Michel Platini, Europe’s Former Soccer Boss, Arrested As Part Of Qatar Inquiry
French former soccer great and former UEFA head Michel Platini, seen here in 2018, was detained Tuesday for questioning related to the inquiry into FIFA’s awarding of the 2020 World Cup to Qatar.
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French anti-corruption police have arrested former UEFA President Michel Platini in a case related to “Qatargate” — the ongoing investigations into how Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup. Platini is also a former vice president of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body.
Platini, 63, was taken into police custody Tuesday and is now at the offices of France’s anti-corruption judicial police in Nanterre, according to the French website Mediapart, which was first to report the news. The French police agency, known by the acronym OCLCIFF, specializes in complex cases involving financial fraud, corruption and breaches of integrity.
News of Platini’s arrest gripped the world of international football. Just four years ago, Platini was the powerful head of Europe’s football association and was seen as the heir apparent to then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter. At the time, the former French soccer star was a FIFA vice president.
But Platini was sidelined by FIFA in late 2015, when the body’s ethics committee suspended him from all soccer-related activities for eight years, citing a $2 million payment it said Platini received from FIFA when Blatter was its president.
That payment was made in 2011, after the Qatar vote and shortly before Blatter was reelected. Critics accused Blatter of paying Platini for his help in securing the World Cup bid for Qatar. Both men denied that version of events.
FIFA’s initial ban on Platini was later reduced to four years — it’s slated to expire in October.
Platini won the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best soccer player three times, and he’s still regarded as one of the all-time greats. But his name has increasingly been clouded by inquiries into FIFA’s choice of Qatar to host the World Cup, in an upset win over bids from the U.S., Australia, South Korea and Japan.
As The Associated Press reports:
“Platini told the AP in 2015 that he ‘might have told’ American officials that he would vote for the United States bid. However, he changed his mind after a November 2010 meeting, hosted by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy at his official residence in Paris and Qatar’s crown prince, now emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
“Platini has long insisted that the meeting did not influence his vote for Qatar less than two weeks later.”
According to French media outlets, as anti-corruption police took Platini into custody Tuesday, they also spoke to two former officials from the Sarkozy era: Sophie Dion, a lawyer who served as the president’s adviser on sports, and Claude Guéant, who was the secretary general of L’Élysée under Sarkozy.
Like Platini, Dion was taken into custody. The official term for Guéant’s status is that of a “free suspect”: He was questioned but not detained.
‘Sports Illustrated’ Magazine Now Under Ross Levinsohn, Exec With Controversial Past
Authentic Brands Group, which bought Sports Illustrated in May, has now licensed its print and digital publishing rights to another company.
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The storied magazine Sports Illustrated and its website have a new publisher.
The 65-year-old magazine’s editorial content will be controlled by a digital outfit called Maven, in a deal announced Monday. Ross Levinsohn, the controversial former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, has been named CEO.
It comes just three weeks after Sports Illustrated was bought for $110 million by a brand and marketing firm called Authentic Brands Group. As part of that deal, its previous owner Meredith Corp. would have had editorial control for up to two years. Instead, Authentic Brands now has a deal with Maven.
A Seattle-based media company, Maven was founded by James Heckman, who previously worked at Fox and Yahoo. Heckman and Levinsohn, who was also an executive at Fox and Yahoo, have long been professionally intertwined.
They plan to rename the organization Sports Illustrated Media and expand the brand internationally in partnership with Authentic Brands.
Though the organization didn’t provide an editorial vision, the deal raises questions about the editorial future of Sports Illustrated. The business practices of Levinsohn and Heckman were the subject of an earlier NPR investigation.
As publisher of the Los Angeles Times and an investor in a digital outfit called True/Slant, Levinsohn embraced a strategy he termed “gravitas with scale” — a model that was based on unpaid contributors and meant job losses for the traditional newsroom journalists in The Tribune publishing chain.
Levinsohn was sued twice as an executive, and was accused of fostering a workplace environment that was conducive to sexual harassment, NPR has previously reported. His corporate employers settled both lawsuits against him and his co-defendants for undisclosed sums.
Maven paid $45 million against future royalties of Sports Illustrated, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Under the terms, Authentic Brands will pay Maven a share of revenues, and a 10-year licensing agreement that can be renewed for a total of 100 years.
Monday’s sale is just the latest media acquisition for Maven. As recently as last week, it bought financial news site TheStreet for $16.5 million.
The first issue of Sports Illustrated hit newsstands in 1954. The magazine, which focused its coverage on sports also featured deep dives in the arenas of civil and human rights, politics, power and money through the lens of sport.
NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed to this report.
A Clearer Map For Aging: ‘Elderhood’ Shows How Geriatricians Help Seniors Thrive
U.S. Soccer Team Advances At Women’s World Cup In France
The U.S. Women’s National Team has advanced at the Women’s World Cup after defeating Chile 3-0 Sunday. There’s still one more game in group play and it’s an important one to the U.S.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The United States turned in another impressive performance at the Women’s World Cup. Now, it wasn’t 13-nothing, the score by which the Americans defeated Thailand, such a drubbing that some people complained the Americans went too far. But it was a shutout, as the U.S. defeated Chile 3-0. The team is now guaranteed to advance to the knockout round. NPR’s Laurel Wamsley is in Paris.
LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE: The atmosphere inside the Parc des Princes stadium was electric and very American. Fans were decked out in red, white and blue, sometimes on their cheeks, sometimes wearing the American flag like a cape. Tickets for the U.S.-Chile game had sold out, unlike many other matches in the tournament that have had lots of empty seats. Even before the game started, fans were amped by the recent big win over Thailand. And they urged their team to show them some more fireworks.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SOCCER FANS: (Chanting) U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.
WAMSLEY: The U.S. dominated from the start, with crisp, clean passes and pressure at the Chile goal. And the U.S. had an almost entirely different lineup from their first game, seven new players in the starting 11. But it didn’t matter. The team played with finesse and power, and it didn’t take long for the U.S. to start scoring. Team captain Carli Lloyd hammered the first goal into the back of the net in the 11th minute.
(CHEERING)
WAMSLEY: She’s the first person to score in six consecutive games in the Women’s World Cup. Fifteen minutes later, Julie Ertz doubled the Americans’ lead with an expert header off a corner kick from Tierna Davidson. She’s the team’s youngest player at 20, appearing in her World Cup debut. Davidson served up another corner a few minutes later. And Carli Lloyd scored again, also on a header. U.S. fans were thrilled at what they saw, including A.K. Linehart Minnick from Boise, Idaho.
A K LINEHART MINNICK: Carli Lloyd has demonstrated that she has a work ethic above and beyond anything. She’s out there leading with that big heart. And then you see Mallory Pugh, who’s, like, this newcomer. And she’s got so much ability, it’s scary. And they were, like, knocking her around, and she’d get back up and get in their face and take the ball. And it was – I mean, it was an amazing performance.
WAMSLEY: Playing and winning with the team’s reserve squad was an act of confidence by U.S. coach Jill Ellis. But it was also strategic, letting all of her players work out any anxiety before the more difficult games that lie ahead.
JILL ELLIS: We need them in a good place. And if they can have minutes, and the butterflies are kind of out the way, then I think it helps us down the line.
WAMSLEY: The U.S. will now face their longtime foe, Sweden, who knocked them out in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics. But the victory over Chile guarantees that the U.S. will advance to the next round of the tournament. And they’re one step closer to their mission here in France, winning the Cup. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News, Paris.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Sports Analyst: NBA Reliance On Analytics Hurts Diversity Hiring
NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with ESPN analyst Jalen Rose about why he thinks advanced analytics is hindering diversity hiring in the NBA.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Let’s talk basketball for a minute. The men’s NBA season is officially over. The Toronto Raptors have won their first NBA championship. And now the big news in the men’s game is the upcoming draft and the big trades, like Anthony Davis heading to the Lakers. So we thought this might be a good time to explore how teams decide. And while there’s been a lot of talk these days about the growing power of agents and big-name players, increasingly, teams are using advanced analytics, really detailed performance data to determine whom to hire.
And Jalen Rose has some thoughts about that. Jalen Rose is a former college basketball star, a member of the University of Michigan’s Fab Five, a former NBA player. And he’s now a prominent sports analyst on multiple shows on ESPN and elsewhere. In a recent conversation with The New Yorker Magazine, Rose argued that the increased reliance on analytics over things like playing experience make it harder for former players, many of whom are minorities, to get high-level positions. I called him to ask him to tell me more.
