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Cannes 2019: Abortion protest hits red carpet, restored ‘Shining’ plus ‘Les Miserables’ nabbed

It’s no surprise that last week’s abortion law push in America hit the red carpet at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. Last year saw the women take to the red carpet also.

Ahead of Saturday’s premiere of an Argentine documentary on abortion, dozens of women demonstrated for abortion rights on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Women, including the filmmakers and activists seen in the film, waved green handkerchiefs and carried a large banner while walking the Cannes carpet at the premiere of Argentine director Juan Solanas’ “Let It Be Law.” The documentary depicts Argentina’s battle to legalize abortion.

Argentina’s Senate last year rejected a bill to legalize abortion, prompting protests in Buenos Aires streets. Green handkerchiefs have come to be symbol of the movement. A modified version of the bill is to be presented to Congress on May 28.

The film’s debut comes as abortion rights are also being fiercely contested in the U.S. On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate passed a bill that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, including those involving pregnancies from rape or incest.

Many in the movie industry in Cannes have followed the developments in the U.S. with concern.

“What’s happening in Alabama is so important in the world,” Eva Longoria, who produced the Netflix documentary “Reversing Roe,” said Friday at a “Women in Motion” event in Cannes. “It’s going to affect everybody if we don’t pay attention.”

leon vitali katharina kubrick jan harlan at canned for restored shining premiere

Restored The Shining Premieres At Cannes

Thirty-nine years later, Jack is still not a dull boy.

In a new pristine restoration, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday evening. It was the second straight year that a Kubrick movie landed on the Croisette, following last year when Christopher Nolan brought what he termed an “unrestored” cut of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

This time around, Alfonso Cuaron introduced the film, alongside Kubrick’s daughter, Katharina Kubrick, and Leon Vitali, Kubrick’s longtime assistant. Vitali was himself profiled in the 2017 documentary “Filmworker,” also a Cannes entry.

“If anybody hasn’t seen it on the screen before, it’s a different experience completely,” Vitali told the crowd. “Don’t worry, you’ll all come out of here alive.”

Cuaron’s presence in Cannes was notable. His film “Roma” was set to premiere at the French festival last year. But when Netflix and the festival couldn’t agree on distribution terms for the streaming giant’s films, Netflix pulled out of Cannes and “Roma” headed instead to the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion prize.

Cuaron didn’t oversee “The Shining” restoration. That role went to Steven Spielberg, whose 2018 sci-fi thriller “Ready Player One” included a lengthy homage to “The Shining.” But Cuaron lavished praise on “The Shining” while playfully prodding conspiracy theorists that dig into the film for hidden meanings.

“Actually, tonight, we’re going to watch it backwards, because backwards, we’ll see it with the message Kubrick (intended),” joked Cuaron.

The 2012 documentary “Room 237” chronicled some of those theories, including that “The Shining” is really about the moon landing or about the treatment of Native Americans. Katharina Kubrick used an expletive to describe the guessing games around “The Shining.”

“This is a seriously cool ghost movie. Don’t believe any of the conspiracy theories because it’s all s—,” she said. “I only said that because I’ve had some champagne.”

Cuaron agreed. “Kubrick would have really gotten a laugh out of all of these conspiracy theories,” said the director. “By all reports, he believed in films not to be explained but to be experienced. A little bit like music, he used to say.”

“The Shining” restoration will be released on home video Oct. 1.

les-miserables-brings-poverty-concern-to-cannes-2019

Les Miserables Grabbed Up By Amazon

Amazon Studios has nabbed U.S. rights to the French-language drama “Les Miserables,” marking the first significant deal for a domestic acquisition at the Cannes market.

The film, from writer-director Ladj Ly, screened in competition Wednesday and drew solid reviews for its gritty, loose take on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. CAA Media Finance negotiated the deal on behalf of Ly, who was recently signed by the agency. Wild Bunch is handling international sales.

A source pegged the deal at $1.5 million, making it the biggest sale ever at Cannes for a first-time director.

Written by Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, the film chronicles the grim realities of life in the projects in Paris’ suburbs and was inspired by riots in 2005 that sparked headlines around the world.

Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral produced.

The acquisition gives Amazon a potential best foreign-language contender come Oscar time considering the reviews out of Cannes.

Italian Open 2019: Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic, the rivalry continues

Everyone was rooting to see Rafael Nadal face off against Roger Federer at the 2019 Italian Open, but fate gave us another great match to look forward to: Rafa vs Novak Djokovic. That will be one to watch with much anticipation.

After losing in the semifinals of three straight clay-court tournaments, Rafael Nadal looked more like his old, dominant self when he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Italian Open final on Saturday.

It was a measure of revenge for Nadal after losing to Tsitsipas in three sets at this stage in Madrid last week. This victory should also restore Nadal’s confidence as he seeks a record-extending 12th title at the French Open starting next weekend.

“The main thing is I am playing better. If I play better, I know I’m going to have chances to be in finals and to win semifinal matches,” Nadal said. “If you are not playing well, (beating) the best players of the world is much more difficult. … I have margin to keep improving. But I am doing the right steps to be there.”

In Sunday’s final, Nadal will resume his rivalry with top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who faced an unusually high number of drop shots from Diego Schwartzman before winning 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3.

Djokovic also required three sets to eliminate Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals, meaning he has been on court for more than 5 ½ hours over the last two days.

It will be the 54th career meeting between Djokovic and Nadal, with Djokovic leading the series 28-25. The pair has split the four Italian Open finals they’ve played. They last met in the Australian Open final won by Djokovic in straight sets.

“He’s my greatest rival of all time,” Djokovic said. “Every time we get to play each other it’s a thrill. It’s the ultimate challenge.”

Nadal is aiming for a record-extending ninth trophy in Rome while Djokovic is seeking his fifth title at the Foro Italico.

Nadal is in the middle of his longest title drought to begin a season since he came onto the scene in 2004. His last trophy came last August in Toronto.

The crowd attempted to encourage Tsitsipas with chants of “Tsi-Tsi-Tsi, Pas-Pas-Pas” but the 20-year-old Greek player couldn’t keep up with Nadal on the long rallies — even though he didn’t play a day earlier after Roger Federer withdrew injured from their quarterfinal.

Conditions were much slower than on the high-altitude court in Madrid, which favored Nadal and made it tougher for Tsitsipas to execute his attacking game.

“The shots that I played today, I played similar shots last week,” Tsitsipas said. “Today those shots felt really slow and he had plenty of time to pass me when I was approaching to the net. .. The court speed was the difference.”

Midway through the first set, Nadal produced a blistering forehand winner up the line on the run, drawing a loud roar from the packed Campo Centrale crowd.

Nadal broke Tsitsipas’ serve early in both sets.

In the women’s tournament, Johanna Konta rallied past sixth-seeded Kiki Bertens 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in nearly three hours to reach the biggest clay-court final of her career.

Karolina Pliskova beat Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari in the other semifinal, 6-4, 6-4.

Pliskova didn’t immediately realize she won because she lost track of the score.

“I thought it was 4-3,” she said. “I felt bad about it.”

Pliskova is having a solid year, having reached the Australian Open semifinals and the Miami Open final after opening the season with a title in Brisbane, Australia. The Czech player recently announced she promoted four-time Italian Open champion Conchita Martinez as her head coach.

Konta’s only previous final on clay came recently in Rabat, Morocco, where she lost to Sakkari.

