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Glasgow’s most recent European match, a 28-24 defeat away to Harlequins in the last-16 of the Champions Cup back in April, ultimately proved a catalyst for their run to URC glory later in the season. At the time, however, it was just another knockout disappointment to lodge alongside the previous year’s league quarter-final loss at home to Munster and the shellacking dished out by Toulon in the final of the Challenge Cup. Both those games went awry early on and didn’t get much better, whereas at The Stoop, Franco Smith’s men recovered from a poor first half to score 17 unanswered points in the second period, leading right up until the 76th minute only for Quins to edge it at the death. Glasgow were left to reflect on a lack of maturity and game management, qualities which came surging to the fore in those back-to-back wins over the Stormers, Munster and the Bulls — the latter two on the road — which delivered them to the title.Insurgents reach gates of Syria's capital
Airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end with another record day for air travel in the United States. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday, most of them by car. However, travelers could be impacted by ongoing weather challenges and those flying to their destinations could be grounded by delays brought on by airline staffing shortages and an airport service workers strike . Here’s what we’re following today: Here’s the latest: “We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at a rally earlier Monday. “I can honestly say it’s hard every single day with my children, working a full-time job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and say, ’I don’t know if we’re going to have a home today.’” Timothy Lowe II, a wheelchair attendant, said he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn’t make enough for a deposit on a home. “We just want to be able to have everything that’s a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,” he said. ABM said it is “committed to addressing concerns swiftly” and that there are avenues for employees to communicate issues, including a national hotline and a “general open door policy for managers at our worksite.” Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. They described living paycheck to paycheck while performing jobs that keep planes running on schedule. Most of them earn $12.50 to $19 an hour, union officials said. Rev. Glencie Rhedrick of Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice said those workers should make $22 to $25 an hour. The strike is expected to last 24 hours. Several hundred workers participated in the work stoppage. Forty-four fights have been canceled today and nearly 1,900 were delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware . According to the organization’s cheekily named MiseryMap , San Francisco International Airport is having the most hiccups right now, with 53 delays and three cancellations between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST. While that might sound like a lot of delays, they might not be so bad compared to last Friday when the airport suffered 671 delays and 69 cancellations. In an apparent effort to reduce the headaches caused by airport line cutting, American Airlines has rolled out boarding technology that alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned group. This new software won’t accept a boarding pass before the group it’s assigned to is called, so customers who get to the gate prematurely will be asked to go back and wait their turn. As of Wednesday, the airline announced, the technology is now being used in more than 100 U.S. airports that American flies out of. The official expansion arrives after successful tests in three of these locations — Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Tucson International Airport. ▶ Read more about American Airlines’ new boarding technology Travel can be stressful in the best of times. Now add in the high-level anxiety that seems to be baked into every holiday season and it’s clear travelers could use some help calming frazzled nerves. Here are a few ways to make your holiday journey a little less stressful: ▶ Read more tips about staying grounded during holiday travel Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel. With more time before the holiday , people tend to spread out their outbound travel over more days, but everyone returns at the same time, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines . “A late Thanksgiving leads to a big crush at the end,” Watterson said. “The Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late.” Airlines did a relatively good job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one out of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights. Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX. On the return home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said. In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures at some facilities to deal with an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers. In the past, those facilities have included airports in New York City and Florida. “If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe,” Whitaker said. The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency’s lofty hiring goals. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving travel across the U.S. Workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs at Charlotte’s airport, one of the nation’s busiest, went on strike Monday to demand higher wages. The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.” The strike was expected to last 24 hours, said union spokesperson Sean Keady. Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. The two companies contract with American, one of the world’s biggest carriers, to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs. ▶ Read more about the Charlotte airport workers’ strike Parts of the Midwest and East Coast can expect to see heavy rain into Thanksgiving, and there’s potential for snow in Northeastern states. A storm last week brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall. Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches, with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago. In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region. Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California. Forecasters said the risk of flooding and mudslides remained as the region will get more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won’t be as intense as last week’s atmospheric river , a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land. “However, there’s still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,” weather service forecaster Rich Otto said. As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there’s a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado. California’s Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet before the newest system clears out Wednesday, the resort said. Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages. In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm . Here’s a look at some of the regional forecasts: ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts
Syria's Jolani: from jihadist to pragmatistLAS VEGAS — Players Era Festival organizers have done what so many other have tried — bet their fortunes in this city that a big payoff is coming. Such bet are usually bad ones, which is why so many massive casino-resorts have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it doesn't mean the organizers are wrong. They're counting on the minimum of $1 million in guaranteed name, image and likeness money that will go to each of the eight teams competing in the neutral-site tournament that begins Tuesday will create a precedent for other such events. EverWonder Studios CEO Ian Orefice, who co-founded Players with former AND1 CEO Seth Berger, compared this event to last year's inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament that played its semifinals and final in Las Vegas by saying it "did really well to reinvigorate the fan base at the beginning of the year." "We're excited that we're able to really change the paradigm in college basketball on the economics," Orefice said. "But for us, it's about the long term. How do we use the momentum that is launching with the 2024 Players Era Festival and be the catalyst not to change one event, but to change college basketball for the future." Orefice and Berger didn't disclose financial details, but said the event will come close to breaking even this year and that revenue is in eight figures. Orefice said the bulk of the revenue will come from relationships with MGM, TNT Sports and Publicis Sport & Entertainment as well as sponsors that will be announced later. Both organizers said they are so bullish on the tournament's prospects that they already are planning ahead. Money made from this year's event, Orefice said, goes right back into the company. "We're really in this for the long haul," Orefice said. "So we're not looking at it on a one-year basis." Rick Giles is president of the Gazelle Group, which also operates several similar events, including the College Basketball Invitational. He was skeptical the financial numbers would work. Giles said in addition to more than $8 million going to the players, there were other expenses such as the guarantees to the teams. He said he didn't know if the tournament would make up the difference with ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorship money. The top bowl of the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be curtained off. "The math is highly challenging," Giles said. "Attendance and ticket revenues are not going to come anywhere close to covering that. They haven't announced any sponsors that I'm aware of. So it all sort of rests with their media deal with Turner and how much capital they want to commit to it to get these players paid." David Carter, a University of Southern California adjunct professor who also runs the Sports Business Group consultancy, said even if the Players isn't a financial success this year, the question is whether there will be enough interest to move forward. "If there is bandwidth for another tournament and if the TV or the streaming ratings are going to be there and people are going to want to attend and companies are going to want to sponsor, then, yeah, it's probably going to work," Carter said. "But it may take them time to gain that traction." Both founders said they initially were met with skepticism about putting together such an event, especially from teams they were interested in inviting. Houston was the first school to commit, first offering an oral pledge early in the year and then signing a contract in April. That created momentum for others to join, and including the No. 6 Cougars, half the field is ranked. "We have the relationships to operate a great event," Berger said. "We had to get coaches over those hurdles, and once they knew that we were real, schools got on board really quickly." The founders worked with the NCAA to make sure the tournament abided by that organization's rules, so players must appear at ancillary events in order to receive NIL money. Strict pay for play is not allowed, though there are incentives for performance. The champion, for example, will receive $1.5 million in NIL money. Now the pressure is on to pull off the event and not create the kind of headlines that can dog it for years to come. "I think everybody in the marketplace is watching what's going to happen (this) week and, more importantly, what happens afterwards," Giles said. "Do the players get paid on a timely basis? And if they do, that means that Turner or somebody has paid way more than the market dictates? And the question will be: Can that continue?" CREIGHTON: P oint guard Steven Ashworth likely won’t play in the No. 21 Bluejays’ game against San Diego State in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Ashworth sprained his right ankle late in a loss to Nebraska on Friday and coach Greg McDermott said afterward he didn’t know how long he would be out. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
17 of the most famous cliffhangers in TV historyCanada’s top sailor says he’s confident our navy can stop Russia or China if they send ships through the strategically vital Northwest Passage without asking for permission. “We wouldn’t need the allies to come to our aid. We could deal with it ourselves,” said Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee. “We have the capacity to deploy our ships up there right now to stop them.” The country’s new Arctic and offshore patrol ships only carry a 25-mm cannon, but Topshee said that could quickly be supplemented with other weapons. “They’re not intended to be front-line combatants,” Topshee said of the warships, dubbed AOPS (Arctic and offshore patrol ships). “They have everything they need for the missions that we anticipate that (they’ll) do. Were we to get into a wartime environment where we felt ... they could come directly under threat, then there’s the capacity to install other weapons in sort of an ad hoc manner — very similar to how you would defend an army forward operating base.” During an interview Sunday at the Halifax International Security Forum, which focused heavily on Arctic sovereignty, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, Topshee was quick to point out neither Russia nor China has gone through the Northwest Passage without first getting Canada’s blessing. “It would be really nice to believe that Russia would comply with international order, but their illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine tells us that they have no interest in complying with international law and I can’t trust anything Russia does until they withdraw from Ukraine and restore the full territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he said. “Until that changes, we’re not going to trust Russia