CR MAG

DAMASCUS (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspectedIslamic State groupmilitants have left and theSyriangovernment plans to relocate those who remain.

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR's representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency "has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks."

"Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR's support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide," he said.

He added that UNHCR "will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain."

The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-ledSyrian Democratic Forceslast month or afterward.

There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp's residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.

The camp's residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.

Forces of Syria's central governmentcaptured the al-Hol campon Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. Aceasefire dealhas since ended the fighting.

Separately, thousands ofaccused IS militantswho were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the U.S.

The U.S. military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.

Iraq's National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.

A former Ukrainian energy minister has been detained in connection with a major corruption scandal while trying to leave the country, authorities said on Sunday.

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau (NABU) said its detectives "detained the former minister of energy as part of the Midas case," referencing a wide-ranging investigation into corruption in Ukraine's energy sector that triggered a major political crisis last year.

"Initial investigative actions are ongoing, carried out in accordance with the requirements of the law," NABU added in a statement, without naming the former minister.

The scandal, which centers on alleged kickbacks from contractors including those working to protect critical energy infrastructure, led both the serving and a former energy minister to resign last year at President Volodymyr Zelensky's request. Both denied wrongdoing.

Chief of staff to the president, Andriy Yermak, alsoresignedamid the fallout.

Investigators said about $100 million had been siphoned off as state-owned businesses including Energoatom, which operates Ukraine's nuclear power plants, paid companies for work done to enhance security at key sites.

At the time, Ukraine's anti-corruption body announced it had carried out searches on dozens of properties as part of the investigation.

Corruption allegations are nothing new in Ukraine. Since 2023, NABU has opened investigations into a series of scandals.

In January 2024, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it had discovered amass corruption schemein the purchase of weapons by the country's military amounting to nearly $40 million.

CNN's Andrew Carey contributed reporting.

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By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved further measures to tighten Israel's control over the occupied West Bank and make it easier ‌for settlers to buy land, a move Palestinians called a "de-facto annexation".

The West Bank is ‌among the territories that Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, ​with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.

His ruling coalition, which has a large voter base in the settlements, includes many ‌members who want Israel to ⁠annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.

Ministers voted in favour of ⁠beginning a process of land registration for the first time since 1967, a week after approving another series of measures in the West Bank that drew international condemnation.

"We are continuing the revolution of ​settlement and ​strengthening our hold across all parts of our ​land," said far-right Finance Minister Bezalel ‌Smotrich.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said land registration was a vital security measure while the cabinet said in a statement it was an "appropriate response to illegal land registration processes promoted by the Palestinian Authority."

The foreign ministry said the measure would promote transparency and help resolve land disputes.

The Palestinian presidency condemned the step, saying it constitutes "a de-facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory and a ‌declaration of the commencement of annexation plans aimed at ​entrenching the occupation through illegal settlement activity."

Israeli settlement watchdog ​Peace Now said the measure could lead ​to dispossession of Palestinians from up to half of the West Bank.

U.S. ‌President Donald Trump has ruled out Israeli ​annexation of the West ​Bank but his administration has not sought to curb Israel's accelerated settlement building.

The United Nations' highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel's occupation ​of Palestinian territories and settlements ‌there are illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes ​this view.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Maayan Lubell, Jaidaa Taha, Ahmed Elimam and Nidal ​al-Mughrabi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Christina Fincher)

PHOENIX — One was a36-year-old career journeymaninfielder from Venezuela who hadn't produced a hit in more than a month.

The other a 26-year-old reliever with his fourth team in 11 months who wasn't even on the playoff roster the first three rounds.

Who would have imagined that in a clubhouse full of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, Miguel Rojas andWill Kleinwould be honest-to-goodnessLos Angeles DodgersWorld Series heroes, still basking three months later from the most glorious moments of their careers?

Rojas, who hit perhaps the most unlikely home run in World Series history, will not only forever be remembered in Dodgers lore for not that ninth-inning Game 7 homer, but also saving the game with a spectacular defensive play in the bottom of the frame.

"I've watched that moment over and over so many times, but it's still hard to believe it happened," Rojas tells USA TODAY Sports. "It's just overwhelming. I've always wanted to have a moment in my career where I feel valuable, especially on the offensive side. And then when you do something like that, you know it's going to be remembered for a long time.

"Probably forever."

