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☆ NBA roundup: Jimmy Butler, Heat eliminate Bucks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Apr 26, 2023; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) drives against Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (21) during game five of the 2023 NBA Playoffs at Fiserv Forum. Butler followed up his franchise-playoff-record, 56-point performance in Game 4 by helping the eighth-seeded Heat overcome a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit with 12 straight Heat points during one stretch before converting an alley-oop in the final second to force overtime. Bam Adebayo collected 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Heat, who will face the fifth-seeded New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Antetokounmpo recorded 38 points and 20 rebounds and Khris Middleton pumped in 33 points for the Bucks. Anthony Davis amassed 31 points and 19 rebounds and Austin Reaves registered 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the seventh-seeded Lakers.

☆ Dennis Lehane’s Latest Depicts Boston’s Desegregation Battles
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( J. Courtney Sullivan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The night she disappears, a young Black man is found dead at a subway station in South Boston, an area so homogeneous in 1974 that the mere presence of a Black person there confounds everyone. Mary Pat has been taught that the residents of Southie can count on only one another. But as her search for her daughter becomes increasingly desperate, she is met with silence from her community. Ultimately, alone and with nothing left to lose, she is willing to fight anyone, confront anyone, even Butler himself, to uncover the truth. The take-no-prisoners hero of this novel is a pissed-off middle-aged mom and it is a thrill to watch her burn it all down.

☆ NBA roundup: Anthony Davis, Lakers sprint past Grizzlies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Apr 22, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Dennis Schroder (17) shoots the ball against Memphis Grizzlies forward David Roddy (27) in the fourth quarter during game three of the 2023 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. LeBron James added 25 points and nine rebounds as the Lakers took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference matchup. D'Angelo Russell had 17 points and Rui Hachimura scored 16 for Los Angeles, which led by as many as 29 points in the wire-to-wire victory. Desmond Bane (18 points) ended the Morant run with a 3-pointer that cut the Los Angeles lead to 108-99 with 1:24 remaining. James Harden collected 17 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

☆ LeBron James leads the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-101 win and 2-1 series lead against the Memphis Grizzlies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Patrick Sung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and center Anthony Davis had strong performances to help lead LA to a big 111-101 win over the Grizzlies in front of a sold-out crowd at Staples Center on Saturday to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven first round NBA Playoff series. Brooks was ejected from Game 3 for a flagrant 2 foul on LeBron James. Anthony Davis had a massive night, racking up 31 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesAfter the game, James said that the game wasn’t about making a “statement” to Brooks and the rest of the Grizzlies. Sixers forward Tobias Harris led the way for Philly with 25 points and 12 rebounds in what is Brooklyn’s second straight first-round sweep.

☆ Families Tap New Tools to Negotiate Lower College Tuition
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Douglas Belkin | Photographs Alex Scott For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Last April, John Strubulis played a game of chicken with the college his daughter wanted to attend, Butler University. If he won, his family would save $20,000 in tuition. If he lost, she would head to her second choice, Marquette University. Mr. Strubulis, a product manager for a packaging company with decades of experience negotiating contracts, had written Butler a letter asking for more financial aid. The school politely declined, he said.

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - Zambia will send its first fully-formed debt restructuring plan to China and other government creditors "very soon" the government's legal advisors said, as it looks to capitalise on fresh momentum seen in high-level talks in recent days. "We are hoping to provide a restructuring proposal to the official creditors (committee) very soon," Melissa Butler at White & Case, the law firm advising Lusaka on the restructuring, told Reuters, adding that meant the "coming weeks". "We want to start talking about concrete proposals about what debt relief would look like." Zambia is hoping for more than $8 billion of debt relief and Hichilema recently warned that if the restructuring was not able to be concluded soon, it would "tarnish" the tough fiscal reform measures the government has been undertaking. Zambia's restructuring has a wider importance too.

☆ NBA roundup: Short-handed Bucks even series with Heat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jimmy Butler had 25 points to pace the Heat, and Bam Adebayo added 18 points. Jaren Jackson Jr. had 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots and Desmond Bane added 17 points for the second-seeded Grizzlies. LeBron James had 28 points and 12 rebounds and Rui Hachimura added 20 points off the bench for the seventh-seeded Lakers. Michael Porter Jr. scored 16 points and Aaron Gordon had 12 points and 10 rebounds for top-seeded Denver. Denver went on an 8-0 run to open the final quarter, grabbing a 95-89 lead before Minnesota moved in front 99-98.

Foreign investors have held talks with the government and opposition parties and public and private sector companies, one senior government official said. Erdogan has said former economic tsar Mehmet Simsek, well respected by international investors, was coordinating work on economic policies. While the UAE and Saudi Arabia were eyeing energy investments, Western investors were looking more at fintech and digital, he said. An Ankara consultancy company executive said expectations of economic policy changes were paving the way for investment. "In any case, the expectation is that Turkey will turn to more predictable and orthodox economic policies."

