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Former Yankee Michael King will help lead the visiting Padres past the Guardians on Friday night, Stitches predicts.

The Jets will welcome the Buccaneers to MetLife Stadium on Friday night for their first preseason game of the 2026 season. 

Does Sybylla marry Harry in the end?

The ornate Staten Island mob mansion that just can’t find a buyer is back on the market, again.

Listen carefully, and it was there: Edwin Diaz had a plan of action. Addressing a crowd of reporters in front of his locker in the wake of the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, Diaz said he would watch video of his latest ninth-inning meltdown at home later that night. Not every...

New research has revealed that more than half of Americans admit they regularly fail to step outside during an in-office workday.

US Lost 25% Of Its Reaper Drones In Iran War, Officials Estimate

Amid a recent avalanche of media headlines warning of significantly depleted US weapons stockpiles, The Washington Post is out with another fresh report Thursday which sounds the alarm, this time over advanced drones.

The US military lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones during the Iran war, American defense officials were quoted as saying. The same officials estimate that this constitutes roughly 25% of the Pentagon's fleet.

2024 image of American MQ-9 Reaper UAV brought down in Yemen’s Marib. ClashReport/X

If these were the type of small, cheap drones which have been prevalent in the Russia-Ukraine war, no one would see this as much of a problem, but Reapers are highly advanced surveillance systems and also hunter-killer aircraft, capable of flying for 27+ hours straight, and with some variants able to push past 40 hours. 

Made by General Atomics, each drone costs between $30 million to $50 million. With 45 drones wiped out, this means that well over one billion dollars in hardware was either shot out of the sky or crashed in the context of Iran war operations.

The US has also at times lost parked aircraft at bases that came under Iranian attack in the Gulf. This was especially true of even pricier large aerial refueling tankers.

The Washington Post explains why the Reaper has been vulnerable to shootdown by Iranian forces over the past several months in the following:

The aircraft have seen heavy use around the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route that has become a major flash point in the conflict — and a key obstacle to negotiating a lasting peace deal. But the drones fly slowly and often at low altitudes, making them relatively easy targets for Iran’s military and its regional proxies in Yemen and Iraq.

A fourth U.S. official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Pentagon data, said that not all of the lost Reapers were shot down. An unspecified number crashed after their operators’ communications link to the drones failed, the official said.

That latter scenario constitutes quite a costly communications error scenario. It's unclear whether there may have been some instances that the comms were intercepted or hacked.

As we featured earlier in the US-Iran conflict, the MQ-9 Reaper drone is being gradually phased out by the US military, although General Atomics continues to produce it for foreign customers.

Prior rare battle footage of Reaper in action over Middle East skies:

Footage of a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper UAV engaging an Iranian missile launcher with an AGM-114 Hellfire via @hey_itsmyturn. pic.twitter.com/vwjePW6ivU

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 1, 2026

Iran's proven ability to shoot down MQ-9 Reaper Drones is another demonstration of how it has managed to deploy some air defense, despite prior long-running claims from President Trump that the country's defenses had been "obliterated".

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 14:40

Trade $5 and get $150 in Predictions Dollars with the DraftKings Predictions promo code.

Kennedy Center Votes To Put Trump's Name On Building, Close For Renovations

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times,

The John F. Kennedy Center’s board voted on Aug. 13 to close the venue for renovations and place President Donald Trump’s name on the building.

“In its meeting today, the board voted to change the front of the ​building’s facade to read ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated ⁠By President Donald J. Trump,‘ and renamed the physical site ’the President Donald J. Trump Plaza,’” said Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex ​officio member on the iconic performing arts center’s board.

The final decision, however, will be up to U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

While the board voted to close the main building for renovations, the REACH, a separate building on the campus, will stay open for limited programming.

It is unclear how long the renovations will take. The Epoch Times has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment.

President Donald Trump announced in February that the Kennedy Center would be closed for a two-year renovation.

Cooper blocked the planned move on May 29 and ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the institution.

On June 11, the Trump administration appealed the ruling, only to be denied.

The Kennedy Center requested that the court give it more time to follow the order, citing that its management planned to present options to the board for a mid-July vote.

The choices included a full closure with no ongoing programming, a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the construction work, and executing “a highly limited series of phased closures” to fix the building’s most critical infrastructure needs while having a full slate of programming.

The venue claimed the court order “did not affirmatively require the board to reschedule programming that had previously been canceled or to seek new programming,” and did not stop the board from giving the green light for closing the building.

“Center management currently intends for the center and its building to maintain an operational model past the originally planned closure date of July 5,” the filing reads.

“That model, which the center is currently following, contemplates continued public access to the center’s public spaces and to the living memorial for President Kennedy.”

Trump implemented multiple changes to the Kennedy Center last year, including firing the board and its president, David Rubenstein, whom he said did not share his “vision for a Golden Age in arts and culture,” and renovating the institution, which he called “tired, broken, and dilapidated.”

