The sheriff’s term was marked by misconduct, abuse and corruption cases in the largest county sheriff’s agency in the USFor only the second time in more than a century, Los Angeles residents have voted out an incumbent sheriff, ending the reign of Alex Villanueva, a scandal-plagued official who civil rights leaders say had become a “danger to the people”.Villanueva conceded to Robert Luna, the former police chief of the city of Long Beach, on Tuesday, one week after the election, with latest count showing Luna had 60% of the vote compared with the incumbent’s 40%. The results marked a decisive rejection of the leader of the largest county sheriff’s agency in the US. Continue reading...
Twice-impeached former president makes expected announcement despite shaky midterms and surge from rival Ron DeSantis. Plus, the latest from Cop27• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Donald Trump has formally announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, likely sparking another period of tumult in US politics and especially his own political party.Will Trump’s legal battles stand in the way? Federal and state authorities are investigating his personal, political and financial conduct, and that of his business empire. How any indictment would affect Trump’s run remains unclear – he is experienced in using delaying actions in the courts and in using political or investigatory moves against him as fuel to fire up his base.Just a few months ago it was received wisdom that the Republican nomination was his for the taking. What happened? The star of the former president was already waning among the party faithful before the midterms, as Cas Mudde explores.What might have happened? Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he took Russian denials of involvement in the attack seriously, adding it was likely to be a technical error. Continue reading...
The scandal surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried is a dire warning about the potential of effective altruism’s power and influenceSam Bankman-Fried’s recent alleged fraud raises familiar questions about the reliability and regulation of cryptocurrency. But it also calls into question “effective altruism”, an intellectual movement in philanthropy. If the movement doesn’t change course, one of the most ambitious charitable drives in recent history will end up like so many others: a lab and playground for wealthy donors.Bankman-Fried was a junior at MIT when he first encountered William MacAskill, a founder of effective altruism. MacAskill pitched him about the “earning to give” strategy – trying to make as much money as one can in order to maximize one’s charitable donations. On MacAskill’s advice, Bankman-Fried began his career trading securities before being hired by the Center for Effective Altruism. Afterwards, he began FTX, an international crypto exchange. Alongside it were the FTX Future Fund and the FTX Foundation, philanthropic organizations committed to effective altruism and staffed by prominent effective altruists, including MacAskill.Olúfẹ́mi O Táíwò is associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. He has written for publications including the Guardian, the New Yorker and the NationJoshua Stein, a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics, has written for Slate and Aeon Continue reading...
Unions say airline industry seeks to return to normal without addressing serious problems around pay and staffingFlight attendants at American Airlines have held picket rallies at 11 major airports in the US, over the airline rejecting new union contract proposals from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 25,000 of its flight attendants.The move is the latest in a series of industrial actions and disputes to have hit the US airlines industry as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers and unions say that the industry has sought to return to normal without addressing serious problems, especially around pay and staffing levels. Continue reading...
Rishi Sunak played down the prospect of an imminent trade deal with the US at a press conference in Bali, Indonesia, after he held his first face-to-face bilateral meeting with Joe Biden. Sunak said the UK was focusing more on the quality of trade deals rather than the speed at which they could be agreed. However, the British prime minister struck an optimistic tone about the prospects for further economic cooperation with the US
Victory in the south will give Ukrainians strength, just as the explosion in Poland highlights the risks involved in this conflictThe longer this war lasts, the higher the chances that it will spill over into Nato territory. Last night’s missile explosions that reportedly killed two people in the Polish village of Przewodów, 20km from the border with Ukraine, are testimony to a dangerous trend of miscalculation that could lead to escalation. As long as Russia continues its desperate tactic of missile barrages against civilian infrastructure, this risk is high.But while attention is focused on Russia’s indiscriminate long-range strikes, and the emerging G20 and Nato reactions, Moscow’s position on the ground is weaker than it has been in months. The loss of Kherson last week was a major blow – to the point that even senior Russian commanders have acknowledged setbacks for the first time.Orysia Lutsevych is the head of Ukraine Forum at Chatham House Continue reading...
