Macron leaves future open as political curtain nears

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Get out and run in the Ice Breaker Road Race before Cruisin' the Drag and enjoying mimosas in Great Falls. 

The long-standing Ice Breaker Road Race is coming up Sunday, April 26. If you'd like to run in any of the three races, there's still time to sign up online here. 

Kickoff May with Montana's largest car show, Cruisin the Drag on Central Avenue. Starting in the evening of May 1 is a Poker Run, with the car show taking over Central Avenue on May 2 from 10 am to 3 pm. 

Find out more about participating in Cruisin' the Drag on their website here. 

After all that, you can sit down for a Mimosa on Saturday May 16 with the 7th annual Mimosa Showdown. Plan your showdown by checking out the mimosas in the lineup here. 

The army in junta-ruled Mali on Saturday  battled "terrorist groups" it said had launched attacks across the west African nation stricken by more than a decade of jihadist conflict.

Witnesses reported fighting in the capital Bamako and other key cities in the landlocked nation where the military seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021.

An army statement said: "Terrorist groups, not yet identified, early this morning targeted certain points and barracks in the capital and the interior."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. But jihadists had already tried last year to cripple the capital by cutting off its fuel supply.

Fighting was reported in Bamako, the northern cities of Gao and Kidal and the central city of Sevare.

Heavy gunfire was also heard at Kati, in the Bamako suburbs, where military ruler General Assimi Goita has his residence, witnesses said.

Kati residents put images on social media showing their homes destroyed. "We are holed up in Kati," one resident told AFP.

Helicopters buzzed over Bamako, notably around the international airport.

The streets of the capital were deserted amid sporadic firing, an AFP correspondent reported.

- Jihadist turmoil -

Mali has resources including gold and other valuable minerals. But since 2012, it has grappling with a security crisis over attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and community-based criminal groups and separatists.

The military government, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several Western countries, to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.

It has also been criticised for restricting the media and silencing opposition activists. Goita's administration has banned political parties.

The junta had pledged to hand over power to civilians by March 2024 but in July 2025, it granted Goita a five-year presidential term, renewable "as many times as necessary" and without an election.

US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to establish contacts with the three juntas, however, while Togo has sought to act as an intermediary between Western nations and the three countries, which have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States.

Thousands of people have died in attacks in Mali since the jihadist turmoil erupted and tens of thousands of Malians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including Mauritania, in recent years.

Russia's Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, announced the end of its mission in June 2025, and has become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.

Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known by its Arab acronym JNIM, have been attacking fuel tanker convoys, bringing the capital Bamako to a standstill at the height of the crisis in October.

Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sectoring.

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Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least six people, officials said Saturday, most of them in an attack on a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro.

"The Russians' tactics remain unchanged: attack drones, cruise missiles and a significant amount of ballistic missiles," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"Most of the targets are ordinary infrastructure in cities. Residential buildings, energy facilities and businesses have been damaged," he said.

Four people were killed and 27 wounded in one overnight strike on an apartment block in Dnipro, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of Drinpropetrovsk regional military administration said on Telegram.

A later strike on another apartment building in the city, killed one person and wounded seven, he said.

"The Russians hit the same residential neighbourhood as the one targeted overnight," Ganzha said.

In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and four wounded by a Russian drone hit on a civilian minibus, the head of the region's administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram.

Zelensky said the incessant Russian strikes on civilian targets required a strong response from Ukraine's allies, especially in Europe.

"Every such strike should serve as a reminder to our partners that the situation requires immediate and firm action, and the rapid strengthening of our air defence," he said.

- EU sanctions -

He urged the European Union to impose even more sanctions on Russia.

The plea came two days after EU leaders approved a long-stalled 20th sanctions round against Russia that target the banking sector and add new restrictions on exports of Russian oil.

That package had been blocked for months by Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who was voted from power two weeks ago. The EU also approved a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine intended to strengthen its defences and cover state expenditures for the 2026–2027 period.

Almost every day since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, civilians have been killed in Ukraine in Russian bombardments. 

Ukrainian drone attacks over the past 24 hours injured one person in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, governor Alexander Khinshtein announced Saturday on Max. 

The governor for Russia's neighbouring Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed and a man seriously wounded in a drone attack on a car, and a man driving a tractor was wounded in another strike.

Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II are at a standstill with US mediation efforts diverted by the outbreak of the Middle East war in February. 

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Gunfire rocked several districts of the junta-ruled west African country of Mali on Saturday, including Kati, the home of military ruler General Assimi Goita, witnesses and a security source told AFP.

Fighting was also heard in the northern cities of Gao and Kidal and Sevare in the centre of the landlocked nation that has been battling more than a decade of jihadist conflict.

The military, which seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, did not immediately comment on events and no claims of responsibility were made.

Helicopters flew over the capital Bamako on Saturday, including at the international airport, AFP correspondents said.

Mali has resources including gold and other valuable minerals. But since 2012, it has been grappling with a security crisis over attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and community-based criminal groups and separatists.

The military government, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several Western countries, to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.

- Jihadist turmoil -

US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to establish contacts with the three juntas, while Togo has sought to act as an intermediary between western nations and the three countries, which have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States.

Thousands of people have died in attacks in Mali since the jihadist turmoil erupted and tens of thousands of Malians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including Mauritania, in recent years.

Russia's Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, announced the end of its mission in June 2025, and has become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.

The junta has cracked down on critics and dissolved political parties.

It had pledged to hand over power to civilians by March 2024 but in July 2025, it granted Goita a five-year presidential term, renewable "as many times as necessary" and without an election.

Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known by its Arab acronym JNIM, have been attacking fuel tanker convoys, bringing the capital Bamako to a standstill at the height of the crisis in October.

Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sector.

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- US envoys head to Islamabad -

US envoys headed to the Pakistani capital Saturday in a bid to kickstart a new round of peace negotiations with Iran amid a fragile ceasefire, though the prospect of direct talks remained uncertain.

The White House said emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would engage in an "in-person conversation" with Iranian representatives, but Iranian state media said that direct negotiations were not in the cards.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has already arrived in Islamabad.

- Spain 'reliable' NATO member -

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stressed Spain was a "reliable member" of NATO, after a report the United States was considering trying to suspend it over its refusal to support military operations against Iran.

The Reuters news agency cited an anonymous US official as telling it that the Pentagon had outlined the suspension option in an email looking at ways to punish NATO allies that steered clear of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

- Kuwait frees journalist -

An American-Kuwaiti journalist has been released after being held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war, a US State Department official said.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

- US freezes $344 mn in cryptocurrency -

The United States has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency assets over ties to Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, as Washington seeks to raise pressure on Tehran amid energy supply disruptions due to the war.

- Six killed in Lebanon -

Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed six people Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said, despite an ongoing ceasefire in the more than six-week war between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy's airstrikes on southern Lebanon today, April 24, resulted in the martyrdom of six citizens and the injury of two others," the ministry said in a statement.

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Nikolay Solovyov was on shift the night of April 26, 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Instead of fleeing, he chose to fight his "first war" against radiation.

Four decades later, a second war -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- has taken his son.

Solovyov, 67, a hard rock fan, still wears his hair long, though it has turned grey.

On the night of the world's worst nuclear accident, he was working as a turbine mechanic in unit number two, a few hundred metres from reactor number four, which exploded during a safety test.

"It felt like an earthquake. I didn't hear the explosion -- the turbines were still running, with a very loud noise," he recalled, his voice quiet and gentle.

The alarms went off. As he rushed towards the exploded reactor, he saw one colleague badly irradiated and vomiting, another being carried out on a stretcher. The third one was slumped in his chair, head in his arms. All of them died soon after. 

Only then did the full extent of the disaster become clear. Through the massive hole ripped open by the explosion, he could see "the sky." In the corridors, torrents of water poured from broken pipes.

Firefighters quickly began hosing down the smoking reactor -- "they didn't let the fire spread," Solovyov said. Almost all those firefighters later died from radiation exposure.

At dawn, he and his colleagues discussed how long they had left to live. "We'll last two weeks," said one of them. 

After hearing this, Solovyov, who quit smoking five months earlier, lit up a cigarette. "Well, if I'm going to die, at least I'll die young and handsome," he recounted his thought in the moment. 

- Seeking praise - 

His night shift ended in the morning. The day team took over and the bus drove him back to Pripyat, the workers' town three kilometres (two miles) from the plant.

It was all quiet and business as usual, except for the roaring trucks that were spraying foamy "detergent" on the pavement. Once home, he told his wife to seal the windows.

