DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos secured the AFC’s top playoff seed with a 19-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers’ bevy of backups Sunday, a victory fueled by Ja’Quan McMillian’s 45-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Wil Lutz was 4-for-4 on field goals as the Broncos (14-3) tied their franchise record for most victories in a season and earned their first No. 1 playoff seed since 2015, which they parlayed into a third Super Bowl title.

They’ll get a week off before hosting their first playoff game in a decade, which could be against these same Chargers (11-6) if L.A. beats the Patriots (14-3) at New England in the wild-card round next weekend.

Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had one of his worst games of the season, throwing for just 38 yards in the first half and 141 overall, but he tied Russell Wilson’s record of 24 wins in his first two NFL seasons.

With no chance to win the division, the Chargers treated this game much like a bye week as they prepare to hit the road for the playoffs in the wild-card round. Coach Jim Harbaugh sat several of his starters, most notably quarterback Justin Herbert, safety Derwin James and OLB Tuli Tuipulotu.

QB Trey Lance made his sixth career start and first with the Bolts. His fourth pass went off the hands of KeAndre Lambert-Smith and into the arms of McMillian, who raced down the Broncos’ sideline for a 45-yard touchdown and a 10-0 lead.

Lance finished 20 of 44 for 136 yards. Lambert-Smith later left the game with a hamstring injury.

After five fruitless drives, Cameron Dicker’s 30-yard field goal with 3 seconds left in the second quarter pulled the Chargers to 10-3 at halftime.

The Broncos had four sacks, none bigger than Nik Bonitto’s strip-sack at the Los Angeles 20-yard line early in the fourth quarter. That led to Lutz’s third field goal, from 41 yards, and a 16-3 lead with 11:45 left.

The Broncos’ four sacks gave them a franchise-record and NFL-high 68 for the season, four shy of the 1984 Chicago Bears’ NFL-record 72 sacks.

The game was profitable for at least one Chargers player — wide receiver Keenan Allen, whose seven catches for 36 yards allowed him to reach contract incentives worth $1 million in bonuses Sunday.

Winter wonderland

Temperature at kickoff was a 69 degrees, which is the warmest on record in Denver, besting the old mark of 67 degrees in 1956. The average temperature for the Broncos’ nine home games in the regular season was 68.2 degrees, a franchise high. The coldest game was on Nov. 6, when it was 60 degrees on a Thursday night kickoff against the Raiders.

Injuries

Chargers: RB Omarion Hampton (ankle) and LT Jamaree Salyer (hamstring) were inactive. CB Donte Jackson (ankle) left in the first quarter. Lambert-Smith pulled his let hamstring with 6 seconds left in the second quarter and walked gingerly to the sideline. S Kendall Williamson injured an ankle in the third quarter.

Broncos: LT Garett Bolles (ankle) got hurt with 5:55 left in the first half and headed to the locker room. He returned on the ‘ opening drive of the second half. S P.J. Locke (leg) also was injured in the second quarter and didn’t return. Locke has been starting in place of injured S Brandon Jones.

Up next

Chargers: visit the No. 2 seed New England Patriots in the wild-card round.

Broncos: get a much-needed bye before hosting their first playoff game since the 2015 season in the divisional round.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” died on Monday. He was 74.

The death of Ahn, who had been fighting blood cancer for years, was announced by his agency, the Artist Company, and the Seoul-based Soonchunhyang University Hospital.

Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life.

In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.

After spending a few years unemployed, Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977 believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.

He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980-90s.

Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”

Ahn had collected more than 20 trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actors have matched yet.

Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”

In interviews with local media, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — After taking the first snap, Josh Allen headed to the sideline and joined the 70,000-plus fans to watch backup Mitch Trubisky throw four touchdown passes as the Buffalo Bills bid a likely farewell to their long-time home with a 35-8 rout of the New York Jets on Sunday.

Gabe Davis caught two touchdown passes and Ty Johnson had a TD run and a scoring catch in an outing during which the playoff-bound Bills (12-5) rested a majority of their starters.

Buffalo’s defense, meantime, manhandled an injury-depleted and backup-filled Jets offense that was blanked through 3 1/2 quarters and finished with 122 yards offense and nine first downs.

The win, coupled with the Los Angeles Chargers’ loss at Denver, led to Buffalo moving up one spot in clinching the No. 6 seed. The Bills will travel to play the AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild-card round next weekend.

It’ll be the third playoff meeting between the teams, with Jacksonville winning both. The Jaguars defeated Buffalo 30-27 in what stood as Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s final game in 1996. More recently, the Jaguars beat Buffalo 10-3 in 2017 in the Bills first playoff appearance after ending a 17-year postseason drought.

