Saudi creative Sarah Taibah stars in Loewe’s Ramadan campaign

LOS ANGELES: Luka Doncic faced his old team the Dallas Mavericks for the first time since his shock move to the Los Angeles Lakers and served up a triple-double in a 107-99 win on Tuesday.

The five-time All-Star moved to the Lakers in exchange for big man Anthony Davis this month in a deal which stunned the NBA and left Mavs fans distraught.

Davis, who is injured, was present at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles and was given a tribute from the Lakers during the first timeout.

The watching Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who has been a target of Dallas fans’ anger since the move, was also given a warm welcome by Lakers fans who chanted “Thank you Nico” during Doncic’s free throws.

Doncic put up 19 points on 6-17 shooting but grabbed 15 rebounds and made 12 assists on what he conceded was a strange night against his former teammates.

“I don’t know how to explain it, I think in the first quarter, second quarter, I didn’t know what was happening. It was just different, I can’t even explain how I felt,” he told broadcaster TNT.

Doncic admitted that despite his key role, his shooting was off in a game where the Lakers needed a big fourth quarter from LeBron James to secure the win.

“I couldn’t make nothing today, I am just glad we got a win. I can’t wait to go to sleep honestly,” said the Slovenian, who made a key assist to James to make sure of the win.

James had 27 points with 16 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

The short-handed Mavericks put up a strong fight however with Kyrie Irving outstanding as he made 35 points with seven rebounds and four assists. Klay Thompson put up 22 points for Dallas.

The front-running Cleveland Cavaliers extended their winning streak to eight games with a 122-82 thrashing of the Orlando Magic.

Ty Jerome top-scored off the bench for Cleveland making 20 points in 21 minutes while Max Strus nailed five three-pointers as he put up 17 points.

The blowout win moves the Cavs to a league-best 48-10 record on the season, despite Donovan Mitchell being restricted to just 11 points.

“We move it quickly, we move it quickly up the floor in transition, make quick decisions, everyone touches it — it is a fun style of play,” said Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson.

“It creates a lot of open looks and our skill level is super high, you have to have high skill level to play that way,” he added.

The Boston Celtics, a place behind Cleveland in the East, took their own winning streak to six games with a 111-101 victory at the Toronto Raptors.

Jaylen Brown scored 24 points with Derrick White adding 22, while Payton Prichard had 20 points and Jayson Tatum put up 19 points and provided 11 assists for the Celtics.

White shot six of 11 three-pointers in a game where Toronto trailed by 17 early in the fourth quarter.

Although the Raptors were able to cut the lead to seven with 4:18 left the outcome was never truly in doubt, with White’s last three-pointer sealing victory.

Brown did not play in the final three minutes of the game as he struggled with an injury to his left leg.

The Celtics had been without Kristaps Porzingis through illness while Jrue Holiday was rested, Luke Kornet was absent for personal reasons and Al Horford had a sore big toe.

White praised the way the team had coped with those absences.

“Standards are standards so it doesn’t matter who is playing. A lot of guys had big minutes for us, we had to figure it out and we got the win,” he said.

The Memphis Grizzlies, third in the West, needed overtime to beat a determined Phoenix Suns 151-148 with Ja Morant top-scoring with 29 points and providing eight assists.

Morant scored 15 points in the fourth quarter including the game-tying shot before the end of regulation.

Seoul: The number of births in South Korea rose last year for the first time in more than a decade on the back of a rise in marriages, officials said on Wednesday, bucking a trend for a country battling a demographic crisis.
South Korea has one of the world’s longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates — a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge.
Seoul has poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.
The crude birth rate — the number of babies born per 1,000 people — was 4.7, interrupting a continuous downward trend since 2014, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea.
And the fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, was 0.75, “up 0.03 from 0.72 in 2023,” it said.
“The number of births in 2024 was 238,300, an increase of 8,300 (3.6 percent) from the previous year,” the report added.
Park Hyun-jeong, an official from Statistics Korea, attributed the rise to an increase in marriages as well as shifting demographics.
“The population has seen a significant increase in the number of people in their early 30s,” she told a press conference.
“This has had a major impact,” Park explained.
“Additionally, many marriages that were delayed due to Covid-19 have now taken place, and this upward trend continues.”
Park said the number of marriages last year had been the most since 1996 — “the highest on record.”
The average maternal age at childbirth in 2024 was 33.7 years, Seoul said, one of the highest in the world.
But the fertility rate remains far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain South Korea’s population of 51 million.
At current rates, the population will nearly halve to 26.8 million by 2100, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Experts say there are multiple reasons for the low birth rate, from high child-rearing costs and property prices to a notoriously competitive society that makes well-paid jobs difficult to secure.
The double burden for working mothers of managing the brunt of household chores and childcare while also maintaining their careers is another key factor, they say.
The South Korean government offers cash subsidies, babysitting services and support for infertility treatment.
But the number of births has until now continued to decline.
Neighbouring Japan is grappling with the same issue — it has the world’s second-oldest population after Monaco and the country’s relatively strict immigration rules mean it faces growing labor shortages.