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NBA postpones Toronto at Chicago, Nets at Portland games
AFP
The NBA announced the postponement of two games on Wednesday because teams hit by Covid-19 could not field the league minimum of eight players to compete.
The league called-off Toronto’s game Wednesday at Chicago because the Raptors could not produce eight healthy players and also Brooklyn’s match Thursday at Portland.
In all, the NBA has postponed nine contests due to Covid-19 issues, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver saying no pause in the season is planned and teams would have to learn to live with the virus.
It was the third consecutive game wiped out for the Covid-hit Brooklyn Nets, whose scheduled games last Sunday against Denver and Tuesday against Washington were also postponed.
Brooklyn has an NBA-high 10 players in Covid-19 health and safety protocols, including NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant and fellow stars James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
Durant, the 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player, is averaging 29.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists a game for the Nets while Harden, the 2018 NBA MVP, ranks second in the league with 9.6 assists a game while also averaging 20.8 points and 7.9 rebounds a contest.
The Nets had just allowed Irving, who has not been vaccinated, back onto the roster, saying he would practice with the club and play in road games. New York Covid-19 safety rules would not allow him to play in home games while unvaccinated.
The next scheduled game for the Nets is on Saturday in a Christmas contest against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Silver has said the league is looking into rules that would make it easier for clubs to utilize players from developmental club rosters to fill out their lineups when numerous players are forced into Covid-19 isolation.
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Trump files $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, which denounced the legal move on Tuesday as an attempt to silence the press.
In this new stage of his presidency, the 79-year-old Republican leader has escalated his long-standing hostility toward traditional media, repeatedly attacking critical journalists, limiting their access, or taking them to court.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Florida, seeks $15 billion in damages, along with additional punitive compensation “in an amount to be determined at trial.”
The New York Times had reported last week that Trump threatened legal action over articles concerning a birthday letter allegedly sent by him to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The letter featured a typed message inside the outline of a nude woman. Trump denies that the accompanying signature is his.
“For too long, The New York Times has been allowed to lie, defame, and slander me freely — and that ends NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
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Maduro warns Venezuela would enter armed struggle if attacked by foreign forces
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated on Friday that if his country were attacked, it would enter a phase of armed struggle, amid his claims of “threats” from the United States, which is conducting a military deployment in Caribbean waters near Venezuela’s coast under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
Maduro emphasized that Venezuela is currently in the non-armed phase, which he described as political, communicational, and institutional, but added that if the country were somehow aggressed, it would move to a planned, organized armed struggle involving the entire population, whether the threat is local, regional, or national.
“We would enter a stage of armed struggle, in defense of peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and our people,” Maduro said during an event activating citizen militias, broadcast on state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
He also noted that Venezuela is currently in a phase of readiness and preparation to defend the country and will proceed to the deployment of defensive capacities, including training and retraining of the entire Venezuelan population.
Maduro described the Venezuelan people as pacifist yet warrior-like, asserting that “no one will enslave us, neither today nor ever.”
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USCIS gains law enforcement powers: Agents now authorized to investigate and arrest immigration violators
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), traditionally responsible for handling naturalizations, visas, residence permits, and work authorizations, is now expanding its role to include law enforcement powers, according to a statement released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under the new directive, specially designated USCIS agents are now authorized to investigate, arrest, and bring to justice individuals who violate U.S. immigration laws. Previously, USCIS primarily managed administrative and bureaucratic processes, while enforcement responsibilities were handled by agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Illegal immigration has been a central issue under President Donald Trump’s administration, with DHS reporting that over 300,000 migrants have been arrested in the first six months of his presidency. However, the number of people who have crossed U.S. borders illegally in recent years remains controversial, with experts estimating between 8 to 10 million individuals.
The policy shift also comes amid heightened legal battles over immigration enforcement. Recently, a federal judge blocked the deportation of minors to Guatemala, who were moments away from boarding a flight. Trump’s aggressive measures, including large-scale raids in cities like Los Angeles, have faced multiple judicial challenges, some upheld and others overturned at various federal levels, including the Supreme Court.
According to the DHS statement, the expanded authority allows USCIS to “manage investigations from start to finish rather than referring cases to ICE,” aiming to reduce backlogs and combat fraud within the immigration system.
USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow will have the power to appoint and train special agents under the order signed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ensuring that the agency can effectively execute its newly granted enforcement responsibilities.
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