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Saudi buying up the Italian and Spanish Super Cups has legitimized the nation's regime, at home and around the worldIn early 2019, a rising star of the Italian far-right took to Twitter to lambaste Serie A's decision to hold the Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia for the second consecutive year. Giorgia Meloni was at that point the leader of a small but growing movement in Italian politics; her Brothers of Italy party had won a little over 4% of the vote in the 2018 general election. The Supercoppa has long been staged outside Italy: previous editions have been held in New Jersey, Beijing, Tripoli, and Doha. But for Meloni, the decision to stage the 2019 final in Riyadh was beyond the pale: she labeled it an absolute disgrace," describing Saudi Arabia as a country that discriminates against women and our values."Meloni's protest did nothing to throw the Italian football authorities off course. Following a two-year Covid-enforced hiatus, the Supercoppa last year returned to Saudi Arabia, where it will be played until 2029 under the terms of a new deal reportedly worth 138m. This year saw the inauguration of a four-team format for the competition, contested by the winners and runners-up of the previous season's Serie A and Coppa Italia; in Monday's final, staged in the 25,000-seat KSU Stadium in Riyadh (home of Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr), Inter triumphed thanks to a late goal from Lautaro Martinez. After sweeping home Benjamin Pavard's clever cut-back, Martinez ran the length of the field to celebrate with the thousand or so Inter fans gathered behind a big CURVA NORD" banner placed over the sideline hoardings. Continue reading...

Woman charged with larceny and larceny of livestock after truck driver witnesses the alleged theftAn Amish family from Michigan had their horse and buggy stolen during an outing to their local Walmart.Police were called to a Walmart in Sturgis, Michigan, about 93 miles outside the city of Lansing, last Saturday at 5.30pm ET over the stolen buggy, the Sturgis department of public safety said in news release. Continue reading...

Bill would prohibit teenagers from creating an account, and is now headed to the state's Republican-controlled senateFlorida lawmakers advanced a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit social media platforms from allowing young teens to have an account while requiring everyone else to verify their age.The measure prohibits anyone under 16 from creating a new social media account and requires platforms to delete existing accounts of the same age. It also would require social media companies to delete any personal information from the accounts and for the platforms to use a nongovernmental, independent, third-party not affiliated with the social media platform" to verify users' age. Continue reading...

Ten years after Li Na won in Melbourne, China's Qinwen Zheng will face defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the finalRegular readers of this blog will be waiting for Coach Calv's Betton's breakdown of our first semi and rightly so. Well, here it is: Will come down to how well Gauff's forehand holds up and how well she serves. The FH is still ugly as and has no power in it, but she's been better at making it not crap since the summer. She's a much better player than Sabalenka all round. If she has a high first serve % it will limit how much Sabalenka can attack her. Sabalenka could just hit though her, but Coco has a great serve and moves great so that seems unlikely."Also going on: Continue reading...

The 76ers star toppled Wilt Chamberlain's 57-year-old team scoring record with a 70-point eruption. He would be the unanimous MVP if the season ended todayWilt Chamberlain's feats have never seemed real, like tall tales that only grow more incredible with time. Take his eye-popping 1961-62 campaign, when he reached basketball's kill screen by scoring 100 points in a single game for the Philadelphia Warriors, averaging 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds a game for an entire season. When he was later accused of being a selfish player who only cared about scoring, the 7ft 1in strongman became the only center before or since to lead the NBA in assists. Incredibly, he never fouled out of a game. As the durability of sporting records and achievements go, the Wilt conversation drifts past Michael Jordan territory into the realm of Don Bradman and Leonidas of Rhodes. For a larger-than-life figure beyond the court whose claims included manhandling a mountain lion in self-defense, coming this close to fighting Muhammad Ali at the Astrodome and racking up Genghis Khan numbers in the bedroom, it's fitting that his nickname, the Big Dipper, borrowed not from a star but an entire constellation.All of this provides an instructive framing for the rarefied air Joel Embiid has inhabited over the past few months. Last season the Philadelphia 76ers' star center was an uncontroversial winner of the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, even if Nikola Joki's sensational postseason wrought a sense of buyer's remorse. This year, Embiid has been even better. Owing largely to an improved mid-range jump shot, he is averaging 36.1 points in 34.2 minutes per game, which is more points per minute than Wilt during his 50-point-per-game season. If he keeps it up, Embiid will become only the second player in NBA history to average more points than minutes played throughout a full season after Wilt in 61-62. Continue reading...

With New Hampshire behind, the question isn't who's running but whether US democracy will endureWith Trump's victory in New Hampshire, the battle lines are drawn for November. Unless something very weird happens, we're looking at a Joe Biden and Donald Trump rematch.It's time - past time, really - to sweep away any remaining delusions about the viability of a more moderate Republican challenger or what a second Trump term would bring.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

As the governor trudges back to finish his term, questions arise on his extremist agendas that failed to capture national interestRon DeSantis has fallen off the national stage and America will not, after all, become Florida like he once envisaged. But back in his home state, opponents are bracing for the return of the Republican to serve the remainder of his final term as governor following the implosion of his presidential campaign.Florida is where DeSantis honed his extremist attacks on a wide range of targets from the transgender community to immigrants and Black voters. Although he will no longer be carrying them to the White House, critics here say there's probably plenty more to come. Continue reading...

Brennan Center survey finds tens of thousands steering clear of hot-button issues - and some considering quitting public lifeTens of thousands of state legislators and elected local officials are avoiding hot-button policy issues such as abortion and gun control because they are fearful of the backlash of intimidating abuse, a new report has found.A major survey by the Brennan Center for Justice released on Thursday warned that the spate of extremist intimidation that has been seen nationally in the US, epitomized by the attack on the Capitol building on 6 January 2021, is also sweeping local and state politics. In the fallout, elected individuals are limiting their interactions with constituents and narrowing the contentious topics they are prepared to take on. Continue reading...

The Houthis are eager to show that they can stand up to the world's most powerful country, all for the Palestinian causeAs a presidential candidate, Joe Biden made a forceful case for restraining US military intervention and ending the wars that America had unleashed after the September 11 attacks. The use of force should be our last resort, not our first," he said in a July 2019 speech, adding that military power should be used only to defend our vital interests, when the objective is clear and achievable ... It's past time to end the forever wars, which have cost us untold blood and treasure."Yet Biden is now dragging the US into another potential war, one which doesn't meet many of the standards he set out as a candidate. The Biden administration is risking a wider conflict with the Houthis in Yemen, amid reports that the Pentagon is preparing a sustained military campaign", after nearly two weeks of air and missile strikes failed to stop the Houthis from attacking shipping vessels in the Red Sea. Continue reading...

On a walk through a nature reserve I felt dread at the pink flowers on a bone-grey tree, grief-stricken right down to my rootsThere is a particular queasy disquiet that comes from looking at blossom in January. Or daffodils just weeks after Christmas. At seeing catkins dangling from trees that are still bathed in dark from about 4.30pm. It is an uncanny sense that something here isn't right. I get it, too, in August, when the blackberries have already ripened into dust, before the new school term starts. Or when I hear birdsong under a yellow streetlamp.Perhaps this is just the outdoors equivalent of moaning about Easter eggs being in the shops in January. As in, it happens every year but we are somehow shocked anew each time. Maybe daffodils have always pushed up their spears as students fill in their Ucas applications. Maybe there have always been blackberries in July. Maybe it's just my memory playing tricks on me.Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood Continue reading...

Gerard Jerry' Howell was supported by New Orleans's archbishop after credible sexual abuse allegations were made against him by dozens of childrenFor decades, Gerard Jerry" Howell had avoided punishment for what his own church considers credible sexual abuse allegations leveled against him by dozens of children at the school for deaf students that he founded.Now, he's found another way around what little administrative accountability he eventually faced, this time with the help of New Orleans's archdiocese and its archbishop. Continue reading...

Netanyahu and his far-right allies have rejected a two-state solution over and over - yet the US is unwilling to call them on itJoe Biden has expended a lot of effort to avoid taking Benjamin Netanyahu at his word.The Israeli prime minister has spent his political life opposing a Palestinian state and acting accordingly. And although Biden has trotted out a rote commitment to the two-state solution when confronted with a crisis in the Middle East, there was barely a murmur from the White House as Netanyahu's far-right government ramped up creeping colonisation of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and hardened its domination of the Palestinians who live there.Chris McGreal writes for the Guardian US and is a former Guardian correspondent in Washington, Johannesburg and Jerusalem. He is the author of American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts Continue reading...

Both Biden and Trump had courted influential union. Plus, a poll finds 35% of Americans say Israel is committing genocide against PalestiniansGood morning.The United Auto Workers (UAW) formally endorsed Joe Biden's re-election campaign on Wednesday at the union's national community action program conference in Washington DC.How influential is the UAW? It has 40,000 members. It is based in Detroit, Michigan, a key swing state where, according to one poll conducted at the end of 2023, Trump is edging out Biden 39% to 37%.How did Trump try to court the union? In September, Trump said Fain was a good man ... he's got to endorse Trump". He also attacked electric vehicles and claimed, in office, we will drill baby drill" and support gas engines.What did Biden tell the UAW conference? On Wednesday, Biden talked up his pro-labor credentials: The union movement in America is important because it produces the best skilled workers in the world", adding: During my presidency, we opened 20 auto factories and more than 250,000 auto jobs all across the country."What is the latest in Gaza? The Israeli army says that it had encircled" the southern city of Khan Younis after two days of heavy fighting. The city is crowded with 88,000 residents and about 425,000 displaced people with many trapped sheltering in hospitals. Everyone in Gaza is hungry," the UN secretary general said Wednesday.How many Palestinians have been killed? More than 25,700, health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say, since the 7 October attack that saw 1,200 in Israel killed. About 85% of the 2.3 million people in Gaza have been displaced and face hunger and potential disease.What's happening off the coast of Yemen? Two ships owned by Maersk's US subsidiary sought US navy support after hearing explosions. Houthi militants are continuing their attacks on commercial shipping - which they claim is in solidarity with Palestinians. Continue reading...

A teacher told off a seven-year-old boy in the US for saying Jesus Christ'. Should we care?A big topic of conversation in our house is how much stricter English schools are than their American equivalents. What if, one of my children will say as we leave the house in the morning, I wore what I'm wearing to school in England? (You'd be sent home.) What if I wore my beanie in class? (You'd be told to take if off.) What if - the big one - I went to school in makeup and false nails, as some nine-year-olds in their school do? (I would probably get a call from the office and quite right, too.) What about self-expression?" they complain, like diligent Americans, and I explain that this is not a priority in the English school system, besides which, wearing Air Jordans because Ava does" isn't what self-expression means.These differences are, obviously, all uniform-based and elsewhere the two systems are clearly more aligned. In Mississippi this week, a news story to warm the heart as a seven-year-old was admonished by the teacher for unacceptable language", when, to quote the letter from the school his mother uploaded to Facebook, he said Jesus Christ when he dropped the Legos he was clearing up". The document the boy was sent home with fell under the rubric of parent notice of disciplinary incident", an over-reaction his family are objecting to in a post that has promptly gone viral. Continue reading...

The Kansas City Chiefs was given a mediocre receiving corps this season. He still made it to his sixth successive AFC Championship GameIt has become a routine in late January. A Super Bowl berth on the line. Tony Romo, sounding like a toddler three Mountain Dews deep, on the call. Patrick Mahomes leading the Kansas City Chiefs out into the AFC championship game.You cannot doubt No 15," Romo said after the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round last weekend. Who is? At this point, having the AFC title game without Mahomes would be like showing the Oscars without Martin Scorsese. Continue reading...

Cash-starved Bristol city council is not the real villain here, but its proposed strategy tells us some lives matter less than othersIf you want a symbol of this country's shredded safety net, look no further than Mark in Bristol.For the past 30 years Mark, who has cerebral palsy, has lived in his accessible bungalow with the support of personal assistants. That care package has enabled the 58-year-old to build a life at the heart of his community: from being a governor at the local school and training as a social worker, to holding a season ticket for his beloved Bristol City football club, It's more despair than joy," he smiles. Continue reading...

With a lot of good people leaving Twitter, it now apparently takes less for a tweet to find the recesses of the awfulTwitter/X began its death throes some time ago and is still thrashing about, slowly sinking into internet quicksand like Artax the horse in The NeverEnding Story (sorry to my fellow millennials for reminding you of this). It feels very small now - its reach is limited and engagement is noticeably down as more people jump submarine.So I was taken by surprise last week when a tweet of mine got me involved in an international incident. Continue reading...

Woman trying to cross rushing waters had climbed on top of overturned vehicle before she was rescued by helicopter teamA helicopter team rescued a woman Tuesday morning who was trapped for almost 15 hours atop her overturned pickup truck in rushing waters after she tried to traverse a swollen creek following recent rain in northern California.A helicopter of California highway patrol air operations airlifted the woman to shore as waters surged around her vehicle at a crossing in a park. Continue reading...

US regulator makes announcement hours after CEO says planemaker will only allow jets to fly when 100%' certain of safetyThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved an inspection and maintenance process to allow grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 planes to return to service, following a cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight.The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase," FAA administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement. Continue reading...

It was humiliating to watch,' civil rights leader tells MSNBC after senator appeared with ex-president in New HampshireThe South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott's behaviour around Donald Trump is humiliating", the civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton said.It was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator," Sharpton told MSNBC, for which he hosts a show, after Scott appeared with the former president in New Hampshire, where Trump won the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Mike DeWine had vetoed a bill banning trans minors from getting gender-affirming care and playing on sports teamsOhio's state senate has voted to override the governor Mike DeWine's veto of a bill that bans transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care, and their ability to play on sports teams, on Wednesday.The bill, HB68, prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care - such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries - to trans youths. It also blocks transgender female student athletes from participating on girls' sports teams. Continue reading...

Poll released Wednesday shows divisions by age and political lines, with 35% overall saying campaign against Palestinians is genocideMore than one in three Americans believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a poll published on Wednesday has found.According to the Economist/YouGov poll, roughly equal numbers of adults believe Israel's military campaign against Palestinians, which is estimated to have killed more than 25,000 people since 7 October, amounts to genocide: 35% say it is, 36% say it isn't, with 29% undecided. Continue reading...

Milestone is notable given the state regularly turns out a higher share of voters than others for presidential primaries

Audio clip appears to show Jeff DeWit offering Republican candidate Kari Lake money to stay out of US Senate raceThe leader of Arizona's Republican party resigned on Wednesday after leaked audio of him surfaced, appearing to show him offering a bribe to the Republican candidate Kari Lake by asking if there were a dollar amount she would take to stay out of the US Senate race there.Jeff DeWit, the chair of the state party, was captured in audio secretly recorded by Lake telling her there are very powerful people who want to keep you out" of the Senate race and that they're willing to put their money where their mouth is, in a big way". Continue reading...

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The former South Carolina governor insists she can challenge Trump for the nomination - but does she have a viable path?Nikki Haley was surprisingly peppy as she took the stage in New Hampshire on Tuesday, considering she had just suffered her second bruising defeat by Donald Trump. Trump beat Haley by 11 points in New Hampshire, a victory that came on the heels of the former president's 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses.Undaunted by the reality of her losses, the former UN ambassador pledged that she would continue on in the Republican presidential primary. Haley voiced confidence about her performance in her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its Republican primary on 24 February. Continue reading...

UAW formally backs president's re-election campaign after both Biden and Donald Trump courted the powerful groupThe powerful United Auto Workers (UAW) formally endorsed Joe Biden's re-election campaign on Wednesday at the union's national community action program conference in Washington DC.Both the US president and rival Donald Trump have courted the union and supported its successful strike action against the US's big three automakers last year. Biden became the first president to walk a picket line in support of the union. Continue reading...

Official says they can not say how the people died or if they had been shot after deputies responding to wellness check find bodiesDeputies found the bodies of six people at a remote dirt crossroads in the Mojave desert in southern California, in a scene described as so grisly that TV stations blurred some of the images captured by their helicopter overhead.San Bernardino county sheriff's deputies responding to a request for a wellness check reached the remote area off Highway 395 outside the community of El Mirage around 8.15pm and found five of the bodies. The sixth was found on Wednesday morning, a sheriff's spokesperson, Mara Rodriguez, said. Continue reading...

Lewis, 86, whose family trust controls majority of Tottenham Hotspur, apologises to judge in Manhattan plea-deal hearingThe British billionaire Joe Lewis pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges he used an insider-trading scheme to enrich friends and associates, and apologized to a judge, saying he was embarrassed" by his conduct.The 86-year-old, whose family trust controls a majority of Tottenham Hotspur, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud, as part of an agreement with the US attorney's office in Manhattan. As part of the plea deal, Lewis has the right to appeal in the event he is sentenced to prison time, his lawyer David Zornow said. Continue reading...

Comments made in response to Stefanik's statement calling House January 6 committee illegitimate and unconstitutional'Elise Stefanik of New York, a top House Republican and a leading contender to be Donald Trump's presidential running mate, is a total crackpot", the former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said.Cheney threw the barb on Tuesday, in response to a statement in which Stefanik called the House January 6 committee on which Cheney was vice-chair illegitimate and unconstitutional" and claimed it illegally deleted records".Trump wins Republican primary in New HampshireKey dates for the 2024 electionWho's running for president? The full list of candidates Continue reading...

Police hope tests may shed light on deaths of trio who went to watch NFL game at friend's home and died without him knowingAs an attorney for the HIV researcher Jordan Willis tells it, his client hosted four friends at his home on 7 January to watch their home town Kansas City Chiefs win a football game on television, said goodbye to them and went to sleep. Three of those men soon died in the backyard in freezing weather without him even realizing it, and their bodies were found days later - by someone other than Willis.Now Willis is grappling with public scrutiny and anxiously" awaiting the results of tests aiming to determine what substances may have been in his late friends' blood and whether any played a role in their seemingly mysterious deaths, according to his lawyer. Continue reading...

This year like every year, I'll be paying someone to handle my self-assessment. I know it's pathetic - but why aren't we taught about this stuff at school?What I understand about money could be scratched on the edge of a 2p piece. With a stick. As the self-assessment deadline rolls towards me like a driverless logging truck of administrative horror along the icy motorway of financial woe, I have been reminded once again just how poor my financial education has been.I have never met, let alone talked to, a financial advisor. I don't really understand how mortgages work. I don't have a pension. I'm terrified of my tax return. I don't know what other women doing comparable jobs earn. I didn't claim statutory maternity pay because, as a freelancer, I did not have any maternity leave. Until a few months ago, my mobile phone contract was still in my ex-boyfriend's name and coming out of his account despite the fact that we broke up more than 10 years ago and are both now married to other people (I was paying him back for it, but still). Two days before my 39th birthday I opened something called a lifetime Isa just because my friend Yasmin happened to tell me I should while I was peeling some potatoes, but I haven't managed to transfer any money into it because the website turns my brain into spat-out toothpaste. Continue reading...

Delta Air Lines jet was due to depart from Atlanta airport and none of six crew or 184 passengers were hurtA nose wheel fell off a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 passenger jet and rolled away as the plane lined up for takeoff over the weekend from Atlanta's international airport in the US, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.According to a preliminary FAA notice, none of the 184 passengers or six crew onboard were hurt in the incident, which took place on Saturday at Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Continue reading...

Senator told grand jury in election subversion case Trump would have believed martians stole the election, per Find Me the VotesThe South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham threw Donald Trump under the bus" in testimony to a grand jury investigating election subversion in Georgia, a new book reportedly says, saying the former president would have believed martians came and stole the election" he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.After fighting a four-month legal battle all the way to the US supreme court to block his grand jury subpoena - and losing ... Graham turned on a dime and threw Trump under the bus'," Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman write in Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election, Politico reported. Continue reading...

New bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor in the stateDemocratic lawmakers in Oregon on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state's first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law, a recognition that public opinion has soured on the measure amid rising public drug use during the fentanyl crisis.The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said. It also aims to make it easier to prosecute dealers, to access addiction treatment medication, and to obtain and keep housing without facing discrimination for using that medication. Continue reading...

Labour's plan to charge private schools VAT has caused predictable uproar and revealed skewed perceptions of wealthWhat does it mean to be wealthy"? It is perhaps this question more than any other that haunts British society. The public's definition can be glimpsed in the reaction to Labour's mansion tax idea for properties worth more than 2m in 2015, or its proposal for a 45p tax rate on earnings over 80,000 in 2019: a revolution of polite but pushy well-to-do Britons (and a Conservative election victory) never seemed to take long to follow.Like expensive Swiss clockwork, it's happening again. At the time of writing, more than 70,000 parents of private school pupils have signed a petition to stop Keir Starmer's plan to charge private schools VAT. Tony Perry, an NHS data analyst on a 60k salary and leader of the Education Not Taxation: Parents Against School Fee VAT campaign - who sends his 10-year-old son to a 21,000-a-year school in Berkshire - describes himself as a non-wealthy parent". Go through the comments on the petition and many others chime in to protest just how wealthy they aren't.Anoosh Chakelian is Britain editor of the New Statesman Continue reading...

Plaintiffs claim schools conspired to restrict aid by violating pledge not to consider students' finances in admissions decisionsBrown, Yale and Columbia universities have agreed to pay a combined $62m to resolve a lawsuit that accused them and others of favoring wealthy applicants, pushing total settlements in the case to $118m.Lawyers for a proposed class of hundreds of thousands of current and former US college students disclosed the latest settlements, which also include Emory and Duke, in a filing late Tuesday in Chicago federal court. Continue reading...

New York federal appeals court rules pharma bro', 40, who went to prison for fraud, cannot return to pharmaceutical industryMartin Shkreli, the pharma bro" entrepreneur who astronomically increased the price of a life-saving drug by more than 4,000% and became a symbol of corporate Wall Street greed, cannot return to the pharmaceutical industry, a court has ruled.A federal appeals court in New York upheld his lifetime ban from the business. Continue reading...

Ex-president in strong position to seize Republican nomination after sweeping first two contests of 2024 primary seasonA sweep of the first two nominating contests in the 2024 primary season left Donald Trump in a strong position to seize the Republican party nomination, and made a rematch with Joe Biden even more inevitable.Trump's Republican rival, Nikki Haley, vowed to fight on despite her second place finish in New Hampshire, a state where she had hoped for an upset, and her third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. But she faces long odds. There is no precedent for a candidate winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and losing their party's nomination. Continue reading...

Annual study from Match Group of 5,000 single people finds shift in behavior since supreme court ruling on abortionMore than one in 10 single people under 50 say they are having less sex because the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, according to a new study.On Wednesday, Match Group, which operates Tinder, Hinge and a slew of other matchmaking platforms, released the latest findings from its long-running Singles in America survey, a snapshot of more than 5,000 single Americans' thoughts and experiences around dating and sex. For the second year in a row, Match has found that the demolition of the national right to abortion is affecting how Americans say they date and have sex with one another. Continue reading...

The independent vote did not defeat Trump yet could prove crucial, and Williamson and Phillips couldn't stop BidenThe New Hampshire primary, even with its history of unpredictability and freethinking independents, produced a familiar result on Tuesday: Donald Trump v Joe Biden.After months of heavy campaigning in the state, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley came in second place in the Republican primary. Securing a double-digit win over Haley, Trump nabbed his second decisive victory after the Iowa caucuses a week before. Continue reading...