For days, Soviet authorities hid the catastrophe from the world -- a disaster that further weakened the already crumbling USSR, which collapsed in 1991.

Solovyov stayed at the plant throughout the "liquidation" -- a massive clean-up operation in the aftermath. He later helped build the first sarcophagus covering the reactor, as well as the second one, which was damaged by a Russian drone strike in 2025.

The plant continued producing electricity until 2000 and teams still work there to ensure its safety.

Among the reasons for his decision to stay, Solovyov lists good pay, "generous holidays" and an "interesting" nature of work. 

The man, who later became an engineer, believes that the "dangerous" 1986 test was pushed ahead by the plant managers for the sake of winning praise from Soviet leadership.

Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in the massive liquidation operation, which saw hundreds of thousands more evacuated from neighbouring settlements. "Only the USSR" had the resources to carry out such an effort, Solovyov believes.

Dozens of his acquaintances later died of cancer. Of the 22 men on his night shift, only four are still alive.

A 2005 UN report put the number of confirmed and projected deaths at 4,000 in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Greenpeace in 2006 estimated that the disaster had caused close to 100,000 deaths.

- 'The other war' -

Solovyov, who received high doses of radiation and has undergone countless medical checks, attributes his longevity to good health, regular sport, a calm temperament and genetics.

"I have to thank God and my parents for giving me good genes," he said.

He now lives in a country house near Slavutych, a town 120 kilometres (70 miles) north of Kyiv, built in 1986 to house people displaced by the disaster.

In the local Chernobyl museum, wreckage from downed Russian drones is displayed in the main hall. "That's the other war," Solovyov said quietly.

Standing on the windswept central square of Slavutych, he said that his first, "nuclear" war was against an invisible, odourless poison.

"When people here say 'before the war' or 'after the war,' they mean April 26, 1986," he said. "And now, as people put it, this is already the second war of our generation."

On the night of February 23-24, 2022, Solovyov set out for the plant as usual. But he never reached it: the two bridges leading there had been destroyed. Russian forces seized Chernobyl and occupied the site for a month.

His youngest son joined the Ukrainian army. In September 2023 he was reported missing in action.

Devastated, Solovyov could no longer find the strength to work and took early retirement.

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AI developers are ramping up efforts to win over the hearts and minds of officials in Europe and the United States, hoping to sway governments as they weigh high-stake regulatory frameworks for the ever more powerful technology.

Flush with cash, the firms are also wooing the general public, insisting that artificial intelligence will be a force for good -- and not a destroyer of jobs or an existential threat for humanity.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI unveiled this month a 13-page "Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age" that calls for new taxation and expanded safety nets to ensure society withstands the arrival of superintelligent systems. 

It has even bought TBPN, a technology-focused talk show, to help shape the narrative.

But the policy document also came just days after a public backlash forced the company to halt plans for a sexually explicit chatbot.

OpenAI has also faced legal challenges from families of teenagers who say ChatGPT caused harm and even suicide among young people, prompting the company to introduce an age-verification system.

"This is a turning point" for the industry, and companies "are spending a fortune to try to get favourable measures passed in their patch", said Alexandra Iteanu, a Paris-based lawyer specialising in digital law.

- Politicians in pocket? -

The AI industry has transformed Washington lobbying at extraordinary speed, with more than 3,500 federal lobbyists -- one-fourth of the total -- working on AI issues last year, a 170 percent increase over three years, according to Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. 

The established giants like Meta, Google and Microsoft still dominate spending, but AI start-ups like OpenAI and Anthropic have rapidly built out their Washington presence, hiring elite firms and expanding in-house policy shops. 

Anthropic for example has focussed its message on promoting AI safety and tighter regulation.

But OpenAI is also actively pushing the industry's top legislative priority of preventing US states from passing their own laws governing AI, an effort that has twice failed in Congress but remains very much alive, backed by a sympathetic White House. 

The influence campaign has moved into electoral politics, with a pro-AI campaign called Leading the Future assembling a $100 million war chest to back AI friendly candidates in the 2026 midterms. 

President Donald Trump, a fierce opponent of AI regulation, counts OpenAI's cofounder Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman among his biggest donors. 

