Late Late Show viewers were all left begging the same thing on Friday evening as Patrick Kielty kicked off his second Toy Show as presenter. The annual Toy Show kicked off on Friday evening, with children — and adults — across Ireland staying up later to watch the show which marks the unofficial start to Christmas. The theme for the 2024 show is Home Alone, with viewers delighted with a stunning opening number on the set which was transformed into the McAllister family’s home. The show kicked off with a miniature-sized version of the McAllister family racing through the airport with the two “parents” wondering what they forgot — it was their host, Patrick! After meeting the first of the children, viewers were then treated to another musical number with a group of children performing a brilliant rendition of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. The beloved tune was transformed to include a brilliant Irish twist which received high praise on social media. With many taking to X on Toy Show to share all their thoughts on the annual show, many were saying the exact same thing when it came to the audience who appeared to clap out of tune on both songs. last thing i was expecting was a child absoloutley SHREDDING thunderstruck #toyshow One wondered: ‘How is the ENTIRE audience clapping out of time #toyshow.’ Another begged: ‘Stop them... stop the clapping... it’s out of time... #toyshow.’ A third noted: ‘If crowd clapping out of time was an Olympic event, Ireland would win gold medals every games #ToyShow.’ Elsewhere, X was full of praise for the best opening ‘in a long time’ as Patrick transformed into a tree for the occasion. Patrick admitted that he was facing an uphill battle getting out of the tree — telling the audience ‘I have no idea how I’m getting out of here either.’ People hailed the opening, including Patrick’s incredible costume — with one person writing on Twitter (X) ‘We all know who this DIVA is.’ The #LateLateToyShow audience trying to clap along to start of Thunderstruck 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/sUS4ZvdBz7 Whoever told the audience to try and clap along to the beginning of thunderstruck #toyshow pic.twitter.com/azrcDYsZpk
SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green didn’t mind that microphones picked up him screaming at teammate Buddy Hield to lock in — “Wake the (expletive) up or go sit the (expletive) down!” — during the Warriors’ 109-105 win over Phoenix on Saturday night. The message was necessary in the moment, and when you say something with your chest, as Green often does, backtracking dulls your point. “Mics catch everything today, but I don’t care,” Green said at the postgame podium. “Because anything I’ll say, I’ll say it right into the mic. I don’t give a damn. It was needed.” Green’s plea came after a 24-second violation in which Green had to hoist up a grenade at the end of the possession. Hield missed a read on a post pass, which bungled Golden State’s set. In the game, Hield went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting and appeared to let his shooting struggles seep into his defense at times. A new Warrior, Hield has been streaky. In games he scores at least 18 points, the Warriors are 8-0. They’re 3-10 when he finishes in single digits. Enter Green’s admonishment. “We need Buddy Hield to play great, we need Buddy Hield to make shots,” Green said. “And we have all the confidence in the world that Buddy’s going to make shots. But we’ve got a post feed, you’ve got a 6-foot guy on you? Get the ball here. It’s simple. We’re 16-15. We don’t love this. So do we just keep doing the same thing and sit back on our hands, ‘Oh, it’s going to change at some point.’ Or do we make a change? “I know what it looks like to win. I know what it takes to win. So as a leader, it’s on you to figure out what it takes to help this team. If that’s mixing it up with a guy every now and then, if that’s yelling, then you do that.” Green and Hield have only been teammates for 31 games. The four-time champion said he’s trying to find what makes Hield tick. That requires trialing different styles of leadership. On Saturday night, he broke out the “wake the (expletive) up” method. “You have to try different methods,” Green said. “Some guys — Jonathan Kuminga, I go to, and I say, ‘This is what I need you to do, look at this this way and go do it.’ If I yell at him, I don’t think he’s going to do it. He ain’t going to listen. He’s going to get out of here. Steph, sometimes I go to him, sometimes I yell at him. He reacts to both.” Green learned from Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo that leadership requires having a feel for every individual. By connecting with everyone on a one-on-one level, the sum of the parts add up. “If you think you’re going to lead a team, you’re an idiot — you have to lead guys that make up a team,” Green said. “Leading someone doesn’t look the same as leading the next guy. You’ve got to figure out what makes guys tick, what gets a guy going. I’m still figuring that out.” Green said he and Hield went back and forth after his profanities, which he welcomes. That type of conversation is normal on a basketball court. Healthy, even. It’s important to be someone who can receive a shouting message, Green said. He noted that he had no problem with Dennis Schroder — who just joined the team two weeks ago — going at him recently. Same with Kyle Anderson. Green has always been a vocal leader, and it hasn’t always worked out for him. His infamous argument with Kevin Durant on the bench in 2018 earned him a suspension and sowed tension within the team. He recently called the Jordan Poole punch “one of my biggest failures as a vet.” But Green is generally regarded as an excellent teammate. He’s an X’s and O’s expert, competitive beast and organizational pillar. Coach Steve Kerr has raved about Green’s influence this year especially. In the third quarter against the Suns, he was just trying to get