List of All Articles with Tag 'eppersons'

In the wake of a Supreme Court decision that removes race from the admissions process, colleges are coming under renewed pressure to put an end to legacy preferences, the practice of favoring applicants with family ties to alumni

New state laws are tackling some of the most divisive issues in the U.S., including abortion, gender and guns

The Supreme Court has struck down both student loan forgiveness and affirmative action in college admissions

King Willem-Alexander is widely expected to make a royal apology for the Netherlands' involvement in slavery on Saturday at an event marking 150 years since...

After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on federal student loan payments will end in October

The 2023 Formula 1 season is here and the new campaign has seen Red Bull pick up where they left off in 2022. This year sees 23 races held in a record-breaking calendar, as Max Verstappen looks to make it three in a row following back-to-back World Championship triumphs. Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team have found further improvements so far this year following a disappointing 2022 season. Meanwhile Ferrari are struggling to match their strong start to 2022. There are new faces on the grid too - such as Oscar Piastri and Nyck de Vries - and all 20 drivers will be itching to get back on track after a three-month break with the official pre-season test in Bahrain before the first race of the season a week later. Here is everything you need to know. What is the 2023 F1 calendar? ROUND 1 —BAHRAIN Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir - 3-5 March ROUND 2 - SAUDI ARABIA Jeddah Corniche Circuit - 17-19 March ROUND 3 - AUSTRALIA Albert Park, Melbourne - 31 March-2 April ROUND 4 - AZERBAIJAN (sprint weekend) Baku City Circuit - 28-30 April ROUND 5 - MIAMI Miami International Autodrome, Hard Rock Stadium - 5-7 May ROUND 6 - EMILIA ROMAGNA CANCELLED Imola Circuit - 19-21 May ROUND 7 - MONACO Circuit de Monaco - 26-28 May ROUND 8 - SPAIN Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - 2-4 June ROUND 9 - CANADA Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal - 16-18 June ROUND 10 - AUSTRIA (sprint weekend) Red Bull Ring, Spielberg - 30 June-2 July ROUND 11 - GREAT BRITAIN Silverstone Circuit - 7-9 July ROUND 12 - HUNGARY Hungaroring, Budapest - 21-23 July ROUND 13 - BELGIUM (sprint weekend) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - 28-30 July ROUND 14 - NETHERLANDS Circuit Zandvoort - 25-27 August ROUND 15 - ITALY Monza Circuit - 1-3 September ROUND 16 - SINGAPORE Marina Bay Street Circuit - 15-17 September ROUND 17 - JAPAN Suzuka International Racing Course - 22-24 September ROUND 18 - QATAR (sprint weekend) Lusail International Circuit, Lusail - 6-8 October ROUND 19 - UNITED STATES (sprint weekend) Circuit of the Americas, Austin - 20-22 October ROUND 20 - MEXICO Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City - 27-29 October ROUND 21 - BRAZIL (sprint weekend) Interlagos Circuit, Sao Paulo - 3-5 November ROUND 22 - LAS VEGAS Las Vegas Street Circuit - 16-18 November ROUND 23 - ABU DHABI Yas Marina Circuit - 24-26 November When and where does the 2023 F1 season start? The first race of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, takes place from Friday 3 March - Sunday 5 March at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Qualifying on Saturday 4 March starts at 3pm (GMT) with the race on Sunday also at 3pm (GMT). When is pre-season testing? Pre-season testing takes place at the Bahrain International Circuit the week before the first race, from Thursday 23 February - Saturday 25 February. Running will take place between 7am and 4:30pm (GMT) on each of the three days. There will be an hour’s break midway through each session for lunch. Each driver will have one-and-a-half days worth of time in the car. How can I watch it online and on TV? The Bahrain Grand Prix, as well as pre-season testing, will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. Sky Sports subscribers can watch pre-season testing on the Sky Go app. If you’re not a Sky customer you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription. We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. What has been said? Max Verstappen has challenged Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to raise their game and provide him with the championship battle that Formula One needs. Verstappen ran away with last season’s title, winning 15 of the 22 races, to secure his second championship with four rounds to spare. In contrast, Hamilton, in his under-performing Mercedes, endured the worst year of his career as he failed to win a race and finished 214 points adrift. But when addressing the prospect of renewing his rivalry with Hamilton at Red Bull’s season launch in New York, Verstappen, 25, said: “In the interest of the sport you always want the teams to be super-close. “I do think it was close last year, but as a team we executed a lot of things better than the others and that was why the points gap was so big. I never felt, apart from two or three races, that we absolutely dominated. But for the general interest of Formula One, everyone wants a title battle with multiple teams involved.” What are the driver line-ups for 2023? RED BULL Max Verstappen Sergio Perez FERRARI Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz MERCEDES Lewis Hamilton George Russell ALPINE Esteban Ocon Pierre Gasly McLAREN Lando Norris Oscar Piastri ALFA ROMEO Valtteri Bottas Zhou Guanyu ASTON MARTIN Fernando Alonso Lance Stroll HAAS Kevin Magnussen Nico Hulkenberg ALPHATAURI Yuki Tsunoda Nyck de Vries WILLIAMS Alex Albon Logan Sargeant *italics represents new addition to the grid/change of team Read More F1 makes South African Grand Prix call for 2024 calendar George Russell sends stark warning to F1 bosses: ‘There will be crashes’ Eddie Jordan makes bold Max Verstappen prediction: ‘He will be the greatest’ Poignant Netflix film captures the many facets of legendary Schumacher What happened to Michael Schumacher and what’s latest health update? Schumacher’s F1 career highlights as Netflix documentary is released

