After Emma Talley’s second-round match at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards on Wednesday, where she came away with a hard-fought tie with Stacy Lewis, the Kentucky native said, “This is the pressure we (players) live for.” This pressure, in turn, leads to the excitement that fans live for, especially at a match-play event.
During Friday’s third round of pod play, fans can expect both pressure and excitement from Group Five, featuring Americans Talley, Lewis, Jennifer Kupcho and Lauren Stephenson. Talley leads the pod with 1.5 points followed closely by Kupcho and Stephenson with a point each. Lewis has a half point after Wednesday’s tie. The proximity in points means it’s still anyone's game — except for Lewis — keeping in mind that only one of the four players will advance to Saturday morning’s Round of 16. Let’s look at the scenarios.
If Talley defeats Stephenson, she will move on no matter the outcome of the Lewis/Kupcho match. If Talley ties and Kupcho wins, we’re looking at a playoff between the two. The same goes if Kupcho and Stephenson win. The sudden-death playoffs will begin on hole 1. If Lewis defeats Kupcho, Talley would advance with a win or tie, while Stephenson would need a win. No matter the outcome, don’t take your eyes off these matches.
“Going into the round, I know I have to win pretty much,” Kupcho said. “That's kind of how it should be, I think, is having every match count. It’s going to be exciting.”
Though Lewis will not advance to the Round of 16, her work on the course is not over. When asked if the Solheim Cup captain would be scouting the young Americans in her group, Lewis said, “One hundred percent.”
“Emma and Lauren, I really haven't played a lot with. It's more to see how they play and kind of their demeanor on the golf course, just thinking about who they could potentially pair up well with,” she said.
Though Talley has a long way to go to make the Solheim team, she was proud of her performance against the captain Wednesday, battling back from a 4-hole deficit to tie the match on No. 18.
“She probably realized that I have grit and I don't give up. I don't think she's too happy with me right now, but maybe later,” Talley laughed.
McDavid's magic ends the Battle of Alberta, the Hurricanes win at home again and the Blues are looking to stave off elimination once again.
Here are five things to know as we head into Friday's post-season action:
BATTLE OF ALBERTA COMES TO AN ENTERTAINING END
It may have only lasted five games, but the Battle of Alberta was one to remember, with plenty of drama and lots of goal scoring.
The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4 in overtime on Thursday in a deciding contest that proved to be an excellent bookend to a wonderful series that began with the two teams combining to score 15 goals in a Calgary win.
The Flames led 2-0 early in the second period, only to see Edmonton storm back and tie it up midway through the frame at 2-2.
After that, in a sight similar to Game 1's goal bonanza the two sides ended up scoring four goals combined within a 1:11 timeframe to once again come even at 4-4 entering the third period.
In that frame, it appeared as though Flames centre Blake Coleman had put Calgary ahead with a little under six minutes left to play as he charged the net hard, but it was controversially waved off as video review ruled that he kicked the puck into the net.
That set the stage for Connor McDavid in the extra period to win the series for Edmonton and send his Oilers to their first conference finals since 2006.
OILERS STARS SHINE BRIGHT IN CLINCHER
The disallowed Coleman goal in the third period will make for much discussion in the days to come, but that shouldn't overshadow the brilliance of McDavid's series-clinching overtime game-winner.
McDavid only recorded one point on the night, but none was bigger.
And in much the same vein, Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers' other former Hart Trophy winner, shone bright in the spotlight of an elimination game, recording four assists, including setting up McDavid's winner.
The Oilers' dynamic duo have dominated thus far during this post-season, each recording a playoffs-high 26 points, with work still to do.
CANES IN GOOD HISTORICAL COMPANY
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 Thursday to take a 3-2 series lead and improve their home record during this post-season to a perfect 7-0.
Though it may look like an odd stat, it's undeniable that Carolina has been dominant in the friendly confines of PNC Arena. In all of their home games thus far through the playoffs, the Canes have never given up more than two goals, a feat that puts them in some elite company.
Carolina is only the third team in NHL history to win its first seven home playoff games while allowing two or fewer goals in each of those contests. The two other teams that did it before (2003 New Jersey Devils and 1965 Montreal Canadiens) both won the Stanley Cup.
SURE AND STEADY SHESTERKIN
Despite the loss, Igor Shesterkin was the better goalie Thursday night between him and Hurricanes counterpart Antti Raanta.
The Vezina and Hart Trophy finalist stopped 31-of-34 shots compared to the 16 of 17 that Raanta made.
