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Highlights: 2024 men's tour down under, stage 4.

Tour Down Under 2024: The Route

The UCI World Tour kicks into gear with a virtually flat 1st stage . It’s a cicuit race around Tanunda.

The 2nd stage of the Tour Down Under is a lumpy test between Norwood and Lobethal. The punchy Fox Creek climb – 1.6 kilometre at 8.8% – inside the last 10 kilometres could be decisive.

Stage 3 features 2,211 metres vertical metres, but still, a bunch sprint is the most likely outcome. Caleb Ewan won seven years ago after a similar finale.

The flattest race of the entire Tour Down Under takes place on the fourth day. Stage 4 travels to a slightly uphill home straight in Port Elliot.

The 5th stage sees the return of Willunga Hill after a 3 years hiatus. The finish climb is 3 kilometres long and averaging 7%, while it ramps up to 15.6%.

The Tour Down Under is to be decided on the final day of action. Starting in Unley and finishing on Mount Lofty, stage 6 takes in an elevation gain of 2,821 metres and an uphill finish.

Tour Down Under 2024: routes, profiles, more

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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21 Things to Know Before You Go to Moscow

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Our 20 Best Moscow Day Tours of 2022

See all that Moscow has to offer by choosing one or more of our incredible Moscow day tours. Visit Red Square , St. Basil’s , the Kremlin or perhaps a vodka museum and the fantastic Moscow metro system , we have it all. Our expert, informative and fun guides will help you get to know Europe’s largest city. Please click on the day tour details to learn more or contact us for more information about our Moscow tours using the form at the side of the page.  You can also schedule a call with one of our Russian travel specialists to learn more.

Head to the heart of Moscow with a professional guide on a 4-hour private walk through the city center. See Tverskaya and Old Arbat streets, Theatre Square with the world-famous Bolshoi Theatre, and the former KGB headquarters...

• Schedule Daily 09:00 - 20:00
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Panoramic City Tour. This Moscow tour is a great start to your trip and the best way to get acquainted with many of the city’s major highlights. Our professional guide will escort you on a route that includes Vorobyevi...

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This tour offers a detailed look into the history and present-day life of the Jewish community of Moscow. On the tour, you will visit sites connected with the cultural and religious life of different Jewish families, as well...

• Schedule Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 11:00 - 20:00 Friday 10:00 - 14:00 Saturday not available

The tour begins with a drive or walk down Tverskaya Street – a Soviet masterpiece. In the years of Soviet power, Tverskaya began to undergo a transformation: it was widened to two and a half times its original size,...

This is a very interesting and insightful tour. You will visit places connected with Stalin’s terror - a time of great repression and fear. You will be shown monuments to the victims of the repression. You will then...

You will be told of the street’s interesting history and view the street’s artisan culture. You will also have the opportunity to view and purchase souvenirs from the street’s many craftsmen....

The Kremlin is truly a fascinating structure, at the same time it is an ancient tower, the city’s former military fortification, a palace, an armory, the sovereign treasury and the workplace of the Russian President....

• Schedule Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00 - 17:00 Thursday not available

This world-famous gallery contains masterpieces of Russian art beginning in the 10th century up until today. You will view exquisite Russian icons and paintings from the 18th and 19th century including works by Rublyov, Karavak,...

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Tour of the Novodevichy Monastery. Founded in 1524 by Grand Prince VasiliIoanovich, the original convent was enclosed by fortified walls and contained 12 towers. The structure served as a convent for women of noble birth...

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The Moscow Metro is one of the largest and most grandly built metro systems in the world. It was meant to be a showcase of the Soviet Union’s achievements for both the Russians themselves and for visitors from abroad....

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The history of Kolomenskoye stretches back for centuries. In 1380, Dmitri Donskoi’s army passed through Kolomenskoye on their way to the Kulikovo battlefield, and it was here that Donskoi celebrated his victory over...

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Considered by some to be the Russian Vatican, Sergiev Posad is the temporary residence of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Trinity St. Sergius Monastery (Lavra) was built in the first half of the 1340s by...

The Tsaritsyno Estate is located in the southern part of Moscow. The estate was constructed for Catherine the Great by the Russian architects Bazhenov and Kazakov in a romantic gothic style. The complex includes a landscape...

• Schedule Monday not available Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11:00 - 17:00 Saturday 11:00 - 19:00 Sunday 11:00 - 18:00

The Kuskovo Estate often called the Moscow Versailles due to its perfectly preserved French park, is an example of an 18th century, luxurious Moscow summer residence. Its history dates back to 1715, when the village of Kuskovo...

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Vodka is an important component of Russian life, an element of national identity and everyday culture. We invite you to visit the Vodka Museum and feel the atmosphere of long-gone centuries. You will get to know the story...

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Take this opportunity to learn more about the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy. During the visit to the museum you will see part of a vast collection of exhibits connected to Tolstoy and his family including books and personal...

• Schedule Monday not available Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00 - 17:00 Thursday 12:00 - 19:00

This apartment museum located close to Patriarch Ponds became the prototype of the "bad apartment" described in the novel "The Master and Margarita." Currently the museum's collection includes more than three thousand...

• Schedule Monday not available Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12:00 - 19:00 Thursday 14:00 - 21:00

Express to Russia specializes in Moscow city excursions, an essential part of your Moscow travel itinerary. We offer a large variety of day excursions throughout Moscow and its suburbs. From  Red Square  and the  Kremlin  to a city tour of Moscow’s  Old Arbat Street  or the  Moscow metro , an excursion specializing in Stalin and the KGB and much more. No travel to Moscow is complete without taking a few of our day tours that most meet your interest in Russia.

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Our Moscow day excursions can be organized on foot or with transport. All of our excursions are led by an experienced guide, specializing in the subject matter of the tour. Excursions are privately run and can be booked for 1 traveler all the way up to large groups of travelers. We run our Moscow city tours in every season. This is because travel to Moscow is excellent in any season. In the summer take a stroll through  Gorky Park  or take a riverboat tour along the Moskva River. In the winter, see Moscow’s winter wonderland of ice and snow and then settle in for a cozy lunch or dinner with a hot bowl of borsht. In winter, spring and fall, you can beat the crowds at all of Moscow’s main attractions and museums. Regardless of when you come, Express to Russia will make sure that your trip is one of your best vacations ever.

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What Taylor Swift's new album means for her $1 billion fortune

• Taylor Swift's new album, " The Tortured Poets Department ," is almost guaranteed to be a bestseller. 
• But no matter how well it does, it won't be the way Swift earns most of her money this year.
• The remaining leg of her Eras Tour is expected to add much more to Swift's billion-dollar fortune.

Taylor Swift released her new album, " The Tortured Poets Department ," at midnight, and, in what should be no surprise to anyone on this planet in the year 2024, it caused a scene.

Her album garnered millions of streams within hours. There's almost no doubt it'll top the Billboard chart like the 13 Swift albums before it.

But no matter how many platinum certifications it collects or streams it racks up on Spotify, "The Tortured Poets Department" won't be Swift's biggest money-maker this year.

The remaining leg of her Eras Tour — kicking off in Paris next month and running through December — is instead expected to be what contributes most to her fortune, which Bloomberg estimated to be $1.1 billion last year.

"Live music is the engine of the global music business," Clayton Durant, an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhardt's Music Business Program who's the founder of CAD Management, told Business Insider. "Her tour is probably going to earn 10 to 15 times more than her streaming."

Swift's Eras Tour brought in more than $1 billion in ticket sales last year over its 66 dates. By the end of this year, she's set to have played another 86. Swift's cut is unknown, but based on industry standards, she'll surely earn nine figures in 2024 from ticket sales.

Concerts don't only bring in money from ticket sales.

Pollstar estimates that Swifties spend an average of $40 a head on merch at her concerts — that adds up to about $175 million in gross merch sales last year. Swift's camp keeps the majority of that.

Bloomberg estimated that between box office and merchandise, Swift pocketed $225 million, pre-tax, from her first 57 Eras Tour dates. Career earnings from ticket sales and merchandise account for 34% of her total net worth, while earnings from music streaming and sales account for 18%, Bloomberg estimates.

Related stories

Swift isn't alone in making money on the road.

In 2021, the last year Billboard made a list of music's top earners, seven out of the 10 top money makers earned more than half of their income from touring.

But the music industry didn't always function this way. Before the advent of streaming, musicians made most of their fortune selling CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyl records .

"Physical music sales made up the bulk of artists' revenue pre-streaming, and that revenue was what enabled artists to tour. These days, the equation has flipped," Tatiana Cirisano, a senior music-industry analyst at MIDiA, told BI over email.

Streaming made listening to recorded music much cheaper. For less than the price of one CD — or for free, illegally or with ads — people could get all the songs they wanted.

"The moment Napster hit, it changed the paradigm, and it really honestly diluted the value of music," Durant said.

To be sure, Swift is still making tens of millions, if not more, on streaming and record sales each year — more than almost any other artist on the planet.

Streaming services such as Spotify pay out artists on a pro-rata model: There's a pot, made up of subscription and ad revenue, paid out to artists each year. Those with the biggest share of the platform's total streams get the biggest piece of it.

But "if you're an individual artist, you have to have a pretty massive audience to be able to earn a meaningful share of that revenue — which is paid out to you after your label gets its cut," Cirisano said.

Last year, Swift was the most streamed artist on both Apple and Spotify. One of every 78 songs streamed in the US last year was a Swift song, according to the music-data firm Luminate. She'll probably rank at or near the top again, between " The Tortured Poets Department " and a streaming lift from the second leg of her Eras Tour.

Swift is also set to earn more than most artists from physical music sales. Last year, she was responsible for one out of every 15 vinyl records sold, according to Luminate. Cirisano said Swift's rabid followers saw physical records as "a symbol of fandom" and a way to support Swift.

That said, without Eras, Swift would just be a poor centimillionaire.

Watch: Artsy CMO, Everette Taylor, tells Insider that the online art marketplace is more inclusive, and lucrative

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Scottie Scheffler wins 2024 Masters Tournament for 2nd win in 3 years

By Emily Mae Czachor

Updated on: April 14, 2024 / 10:00 PM EDT / CBS News

Scottie Scheffler secured his second Masters Tournament  victory in three years on Sunday, finishing 11 under and four strokes up on his closest competitors.

The 27-year-old American was tied with Ludvig Aberg, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa coming into the eighth hole before the world no. 1 hit three straight birdies to take the lead for good. Aberg ended up placing second in his debut at the Masters. 

Scheffler has been ranked No. 1 in the world for more than two years now and also won the 2022 Masters tournament, which was his first major championship win.  

The tournament was marked by unruly weather and at least one history-making moment. Golf icon and returning Masters champion Tiger Woods opened the tournament's last leg with his 100th round at the major.

The Masters Tournament is an invitational event held yearly at the Augusta National Golf Club, a private golf course in Augusta, Georgia. Since its establishment in 1934, the tournament has grown to become one of the four most important championships in men's professional golf. The tournament typically takes place during the first week of April, so they are the first major event of every season, followed by the PGA Championships, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, which are usually held in May, June and July, respectively. 

Scheffler and Morikawa held first and second on the 2024 Masters leaderboard , in that order, heading into the fourth round, on Sunday. They teed off in the afternoon as the last pairing of the day. Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau also began their play in a featured afternoon slot, with DeChambeau in fifth place on the leaderboard and Schauffele in sixth at the start of the round. 

