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Alcaraz turns away Fritz to reach semifinals in Miami

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The hopes of American men’s tennis rest largely on the talented rackets of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.But a Spanish roadblock named Carlos Alcaraz is in the way – never more illustrated by the last few days at the Miami Open.Two days after routing the Australian Open semifinalist Paul, the top-ranked Alcaraz took his spectacular arsenal to the highest-ranked American man in No. 10 Fritz and blasted into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at Hard Rock Stadium.Before a packed crowd that included John McEnroe and was split in support, Alcaraz broke Fritz’s serve in the first game. He used that one break to squeak out the first set and finished the match in tidy 1 hour, 18 minutes. Alcaraz faced just two break points and turned away both chances as he improved his match record to 18-1 in 2023.“I took the opportunity of every break point I had,” the Spaniard said. “I was solid and aggressive at the same time.”This was the first meeting between the two and ...

Tkachuk has hat trick in Panthers’ 5-2 win over Canadiens

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

MONTREAL (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk had his fifth career hat trick and one assist to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.With his second goal, Tkachuk became the fourth player in NHL history to have 100 or more points in consecutive seasons after changing teams in the offseason. He joined Wayne Gretzky (1987-88, 1988-89), Jimmy Carson (1987-88, 1988-89) and Mike Rogers (1980-81, 1981-82) in achieving the feat.Anton Lundell added two goals and one assist and Alex Lyon made 18 saves while helping the Panthers to its second win in a row and a season series sweep of Montreal.Sean Farrell scored his first career goal and Rafael Harvey-Pinard had a goal for the Canadiens, who dropped their second in a row. Sam Montembeault made 25 saves.Farrell opened the scoring 1:23 into the first period when the rookie took a shot from along the boards that was mishandled by Lyon and went in.Lundell tied it at 4:09 with his 11th of the season after Monte...

Scientists investigating health effects of airborne toxin from blue-green algae

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

It’s a tiny, microscopic plant, but it’s packed with toxins that could have a huge impact on our health, and right here in South Florida, the work is underway to see how blue-green algae might be impacting two of our most vital organs. 7’s Kevin Ozebek has tonight’s 7 Investigates.This unique deep freeze is the UM Miller School of Medicine’s “Brain Bank,” and Dr. David Davis is on a mission to see if some of the human brains stored here contain traces of a specific toxin.Dr. David Davis, UM Miller School of Medicine: “Toxins can easily gain a foothold into the brain just by smelling.”The toxin he’s searching for is called BMA.It’s just one of the toxins produced by common, canal-clogging blue-green algae.Kevin Ozebek: “We know that this algae is here. Do we need to take precautions if we live on the water and see a bloom?”Dr. David Davis: “I think so.”And this is the reason why: for the first time, Dr. Davis examined ...

How to become an MP

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Stitcher .st0{fill:#EB8A23;} .st1{fill:#FAC617;} .st2{fill:#612368;} .st3{fill:#3792C4;} .st4{fill:#C33727;} Acast In the week Jeremy Corbyn was blocked from running again as a Labour MP, host Aggie Chambre takes a look at the secretive world of MPs’ selections — and learns how insidery cliques, funding ...

No sex please, we’re British tourists in Amsterdam

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.Terrible news for the summer holiday plans of the Friends of Boris Johnson Association … Amsterdam no longer wants rowdy British tourists.The authorities in the Dutch city, famous for its easy access to drugs and sex and absolutely nothing else (the Rijksmuseum? Never heard of it!), have had enough of badly behaved groups and launched a campaign to encourage them to go somewhere else instead. People who Google terms such as “stag party Amsterdam,” “cheap hotel Amsterdam” or “pub crawl Amsterdam” ahead of a visit to the Dutch city will have to sit through short videos stressing “the risks and consequences of nuisance and excessive alcohol and drug use,” the city of Amsterdam said in a statement. “Cheap hotel Amsterdam” seems a particularly harsh search term to target seeing as the average price of an overnight stay in the city is one signed Vermeer. “Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night + getting trashed = €140 fine + c...

