La Stampa reports that part of the Juventus dressing room is unhappy with Luciano Spalletti's methods, particularly because the Tuscan coach spends too much time talking, which reduces the intensity of training.
Juventus are preparing for a crucial Serie A match against Napoli, and coach Spalletti has ordered the team into a two-day training retreat.
ITALY – OCTOBER 28: Luciano Spalletti, head coach of Juventus, reacts during the Serie A match between Genoa CFC and Juventus FC at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on October 28, 2026 in Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images)
The Italian tactician is on the brink, having only earned 14 points in nine Serie A games so far this season, losing two of the last three games.
On Thursday, after a 2-0 loss to Genoa, CEO Giovanni Carnevali gave a stern dressing-room speech, asking the players to take responsibility for the poor results so far.

#juventus #italy #october

Frequent board commenter Solanus tracks an enormous amount of pitcher and catcher data, tabulating each game result by hand. Last year, he gave me enough insight into his spreadsheets where I was able to re-create much of the data he hand tabulates (I'm way too lazy for that!) and I wanted to peak at some of those data points and see what we could learn about the defensive side of their catching corps.
The data itself comes from a mix of sources. Statcast data for actual line-ups and game events (who pitched, who caught, which innings, etc.). Baseball reference.com for overall pitching lines for each game, and with Fangraphs because of course there has to be differences in how the data is constructed that doesn't make it easy. Team ids between sites are different. Player Ids are different. Even game Ids are different, and all three have to be brewed together to knit the data into one consistent result.
I wrote the code. The methods are all Solanus. I simply copied his logic into R code and ran it. So he gets all the credit.
I chose to query both the 2025 and 2026 seasons (you will likely understand why when I go through it). Here is the raw data, and following that some of the interesting morsels I discovered and thought about some.
2026

#data #game #solanus

The $200 million in payments dwarfs previous amounts disclosed in the case.
The former CIA officer arrested after authorities discovered roughly $40 million worth of gold bars in his Virginia home pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to a single count of wire fraud, admitting he defrauded the U.S. government out of nearly $200 million for his personal benefit.
David Rush was previously described by prosecutors as a "master manipulator" who used his clandestine position to amass millions worth of gold bars and luxury watches -. though the government revealed in Tuesday's hearing the extent of his alleged deception far exceeded what was previously known to the public.
The nearly $200 million in payments to Rush, which dwarfs previous amounts disclosed as part of his case, will likely only further draw public and congressional scrutiny to the intelligence community to provide more transparency regarding its methods in doling out taxpayer dollars to agents and the oversight that follows such exchanges.
The case has drawn widespread intrigue and raised major questions regarding the intelligence community's management in overseeing the secretive systems that grant officials like Rush the ability to amass high-value ****** ets tied to their work.

#million #payments #dwarfs

Opening a Bible that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2011 discovered a reddish-blond hair pressed between the pages. That hair, suspected to have belonged to Jefferson himself, launched a DNA investigation spanning more than a decade that’s now providing a long-missing puzzle piece regarding Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman in his household.
After spending years reconstructing DNA fragments, scientists have revealed the most compelling evidence to date that Jefferson, a founding father of the United States, also fathered children with Hemings — a relationship that has been long rumored but never definitively proven. How that investigation unfolded is documented in the book “History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery,” written by Richard Kurin, a distinguished scholar and ambassador-at-large at the Smithsonian, and published on September 22.
Kurin is also senior author of a paper describing the methods that connected the former US president to Hemings’ descendants, which involved delving deep into the genetics of the Jefferson and Hemings family trees. The paper, published September 21 on the preprint platform bioRXiv, has not yet been peer-reviewed.
In addition to testing the hair found in the Bible, the researchers also collected genetic material from multiple confirmed samples of Jefferson’s hair, held in the collection of the Smithsonian. They compared that with DNA from descendants of multiple lineages: Jefferson and his wife Martha, Jefferson’s brother Randolph, and two of Hemings’ sons, Eston and Madison. (Hemings had four children who lived to adulthood, but only Eston and Madison claimed Jefferson as their father).
Matches in the DNA suggest the chance that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one of Sally Hemings’ children was 99.96%.

