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ESPN is running it back.

En vogue icons stomped the museum’s swanky staircase in dazzling disguises from top fashion houses. 

Heroes and zeros from the Knicks’ 137-98 Game 1 decimation of the 76ers on Monday night at the Garden.

HOUSTON –– The Dodgers finally found the ingredients needed to snap out of their recent offensive malaise on Monday. A hitter-friendly venue, in the form of Houston’s Daikin Park. A woeful opposing pitching staff, facing an Astros team with the majors’ highest ERA. And, after a two-week scuffle that had frustrated almost every member of...

Report card from the Knicks' 137-98 Game 1 win over the 76ers on Monday night at the Garden.

Horrifying "Rape Festival" Sparks Worldwide Outrage

Videos circulating on social media out of Nigeria have ignited shock and horror after appearing to show groups of men chasing, stripping and sexually assaulting women in broad daylight during a traditional “fertility" festival in the country’s southern Delta State, according to news.com.au.

The incidents unfolded on March 19 during the Alue-Do festival in Ozoro, a triennial rite in the Uruamudhu community of the Ozoro Kingdom. Intended to invoke blessings for married women struggling with conception, the event involves processions to a community shrine. Local customs reportedly advise single women to remain indoors. However, footage depicted young women fleeing through crowded streets, pursued by mobs who tore at their clothing, groped them and subjected them to public humiliation while bystanders filmed and, in some cases, appeared to cheer.

The graphic clips, which spread rapidly on platforms including X, Instagram and Facebook, have fueled national outrage, trending hashtags such as #endsexualviolence.

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A post shared by Every Woman is Worthy® (@everywomanisworthy)

Delta State police have responded with arrests. Authorities confirmed that at least 15 people, including a community leader and several young men identified in the videos, are in custody, the BBC reports. Police spokesperson Bright Edafe described the scenes as “alarming, disgusting and embarrassing,” adding that suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for prosecution. Investigations continue, though officials noted that no formal complaints of rape have been filed to date. Some women reportedly required hospitalization.

One of the alleged victims told police she was attacked within minutes of arriving at the event to the "rape festival."

“Immediately I came down, they started shouting ‘hold her, hold her, that’s a woman’, and they swooped on me like bees,” the alleged victim said, according to the Daily Express. “A large crowd started pulling my clothes until they stripped me naked. They were pulling my breasts and touching my whole body … I was shouting for help.”

Women’s rights activists claim this isn’t the first event where mass rape has occured.

“This is not just about what happened in those videos,” said Rita Aiki, an activist with the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, the New York Post reported. “It’s about the conditions that make it possible for this kind of violence to happen in public, with so many people watching and no one stepping in.”

“It tells you something about what is being normalized in a given society,” she added.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/04/2026 - 23:00

Crime in NYC began its historic rise in 2019 when bail reform was passed, releasing thousands of career criminals onto our streets.

At age 60, Tom Green is slated to be one of the oldest college athletes in US history, about a decade after beating cancer.

This wasn't the 51-point blowout from Game 6 against the Hawks, but the Knicks still produced a second consecutive blowout in the postseason.

Meta Raising $13 Billion SPV For Texas Data Center As Its CDS Hits Record

Back in January, just days before the latest private crash swept across markets, we reminded readers that one of the biggest abusers of private credit SPVs was none other than Meta which as of 2025 was "already neck deep in off-balance sheet debt." We then showed a schematic of its $27.3 billion SPV with private credit ground zero - Blue Owl - titled "Project Beignet", which was created for Meta's Hyperion data center, "none of this touches META's balance sheet." We said to expect "hundreds of billions of these in 2026."

As a reminder, META is already neck deep in off-balance sheet debt. Here is a schematic of its $27.3 billion SPV with Blue Owl "Project Beignet" for the Hyperion data center. None of this touches META's balance sheet.

Expect hundreds of billions of these in 2026 https://t.co/794EgSiiZ9 pic.twitter.com/7hMyVW6Lno

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 29, 2026

Little did we know that the first big (ab)user of SPVs in 2026 would be none other than Meta again. 

According to Bloomberg, the company formerly known as Facebook, is working on another financing package wrapped as a special purpose vehicle, this time for a data center in El Paso, that could total over $13 billion -  or roughly half of the Beignet - underscoring Big Tech’s growing reliance on debt to bankroll the infrastructure behind the AI boom, which as we noted earlier is now expected to reach $1.1 trillion in 2027 capex spending.

Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are leading the process this time, according to Bloomberg sources. And just like Project Beignet, a large majority of the financing is expected to be in the form of debt, with the rest equity.

And indeed, Bloomberg confirms that Meta’s effort is similar to an almost $30 billion financing package it completed last year for a data center site in rural Louisiana, and which included $27 billion in debt which Meta raised through a special purpose entity known as Beignet Investor, which we discussed in January, and which is named after the popular Louisiana pastry.  

The food theme has persisted, and this latest transaction, dubbed Sopaipilla, is named after a fried pastry popular in the Southwestern parts of the country.

