Archaeologists working at Pompeii have found two new victims that they say were killed by an earthquake that accompanied the volcanic eruption of 79 AD.

The Italian city may be most closely associated with the destruction wrought by the eruption of Vesuvius, but these two men were in fact killed by walls knocked down by a simultaneous earthquake, according to the official Pompeii archaeological site.

“Part of the south wall of the room collapsed, crushing one of the men whose raised arm offers a tragic image of his vain attempt to protect himself from the falling masonry,” reads a press release on Tuesday.

“The conditions of the west wall demonstrate the tremendous force of the earthquakes that took place at the same time as the eruption: the entire upper section was detached and fell into the room, crushing and burying the other individual,” it continues.

The pair, who were at least 55 years old, were found during excavations of the Insula of the House of the Chaste Lovers during work to improve the safety of the building.

They were found lying in a utility room where they had sought refuge, and were killed by multiple traumas as parts of the building collapse.

Archaeologists found organic matter, which they believe to be a bundle of fabric, as well as glass paste, which is thought to be the beads of a necklace and six coins. The team also found an amphora leaning against a wall and a number of vessels, bowls and jugs.

In an adjoining room, archaeologists found a stone kitchen counter covered in powdered lime, which they say suggests that building work was being undertaken nearby at the time of the eruption.

The discovery “shows how much there is still to discover about the terrible eruption of AD 79 and confirms the necessity of continuing scientific investigation and excavations,” said Italy’s Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano in the release.

“Pompeii is an immense archaeological laboratory that has regained vigour in recent years, astonishing the world with the continuous discoveries brought to light and demonstrating Italian excellence in this sector,” he added.

Details of the excavation were published in the E-Journal of Pompeii.

The Roman city of Pompeii was buried under meters of pumice and ash in the calamitous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Archaeologists have uncovered only around two thirds of the 66-hectare (163 acres) site since excavations began 250 years ago, Reuters reports.

Thai voters delivered a powerful message to the country’s military-backed government on Sunday: you do not have the will of the people to rule.

The progressive Move Forward Party, which gained a huge following among young Thais for its reformist platform, won the most seats and the largest share of the popular vote.

Pheu Thai, the main opposition party that has been a populist force in Thailand for 20 years, came second.

Together they delivered a crushing blow to the conservative, military-backed establishment that has ruled on and off for decades, often by turfing out popularly elected governments in coups.

“This is an unmistakable frontal rebuke, a rejection of Thailand’s military authoritarian past. It’s a rejection of military dominance in politics,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University.

Over the last two decades, each time Thais have been allowed to vote, they have done so overwhelmingly in support of the military’s political opponents. Sunday’s vote – which saw a record turnout – was a continuation of that tradition.

But despite winning a landslide, it is far from certain who will be the next leader.

That’s because the military junta that last seized power in 2014 rewrote the constitution to ensure they maintain a huge say in who can lead, whether or not they win the popular vote.

Neither opposition party won an outright majority of 376 seats needed to form a government outright, they will need to strike deals and wrangle support from other parties to form a coalition big enough to ensure victory.

But that won’t necessarily be straightforward.

Dangerous territory

The first thing to know is that any opposition party or coalition hoping to form a government must overcome the powerful voting bloc of the senate.

Under the junta-era constitution, Thailand’s unelected 250-seat senate is chosen entirely by the military and has previously voted for a pro-military candidate.

Because a party needs a majority of the combined houses – 750 seats – to elect a prime minister, it means opposition parties need almost three times as many votes in the lower house to be able to elect the next leader and form a government.

In 2019, coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha won the senate votes which ensured his party’s coalition gained enough seats to elect him as prime minister, despite Pheu Thai being the largest party.

There are also other threats to the progressive movement’s win. Parties that have previously pushed for change have run afoul of the powerful conservative establishment – a nexus of the military, monarchy and influential elites.

Lawmakers have faced bans, parties have been dissolved, and governments have been overthrown. Thailand has witnessed a dozen successful coups since 1932, including two in the past 17 years.

And the purportedly independent election commission, anti-corruption commission and the constitutional court are all dominated in favor of the establishment.

In the progressive camp’s favor, however, is their large margin over the military-backed parties.

“If the results were murky, or if the pro-military parties got more, then we would be looking at manipulation, trying to shave the margins. But the results are so clear and very difficult to overturn now,” said Thitinan, adding that if there were attempts to subvert the vote, there would be public anger and protests.

Move Forward’s predecessor the Future Forward Party won the third most seats in the 2019 election. Shortly afterward, several of the party’s leaders were banned from politics and the party was later dissolved after a court ruled it violated electoral finance rules.

In the short term, that decision ended the threat from the Future Forward Party. But it also, in many ways, laid the foundation for Sunday’s historic vote.

Youth-led protests erupted across Thailand in 2020 after Future Forward was dissolved and a whole new generation of young political leaders were born, some of whom were willing to debate a previously taboo topic – royal reform.

Those calls electrified Thailand, where any frank discussion of the monarchy is fraught with the threat of prison under one of the strictest lese majeste laws in the world.

Many youth leaders were jailed or face ongoing prosecution linked to those protests. But some also went on to create the Move Forward party that swept to victory in the popular vote on Sunday.

That leaves the military establishment now locked in a political battle with a party that has kept the subject of royal reform on its manifesto.

Experts have said another coup would be costly, and dissolving a party with such a mandate would be “drastic.”

“Dissolving a party is a fairly drastic move. If there’s a way of keeping Move Forward out without dissolving them, then conservative politicians would probably prefer to do that. Because it’s not as strong a step in subverting the will that people have expressed,” said Susannah Patton, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.

“But you can’t rule that out.”

Vote for change cannot be ignored

Move Forward’s allure went beyond the youth vote on which it built its base.

Unofficial results showed the party captured 32 out of 33 seats in Bangkok – traditionally a stronghold for conservative parties.

“What this shows is that people who are living in urban areas are really fed up with the government that the military has provided for almost a decade,” said Patton.

“They are wanting to choose something different, and Move Forward is not just the youth party but actually can attract a wider cross section of support as well.”

Move Forward’s radical agenda includes reforming the military, getting rid of the draft, reducing the military’s budget, making it more transparent and accountable, as well as constitutional change and to bring the military and monarchy within the constitution.

The party’s win over the populist juggernaut Pheu Thai is also significant. This is the first time a party linked with ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has lost an election since 2001.

And Pheu Thai’s marginal defeat to Move Forward shows voters’ frustration with the old cycle of politics that pitted populist Thaksin-linked parties against the establishment.

Thailand’s “two party system was already breaking down in 2019, but it’s continuing to break down this election,” said Patton.

In a press conference on Monday, Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat said the party would go forward with plans to amend the country’s strict lese majeste laws – a key campaign pledge despite the taboo surrounding any discussion of the royal family in Thailand.

One of his priorities is to support young people facing jail terms on lese majeste charges, and Pita warned that if the law remains as it is, the relationship between the Thai people and the monarchy will only worsen.

His policies “strike at heart of the establishment,” said Thitinan, and even talking about the monarchy openly “is an affront to the palace.”

The Move Forward leader said Monday that he wants to form an alliance with the four other opposition parties to secure a majority in the lower house.

It could take 60 days before a prime ministerial candidate is endorsed by Thailand’s combined houses of parliament, but Sunday’s vote shows the people are ready for change.

However, if Thailand’s turbulent recent history is anything to go by, that could mean little. The military has shown in the past that it has few qualms about ignoring the popular vote.

Taiwan’s legislature passed a bill Tuesday that granted same-sex couples the right to jointly adopt a child neither of them are related to, clearing one of the final hurdles in achieving full marriage equality.

Taiwan in 2019 became the first jurisdiction in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage but it stopped short of granting fully equal rights of adoption to same-sex couples.

