Victor Hovland three shots clear heading into final day after third-round 64, with Scottie Scheffler his closest challenger; continue to watch the Hero World Challenge golf throughout the week, live on Sky Sports Golf on Sunday from 4pm.
Last Updated: 04/12/22 7:35am
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Highlights from the third round of the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas
Highlights from the third round of the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas
Viktor Hovland carded six birdies on the back nine and fired a blistering eight-under-par round 64 to extend his lead to three strokes at the Hero World Challenge on Saturday in Albany, Bahamas.
Hovland sits on 13 under after 54 holes as he vies to repeat as champion of the event, with Scottie Scheffler within striking range at 10 under after his six-under 66.
Cameron Young (third-round 68) and Justin Thomas (66) are five shots back at eight under.
Hovland has led or tied for the lead in all three rounds, and made 10 birdies on Saturday, one more than his career-high in official PGA Tour events, recording the low round of the day. His round included two bogeys, including the par-four 18th.
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“I missed probably like a 10-footer on the first hole and lipped out and I kind of thought, Here we go again,’ but after that it was a lot of putts that went in,” Hovland said.
“You need that on a day like today when the winds are down and you can be a little bit more aggressive. That’s the only way you can make that many birdies, so that was a lot of fun.”
Hovland would be just the second player to successfully defend a title at the event, joining event host Tiger Woods in 2007.
Scottie Scheffer is in the mix, three shots back from Viktor Hovland
Scheffler did his best to stay close, posting five birdies and an eagle on the par-5 15th. There are two eagles so far from the 20-player field and Scheffler has both of them.
“I played really solid, kept the ball in front of me, hit a lot of fairways,” Scheffler said. “Felt like I did a good job just keeping the course in front of me and giving myself some changes.”
Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa shot matching 69s to sit six shots back at seven under in a tie for fifth. Jon Rahm (68) sits solo seventh at four under, nine shots back.
Continue to watch the Hero World Challenge golf throughout the week, live on Sky Sports Golf on Sunday from 4pm.
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The shooting on Tuesday night — two days before Thanksgiving — began minutes after 10 p.m. inside the employee break room, where some workers were getting ready to start their overnight shift.
In addition to the six employees who did not survive, others continue to receive medical treatment. Two victims at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital were in critical condition on Thanksgiving Day, hospital spokesperson Mike Kafka told CNN, and another victim was released Wednesday.
“Today we are focused only of those hurt by Tuesday’s tragic event, but the police investigation continues,” officials said, adding that additional information will be provided Friday.
The people killed are Randy Blevins, 70, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Tyneka Johnson, 22, Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, and a 16-year-old boy, who’s not being named because he’s a minor, according to authorities.
As police work to determine a motive for one of at least three mass shootings in Virginia this month, Chesapeake officials have announced a vigil for victims scheduled for Monday evening at City Park.
“Chesapeake is a tightknit community and we are all shaken,” Mayor Rick West said in a message posted online earlier this week. “Together, we will support each other throughout this time.”
The tragedy, which came as many in the community were preparing to spend the holiday with family and friends, has unleashed an outburst of grief and trauma over the loss of loved ones in yet another mass shooting in the US.
Another Virginia community has also been enduring the pain of lives lost to gun violence. About 170 miles west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville has been arrested and charged after opening fire on fellow students on November 13, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, DC.
Grief has also permeated a Colorado community last weekend, when a 22-year-old suspect shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, injuring 19 others, authorities said.
These shootings, among many others, have put the US on an ominous track of making 2022 the second-highest year for mass shootings on record, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that began tracking the instances in 2014.
Survivors describe shooting
The shooting in Chesapeake this week erupted suddenly, with witnesses saying they were in shock and disbelief when they saw the gunman pointing a firearm at them.
Walmart employee Kevin Harper said the shooter entered the break room and immediately began firing.
“He came in there and just started spraying,” Harper said in a video on social media.
The gunman has been identified as Andre Bing, who was working as overnight “team lead.” The 31-year-old had been working for Walmart since 2010, the company said. Authorities have said he had one semi-automatic handgun and several ammunition magazines.
Two slain victims and the shooter were found in the break room, another victim was found at the front of the store, and three others died at the hospital, Chesapeake city officials said.
Jessie Wilczewski, who was recently hired, told CNN she was in a regularly scheduled meeting when the shooting began.
At first, it “didn’t register as real,” she said, until the sound of the shots reverberated through her chest.
Wilczewski hid under a table as the gunman walked down a nearby hallway. She could see some of her coworkers on the floor or lying on chairs — all still and some likely dead, she said. She stayed because she didn’t want to leave them alone.
“I could have ran out that door … and I stayed. I stayed so they wouldn’t be alone in their last moments,” Wilczewski said in a message to the families of two victims.
When the shooter returned to the break room, Wilczewski said, he told her to get out from under the table and go home.
“I had to touch the door which was covered (in blood),” she said. “I just remember gripping my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back — well, he’s going to have to try really hard cause I’m running,’ and I booked it. … and I didn’t stop until I got to my car and then I had a meltdown.”
Briana Tyler, also a newly hired employee, said she saw bullets flying just inches from her face.
“All of a sudden you just hear pa pa pa pa pa pa pa,” Tyler said. “There were people just dropping to the floor,” she said. “Everybody was screaming, gasping, and yeah, he just walked away after that and just continued throughout the store and just kept shooting.
Holiday marked with emptiness for gun violence victims’ families
Beyond the shooting in Chesapeake this week, gun violence has turned many ordinary places into crime scenes around the country — from schools and supermarkets to hospitals and malls.
Brett Cross, whose nephew Uziyah Garcia was killed in a school massacre in Texas this year, described a deep sense of loss without the 10-year-old boy this holiday season.
A gunman had opened fire inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in May, killing 19 fourth-grade students and their two teachers before authorities shot him dead.
“6 months since our world was shattered, and I’m supposed to ‘celebrate the holidays,’” Cross wrote in a social media post on Thanksgiving Day. “How do you celebrate when your devastated. How do you give thanks, when you have nothing left to give. How do you fake it and smile when you wake up crying.”
In 2018, a former student killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg who was killed in that shooting, said there’s more work to be done in the fight against gun violence.
“Today we celebrate Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, many families will do so with an empty seat at the table because of gun violence,” Guttenberg wrote in a social media post on Thanksgiving.
Nicole Hockley lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in 2012.
