https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/motorsport/nz-double-header-international-racing-champion-feud-supercars-boss-talks-state-of-the-sport/news-story/6b0b71dec643e0ee7aadd324bc2a8d95?amp
Supercars embarked on a new era last year when it launched its Gen3 product with the General Motors Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang.
A year on, Supercars chairman Barclay Nettlefold sat down with REBECCA WILLIAMS to discuss how the rebooted series is faring and the issues in the sport.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nettlefold addresses the success of Gen3, the prospect of new manufacturers joining the grid, overseas expansion, the Brodie Kostecki saga, calendar conundrums and his vision for the sport.
THE SUCCESS OF GEN3
The opening season of the Supercars Gen3 era was beset by parity controversy and debate but Supercars chairman Barclay Nettlefold says the series is now seeing the fruits of its investment in the new product with this year’s racing.
“It has been a journey to get to success and I think that’s now starting to be proven with where we are now with the racing and the team engagement to the product,” Nettlefold said.
“We took on seismic change … but taking on an aerodynamic change as well as a motor change both at once was always going to come with some issues and some challenges.
“So, yes, results are speaking. We have had more winners in a competition than ever so that is exciting. The gap between first and last is closer and there is a lot of overtaking.
“There were a lot of criteria that we were looking at with Gen3 to enable exciting racing and maintaining or being the best touring car product in the world.”
Supercars has invested heavily in its quest for parity between the Ford and the GM Camaro after last year’s battles with the Mustang.
It embarked on an extensive off-season testing program headlined by the series’ first-time use of a state-of-the-art wind tunnel in the US.
While Nettlefold was confident in the outcomes so far, he said the series would follow through with its commitment to complete engine investigations.
“We have still got a commitment to do more with the AVL dyno testing on the engines,” the RACE – owners of Supercars – chairman said.
“We are getting great information now out of the torque sensor work and the testing we are doing with the cars.
“But you have to continually do it. The more that we do, the more we are convinced that we have the cars on an equal playing field for both manufacturers.
“We are having continual discussions with the manufacturers. Ford is one and we recognise where the issues were as a collective and we have addressed those.
“Ford, from all discussions and accounts, are happy with where we are going and I think we are seeing fast Fords out there.”
Supercars: Ahead of the season opener in Newcastle, the top drivers were on hand to discuss the Gen 3 cars that will be a deciding factor in this year's Supercars.
NEW MANUFACTURERS
One of the design features of the new Gen3 cars was brought in to make it easier to welcome potential new manufacturers to the grid.
While Nettlefold said Supercars was not in discussions with any potential new manufacturers “at this stage”, he hoped the sport could be in a position to welcome a fresh face to the grid as early as 2026.
“Our focus has been around getting the (Gen3) car to the level that we can have constructive discussions with other manufacturers,” Nettlefold said.
“We hope that we will be through that hurdle in the next months to come, where we can then hand on heart be very proactive in talking to other manufacturers, which will make it cost efficient, turnkey to come in on the product.
“I think we all would (like to have another manufacturer in the sport). Even Ford has openly said we think it would be the best thing for the sport. So, yes, we would love to.
“We would love to see another two cars on the grid, the more the better.”
Nettlefold said he would like to see another marque manufacturer on the grid in two years, but the sport had to first refine its parity testing process.
“If we have completed the AVL testing … we would want to do wind-tunnel testing with them,” Nettlefold said
“We would have to go through the same rigours to ensure we have parity and an equal product on the track.
“So I would say if we can have that done by 2026 and be poised for a ’26 launch, that would mean we would have everything ready by the end of this year.
“It would take time to then develop another manufacturer, I would have thought.
“We need to have done our work where we can make it easy for a manufacturer to turnkey on to our product and know we can do it within a nine-month window, where we do wind-tunnel testing, AVL testing and make sure that it’s a competitive product because we don’t want manufacturers to come on and not be competitive.”
THE CALENDAR
Nettlefold indicated his magic number for the right number of Supercars rounds in a season was 15 but a 14-race season in 2025 appears the most likely scenario.
The most pressing calendar issue for Supercars is settling on a new season opener after the loss of the Newcastle street race.
Mount Panorama filled the void this year when the Bathurst 500 opened the 2024 campaign but Nettlefold said he was not a fan of running two events at the circuit each year.
His preference was to open the season on the east coast.
“We would love to open on the eastern seaboard,” he said. “It’s where our big fan base is.
“It was disappointing not to get to race at Newcastle this year but thank god Bathurst council and the NSW government supported the transitional year.
“We like to start off with a big bag for the fans and we want to do it on the eastern seaboard. I don’t know where.
“There have been no discussions yet from the executive or the board in regards to what is possible but that’s where we need to be.”
A potential Perth street race has also been mooted but Nettlefold said discussions with the government in Western Australia were in their infancy.
“West Australia, it’s an opportunity that could potentially be there along with other opportunities in other states. But again these are early discussions,” Nettlefold said.
“But we would love to race a major street race in every city. That would be the ultimate outcome for the sport and for the fans.
“The NSW government is supportive of us relocating Newcastle into another street-type race but it’s about finding the right venue.
“There are lots of those discussions happening with various states and let’s hope we can get back to another major street race, certainly on the eastern seaboard.”
Nettlefold hailed Supercars’ return to racing in New Zealand last month in Taupo as a success and said he would “love to” do a double-header across the ditch.
He would make it happen next year if he could but stressed that ensuring the Taupo race prospered would be the priority.
“There is demand there and demand from us to do a back-to-back (in New Zealand),” Nettlefold said.
“It is all going to be about how we can get that track suitable that enables that to occur and it’s the right level and grading … to make sure they are compliant and have all the hospitality needs.
“Notwithstanding (racetrack owner) Tony Quinn is committed, we are committed, but we just want to make Taupo a success first.
“If we could next year, that would be great. I don’t know if we’ve got time to do that.”
OVERSEAS EXPANSION
Beyond Supercars’ desire to expand its footprint in New Zealand, Nettlefold said there had been “enormous inbound inquiries” about the series racing overseas.
RACE has made no secret of its ambition to expand the sport internationally and Nettlefold said the Asian market presented the most logical destination, while there has also been interest from the Middle East.
A place on the support card at the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix has been mooted for several years.
“The Asian market place is ideal,’’ Nettlefold said. “Time zone, fans, commitment, exposure – it works.
“There is demand for us to be there but it all comes down to commercial outcomes, fitting in with our Australian-New Zealand calendar.
“We will just keep looking at that. There is interest from the Middle East … all that region is very aggressive at the moment in regards to sporting rights.
“I think the preference for us and the fans would be Singapore as a first port … anything we could do in Asia would be ideal as a starting point before anywhere else.
“If we could jump on a plane and go race in Singapore tomorrow I would do it, I think it would be great.
“But I would rather see 15 races in Australia as a way ahead as a precursor to sacrificing our expansion internationally.”
The Singapore F1 Grand Prix is on the radar of the Supercars boss. Picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Images.
Asked if there was the possibility of an overseas race outside New Zealand being added to the calendar for 2025, Nettlefold remained hopeful but said the series’ focus was on the trans-Tasman foundation first.
“I would hope so but the focus has to be on getting enough racing in Australia and New Zealand as a priority,” he said.
“The focus has been Australia-New Zealand and it will continue to be there while we’ve settled the Gen3 product into the country and the region.
“We have had enormous inbound inquiries for us to race (overseas) … but we are working on the strategy.”
Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki’s stand-off with his title-winning team Erebus Motorsport dominated headlines at the start of the season.
The defending champion missed the opening two rounds of the 2024 campaign at the Bathurst 500 and in Melbourne, before making a belated return in New Zealand.
Amid a widely reported breakdown in relations, Nettlefold said Supercars had done as much as it was able to in the situation “between Brodie and the team”.
“Unfortunately, there was not a lot we could do outside,” Nettlefold said.
“We had several meetings with the Erebus team but it was really something that could only be dealt with between Brodie and the team.
“We don’t have the absolute power to tell a driver or tell a team how to run their business.
“But we are going to look to – through some TRC discussions we are having now with the teams – give us more power so that we can get more involved for the betterment of the sport.”
Kostecki after he won the 2023 Supercars championship. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images
Nettlefold said he had been concerned about Kostecki throughout the saga, which cost Erebus several key sponsors from last year and has now left the reigning champion playing catch-up in the title race.
“I was more worried about how much it hurt Brodie,” Nettlefold said.
“Brodie, for a young guy who won a championship, for him to make that decision because of health reasons, he was troubled and that was the catalyst that concerned me.
“(It was more) how can we help drivers that are having those issues, more so than why isn’t he driving? If he is not driving, there is a reason.
“But if it is health-related – and health-related can come from many ways – and if it means that it was a work environment that he was struggling with then we have to be supportive to him on that.
“It was very unfortunate. I think it was the last thing in his wildest dreams that he would not want to defend his championship properly.
“You can see he is already starting to get speed back in the car. It won’t take him long.
“I would be the first to be happy for him if he wins a race in the next couple of rounds.”
Nettlefold said he was satisfied that any potential issues in the workplace environment had been addressed.
“I believe that (team owner) Betty (Klimenko) has stated that she addressed certain concerns that Brodie had,” Nettlefold said.
“As long as that has been done … Brodie has realised you have done what you said and I’m happy to come back and race and I’m mentally strong enough to do it now.”
SUPERCARS’ FUTURE AT THE AUSTRALIAN F1 GRAND PRIX
No one in Supercars doubts the sport should be at the biggest motorsport show of the year in Australia at Albert Park but Nettlefold said the series wanted some conditions to change to ensure its future at the event.
A longtime and popular staple on the support card for the race at Albert Park, Supercars has found itself bumped down the pecking order following the addition of F1’s own feeder categories F2 and F3 to the event’s schedule.
F1’s junior classes made their debut at Albert Park in 2023 and the Supercars field this year lost its position in Albert Park’s second pit lane to the F2 championship.
Supercars teams operated out of tents in the paddock behind the second pit lane and the area where they operated this year was restricted access and not open to general admission and the category’s fans.
Supercars was shunted to the second pit lane at Albert Park this year. Picture: David Caird
Nettlefold said Supercars had not sat down to discuss its future with Australian Grand Prix organisers but the category had a “few things to consider”.
“We haven’t debriefed with the AGP as yet, certainly we will in the coming months,” Nettlefold said.
“Our racing was very good … Thursday with Supercars on the grid, 65,000 people there, our fans were excited, a lot of F1 fans were very excited by our driving, our racing.
“But the timeslots, there is a whole raft of things that weren’t ideal.
“Was the pit situation ideal? No. Was the lack of fan engagement to our teams, which is a powerful thing for our sport (ideal)? No. Were the timeslots appropriate? No.
“So, there are a few things we want to consider if we want to race there again.”
Nettlefold said Supercars wanted to remain a part of the F1 event but being able to have fan engagement was a top priority for the sport.
“I think everyone likes to be a part of the show but we have just got to make sure that it works for our fans foremost and then the sport in general,” Nettlefold said.
“An ability to be fan-engaged is fundamental. For us it is (a priority). We are all about our fans.
“About racing at the right time of the day and not being bumped into doing too much racing in one day where we can be a bit more structured across the event.
“And commercially what does it mean? It’s just got to be looked at through all those different lenses.”
FUTURE VISION
Nettlefold said growing Supercars’ fan base was the top priority when considering his five-year vision for the category.
“For our sport, we just want to keep growing the fan base,” he said.
“We want to be more and more relevant as a number one tier sport in this country. We want to be more relevant to the global marketplace as the best touring car product.
“We know we are but it’s just about being more visible.
“We would like to have the ability to be the number one sporting event from a participation base in every state. We’re nearly there.
“We are the largest event in most states now but there is a lot of work that goes on in getting there.
“Also, it’s about just continually growing our fan base outside of our core base.
“We are seeing a far greater engagement with youth, with females and our KPIs on the sport are good, we’re very happy where they are growing.
“We are excited by the future, hence we are happy to continue to invest in the sport.
“If our fan base is growing, it’s a tick. If our demographic around our fan base is growing, it’s a tick.
“If people are enjoying our racing, if we’re changing up and growing our entertainment platform as part of our proposition to the fans, it’s a tick.”
On the track, Nettlefold wants the drivers to again become the “heroes”.
“What I loved about the old days was the call out of Brock, Moffat, Brock, Moffat,” he said.
“Now we are calling out Penrite Racing or Erebus. To me that’s not the same, I think there are some things to tweak in that regard. We have to make our drivers the heroes again.
“That’s what we all aspired to, getting an autograph from their heroes.”

