Author: News Polite

At least 10 civilians dead in suspected Jordanian air raids in Syria | Syria’s War News

An estimated 10 civilians have been killed in air strikes targeting the neighbouring towns of Arman and Malh in the southeast Syrian province of Sweida, according to local media.

Jordanian forces are believed to be behind Thursday’s attacks, though its government has yet to confirm any involvement.

Sweida 24, a news platform based in its namesake city, said warplanes carried out simultaneous strikes on residential neighbourhoods after midnight local time (21:00 GMT).

The attack in Malh caused material damage to some houses. The second strike in Arman, however, collapsed two houses and killed at least 10 civilians, including four women and two girls, both under the age of five.

Jordan is thought to have carried out previous raids in Syria, mostly near the countries’ shared border, in an effort to disrupt weapons smuggling and drug-trafficking operations.

The news outlet Suwayda shared this image on social media of the wreckage following a suspected Jordanian air raid on January 18 [Suwayda 24 via Reuters]

But inhabitants of the towns struck on Thursday questioned the choice of targets.

“What happened was a massacre against children and women,” Murad al-Abdullah, a resident of Arman, told Al Jazeera. “The air strikes that targeted the villages are far from being identified as fighting drug traffickers.”

Al-Abdullah said the bombing was not limited to houses of people suspected to be involved in drug trafficking. He noted other homes were damaged as well, terrorising villagers while they were asleep and causing needless civilian deaths.

“It is unreasonable for two girls who are no more than five years old to be involved in drug trafficking,” al-Abdullah said.

Tribes and residents of the villages near the Jordanian border issued separate statements this week disavowing any involvement in drug smuggling.

The statements also pledged to lend a hand to Jordan to eliminate criminal networks trafficking narcotics and other drugs across the border. In turn, they asked Jordan to suspend its bombings of civilian sites.

The spiritual leader of the Druze religious group in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, appealed to Jordan to prevent further civilian bloodshed.

“The attacks should be heavily focused towards the smugglers and their supporters exclusively,” al-Hajri said in a public statement.

Al-Abdullah, the Arman resident, also called on Jordan to collaborate with Syrian locals to stop the trafficking operations.

“We are a society that does not accept the manufacture or trade of drugs, and the Jordanian government should have communicated with our elders to cooperate in combating drug traffickers, instead of bombing residential neighbourhoods,” al-Abdullah said.

Suspected attacks aimed at drug-trafficking operations

Thursday’s attack is believed to be the third time this year that Jordanian planes have carried out air raids on Syrian territory.

A previous attack occurred on January 9, resulting in the deaths of three people in the countryside of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based rights monitor.

The Observatory said that five smugglers were also killed in a border attack on January 7. Fighting that day took place sporadically over 10 hours.

By the end of the raid, Jordanian forces had arrested 15 suspects. They also claimed to have recovered 627,000 pills of Captagon, an illicitly manufactured amphetamine, and 3.4kg of cannabis.

“What Jordan is doing can certainly delay drug-smuggling operations but unfortunately, cannot stop them completely. The border with Syria is 375km (233 miles) long, and smuggling operations are carried out by professional groups, not some random individuals carrying out bags of drugs to cross the border,” said Essam al-Zoubi, a lawyer and human rights activist.

Drug enforcement officials in the United States and other Western countries have said that war-torn Syria has become a major hub in the Middle East for the drug trade.

The country, for instance, has become the primary manufacturer for Captagon, a multibillion-dollar business. Experts have said smugglers are using Jordan as a route through which Syrian drugs can reach the oil-rich Gulf states.

A Syrian soldier arranges packets of Captagon pills in Damascus, Syria, on November 30, 2021 [File: SANA via AP Photo]

Al-Zoubi and other human rights advocates have warned the Syrian government itself is involved in the drug trade, in an effort to shore up its war-drained finances.

Reports indicated that the Fourth Armoured Division of the Syrian Army has played a role in overseeing the country’s drug operations, alongside the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.

“The officials responsible for drug smuggling in Syria are Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Fourth Division, and the security apparatuses of the Syrian regime that control southern Syria,” al-Zoubi said.

Jordan and its allies have also taken other approaches to stopping the drug trade.

In March last year, for instance, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on six people, including two relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for their role in producing and trafficking Captagon. Some of those sanctioned had ties to Hezbollah as well.

But al-Zoubi warns that even targeted attacks on Syrian drug dealers will not be enough to stop the trade.

“It does not matter to the drug officials from Hezbollah or the Fourth Division if traders are killed, as the trades themselves will continue regardless of the people,” al-Zoubi said, pointing to an example in May 2023.

Jordanian soldiers patrol the Jordan-Syria border in 2022, as the country seeks to crack down on drug smuggling [File: Raad Adayleh/AP Photo]

Jordanian planes, at the time, had carried out air raids in the Sweida countryside, targeting the house of one of the most famous drug traffickers in Syria, Marai al-Ramthan. He was ultimately killed in the attack.

But, al-Zoubi said, his death “did not limit drug trafficking but, in fact, increased it”. Other smugglers used his demise as an opportunity to expand their trade in his absence.

Omar Idlibi, director of the Doha office at the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies, said that geopolitical turmoil in the region has also allowed trafficking to flourish.

“Drug-smuggling operations to Jordan did not exist before 2018, that is, before the Syrian regime and its Iranian allies regained control of southern Syria from the opposition factions,” he told Al Jazeera.

Idlibi explained that the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has had a direct effect on the expanding drug operations.

