Dragons Close Out Season With Comeback Victory over Bucknell - Drexel Dragons

PHILADELPHIA – The Dragons closed out the 2021 season on a strong note with a comeback 2-1 victory over Bucknell University on Sunday afternoon. Drexel finished the year with a 6-14 record and finished in fifth place in the CAA with a 2-4 record.

Drexel honored the careers of its four seniors prior to the start of the game including Reilly Finegan, Sharri Kambesis, Hannah Nihill and Katie Ronan.

The Dragons and the Bison battled for points early but both defenses held strong through the first quarter. Despite outshooting Bucknell 11-4 through the first 30, the Bison found success in the 17^th minute to take a 1-0 lead into the second half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Avery Powell gave the Dragons the fighting chance they needed with an unassisted goal at the 49:52 mark for her sixth goal of the season. Drexel's offense fed off the momentum of Powell's goal minutes later as Shannon Tringola and Eline Di Leva gave the Dragons the go-ahead on a penalty corner in the 52^nd minute, ultimately securing the victory.
 

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Joliet Township: Over 12 shot, 2 fatally, at Halloween party - Chicago Sun-Times

More than 12 people were wounded, two of them fatally, in a shooting early Sunday at a Halloween party in Will County, authorities said.

The shooting erupted about 12:40 a.m. near a DJ booth that was set up in the backyard of a home in the 1000 block of East Jackson Street in Joliet Township, according to a statement from the Will County sheriff’s office.

Witnesses told detectives that two gunmen opened fire “from an elevated position on a porch looking down over the crowd” of more than 200 people.

A patrol sergeant who was in the area heard as many as 12 gunshots ring out near Jackson and Walnut streets and began investigating, the sheriff’s office said. The sergeant then saw over 100 people rushing east on Jackson, and he was directed to the home.

Police officials ultimately found over a dozen people suffering from gunshot wounds in the backyard and at nearby residences, the sheriff’s office said. As authorities were investigating, additional shots were heard in the area.

Two of the victims succumbed to their wounds, while four others suffered injuries that were thought to be life-threatening, the sheriff’s office said.

Those who died hadn’t been identified by Sunday evening because their families hadn’t yet been notified.

News of the Halloween gathering had spread on social media, attracting a larger crowd than what the organizers had expected, according to Elizabeth Arias, a neighbor who said she was a relative of the people who threw the party.

Several neighbors knew something wasn’t right when they saw parked cars lined both sides of the streets in what is typically a quiet neighborhood. At least three people said they had called the police to report loud music and ask for crowd control. The party organizers also called the police, according to Arias, who spoke to them earlier in the day.

Police arrived but were “just out here waiting for them to leave,” Arias said.

“This could’ve been avoided,” said Arias, whose son and niece were at the get-together.

Police tape blocks access to the house where more than 12 people were wounded, two of them fatally, in a shooting early Sunday at a Halloween party near the 1000 block of Jackson Street in Joliet Township.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Arias’ son told her that organizers had shut the music off and told people that the police were on their way in an attempt to get people to leave. But that didn’t happen.

Another woman who lived near the event said she heard the gunshots as she laid in bed. When she got to her porch she saw a chaotic scene of a stampede of young people running, leaving behind crushed red cups and beer cans.

“It was crazy, kids running everywhere screaming. But police were here, they were on it,” the woman said.

Arias and her neighbor took in some of the rattled partygoers who were seeking shelter.

“You could hear more shots being fired,” Arias said. People were running through a wooded area near the home, using their cellphone’s flashlights to see where they were going. Some even jumped over a fence. “It was so scary … It was something out of the movies.”

Arias said she had never seen anything like what happened Sunday morning.

“That’s why I refuse to move because it’s so quiet here,” she said.

Another woman said she had moved to the area three years ago from the West Side of Chicago to get away from gun violence.

“This is the first time” something like this happened, she said. “This is crazy.”

One of the suspected shooters was described as a Hispanic male with facial hair and a medium build who was seen wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, a black flat-billed hat and dark pants, the sheriff’s office said.

The other suspect, who donned a ski mask, was described as a male — possibly Hispanic or Black of a light complexion — with a medium build, the sheriff’s office said. He was seen wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt.

The sheriff’s office is seeking further assistance identifying the shooters. Anyone with information, including cellphone photos or video of the party, should contact Detective Danielle Strohm at (815) 727-8574 or dstrohm@willcosheriff.org.

Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can submit a tip to the sheriff’s office’s website or contact Will County Crime Stoppers at (800) 323-6734 or its website.

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Global Shipping Delays Loom Over Retailers for the Holidays - The New York Times

The travails of a Chicago fishing company’s advent calendar highlight the supply chain hurdles for businesses trying to deliver items in time for the holidays.

WASHINGTON — It was 73 days until Christmas, and the clock was ticking down for Catch Co.

The Chicago-based fishing company had secured a spot to sell a new product, an advent calendar for fishing enthusiasts dubbed “12 Days of Fishmas,” in 2,650 Walmart stores nationwide. But like so many products this holiday season, the calendars were mired in a massive traffic jam in the flow of goods from Asian factories to American store shelves.

With Black Friday rapidly approaching, many of the calendars were stuck in a 40-foot steel box in the yard at the Port of Long Beach, blocked by other containers stuffed with toys, furniture and car parts. Truckers had come several times to pick up the Catch Co. container but been turned away. Dozens more ships sat in the harbor, waiting their turn to dock. It was just one tiny piece in a vast maze of shipping containers that thousands of American retailers were trying desperately to reach.

“There’s delays in every single piece of the supply chain,” said Tim MacGuidwin, the company’s chief operations officer. “You’re very much not in control.”

Catch Co. is one of the many companies finding themselves at the mercy of global supply chain disruptions this year. Worker shortages, pandemic shutdowns, strong consumer demand and other factors have come together to fracture the global conveyor belt that shuffles consumer goods from Chinese factories, through American ports and along railways and freeways to households and stores around the United States.

