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Wembanyama exits after hard fall in Game 2
Spurs star enters NBA concussion protocol
Blazers rally to even series at one game apiece
San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama was placed in the NBA’s concussion protocol after tumbling face-first to the court and exiting in the second quarter of Tuesday night’s playoff game against the Portland Trail Blazers, who rallied for a 106-103 victory to level the series at one game apiece.
Wembanyama was being evaluated for a concussion and a determination could be made in the next 24 hours, a Spurs official said.
Continue reading...Samuel J Friedman Theatre, New York
Rabbit Hole writer David Lindsay-Abaire takes on a list of modern American conflicts in a fun, if ultimately underdeveloped, comedy drama
Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire has an impressively eclectic bibliography that includes the Pulitzer prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, the Tony-winning musical Kimberly Akimbo, and providing book and lyrics for a singing and dancing version of Shrek. His new comedy The Balusters doesn’t exactly bring all of his talents together in a single sum-up work, but it does require a versatility of imagination in the pulling together the nine-member Vernon Point Neighborhood Association. Not quite as officious as an HOA but not quite as benevolent as a friendly get-together, the group assembles to discuss various issues affecting the safety, sanctity and aesthetic qualities of a neighborhood in an unnamed US area. (Based on a few stray references, somewhere around suburban DC seems likely.) They’re remarkably polite, even friendly, considering how much some of them seem to not-so-secretly dislike one another. It’s sometimes hard to tell whether they know each other too well for passive-aggressive behavior, or if Lindsay-Abaire doesn’t have quite the right ear for it.
The newest member of the group is Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), freshly moved from a Baltimore-area neighborhood where, we learn, her family’s departure was hastened by an incident with a previous neighborhood group. Kyra is well-to-do – almost anyone living in Vernon Point is – firm in her convictions, and aware, as any Black woman in her position would be, of what reactions she may inspire in her rich white neighbors. Her first order of business is to address a dangerous corner outside her house, where speeding drivers have been diverted following the installment of a new traffic light elsewhere in the neighborhood. She hopes for another light, or at least a series of stop signs; association president Elliot (Richard Thomas) insists any further change will blight the “esplanade”, as he calls it.
Continue reading...Russian oil can flow again, says Ukrainian president, leaving ‘no grounds’ for blocking €90bn EU package; warning of all-out Kremlin cyberwar. What we know on day 1,519
The Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia is ready to resume operations, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, after Ukraine repaired the damage from a Russian attack. Kyiv now expects the EU to unlock a €90bn EU loan after Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, spent months blocking it. Orbán is about to leave office after losing badly in national elections.
“There can now be no grounds for blocking it,” said Ukraine’s president, referring to the loan. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, said she expected a positive decision on the loan within 24 hours. Reuters, quoting an industry source, said pumping oil through the pipeline would resume on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on Europe to diversify energy supplies and not resume flows via Druzhba from Russia. “No one can currently guarantee that Russia will not repeat attacks on the pipeline infrastructure,” he said on Tuesday.
Guns were fired as Ukrainian authorities arrested military draft officers in Odesa for allegedly snatching people from the street and extorting money using the threat of being sent straight to the frontline. The Security Service of Ukraine said four officers working for the local territorial recruitment centre – which carries out conscription and recruitment – were detained after agents including special forces shot at the tyres of a vehicle in which they tried to escape. The group was being investigated for extortion, said the SBU. “The perpetrators face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.”
Moscow is taking its Ukraine war tactics and techniques “beyond the battlefield” to target the UK and Europe in cyberspace, the head of Britain’s cybersecurity force at GCHQ will say on Wednesday. Richard Horne will point to “sustained Russian hybrid activity” and warn that companies must learn how it is done in order to defend themselves. Horne is head of the national cybersecurity centre at Britain’s signals intelligence agency. He is due to speak at the CyberUK conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
In recent months, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway have all reported hackers linked to Russia have targeted their critical infrastructure including power plants and dams. Horne will say that in Britain the NCSC currently handles around four “nationally significant” cyber incidents a week with the most serious threat coming from cyber-attacks carried out directly or indirectly by other states. He mentioned Russia, China and Iran.
In a conflict, Horne will say, the UK would probably face cyber-attacks “at scale” but – unlike with ransomware deployed by organised criminal hackers – companies would not be able to pay their way out. For that reason, he will say, every organisation needs to understand the “full extent” of the risk they face and improve their cyber defences.
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