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Opinion: How the science of child development can help parents stress less this holiday seasonCalifornia man accused of shipping guns, ammunition and military devices to North KoreaTrump asks US Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by January 19 while the government emphasised its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Mr Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case. The filings come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for January 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal to the Supreme Court. The brief from Mr Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office”.New coach Chris Holtmann has been tasked with rebuilding DePaul to the point where it can return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. Northern Illinois coach Rashon Burno knows what it takes to steer DePaul to the NCAAs because he was the starting point guard on the 2000 team that made the tournament -- the Blue Demons' only other NCAA appearance since 1992. Perhaps they can compare notes Saturday afternoon when Burno leads the Huskies (2-3) back to his alma mater as DePaul (5-0) hosts its sixth straight home game in Chicago. Last season, Burno's NIU squad helped accelerate DePaul's need for a new coach -- as the Huskies waltzed into Wintrust Arena and owned Tony Stubblefield's Blue Demons by an 89-79 score on Nov. 25. The Huskies built a 24-point second-half lead before coasting to the finish line. Can history repeat for NIU? There's just one problem with using last year's game as a potential barometer for Saturday's rematch: Almost no players on this year's teams were part of last year's squads. At DePaul, only assistant coach Paris Parham remains as Holtmann had the green light to bring in an all-new roster. UIC graduate transfer Isaiah Rivera (16.0 ppg, .485 3-point rate) and Coastal Carolina transfer Jacob Meyer (15.4 ppg, .406 on 3s) lead a balanced attack that focuses on getting half its shots from beyond the arc. At NIU, Burno retained only two players who competed against DePaul last year -- Ethan Butler and Oluwasegun Durosinmi -- and they combined for three points in 26 minutes in that game. The Huskies' main players used the transfer portal to join such programs as Kansas, Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado State, James Madison, Georgia State and Niagara. With every starting job open, Butler has jumped into the lineup and produced 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game. Transfers Quentin Jones (Cal Poly) and James Dent (Western Illinois) pace the Huskies with 14.4 and 14.0 points per game. NIU is on a two-game losing streak, most recently a 75-48 home defeat at the hands of Elon on Wednesday. Holtmann hopes to have Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker for Saturday's game. Blocker missed Tuesday's 78-69 win over Eastern Illinois with a quad injury. With the combo guard unavailable, point guard Conor Enright handed out a career-high 11 assists in a season-high 38 minutes. "We need (Blocker)," Holtmann said. "I don't want to play Conor 38 minutes." --Field Level Media
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SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was fully aware of and actively participated in a coup plot to remain in office after his defeat in the 2022 election , according to a Federal Police report unsealed Tuesday. Federal Police last Thursday formally accused Bolsonaro and 36 other people of attempting a coup. They sent their 884-page report to the Supreme Court, which lifted the seal. The unsealed document provides a first glimpse of several testimonies that describe the former president as one of the key leaders of the plot, and not a mere observer. “The evidence collected throughout the investigation shows unequivocally that then-President Jair Messias Bolsonaro planned, acted and was directly and effectively aware of the actions of the criminal organization aiming to launch a coup d’etat and eliminate the democratic rule of law, which did not take place due to reasons unrelated to his desire,” the document said. At another point, it says: “Bolsonaro had full awareness and active participation.” Bolsonaro, who had repeatedly alleged without evidence that the country's electronic voting system was prone to fraud, called a meeting in December 2022, during which he presented a draft decree to the commanders of the three divisions of the armed forces, according to the police report, signed by four investigators. The decree would have launched an investigation into suspicions of fraud and crimes related to the October 2022 vote, and suspended the powers of the nation's electoral court. The navy’s commander stood ready to comply, but those from the army and air force objected to any plan that prevented Lula’s inauguration, the report said. Those refusals are why the plan did not go ahead, according to witnesses who spoke to investigators. Bolsonaro never signed the decree to set the final stage of the alleged plan into action. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or awareness of any plot to keep him in power or oust his leftist rival and successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “No one is going to do a coup with a reserve general and half a dozen other officers. What is being said is absurd. For my part, there has never been any discussion of a coup,” Bolsonaro told journalists in Brazil’s capital Brasilia on Monday. “If someone came to discuss a coup with me, I’d say, that’s fine, but the day after, how does the world view us?” he added. “The word ‘coup’ has never been in my dictionary.” The top court has passed the report on to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet. He will decide whether to formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial, or toss the investigation. The former president was formally accused of three crimes: violent elimination of the rule of law, staging a coup d'etat and forming a criminal organization. Rodrigo Rios, a law professor at the PUC university in the city of Curitiba, said Bolsonaro could face up to a minimum of 11 years in prison if convicted on all charges. “A woman involved in the Jan. 8 attack on the Supreme Court received a 17-year prison sentence,” Rios told The Associated Press, noting that the former president is more likely to receive 15 years or more if convicted. “Bolsonaro’s future looks dark.” Ahead of the 2022 election, Bolsonaro repeatedly alleged that the election system, which does not use paper ballots, could be tampered with. The top electoral court later ruled that he had abused his power to cast unfounded doubt on the voting system, and ruled him ineligible for office until 2030 . Still, he has maintained that he will stand as a candidate in the 2026 race. Since Bolsonaro left office, he has been targeted by several investigations, all of which he has chalked up to political persecution. Federal Police have accused him of smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring them and directing a subordinate to falsify his and others’ COVID-19 vaccination statuses . Authorities are also investigating whether he incited the Jan. 8, 2022 riot in which his followers ransacked the Supreme Court and presidential palace in Brasilia, seeking to prompt intervention by the army that would oust Lula from power. Bolsonaro had left for the United States days before Lula’s inauguration on Jan. 1, 2023 and stayed there three months, keeping a low profile. The police report unsealed Tuesday alleges he was seeking to avoid possible imprisonment related to the coup plot, and also await the uprising that took place a week later. ___ Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro Mauricio Savarese And Eléonore Hughes, The Associated Press
QuantumArc Solutions Launches AI Adoption Framework to Empower Mid-Market BusinessesIn April, the UFC announced that for fighters that would offer more mobility and flexibility while reducing eye pokes and hand injuries. The new gloves, coined "3Eight/5Eight" (the 3Eight glove is for three-round fights, and the 5Eight gold glove for championship fights), premiered at UFC 301 in June. It marked the first time since fingerless gloves became mandatory for all fighters back in 1997 that the fight glove had evolved. "This redesign will truly be a game changer for the entire sport of MMA," UFC CEO and president Dana White said in the April statement. "These gloves will feel lighter, fit fighters' hands better, prevent injuries and provide maximum flexibility during the fights." But after five months -- 21 UFC events (pay-per-views and Fight Nights) and 10 "Dana White's Contender Series" cards -- and return to the original fingerless gloves. "The new gloves are now the old gloves," UFC CEO Dana White said in a surprise announcement ahead of UFC 309 last weekend. "You know what, there were good intentions with the new gloves. We spent a lot of time, energy and money on them. ... It didn't work out and it is what it is." The abrupt about-face came as a shocker.. Interestingly enough, the switch came just days after independent researcher and data scientist Nate Latshaw posted a detailed report demonstrating a significant drop in knockouts from when the new gloves were introduced. Comparing the knockout rate of the old gloves -- now referred to as "classic" by the UFC -- from Jan. 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024, to when the new gloves were in play from June 1 to Nov. 9, Latshaw's findings showed an 8.5% drop off in knockout rates. Between Latshaw's report gaining traction on social media and UFC heavyweight champion balking at the fit and feel of the new gloves ahead of his fight with at UFC 309, the timing of the announcement felt like a little more than a coincidence. "The shape, the curve in your hands, they're very uncomfortable for me," Jones said last week in New York. "I was actually really stressed thinking, 'How am I going to go into fight week wearing these gloves that I don't even really want to train in?'" When the switch was announced, several UFC fighters breathed a sigh of relief over the promotion reversing course. "When I first got the new gloves, I didn't like them," lightweight