Key Trends in the Cricket World Cup Market with Insights from Expedia Group, Hospitality Service Providers (e.g., Willow TV), Financial Institutions (e.g., Vodafone, Hotstar, Sports Marketing Agencies (e.g., Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
Western Michigan beats Eastern Michigan 26-18 to become bowl eligible
Indiana aims to run its winning streak to five games Friday night when Nebraska welcomes the Hoosiers to Lincoln, Neb. Indiana (8-2, 1-0 Big Ten) has lost the past three meetings with Nebraska after winning seven straight. The Hoosiers are led by center Oumar Ballo, a transfer from Arizona who averages 13.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, and forward Malik Reneau (team-best 15.5 points and 6.4 rebounds). Reneau, according to Indiana, is one of five major-conference players to average at least 10 points per game with a field goal percentage of at least 60 and 80 percent from the free-throw line. Off Indiana's 82-67 home win over Minnesota on Monday, head coach Mike Woodson said there are things to work on going forward. "When you get a team down 15, 20 points, you got to remember how you got them down and continue to do the same things that got you the lead," said Woodson, "and I don't think we did that coming down the stretch." Nebraska's best win this season was over then-No. 14 Creighton in an in-state battle last month. But the Cornhuskers (6-2, 0-1) haven't played a very difficult schedule, and were blown out 89-52 by current No. 21 Michigan State on the road last weekend. The Spartans became the first team in 25 games to make more than 50 percent of their shots against Nebraska, so improved defense will be key for the Huskers. Nebraska was also outrebounded 48-19. "That hadn't been us all year, and that was the disappointing thing," coach Fred Hoiberg said. "The physicality of the game in this league ... we're going to see it every night. I've been pleased with how they've responded, but we'll see how they step up to the challenge Friday night." If Nebraska can turn things around on offense, it is 38-2 under Hoiberg when scoring at least 80 points, including 4-0 this season. Brice Williams is Nebraska's leading scorer at 17.5 points per game. Connor Essegian adds 13.0 ppg and shoots 42.6 percent from 3-point range. --Field Level Media
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As the parliamentary year draws to a close, with speculation that an election will be called as early as March next year, a burning question comes to mind. Just what has been the point of the Albanese government? In two and a half years, interest rates have increased 12 times, meaning that mortgage repayments are 62 per cent higher than when the Albanese government came into office. For the past six quarters in a row, GDP per capita growth has been negative, the worst result in 50 years. It’s impossible for young people to get into the housing market, with record immigration levels meaning that housing supply is nowhere near keeping up with demand. Underlying inflation figures – the number once government subsidies are taken out of the equation – released this week show that groceries, rent, gas, insurance, among other things, are more expensive, meaning an interest rate cut won’t be coming any time soon. Power bills, rather than coming down by the much-vaunted $275, have increased close to four times that, thanks in no small part to Chris Bowen’s insane ideological crusade on weather-dependent wind and solar power. The cat was belled on this last week when Frontier Economics released a report that revealed the cost of building a renewable-only power grid is more than $500 billion higher than what the Albanese government has claimed. As we head into summer, this supposedly first world country is being told that the electricity system we have can no longer cope with heatwaves and risks blackouts if we turn on air-conditioners during 40C days. In Australia, 40C days mean a normal summer and I should be able to turn the air-conditioner on if I need to. AEMO invoked emergency energy powers to avoid blackouts. If a first world country cannot supply enough electricity for times when there is peak demand, well, as Chris Uhlmann put it, we are on a pathway to poverty while Bowen and his cronies conduct an experiment with the most essential of services, and destroying arable land and forests in doing so. And while the rest of the world at COP29 decides to press ahead with the reliable, safe, affordable and emissions free nuclear option, Bowen gives the proverbial middle finger to our AUKUS partners in developing the same nuclear energy that will power submarines to be used on land. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, after last year’s $15.8 billion surplus – thanks to soaring tax collections from mining companies who the government demonises – will manage to turn that into deficit of $33.5 billion this financial year, according to Deloitte Access Economics. In fact, Deloitte predicts the deficit will grow in 2025-26 to $46.8 billion, $6 billon worse than Treasury projections and this is driven in no small part by government spending, which as Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock pointed out, is adding fuel to the inflation fire. Not content with saddling this and future generations of taxpayers with increasing interest repayments – money that could have been used to fund schools, hospitals and roads – Chalmers now thinks he can direct the Future Fund (which pays military and public service pensions) no longer to choose investments based on the best possible return to taxpayers, but on what’s in the Albanese government’s best electoral interest. Chalmers claims this move will not jeopardise returns, but, as anyone with a modicum of economic common sense knows, if investment options are limited, the capacity for a return is also limited. It is nothing short of irresponsible. Add to all this the workplace legislation changes that, as this column recently highlighted, impose a substantial economic cost on small to medium business – many of them family business. And just this week the government passed legislation to forgive student HECS debt by 20 per cent. Those who stand to benefit most from this pathetic attempt to buy votes are law and medicine students, meaning that hardworking Australians who have never been to university will be subsidising those who will be earning a motzer once they get into the workforce. Former US President Bill Clinton’s advisers had a simple strategy based on the dictum: “It’s the economy, stupid.” It seems Albanese and Co can only recall the “stupid” part, for the economic well-being of Australians has been sacrificed on the altar of pet activist projects such as the Voice, which sucked up 18 months and nearly half a billion dollars. And when the result was not what Albanese wanted, he blames it on “misinformation” and tries to introduce legislation to silence people that spread “false, misleading or deceptive information about ... referendum