Vesper

fuck Dortmund, those cheap twats

because it is a made up quote

I have seen many outlets claim if is 25 per cent of the total fee, but then many claim it is 25 per cent of the profit so no clue atm

Konate wants to go to Real. Real says they will only pay Pool £17m to £21.5m (€20m to €25m) now, or they will jusat take him for free in 10 months.

US Hits Highest Layoffs Since COVID https://www.newsweek.com/us-hits-highest-layoffs-since-covid-2111794 U.S. layoffs surged in July to their highest level since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, there were 62,075 job cuts announced, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's a 29 percent jump from June and 140 percent higher than the 25,885 announced in July 2024. The July figure is well above the post-pandemic average for the month (23,584 between 2021 and 2024) and slightly higher than the past decade's July average of 60,398. It pushes the 2025 total to 806,383 layoffs—a 75 percent increase compared with the same period last year and already 6 percent higher than all of 2024. It's the highest January-to-July figure since 2020, when pandemic shutdowns drove layoffs above 1.8 million. The surge in layoffs in 2025 is due to a mix of government downsizing, corporate restructuring and the growing effects of artificial intelligence. Public agencies, tech firms and retailers are leading the cuts. "We are seeing the federal budget cuts implemented by DOGE impact nonprofits and health care in addition to the government. AI was cited for over 10,000 cuts last month, and tariff concerns have impacted nearly 6,000 jobs this year," said Andrew Challenger, a senior vice president and labor expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Where Are the Layoffs Happening? The majority of layoffs this year have been from the federal government—a total of 292,294 since the year started—as President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its mission to scale down the size of numerous agencies. There have also been knock-on effects for contractors and organizations reliant on public funding, which the report calls the "DOGE Downstream Impact." Private sector cuts have been concentrated in industries under structural pressure. Technology and telecom firms are reducing head count as they shift investment toward AI and cloud infrastructure. Retailers have been hit by softer discretionary spending, higher costs and changing consumer habits, prompting store closures. Other sectors above historical layoff norms include finance, business services and transportation, where companies are scaling back capacity after pandemic-era expansions. Reasons Behind the Cuts Economic conditions—including inflation, shifting demand and global uncertainty—have been cited in more than 170,000 job cuts so far this year. Business restructuring, store or plant closures, and bankruptcies have also played a major role. Fabian Stephany, an assistant professor for AI and work at the University of Oxford, told Newsweek the current wave of layoffs was best understood as a combination of "late-cycle cost discipline and post-pandemic normalization," rather than a sign of a full-scale employment downturn. "Many firms are correcting for the overhiring of 2021 to 2022 while protecting margins through productivity gains, some of which are enabled by automation," he said. Technological change is another driver. Automation and AI have been linked to more than 20,000 layoffs in 2025, with another 10,000 explicitly attributed to AI. Stephany said AI's immediate effects were most visible in "transactional, routine, and standardized work—particularly in junior roles." Jason Leverant, the COO and president of AtWork Group, told Newsweek that automation tended to hit jobs that fell into what he called the "Three D's": dull, dirty or dangerous. Many white-collar positions in the "dull" category are already being replaced by AI tools. Both Leverant and Stephany said AI would keep reshaping the labor market this year. "The likely path is steady, incremental reshaping of roles through attrition and slower hiring, rather than sharp spikes in AI-related layoffs," Stephany said. Labor Market Outlook Despite the scale of layoffs, unemployment remains in the low 4 percent range, suggesting that many displaced workers are having luck finding new roles. But Leverant said that not all workers were likely to transition quickly. "I expect to see extended periods of unemployment for people in middle-management and highly specialized roles where openings are much more limited," he said. If cuts continue at the current pace, unemployment could edge higher later this year. Leverant said that while the concentration of layoffs in the government sector gave him some confidence in the health of private sector hiring, "if job cuts continue and the unemployment rate rises, it will only spark further concern, uncertainty, and potential volatility in the markets, creating a vicious cycle that we need to break."

