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In a historic moment for Dutch tennis, the Netherlands' Davis Cup team has reached their first-ever final by staging an impressive 2-0 win over Germany in Malaga, Spain. Botic Van de Zandschulp and Tallon Griekspoor secured singles victories that sent a wave of excitement through the Dutch supporters clad in orange. Coached by Paul Haarhuis, the Netherlands team now awaits the winner between defending champions Italy and Australia in the final. Van de Zandschulp, who played a pivotal role in the semifinals, demonstrated resilience by defeating Daniel Altmaier after an intense match on Friday. Meanwhile, Griekspoor showcased remarkable resilience and skill, overcoming Jan-Lennard Struff with a storming comeback. This triumph was fueled by his serving prowess and determination, which vibrated through the arena as the Dutch team celebrated their historical achievement. Coach Haarhuis lauded the team's collective spirit and reflected on their journey to the finals. (With inputs from agencies.)Rangers reach historic extension with Igor Shesterkin after trading Jacob Trouba to Ducks
— A buck harvested near Wheaton in western Minnesota during the opening weekend of firearms season has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported on Thursday, Dec. 12. The adult male deer was harvested within Deer Permit Area 271 along the - border. To date, no wild deer with CWD had been previously detected in that area, nearby permit areas or near the Minnesota border in eastern South Dakota. “This discovery in western Minnesota, while unwelcome news, highlights the importance and necessity of our disease surveillance efforts and allowing hunters to test deer harvested anywhere in the state if they would like to,” said Erik Hildebrand, wildlife health supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Deer Permit Area 271 includes all of and small portions of northern and counties. It is located north of Big Stone Lake and the Minnesota River Valley habitat corridor. The permit area is heavily farmed with limited public lands and habitat. So far this year, the total deer harvest in that permit area totals 397, with 303 of the total being adult males, according to the DNR website. Following the detection near Wheaton, the Minnesota DNR will implement measures outlined in its CWD response plan, which calls for three consecutive years of testing to help determine the potential prevalence of the disease in Deer Permit Area 271 and surrounding permit areas. The Minnesota DNR also will work with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department to coordinate surveillance of chronic wasting disease and management activities in the vicinity. Within deer permit areas where CWD has been detected and confirmed, the Minnesota DNR uses multiple management actions designed to help mitigate disease spread, including carcass movement restrictions, a deer feeding and attractants ban, and, sometimes, increased hunting opportunities with increased bag limits. In 2024, Deer Permit Area 271 will not be included in the CWD late-season management hunt that takes place Dec. 20-22. The adult male deer in that permit area that tested positive for CWD was harvested during the breeding season when deer are known to travel longer distances. Before deciding whether to remove additional deer in a CWD management hunt, the DNR will conduct surveillance in the fall of 2025 to better understand disease prevalence in the permit area.Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedThe apparent assassination of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk Wednesday has unleashed an extraordinary outpouring of emotion. But it’s not all horror or sadness over a 50-year-old father of two being shot dead in public by a man in a mask. Thompson’s death has inspired a torrent of fury about the way his insurance company and others treat — or mistreat — people in their moments of greatest need. Some of the reactions, particularly on social media, have been downright gleeful about the killing. What a stunning illustration of the hatred so many Americans feel toward for-profit health insurance companies, which too often make money for stockholders by withholding care from sick people. UnitedHealthcare is a particularly awful exemplar. It is infamous for high denial rates and low reimbursement levels. According to an investigation by the medical news site Stat and a federal lawsuit recently filed in Minnesota, UnitedHealthcare has been using a deeply flawed artificial intelligence algorithm to wrongfully deny healthcare to elderly and disabled patients. Stat reported that the company “pressured its medical staff to cut off payments for seriously ill patients ... denying rehabilitation care for