It’s not often that a coach calls his own team the worst team in the NFL, but that’s exactly what Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce did today. Looking ahead to Friday’s game between the Raiders and Chiefs, Pierce said that the Chiefs are the best team in the league and the Raiders are the worst. “Let’s call a spade a spade, right? Best team in football against the worst team in football,” Pierce said. “Let’s change the narrative. Let’s make it a dog fight, make it ugly, make it scrappy. It’s Black Friday. Let’s create a little chaos, let’s get back to Raider football, have some fun, win or lose.” With the Chiefs at 10-1 and the Raiders at 2-9, Pierce may be in desperation mode, not only for this week’s game but for his head-coaching career. If the Raiders don’t turn things around in the final weeks of the season, Pierce could be done after one full season as the Raiders’ head coach. When Pierce was the Raiders’ interim head coach last year, he led them to an upset win at Kansas City on Christmas that helped him earn the head-coaching job on a full-time basis. Another upset over the Chiefs, this time on Black Friday, would go a long way toward changing perceptions of Pierce, and of the Raiders as the worst team in the NFL.Kendrick Lamar has addressed his supposed feud with fellow rapper Lil Wayne on his new album GNX . The 37-year-old Compton rapper released his sixth album earlier today (November 22) with no warning. Fans were quick to note the latest development in Lamar’s long-running feud with Canadian rapper Drake. In May, Drake released a diss track about Lamar titled “The Heart Part 6,” which co-opted its title from Lamar’s series of “Heart” songs. GNX includes Lamar’s own song “heart pt. 6,” an indication that Lamar has decided not to recognize Drake’s song. The track itself doesn’t comment on the feud. Elsewhere, however, Lamar does tackle the controversy that arose after it was announced he will perform at next year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which will take place in New Orleans on February 9, 2025. On “wacced out murals,” the opening track of GNX , Lamar references a classic Lil Wayne album from 2008 as he raps: “Used to bump Tha Carter III , I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” A few bars later, he adds: “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me / All these n***** agitated / I’m just glad it’s on their faces / Quite frankly, plenty artist but they outdated / Old-a** flows trying to convince me that you they favorite.” The lyrics reference the fact that Lamar’s success in being chosen to perform at the Super Bowl inadvertently let down Lil Wayne, who had been hoping to perform at the event in his hometown of New Orleans. In September Wayne, 41, addressed the devastating blow in a video posted to Instagram. “First of all, I want to say forgive me for the delay. I had to get strength enough to do this without breaking,” the “Love Me” rapper began somberly. “I’mma say thank you to every voice, every opinion, all the care, all love and support out there. Your words turned into arms and held me up when I tried to fall back.” “That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot,” he said. “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown. And for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that,” he continued, adding that it hurt even more given that the game will be held in his hometown of New Orleans . “I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt. It hurt a whole lot,” he said, thanking his “amazing” fans, who “reminded me that I ain’t s***,” even when “not getting this opportunity” made “me feel like s***.” “It broke me, and I’m just trying to put my back together, but my God, have y’all helped me,” he added, sharing his appreciation for his friends, peers, family and “my homies on the sports television” for “repping me.” “I feel like I let all y’all down by not getting that opportunity. But I’m working on me,” he concluded.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. A handful of technology companies helped support the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 63 points, or 0.2% as of 1:18 p.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, rose 3%. Broadcom jumped 5.2% to also help support the broader market. Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan said they are talking about combining in a deal that might also include Mitsubishi Motors. Honda rose 3.8% and Nissan rose 1.6% in Tokyo. Eli Lilly rose 3% after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Department store Nordstrom fell 1.7% after it agreed to be taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal. The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8. The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update follows several generally strong economic reports last week. One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid. A report on Friday said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed. The central bank just delivered its third cut to interest rates this year, but inflation has been hovering stubbornly above its target of 2%. It has signaled that it could deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier anticipated because of concerns over inflation. Expectations for more interest rate cuts have helped drive a 24% gain for the S&P 500 in 2024. That drive included 57 all-time highs this year. Inflation concerns have added to uncertainties heading into 2025, which include the labor market's path ahead and shifting economic policies under an incoming President Donald Trump. "Put simply, much of the strong market performance prior to last week was driven by expectations that a best-case scenario was the base case for 2025," said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.58% from 4.53% late Friday. European markets were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground. Wall Street has several other economic reports to look forward to this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. will release its November report for sales of newly constructed homes. A weekly update on unemployment benefits is expected on Thursday. Markets in the U.S. will close early on Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas.