European regulators are also feeling the heat, with the French start-up Mistral recently presenting in Brussels a 22-point plan to accelerate AI development on the Continent.

Lobbying outlays by the tech industry have surged 55 percent since 2021 to reach 151 million euros ($177 million) last year, according to study by the Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, a nonprofit.

- 'Concentration of wealth' -

For Margarida Silva of the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO, a Dutch nonprofit), AI firms are working from playbook of the oil and smoking industries, but with one major difference. 

"They're just the wealthiest companies in the world, so they have a lot of money that they can use to put towards lobbying," Silva said.

"When you have such intense corporate lobbying that is based on having such a concentration of wealth, and that is standing in the way of public interest regulations... we are really talking about a democratic threat," she added.

Many executives also cultivate friendships with elected officials to have "privileged channels" with public administrations, said Charles Thibout, a politic science professor at the Sciences Po Strasbourg university in eastern France.

He noted the phalanx of tech moguls at Trump's inauguration last year, and the close ties between Mistral's cofounder Arthur Mensch and French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Political leaders are often keen to be seen with AI's top names, Thibout added, if only to help get some of their huge development spending for their states or regions.

But "lawmakers are not fooled", said Iteanu, as enthusiasm for AI has not dispelled public wariness about its potential consequences. 

Despite the colossal spending in the United States, for example, opinion polls regularly show that Americans remain highly sceptical about the technology's benefits, and more worried that it spells doom for millions of jobs. 

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New Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the world's Anglican Christians, heads to Rome and the Vatican this weekend for an audience with Pope Leo XIV.

Mullally will meet the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics during a four-day visit starting Saturday, her first abroad since being enthroned last month as the Church of England's top cleric.

The audience comes 60 years after a historic meeting in 1966 between then archbishop Michael Ramsey and pope Paul VI, the first at that level since the Church of England was created in the 16th century, when king Henry VIII broke with Rome.

Relations have been steadily improving since although in 2016 their successors noted "new disagreements", particularly on the ordination of the women -- making Mullally's visit a significant moment.

The 63-year-old former nurse, who is married with two children, is the first woman to lead the mother church of the world's 85-million strong Anglican community.

The first female Anglican bishops were appointed in the United States in 1989, and they have been allowed in the Church of England since 2014, although the issue remains divisive.

By contrast the Catholic Church has repeatedly rejected the idea of female priests, while male priests also cannot marry -- with the exception of married Anglican priests who want to convert.

Campaigners for women's rights, who had hoped for progress under former Pope Francis before his death last year, welcomed the archbishop's visit.

"If a female archbishop comes to see him, it might give Pope Leo XIV pause for thought," Sylvaine Landrivon, spokeswoman for Catholic feminist association Magdala, told AFP.

"He might realise that women, who represent half of God's people, have the same abilities as men."

- 'United Christian community' -

The visit, in which Mullally will also meet with members of the Catholic community, comes six months after King Charles III became the first supreme governor of the Church of England to pray with a pontiff.

In a letter marking her enthronement, Leo -- himself new in the job, marking one year as pope on May 8, expressed his hope of a "reconciled, fraternal and united Christian community".

Bishop Anthony Ball, the archbishop's representative to the Holy See, told AFP the meeting was "an important opportunity to build and establish a personal relationship" as well as mark the institutional ties.

Mullally praised the pope's "courageous call" for peace earlier this month after US President Donald Trump criticised the pontiff's calls for an end to the Middle East war.

The archbishop and the pope face many common challenges, Ball noted, from pressing social issues such as immigration, poverty, war and the environment, to the question of how to engage with younger people.

Their churches have also both been rocked by  clerical child sexual abuse and its cover up. Mullally's predecessor, Justin Welby, quit over failures in handling an abuse scandal.

Internal unity is also under pressure in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, amid tensions between conservative and progressive factions on issues such as liturgy, gay marriage and priestly celibacy.

- 'Careful listeners' -

Mullally's appointment was deeply divisive within the Anglican Communion, both because of her sex and also her positive stance towards same-sex marriage.

Several conservative African archbishops, who have for years been at odds with their more liberal Western counterparts, strongly criticised the choice.

Ball said he expected Pope Leo to be "respectful" of the archbishop's appointment -- and for her not to press the issue of women in the Church.

"I think she will be resistant to being co-opted into somebody else's agenda, particularly in another church that isn't her own," he said.

