92 jili (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked former congressman Billy Long to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service tax body. Trump cited Long's previous experience in real estate and as a business and tax advisor in a post on social-media site Truth Social, where he made the announcement. (Reporting by Costas Pitas) Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Get local news delivered to your inbox!DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) — For Gaza’s women, the hardships of life in the territory’s sprawling tent camps are compounded by the daily humiliation of never having privacy. Women struggle to dress modestly while crowded into tents with extended family members, including men, and with strangers only steps away in neighboring tents. Access to menstrual products is limited, so they cut up sheets or old clothes to use as pads. Makeshift toilets usually consist of only a hole in the sand surrounded by sheets dangling from a line, and these must be shared with dozens of other people. Alaa Hamami has dealt with the modesty issue by constantly wearing her prayer shawl, a black cloth that covers her head and upper body. “Our whole lives have become prayer clothes, even to the market we wear it,” said the young mother of three. “Dignity is gone.” Normally, she would wear the shawl only when performing her daily Muslim prayers. But with so many men around, she keeps it on all the time, even when sleeping — just in case an Israeli strike hits nearby in the night and she has to flee quickly, she said. Israel’s 14-month-old campaign in Gaza has driven more than 90% of its 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of them are now living in squalid camps of tents packed close together over large areas. Sewage runs into the streets , and food and water are hard to obtain. Winter is setting in. Families often wear the same clothes for weeks because they left clothing and many other belongings behind as they fled. Everyone in the camps searches daily for food, clean water and firewood. Women feel constantly exposed. Gaza has always been a conservative society. Most women wear the hijab, or head scarf, in the presence of men who are not immediate family. Matters of women’s health — pregnancy, menstruation and contraception — tend not to be discussed publicly. “Before we had a roof. Here it does not exist,” said Hamami, whose prayer shawl is torn and smudged with ash from cooking fires. “Here our entire lives have become exposed to the public. There is no privacy for women.” Wafaa Nasrallah, a displaced mother of two, says life in the camps makes even the simplest needs difficult, like getting period pads, which she cannot afford. She tried using pieces of cloth and even diapers, which have also increased in price. For a bathroom, she has a hole in the ground, surrounded by blankets propped up by sticks. The U.N. says more than 690,000 women and girls in Gaza require menstrual hygiene products, as well as clean water and toilets. Aid workers have been unable to meet demand, with supplies piling up at crossings from Israel. Stocks of hygiene kits have run out, and prices are exorbitant. Many women have to choose between buying pads and buying food and water. Doaa Hellis, a mother of three living in a camp, said she has torn up her old clothes to use for menstrual pads. “Wherever we find fabric, we tear it up and use it.” A packet of pads costs 45 shekels ($12), “and there is not even five shekels in the whole tent,” she said. Anera, a rights group active in Gaza, says some women use birth control pills to halt their periods. Others have experienced disruptions in their cycles because of the stress and trauma of repeated displacement. The terrible conditions pose real risks to women’s health, said Amal Seyam, the director of the Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza, which provides supplies for women and surveys them about their experiences. She said some women have not changed clothes for 40 days. That and improvised cloth pads “will certainly create” skin diseases, diseases related to reproductive health and psychological conditions, she said. “Imagine what a woman in Gaza feels like, if she’s unable to control conditions related to hygiene and menstrual cycles,” Seyam said. Hellis remembered a time not so long ago, when being a woman felt more like a joy and less like a burden. “Women are now deprived of everything, no clothes, no bathroom. Their psychology is completely destroyed,” she said. Seyam said the center has tracked cases where girls have been married younger, before the age of 18, to escape the suffocating environment of their family’s tents. The war will “continue to cause a humanitarian disaster in every sense of the word. And women always pay the biggest price,” she said. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel launched its assault in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250 others. With large swaths of Gaza’s cities and towns leveled, women wrestle with reduced lives in their tents. Hamami can walk the length of her small tent in a few strides. She shares it with 13 other people from her extended family. During the war, she gave birth to a son, Ahmed, who is now 8 months old. Between caring for him and her two other children, washing her family’s laundry, cooking and waiting in line for water, she says there’s no time to care for herself. She has a few objects that remind her of what her life once was, including a powder compact she brought with her when she fled her home in the Shati camp of Gaza City. The makeup is now caked and crumbling. She managed to keep hold of a small mirror through four different displacements over the past year. It’s broken into two shards that she holds together every so often to catch a glimpse of her reflection. “Previously, I had a wardrobe that contained everything I could wish for,” she said. “We used to go out for a walk every day, go to wedding parties, go to parks, to malls, to buy everything we wanted." Women “lost their being and everything in this war," she said. "Women used to take care of themselves before the war. Now everything is destroyed.” Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

