Remember when Elon Musk decided it would be appropriate to express his love with a nazi salute not once, but twice? Seems like ages ago. But that was Monday.

So goes life in the age of another Donald Trump administration; hours that feel like weeks, days that feel like years, and weeks that some wish hadn’t taken place.

Trump 2.0 began on Monday with a flurry of actions, orders, and initiatives. Here are some of the most notable events from the past week:

President Trump signed a total of 42 executive actions on the first day of his presidency, including several focused on immigration. Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico, which will allow for the continuation of construction of a border wall. Trump reversed several initiatives from the Biden administration, including signing an order to end asylum.

• NPR - Trump signs sweeping actions on immigration and border security on Day 1

Trump also signed an order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, which gives citizenship to anyone born in the United States regardless of the citizenship of their parents. A federal judge blocked the order on Thursday, declaring it a violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

• The New York Times - Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s Plan to End Birthright Citizenship

The orders continued in a hurry with Trump pardoning nearly 1,500 individuals who have been charged with crimes in connection to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 14 sentences were also commuted, including the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers far-right groups.

• NBC News - Trump pardons roughly 1,500 criminal defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

Other notable executive orders included the removal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement as well as the World Health Organization. Trump also instituted a hiring freeze for the federal government, while requiring all federal employees to return to the office full-time, and ended diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the federal level. There are many more that are detailed at the link below.

• Associated Press - Everything Trump did in the first executive orders and actions of his presidency

On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began to prepare for increased enforcement as the Department of Homeland Security revoked a policy that prevented ICE agents from detaining undocumented individuals at churches, hospitals, and schools. Through the first several days of the administration, it did not appear that any large raids had been conducted and that routine operations had continued.

• NBC News - What we know about Trump’s mass deportation plans and ICE raids

On foreign policy, new Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a temporary pause on any foreign aid, with the exceptions of Egypt and Israel. The order appears to have stopped aid from being received by U.S. allies such as Jordan, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

• Politico - State Department issues immediate, widespread pause on foreign aid

The war between Russia and Ukraine has continued, despite Trump’s campaign pledge to have the conflict resolved within 24 hours of taking office. Trump has proposed tariffs and sanctions against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, does not make efforts to negotiate an end to the war. Putin has said publicly that he is ready for negotiations and attempted to appease Trump by saying the conflict could have been prevented had Trump been in office. Trump appeared to claim in a Fox News interview that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a mistake by fighting back when attacked by Russia in 2022.

• NBC News - Trump suggests Ukraine shouldn't have fought back against Russia

• Associated Press - Putin echoes Trump’s claim that conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided had he been in office

And while Trump may be president once again, that doesn’t mean his social media tendencies have taken a back seat. After the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde had the audacity to ask the president to show mercy to members of the LGBTQ+ community and migrants living in the U.S. at a sermon that Trump attended on Tuesday, Trump declared her a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” on his Truth Social platform.

• Associated Press - Episcopal bishop says she’ll continue to pray for Trump, who lashed out at her over viral sermon

Trump also revoked the security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Trump said he would not feel responsible if Bolton or Fauci were harmed. Fauci, in particular, has received threats due to his involvement in the federal government’s Covid-19 prevention programs.

• CNN - Trump has pulled Fauci’s security detail, source says

On Friday night, Trump fired 17 inspectors general despite not following a law requiring a 30-day notice of any firings of the position be given to Congress. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) confirmed on Saturday that no notice was given.

• ABC News - Trump fires 17 independent watchdogs at multiple agencies in late-night move

Finally, several appointees to Trump’s cabinet were confirmed by the Senate last week. Most notably, defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth needed a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance for his nomination to be confirmed. On Saturday, the Senate voted to confirm South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security.

• CNN - Tracking Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and administration

As The Wall Street Journal article linked below explains, there are several reasons why the Trump team is moving quickly to assert its authority over the country.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The Wall Street Journal - Why Donald Trump Is Racing So Fast to Remake America

What Zander’s been reading

While a new administration took office on Monday, the videographer for the country’s first woman and African-American vice president shares an inside look at what it was like to work for Kamala Harris.

Check out this week’s featured article in Slate - I Was Kamala Harris’ Videographer. The Experience Completely Changed Me.

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Conference Championships: This year’s Super Bowl matchup will be decided later today with the NFL Playoffs entering the conference championship round. In the NFC, the Commanders visit the Eagles at 3:00 pm ET on Fox. The Washington franchise has not been to the Super Bowl since 1991, while the Eagles made the game two years ago. The AFC Championship caps the day at 6:30 pm ET on CBS. The top two seeds in the conference face off as the Chiefs host the Bills. Kansas City is seeking its fifth appearance in the title game in the last six years, while Buffalo hasn’t made the Super Bowl since 1993 and has never won in the season’s final game. The two victors will face off in Super Bowl LVI in New Orleans on Sunday, February 9.

  • ESPN - NFL playoffs conference championships: Picks, schedule, odds, injuries

• College Football Playoff: #8 Ohio State completed an improbable late-season turn-around to win the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Buckeyes took down #7 Notre Dame in Monday’s game, winning 34-23. Ohio State had lost to rival Michigan in the final game of the regular season before winning four straight games in the Playoff to capture the school’s ninth national title.

  • ESPN - Ohio State puts away Notre Dame to claim CFP championship

• UEFA Champions League: The final matchday of the league phase in the UEFA Champions League will take place on Wednesday. All 36 teams will be in action with every match kicking off simultaneously at 3:00 pm ET. After the conclusion of Wednesday’s 18 matches, the top eight teams in the table will automatically advance to the round of 16, while teams placed 9-23 will qualify for the play-offs with a chance to reach the knockout rounds. Before matchday 8, only Liverpool and Barcelona have directly qualified for the round of 16. 16 additional teams have qualified for at least a spot in the play-offs, including AC Milan, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid. Every match on Wednesday will stream on Paramount+.

  • UEFA - Champions League round of 16 and knockout phase play-offs: Who has qualified?

• Australian Open: Madison Keys became the first American to win the Australian Open women’s final in five years with a stunning 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, victory over Aaryna Sabalenka, who had won the last two Australian Open singles titles. The title is the first in a Grand Slam for Keys. The men’s final took place early Sunday morning between the top two seeded players in the world, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

  • Australian Open - Keys plays all the right notes for maiden major at AO 2025

  • Australian Open - Men’s Final

• Baseball Hall of Fame: Three baseball legends were selected to join the National Baseball Hall of Fame last week. Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner garnered the necessary votes to be inducted into the 2025 class. Suzuki, who fell one vote shy of being just the second-ever unanimous selection, is the first Asian-born player to be voted in. Sabathia, like Suzuki, will enter the Hall after being voted during his first year on the ballot. Wagner crossed the 75% threshold in his 10th and final year on the ballot.

  • MLB - First-timers Ichiro, CC and elite closer Wagner elected to Hall

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• California Wildfires: Wildfires continue to burn in Southern California as rain finally arrives in the region. At least 28 people have been killed by the fires, although the two largest fires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, are both at least 75% contained. While several new fires erupted in the last few days, rainy conditions have now prompted worries over potential mudslides. President Donald Trump visited Pacific Palisades on Friday, meeting with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

  • ABC News - California fires live updates: Rain heading to LA this weekend

• TikTok Ban: TikTok’s suspension of operations in the U.S. was short-lived with the social media site coming back online on Sunday. On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for ByteDance to find a buyer for TikTok by 90 days. It was reported on Saturday that the White House was working with software company Oracle and other investors to purchase a majority stake in TikTok.

  • NPR - Exclusive: White House in talks to have Oracle and U.S. investors take over TikTok

• Bird Flu: Egg prices have exploded in the U.S. as a result of bird flu caused by the H5N1 virus. Since the bird flu came to the U.S. in 2022, at least 136 million birds have died. However, in the last three months, 30 million chickens have been killed in an effort to contain the virus. With experts believing it could take months before the supply of chickens returns to normal levels, egg prices are expected to continue to grow due to the shortage of supply.

  • The New York Times - Egg Prices Are High. They Will Likely Go Higher.

• Biden Pardons: Former President Joe Biden spent his final hours as president last week issuing pardons. Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses, citing attacks from those affiliated with President Donald Trump. Biden also issued pardons for retired Gen. Mark Milley, former head of the NIAID Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of the House Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The pardons came after Trump warned of an enemies list and empowered individuals committed to punishing those who have crossed Trump politically.

  • Associated Press - Biden pardons his siblings and their spouses on his way out of the White House

• Corporate DEI: While several companies have withdrawn initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent weeks and months, one notable company did not last week. On Thursday, Costco shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would report on the risks of the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. The company, which urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, claimed that 98% of votes were against the review of its DEI programs. Many companies have recently ended similar programs as President Donald Trump, an opponent of the programs, has entered the White House.

  • Reuters - Costco shareholders reject call for review of diversity programs

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return next Sunday, February 2, 2025.

Whatever your feelings may be pushed aside, Monday will mark a distinctly new era in the history of the United States of America. As President Joe Biden steps away from the political landscape after a half-century in the field, and Vice President Kamala Harris departs Washington after failing to achieve the only promotion possible in her position, they will be replaced by figures signifying a much different chapter in America.

President-elect Donald Trump will, once again, become President Donald Trump around noon ET on Monday in an inaugural ceremony pushed inside the Capitol rotunda due to historically cold weather. With the outgoing president in attendance, a break from four years prior, the event will certainly be a moment of triumph for those who have bought what Trump has been selling for the last decade.

For his supporters, the 47th president’s return to power heralds a resurgence of populist nationalism, a promise to prioritize American interests above all else, and a rejection of the “establishment” that are blamed for their disillusionment and struggles. For what will once again be classified as the “resistance”, it marks a dangerous step toward authoritarianism, a blatant dismissal of democratic ideals, and an unsettling embrace of divisive rhetoric and policies that threaten to undo decades of social and political progress. This juxtaposition underscores the precarious position of the United States at this juncture. The Capitol Rotunda, a space steeped in historical significance and a symbol of the nation's most comforting ideals, now serves as the stage for a leader who has repeatedly challenged the very institutions it represents.

To be blunt, liberalism currently sits at its most precarious point in quite some time. It was nearly one century ago that the rise of those all-too-familiar ideals in the likes of Germany and Italy came to power. The Second World War, seen as America’s crowning achievement on the global stage for quite some time, resulted in the severe punishment of those ideals for reasons incredibly comprehensible. Yet, there now exists a significant movement in the Western world seeking to whitewash the efforts of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in favor of an advancement of their populist worldview in the modern day. Repackaged for the 21st century, this movement has been fueled by a combination of misinformation, economic insecurity, and cultural anxiety.

In the United Kingdom, on the back of anti-immigration sentiment, Nigel Farage continues to expand the support of Reform UK. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has deep ties to groups that have espoused the same principles that Benito Mussolini championed at one point. In Germany, the AfD party, condemned by the government as a “suspected extremist” organization, is becoming a major contender in the country’s political system.

Whether they intended to or not, the American people have now allowed this movement to grow to its greatest heights since the fall of Berlin. Donald Trump, through either his own personal beliefs or those of his most significant allies, represents the culmination of this global trend: the resurgence of right-wing populism and its slide toward authoritarianism. Trump’s first term flirted with these principles, using divisive rhetoric, undermining democratic institutions, and questioning the integrity of elections (2020 and beyond) to consolidate power.

His second term will bring with it the most forceful attacks that the liberal institutions of America and the West have witnessed in our lifetimes. Starting with the president-elect’s new portrait that draws striking resemblances to the poses taken by past strongmen willing to sacrifice the rights of their people for unified power. With immigration raids set to begin in mere hours, the position of a free Ukraine more and more precarious, and those seeking a society powered solely by white Anglo-Saxons now emboldened to attack human differences, what will the response be?

This is a new era in American politics, founded by those willing to bend the rules to get their way and assisted by those all too happy to simply clutch their pearls when even the tiniest of infractions is committed. For it is not just the inspiration of Trump and his allies that have allowed his return to power, but also the failure of his opponents to nail down his anti-American tendencies in the minds of the American people. It is not a victory for Trump that people voted for him with the intention to make life more affordable, it is a defeat for the Democratic Party. It’s now full steam ahead for Trump and that Project 2025 booklet you’ve probably heard so much about. If there is to be a competent resistance, it has yet to uncover itself.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from CBS News - Trump inauguration ceremony moving inside the Capitol due to freezing temperatures

College Football Playoff National Championship

The longest college football season in history comes to its conclusion tomorrow night with the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The game to determine the champion of the top tier of college football is being played the latest into January it ever has, a side effect of the recent expansion to a 12-team College Football Playoff.

So perhaps it’s fitting that neither of the two teams that will play in Monday night’s class would have made it this far without the addition of eight teams to the playoff format. Under the previous four-team playoff, #7 Notre Dame and #8 Ohio State would have been left sitting at home. Instead, they are both 60 minutes away from being crowned the kings of college football.

Notre Dame, the sole program in college football that has resisted efforts to join a power conference, has reached the final game of the college football season for the first time since 2012. The Irish are certainly hoping to have a better outcome than that 42-14 thumping at the hands of Alabama. That season was the third for head coach Brian Kelly, who has moved on to LSU. Coincidentally, this season is the third for current Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. Freeman is seeking to become the first African American head coach to win a college football national championship.

The Irish opened the season with a statement win on the road against Texas A&M, before coming home to what would previously have derailed a season. In the very next game, Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois out of the Mid-American Conference 16-14. For their part, the Fighting Irish ran through the remaining 10 games on their regular season schedule, beating every opponent they faced with a margin of victory of more than 10 points for all but one of those games.

Backed by transfer quarterback Riley Leonard, Notre Dame took care of a firey Indiana team in the First Round of the Playoff and settled down the Dawgs of Georgia to reach the Semifinals. Against Penn State, the Irish hit a field goal with seven seconds remaining to advance to the National Championship. In the three games that Notre Dame has won in this Playoff, neither have been blowouts. Yet, the Irish defense managed to force their opponents into quandaries that they had rarely experienced all season. A 98-yard run to open the scoring against Indiana by Jeremiah Love, and gutting out 10 points in the final five minutes to beat Penn State, illustrates that the offense can also hang.

Notre Dame made the Playoff back in the four-team era twice, in 2018 and 2020. But when it came time to shine, the Irish put up some stinkers, losing by 27 and 17 points in the two Semifinals they played in. This current makeup of the Fighting Irish has a unique feel in the modern era; one that will not bow down to opponents with superior talent. With Brian Kelly gone, Notre Dame has suddenly gone from one of the sport’s unlikable villains to a team that is fun to watch, even if you aren’t catholic.

Maybe some of Notre Dame’s likability in this game can also be thanks to their opponents, who do not exude the same amiable attributes in the eyes of a neutral fan.

Nevertheless, the story of Ohio State in the current college football season is nothing short of remarkable. The Buckeyes scarcely looked like a team with detrimental characteristics in their play throughout the regular season. In their first 11 games, their only loss was on the road to Oregon, at the time ranked #2, by just one point. The Buckeyes were well on their way to another top-tier season and an appearance in the Big Ten Conference Championship game… until they met their rivals in the final game of the regular season.

Michigan, the defending national champions, were a much different team from a season ago. The Wolverines had their head coach, Jim Harbaugh, move on to the NFL after winning a championship with his alma mater, and had struggled to retain even glimpses of that glory. Michigan came into Ohio Stadium for “The Game” with a middling 6-5 record, barely having qualified for a bowl game. For Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day, who in his four previous attempts had beaten Michigan just once, this was likely to be the Buckeyes’ best chance at a victory in the sport’s biggest rivalry since the year Day took over from Urban Meyer, who never lost to Michigan in seven seasons.

The result? A stunner. Ohio State’s offense failed to convert in the red zone numerous times as the Buckeyes fell 13-10 for their fourth straight loss to Michigan. Not only had the Buckeyes suffered their second loss of the season, but it also knocked them out of the Big Ten Championship. In the prior four-team playoff era, the loss would have been a death sentence. Instead, in this new era of the college football postseason, Ohio State was given another chance. The CFP Committee gave the Buckeyes the #8 seed and a home game in the First Round of the Playoff with Tennessee. With the visitors hailing from the almighty Southeastern Conference, the conference chosen by god himself, there were serious questions even as OSU was favored by a touchdown. Instead, the Buckeyes offense stormed out of the gates with 21 first-quarter points on their way to a 42-17 rout of the Volunteers.

The rematch with Oregon in the Rose Bowl began in a similar fashion. The Buckeyes opened the game on a 34-point spree before the Ducks finally put points on the board at the end of the first half. Ohio State ended up rolling to a 20-point victory, setting up a Semifinal matchup against another SEC foe, Texas. With Texas driving and the Longhorns down by just seven points, defensive end Jack Sawyer stripped Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and ran all the way back 83 yards to cap a 28-14 Ohio State dub. For Columbus, Ohio-born Sawyer and all scarlet and gray fans, it was a quintessential Ohio State moment.

That sets up this moment. Ryan Day was a dead man walking just a few weeks ago. It’s hard to think that in the six years he’s coached Ohio State, he’s won at least 11 games in every season (barring the Covid year) and because he seemingly cannot find a way to beat Michigan, his job was in serious jeopardy. The turnaround since that Michigan loss has put those murmurs to bed and has brought the Buckeyes into this game as eight-point favorites to win their first National Championship since 2014, the first year of the Playoff.

Notre Dame, however, is an underdog to be reckoned with. Their defense will likely put up the toughest test that the Buckeyes have seen this postseason. And with an offense that is featuring several key injuries, the Irish will rely on their defense to stop a high-powered offense led by transfer quarterback Will Howard and standout freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith. Ohio State has more talent, and they’re likely the only team in the country that can match Notre Dame’s emotional momentum at the moment. The Irish will keep it close, but in the end, Ohio State will prove that they are this season’s most dominant college football squad.

Zander’s pick: Ohio State wins 24-20.

The 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship kicks off on Monday night at 7:30 pm ET and will air on ESPN.

Check out a preview of the National Championship game in Yahoo Sports - College Football Playoff national championship players to watch, keys to the game, prediction: Ohio State vs. Notre Dame

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• TikTok Ban: The social media app TikTok suspended its operations in the U.S. on Saturday night. TikTok was facing a potential ban beginning on Sunday due to a federal law passed earlier this year. However, President Joe Biden announced he would not enforce the law, leaving regulation to President-elect Donald Trump, who enters office on Monday. Trump, who began a push to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said on Saturday he would likely give the Chinese owners of TikTok, ByteDance, a 90-day extension to be sold or face enforcement of the ban.

  • Associated Press - TikTok goes dark in the US

• California Wildfires: As wildfires continue to burn in Southern California, at least 27 people have died since the fires began. While several fires were 100% contained as of Saturday, the Palisades and Eaton fires are still ablaze. Weather forecasts indicate that favorable conditions for wildfires will return on Monday and Tuesday. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has been under fire for the city’s response to the fires, named former Los Angeles police commission president Steve Soboroff as the city’s chief recovery officer.

  • ABC News - LA fires live updates: Mayor names chief recovery officer, plans outside probe

• Israel-Hamas: A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was set to go into effect on Sunday morning. The agreement, reached earlier this week, requires Hamas to release dozens of hostages held in Gaza while Israel will release Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The deal, which went into effect at 8:30 am local time, paused fighting in the 15-month war. Negotiators from Qatar and the United States were reportedly key to brokering the deal.

  • CBS News - Israel, Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal to go into effect Sunday morning though Netanyahu issues warning

• South Korea: The saga surrounding impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol continued last week as he was arrested on Saturday. Yoon, who briefly declared martial law last year, is accused of leading an insurrection and abusing his power. Yoon’s presidential powers have been stripped since last month’s impeachment. Yoon will be held at the Seoul Detention Center for a maximum of 20 days. The country’s Constitutional Court is currently deciding whether Yoon’s presidential powers will be restored or if he will be removed from office.

  • The Washington Post - South Korean president arrested, accused of leading insurrection

• Special Counsel: A portion of the final report completed by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate President-elect Donald Trump, was released last week. The report stated that had Trump not been elected president in November, he would have been convicted of charges seeking to retain power in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The 137-page document, approximately half of the final report, details the evidence against Trump as he now returns to the White House.

  • The New York Times - Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Playoffs: The Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs continues later today as the #2 Eagles host the #4 Vikings at 3:00 pm ET on NBC. The winner will host the #6 Commanders, who won their game against the #1 Lions last night 45-31, in next Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. In the AFC, the #1 Chiefs took down the #4 Texans 23-14 on Saturday. In the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs will host the winner of today’s matchup between the #3 Ravens and #2 Bills. The game in Buffalo will kick off at 6:30 pm ET and air on CBS.

  • ESPN - NFL playoffs divisional round: Picks, schedule, odds, injuries

• UEFA Champions League: The league phase of the UEFA Champions League enters its second-to-last matchday of the season this week. Matchday 7 begins on Tuesday with matches including Monaco-Aston Villa, Atletico Madrid-Bayer Leverkusen, and Liverpool-Lille. Nine more matches take place on Wednesday with Paris Saint-Germain hosting Manchester City and Salzburg visiting Real Madrid. With two matches left in the league phase, Liverpool currently tops the table with 18 points, followed by Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, and Aston Villa. Inter Milan, Brest, and Lille round out the top eight places, which will automatically advance to the knockout rounds.

  • UEFA - UEFA Champions League: What to look out for in every game on Matchday 7

• College Basketball: The college basketball season is heating up with Saturday bringing multiple upsets. Two-time defending national champions #14 UConn had their 28-game home winning streak snapped with a 68-63 loss to Creighton, while #7 Marquette was also upset at home, losing to Xavier 59-57. In the SEC, Vanderbilt took down #6 Tennessee 76-75, #1 Auburn survived a test against #23 Georgia 70-68, and #4 Alabama got a massive road win against #8 Kentucky 102-97. Elsewhere, #2 Iowa State lost at West Virginia 64-57, while a Big Ten top 25 showdown will take place later today as #12 Michigan State hosts #19 Illinois at 12:00 pm ET on CBS.

  • CBS Sports - College basketball scores, winners and losers: St. John's takes lead in Big East after UConn, Marquette fall

• Jimmy Butler: Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler returned from a seven-game suspension on Friday as he has continued to demand a trade from the team. Butler had been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team after reports surfaced that Butler was seeking an exit. In a statement, the Heat confirmed that they would be listening to trade offers ahead of the NBA trade deadline on February 6. Butler has been a member of the Heat since 2019, leading the team to two NBA Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023.

  • CBS Sports - Jimmy Butler says 'whole truth will come out' about his trade demand following relatively tame return to Heat

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return next Sunday, January 26, 2025.

Canada as the 51st state? Hello Greenland? The Gulf of America?

Welcome to the second Donald Trump presidency, friends. No, you should not be taking any of this seriously. Canada will not become a part of the United States, and we won’t fight a war with Denmark over a territory of 60,000 people.

But if you were more focused on these charades than the other happenings in American politics, then you’ve been played.

The president-elect hasn’t always stuck to the script, and that’s by design. By focusing the world on his fantastical annexations of Greenland and the Panama Canal, he’s turned the attention away from you should really be paying attention to.

Next week, the Senate will begin confirmation hearings on Trump’s nominees for key positions in his administration. While worrying over how many Senators Canada will receive, you may have forgotten that an alcoholic Fox News host is the nominee to lead the Pentagon. Or that Trump’s nominee to head the FBI has numerously declared to seek vengeance on the enemies of the former president. Or that Tulsi Gabbard, a fan-favorite of Russian state television, is the choice to be Director of National Intelligence.

Even Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau remarked that Trump is using his newfound obsessions to distract from the disastrous economic impact that his proposed tariffs would have, not on the targeted countries, but on the people that voted for him.

So, if you’re going to get through the next four years, it’s best not to hang every morsel of your sanity on the words of the first president in American history who happens to be felon.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The Hill - Warren: Trump expansion talk a distraction from nominees

What Zander’s been reading

Election fraud was the tale of the season back in 2020. Even when Republicans won in 2024, they apparently haven’t had enough. In North Carolina, a Republican who received fewer votes than his Democratic opponent in a state Supreme Court election is now asking the state Supreme Court to throw out tens of thousands of ballots so he can be declared the winner.