“My life had been thrown into sadness and turmoil. I felt like I was at the bottom of a gigantic hole that I could never climb out of. I didn’t know how to help myself, never mind those I loved,” Hockley wrote online in a Thanksgiving message.
“But in the weeks and months that followed, and with the support of those around me, I found a renewed sense of purpose. To keep other children and families from enduring the same fate.”
CNN’s Josh Campbell, Michelle Watson and Andi Babineau contributed to this report.
RIYADH, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Representatives from Russia and Ukraine met in the United Arab Emirates last week to discuss the possibility of a prisoner-of-war swap that would be linked to a resumption of Russian ammonia exports, which go to Asia and Africa, via a Ukrainian pipeline, three sources with knowledge of the meeting said.
The sources said the talks were being mediated by the Gulf Arab state and did not include the United Nations despite the U.N.’s central role in negotiating the ongoing initiative to export agricultural products from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Ammonia is used to make fertilizer.
However the talks aim to remove remaining obstacles in the initiative extended last week and ease global food shortages by unblocking Ukrainian and Russian exports, they added.
The sources asked not to be named in order to freely discuss sensitive matters.
The Russian and Ukrainian representatives travelled to the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Nov. 17 where they discussed allowing Russia to resume ammonia exports in exchange for a prisoner swap that would release a large number of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners, the sources said.
Reuters could not immediately establish what progress was made at the talks.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, told Reuters that “releasing our prisoners of war is part of negotiations over opening Russian ammonia exports”, adding “Of course we look for ways to do that at any opportunity”. Bodnar said he was unaware if a meeting took place in the UAE.
Putin said on Wednesday that Russian officials would work to unblock Russian fertilisers stuck in European ports and to resume ammonia exports.
The UAE’s foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Lana Nusseibeh, UAE’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said Abu Dhabi remains firmly committed to help keep channels of communication open, encourage dialogue and support diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
“In times of conflict, our collective responsibility is to leave no stone unturned towards identifying and pursuing paths that bring about a peaceful and swift resolution of crises,” Nusseibeh said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.
Russia and Ukraine’s defence and foreign ministries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Asked if the United Nations were involved in the talks, a spokesperson for the organisation declined to comment.
WESTERN PRESSURE
The export of Russian ammonia would be via an existing pipeline to the Black Sea.
The pipeline was designed to pump up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia gas per year from Russia’s Volga region to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, known as Yuzhny in Russian, near Odesa for onward shipment to international buyers. It was shut down after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The export of ammonia was not part of the renewal of the U.N.-backed grains corridor deal that restored commercial shipping from Ukraine.
Last week, Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of U.N. agency UNCTAD, who leads the negotiations on fertiliser, said she was optimistic Russia and Ukraine could agree to the terms for the export of Russian ammonia via the pipeline, without giving details.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has publicly set several conditions before allowing Russia to resume its ammonia exports via the pipeline, including a prisoner swap and reopening of Mykolaiv port in the Black Sea.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine have released official figures on how many prisoners of war they have taken since Russia invaded in February. On Oct. 29, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said that since March, Russia had freed a total of 1,031 prisoners.
Russia and Ukraine have disclosed few details about direct meetings between representatives from the two countries following the abandonment of ceasefire talks in the first few weeks following Moscow’s invasion on February 24.
Abu Dhabi’s efforts follow in the footsteps of Saudi Arabia, which scored a diplomatic win by securing freedom for foreign fighters captured in Ukraine in September.
The UAE, like Saudi Arabia, is a member of the OPEC+ oil alliance that includes Russia and has also maintained good ties with Moscow despite Western pressure to help isolate Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls its “special military operation”.
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited Moscow last month where he discussed with President Vladimir Putin the possibility of Abu Dhabi mediating for an ammonia deal, two of the sources said.
Ukraine is a major producer of grains and oilseeds. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter and a major supplier of fertilisers to global markets.
Since July, Moscow has repeatedly said its shipments of grain and fertilisers, though not directly targeted by sanctions, are constrained because sanctions make it harder for exporters to process payments or to obtain vessels and insurance.
Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Jonathan Saul in London, additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Jon Boyle
Nov 24 (Reuters) – The United States marked the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday with traditional feasts, parades and American football, taking a moment to celebrate in a week shadowed by gun violence.
The official holiday dates to the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a day to give thanks and seek healing. U.S. schoolchildren learn to trace the holiday to Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and celebrated the autumn harvest with the Wampanoag peoples. Among Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of dark reflection on the genocide that followed.
Americans were mourning this year in the wake of a pair of deadly shootings. On Saturday, an attacker opened fire in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing five people. On Tuesday, a Walmart employee gunned down six coworkers and turned the gun on himself in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Those were just two of the more than 600 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, using the definition of four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.
President Joe Biden on Thursday called the two owners of Colorado Springs nightspot Club Q, Nic Grzecka and Matthew Haynes, to offer condolences and thank them for their contributions to the community, the White House said.
[1/5] A girl watches while people take pictures during the 96th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 24, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
While visiting a firehouse on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, to thank first responders on Thanksgiving, Biden told reporters he would attempt to pass some form of gun control before a new Congress is seated in January, possibly renewing his attempt to ban assault weapons.
“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value, zero, none. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profits for gun manufacturers,” Biden said, presumably referring to certain rifles as many common and less lethal weapons are also semi-automatic.
Earlier Biden phoned into presenters of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, a televised extravaganza of marching bands, floats and performances by stars including Dionne Warwick, who sang the classic “What the World Needs Now.”
The approach of the long holiday weekend typically ignites a frenzy of travel as scattered families come together from across the country for holiday meals.
Midnight after Thanksgiving also marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, offering a snapshot of the state of the U.S. economy.
Televised American football serves as the backdrop to turkey dinners with mounds of side dishes and desserts. The National Football League was staging three games Thursday.
Thanksgiving also prompts an outpouring of donations to the poor and hungry, a task complicated by avian flu outbreaks that have eliminated about 8 million turkeys, making the big birds more scarce and thus more expensive this year. Production of turkey meat this year is forecast to fall 7% from 2021, according to U.S. government data.
Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose in Nantucket, Massachusetts; editing by Jonathan Oatis
Nov 24 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday discussed Western attempts to cap the price of Russian oil during a phone call with Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the new Iraqi prime minister, the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
It said Putin had told Sudani that a price cap would have serious consequences for the global energy market.