JALEN ROSE: There became an amazing groundswell of opportunities that presented themselves in powerful positions, whether general manager, president and/or an entire department now that organizations are dedicating themselves to making sure they are on top of the analytics. And they’re able to decipher not only what you see, but obviously they’re able to detect it via the numbers.
So I understand, and I appreciate having all of the information. But at some point, there still has to be some level of logic, expertise. Your eye test has to be something that you’re able to trust along with your instincts to make that big final decision. I just always felt like analytics should be a tool – a wrench, a hammer – that’s a part of the tool box, not necessarily the end-all, be-all to a final decision. And it definitely should not be the sole reason why somebody is put into a powerful position.
MARTIN: In a way, I feel like you’re saying that, well, you’re saying a couple of things that people have seen in other fields. They feel that, say, algorithms are replacing human judgment. And it also – what I hear you saying is that this is a way to kind of keep the club the way it’s always been. Now that more African Americans are getting the experience to move into these front office positions, you have the feeling that perhaps this reliance on data is a way to kind of keep it as the club that it’s always been that has not been particularly diverse. Is that what you see?
ROSE: Well, I’m just really talking about the landscape as I see it and acknowledging how that did take place based on the dynamics you just described. It’s just that what ended up happening with those jobs and the dynamics of professional sports. If you look from the top down, there needs to be more diversity in the powerful positions.
And a lot of times, the numbers became a catalyst to say, here’s an opportunity. Oh, and by the way, since you know analytics, you get pushed to the front of the line. And if you look in the NBA and in many professional sports, there isn’t a lot of diversity amongst those who got their position based on the fact that they were really good at crunching the numbers and doing analytics.
MARTIN: So what kind of reaction are you getting?
ROSE: A lot of support. And the great thing about being open-minded and trying to always be fair, you hear it from all sides. And when people have a good point, you acknowledge it. And when you feel like what you’re saying and what you believe is what it’s going to be, then and you just own it.
MARTIN: That was ESPN analyst former, NBA player Jalen Rose. We’re talking about a piece that just posted in The New Yorker called “Jalen Rose Has A Problem With Basketball Analytics.” And we reached him in Oakland. Jalen Rose, thanks so much for talking to us.
ROSE: Thank you kindly. Have a great day.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Boeing CEO Admits Mistake In 737 MAX Communication
Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg speaks during a press conference after the annual shareholders meeting in Chicago on April 29.
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Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg says the company should have been more transparent with regulators and the public when Boeing discovered a safety light was not operating as designed.
Muilenburg made the comments to reporters ahead of the Paris Air Show, Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe told NPR.
“We clearly fell short in the implementation of the AOA disagree alert and we clearly should have communicated better with our regulators and the airlines,” Johndroe said in an interview by phone from Paris.
Boeing’s 737 MAX plane has been grounded worldwide since the second of two crashes that together killed 346 people. In both the Lion Air flight in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019, pilots struggled to overcome a software program known as MCAS that drove the noses of the planes down. Now Boeing is working on a software update that will enable pilots to more easily control their aircraft.
The fatal crashes and the ongoing grounding of its fastest-selling plane have cast a shadow over Boeing’s appearance at the Paris Air Show, which runs June 17-23.
“The company’s presence and activities at the show will demonstrate its commitment to innovation, industry partnerships and safety,” Boeing announced.
Both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have extended 737 MAX flight cancellations through early September. Previously, both airlines had planned to resume flights in August. American says about 115 flights will be canceled daily, and Southwest says about 100 flights will be removed from its daily schedule.
In his comments, Muilenburg referred to a safety feature connected to the sensors that feed into the MCAS software. The software would trigger when the plane was flying at an angle that might make a stall likely. Boeing designed a warning light to alert pilots when the two “angle of attack” sensors disagreed, which could mean MCAS would be triggered incorrectly.
The light was supposed to be standard on all versions of the MAX; however, in practice, it only worked on planes with other safety features that airlines bought for extra cost.
NPR’s Laurel Wamsley has reported that Boeing knew the AOA disagree alert malfunctioned before the Lion Air crash.
Muilenburg conceded that engineers learned in 2017 that the alert light did not work as intended, and he said he was “disappointed” Boeing did not work to make the information more public, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford told NPR his office is working with Boeing throughout the testing of the software enhancement.
