Utah women's basketball coach, Lynne Roberts, said her team experienced a series of 'racial hate crimes' and were forced to change hotels due to safety concerns during the NCAA Tournament.Utah, South Dakota State and UC Irvine were all staying at hotels in Idaho because of the lack of hotel space in Spokane. Far-right extremists have become a presence in the region. Roberts said the NCAA and the host school, Gonzaga, worked to move the team after the incident. She added: 'For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it's messed up ... this should be a positive for everybody involved.'
The same vessel that hit the Baltimore Key Bridge on Tuesday, destroying it and sending people and vehicles tumbling into the water, was involved in a collision while leaving the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016. According to Vessel Finder the weather was fine at the time, and the incident was reportedly blamed on the ship's master and pilot on board
This attack could not come at a worse time for Palestinians. Hunger is widespread in Gaza, and famine is projected in the north by MayIsrael's vendetta against United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) illustrates the callousness with which Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government has fought the war in Gaza. It also reflects an effort to use Hamas's 7 October attack as an opportunity for demographic reengineering.Formally called the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Unrwa was established by the UN general assembly in December 1949 to address the 700,000 Palestinian refugees whom Israeli troops had forced from their homes during the war that led to the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948. Palestinians refer to this expulsion as the nakba, or catastrophe. Today, Unrwa provides education, healthcare and social services to the surviving refugees and their descendants. They number nearly 7 million, scattered among Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs Continue reading...
Aerial footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore shows the bridge before and after a cargo ship collided with it early on Tuesday, sending vehicles into the water
Spokesperson for president notes Trump's Jesus comparisons and lack of campaign events and says US deserves better'Joe Biden's presidential re-election campaign labeled Donald Trump weak and desperate" and feeble, confused and tired", after the former president and presumptive Republican nominee appeared in court and then spoke to the press in New York.Donald Trump is weak and desperate - both as a man and a candidate for president," said James Singer, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, on Monday. Continue reading...
Beloved zoo escapee had rat poison in its bloodstream and had contracted a serious disease from its diet of pigeonFlaco, the Eurasian eagle owl who gained fame after living free in New York City after escaping from captivity, was weakened by rat poison and a pigeon virus to the extent he would've died even if he had not fatally collided with a building earlier this year, a postmortem has found.Flaco was 13 years old when he was found dead in the courtyard of a building on New York's Upper West Side on 23 February, with trauma injuries that suggested he had flown directly into the structure. Continue reading...
Law will ban social media accounts for children under 14 once it takes effect but must still withstand expected legal challengesThe Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has signed a law that has given his state one of the US's most restrictive social media bans for minors, though it must still withstand expected legal challenges.Once it takes effect, the bill signed on Monday bans social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. It was slightly watered down from a proposal DeSantis vetoed earlier in March, a week before the annual legislative session ended. Continue reading...
A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early on Tuesday, causing it to snap in various places and fall into the Patapsco River. Several vehicles fell into the water, and rescuers were initially searching for at least seven people
Those of us who already cared not a jot what we wore, ate or watched all day welcome the Goop star to our ranks. But a takeaway and reality TV once a week won't cut itNew wisdom has just dropped from Gwyneth Paltrow. Now that she has turned 50, she doesn't give a fuck", and allows herself one slovenly day a week, watching reality TV and ordering takeaways. This is quite a common refrain, not just in the wellness world, but from the realm of the perfect. They reach a certain age - usually 50, sometimes 45 - and assertively cease to care. Sometimes it hinges on diet and exercise, other times it's I turned 50 and stopped being a pleaser, saying yes to everything, hiding my true feelings."Passing this age threshold is framed as a liberating Rubicon, and those of us who were already reckless and past caring should be welcoming Gwyneth, and everyone like her, into our ranks. But it does rankle a tiny bit: the world of expectations that surrounds women younger than 50 - what they should wear, what they should eat, what they should watch, how polite they should be, whether their neck is long enough for hoop earrings, whether they spend enough time meditating - is partly created by people like Paltrow. OK, maybe that's unfair and she's just like all of us, swimming her best in waters not of her own making, but certainly she has always been a reliable enforcer of the feminine ideal, even if it didn't always come off (I'm thinking of the vagina-scented" candle, of course, because when am I not?). Continue reading...
Despite his campaign promises, the president is mimicking Trump's approach to the island and fueling its economic miseryOn 6 April 1960, the US diplomat Lester D Mallory wrote a memo advocating an embargo denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government". Sixty-four years later and the policy that Cubans call el bloqueo (the blockade) is still in force. It hasn't achieved its stated aim of overturning the Cuban Revolution - but it has fueled years of desperation and justified anger.Barack Obama came to recognize this by his second term. During a historic 2016 visit to Havana, he said that he had come to bury the last remnant of the cold war in the Americas" and to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people". By then his administration had already made tangible steps in that direction.Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, founding editor of Jacobin, and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequalities Continue reading...
We want to hear from people in Baltimore who have been affected by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapseIn the US, rescue efforts remain underway after a major bridge in Baltimore, Maryland collapsed early on Tuesday. At least seven vehicles are believed to have fallen in the water.A container ship collided with the Francis Scott Bridge causing the bridge to snap. A video posted on X appeared to show the vessel striking one of the bridge's central supports, causing much of the 2.6km bridge to give way. Continue reading...
A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after a large boat collided with it early on Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the water. At about 1.30am, a vessel crashed into the bridge, catching fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below, according to a video posted on X. All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured," the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X. The Baltimore mayor, Brandon M Scott, and and the county executive, Johnny Olszewski Jr, said emergency personnel were at the scene and rescue efforts were under way
The Department of Homeland Security has raided properties in Los Angeles, Miami and New York that local news outlets have reported are tied to rapper and mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Los Angeles-based television stations carried aerial video footage showing federal agents entering an LA mansion, while a video of agents outside Combs's Miami home also broadcast.
John Keller says workers facing onslaught for dutifully and reliably doing their jobs' as man given 30 months for threatsElection officials across the US are facing an onslaught of unfounded hostility for dutifully and reliably doing their jobs", the head of a federal taskforce set up to protect the election community from violent threats said on Monday.John Keller, who leads the day-to-day efforts of the election threats taskforce, based in Washington, told reporters that the wave of violent threats - unleashed by Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen - amounted to an attack on the very foundation of our democracy - our elections". Continue reading...
New NBC hire, who resigned from committee less than three weeks ago, insisted there were still problems' in how Biden beat TrumpA little more than two weeks after resigning as the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel admitted Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election over her party's candidate fair and square".But the newly hired NBC News contributor maintained it was acceptable to also say there were problems" in the manner that the US president defeated Donald Trump - even after the former president's supporters translated such sentiments into the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021 that has been linked to nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides. Continue reading...
McDaniel facilitated Trump's corrupt fake elector plot', says ex-congresswoman as NBC hosts and union group protestThe Republican National Committee chair turned NBC politics analyst Ronna McDaniel enabled criminality and depravity" in her support for Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election, the former congresswoman Liz Cheney said as controversy swirled over McDaniel's media role.Ronna facilitated Trump's corrupt fake elector plot and his effort to pressure Michigan officials not to certify the legitimate election outcome," Cheney, a Republican who was vice-chair of the House January 6 committee, wrote on social media. Continue reading...
Timothy Carter, 28, in custody over killing of Jason Jenkins, 18, in attack criminal complaint says appears to be racially motivatedAn Illinois man has been arrested after the fatal stabbing of a teenage employee at a Walmart last Sunday, in what appears to be a racially motivated hate crime.Timothy Carter, 28, has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly killing Jason Jenkins, 18, an employee of the Walmart in the town of Rockford. Continue reading...
