PARIS: Andy Murray said he was retiring “on my terms” as his trophy-filled career came to an emotional end at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, closing another chapter on tennis’s golden generation.
The former world number one and three-time Grand Slam title winner slipped into retirement aged 37 when he and Dan Evans lost in the men’s doubles quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
American pair Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul delivered the knockout blow with a 6-2, 6-4 victory on a packed Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Britain’s Murray had already announced that the Olympics would be his last event.
“I’m proud of my career, my achievements and what I put into the sport,” said Murray.
“Obviously it was emotional because it’s the last time I will play a competitive match. But I am genuinely happy just now. I’m happy with how it finished.”
He added: “I’m glad I got to go out here at the Olympics and finish on my terms because at times in the last few years that wasn’t a certainty.”
Just a few hours after Murray had made his exit, he cheekily wrote on X: “Never even liked tennis anyway.”
Career-long rival Novak Djokovic described Murray as “an incredible competitor.”
“One of the greatest warriors tennis has seen. His fighting spirit is definitely something that I’m sure is going to inspire many generations to come,” said the Serb.
One of the ‘Big Four’ in the sport, Murray joins 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in retirement after the Swiss great quit in 2022.
Rafael Nadal, the winner of 22 majors but battling more injuries at the age of 38, exited the Paris Olympics on Wednesday and suggested that he had played his last match at Roland Garros, where he won 14 of his Slams.
Nadal also effectively ruled himself out of the US Open, sparking more speculation that the great Spaniard is also finished in the sport.
That would leave just 37-year-old Djokovic — winner of a record 24 Grand Slams — still active among the sport’s eminent talents who have carved up 69 majors between them.
Murray famously ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s champion at Wimbledon when he triumphed in 2013, defeating Djokovic in the final.
He added a second title in 2016, taking his career majors total to three after breaking his duck at the 2012 US Open.
Murray won gold at the 2012 Olympics on an emotional day at the All England Club when he defeated Federer just weeks after he had lost the Wimbledon final to the Swiss on the same Center Court.
Four years later he defeated Juan Martin del Potro to become the first player, man or woman, to win two Olympic singles golds.
Murray also led Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015, the country’s first in 79 years.
He has won 46 titles in all and banked around $65 million in prize money.
However, he has been ravaged by injuries in recent years, slumping to 117th in the world.
The Scot has played with a metal hip since 2019 and suffered ankle damage earlier this year before undergoing surgery to remove a spinal cyst, which ruled him out of singles at Wimbledon.
Instead, he played doubles with brother Jamie and was defeated in the first round before an emotional tribute arranged by tournament chiefs.
“It’s hard because I would love to keep playing, but I can’t,” admitted Murray at the All England Club.
“Physically it is too tough now, all of the injuries, they have added up and they haven’t been insignificant.”
Men’s tennis has already opened up a new frontier.
Jannik Sinner, the 22-year-old Italian, succeeded Djokovic as Australian Open champion in January and eventually took his world number one ranking.
Carlos Alcaraz, 21, won the French Open and successfully defended his Wimbledon title, sweeping Djokovic off court in a one-sided final in July.
“It was a privilege to share the court with you, Andy!” Alcaraz wrote on X in tribute to Murray.
“Congratulations on a legendary career and for being an example to all. You will always have a fan here.”
‘Proud’ Murray bows out of tennis with Paris Olympics defeat
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‘Proud’ Murray bows out of tennis with Paris Olympics defeat
Russia accuses UNICEF head of caring more about kids in Ukraine than Gaza
- Demands a ‘most serious censure’ on UNICEF head for ‘refusing’ to brief UN Security Council on Gaza children's condition
- UNICEF says head was in Davos, focused on humanitarian crises; US rejects Russian accusation is it responsible for Gaza deaths
UNITED NATIONS: Russia on Thursday reprimanded the head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF for not providing a “weighty argument for her refusal” to brief the Security Council on children in Gaza — a meeting requested by Russia.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, an American, had briefed the 15-member council on children in Ukraine “at the drop of a hat” in December, during the US presidency of the council.
“So it would appear that for UNICEF children in Gaza are less important than children in Ukraine,” Nebenzia said.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 and has been at war since then. The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas began in October 2023 and a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.
“The refusal of UNICEF’s head to brief the Security Council about the horrific tragedy linked to the death of tens of thousands of children in Gaza is a flagrant step, which deserves our most serious censure,” Nebenzia told the council.
Russell is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with a focus on addressing humanitarian crises and was unable to adjust her schedule to brief the Security Council, said a UNICEF spokesperson.
“Ms. Russell had offered the Director of Emergencies to deliver her statement on her behalf,” the UNICEF spokesperson said. “The UNICEF Executive Director has briefed the Security Council several times on the situation of children in Gaza and appreciates the council’s focus on children impacted by war.”
The Security Council has met dozens of times to discuss the war in Gaza. Israel’s armed and security forces, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, and Russia’s armed forces are all on the UN global list of offenders for killing and maiming children.
Nebenzia also accused Washington on Thursday of some responsibility for the deaths of children in Gaza after the US used its council veto to shield Israel during the war. He also said the US ignored Russian calls for a meeting on Gazan children in December.
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea rejected Nebenzia’s accusations.
“The idea that the United States is responsible for the terrible suffering there is just unacceptable to us and we reject it in its totality,” she told the council.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher briefed the Security Council meeting on Thursday via video from Stockholm. He bluntly assessed the past 15 months of war in Gaza: “Children have been killed, starved, and frozen to death.”
“They have been maimed, orphaned, separated from their family. Conservative estimates indicate that over 17,000 children are without their families in Gaza,” he said. “A generation has been traumatized.”
Under the ceasefire, the United Nations and others are carrying out a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Aerial attack helps firefighters maintain the upper hand on a huge fire north of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for tens of thousands of people as firefighters with air support slowed the spread of a huge wildfire churning through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles where dangerous winds gained strength again.
The Hughes Fire broke out late Wednesday morning and in less than a day had charred nearly 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of trees and brush near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.
There was no growth overnight and crews were jumping on flareups to keep the flames within containment lines, fire spokesperson Jeremy Ruiz said Thursday morning.
“We had helicopters dropping water until around 3 a.m. That kept it in check,” he said.
The fire remained at 14 percent containment. Nearly 54,000 residents in the Castaic area were still under evacuation warnings, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday. There were no reports of homes or other structures burned.
In San Diego, evacuations were ordered Thursday afternoon after flames erupted near densely populated neighborhoods of La Jolla. The Gilman Fire was spreading through dry brush along streets with large homes not far from the campus of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
And in Ventura County, a new fire Thursday briefly prompted the evacuation of California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo. Water-dropping helicopters made quick progress against the Laguna Fire that erupted in hills above the campus, where about 7,000 students are enrolled. The evacuation order was later downgraded to a warning.
Though the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire risk through Friday, winds were not as strong as they had been when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, allowing for firefighting aircraft to dump tens of thousands of gallons of fire retardant.
Parts of Interstate 5 near the Hughes Fire, which had been closed, reopened Wednesday evening.
Kayla Amara drove to Castaic’s Stonegate neighborhood on Wednesday to collect items from the home of a friend who had rushed to pick up her daughter at preschool. As Amara was packing the car, she learned the fire had exploded in size and decided to hose down the property.
Amara, a nurse who lives in nearby Valencia, said she’s been on edge for weeks as major blazes devastated Southern California.
“It’s been stressful with those other fires, but now that this one is close to home it’s just super stressful,” she said.
Closer to Los Angeles, residents in the Sherman Oaks area received an evacuation warning Wednesday night after a brush fire broke out on the Sepulveda Pass near Interstate 405. Forward progress was stopped within hours and the warning was lifted.
The low humidity, bone-dry vegetation and strong winds came as firefighters continued battling the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires. Officials remained concerned that those fires could break their containment lines as firefighters continue watching for hot spots. Containment of the Palisades Fire reached 72 percent, and the Eaton Fire was at 95 percent.
Those two fires have killed at least 28 people and destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out Jan. 7.
Ahead of the weekend, Los Angeles officials were shoring up hillsides and installing barriers to prepare for potential rain that could cause debris flows, even as some residents were allowed to return to the charred Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas. Precipitation was possible starting Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The California fires have overall caused at least $28 billion in insured damage and probably a little more in uninsured damage, according to Karen Clark and Company, a disaster modeling firm known for accurate post-catastrophe damage assessments.
On the heels of that assessment, California Republicans are pushing back against suggestions by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and others that federal disaster aid for victims of wildfires should come with strings attached.
The state Legislature on Thursday approved a more than $2.5 billion fire relief package, in part to help the Los Angeles area recover from the fires.
Trump plans to travel to the state to see the damage firsthand Friday, but it wasn’t clear whether he and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will meet during the visit.
Emergency contraception pill could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions, study suggests
A new study suggests that a pill used for emergency contraception could be repurposed at a higher dose as an abortion drug, providing a possible alternative to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in the most common type of abortion in the United States.
Mifepristone has been under attack by abortion opponents, with several states seeking in federal court to restrict its use.
Now used in two-thirds of US abortions, mifepristone blocks a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. It’s typically used with misoprostol, which causes contractions and bleeding.
In the study, 133 women who were up to nine weeks’ pregnant took a 60 milligram dose of ulipristal acetate, the active ingredient in the prescription contraceptive Ella, followed by misoprostol 24 hours later.
For 97 percent of them, that drug combo was effective at inducing an abortion, an effectiveness equal to the mifepristone-misoprostol combination. Four women needed a procedure or an additional medication to complete the abortion.
The 60 milligram dose of ulipristal used in the study is twice the dose of Ella, a prescription drug used for emergency contraception.
The company that makes Ella says on its website that it won’t end an existing pregnancy. It can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy.
The findings, published Thursday in the journal NEJM Evidence, may make emergency contraception a target of abortion opponents.
“I’m really worried that these results could be misapplied by anti-abortion activists to try to further their assault on contraception,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman of the University of California, San Francisco, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal. Grossman praised the study but said more research is needed on ulipristal as an abortion drug before doctors would prescribe it routinely for that use.
Lead author Dr. Beverly Winikoff, president of Gynuity Health Projects, a not-for-profit research group, said women need information about ulipristal, especially with mifepristone challenged in court.
“At least now we would have an alternative,” Winikoff said. “I think it’s better to have more things that you could use.”
— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Moscow mayor says air defenses repel drone attacks aimed at capital
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Friday that air defense units had intercepted three separate attacks by Ukrainian drones headed for Russia’s capital.
Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said air defense units southeast of the capital in the Kolomna and Ramenskoye district had repelled one group of “enemy” drones, without specifying how many were involved.
“At the site where fragments fell, no damage or casualties have occurred,” Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without specifying how many drones were involved. “Specialist emergency crews are at the site.”
The mayor posted two more announcements in quick succession.
Sobyanin said two drones also headed for Moscow had been downed by air defenses in Podolsk district, south of the capital. He then reported a single drone downed in Troitsky district, in the southwest of the capital.
Specialist emergency crews were dispatched to all the sites, Sobyanin said.
Russian news agencies quoted Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, as saying two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had suspended all flights.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had earlier said that it had destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period late on Thursday, most of them over the Kursk region near the Ukrainian border.
The ministry, in a report on Telegram, said 37 drones had been destroyed solely in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold chunks of land after a mass incursion last August.
It said the drones had been destroyed between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Moscow time (1600-1900 GMT).
Unofficial Russian Telegram channels had reported a “large number” of drones over Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.
The ministry statement said drones had also been destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod and the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.
Saudi Arabia, UAE poised to become trade ‘super-connector hubs,’ WEF panel hears
- Agility’s Henadi Al-Saleh highlights that innovation, investment help countries to capitalize on disruption in global trade
LONDON: Saudi Arabia is on track to emerge as a “super-connector hub,” leveraging ongoing global trade disruption to its advantage, according to experts speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
Henadi Al-Saleh, chair of the board of directors at Agility, a global leader in supply chain services, highlighted the Gulf Cooperation Council’s significant investments in infrastructure as a driving force behind this transformation.
She said: “(In) the past few years, the level of activity, especially around cargo, has increased several fold.
“If I look at the GCC, where we have invested in warehouses, and at the Emirates in Saudi Arabia, one of our key platforms, (they are) set to become super-connector hubs.
“These countries are investing in infrastructure, doubling down, and the level of activity is increasing.”
Al-Saleh identified digitalization as a key value in this development, saying that “in a time with so much uncertainty, having that clarity and understanding, even when changes take place, it gives me visibility. (With the digital tools) I know what the rules (are) and (how) I need to adjust.”
She added: “That’s one critical aspect in which you see these super hubs benefiting.”
While the level of trade has continued to grow since the end of the pandemic, socioeconomic and political factors have continued to disrupt industry.
Experts have said that US President Donald Trump’s second term is expected to exacerbate the disruption, with the president supporting potential trade tariffs on multiple exporting nations.
Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Alberto van Klaveren acknowledged the challenges but also pointed to opportunities arising from these shifts.
He said: “There are possibilities. Some economies are opening up. We signed the CEPA Agreement (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) with the Emirates. We are interested in Saudi Arabia.”
He explained that the importance of diversification was not only in export markets but also in the types of goods and services traded.
However, experts cautioned that ongoing trade disruption could significantly impact the global energy transition, particularly in the green energy sector.
Al-Saleh said: “There are certain segments of people, businesses and technologies (in the green energy market) that are paying a price.
“But this is where, I think, from the private sector, it’s incumbent upon them to continue. This is irrespective of what happens today in terms of tariffs. There is a long view, and we need to all manage towards that long view.”
According to World Trade Organization data, every nation relies on imports and exports for at least 25 percent of its goods. Given this interdependence, Al-Saleh argued, trade will remain indispensable despite ongoing disruption.
She said: “You need to focus on being agile and resilient. Those are critical elements, and the way to become agile and resilient is really to diversify and invest in technology.”
