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semestabet slot A TRAVEL expert has revealed the clever packing hack that stops your clean clothes getting dirty on holiday. Travellers are always eager to find new hacks that allow them to pack their luggage more efficiently before jetting off on holiday . One of the biggest annoyances for those heading abroad is keeping dirty clothes separate from clean ones while on holiday. It goes without saying that our bags often become a jumbled mess by the end of the trip. However, a well-seasoned flyer has shared one method which could help stop this headache for holidaygoers . According to Samantha Hamilton, an expert traveller who runs the New England Wanderlust blog, there is a correct way to pack your dirty laundry when traveling. Read More in Travel H amilton, who has been travelling for over 10 years, told holidaygoers: "Keep your dirty laundry in a separate packing cube." The travel whizz says that packing cubes have been the most effective way to contain the smell. She also says they are especially handy as they maintain an element of the compression to save space. A specific compression packing cube will help you save space and keep the smells away from clean clothes. Most read in News Travel Compression packing cubes are great at creating more space in your suitcase as they reduce the room taken up by clothes and other items. Hamilton also advises travellers to “throw a dryer sheet into your dirty laundry cube" to help with bad smells. You might not use a lot of dryer sheets in your normal laundry routine, but pack a few to keep your suitcase from permanently absorbing the scent of every adventure. There is no harm in putting them in your suitcase and also in the packing cube with your dirty laundry. Hamilton says they are her "last line of defence" to stop odours from seeping into the rest of her suitcase. And for longer trips they come in handy even more thanks to taking up no room at all. Hamilton added: “I also no longer mix my dirty laundry with my shoe bags, and keep them separate. “I noticed that, especially with shoes like canvas sneakers, they would start to absorb odours from the dirty laundry.” READ MORE SUN STORIES It follows this travel expert's clever trick using tape that makes packing so much easier and keeps everything in one place. And this packing expert has revealed how to pack enough luggage that is still under 7kg. Jemma Solomon, aka The Label Lady has got 5 packing tips to help you get organised for your next holiday. 1. Write a list Think about all the essentials you need to take with you; suncream, medicine, a few games for the kids, beach towels, and write everything in one list, which you can tick off as you add it to your suitcase. Or for complete ease, try Google's AI app - Gemini - which will create a list for you and help you not over pack. 2. Involve your kids Jemma said: “My girls are getting older, they’re 11 and nine, and they enjoy helping to pack. So I send them a list, and say ‘this is what you need’ and they follow the list. “And then I give them a rucksack each - and say to them ‘you can have whatever you want in there as long as it’s not liquid', and they can take that on the plane. And that’s their ‘home away from home’ items.” 3. Try a hack or two She said: "I think they all work, but for different reasons - and you’ve just got to pick the right one for your trip. "Rolling your clothes is really good to stop your clothes from getting creases. And if you’re trying to get a lot of items into your case, it’s a space saver. “Packing cubes are great - for example, I’m going on holiday with my three kids and we’re all using the same suitcase for our clothes. "These handy compartments let you separate your clothes, toiletries and tech into designated cubes, maximising luggage space by keeping your items compressed and neatly stacked. "I love taking them abroad with the family and it means my kids can easily take charge of their own items once we’ve arrived." 4. Decant beauty products Do you really need to take full-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner with you? The beauty industry has evolved so much, you can now buy shampoo bars or sheets - which are much lighter and smaller. Or, if you'll be popping to the shops when you're abroad, consider buying some items when you arrive. 5. Get organised before you come home Jemma said: “When you repack on holiday [before coming home], the trick is to separate clean from dirty clothes. “Also pack it in some form of order - so lights, darks, colours for items that need washing, or if you wash your clothes by person in the household, piles for each person. "Then you can put it straight into the washing machine. Do it straight away, don’t leave it."Bills clinch the AFC's No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the undisciplined JetsJulián Álvarez picking up the scoring pace with Atletico Madrid

