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USS Benfold Power Loss: What 4 Days Adrift in the South China Sea Reveals About US Naval Readiness

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:09:09 -0700

Cover image: Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG-65) underway in the South China Sea, July 23, 2026 (U.S. Navy photo by MC Seaman Andrew Novak, via DVIDS).

On July 24, 2026, a US Navy destroyer carrying roughly 300 sailors went dark in one of the most contested stretches of water on Earth. For four days, the USS Benfold had no propulsion control, no air conditioning, no working toilets, and no galley, while daytime heat in the South China Sea climbed into the high 90s. Here's what happened, why it happened, and what it says about the state of the US surface fleet in 2026.

Key Takeaways

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold (DDG-65) suffered a total loss of electrical power after an "engineering casualty involving its generators" on July 24, 2026, while operating in the South China Sea (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).
About 300 sailors went without air conditioning, working toilets, galley service, and potable water for four days in blistering heat, though 7th Fleet reported zero injuries (CNN, retrieved 2026-08-17).
Contractor tugboats towed the ship to Subic Bay, Philippines; power was restored July 30 and repairs were completed by August 7-8 (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).
It's the second major Indo-Pacific destroyer power failure of 2026, after USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for several hours in May (CNN via KRDO, retrieved 2026-08-17).
The outage happened amid what CNN described as mounting strain on the Navy from the Iran war and simultaneous global commitments (CNN, retrieved 2026-08-17).

📎 Internal link suggestion: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet overview → pillar page on US Navy surface combatants

Anatomy of an "Engineering Casualty"

The US 7th Fleet's official language was spare: an "engineering casualty involving its generators, causing a loss of power" (Cmdr. Matthew Comer, 7th Fleet spokesman, quoted in USNI News). That clinical phrase describes something close to a worst-case scenario for a warship at sea.

Benfold, like every Arleigh Burke Flight I destroyer, draws electrical power from three Rolls-Royce AG9130F generator sets, industrial gas turbines derived from the Allison 501-K34/T56 engine family, each rated around 2.5 megawatts. Those generators run everything the ship needs to fight and everything the crew needs to live: the SPY-1D radar and Aegis combat system, navigation, steering control, refrigeration, ventilation, and the vacuum-collection, holding and transfer (VCHT) sanitation system.

⚠️ Evidence-backed explanation placeholder: cite Naval Sea Systems Command or GAO documentation on DDG-51 electrical-plant architecture if a primary source is added in a later pass.

The propulsion-electrical link. Losing all three generators doesn't just kill the lights. It typically takes the ship's main LM2500 gas turbines offline too, because the turbines depend on electrically powered controls, fuel pumps, and lube-oil systems to run. That's effectively what happened to Benfold: multiple outlets reported the crew "was unable to control the ship independently," meaning the destroyer was dead in the water (DIW) and dependent on tugs (Mezha, retrieved 2026-08-17).

What likely went wrong. Neither the Navy nor USNI News has named a root cause; 7th Fleet has said only that the cause of the failure is still being determined (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17). On a 30-year-old Flight I hull, engineers investigating this kind of common-mode failure typically look at contaminated fuel or lubricating oil, a fault that cascades across the electrical-distribution switchboards, or a control-system failure that trips all three generators in sequence rather than one at a time. Until the Navy publishes findings, any specific mechanism remains speculation.

Timeline of the USS Benfold power-loss incident, July 24 to August 8, 2026. Source: USNI News, CNN, U.S. 7th Fleet statements.

The "Slow Cooker" Effect: Life Aboard a Dark Ship

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including Benfold, are steel-hulled, largely windowless warships built around watertight compartmentation and Aegis sensors, not natural airflow. Without generators, there's no forced ventilation and no air conditioning, so a ship built for temperate operations turns into what sailors and outlets alike have called an oven.

The timing made it worse. In the second half of July, daytime air temperatures across the South China Sea typically run from roughly 89°F to 98°F (32-37°C) with high humidity, and outlets reported the lack of cooling significantly worsened conditions for the sailors on board (Mezha, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Beyond the heat, the outage knocked out the ship's VCHT sanitation system, the vacuum-based toilets standard on Navy surface ships, along with galley services and potable water production, leaving roughly 300 crew members with a genuine sanitary and logistics crisis at sea. Besides losing the ability to maneuver on its own, the nearly 10,000-ton warship lost galley services, toilets, air conditioning, and potable water (CNN via KESQ, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The strike group carried the load. The guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG-62) began delivering prepared meals to Benfold's crew, and other ships of the Japan-based USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group also pitched in during the four powerless days (CNN, retrieved 2026-08-17). Through it all, 7th Fleet's statement praised the crew's "resilience, grit, professionalism and unwavering steadiness," and no injuries were reported (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

📎 Internal link suggestion: how shipboard VCHT sanitation systems work → explainer on Navy engineering plant basics

Strategic Implications: A Vulnerable Shield

Reduced firepower, at a sensitive moment. Benfold carries a 90-cell Mk 41 Vertical Launching System capable of firing SM-2/SM-6 interceptors and Tomahawk land-attack missiles, plus the SPY-1D radar that anchors an Aegis air-defense picture. For four days, none of that was usable. That's a real gap in a strike group's layered defenses, in waters where China-Philippines tensions over contested reefs and shoals have remained elevated through 2026.

A logistics gap, closed by an ally. Subic Bay, the former US naval base in the Philippines, was the nearest viable recovery point: contractor tugboats towed Benfold there, and Ship Repair Facility - Japan Regional Maintenance Center personnel met the ship on July 28 (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17). That the fastest fix ran through Philippine port access, rather than a US facility, shows how dependent forward-deployed US surface ships are on allied infrastructure and commercial towing contracts when something breaks far from Guam, Japan, or Hawaii.

Iron strain. The incident lands as CNN reported the Navy is under mounting strain from the war involving Iran and its broader global commitments, framing it as another setback for a fleet already stretched thin (CNN, retrieved 2026-08-17). The George Washington Carrier Strike Group, which Benfold has sailed with, is separately reported to be heading toward the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group (CNN via Yahoo, retrieved 2026-08-17). As of mid-August, though, the Navy had not said publicly whether Benfold would join that transit, and USNI News reported the destroyer pulled into Yokosuka instead of continuing through the Malacca Strait with the rest of the strike group (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

📎 Internal link suggestion: US Navy Middle East deployments 2026 → explainer on Iran conflict naval posture

Fleet Aging vs. Global Ambition

Benfold is a Flight I Arleigh Burke, commissioned March 30, 1996, roughly 30 years in service, built to an electrical and generator architecture designed in the late 1980s. It's one of more than 70 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in the fleet today, the workhorse of the surface Navy, carrying crews of 329 to 359 depending on configuration (CNN via KRDO, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Two Indo-Pacific destroyer power failures in a single year (Higgins in May, Benfold in July) is a small sample, but it raises the question naval analysts ask after every engineering casualty on an aging hull: is this an isolated equipment defect, or a symptom of deferred maintenance colliding with a high operational tempo? The Navy's own answer, so far, is that Benfold's cause is still under investigation, and no public link to the Higgins incident has been established. Both events feed a broader industrial-base debate in Washington over whether the limiting factor on fleet readiness is now the number of ships available for maintenance availabilities and the capacity of shipyards and repair facilities to work through a backlog, rather than simply how many hulls the Navy owns on paper.

⚠️ Evidence-backed explanation placeholder: add a sourced GAO or CRS readiness statistic here in a follow-up research pass, e.g. surface-force maintenance backlog figures.

📎 Internal link suggestion: US Navy shipyard and maintenance backlog → deep dive on surface fleet readiness

Comparison Table: USS Benfold (DDG-65) Technical Profile

Feature	Details
Class	Arleigh Burke-class (Flight I)
Commissioned	March 30, 1996
Builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, MS
Generators	3 × Rolls-Royce AG9130F (Allison 501-K34) gas-turbine generator sets, ~2.5 MW each
Missile capacity	90-cell Mk 41 Vertical Launching System
Crew (Arleigh Burke class range)	329-359
Incident date	July 24, 2026
Towed to Subic Bay	July 28, 2026
Power restored	July 30, 2026
Repairs completed	August 7-8, 2026
Assignment (as of Jul 2026)	Forward-deployed, U.S. 7th Fleet, Task Force 70 / Carrier Strike Group 5

Sources: USNI News, CNN, DVIDS ship-photo captions. Compiled 2026-08-17.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the USS Benfold lose power?

The US 7th Fleet said Benfold "reported an engineering casualty involving its generators, causing a loss of power" on July 24, 2026. The specific root cause (a mechanical fault, contamination, or an electrical-distribution failure) was still under investigation as of mid-August 2026 (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Were any sailors injured on the USS Benfold?

No. The 7th Fleet reported zero injuries and specifically praised the crew's "resilience, grit, professionalism and unwavering steadiness" during the four days without power (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

How did the ship reach Subic Bay?

Contractor tugboats towed Benfold to Subic Bay, Philippines, where Ship Repair Facility - Japan Regional Maintenance Center personnel met the ship on July 28, roughly four days after the initial failure; the crew moved into contracted lodging off the ship the following day (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Is this related to the USS Higgins incident?

Both are 2026 Indo-Pacific destroyer power failures, but no public link has been established. USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for several hours in May 2026 after an "engineering casualty" in its electrical system, in a location the Navy did not specify (CNN via KRDO, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Did the power loss affect Benfold's deployment to the Middle East?

The George Washington Carrier Strike Group, which Benfold has sailed with, is reported to be heading toward the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group. As of mid-August 2026 the Navy had not confirmed whether Benfold would join that transit; USNI News reported the destroyer pulled into Yokosuka rather than continuing through the Malacca Strait with the rest of the group (USNI News, retrieved 2026-08-17).

📎 Internal link suggestion: what is an Aegis combat system → glossary entry on Aegis and SPY radar

This article will be updated if the Navy publishes findings on the root cause of the generator failure.

Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese: Inside the WNBA's Defining 2026 Matchup

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 05:09:30 -0700

It started with a wagging finger and a national championship trophy. In 2023, Angel Reese's "you can't see me" taunt toward Caitlin Clark in the closing seconds of the LSU-Iowa title game became the most replayed moment in women's college basketball history. Three years later, that spark has grown into the biggest commercial story in the WNBA. Reese now wears an Atlanta Dream jersey instead of Chicago Sky red, and the rivalry has entered a higher-stakes chapter.

Two contrasting stars, two different games, and a fanbase that keeps arguing about which one matters more: that's the appeal, and it shows up in the ratings. Their June 20, 2026 meeting in Atlanta pulled in 1.7 million viewers on ABC, the third-largest audience of the season at that point (Sports Media Watch, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Key takeaways

Clark is having a career year, averaging 22.0 points and 8.3 assists per game across 31 games, while Reese is putting up a career-high 15.6 points and a league-leading 12.0 rebounds for her new team, the Atlanta Dream (ESPN, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The Fever hold an 8-1 all-time head-to-head record over Reese's teams, but Reese's move to a deeper, more competitive Dream roster has narrowed that gap in 2026.

As of August 17, 2026, Indiana (23-12) and Atlanta (21-13) sit at the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, setting up a real possibility the two stars meet again in the playoffs.

Both the "Clark turns the ball over too much" and "Reese pads her rebounds" narratives hold up only partially once you isolate the underlying numbers.

1. Origins of the rivalry: proximity and history

The Fever-Sky dynamic that started this rivalry predates both players. Front-office rhetoric between the two franchises dates back to 2012, when Chicago's front office named Indiana its chief divisional threat. Clark and Reese inherited that tension; they didn't invent it.

College basketball is what turned it into something bigger. LSU's win over Iowa in the 2023 national championship, punctuated by Reese's taunt and Clark's own history of trash talk, became the most-watched women's college basketball broadcast ever. The two met again in the 2024 Elite Eight, and this time Iowa got the win. Those two games pulled a huge new audience into women's basketball.

The pro rivalry has changed shape since then. Reese spent her first two WNBA seasons with the Chicago Sky before Atlanta traded for her ahead of 2026. That move matters: Reese now plays for a legitimate playoff contender instead of a rebuilding team, which raises the stakes of every Fever-Dream matchup and gives their individual battle real playoff implications for the first time.

2. Technical analysis: precision shooting vs. physical dominance

The two stars remain stylistic opposites, and the 2026 season has sharpened that contrast rather than softened it.

Clark is in the middle of a career-best season, averaging 22.0 points and a career-high 8.3 assists per game across 31 appearances, numbers that reflect both her rising shot volume and the Fever's continued reliance on her as the offense's primary engine (RotoWire, retrieved 2026-08-17). Her game is still built around one of the deepest shooting ranges in the league, and her ability to collapse defenses off pick-and-rolls remains Indiana's core offensive advantage.

Reese, now in her third WNBA season and first with Atlanta, is putting up career highs across the board: 15.6 points and 12.0 rebounds per game, tops in the league on the glass (ESPN, retrieved 2026-08-17). She's also set the Dream's single-season franchise record for total rebounds and for double-doubles this year, which shows how consistently she dominates possession battles regardless of role or team change (Heavy.com, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Head-to-head snapshot (2026 season)

Stat	Caitlin Clark (IND)	Angel Reese (ATL)
Points per game	22.0	15.6
Rebounds per game	3.9	12.0
Assists per game	8.3	2.4
Steals per game	—	1.7
Games played	31	—
Team record	23-12 (No. 4 seed)	21-13 (No. 5 seed)

Sources: ESPN, RotoWire, StatMuse — retrieved 2026-08-17.

Their most recent meeting, an overtime thriller on August 17, went to Indiana 95-91. Clark finished with 26 points and 9 assists. Reese, playing without two of Atlanta's key rotation pieces, still managed a 15-point, 14-rebound, 6-assist double-double (ngscsports.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). It's the rivalry in one box score: Clark's scoring gravity against Reese's relentless activity on the glass.

3. Debunking the "flaw" narratives

Both players carry a signature criticism that follows them into every discussion, and both deserve a closer look than social media usually gives them.

Clark's giveaways are real. She's a high-usage, high-volume playmaker running an offense that funnels through her hands on nearly every possession, and turnovers are a structural cost of that role. Her turnover streak is one of the longest of any point guard in league history, an unglamorous byproduct of the same aggressive passing that produces her league-leading assist totals. Strip out the live-ball risks she takes to create shots for teammates, and the raw per-game number overstates how much of the problem is really hers to fix.

Critics have also argued Reese inflates her rebounding totals by crashing her own missed shots. The numbers don't support a dramatic version of that claim. Even with self-generated rebounds stripped out, Reese remains one of the most productive rebounders in the league, and her 2026 pace has her threatening a WNBA single-season rebounding record and the league's first-ever 500-rebound season, according to ESPN's reporting on her game (ESPN, retrieved 2026-08-17). Whatever the exact split between her own misses and true team boards, the overall volume speaks for itself.

4. The cultural conversation: media coverage and public perception

How differently the two players are covered and received by fans and media is part of this story too. Commentators and former players, including some of the league's Black veterans and legends, have argued for years that white stars in women's basketball have historically received more mainstream media saturation and more sympathetic framing than Black stars with comparable or superior résumés. Reese herself has spoken publicly, including through her own podcast, about being cast as basketball's "villain" for showing the same confidence and physicality that gets celebrated in other players.

The league's own handling of physical play involving Reese and Clark has also drawn scrutiny. The flagrant foul in their 2025 season opener reignited debate over whether officiating and league messaging have kept pace with the intensity the rivalry generates on the floor. The WNBA's growth has outpaced its infrastructure in several visible ways, and the league is still working through that, including by investing in an NBA-style replay center for the coming season.

5. Commercial impact: the "Caitlin Clark effect" meets Reese's rise

The business case for this rivalry keeps getting stronger. The Fever alone have produced several of the most-watched WNBA broadcasts in 25 years in 2026, including a July matchup against the Las Vegas Aces that averaged 2.64 million viewers across NBC and Peacock (Yahoo Sports / Athlon Sports, retrieved 2026-08-17). Games featuring Clark against Reese specifically remain a reliable ratings draw on their own: their June 20 Fever-Dream matchup pulled 1.7 million viewers on ABC even outside a marquee weekend slot (Sports Media Watch, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Both players have built substantial personal brands beyond the box score. Clark's endorsement deals lean into her efficiency-and-fundamentals image; Reese's are built around a more expressive, culture-forward media presence, including her own podcast and heavy TikTok engagement. That split has helped the WNBA reach audiences who might have only followed one half of the rivalry.

The league's momentum is also pulling more star power in behind Clark and Reese. Paige Bueckers is already putting up notable numbers as a rookie, and incoming prospects like Juju Watkins give the league more names to lean on once this particular rivalry eventually cools off.

6. The playoff collision course

This is where 2026 changes things. With Reese now on a genuine contender instead of a rebuilding Sky team, a Fever-Dream playoff series is a live possibility, not a hypothetical. As of August 17, Indiana sits at 23-12 in the No. 4 seed, holding a 1.5-game cushion over fifth-place Atlanta (21-13) for the home-court edge in a first-round matchup (ngscsports.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). The WNBA's first round is a best-of-three series, so home court carries real weight, and Indiana's recent overtime win over Atlanta was already, in the words of Fever head coach Stephanie White, playing "like a playoff game."

If the seeding holds, Reese would be making her first career playoff appearance opposite Clark, who is looking to build on Indiana's brief 2025 postseason run. For the fuller playoff picture across the league, see the latest 2026 WNBA standings breakdown from Bleacher Report. Given how much attention their regular-season meetings already draw, a playoff series between these two could be the most-watched first-round matchup in league history.

Conclusion: a lasting legacy

Strip away the storylines and what's left is a real basketball contrast: a guard who bends defenses from 30 feet against a forward who controls the game from three feet. Finesse against force, shooting gravity against rebounding gravity. That contrast is what's driving a new level of WNBA attention, and it's measured in actual viewership records, not projected ones.

Who do you think has had the better 2026 season on the numbers alone: Clark's career-high scoring and playmaking, or Reese's record-setting rebounding pace? The stats above make the case for both. Let us know in the comments.

Frequently asked questions

Who is better, Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese?

It depends on the metric. Clark is the league's premier playmaker and long-range shooter, leading in assists and points for the Fever this season. Reese is the league's most dominant rebounder, on pace for a possible single-season record, and the anchor of Atlanta's frontcourt. They fill different roles rather than competing for the same job.

What is the "Magic-Bird" comparison in the WNBA?

Analysts use the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird comparison because, like that 1980s rivalry, Clark and Reese represent contrasting styles and personas whose ongoing head-to-head battles have driven a measurable, league-wide surge in ratings, attendance, and commercial interest.

Are Angel Reese's rebounds "fake"?

No. Some of her offensive rebounds come off her own missed shots, but she remains one of the league's top rebounders even accounting for that, and her 2026 pace has her threatening the WNBA's all-time single-season rebounding record.

Will Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese meet in the 2026 playoffs?

It's a real possibility. As of mid-August, Indiana and Atlanta are positioned as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, which would set up a first-round series between the two teams if the standings hold through the end of the regular season.

Stats current as of August 17, 2026. Sources: ESPN, StatMuse, RotoWire, Her Hoop Stats, Sports Media Watch, Bleacher Report, Yahoo Sports, ngscsports.com, Heavy.com.

SK Hynix (SKHY) Stock Analysis: AI Powerhouse or Peak-Cycle Trap?

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:37:25 -0700

Not financial advice. This post is for informational and educational purposes only. Do your own research and talk to a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.

In 2002, SK Hynix (then Hyundai Electronics) was days from bankruptcy, kept alive by a creditor bailout after the dot-com bust wiped out chip prices. On July 10, 2026, the same company priced the largest American Depositary Receipt offering in history, raising roughly $29.4 billion on the Nasdaq under the ticker SKHY and surpassing Alibaba's 2014 U.S. debut (WEEX; Yahoo Finance/CNBC, retrieved 2026-08-17).

SK Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker and the current market leader in high bandwidth memory, or HBM, the stacked memory chips that sit next to GPUs in AI data centers and feed them data fast enough to keep up with training and inference workloads. That HBM lead is the entire investment case. Yet three weeks after its record debut, the stock dropped nearly 10% on a Q2 earnings report that broke almost every company record and still missed Wall Street's numbers (Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026-08-17). That gap between record-breaking fundamentals and a falling stock price is the paradox at the center of this analysis.

Key Takeaways

SK Hynix listed ADRs on Nasdaq on July 10, 2026, raising about $29.4 billion, the largest ADR offering ever, ahead of Alibaba and Saudi Aramco.

The company holds roughly 56-60% of the global HBM market and is Nvidia's primary HBM supplier for current AI accelerators.

Q2 2026 operating profit rose 557% year over year to ₩60.54 trillion on a record 76% operating margin, but still missed consensus estimates of about ₩64 trillion, and the stock fell 9.6% on the print.

SK Hynix trades at roughly 6x forward earnings versus Micron's historical 35% valuation premium, a gap analysts call the "Korea Discount."

Wall Street's average price target sits near $245, implying substantial upside from current levels, with 35 or more of roughly 39 analysts rating the stock a buy.

The $29.4 Billion Watershed Moment

The contrast is stark. In 2002, Hyundai Electronics survived only through a creditor-led debt restructuring after the memory chip market collapsed, and the renamed Hynix spent much of the following decade as a cautionary tale about the boom-and-bust nature of the memory business. Twenty-four years later, the same company priced a Nasdaq listing that raised approximately $29.4 billion (roughly ₩45.45 trillion), issuing 17.79 million new ADRs and eclipsing Alibaba's $21.8 billion 2014 New York debut and Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion 2019 IPO (WEEX; CNBC, retrieved 2026-08-17). Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan managed the offering as global coordinators.

The ADRs opened at $170 and closed their first week at $168.01, about 13% above the $149 offer price, with more than 106 million ADRs changing hands (The Korea Herald, retrieved 2026-08-17). SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won called it "a truly historical moment" and said it would give the company "a new kind of momentum" through expanded access to global capital.

Then came the paradox. Three weeks later, on July 29, SK Hynix reported record Q2 revenue of ₩79.32 trillion and record operating profit of ₩60.54 trillion, up 557% year over year, yet the stock dropped 9.6% because both figures missed analyst expectations of roughly ₩84 trillion in revenue and ₩64 trillion in operating profit (Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026-08-17). A company can set records and still disappoint a market pricing in something even bigger. That tension runs through everything below.

What is SKHY, and what is HBM? SKHY is the Nasdaq ticker for SK Hynix's American Depositary Receipts, a dual listing alongside the company's primary Seoul-listed shares. HBM, or high bandwidth memory, is a type of DRAM built by stacking memory dies vertically and connecting them with ultra-fast internal wiring, giving AI accelerators far more data throughput than conventional memory chips can provide. SK Hynix is currently the dominant global supplier of HBM.

The Strategic Engine: Why HBM Is the "Golden Jewel" of AI

HBM works by stacking multiple DRAM dies on top of each other and connecting them vertically with Through Silicon Vias, or TSVs, tiny electrical channels drilled straight through the silicon. That vertical architecture, paired with a much wider data interface than traditional DRAM, lets HBM move data at roughly ten times the speed of conventional memory while sitting physically closer to the processor it feeds. For AI accelerators that need to move enormous amounts of data in and out of memory during training and inference, that speed difference is the whole point.

SK Hynix's dominance in this market is not marginal. Estimates put its global HBM market share in the 56-60% range depending on the source and quarter, with Counterpoint Research director MS Hwang noting the company is "definitely the top notch player in HBM" and holds an edge in manufacturing cost as well (CNBC, retrieved 2026-08-17). TrendForce projected SK Hynix's HBM bit-output share at around 50% for 2026, down slightly from 59% in 2025 as Samsung gains ground, which is itself a risk worth watching closely (TrendForce, retrieved 2026-08-17).

That share is what makes SK Hynix the backbone behind Nvidia's AI accelerators. Nvidia's GPUs need HBM stacked directly alongside the compute silicon, and SK Hynix has been Nvidia's primary HBM supplier through the HBM3E generation, with Samsung and Micron both still working to close the qualification gap on the newer HBM4 standard, which is set to debut in Nvidia's Vera Rubin architecture (KED Global; TrendForce, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Beyond HBM itself, SK Hynix is also pushing a new standard called High Bandwidth Flash, or HBF, developed with Sandisk and unveiled at FMS 2026 in Santa Clara. Google and Tenstorrent have since joined the HBF consortium as members, and the specification, published through the Open Compute Project, supports up to 512GB of capacity with bandwidth up to roughly 3.0TB/s. HBF is designed to sit between HBM and standard SSDs, targeting the AI inference workloads that need more memory capacity than HBM can economically provide (TrendForce; SK Hynix Newsroom, retrieved 2026-08-17).

[INTERNAL LINK: link "Nvidia" to your Nvidia coverage] [INTERNAL LINK: link "HBM4" to a related explainer]

Breaking the "Korea Discount": The Nasdaq Dual Listing

For years, SK Hynix traded almost exclusively to Korean-language exchange participants in Seoul, which analysts say locked out a large pool of U.S. institutional capital that either couldn't or wouldn't navigate foreign-exchange settlement and Korean-language disclosures. Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments, described the Nasdaq listing to Reuters as more than a liquidity event: "SK Hynix has been one of the most important companies in the world that most U.S. institutions could not easily own. The listing removes an accessibility discount, not a quality discount" (via Ctech; Korea Herald, retrieved 2026-08-17).

