Daily Archives: September 15, 2022

Peloton (PTON): The company announced co-founders John Foley and Hisao Kushi are leaving the company as part of a wider executive shakeup, sending shares lower in after-hours trading. Former CEO John Foley stepped down as executive chairman of the board while Hisao Kushi resigned as Chief Legal Officer, effective Monday. In a note to employees, CEO and President Barry McCarthy thanked Foley and Kushi, writing There wouldnt be a Peloton without John Foley or Hisao Kushi Through their hard work, they have given the world the connected fitness industry and created a platform that empowers each of us to be the best version of ourselves. Peloton, once a pandemic winner, is near all-time lows, with shares down -69% year to date.

Oracle (ORCL): Shares fell after the companys fiscal first-quarter profit fell short of Wall Streets estimates. Oracle posted adjusted earnings of $1.03 per share on revenue of $11.45 billion, driven by Oracle's growing applications and infrastructure cloud businesses. Cloud revenue totaled $3.6 billion, up 45% year-over-year. Futurum Researchs Daniel Newman told Yahoo Finance that its a cloud story and Oracle is a little ahead of some of the major infrastructure players including Amazons AWS and Microsofts Azure this quarter.

Rent the Runway (RENT): Shares sank 20% after the company lowered its full-year guidance and announced plans to cut 24% of its corporate workforce amid potentially rougher macro conditions. Rent the Runway sees full-year revenue of $285 million to $290 million from its earlier forecast of $295 million to $305 million provided in June. Active subscribers totaled 124,131, an increase of 27% year-over-year but short of Wall Streets estimates.

Planet Labs PBC (PL): The satellite imaging company posted record second quarter revenue and raised its full year revenue guidance, sending shares high in after hours trading. Revenue grew 59% from a year ago to $48.5 million. Planet Labs sees fiscal year 2023 revenue of $182 million to $190 million, representing approximately 42% growth at the midpoint.

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Stocks on the move after hours: Peloton, Oracle, Rent the Runway and more - Yahoo Finance

For the better part of his 20 years in the NFL, the story of Brett Favre was tailor-made for a middle America that swoons over blue-collar football heroes.

We learned about his formative years in tiny Kiln, Mississippi, a town defined by the boom of the timber industry, decimated by the Great Depression, then sustained by decades of illegal moonshining ingenuity. We heard tales about Favre being raised by a pair of schoolteachers, then his serendipitous discovery as a high school football player while being coached by his dad, Irvin Favre. And of course, we heard about the football hurdles, with Favre lucking into a single scholarship offer from Southern Mississippi despite running an ill-fitting wishbone offense that rarely showcased the massive arm that would eventually deliver him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

All of this would be part of Favre's tapestry as he carved out his illustrious two-decade NFL career, which included a Super Bowl win, three straight league MVPs, countless passing records at his retirement, an iron man streak for consecutive starts that is unlikely to ever be broken, and a ceaseless high tide of gunslinger compliments from John Madden and seemingly every other football analyst who ever laid eyes on him.

He was an exciting talent at the center of an iconic Green Bay franchise, the kind of player who basked in the national media attention and made fast friends with some important journalists. All while fitting into the mold of the leagues favorite historic commodity: an easily sellable white quarterback during a cable television era that would drive NFL popularity into space.

For most of his career, this was a defining part of the Brett Favre story. Since then, a lot has changed in the world. And with it, perhaps a small part of our perspective on the type of hero worship that often conceals something unsavory behind it.

The disappointing reality for many is simple: As weve moved on from Favres career, it has been challenging to keep up with the character questions surrounding him. And never more so than this week, when expansive reporting on a welfare fraud scheme in Mississippi is making Favre look either incomprehensibly incompetent or nefariously dishonest.

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The world has changed a lot since Brett Favre retired, and it's getting harder and harder to buy into the noble, working-class image that's been tailored for him. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

If you havent followed the work by Mississippi Today, you should. The general outline of Favres alleged involvement surrounds millions of dollars in welfare funds that were improperly diverted to build a volleyball stadium at Favres alma mater, Southern Miss (where Favres daughter was also a volleyball player). According to the reporting, Favre denied ever speaking to former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant about the stadium, denied knowing where the money for the project came from, and generally denied any knowable wrongdoing whatsoever.

The problem? Texts have surfaced from Bryant that reference an alleged meeting with Favre about the project, as well as other texts featuring the former NFL quarterback allegedly asking an executive involved in the fraud scheme whether the media would ever be able to determine where the stadium project money came from or how much money was contributed.

At best, it makes Favre look like hes got some significant explaining to do. At worst, he looks like a liar who played a part in diverting millions of dollars away from the poorest Mississippians so that a volleyball stadium could be built. Somewhere in the middle of all that is a question about entitlement, politics and how the rich and influential manipulate the system to essentially steal tax dollars earmarked for some of the neediest people in America.

So which is it? We need to know, because hanging in the balance is Favres good ol Mississippi reputation, which has (until recently) always framed him as the small-town kid who made it big and never forgot his roots. The guy who still keeps his home in Americas poorest state and has statues outside his high school stadium and inside the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. A classically embraced story of an athlete who reached the highest of peaks and then returned home and invested in many of the people that he couldnt take with him.

Looking back now, it would be great to know how much of it was ever actually true. But theres also another troubling part of all this the reality that Favre has appeared to skate on a number of questionable issues over the years, while maintaining his largely undiminished iconic stature in the NFL.

Lest we forget, in the final weeks of his career, the NFL said Favre failed to fully cooperate with a league investigation into whether he sent former New York Jets employee Jenn Sterger multiple unsolicited photos of his penis while both were with the team in 2008. The NFL fined Favre $50,000 in the wake of that investigation in 2010. Sterger certainly hasnt forgotten, commenting on Favres latest issues Tuesday with a series of tweets, including: Oh.. NOWWWWW he gets in trouble for inappropriate texts.

Then there was the 2013 civil settlement over a lawsuit brought by two massage therapists in response to allegedly sexually suggestive text messages Favre sent while with the Jets in 2008. Or the questionable business dealings, one involving litigation over bankrupt digital sports media company Sqor (which was ultimately thrown out, but not until after Favre had been named as one of the defendants in a fraud lawsuit brought by an investor); and in another case, a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Rx Pro, a brand that Favre heavily endorsed that later came under scrutiny for statements made about pain-relieving creams that hadnt been approved by the FDA.

Of course, there's more beyond the legal realm. You had Favre making all types of eyebrow-raising statements, like having sustained thousands of concussions during his playing career, to telling Peyton Manning he didnt know what a nickel defense was in the NFL until he asked Ty Detmer, to revealing to Peter King that he went to rehab three times in his career for substance abuse issues.

At best, Brett Favre's alleged involvement in diverting welfare funds so a volleyball stadium could be built means hes got some significant explaining to do. At worst, he looks like a liar who played a part in taking money away from the poorest Mississippians. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

From a football perspective, it has been interesting to see how the public has absorbed those revelations and natural to wonder how it would play if someone like, say, Russell Wilson or a comparable Black quarterback ever said the same things. Never mind the other other football-related oddities that orbited Favre, like his repeated retirements or the offseasons he left the Packers wondering whether or not they would have a quarterback the following season. Or the time he gifted his friend Michael Strahan an NFL single-season sack record that basically undercut the legitimacy of what had been a coveted accomplishment. Or one of the forgotten hits, when Jay Glazer reported that Favre had given Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen intelligence on the Packers during Favres season with the Jets. Favre denied it, of course.

These are all just a few examples of the static that has seemed to follow Favre through the years. None of it feels clean, or resembles a spotless reputation or character. Time will tell whether or not the fraud investigation in Mississippi has more layers, or whether the texts that have come to light ultimately shape the historical perspective of Favre as a person.

For now, the judgements are left to the beholder. But its worth noting that at least one person who spent a great deal of time unraveling Favre seems to have come away with a concrete and unambiguous opinion. That would be Jeff Pearlman, a respected author who has written multiple New York Times bestsellers and who in 2016 penned what is considered the most significant biography about Favre: Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre.

It turns out Pearlman has some thoughts following the release of the texts messages tying Favre to the Mississippi welfare fraud investigation.

As he put it Tuesday from his Twitter account: On the day of extended Favre revelations, I wanna share something: I wrote a biography of the man that was largely glowing. Football heroics, overcoming obstacles, practical joker, etc. Yes, it included his grossness, addictions, treatment of women. But it was fairly positive. And, looking at it now, if Im being brutally honest Id advise people not to read it. Hes a bad guy. He doesnt deserve the icon treatment. He doesnt deserve acclaim. Image rehabilitation. Warm stories of grid glory. His treatment of [Jenn Sterger] was ... inexcusable.

Thats not exactly a synopsis tailor-made for middle Americas love affair with a football player. But it also might be the most truthful conclusion about this edition of hero worship gone wrong.

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Brett Favre is an example of NFL hero worship gone wrong - Yahoo Sports

If you think the stock market selloff has come to an end, Morgan Stanley has some bad news.

The S&P 500 is already down 14% year to date, but the Wall Street juggernaut believes the market has yet to hit a bottom.

Our '22/'23/'24 base case estimates are now 3%/13%/14% below consensus, respectively, a team of Morgan Stanley analysts led by Mike Wilson write in a recent note to investors. In our base case, 2023 now marks a modest earnings contraction (-3% year-over-year growth), though we do not embed an economic recession in this scenario.

While acknowledging the poor performance in equities year-to-date, we do not think the bear market is over if our earnings forecasts are correct.

The analysts expect the S&P 500 to fall to 3,400 by year-end. And if a recession hits the economy, they say the benchmark index could drop to 3,000.

Considering that the S&P 500 sits at around 4,107 right now, Morgan Stanleys projection implies a further downside of 17% to 27%.

That doesnt mean selling everything. The Wall Street firm still sees upside in quite a few companies. Heres a look at three that it finds particularly attractive.

This American pharmaceutical giant commands around $300 billion in market cap, with products marketed in 120 countries around the world.

Despite the market downturn this year, Eli Lilly is not a beaten-down stock.

In the first six months of 2022, Eli Lillys revenue grew 6% year over year. Meanwhile, the companys adjusted earnings per share improved 12% from a year ago.

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Shares are actually up roughly 16% so far in 2022, and Morgan Stanley expects the trend to continue.

On Sept. 7, analyst Terence Flynn reiterated an overweight rating on Eli Lilly while raising his price target from $395 to $412.

Considering that Eli Lilly shares trade at around $317 apiece right now, the new price target implies a potential upside of 30%.

Welltower is in the real estate business.

