AP – While the “will he or won’t he?” question remains for No 1 Novak Djokovic and his participation in the Australian Open, the rest of the tennis world returns to work this week to prepare for the season’s first major beginning January 17 at Melbourne Park.
The men’s ATP Cup team event has been on since the weekend in Sydney, and there are three tune-up events being played this week in Melbourne as part of Tennis Australia’s “Summer Set” of tournaments — two WTA tournaments and one ATP.
In Adelaide, there is a joint ATP and WTA tournament this week. Next week, both Adelaide and Sydney will hold joint ATP-WTA tournaments.
Djokovic is still nowhere to be seen. Australian Open chief executive Craig Tiley said there is “quite a bit to play out” before nine-time champion Djokovic shows up to play in Australia.
The top-ranked player has continually refused to reveal if he is vaccinated against COVID-19, a requirement to play in Melbourne. But there has been speculation Djokovic could apply for a medical exemption to play as he eyes a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam singles title. He is tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 20.
Djokovic withdrew from Serbia’s ATP Cup team last week.
“We’ve still got a few charter flights coming in until the end of this week and then all the players will be here,” Tiley said. “As far as the status relates to Novak, I think we’ll have a much clearer picture in the coming days otherwise it’s getting pretty late to show up and play the Australian Open. There’s quite a bit to play out and I think it will play out in the coming days.”
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas argues with the umpire after he was distracted while playing Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman during their match at the ATP Cup tennis tournament in Sydney yesterday. PHOTO: AP
Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep will headline the WTA tournament in Melbourne this week while Nadal, recovering from COVID-19, is the top seed at the ATP event at Melbourne Park.
Also in the ATP tournament is second-seeded Reilly Opelka, Nick Kyrgios and Grigor Dimitrov.
In Adelaide, top-ranked and Wimbledon champion Ash Barty is the headliner, joined by Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. Gael Monfils is the No 1 seed at the Adelaide ATP tournament, while Karen Khachanov is seeded second.
At the Adelaide WTA event yesterday, third-seeded Maria Sakkari beat Tamara Zidansek 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 in the opening round of the 32-draw tournament and Ajla Tomljanovic beat Heather Watson 6-4 7-6 (5).
Barty, who has a first-round bye, hasn’t played a tournament since losing in the third at the US Open in early September.
“In the next couple weeks I’ll have to be patient with myself, it has been awhile since I’ve played a competitive match,” Barty said yesterday.
“But I feel good. I feel ready. Now it’s just about going out there and enjoying it.”
US Open champion Emma Raducanu withdrew from the Melbourne tournament, having just come out of isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.
Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament when she won at Flushing Meadows in September, had pulled out of an Abu Dhabi tournament in late December after contracting the virus.
The Royal Customs and Excise Department (RCED), through its law Enforcement Division seized a haul of contraband and detained a number of individuals allegedly involved in the cases in four separate locations on December 24 and 25, 2021.
Enforcement personnel found 49 cartons of cigarettes inside an abandoned vehicle during an operation in Kampong Katimahar on December 24, 2021.
Customs enforcement personnel raided a foreign worker house and detained two men – a 31-year-old Indonesian and a 36-year old Malaysian – for allegedly storing and selling contraband on December 25, 2021. The contraband comprised 11 cartons, one pack and 13 sticks of cigarettes as well as 29 bottles of alcohol.
On the same day, an operation in Jalan Pasir Berakas found two Indonesian men – aged 31 and 36 – in possession of contraband, including 208 cartons and 37 packs of cigarettes as well as BND4,400 believed to be proceeds from the sales of the contraband.
Meanwhile, in Mukim Sengkurong, the RCED detained a 41-year-old Malaysian found in possession of contraband, including 154 carton of cigarettes, 439 bottles of alcohol and BND5,340 believed to be the proceeds from sales of contraband.
The contraband was seized and the suspects brought to the Law Enforcement Division for investigation.
