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Month: September 2019

A Baseball Mystery The Home Run Is Back And No One Knows

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HR%2.172.84+30.90 Thanks to that late-season surge, league-wide regular-season scoring rose from 4.07 runs per game in 2014 to 4.25 runs per game in 2015, the largest single-season spike since 2005 to 2006 and only the second year-to-year increase of any size in that span. Not only did the extended decline in baseball’s scoring stop, but offense bounced back to where it had been four years before. And over the final third of the regular season, teams produced runs at a rate higher than they had in any full season since 2009, the year before the strike zone started expanding and scoring dipped so suddenly that some observers dubbed 2010 “the year of the pitcher.”We can’t credit last year’s increase in offense to a reversal in strike-zone size: The zone actually grew again in 2015, albeit very slightly. Similarly, strikeout and walk rates barely budged. But home runs rebounded by enough to produce most of the extra scoring. The graph below shows monthly home-run rates as a percentage of contact (HR/Contact), where “contact” is defined as at-bats minus strikeouts. Once again, playoff rates aren’t pictured, but in 72 games last postseason, HR/Contact leaped to 5.1 percent, which would literally be off the chart. The HR/Contact rate last August was higher than it had been in any month since August 2009, and the rate last September/October was higher than it had been in any month since August 2004. On the whole, the percentage increase in second-half HR/Contact, relative to first-half HR/Contact, was higher for the 2015 regular season than for any previous season since at least 1950.Perhaps not surprisingly, the speed of the ball off the bat, as measured by MLB Advanced Media’s tracking system Statcast, also increased late last season. Average exit velocity in September/October was about a mile per hour higher than it had been at its low point in June. On his first day in office, in January 2015, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced his interest in “inject[ing] additional offense into the game.” Over the previous several seasons, scoring in baseball had dropped to levels not seen since the mid-1970s, as an expanded strike zone, an increase in average pitch velocity, the rise of defensive shifts, and detailed data on batter tendencies had combined to keep runs scarce. Manfred mentioned banning the shift as a possible solution to the scoring decline, and he considered shrinking the strike zone and adding the designated hitter to the National League. But he decided to see whether the trend persisted before taking action.After the 2015 season, Manfred congratulated himself on his earlier restraint. “What I said at the beginning of the year was that, before we made a judgment and started to talk about changes, that we needed at least another year of data,” Manfred said. “Every once in awhile, even I get to be right.”He was right: Just as it began to seem certain that only a deus ex Manfred could rescue the sport from soccer-esque scores, baseball’s offense came back from the brink. The only problem is that no one knows why, or whether it will last. To unravel the mystery, we examined the most likely suspects — warmer weather, better rookie bats and bouncier baseballs — completing our investigation by shipping a bushel of balls to a laboratory for testing.A sudden increase in offenseManfred’s tune changed because of what he called “a really interesting uptick in offense late in the year … a statistically significant increase in scoring.” Below is a graph of runs scored per nine innings in each regular-season month from 2000 to 2015. It shows a steep climb last August and September/October, and although it doesn’t display postseason scoring — which is typically lower than the regular-season rate — teams averaged 4.36 runs per game during the 2015 postseason, more than they had scored in any month from April through July of that year. More: Apple Podcasts | ESPN App | RSS | Embed Although this increase in exit velocity helps explain the home runs, it’s still just a symptom of the root reason for the offensive uptick; we’ve substituted one enigma for another. HITf/x data provided by former Mariners special assistant Tony Blengino reveals that no such late-season trend toward higher exit velocities existed in 2013 or 2014, so the 2015 pattern is puzzling.1HITf/x, a camera-based system, reports lower exit velocities, on average, than Statcast, which tracks batted balls via Doppler radar. Embed Code Source: FanGraphs Ben Lindbergh joins the Hot Takedown podcast to preview the 2016 MLB season. BB%7.137.72+8.30 The clubhouse theoriesAfter the World Series, we surveyed members of almost every front office to find out how baseball executives accounted for the offensive renaissance in the second half of last season. Three theories predominated: unusually warm weather, which decreases air density and helps batted balls carry; an unprecedented influx of powerful rookie hitters; and a decline in pitching quality stemming from good pitchers being shut down as pennant races resolved themselves early.Although existing baseball data makes it difficult to analyze the effects of wind and humidity, temperature alone isn’t a satisfactory answer. In-game temperatures were higher during the last two months of the regular season than they were earlier in the season, but Hardball Times writer Jon Roegele found that those extra degrees explained only a small percentage of the rise in scoring. According to physics of baseball researcher Alan Nathan, a 1-degree climb in average temperature would increase home-run rate by only 0.6 percent, so dog-days heat likely had only a modest effect.The other theories are more persuasive. Last season was an outlier in terms of rookie production, featuring the most productive rookie position players of any year on record. Although many top prospects made productive debuts early in the year, rookie hitters upped their games even further in the second half, when studs such as Miguel Sano, Corey Seager, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa did damage immediately. Rookie hitters totaled 155 home runs in August, an all-time record for rookie homers in a single month. And, anecdotally, a number of teams that were out of contention did phone it in on the mound after trades, injuries or innings limits thinned their rotations. The Reds, for one, set a record for consecutive starts by rookie pitchers, with uneven results.We tried to account for fluctuating talent in two ways. First, we built a model to estimate the exit velocity of each batted ball based on the batter, the pitcher, the temperature, the count, the pitch velocity and the pitch’s called-strike probability. The model assigns a coefficient to each player, derived from actual results; for instance, Zack Greinke reduces estimated exit velocity by 1.5 mph, on average, while Kris Bryant increases it by 3 mph.Although the model does predict higher exit velocities late in the season, the predicted differences are small, on the order of 0.2 to 0.3 mph. The actual exit velocities exceeded the model’s predictions by 0.13 mph in August, 0.46 mph in September and 0.86 mph in October. And those differences persist even if we limit our sample to full-season hitters and pitchers, which excludes prospects promoted late in the year and replacement-level pitchers who got garbage-time innings for eliminated teams.As a second check, we compared actual strikeout, walk and home-run rates (per plate appearance) in the second half to the strikeout, walk and home-run rates we would have expected at the All-Star break had we known exactly which batter-pitcher matchups we would see over the rest of the season. To do that, we obtained rest-of-season Steamer projections for every player, generated at the All-Star break, and applied them to the second-half matchups that actually took place (using the odds ratio method). The table below displays the differences between the predicted and actual results. In the second-half matchups, we saw roughly 8 percent more walks and 7 percent fewer strikeouts than Steamer would have expected — modest deviations, perhaps attributable to a league-wide increase in aggressiveness early in the count. Here too, though, the home-run rate stands out: There were 31 percent more home runs hit after the All-Star break than Steamer would have projected, even if it had predicted playing time perfectly. That’s an enormous number, with an astronomically small probability of occurring at random. Even if Steamer had been systematically underrating rookie hitters, it wouldn’t explain these results: In “Return of the Run,” an essay in the latest “Hardball Times Baseball Annual,” Jeff Sullivan calculated that rookies produced only a third of 2015’s increase in home runs, with the rest coming from carryover players.So: What about the ball?There’s one factor that we haven’t discussed that a few of the front-office respondents brought up: the baseball. According to an anonymously sourced report by Ken Rosenthal, the league listed “wrapping the ball tighter to make it fly farther” as part of a package of offense-inflating ideas it sent to the MLB Players Association last winter. Although changes in baseball construction have often been advanced as a possible cause of scoring changes over the past few decades, the smoking ball has proved elusive: MLB testing prompted by a rise in home-run rate in the first half of 2000 found negligible differences from 1999 and 1998 balls, and Nathan found no difference in average liveliness between balls from 2004 and the mid-1970s. However, a change in the ball would neatly account for the outcome we’ve observed: a significant increase in exit velocity and home runs, independent of talent and temperature, without a dramatic change in control of the strike zone. According to Nathan, exit speed is most sensitive to ball construction on hard contact, which jibes with our finding that the greatest increase in exit velocity came on line drives. Even more suggestively, the observed exit velocity began to exceed expectations right after the All-Star break: Some teams order enough balls at the beginning of the year to get them through the first half and then replenish their supplies at the break. If the ball had changed between opening day and midseason, we would expect to see results resembling the line in the chart. The history of clandestine big league baseball-adjusting goes back more than a century, and there is recent precedent for an unannounced ball change in a high-profile league: Japan’s baseball commissioner resigned in 2013 after news broke that NPB had secretly started using a livelier ball. Of course, there could be an innocent explanation for a change in the ball, since even a minor alteration in materials or manufacturing could produce a significant difference in the ball’s bounciness, or coefficient of restitution (COR).Major League Baseball’s vice president of communications, Michael Teevan, told us that MLB’s testing has uncovered no evidence of a meaningful change in the baseball. “As a quality control effort, we routinely do testing of baseballs in conjunction with our consultants at UMass-Lowell to ensure that they meet our specifications,” Teevan said. “To this point, we have not uncovered anything suggesting that the balls are related to the increased amount of home runs in the second half.” MLB’s analysis also failed to find a conclusive link between weather and last season’s increase in scoring.FiveThirtyEight attempted to replicate MLB’s reported results by conducting its own testing using another facility. We purchased a dozen official 2015 postseason baseballs directly from Rawlings and a dozen unopened major league balls manufactured in 2014 from eBay. We sent both sets to the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington State University, where they were stored in an environmental chamber for two weeks to ensure consistent conditions, and then fired from a cannon to strike a fixed cylinder at 95 mph so that their impacts could be measured. The COR of the 2015 balls was only 0.003 higher, on average, which Nathan dismissed as “barely at the accuracy limit of the measurements.” After studying the results, Nathan concluded: “My very definite takeaway from the measurements is that there is no compelling evidence that the balls perform differently.” It’s possible that the newer baseballs have lower seams, which would help them fly farther; the NCAA successfully counteracted a power outage of its own by lowering its regulation ball’s seam height last season. It’s also possible that the balls we tested were in some way not representative of the ones that were used in actual games.2In addition, there is about a 1 in 10 chance that even if there had been a change in COR large enough to explain the increase in exit velocity, a particular batch of a dozen baseballs would show only a 0.003 increase. However, based on both our testing and (according to Teevan) MLB’s, there’s no obvious sign of a disconnect between balls that say “Rob Manfred” and balls that said “Bud Selig.”The takeaway: Balls were hit harder and cleared fences more often than expected in the second half of last season, even after our best attempts to account for talent and temperature. Because we can’t pinpoint a cause, we can’t say for certain whether 2015’s late-season offense was a misleading blip or a preview of 2016 scoring. This month’s spring-training scores3Which are strongly correlated with regular-season scores. suggest we should lean toward the latter: Both home-run rates and overall scoring have returned to their highest spring levels since 2013. Unfortunately, the only way to resolve the uncertainty is to study a larger sample, which means waiting for regular-season baseball to come back — as if we needed another reason to anticipate next week’s opening day.Thanks to David Appelman and Alan Nathan, who contributed research. 2015 second-half home runs exceeded expectations STATPREDICTEDACTUALDIFFERENCE By Rob Arthur and Ben Lindbergh K%22.06%20.43%-7.40% read more

