Category World News

Novak Djokovic, who had suffered a muscle injury at the Australian Open and was booed off the court by some Melbourne fans, pledged to keep on winning the record for the 25th Grand Slam title.

After falling to Alexander Zverev in the first set 7-6(5), Djokovic returned injured on Friday. The 10-time champion painedly exited Rod Laver Arena in the wake of the hostile response from some fans.

After missing the French Open with a knee problem before his quarterfinal against Casper Ruud, he suffered his second injury setback at the Grand Slams in a year. The Serbian great may be getting older, but he remained unwavering that there is still much more he can do in the twilight of an extraordinary career.

Statistics have been negative for me over the past few years, he said to reporters, so it’s not like I’m worried about getting injured at every Grand Slam right now. “I am certainly getting injured a lot over the past few years,” she said. What precisely is the cause of that, I don’t know. Maybe several different factors.

” But I’ll keep going. I’ll keep striving to win more Slams. And as long as I feel that I want to put up with all of this, I’ll be around. “

After a draining but brilliant quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz, in which he took a lengthy medical leave of absence after the first set, Djokovic entered the match clouded.

When he faced Zverev, he had his left thigh taped, but it didn’t show until much later in the set.

Djokovic’s retirement shocked the crowd and surprised Zverev, who had previously battled hamstring injuries during his 2021 championship run two years ago and an abdominal muscle tear while competing in Melbourne Park.

The Serb questioned whether the set’s merits would have been worth the additional effort, claiming that he might have if the match had been won.

Though” upset and disappointed”, Djokovic was ultimately philosophical, saying he would cheer for Zverev as the German bids for his first Grand Slam title after defeats in two finals.

” I actually thought I played really well, as well as I played the last 12 months, to be honest, “Djokovic said.

I liked my chances, and there are many advantages to my play in the semifinals. It’s a very good result considering the circumstances. But it’s not satisfying to me – for my standards.

“I always strive for the ultimate goal: to win in the championship match.”

Djokovic and Andy Murray, who helped the Serb get ready for the first Grand Slam of the year, were unsure if they would continue working together.

“I’ll definitely have a chat with Andy: thank him for being here with me, give him my feedback, which is, of course, positive, and see how he feels”, said Djokovic. “We are still hot-headed and disappointed, so it’s kind of hard to switch the page and start talking about what the next steps are”.

Djokovic, who backed Danielle Collins’ response by giving a hostile Melbourne crowd a kiss, had already been a turbulent tournament. After defeating local Destanee Aiava in the second round, the American thanked the crowd for paying for her next five-star vacation.

Djokovic refused an on-court interview with Australian broadcaster, Channel Nine, for an “offensive, racist” jibe.

She may smell like rotting flesh but “Putricia”, the internet-famous corpse flower, has been the centre of attention at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney over the last two days.

The uncommon plant, known as “Titan Arum” or “bunga bangkai” in Indonesia where it grows wild, started to bloom on Thursday, emitting an odor similar to that of a “dead rat” type.

With 11 corpse flowers in the collection, staff at the gardens traditionally give each a nickname and this time they settled on “Putricia” – a combination of “putrid” and “Patricia”.

Over the past 18 days, Putricia has also become a bit of a political influencer thanks to thousands of viewers watching her go from being a bud to a 1 meter-tall flower in real time.

With more than 1.5 million views and a very active Discord community, John Siemon, director of horticulture and living collections at the gardens, says staff have been “shell shocked” by Putricia’s sudden popularity.

According to Siemon, at least 20 000 enthusiastic onlookers have since opened the doors in the past week in search of Putricia.

Putricia had taken a while to start producing her distinctive perfume, according to Sydney Botanic Gardens’ Professor Brett Summerell, but the scent was still present when it was 20 meters away from her pavilion on Thursday evening.

“It’s a little bit of a build-up”, he said. As the flower begins to grow, it begins to generate heat, which causes chemical reactions over time.

The plant is attempting to produce the most of that smell so that beetles, flies, and insects from the entire jungle can visit it and pollinate it.

The oversize flower has fluted crimson petals and a pointed center stalk that can reach 3 meters (10 feet) across.

The flower’s disgusting smell and reddish-purple structure is designed to lure pollinators so it can reproduce.

The plant typically only blooms once every few years and only lasts for about a day. Putricia is the fifth corpse flower to bloom in the gardens since it hasn’t bloomed since 2010.

The corpse flower’s yellow stalk collapses after about 48 hours, requiring a minimum of three to five years before the plant can bloom once more.

Sydney resident Rebecca McGee-Collett, who waited 90 minutes to see the flower on Thursday evening, said the flower was beautiful but the smell was” like hot garbage”.

Ulbricht, 40, was sentenced to two life sentences, plus 40 years, in 2015 for running Silk Road, an illicit online market that US prosecutors said facilitated $183m in drug sales using Bitcoin.

Following a campaign promise to libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts who had lobbied for his release, Trump on Tuesday granted Ulbricht a full and unconditional pardon.

Ulbricht expressed his gratitude to Trump for granting him clemency in a video message that was posted on X on Friday.

He let me out while I was living my life without a parole and imprisoned for more than 11 years. I’m a free man now. So let people know that Donald Trump is a true leader, he said.

“Thank you so much, President Trump, for giving me this amazing blessing. I am so, so grateful to have my life back, to have my future back, to have a second chance”.

Ulbricht said he wanted to spend more time with his family but would like to hear more about it later.

“This is a victory and it’s your victory, too. And this is an important moment for everybody, everywhere who loves freedom and who cares about second chances”, he said.

“It feels amazing to be free, to say the least. It’s overwhelming”.

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Libertarians and crypto supporters criticized Ulbricht’s case as an example of government overreach, claiming that his punishment did not reflect the crime and that he had been unfairly prosecuted for dealings with others.

Ulbricht’s attorneys claimed that despite having the website, he had been lured back as a fall guy just as the authorities were closing in, and that he had already given control to others after a short while.

Trump praised Ulbricht’s pardon as “ridiculous” and said those responsible for his prosecution were “the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me.”

According to US prosecutors, Ulbricht is portrayed as a criminal mastermind driven by a desire for wealth and power, and he is accused of selling drugs on his website that led to the deaths of six people.

Although he was not convicted of any such crime and no proof that anyone had actually been killed, the prosecution claimed Ulbricht had encouraged the murders of people he perceived as threats to his operation.

Trump’s pardon was criticized by a number of Democratic legislators despite the fact that some Republicans who support libertarian principles were known for it.

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto wrote in a post on X that “pardoning drug trafficking kingpins is a slap in the face to the families who have lost loved ones to his crimes.”