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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Following another dominant week, Florida strengthened its hold the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Gators (44-3) collected 30 first-place votes and 798 of a possible 800 points.

Florida put together a 4-0 week, which saw its NCAA-best pitching staff allow one run over the course of 26 innings. After a 9-1 mid-week win over in-state foe UCF, the Gators’ pitching staff surrendered just seven hits as they shutout then-No. 18 Ole Miss in a Southeastern Conference sweep by the scores of 2-0, 3-0 and 5-0. With three more shutouts, UF has posted 28 on the season, including 14 over Top 25 competition, and lowered its NCAA-best ERA to 0.70.

Florida State also picked up four wins last week and remained at No. 2 with 754 points. The Seminoles (43-3-1) swept a mid-week twinbill at Troy (9-3, 2-0) and opened their road ACC series at Louisville with two triumphs over the Cardinals (11-0, 4-3 in 10 inn.).

Arizona, which earned a first-place vote, also stayed put, holding on to the No. 3 ranking following a 4-1 week. The Wildcats (45-4) took care of business in a mid-week doubleheader at New Mexico State (8-0, 11-1) and claimed the first two games in home a Pac-12 matchup versus No. 6 Oregon (2-0, 10-7) before dropping the finale, 4-3.

Minnesota and Texas A&M switched positions as the Gophers (43-3) took over the No. 4 ranking, their highest in program history. Minnesota, who picked up the final first-place vote, won five Big Ten contests, topping RV Wisconsin (6-0 in 12 inn., 12-1) on the road and taking all three at home from Iowa (5-0, 9-1, 3-0). The Aggies (40-5) slipped up in mid-week action, coming up short in a comeback bid against then-No. 17 Louisiana (9-11) before sweeping No. 22 Georgia (10-3, 1-0, 2-0) in SEC action.

Oregon did not move from No. 6 after dropping a Pac-12 series at No. 3 Arizona. No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 8 Washington each moved up one position. The Sooners (41-8) enjoyed a 3-1 week, which included a crucial Big 12 series win over No. 15 Baylor. OU grabbed a 3-2 10-inning triumph in game one and clinched the series with a 6-0 shutout in the finale. The Bears (36-9) 4-3 victory in game two snapped the Sooners’ 17-game winning streak as well as their 25 consecutive victories in conference play and 33-game home winning streak.

Washington had a successful cross-country trip to the Heart of Dixie, defeating UAB (8-0) and trumping No. 13 Alabama (3-2, 3-0) in a two-game series at Rhoads Stadium. It was the Huskies (34-10) first sweep of the Tide since a 2007 Super Regional matchup. 

Auburn slipped to No. 9 after a 3-1 week, while Utah remained at No. 10. The Tigers (39-8) knocked off Kennesaw State at home and claimed a SEC series win on the road, taking the first two games from RV South Carolina (2-0, 2-0). In a closely-contested Pac-12 series, the Utes (30-9) rebounded from a 9-8 loss in the opener to claim the series with 7-6 and 2-1 victories at No. 23 Arizona State. 

Making its first appearance of 2017 is Marshall at No. 25, replacing Illinois, who appeared for the first time last week.

The 2017 USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference.  Records reflect games played through April 23.

 

2017 USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll
Week 11 – April 25, 2017

Rank Team Totals 2017 Record Last Poll     1 Florida (30) 798 44-3 1   2 Florida State 754 43-3-1 2   3 Arizona (1) 741 45-4 3   4 Minnesota (1) 694 43-3 5   5 Texas A&M 685 40-5 4   6 Oregon 623 38-6 6   7 Oklahoma 584 41-8 8   8 Washington 572 34-10 9   9 Auburn 542 39-8 7   10 Utah 510 30-9 10   11 Tennessee 498 41-6 11   12 UCLA 437 33-12 13   13 Alabama 409 37-11 12   14 James Madison 382 39-6 14   15 Baylor 356 36-9 15   16 Louisiana 327 36-6 17   17 LSU 286 34-14 16   18 Kentucky 238 30-13 20   19 Michigan 223 34-10-1 19   20 Ole Miss 191 31-16 18   21 BYU 175 32-10 21   22 Georgia 99 30-18 22   23 Arizona State 83 27-14 23   24 Arkansas 46 28-17 24   25 Marshall 38 35-7 RV                      

Dropped Out: No. 25 Illinois; New to Poll: No. 25 Marshall

Receiving Votes: Illinois (31), Tulsa (21), Mississippi State (13), South Carolina (11), Texas State (8), Missouri (6), North Carolina (5), Florida International (5), California (4), Saint Francis (Pa.) (4), Ohio State (1).

