“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the statement reads.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”
The statement adds: “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
Buckingham Palace’s response comes more than 36 hours after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a series of damning accusations in their first sit-down interview since stepping back from life as senior royals and moving to the US last year.
The interview plunged the royal household into a crisis. Some of the claims — including the allegations of racism and Meghan’s admission that she felt suicidal during her first pregnancy — have the potential to deeply impact the royal family’s reputation and have left a cloud of suspicion over some of its members.
The family waited to respond until the interview had aired in the UK, to allow viewers in the country to watch it first, a royal source told CNN.
The source added that it was important for Buckingham Palace to carefully consider their response before issuing the statement.
During the interview Harry and Meghan cited a lack of support over invasive press coverage and the royal institution’s decision not to give their son Archie a title — and with it his eligibility for protection — as the basis for their decision to relocate from the UK.
The royal source told CNN that at the heart of a matter was a family, which should be given the opportunity to address these issues privately.
The source also suggested that a conversation between the royal family and Meghan and Harry should have taken place privately to address the issues raised by the couple instead of in a broadcast interview.
Diversity, equality, inclusion and mental health are important issues and highlighting that has formed part of the work of members of the family for many years, the source added.
Prince Charles appeared in public earlier on Tuesday for the first time since the seismic interview and did not respond to a question on the furor surrounding his family.
“Sir, what did you think of the interview?” an off-camera journalist asked Harry’s father and the heir to the British throne, as he visited a Covid-19 vaccination center in London.
Harry told Winfrey that his father had briefly stopped taking his calls after the couple announced they were stepping back from the royal family last January.
However, the Duke added that repairing the relationship in time will be “one of my priorities.”
He also suggested that his relationship with his brother, Prince William, had taken a hit, saying “the relationship is space, at the moment.”
Harry and Meghan also discussed their new life in California with Winfrey. The couple are expecting their second child, a girl, this summer.
CNN will soon launch Royal News, a weekly newsletter bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls. Sign up here.
LAS VEGAS — Dominick Cruz fought just once since 2016 before Saturday. He has just six fights in the past decade. But at UFC 259, one of the best bantamweight fighters ever proved once again that he can hang with the top athletes in the division.
With the kind of technical and tactical performance that fans have come to expect, Cruz outpointed Casey Kenney via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27) on the prelims at the UFC Apex. It was Cruz’s first victory since he beat Urijah Faber at UFC 299 on June 4, 2016.
“A little closer than I wanted,” Cruz said in his postfight interview. “But I got the job done.”
Kenney had success throughout the fight kicking Cruz’s legs. But Cruz, known for his innovative footwork, never slowed down. He stuck with his unorthodox style and hit Kenney with big shots in every round, including a shovel left hook in the first and a big blitzing combination in the second.
In the third round, Cruz took Kenney down twice and landed more solid shots from the left and right. Kenney landed hard several times, too, but not with the consistency of Cruz — and usually they did not come in combinations.
Cruz (23-3) had not fought since a loss to Henry Cejudo in a bantamweight title fight at UFC 249 last May. The San Diego resident’s last bout before that was a loss to Cody Garbrandt in a bantamweight title fight way back at UFC 207 on Dec. 30, 2016. Cruz, 35, first won the WEC bantamweight title in 2010 and entered the UFC as champ. He relinquished the belt due to several knee surgeries and foot injuries, which have accounted for his inactivity. Cruz also is a prolific UFC on-air analyst.
@DominickCruz big congrats man! Looked great!
— Paul Felder (@felderpaul) March 7, 2021
Kenney (16-3-1) was on a three-fight winning streak coming in. The Arizona resident has a 5-2 UFC record and remains one to watch in the bantamweight division. Kenney, 29, is a former national champion judoka who has developed well-rounded striking at the MMA Lab.
— Marc Raimondi
How to watch and purchase UFC 259
Fight in progress:
Men’s bantamweight title bout: Petr Yan (c) (15-1, 7-0 UFC, -120) vs. Aljamain Sterling (19-3, 11-3 UFC, +100)
Results:
Lightweight: Islam Makhachev (19-1, 8-1 UFC) defeats Drew Dober (23-10 1 NC, 9-6 1 NC UFC) by third-round submission
If Khabib Nurmagomedov is indeed retired from MMA, as he has said he is, the lightweight division might have its heir apparent — as Nurmagomedov has said Makhachev is.
Makhachev, who grew up with the UFC champion in Dagestan and trains with him there and at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, showed off much of the grappling style of Nurmagomedov in smothering and then finishing Dober, who simply could not keep the fight standing long enough in any of the three rounds to put his crisp striking to work.
Khabib doesn’t lie
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) March 7, 2021
The 29-year-old Makhachev earned his seventh win in a row with efficiency, getting takedowns less than a minute into the first round, 40 seconds into the second and around 20 seconds into Round 3, and never allowing Dober to get back to his feet. The fight ended at 1:37 of Round 3 when Makhachev took side control and clamped on an arm-triangle choke to elicit the tapout.
Makhachev is no carbon copy of Nurmagomedov — his first takedown came at the center of the Octagon, not along the cage, where the champ likes to operate. And Makhachev did not test out his standup, recognizing that would be Dober’s best chance to win. He stuck to basics, and his basics were unstoppable.
Dober, who is 32 and from Denver, saw a three-fight winning streak come to an end. He had won all three of those bouts by knockout, but on this night he never got a chance to let his hands go.
— Jeff Wagenheim
Light heavyweight: Aleksandar Rakić (14-2, 6-1 UFC) defeats Thiago Santos (21-9, 13-8 UFC) by unanimous decision
Two light heavyweight contenders continued to head in opposite directions, as Rakic prevailed over Santos in a three-round unanimous decision.
