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2025-01-10   

7-777 https://arab.news/7mnwp DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday that momentum had returned to talks aimed at cementing a truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza following the election of Donald Trump as US president. “We have sensed, after the election, that the momentum is coming back,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told the Doha Forum for political dialogue. The Qatari prime minister explained that while there were “some differences” in the approach to an agreement by the outgoing and incoming US administrations, “we didn’t see or recognize any disagreement on the goal itself to end the war.” The Gulf emirate, along with the United States and Egypt, had been involved in months of unsuccessful negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release after 14 months of war. But in November, Doha announced it had put its mediation on hold, saying it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness.” Sheikh Mohammed said there had been “a lot of encouragement from the incoming administration in order to achieve a deal, even before the president comes to the office,” adding this had affected the Qatari decision to get talks “back on track” over the last two weeks. “We hope to get things done as soon as possible. We hope that the willingness of the parties to engage in a good faith continues,” he said. The prime minister also brushed off the prospect of Qatar facing greater pressure over the status of its political bureau for Hamas, which the Gulf state has hosted since 2012 with the blessing of the United States. He called the office a “platform to convene between the different parties,” adding that Qatar was not “expected to enforce solutions” on the Palestinian militants. On Syria, Qatar’s prime minister said Syrian President Bashar Assad failed to engage with his people and address issues like the return of refugees during a period of calm in the country’s war. “Assad didn’t seize these opportunities to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people, and we didn’t see any serious movement, whether it’s on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said at the Doha Forum for political dialogue. Qatar — which gave early support to the opposition after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war — remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting. Sheikh Mohammed said the world had been “surprised” by the speed of a recent rapid advance by Islamist-led militants in Syria and cautioned that the situation might become “more and more dangerous,” threatening a return to a more intense level of civil war. He added such an outcome would “damage and destroy what’s left, if there is not any sense of urgency to start putting (in place) a political framework for what’s happening over there... in order to find a political solution.”None

Michael Pasquali, photographed at Electric Avenue, 1471 Main St. E. in Hamilton, Ont., is the founder of the Canadian Electric Bike Association. Lipa Islam/The Globe and Mail Shockwaves are reverberating through the e-bike industry in Canada and the United States after a year that saw several prominent brands declare bankruptcy or stop selling in the North American market, citing an inability to compete in an increasingly consolidated environment. Experts say changes that followed the industry’s unprecedented pandemic boom – from a rise in factory direct sales to rapidly evolving technology – have been devastating for independent brands. Vancouver-based DOST Bikes, California-based Juiced Bikes and iGO Electric of Montreal all declared bankruptcy or went into receivership within roughly the past year. Even global brands such as Japanese motor sports giant Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. and Swiss company Stromer recently announced they were pulling their e-bikes out of North America, citing a softened market. The speed and comfort of e-bikes set them apart from traditional bicycles, opening up the age-old mode of transport to a wider range of users. From delivery people to commuters, the resounding sentiment from most e-bike fans is it’s fun to go fast and the power assist makes long trips so much easier. In Canada, the federal standard for an e-bike’s maximum speed is 32 km/h, and range varies from about 50 to 100 kilometres. The pandemic saw e-bike sales soar, as consumers with extra time and pent-up energy splurged on devices to stay active outdoors. In 2022, the Canadian market was worth about $240-million, with about 70,000 e-bikes sold that year, according to Rize Bikes. By 2025, Rize estimates the market will reach $345-million, with more than 100,000 bikes sold annually. Prices range from $14,000 for a Stromer bike to $3,100 for an ENVO and just $600 on Amazon.com Inc. for a bike from an overseas manufacturer. But makers and retailers say the domestic industry is flatlining. While it’s nowhere near taking its last breath, the changing landscape is forcing local brands to carve out a niche for themselves just to survive, in a market that has become dominated by cheap, direct-to-consumer sales. Sam Atakhanov, the founder of multiple e-bike startups, launched DOST Bikes in 2019 – just before the industry took off. “Things were going normal. Then there was that chain of events that happened over the last few years that really crippled our industry,” he said. For Mr. Atakhanov, it all began with Apple’s release of the iOS 14 operating system in September, 2020. The update affected advertisers’ ability to reach their target audiences, which meant Mr. Atakhanov’s ads on Google weren’t working as well as they used to. Then, pandemic supply-chain disruptions threw a wrench into his company’s cash flow, bumping manufacturing lead times from three months to a year, he said. “We’re sitting here with no stock for nearly a year before the money comes in, so