Celtic hero Chris Sutton couldn't resist a jibe at Rangers hero Kris Boyd as he weighed in on Roy Keane's post-match confrontation with a supporter. Former Manchester United captain Keane - now working as a pundit for Sky Sports - clashed with an Ipswich Town fan at the side of the pitch on Sunday. Viral clips on social media show Keane and the fan in animated discussion following the 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Ipswich. In Scotland at Sky we offer cuddles in car parks...👇👇 https://t.co/iGhN5moUVO There had been speculation over the pair meeting in the car park to further discuss their issue after the angry scenes just a few feet away from the Sky Sports cameras. Sutton, though, joked he was more familiar with offering a cuddle in the car park rather than any confrontation - in a throwback to his jibe at Boyd. The Celtic hero had offered Boyd a cuddle after Rangers slipped up to Kilmarnock and Celtic moved clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership. In a callback, Sutton posted: "In Scotland at Sky we offer cuddles in car parks..." Read more: Fans urge Celtic to REFUSE Hearts tickets over allocation Celtic vs Club Brugge: TV channel, live stream & team news Sutton was not making light of the Keane situation, though, as he revealed he faces similar shouts from angry supporters almost every week. On the 'It's All Kicking Off' podcast, he said: "Virtually every week that I work I would take similar to that. Absolutely, I do. "On the flip side of that there are also a hell of a lot of nice people out there. "There is the other side to that and it is a weekly occurrence but you just have to swot it off, bat it off, not be so thin-skinned. "Roy Keane obviously felt that the guy was over thew top and put him on the back foot offering him out in the car park."Massachusetts ex-senator who seeks pardon from Trump wanted ‘post-trial contact with jurors’‘The moment is too hot right now’: Peabody and Fuzzies breakup comes as businesses navigate tense political climate
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Paris, Dec 7 (AP) Howling winds couldn't stop Notre Dame Cathedral's heart from beating again. With three resounding knocks on its doors by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, wielding a specially designed crosier carved from fire-scorched beams, the monument roared back to life Saturday evening. For the first time since a devastating blaze nearly destroyed it in 2019, the towering Gothic masterpiece reopened for worship, its rebirth marked by song, prayer, and awe beneath its soaring arches. The ceremony, initially planned to begin on the forecourt, was moved entirely inside due to unusually fierce December winds sweeping across the Île de la Cité, flanked by the River Seine. Yet the occasion lost none of its splendour. Inside the luminous nave, choirs sang psalms, and the cathedral's mighty organ, silent for nearly five years, thundered to life in a triumphant interplay of melodies. The restoration, a spectacular achievement in just five years for a structure that took nearly two centuries to build, is seen as a moment of triumph for French President Emmanuel Macron, who championed the ambitious timeline — and a welcome respite from his domestic political woes. The evening's celebration, attended by 1,500 dignitaries, including President-elect Donald Trump, Britain's Prince William, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, underscored Notre Dame's enduring role as both a spiritual and cultural beacon. Observers see the event as Macron's, and his intention to pivot it into a fully fledged diplomatic gathering, while highlighting France's ability to unite on the global stage despite internal political crises. Macron's political woes Speaking inside the cathedral, Macron expressed “gratitude” Saturday to those who saved, helped, and rebuilt Notre Dame, his voice reverberating through the nave. “I stand before you ... to express the gratitude of the French nation,” he said, before voices raised in song flooded the space, filling it with harmonies not heard in over five years. “Tonight, the bells of Notre Dame are ringing again. And in a moment, the organ will awaken,” sending the “music of hope” cascading through the luminous interior to Parisians, France, and the world beyond, he said. The celebration is expected to give a much-needed boost to the embattled French leader, whose prime minister was ousted this week, plunging the nation's politics into more turmoil. Macron has called Notre Dame's reopening “a jolt of hope.” Observers say he hoped the occasion would briefly silence his critics and showcase France's unity and resilience under his leadership — a rare moment of grace in a presidency now facing a grave crisis. Monumental feats of restoration Inside, 42,000 square metres of stonework — an area equal to six soccer pitches — were meticulously cleaned, revealing luminous limestone and intricate carvings. Overhead, 2,000 oak beams, nicknamed “the forest,” were used to rebuild the spire and roof, restoring the cathedral's iconic silhouette. The thunderous great organ, with 7,952 pipes ranging from pen-sized to torso-wide, is resounding for the first time since the fire. Its newly renovated console, boasting five keyboards, 115 stops, and 30 foot pedals, was a marvel of restoration, reawakening a cornerstone of Notre Dame's identity. Guests gradually filing into the cathedral for the evening reopening ceremonies were awestruck by the renovated interiors, many whipping out cellphones to capture the moment. “It's