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Coaches Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference.  Records reflect games played through April 23.

OTTAWA — As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau boasted in Ottawa on Monday that his government had secured a trade deal without capitulating to the Americans, his man at the United Nations was, for the first time, making the case that Canada deserves a spot on the Security Council.

If elected to the UN’s most important decision-making body, Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard said, Canada would bring to bear its long-standing dedication to peacekeeping, it would work to tackle climate change and violent extremism, and promote economic security and the empowerment of women and girls.

Canada, he said, would also champion UN reforms to ensure inclusion, accountability and transparency in the organization’s deliberations.

Blanchard twice referred to the prime minister, trumpeting his leadership on the world stage. He said Trudeau had spearheaded efforts to find new ways to finance development and had raised more than $3.8 billion to reduce barriers for women and girls to access education in fragile and conflict states.

Watch: Why Canada wants UN Security Council seat

Blanchard, who stepped in to replace Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland after she swapped spots Saturday to be in Ottawa as NAFTA negotiations heated up, alluded to Canada’s long history with the United Nations.

Canada was among the drafters of UN declaration on human rights, it was instrumental in setting up peacekeeping operations, and helped set up institutions at the rules-based order, he said, as he signalled an openness to reform and said institutions should be not impervious to change.

With a nod to smaller, less wealthy nations, Blanchard noted that the benefits of rules-based system had not been evenly distributed.

“Too many remain excluded economically, socially and political, from the decision-making that affects their lives,” he said.

Blanchard touched on issues designed to strike a chord with member states whose vote Canada needs.

Calling climate change — which is an existential threat for many island nations — “the defining issue of our time,” he quoted Trudeau in saying: “Developing countries should not be punished for a problem they did not create, nor should they be deprived the opportunities for clean growth that developed nations are now pursuing.”

He called on the General Assembly to “all support Africa” as it works to create opportunities for its youth and to reduce inequalities.

Blanchard made reference to Canada multicultural cities and to Canada’s welcoming of 50,000 Syrian refugees over the past three years but was careful to note that other countries had accepted many more.

Canada isn’t perfect, he acknowledged, saying it still has challenges to overcome, the most important being reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“We are confident that we can contribute to effective, carefully considered global responses,” he told the sparsely populated room as delegates of Germany and India looked on. “We have a proven record of working with other member states to bring fresh ideas and innovative approaches to tackle complex problems, from peacekeeping and policing to peacebuilding and transition.”

Canada is campaigning for one of two seats reserved for what’s referred to as the Western bloc on the Security Council in 2021-2022. The vote takes place in 2020, but Canada is already late to the game, those familiar with the process say.

“The biggest problem the government faces is time,” Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s last ambassador to sit on the Security Council, in 2000, told HuffPost Canada’s political podcast “Follow-Up.”

Adam Chapnick, a professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces college, notes that Norway and Ireland — Canada’s challengers — started campaigning years before Trudeau announced in 2016 that he wanted the seat in 2021.

“We are campaigning from behind, which we have never done before,” he said.

In order to win a seat, a country needs to receive the backing of two-thirds of the General Assembly. There are 193 member states eligible to vote.

In 2010, when Canada lost a bid to sit on the Security Council, it faced off against Germany (which won in the first round) and Portugal (which won in the third round). Canada withdrew from the race after the ballots had been cast, saving the country the embarrassment of losing with only 32 votes.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Allan Rock, who served as UN ambassador from 2003 to mid-2006, notes that the vote is secret and sometimes countries that say they will vote for you don’t. He believes many nations decided they didn’t like the Conservatives’ policies — the closing of some embassies, the reduction in international aid, and especially the close support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel.

“I really think it was a global judgment on the foreign policy of Stephen Harper’s government, and one that was richly deserved,” he said.

“The Palestinian question is a real fault line that runs through the whole UN system, and you stand on either one or the other side of that divide,” he added.

Canada started aligning its Middle East votes closer to Israel and the United States under Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, a trend that continued under Harper and hasn’t much changed under Trudeau.

But when asked if he thought Canada’s pro-Israel voting record would hurt its chances this time, Blanchard told HuffPost Canada that he didn’t think so.

LISTEN: HuffPost Canada’s “Follow-Up” podcast explores Canada’s UNSC bid

“We always said they would not trade in our values and policies to be elected on the Security Council,” he said, noting that countries vote on a whole range of issues.

Canada’s best asset in the race, he told HuffPost, is the prime minister.

“Mr. Trudeau is perceived as a very inspiring leader, someone who can be trusted and someone who has very strong values and a voice that is so needed at this time,” he said from New York in a phone interview over the weekend.

During his photo-ops and bilateral meetings last week at the United Nations, Colombian President Iván Duque, for example, praised Trudeau, telling reporters he wanted to express his “admiration” for the prime minister’s work, noted they were both progressives of the same generation, then gave him a yellow soccer jersey with his name on it.

But Richard Gowan, a senior fellow at the UN University’s independent think tank, the Centre for Policy Research, said he thinks the Canadian mission should “ration the use” of the prime minister.

‘There’s a risk of overkill with Trudeau’

“There’s a risk of overkill with Trudeau,” he told HuffPost. “He is a great performer… . Other leaders do like him, but there is sometimes the sense that he risks a bit of a cult of personality, and actually diplomats can resent that.”

Chapnick said he thought Canada’s foreign policy should show “significantly more humility.”

“Canadian governments for the last 20 or 30 years have been rather obsessed with the need to lead on the world stage,” he said. “We have to lead environmentally, we have to lead on gender … but pushing yourself into a leadership position when you may not be best suited for it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

He said it is important for Canada to allow other states to get “credit.”

The big challenge for Canada, according to Gowan, is that it faces off against two like-minded countries: Ireland and Norway.

“Dublin has always maintained very good relations with developing countries and, to some extent, presents Ireland as a, you know, another former colony that has a special link to former colonies in Africa, Asia and elsewhere,” Gowan said.

Heinbecker called Norway — which gives one per cent of its GDP to international aid and has spearheaded some of the thorniest peace processes, in the Middle East, Colombia, Sri Lanka and South Sudan, for example — the “poster boy for the UN.”

“When we say, ‘We’re back,’ they say they’ve never left.”

Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, who also spoke with HuffPost’s “Follow-Up” podcast, said there is a “chance” Canada might win.

“It’s a very tough competition,” he said. But Canada, he said, generally has good standing at the UN, is not seen as a threat to anybody, and commitments on gender equality and a new peacekeeping presence in Mali — the most dangerous current UN peacekeeping mission — would be a “big plus.”

Yves Fortier, who was Canada’s UN ambassador under Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney from 1988 to 1991, said he thinks Canada as a “very good chance of being elected. Definitely.”

“If you look at Canada’s record now over the course of the last nearly 70 years, we can put our record up against that of Ireland and that of Norway,” he said.

In his speech, Blanchard stressed Canada’s commitment to peacekeeping, saying how proud it was to lead the Elsie Initiative to help double the number of women in peacekeeping.

“We also know that having woman in the ranks and in charge makes peacekeeping more effective and its results more durable,” he said.

The Commons defence committee, however, heard testimony last month from Bipasha Baruah, the Canada Research Chair in Global Women’s Issues at Western University, who told MPs there are no data to suggest women have made a tangible difference on the ground and said it wasn’t fair to place that burden on them.

Stakes high for Trudeau

“What really troubles me [is] how women were being curated and packaged,” she told HuffPost. “As if … you would be able to solve the institutional problems. That is not true … issues require much deeper reflection.”

Axworthy said he felt that Canada’s relationship with the United States and the ongoing NAFTA negotiations had overtaken Canada’s foreign policy since President Donald Trump’s election.

He expressed hope that once NAFTA — or the new USMCA — was done, the government might turn its attention to more of the issues Trudeau had championed before Trump’s election, namely the world refugee crisis.

Gowan stressed that the stakes for Trudeau are high.

