STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — Adante' Holiman scored 20 points as Georgia Southern beat West Georgia 64-54 on Saturday. Holiman went 7 of 14 from the field (5 for 9 from 3-point range) for the Eagles (5-2). Dontae Horne added 11 points while going 4 of 8 (3 for 6 from 3-point range) and also had five rebounds and three steals. Tyson Brown and Nakavieon White both had 10 points. Shelton Williams-Dryden led the way for the Wolves (0-6) with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. West Georgia also got 10 points and two steals from Kolten Griffin. Rickey Ballard finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and three steals. The loss was the Wolves' sixth straight. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar . For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Data Skrive.
Nuclear sector pins hopes on 2026 for ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen label Nuclear energy advocates are pushing for the European Commission to label nuclear-derived hydrogen as ‘low-carbon’, but several industry sources told Euractiv that would prefer the decision is brought forward to 2026 instead of the scheduled 2028. In late September, the European Commission released for consultation a draft legal text, or ‘delegated act’, setting out criteria to determine whether hydrogen can be officially labeled as ‘low carbon’. This move drew the wrath of nuclear defenders, as the draft text proposed postponing a decision on whether hydrogen produced exclusively with nuclear energy can be eligible for the low-carbon label until 1 July 2028. Hydrogen produced exclusively with nuclear energy would entail a hydrogen producer signing a power purchase agreement, known as a ‘nuclear PPA’ with a nuclear energy provider. The nuclear industry wants a decision made much sooner. told The inclusion of nuclear PPAs would enhance predictability, mobilising private financing for new net zero technologies needed to meet EU climate goals,” a spokesperson for Fortum, the largest Finnish energy producer, In its response to the Commission’s public consultation, Fortum for an earlier recognition of nuclear PPA and said that the Commission should accelerate work by initiating a study in early 2025. Four corroborating sources from European industry and decision-makers suggest that the industry could be satisfied if the review date was brought forward from 2028 to early 2026. Industry sources argued that the move is necessary to meet Europe’s 2030 hydrogen production targets. “This would avoid delaying certain investment decisions in industrial projects requiring low-carbon hydrogen,” one source told Euractiv. In France, for example, Gravithy, which wants to produce ‘carbon-free’ iron, “expresses serious concerns about the proposal to postpone in [sic] 4 years the potential inclusion of nuclear PPAs,” it said in . With the text, “We can now say that Europe will be a long way from achieving its target of installing 40 GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030,” French electrolyser producer McPhy argued in its . Antoine Bizet, Deputy Director of European Affairs at EDF, suggests that rather than waiting for the 2028 deadline, this period should be used to establish a so-called in Brussels ‘regulatory sandbox’, i.e. allowing experimenting with nuclear PPAs and then take stock of their contribution, he tells Euractiv. An energy industry source in Brussels argued that another approach would be for the EU Commission “to retain its approach for this delegated act, but to ensure that it comes back to (i.e. endorses) nuclear PPPs in 2025 or 2026, through another legislative vehicle such as a hydrogen strategy or the Clean Industrial Deal.” The text poses problems on other points, particularly regarding legal certainty, through the possibility given to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) of imposing additional criteria to qualify or not hydrogen is low-carbon to benefit from state aid. said Having completed the consultation process, the EU Commission will return to the delegated act as soon as the College of Commissioners is in place, according to Mechthild Wörsdörfer, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s energy services. Wörsdörfer was speaking the EU Hydrogen Week in Brussels on 19 November. This could happen as soon as 1 December, after the European Parliament’s expected vote of confidence on 27 November. Industry sources do not expect any announcements from the Commission before the beginning of 2025. READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Nuclear sector pins hopes on 2026 for ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen label, Cavendish Hydrogen ASA: Invitation to Q3 2024 results and live Q&A session The quarterly report and a pre-recording of the third quarter presentation will be made available on the company’s... After provisional insolvency, Quantron’s business continues thanks to a core team of employees Constantin Graf Salm-Hoogstraeten from the restructuring law firm BBL, provisional insolvency administrator of Quantron... Five million euros for HydroPulse Stuttgart – hydrogen filling stations, fuel cell transporters and high-temperature fuel cells planned Stuttgart – Stadtwerke Stuttgart (SWS) is delighted to have received a further five...
