LAS VEGAS — There are a whole lot of big buildings that have been built along the Las Vegas Strip off the backs of visitors who have lost. The Raiders play just off the Strip, but the Browns are just the latest to leave Sin City a loser this afternoon.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson was sacked on fourth-and-3 from the Raiders 9 by Las Vegas’ Charles Snowden with 35 seconds remaining. That was the final nail in the coffin of a 20-16 Raiders win.

The Browns had first-and-10 at the Raiders 16 coming out of the two-minute warning. Watson and center Nick Harris had a miscommunication on the snap, leading to a 7-yard loss.

KUALA LUMPUR: Although AirAsia is thriving in key ASEAN countries, AirAsia’s continued difficulty in obtaining an operating license in Singapore highlights a key challenge in the aviation sector – the conflict between national protectionism and the need for open competition.

In addition to Malaysia, AirAsia operates in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia.

However, the low-cost airline has already had to face rejection from the island state three times.

Associate Professor Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian, an economist at the Malaysian Institute of Aeronautical Technology, University of Kuala Lumpur (Aerospace), advocates the establishment of AirAsia Singapore and AirAsia’s sourcing of aviation companies in Singapore.

“The open market concept should be adopted by ASEAN countries, where consumers would have endless flight options and the subsequent price war would be regulated by market forces, which would benefit consumers,” he recently told Bernama.

He said aviation is a dynamic ecosystem where technology, methods, regulations, pricing and other factors evolve every 10 to 15 years or less.

This often leads to workforce shifts as employees seek positions with organizations that value their experience and expertise in line with the technological skills acquired through the evolutionary process.

In the interest of legal and economic justice and to promote an open and free market in the ASEAN region, he stressed that it is convenient and in the interests of ASEAN for Singapore to host international companies and thereby create a competitive aviation ecosystem in the region.

“I support (AirAsia’s Group Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri) Tony Fernandes’ view that it is essential for consumers to have multiple options for airline services.”

“This would lead to a competitive aviation ecosystem where airlines would improve their flight services and offer consumers unique packages to choose from,” he said.

Additionally, he believes that airlines would become more relevant in terms of consumer orientation, which would be beneficial for the aviation industry.

There are currently four Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders based in Singapore: Singapore Airlines Ltd, Jetstar Asia Airways Pte Ltd, Scoot Pte Ltd and ST Engineering Defense Aviation Services Pte Ltd.

Earlier this month, BBN Airlines Indonesia, a cargo airline, was reported to have received a Foreign Operator Permit (FOP) from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).

Additionally, questions arose after SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) recently signed a 15-year deal with Khazanah Nasional’s subsidiary Impeccable Vintage Properties to lease two hangars at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang.

Tony expressed his support for SIAEC’s presence in Malaysia, pointing out the potential benefits for the country and the economy, but called for fairness regarding the lack of approval for AirAsia Singapore.

In a recent post on LinkedIn, Tony also called for transparency from SIAEC regarding Malaysian Airlines Bhd’s (MAS) recent engineering recruitment, stating that less than 10 percent of SIAEC’s new hires were from MAS’s engineering division.

Endau Analytics founder and aviation analyst Shukor Yusof pointed out that Malaysia has been producing highly skilled aviation talent for decades, but many have been lost to Gulf airlines, not just Singapore.

“There is no shortage of local talent in engineering. How to keep them happy in Malaysia with local airlines is another matter and no solution has been found. This applies to all industries, across all races,” he said.

Solving this problem requires honesty and a willingness to change, because the longer you let it fester, the worse it gets.

Perhaps cooperation with educational institutions to create special training programs between the two countries could also ensure a steady supply of qualified specialists.

It is time not only for Singapore but also for other countries in the region to rethink their stance and embrace the spirit of ASEAN integration. -Bernama

Both futures and options are derivative instruments, meaning they derive their value from an underlying asset or instrument. Both futures and options have their own advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages of options is obvious. An options contract gives the contract buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset or financial instrument at a fixed price on or before a predetermined future month. This means that the maximum risk for the buyer of an option is limited to the premium paid.