Being put on the brink of elimination is never a good thing, but the Rangers faithful can take some comfort knowing that their goalie remains on his game after a pair of strong performances in Games 3 and 4.
It's the New York offence, particularly while playing in Carolina, that has been the problem.
CAN BLUES KEEP MOMENTUM GOING TO FORCE A GAME 7?
Game 6 between the Colorado Avalanche and Blues goes Friday evening in St. Louis.
The Blues looked like they were going to be bounced in Game 5 when Nathan MacKinnon went coast-to-coast with an electrifying goal to put the Avs up 4-3 with less than three minutes left to play in regulation, completing a hat trick.
However, even with Ball Arena rocking and Colorado fans giddy with delight, St. Louis never stopped pushing and were rewarded with a Robert Thomas goal at the 19:04 mark to tie the game followed by Tyler Bozak scoring the winner in overtime to force Game 6.
From a momentum standpoint, it's all going St. Louis' way, and they have a chance now to ride that wave straight into a Game 7 back in Denver.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2022.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was reappointed to a second five-year term on Tuesday by the U.N. health agency’s member countries.
No other candidate challenged Tedros for the post amid the ongoing difficulties of responding to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is overwhelming,” Tedros said, after another World Health Organization official asked everyone in the room to stand and applaud him. Fighting back tears, Tedros described himself as “a child of war” after signing the contract for his extension. He said that after witnessing his younger brother’s death at an early age, it was “luck (that) brought me all the way here.”
Tedros, a former government minister from Ethiopia, has directed WHO throughout its management of the global response to COVID-19 and withstood occasionally withering criticism over its multiple missteps. He is the first African to lead the agency and the only director-general not qualified as a medical doctor.
He is also the first WHO leader not to be supported by their home country; Ethiopia has previously accused Tedros of “misconduct ” after his sharp criticism of the war and humanitarian crisis there and raised concerns about his leadership on Tuesday.
Under Tedros, the U.N. health agency failed to call out countries including China for blunders that WHO officials grumbled about privately, advised against mask-wearing for months, and said initially that the coronavirus wasn’t likely to mutate rapidly. Scientists drafted by WHO to investigate the coronavirus’ origins in China said the critical probe was “stalled” last year, after issuing a report that even Tedros acknowledged had prematurely ruled out the possibility of a laboratory leak.
“There have been some mishaps, but Tedros has also been a steady voice throughout the pandemic, advocating for an equitable response,” said Javier Guzman, director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development in Washington.
2 new Omicron sub-variants discovered as COVID-19 cases continue to decline globally: WHO
2 new Omicron sub-variants discovered as COVID-19 cases continue to decline globally: WHO – May 4, 2022
He said despite reservations about Tedros’ leadership, some countries weren’t willing to push for change.
“We are in the middle of the pandemic and there is some pressure for consistent leadership to take us through this difficult moment,” Guzman said.
Tedros has frequently railed against rich countries for hoarding the world’s limited supply of vaccines and insisted that pharmaceuticals aren’t doing enough to make their medicines available to the poor. Amid the near-universal focus on Ukraine after the Russian invasion, Tedros slammed the global community for not doing enough to solve crises elsewhere, including Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, arguing that it was possibly because those suffering weren’t white.
Still, critics say Tedros has failed on some fundamental issues, like holding staff accountable after allegations that dozens of outbreak workers managed by WHO sexually abused young women in Congo during an Ebola outbreak that began in 2018, in one of the biggest sex scandals in U.N. history. None of the senior WHO managers alerted to the abuse allegations and who did little to stop the exploitation, have been fired.
In January, The Associated Press reported that staffers in WHO’s Western Pacific office filed an internal complaint accusing regional director Dr. Takeshi Kasai of abusive, racist and other misconduct, undermining efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19. In response, Tedros said an investigation into the allegations had been launched and promised to act “with urgency.”
But last week, several WHO staffers wrote to the agency’s executive board complaining that Kasai “has been able to continue his unethical, abusive and racist conduct without any form of restriction.” In an email to staff, Kasai disputed the charges.
Public health expert Guzman said the apparent culture of impunity at WHO was problematic.
“We do need to see a stronger (WHO) director-general going forward, where misconduct is not tolerated,” he said, calling for extensive reforms to make the agency accountable.
The losses and lessons learned after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic
The losses and lessons learned after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic – Mar 11, 2022
As Tedros begins his second term, some experts have also raised concerns that WHO isn’t fulfilling its primary role as a technical agency providing science-based guidance to countries.
