DALLAS (AP) — Juan Soto gets free use of a luxury suite and up to four premium tickets behind home plate for regular-season and postseason New York Mets home games as part of his record $765 million, 15-year contract that was finalized Wednesday. The Mets also agreed to provide personal team security for the All-Star outfielder and his family at the team’s expense for all spring training and regular-season home and road games, according to details of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press. Major League Baseball teams usually provide security for player families in seating areas at ballparks. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Cleveland named among top 3 contenders for new professional women’s soccer teamPresident-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria amid an opposition offensive that has reached the capital’s suburbs, declaring in a social media post, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”
If there's one thing that might just define Australia, it's invasion. From and to , and , our continent is no stranger to invasive species and the desecration they can bring. But few have been as successful as the fox. Covering some 80 per cent of Australia's continental landmass, it's estimated there are more than 1.7 million feral foxes in the country after first being brought over by European settlers. Part-time electrician and hunter Adam Wright is among those who are fighting back in his home state of Western Australia. What started as a hobby to help local farmers has developed into a fox-focused feral animal control business which sees his team help everyone from small property owners and hobby farmers to large-scale agricultural operators, caravan parks and even wildlife parks and bird zoos to keep the foxes at bay. "Our annual records indicate a steady increase in the number of animals removed each year," he told Yahoo News Australia. His team of licensed hunters meticulously record data on a majority of the animals, including sex, weight, and dietary habits through stomach content analysis and, according to Adam, prioritise ethical kills wherever possible. One of the main issues that drive demand for the service is predation on livestock. "Foxes prey on a wide range of livestock, including lambs, chickens, and young calves, causing significant economic losses for farmers," Adam said. "One example would be a farm we currently work on, which used to lose around 200 lambs a year. We have reduced that number to 19." Australia's has long been a key reason state governments have sought to control and reduce fox populations, which are estimated to kill . "Our biggest concern is the impact on native wildlife. Foxes are a major threat to native wildlife populations," Adam told Yahoo. 🦌 🚙 🏝️ "The last major problem we get called in for is disease transmission. Foxes can carry and transmit diseases. Mange is the main one, but they can also carry rabies and transmit it to farmers' working dogs, livestock, and even humans." While it's not an issue most Australians living in cities probably think about, the species are increasingly encroaching on more built up areas with foxes routinely spotted in places such as Melbourne. However Adam is painfully aware of the stigma such work has in the eyes of some Australians, saying there is a "disconnect between the reality of pest control work and the perceptions of those unfamiliar with the industry". Despite his apprehension, he the sometimes confronting images of hunts online to display the problem that shows little sign of abating. "We face constant online harassment and threats from animal activists. While it was initially upsetting, we've learned to use both positive and negative attention to raise awareness about our work and the importance of feral animal control," he said. "We understand that parading our kills may not be ideal, but we're also influencers in the development of new technologies to aid our work. We work hard to avoid showing blood and guts and use editing software to remove such images. This is one of our biggest tools for gaining views and spreading our message." He's certainly far from the only one. Self-described huntress Kirby Dickson runs an annual Williams community fox shoot in the Great Southern region of WA. On social media the event page boasts killing 4,706 foxes since 2019, this week sharing a video (seen below) of fox, cat and pig carcasses being discarded in a mass grave after a shoot. "Of course it's going to be confronting, but it's horrific for the farmers to come across these animals that we then have to put down," she previously told the ABC. "People don't see the first hand damage like us." Scientists and researchers have joined annual fox culling events in WA with landcare organisations actually reporting a fall in numbers, reported earlier this year. In Victoria a fox bounty scheme by the state government, which has provided $10 for each decapitated fox scalp presented by shooters (to be increased to $14 from next year) has drawn some criticism . Adam would like to see such a scheme reintroduced in WA as well as other options put on the table by the WA government to help drive down fox numbers. "While there are various small programs [such as bating], there's a lack of clear information and accessibility for recreational firearm owners. More opportunities, like responsible hunting on public land, should be explored," he argued. "Many recreational shooters would be willing to pay a yearly fee or participate in a lottery system to access public land, as is done in the US."