a sense of perfection,” said François Le Page of the Notre Dame Foundation, which raised nearly half of the 900 million euros (USD 950 million) in donations for the restoration. He last visited in 2021, when the cathedral was cloaked in scaffolding. “It was sombre,” he said. “It's night and day.” Adding to the ceremony's visual splendour, Archbishop Ulrich and the clergy donned vibrant liturgical garments designed by renowned French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. Known for his eye-popping pop-art aesthetic, Castelbajac crafted 2,000 colourful pieces for 700 celebrants, blending modern elements with medieval touches. The Rev. Andriy Morkvas, a Ukrainian pastor who leads the Volodymyr Le Grand church in Paris, reflected on his first visit to Notre Dame in over a decade. “I didn't recognise it,” he said. “God is very powerful; He can change things.” He expressed hope that the cathedral's revival could inspire peace in his homeland, drawing strength from the presence of Ukraine's president. “I think that will have a big impact,” he said. “I hope Notre Dame and Mary will help us resolve this conflict.” The reopening of Notre Dame comes at a time of profound global unrest, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East. For Catholics, Notre Dame's rector said the cathedral “carries the enveloping presence of the Virgin Mary, a maternal and embracing presence." “It is a magnificent symbol of unity,” Olivier Ribadeau Dumas said. “Notre Dame is not just a French monument — it is a magnificent sign of hope.” The international range of dignitaries coming to Paris underline the cathedral's significance as a symbol of shared heritage and peace. Canadian visitor Noelle Alexandria, who had travelled to Paris for the reopening, was struck by the cathedral's ability to inspire. “She's been nearly ruined before, but she always comes back,” Alexandria said. “Not many of us could say the same after such tragedy, but Notre Dame can.” Historical details enrich the occasion Guests entered through Notre Dame's iconic western façade, whose arched portals adorned with biblical carvings were once a visual guide for medieval believers. Above the central Portal of the Last Judgment, the Archangel Michael is depicted weighing souls, as demons attempt to tip the scales. These stone figures, designed to inspire both awe and fear, set the stage for a ceremony steeped in history. Inside, the hum of hundreds of guests awaiting the service filled the cathedral with human sounds once more — a stark contrast to the construction din that echoed there for years. Tuners restoring the great organ often worked through the night to find the silence needed to perfect its 7,952 pipes, ranging from pen-sized to torso-wide. Notre Dame echoed to the sound of a sustained standing ovation after the showing of a short movie that documented the gargantuan rebuilding effort. Outside, the word “MERCI” — thank you — was projected against the cathedral's iconic western facade. The movie showed the terrible wounds left by the inferno — the gaping holes torn into its vaulted ceilings and the burned roof. But that was followed by images of all types of artisans, many using traditional handicraft techniques, who collectively restored Notre Dame to look better now than ever. "We went from night to light," said one of the workers in the movie. Security is tight for this global event Security will be high through the weekend, echoing measures taken during the Paris Olympics earlier this year. The Île de la Cité — the small island in the River Seine that is home to Notre Dame and the historic heart of Paris— is closed to tourists and non-residents. Police vans and barriers blocked cobblestoned streets in a large perimeter around the island, while soldiers in thick body armour and sniffer dogs patrolled embankments. A special security detail is following Trump. Public viewing areas along the Seine's southern bank will accommodate 40,000 spectators, who can follow the celebrations on large screens. For many, Notre Dame's rebirth is not just a French achievement but a global one — after the reopening, the cathedral is set to welcome 15 million visitors annually, up from 12 million before the fire. (AP) GRS GRS (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
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Update, Nov. 23, 2024: This story has been updated with information about President-elect Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services nominees and the correct date of this summer’s assassination attempt on Trump. When the Leapfrog Group issued its latest patient safety scores, I looked up the hospital to which Donald Trump was rushed bleeding after an assassination attempt in western Pennsylvania this past summer. The now-president-elect was lucky in more ways than the obvious — that a high-powered rifle bullet barely missed his head. Butler Memorial Hospital, from which Trump was discharged safely late on the night of July 13, has a long history of above-average patient safety performance. Luck, though, should have nothing to do with avoiding treatment-caused harm. Ensuring consistently safe care at every hospital nationwide should be a conscious Trump Administration policy choice. Proposed nominees for key Department of Health and Human Services posts provide cautious optimism that it will be. Patient safety came to the policy fore almost exactly 25 years ago. During the slow news period after Thanksgiving 1999, the Institute of Medicine issued a report declaring