“I’ve never really doubted my ability on the surface,” Konta said. “I won a lot of my first junior titles, first professional titles on clay. I’ve always felt that I have a game that has the ability to do well on this surface.”

Novak Djokovic Beats Diego Schwartzman, Now On To Rafa Time

On Friday night, Novak Djokovic had to give his 120% at Foro Italico to overpower Juan Martin del Potro in the quarter-final in Rome saving two match points to set the duel against another Argentinian. The crowd had a chance to enjoy another thrilling encounter under the lights on Saturday, with the four-time Rome champion taking down Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 after two hours and 31 minutes, advancing to the 49th Masters 1000 final and the ninth in Rome!

Two years ago, Schwartzman pushed Novak to five sets at Roland Garros and he gave his everything tonight as well, facing only five break points but getting broken four times. On the other hand, Novak stayed rock-solid behind the initial shot, playing against four break points and giving serve away twice to mount the pressure on the other side of the net.

They had an identical number of errors and almost the same amount of winners, drawing the most from each other in both the shortest and more extended exchanges to give the crowd something to remember for a long time. Novak held in the opening game with a service winner and that set the tone for the next six games, with brilliant hitting from both in the service games that brought them to 4-3 after just 27 minutes.

The Argentinian was on the same level as the Serb before the eighth game when he started to miss more, netting a backhand to hand the break to Novak who delivered three winners in game nine for a 6-3 after 36 minutes. Djokovic had a small advantage in the shortest rallies and more noticeable one in the mid-range points with five to eight strokes, delivering one good hold after another to secure the opening part of the match.

From almost an indoor or grass tennis, things were back to “normal” in set number two where they both won more than 40% of the return points in a wild chase towards the finish line that lasted for some 75 minutes!

From 3-2 for Schwartzman, they traded four consecutive breaks and the Argentinian wasted a 4-2 and a 5-3 lead to send the set into a tie break and push the crowd further towards the edge of their seats. Fighting like a lion, Novak broke back at love in game seven and again in the ninth game to extend the set and earn the opportunity to close the match in the tie break.

Instead of that, Diego won all points on serve in the breaker and grabbed two mini-breaks for a 7-2, setting up a decider after an hour and 50 minutes. Battling to find the last piece of energy left in the body, they traded five easy service games in the final set before Novak made the crucial step and broke Diego for a 4-2 lead after a backhand error from the Argentinian, sealing another impressive triumph with a hold in game nine to join Rafael Nadal in the title match.

davis cup captain miguel tobon suspended for payoffs 2019

Miguel Tobon Suspended For Payoffs

Colombia’s former Davis Cup captain, Miguel Tobon, has been suspended for a year and fined $20,000 by the Tennis Integrity Unit for accepting payoffs in return for tournament wild-card entries.

The TIU says Tobon was found guilty of “negotiating to sell, or attempting to sell, wild cards for singles and doubles events in Colombia to six individuals” in 2017.

Tobon was also ordered to pay $6,000 for the money he received from the sale of the wild cards.

Tobon has coached some of Colombia’s best players, including Nicolas Massu of Chile, Alejandro Falla, and Santiago Giraldo.

Preakness 2019: Mark Casse wins Triple Crown race with War of Will

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In a season of oddities in horse racing, the 2019 Preakness continued that streak with War of Wills taking first place. This was a great turnaround after the horse lost a chance at victory in the Kentucky Derby after stumbling with Maximum Security.

Two weeks ago, 22 minutes after Maximum Security appeared to be the emphatic winner of the 145th Derby, three stewards, horse racing’s version of referees, ruled that when the colt had jumped a puddle, he impeded the progress of a rival, War of Will, almost knocking off that colt’s rider, Tyler Gaffalione.

It set off a chain reaction that resulted in Maximum Security being disqualified and placing 17th. Gaffalione was aboard War of Will in the Preakness.

This race had its own eye-raising moment: As soon as the gates opened, the jockey John Velazquez was airborne in one moment and in the dirt the next after his colt, Bodexpress, broke out of the starting gate like a rodeo horse rather than a thoroughbred. Velazquez was fine, and his colt continued on riderless, fortunately never interfering with the other 12 horses now eligible to win.

Mark Casse completed a lifelong quest two weeks after the scare of a lifetime. And he did so in a race featuring a riderless horse that threw his jockey out of the gate and kept running.

Since he was a child, Casse wanted to win a Triple Crown race, and the well-respected trainer got that victory when War of Will bounced back from a bumpy ride in the Kentucky Derby to win the Preakness on Saturday.

Casse, 58, was more relieved than anything that his prized 3-year-old colt didn’t go down in the Derby, which could’ve been a multihorse catastrophe, and could finally take a deep breath following the Preakness.

“This is even I think probably more special given everything that we’ve been through,” Casse said. “I’m not even calling it redemption. I didn’t feel like he got his fair shot, and that’s all I wanted — a fair shot. And he showed what he had today.”

War of Will was unfazed starting from the inside No. 1 post position for the second consecutive race, even though that contributed to his rough run at Churchill Downs. Rising star jockey Tyler Gaffalione guided the horse along the rail in the Preakness and made a move into the lead around the final curve, holding off hard-charging late addition Everfast, who was a nose ahead of Owendale for second place.

war of will takes crown at 2019 preakness stakes

All the while, Bodexpress — after ejecting Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez — kept running around the Pimlico track and did an extra lap. An outrider tried to swoop in at the top of the stretch and corral Bodexpress, but the horse sped up and passed a few competitors near the finish line and kept going. Technically, Bodexpress gets a did-not-finish.

“He wasn’t behaving well,” said Velazquez, who added he’s fine and would not seek medical attention. “When the doors opened, I was off right from the start and he kind of jumped sideways, and I had my feet out sideways and I lost my balance and went out.”

It was yet another bizarre scene in a Triple Crown season full of it.

Two weeks ago at the Kentucky Derby, apparent winner Maximum Security was disqualified for interfering with War of Will, and Country House elevated to first in the only on-track disqualification in the race’s 145-year history. Casse was just thankful War of Will was healthy and decided to take his shot in the Preakness even though Maximum Security and Country House didn’t run.

It was the first Preakness run without the Kentucky Derby winner since 1996, but the 13-horse field was the largest since 2011. Go back to 1951 for the last time the Preakness was run without the top four finishers from the Derby.

“This is the Preakness,” Casse said. “We just won the Preakness. I really don’t care who was in it.”

Bob Baffert-trained Improbable was in it as the 5-2 favorite and finished a disappointing sixth. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness are the only races of Improbable’s career that he didn’t finish first or second.

“He just got mad and reared up,” Baffert said of Improbable’s antics in the starting gate. “After that, he was in a good spot. He just didn’t kick.”

War of Will had plenty of kick and put himself in position to become the first horse since Afleet Alex in 2005 and 19th all-time to fall short in the Derby but win the Preakness and Belmont. Winning the $1.5 million Preakness by a 1¼ length over Everfast, who wasn’t entered until Wednesday, was another illustration of War of Will’s mix of talent and grit.

“He’s got so much heart,” Gaffalione said. “We always knew he had the ability. We just had to get a little bit lucky, and today was our day.”

It’s a breakthrough for Gaffalione, who has become something of a rising star since being named top apprentice rider in 2015. Gaffalione, 24, was aboard War of Will for the colt’s sixth consecutive race and came away with the biggest victory of his young career.