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Simone New It Name for Black Girls Plus Fans

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Simone Biles, Simone Manuel and Gabby Douglas (Twitter)Two Black Olympians named Simone earned gold medals in their respective sports yesterday and as Twitter quickly congratulated them, they also took aim at Gabby Douglas for supposed shade. Gymnast Simone Biles won the women’s individual all-around gold while Swimmer Simone Manuel made history in the women’s 100 meter freestyle that night.Users stood behind the Team USA champions and many remarked they wanted to change their names to Simone or give it to their children.Track-and-field Olympian Darrell Hill said he would name his daughter Simone because of the “magic attached to it.”Naming my daughter Simone. Name seems to have some magic attached to it.— Darrell Hill (@B1GHomie) August 12, 2016Khalid Pitts made a prediction that the name will be the most popular girls’ name next year.Going out on a limb and say that #Simone will be the most popular girl name for 2017 in the U.S. #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/Hl6UFiAnFB— Khalid Pitts (@KhalidPitts) August 12, 2016Jennifer wished she shared the same name as the Black Olympians to get some #BlackGirlMagic.I wish my name was Simone just so I can get a piece of this #BlackGirlMagic— Jennifer W (@JennWright2793) August 12, 2016And Jason Reynolds announced a decision on his moniker.I’ve decided to change my name…to Simone.— Jason Reynolds (@JasonReynolds83) August 12, 2016Amid the congratulatory tweets, Manuel told USA Today in a post-race interview she was aware of the impact her first place finish had in the Black community, especially with continued police brutality. But she ultimately wanted the focus of her win to go beyond her blackness.The Stanford student said she tried to take away some of the pressure of the Black community and hoped for a day when her race isn’t the focus of her achievements.“Coming into the race I tried to take [the] weight of the Black community off my shoulders. It’s something I carry with me. I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not ‘Simone the Black swimmer.’ ”“The title of Black swimmer suggests that I am not supposed to win golds or break records,” she continued. “But that’s not true because I train hard and want to win just like everyone else.”When it came to Biles, Olympic viewers took notice of Douglas’s supposed irritation with the 19-year-old’s win. As teammates Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez gave Biles a standing ovation, Douglas applauded from her seat.Madison Garrett thought the 2012 women’s all-around champion should have tried to “smile and pretend to be happy” for her Final Five teammate.Hey #GabbyDouglas : the least you could have done was smile and pretend to be happy for #SimoneBiles . You can’t be the best at everything.— Madison Garrett (@rosegold_maddie) August 12, 2016Zoe wrote Douglas a note from the Black community.Dear Gabby Douglas,Be happy for Simone Biles Sincerely, The black community— Zoe (@YourFavoriteZoe) August 12, 2016But some came to Douglas’ defense.Abigaelle Coly called pitting the gymnasts against each other “disgusting.”The campaign to vilify #GabbyDouglas is disgusting. Can we all celebrate #SimoneBiles without destroying the one who made you smile in 2012.— Abigaelle Coly (@Abi_Iam) August 12, 2016@cchuges611 pointed out the cameras caught the athlete in a quick moment and it didn’t mean she was jealous.It was one quick shot… #gabbydouglas isn’t salty, jealous, or unpatriotic. Let her win gold while you do nothing! #Rio2016— His Purple Honey (@cchughes611) August 12, 2016@kyiiaa_ didn’t blame Douglas and wanted everyone to “leave her alone.”#GabbyDouglas is a role model and honestly i don’t blame her for being “salty” . Can you flip on a 4in beam everyday ? LEAVE HER ALONE .— lakyiaa✨ (@kyiiaa__) August 12, 2016Mika believed the three-time Olympic gold medalist did not owe the public anything after her past accomplishments.#GabbyDouglas don’t owe this country shit else she doesn’t owe Aly or Simone shit else nothing nada your expectations mean nothing— Mika (@thatssomika) August 12, 2016 read more

