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CLEVELAND (AP) — Shane Bieber's first venture into free agency turned into a return trip. The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner agreed Friday to rejoin the Cleveland Guardians after making just two starts last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. Bieber had been expected to leave the AL Central champions. But he's coming back after agreeing to a one-year, $14 million contract that includes a $16 million player option for 2026, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. Bieber’s deal will pay him $10 million in salary and includes a $4 million buyout. The 29-year-old only pitched twice in 2024 before having the surgery on his elbow that bothered him during the previous campaign. Bieber felt discomfort in his start on opening day against the Oakland Athletics and again when he faced the Seattle Mariners his next outing. Bieber didn't allow a run in either start, and the club had been encouraged by his velocity and dominance (20 strikeouts). But the elbow became too painful and Bieber elected to have the ligament-replacement surgery. If his recovery follows a normal timeline, Bieber should be back in Cleveland's rotation within the first three months of next season. The Guardians feared his loss would hurt them last season, but the club got off to a fast start under first-year manager Stephen Vogt and ran away with the division title. Cleveland eliminated Detroit in the AL Division Series before losing the ALCS to the New York Yankees in five games. Bieber spent chunks of last season with the team and he received a huge ovation at Progressive Field when he was introduced before the postseason series. The two-time All-Star has spent all seven of his big league seasons with Cleveland, which had contemplated trading him before his elbow issues in 2023 limited him to 21 starts. During the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020, Bieber went 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA over 12 starts and 77 1/3 innings with 122 strikeouts. He led the majors in wins, ERA and strikeouts and finished fourth in AL MVP voting. He was selected by Cleveland in the fourth round of the 2016 amateur draft out of UC Santa Barbara and made his major league debut two years later on his 23rd birthday. Bieber has a career record of 62-32 with a 3.22 ERA over 136 outings spanning 134 starts and 843 innings. He has twice reached 200 innings, throwing a career-high 214 1/3 in 2019. AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlbLucy Johnson of Cheverus shoots in the second half against Scarborough on Sept. 12. She is the second straight Stags player to win the Miss Maine Field Hockey award after her sister, Lily, took it last year. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer AUGUSTA – After setting the career goals record, winning 71 of 72 games and earning three state championships, there was one more accolade for Lucy Johnson to win. She took care of that Sunday afternoon. The Cheverus senior was named the 26th winner of the Miss Maine Field Hockey award, becoming the second straight Stags player and member of the Johnson family to win it after sister Lily took it last year. “I was very nervous, but it’s great, and I’m very proud of the accomplishments myself and I’m glad that my sister and I get to share this bond, for sure,” Johnson said. “It shows that I have a lot of heart and dedication to the game. ... I’ve been playing since I was five, and I just can’t imagine my life without it.” Lucy Johnson after she was awarded Miss Maine Field Hockey on Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center. Drew Bonifant/Portland Press Herald It’s the second time two sisters have won the award, with the first being Greely’s Amanda and Julia Chase in 2002 and 2004, respectively. Johnson beat out Biddeford’s Ayla Lagasse for the award, and earned an honor many likely felt was inevitable since her sophomore season when she scored 49 goals, the second most goals tallied in a season. With 34 this fall, Johnson finished with 152 goals, 41 higher than the record she broke and 14 clear of Winthrop’s Madeline Wagner in second place. “It’s good ... to have something to reach for to make you a better player. I hope some girl out there right now sees that number, 152, and smashes it, and that’s how Lucy will know she really succeeded,” Cheverus coach Andrea Musante said. “When you see someone like Lucy and what she’s done, that’ll only help grow the game.” Johnson, who will play next alongside Lily at Boston University, said that legacy point has been significant to her as she’s wrapped up her high school field hockey career. “I definitely think so,” she said. “I try to set really good examples for many people in the future, and for people coming into Cheverus. I know a few of the younger girls, they’ve told me they look up to me and it really means a lot to me. I try to set that example for them, hopefully they see it through.” While much has been said about Johnson’s speed, stick handling, ball control and lethal shot, Musante said her competitiveness stood out most, which was exemplified in her playing through frequent knee pain this season and her ability to raise her game when the Stags needed it. “She would fight, she would show up and produce the same results no matter what the situation was,” she said. “She never laid down, it doesn’t matter if she was double- or tripled-team. She always found a way.” Musante pointed to the 2023 Class A final, when Johnson was marked heavily by Skowhegan defenders but still scored the winning goal with 58 seconds left in a 2-1 victory. Lucy Johnson of Cheverus celebrates after scoring her first of two goals against Biddeford on Nov. 6. She will play for Boston University next year. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer “It was like, ‘She showed up. She did it again,’ ” Musante said. “When she hits the field and the whistle blows, she has an incredible fire and passion.” It all culminated in the award Sunday, which Johnson said is more meaningful considering it follows Lily’s victory a year ago. In her acceptance speech, Johnson addressed her sister who was away at school, saying “no one has chemistry like us.” “It’s definitely very special,” she said. “I always think of her every day, I miss playing with her and I’m really excited to play with her next year so we can share this bond.” We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs . You can modify your screen name here . Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. 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Trump offers a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled nominee to lead the PentagonMumbai: Technology companies have rejected telecom operators ’ demand to bring OTT messaging channels like Meta's WhatsApp and Google RCS under the centralised blockchain system and regulate them to check spam, saying it wasn’t technically possible. The telcos’ call to look at anti-spam measures through the prism of regulation was flawed and overlooked the need for innovation to check the menace, they said. Instead of pressing regulators to bring apps such as WhatsApp and RCS under regulation, telecom companies should focus on investing in innovation to bring down their own compliance costs, they suggested. “Pressing the regulatory framework is not the solution to controlling spam as there is abundant proof that telecom companies have not been able to do that,” a senior executive of a leading global tech company told ET. “In fact, they (telcos) are late to the party in using AI (artificial intelligence) to control spam while technology companies have been doing it for a decade.” He was referring to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea recently introducing AI/ML-based solutions to control spam messages and calls, after being pushed by the regulator. Web Development Advanced C++ Mastery: OOPs and Template Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Soft Skills Cross-Cultural Communication Mastery: Connect with Confidence By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Entrepreneurship Marketing & Sales Strategies for Startups: From Concept to Conversion By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Entrepreneurship Building Your Winning Startup Team: Key Strategies for Success By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Marketing Future of Marketing & Branding Masterclass By - Dr. David Aaker, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Author | Speaker | Thought Leader | Branding Consultant View Program Office Productivity Microsoft Word Mastery: From Beginner to Expert By - CA Raj K Agrawal, Chartered Accountant View Program Entrepreneurship Validating Your Startup Idea: Steps to Ensure Market Fit By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Data Analysis Animated Visualizations with Flourish Studio: Beginner to Pro By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Entrepreneurship Crafting a Powerful Startup Value Proposition By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Entrepreneurship From Idea to Product: A Startup Development Guide By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Finance Financial Literacy for Non-Finance Executives By - CA Raja, Chartered Accountant | Financial Management Educator | Former AVP - Credit, SBI View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Finance AI and Generative AI for Finance By - Hariom Tatsat, Vice President- Quantitative Analytics at Barclays View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Intermediate C++ Skills: Master Pointers, Structures and File Stream By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass By - CA Himanshu Jain, Ex McKinsey, Moody's, and PwC, Co - founder, The WallStreet School View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Maximizing Developer Productivity: The Pomodoro Technique in Practice By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI for Everyone: Understanding and Applying the Basics on Artificial Intelligence By - Ritesh Vajariya, Generative AI Expert View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program The chief executive of a communications company said telcos are arguing for regulation to counter advanced communication channels which are innovating faster and better than them. “The telecom companies have failed in a fruitful implementation of the TCCCPR (Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations) 2018 because of price wars among themselves,” said this executive. “It has been eight years, and the digital consent acquisition piece — the most important module of the regulation — is still not implemented,” he added. Google and Meta did not respond to ET’s emails seeking comment. Telecom companies have been seeking "same service, same rules" for communication apps that offer calling and messaging services similar to what telcos provide. Tech companies say the reason for the telcos’ demand was due to the fact that they face hefty price competition from the likes of WhatsApp and RCS which offer services at cheaper rates than SMS. Carriers argue apps can afford to provide cheaper services as they don’t need to adhere to regularity responsibilities or invest in telecom infrastructure, which