Morant entered New Year’s Day averaging 17.4 points, 6.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game while generating buzz with his midair acrobatics. No one else came close to that production. But the long-awaited debut of Pelicans forward Zion Williamson in January could make Rookie of the Year discussions interesting depending on how the final two months of the campaign unfold. Is it possible for someone who missed about three months to an injury to claim a season-long award?...

Joey Logano might have been on the way to his first NASCAR championship until he was intentionally wrecked by Matt Kenseth at Martinsville in the seventh race of the Chase. Logano, winner of the prior three races, was unable to recover in the final two races of the Eliminator 8 round and finished the season in sixth, just ahead of his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski. MORE: Best moments of 2015 | Speedweeks dates, times, TV info...

But Wall Street’s big wet kiss notwithstanding, closing New York Newsday looks like a classic case of penny-wise and pound-foolish. The paper, which has lost money every year since it was launched in 1985, was finally close to breaking even. Confidential Newsday documents projected only trivial losses for New York this year–not the megamillions that Wall Street thinks Willes is saving. Before we proceed, some disclosures. I recently worked at New York Newsday and have about 1,000 Times Mirror shares in my retirement accounts....

Jessica and Seth Erickson, from Chatfield in Minnesota, visited Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park as part of a multi-state road trip for their 10th anniversary. According to a statement from Tayler Markham, a park interpreter at Arkansas State Parks, they spent the morning of November 4 digging and sifting through the soil of the park, and spotted a gem the color of iced tea. The couple then took the gem to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where staff registered it as a 1....

Monday night on WWE Raw, John Cena was putting his United States Championship on the line against his latest challenger Dolph Ziggler. Early on, the crowd was going nuts with “YES” chants so Cena decided to stop the match and see for himself what was going on. MORE: Seven greatest WWE celebrity guests | TNA star debuts for WWE NXT | What we learned on Raw When he turned around, he noticed the “She Said Yes” sign and then grabbed the microphone to congratulate the newly engaged couple....

But one couple bucked the trend and decided to confirm to their friends and family that they’re not tying the knot any time soon, by sending out “not engaged” cards. Brooks Ribeiro and his girlfriend of three-and-a-half years, Lauren Hutchinson, posed for some hilarious photos on their Instagram accounts, @brooksdabear and @laurenhutchh, mimicking traditional engagement poses. Ribeiro, 27, and creative producer Hutchinson, 26, from California, took a variety of snaps with him down on one knee, her pointing to her bare left finger, while he even held out an empty ring box....

Jenny Antunes, who uses the TikTok handle jennyantuness, shared the unusual story on the video-sharing app where it has since received more than 880,000 upvotes. Losing your luggage during a trip is not uncommon, in fact, Luggage Hero reports that in the first half of 2021, over 690,000 bags were lost or mishandled by U.S. airlines. According to those statistics, the chance of your bag being lost on a flight in 2021 was around 0....

John and Allison McDonald from Stockton-on-Tees, in County Durham in the north-east of England bought a lottery lucky dip ticket for the draw on Wednesday, December 18. Their family had been through a tough 2019. Their 15-year-old son Ewan had undergone six rounds of chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in May, Teeside Live reported. But after seeing that the numbers on his lottery ticket matched the drawing, John McDonald revealed his “legs were trembling” when he rang the lottery operator Camelot to check that he was not mistaken, according to Sky News....

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined in a 2-1 vote that the vaccine mandate bans for federal contractors currently active in the states can continue to be implemented. The bans were implemented by the states as they argued that the proposed vaccination mandate proposed by President Joe Biden is unconstitutional and an overstep of his presidential duties. “The plaintiff states have plausibly shown that the contractor mandate threatens to damage each of the states’ economies,” the judges wrote in their decision....

The 25-year-old continues to be heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid following previous admissions that his heart remains in Spain with his young family. A former Atletico Madrid loanee, Courtois has made no secret of the fact that he will return to La Liga at some stage. He maintains that no move will be made this summer, with the 2018-19 campaign set to be spent at Stamford Bridge, but is yet to decide on whether he will be committing to a new contract and an extended stay in west London....