On some DMX shit I group DM my exes I tell 'em they belong to me, that goes on for forever And I think we just get closer when we're not together You tell me that I'm confusin' More immature than Marcus Houston Cuts too deep for a Band-Aid solution We too deep in this thing, you'll never lose me LOLOL, I'm glad you find this shit amusin' Heard a lot about me 'fore we started off I know you heard that my pool parties like Mardi Gras I know you heard that my girl is sponsored by Audemars That's why she always correctin' me when my time is off And my house is the definition Of alcohol and weed addiction You got a different vision You wanna walk around naked in the kitchen Without runnin' into one of my niggas That's not the way we livin' Too much goin' on, it's just not realistic These days I don't talk about them days like I miss 'em And you shouldn't miss 'em either, we different people But every time we speakin'
It's like a lot of games are bein' played How's it goin' down? If it's on 'til we gone, then I gots to know now Is you wit' me or what? Yeah It's like a lot of games are bein' played How's it goin' down? If it's on 'til we gone, then I gots to know now Is you wit' me or what?
Yeah I wanna know how much time you spent on them paragraphs Where you get at me All that grey in our conversation history, you Playin' mind games, when you sayin' things Playin' mind games, we both doin' the same thing Slide on a late night You like to slide on a late night You sent a, "Are you here?" text without an invite That's that shit that I don't like We both, slide on a late night Do things in our off time We both, yeah Made some mistakes, pon road Yeah, how's that for real? You toyin' with it like Happy Meal 3 dots, you thinkin' of a reaction still While you're typin', make sure you tell me
What type of games are bein' played? How's it goin' down? If it's on 'til we gone, then I gots to know now Is you wit' me or what? Yeah What type of games are bein' played? How's it goin' down? If it's on 'til we gone, then I gots to know now Is you wit' me or what?
Yeah Remember you was livin' at The London for a month Service elevator up to 4201 We was still a secret, couldn't come in through the front Girl, I had your back when all you used to do was front That's for sure though, I made a career off reminiscin' Time got a funny way of tickin', things are so much different I'll admit it, I've admitted to a lot of things Act like you know it, fuck them stories, fuck the shade they throwin' Understand I got responsibilities to people that I need And on my way to make this dough A lot of niggas cut the check so they can take this flow A lot of niggas cut the check so they can take this flow (oh, oh) Tryna give your ass the world You runnin' your fingers through my curls You knew me when the kid had waves But that's enough of that You could never say I came up and forgot about your ass And that's some real shit

Not long ago I decided to find a job to sponsor my appointment with psychologist. I didn't do it earlier as I thought that no doctor can help me and i just have to stay at home (since I've been to many) The point is I found a job. I even switched countries. The job itself isn't that hard and I earn good money. But my mind is driving me crazy. Instead of focusing on work it's thinking about what others think of me. And those thoughts sound so real. I want to turn them off. I can't be myself and interact with colegues because instead of thinking about what they're saying my mind is thinking about what others think of me or it wonders if someone is looking at me. Plus I get anxiety in public too so my mind already runs slower. *fun fact. As I'm writing this, the song playing on the radio brought back memories how I avoided dancing on stage when I was younger. This insequrity/anxiety it's been going for too long.