Dr. David Tomlinson, a cardiologist who has campaigned for better protective equipment for health workers in Britain’s health system, says he has been appalled by WHO advice, most notably their reluctance to acknowledge that COVID-19 is widely spread in the air. In July 2020, more than 230 scientists published a paper appealing to WHO to recognize the coronavirus was airborne; that later prompted the organization to alter some of its recommendations.
Tomlinson and others say Tedros should ensure WHO’s top priority during future health emergencies is evaluating the science.
“They have perpetuated untruths that have ultimately led to the deaths of millions of people,” he said, citing the estimated 15 million people who have died during the pandemic. “We need an agency that’s unafraid to tell the truth, but that’s unfortunately not what we have.”
The two-time defending East Division champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats face a handful of questions in training camp. The good news for Ticats fans is the team has done a good job of answering most of their major questions over the winter.
While those moves helped clarify some things, they also created some questions of their own — questions that will need to be answered over the next few weeks before the Ticats kick-off their 2022 season in Saskatchewan against the Roughriders on June 11.
Who are their seven Canadian starters?
This is the biggest question the team will need to answer because how the Tabbies deploy their required seven Canadian starters will help inform the rest of their roster questions.
The Cats have, by my count, the ability to start 12 Canadians if they so choose.
On defence, they could start Ted Laurent and Mason Bennett along the defensive line as well as Stavros Katsantonis and Tunde Adeleke in the secondary.
Offensively, Hamilton could start an all-Canadian offensive line with Kyle Saxelid and Chris Van Zeyl at the two tackle spots, Brandon Revenberg and Coulter Woodmansey at the two guard spots, and Jesse Gibbon or Alex Fontana at centre.
Obviously, this will not happen. No team, regardless of how talented their National depth is, would start 12 Canadians. However, the very fact that they could gives you an idea of just how loaded the Ticats are from a Canadian perspective.
So what is the likely starting ratio? That is a little harder to figure out. We know Revenberg and Van Zeyl are locks, as is Adeleke. Outside of that, it is hard to tell. Saxelid is as close to a lock as possible for one of the starting offensive line positions because you don’t trade for a player like him without a plan to put him into your starting lineup. The same is true for Durant, who was once viewed as a star in B.C.
That leaves us with just two more starting spots up for grabs. With the addition of Micah Johnson, I think Ted Laurent becomes more of a rotational player instead of being Dylan Wynn’s primary battery mate on the interior of the defensive line.
I think Ungerer is better used for depth than as a starter, and I don’t think either Thomas-Erlington or Irons will beat out Don Jackson, who signed a two-year extension with the team in January, for the starting tailback spot if the former Stampeder is healthy.
That narrows it down to the Ticats either going five along the offensive line or Mason Bennett taking over for Ja’Gared Davis as the defensive end opposite veteran American Julian Howsare.
It will be interesting to see how the team lines up during training camp because the sooner we get the answer to how they will play their Canadians, the sooner we will be able to answer the rest of the roster questions.
Who starts at left tackle?
This one gets answered by the ratio, as outlined above, because if the Ticats decide to go with five Canadians along the line, then the starting left tackle will be the recently acquired Kyle Saxelid.
However, if the Cats decide that they would be better suited with Saxelid at guard and an American at left tackle, the options open up.
Hamilton currently has four American offensive linemen on their roster: Travis Vornkahl, De’Ondre Wesley, Tyler Johnson and Korren Kirven. Vornkahl was with the team last year and started three games at left tackle, including the East Semi-Final. The other three were all signed this off-season.
Wesley is the most intriguing of the bunch for me. At six-foot-seven and 330 pounds, the Brigham Young product is a mountain of a man. He has bounced around the NFL since 2015 and played for the DC Defenders of the XFL in 2020. He was on the Edmonton Elks’ practice roster last season, so he has some familiarity with the CFL game. He signed with the Ticats in April.
Kirvin, whom the team signed on May 5, played collegiately at the University of Alabama where he was a member of the school’s 2016 national championship team. Johnson spent his senior season at the University of Louisiana-Monroe after transferring from Tulane University and was signed by the team in March. Both players have yet to make their way to training camp and have been placed on the suspended list.
If the Tabbies decide they want an American to play left tackle, they certainly have a plethora of options from which to choose.
Who replaces Ja’Gared Davis?