That gap shows up clearly against Micron, SK Hynix's main U.S.-listed rival. HSBC noted in a June 2026 research note that over the prior 13 years, Micron traded at an average 35% valuation premium to SK Hynix, driven less by business quality than by better U.S. investor access, more shareholder-friendly capital return policies, and a smaller earnings base that supports higher beta (via WEEX, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Metric	SK Hynix (SKHY)	Micron (MU)
Approx. forward P/E (mid-2026)	~6.1x-6.2x	~7x (after a 14% pullback)
Historical valuation relationship	Traded at persistent discount	~35% average premium over prior 13 years, per HSBC
Primary listing venue (pre-2026)	Korea Exchange (Seoul)	Nasdaq
2026 Nasdaq access for U.S. investors	New, as of July 10, 2026 (ADR: SKHY)	Already Nasdaq-listed

The listing also opens the door to passive inflows that simply didn't exist while the stock traded only in Seoul. SKHY becomes eligible for the Nasdaq 100, tracked by the roughly $482 billion Invesco QQQ Trust, and analysts expect the stock to be fast-tracked into the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, tracked by funds like iShares SOXX and VanEck SMH (via KuCoin; Korea Herald, retrieved 2026-08-17). Mirae Asset Securities estimated in June 2026 that roughly $1.5 billion in new funds could flow into SK Hynix through local ETF inclusions alone. Once index funds are required to hold a stock regardless of price, that creates a demand floor that simply didn't exist for a Seoul-only listing.

It's worth noting the caveats here too. Samsung Securities has argued that an ADR listing can improve access and let a second market set a price, but it doesn't by itself increase the company's underlying earnings or assets. The Korea Corporate Governance Forum has separately pushed back on SK Group's broader capital spending plans, arguing that a lasting valuation re-rating requires stronger board independence and clearer capital allocation, not just easier access (The Korea Herald, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Deep Dive: Q2 2026 Earnings and the "Expectation Gap"

The July 29 print was, by almost every traditional metric, the best quarter in company history. Revenue reached ₩79.32 trillion, up 51% quarter over quarter and 257% year over year. Operating profit surged 557% year over year to ₩60.54 trillion, the fifth consecutive quarterly record, on an operating margin of 76%, itself an all-time high for the company (Investing.com; SK Hynix Newsroom, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Yet the stock still fell 9.6% on the day. The reason was simple: analysts polled by LSEG SmartEstimates had modeled roughly ₩84 trillion in revenue and ₩64 trillion in operating profit, so even a record-breaking quarter landed roughly 5% below what the market had already priced in. Reuters reported analysts traced the shortfall to HBM4 shipments coming in below expectations, with some revenue recognition pushed into later quarters, plus investor frustration over the lack of a detailed shareholder-return plan (Yahoo Finance/Reuters, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The 76% operating margin is itself worth sitting with. Margins that high are extraordinary for a hardware manufacturer and raise an obvious question: is this the ceiling of a cycle, or a new baseline for a company that now dominates the highest-value tier of memory? SK Hynix's own explanation points to DRAM and NAND price increases combined with cost improvements, not simply one-off scarcity (Investing.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). Whether that margin holds through the next capacity cycle is arguably the single biggest question in this entire analysis.

Q2 2026 Key Metric	Value
Revenue	₩79.32 trillion (+257% YoY)
Operating profit	₩60.54 trillion (+557% YoY)
Operating margin	76% (record high)
Net profit	₩93.92 trillion (118% net margin)
Net cash position	₩69.4 trillion, net debt-to-equity of negative 26%

That net profit figure needs one important clarification. Net profit of ₩93.92 trillion actually exceeded operating profit because the quarter included ₩63.3 trillion in investment-asset gains, which analysts have linked to the closing of SK Hynix's stake sale in Japanese NAND producer Kioxia (Yahoo Finance/Reuters; Investing.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). That gain is real cash, and it strengthened the balance sheet considerably, but it didn't come from selling memory chips. Operating profit, not net profit, is the number that reflects the underlying chip business.

The Investor's Framework: The 3P Test

A useful way to organize everything above is what we'll call the 3P test: Performance, Peak, and Premium.

Performance. Is the underlying business actually accelerating? The clearest signal to watch in the second half of 2026 is the HBM4 ramp. SK Hynix began mass shipments of HBM4 in Q2 and has finalized long-term supply agreements with roughly 10 major customers, with production expected to scale meaningfully in the back half of the year (Pulse2; SK Hynix Newsroom, retrieved 2026-08-17). If HBM4 volumes catch up to where Wall Street modeled them for Q2, that alone could close much of the "expectation gap" that hit the stock in July.

Peak. Are these record margins sustainable, or is the industry approaching a cyclical top? Memory chips have a long history of brutal boom-and-bust cycles, and a 76% operating margin is not a level any hardware business holds indefinitely. The honest answer here is that nobody knows yet. What can be tracked is capacity expansion (covered below) and whether DRAM and NAND pricing keeps climbing or starts to soften as new supply comes online in 2027.

Premium. This is specific to SKHY as an ADR. Because the U.S.-listed shares and the Seoul-listed shares represent claims on the same underlying company but trade in separate markets with separate investor bases, an "ADR premium," essentially an access charge some U.S. investors are willing to pay for convenience, can emerge. Given the scale of pent-up U.S. institutional demand described above, some analysts believe SKHY could trade at a premium of 20% or more above the value implied by the Seoul-listed shares, at least until arbitrage flows and index inclusion narrow that gap over time. That premium, where it exists, is a structural feature of the listing itself, not a reflection of the underlying business getting better or worse.

Critical Risks: What Could Derail the Rally?

The Samsung threat. Samsung has spent the past year closing the gap in HBM4 qualification. Reports through early 2026 show Samsung demonstrating faster data transfer speeds in testing (11 gigabits per second versus SK Hynix's 10) and entering final qualification stages with Nvidia, even as Samsung continues working through yield constraints on its more advanced 1c DRAM node (KED Global; Bloomberg; TrendForce, retrieved 2026-08-17). By June 2026, reports indicated all three major suppliers, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron, had been qualified for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, turning the competition from "can you ship at all" into a fight over yield, price, and allocation share (Silicon Analysts, retrieved 2026-08-17). TrendForce's own projections show SK Hynix's HBM bit-share slipping from 59% in 2025 to around 50% in 2026 as Samsung's share climbs from 20% toward 28%.

Supply shock and dilution. The ADR offering itself is not a sale of existing shares by current holders. It's a new issuance of 17.79 million ADRs, worth roughly ₩45.45 trillion, which mechanically dilutes existing shareholders even as it raises fresh capital for expansion (WEEX, retrieved 2026-08-17). That dilution is a real, quantifiable cost of the listing, separate from whatever valuation benefit the improved U.S. access eventually delivers.

Macro and geopolitics. SKHY is a high-beta stock, and it trades like one. On August 10, 2026, renewed U.S. strikes on Iran triggered a broad risk-off wave across global tech, and SK Hynix shares fell more than 11% in Seoul with the U.S.-listed ADR sliding roughly 5-8% in premarket trading, alongside similar drops in Samsung, Kioxia, and other Asian tech names (StocksToTrade; CNBC, retrieved 2026-08-17). None of that reflected company-specific news. It's a reminder that a stock this levered to AI sentiment and this newly exposed to U.S. trading flows will move on macro headlines that have nothing to do with memory chip fundamentals.

Cycle fatigue and overinvestment. SK Hynix raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to the high-₩40 trillion range to fund HBM4 capacity, the Yongin fab cluster set to begin operating in 2027, and a new $4 billion packaging facility in Indiana, its first U.S. production site (Pulse2; Yahoo Finance/CNBC, retrieved 2026-08-17). That kind of capacity buildout is exactly how past memory cycles have ended: heavy investment during a boom eventually creates oversupply once the capacity comes online, pressuring prices and margins just as new capex-heavy capacity starts depreciating. Nothing about the current AI-driven cycle guarantees it avoids that pattern.

Future Outlook: Projections for 2027 and Beyond

Longer-term modeling here is inherently speculative, and readers should treat any multi-year projection as illustrative rather than predictive. One simple way analysts frame the bull case: if SK Hynix's forward P/E expanded from roughly 8x today toward 16x, a re-rating closer to historical premium chip-stock multiples, while earnings continue growing, a $5,000 position could plausibly double over a five-year horizon. That scenario depends entirely on sustained earnings growth alongside multiple expansion, and neither is guaranteed.

On the analyst side, the current picture is heavily bullish. S&P Global's poll of 14 analysts puts the consensus rating at "Strong Buy" with an average price target near $245, implying substantial upside from recent trading levels, with individual targets ranging from a low of roughly $152 to a high of $355 (StockAnalysis.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). TipRanks' narrower three-month sample of 9 analysts shows a similar $245.50 average target with zero sell or hold ratings. On the Korea-listed shares, MarketScreener's tally of 39 analysts shows 38 buy ratings and just 1 hold, with an average 12-month target implying more than 110% upside and a high estimate near ₩5.3 million, or roughly $4.2 million in the outlet's cited peak targets (Investing.com; MarketScreener, retrieved 2026-08-17). However you slice the sample, the overwhelming majority of covering analysts are bullish, generally in the range of 35 or more buy ratings out of roughly 37-39 analysts total.

The retail and trading community has taken notice too. Within days of the Nasdaq debut, multiple issuers launched leveraged single-stock ETFs tied to SKHY: GraniteShares' 2x long and short funds (SKUU and SKDD), ProShares' 2x long fund (SKHU), and Direxion's 2x long fund (SKHL), among others (Yahoo Finance/GraniteShares; 247wallst.com; Direxion, retrieved 2026-08-17). Mo Sparks, Chief Product Officer at Direxion, framed the SKHL launch as "a natural extension of the semiconductor franchise we've built," alongside the firm's existing leveraged products on Nvidia and Micron (Direxion/PRNewswire, retrieved 2026-08-17). It's worth being clear about what these products actually are: daily-reset leveraged instruments designed for short-term active trading, not buy-and-hold investments, and their existence signals intense retail and institutional interest in SKHY volatility rather than any endorsement of the underlying stock's direction.

Conclusion: Better Entry or Peak-Cycle Trap?

The fundamentals here are genuinely extraordinary: a 76% operating margin, 557% profit growth, a dominant HBM market position, and a listing structure that removes a real, quantifiable valuation discount relative to Micron. Set against that is the plain historical fact that memory chips are one of the most cyclical businesses in all of hardware, and every previous boom in this industry, including the one that nearly bankrupted this same company in 2002, eventually gave way to oversupply and a painful correction.

Wall Street's current answer is about as bullish as sell-side coverage gets: a "Strong Buy" consensus from the large majority of analysts covering the stock, an average price target well above where SKHY has traded since its debut, and a fresh wave of leveraged trading products built specifically to let active traders bet on continued volatility. None of that removes the underlying cyclical risk, the Samsung catch-up story in HBM4, or the dilution from the ADR issuance itself. Whether SKHY turns out to be a rare structural re-rating opportunity or simply the most recent chapter in memory's long history of boom and bust is a judgment call every investor has to make for themselves, informed by their own time horizon and risk tolerance, not by any single quarter's headline number.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Stock prices, analyst targets, and market data change frequently; verify current figures before making any investment decision. Sources: WEEX, CNBC, Yahoo Finance/Reuters, The Korea Herald, KED Global, Bloomberg, TrendForce, Investing.com, Pulse2, SK Hynix Newsroom, StockAnalysis.com, TipRanks, MarketScreener, Direxion, GraniteShares, StocksToTrade, Silicon Analysts.

Prince Harry's UK Return: Inside the Reconciliation with King Charles and the Rift with Prince William

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:06:02 -0700

For four years, King Charles hadn't seen his youngest son's children in person. That changed on July 10, 2026, when the King and Queen Camilla quietly hosted Meghan Markle, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet at Highgrove House, the King's private home in Gloucestershire. No photos were released. Buckingham Palace confirmed only that a private family meeting had taken place (The Royal Observer, retrieved 2026-08-17).

That single afternoon has reshaped the story around Prince Harry's relationship with the UK. Royal commentators now report he plans to visit Britain every few months, both to support his patronages and to prepare for the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, the event he founded in 2014 (GB News, retrieved 2026-08-17). But the reunion sits inside a family still split down the middle: a father reaching for reconciliation, a brother who reportedly wants nothing to do with it, and a security dispute that could make regular visits with his children difficult regardless of who wants to see whom.

The Highgrove Reunion: "Warming of the Frost"

The meeting almost didn't happen. Weeks earlier, Harry was told his request for a state-funded security package for the trip had been turned down, and people close to him described him as distraught over the decision (Yahoo/People, retrieved 2026-08-17). For a while, the whole visit looked unlikely. Then, on July 9, word came that Meghan and the children would travel after all.

Charles and Harry each kept separate engagements that Friday before heading to Highgrove. Harry spent part of the day trying out sports set to feature at the 2027 Invictus Games; Charles carried out an official visit in Oxfordshire. Prince William was not part of the private reunion (The Royal Observer, retrieved 2026-08-17). Royal watchers noted the choice of venue mattered: Highgrove is the King's own private home, owned through the Duchy of Cornwall rather than the Crown Estate, and offered more seclusion than a London residence like Clarence House (Woman & Home, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The visit reportedly buoyed Harry and pushed him toward a new approach: coming back more often rather than treating each UK trip as a rare, high-stakes event. During the same trip, Harry also visited Princess Diana's grave at Althorp House, where he has spoken privately about how he marks significant dates connected to his mother (Yahoo, retrieved 2026-08-17).

