NTSB sanctions plane maker for blatantly' breaching rules as it investigates January Alaska Airlines incidentBoeing has been sanctioned by the top US accident investigator for having blatantly violated" regulations by revealing private information to the media and speculating about what caused January's cabin panel blowout on a brand-new airplane operated by Alaska Airlines.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is cooperating with the Department of Justice, which is deciding whether to prosecute Boeing after declaring it had breached a settlement over two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. Continue reading...
A secret election by white town council blocked Newbern mayor Patrick Braxton from serving for four years: we can put this behind us'Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of an Alabama town that has not held elections in several decades, has spent the last four years fighting to be recognized. Finally, after an extensive legal battle, he and the town officials who refused to acknowledge him as mayor have reached a settlement, according to federal court documents.Per the settlement agreement, Braxton will be officially seated as the mayor of Newbern, Alabama, and be able to fully serve in this capacity for the first time in nearly four years, pending approval by Judge Kristi K DuBose of the southern district of Alabama. Continue reading...
Notable Israelis add their voices to oppose invite extended by Mike Johnson, which Democrats plan to boycottA group of prominent Israelis - including a former prime minister and an ex-head of Mossad, the foreign intelligence service - have added their voices to the growing domestic calls in the US for Congress to withdraw its invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu to address it next month, calling the move a terrible mistake".The plea, in an op-ed article in the New York Times, argues that the invitation rewards Netanyahu, Israel's current prime minister, for scandalous and destructive conduct", including intelligence failures that led to last October's deadly Hamas attack and the ensuing bloody war in Gaza which shows no sign of ending. Continue reading...
Patrick Dispoto was returning to beach to warn swimmers of lightning danger when he was struck and killedA man was killed by a lightning strike after returning to a beach in New Jersey to warn other bathers of the dangers of an approaching storm.Local television station WABC reported that Patrick Dispoto, 59, and his girlfriend, Ruth Fussell, had left the beach at Seaside Park as the storm approached when Dispoto decided to go back and tell some young people still in the water of the impending danger. Continue reading...
Xi Jinping suggested sending pandas to California as envoys of friendship' between China and the USTwo giant pandas are on their way to the US, where they will end up at the San Diego zoo - the first such import of the huge bears from China in more than two decades.The loan was finalized in February after the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, suggested sending pandas to the San Diego zoo as envoys of friendship" between China and the US. Continue reading...
For the first time in more than 50 years, Republicans will rerun a candidate who lost a presidential election - and even longer since a presidential candidate faced a true rematchWhen Joe Biden and Donald Trump secured enough delegates to lead the Democratic and Republican party presidential tickets in November, they confirmed what many voters expected but fewer actually wanted: a redo of the 2020 election.Republicans skeptical about giving Trump a second shot tried in vain to elevate a viable primary opponent. Powerful donors, including the Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action, poured money into former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley's campaign, but Haley was unable to claw enough support away from Trump to pose a threat to the former president. Continue reading...
High-stakes rematch is a chance for both to make a case for their second term, with polls showing them in a tight raceJoe Biden and Donald Trump will hold the first of two scheduled US presidential debates on Thursday, a high-stakes re-match between two well-defined political foes.The earlier-than-usual confrontation will give both men a chance to make their case for a second-term to what could be one of the largest television - and internet - audiences of the election cycle. Continue reading...
The veteran striker will not play at the Olympics as the USWNT coach looks to the next generation. And one of them may prompt pushback among fansEmma Hayes has named her first squad for a major tournament. With just 18 players permitted for the Olympic roster, the margins to get the call-up for Paris were slim, and with her selections, Hayes sent a clear signal.This is a USWNT roster that fully embraces an emerging generation of talent. No veteran star was too venerated to be cut. Capitalizing on a months-long transition coordinated in tandem with assistant coach Twila Kilgore, Hayes named a squad that balances leadership with youth. Getting experience for that youth has been a priority for Hayes since she was named the new coach. Collaborating with Kilgore, who served as interim head coach before Hayes stepped up, on squad selection from London, she emphasized bringing fresh faces into the squad for the Concacaf W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup. Continue reading...