Spanish golfer Jon Rahm , the 29-year-old who won the Masters tournament last year, returned to the course Sunday to defend his title, although his performances during the preceding rounds this weekend meant he was no longer competing to win. Woods had fallen out of contention, too, by the tournament's last day. After making his 24th consecutive cut on Friday, which was a new record at the championship, the star golfer went on to shoot a personal worst during the next and third round. At 48, Woods is a decorated golfing champion with five previous wins at the Masters. He teed off Sunday morning with the 23-year-old amateur Neal Shipley, commencing his 100th Masters round.

Scheffler will receive a huge cash prize in addition to the traditional green jacket, which is given to the Masters winner each year. The overall purse for the 2024 Masters is $20 million, setting a new record-high and jumping $2 million from last year's prize fund. 

The champion this year will receive $3.6 million from the purse, which is also a new record and up from the $3.2 million payout that Rahm received for his Masters win in 2023. What remained of the total $18 million purse in that case was divided among 50 golfers who participated in the tournament, with their individual scores determining how much prize money they were eventually awarded.

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Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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Election Updates: Democrats retake full control in Michigan; Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania.

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Neil Vigdor

Lee Chatfield, Michigan’s Republican House speaker in 2019 and 2020, is facing 13 criminal charges stemming from his use of political dark money on vacations and luxury goods, the state’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said on Tuesday. But investigators did not find enough evidence to pursue charges on a separate sexual assault claim, she said. He has denied all wrongdoing.

Michael Gold

Donald Trump, outside a bodega in Harlem after leaving court, vowed to “make a big play for New York,” a heavily Democratic state, adding that his court schedule meant he could campaign locally. As he left, he shook hands with supporters and posed for photos with a number of New York police officers.

Maggie Astor

Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, posted an anti-vaccine message on social media on Tuesday, suggesting that she regretted taking Moderna’s Covid vaccine and saying that it was unsafe and should be recalled. But studies of the vaccine show that serious side effects are rare, and are lower than the risk of complications from a Covid infection.

Donald Trump will make a campaign stop after court today at a bodega in Harlem where in 2022 a clerk fatally stabbed a man who shoved him . Manhattan’s district attorney drew criticism over charging the man, and the charges were eventually dropped. Trump is expected to discuss crime and inflation here.

Nicholas Nehamas

Crowds of well-wishers on the sidewalks greeted President Biden’s motorcade as it drove through Scranton, his hometown, on his way to his childhood home. But down the block from where Biden grew up, a crowd of Gaza protesters are chanting and waving Palestinian flags. A small pro-Biden crowd is countering with “Four more years!”

Chris Cameron

Xochitl Gomez, the Marvel actress and "Dancing with the Stars," winner, appeared alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in a video encouraging young people to register to vote. "Turning 18’s scary," Gomez, 17, said to her 2.7 million followers on Instagram. "To celebrate, I am getting all my friends to join me to register to vote."

Even in his hometown, President Biden could not avoid the anger that many Democrats feel over his support for Israel during its war in Gaza. “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide,” a crowd of several dozen people outside a Scranton cultural center chanted in a call and response. “We charge you with genocide.”

President Biden just wrapped up his speech in Scranton on the tax code. He spent much more of it attacking former President Donald J. Trump than talking about his own agenda. He has more campaign events scheduled here in his hometown today.

President Biden spent a great deal of time in this speech attacking former President Donald J. Trump. Before wrapping up with a discussion of the values he learned growing up here in Scranton, Biden took another shot attacking Trump’s economic policies: “He’s coming for your money, your health care and your social security.”

President Biden’s attacks on Donald J. Trump have touched on the former president’s wealthy upbringing, his friendships with billionaires and his tax policy. After several minutes of that, Biden has now moved on to his own vision for the tax code, including raising rates on the very wealthy and corporations and using the money to grow the economy and benefit working families.

In his speech in Scranton, President Biden is arguing that former President Donald J. Trump’s economic policies were a failure. “Trickle down economics failed the middle class,” he said, before taking a shot at Trump’s handling of the pandemic, including Trump's musings about bleach being a cure.

President Biden is giving a speech on the tax code here in Scranton, his hometown. He is talking about the lessons of hard work and fairness that he says he learned growing up here. Former President Donald J. Trump, he says, learned different lessons. “He learned the best way to get rich is to inherit it,” Biden said.

I’m in Scranton, Pa., where President Biden is set to take the stage shortly to deliver a campaign address on the tax code and economic fairness. He is expected to attack Donald Trump, who is standing trial today in Manhattan, as a friend of billionaires, not the middle class.

President Biden is spotlighting his Pennsylvania upbringing in a new digital ad called “Scranton,” which his campaign released on Tuesday in the battleground state ahead of his return to his childhood hometown. It features a cousin and a childhood friend, both of whom seek to cast Biden as a sympathetic ear to the middle-class.

Jonathan Weisman

In addition to Senators Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester, the $79 million in ad spending from the Senate Democrats' campaign arm will benefit candidates in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Some advertising will be reserved to go on offense against Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida, though the committee pointedly did not say how much.

The Senate Democrats’ official campaign arm announced Tuesday it will commit $79 million to television, digital and radio advertising to defend the party’s narrow majority in a 2024 campaign season that has Democrats defending seats in two solidly Republican states — in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, and in Montana, Jon Tester.

California’s attorney general and secretary of state on Monday sued the city of Huntington Beach near Los Angeles over a voter ID requirement that narrowly passed during a referendum in March. State officials said that the measure, which was placed on the ballot by the Republican-controlled City Council, conflicts with California law and was based on vague statements that falsely sow doubts about election integrity.

Maine will be the 17th state to join an effort to make sure the winner of the national popular vote is elected president. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said she would let the bill become law without her signature. States that join the compact agree to award their Electoral College votes to the national popular vote winner, but only if states totaling 270 electoral votes sign on. Maine makes 209.

Former President Donald J. Trump returned to a courtroom in lower Manhattan on Tuesday for the second day in his sex scandal cover-up case. He has continued to use social media to attack the judge in the case and the legal system, defying a gag order and upending the norms of conduct.

Two statehouse districts in Michigan are holding special elections today to fill seats vacated by Democrats who were elected to mayorships. The races will determine control of the statehouse, which is currently tied. Both seats are Democratic-leaning, and if the party wins both, they would regain a majority and have full control of the state government. The polls are open until 8 p.m.

Reporting from Scranton, Pa.

Biden bashes Trump as a pawn of billionaires as he lays out his tax plan.

Biden digs at trump during his pennsylvania hometown visit, in a speech about his tax plan, president biden compared scranton, pa., to trump’s mar-a-lago to highlight the different economic and social values between america’s middle class and its wealthy..

We’re not asking anything as unusual. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny. I hope you’re all able to make $400,000. I never did. You know, I have to say, if Trump’s stock in Truth Social — his company — drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his. [laughter] No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a nurse, a sanitation worker. Folks, where we come from matters. When I look at the economy, I don’t see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I see it through the eyes of Scranton. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. Donald Trump looks at the world differently than you and me. He wakes up in the morning in Mar-a-Lago thinking about himself. How he can help his billionaire friends gain power and control, and force their extreme agenda on the rest of us.

President Biden delivered a flurry of attacks on former President Donald J. Trump during a Tuesday speech in Pennsylvania about taxes and economic policy, painting his Republican rival as a puppet of plutocrats who had ignored the working class.

Visiting his hometown, Scranton, in a top battleground state that he has visited more often than any other, Mr. Biden laid out his vision for a fairer tax code, including raising rates on the wealthy and corporations and using the money to expand the economy and help working families.

But in a speech that signaled the Biden campaign’s intention to make the 2024 election a referendum on his polarizing Republican opponent, the president returned again and again to Mr. Trump. His jabs at his predecessor took aim at the former president’s wealthy upbringing, his friendships with billionaires and his 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefited America’s upper crust .

“Donald Trump looks at the world differently than you and me,” Mr. Biden told a crowd of more than a hundred supporters at a cultural center in Scranton. “He wakes up in the morning at Mar-a-Lago thinking about himself. How he can help his billionaire friends gain power and control, and force their extreme agenda on the rest of us.”

Aiming for a clear contrast, Mr. Biden laid out his proposals: Expanding the child tax credit. Providing a $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Raising the minimum tax rate for billionaires and corporations.

“We know the best way to build an economy is from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” Mr. Biden said. “Because when you do that, the poor have a ladder up and the middle class does well and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.”

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, disputed that Mr. Biden’s plan would benefit Americans.

“President Trump proudly passed the largest tax CUTS in history,” she said in a statement. “Joe Biden is proposing the largest tax HIKE ever.”

Throughout his speech, Mr. Biden wove in criticism of Mr. Trump — including a needling joke about the falling shares in the former president’s social media company.

“If Trump’s stock in Truth Social — his company — drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his,” Mr. Biden said.

The president’s speech kicked off a three-day swing through Pennsylvania, with appearances scheduled in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday. The trip came as Mr. Trump appeared in court in Manhattan for the second straight day as his first criminal trial begins — a striking split screen welcomed by the Biden campaign.

Since Mr. Biden delivered his State of the Union address last month, his campaign has shifted into general election mode, after a far quieter start to the year. In recent weeks, he has visited every major battleground state. His campaign has opened more than 100 field offices around the nation in coordination with state Democratic parties, spent $30 million in an advertising blitz and built a significant fund-raising advantage over Mr. Trump. An Arizona court decision that upheld a near-total abortion ban dating to 1864 has also energized Democrats .

As those efforts have taken place, Mr. Biden’s depressed poll numbers have improved, with a survey this month by The New York Times and Siena College finding that he had nearly erased Mr. Trump’s lead nationwide. The president had trailed Mr. Trump by five percentage points in the previous survey. Much of Mr. Biden’s recovery came from his improved standing among traditional Democratic voters, a signal that his campaign’s messaging efforts may be having an effect.

Still, Mr. Biden faces an uphill battle in convincing Americans that he is a better steward of the nation’s economy than Mr. Trump. In the latest Times/Siena poll, 64 percent of voters said they approved of how Mr. Trump had handled the economy while in office. Only 34 percent said the same of Mr. Biden, the poll found.

The tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed into law in 2017 have proved unpopular with voters. And while they increased investment in the U.S. economy and delivered a modest pay bump for workers, they fell short of Republican promises and are adding greatly to the national debt, one academic study found. Many parts of those tax cuts are set to expire next year.

Mr. Biden pledged in his speech that under his plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 would see their taxes go up.

“I hope you’re able to make $400,000,” he told the crowd. “I never did.”

As Mr. Biden spoke, Mr. Trump was seated in a Manhattan courtroom roughly two hours away, watching the selection of the first jurors in his trial. Mr. Biden has generally refrained from mentioning the charges Mr. Trump faces in four criminal cases, but his campaign did troll the former president on social media for appearing to fall asleep during proceedings on Monday.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, did not answer when asked if Mr. Biden was watching the Trump trial or being briefed on it.

“His focus is on the American people,” she said during a briefing with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Scranton.

But even in his hometown, Mr. Biden could not avoid the anger that many Democrats feel over his support for Israel during its war in Gaza. As Mr. Biden walked up the steps of his childhood home, a crowd of protesters down the block waved Palestinian flags and chanted “Genocide Joe has got to go” through a loudspeaker.

Mr. Biden is set to speak on Wednesday at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh before visiting Philadelphia on Thursday. He narrowly defeated Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020, and winning the state is crucial to his re-election strategy.

Democratic allies of Mr. Biden said they thought his message on economic fairness would resonate in Pennsylvania.

“Scranton versus Fifth Avenue was one of the most successful frames from the 2020 campaign,” said Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, referring to the location of Trump Tower in Manhattan. “You’re going to see more of it in this campaign.”

