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No. 1 South Carolina women stunned by fifth-ranked UCLA 77-62, ending Gamecocks' 43-game win streak
IPL 2025 mega auction The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk’s news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity. Read More Latest Mobiles Lava Blaze 3 5G ₹11,499 Itel Aura 05i ₹5,479 Tecno Spark Go 1 ₹6,899 Poco M6 5G ₹7,998 OPPO A3X 4G ₹8,999 Vivo Y300 Plus 5G ₹23,999 Realme P1 Speed 5G ₹20,999 Lava O3 ₹6,199 Samsung Galaxy A16 5G ₹18,999 Lava Agni 3 5G ₹24,499
Former Barcelona and Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has signed a one-year contract extension with the Major League Soccer club and will line up under new coach Javier Mascherano next season, the club said. The 37-year-old striker has scored 25 goals in all competitions since joining the club before the start of this season including 20 in Miami's record-breaking regular season campaign. After winning the Supporters' Shield for the best record in the regular season, with a new points tally record, Miami were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by Atlanta United. Since then Argentina head coach Gerardo Martino has left the club with his compatriot and Suarez's former team-mate at Barca, Mascherano appointed on Tuesday. "I'm very happy, very excited to continue for another year and to be able to enjoy being here with this fan base, which for us is like family. We feel very, very connected with them, and hopefully, next year, we can bring them even more joy," said Suarez. Miami's president of football operations Raul Sanllehi said Suarez had shown he remains an elite level forward but was also a key component in the dressing room. "Luis was not only our leading scorer this season, but also a leader for the group. His impact cannot be understated," he said. Suarez announced in September he was retiring from international duty with the Uruguay national team after scoring 69 goals in 143 games. The forward played in Europe for Ajax, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid and had a season in Brazil with Gremio before joining Miami. sev/mwInside America’s federal workforce that Trump has promised to eviscerate. THE tremors from Donald Trump’s decisive electoral victory have hit every corner of Washington. But their maximum intensity is felt by the United States capital’s federal workforce, which comprises tens of thousands of mostly anonymous employees not-so-fondly referred to by Trump as “the deep state.” Few notions have consumed the once and future president more than the belief that his executive power has been constrained by a cabal of unelected bureaucrats. In his first rally of the 2024 campaign in Waco, Texas, Trump framed the bureaucracy as a national adversary, declaring, “Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state.” His intention to accomplish the latter is an explicit feature of Trump’s official to-do list, known as Agenda 47. From numerous interviews conducted with government officials spread across eight federal agencies, the overwhelming consensus is that Trump and his allies are not bluffing. And now the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) has been announced with Trump’s close associate, billionaire industrialist and owner of social media platform X Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy picked to head it. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last Wednesday, the incoming “efficiency” tsars outlined plans for a “drastic reduction” in regulations and “mass head-count reductions”. Musk and Ramaswamy said they would rely on two recent Supreme Court rulings that limited the authority of federal regulatory agencies to “liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress”. The heart of Trump and his allies have termed as ‘the deep state’ in Washington is bracing for changes that the Doge will bring. — Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies via The New York Times “There’s definitely anxiety, no question,” said Thomas Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association, which represents about 17,000 active-duty and retired service members across six federal agencies. He said diplomats were asking him: “Is my job going to be OK? Will they shut down my bureau? What will happen to me?” Many longtime federal employees expressed exhaustion at the very prospect of a second go-round with Trump. “I believe there will be a significant exodus among the one-third of our workforce that is eligible to retire,” said Nicole Cantello, a former attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency speaking on behalf of the agency’s union, which she represents. “Many of them will be unwilling to relive all the hostility they experienced four years ago.” But most federal workers do not have the option to retire or to transfer their expertise to the private sector. So, while it has not been mentioned, yet, much of their concern centres on Trump’s pledge to re-institute Schedule F, an executive order he issued late in his presidency that would have empowered his administration to convert tens of thousands of civil servants to “at-will” workers, who could more easily be fired and replaced with political appointees. The legality of Schedule F was never tested because President Joe Biden revoked the order when he took office. “They are what makes this government work,” Natalie Quillian, a deputy chief of staff in the Biden White House, said of the federal workforce. Referring to a rule that Biden finalised this spring making it difficult to reinstate Schedule F, she continued, “I think we’ve taken all the actions we can to make sure they are protected and I’m not aware of any other action we can take.” Trump is hardly the first prominent politician to denounce the federal workforce. George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama and four-time presidential candidate, inveighed against “pointy-headed bureaucrats