☆ NBA roundup: Heat best Bucks in injury-riddled Game 1
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Bam Adebayo scored 22 points for the eighth-seeded Heat, who were playing less than 48 hours after qualifying for the playoffs by beating Chicago in a play-in elimination game. He stayed in the game for a bit before going to the locker room and returned briefly early in the second quarter before leaving the game for good. In his sixth career playoff game, Hachimura erupted for a playoff career high in scoring by shooting 11-for-14, including 5 of 6 from beyond the 3-point arc. Kevin Durant had 27 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds in his first playoff game for the fourth-seeded Suns. Devin Booker scored 26 points, Torrey Craig added 22 and Deandre Ayton had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Suns.

☆ Turkish budget deficit widens in March after quakes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The primary balance, which excludes interest payments, logged a deficit of 2.15 billion lira in March, it said, bringing the total in the first three months to 149.37 billion lira. The budget deficit widened sharply after the earthquakes struck southern Turkey in February at a time when President Tayyip Erdogan was already facing major economic challenges. In February, the central government's budget deficit stood at 170.56 billion lira and the cumulative figure for the first two months of the year was 202.8 billion lira. Economists reckon government spending on rebuilding and aid efforts could lift the ratio of budget deficit to GDP to above 5% this year, up from Ankara's forecast last September of 3.5%. It had made a transfer of 5.6 billion lira to the areas a month earlier.

☆ Opinion | Promising Signs for Free Speech on Campus
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming” has been called the most plundered poem in the English language, and it’s easy to see why. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”When I read these words, dramatic, violent events come first to mind. The Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 is a prime example of the “passionate intensity” of one of the worst movements in American life. With each mass shooting, I think, “Things fall apart.”But there are other ways in which the center finds itself under siege. I’ve never interpreted the center in Yeats’s poem to mean something like a politically moderate middle but rather a moral foundation, the ideological core of a nation and its people.

Fear that another tragedy could strike forced her to leave Istanbul because she couldn't afford a new apartment there, she said. However, seismologists said the February disaster has not changed the likelihood of an Istanbul quake, with the two areas on different faultlines. Any disaster in Istanbul would stagger Turkey's economy given the broader Marmara region accounts for some 41% of national GDP. Some 1.5 million homes are considered at risk in the city, Urban Planning Minister Murat Kurum said this week. According to official data, an average of more than three people live in each household, meaning up to 5 million live in these properties.

☆ U.S. sanctions Turkey-based entities it says helped Russia's war
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jonathan Spicer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISTANBUL, April 12 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on at least four Turkey-based entities it said violated U.S. export controls and helped Russia's war effort, in the biggest U.S. enforcement action in Turkey since the invasion of Ukraine last year. The designations - which included an electronics company and a technology trader alleged to have helped transfer "dual-use" goods - were part of a global sanctions package on more than 120 entities announced by the U.S. Treasury. A U.S. administration official told Reuters the sanctions targeted entities and people in Turkey's maritime and trade sectors that were "primarily" Russia-owned or Russia-linked. NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv during the Ukraine war. It opposes the Western sanctions on principle but has said they will not be circumvented in Turkey and that no shipped products can be used by Russia's military.

☆ Fact Check-New York subway ad urging welfare recipients to join Ukraine war is not authentic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An advertisement seeking to recruit U.S. citizens on the welfare scheme to the International Legion of Ukraine, purportedly seen on New York underground trains, is not an official poster. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington told Reuters that the poster is not real. The text on the poster which carries the logo of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reads: “Tired of living on welfare? Join the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine.”The International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine was formed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and recruits foreign citizens to fight for Ukraine in the war (fightforua.org/). The poster calling on welfare recipients in the U.S to join the war in Ukraine is not authentic.

☆ Britain names first female director of GCHQ intelligence agency
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - Britain named Anne Keast-Butler as the first female director of its GCHQ intelligence agency on Tuesday. She currently serves as deputy director general at Britain's MI5 intelligence agency. "She is the ideal candidate to lead GCHQ, and Anne will use her vast experience to help keep the British public safe." Keast-Butler will take over the role in May, according to a GCHQ statement, succeeding Jeremy Fleming who in January announced his planned departure after six years in the role. Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, writing by William James; Editing by Kate HoltonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/4] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by his wife Emine Erdogan, greets the audience during a meeting of his ruling AK Party to announce the party's election manifesto ahead of the May 14 elections, in Ankara, Turkey April 11, 2023. Erdogan is facing the biggest political challenge since his AK Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, with polls showing support sagging in recent years after unorthodox economic policies hobbled the lira currency and sent inflation surging. Erdogan said last week a team was working on strengthening economic policies under the coordination of former economic tsar Mehmet Simsek, who is well respected by international investors. In the presidential election next month, Erdogan will be up against the main opposition alliance candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. On foreign policy, Erdogan said the AKP would continue normalizing relations in the region and aim to build an "axis of Turkey".

