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

The U.S. has promised to vote against any resolution that would seek to grant the Palestinians full membership in the United Nations after a General Assembly resolution passed with significant support from member states. 

“Our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said after the vote. “We have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully: Instead, it is an acknowledgment that statehood will only come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties.”

“This resolution does not resolve the concerns about the Palestinian membership application raised in April in the Security Council through the admissions committee process,” Wood added. “Should the Security Council take up the Palestinian membership application as a result of this resolution, there will be a similar outcome.” 

The vote, brought to the floor by the United Arab Emirates, received support from 143 members, with nine voting against and 25 abstaining.

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The “no” votes included Argentina, Hungary, Israel and the United States, among others, while the abstentions included Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Monaco, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, among others.

“A negotiated two-state solution remains the best path towards an enduring peace where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side with equal measures of security, freedom, and dignity,” the U.S. Mission to the U.N. wrote on social media platform X after the vote. “Unilateral measures like the UNGA resolution on Palestinian UN membership adopted today will not advance this goal.”

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Wood in his address to the General Assembly stressed that the resolution “does not alter the status” of the Palestinians at the United Nations, labeling the motion “unproductive,” but assured that as the resolution did not ultimately grant the Palestinians the rights that would provide “the same standing as a member state.” 

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan shreds a piece of paper with the title of the United Nations Charter as he addresses delegates during the United Nations General Assembly before voting on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full U.N. member, in New York City, May 10, 2024.  (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

As such, the U.S. has indicated it will therefore not cut funding to the United Nations or specialized agencies, which it would have had to do under Public Law 101-246. President Obama during his administration cut funding to UNICEF after the organization admitted the Palestinians as members. 

ISRAELI ENVOY SLAMS DISCLOSURE OF US HOLD ON ARMS FOR ISRAEL, CALLING MOVE ‘THE WRONG MESSAGE’

Prior to the vote, Israel’s Ambassador the U.N. Gilad Erdan accused members who would support the motion of “shredding the U.N. charter.”

“Shame on you,” Erdan said as he shredded a small paper with “Charter of the United Nations” written on it in a handheld paper shredder. 

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro University Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that “Roughly 75% of U.N. member states evidently believe that there is one exception to the U.N. Charter’s membership core requirement of being a “peace-loving state,” namely, the would-be Palestinian terror state. 

She warned that “With today’s resolution, the U.N. General Assembly could soon have a President from the so-called “State of Palestine” – without any negotiation or agreement to live in peace and security with a Jewish state. Hamas and its Palestinian Authority UN mouthpiece at the helm of the United Nations’ lead body. A day in infamy.” 

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour addresses delegates during the United Nations General Assembly before voting on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full U.N. member, in New York City, May 10, 2024.  (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

Several members in their post-vote statements stressed that they condemned the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, but argued that they deemed Israel’s actions in Gaza of having gone too far: Singapore argued that supporting the motion would hopefully push Israel and the Palestinians to resume discussions aimed at establishing a two-state solution. 

France’s mission stressed that it supported the admission of the Palestinians as members of the U.N., but that while it voted in favor of the resolution to indicate ultimate support for the motion, it did not support attempts to “circumvent” the membership admission process. 

In the two years since Russia launched its unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine, the vigorous international support that erupted in response has begun to wane. 

The recent spectacle of horse-trading at the US Congress on a new $61-billion funding package, together with emerging divergences of opinion in Europe, indicates that competing priorities are leading to a slow dilution of commitments. 

While Russia may have intended to win with a shock and awe approach, it seems it may be having more success with the long play of attrition and waiting for splits to emerge in the Western alliance.

And while governments in Europe and the US increasingly deliberate over aid, the need for help, if anything, is greater now than at the start of the war as its impacts bury deep into Ukrainian society. 

Millions in need of concrete help

Alongside the extensive military requirements, there are the fundamental needs of a society thrust into near-catastrophic disruption by its imperialistic neighbour. 

There are around 3.7 million internally displaced people struggling to make ends meet. Many are forced to fill the shortfall left by temporary and poorly paid work with humanitarian aid and social security payments. 

A quarter of Ukraine’s population is elderly, many dependent on thinning state pensions, even in a country where intergenerational family support is the norm. Hard hit also are those military and civilian individuals injured by the conflict. 

There are 300,000 more disabled people in Ukraine now than there were at the start of the war.

Where governments’ support is uncertain, individuals and civil society remain steadfast and continue to make a difference. 

Since the outbreak of the war, the principal vehicle for getting aid to those in need has been the UNITED24 initiative, launched by Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 5 May 2022. 

To date, this platform has collected over €424 million in individual donations. It has helped finance the provision of 48,000 pieces of body armour and 65,000 uniforms for Ukrainian army officials, the acquisition of 30 drones for direct military activity, and the purchase of 35 ALV machines and 10 X-ray machines for medical staff sited on Ukraine’s eastern front.

Others in Europe are chipping in, too

Smaller organisations in Europe have also intervened with great effect. One example is Vitsche, a Berlin-based NGO founded by displaced Ukrainians to counter Russian disinformation efforts and stimulate grassroots support for those fighting on the frontlines. 

In its latest grassroots campaign, Vitsche amassed €30,000 in just three days for the purchase and delivery of an emergency medical unit for hospitals in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. 

This campaign, which was amplified by prominent German social media influencers, will help frontline medical staff evacuate soldiers and civilians quickly and provide a space for potentially life-saving treatment at the frontlines. 

It also follows on from a series of other successful initiatives to get key provisions into Ukraine in the absence of government-level support.

In the UK, the transport operator Go-Ahead, together with Swindon Humanitarian Aid Partnership, crowd-sourced the purchase of four buses for frontline use across eastern Ukraine. These are now providing Ukrainian service personnel with rest areas and mobile field hospitals. 

Another has been redecorated to feature an enchanted forest and transformed into a children’s Story Bus to provide young people with much-needed respite. 

In Poland, the NGO Project HOPE is delivering primary health care, rehabilitation and psychological support to Ukrainian refugees, including providing mental health assistance to nearly 4,000 children.

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Even in Hungary, a country aligned more with the Kremlin than Kyiv, there have been remarkable, if underreported, acts of civic aid. 

The ecological NGO “10 million trees” drew on its community of supporters to defy blanket state media criticism of Ukraine and successfully finance the purchase and delivery of vital provisions to those on the frontline as part of a “Christmas in Kyiv” campaign. Donations included warm clothes and generators to power critical infrastructure during the winter.

The promises we keep

From the outset, European citizens have shown unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s fight for self-determination — providing support and aid that is filling the gaps left by political intransigence and in-fighting. 

European leaders cannot afford to feel complacent with the recently approved US aid package for Kyiv. Quite the opposite, they must act decisively and renew their commitments of support so Ukraine can effectively push back and win.

As the leading historian of the region Timothy Snyder has stated, time and again, it is imperative that we uphold our promises of support to Ukraine, both for the defence of their international rights as a free and sovereign country and in order to keep the peace here in Europe.

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Viktor Mak is co-director of the European Centre for Digital Action (ECDA).

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