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rich9 net Thanks to Friday evening's expansion draft, the Golden State Valkryies finally have a team. The WNBA’s 13th team picked the following players, all of whom were left unprotected by their previous squads. Related The first 8 players on that list were active in the WNBA last season, while the latter three are players that existing teams had rights to — but not players that were actively playing for WNBA teams in 2024. Here’s who won and who lost in the Golden State Valkyries expansion draft. Winners Natalie Nakase and Valkyries This one might be too obvious, but it has to be said. On all fronts, the Valkyries are in a great situation heading into the 2025 WNBA season. Not only do they have a reliable ownership group paired with one of the NBA’s most successful modern franchises (the Golden State Warriors), they now also have at least the skeleton of their 2025 roster, and it’s not a bad place to start. Veronica Burton, Temi Fangbenle, and Kayla Thornton are three highly effective defenders the Valkyries can build around while Carla Leite is an elite European prospect who could ultimately be a cornerstone of this roster if she decides to come to the WNBA. The Valkyries didn’t take on any massive contracts here, so they’re well-positioned to make a splash in free agency while also stocking up on rights to overseas talent. The mixture of veterans, like Thornton, and young players, like Kate Martin, also puts them in good position for next season. The Valkyries prioritized culture fits when assembling this roster, said head coach Natalie Nakase on ESPN. “We’re trying to build a very, very competitive culture,” said Nakase. “We’re going to play a fast pace, and obviously, we’re going to shoot some threes. That’s what we’re going to do.” The first-year head coach also outlined three non-negotiable characteristics she wanted all Valkyries players to have, and at first glance, players on the Valkyries’ inaugural roster reflect these characteristics. International basketball Right away, this is a very international roster. Of the 11 players that were selected, six were born outside of the U.S: Iliana Rupert (France), Carla Leite (France), Julie Vanloo (Belgium), Cecilia Zandalasini (Italy), Stephanie Talbot (Australia), Maria Conde (Spain). Three of the players selected by the Valkyries didn’t play in the WNBA last year to prioritize their overseas responsibilities: Rupert, Leite, and Conde. It’s unclear what their plans are for the coming season. Regardless, the Valkyries’ selections signal the growth of women’s basketball overseas. Kate Martin Martin was a good fit in, and reportedly very well-liked, in Las Vegas. But, at 24 years old and fresh off of her first season in the league, she’s still developing and is likely an even better fit on the Valkyries. “I’m really excited,” Martin said on ESPN moments after the news broke. “This league is all about opportunity and you just need one shot, right? I’m very thankful for the Aces and everything that I got to learn there, but I am really excited for this new beginning and to build something from the ground up with the Valkyries.” Related Losers Kayla Thornton Thornton was a veteran on a Liberty team that has a good chance at repeating next season. It was a good situation where she saw consistent bench minutes and seemed to be a strong culture fit. . @wnbagoldenstate have utilized their 2025 Expansion Draft pick to acquire the player contract of Kayla Thornton from the NY Liberty. Thank you, @KBT_5Blessed pic.twitter.com/76vWeSXMOZ Now, she’s headed to a brand-new organization that likely won’t contend in the near term. Thornton might relish the chance — the Valkyries are an exciting franchise that will be well-resourced from the jump, and she could very well have a bigger role in Golden State than she did in New York. But, if her goal was to add to her championship count, she was in a pretty good situation in New York. Connecticut Sun Veronica Burton is a substantial loss for a Sun team that enters an offseason of uncertainty. Burton was a more-than-serviceable back-up point guard — and a seamless fit on the Sun roster after she was acquired midseason. She was tasked with guarding opposing team’s top guards when in the ball game and provided starting guard DiJonai Carrington with much-needed relief. Connecticut likely had to make the difficult decision of protecting either Olivia Nelson-Ododa or Burton, and it appears that the Sun went with the former, potentially in anticipation of potentially losing a post player in free agency. Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner, and Brionna Jones are all unrestricted free agents this summer, and Carrington is a restricted free agent. In an ideal world, the Sun would run it back with their backcourt trio of Ty Harris, Carrington, and Burton, but the Valkyries had other plans. As a result, Connecticut was one of the few teams to lose an impactful rotation player — and with so much offseason uncertainty, they weren’t in a great position to lose a key player. Indiana Fever Like Connecticut, Indiana lost out on a key player in the Valkyries expansion draft: Temi Fagbenle. The 32-year-old averaged 6.4 points on 50.9% shooting and 4.7 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per game last season for Indiana. She often served as one of the team's most reliable rim runners and was a well-rounded and reliable defender. Trust in Fagbenle grew throughout the season; she even started Indiana’s final playoff game in place of NaLyssa Smith. Temi Fagbenle has been selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the 2025 WNBA Expansion Draft. thank you, Temi ♥️ pic.twitter.com/rrpK2lQLpJ The Fever are well-positioned for the future, centered around a core comprised of Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. Fagbenle wasn’t going to make or break the roster. Still, she seemed to be a fixture of the locker room and ultimately established herself as one of Indiana’s most reliable bench players.