The Royal Customs and Excise Department, through its law enforcement division, seized a haul of contraband and detained a number of suspects in operations at four locations on December 24 and 25, 2021.ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show the contraband seized during the operations. PHOTOS: RCED
AP – United States (US) President Joe Biden (AP; pic below) will meet virtually with independent farmers and ranchers to discuss initiatives to reduce food prices by increasing competition within the meat industry, part of a broader effort to show the administration is trying to combat inflation.
The White House event occurs as higher-than-expected inflation has thwarted Biden’s agenda.
Consumer prices in November rose 6.8 per cent over the prior 12 months – a 39-year high.
Inflation has hurt Biden’s public approval, become fodder for Republican attacks and prompted Senator Joe Manchin to cite higher prices as a reason to sideline the Democratic president’s tax, social and economic programmes. Biden is building off a July executive order that directed the Agriculture Department to more aggressively look at possible violations of the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act, which was designed to ensure fair competition and protect consumers.
Meat prices have climbed 16 per cent from a year ago, with beef prices up 20.9 per cent.
The administration is targetting meat processing plants, which can shape the prices paid to farmers and charged to consumers.
The White House issued a fact sheet saying that the top four companies control 85 per cent of the beef market. In poultry, the biggest four processing firms control 54 per cent of the market.
Biden plans to stress the plans to distribute USD1 billion from the coronavirus relief package to help independent meat processors expand. He also plans to highlight funding to train workers in the industry and improve conditions, as well as issue new rules for meatpackers and labelling requirements for being designated a “Product of USA”.
The Justice Department and the Agriculture Department will launch a joint effort to make it easier to report anti-competitive actions to the government.
The administration will also seek to improve the transparency of the cattle market.
The effort is part of a broader attempt to regain control of America’s economic narrative.
Besides inflation, the repeated waves of coronavirus outbreak have dampened people’s opinions about the economy despite strong growth over the past year.
Biden will have an opportunity to highlight the economy’s strengths with the December jobs report being released on Friday. Economists surveyed by FactSet expect that the US added 362,000 jobs last month with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.1 per cent.
Gains of that magnitude would indicate that the US added roughly 6.5 million jobs last year, more than in any other previous year in a reflection of population growth and government spending.
UPI – The phrases “Wait? What” and “no worries” are now on a list of “banished” words for 2022 published by a Michigan university on Friday.
Following tradition, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has listed 10 words phrases it deemed misused, overused and useless for 2022.
“Wait, what?” topped that list, a decision that officials defended by stating that the two four-letter words should “not go together under any circumstances”.
Other phrases included “new normal”, “you’re on mute”, “asking for a friend”, “supply chain”, “at the end of the day”, “that being said”, “circle back”, and “deep dive”.
“Avoid error in and exploitation of everyday language,” the university wrote. “In short, do the opposite of what the public and the media did this year.”
Last year, seven of the 10 phrases chosen reflected real-world concerns over COVID-19, whereas this year, three out of 10 phrases were COVID-19 related. The majority were conversational-based.
The university has published the list since 1976, citing the need to “uphold, protect and support excellence in language”.
LSSU vets thousands of submissions and has published over 1,000 entries, including one submitted by late comedian George Carlin in 1994.
Twenty-four compound offences and six docket violations under Chapter 68 of the Road Traffic Act were detected by the police during roadblocks at the Mentiri Beach road as well as several main roads of Kampong Serasa on Sunday.
The operation involved several departments under the Royal Brunei Police Force: Brunei-Muara Police District, the Traffic Control and Investigation Department, the Criminal Intelligence Department; and Land Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport
and Infocommunications.
Brunei-Muara Police District Assistant Commanding Officer DSP Mohd Fathdillah bin Haji Abdul Hamid led the operation which commenced at 5pm.
Personnel on duty during the road block. PHOTO: RBPF
KUALA LUMPUR (BERNAMA) – Tan Cheng Hoe has resigned as the head coach of the Harimau Malaya following Malaysia’s failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2020 in Singapore last month, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) announced yesterday.