But futures have some significant advantages over options. A futures contract is a binding agreement between a buyer and a seller to buy or sell an asset or financial instrument at a fixed price in a predetermined month in the future. Although they are not for everyone, they are well suited to certain investments and certain types of investors.

1. Successful investment

Futures may not be the best way to trade stocks, for example, but they are a great way to trade certain assets such as commodities, currencies and indices. Their standardized features and very high leverage make them particularly interesting for risk-tolerant private investors. The high leverage allows these investors to participate in markets that they may not otherwise have had access to.

2. Fixed upfront trading costs

Margin requirements for key commodity and currency futures are well known, having remained relatively unchanged for years. Margin requirements may be temporarily increased if an asset is particularly volatile. However, in most cases they remain unchanged from year to year. This means that a trader knows in advance how much must be deposited as an initial deposit.

On the other hand, the options premium paid by an options buyer can vary significantly depending on the volatility of the underlying asset and the broader market. The more volatile the underlying asset or the broader market, the higher the premium paid by the option buyer.

3. No time decay

This is a key advantage of futures over options. Options waste assets, meaning their value decreases over time – a phenomenon known as time decay. A number of factors affect the time expiration of an option, one of the most important being the time to expiration. An options trader must pay attention to time decay as it can significantly impact the profitability of an options position or turn a winning position into a losing position.

Futures, on the other hand, do not have to contend with time decay.

4. Liquidity

This is another big advantage of futures over options. Most futures markets are very deep and liquid, especially for the most commonly traded commodities, currencies and indices. This results in tight bid-ask spreads and gives traders confidence that they can enter and exit positions as needed.

On the other hand, options may not always have sufficient liquidity, especially for options that are far from the strike price or expire far in the future.

5. Simple pricing

Futures pricing is intuitively easy to understand. Under the cost-of-carry pricing model, the futures price should be equal to the current spot price plus the cost of transporting (or storing) the underlying asset until the futures contract matures. If the spot and futures prices do not match, arbitrage activity would occur and resolve the imbalance.

Options pricing, on the other hand, is generally based on the Black-Scholes model, which uses a number of inputs and is notoriously difficult to understand for the average investor.

The conclusion

While the advantages of options over futures are well documented, the advantages of futures over options include their suitability for trading specific assets, fixed upfront trading costs, lack of time decay, liquidity, and a simpler pricing model.

Investopedia does not provide tax, investment or financial services and advice. The information is presented without taking into account the investment objectives, risk tolerance or financial circumstances of any particular investor and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance does not provide any indication of future performance. Investing involves risks, including possible loss of principal.

Hoops Rumors looks at the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams and recaps the summer free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures and more. We take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what could come before the start of the regular season. Today we’ll focus on that San Antonio Spurs.

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Free agent signings

• Chris Paul: One year, $10,460,000. Includes an additional $1,568,999 in unlikely incentives. Signed with cap space.
• Charles Bassey: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed except for the minimum salary. Waived the right to veto in trade.
• Sandro Mamukelashvili: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed except for the minimum salary. Waived the right to veto in trade.
• Brandon Boston Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Appendix 10). Signed except for the minimum salary.
• Malachi Flynn: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Appendix 10). Signed except for the minimum salary.
• Nathan Mensah: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Appendix 10). Signed except for the minimum salary.
• Riley Minix: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Appendix 10). Signed except for the minimum salary.
• Jameer Nelson Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Appendix 10). Signed except for the minimum salary.
  • Note: Nelson was subsequently waived.

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• Acquired the Timberwolves’ 2031 first-round pick and the right to trade the 2030 first-round picks with the Timberwolves (top-1 protected) in exchange for draft rights Rob Dillingham (No. 8 selection).
• I have acquired the design rights Juan Nunez (No. 36 pick) and cash in exchange for draft rights Johnny Furphy (No. 35 pick).
• Acquired cash from the Hornets in exchange Devonte’ Graham and the Pelicans’ 2025 second-round pick.
• Acquired Harrison Barnes and the right to swap 2031 first-round picks with the Kings in a three-team trade RaiQuan Gray (two-sided; to Bulls).