Warning lang kasi this is quite political so just remove the post if bawal
As some of you have seen sa X (twitter), pumuputok na ang issue about mc/do being a sponsor sa pagtatag finale concert and some fans are (for lack of a better term) disappointed (re palestine/Gaza conflict)
Personally not sure kung ano Yung opinion ko dito kasi altho I think aligned nmn Yung political opinion ko sa esbi (as evidenced by them being part of the ben&ben kapangyarihan song), syempre nakakatuwa din (atleast for me) pag nakikita mo Yung idol mo being vocal about important things (like right now very proud ako kay nicola Coughlan [bridgerton] kasi kahit nagpopromote siya ngayon for their new season eh todo post parin siya about Gaza)
Some posts sa X say na keep politics out of entertainment, or alam naman siguro ng esbi what they are doing, or sponsor lang naman sa concert and wala naman announcement na endorser or ninang na talaga si mc/do, or the boycott won't help kasi its just a small part of the story and mc/do PH isn't directly involved naman din (correct me if I'm wrong pero alam ko even if mc/do Israel supports the war, mcdo Malaysia supports palestine so each franchise can act independently parin naman?).
I've read some posts from pro-palestine na gusto lang daw nila maging aware ang esbi about these things that's why even tho they are fans, they will still be vocal about it.
I just want to Hear you guys' thoughts on the matter. Personally, I think mahirap magjump into conclusion kung ano ang political stand ng esbi and I don't think malalaman natin yun based lang sa fact na sponsor ang mc/do ph sa concert nila. Ninang din nmn si pepsi pero wala nmn issue (factor din siguro na walang recent commercials or ganaps ang esbi with pepsi)
Yung 3AM thoughts ko lng now is if some fans really wanna 'fight for what's right', pwede naman sila gumawa ng pro-palestine fan projects or something like that. I dunno tho kasi personally medyo mahina pa ako panindigan mga political stances ko and takot parin ako na baka maka-sama pa sa reputation ng esbi pag maging vocal sila lalo na at they're in a crucial time (and need pa nila ipromote next album nila, if they become to politically vocal baka nmn sila pa Yung iboycott wag naman sana).
Hopefully in the future maging matapang ako to be vocal and fight for what's right na talaga pero as of now di ko pa kaya eh (wow naging self reflection) kahit alam kong may mali, para lang akong lurker sa internet nagdodonate donate paminsan minsan
Anyway what are your thoughts?

First of all, she is the one who insisted me to rant about her here. Probably she will rant about me too. Haha aiyoooo
She is the third girl I met from reddit in real life in last 1 month and hands down the most genuine and sweetest girl unlike other shit attitude girl who left me in between date. Aiyoooo no comparison whatsoever. But she took my 5000rs jacket home 😭😭 lol which wasn't the best part. Lol just joking
So hijo maile shitpost gareko they, attention seeking blah blah noone likes me wala post haha ani she messaged me saying are you okay vanera. I assumed she was a boy ani casually talked calling her bro. Ani tespaxi after going through her profile, i got to know she was a girl. She told me how much she relates to my post and we both are in same boat banera. Tespaci testai convo vo random topic ko barema. Ani she asked what's my plan for tomorrow to which i replied nothing, i have holiday ani i will just sleep and eat momo. To which she replied bhaktapur juju dhau khana aunu parcha ki kya ho. Mani jiskira hola vanera au auuu welcome xa tmlai vande auu sangai khamla, i will sponsor vanera vane. Ali 4/5 minutes sochira hola maybe tyo because reply dhilo ayo tara she somehow agreed. Aba we both said we are ugly so let's not get hopes too high banera we didn't share eachother pics (back of my mind, i was scared tara what if kta niskiyo vane) but maile ni thikai cha vane. Contact exchange garera 11 baje samma bolera sutyam. Ma chahi aba k vayera hola 3 baje samma sutnai sakina. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Breakup song sundai ani rain enjoy gardai match herdai baseko.
Bihana 7 :30 baje uthe tara 8 baje uslai msg gare hola but panda miss was still not awoken until 9:30. Malai ta fraud ho jasto lagira thiyo. Tara ni thikai cha vanera trust gare. She said 10 baje khana khayera niskinchu. But madam chahi 11 baje call garnu hunxa niskina lako vanera 1 hr lagxa vanera. I had some work so suryabinayak gaye ani farkindai they ki she said she booked a pathao from chabahil and she has reached radhe radhe(by the way, she came from tokha all the way to bhaktapur durbar squre) i mean wauuuu efforts laune raixa kt.ma ready ni bha thena literally pajama ma they, hatar hatar ma ready vako, didnt take long since i already decided what to wear. Ani pani parna thalyo vaku ani tyo pugisakeko thiyo adarsha tira so ma tei area ma basxu so chito chito chata lera bageko u rujcha vanera. Bichari 20 min wait gareko hola tara.
Then we saw eachother and idk we both were not awkward at all lol. Tespaxi malai mask kholana Vanyo ani smiled at me. Tespaxi hidai bhaktapur durbar pugeko. We ate juhu dhau. Tespaci clicked some photos on the way to 5 talle. Then went to cafe and talked for like 2-3 hrs. She seemed quite comfortable tho. Aniii lagiranai thena we met first time. Best part of her was non judgemental nature and her bubblly nature. Also her lips were beautiful and her skin was glowing af. She had such a child like innocence face which i loved the most. Farkida mirror selfie handa chahi umbrella tei chuteko raixa ani pheri farkinu paryo. Ani tespaxi bus chadera suryabinayak gayem. Tespaci suryabinayak dada jane plan vo tara pani ekdam parira thiyo so rujdai gako kyaaa romantic mausam houuu. Khadai guff gardai mathi pugyou ani shelter vako thau ma gayera pheri 2hrs samma bolyem. Yo bela samma mani afno cringe self dekhauna aftyaro manira thena. Ramailo vayo j hoss. Enjoyed a lot. Best part is she is so cute and j vaneni hunxa vani k alsoo quite thoughtful about others. J kura ni manni mero without any ego and attitude. Kei punya nai gare hola haha yesto ramri kt veteko. Haha.
Tespaxi momo khana gayem ani clicked dozens of photos. Tespaxi usle chahi ghar gayer malai euta jacket laideu tmro vanyo. Ani gayera laide. Halka oversize for her but she looked cool hahaha. Tespaci arko cafe ma coffee khayem and talked like another 1 hr and listened to beautiful songs together and vibed together. Best thing that she did that won my heart was like coffee auda euta coffee bigreko thiyo jun chahi malai tyo Bhai le deko so she asked me if i wanted to exchange. Wauuuuuu, at that moment, i thought wauuuuuuu wife material cha kt ta. Literally, respect badyo greenest flag kt ever. I don't mind about her past i accept it. Tespsci u Ghar gayo ani surprisingly she told about me to her sister. Wauuuu. Ghar pugna bitikai msg garyo. Aniii everything is chill.
Green carpet 😭 chaaa houu. If you are reading this thank you for beautiful memories of today. Can't wait to make more memories with you in coming days. Crazy crazy adventures garnu parcha haiii. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Literally have so many plans in mind. 🫶🫶🤭😚😚❤️❤️. Thank you miss genuinely for being greenest flag girl ever. You are so cool and understanding. And hope we will understand eachother more. Can't wait to get to know you more.
Aba yours turn rant ko kanxi.

