The 37-year-old rapper didn’t make the cut as a college player. So why has he played for two professional teams?The Scarborough Shooting Stars came within a single basket of winning the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) title on Sunday, losing to the Hamilton Honey Badgers by just two points after a run of 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter. Despite their heartbreaking loss, Scarborough’s season should still be considered a success – the team made it to the championship game in their first year in the league, and the high-scoring duo of Jalen Harris and Kassius Robertson are a dynamic backcourt around which to build. Harris even once scored 31 points against the Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks. Yet, despite his NBA pedigree, Harris is not even the most well-known guard on his team. That distinction falls to Grammy-winning rap artist J Cole. Or, more accurately in this context, 6ft 3in Shooting Stars guard Jermaine Cole.Hip-hop and basketball have maintained their ongoing relationship ever since the former first emerged in 1970s New York. Kurtis Blow, widely regarded as rap’s first commercially successful artist, famously announced in the 1980s that basketball was his favorite sport, 90s rap mogul Master P played on the preseason squads for both the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors, and platinum-selling artist 2 Chainz released a 2010s album called Rap or Go to the League. Comedian Dave Chappelle even once humorously observed that it seemed like rapping or playing basketball were the only two ways to make it out of America’s inner cities. And yet, even with hip hop’s well-established relationship with basketball, there’s probably never been anyone who better personifies the connection than J Cole. Continue reading...

The agency claims the restrictions, including a ban on providing water and food to those lining up to vote, are racially motivatedFlorida Republicans intentionally targeted Black voters when they enacted new voting restrictions last year, the justice department said in a court filing on Wednesday.The department told a federal appellate court that a lower court had correctly evaluated claims of racial discrimination when it came to Florida’s new law. In March, US District Judge Mark Walker blocked new restrictions on the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, regulations for third party voter registration groups, and a ban on providing food and water to people standing in line to vote. The US court of appeals for the 11th circuit paused that ruling earlier this year while it considers an appeal from Florida officials. Continue reading...

Search of Mar-a-Lago came as part of an investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material during his presidencyFormer vice-president Mike Pence condemned attacks against the FBI by Republicans after federal authorities searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.Republicans have been reacting with outrage over the FBI’s 8 August search of Trump’s Florida home which came as part of an investigation into his handling of classified material during his presidency. Continue reading...

Temperatures are expected to reach highs of above 100F (38C) as the region continues to be battered by the climate crisisCalifornia has urged residents to cut power use as a searing heatwave settles over the state and stretches power supplies to a breaking point, in the latest sign of extreme weather conditions in the US west.Temperatures in the most populous state are forecast to climb to well above 100F (38C) during the afternoon. Continue reading...

Group calls on Biden administration to step up pace or run the risk of ‘unintentionally seizing defeat from the jaws of victory’Nineteen retired US generals and former officials have called on the Biden administration to step up the pace of arms supplies to Ukraine or run the risk of “unintentionally seizing defeat from the jaws of victory”.They said that the US was providing enough weaponry to ensure a stalemate but not sufficient to help Ukraine recapture territory seized by Russia. The former officers, diplomats and other officials argue the administration is inhibited by fear of triggering a Russian escalation, possibly involving nuclear weapons – but they argue that failure to defeat Vladimir Putin in Ukraine increases the danger of a confrontation with Moscow later “on less favourable grounds”. Continue reading...

The 16-year-old cited being a student and unemployed as reasons she is unprepared to have a babyA pregnant teenager will be blocked from getting an abortion, a Florida court ruled on Monday.The 16-year-old initially petitioned to terminate her pregnancy, citing being a student and unemployed as reasons she is unprepared to have a baby. Continue reading...

Trump Republican adversary could make a symbolic impact in the ‘moderate’ party lane – but she could also take votes from BidenWhen Liz Cheney left the podium at a Wyoming ranch on Tuesday night, clapped and cheered by supporters, a Tom Petty song boomed out beneath the Teton mountains: “Well, I won’t back down / No, I won’t back down / You could stand me up at the gates of hell / But I won’t back down.”The woman who has emerged as Donald Trump’s most implacable Republican adversary had suffered a landslide defeat in a primary election to decide Wyoming’s only seat in the US House of Representatives. Continue reading...