Draft picks

Bilateral contract signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other movements

Salary cap situation

• Went under the cap to utilize space.
• The operation is now above the cap ($140.6 million) and below the luxury tax threshold ($170.8 million).
• Has a salary of about $145 million.
• No fixed upper limit.
• Full room exception ($8M) available.

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The offseason so far

After earning All-NBA votes and finishing second for Defensive Player of the Year honors as a 20-year-old rookie, Victor Wembanyama is on his way to becoming one of the best players in the league sooner rather than later. However, Spurs have made it clear with their offseason moves that they will not rush the process of building a competitive team around him.

Instead of going all-in on “win now” or taking an extremely long-term view and surrounding Wembanyama with several more young talents, San Antonio split the difference. The team entered June’s draft with two picks in the top eight, but only retained the first of the two, selecting the guard Stephon Castle Fourth overall and then sent the No. 8 pick to Minnesota in exchange for two long-shot draft assets — an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a top-1 protected 2030 pick swap.

This is a risky move given the diverse outcomes for these two assets. It’s entirely possible that the No. 31 pick ends up in the No. 20 and the No. 30 trade isn’t used at all.

But the logic behind the move makes sense. The 2024 draft class wasn’t particularly loaded, so it was unlikely that the No. 8 pick would produce a star; Given their international situation, Wolves are a team whose long-term sustainability is worth betting against; and the Spurs not necessarily need to bet on these picks landing in the top halves of the 2030 and 2031 drafts, as they could use them as trade chips long before then to add players to complement Wembanyama as he enters his prime.

Adding two rookies to a young squad may also not have been the best approach to optimizing Wembanyama’s development, which was certainly a consideration for Spurs this off-season. That’s one of the main reasons the team used virtually all of its available cap space to sign two veterans: Chris Paul And Harrison Barnes.

Paul, who the Warriors waived so they could avoid guaranteeing his $30 million salary for 2024-25, ended up signing with San Antonio for about a third of that amount. The future Hall of Famer could have chosen to join any number of teams that were closer to title contention but had the opportunity to play as a head coach Gregg Popovich and alongside a young phenom like Wembanyama, Spurs were an attractive option.

Wembanyama spent much of his rookie year playing alongside “point guards.” Jeremy Sochan And Malaki Branham before veteran Tre Jones was eventually reinstated into the starting lineup. Sochan and Branham are promising young players, but they are not point guards, as last year’s experiments confirmed. Wembanyama was most effective offensively when Jones was on the court and should benefit tremendously from having either Jones or Paul running the offense in his second year.

Barnes won’t necessarily have the same direct impact on Wembanyama’s performance on the pitch, but the striker is a solid defender who should help make the big man’s life on that pitch a little easier. Wembanyama should also benefit from the knowledge and experience of Barnes and Paul – the two veterans have a combined 31 NBA seasons and three Olympic gold medals, and Barnes has won a championship.

Aside from bringing back the reserve free agent centers Charles Bassey And Sandro MamukelashviliThe Spurs didn’t make any other significant moves this summer, but they are well stocked with future draft picks that will position them to continue adding talent to this core, either by drafting players or using those picks as trade pieces .

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Next

With 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts and no player eligible for a contract extension, it’s unlikely the Spurs will have a particularly active October.

At the moment they are only promoting two players on two-way deals and therefore have to decide who will fill the third spot. Brandon Boston, Nathan MensahAnd Riley Minix are on the list of contracts in Annex 10 and could be candidates for converting these contracts into two-way contracts. Boston is probably the best candidate of the bunch if San Antonio is looking for a player who can compete in minutes – he has played 105 regular season games for the Clippers over the past three seasons.

The Spurs could also look outside the organization to fill that spot, either with a current free agent or with a player on another team’s roster who is released before the start of the season.

It’s also worth noting that the Spurs are one of the few teams with a ton of flexibility below the luxury tax line, making them a good candidate to facilitate a trade between two cap-constrained clubs like the Hornets are currently doing Karl Anthony cities Blockbusters.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rugged charisma who became a country music superstar and a high-profile Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully surrounded by his family. No reason was given. He was 88.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote country and rock ‘n’ roll standards such as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs became known primarily through being sung by others, be it Ray Price singing “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin singing “Me and Bobby McGee” blared.