this is something I wondered about:
I think Gabrielle may have lied about slowly losing her siren powers - her entire emotional reaction may have been a trick to make Bianca do what she wants.
It's interesting how Bianca seems so much more detatched and rejecting of her toxic parent relationship that any of the other characters - and I think it might not be entirely true. I think, deep inside, she still wishes for her mother to change and for them to find a common ground. That's not stupid or weird even, it's this person being her mother. It's a long way to truly set yourself lose from such a relationship - and Bianca is a teenager.
And Gabrielle knew this. She simply could have blackmailed Bianca, but - no. That would have made latter defiant, maybe even work against her eventually. She needed, wanted her to be emotionally involved. And so she pretended vulnerability. Maybe even gave Bee a sense of power in this situation. She knew that this way, she would get her.
This is even something I find interesting about her generally: I think with her cult, she didn't even need her siren powers - and that is important. The best I can guess is that she actively used them to order sponsors for their project to give them a boost, and then let her husband do the manipulation on their subjects. Her powers, at best, were used for additional cash. And the whole passive siren song thing ... again, they didn't need it for the subjects, especially when they're just using the app and paying, and even used for sponsors I don't think it would get used up if it's all just passively ... how would that even work if, as Bianca says, she constantly goes on holidays and recovers in between? (Even Bianca didn't need hers technically - she's a confident, intelligent leading persona and hard-working - nothing else was really needed for her to achieve what she did in this school). Besides, sponsors can also be recruited via E-Mail contact or her husband, who can manipulate people too without worrying about his powers - if anything, they mostly needed hers for the start-up time and in between when they really wanted to land a deal badly. The App situation surely gives her the opportunity to take off as much time as she wants while the cash rolls in - so her suddenly "losing" her powes is suspicious.
Even more when you consider that someone might be wanting for Bianca to leave this school so there's really no one else his son can focus on than-
:)
Also - Gabrielle strikes me as a skilled manipulator. She's highly intelligent, just like her daughter, perfectly composed usually and I'd say can read people very well. And this is her daughter. If anyone could have made Bianca do something, it's her.
Plus, I even think that the secret organization is involved - Gabrielle may bring her daughter in as her replacement. Here she could even go further in saying that she needs Bee as her replacement because, with her powers "diminishing", she may not be able to protect herself from powerful enemies she's made within their ranks or outside - again, giving her daughter a feeling that she needs her.
Last proof? She did none of this before. Suddenly, she seems all up for working with Bianca - she blackmails her, sure, but anything else would have made her suspicious, right? Also: a relationship that is still like the one she expects, but also now holds some power for her and maybe even moments where she shows her some emotion and may actively try to reconcile with her - that's where she gets her. I think we should watch out for this :)
Thank you very much for reading :)
Edit: Enid in this episode talks about her own mother pushing her buttons - that's exactly what Gabrielle did too. She knows Bianca's buttons, and she pushed every. single. one.

FOW was built on the concept of getting people to have fun on weekdays instead of waiting for the weekend, which is a cute idea overall. especially when you consider the people just out of college that are used to going out on weekdays and then hit postgrad and everything changes. so the idea that you can continue to do fun stuff on the weekdays postgrad is a great idea.
the brand was built primarily on:

• the podcast, where she where she talked about fun stuff during the week and getting people to talk about living their lives M-F outside of their boring 9-5
• meetups where she got people together on weekdays and helped girls meet one another

she has now quit both the podcast and her events, leaving no brand that exists, just a groupme where she doesn't have to do anything and merch for a concept of a brand that she's not executing anymore
the problem isn't the ideas, it's her complete lack of execution. she gets bored or quits the minute something gets hard or gets in the way of what she wants to do. which imo is so unrelatable because most normal people have to keep working at their jobs to make $$ even though its not easy and often you don't want to get up and go to work, etc.
it seems like all she wants to do is be an influencer but using "fun on weekdays" for merch (shitty sweatshirts, phone cases, planners) instead of her name. like a way shittier version of what Hannah and Paige do with Giggly Squad, except they have a very successful podcast, live podcast shows, and each have their own careers separate from the merch... jenna has none of that.
the events she's posting about now, she's the "host" but they're really hosted by brands like fashionpass to execute them. she's just the talent who is meant to draw people to the event. would also say the pinkberry event fits in this.
she's using waterboy's socials to draw attention to herself at every single turn. there is no strategy except to bring attention to herself. you'd think connor would see that she's not actually formulating social media plans or executing strategy, she's just making it all about her in hopes that her weirdo followers buy it. but there's no way even if all of her followers buy a pack a month that it's enough to sustain waterboy.
so her version of fun on weekdays turned into frequent trips to homegoods and buying dresses for events she's going to, scrambling to do stuff last minute when she has all the time in the world, doing a full face of makeup to go to trader joe's, teaching one workout class a week.... what fun is that???
TLDR: i think her engagement tanking is scaring her, she's grasping at straws to stay relevant and grow her brand thru waterboy because it's not grown organically at all, she lost sponsors for the podcast and bigger brands don't want to partner with her for events because she continually fails and doesn't provide ROI to them (the 5k for example)

Hello? Yeah, I just walked in Yeah, I'm good, you still working? Tonight, right now? Did I go out? Yeah, I went out I went, I went to a couple of clubs I never went to bed, shit, wine or water? You said something about a cold drink? I don't know, I'm delirious
Cups of the Rosé Bitches in my old phone I should call one and go home I've been in this club too long The woman that I would try Is happy with a good guy But I've been drinking so much That I'ma call her anyway and say
Fuck that nigga that you love so bad I know you still think about the times we had I say fuck that nigga that you think you found And since you picked up I know he's not around, oh-oh
I'm just saying you could do better Tell me have you heard that lately? I'm just saying you could do better And I'll start hatin' only if you make me
Uh, cups of the XO All my people been here I see all of her friends here Guess she don't have the time to kick it no more Flights in the morning What you doing that's so important? I've been drinking so much That I'ma call you anyway and say
Fuck that nigga that you love so bad I know you still think about the times we had I say fuck that nigga that you think you found And since you picked up I know he's not around, ho-ho-oh
I'm just saying you could do better Tell me have you heard that lately? I'm just saying you could do better And I'll start hatin' only if you make me
I think I'm addicted to naked pictures And sittin' talking 'bout bitches that we almost had I don't think I'm conscious of making monsters Outta the women I sponsor 'til it all goes bad But shit, it's all good
We threw a party, yeah, we threw a party Bitches came over, yeah, we threw a party I was just calling 'cause they were just leaving Talk to me please don't have much to believe in
I need you right now, are you down to listen to me? Too many drinks have been given to me I got some women that's living off me Paid for their flights and hotels, I'm ashamed Bet that you know them, I won't say no names After a while, girl, they all seem the same I've had sex four times this week, I'll explain
Having a hard time adjusting to fame Sprite in that mixture I've been talking crazy, girl I'm lucky that you picked up Lucky that you stayed on I need someone to put this weight on Well, I'm sorry
I'm just saying you could do better Tell me have you heard that lately? I'm just saying you could do better And I'll start hatin' only if you make me
You not gon' come? Guess I'm 'bout to just kick it here then
Just throw up while I hold your hair back Her white friend said, "You niggas crazy, " I hope no one heard that Yeah, I hope no one heard that 'Cause if they did, we gon' be in some trouble, yeah If they did, we gon' be in some trouble Trouble, oh

Got these Iliffe DH4’s precision trucks in a bundle deal along w some other parts that I’m going to resell and get my $ back essentially allowing me to get these for free !! I also ordered a set of Bill’s freeride trucks!! 180mm 50* BP’s. But still precision none the less. These are 150mm and 48* BP I believe. Super stoked on these guys !! I am going to try them out on an LDP setup and see how they do. Bill (Iliffe) told me he sponsored a guy some years back who was killing it at distance skating with these exact same trucks!!! So I am going to play around with them and see what I can get out of them !! I can’t say enough about the quality and finish of these trucks tho !! Superb. I broke one truck down so you can get a good look at the machining work done on the pieces and how clean it is!! The anodizing is perfect and the color is vivid the pics on the listing did these no justice. The bushing seat is so GD tight on these it’s unbelievable !! Absolutely ZERO slop going on!! Those .75 tall riptide cannons literally snap in place then you couple that with the top hat washer and yeah super tight !! I just know they are gonna have some killer lean !! Not much in the way of adjustment room w the kingpin nut but I checked Riptides site and w Bill and that is the correct bushing size for these trucks. I also ordered a set of machined axle spacers from Sk8kings.com as well as a set of Khiro Angled rail wedges so I can mess with the degree on these and a couple other setups. I was shocked at just how nice they are !! It’s my first set of “precision” trucks so let me gush and ride my stoke ok ?!! lol. Maybe I will ok ? Gooosh!! Anyway I will post some more about how I set these up I’m going to try them on a couple different things. I also am working on acquiring some DT Poppies or Slalocybins found a killer deal on the SlaloCybins. Thinking they might be a bit much for me. But hey I can always resell em right? “Shocks, Pegs, precision trucks ? Lucky “