Immigration may top many voters' concerns, but residents here say it's the economy, not security, that worries themFor the past three decades, Ernesto Tapia's neon-lit electronics shop in Nogales, Arizona, had been the prevailing regional destination for gearheads seeking tricked-out car stereos.Some of his loyal customers would drive down to the small town on the US-Mexico border from Tucson, but most made the trek from the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. Continue reading...
Creditors suing news site ask judge to throw out bankruptcy filing after founder Jim Hoft said it was a protection' tacticThe far-right news outlet Gateway Pundit is set to defend itself on Thursday against arguments that it is abusing the bankruptcy process amid significant new questions about the company's finances.A bankruptcy judge in Florida is set to consider a request from creditors - three people suing the outlet for defamation - to dismiss the bankruptcy case the company filed on 24 April. Jim Hoft, the founder of the site has implied he filed bankruptcy as a litigation tactic to delay a defamation case against his company by Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, two Georgia poll workers who the company allegedly spread false information about after the 2020 presidential election. The company denies publishing liberlous claims about Moss and Freeman. Continue reading...
The numbers that have been coming out of Gaza have been almost too shocking to comprehendDead or dismembered Palestinians don't seem to shock anyone any more. A couple of hundred killed over here, dozens burned to death over there, a bunch of children dead from malnutrition: every day there seems to be another massacre that barely makes a blip on public consciousness. After eight months of intense bombing, the most abject civilian suffering has been dangerously normalized.Still, as steeled as people may have become to the horrors in Gaza, you'd have to be completely broken not to be devastated by Save the Children's new report on the missing children of Gaza. While more than 15,000 children are estimated to have been killed by Israel's relentless assault on the strip, Save the Children has estimated that up to 21,000 children are missing.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female LeadDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
By sheer coincidence, this ruling concerns the sort of generous gifts' and gratuities' that justices have been known to acceptDid you know you could give your local government officials tips when they do things you like? Brett Kavanaugh thinks you can. In fact, if you're rich enough, says the US supreme court, you can now pay off state and local officials for government acts that fit your policy preferences or advance your interests. You can give them lavish gifts, send them on vacations, or simply cut them checks. You can do all of this so long as the cash, gifts or other gratuities" are provided after the service, and not before it - and so long as a plausible deniability of the meaning and intent of these gratuities" is maintained.That was the ruling authored by Kavanaugh in Snyder v United States, a 6-3 opinion issued on Wednesday, in which the supreme court dealt the latest blow to federal anti-corruption law. In the case, which was divided along ideological lines, the court held that gratuities" - that is, post-facto gifts and payments - are not technically bribes", and therefore not illegal. Bribes are only issued before the desired official act, you see, and their meaning is explicit; a more vague, less vulgarly transactional culture of gratitude" for official acts, expressed in gifts and payments of great value, is supposed to be something very different. The court has thereby continued its long effort to legalize official corruption, using the flimsiest of pretexts to rob federal anti-corruption statutes of all meaning. Continue reading...
Ahead of Biden and Trump's first debate of the 2024 election cycle, here are some memorable moments from US presidential debate historyJoe Biden and Donald Trump will debate on Thursday for the first time this election cycle, and it holds the potential for some history-making moments.Debates can inform voters on both the issues and temperaments of the candidates, potentially swaying an undecided voter toward one candidate's direction. They can also make for good TV, creating soundbites that resonate for decades to come. Continue reading...
Are you two the best we've got?' It was a harsh question but summed up last night's final leaders debate pretty wellTwo cliches hovered over Wednesday night's TV debate between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak - the first that the stakes were high, the second that Sunak had nothing to lose and Starmer had everything to lose, since he was on course for a victory so resounding that its allegiances must be fragile. It's simply not possible for nearly 50% of the country to agree on one leader, the logic goes, so Sunak's job was to camp on Starmer's contradictions, and scare away the undecideds with talk of Labour's tax burden.It makes sense on paper, but only in a world in which positive change is so unimaginable that the status quo represents safety and prosperity: all the audience questions suggested that it does not. Whatever their prescription, from closing the borders to making a better contract with young people, whether they were battling benefits sanctions or bankrupt local councils, the audience questioners were pretty unanimous on one point: everything's broken. So Starmer's job was to stick that broad-spectrum malaise on his Conservative opponent, and try to make sure none of it seeped out into a more generalised, will-sapping pessimism. Continue reading...