As it focused on Ukraine, Russia withdrew some of its troops in Syria, allowing Iranian militias and Hezbollah forces to spread. Those groups then turned some of the Syrian army’s headquarters into logistical centres for the manufacture, transport and smuggling of drugs to Jordan.

Russia’s need for military equipment from Iran also prompted it to turn a blind eye to the drug-smuggling activity in Syria, Idlibi explained.

“Everyone knows that the Syrian regime and Iran are behind the terrorist activity on the Syrian-Jordanian border, and unless it is terminated from the source, it will continue at different rates,” Idlibi said.

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Josh Giddey remains under NBA review

Josh Giddey may not be facing legal charges, but he is still being closely scrutinized by his employer, the NBA.

The league is continuing its investigation into allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a minor, although the Newport Beach PD concluded its inquiry without pressing charges against the 21-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder player.

Josh Giddey Remains Under NBA Review After Police End Underage Investigation | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/cSIHdEl4U4

— TMZ Sports (@TMZ_Sports) January 18, 2024

Continue reading Josh Giddey remains under NBA review at TalkBasket.net.

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Sex Educator Emily Nagoski’s New Book ‘Come Together’ Is a Product of Experience

A decade ago, as the sex educator Emily Nagoski was researching and writing her first book, “Come as You Are” — a soon-to-be best seller exploring the science of women’s sexuality — she and her husband stopped having sex.

Nagoski began appearing everywhere, reassuring women that their sexuality was not a problem that needed to be solved or treated. She talked to the author Glennon Doyle and her wife, the soccer player Abby Wambach, about body image and shame on their podcast. She published a workbook to help women better understand their sexual temperament and sexual cues. Her TED Talks have been viewed millions of times.

But at home, she and her husband, Rich Stevens — a cartoonist whom she met on the dating site OkCupid in 2011 — were cycling in and out of monthslong sexual dry spells stemming from work stress and health problems. When I spoke to Nagoski at her cozy house in Easthampton, Mass., in the fall, and then again over the phone in January, she declined to offer specifics on just how long their droughts lasted. (She did not want people to compare themselves.) But she did not hold back about how they made her feel.

“Stressed. Depressed. Anxious. Lonely. Self-critical,” Nagoski, 46, said. “Like, how can I be an ‘expert’ — and I say that with heavy, heavy air quotes — and still be struggling in this way?”

After all, Nagoski had written the book on women and desire. She popularized the metaphor of the sexual response system as a car with an accelerator (that notices erotic stimuli) and brakes (that notice all of the reasons not to have sex. Like chores. Or a new baby. Or, just, patriarchy). When women struggle with arousal and pleasure, she explained in “Come as You Are,” it isn’t because the accelerator isn’t being stimulated; it’s usually because the brakes are being pushed too hard. Her talent was not for producing original research — this dual control model of sexual response, for instance, is not her idea — but she had a knack for sifting through the science to uncover what she believed to be most relevant to women’s day-to-day lives, and finding simple ways to describe it.

“She often reminds people that they are whole, they are not broken,” said Debby Herbenick, the director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at the Indiana University School of Public Health, who went to graduate school with Nagoski.

However, Nagoski’s own fractured sex life left her full of self-doubt.

“I did my best to do what I tell other people to do, which is to turn toward what was happening with kindness and compassion,” she said, recognizing how cloying that advice can sound. “I tried to give myself permission to allow these things to be true. To recognize they would not always be true. And that I would move through this spell with more ease if I did not beat myself up.”

Like a true self-proclaimed “sex nerd,” Nagoski also dug into the science of what great sex looks like in a long-term relationship and how to cope when problems arise, which became the backbone of her new book, “Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections,” out later this month. At nearly 300 pages, with two appendices and 22 pages of notes and scientific references, it’s the product of an academic who loves data. But Nagoski, who earned a doctorate in health behavior and a master’s degree in counseling from Indiana University, is happy to give up what she thinks are the three secrets of partners with happy sex lives in the book’s introduction: 1. They are friends. 2. They prioritize sex. 3. They ignore outside opinions about what sex should look like and do what works for them.

“When I got done,” she said, “I had this whole book’s worth of advice we used to fight our way back to each other.”

Nagoski believes that most people are hung up on the wrong metrics when it comes to sex. It isn’t about novelty or orgasms, nor is it about frequency. “People always want to know: How often does a typical couple have sex?” she said, sitting on her living room couch next to Stevens, 47, while one of their two rescue dogs, Thunder, napped between them. “Which is not a question that I answer, because it’s impossible to hear a number and not compare yourself to it.” (Also, she added, people seldom talk about the quality of said sex.)

Most of us are too fixated on libido — or on wanting to want to have sex — she said, which has caused a lot of unnecessary stress and insecurity. “Desire is the No. 1 reason people of all gender combinations seek sex therapy,” she said. “Even I need to be reminded that it’s not about desire. It’s about pleasure.”

It’s a somewhat surprising take from someone who has spent a lot of the past decade helping women better understand how desire actually works, banging the drum about the difference between spontaneous desire (the feeling of wanting sex out of the blue) and responsive desire (which arises in response to erotic stimuli). In other words, there’s nothing unsexy about planning or scheduling sex.

Nagoski has been a sex educator since the mid-90s. She worked for eight years as the director of wellness education at Smith College, before making the switch to writing and speaking full time in 2016. She has also built a brand that now includes a podcast, a newsletter with more than 30,000 subscribers and a growing social media presence, where she sometimes posts with a look-alike puppet named Nagoggles.

