The WTA Finals semis are Coco Gauff vs. Jessica Pegula, and Aryna Sabalenka vs. Iga Swiatek
Coco Gauff has overcome 17 double-faults and come back after being a game away from elimination at the WTA Finals to pull out a 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in a round-robin match.
Mexico shutters 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts after US warned of dangerous pill sales
Mexico has closed 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts, six months after a research report warned that drug stores in Mexico were offering foreigners pills they passed off as Oxycodone, Percocet, and Adderall.
Cruz trip tests durability of scandal, memory of voters
(Photo by MEGA/GC Images)WASHINGTON โ Ted Cruzโs political career already featured many surprise twists before a jaunt to Mexico this week brought him a new level of notoriety. Such shifts are intended to keep Cruz in a strong position with the GOP base if he runs for the White House again in 2024. Thatโs a lot of time to put the Cancun trip โin the rearview mirror,โ even if Cruzโs political opponents will continue to trumpet it. His team believes Cruz is the most popular prospective 2024 candidate not named Trump among likely Republican primary voters. She said that Cruzโs Cancun trip didnโt bother her, but that ultimately, she and other conservative activists would likely follow Trumpโs lead.
Cruz says he was being a โgood dadโ when he flew to Cancun during the winter storm
DALLAS โ Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said his family vacation to Mexico was โobviously a mistakeโ as he returned stateside Thursday following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm. The trip drew criticism from leaders in both parties and was seen as potentially damaging to his future political ambitions. AdโWanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,โ Cruz wrote. While the situation will not help Cruz's political future, the two-term senator is not in any immediate political danger. Cruz checked in for his return flight Thursday afternoon in Cancun and walked briskly through the terminal pulling a roller bag to security.
This discount airline is now taking off from IAH airport with new routes to Cancun, Las Vegas
HOUSTON โ Sun Country Airlines announced two new nonstop routes from Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport to Las Vegas and Cancun, Mexico. The discount airline added service to nine airports, including the addition of 16 nonstop flights to and from Houston-Bush and several other airports in the U.S., according to a news release on Jan. 25. From Houston-Bush, service to Cancun is set to begin May 27 and will operate twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, while service to Las Vegasโ McCarran International Airport is set to begin Sept. 2, operating twice a week on the same days. Those itching for a quick getaway can start booking either route on the Sun Country website right away. One-way routes from Houston to Cancun start at $129 and Houston to Las Vegas start at $59.
Gulf Coast braces, again, for hurricane as Zeta takes aim
Tourists walk on the beach as the tail end of Hurricane Zeta makes landfall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, early Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Zeta, the 27th named storm of a very busy Atlantic hurricane season, was a hurricane when it began raking across Mexicoโs Yucatan Peninsula early Tuesday. It emerged in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm but was expected to regain hurricane strength before landfall south of New Orleans on Wednesday evening. Officials in two Mexican states hit by Zeta reported power outages and damage caused by downed trees, but no deaths. The extraordinarily busy hurricane season has focused attention on the role of climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.
Hurricane Zeta is ashore in resort zone of Mexico's Yucatan
Clouds gather over Playa Gaviota Azul as Tropical Storm Zeta approaches Cancun, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. A strengthening Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to become a hurricane Monday as it heads toward the eastern end of Mexico's resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula and then likely move on for a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast at midweek. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Zeta came ashore just north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph). Zeta broke the record for the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an โunnamed named storm."
Winds and rain whip Yucatan resorts as Hurricane Zeta nears
Clouds gather over Playa Gaviota Azul as Tropical Storm Zeta approaches Cancun, Mexico, early Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MIAMI โ Hurricane Zeta lashed Mexico's Caribbean coast resorts around Tulum with high winds and rain Monday night as it headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula and then a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast at midweek. It was the second time this month that boat captain Francisco Sosa Rosado had to perform the same maneuver, after Hurricane Delta hit the resort in early October. Trees felled by Hurricane Delta barely three weeks earlier still littered parts of Cancun, stacked along roadsides and in parks. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an โunnamed named storm."
Delta weakens to a depression
After Hurricane Delta made landfall Friday evening as a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph near Creole, Louisiana, it has continually weakened overnight and through this morning and as of 10am become a depression. Delta weakens to a depression (KPRC)The biggest threat is still rain with 2-4 inches likely along its path with some isolated amounts possible as much as 6-10 inches for the lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. Delta picks up speed toward the northeast (KPRC)WindCameron and Lake Charles, Louisiana, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Laura, stayed on the โcleanโ side of Delta -- west of the eye. Compared to Laura, Delta is not as strong and not as well-organized. Delta made landfall near Creole Louisiana, only about 12 miles to the east of the track of Hurricane Laura six weeks earlier.
Hurricane Delta lashes Mexico's Yucatan, then heads for US
Police clear debris from a road after the passing of Hurricane Delta in Tizimin, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Hurricane Delta made landfall Wednesday just south of the Mexican resort of Cancun as a Category 2 storm, downing trees and knocking out power to some resorts along the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Delta could make landfall, possibly as a Category 3 storm, sometime Friday south of Morgan City, La., the forecast said. The hurricane came ashore in Mexico around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with top winds of 110 mph (175 kph). It knocked out power to about 266,000 customers, or about one-third of the total on the Yucatan peninsula.
Dangerous Hurricane Delta closing in on Mexico's Yucatan
Fishermen pull in a boat before the arrival of Hurricane Delta in Puerto Juarez, Cancun, Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane Tuesday on a course to hammer southeastern Mexico and then continue on to the U.S. Gulf coast this week. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MEXICO CITY โ Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified into a dangerous Category 4 storm Tuesday while on a course to hammer Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and then continue on to the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week. From Tulum to Cancun, tourism-dependent communities still soaked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gamma could bear the brunt of Delta. Delta increased in strength 80 mph, more than doubling from a 60 mph storm at 2 pm EDT Monday to 140 mph at 2 pm EDT Tuesday.
Mexico desperate to reopen 11 million-job tourism industry
A tourist fishes from the shore in Cancun, Mexico, Thursday, June 11, 2020. Mexico's tourism income crashed in April, when it was only 6.3% of what it was one year ago. Tourism provides 11 million jobs, directly or indirectly in Mexico, and many of those workers were simply sent home to wait it out. The situation is so desperate that Mexico's tourism secretary proposed making the industry one of Mexico's essential activities, so that it could reopen just as the construction, mining and automotive industries have already started to do. Other beach resorts are drawing up plans for limited reopenings as early as next week.