SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Stephen Curry became the first player in NBA history to make 3,000 career three-pointers on Tuesday night in a game where the Denver Nuggets barely held off the NBA-leading Golden State Warriors 89-86.
Denver’s Nikola Jokic blocked a potential game-tying shot by Jonathan Kuminga in the final seconds to preserve the win after his team nearly blew a 24-point halftime lead.
The Warriors got one more chance to tie the game, but Andre Iguodala missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I thought Will Barton, down the stretch, made a couple of big, big plays.”
Barton had 21 points, while Jokic led Denver with 22 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and
four steals.
“Nikola having 18 rebounds, 22 points and making a key, key play down the stretch is why he’s a great player,” Malone said.
Denver Nuggets forward JaMychal Green dunks the ball. PHOTO: AP
“You need those types of plays to pull out wins like this.”
Andrew Wiggins had 21 points and eight rebounds for Golden State in his first game back from the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Curry, who scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half, made a corner three-pointer late in the third quarter to give him 157 consecutive games with a three-point field goal. It ties his own NBA record, which he set from 2014-16.
The Warriors trailed 60-36 at the half, but kept Denver down offensively while opening the third quarter on a 17-5 run to cut Denver’s lead to 65-53. They pulled within five on a Curry step-back three-pointer with 7:20 remaining in the fourth quarter before he made back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Nuggets’ lead to 84-82 with 2:08 left.
Golden State tied the game at 84 on a dunk by Gary Payton II with 1:04 remaining. Barton put the Nuggets back in front 86-84 with a tip-in on the ensuing possession and Denver held on to win despite scoring just 29 points in the second half.
“They were the aggressor from the start,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
“I loved the way we fought back in the second half and gave ourselves a chance… Really proud of the guys for the effort, but obviously we’ve got to play better.”
The Nuggets started the game on a 10-0 run and built a 31-16 lead after the first quarter.
Curry remained scoreless deep into the first half, finally getting his first points with 2:08 remaining in the second quarter.
BRUSSELS (AP) – In a setback for the Belgian government, an advisory body on Tuesday suspended a Cabinet-ordered closure of part of the cultural sector- saying that new coronavirus restrictions imposed on theatres are unreasonable.
Under new restrictions that took effect last Sunday, movie houses, concert halls and art centres were ordered to shut their doors.
Some stayed open in protest. The order came despite the assessment of the scientific committee advising the government that going to such places poses no extra risk to
public health.
In an emergency procedure, the Council of State ruled that measures concerning theatres were “not proportionate”, and didn’t provide enough motives to “understand why going to cultural sector performance venues was particularly dangerous for public health.”
The Council of State is an advisory body that has legal powers to overturn government decisions it considers unlawful.
The ruling came after a member of a production company launched an urgent appeal against the government decision to ensure that an end of year play could go ahead in suburban Brussels. It’s expected to impact on the entire sector.
Protest over closure of cinemas and theatres in Belgium. PHOTO: AP
Brunei Darussalam detected four new COVID-19 cases yesterday, with three local and one import case. This brings the national tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 15,465.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar revealed these details during the daily press conference yesterday.
The minister said the cases were detected from 2,675 laboratory tests conducted in the past 24 hours. The rate of positive cases yesterday was 0.1 per cent.
One case recovered yesterday, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Sultanate to 15,265 while the total active cases is 100. Meanwhile, the bed occupancy rate at isolation centres is 2.7 per cent.
The minister said, “One case is still in Category 5 receiving treatment at the intensive care unit requiring artificial ventilation and an additional heart-lung machine (ECMO).”
The minister said as of December 28, 94.5 per cent of the population have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine while 93.2 per cent were administered two shots. Some 17.9 per cent have received three doses of the vaccine.
Minister of Home Affairs Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong and Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah were also present.
Minister of Home Affairs Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar and Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah during the daily press conference. PHOTO: JAMES KON
SINGAPORE (CNA) – The cub born to giant pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia has been named after the results of a public vote were announced yesterday.
The winning name – Le Le – garnered more than 31,000 votes. Overall, more than 64,000 votes were submitted in the online poll held from November 3-7 to decide the name of the first Singapore-born giant panda.
The word ‘Le’ comes from ‘Shi Le Po’, which is an ancient Chinese name for Singapore and in use since the country’s beginning as a trading port, Mandai Wildlife Group said in a press release.
The term is also a transliteration of the Malay term selat, which means straits, indicative of Singapore’s geographical location, it added.