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will bring a new series to Netflix in December, revealing the “grit behind the glamour” in the high-stakes world of polo. The five-part series will debut globally on December 10, following elite global players on and off the field as they compete in the US Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Florida. A trailer for the series titled Polo, executive produced by Harry and Meghan, was released on Thursday, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the “fast-paced and glamorous world of polo”. In a statement, Harry said: “This series offers audiences an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into the passion and determination driving some of the world’s elite polo players, revealing the grit behind the glamour. “We’re proud to showcase the true depth and spirit of the sport — and the intensity of its high-stakes moments.” It has been produced by the Sussexes’ Archewell Productions, having previously released three documentaries with Netflix as part of a multimillion-pound deal with the streaming giant. Heart Of Invictus, which aired last August, followed a group of service members on their road to the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style sporting competition set up by Harry in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans. Netflix also released the documentary series Live To Lead and the controversial six-part Harry & Meghan documentary in December 2022. Harry and Meghan moved to the US in 2020 after stepping down from royal duties.West Ham striker Michail Antonio was involved in a terrifying car accident on Saturday. He was taken to the hospital as a result. “West Ham United can confirm that Michail Antonio is in a stable condition following a road traffic accident this afternoon in the Essex area,” the team said in a statement . “Michail is conscious and communicating and is currently under close supervision at a central London hospital. “At this difficult time, we kindly ask everyone to respect the privacy of Michail and his family. The Club will make no further comment this evening, but will issue a further update in due course.” A photo of what is rumored to be Antonio’s badly damaged car emerged on social media, though the image has not been confirmed to be his vehicle. Antonio, 34, joined West Ham in 2015 and has been a staple in the team’s lineup since. He has one goal and one assist in the Premier League this year. Antonio competes internationally for Jamaica. Several Premier League clubs, including Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, responded to West Ham’s post on X with support.Blanket tariffs will hurt workers on both sides of the border: USW
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Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Michelle Rowland once confessed she had a vice. It was “excessive online clothes shopping”, Rowland told this masthead in 2021 , when she was Labor’s communications spokeswoman. “I blame Instagram.” Now the communications minister with responsibility for regulating social media, Rowland is doing something to curb its influence. The politician known for having such a lawyerly, cautious approach that she reads from notes even in private meetings has taken the audacious step of banning under 16s from social media . The move has outraged technology giants and generated headlines around the world. “We would like that something very similar could be put in place, enforced in Europe,” French Education Minister Anne Genetet said. “We absolutely urgently need something to be put in place.” Michelle Rowland has strong backroom relationships. But they have not been enough to advance major parts of the government’s agenda that she is overseeing. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen That Australia is out ahead of any other country is all the more striking because two of Rowland’s other priorities – a bill to ban lies online and a crackdown on gambling ads – are dead or dying. Rowland’s critics blame the minister for that. “Minister Rowland seems to operate under the belief that she doesn’t have to bring anyone along with her on her legislation and policies,” Greens communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young says. “For the communications minister, she’s not a great communicator.” But the wooden exterior belies a different Rowland. Behind the closed doors of the Labor Party, colleagues know her as funny (the type of minister who leaves odd snacks on staff desks), sharp and influential. Rowland, they say, is in her dream job. She is the first sitting MP since Paul Keating to serve as NSW party president, a role in which she has helped keep internal NSW Labor dramas off the front page as the state branch won an election after more than a decade in opposition. The former communications and regulatory lawyer, who worked with star lawyer Danny Gilbert and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb, cares about her portfolio and knows it inside out. Growing up in the western Sydney electorate of Greenway that she represents, Rowland rose through the ranks of Young Labor before marrying Michael Chaaya, a corporate lawyer who could not speak English when he started school in Mount Druitt. The pair regularly attend a Maronite church together, grounding her views in favour of religious freedom and against antisemitism. In 2009, Rowland was a senior lawyer at Gilbert+Tobin when an electoral redistribution flipped Greenway from a safe Liberal seat to a winnable prospect for Labor. Rowland won it the next year and began a steady rise through the party that has won her fans in Labor’s most senior ranks. Treasurer Jim Chalmers secured her a position on the powerful cabinet expenditure review committee that signs off on government spending – a rarity for a communications minister. “She is very smart, very thorough and very tough,” one senior minister says. “She has a lawyer’s sense of the detail and a marginal member’s sense of the politics, and that makes her very influential.” And she has personal bonds, too. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rates not only her political judgment as a voice from suburban Labor comfortable on Sky News, but also her health advice. He followed Rowland’s diet (she lost about 40kg – roughly half her body weight – on the strict meal-prepping plan in 2020 and still gets up at 4.30am for Pilates) to lose weight before the 2022 election, declaring it made him “match fit”. Yet, those backroom relationships have not been enough to advance major parts of the government’s agenda that Rowland is overseeing in a portfolio that deals with politically influential organisations such as media companies and sporting codes. On some other issues, such as modernising Australia Post, updating rules to preserve major sport on free-to-air TV, reshaping the National Broadband Network, and letting users find broadcast stations on smart TVs, Rowland has confronted issues that her Coalition predecessors left alone. But rules to require more Australian content on streaming services such as Netflix, which sit both in Rowland’s patch and the arts portfolio, are nowhere to be seen. Labor’s anti-misinformation bill , which would have let the media regulator pressure social media companies to take down falsehoods circulating online, attracted a chorus of critics, from human rights groups to religious institutions. Intended to prevent conspiracy theories about events such as terrorist attacks, it left experts baffled about who would determine what was true and how. Rowland abandoned her second attempt to pass the law late last month. Gambling reform has fared scarcely better. More than a year after the late Labor MP Peta Murphy delivered bipartisan recommendations from a parliamentary committee for a blanket ban on gambling advertising, no laws have been introduced and a government commitment to respond by the end of this year has been all but abandoned. Anti-gambling advocates have accused the government of betraying Murphy’s memory. That is despite Rowland privately briefing interested parties on a full digital ban on gambling ads online and a cap on those airing on television, less than the proposal Murphy backed, but further than the sports, gambling and media sectors wanted and beyond what any previous government has floated. But Rowland has done little to convince the public of the significance of the reforms. In press conferences, Rowland is disciplined to the point of appearing stilted. Those who have spoken with her in private say her habit of referring to notes, which is unusual for a politician but more common in the law, has the same effect. It is, one former minister says, an “insult to the craft”. Rowland’s allies admit her attitude towards the gambling sector changed after this masthead reported in February 2023 that she had received donations and a Rockpool dinner from Sportsbet before the 2022 federal election, leading to crossbench calls for her resignation. Teal MPs and anti-gambling advocates portrayed Rowland as captured by corporate interests. That perception has meant her proposed set of policies, which would hurt media companies and sporting codes’ finances, won no friends. “The reputational damage done by the Sportsbet stuff meant she was always on the back foot on the gambling issue,” one gambling industry source says. “People like [Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate] Tim Costello were always going to paint her as weak if she ended up anywhere other than a full blanket ban.” With the prime minister publicly suggesting poker machines are a greater problem and privately convinced there is little electoral benefit in prosecuting the crackdown, Rowland’s problem is unlikely to go away unless she can muster the rhetoric to convince the public that a middle path works. That more charismatic Rowland has peeked through before. Asked her favourite TV show in that 2021 Q&A with this masthead , Rowland named the Netflix show Vikings . It’s full of “heavily tattooed Nordic beefcakes in sweaty battle scenes”, she said. “I’m only human.” Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner will be sidelined indefinitely with a torn right oblique muscle, the NBA team said Saturday, a major blow for a club already missing star Paolo Banchero with the same injury. Wagner was hurt in the Magic's 102-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. Jeff Weltman, Orlando president of basketball operations, said he would be re-evaluated in four weeks. Wagner has played a key role in keeping the Magic competitive since Banchero was injured on October 30. He has scored at least 20 points in nine straight games and is averaging 24.4 points, 5.7 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game for the season. More from this section At 16-9 the Magic are in third place in the Eastern Conference. However, they are still without Banchero, who said on Monday he had "finally" been able to take part in some on-court ball-handling and spot shooting practice. "Obviously (there) wasn't any sprinting or cutting or anything," Banchero said. "But hopefully in the next few weeks I can start getting into more of that and just work my way back into playing shape." bb/sev