we’re living off of lines of credit, our own cash, investment capital. We’re digging ourselves a hole,” he said. While supply chains improved by 2022, Mr. Atakhanov said rising interest rates and a receding customer base were some of the final blows dealt to his business. Retailers had rushed to double their stock during the pandemic, but the high demand disappeared almost as quickly as it came. “Then it’s a vicious cycle, race to the bottom, everybody’s trying to offload,” Mr. Atakhanov said. The last straw for DOST Bikes was when e-bike factories overseas began bypassing local companies, like DOST, to sell directly to North American consumers, Mr. Atakhanov said. “When that happened, our value proposition for all that great design, branding, marketing, all that just went right out the window because a factory can sell for half the price.” DOST Bikes filed for insolvency in December, 2023. “It was death by a thousand cuts,” Mr. Atakhanov said. And it wasn’t unique to DOST, said Haseeb Javed, a member of the product and engineering team at electric mobility company ENVO Drive Systems in Vancouver. He conducts industry research to determine what causes companies to fail and said most of them have a story similar to DOST’s. Based upon his research, Mr. Javed said ENVO has been very careful to diversify where its products are sold so it’s not reliant on a single revenue stream. For example, the company sells through Costco Wholesale Corp., storefronts and direct to consumers online. ENVO also sells more than just e-bikes, with e-scooters, water bikes with pontoons and snow bikes with skis also in its repertoire. Mr. Javed said this helps with the company’s brand awareness. “Some business models are better for this market. But ultimately, I believe that anyone who survived, either you need to be a Chinese factory who is selling at very low margins or you need to have differentiation,” he said. Kevin McLaughlin, the CEO of Zygg E-Bikes, which operates in Toronto and Vancouver, said 2024 has been a challenging year for his subscription-based company. At Zygg, customers can rent or buy new and used e-bikes, a model that sets the company apart from stores that only sell new bikes. He said Zygg is a popular choice with food delivery workers. At the peak of the pandemic, Zygg did about $2.5-million a year in sales. This year, revenues will come in under $2-million. Amid the technological evolution of e-bikes, Mr. McLaughlin said he’s scrambling to modernize his fleet. And bikes that he bought at $2,000 and once sold for $3,000 now have a markup of just $400. “There’s enormous downward pressure,” he said. Mr. Atakhanov said his company has also had to compete with bigger brands that can afford to innovate – and market those innovations – at a much faster pace. For example, tech company DJI created an e-bike drive system that can connect to a user’s smartphone, allowing them to control things such as their bike’s lock status or power assist through an app. “My product, all of a sudden, over the weekend, looks like it’s last year’s model,” he said. While smaller companies may be struggling to keep up, the prevailing sentiment among industry players is that demand for such micromobility devices isn’t going away. Michael Pasquali, the founder of the Canadian Electric Bike Association, said people are going to continue to buy e-bikes even if the industry never again reaches the heights it did during the pandemic.The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Donovan Newby had 18 points in UNC Wilmington’s 78-69 victory over Marshall on Saturday. Newby shot 5 for 10 (0 for 3 from 3-point range) and 8 of 11 from the free-throw line for the Seahawks (7-2). Sean Moore scored 14 points while shooting 6 for 11, including 2 for 3 from beyond the arc and added 16 rebounds. Khamari McGriff shot 5 of 6 from the field and 3 for 3 from the line to finish with 13 points, while adding six rebounds. The Thundering Herd (5-4) were led in scoring by Mikal Dawson, who finished with 12 points and two steals. Marshall also got 10 points and nine rebounds from Nate Martin. Dezayne Mingo also had 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists. UNC Wilmington took the lead with 12:17 to go in the first half and did not give it up. The score was 44-34 at halftime, with Moore racking up 12 points. UNC Wilmington was outscored by Marshall in the second half by one point, with Newby scoring a team-high 12 points after halftime. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Oscar Fairs from Benfleet, Essex, was diagnosed with a rare 7cm ependymoma brain tumour in August 2023 and underwent seven surgeries, one round of chemotherapy and one round of radiotherapy to be told palliative care was the only option. A GoFundMe page was set up to help the family raise £100,000 towards a treatment trial in France. West Ham footballers donated £27,000, chairman David Sullivan donated £10,000 and Arsenal footballer and former West Ham star Declan Rice gave £5,000, according to Ms Fairs. On Friday, West Ham announced that the 15-year-old had died. Sporting director Mark Noble said: “Oscar was adored by everyone at the Academy – not only was he a great goalkeeper, he was a true Hammer and a fantastic young person, who will be deeply missed by everyone who had the pleasure to know him. “I have wonderful memories of Oscar playing in my garden – (my son) Lenny and his teammates all loved him. “He was a friendly, happy, well-mannered and polite young man, who had such a bright future ahead of him, and it is just so unimaginably devastating that he has been taken from his family and friends at this age. “The thoughts and sincere condolences of everyone at the Club are with Oscar’s parents, Natalie and Russell, and his brother Harry, and we kindly ask that the family’s privacy is respected at this extremely difficult time.” All scheduled Academy fixtures over the weekend have been postponed as a mark of respect.