CVS, Walgreens and Walmart must pay damages to two Ohio counties for oversupplying pills that ended up on black marketThe US pharmacy chains CVS, Walmart and Walgreens must pay a combined $650.6m to two Ohio counties to address the damage done by the opioid epidemic, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.The order by US judge Dan Polster in Cleveland comes after a jury last November concluded that the firms helped create a public nuisance in Lake and Trumbull counties by oversupplying addictive pain pills, many of which found their way on to the black market. The companies have said they would appeal that verdict. Continue reading...

Shake-up intended to make agency more nimble as Dr Rochelle Walensky says it has to move faster and communicate betterThe head of the top US public health agency on Wednesday announced a shake-up of the organization, intended to make it more nimble.The planned changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC leaders call it a “reset” – come amid ongoing criticism of the agency’s response to Covid-19, monkeypox and other public health threats. The changes include internal staffing moves and steps to speed up data releases.Increasing use of preprint scientific reports to get out actionable data, instead of waiting for research to go through peer review and publication by the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.Restructuring the agency’s communications office and further revamping CDC websites to make the agency’s guidance for the public more clear and easier to find.Altering the length of time agency leaders are devoted to outbreak responses to a minimum of six months – an effort to address a turnover problem that at times caused knowledge gaps and affected the agency’s communications.Creation of a new executive council to help Walensky set strategy and priorities.Appointing Mary Wakefield as senior counselor to implement the changes. Wakefield headed the Health Resources and Services Administration during the Obama administration and also served as the No 2 administrator at HHS. Wakefield, 68, started on Monday.Altering the agency’s organization chart to undo some changes made during the Trump administration.Establishing an office of intergovernmental affairs to smooth partnerships with other agencies, as well as a higher-level office on health equity. Continue reading...

The lawyer appears to be the ideal candidate to carry Trump’s rightwing banner into the midterms – but she hasn’t always been aboard his trainA conservative lawyer with a passion for thwarting environmentalists, Harriet Hageman would appear to be an ideal candidate to carry Donald Trump’s rightwing banner into November’s midterm elections.On Tuesday night she beat the incumbent and member of Wyoming’s political royalty, Liz Cheney, for the thinly populated western state’s solitary seat in the US House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan accepted $2.8m in illegal payments to send children to for-profit jailsTwo Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200m to hundreds who fell victim to their crimes.US district judge Christopher Conner awarded $106m in compensatory damages and $100m in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in a long-running civil suit against the judges, writing the plaintiffs are “the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions”. Continue reading...

Wyoming congresswoman says ‘It’s something I’m thinking about’ after losing to Trump-backed challengerRepublican congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced she is considering her own run for the White House in an all-out effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term as US president.Cheney decisively lost her Republican primary race on Tuesday night and will lose her seat in the US Congress. Continue reading...

The vice-chair of the House January 6 panel faced retribution from state voters for going against the former presidentLiz Cheney has paid the price for her staunch opposition to Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy by losing her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president.The vice-chair of the January 6 committee was beaten by a conservative lawyer, Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Patrick Mahoney – plus groomsmen, photographer, DJ and flowers – needed help from police harbor patrol to get to Thompson IslandOfficers with the Boston police department’s harbor patrol unit are used to helping boaters in distress, but last weekend Officer Joe Matthews came to the rescue of a groom in danger of missing his own wedding.Patrick Mahoney was scheduled to get married on Thompson Island in the middle of Boston Harbor on Saturday, but the boat that was supposed to ferry him to the island where his bride-to-be was waiting broke down, police said in a post on their website. Continue reading...

Union officials fear that the overstretched NLRB won’t be able to handle the surge in union activity, giving corporations the upper handLabor leaders in the US are worried that the federal agency that oversees unionization efforts is approaching a “true crisis” as it struggles with a decade of underfunding and a huge surge in union activity.Last year saw a 58% jump in the number of union elections as union drives spread at companies including Amazon, Apple, Starbucks and other companies. Some labor leaders say they are worried that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become so understaffed that it will have a hard time investigating the flood of allegations that Starbucks has violated America’s labor laws hundreds of times in its efforts to crush a historic unionization drive. Continue reading...

