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South Africa Beat Pakistan by Seven Wickets in SA vs PAK 2nd T20I 2024; Reeza Hendricks Smashes Maiden Century, Rassie van der Dussen Stars As Proteas Claim Unassailable 2–0 LeadAFC standouts meet when Herbert, Chargers host Jackson's Ravens on Monday nightNEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player Award and first in the National League, and Aaron Judge earned his second American League honor on Thursday. Ohtani was a unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229. Judge was a unanimous pick for the first time. Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. got all 30 second-place votes for 270 points, and Yankees outfielder Juan Soto was third with 21 third-place votes and 229 points. Ohtani was unanimously voted the AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn't pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December. People are also reading... Ohtani joined Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues. He was the first player to twice become an unanimous MVP. He had combined with Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023 for the first year both MVPs were unanimous. Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. "The ultimate goal from the beginning was to win a World Series, which we are able to accomplish," he said through a translator. "The next goal is for me to do it again and so right now I'm in the middle of rehab and working out and getting stronger." When Ohtani returns to the mound, could he win MVP and the Cy Young Award in the same year? "That would obviously be great, but right now my focus is just to get to get back healthy, come back stronger, get back on the mound and show everybody what I can do," Ohtani said. Ohtani became the first primary DH to win an MVP in a season that started with the revelation his longtime interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen nearly $17 million from the star to fund gambling. Ohtani is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each). Balloting was conducted before the postseason. Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 31 stolen bases and 109 RBIs. Soto batted .288 with 41 homers and 109 RBIs. When Judge won his first MVP award in 2022, he received 28 first-place votes while Ohtani got the other two. Judge had discussed the MVP award with Philadelphia's Bryce Harper, the NL winner in 2015 and '21. "I was telling him, `Man, I'm going to try to catch up to you with these MVPs here, man,'" Judge recalled. "He'd say, hopefully, he could stay a couple ahead of me, which I think he'll do." When Judge won his first MVP award in 2022, he received 28 first-place votes while Ohtani got the other two. He is the Yankees' 22nd MVP winner, four more than any other team. Judge was hitting .207 with six homers and 18 RBIs through April, then batted .352 with 52 homers and 126 RBIs in 127 games. "March and April were not my friend this year." Judge said. "Just keep putting in the work and things are going to change. You can't mope. You can't feel sorry for yourself. Especially in New York, nobody's going to feel sorry for you. So you just got to go out there and put up the numbers?" St. Pete rejects money to repair Tropicana Field roof ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The St. Petersburg City Council reversed course Thursday on whether to spend more than $23 million to repair the hurricane-shredded roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' ballpark, initially voting narrowly for approval and hours later changing course. The reversal on fixing Tropicana Field came after the council voted to delay consideration of revenue bonds for a proposed new $1.3 billion Rays ballpark. Just two days before, the Pinellas County Commission postponed a vote on its share of the new stadium bonds, leaving that project in limbo. “This is a sad place. I'm really disappointed,” council chair Deborah Figg-Sanders said. “We won’t get there if we keep finding ways we can’t.” The Rays say the lack of progress puts the new stadium plan and the future of Tropicana Field in jeopardy. “I can't say I'm confident about anything,” Rays co-president Brian Auld told the council members. The Trop's translucent fiberglass roof was ripped to pieces on Oct. 9 when Hurricane Milton swept ashore just south of Tampa Bay. There was also significant water damage inside the ballpark, with a city estimate of the total repair costs pegged at $55.7 million. The extensive repairs cannot be finished before the 2026 season, city documents show. The Rays made a deal with the Yankees to play next season at 11,000-seat Steinbrenner Field, New York's spring training home across the bay in Tampa. The initial vote Thursday was to get moving on the roof portion of the repair. Once that's done, crews could begin working on laying down a new baseball field, fixing damaged seating and office areas and a variety of electronic systems — which would require another vote to approve money for the remaining restoration. The subsequent vote reversing funding for the roof repair essentially means the city and Rays must work on an alternative in the coming weeks so that Tropicana Field can possibly be ready for the 2026 season. The city is legally obligated to fix the roof. BRIEFLY PIRATES: Pittsburgh hired Matt Hague as its hitting coach, bringing him back to the team that drafted him in 2008. Hague replaces Andy Haines, who was fired after Pittsburgh finished in the bottom 10 in the majors in every significant statistical category last season, including runs (24th) and home runs (25th), while also striking out a club-record 1,504 times, second-most in the National League behind Colorado. The 39-year-old Hague spent last season as an assistant hitting coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane has dropped his push to get a county judge to recuse himself from all criminal cases because of statements made by the judge’s confidential law clerk, who was Keane’s opponent in the recent race for district attorney. Judge Kenneth F. Case gave prosecutors until Friday morning to file a formal motion seeking his recusal. At the scheduled court appearance, prosecutors told the judge they would not be filing any paperwork to challenge his previously announced decision to continue to preside over all cases being prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office. “We accept your decision,” Assistant District Attorney Harmony A. Healy, of the DA’s Appeals Bureau, said in court. Erie County District Attorney candidates James Gardner, left, and Michael J. Keane, the acting district attorney, debate at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute on Oct. 24. Keane defeated Gardner in the Nov. 5 election. Keane wanted Case to recuse himself based on various comments made by Case’s confidential law clerk, James R. Gardner, during his campaign against Keane. Gardner’s statements showed “bias” against him and his office, as well as people who face criminal charges, Keane had argued. Through a spokeswoman, Keane declined an interview request Friday. In a written statement, he said he had an “ethical obligation to inform the Court of any matter that weakens public confidence in our criminal justice system.” “The decision to recuse is within the sole discretion of the Judge and I will accept the stated position of the Court,” Keane said. Among other comments, Keane pointed to Gardner questioning the “core competency” of the DA’s Office in a radio interview and some of Gardner’s comments during an Oct. 24 debate which Keane argued “run completely contrary to the presumption of innocence.” Keane’s request, initially made in a letter given to the judge Nov. 14, essentially paused criminal cases before Case for a week. Since late last week, assistant district attorneys appearing before Case read a statement about the office’s recusal request. Sometime before Friday, prosecutors stopped making the request on the record with each case as it appeared before the judge. Initially, Case sought an opinion from the state court system’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics and told the committee he believed he could be fair and impartial, Healy said in court. In his letter, Case also told the committee he was unaware of 95% of the concerns raised in Keane’s letter, Healy said. Case and Gardner were “called before” 8th Judicial District Administrative Judge Kevin M. Carter and County Judge Susan M. Eagan, supervisor for criminal judges for the district, the prosecutor said. Keane’s request for Case’s recusal led to the postponement of a Buffalo man’s trial on charges that he set fire to an auto repair business on Union Road in Cheektowaga in June 2023. Nicholas Buettner, 22, faces a third-degree arson charge. Friday morning’s developments came during the next appearance in Buettner’s case. Parties in the case set a tentative new trial date for mid-January. In the next case called Friday morning, Gene T. Partridge III, chief of the district attorney’s Major Crimes Bureau, appeared before Case to discuss the recusal issue. Case told Partridge he has no bias against the DA’s Office and treats all counsel and justice system personnel with professionalism, courtesy and respect, something he said he expects in return. “You don’t need to ask me on every case,” the judge said. Partridge asked Case if Gardner would be recused from all pending criminal cases, a request Partridge said was also made at the time prosecutors sought Case’s recusal in all cases. Case said he would “insulate” Gardner from handling any part of a case on which he commented. Specifically mentioned was the case of Jamien Harris, a case Gardner criticized Keane and the District Attorney’s Office for during the campaign. Case dismissed a murder indictment against Harris in October 2023. Harris was initially charged with weapons possession after the fatal shooting of her 90-year-old grandmother. Prosecutors later brought a murder indictment and Case ruled that the District Attorney’s Office should have brought the murder charge when it brought the weapons count. The District Attorney’s Office has filed an appeal of Case’s ruling. Should that case be sent back to his court, Case said he would not have Gardner handle anything related to it. In terms of other cases, Case said he’s spoken to Gardner. Gardner told him he harbors no bias towards the District Attorney’s Office, Case said, and the judge said he believes Gardner when he told him he can be fair and objective in any matter. “He’s indicated any comments made in the midst of campaigning or a debate were just that,” Case said from the bench. Reach Aaron at abesecker[at]buffnews.com or 716-849-4602. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. 