Max Verstappen’s crushing dominance of Formula One continued at the Austrian Grand Prix after he put his Red Bull on pole position. The world champion, a winner at six of the first eight races, saw off his rivals at the Red Bull Ring to seal his fourth pole on the spin for Sunday’s 71-lap grand prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc provided Verstappen with a late scare, but the Monegasque had to settle for second place, crossing the line 0.048 seconds shy of the Dutchman. F1 grid: Starting positions for Austrian Grand Prix Carlos Sainz took third in the other scarlet car, while Lando Norris impressed in his revamped McLaren to take fourth spot. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, 0.428 sec adrift. Sergio Perez’s torrid time continued after all three of his laps in Q2 were deleted for track limits. He lines up a lowly 15th on Sunday. On Friday, Verstappen clinched pole for Sunday’s grand prix with Charles Leclerc alongside him on the front row, while Sergio Perez and George Russell both struggled. Follow live updates from the Austrian GP with The Independent - the sprint shootout starts at 11am (BST). Read More F1 grid: Starting positions for Austrian Grand Prix Max Verstappen claims another pole but Sergio Perez struggles again at Austrian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen accused Formula One’s referee of making the sport’s superstars look like “amateurs” in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for Sunday’s 71-lap race in Spielberg after he saw off a late flurry from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz starts third in the other scarlet car ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton who qualified fourth and fifth respectively. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished only 15th after all three of his laps in Q2 were deleted for exceeding track limits. Verstappen also had four runs scrubbed off by the stewards for putting his Red Bull over the white lines. In all, an extraordinary 47 laps were deleted by race director Niels Wittich. “This is a joke,” said Verstappen over the radio. “Honestly, with these track limits, f****** ridiculous.” Verstappen managed to fend off Leclerc by just 0.048 sec, but moments after he stepped out of his Red Bull, the Dutch driver took aim at Wittich’s refereeing. “Today, it was very silly,” he said. “It made us look like amateurs with the amount of laps that were being deleted and some of them were so marginal. “We spoke about it in the briefing before, and when it is very marginal, it is impossible to judge if the car is out or in, and yet laps were still getting deleted. It was not a good look today. “People will say, ‘you should have kept the car in the white lines’. If it was that easy, you can take my car and try it, but you probably wouldn’t get up to speed in time.” A Remote Operation Centre in Geneva consisting of six officials – FIA’s answer to football’s VAR system – flag up contentious laps to Race Control at the circuit using various camera angles. Wittich then has the final say. It is understood that if the laps in question are marginal, Wittich will lean in favour of the driver. But Verstappen continued: “We don’t do this on purpose. With these speeds and the high-speed corners it is so hard to judge where the white line is and that is why a lot of people got caught out. “My first lap in Q3 was just a banker lap which takes out the joy. Today showed that it is not easy to have a clear rule about it.” Despite the row, reigning world champion Verstappen will be favourite to take his seventh victory from the nine rounds so far this season and extend his 69-point championship lead over struggling team-mate Perez. Behind the Dutchman, Norris impressed to take fourth spot in his revamped McLaren, one place ahead of Hamilton who finished 0.428 sec adrift of Verstappen. The Red Bull Ring is hosting F1’s second sprint event of the year with a shortened qualifying and race to follow on Saturday before Sunday’s main event. “Our car has not suited this circuit in the past and it showed again today,” said Hamilton. “It was a really tough and difficult session but we got through it, thank God. “We will try to do better in sprint qualifying tomorrow, and then fifth on Sunday is a strong position to start from.” Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell managed only 11th on a disappointing afternoon for the Briton. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lewis Hamilton calls for change, claiming new rule would ensure a ‘real race’ ‘Happy’ Lewis Hamilton still hungry for record eighth world title – Damon Hill Horner details what makes ‘mega talent’ Verstappen so special

When a draft of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade leaked in May of last year, US Senator Tina Smith had only three words. “This is bulls***,” the Minnesota Democrat tweeted. She had similar words when Walgreens announced in March of this year it would not dispense abortion pills in states where abortion remained legal. Ms Smith told The Independent in a phone interview that she knew the consequences of overturning the enshrined constitutional right to seek an abortion from her time working at Planned Parenthood as the Minnesota branch’s executive vice president for external affairs. She said her time working there taught her about the effects restrictions have on women’s lives. “The first thing I realized is that for women facing a decision about what to do about an unplanned pregnancy, a pregnancy that they don't want, this is a purely personal decision for them,” she said. “As a policymaker, why do Republicans in the Senate and in state legislators around the country think that they know better than those women whose stories they'll never know? Why do they think that they should be the ones who decide? It’s those women's decisions.” Ms Smith said that the Dobbs decision has led to rooting the question of abortion rights in terms of personal freedom. “You know, they can see this, these stories of individuals and doctors that are trying to provide the best health care, get the best health care for people, and you know, they unable to do that and they can see that that's just wrong,” she said. Sen Smith arrived under peculiar circumstances after then-Governor Mark Dayton nominated her, while she was serving as lieutenant governor of Minnesota, to replace Sen Al Franken amid multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Similarly, she has often been overshadowed by Minnesota’s senior Democratic Sen Amy Klobuchar, who ran for president. She and fellow midwestern Democratic Sen Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, have a running joke that reporters and Capitol Hill staff often confuse them. In the past year, Sen Smith has emerged as a stronger presence. She wrote some of the climate provisions in what would become the Inflation Reduction Act. When Sen John Fetterman (D-PA) left the Senate for a few weeks to undergo treatment for depression, she spoke about her own difficulties with the condition. In addition, she’s emerged as one of the strongest voices defending abortion rights. Ms Smith said the Dobbs decision has made the contrast between Democrats and Republicans clearer. In recent months, Sen Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has blocked military nominations because of the Pentagon’s policy that reimburses people who travel out of state to receive abortions. “What Senator Tuberville is doing is so outside the norms of what we should be doing in the Senate, it's outrageous,” she said. “I just need to point out that what Senator Tuberville is trying to do is to overturn a policy which basically provides women serving in the military with the same access to health care that people that are incarcerated in our federal prisons have.” Few Republicans seem deterred from their opposition to abortion despite the role it played in dulling their efforts to flip the Senate last year. Ms Smith’s colleague Sen Tim Scott (R-SC), now a candidate for president, told the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference last month “thank God almighty for the Dobbs decision.” Former vice president Mike Pence has called for a 15-week national abortion ban. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has campaigned as the president who nominated the three Supreme Court justices who made the decision possible. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who often places a second distant behind Mr Trump in polls, signed legislation banning abortion after six weeks. As vice chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Ms Smith faces a tough challenge because not only does she have to defend Senate seats in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada – all of which President Joe Biden won in 2020 – she also has to defend Senate seats in three states Mr Trump won twice: Ohio, Montana and West Virginia. “And make no mistake, if Republicans win the Senate or if Republicans win the White House, we can see from their statements, they're going to move to pass a national ban on abortion,” she said, noting how many GOP candidates for Senate oppose abortion. “So, this is the contrast, this is what voters will be confronted with when they cast their votes in 2024,” she said. “Do you want to elect individuals who think they know better, that they should be the ones making decisions, individuals that want to ban abortion rights? Or do you want to elect Democrats who believe that women and not politicians should be making their own health care decisions?” At the same time, Democrats face huge challenges to codify abortion rights. Last week, Mr Biden told donors he was personally uncomfortable with abortion. “I'm a practising Catholic,” he said on Tuesday. “I'm not big on abortion, but guess what? Roe v Wade got it right.” Sen Smith defended Mr Biden’s actions defending abortion rights. “I believe that the President and the administration have moved decisively in all the ways that they can as they look for other ways to the practical reproductive freedom, that's a good thing,” she said. “I'm proud of the work that they've done. I think ultimately, the action that we need to take is legislative action, and that is why we need to win these elections.” Last year, shortly after the Dobbs leak, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to put the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have codified the protections in Roe, to a vote. But Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) opposed the measure. Even then, Sen Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who later left the Democratic Party to become an independent, opposes removing the filibuster, which demands a two-thirds majority to pass legislation. Sen Smith said if Democrats with the House, the Senate and the White House again, they should get rid of the filibuster. “And you know, we need to work towards a Senate majority that will not only support reproductive freedom but will also change Senate rules so that we can act on that belief,” she said. “And that I think is going to as I said before, that I believe will be a decisive issue in the in the elections in 2024.” Read More Congresswoman who authored abortion rights bill calls Senate’s inaction to codify Roe v Wade ‘such a crime’ Ritchie Torres, the only openly gay Black man in Congress, on how he fights GOP ‘bullying’ of LGBT+ people Republicans try to thread the needle on abortion on anniversary of the death of Roe 'Rage giving' prompted by the end of Roe has dropped off, abortion access groups say Arizona executive order safeguards abortion seekers and providers from prosecution Why some doctors stay in US states with restrictive abortion laws and others leave

Employers who hire immigrants in the country illegally will face tough punishments and gun owners will have more freedoms when more than 200 new Florida laws take effect Saturday

By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Friday it saw no reason to extend the Black Sea grain deal

If French Montana’s father never abandoned him as a teenager, the rapper believes he would not have grown into a popular figure who has earned three Grammy nominations