Rakic, of Austria, picked up his sixth win in seven appearances, while Santos fell to 0-3 since July 2019. Tagged as a potential barnburner going in, the 205-pound contest played out more like a chess match, as neither contender truly let his hands go. All three judges scored it for Rakic via scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
Fighting to not lose
— Dominick Reyes (@DomReyes) March 7, 2021
According to UFC Stats, Santos actually outlanded Rakic in total strikes 57 to 49, but Rakic’s offense was more consistently spread out through the bout, and he appeared to land the more decisive shots. Both fighters leaned heavily on the leg kick, and each took turns looking for the occasional takedown. In the end, Rakic’s control of distance and leg kicks probably won him the fight.
Santos, of Rio de Janeiro, has struggled in back-to-back appearances since returning from a knee reconstruction in 2019. He suffered several injuries during a five-round title fight against former champion Jon Jones, in a fight some observers felt he won. He returned against Glover Teixeira in November, and lost via third-round submission.
Rakic continues to build his case for a potential title shot. His only loss in the UFC, a split decision to Volkan Oezdemir in December 2019, came under controversy as many observers felt Rakic did enough to win the bout.
— Brett Okamoto
Men’s bantamweight: Kyler Phillips (9-1, 3-0 UFC) defeats Song Yadong (16-5-1, 5-1-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
One streak goes on, and the other has ended.
Phillips paired fluid movement with measured aggression to get the better of Song in the first two rounds, then held on in Round 3 to capture his fourth straight victory and end Song’s unbeaten run at nine in a row.
With a minute and a half left in the fight, Phillips scored a takedown. It did not lead to a finish, but it secured the victory, as Song had been peppering him with punches in the final round and was in his face, throwing big shots aimed at pulling out the fight with a knockout. But once on the canvas, even though Phillips lost position and ended up on bottom, and would go on to lose the round, he was safe to make it to the final horn.
Great fight Phillips new Star in the making @UFC Bantamweight division #UFC259
— Charles Rosa (@CharlesRosaMMA) March 7, 2021
All three judges scored the bout 29-28.
Phillips, a 25-year-old from Phoenix, had built a lead through the first two rounds, landing the bigger shots and mostly keeping out of range of Song’s power. He had to fend off a Song surge in Round 3, but did so to move to 3-0 in the UFC.
Song, who is 23 and from China, trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. He had not lost a fight since 2016.
— Jeff Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Men’s flyweight: Askar Askarov (13-0-1, 3-0-1 UFC) defeats Joseph Benavidez (28-8, 15-6 UFC) by unanimous decision
Askarov, a flyweight title contender out of Russia, added a big name to his resume by defeating Benavidez over the course of three one-sided rounds.
According to UFC Stats, Askarov converted five of six takedown attempts and controlled Benavidez on the ground for large chunks of the first and second rounds. Benavidez tried to respond with blitzing combinations on the feet, but Askarov’s distance management and grappling control essentially neutralized the four-time title challenger. Judges scored it for Askarov 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26.
Only blemish on Askarov’s weekend in which he otherwise makes a case for a title shot: He missed weight (127) and looked pretty bad getting to the scale.
His ability to make 125.0 may face some questions. #UFC259
— Phil Murphy (@Phil_Sports) March 7, 2021
Sporting a bad cut and swelling under his left eye, Benavidez went into the third round looking for a finish but never came close. He landed a hard Superman punch midway through the final round, but Askarov wore it well and did well avoiding risk and keeping Benavidez on the outside.
Benavidez, who fights out of Las Vegas, remains tied with former champion Demetrious Johnson for the most wins in UFC flyweight history with 13. He has been stuck on that number since June 2019. He has now dropped his past three, including back-to-back losses to current champion Deiveson Figueiredo in 2020. Askarov moves to 3-0-1 in the UFC.
— Brett Okamoto
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Men’s flyweight: Kai Kara-France (22-9, 5-2 UFC) defeats Rogério Bontorin (16-3, 2-2 UFC) by first-round TKO
play
1:25
Kai Kara-France puts Rogerio Bontorin down with a nice combination for a knockout victory, and Bontorin shows his displeasure as he chucks his mouthpiece across the ring at Kara-France.
Bontorin was on the way to a 10-8 round. And then — just like that — his head was crashing to the canvas.
Kara-France escaped after a long stretch of ground dominance by Bontorin at the end of the first round and unleashed a hellish combination. Kara-France landed a right hand that rocked Bontorin and a right uppercut that caused Bontorin to face plant. The finish came at 4:55 of the first round via TKO.
How it started vs. how it ended for Kai Kara-France 🥶 #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/3OkNsWLONa
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 7, 2021
“Mark Hunt walkaway — vintage,” Kara-France said in his postfight interview, referencing his fellow Oceania native Hunt’s propensity for walk-off knockouts.
The final sequence was a bit odd. Bontorin fell face-first to the canvas and Kara-France started celebrating. Then, when it seemed like referee Herb Dean had not actually called off the bout, Kara-France ran back to Bontorin in an attempt to blast him with more blows. Dean headed him off at the pass and then officially called the bout over by TKO. Bontorin, who seemed to think the fight was still going, fired his mouthpiece at Kara-France in frustration before cooler heads prevailed.
Bontorin hurt Kara-France with a left hand early in the first and then took him down. From there, he took Kara-France’s back and dominated, nearly cinching in rear-naked chokes on multiple occasions. It was completely one-sided until Kara-France got to his feet in the closing seconds and shook off Bontorin.
“I put the flyweights coming up on notice,” Kara-France said. “Anyone in that top five can get it.”
Kara-France, 27, came in ranked No. 10 in the world at flyweight by ESPN. The New Zealand native was coming off a second-round submission loss to Brandon Royval at UFC 253 in September. Bontorin, a 28-year-old Brazil native, has dropped two straight following a four-fight winning streak.