“It really hasn’t even hit me yet,” said Gaffalione, who got advice Saturday morning from idol Jerry Bailey. “I can’t even put it into words.”

Casse had plenty of words after the contentious situation at the Kentucky Derby that spurred a lawsuit from Maximum Security owners Gary West and a 15-day suspension handed down to jockey Luis Saez. He took issue with West blaming War of Will and Gaffalione.

West took Maximum Security off the Triple Crown trail, but Casse was eager to get War of Will back on the track two years after Classic Empire finished second in the Preakness. With the sport in turmoil after the deaths of 24 horses at Santa Anita Park since Dec. 26 and an ongoing quarrel over the future site of the Preakness, Casse’s first Triple Crown victory is a tale of redemption for him and the horse even if he doesn’t want to call it that.

“I’m just very happy for Mark to get his first Classic win,” Gaffalione said. “Very happy for the horse. He deserved it more than anything. He’s so special.”

Donald Trump’s drug prices and trade need some fact checking

Donald Trump continues his everything is great one day, and then the next tweet storming Robert Mueller, Democrats, or Don McGahn. He is still continuing to create his own world of facts at his supporter rallies though.

President Trump spoke this past week as if he’s unaware that drug prices have gone up and tariffs came before him.

His boast that the U.S. never collected a dime on goods from China until he imposed them marked a series of statements misrepresenting how trade works as the two countries escalated their dispute with new and retaliatory taxes on each other’s products.

Meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared inaccurately that no traces of collusion between his country and Trump’s 2016 campaign were found in the “exotic” special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller.

A closer look at his latest set of facts:

TRADE

TRUMP: “We’ve been losing, for many years, anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion a year with China and trade with China. We can’t let that happen.” — remarks Tuesday at the White House.

TRUMP: “We lost $180 billion with the European Union.” — remarks to National Association of Realtors on Friday.

THE FACTS: This is not how almost any economist would describe what is happening.

The United States does have a huge trade deficit with China, totaling $378.7 billion last year, as well as a $109 billion trade deficit with the EU. That means China and the EU exported far more to the United States than vice versa. But in return, U.S. businesses and consumers received goods and services with that money. Economists compare Trump’s take on trade deficits to a shopper going to a store and complaining they “lost” money with what they bought.

Most trade experts see trade deficits or surpluses between two specific countries as economically meaningless. China’s deficit with the United States is large in part because many goods, particularly electronics, that used to be made in different countries, typically in Asia, are now sent to China for final assembly, even though many key parts are still manufactured in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

That has lowered the U.S. trade deficit with those countries over the years while increasing the gap with China.

U.S. VERSUS CHINA ECONOMY

TRUMP: “Our economy is fantastic; (China’s) is not so good. We’ve gone up trillions and trillions of dollars since the election; they’ve gone way down since my election.” — remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: There’s not much truth to this. The U.S. economy hasn’t done as well, nor has China done as badly, as Trump says. The U.S. economy has grown at a healthy pace since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, but not by “trillions and trillions.”

U.S. gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the country’s growth — has increased by just over $1 trillion, to $18.9 trillion, in the past two years. Those figures are adjusted for inflation. China has seen its rate of economic growth tick down slightly, from 6.7% in 2016 to 6.6% last year, according to the International Monetary Fund. That is more than twice the U.S. growth rate in 2018 of 2.9%, although mature economies such as America’s typically grow more slowly than developing countries such as China.

TARIFF INCOME

TRUMP: “We’re taking in, right now, hundreds of billions of dollars. We’re taking in billions of dollars of tariffs. And those tariffs are going to be tremendously — if you look at what we’ve done thus far with China, we’ve never taken in 10 cents until I got elected.” — remarks Monday with Hungary’s prime minister.

THE FACTS: He’s wrong. The notion that the U.S. suddenly has revenue coming in from tariffs, thanks to his trade dispute, defies history that goes back to the founding of the republic. President George Washington signed the Tariff Act into law in 1789 — the first major act of Congress — and duties from imports were a leading source of revenue for the government before the advent of the modern tax system early in the 20th century. Tariffs on goods specifically from China are not remotely new, either. They are simply higher in some cases than they were before.

Tariffs are a decidedly modest portion of revenue in modern times and Trump has not changed that with the escalation of his trade fight with China. Customs and duties generated $41.3 billion in revenues last year, up from $34.6 billion in 2017 (far more than 10 cents). That $6.7 billion increase occurred in part because of the president’s tariffs. But it amounted to just 0.16% of federal spending.

Moreover, tariffs are taxes paid largely by U.S. business and consumers, not foreign countries.

RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

PUTIN: “However exotic the work of special counsel Mueller was, I have to say that on the whole, he has had a very objective investigation, and he confirmed that there were no traces whatsoever of collusion between Russia and the incumbent administration, which we said was absolutely fake.” — remarks Tuesday before a private meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Sochi, Russia.

THE FACTS: Putin is wrong about the Mueller report in regards to its findings of “collusion.”

The Mueller report and other scrutiny revealed a multitude of meetings between Trump associates and Russians. Among them: Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer who had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.

On collusion, Mueller said he did not assess whether that occurred because it is not a legal term.

He looked into a potential criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and said the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence to establish criminal charges on that front.

Mueller noted some Trump campaign officials had declined to testify under the Fifth Amendment or had provided false or incomplete testimony, making it difficult to get a complete picture of what happened during the 2016 campaign. The special counsel wrote that he “cannot rule out the possibility” that unavailable information could have cast a different light on the investigation’s findings.

DRUG PRICES

TRUMP: “Drug prices have gone down for the first time in 51 years — they’ve gone down. First time in 51 years.” — remarks Monday at White House dinner.

THE FACTS: That’s an outdated boast. Trump appeared to be referring to recent decreases in the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index for prescription drugs. But the index was updated Friday, before Trump’s latest claim, and it showed an increase of 0.3% in April for prescription drug prices when compared with the same month last year.

The index tracks a set of medications, both brand drugs and generics.

Other independent studies point to increasing prices for brand name drugs as well and more overall spending on medications.

An analysis of brand-name drug prices by media outlets showed 2,712 price increases in the first half of January, compared with 3,327 increases during the same period last year. However, the size of this year’s increases was not as pronounced.

Both this year and last, the number of price cuts was minuscule. The information for the analysis was provided by the health data firm Elsevier.

An analysis by Altarum, a nonprofit research and consulting firm, found that in 2018, spending on prescription drugs was one of the main factors behind a 4.5% increase in U.S. health spending. Spending on prescription drugs grew much faster than in 2017, according to the study.

Economist Paul Hughes-Cromwick of Altarum, said he expects drug prices will continue to creep up.

“I would be quite surprised if by July the annual rate doesn’t return to a more normal 2%-4% growth,” said Hughes-Cromwick.

JOBS

TRUMP: “We have the most people working today than at any time in the history of our country.” — remarks to real estate group Friday.

THE FACTS: True but not surprising. The record workforce is driven by population growth.

A more relevant measure is the proportion of Americans with jobs, and that is still far below record highs.

According to Labor Department data, 60.6 percent of people in the United States 16 years and older were working in April. That’s below the all-time high of 64.7 percent in April 2000, though higher than the 59.9 percent when Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

TAX CUTS

TRUMP: “We have the biggest tax cut bill in the history of our country.” — remarks to real estate group Friday.