“We have not set a date for the certification flight,” Lunsford wrote in an email.
Aviation expert Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group said Muilenburg’s comments appeared to reflect a change in tone.
“It’s been a tradeoff. Do you limit the short-term damage from liability cases, or do you focus instead on protecting the long-term brand equity of product and company, and they’ve been favoring the first option,” he said. “That to me is a big mistake which seems to be changing.”
Speaking from Paris, Aboulafia told NPR Muilenburg’s comments had captured attention of the air show attendees.
“Standing around in cocktail parties, I think that is something people are remarking on.”
The Ethical Question Of Running Up The Score
The U.S. Women’s soccer team beat Thailand 13-0 on Tuesday, sparking an ethics debate over running up the score against a weaker opponent. NPR’s Michel Martin talks to sports ethicist Shawn Klein.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Women’s World Cup is underway in France, and as usual in the early rounds, the underdogs have been getting dispatched by the powerhouses pretty handily. But Tuesday’s match between the U.S. and Thailand took this to a new level. The U.S. crushed the Thai opponents 13-0. For some, this was a cause for celebration and vindication, as the U.S. women have been pressing their governing body for better pay and conditions. But for some commentators, the lopsided result raises questions about sportsmanship and even ethics. Should the Americans have kept running up the score against the vastly outmatched Thais?
To settle this, we’ve called Shawn Klein, a lecturer in ethics and philosophy at Arizona State University. And he’s with us now from KJZZ in Arizona.
Thank you so much for joining us.
SHAWN KLEIN: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: And, professor Klein, I want to mention that you teach a class in sports ethics – a class that has a whole section of the syllabus devoted to the ethics of running up the score. So you have thought a lot about this. You watched this game. Did it strike you as unethical in the moment?
KLEIN: I thought it was exciting. I thought it was ridiculous. I kept running to my son and saying, they scored again. They scored again. I didn’t experience it as lacking in sportsmanship.
MARTIN: And when you say ridiculous, you don’t mean that in a bad way. You mean it like, ridiculous – like, wow, this is ridiculous.
KLEIN: Yeah. I mean…
MARTIN: This is crazy (laughter).
KLEIN: Crazy – this is – I’ve never seen this. This is, you know, Michael Jordan leaping over all the defenders in basketball. This is Serena Williams demolishing, you know, her competition in a tennis match. It was a sporting moment that you just don’t see, and so it would – that part was exciting, to see that historical aspect of it.
MARTIN: And so what do you make of the way this has kept bubbling up all week? I just want to note that the U.S. coach, Jill Ellis, said that if this had been a men’s soccer match, these questions would never have come up. I don’t know any way to test that theory. But why do you think this has bubbled up like it has all week?
KLEIN: I mean, I think she’s right to a degree. I do think that the fact that this is the Women’s World Cup is playing a role of why it’s getting the attention it’s getting. At the same time, these questions do get raised in other sports. I mean, I can’t recall it being raised in men’s soccer. Certainly, from the U.S. perspective, the U.S. has never gotten (laughter) close to having this kind of match – at least, on the winning side. But in other sports, whether it’s the NFL, men’s college football, baseball, flipping the bat after a home run, the celebrations – this question does get raised against men’s teams.
MARTIN: You did mention the celebrations. So that is another sportsmanship question that has come out of this match – about the way the U.S. women celebrated their goals – you know, jumping in each other’s arms or rolling on the field. I mean, that’s pretty standard stuff. But I do wonder if you think that the fact that the team kept celebrating when they kept scoring – do you think that’s something that’s pushing people’s buttons?
KLEIN: I do think that that’s the driving force for a lot of the discussions. But what the U.S. players were doing was coming together. In some of the cases – so you take Mallory Pugh, this was her first World Cup goal. Yes, it was the 11th goal that the U.S. scored, but this was her first goal. So of course she’s going to celebrate, and of course the team around her is going to come to her and celebrate.
And that shows great team chemistry – that they’re all so happy for Pugh’s success and achievement – an achievement that she’s been dreaming about since she was 6 years old. So I think that that ability to dream and then celebrate when you have achieved your dream, I think, is one of the magical things of sport. And I would hate to see us not celebrate that.
MARTIN: I wanted to ask you, for the people who think it’s just not a good look or maybe it just makes the U.S. look bad or like bullies, why do you think that it was important from the standpoint of the U.S. women for them to play hard and score as many goals as they could? Like, what point do you think they were making?