The company doesnt own fancy shopping malls or posh office buildings. Instead, it focuses on health care infrastructure and provides real estate capital to senior housing operators, post-acute care providers and health systems.

In Q2, Welltowers revenue grew 29.1% year over year to $1.47 billion. Its same-store net operating income rose 8.7%.

Health care is a recession-resistant sector, so health care-anchored real estate is typically in high demand.

The company also benefits from a major demographic tailwind: population aging.

Morgan Stanley analyst Ronald Kamdem notes that the population aged 75 and older is expected to grow by 4% annually through 2030, which could serve as a catalyst for Welltowers business.

Kamdem has an overweight rating on the company and a price target of $90 implying a potential upside of 15%.

Thanks to strong oil prices, energy stocks have turned out to be some of the best performers of the S&P 500 so far this year.

Exxon Mobil, for instance, is up 53% year to date and thats after a strong rally in 2021.

The oil-producing giant gushes profits and cash flow in this commodity price environment. In the first six months of 2022, Exxon earned $23.3 billion in profits, a huge increase from the $7.4 billion in the year-ago period. Free cash flow totaled $27.7 billion for the first half, compared to $13.8 billion in the same period last year.

Solid financials allow the company to return cash to investors. Exxon pays quarterly dividends of 88 cents per share, translating to an annual yield of 3.6%.

Morgan Stanley analyst Devin McDermott has an overweight rating on Exxon and recently raised his price target to $113 roughly 16% above the current levels.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

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Morgan Stanley expects the S&P 500 to plunge another 17%-27% within the next four months use these 3 top recession-resistant stocks for protection -...

The NFL is a snow-globe league and every week and every season is weird, and weird in its own way. You want to be careful with overarching fantasy themes and takeaways because were never far away from a set of unexpected results.

That said, the top wide receivers sure ran pure in Week 1, and it has to make you wonder: Will Fantasy Football 2022 be defined by big-name, glamorous pass-catchers?

Is this the year of the receiver?

Consider the top-seven scoring wideouts in the opening week:

Justin Jefferson, drafted as the WR2 in Yahoo drafts

Cooper Kupp, WR1 in Yahoo Drafts

Davante Adams, WR5 in Yahoo Drafts

JaMarr Chase, WR3 in Yahoo Drafts

Michael Pittman Jr., WR10 in Yahoo Drafts

Stefon Diggs, WR4 in Yahoo Drafts

A.J. Brown, WR13 in Yahoo Drafts

A position cant run much cleaner than that.

The receiving studs were buoyed by opportunity and targets, of course. The five most targeted receivers are all from that list Adams, Chase, Kupp, Brown and Pittman. Game results didnt matter much wins, losses and even ties were represented in this list.

Davante Adams was starting a game with a new team and new QB in Week 1 he still crushed in fantasy. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

And some of the big-name wideouts who didnt finish in the top seven still had favorable debuts:

Mike Evans scored another touchdown, his recurring drumbeat since Tom Brady got to Tampa Bay. Since the Brady acquisition, Evans has 28 spikes in 33 games.

Deebo Samuel kept a heavy rushing workload something we were unsure of entering 2022 and punched in another touchdown. And now the Niners are without Eli Mitchell, their opening-day tailback.

Tyreek Hill was heavily utilized in his Miami debut, with 12 targets leading to a strong 8-94-0 return.

The limited disappointments from name-brand receivers were mostly related to injury. Tee Higgins suffered a concussion. CeeDee Lamb lost Dak Prescott on Sunday night. Keenan Allen suffered a hamstring injury.

Maybe this discussion has you shrugging the best players, of course, should be the best players. But other positions didnt return so cleanly. The top of the running back board had all sorts of surprises Cordarrelle Patterson, Kareem Hunt, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Dontrell Hilliard and James Robinson all crashed the top eight in Week 1. Three of those guys weren't even projected starters, for crying out loud, and CEH was passively drafted after a mediocre summer.

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The quarterback board had plenty of stars, but Carson Wentz, Jameis Winston, Ryan Tannehill and Marcus Mariota all crashed the QB1 cutoff.

Tight end? Forget it. Travis Kelce was an easy call for No. 1, but then were looking at O.J. Howard, Taysom Hill, Gerald Everett, Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson. Several of the top-12 projected tight ends did very little.

One of the reasons I prioritized wide receivers in my early rounds (the goal was one anchor running back along with several name-brand receivers) is because big-name wideouts start themselves every week. I dont want to play guessing games, trying to figure out what WR53-ranked option could turn in a WR19-type of return. And although the Week 1 scoresheet cant be seen as a recurring answer key, it makes me think Big Receiver was the way to go this year.

Running back and wide receiver are generally accepted as the two most important fantasy positions, but true talent level seems to matter less at the running back position. If you can move into an expanded role at RB, the fantasy points generally follow.

Consider: Jeff Wilson Jr. is expected to be the San Francisco RB starter in Week 2. Hes had a respectable but unspectacular career to this point. Although the overall San Francisco backfield is nebulous, Wilson is nonetheless projected to be RB21 in half-point PPR leagues this week, per Yahoo's outsourced stat projections. (In many other instances, a RB promotion will catapult the new starter into a lofty position, must-start fantasy territory. Think of how we'd view Alexander Mattison or Hunt if their backfield teammates weren't available.)

