January 6

LeBron James is at the center of another speeding drama with rumors swirling on social media that the Los Angeles Lakers have suspended their record-breaking star. The NBA legend, who holds the overall points record in pro basketball, is the subject of a video that has gone viral on social media. James has previous for speeding on the highway; he was convicted in 2008 of the offense. Now it has been claimed that he has fallen foul of the management at the Lakers due to a video of him speeding. The Claim A Twitter account for Buttcrack Sports has posted a video of James in a sports car on the highway, to its 60,000 followers, and the clip has gone viral with their post alone hitting more than 4.4 million views. Captioning the video, the sports account claimed: "BREAKING LeBron James has been suspended by the Lakers for the rest of the regular season. "He was seen speeding at 130mph in this viral video." James, who is wearing a black face mask in the clip, is seen … [Read more...] about Fact Check: Has LeBron James been suspended from the Lakers for speeding?

The Adnan Syed case, popularized by the podcast Serial , has been forever changed thanks to an appeal launched by the victim's brother. Syed was convicted of the murder of his then-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who died in January 1999. He was found guilty of a number of charges in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, though he always maintained his innocence. In 2014, the murder of Min Lee and Syed's trial was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial . Eventually, new evidence in the case was unearthed and by September 2022 all charges against Syed had been dropped . A court in Maryland recently reinstated the murder conviction of Syed, but the ruling suggests Syed will not remain convicted for long, as another hearing is needed to remove the reinstatement. The conviction was reinstated after the victim's brother, Young Lee, filed an appeal in December 2022, arguing that prosecutors violated a state law requiring them to give sufficient notice of … [Read more...] about How victim’s brother in Adnan Syed case turned trial upside down

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have to "face the reality" that if they attend the coronation of King Charles in May that they will only do so as "fringe players" with no official ceremonial roles, a prominent royal biographer has told a new episode of Newsweek 's The Royal Report podcast. Sally Bedell Smith, a royal expert and author of the soon-to-be-released George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Shaped the Monarchy , gave her thoughts on the hotly debated topic of Harry and Meghan's potential appearance at the king's coronation in a discussion with chief royal correspondent, Jack Royston. Speculation over whether the couple would attend, or be invited, after the release of their bombshell media projects in recent months was increased in January when Harry swerved the question when asked about it in an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby. Asked whether he would attend the May 6 ceremony or not, the prince said: "There's a lot that can happen between now and … [Read more...] about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be “fringe players” at the coronation

King Charles III has the backing of 41 percent of Americans after he asked Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to leave their U.K. home. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were given use of Frogmore Cottage—located west of London—by Queen Elizabeth II after they got married in 2018. This was the place where their son, Prince Archie , now 3 years old, spent his first months. They have only occasionally returned to the Windsor home since quitting the palace for a new life in America. Charles reportedly asked the couple to leave in January 2023, within days of the release of Harry's memoir Spare . The Sussexes confirmed the move in a statement on March 1: "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage." Exclusive polling of 1,500 adults by Redfield & Wilton for Newsweek, conducted on March 20, shows 41 percent of Americans support the move while 23 percent opposed it, 19 percent said they did not know and 17 percent said … [Read more...] about King Charles right to kick Prince Harry, Meghan out of home—U.S. poll

Marc-André Dalbavie’s opera based on Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s surrealistic novel “The Melancholy of Resistance” will premiere next summer in Berlin. Titled “Melancholie des Widerstands,” the opera will be conducted by Marie Jacquot and directed by David Marton, the Staatsoper unter den Linden company said Wednesday. It will star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and mezzo-soprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and will be given five performances beginning June 30, 2024, through July 12. “There’s a circus coming into a town and there’s a populist leader, and he puts a lot of problematic situations for the society there,” Staatsoper director Mattias Schulz said. “You will see a film set and at the same time you will see the singers who do a movie and on the top of the stage is the movie.” This will be the company’s third commission for the main stage since Schulz became sole director in 2018 following Beat Furrer’s “Violetter Schnee (Purple Snow),” a 2019 work about five people trapped … [Read more...] about Dalbavie’s ‘Melancholy of Resistance’ to premiere in Berlin

