By Emile Nuh, CNN

(CNN) — The NBA regular season is in the rearview, the playoff bracket is set, and for the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, the journey back to the mountaintop really begins.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will understandably command much of the spotlight. The reigning NBA MVP – who is the frontrunner for the award yet again – is having a 31.1 ppg season, his fourth straight year averaging over 30 a game.

But as the old adage goes: Offense wins games, defense wins championships.

And that’s where Lu Dort steps in.

The 6-foot-4 guard – who was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team last season and placed fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting – was a key cog in the OKC team that lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy as their primary defensive stopper.

This season, the Thunder – who clinched the No. 1 seed in a tough Western Conference for the third straight season with a league-leading 64–18 record – unsurprisingly also had the No. 1-ranked defense yet again, with a rating of 106.5.

And despite having a plethora of options to utilize on the defensive end alongside Dort, including 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren and the ever-improving Cason Wallace, head coach Mark Daigneault still placed the toughest assignments on the recently turned 27-year-old’s broad shoulders.

The kid who sat in the crowd and didn’t hear his name called at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on draft night in 2019 hasn’t done too bad for himself.

“My journey wasn’t easy,” Dort told CNN Sports ahead of the playoffs. “There’s not a lot of kids that make it to the NBA from Montreal, so just that step was big.

“And the fact that this organization and (Thunder Executive Vice President & General Manager) Sam Presti trusted in me when I went undrafted and gave me a chance.

“It’s been a lot of blocks, and I’m trying to step over them every time. But if I had to talk back to the younger Lu as of right now, I’m real proud of him.”

Bigger than basketball

For Dort, it’s about more than just making an impact on the hardwood. The journey from undrafted prospect in 2019 to becoming an NBA champion in 2025 was only half the story.

He was born and raised in Montreal – specifically in a borough called Montréal-Nord – to parents who immigrated from Haiti to Canada in their 20s. As he wrote in The Players’ Tribune: “Seeing everything they had to go through to start a new life, I learned that everything has to be earned through hard work. Nothing’s given. Words I live by.”

To understand where Dort is now, you have to understand where he came from. The competitive fervor he brings to the court every night can’t be taught; the get-it-out-the-mud mentality he has can’t just be developed like getting shots up in the gym – you either have it or you don’t.

That fire inside Dort was lit way back in the spring of ’99.

“Basketball was my way out,” he said in The Players’ Tribune. Now, he’s using basketball to give back through The Maizon Dort Foundation, an organization he set up to support underserved communities in Montreal, Oklahoma City, and central Arizona, where he spent a year in college with the Arizona State Sun Devils in 2018.

“When I made it to the league, my biggest goal was to go back to my community and give back,” he told CNN.

By Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — It was envisioned as an expansive sculpture garden to honor America’s 250th birthday, with 250 statues of figures like Kobe Bryant, Elvis Pressley and Rosa Parks.

But with July 4th rapidly approaching, it’s unlikely that even one statue for President Donald Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes will be erected in time, sources familiar with the planning tell CNN.

Foundries and artists from across the country who applied to work on the massive, classical-style, sculptures – which would take months to build – haven’t heard from the Trump administration.

And plans for the garden haven’t been submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts or the National Capital Planning Commission — two government agencies whose approval is needed before it can be built.

“It has not been formally reviewed,” a person familiar with planning efforts said. “Based on my experience in prior approvals in the District, I don’t see how this could be in place in time by July.”

There has been some progress. The White House has zeroed in on West Potomac Park – a picturesque plot of land along the Potomac River popular for viewing Washington’s cherry blossoms – as the site for the garden, people familiar with the plans told CNN. And the administration has hired Michael Franck, a Washington, DC-based architect, to advise the project.

But the White House hasn’t formally announced the location, and sources say even that could change.

The project’s delays and twists are emblematic of Trump’s broader efforts to reshape the architecture and culture of the nation’s capital — including plans for an enormous White House ballroom that would replace the East Wing and a gold-accented triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery that some veterans groups oppose.

