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The league has forged close links to betting. But many worry about how such relationships will affect athletes and fansIn life, there is one constant - change. For professional sports, the biggest change of late has to do with gambling. Most US states now offer fans the chance to bet on games and player props legally. And big professional sports leagues like the NBA have embraced that recent change in legislation, too. What was once a third-rail topic is now a major source of income, with ESPN's financial guru Bobby Marks saying this year the NBA is projected to receive $167m in revenue from casinos and betting, an 11% increase from last season."One need look no further than ESPN to see how integrated sports betting is with major leagues and the media outlets that cover them. Right at the top of the company's website is a new tab, ESPNBET, the broadcaster's very own sportsbook, which launched in November of 2023. Is this a conflict of interest? Maybe, maybe not. But gambling seems to drive a great deal of new business in sports. For NBA fans frustrated by the in-game reviews, the challenges and lengthy replays, they have gambling largely to blame, especially in the wake of the league's referee scandal earlier this century. For a business that lost a great deal of money during the pandemic and one that is trying to grow globally, gambling promises an influx of cash, and the NBA has two official betting partners. The league says it promotes responsible gambling, but there are thought to be around three million problem gamblers in the US, and the National Council on Problem Gambling says the risk of gambling addiction in the general population increased by 30% between 2018 and 2021. Betting ads appearing everywhere on NBA broadcasts almost certainly won't help those numbers. Continue reading...

In the country of my birth, this latest conflict is two tragedies overlaid. Its people are strong, but none of us can see a way throughOne year ago today, Sudan descended into war. The toll so far is catastrophic. Thousands are dead, and millions are displaced, with hunger and disease ravaging all in the absence of aid. The UN has called the situation one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history", afflicting about 25 million people. The Sudanese people are suffering what has become the largest displacement crisis in the world.The war was both sudden and a long time coming. The short history is that of a country where, following a promising 2019 revolution that overthrew the dictator Omar al-Bashir, the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful militia, ejected civilians from a power-sharing agreement between the three parties and then could not come to an agreement themselves. Their partnership broke down in April last year, and the RSF moved quickly, taking over the capital city, Khartoum, in an unprecedented moment in the country's history. It then spread through the rest of the country, looting, assaulting and murdering civilians. Continue reading...

Mike Johnson has said he will aim to advance legislation to support Israel but has not clarified whether Ukraine funding will form part of package

Climbable sculpture in Hudson Yards in Manhattan closed in 2021 after four people died by suicideThe Vessel, the huge climbable centerpiece of New York's upmarket Hudson Yards development that saw a number of suicides, is set to reopen later this year with new safety features, according to developers.The 150ft sculpture, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and built at a cost of $260m, was closed three years ago after four people jumped to their deaths. Besides overall criticism of its design - including descriptions of it as a giant gold shish-kebab rotisserie - the construction was grimly described to the Guardian as staircase to nowhere".In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Five-time Masters champion is maybe the only person who hasn't cottoned on to the fact he is playing exhibition golfThe sun rose at 6.58am on Sunday in Augusta, a full three hours after Tiger Woods. Across the city, people were asleep and sharing the very same sorts of dreams, about the view down through the pines along the first fairway, the shots over the water at Amen Corner, the long walk uphill to the 18th green, where the club chairman Fred Ridley and last year's champion Jon Rahm would be waiting ready with that freshly pressed Green Jacket. Woods says he still has these thoughts himself, in the few hours' rest he gets between warming-down for the evening and warming-up again in the morning. For him, it's a sixth win, and a share of Jack Nicklaus's record.Only a handful of the people entertaining these thoughts had a chance of actually realising them. In the 29 years Woods has been playing here no one had come from further back than six shots off the lead on Sunday. Which meant you likely needed to be at least one-under already to have the slightest chance of overtaking the third-round leader Scottie Scheffler. Continue reading...

Malcolm LaVergne, executor of Simpson's estate, says hard no' to brain being given to study effects of playing in NFLA lawyer who represented OJ Simpson said there were no plans to donate the former NFL player's brain to science and that his body would be cremated.Simpson, who became the subject of an intense national debate in America after he was accused - and cleared - of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, died last week aged 76. He was later found liable for the two killings in a civil case. Continue reading...

