World
Betting money for the WNBA is pouring in on Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The betting public is throwing money on Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever as the WNBA prepares to open one of the more-anticipated seasons in league history.
A Fever championship would have bookmakers sweating. They are the biggest liability at BetMGM Sportsbook, with nearly half the betting tickets on the Fever, who open the season Tuesday at the Connecticut Sun.
Indiana is second in money wagered at 29%, behind the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces at 41.5%, also a popular public team that additionally draws action from many professional bettors.
The heavy money on the Fever caused them to go from +2500 to win the championship to +1800. Las Vegas edged from a +115 favorite to even money.
“Caitlin Clark drove record handle on the women’s NCAA Tournament, and the interest from bettors has carried over to the WNBA,” BetMGM Sportsbook trading manager Seamus Magee said. “We expect Fever games to be the most bet throughout the season and for Clark’s player props to be popular with bettors.”
The story is much the same at Caesars Sportsbook.
Indiana, which went 13-27 last season and put the Fever in position to land Clark with the No. 1 overall pick, is tied with the Sun at Caesars with the fourth-best odds at 15-1.
The Aces at +100, last year’s runner-up New York Liberty at +240 and the Seattle Storm at +800 are favored to win the title.
“I think we’ve definitely seen an increase in the handle at this time last year,” Caesars basketball oddsmaker David Lieberman said. “It makes sense with the hype around (Clark).”
That buzz also has pushed Clark into the group of favorites to win the MVP award. She has received 68% of the wagers at BetMGM Sportsbook to receive the league’s top individual honor, which at +1000 it’s a strong value bet.
Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas at +120 and New York’s Breanna Stewart at +550 are the two favorites. Both are two-time winners, with Stewart beating out Wilson and the Sun’s Alyssa Thomas last season in a close vote. Wilson used that perceived snub as fuel in last year’s WNBA playoffs.
Clark also is third in the MVP odds at Caesars at +850, behind Wilson of Las Vegas at +100 and Stewart at +550.
There is almost no betting value on Clark to win Rookie of the Year. She is -750 at BetMGM Sportsbook, which explains why 22% of the wagers have gone to her and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese has garnered 43% of the action with a much higher payoff at +3000.
“I would argue there’s no value betting the Fever or Caitlin Clark MVP right now,” Lieberman said. “The odds are probably a little lower than they should be. It’s probably mostly public action there. I don’t think there are any sharps (pros) lining up to bet something that’s obviously a little lower than it should be at this point.”
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
World
Nato ships in Hormuz if the Strait does not reopen by July
Re-open Hormuz and end the war in Iran. The fears of the G7 in Paris relate to the impact of the conflict on an already sluggish global economy given the fallout ‘on energy, food and fertiliser supply chains’. The imperative is therefore ‘a rapid return to free and safe movement across the Strait of Hormuz and a lasting solution to the conflict’. Trump, at the urging of the Gulf countries, suspends the resumption of hostilities and gives a new ultimatum to Tehran, ‘two or three days’. Additional time for negotiations desired by Qatar: ‘Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts need more time’
World
Hezbollah grooms children for martyrdom through its scout movement, report claims
Rubio addresses Middle East tensions and Cuba’s future in exclusive interview
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in an exclusive interview about escalating Middle East tensions, including the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire and the imperative to dismantle Hezbollah. Rubio also highlights Cuba’s status as a failed state and its national security threats to the United States, advocating for substantial economic reforms to address the country’s energy crisis. He further discusses the Trump administration’s firm stance against Iran’s use of the Strait of Hormuz.
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The U.S.-designated Lebanon-based terrorist movement Hezbollah exploits children from its version of the scout movement to carry out jihadi missions that result in their deaths, according to a recent report on Lebanon’s MTV television network.
The Lebanese network’s report — translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — comes amid U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Beirut.
The report claims that Hezbollah gives child fighters heroes’ funerals and publicly glorifies them before their peers in order to encourage other children to follow in their footsteps. The MTV report said Hezbollah believes that every drop of bloodshed by child soldiers brings victory closer.
ISRAEL POUNDS HEZBOLLAH TARGETS, DARING LEBANON TO RECLAIM SOVEREIGNTY FROM IRAN-BACKED TERROR PROXY
Hezbollah al-Mahdi scouts parade with large portraits of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an event for Jerusalem Day in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, on Aug. 1, 2013. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)
It also claimed that Hezbollah uses its scout movements to cultivate an entire generation of obedient children prepared to die, through rhetoric that glorifies death and martyrdom. The MTV report, according to the MEMRI translation, said that “Hezbollah child soldiers have been used since the 1980s by this outlaw armed group. Not just as armed fighters but as Khomeini-loyal scouts.”
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reportedly exploited the use of Iranian children during the country’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq.
Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, said that “Hezbollah’s recruitment and radicalization of youth through its Mahdi Scouts is long documented,” other experts talking to Fox News Digital concurred.
“Hezbollah has boy scouts, and they have been taught jihad, and it is a well-known thing in Lebanon,” Mideast expert Walid Phares told Fox News Digital.
UNRWA SCHOOLS ‘HIJACKED BY HAMAS,’ WATCHDOG REPORT WARNS
The Lebanon expert said they could be termed “children jihadists” who are preparing to become full Hezbollah fighters. Phares said they mostly assign them [the children of Hezbollah fighters] to spying and transporting ammunition. He argued if the scouts are getting funding from a ministry or national boy scouts association in Lebanon, they should be sanctioned if they have the evidence.
Multiple Fox News Digital Emails and phone calls to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) were not immediately returned. The U.S. branch of WOSM referred Fox News Digital to WOSM, which is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A Hezbollah expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, Sarit Zehavi, called for action against the exploitation of children by the terror group.
“The only way to bring a change is to designate all of these allegedly civilian activities of Hezbollah and close the movement of its scouts, and enable the Shiites of Lebanon to have a different source of services, whether it is educational, formal or informal, which will be part of the Lebanese state, and not part of Hezbollah. The loyalty will be to the Lebanese state and not to Khomeini and the Islamic Republic.”
She added, “This is only something Lebanon can do with a lot of international pressure, of course, led by the United States.”
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An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, posted on X: “Hezbollah sacrifices Lebanese children to further the ambitions of the Iranian regime. This isn’t ‘resistance’. It’s child abuse.”
Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.S. declined to provide comment for this article.
World
Video. Merkel warns Europe can no longer rely on old security certainties
Updated:
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was awarded the European Order of Merit on Tuesday. Merkel warned that Europe could no longer take peace and security for granted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She also said changes in US security policy showed old certainties were fading.
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