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The Sharks Got Scarier

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goals vs. threshold 1995-96DETNicklas Lidstrom21.421.3 Paul Coffey21.3 1993-94NYRBrian Leetch23.222.3 Burns and Karlsson over the past four seasons 1976-77MTLLarry Robinson29.627.9 OTTErik Karlsson9.9 1974-75BOSBobby Orr46.225.4 Brad McCrimmon19.0 1970-71BOSBobby Orr47.125.1 Dallas Smith17.1 Brian Rafalski19.6 2007-08DETNicklas Lidstrom25.022.0 2015-16SJSBrent Burns23.522.4 2014-15SJSBrent Burns15.115.0 Serge Savard22.4 1973-74BOSBobby Orr40.421.4 Guy Lapointe26.3 Burns/Karlsson could claim a spot among the top D tandemsThe top defensemen duos by the harmonic mean of their goals versus threshold*, 1951-2018, compared with the output of new San Jose Sharks teammates Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson in recent seasons Carol Vadnais17.5 OTTErik Karlsson19.7 YearTeamPlayer duoindividualHarmonic Mean Since the 2008-09 season, no NHL team had played with more than one former winner of the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s top defenseman, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.1In 2008-09, the Anaheim Ducks had former top defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, while the Detroit Red Wings had Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom. But all that changed last week when the San Jose Sharks shook the NHL by trading for Erik Karlsson, among the league’s most coveted defensemen.Karlsson — a two-time Norris Trophy winner and the league’s highest scoring defenseman since the beginning of the 2009-10 season2Karlsson’s rookie season. — will be joining a defensive core that already features Brent Burns, the uber-bearded, gap-toothed wonder who won the 2016-17 Norris Trophy while scoring 29 goals for San Jose. The move obviously makes the Sharks a better and more offensively dangerous team, but the extent to which it does so has the potential to be historic.Last season’s numbers don’t paint a full picture. Both defensemen had relatively down years offensively: Burns and Karlsson each had their lowest goal totals since the 2012-13 season.3A lockout shortened the 2012-13 season by 34 games. Each player also experienced a dip in goals versus threshold (GVT):4GVT was developed by Tom Awad of Hockey Prospectus and is similar to baseball’s Value Over Replacement Player (VORP), in that it seeks to determine a player’s value in goals above what a replacement player would contribute. In this analysis, we used the GVT values found at Hockey Abstract for seasons before 2016-17. For subsequent seasons, we estimated it for skaters using Hockey-Reference.com’s Point Shares as our underlying guide. Burns posted his worst mark (13.0) since 2013-14, while Karlsson had his worst season (9.9) since 2012-13. But each player is still very much in the prime of his career: Burns is 33 years old, while Karlsson is just 28. And just look at what they did in the two seasons before last year.During the 2016-17 season, Burns’s GVT was 24.1, while Karlsson’s was 19.7 — the highest two values among defensemen that season and some of the highest in the league since the lockout of 2004-05. The harmonic mean — a special kind of mean that balances between the two values being averaged, so as to capture true tandems (rather than one-man shows) — for the two was 21.7, which would place them among the greatest blueline duos in NHL history if they repeated it as teammates.5Harmonic means capture duos with two exceptionally productive players. It would be easy enough just to add up the GVT values for each team’s top two defensemen, but that might capture cases in which a disproportionate amount of value was added by only one player. (The most extreme example might be on the 1970 Boston Bruins, whose top two D-men, Bobby Orr and Dallas Smith, produced a staggeringly high summed GVT of 47.0 … of which 41.2 belonged to Orr alone. That wasn’t so much a “tandem” as “Orr plus whoever happened to finish a distant second behind him,” which is what we want to avoid. Their harmonic mean, however, was much lower — 10.2 In the previous season, they were collectively even better: Burns’s GVT was 23.5, Karlsson’s was 21.5, and their harmonic mean was 22.4It’s unlikely that both Burns and Karlsson will play to those levels again in 2018-19, but if they were able to match their tallies from the either of the two preceding seasons, they would become one of the most prolific defense tandems by the harmonic mean of GVT in the NHL dating back to at least 1951. OTTErik Karlsson15.0 1974-75MTLGuy Lapointe23.823.1 1975-76NYIDenis Potvin27.721.6 YearteamPlayer duoindividualHarmonic Mean OTTErik Karlsson21.5 Carol Vadnais14.6 1985-86PHIMark Howe26.022.0 Top defensemen duos in NHL history Jean Potvin17.7 Sergei Zubov21.5 2017-18SJSBrent Burns13.011.2 Before the Karlsson acquisition, San Jose already got a lot of production from its blueliners: With Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (a regular recipient of Norris Trophy votes), Shark defensemen scored 199 combined points last season, which ranked third in the NHL behind the Nashville Predators (206) and the Minnesota Wild (200). Adding Karlsson, who has averaged 0.83 points per game in his career, makes the Sharks the smart bet to lead the way in points from defensemen in 2018-19.If the Sharks are able to eclipse 200 points from its defensemen, it too would be historic: Since the NHL lockout of 1994-95, just 21 teams have accomplished that feat.6It happened 148 times between the 1970-71 and 1993-94 seasons. It happened just 14 times during the aughts and has been achieved just six times since the beginning of this decade.The knock on Karlsson early in his career was that, while impressive in the offensive zone, he lacked something in the defensive zone. His zone starts tell a different story, however — in each of the past five seasons, more than 44 percent of the faceoffs for which Karlsson has been on the ice have taken place in his defensive zone, indicating a vote of confidence by the Ottawa Senators coaching staff in their best player’s defensive abilities.The addition of Karlsson should also vastly improve San Jose’s power plays. Among the 11 teams that finished with 100 or more points during the 2017-18 season, the Sharks had the third-worst power-play percentage, scoring on just 20.6 percent of their chances. Of the 518 points Karlsson has scored in his career, 195 have come on the man advantage. Tacking on an additional 0.3 power-play points per game should vastly improve the prospects of a team that was perfectly mediocre with the man advantage in 2017-18.A player of Karlsson’s ability would make any team in the NHL better. The Sharks hope that a player of Karlsson’s ability makes them so much better that they’re finally able to get over the hump as perennial would-have-beens to win their first Stanley Cup.Neil Paine contributed research. 2016-17SJSBrent Burns24.121.7 *GVT is estimated for seasons since 2015-16.Sources: Hockey Abstract, Hockey-Reference.com read more

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Rupert leads sizzling Buckeye offense into break from Big Ten

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The Ohio State baseball team looks to continue its recent trend of jumping out to early leads Wednesday against Xavier.“[We have] got to come out ready to play the first couple of innings and try to bury them,” said Cory Rupert, a utility infielder who has been splitting time at third base.Seven hits from Rupert in three games against Northwestern over the weekend helped the Buckeyes score first in each game and open the Big Ten season with a 2-1 record.Rupert has been able to stay in the starting lineup over the last four games due in large part to his hot bat.“I’ve felt really comfortable at the plate lately. I’ve been working hard in the cages during the week getting extra hitting in and when I’m up at the plate I have the confidence right now,” he said.Rupert and the Buckeyes, who totaled 24 runs in the Northwestern series, hope the bats continue to sizzle when the Musketeers come to town.Xavier brings a 7-21 record to the first night game of the season at Bill Davis Stadium. The Buckeyes lead the all-time series with their in-state rivals 27-8.Still, coach Bob Todd insists that “Xavier’s got a good ball club … and this should be a real good challenge for us.”Todd said that despite the potential challenge, the Buckeyes will not do anything to disrupt their Big Ten schedule and affect a player’s ability for this weekend’s series with Indiana.Big Ten game or not, Rupert hopes to help his team to an early lead once again.“If I’m in the lineup, I’ll go out there and play hard,” Rupert said. “But if I’m not, I’ll be in the dugout supporting my teammates.”The first pitch is tonight at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium. read more

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Football Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones traded to Los Angeles Chargers

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OSU then-redshirt junior quarterback Cardale Jones (12) on Oct. 3 during a game against Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana. Credit: Samantha Hollingshead / Former Photo EditorFormer Ohio State and national championship-winning quarterback Cardale Jones is heading to Los Angeles.The Buffalo Bills confirmed the transaction.ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the second-year quarterback has been traded from the Buffalo Bills to the Los Angeles Chargers for a late-round pick. The Cleveland native was the Bills’ fourth-round pick in 2016, but primarily played spectator behind quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor and E.J. Manuel in his rookie season.Buffalo is trading QB Cardale Jones to LA Chargers for a late-round pick. Chargers get a new potential backup QB.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2017Jones attempted just 11 passes, completing six of them for 96 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Jones will compete with three other quarterbacks — Mike Bercovici, Kellen Clemens and Eli Jenkins — for the second-string job behind starter Philip Rivers.The former Buckeye will be joining two former college teammates in Los Angeles in the No. 3 overall pick in 2016 Joey Bosa and the Chargers’ 2016 third-round pick Joshua Perry. read more

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Womens Basketball Kelsey Mitchell sets Big Ten tournament career scoring record

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Ohio State senior guard Kelsey Mitchell backs a defender down during the Big Ten tournament championship game against Maryland on March 4, 2018 in Indianapolis. Credit: Alyssia Graves: Assistant Sports DirectorINDIANAPOLIS — With 5:39 remaining in the Big Ten championship game against Maryland, Ohio State senior guard Kelsey Mitchell hit a 3-pointer to put her team up five points with 5:39 remaining. That shot not only gave her 20 points in the game, but also the most career points in Big Ten tournament history with 260.Mitchell passed former Buckeye forward Jantel Lavender, who has dropped to second in career Big Ten tournament points with 257 in 10 games. During her time at Ohio State, Lavender helped the Buckeyes win three Big Ten tournaments during her final three years.This is one of many records Mitchell has broken. She also holds the all-time NCAA record for 3-pointers made. She also has hit a 3-pointer in the most games in a row in the history, which is an ongoing streak. read more

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Football Kamryn Babb out with a noncontact knee injury per reports

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Redshirt freshman wide receiver Kamryn Babb has suffered a non-contact knee injury, according to a report by Lettermen Row. Ohio State could not confirm the report to The Lantern. Last season, Babb suffered an ACL tear prior to the start of his freshman season and missed the entire 2018 season. A four-star recruit in the 2018 class, Babb, a St. Louis native, was the No. 13 receiver in the class and the No. 3 receiver from the state of Missouri. Babb missed the majority of his senior season in high school due to injury.Updated at 11:29 a.m. on March 26.