It's complicated. Sometimes I still want people to take my illness into account. And then there is the regret of all I've lost by returning to everyday lifeOn Thursday, I saw off my family to school and work, deliberated over what to wear, then cycled the five-ish miles to the Guardian office in the sunshine. I checked emails and chatted to colleagues about plans for the day. It was all very much like 27 June 2022, with one major difference: at lunchtime I didn't pop out to the hospital and come back with a breast cancer diagnosis.Realising it's already two years on from that day is a shock, but what's weirder is to think of the same day a year ago. I had finished my chemo and radiotherapy and had had my surgery but I was still on targeted drugs and felt absolutely exhausted - just the thought of getting on my bike made me need a sit-down. My hair was thin and several different lengths, I looked strangely grey and I was working just two days a week.Hilary Osborne is the Guardian's money and consumer editor Continue reading...
If we want the kind of fair, functioning state Britain saw post-1945, we need to take on the economic powers that wrecked itWe are about to return to normal politics. After 14 years of Tory corruption and misrule, a Labour government will put this country back on track. Justice and decency will resume, public services will be rebuilt, our global standing will be restored, we will revert to a familiar state. Or so the story goes.What is the normal" envisaged by pundits and politicians of the left and centre? It is the most anomalous politics in the history of the world. Consciously or otherwise, they hark back to a remarkable period, roughly 1945 to 1975, in which, in certain rich nations, wealth and power were distributed, almost everyone could aspire to decent housing, wages and conditions, public services were ambitious and well-funded and a robust economic safety net prevented destitution. There had never been a period like it in the prior history of the world, and there has not been one since. Even during that period, general prosperity in the rich nations was supported by extreme exploitation, coups and violence imposed on the poor nations. We lived in a bubble, limited in time and space, in which extraordinary things happened. Yet somehow we think of it as normal.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
As the two prepare to debate on Thursday night, memories are revived of the ugly exchanges when they last squared offIt could be the moment when a rematch that few seem to want finally comes to life: like two ageing prizefighters, Joe Biden and Donald Trump will enter the arena of political bloodsport on Thursday evening to resume a verbal sparring bout that will revive memories of the ugly exchanges when the two debated face to face four years ago.A CNN studio in Atlanta will host the first presidential debate of the campaign between the same two candidates who contested the last election, which Biden won. Continue reading...
I've watched the rise of Trumpism and the National Rally - and the fake narratives about nationhood they peddle to votersI was waiting for a friend in a bar when Donald Trump was convicted on all counts by a jury of his peers. Naturally, I bought the bartender a shot to celebrate - and, of course, I mentioned it on social media.That didn't make someone I know happy. It's a shame that people rejoice when a former president gets convicted. The world is laughing at us, Biden is a clown!" they wrote. Why do you care what happens here. You live in France. You have no idea what we are going through. Gas prices, food prices, crime, 100,000 people a year dying from fentanyl, inflation. If you dislike our country, renounce your citizenship."Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Ramiro Gonzales, 41, guilty of kidnap and killing of teenage girl in 2001, becomes eighth person executed in US this yearA Texas man who admitted that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed the 18-year-old girlfriend of his drug dealer was executed on Wednesday.Ramiro Gonzales, 41, was pronounced dead at 6.50pm following a chemical injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the January 2001 killing of Bridget Townsend. Continue reading...
US state department official Matthew Miller says Julian Assange 'put the lives of our partners, our allies and our diplomats at risk'. The WikiLeaks founderwalked away a free man on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents, in a deal that allowed him to return home to Australia and brought a conclusion to a 14-year legal saga. Miller says the involvement of the state department was 'very limited' in this case, as it mostly pertained to law enforcementSubscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube
Evacuation alerts sent to more than 1,000 homes and businesses as latest blaze erupts amid high temperaturesGusty winds fueled a rapidly growing wildfire in central Oregon, the latest blaze to erupt in the US west as high temperatures envelop the region.The fire broke out just outside the community of La Pine, in central Oregon, on Tuesday and rapidly grew to 2,415 acres (9.7 sq km) by Wednesday morning. Fire crews were able to get 30% containment on the blaze, officials reported on Wednesday, but winds continued to threaten progress.Wildfire breaks out in California near Paradise, site of state's deadliest blazeMultiple disasters all in one day': New Mexico's brutal week of fire and floodUS wildfire season has arrived. Here's why it could be an explosive summerBroken toilets, bed bugs and rats: US firefighters are in a housing crisis Continue reading...