American shoppers are growing nervous as they realize certain toys, electronics and bicycles may not arrive in time for the holidays. Shortages of both finished products and components needed to make things like cars are feeding into rising prices, halting work at American factories and dampening economic growth.

The disruptions have also become a problem for President Biden, who has been vilified on Fox News as “the Grinch who stole Christmas.”

The White House’s supply chain task force has been working with private companies to try to speed the flow of goods, even considering deploying the National Guard to help drive trucks. But the president appears to have limited power to alleviate a supply chain crisis that is both global in nature and linked to much larger economic forces that are out of his control. On Sunday, Mr. Biden met with other world leaders at the Group of 20 in Rome to discuss supply chain challenges.

On Oct. 13, the same day that Catch Co. was waiting for its calendars to clear the port, Mr. Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles and companies like FedEx and Walmart would move toward around the clock operations, joining the Port of Long Beach, where one terminal had begun staying open 24 hours just weeks before.

Shipping containers stacked up at the Port of Long Beach in California in October. One terminal has begun operating 24 hours. Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

Many of Catch Co.’s advent calendars were stuck in the yard at the Port of Long Beach. Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

“This is a big first step in speeding up the movement of materials and goods through our supply chain,” Mr. Biden said. “But now we need the rest of the private sector chain to step up as well.”

Mr. MacGuidwin praised the announcement but said it had come too late to make much difference for Catch Co., which had been working through supply chain headaches for many months.

The company’s problems first began with the pandemic-related factory shutdowns in China and other countries, which led to a shortage in the graphite used to make fishing poles. A worldwide scramble for shipping containers soon followed, as Americans began spending less on movies, travel and restaurants, and more on outfitting their home offices, gyms and playrooms with products made in Asian factories.

Shipping rates soared tenfold, and big companies turned to extreme measures to deliver their goods. Walmart, Costco and Target began chartering their own ships to ferry products from Asia and hired thousands of new warehouse employees and truck drivers.

Smaller companies like Catch Co. were struggling to keep up. As soon as Apple launched a new iPhone, for example, the available shipping containers vanished, diverted to ship Apple’s products overseas.

The timing could not have been worse for Catch Co., which was seeing demand for its poles, lures and other products surge, as fishing became an ideal pandemic hobby. The company turned briefly to air freighting products to meet demand, but at five or six times the cost of sea freight, it cut into the company’s profits.

The supply chain woes became an even bigger problem for Catch Co.’s “12 Days of Fishmas” calendar, which featured the company’s plastic worms, silver fish hooks and painted lures hiding behind cardboard windows. The calendar, which retails for $24.98, was a “big deal” for the company, Mr. MacGuidwin said. It would account for more than 15 percent of the company’s holiday sales and introduce customers to its other products. But it had an expiration date: Who would buy an advent calendar after Christmas?

Mr. MacGuidwin thought briefly about storing late arrivals for next year before realizing the calendar said “2021.”

Catch Co. had secured a spot to sell a new product, an advent calendar dubbed “The 12 Days of Fishmas,” in 2,650 Walmart stores nationwide.Chase Castor for The New York Times

Boxes of the calendars were prepared for distribution in Kansas City.Chase Castor for The New York Times

“It cannot be sold after Christmas,” he said. “It is a scrapped product after that.”

Like many American companies, Catch Co. had tried to prepare for the global delays.

The Chinese factories the company works with began manufacturing the calendar in April, before Walmart had even confirmed its orders. On July 10, the calendars were shipped to the port at Qingdao. But a global container shortage kept the calendars idling at the Chinese port for a month, awaiting for a box to be shipped in.

On Sept. 1, nearly three weeks after setting sail across the Pacific Ocean, the vessel anchored off the coast of Southern California, alongside 119 other ships vying to unload. Two weeks later Catch Co.’s containers were off the ship, where they descended into the maze of boxes at the Port of Long Beach.

Inside the Box

The twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles — which together process 40 percent of the shipping containers brought into the United States — have struggled to keep up with the surge in imports for many months.

Together, the Southern California ports handled 15.3 million 20-foot containers in the first nine months of the year, up about a quarter from last year. Dockworkers and truckers had worked long hours throughout the pandemic. More than 100 trains, each at least three miles long, were leaving the Los Angeles basin each day.

But by this fall, the ports and warehouses of Southern California were so overstuffed that many cranes at the port had actually come to a standstill, without space to store the containers or truckers to ferry them away.

On Sept. 21, the Port of Long Beach announced that it had started a trial to keep one terminal open around the clock. A few weeks later, at Mr. Biden’s urging and with the support of various unions, the Port of Los Angeles and Union Pacific’s nearby California facility joined in.

So far, few truckers have arrived during the expanded hours. The ports have pointed to bottlenecks in other parts of the supply chain — including a shortage of truckers and overstuffed warehouses that can’t fit more products through their doors.

“We are in a national crisis,” said Mario Cordero, the executive director of the port of Long Beach. “It’s going to be an ongoing dynamic until we have full control of the virus that’s before us.”

Worker shortages at warehouses have led to delays.Chase Castor for The New York Times

Truckers, who have worked long hours throughout the pandemic, are also in short supply.Chase Castor for The New York Times

In the past, Catch Co. would often ship products from West Coast ports by rail. But longer travel times on rail lines — as well as the high demand for containers at Chinese ports — mean shipping companies have been loath to let their containers stray too far from the ocean.

So instead, the Catch Co. calendars were moved by truck to a warehouse outside the port owned by freight forwarder Flexport. There, they were placed on another truck to be shipped to Catch Co.’s Kansas City distribution center, where workers would repack the calendars for Walmart.

Mr. MacGuidwin estimated that the calendars would arrive in Walmart stores by Nov. 17 — just in time for Black Friday. The calendar’s entire trip from factory to store shelves would take about 130 days this year, compared with the typical 60.