Check out this week’s featured article in The Atlantic - Stop the (North Carolina) Steal

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Playoffs: Two spots in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs have been claimed, while four openings remain. On Saturday, the #4 Texans dominated the #5 Chargers 32-12, while the #3 Ravens took down their division rival #6 Steelers 28-14. Sunday features a Playoff triple header beginning at 1:00 pm ET on CBS as the Bills host the Broncos. At 4:30 pm ET on Fox, the #7 Packers take on the #2 Eagles, while the #6 Commanders visit the #3 Buccaneers at 8:15 pm ET on NBC. The Wild Card Round concludes on Monday as the #5 Vikings face the #4 Rams. The #1 seeds in their respective conferences, the Chiefs and Lions, received byes and will begin postseason play next weekend.

  • ESPN - NFL playoffs wild-card round: Picks, schedule, odds, injuries

• College Football Playoff: #7 Notre Dame and #8 Ohio State will meet up in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship. The Fighting Irish used a late field goal to knock off #6 Penn State 27-24 in the Capital One Orange Bowl semifinal, while the Buckeyes took down #5 Texas 28-14 in their semifinal game at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. The two sides are two of the most historically successful teams in college football, with Ohio State placing second all-time with 976 wins and Notre Dame tied for fourth with 961. A victory in the championship game would be Ohio State’s ninth title and Notre Dame’s 14th. The CFP National Championship will take place next Monday, January 20, at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN.

  • ESPN - College Football Playoff 2024-25: Championship first look

• Wildfire Postponements: The wildfires in California have forced postponements in the sports world. The NBA postponed two matchups set for Saturday, Hornets-Clippers and Spurs-Lakers, after postponing a Hornets-Lakers game on Thursday. Another NBA game in Atlanta, Rockets-Hawks, was postponed on Saturday due to icy conditions. The fires have claimed the home of Lakers head coach JJ Redick. The NFL was also forced to move Monday’s Vikings-Rams Playoff game to Glendale, Arizona.

  • CBS Sports - California wildfires: NBA postpones Saturday's Lakers-Spurs, Clippers-Hornets games, no makeup dates announced

• NFL Coaching Carousel: Following the conclusion of the NFL’s regular season, six head coaching jobs are now open across the league. While the Bears, Jets, and Saints fired their coaches during the season, the Jaguars, Patriots, and Raiders jobs came open after their respective seasons concluded. Jarod Mayo and Antonio Pierce, the former coaches of the Patriots and Raiders, respectively, had only been in the top jobs for one season.

  • The Athletic - NFL coaching carousel live updates: Raiders fire Antonio Pierce, latest news, rumors, interviews and more

• Venu Sports: The three companies involved in a joint sports streaming service, Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery, announced on Friday that Venu Sports would not launch. The service had been set to launch in the fall, but was halted by a lawsuit from internet tv provider Fubo. Earlier last week, Disney announced that it had settled with Fubo, which will result in a merger between Fubo and Disney’s Hulu + Live TV service. Disney is set to launch an ESPN direct-to-consumer service later this year that requires no third-party cable or streaming provider.

  • CNBC - Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery call off plans to launch Venu sports streaming service

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• California Wildfires: The Los Angeles area has been grappling with several devastating wildfires over the last week. Over 150,000 residents have been placed under mandatory evacuation orders as the largest of the blazes, the Palisades fire, is just 11% contained. At least 16 people have died, while 37,000 acres have been burned and 12,000 structures have been destroyed. Weather conditions in the area have brought an enhanced risk for fires recently, with wind gusts reaching upwards of 70 miles per hour. Live updates can be found at the NBC News link below.

  • NBC News - California wildfires live updates: Death toll rises to 16 as Palisades Fire expands east to Brentwood and Encino

• Trump Sentence: President-elect Donald Trump was handed down a sentence in the New York hush money trial on Friday, making Trump the first felon to serve as president in American history. Trump’s sentence, however, carried no penalty as Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge. Trump’s circumstance, being inaugurated as the next president next Monday, resulted in the unusual sentence. On Saturday, Jack Smith, the special counsel who led two federal prosecutions of Trump, resigned.

  • The New York Times - The President-Elect Is a Felon, but His Sentence Carries No Penalty

  • The New York Times - Jack Smith, Who Led Prosecutions of Trump, Resigns

• TikTok Ban: The Supreme Court held arguments on Friday in the case that could result in the social media site TikTok being banned in the U.S. one week from today. The vast majority of the nine-panel high court appeared likely to uphold the law, with many of the justices citing national security concerns. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China and has the option of selling TikTok under the law. During the arguments, chief justice John Roberts disagreed with TikTok’s argument that the ban violated free speech laws. TikTok’s lawyers argued before the court that the federal government has “no valid interest in preventing foreign propaganda.”

  • Associated Press - Supreme Court seems likely to uphold a law that could ban TikTok in the U.S. on Jan. 19

• Justin Trudeau: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he is stepping down as head of the ruling Liberal Party. Trudeau has served as the country’s prime minister since 2015, but recent polls show more voters support the opposition Conservative Party. Trudeau’s resignation comes at a time when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products coming into the U.S. from Canada and has referred to the country as the “51st state.” The country is required to have its next parliamentary elections before October 20.

  • CBC News - Trudeau says he's not the right choice to lead party in next election, promises to resign as PM

• Meta Fact Checking: Meta, the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, announced it would be ending its fact checking program. The company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said that the company failed in its previous attempts to moderate content and claimed that the moves would restore “free expression on our platforms.” The move represents a shifting sentiment in Silicon Valley towards a second administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who previously threatened to have Zuckerberg jailed for election interference.

  • NPR - Meta says it will end fact checking as Silicon Valley prepares for Trump

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return next Sunday, January 19, 2025.

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past couple of weeks:

• Jimmy Carter: Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29 at age 100, the oldest living former president in American history. Carter was the 39th president who served from 1977 to 1981. After serving as president, Carter founded the Carter Center, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and was known for his work with Habitat for Humanity, having helped renovate over 4,400 homes. Carter’s funeral procession began on Saturday in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday before a funeral on Thursday morning at the Washington National Cathedral.

  • The New York Times - Jimmy Carter, Peacemaking President Amid Crises, Is Dead at 100

• Congress: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) won the vote to remain Speaker of the House on Friday after intense negotiations among fellow Republicans. Johnson initially did not have the votes, with three Republicans voting against Johnson. Johnson was able to swing two of the votes towards himself, allowing the speaker to win after one round of voting. The election of a speaker will allow Congress to move forward in certifying the 2024 presidential election results on Monday.

  • Associated Press - House Speaker Mike Johnson held onto his job, but there are signs of trouble ahead

• Terrorist Attacks: Two terrorist attacks took place in the United States on New Year’s Day. In New Orleans, a man from Texas drove a truck through a crowd partying at the city’s iconic French Quarter, killing fourteen people. Police killed the suspect and said that he was inspired by ISIS. In Las Vegas, a member of the U.S. Army died in an apparent suicide after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel. Both vehicles were found to have been rented on the Turo platform, but there is currently no indication the events were connected.

  • NBC News - Driver in New Orleans terrorist attack acted alone and was ‘100% inspired by ISIS,’ FBI says

  • NBC News - Deadly Tesla Cybertruck blast outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas was intentional, officials say

• Trump Defamation: President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in the criminal hush money payment case in New York on Friday. Trump’s appeal of the case was denied last week. Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case back in May. Judge Juan Merchan indicated in a ruling on Friday that he will sentence Trump to an “unconditional discharge” that will allow Trump to avoid prison time, fines, or probation. The sentencing will occur just 10 days before Trump is set to be inaugurated for his second presidential term.

  • ABC News - Judge in Trump's hush money case expected to sentence him to 'unconditional discharge'

• U.S. Steel: President Joe Biden moved to block the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japanese company Nippon Steel on Friday. Biden had previously vowed to block the deal while on the campaign trail before he withdrew from the 2024 presidential election. Biden noted that he blocked the deal for national security reasons. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, however, did not come to a consensus in December when investigating any national security risks. President-elect Donald Trump has also expressed opposition to the deal.

  • Associated Press - Biden blocks $14 billion acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel

• Winter Storm: A major winter storm, potentially the largest to hit the U.S. in over a decade, is set to swamp millions with heavy snowfall and frigid temperatures. Snowfall, which will total over one foot in some areas, is set to extend from the Ohio Valley to the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. metro areas in the mid-Atlantic through Monday. Areas south of the heaviest snowfall will receive dangerous levels of ice, with ice amounts over 0.25 inches possible. Cold air is also projected to pound the eastern U.S., with temperatures dropping as much as 30 degrees below average for some on Tuesday, leading to what could be the coldest January for the U.S. in 14 years.

  • CNN - 62 million people under threat of major winter storm set to deliver season’s most significant blow yet

• Alcohol Warnings: The Surgeon General issued an advisory that warned of the dangers alcohol poses on Friday. Dr. Vivek Murphy issued a statement that noted that alcohol is the third leading cause of cancer in the U.S. after tobacco and obesity. The advisory called for the inclusion of a cancer risk warning on the warning label that alcoholic beverages contain. Any warning label change would need to be approved by Congress. The Surgeon General noted that alcohol is responsible for 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the U.S., higher than the 13,500 annual alcohol-related traffic crash fatalities.

  • CBS News - Surgeon General calls for cancer risk warning on beverages with alcohol

• Presidential Medals: President Joe Biden handed out his final presidential awards last week. On Thursday, Biden rewarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people, including Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who served as the heads of the House Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Saturday, Biden issued the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, to 19 people including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chef José Andrés, and basketball hall-of-famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

  • NBC News - Hillary Clinton, George Soros and 17 others honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House ceremony

  • NBC News - Biden awards Presidential Citizens Medal to key members of House Jan. 6 committee

What Zander’s been reading

With the calendar turning to a new year, many new laws were adopted in states across the country. Take a look at the new laws 2025 brings for your state below, as well as a USA Today article compiling the most notable changes.

Check out this week’s featured articles:

• USA Today - Eggs, guns, gym memberships: Which new laws are going into effect in 2025?

• Alabama: WHNT - Several new Alabama laws going into effect on Jan. 1

• Alaska: David Wright Tremaine LLP - New Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave, and Captive Audience Meeting Protections for Alaska Employees

• Arizona: Arizona’s Family - Here are 13 new Arizona laws you should know about that take effect in 2025

• Arkansas: KATV - New laws in Arkansas to take effect in 2025

• California: CBS Sacramento - Hundreds of new laws in California take effect this year. Here's what to know for 2025

• Colorado: 5280 - 8 New Colorado Laws Taking Effect in 2025 You Should Know About

• Connecticut: WTNH - New Connecticut laws take effect Jan. 1: Here’s what to know

• Delaware: Delaware Online - New laws to look out for in Delaware in 2025

• District of Columbia: WUSA - New year, new laws: these six DC laws go into effect Jan. 1

• Florida: Tallahassee Democrat - Social media, adult sites, scams: 9 Florida laws started Jan. 1. Here's how they affect you

• Georgia: 11Alive - Here are the new laws taking effect in Georgia on Jan. 1

• Hawaii: HawaiiNewsNow - New state laws to take effect in 2025: Taro, medical care, and more

• Idaho: LITE FM - 4 Important New Idaho Laws That Start In 2025

• Illinois: CBS Chicago - Nearly 300 new Illinois laws go into effect this week. Here are some of the most notable

• Indiana: WRTV - Indiana laws that go into effect on New Year’s Day 2025

• Iowa: WQAD - New Iowa laws going into effect on Jan. 1, 2025

• Kansas: The Kansas City Star - What new laws start in 2025 in Kansas? No more food tax, lawmaker raises & more

• Kentucky: WKYT - New laws are now in effect in Kentucky

• Louisiana: KSLA - These new Louisiana laws take effect in 2025

• Maine: WMTW - The New Year brings new laws to Maine

• Maryland: CBS Baltimore - These Maryland laws go into effect January 2025

• Massachusetts: CBS Boston - These new laws take effect in Massachusetts in 2025

• Michigan: CBS Detroit - Here are some Michigan laws going into effect in 2025

• Minnesota: CBS Minnesota - Co-pay caps, ticket transparency, minimum wage bumps: Some of the new Minnesota laws taking effect on Jan. 1

• Missouri: KMOV - New laws set to take effect Jan. 1 in Missouri

• Montana: KAAR - New Montana Laws for 2025: Here’s What You Need to Know

• Nebraska: KETV - Nebraska's new laws for January 2025 include data privacy act, minimum wage increase

• Nevada: The Nevada Independent - Six new Nevada laws take effect in 2025 — what's in them?

• New Hampshire: New Hampshire Bulletin - Gender transition surgery ban, bail reform, and covered bridges: The new state laws of 2025

• New Jersey: Fox 5 New York - These New Jersey laws are taking effect in 2025

• New Mexico: KRQE - What New Mexico laws go into effect in 2025?

• New York: CBS New York - New laws to know for 2025 in New York, from minimum wage increase to paid leave for prenatal care

• North Carolina: WTVD - New North Carolina laws that take effect in January 2025; Here's a list

• Ohio: WTVG - New laws to take effect in Ohio in 2025 targeting schools, education

• Oklahoma: KOCO - See which new laws go into effect on Jan. 1 in Oklahoma

• Oregon: Central Oregon Daily - These new Oregon laws took effect Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know

• Pennsylvania: WGAL - Pennsylvania sees new laws, changes go into effect in 2025

• Rhode Island: WPRI - What new laws go into effect in Rhode Island in 2025?

• South Carolina: WLTX - What new laws start in 2025 in South Carolina? Here's what you need to know

• Tennessee: WBIR - New laws in 2025: Age verification on social media, certain websites

• Texas: CBS Texas - 2025 is bringing new state laws to Texas. Here's how they will impact you

• Utah: KSL - License plate changes, smartphone filters: All these new Utah laws will go into effect in 2025

• Vermont: Vermont Public - New Vermont laws for Jan. 1: Minimum wage, town ethics, electric vehicle fee and more

• Virginia: WRIC - New year, new Virginia laws going into effect

• Washington: KING - These new laws are going into effect in Washington state New Year's Day

• Wisconsin: WFRV - New Wisconsin laws in effect as of January 1; What to know

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 18: The final week of the NFL regular season began on Saturday as the Ravens clinched the AFC East title with a 35-10 win over the Browns. -. Today’s action begins with eight games at 1:00 pm ET, including Commanders-Cowboys, Bears-Packers, and Saints-Buccaneers. Five games, including Chiefs-Broncos and Seahawks-Rams, will be played at 4:25 pm ET. At 8:20 pm ET, the final game of the regular season features an NFC North clash between the Vikings and Lions. The winner of the game will be the #1 seed in the NFC Playoffs.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 18 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Playoff: #6 Penn State-#7 Notre Dame and #5 Texas-#8 Ohio State are the two College Football Playoff semifinal matchups. Penn State took down #3 Boise State 31-14 in the quarterfinals, while Notre Dame stuffed #2 Georgia 23-10. Texas needed two overtimes to beat #4 Arizona State 39-31, while Ohio State dominated #1 Oregon 41-21. No conference champions remain in the playoff. Penn State-Notre Dame at the Capital One Orange Bowl will take place on Thursday at 7:30 pm ET. Texas-Ohio State at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic will kick off at 7:30 pm ET on Friday. Both games will air on ESPN.

  • ESPN - College Football Playoff 2024: Semifinal first look

• NFL Playoff Picture: Just two spots in the NFL Playoffs remain up for grabs as the NFC South is the only division yet to have been clinched. In the AFC, the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, and Texans have locked up the top four seeds, while the Steelers and Chargers have grabbed two of the three Wild Card spots. The Broncos, Dolphins, and Bengals are still alive for the final spot, with a Broncos win sending them into the Playoffs. In the NFC, the Lions-Vikings game will decide the #1 seed, with the loser placing fifth. The Eagles and Rams have locked up the second and third seeds, respectively. The Buccaneers and Falcons remain in the hunt for the #4 seed and the NFC South title, with a Buccaneers win sending them to the postseason. The Commanders and Packers have clinched the final Wild Card spots in the NFC.

  • NFL - 2024 NFL Playoff Picture

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return next Sunday, January 12, 2025.

Happy Holidays and Happy 150th edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts!

Perhaps 2024 didn’t go exactly the way you wanted it to, or the way you thought it would. Totally fair, I didn’t have Elon Musk becoming the de-facto president who fights with little-known congressmen from Louisiana about the debt ceiling, either.

There’s sure to be more where that came from in the new year, but for now, I’m enjoying a few days of sanity this holiday season. I’m also enjoying a massive milestone in our ever-continuing Zander’s Facts journey. 150 editions of the Zander’s Weekend Facts newsletter!

If you’re reading this, then you’ve done your part to help support the facts as we continue to reach brand-new audiences. In a time where misinformation is running rampant, I’m sure you’ll agree that factually-based information is paramount for the masses to consume. As long as Zander’s Facts continues, providing the facts for wide audiences will continue to be the mission, and I hope you’ll continue indulging.

Salute to you all, have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy the rest of this week’s Facts! 🎄

But before you read on, make sure to take a peak at the latest episode of Zander’s Facts… released yesterday! I’m joined by our Zander’s Facts soccer guru Emma Adams as we delve into all the latest happenings in the world of soccer. Check out Episode 143 below or wherever you get your podcasts:

What Zander’s been reading

One of 2024’s lowest points, arguably, was the rise of a viral internet meme known as “Hawk Tuah.” The woman involved rose to the top of popular internet culture, launching her own podcast and gaining an avid following before unsurprisingly crashing out after the launch of her own cryptocurrency. Hopefully, there are some lessons we can all learn from a situation that promoted society’s worst instincts.

Check out this week’s featured article in Slate - Of Course the “Hawk Tuah” Girl’s Fame Would End This Way

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 16: The NFL opens its Sunday slate today at 1:00 pm ET with seven games, including Lions-Bears, Rams-Jets, and Eagles-Commanders. In the 4:00 pm ET window, the Vikings take on the Seahawks, the Patriots face the Bills, the Jaguars visit the Raiders, and the Dolphins host the 49ers. Sunday Night Football features the Buccaneers taking on the Cowboys, while tomorrow’s Monday Night Football includes the Saints visiting the Packers. Three games have already taken place in week 16 as the Chargers came back to beat the Broncos 34-27 on Thursday night. On Saturday, the Chiefs held off the Texans 27-19, while the Ravens beat their division rival Steelers 34-17.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 16 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Playoff: The First Round of the College Football Playoff featured four games that did not produce much excitement. The CFP began on Friday with #7 Notre Dame hosting #10 Indiana and winning the in-state matchup 27-17. On Saturday, #6 Penn State opened the day with a thumping of #11 SMU 38-10. #5 Texas took care of #12 Clemson 38-24, while #8 Ohio State thrashed #9 Tennessee 42-17 to cap the night. The four winners move on to face the top four seeds in the Quarterfinals, which take place on December 31 and January 1.

  • ESPN - College Football Playoff 2024: Quarterfinal first look

• NFL Week 17: The upcoming week of NFL action begins early with two games on Christmas Day. On Wednesday, the Chiefs head to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers at 1:00 pm ET, while the Texans host the Ravens at 4:30 pm ET. Both games will air on Netflix. The final Thursday Night Football game of the year features the Seahawks and Bears at 8:15 pm ET on Prime Video. A triple-header on NFL Network highlights Saturday with Chargers-Patriots at 1:00 pm ET, Broncos-Bengals at 4:30 pm ET, and Cardinals-Rams at 8:00 pm ET leading into a nine-game Sunday slate.

  • ESPN - NFL Scoreboard (Week 17)

• NBA Cup / Christmas Day: The Milwaukee Bucks captured their first NBA Cup title with a dominant victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. In Tuesday’s NBA Cup final, the Bucks won 97-81 behind 26 points from NBA Cup MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks join the Los Angeles Lakers as the only teams to have won the NBA Cup. On Wednesday, the league will mark Christmas Day with its annual five-game slate. All games will air on ABC and ESPN. Beginning at 12:00 pm ET, the Spurs face the Knicks, with Timberwolves-Mavericks at 2:30 pm ET. At 5:00 pm ET, the 76ers take on the Celtics, while the Lakers match up with the Warriors in primetime at 8:00 pm ET. The day concludes at 10:30 pm ET as the Suns host the Nuggets.

  • NBA - Bucks-Thunder: 5 takeaways from Emirates NBA Cup Championship

  • NBA - NBA on Christmas Day 2024

• English Premier League: The annual Premier League festive fixtures began on Saturday as Manchester City lost yet another league game, falling 2-1 to Aston Villa, while Arsenal picked up a massive 5-1 win over Crystal Palace. Sunday’s action includes five games on USA Network or Peacock, featuring Everton-Chelsea at 9:00 am ET and Tottenham-Liverpool at 11:30 am ET. Thursday’s Boxing Day includes eight games with Manchester City hosting Everton at 7:30 am ET. The day continues with five games at 10:00 am ET, Manchester United visiting Wolves at 12:30 pm ET, and Liverpool hosting Leicester City at 3:00 pm ET. Liverpool are currently at the top of the league table with 36 points, followed by Chelsea, Arsenal, and Nottingham Forest in the top four.

  • Premier League - What to look out for across Premier League's Festive Fixtures

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Government Funding: The federal government narrowly averted a government shutdown last week after passing a short-term funding bill. Discussions over the bill escalated last week after an initial bipartisan agreement collapsed in the House of Representatives after President-elect Donald Trump and top ally Elon Musk disapproved. A subsequent plan that Trump was in favor of failed to pass the Republican-controlled House on Friday, leaving Congressional leaders to drop language regarding the debt limit, which Trump had previously demanded. The legislation, which was signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday morning, funds the government until March 14, 2025, when Trump will be in office and Republicans will hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.

  • ABC News - Government shutdown updates: Biden signs funding bill, averting shutdown

• Trump Defamation Suit: ABC News and President-elect Donald Trump agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit last week. Trump had filed the suit after ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos had claimed on air that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. While Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll, he had not been found liable for rape under New York law. ABC agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library as part of the settlement.

  • Associated Press - ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit

• U.S. Economy: The Federal Reserve cut interest rates once again last week. In its final meeting of the year, the Fed slashed its benchmark borrowing rate to a target of 4.25-4.50% on Wednesday. Fed officials signaled afterward that fewer rate cuts are expected in 2025. That news contributed to another bad week on Wall Street as the stock market marked its third consecutive week in the red. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average added nearly 500 points on Friday, the index plunged by over 1,100 points on Wednesday to mark 10 straight days of losses, its longest losing streak since 1974.

  • CNBC - Fed cuts by a quarter point, indicates fewer reductions ahead

  • CNBC - Dow closes nearly 500 points higher on cooler inflation data, but index posts third straight losing week

• German Government: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no-confidence vote in the German parliament last week. The vote effectively brings a close to the government Scholz has helmed since 2021, with elections likely taking place early next year. Scholz’s Social Democrats had formed a coalition government with two other parties, the Greens and the Free Democrats. The three-party coalition, rare in Germany, was shaky and collapsed last month when Scholz fired finance minister Christian Lindner, the leader of the Free Democrats. The Christian Democratic Union is expected to win the most votes in the next elections according to polls, which would make leader Friedrich Merz the next chancellor.

  • The New York Times - How to Understand the Collapse of Germany’s Government, and What’s Next

• Germany Attack: An attack on a Christmas market in Germany killed five people and injured over 200 on Friday. A car plunged into a crowd at the market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. The suspect is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany since 2006, with authorities reportedly looking into his anti-Islam views as motivation for the attack.

  • BBC News - Nine-year-old among five killed in attack on German Christmas market

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return Sunday, January 5, 2025.

Winston Churchill is often credited for saying, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” There’s actually no evidence that he said this and those who have studied Churchill closely believe he was too politically savvy to make the remark. Nevertheless, it fits.

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shocking to many when it took place earlier this month. Yet, it feels incredibly predictable.

One thing is very clear about our country: The American people are not happy with the “system.” The system, and how one defines it, can certainly mean a broad array of items, with healthcare certainly being included in that definition for many. The Harvard Medical School three years ago asked if the U.S. healthcare system was expensive, complicated, dysfunctional, or broken. It quickly found the answer was yes to all four. Gallup found just last week that only 44% of Americans believe the quality of American healthcare is excellent or good, the lowest that number has been this century. Only 28% would use the same adjectives to describe U.S. healthcare coverage.