Two Arizona-led groups boast more than 350 sheriffs as members nationwide and echo Trump’s false claims about voting fraudTwo groups of rightwing sheriffs that echo some of Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread voting fraud in 2020 are ramping up drives to monitor this year’s elections for potential voting and election fraud.The two Arizona-led groups together boast over 350 sheriffs as members nationwide, and have forged various ties with Texas-based True the Vote, which has a history of making unverified claims of voting fraud, spurring watchdogs and law enforcement veterans to voice alarms of looming threats to voting rights and election workers. Continue reading...

The vice-chair of the House January 6 panel faced retribution from state voters for going against the former president. Plus, how to fight memory loss in old age

Rate hikes could induce a recession and hurt ordinary people. We need price stabilisation measures insteadToday American policymakers face a stark choice. Either, they can fight inflation by continuing to hike interest rates to generate unemployment and bring down aggregate demand. Or, they can employ a surgical approach that reins in the price increases that have been driving inflation, while encouraging investments to overcome chronic supply chain issues.The current inflation situation hasn’t been about all goods in the economy getting more expensive at the same rate. Specific goods – food, fuel, cars and housing – have been experiencing massive price shocks, raising the general inflation level substantially. Controlling these changes would require aggregate demand to shrink to unbearable levels for average Americans – essentially making people too poor to buy goods, and thus alleviating bottlenecks. Rate hikes are not only ill suited to bring down these essential prices but risk a recession throwing millions out of work.Mark Paul is an assistant professor at the Edward J Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers UniversityIsabella Weber is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy Continue reading...

The repeated violations of a weed-themed company are just the tip of the iceberg in maddening city to get aroundThe company behind the bright green marijuana-themed trucks that crowd Manhattan’s tourist districts is now paying the price for repeatedly breaking the law. They haven’t been fined for selling anything illicit, but for being top contributors to one of the city’s other infamous scourges: illegal parking.The New York City department of finance confirmed to the Guardian that Weed World Candies had paid $200,000 in parking fines to get back several vehicles that had been towed in June by the city’s sheriff’s office. Continue reading...

PEN America says ‘educational gag orders’ have increased 250% since 2021 with focus on race and LGBTQ issuesRepublicans have mounted an “attack on education” in 2022, according to a report, as lawmakers have introduced a soaring number of bills aimed at limiting classroom discussion of race and LGBTQ issues.The number of “educational gag orders” introduced has increased by 250% compared with 2021, according to PEN America, a non-profit organization that works to protect freedom of expression in the US, as Republican legislators have sought to censor discussion of race and LGBTQ issues from the classroom. Continue reading...

At 23, he’s had three callings already. To what high-profile profession will Beckham Jr next be drawn?Can the most blatant nepotism sometimes add to the gaiety of the nations? It depends. In the old days, the eldest son of British notables might be sent out to rule as Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, which feels less than ideal, while other scions were elevated to administer 50,000 square miles of India on the basis they were both clubbable and semi-adequate lower order batsmen. Hand on heart, however, I cannot fault the state of the art system of turd-polishing that gifts Brooklyn Beckham a hilarious new career once a year. In these straitened times, I simply do not wish to deprive myself of the amusement. I have hugely enjoyed every single one of the high-profile professions thus far embraced by Brooklyn, 23 – footballer, art photographer, published monograph author, model, and now chef. Is there nothing he can do?If there is, I am sure none of us wishes to find out about it. Where was I, before the eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham was being promoted into the sidebar of my consciousness thrice weekly with a series of impossibly gilded professional ventures from whose comic implosion he seems able to move onwards and ever upwards with consummate ease? Wherever it was, it wasn’t a very happy place. And like I say, the fact that Beckham Jr is typically offered a brand ambassadorship as opposed to an actual ambassadorship feels like progress of a sort in our septic isle. Better a sponsored cleansing regime than an ethnic cleansing regime.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistMarina Hyde will be in conversation with Richard Osman at a Guardian Live event in London on 11 October. Join them in person or via the livestream - book tickets via the Guardian Live website Continue reading...

Former governor clinches one of four spots on ballot for seat formerly occupied by Don YoungSarah Palin looks set to be on the ballot in November’s general election after the former governor of Alaska and ex vice-presidential candidate clinched one of four spots vying for a seat in the US House, according to the Associated Press.Palin, who rose to fame more than a decade ago as John McCain’s running mate, advanced to the general election along with her two challengers, Nick Begich III, a tech millionaire backed by the Alaska Republican party, and Mary Peltola, a former state legislator and Democrat. It was too early to call the fourth spot. Continue reading...

