financial resources.

The "Best Way to Cup" project, which has two venues and roasts and grinds its own coffee, is on the brink of permanent closure. Co-founder Yana Bilym, 33, who opened the cafe in May, said a Russian attack shattered all its windows and glass doors in August. Bilym said the cost of renovation was 150,000 hryvnias (about $3,400), half of which she financed with a bank loan that she only recently finished repaying.

Last month, after several consecutive large-scale Russian attacks on the energy sector, her entire building lost its water supply, and soon after the sewer system stopped working.

"We were forced to close. We believe it's temporary. Businesses in December and January, unfortunately, operate at a loss," Bilym said.

Now she has to regularly check the coffee machine and the specialty refrigerators, which she fears may not withstand the cold. Bilym hopes the closure is short-term. Her husband volunteered to serve in the military on the front line and she wants him to have somewhere to come back to when he returns to civilian life.

Generators are expensive to run

Many businesses have become a lifeline for communities struggling with plunging temperatures. Ukraine's government has allowed some firms to operate during curfew hours in the energy emergency as "Points of Invincibility," allowing access to free electricity to charge phones and power banks, drink tea and have some respite from the cold.

Tetiana Abramova, 61, is a founder of the Rito Group, a clothing company that has been producing designer knitwear for men and women since 1991, the year Ukraine became independent.

It participates in Ukraine Fashion Week, the country's biggest fashion show, and exports garments to the United States. Abramova took out a loan in 2022 to purchase a powerful 35-kilowatt generator costing 500,000 hryvnias ($11,500) to keep the business running during blackouts and a wood-fired boiler for heating.

"At work we have heat, we have water, we have light — and we have each other," she said.

But it's not easy. Operating on generators is 15%–20% more expensive than using regular electricity. As a result, production costs are currently about 15% higher than normal. Added to that, customer numbers have dropped by about 40% as many people have left the country, so the focus is now on attracting new clients through online sales.

"Profitability has fallen by around 50%, partly due topower outages," she said. "This affects both the volume and efficiency of our work. We simply cannot operate as much as we used to."

'Main goal is to survive'

A macroeconomic forecast by theKyivSchool of Economics for the first quarter of 2026 says strikes on the energy system are currently the most acute short-term risk to the country's GDP. The analysis says if business manages to adapt, output losses could be limited to around 1% or 2% of GDP. But if the energy system failures are prolonged it could lead to larger losses, of as much as 2% or 3% of GDP.

Abramova, an entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience, says she spent nearly 100,000 hryvnias ($2,300) over two months on generator servicing to maintain production. But she cannot pass all those costs on to retailers.

"For us now, the main goal is not to be the most efficient, but to survive," Abramova said.

Associated Press writer Susie Blann contributed to this report.