Judge rules Dharmesh Patel, whose car dove off cliff in 2023, will be monitored by GPS and check in with court weeklyA California radiologist accused of trying to kill his family by driving off a cliff along the northern California coast will receive mental health treatment instead of standing trial, a judge ruled.Prosecutors charged Dharmesh A Patel, 43, with attempted murder after the Tesla he was driving plunged off a 250ft (76 meters) cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway in San Mateo county, injuring his wife and two young children. All four survived the 2 January 2023 crash in what one official called an absolute miracle". Continue reading...
Judge to decide fate of ex-prison guard trainee Zephen Xaver, who pleaded guilty to 2019 execution-style murdersA jury on Wednesday recommended a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for his execution-style murders of five women inside a Florida bank five years ago.Jurors voted 9-3 to recommend Zephen Xaver, 27, receive the death penalty for the 23 January 2019 murders at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 85 miles (135km) south-east of Tampa. Continue reading...
Prosecutors say scheme - like something out of a mob movie' - was hatched to stop conviction in Covid fraud caseFive people have been charged with conspiring to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for the acquittal of defendants in one of the country's largest Covid-related fraud cases, the US attorney's office and the FBI announced on Wednesday.Court documents made public reveal an extravagant scheme in which the accused researched the juror's personal information on social media, surveilled her, tracked her daily habits and bought a GPS device to install on her car. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as juror 52, because she was the youngest and they believed her to be the only person of color on the panel. Continue reading...
Leftwing groups write to top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries raising dire concerns' about pro-Israel lobby groupProgressive groups reacted with disappointment and anger over Jamaal Bowman's decisive primary loss to a moderate Democrat in New York's 16th district, calling for the party to cut ties with pro-Israel lobbying groups they blame for the result.In a letter to the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, more than a dozen progressive organizations said they had dire concerns" over the party's continued association with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the future of the Democratic Party, the future of our multiracial democracy, and the future of our planet". Continue reading...
Pro-Palestinian protesters accuse companies of trying to sell stolen land in the West Bank, and question legalityEfforts to market homes in Israel and stolen land in West Bank to Jewish Americans are continuing to spark protests across North America, with the latest angry confrontations happening outside a synagogue in one of Los Angeles's most prominent Jewish neighborhoods.The volatile protest and counter-protest outside a real estate event at the Adas Torah synagogue on Sunday prompted denunciations from Democratic politicians, including Joe Biden, who said protests targeting a house of worship were antisemitic and unacceptable. Continue reading...
Juan Orlando Hernandez said all Honduran political parties accepted drug money, but denied taking bribes himselfJuan Orlando Hernandez, the disgraced former president of Honduras, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for enabling drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to help ship tons of cocaine into the United States.US federal judge P Kevin Castel sentenced Hernandez to 45 years in a US prison and fined him $8m. A jury convicted him in March in a Manhattan federal court after a two-week trial, which was closely followed in his home country. Continue reading...
Putting his own interests above his country's is nothing new for the Israeli prime minister, but it is increasingly blatantWhile Benjamin Netanyahu picks fights at home and abroad, he is more closely tied than ever to the worst parts of the domestic political realm. Last week, Israel's prime minister laid into its chief ally, the US, which has reproved him but done little to stop the war in Gaza, or avert the looming and surely disastrous conflict with Hezbollah. On Monday, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, labelled AntonioGuterres an accomplice to terror" and alleged his sole aim had been to help Hamas survive this war", after the secretary-general accused Israel (without directly naming it) of spreading misinformation about him.Yet Mr Netanyahu will go to any lengths to keep his far-right coalition partners in the fold. He grantedpolitical legitimacy to the Otzma Yehudit partyof Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and to the Religious Zionist party of the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, when he invited them into power. He clings to them increasingly desperately. Without them, he faces not only the loss of his positionbut trial on the corruption charges that have hung over his head for so long. The far right saw off USattempts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal, laying bare the growing rift between the Israel DefenseForces and the government. Continue reading...