Liverpool reach agreement to sign Giovanni Leoni from Parma https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6552813/2025/08/14/liverpool-transfers-giovanni-leoni/ Liverpool have reached an agreement with Parma to sign defender Giovanni Leoni. The Premier League club will pay a fee in the region of £26million (€30m) plus add-ons for the 18-year-old Italian youth international. The player has been given permission to travel to Merseyside to agree personal terms and undergo a medical, which is expected to begin on Thursday. The club’s plan is for Leoni to be immediately integrated into the first-team set-up for the upcoming season with any suggestion of a loan move completely ruled out. Leoni only joined Parma last summer and went on to make 17 appearances, including 14 from the start, in Serie A, as the newly-promoted club finished 16th. He has been capped by Italy’s Under-19 side, and was contracted to Parma until summer 2029. Liverpool have been looking for defensive reinforcements since selling Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen last month with the move for Leoni in conjunction with the pursuit of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace. “The clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn’t signed for us yet. The moment he signs for us, I can go into more detail,” head coach Arne Slot said of Leoni in his press conference on Thursday. “And the other one is of course (Guehi) the answer you always get from me. He’s not our player. Unfortunately he was the captain of the team who we lost against last Sunday. If you want to have any talks about him you should go to Palace, to (Oliver) Glasner and ask him his opinion about him.” Slot only has two fully fit central defensive options at his disposal ahead of the Premier League opener against Bournemouth on Friday in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, although Joe Gomez has returned to training after an Achilles injury. The Premier League champions have enjoyed a busy summer with Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong arriving from Bayer Leverkusen alongside Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt and Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth while the club maintain an ongoing interest in Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak.

always detested that fucker

sounds like a termite infestation better call Anticimex

the numbers are always revised as more data comes in, it has been like that for decades and Trump can kiss his ludicrous calls for interest rate cuts good-bye

Chelsea co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley, Laurence Stewart sign new contracts https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6553098/2025/08/14/paul-winstanley-laurence-stewart-Chelsea-contracts/ Chelsea’s co-sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, have signed new contracts at the club. Co-director of recruitment Joe Shields and director of global recruitment Sam Jewell have also signed fresh terms until 2031. The quartet all started their roles at Chelsea following the takeover by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital-led consortium in May 2022. Stewart and Shields joined from Monaco and Southampton respectively in October of that year, with Winstanley and Jewell moving across in November 2022 and February last year respectively. The new regime at Chelsea had already spent more than £1billion on player transfers ahead of this summer window, with fans and pundits often critical after the significant turnover in the playing squad resulted in 12th- and sixth-place finishes between 2022 and 2024, a period which saw four head coaches lead the men’s team before Enzo Maresca was appointed last summer. What You Should Read Next Chelsea’s co-sporting directors were hired for the long term and that is how they will be judged Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley are the subjects of fans' anger but they are key components of Chelsea's plans for the future Optimism has shifted around Chelsea after Maresca guided the west London club to a fourth-place finish and triumphs in the Conference League and Club World Cup in 2024-25. Chelsea have continued to spend with the signings of Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato and Liam Delap for around £240m this summer, while bringing in just over £200m in sales. As well as the playing staff, Stewart and Winstanley have overseen a period of change in Chelsea’s recruitment operation since their arrival, with around 20 new hires across the scouting and data teams alone. There was also leadership change in the academy following the departures of the long-serving Neil Bath and Jim Fraser in the summer of 2024. Glenn van der Kraan then joined from Manchester City in the role of academy technical director. Winstanley and Stewart also led the process to replace Emma Hayes as Chelsea Women head coach in 2024 alongside head of women’s football Paul Green, with Sonia Bompastor recruited from Lyon, as well as overseeing the then-world record signing of Naomi Girma from the San Diego Wave in January. Chelsea start the new Premier League campaign on Sunday at home against Crystal Palace, while Bompastor’s side begin their Women’s Super League title defence against Manchester City on September 5.