Mr. MacGuidwin said he believes supply chain difficulties may ease next year, as ports, rails and trucking companies gradually work through their backlogs. Asia remains the best place to manufacture many of their goods, he said. But if shipping costs remain high and disruptions continue, they may consider sourcing more products from the United States and Latin America.

Catch Co. has already started designing its calendar for next year and is still deciding whether it should say “2022.”

“It’s an open question,” said Mr. MacGuidwin.

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Virginia gubernatorial race is split over COVID-19 restrictions, race and the economy - NPR

Eyes are on Virginia this week as voters elect a new governor. We hear from some in blue-leaning Arlington and in solidly-red Hanover about what's motivating them this election.

ASMA KHALID, HOST:

There's an old saying that all politics is local, but that doesn't seem so apt anymore. In Virginia, thorny cultural issues like race and vaccine mandates are all jumbled up as folks decide who to pick as their new governor on November 2.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GLENN YOUNGKIN: We have a moment here, a defining moment, where we all get to change the trajectory of this great Commonwealth of Virginia not just for Virginians, but for the entire United States of America.

KHALID: That's Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate down near the Virginia-North Carolina border the other night. Meanwhile, on the opposite edge of the state...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TERRY MCAULIFFE: We cannot let Glenn Youngkin be in charge of our children's education or their health.

KHALID: The Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, brought the president of the United States to campaign for him at a rally just outside of Washington, D.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: So, Virginia, show up. Show up like you did for Barack and me.

(CHEERING)

KHALID: McAuliffe is running for governor again after leaving office four years ago.

We're in Arlington, the reliably blue part of the state. These are the crowded suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., where you can find a Vietnamese strip mall down the road from a kabob joint. It's a microcosm of a changing America. Lisa Soronen is a Democrat, but she's not thrilled with her candidate, even though she's here at his campaign event on a chilly, windy weeknight.

LISA SORONEN: I was disappointed in some ways that it was Terry McAuliffe because he's already been governor, and there were some great women candidates, great candidates of color.

KHALID: But, she figures, at least he knows what to do in the job. Plus, she says, she's really concerned about the pandemic and how a Republican governor might handle or mishandle the situation in schools.

SORONEN: I have a school-age child who isn't vaccinated, and I have a sister in Georgia. She sends me every single COVID notice she has, and they're daily - multiple daily. And I don't have to worry about that.

KHALID: Schools, school masking, school board meetings, school curriculum - it's all become possibly the most explosive subject this campaign cycle. We meet Harold Anderson in the crowd just as the campaign speeches are getting underway. He's been teaching high school math at a public school for 30 years, and he told us about this comment that's been making headlines. The GOP candidate, Glenn Youngkin, has been blasting his opponent, Terry McAuliffe, for saying during a debate that he did not think parents should tell schools what to teach.

HAROLD ANDERSON: You can't let a parent come in and run a school system, and that's why you elect a school board. They make decisions for you.

KHALID: For some people here, the race is about keeping this newly blue state blue. Democrats are getting anxious because polls show the candidates running neck and neck. They say this election should never have been this competitive. Joe Biden easily won Virginia last year. Still, pundits and pollsters are obsessively watching this governor's race to figure out how schools, the economy and vaccines might all factor into the 2022 midterm elections.

Northern Virginia is home turf for Democrats, but there are worries about how many Democrats will actually make it to the polls, especially Black and brown voters. Kelly Hebron has been hearing about this.

KELLY HEBRON: And some folks are like, oh, I'm not even going to vote, and we don't want to hear that because whether or not you're happy or not with a party, this is what we have to work with. And I think too many people don't feel like they're having a voice. And I think that is why this race is close.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes, this is a little bit tricky.

KHALID: We drive less than two hours south, and we're in Hanover County, a consistently red part of the state with high voter turnout. Folks here preferred Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There's yours, and there's yours. Thank you for voting.

KHALID: We meet Anthony Hess just as he walked out of the main early voting site. He tells us he's skeptical of politicians like Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

ANTHONY HESS: He's too, like, nationwide, I think, not really Virginia-based. Like, bringing in Biden and Obama - it's not really here. I think he's more in the next level. I want someone that's going to focus on Virginia.

KHALID: Hess voted for Youngkin, the Republican. Youngkin has never held public office. He made his fortune leading one of the most prominent private equity firms in the country, the Carlyle Group. And that matters because the economy is on a lot of voters' minds - voters like Nicole Anderson, who has a small construction business that does roofing.

NICOLE ANDERSON: I did vote for Youngkin.

KHALID: OK. How do you think the Democrats have handled the economy here in the state?

ANDERSON: Extremely poorly. I understand that things need to be done during the COVID vaccines when things were shut down. But unfortunately, I think they held that relief too long. And so everybody is looking for people to work. No matter what you're doing as an employer, you're dealing with shortages. You're dealing with shortages on materials and equipment and supplies at every single solitary level. And people are not returning to work. And so it's just going to continue to snowball.

KHALID: Are you - do - like, supply shortages or people shortages?

ANDERSON: All the above.

KHALID: OK.

ANDERSON: So for instance, the materials on some of the projects that I need are not available until August of 2022, so it makes it exceptionally difficult to be able to do our jobs.

KHALID: Republicans nationwide are eager to blame Democrats for inflation and supply shortages. They argue that business-minded Republicans would improve the economy. And here in Virginia, conservatives are particularly upbeat about their odds in this election. The local GOP chairwoman sees this cultural moment as ripe for Republicans.

DALE ALDERMAN: People are very involved in Hanover. They're very patriotic. They love their country. I think people in this county feel that America is kind of on a collision course for very bad things. You know, they don't like critical race theory. It's basically used to indoctrinate people.

KHALID: To be clear, Hanover County Public Schools has said it is not teaching critical race theory, and local Democrats say it's not the real issue here.

PAT JORDAN: My name is Pat Jordan, and I am the president of our Hanover County NAACP.

KHALID: Jordan says her family has lived in Hanover County for more than 200 years.