But why go the extra mile to come up with another complicated scheme instead of getting secured financing? Simple: there is little direct demand for the paper, and second, Meta is spending more than $10 billion on the data center in El Paso, which is a material jump from prior projections. By the time the data center is completed, the final bill will be even greater. 

The gigawatt-sized data center is expected to come online in 2028, and will support more than 300 on-site jobs once completed. Meta has also said its construction needs will grow given the increased investment, and now anticipates 4,000 temporary workers to be on site during the peak construction period.

When Meta sealed Beignet’s deal, where Blue Owl was the co-investor at the Project Beignet Holdings level, the company turned to PIMCO as its anchor lender on the transaction. With Sopaipilla, there is nobody to anchor the deal; instead Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan - who have zero interest in holding on to the debt - will quietly try to syndicate the debt to other capital markets investors. 

Since the Beignet transaction, data center financing has exploded across investment-grade and junk-bond markets, as we first reported last October in "AI Is Now A Debt Bubble Too, Quietly Surpassing All Banks To Become The Largest Sector In The Market." In the high-yield space, more than $20 billion of bonds and loans have launched in the past three weeks alone, while Meta itself raised $25 billion in bonds last week. Still, investors have shown some signs of fatigue amid the deluge, and nowhere more so than in Meta's own Credit Default Swaps which are trading at record wides.

Beside concerns about the company's debt, there are even bigger concerns over Meta’s outlook, as investors worry that the company’s massive investments in AI won’t pay off... just like they failed to do when the company which changed its name to Meta spent tens of billions on the Metaverse, with abysmal returns. The company’s shares are down about 7.5% this year.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/04/2026 - 22:35

The Facebook founder has been married to Chan since May 2012. The couple share three daughters.

The Facebook founder has been married to Chan since May 2012. The couple share three daughters.

Not long after a pregame ceremony to honor the late John Sterling, Aaron Judge delivered another tribute: a Judgian blast.

Trump's "Project Vault" Plans To Initially Buy Rare Earths From China

As we reported in February, the US Export-Import Bank’s proposed rare earth stockpiling initiative would initially source critical minerals from anywhere in the world - including China, an official involved in the project revealed to Bloomberg. The $12 billion Project Vault would later shift to a replenishment model that prioritizes domestic production first, followed by allied nations and other sources as a last resort, executives including Ex-Im Chief Banking Officer Brian Greeley said lastt week, unveiling some of the first details publicly announced on the project.

Greeley spoke alongside representatives of Glencore Plc. and Hartree Partners LP, which will be among trading houses procuring materials for Vault. The project aims to build an immediate buffer against critical mineral supply shocks while using future purchases to send a stronger demand signal to US and friendly-nation producers. 

Vault — which combines about $2 billion in private capital with a $10 billion Ex-Im loan — is President Trump’s latest effort to build an alternative supply chain for the materials, which are key for the production of electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and other low-carbon technologies. China is the dominant supplier of critical minerals worldwide.

The recent panel was the most robust public discussion of Vault since Ex-Im revealed the program in February. For nearly three months, metals investors, traders and consumers have sought details as the government worked behind the scenes to flesh out the project, according to Bloomberg. 

Attendees packed a conference room at a hotel in Washington, DC, to get details on Vault’s sourcing hierarchy and payment structure. After brief introductory remarks, the panel unexpectedly opened up the floor to an almost hour-long question-and-answer session.

The program’s so-called waterfall would give preference to domestic suppliers even when their material comes at a premium to allied alternatives, with participating manufacturers expected to accept that trade-off as part of joining the program, panelists said. The initial stockpile fill, however, would be driven chiefly by availability, reflecting the reality that some of the roughly 60 minerals under consideration are produced only in limited geographies and, in some cases, remain heavily influenced by China.

Vault is being structured as a demand-driven vehicle rather than a government-directed stockpile, the panelists revealed. Manufacturers would determine which minerals are stored, with the program then working with traders to secure supply. It’s designed to give US firms more leverage in opaque and fragmented markets where individual buyers often struggle to source smaller volumes efficiently or at transparent prices.

On storage, Greeley said the project will begin by relying on warehouse networks already controlled by trading partners and procurement providers. Over time, Vault is expected to develop its own storage network, either by building facilities or leasing them. A mature system could combine its own sites with third-party warehouses.

Panelists said the use of specialist traders would also be tailored to individual metals. Rather than sending orders into an open bidding process, Vault is expected to match procurement to firms with expertise in specific markets, allowing traders with relationships in cobalt, rare earths or other niche material sectors to handle those flows. The goal, panelists said, is to preserve pricing discipline, improve execution and avoid creating a scramble for hard-to-find materials.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/04/2026 - 22:10

She’s Rih-claiming the night. 

Star wing Jalen Williams has been ruled out in Game 1 against the Lakers due to a Grade 1 hamstring strain.

John Sterling, the legendary and longtime radio voice of the Yankees, died Monday at the age of 87, giving way to a day of tributes and remembrances.

The Golden Globe winner served on this year's host committee — and has a history of turning heads on the Met steps.

The Golden Globe winner served on this year's host committee — and has a history of turning heads on the Met steps.

She appeared alongside both of her parents, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.