Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuitIn conclusion, the recent ITTF ranking highlights the exceptional performance of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, showcasing their talent and determination in the world of table tennis. As Chinese players continue to dominate the international scene, the bar has been set high for the rest of the world, inspiring a new generation of players to aim for greatness and redefine the standards of the sport. With Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha leading the way, Chinese table tennis is on a path towards continued success and excellence.
Southern California jumped to No. 4 in The Associated Press women's college basketball poll on Monday after edging UConn. The Trojans moved up three spots in the AP Top 25 after beating the then-No. 4 Huskies 72-70 on Saturday night in a rematch of last season's Elite Eight game that UConn won. "It feels great to get the dub always," USC star JuJu Watkins said after the victory. "I think it hit a little different knowing the history of last year and how they sent us home." This was the Trojans' first win ever over UConn. "This is a really significant win, and it's a really significant win because of the stature of UConn's program and what Geno Auriemma has done for our sport," USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "It doesn't matter to me that they haven't won a championship in a couple years. There's still a way that they prepare, a way that they play, that makes you better, and it made us better." UCLA, South Carolina and Notre Dame remained the top three teams. The Bruins received 30 of the 32 first-place votes from a national media panel. The Gamecocks and the Fighting Irish each got one first-place vote. UConn fell to seventh behind Texas and LSU. Maryland, Oklahoma and Ohio State rounded out the top 10 teams. Duke dropped five spots to No. 14 after losing to South Florida on Saturday. The Blue Devils' other two losses this season were to Maryland and South Carolina. The Bulls are 7-6 on the season, with four of those losses coming against ranked opponents (UConn, Louisville, TCU and South Carolina). Alabama jumped back into the poll at No. 20 two weeks after falling out. The Crimson Tide had an impressive 82-67 victory over Michigan State, handing the Spartans their first loss of the season. It was Alabama's first victory over a ranked opponent this year. The Southeastern Conference has eight teams in the poll this week with Alabama's return. The Big Ten is next with seven. The ACC has six while the Big 12 has three and the Big East one. No. 23 Michigan at No. 4 USC, Sunday. The Wolverines start Big Ten play with a trip to Los Angeles to face the Trojans on Sunday and then the Bruins a few days later. Coach Kim Barnes Arico's young team is off to a 10-2 start. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Title: Looking Back at the Football Scene in 2006: Italy and Barcelona Dominate, Cannavaro Wins the Ballon d'OrIn the aftermath of its explosive debut, OpenAI Sora stands as a testament to the limitless possibilities of human ingenuity and innovation. With its groundbreaking technologies and visionary approach, Sora has set a new standard for AI excellence and paved the way for a future filled with infinite possibilities.
French officials solved an awkward seating dilemma at the Notre-Dame cathedral re-opening yesterday by placing First Lady Brigitte Macron between US President-elect Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s wife and daughter in the front row at the ceremony. The presence of Trump and the outgoing president’s family presented protocol planners with a headache so soon after one of the most bitter election campaigns in US history. Trump ridiculed Biden as “Sleepy Joe” throughout, while Biden called Trump a “threat to democracy” and let it be known that he considered him a “fascist” on the eve of the November 5 vote. The future 47th president was treated as guest of honour yesterday in Paris, given the seat immediately to French President Emmanuel Macron’s right in the front row of the congregation. Jill Biden, representing the outgoing president, as well as the couple’s daughter Ashley, were also seated on the front row but with Brigitte separating them from Trump. President Biden, 82, decided against travelling to Paris and appeared visibly tired as he made a historic first visit by a US leader to Angola in southern Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday. Before the start of the ceremony, the US first lady and Trump found themselves seated on their own briefly and could be seen exchanging pleasantries. Trump made his trademark raised fist gesture — immortalised when he survived an assassination attempt in July — as he entered the cathedral. Wearing an uncharacteristic yellow tie, he stopped briefly to talk to Prince William, heir to the British throne, before taking his seat. Related Story QU launches 4th World Congress on Engineering and Technology Al Kuwari reelected president of Qatar Rugby and Hockey committeeUsers were greeted with a sleek and intuitive interface, inviting them to explore Sora's powerful suite of tools and features. From advanced natural language processing to cutting-edge image recognition, Sora showcased the full breadth of OpenAI's technological prowess, leaving users both enthralled and inspired.