It was the latest blowout loss for the Jets (3-14), who closed their first season under coach Aaron Glenn losing five straight in which they were outscored by a combined 188-54.

They became the NFL’s first team to lose by 23 or more in five consecutive games in one season.

The outing turned into an afternoon-long celebration for the Bills and their fans, many of whom stayed throughout in Buffalo’s final regular-season home game at the 53-year-old Highmark Stadium. The Bills, next season, are moving across the street to their new $2.1 billion facility.

The team honored its past with Kelly and fellow Hall of Famers Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed addressing the crowd. Even 100-year-old Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy delivered his familiar line of, “Where would you rather be than right here, right now,” in a video message broadcast on the scoreboard during half time.

By then, the outcome was essentially sealed with Buffalo leading 21-0 in a half the Jets were limited to four first downs and 63 yards offense.

And a majority of the fans were still on hand, and rose to their feet at the final 2-minute warning to sing along to what’s become their victory theme song: “Mr. Brightside.” As Trubisky took a knee coming out of the break, a large cheer rose through the stadium with fans tossing up snow like confetti in a lengthy cheer. They continued to stay to sing Buffalo’s traditional “Shout!” song and then “Iris” by the hometown Goo Goo Dolls.

Trubisky finished 22 of 29 for 259 yards.

The loss secured New York the No. 2 pick in the draft.

Undrafted rookie Brady Cook, making his fourth straight start, went 11 of 22 for 60 yards and a 2-yard touchdown pass to fullback Andrew Beck with 7:33 remaining.

The Jets became the NFL’s first team to finish a season without a defensive interception. And New York finished with just four takeaways, breaking the NFL-low record of seven set by San Francisco in 2018.

Allen, nursing a sore right foot, took the first snap to extend his starting streak to 135 (including playoffs) — the NFL’s longest active run among quarterbacks.

James Cook who entered as the NFL’s rushing leader finished with 15 yards to up his total to 1,564. The only player capable of catching Cook is Baltimore’s Derrick Henry, who has 1,469 yards rushing, entering the Ravens game against Pittsburgh.

Double bonus

Bills tight end Dawson Knox entered needing 7 yards receiving to reach 400 and earn a $100,000 bonus. With three TDs this season, the seventh-year player was also one score away from another $100,000 bonus. He achieved both with a game-opening 17-yard touchdown.

Injuries

Jets: LB Quincy Williams left in the second half with a hand injury.

Bills: K Matt Prater aggravated a quadriceps injury in the first half.

Up next

Jets: Season over.

Bills: Open wild-card round at Jacksonville.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Monday that leader Kim Jong Un observed test-flights of hypersonic missiles and underscored the need to bolster the country’s nuclear war deterrent, as the country dials up weapons displays ahead of its major political conference.

North Korea reported on the drill a day after its neighbors said they detected multiple ballistic missile launches and accused the North of carrying out provocations. The tests came just hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed for China for a summit with President Xi Jinping.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday’s drill involving a hypersonic weapon system was meant to examine its readiness, enhance missile troops’ firepower operational skills and evaluate operational capabilities of the country’s war deterrent.

“Through today’s launching drill, we can confirm that a very important technology task for national defense has been carried out,” Kim said, according to KCNA. “We must continuously upgrade the military means, especially offensive weapon systems.”

The possession of a functioning hypersonic weapon would give North Korea an ability to penetrate the U.S. and South Korea’s missile defense shields. In past years, North Korea has performed a series of tests to acquire it, but many foreign experts question whether the tested missiles have achieved their desired speed and maneuverability during flights.

In recent weeks, North Korea test-fired what it called long-range strategic cruise missiles and new anti-air missiles and released photos showing apparent progress in the construction of its first nuclear-powered submarine.

Observers say North Korea aims to demonstrate or review its achievements on the weapons development sector ahead of the ruling Workers’ Party congress, the first of its kind in five years. Keen attention is on whether Kim would use the congress to set a new approach on relations with the U.S. and resume long-dormant talks.

North Korea’s nuclear program is expected to be discussed when Lee and Xi meet for a summit later Monday. Lee’s office earlier said he would call for China, North Korea’s major ally and economic pipeline take “a constructive role” in efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The latest launches followed Saturday’s audacious U.S. military operation that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power and brought him to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. North Korea slammed the operation, saying it again shows “the rogue and brutal nature of the U.S.”

Many experts say the U.S. operation likely leave Kim pushing to further expand his nuclear weapons capabilities that he thinks guarantees the survival of his government and state sovereignty in the face of U.S.-led hostilities.