— Marc Raimondi
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Men’s flyweight: Tim Elliott (18-11-1, 6-9 UFC) defeats Jordan Espinosa (15-9, 2-4 UFC) by unanimous decision
Elliott got a takedown early in the first round and dominated Espinosa from top position while delivering damage for the rest of the first five minutes. Elliott got a takedown early in the second round, and proceeded to dominate and do more damage, not allowing Espinosa off the canvas until the horn. The third round? More of the same.
It was 15 minutes of total control, and one judge gave Elliott a couple of 10-8 rounds, making it a 30-25 scorecard. The other two judges scored the bout 30-27.
He made it look easy 🩸 #UFC259
— Niko Price (@Nikohybridprice) March 7, 2021
The three takedowns give Elliott 47 for his UFC career, putting him alone in second place among flyweights, behind former champion Demetrious Johnson (58).
Elliott, who is 34 and from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, won his second in a row after withstanding a three-fight losing streak against ranked fighters.
Espinosa, a 31-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico, nearly landed head kicks in both the first and second rounds, but Elliott ducked under both and rushed forward for takedowns. While on his back in Round 3, Espinosa cut Elliott with an elbow. But that was all he managed in losing for the fourth time in his past five bouts.
These two were scheduled to meet in January, but the bout was postponed after Espinosa tested positive for COVID-19.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Light heavyweight: Kennedy Nzechukwu (8-1, 2-1 UFC) defeats Carlos Ulberg (5-1, 0-1 UFC) by second-round KO
Nzechukwu, a light heavyweight prospect out of Dallas, earned the biggest win of his career with a second-round upset of Ulberg.
Nzechukwu got off to a terrible start, as he was visibly wobbled by a left head kick in the opening minute. Ulberg, who fights out of New Zealand and is a close teammate of Israel Adesanya, pressed in looking for the finish, and did so intelligently. He ripped Nzechukwu to the body with punches and knees from the Thai clinch, but Nzechukwu managed to survive and separate.
This card has been insane with only 5 fights in 🤯 #UFC259
— Carlos Correa (@TeamCJCorrea) March 7, 2021
As the round progressed, Nzechukwu started to even things behind straight left hands to Ulberg’s head. Ulberg looked a bit fatigued between rounds, but still came out pumping the jab and low leg kicks to slow the forward motion of Nzechukwu. Nzechukwu would not be denied, however, as he walked through Ulberg’s offense and knocked him out with a short right hand along the fence 3:19 into the round.
Nzechukwu, 28, is now 2-1 in the UFC. His only loss came against the currently ranked Paul Craig. Ulberg drops his UFC debut.
— Okamoto
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Welterweight: Sean Brady (14-0, 4-0 UFC) defeats Jake Matthews (17-5, 10-5 UFC) by third-round submission
play
0:51
Sean Brady gets Jake Matthews up against the cage and makes him tap to solidify a submission win in the third round.
In a battle of welterweight prospects, Brady showed up in a big way.
Brady steamrolled Matthews, finishing with a submission (arm triangle) at 3:28 of the third round. The undefeated Brady dominated Matthews in every facet of MMA, outwrestling him and outgrappling him — and even wobbling him with strikes in the third. It was the kind of victory that announced Brady as a real threat in a very good UFC welterweight division. Brady winning by submission was +400 per Caesars by William Hill.
170lbs needs to be very worried about @seanbradymma
— Paul Felder (@felderpaul) March 6, 2021
“I think I just deserve a top-15 guy,” Brady said in his postfight interview. “Let’s see who they give me after this.”
Matthews’ best moment came in the first round. He dropped Brady with a punch after catching a Brady kick. But Brady was quick to get on top in a ground scramble. And he spent the rest of the round there. Brady went back to that clear advantage in the second round, shooting a double-leg takedown on Matthews and getting him down. Brady dominated from there, getting the back and slipping into mount while landing punches.
In the third round, Brady rocked Matthews with a left hook. Matthews ended up being the one going for a takedown, which Brady stuffed and then won position in a scramble yet again. From there, Brady got into dominant position and wrapped Matthews up into an arm-triangle choke from arm triangle.
Brady, 28, is 4-0 in the UFC with two straight submission finishes in a row. The Philadelphia native is the former Cage Fury Fighting Championship welterweight champion. Brady’s four-fight UFC winning streak is the third-best active winning streak in the division, behind champion Kamaru Usman (13) and Leon Edwards (8). Matthews, still just 26 years old out Australia, had a three-fight winning streak snapped.
— Raimondi
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Strawweight: Amanda Lemos (9-1-1, 3-1 UFC) defeats Livinha Souza (14-3, 3-2 UFC) by first-round TKO
Lemos finished this fight between Brazilian women with a jab.
The straight punch dropped Souza, and referee Jason Herzog jumped in almost immediately, waving off the bout as a TKO at 3:39 of Round 1. It was a quick action by the ref, almost as quick as Lemos’ powerful fists.
Amanda Lemos was credited with two knockdowns in her KO win over Livinha Souza.
She is just the fourth female fighter in @UFC history to knock an opponent down twice (Nunes, Calderwood, Pudilova). #UFC259 results ➡️: https://t.co/uYKJuIYOVH pic.twitter.com/L0bhizgYLB
— UFC News (@UFCNews) March 6, 2021
The 33-year-old Lemos, in winning her third straight fight, was in command from the start, taking ownership of the center of the Octagon and stalking Souza, who was overmatched in the standup fighting. The bout went to the canvas midway through the round after Lemos landed an overhand right hand that dropped her countrywoman, but that actually gave Souza a glimmer of a chance. She grabbed hold of Lemos’ ankle and went for a submission — Souza has eight of them among her 14 career wins — but Lemos escaped, delivered some ground-and-pound, then got the fight back to standing.
