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I Learned to Fly an Electric Aircraft in 3 Days. It Blew my Mind.Trump brings back government by social mediaAustralia will progress to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after being taken to the deciding rubber in a 2-1 win over the United States of America overnight in Malaga. The result would come through victories from Thanasi Kokkinakis winning 6-1 4-6 7-6 (14) over world No.21 Ben Shelton and the doubles pair of Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson triumphing over the pair of Shelton and Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4. Alex de Minaur in his singles rubber would fall short after losing to Taylor Fritz in straight sets 6-3 6-4 which forced the deciding doubles rubber. With De Minaur coming into the squad for the first time this year after his ATP Finals campaign in Jeddah, there were questions surrounding the Australians of who between Alexi Popyrin and Thanasi Kokkinakis would play in the first tie against the USA. In the end, captain Lleyton Hewitt would end up selecting Kokkinakis over the higher-ranked Alexi Popyrin which surprised some fans and experts expecting the world No.24 in Popyrin to be selected against the US. While Kokkinakis may not have the higher rank over Popryin, he was coming into Malaga having won his last tournament at an ATP Challenger series in Sydney and had been unbeaten so far in his Davis Cup campaign this year. Thanasi Kokkinakis (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) And Hewitt’s decision looked to have paid off with Kokkinakis storming away to win the set 6-1 in the space of 22 minutes with Shelton looking nervous in his debut at the Davis Cup, making eight unforced errors and a double fault on set point to give the South Australian the opening set. However, Shelton would recover from his shaky opening set to put Kokkinakis under pressure within the second set. He would break Kokkinakis at the start of the set to take a 1-0 lead with a service break. Kokkinakis did have multiple opportunities to break which included having three break points when the set was 3-2 in favour of Shelton. But the world No.21 would find a way to hold serve and would be able to close out the set. With this service break, he established in the first game; he would go on to win the second set 6-4. In the deciding set, Shelton and Kokkinakis would throw everything at it to try and win for their country but neither were able to break each other’s serve. Shelton would have multiple opportunities within the first game to break Kokkinakis’ serve and with the match poised at 5-5 to be able to serve for the win. But on both occasions, Kokkinakis fought off Shelton’s challenge and would serve through his ground game which would see the game go to a tiebreak. Going to a deciding tiebreak, both men would have multiple opportunities to win the match during the tiebreak with both seemingly finding ways to stay alive. And after 29 points in the tiebreak and what is now the longest tiebreak played by an Australian at a Davis Cup tie and the sixth-longest in Davis Cup history; Kokkinakis would covert his seventh chance at match point to win the tiebreak 16-14 and give Australia a 1-0 lead. Whilst an incredibly even match, it would ultimately be Shelton’s 29 unforced errors in comparison to Kokkinakis’ 15 that would split the difference. In his on-court interview after his victory, Kokkinakis went on to say: “It’s a massive win for me... Lleyton showed faith in me, anyone could have played but I just wanted to give it my all. “I don’t know if I’ve been that pumped up in my life, I wanted that one bad, I wanted to help my team.” Alex de Minaur. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) With Australia in the lead of the tie, the pressure on America’s No.1 player and the world No.4 Taylor Fritz would increase to try and keep the tie alive as he played Australia’s No.1 player and world No.9 Alex de Minaur in the second rubber. There would also be some pressure under De Minaur coming into the match to how much of an influence his hip injury that he sustained at Wimbledon would have on his performance. These two had just come back from the ATP Finals in which both would play each other in the round robin with Fritz coming back from losing the opening set to win in three helping him qualify for the final. And Fritz would continue his form from last week to start dominantly over De Minaur in the opening set, winning the first three games. While De Minaur was able to work himself back into the game managing to hold serve throughout the rest of the set, he was unable to break, seeing Fritz secure a 6-3 first-set win. With a more even end to the first set, De Minaur would begin the second set well starting his opening game with two aces to get the ball rolling which was followed up with the creation of two break point opportunities in the second game to break Fritz’s game, converting on the second break point in the game and create a service break. But Fritz would break back straight away bringing it back to an even score of 2-2 and each would hold serve until the ninth game in which Fritz would break De Minaur to lead 5-4 and then hold serve to win the set 6-4 and create a 1-1 draw leading into the final rubber of the tie. Fritz’s domination would show through the forced errors of De Minaur throughout the entire match with De Minaur making 28 forced errors to Fritz’s 18 which would give the US a fighting chance in the doubles. In the deciding doubles match, the US would make a late switch with captain Bob Bryan swapping out the experienced doubles players Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek for the pair of Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton whose main experience comes from the singles. The Australians would come in unchanged from their initial announcement pair of Olympic Gold Medallist Matthew Ebden and the world No.3 in doubles Jordan Thompson. The Ebden-Thompson pair would begin well getting the first break of the match within the opening set to push out to a quick 3-1 lead in the first set. Their experience in the doubles game became increasingly more and more evident in contrast to the US seemingly being able to keep more pressure on the US serve than what Paul and Shelton were able to do to them. And it would show as they closed out the set with a perfectly timed lob to close out the first set 6-4. The second set would see a slightly tighter match at play. Two volleys within the sixth game of the second set by Ebden would hit the net seeing the US get their first break point of the match. But Ebden would come through on the net to help hold serve. In the ninth game, with the match tied 4-4, Australia looked to have got its chance of breaking the US’s serve and being able to close out the rubber and tie for an Australian victory getting two break points at 15-40. However, it would not be without a fight with Shelton and Paul recovering to 40-40 and even getting an advantage. But Ebden and Thompson once again showed their experience and would secure the break and then hold serve to win 6-4 6-4. Australia will either have a rematch of the 2023 Davis Cup against Italy or Argentina in the semi-final. The semi-final tie will take place on Saturday night starting at 11pm AEDT as they hope to progress to the final and end their 21-year drought.

