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Authorities in Pakistan launch operation to clear Khan supporters from capitalHouston Astros welcome 1B Christian Walker to team; say negotiations with Bregman stalledTORONTO — Everything changed for Kia Nurse when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 WNBA playoffs. The basketball star from Hamilton was locked in as starter for a team in the semifinals. She’d been selected as an all-star just two years prior. But in one awkward fall three years ago, she was plunged into the depths of surgery and rehab. Nurse would miss the entire 2022 season due to the injury. She signed with the Seattle Storm for the 2023 campaign before a trade landed her with the Los Angeles Sparks last season. Meanwhile, Nurse represented Canada at the Paris Olympics in August, but she struggled as the team failed to reach the knockout round for the second straight time. The common thread throughout Nurse’s recent basketball journey? She just hasn’t quite felt like herself. “I still love basketball with all of my heart, and it's my favourite thing that I get to do. And I'm so privileged to be able to say that I get to do it as a job,” Nurse said. "But the last two years for me have been just really rocky, up and down.” Nurse, 28, will become a WNBA free agent as of Feb. 1. For now, she’s continuing her Raptors broadcast work with TSN and, on Monday, announced a new playing gig. In February, Nurse will join fellow WNBAers Alysha Clark and Sydney Colson among 37 others for Athletes Unlimited’s third basketball season in Nashville. Athletes Unlimited was founded as a women’s professional softball league in 2020 before expanding to basketball, volleyball and lacrosse. Its 24-game hoops campaign switches teams weekly and concludes by crowning a season-long individual champion. Players earn points through a fantasy-style system that rewards team successes like wins as well as individual accomplishments from made three-pointers to steals to drawn fouls. Outside of the unique scoring system, the game looks like traditional basketball — a major appeal to Nurse as she attempts to tap back into her roots. “I am not proud of my performance at the Olympics and not necessarily proud of how I’ve been playing over the last two years. I just have goals of finding my true love of the game and kind of coming back and being stronger physically, being more fit and just ultimately having a good year,” Nurse said. When Nurse’s career began in 2018, many WNBA players would ply their trade overseas during the off-season as a way of staying in shape and making additional money. But over the past half-decade — and perhaps expedited by Brittney Griner’s 2022 detainment in Russia — more options have emerged stateside, including Athletes Unlimited. “The (WNBA) now has a lot of the teams that have practice facilities, so they have full-time player development, practice-facility access and that's a big piece as well. But now ultimately we have these leagues at home like AU,” Nurse said. Athletes Unlimited will not be the only professional women’s basketball operation in North America this winter. A three-on-three league called Unrivaled, founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will tip off in January in Miami. Nurse said Unrivaled was an option for her, but she preferred Athletes Unlimited. “I wanted a place where I'm happy with basketball again, really happy with myself and how I'm playing and a having a little more confidence boost from what I've had over these last two years. And I feel like AU, for me, that five-on-five setting was a big piece of it,” Nurse said. The timing of the Athletes Unlimited schedule — deep enough into the WNBA off-season but with enough leeway to fine tune things before the 2025 campaign begins — also stood out to Nurse. Ahead of AU, Nurse said she moved her training from Toronto to Hamilton, where she could stay closer to home and avoid the long highway drives. And following two seasons in which Nurse’s WNBA teams suffered a combined 61 losses, she’s hoping to find a landing spot in free agency with a winning franchise. “I want to ... have an opportunity make a deep playoff run, be kind of like an X-Factor player, somebody who can go out there, be a three-and-D player, can help make winning plays,” she said. Nurse said she and fellow WNBA veteran Bridget Carleton have discussed what went wrong in Paris and how it can be fixed ahead of Los Angeles 2028. Management changes have already occurred with the retirement of GM Denise Dignard and a mutual parting with head coach Victor Lapena. The national team recently met up in Toronto for an informal training camp where Nurse and Carleton aimed to lay the groundwork for the culture they hope to create over the next four years. “Getting back to the basics and just enjoying playing for Canada Basketball, but also creating a really strong, bonded culture where everybody does what they need to do for our team to win," she said. "We understand our roles (and) we understand the commitment piece of it because now there's so much going on and people are all over the place." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2024. Myles Dichter, The Canadian Press
By Lauren Beavis An adorable little donkey named Wonder has received a new prosthetic leg to help her stand and walk - just in time for Christmas. Wonder was born with two deformed hooves leaving her unable to stand or walk. But since being fitted with a specialist prosthesis, the young mule is now able to walk "better than ever before". At a young age, she was admitted to Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire in the Netherlands - a center for neglected, abused, confiscated, sick or old donkeys . Wonder the donkey with its new leg. ( When veterinarians at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ghent University heard about Wonder's condition, they got in touch with Wesley Michiels from Pet Orthopedics - a company that makes prostheses and braces for animals. Wesley Michiels, head of Pet Orthopedics , said: "The vets contacted us and explained that they wanted to amputate the leg - asking us how they could best go about it to ensure that the donkey would be able to walk again with a view to a prosthesis. "We were on site for about three weeks to carry out the measurements on Wonder." As the vets amputated her little hooves - the orthopedics were able to fit a prosthetic leg that grows as Wonder does. (Pet Orthopedics via SWNS) Wesley said: "The cooperation results in a perfect amputation stump so that the prosthetic device also fits perfectly. "Wonder is still a little donkey who still has to grow in the future, so the prosthesis is adaptive so we can adjust it when she grows. "In the beginning, she has to learn how to use the leg more - but with the prosthetic device she is now already walking better than before." (Pet Orthopedics via SWNS) Wesley says he has worked with donkeys before - but a full prosthesis for the species was a new task for him. He added the new technology has helped many species - from alpacas to dogs and now donkeys . Wesley said: "In the past, the legs of animals were completely amputated up to the shoulder or up to the hip for a problem with toes for example - then sometimes you couldn't do anything with one leg. "But now many vets first call us to ask for advice about the amputation, so that we can put a prosthesis afterwards."
