Central America – Michmutters
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Judge denies restraining order for Matt Jones, Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford, FedEx Cup Playoffs

A federal judge has denied a request by three LIV Golf Series players, including Australian Matt Jones, for a temporary restraining order allowing them to play in this week’s $US75m PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs.

US District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman made the ruling after a hearing at San Jose on the lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California. The news came on a dramatic day in which Aussie world No.2 Cameron Smith was reported to have signed on for the Greg Norman-led rebel tour.

Jones and Americans Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford had sought the chance to compete in the FedEx Cup playoff opener, the St. Jude’s Championship, that begins Thursday in Memphis.

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Terse Cam refuses to address LIV rumors | 00:43

All three were among those suspended by the PGA Tour after they teed off in their first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series in June. The ruling upheld that ban.

“We’re disappointed that Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones won’t be allowed to play golf,” LIV Golf said in a statement. “No one gains by banning golfers from playing.” Gooch was ranked 20th in FedEx Cup points with Jones 65th and Swafford 67th. The top 125 players in season points qualified for Memphis with 70 players advancing to next week’s BMW Championship and the top 30 reaching the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Had they been able to play and reached the Tour Championship, the trio would have earned berths in next year’s Masters and US and British Opens.

But LIV Golf players could not show irreparable harm since they will be allowed to play LIV Golf events when those resume next month in Boston.

While LIV Golf players claim they are independent contractors, the PGA Tour argued they were members and the tour can punish members who violate rules, such as playing in LIV events.

Smith tightlipped on rumored defection | 05:10

“With today’s news, our players, fans and partners can now focus on what really matters over the next three weeks, the best players in the world competing in the FedEx Cup playoffs,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo obtained by The GolfChannel.

LIV Golf has lured away such top stars as Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson with guaranteed money and record purses of $25 million at events.

Jones, Gooch and Swafford were among 11 LIV Golf players who filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz, who had been among the 11 players in the lawsuit, has dropped out of the case, his manager said.

Some players at Memphis warned of a frosty reception for LIV golfers had they been allowed to tee off after departing for richer prize money as well as trying to knock PGA players out of their own playoffs.

“Going to be a pretty icy Thursday morning if those guys play,” 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover told The Golf Channel. “They want their cake and eat it too.”

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Sports

Nick Kyrgios US Open prospects, odds, could he win? Media reaction to Washington ATP win

Nick Kyrgios’ career-best run of form has prompted an inevitable debate around one big question — is he a legitimate contender to win the US Open?

The 27-year-old Australian made history by winning both the singles and doubles titles at the ATP event in Washington, a month after he reached his first grand slam final at Wimbledon.

Kyrgios’ ranking has jumped to 37 and a strong performance at next week’s Montreal Masters could clinch him an all-important seeding at the year’s final grand slam in New York, starting later this month.

The enigmatic Aussie caught many by surprise with his run at the All England Club and how he’s since backed up that performance has prompted discussion about whether Kyrgios may now be emerging as the grand slam force many have always thought he could become.

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Kyrgios wins hearts with gift for fan | 00:37

Former world No.1 Andy Roddick is among those who believe the hype is real when it comes to Kyrgios’ prospects at Flushing Meadows, where Wimbledon champion Nick Kyrgios and injury-riddle Rafael Nadal may be absent.

“It’s a big, big deal to me that he goes into Washington, which is a pretty big event in the lead-up to the US Open,” Roddick told Steve Weissman of Tennis Channel on The Rich Eisen Show.

“Brutal conditions….To go through singles and doubles and not to tap out mentally or physically is a big, big sign.

“I think it puts him into the top two, maybe three, favorites for the US Open.”

Stuart Fraser, writing for The Times, said many of Kyrgios’ rivals will be relieved he is on course to be seeded at the US Open — removing him as a nightmare early round potential opponent — and agreed Kyrgios was up as a legitimate force in the singles.

“Whether Kyrgios is seeded or not at the US Open, he will be considered a contender after showing at Wimbledon that he has what it takes to come through several consecutive matches in the extended best-of-five-set format,” Fraser said.

