Nassau County legislators permitted a public masks ban Monday that criminalizes the usage of sporting a masks in public locations to cover identities of people that commit crimes, excluding masks for well being or spiritual functions.

What’s within the Masks Transparency Act invoice?

Republican legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip launched the Masks Transparency Act after considerations over antisemitic crimes dedicated at protests throughout the nation.

“This legislature finds that masks and facial coverings that aren’t worn for well being and security considerations or for spiritual or celebratory functions are sometimes used as a predicate to harassing, menacing or legal habits,” the invoice states.

Sporting a masks in Nassau County to hinder your identification might now price you a $1,000 advantageous or as much as a 12 months in jail. The invoice will enable legislation enforcement officers to require the removing of a masks throughout visitors stops or “when the officer has cheap suspicion of legal exercise and/or intention to partake in legal exercise.”

The penalty additionally applies to individuals who “knowingly allow or help” anybody who’s disguised or masked in a public place with intent to trigger hurt.

Twelve Republican legislators voted to move the invoice, whereas seven Democrats abstained from the vote.

Masks invoice garners backlash from civil rights teams in NY

The NYCLU stated that the invoice appeared to overwhelmingly goal pro-Palestinian protesters and known as the ban a “harmful misuse of the legislation.” Susan Gottehrer, NYCLU’s Regional Director for Nassau County, stated the invoice had the potential to place folks’s privateness and well being in danger.

“Barring individuals who communicate out from defending themselves and their identities places their well being and well-being in peril, notably folks with disabilities, folks of shade, and people with unpopular views,” Gottehrer stated in an announcement Tuesday. “Making nameless protest unlawful chills political motion and is ripe for selective enforcement, resulting in doxing, surveillance, and retaliation in opposition to protesters.”

As COVID-19 instances rise in New York, Gottehrer can also be involved about public well being dangers related to the ban. Protesters had been permitted, and even generally required to put on masks in public areas for almost 4 years because the nation battled the coronavirus pandemic.

Gottehrer stated regardless of the minimal exceptions within the invoice, these with persistent well being situations and disabilities are put in peril when household and pals are probably uncovered to the virus in public areas with out the flexibility to masks up.

“Criminalizing masks forces these with disabilities or medical situations, in addition to their households and family members, to need to resolve whether or not to segregate themselves from public life or endanger their well being and even lives,” she stated. “The ban’s so-called well being and non secular exceptions are totally insufficient: Nassau County law enforcement officials should not well being professionals or spiritual consultants able to deciding who wants a masks and who doesn’t.”

Of curiosity:SUNY Buy, New Paltz school protests: What’s authorized and what’s not? What consultants say

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations additionally condemned the legislation, saying it “paves the best way for political censorship.”

“The ambiguous definition of ‘cheap suspicion’ heightens the potential for profiling and discrimination, because it leaves ample discretion to officers to evaluate why somebody could also be protecting their face. It paves the best way for political censorship, notably amid fears of doxing, violence and extreme policing in opposition to pro-Palestinian supporters,” CAIR-NY supervising legal professional Lamya Agarwala stated. “This ban additional comes with important public well being dangers by forcing folks to danger jail time to guard themselves and others by sporting masks.”

How will this legislation have an effect on the remainder of NY?

It’s unclear if different counties in New York, together with the Hudson Valley, will move related legal guidelines sooner or later, however different New York officers, together with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Metropolis mayor Eric Adams, have additionally supported related payments all through the state to forestall crimes throughout protests and on the subway.

“I additionally wish to be very clear. We won’t tolerate people utilizing masks to evade duty for legal or threatening habits,” Hochul stated in an announcement concerning subway crimes in June.

Rockland County Government Ed Day stated he was not conscious of any such legal guidelines proposed within the legislature. Day stated the county has not skilled any important incidents in relation to crimes by masked people however could be keen to think about laws if essential.

“As a former legislation enforcement skilled with command expertise throughout two departments, I’d search steering from our native legislation enforcement businesses concerning the potential implementation of a masks ban legislation,” Day stated. “Ought to native authorities determine a transparent want for such a measure to handle public security or crime prevention considerations, I’d be open to supporting this initiative.”

