CINCINNATI (AP) — Coach Zac Taylor addressed the trade deadline deal that fell through for the Cincinnati Bengals, speaking Wednesday for “apologetic” director of player personnel Duke Tobin.
The Bengals were set to deal a sixth-round pick for Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Arnold Ebiketie on Tuesday. It turned out that if the Bengals would have made the move, they likely would have lost a 2027 third-round compensatory draft pick.
“As we got into it, obviously it was going to be a little more costly than we initially anticipated,” Taylor said. “(Tobin) wants to make clear Philly was a great trade partner. It was on our end, and that’s just the way things go. But we certainly have a ton of confidence in our front office and how they do things, and they’ve given us the players that have allowed us to be 6-2 right now and play at such a high level. So we’ll put that behind us and move forward, and just get excited for this game on Sunday.”
Tobin was not made available to the media.
Taylor said he spent most of trade deadline day on Tuesday preparing for this week’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I probably took three minutes of my day yesterday away from watching tape,” Taylor said. “I’ve got a lot of faith in how those guys operate, and we’ll just move forward with it.”
While the Bengals did not make a trade, their biggest competitors in the AFC did. The Kansas City Chiefs added wide receiver Josh Downs, the Buffalo Bills traded for safety Amani Hooker, the Jacksonville Jaguars added defensive tackle Jordan Davis and safety Jessie Bates III and the Denver Broncos traded for linebacker Daiyan Henley.
“I really like where we’re at,” Taylor said about the Bengals. “I think Duke really likes where we’re at, and I think you talk to players in the locker room, they really like where we’re at. So this is a team with a lot of confidence right now.”
Without Ebiketie on the roster, the Bengals will continue to have Cedric Johnson and Shemar Stewart playing notable roles in their defensive end room. Stewart, the Bengals’ first-round pick in 2025, stepped into the rotation two weeks ago when Cashius Howell went on the injured reserve list with a wrist injury.
“I have to know everyone’s assignment,” Stewart said last week. “I play everywhere, so I have to know everything. There’s a lot of verbiage. A lot of checks. A lot of things I have to remember and stay on top of. If I come in here and work, everything will work itself out.”
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Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor gestures during a press conference before an NFL football practice in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said law enforcement found no concrete threat during checks of thousands of school buildings that were evacuated Wednesday after an emailed bomb threat, the latest in a series of disruptions affecting European institutions following recent hoaxes aimed at airlines and broadcasters.
Schools in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland received similar threats, but no evacuations were reported.
“Whoever is sending them wants our fear, lost days, suspicion and chaos,” Meloni said in a video message, following a meeting with her Cabinet, secret services and cybersecurity experts. Italian law enforcement was working with its European counterparts to identify the source of the threats, she said.
The Italian Education Ministry said the email threat was received by over 6,300 schools, but it was not immediately known how many had been evacuated.
The anonymous email also threatened Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media, including the LaPresse news agency. She did not address the personal threat in her statement, and her office had no immediate comment.
The email purported to come from the leader of an otherwise unknown group and contained particularly violent threats. It was signed with the same name used in last week’s threats against European broadcasters.
Authorities have not attributed the threats to any group or state, and no evidence has emerged linking the hoaxes to a government.
Police in Northern Ireland said they were conducting “urgent inquiries” after a threatening email was sent to hundreds of schools. Police in Scotland said they were treating similar messages as hoaxes and were not requiring schools to evacuate.
“Our assessment remains that they do not represent a credible threat,” Police Scotland said.
Police in Ireland also said they were aware of a “generic communication” sent to several educational institutions.
“These are very delicate considerations, because there is always the risk that there is someone else behind the madman,” Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told reporters. “Given that so many schools are involved, the real risk is almost non-existent.”
At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students poured into the streets, mistaking the alarm for the recess bell. They learned of the bomb threat only after they were outside.
“They are saying it was a bomb alert because an email arrived from Russian hackers in which they said they would have killed everyone. It was pretty violent,” said Anita Bartocci, an 18-year-old student.
Bomb threats targeted dozens of flights across Europe last week, following a string of hoaxes that forced flight diversions and left airlines scrambling to keep passengers safe and minimize disruption.
False bomb threats are relatively common, but so many in such a short period are unusual. No suspicious items were found and no one was injured. Still, the threats raised concerns because they followed other disruptions across Europe, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the emailed threats were aimed at “sowing terror, or creating concern.”
“It’s too easy. Any one of us can use the available means and instruments to send an email to a school, a daycare, an airline, saying that there’s a bomb,” Crosetto told reporters at an event Wednesday.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday that his personal data had been leaked to the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers.
The company overseeing construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will connect Austria and Italy, also said over the weekend that it had been hacked last month.
Pan Pylas in London, Trisha Thomas and Giulia Arbarello in Rome contributed.
Police officer stands outside Bacone primary school after students were evacuated following a bomb threat in Milan, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Police officers stand outside Bacone primary school after students were evacuated following a bomb threat in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
EDITORS AND LIBRARIANS: KILL FROM YOUR SYSTEMS AND ARCHIVES PHOTO XPAG303 (ID: 26315427412094) SLUGGED ITALY SCHOOLS AND TRANSMITTED ON NOV. 11, 2026. THE SOURCE PIXELATED SOME FACES IN THE IMAGE. The IOMS institute has been evacuated on a precautionary basis after the Bomb alarm at schools in Milan, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)
EDITORS AND LIBRARIANS: KILL FROM YOUR SYSTEMS AND ARCHIVES PHOTO XPAG301 (ID: 26315420827475) SLUGGED ITALY SCHOOLS AND TRANSMITTED ON NOV. 11, 2026. THE SOURCE PIXELATED SOME FACES IN THE IMAGE. Students from the Matteotti Pellico institute are evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)
The IOMS institute has been evacuated on a precautionary basis after the Bomb alarm at schools in Milan, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)
Students from the Matteotti Pellico institute are evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026 (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)
A police officer stands in front of the Matteotti Pellico institute as students get evacuated due to a bomb threat across all school sites in Turin, Italy, Nov. 11, 2026. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)