“A potential second-round meeting with Medvedev in Montreal this week would help to determine where exactly he will sit on the bookmakers’ list.”

Kokk downs veteran Verdasco in Mexico | 00:26

Tennis Podcast co-host Matt Roberts said Kyrgios’ Washington performance showed he was likely to build on his success at Wimbledon, rather than it being a flash in the pan.

“I know it’s the first time he’s won a title this season but he has been playing very well whenever he’s played and I do think, I go back a lot to that quote he gave, kind of jokingly, straight after Wimbledon but it was serious at the same time, where he said that if he’d won Wimbledon he might have lost his motivation,” Roberts said.

“I actually think that losing that final, in a way, is probably the best thing in terms of prolonging his career. I think he’s got a little bit of a taste for it now in terms of wanting to see what happens when he properly dedicates himself and really does put his mind to it.

“I think he wants to find out how good he can get. A week like this, he played players that were kind of comfortable for him I think. He’s still only beaten Tsitisapas as a top 10 player in this run. We haven’t really seen him play those absolute top players I suppose.

“I’m interested to see next week when he plays potentially Daniil Medvedev in potentially his second match in Canada.

“That would be a fantastic test for both of them. it’s kind of tough to judge just exactly where Kyrgios’ level is but — an unmotivated Kyrgios is a dangerous player. A motivated Kyrgios is a different thing altogether.”

Co-host David Law warned, however, that history was not on Kyrgios’ side when it came to going all the way at slams.

“I think he is playing the most professional, consistent tennis of his career. Whether that means anything we’ll have to wait and see,” Law said.

“… I still think, best of five sets where you don’t have the help of the surface, he is going to malfunction.

“He is going to get in his own way. Somebody is going to hang on in a match, players peak at grand slams. He’s going to play against players who are playing their best stuff at that tournament and he is going to come apart at the seams, most likely, because that is the history.

RAGE aplenty as Kyrgios wins tie-break | 02:07

James Gray, writing for iSport, agreed despite acknolwedging the Kyrgios hype train “might never have had such a head of steam up as it currently does”.

“Entertainment has never been Kyrgios’s problem: attainment has,” Gray wrote.

“Have you finally got over that hump? There are certainly results in his 2022 record to suggest he might have done, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas (twice), Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev, but his record against the top 20 in 2022 remains six wins and seven losses. For that kind of form to equal victory in New York, Kyrgios will need some help from the draw.

“He is likely to get some as well, since his world ranking will now almost certainly earn him a seeded spot, protecting him from the world’s top 30 players in the opening two rounds. And circumstance – injury to Alexander Zverev and the unvaccinated status of Novak Djokovic – will protect him from two of the top 10 for the duration of the tournament.”

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Entertainment

James Packer parties with young women in bikinis on superyacht

Australian billionaire James Packer has been photographed on a yacht hanging out with young bikini-clad women.

On Thursday, Mr Packer was seen enjoying his $250 million superyacht out in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian coast.

The Australian rich lister was there with two unknown women and an unknown man.

American film director Brett Ratner, 53, was also in attendance, who has directed Hollywood movies including X-Men and the Rush Hour franchise.

In one instance, Mr Packer 54, was photographed clasping the hand of a blonde woman while also leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.

At another point, one of the women was spotted drinking and dancing on the boat.

Mr Packer wore sunglasses and a dark blue T-shirt and black shorts while his friend Mr Ratner had a gray T-shirt on.

The Aussie business has been spotted spending a lot of time on his superyacht in the past few months.

In July, it was revealed that Danish model Josefine Hanning Jensen had been on-board the billionaire’s superyacht since at least July 6.

There’s no word yet on whether Packer and Jensen are romantically linked, or whether she will join him when he heads back to Sydney.

It’s unclear whether the two women spotted on the boat on Thursday are also models.

As the son of media head honcho Kerry Packer, James Packer has a net worth of US$1.5 billion (A$2.17 billion) according to Forbes.

Two months ago, Mr Packer revealed he had been seeking to lose weight after telling The Weekend Australian last month that he was ready to start the “third act” of his life as he looks towards a return to Australia.