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On Saturday, the No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers will face off against the No, 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in a highly-anticipated Big Ten matchup. Though this is one of the best games of the Week 13 college football slate, the top-5 contest will not be played under the lights in a primetime slot. Because Fox Sports selected Indiana vs. Ohio State as its "Big Noon Kickoff" game of the week, the game is scheduled to kickoff at noon EST from Ohio Stadium. This decision sparked controversy around the college football world, especially among supporters of the No. 2 Buckeyes. The Ohio State faithful are tired of their marquee matchups taking place at 11 a.m. local time. Despite "Big Noon Kickoff's" decision to make the trip to Columbus on Saturday, ESPN's "College GameDay" also chose Indiana vs. Ohio State as its featured game of the week. When speaking to reporters on Friday, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit subtly referenced Fox Sports' decision to broadcast this top-5 matchup. With ESPN no longer included in the Big Ten's TV deal, Herbstreit doesn't get to call as many Ohio State games as he used to. He's happy that ESPN picked Indiana vs. Ohio State as its featured game, despite Fox Sports' rights to broadcast the contest. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images “Selfishly, I always want to come back to Ohio State to call games. I also want to do Big Ten games. But it's just part of the business that I'm in, and I don't control any of that. I just kind of call the games that they tell me,” Herbstreit said. “So I miss calling Big Ten games. I especially miss calling Ohio State games for obvious reasons. But it's cool that GameDay – I wondered when this split happened, if Game Day would still come to the games that matter on a national level. " "And I think it really says a lot about ESPN and the leadership of College GameDay, we still try to go to the game of the week; no matter who's broadcasting the game, GameDay tries to go to the game," he continued. "And this week, here we are at what we think is the biggest game of the week. And we've done that all year, which is cool.” ESPN's "College GameDay" will begin at 9 a.m. EST on Saturday. Former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields will join Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and Rece Davis at the desk as this week's celebrity guest picker. Related: Ohio State Fans Call for Fox Sports Boycott After Indiana Game Decision
X CEO Linda Yaccarino is unexpectedly sweeping into for a keynote. The former NBC Universal executive, who joined X (formerly Twitter) as CEO in 2023 and had done little to nothing to dampen owner Elon Musk's incendiary use of the platform, will sit down with CBS News investigative journalist Catherine Herridge on January 7 at 1:30 PM PST. The chat comes after a tumultuous couple of years at the head of the struggling social media platform. Yaccarino is no stranger to the interview stage, but she's been notoriously obtuse when asked point-blank about the activity on her platform. Her 2023 Vox Media interview is almost legendary, with some describing it CES, which invited Yaccarino to speak, pitched her as something of a resilient innovator. "Linda’s career exemplifies the spirit of CES – innovation, resilience, and vision,” said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro in where CTA President Kinsey Fabrizio, President, CTA, described her as a "visionary." What that vision is, though, is hard to define. Since Yacarrino took the reigns, she's done nothing to move X back to a more inviting center (legions of people – – recently exited X to join BlueSky). In fact, the platform has become more closed off and fertile ground for misinformation. At a more practical level, the company . Larger influence Still, Yacarrino's chat might be more compelling now than even three months ago. Her boss, Elon Musk, now sits at the right hand of soon-to-be President Donald Trump (this chat will take place just weeks before Trump is reinaugurated into office) and Musk is now using X and his 200 million followers on the platform to shape policy. that would've kept the US government functioning for a few more months (a revised bill did pass). Musk is also about to start co-running with Vivek Ramaswamy , which will look to suggest drastic cuts to the US government. Whatever decisions Musk and Ramaswamy make will likely be run through the X echo chamber, probably with live polls. I don't expect Yacarrino to address any of this directly. She'll likely deflect questions on the health of the business, the worrisome rhetoric flourishing on it, and the possible conflicts that might exist between Musk's various businesses, his control of the increasingly influential platform, and his new unelected governmental role. Since she's painting X in the release as "the global newsroom in your pocket," it's fairly certain Herridge will press her on how, with many reputable news outlets leaving the platform, X is still a newsroom. Her answer might not make any sense, but guaranteed Musk will love it, and everyone on X will eat it up. Enjoy the show at CES 2025.Spain's monarch pays tribute to the victims of Valencia floods in his Christmas Eve speech