On the other hand, Sun Yingsha has been dominating the women's table tennis scene with her aggressive playing style and quick reflexes. Her lightning-fast backhand shots and precise placement on the table have made her a formidable opponent for any player. Sun's determination and passion for the sport are evident in her consistent performance and relentless pursuit of excellence, making her a true champion in every sense of the word.None
Opposition fighters are closing in on Syria’s capital in a swiftly developing crisis that has taken much of the world by surprise. Syria's army has abandoned key cities in the west and south with little resistance. Nervous residents in Damascus describe security forces on the streets. The state news agency has been forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad has left the country. Who are these opposition fighters ? If they enter Damascus after taking two of Syria’s largest cities , what then? Here’s a look at the stunning reversal of fortune for Assad and his government in just the past 10 days, and what might lie ahead as Syria’s 13-year civil war reignites . This is the first time that opposition forces have reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital since 2018, when the country’s troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The approaching fighters are led by the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham , or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Both have been entrenched in the northwest. They launched the shock offensive on Nov. 27 with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest. The HTS has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. But the group said in recent years it cut ties with al-Qaida, and experts say HTS has sought to remake itself in recent years by focusing on promoting civilian government in their territory as well as military action. HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government. The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge. The Turkish-backed militias also have an interest in creating a buffer zone near the Turkish border to keep away Kurdish militants at odds with Ankara. Turkey has been a main backer of the fighters seeking to overthrow Assad but more recently has urged reconciliation, and Turkish officials have strongly rejected claims of any involvement in the current offensive. Whether the HTS and the Syrian National Army will work together if they succeed in overthrowing Assad or turn on each other again is a major question. While the flash offensive against Syria’s government began in the north, armed opposition groups have also mobilized elsewhere. The southern areas of Sweida and Daraa have both been taken locally. Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze religious minority and had been the site of regular anti-government protests even after Assad seemingly consolidated his control over the area. Daraa is a Sunni Muslim area that was widely seen as the cradle of the uprising against Assad’s rule that erupted in 2011. Daraa was recaptured by Syrian government troops in 2018, but rebels remained in some areas. In recent years, Daraa was in a state of uneasy quiet under a Russian-mediated ceasefire deal. And much of Syria's east is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group backed by the United States that in the past has clashed with most other armed groups in the country. Syria’s government now controls just four of 14 provincial capitals. Much depends on Assad’s next moves and his forces' will to fight. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops have withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces and are sending reinforcements to Homs. If that city is captured, the link would be cut between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where he enjoys wide support. “Homs to the coastal cities will be a very huge red line politically and socially. Politically, if this line is crossed, then we are talking about the end of the entire Syria, the one that we knew in the past,” said a Damascus resident, Anas Joudeh. Assad appears to be largely on his own as allies Russia and Iran are distracted by other conflicts and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has been weakened by its war with Israel, now under a fragile ceasefire. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, is calling for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition,” saying the situation is changing by the minute. He met with foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran on the sidelines of the Doha Summit. President-elect Donald Trump in his first extensive comments on the developments in Syria said the besieged Assad didn’t deserve U.S. support to stay in power. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump posted on social media.
The New Orleans Pelicans (5-20) are dealing with seven players on the injury report, including Brandon Ingram, heading into their Thursday, December 12 game against the Sacramento Kings (12-13) at Smoothie King Center. The Kings have listed three injured players. The game starts at 8:00 PM ET. Watch the NBA, other live sports and more on Fubo. What is Fubo? Fubo is a streaming service that gives you access to your favorite live sports and shows on demand. Use our link to sign up. The Kings won their last outing 141-97 against the Jazz on Sunday. In the Kings’ win, Kevin Huerter led the way with a team-high 26 points (adding five rebounds and four assists). The Pelicans’ most recent contest on Sunday ended in a 121-116 loss to the Spurs. Trey Murphy III’s team-leading 25 points paced the Pelicans in the losing effort. Sign up for NBA League Pass to get live and on-demand access to NBA games. Get tickets for any NBA game this season at StubHub. Catch NBA action all season long on Fubo. Bet on this or any NBA matchup at BetMGM. Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .
By John Hanna, The Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. — Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there’s one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to be a nonstarter: Kansas. That’s because the state has been there, done that, and all but a few Republicans would prefer not to go there again. Kansas imposed a proof-of-citizenship requirement over a decade ago that grew into one of the biggest political fiascos in the state in recent memory. The law, passed by the state Legislature in 2011 and implemented two years later, ended up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote. That was 12% of everyone seeking to register in Kansas for the first time. Federal courts ultimately declared the law an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, and it hasn’t been enforced since 2018. Kansas provides a cautionary tale about how pursuing an election concern that in fact is extremely rare risks disenfranchising a far greater number of people who are legally entitled to vote. The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, championed the idea as a legislator and now says states and the federal government shouldn’t touch it. “Kansas did that 10 years ago,” said Schwab, a Republican. “It didn’t work out so well.” Steven Fish, a 45-year-old warehouse worker in eastern Kansas, said he understands the motivation behind the law. In his thinking, the state was like a store owner who fears getting robbed and installs locks. But in 2014, after the birth of his now 11-year-old son inspired him to be “a little more responsible” and follow politics, he didn’t have an acceptable copy of his birth certificate to get registered to vote in Kansas. “The locks didn’t work,” said Fish, one of nine Kansas residents who sued the state over the law. “You caught a bunch of people who didn’t do anything wrong.” Kansas' experience appeared to receive little if any attention outside the state as Republicans elsewhere pursued proof-of-citizenship requirements this year. Arizona enacted a requirement this year, applying it to voting for state and local elections but not for Congress or president. The Republican-led U.S. House passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement in the summer and plans to bring back similar legislation after the GOP won control of the Senate in November. In Ohio, the Republican secretary of state revised the form that poll workers use for voter eligibility challenges to require those not born in the U.S. to show naturalization papers to cast a regular ballot. A federal judge declined to block the practice days before the election. Also, sizable majorities of voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and the presidential swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin were inspired to amend their state constitutions' provisions on voting even though the changes were only symbolic. Provisions that previously declared that all U.S. citizens could vote now say that only U.S. citizens can vote — a meaningless distinction with no practical effect on who is eligible. To be clear, voters already must attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and noncitizens can face fines, prison and deportation if they lie and are caught. “There is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that only American citizens can vote in American elections,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, the leading sponsor of the congressional proposal, said in an email statement to The Associated Press. After Kansas residents challenged their state’s law, both a federal judge and federal appeals court concluded that it violated a law limiting states to collecting only the minimum information needed to determine whether someone is eligible to vote. That’s an issue Congress could resolve. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a strong support of requiring new voters to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship when registering, answers questions during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in his office in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna) AP The courts ruled that with “scant” evidence of an actual problem, Kansas couldn’t justify a law that kept hundreds of eligible citizens from registering for every noncitizen who was improperly registered. A federal judge concluded that the state’s evidence showed that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote from 1999 through 2012 — an average of just three a year. In 2013, then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who had built a national reputation advocating tough immigration laws, described the possibility of voting by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as a serious threat. He was elected attorney general in 2022 and still strongly backs the idea, arguing that federal court rulings in the Kansas case “almost certainly got it wrong.” Kobach also said a key issue in the legal challenge — people being unable to fix problems with their registrations within a 90-day window — has probably been solved. “The technological challenge of how quickly can you verify someone’s citizenship is getting easier,” Kobach said. “As time goes on, it will get even easier.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Kansas case in 2020. But in August, it split 5-4 in allowing Arizona to continue enforcing its law for voting in state and local elections while a legal challenge goes forward. Seeing the possibility of a different Supreme Court decision in the future, U.S. Rep.-elect Derek Schmidt says states and Congress should pursue proof-of-citizenship requirements. Schmidt was the Kansas attorney general when his state’s law was challenged. “If the same matter arose now and was litigated, the facts would be different,” he said in an interview. But voting rights advocates dismiss the idea that a legal challenge would turn out differently. Mark Johnson, one of the attorneys who fought the Kansas law, said opponents now have a template for a successful court fight. “We know the people we can call,” Johnson said. “We know that we’ve got the expert witnesses. We know how to try things like this.” He predicted “a flurry — a landslide — of litigation against this.” Initially, the Kansas requirement’s impacts seemed to fall most heavily on politically unaffiliated and young voters. As of fall 2013, 57% of the voters blocked from registering were unaffiliated and 40% were under 30. But Fish was in his mid-30s, and six of the nine residents who sued over the Kansas law were 35 or older. Three even produced citizenship documents and still didn’t get registered, according to court documents. “There wasn’t a single one of us that was actually an illegal or had misinterpreted or misrepresented any information or had done anything wrong,” Fish said. He was supposed to produce his birth certificate when he sought to register in 2014 while renewing his Kansas driver’s license at an office in a strip mall in Lawrence. A clerk wouldn’t accept the copy Fish had of his birth certificate. He still doesn’t know where to find the original, having been born on an Air Force base in Illinois that closed in the 1990s. Several of the people joining Fish in the lawsuit were veterans, all born in the U.S., and Fish said he was stunned that they could be prevented from registering. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab gavels a meeting of the state’s presidential electors in the state Senate chamber to a close, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Schwab championed a proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters as a legislator but now says states shouldn’t enact one. (AP Photo/John Hanna) AP Liz Azore, a senior adviser to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said millions of Americans haven’t traveled outside the U.S. and don’t have passports that might act as proof of citizenship, or don’t have ready access to their birth certificates. She and other voting rights advocates are skeptical that there are administrative fixes that will make a proof-of-citizenship law run more smoothly today than it did in Kansas a decade ago. “It’s going to cover a lot of people from all walks of life,” Avore said. “It’s going to be disenfranchising large swaths of the country.” Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. 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What High Quality Two-Side Coated Art Paper Used For?Meet Sarah, a 16-year-old girl who was diagnosed with urinary syndrome at the tender age of 8. Her life was turned upside down as she struggled with the debilitating effects of the disease. Thanks to the unwavering love and support of her parents, Sarah underwent her first kidney transplant at the age of 10. The transplant was successful, and for a few years, Sarah was able to live a relatively normal life. However, fate had other plans in store for her.
Israel, Palestinians explore Gaza truce with US envoy on Mideast shuttle missionAs polls point to Yes, Anas Sarwar's road to Bute House just got a lot rougher