Trump replaced the board with new appointees, alongside existing ex officio members designated by Congress. The new board then elected the president as chairman.

In a May 29 Truth Social post, after the court blocked the building’s planned two-year closure and renaming, Trump said the venue was originally scheduled to undergo “large-scale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance.”

The court ruling blocking the name change and closure was in response to a lawsuit brought by Beatty.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 14:20

"PFT Live" took a concerning turn Friday.

We all have embarrassing moments, and some may feel petrified to talk about them publicly, but there is one girl who takes the cake for wearing her embarrassing moment with stride. 

Move out of the way, Taylor Swift! “The Real Housewives of Orange County” ladies head to Las Vegas in season 20, episode 6 to live out their “Life of a Show Girl” fantasies. “Virtual Reali-Tea” co-hosts Danny Murphy and Evan Real are here to give you all the scoop. In this episode, Heather Dubrow attempts...

Move out of the way, Taylor Swift! “The Real Housewives of Orange County” ladies head to Las Vegas in season 20, episode 6 to live out their “Life of a Show Girl” fantasies. “Virtual Reali-Tea” co-hosts Danny Murphy and Evan Real are here to give you all the scoop. In this episode, Heather Dubrow attempts...

For travelers looking to soak in some of California's best scenery without the roadside rage, there's an underrated rail hack.

They’re still fanning the flames.

FBI Seized Mark Walter's Devices Months Before Record $12.5 Billion Lakers Sale

Summary:

• Thursday: Yahoo Sports reporter Jack Baer said, "Mark Walter is reportedly facing a cash crunch."
• Thursday: FT reports that the FBI seized devices belonging to Mark Walter last year as part of an investigation.
• Wednesday: Josh Kushner and Bob Iger stun the sports world with a record-shattering $12 billion Lakers takeover deal.

FT Reports Has Probed Mark Walter's Empire 

One day after billionaire Mark Walter announced the record $12.5 billion sale of the Los Angeles Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner and former Disney chief Bob Iger, the Financial Times reported that the FBI seized the phone of Guggenheim Investments President Dina DiLorenzo last year as part of a federal investigation into entities controlled by Walter.

DiLorenzo's device was taken the same day federal agents seized Walter's phone and laptop in September, according to people familiar with the federal probe. Important to note, Walter is the co-founder and CEO of Guggenheim Partners. 

They noted that prosecutors focused on whether Guggenheim Investments properly recorded revenue within Guggenheim Private Investments.

Guggenheim said auditors issued "unqualified opinions" on the 2024 and 2025 financial statements of the subsidiary that owns the private-investments business. Walter-controlled insurers previously disclosed subpoenas from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The report continued:

Insurance companies controlled by Walter disclosed in June that they had received subpoenas in connection with investigations by the US attorney's office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The US attorney's office declined to comment. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

While the scrutiny of the insurers has been publicly disclosed, the seizure of DiLorenzo's phone suggests authorities have also examined Walter's other companies, including Guggenheim, the securities firm and asset management giant. It was not clear what stage of the investigations authorities were at.

. . .

Walter's holdings, including insurers Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life and Annuity, now sit inside TWG. The insurers disclosed in June that they held more than $20bn of investments in affiliated entities, which they had previously marked as unaffiliated. They are now seeking to divest or restructure these holdings to bring down their percentage of related-party investments.

Yahoo Sports reporter Jack Baer noted earlier, "Mark Walter is reportedly facing a cash crunch." 

Wall Street Journal noted the same:

The closeness of the federal investigation to the abrupt sale announcement puts new scrutiny on Walter's decision to sell the Lakers in one of the largest transactions in sports history. 

Josh Kushner, Bob Iger Stun Sports World With Record-Shattering $12 Billion Lakers Takeover Deal

The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger for a record-breaking $12 billion, according to a new ESPN report.

The sports news website said:

The businessmen were involved in the expansion process in Las Vegas, but in a stunning turn, they pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter, who had purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Buss family last year for a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion.

The $12 billion buyout price implies an increase of at least 20% in the Lakers' value in less than a year.

Josh Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, and Iger released the following statement:

"As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world. We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss.

"Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles."

TWG Global CEO Mark Walter, who purchased control of the Lakers from the Buss family last year at a valuation of about $10 billion, has a sports holdings portfolio that includes stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Chelsea Football Club, the Professional Women's Hockey League and several auto-racing teams, including Cadillac Formula 1.

"Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life, an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family. I am grateful to Jeanie Buss, the Buss family, the players, and the staff for welcoming me into this chapter. The Lakers belong to Los Angeles, and I have every confidence the best is still ahead," Walter said in a statement.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/14/2026 - 14:10

At 102 years old, Glenn Ward still has a healthy appetite. And when his birthday rolls around, there's one place he particularly wants to eat — Hooters.

Don’t miss your chance to float this majestic river before summer ends. It’s prime time for lazy currents.

More cracks are showing in California's wine business as a wine cap maker facility in Modesto is expected to permanently lay off 66 employees.

They're finally making a splash.