Much of what Nagoski preaches, she said, is a transformation of how most of us have been taught sex is supposed to work — that it is always pleasurable and easy.

“Pleasure only happens under really specific circumstances, and the 21st-century, postindustrial world doesn’t naturally create those circumstances very often,” she said. “We are all overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed. Like, of course you have to put effort into transitioning out of your everyday state of mind into a sexy state of mind.”

But in “Come Together,” Nagoski is arguing that desire is almost beside the point. “Center pleasure, because great sex over the long term is not about how much you want sex,” she writes, “it’s about how much you like the sex you’re having.”

Put more succinctly: “Pleasure is the measure.”

This concept may seem obvious to some, and Nagoski isn’t saying anything sex researchers don’t know. But Rosalyn Dischiavo, president of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, who described Nagoski as both “delightfully geeky” and a “rock star” in the field, called it a “radical truth.”

“As sex educators, one of the most beautiful parts of our job — and one of the most frustrating parts of our job — is to ring that bell over and over and over again to wake people up and say, ‘Pleasure is good,’” she said. “‘Pleasure is healing.’”

Nagoski knows that telling couples to “just access pleasure together” is easier said than done. For most people, herself included, a long list of things can hit their sexual brakes. In the past several years, she has dealt with perimenopause, a back injury, and then long Covid, which has caused severe vascular problems. For months, Nagoski could barely walk to her mailbox. And she is still healing.

In 2021, Nagoski was diagnosed with autism, after her therapist noted she was unusually relieved not to have to see or talk to others during the height of the pandemic. Around that time, she watched the Pixar short “Loop,” in which two teens, one of whom has autism and is nonverbal, learn to communicate on a canoe ride. “It’s just this six-minute, animated thing,” she said, as she teared up. Watching it, she realized, “I’m autistic.”

The diagnosis, Nagoski said, was an “enormous relief.” People on the autism spectrum are sometimes blunt and unfiltered, and the diagnosis helped to explain why she might be so good at what she does. “I think one of the reasons talking about sex is so easy for me is that I have not absorbed the same ‘shoulds’ in the same way,” she said.

“Come Together” is the first time Nagoski has publicly opened up about her sex life, a decision she initially felt ambivalent about. “Before I wrote the book, I wondered if revealing, like, ‘I, too, have struggled with desire in a long-term relationship’ would undercut my expertise.”

When asked what she and her partner did to move through their dry spells, Nagoski distilled it to this: First, she spent a lot of time talking to her therapist (whom she has seen for years) about how to speak to her husband about their issues in a way that felt loving and not accusatory. Next, before they tried initiating anything physical, the couple spent a lot of time talking about sex. Nagoski realized it was important to let Stevens be silly about their situation, she said. (Their inside jokes about his genitals can’t be repeated here.) It brought some levity to their conversations and helped them to realize how important playfulness is to their dynamic in the bedroom.

Last, she asked her husband to be more affectionate with her outside of sexual situations. Their sex life is hardly perfect now, though if she were not recovering from long Covid, Nagoski said, she would describe it as better than it has ever been.

They made small changes, too. The couple began closing the bedroom door so their dogs — who “want to be up on the bed with us,” Nagoski said — couldn’t interrupt sex. They also moved any intimate supplies they needed closer to the bed. The two were trying to eliminate every possible barrier and inconvenience.

But there are risks, Nagoski acknowledged, when couples start having conversations about what is not working in their sex lives. “None of us want to hurt our partner’s feelings,” she said. If a couple cannot navigate those talks on their own, or even bring themselves to start them, then, “yeah, therapy,” she said.

“It’s hard work,” she said of keeping sex going in a long-term relationship. “And you have to care. It isn’t necessary for survival. It’s not even necessary to have a spectacular life. I don’t require anyone on Earth to make any kind of change to their sex life if they don’t want to.”

But Nagoski said for her, “it’s a priority.” The couple now sees sex as a “project” they work on together, making time for it in their calendar.

“We talk about it more than we talk about what we’re going to have for dinner. I alter my schedule so that I don’t have anything that’s going to wipe me out so much that on our calendar day, I’m not going to have any energy left,” Nagoski said. She tries to give herself grace when it does not happen, like when she recently canceled a scheduled sex date because of a migraine.

“What matters,” she said, “is that you’re cocreating a context that makes it easy to access pleasure.”



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A ‘series of failures’ in Texas school shooting response | Police News

NewsFeed

“Cascading failures.” A highly anticipated US Justice Department report on the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, said some of the 21 children and teachers who were killed may have survived if officers had followed ‘accepted practices.’ US Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out the timeline of the delayed response.

Published On 18 Jan 2024

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Israel’s Netanyahu reiterates rejection of Palestinian state after Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

US says there is ‘no way’ to solve Israel’s long-term security challenges and rebuild Gaza without Palestinian statehood.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any post-war scenario, underscoring divisions between the allies three months into Israel’s relentless military assault on Gaza.

In a nationally broadcast news conference on Thursday, Netanyahu pledged to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realises a “decisive victory over Hamas” and said he had relayed his positions on Palestinian statehood to US officials.

“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control over all territory west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”

“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.

While the US has vetoed United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire, it has called on Israel to scale back the intensity of its war on Gaza, and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after”.

Following Netanyahu’s comments, US National Security Adviser John Kirby said that there would be no reoccupation of Gaza after the war and emphasised that the US remains committed to a two-state solution.

US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller also said Israel now has an opportunity to engage with the idea of a Palestinian state, as countries in the region are ready to provide security assurances.