By KENYA HUNTER, Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — As she checked into a recent flight to Mexico for vacation, Teja Smith chuckled at the idea of joining another Women’s March on Washington . As a Black woman, she just couldn’t see herself helping to replicate the largest act of resistance against then-President Donald Trump’s first term in January 2017. Even in an election this year where Trump questioned his opponent’s race , held rallies featuring racist insults and falsely claimed Black migrants in Ohio were eating residents’ pets , he didn’t just win a second term. He became the first Republican in two decades to clinch the popular vote, although by a small margin. “It’s like the people have spoken and this is what America looks like,” said Smith, the Los Angeles-based founder of the advocacy social media agency, Get Social. “And there’s not too much more fighting that you’re going to be able to do without losing your own sanity.” After Trump was declared the winner over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris , many politically engaged Black women said they were so dismayed by the outcome that they were reassessing — but not completely abandoning — their enthusiasm for electoral politics and movement organizing. Black women often carry much of the work of getting out the vote in their communities. They had vigorously supported the historic candidacy of Harris, who would have been the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to win the presidency. Harris’ loss spurred a wave of Black women across social media resolving to prioritize themselves, before giving so much to a country that over and over has shown its indifference to their concerns. AP VoteCast , a survey of more than 120,000 voters, found that 6 in 10 Black women said the future of democracy in the United States was the single most important factor for their vote this year, a higher share than for other demographic groups. But now, with Trump set to return to office in two months, some Black women are renewing calls to emphasize rest, focus on mental health and become more selective about what fight they lend their organizing power to. “America is going to have to save herself,” said LaTosha Brown, the co-founder of the national voting rights group Black Voters Matter. She compared Black women’s presence in social justice movements as “core strategists and core organizers” to the North Star, known as the most consistent and dependable star in the galaxy because of its seemingly fixed position in the sky. People can rely on Black women to lead change, Brown said, but the next four years will look different. “That’s not a herculean task that’s for us. We don’t want that title. ... I have no goals to be a martyr for a nation that cares nothing about me,” she said. AP VoteCast paints a clear picture of Black women’s concerns. Black female voters were most likely to say that democracy was the single most important factor for their vote, compared to other motivators such as high prices or abortion. More than 7 in 10 Black female voters said they were “very concerned” that electing Trump would lead the nation toward authoritarianism, while only about 2 in 10 said this about Harris. About 9 in 10 Black female voters supported Harris in 2024, according to AP VoteCast, similar to the share that backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Trump received support from more than half of white voters, who made up the vast majority of his coalition in both years. Like voters overall, Black women were most likely to say the economy and jobs were the most important issues facing the country, with about one-third saying that. But they were more likely than many other groups to say that abortion and racism were the top issues, and much less likely than other groups to say immigration was the top issue. Despite those concerns, which were well-voiced by Black women throughout the campaign, increased support from young men of color and white women helped expand Trump’s lead and secured his victory. Politically engaged Black women said they don’t plan to continue positioning themselves in the vertebrae of the “backbone” of America’s democracy. The growing movement prompting Black women to withdraw is a shift from history, where they are often present and at the forefront of political and social change. One of the earliest examples is the women’s suffrage movement that led to ratification in 1920 of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution , which gave women the right to vote. Black women, however, were prevented from voting for decades afterward because of Jim Crow-era literacy tests, poll taxes and laws that blocked the grandchildren of slaves from voting. Most Black women couldn’t vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black women were among the organizers and counted among the marchers brutalized on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, during the historic march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery that preceded federal legislation. Decades later, Black women were prominent organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes. In his 2024 campaign, Trump called for leveraging federal money to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government programs and discussions of race, gender or sexual orientation in schools. His rhetoric on immigration, including false claims that Black Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs, drove support for his plan to deport millions of people . Tenita Taylor, a Black resident of Atlanta who supported Trump this year, said she was initially excited about Harris’ candidacy. But after thinking about how high her grocery bills have been, she feels that voting for Trump in hopes of finally getting lower prices was a form of self-prioritization. “People say, ‘Well, that’s selfish, it was gonna be better for the greater good,”’ she said. “I’m a mother of five kids. ... The things that (Democrats) do either affect the rich or the poor.” Some of Trump’s plans affect people in Olivia Gordon’s immediate community, which is why she struggled to get behind the “Black women rest” wave. Gordon, a New York-based lawyer who supported the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s presidential nominee, Claudia de la Cruz, worries about who may be left behind if the 92% of Black women voters who backed Harris simply stopped advocating. “We’re talking