FAM secretary-general Mohd Saifuddin Abu Bakar said Cheng Hoe had stated his intention to step down during a meeting with the management of the national football governing body recently.
He said that following the “open-hearted discussion from all angles”, the FAM management in the end respected his decision and agreed to release Cheng Hoe on a mutual agreement basis.
“FAM extends its deepest appreciation to Cheng Hoe who overall had served FAM for 14 years since he was assistant coach of the national Under-20 squad in 2005.
“His services and contributions will always be remembered. Thank you. Good luck also to Cheng Hoe in continuing his coaching career after this,” he said in a statement.
The 53-year-old coach from Alor Setar, Kedah, had served as the assistant coach of the Under-20, Under-23 and Harimau Muda A squads, before his strong partnership as assistant coach to Datuk K Rajagobal saw Malaysia win the 2009 SEA Games gold medal and the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup.
Head coach of Harimau Malaya Tan Cheng Hoe. PHOTO: BERNAMA
Cheng Hoe, who later took over as Kedah’s head coach from 2014-2017, proved himself to be one of the best coaches in the Malaysia League (M-League) when he helped The Red Eagles win the 2015 Premier League, Malaysia Cup 2016, the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 2017.
He then returned to FAM in 2017 as national assistant coach to Nelo Vingada, before being promoted to head coach at the end of the same year.
Taking charge of the Harimau Malaya, he built up the national squad to emerge runners-up in the 2018 AFF Cup and put the team in the best position in the second round of the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the tournament schedule.
In the AFF Cup 2020 from December 5 to January 1, Cheng Hoe’s squad, which lacked preparation due to the pandemic, failed to advance to the semi-finals when they finished the campaign in third place following 3-0 and 4-1 defeats to Vietnam and Indonesia respectively in Group B, apart from recording 3-1 and 4-0 wins over Cambodia and Laos.
DETROIT (AP) – A couple of months ago, a woman paid a visit to Jeff Schrier’s used car lot in Omaha, Nebraska. She was on a tight budget, she said, and was desperate for a vehicle to commute to work.
She was shown three cars priced at her limit, roughly USD7,500. Schrier said the woman was stunned.
“‘That’s what I get for USD7,500?'” he recalled her saying. The vehicles had far more age or mileage on them than she had expected for something to replace a car that had been totaled in a crash.
The woman eventually settled on a 2013 Toyota Scion with a whopping 160,000 miles on it.
Schrier isn’t sure he made any profit on the deal. “We just helped her out,” he said.
As prices for used vehicles blow past any seemingly rational level, it is the kind of scenario playing out at many auto dealerships across the country.
Prices have soared so high, so fast, that buyers are being increasingly priced out of the market.
Consider that the average price of a used vehicle in the United States (US) in November, according to Edmunds.com, was USD29,011 – a dizzying 39 per cent more than just 12 months earlier.
ABOVE & BELOW: Car dealerships in the United States. PHOTOS: AP
And for the first time that anyone can recall, more than half of America’s households have less income than is considered necessary to buy the average-priced used vehicle.
The days when just about anyone with a steady income could wander onto an auto lot and snag a reliable late-model car or buy their kid’s first vehicle for a few thousand dollars have essentially vanished.
“I’ve never seen anything remotely close to this – it’s craziness,” said Schrier, who has been selling autos for 35 years. “It’s quite frustrating for so many people right now.”
When the government reported that consumer inflation rocketed 6.8 per cent in the 12 months that ended in November – the sharpest jump in nearly 40 years – the biggest factor, apart from energy, was used vehicles.
And while the rate of increase is slowing, most experts say the inflated vehicle prices aren’t likely to ease for the foreseeable future.
The blame can be traced directly to the pandemic’s eruption in March of last year. Auto plants suspended production to try to slow the virus’ spread. As sales of new vehicles sank, fewer people traded in used cars and trucks.
At the same time, demand for laptops and monitors from people stuck at home led semiconductor makers to shift production from autos, which depend on such chips, to consumer electronics.
When a swifter-than-expected economic rebound boosted demand for vehicles, auto plants tried to restore full production. But chip makers couldn’t respond fast enough. And rental car companies and other fleet buyers, unable to acquire new vehicles, stopped off-loading older ones, thereby compounding the shortage of used vehicles.
Bleak as the market is for used-car buyers, the computer chip shortage has also driven new-vehicle prices higher. The average new vehicle, Edmunds.com says, is edging toward USD46,000.
Even so, prices of used cars are likely to edge closer to new ones.
Since the pandemic started, used vehicle prices have jumped 42 per cent – more than double the increase for new ones.
Last month, the average used vehicle price was 63 per cent of the average new vehicle cost. Before the pandemic, it was 54 per cent.
At this point, Schrier has to tell lower-income buyers that he has very few used vehicles to sell them.
“What used to be a USD5,000 car,” he said, “is now USD8,000. What used to be USD8,000 is now USD11,000 or USD12,000.”
Including taxes, fees, a 10 per cent down payment, and an interest rate of around 7.5 per cent, the average used vehicle now costs USD520 a month, even when financed for the average of nearly six years, Edmunds calculated.
To make that payment and afford such other necessities as housing, food and utilities, a household would have to take home about USD60,000 a year, or USD75,000 before taxes, said a personal finance specialist at NerdWallet Kimberly Palmer.
In 2020, the US median pretax household income was USD67,521, the Census Bureau said.
“The average person,” Palmer said, “can’t afford the average used car right now.”
Senior Manager at Edmunds Ivan Drury said that while he doesn’t track used vehicle prices relative to household income, he thinks November marked a record “in the worst way possible for affordability”.
Monthly payments for the average used vehicle, he noted, were USD413 two years ago, USD382 five years ago and USD365 a decade ago.
The November average payment of USD500-plus for a used vehicle, Drury said, is about the average that was needed five years ago for a brand-new vehicle.
“People are going to have to make hard decisions, maybe cut back in other areas,” Palmer said. “It means that it’s stressful for a lot of families.”
Used vehicle prices are so high that Karl Hogan of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, was able last month to quickly sell his 2007 Toyota Tacoma small pickup truck, with more than 170,000 miles on it. Even with the vehicle’s age and mileage, a man from Ohio forked over USD6,500 for it.
Hogan didn’t have to budge from the asking price. When some would-be buyers offered him less money, he told them, “I’ve got 12 other guys behind you.”
A week before the sale, when he bought his new Tacoma, Hogan had been on the other side of the equation. The dealer wouldn’t budge from his USD38,000 sticker price.
“If I didn’t take it,” Hogan said, “there were three people waiting. I couldn’t get any off, but I wanted a new truck.”
Senior Manager at JD Power David Paris noted that used vehicle prices are directly tied to the cost of new ones. Though some automakers report that the computer chip supply is gradually improving, prices paid by dealers at used vehicle auctions kept rising through November, Paris said.
“We’re not seeing any softening in prices, which is extremely rare for this time of the year,” he said.
New vehicle dealers have about one million vehicles available nationally – scarcely one-third of the normal supply, Paris said.
And the vast majority have already been sold.
Given pent-up demand from consumers, prices for new vehicles are expected to remain historically high until the supply returns to around two million or 2.5 million and automakers resume discounting, which could take well into 2023.
THIBODAUX (AP) – A wintertime law enforcement fundraiser called ‘No Shave November’ has raised about USD4,000 in two months, proving so popular that a Louisiana sheriff is making it year-round.
“After what we’ve been through in the past two years, I figured there’s plenty of great causes to allow this to continue all year. So, I am changing No Shave November into No Shave Forever,” Sheriff Craig Webre said in a news release.
Deputies and other employees of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office have been donating USD25 a month to charity to be allowed to grow beards in November and December. Those who don’t grow beards can dress more casually on Fridays if their jobs allow it. Employees raised USD2,595 for the American Cancer Society and USD1,260 for Special Olympics Louisiana, the sheriff’s office said. They could also choose other nonprofit groups, and smaller amounts were given to 22, including Wheelchairs for Warriors and the American Red Cross.
More than 125 of the office’s 350 employees have been participating, and about one-third of the participants were women, Captain Brennan Matherne, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said last Wednesday in an e-mail.
“The idea of having a casual Friday every Friday with no uniforms is definitely something they are excited about,” he said.
Patrol deputies must wear uniforms, but Webre relaxed policies earlier this year to let them wear short-sleeved shirts – which don’t require neckties – throughout the year rather than only in the spring and summer, Matherne said.
The Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) extinguished a fire which originated from a water dispenser at a building in Jalan Ong Sum Ping yesterday.
Abdul Majid bin Haji Abdul Wah led 13 firefighters from the Bandar Seri Begawan and Beribi fire stations after receiving a distress call at 9.45am.
Smoke was detected on the third floor of the building. The fire originated from a water dispenser and spread to the kitchen, according to the FRD report.
The team promptly put out the fire. No injuries were reported.
The FRD reminded the public to ensure that fire extinguishers and fire blankets are available at the premises while electrical equipment is switched off after use.
The water dispenser which caused the fire. PHOTO: FRD
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (CNA) – English football treasures the packed programme of action over the festive season and, despite the disruption of COVID-19 and the complaints of some managers, it again delivered in spades.
As so often, the intense spell of games not only provided fans with the chance to get out of the house and leave the leftovers in the fridge but led to real clarity in the title race.
Chelsea and Liverpool produced a Premier League classic on Sunday with an enthralling 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, but that only helped Manchester City, who now have a 10-point lead at the top of the table.
City beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates on Saturday, the winning goal coming in the final seconds from midfielder Rodri.
In many ways, those two games encapsulated this title race – City found a way to win for the 11th game in a row, while their rivals entertained in frantic fashion but gave up crucial points. The quality of Chelsea and Liverpool is undeniable. Both have been crowned Europe’s best in the past three years by winning the Champions League, an honour that has evaded City. But both are perhaps better suited to the high-octane challenges of a knockout competition than the long haul of a Premier League season that by its nature rewards consistency.
Liverpool’s James Milner, right, tackles Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in London, on January 2. PHOTOS: AP
Pep Guardiola’s City, on course for their fourth Premier League title in five years, play a style of football in which they usually control games, wearing down opponents with their unmatched ability to keep possession and create openings.
They have evolved in recent seasons but Guardiola’s fundamental approach to the game, honed at Barcelona, is unchanged – the high technical level of his superbly drilled team and their understanding of their approach to games delivers consistently.
The German coaches of Liverpool and Chelsea, Juergen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, instead prefer a more high-energy game with attacks launched down the flanks by attacking full-backs, intense pressing and fast breaks in transition.
The style imported from the Bundesliga is enthralling to watch and has the potential to sweep aside weaker opponents but feels somewhat anarchic compared with City’s disciplined destruction of opponents.
Liverpool found the consistency needed during their title run in 2020 when they were close to unstoppable, going on an 18-match winning streak mid-season and winning all but one home game.
This year, they have already dropped points at home three times and won only six of 11 away games.
“What Liverpool are lacking now that they had in the title-winning season is control of a football game,” said former Liverpool captain and now Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who compared the performance at Chelsea to Klopp’s first two seasons at the club.
“That was the best game I’ve seen this season, but in terms of Liverpool winning the title, that’s what’s going to cost them. Five times now, they’ve taken the lead this season and they’ve not won the game. That’s the difference between Liverpool and Man City right now.”
Chelsea may still be a work in progress one year after Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard, and the problems with their big summer signing Romelu Lukaku are hardly helping.
Tuchel’s side have won just once in their last five games – dropping points against Brighton,
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton before Sunday’s thriller.
The title race isn’t over, but the fight for Champions League qualification is looking like the bigger battle.
Arsenal currently occupy the fourth slot but West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are all in contention with just four points separating them.