proposals, elections, public health, the economy”, among other things. Albanese’s equivocation following the October 7 atrocities, while at the same time decrying “Islamophobia”, having his Foreign Minister support a UN motion for a permanent Palestinian state and Albanese remaining silent on the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, show a lack of moral conviction, if not moral relativism. His government’s removal of temporary protection visas means illegal boat arrivals have started again, and its incompetence in dealing with detainees following the High Court’s NZYQ decision led to the bashing of Perth grandmother Ninette Simons. I could go on. Our high school history teacher told us that: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you know where you are going.” The Albanese government’s priorities are askew. His “I grew up in social housing raised by a single mother” routine is no substitute for leadership. On any measure, Australia is going backwards at a rate of knots. After just two and a half years, is it any wonder that this government is being considered worse than Whitlam. Dr Rocco Loiacono is a legal academic, writer and translator. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade practicing as a lawyer with Clayton Utz, one of Australia’s top law firms. As well as SkyNews.com.au, he regularly contributes opinion pieces, specialising in politics, freedom and the rule of law, to The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The AustralianOnumonu nets historic goal as Super Falcons lose to France in friendlyDAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus Sunday, triggering celebrations across the country and beyond at the end of his oppressive rule. Russian news agencies late Sunday said Assad and his family were in Moscow. Crowds toured Assad’s luxurious home after the rebels declared he had fled, a spectacular end to five decades of brutal Baath party government. READ MORE: Syria rebels’ lightning offensive: 11 days to the fall of Damascus Syrian government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family The government fell 11 days after the rebels began a surprise advance more than 13 years after Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war, which had become largely dormant until the rebel push. “This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that spearheaded the advance, said in an address at the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. US President Joe Biden said Assad should be “held accountable” but called the nation’s political upheaval a “historic opportunity” for Syrians to rebuild their country. “The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice,” Biden said from the White House. ‘Syria is ours’ Residents cheered in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.” Celebratory gunfire sounded along with shouts of, “Syria is ours and not the Assad family’s”. AFP correspondents saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad’s modern, spacious home whose rooms had been stripped bare. “I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” he said. The rebel factions on Telegram proclaimed the end to “50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement”. It is, they said, “the start of a new era for Syria.” The foreign ministry of Assad’s key backer, Russia, had announced earlier Sunday that Assad had resigned from the presidency and left Syria. The head of war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: “Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left” the facility. Later Sunday, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that he and his family had arrived in Moscow where they had been granted asylum “on humanitarian grounds”. ‘Historic opportunity’ Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father and the founder of the repressive system of government he inherited. For the past 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent could land one in prison or get one killed. During their advance, the rebels said they had freed prisoners, including on Sunday at the Sednaya facility, notorious for the darkest abuses of Assad’s era. UN war crimes investigators urged those taking charge in the country to ensure the “atrocities” committed under Assad’s rule are not repeated. Amnesty International called this a “historic opportunity” for those responsible for the abuses in Syria to face justice. The end of Assad’s rule came just hours after HTS said it had captured the strategic city of Homs. Homs was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took place in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. Hezbollah had supported Assad during the long civil war but has been severely weakened by Israeli strikes. The group’s forces “vacated their positions around Damascus”, a source close to the group said Sunday. HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda but has sought to soften its image in recent years. It remains listed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments. On Sunday afternoon the rebels announced a curfew in the capital until 5:00 am (0200 GMT) Monday. The commander of Syria’s US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of northeast Syria, hailed the fall of Assad’s “authoritarian regime” as “historic”. A military council affiliated with the SDF clashed Sunday with Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Syria’s north, leaving 26 fighters from both sides dead, the Observatory said, as the Turkish-backed group launched an offensive on the Manbij area. ‘We’re going home’ The Observatory said Israel had struck government security buildings and weapons depots Sunday on the outskirts of Damascus, as well as in the eastern Deir Ezzor province. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overthrow of Assad was a “historic day in the... Middle East” and the fall of a “central link in Iran’s axis of evil”. “This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s main supporters,” he added. The UN envoy for Syria said the country was at “a watershed moment”. Turkey, which has historically backed the opposition, called for a “smooth transition”. Iran said it expected “friendly” ties with Syria to continue, even as its embassy in Damascus was vandalised. Since the start of the rebel offensive, at least 910 people, mostly combatants but also including 138 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory said. Syria’s war has killed more than 500,000 people, and forced half of the population to flee their homes. Millions fled abroad “I can barely remember Syria,” said Reda al-Khedr, who was only five years old when he and his mother escaped Syria’s Homs in 2014. “But now we’re going to go home to a liberated Syria,” he told AFP in Cairo. Liberated, but facing enormous challenges. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday the bloc would help rebuild a Syria that safeguards minorities after Assad’s fall.
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