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Tibet Military Region shared recent footage Tuesday showing personnel “practice for war” as a brigade conducted combat exercises in the highlands that meet India. The area is an ill-defined junction that has been the source of renewed tensions between the nuclear-armed Asian neighbors. Rare skirmishes between the two forces turned deadly earlier this year, and both sides on Monday accused the other of trying to cross the contested boundary known as the Line of Actual Control....

The biennial China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Guangdong province—also known as the Zhuhai Airshow—is the largest of its kind in the country and takes place following an unusual three-year gap due to the pandemic. Remaining public health measures mean the number of foreign visits were also scaled down for the 13th edition, which is taking place between September 28 and October 3. The Zhuhai Airshow is where current and future PLAAF hardware—increasingly domestically designed and manufactured—is unveiled to the public....

A delegation from the European Parliament’s (EP) Special Committee on Foreign Interference in All Democratic Processes is to meet senior Taiwanese justice and foreign affairs officials, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported late on Tuesday. The visit, which has yet to be officially acknowledged by Taiwan, will involve French Member of the European Parliament Raphaël Glucksmann, who was among five MEP to be sanctioned by Beijing in March, the Post said....

U.S. prosecutors and lawmakers were called out in an op-ed for their “double standard” when dealing with matters that threaten the country’s national security. “Some U.S. elites have a shameless double standard when dealing with forces threatening national security. They condemn and even sentence those who incite violence in the U.S. to long prison terms, but when it comes to anti-China disruptors, they spare no effort to defend them,” read the op-ed published on Thursday....

A Global Times article published Thursday said Beijing is “extremely dissatisfied” with what is said is the “abuse of litigation” by some U.S. lawmakers, who are seeking damages from China over the COVID-19 pandemic. At least six lawsuits have now been filed against China in the U.S. Global Times is owned by the People’s Daily newspaper, which is the official publication of the CCP. It is often used to express the more nationalistic and combative sentiment from within the CCP, and has been at the forefront of Beijing’s coronavirus PR strategy—whether defending against international criticism, maligning the performance of President Donald Trump’s administration, or spreading disinformation about the crisis....

Multiple reports Friday said that the Diamondbacks are weighing a managerial change as the team sits in last place after an offseason spending spree that was supposed to produce a contender. The Arizona Republic and Fox Sports were among those reporting Hale would be replaced by Triple-A Reno manager Phil Nevin, but the Republic said Nevin was with his team in Las Vegas on Friday. TRADE RUMORS: Everyone wants Rays pitchers | Who might White Sox deal?...

The Eagles’ Chip Kelly received lesson in that department after he complained about his quarterback, Sam Bradford, being hit by Terrell Suggs earlier this preseason. PHOTOS: Must-see preseason action shots | MORE: Kelly justifies Bradford gamble The NFL reportedly sent an officiating video to clarify: Quarterbacks can be hit after they’ve given up the ball if the defender thinks they still have the ball. “Those are the rules, so if you’re handing the ball off, you can be hit,” Kelly said, via Philly....

Cholera is extremely rare in the United States and other developed countries where public sanitation is well-established and good personal hygiene is widely practiced. Between 2001 and 2011, for example, there were only 111 reported cases of cholera in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, cholera outbreaks do still occur in parts of the world where sanitation and personal hygiene are rudimentary. For example, there is a cholera vaccine for adults....

Trick question! Bringing a moment of joy to anyone stuck watching this nightmare. That’s what Boswell was doing. Delightful. MORE: Live scores and stats from NFL Week 9 That was Boswell’s onside kick attempt after Pittsburgh pulled within seven points, 21-14, of the Ravens in a game that was simultaneously putrid and an appropriate representation of the AFC North. Of course that’s how it ended. Believe it or not, it didn’t work out for Boswell; he was flagged, and the Ravens took over possession....

His remarks come following the ATP and WTA’s response to Wimbledon’s controversial ban on Russian and Belarusian players, which rules out a number of top players including Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka, and Victoria Azarenka The move to strip the event of rankings points essentially renders it an exhibition tournament. Ranked No. 117 in the world, O’Connell spoke following his first-round loss to Aljaž Bedene at the French Open....