Mitch Smith

Michigan Democrats reclaim full control of Statehouse with special election victories.

Michigan Democrats started 2023 with full control of state government for the first time since the 1980s. They ended the year in a political bind after two House members left to become mayors of suburbs, leaving that chamber with an even partisan split and making it impossible for Democrats to pass bills without Republican support.

On Tuesday, five months after their House majority evaporated, Democrats won two special elections to reclaim those seats and full control at the Michigan Capitol. The Associated Press said the Democrats Mai Xiong, a Macomb County commissioner, and Peter Herzberg, a Westland City Council member, defeated their Republican opponents.

The results of the special elections had never been in great doubt. Both districts, situated in the Detroit area, are liberal strongholds that Democratic candidates had carried by large margins in 2022. But the details of scheduling and running special elections meant a long, slow winter for Democratic lawmakers in Lansing while the House was evenly divided between the two parties. Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer , is a Democrat, and her party has a majority in the State Senate.

Republicans hope the Democrats’ renewed House majority is short-lived. Michigan, long a swing state, is expected to be a pivotal presidential battleground again this year. President Biden is working to rebuild a coalition that helped him win the state in 2020, but early polling has been favorable to former President Donald J. Trump. Republicans see an opening to deliver Michigan for Mr. Trump in November and to win control of the Michigan House, a goal that could be helped by newly redrawn legislative maps in the Detroit area. All 110 Michigan House seats are up for election in November, including the two seats that were contested on Tuesday.

Before losing their House majority last year, Michigan Democrats raced through a list of longstanding policy goals that had been stymied during decades of divided government or Republican control of the state. In the span of several months in 2023, Ms. Whitmer and legislative Democrats enacted new gun laws , codified civil rights for L.G.B.T.Q. people , solidified abortion rights and undid Republican laws that they said weakened labor unions.

Those efforts slowed in November after one House member, Kevin Coleman, was elected mayor of Westland and another, Lori M. Stone, was elected mayor of Warren. Under Michigan law, Mr. Coleman and Ms. Stone had to resign from the Legislature when they became mayor.

Mr. Coleman said in November that some fellow Democrats, including members of Ms. Whitmer’s staff and Speaker of the House Joe Tate, expressed concerns to him about his mayoral run. But none of them, he said, did anything to undermine his campaign for mayor.

Once Ms. Xiong and Mr. Herzberg are sworn in, Democrats will have the numbers to resume their legislative push. With the general election only months away, it is uncertain how aggressively lawmakers will move.

Ms. Xiong, who was elected to the Macomb County Board of Commissioners in 2020, has worked as an interpreter. She is of Hmong descent and said on her campaign website that she immigrated to the United States as a child after being born in a refugee camp in Thailand. Mr. Herzberg, who has a finance background, has been a member of the City Council in Westland, his hometown, since 2016.

Trump leaves his trial to rail against crime and jab at the prosecutor in his case.

In his first campaign stop since his criminal trial in Manhattan began, former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday visited a bodega in Harlem where he made a pointed attack on the district attorney prosecuting him and portrayed himself as tough on crime, a central theme of his 2024 run.

His visit to the store — the site of a case that prompted political controversy for Manhattan’s district attorney when an employee was charged after fatally stabbing a man after a confrontation — made for a striking juxtaposition.

After spending much of the day in a Manhattan courtroom as a criminal defendant, Mr. Trump immediately traveled uptown both to criticize the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, for being too lenient on crime and to play up his “law and order” message.

Mr. Trump has for months tried to draw a distinction between his frequently expressed tough-on-crime stance and the felony charges he faces in four separate cases. Outside the bodega, he again tried to dismiss his charges as political persecution, arguing that Mr. Bragg was too focused on Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign sex scandal cover-up trial and was ignoring crime in the city.

“It’s Alvin Bragg’s fault,” Mr. Trump said. “Alvin Bragg does nothing.”

Though Mr. Trump is prevented by a gag order from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and jurors in his New York case, the order does not cover Mr. Bragg or the judge overseeing his trial.

Before he arrived at the bodega, his campaign attacked Mr. Bragg over his handling of the 2022 incident, in which Jose Alba, a clerk, was charged with second-degree murder after stabbing a man, Austin Simon, in an altercation.

Mr. Bragg and his office were criticized at the time for charging Mr. Alba, as surveillance video showed Mr. Simon shoving Mr. Alba, raising questions about whether Mr. Alba had acted in self-defense. Prosecutors eventually dropped the case , saying they would be unable to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”

In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Bragg’s office said that the Alba case “was resolved nearly two years ago, and the charges were dismissed after a thorough investigation.” On social media, Mr. Bragg’s office pointed to statistics showing large declines in homicides and shootings in Manhattan over the last two years and a more modest decrease in robberies.

At the bodega on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump briefly met with the store’s owner and Mr. Alba’s lawyer. He also spoke with Francisco Marte, the founder of the Bodega and Small Business Association, which represents bodegas in New York and which has attacked Mr. Bragg over the case.

After their conversation, Mr. Trump repeated criticisms about liberal politicians that have become standard campaign lines, depicting Democratic-run cities as being riddled with crime and attacking their leaders for being overly lax and opposed to law and order.

Before he left, Mr. Trump shook hands and posed for a photo with a group of uniformed New York police officers, an atypical move for many criminal defendants. He often takes photos with police officers at political stops after they have helped guard his motorcade.

And he again repeated his criticism of President Biden’s handling of the surge of migrants of the border, arguing that the crisis was harming people of color because migrants were taking their jobs.

That message resonated with some of his supporters, who had come to catch a glimpse of the former president.

“This is the worst city for all these migrants,” Lesandra Carrion, 47, said. She said that she believed the border had been more secure when Mr. Trump was in office and that she did not believe Mr. Biden “did anything for this country.”

And Mr. Trump’s criminal charges, she said, did not worry her, adding that he would win in 2024.

“He’s going to beat that,” Ms. Carrion said. “It’s all allegations.”

Mr. Trump was greeted by a large crowd when he arrived outside the store, and the surrounding blocks in Harlem were lined with people standing behind police barricades hoping to catch a glimpse.

As might be expected given that Mr. Trump lost overwhelmingly in New York, his former home state, in 2016 and 2020, his reception was not all positive. A group of protesters also arrived to jeer him, shouting, “Dump Trump” and waving signs before his arrival.

Other passers-by cursed in frustration because police barricades stretched for a city block, breaking easy access to sidewalks, their apartments or the store.

Still, despite the mixed response, Mr. Trump promised to “make a big play for New York,” suggesting he would make more campaign stops after his courtroom appearances and could easily campaign locally.

Lacretia McNeil, 40, whose daughter sat on her shoulder while she recorded the appearance, said Mr. Trump’s decision to visit Harlem was a smart effort “to rally up the votes.” Her daughter wondered aloud about the point of visiting a store.

Mr. Trump will be present in the courtroom when his trial is in session, and it is expected to last at least six weeks. But he is expected to hold more events like Tuesday’s bodega stop on evenings after court.

Campaign aides have also explored planning rallies on Wednesdays, when the trial is expected to pause each week, and he will most likely continue to hold rallies on weekends.

Bernard Mokam contributed reporting.

Emily Cochrane

Emily Cochrane covers the American South and has reported on the redistricting effort in Alabama.

Alabama runoff elections set the field for a newly competitive House district.

Shomari Figures, a Democrat who worked in the Justice Department, will face Caroleene Dobson, a lawyer and Republican political newcomer, this November for the seat in Alabama’s Second Congressional District, according to The Associated Press.

The two candidates won primary runoff elections on Tuesday in the district, which was redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the state had illegally diluted the power of Black voters.

Now that the district has more Black voters, who historically have largely supported Democrats, political analysts see the race for it as one of the most competitive in the South. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report ranks it as a likely Democratic seat. (The district’s current representative, Barry Moore, is expected to remain in Congress after winning the Republican primary in the neighboring First Congressional District.)

The Second District now stretches across the state, encompassing much of Mobile; Montgomery, the Alabama capital; and several counties in the Black Belt, where rich soil once fueled plantations worked by enslaved people.

In the Republican primary, Ms. Dobson faced Dick Brewbaker, a former state senator. Mr. Brewbaker repeatedly pointed to his experience in the State Legislature, while Ms. Dobson argued that it was time for a newer political voice in Washington.

In the Democratic runoff, Mr. Figures’s opponent was State Representative Anthony Daniels, the House Democratic leader.

Mr. Figures’s family has a long political legacy in Alabama: He is the son of Michael Figures and Vivian Davis Figures, who have both served in the State Senate, with Ms. Davis Figures winning her husband’s seat after his death in 1996. Shomari Figures moved back to Alabama after working in the Justice Department and the Obama administration.

Mr. Daniels does not live in the district — a point of contention in the race, though residency is not a requirement — but grew up there. He argued that his leadership position in the State House had shown that he could deliver for Alabama residents.

The November elections could result in Alabama sending two Black representatives to Washington for the first time in its history if Mr. Figures were to win and if Representative Terri Sewell, the Democrat in the Sixth Congressional District, wins re-election, as analysts widely expect.

Chris Cameron and Kellen Browning

Chris Cameron reported from Washington, and Kellen Browning reported from Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Kari Lake urges supporters to ‘strap on a Glock’ in preparation for the election.

Kari Lake, a top ally of Donald J. Trump who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, called on her supporters on Sunday to arm themselves ahead of an “intense” period leading up to the election, urging them to “strap on a Glock,” referring to a brand of firearm.

“The next six months is going to be intense,” Ms. Lake said during a rally in Lake Havasu City. “We’re going to strap on our seatbelt. We’re going to put on our helmet — or your Kari Lake ball cap. We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us just in case.”

The crowd roared its approval, and she continued, “You can put one here,” gesturing to the side of her hip, “and one in the back or one in the front. Whatever you guys decide. Because we’re not going to be the victims of crime. We’re not going to have our Second Amendment taken away. We’re certainly not going to have our First Amendment taken away by these tyrants.”

When asked about Ms. Lake’s remarks on Tuesday, Alex Nicoll, a representative of the campaign, said that “Kari Lake is clearly talking about the Second Amendment right for Arizonans to defend themselves.”

It is not the first time Ms. Lake has alluded to armed conflict with her and her supporters. Last year, she said: “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.,” referring to the National Rifle Association. She added, “That’s not a threat — that’s a public service announcement.”

Her voice is just one in a rising chorus of violent, authoritarian or otherwise aggressive political rhetoric from Mr. Trump and his allies. The former president shared a video late last month featuring an image of President Biden, his Democratic rival, hogtied. He has also said that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and described his political opponents last year as “vermin” who needed to be “rooted out.”

And Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, on Monday urged people whose routes were blocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrators to “take matters into your own hands” and confront the offenders, endorsing the use of physical force against peaceful protesters.

Jazmine Ulloa

A wealthy Democratic congressman is among the top self-funders in Senate primary history.

Representative David Trone, a Democrat who apologized for using a racial slur during a recent House committee meeting, has poured nearly $42 million from his personal fortune into his Senate bid in Maryland, according to the latest federal quarter filings, putting him among the top self-funders in Senate primary history.

Mr. Trone, who founded and owns a lucrative wine and liquor retailer alongside his brother, invested $18.5 million of his own money from January to March alone, ending last month with $1 million on hand. He drew only about $216,100 from other donors in that time, according to the filings .

Mr. Trone is seeking to make up ground in his hotly contested Democratic primary against Angela Alsobrooks, the prominent executive of Prince George’s County, and a slate of lesser known candidates. Now in his third term in the House of Representatives, Mr. Trone has picked up endorsements from top House Democrats. But his use of the slur has drawn criticism.

