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The urge to win at everything never left him, long after his sporting career was overLooking back on his young self, all that irrepressible boyish power, Boris Becker once observed: “When you are a teenager, you are looking for your own identity, and winning is a way of expressing yourself. And because I thought in victory I became somebody, in defeat, it followed I was nobody.”No doubt, as Becker negotiates his first weekend of a two-and-a-half year jail sentence in Wandsworth prison – just a couple of miles from his Wimbledon triumphs – he will have cause, at 54, to examine the true nature of those extremes. The highest level of sporting stardom is the closest contemporary life gets to Greek myth and fatal flaws never make easy viewing. Continue reading...

‘He’s been a huge danger to public health,’ says prominent medical ethicist Dr Arthur CaplanThe TV doctor Mehmet Oz’s move into politics appears to have been a step too far for administrators at Columbia University, who have quietly purged his presence from their website as the Republican seeks to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate.For more than seven years, the private New York university has resisted calls to cut ties with Oz, a heart surgeon who has used his TV platform to push medicines ranging from ineffective diet pills to discredited Covid treatments. Continue reading...

Ditch the phone, ignore the emails, don’t touch the biscuit tin … and settle down for the recommended seven hours of zzzzzHow much do you get every night? There are people in this world – and I might have been one before I bedded more comfortably into middle age – who are attracted to headlines about how much sex we all have. These days, though, as I approach my half-century, nothing excites me as much as a juicy discussion about sleep.How to fall asleep, how to stay asleep and when we should wake up. I love it all, and the more granular detail on offer the better, so I was well stuck in last week to research that suggests that seven hours is the-optimal amount for cognitive wellbeing. The study had nearly 500,000 participants aged 38 to 73 and used brain imaging and genetic data on 40,000 of them. My own research methodology might not be so scientific – I start my diary every day with a reflection on the previous night – but my results tally. Seven hours is the sweet spot. Continue reading...

By many measures, Nato is already at war with Russia. The allies must now act decisively or stop stoking the fire

Shareholders reject proposals for independent chair and greater disclosure of company’s climate-related risksBerkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders on Saturday rejected proposals to have an independent chair replace Warren Buffett, and require his company to disclose more about its climate-related risks and efforts to improve diversity.Shareholders supported letting Buffett keep both the chairman and chief executive roles by a nearly 6-to-1 margin, Berkshire said at its annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett, 91, has run Berkshire since 1965. Continue reading...

What does it say that you can prettify to such levels and still be made paranoid about how you look?

Argument made in federal court filing in Washington, where Trump’s chief of staff sued to invalidate subpoenasDonald Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has accused the congressional committee investigating the US Capitol attack of leaking all the text messages he provided in what he says is an effort to vilify him publicly.The argument was made in a filing on Friday in federal court in Washington, where Meadows sued in December to invalidate subpoenas issued for his testimony and to Verizon for his cellphone records. Continue reading...

Teacher put on leave after allegedly telling class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton during lessons on slaverySchool officials in Rochester, New York are investigating allegations that a white teacher told his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery in a seventh-grade social studies class.“It made me feel bad to be a Black person,” one School of the Arts student, Jahmiere O’Neal, told reporters. Continue reading...

Vicki White disappeared while escorting an inmate being held on capital murder charges, and inmate Casey White also missingA prison official from Alabama was missing after escorting an inmate to a courthouse for a hearing.The Lauderdale county sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post on Saturday that Vicki White, an assistant director of corrections, disappeared while escorting an inmate being held on capital murder charges. The inmate was also missing. Continue reading...

New state law makes it a felony to provide transgender children with certain kinds of medical careThe US justice department has joined an effort to strike down a new Alabama law that makes it a felony to provide transgender children with certain kinds of medical care.The ban is discriminatory, violating the equal protection clause embedded in the 14th amendment to the US constitution, the federal government argued in a court filing on Friday. Continue reading...

The hedge fund billionaire helped rebuild the Dodgers in one of the most dramatic turnarounds in North American sportsIt was announced on Friday that a consortium led by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly has been selected as the preferred bidder in the race to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. If the 46-year-old hedge fund billionaire can repeat the rescue job he has pulled off with the Dodgers over the past decade, it is an outcome that will suit Blues supporters just fine.In 2011, the Dodgers were among the most badly mismanaged teams in North American sports under Frank McCourt, the Boston real estate developer who had bought the franchise and the surrounding Chavez Ravine land from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Entertainment Group seven years earlier. Continue reading...