Compare this to wide receiver, where Joshua Palmer and Tyler Boyd are looking at possible role expansions after Allen and Higgins got hurt last week. I liked both players as upside stashes before the year, and their value has increased due to circumstances. But the fresh projections arent gigantic the stat projections merely call Palmer the WR35, while Boyd is the WR49. Neither is an automatic start, while a player like Wilson likely will be.

Maybe you landed some wide receiver help on the waiver wire. Curtis Samuel had a snappy debut for Washington, and Robbie Anderson played full snaps in Carolina, catching a long touchdown. Both are welcome on my rosters, but initial expectations are modest. Samuel projects to WR40 this week, Anderson to WR54. (Ill likely rank both of them higher, and theres a Man vs. Machine debate to be had at a different time. To play fantasy football well, I think you need a blend of stat crunching, game observation and common sense. But even the rosiest optimist in the room would probably hold off on calling Samuel or Anderson locked-in fantasy WR2s right now. Theyre still just consideration plays, not slam dunks.)

Every NFL season has a floating butterfly nature to it the moment we cast our net and think we have it captured, things are likely to dip and bob and weave somewhere else. In a weeks time, the takeaways could easily have a different shade to them. And any fantasy championship season is probably going to require a tidy and productive running back room, no matter how you allocated your assets towards that position.

That said, I feel confident (a dangerous word for any fantasy analyst to use) that WR-heavy builds were a good idea entering this season. If you have a late-running draft to come, Id consider the same motif. And perhaps you can still shape your assembled roster towards a WR-heavy approach, through trades and roster manipulation.

Because the alpha receivers might be taking over in 2022.

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Fantasy Football: Will 2022 be the Year of the Receiver? - Yahoo Sports

If you're still trying to make sense of the NFL's opening week, we have a six-pack of stats that will hopefully help fantasy managers out there. Let's begin by acknowledging an astonishing comeback...

260: That's how many days passed from the moment James Robinson tore his Achilles last season to when he returned to action in opening week against Washington. Amazing. It's one of the most remarkable recovery timelines in recent memory, given the severity of the injury. Robinson was phenomenal against the Commanders, gaining 69 total yards on a dozen touches, scoring a pair of touchdowns and playing 49 percent of the offensive snaps. He gained 4.2 yards after contact per attempt according to PFF. Here's a sample of his work:

Robinson looked exactly like the pre-injury version of himself, the guy who'd averaged 5.0 yards per touch in his first two seasons. Whatever surgeons are doing with tendons these days, it's incredible. Sterling Shepard made it back from an Achilles tear on a timeline similar to Robinson's and he also made a house call in the opener.

123: Saquon Barkley rushed for 123 yards after first contact on his 18 carries against the Titans, the highest opening week total for any back in the league. He picked up only 435 yards after contact all of last season in 162 attempts. We should also note that Tennessee's defense ranked second against the run last year, so it's not as if Barkley was simply feasting on a friendly matchup. It would appear that Saquon is, in fact, back.

Saquon Barkley looks like he's back to being a fantasy star as long as he can stay healthy. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)

39: Chase Claypool lined up in the slot 39 times on Sunday, claiming a role in Pittsburgh's offense that previously belonged to JuJu Smith-Schuster. He caught four balls for 18 yards on six targets, plus he did Deebo-ish things, carrying six times for 36 yards. So that was fun. It didn't add up to much for fantasy purposes, but his usage makes him a very interesting chess piece moving forward. Claypool is a clear trade target exiting Week 1.

13.9: This was Jarvis Landry's average air-yards per target on Sunday according to NFL Next Gen Stats and, as you can probably guess, it's a big number by his career standards. Jameis Winston has been a high-aDOT quarterback his entire career, so it should be no great surprise to see his primary receivers targeted deep downfield. Landry was excellent in the opener, absolutely instrumental in the team's fourth quarter comeback.

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We can start him with confidence in any sort of PPR format. If Landry remains healthy, he's going to top 1,000 yards for the first time since 2019.

12: Marcus Mariota ran the ball 12 times against the Saints on Sunday, a new career high, gaining 72 yards on the ground and scoring a touchdown. The fumbling was unfortunate and he passed for just 215 scoreless yards, but let's not pretend he was facing a pushover defense. If Mariota is going to run at this rate (or anything close to it) this season, then he's going to be exceedingly streamable. There are plenty of friendly matchups ahead on Atlanta's schedule and eventually Mariota is going to find Drake London and Kyle Pitts in the end zone.

[Week 2 Fantasy Rankings: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | FLEX | DST | Kickers]

5.1: Jalen Hurts finished with an average depth of target of just 5.1 in Sunday's win, among the lowest in the league in opening week. He was near the top of the leaderboard last year at 9.5 (and 10.1 the season before). All the short-range attempts didn't do much for his completion percentage as he connected on just 18 of 32 throws. In fact, Hurts was 10-for-13 when targeting A.J. Brown and 8-for-19 targeting anyone else. He attempted only one throw of 20-plus yards, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Last year, Hurts completed deep balls at a rate of only 38.1 percent, producing four TDs and five interceptions.

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Fantasy Football Week 2 Six-Pack: James Robinson was the steal of your draft - Yahoo Sports

In some of the darkest days of the Cold War, the U.S. intelligence community was alarmed by a startling discovery: the Soviet Union was bombarding the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with microwaves, in what some officials feared was an attempt to harm American diplomats and possibly, even mess with their minds.