Crochet! Bandanas! Bloomers! How summer 2025 are you? From branded bikinis to pedicure flip-flops — these are the trends it’s impossible to avoid this August https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/fashion/article/summer-2025-trends-ghrtt2t7n Umbro with everything, a new take on the bucket hat and boots to be worn all summer long, whatever the weather. Your 2025 wardrobe is teetering close to the cliché zone — but if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Labubu mania Forget Brat, it’s Labubu’s summer with the Chinese toy firm Pop Mart (the company behind those creepy little dolls) predicting a 350 per cent increase in profits. That’s if you can get your hands on one, of course — although luckily (?), the bag accessories have spawned a thousand copy cats. Inspired by Nordic folklore, the pastel shades of Labubu’s fluffy body combined with the gently weird expressions are said to be the perfect blend of cute and ugly. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. Hair scarves If your summer involved belting out Champagne Supernova in a field/stadium somewhere you may have chosen a bucket hat over this year’s biggest headwear accessory — but there’s still time. A gingham or floral scarf, tied over the hair in a jaunty manner, is what the world’s most instagrammable have been using to shield their scalps from the sun. Think the Queen on a corgi walk meets Austrian milkmaid meets Gen Z pop starlet. What a racket You played pickleball once and that was on an office day out that you only turned up to under duress — but that hasn’t stopped you from adding a padel item or two to your wardrobe this summer. With endless collaborations to choose from, that Ivy League look — part tennis hot shot, part Dawson’s Creek character — is impossible to escape. The internet is currently filled with padel girlies in varsity knits and teeny kilts. Jelly shoes We can’t promise that summer’s squeakiest footwear trend won’t give you blisters (welcome to the summer of Compeed, people) but we can guarantee that in a few steps you’ll be transported back to a childhood spent crabbing in Skegness. Jelly shoes are the nostalgic Nineties trend no one expected. Pedicure flip-flops The post-pedicure walk of shame in those rubber flip-flops that salons hand out to those who turn up without sandals has become the height of fashion. Yes, rubber flips-flops (the more basic the better) are fashion gold right now. At last month’s couture week the street style world’s most stylish wore theirs with everything from gowns to statement skirts. The Row’s £700 ones are, incredibly, sold out. Black Havaianas as a fashion flex? Good luck running for the bus. Rambler girlies You’ve got the gorpcore shorts, the hybrid walking sandals (Keen’s are the fashion fans’ choice) and the obligatory Yeti Rambler cup (even if your daily “hike” is to the local matcha bar). See also oversized walking trousers and anything from Gramicci. Specs appeal Breaking Bad-style spectacles have been a thing for a while, but now sunglasses in the same shape have risen through the ranks. Often with lenses in shades of orange or lilac, tinted aviators are not just a celebrity favourite, they’re also all over the shops. Sticking the boot in Some terrifyingly high temperatures have done nothing to deter leather lovers, who have persisted in wearing heavy biker boots throughout this summer. Cuban-heeled stompers have become a fail-safe for festivals, summer parties and beyond — but we’re mostly concerned about ankle ventilation. Diamond geezers We couldn’t get through a round-up of the season’s most ubiquitous trends without taking a moment for the drill top, which has put the British sportswear brand Umbro back in the nation’s collective psyche. It helps that Liam Gallagher is its most famous ambassador. Shell bags Life’s a beach and then you carry one — yes, bags composed of shell-inspired sequins or with pearlescent effects are everywhere this summer. To make like your favourite content creator, carry yours while posing on a balcony in Hydra wearing silky shorts. Holding a digital camera will complete the look. The market stall bucket hat An Ibiza hippy market or a cute little beach stall in Thailand is how you’d like to answer the question, “Where did you get your hat?” when it is asked in acknowledgment of your new favourite crocheted bucket style (which has been a regular on your head since June). The answer, of course, is Damson Madder. Keep on running In enclaves of east London Adidas running shorts have earned “mum shorts” status and Paul Mescal is to blame. Whether you’re heading for a coffee shop or festival field, the way to wear them is with a cropped shirt (ideally blue) and ballet flats. This ain’t Texas Beyoncé fans who wanted their Cowboy Carter high to continue all summer long have been wearing their straw stetsons and stomping cowboy boots with pride. From train carriages to offices, Beycore is the new daycore. Yee-ha. Polka-dot princesses Floral dress plus white trainers is the fashion sum we’re all delighted to see the back of. Prissy polka-dot prom queen (try saying that after a rosé) is the new contender for the throne, as seen on everyone from the Princess of Wales to Hailey Bieber this summer. Branded bikinis How do you know someone’s bikini cost them more than a round of drinks at the Blue Marlin? Because it’s written all over their chest. Status swimwear — think Burberry checks, Pucci swirls, LV monograms — is the jet-set uniform du jour. And the really wild bit is that you don’t need to be on a beach to wear it. How the other half swim, eh?