It was the state's first such fatal attack in 20 years and the animal that killed Taylen Robert Claude Brooks, 21, has been euthanizedA mountain lion killed a 21-year-old man and badly wounded his younger brother before officials euthanized the animal on Saturday afternoon in a remote wooded area of northern California, according to authorities.It was the state's first fatal mountain lion attack on a person in about 20 years, statistics from California wildlife officials show.The Associated Press contributed reporting Continue reading...
Authorities say girl showed up at sheriff's station, lunged' for gun and was pronounced dead at scene from self-inflicted injuryA girl died on Sunday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after she entered a Los Angeles county sheriff's station and grabbed a deputy's gun, the department said.The incident came after the girl's foster parent called authorities to their home around 7.25pm on Sunday, saying the girl was suffering from a mental health crisis. By the time deputies arrived, the girl was gone. About 15 minutes later, she showed up at the Industry sheriff's station about 1 mile (1.6km) away from the home, knocked on the lobby door, entered and lunged" to grab a deputy's firearm out of the holster, the department said. Continue reading...
Baseless claims that Ukraine played a role in the assault on a concert hall should not distract from a failure to heed credible warningsThe worst terrorist attack on their soil for two decades has left Russians in shock and looking for explanations. Over the weekend, survivors graphically conveyed the horror that unfolded on Friday evening inside the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow's commuter belt. Hunted down by at least four gunmen, minutes before a rock concert was due to begin, 137 people have so far lost their lives. That death toll is almost certain to rise, given the number of seriously wounded.After an atrocity that recalls all too clearly the Islamic State attacks on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris and Manchester Arena, the world has mourned with Russia. But after terror has come obfuscation and disinformation. Though all available evidence suggests this murderous rampage was the work of a branch of IS based principally in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, the Kremlin is cynically choosing to exploit the carnage for propaganda purposes against Ukraine. Continue reading...
Curiosity about Catherine's condition was inevitable. Now we know she is being treated for cancer, her family must be left aloneA cancer diagnosis is shocking for anyone, but particularly for younger people, in whom cancer is much rarer. In the UK, adults aged 25 to 49 account for 9% of new cases. For people with dependent children, this dreadful news can be even harder to manage; sometimes the person most upset by bad news is not the patient. It was clear from Friday's video recording of the Princess of Wales that the impact of her illness on her three children - aged 10, eight and five - was foremost among the reasons why the news was kept from the public until then. Her explanation resonated with millions of people, whatever their opinions about the royal family.The sharing of more details about the future queen's health was inevitable. Her three-month absence, after a 13-day hospital stay and abdominal surgery in January, led to an information vacuum. The coincidence of the king's cancer diagnosis - and the fact that the pair were in the same private London hospital at the same time - served to magnify interest in the royal family's health. Continue reading...
A Japanese diaspora collective called Nikkei 4 Palestine aims to mobilize their community in solidarity as Israel-Gaza war ragesWith their cameras on and microphones muted, about a dozen members of the Japanese diaspora collective Nikkei 4 Palestine gather on Zoom every Thursday afternoon. One member plays Palestinian resistance music in the background as they call or email elected officials to demand a ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza.The coalition has contacted politicians across the US and Canada more than 400 times through calls, emails, letters and faxes since November, according to Yoshino Goto, a member of the group. Comprising more than 70 people, Nikkei (which means a person of Japanese descent) 4 Palestine formed as a response to the war, in which more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. Continue reading...
Entrepreneur, whose grandfather Leon Leonwood Bean founded outdoor retailer in 1912, was key donor to Republican partyLinda L Bean - a granddaughter of the famed outdoor retailer LL Bean who became an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Republican activist - has died. She was 82.Bean died on Saturday, her business manager, Veronika Carlson, confirmed in a written statement on Sunday. No cause was given. Continue reading...