☆ NBA roundup: Warriors hang 157 on Blazers, glide into playoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Shaedon Sharpe added 18 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds, while Jeenathan Williams had 17 points for Portland. New Orleans' Brandon Ingram had 42 points and 12 rebounds, CJ McCollum scored 23 points and Trey Murphy III had 20. Lindell Wigginton scored 17 points and Bobby Portis had 16 for the Bucks. Jaden Hardy led all scorers with 25 points, with Theo Pinson forging a triple-double (23 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists) for the Mavericks. De'Aaron Fox, who scored 13 points, played less than 18 minutes.

☆ Food delivery drivers say they aren't being tipped enough by customers to make a living
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Delivery drivers expercienced a boom during the pandemic, but many say that luck has run out. But without being able to see exactly how much they'll be tipped, drivers say it's a gamble. Since the height of online ordering in the thick of the pandemic, delivery drivers have slowly seen their once-lucrative profits fade away. Now, drivers say they still have a hard time turning a profit unless the tip is worth it. According to the New York Times, Uber and DoorDash drivers figure they're paid about $3.50 per order, plus $1 per mile they have to drive.

☆ Eat Like a Masters Golf Champion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

I do not plan to win the Masters golf tournament this weekend. I guess I should also point out that I am not competing in the Masters, because I am terrible at golf. Unless you have six hours to spare, and don’t mind losing an eye, or running away from an angry guy with a home on the course, you should not golf with me. This cherished Masters tradition is a pretournament feast hosted by the prior year’s winner. There’s always a good deal of discussion about the menu, as if it’s a celebrity wedding, or final meal on death row.

☆ NBA roundup: Suns secure No. 4 seed in West
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Deandre Ayton scored 16 points, and Devin Booker had 15 points and eight assists. Christian Braun scored 15 points, Jeff Green had 14 and DeAndre Jordan registered 12 points and 11 rebounds. Bam Adebayo supplied 14 points and eight rebounds, while Max Strus also had 14 points as Miami connected on 18 of its 39 shot attempts from beyond the arc. Joel Embiid paced the 76ers with 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks, while James Harden finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Kris Dunn finished with 22 points, eight assists and seven boards, while Kelly Olynyk totaled 16 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists to pace the Jazz.

☆ Turkey, Russia agree on need to lift fertiliser export obstacles
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Huseyin Hayatsever | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"We also agree that the obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertiliser should be removed. Issues need to be addressed for the grain deal to be extended further," he said. Lavrov said the two top diplomats discussed the grain deal, a potential gas hub in Turkey, the conflict in Syria, and Ukraine. While Russian food and fertiliser exports are not under sweeping Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance industries are a barrier. Lavrov said that Russian grain and fertiliser exports were affected by a lack of access to insurance and to the SWIFT financial messaging system.

☆ Turkey's Ziraat bank finalises $1.3 bln syndicated loan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

ISTANBUL, April 7 (Reuters) - Turkey's Ziraat Bank has finalised a $1.3 billion, 367-day syndicated loan in two tranches of $423 million and 779 million euros ($850.4 million), it said on Friday. It said the loan was coordinated by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC and Emirates NBD Capital. ($1 = 0.9161 euros)Reporting by Ebru Tuncay Writing by Daren Butler Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The Masters Navigates a Tricky Journey Through the LIV Golf Battlefield
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Andrew Beaton | Louise Radnofsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

AUGUSTA, Ga .—Fred Ridley, the tight-lipped chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, took his seat on the dais Wednesday flanked by two other green-jacket-wearing members for his annual remarks before the Masters, but this session was supercharged compared with the past. This year, the controversy consuming golf had sped its way down Magnolia Lane and straight into Butler Cabin. Ridley conspicuously avoided uttering the name of LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed circuit that has driven a wedge in the sport by luring many of the top players away from the PGA Tour. When Ridley obliquely referred to the situation, it wasn’t difficult to decipher his disagreements with players joining LIV and his displeasure with the divide that has landed on his doorstep.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan condemns Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa mosque
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISTANBUL, April 5 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday condemned the Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, which led to clashes with worshippers, calling such acts in the mosque compound a "red line" for Turkey. The incident came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover, stoking fears of further violence at the mosque compound, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks," Erdogan said. "Putting a hand on al-Aqsa mosque and trampling on the sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif is a red line for us."

"The fundamental consequence of Ince's (candidacy) is sending the elections to a second round," Panoramatr research director Osman Sert told Reuters. "But even if there is such a meltdown it would not prevent the election going to a second round," Sert said. POLITICAL STABILITYIf no presidential candidate gets more than 50% in the May 14 vote, the top two would compete in a second round two weeks later. Data from closely-watched pollster Metropoll showed Ince and undecided voters would determine the presidential vote, its head Ozer Sencar said. Among voters opposed to Erdogan, some voice dissatisfaction with the diverse main opposition alliance, partly as it includes parties led by former Erdogan allies and an Islamist party.

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