Tudor introduces Black Bay 54 in lagoon blue with refined aesthetic Summer vibes: Tudor's black bay 54 lagoon blue transforms heritage dive watch aesthetic https://www.themanual.com/fashion/tudor-black-bay-54-lagoon-blue-contemporary-dive-watch-five-link-bracelet/ Tudor adds “Lagoon Blue” to the Black Bay 54 collection. This new model transforms the dive watch, which took ideas from old watches, into a refined timepiece that anyone can wear—it fits beach life and summer activities perfectly. The watch costs $4,350. While the new color keeps the 37mm size, it completely changes how the watch looks. The Black Bay 54 “Lagoon Blue,” reference M79000-0001, keeps the original’s 37mm diameter and 11.2mm thickness—ensuring the watch wears well on a wide range of wrist sizes. Tudor has changed up several parts of the design, creating a softer, more current look for their smallest dive watch. The biggest change is on the rotating bezel. Instead of the old black anodized aluminum insert, there’s now a mirror-polished steel bezel. The steel features a sandblasted 60-minute timing scale, and this polished surface matches the updated hands and hour markers. These now have mirror-polished frames containing white Grade A Swiss Super-LumiNova, replacing the previous gold finish. Related: The Blue Planet II Atlantic elevates wrist artistry with oceanic elegance The pale blue dial, with its grainy texture, gives the model its “Lagoon Blue” name. This color joins a wave of recent watches using similar “Tiffany blue” tones across the industry. Tudor itself offered a similar shade on the Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue” earlier in 2025. It’s clear the market wants this look, even if plenty of brands are offering it. Tudor also changed how the watch connects to the wrist. The “Lagoon Blue” comes only on a five-link stainless steel bracelet with polished center links, which is different from the original BB54’s three-link rivet-style bracelet. That older bracelet was a nod to Tudor Submariners from the 1950s. The new five-link design highlights the watch’s modern direction and keeps Tudor’s T-fit clasp for easy adjustments. The Caliber MT5400 automatic movement stays the same—it offers a 70-hour power reserve and COSC chronometer certification, along with Tudor’s own accuracy standards of -2/+4 seconds per day. While it doesn’t have the METAS Master Chronometer certification found on some new Tudor models, the movement is still perfectly suited to the watch’s purpose. Tudor’s advertising highlights the “Lagoon Blue” as a watch for a gender-neutral beach lifestyle. It’s not aimed at collectors who chase vintage-inspired pieces—just like Tudor did with the Black Bay 58 Burgundy and solid gold models. This shows Tudor’s move away from strictly history-inspired watches, aiming for a broader, more current appeal. The $4,350 price is a small increase over the black dial bracelet version, reflecting the more complex five-link bracelet and improved finishing details. Even so, the watch is still reasonably priced within Tudor’s dive watch range. Black Bay 54m79000-0 https://www.tudorwatch.com/en/watch-family/daring-watches/m79000-0001 STRAIGHT FROM PARADISE The Black Bay 54 “Lagoon Blue” evokes somewhere warm, where the sun shines onto waves of azure water and white sand beaches. A watch can do more than tell time, it can shift your mindset. Its magical combination of perfect proportions with its 37mm case, “Lagoon Blue” sand-textured dial, and mirror-polished bezel, as well as its comfortable five-link bracelet transports its wearer to a hammock laced up between two palm trees right where the water meets the sand. DIVING INTO THE PAST The Black Bay line was conceived with the past in mind. The Black Bay 54 is perhaps the most true-to-form Black Bay to have been created thus far. The Oyster Prince Submariner reference 7922 is a formidable candidate to draw inspiration from, as it was known to have been evaluated and consequently adopted by the French and US Navies and widely used by diving professionals. The Black Bay 54 follows this tradition with thoroughly modern touches, like a subtle sand-textured dial and a “T-fit” clasp for the perfect fit. And of course, the cutting-edge Manufacture Calibre MT5400.