“Attempts by a number of Western countries to impose restrictions on the cost of crude oil from Russia were touched upon,” the Kremlin’s statement said.
“Vladimir Putin stressed that such actions contradict the principles of market relations and are highly likely to lead to serious consequences for the global energy market.”
The European Union and United States have stepped up attempts in recent days to strike an agreement on where to set a price cap on their imports of Russian oil.
Russia and Iraq are both major oil producers and members of the OPEC+ agreement, which sets oil production levels in a bid to manage world prices.
Adam Svensson became a first-time winner on Tour on Sunday and was victorious at the RSM Classic in his 70th career start; Svensson is the second Canadian to win on Tour this season, joining Mackenzie Hughes
Last Updated: 20/11/22 11:53pm
Adam Svensson celebrates his first PGA TOUR victory
Adam Svensson closed out with a six-under 64 to win the RSM Classic on Sunday at Sea Island for his first PGA Tour victory.
Svensson, a 28-year-old Canadian, was locked in a four-way tie for the lead on the closing stretch of the Seaside course when he produced an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole, and then hit a tee shot to 10 feet on the par-three 17th for a birdie to give himself a cushion.
Brian Harman (65) and Sahith Theegala (66) were in the group ahead of him and missed birdie chances on the closing hole.
Callum Tarren (64) was the first to post at 17-under par and was hopeful of a play-off. Svensson capped off his bogey-free final round with a par for a two-shot win.
Svensson is starting his third full year on the PGA Tour and gets a two-year exemption, along with a trip to the Masters and the PGA Championship. He has never played a major.
“To be honest, it’s not even real right now,” Svensson said.
“I’m so happy. I put so much work in. To win on the PGA Tour means everything to be me. I just kept believing in myself, and here I am.”
Svensson is the second Canadian to win on Tour this season, joining Mackenzie Hughes, who won in Mississippi.
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Theegala recovered from a double bogey on the par-five seventh hole when he was in trouble left off the tee and then hit a chip that came back to him from behind the green. He made five birdies over the last 11 holes.
Harman got in the game late, hitting a fairway metal on the par-5 15th hole that was inches away from rolling in, setting up a short eagle. He birdied the 16th to share the lead, but had to settle for pars on the final two holes.
Patrick Rodgers and Ben Martin, who shared the 54-hole lead, couldn’t keep up. Rodgers didn’t make his first birdie until the 13th hole and closed with a 70 to tie for 10th, while Martin shot a 72.
Cole Hammer, who graduated from Texas in May and was playing on a sponsor exemption, shot a 65 to tie for fifth, which gets him into the Sony Open.
The PGA Tour now takes a six-week break in the final wraparound season before resuming with the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua the first week of January.
By winning, Svensson was the last man to qualify for that field, the first elevated event that will have a $15 million purse. Svensson won $1,458,000, more than he won in either of his two previous seasons on the PGA Tour.
Police respond to the scene of a shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on November 20. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)
At least five people were killed and 18 others injured in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub on Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to police.
Authorities received numerous 911 calls starting at 11:57 p.m. local time and responded to the scene at Club Q, said Colorado Springs Police Lt. Pamela Castro.
“They did locate one individual who we believe to be the suspect inside,” said Castro. “At this point in time, the suspect is being treated, but is in custody.”
Castro did not clarify whether the suspect was included in the count of people who were injured in the shooting.
Police declined to speak about a possible motive. Colorado Springs Fire Capt. Mike Smaldino said 11 ambulances responded to the scene after multiple 911 calls were received.
“We will be here for many, many hours to come,” said Castro, adding that the FBI is on the scene and assisting.
India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) from France, the outgoing Council Chair on November 21, 2022 at a meeting to be hold in Tokyo. The Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar will represent India at the GPAI meeting.
GPAI is an international initiative to support responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This development comes on the heels of assuming the presidency of G20, a league of world’s largest economies. GPAI is a congregation of 25 member countries, including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Singapore. India joined GPAI in 2020 as a founding member.
As per the information shared by Ministry of Electronics & IT, in the election to the Council Chair, India had received more than a two-third majority of first-preference votes while Canada and the United States of America ranked in the two next best places in the tally – so they were elected to the two additional government seats on the Steering Committee
For the 2022-2023 Steering Committee, the five government seats will therefore be held by Japan (as Lead Council Chair and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee), France (Outgoing Council Chair), India (Incoming Council Chair), Canada and the United States.
Artificial Intelligence has been Catalyzing the Tech Landscape and is expected to add $967 Billion to Indian economy by 2035 and $450–500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, accounting for 10% of the country’s $5 trillion GDP target, according to the ministry. Artificial Intelligence is a Kinetic enabler for growth of India’s Technology ecosystem & a force multiplier for achieving $1 Trillion Digital Economy goal by 2025.
Maguire had four-straight birdies around the turn and added another pair late on to join Lydia Ko on 15-under in pursuit of $2 million prize pot; Watch the final round live on Sunday from 7pm on Sky Sports Golf and – for free – on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel
Last Updated: 19/11/22 11:23pm
Ireland’s Leona Maguire has a share of the lead heading into the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship in Florida
Leona Maguire of Ireland carded a nine-under 63, allowing her to catch Lydia Ko for a share of the lead after three rounds of the CME Group Tour Championship in Florida and set up a thrilling final-day duel for the richest prize in women’s golf.
Maguire, one of 11 first-time winners on the LPGA Tour this year, had four-straight birdies around the turn and added another pair late on in her stunning round that has catapulted her into contention for the $2 million prize pot at Tiburon Golf Club.
Her main contender for the cash, Ko, had a five-shot lead to start the third round – seven shots ahead of Maguire – but a mixture of birdies and bogeys stalled her round. She fell one shot behind Maguire at one stage until chipping to tap-in range on the par-five 17th on her way to a round of 70.
The forecast for Sunday’s final round is for rain and 20 mph gusts of wind. “Nothing I’m not used to from Ireland,” Maguire said when she finished her round.
“Ultimately just got to go out and play as well as I possibly can, and especially if there’s bad weather, that’s all you can control. Looking forward to one last walk of the season tomorrow.”
Maguire and Ko have a five-shot advantage over former US Women’s Open champion, Korea’s Jeon-Geun Lee, and Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh.
Elsewhere, Brooke Henderson kept her slim hopes alive for player of the year. The Canadian, who had to withdraw last week with a back injury, had two eagles in her round of 65 and was at nine-under, six behind the leaders.