Well if you are reading this, unfortunately Season 3 of KOF XV wasn’t announced. So unfortunately it’s going to be all Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves most likely.
So this is me doing something interesting for fun…a What-If Roster Series if there were more characters and a complete retooling of the story somewhat. I feel like in some way SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is the 3rd game of the New Age Saga of the series, which kind of explains how the Team Edit Ending in XV Gave the Saga a sense of finality. In some way the storyline feels pretty ambitious in some way, and I feel like there was so much planned for the New Age Saga that was either put in supplementary media or was cut outright.
So for this I am looking to make this What-If not only the biggest roster, but a way to potentially expand the series and SNK in some way…so expect some reaches of some kind.
Notable Changes:
Firstly: Dolores is going from Team Rival to one of the Sub-Bosses of this game. To be fair Isla’s line of saying that she calls the shots (In her mind at least) kinda gave away that they are on the same team. But when I saw her during the Gamescom ‘21 Event something told me she’s going to be the sponsor of some kind Ala: Chizuru, Adelheid, Rose, and Antonov. So I want to lean into that. But I will explain that when I one day get to her.
Secondly, Only one character in the original roster and Much of the DLC Characters will swap places
Going into Base Roster: Team Awakened Orochi, Rock Howard, Kim Kaphwan, Shingo Yabuki, Nakaruru
Going into DLC: King of Dinosaurs (AKA You know who)
Finally: The Base Roster of the What-If is 24 Teams (With One as a Sub-Boss Team (Ala: Team Bosses)), Dolores, “Berserk” Shun-ei, and “Blue Verse”…it’s a lot assuming SNK has the time and budget and UE5…but again…what-if. So for now:
Team 1:
Team Hero: - Shun’ei - Meitenkun - Jin Chonrei (Replacing Benimaru Nikaido)
I want to do XV’s iteration of Team Hero for when I imagine KOF XVI, but I want to explain why I wanted to put Chonrei on Team Hero.
The obvious is add more Fatal Fury representation and an obscure one at that…the true final boss of the 3rd Game in fact.
It all points back at Tung reminiscing of his students in his ending (The Bogarde, Cheng, Geese, and of course Chonrei).
I feel like both he and Shun’ei can relate to each other carrying that much power and how much it can corrupt them if left unchecked. Plus, I feel like John Sex’s Design for Chonrei that he made a mock-up for him for City of the Wolves feels like a good redesign for him (You could also make his classic design a costume for the game)…and Shun’ei is Shun’ei…nuff said…and for now…I probably wouldn’t change much. He’s like Luke from Street Fighter…something about him is growing on me.
As for story…I’d say Team Hero’s story is a follow-up from Team China’s Ending in which Tung needs his students to unite now more than ever for what Verse left behind after his defeat in XIV.
And not only does Chonrei being on Team Hero helps put Shun & Meiten over, but it opens the door for some unique intros with characters like Terry, Geese, Yamazaki, and so on.
So yeah, that is my introduction this series. I hope so far I actually gave some good arguments for this team. Because the next team I work on is going to be a huge reach. Share your thoughts below, and I’ll reply and share the next team tomorrow.

They were a sponsored suggestion when I looked up remote work on Google, so I got in contact with a recruiter on WhatsApp (that asked for my bank number and sort code), who referred me to a lady working for “Coffee Digital”. The lady told me the job details and I signed up, then she asked me to give her my referral link so we can share each other‘s earnings and told me to log in to her account so I could “check how much money was in her balance”. The only review on GlassDoor says they were scammed too.

It’s time. Eighteen Legends await. We have done introductions and revelations. These houseguests have unfinished business and one of them will finally get to finish it. Let’s not keep them waiting. Bunny’s Pokemon Big Brother Season 16: The LEGENDARY Sixteenth begins now!
Season 16L The LEGENDARY Sixteenth
Meet the Cast
Tiny the Lanturn – Season 1, Season 6
Styles the Quaquaval – Season 1, Season 6
Krishna the Copperajah – Season 1
Gage the Toxel – Season 3, Season 6
Mazda the Scolipede – Season 4, Season 6, Season 11
King the Pikachu – Season 5
Lora the Ledian – Season 8
April the Meowstic – Season 9
Whimzamina the Lunatone – Season 9
Chess the Reuniclus – Season 10
Lissia the Lurantis – Season 10
Benedict the Chespin – Season 10
Nanuq the Swinub – Season 12
Princess Amni the Yamask – Season 12
Violet the Weedle – Season 13
Whelan the Dhelmise – Season 13
Adelynn the Lopunny – Season 13
Gigi the Garchomp – Season 15