As the American men prepare for their 11th World Cup, we look back at the highs and lows of their appearancesThe US men have been to every World Cup so far … aside from the last one, the 1938 edition, and every single one between 1950 and 1990.Some trips have been momentous occasions that propelled the sport in the US forward. Some passed by a country that ignored soccer for a generation or three. And some may bring about traumatic memories, in which case American readers may be advised to skip down to No 6 or so. Continue reading...
Pundits who prophesied Trump will ride high seemingly forgot that the wheel that turns up, also turns down – and the midterms proved itThe incredible shrinking Trump announced, in the most predictable news of the year, that he’s running for president again. In his eternal quest for attention, he had to be dissuaded from doing it before the recent election, so he wouldn’t do what he most aspires to do, which is to steal attention from everyone else, including the candidates in the party he may or may not still head but definitely disrupted.He would like lots more attention from you and me and everyone else, and he would also like some qualified immunity from all the criming he did during his last presidency. By the way, he stole a lot of classified documents and tried to steal an election and there should be lots of legal consequences for both of those more newsworthy things, though I wouldn’t bet on that. I’d much rather talk about everyone and anyone else, but within the parameters of this assignment I will have to talk about them talking about Trump. Continue reading...
Staying in relationships after they’re healthy is never a good idea. The veteran point guard and the stumbling Lakers offer a textbook exampleLong before I was ever anything close to what could be considered an expert on the NBA, I was something of an expert on relationships. I’ve always found human interaction fascinating (and that was even before the years of therapy). Relatedly, one of the many basketball hills I’m prone to die on is that it’s a relationships business. Chemistry, camaraderie and general good vibes are not only important to team success; they’re everything. So, needless to say, living in Los Angeles the last few years has made for intriguing proximity to one of the most interesting case studies on fractured relationships in the league: that between Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers.The present-day Lakers are, to put it in plain English, a mess. Placing the blame for that squarely on the shoulders of the mercurial Westbrook is woefully reductive, and certainly doesn’t tell the full story. For starters, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka just got a contract extension, which is somewhat puzzling given his less-than-stellar success rate in the years since the team’s 2020 championship (though some have argued that LeBron James’ opinion on the roster weighed heavily in decision making as well). Even dating back to a time before James signed with the Lakers in the summer of 2018, the industry has kibitzed about the front office’s apparent ineptitude. But Westbrook’s $47m salary has certainly encumbered the team and limited any functional ability to build around its top-tier superstars in James and Anthony Davis. To put the $47m in perspective: it’s almost $3m more than James himself will make this season, and, staggeringly, more than everyone else on the team outside James and Davis makes combined. Directly or indirectly, Westbrook finds himself at the crux of the issue. Continue reading...
The rightwing views young people as a threat – and that is not just in the USGen Z certainly brought their A-game to the US midterms last week. Predictions of a “red wave” were thwarted, thanks largely to young people turning up in huge numbers to vote for Democrats. Young women in particular: 72% of women aged 18-29 voted for Democrat candidates according to exit polls. Not hard to figure out why, is it? Do we vote for the forced-birthers or do we vote for the people who might give us a few rights over our own bodies? Hmmm. Still, that question seems to have stumped other demographics: Democrats lost voters aged 45 and older by at least seven points, including a 12-point loss among people over 65.The fact that young people don’t like them very much hasn’t bypassed the Republican party. Instead of rethinking their policies, however, some of them have decided to rethink the voting age. Over the last few days, a lot of Republicans have been proclaiming that the US ought to increase the legal voting age to 21. (One conservative radio personality even suggested it be raised to 28.) The same people who reckon a 10-year-old girl is mature enough to be forced to carry a baby, reckon a 20-year-old isn’t mature enough to vote.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The former president consistently painted a misleading image of his years in office, recalling nonexistent global peace, secure borders and a strong economyDonald Trump’s announcement that he will run for president again in 2024 was met with joy, dismay and mockery across the political spectrum.Making the widely anticipated announcement at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, Trump delivered remarks that would feel quite familiar to anyone who has watched one of his many campaign rallies. Looking back on America as he left the presidency in early 2021, Trump painted a rosy and often misleading picture of a nation that had established secure borders, a strong economy and global peace. Continue reading...