That was the beginning of the end for Souza, who is 29. She had no answers, got dropped by the jab, and that sealed her second loss in her last three fights.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Lightweight: Uroš Medić (7-0, 1-0 UFC) defeats Aalon Cruz (8-4, 0-2 UFC) by first-round TKO
play
1:08
Making his UFC debut, Uros Medic wastes no time as he drops Aalon Cruz early in their bout at UFC 259.
Medic has been saying he’s UFC-ready for a while. He proved it big time in his promotional debut.
Medic devastated Cruz with strikes on the feet, en route to a first-round TKO finish. Medic hurt Cruz almost immediately, and referee Mark Smith gave Cruz every opportunity to continue — perhaps too many — before finally calling the bout at the 1:40 mark.
This guys a monster !!!
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) March 6, 2021
Medic, who fights out of Alaska but was born in Serbia, badly hurt Cruz with a left hook to the temple and followed that with a flying knee that Cruz ate flush. Cruz basically dropped to the ground, covered up and held onto Medic’s leg. Medic hit him with a long series of unanswered punches, and dropped him again with a left hand after Cruz somehow managed to stand up. The end was never in question.
A former contestant on Dana White’s Contender Series, Medic has finished all of his professional bouts, including six in the first round. Cruz, who also was on DWCS and is from Tampa, drops to 0-2 in the UFC with two first-round losses by knockout.
— Okamoto
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Men’s bantamweight: Trevin Jones (13-6 1 NC, 1-0 1 NC UFC) defeats Mario Bautista (8-2, 2-1 UFC) by second-round TKO
play
1:06
Trevin Jones shocks Mario Bautista in the second round of their bout at UFC 259 in Las Vegas.
Jones finally has his first UFC victory — officially.
He actually won his promotional debut last August, knocking out Timur Valiev, but the result was overturned to a no-contest after Jones tested positive for marijuana. He had taken the fight on two days notice.
Five-star finish by @TrevinAJones 🤩
Stream #UFC259 on ESPN+ ➡️ https://t.co/pOphkmMf0r pic.twitter.com/O24b4O9Qh2
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 6, 2021
Now the 30-year-old native of New Orleans, who grew up in and still trains in Guam, has another knockout. This one came 40 seconds into the second round, when he caught Bautista coming in with a lead right uppercut, dropping him. Jones is unbeaten in his past four fights.
Bautista, a 27-year-old fighting out of the MMA Lab in Glendale, Arizona, saw a two-fight winning streak come to an end.
— Wagenheim
Watch this fight on ESPN+.
Still to come:
Light heavyweight title bout: Jan Blachowicz (c) (27-8, 10-5 UFC, +200) vs. Israel Adesanya (20-0, 9-0 UFC, -240) Women’s featherweight title bout: Amanda Nunes (c) (20-4, 13-1 UFC, -1100) vs. Megan Anderson (11-4, 3-2 UFC, +700) (c) = defending champion
More than 600 years ago, someone intricately folded, sealed and posted a letter that was never delivered. Now, scientists have digitally “unfolded” this and other similarly locked letters found in a 17th-century trunk in The Hague, using X-rays.
For centuries prior to the invention of sealed envelopes, sensitive correspondence was protected from prying eyes through complex folding techniques called ‘letterlocking’, which transformed a letter into its own secure envelope.
However, locked letters that survive to the present are fragile and can be opened physically only by slicing them to pieces.
The new X-ray method offers researchers a non-invasive alternative, maintaining a letterpacket’s original folded shape.
For the first time, scientists applied this method to “locked” letters from the Renaissance period, kept in a trunk that had been in the collection of the Dutch postal museum in The Hague, The Netherlands, since 1926.
Computer-generated unfolding animation of sealed letter DB-1538. (Unlocking History Research Group archive)
Related: Photos: Treasure trove of unopened 17th-century letters
The trunk’s contents include more than 3,100 undelivered letters, of which 577 were unopened and letterlocked. Known as the Brienne Collection, the letters were written in Dutch, English, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish.
For unknown reasons, once the missives reached The Hague they were never delivered to their intended recipients, and were instead kept by a postmaster named Simon de Brienne, Live Science previously reported.
Locked letters used different mechanisms to stay securely closed, including folds and rolls; slits and holes; tucks and adhesives; and a variety of cleverly constructed locks, according to a study published online March 2 in the journal Nature Communications.
To penetrate the layers of folded paper, the study authors used an X‐ray microtomography scanner engineered in the dental research labs at Queen Mary University of London (QMU).
Researchers designed the scanner to be exceptionally sensitive so that it could map the mineral content of teeth, “which is invaluable in dental research,” study co-author Graham Davis, a QMU professor of 3D X-ray imaging, said in a statement.
“But this high sensitivity has also made it possible to resolve certain types of ink in paper and parchment,” Davis added.
The trunk filled with sealed letters. (Unlocking History Research Group archive)
“The rest of the team were then able to take our scan images and turn them into letters they could open virtually and read for the first time in over 300 years,” study co-author David Mills, an X-ray microtomography facilities manager at QMU, said in the statement.
From the scans, the team built 3D digital reconstructions of the letters, and then created a computational algorithm that deciphered the sophisticated folding techniques, crease by crease, opening the letters virtually “while preserving letterlocking evidence”, according to the study.
The scientists digitally opened four letters using this groundbreaking method, deciphering the contents of one letter, DB-1627.
Penned on July 31, 1697, it was written by a man named Jacques Sennacques to his cousin Pierre Le Pers, who lived in The Hague. Sennacques, a legal professional in Lille, France, requested an official death certificate for a relative named Daniel Le Pers, “perhaps due to a question of inheritance”, the scientists wrote.
“His request issued, Sennacques then spends the rest of the letter asking for news of the family and commending his cousin to the graces of God,” the authors wrote. “We do not know exactly why Le Pers did not receive Sennacques’ letter, but given the itinerancy of merchants, it is likely that Le Pers had moved on.”
(Unlocking History Research Group archive)
Tens of thousands of such sealed documents can now be unfolded and read virtually, the researchers reported.