THE FACTS: His tax cuts are nowhere close to the biggest in U.S. history.

It’s a $1.5 trillion tax cut over 10 years. As a share of the total economy, a tax cut of that size ranks 12th, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 cut is the biggest followed by the 1945 rollback of taxes that financed World War II.

Post-Reagan tax cuts also stand among the historically significant: President George W. Bush’s cuts in the early 2000s and President Barack Obama’s renewal of them a decade later.

White House counsel actually working Congress against itself for Trump

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One tactic Donald Trump knows very well with lawyers is papering people to death until they are just worn down. With each subpoena sent out to investigate him, he just has his lawyers send back more paper leading to an endless cycle.

The one winner in this is Trump as each cycle only pushed off the many investigations into him. He lives on a 24-hour news cycle so just staving off another day is fine for him to get through the 2020 election cycle. Democrats are going to have to literally take the bull by the horns and stop acting so timid. At this point, it’s obvious Trump will only push them to see how far they will go before they break as he has already done. Rather than break, Democrats need to go breaking bad…legally, of course.

For all of President Trump’s talk of winning, his lawyers are using a legal argument that many scholars say is a pretty sure loser as his team tries to defy congressional attempts to investigate him. Yet they may end up delaying the investigations with their argument, and that could be a win in itself.

In courts in New York and Washington, Trump is attempting to beat back subpoenas by Congress to get financial records from accountants and banks Trump and his family do business with. His argument is that congressional Democrats are out to get him and that they have no “legitimate legislative purpose” in seeking his personal records.

Congressional investigations are legitimate only if there is legislation that might result from them, the lawsuits say in identical terms. “There is no possible legislation at the end of this tunnel,” both suits claim.

So far a federal judge in Washington has seemed unimpressed with Trump’s attempt to prevent Mazars USA, an accountant for the president and Trump Organization, from turning over subpoenaed records to Congress. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta held a hearing in the case Tuesday and could rule anytime on Trump’s request.

Separately, a hearing is set for Wednesday in federal court in New York in a lawsuit Trump, his business and family have filed against Deutsche Bank and Capital One to prevent them from complying with subpoenas from the House Financial Services and intelligence panels for banking and financial records.

The court argument is part of a broader White House strategy to resist all congressional oversight following special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Congressional investigations are intended to obtain information to aid in evaluating potential legislation, not to harass political opponents,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to House members Wednesday.

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he won’t comply with a congressional subpoena for six years of Trump’s tax returns. He cited the absence of a “legitimate legislative purpose” as his reason.

The White House approach finds little support among scholars who say Congress’ authority to investigate is broad and that in the past century the Supreme Court has never found a problem with a congressional investigation for lack of legislative purpose. A 2017 report from the policy research arm of Congress found that “courts today generally will presume that there is a legislative purpose for an investigation.”

Charles Tiefer, who served as a lawyer for Congress for 15 years, said lawyers have given up on making the kind of argument Trump’s lawyers are making. Tiefer, now a University of Baltimore School of Law professor, described the argument as “one of those medieval notions that are not taken very seriously now.”

But even if judges in both cases rule against Trump, he won’t go down without a fight that might take months or even years of appeals to resolve. Ohio State law professor Peter M. Shane, who studies the separation of powers, described it as Trump’s lawyers “trying to run out the clock until the election.”

“Why should this misleading argument be any different from any other misleading argument?” Shane said, adding: “The reason they’re not making stronger arguments is because stronger arguments aren’t available to them.”

Other legal fights over congressional attempts to obtain unredacted copies of Mueller’s report and have administration officials testify also could get hung up in the courts long enough to spill over into the next presidential administration, whether it’s Trump’s second term or his successor’s first. Past impasses between Congress and the executive branch that led to lawsuits that lasted for years.

Trump’s defenders say his legal arguments are genuine and should be taken seriously. They chastise Congress for what they see as politically motivated investigations. Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank likened the actions of House Democrats to hearings held by the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s that targeted people suspected of being Communists.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court has recognized limits on Congress’ investigative power. The high court held in a 1957 case that Congress “doesn’t have the constitutional power to expose for the sake of exposure,” von Spakovsky said. The case, Watkins v. U.S., was a criminal appeal in which the justices threw out a conviction against labor organizer John Watkins for refusing identify Communist Party members to lawmakers.

Elaine Kamarck, a scholar at the liberal Brookings Institution who worked in the Clinton White House, said the House subpoenas of Trump’s banks and accountants are a world away from the McCarthy era’s hunt for Communists.

Congress “is seeking information from a private party about the president of the United States and the possibility of some form of conflict of interest, to say it mildly, or corruption,” Kamarck said.

‘Game of Thrones’ series finale survival guide of fates

Once season eight of “Game of Thrones” kicked in, we wanted to look at the story arcs of the major characters who have miraculously survived the bloodshed until now. Sunday’s finale of the HBO show is nearly here, so here’s an update on where the major characters stand after an action-packed season of zombie-mobbing, death, dragon-torching, and secret-revealing.

Will Daenerys end up ruling the Seven Kingdoms? Jon? Sansa? Anyone at all? And how many really want to anymore? Or will they leave us hanging slightly to push us into those prequels?

We’re not putting any spoilers of the finale in here as they have been floating around. We just mention what has occurred up to last week’s episode but nothing of the finale.

Be Warned: There are MAJOR SPOILERS throughout.

emilia clarke as daenerys targaryen in game of thrones before and after 2019

DAENERYS TARGARYEN

Is there anything more powerful than the Mother of Dragons aboard her favorite son firebombing the city of King’s Landing into oblivion? Maybe the fan backlash. Daenerys went from flawed heroine to heel in the season’s penultimate episode. That spawned Twitter outrage, a petition demanding a do-over, and perhaps regret among the hundreds of American parents who, according to the Social Security Administration, named their daughters Daenerys or Khaleesi back when she was breaking chains instead of burning innocents. Many viewers, however, thought it a logical, even inevitable, turn of events. The daughter of the Mad King had just seen her best friend beheaded, her longest-serving retainer killed in battle, and her cherished birthright cast in doubt by the man she loves. Now, having conquered the capital, with a ruthless army still intact and her dragon seemingly unstoppable, she has everything she once wanted, except Westeros’ love. Having horrified her closest allies, will she hang on to it all? Fall to the sword of an angry Stark? Can her conscience return as quickly as it left?

kit harington as jon snow in game of thrones before after 2019

JON SNOW

Is it possible that after eight seasons, Jon Snow still knows nothing? Even after he rose to become lord commander of the Night’s Watch, united enemies to fight the army of the dead, came back from death himself, and learned he’s not a bastard but a Targaryen who should be heir to what’s left of the Iron Throne, Jon appears to be as confused and aimless as when he began. He refused to force his birthright, yielding power to his queen, aunt and apparent ex-girlfriend Daenerys, and then watched helplessly as she burned King’s Landing and most of its inhabitants. Will he find a way to rise once more and fight back against this destroyer version of Dany? Will he use his newfound dragon-riding skills to somehow hijack Drogon into triumph? Such a heroic end would require more of him, but the narrative of the show has never given up on Jon.