Riding a bike is not a political act, yet cyclists have become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowdGetting my bike nicked was like losing a pet. I didn't want a new one; I wanted to go back in time and not lose my old one. But, in the end, an inanimate object is not infinitely grievable and I need wheels. This is how I fetched up with a Liv bike, my precious first born putting the seat up for me. I said how proud and heart-filled I was, watching him do a little job that I didn't want to do myself for the first time, and he said: I've been showing you how to use a remote control since I was six years old," and I thought: OK, fair, but, more to the point, look at my lovely bike.Freshly re-enamoured of the world of two wheels, I have plunged straight back into the cycling discourse, the perfect microcosm of the wokeness split in all its forms. Take the ex-footballer Joey Barton, who is being sued by Jeremy Vine for calling the broadcaster a bike nonce". Meanwhile, the socials are full of people furiously agreeing that aggressive cyclists pose more danger to them than articulated lorries. The fervent attacks on low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and low-emission zones such as Ulez in London are really just a full-throttle loathing of people on bikes, aggrandised by acronyms and libertarian bat signals. Continue reading...
Texas man says he is unsatisfied with Donald Trump and Joe Biden and says new name isn't a person, it's a rally cry'A Texas man has legally changed his name to Literally Anybody Else and announced he is running for US president in the 2024 election.Formerly known as Dustin Ebey, the 35-year-old is a US army veteran and seventh-grade math teacher in the suburbs of Dallas, and now has a Texas driver's license to prove his name change. Continue reading...
It is against US law to provide weapons to forces who block United States humanitarian assistance. And that is exactly what is happening right nowI know a man, a decent man, who said that preventing genocide is an achievable goal, a goal that requires a level of government organization and engagement that matches in its intensity the brutality and efficiency required to carry out mass killing. Too often, these efforts have come too late, after the best and least costly opportunities to prevent them have been missed."The man that said that was then Vice-President and now President Joseph Biden. And he was right.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a US representative from New York's 14th districtThis op-ed is adapted from a speech that Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez delivered on Friday in Congress Continue reading...
Scam artist allegedly posed as Federal Trade Commission investigator and convinced victim to transfer $789,000 in goldA California scam artist who stole nearly $800,000 in gold bars from a victim was recently captured by police, including a detective who posed as the victim as part of an elaborate, undercover sting operation.Wenhui Sun, 34, was arrested in Leisure World, Maryland, a senior living community. Officers with the Montgomery county police department's financial crimes unit orchestrated Sun's arrest. Continue reading...
President responds to Republican rival's bizarre Truth Social boast about winning trophies on his own golf courseJoe Biden clapped back at Donald Trump after Trump posted a typically bizarre boast about his self-proclaimed golfing prowess.Congratulations, Donald," the president told his Republican rival. Quite the accomplishment." Continue reading...
The US claimed the Concacaf National League title with yet another win over Mexico. But they need to beat the best teams as 2026 approachesSame touchline, different mood. Last Thursday Tyler Adams remonstrated with Gregg Berhalter after being substituted during an arduous victory over Jamaica. Three days later he celebrated wildly with his coach after scoring an astounding goal against Mexico to help the USMNT retain their Concacaf Nations League title.Freshly returned from a serious hamstring problem and making his first start for club or country since March 2023, the Bournemouth midfielder was an unlikely candidate to fire a missile into the net from 30 yards. It was only his second international strike. The other one came in 2018, also against Mexico, but from much closer to goal and with far less ferocity. Continue reading...
The provision of American Virginia-class subs depends on US industrial development, military needs, politics - and possibly Trump. Australia has no agency or leverage over any of these
Wait,' people would say. You get paid to eat?' Yes, and dining out five times a day was joyful - for a while, at leastCould I eat another bite? I turned this over in my head as I scanned the passenger seat of my car, piled high with takeaway containers of chicken wings. Being overfull was a familiar feeling in my work as a food critic. That crisp October day, the question was also existential - I had simply reached the end of the road.I'd been thrilled to land my job nearly six years earlier at a newspaper covering the 3 million people and 10,000+ restaurants of New York City's eastern suburbs. I'd grown up on Long Island reading Newsday, an award-winning powerhouse in the 80s and 90s, and years later had returned home for a job I initially loved. Driving hundreds of miles a week, I sometimes ate out four or five times a day as I pursued stories. Ribeye, oysters, cumin lamb, birria tacos - much of it went on my corporate credit card. The hustle was constant but the reward was unearthing under-the-radar places, dishes and people. I also wrote about wine, beer, coffee, and cocktails, which meant rubbing elbows with talented brewers and bartenders.Corin Hirsch is a writer who covers food, drink, and travelDo 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...
