Courtesy Pictures, Transcripts, Outcomes Accessible Right here; Credit score B.A.A.

BOSTON (15-April) – A course file, an historic tempo at midway, potential Olympic berths on the road, and the biggest pack of girls at 20 miles the race has ever seen: The 128th Boston Marathon offered by Financial institution of America supplied drama at each flip as 26,596 starters made their approach from Hopkinton to Boston, cheered by big crowds on a dry, sunny spring Patriots’ Day.

Within the skilled races, Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia triumphed on Boylston Road in 2:06:17; Hellen Obiri of Kenya repeated her win of final 12 months, this time in 2:22:37; Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Nice Britain was a shock wheelchair winner in 1:35:11, and Switzerland’s Marcel Hug received for the seventh time right here, breaking his personal course file when he broke the tape in 1:15:33 regardless of a daunting mid-race crash.

Lemma and Obiri every took dwelling $150,000 for his or her victories and certain elevated their possibilities of being chosen by their respective international locations to compete within the Olympic marathon this summer time.

For some time, it appeared as if the 33-year-old Lemma – with a private finest of two:01:48, the quickest man within the subject – would possibly break Geoffrey Mutai’s 2011 course file of two:03:02. Lemma completed thirtieth in his Boston debut in 2019 and failed to complete in 2017 and 2022 however he nonetheless mentioned he felt assured from the beginning.

“Since there was no pacesetter, I made a decision that I wished to begin quick early,” he mentioned. “I mentioned I used to be going to redeem myself. I ran very exhausting, began very quick, so I used to be in a position to win.”

By the Mile 5 mark, he was 6 seconds forward of course-record tempo and gapping the sphere. He hit midway in 1:00:19, 1:39 forward of Mutai’s midway cut up and 1:49 forward of a big pack. For some time, he was even on tempo to set a world finest.

However a lead that at one level reached round 2 minutes, 20 seconds started to dwindle with the assistance from Kenyans John Korir and Evans Chebet, who was looking for his third-consecutive win right here, and from the brutal course itself.

“After the 30K mark, that was very exhausting,” he mentioned. “Not the hills. The [Boston College] downhill after.”

His early confidence, nevertheless, could be rewarded: Lemma held on within the last miles to win by 41 seconds, with Ethiopia’s Mohamed Esa ending second (2:06:58) and Chebet third (2:07:22). Prime American was C.J. Albertson, seventh in a private finest 2:09:53.

The ladies’s race couldn’t have performed out extra in another way from the boys’s, with a pack of 17 nonetheless collectively at 20 miles. Quickly after, two-time Boston winner Edna Kiplagat helped determine it was time to maneuver issues alongside. All of a sudden, 5 ladies had separated themselves, and round Mile 23 it was three: 44-year-old Kiplagat, defending champion Obiri, and 2022 TCS New York Metropolis Marathon winner Sharon Lokedi of Kenya.

Kiplagat fell again quickly after, and the race grew to become a duel between Obiri and Lokedi till Obiri took command in Kenmore Sq., with a couple of mile to go. She would kick on to win by 7 seconds over Lokedi (2:22:45), with the ageless Kiplagat third – and the masters champion for the third time – in 2:23:21.

“The Boston Marathon has been like my second dwelling,” mentioned Obiri, who in 2023 received not solely the marathon but in addition the Boston 10K offered by Brigham and Ladies’s Hospital in late June. “The Boston Marathon has opened my solution to win the New York Marathon [last fall] and I’m certain it opened my solution to win the Olympics, so subsequent 12 months [I will come here] as Olympic champion.”

In profitable, Obiri grew to become solely the sixth lady to defend her Boston Marathon title, and the primary since Catherine Ndereba in 2005.

“I’m so pleased, as a result of defending the title was not simple. Since Boston began, solely six ladies have carried out it. Folks will look again and say Hellen was one in all them.”

Ending as first American for the second 12 months in a row was Emma Bates, this 12 months in twelfth place in 2:27:14.

The ladies’s wheelchair race might need launched a brand new star: Eden Rainbow-Cooper, the primary lady from Nice Britain to win the division right here. Rainbow-Cooper, simply 22, started racing marathons solely two years in the past, and wept with pleasure after breaking the tape.

“It’s past my wildest desires,” she mentioned. “I simply can’t imagine it.”

Rainbow-Cooper’s first main victory came visiting none apart from Manuela Schär, who was looking for her fifth win right here. Schär completed second in 1:36:41.

For the boys, Hug was on course-record tempo as quickly because the starter’s horn sounded. “It was a time trial from the start,” he mentioned. “I feel I even had a pace file downhill.”

His solely severe challenger was the barricade reverse the Newton firehouse on the flip onto Commonwealth Avenue: Hug misplaced steering simply as he rounded the flip, crashing into the barricade and tipping over.

“It was my fault,” he mentioned. “Fortunately nothing occurred with the tires, so I may go ahead.”