JORDAN: So when I'm told by some of the people with differing views from ours to leave Hanover, I say I can't leave Hanover because this is my country, my county.

KHALID: Last year, the Hanover School Board agreed to rename two public schools named after Confederate generals. This was after years of pressure and a lawsuit. Jordan wants a governor that's an ally, and so she's cast her ballot for the Democrat, McAuliffe. She says Republicans are sensitive to change.

JORDAN: They don't want to be called racists. But your actions speak for you. And if you have to fight against the simple change in the name of a school, that speaks to me of racism. If you have to always threaten and call names of people who come to the school board meetings to express different opinions from you, those are racist things that are being done.

KHALID: Have you been called names?

JORDAN: I've been called names. I've gotten threats.

KHALID: Do you mind me asking what kind?

JORDAN: Yeah, the threats that I've gotten are telling me to leave Hanover County because of my quote, "BS agenda." I do not believe that I am going to run from anyone. I just know that change is coming here. In church we say there's a shifting in the spirit. And I feel that shift taking place in Hanover County. And that is why I think there is so much unrest right now, because I believe others see that as well.

THOMAS LEACHMAN: This is a family home. This is my grandfather's home. So my grandfather was the longtime Democrat here in the county.

KHALID: We meet Thomas Leachman to talk politics on his broad wraparound porch just yards away from the railroad tracks where trains speed by like clockwork. Leachman proudly remembers voting for Barack Obama in 2008.

LEACHMAN: Politically, I'm a tough nut to crack. For a majority of my life, I've been more left.

KHALID: And in 2013, when Terry McAuliffe first ran for governor of Virginia, Leachman was behind him.

So you did identify with Terry McAuliffe as governor when he ran the last time?

LEACHMAN: Absolutely, yeah.

KHALID: And why so?

LEACHMAN: Just because I think he was - he was a different - he was a different person to me. I think he's power-hungry this time, and I think he's changed a lot. I really changed my feelings of Terry McAuliffe towards - when Trump got elected because I felt like he was so, so ugly about Donald Trump. And he wasn't - he wasn't part of the solution. He was part of the problem with some of the - some of the hate that we see.

KHALID: It sounded like you voted for President Trump.

LEACHMAN: Yes.

KHALID: You voted - maybe you voted for him twice. I don't know.

LEACHMAN: Yes, I did.

KHALID: You voted for President Trump twice. You voted for Barack Obama the first time.

LEACHMAN: Yes.

KHALID: Not the second time.

LEACHMAN: Romney the second time.

KHALID: So what's made you move away from that Democratic Party that your grandpa was such a, you know, committed member of?

LEACHMAN: One of the things that's really irks me is the rise of identity politics that has been used by the Democratic Party in Virginia over the past six-plus years. That is really what I think has really sent me more so than any other thing because I just - I'm so, so frustrated by everything being racist every single time.

KHALID: But more important than party politics, he likes Youngkin.

LEACHMAN: I just identify with him more. You know, I just think he's a, you know, what you see is what you get type person. You know, I like his story. He's a Virginian, too. He's a true Virginian, whereas, you know, Terry McAuliffe is a come-here Virginian.

KHALID: Just as we were about to wrap up the conversation, Leachman pointed over to the corner of his lawn.

LEACHMAN: Over there, you'll see a political sign. First...

KHALID: It's a Glenn Youngkin sign.

LEACHMAN: Yeah, it's a Youngkin sign, but it's the first political sign that's ever been a Republican in this yard, probably since whenever they started doing political signs.

KHALID: And it may not be a political sign, but Leachman does have another symbol in his yard - the flag of Virginia. It's billowing from his front porch, and it's been there for years. Leachman says it does not matter who wins the governor's race this Tuesday. He'll keep flying that flag.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KHALID: This story was produced by Hiba Ahmad and edited by Melissa Gray.

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Tottenham hold crisis talks over Nuno Espirito Santo's future amid poor form - sources - ESPN

11:23 AM ET

Tottenham Hotspur are considering whether to sack Nuno Espirito Santo in the wake of fan unrest during Saturday's 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United, sources have told ESPN.

Spurs are eighth in the Premier League after losing five of their opening 10 matches following Nuno's appointment in the summer.

- Don't have ESPN? Get instant access

Sources told ESPN chairman Daniel Levy is talking with footballing director Fabio Paratici on Sunday but is reluctant to make a knee-jerk decision so early in the campaign. However, the level of hostility from the club's supporters inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend is said to have surprised many senior figures at the club.

Chants of "You don't know what you're doing" were aimed at Nuno as he substituted Lucas Moura for Steven Bergwijn early in the second half before fans demanded "We want Levy out" and appeared to aim boos in the direction of club captain Harry Kane, who had his desired move to Manchester City blocked before the start of the campaign.

It is unclear at this stage whether Nuno will be sacked, but one source has claimed "all options are open" after a damaging result in which the team were booed off at half-time and full-time.

Nuno Espirito Santo is under pressure at Tottenham. Photo by IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images

Asked after the game whether he was confident he would be given the time to turn things around, Nuno replied: "I'm only thinking about the next training session because there are no words that are going to solve the situation.

"The booing and disappointment of the fans is understandable. When they don't see the team that they expect -- and I truly expect we are better than we showed today -- they are going to boo. It is up to us to change the mood."

Spurs face Vitesse in the Europa Conference League on Thursday and are third in Group G having lost the reverse fixture in the Netherlands, before a league trip to Everton next Sunday.

Tottenham declined to comment when ESPN contacted them.

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The absence of key world leaders hangs over Biden's first G-20 - CNN

Rome (CNN)When the leaders of the Group of 20 assembled for their family photo here on a blue-carpeted riser, there were a few unfamiliar faces among the most powerful people on the planet.

Standing in for the absent heads of China, Russia, Japan and Mexico were lower-level ministers dispatched in their places, a smattering of the less-well-known among some of the globe's most recognizable leaders.

In some ways, this year's in-person G-20 summit has a feeling of the world playing its second string. Several prominent leaders are remaining at home instead of traveling to the Eternal City for the yearly gathering.

