AP – A single-engine airplane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames on Sunday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania, and everyone on board survived, officials and witnesses said.
The fiery crash happened around 3pm just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township, police chief Duane Fisher told reporters at an evening briefing. All five victims were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Nobody on the ground was hurt, the chief said.
Brian Pipkin was driving nearby when he noticed the small plane climbing before it suddenly veered to the left.
“And then it went down nose first,” he told The Associated Press. “There was an immediate fireball.”
Pipkin called 911 and then drove to the crash site, where he recorded video of black smoke billowing from the plane’s mangled wreckage and multiple cars engulfed in flames in a parking lot at Brethren Village. He said the plane narrowly missed hitting a three-storey building at the sprawling retirement community about 120 kilometres west of Philadelphia.
A fire truck from the airport arrived within minutes, and more first responders followed quickly.
A dozen parked cars were damaged and Brethren Village residents were briefly asked to shelter in place as a precaution, Fisher said.
“I don’t know if I’d consider it a miracle, but the fact that we have a plane crash where everybody survives and nobody on the ground is hurt is a wonderful thing,” the police chief added.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed there were five people aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza. Its planned flight and destination were not released soon after the crash.
The conditions of the five also were not immediately known and authorities didn’t elaborate on how they survived the crash.
Air traffic control audio captured the pilot reporting that the aircraft “has an open door, we need to return for a landing”.
-An air traffic controller is heard clearing the plane to land, before saying, “Pull up!” Moments later, someone can be heard saying the aircraft was “down just behind the terminal in the parking lot street area”.
The FAA said it will investigate.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said state police were assisting local authorities.
“All Commonwealth resources are available as the response continues, and more information will be provided as it becomes available,” Shapiro said on social media.
The crash comes about a month after seven people were killed when an air ambulance burst into flames after crashing onto a busy Philadelphia street.
The aftermath of the plane crash incident. PHOTO: AP
BERLIN (AP) – A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, caused the cancelation of most flights yesterday.
The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight, involves public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff. At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 of the day’s 1,116 scheduled takeoffs and landings had been canceled, German news agency dpa reported, citing airport traffic management.
All of Berlin Airport’s regular departures and arrivals were cancelled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible. Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service and Munich Airport advised travelers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”
The ver.di trade union, representing service workers, staged a strike that affected major airports including Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart, and Munich.
At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers participated in the strike.
The union announced the strike on Friday. But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday to the strike yesterday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective.
The so-called “warning strike,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate pay disputes: negotiations on a new pay and conditions contract for airport security workers, and a wider dispute over pay for employees of federal and municipal governments.
The latter already has led to walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports.
Pay talks in that dispute are due to resume on Friday, while the next round of talks for airport security workers and staff is expected to start on March 26.
Crew members of an international airline walk through the almost deserted Terminal 1 at Hamburg Airport, Germany. PHOTO: AP
ISTANBUL (AP) – The two-year-old girl Rana El Selci died after being attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Konya, central Turkiye, on Friday. Her death sparked fresh outcry about the four million stray dogs that the government estimates roam Turkey’s streets and rural areas.
A criminal investigation was launched following her death as municipal workers began rounding up dogs in Konya. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that the government was “taking determined steps to ensure the implementation of the law.”
Turkiye’s interior minister on Sunday pledged to fully apply a law to remove millions of stray dogs from the streets in the wake of the toddler’s death.
The legislation – labelled the “massacre law” by animal welfare groups – was passed by Parliament last summer but has been only partially implemented, if at all, by municipal authorities. “Either they will do this job or I will use whatever authority the law gives me to the fullest,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a video message posted on social media.
Animal lovers fear the legislation will lead to dogs being killed or ending up in neglected, overcrowded shelters. When the law was passed, the main opposition party pledged that its municipalities would not implement the round-up of strays.
Demonstrations in cities across Turkiye, meanwhile, saw thousands call for the scrapping of an article that would allow some animals to be euthanised.
There were also protests across Europe, as people warned the law could dissuade tourists from visiting Turkey.
Some critics have blamed the growth in the stray canine population on a failure to implement previous regulations, which required stray dogs to be caught, neutered or spayed and returned to where they were found.
Others argue the law will be used to target the opposition, which made huge gains in last year’s local elections. The legislation includes penalties for mayors who fail to carry out its provisions.
Last year’s legislation requires municipalities to collect stray dogs and house them in shelters to be vaccinated, neutered or spayed before making them available for adoption.
Dogs that are in pain, terminally ill or pose a health risk to humans will be euthanised.