maisie williams as arya stark in game of thrones before after 2019

ARYA STARK

Arya could have wandered into the woods and disappeared halfway through the season and she would have retired a legend. She used her years of assassin training to kill the Night King when all seemed lost at the Battle of Winterfell, snatching the savior-of-humanity role from her big brother Jon Snow. She’s killed most of those responsible for her mother and brother’s slaughter at the Red Wedding. She even lost her virginity on her terms in a moment of mature empowerment rarely afforded to women in this world. (The thousands of parents who named their daughter Arya are feeling just fine.) But her role has become uncertain since. She turned away from her attempt to assassinate Queen Cersei in the last episode, and seemed to have sworn off a life of revenge. But then she became a firsthand witness to Daenerys’ atrocities. Is there one last name on her kill list?

sophie turner as sansa stark in game of thrones before after 2019

SANSA STARK

Sansa sat out the last episode, and she chose the right one to miss, staying safely in the flame-free North at her family home. As the show’s ultimate survivor — and the character who has grown and learned the most since she started as a prissy princess in waiting — it is easy to imagine her as ruler of an independent Winterfell should the finale play out that way. But the major figures of Dany and Jon still stand above her — and in her way.

isaac hempstead wright as bran stark in game of thrones before after 2019

BRAN STARK

In the show’s first episode, Bran was forced to behold a beheading. This poor kid has seen things he should have to leading to getting pushed out of a window. Since then, seeing things has become his specialty. He’s become desensitized to looking on such horrors, assuming a mystical role as the Three-Eyed Raven, timeless seer of all. He’s played a crucial role at various points in the story this season, revealing to his Jon his true identity, luring the Night King for his sister Arya to kill, and dispensing some essential bits of wisdom. But it’s hard to imagine him doing anything other than meditating into snowy eternity as the series ends.

peter dinklage as tyrion lannister in game of thrones before after 2019

TYRION LANNISTER

Tyrion has become an expert at survival and reinvention, but as Hand of the Queen he has failed miserably this season in trying to rein in Daenerys and steer her toward diplomacy over destruction. He was technically still in Daenerys’ service when the last episode ended, and in one of very few images revealed of the finale, he is shown walking through the ruins of the city. He could take one last stab at counseling the seemingly now-mad queen, or maybe use his proximity to her to attempt a literal last stab and sacrifice himself to save the realm.

lena headley as cersei lannister in game of thrones before after 2019

CERSEI LANNISTER

Cersei stayed at the center of the action for the first seven seasons but had nearly nothing to do in the eighth, watching from a window and drinking wine as her fate played out. Part of this was by her own design — she and her army sat out the Battle of Winterfell with hopes her rivals would be so weakened by the army of the dead that she could hang on to her kingdom. Never a leader who inspired loyalty, she tried to use human shields to hang on to her throne. But Daenerys turned out to be just as ruthless, and that meant Cersei’s end.

nikolaj coster waldau as jaime lanniser in game of thrones before after 2019

JAIME LANNISTER

Jaime found his redemption this season, then decided he didn’t want it. He defied his twin sister Cersei and fought gallantly with his former enemies the Starks against the army of the dead. He used his own knighthood to bestow knight status on Brienne of Tarth in one of the most tear-jerking moments in the entire series. Then he and Brienne, who always brought out the best in him, became unlikely lovers. But only briefly. In the end, he wanted what he had declared to be his only need all along, the incestuous love of Cersei. The two of them were crushed under the wreckage of the Red Keep as they embraced, leaving the world touching each other, just as they had entered it.

Cardi B, Drake top 2019 BET Awards nominations plus complete list

Cardi B has made 2018 and 2019 her year where you can’t blink without hearing her music or seeing her appearance somewhere. It’s paying off after we watched her work hard on “Love & Hip Hop: New York.

Hip-hop star Cardi B is walking into the 2019 BET Awards as the most nominated act with seven, while late rapper Nipsey Hussle scored a posthumous nomination.

BET said Thursday that Cardi B’s nominations include two for the top prize — video of the year — with her hits “Money” and “Please Me,” with Bruno Mars. She is also competing for best female hip-hop artist, the viewer’s choice award and album of the year with her Grammy-winning major-label debut, “Invasion of Privacy.”

Hussle, who was shot to death on March 31 in what police said was a personal dispute outside his South Los Angeles clothing store, picked up a best male hip-hop artist nomination. His competition includes J. Cole, Travis Scott, Meek Mill, 21 Savage and Drake, who is behind Cardi B with five nominations.

Drake;s  five nominations, including for Video of the Year (“Nice for What”), Best Collaboration (“Sicko Mode” with Travis Scott) and the Viewers Choice Award (“In My Feelings” and “Sicko Mode”). Beyoncé received four nominations, one for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist and three for her collaboration with Jay-Z as The Carters: Video of the Year (“Apeshit”), Album of the Year (Everything Is Love) and Best Group.

Drake’s No. 1 hit, “Nice for What,” is up for video of the year along with Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” the Carters’ “Apes(asterisk)(asterisk)t,” 21 Savage and J. Cole’s “A Lot,” and the two Cardi B clips.

The BET Awards will take place June 23 from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Beyonce, who scored four nominations, is up for best female R&B/pop artist along with Ella Mai, H.E.R., Solange, SZA and Teyana Taylor. Best male R&B/pop artist nominees are Mars, Gambino, Chris Brown, John Legend, Khalid and Anderson .Paak.

Cardi B was named best female hip-hop artist at last year’s BET Awards, and she’ll defend her title against Nicki Minaj, Remy Ma, Megan Thee Stallion, Kash Doll and Lizzo. Cardi B is a double nominee in best collaboration thanks to the hits “I Like It,” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, and “Please Me,” with Mars.

Her competition in album of the year includes the Carters’ “Everything Is Love,” Scott’s “Astroworld,” Mill’s “Championships” and Mai’s “Ella Mai.”

Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy” won the best rap album Grammy Award in February, beating out Hussle’s major-label debut as well as albums from Scott, Pusha T and the late Mac Miller.

The 2019 BET Awards will air live across seven Viacom networks in the United States, including BET, MTV, VH1, Logo, MTV 2, MTV Classic and BET HER.

cardi b drake top 2019 bet awards plus all nominations images

2019 Complete List Of BET Awards Nominations

Video of the year:

21 Savage featuring J. Cole, “A Lot”; Cardi B, “Money”; Cardi B and Bruno Mars, “Please Me”; Childish Gambino, “This Is America”; Drake, “Nice for What”; The Carters, “Apes(asterisk)(asterisk)t.”

Best female R&B/pop artist:

Beyoncé; Ella Mai; H.E.R.; Solange; SZA; Teyana Taylor.

Best male R&B/pop artist:

Anderson .Paak; Bruno Mars; Childish Gambino; Chris Brown; John Legend; Khalid.

Best female hip-hop artist:

Cardi B; Kash Doll; Lizzo; Megan Thee Stallion; Nicki Minaj; Remy Ma.

Best male hip-hop artist:

21 Savage; Drake; J. Cole; Meek Mill; Nipsey Hussle; Travis Scott.

Best new artist:

Blueface; City Girls; Juice WRLD; Lil Baby; Queen Naija.

Best group:

Chloe x Halle; City Girls; Lil Baby and Gunna; Migos; The Carters.

Best collaboration:

21 Savage featuring J. Cole, “A Lot”; Cardi B and Bruno Mars, “Please Me”; Cardi B featuring J Balvin and Bad Bunny, “I Like It”; H.E.R. featuring Bryson Tiller, “Could’ve Been”; Travis Scott featuring Drake, “Sicko Mode”; Tyga featuring Offset, “Taste.”