For Meghan, the trip marked her first time in the UK since 2022. She's reported to be far more cautious than Harry about future visits, given the unresolved questions around security for herself and the children.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "Meghan Markle's public appearances since 2022" to a related post on your site]

Father vs. Monarch: The Charles and William Divide

Charles's position is fairly easy to read. He's in his late 70s, has been treated for cancer, and by most accounts wants a relationship with his son and grandchildren while he still can. Reports around the Highgrove meeting describe him as receptive to Harry, even as he stops short of anything that looks like a full institutional reconciliation (SheKnows, retrieved 2026-08-17).

William's position is different, and reportedly much harder. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has said William "feels deeply betrayed" by Harry and had no plans to arrange a meeting during the July visit (internewsgroup.com, retrieved 2026-08-17). Other reporting frames it less as personal grudge and more as institutional caution: British reporter Helena Chard told Fox News Digital that reports still describe a "total blackout" between the brothers, and that William's distance is strategic rather than a snub, since "you can't have an institutional reconciliation without Prince William, the future king" (via SheKnows, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Then there's the fallout from the meeting itself. Multiple outlets, citing royal commentator Emily Andrews, reported that William and Kate felt "betrayed and possibly even humiliated" by Charles's private outreach to the Sussexes, and that the three held "crisis talks" over how to handle the relationship going forward (SheKnows; IBTimes UK, retrieved 2026-08-17). It's worth being careful here: none of this has been confirmed by Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, or representatives for Harry and Meghan. One communications expert quoted in that same coverage argued the opposite case, that a reconciliation storyline could actually help the Wales family's public image by shifting attention away from a feud that's dogged both sides for years (IBTimes AU, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The Roadmap to Birmingham 2027

Harry's next confirmed UK trip is in September, for the WellChild Awards, a children's charity event he's attended most years since becoming patron in 2007 (Yahoo/People, retrieved 2026-08-17). He's expected to travel without Meghan or the children for that one.

The bigger date on the calendar is July 2027, when Birmingham hosts the Invictus Games for the first time on British soil. The National Exhibition Centre and Sandwell Aquatics Centre will host roughly 550 competitors from more than 20 nations (GB News; AOL, retrieved 2026-08-17). Sources close to Harry say he'd welcome his father's presence at the opening ceremony on July 10, seen as the most realistic moment for the two to appear together in public. There's a scheduling complication, though: the closing ceremony falls on July 17, the same day as Queen Camilla's 80th birthday, which makes it unlikely any senior royals will attend that end of the Games (AOL, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has argued the Games showcase something the royal family lost when the Sussexes stepped back, calling Invictus "uniquely valuable" and noting it's helped Harry process his own PTSD, something he wrote about in his memoir Spare (Fox News, retrieved 2026-08-17). Helen Helliwell, CEO of the Birmingham Games, told People it's "too soon to confirm" which royals will attend, but that organizers "would very much welcome their presence" (People, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Between now and Birmingham, Harry's public UK work is also shifting away from courtroom fights and back toward the charities he's kept since stepping back in 2020: the Halo Trust's landmine-clearance work and Scotty's Little Soldiers, which supports children of bereaved military families, alongside WellChild and the Invictus Games Foundation itself.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "The history of the Invictus Games" to a related post on your site]

The Security Standoff: A Family Under Threat?

Underneath all of this sits a legal fight that's dragged on for years. In February 2020, Ravec, the Home Office committee that decides royal and VIP security, downgraded Harry's automatic police protection after he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties. Harry sued, arguing the committee never properly assessed the actual risk to his family and that he was treated less favorably than others under Ravec's own rules (BBC, retrieved 2026-08-17).

He's lost every round so far. The High Court ruled against him in February 2024, and the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in May 2025, with judges acknowledging Harry made "powerful and moving arguments" and plainly "felt badly treated by the system," while still finding no legal basis to overturn Ravec's decision (BBC, retrieved 2026-08-17). Harry has argued publicly that his family can't feel at home in Britain "if it's not possible to keep them safe" (BBC, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The dispute flared again just before the July 2026 trip, when Harry learned his request for a security package covering the visit had been declined, meaning the Sussexes would only get protection while actually inside royal residences. Harry was reportedly distraught, and a source told The Telegraph that "it's what impact such moments would have on the kids that everyone is most concerned about" (Yahoo/People, retrieved 2026-08-17). Newsweek separately reported he was distraught after learning he wouldn't get a police team for the trip, and that some in his circle believe a recent change in royal household staff could open a path to a different outcome down the line (Newsweek, retrieved 2026-08-17).

In the end, Meghan and the children still made the trip and joined Harry for private elements, including the Highgrove meeting and the visit to Diana's grave. But the security question remains unresolved, and it's the practical thing most likely to limit how often Archie and Lilibet actually get to see their grandfather, invitation or not.

Legacy and the "Spare": A Historical Cycle

Harry and William process their mother's death very differently, and that difference runs under most of what's happened since. Harry has spoken openly about therapy, grief, and the trauma of growing up in public after Diana's death; William has generally kept his own experience private, favoring a more traditional, duty-first approach to royal life.

Royal historians sometimes place Harry's situation alongside earlier "spares" who struggled to find a role once their sibling was clearly set to inherit the throne: Edward VIII, whose crisis ended in abdication, or Prince Andrew, whose position has collapsed entirely amid scandal. Princess Anne offers something like the opposite model: decades of steady, low-drama public service without ever seeking the spotlight her brother Charles was born into.

William, for his part, has talked about wanting a smaller, more modern monarchy built around "impact philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people," in his words, with what he's called a "smaller r in the royal" (NBC News, retrieved 2026-08-17). Royal author Robert Hardman has pushed back on the idea that this was ever a specific, official plan, but agrees William sees the institution moving toward "a smaller working unit" over time (The Royal Observer, retrieved 2026-08-17). Where, or whether, Harry fits into that smaller future is still an open question, and probably the real subtext behind most of the coverage around his visits.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "Princess Anne's decades of royal service" to a related post on your site]

Conclusion: Reconciliation or Permanent Division?

There's real momentum here: a private reunion that actually happened, a father who seems willing to keep making room for his son, and a firm date in July 2027 when the whole family could, in theory, share a stage again. Set against that is a brother who by most accounts wants no part of it, an unresolved security dispute that could keep the grandchildren away regardless of anyone's intentions, and years of legal and emotional history that don't disappear because of one afternoon at Highgrove.

Whether the wind is really blowing toward a sustained return for Harry, or this turns out to be one more chapter in a rift that's already lasted the better part of a decade, probably won't be clear until Birmingham 2027 actually arrives. That's when the family finds out, in front of the world, whether reconciliation was ever more than a private meeting with no photographs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Prince Harry return to the UK in September 2026?

Yes. Harry is expected back in London in September for the annual WellChild Awards, a charity event he's attended most years since becoming patron in 2007. He's not expected to be accompanied by Meghan or their children on that trip.

Did King Charles meet Archie and Lilibet recently?

Yes. King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted Meghan Markle, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire on July 10, 2026, the King's first in-person meeting with his grandchildren in four years.

Why is Prince Harry in a legal fight with the Home Office?

Harry has spent years challenging the 2020 decision by Ravec, the Home Office committee that oversees royal security, to downgrade his automatic police protection when in the UK. He's lost multiple court rulings but keeps pressing the issue, arguing the lack of guaranteed security makes it unsafe to bring his family to Britain regularly.

Sources: The Royal Observer, SheKnows, Woman & Home, Yahoo/People, GB News, Fox News, AOL, Newsweek, BBC, IBTimes UK, IBTimes AU, NBC News, Reality Tea, internewsgroup.com.

The 'Maced' Irony: Inside Nancy Mace's Political Downfall and Tattooed Rebranding

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 03:40:49 -0700

Nancy Mace spent five years building a national brand as one of the loudest voices in the House Republican conference. On June 9, 2026, that brand collapsed at the ballot box. She finished fifth in South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial primary with just 12.2% of the vote, a race she'd once been favored to win, after President Trump withheld his endorsement heading into the contest (Forbes, retrieved 2026-08-17).

Two months later, Mace showed up not in a campaign ad but in a swimsuit photo and a sleeveless podcast intro, arms covered in tattoos she'd kept hidden under her congressional blazers for years. Bathroom-bill crusader turned tattooed YouTube host: it's a strange final act for a career built on reinvention.

Key Takeaways

Mace finished fifth in the June 9, 2026 GOP primary with 12.2% of the vote, well behind winners Pamela Evette (29.3%) and Alan Wilson (26.2%), who advanced to a runoff.

Only 8% of her individual campaign donations came from South Carolina voters, despite raising over $1 million from a national small-dollar donor base.

Trump endorsed rival Pamela Evette after Mace pushed to force a vote releasing the unredacted Epstein files, a split she says "may have ended" her political career.

Across three terms in Congress, Mace has sponsored well over 150 bills, but only a handful, including two that cleared the House in early 2026, advanced past introduction. Her signature anti-trans bathroom bills never got a floor vote.

She now hosts a YouTube show, "Get Maced," and has shown off nine tattoos, including a Virginia Woolf line she says represents reclaiming her identity.

The 5th Place Finish That Shook South Carolina

Nancy Mace was, for a decade, one of South Carolina's most recognizable Republicans: a state lawmaker, a three-term congresswoman, and in 1999 the first woman to graduate from The Citadel's Corps of Cadets. She built a national profile first as a Trump critic, then as an ally again, and eventually as the face of the House GOP's fight over transgender bathroom access.

None of that got her to the governor's mansion. Unofficial returns showed Mace finishing fifth, losing decisively even in her own home county and congressional district (The Washington Post, retrieved 2026-08-17). Outlets covering the race called it a humiliating result for a candidate who'd entered the field as a front-runner just months earlier.

The irony wasn't lost on Washington. Hours after the results came in, Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress and a lawmaker Mace had spent two years targeting with restroom legislation, took the stage at Equality PAC's National Pride Gala. McBride told the crowd that Congress's "top bathroom sheriff" was on the ballot and, with votes still being counted, sat in a "respectful fifth place" (The Advocate, retrieved 2026-08-17). She closed with three words that ended up in headlines nationwide: "Happy Pride, Nancy." The room reportedly broke into applause.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "Sarah McBride's first year in Congress" to your profile of the first openly transgender member of the House]

The Calculated Gambit: Why the Governor's Mansion Was a Bridge Too Far

Mace's bet on the governor's race was never a low-risk move. She entered in August 2025 as the fifth Republican to join the field and announced she would not seek re-election to the Charleston-area 1st District seat she'd held since 2021 (Legis1, retrieved 2026-08-17). That safe seat was gone for good once the filing window closed. She framed the decision as confidence, branding herself "Trump in high heels" and leaning hard into culture-war messaging to stand out from a crowded field of establishment rivals.

The gamble might have worked if her national following had converted into in-state support. It didn't. Mace out-hustled every other candidate on raw donor count, pulling in more than $1 million from over 19,000 individual donations in her first eight weeks alone (WACH, retrieved 2026-08-17). But just 8 percent of those donations, roughly 1,672 of them, actually came from South Carolina, according to a Post and Courier analysis of her campaign finance filings. The paper also found many of those in-state donors gave repeatedly rather than representing new support. A big national donor list is not the same thing as a South Carolina coalition.

Then came the endorsement that sealed it. The Associated Press reported that after the primary, Trump personally called Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to congratulate her on advancing to the runoff and told her he'd back her candidacy against Alan Wilson (Forbes, retrieved 2026-08-17). Mace had seen that snub coming for months. Without the president in her corner, her national profile had nowhere left to go.

The "Bathroom Sheriff" Legacy: A Pivot to Culture Wars

Mace's shift from moderate to culture-war lightning rod happened in plain view. She once described herself as supportive of transgender rights; by late 2024 she'd become one of the most visible anti-trans voices on Capitol Hill. Since Sarah McBride became the first openly trans member of Congress in January 2025, Mace repeatedly invoked her in speeches, interviews, and legislative fights over transgender rights (The Advocate, retrieved 2026-08-17).

The centerpiece of that shift was a trio of bills. In November 2024, Mace introduced a resolution barring members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those matching their sex at birth, a measure aimed directly at McBride (congressional record, retrieved 2026-08-17). She followed it with legislation extending the restriction to federal property nationwide, and with the Prison Rape Prevention Act, which would ban transgender women from being housed in women's correctional facilities and end federal funding for gender-affirming medical care for incarcerated people (ABC News 4, retrieved 2026-08-17).

None of the three ever became law. The Capitol bathroom restriction was put in place administratively by Speaker Mike Johnson rather than passed as legislation, and the broader federal-property bathroom ban never reached the floor for a vote. That gap between headline and outcome shows up again and again in Mace's record.

Legislative Record vs. Rhetoric

Mace's office regularly touted her prolific bill-drafting: 90 pieces of legislation introduced in the 119th Congress, ranking fifth among all 435 House members (mace.house.gov, retrieved 2026-08-17), and 65 bills in the first session alone, putting her in the top 2% of the chamber (mace.house.gov, retrieved 2026-08-17). GovTrack data shows she has sponsored well over 150 bills across her three terms, drawing 762 cosponsors from 287 unique members of Congress.