The discovery in the 1950s led to years of highly classified research by the Pentagon to assess the impact on the body and mind of what the Russians were doing. Were the Russians implanting sounds or even words into the heads of American diplomats in an effort to disrupt their work and damage their health?

The questions ultimately triggered a supersecret brain weapons arms race, says journalist Sharon Weinberger in todays episode of the "Conspiracyland" podcast entitled The Mystery of the Moscow Signal. (It is the second of three episodes in the "Conspiracyland" series The Strange Story of Havana Syndrome.)

So one of the working theories was that [the Soviets] knew something we didn't know, said Weinberger, the author of a book, The Imagineers of War, that dug into the issue. That they had uncovered some secret of weaponizing microwaves. And so we had to catch up with them, and we had to have our brain weapons.

The Cold War concerns about the impact of microwave bombardment on American diplomats is newly relevant to one of the most perplexing issues that has confronted U.S. officials in recent years: the epidemic of strange health ailments, ranging from vertigo and dizziness to, in some cases, brain injuries, reported by U.S. diplomats and spies. It is a phenomenon known as Havana syndrome.

In the early 1950s, U.S. officials discovered a microwave-generated bug concealed inside this Great Seal of the United States given as a gift to the U.S. ambassador in Moscow. (Photo combination: Yahoo News; photos: Mark Seman/Yahoo News)

When the reports of health ailments first surfaced in 2017, and later spread to U.S. officials serving all over the world, some in the U.S. intelligence community and many in the media concluded that the "Havana syndrome" symptoms were the direct result of secret Russian microwave attacks comparable to what diplomats in Moscow had experienced decades earlier.

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But as "Conspiracyland" shows, that theory only goes so far: Pentagon researchers were never able to establish a connection between microwave exposure and injuries to the body and brain, undercutting the entire U.S. interest in developing a brain weapon.

This finding is buttressed by newly declassified documents released just this week about Project Pandora a top-secret project in which Pentagon researchers in the 1960s bombarded rhesus monkeys with waves of microwaves in an effort to test whether this had any impact on their ability to perform basic tasks on a computer, in exchange for receiving banana pellets. The documents were obtained by the nonprofit National Security Archive. (Peter Kornbluh, a senior researcher at the National Security Archive, appears in a special bonus episode of "Conspiracyland," which will be released today, called Henry Kissingers Radiation Treatment.)

As the documents show, the researchers couldnt find evidence that the monkeys were in any way disrupted or harmed by the microwave bombardment, undermining the idea that U.S. diplomats were being injured at the embassy in Moscow. I feel confident in stating that persons exposed are at no risk of injury, a CIA analyst wrote in a September 1967 memo about the monkey experiments.

U.S. Embassy in Moscow from circa 1964. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

"Conspiracyland" also includes an interview with James McIlwain, a neuroscientist who had reviewed the Project Pandora monkey tests for the Pentagon and similarly concluded theres no convincing evidence of the effect of a special signal [of microwaves] on the performance of monkeys.

Still, the conviction that microwave bombardments were affecting the health of U.S. diplomats persisted for years and reached a crescendo in the 1970s, when Walter Stoessel, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, demanded that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger confront the Soviets over the issue. Stoessel had been diagnosed with leukemia while serving as ambassador, and believed his condition could have stemmed from the Soviets microwave-beam bombardment.

Documents obtained by the National Security Archive include transcripts of sometimes testy, sometimes humorous conversations that Kissinger had with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin over the issue.

"I wanna talk to you about the signal, Kissinger said during one conversation on Dec. 9, 1975. "What signal?" replied Dobrynin, feigning ignorance of what Kissinger was talking about.

"That beam you are beaming into our embassy in Moscow," Kissinger says. He urged the Soviets to turn it off at least until he arrived in Moscow during an upcoming trip at which point you can turn it on again and give me a radiation treatment.

Then you would be radioactive, joked Dobrynin.

But for all the humorous asides, Kissinger made clear this was a serious issue: The State Department was under pressure to call out the Russians publicly and pressure them to stop the microwave bombardments. Look, we're really sitting on it here, but too many people know about it, Kissinger told Dobrynin. We will catch hell unless we say something is happening."

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, left, chats with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Dec. 5, 1974, as they awaited the arrival of West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. (AP Photo)

The Soviets never 'fessed up to bombarding the embassy with microwaves, although eventually they turned it off in the 1970s under U.S. pressure. The prevailing theory today is they were using the microwaves to activate secret listening devices they had installed to eavesdrop on the conversations of U.S. diplomats.

But the Pentagons interest in developing its own microwave weapon didnt go away. As Weinberger explains in "Conspiracyland," after the Sept. 11 attacks, researchers stepped up their efforts to develop a microwave weapon that could even implant sounds and words into the heads of terrorist targets. It came to be called a voice of God weapon.

So at some point, over the years, the idea was forwarded that if you could create the sensation of sending words into people's heads, you could make them think they're crazy, that their mind is going crazy, she said. You could make them think that God is talking to them and tell them to lay down your weapons.

That, she said, would be the ultimate gaslighting. But like much else in the realm of microwave weapons research including those monkey experiments, so far as anybody knows the exotic theories never panned out.

Subscribe to 'Conspiracyland' on Apple Podcasts

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Mark Seman/Yahoo News; Bettmann Archive via Getty Images, Getty Images

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How a Soviet plot to beam the U.S. Embassy with microwaves led to a 'brain weapons arms race' - Yahoo News

The legendary career of Roger Federer is coming to an end.