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Elon Musk's brain chip biz, Neuralink, has been given the nod by Health Canada to start recruiting for its CAN-PRIME Study. The study is a trial for the neurotech startup's wireless brain-computer interface (BCI), designed to interpret a person's neural activity so they can operate a computer by thought alone. The device has over 1,000 electrodes in threads implanted by a Neuralink robot. It will take approximately four years to complete the trial. Neuralink is looking for people with limited or no ability to use both hands due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). If this all sounds a little familiar, it should. Neuralink's first trial participant received an implant at the beginning of 2024. After some initially promising results, the company – and patient – encountered problems with threads containing the electrodes retracting from the patient's brain, which necessitated some tweaks to the software that interprets neural signals. Similar issues had apparently been observed during animal trials. Still, in the spirit of moving fast and breaking stuff, a second patient was enrolled and, initially at least, appeared to be doing well . Now it is the turn of eligible Canadian volunteers to submit to Musk's R1 robot. The trial is focused on the N1 implant rather than the Blindsight device, which received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA in September 2024 but has yet to begin human trials. While the N1 implant works by implanting threads containing electrodes into the patient's brain, Blindsight relies on a microelectrode array implanted in the patient's visual cortex. Musk has talked up the potential of the device. After admitting that vision will be "at first low resolution," Musk said: "Eventually it has the potential [to] be better than natural vision." The technology has a long way to go to get to that point. It is also not particularly new – scientists have long known that it is possible to allow a blind person to achieve a simple form of vision through electrodes in the visual cortex. The vast majority would also caution against overly optimistic expectations. Musk stated that "it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time," which is a bit of a stretch considering that the neural pathways required to make sense of vision are unlikely to exist in a patient who has never had sight regardless of what is in the visual cortex. ®What's Jalen Brunson Say On NBA Probe of Dad?

Coming off what was likely a week's worth of intense practices, No. 10 Kansas returns home for a matchup with North Carolina State on Saturday afternoon in Lawrence, Kan. The Jayhawks (7-2) lost back-to-back games versus unranked opponents, the first time in school history that they have done that while ranked No. 1. Now they have to regroup to face the Wolfpack (7-3). Kansas lost its first two games of the season emphatically: 76-63 at Creighton on Dec. 4 and 76-67 at Missouri last Sunday. Coach Bill Self, who has only lost three straight games four times in his 21-year career at Kansas, was pretty succinct about his team's play following the loss to Missouri. "I think it was probably a combination of them being good and us not being good," he said. "I don't know that I could give them 100 percent credit, but that's what happens in sports. When the other team is doing things to hurt you, and you don't attack it well, they guard you the same way. "A lot of times you just roll it straight because of just not being as prepared or ready. I think it was a combination of both. I would err on the side of giving them more credit, because if I just say we sucked, that would take credit from them. We did suck, but it was in large part them." The Jayhawks still have a balanced and experienced attack, led by seniors Hunter Dickinson (15.0 points per game), Zeke Mayo (10.9), Dajuan Harris Jr. (10.7) and KJ Adams Jr. (9.8). Their biggest problem against Missouri was the 22 turnovers. "It's been a crap week for all of us," Self said on his weekly radio show Tuesday. "But hopefully we get an opportunity to bounce back. "I'm not going to make any excuses. If you don't perform the way we didn't perform, there certainly can be some valuable things to learn from that hopefully will give us a chance to win the war and not just the battle." NC State has won back-to-back games, including the ACC opener against Florida State on Dec. 7. In their last game, the Wolfpack handled Coppin State 66-56 on Tuesday. That's not to say NC State coach Kevin Keatts was impressed. "I thought we did a terrible job at the end of shot clocks when they were going to take a bunch of bad shots but we fouled them," Keatts said. "That being said, you can learn a lot from a win instead of a loss. "We compete hard every day, and our energy is always high. With this group, I'm trying to get everyone to be consistent." The Wolfpack has a trio of double-digit scorers, led by Marcus Hill (13.0 ppg). Jayden Taylor adds 12.5 and Dontrez Styles chips in 10.6. Ben Middlebrooks (9.2) and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (8.7) round out the top five. Huntley-Hatfield (5.6 rebounds per game) and Styles (4.6) also lead a balanced rebounding attack. The Jayhawks have won 12 straight games in the series with North Carolina State. --Field Level MediaFor decades, power protected Alan Jones. Now he’s facing his own reckoning - Sydney Morning Herald

