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Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr. staying motivated against league’s top bigs

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

Before the season even started, an Orlando Magic assistant coach gave Wendell Carter Jr. a piece of motivation that played a factor in Saturday’s 126-114 overtime home win over the Miami Heat.Carter told the Orlando Sentinel that Randy Gregory, Magic assistant offensive/video coordinator, had a screenshot of an Aug. 29 tweet from “NBACentral” that listed HoopsHype.com’s preseason top-10 centers entering the season taped inside Carter’s locker at Amway Center.Why did Gregory do this?Because Carter’s name wasn’t present, which constantly motivates Carter every time he goes to his locker.“That’s what drives me every day,” Carter told the Sentinel earlier in the season while sitting next to his locker, “until they put my [name] on there.”“[Helps] me stay motivated. It’s something small to keep me going every day. Give me a reason to keep going.”Carter’s name wasn’t listed at all on Hoop...

White supremacist reported incidents surge in Massachusetts, hit all-time high across New England

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

White supremacist propaganda activity surged in Massachusetts and across New England last year, as reported incidents hit an all-time high for the region and in the U.S.That’s according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual assessment of reported white supremacist propaganda incidents.ADL recorded 6,751 incidents nationally last year, a 38% jump over the 4,876 incidents recorded during 2021.The five states that comprise the ADL New England region saw a whopping 96% spike in recorded white supremacist propaganda activity.In addition to the July march through Boston by white nationalist hate group Patriot Front, New England propaganda activities included gatherings by white supremacists with anti-Semitic, racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ messages at local bookstores, libraries, theaters, shelters and hospitals across the region.“White supremacist propaganda has the dual and devious purpose to intimidate specific groups and lure others to join their hateful act...

Ravens free agency guide: Prepare for limited action as focus remains on QB Lamar Jackson and his potential suitors

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

The Ravens are headed for perhaps the most unusual free agent shopping period in their history.Usually, fans obsess over which players general manager Eric DeCosta might target to fortify weak areas on the team’s roster, with wide receiver, cornerback and left guard topping the list for 2023. But such questions will be afterthoughts compared with the ongoing intrigue around quarterback Lamar Jackson, who will be free to sign an offer sheet with another team starting Wednesday.Will such an offer materialize? Would the Ravens match it within five days and finally lock in their most important player? Or will a resolution remain elusive, creating uncertainty around every other move DeCosta would like to make?The Ravens cannot, however, afford to treat Jackson’s contract as the only issue at hand. They still have to build a playoff-caliber team for next season, and they will have to do it with a budget pinched by the $32.4 million allotted to Jackson under the nonexclusive fr...

Global shares mixed despite jitters after US bank failure

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were trading mixed Monday, shaken by a Wall Street tumble that set off worries the biggest United States bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world. But the falls were relatively subdued because of reassurances from U.S. officials that financial shocks would be mitigated, sending U.S. futures higher. Dow futures were up 0.6% at 32,342.00. S&P 500 futures rose 1.0% to 3,936.25. France’s CAC 40 lost 1.2% in early trading to 7,135.08. Germany’s DAX dropped 1.1% to 15,257.34. Britain’s FTSE 100 dove 1.3% to 7,645.73. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.1% to finish at 27,832.96. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.5% to 7,108.80. South Korea’s Kospi recouped earlier losses to gain 0.7% to 2,410.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.0% to 19,695.97. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.2% to 3,268.70, as Chinese shares tracked the gains in U.S. futures. Oil prices vacillated throughout the da...

Mississauga woman, 18, met men online before robbing them: police

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

An 18-year-old woman from Mississauga has been charged with multiple armed robberies after police say she targeted victims on dating sites.Peel police say she met up with men in the Malton area before producing a knife and using it to rob the unsuspecting victims of their money.Jasmine Oung is charged with two counts of robbery and is awaiting a bail hearing.Investigators believe there are more victims.They are asking anyone with information in this case to contact them.