told ESPN. "I think they look and felt cheap. The material was not very good, and I didn't like the design." Moicano had one of his best performances with the new gloves, a decisive TKO victory over in September. The fight was stopped due to a doctor's intervention. "I was thinking to myself, 'This is a bad glove,' and then I had an awesome performance," Moicano said. "Maybe it actually was the glove? I don't know. But I don't think it affected my performance at all." Women's flyweight contender echoed Moicano's assessment of the gloves feeling "cheap." "I wasn't opposed to the new gloves when they announced they were coming, but when I saw them, I didn't like how they looked," Blanchfield said. "I didn't like the design, and the colors looked tacky and cheap. They looked like something you can buy from a sporting goods store." Blanchfield, who relies heavily on her wrestling and grappling, found that the gloves felt restrictive and affected her grip during her unanimous decision victory over earlier this month. "It felt harder to close my hands because the fingers were so tight," she said. While Blanchfield eventually broke in the new gloves during training, she was issued a new pair ahead of her fight. "I had my cornermen working on the gloves the entire time in the locker room," Blanchfield said. "Just pulling at them, stretching them out, really trying to loosen them up for me. They literally had to make a tool that everyone in the locker room passed around to loosen up the fingers." Strawweight , who lost a decision to in the new gloves in August, said they "felt like having memory foam wrapped around your fist." "I hated them at first," Hill said. "But after training in them for a while, I didn't mind them as much. They are way thinner and aren't formed at all. The old gloves had more of a natural curve to them." The restrictive feel that Hill and Blanchfield are referring to was originally installed to prevent fighters from extending their fingers and committing eye-poke fouls. But both said that the intent didn't match the outcome. "I don't think they did anything for eye pokes," Hill said. "Until you break them in, it's harder to make a closed fist." What about the decrease in knockouts? Latshaw, a data scientist with a focus on quantitative analysis in MMA, noted that the research didn't include the variety of ways to obtain a knockout. "I continue to caution against drawing any particularly strong conclusions from the data," Latshaw told ESPN. "I'm looking at all knockdowns and all knockouts, which is really not a good way to study the impact of the gloves because I'm including knockouts and knockdowns that come from head kicks, elbows, knees, things like that where the gloves aren't impactful." While the old gloves are now back in play, it doesn't mean the "new" gloves are gone forever...yet. A UFC spokesperson told ESPN that "some fighters may still be wearing the new gloves in upcoming events while UFC re-stocks its inventory of the classic gloves." According to White, fighters will use the "classic" gloves at UFC 310 on Dec. 7. "They tried a new idea, and it ended up being a mistake, so they decided to go back to the old gloves once they saw the gloves weren't working out," Moicano said. "That's better than to keep trying to push a glove on us that everyone hates. This is what was good for business. "I don't know if we'll ever get the perfect glove, but I hope they keep trying."
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ATHENS, Ga. — This one’s going to hurt for a while. Ahead by 17 points at the half, by 14 with four minutes left in regulation, Georgia Tech tasted the most bitter of defeats. And instead of sweet, sweet victory over a most hated rival, instead of stunning a national power for whom a win Friday was widely assumed, the Yellow Jackets and their fan base once again have only heartbreak. What if Tech could have converted a fourth-and-1 (or a third-and-1) from the Georgia 25 early on? What if the Jackets hadn’t missed a 25-yard field-goal attempt in the second quarter? What if the Tech defense could have made only one play to stop any of Georgia’s three fourth-quarter touchdown drives? What if the Jackets could have converted a first down after taking possession of the ball with 3:33 left in regulation and leading 27-20? What if Tech could have scored on either of the two overtime periods when it had the ball second after a failed Bulldogs attempt and could have ended the game with a successful two-point conversion? What if, what if, what if? No. 7 Georgia 44, Georgia Tech 42, eight overtimes. For the seventh consecutive meeting, the Jackets fell to their in-state rivals, this time in a fashion that was like a gut punch followed by a kick to the face and finished off with strangers barking loudly in their face. But what ought not be forgotten in such a crushing defeat was the incontrovertible evidence that Tech has become a team to be reckoned with — in college football, in the ACC and undoubtedly in the state of Georgia. It took Georgia, a national championship contender playing in front of its vaunted home crowd — where it hadn’t lost