NoneThe cancellation of the unpopular deals with Indian multi-billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies has yet again exposed legislators' dereliction of duty for failing to oversight the government in executing mega deals. The parliamentarians, who are expected to be stewards and watchdogs for public resources, have recently come out as puppets and President William Ruto’s cheerleaders. They failed to reject the impugned Finance Bill 2024, and with the Adani deal’s cancellation, they have failed the second time. It’s instructive to note that when the President announced his decision to cancel the proposed deal owing to the “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations” the same MPs and senators who had been cheering the multibillion shillings as Kenyans protested, gave him a standing ovation yet they never expressed any dissatisfaction with them. Now, a section of legislators who are President Ruto’s critics contend that Parliament lost its mandate and, as a result, MPs have lost favour with the electorate. Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba says Parliament has been operating as an extension of the State and that the President has been using the MPs as a litmus paper for his intended projects so that when the public opposes his intention, he drops it to be seen as a listening and caring president at the detriment of the MPs. “He directed MPs to approve the Finance Bill 2024 and when the members of the public rejected the same, he conceded and refused to assent it into law. Ironically, the very same MPs who had defied public anger to pass the Bill, flanked the President while making his announcement and clapped for him. The President has indeed thrown the MPs under the bus for many times,” Wamuchomba said. The MP claims that as a result of the tight corner that the MPs had been pushed to by the President, the majority of them cannot visit their constituents freely as they have been labelled traitors for being loyal to the President instead of their bosses; the electorate. Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo believes that the legislators had forfeited their mandate to the Executive. He says Parliament has been captured by the Executive and Kenyans are on their own. Free country “The lawmakers are no longer free to carry out their duties without external influence. Their brains have been permanently deleted and replaced by only one person. We don’t have a parliament. What we have is just a majority group which unfortunately got a boost after the ODM MPs joined them,” Maanzo said. The senator says although Kenyans were under siege, they were not under capture like the MPs and they have the power to free Parliament in the 2027 general elections. “Kenyans are the only ones who have the ability to free the country by voting out MPs who have connived with the Executive to implement oppressive policies that are not pro-people,” he said. ALSO READ: Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani charged in US over massive bribery scheme Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, while accusing his colleagues in the National Assembly of ceding their power to State House over the division of revenue stalemate, called for the dissolution of Parliament. Stay informed. Subscribe to our newsletter “There are things that are simply unacceptable to a person who understands the Constitution and believes in the purity of the doctrine of separation of powers. It cannot be possible that Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi is the one telling MPs that the only money he can give county governments is Sh380 billion. Then what is the role of Parliament? We should dissolve Parliament, let Mbadi make all the decisions on the monies to be disbursed,” Sifuna said. He observed that MPs were subjecting themselves to an institution they are supposed to oversee, maintaining that the Budget is not prepared by the Executive, since the Executive is not a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly. “I want to challenge MPs because it can’t be that whenever the President says something is bad, we also say it is bad and when he says it is good, we all agree it is good. It makes us look very bad as though we don’t have a voice on our own,” Mukurweini MP John Kaguchia notes. However, government leaders welcomed the President’s decision noting that they support the President’s vision for the country. Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who has been among the biggest defenders of the proposals praised President Ruto’s speech calling it a very powerful statement that addressed pressing concerns. He particularly lauded the President’s announcement cancelling the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the energy sector deals linked to Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. “The President was very blunt and direct in the statement he made. It is a major sigh of relief to Kenyans and has set a new bar for those seeking partnerships with us. Any partners must come with clean hands and integrity,” Mudavadi said. “We supported the President but many Kenyans did not support Adani. So, we were in a bit of a problem. But now, the President has listened to Kenyans and cancelled the deals,” Matungu MP Oscar Nabulindo said. While a majority of MPs have been silent on the Adani deals while others have been supporting it, the Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy, chaired by David Pkosing (Pokot West), on September 25, directed the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to suspend all further engagements with Adani group until a special audit of the tender award process is conducted. “It is the advice of the committee that you don’t do anything with Adani until this committee reports this matter to Parliament,” Pkosing directed.

Julián Álvarez picking up the scoring pace with Atletico Madrid

In his first television interview since their defeat in the 5 November presidential election, said he was “a little surprised” that he and his fellow Democrat lost the race to the Republican ticket headed by . “It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way,” the Minnesota governor told , one of his state’s news outlets, in an interview published on Thursday. “So, yeah, I was a little surprised. “I thought we had a positive message, and I thought the country was ready for that.” Walz said “history will write” whether the outgoing vice-president erred in choosing him as her running mate before Trump clinched his return to the White House. “Are there things you could have done differently? Since we lost, the answer is obviously yes,” Walz remarked. “On this one, I did the best I could.” During the conversation with KTSP, Walz also described the frantic morning after called him on 6 August asking him to serve as her vice-president if she was elected. His acceptance led to him being flown to Philadelphia on a private jet to be introduced at Temple University – where he said he and Harris shared a humorous moment. “She turns to me and she says: ‘Well, let’s not screw this up,’” Walz recalled. “And we went out there.” Walz’s election debrief with KTSP came after his participation in the presidential race with Harris initially generated excitement with Democrats. His mid-western, former high school football coach persona charmed on the campaign trail at first, and his popularity surged after he perturbed by labeling him and his allies “weird”. Nonetheless, Walz became less visible as the Harris campaign adopted more conventional strategies on the home stretch. Many ultimately regarded Walz as having performed less effectively than his Republican counterpart, US senator of Ohio, by the time the two men debated. Harris the electoral college to Trump by a 312-226 margin. The Republican candidate also captured the popular vote 49.9% to 48.4%, leaving him free to attempt to deliver on promises of and retribution against those who worked to hold him accountable for trying to forcibly overturn his defeat to in the 2020 election. Walz told KTSP he “certainly got to see America” during his failed run for the vice-presidency but is now prepared to focus on his gubernatorial agenda in Minnesota. “It was a privilege to do that,” Walz said. “Coming back here now and having the privilege to do this work feels really good.”The gunman who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fled New York City by bus, police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. Here's the latest: The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer may have fled the city on a bus, New York City police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer made sure to wear a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras that have aided authorities piecing together his movements and his identity. A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan and provided more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . The gunman’s whereabouts and identity remain unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence firmly points to it being a targeted attack . ▶ Read more about the search for the gunman In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking to when he was fatally shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. ▶ Read more about how companies protect their leaders Those images include New York’s subway system, a law enforcement official said. In establishments where the person was captured on camera, he always appeared to pay with cash, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. — Mike Balsamo Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said it’s temporarily closing all six locations. The firm has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. Employees will work from home, Medica spokesman Greg Bury said in an email Friday. “The safety of Medica employees is our top priority and we have increased security both for all of our employees,” a statement from Medica said. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.” Bury also said biographical information on the company’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution. The insurer cited the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in its announcement about the Dec. 12 event. “All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected. Health insurance is a big industry and a small community; many members of the CenTeam crossed paths with Brian during their careers,” Centene CEO Sarah M. London said in a news release. “He was a person with a deep sense of empathy and clear passion for improving access to care. Our hearts are with his family and his colleagues during this difficult time.” Centene Corp. has grown in recent years to become the largest insurer in Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers care for people with low incomes. Insurers manage Medicaid coverage for states, and Centene has more than 13 million people enrolled in that coverage. The insurance company also said it’s focused on ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the company said. But he said Friday that he’s confident police will arrest the shooter. “We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” Adams said on TV station WPIX. Later, it removed their names and biographies entirely. Police and federal agents have been collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and are working to determine whether he purchased the ticket to New York in late November, a law enforcement official said. Investigators were also trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza through which the shooter fled. The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. Experts say today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. ▶ Read more about the steps companies take to protect their leadership Police said Thursday they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper from a trash can near the scene of the ambush and think the suspect bought them from a Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The items were being tested by the city’s medical examiner.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Jojo Uga's 2-yard touchdown run capped a 24-point fourth quarter and Albany beat Hampton 41-34 on Saturday in a season finale. Jack Iuliano recovered a fumble by Malcom May at the Hampton 24, and though it took 10 plays, Uga went in for the touchdown and the game's final lead. Malcolm Mays scored on a 25-yard run for Hampton (5-7, 2-6 Coastal Athletic Association) but the PAT was blocked and Kevon Angry ran it back for Albany (4-8, 2-6), leaving Hampton with a 34-27 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Alex Jreige's 53-yard run then tied the game. Hampton led 28-0 before Van Weber threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Carter Moses with a couple minutes left in the first half. Albany added 10 points in the third quarter, including Jackson Parker's 38-yard touchdown catch. Nick Totten's pick-6 early in the fourth quarter got the Great Danes within 28-25. Weber threw for 184 yards with two scores and an interception. Jreige rushed for 110 yards. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football . Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said that Elon Musk is “so rich” that he is “removed from the potential financial influence” when it comes to conflicts of interest related to his future work in government. In other words, Musk is too wealthy to possibly use his forthcoming government position to further enrich himself. President Donald Trump has named Musk to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), leading many to worry that the tech billionaire would funnel government funds to his own companies like SpaceX , which benefits from federal contracts to the tune of billions of dollars. But Sununu believes Musk is too flush with cash to possibly want more government money, so why would he use his position as a government regulator to benefit himself and his corporations? “One of the criticisms and the concerns is that [Musk] has billions of dollars tied up in government contracts. You don’t see a conflict of interest here?” host Dana Bash asked the outgoing New Hampshire governor during a Sunday interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “Everyone has a conflict of interest at some level,” Sununu said, brushing the question aside. “But that’s like a pretty big one,” Bash noted. “True,” Sununu said. “The guy’s worth $450 billion as of today and this month. So I don’t think he’s doing it for the money. He’s doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision of America. He doesn’t need the dollars. He really doesn’t. So it’s not about, oh, if I get involved in this, I will get another little contract here or there. That’s nothing to him. So I like the fact that he’s — in a way, he’s so rich, he’s so removed from the potential financial influence of it.” So, according to Sununu, the richest man in the world can’t be influenced by the appeal of lucrative government contracts because he already has lots and lots of money. It’s a ridiculous argument. SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace company, has received nearly $20 billion in federal government contracts since 2008. In fiscal year 2024 alone, SpaceX raked in $3.8 billion in U.S. government contracts. Beyond that, Musk could profit from a huge personal tax break thanks to a benefit available to federal officials and his future role leading DOGE as what Trump has described as his “secretary of cost-cutting.” While Musk is raking in cash thanks to the government, millions of Americans could suffer if the Trump administration makes cuts to cornerstone entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare — benefits most working Americans have paid into since they began their careers. But Sununu isn’t worried. In fact, he says Social Security and Medicare cuts “should be on the table.” “[Cuts] should be on the table,” he said. “It doesn’t mean they have to do it tomorrow, but they at least have to think constructively. OK, we will set up a commission, we will set up guidelines, we will set up metrics.”TORONTO — Canada's main stock index eked out a gain Friday as a rise in tech stocks helped outweigh losses in energy, while U.S. markets were mixed after employment reports on both sides of the border. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 11.76 points at 25,691.80. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 123.19 points at 44,642.52. The S&P 500 index was up 15.16 points at 6,090.27, reaching another all-time high, while the Nasdaq composite was up 159.05 points at 19,859.77, another record. Both Canada and the U.S. got fresh jobs data on Friday, but the two reports painted very different pictures, said Pierre-Benoît Gauthier, vice-president of investment strategy at IG Wealth Management. U.S. employers hired more than expected last month but the unemployment rate also ticked higher to 4.2 per cent. “This report was just good enough,” said Gauthier — not too weak, but also not too strong. The report sealed expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce a quarter-percentage-point interest rate cut later in December, said Gauthier. It shows the economy continues to handle higher rates well, he added. In Canada, the economy added 51,000 jobs in November, while the unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 per cent. The jobs number was undermined by the fact the gain was mainly public-sector hiring, said Gauthier. “The federal government creating jobs is in no way, shape or form an indication of the strength of the Canadian economy,” he said. The Bank of Canada is set to cut next week, and Gauthier thinks it could be an outsized half-percentage-point cut. “The rate cuts here cannot come fast enough,” he said. But the Bank of Canada will need to keep an eye on the increasing differential between rates in the U.S. and Canada, he added, which could put further downward pressure on the already weak Canadian dollar. “The Bank of Canada will be stuck between a rock and a hard place, because at some point they'll still have to defend the Canadian dollar," he said. A lower Canadian dollar could also result in some inflation as imports from the U.S. cost more. The Canadian dollar traded for 70.74 cents US compared with 71.24 cents US on Thursday. The January crude oil contract was down US$1.10 at US$67.20 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was essentially unchanged at US$3.08 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was up US$11.20 at US$2,659.60 an ounce and the March copper contract was up a penny at US$4.20 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian PressThe teacher used a visual aid — a hand across his own perspiring forehead during a timeout — to illustrate his point. “We gotta slow it down.” The only thing slowing Mark Sausville these days is scar tissue in his left knee, which kept him from fully flexing his leg as he got up and down from his seat on the Schenectady boys’ basketball bench at Shenendehowa on Tuesday night. Otherwise, his animated, rapid-fire, meticulous lessons on the court echoed back to his first stint as the Patriots’ head coach, during which the team won its second state championship in four years in 2001. Another echo: Sausville’s hoarse voice after a 73-50 loss to Shen on Tuesday. “I’ll keep coaching like a maniac, like I always have, until I drop, I guess,” he said with a chuckle. If Sausville represents a reverberation from the Schenectady High glory years, he also offers a clarion call for his current team, which he took over after the school announced this summer that John Miller was giving up the job. Having served as the Scotia-Glenville head coach from 2017 until last season, he is in his 33rd year as a special ed teacher in the Schenectady City School District, and takes over a team that has lost two games by big margins to start 2024-25. Within a month or so, “I guarantee we’re going to be a much better basketball team.” If the Patriots do get much better, here’s another guarantee: It’ll be in large part because of Sausville’s embrace of the teaching aspect of coaching. “I want to see kids get better,” he said. “When I’m teaching them and they look me in the eye, I absolutely love it. It’s a thrill, as a teacher, that you can’t replace. “I just love seeing the lights go on in their eyes, like, ‘Holy cow, I get it.’ And I get that with basketball, too.” At 62 and coming off a knee replacement this summer that may need to be revisited in a year, Sausville does have some physical limitation. He may get up and down the sideline OK during games, but in practice, he can’t demonstrate certain points like he used to, like how to draw a charge or close out on shooters. “Basketball takes my mind off the pain a little bit; it’s not horse racing,” he said with a grin. Of course, any success the Patriots have this season will to some degree fall in lockstep with the level of talent Sausville has to work with. Senior Andre Jackson, who scored 18 points against Shenendehowa, is a strong finisher at the rim, and keep an eye on sophomore guard Jose Maduro Nunez. At the start of the second half, he used an ankle-breaking crossover dribble to open up space to hit a 3-pointer. “He’s very confident. But sophomores make sophomore decisions, and, as a coach, you’ve got to live with some of them,” Sausville said. “But we get great leadership from Dre [Jackson]. I’m thrilled to be coaching a guy like him, because he’s such a leader, and he just plays so hard. But they all played hard for me tonight, and I’m not going to ask for anything more than that.” Naturally, none of his players were born when Sausville’s Schenectady team won the 2001 state championship. Despite that, he said they are aware of the state titles won by the Patriots — Sausville also was Gary DiNola’s assistant on the 1998 team — mostly because of the buzz surrounding Sausville’s return to the job he held for 12 seasons through 2009-10. “They’ve been reminded enough, and all these articles in the paper aren’t hurting that fact,” Sausville said. “But they realize. They talk about how the crowd and the gym used to be packed back in the day, and how much fun that must’ve been.” “And I introduced them to who Walt Przybylo was when we started and the legacy of that, and I think it’s important,” he added, referring to Pat Riley’s legendary head coach in the 1960s. Sausville didn’t merely step into a vacuum at Schenectady High left behind when Miller stepped down. There were plenty of forces at work to lead him back into the Patriots coaching job, including persuasive encouragement from people deeply rooted in the program. He initially took an assistant’s job at Scotia-Glenville because his son, Alex, was playing there, and eventually moved up to the head coaching job there after having helped the Tartans win a state championship when he was an assistant under Jim Giammattei. “I was having fun at Scotia,” Sausville said. “We weren’t winning as much as I’d like. The kids were playing hard for me. I loved the Foothills [Council] coaching group and made some good friends, but Schenectady’s my home. I’m born and raised there, and I love the fast-paced game a little more and love coaching that get-up-and-grit, and that’s what we had tonight.” “I was texting him. I met Mark a couple years ago, and said, ‘It’s so great to have you on the sideline, and I can’t wait to sit down and shoot the breeze about the old times,’” Shenendehowa head coach Paul Yattaw said. “I’m so intrigued, because I wasn’t in the area at the time. I’ve been here my whole life except for the six or seven years when he went through that run. “To see him back at his old stomping grounds is great, and I think he’s going to do wonderful things with that program. “I’m just glad we got them early in the year.” On Friday, Sausville will work a game as the home coach at the Pat Riley Center for the first time since his return, against Niskayuna. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be special to be coaching the Schenectady team there again,” he said. “I was there [with Scotia] when Alex played, so I’ve been back, but when you’re coaching your home team, it’ll be special. “I have so much support from people, like yourself and the newspapers, and just people in general coming up saying, ‘We’re so glad you’re back.’” He never left, as a schoolteacher. He never left the coaching profession, from a teaching standpoint. On Tuesday, the Patriots regained possession when a Shenendehowa player kicked a Schenectady pass out of bounds, and the ball came straight to Sausville’s hands. Instead of reflexively tossing the ball to the ref, Sausville reflexively held onto it to show his player the proper way to have made that pass.

I’ve been seeing variations on the question above on comment boards and social media, and the answer is inevitably a resounding “No. Fucking. Way.” But let’s be clear about what the question really is, since it’s actually two questions at once. The fundamental thing that’s being asked is: Could “ Babygirl ,” an enthralling high-kink corporate drama, in which Nicole Kidman plays a girlboss who secretly yearns to be dominated and debased, and plays this all out with one of her young male interns...could a male director have gotten away with making that movie today? The answer everyone seems to agree on, with an underlying note of look-how-far-we’ve-come cultural pride, is no. I don’t necessarily disagree — though actually, in a way, I sort of do. “Babygirl,” written and directed by the volcanically talented Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn , is a gripping movie about a woman who liberates herself by giving into transgressive desires — desires we might once have categorized as politically or sexually incorrect, and that we would now call...what? Would we say, “She gets turned on by doing stuff that’s super not woke?” No, we wouldn’t say that, because it would sound absurd. But the point is that “Babygirl” is a film about someone who feels, and believes, that her deepest desires are wrong. It’s important to recognize what a common sensation that