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Saints again fizzle out tantalizingly close to pay dirt in a 2nd straight loss

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Derek Carr’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete in the end zone, the Jacksonville Jaguars celebrated and Carr and Co. left the Superdome field amid boos from spectators who had watched the New Orleans Saints stall out in virtually the same fashion in Houston last Sunday.“We will join them in that because we’re the ones out there doing it,” Carr said when asked about his message to frustrated fans. “We want to give them a great product. We want to give them wins. They deserve wins. They deserve to see a great product. Hopefully we get our stuff together and get it together quick and start to get on a run so they can enjoy some more moments.”New Orleans has lost four of five and the past two setbacks have come with the Saints threatening — but failing — to score a tying touchdown in the final minute. In Week 6, they stalled at the Houston 24 with four consecutive incomplete passes. On Thursday night, it happened 18 yards closer to the goal line. Carr guided...

Cincinnati plays Atlanta United following shutout win

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

Atlanta United FC (13-9-11, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. FC Cincinnati (20-5-8, first in the Eastern Conference)Cincinnati; Saturday, 6 p.m. EDTFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLS LINE: FC Cincinnati -136, Atlanta United FC +306, Draw +313; over/under is 3.5 goalsBOTTOM LINE: A game after shutting out Inter Miami 1-0, Cincinnati plays Atlanta United.Cincinnati is 14-4-7 in Eastern Conference games. Cincinnati ranks sixth in the league with 163 shots on goal, averaging 4.9 per game.United is 8-8-9 in conference games. United is second in the league with 64 goals led by Giorgos Giakoumakis with 15.The matchup Saturday is the second meeting of the season between the two teams. Cincinnati won the last game 2-1.TOP PERFORMERS: Luciano Acosta has scored 16 goals with 12 assists for Cincinnati. Aaron Boupendza has four goals over the last 10 games.Giakoumakis has 15 goals for United. Edwin Mosquera has scored three goals over the past 10 games.LAST 10 GAMES: Cincinnati: 5-3-2, averaging 1.6 goa...

MLB playoffs 2023: Verlander vs Montgomery with ALCS tied 2-all; Diamondbacks look to even NLCS

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

It’s been straight A’s for the Houston Astros ever since they hit the road in the AL Championship Series.Meanwhile, rookie Brandon Pfaadt and the Arizona Diamondbacks passed a huge test against Philadelphia in the NLCS.José Abreu hit a three-run homer right after Yordan Alvarez’s go-ahead sacrifice fly, and the Astros pulled even in the ALCS with a 10-3 victory at Texas in Game 4 on Thursday night.Jose Altuve had three hits in his 100th career postseason game and scored three runs for a record sixth time. Alvarez drove in three, giving him 13 RBIs already this postseason, and Chas McCormick added a two-run homer for Houston, which led 3-0 only four batters into the game.Corey Seager and Adolis García homered for the streaky Rangers, who have dropped two games in a row at home after starting this postseason with seven consecutive wins — six on the road.Game 5 is Friday afternoon at Globe Life Field, where the defending World Series champion Astros are 8-1 this season. Thr...

American Logan Sargeant trying to hang on in F1 through difficult rookie season

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — It was one year ago this week that a Formula One team announced a future with an American driver.But Logan Sargeant’s rookie season with Williams has been seemingly on the skids ever since, with a series of expensive crashes and dismal results that have some wondering if that future is careening toward a quick end.Sargeant returns to the United States Grand Prix this weekend as the only full-time driver this season to not yet score a point. And Williams, despite some public assurances that it hopes to keep him in 2024, has felt the strain of Sargeant’s missteps.Williams officials have said Sargeant has “very clear targets” to hit over the final stretch of the season, but exactly what those are, the team and driver haven’t said. Sargeant said Thursday he hasn’t been told to “deliver anything special, but to be consistent and clean. That’s been the message. That’s all my goal is: to have consistent, clean weekends and try to be ...

Italian Premier Meloni announces separation from partner, father of daughter

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni announced Friday that she is separating from her partner and the father of her young daughter after nearly a decade together.In a statement posted on social media, Meloni said her relationship with Andrea Giambruno had ended. She said their paths had diverged “for some time.” The announcement came after Giambruno, an on-air television personality, was caught on audio seemingly making lewd remarks to colleagues.An Italian satirical news program, Striscia la Notizia, aired two nights’ worth of programming on Giambruno this week, using backstage clips and audio. Striscia is a primetime program of the Mediaset broadcaster of the late Silvio Berlusconi, whose Forza Italia party is a junior partner in Meloni’s government.This week marks the first anniversary of Meloni’s government, Italy’s first headed by a woman and first hard-right-led administration since the end of World War II.Meloni, who was raised by a single mother after...