Volume rarely turned into results. Of the 65 bills she introduced in the first session of the 119th Congress, her own office confirmed only two passed the House (mace.house.gov, retrieved 2026-08-17), and GovTrack's own analysis notes that very few bills any legislator sponsors are ever enacted into law. Mace's most attention-grabbing bills, the bathroom bans and the Prison Rape Prevention Act, never got that far.

Metric	Nancy Mace, 119th Congress (2025-2026)
Bills introduced	90 (ranked 5th of 435 House members)
Bills passing the House	2
Cosponsors secured (across career)	762, from 287 unique members
In-state donor share (governor campaign)	8%
Final primary vote share	12.2% (5th place)

[INTERNAL LINK: link "How a bill becomes law in Congress" to your explainer on the federal legislative process]

The Epstein Factor: The Break with Trump

If the bathroom bills defined Mace's rightward pivot, the Epstein files defined her break from Trump. Mace joined a bipartisan push led by Rep. Thomas Massie to force the release of the full, unredacted Epstein investigation files, a position that put her at odds with the president heading into the governor's race. Mace told Politico she knew the vote had likely cost her the endorsement, but said she had no regrets and called herself an independent conservative (via Yahoo/The New Republic, retrieved 2026-08-17).

She was blunter still on television. Speaking with NewsNation's Chris Cuomo, Mace said her split with Trump may have ended her future political aspirations. She called it consistent with a pattern of bucking her own party (The Daily Beast, retrieved 2026-08-17). That's a rare thing for a politician to admit out loud, especially one who spent years courting MAGA's approval. It suggests she saw the fallout coming well before primary night.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "The push to release the Epstein files" to your timeline of the congressional effort]

Reclaiming Identity: Tattoos, YouTube, and "Get Maced"

With her House term ending in January 2027 and no path back into elected office, Mace has pivoted to commentary. Her new online show, "Get Maced," previews her post-Congress plans with an intro built around a poolside selfie and an interview clip (FITSNews, retrieved 2026-08-17), and it's already covering the WNBA, immigration, and what she calls the "communist threat" facing the country.

The bigger surprise was under her sleeves. Mace had first told Politico in February that she'd gotten nine tattoos in rapid succession between late 2023 and early 2024 (Daily Wire, retrieved 2026-08-17), a stretch that lined up with the end of her engagement and a wave of staff departures from her office. She'd kept nearly all of them hidden under conventional congressional clothing until the "Get Maced" launch.

One tattoo quotes the opening line of Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. Mace told Politico the tattoos, gotten during a period of personal upheaval, were a way to reclaim her body and to feel a kind of pain she needed to feel (Daily Beast, retrieved 2026-08-17). In the novel, Clarissa Dalloway spends a single day preparing for a party while thinking back on the choices that shaped her life. It's an odd, pointed reference for a politician now working through her own reinvention.

[INTERNAL LINK: link "Politicians who rebranded after leaving office" to related case studies on your site]

Conclusion: A Cautionary Tale for the "Caucus of One"

Mace has long called herself a "caucus of one," a lawmaker unafraid to break with her own party on high-profile votes. That independence built her a national media profile. It also left her without the institutional relationships and in-state trust that carry a campaign through a crowded primary. When Trump withdrew his support, there was no state party infrastructure or donor base to fall back on.

Her collapse says as much about the current state of the GOP as it does about her. A candidate can dominate cable news, out-fundraise rivals in donor count, and drive a culture-war news cycle for years, and still finish fifth when the one endorsement that matters goes to someone else. Whether her next chapter, built around commentary and a much more visible personal story, finds a lasting audience is an open question as her term runs out in January 2027.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Nancy Mace lose the governor's race?

Mace lost the June 9, 2026 GOP primary mainly because Trump endorsed rival Pamela Evette instead of her, a decision she's tied to her support for releasing the unredacted Epstein files. She also entered the race with a weak in-state fundraising base. A Legis1 analysis found only 44% of her total money came from South Carolina donors, the lowest in-state ratio in the field, and she leaned instead on a national small-dollar network that never turned into local support. She finished fifth with 12.2% of the vote.

What do Nancy Mace's tattoos mean?

Mace has said her nine tattoos, gotten in late 2023 and early 2024 during a breakup and staff turnover in her office, were a way to reclaim ownership of her body and identity after a period of personal upheaval. One tattoo quotes the opening line of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, a novel about a woman reflecting on the choices that shaped her life.

Sources: Post and Courier, Forbes, PBS NewsHour, The Washington Post, The New Republic/Yahoo, LGBTQ Nation, The Advocate, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, FITSNews, Daily Wire, Legis1, WACH, GovTrack.us, mace.house.gov, Congress.gov.

The Fearless Legacy of Hayden Panettiere: From Child Star to Mental Health Icon

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 03:24:18 -0700

The Fearless Legacy of Hayden Panettiere: From Child Star to Mental Health Icon

Hayden Panettiere died on August 16, 2026, in Greenville, South Carolina. She was 36. Police have said the preliminary investigation turned up no signs of foul play, but a cause of death hasn't been released, and her publicist has confirmed the matter is still under investigation. Her father, Skip Panettiere, delivered the news himself: "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature."

That phrase, force of nature, is about as accurate a summary as anyone could give of a career that started before she could walk and never really slowed down. Panettiere went from a soap-opera child actor to the regenerating cheerleader who saved the world on "Heroes," to the addiction-ravaged country star of "Nashville," to the horror-franchise survivor fans spent over a decade rooting for in "Scream." Three months before she died, she published a memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning," that peeled back nearly every layer of the persona she'd spent three decades building in public. It became a New York Times bestseller, climbed back to the top of Amazon's biography chart the day the news of her death broke, and now reads less like a book tour stop and more like the final word from a woman who spent her whole life performing for other people's approval and finally decided to tell her own story on her own terms.

This Is Me: A Reckoning, and the Silence It Broke

Panettiere spent much of her childhood in casting rooms, and she said in interviews around the memoir's release that she learned early what got her attention: crying. Directors realized she was good at it, so crying scenes kept showing up in her scripts, and the images she had to conjure to produce real tears got darker as she aged. In one NPR interview, she described it plainly: as a child, thinking about a pet dying was enough; by her teens, the "trigger tears" required something far heavier. She told a Page Six reporter at a book event in Los Angeles that the pattern left her associating emotional catastrophe with love, because pain on camera was the thing that reliably earned her praise.

Motherhood brought its own reckoning. Panettiere wrote that her 2014 delivery of daughter Kaya, with then-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, turned from what she called a "wonderful pregnancy" into a near-fatal C-section. She lost enough blood to require seven transfusions and later developed an infection; she has said she remembers thinking she was "knocking on death's doorstep" and asking only to hear her daughter cry before whatever happened next. Postpartum depression hit almost immediately afterward, compounding an addiction to alcohol that had already taken root, and by 2018 she made the decision, one she's called the hardest of her life, to give Klitschko full custody so she could focus on recovery. Kaya, now 11, lives with her father in Ukraine; Panettiere spoke often about flying to see her and staying close over FaceTime.

The book also contains a revelation Panettiere had never shared publicly: she's bisexual. She told Us Weekly ahead of publication that she'd dated women since she was young but never said so out loud, partly because of the industry's demand that she stay "perfect," and partly because of timing. She came of age just as public conversation about women coming out as bisexual was accelerating, and she said she was afraid that speaking up would look like she was "jumping on the bandwagon" rather than telling the truth. "It's sad I had to wait until I was 36 years old to share that part of me," she said, "but better late than never, right?"

The Kirby Reed Legacy: Will She Return to Scream?

Of all her roles, Kirby Reed might be the one horror fans refuse to let go of, and for good reason. When Panettiere signed on to play the sardonic, trivia-obsessed Woodsboro survivor in 2011's "Scream 4," her contract reportedly included an unusual clause: Ghostface could stab her, chase her, terrorize her, but the studio couldn't kill Kirby off. Director Wes Craven confirmed the arrangement to press around the film's home release, and it became something of an inside joke among fans, especially once Kirby's own dialogue in the film ("You have to promise not to kill me") started reading like a wink at the audience.

Kirby was left bleeding out at the end of "Scream 4," her fate deliberately ambiguous, and it stayed that way for over a decade. Craven himself said before his death that he wanted to bring her back and confirm she'd survived, and when Kevin Williamson finally called Panettiere in 2022 to pitch her return, she didn't need much convincing: she'd reportedly phoned the production during the fifth film asking to come back. "Scream VI" confirmed what the clause had quietly guaranteed all along. Kirby lived, resurfaced as an FBI agent, and walked straight into New York's Ghostface killings. Panettiere has said she sees real overlap between her own history and Kirby's, telling one interviewer that the character's trauma is "something I can obviously relate to." With the franchise still active, and Panettiere on record saying she'd happily return, Kirby Reed's contractual immortality means the door was never actually closed.

Career Retrospective: A Life Built On-Screen

Panettiere's first on-camera appearance came in a toy commercial when she was eleven months old. By four, she'd landed her first recurring TV role, and from there her résumé reads almost like a survey of American television and film across three decades:

Sarah Roberts, "One Life to Live" (1994-1997): her first major soap role, landed when she was four.
Lizzie Spaulding, "Guiding Light" (1996-2000): a role that earned her recognition for playing a child with leukemia.
Princess Dot, "A Bug's Life" (1998): her voice role in the Pixar film earned her a Young Artist Award nomination and, oddly enough, a Grammy nomination, making her one of the youngest nominees in Grammy history.
Sheryl Yoast, "Remember the Titans" (2000): the football-obsessed daughter of Coach Bill Yoast, opposite Denzel Washington.
Claire Bennet, "Heroes" (2006-2010): the role that made her a global star, playing an indestructible cheerleader with regenerative powers.
Kirby Reed, "Scream 4" and "Scream VI" (2011, 2023): see above.
Juliette Barnes, "Nashville" (2012-2018): a role that earned her two Golden Globe nominations and became, by her own account, one of the most personally difficult of her career.
Supporting and voice work across "Dinosaur," "Ice Princess," "Bring It On: All or Nothing," "I Love You, Beth Cooper," "The Forger," "Custody," and the title role in the 2011 TV movie "Amanda Knox."

The "Nashville" years deserve special attention, because Panettiere has said the writing crossed uncomfortably close to her real life. Juliette Barnes struggled with alcoholism and eventually lost custody of her daughter. Those plotlines, Panettiere later said, felt "traumatizing" to film, given that she was living through nearly identical struggles off camera at the time, down to giving up custody of Kaya the same year the show explored the storyline on-screen. She's said she worried her castmates would think she was drawing attention to her own pain rather than just acting. Watching the two timelines now, on-screen fiction and off-screen fact, is one of the eerier threads in her career.

Mental Health Advocacy: Leaving the World Better

In the months before she died, Panettiere made mental health the subject of nearly everything she said publicly. She spent the summer of 2026 promoting her memoir, and nearly every interview turned into an extension of the book's core argument: that silence about addiction, postpartum depression, and trauma costs people their lives, and that talking about it openly can save them.

At a book signing and panel at the Harmony Gold Theater in Los Angeles on May 26, she described what had kept her going through the process of writing something so exposing. People had approached her, she said, both inside and outside the industry, to tell her that hearing her speak about her own mental health had given them the courage to get help. "You saved my life," she recalled people telling her. She said that alone made the whole reckoning worth it: "I can hopefully leave the world a better place than I found it."

Her final interview, published in July with the parenting outlet Momé, focused on motherhood, trauma, and recovery. Asked what she'd say to another mother in a dark moment, she offered a line that's since been repeated across nearly every tribute written about her: "You're stronger than you know. And you're going to be just fine."

The Panettiere Wellness Method

Panettiere was also, unapologetically, a beauty and fitness nerd. Enough interviews touch on both that a kind of personal method emerges. On skincare, she was loyal to Dr. Barbara Sturm's line, especially the hyaluronic serum, which she credited with keeping her skin hydrated on brutal shooting schedules, alongside the brand's Glow Drops and vitamin C serum. She'd previously gotten hyaluronic-acid "airbrush facials," where the ingredient is pushed into the pores with a tool, and she was a believer in finishing a routine with cold water to help close the pores back up.

Fitness, for her, wasn't about the gym so much as constant small movement. She credited her mother with teaching her a core technique she called "belly button to backbone": squeezing the abdominal muscles in toward the spine and down through the pelvic floor, something she said she did almost unconsciously by now, on set, standing in line, wherever. On long flights, she'd run through sets of 30 to 50 reps squeezing her glutes, hamstrings, and pelvic floor rather than sitting still for hours. She traced her strength back to gymnastics training as a kid, joking that she was "a little one" but built solid through the legs and core.

Her approach to makeup loosened up as she got older, too. She told New Beauty she leaned on Chanel's Les Beiges for a natural glow and Tom Ford's palettes (the beige shadows doubling as an all-over highlighter for her brow bone, cheekbones, and even down the bridge of her nose) before building in color from Gucci shadows in blue-greens, rose gold, and copper, applied often with just her fingers.