Henderson will have to win the CME Group Tour Championship and have Ko finish third or worse to win player of the year.
Watch the final round of the LPGA Tour’s CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday from 7pm, live on Sky Sports Golf and – for free – on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel.
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World’s best female golfers to compete for more than $100 million in official prize money in 2023, the highest total in LPGA Tour history; Global schedule kicks off on January 19 and runs until late November
Last Updated: 18/11/22 4:58pm
Atthaya Thitikul and Nelly Korda will be among the LPGA Tour stars benefitting from record-breaking prize money in 2023
LPGA Tour players will compete for over $100 million for the first time as part of a record-breaking 2023 schedule.
The LPGA Tour announced that their global calendar will comprise of 33 events across 12 countries, with a total prize fund of $101.4m (£85m) up for grabs.
Combined purses are more than double what was paid out on the tour just a decade ago, with the five women’s golf majors accounting for $37.9m of the total prize money, while every tournament carries a purse of at least $1.5m.
World No 1 Nelly Korda will feature heavily on the LPGA Tour’s 2023 schedule
“Because of our athletes, partners, volunteers and incredible fans, 2023 will be a banner year for the LPGA Tour,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “The schedule features new events, elevated purses, unique formats and world-class golf courses.
“Our athletes are playing for more total prize money than any time in history, and we have over 500 hours of broadcast television. All those things combine to make the LPGA the leading women’s professional sports property in the world.
England’s Charley Hull was among the winners on the LPGA Tour in 2022
“The LPGA Tour has never had better or more committed partners who see the commercial value in investing in women’s sports and who understand how their partnerships elevate women and girls on and off the golf course.”
The 2023 schedule includes the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, a team match-play competition that showcases golfers from the top eight countries in the globe, while Team Europe will chase a third consecutive victory over Team USA in the Solheim Cup next September.
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With a year to go until the 2023 Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin, Spain – Trish Johnson and Henni Koyack predict who may feature for Team Europe next September.
With a year to go until the 2023 Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin, Spain – Trish Johnson and Henni Koyack predict who may feature for Team Europe next September.
The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions kicks off the season from January 19-22, with the season running until the CME Group Tour Championship in Florida from November 16-19.
When are the women’s majors in 2023?
April 20-23 – The Chevron Championship – The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, Texas
June 22-25 – KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – Baltusrol G.C. (Lower Course), Springfield, New Jersey
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November 20, 2022, 6:00pm
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July 6-9 – US Women’s Open presented by ProMedica – Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, California
July 27-30 – Amundi Evian Championship – Evian Resort G.C., Evian-les-Bains, France
August 10-13 – AIG Women’s Open – Walton Heath (Old Course), Surrey, England
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Highlights from day four of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield.
Highlights from day four of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield.
Other key dates on 2023 schedule
May 4-7 – Hanwha LifePlus International Crown – TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California
August 3-6 – Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open – Dundonald Links, Ayrshire, Scotland
September 22-24 – Solheim Cup – Finca Cortesin, Andalucia, Spain
November 16-19 – CME Group Tour Championship – Tiburon G.C., Naples, Florida
“If I’m holding the trophy, holding all the trophies or no trophy…I just want to have a good week. These opportunities don’t come along very often. I want to try to grab it when it’s there” – Lydia Ko, who leads the LPGA CME Group Tour Championship by a shot
Last Updated: 18/11/22 12:02am
Lydia Ko of New Zealand leads the CME Group Tour Championship
Lydia Ko began her quest for the largest prize in women’s golf history by hitting a tree and making bogey on a par-five, but the rest of Thursday in the LPGA CME Group Tour Championship could not have gone better.
New Zealander Ko responded with eight birdies, including four in a row late in the round at Tiburon Golf Club, that sent her to a seven-under 65 and a one-shot lead in the LPGA Tour season finale.
So much is at stake this week, even beyond the $2m prize to the winner.
Ko has a one-point lead in the race for LPGA Tour player of the year, while she looks set to win the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average. Both are worth a point in her bid to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
“If I’m holding the trophy, holding all the trophies or no trophy…I just want to have a good week,” Ko said. “These opportunities don’t come along very often. I want to try to grab it when it’s there.”
It is all right in front of Ko, who has two wins in what she considers her most consistent year on the LPGA Tour. And right behind are plenty of challengers.
Danielle Kang and Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand are just behind Ko after carding 66s, Gemma Dryburgh of Scotland and Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea fired 67s and Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson were in the group with 68s.
Korda missed four months earlier this year because of surgery for a blood clot in her left arm. She finally is back to full strength, and her victory last week up the coast at Pelican Golf Club allowed her to return to No 1 in the women’s world ranking.
Henderson had to withdraw last week with back pain, and the Canadian was not even sure she would be able to play. But she made an adjustment in her swing, and it allowed her to get around Tiburon with a respectable 68.
Henderson has an outside shot at player of the year, though she would have to win and have Ko and Minjee Lee finish third or worse.
Lee, who has already set an LPGA Tour record with $3.7m in earnings this season, opened with a 71. Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand, the 19-year-old who reached No 1 in the world until Korda took it back, had a 73.
Ko could only laugh at her start of the tournament by hitting a tree.
“It’s almost like I had two tee shots,” she said. “Even though I bogeyed a par-five, I knew plenty of holes were going to play downwind. I tried not to get too frustrated. The first four holes into the wind are a beast. I knew if I could hang on and be patient, there would be a lot of opportunities.
“I was able to grab a lot of them on the back nine.”
And that started with a par. She was quick on a chip from just off the 13th green and watched it run some 12 feet by the hole. Ko made the par putt, and she was off and running, making four straight birdies. It helped that two were par-fives.
Korda gave up an easy birdie chance on the par-five 17th when she drove it so long she had only 159 yards left. But she came up well short and failed to get up-and-down. That was a product of what she referred to as getting fooled too often by the end.
Korda had a chance at all the awards last year until Jin Young Ko beat her, making it the third straight year the South Korean star had won at Tiburon.
Making it four in a row will be difficult. Jin Young Ko opened with a 72 as she continues to deal with an ailing left wrist.
Watch the CME Group Tour Championship throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage continues Friday from 7pm live on Sky Sports Golf and – for free – on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel.
Nov 14 (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump did not show up for deposition testimony before the congressional committee investigating his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol last year, the panel said on Monday.
In doing so Trump defied a subpoena issued by the panel in October, Chair Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, and co-Chair Liz Cheney, a Republican, said in a joint statement.