Expect months of self-pity as Republicans inch away from the ex-president and Ron DeSantis gains steamThe guy who spawned an insurrection in January 2021 is back. On Tuesday night, Donald Trump launched his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. In front of Mar-a-Lago’s fawning faithful, he attacked Joe Biden and lamented the state of the US in his own absence. “Embarrassed”, “humiliated” and “glory” emerged as the evening’s buzzwords.The speech sounded like a rehash of his inaugural address. The US has been warned. Unless “45” goes to prison sometime soon, expect the coming months to be a constant pity-party, fueled by a bottomless pit of grievances. In his own words, he is “persecuted” and a “victim”. His son Eric is the unfair recipient of a passel of subpoenas. Continue reading...
Joe Biden says the US and its Nato allies are investigating a blast that killed two people in Poland. Asked whether Russia was involved in the blast, Biden said it was 'unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we'll see'. Poland summoned Russia's ambassador to Warsaw for an explanation after Moscow denied it was responsible
Ex-president appears over the hill at 2024 announcement to an enthusiastic – but dwindling – group of loyalistsFrom plastering his name on buildings to hiring his own children, from salivating over military parades to savaging the media, from befriending fellow strongmen to defying the will of the people, Donald Trump has done much to invite comparisons with autocrats.On Tuesday he continued to play that role to perfection. Only now he was the ousted dictator, drained of power and surrounded by a dwindling band of loyalists in his last redoubt, the opulent Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. As a rule, the grander the palace, the weaker the man. Continue reading...
The evening was full of contradictory messages supporting and slighting the former presidentAll the signs in the past week have been that the Rupert Murdoch-owned US media was ready to ditch Donald Trump en masse. The New York Post mocked Trump as Humpty Dumpty, the Wall Street Journal declared him to be “the Republican party’s biggest loser” and even Fox News offered scant defense of Trump’s miserable midterm elections.Watching Fox News on Tuesday night, however, as Trump announced he was running for president yet again in 2024, it seemed that not everyone was ready to let Trump go. Continue reading...
Just a few months ago, it was received wisdom that the Republican nomination was his for the taking. Now, that’s not the caseHe is running! In the least surprising news of the year, a low-energy Donald Trump announced that he is running for president again last night. The speech itself was also predictable, hitting the traditional authoritarian and nativist favorites. We heard about the “invasion” at the border and “radical Democrats” in the White House, all spiced up with the usual combination of self-complimenting anecdotes and self-serving lies that we have come to expect from the former president.What was much more interesting was the almost complete absence of prominent Republicans in Mar-a-Lago and even the lukewarm interest of the US media. At various channels, journalists were “analyzing” Trump’s run while the former president was giving his speech on mute in the background. Even Fox News’s Sean Hannity cut into the speech after a little over half an hour. Continue reading...
by Lauren Gambino in Washington and Martin Pengelly i on (#65W9F)
Twice-impeached ex-president makes expected election announcement despite shaky midterms and surge from rival Ron DeSantisDonald Trump on Tuesday night announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, likely sparking another period of tumult in US politics and especially his own political party.“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said from ballroom of his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he stood on a stage crowded with American flags and Make America Great Again banners. Continue reading...
Trump skips father’s announcement and says she is prioritizing her family after serving as adviser during his presidencyIvanka Trump has decided to bow out of US politics and not actively join her father’s bid to retake the White House in 2024, saying she has chosen “to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family”.Donald Trump launched his 2024 bid for the Republican nomination on Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Members of his family, including his wife, Melania, and son Eric were present. Even Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, was in attendance. But Ivanka was not. Continue reading...
Media mogul turns to ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis after ex-president’s poor showing in midterm electionsRupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power. Continue reading...
US president says trajectory of missile suggests it was not launched by Russian forces waging war in Ukraine but will await results of investigationJoe Biden has said the missile that landed in Poland, killing two people, was unlikely to have been fired from Russia due to its trajectory.The US president was speaking at the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, after convening an emergency meeting of western leaders to discuss the explosion on Nato territory that has the potential to take the war in Ukraine into a new even more dangerous dimension. Continue reading...
Donald Trump has announced his 2024 presidential bid at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. 'In order to make America great and glorious again, I tonight am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,' Trump said. The former president has been teasing the announcement since before the midterm elections and it comes as he faces intense scrutiny from within his own party. After a number of far-right, Trump-endorsed candidates lost their elections, advisers had urged the ex-president to delay announcing a 2024 candidacy. Trump is facing a deluge of legal troubles and investigations
The former president is running again but the GOP midterm meltdown has changed the primary landscapeDonald Trump’s announcement of a third White House run does not only pose serious questions for the country he divided against itself during his defeat of Hillary Clinton, his four chaotic years in power, his rancorous defeat by Joe Biden and his incitement of the January 6 insurrection.Trump’s entrance into the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 poses existential questions for the Republican party itself. Since last week’s midterm elections failed to produce an expected “red wave”, leaving the Senate in Democratic hands and the House barely under GOP control, the primary landscape has shifted. Continue reading...
The ex-president is entering the race bogged down with legal baggage that could derail his campaignDonald Trump has announced his third run for president, a move likely to be as norm-shattering as his successful 2016 campaign.But a new twist is the sheer size and scale of the legal jeopardy that now surrounds him. Federal and state authorities are investigating Trump’s personal, political and financial conduct, and that of his business empire. Continue reading...
Migrants held in Georgia were unwillingly subjected to ‘excessive, invasive and often unnecessary’ gynecological proceduresA US Senate investigation into allegations that unwanted medical procedures were performed on detained female immigrants in Georgia has uncovered “a catastrophic failure by the federal government” to protect the detainees.A Senate hearing on Tuesday by the bipartisan permanent subcommittee on investigations (PSI), chaired by Georgia senator Jon Ossoff, announced its findings on conditions and practices at the Irwin county detention center (ICDC). Continue reading...
Washington woman visited White House in 2016 aged 106, and danced with president and first lady in clip that went viralVirginia McLaurin, a Washington woman who was 106 when in 2016 she visited and danced with Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House, has died. She was 113 years old.A family statement on McLaurin’s Facebook page said: “With heavy hearts we share that Ms Virginia McLaurin passed away this morning [Monday]. She had been under hospice care for a few days. Continue reading...
State law limits early voting after state holidays, including Thanksgiving and another formerly honoring Confederate generalRaphael Warnock’s campaign sued Georgia on Tuesday after the state said it would not offer Saturday early voting for the closely watched runoff in which Warnock is seeking re-election to the US Senate.The suit challenges the state’s interpretation of a law that would prohibit early voting on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving is also a state holiday in Georgia, originally to commemorate Robert E Lee, the Confederate civil war general. In 2015, state officials dropped Lee’s name and started recognizing the day simply as a “state holiday”. Continue reading...
Judge rules state’s ban on terminations once ‘detectable human heartbeat’ present violated US constitution at time it was enactedA judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling on Tuesday that it violated the US constitution and US supreme court precedent when it was enacted.The ruling by Judge Robert McBurney of Fulton county superior court applies statewide. The ban had been in effect since July. Continue reading...
by Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke, Niels de Hoog and Anna on (#65VS1)
Full live results of the Congressional midterms, seat by seat. The House of Representatives remains undecided, but Democrats have retained control of the Senate
Relief as Republicans election deniers running to take over elections beaten in almost every statewide raceRepublicans who rejected and sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results lost nearly every statewide race in which they sought to take control over how elections are run, a result hailed as a significant victory for free and fair elections in the US.Voters rejected election deniers who sought to become the top election official in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan – all key battleground states – as well as Minnesota and New Mexico. In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, a state senator who has been among the most prominent spreaders of election misinformation, lost his bid to be the state’s top election official. Kari Lake, a Republican who built her campaign around election denialism, also is projected to lose her bid for governor in Arizona. Continue reading...
Panel chair Bennie Thompson says contempt of Congress referral ‘could be an option’ after former president skips interviewThe special US House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is weighing whether to issue a contempt of Congress referral for Donald Trump after the former president skipped a closed-door deposition with the panel that was scheduled for Monday.The committee’s Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said that the contempt of Congress referral targeting Trump “could be an option” – though the Mississippi congressman added that the panel would have to first address a lawsuit filed against it by Trump’s lawyers on Friday. The suit challenged the subpoena ordering Trump to appear at the deposition as a violation of executive privilege. Continue reading...
The Amazon founder says giving money away ‘is really hard’. Luckily, poor people do far more of it than he doesHow bracing to wake up yesterday and read that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had donated $100m to Dolly Parton’s charitable endeavours, at his own “Courage and Civility” event. (Sarcastic airquotes: my own.) The many, many news reports about this act suggested it was a truly incredible sum from the second richest man in the world, who – according to recent estimates – gets richer by about $205m a day.Anyway, once I’d peeled myself off the ceiling, I got busy on the government’s tax calculator. If you’re on the median average UK salary – and you pay your taxes – your take-home pay is £72 a day. Looked at one way, then, Jeff’s benevolence would be the equivalent of donating £34.56 to charity. Have YOU ever donated thirty-four quid to charity? Do you pay your taxes? If so, you’re actually being more generous than Jeff Bezos, who, famously, avoids almost all of his. And yet, where’s YOUR splashy news write-up in all the fine news outlets of the world? Where’s YOUR fawning TV interview? Why does no one refer to YOU as a “philanthropist”?Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster with John Crace, Marina Hyde and Armando Iannucci
Retail giant is latest major chain to settle lawsuits with state and local governments across the US over toll of opioids sold at its pharmaciesRetail giant Walmart on Tuesday become the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of powerful prescription opioids sold at its pharmacies with state and local governments across the US.The $3.1bn proposal follows similar announcements on 2 November from the two largest US pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreen Co, which each said they would pay about $5bn. Continue reading...
We might one day look back on this midterm – and on Biden’s first two years – and discern in them a new beginningLast week was amazing for Joe Biden. The Red Wave fizzled. The Democrats kept the Senate. Even if the House slips from the Democrats’ grasp, as it is expected to, Biden will be credited with engineering the strongest midterm showing by an incumbent president’s party since 2002, and the most impressive such performance by a sitting Democratic president since JFK in 1962. Women’s anger at the supreme court’s Dobbs decision hammered the Republicans in key states. Many of Trump’s highest-flying, election-denying candidates fell to earth, damaging the ex-president’s aura of invincibility. Fights and recriminations have now broken out everywhere in Republican ranks.And there’s more from last week to bring a smile to Biden’s face: inflation moderated, the Dow rocketed skyward, and Ukrainians pushed the Russians out of Kherson, a big win not just for Ukraine but for Biden’s European foreign policy. And, oh yes, in America, young people – the country’s future – came out in relatively large numbers and, in critical contests, broke for the Democrats in a big way.Gary Gerstle is Mellon professor of American history emeritus at Cambridge and a Guardian US columnist. His most recent book is The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era (2022) Continue reading...
by Felix Sitthivong in Aberdeen, Washington, and Sam on (#65VAQ)
Clifford Farrar collapsed after seeking care last year. His death exposes the health crisis in Washington state prisonsOn a cold December day in 2021, the echoes of an emergency code cut through the bustling sounds of the Stafford Creek corrections center in Aberdeen, Washington.The alarm could mean there had been a scuffle at the poker table, an officer was having a bad day, or a new lockdown due to yet another Covid outbreak was being imposed. Continue reading...
After almost a week of counting, Republicans look set to retake the house with a narrow margin. Plus, media groups urge world leaders to impose climate tax on fossil fuel firms
by Bekah McNeel for the Trace and the Guardian, with on (#65V8Q)
Prior to the shooting, the city grappled with police corruption, entrenched gun culture and the lasting wounds of segregation. Now the illusion of ‘Uvalde Strong’ has ruptured as families demand changeThis story was originally published by The Trace, a non-profit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.It took most of the summer for the Uvalde school district to fire Pete Arredondo, the chief of the district police department whose blunders were largely blamed for the high number of casualties at the horrific mass shooting at Robb elementary school. The families of the victims acknowledged that it was the first real response to community demands for accountability, but parents, grandparents and siblings have not stopped organizing to oust – by protest or by election – those who were in charge on 24 May. Now, they’re fighting to change gun laws in Texas, a state that prohibits its agencies from enforcing any gun control legislation passed since January 2021. Continue reading...
