by dap | Oct 13, 2024 | The Guardian
The New York Liberty’s chaotic, enigmatic, queer-coded mascot is a provocative pachyderm who has served her way to It-Girl status amid her team’s chase of a first WNBA title
When the New York Liberty made their pre-game entrance beneath the Barclays Center ahead of the opening game of their WNBA semi-final series against the Las Vegas Aces last month, there was more spirit and swagger on display than at any New York Fashion Week event. Star point guard Sabrina Ionescu was giving quiet luxury in a sage turtleneck and camel-colored blazer. Breanna Stewart, the two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player, called to mind Charli xcx with her black sunglasses and bodacious mane spilling out of a New York or Nowhere baseball hat. But none of them commanded the makeshift catwalk quite like the 5ft 10in long-lashed elephant rocking a zebra-print coat, serving and vamping for her adoring fans with saucy hip-pops and jaunty swings of an umbrella dangling from her wrist.
There are mascots and then there are mascots: those once-in-a-decade unicorns who penetrate the zeitgeist
. Ellie the Elephant is no brightly colored blob tripping down a court at half-time. She is a dancing phenom – splits and worms and handstands, oh my! – as well as a physical comic genius. Her firecracker energy is synonymous with the rise of a Liberty team that has become the obsession of countless women across the city during their run to the WNBA finals, where they are on the doorstep of becoming the first New York basketball franchise to win a championship in over 50 years.
by dap | Oct 13, 2024 | The Guardian
The NFL Academy is a major initiative that aims to provide full-time high-school education for 16-19-year-olds alongside elite training in American football
We know what’s coming, we’ve seen it before. Every October since 2007, bar a Covid hiatus, the London sporting scene gets infiltrated by an invasion from across the pond. The sporting superpower that is the National Football League comes to town and thousands of fans in garish, oversized jerseys can be seen wondering the streets. This year is no different: three games spread over three weekends, each one, whether it’s at Wembley or Tottenham, packed to the rafters.
But there is now another NFL London game, a fourth one, a match attended by maybe 2,000 people, but one that is a vital for the future global growth of American football. In fact you could argue it is far more important to the NFL than how many times Aaron Rodgers
. But this is a game played by a bunch of teenagers. On Tuesday night, just two days after the Jets and Vikings battled it out there, the Spurs Stadium saw the NFL Academy host one of the top American high schools, one rich in history and pedigree, the De La Salle Spartans.
The NFL Academy take on De La Salle Spartans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
by dap | Oct 13, 2024 | The Guardian
Republican presidential candidate refers to California as ‘Paradise Lost’ while vice-president targets swing state
Donald Trump visited California on Saturday, a state he is almost certain to lose, in a bid to link Kamala Harris to her home state’s recent struggles with homelessness, water shortages and a lack of affordability.
“We’re not going to let Kamala Harris do to America what she did to California,” the former president said in the city of Coachella, best known for its music festival of the same name, referring to the state as “Paradise Lost”.
on Saturday
on her health and medical history, which found that “she possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency” if voters elect her in November. A senior aide to Harris, 59, said the vice-president’s advisers viewed the publication of the health report and medical history as an opportunity to call attention to questions about
’s physical fitness and mental acuity.
Tightening poll figures triggered nervousness and anxiety in Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, with Donald Trump making gains in the states where it matters most as the election race enters its climactic final phase. Amid a dramatic news cycle that has seen the US hit by two destructive hurricanes and rising fears of all-out war in the Middle East, the
showed the vice-president and Democratic nominee with a two-point nationwide lead, 48% to 46%, over her Republican opponent as of 10 October – tellingly, down from a 4% advantage she registered two weeks ago.
The far-right website the Gateway Pundit
on Saturday that there had not been any fraud during ballot counting in Atlanta in 2020 when Donald Trump lost the presidency. It was a significant concession from one of the most influential conservative sites that plays a
.
Tens of thousands of
on Saturday in a pre-election event aimed at rescuing America from secularism. The rally was a collaboration organized by multiple far-right Christian leaders affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement on the political far right that seeks to establish long-term Christian dominion over government and society as well as get Trump a second presidency in November.
by dap | Oct 13, 2024 | The Guardian
As Major League Baseball’s final four take aim at the World Series starting on Sunday, playoff TV ratings are soaring thanks to big stars, memorable plays and unbridled fun
We’re just about halfway toward determining who will become baseball’s World Series champions, which means there are just four teams remaining. The best-of-seven American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees begins on Monday in the Bronx, while the New York Mets will be in Los Angeles to face the Dodgers on Sunday in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
How did we get here? Simply put, with some of the more captivating early-round playoff baseball we’ve seen in some time. And the drama has been much welcome after last year’s early rounds included no fewer than six series sweeps, with series winners trouncing losers by 20 games to two, leaving all but the most hardcore baseball fans pining for preseason NBA games.
by dap | Oct 12, 2024 | The Guardian
A popular Facebook group posts videos of animals seen a half-mile from a well-populated Anchorage neighborhood
Millions of people worldwide tuned in for a remote Alaska national park’s “Fat Bear Week” celebration this month, as captivating livestream camera footage caught the chubby predators chomping on salmon and fattening up for the winter.
But in the vast state known for its abundant wildlife, the magical and sometimes violent world of wild animals can be found close to home.