Within the Para Athletics Divisions, the next champions have been topped:

T11/T12 (Imaginative and prescient impairment) – Irwin Ramirez, 3:24:21 / Joyce Cron, 4:27:46

T13 (Imaginative and prescient impairment) – Andrew Thorsen, 3:02:23 / Lisa Thompson, 4:00:58

T45/T46 (Higher-limb impairment) – Atsbha Gebremeskel, 2:54:14 / Adrienne Keane, 4:44:26

T61/T63/T43 (Decrease-limb impairment) – Adam Popp, 3:11:56 / Tatsiana Khvitso-Trimborn, 4:00:04

T62/T64; T42/T44 (Decrease-limb impairment) – Marko Cheseto Lemtukei, 2:46:45 / Kelly Bruno, 3:31:30

T35-T38 (Coordination impairment) – Joseph Drake, 4:32:44 / Cristina Burbach, 3:41:17

T20 (Mental impairment) – Thomas Cantara, 2:35:23

 

Medical volunteers assist assist from begin to end.

A group of 1,900 medical volunteers served at this 12 months’s race from begin to end. With temperatures climbing into the upper-60s as anticipated, the medical group supplied care throughout 30 medical stations.  As of 6:00 p.m. ET, 77 athletes had been transported to native hospitals.

The medical group continues to tally therapy counts for individuals, and can present an replace at tomorrow’s press convention.

 

Outcomes search, athlete monitoring and leaderboards can be found right here.

Stay monitoring for individuals and reside leaderboards will be discovered at each www.baa.org and throughout the Boston Marathon Racing App offered by TCS. Go to our Boston Marathon Media Assets web page (https://bstnmar.org/Media) for transcripts, outcomes, and extra occasion data.

 

CHAMPIONS MEDIA AVAILABILITY – TUESDAY, APRIL 16

128th Boston Marathon offered by Financial institution of America Champions’ Press Convention | 10:00 a.m. | Fairmont Copley Plaza

Held within the Fairmont Copley Plaza Grand Ballroom, this convention will function Boston Marathon champions Hellen Obiri, Sisay Lemma, Eden Rainbow-Cooper, and Marcel Hug in addition to B.A.A. President and CEO Jack Fleming. As a reminder, media aren’t permitted to take images with any skilled athletes as a matter of courtesy to the athletes and your fellow working media professionals.

 

ABOUT THE BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (B.A.A.) 

Established in 1887, the Boston Athletic Affiliation is a non-profit group with a mission of selling a wholesome way of life by sports activities, particularly operating. The B.A.A. manages the Boston Marathon, and helps complete charity, youth, and year-round programming. The 128th Boston Marathon offered by Financial institution of America is scheduled to happen on Monday, April 15, 2024. The Boston Marathon is a part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, together with worldwide marathons in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York Metropolis. For extra data on the B.A.A., please go to www.baa.org.

Taylor Swift, the self-professed “Chairman of the Tortured Poets Division,” will quickly name into session a gathering the place she’ll launch her newest album.

For probably the most half, Swift has saved a whole lot of particulars concerning the album near the chest, however as cryptic as she’s been whereas rolling out her eleventh studio album, there are nonetheless some issues we will glean about “The Tortured Poets Division” from Swift herself.

Let’s begin with what we all know for certain: “The Tortured Poets Division” will probably be out on Friday at midnight Jap, or on Thursday at 9 p.m. in the event you’re on the West Coast, and the primary music video – the music for which remains to be a thriller – will probably be launched Friday at 8 p.m. EDT after the album is launched.

The songs

The album consists of 16 tracks and one bonus observe titled “The Manuscript,” and options collaborations with Submit Malone on a observe titled “Fortnight” and with Florence + The Machine on a observe titled “Florida!!!”

Three vinyl variants can even be out there for buy, every that includes a distinct bonus observe: “The Bolter,” “The Albatross,” “The Black Canine.”

The timetable

When Swift first introduced the album in February whereas accepting a Grammy award for finest pop vocal album for 2022’s “Midnights,” she revealed that she’s been preserving this album a “secret” for the final two years.

A couple of days later throughout an “Eras Tour” live performance in Tokyo, Swift advised her viewers that she started engaged on “Tortured Poets” instantly after she completed “Midnights.”

“I saved engaged on it all through the US tour and when it was excellent, in my view, when it was adequate for you, I completed it,” she stated on the time, in line with footage from the present posted to social media.

The theme

Swift additionally spoke about how a lot this album means to her throughout an “Eras Tour” live performance in Melbourne in February, saying “Tortured Poets” is an album that “greater than any of my albums that I ever made, I wanted to make it.”

“It was actually a lifeline for me. Simply the issues I used to be going by way of, the issues I used to be writing about it was like, it sort of jogged my memory why songwriting is one thing that really will get me by way of my life,” video footage posted to social media from the live performance confirmed. “I’ve by no means had an album the place I wanted songwriting greater than I wanted it on ‘Tortured Poets.’”