“I’m roughly 130kg now and want to be back to 100kg by the end of 2022,” Packer told the publication.

speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald around the same time, Packer divulged he was down 33kg after quitting alcohol, limiting his calorie intake and exercising daily.

Mr Packer told the newspaper his life was “pretty good right now”, adding: “My mental health is the best it’s ever been.”

He also revealed his mental health had also taken a turn, having quit the antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs he was taking.

With the $8.9 billion sale of his company shares to US private equity firm Blackstone’s finalized on June 24, which saw Packer pocket an enormous $3.36 billion, he’s now ready to plan his return home.

“I want to swim with my kids at Bondi when we’re all in Sydney together next year and be 100kg,” he said from his home in Mexico.

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Sports

Aussie John Millman slammed after Novak Djokovic tweet, weighs into US Open vaccination drama

Aussie tennis star John Millman has sparked a Twitter firestorm after weighing in on Novak Djokovic’s US Open status.

Millman took to Twitter to reveal he had pulled out of an ATP 250 event in Mexico after he tested positive to Covid-19.

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But he also took the opportunity to question why Djokovic was currently barred from entering the US to play in the tournament.

“I’m out with Covid. I was just in the (United) states and it didn’t really feel like too many were following any recommendations or guidelines there. Which is fine, but therefore I can’t see then why @DjokerNole can’t come and compete,” Millman tweeted.

Millman entered the conversation. Photo by Michael Klein.Source: News Corp Australia

Djokovic has revealed he is “preparing to compete” at the final grand slam of the season although currently his refusal to get vaccinated for Covid will see him barred from entry to the US.

Under current rules, all visitors to the United States must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Since his Wimbledon victory, Djokovic has been hoping for a change in the rules in America, despite more than 200,000 new cases and 1057 deaths on August 3. However the average has been around 400 deaths a day, while more than 12,500 Americans died during July according to USA Today.

Millman was slammed for his post and returned an hour later to clarify his stance.

“Let me be clear. If everyone in the country was following guidelines then I’m all for them enforcing a vax entry policy. But from what I saw pretty much no one was, the tournament allows non vax citizens to play and only 30% have had a booster…,” he wrote.

Tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg replied to the second tweet, posting: “Could be wrong, but I’m not sure there’s a non-vaxxed US citizen player whose ranking gets them anywhere near the US Open field currently? This remains an issue for one individual.

“And FWIW, media has to show proof of vaccination to get our credentials for US Open.”

Hours later, Millman replied: “Twitter is full of people having all types of opinions on different matters but when an athlete has an opinion on something that is not to do with their sport they are told to ‘stick to your sport’.”

Millman is currently ranked world No. 76 and has automatically qualified for the US Open.

Djokovic was named on the entry list for the grand slam late last month.

Novak is still hoping for US Open entry. Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFPSource: AFP

However, the US Open said it was just the process, not a hint about a possible exemption for the tournament which starts on August 29.

“Per the Grand Slam Rule Book, all eligible players are automatically entered into the men’s and women’s singles main draw fields based on ranking 42 days prior to the first Monday of the event,” a statement from the US read.

“The US Open does not have a vaccination mandate in place for players, but it will respect the US government’s position regarding travel into the country for unvaccinated non-US citizens.”

Late last month, Djokovic took to Instagram to post a picture of him training, hinting he’d be ready to go, even if there was a late change to the US’ entry rules.

“I am preparing as if I will be allowed to compete, while I await to hear if there is any room for me to travel to the US. Fingers crossed!,” Djokovic wrote on Instagram late last month.

There have been plenty of calls for Djokovic to be allowed into the country, including politicians and more than 46,000 people who have signed a petition calling on the authorities to allow a 21-time Slam winner into the country.

But Djokovic’s coach Goran Ivanisevic said he doesn’t believe the rules will change.

“There is always hope,” Ivanisevic told La Repubblica.

“Novak will do everything to be there, maybe he will get a special visa. But there are only two weeks.

And, personally, I have zero hope that [Joe] Biden will change the rules before the tournament starts.

“For me it is all nonsense and bull****.

