Author: Gulf News Week
LOS ANGELES (news agencies) — Cierra Ortega, a contestant of this summer’s “Love Island USA” left the villa just a week before the finale of the hit reality series is set to air on Peacock.Her departure, announced Sunday, followed weeks of uproar from viewers after old posts from Ortega resurfaced that contained a racial slur against Asian people. The show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, announced Ortega had departed “due to a personal situation” early in Sunday’s episode.Ortega becomes the second contestant this season to depart the show amid controversy due to past social media posts. Yulissa Escobar abruptly exited last month…
WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier’s sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represents a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a…
NEW YORK (news agencies) — Amazon is extending its annual Prime Day sales and offering new membership perks to Generation Z shoppers amid tariff-related price worries and possibly some consumer boredom with an event marking its 11th year.The e-commerce giant’s promised blitz of summer deals for Prime members starts at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. For the first time, Seattle-based Amazon is holding the now-misnamed Prime Day over four days; the company launched the event in 2015 and expanded it to two days in 2019. Before wrapping up Prime Day 2025 early Friday, Amazon said it would have deals…
INDIANnews agenciesOLIS (news agencies) — The Indiana Pacers won’t be rushing guard Tyrese Haliburton back to the court next season as he recovers from a torn right Achilles tendon.Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said Monday in a news conference that he has no doubt Haliburton, “will be back better than ever. … He will not play next year, though. We would not jeopardize that now. Don’t get any hopes up that he will play.”Haliburton suffered his Achilles injury early in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He had surgery June 23 at the Hospital for Special Surgery in…
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (news agencies) — Haiti’s once-illustrious Grand Hôtel Oloffson, a beloved Gothic gingerbread home that inspired books, hosted parties until dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs this past weekend.Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager on Monday confirming the fire on X. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen.“It birthed so much culture and expression,” said Riva Précil, a Haitian-American singer who lived…
Paolo Banchero has checked a lot of boxes since joining the Orlando Magic. Won rookie of the year, been an All-Star, helped the team to the playoffs twice.And now, the Magic are betting on there being more — much more.Banchero has signed the richest contract in Magic history, the team announced Monday night. The five-year extension is worth $239 million and could reach about $287 million should he become eligible for a supermax deal, a person with knowledge of the agreement said.The person spoke to media on condition of anonymity because the terms were not revealed by either Banchero or…
“On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports,” the title of USA Today columnist Christine Brennan’s new book about the WNBA star, is doing a lot of work. On one hand, it’s about the game, right? Nobody can deny Caitlin Clark’s talent on a basketball court, where her rookie season stats with the Indiana Fever were eye-popping: 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game while leading the WNBA in assists and 3-pointers made. On the other hand, why is Caitlin Clark the poster child for a “Revolution in Women’s Sports?” The WNBA’s been around since…
NAIROBI, Kenya (news agencies) — Police in Kenya clashed with demonstrators Monday during the latest anti-government protests, killing 10 people, according to the state-funded human rights commission. Authorities blocked major roads leading into the capital, Nairobi, and most businesses closed amid the strictest measures yet to contain the unrest.Protesters lit bonfires and threw stones at police. Police fired and hurled tear gas canisters, injuring demonstrators. Young men carried another man, his shirt drenched in blood, saying he had been shot. The protests were reported in 17 of 47 counties.Kenyan youth and others for weeks have been protesting police brutality and…
NEW YORK (news agencies) — The New York Knicks liked Mike Brown’s experience with championship teams, after he worked for four of them.That sounds good to a franchise that’s been stuck on two titles for more than 50 years but believes its time to win another is now.The Knicks hired Brown on Monday, turning to the two-time NBA Coach of the Year after firing Tom Thibodeau.The Knicks offered the job to Brown last week and announced Monday that he would be taking over the team that reached the Eastern Conference finals last season for the first time in 25 years.…
WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday praised a company that makes $7-a-pop meals that are delivered directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. He even thanked Mom’s Meals for sending taxpayer-funded meals “without additives” to the homes of sick or elderly Americans. The spreads include chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties.“This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,” Kennedy said in the video, posted to his official health secretary account, after he toured the company’s Oklahoma facility last…