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Victor Wembanyama – who is listed at 7ft 4in tall and has an 8ft wingspan – is being touted as a future NBA star.

The 19-year-old basketball player is making waves in the sport as the first pick in the 2023 Draft in New York on Thursday, who was chosen by the San Antonio Spurs star.

The Frenchman is considered one of basketball’s biggest prospects and most coveted picks since LeBron James in 2003.

He arrived at Newark International Airport outside of New York City earlier this week surrounded by fans – some with Spurs jerseys with his name already printed on the back.

Already building a legion of fans in the US, it was his first official taste of stardom – and his draft selection was not the least surprising to pundits.

Victor Wembanyama. Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

Who is the French phenom?

Due to his height and wingspan alone, the French centre is expected to have an immediate impact in the NBA.

He has strong floor play, likes to shoot from outside and is effective in the interior.

Wembanyama averaged 20.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.0 blocked shots and 2.5 assists in 44 games this season for the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92.

And the sport runs in the family: Wembanyama’s older sister, Eve, is a professional basketball player, and their younger brother Oscar, is also starting to make a name for himself in the game.

Their father, Felix, was a track and field athlete, and mother, Elodie, is a basketball coach and former player.

Wembanyama played football as a goalkeeper and also practised judo before focusing on basketball.

Victor Wembanyama
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Victor Wembanyama in action in France last year for the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92

Victor Wembanyama with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the first pick in the 2023 Draft. Pic: AP
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Wembanyama with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the first pick in the 2023 Draft. Pic: AP

High expectations

Wembanyama was the consensus choice to be selected first and is regarded as a generational talent – but he insists that won’t affect him.

“I don’t let all this stuff get into my head,” he said after he landed in the US.

“I’ve got such high expectations for myself that I’m immune to all this stuff. I really don’t care.”

He was the presumed number one pick for months, the rare certainty in an NBA draft process that’s often a guessing game.

Yet, as the clock above the stage he was facing ticked all the way down to zero, butterflies set in – with Wembanyama describing it as the “longest five minutes of my life”.

“This is accomplishing something that I have been dreaming of my whole life,” Wembanyama said on ESPN’s broadcast.

“Hearing that sentence from [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver, I’ve dreamed of it so much that I have to cry.”

Fans cheer during the San Antonio Spurs' NBA basketball draft party. Pic: AP
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Fans cheer during the San Antonio Spurs’ NBA basketball draft party. Pic: AP

A fan holds a photo of Victor Wembanyama during the San Antonio Spurs' NBA basketball draft party at AT&T Center in San Antonio. Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

What are people saying about him?

Spurs have won five NBA titles under coach Gregg Popovich and have previously hit the number one overall draft pick jackpot twice with the selections of future Hall of Famers David Robinson (1987) and Tim Duncan (1997).

“We’re thrilled that we were able to bring Victor on board,” Popovich told a news conference.

“He’s obviously a heck of a talent, a very mature young man. But just like with every draft pick, whether it’s the first pick or the 27th pick, or the 38th pick, we have a responsibility to each and every one to try to create an environment where they can reach the best success possible for them.

“We’re going to get him on the court, and we’re going to see him play, and we’ll go from there.”

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Wembanyama wants to join Robinson and Duncan as championship winners.

“It’s tough to win in this league,” Wembanyama said after the draft – but he has already targeted winning an NBA championship ring.

“My goal is to try and learn as much as possible because I want to win that ring.”

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‘Love you bro’: Zayn Malik’s tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate’s death

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'Love you bro': Zayn Malik's tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate's death

Zayn Malik paid tribute to former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne as he kicked off his solo tour.

Payne died last month of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, according to a post-mortem.

Images from Leeds’s O2 Academy on Saturday showed Malik – who delayed his Stairway To The Sky tour due to Payne’s funeral on Wednesday – shared a tribute.

A message was displayed with a heart on a large blue screen behind the singer reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024. Love you bro.”

The 31-year-old also previously postponed the US leg of the tour after the “heartbreaking loss”.

He later rescheduled the Edinburgh shows, which had been planned for 20 and 21 November, to December due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

Following Payne’s death, Malik said he “never got to thank” him for his support during some of the “most difficult” times.

“I will cherish all the memories I have with you in my heart forever,” he said in a post on Instagram.

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Malik rose to fame in 2010 when Simon Cowell teamed him up with Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan on talent show The X Factor.

Malik left the band in 2015 and all members went on to pursue their own solo careers.

An investigation has been launched into Payne’s death by prosecutors and three people have been charged in connection with the incident.

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.

Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing

The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.

The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.

A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.

The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.

The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.

The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.

The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.

When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.

The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”

While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.

It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”

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Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.

The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.

Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.

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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’

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Joy star James Norton on the 'postcode lottery' of IVF - and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first 'test-tube baby'

Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.

In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.

The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

James Norton stars in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade

Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.

“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.

“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. Pic: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown

Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.

But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.

Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.

The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.

James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy

While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.

“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.

“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”

In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.

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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough

“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”

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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.

“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”

Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November

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