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976’s A Star Is Born, and starred opposite Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998 “.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake by heart, wove intricate folk lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottoms and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new generation of country songwriters alongside colleagues like Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

“There is no better songwriter than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said at a BMI awards ceremony for Kristofferson in 2009. “Everything he writes is a standard, and we all have to live with that.”

Kristofferson retired from performing and recording in 2021 and only made occasional guest appearances on stage, including an appearance with Cash’s daughter Rosanne at Nelson’s 90th birthday party at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “Loving Her Was Easier ( Than Anything”)” I’ll Ever Do Again)”, a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a long-time live hit for Nelson, another great interpreter of his works.

Nelson and Kristofferson joined forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to form the country supergroup The Highwaymen in the mid-1980s.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a master’s degree in English from Merton College, University of Oxford, England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the U.S. Army, but turned down a teaching position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the groundbreaking double album Blonde on Blonde.

At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story about how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn, beer in hand, to give him a cassette of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” Over the years, Kristofferson has said in interviews, with all due respect to Cash, that although he landed at Cash’s house in a helicopter, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one had really cut it yet, and He certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter with a beer.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2006, he said that without Cash he might not have had a career.

“Shaking his hand backstage at the Grand Ole Opry when I was still in the Army was the moment I decided to come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before cutting one of my songs. He recorded my first record, which was record of the year. He brought me on stage for the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written at the recommendation of Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in mind called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in Performing Songwriter magazine that after watching the Frederico Fellini film “La Strada,” he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and a woman traveling together.

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died of a drug overdose in 1970. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.

Hits Kristofferson recorded include “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.

Forming the Highwaymen with Nelson, Cash and Jennings was another crucial point in his career as an artist.

“I think what made me different from the other guys was that I went in as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson told the AP in 2005. “I had respect for them when I was in the army. When I went to Nashville, they were my big heroes to me because they were people who took music seriously. To not only be welcomed by them, but to be friends with them and work alongside them, was just a little surreal. It was like seeing his face on Mount Rushmore.”

The group only released three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there had been talks about reforming the group with other artists such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it wouldn’t have been the same.

“Looking back now, I know I hear Willie saying it was the best time of his life,” Kristofferson said in 2005. “I wish I was more aware of how short that time would be.” It lasted several years, but it was still like the blink of an eye. I wish I had enjoyed every moment.”

Of the four, only Nelson is still alive.

Kristofferson’s sharp-tongued political lyrics sometimes dented his popularity, particularly in the late 1980s. His 1989 album “Third World Warrior” focused on Central America and the impact of US politics there, but critics and fans were not enthusiastic about the overtly political songs.

During an interview with the AP in 1995, he said he remembered a woman complaining about one of the songs about killing babies in the name of freedom.

“And I said, ‘Well, what made you mad – the fact that I said it or the fact that we’re doing it?’ To me, they were angry at me for telling them what was going on.”

As the son of an Air Force general, he enlisted in the army in the 1960s because it was expected of him.

“I was in ROTC in college and it was just a given in my family that I would serve,” he said in a 2006 AP interview. “Because of my background and the generation I grew up in, honor and service to your country just came naturally. So when people later questioned some of the things that were done in his name, it was particularly painful.”

Hollywood may have saved his music career. He still gained notoriety through his film and television appearances, even though he couldn’t afford to tour with a full band.

Kristofferson’s first role was in Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” in 1971.

He had a penchant for westerns and used his gravelly voice to play attractive, stoic leading men. He was Burstyn’s rugged, handsome lover in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand in “A Star Is Born,” a role Bradley Cooper reprized in the 2018 remake.

He was the young outlaw in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” a truck driver in the same director’s 1978 “Convoy,” and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles’ “Lone Star.” from 1996. ” He also starred in one of Hollywood’s biggest financial flops, “Heaven’s Gate,” a 1980 Western that went tens of millions of dollars over budget.

And in a rare appearance in a superhero film, he played the mentor of Snipes’ vampire hunter in Blade.

In a 2006 AP interview, he described how he got his first acting gigs while performing in Los Angeles.