A woman holds her pet dog during a protest. PHOTO: AFP
NUUK (AFP) – United States President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to take over Greenland, is very unpredictable, the island’s premier said on yesterday, the eve of the self-governing Danish territory’s legislative elections.
“There is a world order that is faltering on many fronts – and a president of the US who is very unpredictable – in such a way that makes people feel insecure,” Prime Minister Mute Egede told Danish public radio. In a speech to the US Congress last week, Trump reiterated his designs, arguing the US needed the vast Arctic island for reasons of national and international security.
Determining a timeline for Greenland’s independence from Denmark has dominated the territory’s election campaign. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future and, if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said. He went on to say he was confident the US would get Greenland “one way or the other”.
The plans were met by laughter from Republicans in Congress, which many Greenlanders perceived as derisive. “We deserve to be treated with respect and I don’t think the American president has done that lately since he took office,” Egede said.
“The recent things that the American president has done mean that you don’t want to get as close to (the US) as you might have wanted in the past,” he added.
The day after Trump’s speech to Congress, Egede wrote on Facebook that Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans, or Danes either”.
“We are Greenlanders.” “The Americans and their leader must understand that.”
Houses covered by snow on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland. PHOTO: AP
TEL AVIV (AP) – Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, officials said, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Hamas called it part of Israel’s “starvation policy”.
Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than two million Palestinians, an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war.
Israel is pressing the group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended last weekend.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others. The group – which has warned that discontinuing supplies would affect the hostages – said on Sunday that it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position.
Israel said it sent a delegation to Qatar yesterday in an effort to “advance” the negotiations.
Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next. The letter from Israel’s energy minister to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza.
The territory and its infrastructure have been largely devastated, and most facilities, including hospitals, now use generators. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassam said that Israel has “practically” cut off electricity since the war began and called the latest decision part of Israel’s “starvation policy, in clear disregard for all international laws and norms”.
The desalination plant was providing 18,000 cubic metres (m3)of water per day for central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah area, according to Gisha, an Israeli organisation dedicated to protecting Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement. Executive Director Tania Hary said that it’s expected to run on generators and produce around 2,500m3 per day, about the amount in an Olympic swimming pool.
Israel’s restrictions on fuel entering Gaza have a larger impact, Hary said, and water shortages are a looming issue, because fuel is needed for distribution trucks.
Israel has faced sharp criticism over suspending supplies.
“Any denial of the entry of the necessities of life for civilians may amount to collective punishment,” the United Nations (UN) human rights office said on Friday.
The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. The allegation is central to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel denied the accusations, saying it has allowed in enough aid and blaming shortages on what it called the UN’s inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.
The leader of the rebels in Yemen Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned last Friday that attacks against Israel-linked vessels off Yemen would resume within four days if aid doesn’t resume to Gaza. The Houthis described their earlier attacks as solidarity with Palestinians there.
Displaced Palestinians girls fill plastic jerrycans with water in the west of Gaza City. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AP) – Get ready to check into The White Lotus in Thailand for Season 3 – this time, sadly, there’s no room for Jennifer Coolidge, who went overboard in the second season.
With the absence of her fan-favorite character Tanya comes the opportunity for other characters to win over the audience, when it returns to screens on Sky and HBO this Sunday.
Vying for your love or loathing at the indulgent Thailand outpost is Michelle Monaghan’s vacationing TV actor and Aimee Lou Wood’s cool Brit.
Natasha Rothwell is back as spa manager Belinda, herself a victim of Tanya’s flighty financial ways in the first se son. Blackpink’s Lisa makes her acting debut as a resort employee.
As before, in Mike White’s anthology series, the rich holidaymakers are unable to upgrade themselves away from the sense of menace that lurks around the landscaped hotel grounds. The cast? They’re having a much better time.
A NIGHTMARE STAY IS A DREAM JOB
Monaghan cried when she found out she got the role of TV star Jaclyn. “It was such a big deal and it’s such an exciting opportunity,” she explained. As the show is popular, critically acclaimed and filmed in exotic locations, Monaghan, who recently featured in Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey agreed that starring in White’s prestige drama is “hands down, no doubt about it” the best job on television.
Rothwell agrees with her. She returns as Belinda, who worked at the Hawaii resort, home to
Season 1. “I don’t know what I did in a previous life to deserve this, but I’m so grateful to be a part of this family,” said Rothwell.
Viewers told Rothwell that they were mad at the affluent Tanya for not investing in Belinda’s dreams in the first season. The actor attributed this enthusiastic fandom to the show’s initial release during the coronavirus-related lockdowns.
