AP Sports SummaryBrief at 3:18 p.m. ESTMANCHESTER, England (AP) — Pep Guardiola committed himself to Manchester City for another two years on Thursday and quickly set his sights on adding to his record-breaking reign. Guardiola ended uncertainty about his future by signing a contract extension that would prolong his tenure as City manager to 11 seasons. “I have said this many times before, but I have everything a manager could ever wish for," said the 53-year-old Catalan coach, whose current deal was due to expire at the end of this season. "Hopefully now we can add more trophies to the ones we have already won. That will be my focus.” Guardiola has overseen a period of unprecedented dominance since joining City in 2016. He has gone on to win six Premier League titles in seven years at the Etihad Stadium and also won the Champions League. In total, he has won 15 major trophies at the club. He has set new benchmarks, with City becoming the first team to win four-straight English league titles and the first to amass 100 points in a single season in 2018. He also led City to the treble in 2023, winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in one season — matching Manchester United's achievement in 1999. “Manchester City means so much to me. This is my ninth season here. We have experienced so many amazing times together. I have a really special feeling for this football club,” Guardiola added in his statement. “That is why I am so happy to be staying for another two more seasons.” Publicly, Guardiola gave no indication about whether he would stay on even as he entered the final months of his contract. That led to speculation about potential successors, but City remained hopeful he could be convinced to sign another extension. He has already managed City for longer than any his former clubs, having spent four years at Barcelona and three at Bayern Munich. City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said he was “delighted” that Guardiola is staying. “His hunger for improvement and success remains insatiable and the direct beneficiaries of that will continue to be our players and coaching staff, the culture of our club, and the English game at large,” he said. Story continues below video “This renewal will take Pep beyond a decade of coaching Manchester City and the opportunity to continue to re-write the managerial record books.” Guardiola's new deal comes at a time when City's Premier League dominance appears to be under threat . The four-time defending champion has lost four games in succession in all competitions — the worst losing streak of Guardiola's managerial career. Guardiola is widely considered one of the greatest managers of all time, having been a serial winner at Barcelona, Bayern and City. He has won 33 major titles with those clubs, including three Champions League trophies. His decision to stay at City also comes as the club faces a slew of alleged financial breaches . Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the league. City faces more than 100 charges ranging over a nine-year period when it was trying to establish itself as the biggest force in English soccer. The club denies the charges and Guardiola had said in September — when a closed-door hearing was scheduled — that he welcomed the chance to clear the club’s name. A verdict is not expected until next year. James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerLara Trump stepping down as RNC co-chair and addressing speculation about Florida Senate seat
"HDBs" of coral fragments, or nubbins, each attached to a specially designed frame to maximise the number of corals that can be grown in the tanks. The nubbins of the staghorn coral at St John’s Island coral culture facility on Dec 10. Coral nubbins attached to a specially designed frame in one of the six specialised tanks in the coral culture facility at St John's Island. The tanks will be paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. SINGAPORE – The Republic has launched its most ambitious coral-restoration project, growing corals from fragments in “high-rise” special tanks on St John’s Island. Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats. The first step of this decade-long effort began at a new facility in the island’s Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre – home to six specialised tanks that can be used for large-scale coral cultivation. The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. To date, more than $2 million has been raised for the restoration project. The facility is still in the works and is targeted to fully open in the second quarter of 2025. For now, there are about 600 nubbins growing in two of the tanks. While the initial stages of the project will be helmed by researchers, marine enthusiasts will be later invited to the lab to grow corals and monitor them, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Dec 10, as he announced the launch of the initiative on St John’s Island. The National Parks Board (NParks), St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory and the Friends of Marine Park community will train members of the public to cultivate corals, monitor their growth and do weeding work to remove algae from the corals, among other things. More details on public participation will be shared when ready. When the coral-restoration project was announced in 2023, NParks said it would take at least 10 years to complete. Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM At the launch, Mr Lee was joined by world-renowned British primate expert Jane Goodall, who was on a working visit to Singapore. Over the decades, about 60 per cent of Singapore’s coral reefs have been lost to coastal development and land reclamation. Most of its remaining intact coral reefs are found in the Southern Islands. The Republic’s waters are home to around 250 species of hard corals, which constitute about a third of the world’s existing coral species. The reefs here serve as habitat for more than 100 species of reef fish, about 200 species of sea sponges, and rare and endangered seahorses and clams, among other marine life. The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM Beyond boosting marine biodiversity, restoring corals will protect coastlines from waves and storms, which are expected to get stronger amid sea-level rise and climate change. The corals to be grown in tanks and planted in the wild include several species under NParks’ species recovery programme, which protects threatened flora and fauna and helps them survive environmental change. These include the branching staghorn coral and the flat table acropora coral. The acropora is not a common species here because it thrives in waters with strong currents and good visibility – conditions that are rarely found in Singapore. The acropora species is not common in local waters. photo: NParks Coral nubbins are fragments trimmed from a colony of adult corals. However, marine biologists usually prioritise loose corals that would otherwise tumble and die when swept by waves. Mr Lee said cultivating corals in specialised tanks is an ambitious undertaking, with conditions such as lighting and temperature as well as water quality and flow needing to be specific to each species. To allow hundreds of coral fragments to grow in each tank, scientists at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory are cultivating them on vertical structures, among other methods. Coral nubbins are attached to plugs that are then affixed to a vertical frame. The scientists and NParks staff have named these set-ups “coral HDBs”, said the minister. Small coral nubbins are fragmented from the adult colony. PHOTO: NPARKS Dr Lionel Ng, a research fellow at the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute who is involved in the coral-restoration work, noted that the survival rate of transplanted corals is about 80 per cent to 90 per cent, which is on a par with the 80 per cent survival rate of corals found in the wild here. The tanks are paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. This allows them to monitor tank conditions remotely and be alerted if they need to intervene. The system is a technology of Delta Electronics, a firm that specialises in industrial and building automation solutions. Delta is also one of several donors of the more than $2 million raised so far. The other donors include GSK-EDB Trust Fund, Deutsche Bank, Takashimaya Singapore and marine fuel firm KPI OceanConnect. A smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta Electronics and installed in the culture tanks at St John’s Island’s coral culture facility on Dec 10. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM The launch of the restoration effort comes as existing corals are slowly recovering from the largest recorded global bleaching event caused by a marine heatwave. Announced in mid-April by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global bleaching event was the fourth of its kind. In July, areas such as St John’s, Lazarus and Kusu Islands were found to have 30 per cent to 55 per cent of coral colonies bleached and white. With water temperatures dropping in recent months, bleached corals have started to regain colour, said Mr Lee. NParks and NUS have been monitoring Singapore’s reefs for bleaching since July. The findings will help identify which species are under threat and which ones are climate-resilient, and will also narrow down suitable planting sites for future coral-restoration efforts, said Mr Lee. On whether restored corals will be able to survive future marine heatwaves, Dr Ng pointed to a research project that aims to enhance the ecological resilience of coral reefs against climate change. “Information from that (study) will feed into this. We’ll refine our final strategies to see which species are suitable for which areas. It’s a matter of tweaking what we know of the environment and what we know of the corals to find the best match,” he added. In her address to NParks, scientists and groups involved in the restoration project, Dr Goodall said: “We know that oceans and forests are the two great capturers of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the planet... In the oceans, we have the kelp forests and the seagrass which absorb as much CO2 as a small inland forest. “It’s no good just protecting corals if we don’t protect kelp forests and seagrass, if we don’t protect forests and peatlands. It’s all interconnected.” Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowThe Indiana State men's basketball team hosts Chicago State on Friday night at Hulman Center and coach Matthew Graves and the rest of the team are ready to go. "I've had a chance to watch three of their games," Graves said. "They're a team that likes to get up and down the floor, they're very aggressive defensively and they're a team that's very dangerous if you let them get in a rhythm." The Sycamores are coming off a 94-84 victory at Ball State on Saturday that saw Camp Wagner drop 19 with multiple buckets from beyond the 3-point arc. Graves said they learned about getting better together against the Cardinals. Graves is looking for Wagner to move without the ball, take really good shots and compete defensively as he did Saturday. But it's not just been Wagner growing and making progress in his game, but the team as a whole from its loss to SIU-Edwardsville to its win at Ball State, Graves has seen the whole team making strides. "It's been a process, but from our first two closed scrimmages through our first couple games, just seeing guys make progress, get better with their understanding in their roles and being able to adapt within the flow of the game," Graves said. While Chicago State is not a conference opponent, he said it's another opportunity to get better, have shared experiences on the court and play at home in front of their fans. "You only get so many of these opportunities and you don't want to get any of them for granted," Graves said. With the loss to SIUE and then emerging victorious at Ball State, Graves said he thinks it's just guys getting comfortable. "The more repetitions we get with the lights on, the officials and the fans, the better we're going to get," Graves said. "It's not going to be perfect. We're going to continue to have our ups and downs, but just to see that