“This algorithm takes us right into the heart of a locked letter,” the research team said in the statement. “Using virtual unfolding to read an intimate story that has never seen the light of day — and never even reached its recipient — is truly extraordinary.”
Related Content:
Cracking codices: 10 of the most mysterious ancient manuscripts
Photos: Renaissance world map sports magical creatures
Breaking the code: Why yuor barin can raed tihs
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
So much for the clash of the titans. With the Utah Jazz surging their way to 21 wins in their past 23 games and the Los Angeles Lakers wearing the crown as defending NBA champions, Wednesday’s battle between the two looked, on paper, like one of the marquee games of the year. But with Anthony Davis dealing with a calf strain and Dennis Schroder out due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the Lakers didn’t have close to enough firepower to hang with the NBA’s best team so far this season. The Jazz blew them out, 114-89.
The Lakers will see the Jazz again for a two-game series in April and, by then, Davis and Schroder should be back in the lineup, but they were completely outgunned in this one. No Laker scored even 20 points. Ironically, neither did any Utah player. The difference is that the Lakers had only two players, LeBron James and Montrezl Harrell, reach double-figures. Utah had six. Their balanced attack was too much for the Lakers, who rely heavily on a superstar that didn’t play. That is one of the major takeaways from Utah’s victory. Here are a few others.
1. Can the Lakers stretch Utah’s drop defense?
The Jazz play a highly conservative drop-coverage-based defense. It makes sense. Rudy Gobert is the NBA’s best rim-protector, so they’ve built a scheme around keeping him close to the basket. He is often the only defender near the basket, because Utah tries to take advantage of his rim-protection schematically by having the rest of its defenders stay at home on 3-point shooters.
This poses something of a problem against big men that can shoot. The Lakers had one on Wednesday in Marc Gasol. For only the fourth time this season, he attempted at least five 3-pointers. Just look at Utah’s defense on some of them. On the second, Derrick Favors is practically ignoring Gasol because LeBron James is posting up against a smaller defender.
Gobert offers no meaningful contest on Gasol’s third 3-point attempt of the night.
LeBron sets up Gasol’s fourth attempt on the pick-and-roll. Gobert drops to protect against his drive. Another swish.
Finally, on his fifth attempt, Gobert hangs near the nail to watch Gasol and steps up to contest his shot.
Drop defenses have struggled in the past few postseasons. Utah knows that well. James Harden and Houston’s unlimited supply of shooting has tortured the Jazz in the playoffs, and the Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pick-and-roll knocked them out last season. Between Gasol and Anthony Davis, the Lakers have big men capable of drawing Gobert away from the basket, and in LeBron James, they have a shot-creator capable of punishing the Jazz when they do.
Without Davis in Wednesday’s game, we didn’t get a true sense of how the Jazz plan to attack this problem. They might have to compromise on their drop-coverage. They might have to stick Gobert on a non-shooting perimeter player to keep him close to the basket. This is going to be one of the most important battlefields on which a Lakers-Jazz series is fought. The closer Gobert is to the basket, the better Utah’s defense is. The Lakers have to be able to draw him away from it to beat the Jazz. Gasol may have finally done that towards the end of this game but, by then, it was too late.
2. More math problems
The Lakers go through this every time they play against a contender. When they played the Clippers on opening night, their Staples Center rival attempted 11 more 3-pointers and made five more. When the Brooklyn Nets came to town, they rained in 10 more 3s on nine more attempts. Tonight was the worst yet. The Jazz made 14 more 3s on 15 more attempts.
On their road to the championship last season, the Lakers played against the team that attempted the most 3-pointers (Houston), and they played against the team that made the second-highest percentage of its 3-pointers (Miami), but it never played against an opponent that paired elite shooting with high volume. The Rockets took the most 3s in the NBA, but they finished No. 24 in attempts. That allowed the Lakers to sag off of the right shooters and stifle the more dangerous ones. The Heat may have been ninth in 3-point attempts, but without Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, weren’t creating the same kinds of 3s that they did for most of the season.
But most contenders, aside from the Lakers, this season not only take an inordinate amount of 3-pointers but makes most of them. The Jazz lead the NBA in attempts and are third in 3-point percentage. The Nets are eighth in attempts and second in percentage. That puts the Lakers at a significant disadvantage entering every single game. Most of their shots are worth two points. Most of their competition’s shots are worth three. They have to make a significantly higher percentage of their shots just to keep up, and so far this season, they’ve struggled to do so.
3. The silver lining
Rarely would a team rather lose by 25 than five, but the Lakers are in a somewhat unique position. LeBron had averaged 38.5 minutes per game across his past nine appearances. Four of those games went to overtime. He is 36 years old. Ideally, the Lakers would probably prefer not to play him that much, but with Davis and Schroder out, they’ve had no choice but to lean on James. Even if they wanted to be more careful with his workload, James made it clear on Monday that he doesn’t want to sit out.
“I think this whole narrative of ‘LeBron needs more rest’ or I should take more rest or I should take time here, it’s become a lot bigger than what it actually is,” James told reporters after a loss to Washington. “I’ve never talked about it, I don’t talk about it, I don’t believe in it. We all need more rest, s—. This is a fast turnaround from last season, and we all wish we could have more rest. But I’m here to work, I’m here to punch my clock in and be available to my teammates.”
Wednesday turned into something of a compromise. The Jazz blew the Lakers out, so James only needed to play 28 minutes. The game was decided by the last several, so his overall exertion was limited. The Lakers will have Schroder back on Friday, and that will further help James manage his workload. In a perfect world, the Lakers would have just won the game, but the silver lining here is that it at least gave LeBron a bit of a breather.
Kevin Mather has been Seattle Mariners team president since 2014. (AP)
The Mariners became a prime focus of the baseball world Sunday as a Feb. 5 speech given by team president and CEO Kevin Mather to the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club came to light.
