ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons fired coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot on Sunday night, announcing the moves hours after the team completed its second straight 8-9 finish under Morris and eighth consecutive losing season.

Morris said after Sunday’s 19-17 win over the New Orleans Saints that he expected to return for a third season. Instead, his 16-18 record was not enough for him to keep his job after the year began with optimism that the Falcons would reach the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” owner Arthur Blank said in a statement.

“The decision to move away from people who represent the organization so well and have a shared commitment to the values that are important to the organization is not an easy one, but the results on the field have not met our expectations or those of our fans and leadership. I wish Raheem and Terry the absolute best in their future pursuits.”

The Falcons finished with four straight wins and in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC South, but the streak came after the team had been eliminated from playoff contention. Carolina won the division because it had a better record in divisional games.

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TOKYO (AP) — A massive 243-kilogram (535-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.

The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual action many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019.

Kimura later told reporters he was hoping to pay a bit less for it, but “the price shot up before you knew it.”

The auction started when the bell rang, and the floor was filled with torpedo-shaped fish with their tails cut off so bidders could examine meat details such as color, texture and fattiness while walking around the rows of tuna.

The pricey fish was caught off the coast of Oma in northern Japan, a region widely regarded for producing some of the country’s finest tuna, and costs 2.1 million yen ($13,360) per kilogram ($6,060 per pound).

“It’s in part for good luck,” Kimura said. “But when I see a good looking tuna, I cannot resist … I haven’t sampled it yet, but it’s got to be delicious.”

Hundreds of tuna are sold daily at the early morning auction, but prices are significantly higher than usual for the Oma tuna, especially at the celebratory New Year auction.

Due to the popularity of tuna for sushi and sashimi, Pacific bluefin tuna was previously a threatened species due to climate change and overfishing, but its stock is recovering following conservation efforts.

HAVANA (AP) — An American military operation in Venezuela killed 32 Cuban officers over the weekend, the Cuban government said Sunday in the first official acknowledgement of the deaths.

The Cuban military and police officers were on a mission the Caribbean country’s military was carrying out at the request of Venezuela’s government, according to a statement read on Cuban state TV on Sunday night.

What the Cubans were working on in the South American nation was unclear, but Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela’s government has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years.

“You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew Sunday night from Florida back to Washington. “There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.”

The U.S. operation Saturday seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife to face prosecution on an indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

Cuba’s government announced two days of mourning for the Cuban officers who were killed.

“Faithful to their responsibilities for security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombings of the facilities,” the official statement added.

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices edged higher early Monday in Asian trading, while the prices of precious metals surged as markets registered a mixed reaction to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a weekend raid.

Share prices opened higher, with benchmarks in South Korea and Japan again setting fresh records. U.S. futures were mixed after eking out small gains on Friday.

Shortly after trading began, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 12 cents at $57.44 per barrel, while Brent crude gained 14 cents to $60.89 per barrel.

After years of neglect and international sanctions, Venezuela’s oil industry is in disrepair. It could take years and major investments before production can increase dramatically. But some analysts expect Venezuela could double or triple its current output of about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day to return to historic levels fairly quickly.

In any case, the U.S. move was reverberating through financial markets.

The price of gold rose 2%, while silver jumped 6%. Platinum also was up 6%. Investors often use such assets as safe havens in times of geopolitical turmoil.

Share prices in Asia shot sharply higher.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.9% to 51,777.99. The index closed at a year end high for 2025 and only resumed trading on Monday.

South Korea’s Kospi surged 2.3% to 4,406.55. It had ended Friday with a record high close.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1% to 8,735.60, while Taiwan’s benchmark climbed 2.1%.

In other trading early Monday, the dollar rose 0.2% to 157.15 Japanese yen. The euro slipped 0.2% to $1.1702.

On Friday, U.S. stocks eked out small gains on Wall Street in a wobbly but quiet day of trading to kick off the new year.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, to 6,858.47, coming off a gain of more than 16% in 2025.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 48,382.39, while the Nasdaq composite fell less than 0.1%, to 23,235.63. The index was weighed down by a 2.2% loss for Microsoft and a 2.6% decline for Tesla, after it reported falling sales for a second year in a row.

Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla are among the most valuable companies in the world and their outsized valuations give them more influence on the stock market’s direction. That includes sometimes pushing the market up and down from hour to hour.

Furniture companies gained ground following President Donald Trump’s move to delay increased tariffs on upholstered furniture. RH rose 8% and Wayfair rose 6.1%.