Chelsea to give share of Club World Cup player bonuses to family of Diogo Jota, Andre Silva https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6551143/2025/08/14/diogo-jota-family-Chelsea-donation/ Chelsea will use a portion of Club World Cup bonuses paid to players to make a financial donation to the family of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. The west London club were crowned champions of FIFA’s newly-expanded tournament in July, defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Their success in the tournament earned the club an estimated $114.6million (£84.4m). Chelsea have subsequently allocated a $15.5m (£11.4m) fund to be distributed equally between the players who represented Enzo Maresca’s side during the tournament, with a decision made jointly between club and players that an equal payment will also be made to Jota’s family. The overall value of each portion tallies more than $500k before it’s subjected to currency conversion costs from US dollars into UK pound sterling, alongside relevant employer costs, taxes and social security costs. Liverpool forward Jota and his brother Andre Silva, a footballer at Portuguese club Penafiel, both died in a car accident in the Spanish province of Zamora on July 3, 10 days prior to Chelsea’s Club World Cup final victory. Liverpool recently unveiled plans for a memorial sculpture at their Anfield stadium as the focal point for a permanent tribute to Jota, who scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club. The club’s players will wear a ‘Forever 20’ emblem on their shirts and stadium jackets for the duration of the 2025-26 season while the LFC Foundation, the club’s official charity, will launch a grassroots football programme in the Portugal international’s name. A special fan mosaic and a minute’s silence is planned for Arne Slot’s side’s first game of the Premier League season against Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday. Liverpool announced last month that they were permanently retiring the No. 20 shirt at all levels of the club in memory of Jota, who joined the club from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020.

