Chargers QB Justin Herbert will play against the Steelers despite an ankle injury

Sport

Chargers QB Justin Herbert will play against the Steelers despite an ankle injury

2024-09-22 23:46 Last Updated At：23:50

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is active and will play in Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Herbert had been questionable with a right ankle injury sustained in last week's victory over the Carolina Panthers. He made his way onto the Acrisure Stadium turf about two hours before the kickoff and spent 30 minutes testing the ankle while wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

The ankle got rolled up on in the third quarter against the Panthers. He stayed in to finish off the 26-3 rout but did not practice on Wednesday and was listed as limited on Thursday after doing some light throwing.

The Chargers, 2-0 for the first time since 2012, remained in Charlotte this week with consecutive games in the Eastern time zone. Herbert has done plenty of icing and compression on the ankle while also trying to stay off his feet to limit the swelling and pain.

Easton Stick and Taylor Heinicke are Herbert’s backups. Los Angeles made wide receiver Joshua Palmer, linebacker Junior Colson, cornerback Tarheeb Still, running back Kimani Vidal, offensive lineman Jordan McFadden and defensive lineman Justin Eboigbe inactive.

Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson will serve as the emergency third quarterback for a third straight game while recovering from a calf injury. Justin Fields will get the nod instead for Pittsburgh, seeking its first 3-0 start since 2020.

Rookie wide receiver Roman Wilson remains out with an ankle. So does veteran guard Isaac Seumalo (pectoral injury). Cornerback Darius Rush, safety Terrell Edmunds and tight end MyCole Pruitt are also inactive for the Steelers.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Marxist Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka's presidential election as voters reject old guard

2024-09-22 23:37 Last Updated At：23:40

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, the Election Commission announced Sunday, after voters rejected the old political guard that has been widely accused of pushing the South Asian nation toward economic ruin.

Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom.

Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902, Election Commission data showed.

The election held Saturday was crucial as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.

“This achievement is not the result of any single person’s work, but the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of you. Your commitment has brought us this far, and for that, I am deeply grateful. This victory belongs to all of us,” Dissanayake said in a post on X.

The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership of a fragile recovery, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout program after it defaulted in 2022.

Dissanayake, 55, had said he would renegotiate the IMF deal to make austerity measures more bearable. Wickremesinghe had warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion that is crucial to maintaining stability.

Neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote. Under the Sri Lankan election system that allows voters to select three candidates in the order of their preference, the top two are retained and the ballots of the eliminated candidates are checked for preferences given to either of the top two vote-getters. The one with the highest number of votes is declared the winner.

It was a strong showing for Dissanayake, who won just over 3% of votes in a previous presidential election in 2019, and suggests voters are fatigued with the old guard.

Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition is led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People’s Liberation Front, a Marxist party that waged two unsuccessful armed insurrections in 1970s and 1980s to capture power through socialist revolution. After its defeat, the JVP entered democratic politics in 1994 and mostly played a key role in the opposition. However, they have supported several presidents and been part of governments briefly.

The NPP grouping also includes academics, civil society movements, artists, lawyers and students.

Dissanayake was first elected to Parliament in 2000 and briefly held the portfolio of agriculture and irrigation minister under then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga. He ran for president for the first time in 2019 and lost to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted in a public protest over the economic crisis two years later.

Political analyst Jehan Perera said Dissanayake represented the spirit of the 2022 uprising during which angry Sri Lankans ousted Rajapaksa and called for a “system change” and “new faces in politics.”

Dissanayake’s immediate challenge would be to steady the economy “in the face of anxieties felt by business and financial groups about his Marxist and revolutionary background,” Perera said.

Wickremesinghe's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry congratulated Dissanayake and said he hopes he will “lead with a commitment to transparency, integrity, and the long-term good of the country.”

The government announced Thursday that it passed the final hurdle in debt restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle with private bond holders. At the time of its default, Sri Lanka’s local and foreign debt totaled $83 billion. The government says it has now restructured more than $17 billion.

Despite a significant improvement in key economic figures, Sri Lankans are struggling with high taxes and living costs.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis resulted largely from excessive borrowing on projects that did not generate revenue. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s insistence on using scarce foreign reserves to prop up the currency, the rupee, contributed to the economy’s free fall.

The economic collapse brought a severe shortage of essentials such as medicine, food, cooking gas and fuel, with people spending days waiting in line to obtain them. It led to rioting in which protesters took over key buildings including the president’s house, his office and the prime minister’s office, forcing Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

The outgoing President Wickremesinghe was elected by a parliamentary vote in July 2022 to cover the remainder of Rajapaksa’s five-year term.

Chargers QB Justin Herbert will play against the Steelers despite an ankle injury

Sport

Chargers QB Justin Herbert will play against the Steelers despite an ankle injury

Next Article

Marxist Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka's presidential election as voters reject old guard

Both coaches are sent off in angry end to Brighton’s 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest

Mercury Morris, part of Dolphins’ two Super Bowl wins and their perfect season, dies at 77

Israel-Hamas war latest: Fears of all-out war rise as Israel and Hezbollah step up attacks

Mass shooting kills 4 and wounds 18 in nightlife district in Birmingham, Alabama

Hezbollah hits back with rockets as it declares an ‘open-ended battle’ with Israel

A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark are unanimous choices for WNBA AP Player and Rookie of the Year

Lando Norris cruises to victory at Singapore Grand Prix to cut Max Verstappen’s F1 lead