Author: Gulf News Week

NEW YORK (news agencies) — Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier each have their draft strategy for the WNBA All-Star Game.The two captains chose their teams for the game that will be played on July 19 at Clark’s home arena in Indianapolis. The squads will be revealed Tuesday night.There’s intrigue whether Clark will draft Fever teammate Aliyah Boston with the No. 1 pick that the guard earned by getting the most fan votes. Or will she take three-time league MVP A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. Clark also may try to draft All-Star reserve Kelsey Mitchell, who is another Indiana…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Filmmaker Peter Jackson owns one of the largest private collections of bones of an extinct New Zealand bird called the moa. His fascination with the flightless ostrich-like bird has led to an unusual partnership with a biotech company known for its grand and controversial plans to bring back lost species. On Tuesday, Colossal Biosciences announced an effort to genetically engineer living birds to resemble the extinct South Island giant moa – which once stood 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall – with $15 million in funding from Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh. The collaboration also includes…

Israel claims it targeted a ‘key figure’ from the Palestinian group Hamas near the coastal Lebanese city of Tripoli.An Israeli strike on a vehicle near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has killed at least three people and injured 13 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says, in the latest breach of a ceasefire between the two countries. The attack in the Ayrounieh area on Tuesday came as Israel intensifies its strikes in Lebanon amid Hezbollah’s weakened position, the Lebanese army’s inability to fight back and the international community’s failure to pressure Israel to abide by the truce. The strike near Lebanon’s…

PARIS (news agencies) — Only Chanel would call its legendary Rue Cambon salon “too small” — then rebuild it, supersized, in a palace.On Tuesday, as the house marked 110 years of its haute couture — a century and more of Coco Chanel’s revolution in how women dress — it blew up its atelier as a giant set inside the freshly restored Grand Palais, turning intimacy into spectacle for a nature-drenched show at Paris Couture Week.Chanel, whose founder banished corsets and reimagined luxury as liberation, showed just how far that legacy stretches — from the tiny salons of 1915 to its…

PORTLAND, Maine (news agencies) — Attorneys for the state of Maine and a conservative lawmaker who identified a transgender teen student athlete online now agree that the lawmaker’s appeal over her loss of voting rights for her post is now moot.Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete in a February social media post that went viral and called into question the student’s gender identity, bringing attention to the issue of transgender teens participating in sports. Maine’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives censured Libby for violating the House code of ethics and blocked her from speaking and voting on the floor.Libby…

LOS ANGELES (news agencies) — Real estate investors are snapping up a bigger share of U.S. homes on the market as rising prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs freeze out many other would-be homebuyers.Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors — the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData. Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%.All told, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2% from the same period…

PARIS (news agencies) — Kylian Mbappé has dropped the legal proceedings he started this year against Paris Saint-Germain for moral harassment, a person with knowledge of the situation told the media.The Paris prosecutor’s office last month said Mbappé accused the club in a legal filing, and opened an investigation. A person close to the France captain said on Tuesday that Mbappé’s decision to end that legal procedure was linked to a desire for reconciliation with his former club. The person was not authorized to speak publicly in line with the practice of Mbappé’s entourage.The France captain is at odds with…

A few songs into the second studio album from buzzy English post-punks Wet Leg, singer Rhian Teasdale yells “level up!” And level up they have. The alt-rock duo-turned-group took their time to complete their sophomore release, titled “Moisturizer.” It was worth the wait. The album is a terrific soundtrack for a long, hot summer.The Grammy Award-winning Wet Leg emerged from England’s Isle of Wight in 2021 with the quirky viral hit, “Chaise Longue,” which released before they had ever performed live. The song immediately charmed audiences, a cheeky track centered on Teasdale’s deadpan delivery and guitarist Heather Chambers’ chunky, jagged…

It’s not just Texas and North Carolina. Intense rain is falling more frequently in many areas of the U.S. — though where it occurs and whether it causes catastrophic flooding is largely a matter of chance, according to experts. More than 100 people died in Texas Hill Country over the weekend after 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain fell in just hours. The deluge was driven by warm, moist air left over from Tropical Storm Barry and Hurricane Flossie that created conditions for repeated thunderstorms in the same location, said Texas Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.Last year, Hurricane Helene dumped more than…

The Yemeni group, which has not claimed responsibility for the attack, says Israel-linked ships are ‘legitimate target’.A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi group on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea has killed three sailors and wounded two others, a European Union naval force says. The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C late on Monday follows the Houthis claiming they attacked another vessel on Sunday in the Red Sea, a vital maritime trade route. While the Houthis have not yet claimed the attack, the US Embassy in Yemen and the EU force blamed them for it. “The Houthis are…