In his new book, Jason Reid looks at the often painful – and sometimes triumphant – history of the NFL’s most important positionThe Guardian caught up with Jason Reid to chat about his new book, which tell the story of the men who laid the foundation for today’s Black superstar quarterbacks and how modern players, such as Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, are navigating the unconscious bias and conscious racism that continue to permeate US society.Fritz Pollard is a monumental figure in NFL history, as well as in your book. I know you spent time with grandson. Can you explain Pollard’s impact on the game? Continue reading...

Liz Cheney has been defeated in a GOP primary, losing her seat in Congress to Harriet Hageman, who was backed by the former president Donald Trump. Cheney, a third-term congresswoman, and her allies entered the contest downbeat about her prospects, aware that Trump’s backing gave Hageman a considerable lift in the state where he won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign.'Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again,' Cheney said. 'The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enabled his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take'

I scroll on apps during TV ad breaks, while I’m waiting for the microwave, in bed – but my hopes have given way to frustrationOne of the first things I did when a long relationship ended in 2019 was download a dating app – mainly motivated, I must admit, by fantasies about my ex’s reaction to seeing my profile. Since then, I’ve never really stopped. I sit on them during TV ad breaks, while I’m waiting for the microwave to ping, in all those pockets of time where I used to listen to my own thoughts. In bed I lie on my back scrolling until my hand tingles because all the blood has run from it. Yet, despite my commitment, they’ve not found me a boyfriend, or even much sex. In fact, they’ve done the complete opposite to what I thought they would do when I first heard about them. They don’t make anything easy – they make it much harder.I was at university when the people around me first started using Tinder. I had a boyfriend back then, so I never signed up. But I remember being jealous of the people who did. It would make it so much easier to find someone, I assumed: you wouldn’t have to waste nights out chatting to people in the smoking area only to find out they have a girlfriend, or open the door to rejection by writing your name on a napkin and giving it to a waiter. You just had to decide whether you like the look of someone, wait for them to do the same and if so, you can both meet up and have sex, or date, whatever you wanted. Apps would make the ambiguity of attraction explicit, obvious.Annie Lord is a writer based in London and the author of Notes on Heartbreak Continue reading...

Being investigated under the Espionage Act would end most people’s political aspirations. For the martyr-in-chief, this could be just the boost he needsDonald Trump did nothing wrong! The longsuffering martyr and former US president is so keen to let us all know that he’s the innocent victim of yet another witch-hunt that he keeps broadcasting juicy details about his legal troubles on his social media platform Truth Social. “Wow!” he announced on Monday. “In the raid of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three passports (one expired), along with everything else.”Wow, indeed. First we find out that the search of Trump’s Florida property was partly carried out under the Espionage Act and may involve nuclear weapons; now Trump insinuates that the FBI considers him a flight risk. Continue reading...

Many prisoners released under the US-Taliban deal took up arms again and then overran Kabul

Latinos support reproductive rights by large margins – and that could prove a powerful mobilizing tool in the midtermsAfter the Republican party made some inroads among Latino voters in the 2020 presidential election, when Latino support for Trump went up by 3% compared with 2016, many commentators declared this group was decisively moving away from the Democratic party.As November’s midterms approach, the GOP is aiming to capitalize on these gains. The recent victory of the Latina Republican Mayra Flores, who won a congressional seat representing southern Texas, is one they are hoping to replicate across the country. Continue reading...

Polls show congresswoman trailing far behind conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s Republican primaryWidely praised for her defence of democracy during the January 6 committee hearings, Liz Cheney looked set to lose her seat in Congress on Tuesday to a rival backed by Donald Trump.Opinion polls showed Cheney trailing far behind the conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman – who has echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud – in a Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Party leaders hope approval of Inflation Reduction Act will boost their prospects in the midterm elections this NovemberJoe Biden signed Democrats’ healthcare, climate and tax package on Tuesday, putting the final seal of approval on a landmark bill that party leaders hope will boost their prospects in the midterm elections this November.During a bill-signing ceremony at the White House, the US president celebrated the bill as a historic piece of legislation that would reduce healthcare costs for millions of Americans and help address the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Court considers Glossip’s case after independent investigation raised questions about guilt in 1997 killingOklahoma’s governor has granted Richard Glossip a 60-day stay of execution while a state appeals court considers his claim of innocence.Kevin Stitt signed an executive order on Tuesday delaying Glossip’s execution for the 1997 killing of Glossip’s boss, Barry Van Treese, a motel owner, that was scheduled for 22 September. Continue reading...