Taxpayers have spent more than $7 million to empty the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo and send its contents 37 kilometres to a new storehouse in readiness for the museum’s imminent $300 million rebuild and renovations at its city campus. But the $7.3 million bill for Australia’s largest museum move in half a century does not include the centrepiece of the Powerhouse collection, which is still to be packed up and placed in storage despite anxiety about its extreme fragility. The budget for the steam engine’s removal, along with the rest of the decanted objects, has been covered by a one-off $15 million government grant made in June to also cover the cost of separating the functions of the nearby Harwood building from the construction site, management said. The Boulton & Watt steam engine arrived in Australia from London in 1888. Credit: Dean Sewell The grant formed part of $81.5 million that Treasury allocated to the museum for 2023-24, about $20 million more than the previous financial year, the museum’s annual report notes. The allocation enabled the Powerhouse to report an operating surplus. The 1795 Boulton & Watt rotative engine, a rare relic of the Industrial Age, is one of only three that exist in the world. Some 3000-odd collection pieces have been boxed, crated, catalogued and in some cases craned out of their Harris Street home, but the delicate mechanical antiquity was the lone display object to have been sheltered on site at the CBD museum in a vibration-proof case for the museum’s extensive renovations. Now the priceless steam engine will be moved in February after a risk assessment cited by Powerhouse management in consultation with engineering specialist Ken Ainsworth, who was involved in the reassembly of the engine in 1988, determined that the best outcome for the mechanical antiquity is to temporarily relocate. Ainsworth said the risks of damage during the renovation work, from such things as vibration and exposure to dust and humidity, were greater than the risks of relocation. “These risks far outweigh the risk of any possible damage that may occur during relocation to storage,” he said. “With the correct disassembly techniques, precise lifting with load monitoring and bespoke stillage designs for component transport, the risk of damage can be reduced to zero.” Chief executive Lisa Havilah said the Powerhouse had been responsible for the engine since it arrived from London by ship in 1888. She said it was exhibited at the museum’s former Harris Street location, dismantled and relocated to Castle Hill in 1983 and then reassembled in 1988 as part of the Stage 2 opening of the current Powerhouse Ultimo site. Sydneysiders flocked to the Powerhouse on its final day in February before its closure. Credit: Dean Sewell “It’s about the methodology,” she said. “We have everything documented from 1988, and we are using that as a guide to relocate the steam engine.” But moving the Boulton & Watt was a “distressing” prospect, said Emeritus Professor David Miller, a historian in science and technology at the University of NSW. He said disassembling the machine to move it to Castle Hill would not be attended by the same expertise or care “since virtually all of those who could provide it are dead”. “The very decision to move the Boulton & Watt is a cavalier act of bad faith given the earlier reassurances that it would not be moved,” he said. “It would be easier to ensure the engine’s safety in situ than to move it, in my opinion, precisely because instituting defensive methods to protect it is something that those without steam expertise can do, given the will to do so.” At Ultimo, planning approvals are expected in January to begin demolition of staircases, internal walls and mezzanines within the heritage Boiler House, Engine House, and Turbine Hall, a move which the Powerhouse said would improve circulation but which has been criticised by most public submissions . Labor’s renovations also call for shopfronts for creative industries to be built along Harris Street and a new city-facing entrance and courtyard. Interiors of the 1988-built Wran building will be removed, and its materials changed. Separately, a new $915 million museum is going up on the Parramatta riverside to open in late 2026. The museum’s internationally significant object and star attraction, the Locomotive No. 1 and its carriages, cost $349,000 to shift to their new temporary home in Castle Hill in August. Likewise, the historic Catalina Frigate Bird II cost $285,250 to dismantle and truck to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Albion Park. Removing the Boulton & Watt is expected to cost similar to these other objects, and all three will return to Ultimo, Havilah says. Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Store-Bought Multigrain Breads Made With Questionable IngredientsThe 118th Congress, by the Numbers
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that his policies would reduce high borrowing costs and lighten the financial burden on American households. But what if, as many economists expect, interest rates remain elevated, well above their pre-pandemic lows? Trump could point a finger at the Federal Reserve, and in particular at its chair, Jerome Powell, whom Trump himself nominated to lead the Fed. During his first term, Trump repeatedly and publicly ridiculed the Powell Fed, complaining it kept interest rates too high. Trump’s attacks on the Fed raised widespread concern about political interference in the Fed’s policymaking. Powell, for his part, emphasized the importance of the Fed’s independence: “That gives us the ability to make decisions for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome.” Political clashes might be inevitable in the next four years. Trump’s proposals to cut taxes and impose steep and widespread tariffs are a recipe for high inflation in an economy operating at close to full capacity. And if inflation were to reaccelerate, the Fed would