From Newcastle's forward line to a comical series of own goals, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the top-flight weekendArsenal were stunned by Aston Villa 2-0 at home to hand Manchester City the advantage in the title race. If you're looking for a microcosm of Ollie Watkins's season, look no further than his goal on Sunday: Continue reading...

Investigators say two people came forward after death of man who killed Hiram Ross' Grayam in 1968More than five decades after a second world war veteran was killed while working as a milkman in Florida, investigators say they have solved the case thanks to two people who came forward after the killer died.Hiram Ross" Grayam was delivering milk in April 1968 and failed to return home after work. Deputies later found his body and his milk truck deep in the woods in the Vero Beach area, the Indian River county sheriff's office said in a news release. He had been shot several times. Continue reading...

Iran's attack may give the president a reason to return to his default position of ironclad' Israeli support - could that hurt him in November?Ironclad," said Joe Biden. Ironclad," said Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary. Ironclad," said the Senate leader Chuck Schumer, the House leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.In the wake of Saturday's attack by Iran, Democrats united around a single word in expressing their commitment to Israel's security. It was a sentiment that papered over, at least for now, cracks in the party over Biden's handling of the war in Gaza. Continue reading...

Robert Kennedy Jr, Cornel West and Jill Stein likely to take votes from Biden in November election, research suggestsMultiple new polls show Joe Biden strengthening slightly in the US presidential election, but suggest third-party candidates could present a risk to his chance of carrying the White House in November.According to a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Saturday, Biden has whittled down the four-point lead Donald Trump held in February, with Trump leading Biden 46% to 45% among registered voters. Continue reading...

As a recent BBC series confirms, the idea of a spiritual journey has survived the decline of organised religionIn Geoffrey Chaucer's England, the arrival of spring was taken by many as a cue to take to the road. As theprologue to The Canterbury Tales begins: WheninApril the sweet showers fall/And pierce the drought ofMarch to the root, and all/...Then people long to go on pilgrimages".Given Britain's increasingly damp climate, contemporary pilgrims are as likely to encounter persistent rain as the occasional sweet shower. But the participants in the BBC's sixth Pilgrimage series, which ended on Friday, were largely blessed with fine days as they travelled by foot and bus across North Wales. Travelling the Pilgrim's Way, the group of minor celebrities followed a Christianity-based route-map of shrines and churches, but also stayed at an eco retreat and a Buddhist meditation centre. Continue reading...

From an encounter with an adult film star in 2006, to a $130,000 payment in 2016 and a criminal trial starting on MondayAfter a years-long investigation by New York prosecutors, Donald Trump is facing his first criminal trial in Manhattan on Monday.Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, on business records. Trump allegedly had his former fixer Michael Cohen pay Daniels, while Trump reimbursed Cohen in 2017 and reported the reimbursement as legal fees.Trump meets with David Pecker, CEO of American Media, parent company to the National Enquirer. Pecker tells Trump that he will be the eyes and ears for the campaign" and will buy the silence of anyone with salacious stories on Trump. Continue reading...

CNN, NBC and Fox among outlets to make plea as Trump campaign calls for earlier debates and Biden remains uncommittedTwelve US news organizations are urging Joe Biden and Donald Trump to agree to TV debates ahead of the November presidential vote, a typical feature of an election year and one that can sometimes play a crucial role.If there is one thing Americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high," the organizations including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, PBS, NBC, NPR and the Associated Press said in a statement. Continue reading...

The Republican former TV anchor is trying to soften her election-denying image against the Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego in one of the year's most closely watched racesOn a recent Tuesday morning, at a retirement community on the western edge of Phoenix's sprawling desert metropolis, Kari Lake beamed at the graying crowd and introduced her guest, the Montana senator Steve Daines, the Republican charged with winning back the party's Senate majority in Washington.His presence sent the message that establishment Republicans were fully behind Lake, a former TV news anchor in Phoenix whose embrace of election denialism and fealty to Donald Trump made her a darling of his Maga movement but probably cost her the 2022 race for Arizona governor, a loss she has never formally conceded. Continue reading...