“There is no way to solve [Israel’s] long-term challenges to provide lasting security and there is no way to solve the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza and establishing governance in Gaza and providing security for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he told a news briefing on Thursday.

He added that despite differences of opinion between the US and Israel, “our support for Israel remains ironclad.”

‘Peace for the Palestinians’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his latest visit to the Middle East last week by saying that offering Palestinians a path to statehood could stabilise the Middle East and isolate Iran.

The US top diplomat said the region faced two paths, the first of which would see “Israel integrated, with security assurances and commitments from regional countries and as well from the United States, and a Palestinian state – at least a pathway to get to that state”.

The alternative path, he said, would “continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran”.

Earlier this week, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, said on a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland that the kingdom believed that “regional peace includes peace for Israel”.

He said Saudi Arabia “certainly” would recognise Israel as part of a larger political agreement, “but that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state.”

After more than 100 days of Israel’s war on Gaza, relentless attacks have continued and at least 24,620 Palestinians have been killed. A communications blackout in Gaza has entered its seventh day, while raids have continued in the occupied West Bank.

The war has also rippled across the Middle East, with low-intensity fighting between the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatening to erupt into all-out war, and Houthi rebels in Yemen continuing to target international shipping while the US launches attacks against them.

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Dorian Finney-Smith Talks Father’s Release + More

I was about 15 years old when I first met Dorian Finney-Smith, so having the opportunity to interview him 15 years later, with him being a young vet in the NBA and me being a contributor for the illest basketball publication of all time, is a full-circle moment.

Every June, my former AAU team, Hoop Booth, would travel to Old Dominion University for their team camp to play a handful of games against some of the best high school and AAU programs in the area. And every year, there was one team I’d look forward to playing as a marker for where my game was: I.C. Norcom High School out of Portsmouth, Virginia. They were talented across the board, well-coached and flat-out tough. But Dorian (or Doe Doe as they called him) was the piece that really made this team go. Dorian was ahead of his time. This was back in 2010, so Kevin Durant had only been in the League for three years. It wasn’t yet the norm for hoopers taller than 6-7 to have the skill and fluidity of guards who played below the rim combined with the athleticism and length of true bigs. 

Today, Dorian Finney-Smith is one of the most coveted role players in the L. During a time where the average career length is about 4 and a half years, it’s not an accident that Dorian is in his eighth NBA season with what seems like many more ahead of him. Sure, he was blessed with physical gifts but it’s his unwavering refusal to take these gifts for granted that got him here.

Dorian pulled up to the SLAM HQ in Queens and we sat down to discuss his upbringing, going undrafted, his outlook on fatherhood, which includes helping his own father get released from prison recently. He also opened up about the legacy he hopes to leave behind and his community service efforts.

This interview has been slightly edited for conciseness and clarity.  

Curtis: Growing up in Portsmouth, it would have been so easy to adopt a small-town mentality; can you speak to the commitment you made at an early age to do something special?

Dorian Finney-Smith: Well, my older brother [Ben Finney] played as well, so I was able to watch his process. And his best friend, who’s like family to me, Vernon Macklin, was like the first person from my city to make it to the NBA and that was motivation for me. To be able to touch somebody who got drafted–to be able to have conversations with and see somebody who I know got drafted made me know it was possible. With him being highly ranked and being from my small city, that was all the motivation I really needed.    

Curtis: I know you had a target on your back as a major athlete in a small trouble-ridden area. How did you keep on a narrow path and not fall victim to the peer pressures that plagued a lot of the Portsmouth youth?

DFS: My momma being on our ass [laughing]. But also, one of my older brothers was killed and my pops was in prison, so I had all the motivation I needed to know that I didn’t want to live that type of lifestyle. Everybody my brother grew up with who I would use to call the big bros was getting locked up. I realized by eighth or ninth grade that the life that rappers and everybody glorified was only gonna lead you to two places, either death or jail. They’d just fall into the system. I also had a best friend, Jeremy Canty, and his pops was a real stand up man who was good for me. His pops took me to all my workouts and stuff like that when my momma couldn’t. She had to work and she got five other kids, so she couldn’t get us to practice and stuff like that. I had a great community around me, man. I had a good support system. A lot of people wanted to see us win, wanted to see me win.

Curtis: Most highly coveted prospects like you choose to go the private school or prep school route. What went into your decision to stay home and play for Norcom High School, your local public school?

DFS: I wanted my friends to get looks, too. I wanted the college coaches to come see them when they came to our practices. I wanted them to get some notoriety. I just wanted everybody to eat, that’s just the type of person I am. I always said, ‘if you’re good enough, they’re gonna find you.’ And back then it was different; we wanted to play public school. And we still got the opportunities to play against the James McAdoos and the Findlay Preps once we won our first state championship. I ain’t easily influenced, so it wasn’t like my mom and them were trying to get me out the city.

Curtis: After a steady and consistently improving college career that began at Virginia Tech and ultimately Florida, filled with honors like ACC All-Freshman Team, SEC Sixth Man of the Year and 2x Second-team All-SEC, you went undrafted in 2016. How would you say your upbringing and experiences prepared you for adversity and helped you stay the course to earn an opening day roster spot for the Dallas Mavericks after going undrafted?

