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Sparks take on the Aces on 5-game skid

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

Las Vegas Aces (17-2, 10-1 Western Conference) at Los Angeles Sparks (7-12, 6-7 Western Conference)Los Angeles; Wednesday, 10 p.m. EDTBOTTOM LINE: Los Angeles heads into the matchup against Las Vegas as losers of five games in a row.The Sparks have gone 6-7 against Western Conference teams. Los Angeles has a 4-4 record in games decided by 10 or more points.The Aces are 10-1 in Western Conference play. Las Vegas ranks second in the Western Conference with 34.8 rebounds per game led by A’ja Wilson averaging 9.3.The two teams match up for the third time this season. The Aces defeated the Sparks 93-65 in their last meeting on May 28. Wilson led the Aces with 23 points, and Nneka Ogwumike led the Sparks with 16 points.TOP PERFORMERS: Ogwumike is shooting 52.4% and averaging 19.8 points for the Sparks. Jordin Canada is averaging 12.3 points over the last 10 games for Los Angeles.Wilson is scoring 19.6 points per game and averaging 9.3 rebounds for the Aces. Kelsey Plum is averaging ...

Rapinoe says her retirement call will help US women’s soccer team to focus at World Cup

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Megan Rapinoe said her decision to announce her retirement before the Women’s World Cup will help the U.S. team better focus on its attempt to win a third straight world championship.Rapinoe announced last weekend that she will retire from competitive soccer at the end of the current season. Speaking to media in Auckland on Wednesday and sporting a new, blue hairstyle, Rapinoe said questions of retirement would have followed her and the USWNT through the World Cup had she not announced her plans before the tournament started.“Obviously I’m 38 years old, I’m not going to be playing forever and it just always feels weird for me to have something settled and feel at peace and to not answer a question honestly,” Rapinoe said. “I kind of wanted to have that for myself.“I think it allows me to focus a lot more, allows the team to focus a lot more. We don’t have to get questions every time, every single game. It’s just kind of out there and I can just really ...

Ataque con explosivos en México deja 3 muertos y 10 heridos

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO- Al menos tres muertos y 10 heridos dejó este martes un ataque con explosivos contra agentes de la Fiscalía del estado de Jalisco, en el oeste de México, informó el gobernador de la región, Enrique Alfaro.El ataque, contra agentes de la fiscalía estatal y de la policía municipal, ocurrió en el municipio de Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, ubicado a unas 20 millas de la ciudad de Guadalajara, capital del estado de Jalisco.“Esta noche, personal de la fiscalía y Policía de Tlajomulco sufrió un cobarde ataque con artefactos explosivos, que preliminarmente causaron la muerte de tres compañeros de la policía municipal y de la fiscalía, así como 10 personas lesionadas”, indicó el mandatario estatal en un mensaje en redes sociales. Hombre arrestado en Estados Unidos es sospechoso del asesinato de tres mujeres en México Disputa desencadena incendio en importante mercado de México, hay 9 muertos “Se trata de un hecho...

Boys Outdoor Track All-Scholastics and league All-Stars

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

Paul Bergeron (Westford Academy) 2-mileChristopher Brooks (Wellesley) 200Kaden Cassidy (Lexington) discusZyeem Charles (Attleboro) triple jumpRyan Connolly (North Andover) 800Jacob Cookinham (Bishop Stang) shot putJohnny Emmanuel (Malden) 400Sean Golembiewski (Hopkinton) 110/400 hurdlesDarwin Jimenez (Methuen) 100Nathan Lopez (St. John’s Prep) mile, 2-mileJon Mignacca (Bishop Feehan) high jumpAmari Mow (Lexington) long jumpBrandon Riley (Weymouth) pentathlonRyan Swenson (Andover) pole vaultEdward Webb (Wellesley) javelin4×100 relay (Lexington) Alexios Kontothanassis, Victor Yu, Jake Wheaton, Jayden Bai4×400 relay (Newton North) Myles Scott, Jack Tsai, Juan Talisayon, Quincy Scott4×800 relay (St. John’s Prep) Paul Lovett, Nick MacDonald, Daniel Padley, Nathan LopezPAUL BERGERONWESTFORD ACADEMYThe junior bolted to a sterling 8:51.88 time to capture the Div. 1 2-mile and followed it up with a fourth-place finish at the Meet of Champions in a swift 9:05.88. Be...