Last month, while praising President Biden’s tax proposals at a congressional budget hearing, Mr. Trone dropped a derogatory term used to caricature Black people. He later apologized, adding that he misspoke and meant to say “bugaboo.” “Regardless of what I meant to say, I shouldn’t have used that language, and I apologize,” he said at the time.

Five Black Democrats in the House then endorsed Ms. Alsobrooks, who is Black, though they made no mention of the slur. She ended the latest quarter with nearly $3.2 million cash on hand, according to federal filings. The primary is on May 14.

The winner is likely to face Larry Hogan, a popular former governor of the state who is seeking the Republican nomination, in what is expected to be a competitive general election . While Maryland has not elected a Republican senator in more than 40 years, it elected Mr. Hogan as governor twice.

In the Democratic Senate primary, Mr. Trone has sought to stake out a position to the left of Ms. Alsobrooks on issues such as addiction and criminal justice, and to emphasize his humble origins growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania and building a fortune as the founder of his company, Total Wine & More. He has pitched his ability to self-fund as a bulwark against the influence of political action committees, lobbyists and corporations.

In a statement, Joe Bowen, his campaign’s communications director, pointed to Mr. Trone’s self-funding as evidence that “he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to beat Larry Hogan in November and protect the Democratic Senate majority.”

Before his Senate run, Mr. Trone spent more than $43 million of his own money on his House races dating back to 2016, when he lost in a neighboring district, and he already had the distinction of being the top self-funder in House history , said Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst with Inside Elections , a nonpartisan newsletter that analyzes congressional races. Mr. Rubashkin said in an interview that Mr. Trone made most of his latest investment last quarter before his misstep at the hearing.

Mr. Rubashkin said Mr. Trone had entered the race with some disadvantages and was facing stiff competition. “He had a lot of ground to make up, and the money was his way of doing that,” Mr. Rubashkin said.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien

Trailing Biden in cash, Trump relies on big donors to try to catch up.

Former President Donald J. Trump leaned heavily on major Republican donors in March as his campaign and the Republican Party sought to close the financial gap separating him from President Biden, new federal filings showed on Monday.

For much of the race, Mr. Trump has relied on small donors — in particular, those giving less than $200 online — to sustain his campaign. Most big donors steered clear.

But in recent weeks, as Mr. Trump finished trouncing his primary opponents and Mr. Biden and the Democrats gathered fund-raising steam, these donors have opened their checkbooks to the former president.

In the last two weeks of March alone, one committee backing Mr. Trump raised nearly $18 million, nearly all from six-figure contributions. Mr. Trump and the Republican Party finished the month with $93 million on hand between all their committees, his campaign has said , having raised more than $65 million in March.

Still, Republicans are lagging behind. In the first three months of the year, Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party together raised more than $187 million, his campaign has said , including $90 million in March, ending the month with $192 million on hand.

Mr. Trump’s campaign has not provided a full account of its first-quarter fund-raising. The two committees that filed on Monday reported raising nearly $90 million combined since January, but that does not include money raised directly by the campaign or the Republican National Committee.

The filings on Monday with the Federal Election Commission were the first detailed look this year at the joint fund-raising committees through which Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have raised the majority of their money. These committees, some of which can raise more than $800,000 from individual donors in concert with the candidates’ parties, transfer funds to the campaigns themselves and also build out national campaign operations.

(The campaigns and parties themselves have been filing monthly reports, which do not include details on the individual donors.)

Biden Victory Fund, the president’s main joint fund-raising committee with the party reported raising $121.3 million in the first three months of the year.

Top donors included Seth MacFarlane, the creator of “Family Guy”; the billionaire entrepreneur Reid Hoffman; and the lawyer George Conway, a vocal Trump critic who until last year was married to Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump adviser.

The reporting period included Mr. Biden’s March 28 fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall, which campaign aides said brought in $25 million.

Trump 47 Committee Inc. — Mr. Trump’s new joint fund-raising committee with the Republican National Committee — was formally set up with the F.E.C. on Jan. 31. It reported raising $23.6 million in the quarter, including $17.8 million in the second half of March alone, largely from six-figure contributions.

Those gifts included $814,399 dated March 25 from Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who was a vital supporter of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign but was less engaged with his 2020 run. Mr. Trump had been courting Mr. Mercer and other donors in recent weeks.

Mr. Trump’s joint fund-raising agreement with the R.N.C. directs a portion of the contributions to Trump 47 Committee Inc. to a political action committee that has been paying his costly legal bills. The first $6,600 given goes to Mr. Trump’s campaign, and the next $5,000 goes to his Save America PAC, which last year spent more than $50 million on his legal expenses. The R.N.C. and state parties receive the remaining amount.

Other top-dollar donors to Trump 47 included Roger William Norman, a Nevada real-estate developer who gave nearly half a million dollars last year to a super PAC backing Mr. Trump, and Robert T. Bigelow, the Las Vegas aerospace mogul, who gave $5 million to the Trump super PAC in February.

Jeffrey C. Sprecher, the chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, also gave more than $800,000, as did his wife, Kelly Loeffler, who briefly served as a Republican senator from Georgia.

Joe Ricketts, the chairman of TD Ameritrade, also gave the maximum amount. Other major donors included Linda McMahon, the former pro-wrestling entrepreneur; Phil Ruffin, the casino magnate; and Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets. All three also gave at least $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC last year.

Mr. Trump’s Save America joint fund-raising committee — which had served as his main fund-raising vehicle during the primary campaign — raised $65.8 million in the first quarter of 2024, and ended March with $13.7 million on hand.

Reporting from Washington

Under pressure from Trump, Arizona Republicans weigh a response to the state’s 1864 abortion ban.

Facing mounting pressure to strike down a near-total abortion ban revived last week by Arizona’s Supreme Court, Republican state legislators are considering efforts to undermine a planned ballot measure this fall that would enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona Constitution, according to a presentation obtained by The New York Times.

The 1864 law that is set to take effect in the coming weeks bans nearly all abortions and mandates prison sentences of two to five years for providing abortion care. The proposed ballot measure on abortion rights, known as the Arizona Abortion Access Act, would enshrine the right to an abortion before viability , or about 24 weeks. Supporters of the measure say they have already gathered enough signatures to put the question on the ballot ahead of a July 3 filing deadline.

Republicans in the Legislature are under tremendous pressure to overturn, or at least amend, the 1864 ban. Former President Donald J. Trump, the national standard-bearer of the Republican Party, directly intervened on Friday, calling on Republican legislators, in a frantically worded post online, to “act immediately” to change the law. A top Trump ally in Arizona who is running for the Senate, Kari Lake, has also called for the overturning of the 1864 law , which she had once praised.

Abortion rights have been a winning message for Democrats since the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Mr. Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. And even though it is an objectively unpopular aspect of his White House legacy, Mr. Trump has repeatedly bragged that he is personally responsible for overturning Roe.

Republicans in Arizona, however, have already resisted efforts to repeal the 160-year-old law and are bracing for the potential for another floor battle on the ban that is looming for the Legislature, which is set to convene on Wednesday. The plans that circulated among Republican legislators suggest the caucus is considering other measures that would turn attention away from the 1864 law.

The presentation to Republican state legislators, written by Linley Wilson, the general counsel for the Republican majority in the Arizona State Legislature, proposed several ways in which the Republican-controlled Legislature could undermine the ballot measure, known as A.A.A., by placing competing constitutional amendments on the ballot that would limit the right to abortion even if the proposed ballot measure succeeded.

The plan, the document said, “Changes narrative — Republicans have a plan!” adding that the plan “puts Democrats in a defensive position to argue against partial birth abortions, discriminatory abortions, and other basic protections.”

One proposal would have the Legislature send to voters two other ballot initiatives that would “conflict with” and “pull votes from” the A.A.A. ballot measure. Ballot measures for a constitutional amendment can be proposed through a petition, as with the A.A.A. ballot measure, or through the State Legislature , and the document suggests that voters could read the Republican ballot measures first on the ballot if they are filed before the A.A.A. ballot measure.

One of the Republican ballot initiatives outlined in the presentation would enact an abortion ban after the fifth week of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and medical necessity. The other ballot option would propose a ban after the 14th week of pregnancy. The language of the measures would be intentionally written to mislead voters on when exactly an abortion would become illegal, according to the presentation.

The second option, for example, would be known as the “Fifteen Week Reproductive Care and Abortion Act.” But “in reality,” according to the presentation, “It’s a 14-week law disguised as a 15-week law because it would only allow abortion until the beginning of the 15th week.” Similarly, the wording of the five-week abortion ban would make abortion illegal “after the sixth week of pregnancy begins.”

An alternative to those two options would be to put forward a ballot measure that would take effect only if the A.A.A. ballot measure also passes. That plan, known as “conditional enactment,” would insert language in the state Constitution declaring that the right to an abortion in the A.A.A. ballot measure “is not absolute and shall not be interpreted to prevent the Legislature from” regulating abortion in the future. It would also include language used by anti-abortion activists, referring to “the preservation of prenatal life” and “mitigation of fetal pain.”

Ben Toma, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, confirmed the authenticity of the document and said in a statement that it “presents ideas drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus. I’ve publicly stated that we are looking at options to address this subject, and this is simply part of that.”

State Senator Anna Hernandez said in a statement that she and fellow Democrats would continue to push to repeal the 1864 law and that the Republicans’ proposals were “intentionally drafted to confuse voters” with policies “based in arbitrary numbers of weeks that have no factual grounding in science or health care.”

Dawn Penich, a spokeswoman for Arizona for Abortion Access, the liberal coalition organizing the A.A.A. ballot measure, said in a statement that the Republican presentation “shows yet again why Arizonans can’t leave our most basic and personal rights in the hands of politicians.”

Kate Zernike contributed reporting from New York.

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2024 Stages

In 2024, the Santos Tour Down Under stages will challenge the peloton as they race around South Australia and deliver plenty of excitement for fans.

The Santos Tour Down Under acknowledges and respects Aboriginal people as the state’s first people and nations, and recognises Aboriginal people as traditional owners and occupants of South Australian land and waters. In particular we would like to acknowledge Kaurna Peoples and their ancestral lands on which our event takes place.