millions of Black women here. If millions of Black women take a step back, it absolutely leaves holes, but for other Black women,” she said. “I think we sometimes are in the bubble of if it’s not in your immediate circle, maybe it doesn’t apply to you. And I truly implore people to understand that it does.” Nicole Lewis, an Alabama-based therapist who specializes in treating Black women’s stress, said she’s aware that Black women withdrawing from social impact movements could have a fallout. But she also hopes that it forces a reckoning for the nation to understand the consequences of not standing in solidarity with Black women. “It could impact things negatively because there isn’t that voice from the most empathetic group,” she said. “I also think it’s going to give other groups an opportunity to step up. ... My hope is that they do show up for themselves and everyone else.” Brown said a reckoning might be exactly what the country needs, but it’s a reckoning for everyone else. Black women, she said, did their job when they supported Harris in droves in hopes they could thwart the massive changes expected under Trump. “This ain’t our reckoning,” she said. “I don’t feel no guilt.” AP polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux and Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Farmers blocked roads at many places across the state on Monday as part of their Punjab bandh call, affecting the commuter traffic in several areas. The bandh is being observed from 7 am to 4 pm on Monday, December 30. Farmers observed a sit-in at Dhareri Jattan Toll Plaza which affected vehicular movement on the Patiala-Chandigarh National Highway. A call for a shutdown was given last week by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha over the Centre not accepting the demands of protesting farmers. At Amritsar's Golden Gate, farmers started to assemble near the city's entry point while in Bathinda's Rampura Phul, they blocked roads. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Sunday said though there will be a complete bandh, emergency services will be allowed to operate. "The bandh will be observed from 7 am to 4 pm. However, emergency services will remain operational. Anyone travelling to the airport to catch a flight or anyone going to attend a job interview, or anyone needs to attend a wedding... all these things have been kept out of our bandh call," he said, according to PTI. Hundreds of farmers have been protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border demanding a legal guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. The Railways has cancelled 150 trains due to the Punjab Bandh call. These include flagships like Vande Bharat and Shatabdi. Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s hunger strike continues amid Punjab bandh Meanwhile, 70-year-old farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's hunger strike entered its 35th day on Monday. Dallewal has so far refused medical treatment. Dallewal had earlier said he would not break his fast until the government agreed to the farmers' demands. The apex court has given the Punjab government time till December 31 to persuade Dallewal to shift to a hospital , granting the state the liberty to seek logistical support from the Centre, if necessary. Farmers, under the banner of SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. A "jatha" (group) of 101 farmers attempted to march to Delhi on foot three times between December 6 and 14 but were stopped by security personnel from Haryana. Besides the MSP, farmers are also demanding a debt waiver, pension, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases, and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.Sportscaster Greg Gumbel dies from cancer at age 78

World leaders again tout hope of Israel-Hezbollah cease-fireBy AJ Vicens (Reuters) - Healthcare organizations may be required to bolster their cybersecurity, to better prevent sensitive information from being leaked by cyberattacks like the ones that hit Ascension and UnitedHealth, a senior White House official said Friday. Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters that proposed requirements are necessary in light of the massive number of Americans whose data has been affected by large breaches of healthcare information. The proposals include encrypting data so it cannot be accessed, even if leaked, and requiring compliance checks to ensure networks meet cybersecurity rules. The healthcare information of more than 167 million people was affected in 2023 as a result of cybersecurity incidents, she said. The proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services would update standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and would cost an estimated $9 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in years two through five, Neuberger said. Large healthcare breaches caused by hacking and ransomware have increased by 89% and 102%, respectively, since 2019, she said. "In this job, one of the most concerning and really troubling things we deal with is hacking of hospitals, hacking of healthcare data," Neuberger said. Hospitals have been forced to operate manually and Americans' sensitive healthcare data, mental health information and other information are "being leaked on the dark web with the opportunity to blackmail individuals," Neuberger said. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration

Opinion The US Justice Department's proposed remedies to address Google's monopoly control of the search services and search text advertising markets should be reconsidered in light of the broader problems with technology platforms. The floated fixes should also be evaluated for how they will affect other aspects of Google's business that face unresolved legal challenges, like the government's ad tech antitrust case. Something needs to be done to rein in Google's unlawful behavior , but the fixes proposed by the Justice Department will create collateral damage while leaving competitors, alleged monopolists among them, free to continue engaging in similar self-serving behavior. The DOJ has proposed [PDF]: disallowing exclusionary contracts, such as those that make Google Search the default in Apple's Safari, so rivals won't be frozen out; forcing Google to sell off its Chrome browser and preventing investments in rival search-ad-AI tech as a way to kill competition; requiring Google to make its search index available to rivals