If you are vaccinated but positive you can enter the United States. If you are not vaccinated but negative, you are banned. There is too much politics in sports.”

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Sports

Socceroos set for busy 2026 World Cup qualifying schedule

The Socceroos’ path to the 2026 World Cup will be a 16-match journey – provided the Australians are among the Asian Football Confederation’s top six qualifiers.

To be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the 2026 edition of the tournament will expand to include 48 nations.

With 16 more countries to qualify than the 32 at this year’s World Cup, the AFC will have at least eight representatives and a maximum of nine.

Provided, as expected, the Socceroos are at the time among the AFC’s top 25 nations, they will join the race to reach the 2026 World Cup in the second round of the preliminary qualifiers, which is set to start late next year and will involve 36 teams who will be divided into nine groups of four.

Each nation will play six games in a round-robin, home and away format, with the top two from each group – 18 in total – to advance to the stage known as the AFC Asian Qualifiers.

The 18 teams – who will be divided into three groups of six – will play 10 matches in a round-robin, home and away format, with the top two from each group to qualify directly for the World Cup.

The teams finishing third and fourth in each of the three groups will be drawn into two further groups of three and play two matches in a single round-robin format.

Both of the group winners will qualify for the World Cup.

The two second-placed teams will meet in a playoff, with the winner to represent the AFC in an Intercontinental playoff, where a World Cup berth will be up for grabs.

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Sports

Sad milestone in Princess Charlotte video

I’m going to make an argument that might make you scoff: To be born a prince or princess in

the British royal family would be a rotten fate.

Oh yes, I know about the castles, the family’s $645 million wealth and the just under $3 billion trusts which only some members hav access to, not to mention the indescribably vast collection of jewels including questionable Romanov pieces, rubies the size of quail’s eggs and that their Gan Gan owns the world’s largest private collection.

To live life, from your first squalling breath, as an HRH means nearly unthinkable privilege, far too much venison and always getting to board a RyanAir flight first.

But, it would still be a rubbish life.

Exhibit A) the video released by William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Instagram and Twitter accounts on Sunday night ahead of England’s Lioness soccer team playing in the Euro 2022 final. There the duke sat in some bucolic garden somewhere in England of the sort that Beatrix Potter would have given her best bonnet to sketch. On his knee he sat Princess Charlotte, age seven-years-old, with what looked like a plastered-on, slightly forced smile.

You can see her eyes dart off to the side, possibly to her mother the duchess who, as we know, is a dab hand with a camera. William wishes the team luck before Charlotte gets to deliver her line from Ella at the end, saying “Good luck, I hope you win, bye,” and offering a cheery wave.

It’s short, sweet and should be nothing more than a source of a few million more likes.

Except that, watching the video, something occurred to me. Here we have the future king delivering his lines with genuine warmth and enthusiasm and a small child staring down the barrel of a totally new sort of royal childhood, one where she and brothers Prince George and Prince Louis won’t just be obliged to occasionally appear. in public but will be required to help churn out the social content needed to keep the monarchy afloat.

Sure, all royal kidlets, including a cherubic Queen in the 1920s, have been rolled out to charm and delight the masses, tiny curiosities, waving gamely, that the press could slap on their front pages with glee abandon.

However, what sets the youngest Cambridges totally apart is that they are now also required to help their parents keep the pipeline of photos and videos for social media purposes coming.

Not only are George, Charlotte and Louis already expected to take part in key ceremonial family moments but on top of that, their childhoods are going to be intruded upon in an unprecedented way in the royal annals all in the name of likes, retweets and views .

You can already, clearly, see this pattern emerging if you contrast William and Charlotte at seven.

The year the prince was that age, he took part in the carriage procession for Trooping the Color and the later Buckingham Palace balcony waving session, appeared at the Beating Retreat military parade, and was photographed attending two weddings (his uncle, now the Earl Spencer , and that of the Duke of Hussey’s daughter) and alongside his brother Prince Harry on the younger boy’s first day at school.

Contrast that with the 12-months to date for Charlotte. In August last year she appeared in a Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Instagram post about a conservation effort called the Big Butterfly Count; there was the family’s Christmas card image, snapped during a private holiday to Jordan, that was shared widely; she attended the memorial service for her de ella Great Grandfather Prince Philip in March and the royal easter service in April, before the usual birthday shots of her were released in May.