need to keep interest rates high. Because Powell won’t necessarily cut rates as much as Trump will want. And even if Powell reduces the Fed’s benchmark rate, Trump’s own policies could keep other borrowing costs — such as mortgage rates — elevated. The sharply higher tariffs that Trump vowed to impose could worsen inflation. And if tax cuts on things like tips and overtime pay — another Trump promise — quickened economic growth, that, too, could fan inflationary pressures. The Fed would likely respond by slowing or stopping its rate cuts, thereby thwarting Trump’s promises of lower borrowing rates. The central bank might even raise rates if inflation worsens. “The risk of conflict between the Trump administration and the Fed is very high,” Olivier Blanchard, former top economist at the International Monetary Fund, said recently. If the Fed increases rates, “it will stand in the way of what the Trump administration wants.” Yes, but with the economy sturdier than expected, the Fed’s policymakers may cut rates only a few more times — fewer than anticipated just a month or two ago. And those rate cuts might not reduce borrowing costs for consumers and businesses very much. The Fed’s key short-term rate can influence rates for credit cards, small businesses and some other loans. But it has no direct control over longer-term interest rates. These include the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects mortgage rates. The 10-year Treasury yield is shaped by investors’ expectations of future inflation, economic growth and interest rates as well as by supply and demand for Treasuries. An example occurred this year. The 10-year yield fell in late summer in anticipation of a Fed rate cut. Yet once the first rate cut occurred Sept. 18, longer-term rates didn’t fall. Instead, they began to rise again, partly in anticipation of faster economic growth. Trump also proposed a variety of tax cuts that could swell the deficit. Rates on Treasury securities might then have to be increased to attract enough investors to buy the new debt. “I honestly don’t think the Fed has a lot of control over the 10-year rate, which is probably the most important for mortgages,” said Kent Smetters, an economist and faculty director at the Penn Wharton Budget Model. “Deficits are going to play a much bigger role in that regard.” Occasional or rare criticism of the Fed chair isn’t necessarily a problem for the economy, so long as the central bank continues to set policy as it sees fit. But persistent attacks would tend to undermine the Fed’s political independence, which is critically important to keeping inflation in check. To fight inflation, a central bank often must take steps that can be highly unpopular, notably by raising interest rates to slow borrowing and spending. Political leaders typically want central banks to do the opposite: keep rates low to support the economy and the job market, especially before an election. Research has found that countries with independent central banks generally enjoy lower inflation. Even if Trump doesn’t technically force the Fed to do anything, his persistent criticism could still cause problems. If markets, economists and business leaders no longer think the Fed is operating independently and instead is being pushed around by the president, they’ll lose confidence in the Fed’s ability to control inflation. Once consumers and businesses anticipate higher inflation, they usually act in ways that fuel higher prices — accelerating their purchases, for example, before prices increase further, or raising their own prices if they expect their expenses to increase. “The markets need to feel confident that the Fed is responding to the data, not to political pressure,” said Scott Alvarez, a former general counsel at the Fed. He can try, but it would likely lead to a prolonged legal battle that could even end up at the Supreme Court. At a November news conference, Powell made clear that he believes the president doesn’t have legal authority to do so. Most experts think Powell would prevail in the courts. And from the Trump administration’s perspective, such a fight might not be worth it. Powell’s term ends in May 2026, when the White House could nominate a new chair. It is also likely the stock market would tumble if Trump attempted such a brazen move. Bond yields would probably increase, too, sending mortgage rates and other borrowing costs up. Financial markets might also react negatively if Trump is seen as appointing a loyalist as Fed chair to replace Powell in 2026. Yes, and in the most egregious cases, it led to stubbornly high inflation. Notably, President Richard Nixon pressured Fed Chair Arthur Burns to reduce interest rates in 1971, which the Fed did, as Nixon sought reelection the next year. Economists blame Burns’ failure to keep rates sufficiently high for contributing to the entrenched inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s. Thomas Drechsel, an economist at the University of Maryland, said that when presidents intrude on the Fed’s interest rate decisions, “it increases prices quite consistently and it increases expectations, and ... that worries me because that means inflation might become quite entrenched.” Since the mid-1980s, with the exception of Trump in his first term, presidents have scrupulously refrained from public criticism of the Fed. “It’s amazing, how little manipulation for partisan ends we have seen of that policymaking apparatus,” said Peter Conti- Brown, a professor of financial regulation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “It really is a triumph of American governance.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!Artem Chigvintsev breaks social media silence months after divorce from Nikki Garcia