DFS: My mom used to have this saying, ‘it don’t matter, we gonna always end up on top.’ That was the mentality I always had. I never really got the immediate results I wanted; I always had to work for it. Even in high school, I didn’t play my freshman year. My friends were playing, and I sat on the bench the whole year. I never pointed my fingers at nobody; I always looked in the mirror and worked on my game. That’s exactly what I did. I ain’t feel sorry for myself or nothing, I just started working. And I wanted them to feel my presence whenever I got on the court. I knew whatever [NBA] team I was going to, they weren’t gonna have me there to shoot all the balls. I knew playing defense was probably what was gonna get me on the court. I just wanted my energy to be felt as soon as I stepped on the court. So, when I got to training camp, I felt like I did that.

I didn’t even have the best summer league. I remember sitting in my locker just being appreciative like, ‘man, this might be my last day here.’ D-Will was just smirking at me like, ‘I don’t know rook, this might not.’ But I was just appreciative. C’mon, man, I’m from Portsmouth, Virginia and I got Dirk Nowitzki sitting beside me, bro.

Curtis: Piggybacking off your decision to stay at Norcom in high school, you mentioned you wanting everybody to eat. Now, you’re doing that, literally, with your community service efforts. Can you speak to the inspiration to give back to your community and what that means to you, especially as a Black person coming from where you come from?

DFS: It means a lot to me, man. It wasn’t just my mom, it was the whole community who helped raise me. I grew up in an era when you may see somebody at the store and you’re doing something hard-headed, and they might say, ‘man, chill before I tell your momma.’ The community cared, especially when you’re doing something positive and they know you’re working hard to get out of that situation. They all encouraged me. If they saw me hanging with someone they even thought was a bad influence, they’d pull me to the side and tell me, ‘watch yourself when you’re around him.’ So I always felt like this was bigger than me, especially when I started looking back at it. Even my brother’s friends–when they used to do all the little hard-headed stuff, they’d be like, ‘Doe, stay home tonight.’ So, I just wanted to pay my dues, man. Because any one of those times they could’ve just said ‘come on,’ and that could’ve been it for me. 

But again, my upbringing, too. My mom always gave back, even when we stayed in the projects. It’d be another house full of kids that we’d be passing and we’d be giving them hand-me-downs or vice versa. We were a little older and bigger so we would be giving away our clothes to other kids. My mom always had that family-type feel, you know. She’d feed the whole neighborhood–make a big pot of spaghetti and feed everybody, all of our friends. There’s six of us, so if everybody got two friends, it was a lot [laughing]. So, I just took after my mom. My first year doing my camp, I was on the training camp deal but to everybody else, it was like, ‘he’s on the team and he’s from Portsmouth.’

Curtis: This past holiday season, you got an early Christmas gift–your father was blessed to come home after doing almost 28 years in prison. Even though he was away, he was still a part of your life, so can you speak to your relationship with him?

DFS: When my brother passed, and when I had my first daughter, it made me want to build that relationship with him. Shout out to Coach D, Billy Donovan, who used to always push for me to have that relationship with him. During my redshirt year at Florida after I transferred there, Coach D and my mom thought it was best that I talk to someone about my brother and stuff. So working with them and talking about my life, we came up with the plan of trying to reconnect my relationship with my pops and staying consistent with it. That’s pretty much how it happened.

Curtis: Can you touch on the process of helping him get released?

DFS: When I got to the NBA, Jamahl Mosley, who coaches the Orlando Magic–we were talking and I told him about my dad’s situation and he was like, ‘man, you should hit up Cube (Mark Cuban) and see if he knows someone who could help you with that.’ After I got my first deal (with Dallas), I ended up saying something because I knew I was gonna be there for another three years. Cube got me in contact with Jason Lutin–shout out to him. And Lutin just attacked this thing like a full-court press, man. He dove into it. He hit up his contacts–Jerry Kilgore, shout out to him, too. And once they read the case, they said he should’ve been got out, or at least on his way out. I was able to talk to the parole board last year, probably, like, a week before the trade [to Brooklyn]. It was a lot going on, it was a dope experience for it all to happen and come to fruition. He got here, and the first probably 10 minutes was just a staring contest, just me looking at him, checking him out. My kids are all over him. And that’s who he really wanted to see. Not saying he didn’t want to holla at me, it’s just he wanted to be with his grandkids.

Curtis: Has your relationship with your parents shifted your mindset of fatherhood?

DFS: Of course. Like I said, it was six of us and four of us played Division I basketball. She used to be at three games in one day. She’d go from my game, to my sister’s game, to Old Dominion to see Ben. She’d leave at halftime; but you’re going to hear her voice, you’re going to see her and she’s gonna wave to you when she leaves, you know what I’m saying? She used to try her best, man. That’s who the real GOAT is. My mom was very determined. She didn’t let us make any excuses. Anything that happened at home–once we on the court, we on the court. She helped us with that mentality, and I still use it today. You know, I just never wanted my kids to grow up like I did. I want them to be able to say I was there.

Curtis: When all is said and done, how do you want to be remembered–by the basketball community, by your kids, by Portsmouth?

DFS: I always say God-fearing family fam, but I’m going to elaborate on that a little more. I just want my kids to know their dad loves them and I want them to appreciate life. I try to lead by example because any day this shit can be taken away, at any time. I learned that at an early age with my brother, and hopefully it don’t gotta be to that extent with them. I always try to tell them, ‘get what you can get out of each day.’ As far as the community, I just want to do my part, man. I want them to know that I care, I care about my community, I care about the generation after me. And like I said, it’s bigger than me. If I could change the mindset of one kid each year, then I did my job. I just try to be who I would’ve needed when I was young, or who more of my friends could’ve used when they were younger.

Action photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Marcus Stevens



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Dorian Finney-Smith Talks Father’s Release + More

I was about 15 years old when I first met Dorian Finney-Smith, so having the opportunity to interview him 15 years later, with him being a young vet in the NBA and me being a contributor for the illest basketball publication of all time, is a full-circle moment.