The NFL playoffs are almost here, but before the quest for a Super Bowl title begins, there’s one more week left in the regular season. Following the conclusion of the Washington Commanders-Atlanta Falcons game on “Sunday Night Football,” the league announced the Week 18 schedule. The Cleveland Browns will travel to the Baltimore Ravens for a 4:30 p.m. ET matchup on Saturday, followed by the Cincinnati Bengals at the Pittsburgh Steelers at 8 p.m. that night. Advertisement The bulk of the action will be played Sunday afternoon before the Detroit Lions host the Minnesota Vikings for the final “Sunday Night Football” game of the season. That contest will be a battle for the NFC’s No. 1 seed, the NFC North title, a first-round bye in the playoffs and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The Athletic has you covered with the full schedule for Week 18’s matchups and times. All times listed are ET. Week 18 game schedule Saturday, Jan. 4 Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN/ABC) Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers, 8 p.m. (ESPN/ABC) Sunday, Jan. 5 Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. (CBS) Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys, 1 p.m. (Fox) Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. (Fox) Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. (Fox) Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots, 1 p.m. (CBS) New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles, 1 p.m. (CBS) New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. (Fox) Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. (CBS) San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. (Fox) Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. (Fox) Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:25 p.m. (CBS) Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 p.m. (Fox) Miami Dolphins at New York Jets, 4:25 p.m. (Fox) Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions, 8:20 p.m. (NBC) Required reading (Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images)

UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close eyeing school history

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad traffic police on Friday, November 29, booked one person for dangerous driving, creating noise pollution and causing public inconvenience. A video circulating on social media shows the accused riding a bike along with a pillion rider, emitting fire from the silencer that sounded like gunshots. The incident occurred at Chaderghat. Hyderabad traffic police quickly took cognizance of the incident and booked the rider and imposed a challan on him. #HYDTPinfo Any violations on roads, action will be taken as per law. Commuters are requested to #FollowTrafficRules . #RoadSafety #RoadRules pic.twitter.com/LTbJKuWzRt @HYDTP book riders for noise pollution and dangerous driving #Hyderabad #Traffic #noisepollution pic.twitter.com/o8zxFrUqvQ

Huge brawl breaks out as punches thrown during West Ham vs Arsenal in ugly scenes

Plan to pave hotly-contested wooded trail hinges on Virginia Beach council vote

South Arlington restaurant savors Michelin recognition, stokes Ethiopian-barbecue fusionToronto Sceptres open PWHL season with 3-1 comeback win over Boston Fleet