Klein was working out in Arizona and wasn't even on the Dodgers' postseason roster untilAlex Vesia left the team before the World Seriesto be with his wife after the loss of their newborn daughter. He was summoned in the 15thinning of Game 3, and then pitched four shutout innings in the 6-5, 18-inning victory.

"It's still crazy to think about," Klein says. "I mean, I was hearing from people I went to high school with and old teams. There were people I went to middle school and high school with that didn't even know I was playing baseball. They saw me on TV, and started sending me random stuff."

'No one expected' Miguel Rojas home run

The Dodgers were down to their last two outs, trailing theToronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in the ninth inning of Game 7. Rojas, who hadn't had a hit in an entire month, stepped to the plate facing Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. Rojas worked the count to 3-and-2 when Hoffman tried to fool him with a slider. Rojas belted it over the left field wall and the screaming crowd at the Rogers Centre went dead silent.

The only sound you heard was the Dodger bench and scattered fans screaming in euphoria with Rojas barely able to feel his feet trotting around the bases.

"No one expected Miguel Rojas to hit that home run," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. "No one."

Still, it looked like it might be all forgotten when the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth. The Dodgers pulled the infield in, and Daulton Varsho hit a bouncer to the right side of Rojas. He snared the ball, but then slipped, and had his momentum carrying him towards second base. Rojas set, and fired home just in the nick of time to nail Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate and prevent the winning run.

Two innings later – and after Yoshinobu Yamamto's 2 ⅔ shutout innings in relief on no days' rest – the Dodgers were back-to-back World Series champions with Yamamoto winning the World Series MVP.

With the Dodgers all gathering for the first time since their World Series parade, everyone still is talking about Rojas and Klein's heroics.

"(Rojas) is one of the best teammates I ever had, and just one of the best people in baseball," says third baseman Max Muncy, who delivered an eighth-inning homer in Game 7 then made his own big defensive play. "So, for something like that to happen to him, after all of the work he out in and the mentality he had about certain situations, it was so well deserved.

"It was like how the game was rewarding him for how he handled his role last year."

Rojas, who didn't even play the first five games of the World Series, and was informed only a text message from manager Dave Roberts that he was starting Game 6 in Toronto, never complained about his role. Sure, he wanted to play more, but once Mookie Betts shifted from right field to shortstop, he did everything possible to help Betts improve so dramatically defensively that Betts became a Gold Glove finalist.

And in one glorious moment, it was Rojas who went from an understudy to an Academy Award winning performance, getting congratulatory messages from the likes of Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and the scout who signed him out of Venezuela.

"That's why I felt so great after it happened, not just because I hit a home run that tied the game," Rojas says, "but seeing the reaction of the people that I really care about. It was so cool. And everybody in the media had something good to say about me.

"The biggest compliment for me is that a guy like me, in front of the whole team, Doc [Roberts] told them that the game honors me because I did things the right way. I'll remember those words forever. That makes me feel like after the 20 years that I've been in professional baseball, I've been doing something good."

Rojas, who plans to retire after the season and stay with the Dodgers in player development with hopes one day of being a manager, still has strangers stopping him and thanking him for his home run. He has had more autograph requests during the winter than he's had in his entire life.

Yet, the question no one asks is which play meant to  him, the game-tying home run or the game-saving play in the bottom of the ninth inning that forced the game into extra innings.

"The home run is going to be something that people will remember forever because you're two outs away from being done," Rojas says. "But the play, I mean that's the hardest play I ever made because it's do-or-die to not only win the game but lose your season. If I don't make the play, the home run and everything is kind of our of the window.

"So, it's really tough to put it into context because if I don't hit the home run, I don't make the play, and then if I don't make the play, the homer doesn't count. I'm just so proud I was able to come through when it counted."

MLB spring training 2026: Sunshine, good vibes in Arizona and Florida

Will Klein: 'No one knows who I am'

Klein was working out at the Dodgers' spring-training complex in Phoenix when he got the emergency call to join the team in Toronto. Klein, who had spent most of the season pitching in Triple-A, threw a grueling 72 pitches across four innings in Game 3, the most he had thrown since he was at Eastern Illinois, and became an overnight hero.

He was congratulated by legendary Dodger Sandy Koufax, who shook his hand after the game.

"I didn't think most people," Klein says, "even knew who I was."

So now that he's a World Series hero, do people recognize him now wherever he goes?