Ticketmaster halts Taylor Swift ticket sales in France in another headache for fans

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The trouble between Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s“Eras” tour isn’t over — with the latest snafu affecting fans hoping to score tickets in France.On Tuesday, after some fans reported issues with accessing Ticketmaster’s site, sales for six of Swift’s upcoming shows in Paris and Lyon were abruptly postponed. An explanation wasn’t immediately clear, but in posts on Ticketmaster’s French Twitter several hours after the pause began, the ticket seller cited a problem with a third-party provider.Ticketmaster directed The Associated Press to the Twitter statement. In the posts, Ticketmaster maintained that tickets to the France shows are still available and that the provider was “working to resolve this matter as soon as possible.”The company added that any codes that were not used for ticket purchases Tuesday will remain valid — and that impacted fans “will be notified directly of the new onsale date and time.” The new times have yet to...

Women’s World Cup brings attention to abuse in soccer

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

Sinead Farrelly wasn’t sure she’d ever come back to soccer. Farrelly, whose story was at the center of an abuse scandal that rocked women’s soccer in the United States, hadn’t played for more than six years before re-embracing the sport this spring. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it unless I was able to get that off my chest and get that story out, because the healing and liberation from that had to occur before I could ever play again,” she said. Now headed to the Women’s World Cup with Ireland, Farrelly’s presence at the tournament is a testament to her own resilience and healing. But it also underscores the larger realities of sexual, verbal and emotional abuse in women’s soccer and what is being done about it on the global stage. Allegations of abuse, often sexual, have affected national teams around the world in recent years, including reported cases in Haiti, Venezuela, Zambia, Argentina, Colombia and Afghanistan, where the womenR...

France’s anti-immigration far right gets boost from riots over police killing of teen

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Widespread riots in France sparked by the police killing of a teenager with North African roots have revealed the depth of discontent roiling poor neighborhoods — and given a new platform to the increasingly emboldened far right.The far right’s anti-immigration mantra is seeping through a once ironclad political divide between it and mainstream politics. More voices are now embracing a hard line against immigration and blaming immigrants not only for the car burnings and other violence that followed the June 27 killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, but for France’s social problems as well.“We know the causes” of France’s unrest, Bruno Retailleau, head of the conservative group that dominates the French Senate, said last week on broadcaster France-Info. “Unfortunately for the second, the third generation there is a sort of regression toward their origins, their ethnic origins.”Retailleau’s remarks, which drew accusations of racism, reflect the current line of...

Traces of explosives were found in a yacht in the Nord Stream sabotage investigation, diplomats say

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Investigators found traces of subsea explosives in samples taken from a yacht that has been one aspect of a probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year, European diplomats have told the United Nations Security Council. They say that the investigation hasn’t yet established who the perpetrators were and whether a state was involved.Denmark, Sweden and Germany have been investigating the Sept. 26 attack, and the Danish Foreign Ministry tweeted a letter Tuesday from the three countries’ U.N. ambassadors to the president of the Security Council with information on their activities so far.Officials voiced caution in March over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in the sabotage. German media reported then that five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack, and that it set off from the German port of Rostock. German federal prosecutors declined dir...

Serbian president says the real reason for US sanctions against Serbian spy chief is his Russia ties

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president said Wednesday the real reason why the country’s intelligence chief is facing U.S. sanctions is his position toward Russia and not corruption allegations.The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Vulin used his public authority to help U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tesic move illegal arms shipments across Serbia’s borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug trafficking ring, the Treasury said. “Sanctions have not been imposed on Aleksandar Vulin for any crime, corruption or anything,” Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said. “The sanctions were imposed because of his position toward the Russian Federation.”Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, but has maintained friendly relations with Moscow.Vulin, who is openly...

In the news today: B.C. port strike could end pending approval of mediator terms

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:17:58 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Labour minister asks mediator for terms to end B.C. port strikeThe federal labour minster has asked mediators for terms to end the B.C. port strike within 24 hours.Seamus O’Regan issued a statement saying the scale of this disruption shows how important the relationship between the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada is to our national interest.He says that once he has received the terms from the mediator, he will forward them to both sides and they will have another 24 hours to decide whether to ratify the principles of the deal. Trudeau meeting with Ukrainian president at NATO summitPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is sitting down with Volodomyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit this morning, a day after the Ukrainian president blasted the alliance for failing to extend a clear invite to his country.Wh...