“Everyone is conscious that Canada lost its last race for the Security Council,” he said. “Now, you can lose one race, but if Canada loses two Security Council races in succession, I think that we’ll know that will be bad for Ottawa’s relations with the UN going forward.”

The largest share of Russians think the 2008 military conflict between their country and Georgia was initiated by the West and Georgia’s pro-Western leadership while Russian authorities did all they could to prevent bloodshed.

In a poll conducted by the Russian independent think-tank Levada on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the war in South Ossetia, researchers asked members of the Russian public who, in their opinion, bore principal responsibility for the military conflict. Some 34 percent said that it was the president and government of Georgia, 24 percent pinned the blame on the United States and NATO and 20 percent said that the responsibility should be shared by all parties.

Only five percent of respondents agreed that the initiation of the military conflict was Russia’s fault and three percent said the blame lay with the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

Georgia planned August 2008 attack on South Ossetia – investigators

Some 59 percent of those polled told researchers that they believe Russian leaders did everything they could to prevent the armed conflict. However, 22 percent feel that Russia reacted to a provocation on Georgia’s part and “allowed itself to be dragged into the conflict.”

When researchers asked Russian citizens how well they remembered the 2008 war in South Ossetia, 23 percent answered that they knew its history in detail, 56 percent confessed to possessing only basic knowledge of the conflict and 18 percent answered that they had never heard of the events.

The short-term military conflict between Russia and Georgia started on August 8, 2008 after Georgian forces launched an attack against the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia and a contingent of Russian peacekeepers who remained in the region on a license from the Commonwealth of Independent States political bloc. Russia’s military intervened to defend civilians and peacekeepers, repelled the Georgian aggressors, but did not advance further into Georgia’s territory.

Following the conflict, Moscow and several other countries recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway republic – Abkhazia – as independent states.

Georgia’s NATO entry could lead to terrible conflict, Russian PM warns

Earlier this week, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russian president in 2008, recalled his role in the conflict in an interview with the popular daily Kommersant. He said that the war could had been avoided, were it not for the actions of the Georgian authorities.

If it was not for the irresponsible, immoral and criminal behavior of [Back then Georgian president Mikheil] Saakashvili and his henchmen there would be no war. In 2008 the Georgian government and president gave a green light to the aggression and what happened, happened,” he said.

Medvedev also emphasized that during the conflict Russia did not intend to destroy Georgia or execute Saakashvili, but only acted to prevent the very real possibility of a further escalation of violence.

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DETROIT — An anonymously written letter led Michigan inspectors to find badly decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of a shuttered Detroit funeral home, police say.

Inspectors with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs found the remains Friday at the former Cantrell Funeral Home, just hours after receiving the letter telling them where the bodies were located, Detroit police Lt. Brian Bowser told reporters. The funeral home has been closed since April, when state inspectors suspended its license following the discovery of bodies covered with what appeared to be mould.

The remains of the infants, some of them apparently stillborn, were in a false ceiling between the first and second floors, Brower said. Authorities do not know how long the remains had been stored there, he said. Investigators also have not determined who might have left the bodies there.

“Obviously, it was either an employee or someone who had knowledge” of the funeral home and the building, Bowser said. He also noted that the remains “were kind of hidden away.”

Investigators have names for some of the remains and officials were contacting relatives, Bowser said.

Jameca LaJoyce Boone, the funeral home’s designated manager for a year before its closure, said she was shocked by the discovery of bodies in the ceiling.

“I didn’t know anything about that,” Boone told The Detroit News. “I really don’t know how that could even have happened.”

A Russian MP, known for his staunch pro-Christian views, has proposed a nationwide ban on alcohol sales and the launch of radical reforms of the industry in order to reduce the consumption of alcohol.

In his letter to Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova, MP Vitaly Milonov (United Russia) said that Russia’s future was going to “drown in tons of poisonous brew” unless the government takes urgent and radical measures to reduce alcohol consumption.

Taking candy from a baby: Russian lawmaker wants to ban children from buying sweets

Milonov went on to propose steps in this direction, such as reconsidering the mechanisms of alcohol advertising and retail, boosting anti-counterfeit measures in the industry and developing a nationwide program of temperance propaganda. The lawmaker also wants severe and remorseless measures against the so called “vodka kings” who profit as ordinary Russians lose their health, but did not give any examples of such steps.

To support his statement Milonov quoted official data, according to which the current per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia is at about 18 liters per year. This is higher than both the Soviet-era statistics and the figures dating back to imperial times.

Last week, Russian state-run public opinion research center VTSIOM released the results of a recent poll according to which about 12 percent of Russians support the idea of total prohibition. 54 percent of respondents backed nationwide anti-alcohol propaganda campaigns and 49 percent hold that any advertising of alcoholic drinks should be banned. Another 33 percent said that the Russian government should criminalize alcohol consumption in public places outside licensed premises.

Russia’s ban on non-food alcohol sales reduces poisoning deaths by a quarter

The last major effort to combat Russian drinking problems was made in the final days of the USSR, under Mikhail Gorbachev. Back then the authorities increased alcohol prices and introduced limits on its sales, causing a lot of discontent and also instigating moonshining and criminal production of various surrogates. However, the campaign also yielded some results as life expectancy went up and the number of alcohol-related crimes decreased sufficiently.

In January, Skvortsova said that the per-capita consumption of alcohol dropped by 80 percent over the last seven years.

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INDIANAPOLIS– The NCAA has selected more than 600 host sites for preliminary rounds and finals of predetermined championships in Divisions I, II and III to be held from 2017-18 through 2021-22, including sites for the next four NCAA Division II and III Softball Championships.

Metropolitan State University of Denver will host three championships- 2019, 2021 and 2022- with St. Louis, Mo. (Lindenwood) and the St. Charles CVB & St. Louis Sports Commission the site for the 2020 Spring Festival. Metro State was the most recent site of the 2016 Spring Festival.

For Division III, Texas-Tyler will host in 2019 and 2020, while familar faces, the ODAC and City of Salem will entertain the 2021 and 2022 championships. Salem hosted the last two championships in 2015 and 2016 and have been the site for 12 NCAA Division III tournament.

Complete Release

The NCAA received more than 3,000 bid submissions from NCAA member schools, conferences, sports commissions and cities vying to host predetermined rounds for 84 of the NCAA’s 90 championships. A total of 613 sites were awarded for this cycle. The respective NCAA sports committees and the divisional championships cabinets/committees reviewed the bid proposals and selected the sites.

Six championships were not included in this bid cycle. Division I baseball, Division I softball, Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, which is tallied as two separate championships, and the Football Championship Subdivision game were omitted due to existing contracts. The sixth championship, Division III women’s ice hockey, does not select predetermined sites.  

— Courtesy of NCAA

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

A new trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix was recently released and hinted at the death of a major character and the director of the film, Simon Kinberg, confirmed the shocking move.

In an interview with EW, Kinberg discussed the reveal that Mystique, played by Jennifer Lawrence, dies at the hand of Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey while Grey is “struggling with the emerging Phoenix inside her.”

When asked about why Kinberg and the team decided to reveal Lawrence’s fate in this trailer, he responded that it was “to primarily show that this is a movie that is unlike other X-Men movies.”

“It’s a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen,” Kinberg said. “People don’t just fall off buildings and dust themselves off and walk away. There’s a reality to this movie and a consequence to this movie. Even more than that, it was to show that Jean/Dark Phoenix is genuinely a threat to everyone, including the X-Men.”

Kinberg also discussed how it felt killing one of the X-Men franchise’s biggest characters and stars, saying that while he was “obviously sad” about it, he felt “it was the strongest, most dramatic thing for the movie, and sometimes you have to make those kinds of hard decisions to service the larger story.”

Mystique’s death impacts “literally everybody,” and sets up the tone of the upcoming film, with Kinberg hinting that “there are certainly other major casualties in this.”

Having Mystique die, who is so important to many major characters, forces the X-Men to pick sides and decide whether they choose to forgive Jean and try to save her from her inner demons, or destory her for what she has done.

“For me,” Kinberg explains. “If there’s a metaphor for the film, it’s like if someone in your life or your family starts to lose control, whether that be because of drugs or mental health issues or more minor things, the question is: At one point do you give up on them? And how long do you hold out hope for them?”