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Britains oldest horse breed in battle for survival

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first_imgIn it she writes: “They were the mainstay of the Agricultural Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain, and in all corners of the Globe to which they were exported. They were sent as far afield as Pakistan, South Africa, North America and Australia.“Today they are used for all driven work, ploughing and forestry, and as ridden horses are calm and biddable. Help is urgently needed to save them from oblivion. The world cannot afford to lose this uniquely beautiful and remarkable horse.”The breed can trace its ancestry back to the great warhorses of the Middle Ages, although its modern variant traces back to a stallion foaled near Woodbridge in 1768, owned by Thomas Crisp of Ufford and simply known as ‘Crisp’s horse’.While its numbers have recovered in recent years, both the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in the UK and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy consider the status of the Suffolk Punch to be critical and it is considered the rarest horse breed in Britain, with just 30 to 40 pure bred foals born each year. If we lost the Suffolk Punch we couldn’t really say we are a nation of animal lovers.Clare, Countess of Euston The Countess of Euston, whose estate in Suffolk was once worked by Suffolk Punch horses, said Britain should feel ashamed of itself if it stood by and did nothing to save the breed.“If we lost the Suffolk Punch I think it would mean we couldn’t really say we are a nation of animal lovers. They are the most magnificent and beautiful of the breeds,” she said.There are now just 300 Suffolk Punch horses left in the UK, threatening the health and viability of the breed which once formed the backbone of rural life.Standing sixteen hands high and weighing over a tonne, yet graceful at full gallop, the Suffolk Punch has been described as having “the face of an angel and the backside of a farmer’s daughter”.Thousands died during World War One, when they were used to haul heavy artillery to the front lines.Their numbers recovered during the 1920s and 1930s, when they were once again used as farm horse, but the introduction of tractors saw they numbers decline dramatically. Clare, Countess of Euston, said the Suffolk Punch should hold a special place in the British public’s affections.“It’s the oldest of our native heavy horses. They were bred for farming but we have to find a new role for them in modern life,” she said. “We get hopelessly romantic about tigers and other critically endangered species, but sometimes we need to look closer to home.”She has called for a proper breeding programme to save the Suffolk Punch to be funded by scientific bodies and conservation groups.“I’d like to see a national summit held to come up with a proper plan of action. And where there’s a plan funding will follow,” said Lady Euston.As part of her campaign the Countess, who was appointed Suffolk’s first-ever female Lord Lieutenant in 2014,has written an essay on the plight of the breed to accompany a new book of photographs of horses by Derry Moore. Clare, Countess of Euston with her Suffolk Punch stallion, Euston Malachite For centuries they ploughed the fields of England, shaping much of the landscape of East Anglia, before being harnessed for battle during the First World War.Yet the Suffolk Punch horse – Britain’s oldest native breed – is now critically endangered, its numbers in sharp decline a victim of the rapid mechanisation of agriculture.The plight of the breed – deemed to be rarer than the giant panda or even the Siberian tiger – has moved one landowner to appeal for an organised campaign to save them from oblivion.center_img The Suffolk Punch is critically endangered The Suffolk Punch is critically endangeredCredit:Alamy Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. Clare, Countess of Euston with her Suffolk Punch stallion, Euston MalachiteCredit:Jason Byelast_img read more

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Toblerone faces mountain of criticism over stupid change to its chocolate chunks

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first_imgThe makers of Toblerone face a mountain of fury after making a controversial change to its distinctive triangular chocolate chunks.Mondelez International has increased the gap between the peaks as a UK-only cost-saving measure to reduce the weight of its bars.The company, which also owns Cadbury, said the move was down to the rise in the cost of ingredients, and denied it was a result of Brexit. The move has resulted in the weight of the 400g bars being reduced to 360g and the 170g bars to 150g, while the size of the packaging has remained the same.Lee Yarker said: “Fair enough reducing the weight of the bar, but why the big gap in between segments? Looks stupid imo [in my opinion], could have just made the bar shorter and kept the original design.” The Toblerone bar Mondelez has faced a wave of criticism for “messing” with much-loved Cadbury’s products. Consumers have complained about Daily Milk bars being given rounded edges, bars shrinking, the axing of Cadbury chocolate coins, Bournville chocolate disappearing from the Heroes tub, sultanas in Fruit & Nut bars and axing the company’s traditional Christmas chocolate gift to pensioners.Perhaps the biggest controversy surrounded the 2015 decision to replace Dairy Milk in its recipe for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs with cheaper chocolate. Other food manufacturers have previously announced rises in their product prices, blaming the falling value of the pound following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.A spokeswoman for Mondelez acknowledged that the foreign exchange rate was currently “not favourable”, but added: “This change wasn’t done as a result of Brexit.” “We chose to change the shape to keep the product affordable for our customers, and it enables us to keep offering a great value product. it had to make a decision between changing the look of the bars or raising their price.”Toblerone fan Dan Rickwood said: “Hi Toblerone, I am one of your biggest fans and love your chocolate, but I bought a 150g toblerone earlier only to be left upset disappointed and a little distressed! How it was - the Toblerone bar The Toblerone barCredit:Alamy Seriously. Has anyone tried turning 2016 off and on again? Wtf next? #Toblerone— Sonia 🍁 (@5_oClockWhistle) November 8, 2016 But some consumers have described the move as “the wrong decision” and said the bigger spaces looked “stupid”.In a statement on the Toblerone Facebook page, the company said: “We had to make a decision between changing the shape of the bar, and raising the price. “In fact I felt cheated on a tad in the way that they are now spaced out so much loosing out on toblerone goodness, I’m upset toblerone I’m sorry but I really am.”Stephen Mason said: “Toblerone is all about the triangle. Why couldn’t you just lose a triangle at the end or make the triangles smaller?”I’m afraid that this is going the way of Cadbury Creme Egg and off my seasonal treat list as I will forever be disappointed.” Philip Joseph wrote: “It was the wrong decision. It looks like a really underhanded thing to do.”You buy a bar expecting a normal bar and it looks like you are getting half the chocolate.”Cathy White added: “It looks dreadful. Think you should’ve reduced the length and kept the chunky triangles.” US company Mondelez said that “like many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients”.It added: “We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the UK, from the wider range of available Toblerone products.” Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. It looks dreadful. Think you should’ve reduced the length and kept the chunky trianglesCathy White The new #Toblerone.Wrong on so many levels. It now looks like a bicycle stand.#WeWantOurTobleroneBack. pic.twitter.com/C71KeNUWF1— James Melville (@JamesMelville) November 8, 2016 How it was – the Toblerone barCredit:Tobleronelast_img read more

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23000 allegations of elderly abuse by carers resulted in just 15 prosecutions