For author Haruki Murakami, reading fiction helps us ‘see through lies’ in a world divided by walls

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

OVIEDO, Spain (AP) — For Japanese author Haruki Murakami, the bloody conflict in the Gaza Strip is a horrendous example of how our world is divided by walls, both physical and metaphorical.But while admitting he can only pray for peace now, he also feels confident that fiction, rather than offering an escape, can help us understand, and survive, increasingly perilous times.“I have Jewish friends in Israel. And I’m also aware that the Palestinian situation that I saw when I visited Israel is miserable,” Murakami told The Associated Press in an interview. “So all I can say is to pray so that peace will prevail as soon as possible. I cannot say which (side) is right or wrong.”The clash between Israel and the Hamas militant group has resonated with the title of Murakami’s newest novel “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” which was published in Japanese this year and has yet to be translated into English.“In my novels, walls are real walls. But of course they are also metaphoric wal...

In the news today: Canada removes 41 diplomats from India after immunity threats

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 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…Canada has pulled most envoys out of India due to diplomatic immunity threats: JolyCanada has removed most of its diplomatic presence from India after New Delhi threatened to strip diplomatic immunities from them and their families, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday.Officials said the move would slow down the processing of immigration applications, and Canada has issued a travel advisory for regions of India where it says it’s been forced to reduce consular staffing.Relations with New Delhi have hit a deep freeze since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a month ago that Canadian intelligence services were investigating “a potential link” between India’s government and the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia.Police liaison testimony continues in convoy trialA police liaison officer who was in touch with org...

Northern Europe continues to brace for gale-force winds and floods

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Authorities across northern Europe urged vigilance Friday as the region braced for heavy rain and gale-force winds from the east as a severe storm continued to sweep through.The gale-force winds are expected to hit hardest in the eastern part of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula and the Danish islands in the Baltic Sea. But the British Isles, southern Sweden, northern Germany and parts of Norway are also on the path of the storm, named Babet by U.K.’s weather forecaster, the Met Office.“It will probably be some kind of historic event,” Hans Peter Wandler of the Danish Meteorological Institute told the Ekstra Bladet daily. “But we’ll have to wait until it’s over to see if it’s going to be a two-year event or a 100-year event.” On Thursday, U.K. officials issued a rare red alert — the highest level of weather warning — for parts of Scotland, predicting “exceptional rainfall” in the following two days that is expected to cause extensive flooding a...

Australia’s Lynas to upgrade Malaysian rare earth refinery amid dispute over operating license

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths said Friday that it will temporarily shut down most of its operations in Malaysia for upgrading as it deals with a legal battle with the Malaysian government over its operating license.Lynas said in a report to investors that a Malaysian court is set to hear in November its application for a stay to allow it keep operating while other administrative and legal appeals are being heard. It didn’t give an exact date.The Lynas refinery in Malaysia, its first outside China producing minerals that are crucial to high-tech manufacturing, has been operating in central Pahang state since 2012. But it has been locked in a battle over concerns about radiation from waste accumulating at its plant.Lynas’s operating license was extended by six months until Dec. 31. To again renew its license, Lynas must move its cracking and leaching processes — which produce the radioactive waste from Australian ore — out of Malaysia. It...

Quebec eyes construction industry shakeup to boost housing, infrastructure projects

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:50:15 GMT

MONTREAL — How many workers does it take to shift a wall in Quebec? Too many, says Isabelle Rinfret of construction and real estate management company Arvisais, based roughly 95 kilometres northeast of Montreal, in Louiseville, Que.During a recent project, her company had to move a wall one metre. But to comply with the rules, she had to hire an interior systems installer to move the partition, a plasterer to smooth out the surface, and a third person to paint the wall.All of the “minor” work, she said, “could have been done by a single experienced carpenter.”Provincial regulation certifies 25 construction trades in Quebec, and divisions between them are rigid — a tradesperson can’t do a stitch of work outside their distinct area of practice, leading to situations where several people may be required to complete seemingly simple work, like moving a wall, that involves multiple steps or skills.But the province is toying with the idea of relaxing some of ...