What seems like a shortcut to understanding can lead you down a path of confusion and despair. There's no substitute for professional help

Sarah Jessica Parker is the latest A-lister to lavish our fair isles with praise, from the transport networks to the eggs. I guess it's easy to overlook problems when you're a wealthy touristI want to know Jubilee, Piccadilly, Northern, I want to know Edgware ... Your system here is exquisite." That is Sarah Jessica Parker raving about the tube. Goodge" she added, in wonderment, rolling the word around in her mouth like a mint humbug. She is in London, appearing in Plaza Suite at the Savoy theatre, having the time of her life and appreciating breakfast foods. There's these eggs here ... that I go mad for, they're called Burford, they have those orange yolks ... oh my God ... I love your rashers here," she told the chef Ruth Rogers on Rogers' podcast. HerInstagram features black cabs, graffiti and her learning which bus gets me where I need to go. On time."Meanwhile, Zendaya has been spotted patiently queueing for a Gail's coffee and pastry" and doing a big shop in New Malden Waitrose; Vogue has declared her one sausage roll away" from honorary Briton status. Continue reading...

Ex- president known for chaotic foreign policy posts Republican senator's praise of old Trump tweet telling Iran to be cautious'Donald Trump responded to Iran's Saturday attack on Israel by reposting a 2018 all-caps tweet in which he threatened the president of Iran and said the US would not stand for DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH."To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!" read the 2018 tweet. Continue reading...

Experts partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a medical non-profit that buys and forgives debt, found it had little effect on people's credit scores and mental healthMedical debt is the most common form of debt in collections in the US. But forgiving that debt once it has gone to collections may provide fewer health and financial benefits than once hoped.A new study by researchers who partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that buys and forgives medical debt, found disappointing" results when people's bills were purchased and forgiven, with little impact on people's credit scores and willingness to go to the doctor. Continue reading...

Netanyahu wanted a wider conflict, and Tehran has walked into his trap. The major powers must immediately head this offThe missiles and drones that rained destruction on Israel in the early hours of Sunday morning have given Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, what he's always craved - a mandate and justification for openly attacking Iran, a country he has long viewed as Israel's archenemy and possible nemesis. The pressing question, which may be answered within hours, is what form Israel's promised significant response" will take - and whether Iran, in turn, will strike back again. We will build a regional coalition and exact the price from Iran in the fashion and timing that is right for us," said the Israeli minister Benny Gantz, as the Israeli war cabinet met to discuss Israel's response today.It is incumbent on the US, Britain and other friends and allies of Israel to inform Netanyahu in plain terms that continued military, diplomatic and political support is conditional on a legitimate and proportionate Israeli riposte. It would be preferable if Israel did not hit back at all. Iran failed in its apparent aim of inflicting serious harm. Israel says 99% of its missiles and drones were destroyed. Thankfully, casualties have been light. Tehran now says, a little hopefully, that the episode is concluded" - but vows to fight back if attacked.Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentatorThis article was updated on 14 April to add responses from Iran and IsraelDo 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...

The New York trial of the former president for allegedly paying hush money to a porn star will also test US justice systemHe has been businessman, TV showman and president of the United States. On Monday morning, in the sobering surroundings of a New York courtroom, Donald Trump will play yet another role in American history when he becomes the first former White House occupant to stand criminal trial.The case, involving hush money paid to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, carries profound political and legal ramifications as the Republican runs for election against Joe Biden in November. It is a jury trial not only of Trump but of America, testing the country's checks and balances and sacred promise that no one - not even a president - is above the law. Continue reading...

The former PM's aides josh that it was good for his morale, and ours. Never mind his wifeHow have we managed without the expression sunshine at sunset"? As in, when an older married man is granted sex with a much younger colleague and better still, keeps it quiet? So much so that his wife stays on to nurse him through Alzheimer's disease?We owe this promising euphemism to the former Harold Wilson aide Bernard Donoughue, 89, who appeared on Radio 4's Today programme last week. He was confirming gossip that he and the former Labour prime minister's press secretary, Joe Haines, 96, have treasured for 50 years: Wilson, during his final term in office, had an affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, Haines's Downing Street deputy. Continue reading...