“The truth is that Donald Trump, like several of his closest allies, is hiding from the Select Committee’s investigation and refusing to do what more than a thousand other witnesses have done,” Thompson and Cheney said.
The panel did not say what next steps they might pursue against Trump. Thompson told the New York Times in an interview that he would not rule out seeking contempt of Congress charges against the former president.
“That could be an option. And we’ll have to wait and see,” Thomson told the Times. “The first thing we’ll do is see how we address the lawsuit. At some point after that, we’ll decide the path forward.”
Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to avoid having to testify or provide any documentation to the Jan. 6 committee.
The congressional committee has held a series of hearings as it seeks to make its case to the public that Trump provoked his supporters into storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while lawmakers met to formally declare his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The subpoena ordered Trump to submit documents to the panel by Nov. 4 and for him to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about Nov. 14.
On Nov. 4, it said it had agreed to give Trump an extension before producing the documents but the Nov. 14 deadline remained in place.
Republicans are expected to dissolve the panel if they win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the mid-term elections.
Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler
TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Britain and the euro zone economies are likely to tip into recession next year, Morgan Stanley said, but the United States might make a narrow escape thanks to a resilient job market.
At the same time, China’s expected reopening after almost three years of COVID-19 curbs is set to lead a recovery in its own economy and other emerging Asian markets, the investment bank’s analysts said in a series of reports published on Sunday.
“Risks are to the downside,” the reports said, projecting the global economy to grow by 2.2% next year, lower than the International Monetary Fund’s latest 2.7% growth estimate. read more
Next year, Morgan Stanley predicts a sharp split between developed economies “in or near recession” while emerging economies “recover modestly” but said an overall global pickup would likely remain elusive. China’s economy was predicted to grow 5% in 2023, outpacing the average 3.7% growth expected for emerging markets, while the average growth in the Group of 10 developed countries was forecast at just 0.3%.
Central banks across the globe have raised interest rates this year to curb raging inflation, and in the United States, Morgan Stanley predicted the Federal Reserve to keep rates high in 2023 as inflation remains strong after peaking in the fourth quarter of this year.
“The U.S. economy just skirts recession in 2023, but the landing doesn’t feel so soft as job growth slows meaningfully and the unemployment rate continues to rise,” the report said, predicting a 0.5% expansion next year.
“The cumulative effect of tight policy in 2023 spills over into 2024, resulting in two very weak years,” the report added.
Globally too, the peak in inflation should come in the current quarter, the analysts said, “with disinflation driving the narrative next year”.
U.S. core inflation to fall to 2.9% at end-2023, headline inflation to 1.9%
Asia growth to dip to 3.4% in 1H23 before recovering to 4.6% in 2H23, fuelled by domestic demand
Cross-asset returns – especially in fixed income – will look much better in 2023 than in 2022, driven by cheaper starting valuations
High-grade fixed income to outperform global equities
EM and Japan stocks to outperform, with U.S. shares lagging
Reporting by Kevin Buckland, editing by Miral Fahmy
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. Congress aim to pass bills protecting same-sex marriage, clarifying lawmakers’ role in certifying presidential elections and raising the nation’s debt ceiling when they return from the campaign trail on Monday.
President Joe Biden’s party got a boost over the weekend when it learned it would keep control of the Senate for the next two years, while control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air as votes are counted after Tuesday’s midterm election.
But Democrats escaped a feared midterm drubbing and will look to make the most they can of their current thin majorities in both chambers before the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, a period known as the ‘lame duck’ session.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both signaled that addressing the nations’ looming debt ceiling would be a priority during the session.
Some Republicans have threatened to use the next hike in the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, expected in the first quarter of 2023, as leverage to force concessions from Biden. Yellen in a Saturday interview with Reuters warned that a failure to act would pose a “huge threat” to America’s credit rating and the functioning of financial markets.
Pelosi, who would lose her position as speaker if Republicans win a majority in the House, told ABC News on Sunday that the best way to address the debt ceiling was “to do it now.”
“My hope would be that we could get it done in the lame duck,” Pelosi said. “We’ll have to, again, lift the debt ceiling so that the full faith and credit of the United States is respected.”
Biden told reporters over the weekend he would wait to speak to Republican leadership before deciding any priorities, adding he planned to “take it slow.”
Congress has a long to-do list in the coming weeks. It faces a Dec. 16 deadline to passing either a temporary funding bill to keep government agencies operating at full steam until early next year, or a measure that keeps the lights on through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Failure to enact one of those would result in partial government shutdowns.
[1/5] Members-elect from the upcoming 118th congress arrive at the U.S. Capitol building for orientation in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis
The House already has passed legislation legalizing gay marriage and the Senate was poised, as soon as this week, to approve its slightly different version of the “Respect for Marriage Act.” The bill is intended to ensure that the U.S. Supreme Court does not end gay marriage rights, which conservative Justice Clarence Thomas mused was possible when the court in June ended the national right to abortion.
Another high-priority item is a bipartisan bill reforming the way Congress certifies presidential elections, intended to avoid a repeat of the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump who wanted to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden’s win.
Democratic leaders also aim to pass legislation speeding permits for energy projects and provide more financial and military support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
Some Republicans have expressed reluctance to provide more financial support for Ukraine.
Progressive Democrats have bridled at the prospect of the government stepping up the energy permitting process, thus encouraging the flow of fossil fuels to market even as Biden attempts to meet stringent goals to reduce the impact of climate change.
Biden has suggested permitting reform could be included in the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill funding the military that usually gets strong bipartisan support.
But keeping the Senate majority for the next two years means that there will be less pressure on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to confirm as many of Biden’s nominees for federal judgeships as possible before the end of the year.
There are 57 judicial nominees pending before the Senate, with 25 already approved by the Judiciary Committee and awaiting action by the full chamber.
The Senate has already confirmed 84 of Biden’s judicial nominees, allowing him to essentially keep pace with the near-record number of appointments Trump made during four years as he worked to move the judiciary rightward.
Reporting by Moira Warburton and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by David Lawder in New Delhi, Nandita Bose in Phnom Penh and Trevor Hunnicutt, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis
Nov 14 (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly on Monday called for Russia to be held accountable for its conduct in Ukraine, voting to approve a resolution recognizing that Russia must be responsible for making reparations to the country.
The resolution, supported by 94 of the assembly’s 193 members, said Russia, which invaded its neighbor in February, “must bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts.”