Those who voted leave still feel ignored and marginalised. The pressure will be on for Labour to boost growth and narrow regional dividesIt is one of the oddities of this weirdest of election campaigns that the issue that helped give the Conservatives an 80-seat majority in 2019 has barely been mentioned. As far as the main parties are concerned, Brexit is a done deal. The decision has been made. Time to move on.To be sure, much has happened since 2019, most notably a global pandemic, a cost of living crisis and the brief - yet drama-packed - premiership of Liz Truss. Making ends meet features more prominently in voters' lists of concerns than whether the UK should rejoin the single market.Larry Elliott is the Guardian's economics editor Continue reading...
Six members of motorcycle club's Bakersfield chapter charged with kidnapping, robbery, assault and othersThe entire Bakersfield chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club has been arrested in California on various violent charges.The Kern county sheriff's department said on Tuesday that six members of the motorcycle club's Bakersfield chapter were arrested, including its president and vice-president. Continue reading...
Brennon Washington, 25, invited girl to speak to him in his car and then drove to her residence, indictment saysProsecutors on the Japanese island of Okinawa have charged a US air force man with the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl in December.According to an indictment dated 27 March, Brennon Washington, 25, invited the girl to speak to him in his car at a park on 24 December and drove her to his residence before committing indecent acts. Continue reading...
It's one of the most baffling of all art forms, and the most mocked. Laugh all you like; these musicians are working miraclesI went to watch some jazz and everyone laughed at me. Family, friends, anyone on the bus who heard me and my friend talking on the way there, all sniggering, scoffing, smirking. There ought to be a jazz standard called Sniggering, Scoffing, Smirking.What's so funny? I think that Fast Show sketch is partly to blame - John Thomson as Louis Balfour, host of a TV programme called Jazz Club, brilliantly, if unfairly, sending up an entire genre of music. Fans of classical music, opera, drill, grime, folk, punk or whatever don't get this kind of treatment. If you're into jazz you're to be mocked, because you're either an old fart, a fervent hipster or a chin-stroking pseud. Or possibly all three. I'm none of those, arguably. Continue reading...
Former US president uses familiar tactics of denigrating Biden and debate hosts to minimise the event's importanceDonald Trump has unleashed a fusillade of baseless accusations against Joe Biden and CNN moderators ahead of Thursday's first US presidential debate in an apparent pre-bunking" exercise designed to have his excuses ready-made if he is declared the loser.In a familiar rehash of tactics used in previous campaigns, the presumptive Republican nominee has intensified demands that Biden should take a drug test and accused him of being higher than a kite" in last January's state of the union address, when the president won praise for an energetic performance. Continue reading...
Former representative says he's a proud conservative' who has put democracy and our constitution above all else'Former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger has endorsed Joe Biden for president, as the Biden campaign attempts to win over anti-Trump voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.In a video released Wednesday, Kinzinger said he was a proud conservative" who has put democracy and our constitution above all else. Continue reading...
While Aipac and their allies can eliminate nearly any adversary if they throw $20m at a primary election, this is not a sustainable strategyThe Democratic primary in the congressional race in New York's 16th congressional district between the incumbent congressman Jamaal Bowman and the Westchester county executive, George Latimer, was a victory for Latimer, and one of the first successful primaries by the right wing of the Democratic party against the left. The contest was by far the most expensive congressional primary in history, and came to be viewed as a battle for the soul of the Democratic party, and specifically a fight around the Israel-Palestine issue, with Latimer and his advocates in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spending over $20m to elect him, and to rebuke Bowman's criticism of Israel and support for a ceasefire.Bowman's defeat represents a victory for Aipac and a defeat for the progressive and pro-Palestine movements. But it is a pyrrhic victory. The first election overtly fought on the Israel-Palestine conflict has resulted in a victory for pro-Israel forces, and the movement for Palestinian rights has been dealt a severe blow at the ballot box. Elected officials will be far less willing to take a stand in the near term. But the result of this election masks a considerable shift in the balance of power within American politics away from unconditional support for Israel as an unquestioned political consensus.Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC Continue reading...