Philanthropy: A Voice for the Voiceless

Panettiere's activism started young and stuck around. For nearly two decades she served as the international spokesperson for the Whaleman Foundation's "Save the Whales Again!" campaign, a role that took her to Taiji, Japan, to protest dolphin hunting, and to a 2011 White House meeting with Obama administration officials on ocean conservation policy. In 2019, she joined a coalition of celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Kate Mara, and Edward Norton, in signing a public letter urging Russian authorities to release dozens of orcas and beluga whales held in what conservationists had nicknamed a "whale jail" near Nakhodka. The whales were released after the international pressure campaign that followed.

Beyond marine conservation, Panettiere backed more than 20 organizations, according to the philanthropy tracker Look to the Stars: among them the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Humane Society, Ronald McDonald House Charities, the ONE Campaign, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. It's a list that spans nearly every cause area (health, animals, children, civil rights), and it tracks with the way she talked about her own advocacy: less about any single issue and more about showing up, repeatedly, for whoever needed it.

A Perfectly Imperfect Legacy

Panettiere's last Instagram post went up on July 27, three weeks before she died: a black-and-white photo with photographer and friend Randall Slavin, her tongue stuck out, his arm around her shoulder. "Good times and good friends," she captioned it. Slavin commented at the time, "Love this. Good times babe." After the news broke, he reposted the photo with four words: "Peace be with you, H."

It's a small, unguarded image to end on, and maybe that's fitting. Panettiere spent the better part of a year telling the most difficult stories of her life in public: the crying-on-cue childhood, the near-fatal birth, the addiction, the custody loss, the identity she waited 36 years to say out loud. Then she closed it out with a picture of herself just having a good time with a friend. Her father's word for her, "force of nature," is the same phrase CNN, ABC News, and much of the entertainment press chose to lead with this week, and it holds up. She kept working and kept telling the truth right up until the end, on the theory that her own honesty might make someone else's life a little easier to carry.

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 05:21:00 -0700

Pele's Dies at 82: Brazil Legend's 'One day, I Hope...' Tweet for Diego Maradona Goes Viral As He Passes Away Battling Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:31:00 -0800

The Brazil football legend breathed his last following a long battle with cancer. He had condoled Maradona's shock demise in 2020 and had written, "One day, I hope we can play ball together in heaven." Netizens recalled this tweet of his soon after he died.

Pele Dies at 82: AR Rahman Shares Music Video Tribute to Late Football Legend That He Had Composed in 2016 (Watch Video)

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:31:00 -0800

AR Rahman had composed this song, which he had also sung, for the film Pelé: Birth of a Legend.

World News | Russia Hits Key Infrastructure with Missiles Across Ukraine

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 12:22:00 -0800

Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Russian missiles hit Ukraine Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather.

BTS V aka Kim Taehyung Birthday: From Inner Child To Winter Bear, 5 Solo Songs of the K-Pop Singer You Got to Listen to If You Aren't Part of the BTS Army!

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 11:20:00 -0800

BTS's V has one of the most charismatic voices in K-Pop, and we can't stop listening to him. On his birthday, we wish him A Very Happy Birthday! What is your favourite song or cover by BTS's V?

Kylian Mbappé rescues PSG with last-gasp winner in first match since World Cup final

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 09:56:00 -0800

Just 10 days after suffering disappointment in the World Cup final, Kylian Mbappé rescued Paris Saint-Germain with a last-gasp penalty as his side beat RC Strasbourg 2-1 in Ligue on Wednesday. Mbappé, who had ended up on the losing side against Argentina in Qatar 2022’s showpiece final despite scoring a hat-trick, didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects in his first match for PSG since the World Cup. The 24-year-old stepped up to score the winner from the penalty spot in the 96th minute, with virtually the last kick of the game. Marquinhos had given PSG a first-half lead but the defender then inadvertently scored an own goal after the break. With hopes of a win fading, Mbappé used his speed and movement to get in behind the Strasbourg defense before being clumsily brought down from behind. With Messi yet to return from celebrating his World Cup victory in Argentina, Mbappé converted the penalty himself to move PSG eight points clear at the top of Ligue 1. Mbappé’s goal also saved Neymar Jr.’s blushes after the Brazilian was sent off in humiliating circumstances earlier in the match. Neymar was booked twice in as many minutes, the second for a dive in the Strasbourg box. The 30-year-old Brazilian international threw himself to the ground despite no contact from the defender, as he had done earlier in the match. PSG forward Neymar reacts after receiving a red card from referee Clement Turpin on Wednesday. PSG forward Neymar reacts after receiving a red card from referee Clement Turpin on Wednesday. Mbappé moves on It was a testament to Mbappé’s mentality that he was back winning games for PSG just over a week since arguably the biggest disappointment of his career. France was beaten by Argentina in arguably the greatest final in World Cup history despite Mbappé’s heroics at the Lusail Stadium. Fans inside the Parc de Princes welcomed Mbappé back by singing his name throughout Wednesday’s match and the superstar is keen to push on with the rest of the season. “It makes you feel good. I thank the fans,” he told PSG TV after Wednesday’s match. “When you come back from a situation like what I went through at the World Cup, it’s always heartwarming to know that you’ve come home and it really makes you happy.” Messi is not expected to return from his celebrations until after PSG’s next league match against Lens on Sunday.

MONTPELLIER’S ROMAIN PITAU IS READY FOR THE CHALLENGE: “WE ARE STARTING ON A NEW ERA, A NEW DYNAMIC.”

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 09:48:00 -0800

Romain Pitau is in good spirits after a rocky start to life as a Ligue 1 manager with Montpellier. The French coach was appointed as head coach after Olivier Dall’Oglio racked up seven defeats in the league.

The Ligue 1 veteran spoke about the feeling around the team stating, “There is something better, it is undeniable, in the state of mind. What matters to me is to find the investment and the regularity that we had during these four weeks of preparation and in the friendly matches.”

The Occitan club may have had a bad start, but they have a formidable roster and before the train went off the track they showed signs of being a top-ten Ligue 1 team this season. The re-start against Lorient will be a good measuring stick to see if the break was as helpful as the coach believed it to be.

He continued to say, “We are starting on a new era, on a new dynamic. It’s up to us to be as efficient and as ready as possible from the outset to garner maximum confidence.”

Montpellier and coach Pitau both need each other for success. The club now sits well outside of a top 5 finish. However, there is always something to play for including the Coupe de France and a strong finish to the second half of the season.

Raiders' Davante Adams addresses Derek Carr benching: 'Obviously I support my guy'

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 02:49:00 -0800

The Las Vegas Raiders made a massive decision on Wednesday, as head coach Josh McDaniels announced that the team was benching starting quarterback Derek Carr for Jarrett Stidham. This move may not be just for the final two weeks of the regular season, as Carr may have played his last down for the Raiders.

While Carr signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension this past offseason, Vegas can save $30 million if the quarterback is released or traded this upcoming offseason -- and it appears that's the direction the franchise is headed. The Raiders' longtime signal-caller was the main reason why Vegas landed star wideout Davante Adams this offseason, as the two played together during their time in college at Fresno State. However, after just 15 games together with the Raiders, that time may now be over.

Wednesday, Adams addressed the Carr benching while speaking with reporters at his locker.

Obviously, I don't think anybody was excited about it in here," Adams said, via Levi Edwards of the Raiders. "Him being one of my really good friends and the reason why I came here in the first place. I mean, I wouldn't be here right now if he wasn't here. I think everybody knows how I feel about him. With that said, this is the process of how things go, and I'm not gonna sit here and go on and on, but obviously, I support my guy, and we gotta finish the season out the best way we can possible with all things considered at this point."

While Adams has caught 88 passes for 1,290 yards and a league-leading 12 touchdowns, it hasn't all been smooth sailing. He's caught just 9 of 25 targets for 114 yards and zero touchdowns in his last three games, and Carr is 16 of 51 targeting Adams in the fourth quarter this season. Carr reportedly won't even be in the building for the remainder of the season, as NFL Media reported that the quarterback will step away to avoid distractions.

At 6-9, the Raiders aren't eliminated from playoff contention just yet, but that elimination could come this weekend. Coach McDaniels said this is an opportunity for a younger player that hasn't played much to get his chance, and that Carr understands the situation.

These fast food places, restaurants will be open on Christmas Day 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 03:14:00 -0800

(NEXSTAR) – If you are on the go this Christmas, or simply skipping the traditional at-home feast for something a little quicker, you likely know your options are limited. While many restaurants are closing their doors on December 25, there are some still accepting customers on the holiday.

To save you the trouble of searching for those eateries, here is a list of the major fast-food chains and restaurants staying open — and a few that are closing — for Christmas 2022.

Keep in mind, hours are likely to vary by location.

Boston Market

Participating Boston Market locations will be open on Christmas, according to the company’s website.

Burger King

Hours may vary by location, a Burger King representative tells Nexstar. You can check local hours online here.

Denny’s

Known for being “always open,” Denny’s will be open on Christmas.

Domino’s

Because Domino’s locations are independently owned, they may or may not be open on Christmas, a company representative told Country Living. Some may also close for Christmas Eve. You can view your location’s hours online.

Dunkin’

Many Dunkin’ locations will be open on Christmas, but hours may vary by store, a representative tells Nexstar. Before visiting, check your Dunkin’ location’s hours online or in the mobile app.

Golden Corral

Some Golden Corral locations will be open for Christmas, but they may have limited hours. They may also have shortened hours on Christmas Eve. You can check your restaurant’s hours here.

IHOP

Though IHOP locations are listed as being open online, you may want to check with your local restaurant before stopping in.

Jersey Mike’s

Jersey Mike’s will have limited hours on Christmas Eve but will be closed for Christmas, according to the company.

McDonald’s

Because the vast majority of McDonald’s locations are independently owned and operated, holiday hours may vary by store, a representative told Country Living. You can check your location’s hours online.

Noodles

Select Noodles locations will be open; you can check store hours here.

Panera Bread

Hours can vary by store, according to Panera Bread. You can check your location’s hours online.

Red Lobster

Select locations will be open for dine-in and to-go orders, according to Red Lobster. Participating restaurants and their hours can be found on this list shared by Red Lobster.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House

Ruth’s Chris Steak House locations will be open on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to its website.

Sonic

Because Sonic locations are independently owned, restaurants may be open on Christmas, but with different hours. Location hours can be seen online here.

Starbucks

Some Starbucks locations will be open, but they may have different hours. Location hours can be found online here.

Waffle House

Known for being open all day, every day – and causing headlines when it closes – Waffle House locations will be open on Christmas. There’s even a song about it.

Wendy’s

Many Wendy’s locations will be open on Christmas, but hours may vary. You can check the hours of your nearest location online.

While the above restaurant chains plan to be staffed for Christmas, there are a few others that will be taking the holiday off. Because Christmas falls on a Sunday, Chick-fil-A will be closed (though they likely would’ve closed anyway, like they did last year). Fellow chicken restaurant Raising Cane’s, which closes on major holidays, will close on Christmas.

Many Buffalo Wild Wings locations will be open Christmas Eve and closed Christmas Day, a representative tells Nexstar. However, hours may vary by location – you can check the hours of your local Buffalo Wild Wings here. A representative for Firehouse Subs says some of its restaurants will close early on Christmas Eve and may completely close for Christmas. You can check your store’s hours here.

Most KFC restaurants will be closed on Christmas Day, but a representative for the company tells Nexstar they recommend checking with your local KFC for their holiday hours.

Chipotle, Pizza Hut, Qdoba, and White Castle locations will close early on Christmas Eve and remain closed through Christmas Day, company representatives tell Nexstar.

Charlotte Hornets 134-130 Los Angeles Lakers | NBA highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 01:55:00 -0800

WATCH: Cleveland Browns Sign Boxer Jake Paul to a Contract

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 01:49:00 -0800

Winter storm spawns frigid wind chill, snow emergencies: live updates

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 07:52:00 -0800

Arctic air from a winter storm system will engulf much of the East Coast on Friday, as forecasters warn the weather will lead to power outages and snarl holiday travel with heavy snow, blizzard conditions and dangerously cold temperatures.

It's the the same system that already has been blamed for three deaths and has produced temperatures so cold that a Montana National Weather Service office said one of its thermometers had stopped working. The Elk Park, Montana, temperature sensor hit its lowest temperature: minus 50 degrees, the weather service office said on Thursday.

Over 175 million people, more than half the nation's population, have been warned about dangerous wind chills in the days leading up to Christmas, according to Thursday night weather service data that tracks wind chill warnings and advisories. Governors across the country also have declared states of emergencies in response to the severe weather.

Numerous states have reported significant, record breaking temperature plunges with some areas plummeting 50 degrees. Huge swaths of the nation will see minimum wind chill temperatures in the negative double digits in the coming days, according to the weather service.

COLD WEATHER AND GLOBAL WARMING:Freezing temps don't disprove climate change

HOLIDAY TRAVEL:Over 2,200 US flights canceled amid storm

“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” said President Joe Biden after a briefing from federal officials Thursday. “This is serious stuff.” On Thursday, the cold front was moving through the central U.S. toward the east, wreaking havoc on holiday travel plans as thousands of flights were canceled.