She stopped in need of revealing something about what the music will truly sound like, however all indicators level to the album being about heartbreak, which may tackle many types.

The temper

To attach the dots: Earlier this month, Swift created a sequence of playlists for Apple Music concerning the 5 phases of heartbreak. Every playlist consists of songs from her catalog of music that match every stage: denial, anger, bargaining, melancholy and acceptance.

The titles of every playlist are lyrics that Swift had beforehand teased in varied Instagram posts.

Except 2020’s “Folklore,” Swift’s albums are sometimes autobiographical in nature and her romantic relationships are usually a recurring subject.

Swift doesn’t look like experiencing any heartbreak in her present relationship with three-time Tremendous Bowl champ Travis Kelce. Earlier than Kelce, Swift was courting actor Joe Alwyn and in April 2023, CNN reported that their six-year relationship had ended.

Figuring out what Swift had shared about when she truly wrote this album, we will all take from that what we are going to.

With that stated, the sensation of heartbreak isn’t solely restricted to romance. It may actually imply something, so we’ll simply depart a clean area for that.

WASHINGTON – Upon studying two IRS whistleblowers have been unsuccessful in securing a sit-down with company management, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) took in the present day’s Senate Finance Committee listening to as a possibility to induce Commissioner Daniel Werfel to lastly settle for their assembly requests. 

“I do know [IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joseph Ziegler] requested to satisfy with you. […] I’d assume they wish to let you know what’s flawed throughout the dealing with of sure circumstances. I’d assume you, on the high of the IRS, would wish to hearken to them.

“I’m going to do now what I advised them I’d do: I used to be going to ask you to satisfy with the 2 of them and simply hearken to them. Whether or not you’re taking motion or not is as much as you, however I feel you must not less than hearken to them. I feel whistleblowers all through authorities are among the most patriotic folks I do know, and I’d ask you to do this.” 

Grassley then requested concerning the IRS Whistleblower Program he shepherded by means of Congress, which, so far, has recouped over $6 billion for the taxpayer. He additionally pressed Werfel on the steps IRS is taking to higher safeguard taxpayers’ delicate information. Full video is under, adopted by subject-specific excerpts from Grassley’s questioning. 

VIDEO

Addressing Whistleblower Program Backlogs:

“[…T]he common wait time for folks to get their case closed has gotten longer and is now as much as 10 years. The lengthy common wait time is partly because of the IRS coverage in opposition to paying partial awards. Beneath this coverage, the IRS will wait years till all years of a declare are accomplished to pay something in any way. Successfully, the IRS has created boundaries to paying awards by itself that aren’t within the Whistleblower statute handed by Congress.

“It’s good to look at the pointless coverage within the IRS Income Guide and work to permit partial awards to be paid to whistleblowers as rapidly as attainable. May you try this?”

Werfel characterised Grassley’s concern as a “very excessive precedence.”

Defending Taxpayer Data:

“How was an activist with plans to steal taxpayer data in a position to get employed and acquire entry to taxpayer data? What actions is the IRS taking to make sure an activist worker or contractor is rarely once more in a position to entry and share delicate taxpayer data?”

In response, Werfel recited IRS’ to-do record for bolstering information safety. The commissioner added, “All of that is ongoing and put in place to verify this kind of unauthorized entry by a contractor or an IRS worker can by no means occur once more. […] Unauthorized entry from insider threats, it’s unimaginable to eliminate utterly. However I’m dedicated to decreasing the likelihood to as small as it may be by placing within the sweat fairness to shut all these gaps.”

-30-

A brand new period of Taylor Swift is close to.

The artist’s eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Division,” drops Friday.

The lead-up to launch day has been suffering from puzzles, Easter eggs and different hallmarks of Swift’s ever-theorizing fan base.

This is what to know forward of the discharge.

When does the album formally debut?

“The Tortured Poets Division” will likely be launched Friday at 12 a.m. ET. It’s at present obtainable for preorder.

Should you plan to stream “The Tortured Poets Division” proper after its launch, be ready for potential delays. When Swift’s most up-to-date model new album, “Midnights” was launched, Spotify briefly crashed due to intense demand.

What number of tracks are there?

The album consists of 16 songs.

There will likely be 4 bonus tracks: “The Manuscript,” The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Canine.” Every bonus observe will likely be obtainable on separate bodily album variants and received’t be on the streaming model of the album.

Traditionally, Swift has made vinyl exclusives obtainable on streaming platforms a number of months after their bodily launch.

The typical observe size on “The Tortured Poets Division” is 4 minutes and 4 seconds — the third longest throughout Swift’s discography.

The longest track on the album is “However Daddy I Love Him,” which clocks in at 5 minutes and 40 seconds. “I Can Repair Him (No Actually I Can) is the shortest at 2 minutes and 36 seconds. The size of every bonus observe has not but been revealed.

Who else labored on the album?

Florence + the Machine and Put up Malone are each featured artists on the album. The 2 are additionally credited as co-writers on their songs.

Aaron Dessner — songwriter, producer, and band member of The Nationwide and Huge Crimson Machine — is certainly one of two producers who labored on “The Tortured Poets Division,” together with Swift’s longtime good friend and collaborator, Jack Antonoff. Dessner is credited as a songwriter on 5 of the 16 tracks on the usual album, whereas Antonoff co-wrote eight tracks.

Swift is credited as a songwriter on each observe on the usual album, together with two completely self-written tracks: “My Boy Solely Breaks His Favourite Toys” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Previous Me?”

Why is it referred to as ‘The Tortured Poets Division’?

Followers have been fast to notice that “The Tortured Poets Division” is the longest title for a Taylor Swift album by a big margin, a distinction beforehand held by her third album, “Converse Now.” Earlier than “TTPD,” “Converse Now” was her solely album title consisting of multiple phrase.

Hypothesis surrounding the brand new album and its uncharacteristic title has primarily revolved round Swift’s 2023 breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after their six-year relationship.

After the album announcement, a 2022 Selection interview between Alwyn and Paul Mescal resurfaced on X. The pair revealed within the interview that they have been each members of a WhatsApp group chat titled “The Tortured Man Membership,” prompting some followers to attract parallels between Alwyn and Swift’s upcoming album.

The true that means of “The Tortured Poets Division” stays to be seen, however the rollout of the album has featured references to well-known poems like Charles Baudelaire’s “The Albatross,” amongst different literary references.

When can followers anticipate a brand new music video?

In a video of the “TTPD Timetable” posted on her Instagram account Tuesday, Swift introduced she is going to launch a music video at 8 p.m. ET Friday.

She didn’t specify which observe the video could be for.

The announcement within the timetable was accompanied by 14 tally marks, main some sleuthing Swifties to theorize that the video could possibly be for the album’s first observe, “Fortnight (ft. Put up Malone), the title of which refers to a 14-day interval, or the album’s 14th observe, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”

What is the Spotify pop-up that is in Los Angeles?

Los Angeles Swifties celebrated launch week with a pop-up library in partnership with Spotify.

The three-day occasion ran from April 16-18 on the Grove and featured a sneak peak at among the album’s lyrics.

A manuscript was entrance and middle on the set up, revealing new lyrics periodically because the pages have been turned over the course of three days.

Followers took to social media to establish different potential Easter eggs within the pop-up library, similar to a bust of a peace signal, a quill and fountain pens, and a globe that gave the impression to be pointing to Florida, the title of a observe on the album.

Had been there some other notable Easter eggs main as much as the discharge?

QR code murals appeared in cities internationally similar to Melbourne, Paris, Chicago and London. Every QR code revealed a singular letter, which Swifties pieced collectively to spell “For A Fortnight.”

In a collaboration with Apple Music, Swift sorted a few of her present discography into thematic playlists, together with audio messages from the singer. These messages appeared to verify some followers’ theories that the playlists mirrored the 5 levels of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, despair and acceptance – indicating that the brand new album could grapple with grief or loss.

Swift later used a track from every playlist to disclose a hidden phrase on Apple Music every day main as much as the discharge of “The Tortured Poets Division.”

The ultimate phrase, “mortem,” was revealed Thursday, hidden within the lyrics of the track “Start Once more.” The key message was “We hereby conduct this publish mortem.”

NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark is formally a professional.

Clark, the record-breaking face of ladies’s faculty basketball, was chosen No. 1 general by the Indiana Fever within the 2024 WNBA draft Monday night time on the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The draft was held with followers for the primary time because the 2014-2016 iterations of the occasion. Tickets for 1,000 spectators bought out inside quarter-hour of occurring sale a couple of months in the past.

Clark’s coronation was lengthy anticipated after she introduced in late February she was headed to the league as an alternative of utilizing her further 12 months of collegiate eligibility.

However that did not make the second any much less particular for Clark, her family members, her Iowa household and the ecstatic followers who packed Gainbridge Fieldhouse again in Indianapolis to see her maintain up a Fever jersey on the jumbotron.

“Whenever you’re simply sitting at a desk ready in your title to be referred to as, that basically permits the feelings to feed you,” Clark stated. “You are with your loved ones. Clearly, enjoying a basketball recreation, I am not on the market with my household. So sharing that second with them and having fun with it, and folks that have actually had my again and believed in me greater than anybody, is tremendous particular.”

The Los Angeles Sparks, rebuilding following the departure of Nneka Ogwumike in free company, chosen two gamers within the lottery: Stanford’s Cameron Brink at No. 2 and Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson at No. 4. Brink joins Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike because the third Stanford participant chosen within the high two of the WNBA draft and is this system’s fifteenth first-rounder.

“I really like that I get to remain on the West Coast, and I really like that they took an opportunity on me,” Brink stated. “I really feel like I am simply going to point out that I can work actually exhausting and assist them quite a bit. But additionally, I will be near household, which is basically necessary for me.”

Jackson, who began her profession at Mississippi State, is Tennessee’s nineteenth first-round choose, the second most in WNBA draft historical past.

The Chicago Sky made a splash in deciding on South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso (No. 3) and LSU’s Angel Reese (No. 7), the 2024 and 2023 Remaining 4 Most Excellent Gamers, respectively. Cardoso helped the Gamecocks win their third nationwide championship to finish an undefeated season, then attended the group’s championship parade Sunday earlier than touring to New York.

“She’s a terrific participant, and I am a terrific participant,” Cardoso stated of Reese, somebody she performed in opposition to in highschool and in SEC play. “No person’s going to get no rebounds on us,” she added with fun.

In a brand new period with WNBA legend Teresa Weatherspoon on the helm, the Sky swapped picks with Minnesota on Sunday to draft seventh.

Reese’ 61 double-doubles over the previous two seasons have been essentially the most in Division I and second most in LSU historical past, behind solely Sylvia Fowles. Reese — who rose to superstardom in main the Tigers to their first nationwide championship in 2023 — is LSU’s highest choose since Fowles (No. 2 general in 2008).

“Understanding the conversations have been so good and [Weatherspoon] felt like a mom to me,” Reese stated. “Having the ability to be a Black girl and as a head coach, and every part she’s performed on the NBA stage, I simply knew every part they have been bringing to the desk. Jeff [Pagliocca], the GM, was wonderful, too, and participant growth is one thing that I used to be on the lookout for they usually regarded for in me. I am tremendous excited for this transfer, and I am simply wanting ahead to attending to Chicago.”

With the ladies’s faculty recreation exploding in reputation as gamers similar to Clark and Reese grew to become family names, the arrival of the 2024 draft class is extensively regarded to be a possible watershed second for the WNBA.

“It is a generational class,” Jackson stated. “I really feel like this class is simply so completely different. I do know this class is completely different. … Girls’s basketball is on an uproar. Everyone is tuning in. … I am grateful to be part of this draft class. I really feel like we’re simply trending in the best course.”

Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon went fifth to the Dallas Wings, and the Washington Mystics took UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards at No. 6. Edwards put up profession highs in each scoring (17.6 factors per recreation) and rebounding (9.2) in 2023-24.

Minnesota drafted Alissa Pili of Utah eighth. Pili averaged 21.1 factors over the previous two seasons, which ranked fourth in Division I behind solely Clark (29.7), Ta’Niya Latson (21.3) and McKenna Hofschild (21.3).

The New York Liberty, who made the WNBA Finals final 12 months, chosen Marquesha Davis with the eleventh choose. Davis turns into simply the fourth Ole Miss participant to be chosen within the first spherical.

Three worldwide gamers have been additionally chosen within the first spherical: Carla Leite of France (No. 9 to Dallas), Leïla Lacan of France (No. 10 to the Connecticut Solar) and Nyadiew Puoch of Australia (No. 12 to the Atlanta Dream). It marks the fourth time three or extra worldwide gamers have been chosen within the first spherical of the WNBA draft (2021, 2001, 2000).

Clark, a 6-foot guard and West Des Moines, Iowa, native, enters the league on high of the world. A two-time nationwide participant of the 12 months, she ended her collegiate profession with 3,951 factors, essentially the most in males’s and ladies’s Division I historical past, whereas propelling the Iowa Hawkeyes to back-to-back nationwide title recreation appearances, their first in program historical past.

Her brand 3-pointers, highlight-reel assists and offensive firepower (she averaged 31.6 factors as a senior, and 28.4 factors for her profession) have drawn sellout crowds in Iowa Metropolis and on the highway, whereas shattering tv scores throughout a large number of networks and streaming platforms alongside the best way.

She has her personal cereal field and State Farm commercials, and simply this previous weekend she appeared as herself on “Saturday Night time Stay.” Now, her largest problem, and largest alternative, awaits.

The Fever have not appeared within the playoffs since 2016, the legendary Tamika Catchings’ remaining season. However with Clark becoming a member of forces with final 12 months’s No. 1 general choose, Aliyah Boston, the pairing appears destined to vary the trajectory of the franchise — and probably the league — for the years to come back.

Winners of the 2012 WNBA title, Indiana has languished since Catchings’ retirement, sporting the worst successful share within the league because the begin of the 2017 season regardless of deciding on lottery picks in every of the previous seven drafts. 4 of these seven picks are now not with the group.

Indicators of progress emerged this previous season with Boston, the franchise’s first No. 1 choose, because the Fever received 13 video games, tied for essentially the most since Catchings’ retirement. With Clark now within the combine, snapping the longest energetic playoff drought appears properly inside attain.