Previously, only heterosexual couples and single people were allowed to adopt children to whom they are not biologically related – creating a situation where if same-sex couples wanted to adopt a child, only one of them could register as the child’s legal parent, even if they both shared the burden of raising them.

“I am very excited that we granted joint adoption rights to same-sex couples today,” said Fan Yun, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who was among those that initiated the legal change.

“Legally, we have finally returned same-sex couples to their children,” she added. “Parental love is the same, and only through joint adoption can we protect the rights and interests of each other by law.”

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, an advocate for LGBT rights on the island, also called the decision a big step toward achieving full marriage equality.

“Today’s success shows that the consensus in Taiwan is to protect the human rights of LGBTI peoples and promote gender equality,” the alliance said in a statement.

Before the legal change Tuesday, some same-sex couples had spent years challenging the discrimination in Taiwanese courts.

In a landmark ruling last January, a male couple from Kaohsiung city managed to successfully challenge the ban – when the court ruled that allowing joint adoption was in the best interest of their child.

But the court also dismissed other similar cases and the law that limited their civil liberties remained on the statute books until it was amended Tuesday.

The legal change has come amid growing awareness in Taiwan about what it still takes to achieve full marriage equality – even though same-sex marriage had been legalized four years ago.

In January, the Taiwanese government issued a new directive that allowed a Taiwanese person to marry a foreign spouse of the same sex, even if their partner is from a jurisdiction that does not recognize gay marriage.

That directive, however, does not include same-sex partners from mainland China.

The alliance said some of the remaining hurdles for LGBT couples included equality for cross-strait marriages and access to assisted reproductive technologies.

The Eurovision Song Contest is back in Britain for the first time in more than two decades, and this year’s edition is one of the most anticipated ever.

But the famously kitsch competition can be confusing, to say the least.

Here’s what first-timers need to know about Eurovision – and how they can follow Saturday’s grand final.

What is Eurovision?

In simple terms, it’s an international singing competition organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It takes place once a year, and is hosted by the previous edition’s winning country. There are two semi-finals, and a grand final.

The widely told story of the origins of Eurovision is surprisingly noble. Tasked with bringing together a continent torn apart by war, the fledgling EBU organized a musical contest. Seven countries took part the first time around – now around 40 compete each year.

Any member country of the EBU can take part, and that includes countries on the fringes of Europe such as Morocco, Jordan, Israel – and even Australia, which has recently been invited to join.

Why is it in the UK?

For the first time ever, the contest is being held on behalf of another nation.

Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won last year, with a wave of support across Europe sweeping the nation to victory.

But the UK finished second, its best result in decades, and was asked to host the contest once it became clear that Russia’s ongoing invasion would prevent Ukraine from hosting.

Liverpool, the home of the Beatles, was selected to take the honors, and the city has been transformed for the competition. There are Ukrainian-themed displays around the city, and 3,000 discounted tickets were made available to displaced people from Ukraine.

How does it work?

Twenty-six countries will compete in the finals, with the bulk having to compete in semi-finals to meet the handful of nations who are automatic qualifiers – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom – as well as last year’s winner Ukraine.

Each country performs a three-minute song once, during a very, very long and somewhat emotionally draining broadcast. Singers can sing in any language – most choose English, but plenty opt for their own – and they don’t even need to be from the competing country.

Then, every country hands out points to their favorite competing nations, separately revealing the scores from an expert jury and the public vote. Countries give 12 points to their top dog, 10 to their second-favorite, and between one and eight for their honorable mentions.

Votes are read out, via satellite link, by a national celebrity in each of the countries that entered the contest, so we get a whistlestop tour of dozens of European capital cities.

How big a deal is it?

It’s huge. Some 161 million people watched last year’s event, according to the EBU. Certain regions within Europe take it especially seriously – Scandinavian nations have long been obsessed and can boast a long list of winners.

In Iceland last year, nearly 97% of televisions that were tuned into something were showing Eurovision, the EBU said.

Ireland has the most wins, with seven, but the majority of those were from the early days of the contest, and Sweden needs just one more victory to equal that record. Monaco is the smallest country to have won, with its David vs. Goliath triumph coming in 1971.

