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Ja Morant gratified by a ‘perfect ending’ to a ‘perfect day’ as he returns from NBA suspension

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant described his game-winning shot at the end of a 34-point performance against the New Orleans Pelicans as “the perfect ending” to a “perfect day.”His 25-game suspension stemming from his social media antics with handguns ended Tuesday, and a new chapter of his already spectacular basketball career began in historic fashion.Never in NBA history had a player returned from an absence as long as 25 games and scored as many points.Never mind the fact that Morant led Memphis back from a 24-point deficit to a 115-113 victory on the road against a New Orleans Pelicans squad that had won its four previous games and had the likes of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson on the court.Fans in New Orleans didn’t offer Morant the friendliest welcome back, booing him during pre-game introductions and again as he dribbled the ball on the game’s opening possession.“There’s a lot of people that don’t like me; you see where that g...

Olvida la comida a bordo: estas son las mejores y peores aerolíneas cuando el vuelo sale mal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

Aviones modernos, asientos cómodos y azafatas imperturbablemente agradables.Estos son factores que muchas clasificaciones consideran para determinar las mejores aerolíneas del mundo.Pero pasan por alto un elemento crucial, según la empresa de derechos de los pasajeros AirHelp: cómo las aerolíneas tratan a los clientes cuando surgen problemas.“Creemos que una aerolínea debe ser evaluada no sólo por la forma en que trata a sus pasajeros durante el horario habitual, sino también por la consideración que muestra a los clientes cuando las cosas van mal”, afirma el informe.Para compilar su “AirHelp Score” anual, la organización evaluó 83 aerolíneas en función de la puntualidad, las opiniones de los clientes y la eficiencia con la que manejan las reclamaciones de compensación de los clientes.LAS MEJORES Y PEORES AEROLÍNEAS DE 2023Según datos del 1 de enero al 30 de septiembre de 2023, estas son las aerolíneas que encabezaron la puntuación AirHelp de 2023:Qatar Airwa...

Kim English, like Ed Cooley before him, sends No. 6 Marquette to a loss in Providence

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Kim English, like Ed Cooley before him, sent Shaka Smart and No. 6 Marquette home from Providence with a loss.Devin Carter had 22 points and eight rebounds to lead the Friars to a 72-57 victory Tuesday night — the third time in five seasons the unranked Friars have beaten a Golden Eagles team in The Associated Press Top 25.“There’s a humility that you have to have coming into a place like this, and an environment like this,” Smart said after falling to 0-3 in Providence since taking over as coach at Marquette. “I don’t care what number’s next to your name, or what you’ve done in the past, or what anyone says you are individually as a player. If you don’t have that, then you’re not going to be as connected as you need to be. And we didn’t have that tonight.”Carter made a career-high five 3-pointers and Ticket Gaines also hit five from beyond the arc to score 18 for Providence (10-2, 1-0 Big East), which hasn’t lost at home to Marquette since 2019. Bryce ...

What to know about abortion policy across the US heading into 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

Abortion is going to remain a major issue in politics, policy and the courts in the U.S. in 2024, even though most of the states that were expected to impose restrictions have already done so.The abortion landscape has been in flux since the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, which touched off a round of abortion policy changes and new litigation about them.There are still looming ballot questions and court decisions. And lawmakers could tweak current abortion laws.Here’s a look at what to know.ABORTION WILL BE ON THE BALLOT IN 2024Since Roe was overturned, abortion-related questions have been on the ballot in seven states – and the abortion rights side has prevailed on all of them.Legislatures in the East Coast blue states of Maryland and New York have already put questions on the November 2024 ballot to amend the state constitutions to include rights regarding reproductive health care.Both states already allow abortion through viability, which is gene...

Firefighters are battling a wildfire on the slopes of a mountain near Cape Town in South Africa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — More than 300 firefighters were battling a blaze on the slopes of a mountain near Cape Town in South Africa for a second day on Wednesday and residents were evacuated from at least one neighborhood overnight, emergency services said.Five firefighters were injured and two were taken to the hospital, the city’s Emergency Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said.The wildfire on the mountain slopes near the seaside town of Simon’s Town, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Cape Town, had threatened houses in the pre-dawn hours after it started on Tuesday. That threat was narrowly averted, Carelse said. He said only one derelict building on the grounds of a nearby South African navy base had been damaged.Residents were evacuated from the neighborhood most at threat just before 1 a.m. as a precaution, he said. Three helicopters continued to scoop up water from the ocean and drop it on the fire.Firefighters had worked to put out the fire th...