Among those who didn't attend are Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two counterparts who President Joe Biden desperately hopes to personally engage as he works to prevent already-tense relationships from deteriorating further.

The given reason for Xi and Putin's absences at the G20 -- and a subsequent climate summit in Scotland that starts Monday -- is the ongoing Covid pandemic. Cases are spiking in Russia, and Xi hasn't left China in 21 months as the virus spread across the world. Visiting the G20 may also have subjected Xi to his country's quarantine requirements, which would have made attending an upcoming party congress meeting difficult.

Still, the decision to forgo one of the world's foremost diplomatic events only fuels the sense that Xi and Putin have become less concerned with global cooperation as their countries draw international condemnation for cyber attacks, military aggression and human rights abuses. For leaders who have consolidated power dramatically, it was unlikely their underlings at the summits would be authorized to make important decisions alongside heads of state.

Absence of Xi and Putin both helps and hinders Biden

White House officials insist the absence of Putin and Xi at this weekend's conference is not, in fact, a lost opportunity. Instead, they suggest the void has allowed the United States and European leaders to set the agenda and drive discussion on topics important to them, like climate and combating the global pandemic.

Yet on nearly every major issue up for discussion at the G20 -- climate, Covid, an energy crunch, supply chain clogs, Iran's nuclear ambitions -- western nations must work with Russia and China to make any significant progress. And Biden, who has voiced a preference for in-person summits, is deprived of a critical opportunity to wield his trademark brand of personal diplomacy on some of the world's stickiest conundrums.

"I think it shows to some extent their own priorities," said Ambassador Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, of Xi and Putin's decision to participate only virtually in this weekend's G20.

"It's only an opportunity if you translate it into reality," Haass added. "Can you get the Europeans, for example, to line up to a serious policy towards China and trade and investment or threatening them with sanctions if they use force against Taiwan? Will the Europeans reduce their dependence on Russian energy? So, we can talk in general about opportunity, but I think there's real questions about what we can translate into policy and reality."

Neither Putin and Xi are diplomatic recluses; both regularly speak with foreign counterparts, including a phone call between Biden and Xi last month and a closely watched summit with Putin and Biden in Switzerland in June.

Both were signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, which Biden is looking to restore, and both have participated in climate summits convened this year by the White House. Russia and China have also taken a lead role in communicating with the Taliban after its takeover of Afghanistan following the American withdrawal.

Yet their engagements are often selective and have not prevented them from steering their countries against the international order.

In the week preceding the G20, Russian warships staged a mock landing in Crimea, the territory in Ukraine annexed by Moscow in 2014, and it was revealed the Russian hackers behind a successful 2020 breach of US federal agencies have in recent months tried to infiltrate US and European government networks.

China, meanwhile, has increased military overflights into Taiwan's airspace. The island nation's status and its relationship to the US -- always a fraught issue for Beijing's rulers -- are now among the thorniest points of disagreement in the increasingly tense US-China relationship.

Even without Xi at the summit, China has proved an enduring topic of conversation.

"This has been a central topic of conversation, not as some kind of block formation or new Cold War-style engagement, but rather as dealing with a very complex challenge in a clear-eyed and highly coordinated way," a senior administration official said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said that even if Xi is absent from the diplomatic gatherings, his decisions will play an important role for the future of the globe.

"I think it's ultimately going to be up to China, as now currently the world's largest emitter, to decide whether it is going to do the right and important thing for its own people, but also for everyone around the world," Blinken told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

Blinken added: "Beijing is going to have to decide whether it's going to live up to its responsibilities starting with its own people who are affected directly by climate change."

Sideline discussions go missing

In video remarks played at the G20 on Saturday, both Xi and Putin raised concerns about the global vaccination effort, and each complained their countries' shots weren't being recognized by international bodies. They were expected to participate virtually in additional sessions later in the summit, but because they are not attending in person, won't have the chance to follow up on their concerns with fellow leaders.

Often, the most substantive discussions at international summits happen on the margins of the official plenary sessions, which are carefully scripted and rarely generate unexpected news.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit in 2016, held in China, then-President Barack Obama cornered Putin and told him to "cut it out" as revelations emerged of Russia's massive cyber-intrusions ahead of that year's presidential elections.

At the G20 two years later, Putin found himself during a leaders' dinner speaking to then-President Donald Trump without any staff or notetakers present. At the same summit, held in Buenos Aires, Trump met with Xi on the side and agreed to restart stalled trade talks.

Early in his presidency, after aides arranged virtual "visits" from world leaders to mimic the import of a White House invite, Biden complained the encounters seemed stilted and lacked the warmth of a face-to-face.

"There is no substitute, as those of you who have covered me for a while know, for a face-to-face dialogue between leaders. None," Biden said in June after concluded an in-person summit with Putin in Geneva.

Early this summer, the White House had eyed this weekend's G20 as a potential venue for Biden's first in-person meeting with Xi since becoming President, a key opportunity to check in as tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing. In meetings and phone calls, US officials gauged Chinese interest in arranging such an encounter.

It became clear as time went on, however, that such a meeting would be unlikely. The White House has said there is still no date set for a virtual meeting between Biden and Xi, though it is expected to occur before the end of the year.

"They will be able to sit as close to face to face as technology allows to see one another and spend a significant amount of time going over the full agenda," national security adviser Jake Sullivan said ahead of Biden's departure to Europe.

Those types of encounters won't be possible in Rome, at least with Xi or Putin. Biden did have a number of informal conversations with the leaders who did decide to attend and met for more substantive talks with French President Emmanuel Macron to smooth over a row involving nuclear-powered submarines.

China remains front and center

Xi's absence hasn't meant that China has fallen off the agenda here; European leaders are watching closely as tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing, particularly over Taiwan.

In an interview with CNN this week, Taiwan's president acknowledged for the first time the presence of US troops on the island for training purposes, a major development that was not received well in Beijing. As he traveled to Rome to represent Xi at the G20, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the US and its partners not to interfere in Taiwan's affairs.