#jefferson #children #bible #history

Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the "Parnassus Growth Equity Fund" second-quarter 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. During the quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 17.49% (net of fees), outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index's 16.74%. Holdings in Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors boosted relative returns, while Communication Services and Financials holdings detracted. For the year-to-date period, the Fund returned 6.17% (net of fees), outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth's 5.33%. The firm remains constructively bullish on U.S. equities and continues to be selective, valuation-sensitive, and focused on disruptive growth opportunities through active stock selection. Growth stocks advanced during the second quarter, as the Russell 1000 Growth Index generated strong double-digit returns driven by increased confidence in the durability of the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-out. Additionally, reviewing the Fund's top five holdings could help identify its best picks for 2026.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Parnassus Growth Equity Fund highlighted Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) as a new addition. Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) is a leading biotechnology company specializing in the manufacture and sale of synthetic DNA-based products. On September 15, 2026, Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) closed at $138.10 per share. Over the past month, Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) returned 2.97% while its shares gained 443.64% over the past 52 weeks. Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) has a market capitalization of $9.09 billion and its stock has traded within a 52-week range of $23.30 and $155.44.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"During the quarter, we added Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST), a biotechnology company with a proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform. Twist Bioscience provides exposure to two powerful long-term trends in Health Care, AI-supported drug discovery and next-generation sequencing. The company's proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform enables higher throughput and lower costs than traditional methods, creating a durable competitive advantage and positioning Twist to take share in a growing market."
Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) is not on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) at the end of the second quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands

MiKargo247 is expanding its spot cargo insurance coverage to include strategic cargo theft under a new partnership with Verified Carrier.
The coverage is designed to address a growing category of freight fraud involving double brokering, carrier identity theft and fictitious pickups. Under the partnership, brokers using Verified Carrier can purchase MiKargo247 spot cargo insurance and have the strategic theft exclusion removed when the load is hauled by an eligible verified carrier. The companies announced the partnership Sept. 1.
Strategic cargo theft accounted for about 30% of reported U.S. cargo theft incidents in 2025, according to a June report from Munich Re Specialty and BSI Consulting. The report found that criminals are increasingly using deception, impersonation and other fraud-based methods to obtain freight rather than relying solely on physically stealing cargo from trucks or facilities.
The shift creates a challenge for brokers and insurers because fraudulent actors can make it difficult to determine who is actually hauling a load.
The FBI warned in April that cyber-enabled strategic cargo theft is increasing, with criminals using compromised accounts, fictitious companies and double-brokering schemes to divert legitimate freight. The agency recommended that transportation companies independently verify shipment requests and pickups before releasing loads.

#carrier #partnership #Companies

Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the "Parnassus Growth Equity Fund" second-quarter 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. During the quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 17.49% (net of fees), outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index's 16.74%. Holdings in Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors boosted relative returns, while Communication Services and Financials holdings detracted. For the year-to-date period, the Fund returned 6.17% (net of fees), outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth's 5.33%. The firm remains constructively bullish on U.S. equities and continues to be selective, valuation-sensitive, and focused on disruptive growth opportunities through active stock selection. Growth stocks advanced during the second quarter, as the Russell 1000 Growth Index generated strong double-digit returns driven by increased confidence in the durability of the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-out. Additionally, reviewing the Fund's top five holdings could help identify its best picks for 2026.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Parnassus Growth Equity Fund highlighted Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) as a new addition. Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) is a leading biotechnology company specializing in the manufacture and sale of synthetic DNA-based products. On September 15, 2026, Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) closed at $138.10 per share. Over the past month, Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) returned 2.97% while its shares gained 443.64% over the past 52 weeks. Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) has a market capitalization of $9.09 billion and its stock has traded within a 52-week range of $23.30 and $155.44.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"During the quarter, we added Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST), a biotechnology company with a proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform. Twist Bioscience provides exposure to two powerful long-term trends in Health Care, AI-supported drug discovery and next-generation sequencing. The company's proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform enables higher throughput and lower costs than traditional methods, creating a durable competitive advantage and positioning Twist to take share in a growing market."
Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) is not on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) at the end of the second quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands

LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Intelligence services must not dwell too much on past threats but accept that a new strategic shock along the lines of ‌the 9/11 attacks could already be in preparation where they are not looking, ‌the head of Britain's MI5 spy agency said.
In an opinion piece published on Friday to mark 25 years since al Qaeda militants crashed hijacked passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, MI5's Director General Ken McCallum said security agencies had to be ready to adapt to current and future challenges.
"We know that the next strategic shock will, by definition, not ‌resemble the last one. That is perhaps ⁠the most important lesson of all," McCallum wrote in the commentary for the Independent newspaper.
"We must of course always learn from the last ⁠attack – but must beware of preparing brilliantly to fight yesterday's enemy, using yesterday's methods, against yesterday's target ... The uncomfortable truth is that the next strategic shock may already be taking shape somewhere we are not yet looking."
Al Qaeda, though diminished, remains a threat, as does the aspiration ‌of that group and other militants for mass casualty attacks, McCallum said.