NatWest privatisation edges closer as government sells more shares
The Alberta government wants to attract more family physicians to the province with increased pay for having a minimum of 500 patients and providing after-hours care to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments. The government unveiled its long-awaited new compensation model for family physicians on Dec. 19 to attract more doctors to Alberta, increase retention, and improve residents’ access to primary care. “With this announcement, I think the risk of losing family physicians to more attractive jurisdictions is done. This new model will make Alberta an enticing and competitive place for doctors to come and settle and set up shop and stay for good.” The new model will also encourage physicians to use technology to improve work efficiency and patient care, make their processes more efficient for patients and doctors, and create integrated teams offering various types of care, such as nutrition and pharmacy services, the announcement said. The province said it wants to recognize various aspects of physicians’ work, “including the number of patients seen and patient complexity, as well as time spent providing direct and indirect care.” To qualify for the compensation model, Alberta family doctors must have at least 500 patients under their care. Additionally, the program will only launch if at least 500 physicians sign on. Enrolment will begin in January, with full implementation planned for the spring. The new model will also increase pay for doctors who are compensated through the alternative relationship plan–a model that offers an alternative to the fee-for-service system where providers are paid for each service delivered. The province said it’s taking the step to ensure ensure hospital-based family physicians and rural generalists “receive fair, competitive pay that reflects the importance of these roles.” When asked whether the new model will leave out doctors who are starting in the profession or older doctors who choose to see fewer patients, health ministry spokesperson Jessi Rampton told The Epoch Times the new model’s focus is to encourage doctors to take on more patients so more Albertans have access to primary care. Doctors who don’t meet the 500-patient requirement can still be compensated on a fee-for-service basis, she said. The Epoch Times reached out to Alberta’s Opposition NDP for comment but did not hear back by publication time. The Canadian Press quoted NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman as saying the new compensation model is a good first step and “way overdue.”
LOS ANGELES — Until he sustained a season-ending knee injury last week in the Western Conference final, Galaxy playmaker Riqui Puig was having a tremendous season. So I heard. I watched Puig play only twice this year, once in the Galaxy's season-opening 1-1 draw with Inter Miami and a second time in his team's Fourth of July defeat to LAFC at the Rose Bowl. Outside of short highlight clips on social media, I never saw the former Barcelona prospect, not even when he assisted on the goal that sent the Galaxy to the MLS Cup final. That wasn't a reflection of my interest. Some of my friends will make fun of me for publicly admitting this, but I like Major League Soccer. I covered the league in my first job out of college and have casually kept up with it since. I take my children to a couple of games a year. My 11-year-old son owns Galaxy and LAFC hats but no Dodgers or Lakers merchandise. When flipping through channels in the past, if presented with the choice of, say, college football or MLS, I usually watched MLS. But not this year. While the MLS Cup final between the Galaxy and New York Red Bulls will be shown on Fox and Fox Deportes, the majority of games are now exclusively behind a paywall, courtesy of the league's broadcasting deal with Apple. MLS Season Pass subscriptions were reasonably priced — $79 for the entire season for Apple TV+ subscribers, $99 for non-subscribers — but I was already paying for DirecTV Stream, Netflix, Amazon Prime, PlayStation Plus and who knows what else. MLS became a casualty in my household, as well as in many others, and the possibility of being out of sight and out of mind should be a concern for a league that is looking to expand its audience. Which isn't to say the league made a mistake. This was a gamble MLS had to take. Now in the second year of a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple, MLS did what Major League Baseball is talking about doing, which is to centralize its broadcasting rights and sell them to a digital platform. Regional sports networks have been decimated by cord cutting, making traditional economic models unsustainable. The move to Apple not only increased the league's broadcast revenues — previous deals with ESPN, Fox and Univision were worth a combined $90 million annually, according to multiple reports — but also introduced a measure of uniformity in the league. The quality of the broadcasts are better than they were under regional sports networks. Viewers know where to watch games and when, as every one of them is on Season Pass and most of them are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. local time either on Wednesday or Saturday. "That's been fueling our growth and driving our fan engagement," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Friday at his annual state of the league address. Apple and MLS declined to reveal the number of League Pass subscribers, but the league provided polling figures that indicated 94% of viewers offered positive or neutral reviews of League Pass. The average viewing time for a game is about 65 minutes for a 90-minute game, according to Garber. In other words, the League Pass is well-liked — by the people who have it. The challenge now is to increase that audience. The launch of League Pass last year coincided with the arrival of Lionel Messi, which presumably resulted in a wave of subscriptions. But the league can't count on the appearance of the next Messi; there is only one of him. MLS pointed to how its fans watch sports on streaming devices or recorded television than any other U.S. sports league, as well as how 71% of its fans are under the age of 45. The league also pointed to how it effectively drew more viewers to the Apple broadcast of Inter Miami's postseason opener with a livestream of a "Messi Cam' on TikTok, indicating further collaborations with wide-reaching entities could be in its future. Garber mentioned how Season Pass is available in other countries. The commissioner also made note of how Apple places games every week in front of its paywall. "What we have, really, is a communication problem," Garber said. "This is new, and we've got to work with Apple, we've got to work with our clubs and we've got to work with our partners to get more exposure to what we think is a great product." The greatest benefit to the league could be Apple's vested interest in improving the on-field product. MLS insiders said Apple has not only encouraged teams to sign more high-profile players but also pushed the league to switch to a fall-to-spring calendar more commonplace in other parts of the world, reasoning that doing so would simplify the process of buying and selling players. The on-field product is what matters. The on-field product is why MLS continues to face competition for viewers from overseas leagues. The on-field product is why the league hasn't succeeded in converting every soccer fan into a MLS fan. And ultimately, if casual viewers such as myself are to pay to watch the Galaxy or LAFC on a screen of some kind, the on-field product will be why. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
SPRINGFIELD — Visitors coming to the Illinois Statehouse to see their lawmakers in action, or just to tour the historic building, may see longer lines to get through security screening during the upcoming legislative sessions. Responding to a significant increase in potential threats to lawmakers and the public in recent years, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’s office recently implemented new emergency rules requiring nearly anyone to pass through security screening upon entering the Statehouse or any building in the Illinois Capitol Complex. “Unfortunately, the world is not getting safer,” Amy Williams, senior legal adviser in the secretary of state’s office, told a legislative oversight committee Tuesday. One of the more serious threats, Williams said, occurred in March when security officials were notified of an active shooter threat, prompting a lockdown of the complex. The lockdown was lifted after investigators determined there was no credible threat, according to reports at the time. In April, police locked down the Capitol for about an hour as the building was cleared following a bomb threat. Illinois State Police arrested a suspect accused of making the threat the following month. So far in 2024, Williams told the committee, the Secretary of State Police Department has responded to 17 threats to the Capitol, nearly twice as many as any other year since 2018. There have also been threats directed at individual lawmakers. In September, a man was arrested for threatening to assassinate Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore. And on Monday, Dec. 9, Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, reported an employee in her district office became ill after opening office mail, according to a social media post. The employee was transported to a local hospital, prompting police to evacuate the building and cordon off a portion of the street while emergency crews responded. In October, Williams said, the secretary of state’s office was advised by a security consultant to increase the number of people required to go through security screening to include everyone other than lawmakers, state government employees and other elected officials. That meant many people who had previously been given unrestricted access to the building — including lobbyists, vendors and members of the news media — now have to go through security screening as well. “Primarily that decision came about because members of the General Assembly, elected officials, are sensibly background checked by their constituents who choose them to go to the