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S COMBINED STAGE MAP

Friday, 12 January 2024

Ziptrak® Women's Stage 1: Hahndorf to Campbelltown

WOMEN'S

• Start: 11:10 AM, Mount Barker Road, Hahndorf
• Finish: 1:52 PM, Maryvale Road, Campbelltown
• Distance: 93.9km

Saturday, 13 January 2024

Health Partners Women's Stage 2: Glenelg to Stirling

• Start: 11:10 AM, Colley Terrace, Glenelg
• Finish: 2:23 PM, Mount Barker Road, Stirling
• Distance: 104.2km

Sunday, 14 January 2024

Hyundai Women's Stage 3: Adelaide to Willunga Hill

• Start: 11:10 AM, Wakefield Street, Adelaide
• Finish: 2:02 PM, Brookman Road, Willunga Hill
• Distance: 93.4km

Down Under Classic

• Start: 7:10 PM, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, Adelaide
• Finish: 8:15 PM, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, Adelaide
• Distance: 1.35km (1 hour + 1 lap)km

Tuesday, 16 January 2024

Ziptrak® Men's Stage 1: Tanunda to Tanunda

• Start: 11:10 AM, Murray Street, Tanunda
• Finish: 2:53 PM, Murray Street, Tanunda
• Distance: 144km

Wednesday, 17 January 2024

efex Men's Stage 2: Norwood - Lobethal

• Start: 11:10 AM, The Parade, Norwood
• Finish: 2:52 PM, Main Street, Lobethal
• Distance: 141.6km

Thursday, 18 January 2024

Health Partners Men's Stage 3: Tea Tree Gully - Campbelltown

• Start: 11:10 AM, North East Road, Tea Tree Gully
• Finish: 2:49 PM, Gorge Road, Athelstone
• Distance: 145.3km

Down Under Criterium

• Start: 7:00 PM, Victoria Park/ Pakapakanthi, Adelaide
• Finish: 8:05 PM, Victoria Park/ Pakapakanthi, Adelaide
• Distance: 1.2km (50mins + 2 lap)km

Friday, 19 January 2024

Hahn Men's Stage 4: Murray Bridge - Port Elliot

• Start: 11:10 AM, Bridge Street, Murray Bridge
• Finish: 2:48 PM, The Strand, Port Elliot
• Distance: 136.2km

Saturday, 20 January 2024

THINK! Road Safety Men's Stage 5: Christies Beach - Willunga Hill

• Start: 11:10 AM, Esplanade, Christies Beach
• Finish: 2:31 PM, Brookman Road, Willunga Hill
• Distance: 129.3km

Sunday, 21 January 2024

Schwalbe Men's Stage 6: Unley - Mount Lofty

• Start: 11:10 AM, King William Road, Unley
• Finish: 2:31 PM, Mount Lofty Summit Road, Mount Lofty
• Distance: 128.2km

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Tour Down Under men’s race 2023 - The Essential Preview

Hindley, Froome, Thomas and Dennis opt for summery start to new season as Australia's WorldTour opening race returns

The men's Santos Tour Down Under returns as a major international race next week, kicking-off the 2023 WorldTour with some of the biggest names in the peloton starting their season with some intense in the warmth of Adelaide and South Australia.

The women’s Tour Down Under is also back on after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, and is part of the WorldTour for the first time, further elevating the quality of the combined week of racing. Cyclingnews will also have a full preview of the women’s Tour Down Under in the coming days.  

The week of racing begins with a lung-opening evening criterium on Saturday January 14 for the women and men, which may not be part of the GC competition for the Tour Down Under but are always a show and always end with a fiercely contested sprint.

The men’s Tour Down Under then officially starts with a 5.5km prologue time trial around the parks to the north of Adelaide on Tuesday January 17 and ends with a hilltop finish, not on Willunga Hill where Richie Porte so often triumphed but on Mount Lofty overlooking Adelaide, on Sunday January 23.

The changes to the men’s race should create a more open and thrilling tour, with the prologue time trial making local resident Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) an overall favourite without ruling out other riders during the race before the final showdown on Mount Lofty. Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Caleb Ewan, who leads the Australian national team, will also fly the flag for the nation, while Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), Geraint Thomas and Ineos Grenadiers teammate Ethan Hayter have all opted to travel down under to start their season early as part of the 20-team peloton.

The Tour Down Under was last held as an international race in 2020, when Richie Porte won for a second time. Race director Stuart O’Grady and his organising staff bravely kept the event alive as a national-level competition during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has not disappeared but Australia has opened its doors and will again welcome an international WorldTour peloton for the first major race of 2023.

European-based riders and teams began to arrive last week so they could recover from the 24 hours of flying and the significant time and meteorological differences. Arriving early allows them to acclimatise and complete a final block of training before the racing starts.

Temperatures are currently above 32°C and expected to climb to 37°C for the criterium on Saturday according the official forecasts, though some of the longer range forecasts are pointing toward a chance of some cooler weather in some of the earlier stages but then possibly a return of the fierce Australian summer.  

Simone Giuliani and Stephen Farrand will be in Adelaide to cover the race for Cyclingnews, gathering all the important news, rider reaction, race analysis and the new 2023 bike tech.  

How the new route could impact the 2023 Tour Down Under

Stage races are about every second won or lost but the opening prologue in the 2023 Tour Down Under will immediately create time gaps that are likely to shape the subsequent five road race stages.

The winner of the time trial won’t automatically go on to win the 2023 Tour Down Under but everyone else will have to go on the attack on the other stages to pull back time. Three, two and one second advantages can be taken at the two intermediate sprints on each stage and then ten, six and four seconds are awarded at stage finishes.

If Stuart O’Grady’s script for the route goes to plan, the overall winner will be decided on the final climb up to Mount Lofty.

The evening prologue time trial on Tuesday January 17 covers a 5.5km course that starts near the Adelaide Oval cricket ground and then twists and climbs around the Adelaide Parks and Torrens River with a sweeping descent testing the riders’ nerve and bike skills.

The riders will have to use their road race bikes rather than time trial bikes to ease logistic and equipment issues. Aero bars are also not permitted but disc wheels and aero helmets are, perhaps offering some a slight marginal gain to the brave and talented time trialists.  

It is the first time a prologue time trial has been included in the Tour Down Under and race organisers are clearly hoping Dennis can use his proven time trial skills to win and pull on the first ochre-coloured leader’s jersey.

The first road stage on Wednesday January 18 covers a 149.9km loop around Tanunda and the spectacular Barossa valley wine area, with four smaller circuits and the short climb of Menglers Hill producing a total of 2,050 metres of climbing.  

A section of this stage also appeared in the 2021 Santos Festival of Cycling men’s race, where Luke Durbridge took victory with an 80-kilometre solo break on day one, and could inspire other attacks this year in an attempt to catch out the peloton.  

The last climb comes just 10km from the finish and so is a launch pad for attacks but the best sprinters will also be determined not to miss out.

Stage 2 from Brighton to Victor Harbor is over 154.8km and the longest stage of this year’s race follows the spectacular coastline for half distance before a hillier finale.

The final 60km includes two categorised climbs and crosses the Myponga dam wall before a fast road to the finish. In 2020 Giacomo Nizzolo won here, beating a 50-rider group and so Ewan and other sprinters should be contenders in 2023.

The finish overlooks the beaches of Victor Harbor and so if it is hot, riders are likely to continue the tradition of taking a cooling dip in the sea in their skin shorts.

Stage 3 is relatively short at 116.8km but includes 2442 metres of climbing and tackles three of Adelaide’s toughest ascents, navigating Norton Summit, Checkers Hill and Corkscrew Road in the Adelaide hills before finishing in Campbelltown. It is a day for the overall contenders to battle.

Corkscrew Road is 3.6km long and climbs at an average of 6.8% with a section at over 9%. It peaks just five kilometres from the finish, with the road all downhill to Campbelltown. Anyone targeting overall victory will have to climb well, descend well and fight for the time bonuses on offer at the finish line.

The stage around Willunga to the south of Adelaide traditionally decides the Tour Down Under but this year things are different. Stage 4 starts in Port Willunga overlooking the beach and ends in the nearby Willunga Township after 133.2km of racing without climbing the now legendary Willunga Hill, where Richie Porte so often secured overall victory.    

Rather than heading up Willunga Hill, the riders go deep into the McLaren Vale wine area. There are some rolling roads but this stage is definitely one for the sprinters.

The overall winner of the 2023 Tour Down Under will be crowned on Mount Lofty, in the Adelaide Hills that overlook the host city skyline, with the finish at the top of the 710-metre climb.

The stage is again short at just 112.5km but includes five assaults of Mount Lofty. It should be a tough and intense final stage, deep in the Adelaide Hills.  

The riders roll out from the south suburb of Unley with the neutral section cruelly ending at the foot of the Devil’s Elbow climb. Once over Mount Lofty the first time, the stage covers four 25km laps in the hills via Summertown, Uraidla, Carey Gully, Bridgewater, Aldgate, Stirling and Crafers. That will add up to 3131 metres of climbing in just 112.5km of racing.

The Tour Down Under stage route avoids a steeper early back road section and heads up to Mount Lofty via the main road up from the Freeway and Crafers. The whole climb is only 2.6km long at an average of 7.3% but includes two steeper sections with two and then one kilometre to go. One is measured at 13.3% and so a perfect place for the better climbers to attack and open a gap on their GC rivals.

The stage will be a battle right until the finish line, with any time gaps and the time bonuses all likely to play a part in deciding the final overall winner. The 2023 Tour Down Under could be decided by a single second.

"I think it's important to bring some new, fresh places into the Tour Down Under,” O’Grady said when he presented the 2023 race route, clearly hoping for a thrilling race.

"I was brought in to bring in some new innovations, some new exciting parcours and also didn't want just the same old kind of stages where everybody knows exactly what's going to happen. The new final stage brings in a lot of excitement. It's a short stage, it's aggressive, it's more central to Adelaide, so I'm guessing more and more people will get there.”

While the Vuelta a San Juan entices several big-name riders to travel to Argentina for their season debut, the Tour Down Under is a far more serious affair, with all 18 WorldTour teams on the start list and all fighting for the early WorldTour wins and a haul of UCI ranking points.

We are at the very beginning of a new three-year WorldTour cycle but the changes to the UCI points scales make WorldTour stage races like the Tour Down Under more valuable than ever and every team will want to get some points on the board early to avoid an early spell in the relegation zone.  

Few riders have travelled all the way to the Tour Down Under for an easy season debut. The race has been on riders' programmes since the end of October and most will have specific goals and roles and will have trained to be on form in mid-January.  

The Australian riders will of course be out in force, with many spending the winter training in Europe after two enforced stays through the off season. Of the 140 riders, 28 are Australian, spread across 14 different teams.  

New Australian national champion Luke Plapp will stand out in the peloton in his green and gold and could even emerge as Ineos Grenadiers’ team leader if Thomas and Hayter are not on his best form. He can count on the experience of Ben Swift and the youthful support of Magnus Sheffield, neo-pro Leo Hayter and Kim Heiduk.

Everyone in Adelaide will be hoping local rider Rohan Dennis is at his very best after opting to miss the National Championships. The new course suits Dennis much more, with the prologue time trial offering him a chance to earn a haul of seconds on his rivals and so take the first race lead. Defending the ochre-coloured jersey for six days may be a big task for Dennis and Jumbo-Visma but he will surely be up for a fight on the final stage to Mount Lofty.  

Of course he is not alone. Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), Jay Vine and (UAE Team Emirates) and Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) all have the talents to be overall contenders on this year’s course. So does Kiwi George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates), who has enjoyed the benefits of passing the summer in the southern hemisphere but can race without home nation expectations.  

Jayco-AlUla missed out on the intrinsic benefits and points haul of a home WorldTour race for the last two years and will be looking to use home advantage more than ever.

Michael Matthews has travelled to Australia in January for the first time in years and Jayco-AlUla have also sent Simon Yates down under to double-up their overall hopes. His aggressive climbing style seems ideal for an assault on overall victory if the Briton has anticipated the race in his training and worked on peaking in January and February. The Jayco-AlUla team also includes Luke Durbridge, Lucas Hamilton, Michael Hepburn, Chris Harper and Kiwi Campbell Stewart.

Jayco-AlUla face some serious rivals with so much at stake in the first WorldTour race of 2023, with a number of teams sending riders who will be real contenders.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) has the finishing speed and climbing skills to be a factor, as does Italy’s Antonio Tiberi, who will be part of the Trek-Segafredo team hoping to follow on from Richie Porte when he gave the US-registered team victory in 2020 ahead of Diego Ulissi.

Groupama-FDJ will back Storer all the way for an Aussie-French victory, while Chris Hamilton and Kiwi Pat Bevin could be a threat for Team DSM. Veteran Gorka Izagirre and talented young Ivan Romeo lead Movistar, while Mattia Cattaneo, Mauro Schmid and perhaps even James Knox could do well for Soudal-QuickStep in the absence of Remco Evenepoel.

