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Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign starOwner Steve Ballmer lands one-year banThe NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033. Continue reading...

Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal asserted that post-disaster aid should be treated as a matter of "moral liability".

Trump's new nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia could make ending his war with Iran even harder, foreign policy analyst Trita Parsi warned Wednesday, because it opens the door for Tehran's regional rival to enrich uranium, the very capability U.S. bombs are meant to strip from Iran.The 30-year agreement, sent to Congress for review, would hand U.S. firms the lead role in building the kingdom's civilian nuclear program and, after a two-year study, could permit enrichment at a plant on Saudi soil operated by the United States. Critics note it does not require Riyadh to accept the Additional Protocol, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's most intrusive inspection regime. Enrichment is dual use: the same process that fuels a power reactor can, pushed further, yield the core of a bomb.Critics have seized on the contradiction that Washington is at war to force zero enrichment on Iran, which insists its program is peaceful, while smoothing the path for the Saudis. Parsi delivered a blunt takedown."Washington is providing Riyadh a pathway to the bomb," even as it demands Iran give up enrichment entirely. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the administration's "hypocrisy is matched only by their recklessness," accusing it of letting Saudi Arabia pursue nuclear weapons technology "under the guise of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned the deal would "set off a nuclear race in the region."The move also cuts against decades of policy aimed at denying Iran the very technology now on offer to Riyadh. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a senator, even co-sponsored a 2019 bill that would have required Saudi Arabia to forgo enrichment.Trump has insisted the alarm is overblown, shouting on Truth Social, "There will be no enrichment of material!" He added that the pact hinges on Riyadh normalizing ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords. Rubio, for his part, has insisted the deal has "safeguards in place."The clash comes as the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, launched in late February, grinds on. Parsi and other analysts say the double standard hands Tehran a fresh grievance and a reason to walk away from talks, raising the odds the fighting drags on. Blocking the Saudi deal, meanwhile, would take a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a bar even critics concede is steep.

Researchers in Chile have designed special vests for penguins to help them recover during El Nino

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) drew laughs from a CNN political panel on Wednesday after insisting she would not discuss a personal detail about her Democratic opponent — before blurting it out anyway. The moment came during Collins’ interview with Politico’s Jonathan Martin, who asked whether the personal life of Maine Democratic candidate Troy Jackson should be considered fair game in their Senate race.“Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin," Collins replied. “I don’t know whether people know that or not.”“I think you just mentioned it,” Martin quickly pointed out.“Well, in Aroostook County, you know,” Collins said.The clip drew immediate laughter on the CNN set of “Inside Politics with Dana Bash.”“But I’m not going to bring that up,” Bash joked Wednesday. “The thing that I’m going to say — something I’m not going to bring up.”“That was so well crafted,” CNN political director David Chalian added, chuckling.Chalian said that Collins “clearly didn’t mind talking about it,” even as she tried to suggest it would not become “a centerpiece of her campaign.”But he doubted that Jackson’s relationship would decide the race, instead suggesting that Collins's relationship with President Donald Trump would likely matter more to Maine voters.“And how she navigates being a Republican running for reelection in this environment from a state that was not hospitable to Donald Trump in any of the times he ran for office,” he said.“She’s using what she can,” Bash concluded, “given the fact that Troy Jackson is a local politician and elected official.”

Party leader in England and Wales seen as favourite to contest Holborn and St Pancras after Starmer’s resignationZack Polanski moved a step closer in his quest to become an MP on Wednesday, with local Green party members supporting him to become the party’s candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.The party leader in England and Wales started campaigning alongside his fellow Green, Hannah Spencer, the MP for Gorton and Denton, in the Holborn area on Tuesday, and is seriously considering putting himself forward as the party’s candidate in the seat vacated by Keir Starmer on Monday. Continue reading...

The Chinese military is developing weather modification weapons, based on civilian meteorological controls, for future use on the battlefield, according to a think tank report.

Over 40% of films in LFF programme are female-made, but only two of 21 gala films are directed by womenFemale film-makers are still being squeezed out of the industry as they progress beyond their debut films, the director of the London film festival has said, adding that “the dial does not seem to be moving”.Kristy Matheson’s comments came as LFF announced its full programme for this year’s event, which runs from 7 to 19 October. Of the 251 titles, 109 (43%) are made by female film-makers, but only two of the 21 gala films are directed by women. Continue reading...