Capitol to do the people's work on their behalf,” she said. “And state government employees are background checked by their respective agencies. Lobbyists, vendors and members of the press are not subject to any background check.” To avoid congestion, Williams said the office has set up a “TSA Express-style” screening point at the east entrance of the building for those individuals who previously had unfettered access. The security changes near the tail end of a three-year, $224 million renovation project that will make permanent changes to the way the public enters and exits the Capitol. That project involves restoration and remodeling of the entire north wing of the Capitol. When it’s completed, sometime in 2025, all public access will be through a new entryway on the north side of the building where people will pass through security screening before entering the building itself. Until then, visitors will continue entering through either the east or west doors of the building where metal detectors and baggage x-ray machines are located just inside the building. Lawmakers are tentatively scheduled to return to the Statehouse Jan. 2 for the start of a brief lame duck session. The regular 2025 session begins Wednesday, Jan. 8. The Illinois Flag Commission selected its Top 10 finalists for the state flag redesign contest with public voting slated to begin in January. Members of the commission could select up to 10 of their favorite designs – from the nearly 5,000 submissions – prior to their December 9 meeting where they narrowed their choices to 10 overall. “Having received nearly 5,000 entries, I appreciate the creativity and passion reflected in all the submissions,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office convened the Flag Commission meetings. Starting in January, the public will have the opportunity to vote online at www.ilsos.gov/stateflag for one of the new designs, or one of three former flag designs, including the current state flag, the 1918 Centennial Flag and the 1968 Sesquicentennial Flag. After the public voting period, the commission will report its findings and recommendations to the Illinois General Assembly by April 1, 2025, whose members will vote on whether to adopt a new flag, return to a previous iteration of the flag or retain the current flag. Senate Bill 1818, sponsored by State Senator Doris Turner (48th District—Springfield) and State Representative Kam Buckner (26th District—Chicago), was signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker in 2023, creating the commission to gauge public desire for a new flag. The flag designs eligible for public voting in January can be viewed at www.ilsos.gov/stateflag . Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Determining the passage of time in our world of ticking clocks and oscillating pendulums is a simple case of counting the seconds between 'then' and 'now'. Down at the quantum scale of buzzing electrons, however, 'then' can't always be anticipated. Worse still, 'now' often blurs into a haze of vagueness. A stopwatch simply isn't going to work for some scenarios. A potential solution could be found in the very shape of the quantum fog itself, according to a 2022 study by researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden. Their experiments on the wave-like nature of something called a Rydberg state revealed a novel way to measure time that doesn't require a precise starting point. Rydberg atoms are the over-inflated balloons of the particle kingdom. Puffed up with lasers instead of air, these atoms contain electrons in extremely high energy states, orbiting far from the nucleus. Of course, not every pump of a laser needs to puff an atom up to cartoonish proportions. In fact, lasers are routinely used to tickle electrons into higher energy states for a variety of uses. In some applications, a second laser can be used to monitor the changes in the electron's position, including the passing of time. These ' pump-probe ' techniques can be used to measure the speed of certain ultrafast electronics, for instance. Inducing atoms into Rydberg states is a handy trick for engineers , not least when it comes to designing novel components for quantum computers . Needless to say, physicists have amassed a significant amount of information about the way electrons move about when nudged into a Rydberg state. Being quantum animals, though, their movements are less like beads sliding about on a tiny abacus, and more like an evening at the roulette table, where every roll and jump of the ball is squeezed into a single game of chance. The mathematical rule book behind this wild game of Rydberg electron roulette is referred to as a Rydberg wave packet. Just like actual waves, having more than one Rydberg wave packet rippling about in a space creates interference, resulting in unique patterns of ripples. Throw enough Rydberg wave packets into the same atomic pond, and those unique patterns will each represent the distinct time it takes for the wave packets to evolve in accordance with one another. It was these very 'fingerprints' of time that the physicists behind this set of experiments set out