“That’s what people wanted at a time when the world was at a standstill,” she said. “It gave people a chance to sort of imagine and dream and watch the world of high-class vacationing and seeing the underbelly of it.”
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show scenes from Season 3 of ‘The White Lotus’. PHOTO: APPHOTO: APPHOTO: APPHOTO: APArnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick Schwarzenegger at the premiere of ‘The White Lotus’ in Los Angeles. PHOTO: AP
THERE WAS A BIT OF JET LAG
Not all the of cast found seven months away from home easy. “Usually you wrap and you go home. But it was like, wrap … and then I would walk five steps to my little room. And then I’d be having breakfast in the morning and be like, ‘Hi,’ to all the crew that walking past,” she explained.
Looking back on it now, she treasures the experience before she finally went home to “remember” who she was. “It’s like ‘The Truman Show,'” she joked.
Rothwell’s struggles were less existential, centering instead on the reptilian extras. Her character is half-guest and half-staff, in Thailand on a work trip to learn new rejuvenation techniques to take back to Hawaii.
“I’m very delicate when it comes to green, slimy things. So I had to tap into Belinda’s approach to peace and calm and meditation when I would see those little guys,” said Rothwell, who created and starred in How to Die Alone.
THAILAND GETS TOP BILLING
Each season, the cast ventures to a new White Lotus resort in vacation hot spots. This time, along with the scene-stealing monkeys (and reptiles), Thailand itself gets more of a storyline than Hawaii or Sicily did in the first two seasons.
Monaghan said that the characters (and therefore the cast) got to explore on a sightseeing tour: “They really leave the actual White Lotus resort.
We see them discovering local joints and they really take in everything that Thailand has to offer. And I think that’s a real departure from what we’ve seen before. And I think it makes the scope of the show feel a lot bigger.”
“Audiences, too, will really love seeing so much of this country,” Rothwell agreed. “It feels like another character.”
WHAT NAME IS THE RESERVATION UNDER?
Monaghan’s Jaclyn is on a girls trip with two old school friends, played by Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb. Like her character, Monaghan has struggled to find time to get away with her friends and finds White’s portrayal of the female dynamics true to life.
“I think he tagged along on a girls trip,” she said, describing him as “a real keen observer of human behavior” and “like a sponge.”
“So I think maybe he’d had a similar experience and so he was like, he wanted to bring that into the show,” she added.
Wood’s Chelsea has all the vibes and wardrobe of a vacationing Kate Moss. She’s staying with her older partner Rick (Walton Goggins), who is not much fun to be around.
There are more women who play staff or vacationers. Blackpink’s Thai singer Lisa, credited here as Lalisa Manoban, stars as Mook – one of the health mentors helping to pamper the guests, alongside Sri Lankan actor Shalini Peiris. Lisa managed to fit in making her acting debut around working on her upcoming album Alter Ego. “I’m a huge fan of ‘The White Lotus,'” she told The Associated Press at the Los Angeles premiere of the season Monday. “I’m just so happy to be on this.”
Thailand’s Lek Patravadi plays a White Lotus owner – she’s also the resident diva, fabulously dressed and worshipped as such.
GETTING BEACH-READY
“It was literally like marinating yourself in 100% humidity,” explained Monaghan of her weekly fake tan sessions, endured to get the golden glow of her sun-worshipping character.
“Every Sunday I was applying that fake tan and waiting all while my co-stars were down at the beach, you know, enjoying the sunset. I was like in my hotel room waiting for this spray tan to dry,” Monaghan recalled.
THE PLUS-ONE QUESTION
How do they each rank as potential travel companions? Wood reckons her laid-back character would be a great person to go on holiday with.
“Chelsea honestly could sit outside like a 7-Eleven and have a drink. As long as she had someone to chat to, she just doesn’t mind,” she said. “Although she doesn’t stop talking. But that’s also like me, she is a yapper.” Rothwell said Belinda’s hospitality knowledge makes her an excellent vacation buddy. – Hillary Fox
AFP – The Japanese government began a rare auction yesterday of its emergency rice stockpiles in a bid to help drive down the surging price of the national staple.
Rice shortages driven by factors from poor harvests caused by hot weather to panic-buying over a “megaquake” warning last summer have caused prices to nearly double over a year.
Exacerbating the problem, some businesses are also thought to be keeping their inventories and waiting for the most opportune time to sell.
Japan stores about a million tonnes of rice for emergencies.
The country has previously tapped into these reserves during disasters, but this is the first time since the stockpile was built in 1995 that supply chain problems are behind the move.
The Agriculture Ministry is expected to select successful bidders for 150,000 tonnes of rice by Wednesday – with the auctioned grain expected to hit store shelves by the end of March.