The Swiss tennis player announced on Thursday he will retire from the ATP Tour following the Laver Cup in London next week. He won 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles during his illustrious 24-year career, including a record eight Wimbledon titles, six Australian Open titles and five US Open titles.

"This is a bittersweet decision," Federer said, "because I will miss everything the tour has given me. But at the same time, there is so much to celebrate. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on Earth. I was given a special talent to play tennis, and I did it at a level that I never imagined, for much longer than I ever thought possible.

As Federer noted in his retirement address, the 41-year-old has struggled with knee injuries over the past three years and advanced past the fourth round in a Grand Slam only twice during that span. He dropped out of the top-50 world rankings this past June for the first time since 2000 and dropped completely out of the ATP singles rankings for the first time since his 1997 debut this past July.

But in his prime, Federer was the best tennis player on the planet.

He ranked No. 1 in ATP for 237 consecutive weeks from Feb. 2, 2004, until Aug. 17, 2008 the longest streak in history and was the oldest player ranked No. 1 at the age of 36 on June 24, 2018.

Federer has won 82 percent of his 1,526 career singles matches and his 103 career titles rank second-most all-time in the Open Era. His 20 Grand Slam singles titles trail only Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who own 21 and 22 titles, respectively.

"When my love of tennis started, I was a ball kid in my hometown of Basel," Federer said. "I used to watch the players with a sense of wonder. They were like giants to me and I began to dream. My dreams led me to work harder and I started to believe in myself. Some success brought me confidence and I was on my way to the most amazing journey that has led to this day.

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"So, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, to everyone around the world who has helped make the dreams of a young Swiss ball kid come true.

"Finally, to the game of tennis: I love you and will never leave you."

Roger Federer will retire from the ATP Tour after one final tournament next week. (Photo by Shi Tang/Getty Images)

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Roger Federer to retire from tennis after the Laver Cup next week - Yahoo Sports

After a hotter-than-expected inflation reading spooked investors on Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average sank over 1,200 points in the stock markets worst showing since June 2020.

That same day, Stanley Druckenmiller, one of Wall Streets most respected minds, argued that the pain wont be temporaryand that stocks face an entire decade of sideways trading as the global economy goes through a tectonic shift.

Theres a high probability in my mind that the market, at best, is going to be kind of flat for 10 years, sort of like this 66 to 82 time period, he said in an interview with Alex Karp, CEO of software and A.I. firm Palantir.

Druckenmiller added that with inflation raging, central banks raising rates, deglobalization taking hold, and the war in Ukraine dragging on, he believes the odds of a global recession are now the highest in decades.

And given Druckenmillers track record, investors would be wise to heed his warnings.

The legendary investor founded his hedge fund, Duquesne Capital, in 1981, and routinely outperformed the majority of his peers on Wall Street over the coming decades, delivering an annual average return of 30% from 1986 to 2010, according to Yahoo Finance.

But Druckenmiller really made his name when he led George Soross bet against the British pound in 1992, helping the billionaire pocket a cool $1.5 billion profit in a single month.

Druckenmiller eventually shut down his hedge fund in 2010 and converted it into a family officea type of private firm established by wealthy families to manage their moneyas many hedge funders typically do when they unofficially retire. But the leading investors views are still widely followed on Wall Street.

Druckenmillers argument for why the stock market is facing a decade of flat trading is based on the idea that central banks policies are shifting around the world from a supportive to a restrictive stance.

This shift is a result of the globalization that characterized the past few decades fading amid the war in Ukraine and U.S.-China tensions. Druckenmiller points out that globalization has a deflationary effect because it increases worker productivity and speeds up technological advancement, but now thats gone.

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When I look back at the bull market that weve had in financial assets really starting in 1982all the factors that created that not only have stopped, theyve reversed, he said, referencing current de-globalization trends like the rift between the U.S. and China, along with a move toward increased government spending and more regulation since the 1980s.

Druckenmiller went on to explain how central banks responded to the disinflation caused by globalization since the 1980sand particularly after the 2008 Great Financial Crisiswith unsustainable policies that now have to be reworked.

The response after the global financial crisis to disinflation was zero rates, and a lot of money printing, quantitative easing. That created an asset bubble in everything, he said.

Central bank officials around the world are now moving away from the near-zero interest rates and quantitative easinga policy of buying mortgage-backed securities and government bonds in hopes of spurring lending and investmentthat have bolstered financial assets over the past few decades.

Theyre like reformed smokers, Druckenmiller said. Theyve gone from printing a bunch of money, like driving a Porsche at 200 miles an hour, to not only taking the foot off the gas, but just slamming the brakes on.

To his point, the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised rates four times this year to combat inflation, and its not the only central bank attempting to bring down consumer prices with tighter monetary policy. From the U.K. to Australia, central bankers around the world are shifting to a more conservative approach and raising interest rates.

While that means financial assets, including stocks, will likely underperform over the next decade in Druckenmillers view, there is some positive news.

The nice thing is, there were companies that did very, very well in that environment back then, Druckenmiller said, referencing the stock markets flat trading seen between 66 and 82. Thats when Apple Computer was founded, Home Depot was founded.

Druckenmiller also gave a caveat for investors when it comes to his pessimistic outlook, saying that this is the most difficult time in history to make economic forecasts and that he has a history of a bearish bias that he has had to work around his whole career.