Not many people know how to wage nuclear war. I’m one of them. As a young U.S. Air Force fighter pilot in the late 1970s, I was trained to carry out nuclear strikes in a rigorous process designed to ensure that no contingencies — mechanical or ethical — deter your mission. Certain things remain burned into my memory: maps and photos of my target and the realization of the Armageddon I would leave in my wake. Training culminated with a sworn pledge to vaporize that target without hesitation. Much of my 33-year career was spent as a nuclear warrior — I later oversaw the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile fleet and served as deputy commander of American military forces in the Pacific — experience that informs my deep alarm over the growing risk of nuclear conflict with North Korea. The United States has tried for decades to prevent the country from becoming a nuclear threat, veering from diplomacy to pressure to patience. None of these approaches have worked. Here’s something … [Read more...] about I Know How Nuclear War Is Waged, So I’m Calling for Peace With North Korea

WASHINGTON — In a blow to President Obama’s health care law, Aetna, one of the nation’s major insurers, said Monday that it would sharply reduce its participation in the law’s public marketplaces next year. Aetna said it would no longer offer individual insurance products on the exchanges in about two-thirds of the 778 counties where it now provides such coverage. The company will maintain a presence on exchanges in Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia, it said. In recent months, the large insurers UnitedHealth and Humana also said that they intended to pull back from the online exchanges, and other insurers are struggling to break even in marketplaces where low prices appear to be the top priority for low-income consumers. The exchanges are a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act: the only place where consumers can obtain subsidies to buy health insurance, which most Americans are required to have under the 2010 law. About 11 million consumers have coverage through the … [Read more...] about Aetna to Pull Back From Public Health Care Exchanges

Last October, executives at the Chinese gaming company NetEase and the American video game developer Activision Blizzard joined a Zoom videoconference to discuss the future of their 14-year partnership to offer Activision’s games like World of Warcraft in China. NetEase executives were worried about new laws imposed by the Chinese government and wanted to make changes to their longstanding contract with Activision to ensure they were in compliance. But the companies left the call with drastically different interpretations of what had been said, according to four people familiar with the talks and a document viewed by The New York Times. What NetEase executives contended was a conciliatory gesture was seen as a threat by Activision executives. A month later, the companies broke off talks. In January, more than three million Chinese players lost access to Activision’s iconic games when the partnership ended, and angry NetEase employees livestreamed the dismantling of a 32-foot … [Read more...] about Rift Between Gaming Giants Shows Toll of China’s Economic Crackdown

There are two basic truths about the enormous deficits that the federal government will run in the coming years. The first is that President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested. The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office reports going back almost a decade, with the aim of understanding how the federal government came to be far deeper in debt than it has been since the years just after World War II. This debt will constrain the country’s choices for years and could end up doing serious economic damage if foreign lenders become unwilling to finance it. Mr. Obama — responding to recent signs of skittishness among those lenders — met with 40 members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday and called for the re-enactment of … [Read more...] about America’s Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making

For anyone who cares about medical costs — which is to say anyone who cares about the take-home pay of American families or about the budget deficit — President Obama’s health reform plan is a terribly mixed bag. It does so much less than the ideal plan would do. It would not come close to eliminating Medicare’s long-term budget deficit. It would reduce that deficit only if a future Congress did not tinker with the various taxes and spending cuts scheduled to be phased in over the next decade. On the other hand, the plan would make progress in all sorts of areas. Insurance exchanges would create more competition. A Medicare oversight board would gain authority over reimbursement rates. Hospitals that committed certain medical errors — harmful, costly errors — would face financial penalties. So which matters more: what the plan does, or what it fails to do? It’s a tough call, and the answer depends on what you see as the alternative to the current plan. If the past year of … [Read more...] about Health Care’s Obstacle: No Will to Cut