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be released in theaters on June 7, 2019, and while Kinberg hasn’t had any formal talks with Disney about the future of the X-Men franchise and can’t until the merger is official, he is treating this film “like it was the culmination in some ways — not that there couldn’t be other movies, but I did approach the movie as if, like, if you spent 20 years of living with this family, this is the movie you see the family truly tested, fall apart, and hopefully come back together.”

For more on this newest X-Men film, be sure to check out our breakdown of the cosmic destroyer known as Dark Phoenix.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who just loves when movies are spoiled before they release. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Los Alamitos tops three California schools in the first four in the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 preseason poll.

The Griffins, who were 26-3 last season, return the powerful senior battery of Maryland signee Ryan Denhart in the circle and Oregon signee Mary Iakopo behind the plate, plus junior pitcher Brianna Jewett, the 2016 Sunset League Rookie of the Year as a very capable No. 2. In all, they have seven all-league players back for a school that has gone 181-70 over the past eight seasons.

Fellow Golden State schools Mission Viejo (27-4 last year) and Norco (26-6) are ranked second and fourth, respectively, with just Florida’s West Orange (30-1) at No. 3 breaking up the trio. Mission Viejo lost just three players off its CIF-Southern Section championship team that finished the year ranked ninth, while defending state class 9A titlist West Orange returns Georgia signee Lauren Mathis, who allowed just three earned runs in 142 innings in 2016. Norco, meanwhile, finished last season unranked, but returns two NCAA Division I signees and two others who have committed to prominent Division I institutions.

Reigning Texas state 6A champion Keller (32-7) lost all-state pitcher Kaylee Rogers, but still has enough in place to round out the top five, while another California school, Orange Lutheran (30-4) with Stanford signee Maddy Dwyer, follows at No. 6. Florida’s American Heritage (26-2), which also graduated its top pitcher, Madison Canby, is seventh, and last year’s final No. 2, Grand Terrace (29-1) of California, starts at No. 8 and features slugger Eliyah Flores (eight homers), who plans to attend Oklahoma. Arizona state D1 champ Hamilton (31-7), which returns four key hitters and three pitchers, is No. 9, and yet another California school, Huntington Beach (21-7), ranks 10th, with its roster of nine signed or committed players.

LaGrange, who finished 41-2 and won its second Texas state 4A title in three years to rank No. 1 in last June’s final poll, did not make this season’s first poll.

State rankings submitted by NFCA member coaches are used to compile the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25.

USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 Preseason Poll – Feb. 23, 2017

Rank Team 2016 Record 1 Los Alamitos (Calif.) 26-3 2 Mission Viejo (Calif.) 27-4 3 West Orange (Fla.) 30-1 4 Norco (Calif.) 26-6 5 Keller (Texas) 32-7 6 Orange Lutheran (Calif.) 30-4 7 American Heritage (Fla.) 26-2 8 Grand Terrace (Calif.) 29-1 9 Hamilton (Ariz.) 31-7 10 Huntington Beach (Calif.) 21-7 11 Deer Park (Texas) 33-4 12 Oakleaf (Fla.) 27-3 13 Bishop O’Connell (Va.) 23-5 14 Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) 37-2 15 Keystone (Ohio) 28-5 16 Lakewood (Ohio) 29-0 17 McCracken County (Ky.) 43-4 18 Immaculate Heart Academy (N.J.) 31-1 19 Plano West (Texas) 29-5 20 Alexandra (La.) 30-4 21 Sparkman (Ala.) 50-16 22 Scott County (Ky.) 36-2 23 St. Mary Catholic Central (Mich.) 28-5 24 Mount St. Dominic (N.J.) 26-4 25 Pinnacle (Ariz.) 30-8

PARIS — Politicians working to harness the power of social media to connect with voters need to figure out how to do so positively in the face of leaders using those platforms to undermine democracy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Without mentioning anyone by name at an event in Paris on Monday morning, Trudeau suggested there are politicians who are trying to use platforms like Twitter to foster polarization and controversy in the electorate.

The medium is not without its benefits, Trudeau said, pointing to the ease of putting out a tweet of condolence or support being easier, more direct and resonating more with citizens than issuing a press statement carried by traditional media.