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first_imgElderly people have reported they have been left unwashed or unfed by staff  Elderly people have reported they have been left unwashed or unfed by staff  Local Government Ombudsman Michael King also said there was a growing problem over standards of home care.The vast majority of the allegations related to care of elderly people in their homes, with more than 9,700 involving people aged over 80.The investigation revealed how  some elderly people were left for days without proper medication or attention to personal hygiene.Only half the councils contacted in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland provided data, suggesting the true number of allegations could be far higher.Although File On 4 said it was not possible to find out whether all these reports were valid and fully investigated, however officially, complaints to the ombudsman about home care rose by 25 per cent last year to 372 and 65 per cent of them were upheld.A recent report by the Good Care Guide found that people who needed care in their own homes also complained of rushed or cancelled visits, rude staff and poor timekeeping. A daughter of a woman with Alzheimer’s said that her mother had been left without food for nine hours after care workers failed to turn up.Caroline Abrahams, director of AgeUK said there had be warnings that social care was approaching a ‘tipping point’ but she feared that it had now been reached. The Department of Health told the programme it had “introduced tougher inspections of care services, given councils access to up to £7.6bn of dedicated funding for social care and will continue to challenge local authorities that do not fulfil their duties under the Care Act”.File On 4 is on Radio 4 on Tuesday at 8pm. More than 23,000 allegations of abuse by home care workers against elderly and vulnerable people were made in the last three years, yet just 15 people were prosecuted as a result, new figures show. Around 500,000 people in Britain need home help services but the new figures suggest that one in 25 people may be suffering at the hands of their carers.The BBC Radio 4 File on 4 programme asked every council in England, Scotland and Wales with responsibility for social care, for the numbers of allegations of abuse and neglect made against home carers who were contracted by local authorities to provide home care.They discovered 23,428 accusations of mistreatment, including 12,000 allegations concerning neglect, 2,400 cases of psychological abuse, more than 3,400 allegations of physical abuse, and 400 claims of sexual abuse.Yet just 700 of the allegations resulted in police action, and there were just 15 prosecutions. Bridget Warr, chief executive of the UK Home Care Association, which represents care companies in the UK, described the findings as “horrifying” and blamed cuts to local Government budgets. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings.last_img read more

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Kickboxer 14 dies after collapsing during Leeds competition

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first_imgScott Marsden, 14, died on Monday after his fight was called off “I’ve had the pleasure of helping Scotty raise money in the past to help send him off to fight overseas in the WKU world open championship, where he won Gold -50kg division, something I was so incredibly proud of him for doing.”So thought it fitting I do it for him again now, even though it’s breaking my heart.”Everything Scotty did, he did with passion and a confidence that was a pleasure to behold, he was the most wonderful, talented boy and the loss of him will leave a hole in so many people’s lives.”Scott was not only a kick boxer though, he is a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin and a friend.”No amount of money can take away the pain his family are feeling today and always, but no family should ever have to cater for coping with the loss of a 14 year old boy, with his whole life ahead of him.”Please give what you can to help support his beautiful family.” On it, they write: “Yesterday we were all struck with the devastating blow none of us ever thought possible.”Our lovely Scotty, who suffered an injury on Saturday 11/3/17 whilst doing the thing he loved, Kickboxing, sadly never recovered and took his final bow surrounded by his family and people who love him in the early hours of this morning. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. A justgiving page has been set up to raise funds for Scott Marsden's family A spokesperson from Leeds Martial Arts College said: “Our deepest condolences & sympathy go to our friends the Marsdens at this terrible time.”Scotty will always be in our hearts & our thoughts & we miss you dearly.”A true champion in every way who’s energy & positivity affected everyone he met. Rest now Scotty lad.”The Leeds Martial Arts College is now closed until further notice. A justgiving page has been set up to raise funds for Scott Marsden’s familyCredit:justgiving.com Jackie said: “Darren is getting some sleep because we’ve been through a hellish weekend.”In earlier posts on their Facebook page they had said there was no indication during the fight to suggest something was wrong.It read: “Unfortunately, Saturday night’s English title fight had to be stopped due to Scotty needing immediate medical attention.”There was no way to foresee the fight ending in such a way as at no point were either ever in any overwhelming danger from each other”Everyone is still in shock as there were simply no signs to suggest the fight needed to be stopped.”The referee stepped in to protect Scott as soon as he could, which meant Scott did not hit the canvas and was laid down and straight into recovery position.”Scott was then taken to hospital.” A teenager who was taken ill during a top national kickboxing match has died.Scott Marsden, 14, known as Scotty, was competing for an English title at Leeds Martial Arts college, West Yorkshire, on Sunday when he was rushed to hospital.The title fight had been close with just one point separating two of the country’s best young fighters and there was nothing to suggest the contest needed to be stopped up to that point.However, Marsden is believed to have received a serious injury towards the end of the bout, leading to it being called off so that he could receive medical attention. His club, Marsden’s All Styles (MAS) Kickboxing – which was set up by his father, Simon Marsden, and his uncle Darren Marsden eight years ago – have set up a fundraising page to help raise money for his devastated family. Scott Marsden was taking part in a fight at Alexandra Mill, Morley, on Saturdaycenter_img Scott had only just returned to the sport after breaking his tibia and fibia in a fight in late October last year, just two days before he was due to fly to Italy with his teammates for the World Championships. Scott Marsden was taking part in a fight at Alexandra Mill, Morley, on SaturdayCredit:Google Never take time spent with someone for granted, Goodnight champ, there’s only one Scott Marsden😪🥊❤️xox— ellie trower (@ellietrower13) March 13, 2017 Scott marsden has passed away after a kickboxing bout on sat he was 14 thoughts and prayers go to his family 🙏 every fighter takes risks— Enzo Maccarinelli (@theRealEnzoMac) March 14, 2017 Scott Marsden, 14, died yesterday after his fight was called off Marsden was a highly-rated young kickboxer from Sheffield, and the club had previously raised money through crowdfunding to ensure he could represent his country at the World Kickboxing and Karate Union (WKU) World Championships in Spain.The crowdfunding page told how Scott, then aged 13, had in the space of three months swept to victory in the WKA Yorkshire Open Championships, the WKKC National Open Championships and the WTKA European Open Championships.West Yorkshire Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.A spokesman said: “At 1.20pm on Sunday, police were contacted by medical staff at Leeds General Infirmary reporting a 14-year-old boy who was in a critical condition after collapsing during an organised kickboxing contest at Alexandra Mill, Morley, on Saturday night.”Inquiries are being carried out into the circumstances.” The breaks put him out of action for three months.A spokesman for the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) England said it had been a tragic incident but was not known at this stage what had caused Scott’s condition to suddenly deteriorate.The spokesman said: “We’re communicating with Scott’s family and making sure they have all the support they need.”We’re also giving them the time and space they required.” Scott’s aunt, Jackie Marsden, 46, said on Tuesday that the family had been through a “hellish weekend.”Her husband, goldsmith Darren, 47, was unable to speak about the loss of his nephew as he was in bed.last_img read more

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Why Labour getting wiped out can actually help Corbyn retain the leadership

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first_imgOne of the concerns of Jeremy Corbyn’s team is that – should Corbyn step down – it would be too difficult to attract enough support among MPs to get another Corbynista on the ballot paper for the ensuing leadership race. There’s an irony about the current woes of Labour’s polling: the fewer MPs the party wins in the General Election, the fewer MPs a potential Jeremy Corbyn successor would need to support their leadership bid. Labour’s rules state that anyone who wishes to challenge the sitting leader needs the backing of 20 per cent of Labour MPs and MEPs. If there is no sitting leader, they would need just 15 per cent of MPs and MEPs.center_img They have sought to address this by proposing to lower the…last_img

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Crufts clampdown on flatfaced dogs as it warns judges not to award