with thin briefcases full of guidelines.” Richard Nixon derisively termed them “little people in big jobs.” And though career government employees often serve in successive administrations from both parties, they are ultimately guided by viewpoints that some might construe as agendas. “It’s clear that there are civil servants with different policy views that work in government,” said David E. Lewis, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, who has written on bureaucracies. “And in some ways, that’s by design. We would expect experts to have opinions about what should be done. Sometimes those opinions fall along party lines, and you end up seeing some agencies with more Republicans and others with more Democrats. But historically speaking, that effect has been small.” Trump clearly does not believe this, Lewis acknowledged. “I would say his views of the bureaucracy are more strident than what we’ve seen from recent presidents,” he said. The closest parallel, Lewis added, was the “spoils system” administration of Andrew Jackson’s administration nearly two centuries ago, in which government jobs were doled out to cronies and family members. Officials interviewed warned that making civil servants feel more vulnerable about their livelihood would almost certainly create a chilling effect on how they go about their work. The perception of exhibiting insufficient loyalty to Trump’s agenda is more discomfiting at some agencies than at others. Three mid-level EPA officials said they feared the subject of climate change would be off-limits in the new administration. At the Pentagon, officials were trying to game out what policies might catch Trump’s attention and prompt edicts like the one he announced five years ago on social media, forbidding transgender people from serving “in any capacity in the US Military.” There also are fears inside the Education Department that its legacy of civil rights reforms could soon be terminated, or that Trump will make good on his vow to dissolve the department altogether. Aaron Ament, who served as chief of staff of the Education Department’s general counsel’s office during the Obama administration, said that even if the Trump administration kept the agency intact, it could immediately test the resolve of its staff by cutting back many of the department’s main regulatory and enforcement functions. “During his first term, Trump outsourced higher education policy to for-profit industry executives who systematically dismantled enforcement and regulatory protections for students,” Ament said. “If this term is similar, we could not only see the same harms but find Trump weaponising the Office for Civil Rights to cut off funds for state universities that teach from books he doesn’t like or disagree with him politically.” Even agencies with distinctly non-ideological missions could come under scrutiny. At the Federal Aviation Administration, for example, the mission of safely landing airplanes has found no sceptic among the authors of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint for reshaping the federal government. But federal employees at the FAA and elsewhere have noted that Musk’s SpaceX rocket launches are regulated by the agency. Musk also has been openly contemptuous of collective bargaining rights. One FAA official said his co-workers fear that Musk may exercise undue influence in that regard and are concerned that Trump will roll back any protections against discrimination that the new president deems to be “woke.” One intelligence official predicted that many at the CIA would make their career decisions based on whether the new CIA director is respectful of the intelligence community. Several people who were interviewed pointed to Trump’s mercurial character as a factor that might ultimately save them. Though they did not doubt the sincerity of his hostility toward “the deep state,” they strained to imagine a 78-year-old man with a fleeting attention span poring over employee manifests and organisational charts. In the end, what might end up blunting any damage Trump might try to inflict upon the bureaucracy is its own hidebound imperviousness. One former official at the Transportation Department, who asked for anonymity to speak freely, recalled the more than yearlong effort to obtain the funding for a specific, relatively small project that had already been authorised. It was the nature of bureaucracy, the official said: Nothing could be done, or undone, with the stroke of a pen. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
Nokia completes the share buyback program launched in MarchWhen Kenyan police arrived in Haiti as part of a UN-backed mission earlier this year to tackle gang violence, hopes were high. Coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport had crippled the country's capital and forced the prime minister to resign, plunging Haiti into an unprecedented crisis. But the crisis has only deepened since the international policing contingent arrived. The main international airport closed for the second time this year after gangs opened fire on commercial flights in mid-November, striking a flight attendant. Gunmen also are attacking once-peaceful communities to try and seize control of the entire capital, taking advantage of political infighting that led to the abrupt dismissal of the prime minister earlier this month. Now, a new prime minister is tasked with turning around a nation that sees no escape from its troubles as Haitians wonder: How did the country reach this point? Bloody coups, brutal dictatorships and gangs created by Haiti's political and economic elite have long defined the country's history, but experts say the current crisis is the worst they've seen. "I'm very bleak about the future," said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia. "The whole situation is really collapsing." The government is anemic, the U.N.