Recently proposed 9% hikes for rent stabilized apartments stoke panic as residents call on Eric Adams to roll it backAt 64, Chen Renping has lived in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood for more than 20 years.But after a back injury forced him to retire from construction work in 2018, Renping can only afford rent if he works multiple part-time jobs – and that’s with his unit being rent stabilized. Continue reading...

Endorsement for Congress comes after Mike Pence rejected Trump’s claim that he could have reversed his election defeatEven though Donald Trump recently sparred with Mike Pence over whether the former vice-president could have done more to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race, Trump on Friday handed an endorsement to Pence’s brother in an Indiana congressional race.Trump’s endorsement of Greg Pence, who is seeking a third term as the US House representative for Indiana’s sixth congressional district, is politically intriguing for a couple of reasons. Continue reading...

The streaming service’s stumble could also show that the fight for everyone’s attention is going to be much tougher in futureIn the early 1930s, when Claud Cockburn worked on the Times, the subeditors had a competition to see who could compose the dullest headline. Cockburn claimed that he won with “Small earthquake in Chile. Not many dead”. Alas, subsequent factcheckers have failed to unearth such a headline in the archives, but it came to mind last week when Netflix announced, in a quarterly earnings report, that for the first time in a decade it had lost subscribers – 200,000 of them, to be exact. In North America, it had lost 640,000 and suffered additional losses in every other region except for Asia-Pacific area, where it added a million.This didn’t seem very interesting to this columnist, especially as it included the period when Netflix had pulled out of Russia, where it had 700,000 subscribers, which to my mind meant that the reported loss would have been a gain of half a million had Putin not invaded Ukraine. Continue reading...

Only 5% of reported sexual assaults in the US result in arrest, according to Rainn, and just 2.8% result in felony convictionsThe rape conviction of the Republican Idaho lawmaker Aaron von Ehlinger on Friday was a rare victory for prosecutors in a criminal justice system that can be fraught for victims of sexual assault, experts said.When a legislative intern accused von Ehlinger of rape last year, she was subjected to online harassment and abuse. When she testified at an ethics hearing, some Von Ehlinger supporters filmed her and chased her through the statehouse. This week, when the young woman took the stand to testify in her attacker’s criminal trial, she became so distraught she fled.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Lawyers for groups challenging Republican say text Greene sent to Meadows, released by House panel, shows she lied in testimonyLawyers for voters seeking to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 insurrection have accused her of lying in a hearing in the case.In a filing Friday, lawyers for groups challenging Greene said a text from the Georgia congresswoman to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released by the House committee investigating January 6, shows she lied in testimony. Continue reading...

Infection comes amid worst outbreak of the virus in seven years but CDC says health risk to general public remains lowAn inmate in Colorado has become the first human in the US to test positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, amid the worst outbreak of the virus in seven years and a cull of millions of poultry in dozens of states.The unnamed prisoner contracted the infection during a work release assignment at a farm in Montrose county where workers were euthanising an infected flock, the Colorado department of public health and environment said. Continue reading...

Ohio state representative Jean Schmidt said a baby created from rape could grow up to cure cancer – during a debate on abortion, naturallyLike a deranged game of limbo, Republicans seem to be in competition to see just how low they can go. A couple of weeks ago a Republican in Tennessee was lecturing homeless people on how they should look at Hitler (who spent some time living on the streets) as an inspiration. This week, a Republican in Ohio is both-sidesing rape. On the one hand, Ohio state representative Jean Schmidt mused during an Ohio house government oversight committee meeting on Wednesday, rape is bad. On the other hand, you’ve also got to find the silver linings.Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...

Native students who aren’t a member of a federally recognized tribe are dismayed that they are left out of the free tuition programLast week the University of California announced that the higher education system would waive tuition and student services fees for California residents who are members of federally recognized tribes.The announcement elated some Native people in California, who viewed it as a potentially life changing initiative. But it garnered harsh criticism from many others who are members of nations that aren’t federally recognized and are deeply disappointed that an institution that stresses acknowledging historical wrongs suffered by Indigenous people can in the same breath leave so many out of such an important resource. Continue reading...