A bomb cyclone was predicted to develop late Thursday into Friday near the Great Lakes, which is expected to worsen blizzard conditions.

Elliott intensifies across Great Lakes

As of about 8 a.m., snow was falling across the Great Lakes where Winter Storm Elliott was intensifying into a likely bomb cyclone, bringing high winds, snow and blizzard conditions from the Northern Plains to western and upstate New York, the weather service reported.

Bomb cyclones are intense winter storms with high winds, heavy blizzards and sub-zero temperatures created through a process known as bombogenesis.

Bombogenesis is a weather term that combines "bomb" and "cyclogenesis," the creation of a cyclone. While bomb cyclones can happen in cold or warm months, they receive the most attention in winter.

Numerous Texas power outages reported

In Texas, more than 77,000 people were without power Friday morning.

CenterPoint Energy reported the most outages across the state. As of 6:45 a.m. CT, more than 21,000 customers were in the dark.

The energy company said it would work to restore service as soon as possible.

Just over 20,000 Oncor customers were impacted by the blast, a majority of them in Dallas. The power company wrote on its website that thousands of electrical facilities, including stations and main feeder lines, underwent thorough air and ground inspections Thursday to prepare for high demand and cold temperatures.

“Our crews are ready to respond and will work around the clock to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible – even on holidays,” the power company wrote.

Neighbors help neighbors in Iowa

In Iowa, the National Weather Service predicted storm weather Thursday night and Friday will intensify, with an "explosive deepening" of the storm's low-pressure system Friday night.

"For Iowa, this means winds will be stronger tonight and Friday (than) they have been so far," an advisory said.

Far from the storm's disruptions to airports, highways and city bustle, life went on pretty much as usual despite the cold and snow in the rural western Iowa town of Soldier, where it’s typical for neighbors to help each other out amid winter storms.

That means residents moving from house to house, clearing driveways and sidewalks after a big storm, putting together church potlucks and making sure those who need a trip to the doctor have rides.

“We’re a little town, so we come together whenever there’s a need. Not just when there’s a winter storm,” said Patty Jensen, president of Soldier Lutheran Church’s council.

— The Des Moines Register

How are officials responding to severe weather conditions?

Governors in at least 12 states have declared emergency measures and other cold weather efforts in response to the storm and its hazardous conditions.

Colorado: On Tuesday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis activated over 100 state National Guard members to help assist with "extreme cold weather operations" across the state, according to a news release.
Connecticut: Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont activated the state's severe cold weather protocol in response to potential below-zero wind chills for Friday to Monday, according to a news release. Lamont also activated the state's emergency operations center in anticipation of the rain storm over the holiday weekend.
Georgia: On Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency and warned the public to prepare for freezing weather, according to a news release.
Kentucky: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Wednesday ahead of the arctic front that was forecast to bring a flash freeze and extremely cold temperatures across the state, according to a news release.
Maryland: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday that the state activated its emergency response operations in preparation of the winter storm, according to a news release.
Missouri: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed an executive order Tuesday to activate the state's emergency operations plan against the extreme cold. According to a news release, the declaration will “ensure state resources are available and National Guard members are on standby for any needed response efforts across the state."
North Carolina: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed a state of emergency Tuesday to activate the state’s emergency operations. “We know that with the extremely low temperatures North Carolinians will need propane and other heating fuel to keep their families warm," Cooper said in a statement.
New York: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Thursday ahead of the winter storm. "Heavy rain and snow, strong winds, coastal and lakeshore flooding and flash freezing are all possible in various regions across the state throughout the holiday weekend," a news release from Hochul's office states.
Oklahoma: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency Wednesday for all 77 counties ahead of the storm which temporarily suspends requirements for size and weights permits of oversized vehicles transporting materials and supplies used for emergency relief and power restoration, according to a news release.
West Virginia: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of preparedness for all 55 counties in the state and declared Friday as a full-holiday for public employees ahead of the storm, according to a news release.
Wisconsin: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order declaring an energy emergency in the state due to weather. "Due to the below-average temperatures, accumulating and blowing snow throughout the state, deliveries of liquid fuels for home heating shipped by truck, barge, and particularly rail, are limited," a news release from Evers' office states.

What is wind chill?

Meteorologists define wind chill as how cold it feels while outdoors, and it’s based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin caused by the wind-and-cold combination, according to the National Weather Service. Increased wind draws heat from the body, which then lowers the temperature of the skin and internal body.

“Frostbite may develop on exposed skin in as few as 10-20 mins, and hypothermia can quickly develop if you're not dressed for the cold,” weather service experts in Chicago warned Thursday.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Iran warns Zelensky to stop saying it gives Russia drones: ‘Patience not endless’

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 07:34:00 -0800

Tehran fumes at Ukrainian leader after address to US Congress in which he accused the Islamic Republic of becoming an accomplice in Moscow’s ‘genocidal policy’ against Kyiv

Iran on Thursday shot out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his continuous assertions — supported by the US and Europe — that the Islamic Republic is transferring attack drones to Russia for widespread use in assaults on Ukraine.

Addressing the US Congress on Wednesday, Zelensky raged at Moscow’s escalating use of missiles and drones to strike Ukrainian communities beyond of Russian artillery range.

“Russia found an ally in this, in this homicidal policy: Iran,” he continued. “Iranian lethal drones launched to Russia in hundreds and hundreds posed a menace to our crucial infrastructure. That is how one terrorist has located the other.

Addressing the US Congress on Wednesday, Zelensky raged at Moscow’s escalating use of missiles and drones to strike Ukrainian communities beyond of Russian artillery range.

“Mr. Zelensky had better know that Iran’s strategic tolerance with such false claims is not endless,” spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quoted as saying in a ministry statement.

The statement stated Kanaani also urged that Zelensky learn “from the destiny of certain other political leaders who satisfied themselves with the US support.”

It was not obvious who Kanaani was talking to, however, he may have been discussing former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, whose administration was ousted by the Taliban when the US withdrew its soldiers from the country last year.

“It is only a matter of time [until] they will attack against your other friends if we do not stop them immediately. We must do it.”

Responding to Zelensky’s “repeated allegations and disrespectful remarks,” Iran’s foreign ministry again denied transferring drones or other military equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine and maintained that Tehran respects all countries’ territorial integrity.

In recent weeks, Russia is suspected to have employed Iranian drones to target Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, leaving tens of thousands without power as winter creeps in.

Both the United States and European Union have sanctioned Iranian corporations and organizations engaged in the delivery of drones to Russia.

On Sunday, Kanaani said Iran will not “seek permission from anyone” to strengthen relations with Russia, rejecting US fears about a burgeoning military alliance between Tehran and Moscow.

Agencies contributed to this report.

TRAGIC STAR Who was rapper Big Scarr?

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 05:21:00 -0800

RISING rap star Big Scarr has died aged just 22, just as his promising career was taking off.

He tragically passed away before achieving much mainstream fame but tributes have poured in from fellow rappers and musicians - here's everything we know about his life and death.

Big Scarr, born Alexander Woods, has died aged 22Credit: Getty

Who was rapper Big Scarr?

Born Alexander Woods in Memphis, Tennessee on April 7, 2000, Big Scarr was one of eight siblings and grew up living with his grandma until she died when he was just 13.

The name Big Scarr reportedly came from injuries he suffered when he was in a car crash aged 16.

Scarr was thrown through the windshield of a friend's car during the smash and sustained several scars.

He suffered further injuries when he was shot in the hip in 2020, with doctors forced to remove his appendix and realign his right leg after the bullet traveled into his spine.

The up-and-coming musician got into rap through a friend and fellow artist Baby K, before he released his debut track Make A Play on YouTube in 2019.

In 2020, he was signed by rap superstar Gucci Mane's label 1017 Records.

His cousin is also a rapper, known as Pooh Shiesty, and featured on his Big Grim Reaper mixtape, which peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200 chart.

When did Big Scarr die?

Big Scarr died on December 22 2022, at just 22 years old.

There has been no official confirmation of his cause of death or the circumstances surrounding it.

No confirmation has been given from local police or news outlets, but his death was confirmed on social media by Gucci Mane.

Who has paid tribute to Big Scarr?

A range of friends and fellow rappers were quick to pay tribute to the tragic young man.

Gucci Mane posted a series of photos of Scarr to his Instagram with the caption: "This hurt...I miss you."

Podcaster and YouTube star DJ Akademiks tweeted "RIP Big Scarr" after the news began circulating online.

Scarr's label mate Enchanting posted to her Instagram, saying "[I don't] wanna talk. Sorry if I don't answer. I just can't", along with a broken heart emoji.

She also posted a photo of her friend and wrote: "My babbbyyy, my best friend, my son I love you forever and I'm so sorry."

Enchanting also released a video of the pair hugging, saying she would "do anything" to hug him "one more time".

Jets HC Robert Saleh says 'we haven't seen the last of' Zach Wilson despite Thursday night benching

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 03:51:00 -0800

Jets quarterback Zach Wilson was benched in favor of Chris Streveler near the end of the third quarter of New York's 19-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night.

It marked the latest disappointing chapter in the 2022 NFL Draft's No. 2 overall pick's two-season tenure for the Jets, whose playoff hopes were dealt a massive blow with their fourth consecutive loss. Head coach Robert Saleh said after the game it won't be Wilson's last chapter with New York, despite a woeful performance drenched in boos that even the evening's steady downpour could not wash away.

"We haven't seen the last of him. But right now he's just got to focus on finding ways to get better, and we've got to find ways to help him," said Saleh, who would not name a starter for his team's Week 17 game against the Seattle Seahawks. "It's not just him, it's collective, and we've all got to find ways to get better."

Wilson was making his second straight start after he was previously replaced by QB Mike White for three weeks after a disappointing 10-3 loss to the Patriots in Week 11. But unfortunately, the second-year QB struggled throughout parts of three quarters, going 9 for 18 for 92 yards passing and an interception before the Jets decided to bring in Streveler after a three-and-out led to the team's fifth punt of the night.

‘Where am I going?’: Why alarm bells are ringing loudly as Lakers face glaring LeBron truth

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:45:00 -0800

Lakers withstand Wizards in thriller | 01:04

Ben Cotton from Fox Sports@ben_cotton15

December 23rd, 2022 9:37 am

It was all going so well for the LA Lakers, or at least much better.

Recovering from a horror 2-10 start to the season where some were calling them a lottery team, the Lakers completely flipped the script to get to 10-12 before starting a road trip in early December.

The shock turnaround in their season was largely because of one man – Anthony Davis.

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Davis recaptured some of his absolute previous best form from his days with the New Orleans Pelicans as the form player of the entire NBA – averaging 27.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.3 blocks to surge into MVP calculations.

Beyond the numbers, he looked phenomenal again – diving all around the floor for blocks and defensive plays and attacking the rim relentlessly.

Davis was in stellar form prior to his setback (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

There was a league-wide feeling of ‘Davis is back’ after he’d been in decline since moving to the Lakers in 2019 despite helping lead them to the 2020 championship.

Heck, some reports even suggested he could be available for trade during the team’s early-season struggles.

But his epic rush of form thwarted any doubts on whether he was still a top-line superstar, finally living up to the level LA had hoped for when it traded for him to eventually take over the mantle from LeBron James as this team’s alpha – also while Davis finally embraced playing at the centre.

Then it happened again – Davis got injured.

The big man got struck down last week with an ankle issue as initial reports stated he’d be out for multiple weeks with a foot injury.

But ESPN’s Brian Windhorst revealed this week the “concerning” injury could be more serious and that Davis would be out for an “extended period.”

And just like that, alarm bells are going off for Lakers fans, of course, given the oft-injured Davis’ injury history.

Davis is set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

“It’s going to be like a month? Yeah OK, we’ll see. Because with feet especially, it always seems like it’s six weeks, eight weeks, for bigs (especially),” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.

“Nobody is getting rushed back with a weird foot situation, and it doesn’t seem like it’s a sprained foot, it seems like it’s worse.

“I just think you have to be really careful with these big, a little bit injury-prone guys. I already feel like they were pushing the RPMs to like seven.

“I just have serious questions about Davis being able to stay healthy for eight to nine months a year.

“The Lakers relied on him to get back in the race when he went on that run, (but) he couldn’t sustain it – he got hurt, he broke down. Some guys just aren’t durable.”

The Lakers are now precariously placed – sitting 13th in the West with a 13-18 record – three and a half games behind the eight seed with a third of the season gone.

Yes, playoffs are within reach, and they salvaged a campaign that once seemed like a complete write off to even emerge in trade rumours as potential buyers ahead of the deadline.

However Davis was central to everything.

LeBron winds back clock with double play | 00:43

There remains question marks over their roster that is still devoid of shooting, star power and overall talent, with Davis’ brilliant form helping mask some of those voids.

And so is it worth them exploring trades to push further up the standings given it’d likely require them mortgaging their future?

Of course, the Lakers’ first rounder is already tied to the New Orleans Pelicans, who’d be rubbing their hands together after the Davis injury, with the pick ironically changing hands after the 2019 blockbuster trade for the star big. That in itself is enough of a blow.