The resolution recommends that member states, in cooperation with Ukraine, create an international register to record evidence and claims against Russia.
General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the resolution an “important” one.
“The reparations that Russia will have to pay for what it has done are now part of the international legal reality,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Kyiv’s Ambassador to the U.N. Sergiy Kyslytsya told the General Assembly before the vote that Russia has targeted everything from factories to residential buildings and hospitals.
“Ukraine will have the daunting task of rebuilding the country and recovering from this war, but that recovery will never be complete without a sense of justice for the victims of the Russian war. It is time to hold Russia accountable,” Kyslytsya said.
The United Nations headquarters building is pictured with a UN logo in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly before the vote that the provisions of the resolution are “legally null and void” as he urged countries to vote against it.
“The West is trying to draw out and worsen the conflict and plans to use Russian money for it,” Nebenzia said.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said on the Telegram messaging app that the “Anglo-Saxons are clearly trying to scrape together a legal basis for the illegal seizure of Russian assets.”
Fourteen countries voted against the resolution, including Russia, China and Iran, while 73 abstained, including Brazil, India and South Africa. Not all member states voted.
In March, 141 members of the General Assembly voted to denounce Russia’s invasion, and 143 in October voted to condemn Moscow’s attempted annexation of parts of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy on Saturday said Russian forces destroyed critical infrastructure in the strategic southern city of Kherson before fleeing. Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, although the invasion has reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble and killed or wounded thousands.
“It will take a broad international effort to support Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction in order to build a safe and prosperous future for the Ukrainian people,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the assembly.
“But only one country, Russia, is responsible for the damage to Ukraine, and it is absolutely right, as this resolution sets out, that Russia pay for that damage.”
Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu in WASHINGTON; Additional reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; editing by Grant McCool
Burns to warn Russia’s spy chief not to use nuclear weapons
Burns also due to raise issue of U.S. prisoners
Kremlin confirm a U.S.-Russia meeting took place in Turkey
LONDON/WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns was expected to caution President Vladimir Putin’s spy chief at talks on Monday about the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and to raise the issue of U.S. prisoners in Russia, a White House official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that a U.S.-Russia meeting had taken place in the Turkish capital Ankara but declined to give details about the participants or the subjects discussed.
The White House spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Burns was meeting Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service.
It was the first known high-level, face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
“He is not conducting negotiations of any kind. He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
“He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability … He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained U.S. citizens.”
Burns is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who was sent to Moscow in late 2021 by President Joe Biden to caution Putin about the troop build-up around Ukraine.
“We briefed Ukraine in advance on his trip. We firmly stick to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
Putin has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked. He says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia.
MANY OUTSTANDING ISSUES
The remarks raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared in September that it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces partly control.
The U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey was first reported by Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. The SVR did not respond to a request for comment.
Beyond the war, Russia and the United States have a host of outstanding issues to discuss, ranging from the extension of a nuclear arms reduction treaty and a Black Sea grain deal to a possible prisoner swap and the Syrian civil war.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, asked at a summit of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies in Indonesia about the meeting in Turkey, said the United Nations was not involved.
Biden said this month he hoped Putin would be willing to discuss seriously a swap to secure the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drugs charges.
Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in a Russian jail after being convicted of spying, a charge he denied.
Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States, has been mentioned as a person who could be swapped for Griner and Whelan in any prisoner exchange.
Reporting by Reuters; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in Turkey; Editing by Gareth Jones
Nov 14 (Reuters) – A suspect in a shooting at the University of Virginia that left three members of the University of Virginia football team dead was in custody on Monday, hours after he allegedly opened fire on a bus full of students returning from a field trip.
University police said during a news conference that the suspect, student Christopher Darnell Jones, 22, was arrested hours after the shooting that unfolded at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday (0330 GMT on Monday) at the school in Charlottesville, Virginia, attended by 25,000 students.
Minutes after the shooting, school officials issued alerts on social media telling students and staff to shelter in place with one tweet saying to “RUN HIDE FIGHT.” The sprawling campus remained on alert throughout the night and morning as law enforcement officers conducted a massive manhunt for Jones.
University President Jim Ryan identified the slain students as Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis and D’Sean Perry.
Chandler and Perry died on the scene, while Davis died of his wounds at a hospital. Two other students were wounded and taken to UVA Medical Center, where one is in good condition and another in critical condition, University Police Chief Tim Longo said.
The shooting unfolded on a bus full of students after it pulled into a parking garage on campus, Ryan said. The students had just returned from a class field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C.
Jones was armed with a handgun, Longo said.
Jones, who was apprehended off campus, was held on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, Longo said. It was unclear how he was taken into custody.
[1/6] A handout picture shows college football player Lavel Davis Jr. who was killed in a shooting attack at the University of Virginia, in this undated handout. University of Virginia/Handout via REUTERS
‘HEARTBROKEN’
Jones, who was listed as a player on the school’s football team in 2018, came to the attention of the University of Virginia’s threat assessment team in the fall of 2022, according to Longo. In September 2022, the Office of Student Affairs reported to the team that it received information Jones had made a comment about possessing a gun to a person that was unaffiliated with the university, though no threat was made.
During an investigation, the person said they never saw the gun, and Jones’ roommate reported that he never saw the presence of a weapon.
The investigation was later closed because the witnesses would not participate with the process, he said.
Ryan said in a letter posted on social media hours after the shooting that he was “heartbroken,” and added that classes were canceled for the day.
“This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” he wrote.
The shooting was the latest episode of gun violence on U.S. college and high school campuses. The bloodshed has fueled debate over tighter restrictions on access to guns in the United States, where the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms.
A 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, about 150 miles (241 km) southwest of Charlottesville, left 33 people dead, including the shooter, and 23 injured in one of the deadliest college mass shootings in U.S. history.
(This story has been corrected to add Davis’ name in fifth paragraph)
Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Toby Chopra, Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Aurora Ellis
LONDON/WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Thousands of smartphone applications in Apple (AAPL.O) and Google’s (GOOGL.O) online stores contain computer code developed by a technology company, Pushwoosh, that presents itself as based in the United States, but is actually Russian, Reuters has found.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States’ main agency for fighting major health threats, said it had been deceived into believing Pushwoosh was based in the U.S. capital. After learning about its Russian roots from Reuters, it removed Pushwoosh software from seven public-facing apps, citing security concerns.