Hawthorn remains in the hunt for high profile Melbourne forward Tayla Harris, but will be up against the clock in the final hours of the AFLW trade period on Wednesday. Want a PAID on-air role and mentorship with Fox Footy for Super Saturday LIVE in 2025? Enter the Kayo Call Up now. Submit a creative video and 100 words here – Applications close Dec 11. Unwilling to part with their No. 14 pick in next week’s draft, the Hawks were again unable to satisfy the Demons with a price for Harris on Tuesday as a contract remains in front of the 27-year-old to stay at her third club. Two second-round picks netted by the Hawks in the trade of breakout midfielder Mattea Breed to Collingwood could help grease the wheels for a trade, but Harris was expected to sign on with Melbourne if a deal was not met by the 4pm deadline. Breed gave the lowly Magpies’ midfield stocks a much-needed boost as they handed over picks 22 and 28 for the tall on-baller and Pick 26. The Tigers remained at an impasse with Essendon over dynamic 20-year-old forward Paige Scott, but on Tuesday night were close to agreeing a deal for two-time All-Australian midfielder Eilish Sheerin to join North Melbourne. Richmond was prepared to strengthen the reigning premiers to gain North Melbourne’s Pick 18, which could help it secure the deal for Scott. North Melbourne’s Lulu Pullar was still expecting to get to Sydney on the final day of the period, while GWS former No. 1 pick Nicola Barr was on track to get her move to St Kilda in a three-way deal which would reunite the Saints’ Grace Kelly with her sister Niamh at the Crows. — NCA NewsWire
Just two weeks since raising $125mn in funding , British scaleup Tokamak Energy has secured backing from the US and UK to upgrade its ST40 fusion energy plant. The US Department of Energy (DOE), the UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and Tokamak Energy will jointly sponsor a $52mn upgrade to the fusion facility in Oxfordshire. “Fusion has the potential to be a clean and sustainable energy source, transforming how we power our country, and countries around the world,” said Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate at DESNZ. “This strategic partnership is therefore crucial to develop this new and exciting technology, and bring it into use quicker,” he said. What day is today? It's CYBER MONDAY! TNW Conference is offering an exclusive 30% discount on their startup and scaleup programs this week only. This is the best deal you'll get before prices change in January. The ST40 is a spherical tokamak, a circular-shaped fusion reactor that uses giant magnets to confine superhot plasma and create the conditions needed to fuse atoms. In 2022, the ST40 became the first privately owned fusion reactor to reach 100 million °C — six times as hot as the core of our closest star. The machine is under constant development as Tokamak Energy races to build something commercially viable. This latest upgrade includes coating the inside of the ST40 with lithium. Research suggests the element can help the walls of fusion reactors better withstand extreme temperatures. But the new project is not just a fusion reactor makeover. “It represents a huge leverage opportunity for advancing fusion science and technology as a whole,” said the DOE’s Dr Geraldine Richmond. Under the agreement, researchers at universities and national laboratories in both countries will also be able to benefit from the research carried out at the ST40 tokamak. T he project is slated to commence next year. The $52mn in f unding will be divided equally among all three partners. Tokamak Energy has already raised $335mn in pursuit of fusion power, making it Europe’s most well-funded private fusion energy venture. Spun out from the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority in 2009, the company is pursing a type of tokamak that is more compact than traditional doughnut-shaped reactors like the ITER fusion plant under construction in France. According to the company, this shape allows better confinement of the super-hot plasma where fusion occurs, making the reactor smaller, cheaper, and easier to build. Last year, Tokamak announced plans to build a second prototype spherical tokamak — the ST80-HTS — by 2026 “to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting magnets.” The next step is to build its first grid-connected fusion power plant, which it hopes to pull off somewhere in the 2030s. Its grand vision is for fleets of modular reactors each with a power output of 500MW — enough to power approximately 85,000 homes.
