As news of his death broke, fellow former NBA stars took to social media to pay their respects to Malone. MORE: Sports figures we’ve lost in 2015

A number of leading Republican lawmakers and officials—dubbed “Never Trumpers”—have opposed Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign. This faction of the GOP has grown somewhat since the 2020 election and the January 6 attack against the U.S. Capitol by the former president’s supporters. On Wednesday, a group of anti-Trump Republicans published an opinion article with The Washington Post asserting their intentions to move forward with a more formal effort to oppose the Trump-dominated Republican Party....

Alligators are primarily freshwater animals, which live in swampy areas, rivers, streams, lakes and ponds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Despite this, they can tolerate saltwater for a few hours, or even days. Florida residents saw the gator in question talking a dip in the waters off Vanderbilt Beach, which lies on the state’s western coast, NBC2 reported. One eyewitness, Emily Fogelgren, captured a video of the creature as it swam between Wiggins Pass and Bay Colony....

In a video uploaded to social media by Owen Lauer, the mother alligator can be seen in Florida limping to the nest and taking the nest apart to get her babies. “She created this big nest with sticks, twigs, etc. and is now protecting her babies with her life with just 3 limbs,” Lauer said in the caption of a Facebook post sharing the video and other pictures. “If this doesn’t show you how incredibly fascinating and resilient these creatures are, I don’t know what will....

But artists are a surprisingly hardy lot–many of them still work in unheated lofts and live off almost nothing in sales–and by the end of the year spirits, if not livelihoods, had returned to normal. Or at least close enough so we can look back and appreciate the genuine highlights of 2001: Richard Serra (Gagosian Gallery, New York, Oct. 18-Dec. 15) What can you say about a show of “torqued ellipses” and other elemental forms, made from about a zillion pounds of rusting steel, that simply made you happy–no, overjoyed–just to be in the gallery?...

The Huckabee Campaign is getting happier by the day. What was already an upbeat, and playful campaign—a reflection of its good-humored candidate and relatively young and small staff—has become more so after a solid performance in Saturday’s primaries. Campaign staffers went out drinking in Washington, DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood Saturday night to celebrate a thorough, 30 point win in Kansas and a narrow, unexpected victory in Louisiana, which Huckabee referred to as “shocking” at a press conference on Sunday....

Trying to keep up with their preferences en route has taken kitchen crews where no airline has ever gone before. Pasta, poultry, salads and fish have mounted a strong challenge to the almighty filet mignon (still the most popular dinner selection on American Airlines’ domestic flights). Today’s breakfast menus include low-fat yogurt, kiwis, whole-grain cold cereals and granola pancakes. And the array of “special” meals that must be ordered in advance has expanded to please the most discriminating taste buds....

“Take Off” was the star attraction of a performance by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at this summer’s American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C. Created in 1984, the piece was revived as part of ADF’s African-American project, which is reconstructing and touring great black works in American modern dance. So far, 16 dances have been reconstructed, including such classics as Talley Beatty’s “Mourner’s Bench” (1947) and Donald McKayle’s “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder” (1959), set to blues and prison songs, portraying a chain gang....

Any hope that the resolution of the dispute might soften Castro’s attitude toward Washington was quickly dashed. “Elian is back,” said Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party, “but the greater battle continues.” On state-run television, newscasters gloated at wire photos of Elian’s disconsolate relatives in Miami, and Ricardo Alarcon, president of the rubber-stamp National Assembly, publicly belittled a move by congressional Republicans to resume food sales to Cuba after 38 years....

Last week King’s estate and Time Warner Inc. announced the formation of a unique partnership to publish his works as books and as audio books, and to create interactive educational tools and a Web site on the Internet. The project, which both sides will describe only as a “multimillion-dollar deal,” includes reprinting five previously published books by King, audio books of his speeches and a volume of his sermons, some of which have never been transcribed from tape....

Anti-Semitic attacks have increased markedly in Germany in recent months. Last week a 46-year-old rabbi was severely beaten by two assailants while standing on a train platform in Berlin; police charged two 15-year-old Arabs. “The violence has escalated to an unbearable degree,” said Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Jewish Committee in Germany, who believes that the renewed intifada in the Middle East is partly responsible. In a wave of revulsion that followed the cemetery attack, 4,000 Potsdam students took to the streets to protest racism; the Brandenburg state government offered $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the vandals....

That event focused the election debate at a national level. It brought Republicans together on a common, understandable theme. It established a positive agenda, and it created a stunning contrast to the Democrats five weeks before the 1994 midterm elections. David Broder noted the importance of the Capitol steps event in an October 16, 1994 column titled “Finally, the Battle Begins.” The famed conservative Washington Post columnist wrote: Broder went on to point out that President Bill Clinton had responded by nationalizing the election and making it a choice between President Ronald Reagan and himself....

They were just rehearsals. Last week North Korea’s reclusive, frizzy-haired leader made a stunning debut on the international stage, hosting South Korean President Kim Dae Jung at a breakthrough inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. Wearing his trademark zip-front Mao jacket, the 58-year-old Kim acted more like a quirky social director than menacing dictator. At the airport, he emerged from a throng of flag-waving North Koreans to warmly greet his erstwhile nemesis....

Contrary to caricature, the French economy does not need a complete overhaul. It has many highly competitive aspects. Labor productivity is as high as in the United States, the health-care system is excellent and cost-effective and French infrastructure—from high-speed rail to broadband—is unparalleled. But the cancer eating away at the economy is a set of laws coddling French workers, which makes hiring and firing arduous, and pensions and benefits hugely expensive....

The preceding week had been anything but normal. On Monday, Elizabeth had learned from her doctors that the cancer she’d beaten in 2005 might have returned. On Wednesday, in their hometown of Chapel Hill, N.C., the Edwardses sat together as Elizabeth underwent a series of tests. They revealed she did in fact have stage IV metastatic breast cancer that had spread to her bones and perhaps part of her lung and other tissue....

The monumentality of this partnership sounds even more astonishing on Miles Davis and Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, a new six-CD set that includes these albums and a fourth collaboration, the brief but lovely “Quiet Nights” from 1963, plus rehearsal tapes and alternate versions. Heavily annotated, with the recordings re-engineered and remastered-cleaned like old paintings- to bring out their best sound, this set is a jazz fan’s dream....

Make no mistake. Though an act of war was committed against the United States last week, we are not witnessing regression to an era of religious warfare. The vast majority of Muslims, Arab and non-Arab alike, deplore the slaughter of thousands of civilians that took place in New York City and Washington, D.C. “It violates the very foundations of Islamic law,” says Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school....

The Horn of Africa continues to suffer from a prolonged drought, caused by climate change. Families have lost everything as they cannot grow food without rain. Their livestock has died from extreme heat. Millions are desperately searching for food each day. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) estimated 26 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are suffering from severe hunger due to drought. Famine is likely to be declared in parts of Somalia....