Airbnb admits misleading Australian customers by charging in US dollars instead of local currency

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian court on Wednesday ordered Airbnb to pay a 15 million Australian dollar ($10 million) fine, and the accommodation rental company could pay as much again in compensating customers who had been unaware they were being charged in U.S. rather than Australian dollars.Airbnb admitted making false or misleading representations to Australian users between January 2018 and August 2021 that prices shown on its platform for Australian accommodations were in Australian dollars, which are worth less than the greenback. For about 63,000 customers, the prices were in U.S. dollars.Federal Court Justice Brendan McElwaine ordered Airbnb to pay a AU$15 million fine within 30 days for breaching Australian consumer law, plus AU$400,000 in prosecution costs.Airbnb had earlier provided the court with an undertaking that it would pay as much as AU$15 million in compensation to eligible customers.Airbnb amended its platform on Aug. 31, 2021, so that prices in U.S. do...

Some state abortion bans stir confusion, and it’s uncertain if lawmakers will clarify them

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

Ever since the nation’s highest court ended abortion rights more than a year ago, vaguely worded bans enacted in some Republican-controlled states have caused bewilderment over how exceptions should be applied.Supporters have touted these exemptions, tucked inside statutes restricting abortion, as sufficient enough to protect the life of the woman. Yet repeatedly, when applied in heart-wrenching situations, the results are much murkier.“We have black and white laws on something that is almost always multiple shades of gray,” said Kaitlyn Kash, one of 20 Texas women denied abortion who are suing the state seeking clarification of the laws — one of a handful of similar lawsuits playing out across the country.State lawmakers there and elsewhere face growing pressure to answer these questions by amending laws in legislative sessions that start in most states next month. But it’s not certain how — or whether — they will.Before the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in...

Takeaways on AP’s investigation into cocoa coming from a protected Nigerian rainforest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) — Habitat for a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat, a casualty of the world’s appetite for chocolate. Deforestation driven by planting cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is whittling down Omo Forest Reserve, a protected rainforest in southwestern Nigeria that helps combat climate change and is one of Africa’s oldest and largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Farmers are expanding into conservation areas where cocoa farming is banned, conservation officials say.The Associated Press spoke to 20 farmers, two brokers and five licensed buying agents who are growing and selling cocoa from the reserve to figure out where cocoa beans used in holiday sweets are heading.Here are takeaways from AP’s investigation:COMPANIES GET COCOA FROM THE FORESTThe AP visited plantations and warehouses of farmers and licensed buying agents who acknowledge that they operate illegally in the reserve’s conservation area. AP ...

Drilling under Pennsylvania’s ‘Gasland’ town has been banned since 2010. It’s coming back.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

A year after pleading no contest to criminal charges, one of Pennsylvania’s leading natural gas companies is poised to drill and frack in the rural community where it was banned for a dozen years for polluting the water supply.Coterra Energy Inc. has won permission from state environmental regulators to drill 11 gas wells underneath Dimock Township, in the state’s northeastern corner — the sweet spot of the largest natural gas field in the United States, according to well permit records reviewed by The Associated Press. Billions of dollars worth of natural gas, now locked in shale rock deep underground, await Coterra’s drilling rigs.Some landowners, long shut out of royalties because of the state’s lengthy moratorium, can’t wait for the Houston-based drilling giant to resume production in Dimock. Other residents dread the industry’s return. They worry about truck traffic, noise and the threat of new contamination.Coterra has not set a date for the resumption of dri...

Cocoa grown illegally in a Nigerian rainforest heads to companies that supply major chocolate makers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:31:22 GMT

OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria (AP) — Men in dusty workwear trudge through a thicket, making their way up a hill where sprawling plantations lay tucked in a Nigerian rainforest whose trees have been hacked away to make room for cocoa bound for places like Europe and the U.S.Kehinde Kumayon and his assistant clear low bushes that compete for sunlight with their cocoa trees, which have replaced the lush and dense natural foliage. The farmers swing their machetes, careful to avoid the ripening yellow pods containing beans that will help create chocolate, the treat shoppers are snapping up for Christmas.Over the course of two visits and several days, The Associated Press repeatedly documented farmers harvesting cocoa beans where that work is banned in conservation areas of Omo Forest Reserve, a protected tropical rainforest 135 kilometers (84 miles) northeast of the coastal city of Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Trees here rustle as dwindling herds of critically endangered African forest e...