#next

It looks like the American consumer has more to worry about than food recalls and cyclospora—a new study found that even the packaging the food comes in may pose some health concerns.
Out of over 15,000 food contact chemicals (FCCs), 1,222 or 8% can pose serious health risks, according to a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. Some of these FCCs, which in general are "substances that come into contact with food, such as through food packaging, processing, storage or other handling," per the FDA, were found to be hazardous to human health.
Researchers from the nonprofit Food Packaging Forum Foundation, which conducted the study, found at least 2,160 chemicals regularly contact food and "migrate into foodstuffs." Using guidelines from the UN's Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), researchers found some of the chemicals related to food packaging and other materials were "carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction, harmful to specific organs after repeated exposure, [and] endocrine disrupting."
That's not the only concerning part. The researchers found that 13,211 of the 15,159 known food-contact chemicals lacked harmonized hazard data. That means the scientists could not determine from the available data whether those chemicals met the study's criteria for being hazardous.
"There's a lot of ways of establishing whether something is hazardous or not, and some methods are based very much just on computer models, looking at the structure, predicting something. And others are based on in vitro tests," Dr. Helene Wiesinger, scientific communication officer at the nonprofit and one of the researchers on the study, told Fortune. "And in some sense, the data that we used?' So this is the data we used, and the problem we ran into at that point was that there were huge data lags."

#Food #study #contact

Vertiv, Applied Optoelectronics, and Innodata entered September well below their 2026 highs despite strong operating growth. The pullbacks do not make them interchangeable bargains. Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) sells power and cooling, Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) supplies optical transceivers, and Innodata Inc. (NASDAQ:INOD) provides data engineering and model-evaluation services.
Vertiv's second-quarter sales rose 24% to $3.27 billion, adjusted operating margin expanded 410 basis points to 22.6%, and adjusted free cash flow reached $925 million. The bull case is rising power and thermal content per AI rack. The bear case is project timing, supply congestion, and expectations built around long-duration demand. Insider Monkey counted 112 hedge funds holding Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) in Q2, up from 96 in Q1. Cliff Asness's AQR Capital reported 2,686,683 shares, 0.5% more sequentially.
Applied Optoelectronics posted record revenue of $191.9 million, while 800G volume more than doubled from Q1. Management expects 800G and 1.6-terabit demand to exceed production capacity through mid-2027. That capacity ramp is the bull case; a 27.7% GAAP gross margin, a $22.8 million GAAP loss, customer concentration, and execution are the bear case. Fifty-four hedge funds held Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI), down from 55. Value Aligned Research disclosed 1,595,124 shares, 26% more sequentially.
Innodata's revenue grew 58% to $92.1 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 92% to $25.4 million. Its reusable data sets and evaluation work can expand margins, but large-customer dependence and rapidly changing model-training methods create risk. Twenty-five hedge funds held Innodata Inc. (NASDAQ:INOD), up from 20. Mitch Rubin's RiverPark Advisors reported 2,042 shares, 18% more than in Q1.
AAOI's August 14 short-interest settlement showed 10,421,985 shares sold short, equal to 12.81% of float, with 0.69 days to cover..The elevated short-float percentage signals substantial bearish positioning, while the low days-to-cover ratio suggests shorts could cover relatively quickly at recent trading volumes.Vertiv has the strongest cash generation, AAOI the sharpest capacity upside, and Innodata the lightest physical footprint. A buying opportunity exists only if margins, customer diversification, and cash conversion justify each stock's remaining expectations. The risks also differ in timing. Vertiv can lose on delayed data-center construction, AAOI can lose during the manufacturing ramp, and Innodata can lose when a major customer changes vendors or training methods. Investors should therefore avoid using distance from a high as valuation ******* ysis. Order conversion, gross-margin durability, customer concentration, and diluted share growth are the comparable checkpoints. The pullback improves entry prices, but only operating evidence can establish value. Balance-sheet resilience matters most when capacity plans meet a weaker cycle.

#innodata

On August 18, Himax Technologies (NASDAQ:HIMX) said its WiseEye palm vein biometric technology now powers the WAFERLOCK L322, a smart lock built by Taiwan-based WAFERLOCK Corporation that just went on sale. Instead of scanning a fingerprint or a face, the lock reads the vein pattern under a user's palm, a method Himax says still works when hands are wet, dirty, or full of groceries. The announcement lands less than two weeks after Himax posted a second quarter that beat its own guidance on revenue, margin, and profit, giving the palm vein rollout a stronger financial backdrop than it might otherwise have had.
The WAFERLOCK deal shows what Himax has been building toward with WiseEye, an ultralow-power AI platform that pairs an image sensor and processor to capture, match, and verify a palm vein image directly on the device, without sending anything to the cloud. That matters for a smart lock, where sending biometric data offsite would be a hard sell to homeowners. The L322 pairs palm vein recognition with RFID cards, PIN codes, mechanical keys, and compatibility with EasyCard, iPASS, and MIFARE, so the biometric layer sits on top of access methods people already use.
Himax said the underlying palm vein modules earned TÜV Rheinland verification during the quarter, validating their recognition accuracy, response speed, and liveness detection, and that the technology also complies with GDPR, one of the world's strictest privacy standards. Design-in activity is already spreading beyond locks into workforce management, computer monitors, and smart office equipment.
Automotive remains the larger story sitting underneath it. Automotive display drivers, timing controllers, and touch controllers made up well over half of Himax's revenue in the quarter ended June 30, and the company expects full-year 2026 automotive IC sales to grow by double digits from a year earlier as automakers pack more, larger, and higher-resolution screens into vehicle interiors.
Alongside that base, Himax pointed to two newer bets: a leading global brand launched smart glasses powered by WiseEye during the quarter, and the company's co-packaged optics products entered engineering production ramps in the third quarter, with 2027 shipments expected to significantly exceed 2026. Neither business moves the revenue needle yet, but together they give Himax more than one lever to pull.