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby fought back tears and said it was 'difficult to look at some of the images' of Vladimir Putin's 'cruel' and 'depraved' invasion of Ukraine.Kirby stated that the US had underestimated the level of 'violence and cruelty' that Russian forces would undertake, and described it as 'brutality of the coldest and most depraved sort'

Angel City FC made their NWSL debut on Friday night, winning 2-1 over the North Carolina Courage before a star-studded Banc of California Stadium crowd

The gala comes amid a surge of Covid cases in Washington, with many journalists skipping the would-be super spreaderIt is a sign that political life in Washington is getting back to something like normal. It is the return of “nerd prom”.On Saturday the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) will host its annual dinner for the first time since 2019 after a coronavirus-enforced hiatus, and Joe Biden will become the first US president to address the gala since Barack Obama in 2016 following a boycott by Donald Trump, who made little secret of his contempt of the media. Continue reading...

Trump’s primary endorsement has split voters and the party in Ohio in a race already defined by ‘meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness’“America’s Hitler.” “A total fraud.” “A moral disaster.” Those were a few of the descriptions that JD Vance, bestselling author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, once offered for Donald Trump. But none of that past criticism was evident here last Saturday night, as Vance shared a stage with Trump to accept the former president’s endorsement in the Ohio Senate Republican primary.“He’s the guy that said some bad shit about me,” Trump said of Vance during his rally at the Delaware county fairgrounds. “If I went by that standard, I don’t think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country.” Continue reading...

Mark B Allen faces 22 counts of misdemeanor for mistreating remains of 11 people, including infantsA Los Angeles funeral home owner illegally left the remains of 11 people, including infants, in stages of decay and mummification and faces more than a decade in jail, prosecutors said Friday.Authorities opened an investigation into the Mark B Allen Mortuary and Cremations Services Inc., after receiving complaints from families. The mortuary, owned by Mark B Allen, is now closed and phone numbers listed for the business were disconnected. Continue reading...

Socialite was convicted in December of five counts for bringing teenage girls to the disgraced financier Jeffrey EpsteinThe judge in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking case has upheld her conviction, according to a ruling issued Friday. In rejecting Maxwell’s request for acquittal, Judge Alison Nathan said the guilty verdict was “readily supported by the extensive witness testimony and documentary evidence admitted at trial”.“Further, those counts of conviction matched the core of criminality charged in the Indictment, presented by the Government at trial, and on which the jury was accurately instructed,” Nathan said. Continue reading...

Brian Ulrich is the second person to plead guilty to the charge and could face up to six years in prisonA member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia on Friday became the second participant in the 6 January 2021 Capitol insurrection to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy for his actions in advance of that day.Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton, Georgia, faces five to six years in prison after pleading guilty in federal district court in Washington DC, according to sentencing guidelines. He also pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, which in this case was the hours-long delay in the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election over Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Late-night talkshow hosts juice former president’s testimony to attorneys representing a group of protesters suing over 2015 rallyDonald Trump has been mocked for fearing protesters would throw “dangerous” fruit at him, with late-night talkshow host Trevor Noah calling it “one of the most crazy defenses I’ve ever heard”.The revelation came during the former president’s testimony to attorneys representing a group of protesters suing over their violent removal from a Trump campaign rally in 2015. Continue reading...

New York judge said there was no evidence Trump had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by attorney generalA New York judge on Friday denied a request from Donald Trump’s lawyer to end a contempt-of-court finding against the former US president and kept in place $10,000-a-day fine over his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the state attorney general investigating the business practices of Trump’s family company, the Trump Organization.Justice Arthur Engoron in New York state court in Manhattan said he was not satisfied with an affidavit provided by Trump and said there was no evidence Trump had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. Continue reading...

With 2,000 tactical warheads at his disposal, we must hope the Russian president’s warnings are tacticalAs the war in Ukraine and its consequences weaken Russia’s conventional military, Vladimir Putin’s government has resorted to nuclear threats designed to project strength. Mr Putin wants to intimidate his opponents. But his strategy is failing. Instead of Ukraine’s allies backing down, they are stepping up their support. The US Congress this week approved $11bn of arms to Ukraine, three times the total military aid Washington has so far given.The US president, Joe Biden, was right to call out Mr Putin for making “idle comments” about nuclear weapons. It is unthinkable that blunders and miscalculations would take the world to the edge of the nuclear abyss. Yet that is where the world is heading. Whereas the Cuban missile crisis lasted 13 days, Russia’s war is already into its third month. With no clear end in sight, more deadly battles look inevitable – increasing the chances of mistakes. Continue reading...