Just three of Gregg Berhalter’s roster for Qatar have Latino roots. But many inside the game believe the coach should be given the benefit of the doubtSpanish-speaking soccer fans of a certain age have grown up listening to broadcasters refer to the US men’s national team as “el equipo de todos” – everyone’s team, representing the diverse cultural backgrounds that make up America. But the 26-player US squad for this year’s World Cup, which kicks off on 20 November, has just three players representing the Latinos and Latinas who provide a considerable share of the game’s supporters in the US.Forward Jesus Ferreira moved from Colombia to Texas when he was 10, midfielder Cristian Roldan’s parents are from El Salvador and Honduras, and Gio Reyna’s grandfather is Argentinian. Luca de la Torre, whose father is Spanish, provides another Hispanic presence, but he isn’t Latino. And one would have to stretch the definition of Latino to count Kellyn Acosta, whose paternal step-grandfather is Mexican. Ricardo Pepi, the Mexican American striker who settled a heated battle over his services by choosing the US over his family’s native country, was left out. Continue reading...
County leaders say they fear ex-president is even more divisive than he was two years ago and is therefore unelectableTerri Burl was an early member of Women for Trump. As chair of her local Republican party branch in northern Wisconsin, she twice campaigned vigorously for his election in the key swing state. By the time Trump left office, Burl rated him the greatest president since Ronald Reagan. Maybe even better.But now Burl has had enough. Continue reading...
Former US first lady rules out possibility of running for president herself in futureMichelle Obama has said Donald Trump’s rise to power in the 2016 US election “still hurts” but she and her husband had “laid a marker in the sand” with his presidency.The former first lady said “leadership matters” but ruled out the possibility of running for president herself in future. Continue reading...
Height confers obvious advantages in basketball. But super tall players are often more susceptible to injury and smaller stars have thrived at the topWhen word began to circulate, there was great hope. What could this 7ft 7in giant from Sudan named Manute Bol do in the NBA? Could his defense and shot blocking make memories of the greatest defenders like Bill Russell vanish? In his book, Manute: The Center of Two Worlds, author Leigh Montville describes the efforts to bring Bol from Africa to the United States to find out what he was capable of. In the end, though, Bol didn’t have a legendary career. Yes, he was a fan favorite, known, strangely, as much for games in which he hit multiple three-pointers as he was for his blocked shots. But while Bol led the NBA in blocks twice, he averaged just 2.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per games across his career. Even his teammate, the much smaller Charles Barkley, would deride and prank Bol, not worried about retribution.But Bol’s career – like that of many super-tall, super-short and even rather heavy players – raises a question. In a sport that is regularly defined by height, does size really matter in the NBA? This subject comes into focus again today with the frenzy over the potential of the 7ft 4in French prospect Victor Wembanyama, who plays as fluidly as All-Stars like the 6ft 8in Jayson Tatum and who can defend as well as giants like the 7ft 1in three-time NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert. Continue reading...
After almost a week of counting, Republicans look set to retake the house with a narrow marginRepublicans were on the brink of taking control of the US House of Representatives after a flurry of races were called for them on Monday.The party had expected an overwhelming victory in the lower chamber of Congress due to high inflation and dissatisfaction with the Biden administration. But there was unexpectedly strong support for the Democrats, who have controlled the House since 2019. Continue reading...
Delivery workers grapple with danger after dozens injured in blazes that can spread quickly and suddenlyNew York City delivery workers have to deal with an array of threats: speeding cars, volatile weather, armed robbers and app algorithms that can “deactivate” them if they don’t rush to customers quickly enough. Lately, workers have added another to the list – their electric bikes bursting into flames.The powerful lithium ion batteries used in small electric vehicles are responsible for a growing epidemic of fires. This year, there have been about 200 fires and six deaths, according to the New York City fire department. This month, an e-bike fire inside a Manhattan high-rise apartment became an inferno that injured nearly 40 people and forced firefighters to evacuate residents using ropes. Continue reading...
Sources say Trump will deliver the address from Mar-a-Lago Tuesday even though his candidates fared poorly in the midtermsDonald Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday night as planned, according to multiple sources close to the former US president, inserting himself into the center of national politics as he attempts to box out potential rivals seeking the Republican nomination.Trump will deliver at 9pm ET a speech from the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he recently hosted a subdued midterm elections watch party, and detail several policy goals that aides hope could become central themes of the presidential campaign. Continue reading...
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