#himax #wiseeye #waferlock #lock

A hamstring injury cost Makai Lemon valuable training camp reps, but the Philadelphia Eagles weren't about to let their first-round pick spend the summer standing still. This is fascinating. According to reporting from Ed Kracz of Eagles On SI and Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Philadelphia's coaching staff developed several behind-the-scenes methods to keep Lemon involved. At the same time, he recovered from the injury that sidelined him for much of training camp.
The goal was simple: make sure the rookie receiver didn't fall so far behind that his development stalled before the regular season even began.
The Eagles have consistently spoken about Lemon's work ethic and desire to improve, and the reports from Kracz and Zangaro offer a glimpse into how the organization worked to maximize his learning opportunities even when he couldn't fully participate on the field.
Zangaro reported that wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead described the process as a collaborative effort involving coaches, players, and support staff throughout the organization. Since Lemon was unable to practice, the Eagles looked for creative ways to keep him engaged. Moorehead explained that Lemon continued participating in walkthroughs, breaking the huddle and moving to his ***** ignments even when he couldn't physically run the plays.
The objective was to keep him mentally involved in the offense and maintain familiarity with his responsibilities. One of the most important parts of that process centered on quarterback Jalen Hurts.

#lemon #zangaro #moorehead #injury

By Karen Brettell
Sept 2 (Reuters) - Concerns over America's fiscal outlook are mounting. Long-dated Treasury yields are at their highest levels since 2007, while the national debt has surpassed $40 trillion.
It is not the first time Washington has faced an imposing financing challenge. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. can grow out of the debt. But history suggests ‌that when the Treasury cannot rely on the usual mix of investors, instruments and market conditions, it has also created new methods to raise funds.
Here are six financing challenges Washington tackled ‌and how it overcame them.
CREATE NEW BUYERS

#brettell #reuters

Some offers on this page are from advertisers who pay us, which may affect which products we write about, but not our recommendations. See our Advertiser Disclosure.
It is possible to use a credit card to send payments on Venmo. Before you do, however, it's important to understand the potential costs involved.
Here's what you need to know about using a credit card on Venmo and alternatives to consider.
Venmo allows users to send payments and transfer money using a variety of payment methods, including:
Bank accounts

#venmo #credit #send #using

Key Takeaways
Digital euro onboarding should take under 20 minutes, while P2P transfers must take no more than 60 seconds to encourage adoption.
Automated wallet funding and co-badged cards could remove friction and make retail payments as fast as existing card transactions.
Despite its sovereignty benefits, the digital euro risks weak demand because many consumers prefer familiar payment methods and question why they need another option.
The European Central Bank may succeed in building a secure and resilient digital euro, but its adoption could ultimately depend on something far simpler: whether people find it easier to use than their existing payment methods.

#euro #take #existing #methods

This contest was a series of moments wrapped around a wild seventh inning that saw each team score at least three runs, albeit in different methods. Prior to a 7th inning that was off the rails in the home half, the Rays looked to be mostly in control with an early 2-1 lead through five innings thanks to an RBI single by Liam Hicks and a solo home run by Jonathan Aranda:
View Link
That prodigous was just Aranda's second home run in the past 20 games and just his fourth extra base hit in his last 86 plate appearances: That held up until Ty France hit his 100th career home run sneaking an opposite field home run just over the right field cut out to give the Padres a 3-2 lead:
View Link
The Rays would come back to tie the game 3-3 on Junior Caminero's first home run in 16 games and just his third extra base hit in his last 66 plate appearances to set the stage for an eventful 7th inning:

#inning

On August 13, dLocal (NASDAQ:DLO) reported second-quarter results that were hard to poke holes in. Total payment volume hit $17.7 billion, up 92% year over year, its best pace in more than four years. Revenue climbed 56% to $399.7 million, and gross profit reached a record $127.2 million. For a company whose whole business is moving money faster and cheaper across emerging markets, this was about as strong a quarter as it gets.
Behind the headline number is a business that keeps getting stickier with the merchants it already has. Net revenue retention landed at 153%, the fifth straight quarter above 140%, and TPV retention hit 188%, meaning existing clients are adding countries, payment methods, and products rather than just processing more of the same volume. CEO Pedro Arnt called it "the highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2022."
Brazil and Argentina did the heavy lifting on profitability, with gross profit hitting records of $40 million and $20 million, powered by ride-hailing, travel and e-commerce merchants ramping up. Local-to-local transactions, where money moves within a single country rather than across borders, climbed to 61% of volume, up 6 percentage points from the first quarter, as ride-hailing and on-demand delivery merchants scaled fast.
dLocal is also pushing beyond core processing. Buy now, pay later is now live in eight markets, and the company plans to launch dMore, a merchant of record service that takes on the legal and tax headaches of entering new countries. It's also landing new categories of customers, including artificial intelligence companies and digital **** et exchanges, on top of a base that already includes four of the largest ride-hailing companies in the world.
Not every market moved in the same direction. Mexico's revenue grew 64% year over year, but sequential gross profit slipped as pricing tiers on large merchants matured and dLocal struggled to bring local processing costs down as a share of volume. CFO Guillermo Perez flagged that the company expects upward pressure on its effective tax rate starting in 2027 as countries adopt the OECD's Pillar 2 minimum tax framework, though he said it's too early to size the impact.

#dlocal #profit

India have won seven of the nine Women's Asia Cup editions played so far, across ODI and T20I formats, making them the most successful team in the history of the tournament.

Given the historic dominance of the Indian team in the tournament, former India cricketer and ex-women's team coach WV Raman believes anything less than a **** le in the upcoming 2026 Women's Asia Cup would be a "major disappointment" for Harmanpreet Kaur's team.

"Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be tough competition for India, and let's not also discount Thailand, because they've shown a lot of enthusiasm, they've shown they've got some real good talent there, and you cannot take them lightly, too. As far as the Indian team is concerned, I think anything less than a victory will be seen as a major disappointment," Raman said in an exclusive interview with TimesofIndia.com, organised by Sony Sports Network.

India lost the 2024 Women's Asia Cup final to Chamari Athapaththu's Sri Lanka by eight wickets in Dambulla, and Raman said "India can regain the Asia Cup" in Dubai.

However, the road ahead is not as smooth for India as it seems. India have been missing two of their pace-bowling all-rounders, Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam, for over five months, and just before the Asia Cup they faced another setback as Jemimah Rodrigues was also ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury.
Pratika Rawal has received her maiden India T20I call-up as Jemimah was ruled out of the tournament, and is expected to walk straight into the playing XI when India face Thailand on Sunday. However, the bigger question is where the right-handed batter fits into India's batting order.

"Pratika Rawal has done extremely well in Test cricket. She's done well in ODIs, but in T20s, we haven't seen much of her so far. And also the other thing that they need to work out is her slot in the batting order. So where does she bat is something they've got to try and work out," former women's team coach Raman said.

Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana will most likely not be separated as an opening pair, and Bharti Fulmali and Richa Ghosh could play the role of lower-order enforcers. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur bats at four when Jemimah plays at three in T20Is; however, Raman argued that Kaur should instead bat at three in the Asia Cup.
"I doubt if they will have Pratika Rawal at number three. I would rather imagine that Harmanpreet Kaur herself might bat at number three because she needs to spend a lot of time there at the crease, have more overs at her disposal to try and pace the innings," WV Raman said in an interview with TimesofIndia.com, adding, "Will India play Pratika at number four is something that will be a big question. As I see it, they need to obviously find ways and methods to use the 20 overs allotted to them in the most productive manner possible. So it's up to them to try and see."
Fulmali ended her seven-year exile from international cricket earlier this year when she was picked

Greenlight Capital is an investment management firm specializing in value-oriented strategies. The letter can be downloaded here. Greenlight Capital released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, reporting a 4.3% decline for the Partnerships and a 1.9% year-to-date gain, net of fees and expenses, compared with gains of 15.2% and 10.2% for the S&P 500 Index. The funds entered the quarter conservatively, but costly trading decisions and macro positions, particularly in gold and U.S. interest rates, weighed on results. Long positions contributed roughly 9%, offset by similar losses from shorts. The letter also highlighted concerns over speculative market conditions, using **** eX's $1.75 trillion IPO valuation and investment-grade rating as examples of excess. Looking ahead, Greenlight is more constructive on Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh's inflation stance and expects positions to recover if inflation moderates and rates remain unchanged. Additionally, reviewing the Strategy's top holdings could help identify its best ideas for 2026.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Greenlight Capital highlighted PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL). PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL). PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a leading technology platform that provides digital payment solutions for merchants and consumers. On August 26, 2026, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) closed at $61.68 per share. Over the past month, Primo Brands Corporation (NYSE:PRMB) returned 6.92%, while its shares have declined 12.02% in the last 52 weeks. Primo Brands Corporation (NYSE:PRMB) has a market capitalization of $52.88 billion, and its stock has traded within a 52-week range of $38.46 to $79.22.
Greenlight Capital stated the following regarding PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a consumer-facing payments platform with over 400 million active customers around the world. PYPL has long been viewed as being on the wrong side of the shift toward newer payment methods like Apple Pay, Shop Pay and Buy-Now-Pay-Later. After disappointing fourth-quarter results and a CEO transition, the stock sold off, creating an opportunity for us to acquire our position at an average price of $43.53. We believe PYPL's collection of payment **** ets is worth substantially more than the 8x earnings we paid. PYPL ended the quarter at $43.18. Subsequent to quarter-end, Stripe and Advent International reportedly made a joint offer to buy PYPL for $60.50 per share."

