The Guardian

• Dallas had 1.8% chance of landing No 1 overall pick
• Team were rocked by departure of Dončić to Lakers

The ping-pong balls have spoken: Cooper Flagg may be headed to Dallas to start his NBA career. And a fanbase that lost Luka Dončić this season may have a new star to cheer for.

The Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery on Monday night, giving them the No 1 pick in next month’s draft – and the first chance to take Flagg, the consensus player of the year who led Duke to the Final Four in his lone college season.

Contest for $TRUMP meme coin has prompted accusations of president boosting family business and foreign influence

On Monday, the top 220 buyers of a Donald Trump-sponsored cryptocurrency won access to an exclusive dinner with the president as a reward for pouring money into the coin. It was the culmination of Trump’s weekslong promotion of the contest, which has drawn allegations that he is using his position to enrich his family business while opening himself up to foreign influence.

Party of four were rappelling down steep gully in North Cascades park when equipment failed, killing three at scene

Three climbers from suburban Seattle were killed in a fall on Sunday when their equipment failed while rappelling down a steep gully in North Cascades national park in Washington state, sheriff’s officials said.

A party of four climbers was descending the gully in the area of North Early Winters Spire when the fall happened. Sheriff’s officials presume the cause was an anchor failure but are still investigating. Three of the climbers – ages 36, 47 and 63 – were killed at the scene while the fourth person freed themselves and walked back to the trailhead then drove to a pay phone to call for help.

David Plouffe says Biden ‘totally fucked us’ and calls Harris’s 107-day sprint against Trump a ‘fucking nightmare’

Joe Biden “totally fucked us” by leaving it too late to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election, a former top campaign aide to Kamala Harris has told the authors of a new book.

David Plouffe, who was manager of Barack Obama’s winning 2008 campaign and a senior adviser in his White House, was drafted in to help Harris’s bid for president after the declining Biden withdrew from the race last summer.

In letter, also signed by ambassador Sylvester Stallone, studios and unions calls for support on three tax provisions

Donald Trump’s Hollywood ambassadors, including actor Jon Voight, joined labor unions and major studios in asking the US president to expand and extend tax incentives for film and television productions.

In a letter addressed to Trump on Sunday, the studios and unions did not mention his threat to introduce 100% tariffs on films made abroad, but instead thanked him for supporting the industry through their “shared goal” of domestic production.

Lawyers for hip-hop mogul claim alleged sex-trafficking incidents were consensual relationships

The high-profile racketeering and sex-trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began on Monday, with prosecutors declaring that “there was another side” to the hip-hop mogul, saying that he “ran a criminal enterprise” and noting that three women would testify during the trial who can speak to Combs’s alleged coercion and/or sexual misconduct.

Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 and has been charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution –  all felony charges.

US-born progressive streamer says officials at Chicago airport led him to private room on return from France

Hasan Piker, a US-born progressive political commentator, said he was stopped by US Customs and Border Protection agents and questioned about his opinions of Donald Trump and Israeli war policy as he returned to the country on Sunday from France.

Piker, recounting the incident on his Twitch livestream on Monday, said he was led to a private room at Chicago O’Hare airport and interviewed for nearly two hours about his political views.

Speaking in London as he received a BFI fellowship, the actor praised Brando and Nicholson for knowing how to use ‘every tool’ of cinema

From sleuthing around the world as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible films to whizzing through the skies as “Maverick”, Tom Cruise has always known the difference a team makes.

Now, the Hollywood superstar has told fledgling thespians to take heed of this approach on set and to understand the work of those behind the scenes who help make movie magic.

Liraglutide is found to have beneficial impact on weight and families report reduced conflicts around food

Giving obese children weight loss jabs works and could help avoid arguments over mealtimes, according to research.

Clinicians treating very obese children at a hospital in Sweden analysed whether liraglutide injections could be used as well as diet and lifestyle changes to increase weight loss.

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Rapper, serving 10-year sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, given aid and taken to outside hospital

Rapper Tory Lanez was hospitalized after an attack Monday at a California prison where he is serving a 10-year sentence for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet, authorities said.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was attacked at a housing unit at the California correctional institution in Tehachapi, at about 7.20am, Pedro Calderón Michel, a spokesperson for the state department of corrections and rehabilitation, said in an email.