A Westchester County spokesperson additionally stated there was no indication the county legislature have proposed any payments associated to a masks ban or would sooner or later.

What’s subsequent for Nassau County?

The Nassau County Democratic Legislative Minority, led by Minority Chief Delia DeRiggi-Whiton, launched emergency laws Monday to “improve penalties in opposition to criminals who use face coverings throughout crimes and are convicted of a misdemeanor or felony,” but additionally protects civil liberties for Nassau County residents.

“Our invoice respects particular person freedoms by not imposing blanket prohibitions on sporting masks in public. Regulation-abiding residents might put on masks for well being, security, spiritual, or celebratory functions with out concern,” stated DeRiggi-Whitton. “In contrast to the broad and punitive Republican invoice, our method avoids unconstitutional overreach and respects private liberties.”

The legislation will take impact instantly after county government Bruce Blakeman indicators it into legislation.

Toby Roberts: ‘Combating arduous’ for gold

Roberts, with the gold medal and fragment of Eiffel Tower iron now round his neck, can be the primary to confess that this actual second has been a very long time within the making.

It was six years in the past, simply earlier than sport climbing was added to the Olympic programme, that the Briton and his father-coach Tristan Roberts first concocted the technique to get the climber to the summit of his sport.

After exhibiting an insatiable urge for food for climbing after stumbling on the game by likelihood at eight years outdated on an afterschool occasion checklist, Roberts’ father, Tristan Roberts, knew right away that his son’s expertise was one which needed to be nurtured.

“It’s not regular with how addicted he’s,” Tristan Roberts recalled as soon as pondering in an interview with Olympics.com about his son a 12 months in the past.

However with none background in sport climbing, the household didn’t know what steps to take. It was then Tristan Roberts determined to throw himself into the body, immersing himself in method, historical past and tradition to attempt to assist coach his son to the large time. As Roberts grew into an athlete, so too did his father as a coach.

Although it’d sound experimental, dangerous even, Roberts’ efficiency right this moment speaks to the tenacity behind their mixed triumph. And it was with that high quality – tenacity – that Roberts within the ultimate was capable of finding his edge.

One second particularly stands out. Struggling for what he described after as a “actually good circulate” in the course of the difficult Boulder spherical, it was on the third drawback the Briton got here alive.

Simply probably the most mind-bending of all the issues introduced earlier than the group, the third spherical of Boulder had the climbers navigate an overhang, testing energy and guile in addition to simply merely power reserves.

Hamish McArthur, Roberts’ Workforce GB colleague, after getting achingly near the ultimate maintain, fell on to his again. There he stayed for greater than half a minute wanting up on the sky, exhausted that his colossal effort had been denied.

Three climbers all registered no factors on the issue such was its issue.

However not Roberts. The place it dared, he accepted.

“The third one was simply my type of boat,” Roberts mirrored after what he conceded was a “actually arduous” Boulder part. “It actually was simply combating arduous and having to offer every thing to search out the highest.

“I’m pleased to have put in some good fights.”

PA Media

‘Piecemeal co-operation’

“Star Wars” actor Daisy Ridley revealed in a brand new interview that she has been identified with Graves’ illness.

Ridley, 32, advised Girls’s Well being journal in an interview printed Tuesday that she was identified in September after she skilled bouts of sizzling flashes and fatigue. 

She stated she began to really feel sick after she filmed the thriller “Magpie,” by which she performs Anette, a stay-at-home mom whose husband falls in love with a well-known actress.

“I believed, ‘Effectively, I’ve simply performed a very traumatic function; presumably that’s why I really feel poorly,'” she advised the journal.

An endocrinologist defined that her signs, which included weight reduction, hand tremors, fatigue and a racing coronary heart, have been indicators of the autoimmune illness.

Graves’ illness impacts the thyroid gland and causes hyperthyroidism, which is when the physique produces an excessive amount of thyroid hormone, based on the Mayo Clinic. Anybody can get the illness, nevertheless it impacts primarily ladies and other people over 30.

Different celebrities identified with the illness embody Wendy Williams and Missy Elliott.