Dodgers minor leaguer suspended for dopingWINNIPEG — Kyle Walters doesn’t believe losing a third consecutive Grey Cup means the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ roster should be blown up. The CFL club’s general manager told reporters at his year-end availability Tuesday that reaching a fifth straight championship game by overcoming lots of injuries was a big accomplishment. Even before Winnipeg’s recent 41-24 Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts, Walters said he was looking forward to next season. “I was excited for next year based on what I'm looking at, compared to years past, where we've got more young guys that have contributed that are under contract," he said. "We've got more young players in the building. So, the idea of, ‘This is the end of the road. The team is in a free-for-all downward,’ I don’t think is accurate. "We have a good group of guys and we were in a one-point (Grey Cup) game with 10 minutes left ... before things went downhill.” The Blue Bombers started the season 0-4, moved to 2-6 and finished 11-7 to claim the West Division title. Star receiver Dalton Schoen, veteran linebacker Adam Bighill and backup quarterback Chris Streveler all suffered season-ending injuries and are pending free agents. Negotiating with the team’s 27 unsigned players could be impacted by moves across the league among coaches, personnel staff and players such as quarterbacks, Walters said. The Bombers have given permission for offensive coordinator Buck Pierce to speak to the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Elks about those teams’ vacant head-coaching jobs, he said. Walters also revealed the Ottawa Redblacks were given the go-ahead to talk to Richie Hall about their defensive coordinator vacancy. Hall was a Winnipeg defensive assistant this season after Jordan Younger took over from him as defensive coordinator. Walters said the Bombers received permission to speak to Lions offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic in case Pierce leaves. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have already been given the OK to talk to Winnipeg assistant general managers Danny McManus and Ted Goveia about the Ticats’ GM opening. “You're hesitant to have too much conversation with people who may not be in the organization next year, so it's just been me and (head coach) Mike (O’Shea) in this moment huddled together and talking about next year,” Walters said. He said an NFL team had asked Tuesday morning to work out one Blue Bomber, but he didn’t reveal the player’s name in case he wasn’t aware of the request yet. The Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup in 2019 and ’21, but lost 28-24 to the Montreal Alouettes last year and 24-23 to Toronto in 2022. Winnipeg re-signed placekicker Sergio Castillo last week. Walters said he’d like to have deals done with three or four main players before the end of the year. The team has some up-and-coming young players inked for next year, and injuries gave others valuable experience on both sides of the ball, Walters said. Receivers such as rookie Ontaria Wilson (1,026 yards receiving in 18 games) and Keric Wheatfall (273 yards in seven games) are signed through next season. “The experience that they got was invaluable,” Walters said. Re-signing players who missed time because of injuries can get tricky. “Organizationally, can we approach (their agents) and say, 'Well, your guy was hurt, he should come back for less money?’” Walters said. “Generally, they don't view it like that. They view that they'll be back 100 per cent.” One question mark is the backup to starting quarterback Zach Collaros, who suffered a deep cut to the index finger of his throwing hand late in the third quarter of the Grey Cup. Collaros got five stitches and numbing agent applied to his finger. He returned with a bandage on it, but admitted he had a hard time gripping the ball. “We'll have to find out who our offensive coordinator is first,” Walters said when asked who might be Collaros’s backup. Terry Wilson, who briefly replaced Collaros in the Grey Cup, and Jake Dolegala are signed for next year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024. Judy Owen, The Canadian Press

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Australia will progress to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after being taken to the deciding rubber in a 2-1 win over the United States of America overnight in Malaga. The result would come through victories from Thanasi Kokkinakis winning 6-1 4-6 7-6 (14) over world No.21 Ben Shelton and the doubles pair of Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson triumphing over the pair of Shelton and Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4. Alex de Minaur in his singles rubber would fall short after losing to Taylor Fritz in straight sets 6-3 6-4 which forced the deciding doubles rubber. With De Minaur coming into the squad for the first time this year after his ATP Finals campaign in Jeddah, there were questions surrounding the Australians of who between Alexi Popyrin and Thanasi Kokkinakis would play in the first tie against the USA. In the end, captain Lleyton Hewitt would end up selecting Kokkinakis over the higher-ranked Alexi Popyrin which surprised some fans and experts expecting the world No.24 in Popyrin to be selected against the US. While Kokkinakis may not have the higher rank over Popryin, he was coming into Malaga having won his last tournament at an ATP Challenger series in Sydney and had been unbeaten so far in his Davis Cup campaign this year. Thanasi Kokkinakis (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) And Hewitt’s decision looked to have paid off with Kokkinakis storming away to win the set 6-1 in the space of 22 minutes with Shelton looking