older and disabled Americans as profits soared.” ProPublica reported last month that the company was using algorithms to identify people it deemed guilty of “therapy overuse” and deny mental health treatment. Both California and Massachusetts determined that the company was breaking the federal law that requires insurers to cover mental health issues the same way they cover physical ailments. UnitedHealthcare denied claims for more than 34,000 therapy sessions from 2013 to 2020 in New York alone, saving the company about $8 million. Adding to this unsavory picture, four of its top executives, including Thompson, have been under scrutiny for $101.5 million in stock trades they made after the company was informed that it was the target of a federal antitrust investigation but before the news became public and the stock price dropped. Perhaps all this helps explain why, as of Friday morning, more than 85,000 people had reacted to UnitedHealthcare’s solemn Facebook statement about Thompson’s death with a laugh emoji . People on other social media platforms also piled on. “All human life is sacred, so it’s not proper to laugh when serious harm befalls someone,” wrote one Bluesky user . “The moral thing to do is instead charge them hundreds of thousands of dollars.” “UnitedHealth CEO meets the same fate as many of his clients,” posted another Bluesky user above photos of the shooter pointing his gun at Thompson’s back before he reportedly rode off on an e-bike. Stories of terrible interactions with the largest health insurer in the country also poured forth. Elizabeth Austin, a single mother who lives in Bucks County, Pa., told me she had a miserable experience with UnitedHealthcare after her young daughter, Carolyn, was diagnosed with leukemia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her chemotherapy caused nausea, so Carolyn’s doctor ordered a nighttime feeding tube to supplement what little she was able to eat while awake. She said United Healthcare wouldn’t pay for the feeding tube unless Carolyn ate no solid food at all. “I was like, ‘She’s 9! She wants to eat food!’” Austin told me. Unmoved, the insurer forced Austin to pay $900 a month out of pocket for the device. Later, when Carolyn developed a sensitivity to a sedative used during her monthly lumbar punctures, her doctors switched to another medicine, and the company again denied payment, Austin said. She paid for that herself too. Austin said she eventually developed a stress-related heart condition that required ablation surgery. She and her daughter are healthy now, but the scars remain. She said she was saddened but not shocked to learn about Thompson’s death. “These things are happening because people are really struggling,” she told me. “I don’t think the CEO was responsible for my daughter’s caregiving issues, but it’s smart to ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ Could it be a systemic issue?’ People are buckling under the pressure.” At this point, the motive for Thompson’s killing is a matter of speculation. But ammunition recovered from the scene was inscribed with words often used to describe insurance companies’ anti-patient strategies, including “deny” and “defend,” the Associated Press and others reported. In the 2010 book “ Delay, Deny, Defend : Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It,” Jay M. Feinman, a Rutgers law professor, traces the evolution of insurance companies from generally helpful organizations where adjusters — that is, human beings — were responsible for reimbursements into the antagonistic, algorithm-driven behemoths they are today. In the 1990s, he writes, insurance companies such as Allstate turned to the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to develop new strategies. “McKinsey,” Feinman writes, “saw claims as a ‘zero-sum game,’ with the policyholder and the company competing for the same dollars. No longer would each claim be treated on its merits.” Computers would determine reimbursements, and settlements would be offered on a “take-it-or-litigate basis.” Feinman writes that McKinsey urged Allstate to move “from ‘Good Hands’ to ‘Boxing Gloves.’” Earlier this year, the insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it would start limiting reimbursements for anesthesia based on its own time limits for surgeries. The idea, Anthem said, was to prevent overbilling. Doctors, predictably, were outraged. “This is just the latest in a long line of appalling behavior by commercial health insurers looking to drive their profits up at the expense of patients and physicians providing essential care,” Donald Arnold, the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, told NPR . On Thursday, after the outpouring of rage against health insurers sparked by Thompson’s killing, Anthem reversed course , blaming “significant widespread misinformation” about its proposed policy for the about-face. No wonder there is so little empathy for Brian Thompson, who was by many accounts a lovely human being . In death, he has become an unwitting symbol of the terrible things health insurance companies do to people for money. Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social . Threads: @rabcarian