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first_imgCrufts has clamped down on flat-faced dogs after warning its judges not to award prizes to animals that are unable to breathe. Ahead of this year’s event, which commences tomorrow, organisers The Kennel Club have issued judges of all brachycephalic breeds a written reminder about over exaggerated features. In previous years Crufts has come under heavy criticism for awarding prizes to dogs with artificially bred features.In 2016, a “best in breed” prize was awarded to a German shepherd with an abnormally sloped back and a painful-looking out-of -step gait. Backlash of the award has forced The Kennel Club to rethink its policy on breeding. Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, said: “Dogs with exaggerated features do remain a concern and we want to put a stop to this and change how people breed their dogs. Last year a “best in breed” prize was awarded to a German shepherd with an abnormally sloped back The letter emphasised how important it is that the judges only select dogs that meet strict breeding standards criteria The "Best in Show" will be announced on Sunday evening Last year a “best in breed” prize was awarded to a German shepherd with an abnormally sloped backCredit:Sandra Whyte The club stated that the letter emphasised how important it is that the judges only select dogs that meet strict breeding standards criteria.They added that it was part of their “commitment to ensuring that all dogs at Crufts are fit to compete and are not suffering in any way and that no dogs that have exaggerated physical features are awarded at the show.”In 2008 the BBC announced it would not broadcast Crufts due to a dispute over the inclusion of certain breeds of pedigree dog in the competition. Ms Hens added that the RSPCA still had “serious concerns” about the main showing and judging at Crufts due to the way in which many breeds of dogs have been bred over the years to have exaggerated physical features in order to appeal to judges and best meet breed standards in the show ring.center_img In the same year the RSPCA also announced it was pulling out of Crufts over concerns relating to disability, deformity and disease among pedigree breeds.RSPCA dog welfare expert Lisa Hens said: “Some elements of Crufts are a positive  celebration of man’s best friend and we enjoy seeing the dogs and their owners coming together to enjoy activities such as agility, flyball and heelwork to music. “We welcome steps that have been taken to improve the health of certain breeds – such as the formation of the multi-organisation Brachycephalic Working Group, which includes the Kennel Club – but believe there is still a lot of work to be done around Crufts and the show world generally to ensure that dogs are celebrated and awarded with their health, happiness and welfare given priority over their appearance.” “Over the last few years we have introduced a number of new rules and this year we have extended our veterinary final checks to cover all dogs which will enter the main arena for a physical examination.“All judges involved in the judging of brachycephalic breeds, those with flat-faces, were sent a letter reminding them of the breeding standards and that all dogs should have open nostrils.“We remain dedicated to ensuring that breeds which have harmful exaggerated features are not rewarded.”  The “Best in Show” will be announced on Sunday evening The letter emphasised how important it is that the judges only select dogs that meet strict breeding standards criteriaCredit:Tim Flach/Getty “Shows like Crufts are fundamentally still beauty pageant-type shows and the way that dogs are bred in order to win these shows is still having a huge impact on their health and welfare,” she said.Director of PETA UK also accused the event of being a “Frankensteinian show that glorifies pedigree fetishists’ obsession with the ‘perfectly’ designed dog to the detriment of the animals themselves.”However Ms Kisko said audiences were not watching Crufts to see “freak dogs” and that hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in because they love animals. Crufts commences tomorrow and will conclude on Sunday with the announcement of ‘Best in Show’.last_img read more

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Shropshire couple were groomed into supplying parts for Irans nuclear programme court

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“He genuinely did not believe that these items could have a military application.”Judge Michael Grieve QC said: “The fact that you were, in effect, groomed by Mr George I accept – he deceived you.“I do not, for one moment, think that either of you are bad people. You have, in my view, been very, very naive.”Mr Attwater, of Ketley, Telford, Shropshire, pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the exportation of goods with intent to evade prohibition or restriction. His wife, also of Ketley, maintained her not guilty plea throughout the trial but was convicted unanimously by a jury after a short deliberation.The court heard that the couple were aware of the need for a license to export some of their products after Customs officials impounded their goods in 2009, due to concerns about the production of weapons of mass destruction in Iran.However, Mr and Mrs Attwater continued to deal with George, sending him the same parts that had been returned by border customs via a forwarding house in the Netherlands.Judge Grieve told the Attwaters: “Despite undertaking not to export these goods, you proceeded again to send them out to Malaysia.“These export controls might be confusing but they are there for a very good reason. Paul and Iris Attwater, pictured outside court, were given suspended sentences after Judge Michael Grieve QC described them as “very, very naive”Credit: CENTRAL A MARRIED couple from Shropshire were “groomed” into supplying parts for Iran’s nuclear programme, a court has heard.Paul Attwater, 65, and Iris Attwater, 66, smuggled prohibited aircraft parts from their company Pairs Aviation to Alexander George, 76, in Malaysia who supplied Iranian aviation firms.Concluding that the couple had been “very, very naive”, Judge Michael Grieve QC yesterday handed the couple suspended sentences after Mr Attwater insisted he had no idea the parts he was exporting had a military application.George, who is due to be sentenced next month, acted as a broker between the couple and Iranian buyers. He held substantial contracts to source and supply Iranian aviation firms with components for planes and helicopters through companies he owned in Malaysia and Dubai, Southwark Crown Court heard.George, of Long Ashton, Bristol, sourced parts from Pairs Aviation which were then exported by the Attwaters via a Dutch shipping company to Iran through a network of companies in the Far East.The aircraft parts could have been used in Iran’s nuclear programme, the court heard. George Hepburne-Scott, defending Mr Attwater, described his client as “extremely naive”, adding: “This, I submit, is a truly exceptional case.“Mr Attwater is 65-years-old, he is an exemplary citizen. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. “That ultimate risk is one with potentially very serious humanitarian consequences. Such a consequence included use against others in nuclear weapons.”Mr Attwater agreed to sign a basis of plea prior to his formal guilty plea, in which he said: “I did not know or believe that goods or aircraft components would be shipped to Iran.”I did not think there was even the remotest opportunity of these good ending up in a nuclear weapons program.”Mr and Mrs Attwater were both sentenced to six months of jail suspended for 12 months and barred from being company directors for the next six years.George denied two counts of being knowingly concerned in the supply or delivery of controlled goods to an embargoed destination, but was found guilty by a jury. He will be sentenced next month.Proceedings against George’s wife, Ruth, 74, were dropped after it ruled she had no case to answer. Paul and Iris Attwater  read more

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Newsreader Richard Baker who introduced first BBC news bulletin dies aged 93

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After training as an actor, Baker wrote to the BBC asking for work and landed his first job for the broadcaster, presenting a classical music programme.  Former colleagues and admirers of Baker’s shared their memories of the esteemed presenter yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.Leading the tributes, BBC director general Tony Hall said: “Richard was the face of news for millions. “Baker was a calm and assured presence. Later, he became a great advocate for classical music, presenting many much loved programmes. But more than that, he was quite simply a lovely and charming man.” Fellow newsreader John Simpson paid tribute to Baker in a tweet saying: “Richard Baker, who has just died, was one of the finest newsreaders of modern times: highly intelligent, thoughtful, gentle, yet tough in defence of his principles.” Radio presenter Steve Penk wrote: “Richard’s voice will always bring back such warm wonderful memories for me as a child, listening to him as the voice of Mary, Mungo & Midge.” Richard Baker trying on different ties at the BBC news studio in Alexandra Palace in February 1962Credit:Douglas Miller/Hulton Archive Tributes have been paid to former BBC newsreader Richard Baker, who introduced the broadcaster’s first televised news bulletin, following his death at the age of 93. The one-time Last Night of the Proms host died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Saturday, his family said.Baker was described as the “face of news for millions” by the BBC’s director general Tony Hall, as leading BBC journalists issued a series of glowing tributes.Known for his calming voice, Baker won legions of fans presenting the news for the BBC for 28 years as well as hosting programmes on Radio 2 and Radio 4. He also delighted younger viewers narrating children’s television show Mary, Mungo & Midge.  Baker was described as the "face of news for millions" by the BBC's director general Tony Hall Baker was described as the “face of news for millions” by the BBC’s director general Tony Hall While Simon McCoy, a current newsreader for the BBC, said Baker was a “huge” influence on him and was “the” newsreader of his generation. Adam Cumiskey, the chief programmer of Newsnight, said he was such a fan of Baker’s as a child he would kiss the television set whenever he was on screen. And Alastair Stewart, of ITV News, wrote: “He was a terrific sport and possessed of a great sense of humour.” Writer Louis Barfe described Baker’s last news bulletin on the BBC as “sober, authoritative, but with a distinct twinkle”.  Baker pictutred with his wife Margaret and two children Andrew (six) and James (four)Credit:Owen Barnes/Rex Features Richard Baker trying on different ties at the BBC news studio in Alexandra Palace in February 1962 Richard Baker at home in Oxfordshire in 2014Credit:David Rose for the Telegraph Baker pictutred with his wife Margaret and two children Andrew (six) and James (four) Richard Baker at home in Oxfordshire in 2014 He said: “Comedy programmes got him in to do things because they knew that under the strait-laced exterior, mischief lurked.” And war correspondent Jeremy Bowen simply wrote: “Richard Baker was a legend.”Baker was born in Willesden, north London in 1925. He attended Kilburn Grammar School before going on to read history and modern languages at Peterhouse College in Cambridge.  Shortly into his degree, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves where he was deployed to Russia. At the end of the Second World War, he returned and completed his studies. His calm yet authoritative voice caught the attention of the news department and he was enlisted to introduce the broadcaster’s first televised news bulletin in July 1954. Newsreaders were not allowed to appear onscreen originally. Reflecting on this in 2016, Baker told The Telegraph: “We couldn’t appear on screen for months because it was feared we might sully the stream of truth with inappropriate facial expressions. Instead the viewers saw pictures making the news.”Baker read the news for a further 28 years, until his retirement on New Year’s Eve in 1982.In recent years Baker moved to a retirement community and delighted fellow residents by reading out the news headlines to them at six o’clock over supper. Baker leaves behind two sons Andrew, a deputy editor at The Daily Telegraph and James, a television executive at Red Arrow Studios. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. read more