Intro: 18 Legends line up in front of the Legendary Mt. Silver in the Kanto-Johto region, blistering wintery winds stinging their scales, feathers, fur, leaves, etc. In front of them stands the entrance to a cavern, carved with a myriad of spectacular adornments and stone sculptures. A door stands in the cavern. A massive golden door with a maze-like pattern leading to a master ball symbol in the middle. This door leads to the most-majestic house we have built yet. Adelynn shivers, not used to the cold on these heights. Violet shakes off the snow, used to it on her home of Mt. Coronet. Styles eyes Tiny, all too aware of his old ally’s developments in the years between their last time playing together. She eyes him back, aware that he is just as eager to play difficult as she is. Lissia and Krishna sense each other’s caretaker presence and know what to watch out for. Chess and Benedict smile, knowing their previous alliance potentially re-uniting. Whelan looks over at Gage, wondering what he is scheming while scheming up ways to game these gamers. He is watched by King, who is observing everyone’s behaviors. April is keeping careful watch on Mazda, ready to act if he tries any criminal moves. Whimzy stares at the moon above them, looking to it for guidance. Nanuq and Lora are silent, mentally preparing themselves for the titanic games they have to play. In the middle of the pack, Gigi stands stalwart, looking at the door. He reaches out a claw and…
First HOH: The door opens on its on and the houseguests are ushered into the grand central chamber where the set for the First HOH stands waiting for them. A replica of the Season 1 house with a silver statue of Lance the Escavalier in the center. 18 Swords are jutting from the pedestal of the statue and the houseguests each step on them. The swords begin to rotate and this endurance competition has begun. Violet gets dizzy and drops first. She is followed by Styles, Benedict, and then Whimzy. The swords begin to rotate faster, causing Adelynn and Chess to drop. Shortly after them, Lora, Amni, and April fall off. Suddenly, the swords slow down and stop, causing Gage and Nukka to lose their balance and fall. The swords begin to retract into the walls, providing less space for the final 7 to stand on. They begin to move as this happens, causing Lissia, Whelan, and Mazda to fall simultaneously, Krishna runs out of space to stand and falls as well. King, who has lasted surprisingly long, drops shortly after, leaving Gigi and Tiny facing off. They go on for a while longer getting dizzy but eventually, Gigi loses his footing and gives Tiny the victory and the First HOH!
Week 1: The houseguests move into the house, celebrating Tiny and her victory. Styles congratulates her for how far she has come from Season 1. Krishna piles in and hugs her as well, having not seen her since then. More reunions are had between Amni and Nukka, and the Season 10 trio. A quick duo that immediately forms is when Krishna sees Amni like a little sister and they bond. Lora makes a strategy to bond with some of the more dubious players in the house and gets in close with Mazda, Styles, and Whelan. Chess does the same with Gage but Nukka catches on and latches on to the trio, knowing it will help him in the long run. Styles is posturing, feeling safe with his former number one Tiny as the HOH. But she knows his threat and isn’t willing to risk anything. Tiny sees Lora’s gaming and tries countering it by nominating Styles and Whelan, shocking the duck. The veto picks are strong, with Mazda and Nukka competing as well. Mazda and Whelan end up going head-to-head, with Mazda scheming to save Styles. But Whelan, knowing the pressure of the hot seat, prevails and wins, getting to save himself.
Chess goes up to Amni to propose they work together to sneak through the game, picking off bigger names. She agrees but the conversation is overheard by Gage, who, not wanting to be undermined, tells Tiny to watch out for Amni, who might be repeating her Season 1 game. Whelan, arrogant in his victory, starts beef with Violet, who got more famous than him after their initial season. Lissia begins defending Violet and getting heated with Whelan. Styles enters the picture and, trying to pull his old tricks, brings Amni into the conversation. Lissia, not playing mama bear to the girls, calls out Styles for his old tricks. She is aided by Krishna who is very defensive of the small. At the eviction ceremony, Amni and Styles both make pleas to stay in the game. Amni ends up coming off more sincere and Styles is still distrusted. Tiny calls him out for using outdated tactics on the newest season. The vote comes out to 11-4 and Styles is the first Legend evicted.
Week 2: With Styles gone, everyone knows that no Legend is safe, no matter their legendary status. A bronze statue of Carlos the Pancham rises from the floor and the houseguests compete in Carlos’ HOH: a physical comp involving punching a punching bag back and forth through a maze. Violet ends up impressing everyone but Whelan with her strength. While Lora and Krishna keep up with her. Lora falls behind and at the last second, Krishna pulls ahead, taking the HOH. She goes to shake Violet’s hands but realizes she has to be gentle not to crush her. Krishna is pondering the noms with Amni when she brings in Chess. Chess offers that he isn’t working with the rest of the Season 10 members and is willing to lose Benedict in an effort to further his game. Krishna sees this as a chance to get out a very dominant player early and puts up Benedict next to April, who she feels everyone is overlooking. Benedict immediately knows something is up when he is put up but doesn’t cause a scene, knowing that would put the target on his back. The veto starts and he ends up in the top 2 with Lissia. She knows something is up as well since she saw Chess working with Krishna and throws the comp to Benedict. He saves himself with the veto! Krishna sees that the seasons with large numbers are bigger targets and she can trim her target if Tiny leaves, having already established her threat by winning HOH. Amni and Violet connect as the smallest competitors and know that the big names have to go first. They agree to vote Tiny. But Mazda begins pushing to get April out of the house because of the crazy eye she has on him. At the eviction ceremony, the votes comes out 10-4 with Mazda’s push to the villains being successful, and April goes home.
Week 3: A statue of Nickels comes out of the floor and the lights turn off. The houseguests are now hiding from detective Nickels, with the last one found winning HOH. The competition comes down to Mazda, who is used to hiding from detectives, Nukka, who has already analyzed the whole house, and Lora, who is very adept at hide and seek. Mazda gets caught and Nukka is found shortly after, crowning Lora the HOH. Nukka’s performance at the competition puts a target on his back as a perceptive player. Lora consults her alliance with Mazda and Whelan and they both agree. Amni goes into the HOH room and tells her that Gigi is a sleeping threat right now. Lora decides the best course of action is to put up Gigi and Nukka. The veto competition comes up next, playing to Nukka and Lora’s strengths again. They face off again and history repeats with Lora winning. She confirms the nominations stay the same. Gage, who is safe, is flaunting his ego around the house, rubbing the rest of the legends the wrong way for thinking he is better than them. Lissia, who is making an effort to play nicer this time around, goes on to befriend more people, including Amni. Nukka tries to go on damage control, offering to those who will listen that Gigi is intentionally sandbagging. Gigi thinks it is wiser to not campaign too hard, as that will make him look worse. Amni bites on Nukka’s idea and helps him campaign. At the eviction ceremony, the vote comes out to with Nukka’s gaming making him seem like he’s playing too hard, causing him to be evicted.
Double Eviction: An early double eviction starts with a jade statue of Xio rising up from the floor. The contestants have to swing across vines to get through a course first. Adelynn, Chess, and Mazda are the frontrunners. Adelynn slips on a vine and falls behind. Chess, really wanting to make a big move here and capitalize on the chaos, swings one big jump and beats Mazda to become the HOH. His noms are Whelan and Krishna, shocking the elephant, thinking they were working together. Adelynn, Amni, and Gage are picked for veto and Adelynn wins it! She keeps the nominations the same. Whelan pleads for them to keep him as he hasn’t been double crossing or floating around, planning to play a more trustworthy game this time around. Krishna says she is playing honestly and wants to go to the end for her sisters back home. The vote comes out to 11-1 with Lora being the odd vote out. Whelan is evicted.
Week 4: A golden statue of Selene rises from the ground, illuminating the whole room. The houseguests minus Chess are competing in a quiz where if they get a question wrong, a candle goes out. The top three comes down to Lora, Whimzy, and Adelynn. Lora stumbles with multiple questions and Adelynn follows behind. Whimzy wins the HOH! Lora confronts Mazda for not doing enough to sway votes in her favor. He calls her out for playing too hard, saying she needs to cool it down a bit. They continue their dispute, choosing not to work together. Whimzy is joined in the HOH room by Amni and Lissia. Gage is obviously rubbing everyone the wrong way and Amni pleads for him to go up. Whimzy agrees and he goes up next to Krishna, whose story is getting too strong. Lissia and Amni are both drawn for the veto as well and Amni ends up winning. During the next few days, Krishna makes an effort to bond with Amni and touches her heart with her story. Meanwhile, Lora lashes out at King for defending Mazda. He tells her she is getting way too worked up over Mazda. At the veto, Amni saves Krishna and Whimzy, seeing an excellent opportunity here, puts Mazda up. Gigi begins going around the house trying to undo Nukka’s damage last week and people tell him not to worry. At the eviction ceremony, the two greatest villains of the series sit next to each other. Mazda spins tales of his importance to the game and how he is really deserving of staying. Gage apologizes for his behavior, confusing the house. Lora switches her vote last minute to Gage, seeing his threat level with his manipulation. The vote comes back 6-5, the closest yet, with Mazda eliminated. Lora smacks herself in the head for her risk.