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Here’s the problem with the state of the Patriots. There are too many problems to count. Talent. Coaching. Roster construction. Fundamentals. Penalties. Mixed messaging and more. So where to begin with an eye on 2025? Start here, with the definitive ranking of the Patriots’ on-field problems heading into a critical offseason where the franchise must identify and institute some solutions. 1. Offensive talent As always in the NFL, talent wins. Or, in the Patriots’ case, keeps them from competing. If it weren’t for Drake Maye, no GM in the NFL would swap rosters with the Patriots. Even with Maye, it’s a risky proposition. The Patriots don’t employ a starting-caliber offensive tackle and arguably just one starting-caliber offensive linemen. No wide receiver on this roster ranks above a No. 3 option on an average offense, or scares any defensive coordinator. Both position groups rank among the worst, if not the worst, in the NFL. No wonder the Pats are the league’s only team not to score 25 points this season. You could argue both positions need a complete overhaul over the next 12-16 months, with only one player deserving to stay in each room (Mike Onwenu and DeMario Douglas). If the Patriots’ chief problem, indeed, was coaching, they would have stumbled into a few more touchdowns by now; individual greatness breaking through surrounding mediocrity. Instead, all of their best plays have been Maye masterpieces: from the 12-second, game-tying touchdown at Tennessee; 40-yard, pinpoint touchdown to Kayshon Boutte in his starting debut versus Houston; and fourth-and-15 conversion at Miami on a wing and a prayer. That’s talent, real talent, and the only talent they can count on. 2. Development Name a player who’s demonstrated appreciable improvement this season. There’s Maye, Christian Gonzalez, and ...? Perhaps Keion White, though he has one sack since Week 2. Young safety Marte Mapu, selected right after White, has gone from playing 100% of the snaps in his season debut to multi-time healthy scratch. Another 2023 draft pick, Kayshon Boutte, has been a roller-coaster in a better statistical season. None of the offensive linemen have progressed. That’s on coaching. 3. Defensive coaching Even during the dog days of the Bill Belichick era, you could always bank on a sturdy defense. Jerod Mayo promised that would continue in September, gloating about how the Patriots would “always have a good run defense” after they upset Cincinnati in Week 1. Let’s check on that. The Pats’ run defense ranks 29th by DVOA, 21st in yards allowed per game and 20th by EPA. The Patriots have been failed by their coaches on this side of the ball more than offense, for the simple fact there is more talent available to them. Not to mention the missed tackles, poor angles and constant cycle of communication issues that dogged them as recently as last weekend. Never before have the Patriots suffered from so many fundamental breakdowns this late in the season. Not to mention, the secondary packs plenty of talent; from Gonzalez, Kyle Dugger, Jabrill Peppers and others. It’s a new era with new problems that start with Mayo and rookie defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington. 4. Defensive talent Gonzalez is the lone blue-chip talent on the defensive depth chart, and even an elite cornerback can’t stop the Pats from plummeting into the bottom five of the league by advanced metrics like DVOA and EPA. Even by more basic measures, like points allowed per drive and turnover percentage, the Pats rank bottom 10. They stink. Christian Barmore’s blood clots have been an unfortunate health scare for him, and bad bounce for the team. Barmore and Gonzalez are the only tentpole players on this side of the ball, with White’s trajectory still unclear and veterans like Dugger, Peppers, Ja’Whaun Bentley and Jahlani Tavai are closer to above average than Pro Bowl-caliber. Meanwhile, front-seven players like Daniel Ekuale, Anfernee Jennings, Christian Elliss and Jeremiah Pharms Jr. are being asked to play all three downs and surpassing career highs in snaps. And don’t forget Raekwon McMillan (released), Joshua Uche (traded), Jaquelin Roy (street free agent) and Sione Takitaki, who have all played at least 15% of snaps this season. It should be better than this, but the ceiling was never as high as once believed. 5. Game management I had no clue how the Patriots arrived at their game plans to win in Arizona, especially coming off a bye. Countless screens on offense, which kept Maye’s rocket arm in its holster, and a season-low blitz rate for the NFL’s worst quarterback against the blitz. That wasn’t the first set of head-scratching plans we’ve seen this season. Van Pelt’s conservative play-calling is, to a small degree, understandable given issues with pass protection. But the predictability is a problem, as is Mayo’s overly cautious game management. Too few fourth-down attempts and too many punts and long field goal tries. The Patriots must chase winning, not wait for it to fall into their laps. 6. Culture The starting left tackle quit on the team. The new veteran wide receiver left midseason in a “mutual decision.” Several receivers have expressed dismay over the play-calling, including two-time offender Boutte as recently as last weekend. Veteran defenders have called each other out, while Mayo shields that unit from criticism and goes in on his offense. Asked why the defense has fallen so far this season, Mayo chalked up the Patriots’ struggles to injuries Monday on WEEI. “I would say early on, we felt pretty good about the (defenders) we had out there. You look at the first game... you had (Ja’Whuan) Bentley out there... you had the safeties rolling... Obviously (Christian) Barmore wasn’t there... those things have obviously hurt us,” Mayo said. “Now, not making excuses and the other guys have definitely stepped up and tried to fill those roles, but those things definitely take a toll and just gotta be better.” Where is the accountability? Or lessons learned? 