Vice President Harris to visit Africa in latest US outreach

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a week in Africa at the end of March as the United States deepens its outreach to the continent amid global competition, notably with China. “The trip will strengthen the United States’ partnerships throughout Africa and advance our shared efforts on security and economic prosperity,” said a statement from the vice president’s spokesperson, Kirsten Allen.Harris’ plans follow visits by first lady Jill Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going this week, and President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Africa later this year.However, Harris will be closely watched as the first Black vice president in U.S. history and the first woman to hold the position. She plans to be in Ghana from March 26 to 29, then in Tanzania from March 29 to 31. Her final stop is Zambia, on March 31 and April 1. Harris has a personal connection to the third country on her itinerary. Her maternal gr...

US, UK try to stem fallout from Silicon Valley Bank collapse

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Governments in the UK and U.S. took extraordinary steps to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, even as another major bank was shut down.The UK Treasury and the Bank of England announced early Monday that they had facilitated the sale of Silicon Valley Bank UK to HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, ensuring the security of 6.7 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) of deposits.British officials worked throughout the weekend to find a buyer for the UK subsidiary of the California-based bank. Its collapse was the second-largest bank failure in history.U.S. regulators also worked all weekend to try to find a buyer. Those efforts appeared to have failed Sunday, but U.S. officials assured all depositors that they could access all their money quickly.The announcement came amid fears that the factors that caused the Santa Clara, California-based bank to fail could spread. In a sign of how fast the financial bleeding was occurring, regulat...

Oscars recap: Everything Everywhere All At Once dominates, Canadians shine

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

The metaphysical multiverse comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wrapped its hot dog fingers around Hollywood’s top prize Sunday, winning best picture at the 95th Academy Awards, along with awards for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.Though worlds away from Oscar bait, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s anarchic ballet of everything bagels, googly-eyed rocks and one messy tax audit emerged as an improbable Academy Awards heavyweight. The indie hit, A24’s second best picture winner following “Moonlight,” won seven Oscars in all. Only two other films in Oscar history — “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network” — won three acting Academy Awards.Fifty years after “The Godfather” won at the Oscars, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” triumphed with a much different immigrant experience. Its eccentric tale about a Chinese immigrant family — just the second feature by the Daniels, as the filmmaking duo is known — blended science fiction and alternate realities in the st...

UN chief: ‘Cold, hard facts’ should guide climate policy

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The head of the United Nations called Monday for scientists to serve up “cold, hard facts” to push governments into making policies that curb climate change before a key global warming threshold is passed.His comments came as experts and officials from around the world gathered for a week-long meeting in the Swiss Alpine town of Interlaken to finalize the last of seven reports issued by the global body’s panel of top scientists since the Paris climate accord was forged in 2015.In a video address to delegates, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “could not come at a more pivotal time.”“Our world is at a crossroads — and our planet is in the crosshairs,” he said. “We are nearing the point of no return; of overshooting the internationally agreed limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) of global warming.”That threshold, agreed in Paris almost eight years ago and measured against av...

Iran-Saudi Arabia deal casts China in unfamiliar global role

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 13:46:54 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — An agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to re-establish diplomatic relations has cast China in a leading role in Middle Eastern politics — a part previously reserved for longtime global heavyweights like the U.S. and Russia. It’s another sign that China’s diplomatic clout is growing to match its economic footprint.Under strongman leader Xi Jinping, Chinese diplomacy has become known for angry outbursts against the West, threats against Taiwan, aggressive moves in the South China Sea and a refusal to condemn Russia over Ukraine. The deal reached in Beijing Friday, under which the sides agreed to re-open their embassies and exchange ambassadors after seven years of tensions, shows a different side of Chinese diplomacy. Xi appears to have played a direct part in the talks by hosting Iran’s president in Beijing last month. He also visited the Saudi capital Riyadh in December for meetings with oil-rich Gulf Arab nations crucial to China’s energy supplies.The...