Week 5: The houseguests are told that jury starts this week, but the jury house will gain two players by the end of the week, foretelling a double eviction. A statue of Candy rises from the floor with Opal eyes. The contestants vote a player out every round based off of superlatives. Violet, Tiny, and Lissia end up the final three. Tiny and Lissia vote out Violet, with everyone casting their votes between the two. Lissia, whose butt-kissing has paid off, is crowned the HOH. Lissia consults her closest allies with Amni and Whimzy who continue to push for Gage. When Whimzy leaves, Amni pulls in Violet. Violet tells her that they have to go after people who are playing under the radar and Whimzy is doing that while slowly making moves. Lissia agrees and Whimzy goes up next Gage, shocking her. When she gets Houseguest choice for the veto, Lissia selects Violet. This pays off when Violet wins the veto, solidifying her trust in her new allies. She keeps the nominees the same, hoping that Whimzy gets taken out. Whimzy knows she is in hot water so starts branching out. She goes to Gigi, Benedict, and King, who have also avoided suspicion so far, and tells them if she goes, they could be targets next. Gigi and Benedict think about this and decide working with her could be a good idea in the future. She even goes to Violet and Amni and mends the relationship. The two small ones realize that keeping Gage is too much of a risk as well. At the eviction, Whimzy successfully saves herself and Gage is evicted unanimously.
Jury Double: A copper statue of Splaatz rises from the ground, with the houseguests playing an endurance round of Muddy Water. Adelynn holds firm next to Krishna and Tiny, hoping to win something finally. She almost gives up but trips and falls fully into the water, giving her just enough time as Tiny and Krishna leave. Adelynn is the double HOH. Thinking quickly, she puts up the Season 1 legends because they are some of the biggest names in the house so far. At the veto, Lissia and Benedict give Adelynn a run for her money, but she continues to show her worth by winning the veto. The noms stay the same and Krishna and Tiny look at each other sadly, knowing one will go home. At the voting ceremony, they don’t even go after each other out of respect, instead both hoping the one who stays will go on to win. In the end, it’s a close 5-4 vote with Krishna joining Gage in the Jury house.
Week 6: An emerald statue of Dirk rises from the ground. The HOH is a musical competition, with contestants having to match the song to its track. Chess and Amni excel at this because of Amni’s musical background and Chess being very calculated. In the end, Chess wins. Gigi and Benedict go to Whimzy to confirm working with her from last week. They suggest branching out to find new allies. Benedict pulls in Tiny who could be a shield for them and doesn’t have season 1 to rely on anymore. Chess puts up Tiny on the block because of her threat level, and wants to nominate someone else who has been laying low. Amni goes to speak to him as an ally and, trying to save Whimzy, offers up King. King goes up next to Tiny. Chess selects Benedict for houseguest’s choice, trying to extend an olive branch. However, Benedict knows this is a calculated move from his friend and him and Lissia throw the comp. Amni wins it and, satisfied with the noms, keeps them the same. Gigi and Tiny bond, solidifying their alliance. King goes on a rant to Violet, thinking she is part of the reason he is up. Seeing she has no chance of convincing him, she goes to Lissia instead for support. Benedict extends the olive branch to Lissia to counter Chess and she, along with Violet, joins his alliance. At the eviction, Lissia and Amni throw stray votes at Tiny, but the alliance has successfully moved the vote to King, evicting him.
Week 7: A white marble statue of Echo rises from the floor and chilling icy winds enter the house. The houseguests must build snowforts to survive a snowball fight with the last one standing winning. Lora and Adelynn go head-to-head as the key throwers but Lora wins it, gloating over the latter’s frustration. Adelynn goes to complain to Whimzy about Lora and Whimzy agrees that her ego is getting too big. She consults with Benedict and Gigi and they decide to pull together the alliances as well as add in Amni and Adelynn. Lora tries to consult Violet about nominees, but the Weedle is hesitant to work with her or give her names. Lora is infuriated by this and puts her on the block next to Tiny, who keeps surviving. At the veto, Whimzy tries to give a dejected Violet a chance to win, but she is not focused, so Whimzy takes the veto. She and Amni go into defense mode and work throughout the week to convince Lora that Chess is the bigger threat. She seems to bite and this is confirmed when Whimzy saves Tiny and Chess goes up as the nominee. Benedict pretends to work with Chess by bad-mouthing Tiny. Chess thinks he is safe with his buddy and makes a comment about it to Violet. Violet, irritated about the whole week, lashes out at him for his playing the game with too much math and ignoring the thoughts of people. At the eviction, Chess is completely blindsided by a unanimous vote. Lora seems to realize something is up as well as she thought at least one vote would go to Violet.
Week 8: The next HOH comp starts with a sparkling statue of Mobee rising from the ground. A bunch of balloons also rise and each player is assigned a color. Whoever’s color is last left, wins. Gigi and Violet work together to eliminate everyone else leaving just them. Violet uses her agility to get his last balloon, crowning her HOH. She immediately flips the script on Lora by putting her on the block next to Tiny, who she knows has nine lives in this game. Lora panics, knowing she is at the bottom of the house. Amni goes on to win the veto and goes to Violet to ask her about saving Tiny and making sure its okay. Violet appreciates the gesture and the two bond. Tiny is saved and Adelynn, who Violet knows is a threat from her first season but isn’t her target, goes up. Lora, knowing she’s toast, begins to have a breakdown. Adelynn goes to her and comforts her, reminding her this game doesn’t have any standing on her as a person. The bug thanks her for her kindness even though they’re both on the block. Benedict is complaining about Tiny being saved again which Tiny overhears and confronts him on. The conversation turns bitter when she implies that he wouldn’t be saved from the block like she is. At the eviction, Lora accepts it as she is unanimously evicted.
Another one?: SURPRISE! Someone else is leaving tonight! An amethyst-laden statue of the Prof descend from the ceiling, starting a quiz competition sponsored by—no just kidding we aren’t doing the sponsorships anymore. It comes down to a tiebreaker between Gigi and Adelynn and Adelynn accidentally smudges her answer, causing her to write the exact right choice, winning it! Knowing that her big alliance was only meant to counter Chess, she begins to turn on it, putting up Whimzy next to Violet. Tiny goes on to win veto and, knowing that she has been saved, and it was a big mistake for people to underestimate her, she doesn’t use it. Violet makes a case for her being a great ally while Whimzy talks about her leaving being a catalyst of doom? In the end, by a vote of 4-1, Benedict and Gigi water at the mouth to send home a titan, and Whimzy is evicted.
TRIPLE EVICTION!: SUPRIRSE ONE MORE PERSON IS LEAVING!!!! A topaz statue of Lisette rises up and the contestants have to sort through tarot cards to get a full deck. Amni remembers her deck from the season and takes an early lead. But she doubles up on cards by mistakes, causing the game to continue with Tiny winning it! Tiny puts Violet back up but also knows how pivotal Benedict, Lissia, and Gigi are in the house and puts Benedict up because of his comments to her that week. Benedict powers through and wins the veto. Tiny is sad that the chance to get out Benedict has passed but puts up Lissia in his place. At the eviction, Lissia makes a good case for her game that causes Gigi some concern. He votes for her and it causes a tie. Tiny uses this tie to cut out a key member of the house structures by evicting Lissia.
Week 9: The final 6 are brought to a room with a pearlescent statue of Maeva. The HOH is a fast paced bell ringing competition to remake the sounds of her chimes. Violet, knowing she is on the outs, goes hard. But Gigi tries to reclaim his game and does so by winning the HOH. Amni consoles Violet, who knows she is toast. Adelynn gloats to the worm, knowing she is going further this time. Amni defends her, making them a pair. Gigi puts the small gals next to each other on the block. Violet and Gigi know they have to win veto to save themselves. Benedict and Gigi talk during the week about who goes up if one of them goes down. Benedict pushes for Tiny because she has a massive threat and somehow keeps surviving the block, but maybe she can get backdoored. He has to wait until veto though. Amni and Violet are the top 2, but both have a game to win and they respect each other for it. Amni wins and saves herself. Gigi, receptive to Benedict’s influence, puts Tiny on the block. Adelynn proposes an all-girls alliance to Tin and Amni, tired of laying low and wanting to flip the script on Benedict and Gigi. Tiny agrees to save herself. At the eviction, Adelynn and Amni are enough but Benedict also knows he has no shot at getting out Tiny, and Violet goes home unanimously. Amni hugs her on the way out.
Week 10: A statue of Day rises from the floor along with 4 rocky outcrops over a pit of water. Last one standing, wins the final 5 HOH. Amni and Benedict don’t l ast long, reducing the game to Tiny and Adelynn. Adelynn wants to take her game into her hands and Tiny is refusing to drop, irritating her. Eventually, Tiny does drop, making Adelynn the HOH. Adelynn goes to Tiny about the all-girls alliance but the fish doesn’t seem serious about it. Adelynn pivots and decides if they won’t work with her, they are against her. Amni and Tiny end up as her nominees. At the veto, Adelynn and Tiny are so focused on beating the other that they don’t realize how well Benedict is doing, wanting Tiny out so bad. He wins and keeps the noms the same, now going to Gigi about the vote. However, Gigi, who feels used by Benedict and not treated like an ally, decides to try and flip up the vote. At the eviction, Gigi turns on Benedict by voting Amni, causing a tie. Adelynn is all too happy to be the one who finally gets to end Tiny’s game.
Week 11: A statue of DJ descend from the ceiling, which Gigi turns away from in shame. The contestants have one last music match where they have to dance dance revolution! Adelynn is sad she can’t play in this. Gigi, distracted, messes up early. Between Benedict and Amni, Amni knows she is up against the three of them, and Benedict wants a big move on his resume after losing out on the Tiny vote. Turns out, Amni learned dance between Season 12 and now and she smashes the competition, securing herself a spot in the finale! She sees Gigi and Adelynn as the bigger competitors in the finale competitions, so she saves Benedict. Benedict confronts Gigi about his flipped vote the week prior and the dragon tells him how he feels like Benedict is trying to control him, rather than see him as a friend. He says he learned his lesson his season that he should have treated DJ as a friend rather than an ally. Adelynn and Amni watch, Amni tearing up while Adelynn brings popcorn and smirks. Tragically, Benedict rebuffs Gigi for this, saying he needs to finally win and why can’t he see that. Gigi tells him he is playing for himself too, not for Benedict. The fight ends coldly with everyone saddened. Benedict wins veto and doesn’t use it. At the eviction, with the sole vote to evict, Benedict uses it to turn on his number one through the whole game, and evicts Gigi!
