by Tim Willert OKLAHOMA CITY  — The Oklahoma City Thunder announced Monday they will honor former league MVP Russell Westbrook by retiring his No. 0 in February. Westbrook, 37, played 11 of his 18 NBA seasons with Oklahoma City and retired as team leader in games (821), points (18,859), rebounds (5,760), assists (6,897), steals (1,442), field goals (6,626) and minutes (28,329). During that span he helped lead the Thunder to the third-best record in the NBA (.607; 538-348). The Thunder reached the NBA Finals in 2012, reached the playoffs nine times and made four Western Conference Finals appearances. He was…

by Joey Cappelletti, Corey Williams and Mike Householder DETROIT — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s former opponent in the U.S. Senate primary, Haley Stevens, stunned party officials Sunday by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers as Democratic tensions boiled over days before the election that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Stevens endorsed Rogers after attending a Detroit church service with him. The remarkable show of support for the President Donald Trump-backed candidate in the tightly contested race comes after she was uninvited to a joint event the same day with El-Sayed, who defeated the congresswoman by a slim margin…

by Danica Kirka LONDON  — U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says his government will consider apologizing for the first time for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but has rejected calls for the country to pay reparations. Writing in the Guardian on Saturday, Burnham said Britain needed to acknowledge its “complicated history” in order to protect the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent nations that grew out of the British Empire. Burnham travels to Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean next week for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, which he hopes will bolster the U.K.’s relations with nations in…

by Kim Chandler MONTGOMERY, Ala.  — When the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Actthis year, U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures knew he was going to be targeted. Alabama’s Republican-controlled Legislature soon after redrew the 2nd Congressional District, one of only two in the state represented by a Democrat, to make it easier for the GOP to win. Figures, one of several Black members of Congress who saw their districts redrawn, has complicated that plan. He is fighting to hold on to his seat by not only rallying Black voters in cities such as Montgomery and Tuskegee, both steeped in…

by Nicole Winfield VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has become the first pontiff to vote in a U.S. general election, casting a mail-in ballot in a contest that will decide America’s political future as the Trump era slowly comes to an end. The Vatican confirmed Friday that the Chicago-born pontiff had submitted a mail-in ballot in the city ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, citing his long-standing belief in civic participation. Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen” as he has done “whenever he was eligible to do so,”…

by Mogomotsi Magome JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police have asked the courts to halt planned marches by anti-illegal immigration groups in the coastal city of Durban following alleged threats of violence and plans to burn down a refugee reception office in the city. The application to block the marches follows recent violence at some of the demonstrations, which reportedly left a foreign national dead last week. The KwaZulu-Natal High Court on Wednesday granted an interim order against the demonstrators, but will consider Friday whether to make the order permanent. Some African countries have repatriated their citizens following the violence.…

by Steve Peoples NEW YORK — The nation’s major political parties are at a crossroads. A decade after he began to remake the Republican Party in his image, President Donald Trump is facing the prospect of a voter rebellion Tuesday that could force conservatives to rethink their undying allegiance to the 80-year-old lame-duck leader and his “Make America Great Again” movement. Already, some Republican candidates have begun to distance themselves from him. And Democrats, who remain unpopular despite midterm momentum, are speeding toward a tug-of-war between establishment leaders and emboldened progressives demanding nothing less than transformative change. Whether either party…

by Joey Capperlletti The data compiled by The Associated Press offers a glimpse of early voter participation five days before an election that will determine control of Congress and other key contests across the country. Across the country, more than 43 million Americans had voted early in person or returned mail ballots, nearly 10 million more than in 2022. The figures cover 47 states and Washington, D.C., compared with 48 states and the nation’s capital four years ago. In states that provide information on voters’ party affiliation, about 6.8 million Democrats and 5.2 million Republicans have cast ballots early. Those…

LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — Chicago Bears defensive end Montez Sweat didn’t explain why he failed a performance-enhancing drug test and received a two-week suspension, but he did make it clear how much it hurt absorbing the penalty. The former Pro Bowl defensive end missed the last two games while serving the suspension but returned this week and is practicing for Monday night’s game against the Seattle Seahawks. “I just want to apologize to my teammates, the fan base, everybody, but I’m moving forward now,” Sweat said Tuesday. Sweat reportedly will lose some guarantees on his contract as a result of…

By Emeka Obasi He is Chief of the Air Staff wearing the rank of an Air Marshal. Beyond that,  the name Sunday Kelvin Aneke animates celebrations in many bases around the country, beginning from the Sam Ethnan Barracks,home of 651 Base Service Group, Ikeja. In the past, an Air Force base commander was like a tin God, dreaded by his subordinates and avoided by kids in the community. Now, Aneke has brought himself to the level of tiny tots and families of service personnel. I sat down recently to chat with people from Sam Ethnan Barracks. One of them opened…