I like darkness, he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller warns there is a high probability the stock market will be flat for an entire decade - Yahoo Finance

Serena Williams looked pretty good while advancing to the third round of the US Open.

She also seemed to really be enjoying herself. So is there a chance that she's actually not retired? She hinted as much on Wednesday while citing Tom Brady's "cool trend."

"I mean, you never know," Williams told "Good Morning America" on Wednesday when asked if she could be lured back to the game. "I've just been saying that I think Tom Brady started a really cool trend."

The sentiment echoed her statement on "The Tonight Show" on Tuesday, where she told host Jimmy Fallon that Brady started "an amazing trend."

In case you somehow missed Brady's "cool trend," the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback announced his retirement in February without using the word "retirement." Six weeks later, he announced that he was actually returning to football. He made his 2022 debut with the Bucs on Sunday in a 19-3 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Serena Williams didn't look like she was done with tennis during a thrilling US Open run. (Danielle Parhizkaran/Reuters)

Like Brady, Williams issued what amounted to a retirement statement in August while eschewing the word "retirement." She then got a grand farewell during a thrilling US open run that included a win over World No. 2 Anett Kontaveit. The competitive fires were clearly still burning.

So will she be back for January's Australian Open? Perhaps later? The tennis world would obviously welcome her back with open arms if so.

But she's not saying. Yet. She did make clear that she's not done with the game.

"Tennis has given me so much," Williams continued. "I feel like there's no way that I don't want to be involved in tennis somehow in the future. I don't know what that involvement is yet.

"I do know that I love the sport so much. I love the game. I love everything about it. It's been such a light in my life that I definitely want to keep something involved in it."

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Serena Williams cites Tom Brady's 'cool trend,' hints that she might not be retired: 'You never know' - Yahoo Sports

No NBA team shifted its energy more than the Boston Celtics last season, and nobody shifts their energy better than Marcus Smart, which makes the eight-year veteran a uniquely impactful player in the league.

Yet, he never gets his due. Critics clamored all of last season for a traditional starting point guard to corral Boston's offense, even though, as Smart has said, he managed to steer the Celtics further than his All-Star predecessors Isaiah Thomas, Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker ever did. Even Smart's Defensive Player of the Year award drew criticism. People say he shoots too much or gambles too much or flops too much.

For as fiery as Smart is on the court, he is as thoughtful off of it, which is why, when the opportunity arose to sit down with him for an uninterrupted discussion, I thought it was worth letting him tell his own story.

We talked about everything from Boston's loss in the NBA Finals to the addition of Malcolm Brogdon, the latest trade rumors concerning Kevin Durant, the growth of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, his relationship with late Celtics legend Bill Russell, his recent charity work with Be The Match and ... yes, his passion for robes.

Marcus Smart is the starting point guard for the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics and the NBA's reigning Defensive Player of the Year. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

"Simple. Before we come together as a team and watch film, I'm watching film and tendencies. I'm looking at my matchup of who I could possibly guard. For me, unfortunately, I'm guarding every position, so that's a lot more work for me. Some guys I'm matched up on as I'm their primary defender. I'm going to see his favorite move, his favorite go-to move and his favorite counter for that go-to move, so I'm reading the tendency of guys before we even get together as a group. By the time we even come up with a scheme, I've already got in my head, when they do put the scheme together, how things are going to work."

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"You just kind of focus on the things that you can control. That's one of the things that helps us with not falling into that trap of the expectations. Let the outside noise be outside noise, and let them talk. We're inside the house, in our home, which is the Garden and every basketball arena. Everything else is outside. It's not getting in to hurt you. Focus on what you can control, and that's playing hard for your teammates and leaving it all on the court. That allows you to stay away from those traps of the expectations.

"Because you're human. It's tough, especially nowadays. You've got social media. You've got every outlet popping up at you and showing you everything and constantly throwing it in your face, so definitely being able to just focus on what you can control and allowing that to motivate you to continue to keep going."

"Kyrie, Terry, you named some good guys. Payton, Brogdon, all those guys, man. For us, it's more making sure we build that chemistry early on. When you've got a new group of guys, it's hard to build chemistry without spending time together and just being thrown into the fire. You have to build chemistry on the go.

"We've got great guys, we've got great players and we had great guys, we had great players but the difference now is we have more experience with each other. Me and Jayson and Jaylen, we've played four or five years together now, whereas at that time it was two, along with trying to develop yourself, as well as trying to do something for the team, alongside learning from guys who have already developed. There was a lot going into it, so we have to build that chemistry before we get on the court. That's what we have to do this year. We know who we have coming. We know who we have here. We know who left. We can build that chemistry now, instead of waiting until Game 3 or Game 4, trying to build the chemistry during the season."

"We experienced it this year. Everybody's seen how tough it really is to bring a new set of people in, who's also trying to prove themselves, to a certain extent, and produce for the team. We witnessed this past season how we handled that, where we're losing to teams we shouldn't be losing to. Nothing against those teams. It's just that we shouldn't have been losing. We're losing leads to the point where everybody's freaking out. We're under .500, and I think that right there tells you how difficult it is to get chemistry going when you have a new anything. We had a new coach and a new group of players and a new system to put in on both offense and defense, so of course nothing was going to go right for us right away.

"If we didn't have everybody, then we'd have to start this whole process over again from square one. What does this person like? OK, he doesn't like this. We'd be in the same situation, where we're using games to get our experience with each other, because there's nothing you can simulate better than a game itself."