involve a cost. Bharti Airtel recently wrote to the telecom regulator to bring OTT platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal under the common blockchain filtering and digital consent acquisition system. But bringing WhatsApp and RCS under the decentralised blockchain system is technically and operationally non-feasible, technology experts said. The reason being that telecom and information services are not interoperable. The blockchain is designed to filter SMS headers, templates and user consent. WhatsApp Business, for example, does not operate in the same manner. “While this can be done by OTT channels operating a separate node in the blockchain, it will be an extremely chaotic situation,” said the product head at a blockchain technology firm. “Imagine the complexities for businesses who need to maintain separate templates for SMSes, WhatsApp messages, RCS messages which are vastly different in form. An SMS header, for example, ‘VM-HDFCBK’ is not the same as a WhatsApp Business account ‘HDFC Bank’. This means if telecom and OTT channels are non-interoperable, there is no practical use of bringing them on the blockchain,” this person said. He added that rich media like images, pdf documents, audio, location, etc., cannot be scrubbed (or filtered) on the existing system. OTTs are two-way communication — some of which are triggered by the users themselves — and therefore it is practically impossible to obey the blockchain operations. Moreover, with AI integration, OTT conversations are becoming dynamic and intelligent. Templatisation will hamper this innovation, the technology experts argued. India’s apex technology industry body, Nasscom, said the TCCCPR is not applicable to OTTs which are outside the purview of the Telecom Act. “And second, OTTs have strong in-built technical measures to address spam, many of which do not feature in traditional telecom-based voice calls and SMS,” Nasscom said in its written submissions to the telecom regulator mid-October. Nominations for ET MSME Awards are now open. The last day to apply is December 15, 2024. Click here to submit your entry for any one or more of the 22 categories and stand a chance to win a prestigious award. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
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(BPT) - The holidays are almost here! It means parties and events, hustle and bustle ... and figuring out what to buy for everyone on your list. Sometimes it's hard to get inspired with great ideas that your nears and dears will love at a price you can afford, right? The good news? Inspiration + savings are covered this year. One of the top gifts of Holiday 2024 is technology, and there are a lot of deals out there right now. Done and done! Here are 5 ideas for hot tech gifts for everyone on your list. Smartphones for the family T-Mobile is running a hot deal right now. Get four new smartphones at T-Mobile — this includes Samsung Galaxy S24 and other eligible devices — and four lines for just $100/month . It doesn't get better than that! These new Galaxy phones are tech-tastic, too, with features like AI, Circle to Search with Google, which can be used to help solve math problems and translate entire pages of text in a different language, and Note Assist with Galaxy AI, which lets you focus on capturing your notes and then Note Assist will summarize, format and even translate them for you. High tech spiral notebook for students We've got to admit, this is pretty cool. The Rocketbook looks (a bit) like a regular spiral, paper notebook. Here's the high tech twist: You can take notes, capture ideas, brainstorm, draw — whatever you do on paper — on the pad, and the Rocketbook digitizes your doodles and saves to the cloud device of your choice. Then you simply wipe the pad clean and it's good to go. Look for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales at your favorite online retailer. Wrist-worthy smartwatches for athletes (or those who want to be) Everyone loves smartwatches (if you're not already tracking your sleep and heart rate, where have you been?) and the Google Pixel Watch 3 (41mm & 45mm) takes it to the next level with features for athletes or anyone who may be setting fitness goals for the coming year. The watch has workout prompts like Real Time Guidance — audio and haptic cues for when to sprint, cool down or maintain pace. It gives you the ability to program your workouts and even monitors your cadence and stride. It also has Offline Maps, with driving navigation, search and maps. Here's the deal of the century: Get it for free at T-Mobile when adding a qualifying watch line. Cute wireless keyboard for people who are all thumbs Who else is annoyed by typing email or texts or social posts on a smartphone? The Logitech Multi-Device Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard solves that problem with style! It comes in sweet colors like lavender, it's wireless, it's small and portable, and it works with just about any device. Pop it into your backpack or purse and you'll never have to thumb-out a message again. Speakers perfect for hosting and giving Have a music lover in your life or need the perfect hosting gift? T-Mobile has you covered. For a limited time, you can get the JBL Clip 5 for free when you pick up a Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 9 . The JBL Clip 5 is an ultra-portable Bluetooth speaker perfect for those on the go and the Onyx Studio 9's sleek design and booming sound will take care of all your holiday hosting needs. For more tech-tastic holiday gift inspiration, check out T-Mobile's holiday gift guide at t-mobile.com/devices/tech-gifts .