"I heard people say that everybody would know me now," Klein says, "but it hasn't really changed. My wife and I went to Disneyland and Universal Studios, and maybe like two people recognized me. We'll walk around Pasadena and LA, and no one knows who I am."

Besides, Klein says laughing, it's not like he's Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana University. Klein, born and raised in Indiana, is a diehard Hoosiers fan and says he may have celebrated the school's football national championship harder than he did the Dodgers' World Series win.

"I mean, to be the losingest team ever in college football history before that, and then win it all," Klein says, "it's something I'll remember forever. I remember going to games when Wisconsin would beat us like82 to 20, and losing to teams like North Texas and Ball State, so it's been a long ride.

"I can't even imagine how many kids are going to be born in Indiana now named Fernando."

2025 World Series: All the best moments from Dodgers vs. Blue Jays Game 7

While Rojas will be retiring after the 2026 season, Klein is hoping his World Series performance will kick-start his career. Hey, if you can throw four shutout innings in a World Series game, you're sure not going to be fazed by a regular season relief appearance against the San Francisco Giants.

"It's easy to look at it like that," Klein says, "but that doesn't mean I'm going to automatically pitch well this year. I've still got to go out and put the work in each day, and use that confidence. But I can't get lazy and think, 'Oh, I'm going to be great just because I did that in one game of the World Series.'"

It's the same with the Dodgers, Roberts says. They had a bullseye on their back then, and they'll have it now.

The Dodgers can't simply throw $400 million worth of talent on the field each night and expect to automatically win. They have to move forward and focus on 2026 if they have a chance to make history, but still, no matter what transpires, those memories of that glorious 2025 World Series will live forever.

"Man, when I think about it," Roberts says, "it still blows my mind. Who would ever have thought that Miggy would hit that home run? Who could have ever thought that Will Klein was going to throw four scoreless innings in a World Series?

"But you have to have stuff like that go right for you."

No matter who steps up as the hero.

Follow Nightengale on X:@Bnightengale

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Dodgers' unlikely World Series heroes still have champions in awe

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — NBA commissioner Adam Silver wondered out loud Saturday if a moral code in pro sports has been decisively crossed as more and more teams are blatantly losing games — the hatedpractice of "tanking."

Silver conceded that the league is still struggling for solutions to punish teams that lose intentionally for long-term gain.

"I think there was a more classical view of that in the old days, where it was just sort of an understanding among partners about terms of behavior," Silver told reporters at theIntuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers and site of Sunday's NBA All-Star Game.

The NBA's annual draft allows the worst teams to have the first chance at picking the best young, amateur talent in hopes of boosting those clubs' sad fortunes. With losing equating to better draft position, teams have learned that if they're not in playoff contention, bottoming out could be the best path to restocking talent.

The 2026 NBA draft class is recognized as the best in recent years, with multiple names at the top of the board that could alter a team's future.

The practice of "tanking" is getting worse, Silver said.

"I think what we're seeing is a modern analytics, where it's so clear that the incentives are misaligned," he said.

The league this weekfined the Utah Jazz $500,000for "conduct detrimental to the league," in connection with the team sitting star players in the fourth quarters of consecutive games.

"The league is 80-years-old. It's time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that's an antiquated way," Silver said. "We got to look at some fresh thinking here. We're doing, what we're seeing right now, is not working. There's no question about it."

"Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory?" Silver added. "Yes is my view."

Jazz ownerRyan Smith sarcasticallyresponded to the NBA in a statement: "agree to disagree."

Smith also pointed out that one of the games, in which the Jazz were accused of trying to lose, was won by Utah.

"We won the game in Miami and got fined?" Smith said. "That makes sense."

The NBA has tried disincentivize intentional losing by determining draft order via a weighted draft, so losing the most games doesn't automatically result in the first pick.

Silver said, though, that he's not entirely sure that teams with the worst records are necessarily the most needy.

"It's not clear to me, for example, that the 30th (best) performing team is that much measurably worse than the 22nd (best) performing team, particularly if you have incentive to perform poorly to get a better draft pick," he said. "So it's a bit of a conundrum."

The practice is so ingrained in NBA culture that even suggestions to fight it seem hard to come by. Populartalk show host Colin Cowherd, who is paid to have opinions, threw up his arms recently on the topic and said his only suggestion was for Silver to channel his more-confrontationalpredecessor David Sternand yell at losing teams.

"I don't know what you do with tanking, they've been doing it forever. But they did it a lot less with David Stern," Cowherd said last week. "People feared David Stern."