Certainly, the quality of American medicine is second to none, but access to it is the major harbinger that is causing major stress for millions. This is what allows the American healthcare system to consistently rank behind the likes of Denmark, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and our Canadian neighbors to the north.

And almost inconceivably, access to insurance is not the root cause. The Census found last year that 92% of the American population had health insurance, the highest rate in history. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare in case you didn’t know they were the same thing), the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance has risen from just under 84% in 2010.

No, it appears that insurance itself might be the real problem. A KFF survey released last year found that over half of Americans have dealt with troubles regarding their insurance provider for a variety of reasons. And if you don’t have health insurance through a private company, then it’s likely provided to you at a cost by the federal government. Through spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying each year, private insurance companies have prevented the government from coming up with a more competent solution to the current predicament.

In the aftermath of Thompson’s murder, many have also been shocked to find that the internet’s reaction to a stranger being killed in cold blood on the streets of Midtown Manhattan was that of exuberance and admiration for the killer. Again, this also feels predictable.

For the record, this is in no way an endorsement of harming, in any way, those who you believe to have aggrieved you. Murder is murder, it is wrong, weak, and should not be celebrated. However, for as sad as it is to witness, it is not surprising in our society to see notable factions laud the murder of a healthcare CEO.

There are countless stories of those insured by UnitedHealth and others having been denied coverage for ridiculous circumstances after paying into these systems every month. And even when claims haven’t been denied, the cost in some cases can still be too much to bear. This is happening at the same time that UnitedHealth reported revenues of $100 billion and net earnings of $8.7 billion in the third quarter of this year. UnitedHealth Group is currently worth $478 billion.

There is no defense for brazen violence and the threats to those in the insurance industry that have come in the days since. But this proliferation shows that our society is fed up. We have expansive stories from history to tell us what exactly is happening.

Adrienne LaFrance writes in The Atlantic (paywall) from her article “Deciviliation May Already Be Underway”:

We already understand many of the conditions that make a society vulnerable to violence. And we know that those conditions are present today, just as they were in the Gilded Age: highly visible wealth disparity, declining trust in democratic institutions, a heightened sense of victimhood, intense partisan estrangement based on identity, rapid demographic change, flourishing conspiracy theories, violent and dehumanizing rhetoric against the “other,” a sharply divided electorate, and a belief among those who flirt with violence that they can get away with it. These conditions run counter to spurts of civilizing, in which people’s worldviews generally become more neutral, more empirical, and less fearful or emotional.

America has certainly not been immune to political violence, but recent events appear to differ from our past. When presidents William McKinley and John F. Kennedy were assassinated, America laid in mourning. It is highly unlikely that would have been the case had the attempts on President-elect Donald Trump succeeded earlier this year. In fact, much of America almost appears in mourning that Thompson’s shooter was apprehended by authorities.

Recent reaction to these events, along with the incredibly easy access to a gun that comes with life in the United States, do not combine for a hopeful resolution in the future. It is societies as chaotic as these that lead to the return of a figure such as Trump, who has vowed to use political violence against his opponents, to the White House.

LaFrance goes on to note that in Medieval Europe, when violence became rampant, rewarding “individuals for proper etiquette, adherence to which was required for entry into the most desirable strata of society” led to “substantially more peaceful conditions.”

There are striking warning signs blaring right at us, and the leadership we will soon have does not appear willing to accept the change that is needed.

In an op-ed in The New York Times published on Friday, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty wrote that the healthcare system is broken and we should fix it. All it took to realize this was the murder of one of his top lieutenants. Like Churchill did or didn’t say, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” The problem is, it might be too late.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from the Associated Press - Key details about the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO

What Zander’s been reading

Famed poet, activist, and professor Nikki Giovanni passed away last week at the age of 81. Giovanni was one of the most recognizable African American poets across the world, known for her powerful and evocative works that explored race, identity, and social justice in ways that few had told before to massive audiences. She leaves a legacy that will continue to inspire generations to come, through her words, her activism, and her unwavering commitment to the power of poetry. The following are pieces from The New York Times exploring her impact and documenting her life.

Check out this week’s featured articles in The New York Times

- Nikki Giovanni, Poet Who Wrote of Black Joy, Dies at 81

- When Nikki Giovanni Was Young, Brilliant and Unafraid

- Nikki Giovanni: A Life in Pictures

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• FBI: FBI Director Christopher Wray announced last week that he will resign before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Wray, who had been selected by Trump to lead the bureau in 2017, has been criticized by Trump for the FBI’s investigations into the president-elect. Trump had been planning to replace Wray, with former GOP staffer and Trump loyalist Kash Patel having been nominated for the position. Wray joins several other federal government heads who have announced their resignations before Trump’s inauguration, including the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

  • CBS News - Wray to resign as FBI director before Trump's inauguration

• South Korea: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached on Saturday after declaring martial law in the country. The motion passed by a 204-85 vote in the country’s National Assembly after a previous impeachment vote had failed due to lawmaker boycotts. Presidential powers and duties are now in the hands of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. South Korea’s Constitutional Court will now determine whether Yoon should be removed from office or have his powers restored. If Yoon is removed, a national election will take place within 60 days of the ruling.

  • Associated Press - South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law order

• Biden Pardons: President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people on Thursday, a single-day record. The commutations apply to those who had been placed in home confinement after being released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Biden pardoned 39 Americans who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses. Biden had previously pardoned his son Hunter two weeks ago. The news comes as presidential pardon power has come under a microscope, with President-elect Donald Trump having vowed to pardon those convicted of crimes for the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

  • The New York Times - Biden Commutes the Sentences of 1,500 Americans, a Record for One Day

• North Carolina: Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly approved a bill last week stripping powers of several statewide elected positions. The bill, which had been vetoed by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, had its veto overruled by the legislature. The new law looks to erode some powers afforded to the state’s governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and state school superintendent, including placing the previous power of the governor to appoint members of the State Board of Elections in the hands of the state auditor. The four positions targeted in the bill were won by Democrats in November’s elections, while the state auditor was won by a Republican.

  • NPR - North Carolina GOP lawmakers enact a law eroding the Democratic governor's powers

• Kroger-Albertsons: The merger between Albertsons and Kroger that would have created a grocery store giant is off. A federal judge blocked the merger last week, saying that the merger would have eliminated competition and led to higher prices for consumers. The federal government had sued to block the agreement. On Wednesday, one day after the ruling, Albertsons announced it was terminating the merger agreement and suing Kroger, saying the company did not follow through on its commitments to get the deal approved.

  • CNBC - Albertsons sues Kroger after judge rules against grocery merger

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 15: A defensive slugfest opened week 15 in the NFL as the Rams beat the 49ers 12-6 on Thursday in a game with six field goals providing the only scores. Moving to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Chiefs-Browns, Commanders-Saints, and Dolphins-Texans. At 4:25 pm ET, a five-game slate is headlined by two matchups of 10-win teams facing off. The Bills visit the Lions while the Steelers head across Pennsylvania to take on the Eagles. Sunday night features the Seahawks hosting the Packers at 8:20 pm ET. Week 15 concludes with a Monday night double-dip as the Bears take on the Vikings at 8:00 pm ET and the Falcons face the Raiders at 8:30 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 15 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Playoff: The College Football Playoff field was set last Sunday as SMU gained entry to the expanded 12-team Playoff in favor of Alabama. The top four seeds, Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State, receive a bye, while seeds 5-12 will play in the first round later this week. On Friday night at 8:00 pm ET, #7 Notre Dame hosts #10 Indiana on ABC and ESPN. On Saturday, a tripleheader commences with #11 SMU taking on #6 Penn State at 12:00 pm ET and #12 Clemson visiting #5 Texas at 4:00 pm ET. Both afternoon games will air on TNT and stream on Max. The final game on Saturday features #8 Ohio State hosting #9 Tennessee at 8:00 pm ET on ABC and ESPN.

  • ESPN - Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, Arizona State top CFP field

• NBA Cup: The Milwaukee Bucks and the Oklahoma City Thunder will face off in the championship game of this season’s NBA Cup. The Bucks, currently sixth in the Eastern Conference, survived a clash in the semifinals with the Atlanta Hawks, winning 110-102. The Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 111-96 in their semifinal game to make the final. At 19-5, the Thunder have the best record in the Western Conference at the moment. The NBA Cup final takes place on Tuesday in Las Vegas, with tip-off at 8:30 pm ET on ABC.

  • Yahoo Sports - NBA Cup: Thunder to face Bucks in championship game after big nights in Las Vegas

• Future World Cups: FIFA announced the hosts for two future editions of the men’s World Cup last week. In 2030, a record-breaking six countries will host matches. Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will host the vast majority of the tournament, while South American nations Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay will host the first three matches in a tribute to the first World Cup that was played in 1930 in Uruguay. The 2034 edition will be hosted in Saudi Arabia, with the tournament having generated controversy due to human rights concerns in the country.

  • CBS Sports - FIFA World Cup hosts confirmed: Saudi Arabia wins 2034 bid; Spain, Portugal, Morocco land centenary 2030 bid

• Juan Soto: The most coveted free agent of the Major League Baseball offseason signed a record-breaking deal last week. Juan Soto, who last season played for the New York Yankees, is moving across town to join the New York Mets on a 15-year, $765 million deal. The deal is the largest in the history of American professional sports. Soto hit a career-high 41 home runs last season and had 109 RBIs. The Mets fell to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in last season’s National League Championship Series.

  • MLB - Mets, Soto finalize record-breaking 15-yr, $765M deal

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in Print return next Sunday, December 22, 2024.

Coming into the first season of the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, I wasn’t really sure the purpose that conference championship games still served. That was until watching the final moments of Saturday night’s ACC title game.

#17 Clemson came into last night’s conference championship game as nearly three-point underdogs, despite having won seven of the last nine ACC championships, yet opened up a 17-point lead in the first half and even led by that amount in the fourth quarter. #8 SMU, having made the ACC Championship in their first season in the conference, stormed back in the second half, eventually tying the game up by scoring a touchdown with just 16 seconds left in regulation.

The Mustangs were so close to forcing an overtime where they had the momentum… until Clemson returned the ensuing kickoff to the 45-yard line, giving the Tigers’ offense a chance to get into field goal range. They did exactly that with a quick completion by Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik to receiver Antonio Williams to the SMU 38-yard line, giving kicker Nolan Hauser a chance from 56 yards to win the Atlantic Coast Conference and send Clemson to the CFP with an automatic conference championship spot.

Candidly, I’m not much of a Dabo fan, but it doesn’t get much better than that as a fan of college football. A true freshman kicking a career-long field goal to send his team into the College Football Playoff, just seconds after Clemson had thought their fate would be decided in another period of play. Sean McDonough’s two excellent play-by-play calls at the end of the game likely made the moment even more spectacular, the first time in FBS history a conference was won by a 50+ yard field goal. As a neutral college football fan (well, not really I suppose since I had Clemson +2.5) that was incredible to watch.

And now comes the big question: does SMU get into the Playoff?

You may remember the debate that surrounded last year’s CFP, which was the final edition to solely feature four programs. The College Football Playoff selection committee ultimately decided to include Alabama as the fourth team, ousting undefeated Florida State from the Playoff after their starting quarterback had gotten injured late in the season. (I certainly had my thoughts on that situation, which you can listen to below.)

The debate this time around certainly does not have the implications of one year ago. We’re talking about the 12th team to get into a 12-team Playoff who would have to win four straight games to win the National Championship instead of the fourth team to get into a four-team Playoff who would only have to win two consecutive games to capture the natty. Although, it is absolutely ironic that Alabama is the team at the center of both debates.

Here’s just a quick summary of the situation at hand:

• The five highest-ranked conference champions automatically gain entry into the Playoff, with those almost certain to be ACC champion Clemson, Big 12 champion Arizona State, Big Ten champion Oregon, Mountain West champion Boise State, and SEC champion Georgia.

• The remaining seven spots are at-large selections, given to the highest-ranked remaining teams. Given last week’s rankings, the teams that are considered locks to be included in the Playoff are Indiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas.

• This leaves one spot remaining, with SMU, who was ranked #8 last week, up against #11 Alabama, who would have been the final at-large selection if last week’s rankings were the final ones of the season.

That brings us to the extensive arguments for both schools, condensed here for sanity:

• Alabama: Beat the SEC champions this season and have a strength of schedule ranked 16th best in college football. However, finished with a 9-3 record that kept them out of the SEC Championship, with two of those losses coming to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, both of whom finished 6-6 this season. Their Oklahoma loss was by 21 points on the road.

• SMU: Finished the season 11-2 with a three-point loss to BYU, ranked as high as #6 by the committee this season, and to Clemson in the ACC title game. However, they have no wins against teams currently ranked this season, they did beat Louisville and Pittsburgh when those two teams were ranked, and have a strength of schedule that is 60th in the country.

Now I’ll tell you right now that neither Alabama nor SMU, whichever team is included in the Playoff, will win the National Championship. They’ll likely struggle in their first round matchup against most likely the fifth-ranked team, which will likely be a road game versus Texas.

In the grand scheme of determining a national champion, which the Playoff is designed to do, it will likely matter little. Yet, the decision that the committee makes, which we will find out at noon ET this afternoon on ESPN, will say a whole lot about the state of college football.

In my humble opinion, it makes little reasonable sense to exclude SMU in favor of Alabama for the simple reason that you would be punishing the Mustangs for playing in a game that they earned their way into, while boosting a team that didn’t earn the right to play in their conference championship game. Is it harder to get into the SEC Championship Game than it is in the ACC? Undoubtedly. The SEC is the best conference in the sport.

Yet, many arguments in favor of placing three-loss SEC teams into the Playoff this season have rested on hypotheticals. “Oh, well Alabama would almost certainly destroy SMU if they played.” I’d say that considering Georgia, the champions of the SEC, needed eight overtimes just one week ago to beat Georgia Tech, the sixth-best team in the ACC this season, you really shouldn’t factor hypotheticals into your decision-making in this context.

But what does it say if the committee does choose Alabama instead of SMU? (Which, to be honest, I think they will do.) There were already those out there calling for SMU to simply forfeit the ACC Championship Game because a loss could exclude them from the Playoff. Excluding SMU then gives future teams the license to simply not participate in their conference championship game, for fear that a loss would punish them while benefiting teams that don’t qualify for their conference championships.

Even with the excitement of Clemson-SMU, and the thriller that was Georgia-Texas in the SEC Championship earlier in the day, I’m still not in love with the conference championship game. If this is the event that takes them off the calendar, I probably wouldn’t shed a tear, although I do understand why a team like Clemson, who wasn’t in the Playoff before this game and now is, would want them to remain. (The argument above remains, however, Clemson is not a serious contender for the National Championship.) With a 12-team Playoff, and potentially a 16-team Playoff in a few years’ time, where teams play three or four extra games to win the National Championship, the conference championship game almost seems unnecessary. The neutral sites don’t provide a great atmosphere, and first round Playoff games now being played at campus sites seems to be a positive trade-off.

So if Alabama is included at the expense of SMU, don’t be surprised if that marks the end of conference championship games. And while it likely won’t have a major impact on this year’s race for the championship, it will only continue the acceleration of college sports toward the inevitability of a super league that will only favor those raking in the riches.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from the Associated Press - An Oregon win, a Clemson upset, and ‘now what?’ for Alabama in the College Football Playoff

What Zander’s been reading

Compared to just a few decades ago, many neighborhoods across the U.S. now have far fewer grocery stores. This article in The Atlantic takes a look at the root causes of “food deserts” and what could be done to adequately address the problem.

Check out this week’s featured article in The Atlantic - The Great Grocery Squeeze

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 14: An exciting NFC North showdown opened week 14 of the NFL season on Thursday night as the Lions edged by the Packers 34-31. Switching to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Falcons-Vikings, Panthers-Eagles, and Browns-Steelers. In the 4:00 pm ET window, the Seahawks take on the Cardinals, the Bills face the Rams, and the 49ers host the Bears. At 8:20 pm ET, the Chargers travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. Week 14 concludes on Monday night as the Bengals face off against the Cowboys at 8:15 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 14 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Conference Championships: The field for the College Football Playoff will be unveiled later today after college football concluded its conference championship weekend on Saturday. The Big 12 began the day with #15 Arizona State demolishing #16 Iowa State 45-19. In the SEC title game, #5 Georgia held on despite losing their starting quarterback to injury, beating #2 Texas 22-19 in overtime. #1 Oregon was able to stop #3 Penn State in the final minutes of the Big Ten Championship, winning 45-37, while #17 Clemson used a last-second field goal to beat #8 SMU 34-31. The final College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled later today at 12:00 pm ET on ESPN.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 15)

• UEFA Champions League: The league phase of the UEFA Champions League returns this week with Matchday 6 as just three matches remain for each club before the league phase concludes. On Tuesday, the nine-match slate is highlighted by Bayer Leverkusen-Inter Milan, Atalanta-Real Madrid, and Shakhtar Donetsk-Bayern Munich. On Wednesday, notable matches include Borussia Dortmund-Barcelona, Juventus-Manchester City, and Arsenal-Monaco. Each match will kick off at either 12:45 pm ET or 3:00 pm ET and stream on Paramount+.

  • UEFA - UEFA Champions League: What to look out for in every game on Matchday 6

• MLS Cup: The LA Galaxy won their sixth MLS Cup on Saturday with a victory in the league’s final game of the season. LA took down New York Red Bulls 2-1 in a matchup of two franchises that have existed throughout the league’s 29-year history. Goals from Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljić in the first half were enough for LA to be crowned league champions for the first time since 2014. LA’s six MLS Cups are the most in league history, two more than D.C. United’s four.

  • MLS Soccer - CHAMPIONS! LA Galaxy lift MLS Cup 2024 over New York Red Bulls

  • YouTube - Major League Soccer - LA Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls | Full Match Highlights | 2024 Audi MLS Cup

• WNBA Expansion: The WNBA held an expansion draft for the league’s newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, last week. The Valkyries selected 11 players who played on different teams last season, including Kate Martin of the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever’s Temi Fagbenle. Golden State begins play when the 2025 WNBA season commences in May. The name and logo of the league’s 14th franchise was also unveiled last week. The Toronto Tempo, the first Canadian team in the WNBA, will begin play in 2026.

  • CBS Sports - Golden State Valkyries roster, schedule: WNBA's newest team takes first step with expansion draft

  • CBS Sports - WNBA expansion: Toronto franchise introduced as Tempo, will begin play in 2026 season

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• South Korea: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an impeachment vote on Saturday in the country’s parliament. Yoon had imposed martial law on Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces that control parliament and whom he accused of sympathizing with North Korea. Lawmakers quickly voted to reject military rule and the order was lifted on Wednesday. However, an impeachment vote against Yoon failed after many lawmakers boycotted the vote. The main opposition party declared that it will submit another impeachment motion later this week.

  • Associated Press - South Korea’s president avoids an impeachment attempt over short-lived martial law

• UnitedHealthcare CEO: The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday was “premeditated” and “premeditated” according to police. The shooting was caught on camera in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, with police believing that the at-large suspect has since left New York City. UnitedHealthcare had been holding its annual investor conference in New York at the time.

  • NBC News - What we know about UnitedHealthcare CEO's fatal shooting outside NYC hotel

• French Government: French Prime Minister Michael Barnier resigned last week after losing a no-confidence vote in the country’s parliament. The events bring an end to the three-month-old government that had emerged in the wake of last summer’s parliamentary elections, which will now be the shortest in modern French history. French President Emmanuel Macron is now tasked with appointing a new prime minister, which will be difficult in a divided parliament. Macron himself has defied recent calls for his own resignation.

  • The New York Times - Macron to Pick New Prime Minister in Coming Days. What Comes Next?

• Syria Civil War: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the capital of Damascus early Sunday, ending a 24-year rule over the Middle Eastern nation. A rebel offensive has made stunning gains in the country over the last week, entering Damascus on Saturday. al-Assad had been known for quelling any forms of dissent during his reign of the country. Rebels had taken control of the key Syrian city of Homs just hours before moving into Damascus, signaling the fall of al-Assad’s regime. The country’s prime minister, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, said he was prepared to cooperate with new leadership chosen by the Syrian people.

  • Reuters - Syrian army command tells officers that Assad's rule has ended, officer says

• TikTok Ban: A federal appeals court upheld the impending ban on the social media platform TikTok in the United States last week. The court in its ruling agreed with the federal bill that imposed a ban on TikTok unless it is divested from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, because of national security concerns. TikTok has vowed to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. The law requires TikTok to be sold by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the U.S. However, President-elect Donald Trump has said he would save the platform, though the manner in which that would occur is unknown.

  • NPR - Court upholds a U.S. ban on TikTok

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, December 15, 2024.

The fascinations of President-elect Donald Trump are extremely comprehensive. On one end of the spectrum, we have the genitals of golfer Arnold Palmer. And on the other, we have tariffs.

During his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on several industries, including a 25% tariff on steel imported into the U.S. and 10% on aluminum, among others. With term number two now on the horizon, Trump is planning much larger action.

On Monday, Trump declared on his Truth Social platform that he will impose a 25% tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico when he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

Trump’s threat worked in the sense that he got both Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talking. However, it’s unlikely his talk on tariffs is simply a negotiating tactic. If so, it’s one he appears trigger-happy on presenting, considering just on Saturday he threatened countries that are members of the BRICS geopolitical coalition with a 100% tariff if they move away from using the U.S. dollar.

Trump’s tariff strategy can actually be traced all the way back to the 1980s, when he first publicly mused about their supposed effectiveness. For a man who can almost never decide which position is best on many issues, tariffs are an outlier where he has a longstanding view.

For an American public that adamantly stated the economy was the top issue in the last election, it sure seems like many might not understand the effect that tariffs can have.

To put it simply, when a country imposes a tariff on imports coming in from another country, that foreign country isn’t the one paying the tariff. The company bringing the product into the domestic country is the one paying the tariff. That can potentially raise costs for consumers of the country imposing the tariff.

However, tariffs are not simple, and the economic situation that allows Trump to claim their worth is incredibly complex. Here’s a video from The Wall Street Journal explaining how tariffs work and why many economists are negatively viewing Trump’s tariff barrage in his second term.

What Zander’s been reading

Many of the most famous soccer clubs around the world are known for their distinct kits and colors, which often have a backstory that goes back decades. ESPN has compiled the stories of how some of the world’s top clubs got their recognizable colors.

Check out this week’s featured article in ESPN - How Clubs Got Their Colors

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Israel-Hezbollah: Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group agreed to a ceasefire last week. The ceasefire, which began on Wednesday, calls for Israeli troops to exit Lebanon and for Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon. The agreement came just after Israel had conducted one of its most active days of the 14-month war, killing at least 42 people on Tuesday after launching airstrikes. The ceasefire does not apply to Israel’s separate fighting with the Gaza-based Hamas militant group.

  • Associated Press - Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah start a ceasefire after nearly 14 months of fighting

• Trump Federal Cases: Two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump have been dismissed. Special counsel Jack Smith requested that both the election interference and classified documents cases against Trump be dismissed, requests that federal courts granted last week. Smith cited the long-standing policy at the Department of Justice that prohibits prosecution against a sitting president.

  • ABC News - Trump election case is tossed after special counsel Jack Smith requests dismissal citing 'categorical' DOJ policy

• Australia Social Media: Australia passed what appears to be the most restrictive social media law for teenagers in the world last week. The Social Media Minimum Age bill bans all children 16 and under from social media. Australia’s absolute ban is different from other states and countries that have allowed parents to provide permission for their children to use social media. Social media companies could be fined up to $32 million U.S. dollars per year if they do not enforce the law. Enforcement will begin in January.

  • Reuters - Australia passes social media ban for children under 16

• Trump Administration Picks: President-elect Donald Trump continued to name members of his second administration last week, including a new leader for the National Institute of Health. Trump named Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford physician and economist, as the head of the NIH. Bhattacharya has previously critiqued the lockdown policies that were in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump also named retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg his envoy to Ukraine and Russia.

  • The New York Times - Trump Picks Stanford Doctor Who Opposed Lockdowns to Head N.I.H.

  • The New York Times - Trump Picks Keith Kellogg to Be Envoy to Ukraine and Russia

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 13: The thirteenth week of the NFL season kicked off with a Thanksgiving tripleheader, headlined by the Lions holding on for a 23-20 win over the Bears, with the Bears firing head coach Matt Eberflus after the game on Friday. The Cowboys got a Thanksgiving win with a 27-20 victory over the Giants, while the Packers beat the Dolphins 30-17 to cap off the day. On Black Friday, the Chiefs held on for a 19-17 win over the Raiders. Switching to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window is headlined by Chargers-Falcons, Cardinals-Vikings, and Steelers-Bengals. At 4:00 pm ET, the Saints host the Rams, the Buccaneers take on the Panthers, and the Eagles face the Ravens. At 8:20 pm ET, the 49ers travel east to take on the Bills. Week 13 concludes with Browns-Broncos on Monday night.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 13 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 14: Chaos consumed the final week of the college football regular season. Starting on Thursday, Memphis upset #17 Tulane 34-24 while #7 Georgia needed eight overtimes to beat Georgia Tech at home on Friday 44-42. On Saturday, Michigan pulled off their fourth straight win over #2 Ohio State 13-10, #8 Tennessee came back to beat Vanderbilt 36-23, #15 South Carolina took down #12 Clemson 17-14, and #13 Alabama took care of Auburn 28-14. Plus, Syracuse upset #6 Miami 42-38, #3 Texas beat #20 Texas A&M 17-7, #18 Iowa State knocked off #24 Kansas State 29-21, and #5 Notre Dame beat USC on the road 49-35.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 14)

• College Football Conference Championships: Conference championship weekend in college football is set after Saturday’s conclusion of the regular season. Each of the power four conferences will hold their championship games on Saturday, beginning with the Big 12 Championship as #16 Arizona State takes on #18 Iowa State at 12:00 pm ET on ABC. The SEC Championship features #7 Georgia and #3 Texas at 4:00 pm ET on ABC, followed by the ACC Championship at 8:00 pm ET on ABC with #9 SMU taking on #12 Clemson. The Big Ten Championship also takes place at 8:00 pm ET, airing on CBS, and features #1 Oregon playing #4 Penn State.

  • Yahoo Sports - College football conference title game matchups, dates, times

• Formula 1: Formula 1 announced last week that it reached an agreement with General Motors to add an 11th team to the grid starting in 2026. Cadillac will join Formula 1 as the second American-owned team joining Haas. Andretti Global will run the team and 1978 F1 champion Mario Andretti will hold an ambassador role. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinched the current season title after last week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Verstappen has now won the World Driver’s Championship four consecutive times.

  • Sports Illustrated - F1 News: Cadillac Reveals Key Details About 2026 Driver Lineup

  • Sports Illustrated - Las Vegas Grand Prix Takeaways: Max Verstappen Clinches F1 Title As George Russell Cruises

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, December 8, 2024.

A familiar face on Russian state television to be Director of National Intelligence, a vaccine conspiracy theorist to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and a Fox News host who doesn’t believe men and women should serve together in uniform, along with being accused of sexual assault, to lead the Pentagon.

To be considered the “worst” of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet selections for his second term takes quite an effort. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) appeared giddy to take the cake.

Gaetz was nominated to serve as attorney general back on November 13, a tenure that lasted a mere eight days. In a society that better organized its priorities, it would be universally considered eight days too long.

Gaetz had served in Congress from Florida’s 1st District since 2017, becoming well-known as one of the furthest right members of the House of Representatives. While in the House, Gaetz had been accused of witness tampering, spread falsehoods regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and voted against giving Congressional Gold Medals to the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6.

Gaetz’s troubles, however, extend far beyond the typical foolish activities conducted by a facetious member of the House Republican Conference. Gaetz had been investigated by the Department of Justice for child sex trafficking and as recently as earlier this month, remained under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The New York Times wrote that the investigation included “allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use; sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor; misusing state identification records; converting campaign funds to personal use; and accepting impermissible gifts under House rules.”

Gaetz immediately resigned from Congress after his nomination was made public, because that seems like something a totally innocent person would do. His resignation meant that the Ethics Committee’s probe concluded as he was no longer a Congressman. Unfortunately, Republicans on the committee, backed by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refused to publicly release the investigation’s report (again, totally not suspicious.)

CNN then reported last week that a witness had told the House Ethics Committee that she had had two sexual encounters with Gaetz at a party when she was 17 years old. Gaetz pulled out of the nomination process after the story was published. Previous reporting found that two women had testified to the committee that Gaetz had paid them for “sexual favors.”

To be clear, this nomination should have never even come close to happening. Matt Gaetz is far from a serious person, let alone a serious political figure. When Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (of pidgin fame) “stood expressionless as reporters asked him if he had any concerns about Gaetz”, that should have told you all you needed to know. (Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the one who typically freezes in public.)

Trump campaigned, for the second time, on dismantling the bureaucracy and those who have empowered it. Whether importing a host of outsiders succeeds remains to be seen (although the answer is likely already known), yet those appointees should probably be knowledgeable of what they will be in charge of, at the very least. According to reporting from The Washington Post, “Gaetz seemed nervous and did not appear familiar with the scope of the Justice Department” during meetings on Capitol Hill over the last week.

Gaetz’s acumen is likely typical of the appointments the president-elect is making. The only difference is that Gaetz is quite possibly a criminal (although the president-elect himself is too and he still won the election) and that he angered enough of his fellow Republicans.

The only glimmer of hope to take from this situation is that enough Senate Republicans had the guts to tell Gaetz that his nomination wouldn’t succeed. In that sense, they cleared the bar, however low that bar may be.

In his place, Trump has nominated former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the 2020 presidential election, among a whole host of other issues you’ll find with her professional judgment. You’re about to see just how low that bar is when she’s confirmed as the next U.S. attorney general.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The New York Times - Matt Gaetz Withdraws From Consideration for Attorney General

What Zander’s been reading

After states in the southern U.S. were forced to integrate public schools in the 1960s, many began funding voucher programs to private schools known as “segregation academies.” Almost six decades later, ProPublica has found that many of these private schools are still operating, and are once again receiving public money.

Check out this week’s featured article in ProPublica - Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as They Did in the 1960s

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 12: A snowy spectacle marked the debut of week 12 in the NFL as the Browns pulled off the upset over the Steelers 24-19 on Thursday night. Switching to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Vikings-Bears, Cowboys-Commanders, and Chiefs-Panthers. At 4:00 pm ET, the Broncos take on the Raiders, the Seahawks host the Cardinals, and the 49ers battle the Packers. Sunday night features the Eagles facing the Rams, while the Ravens visit the Chargers on Monday night. Week 13 begins with a Thanksgiving Day tripleheader, including Bears-Lions at 12:30 pm ET on CBS, Giants-Cowboys at 4:30 pm ET on Fox, and Dolphins-Packers at 8:20 pm ET on NBC. The Raiders will take on the Chiefs on Black Friday at 3:00 pm ET on Prime Video.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 12 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 13: #2 Ohio State ended #5 Indiana’s perfect season on Saturday with a 38-15 dominant victory. The college football Saturday was also defined by upsets, particularly in the SEC where Florida knocked off #9 Ole Miss 24-17 and #7 Alabama fell to Oklahoma 24-3, likely knocking both teams out of contention for the College Football Playoff. Elsewhere, #6 Notre Dame stomped #19 Army 49-14, #21 Arizona State took down #14 BYU 37-21, and #3 Texas beat Kentucky 31-14. Plus, Kansas pulled off an upset over #16 Colorado 37-21, #4 Penn State held on against Minnesota 26-25, and Auburn took down #15 Texas A&M 43-41 in four overtimes. Next weekend marks the final week of the college football regular season.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 13)

• UEFA Champions League: The league phase of the UEFA Champions League returns this week with Matchday 5. Tuesday’s action is highlighted by Bayer Leverkusen facing Salzburg, Bayern Munich hosting Paris Saint-Germain, and Feyenoord visiting Manchester City, who have lost their last five games, all at 3:00 pm ET. The match of the week will take place on Wednesday, with Liverpool hosting Real Madrid, while Aston Villa take on Juventus and Monaco face Benfica, all at 3:00 pm ET. All 18 matches of Matchday 5 will air on Paramount+ and kick-off at either 12:45 pm ET or 3:00 pm ET on Tuesday or Wednesday.

  • UEFA - Champions League: What to look out for in every game on Matchday 5

• Geno Auriemma: University of Connecticut women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma became the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history last week. UConn’s 85-41 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday was the 1,217th for Auriemma, passing retired Stanford women’s basketball head coach Tara VanDerveer for the most wins of any men’s or women’s college basketball coach.

  • ESPN - UConn's Geno Auriemma becomes NCAA all-time basketball wins leader

• NWSL Championship: The Orlando Pride captured their first NWSL title in franchise history with a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit on Saturday night. The Pride’s Brabra Banda scored the match’s lone goal in the 37th minute to become the first club to win the championship after finishing with the league’s top regular season record since 2019. Six-time FIFA World Player of the Year, Marta, won her first NWSL championship in possibly the final match of her career after she retired from international soccer earlier this year.

  • CBS Sports - NWSL Championship score: Orlando Pride's Barbra Banda scores winner as Marta and company top Washington Spirit

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Trump Cabinet Picks: President-elect Donald Trump finalized his top selections for his cabinet last week. Trump tapped former White House domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins as agriculture secretary, while choosing hedge fund manager Scott Scott Bessent as treasury secretary. Trump also selected former WWE executive Linda McMahon as education secretary, and New York medical director Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general. Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has been embroiled in controversy, particularly for a 2017 sexual assault allegation.

  • CBS News - See the list of Trump Cabinet picks and more White House appointments so far

• Russia-Ukraine War: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated last week after Russia fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday. The strike came after Ukraine had begun launching longer-range weapons into Russia once the U.S. had approved their use. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Friday that Western air defense systems are unable to stop the new missile. The strike has prompted Ukraine and NATO to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

  • Associated Press - NATO and Ukraine to hold emergency talks after Russia’s attack with new hypersonic missile

• Jair Bolsonaro: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was indicted by the country’s federal police last week. Bolsonaro is accused of attempting a coup after losing the 2022 Brazilian presidential election to President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Bolsonaro is one of 37 people who were indicted as part of a criminal conspiracy seeking to keep Bolsonaro in power. On January 7, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took part in riots across the capital of Brasília. If convicted, Bolsonaro, who has denied the charges, could spend years in prison.

  • NPR - Former Brazilian president indicted over alleged coup plot

• ICC Arrest Warrants: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for three prominent individuals involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict last week. The ICC charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and former Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif with war crimes and crimes against humanity during the current war between Israel and Hamas. Both sides, along with the White House, have dismissed the decision.

  • BBC News - Arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas commander over alleged war crimes

• Google Break Up: The Department of Justice asked a federal court to force Google’s parent company Alphabet to break up last week. Federal prosecutors are seeking for Google to divest its web browser, Chrome, in order to create an equal playing field for search engine competitors. DOJ is also calling for Google to divest its mobile operating system, Android, and to stop the company from entering into exclusionary agreements with companies such as Apple and Samsung.

  • NBC News - DOJ calls for breakup of Google and sale of Chrome

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, December 1, 2024.

I’m taking a bit of a break from the headlining column because… life. Unfortunately, life elsewhere certainly did not cease this past week, so here’s a couple of articles I’ve read over the last couple of days to help keep you up to speed with all the world’s happenings. 😎

• The New York Times - Trump’s Cabinet Picks Test Senate G.O.P.’s Deference

• Axios - What happens if Trump eliminates the Department of Education

• USA Today - Voters blamed Biden and Harris for rising costs. Was that fair? We asked economists

• The Wall Street Journal - The Democrats Need Another Bill Clinton

• NPR - Trump promised the 'largest deportation' in U.S. history. Here's how he might start

• NPR - Biden was given a film camera. The result? A new, intimate view of the White House

You can also go read last week’s newsletter in the off chance you missed it:

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Trump Cabinet Picks: President-elect Donald Trump announced several key appointments to his next administration last week. Trump made several controversial moves including tapping former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as attorney general, picking Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary, and nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary. Gaetz resigned from Congress after the announcement, with a House Ethics Committee report into allegations against Gaetz not having been released. Hegseth was investigated in 2017 for a sexual assault allegation and was flagged by fellow service members while serving in the Army National Guard as a possible “insider threat.” Kennedy has voiced many conspiracy theories on vaccines in recent years.

  • NBC News - A majority of Senate Republicans doubt Matt Gaetz will be confirmed as attorney general, sources say

  • NBC News - Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, faced sex assault allegation

  • CBS News - Fellow National Guardsman told superiors Hegseth might be "insider threat" before Biden inauguration

  • NBC News - From 'brilliant' to 'dangerous': Mixed reactions roll in after Trump picks RFK Jr. for top health post

• Congress Elections: The Republican Party will hold a trifecta in Washington after capturing control of the House of Representatives. According to the Associated Press, Republicans have clinched the 218 seats necessary for control of Congress’s lower chamber. Democrats are projected to have won 212 seats with five seats yet to be called. The margin that the GOP leads by will be consequential as President-elect Donald Trump has already selected three Republican members of Congress to serve in his administration.

  • Associated Press - 2024 House Election Results

• Inflation: The October inflation report showed prices rising higher than the previous month. The consumer price index rose 2.6% year-over-year in October, higher than September’s 2.4% but in line with expectations. Prices rose 0.2% month-over-month, also in line with prior expectations and steady with the last three months. Adjusted for inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported that average hourly earnings rose 1.4% from October 2023.

  • CNBC - Annual inflation rate hit 2.6% in October, meeting expectations

• Infowars: The far-right media outlet Infowars, most commonly known for its owner Alex Jones peddling conspiracy theories on its platforms, was put up for auction last week. In June, a bankruptcy judge ordered Jones to sell several of his assets, including Infowars, in order to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages after he claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. The auction, which took place Wednesday, was won by Global Tetrahedron, the publisher of satirical news outlet The Onion.

  • The Washington Post - The Onion wins auction to take control of Alex Jones’s Infowars

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 11: Perhaps the game of the regular season in the NFL will go down later today as the Chiefs, the last undefeated team in the league, travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills at 4:00 pm ET. At the same time, the Falcons take on the Broncos and the Seahawks face the 49ers. Earlier at 1:00 pm ET, the Packers play the Bears, the Jaguars face the Lions, and the Ravens visit the Steelers. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Chargers host the Bengals, and the Texans take on the Cowboys tomorrow night at 8:15 pm ET. Week 11 began on Thursday night as the Eagles took the NFC East lead with a 28-16 win over the Commanders.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 11 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 12: #12 Georgia scored a massive home win against #7 Tennessee on Saturday night in college football’s game of the week. Many other games featured College Football Playoff implications, including #1 Oregon surviving a trip to Wisconsin 16-13, #3 Texas fending off Arkansas 20-10, and #2 Ohio State cruising by Northwestern 31-7 at Wrigley Field. Elsewhere, #21 South Carolina used a last minute score to beat #23 Missouri 34-30, Florida took down #22 LSU 27-16, Arizona State upset #16 Kansas State 24-14, and #20 Clemson beat Pittsburgh 24-20.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 12)

• NWSL Playoffs: The Washington Spirit clinched a spot in the National Women’s Soccer League Championship game by taking down NJ/NY Gotham in penalties on Saturday. The second semifinal in the NWSL Playoffs takes place later today as the Orlando Pride host the Kansas City Current at 3:00 pm ET on ABC. Regardless of this afternoon’s result, the NWSL Championship will take place in Kansas City on Saturday, kicking off at 8:00 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+.

  • CBS Sports - NWSL Playoffs: Format, schedule, bracket: Washington Spirit dispatch NJ/NY Gotham after penalties to advance

• NBA/TNT Sports: Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports, has reportedly settled its lawsuit with the NBA. WBD had originally sued the league after being shut out of the NBA’s new rights deals, which begin next season with Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBC Sports, and Amazon Prime Video. The settlement will allow TNT Sports to continue operate the NBA’s digital properties and the NBA TV cable channel. A separate deal reported on Saturday night will move TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio program to ESPN beginning next season.

  • Front Office Sports - NBA, WBD Reach Settlement; Barkley and ‘Inside the NBA’ Headed to ESPN

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 24, 2024.

It’s the Saturday night after the 2024 presidential election. My playlist consisting of Elton John, Luke Combs, and others is booming in my headphones. Alabama’s domination of LSU is on full display on the television that sits in the corner of my eye. And I have absolutely no idea how I should start writing this newsletter.

By now, you’re aware that Donald Trump has been elected the 47th President of the United States, just the second man in American history to serve as president in non-consecutive terms. And if you watched my election preview released last Sunday, have read or listened to any of the political content Zander’s Facts has produced, or know me even just a little bit on a personal level, you know it’s not the outcome I preferred, or hoped for.

There are many reasons for this, and I’m not about to dissect my entire political belief system here, but these past few elections have felt like there’s more on the line than just typical policy differences. Of course, as someone who’s only been eligible to vote since 2020 due to age restrictions, I haven’t voted in a national election where it feels like this isn’t the case.

There are countless post-mortem op-eds available for your viewing pleasure on the internet right now, many of them claiming to know exactly why Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats are not celebrating right now. Oh, of course, trotting Liz Cheney out onto the campaign trail as a hero was a rather ridiculous idea. The Democrats should have known that they never would have won when most Americans feel worse off now than they did four years ago. Hopefully this newsletter is not that, since it’s rather farcical to claim you know why the country voted the way it did when all the votes haven’t even been counted yet.

In the days since the results became known, I’ve been able to chat with people of many differing beliefs. My friends who admitted to me they voted for the president-elect were obviously a little more cheerful. They believe that “Trump will fix it”, whatever needs to be fixed, and seem focused more on issues like the cost of living than the threats to democracy.

Maybe I’m lucky in those I associate myself with, but I don’t think these people are inherently bad because they vote a different way. When I ask about the incredulous things that Trump says or does on a near daily basis (I feel like nine years into this thing I don’t need to provide examples), they either say they hadn’t heard him say that, or they have but overlook it because that’s just “Trump being Trump” and issues like the economy are more important.

I’m just glad they trust me enough to divulge their opinions to me, even when it’s known we’re opposites in an era of hyper-polarization. It’s taught me that a) most people don’t follow politics as closely as I do (probably a good thing for their mental health, tbh) and b) just because someone comes from a different point of view that shapes the way they view the world doesn’t mean they are lesser.

It’s hard to understand how the median voter comes to the decisions they do when you are engulfed in the political world and get dozens of news notifications every day. When I saw the Google trends graphs showing searches for questions like “Did Biden drop out?” and “Who is Kamala Harris?” spiking during the final days of the election, it served as a stark reminder of the fact that so many people just do not follow politics. I mean, yes, those are simple questions that every American should know, but I try not to judge because every circumstance is different. Just like the same Google trends showing searches for “Are tariffs bad?” spiking after the election. Again, *deep breath*, not judging.

And I get it. I understand why people would vote for Donald Trump, even when they aren’t racist, misogynist, or full of complete hatred. I believe these are the ideals that Trump espouses and ultimately enables, but I don’t believe all of his supporters share these sentiments. He is a wild, sometimes out-of-control character, but that can be fun. The man, for all of our sakes, should have taken up comedy instead of politics because he would be making a killing and likely wouldn’t face all the vitriol. He’s genuinely funny, whether he tries to be or not, and his no-frills personality relates to people. I fundamentally disagree and don’t believe we should have that type of personality as the leader of the free world, to add on to all the policy and cultural differences I have with him, but I at least understand why some people would want that.

The Republicans really hit the jackpot, because after eight years of President Barack Obama, they were reeling, and they struck gold. Republican policies aren’t even that popular. Abortion rights keep on winning in the vast majority of states where it’s voted on. Same for raising the minimum wage and even giving taxpayer funds to private schools was rejected by voters in Kentucky and Nebraska last week. Yet, right now, they have the vibes. And in 2024, America is voting based on vibes.

So I’ve learned to understand the opposite point of view.

But I’ve also talked with people who feel some form of let down, distraught, and frankly, scared.

In 2016, a woman finally became a major party’s presidential nominee, got the most votes, and still didn’t win. That’s demoralizing, especially when the right-wing outrage machine took great efforts to disparage that candidate in the run-up to the election. Eight years later and a woman is hoisted to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden shockingly decides it’s time to go on one Sunday morning in July.

And looking back, it’s almost like Kamala Harris was set up to fail. The administration that she had served in as vice president had basically hidden her in the broom closet for three-and-a-half years while Biden drove around in his Corvette, and waited until the last possible moment to let her out and give her the keys. In a year where incumbent parties worldwide were consistently getting trounced. And when the administration had failed to convince Americans that the economy was actually doing pretty well, since the economy was the number one issue in the election.

And say what you will about Kamala Harris, although your opinion quite possibly might have been shaped by that same right-wing outrage machine that has now successfully disparaged the images of two leading female politicians, but the campaign she ran proved that she would have served America well.

In the ~100 days she was given to build a campaign and compete in a presidential election, she rejuvenated the energy on the Democratic side, even if it didn’t manifest in the same amount of votes as Joe Biden received four years ago. But internal polling after the disastrous debate in June was showing Biden himself getting about half the electoral votes Harris ultimately did.

— — —

And while I said I didn’t want to turn this into a confident post-mortem, it’s pretty clear that no matter who the Democrats ran, they would’ve lost unless they were somehow able to convince Americans that they shouldn’t punish the incumbent party for inflation. Yes, I know, inflation was a worldwide phenomenon post-Covid that the U.S. and Joe Biden’s administration actually handled relatively well. It was not entirely Biden’s fault that prices rose as much as they did. Does that matter to the average voter? No, because they saw prices rise under Joe Biden and when Donald Trump was president, a Big Mac was half the cost, so guess who they voted for? (Another takeaway from my political conversations and just living on earth for 22 years: life is incredibly complex, and those who try to simplify it, or follow along to those who attempt to simplify it for them, will end up missing the point in some form or fashion.)

— — —

Anyways, Harris was able to build a campaign that at least gave Democrats the sense that they could win. And that was very different than what they felt under the previous campaign of the 2024 cycle. She thoroughly trounced her opponent at the sole debate between the two, and gave what I believe to be one of the all-time convention speeches at this year’s Democratic National Convention, where she thoroughly nipped any thoughts that she didn’t have the presidential ‘aura’ in the bud.

If she had won on Tuesday night, the below picture of her giving her acceptance speech at the DNC with her grandniece watching on would have become one of the most iconic photos in American history.

For someone who tends to compartmentalize the effects that an outcome has, especially when it so drastically changes the course of American society, this one really really hurts.

Kamala Harris deserves so much better. She doesn’t deserve to have her political career ended by a man who has not just been accused, but been found guilty of rape. By a man who refused to rent to black people in New York in the 1970s, simply because of the color of their skin. By a man who promises to take away rights that women have fought decades, even centuries, to have.

(Another lesson I’ve learned: life is cruel, sometimes for no reason.)

I know many people don’t take time to analyze the effects of historical outcomes like I do, and that’s totally fine, but for those that do, especially women, what does that say? What does this outcome say about America to women? That one of the most qualified individuals (forget just women, you’d be hard-pressed to name a handful of people more qualified to be president than Kamala Harris) doesn’t get to be president largely because of factors out of their immediate control.

It feels like an absolute slap in the face. Women deserve so much better. Black Americans deserve so much better. Asian Americans deserve so much better.

It leads me to another point that deserves attention in the aftermath of this election. Young men, of all races but particularly white, were galvanized by Trump in this election. That’s thanks to the president-elect’s efforts to reach them by going on popular podcasts and shooting the shit with the likes of Theo Von and Joe Rogan that Democrats did not replicate. But it’s also thanks to many young men feeling left behind by recent cultural shifts that have taken place in society.

Now, do Democrats tend to take it too far with slogans such as “the future is female” and have some on the far-left begun to villainize all men in the present day for the horrific actions of our ancestors? Yes, this does happen. But when movements that empower women, minorities, and those that have been systematically held back by institutions in the past turn off white men, those that are veering towards the likes of Trump are missing the point entirely.

Just give people a fucking chance.

So many Americans took the Black Lives Matter movement as Black Americans saying that their lives should matter more than others. But that’s not it at all. At its core, it was and is about equity. Giving Black Americans, who have been systematically oppressed by their own government for much of our nation’s history, an equal chance at succeeding. At improving our country to the point where your race shouldn’t give you a better or worse chance at buying a home, getting into college, or achieving your dream career.

An alarming number of people took the me-too movement as women trying to gain an advantage over men in society. But again, that’s not it at all. Me-too and other movements were and are fundamentally aimed at ensuring men and women are placed on equal footing. That men shouldn’t be able to get away with violating women’s bodies. That your gender shouldn’t give a predetermined outcome on whether you’re likely to make more or less money than the opposite gender.

There are so many people living in this country who feel that they have no chance. That the current status of American society and institutions gives them little to no opportunity to succeed. Whether or not this is actually the case can certainly be debated, but the sole fact that a not-insignificant portion of our fellow Americans feel this way is the real problem.

Unfortunately, the messaging around these topics has been extremely flawed, allowing for those on the right with devious intentions to frame them as dangers to the white male hegemony. Many young men, who I believe truly mean well, have now been led to believe incredible falsehoods that can radically alter anyone’s worldview. (And on behalf of young white men, I do apologize.)

Make no mistake, the Democratic Party is certainly at fault here, for failing to capture this new generation of voters before the right-wing spin machine can get their hands on unsuspecting Gen Zers on YouTube. That’s just one of the many faults the Democrats have, and this election result best serve as a reckoning that requires the party take a deep look inward and redesign the entire structure from top to bottom.

This election was defined by two improbables. One succeeded and one didn’t. The one that succeeded was the story of a “successful” businessman whose businesses declared bankruptcy six times, became president, left office in disgrace after launching his supporters into the Capitol by lying to them about a stolen election, was convicted on criminal charges, and survived an assassination attempt. You can say it was improbable for Trump to get back to the point of being president after undergoing those circumstances. But it’s not the improbable I wanted to succeed.

The improbable I wanted was a woman who grew up in California to parents who immigrated to America from Jamaica and India, who was the first woman Attorney General in California’s history, was just the second member of the U.S. Senate to be a black woman, and was the first woman vice president, to become the first woman president in the history of the United States of America. That did not happen, and in my opinion, will haunt this country for generations to come.

I know many people are scared of what is to come. And when the man who has just been elected president has promised to bring harm to nearly every minority community in this country in a variety of ways, that fear is not unjust. That fear is not unjust when boys are already telling girls “your body, my choice” in schools because of what they’ve heard online or at home. That fear is not unjust when Black Americans are receiving text messages telling them they’ve been “selected to pick cotton” at their “nearest plantation.”

And while I’m fortunate enough to not have a sense of fear for myself, I fear for what will happen to those I care about. And that certainly does not translate to being full of hope, either. I’m distraught at the fact that when presented with the options America was presented with, it chose the one it did. Not because of the inherent values of the candidates, the sides, or the campaigns. But because it decided the small chance of bringing down the cost of chicken nuggets outweighs the other misdeeds. (Spoiler alert: prices will not be decreasing under the next presidential administration.) I’m distraught at the fact that the candidacy of Kamala Harris was essentially wasted.

And because of everything I’ve written above, I truly believe that in this election, America failed.

I still hope, though, that the aforementioned image at the DNC lives on in the history books, whatever form they take in the future. Because it shows the fundamental “promise of America.” That promise has not become reality yet, but I believe it will soon. And that’s worth fighting for right now.

As Kamala Harris said in her concession speech, “Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win.”

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 10: The week 10 NFL slate opened up on Thursday night with one of the games of the year between the Bengals and Ravens. The Ravens pulled out a 35-34 victory after the Bengals failed a two-point conversion attempt in the final minute of the game. Shifting to Sunday, today’s action begins in Germany with the Giants and Panthers facing off in Munich at 9:30 am ET. The 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Bills-Colts, Broncos-Chiefs, 49ers-Buccaneers, and Steelers-Commanders. At 4:00 pm ET, the Titans take on the Jaguars, the Jets face the Cardinals, and the Cowboys host the Eagles. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Lions travel to Houston to face the Texans. Week 10 concludes tomorrow night at 8:15 pm ET with the Dolphins taking on the Rams.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 10 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 11: #11 Alabama dominated rival #15 LSU in college football’s top game of the weekend, with the Crimson Tide winning 42-13. Also in the SEC, #16 Ole Miss pulled off a massive victory over #3 Georgia 28-10, and #5 Texas took care of Florida 49-17. Elsewhere, Georgia Tech took down previously undefeated #4 Miami 28-23, #8 Indiana held on against Michigan 20-15, #9 BYU came back to beat Utah 22-21, and #20 Colorado took down Texas Tech 41-27. Plus, #23 Clemson beat Virginia Tech 24-14, Virginia upset #18 Pittsburgh on the road 24-19, and Kansas took down #17 Iowa State 45-36.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 11)

• UEFA Champions League: Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League’s league phase took place last week, with Liverpool retaining sole position at the top of the table after a 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Other notable results included a 3-1 AC Milan win on the road over Real Madrid, Sporting CP taking down Manchester City 4-1, Arsenal falling to Inter Milan 1-0, and Atletico Madrid topping Paris Saint-German 2-1. The league phase continues with Matchday 5 taking place on November 26 and 27.

  • UEFA - Champions League highlights and round-up: Inter beat Arsenal, Barcelona score five, Atleti leave it late against Paris

• College Basketball: The college basketball season tipped off on Monday, with Kansas taking the top spot in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. The Jayhawks proved their #1 ranking was valid with a 92-89 win over #9 North Carolina on Friday. Defending champions UConn, who are seeking to become the first team to win three consecutive men’s national championships since UCLA in the early 1970s, are ranked #3 to open the year. On the women’s side, defending champions South Carolina top the preseason AP Top 25 poll, with #2 UConn and #3 USC following close behind. The Gamecocks host #9 NC State today at 3:00 pm ET on ESPN in one of the top matchups of the early season.

  • ESPN - NCAA men's basketball: 2024-25 preseason picks, predictions

  • ESPN - Women's college basketball: 2024-25 preseason predictions

• NBA Cup: The NBA’s in-season tournament, newly dubbed the ‘Emirates NBA Cup’, is set to make its second season debut on Tuesday. On designated days of the regular season, teams will play in games that will also count as Group Play games. At the end of Group Play on December 3, the winners of each of the six groups, along with two wild card teams, will advance to the Knockout Rounds. Tuesday kicks off Group Play as 16 teams are in action, including a doubleheader on TNT with Knicks-76ers at 7:30 pm ET and Mavericks-Warriors at 10:00 pm ET.

  • NBA - Emirates NBA Cup: Rules, format and how it works

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• POTUS Transition: President-elect Donald Trump is expected to meet with current President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signaled last week that they would aid in the transition that will take place before Trump takes office on January 20. Trump infamously refused to invite Biden to the White House after Biden’s election victory in 2020. Also last week, Trump made the first major personnel move for his new administration, tapping campaign manager Susie Wiles as the White House chief of staff. Wiles will become the first woman to serve in the role.

  • NBC News - Biden to host Trump at the White House on Wednesday

  • NBC News - Trump names campaign manager Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff

• Congress Elections: Republicans have captured control of the Senate after Tuesday’s elections, flipping at least four seats. Republican candidates were declared the winners in Senate elections in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with all four seats previously being held by Democrats. One race has yet to be called, with Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego currently leading in Arizona’s Senate race, which is currently controlled by Democrats. Control of the House of Representatives is still uncertain, with 23 races still to be called. Republicans currently have 212 seats compared to 200 won by Democrats, with 218 needed for a majority.

  • Associated Press - 2024 Senate Election Results

  • Associated Press - 2024 House Election Results

• Abortion Referendums: 10 states had abortion on the ballot on Tuesday, with abortion rights groups claiming victory in a majority of the races. Efforts to expand abortion access in Arizona and Missouri succeeded, while Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions. Abortion referendums failed in Florida and South Dakota, while Nebraska rejected a referendum that would have allowed abortion access until viability but approved a referendum preserving the state’s 12-week abortion ban.

  • CNN - 7 states vote to protect abortion rights, while efforts to expand access in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota fail

• Trump Court Cases: In the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, the Department of Justice is determining how it will proceed in two federal court cases against him. Special counsel Jack Smith is reportedly working to wind down the cases against Trump before January’s inauguration. According to long-standing DOJ policy, sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes. Trump was previously indicted for seeking to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, along with holding onto classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and obstructing federal law enforcement attempts to retrieve them.

  • PBS News - DOJ evaluating how to wind down two federal cases against Trump after his election win

• Interest Rates: Despite a bustling week in Washington, the Federal Reserve moved to lower interest rates for the second straight time on Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee announced it would be lowering the benchmark borrowing rate by a quarter point to 4.50%-4.75%. The Fed had previously lowered rates by half a point at their last meeting in September. Last week also saw the stock market closing at record highs on the backs of an election-fueled rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 44,000 points for the first time on Friday, while the S&P 500 closed at a record high of 5,995.54 and the Nasdaq Composite finished just below 20,000 points.

  • CNBC - Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by a quarter point

  • CNBC - Dow tops 44,000 for first time, S&P 500 closes at record high to cap election week rally: Live updates

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 17, 2024.

The 2024 United States presidential election has already defined the odds, and the votes haven’t even been tallied yet.

Just a few months ago, an election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump seemed improbable. President Joe Biden withstood calls for his departure from the race until nearly the last possible moment, stunning the nation when he stood down on July 21. His decision vaulted Harris to the Democratic nomination and launched a campaign that could win the presidency after failing to exist just 105 days ago. Trump survived an assassination attempt in July, while also running a campaign after having been found guilty on 34 counts in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, this unparalleled election cycle will reach its natural conclusion, as the American people will cast their ballots to determine the 47th President of the United States.

Out this morning, a brand new edition of Zander’s Facts previews the presidential election, with Zander making a prediction on who will be declared the winner. Plus, Zander breaks down the Congressional races to watch, as well as every detail you need to know before Election Day.

Make sure to check out the Zander’s Facts 2024 Election Preview, Episode 142 of Zander’s Facts. Watch the episode on the Zander’s Facts YouTube channel or on ZandersFacts.com. You can also listen to the podcast version on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

Make sure you have a plan to vote by going to Vote.org.

What Zander’s been reading

On Tuesday night, America will be watching as election results slowly trickle in. Yet, each state is different, with the timing of results depending on when polls close, what laws surround vote counting, and many other factors. Here’s a guide from The New York Times on what to expect when it comes to getting results on Election Night.

Check out this week’s featured article in The New York Times - When to Expect Results in Each State on Election Night, and Beyond

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Presidential Election: The final days of the 2024 U.S. presidential election have arrived, with Election Day taking place on Tuesday. Polling has indicated a tight race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, however, a wrench may have been thrown into the race on Saturday night. On Saturday, a poll from Iowa’s Selzer & Co., seen as one of the nation’s most accurate pollsters, found Harris up by three points over Trump in the Hawkeye state, which Trump won by eight points in 2020. Also on Saturday, Harris visited NBC’s Saturday Night Live and made an appearance on the late night program. Get all the latest election headlines from the Associated Press link below, and make sure you have a plan to vote by going to Vote.org.

  • Associated Press - Election 2024

• Supreme Court - Election Cases: The Supreme Court made two consequential emergency rulings last week. In Pennsylvania, the high court ruled that Pennsylvania voters who had their mail-in ballot invalidated can fill out a provisional ballot, rejecting a challenge from the Republican National Committee. In Virginia, the high court ruled that the state’s purge of over 1,600 individuals the state believes are non-citizens from voting roles can proceed, despite taking place within 90 days of an election.

  • NPR - Supreme Court sides with Democrats in Pennsylvania voting case

  • NPR - Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge individuals from voter rolls

• Economic Numbers: The U.S. economy continues strong growth in the third quarter of the year, with gross domestic product (GDP) growing at 2.8% in the last three months. Estimates had expected 3.1% growth and the 2.8% growth of the third quarter is down from the second quarter of 2024’s 3.0% growth. The October jobs report, released on Friday, was less stellar as the economy added just 12,000 jobs last month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that both Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as a strike of Boeing workers, negatively impacted the numbers. The gain is the smallest monthly job add for the economy since December 2020.

  • CNBC - U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% pace in the third quarter, less than expected

  • CNBC - U.S. economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, impacted by hurricanes, Boeing strike

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 9: A massive NFC North showdown highlights the NFL slate today, with the Packers and the Lions facing off at 4:00 pm ET. At the same time, the Jaguars visit the Eagles, the Bears will take on the Lions, and the Seahawks host the Rams. To begin the day at 1:00 pm ET, the Cowboys play the Falcons, the Dolphins face the Bills, the Commanders visit the Giants, and the Broncos take on the Ravens. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Colts visit the Vikings, while the undefeated Chiefs host the Buccaneers on Monday night at 8:15 pm ET. Week nine opened up on Thursday night with the Jets getting their third win of the season after a 21-13 victory over the Texans.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 9 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 10: #4 Ohio State won their eighth straight matchup against rival #3 Penn State 20-13 in college football’s game of the weekend. Other notable results included South Carolina dominating #10 Texas A&M 44-20, #20 SMU knocking down #18 Pittsburgh 48-25, and #2 Georgia sneaking by rival Florida 34-20. Elsewhere, Louisville took down #11 Clemson 33-21, Texas Tech upset #11 Iowa State 23-22, Houston took down #17 Kansas State 24-19, and #1 Oregon beat up Michigan 38-17.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 10)

• MLB World Series: The Los Angeles Dodgers took down the New York Yankees in five games to win their eighth World Series in franchise history. In Tuesday’s decisive Game 5, the Dodgers came back from down five runs, and then came back from trailing yet again to win 7-6. The Dodgers won the 2020 World Series title, but this is their first championship in a full season since 1988. World Series MVP Freddie Freeman had 12 RBIs in the series, tying the record for most in the fall classic, and hit a go-ahead grand slam in Game 1 to give the Dodgers a series opening win.

  • MLB - Dodgers upend Yanks with historic comeback for 8th World Series title

• UEFA Champions League: The UEFA Champions League league phase continues this week with the fourth set of matches. Among the notable matches set to take place are Liverpool-Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid-AC Milan on Tuesday at 3:00 pm ET, and Inter Milan-Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain-Atletico Madrid on Wednesday at 3:00 pm ET. All matches on Tuesday and Wednesday will stream on Paramount+. Elsewhere in the soccer world last week, Manchester City and Spain’s Rodrigo won the Ballon d’Or award as the world’s best men’s player. On the women’s side, Barcelona and Spain’s Aitana Bonmati won the award for the second consecutive year.

  • CBS Sports - Champions League Power Rankings: Real Madrid, Barcelona climb ahead of El Clasico; Bayern, Juventus fall

  • CBS Sports - Ballon d'Or winners: Rodri edges Vini Jr. as Real Madrid pull off no-show; Aitana Bonmati goes back-to-back

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 10, 2024.

At a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, responded “Yes, I do” to the question of “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

She’s not alone.

It is one thing for a major presidential candidate to call her main opponent a term that is most commonly associated with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy - although its notability should not be lost in the cloud of the nearing election. It is another when respected individuals who worked directly with the former president are using the same language.

Retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as the longest-serving (of four) White House chief of staff in the Trump White House, raised a firestorm when he gave a series of interviews to The New York Times that were published on Monday. Speaking of former President Donald Trump when asked: “Do you think he’s a fascist?”, Kelly answered:

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.

“So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.

“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

Previously, Kelly had been a source of the infamous Trump quotes that emerged from a 2020 article in The Atlantic, in which Trump referred to Americans who had died on the battlefield in Europe during World War II as “suckers” and “losers.” Kelly expanded on this account in these interviews, telling the Times that “The time in Paris was not the only time that he ever said it.” He added, “Whenever John McCain’s name came up, he’d go through this rant about him being a loser, and all those people were suckers, and why do you people think that people getting killed are heroes? And he’d go through this rant.”

Retired Army general Mark Milley, who served as the chief of staff of the Army from 2015 to 2019 and subsequently the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until last year, expressed similar sentiments when speaking to author and associate editor of The Washington Post Bob Woodward for his new book, “War”. Milley did not mince words, saying “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.” “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”

Milley described the former president as a “fascist to the core.”

The fallout of these comments has included Trump referring to Milley as a “Woke train-wreck” who “clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and it's no surprise he pals around with a washed-up fiction writer like Bob Woodward to peddle lies and misinformation.” Earlier this week, he called Kelly a “degenerate” and said “He was tough and dumb. John Kelly is a low life.”

Yet, it’s important to recall that Trump once had much different views of these generals. In 2019, when Trump appointed Milley to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he remarked that Milley “is living proof that the American warfighter is the toughest, smartest and bravest, best and brightest by far anywhere in the world.” When Trump selected Kelly as his chief of staff two years prior, he said that Kelly “will go down, in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the great ever”, and tweeted that Kelly is a “Great American and a Great Leader.”

Throwing around terms such as “fascist” have consequences. Using these labels may feel insignificant in an era where a political candidate, the one being deemed a fascist, in fact, receives little flak for declaring his opponent a “shit vice president” and “retarded”. Yet, when it arrives from the mouths of four- and five-star generals who understand the gravity that their words carry, it should rise above and beyond the political fray.

Not to mention that Trump himself has referred to his opponent as a “Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist”, apparently disregarding that each of those terms have very different meanings, none of which accurately describe the views of Kamala Harris.

Kelly also remarked to The New York Times that Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government.”

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.”

“He’s certainly the only president that has all but rejected what America is all about, and what makes America America, in terms of our Constitution, in terms of our values, the way we look at everything, to include family and government — he’s certainly the only president that I know of, certainly in my lifetime, that was like that.”

Kelly’s actions, a former Marine Corps general and White House chief of staff speaking to the country’s largest newspaper with days remaining in the presidential campaign to warn of the dangers of his former boss, are unprecedented. And never before has the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated with such emphasis that a candidate for President of the United States represents a threat to the Constitution.

When the nation’s highest-ranking military officer who served in administrations of both major political parties declares an individual as “the most dangerous person to this country”, take a moment to listen.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from the Associated Press - What is fascism? And why does Harris say Trump is a fascist?

What Zander’s been reading

While speculation had been widespread that foreign governments would attempt to influence this year’s presidential election in the United States, intelligence agencies are already confirming that the Russian government is spreading misinformation.

Just this week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that social media posts falsely accusing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, of inappropriate activity when he was a teacher, came from Russia. Then on Friday, the FBI confirmed that Russia is also behind a fake video showing ballots marked for former President Donald Trump being destroyed.

Check out this week’s featured articles:

• NPR - U.S. intel officials say Russia is behind attempts to smear Tim Walz

• NPR - Russia is behind fake video of ballots being destroyed, U.S. officials say

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 8: The eighth week of the NFL season opened on Thursday night with a surprise win for the Rams, taking down the Vikings 30-20. Today’s slate begins at 1:00 pm ET with games including Eagles-Bengals, Colts-Texans, Falcons-Buccaneers, and Ravens-Browns. In the 4:00 pm ET window, the Saints take on the Chargers, the Bills face the Seahawks, the Chiefs visit the Raiders, and the Commanders host the Bears. At 8:20 pm ET, the Cowboys travel west to take on the 49ers. Week 8 concludes on Monday night as the Steelers host the Giants at 8:15 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 8 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 9: In the most anticipated game of college football’s week nine, a second-half comeback fueled #14 Texas A&M to beat #8 LSU at home 38-23. Also in the SEC, #5 Texas survived a trip to #25 Vanderbilt 27-24, #15 Alabama blanked #21 Missouri 34-0, and #18 Ole Miss beat Oklahoma 26-14. Elsewhere, #3 Penn State took down Wisconsin 28-13, #13 Indiana remained undefeated with a 31-17 win over Washington, and #11 BYU beat UCF 37-14. Plus, #12 Notre Dame dominated #24 Navy 51-14, #4 Ohio State came back to beat Nebraska 21-17, and #22 SMU took down Duke in overtime 28-27.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 9)

• MLB World Series: The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken both games played so far of the Major League Baseball World Series over the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won Game 1 6-3 off of a 10th-inning grand slam by Freddie Freeman, while a three-run third inning gave Los Angeles a 4-2 victory in Game 2. The series shifts to New York for Games 3-5, with Game 3 taking place on Monday and Game 4 on Tuesday. If New York is able to win at least one of the next two games, Game 5 will take place on Wednesday. If needed, Games 6 and 7 will take place in Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, respectively. All World Series games will begin at 8:08 pm ET and air on Fox.

  • MLB - Ohtani injury overshadows Yamamoto’s 1-hit start, LA’s 2-0 World Series lead

• WNBA Finals: The New York Liberty won their first WNBA title in franchise history with an overtime win in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. The Liberty took down the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime, winning the championship for the first time after five previous appearances in the WNBA Finals. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 17 points in Game 5 and was named Finals MVP after averaging 17.8 points throughout the five-game series. The WNBA season, which was highlighted by a renewed popularity in the league thanks to new stars such as Caitlin Clark, ended with a bang as Game 5 was the most watched WNBA Finals game since 1999.

  • ESPN - Liberty title, epic WNBA Finals fitting end to transcendent season

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Presidential Election: There are nine days until Election Day in the United States, with polling in the presidential race continuing to indicate a close contest. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris was joined by celebrities such as Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, and former President Barack Obama at rallies, while former President Donald Trump took part in an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. Get all the latest election headlines from the Associated Press link below, and make sure you have a plan to vote by going to Vote.org.

  • Associated Press - Election 2024

• International Conflicts: Major developments took place last week in two international conflicts. In the Middle East, Israel launched retaliatory strikes against Iran early Saturday morning. Israel attacked Iranian military targets in response to Iran’s launching of over 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel earlier this month. In the Russian-Ukrainian war, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. expressed “grave concern” after North Korean troops were stationed in Russia last week for their possible involvement in the war. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the arms and missile transfers between North Korea and Russia violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

  • Reuters - Iran plays down Israel's strikes, says they caused 'limited damage'

  • Reuters - US, Japanese, South Korean aides express 'grave concern' over North Korean troops in Russia

• Newspaper Endorsements: Two major U.S. newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, declined to endorse any candidate in this year’s presidential election. Political endorsements typically come from a newspaper’s editorial section, separate from the news-gathering section. Both papers endorsed President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked the paper’s editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, leading the Times’s editorials editor, Mariel Garza, to resign. The owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, reportedly blocked the paper from making an endorsement, with editor-at-large Robert Kagan resigning from the paper as a result.

  • Axios - Newspapers flee presidential endorsements

• McDonald’s E. coli: An outbreak of E. coli that has been linked to Quarter Pounder burgers from McDonald’s grew last week to include 75 cases. McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, has said that sliced onions originating from a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs are to blame. Cases have been reported in 13 states, including Colorado and Montana, with the CDC noting that illnesses occurred between September 27 and October 10. At least one death has been attributed to the outbreak and 22 people have been hospitalized.

  • ABC News - E. coli cases linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders rise to 75 across 13 states: CDC

• Virginia Voter Roll: A federal judge blocked the Commonwealth of Virginia from removing over 1,600 alleged noncitizens from its voter rolls on Friday. The Department of Justice previously sued the state’s election officials after the state removed people from its voter rolls within 90 days of an election, a violation of the National Voter Registration Act. Virginia announced on Friday that it will appeal the ruling.

  • NBC News - Judge blocks Virginia from dropping alleged noncitizens from voter rolls

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 3, 2024.

When former President Bill Clinton made a preposterously-sounding claim regarding the economy at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, it sent the fact-checkers to work. Clinton said that out of the 51 million jobs the U.S. economy has added since the end of the Cold War in 1989, 50 million were under Democratic presidents while just one million were under Republican presidents. That couldn’t possibly be true, right?

It actually was. As The Washington Post found, there’s been six presidents that have held the office since 1989, three Democrats and three Republicans. Under the three Democratic presidents, “there was a cumulative increase of 50 million more people working between the starts of their terms and the ends. Under the three Republicans… the cumulative total was, in fact, only 1 million.”

Now that’s just one statistic, and one specific timeframe. Yet, even if you expand the timeframe out to every presidency after World War II, the Democrats still hold the advantage by 56 million jobs. Or if you expand your analysis to GDP growth, Democrats also excel, with average annual GDP growth at 4.23% compared to 1.87% for Republican administrations since WWII.

Now to be clear, presidents have little direct control over specific aspects of the economy. While their policies can certainly have an impact, it is just one piece of an extremely complex puzzle (which is why blaming or praising the president for the price of gas is a bit foolish). So while the actions that administrations do, or don’t, take don’t make or break the economy, they certainly aren’t without their benefits and consequences.