“That is undoubtedly our purpose, is to get again to championship habits,” Clark stated, joking that regardless that Indiana Hoosiers followers did not love her when she was at Iowa, she hopes to show them into Fever followers now. “I am very fortunate to be going there to a corporation that basically loves ladies’s basketball. You see it immediately, I feel that they had 17,000 tickets claimed to only watch the draft. I feel that reveals the joy in Indianapolis. It is a terrific basketball metropolis.

“For myself, I am unable to think about a extra good match, a greater place for me to begin my skilled profession, a corporation that basically simply believes in ladies’s basketball and desires to do every part the best approach. So I could not be extra excited to get there.”

Fever normal supervisor Lin Dunn shared Clark’s sentiment.

“It is an ideal match for us,” Dunn stated. “She’s from the Large Ten, the Midwest — is there anywhere higher for her than Indianapolis, Indiana? I am unable to consider it.”

Dunn was requested in regards to the franchise having back-to-back No. 1 picks, as was the case when she was normal supervisor of the Seattle Storm with Lauren Jackson (2001) and Sue Chicken in (2002).

“Properly, it would not occur fairly often. And so when it does occur — and you’ll look again traditionally — it normally implies that it results in championships,” Dunn stated. “I feel that is the start of us getting again on monitor to win one other championship right here. Once we have been in a position to put Chicken and Jackson collectively — a terrific level guard and a terrific publish participant — we have been in a position to take off in Seattle, and I feel that might occur right here if you put Clark with Boston.”

Clark, the one Division I ladies’s participant with greater than 3,000 factors and 1,000 assists, could have two equally younger however elite publish targets in Boston, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the 12 months, and NaLyssa Smith, a 2022 lottery choose. After Clark developed sturdy chemistry with Iowa publish gamers Monika Czinano and Hannah Stuelke, the connections she, Boston and Smith can type in Indianapolis are tantalizing prospects for Fever followers.

“Going to a corporation that has, in my eyes, the most effective publish gamers in the whole world. My level guard eyes simply gentle up at that,” Clark stated of Boston. “My largest job is I am simply feeding Aliyah the ball each single day. That is what I’ll do. I’ll be in there and be like, go make a layup. She’s going to make my life simple.”

Clark may also share the backcourt with two veteran guards in Kelsey Mitchell, No. 4 on the NCAA Division I all-time scoring checklist and a high 3-point shooter within the league final season, in addition to returning level guard Erica Wheeler.

“I am 22 years previous, and I haven’t got all of the solutions on the earth,” Clark stated. “That is one thing new to me. It is a new problem. That is one thing I am excited for. However having these sort of individuals round me to lean on and ask questions, or when issues get exhausting, to be there for me.”

Of the opposite prospects invited to the draft Monday: UConn’s Nika Muhl was taken with the second choose of the second spherical by the Storm; Ohio State’s Celeste Taylor is headed to Indiana after being chosen No. 15 general; Syracuse’s Dyaisha Truthful (No. 16) — who completed her collegiate profession third on the all-time Division I ladies’s profession factors checklist behind solely Clark and Kelsey Plum — and Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley (No. 24) have been chosen by the Las Vegas Aces; and UCLA’s Charisma Osborne was picked with the primary choose of the third spherical by the Phoenix Mercury.

Iowa’s Kate Martin, within the crowd to assist teammate Clark, was additionally chosen No. 18 general by the Aces.

ESPN’s Michael Voepel and ESPN Stats & Info contributed to this report.

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The Arabian peninsula was hit by unprecedented rainfall and floods, shutting colleges and grounding flights on Wednesday, with elements of the desert nation United Arab Emirates receiving 10 inches of rain in 24 hours.

In Oman, not less than 18 individuals have died in current days due to the extreme climate, the nation’s Nationwide Committee for Emergency Administration stated.

The storms swamped roadways and created harmful situations throughout the area, a usually arid a part of the world that’s unaccustomed to intense rain and flash flooding.

Dubai’s airport suggested passengers early Wednesday to not journey to the airport until “completely mandatory.” Main airline Emirates stated in a post on X it was suspending check-in for all passengers at Dubai till midnight Wednesday (3 p.m. ET).

The Nationwide Heart of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi stated the rain within the UAE surpassed something since data started in 1949, when the world was nonetheless a British protectorate and earlier than the invention of oil.

The Khatm Al Shakla space outdoors town of Al Ain, close to the border with Oman, acquired 10 inches of rain in lower than 24 hours.

The meteorology heart known as it “an distinctive occasion within the UAE’s local weather historical past for the reason that begin of recording local weather knowledge, and it’s anticipated that the approaching hours will witness the recording of bigger quantities of rainfall.”

TAMPA — Nikita Kucherov grew to become the fifth participant in NHL historical past, and the second this season, to have 100 assists in a season Wednesday.