Swede has shown the easy confidence of a young man while French golfer has nerves of an older pro during the MastersThere are 20 ways to make the Masters, from winning the thing, or any other of a dozen leading competitions, to making it into the top 50 of the world rankings in the week before the tournament starts.The official listings will tell you that Ludvig Aberg and Matthieu Pavon both came the very same way, by route No 17, Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation, from previous Masters to current Masters". Aberg did it by winning at the RSM Classic at St Simons Island in November, and Pavon by winning the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines two months later. Continue reading...

With no mobile phones allowed, fans queue for two hours to capture their own unusual piece of Masters historyThe first thing you see when you make it through the gates at Augusta National is the grass, which, for the first time in your life, really is greener on the other side. Then it's the rainbow of azaleas and above them the trees, dogwoods, magnolias and firethorns, snaking down around the driveway.It will be around about now, as you are making your way along towards the course, that you will begin to notice all the people cutting back against the flow of the crowd. Soon enough, you will be wondering exactly where everyone is going. And then the answer will bang you in the shin. Continue reading...

Fervent Trump supporters from last elections air doubts over abortion and the man himself in state where turnout will be keyTerri Burl has come full circle.The local Republican party official was a founding member of Women for Trump in her corner of rural Wisconsin eight years ago when the then New York businessman's run for president was little more than a joke to political pundits. Continue reading...

Lori and George Schappell were joined at the skull with separate bodies and lived on their own since the age of 24The world's oldest living conjoined twins have died at the age of 62 in their native Pennsylvania.Lori and George Schappell died on 7 April at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, according to an obituary. A cause of death was not disclosed. Continue reading...

His cult-like status is likely to hand him victory in the coming elections, but at democracy's lossSuddenly, everyone loves India. But it's an affair, not a marriage. Whether it lasts depends on the consequences of this week's watershed election. At stake are the credibility of Indian democracy and, potentially, the country's future as a cohesive unitary state.Courting India as a counterweight to China, the US is ardently pursuing a deeper security relationship. The EU hankers after a free trade pact. Countries ranging from Australia to Norway to the UAE have already forged bespoke deals.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Have you heard the one about the missing Ocado delivery at Downing Street? It's side-splitting stuffBritish public life often tends toward sitcom, and you imagine that once the catastrophic economic fallout of her time in office has faded - in a generation or two's time - Liz Truss's 40-odd days in Downing Street might yet be viewed in those terms. Certainly, that seems the legacy she most craves.The first extracts from her farcical book, Ten Years to Save the West, reveal it to be written with all those gifts for Accidental Partridge" that she displayed in office (key quote: For too long, the political debate has been dominated by how we distribute a limited economic pie. Instead, we need to grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice."). Her memoir's most immediately memorable scenes are ready-made for canned laughter. There's the one in which she spent her few days in power itching because of an outbreak of fleas in the prime ministerial apartment (a parting gift, she half-implies, of the Johnsons' dog, Dilyn); the one in which her promise to the nation of delivery, delivery, delivery" falls at the first hurdle of a missing Ocado order; the one in which she finds the fridge full of protein shakes labelled Raab", from her power-hungry colleague; and the onein which she struggles to get a mobile phone signal on a call with the US secretary of state and has to hang out of an upstairs window to hear about the invasion of Ukraine.There will never be asecond season. Continue reading...

Trump is walking a tricky tightrope trying to appeal to his evangelical base and moderate voters. His solution? A bunch of contradictory nonsenseIn recent years, Donald Trump has sold NFTs, sneakers, and bibles. Now the perennial marketer is busy selling a new and improved version of himself to voters. Meet Don 2.0: a reasonable man with moderate views on abortion. Continue reading...

Tropicana, once host to celebrities, criminals and 007, will be replaced by the city's new focus of attraction, a sports stadiumLas Vegas's famous Tropicana hotel is no more. Its guests were abruptly asked to leave earlier this month and its gold-domed casino closed - signaling the end of an icon of classic Sin City life where glamor, celebrity and crime seemed to go hand in hand.Now the old building will be elaborately demolished with explosives - a tradition of Nevada's desert gambling mecca - to make way for a sports stadium, symbolizing for many modern Vegas's image of sanitized mass tourism. Continue reading...

Focus on reproductive rights has yielded big wins and Democrats hope threat of more Republican bans will mobilize votersKamala Harris's Friday visit to Arizona was planned before the state's top court upheld a 160-year-old law that bans almost all abortions. But the news galvanized the vice-president's message, one that has already yielded stunning victories for liberals since Roe v Wade fell nearly two years ago.That message is simple: abortion bans happen when Republicans are in charge. Continue reading...