-backed mission that supports Haiti's understaffed police department lacks funding and personnel, and gangs now control 85% of the capital. Then, on Wednesday, another blow. Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending critical care in Port-au-Prince as it accused police of targeting its staff and patients, including threats of rape and death. It's the first time the aid group has stopped working with new patients since it began operating in Haiti more than 30 years ago. "Every day that we cannot resume activities is a tragedy, as we are one of the few providers of a wide range of medical services that have remained open during this extremely difficult year," said Christophe Garnier, mission director in Haiti. Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesman for Haiti's National Police, did not return messages for comment. Neither did officials with Kenya's mission when asked about the surge in gang violence. In a recent statement, the Kenyan-led mission said it was "cognizant of the road ahead that is fraught with challenges." But it noted that ongoing joint patrols and operations have secured certain communities and forced gangs to change the way they operate. André François Giroux, Canada's ambassador to Haiti, told The Associated Press on Saturday that his country and others have been trying to bolster the Kenyan-led mission. "They've done miracles, I think, considering all the challenges that we've been facing," he said. "What we have to keep in mind is that it's still very much in deployment mode," Giroux said. "There are not even 400 on the ground right now." A spokesman for Haiti's new prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, did not return messages for comment. In a statement Thursday, his administration said authorities were strengthening security along the capital's main roads and had formed a special security council. "The prime minister renews his commitment to find lasting solutions to current problems," it said. The statement was issued just days after gangs launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday around an upper-class community in Haiti's capital, forcing residents armed with machetes and guns to fight side-by-side with police to repel gunmen. At least 28 gang members were killed, but not before some reached an area near an upscale hotel long considered safe. "It tells you that there is no functioning authority in Haiti," Fatton said. A main concern in the ongoing crisis is the temporary closure of the main international airport in Port-au-Prince. It means critical aid is not reaching those who need it the most in a country where nearly 6,000 people are starving and nearly half of the more than 11 million inhabitants are experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse. Gang violence also has left more than 700,000 people homeless in recent years. "We are deeply concerned about the isolation of Port-au-Prince from the rest of Haiti and the world," said Laurent Uwumuremyi, Mercy Corps' country director for Haiti. The aid group helps people including more than 15,000 living in makeshift shelters, but persistent gang violence has prevented workers from reaching a growing number of them in the capital and beyond. Basic goods also are dwindling as the suspension of flights has delayed imports of critical supplies. "Before, there were some neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince that we considered safe that the gangs had never reached, but now they are threatening to take over the control of the entire capital," Uwumuremyi said. At least 150 people were reported killed in the capital and 20,000 forced to flee their homes in the second week of November alone. Overall, more than 4,500 people were reported killed in Haiti so far this year, the U.N. said. Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who became a gang leader known as Barbecue, warned that a gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm will keep attacking as they demand the resignation of a transitional presidential council tasked with leading the country along with the new prime minister. The council also is supposed to organize general elections for the first time in nearly a decade so voters can choose a president, a position left empty since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021. The U.S. and other countries pushed for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti at a U.N. Security Council meeting this week. Only about 400 officers from Kenya have arrived, along with a handful of police and soldiers from other countries - way short of the 2,500 personnel slated for the mission. "This is not just another wave of insecurity; it is a dramatic escalation that shows no signs of abating," Miroslav Jenča, U.N. assistant secretary general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said Wednesday at the meeting. But Russia and China oppose a U.N. peacekeeping mission, leaving many to wonder what other options are left for Haiti. Giroux, the Canadian ambassador, said his country supports a peacekeeping operation "when the time is right." "Everybody is looking at a peacekeeping mission as a silver bullet," he said, adding that even if that were to happen, it wouldn't be able to deploy for another six to 12 months. "We need to be realistic." Giroux said he is hopeful that some 600 Kenyans will arrive in Haiti in upcoming weeks, but added that "none of this matters if the political elite doesn't get its act together." The nine-member transitional presidential council has been marred by accusations of corruption and infighting and was criticized for firing the previous prime minister. "I'm at a loss for any short-term solution for Haiti, let alone any long-term solutions," Fatton said. "The gangs have seen that they shouldn't be afraid of the Kenyan mission." He said one option may be for the government to negotiate with the gangs. "At the moment, it is perceived as utterly unacceptable," he said. "But if the situation deteriorates even more, what else are you left with?"