Zoom footage from the event was posted to YouTube by the BBRC and shared Saturday night on Twitter. The video was taken down by Sunday afternoon, but not before copies and transcripts were shared online, including by Lookout Landing.
The 45-minute video featured Mather giving an approximately 20-minute opening statement then taking questions from the Zoom audience for the remainder of the recording, which ended abruptly. Over the course of the program, Mather addressed a number of topics in a manner that drew reaction from fans, players, agents and members of the national media.
Sunday night, the Mariners released the following statement from Mather:
I want to apologize to every member of the Seattle Mariners organization, especially our players and to our fans. There is no excuse for my behavior, and I take full responsibility for my terrible lapse in judgment.
My comments were my own. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership who are responsible for decisions about the development and status of the players at all levels of the organization.
I’ve been on the phone most of the day today apologizing to the many people I have insulted, hurt, or disappointed in speaking at a recent online event.
I am committed to make amends for the things I said that were personally hurtful and I will do whatever it takes to repair the damage I have caused to the Seattle Mariners organization.
In the visit with the BBRC, Mather’s opening statement included a rundown of how the pandemic-shortened 2020 season impacted baseball financially, stating that the Mariners fared better than most but that it was still “a low year” for the club.
“We were at the very bottom of our rebuild step-back cycle, so our payroll was as low as it was going to get,” Mather said. “We also have a television deal with ROOT Sports, and we punch well above our weight on the television deal. We had 60 games, and per game, we got a lot more than we probably deserved compared to other similar sized markets. Terrible year financially, but we did better than most.”
Mather went on to tout the Mariners’ plan to bring as many young players as they possibly could to their alternate site in Tacoma last season. In all, 15 prospects were invited to participate. Since there was no minor league season, this and a small pitching camp they held in North Carolina were the only ways to get prospects work. What they would not get, however, was the opportunity to join the big league club, as Mather revealed in the speech.
“As devastating as 2020 was on player development and getting better, we took a risk and brought our high-end prospects in, really got to know them. They got high-end instruction in Tacoma,” he said. “The risk was, if our major league team had had a COVID outbreak or injuries and we had to call people up from the taxi squad, we were a little short on players. Because there was no chance you were going to see these young players at T-Mobile Park. We weren’t going to put them on the 40-man roster, we weren’t going to start the service time clock. There were all kinds of reasons that, if we had an injury problem or COVID outbreak, you might’ve seen my big tummy out there in left field. You would not have seen our prospects playing in T-Mobile Park.”
This, along with comments that predicted the MLB debuts of top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert in April, was interpreted as service time manipulation, which is sure to be a central topic in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations between MLB and the MLB Players Association. Those aspects of Mather’s speech drew the attention of at least one player agent.
CBA 2021 Service Time Negotiations, #MLBPA Exhibit #1. https://t.co/ibMHpwgPZ4
— SMPLonnie (@SMPLonnie) February 22, 2021
Mather heaped praise on a number of players throughout the conversation, but in some cases gave insights that were concerning to those involved.
“Kyle Seager, this is probably his last season as a Mariner,” Mather said of Seattle’s third baseman, who is entering the last year of his contract. “He will, and I’ve already told him, he’ll be a Mariners Hall of Famer when he’s done playing. Last year he seemed to find the Fountain of Youth, had a fantastic year, and we expect the same in 2021.”
Julie Seager, Kyle’s wife, appeared to respond on her Twitter account.
So should we put our house in Seattle on the market now, orrrrrr?
— Julie Seager (@JulieSeager15) February 21, 2021
Top prospect Julio Rodriguez weighed in fairly quickly on this statement:
“Julio Rodríguez has got a personality bigger than all of you combined,” Mather said. “He is loud. His English is not tremendous. Everybody says he’ll be here in 2021. He won’t be here ’til 2022 or 2023. A fantastic kid. We’re really big on social media. He loves to get out in front. He loves the Mariners. And between him and Kelenic, we think we’ve got an outfield that will be as good as any in baseball for the next six or seven years. He’s the real deal. He’s ranked higher than Kelenic.”
pic.twitter.com/rjjAhHQDpo
— Julio Y. Rodriguez🇩🇴🦁 (@J_RODshow) February 21, 2021
Worth noting, Rodríguez is incredibly proud of his English and the Dominican Republic native has gone so far as to host “Vibin’ with JRod,” an interview show on the Mariners’ YouTube channel this winter. He conducts all interviews in English including this one thankfully, as the interviewer does not speak Spanish.
Rodríguez wasn’t the only person whose English was brought up by Mather, who said “it frustrates me” as he started to discuss Hisashi Iwakuma, a former All-Star for the team who recently returned to the franchise as a special assignment coach. Mather went on: “For instance, we just re-hired Iwakuma, he was a pitcher with us for a number of years. Wonderful human being, his English was terrible. He wanted to get back into the game, he came to us, we quite frankly want him as our Asian scout, interpreter, what’s going on with the Japanese league. He’s coming to spring training. And I’m going to say, I’m tired of paying his interpreter. When he was a player, we’d pay Iwakuma X, but we’d also have to pay $75,000 a year to have an interpreter with him. His English suddenly got better, his English got better when we told him that.”
In addition to the comments above, Mather discussed a six-year contract offer that was turned down by Kelenic, called the fact that spring training would not be delayed a month “embarrassing,” and repeatedly called catcher Luis Torrens “Torres.” He also said that Torrens along with prospect Cal Raleigh would likely be behind the plate for the Mariners for the next six years, which would most likely would be unsettling news to Tom Murphy, who just Saturday expressed gratitude for the Mariners bringing the best out of him after coming over from the Rockies.