Some critics worry the sculpture garden will also be given a rubber stamp by the CFA or the NCPC, which have been stacked by Trump appointees.

One source familiar with construction approvals said they feared the sculpture garden “will be rammed through without approval” by Congress or the commissions, “as in the case of the White House ballroom.”

The garden was not discussed at Thursday’s CFA meeting, and sources on the NCPC say they were not aware of any plans on the schedule in upcoming monthly meeting to review the project.

The White House declined to comment.

Missed deadlines, and many fits and starts

The project is a personal endeavor for Trump that’s years in the making. It’s an idea first presented during a political speech the then-45th president made at the base of Mount Rushmore six years ago.

Trump announced that he decided to commission a monument “to the giants of our past” that would be a “vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.”

Shortly after, the White House released an executive order calling for the creation of the National Garden of American Heroes to open before July 4, 2026.

But the project has gone through many fits and starts.

A 2020 executive order was revoked by President Joe Biden in 2021, and then reissued days after Trump retook office.

In his second term, Trump has pulled money from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund cultural initiatives he backs, including the National Garden of Heroes.

The NEH and NEA have jointly set aside $34 million for the garden, with the NEA planning to contribute $17 million for the project,

By Bryan Mena, Way Mullery, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The process to install Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, isn’t going smoothly, and it could get even more complicated.

After a monthslong search process, Trump finally announced his nomination on January 30. Nearly three months later, there still isn’t a certain path for Warsh’s confirmation to the role. For Warsh to become Fed chair, he needs to first be approved by the Senate Banking Committee. That hearing has finally been set for April 21. Then, he will need a final vote in the broader upper chamber.

The problem: North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, is still refusing to vote for Warsh unless the Justice Department drops its inquiry into Powell and testimony he gave to Congress last year on cost overruns related to the renovation of the Fed’s Washington, DC, headquarters. Republicans need Tillis’ vote to move his nomination out of committee.

But DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is leading the Powell probe, isn’t budging either. That means Warsh’s nomination remains stalled, even with the end of Powell’s term as chair less than a month away.

If Warsh isn’t confirmed by May 15, Powell’s last day as chair, Powell said he would serve as the chair “pro tempore,” adding that he has “no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality.” The Fed’s Board of Governors also has its own rules on who can serve as a substitute for a vacated position, and it is customary for the current Fed chair to assume the interim role.

Trump, however, does not agree with that plan. On Wednesday, Trump said he would fire Powell if he serves as Fed chair in the interim. If so, Powell is widely expected to sue, sparking yet another legal battle between Trump and a Fed official.

Put together, the confirmation process for the 17th Fed chair is arguably the most complex in the US central bank’s modern history — a far cry from the nominations of prior chairs, including Powell, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post How the Fed chair succession saga could become a real mess appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Chris Lau and Beijing Bureau, CNN

Beijing (CNN) — They were trailing behind their human rivals a year ago. But on Sunday, an android outpaced the entire field to run a half-marathon faster than even the quickest human.

Lightning, a running robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, finished the 21-kilometer run in Beijing in a stunning 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human world record by more than six minutes.

The human record – of 57 minutes and 20 seconds – is held by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo, according to World Athletics.

Swinging its short forearms for balance, the bright-red humanoid, standing 169cm tall, showed no sign of having to slow down as it dashed past the finish line.

The remarkable feat represents a big stride for China in its technological rivalry with the US, which has thus far boasted more sophisticated humanoid models.

China’s robot industry has accelerated since 2015, when the government listed robotics as one of 10 key sectors in a blueprint for upgrading Chinese industries and shedding its reputation as the world’s cheap-labor factory.

In a 2023 policy document, officials identified humanoid robotics as a “new frontier in technological competition,” setting a 2025 target for mass production and secure supply chains for core components. That focus was carried over into China’s economic plan for the next five years.

Such ambitions have led to a boom in robot sporting events across China over the past year.

Last year, Beijing hosted the world’s first Humanoid Robot Games, which put machines through their paces in soccer, boxing, martial arts and other sports.

And at China’s annual televised new-year extravaganza a few months ago, robots donning kung-fu outfits delighted and amazed viewers with their martial arts choreography.

More than 100 teams took part this year’s humanoid half-marathon – nearly five times as many as last year, when the contest debuted, but delivered mainly disappointing performances.

Zhao Haijie and Wang Qiaoxia won the men’s and women’s race in the human category on Sunday, respectively, both requiring more than an hour.

Lightning also outran the previous champion robot, by almost two hours.

Its autonomous navigation and burst power “proved key to winning the race,” the half-marathon organizer wrote on social media.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post A Chinese android just ran a half-marathon faster than any human ever appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Christian Edwards, CNN

Mientras miles de personas abarrotaban las calles de Budapest el fin de semana pasado para celebrar la derrota de Viktor Orbán, Balasz dijo que no podía evitar pensar en su bisabuela, de 80 años, viviendo en un pueblo rural del empobrecido este de Hungría. Para ella, tras haber consumido poco más que medios estatales durante la última década, la victoria de Péter Magyar no fue motivo de alegría, sino de un miedo paralizante.

Durante la campaña de reelección de Orbán, los medios controlados por su partido gobernante, Fidesz, retrataron a Magyar como un enemigo temerario de la paz, decidido a arrastrar a Hungría a la guerra en la vecina Ucrania. Balasz, un analista financiero de 42 años que solo dio su nombre de pila, dijo que le impactó la extremidad de las “mentiras” que su bisabuela escuchaba cada día: que, si Magyar ganaba, los hombres húngaros serían reclutados, la economía colapsaría y sin duda seguiría una tercera guerra mundial.

“Es como: eres mayor, estás en el campo, eres pobre, tienes, como, dos canales de televisión, escuchas la radio estatal”; y como resultado, vives en una “realidad alternativa”, dijo Balasz a CNN. La propaganda orbanista, añadió, le recordaba a la que difundían las autoridades comunistas durante su juventud en la Unión Soviética.

En sus primeros días como primer ministro electo de Hungría, Magyar ha empezado a desmantelar la “máquina de propaganda” que Orbán construyó durante sus 16 años en el poder, y que le ayudó a aplastar a sus rivales y ganar cuatro elecciones consecutivas. Fue esa máquina la que, en la práctica, impidió que Magyar apareciera en los medios estatales durante los últimos 18 meses, mientras su partido opositor Tisza construía una ventaja contundente sobre Fidesz en las encuestas.

Solo después de la rotunda victoria de Tisza fue invitado a una entrevista. En una aparición combativa en la cadena estatal controlada M1 el miércoles, Magyar reprendió a sus presentadores por difundir “mentiras” sobre su familia y comparó la cobertura del canal con la propaganda de Corea del Norte y de la Alemania de la era nazi.

“No tenemos resentimiento personal, pero uno de los elementos de nuestro programa es que esta fábrica de mentiras llegará a su fin tras la formación del Gobierno de Tisza”, le dijo Magyar a su entrevistador. “Esto no se trata de mí, sino de que todos merecen unos medios públicos que informen con veracidad”.

Antes de las elecciones, Magyar dijo que su victoria se sentiría para muchos húngaros como el final contundente y desorientador de “The Truman Show”, la película de 1998 protagonizada por Jim Carrey sobre un hombre que no sabe que es el personaje principal de un reality show. Dijo que los votantes podrían sentir “disonancia cognitiva” a medida que su visión del mundo se desmorona, y advirtió de que muchos “no cambiarán de opinión de la noche a la mañana”.

Gábor Polyák, profesor de derecho de los medios en la Universidad Eötvös Loránd de Budapest, dijo que muchos en la capital estaban escuchando historias de personas mayores en pequeños pueblos que, desde la victoria de Magyar, vivían con miedo. “He oído historias de personas deprimidas que no pueden salir de debajo de la cama”, dijo Polyák a CNN.

Esa victoria, sin embargo, mostró que la mayoría de los húngaros —hartos de una economía estancada y de una corrupción rampante— ya no creían lo q