New Delhi, Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Sunday announced the education manifesto for the Jangpura constituency ahead of the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections . The manifesto outlines a comprehensive plan to enhance education infrastructure, improve opportunities for the students and involve the parents and educators in shaping the children's future, said a statement. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for Speaking on the importance of quality education, Sisodia said, "Quality education for children is the key to the progress of any family. We all aspire our children to grow up to be successful and respected individuals. To achieve this, access to quality education is crucial." The manifesto focuses on building two fully equipped new schools in Sarai Kale Khan and Hazrat Nizamuddin along with modernising facilities in the existing schools in Feroz Shah Kotla and Hari Nagar Ashram, it stated. Adequate teaching staff, security measures and cleanliness will be ensured across all schools along with traffic coordination to facilitate smooth commutes, it read. 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The teachers and principals will be provided with modern training opportunities, both in India and abroad, and the DIET Daryaganj will be transformed into a state-of-the-art training center, it said. Post-school activities, including arts, sports and self-defense training for girls, aim to promote holistic development. The ITI Hazrat Nizamuddin will offer advanced courses with cutting-edge technology to create more job opportunities, it added. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
US to push Gaza cease-fire with Türkiye, Qatar, Egypt: BidenNEW YORK (AP) — Top-ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen is headed back to the World Blitz Championship on Monday after its governing body agreed to loosen a dress code that got him fined and denied a late-round game in another tournament for refusing to change out of jeans . Lamenting the contretemps, International Chess Federation President Arkady Dvorkovich said in a statement Sunday that he'd let World Blitz Championship tournament officials consider allowing “appropriate jeans” with a jacket, and other “elegant minor deviations” from the dress code. He said Carlsen's stand — which culminated in his quitting the tournament Friday — highlighted a need for more discussion “to ensure that our rules and their application reflect the evolving nature of chess as a global and accessible sport.” Carlsen, meanwhile, said in a video posted Sunday on social media that he would play — and wear jeans — in the World Blitz Championship when it begins Monday. “I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side,” the 34-year-old Norwegian grandmaster said. But he added that he loves playing blitz — a fast-paced form of chess — and wanted fans to be able to watch, and that he was encouraged by his discussions with the federation after Friday's showdown. “I think we sort of all want the same thing,” he suggested in the video on his Take Take Take chess app’s YouTube channel. “We want the players to be comfortable, sure, but also relatively presentable.” The events began when Carlsen wore jeans and a sportcoat Friday to the Rapid World Championship, which is separate from but held in conjunction with the blitz event. The chess federation said Friday that longstanding rules prohibit jeans at those tournaments, and players are lodged nearby to make sartorial switch-ups easy if needed. An official fined Carlsen $200 and asked him to change pants, but he refused and wasn't paired for a ninth-round game, the federation said at the time. The organization noted that another grandmaster, Ian Nepomniachtchi, was fined earlier in the day for wearing sports shoes, changed and continued to play. Carlsen has said that he offered to wear something else the next day, but officials were unyielding. He said “it became a bit of a matter of principle,” so he quit the rapid and blitz championships. In the video posted Sunday, he questioned whether he had indeed broken a rule and said changing clothes would have needlessly interrupted his concentration between games. He called the punishment “unbelievably harsh.” “Of course, I could have changed. Obviously, I didn’t want to,” he said, and “I stand by that.”