How Chelsea play: Building from the goalkeeper, a box-shaped midfield and lots of short corners https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6550962/2025/08/14/how-Chelsea-play-building-from-goalkeeper-box-shaped-midfield-short-corners/ Many outside the club might only admit it grudgingly, but Chelsea’s extraordinarily well-funded project under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly has finally achieved football legitimacy. That much was clear in May, when Chelsea secured a return to the Champions League with a fourth-place finish in the Premier League before lifting the UEFA Conference League. “For me, the biggest achievement this season is that exactly one year ago, no one was talking about Chelsea for football (reasons), but talking about the big squad, big money,” head coach Enzo Maresca said in a press conference before the FIFA Club World Cup final. “Now, no one is talking about this, but they are talking about the way we play, and the way we win games. This is personally the biggest achievement of this season.” What You Should Read Next How Chelsea won the Club World Cup: Big bonuses, training-ground deals and ‘scary’ Palmer The inside story of Chelsea's unlikely triumph in New Jersey that was 329 days in the making The fact that Maresca’s young team then comprehensively beat newly-crowned Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium to win the tournament only served to underline his point. Chelsea are a serious side again, but how exactly do they play? Let’s talk about it. Maresca’s appointment in the summer of 2024 was a clear signal of the football direction the club wanted to take: a shift towards the Pep Guardiola school of possession-focused, positional play, implemented by a man who, like Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, served as Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City. Equally as clear was Maresca’s specific interpretation of the Guardiola style: a 4-2-3-1 system that shifts to become more of a 3-4-3 in possession, with the ‘four’ arranged in a box shape consisting of two defensive midfielders — one of which is typically an inverted full-back — and two attacking midfielders operating in the half-spaces, or ‘pockets’. Maresca’s box midfield can be seen below, during last season’s home meeting with Arsenal… This structure, which grants a measure of balance by enabling the team to attack with five players while the other five remain behind the ball to protect against counter-attacks, tends to be Chelsea’s default alignment. But throughout last season, Maresca demonstrated that he is flexible when it comes to how he gets to it. Sometimes it was left-back Marc Cucurella inverting into the base of midfield, sometimes it was right-back Malo Gusto moving in from the right. Sometimes one or the other would instead push up into one of the attacking midfield roles, with two natural defensive midfielders behind them. Cucurella is also integral to Maresca’s preferred tactical plan B: a more attacking alignment in which the inverted full-back pushes all the way up into the final third to enable Chelsea to attack with six players rather than five, keeping just one defensive midfielder to screen the back three. This tactical shift led to Cucurella scoring several crucial goals for Chelsea last season, including a late winner against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in May… Gusto is a more awkward fit inverting into midfield, and Maresca has not returned to it since the Frenchman was targeted by Real Betis in the UEFA Conference League final. He is, however, a real overlapping threat, and was utilised in that manner to great effect against PSG in the Club World Cup final, creating the opening goal with one surge upfield. Chelsea’s campaign in the United States was the stage for Maresca to get significantly more creative tactically. His experimental 4-2-2-2 shape against Flamengo in the group stage failed, but moving to a 4-3-3 enabled his team to press Fluminense much more effectively in the semi-final and in the final against PSG he started talisman Cole Palmer on the right and Reece James in midfield, enabling his club captain to drop into right-back when Gusto ran forward. Maresca’s team were also highly aggressive out of possession against the European champions, pressing man-to-man. Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah both pushed well into the PSG half to track Ousmane Dembele whenever he drifted deep, with Moises Caicedo filling the gap in the defensive line behind them. On other occasions, Chelsea are happy to drop off a little into a mid-block and use their attackers to screen opposition passing angles through their lines, trusting their defenders and goalkeeper to sweep up any high balls over the top. When forced to defend deep, they often try to play offside on the edge of their own penalty area — a strategy practised by Maresca’s other coaching mentor, Manuel Pellegrini. This was exploited by several opponents last season, but it also routinely catches attackers offside. On the ball, Maresca’s preference is for his side to build with short passes from his goalkeeper, often with the aim of baiting opponents into a press that creates space higher up the pitch. Chelsea are very capable of moving the ball forward quickly in such situations, with plenty of speed in their attacking line and an elite transition passer in Palmer to release them. But against PSG, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was instructed to kick longer, bypassing PSG’s attempted press and often isolating Gusto against Nuno Mendes. It proved to be inspired. Chelsea’s other tactical evolution at the Club World Cup was a shift towards short corners. Last season, Chelsea’s 4.1 goals per 100 set pieces ranked 10th in the Premier League, while their 4.6 goals conceded per 100 set pieces was the sixth-worst in the division. Maresca and set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva do not have the biggest or most aerially talented squad to work with, so passing short at attacking corners makes sense. The structure is illustrated below, with one player positioned on the byline and another level with the penalty area to form a triangle that entices opponents out to defend. Chelsea manoeuvred this situation into an own goal from Palmeiras defender Agustin Giay in the Club World Cup quarter-final, and it has the added benefit of limiting the risk of giving up defensive transition. All in all, Chelsea took 26 of their 43 attacking corners at the tournament short. This summer’s recruitment should make Chelsea even more versatile. Up front, Liam Delap and Joao Pedro both made an immediate positive impact at the Club World Cup and each offers a different aspect of what Nicolas Jackson provided to this team last season, while also providing a more clinical touch in the final third… On the left flank, Maresca can pick from Jamie Gittens or Pedro Neto, depending on which angles of attack he wants to take. On the right, Brazilian prodigy Estevao can provide an X factor and lessen the creative burden that weighed heavily on Palmer at times last season. Chelsea have far better and more varied tools to pick apart opposition low blocks. Behind the front line, the rounded skill set of returning loanee Andrey Santos should make Chelsea’s midfield more fluid and flexible. Caicedo and Cucurella, two of Maresca’s most-picked players in 2024-25, finally have specialist understudies in the forms of Dario Essugo and Jorrel Hato, the latter of whom can also cover for the injured Colwill at centre-back. Maresca fielded 27 players at the Club World Cup, more than any other manager in the competition. He has more options than ever, and Chelsea’s identity is more sophisticated as a result.