CNN wants the North Carolina lieutenant governor's defamation lawsuit against it thrown outNone
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WAFU B President Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku arrived in Niamey, Niger on Thursday November 21, 2024, to participate in the 17th General Assembly of the sub-regional body. The President was met on arrival at the Diori Hamani International Airport by the Nigerien Football Federation President, Colonel-Major Djibrilla Hima Hamidou and WAFU B Executive Director Philippe Tchere. President Simeon-Okraku, who doubles as the Ghana Football Association President, will deliver the opening address at the WAFU B General Assembly, scheduled to take place at the Raddison Blu Hotel in Niamey on Friday November 22, 2024. He will be joined by the leadership of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). He is attending the WAFU B General Assembly in the company of Ghana Football Association General Secretary, Prosper Harrison Addo, Ghana legend and 1978 African Footballer of the Year, 'Golden Boy' Abdul Razak. The General Assembly is being attended by top African Football officials including Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) President, Samuel Eto'o, as well as Presidents and General Secretaries of WAFU B Member Associations (MAs). The 17th WAFU B General Assembly is being hosted by Niger, marking a notable occasion in the country’s football history. The arrival of these officials highlights the importance of this assembly for zonal football, as it serves as a platform for discussing key decisions and policies that will shape the future of the sport in the sub-region. President Edwin Simeon-Okraku is expected to outline his vision for the future of the WAFU B football zone and reaffirm his commitment to developing football in the sub-region, increase competitiveness and work on ensuring successful collaboration amongst the seven Member Associations (MAs) of the region. He is also expected to lay further emphasis on his vision of inclusivity, creativity, innovation and steadfast commitment to excellence during the General Assembly in Niamey. The WAFU B President is also expected to touch on a wide range of issues including but not limited to infrastructure, governance, competition reform, financial sustainability, youth development and women's football amongst others. The meeting also provides an opportunity for member associations to discuss collaborative efforts aimed at elevating the standards of football in the sub-region. Under Simeon-Okraku's strong and visionary leadership, WAFU B has seen new competitions introduced as the Ghana FA leader is poised to continue his journey of transforming football in the sub-region. President Simeon-Okraku has worked tirelessly to revive competitions and bring modernity to football administration in the Zone. The WAFU B General Assembly will chart a course for football growth, unity and success during the gathering of Member Associations. The General Assembly is the supreme legislative organ of the football bloc where key decisions are made for implementation by the WAFU Zone B Secretariat. The warm reception at the Diori Hamani International Airport and the preparations at Raddison Blu Hotel demonstrate Niger's readiness to facilitate a successful assembly. The gathering is anticipated to pave the way for new initiatives and partnerships that will enhance football in the zone. The WAFU Zone B comprises Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D'voire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo. GFA Communication Get all the latest football news sent directly to your inboxRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — CNN wants a court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson that attacks its report that he made explicit posts on a pornography website’s message board. The network says Robinson presented no evidence that the network believed its story was false or aired it recklessly. The September report says Robinson, who ran unsuccessfully for governor this month, left statements over a decade ago on the message board in which, in part, he referred to himself as a “black NAZI" and said he enjoyed transgender pornography. The report also says he preferred Adolf Hitler to then-President Barack Obama and slammed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.” Robinson, who was seeking to become the state's first Black governor, said he didn’t write those posts and sued in October, just before early in-person voting was to begin. While filing a dismissal motion Thursday in Raleigh federal court, attorneys for CNN said Robinson’s arguments suggesting he was the likely victim of a computer hacking operation that created fake messages would require a series of events that is not just “implausible, it is ridiculous.” Generally speaking, a public official claiming defamation must show a defendant knew a statement it made was false or did so with reckless disregard for the truth. “Robinson did not and cannot plausibly allege facts that show that CNN published the Article with actual malice,” attorney Mark Nebrig wrote in a memo backing the dismissal motion, adding that the lawsuit “does not include a single allegation demonstrating that CNN doubted the veracity of its reporting.” For Robinson, who already had a history of inflammatory comments about topics like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights , the CNN story nearly led to the collapse of his campaign. After the report's airing, most of his top campaign staff quit, advertising from the Republican Governors Association stopped and fellow Republicans distanced themselves from him, including President-elect Donald Trump. Robinson lost to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein by nearly 15 points and will leave office at year-end. Robinson's lawsuit was initially filed in state court. It says, in part, that CNN chose to run its report based on data from the website NudeAfrica, which had been hacked several years ago and ran on vulnerable, outdated software. His suit claims the network did nothing to verify the posts. He's seeking monetary damages. Thursday's memo highlights the network's story, including a section where the CNN journalists showed how they connected Robinson to a username on the NudeAfrica site. As the CNN story said previously, the memo says the network matched details of the account on the message board to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, an email address and his full name. The details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s length of marriage, where he lived at the time, and that both Robinson and the account holder had mothers who worked at a historically Black university, the memo says. CNN also said it found matches of figures of speech used by both the NudeAfrica account holder and in Robinson’s social media posts. “This is hardly a case where, as Robinson alleges, CNN ‘disregarded or deliberately avoided the truth’ rather than investigate,” Nebrig said, adding later that the network “had no reason to seriously doubt that Robinson was the author” of the posts. Robinson's attorneys didn't immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment. The lawsuit says anyone could have used Robinson's breached data to create accounts on the internet. His state lawsuit also sued Louis Love Money, a former porn shop worker who alleged in a music video and a media interview that for several years starting in the 1990s, Robinson frequented a porn shop where Money was working and that Robinson purchased porn videos from him. Robinson said that was untrue. Money filed his own dismissal motion in the state lawsuit. But since then, CNN moved the lawsuit to federal court, saying that it's the proper venue for a North Carolina resident like Robinson and a Georgia-based company like CNN and that the claims against Money are unrelated.