with anything and we’re going to regard them with great suspicion and make sure we monitor everything they do.” But it’s not worth the expense of adding more weapons to the AOPS now because the threat doesn’t warrant it, he said. “On both coasts we’re experimenting to make sure that these ships would have legitimate wartime roles if they needed to.” On the east coast, the navy is focused on making sure the Arctic and offshore patrol ships have a full suite of mine counter-measures. “The ship itself will never go into a minefield — 7,000 tons is not the type of thing you put into a minefield. But is a perfect platform for all of the sensors and effectors that you would deploy into a minefield to find the mines and disable the mines, working in concert with our clearance divers.” On the west coast, the AOPS are more focused on anti-submarine warfare. The navy’s experimenting now with towed arrays that can detect submarines from thousands of kilometres away. “That way you’ve got a ship that’s not got the weapons to defend itself, but it’s looking for a submarine that’s so far away the submarine doesn’t even know it’s being hunted,” Topshee said, noting the ship could feed information to the Royal Canadian Air Force to help it attack the sub. While arrays can’t be towed in ice, he said the navy is eyeing sensors that could be rapidly deployed on the ocean floor and autonomous vessels that can patrol for submarines under the ice and report back quickly on what they find. While the navy’s keen to use the Harry DeWolf-class ships to hunt subs, they still can’t embark with Cyclone helicopters. “Right now, it’s got a hangar, it’s got a flight deck — that’s the easy part,” Topshee said. “The complicated piece is that, in order to be able to land that helicopter on the deck, secure it on the deck and then bring it into the hangar — there’s a couple of changes that have to be made.” Canada plans to purchase 12 modern, non-nuclear submarines to replace four diesel-electric subs acquired from Britain. Topshee hopes to see the first of the new sub fleet operating early in the next decade. Their mission: “leaving Esquimalt Harbour, sailing up through the Aleutians, the Bering Strait, into the Beaufort Sea, patrolling for 21 days and then returning home and doing the entire thing submerged and undetected.” The challenge will be finding crews willing to head north repeatedly. “Sailors love going to the Arctic the first time. They see Northern Lights, they see polar bears, they see ice. It’s fantastic,” Topshee said. “The unfortunate thing is, that’s all it is, all the time. And, so for many of them, it’s like ‘OK, this is getting old.’” That’s why the navy is sending its Arctic and offshore patrol ships south after spending summers up north. “The Margaret Brooke next year is going to circumnavigate South America and will likely be the first Canadian navy ship (to) visit Antarctica,” Topshee said. Because the Chinese go to both poles, we want to understand what’s happening in both polar environments Topshee was surprised when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mused recently that the new subs could be nuclear-powered. Canada explored the idea twice, in the 1960s and 1987, but cost and the U.S. refusal to share some technology made the scheme “not viable,” according to Topshee. The navy’s “already twenty per cent short of the personnel we require” and nuclear subs would require about six times as many people to sail and maintain as conventional subs, he said. “In a perfect world, where I’m unconstrained by resources and I have every sailor I required in the navy and a bigger navy, I would absolutely look to see whether or not nuclear submarines would make sense, but those are the preconditions to even be able to imagine considering it.” Canada’s navy is paying close attention to how Ukraine has successfully used drones to attack Russian warships. “Everything we see the Ukrainians doing in the Black Sea — we are taking a look at that and saying what of that is relevant to us? How do we make it work? And then, more importantly, at the same time, how do we counter it? So, if we can figure out a way to defeat a ship with a drone, we also want to be able to make sure that we ourselves can defeat that drone because we know our adversaries are going to use it against us,” Topshee said. The drones Ukrainians “have used very effectively to attack the Russian fleet in Sebastopol ... look a lot like the drones that we’ve been using for targets,” he said. The navy has employed Hammerhead drones for about 15 years to simulate incoming targets. “So, could we take that same thing and instead of using it to test our own ability to fire, load it full of explosives and send it in?” However, weather and communications problems can make it tough to operate drones in the Arctic, Topshee said. “Can it really manage down to –40 C?” he said. “Battery performance tends to go downhill quite quickly in all those environments.... A lot of our stuff is very, very brittle. How well can you manipulate this stuff wearing heavy mittens and gloves?” The navy has taken delivery of four of the Harry DeWolf-class warships, number five is in the process of being commissioned into service, and the sixth one will be launched in the coming weeks at Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax yard. The Canadian Coast Guard is also in line for two of the vessels. Topshee calls those icebreakers, though he concedes they’re not heavy icebreakers. “They break four-and-half feet of ice,” he said. “They operate across the Arctic (with) incredible capability that we use to make sure we have full control (and are) aware of everything that’s happening in the Arctic. We can execute sovereignty and security functions anywhere we go, and the threats are growing. China’s in our Arctic every year. Russia is routinely in the approaches to our Arctic. We are seeing an increase in shipping through the Arctic.” What we are lacking, Topshee said, is heavy icebreakers that can operate up north in the middle of winter. “That’s the capability that we really need to make sure that ... there’s never any challenge to our sovereignty or security — that we can go there even in the worst of weather conditions.” Topshee doubts the Northwest Passage will ever become a major shipping route. If anything, recent ice changes linked to climate change make it more unpredictable to navigate than ever before, he said. “The Arctic gyre works in a counterclockwise manner. It piles up old ice inclusions on the western approaches to the Arctic. And because the ... ice extent is quite low, it’s much more unpredictable where the old ice will wind up and it can wind up complicating passages.” Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. 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Trudeau government announces $250 cheques for some Canadians, plus GST cuts on food, beer, children's clothesNone
Formula One owner Liberty Media shares up after GM entry
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