Discussing a potential James Paxton or Taijuan Walker signing (both players were still free agents when the speech happened) is great information that no doubt was appreciated by the intended audience. Admitting the Mariners had “taken the position that there are 180 free agents still out there on Feb. 5 unsigned, and sooner or later, these players are going to turn their hat over and come with hat in hand, looking for a contract,” are words that would not be appreciated by any player, however.
Participating in events like the Rotary Breakfast is not uncommon for Mariners executives or front office members. It’s an opportunity to connect with the community and in so engender goodwill and interest. While extra insight or inside information is often shared at these events, a little information can go a long way. In the case of the Feb. 5 speech, Mather not only by his own admission needed to apologize to numerous people, but overstepped the limits of what would be beneficial for the organization. By the reaction seen online Sunday, a great amount of damage has been done.
The Mariners are expected to release a statement Monday morning.
Follow Shannon Drayer on Twitter.
The 5 Mariners players who are facing the most pressure this season
Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland will pledge to take the lead in prosecuting those charged over the U.S. Capitol siege and vow prosecutorial independence from President Biden at his confirmation hearing Monday.
Why it matters: As attorney general, Judge Garland would oversee politically sensitive cases, including investigations into the taxes of the president’s son Hunter Biden and the origins of the probe into former President Trump’s dealings with Russia.
Driving the news: Per his prepared opening statement released Saturday night, Garland plans to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that if confirmed, he’ll address civil rights and fight discrimination and domestic terrorism.
He’ll highlight his career as a prosecutor — notably his supervision of the investigation into domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
On the Capitol siege, Garland will say that he intends to “supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”
On the independence of the position of attorney general, Garland will say: “The President nominates the attorney general to be the lawyer — not for any individual, but for the people of the United States.”
For the record: Garland, 68, is a Chicago native and graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, who has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997.
He was nominated by then-President Obama in 2016 to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) prevented this, insisting the replacement should be selected by the newly elected president later that year. Justice Neil Gorsuch was later confirmed instead under the Trump administration.
Of note: Former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr was criticized throughout his tenure by Democrats, who accused him of political interference in criminal cases on behalf of the former president — which he strongly rejected.
In his last press conference as attorney general in December, Barr took the rare step of publicly contradicting Trump on hot-button issues including Hunter Biden, voting machines and Russia being behind the hacking of federal agencies.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Tennessee entered this season ranked 12th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll — and as the media’s pick to win the SEC. Fast-forward to Saturday, and the Vols are 19th in the AP poll, and fourth in the league standings, four games back of first-place Alabama.
So is it fair to label UT disappointing?
By definition, maybe.
But the Vols are still very good and very capable of advancing deep into the bracket of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. They won’t be projected to make the Final Four given that they will not be a No. 1 seed. But if the five-star freshmen play like future first-round NBA Draft picks, which has been the case sometimes lately, nobody should be surprised if they do.
“There are things we have to clean up,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after Wednesday’s 93-73 victory over South Carolina.
And he’s right, obviously.
But all of the things that created high preseason expectations for Tennessee — i.e., an accomplished coach, proven veterans, and two NBA-level freshmen in the form of Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer — remain in place. And when you combine that fact with the fact that UT’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating ranks third nationally, there are plenty of reasons to believe the Vols will be a tough out next month for almost anybody under almost any circumstances.
Tennessee is No. 19 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Vols are 3-1 in their past four games with wins in that stretch coming against Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina. They’ll try to complete a regular-season sweep of Kentucky on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.
Itching for more college hoops analysis? Listen below and subscribe to the Eye on College Basketball podcast where we take you beyond the hardwood with insider information and instant reactions.
Mom‘s Allison Janney has taken to social media to reflect on CBS’ final-season announcement.
The network revealed Wednesday that the sober-living comedy will conclude this spring, with its series finale set for Thursday, May 6 (at 9/8c). In a heartfelt Instagram post, Janney thanked the cast and crew, including executive producer Chuck Lorre; current costars Mimi Kennedy, Jaime Pressly, Kristen Johnston, Beth Hall and William Fichtner; and former co-lead Anna Faris, who left the show ahead Season 8.
“Getting to be part of Mom these past eight years — showing the laughter, love and hope that can come with recovery — has been one of the great honors of my life,” she wrote. “I want to thank [executive producers] Chuck Lorre, Gemma Baker [and] Nick Bakay, and all the writers… for giving us these wonderfully flawed and lovable characters to bring to life. I miss seeing all of your faces. And these amazingly talented actors I got to act with everyday!!! Mimi, Jaime, Kristen, Beth, and the coolest man on the planet, Bill Fichtner. And of course Anna Faris. [Director] Jamie Widdoes for your patience and dedication and enormous talent steering this ship! Our entire crew, your laughter and love and dedication to this show has made it a joy to come to work. And last but not least all of our extraordinary fans!!! Thank you for all of your support over the years.”
Mom‘s eighth season marked the first (and now only) season without Faris, who played Janney’s on-screen daughter Christy. When it was revealed that she was leaving last September, Faris released a statement which in part read, “The past seven years on Mom have been some of the most fulfilling and rewarding of my career. I’m so thankful to Chuck [Lorre], the writers, and my amazing castmates for creating a truly wonderful work experience.”
In the wake of Faris’ departure, Christy was shipped off to Georgetown Law School, in Washington D.C., on a full scholarship.
Mom has evolved into a drastically different show than the one that premiered in 2013. The multi-cam originally centered on Christy’s life as newly sober single mom as she tried to raise a pregnant teenage daughter, Violet (Sadie Calvano), and a son, Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal), with the help of her previously estranged mother Bonnie (Janney). The show eventually shifted focus away from Christy’s kids (who were written out of the show entirely) and toward Christy and Bonnie’s AA group — which consists of Marjorie (Kennedy), Jill (Pressly), Wendy (Hall) and Tammy (Johnston) — and Bonnie’s relationship with eventual husband Adam (Fichtner). Janney is the last remaining series regular from Season 1.
