Chelsea and Fulham win penalty shootouts to reach English League Cup semifinals

Chelsea and Fulham win penalty shootouts to reach English League Cup semifinals
Chelsea's Mykhailo Mudryk, left celebrates after scoring his side's first goal of the game during the English League Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Chelsea and Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge in London Tuesday. (AP)
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Updated 20 December 2023
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Chelsea and Fulham win penalty shootouts to reach English League Cup semifinals

Chelsea and Fulham win penalty shootouts to reach English League Cup semifinals
  • Chelsea are languishing in 10th place in the Premier League despite having spent more than $1 billion on players in the last three transfer windows
  • Middlesbrough will be the big underdog in the semifinals as the only non-Premier League team remaining

LONDON: Chelsea’s faltering first season under Mauricio Pochettino could yet be saved by the English League Cup.

The London club reached the semifinals by beating Newcastle 4-2 in a penalty shootout on Tuesday, with the game only getting that far thanks to a goal by Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk in the second minute of stoppage time that made it 1-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Newcastle right back Kieran Trippier was at fault for that goal and he was one of two visiting players to fail to score his penalty. Matt Ritchie was the other, as stand-in goalkeeper Đorđe Petrovic made the save to end the shootout.

Chelsea are languishing in 10th place in the Premier League despite having spent more than $1 billion on players in the last three transfer windows and having no European competitions to disrupt their schedule.

Pochettino is starting to come under some pressure for failing to get a group of talented players to gel so this cup run could be huge in gaining some momentum. The explosion of joy inside the stadium after the final penalty made it the best moment so far in his reign of less than six months.

Newcastle had been looking to get to the semifinals of the League Cup for the second straight season. Fulham have reached that stage for the first time in their 144-year history.

Fulham, another team from west London, also needed a penalty shootout to advance and this one lasted longer, with defender Tosin Adarabioyo eventually netting the clinching kick for a 7-6 win. Amadou Onana had a chance to win the shootout for Everton but had his attempt saved at 4-3.

The game finished 1-1 in regulation at Goodison Park, with Everton substitute Beto scoring in the 82nd to cancel out an own-goal by Michael Keane.

CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM ADVANCE

Middlesbrough will be the big underdog in the semifinals as the only non-Premier League team remaining.

The second-tier club beat Port Vale, who play in the third division, 3-0 thanks to goals by Jonny Howson, Morgan Rogers and Matt Crooks.

Middlesbrough, the 2004 champion now managed by former Manchester United and England midfielder Michael Carrick, haven’t had to play a Premier League team in the competition yet.

NKUNKU DEBUT

There was more good news for Chelsea, with Christopher Nkunku coming off the bench in the second half to finally make his competitive debut six months after signing from Leipzig.

The France striker sustained a serious knee injury in the offseason and only recently returned to training, with Pochettino careful not to push him into first-team action too quickly.

Nkunku converted one of Chelsea’s penalties in the shootout confidently in the top corner and looked lively in regulation time, too.

However, there was some concern with Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez walking off the field unaided midway through the first half. Pochettino said after the game that Fernandez asked to come off because he felt unwell.

SEMIFINAL DRAW

Liverpool host West Ham on Wednesday in the last quarterfinal match, after which the draw for the semifinals is made.

The final is at Wembley Stadium on Feb. 25.


Bitcoin approaches $100,000 on optimism over Trump crypto plans

Bitcoin approaches $100,000 on optimism over Trump crypto plans
Updated 17 min 56 sec ago
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Bitcoin approaches $100,000 on optimism over Trump crypto plans

Bitcoin approaches $100,000 on optimism over Trump crypto plans
  • Bitcoin has doubled this year, up 40 percent since US election
  • Trump, pro-crypto Congress seen clearing regulatory clouds

SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK: Bitcoin came within a whisker of closing above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday as the election of Republican Donald Trump as US president spurred expectations that his administration will create a friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading between $98,000 and $99,000 in late afternoon trading in the US on Thursday, after briefly touching $99,073. Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year and is up about 40 percent in the two weeks since Trump was voted in as the next US president and a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers were elected to Congress.
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
Crypto investors see an end to increased scrutiny under US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom Trump has said he will replace.
Trump also unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September. Although details about the business have been scarce, investors have taken his personal interest in the sector as a bullish signal.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, is also a proponent of cryptocurrencies.
Over 16 years after its creation, bitcoin appears on the cusp of mainstream acceptance.
“Everyone who’s bought bitcoin at any point in history is currently in profit,” Alicia Kao, managing director of crypto exchange KuCoin, said.
“But those who bought it early, when there were significant obstacles to doing so and there was the might of the world’s financial and governmental forces intent on crushing it, are the real winners. Not because they’re rich, but because they’re right.”
Bitcoin’s rebound from a slide below $16,000 in late 2022 has been rapid, boosted by the approval of US-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January this year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission had long attempted to block ETFs from investing in bitcoin, citing investor protection concerns, but the products have allowed more investors, including institutional investors, to gain exposure to bitcoin.
Crypto rush
More than $4 billion has streamed into US-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds since the election. This week, there was a strong debut for options on BlackRock’s ETF, with call options — bets on the price going up — more popular than puts.
“There is a persistent bid in the market,” said Joe McCann, CEO and founder of Asymmetric, a digital assets hedge fund in Miami. “$100,000 is a foregone conclusion.”
Crypto-related stocks have soared along with the bitcoin price and shares in bitcoin miner MARA Holdings were up nearly 2.3 percent on Thursday.
“Once you break out to new highs, you attract a lot of new capital,” John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said.
“It’s like gold in the 1970s, where this new high is in a price discovery mode. You don’t know how high it’s going to go,” he said.
Yet the rise is not without critics.
Two years ago, the industry was wracked by scandal with the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the jailing of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
The cryptocurrency industry also has been criticized for its energy usage, with miners under scrutiny over their potential impact on power grids and greenhouse gas emissions due to their energy-intensive operations.
Crypto crime also remains a concern, with an analysis by crypto researchers Chainalysis finding that at least $24.2 billion worth of crypto was sent to illicit wallet addresses last year, including addresses identified as sanctioned or linked to terrorist financing and scams.
 


Elon Musk blasts Australia’s planned ban on social media for children

Elon Musk blasts Australia’s planned ban on social media for children
Updated 24 min 32 sec ago
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Elon Musk blasts Australia’s planned ban on social media for children

Elon Musk blasts Australia’s planned ban on social media for children
SYDNEY, Nov 22 : US billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, has criticized Australia’s proposed law to ban social media for children under 16 and fine social media platforms of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for companies for systemic breaches.
Australia’s center-left government on Thursday introduced the bill in parliament. It plans to try an age-verification system to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.
“Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians,” Musk, who views himself as a champion of free speech, said in a reply late on Thursday to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s post on X about the bill.
Several countries have already vowed to curb social media use by children through legislation, but Australia’s policy could become one of the most stringent with no exemption for parental consent and pre-existing accounts.
France last year proposed a ban on social media for those under 15 but allowed parental consent, while the US has for decades required technology companies to seek parental consent to access the data of children under 13.
Musk has previously clashed with Australia’s center-left Labor government over its social media policies and had called it “fascists” over its misinformation law.
In April, X went to an Australian court to challenge a cyber regulator’s order for the removal of some posts about the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney, prompting Albanese to call Musk an “arrogant billionaire.” ($1 = 1.5359 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by David Gregorio)

Philippines cleans up after sixth major storm in weeks

Philippines cleans up after sixth major storm in weeks
Updated 55 min ago
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Philippines cleans up after sixth major storm in weeks