KLEIN: One is just internal to their – to the team – that they can play well together in the context of a game in front of fans on international TV. I also think it’s a message to the rest of the field that the U.S. is here to defend their championship, and they’re going to play hard.
I think it’s also important in terms of telling young women that it’s OK to be who they are. It’s OK to be great. It’s OK to pursue greatness and to achieve greatness. And it’s OK to celebrate your achievements and not to run from them and not to hide from it. And I think that’s an important message.
MARTIN: Well, I do want to note the USA plays Chile tomorrow, Sunday. Care to – I don’t know – handicap it for us?
KLEIN: (Laughter) I think that the U.S. will win. I don’t think we’ll get into the double digits again. I’ll say that. It may be more like a – let’s say 6-1 score. Let’s go with that.
MARTIN: OK. That’s Shawn Klein. He hosts a podcast called “The Sports Ethicist” where questions like this one often come up.
Shawn Klein, thanks so much for talking to us.
KLEIN: Thanks for having me.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Tennessee Workers Reject Union At Volkswagen Plant — Again
Workers produce vehicles at Volkswagen’s U.S. plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. Some 1,600 workers have narrowly voted against unionizing the plant, the second time an effort to unionize the plant has failed in recent years.
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Erik Schelzig/AP
For the second time in recent years, auto workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have narrowly voted against forming a union.
It was the difference of 57 votes.
Preliminary results show that over three days of voting, 776 workers backed the union, but 833 voted it down.
The outcome is seen as the latest blow against organized labor in the South, where union advocates have tried for years to strengthen representation in auto facilities amid a shrinking union membership base and fierce opposition from many top lawmakers in the region.
A slim 51% majority of the some 1,600 ballots cast shot it down. The last time United Auto Workers held a vote to organize the Chattanooga factory, in 2014, roughly 53% of workers rejected the proposal.
To Volkswagen officials, the latest union defeat shows that anti-union sentiment remains strong among factory workers.
“Our employees have spoken,” said Frank Fischer, president and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga.
Volkswagen has officially been neutral in both this month’s vote and the one in 2014.
Fischer said the National Labor Relations Board still has to certify the results, which will then be subject to legal review.
“Volkswagen will respect the decision of the majority,” Fischer said in a statement to NPR.
A union victory at the Chattanooga factory would have delivered UAW its first fully-unionized foreign-owned auto plant in the South.
Following the earlier failed attempt to form a union, a smaller group of maintenance workers voted to unionize, but Volkswagen would not bargain with them unless all hourly workers had a chance to vote. That set the stage for this vote.
Labor experts in Tennessee, where resistance to unions runs deep, noted the particularly forceful opposition among state Republican leaders to the Chattanooga plant organizing this time around.
At one point, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee made a visit to the site to address workers before the vote.
“When I have a direct relationship with you, the worker, and you’re working for me, that is when the environment works the best,” Lee told workers, according to a leaked recording of his conversation.
The visit took some observers aback.
“It’s not unusual for governors and U.S. Senators to vociferously oppose unions in private companies,” Daniel Cornfield, a labor expert at Vanderbilt University, told NPR. “What is unusual is this governor went inside the plant and directly talked to the workers.”
The governor’s visit and the onslaught of ad campaigns around the vote added to debates on the shop floor that may still be lingering after the vote.
Christopher Bitton, a worker at the Chattanooga plant who opposed the union, said the lead up to the vote exposed divisions among the workers, and he does not expect those tensions to dissipate.
“There has been a clear division between pro and anti on the floor,” Bitton told NPR member station WPLN. “And after this is over with, I don’t know whether or not this is going to clear up.”
Union officials accused the Volkswagen officials of interfering with the vote through “legal games,” saying workers faced threats and intimidation and a “campaign of misinformation” ahead of the vote.
Workers at the Chattanooga plant typically start out getting paid $15.50 per hour. Just months before the union vote, the company announced pay increases for production team members. While that is a strong wage compared to median earnings in Chattanooga, it is below what unionized auto workers are paid.
Volkswagen has union representation at all of its other major plants around the globe, but none of its factories in the South have factory-wide unions.
Cornfield, the Vanderbilt labor expert, said pro-labor activists could see some silver lining in the slim vote tally.
“This is not a landslide victory for the anti-union forces,” he said.
Women’s World Cup: First Week Brings Big Wins, Gorgeous Goals — And Some Controversy
U.S. forward Alex Morgan shoots and scores past Thailand’s Natthakarn Chinwong on Tuesday in Reims, France, in the group stage of the Women’s World Cup.
Michael Chow/USA Today Sports via Reuters
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Michael Chow/USA Today Sports via Reuters
In the first seven days of the Women’s World Cup, there have already been stunning goals, crushing defeats and no shortage of controversy. We’ve been following the action from France — oui, un croissant, s’il-vous plaît — and here are some of the key stories we’ve seen in a week of great soccer.
A very big win
The biggest story is the United States’ demolition of Thailand on Tuesday night, winning 13-0. The game set all kinds of World Cup records: It was the most goals scored and the biggest margin of victory in any tournament, women’s or men’s; it had the highest number of players — seven — to score in a game; and it tied the record for number of goals in a match — five — courtesy of Alex Morgan. (U.S. forward Michelle Akers had five in 1991, as did Russia’s Oleg Salenko on the men’s side in 1994.)
And a number of World Cup rookies for the U.S. scored on soccer’s biggest stage: Samantha Mewis and Rose Lavelle both had two goals, and Mallory Pugh and Lindsey Horan each notched one. Veteran forwards Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd both scored, as well.
As the history-making game played out in the stadium in Reims, the sense was that we were witnessing an incredible display. While it was no surprise that the U.S. defeated the weaker Thailand squad, the Yanks’ goals were impressive, as was their ability to keep up pressure nearly 100% of the time — a testament to the strength of a squad that could be the best ever.
FIFA
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But some observers thought the U.S. celebrated its later goals with a bit too much joy. (One of those observers, a former player for the Canadian national team, says she began receiving death threats.)
But the U.S. shrugged off such criticism.
“We knew that every goal could matter,” Morgan said after the game, referring to the fact that goal differential can affect which team ranks at the top of the group. ‘When it comes to celebrations, I think this was a really good team performance tonight, and I think it was important for us to celebrate with each other.”
The leaderboard
Three teams have already secured two wins, making them very likely to advance: France, Germany and Italy.
Host country France looked powerful — and dangerous to its future opponents — in Les Bleus’ opening day 4-0 win over South Korea. Eugénie Le Sommer got the game off to a rollicking start with a goal in the ninth minute off a pass from captain Amandine Henry.
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Defender Wendie Renard, who hails from the Caribbean island of Martinique and stands 6 feet, 1 inch tall, scored two headers and showed how France will be a force on corner kicks. And Henry closed off the night with a gorgeous goal in the 85th minute.
WHAT A STRIKE BY AMANDINE HENRY ?? pic.twitter.com/FwXfNZWYJ6
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 7, 2019
The U.S. plays Chile on Sunday — a match the Americans are expected to win.
Some surprises
Group C, comprising Australia, Brazil, Jamaica and Italy, is shaping up to be an interesting foursome.
One reason is that Italy came out stronger than expected. Ranked No. 15 in the world, Italy beat Australia (ranked No. 6) 2-1 when they faced off on Sunday. In its second match, Italy clobbered World Cub debutante Jamaica 5-0 on Friday.
Australia is regarded as one of the strongest teams in the tournament, and after that surprise loss to Italy had to take on Brazil. Brazil beat Jamaica in its first game, without Marta, who was recovering from a thigh injury.
As Australia and Brazil faced off on Thursday, Brazil pulled out to an early lead, with a penalty by Marta in the 27th minute and a powerful header by Cristiane in the 38th. But the Matildas came roaring back, with a goal just before the half, another in the 58th and an own goal by Brazil’s Monica a few minutes later. Australia became just the second team in Women’s World Cup history to come back after a two-goal deficit.
Some questions linger around the Brazilian team. Marta, Cristiane and veteran defender Formiga all came off the pitch early in the Australia match, which could indicate nagging injuries. Formiga also racked up her second yellow card, which means she will miss Brazil’s final group-stage match, against Italy on Tuesday.
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There has also been only one tie thus far: a 0-0 draw between Argentina and Japan.
Good moves
South Africa — the team nicknamed Banyana Banyana — really knows how to enter a room.
South Africans showing up to World Cup games remains the best entries pic.twitter.com/yB7UCGZAQz
— Miriti Murungi (@NutmegRadio) June 8, 2019
After the USA’s thumping of Thailand, Carli Lloyd went up to Thai goalkeeper Sukanya Chor Charoenying and gave her a hug and some words of encouragement. Then the two had a very sweet interaction on Twitter.
All you can do is give it your best each and every day. Keep fighting and never give up!! Still 2 more games to play. ? https://t.co/pFW4wEK8Nb
— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd) June 13, 2019
“I felt for her,” Lloyd told reporters Friday. “In the wins and losses, I think character is a true testament to the sport. … I just hope they continue to put their head up, continue to fight — and just keep going.”
Attorneys Unveil Plan For National Settlement Of Lawsuits From Opioid Epidemic
Attorneys who represent hundreds of local governments have a new proposal for how to deal with the opioid crisis. They unveiled the framework for nationwide settlement in federal court on Friday.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
All right, attorneys representing hundreds of local governments around the country met this morning in Ohio. They unveiled a plan they hope will lead to a national settlement of lawsuits stemming from the opioid epidemic. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake. A lot of that money could go to helping people struggling with addiction, but big hurdles remain before the drug industry agrees to major payouts.
North Country Public Radio’s Brian Mann reports.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: The motion was filed in a federal court in Ohio by a team of attorneys who represent 1,200 counties, cities and towns that all say they need money to help respond to the opioid epidemic. One of those attorneys, Joe Rice, says they’ve been trying to reach a settlement with two dozen drugmakers and distributors that sold opioid medications. But during negotiations over the last year, companies haven’t signed on.
JOE RICE: The defendants don’t have a sense of how they get closure. How can they put this issue behind them? And with the whole country involved, it’s a difficult question.
MANN: The problem, says Richard Ausness, a professor at the University of Kentucky who follows opioid litigation, is that if companies like Purdue Pharma and McKesson settle for billions of dollars with one group of towns and cities, they could still face other litigation. What the drug industry wants, he says, is a deal that brings closure.
RICHARD AUSNESS: Because obviously they don’t want too many outliers suing them after they’ve settled with the majority. And this proposed settlement seems to anticipate that and try to provide for as much of a global settlement as is possible.
MANN: The plan unveiled today doesn’t include the dollar amounts for a settlement or a formula for who would pay. Negotiations haven’t gotten that far. What this plan does is lay out a deal where roughly 24,000 local governments would all be swept into a single group that could settle with drug companies together. Those communities would get to vote on any proposed payout. They could also opt out of the arrangements altogether. But attorney Joe Rice says he hopes for a lot of buy-in if this plan is approved by the court.
RICE: This is an attempt to bring a organizational load to the municipalities around the country in order they can speak with a voice.
MANN: This kind of closure and clarity could be an important bargaining chip because local governments hope for massive compensation, payouts that would rival the big tobacco settlements of the 1990s.
RICE: Tens of billions of dollars would be needed to make a significant – a real significant impact on this epidemic.
MANN: Attorneys for two of the drug companies involved in this lawsuit describe the proposal as interesting but preliminary. They said they haven’t had time to work through the details of how it would work. Some companies are also still reluctant to admit wrongdoing. Johnson & Johnson is facing a state civil trial right now in Oklahoma, accused of improperly marketing opioid products. Earlier this year, Jennifer Taubert, CEO of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen division, testified before Congress, insisting the company isn’t responsible for the prescription opioid epidemic.
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JENNIFER TAUBERT: Everything that we have done with our products when we promoted opioid products, which we stopped marketing a long time ago, was very appropriate and responsible.
MANN: Joe Rice, attorney with the plaintiffs group that filed the motion today, says he doesn’t think this proposed settlement framework will resolve all opioid litigation against Big Pharma. But he does think it might allow companies or groups of companies to now come forward and cut a deal.
RICE: I think that the distributors could potentially all get on the same page. I think the manufacturers could potentially get on the same page.
MANN: The judge overseeing the consolidated federal opioid case in Ohio, Dan Polster, has been pushing for the parties to reach a settlement. So far, that’s been elusive, but sources tell NPR the creation of this new framework was one of the steps the court asked for to help make a final deal possible. Brian Mann, NPR News.
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