in its past 30 games — eight overtimes to survive its archrival’s upset attempt. Only once in college football history have two teams played more overtimes, a nine-overtime game between Illinois and Penn State in 2021. That was the degree to which Georgia and Tech were evenly matched. This at the end of a regular season in which the Jackets beat two top-10 teams, won more regular-season games (seven) than they had won since 2018 and earned back-to-back bowl bids for the first time since their 18-year bowl streak ended in the 2015 season. If Georgia goes on to win the national title, the Bulldogs and their fan base will have to look upon that late November night at Sanford Stadium and feel thankful (and perhaps lucky) that the Jackets didn’t have one more play in them. It was so, so close. Entering the game as 17-point underdogs, the Yellow Jackets took control of the game from the start. They drove into Georgia territory on their first five possessions, twice scoring touchdowns, while forcing two punts, a turnover, a fourth-down stop and a missed field-goal attempt in Georgia’s first five times with the ball. They led 17-0 at the half, the first time the Bulldogs had been held scoreless through halftime since 2019. If anyone had doubted Tech’s capacity to take down the Bulldogs before kickoff, the time for disbelief had passed. Tech continued to control the game into the third quarter, with the Jackets answering two Georgia touchdown drives with a field goal and a touchdown. Quarterback Haynes King, his right (throwing) shoulder in much better health than it had been in Tech’s previous two games when his passing ability was severely limited, was at his gritty playmaking best. When he ran in a keeper from 11 yards out that (along with an Aidan Birr point-after try) put the Jackets up 27-13 with 5:37 to play in regulation, it seemed safe for Tech fans to start to celebrate. Indeed, Georgia fans began to leave Sanford Stadium, their expectations of victory dashed. But, as is the history of this one-sided rivalry, the talented Bulldogs had the final say. Georgia drove 75 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 27-20 with 3:39 left in the fourth quarter, then forced a fumble out of King on a fateful third-and-1 carry from the Tech 31. It followed another “what if?” — a King pass to receiver Abdul Janneh on second-and-13 in which Janneh was forced out of bounds just shy of the marker. Georgia exploited the mistake and tied the score with a 32-yard touchdown drive that finished with 1:01 left in the fourth quarter. In the wildest back-and-forth struggle in overtime, Georgia and Tech could not be separated, stuck to each other like magnets bound by titanium and sealed in a vacuum. Seven overtimes could not yield a winner. The two teams matched touchdowns and extra points (first overtime), then touchdowns and failed mandatory two-point tries (second overtime), then failed two-point conversion tries (third and fourth overtimes), then successful conversions (fifth overtime), then failed conversions (sixth and seventh overtimes). The seventh had a now-or-never feel for the Jackets. Going first, Georgia was stopped on a Carson Beck keeper when the Bulldogs borrowed from the Tech playbook with a fake toss by Beck and a run up the middle, a King staple. He was stopped short by safety Omar Daniels. Tech could now win with a conversion from the 3-yard line. Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner dug deep from his own cache of plays, lining up both offensive tackles and both guards near the sideline. The resulting pass play yielded a pass interference against Georgia and now the Jackets had the ball at the 1 1/2-yard line. If the Jackets could just punch it in from 54 inches out, victory would be theirs. But King, carrying after a fake handoff, was tackled well short of the goal line. And in the eighth overtime, Georgia finally prevailed. King threw incomplete to receiver Eric Singleton Jr. and then Bulldogs running back Nate Frazier scored on a run up the middle. In the first minutes of Saturday morning, game (finally) over. Some Tech players walked straight to the locker room. King, who had played so valiantly, graciously wandered through the field finding Bulldogs players to congratulate before heading back to the locker room. There is one consolation for Tech and its fan base. Tech must have Georgia’s full attention now. It already had Smart’s. He has seen his colleague Key build this program and claim recruits that the Bulldogs have gone after, something that hasn’t always happened in this state. “This rivalry is good for our state, and that’s what Brent and I shared before the game and after the game,” Smart said. Where recent Tech-Georgia meetings have been so one-sided in the red team’s favor that it barely seemed like a rivalry and losses nothing to lose sleep over, that’s no longer the case. But on this cold night, that might have been about it. ©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.UN Resolution 1701 is at the heart of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal. What is it?
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