The Tampa Bay Lightning ahead reached the milestone when he arrange Brayden Level’s power-play aim at 17:05 of the second interval in a 6-4 victory towards the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amalie Enviornment. Kucherov faked a one-timer from the correct circle and handed to Level, who scored on a wrist shot from the slot to provide the Lightning a 4-1 lead.

“It is a particular second,” Kucherov stated. “Because of my teammates and training employees for placing me in place to have success. I am lucky to play with nice gamers. It is a good second.”

Kucherov joins Wayne Gretzky (11 instances), Mario Lemieux (1988-89), Bobby Orr (1970-71) and Connor McDavid (2023-24) as gamers to have finished it. McDavid hit the mark Monday with an help for the Edmonton Oilers towards the San Jose Sharks.

Earlier than that, Gretzky was the final participant to do it when he had 122 assists within the 1991-92 season.

The one different time two gamers had 100 assists in the identical season was 1988-89, when Gretzky and Lemieux every had 114.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper stated Gretzky despatched him a textual content message after the sport.

“The primary textual content message I bought once I checked after the sport,” Cooper stated. “The category act that [Gretzky] is … simply glowing feedback about Nikita Kucherov. It was fairly cool.”

It was Kucherov’s fortieth help on the facility play and Level’s fifteenth power-play aim this season.

“That is a play that he likes to make,” Level stated. “I simply caught it and shot it and hoped it went in. He gave me two seems to be within the slot earlier within the interval that [Martin] Jones made good saves on. I used to be a bit nervous. I used to be actually joyful to see it go in.”

Kucherov additionally scored within the first interval Wednesday and leads the NHL with 144 factors (44 targets, 100 assists). The five-time All-Star gained the Hart Trophy in 2019 and helped the Lightning win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021.

This season, Kucherov additionally set NHL information for many assists by a wing and most factors by a Russia-born participant, breaking his personal file of 128 set in 2018-19.

“Forty-four targets this 12 months for himself to associate with 100 assists,” Level stated. “It is outstanding. Simply watching ‘Kuch’ day by day and seeing how he works, it is a tremendous quantity, nevertheless it’s not shocking with how exhausting and the way sensible he works.”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates tried to dry out Wednesday from the heaviest rain ever recorded there after a deluge flooded out Dubai Worldwide Airport, disrupting journey by way of the world’s busiest airfield for worldwide journey. The state-run WAM information company known as the rain Tuesday “a historic climate occasion” that surpassed “something documented because the begin of knowledge assortment in 1949.” 

The rains started late Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 0.79 inches of rain, in response to meteorological knowledge collected at Dubai Worldwide Airport. The storms intensified round 9 a.m. native time Tuesday and continued all through the day, dumping extra rain and hail onto the overwhelmed metropolis.

Flooding impacts Dubai Worldwide Airport

By the top of Tuesday, greater than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. A median 12 months sees simply 3.73 inches of rain fall at Dubai Worldwide Airport, a hub for the long-haul service Emirates.

On the airport, standing water lapped on taxiways as plane landed. Arrivals have been halted Tuesday evening and passengers struggled to achieve terminals by way of the floodwater overlaying surrounding roads.

The airport stated in a series of social media posts that each one operations have been halted for about 25 minutes on Tuesday afternoon and that each one arrivals could be diverted after that “till the climate situations enhance.” Late Wednesday morning, the airport and the flagship service Emirates have been nonetheless warning vacationers to not come to the airport until completely mandatory, saying all flight check-in was nonetheless suspended.

“Flights proceed to be delayed and diverted. Please examine your flight standing instantly along with your airline,” the airport stated in a tweet. “We’re working arduous to recuperate operations as shortly as doable in very difficult situations.” 

One couple, who spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity in a rustic with strict legal guidelines that criminalize crucial speech, known as the scenario on the airport “absolute carnage.”

“You can not get a taxi. There’s folks sleeping within the Metro station. There’s folks sleeping within the airport,” the person stated Wednesday.

They ended up getting a taxi to close their house some 18 miles away, however floodwater on the street stopped them. A bystander helped them over a freeway barrier with their carry-on baggage, the bottles of gin they picked up from a duty-free retailer clinking away.

Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, acknowledged continued points with flooding Wednesday morning, saying each place an plane may very well be safely parked was taken. Some plane had been diverted to Al Maktoum Worldwide Airport at Dubai World Central, the city-state’s second airfield.

“It stays an extremely difficult time. In dwelling reminiscence, I do not assume anybody has ever seen situations prefer it,” Griffiths instructed the state-owned speak radio station Dubai Eye. “We’re in uncharted territory, however I can guarantee everybody we’re working as arduous as we probably can to verify our prospects and employees are sorted.”

Did “cloud-seeding” contribute?

Rain additionally fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, the rains have been acute throughout the UAE. One cause might have been “cloud seeding,” wherein small planes flown by the federal government undergo clouds burning particular salt flares. These flares can enhance precipitation.