continued growth from Game 1 to Game 5 to Game 10, I expect us to be a little bit better each time we come out on to the floor." While ISU found the key to winning Saturday, Chicago State (0-5) continues to search for its first victory of the season. Most recently, the Cougars lost 86-66 at home to Eastern Kentucky with leading scorer Gabe Spinelli dropping 15 points. Indiana State's Samage Teel is a top player in the Missouri Valley Conference assist-wise, averaging 5.5 per game, while Wagner is tied for second in 3-point field goals made with 10 and an average of 3.33 a game.The blame game has begun as Labor struggles to clear a logjam of legislation before the federal election. With 30 or so bills still before parliament and just one sitting week left in 2024, the Albanese government has taken aim at the Greens for stalling legislation. The minor party’s objection to the Help to Buy shared equity scheme and incentives for build-to-rent have ignited Labor’s ire as the government prepares to bring the bills for a final vote in the Senate in the upcoming days. “The Greens are going to the next election either as an effective party of protest, that has blocked and delayed action on things they say are important to them, or as a party that lets the government get on with addressing the housing needs of Australia,” Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told ABC Radio on Monday. The two housing bills have struggled to attract the support of the opposition or the Greens, with Labor knocking back fresh demands from the minor party. Central to the Greens’ updated position is funding for 25,000 “shovel-ready” homes not given the go-ahead under the first round of the Housing Australia Future Fund. Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said his party had designed “a compromise offer that is popular, achievable and easy to accept, it requires no new legislation and sits broadly within government policy”. Labor insists the demand is unlawful and would result in the construction of million-dollar homes that are not value for money and could try push through the bill without support from the Greens. “The time for this negotiation and conversation was six months ago,” Ms O’Neil said. The federal government’s attack on the Greens follows the Queensland state election. The minor party lost a seat in the October contest, bolstering hopes for a Labor resurgence in the state at the upcoming federal election. Meanwhile, the federal government will try court the opposition’s support for its migration bill, which could result in the deportation of more than 80,000 people. A friendless crackdown on misinformation and disinformation has been shelved and gambling reforms have been pushed into 2025. Other proposals to establish an environment protection agency and cap the number of foreign student arrivals have reached a stalemate and cabinet minister have continued to point fingers. “You have populist, vote-grabbing parties like the Greens and the coalition,” Resources Minister Madeleine King told ABC Radio. “We’re trying to do the right thing for the Australian community, whereas they want to block this to be able to put out another TikTok. “It’s absolutely disgraceful.” To Labor’s relief, the government is expecting wins on its aged care reforms and its social media age limit, with the former expected to attract opposition support. Under world-first legislation, Australians younger than 16 will be banned from social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit and X. Labor will also be spruiking its Future Made in Australia plan, with its hydrogen and critical minerals production tax incentives to be introduced to parliament on Monday. The federal election is due to be held by May 17.
‘Disgraceful’: Labor points fingers as clock ticks down
Stocks likely to move up as inflation eases
"HDBs" of coral fragments, or nubbins, each attached to a specially designed frame to maximise the number of corals that can be grown in the tanks. The nubbins of the staghorn coral at St John’s Island coral culture facility on Dec 10. Coral nubbins attached to a specially designed frame in one of the six specialised tanks in the coral culture facility at St John's Island. The tanks will be paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. SINGAPORE – The Republic has launched its most ambitious coral-restoration project, growing corals from fragments in “high-rise” special tanks on St John’s Island. Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats. The first step of this decade-long effort began at a new facility in the island’s Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre – home to six specialised tanks that can be used for large-scale coral cultivation. The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. To date, more than $2 million has been raised for the restoration project. The facility is still in the works and is targeted to fully open in the second quarter of 2025. For now, there are about 600 nubbins growing in two of the tanks. While the initial stages of the project will be helmed by researchers, marine enthusiasts will be later invited to the lab to grow corals and monitor them, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Dec 10, as he announced the launch of the initiative on St John’s Island. The National Parks Board (NParks), St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory and the Friends of Marine Park community will train members of the public to cultivate corals, monitor their growth and do weeding work to remove algae from the corals, among other things. More details on public participation will be shared when ready. When the coral-restoration project was announced in 2023, NParks said it would take at least 10 years to complete. Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM At the launch, Mr Lee was joined by world-renowned British primate expert Jane Goodall, who was on a working visit to Singapore. Over the decades, about 60 per cent of Singapore’s coral reefs have been lost to coastal development and land reclamation. Most of its remaining intact coral reefs are found in the Southern Islands. The Republic’s waters are home to around 250 species of hard corals, which constitute about a third of the world’s existing coral species. The reefs here serve as habitat for more than 100 species of reef fish, about 200 species of sea sponges, and rare and endangered seahorses and clams, among other marine life. The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM Beyond boosting marine biodiversity, restoring corals will protect coastlines from waves and storms, which are expected to get stronger amid sea-level rise and climate change. The corals to be grown in tanks and planted in the wild include several species under NParks’ species recovery programme, which protects threatened flora and fauna and helps them survive environmental change. These include the branching staghorn coral and the flat table acropora coral. The acropora is not a common species here because it thrives in waters with strong currents and good visibility – conditions that are rarely found in Singapore. The acropora species is not common in local waters. photo: NParks Coral nubbins are fragments trimmed from a colony of adult corals. However, marine biologists usually prioritise loose corals that would otherwise tumble and die when swept by waves. Mr Lee said cultivating corals in specialised tanks is an ambitious undertaking, with conditions such as lighting and temperature as well as water quality and flow needing to be specific to each species. To allow hundreds of coral fragments to grow in each tank, scientists at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory are cultivating them on vertical structures, among other methods. Coral nubbins are attached to plugs that are then affixed to a vertical frame. The scientists and NParks staff have named these set-ups “coral HDBs”, said the minister. Small coral nubbins are fragmented from the adult colony. PHOTO: NPARKS Dr Lionel Ng, a research fellow at the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute who is involved in the coral-restoration work, noted that the survival rate of transplanted corals is about 80 per cent to 90 per cent, which is on a par with the 80 per cent survival rate of corals found in the wild here. The tanks are paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. This allows them to monitor tank conditions remotely and be alerted if they need to intervene. The system is a technology of Delta Electronics, a firm that specialises in industrial and building automation solutions. Delta is also one of several donors of the more than $2 million raised so far. The other donors include GSK-EDB Trust Fund, Deutsche Bank, Takashimaya Singapore and marine fuel firm KPI OceanConnect. A smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta Electronics and installed in the culture tanks at St John’s Island’s coral culture facility on Dec 10. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM The launch of the restoration effort comes as existing corals are slowly recovering from the largest recorded global bleaching event caused by a marine heatwave. Announced in mid-April by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global bleaching event was the fourth of its kind. In July, areas such as St John’s, Lazarus and Kusu Islands were found to have 30 per cent to 55 per cent of coral colonies bleached and white. With water temperatures dropping in recent months, bleached corals have started to regain colour, said Mr Lee. NParks and NUS have been monitoring Singapore’s reefs for bleaching since July. The findings will help identify which species are under threat and which ones are climate-resilient, and will also narrow down suitable planting sites for future coral-restoration efforts, said Mr Lee. On whether restored corals will be able to survive future marine heatwaves, Dr Ng pointed to a research project that aims to enhance the ecological resilience of coral reefs against climate change. “Information from that (study) will feed into this. We’ll refine our final strategies to see which species are suitable for which areas. It’s a matter of tweaking what we know of the environment and what we know of the corals to find the best match,” he added. In her address to NParks, scientists and groups involved in the restoration project, Dr Goodall said: “We know that oceans and forests are the two great capturers of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the planet... In the oceans, we have the kelp forests and the seagrass which absorb as much CO2 as a small inland forest. “It’s no good just protecting corals if we don’t protect kelp forests and seagrass, if we don’t protect forests and peatlands. It’s all interconnected.” Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowThe Terrapins (7-0) led by just two when Smikle stole the ball and made a layup while being fouled. The free throw pushed the lead to 58-53. Then a putback by Smikle put Maryland up by seven. The Terps won despite shooting 13 of 26 on free throws. George Mason (6-1) trailed by 10 at halftime before outscoring Maryland 18-7 in the third quarter. The Patriots' final lead was 49-48 in the fourth after a jumper by Kennedy Harris. Harris led George Mason with 26 points. Maryland is off to its best start since winning its first 12 games in 2018-19. George Mason: The Patriots have lost all nine meetings with Maryland, but it's been more competitive of late. The Terps won 86-77 last year, and this game was more competitive than the final score suggested. Maryland: After a down season by their standards, the Terps are off to a nice start, but the free-throw problems in this game nearly cost them. With the score 55-53, George Mason had a chance to tie, but the Patriots never really recovered after Smikle swiped the ball from Harris and went the other way for a three-point play with 3:08 remaining. Although Maryland was awful at the line, at least the Terps got there. George Mason was only 3 of 8 from the stripe, and the Terps held the Patriots to 32% shooting from the field. George Mason faces Navy in this event Sunday. Maryland takes on Toledo. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
A new pair of satellites are set to create ‘solar eclipses on demand’