“Coincidentally, my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in LA opening for Linda Rondstadt,” Kristofferson said. “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was postponed for a week,” Kristofferson said. “A lot of film people came in and I started getting film offers without having any experience. Of course, I had no performance experience either.”

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Hall reported from Nashville. AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosanne Cash.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

CBS is airing a sneak peek of the new series “The Summit” tonight.

In the broadcast, the broadcaster said: “16 “ordinary Americans embark on a once-in-a-lifetime journey through the treacherous New Zealand Alps to reach the top of a massive mountain in just 14 days to keep their share of the 1 million Dollar prize money that they carry in their backpacks.”

“The Summit” airs Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 9 p.m. on CBS.

• LIVE STREAM: Fans can watch CBS without cable on fuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial), and Paramount+ (free trial).

In the sneak peek episode, CBS said: “After a medical emergency occurs just hours into the hike and the climbers encounter a dangerous obstacle while crossing a ravine, fears mount as the mountain ranger who escorts them on their way Journey follows, forcing the group to make their first brutal moral decision…”

Hosted by Manu Bennett.

The show will move to its regular time slot of 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Wednesday, October 9, and will air after “Survivor.”

CBS describes “The Summit”: “These 16 strangers – from a Trader Joe’s employee and mother of two to a 29-year-old trauma nurse to a 33-year-old Air Force member – are truly stepping into the unknown,” as they don’t knew what they were signing up for and many of them had no climbing or camping experience.

“The result is a physical and mental test of their character in ways they never imagined possible as they attempt to reach the top of a distant, towering mountain.

“With their backpacks containing the same share of $1 million, the group must travel a grueling route in just 14 days to win the money they are carrying.

“But not everyone will make it, as these strangers must work together to overcome the dangerous terrain, relentless Antarctic winds, heartbreaking challenges and heartbreaking eliminations on the way to the summit.

“On this journey she is pursued by the ‘Guardian of the Mountain’, who surprises the hikers with brutal twists and forced decisions that complicate an already strenuous climb. “Morales and relationships are tested when they have to decide what to do when someone falls behind, because if the group doesn’t reach the ‘summit’ in time, all prize money will be lost.”

The competitors are:

• Pati Arana, 37, hairdresser from Studio City, California
• Dennis Cho, 29, a trauma nurse from Indianapolis, Indiana
• Shweta Choudhury, 28, a business strategist from Toronto, Canada
• Robert Culp, 42, an educator from Bolingbrook, Illinois
• Dusty Fisher, 28, a real estate agent from Boise, Idaho
• Jeannie Geyer, 56, a Trader Joe’s employee from Mahopac, New York
• Geoff Green, 28, a neuroscientist from Sharpsburg, Georgia
• Punkin Jackson, 33, Air Force, of Columbus, Mississippi
• Bo Martin, 52, teacher and trainer from Gun Barrel City, Texas
• Rose Mattie, 41, a homemaker from Chandler, Arizona
• Nick Morgan, 28, vice president of sales from Madisonville, Louisiana
• Therron Pittman, 29, a waiter from Van Nuys, California
• Beckylee Rawls, 27, construction manager from San Diego, California
• Tony Reyes, 36, a media director from Austin, Texas
• Amy Stephens, 46, a bank manager from Edisto Island, South Carolina
• Jennye Stirlen, 37, an MMA referee from Cary, North Carolina

What is fuboTV?

FuboTV is a streaming service that offers more than 100 live and on-demand channels and includes cloud DVR. FuboTV has one seven-day free trial. Channels include AMC, E!, HGTV, ESPN, NBC Sports, NFL Network, FS1, MSNBC, Food Network, Great American Living, Magnolia Network, Animal Planet, Bravo, FX, CMT, Comedy Central and Hallmark. The Pro plan costs $74.99 per month, Elite costs $84.99 per month, and Premier costs $94.99 per month. Add-ons include EPIX, Showtime and Starz.

What is Paramount+?

The Paramount+ streaming service includes CBS, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and Smithsonian Channel, as well as sports and original programming. The Paramount+ Essential plan costs $7.99 per month or $59.99 for a year. The Paramount+ with Showtime package costs $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year. Paramount+ offers a seven-day free trial.