A number of studies quoted meteorologists on the Nationwide Heart for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights earlier than the rains. The middle didn’t instantly reply to questions Wednesday, although flight-tracking knowledge analyzed by the AP confirmed one plane affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew across the nation Sunday.

The UAE, which depends closely on energy-hungry desalination crops to supply water, conducts cloud seeding partly to extend its dwindling, restricted groundwater.

Flooding closes faculties throughout UAE

Colleges throughout the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut forward of the storm and authorities staff have been largely working remotely if they may. Many employees stayed house as nicely, although some ventured out, with the unlucky ones stalling out their automobiles in deeper-than-expected water overlaying some roads.

Authorities despatched tanker vans out into the streets and highways to pump away the water. Water poured into some properties, forcing folks to bail out their homes.

The nation’s hereditary rulers provided no general injury or damage info for the nation, as some folks slept of their flooded automobiles Tuesday evening. In Ras al-Khaimah, the nation’s northernmost emirate, police stated a 70-year-old man died when his car was swept away by floodwater.

Fujairah, an emirate on the UAE’s japanese coast, noticed the heaviest rainfall Tuesday with 5.7 inches falling there.

Authorities canceled faculty and the federal government instituted distant work once more for Wednesday.

Rain is uncommon within the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, however happens periodically through the cooler winter months. Many roads and different areas lack drainage given the dearth of normal rainfall, inflicting flooding.

In the meantime in neighboring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the japanese fringe of the Arabian Peninsula, not less than 19 folks have been killed in heavy rains in current days, in response to an announcement Wednesday from the nation’s Nationwide Committee for Emergency Administration. That features some 10 schoolchildren swept away in a car with an grownup, prompting condolences from rulers throughout the area.

Climatologists have warned for years that human-driven local weather change is fueling extra excessive and fewer predictable climate occasions throughout the globe.

Components of southern Russia and Central Asia have additionally been dealing for days with unusually damaging quantities of rainfall and snowmelt, forcing tens of 1000’s of individuals to evacuate to increased floor and killing greater than 60 folks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A keffiyeh is a checkered scarf sometimes worn in Arab cultures that has come to represent solidarity with Palestinians.

Members of provincial parliament typically ask particular permission to put on an merchandise which will break the principles, akin to ribbons for a selected trigger’s consciousness day, and so they do this by looking for unanimous consent of the legislature.

NDP Chief Marit Stiles moved a unanimous consent movement Thursday morning saying the keffiyeh is a culturally vital clothes merchandise in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and must be allowed in the home, however Arnott mentioned he heard a number of individuals say “no.”

The loudest “no” got here from Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin.

“I believe (Arnott’s ruling) is the right choice, in the identical means we are able to’t use other forms of political clothes,” Martin mentioned after query interval.

“We will’t put on T-shirts that say, ‘Free the hostages’ or wrap ourselves in a flag or no matter. We’ve got to comply with the principles of the legislature. In any other case, we politicize your entire debate contained in the legislature and that’s not what it’s about … we use our phrases to steer, not our objects of garments.”

Martin’s place is in distinction to her chief’s, with Premier Doug Ford calling on the Speaker to reverse his choice.

“It actually comes right down to uniting Ontarians and communities,” the premier mentioned Thursday morning at an unrelated press convention. “We see the division proper now that’s happening. It’s not wholesome, and this may simply divide the group much more.”

Stiles mentioned she was upset her movement didn’t cross and pressed the federal government to behave.

“I believe the premier must now guarantee that his caucus does the appropriate factor,” she mentioned.

The difficulty got here to Stiles’ consideration final week when one in all her staffers, who wears a keffiyeh each day, needed to take away it earlier than getting into the constructing.

The Legislative Protecting Service advised the staffer to take away the keffiyeh, she mentioned.

“The keffiyeh is worn by Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, it’s cultural apparel, identical to so many different issues are,” Stiles mentioned.

“And we reside in a various province, and other people, I believe, have a proper to put on their cultural heritage, their cultural apparel and present their satisfaction of their heritage.”

Ford wants to point out some management to repair the difficulty, mentioned Liberal parliamentary chief John Fraser.

“The premier must say to his home chief, ‘I’m placing ahead a movement,’ and once they put ahead the movement, we’ll all be there to help it,” Fraser mentioned.

“We will’t proceed to debate this, we have now different extra necessary issues to speak about.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed April 18, 2024.

Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

<!– Picture: 20240418100456-6621353daca545ca19b74b7ajpeg.jpg, Caption:

An NDP movement to permit keffiyehs to be worn within the Ontario legislature has failed because it didn’t obtain unanimous consent after not less than one member voted towards it. Palestinian kids maintain up a big kaffiyeh, a standard Arab headdress, as they take part in a march to commemorate  “Nakba”, which is Arabic for disaster, within the West Financial institution metropolis of Ramallah, Monday, Could 17, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Tara Todras-Whitehill

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