In their talks on Friday, Biden and Macron spent the most time behind the scenes discussing China, a senior administration official said, calling it a "three-dimensional discussion."

"Not like how are we going to get together to go contain China or not how are we going to go start a new Cold War as allies, but rather: How do we contend with the questions that China's rise poses to democracies, to allies, to market economies?" the official said, describing the two presidents' talks. "And how do we do that in a way that protects our country's interests and our values while at the same time doesn't seek confrontation or conflict?"

Asked last week if it was a mistake for Xi not to attend this year's G20, Sullivan said he wouldn't characterize the Chinese president's decision making. But he acknowledged there was so substitute to meetings between leaders.

"In an era of intense competition between the US and China," Sullivan said, "intense diplomacy, leader level diplomacy, is vital to effectively managing this relationship."

CNN's Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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Pulled Over: What to Know About Deadly Police Traffic Stops - The New York Times

A New York Times investigation examines why traffic stops can escalate into fatal encounters and how hidden financial incentives increase the risks. This is what we found.

When Daunte Wright was killed last spring by a police officer in Minnesota after being pulled over for expired registration tags, the case drew national attention. So have several other seemingly avoidable deaths of motorists.

Now, a New York Times investigation reveals the scope of such cases across the country — and why traffic stops for minor offenses can escalate into fatal encounters.

• Over the last five years, The Times found, the police killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife or under pursuit for a violent crime.

• Traffic stops — which are often motivated by hidden budgetary considerations because of the ticket revenue they generate — are the most common interactions between police officers and the public. Yet the police consider them among the most dangerous things they do.

• That presumption of peril has been significantly overstated, but it has become ingrained in police culture and court precedents — contributing to impunity for most officers who use lethal force at vehicle stops.

Here are some other key findings.

How encounters escalate

Many of the vehicle stops The Times reviewed began for common traffic violations like broken taillights, or for questioning about nonviolent offenses like shoplifting.

From there, things escalated. More than three-quarters of the motorists were killed trying to flee. In dozens of encounters, officers stepped in front of moving vehicles or reached inside car windows, then fired their guns, claiming self-defense.

In other cases, the police responded aggressively to disrespect or defiance, punishing what some officers call “contempt of cop.”

“We have got to take him out,” an Oklahoma state trooper declared over the radio in 2019 to patrolmen chasing a man suspected of shoplifting vodka. The officers forced his S.U.V. from the road, opened a door as it rolled slowly past and shot from both sides, killing the driver.

Few convictions, but settlement payouts

In case after case, officers avoided criminal liability when they claimed to have acted in self-defense.

In the roughly 400 deaths, five officers were convicted. Nearly two dozen cases are still pending. While prosecutors deemed most of the killings justifiable, local governments paid at least $125 million to resolve legal claims in about 40 cases.

Grant Fredericks, a forensic video analyst, testifying during the 2018 trial over the death of Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old passenger killed by an officer in Balch Springs, Texas.Pool Photo by Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News

Overstated risks stoke fears

Trainers often use misleading statistics and gory dashcam videos of drivers gunning down officers during traffic stops to teach cadets to be hypervigilant, The Times found.

“All you’ve heard are horror stories about what could happen,” said Sarah Mooney, assistant police chief in West Palm Beach. “It is very difficult to try to train that out of somebody.”

There are genuine risks, but studies have found that an officer’s chances of ending up dead at a vehicle stop are less than 1 in 3.6 million. Over the past five years, and at least 100 million traffic stops, motorists who had been pulled over killed about 60 police officers, primarily by gunshots, according to a Times analysis.

A financial incentive to stop motorists

Many communities rely heavily on ticket revenue to fund their budgets, effectively turning their officers into revenue agents searching for violations, even minor ones, to support municipal needs — including their own pay raises.

For example, Valley Brook, Okla., a town of under 900 people, collects roughly $1 million from traffic cases annually.

The federal government also contributes to the traffic stops with $600 million a year in highway safety grants that reward ticket writing. In applying for these grants, at least 20 states have used the number of traffic stops per hour to evaluate police performance, a practice that critics say encourages overpolicing.

Evidence of racial bias

In the deaths reviewed by The Times, Black drivers were overrepresented relative to the population. Kalfani Ture, a criminologist and former Georgia police officer who is Black, said overstating the risks to officers compounded racial bias.

“Police think ‘vehicle stops are dangerous’ and ‘Black people are dangerous,’ and the combination is volatile,” he said.

The problem is especially acute at so-called pretextual stops, he added, where officers seek out minor violations — expired registration, tinted windows — to search a car they consider suspicious.

Going beyond the ‘final frame’

Criminologists call it officer-created jeopardy when the police put themselves in harm’s way by stepping in front of a moving car or reaching inside a car window.

Many courts do not consider those circumstances, focusing only on the “final frame” when an officer pulled the trigger at a moment of imminent harm. That standard has given the police broad protection from legal accountability.

Some argue that judges and juries should scrutinize the actions of officers before they opened fire. The Times’s visual investigations team did just that, rewinding video from more than 100 deadly traffic stops and breaking down three cases in minute detail. The footage suggests that dozens of deaths could have been avoided had police officers not put themselves in danger.

The Times examined video or audio from more than 180 encounters; interviewed dozens of chiefs, officers, trainers and prosecutors; analyzed information from the U.S. Census Bureau; and reviewed hundreds of lawsuits, municipal audit reports, town budgets, court files and state highway records. The investigation built on data collected by The Washington Post and the research groups Mapping Police Violence and Fatal Encounters.

