Investments and Business

NBA Pre-Postseason Player Tiers 1 and 2: Wembanyama quickly rising; Giannis, Jokić steady at top

NBA Pre-Postseason Player Tiers 1 and 2: Wembanyama quickly rising; Giannis, Jokić steady at top

Associated media - Linked media Yesterday, I largely focused on setting the table for the updated NBA Pre-Postseason Players Tiers before revealing Tier 3 (players between the 24th and 42nd spot) and Tier 4 (Nos. 43-80). Today, I’m going to get a little more into some of the more interesting and/or challenging placements, as well as note a few overall trends. For starters, a consistent bit of feedback — and one I’ve gotten from multiple sources since the release of Tiers 3 and 4 — is the always difficult evaluation of which player is more valuable between an elite role…
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Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Is Said to Be Negotiating a Guilty Plea

Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Is Said to Be Negotiating a Guilty Plea

Linked media - Linked media A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Ohtani, referred to the player’s detailed explanation he gave to the media two weeks ago, when Ohtani said Mizuhara had stolen from him and he promised to cooperate fully with the federal and Major League Baseball investigations. “I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do that on my behalf,” Ohtani said. “And I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple days ago, I didn’t know…
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U.S. Soccer took a gamble waiting for Emma Hayes, leaving USWNT’s style of play in limbo

U.S. Soccer took a gamble waiting for Emma Hayes, leaving USWNT’s style of play in limbo

Related media - Related media In November, U.S. Soccer gambled that it was worth sacrificing a year of continuous preparation under a permanent manager to hire Emma Hayes. For eight months following the 2023 World Cup, interim management has overseen the U.S. women’s national team. To her credit, Twila Kilgore’s tenure as placeholder helped turn over the player pool and saw her team win a pair of tune-up competitions this spring. Still, it’s been a lost year for the program at a time when it was in sore need of a clear new vision. Hayes’ first games as USWNT manager…
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Richard Leibner, Agent for Top Broadcast Journalists, Dies at 85

Richard Leibner, Agent for Top Broadcast Journalists, Dies at 85

Linked media - Related media A trained accountant, Mr. Leibner was described in a 1989 profile by Ben Yagoda in The New York Times Magazine as an idiosyncratic character with a “remarkable emotional range.” “He can be plaintive, cajoling, jocular, terse, profane, sentimental, jovial, respectful, dismissive, analytical or expansive: The one constant is the strain of his native Brooklyn in his voice,” Mr. Yagoda wrote. He was also known for telling incredibly dirty jokes. Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News, said in a phone interview: “It would have been easy to dismiss him as a Damon Runyonesque showman,…
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The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger, More Determined

The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger, More Determined

Associated media - Related media Still, with Hungary finally voting for Sweden’s accession to NATO, at last the pieces are falling into place for a sharply enhanced NATO deterrent in the Baltic and North Seas, with greater protection for the frontline states of Finland, Norway and the Baltic nations, which border Russia. Once Hungary hands in a letter certifying parliamentary approval to the U.S. State Department, Sweden will become the 32nd member of NATO, and all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, with the exception of Russia, will be part of the alliance. “Sweden brings predictability, removing any uncertainty about…
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Ryan Giggs and football: A very complicated relationship

Ryan Giggs and football: A very complicated relationship

Linked media - Related media The celebration was almost as glorious as the goal itself. The fuzz of chest hair, the twirling shirt, the body swerve to evade the Manchester United fans who had run on the pitch in their euphoria. On Sunday, it is 25 years since Patrick Vieira, a genuine great of Arsenal’s midfield, played a wayward pass amid the high drama of an FA Cup semi-final between the leading two English sides of the time. Ryan Giggs took the ball and then he was off and running, picking up speed from inside his own half, slaloming past…
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Roberto Cavalli, Designer Who Celebrated Excess, Dies at 83

Roberto Cavalli, Designer Who Celebrated Excess, Dies at 83

Associated media - Related media Roberto Cavalli, the Italian-born fashion designer who celebrated glamour and excess, sending models down the runway and actresses onto red carpets wearing leopard-print dresses, bejeweled distressed jeans, satin corsets and other unapologetically flashy clothes, has died. He was 83. His company announced the death on Instagram but provided no details. Mr. Cavalli’s signature style — “molto sexy, molto animal print and molto, molto Italiano,” as the British newspaper The Independent once described it — remained essentially unchanged throughout his long career. But he skillfully reinvented his clothes for different eras, enjoying several renaissances and building…
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How a Little Understood U.N. Court Became the Center of the Israel-Gaza Debate

How a Little Understood U.N. Court Became the Center of the Israel-Gaza Debate

Linked media - Connected media Israel denied the allegations, arguing that statements by Israeli government and military officials were taken out of context, and that its military has taken steps to preserve civilian lives. After the hearings, the Israeli government declassified a set of 30 secret orders which it said showed the effort to minimize casualties. . Just under a month after the case was filed, the court issued a series of “provisional measures,” similar to a temporary injunction, ordering Israel to refrain from genocidal acts, to prevent and punish incitement and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The court,…
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Pat Zachry, Pitcher Known for a Lopsided Trade, Dies at 71

Pat Zachry, Pitcher Known for a Lopsided Trade, Dies at 71

Linked media - Connected media Pat Zachry, who was a co-winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1976, but who is probably best known for being one of the players traded to the New York Mets a year later for Tom Seaver, died on Thursday at the home of his son, Josh, in Austin, Texas. He was 71. Jay Horwitz, a spokesman for the Mets, announced the death. He did not specify the cause, saying only that Zachry died after a long illness. Zachry, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, began his career with the Reds in 1976 and…
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Audemars Piguet’s New C.E.O. Wasn’t an Obvious Choice

Audemars Piguet’s New C.E.O. Wasn’t an Obvious Choice

Connected media - Connected media Innovation — especially in the form of ambitious building projects — has been a running theme at the brand for the past few years. In 2020 in Le Brassus, it opened a museum, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, designed by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. A year later, it completed a manufacturing site in Le Locle, another village about a 90-minute drive northeast of Le Brassus. A former Renaud & Papi workshop, the Manufacture des Saignoles now specializes in the brand’s most complicated timepieces. In 2022, the brand opened a luxury hotel, Hôtel des Horlogers,…
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