Ridley, who has opened up prior to now about her battle with endometriosis, stated her Graves’ illness prognosis made her unhappy at first but additionally pushed her to develop a stricter food regimen and take heed to her physique. She has been vegan for years, and she or he stopped consuming gluten after her prognosis.

“I’m not tremendous strict about it, however usually slicing down on gluten makes me really feel higher,” she stated.

Therapy for the illness contains radioactive iodine remedy, by which the affected person takes radioactive iodine by mouth to destroy the cells that make thyroid hormones, based on the Mayo Clinic. Medicines that block the thyroid from utilizing iodine to make hormones and beta blockers, which block the impact of hormones on the physique, are additionally different therapy choices.

Decreasing stress and creating a wholesome life-style, together with train and a well-balanced food regimen, can ease signs as a affected person undergoes therapy, the clinic stated.

Ridley stated she has all the time been “well being aware, and now I’m attempting to be extra well-being aware.” She stated that she’s intentional about getting relaxation when her physique is drained and that she has began doing cryotherapy and acupuncture and going to infrared saunas.

“I do a good quantity of the holistic stuff, however I additionally perceive that it’s a privilege to have the ability to do these issues,” she advised the journal.

Japan coach Katsu One says Ami is as cussed as they arrive. Katsu One has labored with Ami, now 25, ever since she acquired critical about breaking even earlier than turning into a young person.

“She hasn’t modified in the slightest degree,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s that stubbornness which retains her centered. And now she’s No. 1 on the earth.

“She has unbelievable instincts. She’s by no means fazed by who she’s up towards. Mentally she was in a superb place all through all the day. That, and the preparation she put in, all got here collectively.”

All through 4 phases of competitors, Ami was her ordinary self. She wouldn’t have it some other approach. There was no additional from her.

However that’s how Ami operates. Her most memorable battle of the day was not the ultimate, however the quarter-final towards France’s Syssy as a result of she realised she could possibly be herself on the grandest stage the game hadn’t seen.

“It nonetheless hasn’t sunk in but however I’m over the moon. Actually. I’m in all probability happier than I believe I’m. I’m simply on cloud 9 in the meanwhile so as soon as I come all the way down to earth, I’ll attempt to take it in little by little.

“Greater than the ultimate, once I received the quarter-final, I believed to myself, wow, I can do that – on this stage. Within the semi-final, I used to be actually relaxed as a result of win or lose, I’d nonetheless have the third-place battle.

“So I knew then I might dance to the perfect of my potential and from there I simply wished to have enjoyable. Trying again on it now, I wasn’t fascinated with a medal that a lot – and it labored to my favour.”

The boxer emerged victorious within the welterweight struggle amid a gender row to bag Algeria’s second gold medal in Paris.

Imane Khelif smiled, danced and roared with delight after beating China’s Yang Liu to grow to be the primary Algerian, Arab and African lady to win an Olympic boxing gold medal on the Paris Video games.

The 25-year-old dominated the three-round welterweight struggle and was introduced the winner in a unanimous resolution by the judges on the Rolland-Garros Stadium within the French capital on Friday night time.

The Algerian, who had been on the centre of a gender dispute in one of many main speaking factors of the Olympics, by no means seemed in any bother as she loved the backing of a rapturous Algerian crowd within the stands at Courtroom Philippe-Chatrier.

She been caught up in a gender debate after a 2023 resolution by the now-banned Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA) resurfaced, which disqualified her for failing a gender eligibility check.

The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected the outcomes of the IBA-ordered assessments as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no purpose to conduct them.

Khelif’s supporters got here ready with the Algerian flag and let loose a loud roar as Khelif walked into the sector forward of the struggle. They cheered her on all the best way from the primary spherical up till the medal ceremony as Khelif stood proudly within the centre of the rostrum with a gold medal on her chest.

“It was my dream [to win this medal] and I’m very joyful at this time that I’m an Olympic gold medallist,” Khelif advised the BBC after successful the struggle.

“Eight years of laborious work, eight years of [being] too drained, eight years of no sleep – [this is] improbable,” she added.

The 66kg struggle was the final bout on a busy night time of medal matches on the video games.

Yang started the primary spherical strongly and tried to push Khelif again, however the fighter from northwestern Algeria couldn’t be cowered. As a substitute, she fought again with a robust blow in the direction of the tip of the primary spherical to win it with ease.

There was no letup from the Algerian within the second spherical, and whereas Yang tried to struggle again, she couldn’t do sufficient to emerge victorious.

By the third spherical, Yang appeared to have misplaced the ability to be the aggressor and whereas Khelif waited for her to assault, the Chinese language fighter missed a number of photographs and appeared to have accepted defeat.

‘Algeria could be very joyful at this time’

Carrying crimson and a victor’s smile, Khelif walked as much as the centre of the ring for the referee to boost her left hand because the winner. She then saluted the group earlier than breaking right into a now trademark dance across the ring.

It was in stark distinction to the scene on the finish of her quarterfinal struggle, the place she wept as she embraced her workforce.

As quickly as Khelif climbed down the ring, her workforce members held her aloft on their shoulders and walked her across the area because the gold medallist soaked within the applause whereas elevating the Algerian flag.

The tall fighter thanked the droves of Algerian supporters who crammed up the sector, in addition to those that supported her from all over the world whereas she was focused in a gender dispute.

“I wish to thank all of the Algerian individuals right here in Paris, all over the world and in Algeria,” she stated after the struggle.

“All of the individuals from Algeria and all of the individuals at my base. I wish to thank all of the workforce, my coach. Thanks a lot.”

“Algeria could be very joyful at this time.”

NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer time Olympics. For extra of our protection from the Video games head to our newest updates.

Vinesh Phogat’s dream of successful India’s first gold medal on the Paris Olympics resulted in what for wrestlers is a nightmare state of affairs: She didn’t make weight for the ladies’s 50-kilogram class ultimate. After initially successful an opportunity for a gold or silver medal, her disqualification means she’s going to go away France and not using a medal of any kind.

Phogat later introduced her retirement from the game, saying, “Mother, wrestling has defeated me, I misplaced. Forgive me, your dream, my braveness is all damaged, I don’t have any extra energy now,” based on a translation by The Hindu newspaper. The athlete turns 30 years outdated later this month.

Phogat was discovered to be 100 grams over the restrict — about 3.5 ounces, much like a deck of playing cards — based on the Indian Olympic Affiliation. After having three bouts on Tuesday, her weight was discovered to have elevated a bit greater than regular, the affiliation’s chief medical officer, Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, mentioned on Wednesday.

Phogat had a profitable weigh-in on Tuesday morning, Pardiwala said, and her nutritionist calculated that she might have round 1 1/2 kilograms of water and meals. She additionally drank small quantities of water after her matches.

However when workers checked her weight, it was over the restrict. The athlete’s common methods for slicing weight weren’t profitable, Pardiwala mentioned.

“We had tried all attainable drastic measures all through the night time, together with slicing off her hair, shortening her garments,” Pardiwala mentioned. However to no avail.

It was a merciless approach to finish what had appeared to be a charmed run to the gold medal match, as Phogat delivered a string of victories over extremely ranked opponents. After two heartbreaking Olympics — a horrible knee damage ended her Rio 2016 marketing campaign, and a stunning upset ousted her in Tokyo — she was lastly on observe to win the medal many have seen as her future.

Her disqualification “may be very stunning,” mentioned Indian Olympic Affiliation President PT Usha, who met with Phogat within the Olympic Village on Wednesday.

“We’re offering Vinesh all medical and emotional assist,” Usha mentioned, including that India’s wrestling federation has filed an enchantment asking that the disqualification be reconsidered.

An Olympic medal would have been one thing of a salve to a yr of turmoil in India’s wrestling group. Final summer season, Phogat took on a outstanding function in high-profile protests in opposition to sexual harassment, as she and different high wrestlers known as for motion in opposition to then-Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Singh, an influential politician who was additionally as soon as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

Vinesh Phogat (middle) and different elite Indian wrestlers have been detained by the police in New Delhi final yr as they protested in opposition to Brij Bhushan Singh, who was then the wrestling federation chief, over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Arun Thakur/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

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Arun Thakur/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

As NPR reported final yr, Singh was “accused by the nation’s seven most high-profile wrestlers, together with a minor, of groping them, stalking them, demanding sexual favors and threatening them in the event that they refuse to entertain his advances.”

Singh has denied the allegations. Within the New Delhi protests in opposition to him, Phogat and different elite athletes have been confronted by police who dragged them away and detained them.

After Wednesday’s abrupt elimination derailed Phogat’s likelihood for an Olympic medal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via X, “Vinesh, you’re a champion amongst champions! You might be India’s delight and an inspiration for each Indian.”

Acknowledging a “sense of despair” over the result, Modi added, “On the similar time, I do know that you just epitomise resilience. It has at all times been your nature to take challenges head on.”

On the Paris Video games, Phogat defeated a roster of champions in a single day to earn a spot in opposition to Staff USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt in Wednesday’s ultimate. In her first match, she upset the reigning Olympic champion, Yui Susaki of Japan. She then beat former European champion Oksana Livach of Ukraine within the quarterfinals and Pan American Video games champion Yusneylis Guzman of Cuba within the semifinals.

Due to Phogat’s disqualification, Guzman was elevated to the ultimate to face Hildebrandt. The American received the gold.

Phogat comes from a household well-known for its feminine wrestlers: her cousins’ story impressed the Bollywood movie Dangal, from Walt Disney’s India subsidiary. She has additionally spoken out in favor of empowering ladies and giving them extra assist to pursue sports activities.

She informed The Hindu information outlet in 2018, “most significantly, ladies want to face up for what they need to do. It’s not nearly sports activities — even in any other case, in schooling or in life, ladies must cease feeling pity for themselves or contemplating themselves weak. You need to have the energy of perception in your self. Step one must be taken by a lady herself; every part else follows.”

When she’s injury-free, Phogat racked up wins on the mat from an early age. She took bronze on the world championships and high titles on the Commonwealth Video games and the Asian championships. Her outcomes, typically in weight classes a bit heavier than 50kg, have lengthy fueled hopes for Olympic greatness that, due to round 100 grams, now stay unfulfilled.

It’s a packed Olympics schedule on day 15 of the Paris 2024 Video games with Group GB eager so as to add to their medal assortment on the penultimate day of competitors.

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola gained gold within the males’s marathon as he attacked a brutal Paris course that left all-time nice Eliud Kipchoge struggling in the back of the sector. Two-time champion Kipchoge was bidding to make historical past with a 3rd title, however dropped out after 31km.

Tola attacked on the hills and elevated his lead over the ultimate quarter of the race to win gold for Ethiopia with a shocking Olympic document of two:06:26, forward of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto. Nice Britain’s Emile Cairess battled to a powerful fourth place.

Erin McNeice will hope to emulate Toby Roberts within the girls’s boulder and lead ultimate, with Noah Williams and Kyel Kothari contending for extra diving medals within the males’s 10m platform. On the velodrome, Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wooden bid for madison gold, whereas Emma Finucane goals to achieve the ladies’s dash ultimate.

Afterward the monitor, Laura Muir and Georgia Bell headline the athletics for Group GB as they go in quest of medals within the girls’s 1500m whereas Max Burgin targets glory within the males’s 800m. There are additionally two enormous gold medal matches to look out for: first because the USA face Brazil within the girls’s soccer ultimate earlier than the USA take hosts on France within the males’s basketball ultimate.

Present newest replace

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Right now on the Olympics: Saturday’s schedule and highlights together with Laura Muir and Max Burgin

The penultimate day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games guarantees to be a jam-packed trip of blockbuster leisure with 39 gold medals to be gained beginning with the lads’s marathon at 7am.

In the meantime, Group GB goal medals within the ultimate spherical of ladies’s golf, the 10m platform diving and on the athletics monitor with Max Burgin focusing on 800m gold and Laura Muir and Georgia Bell eyeing up 1500m medals.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 05:00

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Olympics 2024: Tamirat Tola wins males’s marathon!

Really, we’re simply listening to that Eliud Kipchoge dropped out on 31 km. A tragic approach for the best marathon champion of all time and an Olympic legend to bow out.

He has reached the tip of his highway.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 09:26

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Olympics 2024: Tamirat Tola wins males’s marathon!

We’re nonetheless ready on Eliud Kipchoge to cross the road, I feel. The 2-time champion was 77th, final total, on the 30km cut up. The 39-year-old was bidding to change into the primary three-time marathon winner on the Olympics. However this was a brutally onerous course and the hills obtained him.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 09:22

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Olympics 2024: Tamirat Tola wins males’s marathon!

Dangle on! That’s an Olympic document from Tola! Astonishing, on that course, with these hills!

2) Bashir Abdi – BEL +0.21

3) Benson Kipruto – KEN + 0.34

4) Emile Cairess – GBR +1:03

5) Akira Akasaki – JPN + 1.06

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 09:16

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Olympics 2024: Tamirat Tola wins males’s marathon!

GOLD for Tamirat Tola and Ethiopia within the Olympic males’s marathon!

What a end from Tola! He holds up his arms as he cruises to the road at Invalides, taking within the applause!

What a sight! It’s 2:06:25 for Tola! WHAT A RUN!

It’s silver for Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, bronze for Kenya’s Benson Kipruto.

Gorgeous end from Nice Britian’s Emile Cairess! A gutsy fourth place end after catching Deresa Geleta!

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 09:08

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Olympics 2024: Males’s marathon

One km to go! Tola has a 22-second lead! He’s going to cruise to victory right here!

The struggle for silver and bronze goes to go right down to Bashir Abdi, Benson Kipruto and Deresa Galeta.

Nice Britain’s Emile Cairess is in sixth, heading for an excellent top-10 end in Paris.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 09:04

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Olympics 2024: Males’s marathon

Tola has elevated his result in 25 seconds right here! Until he blows up proper on the finish, the 2022 world champion goes to win gold for Ethiopia in Paris!

After Kenya’s current dominance, Tola is trying to win Ethiopia’s first gold within the males’s marathon for the reason that 2000 Video games in Sydney.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 08:59

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Olympics 2024: Males’s marathon

There’s a shocking shot of Tola as he heads in direction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, cruising via the streets.

Is he struggling? Is he tremendous? He’s obtained 5 km to go to win Olympic gold and, truly, he’s elevated his result in 20 seconds.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 08:54

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Olympics 2024: Males’s marathon

My phrase… a 14:02 five-km cut up for Tola from 30-35km.

It’s given him a lead heading into the ultimate 20 minutes of the race, however will it price him?

Geleta, Abdi and Kipruto are lurking. They’ll work collectively to catch Tola out in entrance.

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 08:50

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Olympics 2024: Males’s marathon

2) Deresa Geleta – ETH +0.18

3) Bashir Abdi – BEL +0.18

4) Benson Kipruto – KEN – 0.18

5) Akira Akasaki – JPN + 0.19

2) Emile Cairess – GBR +0.22

Jamie Braidwood10 August 2024 08:48

A member of the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, whose band made one of many best-selling albums of all time, has defined on nationwide radio how Bishop’s Stortford performed a component in his success.

Guitarist and songwriter Mark Knopfler was the visitor on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday (August 4), telling host Lauren Laverne all a few half-century in music, together with his time in Dire Straits.

The band, fashioned in 1977, loved big success and noticed 1985 studio album Brothers in Arms go on to promote greater than 30 million copies worldwide. It additionally spawned hit singles Cash for Nothing and Stroll of Life.

And Knopfler informed listeners how his love of blues music grew even stronger because of his common journeys to a Stortford music venue – Rambling Jack’s on the former Railway Resort – throughout his time learning journalism at Harlow School within the late Sixties.

“I used to be already mad concerning the blues and I turned a blues nut,” mentioned Knopfler, who began out as a cub reporter on the Yorkshire Night Publish earlier than deciding to finish an English diploma at Leeds College.

“Once I was at journalism school doing my one 12 months’s coaching down in Harlow, Essex, I used to go to a blues membership each week with out fail. It was in Bishop’s Stortford, in a loft. I noticed a whole lot of the blues bands.

“Additionally, once I was on the paper, I used to go to all of the gigs at Leeds College and on the poly. Per week would by no means go by once I wasn’t at a gig. I realised there was a complete world of acoustic blues music and nation blues music that was earlier than all that.

“I obtained to know this beautiful man in Leeds known as Steve Phillips. He had a Nationwide metal guitar and was a correct blues singer. Steve had a report assortment with a whole lot of the good nation blues artists as effectively.”

These reminiscences from Knopfler, now 74, led to members of the Recollections of Bishop’s Stortford group on Fb recalling the period with fondness.

Commenter Dave Monk even remembered Knopfler returning to the city within the early Nineteen Seventies to play with the band Brewers Droop.

He posted: “Did anybody catch Mark Knopfler on this week’s Desert Island Discs? In addition to mentioning my former employer, Harlow School, the place he studied journalism within the late 60s, he additionally title checked going to the blues membership in Bishop’s Stortford – Rambling Jack’s, run by the late Steve Miller.

“Additionally his membership of pub rockers Brewers Droop obtained a point out, although not his gig taking part in on the blues membership’s successor The Angel Underground (each on the Railway Resort), which I witnessed within the 71-72 period.”

Knopfler took a job as an English lecturer at a school in Loughton earlier than forming Dire Straits in 1977 along with his brother David and John Illsley, who have been all flatmates in Deptford.

Tony Claxton, additionally commenting within the Recollections of Bishop’s Stortford Fb group, mentioned: “I went to the Brewers Droop gigs on the Angel Underground, my common Sunday evening of stay music.

“In all honesty l can’t bear in mind if it was him or the opposite guitarist who performed, I believe he performed a kind of gigs.

“l was working as an editorial assistant on Melody Maker however sometimes did ‘Caught within the Act’ opinions. l assume l did one on Brewers Droop on the Angel. Comfortable days.”

Knopfler talked about his time in Stortford when introducing his fourth disc, Mississippi Fred MacDowell’s Write Me a Few Strains.

He additionally selected tracks by the likes of Ray Charles, Dean Martin, The Shadows and Bob Dylan in addition to deciding on Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower as his guide alternative and a guitar as his luxurious merchandise.

India girls’s wrestler Vinesh Phogat has been disqualified from the 50-kilogram Olympic wrestling remaining after failing to make weight Wednesday, making a ripple impact on the medal matches and leading to some compelled changes by organizers.

Phogat defeated Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez within the semifinals Tuesday, however her disqualification pushed Guzman Lopez into the gold medal match Wednesday night time.

Phogat had gotten off to an incredible begin on the Paris Video games, gorgeous four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in her first match on Tuesday. She finally received her first three matches to earn a spot within the 50-kilogram remaining.

However that’s not going to occur. Staff India introduced on social media Wednesday that Phogat is out.

“It’s with remorse that the Indian contingent shares information of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Ladies’s Wrestling 50kg class. Regardless of the very best efforts by the workforce by the night time, she weighed in a number of grams over 50kg this morning,” the announcement stated.

Phogat had been seemingly unbeatable on the mat. After beating top-seeded Susaki — who captured gold on the Tokyo Olympics with out conceding some extent — she then received her quarterfinal match in opposition to Ukraine’s Oksana Livach 7-5 and her semifinal in opposition to Guzman Lopez 5-0 to turn out to be the primary Indian girl to succeed in an Olympic remaining.

Phogat’s disqualification eliminates her from competitors and strikes Guzman Lopez into the ultimate in opposition to American Sarah Hildebrandt, who defeated Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjav 5-0 within the different semifinal.

There are two bronze medals awarded in every wresting weight courses. Phogat’s disqualification created a domino impact. Susaki, who misplaced to Phogat, had earned a spot within the repechage in opposition to Livach, with one needing to earn a spot in a bronze medal match. The Phogat-Livach match has been elevated to one of many two bronze medal matches. The opposite bronze match will match China’s Feng Ziqi and Dolgorjav — a pairing that was not impacted by Phogat’s disqualification.

It is unclear if Phogat has ever been disqualified for not making weight. She had by no means positioned increased than ninth on the Olympics or third at a world championship occasion earlier than this spectacular efficiency on the Paris Video games.

In 2023, Phogat and different feminine wrestlers have been detained by police in India’s capital metropolis of New Delhi after they marched on parliament following allegations of sexual misconduct by individuals inside the sport, together with Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India. Sanjay Kumar Singh later changed him within the place.