UK Tory MPs accused of plotting ‘chicken runs’ to safer seats

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

LONDON — In his 2019 election victory speech, Boris Johnson thanked first-time Tory voters for putting their “sacred trust” in the Conservative Party.“Your hand may have quivered over the ballot paper before you put your cross in the Conservative box,” Johnson told voters in former Labour strongholds. “I am humbled that you have put your trust in me and you have put your trust in us. I, and we, will never take your support for granted.”Three years later, senior Tories are concerned that with polling showing the opposition Labour Party on course for a landslide victory, MPs in those landmark but now vulnerable Red Wall seats are considering fleeing to safer ground.Changes to the U.K. constituency map mean politicians of all stripes are scrambling to claim and reclaim territories ahead of an election due by the end of 2024. A few MPs are forced to hunt for new seats because the boundaries of their current ones are being substantially redrawn. But half a dozen or more are using minor c...

There ought to be no hiding place for Putin

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

Aarif Abraham is a British barrister and a member of Garden Court North Chambers and Accountability Unit in London.The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime of unlawfully deporting children to Russia is a historic moment for intentional criminal justice. It is only the third time the ICC has issued indicative charges against a serving head of state, and the first time against that of a U.N. Security Council member.The warrant starts a process that runs in parallel with another first — the initiative to create a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression as allegedly being committed in Ukraine. It would be the first aggression-focused tribunal since Nuremberg and Tokyo, which prosecuted axis-power leaders after World War II. If created, such a tribunal could prosecute senior military and political leaders for what the 1946 Nuremberg judgment called the “supreme international crime.” Why? Because had the manife...

Republic of Radev: Bulgaria’s impasse empowers its elusive president

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

SOFIA — Bulgaria’s fifth general election in two years on Sunday is unlikely to break the country’s long-running political deadlock, meaning that the enigmatic president, Rumen Radev, is once again likely to be the main winner on the night. Bulgarian presidents usually only play a largely ceremonial role, but the utter disarray among parliamentary parties in the past two years means the former MiG-29 pilot and head of the air force now plays an outsize role in appointing technocratic caretaker administrations — with major repercussions for the NATO country’s foreign policy during the Ukraine war. But what’s his agenda? Anti-corruption fighter, or pro-Russian stooge? He’s a slippery, versatile personality to pin down, but no one doubts the 59-year-old’s ambition to stick around and pull the strings. He was little known before he burst onto the scene and won the presidential election in 2016, nominated by the Socialists, the successors of the former...

Inside the deal: How Britain joined CPTPP

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

LONDON — It was all meant to happen in early March.Negotiators from the 11 nations that make up the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) gathered on the palm-lined Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc with their U.K. counterparts, led by Britain’s chief negotiator Graham Zebedee, for a week-long summit. After 18 months of talks, the U.K. was on the verge of becoming the trade bloc’s first new member since its formation in 2018.CPTPP nations had watched with concern the long-running dispute between the U.K. and the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol on post-Brexit trading arrangements. But with the replacement Windsor Framework unveiled amid much fanfare on February 27 — just in time for the first day of talks — everything was falling into place for an agreement in principle on U.K. accession.But at the 11th hour, an issue that had lingered throughout the negotiations burst to the fore.Britain had already agreed to liberalize tariffs on beef and s...

Why Britain’s Pacific trade deal is about more than just trade

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:17:32 GMT

LONDON — The U.K.’s accession to an 11-strong Pacific trade pact is about much more than just whisky tariffs and beef imports. It’s about post-Brexit Britain’s place in a 21st century dominated by the rise of China.Formally announced in the early hours of Friday morning, Britain’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is being touted as the U.K.’s biggest trade achievement since leaving the EU in January 2020.But experts and government officials say the diplomatic benefits of U.K. membership are likely to far outweigh the economic upsides of joining the £9 trillion GDP Pacific trading bloc. London already has free-trade deals with nine of its 11 members, and the U.K. government’s own studies state CPTPP membership will not compensate for the post-Brexit fall in trade with its closest neighbor, the EU.Indeed, the move can be seen as just the latest piece in Britain’s 21st century foreign policy jigsaw, as set out in the go...