This is another area where what Hamilton decides to do ratio-wise will dictate who starts. If they go Canadian, the answer is Mason Bennett. If they don’t, the answer is much trickier.
The Ticats have four American defensive ends on their roster, not including Julian Howsare, who is a virtual lock to start at the other defensive end spot. They include holdovers Ronheen Bingham, who has been with the Ticats since 2020 but has yet to see the field, and Malik Carney, who played in four regular-season games and two playoff games last year, as well as a pair of newcomers in Justus Reed and Tre’ Crawford.
Reed, who signed with the Ticats in February, played college football at the University of Florida before first transferring to Youngstown State University and then moving one final time to Virginia Tech. Over 41 career college games, Reed amassed 95 total tackles, 34 tackles for loss, 25 sacks, four forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and three pass breakups. Those sack numbers are the ones that really open your eyes.
Crawford, who the team signed in March, spent time in the NFL with the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons after going unselected in the 2019 NFL Draft. The six-foot-three, 235-pound native of Houston, Texas played collegiately at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he registered 47 total tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and two fumble recoveries in 22 games for the Blazers.
We see players come out of nowhere so often in the CFL that we sometimes erroneously dismiss newcomers too quickly, and I don’t want to be guilty of doing that here.
Seeing 25 sacks in just 41 games is hard to ignore, especially for a team that just lost one of the league’s premier pass rushers to a division rival. I am not saying that Reed will start for the Ticats from day one, but he is definitely a guy I will be keeping my eye on over the next few weeks and I won’t be surprised if he somehow finds himself in the mix.
Will they finally find a decent kicker?
One year I really hope I get to do one of these training camp primer pieces and not have to talk about the kickers.
This year is not that year.
The Ticats once again enter a season with a massive question mark surrounding their kicking game. After last year went horribly wrong in that area — so much so that it probably cost the team a chance at hosting the East Final — the Tabbies need to get this right once and for all.
All things considered, Hamilton has had good kicking luck over the last seven or eight years. They got stellar play out of Justin Medlock for several seasons. Brett Maher had such a good year in 2016 that he has since played 37 games in the NFL and Lirim Hajrullahu has spent the last two years trying to stick with an NFL team after two excellent seasons with the club. They even looked poised to give Sergio Castillo a forever home until a horrible knee injury suffered in 2017 ended his tenure with the team.
But Hamilton’s luck ran out last year.
Struggling kicker after struggling kicker made the Ticats’ third phase an experience nobody wanted to watch. Whether it was Taylor Bertolet or Michael Domagala, the team’s field goal kicking just wasn’t consistent enough in 2021. Domagala returns for camp in 2022, but the team has added a pair of legs to compete with him.
The first is fellow Canadian Dante Brown. The Mississauga, Ontario native was drafted by Edmonton in the fifth round of the 2020 CFL Draft and spent all of last season on the Elks’ practice roster. The five-foot-11, 200-pound product of Fort Hays State University connected on nearly 84 percent of his field goals in college and was the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association special teams player of the year in 2018 and 2019. He was signed by the team in January.
The other kicking candidate is Global player Tadhg Leader. The Galway, Ireland native signed with the team in February and has amassed quite the social media following since then, with Ticats fans embracing the six-foot-two, 205-pound Irishman as one of their own. Leader does not have a lot of pro football experience, with his only action coming in The Spring League in 2021 where he connected on four-of-six field goal attempts as a member of the Aviators.
What he lacks in kicking experience he makes up for in rugby experience. Leader played for three teams in Major League Rugby, two teams in leagues overseas and has represented both Ireland and the United States internationally. If Leader doesn’t stick as the team’s placekicker, he might be able to push incumbent Joel Whitford, a fellow Global player, for the Ticats’ punting job.
Out of these options, Brown is the one that intrigues me most. Maybe there is something in Leader, but converting from rugby to football isn’t always easy. If the Ticats are determined to use one of their Global spots on a kicker, then Leader gets the edge. Otherwise, I think the competition is down to the two Canadians and giving the duties back to Domagala might be a tough sell to the fans.
Brown has a good collegiate résumé and is a former fifth-round pick in the CFL Draft, so he is the guy I would give the slight advantage to win this kicking competition.
Who is the odd-man-out in the secondary?
Unlike the other positions on this list, the questions surrounding the secondary are less about who will play where and more about how the Tabbies can get everyone on the field.
Hamilton’s secondary is ridiculously loaded and either someone is coming off the bench or someone isn’t making it out of training camp.