Hindley is now one of Australia’s headline riders after winning the Giro d’Italia in 2022 and leads Bora-Hansgrohe along with former Paris-Nice winner Maximilian Schachmann, while UAE Team Emirates will be counting on new signing Jay Vine and road captain Bennett and perhaps even Giro d’Italia stage winner Alessandro Covi.  

EF Education-EasyPost have already shown off their new pink kit and new Cannondale bikes on the roads of Adelaide, Bettiol and new signing Mikkel Honore could both be overall contenders if they have an early peak of form.  

Chris Froome is part of the Israel-Premier Tech line-up, with 2018 and 2019 winner Daryl Impey also racing in what he recently announced will be his final season in the pro ranks.  

Caleb Ewan will of course be a rider to watch in the sprint stages, with Matthews, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Boy van Poppel (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) his biggest fast finishing rivals. Kaden Groves will no doubt be out to make a mark on home turf after his surprising but opportunistic move from the comforts of Jayco-AlUla to Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Teams will be looking to score UCI points by placing multiple riders in the expected sprints in Tanunda, Victor Harbor and Willunga township, with the prologue time trial, stage 3 to Campbelltown and the final stage to Mount Lofty deciding the final overall winner.

Each stage should produce some exciting early-season racing in the heat of the Australian summer, with each stage telling a different story, while producing an emphatic start to the new UCI WorldTour season.

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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

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Taylor Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ double album ahead of Record Store Day: Highlights

Catch up on all things 'The Tortured Poets Department':

• Fans celebrated Swift's midnight release of "The Tortured Poets Department" with listening parties and themed gatherings . Many critics praised Swift in their reviews.
• Swift surprised fans at 2 a.m. ET with news of 15 extra songs.
• The album features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine. Swift described writing the album as deeply personal. "Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it," she said.
• NBC News' resident Swifties stayed up to blog the biggest takeaways after the album's release.

Vinyl industry rep says pandemic-era manufacturing bottlenecks have eased

"The Tortured Poets Department" is set to be released in special-edition "ghost"-colored vinyl, available both directly through Swift's website and exclusively at Target.

During the pandemic, that might have alarmed vinyl record buyers. As vinyl plants shuttered and employees were sidelined, vinyl production ground to a halt, causing reports of weekslong backlogs and orders going unfulfilled outright.

But in an interview with NBC News on Friday, Dustin Blocker, president of the Vinyl Records Manufacturing Association, said those issues have been resolved and that suppliers now have more than enough capacity to handle any orders coming their way, including massive ones like Swift's.

"In Q3 2023, we saw the [production] timeline start to go back to normal," Blocker said. "And in Q4 it really got back to normal. Now, everyone, including the huge plants, takes only 8-12 weeks [to produce] ... so it's very good news for everyone."

Blocker said any price increases on the supply side sparked by the bottlenecks have essentially reversed.

So, the $40 price tag on the Target edition of "TTPD" is most likely the result of choices made by Swift, her label and the retailer, he said.

Jack Antonoff is sharing BTS pics

Saba Hamedy

Jack Antonoff is giving Swifties what they want: more content.

The Bleachers frontman, who is also Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared pictures of Swift and collaborators on the album, including Florence Welch .

The acting U.S. secretary of labor has a question for Taylor

Acting U.S. Labor Department Secretary Julie Su has a key question for Taylor Swift and her "Tortured Poets Department":

"Is this department unionized?" she wrote in a post on X .

Su, 55, has served as acting secretary since March 2023; she has faced stumbling blocks to being confirmed full time for the role over her perceived pro-union bias .

Destin celebrates Swift shoutout

Nicole Duarte

The city of Destin, Florida, is here for the Swiftie boost.

Google searches for the beach town shot up minutes after Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” was released. The album mentions Destin in the song “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine.

The city is celebrating the shoutout:

As is Destin's mayor:

Trump gets a question on Taylor

Vaughn Hillyard

A reporter who is part of the pool following Donald Trump on Friday at his hush money trial was able to get in a question to the former president about the new albums.

Trump didn't engage.

Taylor Swift reveals ‘Dateline’ as an inspiration for ‘Florida!!!’

Maddie Ellis, TODAY

Taylor Swift has taken over radio stations, from Channel 13 on SiriusXM to iHeartRadio briefly renaming itself to iHeartTaylor and sharing messages from the songwriter.

Swift revealed in a soundbite played on iHeartRadio that “Florida!!!” — the eighth track of the album and featuring Florence + the Machine — was inspired by “Dateline.”

“I’m always watching, like ‘Dateline,’” Swift said with a laugh. “People, you know, have these crimes that they commit where they immediately skip town and go to Florida. They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in.”

It’s the same with heartbreak, she said.

“I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life,’” she said.

Or perhaps in Swift’s case — a new era?

Read more at TODAY.com.

The double album appeared to avoid leaks

Kaetlyn Liddy

The standard edition of "The Tortured Poets Department" is said to have been leaked ahead the album's release. The origin of the apparent leaks is unclear, but none of the songs on the extended "anthology" version of the album seem to have been compromised.

Leaks of major artists' work sometimes occur when physical copies of the album arrive prematurely at record stores or department stores, before the tracks are released on streaming platforms. Fans suspect the surprise drop of the double album was a factor in the 15 extra tracks avoiding leaks.

The extra content was so unexpected that the lyrics of the anthology version have yet to be uploaded to Spotify .

‘The Tortured Poets Department’ broke a Spotify record in 12 hours

"The Tortured Poets Department" is already Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day this year, edging out Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" in less than 12 hours, Spotify confirmed to NBC News.

Swift currently holds the all-time record for most streams in a day by album and by artist for 2022's "Midnights."

Who are The Blue Nile? About the Scottish band named by Swift

In the album's ninth track — "Guilty as Sin?" — Swift name-drops a beloved '80s Scottish band, The Blue Nile.

"Drowning in The Blue Nile. He sent me 'Downtown Lights.' I hadn’t heard it in a while," Swift says in the song.

"Downtown Lights," released in 1989, was the peak of The Blue Nile's commercial success in the U.S., with the song reaching No. 10 on the Billboard American Modern Rock Tracks chart. 1989 is also Swift's birth year and the title of her fifth studio album.

Known for their avoidance of publicity, The Blue Nile has released just four albums since forming in 1981.

Fans share their theories and joy on social media

It wouldn't be a new Taylor Swift album without fans wondering who it's about or decoding the names mentioned in each song. (Who is Cassandra , Taylor?)

That speculation will surely continue, but now that the album is out, fans can't believe their luck. Reactions on social media praised the sonic and lyrical range of the album, saying that "everybody gets everything," whether you listen to Swift for her synth-pop hits or her intimate folk songs.

Author and creator John Green couldn't wait to wake up his daughter to tell her she gets 31 new Taylor Swift songs today.

By the numbers: Will Taylor Swift break her own album sales marks?

Dania Kalaji

“The Tortured Poets Department” blasted to No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes album sales chart following its release. But will it live up to the success of her previous discography?

Here are all of Swift’s bestselling albums in the U.S. ranked to date, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Fearless” (2008): 10 million units

“1989” (2014): 9 million units

“Red” (2012): 7 million units

“Taylor Swift” (2006): 7 million units

“Speak Now” (2010): 6 million units

“Reputation” (2017): 3 million units

“Lover” (2019): 3 million units

“Midnights” (2022): 2 million units

“Folklore” (2020): 2 million units

“The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection” (2008): 1 million units

“Evermore” (2020): 1 million units

TikTok rolls out new features to celebrate new album

Daysia Tolentino

As Swifties show their love for "The Tortured Poets Department" on TikTok, they have the chance to be featured in a "Fan Spotlight" carousel that highlights videos with the #TORTUREDPOETSDEPARTMENT hashtag.

TikTok released a "Taylor Swift In-App Experience" that serves as a landing page for all things "TTPD." Fans can complete challenges in exchange for limited-edition "TTPD" profile frames and some Taylor-related searches unlock animations inspired by the album. Searches for "Taylor Swift," "Taylor Nation," and "The Tortured Poets Department" lead fans to the landing page.

The features are particularly notable because Swift's music was pulled off the platform earlier this year as part of a disput between TikTok and Universal Music Group, though many of her tracks returned earlier this month .

Fans on TikTok have already been loving "TTPD," sharing numerous theories , tears and rankings .

Swift's song 'Fortnight' with Post Malone hits No. 1 on Apple

Jason Abbruzzese

That didn't take long.

The song "Fornight" off Swift's new album quickly hit No. 1 on Apple's top song chart. It features rapper and singer Post Malone.

Swift also took the next four spots with "The Tortured Poets Department," "So Long, London," "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toy," and "Down Bad."

The National's Aaron Dessner on working with Swift: 'some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic' songs

Aaron Dessner, a musician who is part of the rock band The National, posted to Instagram about working with Swift on the album along with a pic of her in a studio.

He said that he has now worked with swift on more than 60 songs, including 17 across her newest release.

"I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer," he wrote, adding in thanks to a long list of other artists and producers.

Will Swift break her own streaming records?

The October 2022 release of Swift's 10th studio album, "Midnights" shattered records on Spotify and Apple Music.

"Midnights" became Spotify's most-streamed album in a single day with 184.6 million streams when it debuted. Swift also broke the record for most-streamed artist in a single day on Spotify with 228 million streams.

The album also become the biggest album of all time by a female artist in Apple Music history by first-day and first-week streams worldwide.

Can Swift outdo herself?

Will Swift's album inspire a new college course?

As Swift became increasingly synonymous with American pop culture, universities around the country started creating entire courses dedicated to studying her lyricism and impact.

Some courses focus on Swift as a business and marketing mastermind, while others analyze her storytelling techniques with all the detail and skill of poetry analysis.

Time will tell whether this new album will inspire yet another college course. Our guess is with all the literary references, it's sure to be on some professors minds.

Read more in NBC News' article here .

Saturday is Record Store Day

The release of "The Tortured Poets Department" will come just in time for a notable day in the music industry calendar: Record Store Day on April 20. The annual event has been observed since 2007 to celebrate independent record stores and is often accompanied by exclusive drops by major artists.

Swift has yet to announce a special event, but the date is marked in the TTPD Timetable on her Instagram, suggesting she might have something up her sleeve.

Swift describes new album: 'Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.'

Patrick Smith

Taylor Swift has offered fans a glimpse into the creative process behind "The Tortured Poets Society" and the emotions that inspired it.

In a press release Friday morning to accompany the new release, the artist said:

"The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.

"This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.

"This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

"And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry."

To sleep or stream? Swifties question staying up even later

Can you wait until the morning to listen to the 15 extra songs on Swift's anthology?

If you answered no, you're not alone. Online, fans joked that they didn't expect to get this little shut eye.

Among the fans: Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla.

"I got votes in the morning. Do I sleep or listen" he wrote .

Others had similar thoughts.

"TAYLOR I HAVE A JOB OH MY GOD" wrote one fan, tagging the artist on X .

"lol Taylor I have to get up early to run errands before work please" wrote another X user.

Leave it to Swift to give us adrenaline to keep us all up a little longer.

'The Tortured Poets Department' becomes Swift's longest album

With the surprise release of 15 additional songs, "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" has 31 tracks.

That now makes it Swift's longest album, edging ahead of "Red (Taylor's Version)" by just one track.

A list of all 15 of the extra 'Anthology' songs

• “The Black Dog”
• “imgonnagetyouback”
• “The Albatross”
• “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”
• “How Did It End?”
• “So High School”
• “I Hate It Here”
• “thanK you aiMee”
• “I Look in People’s Windows”
• “The Prophecy”
• “Cassandra”
• “The Bolter”
• “The Manuscript”

Surprise: a double album!

"The Tortured Poets Department" is a secret DOUBLE album.

In a 2 a.m. ET surprise, Swift announced an extra 15 songs.

"I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology," she wrote on X . "15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours."

It's 2 a.m.

Now what, Taylor?

ICYMI: Swift's powerhouse publicist Tree Paine gets profiled by WSJ

Swift's longtime publicist, Tree Paine, whom many fans know by name, was the subject of a lengthy Wall Street Journal article published Thursday ahead of the new album's release.

While she declined to be interviewed for the story, it delves into how she became one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry since she joined Swift's camp in 2014.

“There isn’t a publicist in NY, LA or Nashville that wouldn’t jump at an opportunity to work with someone as talented as Taylor Swift and her management team,” Paine said at the time, according to the New York Post .

Read the full story here.

Couples are now wary of Swift's 'Lover' as a love song

Elena Nicolaou, TODAY

“Lover” — at least until recently — was widely received as one of Swift’s classic love songs. When the album of the same name came out in 2019, its title single was declared  first dance song material , or even a “ wedding waltz .”

In the song, Swift paints a portrait of quiet intimacy. Her wild “Red” days, of thrilling romances with highs and lows and uncertainties in between, had settled into something steadier with one person, captured by a simple chorus: “You’re my, my, my, my lover.”

But that interpretation is now in question, as Swift recasts some of her songs in a different light. Ahead of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,”  she released five playlists on Apple Music , sorting old songs into groups inspired by the five stages of grief, or “heartbreak.”

Aaron Dessner is credited as a songwriter on five of 16 tracks

Dessner, who is a member of the bands The National and Big Red Machine, is one of two producers who worked on "The Tortured Poets Department."

He's credited as a songwriter on five of the 16 tracks on the standard album.

Dessner first collaborated with Swift on her eighth studio album, “Folklore,” for which he shared in the Grammy win for album of the year. He made several guest appearances with Swift on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, joining her onstage during the acoustic set for performances of songs they wrote together.

Here's what some critics are saying in their reviews

Angela Yang

The critics have spoken. Here's a roundup of some of their takeaways on "The Tortured Poets Department."

Billboard ’s Jason Lipshutz praised Swift’s boldness for releasing a “knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album” at what’s arguably the peak of her career. It's more mature than her past heartbreak albums, he writes, and “not everyone will love it, but the ones who get it will adore it fiercely.”

Variety ’s Chris Willman wrote that the album can serve as an “unapologetically dramatic” soundtrack to listeners’ own heartbreaks.

Labeling it Swift’s most personal album yet, Rolling Stone ’s Rob Sheffield described it as “the cathartic confession of a woman who thought she had adulthood — and adult romance — all figured out, only to find herself realizing she knows nothing.”

And unlike on past albums, Swift doesn’t portray herself as a victim in this one, wrote the Los Angeles Times ’ Mikael Wood. Instead, the album emanates “a proudly villainous energy as Swift embraces her messiest and most chaotic tendencies.”

Jack Antonoff, Swift's longtime collaborator, posts love for album

Antonoff, Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared his love for the new album on X .

"Love this album more than I can say," wrote Antonoff, who worked on “The Tortured Poets Department” as a producer.

Antonoff also co-wrote eight of the album's tracks.

Swifties are starting to post reax on X

In typical fashion after a Swift album drops, reactions from fans are pouring in online, and they TEND TO COME IN ALL CAPS.

As any Swiftie will tell you, listening to new music from the artist always proves to be a collective emotional experience.

Spotify appears to be holding it together (so far)

The last time Swift debuted a brand-new album, Spotify crashed. No major issues so far this time around.

Shoutout to the engineers and people behind the scenes who are probably working overtime to make sure Swifties don't panic.

We have a new countdown

Don’t go to bed yet! Taylor Swift’s Instagram page is displaying a new countdown to 2 a.m. ET. This wasn't on the timetable ...

Swift releases statement after album drop

In her first social media post after “The Tortured Poets Department” was released, Swift shared a statement about the album online.

These songs reflect her experiences from a moment in time that was equally “sensational and sorrowful,” she wrote, adding that it is a chapter now closed.

“Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it,” Swift wrote. “And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

Who is Clara Bow?

Daniel Arkin

The 16th and final track on the album is named for Clara Bow, one of the leading lights of Hollywood’s silent era.

Bow, unlike a lot of stars from the 1920s, managed to successfully pivot to roles in talkies by the end of the decade. She co-starred in “Wings” (1927), which today is probably best known as the first movie to win the Oscar for best picture.

I’m not a Swiftie, so I don’t have much insight into how Taylor’s music connects to Bow’s acting career — but I’m curious how this track will be interpreted by the die-hards.

The album is here

BRB, we’re busy listening with the rest of y’all.

You can now choose a Swift-themed chat for your Instagram DMs

Instagram users can now set their direct message conversations to a new chat theme inspired by “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Bars, venues hold special Swift parties

On the eve of Swift’s album drop, event venues across the country (and around the world) hosted release parties so Swifties could get their first listen of the “The Tortured Poets Department” on the dance floor.

At Pianos in New York, music from across Swift’s discography will play until the new album drops at midnight. Attendees are encouraged to come in themed outfits and friendship bracelets, and the bar will be serving Swift-inspired cocktails.

In Los Angeles, El Cid is hosting a listening party complete with fan-made merch, giveaways and a themed wall for photos. Attendees can also expect performances from drag queen Jade Jolie, who appeared in Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” music video.

Several Swiftie-themed events are also being held across the Washington, D.C., area, according to The Washington Post, which compiled a list .

A Swiftie mom and daughter are hosting their own album party

Kristie Gilmore, 36, is ready to celebrate with her daughter, who was born shortly after Swift's “1989” album and has been a Swiftie ever since.

Gilmore decorated her Boston-area apartment with balloons, signs and stickers in the color palette of “The Tortured Poets Department.” She sprinkled the table with handmade confetti of the album’s logo and made TTPD-themed “membership cards” for themselves and each of her daughter’s friends.

“They’ve been counting down since Taylor announced this album,” Gilmore said, adding, “They’re just hanging out, having a dance party. They’re gonna try to stay up till midnight and listen to it.”

What are the track lengths?

The average track length on “The Tortured Poets Department” is 4 minutes and 4 seconds, making it the third longest album across Swift’s discography.

The longest song is “But Daddy I Love Him,” which clocks in at 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” is the shortest song, at 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

Travis Kelce shared his early thoughts about the album

Ahead of the Super Bowl, Swift's boyfriend, Travis Kelce, the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, weighed in on the new album.

“I have heard some of it, yes. It is unbelievable,”  Kelce said . “I can’t wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops.”

The couple , who have become the internet's favorite love story , were most recently spotted at Coachella 's first weekend.

Taylor Swift beat reporter speaks to NBC's Hallie Jackson

USA Today’s Taylor Swift reporter , Bryan West, spoke with NBC News about the album drop and all the Easter eggs being spotted by fans.

Swift's music is back on TikTok despite UMG dispute

Kalhan Rosenblatt

Some songs that Swift fans know “All Too Well” returned to TikTok this month, months after they were removed.

The songs were among the many tracks Universal Music Group pulled off TikTok after the label and the platform  failed to reach an agreement  this year. (UMG has no relationship to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)

UMG, known as one of the “Big Three” global music companies, cleared its music from TikTok in late January, saying it was doing so because of a lack of compensation for artists and songwriters. TikTok previously fired back at UMG, accusing the company of putting “their own greed above the interests of artists and songwriters.”

The economics of 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Doha Madani

Die-hard Taylor Swift fans will be spending a pretty penny on her latest album release as she releases four variants of the album with one exclusive track each.

Each variant of “The Tortured Poets Department” is named after the bonus song found at the end of the album: “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” If a fan wanted to collect them all, the minimum for $13.99 CDs at a store would cost at least $55.96 before taxes.

Longtime Swifties are already familiar with her tendency to provide deluxe editions, as anyone who was around for her original “1989” release can recall the Target exclusive that included three bonus tracks and three voice memos recorded by Swift. 

Her “Midnights” release included a Target exclusive track that was added to streaming only months later, and in May she released a new song on “Midnights (The Late Night Edition).” But this is the first time Swift has put an exclusive song on each individual variant, with no clear timeline for when they might be added to streaming. 

2024: The year of Post Malone and the pop girlies

Rebecca Cohen

Fresh off of a collab with Beyoncé on "LEVII'S JEANS" from her now-famed "Cowboy Carter," Post Malone finds himself on another major release of 2024: Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department."

He joins Swift on the album's first song, "Fortnight." Swift announced that "Fortnight" would be the album's lead single and the song for which she is releasing a music video 8 o'clock tomorrow night.

"I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever," Swift wrote on social media. "I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight."

While best known for more rap-focused songs, Post Malone is clearly making the rounds in the pop music scene, having also recently collaborated with Noah Kahan on "Dial Drunk." But his back-to-back appearances on arguably two of the biggest albums from pop artists this year raise the questions: Is Post Malone becoming a pop girlie? Is he just having a moment? Or is it all of the above?

There's a book about Swift's impact headed to bookshelves

Rolling Stone writer and music historian Rob Sheffield's book "Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music" will debut Nov. 12.

He's expected to dive further into Swift’s music and fan connection.

Swifties are celebrating with their own listening parties

Many Swifties are sharing their elaborate party setups online as they prepare to celebrate the album release at home.

Karen Rothdeutsch, 25, has decked out her bedroom in upstate New York with “The Tortured Poets Department”-themed decorations, complete with a platter of homemade cupcakes decorated to match Swift’s various vinyl variants.

“I just made my space a little more immersive for my first listen,” Rothdeutsch told NBC News. “I’ll be sitting in my bed with a box of tissues and a notebook, writing down my thoughts and probably checking into Twitter every so often to see what everybody’s thinking about it.”

She said she procured the decorations over the course of several weeks, but the whole setup cost her less than $100. While she decorates on a budget, she said she did splash out on the vinyl variants and collector’s edition CDs.

Swift's new album is already breaking a Spotify record

Spotify said on X that the “The Tortured Poets Department” became the most pre-saved album countdown page in the streaming service’s history.

Since its launch on March 28, TTPD's countdown page has ticked down to the album’s drop, now just hours away.

Was Swift's Grammys dress a 'Fortnight' Easter egg?

The white gown Swift wore to the 2024 Grammys, where she announced "The Tortured Poets Department," appears to have been an Easter egg.

Swift appears to be wearing a very similar dress in the teaser for the "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)" music video, which will debut 8 p.m. ET tomorrow.

Swift was also pictured hugging Post Malone at the ceremony. Some fans online pointed out a similar shot of the two singers that appears in the teaser for the music video.

Swift drops 'Fortnight' music video teaser

Swift blessed fans with a teaser for “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)," the album's first single.

"At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings. Album tonight. Fortnight music video tomorrow at 8pm et," Swift wrote in a post on X , which was accompanied by a short video clip.

The black-and-white teaser gave a sneak peak of the visuals for the music video. It's a combination of dramatic period gowns and a bleak medical setting in this supercut that is reminiscent of "Poor Things," which Swift's longtime friend Emma Stone recently won the best actress Oscar for.

