Latest news with #Diane
USA Today
20-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Iowa basketball among programs on hand for dominant performance from top 2026 center
There wasn't much of an answer inside for 2026 C Arafan Diane tonight. 30 points in Iowa United's win at Augusta Live.@DianeArafan1 @TeamIowaUnited @iowaunitedprep As the college basketball recruiting grind continues throughout the summer months, Iowa basketball was among a lengthy list of high-profile programs in attendance to see 2026 four-star center Arafan Diane play for Iowa United Prep on Friday during his two games played in the MADE Hoops Augusta Live showcase in Georgia. The 7-foot-1, 260-pound native of Guinea in West Africa, has played the past year with Iowa United Prep in West Des Moines where he is listed as the No. 1 prospect in the state, the No. 1 center, and No. 15 overall recruit in the 2026 class, per 247Sports. Along with Iowa, the talented center currently holds offers from 19 other premier programs, including Purdue, Indiana, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Houston, Oregon, and Florida. In one of the Friday contests, Diane was downright unstoppable, scoring 30 points and grabbing 12 boards. Diane, who doesn't turn 18 until Nov. 19, previously played for the Dynastie Sports Institute in Montreal before joining Iowa United before the 2024-25 season. Diane also played for the West African country of Guinea's national team in the U17 2024 World Cup, where he averaged 19.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, 1.4 blocked shots and 1.4 assists through seven games, per FIBA basketball. During the tournament, Diane shot 33% from 3-point range, 55% from the field overall, and 74% from the free throw line. While Diane's skillset has attracted significant attention from some of the top programs nationwide, a potential commitment to the Hawkeyes from the big man would almost immediately catapult the program's expectations to heights long dreamed of by fans. The heavily-recruited in-state prospect has yet to schedule any official visits, but Diane will be a name that Hawkeye fans will want to keep an eye on. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions. Follow Scout on X: @SpringgateNews
The National
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Backbench MPs should remain loyal to constituents, not parties
The very use of that term speaks volumes about how the party leadership may regard both its troops and any perceived dissension from the party line. This follows a year-long freeze of her Labour credentials dating from a letter Diane wrote to The Observer in early 2023. It also follows the suspension of seven other 'miscreants' who had the temerity to suggest the two-child cap should be history and had no place under a Labour Government. And, of course, the massive recent rebellion over changes to welfare eligibility. Featuring, among very many others, all of the latest MPs to lose the whip. READ MORE: 'Time to take action': What it was like at the national Palestine demo in Edinburgh At which stage, the Labour leadership earnestly assured its flock that it would listen more intently to its backbenchers and absolutely didn't regard the latter as mere 'voter fodder'. Abbott's letter said, not very controversially, that the kind of lifelong racism encountered by black and brown people, differs from the kind of prejudice suffered by Irish people, Travellers and Jewish people. 'Any fair-minded person will know what I meant,' she later said in a statement to BBC Newsnight. Indeed. Surely a textbook example of 'we ken whit she meant'. (Image: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire) In an interview for James Naughtie's Reflections programme last Thursday, she said she had no regrets about these remarks despite having apologised for them at the time. She reiterated that face colour is an immediate red rag to racists in a way that their identity probably isn't for other minorities. Cue portions of the Labour roof falling on her head. Again. It may be that her real crime was a historical closeness to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. At any rate, the Mother Of The House has now been unceremoniously flung oot the Labour house. You might think that a government with a large majority of seats on under 34% of votes cast in a poll where fewer than 60% of electors bothered to use their vote might display some humility. Rather than take a sledgehammer to crack people denounced as irritating nutcases. Especially since their MPs – more than half of them in parliament for the first time – are there to represent a constituency where two-thirds of electors either didn't vote for them, or simply didn't vote. The Labour Party's draconian attitude to dissenters suggests complacency and a tendency for overreaction. It also suggests they hope their hardline stance will result in fewer Labour MPs willing to take risks. Not so much the firm smack of government as political punishment beatings. From a Scottish perspective, the most instructive victim is Brian Leishman, the luckless Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth. Grangemouth, you will know, was Scotland's solitary refinery, a place the Scottish Labour leader promised to save during the election campaign. Leishman, unsurprisingly, thought he would therefore be on safe ground when he vocally supported the workforce. Alas, that, plus his stance on welfare reform, meant he would instead get his jotters. Without warning. He said, thereafter, that he hadn't been elected to make people poorer. He also argued that he'd been elected 'to be a voice for my constituents across [[Alloa]] and [[Grangemouth]]'. Not, it seems, if that voice fails to chime with the latest stance of his leader. Anas Sarwar's silence on this matter, at the time of writing, has been positively deafening. READ MORE: 55 arrested in Westminster as protests grow over Palestine Action ban The [[Alloa]] and [[Grangemouth]] MP says that the Scottish Labour leader has not been in touch since a WhatsApp message last January. You might have thought he'd pick up the phone over Grangemouth at least, if not over the latest party row which saw one of his own Scots Labour representatives publicly humiliated. However, Leishman says he still supports Sir Keir's leadership and 'I will be out campaigning to get Scottish Labour candidates elected for Holyrood next year. I'll be doing everything I possibly can to get Anas into Bute House'. Each to their own and all that. Also interesting is the role and function of MPs of all parties. They don't have a statutory one, but they do have a code of conduct based on seven principles of 'selflessness, integrity, objectivity, honesty, accountability, openness and leadership.' However, the code also acknowledges the challenges faced by MPs when the needs and views of their constituents come into conflict with those of the party whose rosette they sported on election night. Or, as the code puts it: 'As members of a political party, MPs are expected to support and promote the policies and principles of their party. However, this should not come at the expense of their duties to their constituents or the wider public interest.' So let's suppose that the chap representing the workforce at Grangemouth was doing little more than exercising his duty to his constituents and the wider public interest. Not even to mention demonstrating integrity objectivity, and accountability. The code does understand the complexity of the MP's role in a way their parties may not: 'At times a constituent's demands may conflict with party policy and your MP will have to decide where their first loyalty should lie.' And woe betide any MP if their first loyalty is not to their party, it seems. Thus far, the people who found themselves minus the Labour whip were, to a man and woman, all demonstrating their commitment to what used to be thought of as traditional Labour values. For other quite mouthy MPs like the usually admirable Jess Phillips there was instead a plea for party unity and a respect for party discipline. So says the MP who resigned from the Labour front bench in 2023 over the carnage in Gaza, having backed an SNP-instigated vote on a ceasefire. Then she said: 'On this occasion, I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine.' This time, the tune seems to have changed and she says: 'Constantly taking to the airwaves and slagging off your own government – I have to say, what did you think was going to happen?' Maybe, Jess, they hadn't realised voting for the wider public interest shouldn't be a hanging offence in a party which once described itself as 'a broad church'. Or, as Abbott wrote on a social media post: 'Silencing dissent is not leadership. It's control.' But voting with your constituents, your head and your heart is not apparently an option for others whose inner voice tells them their party has simply got it wrong. Angela Rayner, one time darling of the Labour left, confined herself to saying that the Abbott situation presented 'a real challenge for the party' (sure is)! READ MORE: The Chancellor's words don't line up with her actions Rayner is an enigmatic case in point. She was, after all, a prime mover in getting the party to admit Abbott as a Labour candidate after her last long suspension. Labour's very own working-class woman has obviously decided that she can exert more influence as a deputy leader than a serial rebel with a number of causes. You might think that she had rather more in common with Abbott than, for instance, the current Chancellor. But for heavens sake, don't say so out loud if you have a Labour Party card about your person. The moral of this latest debacle is that if you get elected to parliament as a Labour candidate, please be sure to check in your conscience at the door. It has no place in the chamber these days.
North Wales Chronicle
18-07-2025
- Politics
- North Wales Chronicle
‘Not true' that Labour wants Diane Abbott out, minister says
Exchequer secretary to the Treasury James Murray said it was 'absolutely not the case' that Number 10 had wanted to remove the whip, which the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP lost on Thursday. Ms Abbott was previously suspended from the party after she suggested in 2023 that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice, but not racism. She later apologised for the remarks and was readmitted just in time to stand as the Labour candidate in her seat at the general election last year. But in an interview broadcast this week, Ms Abbott, the Mother of the House who has represented her constituency since 1987, said she did not regret the incident, which led to a second suspension. Following her suspension, Ms Abbott told BBC Newsnight: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.' 'That's absolutely not the case,' Mr Murray told Times Radio on Friday morning. 'What's happened is Diane has made some comments which come on the back of previous comments which she made and for which she apologised some time ago.' He added that there was an internal investigation and 'we now need to let this process play out' so it can be resolved 'as swiftly as possible'. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer stripped the whip from four other Labour MPs for 'persistent breaches of discipline' as the Prime Minister seeks to reassert his grip on his back benches following a rebellion over welfare reform. 'Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing,' a Labour spokesperson said on Thursday. Ms Abbott later said: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. 'My comments in the interview… were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.' The original comments in 2023 were in a letter to The Observer newspaper, and she withdrew the remarks the same day and apologised 'for any anguish caused'. In the interview with BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret. 'No, not at all,' she said. 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know. 'You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them. 'But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. There are different types of racism.' She added: 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was asked if she was disappointed by the comments. 'I was. There's no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,' she told The Guardian newspaper. 'Diane had reflected on how she'd put that article together, and said that 'was not supposed to be the version', and now to double down and say 'Well, actually I didn't mean that. I actually meant what I originally said', I think is a real challenge.' Ms Abbott entered Parliament in 1987 and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House. Her suspension comes in the same week that Sir Keir carried out a purge of troublesome backbenchers following a revolt over planned welfare reforms which saw the Government offer major concessions to rebels. Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government's Bill, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. Party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
South Wales Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Guardian
‘Not true' that Labour wants Diane Abbott out, minister says
Exchequer secretary to the Treasury James Murray said it was 'absolutely not the case' that Number 10 had wanted to remove the whip, which the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP lost on Thursday. Ms Abbott was previously suspended from the party after she suggested in 2023 that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice, but not racism. She later apologised for the remarks and was readmitted just in time to stand as the Labour candidate in her seat at the general election last year. But in an interview broadcast this week, Ms Abbott, the Mother of the House who has represented her constituency since 1987, said she did not regret the incident, which led to a second suspension. Following her suspension, Ms Abbott told BBC Newsnight: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.' 'That's absolutely not the case,' Mr Murray told Times Radio on Friday morning. 'What's happened is Diane has made some comments which come on the back of previous comments which she made and for which she apologised some time ago.' He added that there was an internal investigation and 'we now need to let this process play out' so it can be resolved 'as swiftly as possible'. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer stripped the whip from four other Labour MPs for 'persistent breaches of discipline' as the Prime Minister seeks to reassert his grip on his back benches following a rebellion over welfare reform. 'Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing,' a Labour spokesperson said on Thursday. Ms Abbott later said: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. 'My comments in the interview… were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.' The original comments in 2023 were in a letter to The Observer newspaper, and she withdrew the remarks the same day and apologised 'for any anguish caused'. In the interview with BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret. 'No, not at all,' she said. 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know. 'You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them. 'But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. There are different types of racism.' She added: 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was asked if she was disappointed by the comments. 'I was. There's no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,' she told The Guardian newspaper. 'Diane had reflected on how she'd put that article together, and said that 'was not supposed to be the version', and now to double down and say 'Well, actually I didn't mean that. I actually meant what I originally said', I think is a real challenge.' Ms Abbott entered Parliament in 1987 and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House. Her suspension comes in the same week that Sir Keir carried out a purge of troublesome backbenchers following a revolt over planned welfare reforms which saw the Government offer major concessions to rebels. Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government's Bill, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. Party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
Rhyl Journal
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Rhyl Journal
‘Not true' that Labour wants Diane Abbott out, minister says
Exchequer secretary to the Treasury James Murray said it was 'absolutely not the case' that Number 10 had wanted to remove the whip, which the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP lost on Thursday. Ms Abbott was previously suspended from the party after she suggested in 2023 that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice, but not racism. She later apologised for the remarks and was readmitted just in time to stand as the Labour candidate in her seat at the general election last year. But in an interview broadcast this week, Ms Abbott, the Mother of the House who has represented her constituency since 1987, said she did not regret the incident, which led to a second suspension. Following her suspension, Ms Abbott told BBC Newsnight: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out.' 'That's absolutely not the case,' Mr Murray told Times Radio on Friday morning. 'What's happened is Diane has made some comments which come on the back of previous comments which she made and for which she apologised some time ago.' He added that there was an internal investigation and 'we now need to let this process play out' so it can be resolved 'as swiftly as possible'. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer stripped the whip from four other Labour MPs for 'persistent breaches of discipline' as the Prime Minister seeks to reassert his grip on his back benches following a rebellion over welfare reform. 'Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing,' a Labour spokesperson said on Thursday. Ms Abbott later said: 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. 'My comments in the interview… were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.' The original comments in 2023 were in a letter to The Observer newspaper, and she withdrew the remarks the same day and apologised 'for any anguish caused'. In the interview with BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret. 'No, not at all,' she said. 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know. 'You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them. 'But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. There are different types of racism.' She added: 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was asked if she was disappointed by the comments. 'I was. There's no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,' she told The Guardian newspaper. 'Diane had reflected on how she'd put that article together, and said that 'was not supposed to be the version', and now to double down and say 'Well, actually I didn't mean that. I actually meant what I originally said', I think is a real challenge.' Ms Abbott entered Parliament in 1987 and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House. Her suspension comes in the same week that Sir Keir carried out a purge of troublesome backbenchers following a revolt over planned welfare reforms which saw the Government offer major concessions to rebels. Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government's Bill, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. Party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