NEW YORK (February 10, 2021) – The National Hockey League announced today that, immediately upon notification that one of its Players had returned a positive test for COVID-19, Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomas Nosek was removed from Tuesday night’s game vs. Anaheim, in precise accordance with the terms of the League’s COVID Protocol. Nosek was immediately isolated from his teammates and close contact tracing was begun, also in accordance with the Protocol.
Tomorrow night’s game in Las Vegas between the Golden Knights and Ducks remains scheduled to be played at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Rapid PCR Point of Care tests will be administered to all Players and staff on both teams in advance of that game (in addition to the daily lab-based PCR testing) and any decision regarding potential postponement will be made by the League’s, NHLPA’s and Clubs’ medical officials, following all COVID Protocols and local and federal regulations.
The Vegas organization has followed, and will continue to follow, all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of their Players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, state and national agencies.
ABOUT THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS The Vegas Golden Knights are a National Hockey League franchise owned and operated by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment LLC. The Vegas Golden Knights were established by founding partners William Foley and his family and the Maloof family. For the latest news and information on the Golden Knights visit vegasgoldenknights.com. Fans can follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
{
if (f.fbq) return;
n = f.fbq = function() {
n.callMethod ?
Former President Donald Trump will not testify in his impeachment trial in the Senate next week and will not submit a written statement, his attorney said Thursday after Democrats requested he appear.
A written statement was something that had been under consideration by Trump’s former legal team.
Lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., earlier Thursday requested that Trump testify under oath.
Bruce Castor, who is part of the team representing Trump in his impeachment trial, said “no” when asked by NBC News if Trump would testify. “It’s a publicity stunt in order to make up for the weakness of the House managers’ case,” Castor said
Raskin responded that any official accused of inciting violence against the government should welcome the chance to testify. “His immediate refusal to testify speaks volumes and plainly establishes an adverse inference supporting his guilt,” Raskin said.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on Jan. 13 on an article charging him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the violent riot by a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol earlier that month.
Bruce Castor heads back into courtroom A after a break in a pre-trail hearing for entertainer Bill Cosby, in Norristown, Pa., on Feb. 2, 2016.Clem Murray / Pool/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP file
The crux of Trump’s defense will focus on the argument that impeaching him after he’s left office is unconstitutional — something that is in dispute.
“If you take the House’s position to its logical conclusion, they could impeach Donald Trump and convict him if he was dead,” Castor said. “And that would be a ridiculous result. They could impeach Abraham Lincoln.”
Democratic House impeachment managers say Trump’s actions warrant his disqualification from federal office. They also argue that nothing in the Constitution says only current officials can be tried.
They wrote in a brief that the Constitution “clearly intended for the impeachment process to reach former officials,” adding that the Senate found it had the power to try former officials as far back as 1798, in the case of former Sen. William Blount.
In 1876, Congress impeached and then tried Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war — William Belknap — who had resigned after he discovered he was about to be impeached. He was tried anyway, but was acquitted after the Senate reached a majority but failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed.
Trump’s impeachment is the first time a president has been impeached twice. The Senate trial is expected to begin Tuesday.
Earlier this week, attorneys for Trump filed briefs in the impeachment proceedings that called the trial partisan and unconstitutional. His lawyers have urged a quick dismissal.
On Thursday Raskin had requested that Trump testify at the trial. “In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath,” Raskin wrote in a letter to Trump.
Raskin in his letter noted that former Presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton “both provided testimony while in office” and cited a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that found that a president is not immune from criminal prosecution.
“So there is no doubt that you can testify in these proceedings,” Raskin wrote.
The impeachment article charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the violent riot by a pro-Trump mob in the U.S. Capitol that left several people dead and terrorized lawmakers as they sought to affirm President Joe Biden’s victory.
The article also cites Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the state’s election results as part of his effort “to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
The Democratic-controlled House approved the article on a 232-197 vote; 10 Republicans sided against Trump. It was the most bipartisan vote on a presidential impeachment in history, doubling the five Democrats who voted to impeach Clinton in 1998.
Castor said that Trump’s claims of voter fraud — which have never been substantiated and have been called baseless — won’t be part of the defense.
“We are not planning on going down that road, and I don’t see any reason to,” he said. “As far as I can tell the case is a winner. And I’m not going to inject the problem into the case. That’s injecting a problem into the case.”
And Biden’s plans during the impeachment trial are to proceed with their work as if it’s not taking place, according to White House officials.
Aides are crafting a busy schedule for the president focused on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, and meetings with state and local officials — all aimed at showing he’s on the job and undistracted by the impeachment of his predecessor, officials said.
One official said that from the White House’s perspective, the impeachment trial can’t end — and Congress can’t move on — soon enough.
The request for Trump to testify in the Senate trial was met with some consternation. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it would be a “dog and pony show,” and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of Biden’s, called it “a terrible idea.”
Asked why it would be a terrible idea, Coons responded by asking, “Have you met President Trump?”
Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania, said that he expects the trial to end either Friday or Sunday.
Castor noted the other lawyer on Trump’s legal team, David Schoen, cannot work on Saturday because of his Jewish faith.
The Senate impeachment rules dictate that the trial goes from Monday to Saturday, with no trial on Sundays. Changing that would need to be done through an agreement amongst Senators, who are able to change anything about the trial with all 100 senators in agreement.
Castor said Schoen will make the opening argument on behalf of the former president, while a yet-to-be-named lawyer will likely handle the middle portion of the trial, and Castor expects to deliver the team’s closing argument.
Asked if there will be any surprises in the trial, Castor said: “It will be exciting.”
Adam Edelman
Adam Edelman is a political reporter for NBC News.
Kristen Welker
Kristen Welker is chief White House correspondent for NBC News.
Carol E. Lee
Carol E. Lee is an NBC News correspondent.
Frank Thorp V
Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.
Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner and Phil Helsel contributed.