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Sir Philip Green injunction lifted to reveal £1m payouts to silence accusers

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The disclosures will reignite calls for Sir Philip, already damaged by the BHS scandal, to be stripped of the knighthood given to him by Tony Blair for services to the retail industry.The Telegraph’s lawyers argued in court that “Sir Philip’s ‘misconduct’… was sufficiently serious to engage the public interest including as it does unwanted contact of a sexual nature; general sexual harassment; racist language; and intimidation and bullying; many amounting to criminal offences, and all having serious consequences for employees in particular for their health and well-being”. Sir Philip has always maintained
that his actions amounted to “banter” and that none of his behaviour was
unlawful.The legal battle began in the summer when reporters contacted the businessman over the NDAs.A trial was listed for the beginning of February, but shortly after Sir Philip’s lawyers were due to serve witness statements, the billionaire announced that he was dropping the case.Mr Justice Warby formally lifted the injunction yesterday, and warned Sir Philip that any attempt to pursue his alleged victims may be viewed by a court as an “abuse of process”. In an astonishing threat made with the backing of the board of Arcadia Group, Sir Philip said: “The Telegraph and its owners must now decide whether to do the decent thing and respect the NDAs.If not they will expose their sources to potential further legal actions and significant losses. Their fate is now in the Telegraph’s hands.”The Telegraph has released recordings of Sir Philip’s aggressive phone calls to reporters at this newspaper after he was first questioned about the NDAs in the summer.In a series of increasingly aggressive and expletive-ridden calls, Sir Philip said that newspaper executives should “grow some balls”, said he would take “pleasure” in personally bankrupting the editor and warned reporters that he did not want “an ugly punch-up”. “I don’t think that a man like this should be let loose to roam freely in a zoo let alone in a modern 21st century British workplace.”In a statement, Chris Evans, the editor of The Telegraph, said: “We are delighted the injunction has been lifted but our campaign goes on. And now, we look to the Government to act.“In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein affair, we became aware that gagging orders called NDAs were being used to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct and racial abuse in the workplace. And that led to our investigation into Sir Philip Green and Arcadia. We maintain there is a clear public interest in telling people whether a prospective employer has been accused of sexual misconduct and racial abuse.“The Prime Minister has already indicated that she is uneasy with the way in which NDAs have been used. We ask her now to do something about it.” Sir Philip had applied for the injunction in July when The Telegraph first approached him for comment but was eventually named in October in the House of Lords by Lord Hain, the former Cabinet minister, using parliamentary privilege.Lord Hain yesterday urged the Prime Minister to bring in new laws to prevent non-disclosure agreements from covering up serious allegations. “We have to change the system. It’s broken,” said the Labour peer, adding: “This is a very serious abuse of the non-disclosure agreement law. What we have here is a twisting of the law in order to silence people who have allegedly been mistreated in an appalling way.” He also told the man, in front of colleagues: “The problem with you [name removed] is that everyone else is firing guns and you’re still throwing spears in the jungle.”On another occasion, Sir Philip is accused of asking a Chinese businessman visiting the company’s headquarters three years ago: “What do you think Mr Ching Chong Charlie?”A second woman received hundreds of thousands of pounds after complaining that the billionaire had sexually harassed her, including touching her face and body. On one occasion, she allegedly warned him “not to come any closer”.Sources said that the woman complained that Sir Philip had allegedly “squeezed” her cheeks and put his arm around her back.A third woman was also given a pay-off worth hundreds of thousands of pounds after alleging that Sir Philip had held her in a “headlock” in front of colleagues and sexually harassed her by touching her waist and body.A fifth employee – a male executive – had complained about aggressive and intimidating behaviour after Sir Philip allegedly smashed his mobile phone after reprimanding him for not keeping him sufficiently informed.  In the aftermath of the judgment, Sir Philip issued a statement warning former staff with NDAs that he would take them to court if they tried to go public. Sir Philip Green paid a female executive more than £1 million after she accused the retail tycoon of groping her as part of a series of allegations that can finally be disclosed today following a six-month legal battle.Sir Philip is also alleged to have racially abused a senior black employee, telling him that his “problem” was that he was still “throwing spears in the jungle”.The black member of staff received around £1 million, while two other female employees were paid hundreds of thousands of pounds each after complaining of Sir Philip’s “inappropriate” behaviour that included “grabbing” one woman by the face and putting another in a “headlock”.Five complainants each signed a gagging clause  – known as a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) – in return for the pay-offs.The Daily Telegraph can make public for the first time details of the allegations after the High Court action brought by the billionaire against this newspaper was formally abandoned.Sir Philip, owner of such high street fashion brands as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons, was left with a legal bill of about £3million after being ordered to pay his and most of the Telegraph’s costs.Sir Philip indicated he would give up the action at the end of last month, just a few days before he was due to have given evidence in the witness box. Mr Justice Warby also said that the conduct of Sir Philip and Arcadia, the company that runs his stores, in continuing to pursue the legal action over the past few months had been “well outside the norm”.Legal experts believe the way in which Sir Philip has pursued the case – and the vast sums of money involved – have demonstrated how the English courts can effectively be used to silence “MeToo” victims in this country. The only person who has felt able to speak out over the Topshop owner’s alleged conduct has been an American-based employee.     investigations@telegraph.co.uk  But yesterday, despite dropping his legal claim against The Telegraph, he threatened to sue former staff with NDAs if they spoke out against him.Penny Mordaunt, the Women’s Minister, said it was “clearly unacceptable” that NDAs were being used to hide allegations of “disgusting and illegal” behaviour and the Government would take the “necessary steps” to stop it.Sir Philip’s lawyers had secured an interim injunction last summer, arguing that the NDAs should also prevent The Telegraph from reporting the existence of the payments and the allegations which led to them.Yesterday, at a hearing in the High Court, Mr Justice Warby formally lifted the injunction. The senior female executive, who was paid more than £1 million, complained that Sir Philip had called her a “naughty girl” and groped her.The woman alleged that Sir Philip, who is 66 and married with two children, kissed her face, slapped her bottom and made comments about her weight, that left her and others present feeling “uncomfortable”.The male executive, who is black, suffered alleged racial harassment that included being stared at by Sir Philip in a meeting. Sir Philip is then said to have barked: “What the —- have you got on your head?”, which according to some people present, appeared to be directed at the man’s dreadlocks. Writing in The Telegraph today, Maria Miller, the Tory chairman of the women and equalities select committee and former culture secretary, says: “Parliament has debated long and hard to put in place some of the best laws in the world to protect people from discrimination and bullying by unscrupulous employers. Yet, the evidence is that those laws are being flouted and unlawful behaviour covered up.“The Philip Green case shows how broken the current system is when it comes to NDAs, protecting the powerful and silencing victims.“Employers and lawyers need to hear a strong message from government that this has to change.”Jess Phillips, a Labour MP on the committee, said: “This is about people being groped at work. These are allegations of sexual assaults. To me this passes the test of criminal activity.“If NDAs can be used to silence allegations of criminal activity then the message it sends is that your boss can grope you at work and get away with it. The current law is not protecting ordinary people and so therefore [there] needs to be a fundamental review.”Peter Kyle, a Labour MP on the business select committee, said: “My initial reaction when I hear what these people have allegedly been put through is akin to being imprisoned in the workplace. 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Multimillionaire who used NDAs to silence sexual harassment and assault claims is

