CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Front Row Motorsports, one of two teams suing NASCAR in federal court, accused the stock car series Thursday of rejecting the planned purchase of a valuable charter unless the lawsuit was dropped. Front Row made the claim in a court filing and said it involved its proposed purchase of the charter from Stewart-Haas Racing. Front Row said the series would only approve it if Front Row and 23XI Racing dropped their court case. "Specifically, NASCAR informed us that it would not approve the (charter) transfer unless we agreed to drop our current antitrust lawsuit against them," Jerry Freeze, general manager of Front Row, said in an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina. The two teams in September refused to sign NASCAR's "take-it-or-leave-it" final offer on a new revenue sharing agreement. All other 13 teams signed the deal. Front Row and 23XI balked and are now in court. 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan has said he took the fight to court on behalf of all teams competing in the top motorsports series in the United States. NASCAR has argued that the two teams simply do not like the terms of the final charter agreement and asked for the lawsuit be dismissed. Earlier this week, the suit was transferred to a different judge than the one who heard the first round of arguments and ruled against the two teams in their request for a temporary injunction to be recognized in 2025 as chartered teams as the case proceeds. The latest filing is heavily redacted as it lays out alleged retaliatory actions by NASCAR the teams say have caused irreparable harm. Both Front Row and 23XI want to expand from two full-time cars to three, and have agreements with SHR to purchase one charter each as SHR goes from four cars to one for 2025. The teams can still compete next season but would have to do so as "open" teams that don't have the same protections or financial gains that come from holding a charter. Freeze claimed in the affidavit that Front Row signed a purchase agreement with SHR in April and NASCAR President Steve Phelps told Freeze in September the deal had been approved. But when Front Row submitted the paperwork last month, NASCAR began asking for additional information. A Dec. 4 request from NASCAR was "primarily related to our ongoing lawsuit with NASCAR," Freeze said. "NASCAR informed us on December 5, 2024, that it objected to the transfer and would not approve it, in contrast to the previous oral approval for the transfer confirmed by Phelps before we filed the lawsuit," Freeze said. "NASCAR made it clear that the reason it was now changing course and objecting to the transfer is because NASCAR is insisting that we drop the lawsuit and antitrust claims against it as a condition of being approved." A second affidavit from Steve Lauletta, the president of 23XI Racing, claims NASCAR accused 23XI and Front Row of manufacturing "new circumstances" in a renewed motion for an injunction and of a "coordinated effort behind the scenes." "This is completely false," Lauletta said. Front Row is owned by businessman Bob Jenkins, while 23XI is owned by retired NBA Hall of Famer Jordan, three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and longtime Jordan adviser Curtis Polk. NASCAR had been operating with 36 chartered teams and four open spots since the charter agreement began in 2016. NASCAR now says it will move forward in 2025 with 32 chartered teams and eight open spots, with offers on charters for Front Row and 23XI rescinded and the SHR charters in limbo. The teams contend they must be chartered under some of their contractual agreements with current sponsors and drivers, and competing next year as open teams will cause significant losses. "23XI exists to compete at the highest level of stock car racing, striving to become the best team it can be. But that ambition can only be pursued within NASCAR, which has monopolized the market as the sole top-tier circuit for stock car racing," Lauletta said. "Our efforts to expand – purchasing more cars and increasing our presence on the track – are integral to achieving this goal. "It is not hypocritical to operate within the only system available while striving for excellence and contending for championships," he continued. "It is a necessity because NASCAR's monopoly leaves 23XI no alternative circuit, no different terms, and no other viable avenue to compete at this level." Get local news delivered to your inbox!The latest development came hours after thousands of his supporters, defying government warnings, broke through a barrier of shipping containers blocking off Islamabad and entered a high-security zone, where they clashed with security forces, facing tear gas shelling, mass detentions and gunfire. Tension has been high in Islamabad since Sunday when supporters of the former PM began a “long march” from the restive north-west to demand his release. Khan has been in a prison for more than a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases that his party says are politically motivated. Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, led the protest, but she fled as police pushed back against demonstrators. Hundreds of Khan’s supporters are being arrested in the ongoing night-time operation. Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters that the Red Zone, which houses government buildings and embassies, and the surrounding areas have been cleared. Leaders from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, have also fled the protest site. Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan’s army took control of D-Chowk, a large square in the Red Zone, where visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is staying. Since Monday, Mr Naqvi had threatened that security forces would use live fire if protesters fired weapons at them. “We have now authorised the police to respond as necessary,” Mr Naqvi said Tuesday while visiting the square. Before the operation began, protester Shahzor Ali said people had taken to the streets because Khan had called for them. “We will stay here until Khan joins us. He will decide what to do next,” Mr Ali said. Protester Fareeda Bibi, who is not related to Khan’s wife, said people have suffered greatly for the last two years. “We have really suffered for the last two years, whether it is economically, politically or socially. We have been ruined. I have not seen such a Pakistan in my life,” she said. Authorities have struggled to contain the protest-related violence. Six people, including four members of the security services, were killed when a vehicle rammed them on a street overnight into Tuesday. A police officer died in a separate incident. Dozens of Khan supporters beat a videographer covering the protest for the Associated Press and took his camera. He sustained head injuries and was treated in hospital. By Tuesday afternoon, fresh waves of protesters made their way unopposed to their final destination in the Red Zone. Mr Naqvi said Khan’s party had rejected a government offer to rally on the outskirts of the city. Information minister Atta Tarar warned there would be a severe government reaction to the violence. The government says only the courts can order Khan’s release. He was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament. In a bid to foil the unrest, police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country. Messaging platforms were also experiencing severe disruption in the capital. Khan’s party relies heavily on social media and uses messaging platforms such as WhatsApp to share information, including details of events. The X platform, which is banned in Pakistan, is no longer accessible, even with a VPN. Last Thursday, a court prohibited rallies in the capital and Mr Naqvi said anyone violating the ban would be arrested. Travel between Islamabad and other cities has become nearly impossible because of shipping containers blocking the roads. All education institutions remain closed.DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Niger's ruling junta suspended the BBC for three months over the broadcaster's coverage of an extremist attack that allegedly killed dozens of Nigerien soldiers and civilians, authorities said Thursday. “BBC broadcasts false information aimed at destabilizing social calm and undermining the troops' morale,” communications minister Raliou Sidi Mohamed said in letters to radio stations that rebroadcast BBC content. Mohamed asked the stations to suspend BBC's programs “with immediate effect.” The BBC said it had no comment on the suspension. Popular BBC programs, including those in Hausa — the most-spoken language in Niger — are broadcast in the Central African country through local radio partners to reach a large audience across the region. The British broadcaster had reported on its website in Hausa on Wednesday that gunmen had killed more than 90 Nigerien soldiers and more than 40 civilians in two villages near the border with Burkina Faso. The French broadcaster Radio France International, also known as RFI, also reported on the attack, calling it a jihadi attack and citing the same death toll. Niger's authorities denied that an attack happened in the area in a statement read on state television and said it would file a complain against RFI for “incitement to genocide.” Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. But the security situation in the Sahel has worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by Islamic militants and government forces. Meanwhile, the ruling juntas have cracked down on political dissent and journalists . Earlier this year, Malian authorities banned the media from reporting on the activities of political parties and associations. Burkina Faso suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio stations for their coverage of a mass killing of civilians carried out by the country’s armed forces. In August 2023, Niger banned French broadcasters France 24 and RFI, a month after its military rulers took power in a coup. “Generally speaking, the three juntas censor the media as soon as the security situation in the country is addressed in an unpleasant manner or when abuses are revealed,” Sadibou Marong, head of the sub-Saharan Africa office of Reporters Without Borders, told The Associated Press in September. “Finding reliable and neutral information on government activities has become extremely complex, as has covering security situation in these countries,” Marong added.