The US army has presented an Italian woman with a birthday cake to replace the cake that American soldiers stole from her as it cooled on a windowsill 77 years ago. Meri Mion, who turned 90 the day after the presentation, wiped away tears at a ceremony in Vicenza and said she had not been expecting the cake, although she clearly remembered the moment when the one baked for her 13th birthday had 'disappeared'.The event marked the anniversary of the day on which the 88th Infantry Division fought its way into the city on 28 April 1945, during one of the final battles of the second world war

‘I don’t think he should be our nominee,’ ex-president’s attorney general tells NewsmaxWilliam Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be a “big mistake” for the Republican party to nominate Trump for president in 2024.Appearing on the Newsmax television channel, Barr said Trump, who has hinted that he will run again, would not be a sound choice. Continue reading...

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother saysA former US Marine has been killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces – the first US citizen known to have died in combat in the war with Russia.Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed on Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN. Continue reading...

CDC planned to suggest in 2020 that religious communities hold services online but key passages were struck outDonald Trump’s administration overrode Covid-19 guidance to religious organizations, according to newly released emails, which would have encouraged churches to consider virtual religious services rather than in-person worship.In May 2020, as coronavirus cases and deaths surged, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent the White House a draft of its planned guidance to faith-based communities, seeking approval for publication. Continue reading...

As his poll numbers crater, Biden appears to be offering no course correction. He still hasn’t signed a stack of potentially wildly popular executive orders on matters ranging from debt cancellation to drug pricing Continue reading...

Competition is weaker than ever. Without pressure to keep prices down and quality high, all of us will suffer

Severe maternal morbidity has also increased in recent years, especially among people of color, according to NPWF reportA growing number of non-white women are resorting to alternatives to hospitals for labor and delivery in the US, a new report has revealed.According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit organization that focuses on public policies surrounding women and families, community births – births carried out at home or in community birthing centers – increased by 20% from 2019 to 2020, with the spike largely situated among communities of color. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy calls for ‘strong response’ to strikes that came hours after Biden announced US would double aid. Plus, British Virgin Islands premier arrested on cocaine charges

The MSNBC counter-terrorism expert and former US navy servicemember discusses his decision to take up arms in UkraineMalcolm Nance, MSNBC’S former military and counter-terrorism expert, is always fighting someone.As a personal and professional acquaintance of Nance, I wasn’t the least bit surprised when the literary agent to whom I had introduced him a few months ago, interrogated me about whether I knew that Nance had joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine in March.Michael Harriot is a writer and author of the upcoming book Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America Continue reading...

New York ruling that 26 congressional districts were illegally distorted deals major blow to party’s quest to retain HouseNew York’s highest court on Wednesday dealt national Democrats a major setback in their quest to keep control of the US House, when it struck down the state’s 26 congressional districts because they were illegally distorted in favor of Democrats.New York is critical for Democrats in the decennial process of redrawing congressional districts. The state’s 26 seats offer the party one of the richest opportunities to use mapmaking power to their advantage. Democrats currently have a 19-8 advantage in the congressional delegation, but drew a map that gives them three additional seats, increasing their advantage to 22-4 (New York is losing a congressional seat because of population loss). It would give the party 85% of the congressional seats in a state Joe Biden won with about 61% of the vote. Continue reading...

Learning how to find things out is what the scientific method is all about. The UK’s curriculum would benefit from more of itI’ve been giving considerable thought recently to the way we teach science at school – and whether we have the balance right between catering for those children who will become the scientists and engineers of the future (and how would we be able to tell this anyway?), and those who don’t think they have a natural aptitude for science, or are simply more interested in other subjects.The issue goes beyond which science topics we should be teaching, and in what depth. I’m more concerned by the obsession with making children memorise scientific “facts”, and whether this is what we should be focusing on so much. Perhaps spending more time learning how we “do” science – what’s called the scientific method – is more valuable than simply “knowing” stuff.Jim Al-Khalili is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. His new book, The Joy of Science, is out now Continue reading...