The U.S. Army said it had removed an app containing Pushwoosh code in March because of the same concerns. That app was used by soldiers at one of the country’s main combat training bases.
According to company documents publicly filed in Russia and reviewed by Reuters, Pushwoosh is headquartered in the Siberian town of Novosibirsk, where it is registered as a software company that also carries out data processing. It employs around 40 people and reported revenue of 143,270,000 rubles ($2.4 mln) last year. Pushwoosh is registered with the Russian government to pay taxes in Russia.
On social media and in U.S. regulatory filings, however, it presents itself as a U.S. company, based at various times in California, Maryland and Washington, D.C., Reuters found.
Pushwoosh provides code and data processing support for software developers, enabling them to profile the online activity of smartphone app users and send tailor-made push notifications from Pushwoosh servers.
On its website, Pushwoosh says it does not collect sensitive information, and Reuters found no evidence Pushwoosh mishandled user data. Russian authorities, however, have compelled local companies to hand over user data to domestic security agencies.
Pushwoosh’s founder, Max Konev, told Reuters in a September email that the company had not tried to mask its Russian origins. “I am proud to be Russian and I would never hide this.”
Pushwoosh published a blog post after the Reuters article was issued, which said: “Pushwoosh Inc. is a privately held C-Corp company incorporated under the state laws of Delaware, USA. Pushwoosh Inc. was never owned by any company registered in the Russian Federation.”
The company also said in the post, “Pushwoosh Inc. used to outsource development parts of the product to the Russian company in Novosibirsk, mentioned in the article. However, in February 2022, Pushwoosh Inc. terminated the contract.”
After Pushwoosh published its post, Reuters asked Pushwoosh to provide evidence for its assertions, but the news agency’s requests went unanswered.
Konev said the company “has no connection with the Russian government of any kind” and stores its data in the United States and Germany.
Cybersecurity experts said storing data overseas would not prevent Russian intelligence agencies from compelling a Russian firm to cede access to that data, however.
Russia, whose ties with the West have deteriorated since its takeover of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine this year, is a global leader in hacking and cyber-espionage, spying on foreign governments and industries to seek competitive advantage, according to Western officials.
Reuters Graphics
HUGE DATABASE
Pushwoosh code was installed in the apps of a wide array of international companies, influential non-profits and government agencies from global consumer goods company Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to the politically powerful U.S. gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and Britain’s Labour Party.
Pushwoosh’s business with U.S. government agencies and private companies could violate contracting and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) laws or trigger sanctions, 10 legal experts told Reuters. The FBI, U.S. Treasury and the FTC declined to comment.
Jessica Rich, former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said “this type of case falls right within the authority of the FTC,” which cracks down on unfair or deceptive practices affecting U.S. consumers.
Washington could choose to impose sanctions on Pushwoosh and has broad authority to do so, sanctions experts said, including possibly through a 2021 executive order that gives the United States the ability to target Russia’s technology sector over malicious cyber activity.
Pushwoosh code has been embedded into almost 8,000 apps in the Google and Apple app stores, according to Appfigures, an app intelligence website. Pushwoosh’s website says it has more than 2.3 billion devices listed in its database.
“Pushwoosh collects user data including precise geolocation, on sensitive and governmental apps, which could allow for invasive tracking at scale,” said Jerome Dangu, co-founder of Confiant, a firm that tracks misuse of data collected in online advertising supply chains.
“We haven’t found any clear sign of deceptive or malicious intent in Pushwoosh’s activity, which certainly doesn’t diminish the risk of having app data leaking to Russia,” he added.
Google said privacy was a “huge focus” for the company but did not respond to requests for comment about Pushwoosh. Apple said it takes user trust and safety seriously but similarly declined to answer questions.
Keir Giles, a Russia expert at London think tank Chatham House, said despite international sanctions on Russia, a “substantial number” of Russian companies were still trading abroad and collecting people’s personal data.
Given Russia’s domestic security laws, “it shouldn’t be a surprise that with or without direct links to Russian state espionage campaigns, firms that handle data will be keen to play down their Russian roots,” he said.
‘SECURITY ISSUES’
After Reuters raised Pushwoosh’s Russian links with the CDC, the health agency removed the code from its apps because “the company presents a potential security concern,” spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said.
“CDC believed Pushwoosh was a company based in the Washington, D.C. area,” Nordlund said in a statement. The belief was based on “representations” made by the company, she said, without elaborating.
The CDC apps that contained Pushwoosh code included the agency’s main app and others set up to share information on a wide range of health concerns. One was for doctors treating sexually transmitted diseases. While the CDC also used the company’s notifications for health matters such as COVID, the agency said it “did not share user data with Pushwoosh.”
The Army told Reuters it removed an app containing Pushwoosh in March, citing “security issues.” It did not say how widely the app, which was an information portal for use at its National Training Center (NTC) in California, had been used by troops.
The NTC is a major battle training center in the Mojave Desert for pre-deployment soldiers, meaning a data breach there could reveal upcoming overseas troop movements.
U.S. Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said the Army had suffered no “operational loss of data,” adding that the app did not connect to the Army network.
Some large companies and organizations including UEFA and Unilever said third parties set up the apps for them, or they thought they were hiring a U.S. company.
“We don’t have a direct relationship with Pushwoosh,” Unilever said in a statement, adding that Pushwoosh was removed from one of its apps “some time ago.”
UEFA said its contract with Pushwoosh was “with a U.S. company.” UEFA declined to say if it knew of Pushwoosh’s Russian ties but said it was reviewing its relationship with the company after being contacted by Reuters.
The NRA said its contract with the company ended last year, and it was “not aware of any issues.”
Britain’s Labour Party did not respond to requests for comment.
“The data Pushwoosh collects is similar to data that could be collected by Facebook, Google or Amazon, but the difference is that all the Pushwoosh data in the U.S. is sent to servers controlled by a company (Pushwoosh) in Russia,” said Zach Edwards, a security researcher, who first spotted the prevalence of Pushwoosh code while working for Internet Safety Labs, a nonprofit organization.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state communications regulator, did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
FAKE ADDRESS, FAKE PROFILES
In U.S. regulatory filings and on social media, Pushwoosh never mentions its Russian links. The company lists “Washington, D.C.” as its location on Twitter and claims its office address as a house in the suburb of Kensington, Maryland, according to its latest U.S. corporation filings submitted to Delaware’s secretary of state. It also lists the Maryland address on its Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
The Kensington house is the home of a Russian friend of Konev’s who spoke to a Reuters journalist on condition of anonymity. He said he had nothing to do with Pushwoosh and had only agreed to allow Konev to use his address to receive mail.
Konev said Pushwoosh had begun using the Maryland address to “receive business correspondence” during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said he now operates Pushwoosh from Thailand but provided no evidence that it is registered there. Reuters could not find a company by that name in the Thai company registry.
Pushwoosh never mentioned it was Russian-based in eight annual filings in the U.S. state of Delaware, where it is registered, an omission which could violate state law.
Instead, Pushwoosh listed an address in Union City, California as its principal place of business from 2014 to 2016. That address does not exist, according to Union City officials.
Pushwoosh used LinkedIn accounts purportedly belonging to two Washington, D.C.-based executives named Mary Brown and Noah O’Shea to solicit sales. But neither Brown nor O’Shea are real people, Reuters found.
The one belonging to Brown was actually of an Austria-based dance teacher, taken by a photographer in Moscow, who told Reuters she had no idea how it ended up on the site.
Konev acknowledged the accounts were not genuine. He said Pushwoosh hired a marketing agency in 2018 to create them in an attempt to use social media to sell Pushwoosh, not to mask the company’s Russian origins.
LinkedIn said it had removed the accounts after being alerted by Reuters.
Reporting by James Pearson in London and Marisa Taylor in Washington
Additional reporting by Chris Bing in Washington, editing by Chris Sanders and Ross Colvin
Both leaders stress need to get ties back on track
Indonesia seeks partnerships on global economy at G20
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy to address G20 on Tuesday
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Nov 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping engaged in blunt talks over Taiwan and North Korea on Monday in a three-hour meeting aimed at preventing strained U.S.-China ties from spilling into a new Cold War.
Amid simmering differences on human rights, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and support of domestic industry, the two leaders pledged more frequent communications. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing for follow-up talks.
“We’re going to compete vigorously. But I’m not looking for conflict, I’m looking to manage this competition responsibly,” Biden said after his talks with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Beijing has long said it would bring the self-governed island of Taiwan, which it views as an inalienable part of China, under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so. It has frequently accused the United States in recent years of encouraging Taiwan independence.
In a statement after their meeting, Xi called Taiwan the “first red line” that must not be crossed in U.S.-China relations, Chinese state media said.
Biden said he sought to assure Xi that U.S. policy on Taiwan, which has for decades been to support both Beijing’s ‘One China’ stance and Taiwan’s military, had not changed.
He said there was no need for a new Cold War, and that he did not think China was planning a hot one.
“I do not think there’s any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan,” he told reporters.
On North Korea, Biden said it was hard to know whether Beijing had any influence over Pyongyang weapons testing. “Well, first of all, it’s difficult to say that I am certain that China can control North Korea,” he said.
Biden said he told Xi the United States would do what it needs to do to defend itself and allies South Korea and Japan, which could be “maybe more up in the face of China” though not directed against it.
“We would have to take certain actions that would be more defensive on our behalf… to send a clear message to North Korea. We are going to defend our allies, as well as American soil and American capacity,” he said.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said before the meeting that Biden would warn Xi about the possibility of enhanced U.S. military presence in the region, something Beijing is not keen to see.
Beijing had halted a series of formal dialogue channels with Washington, including on climate change and military-to-military talks, after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi upset China by visiting Taiwan in August.
Biden and Xi agreed to allow senior officials to renew communication on climate, debt relief and other issues, the White House said after they spoke.
Xi’s statement after the talks included pointed warnings on Taiwan.
[1/7] U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference following his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit, in Bali, Indonesia, November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
“The Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations,” Xi was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
“Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese and China’s internal affair,” Xi said, according to state media.
Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over it.
Taiwan’s presidential office said it welcomed Biden’s reaffirmation of U.S. policy. “This also once again fully demonstrates that the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait is the common expectation of the international community,” it said.
SMILES AND HANDSHAKES
Before their talks, the two leaders smiled and shook hands warmly in front of their national flags at a hotel on Indonesia’s Bali island, a day before a Group of 20 (G20) summit set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s just great to see you,” Biden told Xi, as he put an arm around him before their meeting.
Biden brought up a number of difficult topics with Xi, according to the White House, including raising U.S. objections to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan,” Beijing’s “non-market economic practices,” and practices in “Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly.”
Neither leader wore a mask to ward off COVID-19, although members of their delegations did.
U.S.-China relations have been roiled in recent years by growing tensions over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, trade practices, and U.S. restrictions on Chinese technology.
But U.S. officials said there have been quiet efforts by both Beijing and Washington over the past two months to repair relations.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters in Bali earlier that the meeting aimed to stabilise the relationship and to create a “more certain atmosphere” for U.S. businesses.
She said Biden had been clear with China about national security concerns regarding restrictions on sensitive U.S. technologies and had raised concern about the reliability of Chinese supply chains for commodities.
G20 summit host President Joko Widodo of Indonesia said he hoped the gathering on Tuesday could “deliver concrete partnerships that can help the world in its economic recovery”.
However, one of the main topics at the G20 will be Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Xi and Putin have grown close in recent years, bound by their shared distrust of the West, and reaffirmed their partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. But China has been careful not to provide any direct material support that could trigger Western sanctions against it.
Reporting by Nandita Bose, Stanley Widianto, Fransiska Nangoy, Leika Kihara, David Lawder and Simon Lewis in Nusa Dua, and Yew Lun Tian and Ryan Woo in Beijing; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Kay Johnson and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Grant McCool, Heather Timmons and Rosalba O’Brien
Police secure the scene of the shooting at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday. (Steve Helber/AP)
Chris Jones, the suspect in the shooting on the UVA’s campus, is listed on the university’s athletics website as a running back for the football team in 2018, who as a freshman did not participate in any games.
It is unclear if the site has been updated recently. UVA President Jim Ryan identified him as a student at UVA.
Jones was also a member of the National Honor Society and the National Technical Honor Society while in high school, according to his university athletics bio.
He went to Varina High School and Petersburg High School in Petersburg, Virginia, where he played linebacker and running back, his bio said.
Jones attended Varina High School for three years, “where he earned honorable mention all-conference as a freshman and second-team accolades as a sophomore and junior … member of the National Honor Society … National Technical Honor Society … president of Key Club … president of Jobs for Virginia Grads Program … named Student of the Year as a freshman and sophomore at Varina … ” his bio says.
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