through to Hield. “To go at Buddy the way I did, we needed that in that moment,” Green said. “We’re flat, we’d just turned the ball over. Lock in.” The big-picture goal is to create a culture of accountability. Earlier this season, Kerr said the beauty of coaching Curry is that “he lets me yell at him.” During a timeout against Boston, Kerr lit into Curry for an ill-advised turnover. Curry later said he just wants to be coached like anyone else. When players like Green and Curry are fine with getting chewed out, the rest of the locker room notices. Including Hield. “I’ve happened to play in a lot of championship basketball, lot of meaningful basketball,” Green said. “Buddy hasn’t had the opportunity to play a lot of meaningful basketball in this league. Guess what? It’s our job to make sure he understands what that means. And if people don’t like it, so be it. That’s why they don’t have four championships and I do.” ©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at mercurynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Cheetah Mobile: Deep Pockets Required For Robotics, LLM App SpaceNorthern Bypass Closure: What to be repaired
Following its recent capture of major cities in Syria, the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, pledged to respect the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. Rights experts, noting the group’s extremist ideology and history of brutality, caution that these promises must be backed by tangible actions. HTS, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, along with a coalition of Turkish-backed armed groups, has in the past week seized control of Aleppo, Hama and dozens of surrounding towns in northwest Syria amid a complete collapse of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Shortly after capturing Aleppo, which has significant Kurdish and Christian populations, HTS issued statements reassuring both minority groups that they would be protected under its rule. HTS leaders have also met with representatives of Aleppo’s Christian community. Rights groups acknowledge that such statements are a positive step but highlight HTS’s poor human rights record in areas it has governed in recent years, particularly in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. “As we watch the HTS-led opposition coalition liberate areas that have been under the Assad regime, we have so far seen the protection of religious and ethnic minorities,” said Nadine Maenza, president of the Washington-based International Religious Freedom Secretariat. “We pray that continues, as HTS has a troubling history of governing under a harsh version of Islamic law in Idlib,” she told VOA. HTS, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, is a Sunni Islamist group that has been a major actor in Syria’s 13-year conflict. It was the main affiliate of al-Qaida in Syria until 2017, when it formally severed ties with the global terror group. According to The CIA World Factbook , Sunni Muslim Arabs make up 50% of Syria’s nearly 24 million population, while Alawites, Kurds and Christians make up 45%. The remaining percentage comes from Druze, Ismaili and other ethnic and religious groups. In an interview with CNN that aired Friday, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani admitted that “there were some violations against them [minorities] by certain individuals during periods of chaos, but we addressed these issues.” “No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them,” he said. 'Time will tell' Hadeel Oueis, a Washington-based Syrian journalist, noted a sense of caution and anticipation among the various communities now living under HTS rule. “I have been speaking with members of my family in Aleppo, and there seems to be [a] degree of self-control not only toward Christians but also Alawites and other groups,” Oueis, who is a Syriac Christian, told VOA by phone. “Only time will tell if HTS is truly committed to changing and presenting a different image of itself to both Syrians and the international community,” she said. Experts say that while HTS has demonstrated a degree of tolerance toward minorities with no significant abuses reported in recent days, rights groups should closely monitor the actions of its allied rebel factions. Izzadin Saleh, executive director of the Synergy Association for Victims in Syria, said his group has documented violations committed by the Syrian National Army, or SNA, a coalition of Turkish-backed Islamist militias, against Kurdish residents in other parts of Aleppo province. The SNA was established in 2017 with Turkey’s support. The umbrella organization previously took part in two Turkish-backed offensives against Kurdish forces in 2018 and 2019. Some groups aligned with the SNA have been known for their radical Islamist ideology. Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division, two main factions within the SNA, for “serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region of northern Syria.” Saleh told VOA by phone that “SNA’s rhetoric explicitly incites violence against the Kurds in particular,” adding that “they are accusing all Kurdish residents of being terrorists.” Maenza of the IRF Secretariat also stated that SNA militias have targeted Kurds, Christians and Yazidis, particularly those from the Shahba region of Aleppo. Experts say all parties involved in crimes and rights abuses in the Syrian conflict must be held accountable when the country reaches a permanent political settlement. “If the Syrian war has taught us anything, it is that the Syrian regime is not the only party that has committed horrific crimes against civilians; other groups have equally – and at times even worse – perpetrated crimes in areas they have captured from the regime,” said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of the Paris-based advocacy group Syrians for Truth and Justice. "It is important to ensure there is a comprehensive path to accountability in the post-conflict era,” he said.