Philippines cleans up after sixth major storm in weeks
  • There have been no other reports so far of deaths or injuries
  • Power outages across the island province of Catanduanes could last for months
Manila: Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least one life.
The national weather service had warned of a “potentially catastrophic” impact from Man-yi, which was a super typhoon when it hit over the weekend, but President Ferdinand Marcos said Monday it “wasn’t as bad as we feared.”
Packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 185 kilometers an hour, Man-yi slammed into Catanduanes island late Saturday, and the main island of Luzon on Sunday afternoon.
It uprooted trees, brought down power lines, crushed wooden houses and triggered landslides, but did not cause serious flooding.
“Though Pepito was strong, the impact wasn’t as bad as we feared,” Marcos said, according to an official transcript of his remarks to media, using the local name for Man-yi.
One person was killed in Camarines Norte province, which Marcos said was “one casualty too many.” Police said the victim, a 79-year-old man, died after his motorbike was caught in a power line.
There have been no other reports so far of deaths or injuries.
“We will now carry on with the rescue of those (in) isolated areas and the continuing relief for those who are, who have been displaced and have no means to prepare their own meals and have no water supplies,” Marcos said.
Power outages across the island province of Catanduanes could last for months after Man-yi toppled electricity poles, provincial information officer Camille Gianan told AFP.
“Catanduanes has been heavily damaged by that typhoon — we need food packs, hygiene kits and construction materials,” Gianan said.
“Most houses with light materials were flattened while some houses made of concrete had their roofs, doors and windows destroyed.”
In the coastal town of Baler in Aurora province, clean-up operations were underway to remove felled trees and debris blocking roads and waterways.
“Most of the houses here are made of light materials so even now, before the inspection, we are expecting heavy damage on many houses in town,” disaster officer Neil Rojo told AFP.
“We’ve also received reports of roofs that went flying with the wind last night... it was the fierce wind that got us scared, not exactly the heavy rains.”
Storm weakens
Man-yi weakened significantly as it traversed the mountains of Luzon and was downgraded to a severe tropical storm as it swept over the South China Sea toward Vietnam on Monday.
More than a million people in the Philippines fled their homes ahead of the storm, which followed an unusual streak of violent weather.
Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.
At least 163 people in the Philippines died in the past month’s storms, which left thousands homeless and wiped out crops and livestock.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
Man-yi also hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season — most cyclones develop between July and October.
This month, four storms were clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin, which the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP was the first time such an occurrence had been observed in November since its records began in 1951.

Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations

Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations
Updated 22 November 2024
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Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations

Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations

McALLEN, Texas: Texas is offering a parcel of rural ranchland along the US-Mexico border to use as a staging area for potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump.
The property, which Texas originally purchased last month, is located in rural Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley. Republican Dawn Buckingham, the Texas Land Commissioner, sent a letter Nov. 14 to Trump extending the offer.
“We do hear through back channels that they are taking a look at it and considering it. But we just want them to know we’re a good partner. We’re here. We want to be helpful,” Buckingham told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
The property has no paved roads and sits in a county with one public hospital and limited local resources. But Buckingham stressed its location.
“We feel like this is actually very well-located. The land is very flat there. It’s adjacent to major airports. It’s also adjacent to a bridge over the river,” Buckingham said. “So if it’s helpful, then I would love to partner up with the federal government. And if it’s not, then we’ll continue to look to ways to be helpful to them.”
The land offer is the latest illustration of a sharp divide between states and local governments on whether to support or resist Trump’s plans for mass deportations of migrants living in the US illegally. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to become a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities to carry out deportations.
Texas leaders have long backed aggressive measures on the border to curb crossings, including installing razor-wire barriers and passing a law last year that would allow law enforcement to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally.
“By offering this newly-acquired 1400-acre property to the incoming Trump Administration for the construction of a facility for the processing, detention, and coordination of what will be the largest deportation of violent criminals in our nation’s history, I stand united with President Donald Trump to ensure American families are protected,” Buckingham said in an earlier statement.
Trump has said he plans to begin his deportation efforts on the first day of his presidency. He frequently attacked illegal immigration during his campaign, linking a record spike in unauthorized border crossings to issues ranging from drug trafficking to high housing prices.
There are an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally. Questions remain about how people would be identified and where they would be detained.
The president-elect’s transition team did not say whether they would accept Texas’ offer but sent a statement.
“On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history,” Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokeswoman for Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, said Wednesday.
The Texas General Land Office did not disclose the amount paid for the land, but Buckingham stated the previous owner resisted the creation of a border wall.
A 1.5-mile (2.4 kilometer) stretch of border wall was built under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 on that land. Buckingham said with the recent purchase, the state has created another easement for more border wall construction.


OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports

OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports
Updated 22 November 2024
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OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports

OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports
  • OpenAI has already entered the search market with SearchGPT
  • Google commands the lion’s share of the browser and search market

ChatGPT-owner OpenAI has recently considered developing a web browser that would combine with its chatbot and has separately discussed or struck deals to power search features, the Information reported on Thursday.
OpenAI has spoken about the search product with website and app developers such as Conde Nast, Redfin, Eventbrite and Priceline, the report said, citing people who have seen prototypes or designs of the products.
Google and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The move could pit the Sam Altman-led company against search giant Google, which commands the lion’s share of the browser and search market. OpenAI has already entered the search market with SearchGPT.
Alphabet shares were down 1 percent after the bell, after falling nearly 5 percent in regular trading on Thursday.