Fast forward to 2024 and the economy is one of, if not the, most important issue in this year’s presidential election. And while former President Donald Trump consistently leads Vice President Kamala Harris when voters are asked who they trust more to handle the economy, the numbers tell a different story.

Back in June, before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists wrote that they saw Trump’s economic policies “would have a negative impact on the U.S.'s economic standing in the world, and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.'s domestic economy.” The economists worried that a second Trump term would bring the return of high inflation if Trump’s proposals regarding tariffs are implemented. This would be quite the contrast from the previous bout of high inflation, which was a worldwide phenomenon in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that economists have found was largely not due to the Trump or Biden administrations.

Trump has previously proposed a 10% tariff on all imports into the United States, which he has upped to 20% in recent speeches and even 50% in one appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago last week. He has also called for a 60% tariff on all goods coming into the country from China. Investopedia defines tariffs as “a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country to influence it, raise revenues, or protect competitive advantages.”

However, as Yahoo Finance explains, “the additional costs levied on these companies often passed on to consumers in the US.” Multiple reports have shown that the implementation of Trump’s tariff proposals would cost average U.S. families almost $4,000 extra per year, with the Peterson Institute for International Economics finding that Trump’s policies would up prices for families by $2,600.

That is, of course, not to say that all tariffs are bad policy, or that Trump is the only candidate supportive of tariffs. The Biden-Harris administration has retained many of the tariffs that were originally imposed by the Trump administration, including a 100% tariff on electric vehicles from China. The argument both administrations have made, in that case, was to boost American manufacturing. Tariffs are actually commonplace among many goods imported into the U.S., but typically at smaller amounts than what Trump is proposing.

The issue is that it requires a balance. While it would benefit America to bring more manufacturing jobs home, its benefits are instantly negated if prices go up for consumers across the board. Considering Trump has consistently argued that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries (which is false), he may not even be considering the ramifications his positions would have on the economy, or the people whose votes he needs to return to the White House.

Economists are, however, and have found that Trump’s economic plan would be worse for America than his opponent’s. The Peterson Institute found in September that a Trump presidency, including his aforementioned tariff policy, executing on his plans to deport millions of immigrants, and increasing the president’s influence on the policy of the Federal Reserve, would boost inflation from an estimated 1.9% in 2026 to between 6.0% and 9.3% instead.

Trump’s policies, which also include continuing the 2017 tax cuts that mostly benefited the wealthy at the expense of the federal deficit and slashing the corporate tax rate, would increase the national debt by around $7.5 trillion according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That’s $4 trillion higher than what was estimated for Harris’s plan. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School estimates that a Harris presidency would increase primary deficits by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, while a Trump presidency would balloon that number to $5.8 trillion.

On the flip side, the Harris plan would increase spending by implementing an expansion of the child tax credit to $3,000 per child and up to $6,000 for newborns, increasing housing construction, and giving first-time homebuyers down-payment support. Yet, unlike Trump, Harris is also proposing ways to pay for increased spending programs, including raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and implementing a capital gains tax on anyone whose net worth is over $100 million.

Don’t let the “vibes” fool you. Republican administrations have historically been worse for the economy than Democratic administrations, and the numbers say that the trend would continue based on this year’s presidential candidates. There’s a clear better candidate for the economy, and it’s not the one who has a fixation with parts of Arnold Palmer’s body.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from CBS News - Americans say the economy is a top election issue. Here's how economists are grading it.

What Zander’s been reading

Many questions are being asked about what is increasingly looking like a disheveled campaign being helmed by former President Donald Trump in the final weeks of the presidential race. In the latest bizarre event, a spontaneous music festival launched at a Trump town hall last week, with the Republican nominee awkwardly bopping and swaying on stage for over half an hour. (Here are the highlights.)

Check out this week’s featured article in The Atlantic - Trump Breaks Down Onstage

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Presidential Election: The 2024 U.S. presidential election is down to the final weeks as polling shows a tight race. Last week, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris conducted her first interview with Fox News on the same day Republican nominee former President Donald Trump held a town hall on the same network. Swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina have also begun early voting, with both aforementioned states seeing early turn-out records. Election Day is on November 5, just over two weeks away. Get all the latest election headlines from the Associated Press link below, and make sure you have a plan to vote by going to Vote.org.

  • Associated Press - Election 2024

• Israel-Hamas: The year-long war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas took another turn last week after the death of Hamas’s leader. Yahya Sinwar, who was the leader of Hamas and seen as the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack that ignited the current conflict, was killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza on Wednesday. Sinwar had spent over two decades in an Israeli prison before being released as part of a prisoner swap in 2011. Sinwar then became the leader of Hamas in 2017. While the U.S. initially hoped that Sinwar’s death would increase the likelihood of a ceasefire in the conflict, talks have yet to materialize.

  • The New York Times - Autopsy Shows Hamas Leader, Yahya Sinwar, Was Killed by a Gunshot to the Head

• Georgia Election Rules: A Georgia judge has struck down the state’s new election rules that were adopted just weeks before the November elections. Georgia’s State Election Board, which is controlled by Republicans, has passed several new rules in recent months, including a requirement to hand-count every ballot and rules surrounding the certification of elections. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox argued that the rules were implemented too close to this year’s elections. The State Elections Board is appealing the ruling.

  • CBS News - Georgia judge invalidates controversial new state election rules, calling them "illegal, unconstitutional and void"

• Click-To-Cancel: The Federal Trade Commission unveiled a new rule that will make it easier to cancel memberships and subscriptions. The rule states that businesses, including gyms and retailers, must make the cancellation process “at least as easy to use” as the sign-up process. The FTC’s ruling, which will go into effect next year, means that sign-ups for subscriptions that occur in person must now have the option to be canceled by phone or online. The FTC voted 3-2 on Wednesday to approve the rule, with the commission’s two Republican members opposing the move. The move is one of the Biden administration’s final policy decisions before next month’s presidential election.

  • Reuters - FTC takes on subscription traps with 'click to cancel' rule

• Cuba: Massive power failures have caused Cuba to go dark after the country’s power grid collapsed twice last week. As of Saturday, the over 10 million people on the island had no indication of when power would return. Cuba’s deteriorating infrastructure, coupled with less oil coming into the country from trading partners Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela, has exacerbated the crisis that began on Friday.

  • NPR - Cuba's power grid collapses again. Why does this keep happening?

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 7: The Patriots and Jaguars kick off today’s NFL slate in London at 9:30 am ET. This afternoon, Eagles-Giants, Texans-Packers, and Lions-Vikings highlight the 1:00 pm ET window. At 4:00 pm ET, the Rams host the Raiders, the Panthers take on the Commanders, and the Chiefs visit the 49ers in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl LVIII. The Jets go to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers tonight at 8:20 pm ET to close out the day. Monday night features another double-dip, with Ravens-Buccaneers at 8:15 pm ET and Chargers-Cardinals at 9:00 pm ET. Week seven opened up on Thursday night as the Broncos ran over the Saints, winning 33-10 in New Orleans.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 7 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 8: The lower-ranked teams got the best of the weekend’s best matchups in the SEC. #11 Tennessee took down #7 Alabama 24-17, while #5 Georgia upset #1 Texas on the road 30-15. Elsewhere across the country, #6 Miami survived a thriller against Louisville 52-45, #19 Missouri came back to beat Auburn 21-17, and #16 Indiana dominated Nebraska 56-7. Plus, #9 Iowa State survived UCF 38-35, #12 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 31-13, #22 Illinois took down #24 Michigan 21-7, and both #23 Army and #25 Navy remain undefeated.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 8)

• MLB Postseason: The New York Yankees have clinched a spot in the World Series, while the Los Angeles Dodgers are one win away. The Yankees took down the Cleveland Guardians in Saturday’s Game 5 to win the series 4-1 and advance to their first World Series since 2009. The Dodgers lead the NLCS over the New York Mets 3-2, with the Dodgers hosting the Mets tonight in Game 6 of the series at 8:08 pm ET on FS1. If the Mets win, Game 7 will take place on Monday at 8:08 pm ET on Fox and FS1. The World Series will begin on Friday on Fox.

  • MLB - 2024 Postseason Schedule

• NBA Season Opener: The 2024-25 National Basketball Association season opens on Tuesday as the Boston Celtics look to defend last season’s championship. The Celtics open the season at home against the New York Knicks on Tuesday at 7:30 pm ET, with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Los Angeles Lakers following at 10:00 pm ET. Both games will air on TNT. ESPN will air a doubleheader on Wednesday with the Milwaukee Bucks facing the Philadelphia 76ers at 7:30 pm ET and the Phoenix Suns taking on the LA Clippers at 10:00 pm ET.

  • NBA - 2024-25 Kia Season Preview

• WNBA Finals: The final game of the WNBA season will take place later tonight with the league’s championship up for grabs. The New York Liberty will host the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals later tonight at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN. The winner of tonight’s game will clinch the WNBA title, with the series currently knotted up at two games a piece. The Lynx are searching for their fifth league title, which would break a tie with the Seattle Storm and defunct Houston Comets for most all-time. The Liberty, on the other hand, are seeking their first title in franchise history.

  • ESPN - Lynx outlast Liberty to force deciding Game 5 of WNBA Finals

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, October 27, 2024.

The 2020 United States presidential election was not stolen from former President Donald Trump. It’s a fact, not an opinion. Dozens of court cases across the country, numerous investigations, and the lack of any evidence ensure that this is the case.

Yet, Trump, and his running mate JD Vance, will either say that Trump won the previous election or will not answer when asked if Trump lost in 2020. This despite mounting evidence that has been revealed in the past 3+ years that Trump almost certainly knew that he did not win the election, and oversaw a coordinated effort to overturn the results of the election that ultimately resulted in the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

There were many holes in the 2020 plot, having Rudy Giuliani oversee your efforts didn’t exactly help, that those in Trump’s camp are actively ensuring are patched in time for next month’s election, when Trump will be on the ballot for the third consecutive presidential election.

The two major points that went against Trump and his crew in 2020 were: Election officials refused to assist in his efforts to illegally tamper with the results of a free and fair election, and majority opinion was not in his favor. Be certain that the Trump team has a solution for both troubles.

Project 2025’s plan to gut the civil service of career employees and replace them with political appointees would make the process of following the president’s orders, however absurd they may be, much easier. The constant harassment of intimidation of election workers, who were simply doing their jobs, has also successfully removed many who were in charge of overseeing elections to certify no fraud was being committed.

As to the public opinion piece, Trump appears to be shifting the conversation toward one of his favorite talking points… immigration. The man who wants to deport upwards of 10 million immigrants, apparently whether they are legally here or not, has falsely claimed that illegal immigrants (who are actually in the U.S. legally) are eating cats and dogs, and has said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” (drawing comparisons to a certain man you don’t really want to be associated with), is now claiming that illegal immigrants will be voting for his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

There are many facts that contradict Trump’s claim, including the federal law that prohibits non-citizens from voting with penalties of up to a year in jail and potential deportation. Data from a Brennan Center for Justice study found that out of 23.5 million votes cast in the 2016 election in areas with high immigrant populations, there were just 30 suspected cases of noncitizens voting. An audit by Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State found that, in a state Trump claimed had “massive fraud” in the 2020 election (because he lost), no non-citizens had cast a ballot in the last 25 years. To put it simply, immigrants are not voting in federal elections.

Yet, with all the falsities involved, many Republicans have been happy to oblige to Trump’s antics. Republican officials across the country have taken efforts that they argue strengthen the integrity of our elections, at the behest of their party’s despot. The latest case of this is in Virginia, where Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August that will “codify comprehensive election security measures to protect legal voters and accurate counts.”

It was later found that much of what the executive order accomplished was negligible, incorporating voting rules that had already been in place from prior administrations, including a requirement for paper ballots. Yet, it was the portion of the executive order that focused on keeping up-to-date voter rolls, already a common practice, that is now in focus.

On Friday, the Department of Justice sued election officials in Virginia after the state struck thousands of names from its voter rolls. DOJ alleges that names were removed within 90 days of this year’s election, which is against federal law. The lawsuit also alleges that some of the names who were identified as noncitizens actually have citizenship, saying “The Commonwealth’s unlawful actions here have likely confused, deterred, and removed U.S. citizens who are fully eligible to vote”. DOJ even cites a previous effort by Virginia to remove names from the voter roll in July that incorrectly labeled U.S. citizens as noncitizens as proof that the state’s system isn’t exactly foolproof. Youngkin called the suit “politically motivated” and “a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth”. The Youngkin administration also got into trouble last year when it removed 3,400 qualified voters from the rolls after it incorrectly flagged them as having committed repeat felonies.

Two years earlier, Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an “election integrity unit” that Miyares said would “help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth.” The system, which came despite The Washington Post noting at the time “a lack of widespread issues with voter fraud or other irregularities in the state”, has not prosecuted any cases of noncitizens voting in the two years since its launch, according to the Attorney General’s office. In the last two years, only three people have been prosecuted for illegally voting in Virginia, with none of the cases relating to citizenship.

Despite the lack of substance, Trump has been beaming about the efforts. Youngkin’s executive order got the endorsement of Trump when he wrote on his Truth Social platform, “The beautiful Commonwealth of Virginia, superbly led by Governor Glenn Youngkin, IS TAKING A STRONG LEAD IN SECURING THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER — PROTECTING EVERY LEGAL VOTE AND KEEPING ILLEGAL ALIENS THAT HAVE BEEN LET INTO OUR COUNTRY FROM VOTING. … Thank you Glenn, GREAT JOB!!!”

Quite the change in tune from a 2022 post where Trump wrote, “Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me. I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him - or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia - But he’ll get it done!” (Youngkin and his party ended up losing the state’s General Assembly elections to the “Dems” in the next year’s election.)

Virginia is far from the only state with Republican elected officials pushing false claims and worries of illegal immigrants voting in federal elections. The Justice Department also had to sue the state of Alabama for purging its voter rolls too close to an election last month. Republicans in states such as Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin have also been referring to the previously mentioned falsehoods.

And as Walter Olson of the Cato Institute wrote, “It tears the country apart to introduce the idea that our elections are not legitimate. It should never be done on such flimsy evidence as they have here.” Amplifying these false claims benefits no one, except those seeking to sow chaos in the process.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the goal of Donald Trump.

If the Trump campaign can get as many people as possible to doubt the American election systems, it is much more likely to succeed in stealing the upcoming presidential election than it was in 2020.

The current data and polling shows that Trump has a very real chance of winning the election based on the real vote totals. But in the event he fails, he’s got a plan. It’ll just be up to the voters to ensure it fails and that American democracy withstands.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The Guardian - Republicans’ non-citizen voting myth sets stage to claim stolen election

What Zander’s been reading

With President Joe Biden out of the race, former President Donald Trump’s 78 years of age now makes him the oldest presidential candidate in American history. As an analysis by The New York Times reveals, Trump is showing major signs of his age on the campaign trail, and compared to previous elections, “his speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past.”

Check out this week’s featured article in The New York Times - Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 6: The sixth week of the NFL season began on Thursday night with the 49ers overcoming a road NFC West test against the Seahawks, winning 36-24. Switching to Sunday, today’s slate once again opens with an early kickoff from London, as the Jaguars face the Bears at 9:30 am ET. In the 1:00 pm ET window, the Cardinals take on the Packers, the Buccaneers face the Saints, and the Ravens host the Commanders. The 4:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Chargers-Broncos and Lions-Cowboys. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Bengals travel to the Meadowlands to take on the Giants. Week 6 caps off on Monday night as the Jets host the Bills in an AFC East showdown at 8:15 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 6 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 7: An epic Saturday of college football was highlighted by a back-and-forth thriller between #2 Ohio State and #3 Oregon. The Ducks stood strong on defense in the final minute to top the Buckeyes 32-31. Four games with ranked teams went to overtime, as #13 LSU beat #9 Ole Miss 29-26, #4 Penn State came back to beat USC 33-30, #8 Tennessee survived Florida 23-17, and #23 Illinois took down Purdue 50-49. Plus, #7 Alabama survived a furious upset bid from South Carolina, winning 32-31, #5 Georgia beat Mississippi State 41-31, and #1 Texas had no trouble with #18 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, winning 34-3.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 7)

• MLB Postseason: The League Championship Series round of the Major League Baseball postseason is set. In the American League, the Cleveland Guardians will take on the New York Yankees, with New York hosting Monday’s Game 1, which will begin at 7:38 pm ET. All games in the ALCS will air on TBS. The National League features the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers will host Game 1 tonight at 8:15 pm ET on Fox. All NLCS games will air on either Fox or FS1. The winners of the seven-game series will meet in the World Series, which is scheduled to begin next Friday, October 25.

  • MLB - Playoff schedule: Game times, how to watch and more

• WNBA Finals: The Minnesota Lynx took Game 1 of the WNBA Finals after a ferocious comeback that forced overtime against the New York Liberty. The Lynx were down by as many as 18 points before coming back to win in overtime, 95-93. Game 1’s Thursday night audience of 1.14 million viewers was also the most-watched opening game of any WNBA Finals ever. The championship series continues later today as the Liberty host the Lynx for Game 2 at 3:00 pm ET on ABC. Game 3 will take place on Wednesday in Minneapolis, MN at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN. If necessary, Minnesota will host Game 4 on Friday at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN, with a potential winner-take-all Game 5 taking place in Brooklyn, NY next Sunday at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN.

  • WNBA - WNBA Playoffs 2024

• NHL Season Open: The National Hockey League began its 2024-2025 season on Tuesday, with the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers unveiling their championship banner. The Panthers also opened their season with a win, taking down the Boston Bruins 6-4. This season also marks the beginning of the Utah Hockey Club, which was previously known as the Arizona Coyotes until moving this offseason to Salt Lake City. The 82-game regular season will run until April 17, 2025.

  • ESPN - NHL season preview: Power Rankings, predictions, X factors

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Putin Covid Tests: According to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward, former President Donald Trump sent Russian President Vladimir Putin COVID-19 testing machines at the beginning of the pandemic. While the Trump campaign denied the allegation, a spokesperson for the Kremlin confirmed that tests were given to Putin in the pandemic’s early days, when tests were scarcely available. Woodward’s book also claims that Trump and Putin have had “as many as seven” phone calls since Trump left office in January 2021.

  • Axios - Kremlin refutes Trump denial on sending Putin COVID tests

• Storm Misinformation: Misinformation regarding recent hurricanes that have hit the U.S. has run rampant online, with some elected officials amplifying conspiracy theories. Many Republican officials, including former President Donald Trump, have falsely claimed that federal aid for those harmed by the storms was capped at $750 per person and that FEMA was diverting funds to illegal migrants. Responding to the misinformation, President Joe Biden told Trump on Thursday to “get a life, man. Help these people.” Another conspiracy was pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last week, posting on Twitter/X that “they can control the weather.”

  • NBC News - False conspiracy theories about Hurricane Milton continue to swirl despite outcry from officials

• Lead Pipes: A new Environmental Protection Agency rule will mandate the removal of all lead pipes across the U.S. in the next 10 years, President Joe Biden announced last week. The federal government is making $2.6 billion available to help localities fund the removal of pipes, with the funds originating from the 2021 infrastructure law. The EPA estimates that around nine million homes in the U.S. still have lead pipes.

  • CBS News - Biden announces 10-year deadline to remove all lead pipes nationwide

• Hurricane Milton: Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm bringing winds over 100 mph, along with torrential rain and storm surge. The storm, which had been a Category 5 earlier in the week in the Gulf of Mexico, also spawned 126 tornado warnings across the state and at least 19 confirmed tornadoes in a state that only averages around 50 tornadoes each year. The storm has been blamed for at least eight deaths and millions being left without power. Some of the most significant damage included portions of the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, being ripped off. The hurricane was the second in two weeks to make landfall in Florida following Hurricane Helene the week prior.

  • Associated Press - Although Milton has moved on, at least 8 are dead and millions remain in the dark

• TikTok: 13 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit last week against TikTok, alleging the social media giant is deliberately designed to addict young users. The lawsuits argue that TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance, has violated consumer protection laws and has contributed to a mental health crisis among teenagers. Additional information in the lawsuit was released on Friday, with internal TikTok communications showing that the app’s executives knew about the harmful effects that TikTok has on young users.

  • NPR - TikTok executives know about app’s effect on teens, lawsuit documents allege

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, October 20, 2024.

It was a scene that few thought would ever come into existence, but one that speaks volumes with one month to go until Election Day.

On Thursday, the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, held a rally that was significant for two reasons. One, Harris appeared with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY). And two, the rally took place in Ripon, Wisconsin, most commonly known for serving as host of the meeting that birthed the Republican Party in 1854.

In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Cheney became one of former President Donald Trump’s harshest Republican critics in Congress. In announcing that she would vote to impeach Trump for his actions inciting the insurrection, she wrote, “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.” Cheney then became one of just two Republicans who accepted then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, serving as its vice-chair.

As a Republican, speaking out so defiantly on the leader of her party had consequences. Her fellow Republican members of the House of Representatives ousted her as House Republican Conference chair, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to remove her from the party in the aftermath of her impeachment vote, and her presence on the House January 6 Committee led the Republican National Committee to censure her and fellow Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, the only other Republican to serve on the committee. Cheney ultimately lost the Republican primary for her seat in Wyoming in the 2022 election cycle.

In the time since Cheney left Congress, she continuously criticized Trump and her party, saying in March that “We now have one of our two major political parties that has abandoned the Constitution.” She has referred to the former president as a “liar”, a “con man”, and has said that “We can't survive a president who is willing to torch the Constitution.”

Cheney, once seen as the quintessential Republican, had acknowledged that her party had all but abandoned her. The question that remained, however, was would she take the ultimate leap… and vote for a Democrat for the first time in her life?

The country got our answer on September 6, when Cheney made the remark during an event at Duke University that she planned to vote for Kamala Harris.

“I think it is crucially important for people to recognize, not only is what I just said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states.”

“And as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Cheney was joined the next day by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, in announcing his intention to vote for Harris in November. “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

A Cheney endorsing a Democrat is, to some, earth-shattering. It was the Democratic Party that in the first decade of this century, rightfully so, led the charge in vilifying the then-vice president as the orchestrator of many of the Bush 43 administration’s policies that plunged America into unnecessary Middle Eastern wars and, eventually, an economic crisis. The Cheney’s have certainly not been magnanimous to the Democrats, either.

Yet, entirely under her own free will, Liz Cheney rallied with Kamala Harris, the Democrat’s chosen nominee in this year’s presidential election, urging voters to “stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump,” and instead to “help us elect Kamala Harris for president.”

Just to be clear, Cheney’s endorsement of a Democrat is not the same as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard embracing Donald Trump. The Democrats did not “leave behind” RFK when they rejected his absurd conspiracy views on vaccines. And Gabbard’s sudden shift towards supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine (clips of which have been played on Russian state television), the Trump impeachments (surprise, she suddenly believes Trump can do no wrong), and comparing President Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler, shows that the only consistent belief she holds is finding the biggest grift.

Liz Cheney’s ultra-conservative views, which aligned her votes with Trump’s 93% of the time while in the House, have not budged. Cheney is still the same person who voted against the American Rescue Plan, the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. In 2021, her lifetime vote score according to the conservative Heritage Action group was 80%. In fact, the Heritage Action’s score for Cheney actually went up for each term she served in the House, from a 61% conservative rating to 96% during her final term in Congress. She somehow got even more conservative as Donald Trump and his ilk referred to her as a “RINO.”

Going solely based on policy, Cheney would clearly vote for Trump. Harris remarked as much when she spoke at the rally, saying that “we may not see eye to eye on every issue. And we are going to get back to a healthy two-party system, I am sure of that, where we will have vigorous debates.”

Cheney was once seen as a “rising star” and the future of the Republican Party. Yet, one disagreement with the party’s current star has made her an outcast. (And on that disagreement, the facts and evidence fully support Cheney.)

Yet, the deal-breaker of democracy has put Cheney in the Harris camp. And Cheney is certainly not the only one. Former Republican members of Congress including Kinzinger and Jeff Flake have endorsed Harris, alongside former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, over 100 Republican national security officials, and more than 230 Republicans who worked for President George W. Bush, Senator Mitt Romney, and the late Senator John McCain.