to test, showing they were consistent and reliable enough to serve as a form of quantum timestamping. Their research involved measuring the results of laser-excited helium atoms and matching their findings with theoretical predictions to show how their signature results could stand in for a duration of time. "If you're using a counter, you have to define zero. You start counting at some point," physicist Marta Berholts from the University of Uppsala in Sweden, who led the team, explained to New Scientist in 2022. "The benefit of this is that you don't have to start the clock – you just look at the interference structure and say 'okay, it's been 4 nanoseconds.'" A guidebook of evolving Rydberg wave packets could be used in combination with other forms of pump-probe spectroscopy that measure events on a tiny scale, when now and then are less clear, or simply too inconvenient to measure. Importantly, none of the fingerprints require a then and now to serve as a starting and stopping point for time. It'd be like measuring an unknown sprinter's race against a number of competitors running at set speeds. By looking for the signature of interfering Rydberg states amid a sample of pump-probe atoms, technicians could observe a timestamp for events as fleeting as just 1.7 trillionths of a second. Future quantum watch experiments could replace helium with other atoms, or even use laser pulses of different energies, to broaden the guidebook of timestamps to suit a broader range of conditions. This research was published in Physical Review Research . An earlier version of this article was published in October 2022.
Trump's Republican Party is increasingly winning union voters. It's a shift seen in his labor pickHourly workers at the Kemps dairy plant in Le Mars have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 554. The Sioux City Journal reports the 200 production workers, warehouse workers and drivers are responsible for producing milk products and cottage cheese. Kemps is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America. In addition to bargaining their first local union agreement, the new members of Local 554 will be joining more than 1,800 other DFA Teamsters as part of the first-ever national coordinated contract campaign at the nation's dairy cooperative. The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments for a Scott County public records dispute Wednesday afternoon over whether names of people applying for a position in elected office could be kept confidential during the selection process. The Quad-City Times reports the case stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2023 by a former Scott County supervisor and a public records advocate after the Scott County Board of Supervisors withheld some names of candidates who applied to fill a vacancy in 2022. “Confidentiality does not attach automatically. They didn't request confidentiality, and this is involving a public official and public officials names are public record. You can't hide the names of a public official,” attorney Michael Meloy told the court in oral arguments. An Iowa civic leader is dead and his wife, part of the state's arts and cultural scene, is critically wounded. The Des Moines Register reports that police investigating the double shooting described the incident as an apparent murder-suicide attempt. James and Mary Ellen Kimball were found in their home in Osceola early Tuesday. “This is going to leave a large hole in our fabric,” Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus told the newspaper. Regina Roth has donated $1 million to Morningside University for a new animal science and food safety lab on campus, the Sioux-City Journal reports . The lab will be located in the Walker Science Center and used by students in the Regina Roth Applied Agricultural and Food Studies Department. It is expected to start construction in 2025. The lab will feature cutting-edge technology to advance research and provide hands-on learning experiences. A Scott County prosecutor is suing an Iowa county, a Division of Criminal Investigations agent and a judge for defamation. Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that Ryan McCord is suing former Appanoose County Attorney Susan Cole, DCI agent Ryan Kedley and Des Moines County in a lawsuit that was recently transferred to federal court. This is the fourth civil claim or lawsuit that McCord has filed that is connected to his former fiancee. Urbandale is switching from Beggars' Night to celebrating Halloween. The Des Moines Register reports the Urbandale City Council approved the switch Tuesday. Des Moiens and several suburbs switched to Halloween this year due to a weather forecast. Johnston and Waukee are also considering moving to Halloween. The Cedar Rapids City Council signed off on a development agreement Tuesday for a 110,000-square-foot proposed casino. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the agreement is contingent on the developer receiving a gaming license from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. Two previous attempts to obtain such a license have failed. Get local news delivered to your inbox!