Every June, my former AAU team, Hoop Booth, would travel to Old Dominion University for their team camp to play a handful of games against some of the best high school and AAU programs in the area. And every year, there was one team I’d look forward to playing as a marker for where my game was: I.C. Norcom High School out of Portsmouth, Virginia. They were talented across the board, well-coached and flat-out tough. But Dorian (or Doe Doe as they called him) was the piece that really made this team go. Dorian was ahead of his time. This was back in 2010, so Kevin Durant had only been in the League for three years. It wasn’t yet the norm for hoopers taller than 6-7 to have the skill and fluidity of guards who played below the rim combined with the athleticism and length of true bigs. 

Today, Dorian Finney-Smith is one of the most coveted role players in the L. During a time where the average career length is about 4 and a half years, it’s not an accident that Dorian is in his eighth NBA season with what seems like many more ahead of him. Sure, he was blessed with physical gifts but it’s his unwavering refusal to take these gifts for granted that got him here.

Dorian pulled up to the SLAM HQ in Queens and we sat down to discuss his upbringing, going undrafted, his outlook on fatherhood, which includes helping his own father get released from prison recently. He also opened up about the legacy he hopes to leave behind and his community service efforts.

This interview has been slightly edited for conciseness and clarity.  

Curtis: Growing up in Portsmouth, it would have been so easy to adopt a small-town mentality; can you speak to the commitment you made at an early age to do something special?

Dorian Finney-Smith: Well, my older brother [Ben Finney] played as well, so I was able to watch his process. And his best friend, who’s like family to me, Vernon Macklin, was like the first person from my city to make it to the NBA and that was motivation for me. To be able to touch somebody who got drafted–to be able to have conversations with and see somebody who I know got drafted made me know it was possible. With him being highly ranked and being from my small city, that was all the motivation I really needed.    

Curtis: I know you had a target on your back as a major athlete in a small trouble-ridden area. How did you keep on a narrow path and not fall victim to the peer pressures that plagued a lot of the Portsmouth youth?

DFS: My momma being on our ass [laughing]. But also, one of my older brothers was killed and my pops was in prison, so I had all the motivation I needed to know that I didn’t want to live that type of lifestyle. Everybody my brother grew up with who I would use to call the big bros was getting locked up. I realized by eighth or ninth grade that the life that rappers and everybody glorified was only gonna lead you to two places, either death or jail. They’d just fall into the system. I also had a best friend, Jeremy Canty, and his pops was a real stand up man who was good for me. His pops took me to all my workouts and stuff like that when my momma couldn’t. She had to work and she got five other kids, so she couldn’t get us to practice and stuff like that. I had a great community around me, man. I had a good support system. A lot of people wanted to see us win, wanted to see me win.

Curtis: Most highly coveted prospects like you choose to go the private school or prep school route. What went into your decision to stay home and play for Norcom High School, your local public school?

DFS: I wanted my friends to get looks, too. I wanted the college coaches to come see them when they came to our practices. I wanted them to get some notoriety. I just wanted everybody to eat, that’s just the type of person I am. I always said, ‘if you’re good enough, they’re gonna find you.’ And back then it was different; we wanted to play public school. And we still got the opportunities to play against the James McAdoos and the Findlay Preps once we won our first state championship. I ain’t easily influenced, so it wasn’t like my mom and them were trying to get me out the city.

Curtis: After a steady and consistently improving college career that began at Virginia Tech and ultimately Florida, filled with honors like ACC All-Freshman Team, SEC Sixth Man of the Year and 2x Second-team All-SEC, you went undrafted in 2016. How would you say your upbringing and experiences prepared you for adversity and helped you stay the course to earn an opening day roster spot for the Dallas Mavericks after going undrafted?

DFS: My mom used to have this saying, ‘it don’t matter, we gonna always end up on top.’ That was the mentality I always had. I never really got the immediate results I wanted; I always had to work for it. Even in high school, I didn’t play my freshman year. My friends were playing, and I sat on the bench the whole year. I never pointed my fingers at nobody; I always looked in the mirror and worked on my game. That’s exactly what I did. I ain’t feel sorry for myself or nothing, I just started working. And I wanted them to feel my presence whenever I got on the court. I knew whatever [NBA] team I was going to, they weren’t gonna have me there to shoot all the balls. I knew playing defense was probably what was gonna get me on the court. I just wanted my energy to be felt as soon as I stepped on the court. So, when I got to training camp, I felt like I did that.

I didn’t even have the best summer league. I remember sitting in my locker just being appreciative like, ‘man, this might be my last day here.’ D-Will was just smirking at me like, ‘I don’t know rook, this might not.’ But I was just appreciative. C’mon, man, I’m from Portsmouth, Virginia and I got Dirk Nowitzki sitting beside me, bro.

Curtis: Piggybacking off your decision to stay at Norcom in high school, you mentioned you wanting everybody to eat. Now, you’re doing that, literally, with your community service efforts. Can you speak to the inspiration to give back to your community and what that means to you, especially as a Black person coming from where you come from?

DFS: It means a lot to me, man. It wasn’t just my mom, it was the whole community who helped raise me. I grew up in an era when you may see somebody at the store and you’re doing something hard-headed, and they might say, ‘man, chill before I tell your momma.’ The community cared, especially when you’re doing something positive and they know you’re working hard to get out of that situation. They all encouraged me. If they saw me hanging with someone they even thought was a bad influence, they’d pull me to the side and tell me, ‘watch yourself when you’re around him.’ So I always felt like this was bigger than me, especially when I started looking back at it. Even my brother’s friends–when they used to do all the little hard-headed stuff, they’d be like, ‘Doe, stay home tonight.’ So, I just wanted to pay my dues, man. Because any one of those times they could’ve just said ‘come on,’ and that could’ve been it for me. 

But again, my upbringing, too. My mom always gave back, even when we stayed in the projects. It’d be another house full of kids that we’d be passing and we’d be giving them hand-me-downs or vice versa. We were a little older and bigger so we would be giving away our clothes to other kids. My mom always had that family-type feel, you know. She’d feed the whole neighborhood–make a big pot of spaghetti and feed everybody, all of our friends. There’s six of us, so if everybody got two friends, it was a lot [laughing]. So, I just took after my mom. My first year doing my camp, I was on the training camp deal but to everybody else, it was like, ‘he’s on the team and he’s from Portsmouth.’

VIDEO

Curtis: This past holiday season, you got an early Christmas gift–your father was blessed to come home after doing almost 28 years in prison. Even though he was away, he was still a part of your life, so can you speak to your relationship with him?

DFS: When my brother passed, and when I had my first daughter, it made me want to build that relationship with him. Shout out to Coach D, Billy Donovan, who used to always push for me to have that relationship with him. During my redshirt year at Florida after I transferred there, Coach D and my mom thought it was best that I talk to someone about my brother and stuff. So working with them and talking about my life, we came up with the plan of trying to reconnect my relationship with my pops and staying consistent with it. That’s pretty much how it happened.

Curtis: Can you touch on the process of helping him get released?

DFS: When I got to the NBA, Jamahl Mosley, who coaches the Orlando Magic–we were talking and I told him about my dad’s situation and he was like, ‘man, you should hit up Cube (Mark Cuban) and see if he knows someone who could help you with that.’ After I got my first deal (with Dallas), I ended up saying something because I knew I was gonna be there for another three years. Cube got me in contact with Jason Lutin–shout out to him. And Lutin just attacked this thing like a full-court press, man. He dove into it. He hit up his contacts–Jerry Kilgore, shout out to him, too. And once they read the case, they said he should’ve been got out, or at least on his way out. I was able to talk to the parole board last year, probably like a week before the trade [to Brooklyn]. It was a lot going on, it was a dope experience for it all to happen and come to fruition. He got here, and the first probably 10 minutes was just a staring contest, just me looking at him, checking him out. My kids are all over him. And that’s who he really wanted to see. Not saying he didn’t want to holla at me, it’s just he wanted to be with his grandkids.

Curtis: Has your relationship with your parents shifted your mindset of fatherhood?

DFS: Of course. Like I said, it was six of us and four of us played Division I basketball. She used to be at three games in one day. She’d go from my game, to my sister’s game, to Old Dominion to see Ben. She’d leave at halftime; but you’re going to hear her voice, you’re going to see her and she’s gonna wave to you when she leaves, you know what I’m saying? She used to try her best, man. That’s who the real GOAT is. My mom was very determined. She didn’t let us make any excuses. Anything that happened at home–once we on the court, we on the court. She helped us with that mentality, and I still use it today. You know, I just never wanted my kids to grow up like I did. I want them to be able to say I was there.

Curtis: When all is said and done, how do you want to be remembered–by the basketball community, by your kids, by Portsmouth?

DFS: I always say God-fearing family fam, but I’m going to elaborate on that a little more. I just want my kids to know their dad loves them and I want them to appreciate life. I try to lead by example because any day this shit can be taken away, at any time. I learned that at an early age with my brother, and hopefully it don’t gotta be to that extent with them. I always try to tell them, ‘get what you can get out of each day.’ As far as the community, I just want to do my part, man. I want them to know that I care, I care about my community, I care about the generation after me. And like I said, it’s bigger than me. If I could change the mindset of one kid each year, then I did my job. I just try to be who I would’ve needed when I was young, or who more of my friends could’ve used when they were younger.

Action photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Marcus Stevens



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Did Jacob Elordi and Olivia Jade Break Up? Here’s the Truth

Jacob Elordi and Olivia Jade‘s relationship is still in a state of euphoria.

Despite recent speculation that the actor and the YouTuber had called it quits, a source with knowledge tells E! News, “They are not broken up.”

The Saltburn star and Lori Loughlin‘s daughter first sparked romance rumors when they stepped out for coffee in Dec. 2021, one month after his breakup with model Kaia Gerber.

Since then, Jacob, 26, and Olivia, 24, have kept their relationship low-key, enjoying simple dates like taking their dogs for walks around Los Angeles.

In fact, when Jacob and his golden retriever Layla met up Olivia and her pup Milo for a park playdate in May 2022, an eyewitness told E! News the two were “very playful with each other and the dogs.”

And although they’ve seemingly grown more comfortable stepping out together—they both attended GQ‘s Men of the Year Party in November—don’t expect them to start talking publicly about their romance.

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Video shows aftermath of a summary execution of 15 men in a Gaza apartment | Israel War on Gaza

NewsFeed

A Palestinian family in Gaza says they witnessed the summary execution of 15 men when Israeli soldiers raided their apartment last month.

Published On 18 Jan 2024

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Opinion | Bans Haven’t Lowered the National Abortion Rate. Pro-Lifers Must Find Another Way.

Most abortion opponents did not expect the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the passage of state abortion bans to lead to the expansion of legal abortion in much of the United States.

But this in fact is what happened: While 16 states ban most or virtually all abortions a year and a half after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in June 2022, abortion numbers went up in states where it is legal. As anti-abortion groups prepare for their annual March for Life on Friday, they face the reality that the past year brought a string of defeats for their cause, with abortion-rights supporters winning victories in every abortion referendum submitted to voters, even in conservative states. Opponents of abortion are now on the defensive.

That’s largely because their strategy has focused on passing bans, which have been politically polarizing and have alienated members of the Democratic Party — a party that only a few decades ago included many supporters of the pro-life cause.

It didn’t have to be this way. As a historian of the anti-abortion movement and abortion politics, I wrote in early 2021 that the end of Roe may “only marginally reduce the number of legal abortions” in the United States and “at worst, may lead to a pro-choice Democratic backlash that will expand the number of legal abortions.”

I also pointed to another way to reduce abortions in the United States — expanding the social safety net so more pregnant women choose to keep their babies. Some abortion opponents advocated this strategy nearly 50 years ago, but it was largely forgotten after the anti-abortion movement allied with the political right in the Reagan era. Today, as the anti-abortion movement faces new challenges amid a rising national abortion numbers, it may be time to rediscover this forgotten path.

After Roe, in 1973, resulted in the legalization of abortion in every state, opponents of abortion were divided as to how best to defend unborn human life. Most anti-abortion organizations favored a constitutional amendment that would protect human life from the moment of conception.

But a few abortion opponents — especially those who were liberal Democrats — believed that instead of embarking on what appeared to be a politically impossible quest for such an amendment, they could prevent abortions by offering help to women facing pregnancies amid hardship.

For instance, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, whose husband, Sargent Shriver, was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, campaigned for federal legislation that would establish a nationwide network of crisis pregnancy and infant-care centers. “The best way to fight abortion is really to offer alternatives to abortion,” she declared.

This was not a new idea for anti-abortion organizations, which before Roe v. Wade had floated proposals like “birth insurance” to care for infants needing expensive medical treatment, subsidized adoption and government-funded day care.

But Roe interrupted those plans and prompted nearly all anti-abortion organizations to make an anti-abortion constitutional amendment the litmus test by which they evaluated political candidates, regardless of their stances on other measures that might reduce the abortion rate by offering assistance to pregnant women in need of support.

In the 1980s, anti-abortion organizations shifted their focus to the more achievable goal of reversing Roe through a Supreme Court decision — a change in tactics that solidified their support for the Republican Party, since Republican presidents and senators were far more likely than the Democrats to favor judicial nominees who objected to Roe.

Now that Roe is gone, anti-abortion groups have pinned their hopes on bans as the primary way to protect unborn human life. But those bans have proved more unpopular than they expected, and have had less effect on the national abortion rate than they would have liked. Reports in late 2023 indicated that the annual number of abortions in the United States may have been higher after Dobbs than before the decision, since bans in some states were offset by increased protections for abortion rights elsewhere.

The anti-abortion movement believed that legal prohibitions could move the cultural consensus in a pro-life direction, but it seems that the opposite has happened. New abortion clinics were constructed in Illinois and New Mexico to serve women from nearby states with restrictive laws, as clinics across the nation (even in conservative Florida) reported an increase in demand for abortions. After voters approved an abortion-rights amendment to the Ohio Constitution in November, supporters of abortion rights redoubled their efforts to put the issue on the ballot in other states, from Florida to Arizona.

In such a political climate, abortion opponents must focus on changing hearts and minds before changing laws. They need to win public trust by demonstrating that their respect for life does not end with birth.

A 2023 Guttmacher Institute study showed that 42 percent of the people who had abortions had incomes below the poverty line. Another study showed that 40 percent of those having abortions cited financial considerations as a primary reason for their decision — which suggests that economic assistance would probably enable some women who have abortions to instead choose to carry their pregnancies to term. Paid family leave policies may be particularly effective at reducing abortion rates, according to one 2010 study.

Many religious and private charitable organizations are already providing assistance to pregnant women at a limited scale, but support for comprehensive national programs would extend the benefits of this strategy to a far greater number of women.

In the 1970s, when the movement included a substantial number of Democrats and many supporters of the social programs of the New Deal and Great Society, proposals like the ones the Shrivers presented might have made sense to abortion opponents — but what will today’s conservative Republican abortion foes think of them?

To save unborn lives, the anti-abortion movement may have to move beyond partisan thinking and support any proposals that are likely to reduce abortion, even when they come from Democrats. In at least a few conservative states, some Republican legislators are already supporting free college tuition benefits, state Medicaid expansions for new mothers, reforms in the adoption and foster care systems, and paid family leave — all of which have the potential to reduce abortion rates as they reduce the economic burden on those caring for children, or empower mothers to advance their economic prospects and secure higher-paying jobs.

Abortion opponents should demand that lawmakers at both the state and national level prove their pro-life bona fides by supporting measures such as these that will offer positive alternatives to abortion — just as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other abortion opponents (including myself) joined with supporters of abortion rights in pushing for protections for pregnant workers. The Senate passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act a year ago with strong bipartisan support.

Since the anti-abortion movement’s narrow focus on bans has alienated potential allies and failed to reduce the number of abortions, it needs to look again at a strategy that holds greater promise. A paid family leave plan or a state Medicaid expansion might not offer the movement the same immediately satisfying sense of victory as a state abortion ban — but, in the end, it might save a greater number of unborn lives.

Daniel K. Williams teaches American history at Ashland University and is the author of “The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship.”

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