"She's got more than enough on her plate with the Anglican Communion."

Leo also inherited from pope Francis a church divided over key social challenges.

During his 12-year papacy, the charismatic Argentine reformer often riled traditionalists, particularly in the US and Africa, with his efforts to open up the Catholic Church.

Ball said both Mullally and Pope Leo had so far proved to be "quite careful listeners".

Leo is "taking his time to listen to people, to hear, and to try and discern ways of ensuring that people can move forward together. And I think Archbishop Sarah is similar in that regard", he said.

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Hundreds of firefighters were battling wildfires in the forests of northern Japan on Saturday, as authorities urged more than 3,200 people to evacuate from their homes, government officials said.

As of Saturday morning, blazes in the mountainous areas of Iwate region had burned about 700 hectares (1,730 acres) since breaking out three days ago, local government officials said in a statement.

A large column of smoke, which could be smelled 30 kilometres (20 miles) away, was seen rising up the valley near the town of Otsuchi as two helicopters dropped water on the burning forest.

In Otsuchi, fire engines were spraying the forest near homes close to the fire.

About a dozen helicopters and more than 1,300 firefighters as well as Japan Self-Defense Forces troops would be mobilised on Saturday to battle the fires, the statement said.

At least eight buildings had been burnt but all the residents had evacuated, it said.

"We're making efforts to extinguish (the fires) ... and will update the information" later in the day, an Iwate official told AFP.

"Ultimately, I do hope it'll rain," a man in Otsuchi told public broadcaster NHK.

Increasingly dry winters have raised the risk of wildfires. A blaze that broke out in the Iwate city of Ofunato early last year was Japan's worst in more than half a century.

Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by mankind's burning of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires. 

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The Los Angeles Lakers, fueled by 29 points from LeBron James, beat the Houston Rockets 112-108 in an overtime thriller on Friday to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their NBA playoff series.

James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th post-season, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer with 13.6 seconds left in regulation.

He couldn't get a potential game-winner to drop at the buzzer, but added a steal and a block in a frantic overtime as the Lakers pushed the Rockets to the brink of elimination in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.

No NBA team has come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.

"Just trying to seize the opportunity," James, who added 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals, told broadcaster Prime. "My guys trust me to try to make plays and I'm blessed to be able to do it."

The Lakers will have a chance to close out the series in Houston on Sunday. It's not a position many expected them to be in with league-leading scorer Luka Doncic sidelined by a hamstring strain and key offensive contributor Austin Reaves out with an oblique injury.

The young Rockets, with veteran star Kevin Durant sidelined by a sprained ankle, were led Alperen Sengun's 33 points and 16 rebounds.

They rallied from an early 15-point deficit and led by six with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.

But their mistakes caught up with them. A Houston turnover was followed by a foul on Marcus Smart as he attempted a three-pointer.

Smart made all three free-throws to cut the Lakers' deficit to 101-98 and set the stage for James's game-tying basket.

Sengun missed a potential go-ahead basket before James was off-target from beyond the arc and they went to overtime, Smart scoring eight of his 21 points in the extra session as the Lakers pulled away.

- Celtics hold off 76ers -

Boston's Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points apiece to lead the Celtics to a hard-fought 108-100 victory over the 76ers in Philadelphia and a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series.

The Sixers had grabbed game two in Boston to knot the series at one game apiece.

In a game that neither team led by more than 10 points,

the Celtics took a five-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Tyrese Maxey's three-pointer briefly put the Sixers up 85-84 with 8:42 remaining, and Philadelphia were within one when Tatum drilled a three-pointer that pushed Boston's lead to 100-96 with 1:57 left to play.

Payton Pritchard added another three-pointer with the shot-clock winding down before Tatum -- who missed most of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last year's playoffs, drained a dagger trey that sealed it for Boston.

"We just were resilient," Tatum told broadcaster Prime. "We stuck with it. It's a game of runs -- good team and just, you've got to answer."

Maxey scored 31 points to lead the Sixers. Paul George added 18 and rookie VJ Edgecombe added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Sixers star Joel Embiid, still recovering from an emergency appendectomy earlier this month, was ruled out shortly before the game.

"He's just not ready," said Sixers coach Nick Nurse, whose team will try to even the series when they host game four on Sunday.

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