During Sunday’s launch drill, Kim defended his push for a stronger nuclear program. “Why it is necessary is exemplified by the recent geopolitical crisis and complicated international events,” he said.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her looming ally President Nicolás Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation.

Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.

She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military. In a televised address, Rodríguez gave no indication that she would cooperate with Trump, referring to his government as “extremists.”

“The only president of Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro,” Rodríguez said, surrounded by high-ranking civilian officials and military leaders. “What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law.”

At odds with Trump

Rodríguez, a 56-year-old lawyer and politician has had a lengthy career representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

Her rise to become interim leader of the South American country came as a surprise on Saturday morning, when Trump announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in communication with Rodríguez and that the Venezuelan leader was “gracious” and would work with the American government. Rubio said Rodríguez was someone the administration could work with, unlike Maduro.

In doing so, observers said the government was effectively turning its back on the opposition movement it maintained was the winner of Venezuela’s 2024 elections just weeks before.

On Sunday, Trump’s tone shifted as Rodríguez and other Venezuelan officials continued to rail against the Trump administration and assert that they were in control of the country.

“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said of Rodríguez in an interview with The Atlantic.

That same day, Rubio asserted that he didn’t see Rodríguez and her government as “legitimate” because he said the country never held free and fair elections.

Rise to interim president

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, the interim president and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have sterling leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who was arrested for his involvement in the kidnapping of American business owner William Niehous in 1976, and later died in police custody.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S., though the interim president did face U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first term for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

Rodríguez held a number of lower level positions under Chávez’s government, but gained prominence working under Maduro to the point of being seen as his successor. She served the economic minister, foreign affairs minister, petroleum minister and others help stabilize Venezuela’s endemically crisis-stricken economy after years of rampant inflation and turmoil.

Rodríguez developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change. The interim president also presided over an assembly promoted by Maduro in response to street protests in 2017 meant to neutralize the opposition-majority legislature.

She enjoys a close relationship with the military, which has long acted as the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, said Ronal Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Venezuela Observatory of Rosario University in Bogota, Colombia.

“She has a very particular relationship with power,” he said. “She has developed very strong ties with elements of the armed forces and has managed to establish lines of dialogue with them, largely on a transactional basis.”

Future in power

It’s unclear how long Rodríguez will hold power, or how closely she will work with the Trump administration.

Geoff Ramsey, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institute, said Rodríguez’s firm tone with the Trump administration may be an attempt to “save face.” Others have noted that Maduro’s capture required some level of collaboration within the Venezuelan government.

“She can’t exactly expect to score points with her revolutionary peers if she presents herself as a patsy for U.S. interests,” Ramsey said.

Venezuela’s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever the president becomes “permanently unavailable” to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or “abandonment” of duties as declared by the National Assembly.

That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro’s predecessor, Chavez, died of cancer in 2013. However, the loyalist Supreme Court, in its decision Saturday, cited another provision of the charter in declaring Maduro’s absence a “temporary” one.

In such a scenario, there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president, an unelected position, takes over for up to 90 days — a period that can be extended to six months with a vote of the National Assembly.

In handing temporary power to Rodríguez, the Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day time limit, leading some to speculate she could try to remain in power even longer as she seeks to unite the disparate factions of the ruling socialist party while shielding it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog was injured early in the second period of the Avalanche’s game in Florida on Sunday night and needed to be helped off the ice.

Landeskog lost his footing, fell to the ice and crashed into the goalpost before coming to a stop in front of the end boards. He was down for more than a minute, getting tended to by members of the Colorado medical staff and was unable to skate off under his own power.

Landeskog helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022, then missed nearly three full years with a chronically injured right knee — one that required several procedures before he could play again. He returned for five games in last season’s playoffs, ending more than 1,000 days of waiting between games.

It was his left knee that appeared to buckle when he got hurt Sunday.

Landeskog has appeared in all 41 of Colorado’s games this season, a key part of the team’s historic start. The Avalanche entered Sunday with a 31-2-7 record and will have the second-most points through 41 games in NHL history.

There was no immediate word on the severity of Landeskog’s injury.

He has seven goals and 15 assists this season and was named to represent Sweden in next month’s Milan Cortina Olympics.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who’s next?

“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic in which he described the strategically located Arctic island as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

Asked what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, in his administration’s National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he’s made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president’s foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday’s dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s Atlantic interview heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement following Trump’s latest comments on Greenland said he has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

A stern warning to Cuba

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump on Saturday told reporters that he viewed the Cuban government as “very similar” to Venezuela.

“I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people,” Trump said.

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

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AP writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba contributed reporting.