Come June, Charlotte and her siblings took part in their first Trooping the Colour, did the balcony waving thing, undertook her first official engagement with her parents and George in Cardiff where she participated in an official walkabout, before taking center stage with her family during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, along with filming a video baking cakes with Kate, George and Louis.

Also in June, the Cambridge Three appeared in a sweet family shot, taken in Jordan, that was posted to mark UK Father’s Day.

Sure, the young Cambridges may never know the hell of being chased by the paparazzi, but often in the coming months and years we are very likely only going to more regularly see their small faces popping up on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook feeds. (A gambling woman would put money on William and Kate making a foray onto TikTok soon too.)

For the duke and duchess, being on most of the major platforms means they have agreed to a post-industrialist Faustian bargain. They can plug their brand of royalty – an accessible, warm and relatable one – directly to Britons via the most powerful marketing platforms ever created. The cost? They have to energetically and regularly generate the sort of personal and intimate photos and videos that are expected in these environments, that is, they are going to have to serve up their children at times.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, about 160 years ago, had the canny idea of ​​remaking the monarchy’s image by marketing their own family unit (and all nine children). This they did by releasing photos of what had hitherto been entirely personal moments such as christenings and the family on holiday. (In the 1860s, tens of thousands of copies of souvenir photos called carte-de-visites of the family were sold in the UK.)

This is a very similar strategy to the one that William and Kate are pursuing now, with their Happy Normal Family routine one of the building blocks of Cambridge Inc.

Cast your mind back to April last year when the duo released a totally unexpected departure of a video of the family gambolling on a beach, playing in a pristine garden and roasting marshmallows, to mark the duke and duchess’ tenth wedding anniversary.

The whole thing looked and felt like a commercial for a luxury station wagon, complete with atmospheric guitar music.

That was not an accident because fundamentally, William and Kate’s job comes down to the same thing a German car brand does: selling. In their case, selling the UK on a hereditary monarchy again and again to ensure it survives well into the 21st and 22nd centuries.

And, while every generation of royal parents have made their children accessible to the world via whatever the new technology of the day is, before now there was at least some sort of line between their private and public selves.

What sets George, Charlotte and Louis apart is that that distinction, that line, has quietly blurred in the last couple of years. We have seen content shot during family holidays, while ensconced on their private estates and after school in the Kensington Palace garden, shared on social media by their parents.

Obviously William and Kate are deeply protective of their children but they also have a responsibility to the monarchy too and that means embracing whatever new marketing weapons they can add to their arsenal.

Social media is a beast that must be fed and in recent years William and Kate have seriously upped their game on this front, hiring David Wakins, who formerly ran the Sussex Royal social media accounts, and launching a YouTube channel with a charming sizzle reel of sorts.

We are now served up, via the various Cambridge accounts, made-for-social content to promote their good works or news, such as when Kate was named as the Patron of the Rugby Football League and Rugby Football Union in February, with Kensington Palace putting out a sweet 30 second video starring the duchess amongst others.

These days it is hours, at the very most, after they attend any sort of engagement or event that videos and/or multiple images taken by the Cambridge team are posted, chirpily informing the world of what they have been up to and increasingly offering behind -the-scenes access.

Take their recent, somewhat disastrous tour of the Caribbean where they paid for their own photographer Matt Porteous to record their trip and where the couple’s digital team put out daily videos and photo montages.

A video of them scuba diving, shot by Porteous, to view marine conservation work was an interesting first – an official engagement conducted while the credentialed press pack were nowhere in sight and which was exclusively shared with the world via social media.

Clearly, William and Kate are devoting time, energy and budgetary resources to building up their social media presence as they inch ever closer to the throne but that is a path that involves their kids, whether any of them like it or not. (I’d wager it’s the latter.)

To be seven-years-old and on school holidays, and yet to be expected to take a break from your childhood to record a video in service of an ancient, stultifying institution? I’m not sure there are enough emeralds in the world to make up for that.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

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