Apr 4, 2020 - Sports

Coronavirus causes delay in WNBA season and training camps

Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The WNBA announced Friday it is postponing the start of its training camps and season, previously scheduled to begin on May 15.

The state of play: The postponement of the 2020 Olympics also gives the league flexibility to delay the season since players were slated to take July off to participate in the Tokyo Games. The WNBA, the longest-running professional female sports league, plans to hold a virtual draft April 17, AP reports.

"This virtual draft allows players who have worked so hard to have their dreams realized when they hear their names called and provides teams the opportunity to build their rosters in anticipation of the day that we are able to move forward with our season."

— WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a statement

New York City and Seattle both have WNBA teams and are two coronavirus hotspots in the U.S. Per Ap: “One of the [Seattle] Storm’s homes for the season, the Angel of the Winds Arena, is being used as a coronavirus isolation site.”
Engelbert told the AP last week that she thinks the WNBA could resume its season before the NBA and other sports leagues because it has fewer teams and players.

Go deeper: How the sports world is helping on coronavirus

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Rebecca Falconer

Updated 50 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Updates: George Floyd protests continue past curfews

Police officers wearing riot gear push back demonstrators outside of the White House on Monday. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AFP via Getty Images

Protests over the death of George Floyd and other police-related killings of black people continued Tuesday across the U.S. for the eighth consecutive day, prompting a federal response from the National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

The latest: Even with early curfews in New York City and Washington, D.C., protesters are still out en masse. Some protesters in D.C. said they were galvanized by President Trump's photo op in front of St. John's Church on Monday and threat to deploy U.S. troops in the rest of country if violence isn't quelled, NBC News reports.

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Alayna Treene

Updated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Trump backs off push to federalize forces against riots

Photo: Brendan Smialowski /AFP via Getty Images

A day after threatening to federalize forces to snuff out riots across the country, the president appears to be backing off the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act, sources familiar with his plans tell Axios.

What we're hearing: Aides say he hasn’t ruled out its use at some point, but that he's “pleased” with the way protests were handled last night (apart from in New York City, as he indicated on Twitter today) — and that for now he's satisfied with leaving the crackdown to states through local law enforcement and the National Guard.

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Erica Pandey

1 hour ago - Economy & Business

What we expect from our bosses

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Workers — especially millennials and Gen Zers — are paying close attention to the words and actions of their employers during national crises, such as the protests following the killing of George Floyd in police custody.

Why it matters: American companies have an enormous amount of wealth and influence that they can put toward effecting change, and CEOs have the potential to fill the leadership vacuum left by government inaction. More and more rank-and-file employees expect their bosses to do something with that money and power.

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