This week is the first full week of the new year. It will bring several closely watched economic updates, some of the last big updates the Fed sees before its next meeting at the end of January.

On the agenda are private reports on the status of the services sector, which is the largest part of the U.S. economy, along with consumer sentiment. Government reports on the job market will also be released. The hope is they’ll help paint a clearer picture of how various parts of the U.S. economy closed out 2025 and where it might be headed in 2026.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters that U.S. officials have determined that Ukraine did not target a residence belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack last week, disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said Ukraine launched a wave of drones at Putin’s state residence in the northwestern Novgorod region that the Russian defense systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also criticized Kyiv for launching the attack at a moment of intensive negotiations to end the war.

The allegation came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had traveled to Florida for talks with Trump on the U.S. administration’s still-evolving 20-point plan aimed at ending the war, and had Zelenskyy quickly deny it.

Trump said that “something happened nearby” Putin’s residence but that Americans officials didn’t find the Russian president’s residence was targeted.

“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his home in Florida. “We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to check.”

Trump addressed the U.S. determination after European officials argued that the Russian claim was nothing more than an effort by Moscow to undermine the peace effort.

But Trump, at least initially, had appeared to take the Russian allegations at face value. He told reporters last Monday that Putin had also raised the matter during a phone he had with the Russian leader earlier that day. And Trump said he was “very angry” about the accusation.

By Wednesday, Trump appeared to be downplaying the Russian claim. He posted a link to a New York Post editorial on his social media platform that raised doubt about the Russian allegation. The editorial lambasted Putin for choosing “lies, hatred, and death” at a moment that Trump has claimed is “closer than ever before” to moving the two sides to a deal to end the war.

The U.S. president has struggled to fulfill a pledge to quickly end the war in Ukraine and has shown irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin as he tried to mediate an end to a conflict he boasted on the campaign trail that he could end in one day.

Both Trump and Zelenskyy said last week they made progress in their talks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on a 20-point peace plan.

But Putin has shown little interest in ending the war until all of Russia’s objectives are met, including winning control of all Ukrainian territory in the key industrial Donbas region and imposing severe restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s post-war military and the type of weaponry it can possess.

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Madhani reported from Washington.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Tomas Poletin scored on a deflection with 1:14 left and Czechia beat Canada 6-4 on Sunday night to advance to face Sweden in the first all-European final in the world junior hockey tournament since 2016.

Earlier, Anton Frondell scored in the eighth round of a shootout to give Sweden a 4-3 victory over Finland. The final is Monday night.

In the last all-European final, Finland beat Russia 4-3 in overtime in Helsinki in 2016. Czechia and Sweden are each trying to win their third title. Czechia won in 2000 and 2001, and Sweden in 1981 and 2012.

Poletin scored 1:27 after Porter Martone tied it for 20-time champion Canada.

Vojtech Cihar scored twice for Czechia, and Maxmilian Curran, Adam Titlbach and Adam Benak also scored. Michal Orsulak backstopped the victory.

Tij Iginla, Zayne Parekh and Cole Reschny added goals for Canada.

Canada’s Michael Hage failed on a penalty shot with 1:56 left in second period after getting a second chance when Orsulak tripped him on the first try. The University of Michigan player — who earlier fired three shots off posts — tried the same move and lost control as he tried to move the puck to the right.

Sweden avenged a 4-3 overtime loss to Finland in the semifinals last year in Ottawa, Ontario.

Frondell — drafted third overall by Chicago last summer — put a wrist shot through Petteri Rimpinen’s pads after failing on his first two attempts in the tiebreaker. His first attempt hit both posts.

“I blacked out,” Frondell said. “It was an amazing feeling … happy the last one went in.”

Sweden survived a power play in the 10-minute, 3-on-3 overtime after Viggo Bjork — who missed on three OT breakaways — was called for slashing with 2:03 left.

“This game, it was crazy, long game, tight, overtime, everything. Just one goal and then it’s over,” Frondell said. “You love to play those games.”

Linus Eriksson, Ivar Stenberg and Eddie Genborg scored for Sweden in regulation, and Love Harenstam stopped 33 shots. Atte Joki, Japser Kuhta and and Joona Saarelainen countered for Finland. Rimpinen made 29 saves.

Saarelainen tied it at 3 from close range with 5:59 left in the third.

On Friday night in the quarterfinals, Finland beat the two-time defending champion United States 4-3 in overtime.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports