US Business

Pro-Russian authorities on Saturday urged residents in the southern Kherson region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, to leave the main city “immediately” in the face of Kyiv’s advancing counter-offensive.

It comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 36 rockets overnight in a “massive attack” on Ukraine, following reported strikes on energy infrastructure that resulted in power outages across the country.

Kyiv’s forces have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnieper river, towards the Kherson region’s eponymous main city.

The first major city to fall to Moscow’s troops, retaking it would be a key prize in Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

In recent days, Russia has been moving residents in the region — which Moscow claims to have annexed in September — in efforts described as “deportations” by Kyiv. 

“Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank of the Dnieper river,” the region’s pro-Russian authorities said on social media.

A Moscow-installed official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency Interfax on Saturday that around 25,000 people had made the crossing.

– ‘Afraid for our lives’ –

At a train station in the town of Dzhankoy in the north of Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Kherson residents were boarding a train for southern Russia, an AFP reporter saw Friday.

“We are leaving Kherson because heavy shelling started there, we are afraid for our lives,” said Valentina Yelkina, a pensioner travelling with her daughter. 

Another Kherson resident, 70-year-old Yelena Bekesheva, said she was going to Moscow. 

“We didn’t immediately make the decision (to leave) but then we were invited by our friends and relatives,” she told AFP. 

Meanwhile more than a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity following Russian strikes on energy facilities across the country, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Saturday.

Fresh Russian strikes targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s west, the national operator said earlier, with officials in several regions of the war-scarred country reporting power outages.

Russians “carried out another missile attack on energy facilities of the main networks of Ukraine’s western regions”, Ukraine’s energy operator Ukrenergo said on social media.

– ‘A barrage of Russian missiles’ –

Power outages were reported among others in the northwestern Volyn region, parts of the southwestern Odessa region and the city of Khmelnitskyi in western Ukraine with local authorities reiterating calls to reduce energy use.

“Saturday in Ukraine starts with a barrage of Russian missiles aimed at critical civilian infrastructure,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter, urging Kyiv’s allies to hasten the delivery of air defence systems.

According to Ukraine’s air force, Moscow’s troops on Saturday fired 17 cruise missiles by aircraft from southern Russia and at least 16 Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s authorities have called on residents to reduce power consumption amid the attacks with some parts of Ukraine reducing their electricity use by up to 20 percent, according to Ukrenergo. 

“We see savings in different regions and on different days the level of voluntary consumption reduction ranges from five to 20 percent on average,” Ukrenergo chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said in written comments to AFP.

He added that while these were “significant volumes” for Ukraine’s energy system, they were not enough for regions where the infrastructure “suffered the most damage” and Ukrenergo must resort to “forced restrictions”.

Meanwhile in the Russian Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, at least two civilians were killed in strikes on Saturday, according to the local governor.

“There are two dead among civilians” following shelling on “civilian infrastructure” in the town of Shebekino governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that nearly 15,000 people were left without electricity.

Russia said in mid-October there has been a “considerable increase” of Ukrainian fire into its territory with attacks largely concentrating on Belgorod region and neighbouring Bryansk and Kursk.

With fewer than three weeks left to go ahead of the US midterm elections, candidates are redoubling their efforts to reach voters — even relying on memes and sex tapes to make their cases, as evidenced by these offbeat stories from the campaign trail this week.

– Swifties run for Senate –

Several candidates had the same idea Friday when they attempted to win cool points by capitalizing off the release of Taylor Swift’s new album “Midnights.” 

Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan, Pennsylvania governor hopeful Josh Shapiro and New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman posted the album cover template on social media, subbing in their own pictures for the mega-star’s and inserting their policy platforms where the tracking listings appear on the original.

And Senator Mark Warner asked Thursday on Twitter “I wonder if one of @taylorswift13’s tracks tonight will be about data privacy … that’s certainly an issue that keeps me up at midnight.”

The singer, who has sometimes called herself “Miss Americana,” offered her own opinion on the state of US politics in a lyric from the “Midnights” song “Anti-Hero”: “Did you hear my covert narcissism lightly disguised as altruism like some kind of congressman?”

– Meme archive –

John Fetterman, the 6-foot-8-inch tall, tattooed, hoodie-wearing Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, recently created the Fettermemes — a site dedicated to memes intended to humorously ridicule his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz.

The platform functions as a library of sorts, archiving videos of the TV star surgeon divided into categories such as “Bad Policies,” “Scam,” “Weird,” “Out of Touch” — and one simply called “LOL.”

Under each section are stored a compilation of clips of Oz in television interviews, hosting his own show, speaking at events and even dancing and eating a piece of watermelon. 

Website visitors can download and use the videos — or photos also linked on the page — to create their own memes.

– Campaign sex tape –

Mike Itkis, an independent running for Congress in New York’s 12th district, generated buzz after posting a censored sex tape in an effort to show his “sex-positive approach.”

His campaign platform includes a call to “Make sexual rights explicit -– do NOT rely on privacy or free speech rights.”

The US army reserve officer stars alongside adult video star Nicole Sage in a 13-minute video called “Bucket List Bonanza,” published to a popular pornography site.

Itkis’ website also proclaims he is “Not married. No kids. Not celibate. Atheist.” and lists his campaign platforms on sexuality in a less graphic manner, including the legalization of sex work and “to redefine abortion debate as a right to unplanned sex.”

– ‘Missy Elliott Day’ –

In Virginia, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin declared October 17 as a special state holiday dedicated to rapper Missy Elliott. 

The rapper, best known for her early-2000s songs such as “Work It” and “Get Ur Freak On,” is originally from the town of Portsmouth in the eastern US state.  

“As a native Virginian, she has inspired young women in the Commonwealth and beyond to pursue careers in the arts and music,” Youngkin said on Twitter. “She is the American dream!”

Ten-year-old Aiden Reed had reason to be a little nervous as he dipped into a swimming pool in Washington.

“I almost drowned,” the young African American recalled of an incident at another pool when a lifeguard had to rescue him.

Since then, Aiden has found the courage to face his fears and go back in the pool for lessons with Swim Up, a nonprofit group that offers free classes.

Out of nine new swimmers on a recent October afternoon, eight were African American, a vulnerable group for drowning. In the United States, the drowning rate for Black children ages five to nine is 2.6 times higher than that of white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For Black children ages 10-14, drowning rates are 3.6 times higher, the CDC says.

Some 64 percent of Black children know little or nothing about swimming, compared to 40 percent of white children, according to USA Swimming, a national federation.

A tragedy in August 2010 brutally illustrated the situation. During a barbecue with friends in Shreveport, Louisiana, DeKendrix Warner, a Black teenager, waded into shallow water in the Red River.

He didn’t know how to swim. Neither did the six friends and cousins who went in to try to save him. Warner slipped and plunged into a pool of much deeper water. A passerby jumped in and saved him but the six others had also followed him into the deep water. Family members on shore, who couldn’t swim, watched helplessly.

DeKendrix survived, but the six teenagers, aged 13 to 18, all drowned.

– Closed swimming pools –

In the United States, there is no federal requirement to teach swimming in schools. The reason so many Black children don’t know how to swim, though, is rooted in the history of slavery and racial inequality, according to activists and historians.

“Enslaved Africans could escape slavery with swimming skills,” said Ebony Rosemond, executive director of Black Kids Swim, an organization that helps African American youth learn to swim.

“It was in the best interest of those who owned humans to make sure that they didn’t have the skill, or that they were too afraid to jump into the water,” she said.

After the abolition of slavery in 1865, white supremacists terrorized African Americans, “lynching them, brutalizing them, and hanging their bodies near bodies of water,” Rosemond added.

With the civil rights movement came desegregation. Courts ordered cities to open their public pools to Black people. But many, especially in the South, chose to close them instead, said historian Jeff Wiltse of the University of Montana, author of “A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.”

Such racial discrimination “severely restricted Black Americans’ access” to pools, he summarized in a 2014 article. “Swimming never became integral to Black Americans’ recreation and sports culture and was not passed down from generation to generation.” 

– ‘It’s cold!’ –

Today, many initiatives are trying to correct this, like Swim Up.

Mary Bergstrom, a cofounder, handed out caps and swim shorts to kids one recent afternoon. “Get in the water,” she urged. One of them jumped in and yelled, “It’s cold!”

The kids learn skills step by step. First, they float on their backs, then kick their feet to move forward, arms outstretched, guided by Bergstrom, a lawyer and former competitive swimmer.

Aiden, his fear of the water a thing of the past, floats easily. One of his distracted buddies forgets to breathe, and Bergstrom gently pats his head to get him to take a breath of air.

“We are almost at 100 kids that we’ve kind of taught to swim or kind of got them over their fear of the water,” Bergstrom said.

“Eventually our goal is to… put this into schools, and it can be burden-free on families. You can make it a part of the curriculum, and you can make a difference,” she said.

Not far from the pool is Howard University, the only historically Black university in the United States with a competitive swim team, whose swimmers sometimes give lessons to Swim Up youth.

On October 1, they entered Burr Gymnasium to thunderous applause as they took on rival Georgetown. About 1,200 people were attending the event, which was designed by their coach, Nick Askew, to raise the profile of Black swimmers.

“We can create a fan experience like none other, the fact that we can also back it up with some amazing swims… is one of the things… a lot of people will grab on to, and make them more encouraged to touch the water, to learn how to swim,” Askew told AFP.

The Howard Bisons held their own, although both the male and female teams lost to their Georgetown competitors. 

Niles Rankin, a 21-year-old competitive swimmer at Howard, said coach Askew has a goal for his athletes.

“He wanted us to get our name out there to kind of be like, I guess, a symbol for other Black swimmers,” he said. 

“You can do it… You can be a Black swimmer.”

Taylor Swift’s 10th album “Midnights,” marking a gradual return to pop for the US singer-songwriter, sparked an online fan frenzy following its witching hour release on Friday — and crashed Spotify in the process.

Swifties from the United States to France and Britain were forced to wait patiently for hours to get their first earful of Swift’s latest sound on the streaming platform — released at the stroke of midnight.

Despite the technical problems, the hugely anticipated work set a record as the most-streamed album in a day, Spotify said.

“And before the clock could even strike midnight on October 22nd, Taylor Swift broke the record for most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history,” the platform said on Twitter.

“How did I get this lucky, having you guys out here doing something this mind blowing?!,” the singer tweeted in response.

The album’s 13 songs tell “the story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” Swift explained on Twitter.

Together, they form “a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour.”

Once all Spotify issues were resolved — mostly within the hour — enthusiasts discovered melodies set to an electro-pop beat, complete with synths, dubstep-inspired rhythms and a more androgynous side to Swift’s vocals.

The 32-year-old, who began her career in country before shifting to pop and becoming a megastar, abandons her more recent indie-folk vein in the new album.

The pop sound marks a departure from “Evermore” and “Folklore,” her two previous albums which were written during the pandemic, the latter of which won Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys.

In “Midnights,” which includes the smooth vocals of Lana Del Rey in the duet “Snow on the Beach,” Swift evokes a certain dreamy mystique, complete with nighttime ruminations — her reflections on growing older and the complications of love.

For the most part, the midnight album has bewitched critics.

It was warmly received by The Guardian which called it a “cool, collected and mature” compendium, “packed with fantastic songs.”

One caveat, however, has been its lack of a catchy title song: “It’s hard to spot anything that sounds like a smash hit on Swift’s third muted collection in a row,” The Independent newspaper lamented.

True to Swift form, the songstress had a surprise up her sleeves for her loyal fans.

She released an extended 20-song version at 3:00 am on the East Coast titled “Midnights (3am Edition).”

The seven extra ballads, she said, were “songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13.”

A conservative group known as “Moms for Liberty” is triggering a minor earthquake in Florida school board elections, hoping the tremors will ripple across the entire United States.

The group demands that often-sleepy school boards wake up and yank “problematic” books from schools, and empower parents to have more say in public education.

“I am on the right side of history,” said Jacqueline Rosario, who is seeking re-election to a school board in Indian River County on Florida’s east coast.   

Rosario warmly welcomed guests to a lounge in this charming seaside resort, speaking to them about a subject that distresses her: the “insane” education that young Americans get in public schools.

“Moms for Liberty,” founded only last year in Florida but now claiming 100,000 members in 42 states, offers wholehearted endorsements of school board candidates like Rosario.

That support has turned school boards, historically apolitical elected bodies, into real powder kegs dealing with subjects such as gender, sexuality and racism in schools.  

These days, hot-button culture and social issues ignite passions at the local level, not just the state and national levels.  

Some heavyweight Republicans, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a possible presidential candidate in 2024, have gotten involved in the humble school board battles. 

Moms for Liberty publicly endorsed DeSantis, and he in turn endorsed candidates like Jacqueline Rosario.

– ‘Pornographic’ –

Rosario has made a personal battle out of one of Moms for Liberty’s obsessions — “inappropriate” books.

As she explained the reasons for her anger, Rosario interrupted the interview. 

“Can I read you a couple of  excerpts?” she asked, warning that she might feel “weird” because some material “is so explicit.”

The candidate recites a sex scene from Margaret Atwood’s famous novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which also became a hit television series.

“That’s disgusting,” Rosario, a former English teacher, said of the work, her voice suddenly stern.

She read an excerpt from another book, “Push”, which recounts in graphic detail the rape of a child by her father.

“There is absolutely no literary, scientific, political or any other value to this kind of reading, not for children,” Rosario said, adding that she would like such “obscene… pornographic” books to be replaced by others of “higher quality,” including ones offering vocational training. 

“You’re opening up Pandora’s box for children who are supposed to preserve their innocence,” Rosario said.

She stated that she does not want to “ban or burn” such books, but only to get them out of the classroom — a message hammered home by Moms for Liberty.

– Flags and popcorn –

Later in the afternoon, Rosario campaigned at a small church in Vero Beach.

The audience seemed to be behind her. Between a tray of cheese and a bowl of popcorn, Terri Privett, a 53-year-old who loves former president Donald Trump’s rallies, worries that “the left is indoctrinating our children with things that are just not American.”

During the reception, the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood played on a loop — interrupted, however, when all attendees stood to pledge allegiance to the flag.

Though he is not present, DeSantis’ influence is palpable. At the entrance, a lighted sign calls for people to vote for him to “save Florida.”

“Our governor is a champion for parental rights,” said Jennifer Pippin, head of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty, convinced that he will win re-election.

For this crowd, DeSantis’ military background and his image as a family man are strong reasons to like him.

On a table festooned with small US flags is a list of candidates running in various local elections who espouse anti-abortion rights views. Flyers call on the citizenry to pull children from public schools.

Organizers have also brought two piles of books — around 150 they deem problematic — that Jennifer Pippin said contain scenes of “rape, incest” or even “oral sex.” Colorful post-it notes indicate the pages of the books with the material deemed questionable.

– Love for DeSantis –

Moms for Liberty has had a meteoric rise, a sign of the simmering culture wars across the United States.

“I think you’re going to see that American politics are going to be changing a lot because of this parent revolution,” said Tiffany Justice, one of the co-founders.

She predicts a bright political future for politicians like DeSantis who join up with groups seeking to empower parents over educators. 

DeSantis won hearts at the first Moms for Liberty national conference, where he gave a speech.

Moms for Liberty members “wished Ron DeSantis was their governor,” Justice said. “You could hear them say we can’t wait to vote for him for president of the United States.”

President Joe Biden on Friday predicted a final-hour shift in favor of the Democrats in the midterm elections, saying that the economy, seen as the party’s weakest issue, is steadily improving.

“It’s been back and forth, with them ahead, us ahead, them ahead, back and forth,” Biden told reporters at the White House, three weeks before elections deciding control of Congress.

“Polls have been all over the place. I think we’re going to see one more shift back to our side in the closing days,” Biden said.

Recent polls show momentum rising on the Republican side, with voters increasingly anxious about high inflation and likely to punish the Democrats on November 8. 

Biden’s party currently has a razor-thin majority in Congress but Republican leaders say they will block his legislation if they take over the legislature.

Biden, however, maintained an upbeat outlook, also telling MSNBC in an interview late Friday that he intends to seek a second term in 2024, despite already being the oldest person ever in his office. He turns 80 next month.

“I have not made that formal decision but it’s my intention, my intention to run again, and we have time to make that decision,” Biden told MSNBC.

Asked what the first lady, who is widely judged to be a powerful voice behind the scenes in the White House, thinks of him seeking a second term, Biden indicated she was in favor.

“Dr Biden, my wife, thinks that we’re doing something very important and that I shouldn’t walk away from it,” he said.

– ‘Crash’ the economy –

In fiery remarks predicting that the Republicans would “crash the economy” if they are in charge of Congress, Biden said voters were starting to see “some good news in the economy” and would return to supporting Democrats in time for voting day.

Biden listed gradually falling gasoline prices, low unemployment across most of the country, and Friday’s news of “the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit” as examples.

The deficit reduction is “further proof that we’re rebuilding the economy in a responsible way,” he said.

Republicans, he said, will eliminate the minimum tax rate for big corporations and “double down” on tax cuts for the most wealthy.

Referring to former president Donald Trump’s far-right Make America Great Again or MAGA movement, Biden said the Republican economic plan was “mega-MAGA trickle-down” economics — “the kind of policies that have failed the country before and will fail again.”

The Republicans quickly shot back, citing Biden’s “flailing dishonesty.”

“Republican-led states continue to keep Americans working, children in schools, and small businesses operating, while Biden and Democrats created a recession, historic inflation and high gas prices. This election is about the economy,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

In a speech to mostly African American students at Delaware State University in his home state, also Friday, Biden highlighted two recent widely popular measures that the White House says show the president keeping his own election promises.

A ruling to forgive $10,000 of university student loans — $20,000 for poorer students — will “make sure you have a shot,” Biden said. 

Referring to Republican opposition, Biden underlined his populist message, insisting “I will never apologize for helping working and middle class Americans.”

The Democrat also touted his decision to pardon thousands of Americans convicted of marijuana possession — a longtime demand of Black rights activists who point out the disproportionate impact of criminalizing possession of cannabis on Black people.

“I’m keeping my promise that no one, no one should be in jail for barely using or possessing marijuana,” he said.

Lawmakers probing the 2021 attack on the US Capitol subpoenaed former president Donald Trump Friday to testify on his involvement in the violence, in a major escalation of their sprawling inquiry.

The summons came after the House panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans voted unanimously last week to compel Trump’s appearance before investigators.

It requires the 76-year-old Republican to produce documents by November 4 and to appear for a deposition beginning on or around November 14 — the Monday after the crucial November 8 midterm elections.

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee told Trump in a letter.

Trump, who urged his supporters to “fight like hell” in a fiery speech near the White House on January 6, 2021, was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress later that day to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.

The letter accuses Trump of bidding to overturn the election despite knowing claims of fraud had been overwhelmingly rejected by more than 60 courts and refuted by his campaign staff and senior advisers.

“In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any US president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself,” it added.

Without confirming Trump had received the subpoena, his lawyer David Warrington said his team would “review and analyze” the document and “respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action.”

Biden weighed in on the matter later Friday during an interview with MSNBC, saying it “would make sense” for Trump to comply with the subpoena.

– Aggressive escalation –

Subpoenas from the panel have proved difficult to enforce, with former White House aide Steve Bannon the only target convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison on Friday, although he remains out on bail pending an appeal.

Trump is notorious for his ability to run down the clock on congressional investigations and legal action, and it remains highly unlikely that he would agree to give evidence.

The subpoena expires in any case with the new congressional term in January. Republicans are expected to win back the House of Representatives in November’s elections, and plan to immediately end the investigation.

But the move marks an aggressive escalation of the probe, which has issued more than 100 subpoenas and interviewed more than 1,000 people since its launch in 2021.

While no sitting president has ever been forced to testify before Congress, lawmakers have summoned several former presidents to discuss their conduct in office.

Trump’s compliance would mean testifying under oath and could result in being charged with perjury were he to lie.

If he refuses to comply, the full House can hold him in criminal contempt in a vote recommending him for prosecution, as it did with Bannon. 

– ‘Clear and present’ danger –

The panel unveiled reams of evidence across eight summer hearings on the former president’s involvement in a complex series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.

Witness testimony provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump’s inertia amid the mob uprising.

The committee also pressed its position that Trump — who continues to be a wellspring of disinformation about the 2020 presidential election — remains a “clear and present” threat to democracy.

Lawmakers plan to release a final report by the end of the year.

The committee has not announced whether it will make direct criminal referrals over the Capitol attack, although the move would amount to little more than a gesture as the Justice Department is already investigating.

The list of records that Trump is required to produce includes all of his communications on the day of the insurrection, as well as various categories of messages in the weeks leading up to the riot.  

Investigators specifically mention Signal, suggesting the committee has determined that Trump used the encrypted communications app while participating in the plot. 

The software allows users to have messages delete automatically within any time period selected.

The requested documents include any Signal communications between Trump and far-right militias such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Jon Rahm fired a course record nine-under par 62 to seize a share of the lead with American Kurt Kitayama after Friday’s second round of the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup.

The 27-year-old Spaniard rolled in ten birdies, split evenly across the front and back nines but closed with his only bogey to stand on 11-under 131 after 36 holes at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

“Right from the get go my speed was good and felt confident and the rest of the game accompanied the putting,” Rahm said.

Fifth-ranked Rahm, who struggled with green speed in an opening 69, broke the old Congaree course record of 64 set last year by American Chesson Hadley.

“I hadn’t putted on greens this fast in a while. Took me a little bit to get used to it,” Rahm said. “It’s one thing to do it on the putting green. It’s another to do it on the course.”

Rahm, last year’s US Open champion, won the most recent of his seven career PGA titles in May at the Mexico Open. He’s coming off a DP World Tour victory two weeks ago at the Spanish Open, where he fired a final-round 62.

On Friday, he matched it by sinking 125 feet of putts, making 22 putts in all.

“I’m glad to have such a good putting day,” Rahm said. “I’m hoping to keep the pace as good as it has been the last few holes on the course and hopefully tidy up a few ball-striking mistakes.”

Kitayama, chasing his first PGA title, fired a 65 that included birdies at 16 and 18 and holing out from a bunker for eagle at the par-5 12th.

“Overall I felt pretty solid on the greens,” he said. “This week I feel like I see the line better and can hit a more confident stroke.”

Australia’s Cam Davis and American Aaron Waise shared third on 132.

Second-ranked defending champion Rory McIlroy, who could overtake Masters champion Scottie Scheffler for world number one with a victory, fired a 67 to stand fifth on 133.

“Didn’t feel like I was much off,” McIlroy said. “On the back nine I just started to hit a lot more quality golf shots.”

The four-time major winner joked he was trying to stay close to Rahm.

“Hell of a round out there even with bogey at the last,” McIlroy said of Rahm. “It’s tricky and the greens are super quick. If you’re just a little off, they can punish you. Really impressive round of golf.”

– ‘A lot of good’ –

Rahm reeled off four birdies in a row from the third through sixth holes, all on putts from inside 10 feet, and holed out for birdie from a bunker from 62 feet at the eighth.

After missing a birdie putt from inside three feet at the ninth, Rahm sank a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 10th and followed by rolling in birdie putts from just inside 25 feet at 13, 12 feet at 15th and 25 feet at 16.

“It’s always a bonus to make a couple of long ones like I did on 10 and 16,” he said. “Those are holes where you are just hoping to cosy it down there and made a couple good ones.”

At 17, Rahm just missed an eagle with a 7-iron from 195 yards but tapped in for his 10th birdie of the day.

“I thought I was 20 feet short,” he said. “There was a shadow. The crowd let us know.”

At 18, his approach rolled off the green and set up his only bogey to leave him level with Kitayama.

“There was a lot of good out there today,” Rahm said.

British Conservative politician Rishi Sunak late Friday reached the minimum threshold to run for party leader, as former prime minister Boris Johnson targeted an audacious comeback.

Cabinet member Penny Mordaunt became the first to formally declare her candidacy, after the UK’s ruling party was forced into a second leadership contest following the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss.

“Honoured to be the 100th Tory MP to support #Ready4Rishi,” senior backbencher Tobias Ellwood tweeted, as other backers of Sunak also said he had crossed the barrier.

Sunak will automatically become party leader and prime minister if his opponents fail also to win 100 nominations from their fellow Tory MPs.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat, who ran for leader himself after Johnson was toppled in July, issued a thinly veiled appeal to the scandal-tainted ex-leader to stay out of the race.

“This is no time for political games, for settling scores, or for looking backwards,” Tugendhat said as he also endorsed Sunak late Friday.

Neither Sunak nor Johnson has publicly declared they are running.

But Johnson cut short a Caribbean holiday to take part in the accelerated contest, which will see Tory MPs hold a vote on Monday before a possible online ballot for party members next week.

James Duddridge, one of Johnson’s closest allies in parliament, said he had been in contact with his old boss via WhatsApp.

“He said… ‘We are going to do this. I’m up for it’,” the MP said, as a Sky News reporter posted a photograph apparently showing Johnson on a flight home from the Dominican Republic.

– ‘Fresh start’ –

The Sunak and Johnson camps are reportedly seeking talks to see if there is scope for a unity deal — although there is plenty of bad blood since the former prime minister’s defenestration.

Mordaunt, who just missed out on making the final runoff after Johnson quit, said she was running for “a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest”.

But polling company YouGov found that three in five voters now want an early general election, in line with demands from opposition parties, as Britons struggle with a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Labour and other parties argue only an election can end the months of political chaos, sparked when Johnson was himself forced out after non-stop personal and political scandal.

In the resultant contest, Truss won the support of just over 80,000 Tory party members, defeating Sunak, who correctly warned that her right-wing programme of debt-fuelled tax cuts would crash the economy.

Truss announced on Thursday she was quitting after just 44 tempestuous days in office.

– ‘Questions to answer’ –

Political website Guido Fawkes, which is running a rolling spreadsheet of Tory MPs’ declared support, had Sunak on 103, Johnson on 68 and Mordaunt on 25 by late Friday.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, a favourite of the Tory grassroots, told reporters he was not standing himself. “At the moment, I’m leaning towards Boris Johnson,” he said.

But Wallace added that Johnson still had “some questions to answer” over the multiple scandals, which resulted in a yet-to-launch investigation in the House of Commons.

If found guilty of lying to the Commons over the “Partygate” scandal — lockdown-breaching revels held in Downing Street — Johnson could be suspended or even expelled from parliament.

As a result of such controversies, Johnson left Number 10 with dismal poll ratings, and other Tories were aghast at the prospect of his coming back.

Veteran backbencher Roger Gale warned that Johnson could face a wave of resignations from MPs refusing to serve under him as leader.

– ‘Backstabber’ –

Johnson’s ambiguous appeal was underlined by a YouGov poll that found 52 percent of voters opposed to his return.

In Sunak’s constituency in Yorkshire, northern England, 58-year-old farmer Elaine Stones said the party had made a mistake in electing Truss instead of him. 

“He’s honest, reliable and he should have been voted in last time,” she told AFP. 

But retiree Maureen Ward called Sunak a “backstabber” who helped to topple Johnson. 

“He wielded the knife and once you do that, you can’t be trusted,” she said.