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AP Top 25 Takeaways: Separation weekend in Big 12, SEC becomes survive-and-advance day around nation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

A separation weekend in the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference turned into a survive-and-advance Saturday around college football. It’s November. Just win. Don’t fret over the how.No. 1 Georgia got all it could handle from No 14 Missouri and No. 8 Alabama won a score-fest with No. 13 LSU to put the SEC superpowers on a collision course for another championship game meeting.If you counted out Jalen Milroe and the Crimson Tide after a shaky September, shame on you.Elsewhere, No. 3 Ohio State was trailing at the half to Rutgers for the first time ever before pulling away in the fourth quarter; No. 4 Florida State didn’t shake Pitt until late in the third quarter; No. 5 Washington leaned on its running game to win a shootout with No. 24 USC; and No. 7 Texas needed overtime to beat No. 25 Kansas State after blowing a 20-point lead.The Longhorns’ fellow Southeastern Conference-bound Big 12 rivalry was unable to complete the mission.In the final Bedlam game in the B...

Turkey’s main opposition party elects Ozgur Ozel as new leader

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s main opposition party voted for fresh leadership in the early hours of Sunday, five months after a devastating election defeat that saw President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extend his two-decade rule.Ozgur Ozel replaced Kemal Kilicdaroglu after delegates of the Republican People’s Party, or the CHP, elected him as new leader. The results in a second round of voting — held in a sports hall in Ankara — saw Ozel take 812 of 1,366 delegate votes to become the CHP’s 8th leader.Speaking from the stage in front of thousands of flag-waving CHP members, Ozel — his voice hoarse with excitement — promised the cheering crowd a brighter political future and “to make people smile.” Dissent spread among members of the CHP after the party failed to capitalize on dire economic circumstances in Turkey and the fallout from February’s earthquakes to oust Erdogan in parliamentary and presidential elections in May. At the time, pre-election polls had predicted a strong showing for the ...

Stage set for conflict at COP28 with mixed response to outcome of key climate talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Tense negotiations at the final meeting on a climate-related loss and damages fund — an international fund to help poor countries hit hard by a warming planet — ended Saturday in Abu Dhabi, with participants agreeing that the World Bank would temporarily host the fund for the next four years.The United States and several developing countries expressed disappointment in the draft agreement, which will be sent for global leaders to sign at the COP28 climate conference, which begins in Dubai in December.The U.S. State Department, whose officials joined the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, said in a statement it was “pleased with an agreement being reached” but regretted that it does not make contributions to the fund voluntary.The agreement lays out basic goals for the fund, including for its planned launch in 2024, and specifies how it will be administered and who will oversee it, including a requirement for developing countries to have a seat on the board, in additi...

Ukrainian war veterans with amputated limbs find freedom in the practice of jiu-jitsu

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Nervous ahead of their first jiu-jitsu championship, the war veterans gathered in a group to share jokes and help each other tie the belts of their kimonos. Many of them had suffered severe battlefield injuries requiring amputations.Now they were assembled to perform in the “para jiu jitsu” category at the Ukrainian national competition before hundreds of spectators on amphitheater-style benches in one of Kyiv’s sports complexes.More than 20,000 people in Ukraine have lost limbs because of injuries since the start of Russia’s brutal war there, many of them soldiers. A handful of them have dealt with their psychological trauma by practicing a form of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.“This gives us freedom. We don’t feel like we’re lacking anything,” said Artem Kuzmich, who started practicing jiu-jitsu classes after losing a leg on the battlefield in 2019.Kuzmich is Belorussian and voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army to fight Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine starting in...

Mark Stone has 4-point night, Avalanche shut out in Golden Knights’ romp

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

LAS VEGAS — Mark Stone became the first Golden Knights player to score two short-handed goals in a game as part of a four-point effort and goalie Adin Hill had 41 saves to help keep red hot Vegas rolling with a 7-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.William Karlsson and Jack Eichel also scored two goals, William Carrier had a goal and Chandler Stephenson and Pavel Dorofeyev each finished with two assists in the meeting between the NHL’s two most recent champions.Karlsson extended his point streak to nine games to tie four other players for the longest streak in team history.Stone’s two goals gave him 200 for his career. It is the third time in Knights history they have scored two short-handed goals in a game.Hill’s sixth career shutout is his first since March 12, 2022 against the Los Angeles Kings.Vegas (11-0-1) is the only team that has not lost in regulation. The Knights are tied with two other teams for the seventh-longest point streak to open a season.T...

Sharks’ Quinn not worried about job security amid dismal start

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

SAN JOSE – Following two of the most lopsided losses in franchise history, San Jose Sharks coach David Quinn said he’s not concerned about losing his job.The Sharks were smoked 10-2 by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, two nights after they were blasted 10-1 by the Vancouver Canucks in the first game of a four-game homestand.The Sharks, at 0-10-1, remain the NHL’s only winless team and with another loss on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, will set a new league record for most consecutive defeats to start a season with 12.The Sharks, who went 22-44-16 last season in Quinn’s first year in San Jose, have been outscored 55-12 this season.Asked after Saturday’s game if he was concerned about his job security, Quinn said, “I guess it’s an obvious question, but if you’ve been around long, I mean, I don’t think about that for two seconds. I’ve got a job to do.”The rebuilding Sharks traded two of their most impactful players in Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier earlier this...

China Premier Li seeks to bolster his country’s economic outlook at the Shanghai export fair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Seeking to generate excitement around a largely lackluster economy, Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday pledged to continue deepening reforms, expand free trade zones and relax market access for foreign investment.Li made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the opening of the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai, seeking to draw thousands of foreign businesses shopping for Chinese products and looking to expand trade and investment with the world’s second-largest economy. China’s economy expanded at a 4.9% annual pace between July-September, beating analysts’ forecasts of about 4.5%, official data show. But that was much slower than the 6.3% annual growth rate of the previous quarter.The Chinese government has adopted various policies to help the economy; raising spending on building ports and other infrastructure, cutting interest rates and easing curbs on home-buying. But economists say wider reforms are needed to address lon...

Walters: How to lower California’s highest-in-nation poverty rate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

The numbers of Californians living in poverty or near-poverty edged upward this year as federal pandemic programs expired, according to a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California and Stanford University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality.Currently, 13.2% of California’s nearly 40 million residents live in families which fall below the $39,000 annual income mark deemed the minimum for a family of four to meet its needs. The rate climbs to 31.1% if those in near-poverty (incomes up to $60,000) are included.The California Poverty Measure, or CPM, is derived from the federal Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM, which was devised to cure the deficiencies of the official poverty rate, a one-size-fits-all data point that measures just some income but is not adjusted for the cost of living.Both the California and the census rates use wider arrays of income and measures them against what it costs to live. The SPM varies by state while the California measure is...

Stone has 4-point night and Hill gets shutout in Golden Knights’ 7-0 romp over Avalanche

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mark Stone, as part of a four-point effort, became the first Golden Knights player to score two short-handed goals in a game and goalie Adin Hill had 41 saves to help keep red hot Vegas rolling with a 7-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.William Karlsson and Jack Eichel also scored two goals, William Carrier had a goal and Chandler Stephenson and Pavel Dorofeyev each finished with two assists in the meeting between the NHL’s two most recent champions.Karlsson extended his point streak to nine games to tie four other players for the longest streak in team history.Stone’s two goals gave him 200 for his career. It is the third time in Knights history they have scored two short-handed goals in a game.“It’s different guys every night,” Stone said. “The Karlsson line’s kind of carried us along. We’ve had some tight games the last couple of weeks, so it’s nice for (Eichel’s) and my line to kind of get going.”Hill’s sixth career shutou...

Arizona knocks off No. 20 UCLA to win 3 straight against ranked opponents for first time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:15:30 GMT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona’s fans poured over the wall and sprinted onto the field, joining the players in a raucous celebration for the second straight week.The Wildcats have an even bigger streak to revel in, one that’s never happened in the football program’s 124 years.Noah Fifita threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns, and Arizona knocked off No. 20 UCLA 27-10 on Saturday night to give the Wildcats victories over ranked opponents in three consecutive games for the first time in school history.“It was as good of a game as I’ve been a part of the year,” coach Jedd Fisch said. ”I’ve said that now a few weeks in a row and I think that’s what makes us cool. You know that we can keep saying we’re getting better.”Coming off wins over then-No. 19 Washington State and No. 16 Oregon State, the Wildcats (6-3, 4-2 Pac-12) picked apart one of the nation’s top defenses to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2017 — two years after going 1-11 in Fisch...