Hungarian champions Ferencvaros are set to welcome Swedish champions Malmo to Groupama Arena on Thursday in their fifth Europa League game of the season. The hosts beat Dynamo Kiev 4-0 on November 7 and are 14th in the Europa League table with six points, double the tally of the Malmo, who are 28th and lost 2-1 against Besiktas on November 6. © Imago Though Ferencvaros were deserving winners against Dynamo Kiev considering they accumulated 64% possession, produced 27 shots and limited their opponents to no attempts on target, they were aided by the fact the Ukrainian side were reduced to 10 men in the 17th minute when the scoreline was 0-0. Head coach Pascal Jansen 's team are currently first in their domestic league with 27 points from 12 matches and have a game in hand on second-placed Puskas FC Academy, who have 26 points. Jansen's side have scored seven goals and conceded four times in their European league stage outings this term, and have netted on 12 occasions in their last five games. The Greens are in excellent form given they are unbeaten in their past eight fixtures, winning five in that period, and have won or progressed from three of their five most recent games in the Europa League. Ferencvaros have not been defeated in 18 of their last 19 matches at home, emerging victorious 12 times, though they have lost two, drawn two and won just one of their last five outings in the Europa League at Groupama Arena. © Imago Meanwhile, Malmo will perhaps be perplexed by their defeat against Besiktas considering they created five big chances and over 2.3 xG, more than double the Turkish side's figure of 0.91 xG. The visitors won the 2024 iteration of the Allsvenskan , ending their domestic campaign with 65 points after 30 matchweeks, 11 more than second-placed Hammarby. Boss Henrik Rydstrom 's team only collected an additional point compared to their 2023 title win, but they did score 67 goals and concede just 25 times, an improvement of five and two respectively. The Blue Ones come into the clash in poor form having drawn three, lost two and won two of their seven most recent games, and have alarmingly lost nine of their last 10 Europa League matches. Malmo have also been held to a stalemate five times and been defeated two times in their past eight fixtures on the road and lost four of their last five away games in Thursday's competition. © Imago Ferencvaros have no injury concerns ahead of their match against Malmo, and could use a similar starting XI to the side that beat Dynamo Kiev, so expect goalkeeper Denes Dibusz to be shielded by centre-backs Ibrahim Cisse and Stefan Gartenmann . Philippe Rommens and Mohammad Abu Fani are candidates to start in a double pivot behind a front four consisting of Kady Borges , Kristoffer Zachariassen , Adama Malouda Traore and Barnabas Varga . The visitors have not been so fortunate with injuries, and will be without defenders Anton Tinnerholm , Jens Stryger Larsen , Niklas Moisander and Pontus Jansson , as well as goalkeeper Johan Dahlin . Given the number of defensive absentees, it is plausible that Malmo will field a back four featuring Zakaria Loukili , Colin Rosler , Nils Zatterstrom and Busanello . Wingers Sead Haksabanovic and Stefano Holmquist Vecchia have also been ruled out, and Rydstrom may deploy a front line of Anders Christiansen , Erik Botheim , Hugo Bolin and Isaac Kiese Thelin . Ferencvaros possible starting lineup: Dibusz; Makreckis, Cisse, Gartenmann, Ramirez; Rommens, Abu Fani; Borges, Zachariassen, Traore; Varga Malmo possible starting lineup: Friedrich; Loukili, Rosler, Zatterstrom, Busanello; Johnsen, Pena; Christiansen, Botheim, Bolin; Thelin Given the number of players that are set to miss out for Malmo on Thursday, it is difficult to see how they overcome their hosts. Additionally, the visitors have been poor away from home for some time and Ferencvaros should come into the clash as favourites. For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here .Preparations made to manage 450 million pilgrims during Prayagraj Maha Kumbh: UP minister
AP News Summary at 5:39 p.m. EST