The ministry said it plans to release another 60,000 tonnes if necessary.
“This is a highly irregular situation,” Agriculture Minister Taku Eto told Parliament yesterday.
“By sorting out the clogged parts of the distribution network, we hope to relieve the hardship experienced by consumers.”
Experts said several factors have contributed to the crisis.
Among them is a tourism boom and shortages caused by record heatwaves in recent years, as Japan, like other countries, experiences the effects of human-driven climate change.
In August last year, shelves in some stores emptied after the government warned of a possible “megaquake”, along with one of the fiercest typhoons in decades and the annual Obon holiday.
File photo shows a storage centre containing stockpiled rice in Japan. PHOTO: AFP
BERNAMA – The Malaysian ringgit opened firmer against the United States (US) dollar yesterday, extending its positive momentum, propelled by mounting expectations of a US Federal Funds Rate cut, which triggered a dramatic plunge in the US Dollar Index (DXY).
At 8am, the local note further appreciated to 4.4085/4210 against the greenback from 4.4110/4145 at Friday’s close.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US DXY dropped to 103.830 points, suggesting an upside potential for the ringgit.
Highlighting other factors behind the ringgit’s rally, he pointed out that the latest US job market data shows signs of a weakening trend, with the labour force participation rate dropping to 62.4 per cent, the lowest since January 2023, while the unemployment rate edged up to 4.1 per cent in February, from 4.0 per cent previously. “During a Sunday interview with Fox News, US President Donald Trump indicated that the US economy is in a period of transition, deflecting concern on recessions. “The degree of economic uncertainties has heightened as the tariff policies can be seen as inconsistent, leading to difficulties in assessing the impact on the broader economy,” he told Bernama.
Mohd Afzanizam said that as such, overall market sentiment could stay defensive in the immediate term.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies. It rose versus the British pound to 5.7011/7172 from 5.7070/7115 at Friday’s close, surged against the euro to 4.7876/8012 from 4.7903/7941 and went up vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 2.9872/9961 from 2.9909/9935 previously.
The Malaysian currency also performed well against ASEAN currencies. It was slightly up against the Singapore dollar to 3.3152/3251 from 3.3185/3214 last Friday, increased vis-a-vis the Thai baht to 13.0657/1109 from 13.1124/1290 and edged up versus the Indonesian rupiah to 270.5/271.4 from 270.6/271.0, but was flat against the Philippine peso at 7.71/7.74 from previous’ 7.71/7.73.
AFP – The value of art sold at auctions globally fell by a third last year compared to 2023, with the Chinese market crashing by 63 per cent, auction data published yesterday showed.
Artprice, a France-based consultancy which aggregates auction data from around the world, said the value of art sold in 2024 slumped to USD9.9 billion (EUR9.1 billion), the lowest level since 2009.
All the major art hubs recorded steep falls, with New York down 29 per cent, London down 28 per cent and Paris down 21 per cent as collectors turned cautious given global economic uncertainty.
The Chinese market shrank to just USD1.8 billion from USD4.9 billion in 2023, underlining the weakness of the world’s second-biggest economy.
“Major collectors have grown hesitant including for major artists such as Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly or Jean-Michel Basquiat,” Artprice founder Thierry Ehrmann told AFP.
The value of Pablo Picasso sales – a leading indicator for the rest of the market – totalled USD223 million in 2024, around a third of the USD597 million spent on the Spanish master the previous year, the data showed.
File photo shows an artificial intelligence robot Ai-Da producing a record-breaking painting of Alan Turing. PHOTO: AFP
Gone are the days of endless record-breaking bids at art auctions, with the once-booming market spurred by speculator cash in decline since 2021.
That has meant some high-end sellers have postponed or cancelled planned sales, making fewer works available.
In a sign of the changed climate, leading auction house Sotheby’s laid off 100 staff members – six per cent of its global workforce – in December.
Experts said the steep fall last year was linked to situations in Ukraine and Gaza, major elections across the globe, and higher interest rates, which raised the cost of borrowing.
For high-net-worth buyers, “art is the first luxury that you stop buying when you need to consolidate, which is why positive economic news feeds back into the art market quite quickly”, said Lindsay Dewar from the London-based ArtTactic art market consultancy.
Industry insiders are now wondering how the global market will react to Donald Trump’s presidency. Initial optimism about a “Trump bump” on stock markets has faded fast as he introduces tariffs and rows with allies.
Weakening demand at the global art collector level also feeds through to primary sales – sales of work through galleries – which affect artists’ prices and income. Dewar said that her conversations with gallery owners indicated they had a “tough year” in 2024.