Other names shortlisted for the vote were Hong Hong, Xin Le, Xin Yang and Xin Yuan.
The giant panda cub Le Le in its nursery. PHOTO: CNA
Guests heading to River Wonders will be able to visit Le Le in its new glass-fronted nursery at the Giant Panda Forest from today, Mandai Wildlife Group added.
“The viewing periods coincide with Jia Jia’s feeding and exercise sessions when she is comfortable to leave little Le Le on his own,” the group said in the press release.
“Each viewing window, which ranges between 20 and 30 minutes, may vary depending on the comfort level of both mother and son, and will be reviewed and adjusted over the next few weeks.”
“We are overjoyed that our panda cub now has a name, and one that is proudly indicative of his birth city,” said Mandai Wildlife Group’s Deputy CEO of Life Sciences and Operations Dr Cheng Wen-Haur.
The announcement was made by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng at a virtual ceremony after the 17th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) meeting between Singapore and China.
NEW YORK (AP) – Forty years ago, the programmers at PBS were eager to experiment, so they took a chance and started a new series on animal behaviour in the wild called Nature.
The show featured hourlong documentaries from natural landscapes all around the world, and at first, didn’t even have narration so it could be sold in any television market, without any language barrier.
It was a hit.
Nature is celebrating its anniversary this season, which includes an extended look at the Rocky Mountains, American horses, a close examination of bees and, of course, some adorable penguins.
While the series has evolved over the years, there’s one person who has been there since the beginning. Fred Kaufman started as a production assistant on a three-month stint and has now been the show’s executive producer for the last 30 years.
Kaufman said Nature has become even more compelling to viewers because the science, filmmaking and technology is better.
Elephants approaching a waterhole in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya in a scene from the documentary series ‘Nature’. PHOTO: AP
He’s also proud of the show’s storytelling and attention to global warming and the environment.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press (AP), Kaufman talked about the evolution of the show, the stories that have made the most impact and how viral videos have helped the genre.
AP: How has technology changed the show over 40 years? KAUFMAN: When HD came it was like, ‘Whoa!’ All of a sudden, you saw the detail that you didn’t see before, so that was a big difference.
Lenses have gotten better, more diversified. That’s a big difference.
Drones!
Years ago, if you wanted to get an aerial, you had to hire a helicopter at 400 bucks an hour and pay for the fuel and an operator and just pray that you can get everything you want in an hour that was like a big deal.
Now you put up a drone, one person flies a drone: rocksteady shot. It really allows you to see a landscape, gives you a new perspective on animals and places.… But I think one of the single most important developments is that wildlife films, behaviour, little snippets, have become so viral on social media.
I mean, they’re fun, they’re dramatic, they’re exciting. Chances are you’ve never seen this before.
AP: How does the show approach which places and animals to cover? KAUFMAN: Everything we do is from the animal’s perspective. It’s from the perspective of wild places and wild lands. What’s the animal’s perspective on that?
You’re showing it from the photographer’s perspective, but can we shift and make it from the animal’s perspective?
And so, it’s…kind of calibrating your thinking and script because it represents the animal’s point of view. What do they need? What are the resources for a healthy environment? How does farming and climate change impact them?
So that’s kind of what we go to when we’re thinking about a topic and when we’re reviewing the film. Are we being a voice for the natural world?
AP: How have you observed the effects of global warming? KAUFMAN: The most obvious visuals are the shrinking polar caps, particularly in the Arctic.
We’re seeing that polar bears are spending more time swimming and not on ice flows because there are less of them.
So, they’re more in the open ocean. And this leads to fatigue and they need more food to eat. And they’re suffering because of that. And that’s sort of the most obvious example that we’re all seeing.
But climate change is affecting migrations, and birds, for example, migrate following the paths of flowers and food sources that come out because when that day gets longer and the sun shines and it’s warmer and plants bloom, et cetera, birds follow those paths.
Now, with global warming, some of those events are happening earlier than usual.
So, the birds are showing up late or they’re showing up too early, and it’s messing with the nutrition and the food they need to carry on their migration.
AP: Which shows have had the biggest impact? KAUFMAN: One thing I’m super proud of is many, many years ago, we were the first to bring attention to the colony collapse disorder with the bees. And so that one turned out to be a very big story, and it’s still a story.
AP: What is it about nature that still captures people? KAUFMAN: The most thrilling thing about being in nature is probably going on an African safari, which just isn’t like anything in the world.
I mean, you do feel insignificant when you’re out there and you see these big gorgeous, iconic animals up close.
It’s surprising how close these animals come, and you see these magnificent landscapes that go on for miles
It’s awe inspiring. It really gets into you and stays with you and you know, you get goose bumps.
We were in a vehicle in the middle of a herd of about 60 elephants in Africa and my heart was racing. I don’t know why. It was just a reaction to being amongst these big wild animals – and elephants are in a class by themselves.
And of course, you know, you feel that they’re aware of you in a way other animals aren’t.
There’s a consciousness there. And so, there are moments like that I think everybody experiences, whether you’re in Yellowstone National Park or even Central Park, where it just has a calming influence about it.
MANILA (AFP) – The Philippines has ordered two new warships from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Tuesday, modernising Manila’s navy.
The Philippine Navy had become run down in recent decades – even featuring United States (US) craft from World War II – until Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, began a modest modernisation programme in 2010. Tuesday’s PHP28 billion (USD556 million) deal with the South Korean shipbuilding giant comes five years after the firm also won a contract to build two new frigates for the Philippine Navy.
Corvettes and frigates are small, fast warships mainly used to protect other vessels from attack.
“This project will give the Philippine Navy two modern corvettes that are capable of anti-ship, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare missions,” Lorenzana said in a speech at the signing ceremony in Manila.
The deal “will ensure commonality and interoperability with our existing assets”, he added, as well as “ease of maintenance and repairs”.
Manila has since acquired two former US Coast Guard cutters and three landing craft from Australia, as well as coast guard patrol vessels from Japan, in an effort to bolster its presence in the South China Sea.
Relatives of Philippine Navy sailors waving their national flags as the navy’s newly-acquired vessel, the Pohang-class corvette BRP Conrado Yap (PS39), docks at the international port in Manila. PHOTO: AFP
BRASILIA, BRAZIL (AP) – A total of 116 cities in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia were in a state of emergency because of flooding on Tuesday due to heavy rains that have been pounding the region since the end of November.
Cities in at least five other states in Brazil’s north and southeast have also been flooded in recent days.
In Bahia, flooding has affected more than 470,000 people. In at least 50 cities, water surged into homes and businesses, and people were forced to abandon their belongings.
Official data from the state government say 34,163 people have been made homeless and almost 43,000 are displaced.
There have been a total of 21 deaths and 358 people injured since the beginning of the month.
This is the heaviest period of rainfall for Bahia in the last 32 years, according to the website of the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters, a government agency. In southern Bahia, it rained more than five times the normal amount for this time of the year.
Residents clean out their flooded homes in Itapetinga, Bahia state in Brazil. PHOTO: AP
In an interview with local radio stations on Tuesday morning, Bahia Governor Rui Costa compared the situation to a “bombardment”. He also said that coronavirus vaccines were lost in the floods of some cities.
“Some municipal health offices and medicine depots were completely under water,” he said.
On Tuesday, the population of at least four municipalities in Bahia received warnings to leave their homes because of the increased flow of the Pardo River due to the opening of the Machado Mineiro dam’s sluice gates in neighboring Minas Gerais state, according to the state government’s advisory office.
Bahia’s Civil Defence superintendent, Colonel Miguel Filho, told The Associated Press that there are still flooded and isolated cities, and rains are still ongoing.
“Our first response is to help, then to shelter, to care for the population in the shelters by giving humanitarian aid, with sheets, blankets, food,” he said.
He added that at least five dams in Bahia are at risk of bursting. Bridges and federal and state roads in the state were destroyed and have been provisionally rebuilt to allow food and other items to be brought to people in need.
“We still don’t have a complete list of all the damage caused, the amount of structures that will need to be replaced,” Governor Costa said.
The federal government has authorised emergency spending totaling BRL80 million (USD14.2 million) for Bahia alone. Additional funds will be directed to other regions also affected by the rains in recent weeks, and which are still suffering the consequences.
BIREUN, INDONESIA (AFP) – Indonesia yesterday said it will let dozens of Rohingya refugees come ashore after protests from locals and the international community over its plan to push them into Malaysian waters.
At least 100 mostly women and children aboard a stricken wooden vessel off Aceh province were denied refuge in Indonesia, where authorities on Tuesday said they planned to push them into the neighbouring Southeast Asian country after fixing their boat.
After a day-long meeting yesterday between officials in the coastal town of Bireun, Jakarta backtracked and said the refugees’ boat would be towed to shore on humanitarian grounds.
“The decision was taken after considering the emergency condition of the refugees on that boat,” said Head of the national taskforce on refugees Armed Wijaya.
The Rohingya boat is now about 80 kilometres from Bireun and would be pulled ashore, he said without elaborating on the timing.
“As it is now in the middle of the pandemic, all refugees will undergo medical screening,” he said, adding that the taskforce will coordinate with related stakeholders to provide shelter and logistics for the refugees.
Indonesian authorities first spotted the wooden boat two days ago, stranded about 70 nautical miles off the Indonesian coast, according to a local navy commander. Local fishermen had alerted them on December 25, one of them said.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on the government to let the stranded group of Rohingya refugees land.
The earlier plan by authorities in Aceh to send the refugees into Malaysia also angered locals in Bireun, where a group of fishermen yesterday organised a protest demanding authorities to instead allow the Rohingya to disembark.
“We saw videos of their condition on social media. They need water and food. They must be treated with kindness as human beings,” Bireun resident Wahyudi told AFP by telephone.
“We, Acehnese, used to have the same experience with the Rohingya. We were in a prolonged conflict. We fled crossing the sea and were helped by people from various countries such as Malaysia, Australia.”
A wooden boat transporting Rohingya refugees after it was intercepted in the waters off Bireuen, Aceh province. FILE PHOTO: AFP
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (AP) – England has been beaten 5-0 in an Ashes series only three times. On the evidence of Tuesday’s innings defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, captain Joe Root’s (AP; pic below) side could soon become the fourth.
Former England captain Ian Botham said he was “a little embarrassed”.
“To lose the Ashes in 12 days . . . I just think that England have lost their way,” Botham said on Australia’s Seven Network. “The performance today summed it up.”
Trailing by 82 runs on the first innings of the third test, England resumed on Tuesday’s third day on 31-4 and was bowled out for 68, losing by an innings and 14 runs.
Australia didn’t even need to wait until lunch before regaining the Ashes – less than halfway through the scheduled five-match series. One rather scathing social media user tweeted that Australia won the Ashes in a shorter time frame than the 14 days England spent in coronavirus-forced quarantine when they first arrived Down Under.
Surrounded by under-performing specialist batters, Root top-scored in both innings for England with 50 and 28, to finish the year on 1,708 runs in 15 test matches.
England’s Joe Root and Ben Stokes leave the field at stumps. PHOTO: AP
Only two players, Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf (1,788 in 11 matches in 2006) and West Indies’ Viv Richards (1,710 in 11 matches in 1976) have scored more runs in a calendar year.
“I feel like I’m playing nicely at the minute,” Root said of his lone hand in England’s batting lineup.
“I feel like my game is improving and I am evolving still as a player.”
Root said Australia’s bowling attack was outstanding on a helpful MCG pitch.
“You’ve just got to find a way to get through it sometimes,” Root said. “We need to put some pride back into the badge and we need to give people back home something to celebrate.”
Asked about his enthusiasm to continue as captain beyond this series, Root said his focus was on two upcoming tests in Sydney and Hobart in January.
“It would be wrong to look past that,” he said.
Attention has also turned towards coach and selector Chris Silverwood’s role in the dismal tour. Former test captain Michael Atherton believes the coach should be dismissed at the end of the series.
“I can’t see a situation where Silverwood will survive this tour, Atherton told Sky Sports. “All the responsibility lies with him as that’s the way (England Cricket Director Ashley) Giles has
A national record-equaling 54 ducks this year, including four in the second innings at the MCG and matching England’s mark of 1998, is a fitting statistic for Root’s side.
Root questioned whether England’s domestic competition was adequately preparing players for test cricket. Some English commentators said members of England’s Lions squad, also currently in Australia and mostly here as coronavirus backup for the main team, should be liberally imported into the team for the final two tests.
“The environment that they’re coming from is not readying them well enough for test cricket.
It’s a very difficult place,” Root said of his domestic competition back home.
“If you’re not ready . . . it makes it very difficult to improve. You need some strong inner belief. It has to come from within.”
Linked to that is the England and Wales Cricket Board’s apparent preoccupation with the shorter formats of the game over test cricket.
The ODI side was the priority ahead of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, which England won on home soil, before the ECB focused much of its work on launching The Hundred, a new domestic competition intended to engage a younger audience, which some say has come at the expense of the test team.