Swift had announced she'd be dropping a music video at 8 p.m. ET tomorrow by sharing a “TTPD Timetable” on her Instagram page this week.

Merch is here — and already selling out

Hours before the album’s release, themed merchandise for “The Tortured Poets Department” is now available to order online.

The merch drop includes hoodies, crewnecks and gold jewelry branded with the album’s logo. A display case for the album vinyls seemingly sold out within minutes.

ICYMI: The Eras Tour concert film is on Disney+

In case you need something to do as you count down to the new album, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is on Disney+. Swift announced the film would be available for streaming in February.

The film features all songs from the three Los Angeles tour dates during which it was filmed at SoFi Stadium. They include “cardigan,” as well as four additional acoustic surprise songs from the tour: “I Can See You,” “Maroon,” “You Are in Love” and “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

Swifties online are freaking out over purported ‘leaks’

The internet was at it again this week, with some online circulating what they said were leaks of Swift's new album. It is unclear from where and when the apparent leaks originated, but one Reddit thread is already filled with commentary.

As early as Tuesday, "taylor swift leak" appeared to be blocked from searches on X. Instead, when a user tried to search the phrase, a blank page popped up with the message, "Something went wrong. Try reloading."

The secret message has been decoded

The sixth and final word of the secret message, “mortem,” was revealed today, hidden in the lyrics of the song “Begin Again.”

The complete secret message is: “We hereby conduct this post mortem.”

In a collaboration with Apple Music, Swift sorted some of her existing songs into thematic playlists , along with audio messages from her.

The messages seemed to confirm some fans’ theories that the playlists mirrored the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — indicating that the new album may grapple with grief or loss. Swift later used a song from each playlist to reveal a hidden word on Apple Music every day leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Swift sets fans loose on an international puzzle

Swifties had a big day yesterday after murals with QR codes were unveiled in cities around the world, including Mexico City, Paris and Chicago.

Fans stumbled upon the murals, which Swift had not announced, and scanned them to find a link to a YouTube Shorts video. Every mural had a unique code that led to a different video, each revealing a new letter as part of a word puzzle.

Fans came together online to help decode the puzzle, which seemed to hint at the new album's first track, because it spelled out "for a fortnight."

Swifties in Los Angeles flock to Spotify pop-up library

Many Los Angeles Swifties celebrated the new album with a pop-up library installation in partnership with Spotify.

The three-day event, which runs through today at The Grove, featured a sneak peek at some of the album's lyrics.

Fans posted videos of themselves lined up for hours to get a glimpse at the installation.

A manuscript was front and center at the installation, revealing new lyrics periodically as the pages were turned over the course of three days.

Many fans online tried to identify other potential Easter eggs in the pop-up library, such as a bust of a peace sign, quill and fountain pens and a globe that appeared to be pointing to Florida, the name of a track on the album.

Why is the album called 'The Tortured Poets Department'?

Fans were quick to note that “The Tortured Poets Department” is the longest title for a Taylor Swift album by a large margin, a distinction previously held by her third album, "Speak Now." Before "TTPD," "Speak Now" was her only album title consisting of more than one word.

Speculation surrounding the new album and its uncharacteristic title has primarily revolved around Swift’s  2023 breakup  with British actor Joe Alwyn after their six-year relationship.

After the album announcement, a  2022 Variety interview  between Alwyn and Paul Mescal resurfaced on X. The pair revealed in the interview that they were both members of a WhatsApp group chat titled the Tortured Man Club, prompting some fans to  draw parallels  between Alwyn and Swift’s upcoming album.

The true meaning of “The Tortured Poets Department” remains to be seen, but the album's rollout has featured references to famous poems like Charles Baudelaire’s “The Albatross,” among other literary references.

Clues keep coming

Speculation continues to grow over clues for lyrics, song titles and the album’s first music video.

Not much from Miss Swift so far

It's been a notably quiet rollout for "The Tortured Poets Department."

No themed Instagram grid overhaul, no lead singles, not even a cryptic calendar leading Swifties on wild goose chases for potential Easter eggs.

A week before the release, Taylor Swift was rocking out at Coachella instead of feeding her fans who are desperate for a hint of what's to come.

Aside from a hand-painted QR code on the side of a building in Chicago, a planned exhibit at The Grove in Los Angeles in partnership with Spotify and a quick video released Tuesday that appears to leave the "Midnights" era in the dust as viewers tour The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has been silent on what we can expect.

In the video , posted to her Instagram account, we did get a glimpse of a schedule that only showed release day, and on it, the promise of a music video on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Fourteen tick marks beneath led some to think the music video could be for the 14th track on the album, or for the leading song, "Fortnight," since a fortnight is 14 days.

Swifties believing in the latter theory proved to be correct. Swift announced that the music video would be for "Fortnight" in a Thursday afternoon social media post.

Swifties online continue to grasp for any details to try to figure out what this mastermind might have in store for her beloved fan base.

What songs are on the new album?

Here's what songs are on the track list.

• "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)"
• "The Tortured Poets Department"
• "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"
• "So Long, London"
• "But Daddy I Love Him"
• "Fresh Out the Slammer"
• "Florida!!! (Florence + the Machine)"
• "Guilty as Sin?"
• "Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"
• "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)"
• "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"
• "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
• "The Alchemy"
• "Clara Bow"

Swift has also announced four bonus tracks: "The Manuscript," “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” Each bonus track will be available on a separate vinyl variant and won't be on the streaming version of the album.

When does 'The Tortured Poets Department' drop?

Swift's 11th studio album, "The Tortured Poets Department," will be released Friday at 12 a.m. ET, or 9 p.m. PT.

It will be available for purchase on vinyl, on cassette, as a digital album and in CD form. It will also be on several streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music.

But if you plan to stream “The Tortured Poets Department” right after its release, be prepared for potential delays. When Swift’s most recent brand-new album, “Midnights,” was released, Spotify  briefly crashed  because of intense demand.

Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

is culture and trends editor for NBC News Digital.

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2024 RBC Heritage odds, picks, field, predictions: Golf insider fading Rory McIlroy at Harbour Town

Sia nejad reveals his rbc heritage 2024 picks, props and sleepers for this week's pga tour event in hilton head, s.c..

Two of the PGA Tour's biggest stars will be paired in the same group when Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth tee off in the 2024 RBC Heritage beginning on Thursday at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C. Ranked No. 1 in the world, Scheffler enters the 2024 RBC Heritage red-hot, having won three of his last four starts, including last week's Masters. Meanwhile, Spieth is trending in the opposite direction, having missed the cut in three of his last four starts. The two former Texas Longhorns are scheduled to tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET. 

Scheffler is the overwhelming favorite in the 2024 RBC Heritage odds at +400, while Spieth is a +3500 longshot to win. Xander Schauffele, who finished eighth at the Masters, is the +1000 second choice. Rory McIlroy (+1200), Ludvig Aberg (+1200) and Patrick Cantlay (+1400) round out the top five choices in the RBC Heritage 2024 field. Before locking in any 2024 RBC Heritage picks, make sure you  see the PGA Tour predictions and best bets from golf betting and fantasy expert Sia Nejad .

Nejad specializes in betting and DFS in golf, among other sports. He's had incredible success in the outright and first-round leader markets and in betting head-to-head matchups. He also has been solid with his head-to-head matchups since last year's Charles Schwab Challenge, going 39-27-2 and returning 8.31 units over that span. That's a $831 profit for $100 bettors since May 2023.

Nejad also nailed 75-1 longshot Wyndham Clark as the outright winner at the Wells Fargo Championship. In 2023, SportsLine debuted "The Early Wedge," and in the first three months of the show, he hit two first-round leaders and three outright winners.

Now, Nejad has focused his attention on the 2024 RBC Heritage field and has locked in his best bets, top sleepers and favorites to avoid. See who they are at SportsLine .

Top 2024 RBC Heritage expert picks

One surprise: Nejad is completely fading Rory McIlroy, even though he is one of the favorites at +1200. McIlroy enters the week ranked No. 2 in the world. He will be making only his third career start at Harbour Town and just his second since 2010. In his last appearance at Hilton Head, he finished 41st in 2020.

Nejad doesn't like how McIlroy has played so far this season on the PGA Tour. He finished 66th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before coming in 24th at the Genesis Invitational. In March, he came in 21st against a watered-down field at the Cognizant Classic, 21st again at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and 19th at the Players Championship. After a third-place showing in the Valero Texas Open, he finished 22nd at the Masters. "I have no interest in betting McIlroy at a short number," Nejad told SportsLine.

However, Nejad is high on the chances of Will Zalatoris, who's listed as a +2800 longshot. No. 10 in the FedEx Cup standings, Zalatoris has returned from microdiscectomy surgery to correct two herniated discs in his back to post three top-10 and four top-25 finishes this season. 

He enters Harbour Town playing some good golf. He has finished inside the top 10 in three of his last five events and is coming off a T-9 showing in last week's Masters. "Zalatoris doesn't have much history at the RBC, but his recent history screams that a win is near," Nejad said.  See which other golfers to back at SportsLine .

How to make 2024 RBC Heritage picks

Nejad has locked in his best bets for the 2024 RBC Heritage and is backing several longshots, including one that is priced at more than +4000. This player is a "great course fit" and is a longshot who could surprise. You can see Nejad's PGA Tour picks only at SportsLine .

So which players should you target or avoid for the 2024 RBC Heritage, and which player in the   RBC Heritage 2024 field could bring a huge payday at more than +4000? Check out the odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Sia Nejad's top picks for the 2024 RBC Heritage , all from the expert who is 39-27-2 on his last 68 head-to-head picks.

2024 RBC Heritage odds, field

See Nejad's picks, best bets and predictions here .

Scottie Scheffler +400 Xander Schauffele +1000 Rory McIlroy +1200 Ludvig Aberg +1200 Patrick Cantlay +1400 Tommy Fleetwood +1800 Collin Morikawa +1800 Max Homa +2200 Matt Fitzpatrick +2200 Will Zalatoris +2500 Cameron Young +2500 Wyndham Clark +3000 Si Woo Kim +3000 Sahith Theegala +3500 Russell Henley +3500 Jordan Spieth +3500 Shane Lowry +3500 Sam Burns +4000 Tony Finau +4500 Tom Kim +4500 Justin Thomas +4500 Denny McCarthy +4500 Corey Conners +4500 Brian Harman +4500 J.T. Poston +5000 Chris Kirk +5000 Cameron Davis +5000 Sepp Straka +5500 Lucas Glover +5500 Jason Day +5500 Harris English +5500 Christiaan Bezuidenhout +5500 Akshay Bhatia +5500 Taylor Moore +6000 Byeong Hun An +6000 Sungjae Im +6500 Brendon Todd +6500 Matthieu Pavon +7000 Adam Hadwin +7000 Eric Cole +7500 Adam Schenk +7500 Tom Hoge +8000 Kurt Kitayama +8000 Keegan Bradley +8000 Emiliano Grillo +9000 Thomas Detry +10000 Stephan Jaeger +10000 Austin Eckroat +10000 Andrew Putnam +10000 Nick Taylor +11000 Mackenzie Hughes +11000 Erik Van Rooyen +11000 Rickie Fowler +13000 Adam Svensson +13000 Justin Rose +15000 Patrick Rodgers +18000 Lee Hodges +18000 Webb Simpson +18000 Seamus Power +25000 Peter Malnati +25000 Nick Dunlap +25000 Jake Knapp +25000 Erik Barnes +30000 Chandler Phillips +30000 Brice Garnett +30000 Alejandro Tosti +30000 Gary Woodland +30000 Grayson Murray +35000 Kevin Kisner +150000

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