Almost 300 products made by Wisconsin coffee maker are being recalled over risk they may contain deadly toxinUS coffee consumers, often pre-occupied with elaborate rituals of strength and method, have a new concern after regulators warned that products from a Wisconsin coffee maker might contain botulism.Last week, the US food and drug administration announced that almost 300 canned coffee products made by Snapchill are being recalled across the United States because of fears they may contain the bacterial toxin that causes a potential fatal form of food poisoning. Continue reading...
Biden goes into debate against Trump with set of challenges that he must overcome to sell voters on re-electing himAccording to Donald Trump, Joe Biden is either a very accomplished or utterly incompetent debater.When details of the presidential debate, which takes place in Atlanta on Thursday, were announced last month, Trump mocked Biden as the WORST debater I have ever faced", adding: He can't put two sentences together." And yet, while speaking to the All-In podcast last week, Trump commended Biden's showing in the 2012 vice-presidential debate. Continue reading...
After pleading guilty to violating US espionage law in a deal ending an extraordinary 14-year legal saga, the WikiLeaks founder has arrived home in Australia. Plus: Suing big oil for heatwave deathsGood morning.Julian Assange has walked free from a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, after a plea deal that brings to a close an extraordinary 14-year legal saga that included five years in a high-security prison and seven years at an Ecuadorian embassy.What did Assange say in court when he pleaded guilty? Assange took a long pause before answering the judge that he was indeed pleading guilty to the charge. He has long maintained that he had believed that the US first amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.How has the US responded? Assange faced 18 criminal charges and up to 175 years in prison. But immediately after the three-hour hearing, the US government withdrew its extradition request from the UK, dropped all remaining charges pending in the US, and banned Assange from returning to the US without permission.What's next for Assange? Assange's plane has touched down in Canberra, Australia, where he was reunited with his family. Continue reading...
Trump has convinced many Americans that stridency is a sign of strength while truth and humility signal weaknessI just turned 78, and frankly I'm scared about what might come down Thursday evening when the oldest candidates ever to compete in a presidential race debate each other.I'm less worried that Joe Biden will suffer a mental lapse or physically stumble than I am that Biden will look weak and Donald Trump appear strong.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
The 19-year-old has been derided as a nepo-baller. But growing up around one of the greatest players of all time could help him build a long career as a role playerThe 2024 NBA draft is considered to be one of the weakest in recent memory, lacking any generational prospects or even a consensus No 1 overall pick when the names are called on Wednesday night. But it's generating plenty of buzz because of a 6ft 2in guard projected to get picked late in the second round: LeBron Raymone James Jr, or Bronny James.Bronny is a relatively unproven prospect, with just 25 games of college experience. But his decision to leave the University of Southern California after one disappointing season, hire Rich Paul's Klutch Sports Group to represent him, and declare for the draft has been framed as some sort of nepotistic power arrangement that has more to do with his father than his ability. There is even speculation that a team may target Bronny in order to land LeBron, who could be an unrestricted free agent this summer and has spoken about wanting to play with his son, with the Los Angeles Lakers reportedly willing to explore the notion of adding Bronny James" in an attempt to re-sign his father. Continue reading...
The Lakers legend sees parallels between the WNBA rookies and the rivalry that defined his career. Both relationships have plenty to say about America itselfIn the 1970s, the NBA was sputtering. Playoff games were on tape-delay. Many of the league's teams were in debt, baseball was still firmly America's game and lesser-known small market franchises were winning titles. But then an influx of talent changed the entire operation. The 1979-80 NBA season saw rookies Magic Johnson and Larry Bird explode on to the scene with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, respectively. But even then, the two were known quantities and so, too, was their budding rivalry. It all began in college the year prior. The 1979 NCAA title game featured Johnson's Michigan State team defeating Bird's Indiana State in what is still the most-watched basketball game ever in the US. It was a matchup that featured Magic's flash and charisma against Bird's quiet genius. Two skilled passers making their teams better. Fast-forward 45 years and history is repeating itself, this time with the WNBA's Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Just ask Magic himself.Larry and I heightened the NBA's overall popularity," Johnson wrote on X on Monday. The Lakers and Celtics sold out arenas throughout the league and increased television viewership exponentially. The higher viewership numbers led to the NBA signing significantly larger TV contracts which then led to higher salaries for the players. Caitlin and Angel are now doing the same thing, selling out arenas and increasing the viewership." Continue reading...
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