By campaigning with Cheney, Harris is clearly making a play at voters who can’t stomach her opponent, yet have major policy disagreements with the vice president. With Americans saying in vast majorities that they appreciate bipartisanship, voting for the ticket promoting that exact ideal is the chance to actually walk the walk, not just talk the talk. And in an election that could very well be decided in the margins, it could ultimately be Liz Cheney who put Kamala Harris across the finish line and in the White House.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The New York Times - A Steely Liz Cheney, at Harris’s Side, Calls It ‘Our Duty’ to Reject Trump

What Zander’s been reading

As it turns out, the machines might not be taking all of our jobs. It’s now been a few years since McDonald’s and other fast food chains introduced touchscreen kiosks for customers to place their orders, and the results may seem surprising.

Check out this week’s featured article in CNN - McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks were feared as job killers. Instead, something surprising happened

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Election Interference Case: A court filing by special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday introduced new evidence in the federal government’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies “lied to the public, state election officials, and his own vice president in an effort to cling to power after losing the election.” The filing also brought new information to the public, including a claim that Trump privately referred to claims of voter fraud that he publicly pushed as “crazy.”

  • ABC News - 5 key takeaways from special counsel's bombshell filing on Trump's alleged bid to overturn 2020 election

• Hurricanes: Recovery efforts continue to focus on western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee after Hurricane Helene. Many roads in the region have washed out, with parts of Interstates 26 and 40 expected to be closed for months. Across the country, over 225 people have died from Helene’s effects, the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. since Katrina in 2005. The U.S. is now bracing for another storm to strike, with Tropical Storm Milton forming in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. Milton is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, potentially a major hurricane, and make landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday.

  • NBC News - A week after Helene, recovery efforts struggle to reach parts of southern Appalachia

  • NBC News - Tropical Storm Milton likely to become major hurricane as it heads toward Florida

• Jobs Report: The September U.S. jobs report blew past expectations, with the economy adding 254,000 jobs. The report, which was released on Friday, was only expected to add around 150,000 jobs. Last month’s numbers are an increase from August when the economy added 159,000 jobs, and the highest job increase in one month since March. The unemployment rate decreased for the second straight month, falling to 4.1%, while average hourly earnings rose 0.4% from August to September and 4.0% year-over-year.

  • CNBC - U.S. job creation roared higher in September as payrolls surged by 254,000

• Middle East: The conflict between Israel and Iran grew last week as Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles into Israel on Tuesday. The escalation by Iran came after Israeli attacks against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, in Lebanon that have killed many significant leaders of the group. Also on Tuesday, Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon, opening up a new offensive in addition to the conflict in Gaza with Hamas, another Iran-backed militant group. In recent days, Israel and Hezbollah have traded air strikes, with Israel cutting off a main highway linking Lebanon and Syria on Friday.

  • Associated Press - Middle East latest: Two Hamas officials killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon

  • Associated Press - Iran fires at least 180 missiles into Israel as regionwide conflict grows

• Dockworkers Strike: The union representing dockworkers at ports across the East and Gulf coasts reached a deal to end a strike last week. Thousands of workers belonging to the International Longshoremen's Association had begun striking on Tuesday after failing to reach a deal with the United States Maritime Alliance, ultimately shutting down 14 ports. The two sides came to a temporary agreement on Thursday which will suspend the strike until January 15. The temporary deal includes a 61.5% wage bump for the union members over the next six years.

  • CBS News - Dockworkers suspend strike after reaching tentative deal until Jan. 15

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 5: The season’s first game in London opens today’s NFL slate, with the Jets taking on the Vikings at 9:30 am ET. This afternoon, the 1:00 pm ET window is headlined by Ravens-Bengals, Browns-Commanders, and Bills-Texans. At 4:00 pm ET, the 49ers host the Cardinals, the Raiders face the Broncos, the Seahawks host the Giants, and the Packers take on the Rams. Sunday Night Football features the Cowboys in Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers at 8:20 pm ET. Week five concludes on Monday night with the undefeated Chiefs hosting the Saints. The week opened with a Thursday night thriller, as the Falcons beat the Buccaneers 36-30 in overtime.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 5 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 6: Vanderbilt got the upset of the season, at least so far, on Saturday with their 40-35 win over #1 Alabama. One week after Alabama took down #5 Georgia, the Bulldogs had no trouble with Auburn, winning 31-13. Elsewhere in college football, #25 Texas A&M took care of #9 Missouri 41-10, #7 Penn State shrugged off UCLA 27-11, and SMU won their first-ever ACC road game against #23 Louisville 34-27. Plus, Washington knocked off #10 Michigan at home 27-17, #12 Ole Miss beat up South Carolina 27-3, and Arkansas pulled off an upset of #4 Tennessee 19-14.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 6)

• MLB Postseason: The Division Series of the MLB Postseason began on Saturday with four Game 1s. In the American League, the Cleveland Guardians shut out the Detroit Tigers 7-0 and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-5 to take 1-0 series leads. In the National League, the New York Mets took down the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-5. The ALDS continues on Monday with all games airing on TBS, while the NLDS continues later today will all games airing on FS1 or Fox.

  • MLB - MLB Postseason 2024

• UEFA Champions League: The second matchday of the UEFA Champions League league phase took place last week, including a massive upset of the defending champions. Real Madrid fell on the road to Lille 1-0, while Aston Villa got a massive home 1-0 win against Bayern Munich. Other notable results included Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain, Bayer Leverkusen’s 1-0 win over AC Milan, and Juventus’ 3-2 road win over RB Leipzig. The Champions League returns with Matchday 3 of the league phase on October 22 and 23.

  • CBS Sports - Champions League asked and answered: Real Madrid's luck runs out, Bayern Munich disappoint, Aston Villa excel

• WNBA Playoffs: The WNBA Playoffs continue later today with two crucial Game 4s in the Semifinal round. At 3:00 pm ET on ABC, the Las Vegas Aces host the New York Liberty, with the Liberty leading the series 2-1. At 5:00 pm ET on ESPN, the Minnesota Lynx, who lead the series 2-1, take on the Connecticut Sun. Wins by the Libery or Lynx would advance those teams to the WNBA Finals, while wins by the Aces or Sun would send the series to a Game 5 on Tuesday. The WNBA Finals will begin on Thursday, with Game 1 tipping off at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN.

  • WNBA - WNBA Playoffs 2024

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, October 13, 2024.

Election season in America often tends to put those who, some might say, are not the best and brightest in the spotlight. The 2024 campaign is no exception, yet there’s one candidate who keeps standing out from the fray.

North Carolina has become one of this year’s major election backgrounds, with polls showing a tight race for president between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. While the tar heel state hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008, Trump won the state by just 1.34% in 2020 against President Joe Biden, less than 80,000 votes.

Statewide offices are also up for grabs in North Carolina this year, with the most notable being the race for governor. Current Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat who was elected twice in years in which the state voted for Trump, is term-limited and unable to run. The Democrats are running the current state Attorney General Josh Stein in an attempt to continue their stranglehold on the governor’s mansion. With the exception of four years between 2013 and 2017, a Democrat has been the state’s top executive since 1993.

Stein, and even the existence of a battleground state gubernatorial election, are not the reasons why this race has captured more attention than any other governor’s race in the country. Stein’s opponent, Republican Mark Robinson, would seem to be the obvious culprit.

Robinson has been perhaps best known to many now for his tendency to… speak his mind, if you will. The former furniture factory worker was speaking in 2021 when he made the comment, “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes I called it filth.” Earlier this year, he said that anyone who is “confused” about their gender identity, referring to transgender people, should “find a corner outside somewhere to go” to the bathroom.

Yet, those are far from the only comments from Robinson that have gotten attention for their outlandishness. In 2020, Robinson said during a campaign event, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.”

On a similar topic in 2022, he claimed, “We are called to be the Christians that God has called us to be. And we are called – here I'm getting ready to get in trouble – called to be led by men. God sent women out… when they had to do that thing. But when it was time to face down Goliath, [he] sent David. Not Davita. David.”

In a notable podcast appearance in 2018, Robinson attacked the Civil Rights Movement, saying “So many things were lost during the Civil Rights Movement. So many freedoms were lost during the Civil Rights Movement. They shouldn’t have been lost.” He called the movement a “communist plot” to “subvert capitalism” and “to subvert free choice and where you go to school and things like that.” He also stated that “The Civil Rights Movement destroyed hundreds of very well run Black schools.”

Robinson’s past Facebook posts have also gained attention, with comments ranging from calling former President Barack Obama “a worthless, anti-American atheist who wanted to bring this nation to its knees” and a “top ranking demon” to calling survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN” and “spoiled little bastards.” He’s also referred to school shootings as “karma” for allowing abortions, saying “When you spill that innocent blood, that blood is going to come back as a stain on you and it's going to come home to roost.” Fascinating considering he revealed two years ago that he paid for his now-wife to have an abortion in 1989. Oh, and Robinson also posted, “this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”

However, it’s not like any of this information wasn’t in the public sphere. These comments have been made publically available online for years in some cases. Some of this information was public in 2020, when Robinson was elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, a position he holds today. And yet in March of this year, the endorsement that every Republican politician clamors for still came for Robinson. When Trump endorsed Robinson, he referred to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids” saying “I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.” Robinson previously referred to King as a “communist.”

So while Robinson has been a little loose with his tongue in the past, you’d assume he would clean up his act for the general election in a battleground purple state where he needs to appeal to moderate voters, right? Well…

In June, Robinson decided to throw out the phrase “some folks need killing” into the lexicon when discussing U.S. actions in World War II. Robinson said, “Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killing. It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity.”

Yet it wasn’t until a CNN report from earlier this month that the dam began to break.

On September 19, CNN published the results of an investigation that found that Robinson had made numerous heinous comments on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago. Among the highlights are Robinson referring to himself as a “black NAZI”, a “perv” who likes “ watching tranny on girl porn!”, and wrote that “I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”. Robinson continued his slander of King on the site, calling the civil rights leader a “commie bastard,” “worse than a maggot,” and a “huckster.” CNN was easily able to identify Robinson because he used the same username on the porn site as he did on his social media accounts. That same day, Politico reported that they had found an Ashley Madison account linked to Robinson’s email address. Ashley Madison is a website for married people seeking to have an affair.

Apparently, even though there were plenty of reasons not to support Robinson previously, this was the final straw for some Republicans, who decided to withdraw their support of Robinson. Notably, Trump has not withdrawn his support, at least publically, saying “Uh, I don't know the situation” when asked about Robinson. However, four of the Robinson campaign’s top staffers have resigned in the wake of the CNN report, including the campaign manager.

In the meantime, Robinson’s polling, already not a strength of his campaign, has taken a nosedive. The latest polls of the North Carolina gubernatorial race, compiled by FiveThirtyEight, all have Stein ahead by at least 10 points, including a Fox News poll showing Stein up 16 points. Not since September 18 has a reputable poll been released that shows Robinson within single digits of Stein. And to find a Robinson lead? You’d have to scroll back to June.

It’s been a total disaster for Republicans in North Carolina, a state they need to win in the presidential election to have a shot at the White House. The common sentiment right now in both campaigns and among political insiders is that if Kamala Harris is able to win North Carolina, she’s a lock for the presidency. So it’s entirely sensible to pose the question: Could Mark Robinson cost Donald Trump the election?

But hey, it’s not like anybody could have seen this coming. He was only the Lieutenant Governor after all. It’s not like he had a history of saying some head-turning “hogwash” or anything.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The Washington Post - Inside the Mark Robinson debacle: Panic, blame and pressure on Trump

What Zander’s been reading

The supermarket industry is more concentrated than it ever has been. Last year, the top five grocer chains (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons, and Amazon) took up 61% of the industry’s market share. And now, with two of those companies proposing a merger (Kroger and Albertsons), The Washington Post created a helpful graphic to show which stores reign supreme in which locations.

Check out this week’s featured article in The Washington Post - Grocery chains are bigger than ever. See who runs the stores near you.

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 4: An NFC East rivalry that went to the wire began the NFL’s week four slate, with the Cowboys surviving a test from the Giants, winning on the road 20-15. Moving to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window this afternoon is highlighted by Vikings-Packers, Eagles-Buccaneers, and Jaguars-Texans. Four games will take place in the 4:00 pm ET window, with the Commanders visiting the Cardinals, the Patriots taking on the 49ers, the Browns visiting the Raiders, and the Chargers hosting the Chiefs. At 8:20 pm ET, the undefeated Bills visit the Ravens. To close out week four, it’s another Monday night double dip with Titans-Dolphins at 7:30 pm ET and Seahawks-Lions at 8:15 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 4 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 5: In the most anticipated game of the college football season, so far, #4 Alabama answered the call. The Tide survived an epic 28-point comeback by #2 Georgia, creating an instant classic and continuing their SEC dominance with a 41-34 home win against the Bulldogs. Other results in week five included Kentucky getting a massive road upset win over #6 Ole Miss 20-17, #23 Kansas State blowing out #20 Oklahoma State 42-20, and #16 Notre Dame holding off #15 Louisville 31-24. #9 Penn State took down #19 Illinois 21-7, #21 Oklahoma came back to beat Auburn 27-21, and #13 USC rolled past Wisconsin 38-21.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 5)

• MLB Postseason: The Major League Baseball regular season concludes later today with the postseason bracket taking shape. In the American League, the Yankees, Guardians, and Angels won their divisions, while the Orioles, Tigers, and Royals have clinched wild card berths. In the National League, the Dodgers, Phillies, and Brewers won their divisions, with the Padres having clinched a wild card berth. The Braves, Diamondbacks, and Mets are still in contention for the final two wild card spots, with the Braves and Mets holding the advantage heading into the final day of regular season play. The Wild Card round, featuring the four lowest-seeded teams in each league, begins on Tuesday, with the divisional series beginning on Saturday.

  • MLB - Postseason Watch: Bracket, tiebreakers and more

• Chicago White Sox: While several teams are celebrating postseason berths at the end of the MLB regular season, the White Sox sit at the other end of the spectrum. The White Sox set a modern-era MLB record on Friday by losing their 121st game of the season. The 1962 Mets’s 120 losses had previously been the most in a single season, with the 1962 season being the Mets’s first as an expansion franchise. The White Sox visit the Tigers later today in their final game of the season.

  • CBS Sports - White Sox break record for worst MLB season in modern history: Chicago loses 121st game in single year

Rapid-fire Facts

Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:

• Vice Presidential Debate: The lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election is set for Tuesday night. The Democratic nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will face off against the Republican nominee, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, in New York. Like the presidential debate earlier this month between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, there will be no in-person audience. However, unlike the earlier debate, the microphones of each candidate are expected to be on even when the other candidate is speaking. The debate, taking place just over one month before Election Day, will begin at 9:00 pm ET and is being hosted by CBS News, but will air on all major broadcast and news networks.

  • CBS News - How the VP debate rules will work for the Walz-Vance 2024 showdown

• Israel-Hezbollah: The conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah intensified last week as Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah’s leader. Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by airstrikes in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Friday. Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, but the conflict has intensified after pagers used by Hezbollah members simultaneously exploded earlier this month. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, at least 1,000 people have been killed since the conflict escalated two weeks ago.

  • Associated Press - Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrikes kill Hezbollah leader Nasrallah

• Hurricane Helene: At least 50 people have died in the aftermath of the strongest hurricane to strike the U.S. in two years. Hurricane Helene made landfall late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category 4 hurricane with winds up to 140 mph. Devastating damage due to the winds and heavy rains has left communities ravaged in Florida and Georgia. Rainfall up to one foot in areas of western North Carolina and Tennessee triggered flash flood emergencies and led to hundreds of water rescues.

  • ABC News - Hurricane Helene live updates: 52 killed, including mom and her twin infant sons

• Government Funding: Lawmakers in Washington struck a deal to fund the federal government through this fall’s election and avert a government shutdown. Last week, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed, a bill that will continue current spending levels for most government programs until December 20 after funding originally was set to run out on Monday. The bill also boosted funding for the Secret Service in the aftermath of two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump. Congress will now resume spending talks later this year after a new president and Congress has been elected.

  • NBC News - Congress funds the government but faces another shutdown threat before Christmas

• Eric Adams: New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted by federal prosecutors last week. Adams is accused of accepting free or discounted overseas trips and illegal campaign contributions in exchange for political favors. The five-count indictment includes charges of bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy. Adams pled not guilty in court on Friday and has publicly argued he is innocent. Adams is up for reelection next year if he chooses not to resign.

  • The New York Times - Mayor Adams Pleads Not Guilty as New Yorkers Contemplate What Comes Next

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, October 6, 2024.

Flashback to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on the first of July this past summer right around 10:00 pm local time. History had been made, and not in a good way.

For the first time in the history of the Copa América, one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of soccer, the host nation had been eliminated from the competition in the group stage. That host nation was the United States of America.

After predictably falling 1-0 to Uruguay, the United States Men’s National Team had been exiled from the tournament that was supposed to serve as a massive stepping stone for the young American core towards the 2026 World Cup, also being hosted in the U.S. alongside Canada and Mexico. Yet, a disastrous 2-1 loss to Panama one game prior put the Americans in a must-win situation against what has throughout recent history almost always been seen as a superior opponent. Uruguay, a South American nation of 3.4 million people, smaller than the city of Los Angeles, was able to easily control the U.S. in a match where it never felt like the Americans had a chance.

Of course, even the most fair-weather of international soccer fans could see the result against Uruguay coming. Uruguay has long been seen as a force to be reckoned with in the game on this side of the globe, while the U.S. has not been. The result against Panama, however, on a night when another epic collapse was occurring just a few miles away in Atlanta at the site of the Biden-Trump presidential debate, was inexcusable.

There had long been those surrounding the U.S. men seeking the ouster of manager Gregg Berhalter. Since Berhalter’s tenure as U.S. manager began in 2019, results against top nations, besides Mexico, hadn’t come. Rifts with important players such as Giovanni Reyna did not ease concerns. And a swift Round of 16 exit from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar did not spur confidence in the future trajectory of the program. Of course, many might argue that the Round of 16 would be a success for the Americans in the World Cup. But when the U.S. women have claimed four World Cup titles of their own, why hold the men to a standard that doesn’t even sniff their counterparts?

Suffice to say, the performance, or lack-there-of, at the Copa América, was the breaking point. Berhalter was subsequently removed from the position and a search to find the team’s next manager began.

In this search, the U.S. really had two options. They could follow the approach they took when hiring Berhalter and find an up-and-coming coach in the domestic Major League Soccer. Or, they could think outside of the box, or outside of the country, and chase a coach who’s shown his stuff at the top of the sport.

To be clear, U.S. Soccer has taken both approaches in the past, and they’ve both succeeded at different points in history. New York-born Bruce Arena, who had previously been the manager at MLS’s D.C. United, led the USMNT to an exciting quarterfinal run in the 2002 World Cup, which included a 2-0 momentous victory of arch-rival Mexico in the Round of 16. On the flip side, West German-born Jürgen Klinsmann came to the U.S. in 2011 after managing both Germany and Bayern Munich. Klinsmann’s Americans advanced out of the group of death in the 2014 World Cup that included Germany and Portugal, and provided a thriller in the Round of 16 against Belgium.

Yet while there were two reasonable paths for U.S. Soccer to take, there was really only one right answer in the year 2024. With a talent pool that is unequivocally the most talented that the United States Men’s National Team has ever had, and with more of these players playing, and succeeding, in top European clubs and leagues than ever before (take Christian Pulisic scoring for AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday), the same approach that was taken to hire Berhalter five years earlier wouldn’t cut it. With all due respect to MLS, it does not hold a candle to European “football”.

Thankfully, U.S. Soccer didn’t just make the right choice, they went above and beyond.

By reaching out to Europe in a way not done in 13 years on the men’s side, U.S. Soccer could have hired just any run-of-the-mill manager whose name you might’ve heard in a random highlight at some point. But they didn’t. The delegation, led by U.S. Soccer Sporting Director, reached out to some of the biggest names in the game, including former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. That list included Mauricio Pochettino, perhaps not the sexiest or most recognizable name to the average American soccer fan, but one that definitely should now.

Earlier this month, after weeks of reports and internal negotiating between Pochettino’s former club Chelsea and U.S. Soccer, Mauricio Pochettino was hired as the next manager of the U.S. Men’s National Team.

To be concise, the Pochettino hire is exciting. In hiring Pochettino, U.S. Soccer is hiring perhaps the best men’s manager to ever take the position of coaching the best American men in soccer. It shows that U.S. Soccer is serious about competing when the lights are brightest on the men’s side.

To elaborate, Pochettino has coached on the biggest stages, at some of the biggest clubs, in European club soccer. Three years after retiring from the game as a player at the Spanish club Espanyol, he was appointed the team’s manager. With the team in the relegation zone when he was hired in January 2009, his goal was to keep them above water. And he succeeded. While funding issues ultimately kept the team from future success, leading to his contract being terminated in November 2012, he had caught the eye of the Premier League.

Just two months later, Pochettino was named the manager of Southampton in England, the club where Matt Crocker was director of football operations. In his only full season on England’s south coast, Pochettino led Southampton to eighth place in the Premier League, their highest position on the season-ending table at the time, and grabbed 56 points.

Then in May 2014, Pochettino was hired by Tottenham Hotspur, one of the ‘big six’ clubs in England. At the time, however, English soccer was dominated by the ‘big four’ of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United. It wasn’t until Pochettino’s tenure that Tottenham grew to routinely compete among England’s best. Spurs qualified for the Champions League in every season that Pochettino was manager except for the inaugural campaign and reached the Champions League final in 2019. Tottenham’s second-place finish in the Premier League in the 2016-2017 season is the highest the club has ever gotten in the 32-year-old top-flight league. And since Pochettino was booted from the job just five months after reaching the Champions League final, Spurs have only finished in the top four, and qualified for the UCL, just once.

Pochettino’s more recent stops have been in France with powerhouses Paris Saint-Germain and back in England with Chelsea, where he and current U.S. Women’s National Team manager Emma Hayes managed at the same time. Both of those situations being tenuous that can rightfully be blamed on a lack of a clear vision communicated from the ownership groups.

So now, the Argentinian arrives in America when help is desperately needed. After being coddled by previous management, the U.S. men have lost their way. Recent friendly results, a 2-1 loss to Canada and a 1-1 draw to New Zealand, prove this point. A team that back in the days of Landon Donavan, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard, made up for their lack of talent against the best nations in the world with unmatched grit and determination, now has the talent but lacks the grit.

This will be Pochettino’s challenge. And while nothing in life is proven, Pochettino has proven before that he can win at the highest level. Of course, club and country are completely different professions in some aspects for managers. As an international manager, you have much less time to spend training and preparing your players as you would at a club. It’s why Pochettino, who is known for employing a distinct style with his teams, will have to adjust to the realities of international soccer, where few teams play with dominant characteristics.

Even as uncertainty clouds the future, U.S. Soccer fans can’t help but feel hopeful, and much more confident, about what is to come in less than two years. The indefensible rehiring of Berhalter last year, and the results that followed, brought the high hopes of the summer of 2026 to a screeching halt. Yet, by hiring Pochettino, America can feel that its soccer federation is actually trying to produce the best product possible when the United States hosts the world for the World Cup.

It could take time to fully see the vision that Pochettino envisions for this team. The upcoming friendlies next month against Panama and Mexico will, while being a jubilant welcome to the new gaffer, not matter much in the grand scheme of things. As it has since the announcement of the World Cup’s 2026 edition location in 2018, what really matters is what takes place in less than two years from now.

The World Cup is one of the rare occasions where the world comes together for an effective celebration. The energy and enthusiasm that will descend on this country from all corners of the globe in the summer of 2026 will be unlike anything America, and the world, has ever seen. Soccer fandom will undoubtedly sweep the land, and you won’t want to miss out on what will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. U.S. Soccer hiring Mauricio Pochettino at least ensures that as the American hosts, we will enthusiastically be joining in on those festivities.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from CBS Sports - USMNT winners and losers with Mauricio Pochettino: Christian Pulisic up, Tyler Adams in trouble

What Zander’s been reading

If you’ve watched the hit HBO drama ‘Succession’, then this story might seem a bit familiar. (Probably because the show is partially based on this story.) The future of Rupert Murdoch’s media powerhouse, which includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, is up in the air as his children battle in a Nevada courtroom. The winning side could ultimately decide the fate of some of the world’s biggest media brands, and whether the likes of Fox News maintain their current right-wing slant.