7. Infrastructure Take it from the players. The Patriots ranked 29th out of 32 organizations, per the NFLPA Report Card released last February. The report card, otherwise known as a player survey about working conditions, specifically hammered their weight room (F grade), ownership (D-plus) and training staff and training room. The Patriots also ranked dead last in cash spending over the 10 years prior to Mayo taking over as head coach and Eliot Wolf as de facto GM. 8. Offseason errors Ostensibly, Eliot Wolf’s goal last spring was to reset in Year 1 of a rebuild. Offload bad contracts, dump veterans who won’t play and trigger a youth movement while stockpiling draft picks. Wolf had some hits: signing Antonio Gibson and Austin Hooper in free agency, and netting Drake Maye atop the draft. Hitting on Maye means more than any combination of signings or draft picks will for the foreseeable future. That’s the power of the quarterback position, and specifically franchise quarterbacks. But Maye, so far, is the only hit in a draft, which has cause for concern moving forward. For example, if the Patriots had stuck at No. 34 overall in the second round and selected Ladd McConkey, the whole season trajectory may have changed. McConkey has thrived with similar opportunity in Los Angeles, where the Chargers’ receiving corps is just as unthreatening as the Patriots. Instead, the Pats moved back and took Ja’Lynn Polk. Through 14 games, Polk has a dozen catches, still can’t run his routes consistently enough and is mired in a historically bad rookie season. Meanwhile, the Pats still don’t have any answers or even insights into their other rookies from Caedan Wallace to Javon Baker, Layden Robinson, Marcellas Dial and Joe Milton. Not to mention, Wolf failed to rebuild the same offensive line that undercut the Patriots’ 2023 season, and has since been charged with protecting Maye, the face of the franchise. Stocking that position with mid-round picks and low-level free agents was inexcusable in real time. 9. Desirability The Patriots hired the 12th candidate they interviewed for their offensive coordinator position last January. Calvin Ridley passed on the Pats as a free agent in March. Brandon Aiyuk shot down a trade to New England in August. If the Patriots fire Mayo and/or a coordinator or two next month, who wants to work for such a fickle ownership group as this? Who wants to play here? Maye, unfortunately, is the only selling point, aside from whatever bags of cash the Patriots intend to send at their free-agent targets this spring. 10. Media missteps As others have noted, ex-Patriots assistant Joe Judge once talked his way out of being the head coach of the Giants by pairing disastrous play with equally disastrous press conferences at the end his second season. Mayo may be walking a similar path. Mayo has walked back several comments this season, after calling out his team, offensive coordinator and delivered mixed messages about his quarterbacks. He’s also made innumerable excuses for his defense. This has exacerbated his poor performance, which was to be expected to a degree, considering Mayo had only coached for five years before this season. Mayo appears to have a grip on this lately, keeping all answers short and varying degrees of salty during his last press conference on Friday morning. Smart move. But will it be too little, too late?

Tharimmune Announces $2.02 Million Private Placement to Advance Development ProgramsNate Johnson scores 25 as Akron defeats Alabama State 97-78Oscar Fairs from Benfleet, Essex, was diagnosed with a rare 7cm ependymoma brain tumour in August 2023 and underwent seven surgeries, one round of chemotherapy and one round of radiotherapy to be told palliative care was the only option. A GoFundMe page was set up to help the family raise £100,000 towards a treatment trial in France. West Ham footballers donated £27,000, chairman David Sullivan donated £10,000 and Arsenal footballer and former West Ham star Declan Rice gave £5,000, according to Ms Fairs. On Friday, West Ham announced that the 15-year-old had died. Sporting director Mark Noble said: “Oscar was adored by everyone at the Academy – not only was he a great goalkeeper, he was a true Hammer and a fantastic young person, who will be deeply missed by everyone who had the pleasure to know him. “I have wonderful memories of Oscar playing in my garden – (my son) Lenny and his teammates all loved him. “He was a friendly, happy, well-mannered and polite young man, who had such a bright future ahead of him, and it is just so unimaginably devastating that he has been taken from his family and friends at this age. “The thoughts and sincere condolences of everyone at the Club are with Oscar’s parents, Natalie and Russell, and his brother Harry, and we kindly ask that the family’s privacy is respected at this extremely difficult time.” All scheduled Academy fixtures over the weekend have been postponed as a mark of respect.

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