What are the performances like?

Eurovision is well-known for its more eccentric acts, who give the competition its charm and unmistakable style.

In the past few years we’ve seen heavy metal acts, a Norwegian techno duo dressed as yellow wolves, a pair of rapping Montenegrin astronauts, an all-female Polish group who churned butter throughout their performance, and Ukrainian superstar Verka Serduchka, whose iconic and turbocharged performance came in second place.

Not quite every country opts for such an over-the-top spectacle. On Saturday, as is the case every year, there will be a handful of drab ballads about peace, and a few more about love. But with every nation keen to stand out from the pack, even the most straightforward tunes can be presented in some eyebrow-raising ways.

So expect bright colors, perhaps some magic tricks, a few questionable hairstyles… and most importantly, expect the unexpected.

Who can vote?

Viewers in EBU member countries can vote for any nation apart from their own, leading to some infamously political vote-lending.

And this year, for the first time, people anywhere else in the world can vote too.

“The Eurovision Song Contest, the world’s largest live music event, is now approaching its 70th anniversary. In order to keep the event relevant and exciting we regularly update the format to ensure it continues to thrive,” the contest explained.

If you’re in one of the countries that are newly able to vote, you’ll have to visit the official Eurovision website and enter your credit card details in order to ensure the global voting is fair.

All the details are explained by the EBU here.

How can I watch it?

In the United States, Eurovision is being streamed exclusively by Peacock. Its grand final coverage starts at 3 p.m. ET (8 p.m. UK time) Saturday.

Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir is providing commentary, for the second year in a row.

Viewers can participate with Weir via “Watch With” by submitting questions to the host as they watch the competition together.

The former professional ice skater is a super fan of the annual competition, which pits singers, who must perform live, from participating countries against each other and has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Across Europe, the contest is shown by national broadcasters. This year’s host broadcaster in Liverpool is the BBC.

Nigerian singer and saxophonist Seun Kuti, youngest son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, appeared in court on Tuesday following his arrest for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

A video that surfaced over the weekend showed Kuti having a confrontation with an unarmed policeman on a busy Lagos highway.

“The police wanted 21 days to detain him further but the court said no. The court gave them 48 hours to grant him bail if they don’t file a charge,” Falana said.

Kuti could face up to three years in prison if convicted of assaulting a police officer, according to Nigerian laws.

Grammy-nominated Kuti turned himself in to authorities Monday, accompanied by his lawyer, after Nigeria’s national police chief ordered his arrest.

A statement from Lagos police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin confirmed that Kuti has been placed under arrest while officers investigate the case.

Known for his music activism and outspoken criticism of the government, Kuti has been a vocal advocate against police brutality.

Together with his late father’s former band, Egypt 80, which he now leads, Seun Kuti has performed for audiences worldwide, touring extensively in the United States, France, Japan, and the UK.

With his brother Femi, Kuti has carried forward the Afrobeat legacy of his father who died in 1997. Seun Kuti’s fourth album, “Black Times,” earned a received a Grammy nomination in 2019.

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was named the 2023 George Halas Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America on Monday.

The annual award is given to an NFL player, coach or staffer “who overcomes the most adversity to succeed.”

Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after making a tackle and appearing to be hit with a helmet in his chest during the first quarter of the Bills’ Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 2.

CPR was performed on Hamlin when he lost his pulse and needed to be revived through resuscitation and defibrillation.

In April, Hamlin was cleared to resume football activities after his cardiac arrest was caused by commotio cordis, which can occur when severe trauma to the chest disrupts the heart’s electrical charge and causes dangerous fibrillations.

The 25-year-old was cleared to resume football activities last month and said he has been planning to make a comeback to the NFL.

“This event was life-changing, but it’s not the end of my story,” Hamlin said in a news conference two months ago.

Bills general manager Brandon Beane said that Hamlin saw several specialists over the offseason, who agreed that the player “is clear to resume full activities just like anyone else who was coming back from an injury.”

AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli says his side believes it can overturn a two-goal deficit against Inter Milan in the Champions League semifinal second leg on Tuesday.

Inter capitalized on a fast start to win the first leg 2-0 last week and is the designated home team for the return fixture – meaning it can allocate more seats to supporters despite sharing the San Siro stadium with its fiercest rival.

While Inter holds almost all the advantage, Pioli says his team has what it takes to beat the odds.

“We have a clear objective, which is to win the tie, therefore we can still reach the final,” he told reporters ahead of the match.

“Nobody predicted that we’d be at this stage of the competition, not least the final, but I know how good my players are.

“Some outstanding feats have been achieved; one needs to believe and we do.”

The Italian city of Milan will once again come to a stand still to watch these two iconic teams battle it out for a place in the final.

The highly anticipated first leg didn’t quite live up to expectations with Inter taking a commanding lead in the first 15 minutes after goals from Edin Džeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

It could have, and probably should have, gotten a lot uglier for Pioli’s side as Inter passed up on several chances to put the semifinal tie beyond AC Milan.

However, Inter still looks the most likely team to reach the final on June 10 in Istanbul.

“We are 90 minutes away from achieving a dream […] my players deserve a lot of credit,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi told reporters.

“We know we have an advantage, but we have achieved nothing yet. We have to have effort, aggression and determination and with all that we can be confident.”

Rossoneri supporters can take some positives from a much improved second half last week but will hope nerves don’t get the better of the players again.

The team could also be buoyed by the return of star winger Rafael Leão who was forced to miss the first leg through injury.

“We’re focused and determined and preparing in the best way possible in order to give a better performance than the first leg, and to try and win the game,” Pioli said.

How to watch?

The second leg between AC Milan and Inter Milan will kick off at 3 p.m. ET on May 16.

The game can be streamed live in the US on Paramount+.

The winner will face either Manchester City or Real Madrid in the final, with that semifinal fixture tied 1-1 after the first leg. The return leg will take place on May 17.

The Dallas Stars advanced to the NHL Western Conference Final with an exciting Game 7 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Monday.

Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston each grabbed goals for Dallas in a 2-1 victory at American Airlines Center which sealed a 4-3 series victory for the Stars.

It is Dallas’ first trip to the conference final since 2020 where it will face the Vegas Golden Knights for an opportunity to lift the Stanley Cup – the Stars last won the famous trophy in 1999.

“It was our best team game of the playoffs,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer – who improved his undefeated record in Game 7’s to 7-0 – told reporters afterwards.

“I knew our group would respond (from the loss in Game 6). They have all year individually and collectively as a team, and they didn’t disappoint.”

DeBoer became the first coach in NHL history to lead four different teams to the conference final/semifinal round of the postseason in his first season as coach.

The attacking contributions from Hintz and Johnston have been pivotal for Dallas’ playoff run and that was the same again on Monday night.

Hintz scored his ninth goal of the postseason to open the scoring after dispossessing Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak in the second period.

And Johnston, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday, doubled the home team’s lead midway through the third period.

It is the second consecutive game- and series-clinching goal for Johnston, who scored the decisive goal to help Dallas eliminate the Minnesota Wild in Game 6 of the first round.

Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger was a man-mountain in the Dallas goal, making 22 saves to deny the Kraken a route back into the game.

And after the victory over the Kraken, Oettinger believes the Stars can go all the way.

“When you ask me if we think we can win it, I feel like not every year you can honestly say yes. I think this year, I feel like we can win it – and we have everything,” Oettinger said.

“When we play the way we want to play and we do the little things right, I think we can beat anyone and having that belief is pretty cool. I think everyone in the locker room thinks that and that’s a unique thing. Not every team can say that every year.”

Game 1 of the Western Conference Final will take place on Friday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In the Eastern Conference Final, the Carolina Hurricanes will play the Florida Panthers.

It’s not often a player who has yet to feature in the NBA has the sport’s established stars unanimously gushing.

“He’s like a [NBA] 2K created player, every point guard that wants to be seven foot. Cheat code type vibes,” said four-time NBA champion Steph Curry, while Kevin Durant added: “The league’s really in trouble when he comes in.”

But if you’ve seen anything of the seven-foot-four-inch French teenager Victor Wembanyama, you might understand why the 19-year-old has garnered the attention of the basketball world with his performances in the French professional league and is the widely presumed No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

He will find out his likely destination following Tuesday’s draft lottery, which will see each team find out the position they are selecting in June’s draft.

For over a year, teams have made efforts to increase their chances to be able to acquire Wembanyama. Stars have been traded away, contributing players have been released; all in an effort to have a worse regular season in order to increase their odds at the first pick.

The Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs all have a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick and therefore completely changing the outlook of their franchise, with Wembanyama at the forefront.

With NBA champions, MVPs and All-Stars – LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Curry and Durant to name a few – all expressing their excitement at Wembanyama’s arrival in the US, analysts are likening his arrival in the league to that of James in 2003.

There have been few players whose journey to the pinnacle of basketball have been as highly followed; in figures released by the NBA, Wembanyama is No. 8 on its list of the top-10 most-viewed players on social media this season – despite not even being in the league yet.

‘Wembymania’ is in full flow, something author Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff has seen firsthand.

“He wowed my American students who are used to seeing NBA games. They were really enthralled with it. And I keep having to explain to them that having a sold-out, 15,000-people crowd for a regular French professional basketball game is not normal at all,” she said.

“It is normal for when the NBA comes to town. But that’s once a year. This was not normal at all. I’ve been to Mets 92 games in past years. I was there the year that Boris Diaw came back and played and I was up in their stadium and it was maybe half full, maybe, being very generous. The crowd kind of watched the game, they were into it, but not that into it. I mean, just a vast, vast change.”

Becoming the best

A career in sports was always likely for Wembanyama.

His father was a high jumper, his mother was a former basketball player who is now a coach and his two siblings – older sister Eve and younger brother Oscar – are basketball players.

Even his grandfather, Michel De Fautereau, played for Paris University Club in the 1960s in the topflight in France.

When he was young, Wembanyama tried many sports, including judo and football, as well as basketball.

But his first step in the career he’d eventually come to blossom in happened by chance.

The coach of basketball club Nanterre 92, Michaël Allard, happened to be watching an Under-11 match in which Wembanyama was playing.

Allard’s attention was drawn to an assistant coach on the bench – or so he thought. The assistant coach was in fact an 11-year-old Wembanyama and when he realized his mistake, he called the technical director of the Under-11 program at the French club to inform them of this prospect he’d discovered.

Wembanyama was immediately recruited by Nanterre where he moved up the youth ranks and learned the game as he dove head-first into the sport.

On top of that, Wembanyama’s physical growth has only added to the intrigue surrounding him. He has grown to seven feet, four inches tall, potentially making him one of the tallest players in the NBA, with an eight-foot wingspan.

However, it is his combination of size and skill with the ball which has made him such an intriguing talent.

Most players his size develop into a prototypical NBA center: good at shot-blocking, rebounding machines, known for the defense and threat close to the basket – just take Wembanyama’s compatriot, Rudy Gobert, for example.

But Wembanyama is different. He has become elite at handling the ball, dribbling, passing, jump shooting and from three-point range. Throw all of that together with being over seven feet tall and there is no wonder he’s being touted as the most exciting player to enter the league in 20 years.

In fact, James described Wembanyama as an “alien” and a “generational talent,” while two-time MVP Antetokounmpo said the NBA has “never seen someone like that before.”

Clips on social media of Wembanyama performing remarkable feats of athleticism or skill with the ball have gone viral this season, from crazy blocks or dunks to impressive, weaving in-and-out dribbling followed by a difficult long-range three-pointer.

And the French basketball system where he has been nurtured has helped develop his unique talent, says Krasnoff.

“So unlike the US system where sport is integrated into the school system, in France, as in many other parts of the world, that’s not the case. But the professional clubs, for example, do have this program where they take young promising players into their youth academy system where they are able to train in dedicated way with trainers, with medical support.”

In this focused environment, away from the distractions and bright lights that often come with college basketball in the US, Wembanyama has been able to grow into the multi-faceted player many are predicting will dominate in the NBA when he arrives.

He led the league in scoring, rebounding and blocks in his final season in French basketball, as well as shouldering the burden of being almost a one-man marketing campaign for the league.

Krasnoff recalls attending games around the country which were sold out – when they typically wouldn’t have been – just to catch a sight of Wembanyama.

Wembanyama’s arrival in the NBA could have a transformative effect on one franchise. But more than that, Krasnoff says the hope is it has a revolutionary effect on basketball culture in France; a country with a long history with the game, despite it being “a closeted sport.”

“Certainly, (his drafting) will probably continue to drive the NBA’s popularity in France. That was always kind of a given,” she said. “And it certainly has driven US interest in French basketball, at least as far as Wembanyama is concerned.

“Five years ago, when I would tell people I’m working on French basketball and why are there so many French guys in the NBA, people look at me as if I was an alien with five heads. Over the past six months, that’s totally changed.

“The French press calls him a unicorn. It’s fair and I think everyone recognizes that this is not normally how it’s going to be, but hopefully, it will drive greater awareness and attention, particularly ahead of Paris 2024, where basketball is acknowledged to be, in addition to track and field and swimming, perhaps one of the premier Olympic sports disciplines.”

Wembanyama’s only appearance on US soil only added to the fascination surrounding his abilities, as he played in two exhibition games last season against development team G League Ignite and scored 36 and 37 points respectively.

There are concerns that Wembanyama’s slender frame may lead to injuries down the line – as many players around his height have struggled before with injuries to their lower limbs.

Most notably, Yao Ming – after an illustrious career with the Houston Rockets – was forced to retire at the age of 31 with foot and ankle injuries. And more recently, Chet Holmgren – drafted last year by the Oklahoma City Thunder – missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury. But these injury concerns are not likely to dissuade any team from picking the Frenchman with the No. 1 pick.

Wembanyama’s likely destination will be discovered on May 16 where several teams will be hoping to get lucky enough to be able to draft him.

Through the power of ‘Wembymania’ and the excitement around him, the upcoming season proves to be one of the most fascinating years in the NBA’s history.

A 13-strong rescue team has rescued an “injured and exhausted” dog from England’s highest mountain in an operation lasting more than four hours.

According to rescuers, the 33-kilogram (73-pound) pooch was “refusing to move” from Scafell Pike, located in the Lake District national park, northwestern England, on Saturday.

The canine’s owners requested help at 6:25 p.m. (1:25 p.m. ET), according to the Keswick Mountain Rescue team, which sent 13 members to assist.

Rescuers put the dog in a bag on a stretcher and carried the pet down the mountain, the team said in a statement.

“Despite being quite a large dog at 33kg it was a joy to carry such a relatively lightweight casualty. The casualty remained cool, calm and positively regal throughout,” reads the statement.

The rescue was the team’s 42nd mission this year and took 4 hours 18 minutes in total.

This is not the first time that rescuers have had to help a dog back down the mountain.

In July 2020, a 121-pound St. Bernard named Daisy needed saving from Scafell Pike after showing signs of pain in her rear legs and refusing to move.

The rescue operation took a total of five hours and 16 team members of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team.

Scafell Pike is England’s highest mountain at 978 meters (3,209 feet). It is located in the famous Lake District, a UNESCO-protected area popular with hikers and holidaymakers.

The Lake District is known as one of Europe’s most beautiful places. Wild mountains soar up from vast lakes, while postcard-perfect villages offer truly bucolic places to stay and soak it all up.

The landscape is still worked by traditional sheep farmers, with their livestock inescapable when out tramping over the fells. The walking there is legendary, whether it’s scaling Scafell Pike or exploring wilder hills like Blencathra, further north.