House meet: Cash-strapped Chandigarh MC gets no relief, only assurance from administratorSkidding No. 10 Kansas hopes to get right vs. NC StateNone

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None( MENAFN - PR Newswire) BEIJING, Dec. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The successful launch of Macao Science-1 satellites, the first space science satellite program jointly developed by the Chinese mainland and Macao, owes much to the strong support of scientists and engineers from the mainland, Zhang Keke, chief scientist of the program and vice president of Macao University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview. "It is a successful example of leveraging the advantages of the 'one country, two systems' policy to jointly achieve technological breakthroughs," Zhang said, while revealing that on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland, the Macao Science-2 satellite project has also been approved by the Macao Special Administration Regional (SAR) government. As the establishment of a "global high-precision geomagnetic constellation" has been included in the recently released national-level development program for medium- to long-term space science from 2024 to 2050, it can be expected that Macao's influence in the international space science and technology field will continue to grow in the future, said Zhang, who is also the director of the Macao Institute of Space Technology and Applications. The People's Daily reported on December 9 that the Macao Science-1 satellite science team recently released China's first WM3 4D Earth magnetic field model, which fully leverages the high-precision geomagnetic data collected by the satellite, expected to significantly improve Earth science and geomagnetic navigation. It can be applied to scientific research in Earth's deep interior, oceans, and Earth space, as well as in aerospace, maritime navigation, resource exploration, and intelligent devices. Zhang told the Global Times that the current version of the real-time Earth magnetic field model is built on the high-precision magnetic field data from the Macao Science-1 satellites and other effective geomagnetic data. As China's first self-controlled real-time Earth magnetic field model, it holds significant scientific and practical value and represents a major advancement in the scientific research and applications of the satellite project. Zhang added that the data collected by the Macao Science-1 satellites will grow, with algorithms undergoing continuous refinement. The team plans to release updated versions of the real-time Earth magnetic field model in the future. The study of Earth's magnetic field is key to human survival, Zhang said. The sun constantly emits high-energy particles that hurtle toward Earth at high speeds. Earth's magnetic field serves as a protective shield, shielding the planet from these particles. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible, he said. China launched the Macao Science-1 satellites on May 21, 2023, with a Long March-2C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Xinhua News Agency reported. According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Macao Science-1 project is the first jointly developed space science satellite program by the Chinese mainland and Macao. It is also the first scientific exploration satellite designed to study the geomagnetic field and South Atlantic Anomaly, Xinhua said. "After more than a year in orbit, the 'Macao Science-1' satellite has completed 8,000 Earth orbits, operating smoothly, collecting extensive high-precision data," Zhang said. "Scientists and engineers from countries including the US, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are using this data for research and applications in fields such as Earth's deep interior, ocean science, and Earth space science." According to the CNSA, the Macao Science-1 satellite program has signed cooperative research agreements with 18 countries including the US, the UK and France, positioning it as a "golden calling card" showcasing Macau's cutting-edge high-tech capabilities. "Due to the great success of the Macao Science-1 satellite, our team is now working on the planning of Macao Science-2," Zhang Keke shared. "If all goes well, the 'Macao Science-2' satellite is scheduled to be launched in late 2026 or early 2027." When asked why it is necessary to launch the Macao Science-2, Zhang explained, "Macao Science-1 can only conduct observations, analyses, and data measurements in low-latitude regions, but it excludes polar regions. To achieve full global coverage and to enhance measurements of Earth's magnetic field and spatial data, it is essential to launch the Macao Science-2 satellite." The Macao Science-2 program will also consist of two satellites. If successfully launched, they will form a satellite constellation with Macao Science-1 satellites. This four-satellite constellation will facilitate networked observations to deliver precise global data on Earth's magnetic field and space weather. It will be the world's first ideal constellation combining polar orbit and low-inclination satellites, offering detailed 3D observations of Earth's magnetic field and space weather. SOURCE Global Times MENAFN16122024003732001241ID1109000035 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.

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