If you’re a young man in Australia, who is your male political role model? We’re thin on the federal ground, no doubt. There’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese either sitting on the policy fence or marinating in A-list perks. Or Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who has the opportunity to inspire our 20-something tradies and uni students but instead is partial to personal attacks on the PM. “He’s a child in a man’s body,” Dutton declared of Albo at the Liberal Party’s federal council in June but meanwhile doesn’t use his platform to drum up support for our under siege young male voters. So is it any wonder the current Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance is so attractive to young Aussie males and yet we know explicitly these individuals are not perfect by any stretch. Tuesday was International Men’s Day, did you know? It was crickets and unless you went looking for ways to acknowledge that not all men are evil, it may not have even registered. It’s also nearly 10 years since the one size fits all “toxic masculinity” label became pervasive in our discussions of men and gender. The #MeToo movement had to happen for women but an unintended consequence here was the uniform penalty and eye watering criticism young men copped for the crime of being born male while bereft of any practical guidance on what type of person they actually should be. It was unforgivable and made many youths and men cynical of social discourse. I saw firsthand among my son’s cohort that it sank to the level of being scared to make eye contact or ask a girl on a date, lest they be instantly labelled sexually aggressive or ignorant of consent guardrails. Nothing in my view has changed here. We are not suddenly more sympathetic to the stereotyped cruelty that was unleashed on these men and boys while modern feminism ran amok. These men and boys are still grappling with their purpose, their ambition and their identity. I agree the vile Andrew Tate manufactures violence and vitriol rather than considered advice. Trump and Musk are however better placed to motivate MAMGA or Make Aussie Men Great Again rather than those striding the halls of Canberra. We need innovators not career politicians and men who are decisive and bold, rejecting compromise and timidity of purpose. When our boys are travelling through childhood, we encourage them to think big, love big and to persevere. “Do not give up at the first hurdle,” we counsel while plastering knee wounds and blotting tears of confusion. As parents, we are paralysed with fear that when age 18 ticks over, the muscle of resilience that should power their life is in fact dormant and shrunken. The toxic masculinity tourniquet has shamed young male ambition. Yes, as men you can and must be decent and kind but you can also have conviction for getting ahead in life. And yes Trump disgraced himself with p****-grabbing comments among other things but if you authentically pull apart his personality, Trump is self-made and a masterclass in resilience - whether you agree with his policies or not. People all over the world are queuing up to tear him down yet a larger share of young men voted for Trump in last month’s election compared with four years ago – 56 per cent compared with 41% in the 2020 election. Musk, who played an outsized role in that comeback, is synonymous with innovation and is not afraid to think big, fail and try again. As an industry disruptor in electric vehicles, space travel and communication, his name is the byword for bold. Albo in particular represents a different story. Sure, there is something to be said for his rise through the ranks but his leadership style is not audacious or authentic. Young men here need a political leader with vision more than someone who represents the status quo. Before last month’s US election, Trump and Musk were accused by a US journalist of “taking advantage of an emergent crisis of masculinity in American society in order to gain greater power”. The crisis, I would argue, is failing here on genuine male leadership. A learned friend of mine, an expert on US politics, also suggested that Musk engages young Aussie men because it’s the first time they’ve seen science used for “something cool rather than scolding them or locking them up”. You’ll remember last year that a Federal $3.5 million three year plan was announced to prevent an emerging generation of toxic males. It has been derided as too broad and as simply throwing cash at the Tate issue. So where is the plan at now? It’s insulting to assume our young men are slaves to YouTubers and podcasters and only want to dominate or lose all accountability with women and their lives in general. They need support and to feel like they are understood. A good place to start would be support and understanding from The Lodge.TORONTO - Hannah Miller scored a power-play goal with 1:38 remaining in the game, lifting the Toronto Sceptres to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Fleet in the Professional Women's Hockey League season opener on Saturday. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * TORONTO - Hannah Miller scored a power-play goal with 1:38 remaining in the game, lifting the Toronto Sceptres to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Fleet in the Professional Women's Hockey League season opener on Saturday. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? TORONTO – Hannah Miller scored a power-play goal with 1:38 remaining in the game, lifting the Toronto Sceptres to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Fleet in the Professional Women’s Hockey League season opener on Saturday. With Boston standout Hilary Knight in the penalty box for a vicious boarding penalty on Sceptres defender Renata Fast, Miller made good on her rebound attempt on a Daryl Watts shot with a half-open net. Fast recovered for an assist on the winner before 8,089 fans at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The Fleet (0-1-0) challenged the goal, but video review deemed Miller’s shot was good. Toronto Sceptres' Hannah Miller (34) celebrates her goal with teammates on the bench Boston Fleet during late third period PWHL hockey action in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn Sarah Nurse got Toronto (1-0-0) on the board with a short-handed tally 11:50 into the first period and Emma Maltais added an empty-net strike to seal the score at 3-1 with 12 seconds left on the game clock. Boston’s Hilary Knight opened the scoring at the 3:00 mark of the opening frame, sending a slap shot past Toronto goalie Kristin Campbell, who registered 18 stops on the night. Toronto outshot Boston 41-19. Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, a big reason why her team advanced to the Walter Cup final last spring, was outstanding with 38 saves. Frankel made a significant glove-hand stop on Toronto defender Jocelyne Larocque with 6:36 remaining in the third period. Larocque was alone when a rebound caromed to her in front. But the puck was rolling, and she could only lift her shot straight into Frankel’s glove. Nurse’s goal tested the league’s new jailbreak rule that sees a minor penalty — in this case, Izzy Daniel’s tripping infraction — wiped out when a team scores a short-handed goal. . Takeaways Sceptres: Billie Jean King MVP Natalie Spooner missed the season opener. The PWHL scoring champion underwent left knee surgery last June after getting injured in Game 3 of Toronto’s first-round series against Minnesota. Fleet: Defender Emma Greco of Burlington, Ont., played her first game for Boston. She was part of the Walter Cup-winning Minnesota team that defeated Boston in a three-game series last spring. Greco is one of five Ontario-born players on the Fleet roster. Key moment With the game tied 1-1, the Sceptres failed to score during a 59-second 5-on-3 advantage midway through the second period. Boston blocked five shots during the span. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Key stat Last year, Toronto enjoyed an 11-game win streak en route to its regular-season championship, including three wins against Boston. Up next Toronto visits Ottawa on Tuesday. Boston will play its home opener on Wednesday, a rematch with the Walter Cup-champion Minnesota. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement