44 spin ph live KyKy Tandy scored a season-high 21 points that included a key 3-pointer in a late second-half surge as Florida Atlantic roared back to beat Oklahoma State 86-78 on Thursday in the opening round of the Charleston Classic in Charleston, S.C. Florida Atlantic (4-2) advances to play Drake in the semifinal round on Friday while the Cowboys square off against Miami in the consolation semifinal contest, also Friday. Oklahoma State led by as many as 10 points in the first half before securing a five-point advantage at halftime. The Owls surged back and moved in front with four and a half minutes to play. It was part of an 11-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Tandy that made it 75-68 with 2:41 remaining. Ken Evans added 14 points for Florida Atlantic, with Leland Walker hitting for 13 and Tre Carroll scoring 11. The Owls went 35-of-49 from the free throw line as the teams combined for 56 fouls in the game, 33 by Oklahoma State. Khalil Brantley led Oklahoma State (3-1) with 16 points while Robert Jennings added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Cowboys, who hit one field goal over a 10-minute stretch of the second half while having three players foul out. The Owls were up by as many as seven points in the early minutes and by 13-10 after a layup by Carroll at the 11:32 mark of the first half. Oklahoma State leapfrogged to the front on Abou Ousmane's layup off a Brantley steal, fell behind again on a 3-pointer by Evans and then responded on a 3-pointer by Jennings to take a 17-16 lead. From there, the Cowboys stoked their advantage to double digits when Jamyron Keller canned a shot from beyond the arc with five minutes to play in the half. Florida Atlantic got a layup and a monster dunk from Matas Vokietaitis and a pair of free throws from Walker in a 6-2 run to end the half to pull within 39-34 at the break. Jennings and Ousmane tallied seven points apiece for Oklahoma State over the first 20 minutes, as the Cowboys led despite shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor in the half. Carroll and Vokietaitis scored seven points apiece to pace the Owls, who committed 11 turnovers that translated to seven points for Oklahoma State before halftime. --Field Level Media

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Arteta wanted his team to prove their European credentials following some underwhelming displays away from home, and the Gunners manager got exactly what he asked for. Goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhaes, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard got their continental campaign back on track in style following the 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan last time out. A memorable victory also ended Sporting’s unbeaten start to the season, a streak of 17 wins and one draw, the vast majority of which prompted Manchester United to prise away head coach Ruben Amorim. The Gunners had failed to win or score in their two away games in the competition so far this season, but they made a blistering start in the Portuguese capital and took the lead after only seven minutes. Declan Rice fed overlapping full-back Jurrien Timber, who curled a low cross in behind the home defence for Martinelli to finish at the far post. Arsenal doubled their lead in the 20th minute thanks to a glorious ball over the top from Thomas Partey. Saka escaped the clutches of his marker Maximiliano Araujo to beat the offside trap and poke the ball past advancing goalkeeper Franco Israel for Havertz to tap home. It was a scintillating first-half display which completely overshadowed the presence of Viktor Gyokeres in Sporting’s attack. The prolific Sweden striker, formerly of Coventry, has been turning the heads of Europe’s top clubs with his 24 goals in 17 games this season – including a hat-trick against Manchester City earlier this month. But the only time he got a sniff of a run at goal after an optimistic long ball, he was marshalled out of harm’s way by Gabriel. David Raya was forced into one save, tipping a fierce Geovany Quenda drive over the crossbar. But Arsenal added a third on the stroke of half-time, Gabriel charging in to head Rice’s corner into the back of the net. To rub salt in the wound, the Brazilian defender mimicked Gyokeres’ hands-over-his-face goal celebration. That may have wound Sporting up as they came out after the interval meaning business, and they pulled one back after Raya tipped Hidemasa Morita’s shot behind, with Goncalo Inacio netting at the near post from the corner. Former Tottenham winger Marcus Edwards fired over, as did Gyokeres, with Arsenal temporarily on the back foot. But when Martin Odegaard’s darting run into the area was halted by Ousmane Diomande’s foul, Saka tucked away the penalty. Substitute Trossard added the fifth with eight minutes remaining, heading in the rebound after Mikel Merino’s shot was saved, and Gyokeres’ miserable night was summed up when his late shot crashed back off the post.

Winning 41 out of 58 seats his party contested, Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar has emerged as one of the biggest winners in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Not too long ago, during the Lok Sabha elections, Ajit Pawar's party managed to win just one seat out of the four it contested, as opposed to NCP Sharad Pawar which won eight out of 10. Many of Ajit Pawar's critics began writing his obituary and claiming that the NCP can't exist without Sharad Pawar. However, Ajit Pawar has proven all the critics wrong. At the time of writing the story, the party had won or was leading on 71 percent of the seats it contested. How did this turnaround come about, that too in just about five months? Central to the turnaround in Ajit Pawar's fortunes was the political consultancy handling his campaign - DesignBoxed, which has till now worked mostly with senior Congress leaders like DK Shivakumar, Ashok Gehlot, TS Singh Deo and a few Congress state units. The company's co-founder Naresh Arora had stationed himself in Maharashtra for the past four months and managed every aspect of Ajit Pawar's campaign. There are broadly six aspects to their intervention. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD 1. Localised Campaign Following the Lok Sabha election success for the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the sentiment seemed to be in their favour. The NCP's strategists decided to localise the election as much as possible by focusing on the work done by local leaders. Despite its below par performance at the Lok Sabha level, Ajit Pawar's NCP had the advantage of having good leaders at the Assembly constituency level, such as Chhaggan Bhujbal in Yevla, Indranil Naik in Pusad, Hasan Mushrif in Kagal, Narhari Zirwal in Dindori, Manikrao Kokate in Sinnar to name a few. The NCPSP didn't have such a strong line-up and had to import leaders from other parties. "One of Ajit Pawar's strongest points is that he has always allowed local leaders to grow and become brands in their own right. This worked to the party's advantage," Arora said. Taking this approach forward, the team pushed for constituency-specific manifestoes that helped showcase the work done by MLAs and also provide a vision of what they plan to do. Making the campaign localised helped the NCP neutralise any state-wide anti-incumbency and also overcome the impact of caste divisions. 2. Change in Ajit Pawar's Image "It is well known that Ajit Pawar is an excellent administrator. But our challenge was to now make him a vote-getter," Arora disclosed. For the party and its strategists, this meant much more public interactions and media exposure than Ajit Pawar would do usually. "He is an excellent communicator and has good oratory in Marathi. These aspects hadn't gotten prominence for all these years because he was seen as the administrator and Sharad Pawar was the main vote getter," said Arora. The firm organised a Jan Sammaan Yatra as a massive public outreach programme in July-August, less than two months after the Lok Sabha defeat. The Yatra strengthened the NCP organisation greatly and helped restore confidence in the party. This is similar to the Yatra Designboxed helped organise for DK Shivakumar in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly elections. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD 3. Pink Theme, Focus on Women There was also a clear effort to have visual consistency in the NCP's promotional material, whether on the ground or in the media and social media. The strategists chose a pink theme for Pawar's campaign - from the colour on creatives on social media to the stage at rallies, accessories given to party supporters and even the jackets and turbans worn by Ajit Pawar. The idea was to use a colour that stands out and appeals, in particular, to women voters. Culturally too, pink is one of the traditional colours for turbans in Maharashtra. This was part of an exercise to portray a softer, more accessible image for Ajit Pawar and project him as a "brother" for the women in the state. This also came on the heels of the Laadki Bahin scheme of the state government, that proved to be a political game-changer. Each of the alliance partners have claimed that Ladki Bahin as their idea. Ajit Pawar, being the finance minister, had disbursed funds for it. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD 4. No Attacks on Sharad Pawar Surveys conducted by DesignBoxed revealed that there is a significant degree of sympathy for Sharad Pawar. Therefore, the strategy was to ensure that no personal attacks are made either by Ajit Pawar or any other NCP leader against Sharad Pawar. The policy was also followed to some extent towards Uddhav Thackeray and Manoj Jarange Patil. Basically, anything that took the attention away from governance issues and welfare measures was avoided. ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD 5. Differentiate NCP, While Maintaining Alliance Dharma NCP was in a peculiar position, being a secular party in a pro-Hindutva alliance. The hostility of sections of the BJP and Shiv Sena towards Ajit Pawar was also well known. The other challenge was that the NCP has a sizable base among Muslims and it ran the risk of alienating them due to the alliance with BJP-Sena. "Our priority was to ensure that NCP has its individual identity, while maintaining the coalition Dharma," Arora said, citing the contrarian stand taken by Ajit Pawar on the Waqf Bill and the Vishalgarh Fort communal standoff. Towards the end of the election campaign, when the BJP began raising the "Batenge toh Katenge" slogan, Ajit Pawar called it "unnecessary". ADVERTISEMENT REMOVE AD 6. Scaling Up According to Arora, key to the NCP's success was the scale at which they took their message to the voters. He says that their campaign reached 18 lakh households, that too in just the 58 constituencies they were contesting. For a non-cadre based party, this was no small achievement. Sources say, this is where the Sharad Pawar NCP underestimated the Ajit Pawar NCP. The former relied greatly on political management and caste equations rather than ensuring that their message reaches maximum people. (At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.) Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from elections Topics: NCP Ajit Pawar Maharashtra ElectionsBy Llazar Semini TIRANA, Albania — Albanian opposition lawmakers and their supporters blocked the capital’s main streets for hours Tuesday accusing the government of corruption and demanding it be replaced by a technocratic caretaker Cabinet until 2025 parliamentary elections. Hundreds of activists blocked traffic at Tirana’s main intersections accusing the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama of corruption, manipulating earlier elections and usurping the powers of the judiciary. Led by lawmakers, opposition supporters — some coming from other cities — were involved in sporadic clashes with anti-riot police trying to clear the streets. Others sat down in the street or tried to push police officers away. “Rama go away,” was a call repeated by protesters in many places. Hundreds of police officers were deployed to protect government buildings and keep streets clear for traffic and preserve order. They used water guns mounted on trucks to keep protesters away from City Hall and Wilson Square, and tear gas in at least in one case. The conservative Democratic Party and its supporters in an opposition coalition also have been holding protests over the arrests of their leader Sali Berisha and former President Ilir Meta in separate corruption cases , saying the charges are politically motivated. “The Albanians’ revolt and civil disobedience cannot be stopped,” said the Democrats’ Secretary-General Flamur Noka, the most senior leader while Berisha is under house arrest. As Noka was addressing journalists, he stopped speaking out of respect when a prayer was heard from the new Muslim mosque nearby. Albania’s 2.4 million population is more than half Muslim. They live peacefully alongside Catholic and Orthodox Christians and other smaller religious communities. The protest ended after three hours with the opposition leaders pledging to continue with rallies all around the country. Albania holds parliamentary elections next spring, which Rama’s Socialists are poised to win, according to polls, partly because the opposition is divided. The United States and the European Union have urged the opposition to resume dialogue with the government, saying violence won’t help the country integrate into the 27-nation European Union. In October, Tirana started discussions with the bloc on how the country aligns with EU stances on the rule of law, the functioning of democratic institutions and the fight against corruption. Albania aims to join the bloc by 2030, according to Rama.Arsenal delivered the statement Champions League win Mikel Arteta had demanded as they swept aside Sporting Lisbon 5-1. Arteta wanted his team to prove their European credentials following some underwhelming displays away from home, and the Gunners manager got exactly what he asked for. Goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhaes, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard got their continental campaign back on track in style following the 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan last time out. A memorable victory also ended Sporting’s unbeaten start to the season, a streak of 17 wins and one draw, the vast majority of which prompted Manchester United to prise away head coach Ruben Amorim. The Gunners had failed to win or score in their two away games in the competition so far this season, but they made a blistering start in the Portuguese capital and took the lead after only seven minutes. Declan Rice fed overlapping full-back Jurrien Timber, who curled a low cross in behind the home defence for Martinelli to finish at the far post. Arsenal doubled their lead in the 20th minute thanks to a glorious ball over the top from Thomas Partey. Saka escaped the clutches of his marker Maximiliano Araujo to beat the offside trap and poke the ball past advancing goalkeeper Franco Israel for Havertz to tap home. It was a scintillating first-half display which completely overshadowed the presence of Viktor Gyokeres in Sporting’s attack. The prolific Sweden striker, formerly of Coventry, has been turning the heads of Europe’s top clubs with his 24 goals in 17 games this season – including a hat-trick against Manchester City earlier this month. But the only time he got a sniff of a run at goal after an optimistic long ball, he was marshalled out of harm’s way by Gabriel. David Raya was forced into one save, tipping a fierce Geovany Quenda drive over the crossbar. But Arsenal added a third on the stroke of half-time, Gabriel charging in to head Rice’s corner into the back of the net. To rub salt in the wound, the Brazilian defender mimicked Gyokeres’ hands-over-his-face goal celebration. That may have wound Sporting up as they came out after the interval meaning business, and they pulled one back after Raya tipped Hidemasa Morita’s shot behind, with Goncalo Inacio netting at the near post from the corner. Former Tottenham winger Marcus Edwards fired over, as did Gyokeres, with Arsenal temporarily on the back foot. But when Martin Odegaard’s darting run into the area was halted by Ousmane Diomande’s foul, Saka tucked away the penalty. Substitute Trossard added the fifth with eight minutes remaining, heading in the rebound after Mikel Merino’s shot was saved, and Gyokeres’ miserable night was summed up when his late shot crashed back off the post.

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New era in amphibian biologySPORTING LISBON 1-5 ARSENAL Mikel Arteta promised to send out a ruthless team to end his poor run of European away days and how the Arsenal manager delivered. This deserved dismantling of one of Europe’s most feared teams was what can best be described as a statement win and their best under Arteta in the Champions League. Talk here in Lisbon over the past few days was that the club that gave us Cristiano Ronaldo as a player and more recently Ruben Amorim as a coach had never been better and virtually unplayable at home. They came into the match unbeaten and second to only Liverpool in the new format Champions League table, fresh from thrashing Manchester City here last time out. Arsenal scored only their second away win in eight Champions League trips aided by three first half goals via Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel. They withstood a second half comeback goal from Goncalo Inacio and a 65thminute Bukayo Saka penalty killed the game off. The size of the win lifts Arsenal from 14th to eighth in the table. With home games against Monaco and Dinamo Zagreb followed by a trip to Girona yet to come, they are on course to avoid the inconvenience of a February play-off and qualify automatically for the last 16 of this season’s edition of the competition. Arteta has only an FA Cup to his name to date but knows the fans and hierarchy demand more to really return Arsenal to the top of the top table. How realistic that is remains to be seen. It is hard to challenge the notion that the Spanish coach has restored the club’s relationship with their supporters worldwide and returned the club to the levels they need to be at for the first time since Arsene Wenger left seven years ago. Regularly challenging for the Premier League title and routinely competing in and emphatically winning on Champions League nights such as these as a matter of course. The transformation is not complete, but it is not far off. Lisbon were rattled by the quality of Arsenal’s start, the way they moved the ball so precisely at pace. The decision to go out on the front foot paid off inside the opening seven minutes when Martinelli put them in front. Jurrien Timber worked himself clear on the right and sent in a tantalising low right-foot cross with a bit of curl that drew the keeper out while also taking the ball away from him. Kai Havertz looked set to cash in but was blocked by defender Diomande and Martinelli stole in at the far post to score his second goal in as many games. The second goal, after 22 minutes, also came down the right and was also a quality move. In form Thomas Partey sent Bukayo Saka clear with a chip into the Sporting area and the England winger prodded the ball through Franco Israel’s legs for Havertz to tap in a ball that would probably have gone in anyway. The stunned Sporting supporters responded by letting off a bunch of green and white smoke bombs and flashing fireworks over the head of undeterred Arsenal keeper David Raya. Arsenal continued to look the more dangerous side in the smoke even when Sporting tried to up the pace of their game. As the Portuguese laboured the Arsenal supporters stationed high up in the Estadio Jose Alvalade taunted the locals with chants of ‘we want more fireworks.’ A warning against complacency for fans and players alike came in the form of a run and shot by Geovany Quenda, which Raya tipped over the bar just before half-time. Raya snuffed out the danger from the corner too and moments later was dancing around his area in celebration when Gabriel headed in from a Declan Rice corner with the very last touch of the first half. The Brazil central defender sprinkled some salt on the wounded Lisbonites by celebrating in front of their fans in the style of their Swedish goalscoring hero Viktor Gyokeres. The highly coveted striker, said to be firmly on Arsenal’s radar too, touched the ball only 18 times in the first half, three of them from kick-offs. Sporting came out like a rocket at the start of the second half as a Hidemas Morita shot earned them a quick corner. Goncalo Inacio scored when the ball was sent back in and with only two minutes of the second period played it was game on all over again. Arsenal diligently slowed the game down and Saka buried his spot kick and any hopes of a comeback after Martin Odegaard was hacked down from behind in the penalty area. Substitute Leandro Trossard’s 82nd minute header from the rebound of a Mikel Merino shot prompted an early emptying of the stadium. Sporting Lisbon: Israel 6, St Juste 5, Inacio 6 (Reis 88), Diomande 5, Araujo 5 (Catamo 68), Morita 6 (Harder 78), Quenda 6, Hjulmand 6, Edwards 5 (Braganca 68), Gyokeres 7, Trincao 6. Subs not used: Kovacevic, Callai, Fresneda, Esgaio, Brito, Simoes, Monteiro, Couto. Arsenal: Raya 8, Timber 8, Saliba 8, Gabriel 8 (Kiwior 84), Calafiori 6 (Zinchenko 78), Odegaard 8 (Nwaneri, 78), Partey 8, Rice 7 (Merino 70), Saka 8, Martinelli 8 (Trossard 70), Havertz 7. Subs: Neto, Setford, Tierney Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Sterling, Jesus. Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL) 6.STEVE FLOWERS: Alabama is one big front porch

A ceasefire deal that could end more than a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has won the backing of Israeli leaders, raising hopes and renewing difficult questions in a region gripped by conflict. Hezbollah leaders also signalled tentative backing for the US-brokered deal, which offers both sides an off-ramp from hostilities that have driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese and 50,000 Israelis from their homes. An intense bombing campaign by Israel has killed more than 3,700 people, many of them civilians, Lebanese officials say. But while the deal, set to take effect early Wednesday, could significantly calm the tensions that have inflamed the region, it does little directly to resolve the much deadlier war that has raged in Gaza since the Hamas attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 people. Hezbollah, which began firing scores of rockets into Israel the following day in support of Hamas, has previously said it would keep fighting until there was a stop to the fighting in Gaza. Here’s what to know about the tentative ceasefire agreement and its potential implications: – The terms of the deal The agreement reportedly calls for a 60-day halt in fighting that would see Israeli troops retreat to their side of the border while requiring Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swathe of southern Lebanon. Us President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the deal is set to take effect at 4am local time on Wednesday. Under the deal, thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers are to deploy to the region south of the Litani River. An international panel lead by the US would monitor compliance by all sides. Mr Biden said the deal “was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, insisted on Tuesday that the military would strike Hezbollah if the UN peacekeeping force, known as Unifil, does not provide “effective enforcement” of the deal. – Lingering uncertainty A Hezbollah leader said the group’s support for the deal hinged on clarity that Israel would not renew its attacks. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Qatari satellite news network Al Jazeera. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state” of Lebanon, he said. The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Tuesday that Israel’s security concerns had been addressed in the deal also brokered by France. – Where the fighting has left both sides After months of cross-border bombings, Israel can claim major victories, including the killing of Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, most of his senior commanders and the destruction of extensive militant infrastructure. A complex attack in September involving the explosion of hundreds of walkie-talkies and pagers used by Hezbollah was widely attributed to Israel, signalling a remarkable penetration of the militant group. The damage inflicted on Hezbollah has come not only in its ranks, but to the reputation it built by fighting Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war. Still, its fighters managed to put up heavy resistance on the ground, slowing Israel’s advance while continuing to fire scores of rockets, missiles and drones across the border each day. The ceasefire offers relief to both sides, giving Israel’s overstretched army a break and allowing Hezbollah leaders to tout the group’s effectiveness in holding their ground despite Israel’s massive advantage in weaponry. But the group is likely to face a reckoning, with many Lebanese accusing it of tying their country’s fate to Gaza’s at the service of key ally Iran, inflicting great damage on a Lebanese economy that was already in a grave condition. – No answers for Gaza Until now, Hezbollah has insisted that it would only halt its attacks on Israel when it agreed to stop fighting in Gaza. Some in the region are likely to view a deal between the Lebanon-based group and Israel as a capitulation. In Gaza, where officials say the war has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, Israel’s attacks have inflicted a heavy toll on Hamas, including the killing of the group’s top leaders. But Hamas fighters continue to hold scores of Israeli hostages, giving the militant group a bargaining chip if indirect ceasefire negotiations resume. Hamas is likely to continue to demand a lasting truce and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in any such deal. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas offered a pointed reminder on Tuesday of the intractability of the war, demanding urgent international intervention. “The only way to halt the dangerous escalation we are witnessing in the region, and maintain regional and international stability, security and peace, is to resolve the question of Palestine,” he said in a speech to the UN read by his ambassador.Recession-Proofing Your Portfolio With Gold