I was in a department store when an apparently random, and ultimately deadly, stabbing attack began. I hid in a cupboard, then found a fire escape

The reporter who covered the trial for the Observer recalls the twists and turns of the double murder trial - and how the jury reached its verdict with astonishing speedWhen the jury sent word they would deliver their verdict in the OJ Simpson double murder trial, the rest of America was caught by surprise, myself included. It had taken four hours to rule on nine months of evidence as to whether one of the country's most famous black men had killed his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her young friend, Ronald Goldman.It felt far too quick. The televised case in 1995 had been an astonishing spectacle, its twists and turns drawing vast numbers of viewers from the nation's daytime soaps. Continue reading...

Some of the 27 states that have the death penalty have not executed anyone in years but others still do - and the divide is rooted in historyThe execution of Brian Dorsey in Missouri on Tuesday, despite an extraordinary campaign asking for his sentence to be commuted, brought into focus the issue of the death penalty in the US - one of the few countries in the western world that still uses corporal punishment.Dorsey, 52, was executed for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband, after the number of people executed in the US rose to 24 in 2023, from 18 in 2022. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say they're leaning on the bread and butter of our white-collar work' - falsifying business recordsBack when candidate Donald Trump was just starting to fill stadiums across the US with loyal crowds of supporters, he held a fateful meeting that would set the course for the first criminal trial of a former US president, which kicks off Monday.At that August 2015 meeting, Trump spoke with David Pecker, then-CEO of American Media, the parent company of tabloid the National Enquirer. Pecker told Trump he could be the eyes and ears" for Trump's presidential campaign, on the lookout for any salacious stories people were telling about him. Prosecutors would later call this strategy a catch and kill" scheme. Continue reading...

The union leader has galvanized organized labor in a critical year, after securing a historic deal with the big three carmakers in 2023From Amazon and UPS to Starbucks and Hollywood studios, organized labor is making a comeback in the US after decades of decline. Shawn Fain thinks he knows why: Workers have realized they've been getting screwed for decades, and they're fed up."The United Auto Workers (UAW) president has emerged at the front of the pack of a new generation of labor leaders as a galvanizing voice in a critical year for the labor movement and American politics. Continue reading...

Christine Jenneiahn shot and mortally wounded a man who broke into her home at night and handcuffed her to a chairAt 85 years old, Christine Jenneiahn might have seemed particularly vulnerable to the man who broke into her Idaho home, pistol-whipped her and handcuffed her to a chair.But investigators say Jenneiahn saved herself as well as her son - whom authorities described as disabled - from the intruder by grabbing a revolver she had hidden under her pillow, shooting and mortally wounding the violent burglar. Continue reading...

The all-time leading scorer in college basketball is about to turn pro as viewing figures break men's recordsSince the NCAA women's basketball tournament final on Sunday drew more US television viewers than the men's final for the first time in history, it has been hailed as a watershed moment for women's sports in America. A vanguard of star players including Connecticut's Paige Bueckers, LSU's Angel Reese and Southern California's JuJu Watkins have lifted the profile of the women's game to unprecedented heights over the past few months while recalibrating expectations for how all women's sports can be covered, commercialised and consumed.But none of them have commanded the national consciousness quite like Caitlin Clark, the ponytailed once-in-a-generation talent from the University of Iowa whose modest 6ft frame belies her outsized impact on college basketball and American sports at large. Continue reading...

The Israel that I meet every day is made up of people who want to forge a path towards peace and security for all

Jose Andres sends cooks into disaster zones. He has led a backlash over Gaza against Netanyahu that no protest or politician could have matchedJose Andres is perhaps the most influential Spaniard in the world right now. After the Israeli drone strike that killed seven people who worked for his non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza earlier this month, Andres's criticism of Israel has carried more weight and garnered more attention than any statement from a Spanish or other European political figure could.It may seem strange that a chef raised in a former mining town in northern Spain who moved to New York as a 21-year-old with little money appears to wield such clout. But Andres is no ordinary celebrity chef.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in SpainDo 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...