"Guys like Draymond and myself, we're the guys who are going to do the dirty work, so that other players don't have to. I think that shows our character, where we're willing to sacrifice our health, our bodies, mentally, physically, however you want to do it, to make sure that our team and teammates succeed.

"I take it as a compliment. Draymond is very well-respected, rightfully so. His accolades and his play speaks for itself. He's a champion among champions, and he's that leader on their team. Vocally, emotionally, physically, he's the one who gets guys going. He's the one who guys follow when the energy needs to be shifted. It's rare. There's not a lot of people who have it, but the guys who do, you see the similarities in it, and when you see it, you can tell: That's that, I've seen that before. I don't see it a lot, but I've seen it, and that's who we are. We don't have to score 50 points to change the game and be effective.

"I haven't had the chance to talk to him yet, but Mikal Bridges. He was in the running, as well, for DPOY. If I didn't get it, I definitely would have voted for him to get it. He's another guy. Offensively, we know what he can do, but the things he's able to do for that Phoenix Suns team on the defensive end just speaks volumes. He doesn't have to say much, but he goes out there and proves it with the way he plays. Although he might not be as vocal as me and Draymond, he still has those attributes and similarities where we're going to go out there and do the dirty work and fight to help our team win, no matter what that is."

"I would have to say that assessment, to a certain extent, is true and holds value. They were the more experienced team. Golden State was a lot more experienced. We have a lot of combined experience as well. Al [Horford]'s been in the playoffs for how long? I've been in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Jayson, Jaylen, we have experience playing in the playoffs. Now, Finals experience is different. We were trying so hard to prove to others and ourselves that we belonged there, we just let it slip away from us mentally.

"Having tasted that experience, now coming back to the situation, things are slowing down for us, because it's like, We've gone through that before. I know how we handled it, and this is what the outcome was, so maybe I shouldn't handle it that way. In terms of their experience, that aspect is definitely true, because every situation we threw at them, they've been in, so they knew how to react to it, whereas it might've taken us a game, a half, a few quarters to try to figure it out, and by that time they're running off with it.

"Coming into this season, it's definitely going to help us tremendously, because now we know what to expect, how to expect it, and we know how to look at it. Although we lost and we don't want to look at it that way they definitely taught us something, and we'll take it and run with it."

"I guess I'm more biased, and I have known them a little bit more, but each and every year they have grown and they have showed us something new that they've added and continued to add to their game. For their future, I only think it's going to increase. They're only going to get wiser and understand the game even more, and I think once they do that, they become even more dangerous than they already are. They're only 24, 25 these are relatively very young guys who are already here, but can go even higher, so I'm ecstatic and intrigued to see how much they have learned, how much growth they've made and to continue to see them get better individually. And I know as they continue to grow individually, the team will as well."

Oh, man. That's a tough one. I don't know. I guess it depends on the time of the game and how long I have to guard them. They're unique in different ways, but they can both hurt you in multiple ways. That's a tough one. There's no easy answer with that one. Whoever you get, you're going to wish you didn't have him."

I didn't know him too well personally. I was able to talk to him a couple times when he was here. I got to watch some old film that we had. But what he went through and sacrificed for us in the time that he was playing, and especially in this city around that time, to be able to say, 'You know what, I'm going to take the pain and the burden to open the doors for our younger generations to have an opportunity more equally than what I had,' he means so much to us in this game and to the African American community and people of color. At the time, it was very, very ugly. It still is ugly to this day, but back then it was a different type of ugly, and he decided he was going to take a stand by continuing to fight and paving that way for us."

"I got started with this, because what they do, what they've been doing for years, is providing care and helping patients from lower income who don't have the financial means to help with what they're going through. A lot of the work they do is some of the greatest I can think of, because they're giving back to people who they have no idea who they are, and that says everything you need to know about them.

"Be The Match is doing everything they can keeping people educated, explaining why we should be a donor, join the registry and really help kids, adults or whoever is going through these blood diseases, such as sickle cell, to say, 'You know what? Here's an option for you that we might have to save your life.'

"The only way for people who are going through some of these cancers and blood diseases to survive is with this transplant, so to have donors in the registry and give people options to save their lives is why I decided to work with Aflac and Be The Match. It hits home with me. I lost my mother [Camellia] to bone marrow cancer four years ago and my brother [Todd Westbrook] about 15 years ago to lung cancer, so when I did more research and continued to educate myself, this was the perfect match, and now I'm here trying to raise awareness for cancer, for sickle cell, for blood diseases, and begging people to get out there, register and become a donor. It's easy. It's simple. Swab your cheek and possibly save somebody else."

"It's tough. It is tough without having my mom and brother here to share it with, but growing up to where I am now, they made so many sacrifices in the time that they were here with us to give me an opportunity to live my dream. It hurt after we won the Eastern Conference finals. I cried at one point to my team for maybe about 10 minutes, and then cried on my own, talking to my mom and my brother, wishing they were here and understanding that they're looking down on me, and they're smiling. I know they're just as proud now than ever. There were a lot of emotions going through my head, my heart, but the one that I focused on was how happy my mom and my brother would be to see me on the biggest stage of my life right now."

I've got some new robes I might have to get to. I'm going to sporadically throw them into the season."

Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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A conversation with Boston Celtics culture-setter Marcus Smart, the NBA's reigning Defensive Player of the Year - Yahoo Sports