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No. 2 Michigan routs Purdue 41-13 despite potential distractions of NCAA sign-stealing investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — No. 2 Michigan is seemingly unfazed by an NCAA investigation into allegations that they broke rules with a sign-stealing scheme that could potentially penalize the program and coaching staff.Blake Corum matched his season high with three touchdowns and Semaj Morgan ran for a 44-yard score, leading the third-ranked Wolverines to a 41-13 victory over Purdue on Saturday night.“All that outside noise is just noise,” said Michigan’s Heisman Trophy-candidate quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was 24 of 37 for a season-high 335 yards.The Wolverines (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) routed another overmatched opponent as they have each game this season.“We were already super close as a unit, but with more stuff coming in — the noise — we just think of it as us against the world,” McCarthy said.Purdue coach Ryan Walters said two days before the game that he knew “for a fact” that Michigan was at number of his team’s games, forcing his players to learn a new language.“I was j...

West Virginia gets strong rushing efforts from Jahiem White and CJ Donaldson in a 37-7 win over BYU

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The muscle of 240-pound CJ Donaldson and quick bursts from freshman Jahiem White proved to be too much for BYU.White rushed for a season-high 146 yards, Donaldson ran for 102 yards and two short touchdowns, and West Virginia used a dominant ground attack to become bowl eligible with a 37-7 victory over BYU on Saturday night.Garrett Greene threw two touchdown passes for the Mountaineers (6-3, 4-2 Big 12), who jumped to a 27-0 halftime lead and cruised from there.“Tonight was our most complete game,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “We’re starting to hit our stride.”White had five runs of at least 10 yards, including a pair of 32-yarders. It was White’s second 100-yard rushing effort of the season. “I think this game’s really hard to play as a true freshman,” Brown said. “He’s got a chance to be special. He’s a long way. If he continues to do the things that it takes to be great, then he is going to be a great one. He can break tackles. ...

Today in History: November 5, Fort Hood shooting kills 13

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

Today in History Today is Sunday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2023. There are 56 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 5, 2009, a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas left 13 people dead; Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He has not yet been executed. On this date: In 1605, the “Gunpowder Plot” failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament. In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to cast a vote for President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1912, Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt, incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and Socialist Eugene V. Debs. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie. In 1964, NASA launched Mariner 3, which was supposed to fly by Mars, but the spacecraft...

Jokic just shy of triple-double, Porter scores 27 to lead Nuggets over Bulls 123-101

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists, Michael Porter Jr. scored a season-best 27 and the Denver Nuggets overcame the loss of point guard Jamal Murray to beat the Chicago Bulls 123-101 on Saturday night.Aaron Gordon had 15 points and 12 rebounds for defending NBA champion Denver, which has won all four of its home games.Murray played the first 8:40 before leaving with right hamstring tightness. He finished with two points and two rebounds. Reggie Jackson, getting extended minutes in place of Murray, scored 16 off the bench, tying his season high.Nikola Vucevic had 19 points, DeMar DeRozan scored 17 and Jalen Carter added 16 for Chicago, which has dropped two straight.The Bulls won the previous meeting in Denver, 117-96 on March 8, and took a two-point lead at halftime of this one. The Nuggets opened the third quarter on a 21-4 run to go ahead 72-57 and led by 18 before Chicago cut it to 86-76 early in the fourth.Denver extended the lead to 16, but th...

‘Take it or leave it’: Acrimony flares amid tenuous agreement on climate aid

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

Negotiators struck a fragile agreement Saturday over the outlines of an international fund for climate-ravaged countries after hours of acrimonious haggling foreshadowed likely divisions at the global climate talks later this month.The agreement, stitched tenuously together long after sunset in Abu Dhabi, included a provision demanded by the U.S. that says payments into the fund would be voluntary — leaving the Biden administration with the option of not contributing.The troubled talks over climate aid came weeks before nearly 200 nations will meet in Dubai for a global climate conference beginning Nov. 30 and highlighted the mistrust that developing countries have with the U.S. and other wealthy nations following years of unmet financial promises.The weekend debate left almost everyone dissatisfied, including the U.S.“This is a take it or leave it text,” said Outi Honkatukia, a Finnish negotiator who co-chairs the committee of 24 countries that’s responsible for designing the clima...

Jayson Tatum scores 10,000th career point as Celtics hold off Nets to stay undefeated

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

NEW YORK — On a milestone night for Jayson Tatum, there was one play that stood out to him from the Celtics’ latest victory on Saturday night over the Nets that exemplified the mindset this group has this season.And it didn’t even involve him.As the Celtics nursed an eight-point lead with less than five minutes to go, the feisty Nets refused to quit. They got out in transition after a Jaylen Brown miss. Down the left sideline, in front of the Celtics bench, Spencer Dinwiddie tried to find Cam Thomas. But Al Horford – all 37 years of him – hustled back. He got his left hand in front of Thomas and stole the ball. He regained possession for the Celtics, and they got fouled in transition the other way.During the stoppage, Tatum made sure to find Horford to deliver a loud high five.“That might not show up on the highlight tape,” Tatum said. “But that’s just like a snowball effect, and it’s contagious.”The Celtics’ 124-114 victory in Brooklyn certainly was not perfect. It wasn’t easy or c...

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan farmers have lost income of more than $1 billion from opium sales after the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation, according to a report from the U.N. drugs agency published Sunday. Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia when the Taliban seized power in August 2021. They pledged to wipe out the country’s drug cultivation industry and imposed a formal ban in April 2022, dealing a heavy blow to hundreds of thousands of farmers and day laborers who relied on proceeds from the crop to survive. Opium cultivation crashed by 95% after the ban, the report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.Until 2023, the value of Afghanistan’s opiate exports frequently outstripped the value of its legal exports. U.N. officials said the strong contraction of the opium economy is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the country as opiate exports before the ban accounted for between 9-14% of the national GDP....

Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory’s Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire.Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life,” Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza Ci...

Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit refugee camp in Gaza Strip, killing at least 33 people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people, health officials said. The strikes came a day after the U.S. urged Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its bombardment of Gaza, where Palestinians reported multiple fatalities on Saturday.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made another push Saturday to help civilians and met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan. That was after his talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested Saturday that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Ha...

Californians bet farming agave for spirits holds key to weathering drought and groundwater limits

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:54:08 GMT

MURRIETA, Calif. (AP) — Leo Ortega started growing spiky blue agave plants on the arid hillsides around his Southern California home because his wife liked the way they looked.A decade later, his property is now dotted with thousands of what he and others hope is a promising new crop for the state following years of punishing drought and a push to scale back on groundwater pumping. The 49-year-old mechanical engineer is one of a growing number of Californians planting agave to be harvested and used to make spirits, much like the way tequila and mezcal are made in Mexico. The trend is fueled by the need to find hardy crops that don’t need much water and a booming appetite for premium alcoholic beverages since the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s attracted entrepreneurs such as Ortega, as well as some California farmers. They’re seeking to shift to more water-efficient crops and irrigation methods to avoid fallowing their fields with looming limits on how much groundwater they can ...