Voters in about two dozen Georgia counties began voting today in the Senate runoff between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker, despite attempts by the Georgia Republicans to block Saturday voting.

The election will determine whether the Senate remains split 50-50 with Democrats in control, or whether Democrats will take a 51-49 majority that will ease their ability to confirm judges and move legislation through committees. 

Originally, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, had allowed voting the Saturday after Thanksgiving, then changed his mind and issued guidance prohibiting it. But the Warnock campaign sued, arguing the prohibition was contrary to Georgia law. On Wednesday, the Georgia Supreme Court allowed voting to begin Saturday. Their effort was opposed by state and national Republicans.

Voting began Saturday with long lines across the state as voters decided to take advantage of the extra day of voting. “We had to take them to court just so you could vote today,” Warnock said at a campaign stop Saturday morning.

Early voting opportunities are especially important in a runoff election because there’s little time to vote by mail. Mail ballots must be received by the time the polls close on the date of the runoff election—December 6—making it difficult to request and return a mail ballot in time. Election officials and voting rights groups are therefore urging Georgians to vote in person.

Do you remember the days when Arsenal used to play a game every Saturday? In fact every single game in all divisions kicked off at 3 pm on a Saturday, and we got the results at around 5.30 and we watched the highlights on Match of the day, before the TV started mucking about with the fixtures so that we could watch live games.

There were League games on a Saturday, and Cup games or European games (which only involved the Champions and the Cup Wnners and were straight knockout games) on the occasional Wednesday. Maybe players weren’t as fit in those days or paid as much, but we certainly didn’t need such big squads. My memory may be wrong but I think Liverpool won the League and European Cup in 1977, and got to the Final of the FA Cup by only using about 18 players in the whole season. The game was much more physical and the pitches were much more ridiculous and there were only a couple of subs in each game. Also International games were few and far between and usually in the close season.

Then the TV companies got involved and we started playing early kick-offs, Sunday games, and then they brought in Monday Night Football, then Fridays, and now we have live games every day of the week and three at least on every Saturday and Sunday.

Since we played catchup after Covid the games have been nearly every three days as we caught up, then there was straight into the Euros, then the new compacted season because the World Cup is in mid-season, plus international breaks, plus European Group games, and you could be playing at any time on any day.

Nowadays there are 8 English teams playing in Europe every season, and with Group games and knockouts. If you get to the Final of the Europa League it means playing 16 extra games to get there…

Arsenal defender & Lioness captain Leah Williamson says there’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ on her injury recovery by Michelle

Arsenal’s Leah Williamson, also captain for the Women’s England team, the Lionesses, has not been available for team selection by Jonas Eidevall since sustaining a foot injury in early October.  Leah also had to withdraw from international duties.

Jonas Eidevall confirmed that Leah was now back in training with her Arsenal teammates, but is not yet match fit.

The Lionesses Captain last played for her club in a 1-0 win over Ajax that ensured Arsenal qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. During the same match, fellow defender and Women’s Brazil Captain Rafaelle Souza suffered a metatarsal bone injury, whilst Leah picked up her similar injury in training the following week.  Leah has missed the subsequent two international breaks with England since then.

Williamson, speaking to Skysports ahead of an unveiling of artwork celebrating Helen Hardy, the founder of Manchester Laces football club, said that after a tough time away from the pitch she was closing in on a recovery.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump, now a candidate for president, had dinner with the white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to wide condemnation.

Fuentes first gained notoriety for attending the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. He was one of “very fine people on both sides,” as Trump said at the time. As my colleague Ali Breland cataloged last year, Fuentes has a sizable track record. He has denied the Holocaust, opposes interracial marriage, and wishes for a return to Jim Crow segregation, among other racist beliefs. Fuentes recently said he’d prefer a Catholic monarchy to a democracy.

"Fuck democracy," Fuentes says. "Divorce, abortion, ghettos, crime, political correctness, diversity… track record of democracy, not so good. Catholic autocracy? Pretty strong… Catholic monarchy, just war, inquisitions and crusades: pretty good, pretty good stuff" pic.twitter.com/zsZktiZVt6

— Sam Hoadley-Brill READ CHARLES MILLS. RIP (@deonteleologist) November 25, 2022

Despite all this, Fuentes has been partially accepted by the Trump wing of the Republican Party. Earlier this year, he hosted Reps. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) at his America First Political Action Conference. (He drew press attention to the event by comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler—before adding that he meant this as a “good thing.”)

Arsenal is now expected to make another bid for Palmeiras star Danilo.

The midfielder has been on their radar for many weeks now and they wanted to buy him in the summer.

However, with the Brazilian league in progress, his present employers refused to sell him at the time.

The midfielder is now set to leave them as he is prepared for a new challenge, which has alerted the Gunners again.

A move for him means the Brazilians have sorted out signing a player for a key position on their team.

Bukayo Saka and Yunus Musa were two promising players at the Arsenal academy when they were teammates there.

Musah left the club in 2019 to join Valencia after the Spanish side promised him a faster route to first-team football.

Although he spent a huge part of his upbringing in England, he now plays for the USA.

Both nations faced each other in the World Cup last night as the US held their English counterparts to a goalless draw.

It was a tense game, with England struggling to get a goal against the Americans.

Bukayo Saka has been Arsenal’s poster boy for the last couple of years, winning our Player Of The Year for two seasons in a row, and winning the hearts of England fans too as he helped his side to the Final of the Euros last year.

Now he has started the World Cup in scintillating fashion, scoring twice in Englands opening game against Iran, until stopped from scoring last night by Arsenal’s very own Matt Turner in the USA goal.

But he has speaking about the love and energy he gets from the fans, and is proud that he can be the inspiration for the next generation of young footballers.

He told Arsenal.com: “The love I’ve had from the England fans has been special and it means everything to me. When you hear your name being sung by the crowd and them cheering you on, it makes you want to give more for them and to do even better for them.

“It’s nice to think that kids are now looking up to me. I hope I can continue to inspire them, be a good role model for them and make them proud and happy. I always try to conduct myself in the best way possible because I know there are children who look up to me and are watching everything that I do.

Arsenal could be one of the busiest clubs in the January transfer window, as they intend to remain at the top of the league table till the end of the campaign.

The Gunners have become one of the in-form clubs in Europe and lead the EPL table by five points.

Manchester City is behind them and Mikel Arteta’s team is doing well despite the pressure from the champions.

In the January transfer window, they expect to add new men to their squad and Express Sports have named four players who could join them.

The report says they are working on deals for Danilo (Palmeiras), Mykhaylo Mudryk (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yeremy Pino (Villarreal) and Evan Ndicka (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Takehiro Tomiyasu has struggled with injuries in the last few seasons, and that is one reason he has not played many games for Arsenal.

A setback he suffered at the beginning of the campaign forced Mikel Arteta to make Ben White his first-choice right-back and the Japanese star has been struggling to start since then.

His country selected him in their squad for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup and fielded him off the bench against Germany in their first game.

The defender did well, but it has now been revealed he suffered another injury setback after the game.

A report on Sport Bible reveals the defender missed his country’s training on Thursday because of a thigh problem.

Jude Bellingham is England’s latest midfield star. Could he become the next top Englishman Arsenal sign?

The Borussia Dortmund man plays with a maturity beyond his age and has been a star for his country at the World Cup.

Prior to the competition, he was considered one of the best midfielders in Europe.

The likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid were favourites to sign him, but the competition is likely to increase with his fine performances at the WC.

Goal’s Charles Watts has now told the Gunners he will be the ideal replacement for Granit Xhaka.