Nevertheless, she sees reasons for optimism.
The overall number of auction sales increased last year – up five per cent to 800,000, according to Artprice figures – with activity at the lower end of the market for works at USD50,000 or under showing robust health.
And some sales are still outperforming, including a Magritte which fetched a record USD121 million for the surrealist artist in November, far above the guide price of USD95 million.
“People do still want to trade, to buy and sell artwork. The desire is still there,” Dewar said.
A portrait by an artificial intelligence-powered robot of the English mathematician Alan Turing, considered one of the fathers of modern computing, also raised a million dollars at Sotheby’s in November, 10 times higher than expected.
Two major upcoming auction sales will give a sense of conditions at the top-end of the market. Sotheby’s is set to sell works belonging to late New York banker Thomas A.
Saunders and his wife in May, while Christie’s will put part of book mogul Leonard Riggio’s modern-art collection under the hammer in the next few months.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander outdueled MVP rival Nikola Jokic with a 40-point performance as the Oklahoma City Thunder produced a late barrage to defeat the Denver Nuggets 127-103 yesterday.
A pulsating battle between the NBA Western Conference heavyweights was settled by a fourth quarter offensive onslaught from Oklahoma City, who outscored Denver 41-20 in the final frame to romp to victory.
Gilgeous-Alexander – widely seen as the front-runner to succeed Jokic as the league’s Most Valuable Player – was instrumental in the Thunder’s strong finish.
The gifted Canadian point guard once again came up big when it mattered, slamming the door on Denver after the Nuggets had got to within one point of OKC at the start of the fourth quarter after clawing their way back from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter.
Gilgeous-Alexander added nine points in the fourth quarter to complete his 11th 40-point of the season, putting the Thunder within touching distance of clinching their place in the postseason.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shoots in front of Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun. PHOTO: APDenver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic shoots over Oklahoam City Thunder centre Isaiah Hartenstein. PHOTO: AP
The Thunder are now 53-11 at the top of the Western Conference after their seventh straight victory, 12 games clear of the second-placed Los Angeles Lakers.
“We were able to get stops down the stretch and then just execute,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Thunder’s fourth-quarter bombardment.
“That’s what it’s going to come down to when teams are so good. It’s never going to be pretty all the time but if you get stops and execute you’ll give yourself a chance no matter who you play.”
Remarkably, Gilgeous-Alexander’s 40-point game came despite him making just two of 11 three-point attempts.
But the 26-year-old shrugged off his struggles from long range by attacking the rim to keep the points flowing for OKC.
“That’s where it all starts – easy baskets,” Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN.
“That’s my comfort zone. I didn’t make as many shots as I wanted to, but we got a dub (win) so I don’t care.”
Gilgeous-Alexander meanwhile shrugged off the hype surrounding his head-to-head with reigning MVP Jokic, the Serbian star who came into the game fresh from a historic triple double of 31 points, 21 rebounds and 22 assists in Friday’s win over the Phoenix Suns.
“I love MVPs, I love All-Stars, I love all the things that come with it but none of it matters if you don’t win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s where I hang my hat.”
Gilgeous-Alexander received scoring support from Jalen Williams with 26 points, while Chet Holmgren added 14.
Jokic finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, with Michael Porter Jr also adding 24 points.
In other games on Sunday, Eastern Conference leaders Cleveland romped to a 14th straight win in an assured 112-100 on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks.
All five Cavaliers starters finished in double figures, with Max Strus leading the scoring with 17 points.
Cleveland, who became the first team to clinch a playoff spot last week, lead the East by eight games ahead of the second-placed Boston Celtics, impressive victors over the Lakers on Saturday.
“We haven’t done anything yet, we’ve just got to make sure when it comes to April we handle our business,” Cavaliers ace Donovan Mitchell said as Cleveland look to the postseason.
In Dallas, Devin Booker scored 24 points and Kevin Durant 21 as the Phoenix Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 125-116 in a crucial game that boosts their chances of reaching the play-in tournament.
The Mavericks occupy the 10th and final place for play-in qualification with a 32-33 record; the Suns sit just outside in 11th place at 30-34.
The Minnesota Timberwolves improved to 37-29 with a 141-124 rout of the San Antonio Spurs to stay hard on the heels of the Golden State Warriors in the race for Western Conference playoff berths. The Timberwolves are seventh, just behind the sixth-placed Warriors (36-26).
In New Orleans, Ja Morant and Desmond Bane combined for 62 points in a nailbiting 107-104 Memphis Grizzlies win over the Pelicans, who led by 14 in the first second quarter before being reeled in by the visitors in the second half.
