Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

HOUSTON (AP) — Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to…

LONDON (AP) — Jannik Sinner advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals despite hurting his right elbow in a fall and dropping the first two sets Monday night, because his opponent, Grigor Dimitrov, had to quit with an injured pectoral muscle.The No. 1-seeded Sinner hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament until falling behind No. 19 Dimitrov 6-3, 7-5. But at 2-all in the third set, Dimitrov stopped playing.It’s the fifth consecutive Grand Slam tournament where the 34-year-old Dimitrov failed to complete a match. He also did it at the Australian Open in January and the French Open in May, plus last…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is reshaping a student loan cancellation program into what some fear will become a tool for political retribution, taking aim at organizations that serve immigrants and transgender youth.The Education Department is preparing an overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that would strip the benefit from organizations involved in “illegal activities” and allow the U.S. education secretary to decide which should lose eligibility. A draft proposal released by the department includes definitions of illegal activity that center on immigration, terrorism and transgender issues.Several advocates invited to weigh in on the draft proposal raised…

(Reuters) -Measles cases in the United States have already reached a six-year high this year, data from Johns Hopkins University’s outbreak response center showed, as a drop in vaccination rates causes a surge in the disease once eliminated from the country.The U.S. had 1,277 cases of measles, the data showed on Friday, surpassing the last record of 1,274 cases from 2019.Measles was declared eliminated from the country in 2000, meaning there were no cases spreading within the country that year. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continued identifying individual cases tied to international travel, and outbreaks have occurred…

The health of U.S. children has deteriorated over the past 17 years, with kids today more likely to have obesity, chronic diseases and mental health problems like depression, a new study says.Much of what researchers found was already known, but the study paints a comprehensive picture by examining various aspects of children’s physical and mental health at the same time.“The surprising part of the study wasn’t any with any single statistic; it was that there’s 170 indicators, eight data sources, all showing the same thing: a generalized decline in kids’ health,” said Dr. Christopher Forrest, one of the authors of…

The data industry is on the verge of a drastic transformation. The market is consolidating. And if the deal flow in the past two months is any indicator — with Databricks buying Neon for $1 billion and Salesforce snapping up cloud management firm Informatica for $8 billion — momentum is building for more. The acquired companies may range in size, age, and focus area within the data stack, but they all have one thing in common. These companies are being bought in hopes the acquired technology will be the missing piece needed to get enterprises to adopt AI. On the…

THUN, Switzerland (AP) — World Cup champion Spain booked a spot in the quarterfinals of the Women’s European Championship after another statement victory, 6-2 over Belgium on Monday.It was, surprisingly, the first time Spain won back-to-back matches at the Euros, after beating Portugal 5-0 in its opener.With 11 goals in two matches, Spain and its star-packed squad is living up to its billing as the tournament favorite and two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas had a stark warning for the other teams.“The team is having an excellent performance. But almost all of us have room for improvement,” Putellas said in…

In 2019, a rare and shocking event in the Malaysian peninsula town of Ketereh grabbed international headlines. Nearly 40 girls age 12 to 18 from a religious school had been screaming inconsolably, claiming to have seen a “face of pure evil,” complete with images of blood and gore.Experts believe that the girls suffered what is known as a mass psychogenic illness, a psychological condition that results in physical symptoms and spreads socially – much like a virus.I’m a social and behavioral scientist within the field of public health. I study the ways in which individual behavior is influenced by prevailing…

LONDON (AP) — Novak Djokovic overcame an uncharacteristically unsteady start to avoid what would have been his earliest exit at Wimbledon since 2016, coming through for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over 11th-seeded Alex de Minaur in the fourth round Monday.With Roger Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon winner, sitting in the front row of the Royal Box, so little went right at the outset for the 38-year-old Djokovic on the grass below during a breezy afternoon with the temperature in the 60s Fahrenheit (teens Celsius), a week after matches were contested in record-breaking heat.But Djokovic turned things around enough to…

New York Mets slugger and two-time winner Pete Alonso joined Philadelphia designated hitter Kyle Schwarber in electing to skip the Home Run Derby.The derby will be held next Monday, the night before the All-Star Game, at Truist Park in Atlanta. Both told reporters of their decision Sunday.The hitters so far who have committed to the event are Nationals outfielder James Wood, Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.Alonso was named a National League reserve for the All-Star Game in a season when he’s hit 20 homers. He won the Home Run Derby in 2019 and 2021. It…