What is DirecTV Stream?

DirecTV Stream offers access to more than 100 channels, hundreds of on-demand titles, the ability to stream across three devices simultaneously, and unlimited cloud DVR storage. Channels include ABC, HGTV, Hallmark, Bravo, BET, Discovery, Food Network, AMC, Animal Planet, CMT, Comedy Central, FX, ID, Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and PBS Kids. There are four packages, from Entertainment at $64.99 per month to Premier at $154.99 per month. The streaming service offers a five-day free trial.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –

The two astronauts, stuck on the International Space Station since June, welcomed their new journey home with the arrival of a SpaceX capsule on Sunday.

Related video above: Unmanned Boeing Starliner capsule undocks from the ISS

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a reduced crew of two astronauts and two empty spots reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in the dark as the two ships climbed 265 miles (426 kilometers) over Botswana.

NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX after they had concerns about the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first crewed Starliner test flight, and NASA concluded that the engine failures and helium leaks that occurred after launch were too serious and poorly understood to jeopardize the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty at the beginning of the month.

The Dragon, carrying Nick Hague of NASA and Alexander Gorbunov of the Russian Space Agency, will remain on the space station until February, turning what was supposed to be a week-long journey into a more than eight-month mission for Wilmore and Williams.

Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight.

NASA likes to rotate its station crews about every six months. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but faulty software and other Starliner problems led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight records review beginning this week.

“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing Boeing off,'” Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, said at a pre-launch briefing.

The arrival of two new astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in just over a week in their own SpaceX capsule. Her stay was extended by a month because of the Starliner unrest.

Although Saturday’s launch went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage landed outside its target impact zone in the Pacific due to a faulty engine ignition. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings continue to prove the skeptics wrong while maintaining early control of the NFC North race.

Darnold threw three touchdown passes and Jordan Addison scored twice as the undefeated Vikings built an early 28-point lead and beat the Green Bay Packers 31-29 on Sunday.

The Vikings, voted by many to finish last in the NFC North (4-0), are off to their best start since 2016, winning their first five games before falling to 8-8. They trailed by less than 3 1/2 minutes all season.

“At the end of the day, we believe in each other more than anyone believes in us,” Darnold said.

Minnesota spoiled the return of Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who returned after missing two games with a left medial ligament injury. He threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns, both career highs. But he also set a career high with three interceptions and 32 of 54.

“We battled the whole game and started making plays later, but too little, too late,” Love said.

Green Bay (2-2) got within 31-29 on Dontayvion Wicks’ second touchdown catch of the fourth quarter – a 17-yarder with 56 seconds left. Minnesota’s Josh Oliver intercepted Daniel Whelan’s ensuing onside kick – actually it was a dropkick – to secure the win.

Darnold was 20 of 28 for 275 yards with touchdown passes of 29 yards to Addison, 2 yards to Oliver and 14 yards to Justin Jefferson. He also threw an interception and lost a fumble.

Addison, who missed Minnesota’s last two games with an ankle injury, also scored on a 7-yard run.

Former Packers running back Aaron Jones had 22 carries for 93 yards and four catches for 46 yards in his return to Lambeau Field. Jones spent seven seasons with Green Bay before being released in March and signing with the Vikings.

Jones had said he would do a “Lambeau jump” into the stands if he scored a touchdown. Jones never reached the end zone on Sunday, but still jumped into a group of Vikings fans in the stands on the way to the locker room.

“The last time we went down, the Packers defense said, ‘Ahh, we didn’t let you jump here, Lambeau.’ “We didn’t let you, Lambeau, jump into our house,” Jones said. “I’m like, ‘Are you guys worried about Lambeau jumping? You should worry about the result.” I came here and got what I wanted. But I did my Lambeau jump, so I got two for one.”

Jayden Reed had seven receptions for 139 yards and a touchdown for the Packers.

The game included seven turnovers – four by Green Bay and three by Minnesota.

Minnesota took advantage of two interceptions by Love and two missed field goal attempts by Brayden Narveson to extend its lead to 28-0 in the first 25 minutes. It was the Vikings’ highest-scoring first half since 2017, when they scored 28 points before halftime and beat Washington 38-30.