Mike Johnson shouldn't be fearful' of motion to remove him, says Kevin McCarthy, who last year was ejected by his own partyThe embattled speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson, should not be fearful" of the motion to remove him filed by the far-right extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene, said Kevin McCarthy - who last year became the first speaker ejected by his own party when another extremist, Matt Gaetz, moved against him in the same way.Speaker Johnson is doing the very best job he can," McCarthy told CBS on Sunday, two days after Greene filed her motion. It's a difficult situation, but the one [piece of] advice I would give to the conference and to the speaker is: do not be fearful of a motion to vacate. I do not think they could do it again." Continue reading...
The mask of invincibility is slipping ever further, and eventually that will matter. This debacle won't be forgiven or forgottenEach time Vladimir Putin messes up, the same question is asked: will it make any difference? Last week's terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, which killed 137 people, is one of the bigger crises Putin has faced in his 25-year rule. There is no doubt that he, as Russia's head of state and overall chief of its security forces, bears ultimate responsibility for what was by any measure a catastrophic failure. In any normal political system, his resignation would be expected.The fact this is more or less unimaginable is not necessarily a sign of Putin's strength. His dictatorship has eviscerated checks and balances within Russian society, eliminating means of independent scrutiny. Any call for him to take personal responsibility would barely be heard, let alone acted on. Yet the Russian people, while chronically misled and serially misinformed, are not stupid.Simon Tisdall is the Observer's foreign affairs commentatorDo 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...
Ukraine's fight for justice for women, men and children who suffer terrible sexual crimes shows this battle goes far beyond territoryAtrocities are Russia's means of warfare. Since the beginning of its aggression against Ukraine in 2014, the Kremlin has weaponised actions that are internationally considered as crimes, including sexual violence. With the all-out invasion in 2022, Russia's sexual violence has expanded in its prevalence and gravity. It makes for difficult reading, but the extent of documented crimes includes rapes; gang rapes; sexual slavery; beating and mutilation of genitalia; castration; threats of rape and forcing family members to witness abuse of their loved ones.Sexual violence is common in war. But these are not only isolated battlefield incidents. Russia has allowed toxic gender hierarchies to become the norm within its borders, and allowed more brutal expressions to flourish on the frontlines of its war. This begins at the top, with President Putin demanding Ukraine's fulfilment of the Minsk agreements with a joking reference to sexual coercion, saying My beauty, it's your duty". His words won't shock a country with an ingrained tolerance to violence against women and sexual and gender minorities. Russia has all but decriminalised domestic abuse. Its persecution of gay people has peaked in designating the LGBTQ+ movement as extremist. The same labelling for feminism and child-free movements is looming, as are the proposals to limit abortions.Kateryna Busol is a Ukrainian lawyer. She is an associate professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a former academy associate at Chatham HouseDo 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...
On the Pacific island of Nauru the disease has been addressed in the same way for 50 years, but evidence of other factors - from poor air to stress - challenge old assumptionsFifty years ago, a diabetes survey in the Republic of Nauru concluded that a third of Nauruans had type 2 diabetes. It was the first time the relatively uncommon disease was found to be widespread in a national population, and it led researchers to raise the alarm about a potential global diabetes epidemic".At the time, there was little other research about population-scale diabetes, so the researchers made some assumptions to explain their data and propose a way forward. First, they said that diabetes in Nauru was probably caused by a genetic predisposition of islander populations to diabetes (a hypothesis later critiqued by its original author, and which remains unsupported by data - archaeological, anthropological or genetic); modernisation of islander lifestyles leading to a high-calorie diet (a theory my colleagues and I have since challenged); and reduced physical activity, and obesity. Second, they suggested these causes could be best addressed by nutrition and lifestyle education. Continue reading...
Russia tells US to rethink its assertion that IS was responsible for the attack, despite group claiming responsibility and sharing new footage. Plus, Donald Trump gets the band back togetherGood morning.Moscow has told the US to rethink its assertion that the Islamic State militant group was responsible for the terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow that claimed at least 137 lives, as the Kremlin sought, without evidence, to link it to Kyiv.What's Russian state media reporting? It has mostly ignored IS, instead focusing on claims that Ukraine was either responsible or ready to shield the attackers. Kyiv has strongly denied the claims.Could the death toll rise? Russian authorities said they expect it to, with at least a dozen people still in critical condition.What is the food security situation? Famine was projected to hit northern Gaza by May unless there was urgent intervention, a UN-backed food security assessment showed last week. Continue reading...
Speaker Mike Johnson averted government shutdown but faces far-right threat of removal over $60bn national security packageWith the government funding fight resolved, the US House of Representatives is expected to soon turn to a long-stalled national security package that would send military assistance to Ukraine, as well as Israel and other US allies.Despite increasingly desperate pleas from Kyiv, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, had refused to bring the wartime aid bill to the floor until Congress finalized a government funding bill, which it did on Friday - before leaving Washington for a two-week recess. Continue reading...
The ex-president's 2024 election operation has been surprisingly professional but the return of old faces with political baggage has some worriedDonald Trump's getting the band back together. But this time they come with political baggage, conspiracy theories and, in some instances, criminal convictions.The former US president's old acolytes are returning to the fold, eager to exert influence on his bid for the White House and have their say in a potential second administration. That poses a headache for his election campaign team, whose efforts to run a disciplined operation can be upended at any moment by the mercurial Trump. Continue reading...
Three great pieces of advice helped us get through a horrible situationThe summer before last, I was getting ready to leave my family on holiday in France while I came home to England. My children, who were seven and four, held on to me tightly, looking pale and serious. But they were too frightened to protest, the way they would have done if I'd been leaving them with a babysitter for the evening. We all knew there was something wrong with me, and I was heading off into the unknown.About eight weeks earlier, my face had become swollen and puffy. Then my neck had followed, and eventually my whole upper body. I looked weird, I felt faint, I could hardly stay awake. I was 39. Continue reading...
Having reached the summit of cross-country skiing (again), the former Olympic champion opens up about a relapse that nearly thwarted her seasonCross-country skiing at the elite level feels closer to survivalism than sport, a staredown with existential resistance that requires a tolerance for suffering bordering on inhumane and an appetite for pushing past the outer limits of what the body and mind believe is possible. Jessie Diggins calls it the pain cave", the place that endurance athletes enter when they've willed themselves beyond their breaking point and every muscle group is gripped with an agony that would leave the rest of us mortals supine and helpless along the trail. Diggins' hard-won mastery of this aerobic mental and physical torture chamber is what's carried her from small-town Minnesota to the summit of a sport that was dominated by Europeans for more than a century. That is, until she came along.It's been four days since Diggins nailed down her second World Cup overall title to put the finishing touches on the most successful season ever for an American cross-country skier. The 32-year-old from the tiny St Paul suburb of Afton (population: 2,951), whose trademark glitter, megawatt smile and almost nuclear positivity have become her calling cards, could clinch the crown with no worse than a 20th-place finish in last Sunday's season-ending women's 20km mass start freestyle in the Swedish town of Falun. But rather than playing it safe, Diggins conjured a sensational knockout blow on a course tailor-made to her strengths. Clustered with a gaggle of rivals entering the closing 2.5km, Diggins broke free with one final lung-busting sprint and crossed the finish line first by ninth-tenths of a second ahead of Norway's Heidi Weng for her sixth individual win of the season, cementing herself as the world's most dominant cross-country skier. Continue reading...
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