Morning Report

TODAY’S SPORTS GAMBLING story

Dozens charged in NCAA game-rigging case

What happened
Federal prosecutors yesterday unsealed an indictment charging 26 people with bribery and wire fraud as part of what they called a sprawling “transactional criminal scheme” to fix both NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games. The charges, filed in Philadelphia, are the “latest development in a widening scandal stretching across collegiate and professional basketball,” The Washington Post said.

Who said what
The “point-shaving scheme” involved more than 39 players on 17 different NCAA Division I teams rigging “dozens of games in the previous two seasons,” ESPN said. The 26 defendants include “more than a dozen” NCAA basketball players who allegedly “tried to fix games as recently as last season,” The Associated Press said. The scheme’s fixers paid the players $10,000 to $30,000 in cash for each rigged game, prosecutors said.

This was an “extensive international criminal conspiracy” of “NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf. The alleged perpetrators, including former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, “poisoned the American spirit of competition for monetary gain.” NCAA President Charlie Baker thanked law enforcement agencies for “working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports.”

What next?
Yesterday’s indictment is the “latest gambling scandal to hit the sports world since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision unleashed a meteoric rise in legal sports betting,” the AP said. It follows a federal “crackdown” on “illicit sports gambling and point-shaving schemes” that “engulfed” the NBA in October, said Fox News.

TODAY’S ENTERTAINMENT Story

Lucasfilm passes ‘Star Wars’ torch to new leaders

What happened
Lucasfilm yesterday announced that Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas’ handpicked successor, is stepping down as president after nearly 14 years and will be replaced by new co-presidents Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Filoni (pictured above left), a “Star Wars” veteran best known for his work on “The Mandalorian” and “The Clone Wars,” will remain chief creative officer.

Who said what
Kennedy (pictured above right) “oversaw a highly lucrative but often contentious period in ‘Star Wars’ history that yielded a blockbuster trilogy and acclaimed streaming spinoffs” but “found increasing frustration from longtime fans,” The Associated Press said. “Her relationship with ‘Star Wars’ loyalists became a saga of its own.”

With its expensive productions and sometimes “toxic” fan base, “Lucasfilm is extraordinarily difficult to run,” The New York Times said. Kennedy “became a lightning rod,” especially when it came to “diversity in casting and storytelling,” but Filoni is “known for his strong standing among ‘Star Wars’ die-hards,” and with his elevation, “Disney is signaling that it believes the boutique studio is on the right path.”

What next?
The main tasks facing Feloni and Brennan “will be to find ways to keep ‘Star Wars’ fresh and relevant,” and in good standing with its “very vocal” fans, Variety said. They are taking over Lucasfilm “at a pivotal time, as ‘Star Wars’ is set to return to theatrical releases after years of false starts,” The Verge said. Kennedy is a producer of this year’s “The Mandalorian & Grogu” and next year’s “Star Wars: Starfighter,” a “high-stakes movie directed by Shawn Levy and intended to evolve the franchise beyond the Skywalker saga,” the Times said.

It’s not all bad

Coal-fired power generation fell in both China and India last year for the first time in more than five decades, marking a historic shift in the world’s two biggest coal users. Analysts say the drop was driven by a record surge in clean energy, with renewables more than meeting rising electricity demand. The diverging energy trends suggest that global coal use and carbon emissions could soon peak, signaling a potential turning point in the world’s energy transition.

Under the radar

The Iberian Peninsula is rotating clockwise

Scientists were able to match patterns of earthquake stress with estimates of strain on the Earth’s surface to determine that the Iberian Peninsula is rotating clockwise, according to a study published in Gondwana Research. The Earth’s crust is “fractured into portions that float and move on a nearly liquid and ductile lower mantle,” said El País. The movement of these tectonic plates is “what causes continents to move closer together or farther apart, and seas to close or open,” and it is “also responsible for tensions that are eventually released in the form of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.”

“Every year the Eurasian and African plates are moving closer to each other,” Asier Madarieta, the leader of the study, said in a statement. The boundary between the plates isn’t like a “single clean fault line,” said Discover. Rather, it “behaves more like a zone of distributed stress, with different forces competing to shape the Earth’s crust.”

We will not see the effects of the spinning peninsula for millions of years. But the “very long-term consequences will be enormous,” said El País. The “Mediterranean will once again become a closed sea, Africa and Europe will be joined to the west and what is now southern Iberia will either face the Americas or will have merged with the area of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa.”

In the meantime, there is still value in learning how tectonic plates shift. Researchers “hope to develop a detailed overview of the geometry of these faults and folds and understand what potential earthquake threats may lurk there,” said Popular Mechanics.

On this day

January 16, 1919

The 18th Amendment was ratified, banning the sale and manufacturing of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. The amendment went into effect one year later, officially beginning the Prohibition Era. The ban on alcohol ended in 1933 when the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘New Trump threat’

“Trump issues troops threat, eyes using Insurrection Act in Minneapolis,” the New York Daily News says on Friday’s front page. “New gunfire, new Trump threat,” says The Minnesota Star Tribune. “DHS says Venezuela is safe for immigrants to return; State Dept. warns Americans to leave,” says the Miami Herald. “President accepts gift of Machado Peace Prize,” The Washington Post says. “Nobel Peace laureate’s wooing of Trump annoys Norwegians,” The New York Times says. “Europe reinforces Greenland to deter U.S.,” The Wall Street Journal says. “New strain has flu cases surging,” the Los Angeles Times says. “Cancer survival rates are on the rise,” USA Today says. “California wine may hit bottom next year,” says the San Francisco Chronicle.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Two turntables and a crucifix

After spending the day serving his congregation, Catholic priest Guilherme Peixoto trades in his robes for strobe lights, spinning tunes as a nightclub DJ. As part of his unusual side hustle, Fr. Peixoto travels the world, selling out gigs. The Portuguese padre has the church’s support — his headphones were blessed by Pope Francis, and Pope Leo taped a message for a recent show in Slovakia — and he sees his DJ sets as a way to share his faith.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.