Check out this week’s featured article in The New York Times - Future of Murdoch Empire Comes Down to a Court in Nevada

Rapid-fire Facts

These are the top news headlines from the past week:

• Interest Rates: The Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate last week in a move that was widely anticipated. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee cut interest rates by 0.50% to a range of 4.75-5.00%. The move was more aggressive than a quarter-point rate cut that had been expected, and is the first time since 2008 that the Fed has cut interest rates by half a point, excluding the emergency rate cuts during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the first cut to interest rates since the emergency pandemic cuts that took place in March 2020.

  • CNBC - Fed slashes interest rates by a half point, an aggressive start to its first easing campaign in four years

• Hezbollah Pagers: At least 12 people were killed and over 2,700 were injured after pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon, exploded last week. The attacks have been attributed to Israel, which has not claimed responsibility, but which U.S. sources say was behind the coordinated efforts. The U.S. is reportedly concerned that the attacks could launch an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah at a time when Israel is already at war with Hamas in Gaza. An Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon on Friday killed Hezbollah’s top military commander and at least 15 other senior commanders.

  • NBC News - Why did Israel blow up Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies — and what might happen next?

  • Axios - U.S. fears war in Lebanon but hopes Israeli attacks push Hezbollah to a deal

• Georgia Election Board: The Georgia election board passed a controversial rule on Friday that requires the hand counting of all ballots for this year’s presidential election in the state. The board, which is controlled by Republicans who have expressed support for former President Donald Trump, claims this and other measures that have passed in recent months will make the election “more secure and transparent.” Election administrators and poll workers have spoken out against the measure, including Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, who claimed the rule would introduce “the opportunity for error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud.” Trump lost the state in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, yet Trump continues to deny the results of the previous election.

  • Reuters - Georgia election board orders hand count of votes in US presidential contest

• Secret Service: The Secret Service released its initial findings in a review of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump that took place in July. The Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe claimed that the agency deferred too much to local law enforcement in Pennsylvania when securing buildings near the rally. Rowe also cited “complacency”, flaws in planning, and communication issues in what he described as a “failure.” The Secret Service came under more scrutiny after an alleged gunman was able to make it to within several hundred yards of Trump last Sunday at Trump’s golf course in Florida.

  • NPR - The Secret Service admits failures in Butler, Pa., Trump shooting

• Passports: The State Department announced last week that its new online service to renew passports is now available to use. Previously, the system had been tested under pilot programs, but the government estimates that five million Americans will be able to use the service this year. There are restrictions, including children’s passports, first-time passport applicants, and those who live outside the U.S., which still must be handled in person. After suffering from delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Department says that most applications are being processed faster than the advertised six-to-eight-week period. The current passport processing fees of $130 will apply to online applications.

  • Associated Press - Americans can now renew passports online and bypass cumbersome paper applications

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL Week 3: Week three of the NFL season got underway on Thursday as the Jets shellacked the Patriots on Thursday night, 24-3, the first win for the Jets at home against the Patriots since 2015. Transitioning to Sunday, the 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Texans-Vikings, Eagles-Saints, and Chargers-Steelers. At 4:00 pm ET, the Dolphins visit the Seahawks, the Cowboys host the Ravens, the 49ers take on the Rams, and the Lions play the Cardinals. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Chiefs travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons. A double-dip concludes week three on Monday night with the Jaguars facing the Bills at 7:30 pm ET and the Commanders visiting the Bengals at 8:15 pm ET.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 3 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football Week 4: A couple of road teams scored key victories in the top 25 matchups during Saturday’s college football slate, including #6 Tennessee handling #15 Oklahoma 25-15 and #12 Utah surpassing #14 Oklahoma State 22-19. #18 Michigan, however, was able to handle business at home by beating #11 USC 27-24. Other notable results included #21 Clemson beating up NC State 59-35, #7 Missouri needing overtime to beat Vanderbilt at home 30-27, and #16 LSU running away from UCLA 34-17. The big matchup of next weekend’s schedule is #2 Georgia heading to Tuscaloosa to face #4 Alabama at 7:30 pm ET on ABC.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 4)

• UEFA Champions League: The world’s premier club soccer competition began a new season last week as the UEFA Champions League unveiled its brand new format. In the new format, the group stage has been replaced with the league phase, with each team playing eight matches against eight different opponents. The format is expected to produce more matches against the top clubs, which did take place with matches such as Manchester City-Inter Milan, AC Milan-Liverpool, and Monaco-Barcelona. With two more matches in the first phase of the competition for each competing club, there will now be eight matchweeks before the knockout rounds begin, with the second round of games taking place on October 1 and 2.

  • CBS Sports - Champions League Power Rankings: Bayern Munich top, Real Madrid and Man City not far behind

• Shohei Ohtani: Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani made history last week, becoming the first professional baseball player ever to record 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. Ohtani captured the milestone in a career game against the Miami Marlins on Thursday, going 6-for-6 at his at-bats, including hitting three home runs, a career-high, and 10 RBIs. The 20-4 win for Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers also clinched the team a postseason berth. The MLB postseason begins with the Wild Card round on Tuesday, October 1.

  • MLB - Otherworldly Ohtani creates 50-50 club in a 6-for-6 game for the ages

• Adrian Wojnarowski: ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski announced his departure from the sports network last week. Wojnarowski, who was seen as not just the top reporter in basketball but one of the top sports reporters in general, will become the general manager for the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program in college basketball. During his decades-long career as a reporter, Wojnarowski broke the biggest stories in professional basketball in what many dubbed ‘Woj bombs’ including LeBron James signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 and the NBA suspending the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

  • ESPN - Adrian Wojnarowski retires from ESPN, joins St. Bonaventure

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, September 29, 2024.

Just seconds after the two candidates entered the stage of Tuesday night’s presidential debate, it was already over.

While political debates aren’t “won” in the sense that football games have a clear winner and loser, or even elections feature the victor and the vanquished, there’s an argument to be made that Tuesday’s debate came and went with a clear champion.

On Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the two major candidates in this year’s presidential election, participated in what appears will be the only debate between the two this year (more on that in a moment.)

Coming into the debate, the two sides had two clear strategies. For Trump, define his opponent as a ‘radical’ who flip-flops on positions and tie her as much as possible to the unpopular incumbent President Joe Biden. For Harris, come off as a moderate and personable to the millions of Americans who haven’t formed a definitive view of the vice president, while also reminding 81 million people why they voted against her opponent last time.

One of those strategies clearly came across as effective, and the other… not so much.

From the very beginning, Harris asserted herself as though she belonged on the stage watched by at least 67 million Americans. When the two candidates were welcomed onto the stage, as Trump cautiously stood behind his podium, Harris crossed the stage to shake Trump’s hand. The first time since the 2016 election that a handshake between the candidates has been seen at a presidential debate.

The gesture, something once commonplace but what has become increasingly rare between political opponents, seemed to almost surprise the former president and was a clear early victory for the vice president.

Early on, it was pretty clear that Trump stuck to the script he had been given, a definitive win for his advisors, while Harris came off as nervous on the largest stage of her life. Yet, the seeds for Harris’ ultimate debate plan were being planted. In her first few responses, she mentioned things like a “Trump Sales Tax” and “the Wharton School of Finance” (where Trump graduated from in 1968) that she knew would get under his skin. You can see in his early rebuttals that he immediately mentions those points before getting to his message. With Harris starting to get a sense that she would be successful in getting under his skin, and quite easily at that, she slowly eased up from anxiety and subsequently controlled the narrative of the remainder of the debate.

The big moment where this became apparent, and where Trump’s calm and cool demeanor, which had slowly been wearing down as the night went on, totally vanished from sight, was close to 30 minutes into the debate. On the topic of immigration, Harris brought up the fact that Trump had requested Republican members of Congress to oppose a bipartisan-negotiated bill that would have strengthened security at the southern border. But she then pivoted to something unusual, that would’ve been preposterous to bring up with any other opponent. With her current opponent, though, it worked like a charm.

If there’s any three-minute clip that will define the debate, and the election, it’s this one.

I’d like to wager that rallies of the other candidate have never before been mentioned in a presidential debate. Yet, Harris took a massive swing when she criticized what Trump holds most dearest to him than perhaps anything else, his rallies. She saw early on in the debate that he would take the bait when she cast the line, so she knew he wouldn’t be able to overcome the temptation of talking about his rallies.

Just that little mention of what to most people would seem entirely insignificant then sent Trump on an incredible spiral, where he went full-blown conspiracy theorist and falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating cats and dogs.

It does seem to beg the question: If mentions of his campaign rallies get so under his skin that he turns into… whatever that was, why would the American people put him in a position where adversaries of the United States would successfully control him by targeting his massively exposed vulnerabilities? Kamala Harris, who he has described as “dumb as a rock” and a “low I.Q. individual”, was easily able to rattle him in front of the entire world.

The night didn’t get better for the former president, as he refused to look at the vice president the entire night, while she often veered in his direction, showing she was not afraid of the opposition. She openly laughed when he gave his wildest remarks and would show him glances that a mother would give her children when she knew they were up to no good. This despite the fact that the vice president is 19 years her opponent’s junior, perhaps making the proper analogy that she would show him glances that you would give your elderly parent when you know their mind is gone, and you just had to play along with the latest bewildering verbiage.

And finally, when it came time to give the closing statements, Harris laid out the case for why she should be elected the 47th President of the United States. She reached out to Americans of all political parties and ideologies, while concluding with the remark that she would work by “investing right now in you, the American people.”

Trump’s closing statement, which he specifically chose to be last, took a different turn.

Trump spent his two-minute closing statement attacking the vice president, blaming her for the supposed failures of the current president, and failing to mention why he would be the better option. He concluded the debate with the remark, “The worst president, the worst vice president, in the history of our country.”

Not sure his team that prepped him for the debate wanted that to be the final message he would give to the voters.

In what started out as somewhat hopeful, by the lowly standards placed upon the former president of course, quickly turned sour as Harris was able to get Trump to show his true colors: a vengeful, angry, opaque 78-year-old man who would rather spend his time attacking black people for their race or praising the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary than talk about his ideas (if they exist) to help the American people.

Trump told debunked lie after debunked lie, while his opponent often didn’t, and was fact-checked by the moderators for his most egregious mistruths. And while he has since lashed out in anger, calling the debate a “three to one” and “rigged”, considering the former president was given the last word on every topic, I’m not sure they had it out for him in the way he thinks (unless giving him an unmitigated opportunity to unleash his foul ramblings on the American people for much more time than his opponent is “rigged”, then yes, they totally rigged it against you.)

Immediately after the debate, the Harris campaign called for another, almost as if she was saying, “I’m not done with you.” Two days later, Trump announced he would be done with debates, after repeatedly pushing for more than one with Harris.

The Harris campaign even posted what they called an “ad” to their social media channels the next day, which was simply a video of the entire debate (note the timestamp of the video on the image below.)

Trump’s disastrous performance even ignited perhaps the most famous pop culture icon in the world, Taylor Swift, to announce to her 286 million Instagram followers her intention to vote for his opponent.

So you tell me, who was the winner?

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from NPR - The debate between Harris and Trump wasn’t close — and 4 other takeaways

What Zander’s been reading

As Springfield, Ohio has become known to the world, chaos has descended on the city. As false claims began to circle online that Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating pets in Springfield, former President Donald Trump joined the fray on Tuesday by amplifying the conspiracies during the presidential debate.

In the days since, bomb threats have impacted hospitals, businesses, schools, and other facilities across the city. Haitian residents have reportedly had their windows smashed and acid poured on their cars. And all the while, Trump continues to spread the false claims, including that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are “illegal migrants”, and refused to denounce the bomb threats.

Check out this week’s featured article in The New York Times - In Springfield, Ohio, Threats Leave Haitian Residents Shaken

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL week 2: The second weekend of the NFL regular season is highlighted by a top AFC matchup later this afternoon. In a rematch of the 2023 AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs will host the Bengals in the 4:00 pm ET window. At the same time, the Steelers take on the Broncos, while the Rams visit the Cardinals. Earlier in the day, Saints-Cowboys, 49ers-Vikings, and Raiders-Ravens stand out in the 1:00 pm ET window. On Sunday night at 8:20 pm ET, the Bears visit the Texans, with the Falcons taking on the Eagles on Monday night at 8:15 pm ET. On Thursday night, the Bills had their way with the Dolphins, winning 31-10.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 2 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football week 3: No major upsets made their way into the week three College Football slate, but a couple of top SEC teams just pulled out road victories. #16 LSU came back to beat South Carolina 36-33, while #1 Georgia survived on the road against Kentucky 13-12. Some other ranked teams were dominant, including #10 Miami’s 62-0 win over Ball State, #7 Tennessee’s 71-0 win over Kent State, and #4 Alabama’s 42-10 win over Wisconsin. #6 Missouri needed a second-half comeback to beat #24 Boston College 27-21, #14 Kansas State stomped #20 Arizona 31-7 on Friday night, and #9 Oregon ran over in-state foe Oregon State 49-14.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 3)

• USMNT Coach: U.S. Soccer officially announced a hire last week that had been reported for weeks. Mauricio Pochettino was named the head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team on Tuesday, arguably the most successful coach to ever be the USMNT’s manager. Pochettino most recently managed at Chelsea for the 2023-2024 season after having been Paris Saint-Germain’s manager from 2021 to 2022. Pochettino’s most successful run came at Tottenham Hotspur from 2014 through 2019, when Pochettino led Spurs to their only appearance in the UEFA Champions League final in 2019. Pochettino replaces Gregg Berhalter, who was fired after the U.S. failed to qualify out of the group stage of the Copa América tournament in July.

  • CBS Sports - How new USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino's success at Tottenham makes him a good fit to transform USA soccer

• US Open: Jannik Sinner was able to prove his world #1 ranking in men’s tennis as he captured the US Open men’s singles championship last Sunday. Sinner defeated #7 Taylor Fritz in Sunday’s final in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. 7-5. The title is the second grand slam victory this year for Sinner after he won the Australian Open in January. Fritz was featured in his first grand slam final and the first American to play in the US Open final since 2006. The US Open was the final grand slam of 2024, with the 2025 slate kicking off in Australia on January 6.

  • US Open - Sinner outfoxes Fritz: 2024 US Open Day 14 in review

• Deshaun Watson: Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed last week. Watson was previously accused by 24 women of sexual misconduct and harassment during massage therapy sessions, settling 23 of those lawsuits in 2022. The lawsuit filed on Monday accuses Watson of forcing himself on a woman and demanding a massage in 2020. Watson denied the allegations and plans to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars later today. Watson had previously been suspended 11 games in 2022 for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy related to the previous allegations.

  • Associated Press - Browns QB Deshaun Watson accused of sexual assault by Texas woman in 2020 incident

Rapid-fire Facts

These are the top news headlines from the past week:

• Early Voting: The first votes in the 2024 U.S. presidential election are soon to be cast, with some states beginning the process later this week. Alabama became the first state to begin mailing out absentee ballots to voters last week. On Thursday, Wisconsin will start mailing on ballots, while Minnesota and South Dakota will begin doing so on Friday. The first votes can be cast in person starting on Friday in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia. With Election Day less than two months away on November 5, make sure you have a plan to vote by going to vote.org.

  • The New York Times - Early Voting Is Beginning in These States. Here’s What to Know

• Government Shutdown: Talks over averting a government shutdown increased in Congress last week as the clock is ticking. October 1 is the date that the new budget year begins for the federal government, and also when Congress must pass a stopgap spending bill to avoid a shutdown of the federal government. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pulled a vote on a bill that would have provided funding for six months after it became clear it did not have enough support to pass. Republican holdouts on the bill complained that spending levels were too high, while Democrats oppose a provision that would require people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship. It is already against federal law for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections.

  • PBS News - Johnson nixes vote on a bill that would have avoided a partial government shutdown

• Inflation: The U.S. received good inflation news last week as the annual rate of inflation hit a three-year low in August. The Labor Department reported on Wednesday that the consumer price index rose by 2.5% from August 2023 to August 2024, the lowest year-over-year increase since February 2021. From July to August, the CPI rose 0.2%, the same increase as the month prior. The report comes as the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meets later this week. The committee will determine whether to cut interest rates for the first time since March 2020, with a decision to be announced on Wednesday.

  • CNBC - Consumer prices rose 0.2% in August as annual inflation rate hits lowest since early 2021

• Hurricane Francine: Hurricane Francine made landfall in Louisiana last week as a category 2 hurricane, lashing the Gulf Coast and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. Francine rapidly developed in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall on Wednesday in Terrebonne Parish in Southern Louisiana with sustained winds of 100 mph, dumping 5-7 inches of rain in New Orleans on Wednesday. So far, no deaths and only three injuries have been attributed to the storm. Francine quickly weakened after making landfall and officially dissipated on Saturday.

  • NBC News - Storm Francine: Thousands without power as severe rain and wind hit the Gulf Coast

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, September 22, 2024.

Even though it is the tennis major championship that takes place in the United States, that doesn’t mean Americans always dominate the US Open. But in 2024, things are different.

In recent history, American women have been much more victorious than their male counterparts. In the last 18 years, American women have won the US Open women’s singles title six times, with Serena Williams climbing four of those. After Sloane Stephens won the title in 2017, an American woman hadn’t won the title until Coco Gauff claimed her first Grand Slam title last year. Yet still, Williams had made to two singles finals in that span.

And to add on, another American woman made her mark this year. Jessica Pegula, ranked sixth in the world, reached her first major tournament final, coming up short to second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5. While Pegula wasn’t able to finish on top, her emergence into the final, after beating Gauff and top-ranked Iga Swiatek to get there, shows that American women can still compete at the top of the game after the retirement of the Williams sisters. Gauff, Pegula, and other young stars such as Emma Navarro, will keep Americans in the conversation at the US Open, and the other Grand Slams, for years to come.

So on the women’s side, not much is new.

But for the men, a long-awaited drought will come to an end this weekend.

American #12 Taylor Fritz will play in the US Open men’s singles final later today, becoming the first American man to play for the last major title of the year since 2006. So in the 17 years that an American woman has at least made the US Open final eight times, there have been no American men in the final.

It’s been even longer since an American hoisted the trophy handed out by the United States Tennis Association. While Andy Roddick was the last U.S. male to make the US Open final in 2006, it was Roddick’s 2003 title that was the last time an American won the US Open men’s singles final.

While Fritz has already made history making it to the tournament’s final match, in what might be the most impactful match an American male tennis player has played in in over 20 years, a victory over the top-ranked player in the world, Jannik Sinner, would immediately put his name in the conversation for the best men’s tennis players currently playing.

And yet, Fritz is not the only American who has been making a name for himself on the biggest stages. Fritz had to defeat fellow American Francis Tiafoe in the semifinal to make the final, the first all-American semifinal in a Grand Slam in 19 years. Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, and Sebastian Korda all join Fritz and Tiafoe in the top 20 of the ATP rankings, with all of those players being younger than the age of 28. So while Fritz will be playing for patriotic pride as he seeks what would be a massive upset in the final of the US Open, expect many American names to be seeking the top prizes in the sport in the near future.

The US Open men’s singles final begins later today at 2:00 pm ET on ABC and ESPN+.

For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The New York Times - Queens Is Abuzz Over Two Americans in the U.S. Open Finals

What Zander’s been reading

Often times the answer to traffic congestion seems to be… just add more lanes. Yet, studies continue to show that expanding highway capacity doesn’t have the impact you would think. This article from Slate looks back on how another almost unstoppable movement, dam building, was eventually halted and whether or not it means never-ending highway building could eventually slow to a crawl.

Check out this week’s featured article in Slate - How America Can Break Its Highway Addiction

Rapid-fire Facts

These are top news headlines from the past week:

• Presidential Debate: The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is set for Tuesday night. Trump has already participated in a general election debate this election, having debated President Joe Biden before Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Notably, it will be the first time that Harris and Trump meet each other in person. The debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and begin at 9:00 pm ET. There will be no in-person audience and the microphone of the candidate not speaking will be muted. The debate is being hosted by ABC News and will air on all major networks and cable news channels.

  • ABC News - Harris-Trump ABC News presidential debate: How to watch, what to know

• Russia Influence: The Department of Justice accused the Russian government of spreading disinformation surrounding the 2024 U.S. presidential election last week. On Wednesday, DOJ announced that it had seized 32 domains that were tied to a Russian influence campaign that is being accused of spreading propaganda in the election. The Justice Department also indicted several Russian nationals who it says are connected to a scheme to influence American audiences with hidden Russian content. RT, a Russian state media network, allegedly spent $10 million to a Tennessee-based media company, Tenet Media, in order to get commentators to share viewpoints that “amplify divisions in the United States.”

  • Associated Press - With charges and sanctions, US takes aim at Russian disinformation ahead of November election

• Georgia School Shooting: Four people were killed and nine others injured in a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. The shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray who was a freshman at the school, was charged with felony murder and could face life in prison if convicted. Gray’s father, Colin, was also charged with murder and manslaughter after giving his son access to the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle that he used in the shooting. The gun was given to Colt as a Christmas present last year. Colt had previously been investigated by the FBI for making online threats.

  • The New York Times - Teen and Father Charged With Georgia School Shooting Appear in Court

• New York Governor: A former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was charged with acting as an illegal agent to the Chinese government last week. According to federal prosecutors, Linda Sun “"acted at the order, direction, or request” of Beijing and that her husband, who has also been charged, “facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain.” Sun previously served as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and prosecutors allege blocked representatives from Taiwan from meeting with Hochul.

  • PBS News - How China used a mid-level government aide in New York to influence U.S. politics

• Germany Election: In Germany’s state elections that took place last Sunday, a far-right party has won a state election for the first time since 1945. In the state of Thuringia, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party captured 31-33% of the vote, the highest of any party. Other parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who received the second-most votes in the state, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the party of Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, have vowed not to form a coalition with the AfD, putting in doubt whether the far-right party will gain any governing power. The AfD also received 30-31% in Saxony, another eastern German state, just behind the CDU’s 31.5-32%.

  • NBC News - German far-right party wins a state election for the first time since the Nazis

Zander’s Facts Sporting Club

Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:

• NFL week 1: The National Football League season began on Thursday as the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs held on to beat the Ravens 27-20. The Eagles and Packers played on Friday in the league’s first ever game in Brazil, with the Eagles winning 34-29. Week 1 continues later today with Steelers-Falcons, Texans-Colts, and Jaguars-Dolphins among the games kicking off at 1:00 pm ET. At 4:00 pm ET, the Chargers host the Raiders, the Commanders take on the Buccaneers, and the Cowboys face the Browns. On Sunday night, the Rams visit the Lions, and the Jets face the 49ers to wrap up opening week on Monday night.

  • ESPN - NFL Week 1 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips

• College Football week 2: #3 Texas had the win of the weekend in college football with a massive road victory over #10 Michigan, 31-12. In the other top 25 matchup of the day, #14 Tennessee took down handily #24 NC State 51-10. In Saturday’s biggest upset, #5 Notre Dame, coming off a massive road win against Texas A&M, lost to Northern Illinois 16-14 at home. A late rally by #4 Alabama staved off South Florida 42-16, while #14 Oklahoma held off Houston 16-12, and #8 Penn State survived Bowling Green 34-27. Elsewhere, Iowa State knocked off #21 Iowa 20-19, Syracuse upset #23 Georgia Tech 31-28, Illinois beat #19 Kansas 23-17, and #16 Oklahoma State needed double overtime to beat Arkansas 39-31.

  • ESPN - College Football Scoreboard (Week 2)

• Alex Morgan: Legendary U.S. Women’s National Team soccer player Alex Morgan announced her retirement last week, with her final game taking place later today. Morgan’s 123 goals for the U.S. are good for fifth all time amongst women’s players and her 176 combined goals and assists are also fifth all-time among U.S players. Stunningly, the U.S. never lost in a game in which Morgan scored, winning 76 and drawing 10 games where Morgan scored. Morgan’s final game, in which her San Diego Wave will host the North Carolina Courage in the final game of the NWSL regular season, will kick off at 8:00 pm ET and air on several networks, including CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, ESPN2, ESPN+, and Amazon Prime Video.

  • CBS Sports - Alex Morgan's legacy: The USWNT star's top 13 moments on and off the pitch as she announces retirement

Wrapping up the Facts

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, September 15, 2024.