The Lakers’ other trade chips are their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks. At least one, if not both, would almost certainly need to be moved for them to make any meaningful roster upgrades.

Russell Westbrook, who’s found new life in a sixth-man role to potentially boost his trade value, and his $47 million expiring deal is another movable piece.

But again, a Westbrook trade would likely involve them moving at least one of their future first rounders, and reports state he’s unlikely to be dealt.

Plus, even in a best-case scenario where the Lakers potentially add a Bojan Bogdanovic type or even a DeMar DeRozan, it likely doesn’t raise their ceiling enough to compete for a championship.

And that’s not factoring in the unknown of what version of Davis returns – whenever that is – and how long it takes him to ramp up.

Can Davis help save the Lakers’ season again? (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

“If he’s gone for six to nine weeks, you’re (currently) 13-17 anyway, and LeBron, who’s in year 20 and has basically been missing 25-30 games the last couple of years, is the hub of the team now,” Simmons added.

“The moment he (James) gets hurt, your season is over. So why am I giving away my entire future to hold the fort so that I can get Anthony Davis coming off a semi-major injury and old LeBron?

“And where am I going anyway? Am I as good as the top seven teams in the league with that nucleus?

“If I was a consultant of the Lakers, I would be like: ‘The New Orleans pick is a sub cost. The Pelicans pick is gone, we’re not getting it back. We’re not going to win the title with the team we have. Now we’re going to ruin the end of the 2020s? For what? Are we going to be better than Milwaukee?’”

Putting too much of a workload on James’ body is a valid concern – and a massive ask of a 38-year old.

Yes, we’re talking about arguably the greatest player of all time, but he’s in his twilight days and has very much gotten through recent seasons by managing his body and sitting a stack of games when he hasn’t been actually injured.

Over the last four seasons, James has played 56 games (of a possible 82 games), 45 (72), 67 (71) and 55 (82).

This isn’t the same James that can single-handedly steamroll through teams and carry his own to a top four seed.

The Lakers will lean on James more than ever (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

Plus the acquisition of Davis, and Westbrook, to a lesser degree, was as much about easing James’ load as anything and allow him to rest when he could.

But then making no moves and effectively waving the white flag on this season is also an abomination for a team built to win now that still has one of the league’s all-time legends playing at a high level.

Even before Davis’ injury, this was far from an ideal situation.

“The Lakers are, by every imaginable definition, tragically squandering the last, best years of one of the greatest players in NBA history,” Sports Illustrated’s Howard Beck wrote.

As much as James isn’t the player he once was, he’s still as valuable as any star on his best nights and will likely make another All-Star game this season.

With how durable James has been across his career while showing no signs of slowing down as a bona fide superstar, it’d be silly to discount what he could produce with more talent around him.

Nikola Jokic SHINES against Grizzlies | 00:32

This adds some weight to the idea of potentially getting more help prior to the trade deadline, even if it means trading draft picks.

James is contracted in LA for two more seasons, and beyond that, the franchise’s future is uncertain despite its ability to attract big-name stars.

The future however shouldn’t be a major priority so long as James is still around, and it’s hard to envision the Lakers going into full tank mode – especially considering their first rounder belongs to New Orleans.

Put it all together and there’s no obvious answers for the Lakers right now, with Davis’ injury adding another layer of complexity to an already unpredictable season for the team even when it was healthy.

The Lakers can only take things day by day and let their record on the court dictate their direction, although the current trajectory hasn’t been good, dropping six of their last nine games.

This famous franchise will at some stage need to take a more obvious pathway and hope there isn’t much collateral damage along the way.

Ja Morant Says Memphis Grizzlies Have No Competition In Western Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 14:56:00 -0800

Ja Morant is one of the NBA’s brightest young stars, and he is not afraid to speak his mind about himself or his team, the Memphis Grizzlies. During a recent interview, the 23-year-old denounced having any competition in the Western Conference.

NBA Today host Malika Andrews sat down with the All-Star point guard and asked if there were any teams he felt the Grizzlies would have to “run through” when he studies his opposition. The Dalzell, S.C. native replied “[Boston] Celtics.” Andrews followed up his reply by saying “No one in the West,” to which the 2020 NBA Rookie Of The Year said, “Nah. I’m fine in the West” with a smirk.

Morant’s confidence is certainly warranted at this point in the NBA regular season, as the Memphis Grizzlies are tied with the Denver Nuggets for first in the Western Conference, notably ahead of the struggling defending champion Golden State Warriors, whom Ja has repeatedly exchanged words with since being ousted from the 2022 playoffs.

The Griddy dancer told The Pivot Podcast back in September that he believes the Grizzlies were favorites in their playoff series and would have won if he did not get injured in Game 3. The Warriors ended up winning that series 4-2 en route to defeating the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

The Grizzlies superstar is currently averaging 27 points, six rebounds, and almost eight assists with a 45.4 field goal percentage and 34.6 three-point percentage. If he continues at this rate, he may get the opportunity to prove himself right about the Memphis team being a serious title contender.

How Manchester United progressed to quarter-finals of Carabao Cup thanks to Eriksen and Rashford goals

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 14:41:00 -0800

Marcus Rashford scored a superb solo goal as Manchester United booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 win over Burnley.

The 25-year-old ran from the halfway line before smashing a low shot into the far corner to double United's lead, after Christian Eriksen's opener in the first-half.

Both sides saw early chances go begging, as Ashley Barnes headed wide and Alejandro Garnacho forced Bailey Peacock-Farrell into a smart save in the opening ten minutes.

United started to assert their dominance in the game and eventually took the lead when Eriksen tapped home from inside the six-yard box following a clever pull-back from Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Anthony Martial saw a shot saved before Burnley's Manuel Benson hit the side netting at the other end.

Benson forced United goalkeeper Martin Dubravka into a good save as the first-half drew to its conclusion, but United remained on top.

The second half was more of the same to begin with, and Scott McTominay went close before Rashford's superb solo effort.

Burnley spurned a couple of huge chances towards the end, first when substitute Darko Churlinov failed to convert when one-on-one and then again when Barnes fired over from close range.

Perhaps Burnley's biggest chance of the game came seven minutes from time when Barnes latched onto a cutback from Gudmundsson but could only fire wide from 8 yards out.

United saw out the rest of the game and secured their place in the last eight of the competition.

(Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

7 takeaways as slumping Celtics rally from 30-point deficit but drop 3rd straight to Pacers

noreply@blogger.com (Absariko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 14:12:00 -0800

"We’ve had a tough stretch every year since I’ve been in the NBA, and this is no different."

Jayson Tatum scored 41 points but the Celtics fell to the Pacers on Wednesday. Photo by: Barry Chin/Globe Staff

By Tom Westerholm

December 22, 2022 | 7:25 AM

The Celtics continued their recent slide on Wednesday, falling to the Pacers 117-112 despite a furious second-half rally and 41 points from Jayson Tatum.

Here are the takeaways.

1. Hold your applause for the Celtics’ second-half rally, and consider shelving your rage at the officials. Sure, the Celtics played significantly better in the final 24 minutes, and the referees themselves admitted they missed a potential flagrant foul committed by Jalen Smith against Tatum (which turned into two Pacer free throws on the other end).

But to paraphrase a famous tweet by Weird Twitter legend @dril: When a team falls behind by 30 points and rallies, you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to them.”

“That’s the problem with digging yourself such a hole,” Malcolm Brogdon said after the game. “You’re making a run, you’re down 30, you get down nine or 10, but the likelihood of them missing 10, 15 shots in a row is low. They are going to make some shots, and some of them end up being daggers in the last couple of minutes.”

The Celtics experienced that frustration over and over and over. For example:

– After the Celtics outscored the Pacers 40-23 for the first 11:50 of the third quarter and closed their deficit to 11, Sam Hauser saved the ball back in bounds … but it found its way to Pacers guard Chris Duarte, who buried a 3-pointer.

– Seconds later, after Tatum drew a foul and made a pair of free throws, Duarte banked in a heavily contested heave at the buzzer that pushed Indiana’s lead back to 15.

– After Robert Williams annihilated an Aaron Nesmith layup off the glass and jump-started a fast break, both Payton Pritchard and Jaylen Brown missed at the rim, and Tyrese Haliburton buried a triple that pushed the Pacers’ lead back to 10 with four minutes remaining.

– After the Celtics cut the lead to five with just under three minutes remaining, they shut the Pacers down for nearly an entire shot clock, but Haliburton drilled another 3 — this one contested and deep as the shot clock wound down.

A 20-point rally is fairly common at this point, but to rally from a 30-point deficit, you need to be both lucky and good. The Celtics were good in the second half, but the fact that they needed luck on their side as well makes Wednesday’s final result feel appropriate.

2. The Pacers ended the first quarter on a game-breaking 37-11 run, spurred by their long-range shooting.

Buddy Hield made the first 3-pointer. When the Celtics emphasized Hield on the next possession, Haliburton hit his first three. As Celtics defenders scrambled throughout the first half, the Pacers got 3-pointers from Hield, Haliburton, Duarte, Myles Turner, and Jalen Smith.

“We just didn’t play with a great sense of urgency, didn’t play with an awareness and didn’t play with a sense of detail,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters.

The Pacers shot 18-for-39 from 3-point range as a team (46.2 percent). It’s a credit to the Celtics that they managed to rally despite the Pacers’ 8-for-18 (44.4 percent) shooting in the second half.

3. Tatum absolutely annihilated his old teammate Nesmith with a dunk in transition as the Celtics tried to rally in the second half.

Tatum appeared to have something to say to Nesmith as well. The Celtics were deeply frustrated by that point, and Nesmith didn’t make matters easier with his hustle plays.

For Nesmith, however, the homecoming was largely positive. He may have gotten dunked on, but he also started and scored 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting as part of a winning effort against his old team.

“It’s fun being back here competing against those guys, and they really taught me a lot, taught me how to play in this league,” he told reporters. “So it was a lot of fun being able to take what I learned from them and use it against them.”

Before the game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle praised Nesmith enthusiastically.

“We just love Aaron’s competitiveness, his joy to compete, his overall positivity all the time, and that’s not to mention his skill,” Carlisle said. “He shoots it. He drives it. He’s beyond coachable. He’s a dream to work with just in terms of every day. Every day you come in there, he’s just raring to go and he’s a sponge.”

The Celtics used Nesmith and a first-round pick to acquire Malcolm Brogdon, so they presumably regret nothing. But if Danny Ainge wants a little credit for his work during the 2020 NBA Draft, Nesmith — who was the No. 14 pick — looks much more like a rotation player in Indiana.

Ainge still should have kept Desmond Bane.

4. Jaylen Brown scored just 19 points on 8-for-23 shooting, and he had several key misses down the stretch. The worst ones may have been a wide open corner three with 7:24 remaining that barely grazed iron and would have cut the lead to five, as well as a layup with 2:25 remaining which would have cut the lead to six.

Meanwhile, Brown’s 19-point outing broke a run of 21 consecutive games with 20 or more points, which was the longest such streak in the NBA.

5. The Celtics wasted an excellent performance from Tatum, who finished shooting 13-for-25 from the field and 11-for-13 from the free-throw line. After taking a night off, Tatum appeared re-invigorated.

6. Robert Williams was crucial to the comeback as well, pulling down seven offensive rebounds, including three in the fourth quarter as the comeback attempt reached a fever pitch.

“He definitely brought a different energy for us and he’s continuing to get better,” Mazzulla said. “So I’m very happy where he’s at.”

Williams is yet to start a game, despite repeatedly being declared healthy after games. He appeared to be involved in a few miscues in the first half, but his two-way impact on the second half was undeniable.

So far this season, the Celtics have played their 2021-22 starting lineup of Marcus Smart, Tatum, Brown, Williams and Horford together for just two possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. That group outscored opponents by 24.3 points per 100 possessions last year, which prompts one to ask how much longer Williams remains out of the starting lineup, especially as Derrick White continues to struggle (0-for-12 from three in his last three games).

7. The Celtics have now lost three straight games and five of their last six as the Eastern Conference surges around them. The Cavaliers, Nets, Knicks and 76ers have all been red-hot recently, and the Bucks have taken over first place in the conference. Meanwhile, the C’s no longer have the league’s best net rating (behind the Cavaliers), according to the NBA’s stats.

The Celtics are struggling, but they are probably in the middle of a regression to the mean, not a plummet to the bottom. If you assume that regression will level out, they currently have a +6.8 net rating per Cleaning the Glass (which filters out garbage stats, and still has the Celtics first overall). According to Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics have the net rating of a team on pace to win 57.5 games. Unless you think the Celtics will missing shots at this rate — 31.8 percent from deep over the last 10 games — this recent tough stretch is likely to turn around.

“I think we just need a win,” Tatum said. “We have fun together off the court. We bond. This is a close group. We’re just having a tough stretch. We’ve had a tough stretch every year since I’ve been in the NBA, and this is no different. We’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to get back on track, essentially.”

Still, the Celtics are now 0-3 on a home stretch with a road-heavy January looming. Friday’s game against the Timberwolves is a pretty important time to start winning again.