#pypl #NASDAQ #positions

Miss USA 2026 is back on Aug. 27 in Miami and, as they prepare to take the stage, contestants are recalling their "most memorable" wardrobe malfunctions
Some women list experiences with ripped dresses, mismatched earrings and makeup stains among the wardrobe malfunctions they've had
Many tell PEOPLE that avoiding a wardrobe malfunction isn't entirely possible, but they emphasize the value of preparation, backup outfits and quick thinking to overcome them when they strike
Despite the countless hours of rehearsals and practice that go into a pageant, there is no amount of preparation that can stop a wardrobe malfunction from happening when you least expect it.

Luckily for the contestants gearing up to walk the stage in the 2026 Miss USA competition in Miami, Fla., on Aug. 27, years of experience in the pageant world and other competitive arenas (dance, livestock competitions and more) have caused them to develop creative solutions to even the most devastating wardrobe malfunctions on the fly.

Some contestants recall the usual, dreaded dress rip or getting a stain on their garments just before walking on stage, while others open up about the wildest malfunctions that prompted them to start incorporating new preventative methods into their pre-pageant rituals.

Other contestants have been lucky to avoid malfunctions throughout their pageant career, but have experienced moments in other parts of their lives or witnessed their fellow pageant contestants step on stage in outfits held together by safety pins and string.

Read on to hear some of the contestants' tellings PEOPLE about their worst malfunctions, and what they learned along the way.
Vivica Lewandowski on Feb. 10, 2024 in New York City.
Credit: Chance Yeh/Getty

#malfunctions #stage

TimesofIndia.com in Galle: The match was over. The formalities were completed, and both teams had already left the stadium. The broadcast crew was busy packing up for the next game, but the work was only getting started for Manjula and the 130 groundstaff at the Galle International Cricket Stadium. It rained immediately after the two teams completed their handshakes, but unlike the preceding week, there was no urgency to cover the square or the ground. Overseeing operations, Manjula stood on top of the advertising board and kept a close eye as the covers were neatly folded and parked after a week of intense activity.

Since India and Sri Lanka arrived in the coastal city for the series opener, rain has appeared frequently enough to keep Manjula and his team on their toes. Not all of them are employees of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). Only 16 are permanent staff in Galle, while 10 came from Hambantota to help with the international fixture. The remaining staff were hired as daily workers.

"We have 16 permanent employees and 10 come from Hambantota whenever an international match comes to Galle. For the rest, we hire daily workers for the duration of the match and practice sessions, and they are paid between 2,500 LKR and 4,000 LKR per day for the work," says Manjula.
From anticipation to execution, the groundstaff stuck to their methods and ensured there was no chaos, even during a heavy downpour. The average time they take to cover the entire ground is less than five minutes, and they work quickly depending on the situation. They look for cues, observe the cloud behaviour and are always staring towards the Indian Ocean near the Galle Fort.

"We keep our eyes there," he says, pointing towards the ocean near the fort. "When clouds start building up, we know it's coming. Then we are ready and wait for the official signal to start covering the pitch, square, run-up and then the entire ground. That's the order we follow."

"The reaction time is very important," he adds.
When the groundstaff run from all directions, dragging the covers, the synchronised effort is a sight. The first batch, covering the pitch and square, times their runs so there is no overlapping, and speed cannot be compromised because the run-up and the remainder of the field must be covered next. These are anything but light covers, and a 100x100 piece can weigh over 650 kg. Add to this the challenges of wind and rain.

"These are not light," Manjula says with a laugh. "They are well over 650 kg each for a 100x100 piece, and there are about 28 pieces we have to cover the entire ground and ensure no damage is done to the outfield."
While the covers are heavy enough to stay grounded on their own, heavy crosswinds present a challenge, and the next step is to carefully place heavy rubber tyres to keep the covers in place. More than 300 tyres are ready to be rolled onto the ground the moment rain arrives.