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Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. A multimillionaire businessman who used NDAs to silence sexual harassment and assault claims has been granted a secrecy order by a judge, it has been claimed.Two women made allegations including oral rape and groping against the man, but settled their cases before it reached an employment tribunal, The Times reported last night.The alleged inclusion of gagging clauses in the financial settlement threatens to reignite concerns about their use by the rich and powerful to stop accusers speaking out.  The Prime Minister last year vowed to reform the rules surrounding NDAs after an investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed how Sir Philip Green used them to hush up accusations of harassment. In the latest case, both women agreed to withdraw their claims of sexual harassment and sign NDAs as part of their settlement with the businessman, according to The Times.One of the women was said to have accused the man – named by the paper as Mr X – of attacking and orally raping her in his private office. Her witness statement reportedly described how she was “paralysed with fear, terrified, disorientated and used like a rag doll, totally incapacitated and unable to escape”.Another woman claimed she was groped by the man at his country residence and was quoted as saying: “I felt numb, I kept thinking that this job was my independence that I had worked so hard for.” Legal efforts to name the man have so far faltered, with a senior judge ruling that his “honour and reputation” could be sullied by allegations which were “entirely denied”. Mr Justice Soole said the public may not be able to “distinguish between allegation and proof” against “a public figure with a well-known family name”. The allegations were first made in 2017 and reached a tribunal hearing later that year, when the man’s lawyers succeeded in obtaining reporting restrictions on the case. The millionaire is reported to have homes in Britain and overseas and is said to be one of the establishment’s richest and most powerful figures. Neither of his accusers have reported him to the police, despite his conduct passing the criminal threshold, the newspaper claimed. read more

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Extinction Rebellion cofounder rearrested after attempting to fly drone at Heathrow

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Conscious of his poor sight, he told The Telegraph that he removed the batteries and his drone in the air. He then sat down in a Costa Coffee in Terminal 2, called the police on himself, and was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. He was released on Saturday evening.A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Flying a drone within 5km of Heathrow is illegal and any persons found doing so will be subject to the full force of the law. “Alongside drone detection capabilities, we will mitigate the impact of this illegal action and operate in a way that is safe at all times.“We agree with the need to act on climate change but driving change requires constructive engagement and action. Committing criminal offences and disrupting passenger journeys is counterproductive and irresponsible.” Roger Hallam from protest group Heathrow Pause is arrested while setting up a toy drone inside London Heathrow airport's exclusion zone The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion has been rearrested just hours after being released from custody, after attempting to fly drones near Heathrow airport.Roger Hallam, ringleader of the ‘Heathrow Pause’ movement, was the second person arrested today in connection with the disruption, bringing the total number of people taken into custody to 20 in three days.Despite their attempts to have the airport shut down by flying drones within a three mile exclusion zone, Heathrow’s services remained unaffected.‘Heathrow Pause’, a splinter group from Extinction Rebellion, claim that Mr Hallam’s bail conditions stipulated that he not to go within five miles of any airport and must not have any drone related equipment in his possession.He was apprehended in Stanwell, just off the airport’s Southern perimeter road. The group of environmental protesters has continued their attack on Heathrow for a second day with “multiple flights” within exclusion zone.Activist Anthony Whitehouse posted footage this morning of a short drone flight and then handed himself in to officers at Terminal 4.On Friday, a former Paralympic athlete who won a bronze medal at London 2012 was also arrested.James Brown, from Northern Ireland said that he feared going to prison but it is a price worth paying to raise awareness for the climate crisis.  Roger Hallam attempted to fly this drone within a restricted zoneCredit:Peter Manning/LNP Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily  Front Page newsletter and new  audio briefings. read more

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Rum producing giant DDL commissions another warehouse

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…reaches agreement with SPU to use canes in the fields to sustain its operationsThe new rum aging facility – Warehouse ‘M’ – at DDL’s Plantation Diamond locationLocal rum producing giant Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) on Friday commissioned a  new warehouse facility that would be used to age its award-winning rum.The 41,625-square-foot warehouse was constructed at a cost of $340 million in the Bottling Plant Compound at Plantation Great Diamond, East Bank Demerara.The new Rum Aging Warehouse has a capacity to hold 30,000 barrels, which represents a one-third increase of its current capacity from four existing warehouses. Those four facilities carry an annual turnover of 90,000 barrels held in storage or that are processed.DDL Chairman, Komal Samaroo, posited that the new Rum Aging facility is the first manifestation of a major expansion project that the company has embarked upon.Noting that it was a significant investment, the Chairman pointed out that when filled with rum, the value of the facility will be pegged at some US$10 million. He added that three more such facilities are expected to be constructed.“It’s a really very big risk, but it’s a risk that we’re taking because we believe in what we do. We believe in our product, and I’m pleased to say that we were the pioneer of aged rum on the international market,” Samaroo stated.While declaring his optimism in the role that DDL would play in the rum industry on a global scale, Samaroo added, “creating a global brand is an expensive proposition; it is not done overnight. It requires huge investments over many years, it is a long-term strategy, and DDL is fully committed to building its El Dorado Rum brand around the world.”The acting Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, who commissioned the new facility on Friday, commended the company for blazing a trail in its rum production operations.SPU agreementSPU Head, Colvin Heath-London, and DDL Chairman, in conversation with others at the event on FridayMeanwhile after weeks of uncertainty over where to source molasses to continue rum production following the downsizing of the sugar industry, DDL on Friday finalised a deal with the NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU) to use the canes in the fields to sustain its operations for the rest of 2018.DDL Chairman, Samaroo revealed that “an agreement for the rest of 2018 to harvest the standing canes in the fields and to convert it into inputs for the rum production, so that we can continue producing throughout the year,” was reached with the SPU.The downsizing of the sugar industry, which saw thousands of sugar workers losing their jobs, has also severely affected DDL’s operations with the unavailability of molasses.Moreover, the three remaining estates – Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion – are projected to produce a total of 52,000 tons of molasses this year. However, DDL’s molasses requirement for 2018 is 70,000 tons.The company has since been exploring options, and was even contemplating importing molasses to sustain rum production to meet its increasing local and international demands.Nevertheless, as a long-term solution to this challenge, the company has submitted an expression of interest (EoI) to NICIL and to Government for the potential purchase of the now closed Enmore Estate.Samaroo went on to say that, in the meantime, the company is awaiting the completion of ongoing valuation being done on GuySuCo’s assets to start negotiations and have serious discussions on a more sustainable solution going forward. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)RelatedDDL Group records $2.3B increase in profit for 2018March 11, 2019In “Business”DDL partners with CPL for new iconic 5-year Masters RumJuly 21, 2017In “Business”DDL says it will invest $10B in 3 years to diversify income base, increase export earningsOctober 5, 2017In “Business” read more

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Rio Tinto reaches agreement to sell interest in Greens Creek mine for

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first_imgRio Tinto has reached agreement on the first sale under its planned programme to divest at least $15 billion of assets. The Group has signed an agreement to sell Kennecott Greens Creek Mining Co and Kennecott Juneau Mining Co, the subsidiaries holding its interests in the Greens Creek mine in Alaska, to an affiliate of Hecla Mining. Greens Creek is a silver, gold, zinc and lead underground mine and concentrator facility on Admiralty Island near Juneau. It is currently a joint venture between a Rio Tinto Kennecott subsidiary (70.3%) and a Hecla subsidiary (29.7%).  The sale price is $750 million. The price comprises a cash component of $700 million and the balance in Hecla common stock.  Closing is subject to customary conditions, including expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. “The sale of our interests in Greens Creek is a very positive first step towards our target of realising asset sales of $10 billion in 2008,” said Guy Elliott, Chief Financial Officer of Rio Tinto.Bret Clayton, Rio Tinto’s Copper Product Group Chief Executive said, “Hecla Mining has for a long time been our joint venture partner and already has a solid understanding of the mine, the employees, the community and the State. Hecla is well placed to assume operation of the mine.”In November 2007, Rio Tinto announced the results of its overall strategic review of its asset portfolio following its acquisition of Alcan. Options are also being explored to divest Rio Tinto Energy America (coal), Rio Tinto Minerals’ talc business, Rio Tinto Alcan Packaging, Rio Tinto Alcan Engineered Products, Rio Tinto’s interest in the Cortez gold mine in Nevada, Rio Tinto’s Northparkes copper mine in Australia and Rio Tinto’s Sweetwater (USA) and Kintyre (Australia) uranium assets.last_img read more

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