Cooking the Inflation and Jobs Numbers Today on TAP: There are some genuine problems with BLS methods. A hack Trump appointee is not the answer. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-13-cooking-inflation-jobs-numbers-trump-bls/ Trump’s appointment of a hack loyalist, E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation, to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics could actually lead to some interesting debates if Trump’s goal were not to rig the data. The BLS derives the Consumer Price Index by sampling tens of thousands of actual prices in different parts of the country, and then weighting them to create a “market basket” of typical consumer purchases. To calculate the unemployment rate, the BLS conducts two different surveys, one of households and the other of employers. Antoni has objected that the BLS often issues major revisions after the initial CPI numbers, because some sources are slower to report than others. Likewise jobs numbers. He recently called for the BLS to issue its own reports quarterly rather than monthly. More mainstream critics than Antoni have pointed out that the BLS methodology is outmoded in an era when large retailers keep all of their prices on computers updated minute to minute. MIT economists Alberto Cavallo and Roberto Rigobon have created a “Billion Prices Project,” which scrapes daily online pricing data from retailers to compute real-time inflation. Many other economists have also noted that the employer survey on jobs sometimes contradicts the household survey. The problem, however, is that Trump did not appoint Antoni to make technical refinements for the sake of better data. He appointed him to cook the numbers. And both things are not possible. The consumer price numbers that BLS released this week were pretty mixed. The July increase was only 0.2 percent, down from the June rate of 0.3 percent. But core inflation, less food and energy, rose at a 3.1 percent annual rate, which is above the previous several months. Whatever the eventual effect of Trump’s tariffs, it hasn’t fully shown up in the CPI. So it’s awfully hard, even for Trump, to contend that his enemies have rigged the statistics when the numbers are bad but that the figures are legitimate when they are good. One of the main consumers of the BLS price data is the Federal Reserve. The Fed looks closely at inflation trends in deciding whether to raise or lower interest rates or keep them the same. The fact that inflation was relatively low in July suggests that the Fed could well make a modest cut in rates at its September meeting, though rising core inflation may cut against that. The Fed’s economists will be looking intently at any adjustments that Antoni tries to make, either in BLS methods or in revisions after the fact. The Fed system employs some 500 Ph.D. economists and a total of more than 15,000 professional employees, dwarfing the BLS. The Fed could develop its own data series on jobs and prices, reinforcing the role of the Fed as one of the few centers of policy and expertise that Trump doesn’t control. If Antoni succeeds in rigging the BLS numbers, businesses and scholars, as well as the Fed itself, would rely on the Fed’s numbers. The problem, however, as economist Teresa Ghilarducci points out, is that a variety of laws specify the CPI as the basis for adjustments in everything from Social Security checks, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), annual increases for federal and military pensions, veterans’ benefits, federal tax brackets and penalties, state minimum wages, HUD housing subsidies, and collective-bargaining agreements across the private sector. So while the Fed can help keep the BLS honest, there is no substitute for data that is free from political manipulation.

with his father, Nelson, a well known footballer in Portugal he is 17yo in this pic from 2020 they are Cape Verdean his mum

he won the pen shoot-out

Many of the tariffs did not full take effect until recently or were 'TACO'd (ie Trump Always Chickens Out) and kicked down the road. Also many of the large firms built up inventory on a pre-tariff basis but those inventories will soon be gone, or are gone already. Every time the US has tried a high tariff regime in modern times, it has been disastrous. Trump, the wilfully ignorant economic 'thinker', thinks Smoot-Hawley was wonderful. 🤪 Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot–Hawley_Tariff_Act The Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, was a protectionist trade measure signed into law in the United States by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930. Named after its chief congressional sponsors, Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley, the act raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods in an effort to shield American industries from foreign competition during the onset of the Great Depression, which had started in October 1929. Hoover signed the bill against the advice of many senior economists, yielding to pressure from his party and business leaders. Intended to bolster domestic employment and manufacturing, the tariffs instead deepened the Depression because the U.S.'s trading partners retaliated with tariffs of their own, leading to U.S. exports and global trade plummeting. Economists and historians widely regard the act as a policy misstep, and it remains a cautionary example of protectionist policy in modern economic debates. It was followed by more liberal trade agreements, such as the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934.

woot spuds choke on it hard

another horrid spuds pen

it is in Vicario's home town (Udine)

horrid pen

so spursy

lol 2 2

1 2 watch spuds choke this away