Minnesota's trade for Rudy Gobert was attacked as laughable by critics. But this season the team are making waves in the Western ConferenceIf you haven't been paying close attention to the NBA this year, the Western Conference standings may come as a bit of a shock. Sitting in the top two? None other than the long-suffering Minnesota Timberwolves who, as recently as last season, were taking heat for what was beginning to look like perhaps the worst NBA trade this millennium. Incredibly, their 67 straight days with a least a share of first place in the conference (they have a 30-13 record along with the Oklahoma City Thunder) are by far the most in club history; prior to this year, the Wolves had been in first a total of 20 non-consecutive days.It seems the Timberwolves didn't get the memo about being terrible and they're shaping up to be a true championship contender in a Western Conference that's as wide open as in recent memory. So what changed? How did the Timberwolves reverse course? Continue reading...

Trump heads to South Carolina with two crucial victories under his belt, while Biden wins Democratic primary through write-in ballots

Trump edges closer to Republican nomination, but Haley says this race is far from over'. Plus, nuclear power output expected to break records in 2025Good morning.A sweep of the first two nominating contests on the 2024 primary season left Donald Trump in a strong position to seize the Republican party nomination and made a rematch with Joe Biden even more inevitable.What did we learn in New Hampshire? The independent vote couldn't topple Trump, but it should still make him nervous. New Hampshire is known for its independent voting bloc - which comprises 40% of the electorate. Although independent voters were not able to lift Haley to victory, their support for her could create a problem down the road for Trump. Here are some other key takeaways from the day.What else is happening in the Middle East? The US has carried out strikes in Iraq against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militia, the Pentagon has said, after a weekend attack on an Iraqi airbase that wounded US forces. Continue reading...

TikTok has given us a new trending beverage featuring the irresistible taste of ... magnesium. I want no part of itIt's still dry January, and if you're running out of ideas for alcohol-free alternatives, TikTok has some ... erm, curious offerings. Introducing the sleepy girl mocktail", a beverage enjoying viral fame. It may sound like an old-fashioned euphemism for a valium and a Diet Coke, but it is, in fact, a juice-based concoction that looks like red wine and is supposed to help you sleep better.The recipe is simple: tart cherry juice, some fizz such as sparkling water and magnesium powder. It was popularised by the wellness influencer Gracie Norton, who last year hyped the drink as a cure for poor sleep brought about by her menstrual cycle. Since then, countless videos from fans have featured variations such as cranberry juice instead of cherry, lemonade instead of soda water, and - my favourite - just magnesium pills with cherry juice, in a kind of extreme deconstruction of the drink where the mixing happens in your bloodstream. Continue reading...

I missed my chance to talk to him - but what would I say now? There are no words for my sorrow at what Palestine has lostOn 7 December, a dark cloud floated across my computer screen: a photograph of a man's face. I wouldn't have noticed it if it didn't look like me.An Israeli missile kills Palestinian poet and author Saleem Al-Naffar and his family members in their home in Gaza," I read on Arabic Wikipedia.Tamer Nafar is a Palestinian rapper, actor, writer and columnist based in LodDo 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 league and the streaming giant agreed to a 10-year partnership that will include a Drive To Survive style docuseriesThe sight of Formula One cars racing down Las Vegas Boulevard two months ago proved the power of streaming. More specifically, it highlighted the popularity of Drive To Survive, the Netflix docuseries that has transformed F1, particularly in the United States. November's Las Vegas Grand Prix was attended by almost every celebrity and public figure with a Wikipedia page - and Major League Soccer was clearly watching.MLS will be the subject of its own Drive To Survive-style show - produced by the same film-makers (Box To Box Films) - in 2024 with an eight-part series promising to offer a definitive, never-before-seen insider's view into the league." MLS players and coaches can now look forward to becoming reality TV stars. Continue reading...