"We keep these tyres over the covers because, as you have seen, it does

The Boston Celtics have built their teams in a number of ways over the decades, but few if any methods have born more fruit than through the NBA draft. The best players to suit up for the Celtics have, by and large, come to Boston either through being taken directly in the annual event, or via trades made that night.
And it is not just the top stars who have been picked up by the Celtics via the draft. Countless members of the storied ball club's alumni have been taken by the team via that annual event, and some schools are better represented than others. We can see blue blood programs and some very small schools both delivering top talent to Boston's rosters over the years, so we decided to take a look at which players came from which schools overall.
So without further ado, let's take a look at every player who has been drafted by the Celtics out of Tennessee.
Draft year and position: 3rd round, 1948 BAA Draft
Seasons at Tennessee: 1

#draft #players

Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick requested for six members of the current first-team setup in Catalunya's capital to train separately from the rest of his players on Tuesday.
That's according to Mundo Deportivo, who have provided an insight into the latest developments behind the scenes at the Ciutat Esportiva.
Barcelona are of course currently in the thick of pre-season preparations with a view to the fast-approaching 2026/27 campaign. Training drills and methods have therefore been ramped up a notch over recent days, as players inch towards full match fitness.
This step up gave rise to its first casualty on Monday, however, as Roony Bardghji was forced out of training with what was later revealed to be a torn ACL in his right knee.
In turn, it should not come as a major surprise to hear of cautionary measures since being taken by Hansi Flick and his staff. As per a report from MD, all of Marc Casadó, Héctor Fort, Jofre Torrents, Tommy Marqués, Toni Fernández, and Guille Fernández were put through their paces in training away from their teammates earlier today.

#training

From scheme to personnel to culture, everything's different on defense for the Dallas Cowboys this year. A good thing, too, since last season marked a historically poor effort. In 2025, the Cowboys finished last in points allowed, 30th in yards allowed, and last in EPA/play allowed. They missed tackles, blew ******* ignments, and freelanced their way to complete and total ineptitude. Hence, the widespread changes.
Christian Parker, Dallas' new defensive coordinator, has been making headlines for all the right reasons since taking the helm. He's updated the scheme, added disguise, and emphasized intelligence and communication. As the Athletic's Jon Machota reported, he's becoming a disruptive force.
Machota reports Parker has his unit yelling at gametime volumes in practice and throughout meetings. Parker is taking the expression "practice how you play" to the next level in training camp and it's not only being noticed by the defense, but it's disrupting the offense as well. "It's loud in a good way," Brian Schottenheimer said of the method.
The 2025 Dallas defense had struggles across the board but one of those struggles was turning it on at game time. They struggled with communication and they never seemed to be on the same page. To make matters worse, effort and tenacity varied game to game and play to play, so it was anyone's guess what was going to happen at any given moment. Parker's methods are looking to fix those problems.
"We want the meeting room to sound the same as it does on the field," Parker said of his garish coaching methods. "Your brain doesn't know when you're not taking a physical rep. It just knows that your brain is strained."

#defense #last

Every year, fantasy football running back rankings and tiers start to look the same across the industry. The top of my board is no different. Look, I try to give my freshest NFL takes, but we're all privy to the same information! You should seek out opinions that are pivots from the norm. Meaning, not every prediction must be bold, not every take has to be hot.
On draft day, you separate yourself from the average league taco by how you approach in the middle to late rounds, where having a player ranked one or two spots different can decide how a roster takes shape.
These eight players are the clearest points where my RB rankings and tiers deviate from the expert consensus. Plus, I explain the methods to my madness by explaining my reasoning for each.
2026 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyProsECR ™ – Expert Consensus Rankings
ADP – Average Draft Position
Miami Dolphins running back De'Von Achane (28) is significantly higher in my running back rankings ahead of the 2026 fantasy football season.