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When Will January 6th Be Over? - The New Yorker

After Donald Trump lost the Presidential election last year, a law professor named John Eastman drafted, for Trump’s use, a two-page manual for unlawfully throwing out the electoral votes of certain states as they were being tallied in Congress, on January 6th. The name he mentions most often in the memo is that of Vice-President Mike Pence. It appears in such statements as “Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected” and, regarding disrupting the count, “The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission.” Eastman also spoke at Trump’s January 6th rally, where he said that what “we are demanding of Vice-President Pence” is that he intervene in the electoral count. Trump, speaking shortly afterward, cited Eastman’s authority when he said, “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.”

Illustration by João Fazenda

Soon afterward, the assault on the Capitol began, and, once it became clear that the Vice-President was not going to do what Trump and his allies demanded, a group of insurrectionists chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Members of the Pence family were also in the Capitol, and in danger. Eastman is expected to be subpoenaed in the coming days by the House select committee investigating the events surrounding January 6th. In addition to writing that memo, and a revised, more detailed one—in which he declares that letting the results stand would mean that Americans were no longer “a self-governing people”—he attended a meeting with Trump and Pence in the Oval Office on January 4th. (Eastman says that he ultimately advised Pence to delay the count, not to stage a coup.) An area of inquiry for the committee is how much pressure Trump put on Pence to help him overturn the election. (A lot, it seems.)

But one person who doesn’t appear eager to dwell on that question, at least not publicly, is Pence himself, who has been biding his time giving speeches and setting up an organization called Advancing American Freedom. Last month, in an interview with Sean Hannity, on Fox News, he said that the media is trying to use January 6th to distract from President Biden’s “failed agenda” and to “demean the character and intentions” of people who voted for Trump. He assured Hannity that he and Trump had “parted amicably” after leaving office, and had stayed in touch. On social media and in a podcast he has launched, he steadily repeats the phrase “Trump-Pence Administration”—linking his name with that of a man who was ready to abandon him to a mob.

Pence’s position is intriguing on a human level, but it is significant in political terms, too, because it captures so much about the state of the G.O.P., where the 2024 Presidential race is headed, and how much the contest over the legacy of January 6th matters in setting that course. Trump seems to realize that as much as anybody. After Pence appeared on Fox News, Trump put out a statement saying that the interview “very much destroys and discredits the Unselect Committees Witch Hunt on the events of January 6th.” The interview does not do that, of course. But the Trump-Pence dance underscores how high the stakes are for the committee. Trump, in trying to obstruct the investigation into January 6th—with spurious claims of executive privilege, for example—is fighting not only to impose his view of the past but to insure his political future.

A simple explanation for Pence’s complacency is that he wants to run for President himself, and can’t afford to alienate Trump if he is to have any hope of making it through the primaries. According to a recent poll, Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans is eighty-six per cent. His Save America PAC, the new Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC, and ancillary political funds have raised more than a hundred million dollars. But Trump may not want to help anyone but Trump. In September, when asked by Fox News if he would run, he said, “It is getting to a point where we really have no choice.” It’s hard to know whom he means by “we.” In a Morning Consult/Politico poll that asked Republicans whom they would support out of more than fifteen potential candidates for 2024, forty-seven per cent chose Trump. Pence came next, with just thirteen per cent. Close behind Pence was Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a Trump ally, with twelve per cent. (Six per cent chose Donald Trump, Jr.—twice as many as picked Senators Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.) When Trump was asked recently, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, what he thought of DeSantis’s Presidential prospects, he said, “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else.” But Trump didn’t believe it would come to that. He said he thought that, if he ran, “most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.”

Trump may be right. Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, criticized him in straightforward terms after January 6th; in February, she told Politico that the Party had been wrong to follow him. A few weeks ago, she told the Wall Street Journal, “We need him in the Republican Party.” She also said that, if “there’s a place for me” in the 2024 race, “I would talk to him and see what his plans are. . . . We would work on it together.” Perhaps she was hinting at the Vice-Presidential spot; it’s extraordinary to think that there are people who would like to be the next Mike Pence. One wonders if candidates for the job would be given copies of Eastman’s memos and asked to check off the unconstitutional moves that they would be willing to make.

Far from being a witch hunt, the investigations into January 6th have continued to uncover unsettling material concerning Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. (The Senate Judiciary Committee reported last month on his attempts to enlist officials in the Department of Justice in that cause.) There’s no shortage of reminders that he hasn’t moved on. Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy letter to the editor from Trump, full of baseless claims that the vote count in Pennsylvania was wrong. “The election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out,” he informed the Journal. In a statement a week earlier, he spoke in even more strident terms: “The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!”

There can hardly be a better example of why a clear accounting of the events leading up to the assault on the Capitol is so crucial. According to Trump, the real insurrection was never put down. January 6th, in that sense, is a long way from over. ♦

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Gulf States Withdraw Ambassadors to Lebanon Over Criticism of Yemen War - The New York Times

With a few stray comments from a minor minister, Lebanon once again found itself caught in the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, underscoring just how vulnerable it is to the whims of its more powerful neighbors.

CAIRO — A diplomatic crisis between several wealthy Persian Gulf states and their tiny, cash-strapped Arab neighbor, Lebanon, expanded on Saturday as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait pulled their ambassadors from Beirut, one day after Saudi Arabia and Bahrain did the same.

The Gulf nations said they were withdrawing their diplomats in response to comments made by Lebanon’s information minister, George Kordahi, who called the war in Yemen a Saudi and Emirati “aggression” in a recent television interview. In addition to recalling their envoys, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain also expelled Lebanon’s ambassadors from their countries.

Although Saudi Arabia’s military campaign to oust the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen has been widely condemned in the West and by its archenemy, Iran, its Arab neighbors have avoided antagonizing the kingdom, given its role as regional heavyweight and banker.

With a few stray comments from a minor minister, Lebanon once again found itself caught in the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, underscoring just how vulnerable it is to the whims of its more powerful neighbors.

Mr. Kordahi is aligned with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed political party and militia that dominates Lebanese politics

The weekend’s diplomatic spat comes on the heels of an already terrible year for Lebanon, a state in rapid financial and political decline. Seventy-eight percent of Lebanon’s population is estimated to be living in poverty amid an economic collapse that has enormously inflated prices, rendered the currency nearly worthless, swallowed people’s savings and caused near-continuous power cuts and fuel shortages. The country can ill afford further problems with its rich neighbors or threats to the foreign investments on which it relies.

Lebanese men flying flags from Saudi Arabia in Beirut in support of the kingdom on Saturday following comments by Mr. Kordahi.Bilal Hussein/Associated Press

Saudi Arabia was once an important source of financial support for Lebanon. The Saudi government contributed billions of dollars to keep the country in its orbit and Saudi citizens spent lavishly on investments and summer vacations. But the Saudi government withdrew that support several years ago as Hezbollah grew in prominence and the country came under Iran’s thrall.

“The current crisis is pure politics,” said Khaldoun el-Sherif, a political analyst in Lebanon. “The Saudis consider Lebanon as having fallen completely within the Hezbollah-Iran axis.”

Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, issued a statement suggesting Mr. Kordahi resign to defuse tensions, but Mr. Kordahi said earlier this week that he would not step down. In May Lebanon’s foreign minister was forced to resign after suggesting that the predominately Sunni Gulf States contributed to the rise of the Islamic State terror group.

Despite the already strained relations, the diplomatic fracas triggered a crisis in Beirut. President Michel Aoun of Lebanon, recognizing the gravity of the Gulf States’ reaction, on Saturday called an emergency meeting with other Lebanese leaders, saying that he was eager to reestablish good relations with Saudi Arabia.

Fawzi Kabbara, Lebanon’s newly expelled ambassador to Riyadh, told Al Nahar, a Lebanese newspaper, that he remained hopeful that relations could return to normal if certain “demands” were met. It was unclear what those demands were.

Mr. Kordahi, the Lebanese minister whose comments kicked off the crisis, gave the television interview weeks before he was appointed minister, but it did not become public until several days ago. He said in the interview that Yemen’s Houthi rebels were “defending themselves” against “an external aggression,” adding that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the Saudi and Emirati coalition.

He called their military campaign in Yemen “futile” and said it was “time for it to end.”

A camp for internally displaced people in Marib in northeastern Yemen last week. A proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia has gone on since 2015.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

On Saturday, the United Arab Emirates, the powerful, oil-rich Gulf state that has been Saudi Arabia’s biggest partner in the Yemen war, withdrew its ambassador to Lebanon and banned its citizens from traveling there. The decision came “in solidarity with the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in light of the unacceptable approach by some Lebanese officials toward the Kingdom,” an Emirati minister of state, Khalifa Shaheen al-Marar, said in a statement.

Earlier on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s tiny neighbor, Kuwait, recalled its ambassador to Lebanon and gave the Lebanese ambassador 48 hours to leave, its official news agency reported. The foreign ministry said Kuwait had done so because of the Lebanese government’s “failure” to “address the unacceptable and reprehensible statements against the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest” of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

Critics of Saudi Arabia’s heavy handed maneuvering accused the kingdom of taking potshots at an already wounded Lebanon.

“When a nonentity minister in Lebanon says something vaguely critical of Saudi Arabia, they overreact and engage in collective punishment, because Lebanon is weak and poor and it is easy to kick a horse when it is down,” Karim Traboulsi, the managing editor of The New Arab, a Pan-Arab publication, wrote on Facebook. “I hope that in my lifetime Lebanon becomes free and self reliant, because dignity is the most precious thing.”

Criticisms similar to those made by Mr. Kordahi have also come from Western politicians and advocacy groups, which accuse Saudi Arabia of causing thousands of civilian casualties, indiscriminately bombing civilian targets and prolonging a war that has dragged Yemen to the brink of famine, destroyed its infrastructure and gutted its economy.

A United Nations report in September charged both sides of the war — the Saudi-led coalition, which was supported by American military aid, and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels — with violating international law by killing civilians. It said coalition airstrikes had killed or wounded at least 18,000 Yemeni civilians since 2015, while the Houthis shelled residential neighborhoods, camps for displaced Yemenis, markets and an airport.

Pressure has grown on Saudi Arabia to end the war, with President Biden stopping American military aid to the coalition in February. But the Houthi rebels rejected a cease-fire offer from the Saudis earlier this year and hostilities have continued, most recently centering on an area called Marib.

On Saturday, the casualty count grew again, with a car bombing at the airport in Aden, Yemen, that killed at least nine and wounded at least 29, according to a Health Ministry official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

Hwaida Saad and Asmaa al-Omar contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Shuaib al-Mosawa from Sana, Yemen.

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Roblox has been down for over 24 hours - NBC News

Roblox and its related website have been offline for more than 24 hours. While the company is working to solve the outage, no official timeline for the massively popular digital creative space’s return has been announced.

The game-creating platform began to demonstrate issues on Thursday evening. Roblox released a statement on its official Twitter, assuring users that it is actively troubleshooting the problem. The company also clarified that the outage was not caused by an external party.

“We believe we have identified an underlying internal cause of the outage,” the company wrote on its official Twitter account. “We’re in the process of performing the necessary engineering and maintenance work to get ‘Roblox’ back up and running ASAP. Thanks for your patience.”

Earlier in the outage, some speculated that the Roblox shutdown was caused by an overload of users engaging in a Chipotle promotion. The restaurant chain had begun a Halloween event on Roblox involving a giveaway of $1 million worth of free burritos shortly before the blackout began. Roblox has since clarified that “this outage was not related to any specific experiences or partnerships on the platform.”

As of Saturday afternoon, the official Roblox website continues to display the regular message signifying technical maintenance: “We’re making things more awesome. Be back soon.”

The free-to-play Roblox reports to draw more than 200 million active users monthly, with players utilizing a wide range of devices, including iOS, Android, tablets, computers, Xbox, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Daily active users spend an average of 156 minutes per day with the game. In recent months, Roblox has continued to offer players in-game experiences from creative collaborators ranging from Paris Hilton to Twenty One Pilots to Netflix.

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