at nominal cost; and providing advertisers with more visibility into Google's data. Android divestiture is also a possible ask, if self-preferencing mechanisms designed to prevent Google from favoring its search and text ads services fall short. But if the Justice Department gets its way years from now, once Google has exhausted its appeals, it won't just be Google that pays the price. That's evident from the statement issued by Mozilla, which warned that a blanket prohibition on search agreements – like the one Mozilla has with Google to make Google Search the default in Firefox – "will negatively impact independent browsers like Firefox and have knock-on effects for an open and accessible internet." If Chrome were to be sold to a private equity group, it is highly likely they would prioritize cost-cutting measures Alex Moore, executive director of Open Web Advocacy, told The Register , "The primary concern of OWA is that the vast majority of research and development supporting the web platform currently takes place within the Chromium project, driven predominantly by Google engineers. "If Chrome were to be sold to a private equity group, it is highly likely they would prioritize cost-cutting measures. This could significantly hinder the future development of the web platform, creating a ripple effect that ultimately strengthens Apple’s and Google’s native ecosystems at the expense of the open web. We advocate for implementing measures that strike a careful balance between addressing Google's dominance in search and safeguarding the health and future development of the open web." Moore said the potential impact on Mozilla, one of only three remaining browser engine developers, needs to be considered, and voiced support for allowing it to retain the ability to establish a non-exclusive search engine deal with Google. "Despite its relatively small market share, Mozilla plays a crucial role in contributing to the health and diversity of the web ecosystem," said Moore. "A sudden loss of its primary revenue source would leave it without a viable alternative, threatening its ability to continue its vital work." It seems highly likely that Google's largess will diminish if it has to part ways with Chrome, and the search biz could be further constrained if the government wins its separate antitrust case against Google's ad auction business. The other major mobile device platform owner, Apple, is more focused on maintaining its App Store ecosystem. The iBiz has also faced scrutiny and allegations of monopolistic practices in the US and has been forced to make competition concessions in the EU. A lighter-touch regulatory option would be to force Google to put the open source Chromium project under the control of an independent foundation while also disallowing self-preferencing mechanisms within the browser. This might include, for example, a ban on steering people to sign in to their Google Accounts in Chrome, which would reduce the ad-relevant data Google can gather that its rivals cannot. But limiting Google's ability to extract monopoly revenue will have less impact if competitors like Apple and Microsoft, which are also facing potential antitrust scrutiny, can keep doing business as usual. A Google-focused remedy will just tilt the playing field in a different direction. What's needed is a comprehensive set of rules that forbid self-preferencing and establish a uniform set of platform rights for third-party developers and privacy rights consumers across all tech platforms. Instead of forcing Google to share data gained through privileged access, give consumers the ability to prevent any company from gaining that data. Require all browser makers to offer users a choice of search engine through a randomized menu free of dark patterns, rather than relying on paid defaults. Ensure that in-app browsers reflect the settings and modifications of third-party default browsers. Every setting should be opt-in rather than opt-out. Addressing bad behavior on a piecemeal basis either invites workarounds or replaces one platform tyrant with another. While the Justice Department can't seek remedies for companies that are not found to be in violation of the law, its proposals should be crafted with an eye toward a more coherent vision of platform behavior and responsibilities. ®Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 7 (IANS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statement expressing her desire to lead the INDIA bloc has sparked a political debate, drawing numerous reactions. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav also shared his views on the matter, suggesting that Mamata Banerjee -- the Trinamool Congress supremo -- may have made this statement because Congress did not perform well in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. "In Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress is in power, they lost all four seats. Similarly, in Karnataka and Telangana, both Congress-ruled states, they lost half of their Lok Sabha seats. Furthermore, Congress failed to win even a single seat in Madhya Pradesh. It suffered major losses in Chhattisgarh. Had Congress performed better in the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi would not have become the Prime Minister today. "This is the reason the leadership change is being discussed. However, I choose not to engage in this debate. The INDIA alliance must remain intact, as without this alliance, these tikadami (trickster) individuals cannot be defeated," Yadav told reporters. At a press conference in his hometown of Mainpuri, he said: "Doubts about the results in Maharashtra began to grow when people said that their votes were cast for Congress, but Congress' votes didn't show up. This situation points to irregularities. Even Donald Trump had mentioned that Russia interfered with the US presidential election through technology, so in today's technological world, it’s not a big deal. We use disappearing messages on our phones, which vanish in minutes. Such changes can easily be made using technology." The Samajwadi Party leader believes that "elections must be contested, whether they are by-polls or general elections. They are ready and will fully exercise their democratic rights". Regarding the Sambhal violence, he said: "The BJP is searching temples across the country. The BJP's intention is to create unrest in the country so that they can stay in power. They don’t care about the country."