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Charlotte Crosby trebles security measures to ‘feel safe’ amid attempted robberyPresident Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son, Hunter, is throwing a bomb in his party's post-election soul-searching. Democrats are still sifting through the rubble of their loss to President-elect Donald Trump last month, with some in the party blaming a reputation -- justified or not -- as elitists out of touch with everyday voters' concerns while cozying up to other wealthy and well-connected allies. Now, after months of vows that he wouldn't do so and arguing the justice system treated Trump appropriately, Biden is scrapping his son's supposedly politicized convictions on tax and gun charges, sparking a warning the move fortifies perceptions that the party doesn't keep its word and is playing by its own set of rules. "This literally reinforces the very challenge that Democrats confronted in the election, which is elites talking to elites convincing each other that they're right. Well, you can't get any more elite than this," said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. "It's not the question of pardoning the son. What about everybody else's son?" Kofinis added. "If you're going to take this kind of a dramatic action that's going to benefit a single person in your family, you have a responsibility to go out there and say why. But you can't say the reason why is because the justice system is rigged, because you just spent the last four years saying it wasn't rigged. So, it's not rigged for Trump, but it's rigged for your son?" Hunter Biden had been convicted on federal gun charges after lying about his drug use on an application for a firearm and had pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges, including three felonies. MORE: How President Biden came to the decision to pardon his son Hunter The president's announcement Sunday evening marked a bombshell at the tail end of a holiday weekend. In it, Biden insisted that his son had been "treated differently" after "several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election." The pardon is also particularly broad, covering all "offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in" from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024, beyond the gun and tax charges. Republicans swiftly cried foul at the move, lambasting it as a manipulation of justice, particularly after Biden for months said he wouldn't use his power to intervene in his son's legal troubles. "Joe Biden has lied from start to finish," House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., wrote in a post on X . "It's unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability." "Tonight's pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice," added Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Senate Republican in the next Congress. Democratic lawmakers were tighter-lipped over the pardon late Sunday but were more vocal in their opposition by Monday afternoon. "Democrats should have been for reforming and curtailing pardon power from Day 1 of the Biden Presidency. As a father, I empathize with President Biden, but we must be the party of reform whether it's about the archaic pardon power, opposing super PACs or broad war powers," Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on X . "President Biden's decision to pardon his son was wrong. A president's family and allies shouldn't get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests," Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich, added . Now, some party operatives warned to ABC News, Democrats risked being seen as executing the same behavior they'd been warning against from Trump ahead of his inauguration, making their campaign rhetoric about the justice system's integrity apply to only one side of the political divide. "It is somewhat toying with [voters]," one Democratic pollster said. "The takeaway, to the extent that there are any left, for the average, independent voter is, is that, both sides are just playing games with each other. They don't mean any of this rhetoric." The White House Monday sought to play damage control, laying blame at the feet of Republicans who will have unified control of Washington starting later next month and have hammered away at Hunter Biden's legal travails and business ties for years. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden issued the pardon in part "because they didn't seem like his political opponents would let go of it." "They would continue to go after his son. That's what he believed," she added, declining to speculate on the political fallout of the move. "Two things could be true. You can believe in the department of justice system, and you could also believe that the process was affected politically," she insisted. MORE: Washington DC reacts to President Biden pardoning son Hunter in shock decision The pardon controversy is coming as some Democrats partly blame Biden's decision to run for reelection in the first place as a reason for Harris' defeat. While many Democrats expressed empathy for Biden's position as a father, they suggested it marked another reason to put the president in the rearview mirror as the party puts together a new playbook for the future -- a separation that, some hoped, could minimize any long-term fallout. "I think the party is already going to move on from him so deeply and so completely that I don't know that this severs that connection between Biden and the future the Democratic Party any more or any less than it already would have been. If anything, it may quicken it," one senior Democratic strategist said. "I think it's politically stupid," the person said. "It makes us look bad, and it makes us look like we don't have the moral high ground, and we either need to own that, or we need to own that we need to stop being so preachy. I think it's bad politics, but it's not clear to me what exactly the repercussions will be." Still, that doesn't mean Democrats who are skeptical of any long-term implications are pleased with the move. Nearly every Democrat who spoke to ABC News worried that Biden's pardon kicked the door open for Trump to protect people they predicted will be unworthy of pardons. And to fend off any prolonged fallout amid a broader makeover, even theoretical, some suggested that a robust denouncement from party leaders could go a long way. "It's not going to eliminate it, because Biden is the president of the United States," the Democratic pollster said. "But if Democrats ever hope to reinvent themselves in a post-Biden future, they're going to need to start by denouncing Biden now when it's hard, not in the future, when it'll be easier."
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The ICC Warrants Over Gaza Are A Warning For The U.S., Too
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