Four members of Congress unveiled a bipartisan bill Friday that would spark changes at the U.S. Center for SafeSport, placing a time limit on resolving cases that can sometimes take years and improving communication between the center and abuse survivors. The Safer Sports for Athletes Act looks to address some of the bigger concerns that have opened the center to criticism since it was established in 2017 to handle sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports and their grassroots cousins. The bill has potential for a fivefold increase of an existing grant to the center, bringing it to $10 million a year. But even if the full amount were approved, it wouldn't solve all of the problems. As before, that grant can only be used for training and education , not investigations and enforcement, which are the focus of complaints about the center , and also of the reforms the lawmakers are seeking. “We’re hoping the combination of appropriations for other activities will free up money for investigations, as well as the streamlining,” said one of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-North Carolina. The center estimates the reforms in the bill could cost more than $4.5 million. It currently operates on a budget of around $21 million a year, most of which comes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its sports affiliates, known as national governing bodies, or NGBs. “It's really unclear, and I don't think that some parts of the bill jibe with other parts of the bill," SafeSport CEO Ju'Riese Colon said. "We're going to need some more conversation to suss out some of this stuff. Right now, it just doesn't really add up for us.” The center's critics, meanwhile, have long been skeptical about giving more resources to an agency they feel is missing the mark. The bill would also mandate that investigations be concluded within 180 days after a report is made, with possibilities to extend them. Some of the most egregious complaints about the center have come from people who say it has taken years for their cases to be resolved. The center currently receives about 155 reports a week, which comes to more than 8,000 a year. When fully staffed, it has 77 people on its response and resolution team. “Too many other survivors have also been left waiting for years for SafeSport to investigate or have their cases closed without action,” said soccer player Mana Shim, who helped lawmakers draft the bill. Shim's own case, involving sexual harassment and coercion by her coach, took more than two years for the center to resolve and led to investigations and reforms across American soccer. Other reforms include a requirement for the center to provide victim advocates at no cost for those needing them — a move already underway as part of a menu of changes the center announced earlier this year — and to assign case managers who can give timely updates to victims and the accused. “I have questions around, if the center were to hire and staff the advocates, there might be some conflict of interest with us doing this internally," Colon said. The center was also concerned with one provision that would redefine how arbitration works and another that would change the dynamics of information sharing between the center and the USOPC and NGBs. The other bill sponsors were Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio; Don Bacon, R-Nebraska; and Kathy Castor, D-Florida. The lawmakers positioned the bill as one that will help the Denver-based center, while making clear they are not satisfied with the results so far. “We're going to make sure the center has the resources it needs to effectively respond to thousands of reports it handles annually,” Castor said. “It has unfortunately fallen short." Ross conceded this bill will probably get pushed to the next Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, “but we needed to set the stage as soon as possible.” ___ AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games Eddie Pells, The Associated PressThe NFL removes Cowboys vs Eagles game from prime time after Jalen Hurts' concussion
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To play Maria Callas, Angelina Jolie had to learn how to breathe againNone
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. A handful of technology companies helped support the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 63 points, or 0.2% as of 1:18 p.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, rose 3%. Broadcom jumped 5.2% to also help support the broader market. Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan said they are talking about combining in a deal that might also include Mitsubishi Motors. Honda rose 3.8% and Nissan rose 1.6% in Tokyo. Eli Lilly rose 3% after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Department store Nordstrom fell 1.7% after it agreed to be taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal. The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8. The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update follows several generally strong economic reports last week. One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid. A report on Friday said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed. The central bank just delivered its third cut to interest rates this year, but inflation has been hovering stubbornly above its target of 2%. It has signaled that it could deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier anticipated because of concerns over inflation. Expectations for more interest rate cuts have helped drive a 24% gain for the S&P 500 in 2024. That drive included 57 all-time highs this year. Inflation concerns have added to uncertainties heading into 2025, which include the labor market's path ahead and shifting economic policies under an incoming President Donald Trump. "Put simply, much of the strong market performance prior to last week was driven by expectations that a best-case scenario was the base case for 2025," said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.58% from 4.53% late Friday. European markets were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground. Wall Street has several other economic reports to look forward to this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. will release its November report for sales of newly constructed homes. A weekly update on unemployment benefits is expected on Thursday. Markets in the U.S. will close early on Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas.