#rankings #look #draft

"I ***** love Foucault. I ***** with Foucault hard," enthused Supriya Ganesh, star of The Pitt, in a recent interview with New York magazine. Ganesh, who uses she/they ***** ouns, never felt comfortable with rigid gender and ***** uality labels, and Foucault's The History of ***** uality, Volume I showed her how these categories have in fact varied across cultures and through history: "I think this idea of defining ***** uality is very new—or at least that's the argument he's making … it really illuminated a lot of that for me."
Ganesh was unwittingly providing fresh evidence for the central argument of The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory, which proposes that a small group of dead twentieth-century intellectuals are "crucial for understanding the world we inhabit today." Written by Emily Eakin, a senior editor at The New York Times Book Review, The Frenchmen focuses on eight French or French-speaking theorists (Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Félix Guattari, Jacques Lacan, and Paul de Man) who, she argues, "permanently alter[ed] how we think not only about bedrock philosophical ideas but about the role of language in shaping those beliefs and everything else."
Eakin's Frenchmen are an eclectic group, differing in interests, politics, and methods. Two were practicing psychoanalysts. Most were academics, working in fields including philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, history, and comparative literature. They wrote on topics as varied as schizophrenia, prison architecture, photography, Edgar Allan Poe, and (in Barthes's case) their mom. What unites them, according to Eakin, is their emphasis on systems, as opposed to individuals, and their attention to the complex and contradictory ways that language operates. Instead of taking for granted (as the existentialists did) that people are autonomous free agents defined by their choices, they wrote about the ways people and texts are created and constrained by powerful yet unstable structures of knowledge and language—an idea that resonates in our era of inescapable algorithms and artificial intelligence. ("Chatbots frighten us," Eakin writes, "to the degree that they make literal theory's suggestion that thought does not require a human thinker.")
"Deconstruction," an ***** ytical method developed by Derrida, came to define French theory and is at the heart of Eakin's book. She defines it as "a style of reading" that "took apart" a text and left it in pieces, showing how it was undone by its own internal contradictions. A common deconstructive move is to show how the binary terms that a text's argument depends on—for example, speech versus writing—are not actually opposed after all. In classic Derridean fashion, Eakin structures her book around an oft-repeated binary between "theory" and "real life" that she sees as ripe for deconstructing, contrasting the Frenchmen's "stringent antihumanism" with their all-too-human lives; academic t

Manchester City face K-League All Stars in Seoul in their second pre-season fixture just days after a penalty shootout loss to Inter in Hong Kong.
Enzo Maresca's side drew 1-1 with the Italian champions before losing out 3-1 on penalties in what was nonetheless an encouraging opening display, with the manager insisting his side "will get better and better" as the squad continues to bed into his methods ahead of the new season.
One notable absentee from the City squad for Wednesday's game is Ryan McAidoo, who picked up a minor shoulder problem in Hong Kong and has been ruled out of this fixture, despite his five-star cameo against Inter prompting a clear message from Maresca to director of football Hugo Viana about the teenager's future at the club.
K-League All Stars vs Manchester City (Pre-Season Friendly): Match Preview, Team News, Stats, Head to Head, How to Watch
The K-League All Stars fixture gives Maresca a further opportunity to ****** s the fringe members of his touring squad in competitive conditions, with several players whose futures at the Etihad Stadium remain unresolved still making their cases for involvement in the new season.

#season #city #manchester #kong

The fact that Aaron Rodgers's scorched-earth attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci and ESPN, while appearing on ESPN, has prompted a comment from the team and a question to the head coach makes it, necessarily, a distraction.
Still, coach Mike McCarthy's goal will be to keep any of it from interfering with the task at hand.
"You know, these are grown men," McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday. "They all have different opinions. There's no question about that. But at the end of the day, my job is to keep it about football, keep the focus on winning. That's why we're here. We have a good locker room. We have a player council that's in place and we had our second meeting yesterday, and so I think we're in a good spot."
It remains to be seen whether Rodgers's rollicking Monday appearance with Pat McAfee was a one-time thing, or whether Rodgers will revert to his pre-2025 habit of showing up on the show every week — and saying whatever he wants.
It also remains to be seen whether, if/when the Steelers encounter adversity, McCarthy's methods will become a direct or indirect subject of Rodgers's current approach (as he said on Monday) of no longer giving a **** .

#espn #we 're

Bernardo Silva has officially begun life as a Real Madrid player.
After completing his move from Manchester City earlier this summer, the Portuguese international took part in his first training session under José Mourinho on Monday before sitting down with Real Madrid TV to reflect on joining the Spanish giants, his excitement about working with Mourinho, and the opportunity to represent the club he considers the biggest in world football.
Silva admitted that wearing the Real Madrid crest is something special, describing his arrival as a dream come true.
"It's very special, and I'm very happy to be here. There's no need to talk about this club because its history speaks for itself. I'm very happy to start and try to help this team keep winning, which is what they know how to do: win, win, and win. I'm just one more person here to help and try to continue this winning streak for this spectacular club."
The 31-year-old reported for preseason after an extended break following Portugal's World Cup campaign and immediately experienced Mourinho's demanding training methods.

#real #madrid #silva #here

With high school soccer season just a couple of weeks away, here is the Enquirer's final list of position previews in boys soccer.
We have saved the top forwards and goalscorers for last. Here is our look at the top players in the city at finding the back of the net.
Make sure to vote in the poll at the bottom of the story. The poll will close at 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7. The USA Today Co. network is debuting a new polling service that allows readers to vote more often while protecting against fraudulent voting methods. User experience feedback can be sent to mlaughmanenquirer.com.
More: Kicking off 2026 Enquirer fall football coverage with previews
The senior is the top returning scorer in Cincinnati, posting 30 goals and nine ***** ists to lead the Hurricane to a 14-1-3 record. He enters his senior season with 62 career goals.

#Soccer #senior