Author: Gulf News Week

Nikolaj Ehlers remains unsigned 30 hours into NHL free agency, as the top player available weighed his options Wednesday and suitors awaited his decision that could be one of the final big moves of the offseason.Ehlers was already a rarity as a sought-after free agent who let the opening day of free agency go by without signing a contract, opting instead to sit back and consider his options. Carolina, Tampa Bay and Washington were considered among the teams interested in pursuing the 29-year-old from Denmark who played his first nine seasons with Winnipeg.“We’ve had talks with his agent,” Hurricanes general…

Talks lay groundwork for a summit between EU and Chinese leaders in Beijing on July 24 and 25.The European Union’s foreign policy chief has urged China to end restrictions on the export of rare earth elements and warned that Chinese firms’ support for Russia’s war in Ukraine posed a serious threat to European security. The statement from Kaja Kallas came on Wednesday after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Brussels. The EU is seeking to improve its relations with China amid United States President Donald Trump’s tariff war, which has rocked major trading powers. But instead of…

LOS ANGELES (news agencies) — Lights, camera, layup.The NBA Summer League is giving athletes another shot that takes place behind the camera. With assists from Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett and Hollywood power players Mark Wahlberg and Deon Taylor, the league is bringing back the Summer League Film Festival starting July 17 in Las Vegas.The three-day festival will bring big-screen storytelling through 34 selected projects, spotlighting stories produced by NBA stars past and present including Nikola Jokic, Luguentz Dort, Tony Allen, Nate Robinson, Cole Anthony, Keyon Dooling and Udonis Haslem.“We have a ton of NBA players who own production companies,”…

BEERSHEBA, Israel (news agencies) — American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by media.Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the news agencies on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished.They said their colleagues regularly lobbed stun…

Malik Beasley should be riding high right now, after a season where he became just the fifth player in NBA history to make at least 300 shots from 3-point range in a single season.Instead, his future seems very uncertain.He’s a free agent and facing some serious off-court issues — including being part of an investigation surrounding what’s believed to be unusual betting patterns on games and now some unrelated legal matters involving his personal finances.Beasley was a key part of the Detroit Pistons this past season, averaging 16.3 points per game for a team that made the playoffs and was…

The Trump administration appears to be expanding RSV vaccinations to some adults starting at age 50, down from 60, following the advice of a recently fired panel of government vaccine advisers.The decision appears on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage but as of Wednesday wasn’t on the agency’s official adult immunization schedule. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, typically is a coldlike nuisance, but it can be severe, even life-threatening, for infants and older adults. The CDC recommends vaccination for certain pregnant women and a onetime shot for everyone 75 or older. But people as young as 60 with…

LONDON (news agencies) — Olivia Rodrigo. John Cena. Dave Grohl. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. There was as much star power — or maybe even more? — in the Royal Box at Wimbledon as there was down below on the Centre Court grass on Wednesday.And that was on an afternoon that featured two-time defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz, No. 1-ranked woman Aryna Sabalenka, and 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu of Britain all winning matches at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament’s main stadium to reach the third round.“It’s so special in the Royal Box to have those kind of people…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy. On his Truth Social platform, Trump declared the pact “a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries.’’In April, Trump announced a 46% tax on Vietnamese imports — one of his so-called reciprocal tariffs targeting dozens of countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. Trump promptly suspended the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to allow for negotiations like the one with…

BUFFALO, N.Y. (news agencies) — Buffalo Bills first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a woman in 2021 at the University of Kentucky.The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Kentucky by a woman who claims Hairston entered her dorm room without being invited, ignored her when she said didn’t want to have sexual intercourse, forcibly removed her bottoms and sexually assaulted her. media does not typically name alleged victims of sexual assault.Texts seeking comment Wednesday were sent to agents for Hairston.The Bills had no comment and referred to statements made by general…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Ancient DNA has revealed a genetic link between the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.Four-fifths of the genome showed links to North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links to the area in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization…