VOUX MAG

SHANGHAI, May 23 (Reuters) - At least 90 people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in ‌China's northern province of Shanxi, the country's deadliest mining ‌accident since at least 2009.

Rescuers work at the site following a gas explosion at Liushenyu coal mine

The gas explosion occurred late on Friday at the Liushenyu ​coal mine in Qinyuan county, with 247 workers on duty underground, state media Xinhua reported.

The mine is operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry, which was established in 2010 and is controlled ‌by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal ⁠Coking Group, according to corporate database Qichacha.

Rescue operations were ongoing and the cause of the accident was ⁠under investigation, according to the local emergency management authority in Qinyuan. Shanxi is China's coal-mining heartland.

President Xi Jinping called for authorities to "spare no ​effort" in ​treating the injured and conducting ​search and rescue operations, while ‌ordering a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident and strict accountability in accordance with the law, according to Xinhua.

Advertisement

Premier Li Qiang called for timely and accurate release of information and rigorous accountability.

China has significantly reduced coal mine fatalities - often caused by ‌gas explosions or flooding - since the early ​2000s through more stringent regulations and ​safer practices.

In 2009, a ​coal and gas outburst in Heilongjiang Province killed 108 ‌people and injured 133.

Executives of ​the company responsible ​for the mine have been detained, Xinhua reported.

Shanxi provincial authorities have dispatched seven rescue and medical teams totalling 755 personnel ​to the site, the ‌emergency management bureau at Qinyuan said.

(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom ​and Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City; Editing by Tom ​Hogue, Kim Coghill and William Mallard)

Advertisement

Coach Mike Brown correctly pulled Hart in Game 1 for Landry Shamet. But having Hart on the court causes so much confusion for theCavaliersas they try to crossmatch, leaving an unbalanced floor and the energetic Hart in position to take full advantage with open shots and setting up teammates. When Hart wasn't finding teammates, it was Brunson finding Hart for one of his playoff-high 14 assists."It's just who Josh is. He's a gamer. He knew what he had to do in terms of adjustments he needed to make in order to be effective," Brown said. "He was great, he was decisive. We have to play fast, so we're not going against a set defense all the time."

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype:"It's just who Josh is. He's a gamer. He knew what he …

TheBig Tenholds the cards, and it’s showing theSECits hand.

The numbers are 12 or 24.

"We've had zero conversation about 16 (playoff teams)," Big Ten commissioner Tony Petittisaid at the conference’s spring meetings in California.

That’s the line in the sand.

If the SEC wants to expand theCollege Football Playoff, then the number is 24, a number set by Petitti.

Or, the playoff can stay at 12 teams, a format the Big Ten has dominated in its brief existence.

Petitti’s hardball stance amounts to a move ripped from the Greg Sankey playbook.

Big Ten steals SEC's power-move playbook

You’ll remembera few years ago, Sankey held the best cards in playoff expansion talks. The SEC's commissioner wasn’t afraid to use them.

When other conference commissioners supported an eight-team playoff that included six automatic bids for conference champions, Sankey erected a firewall.

Sankey laid out three options:

1. Status quo of a four-team playoff, which the SEC dominated.

2. An eight-team playoff with no automatic bids and only at-large selections.

3. A 12-team playoff that’d include a mix of automatic and at-large bids.

The eight-team playoff, with six AQs, died on the vine because the SEC vehemently opposed it.

After some squabbling, Option 3 emerged as the winner.

Now, the shoe has switched feet, and the Big Ten is setting the terms for the playoff’s size.

The SEC must choose between a format the Big Ten rules (12) or an expansion model the Big Ten suggested (24), instead of the format SEC headquarters prefers (16, including 11 at-large bids).

So much for theSEC-B1G buddy groupthe conferences announced two years ago, in a pledge to team up to solve problems together.

Petitti, a former MLB Network executive, took the reins of the Big Ten in 2023. He swiftly learned college athletics is a get-mine business and no place for friendship bracelets.

Advertisement

A 24-team College Football Playoff? No thanks

I’m opposed to a 24-team bracket. It would turn an already long playoff into a five-round affair and bulldoze the playoff’s exclusivity, by opening access to 8-4 teams.

Most importantly, it would devalue the greatest regular season in all of sports.

Petitti likes to point to MLB’s playoff expansion — it went from eight to 10 to ultimately 12 teams — as a model for the CFP.

He’s comparing apples to oranges. It’s absurd to compare a sport with a 162-game regular season and a full complement of games each day to a sport with a 12-game regular season that turns each fall Saturday into appointment viewing.

College basketballserves as a better comparisonfor what Petitti attempts to do to college football.

In a rare act of teamwork,Sankey and Petitti helped muscle through March Madness expansion to 76 teams.College basketball’s regular season is low-stakes filler. At 76 teams, a power-conference team might need only to finish barely above .500 to earn tournament selection. The college basketball diehards watch throughout a monthslong regular season, but most folks wander in when March arrives, as the postseason nears.

Hey, that works for college basketball, which is a tournament sport. College football is distinctly not a tournament sport. It’s always been more of a rivalry-Saturday kind of a sport, where every outcome matters.

Will SEC cave to Big Ten demands?

Although I object Petitti’s vision for the playoff, I understand why he’s not motivated to meet in the middle at 16. He’s paid to represent the Big Ten, and a 16-team bracket would be a greater benefit to the SEC, based on recent history.

Plus, a mega-sized playoff like the 24-teamer the Big Ten supports would allow Fox, its media rights partner, a chance at getting a piece of the playoff pie.

ESPN, the SEC’s media partner and CFP rights holder, prefers a playoff of no more than 16.

With Petitti’s line in the sand drawn, next week’s SEC spring meetings will test Sankey’s power and mettle. They’ll also offer a peek at what size playoff the conference’s presidents and chancellors prefer. Those campus administrators are the quiet but powerful brokers in these negotiations, more so than coaches or athletic directors.

Consider the SEC a company where Sankey functions as CEO serving at the pleasure of the presidents and chancellors, who operate as the company’s board of directors.

Georgia president Jere Morehead, an influential voice among the SEC's presidents and chancellors,told The Athletica 24-team playoff would be "a mistake." Morehead added he thinks the SEC's university brass will follow Sankey's guidance.

Can Sankey persuade the SEC’s presidents and chancellors to stay at 12 teams, if 16 isn’t possible? At 12 teams,the SEC doesn't face a playoff access problem. It received more bids to the 12-team bracket in two years than any other conference. Playoff performance has become the SEC’s issue, a problem that’s not inherently solved by expansion.

A 24-team playoff likely would end conference championship games. If Sankey could convince university administrators the SEC championship game is a sacred cash cow worth saving, that might extend the life of the 12-team playoff.

Don’t expect a solution at the SEC meetings, but they’ll be a bellwether of the conference’s latest playoff mood.

The Big Ten discarded the 16-team option. The SEC has six months to decide which card to choose from the Big Ten's hand: 12 or 24.

Blake Toppmeyeris the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him atBToppmeyer@gannett.comand follow him on X@btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:SEC's College Football Playoff plans for 16 teams boxed out by Big Ten

It was a star-studded celebration to wrap up weeks of filming on one of the most dramatic and remote islands in the Mediterranean.

But a post-production party thrown on the volcanic island of Stromboli forSir Mick Jagger, Dakota Johnson, Josh O’Connor and a host of other British and American celebrities has fallen foul of local bylaws and zealous officials. It was unceremoniously broken up by Italian police on Wednesday night.

The officers were sent in on the orders of the mayor of Lipari, a neighbouring island, which is the administrative centre of theAeolian archipelago, a scatter of impressive outcrops which lie between Calabria and Sicily.

He said the party contravened noise control regulations.

The intervention of the police was met, according to local media, with “perplexity mixed with hilarity” by 82-year-old Sir Mick and his co-stars, who included the Irish actress and singer Jessie Buckley, Saoirse Ronan, and Hollywood actressIsabella Rossellini.

Rossellini has a close personal connection to the island – her father Roberto directed the 1950 cult film Stromboli, which was shot on the island, and had an affair with its leading lady, the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, whom he later married.

Sir Mick and the cast and crew have spent the past few weeks filming an adaptation of an illustrated book called Three Incestuous Sisters by the American writerAudrey Niffenegger.

The book is about three sisters who live together in a house by the sea and vie for the romantic attentions of the lighthouse keeper’s son.

Advertisement

Sir Mick plays the lighthouse keeper in the gothic drama, which is directed by Italian director Alice Rohrwacher. His son is played by O’Connor, who received plaudits for his portrayal of Prince Charles in the Netflix drama The Crown.

While on Stromboli, Sir Mick reportedly stayed in a villa where Roberto Rossellini began his affair with Bergman.

Row between the two islands

The break-up of the film party this week prompted a row between thetwo islands.

Rosa Oliva, the head of the tourist office on Stromboli, said it was a mean-spirited decision by Riccardo Gullo, the mayor of Lipari.

Rather than being “valued and supported” after a tough winter of bad weather and suspended ferry services, Stromboli had been “penalised”.

The celebrities should have been welcomed with open arms, rather than subjected to a “punitive intervention”, she said.

“From the mayor of Lipari, one would have expected a welcome to the guests, or at least a greeting and a thank you for their crucial contribution to the Aeolian economy and their visibility. Our islands live off tourism,” she said.

It is not known whether the reaction of the Rolling Stones’ frontman was annoyance or amusement.

Either way, he left the island on Thursday by private helicopter.

What willStephen Colbert's legacy be?

The story of the quintessentially American comedian did not end on May 21, in spite of the funerary pomp and circumstance surroundingthe finale episode of "The Late Show" on CBS, which Colbert has hosted since 2015. There are miles yet before the 62-year-old Colbert sleeps,even if this act of his career has come to a close. It's already his second or third act to date, depending on how you count.

But inthe long story of Stephen Colbertthere will be an incendiary chapter aboutthis moment in cultural history,which started almost a year ago when he announced CBS had canceled "Late Show" and thus his daily tenure on our screens. That move threw an industry into confusion, drew both political backlash and celebration and has resulted in a monthlong last hurrah fromColbert and his many friendsthat has the country's zeitgeist on tenterhooks like it's the series finale of "Game of Thrones."

Colbert stepped out on the stage for his May 21 finale bearing the weight of a divided nation, tongue-wagging internet haters andpresidents former (Barack Obama) on his couchand current (Donald Trump) tweeting down his neck. He managed the finale with aplomb, ever the showman and professional.

The comedian started with ashort farewell acknowledging his crew, followed by a pretty typical monologue poking at the regular news (like sinkholes at airports) and his own news (even dolphins know he got canceled). He pivoted to his hyperactive regular segment "Meanwhile," which contained no less than one attempt to get CBS sued, two celebrity interruptions and one cackle-worthy sushi joke.

The final "Late Show" guest wasn't actually Pope Leo XIV as jokingly teased, butBeatles legend Paul McCartney, a major part of the history ofNew York's Ed Sullivan Theaterwhere "The Late Show" has taped for 34 years. Other hosts may have used an icon like McCartney to further shine the spotlights on themselves, but Colbert chatted with McCartney like it was any other night. The musician talked about his new album, his childhood and reminisced about performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, where he got his first impressions of America, the great democracy. McCartney told Colbert he hopes that the country will remain so.

There were bits about CBS and equal time. There were spit takes and more celebrity cameos than you could count. There was a wormhole. Colbert quoted his great literary love, "The Lord of the Rings." Former bandleader Jon Batiste returned to sing alongside Colbert (and current bandleader Louis Cato and Elvis Costello). There was great joy, which Colbert spoke about championing everyday with his crew and colleagues.

Advertisement

And mostly there was Colbert, with his awkward, goofy, endearing self. His brand of comedy – from his early career with improv group Second City and his "Daily Show" correspondent days to getting his own show "The Colbert Report" to a decade on network TV – was never about charm or fluff or flash.

Colbert's strength has always been his point of view, cutting satire, geekiness and heart. Anyone watching could feel the emotion radiating from the host all night, even as he pretended to be sucked into the abyss.

It was a silly, funny and affecting episode of television. By the time Colbert was singing "Hello, Goodbye" with McCartney, Costello, Cato and Batiste, he didn't need to say anything else.

You shouldn't expect anything less than confidence and grace from Colbert. He's the man who stayed in character as a conservative blowhard for over a decade, who made "Strangers with Candy" one of the weirdest and most-fun comedy shows on TV, and who told off yet another president (George W. Bush) to his face at Washington, D.C.'s biggest fête.

So no, Stephen Colbert is not done. "The Late Show" is done. Late-night TV might be done soon. But voices like Colbert don't disappear into the wind without a shiny wooden desk in front of them and a broadcast company behind them.

This chapter is over. Another one begins.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'The Late Show' finale proves Stephen Colbert isn't done

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A renownedMount Everestguide who this week scaled the peak a record 32nd time urged authorities on Friday to limit climbers on the summit.

Nepal Everest

The number of climbers making the ascent on the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak from the Nepalese side is higher this season because China has closed the route from Tibet. Everest can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern side in China.

On Wednesday, 274 climbers reached the summit, the highest number on a single day from the Nepal side. A total of 494 climbers have been issued permits by Nepal’s mountaineering authorities and an equal number Sherpa guides are accompanying them.

“It was very crowded this year compared to last year because there was more clients,”Kami Rita Sherpatold reporters at Kathmandu airport after flying back from the mountain. “There is a need for authorities to control this number.”

Advertisement

Climbers only get a few windows of good weather to make their attempt on the summit. A large number of people waiting in a fixed rope line they are all clipped into increases the risks of a traffic jam and exposes the climbers to increased hours of harsh weather.

Kami Rita's closest competitor,Pasang Dawa Sherpa, scaled the peak for the 31st time on Friday, which was his second successful ascent this week

Kami Rita, 56, first climbed Everest in 1994, and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of foreign climbers aspiring to stand on top of the mountain each year.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides. In addition to Everest, Kami Rita has climbed other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

When it feels appropriate, and certainly when it helps their immediate argument,the Smugs among uswill say something along the lines of, “Well, they don’t do it that way in Europe.”

Ah, Europe, where ice cubes are doled out like gem stones. Where gas is priced in liters in order to lessen the shock of paying 8-plus bucks a gallon to fill that toaster you call a car. Just kidding … it's actuallylitres.

America’s Europhiles, over time, have let their infatuation wander intothe sporting world, and roughly a generation ago, you began hearing cohorts, passersby and maybe even friends (dear Lord!) join conversations about the next morning’s big “football” game (oops …match) in Manchester.

Soon thereafter, their Euro sporting eyes began wandering from the pitches to the paddocks, and you needn’t go far to overhear chatter about that morning’s Formula One race in Germany, England, Spain, etc. Even in the early-Sunday waiting room we call a NASCAR media center, a few of the typists and talkers would gather around a laptop to watch the live feed from Silverstone or Monza.

I never heard any of them say, “We’re better and smarter than you,” but vibes, you know? And this was long before Netflix brought us the hit docuseries — “Drive to Survive” — that made household names of so many current F1 racers, each more handsome than the next, which didn’t hurt the cause.

The whole McLaren, Red Bull, Max and Lewis theatrics were suddenly conversation fodder for some who, five minutes ago, didn’t know a pastrami sub from a Rubens Barrichello.

Suddenly, casual onlookers were new Formula One fans and feeling quite happy with themselves. Some, wearing this new aura as they would an Edinburgh bonnet, took the added pleasure of looking down their noses at North America’s motorsport offerings, particularly NASCAR, of course.

“My oh my, the technology Ferrari and Mercedes are bringing to the grid this season is otherworldly. And just a fortnight ago, I believe we witnessed a pass for the lead …”

Kidding again, of course. It wasn’t a pass. It was anovertaking.

Deep breath, now let’s move along because, as sometimes happens, I say all that to say this: Even your beloved European and British intelligentsia can screw it up.

And while it’s not as big a blunder as some of their historical and even modern doozies, it does make you wonder.

Why did F1 swap the Monaco and Canada dates?

What, exactly, were they thinking when they moved their Monaco Grand Prix off the fourth weekend of May and totally monkey-wrenched the natural flow of this coming Sunday — the Sunday circled by race fans all over, but particularly North America, which has become a humming ATM machine for the F1 movers and shakers.

F1 has a nearly 60-year history in Canada, but its U.S. footprint has come and gone over the decades. It was usually just one visit, often none, then one again, and now THREE — Austin, Miami and, of course, Las Vegas.

Advertisement

The three races are spread about from early-May (Miami) to mid-late October (Austin) to pre-Thanksgiving weekend (Vegas). Canada was traditionally run the first or second week of June, but has now swapped dates with the gem of F1 playgrounds, Monaco.

Why do this? Unless you included “carbon footprint” and/or “net zero” among your explanations, you haven’t been paying attention to that side of the Atlantic. They’re aiming to streamline the season and keep segments of the schedule relegated, as much as possible, to specific continents. You burn less jet fuel that way.

After Miami in early May, the next scheduled race is now Canada in late May. Back to back in North America fits the new narrative. But no, that uber-conscious F1 crowd didn’t spend the ensuing three weeks hunkered down in a Plattsburgh KOA, turning wrenches under the birch trees by day and swapping Nurburgring war stories by night.

Nope, they went back to Europe. And not by sailboat.

And a few weeks later they loaded the cargo planes again for a return to the New World, before heading home to prep for, yes, the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks later.

Will it rain on our Sunday parade of racing at Indy, Charlotte?

The upshot for us is a truncated day of revs this coming Sunday. For nearly this entire century, and for 20 straight years through last season, Monaco fell on the Sunday morning preceding all thepomp and circumstance of Indianapolis, which eventually would deliver 200 hectic laps before a late-afternoon lull leading into NASCAR’s 600-miler in Charlotte.

F1 has erased the wiggle room this year. Indy’s green flag is 12:45 p.m., F1’s Canadian GP starts at 4, and Charlotte starts turning laps at 6.

If all goes well, Indy will end a little before Canada, which will probably end around 5:30 but certainly no later than 6, given F1’s two-hour time limit. Then it's the Charlotte marathon.

Also, if all goes well, it’ll be a minor climatic miracle. While rain won’t halt an F1 race, it certainly can ruin things on the big ovals at Indy and Charlotte. And by the looks of things, it just might.

On the bright side, if an Indy rain delay bleeds into or completely blankets the Canadian GP time window, hopefully it’ll convince the lords of F1, who have become infatuated with their U.S. attention, to go back to the Monaco-Indy-Charlotte routine.

To assuage a guilty conscience, they can always buy some offsets and plant a few elms.

—Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal:NASCAR, Indy 500 get new Canadian F1 partner for busy Sunday race day