White House hopes climate and healthcare plan will mark turning point for Biden’s presidency and boost Democrats in the midterms

Justice department says making Mar-a-Lago affidavit public could jeopardize investigation as White House lawyers receive subpoenas in separate caseA federal judge in Florida will hear arguments on Thursday over whether to make public an affidavit used to justify a search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate, as broadening legal disputes on multiple fronts intensify against the former president and his allies.In a 13-page filing on Monday, the justice department objected to efforts to unseal the document, arguing that doing so would “jeopardize the integrity of this national security investigation” into Trump’s handling of some of the government’s most closely held records after leaving the White House. The prosecutors said that the affidavit that gave the FBI probable cause to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort contained sensitive information about witnesses who are key and acknowledged that its investigation involved “highly classified material”. Continue reading...

After Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, relations between the countries are at a delicate stage. There must be no miscalculation

Tamara Cunningham says she believes her son who fatally shot himself struggled with brain trauma from playing footballThe mother of a Delaware man who shot himself to death after driving into a US Capitol barricade over the weekend says she believes he was struggling with brain trauma from growing up playing football.Richard Aaron York III’s mother, Tamara Cunningham, said she suspects his past as a high school football player left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain condition colloquially known as CTE. Some football players develop CTE because of repeated head blows that are common to the sport. Continue reading...

After realising I had time to either do household chores or write, I decided to give up caring and be creative insteadWhen I lived alone, my sisters would joke that I’d have them eat over the sink if I could, to avoid crumbs.I was organised. When I left the house at 6am for the early reporting shift at the local paper, you wouldn’t have known anyone had slept in my house. The bed was perfectly made, the breakfast things cleared away, the bathroom mirror wiped clean and the hairdryer placed neatly in the drawer.Saima Mir is a freelance journalist and author of the 2021 novel The Khan Continue reading...

Unsealing the document could reveal the scope of the inquiry against former president. Plus, weeks of heat above 100F will be the norm in much of US

We need more politicians who stand by their principles, even if it costs them everythingOn Tuesday, Wyoming Republicans determine the fate of Representative Liz Cheney, the putative leader of the anti-Trump forces in the Republican party.Six days after the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol – when no other Republican in the House or Senate was willing to rebuke Trump – Cheney charged on the House floor that “the president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

More than five million people became first-time gun owners during the pandemic as gun sales to the community rose by about 43%Vivian Moon, a real estate agent and artist, had never felt particularly afraid as a woman living alone in Buena Park, a small California city outside Los Angeles. But when violent attacks against Asian women and seniors increased across the US early last year, she became disillusioned with the police’s ability – and willingness – to protect people who looked like her.So, like many other Americans of Asian descent, she decided to buy a gun. “I realized I have to take ownership of how I want to live my life,” said Moon, 33. Continue reading...

Questions of free speech offer no simple answers, but it’s clear that this is a watershed moment in comedyIf we don’t defend free speech, we live in tyranny. That’s the tenor of the coverage following the attack on Salman Rushdie. So is it also our take when a comedian uses “extreme racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny” onstage? That’s the question surrounding the cancellation of Jerry Sadowitz’s show on the Edinburgh fringe, and – spoiler alert – I, a mere comedy critic, am not certain of the answer.What I do know is that this marks a watershed moment. Many of the earlier cancel culture v comedy furores have involved powerful acts (your Dave Chappelles, Ricky Gervaises and Jimmy Carrs) not being cancelled at all. I’m being silenced, they yell, halfway through their Netflix specials.Brian Logan is the Guardian’s comedy critic and the artistic director of Camden People’s theatreDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

Employees say they have been fired and written up after reporting sexual harassment to corporate HRWorkers at McDonald’s, the largest fast-food chain in the world, are highlighting sexual harassment and retaliation against workers at its stores, an issue they say persists despite claims of reforms and changes by McDonald’s in recent years.Rosalia Manuel of San Jose, California worked at McDonald’s for 24 years, first starting when she was 17 years old. Continue reading...