Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo are the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize, it was announced Monday.
First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize is one of the literary world's most distinguished honors."We were told quite firmly that the rules state that you can only have one winner," Peter Florence, the chair of the judges, said. However, "the consensus was to flout the rules and divide this years prize to celebrate two winners." After asking the prize's trustees three times if they could give the award to two winners, the trustees finally relented.
Atwood won for The Testaments, the sequel to 1985's The Handmaid's Tale; she also received the award in 2000 for The Blind Assassin. Evaristo won for Girl, Woman, Other, becoming the first black woman to win the Booker Prize. "I hope that honor doesn't last too long," she said. Atwood and Evaristo will split the $63,000 prize money. Catherine Garcia
NBA players don't seem very happy with the league, commissioner Adam Silver, or Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey right now.
Silver held a meeting last week in Shanghai with players from the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers, who were there for an exhibition game, ESPN reports. The players reportedly vented about being asked by local Chinese reporters to address the controversial situation that arose following a now-deleted tweet sent by Morey that offered support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy, anti-Beijing protests before Silver himself spoke on the matter. China, which is home to a massive NBA fan base, was angered by Morey's tweet, placing the NBA's relationship with the country in jeopardy.
It's become a pretty big deal stateside, as well, with numerous coaches and players getting thrown into hot water over their attempts to answer questions about the fiasco, which have frequently received criticism from across the political spectrum.
While the players seemed unhappy with Silver and the media, they also reportedly questioned whether Morey will be disciplined. It's unclear if the players think Morey — whom the NBA has sort of, but not really defended — should face consequences, but ESPN reports that they at least felt it was hypocritical of Silver to let him off the hook; several players reportedly said they believe they would have been disciplined if they were in Morey's shoes. Read more at ESPN. Tim O'Donnell
A day after former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, announced he was resigning from a Chinese private equity firm and that he would no longer sit on the board or work for any foreign company, the elder Biden unveiled a sweeping ethics agenda as part of his presidential campaign.
The plan did not mention his son, whose foreign business dealings have raised some eyebrows and, well, conspiracy theories, despite no evidence of any actual wrongdoing. Instead, Biden went after President Trump and his administration, which he dubbed the "most corrupt" in modern history. Like other Democratic candidates who have released ethics plans, Biden addressed issues such as campaign finance, tax returns, and lobbying.
Additionally, one of the points in the agenda seeks to prevent the president from "improperly interfering in federal investigations and prosecutions." If Biden is elected to office, that is, he will work to ensure that he and any succeeding presidents don't have too much say about "who or what to investigate or prosecute." While this addresses federal investigations, rather than foreign ones, it's worth noting that Biden and his son were the subject of unsubstantiated allegations of corruption in Ukraine by members of the Trump administration, which in turn led to Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate them.
Biden also plans to eliminate a loophole in existing financial disclosure law that allows candidates and public officials to transfer personal assets into trusts controlled by family members and close friends, assuring voters that "any member of his administration who is a beneficiary of a discretionary trust" will "disclose all of its holdings." Read the full plan here. Tim O'Donnell
A Fort Worth police officer who killed a black woman with her 8-year-old nephew in the room resigned Monday and could see criminal charges.
The officer, who Police Chief Ed Kraus identified as Aaron Dean, shot 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson through a window at her house around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Kraus said in a Monday press conference that he was going to fire Dean, but that the ex-officer had resigned before he could do so. Dean is now facing a criminal investigation, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
Neighbors of Jefferson's called for a welfare check at her home on Saturday morning because the home's doors were open and its lights had been on for hours, per The Dallas Morning News. The officers who responded didn't know it was a non-emergency call, Kraus said. When they arrived, Dean did not announce himself as a police officer, but shouted at Jefferson to put up her hands and then quickly shot her through a bedroom window, a body-cam video of the situation shows. Dean was set to be interviewed regarding the shooting Monday, but "resigned before his opportunity to be cooperative," reflecting a "dishonorable discharge," Kraus said Monday.
The news has sparked an ongoing stream of protests and rallies demanding justice for the Jeffersons. "Why this man is not in handcuffs right now is a source of continued agitation for this family and for this community, and it must be addressed," S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the family, told The New York Times. Kathryn Krawczyk