Man arrested on allegations he threatened police while livestreaming: Richmond RCMPThe academic paper mills helping China commit scientific fraudRio Ferdinand claims Liverpool are 'the best team in Europe' after victory over Real Madrid - as he insists Arne Slot's side were like 'rottweilers' on the pitch Liverpool secured a 2-0 win over Real Madrid in their Champions League clash Afterwards, Ferdinand claimed that Arne Slot's side were the best across Europe SOCCER A-Z: Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube. New episodes every Wednesday and Friday By LEWIS STEELE Published: 23:13, 27 November 2024 | Updated: 23:25, 27 November 2024 e-mail View comments Liverpool are the ‘best team in Europe’ and are ‘playing like Rottweilers that have not been fed in a while’, according to pundit Rio Ferdinand . The Reds toppled the mighty Real Madrid last night after goals from Alexis Mac Allister and substitute Cody Gakpo made it five wins from five in Europe, to put them top of the Champions League as well as the Premier League . Caoimhin Kelleher made a heroic stop to deny Kylian Mbappe from the penalty spot at 1-0 while Mohamed Salah failed to follow up his blockbuster comments this week as the Egyptian also missed a spot-kick. But this was a breathtaking display from Slot’s men and Ferdinand said on TNT Sports: ‘They've put the gauntlet down to all the other teams in Europe. They look like the best team in Europe at the moment. ‘They're playing as a team and look the hungriest individuals about. They're not only getting results, they look starving. They look like they haven't been fed for ages, Rottweilers running round the pitch hunting teams down. They've got the composure.’ Slot had his family in attendance and hailed a special night. ‘It is always good to win a game, especially a big game like this,’ said the Dutchman, who will be back at the AXA Training Centre this morning to prepare for a crunch title tussle against strugglers Liverpool remain top of the Champions League and the Premier League after a strong start Rio Ferdinand labelled them the 'best team in Europe' after beating Real Madrid on Wednesday Arne Slot (right) has got the best out of Egyptian star Mohamed Salah (left) in recent weeks Manchester City on Sunday. ‘It will mean more in the later stages of the tournament. It is difficult to judge how big these wins are. If we are able to beat them in the knockout stages it will be a bigger statement.’ Slot also thanked the Liverpool academy for penalty hero Kelleher and player-of-the-match Conor Bradley, who marked Mbappe out of the match and registered an assist. ‘He assisted? I didn’t know... he was in a strange position then,’ laughed Slot. ‘It is nice for him, his family and the academy that a player who comes through does so well, like Caoimhin and Curtis (Jones). To have three academy players doing so well is a big compliment and Conor did very well. I am not surprised because he showed it last season.’ Jude Bellingham was another to flop on the big stage for Carlo Ancelotti’s men and he said: ‘They were just more up for it than us which is really disappointing to say. It's a bad result against the best-performing team in Europe. ‘It's no disgrace to come here and lose but we are disappointed in how we performed.’ Ancelotti, whose European champions are 24th in the new-look league phase, added: ‘To be totally honest it is a fair result, Liverpool deserved to win, they have a real good dynamic. They are in great form, connected playing with a high intensity.’ On Mbappe, the seven-time European Cup winner said: ‘This has happened before in my career many times, forwards with no confidence. There is a medicine... I think Mbappe is in a difficult moment. We have to support him and give him our love, he will soon be fine.’ Gareth Bale Rio Ferdinand Mohamed Salah Share or comment on this article: Rio Ferdinand claims Liverpool are 'the best team in Europe' after victory over Real Madrid - as he insists Arne Slot's side were like 'rottweilers' on the pitch e-mail Add comment