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THIBODAUX, La. — Riley Callaghan kicked four field goals including a 40-yarder on the game's final play to lift Southeastern Louisiana to a 19-16 win over Nicholls on Thursday night in a regular-season finale for both teams. Callaghan's winning field goal came after a 14-play, 51-yard drive that took nearly five minutes. The drive began after KK Reno's interception. Nicholls had tied the game on an 84-yard pass from Pat McQuaide to Scrabby Osby early in the fourth quarter though the PAT was wide. The Lions (7-5, 6-1) are a half-game back of Incarnate Word in the Southern Conference standings with the Cardinals playing East Texas A&M on Saturday. A Cardinals loss would give the Lions a share of the conference title but Incarnate Word gets the automatic berth for the FCS playoffs because of a 34-31 win over the Lions. Eli Sawyer threw for 157 yards and a touchdown to Darius Lewis for the Lions. Pat McQuaide threw for 298 yards for the Colonels (4-8, 2-5). McQuaide scrambled 9 yards for Nicholls' other touchdown. The Lions led 16-10 at halftime. __ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and College football ' Latest News & Updates
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — McKinsey & Company consulting firm has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work to help opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma boost the sales of the highly addictive drug OxyContin, according to court papers filed in Virginia on Friday. As part of the deal with the U.S. Justice Department, McKinsey will avoid prosecution on criminal charges if it pays the sum and follows certain conditions for five years, including ceasing any work on the sale, marketing or promotion of controlled substances. A former McKinsey senior partner, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for deleting documents from his laptop after he became aware of investigations into Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin that was then a client, according to the filings. A lawyer for Elling declined to comment Friday. McKinsey said in a statement on Friday that it’s “deeply sorry” for its work for Purdue Pharma. “We should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society and we should not have undertaken sales and marketing work for Purdue Pharma,” the company said. “This terrible public health crisis and our past work for opioid manufacturers will always be a source of profound regret for our firm.” It’s the latest effort by federal prosecutors to hold accountable companies officials say helped fuel the U.S. addiction and overdose crisis, with opioids linked to more than 80,000 annual deaths in some recent years. For the past decade, most of them have been attributed to illicit fentanyl, which is laced into many illegal drugs. Earlier in the epidemic, prescription pills were the primary cause of death. Over the past eight years, drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to about $50 billion worth of settlements with governments — with most of the money required to be used to fight the crisis. Purdue paid McKinsey more than $93 million over 15 years for several products, including how to improve revenue from OxyContin. Prosecutors say McKinsey “knew the risk and dangers” of OxyContin and knew that Purdue Pharma executives had previously pleaded guilty to crimes related to the promotion of the drug, but decided to work with the opioid manufacturer anyway. One of the jobs for McKinsey, the papers said, was to identify which prescribers would generate the most additional prescriptions if Purdue salespeople focused on that. That resulted in prescriptions that “were not for a medically accepted indication, were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary, and that were often diverted for uses that lacked a legitimate medical purpose,” the filing said. “This was not hypothetical,” Christopher Kavanaugh, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Christopher Kavanaugh said in a news conference in Boston on Friday. “This was not just marketing. It was a strategy. It was executed and it worked.” During work to “turbocharge” Purdue sales in 2013 after a drop in business, McKinsey consultants accompanied Purdue sales representatives on visits to prescribers and pharmacies to gather information. In a note about one ride-along, a McKinsey consultant said one pharmacist had a gun “and was shaking; abuse is definitely a huge issue.” The company continued looking for ways to increase OxyContin sales, according to court papers. In 2014, McKinsey identified some small clinics that were writing more opioid prescriptions than entire hospital systems — and suggested they be targeted for more sales, the court filing said. The company also tried to help Purdue get a say in shaping federal rules intended to ensure the benefits of addictive prescription drugs outweighed the risks. The government said in its new filings that that resulted in making high-dose OxyContin subject to the same oversight as lower-dose opioids and made training for prescribers voluntary rather than mandatory. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay state and local governments about $765 million in settlements for its role in advising businesses on how to sell more of the powerful prescription painkillers amid a national opioid crisis. The firm also agreed last year to pay health care funds and insurance companies $78 million. Federal authorities say the deal represents the first time a management consulting firm is being held accountable like this for advising a client to break the law. “If a consulting first conspires with a client to engage in criminal conduct, the fact that you’re an outside consultant will not protect you,” said Joshua Levy, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. Some advocates say the opioid crisis was touched off when Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Three Purdue executives pleaded guilty to misbranding charges in 2007 and the company agreed to pay a fine. The company pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2020 and agreed to $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures — most of which will be waived as long as it executes a settlement through bankruptcy court that is still in the works. Durkin Richer reported from Washington and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Extra News Alerts Get breaking updates as they happen. Be civil. Be kind.Macron names ally Bayrou as new PM as he aims to restore political stability