is. There’s an old saying that goes, “Sex isn’t good unless it’s dirty,” and I think what that expresses is that it’s intrinsic to the nature of human sexuality that people are drawn, in the erotic arena, to acting out things that feel “naughty” or “bad” or whatever. It’s whatever floats your boat. That’s why we have movies like “Basic Instinct” or “91⁄2 Weeks” or “Last Tango in Paris” or “In the Realm of the Senses” or “Bound” or “The Piano Teacher” or “Unfaithful” — movies that allow us to play out, in a collective ritual (or, at least, it used to feel that way in a theater), the tingly lure of forbidden sexuality. And it’s why we have porn, which Kidman’s character in “Babygirl” is addicted to. That’s the realm where her libidinous imagination can roam free. Kidman’s character, Romy, is trapped in a gilded and proper upper-class domestic existence, with a husband, played by Antonio Banderas, who loves and supports her, and two daughters she’s devoted to. But that’s part of her prison. It’s the life she has built and the life she wants; she has no reason to leave it. Yet it doesn’t feed her inner flame. She also wants to own her sexuality, every last kinky enticing layer of it, and because movies work in a mythological way, “Babygirl” makes a larger statement about the desire of women to own their sexuality. That’s why knowing that there’s a woman filmmaker behind the camera is part of the film’s sexual politics. Once Romy and Samuel (Harris Dickinson), who seduces and dominates her by acting like a dick, begin their forbidden affair, the relationship that gets played out is teeming with “wrong” things. But the movie, though it wants to be sexy, isn’t exploiting those things; it’s exploring them. Its gaze is allied with a liberated vision. What if a man had made the same film? You could certainly say it would be more controversial. But I still think it would be the kind of hot-button conversation-starter that movies should be about. And if the ultimate truth of a movie is what’s onscreen, and if we agree that “Babygirl” is not an exploitation film, then if a man had directed it, why in theory would we need to react differently to what’s onscreen? But here’s the thing: It wouldn’t have been the same movie. The crucial point about authorship and gender relates to the second meaning of “Could ‘Babygirl’ have been made by a male director?” Politically, that movie might have been an even hotter potato, but the real answer is: A male director would not and could not have made “Babygirl” the way that Halina Reijn made it. It’s not just about the cultural identity politics. It’s about how the film’s power emerges from a hard-wired female consciousness. Kidman’s performance is extraordinary (the best by a female actor this year, in my opinion), but part of what makes acting like this possible is that the role is conceived with an intimacy that renders Romy’s gaze more potent than ours. She’s gazing into the sadomasochistic abyss of her own longing. I think it’s worth noting just how infrequently the movies have portrayed this level of incendiary sexual adventure, especially on the part of women. We’re used to seeing it in a fevered pop-thriller context (e.g., “Basic Instinct”). But serious erotic movies are actually very rare wildflowers. “91⁄2 Weeks,” which Reijn has cited as an inspiration that she watched countless times when she was younger, was always, to me, the glossy synthetic kitsch version of a transgressive romance. “Fatal Attraction,” also directed by Adrian Lyne (and also an influence on Reijn), is infinitely better than “91⁄2 Weeks,” but it’s less about sexuality than a new line in the sand that women were drawing, with Glenn Close’s Alex telling Michael Douglas’s sneaky adulterer: I will not be used and thrown away. What “Babygirl” gets into, in the scene where Romy and Samuel meet up for an extended hotel-room tryst, is the shivery ambivalence Romy feels, her alternating current of fear and desire, and the danger too, which Samuel picks up on and uses to excite her. She’s letting go at last, but the focus is on the push-pull of her emotions. I can’t imagine that a male director would have staged that scene in quite that way. So no, a male director couldn’t have made the movie that “Babygirl” is. For too long, women didn’t have the power to make movies like this one. In a real sense, it’s their turn. That’s a revolution to be celebrated. Yet if we pivot back to the original meaning of the question, it seems as if part of what’s being asked is, “ Should a male director today make a movie like ‘Babygirl’?” And in that sense, I confess I’m a bit uncomfortable with that resounding “no.” It feels as if the “no” is coming from people who are saying, implicitly, “We’re the ones who would attack that movie. Simply for existing.” Yet do we truly want to be that lockstep when it comes to the issue of who can make what? “Babygirl” is a film that revels in throwing off the shackles of what’s allowed. We shouldn’t greet a movie like that by using it as an opportunity to lay down one more restriction on what we, as a culture, allow.