That’s not to mention playoff breakout sensation Stavros Katsantonis or strong-side linebacker Kameron Kelly, who had two interceptions in the Grey Cup and probably would have been the title game’s MVP had the Ticats held on to win. Both will need to be considered for major roles on the defence, even if they don’t make the starting lineup.
Hamilton has no questions in the secondary that aren’t good ones, but it does make one wonder just how they plan to get everyone playing time. Having a lot of talent is a good problem to have, but it is a problem nonetheless.
It will be interesting to see how the Ticats lineup in the secondary during the pre-season and if that holds up into the regular season.
Short of giving people cost-of-living bonuses, there is nothing the B.C. government can do
A TransLink bus passes a gas station displaying near-record prices in Surrey on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.Photo by Jason Payne /PNG
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At the start of this year, people were talking about COVID-19. The Omicron wave was taking off, restrictions were still in place and B.C.’s provincial government was providing updates five days a week.
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By the start of spring things had changed.
People were talking about inflation, as the costs of things began to rise — from mortgages to gas to rents — and the reality of a post-pandemic world started to appear.
Here’s five things to know about inflation in B.C.
Sales across much of Canada have slowed dramatically after the Bank of Canadas interest-rate hike forced banks to also move theirs up.Photo by Postmedia, file
What caused it?
The rate of inflation is a key economic indicator, and is defined by the price of a collection of goods (consumer price index) at one point in time compared to another.
Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 6.8 per cent in April, the highest monthly increase since 1991 — with food costs growing 8.8 per cent from March to April.
When COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, the first thing that happened was the price of a litre of gas plunged. Then the real estate market stalled as viewings were cancelled. Soon, however, supply chain problems emerged, as COVID restrictions impacted the ease with which goods could be transported. This meant it was more expensive to do business and was the start of inflation as costs were passed on to consumers.
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By late winter 2022, as prices began in general to rise, banks around the world started to increase interest rates as a way to temper prices.
This however, particularly in B.C., has increased the cost of servicing a mortgage — which leads to inflation (though only impacts people with a mortgage, and with a variable interest rate mortgage).
A service station in North Vancouver sells gas at more than $2 a litre in March 2022. It’s the first time that gasoline in a major Canadian market has ever cracked the $2 mark.Photo by Taehoon Kim/Bloomberg
Who is hardest hit?
Inflation is hardest on people on a fixed income. If you need to spend more money on goods and services — especially gasoline, which has soared even more due to the war in Ukraine — and your income does not change, then you have to cut from somewhere. Or start using credit cards or lines of credit, that are seeing rates rise.
The wealthiest people, who have savings and investments, see those values rise and are spared the pain of inflation. For the majority of people, the only way out is a pay rise, which then leads to more inflation.
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Canadian five and 10 dollar bills are displayed at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa April 30, 2013.Photo by Chris Wattie /REUTERS
Is there a solution?
The Reserve Bank of Canada is tasked with managing the national economy with the tools it has. For instance, during COVID-19 the bank bought up as many bonds as it could (instead of businesses buying the bonds) as a way to keep interest rates down in order to keep the economy going. However, this had a negative impact in that money became so cheap it drove up housing prices.
For now, the bank is raising interest rates hoping that will reduce inflation. One positive side-effect for the federal government is that increases in the cost of everything leads to more goods and services tax revenues going into federal coffers.
BC Health Care Matters rally at the BC legislature on BC Family Physician Day in Victoria, B.C. on May 19, 2022.Photo by DARREN STONE /TIMES COLONIST
Is there anything the provincial government can do?
Sadly, there is little. The provincial government and its Crown corporations are also impacted by inflation. Any collective agreements coming up, like with the B.C. Nurses’ Union, will include cost-of-living hikes that will need to be paid. And, as an example, B.C. Ferries has already increased fares to cover gas costs. This inflationary environment could be why Premier John Horgan’s promise to built an $800 million museum has gone awry among taxpayers.
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Short of giving people cost-of-living bonuses or reducing taxes on gasoline, there is nothing the B.C. government can do.
B.C. Liquor Store at 2088 W Broadway.Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG
Is everything going up in price?
Usually the last things to go up in price during an inflationary surge are vices — like alcohol, cigarettes and coffee. Anyone who drinks takeout coffee in Vancouver has already been hit with a 25 cent paper cup fee, while the price of whisky and wine are on the rise.
The price of beer and cigarettes, however, remain the same.
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