With 25 seconds left on the clock in Super Bowl XLIX, the Seattle Seahawks were half a yard from winning the game, with probably the best running back in the NFL. On second down, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson... threw the ball, and the Patriots intercepted, ending the game. Seattle coach Pete Carroll was quick to accept the blame for that call, but he explained after the game that the Seahawks weren't trying to win the game with that pass, just run down the clock.

The Patriots put in some big players to stop the rush, "so on second down, we throw the ball really to kind of waste that play — if we score, we do; if not then we'll run in it on third or fourth down," Carroll explained. "We were going to run in the ball to win the game, just not on that down." Marshawn Lynch never got his chance, and Carroll will be remembered for one of the worst calls in Super Bowl history. You can watch Carroll gamely eat crow, and Carroll and Wilson give credit due to Patriots interceptor Malcolm Butler, below. —Peter Weber

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is not afraid to enforce Congress' mask mandate — and encourage some basic common sense.

Continuing his reputation for calling out his colleagues for not wearing masks, Brown on Thursday turned his attention to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). When Paul made a request to keep a vote to just 10 minutes, Brown responded with an unrelated objection: "I would like to ask Senator Paul, in front of everybody, to start wearing a mask on the Senate floor like the entire staff does all the time." "I wish Senator Paul would show the respect to his colleagues to wear a mask," he continued.

Brown also got into a dispute with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) after asking the senator to put on a mask back in November. Video of that led Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to call Brown an "ass" for demanding Sullivan wear a mask "when nobody is remotely near him" — even though a Senate staffer's head is clearly visible in front of Sullivan in video of the incident.

Since Brown's brush with Sullivan, President Biden has mandated masks be worn on all federal property, including the Capitol building. Kathryn Krawczyk

As he promised before taking office, President Biden announced his intention Thursday to raise the U.S.'s refugee cap.

During a speech full of foreign policy announcements, Biden said he would raise the limit on the number of refugees the U.S. can accept to 125,000. But that won't happen until the beginning of the next fiscal year, and the U.S. will have a large backlog of refugees to contend with once admissions reopen again.

Former President Donald Trump chipped away at the refugee cap throughout his presidency, taking it to a historic low of 15,000 admissions by the time he left office. That cap was set before the start of the 2020-21 fiscal year and will remain in place until October. Biden's cap will meanwhile be larger than former President Barack Obama's highest cap of 110,000 during the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Total refugee admissions during Trump's administration often came well under his limits; The U.S. accepted 11,000 refugees in 2019-20, when the cap was 18,000, for example. As of last September, 120,000 refugees were awaiting resettlement in the U.S. It'll take a long time to work through that backlog, as well as to rebuild the U.S.'s immigration system and processes that had atrophied under Trump. Kathryn Krawczyk

Former President Donald Trump's legal team is dismissing a request for him to testify under oath as part of his upcoming Senate trial.

House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Thursday demanded Trump testify "either before or during the Senate impeachment trial" set to begin next week, in which he has been charged with inciting an insurrection at the Capitol building. But in a response on Thursday, Trump's lawyers Bruce Castor Jr. and David Schoen dismissed Raskin's letter as a "public relations stunt," contending it "confirms" that "you cannot prove your allegations" against the former president. Castor further confirmed to NBC News Trump doesn't plan to testify in the trial.

Trump is facing a charge of incitement of insurrection over his role in the deadly riot at the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Raskin in his Thursday letter wrote that Trump must testify in light of his disputing of "factual allegations" against him, adding that "while a sitting president might raise concerns about distractions from their official duties, that concern is obviously inapplicable here."

Prior to this statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he hopes Trump doesn't testify in the trial, saying, "I don't think that would be of anybody's interest," per The Washington Post. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) also told NBC News it's a "terrible idea." When asked why, he responded, "Have you met President Trump?" Brendan Morrow

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would halt support of Saudi Arabia's offensive military operations in Yemen, where the war has caused a gigantic humanitarian emergency on top of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden will also reportedly appoint experienced diplomat Timothy Lenderking as special envoy to Yemen.

It remains to be seen exactly how this will play out, but as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted in a statement, it looks like the start of a diplomatic push to get Saudi Arabia to end the brutal war in which it has been bogged down since 2015, obtain a general ceasefire, and coordinate an international aid effort. The Saudi military basically cannot do anything without U.S. support, and any strong signals from America that it should knock it off probably will be heeded. That's especially true now that Trump is gone, and Saudi dictator Mohammad bin Salman thus faces possible recrimination for ordering the cold-blooded murder of a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, back in 2018.

It is worth noting that while Biden is reversing a Trump decision, the Yemen policy actually originated under the Obama administration. It is a marked difference from the early months of 2009, when Obama kept on George W. Bush's secretary of defense and planned for a massive troop surge in Afghanistan. Perhaps two decades of expensive, bloody, and totally unsuccessful wars are enough? Ryan Cooper

Smartmatic has a high-priced demand for Fox News and its hosts — as well as a reminder of some simple facts of life.

On Tuesday, the voting technology company filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, several of its hosts, and lawyers for former President Donald Trump. It's seeking $2.7 billion after the defendants' false claims of election fraud not only "caused irreparable damage to Smartmatic, but it contributed to an erosion of trust and civility in the country," the company alleged.

The suit targets Fox News; Fox Business hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro; and Trump-affiliated lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. And it all starts with a harsh statement of facts: "The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed."

The defendants in the case "have always known these facts," Smartmatic alleged in the suit. But because they "did not want" Biden and Harris to win, they "invented" a villain in Smartmatic and pinned false allegations of election fraud on them, the suit continued. Smartmatic provided election support in Los Angeles County — a place whose election results were never in dispute. All of these false claims "jeopardize[d] Smartmatic's survival," but also "led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol," the suit said, going on to repeatedly excoriate the defendants' alleged role in destroying faith in democracy.

Voting machine company Dominion also sued Giuliani and Powell last month after the lawyers falsely claimed the company changed Trump votes to Biden. Kathryn Krawczyk

Former President Donald Trump, a self-described "very smart guy," has outfoxed the Screen Actors Guild by resigning before the union's disciplinary committee could kick him out.

"I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!" wrote Trump in an extremely on-brand letter to SAG-AFTRA president (and former Beverly Hills, 90210 actress) Gabrielle Carteris.

The former president went on to say, "While I'm not familiar with your work, I'm very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps —" presumably Carteris is supposed to quaking in her boots at this point "— and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice — to name just a few!"

Nevertheless, SAG-AFTRA promptly responded with the shortest possible statement in response: "Thank you." Read the full letter below. Jeva Lange