“It’s a humbling league at times,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “Thanks to them. They did more than us to win the game. We have to recover from this. We have to learn from it and get better.”

Minnesota scored on each of its first three possessions as Darnold picked apart a Green Bay secondary that was missing injured cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Carrington Valentine. When the Packers finally forced a punt, Shaq Griffin delivered a 28-yard interception return, setting up another Vikings touchdown.

The Vikings led 28-7 and had a second-and-1 through the Green Bay 20 in the third quarter when Xavier McKinney picked off Darnold to become the first Packer to intercept a pass in each of his first four games with the team.

That helped Green Bay get back into the game.

Love threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Wicks and a 13-yarder to Tucker Kraft to cut Minnesota’s lead to 28-22 with 10:16 left. Minnesota regrouped on its next possession and Jefferson set up Will Reichard’s 33-yard kick with 6:50 left.

The Packers got one last chance after Minnesota’s Jalen Nailor was unsuccessfully stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the Green Bay 4 with less than 2 1/2 minutes left. Love engineered a quick 96-yard drive to cut the lead to two.

But the Packers will continue to look to the surprising Vikings in the NFC North standings.

“I know what we have in this room is special,” said Byron Murphy, who had one of the Vikings’ three interceptions. “So with all the noise outside, I keep saying, ‘Stay away from the (band) car.’ Don’t try to jump on it now. You can all stay over there, whatever you all do, but we’re going to keep this thing going.'”

Injuries

Packers WR Christian Watson was carted off the field after injuring his ankle on the play that resulted in an interception. “I talked to Christian and he told me he thought it was just a sprain,” LaFleur said. … Packers DL Devonte Wyatt injured his ankle in the fourth quarter.

Next

Vikings: Take on the New York Jets at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

Packers: Visit the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

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Kris Kristofferson dies at the age of 88

The official statement from the singer’s representative said he passed away “peacefully” and was surrounded by friends, family and loved ones in his final moments at his home in Maui, Hawaii. The statement released to People said: “It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that our husband/father/grandfather Kris Kristofferson passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, September 28th. We are all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him for all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, you know he’s smiling down on us all.”

Kristofferson is survived by his wife Lisa, eight children and seven grandchildren.

Born in Brownsville, Texas, the singer-songwriter had a passion for music from a young age. After serving briefly in the U.S. Army after college, he traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, where he rekindled his love of music and launched his career.

His first hit was “For The Good Times”, released in 1970, followed by other covers, including Sammi Smith’s version of “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, which won him his first Grammy. He later won Grammys for the songs “From the Bottle to the Bottom” and “Lover Please,” for which he collaborated with Rita Coolidge, who also happened to be his second wife, Daily Express US reported.

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Kris Kristofferson as an actor

Although Kristofferson had no formal acting training, he played some roles on screen that are hard to forget. He had his first breakthrough as an actor in 1976 in the remake of A Star Is Born, where he played the role of John Norman Howard alongside Barbra Streisand as Esther Hoffman and received a Golden Globe for it in 1977.

In his long career, in addition to his three Grammys, he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2014 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in the Film Songwriter in 1985.

The storm that was Hurricane Helene is no more, and recovery and assessment now begins from Florida’s Gulf Coast and Big Bend through western North Carolina to the Tennessee and Ohio Valley areas of the United States.

The National Hurricane Center issued its latest warning on the Helene system Friday evening as North Carolina compared its epic flooding to another catastrophic event, calling the storm its “own Hurricane Katrina.” The situation is dire as places in and around Asheville have no power and no water since Sunday afternoon.

New systems are brewing in the tropics as forecasters track two named storms in the Atlantic on Sunday and three more potential tropical systems as of 2 p.m. Tropical Weather Outlook.

At 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center issued its first warning for Tropical Depression 12 in the eastern Atlantic.

Where are Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Joyce?

Hurricane Isaac is several hundred miles west-northwest of the Azores and Tropical Storm Joyce is located over the central tropical Atlantic. From 5pm on Sunday, Joyce gradually became weaker. None of the named storms are expected to impact the country.