nervous in his debut at the Davis Cup, making eight unforced errors and a double fault on set point to give the South Australian the opening set. However, Shelton would recover from his shaky opening set to put Kokkinakis under pressure within the second set. He would break Kokkinakis at the start of the set to take a 1-0 lead with a service break. Kokkinakis did have multiple opportunities to break which included having three break points when the set was 3-2 in favour of Shelton. But the world No.21 would find a way to hold serve and would be able to close out the set. With this service break, he established in the first game; he would go on to win the second set 6-4. In the deciding set, Shelton and Kokkinakis would throw everything at it to try and win for their country but neither were able to break each other’s serve. Shelton would have multiple opportunities within the first game to break Kokkinakis’ serve and with the match poised at 5-5 to be able to serve for the win. But on both occasions, Kokkinakis fought off Shelton’s challenge and would serve through his ground game which would see the game go to a tiebreak. Going to a deciding tiebreak, both men would have multiple opportunities to win the match during the tiebreak with both seemingly finding ways to stay alive. And after 29 points in the tiebreak and what is now the longest tiebreak played by an Australian at a Davis Cup tie and the sixth-longest in Davis Cup history; Kokkinakis would covert his seventh chance at match point to win the tiebreak 16-14 and give Australia a 1-0 lead. Whilst an incredibly even match, it would ultimately be Shelton’s 29 unforced errors in comparison to Kokkinakis’ 15 that would split the difference. In his on-court interview after his victory, Kokkinakis went on to say: “It’s a massive win for me... Lleyton showed faith in me, anyone could have played but I just wanted to give it my all. “I don’t know if I’ve been that pumped up in my life, I wanted that one bad, I wanted to help my team.” Alex de Minaur. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) With Australia in the lead of the tie, the pressure on America’s No.1 player and the world No.4 Taylor Fritz would increase to try and keep the tie alive as he played Australia’s No.1 player and world No.9 Alex de Minaur in the second rubber. There would also be some pressure under De Minaur coming into the match to how much of an influence his hip injury that he sustained at Wimbledon would have on his performance. These two had just come back from the ATP Finals in which both would play each other in the round robin with Fritz coming back from losing the opening set to win in three helping him qualify for the final. And Fritz would continue his form from last week to start dominantly over De Minaur in the opening set, winning the first three games. While De Minaur was able to work himself back into the game managing to hold serve throughout the rest of the set, he was unable to break, seeing Fritz secure a 6-3 first-set win. With a more even end to the first set, De Minaur would begin the second set well starting his opening game with two aces to get the ball rolling which was followed up with the creation of two break point opportunities in the second game to break Fritz’s game, converting on the second break point in the game and create a service break. But Fritz would break back straight away bringing it back to an even score of 2-2 and each would hold serve until the ninth game in which Fritz would break De Minaur to lead 5-4 and then hold serve to win the set 6-4 and create a 1-1 draw leading into the final rubber of the tie. Fritz’s domination would show through the forced errors of De Minaur throughout the entire match with De Minaur making 28 forced errors to Fritz’s 18 which would give the US a fighting chance in the doubles. In the deciding doubles match, the US would make a late switch with captain Bob Bryan swapping out the experienced doubles players Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek for the pair of Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton whose main experience comes from the singles. The Australians would come in unchanged from their initial announcement pair of Olympic Gold Medallist Matthew Ebden and the world No.3 in doubles Jordan Thompson. The Ebden-Thompson pair would begin well getting the first break of the match within the opening set to push out to a quick 3-1 lead in the first set. Their experience in the doubles game became increasingly more and more evident in contrast to the US seemingly being able to keep more pressure on the US serve than what Paul and Shelton were able to do to them. And it would show as they closed out the set with a perfectly timed lob to close out the first set 6-4. The second set would see a slightly tighter match at play. Two volleys within the sixth game of the second set by Ebden would hit the net seeing the US get their first break point of the match. But Ebden would come through on the net to help hold serve. In the ninth game, with the match tied 4-4, Australia looked to have got its chance of breaking the US’s serve and being able to close out the rubber and tie for an Australian victory getting two break points at 15-40. However, it would not be without a fight with Shelton and Paul recovering to 40-40 and even getting an advantage. But Ebden and Thompson once again showed their experience and would secure the break and then hold serve to win 6-4 6-4. Australia will either have a rematch of the 2023 Davis Cup against Italy or Argentina in the semi-final. The semi-final tie will take place on Saturday night starting at 11pm AEDT as they hope to progress to the final and end their 21-year drought.Pathstone Holdings LLC Has $6.28 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)None