that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans were being killed every year by preventable medical errors in hospitals. The errors also added financial costs of $17 billion to $29 billion. Subsequent research has moved the death toll much higher, with Leapfrog estimating 160,000 avoidable deaths in hospitals in 2018, or more than three times the number of people who died in motor vehicle accidents. Butler Memorial has regularly earned an “A” on the Leapfrog biannual report card, though it received a “B” in its spring 2024 and recent fall 2024 reports. Still, while the hospital fell short in some areas, it fully achieved the Leapfrog standard in “effective leadership to prevent errors.” That category includes providing resources to implement a patient safety program and developing “systems and structures to support action to improve patient safety.” Harm Prevention Funding Falters Badly That systemic attention to harm prevention is where health policy comes in. The initial report by the Institute of Medicine (today known as the National Academy of Medicine) sparked a public outcry. In response, Congress provided $50 million to what is now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Since then, though, patient safety funding has failed to even match inflation, much less reflect the pervasiveness of preventable harm repeatedly documented by researchers. For instance, a 2015 National Academy of Medicine report said it’s “likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences.” In fiscal 2024, the AHRQ patient safety office budget was $89.6 million , with the same amount requested by the president for fiscal 2025. To put that into perspective, that modest funding doesn’t even equal half the net patient revenue of one average hospital . AHRQ’s total fiscal 2025 budget request was $513 million for all its activities, which include providing data and analytics to policymakers and research in digital health, primary care and behavioral health. Again, in perspective that’s about the sales of a couple of Costco warehouses as the total amount allocated to research on improving the safety and effectiveness of a nearly $5 trillion health care system. A political problem AHRQ faces on the funding front is that the ineffective or harmful care it helps avoid is invisible to the patients and families who benefit. The Leapfrog Group estimated that 50,000 lives could be saved each year if all U.S. hospitals earned an “A” patient safety score, but it takes some digging to understand how far the public perception of safe care deviates from the reality. When you look at the list of the 12 hospitals that have received an “A” from Leapfrog every year since the first scores were given out in 2012, the most famous names in American medicine are conspicuously absent. For instance, there’s the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, but not the renowned home clinic in Minnesota; a Kaiser Permanente outpost in Orange County, but none in its headquarters area of Oakland or in Los Angeles; and there are no Harvard hospitals on the list in Massachusetts. While the Trump assassination attempt was dramatic, the more subtle health policy lesson was that none of us — president, presidential candidate or billionaire — can guarantee where we’ll be if we suddenly need medical care. Therefore, it’s vital that certain standards be upheld everywhere. Yet since 2012, as I’ve written , House Republicans have been trying to eliminate AHRQ altogether, mostly, it seems, because the agency represented an easy target for budget-cutters. Unfortunately, it’s a classic example of penny-wise and pound-foolish. In his book Savings Lives & Saving Money: Transforming Health and Healthcare , the former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich — a former member of the AHRQ National Advisory Council, where I’m a current member — emphasized the importance of individuals “having access to quality, outcomes-based information.” As an individual, I couldn’t agree more. Policymakers, though, also need that same kind of information. In late 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services launched a National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety , coordinated by AHRQ. The Trump administration’s HHS designees are uniquely equipped to build upon and accelerate that effort. Dr. Martin Makary, to be nominated to head the Food and Drug Administration, is a respected patient safety expert , having written that medical error is “the third leading cause of death” and called for greater transparency about hospital performance. Dr. Mehmet Oz, asked to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has surely seen his share of patient safety problems as a former heart surgeon at a major academic medical center. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated as HHS Secretary, suffered a well-publicized diagnostic error , almost undergoing unnecessary surgery for a putative brain tumor until a second physician examined the images and determined his symptoms were caused by a parasite that had infiltrated into his brain and then died. The “zero harm” experience of Donald Trump; the professional expertise of Makary and Oz; and the medical error suffered by Kennedy should motivate the new administration to put funding and political clout behind a demand that hospitals with the “systems and structures to support action to improve patient safety,” as was the case at Butler Memorial, should be the minimum every American can expect.
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