Album of the year:

Cardi B, “Invasion of Privacy”; Ella Mai, “Ella Mai”; Meek Mill, “Championships”; The Carters, “Everything Is Love”; Travis Scott, “Astroworld.”

Viewers’ choice award:

Cardi B featuring J Balvin and Bad Bunny, “I Like It”; Childish Gambino, “This Is America”; Drake, “In My Feelings”; Ella Mai, “Trip”; J. Cole, “Middle Child”; Travis Scott featuring Drake, “Sicko Mode.”

Dr. Bobby Jones best gospel/inspirational award:

Erica Campbell featuring Warryn Campbell, “All of My Life”; Fred Hammond, “Tell Me Where It Hurts”; Kirk Franklin, “Love Theory”; Snoop Dogg featuring Rance Allen, “Blessing Me Again”; Tori Kelly featuring Kirk Franklin, “Never Alone.”

Best actress:

Issa Rae; Regina Hall; Regina King; Taraji P. Henson; Tiffany Haddish; Viola Davis.

Best actor:

Anthony Anderson; Chadwick Boseman; Denzel Washington; Mahershala Ali; Michael B. Jordan; Omari Hardwick.

Best movie:

“Blackkklansman”; “Creed 2″; “If Beale Street Could Talk”; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”; “The Hate U Give.”

Youngstars award:

Caleb McLaughlin; Lyric Ross; Marsai Martin; Michael Rainey Jr.; Miles Brown.

Sportswoman of the year:

Allyson Felix; Candace Parker; Naomi Osaka; Serena Williams; Simone Biles.

Sportsman of the year:

Kevin Durant; LeBron James; Odell Beckham Jr.; Stephen Curry; Tiger Woods.

BET HER award:

Alicia Keys, “Raise a Man”; Ciara, “Level Up”; H.E.R., “Hard Place”; Janelle Monae, “PYNK”; Queen Naija, “Mama’s Hand”; Teyana Taylor, “Rose in Harlem.”

Video director of the year:

Benny Boom; Colin Tilley; Dave Meyers; Hype Williams; Karena Evans.

Best international act:

AKA (South Africa); Aya Nakamura (France); Burna Boy (Nigeria); Dave (U.K.); Dosseh (France); Giggs (U.K.); Mr Eazi (Nigeria).

Best new international act:

Headie One (U.K.); Jok’Air (France); Nesly (France); Octavian (U.K.); Sho Madjozi (South Africa); Teni (Nigeria).

‘Big Bang Theory’ goes out on a big emotional high

Even if you had stopped watching “The Big Bang Theory,” you more than likely tuned in Thursday night to see how it all ended. While many big shows leave the airwaves with fans feeling unsatisfied, this was not one of those finales. It had everything to satisfy even the most particular fan. Even fans as devout as those that watch “Supernatural” would have walked away happy. We can only hope that the long-running CW show ends half as well as this one did next season.

“The Big Bang Theory” closed out its run as television’s top-rated comedy with an emotional final episode that saw some big changes for the show’s group of geeky misfits.

The long-running series on CBS concluded with two final episodes, “The Change Constant” and “The Stockholm Syndrome,” in an hour-long finale Thursday evening. The series exited the airwaves with the most episodes for a multi-camera series ever with 279 episodes. It edged past NBC’s “Cheers,” which aired for 12 seasons and 275 episodes.

Thursday’s finale was followed by a behind-the-scenes look at the show in “Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell” with Johnny Galecki, who played Leonard, and Kaley Cuoco, who played Penny, as hosts.

During the finale, the show’s friends took one last trip together to support married couple Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Amy (Mayim Bialik) after they won the Nobel Prize in physics. The couple waited anxiously by the phone while friends prank called them before receiving the actual decision.

The final episodes were filled with a few surprises including news of Penny’s pregnancy, a surprise cameo from Sarah Michelle Gellar and the elevator finally being fixed after it had been broken for much of the series.

It included a scene in which Bialik, who is a neuroscientist in real life, urges young girls to pursue careers in science during her Nobel acceptance speech. “Little girls who dream about science” should ignore naysayers, she said.

The often self-absorbed Sheldon followed with his own heartfelt speech about the importance of friendship in the series’ emotional conclusion.

big bang theory sheldon cooper received nobel peace prize 2019

“The Big Bang Theory” debuted in 2007 and overcame early doubts to become a cult classic after some questioned the show’s chances of survival. With its live audience and use of multiple cameras, the series is a throwback to comedies from the early days of television, but its formula proved popular.

The show was led by a crew of nerdy misfits starring Parsons, Cuoco, Galecki, Bialik, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar and Melissa Rauch.

It won 10 Emmy Awards, including four for Parsons.

The comedy leaves on a high as one of television’s most popular shows. Last week’s episode was the most-watched program on broadcast or cable TV with 12.5 million viewers, beating out HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which ends its series on Sunday after an eight-year run.

Parsons has said the end of the series feels like a “real rite of passage moment,” which was full of memories and some tears. Galecki said the show has touched “so many hearts.”

Busy Phillips opens #youknowme floodgates for abortion rights

When the Alabama Senate voted to pass a controversial bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, actress Busy Phillips knew it was time to stop talking and take action. The week before, she had opened up about her own abortion when she was 15 on her late-night show “Busy Tonight.”

“This is something a lot of people experience and go through in their lives, and it’s a health care decision like many health care decisions.”

Many people think they don’t know anyone who’s had an abortion, actress and TV host Busy Philipps tweeted earlier this week, “but #youknowme.”

Ms. Philipps, who is known for her roles on the TV shows “Dawson’s Creek” and “Freaks and Geeks,” wrote about the abortion in her memoir, “This Will Only Hurt a Little.”

“The statistic is one in four women will have an abortion before age 45,” she said last Tuesday on the show, referring to a study that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. “That statistic sometimes surprises people, and maybe you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I don’t know a woman who would have an abortion.’ Well, you know me.”

So, she urged, “let’s share it and start to end the shame.” On her E! show “Busy Tonight,” she shared her own story of her abortion when she was 15. “I’m telling you this because I’m genuinely really scared for women and girls all over the country,” she said.

Philipps’ call has inspired thousands of women to share the personal, often painful stories of their own abortions in response to Alabama’s vote for a near blanket ban. (Other states that have passed bans are Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia and, on Friday, Missouri.) Among them are a number of celebrities.

Part of what I think was so successful in getting people motivated and men on board with the #MeToo movement was hearing from women about their personal stories. Abortion has been, historically speaking, a very taboo subject that women have a hard time talking about publicly, because it’s such a personal decision.

The anti-abortion people in this country are so vocal, and for all of those reasons I think women have remained silent. And I felt like, well, maybe there’s actually value in sharing.

We need to be as loud as they are, but with the truth. That’s the only thing we have. For me it includes people standing up and saying, “I am that one in four.” It doesn’t matter why, when, or how old you were.

“You know me, you like me, and I went through this.” I think there’s something super empowering about being able to shift the narrative and being able to have a ton of people say, “I’ve also gone through this thing.”

Below Is A Sample Of Women Inspired To Speak Up:

CYNTHIA NIXON, actress and activist, on Twitter:

“Almost 60 years ago, my mother had an illegal abortion. It was too harrowing for her to discuss, but she made sure I knew it had happened. In 2010, my wife had a legal abortion after we found out her pregnancy was not viable. We cannot and will not go back. #YouKnowMe.”

AMBER TAMBLYN, actress, on Twitter:

“In 2012, I had an abortion. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. … It was the right choice for me, at that time in my life. I have not a single doubt about this. #YouKnowMe.”

MINKA KELLY, actress, on Instagram:

“When I was younger I had an abortion. It was the smartest decision I could’ve made, not only for myself & my boyfriend at the time, but also for this unborn fetus. … With all this punishment for women I wonder where all the punishment is for the men in this scenario. By looking at the photo of all the men who are making this mess, I find it hard to believe that if it were the autonomy of a man’s body, health and life in question, I can’t help but be certain we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.”

TESS HOLLIDAY, model, on Instagram:

“I’m from Mississippi, living in California, married with 2 kids, & I had an abortion. My mental health couldn’t handle being pregnant again & I made the best decision for ME & ultimately my family.”

JAMEELA JAMIL, actress, on Twitter:

“Call me whatever you like. I’m not sorry about my abortion. Contraception failed me and I did what was best for my mental and physical health at the time. And I would do it again if I had to. I don’t feel at ALL ashamed, and if you had one too, for any reason, neither should you.”

MILLA JOVOVICH, on having to have a medical abortion after four and a half months:

“I went into pre term labor and told that I had to be awake for the whole procedure. It was one of the most horrific experiences I have ever gone through. I still have nightmares about it. I was alone and helpless. When I think about the fact that women might have to face abortions in even worse conditions than I did because of new laws, my stomach turns.”

MIRANDA JULY, filmmaker, on Twitter:

“I was 27. My then-boyfriend … thought we should consider having it and I said something like DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I AM ON THE VERGE OF DOING?? 2 years later I started shooting my first feature. #youknowme

CECILE RICHARDS, activist, former head of Planned Parenthood

“I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me, and it wasn’t a hard one. My husband and I were working more than full time and had three kids already. I was fortunate that, at the time, accessing abortion in TX was not the nightmare it is now. #YouKnowMe.”

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic head to semi-finals and Nick Kyrgios on Feder Federer: Italian Open

Rafael Nadal is back swinging hard to defend his King of the clay courts nickname moving ahead to the semi-finals of the 2019 Italian Open on Friday. He was able to defeat fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco as Novak Djokovic worked over Juan Martin del Potro moving him to the semi-finals also.

Nick Kyrgios still seems to have a chip on his shoulder as he commented about Roger Federer not requiring automatic respect on the court and John Isner pulled out of the French Open due to an injured left foot.

rafael nadal ball return to fernando verdasco italian open 2019 images

Rafa Swings Back Into Semi-Finals

The eight-time Rome champion came through 6-4, 6-0 in 1hr 38min to set up a clash with Greek eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the final.

He’s conceded only six games in six sets at the Foro Italico, but he’s reached the semifinals.

Nadal has fallen in the semifinals of his last three tournaments — all on his favored clay. And next up is Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom Nadal lost to in Madrid last week.

“I know what happened last week, and I (am) going to try to do it better tomorrow,” Nadal said. “I have to hold the level or increase a little bit more. If that happens, I (am) going to have my chances. The good thing is during the last month my feeling is every week was better than the previous one.”

Tsitsipas, 20, is up to No. 7 in the rankings.

“Every year, we make (a) prediction with the team which player is going to be at the top 10 at the end of the season,” Nadal said. “I put Tsitsipas there. … He started even better than what I (expected). He deserves to be where he is now.”

Roger Federer’s withdrawal with a right leg injury earlier in the day had handed Tsitsipas a ticket to the last four.

The 32-year-old Nadal, seeded second, is bidding for his first clay-court title this season before chasing a 12th French Open crown at Roland Garros starting on May 26.

novak djokovic beats juan martin del potro italian open 2019

Novak Djokovic Works Over Juan Martin del Potro

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic outlasted Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in an entertaining slugfest that lasted more than three hours and finished after 1 a.m. local time at the Foro Italico. Djokovic had to save two match points to deny Del Potro a place in the final four as he won.

The 31-year-old took control of the game half-way through the third set and will now face Argentine Diego Schwartzman in the semi-finals at tournament in Rome.

“I never lost faith I could come back into the match,” Djokovic said.

“One break of serve, mini break in the tie-break when he was 6/4, more or less open forehand that he was making the entire match, that’s all it took for me to come back.

Djokovic saved a match point in the second-set tiebreaker and was frustrated at times, receiving a warning for slamming his racket to the clay early in the third. But the Serb regained his composure and closed it out by serving an ace on his first match point.

The Serbian tennis star next faces Diego Schwartzman, who beat Kei Nishikori for the first time in four tries, 6-4, 6-2, to reach his first Masters Series semifinal.

“[He] missed a couple crucial points in the tie-break. Also break point third set, quite easy forehand. That’s what happens. That’s sport.

“I’m just really pleased to overcome.”

Djokovic is now only one match away from reaching his second consecutive ATP Masters 1000 final.

juan martin del potro suffers during novak djokovic italian open match

Del Potro, who was competing in only his third tournament of the season, came into the contest knowing he had lost seven of his past eight meetings with the Serbian.

However, the Argentine battled Djokovic from the baseline in the early exchanges and took the opener off a backhand winner down the line.

“I lost probably the positioning of the court over him,” Djokovic said about Del Potro.

“Towards the end of the first, he just started hitting the ball really well from both corners, also backhand side, backhand down the line.

“He was playing really well, gave me a lot of trouble.”

As the match progressed Djokovic relied more and more on his drop shot to break up the baseline rallies.

When the match moved into Saturday as the clocked ticked past midnight, both players tried to rally the crowd to their side.

But it was Djokovic who grasped the advantage in the third set when Del Potro netted a sitting forehand in the fifth game.

The 30-year-old South American, who missed most of this season because of a knee injury, wouldn’t see another break opportunity for the remainder of the match.

nick kyrgios no respect for roger federer 2019

Nick Kyrgios – No Auto Respect For Roger Federer

Roger Federer should not automatically be given respect on the tennis court, according to Nick Kyrgios.

Federer has won 20 Grand Slam tournaments and is eight ATP titles away from Jimmy Connors’ all-time record of 108.

Kyrgios has been causing waves against the likes of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and boasts an impressive head-to-head record against the trio.

The controversial Australian is hoping to add some spice to tennis and has called on lower-ranked players to follow suit.

“When I would walk out on the court against Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, any of these guys, I don’t understand why I need to respect them automatically,” Kyrgios told the No Challenges Remaining podcast.

“All they do is hit a ball over the net.

“Off the court, Federer is doing unbelievable things.

“Off the court he is an absolute champ. He is creating lives for people.

“But on the court I don’t need to all of a sudden give him respect.”

Interestingly enough, Federer defended Kyrgios saying he shouldn’t be suspended because his chair throwing at the Italian Open.

John Isner Pulls Out Of French Open 2019

 John Isner has pulled out of the French Open because of an injured left foot, ending his streak of 24 consecutive appearances at Grand Slam tournaments.

The 34-year-old Isner announced his withdrawal Friday on Twitter.

He is ranked No. 11, the top American man, but has not competed since hurting his foot during the Miami Open final March 31.

Isner was a Wimbledon semifinalist last year, his best Grand Slam performance. He hasn’t missed a major since the 2013 Australian Open.

He’s reached the fourth round at Roland Garros three times, including in 2018, and is one of only two men to push 11-time champion Rafael Nadal to a fifth set there.

Isner is best known for winning the longest match in tennis history, 70-68 in the fifth set against Nicolas Mahut in Wimbledon’s first round in 2010. The match lasted more than 11 hours over three days.

Donald Trump yanks $1 billion from California’s troubled high-speed light rail

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Many thought California’s high-speed light rail plan would never happen after encountering numerous issues and growing budgets, but Donald Trump put yet another kink into their plan.

The Trump administration cancelled nearly $1 billion Thursday in federal money for California’s high-speed rail project, further throwing into question the future of the ambitious plan to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately pledged to take the administration to court, though the state has not yet filed a lawsuit.

The “action is illegal and a direct assault on California,” Newsom said in an emailed statement. “This is California’s money, appropriated by Congress, and we will vigorously defend it in court.”

The official word of the funding cancellation by the Federal Railroad Administration came several months after President Donald Trump first threatened to withdraw it.

His comments came in response to Newsom shifting the project’s immediate focus to a 171-mile stretch of track in the Central Valley, saying there currently wasn’t a path for the full line.

Newsom later said he was still committed to building the entire line but wanted to take a “building blocks” approach that first created a working line in the Central Valley.

The state has only about $20 billion available for the project at this time, far short of the estimated $77 billion it would take to complete it.

Newsom has characterized Trump’s threats to the project as retribution against California for resisting various Trump administration policies.

While the $929 million is a critical piece of the funding plan, the state did not plan to spend it until 2021. If a court battle over the money drags on, that could put the state in a position to win back the money or get more from the federal government if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress in 2020.

Still, rail officials expressed concern about losing the money.

“Losing a billion is, I would say, devastating to the overall project,” said Russ Fong, the project’s outgoing chief financial officer. “We have time to hopefully come to some type of resolution before those dollars are actually needed.”

Republican Assemblyman Jim Patterson, who represents Fresno and is one of the project’s harshest critics, said the state is witnessing “the beginning of the end” for high-speed rail.

The Trump administration has also threatened to make California return $2.5 billion that has already been spent on the project.

California was awarded a total of $3.5 billion from the federal government nearly a decade ago. Keeping the money is contingent on the state completing a 119-mile segment of track in the Central Valley by 2022 as well as environmental reviews on the entire 520-mile line.

Rail officials have said they were poised to make that deadline and that revoking the funds was premature.

Federal officials said California has repeatedly failed to make “reasonable progress” and had abandoned the original vision for the rail line.

The state “has not demonstrated the ability to complete the project, let alone deliver it by the end of 2022,” Ronald Batory, administrator of the railroad administration, wrote in a letter to rail officials.

The $1 billion represents about one-twelfth of the money the state was counting on to pay for the initial 119-mile stretch of tracks.

California voters first approved nearly $10 billion in bonds for the high-speed rail project in 2008, and it’s been plagued by cost overruns and delays since. It’s been paid for with federal money, bond dollars and revenue from the state’s cap-and-trade program that requires polluters to pay to emit greenhouse gases.

On the low end of cap-and-trade projections, the state would bring in just enough money to complete the segment of track Newsom is promoting in the Central Valley. In that scenario, losing the $1 billion in federal money would leave the state short of funds.

If cap-and-trade revenues come in on the high end, the project should be fine, Fong said.

Mati Diop on making Cannes history with ‘Atlantics’

It’s normally nice to make history, but when you make history for something that seems so antiquated, it can be odd as filmmaker Mati Diop found when her film “Atlantics” was invited to premiere at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. She was initially disappointed after reading a news article that she was the first black female filmmaker in the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious competition in its 72-year history.

“I hadn’t realized myself. I didn’t know,” the 36-year-old French-Senegalese filmmaker said in an interview. “My first reaction is that I found it quite sad. I thought, ‘Oh, is it?’ So there’s still a long way to go before it becomes something completely natural and normal and something that’s not noticeable, the fact that I’m a black woman.”

Diop’s milestone has been enthusiastically celebrated in Cannes, where she on Thursday premiered her feature film debut “Atlantics.” The film, which is competing for Cannes’ top honor, the Palme d’Or, focuses on the women left behind in Dakar when many of the local young men flee Senegal for Spain by boat, unable to make a living at home.

But for Diop, her unique position in Cannes is a perplexing distinction.

“What I realized, and I’m not used to this feeling, is that it happened to me. I’m not responsible for that. I haven’t done anything specific for that. I’ve just made the film I wanted to make,” said Diop. “I’m not embarrassed. I’m not proud. I just take it as a pure fact.”

mati diop with cast of atlantique at cannes film festivla

“Atlantics” marks Diop’s first feature as a director, but she’s previously made five shorts, one of which was the basis for her Cannes entry. That 2009 short bore the same title but a different perspective, concentrating on a young man forced into a dangerous migration.

“I was myself a witness of the situation, quite a close witness,” said the Paris-based Diop, who 10 years ago visited her family in Senegal. “It was 10 years ago that there was this whole wave of a young generation who were trying to flee. They went toward Spain and many of them disappeared. I needed to tell this story. I had already dealt with it in my short but I felt I wasn’t done with it.”

Diop links her reconnection with Senegal to her birth as a filmmaker. She is the daughter of Senegalese jazz musician Wasis Diop and niece of the pioneering Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty (“Touki Bouki”). Diop’s 2013 documentary “A Thousand Suns” examined her uncle’s legacy and his 1972 film, considered a cornerstone of African cinema.

Diop has gradually formed her own aesthetic, one that sometimes bleeds documentary and fiction. A friend called “Atlantique” ″a fantasy documentary.” Diop prefers “a contemplative action film.”

“It was written as a fiction but I don’t make this limit. I don’t think it’s our business as filmmakers to draw these limits between documentaries and fiction. When you have the desire to make a film, you make a film,” she says. “The reality that I described is so anchored in social and political and economic terms, of course there is a real texture and embodiment of the subject and my approach it in it that can be documentary-like.”

“Atlantics” is also dazzlingly otherworldly, with waves of sorrow washing up on Dakar shores. Mama Sane plays Ada, whose boyfriend, along with his shipmates, vanish at sea. After, a mysterious specter haunts many of those who drove the young men away. Diop compares the tale to “Ulysses.”

“It’s a misunderstanding to consider Penelope (of “Ulysses”) a passive figure who’s just waiting for her beloved to come back,” said Diop. “What I found interesting is that although these women are waiting for these men to come, their life is transformed by the experience of this loss. It’s how these women can reconquer their own life and reach a certain level of emancipation through the loss they experience.”

Diop has gradually come to terms with her history-making status in Cannes. On Friday, she told reporters that maybe she is a little proud, and noted that Jordan Peele’s films (“Us,” ″Get Out”) have been enthralling for her. In the interview, she cited Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides” as a guidepost to her.

“I must acknowledge that myself, when I was growing up, I didn’t have a black or mixed-race filmmaker who would have been inspirational to me,” said Diop. “It’s important to have these kinds of figures. So if I may someday become a kind of figure like to for younger women, then that would be wonderful. So I think it does matter.”