That same ease and directness that Trudeau said can be used to build confidence in government and democratic institutions can just as easily be used by politicians trying to “make you angry or make you divided or make you hate your neighbour” — pitting one kind of social media politician against the other.

“If it ends up in a screaming match between one side versus the other side, whoever is better at nasty is going to win,” Trudeau said at a Paris conference on the use of technology by governments.

“If we actually think about it, it’s easier to push someone into being angry — it’s harder to pull them into being positive and earnest and involved.”

The discussion was driven by U.S. President Donald Trump, who regularly uses Twitter to fire up his legions of followers and vent at his critics.

Trudeau has been a target of Trump’s irate tweeting, particularly after the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Que., over the prime minister’s comments on trade negotiations.

When asked directly to comment about Trump’s Twitter usage, Trudeau suggested Trump is just being Trump.

“I think it’s important that people are authentic and he’s certainly authentic,” Trudeau said.

The comments came one day after Trudeau and other world leaders issued dire warnings about leaders calling themselves nationalists and the problems they pose for maintaining peace and the world order built in the aftermath of the world wars.

Again, no names were mentioned, but the warnings seemed clearly aimed at Trump who has repeatedly professed his “American” nationalism.

Trudeau suggested he doesn’t call out Trump by name in any criticism in order to keep the peace with Canada’s neighbour to the south.

“One of the things that Canadians expect of me is to continue to stand up for Canadian values, for Canadian interests as I always do loudly and clearly sharing our perspectives on how to build a better world, while at the same time keeping a constructive relationship with our closest neighbour and largest trading partner — and that’s what I will continue to do,” he said.

Trudeau also took time at the conference to tout his government’s progress on digitizing the way it delivers services.

The prime minister has made the use of technology and data a priority in providing government programs to Canadians through digital channels alongside better, more up to date information to feed federal decisions.

In September, the federal government launched its new “digital standards” to help public servants navigate their way towards what the Liberals call an “effective digital government.”

But there have been hiccups along the way.

A pilot project from Statistics Canada to scoop up anonymized and randomized banking transactions on 500,000 Canadians has faced steep criticism from opposition parties in the House of Commons.

And internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press paint a clearer picture of detailed work underway to overcome the challenges the civil service faces in meeting the Liberals’ digital goals.

PM on 10-day trip across Europe, Asia

Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act suggest challenges in how to handle vast amounts of disparate data, the funding needed to acquire or generate data to fill gaps, and “legal and cultural impediments to sharing and accessing data.”

The prime minister travels later Monday to Singapore for a summit organized by a 10-nation bloc that will put his government’s trade diversification plans on display.

Trudeau is on a 10-day trip across Europe and Asia that began Friday with a gathering of world leaders in France to mark a century since the end of the First World War.

Also On HuffPost:

Respawn Entertainment has addressed some of the issues that are impacting Apex Legends and promises fixes are in the works for most problems, except for a requested reconnect feature.

Respawn took to Reddit to speak to its fans and let them know what was in the works behind-the-scenes for the battle royale title that has already passed 50 million players.

It began by discussing how it is dealing with cheaters and announced that they have banned “over 355K players on PC through Easy-Anti-Cheat.”

Respawn goes into a bit more detail about how they will continue to combat these cheaters, including working with experts inside and outside of EA, scaling up its anti-team, and adding a report feature on PC. However, it won’t be too open about its plans because it doesn’t “want them to see us coming.”

In addition to working on fixing an issue of players spamming during character select and the drop and then disconnecting, it is also working with AMD next week to improve stability and performance on PC. Hopefully, that and more will fix a lot of crashes players are experiencing and Respawn will continue working with other partners to continue to make Apex Legends as smooth as possible.

While Respawn is working on all these issues and more, one issue it isn’t working on at the moment is a reconnect to match feature. It says that it has heard the community but it is not currently pursuing it because it “opens a lot of risk for players to abuse it,” and “[It believes] the resources needed to build, test, and release it are better spent focused on fixing stability issues so that the feature isn’t necessary.”

For more on Apex Legends, be sure to check out the latest updates and fixes, read a feature about whether you are better suited for Fortnite or Apex Legends, and read about how Apex Legends almost was leaked about a year ago.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer who kept saying “Prepare for Titanfall” while writing this article. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.