The Reunion: Outside of the house, the jurors are all sat on the grand icy stage. On top of the mountain, a rainbow dais stands ready for the final HOH competitions. The blizzard blows more angrily than when the 18 houseguests stood before the house at the beginning of the season. This time, only three remain. Amni, walks up the steps, lagging behind the other two, reflecting on her game. She played a really good social game, slipping under the radar around people who were intentionally slipping under the radar. She managed to avoid detection yet still make moves and get herself to the end. Next to her is Adelynn. She struts confidently, knowing her endgame has been immaculate. She knows she has played more cutthroat than her first time and has even beat her rival, Violet. She smirks right before she trips over the top step. Benedict helps her catch her fall and continues upward. He had to betray parts of himself in order to get this far. He wants more than anything to win this game and has played too well strategically for it all to crumble now. Betraying Chess, Whimzy, Lissia, and Gigi, he looks down and hallucinates blood on his paws, shaking his head to dispel the illusion as he climbs the stairs. They reach the top and the 11 jurors greet them.
The three are led to part 1 of the HOH, an endurance chamber underneath the dais where they can’t hear the jurors talk. The round starts and the three hold on tight to their platforms. Krishna and Gage go first in talking about their games. Gage talks about how this game was not one where old tricks work, and his social game was rusty from the early seasons. Krishna says everyone was much more distrustful around other legends and she wasn’t able to find someone solid. Tiny tells Gage that he needed to adapt like she has done everytime, evolved her game and herself, which he never did. Chess asks how many people were secretly aligned and most of the jury reaches up. Gigi rightfully gives credit to Whimzy for promoting the idea and rolling with it. She thanks him but acknowledges his and Benedict’s role in tearing it apart from the inside out. Lora stares off into the icy horizon, saying she knew it was coming but wasn’t able to see. Suddenly, Chess points below them where Amni has dropped from her perch, leaving Adelynn and Benedict competing for part 1. Lissia comments how sweet Amni is and how she felt like she changed who she was because of her integrity. Violet says she always had a partner in her, no matter the circumstances. King pipes up saying he thought he had that in Benedict but was left out of a big alliance in the end. Violet speaks again about Adelynn this time, noting she has much more confidence this time around and slipped past everyone’s detection. Whimzy says she played the game they all wanted to play but a little bit better. Suddenly, Benedict drops and Adelynn is the winner of part 1.
Final HOH part 2: Adelynn cheers as Benedict and Amni are taken to the center of the house again where the darkness obscures an empty pedestal. They have to race to complete a days competition to build up the statue to be of them before the other. Both pay a ton of attention and have been preparing for this, both having been runner-ups before. Though Benedict takes an early lead, Amni catches up quickly. They trade pieces back and forth but eventually someone comes out victorious. Adelynn and the juror watch from the top of the mountain as the winner of part 2 walks up the steps. Benedict.
Final HOH part 3: Adelynn and Benedict face off in a quick fire jury quiz round with the sound of howling winds behind them. Adelynn answers with arrogance as she gets answers correct. Benedict is stone-cold, with a determination to win that has transcended his emotions. At the final question, with them tied up, both give different answers. Benedict’s answer is…incorrect. Adelynn is the final HOH. Amni comes back up and she gloats over the two of them about her victory and taking control of her game. But she puts it bluntly and says she has a much worse chance competing against a social butterfly than a traitor, and evicts Amni.
The Jury Questioning: Amni joins the jury, leaving Adelynn and Benedict to face them. Adelynn is eager to begin and confidently owns her game. She knew from the beginning the big names would go out early and the small names would target the big names so they could slip by. But she felt like she was firmly in the middle and could easily play dumb and avoid detection and she did just that, outplaying all of the sheep to be the top lion. She is asked by Violet who her closest ally was in the game and Adelynn bruntly replies that she only had herself, as being too close to someone else cost her the game last time. Benedict gets his turn to speak and with glazed over eyes, starts up. He says he wants to win this game more than anything else and had to play much tougher to do so with such a great cast. He says at each turn in the game, he flipped on an ally who stood in his way and learned that to win, he also had to rely on himself. He owns that his game differs because he was strategic from the beginning. He formed a backbone for him to work from and took out the pieces who most got in his way. He knows he has blood on his paws but if he wins, it’ll all be worth it.
Jury Voting: Gage comments that you either lose the hero, or see yourself live long enough to become the villain, and that’s pretty cool. Krishna says she knew a legend season would be tough, but has no qualms voting for the legendary winner. King smirks when he votes and smugly comments how Mazda needs to open up two new spots for his next villain cast. When Chess votes, he says he calculated everything but betrayal in his game, but it was intriguing in how well it worked…just not for him. Lora says she has to vote for someone who will own their win. Whimzy says she knows she was outplayed and is ready to commend it. Lissia comments that her character development was cut short, but both finalists developed their characters in an…unappealing way. Violet says she isn’t happy in this vote, but at least one person here played better and deserves the win. Tiny says she know her vote won’t change the outcome, but maybe an imperfect record will teach someone a lesson. Gigi says he may not have won but he became a better person, hope the win was worth losing a friend. Amni says she has lived on this world for a very long time and watched this series ton, and is honored she got to play with such legends. The votes are tallied and the winner is…
Winner: Benedict
Runner-Up: Adelynn
As Benedict is crowned the winner, he wants to cheer, but he realizes that this moment isn’t as satisfying as he though it would be. Adelynn gets up disappointed but pats him on the back. He doesn’t notice but instead stares down at his hands, the falling snow turning red in his illusions. With the jury cheering around him, he feels alone in this moment. Adelynn finally shoulder checks him and snaps him out of it. “You won” she says “At least pretend to be happy.” He stares at her a moment before forcing a smile. They full cast cheers the night away as the night falls over Mt. Silver, ending this Legendary Season as the blizzard peters out.
Fan Favorite: King
My Favorites: Amni, Tiny, Krishna, Chess, Whimzy, Lissia, Violet, Mazda. So many honestly this cast was fantastic.
My Thoughts: This season was absolutely as Legendary as the name implied. These were gamers ready to play and they all came in knowing how they would play and how they would react to the world around them. The strategy revolving around big targets but then small targets but then just being a free for all was fantastic and no alliances were truly solid, even the final 3 were not solid with each other. The storylines were also Legendary. Lemme name a few. Tiny, wow, Tiny. She is my favorite player of the whole series since season 1 and her coming back to play another season and do really well again was just phenomenal. She was the block warmer yet she never really felt in danger of going home because she knew how to survive the block. She lived up to her legend status. Amni and Violet both were the small fish but created paths for them to the end! Whimzy was a strategic genius who masterminded a plan to the end. If she wasn’t betrayed, she easily could have won. Gigi made a big come back, learning his lessons from last season and going far because of it. Same appies to Lissia who had much stronger footing this time around. Chess and Lora both started strong but ended up lost in the rush. Adelynn was so strong this time around, really controlling the narrative in the end game and ensuring she was not caught in the crossfire. I’m impressed by her comeback. And Benedict. He was robbed on his first season and we all knew it. But he came back with a fire that really tore through this game. He knew he wanted to win and did whatever it took to do so. He betrayed so many allies and played very cutthroat, staying on top of the game and dominating how we knew he would without having to win a single HOH but…at what cost. The statue of him stands built in the house, representing the 16^th and final main winner of the series.
Thank you guys again for the amazing characters and amazing season. But one last season remains…

I'm a sex addict that has been in recovery since 2015. Well 2016, but my last time acting out was 2015. It just took about a year and a half to get all the crap out of my soul to find serenity.
I'm having a hard time with Step 12: Carrying the message. Sponsorship is not something I'm good at. I've read the books and I've tried. It's a burden that I am unable to carry.
So how to give back?
I've been blessed with an ability to write. So I've started creating these little snippets of recovery. The path that I took to get here.
I'd like to share one today:
Who's on your recovery team?
As an addict, I didn't always know what was healthy for my brain, and at least as important, I didn't know what was unhealthy for my brain either.
Enter my recovery team.
It wasn't a conscious choice right away to have a team of individuals around me that would help me make the correct decisions to get into recovery. Like a person drowning, I would reach out to anyone that could help.
Eventually the people that I could count on became my team.
My CSAT therapist first called it my team when I was asking about whether something was healthy or not.
He told me that I wasn't ready to make my own decisions. That is why I had this team of people around me. If I came across a decision that I was uncertain of, then I should hold off on doing whatever it was that I was thinking of doing and ask someone.
Whether that was my partner, my CSAT, my sponsor, my doctor, my pastor, or one of my fellows in the 12 step program.
I brought this concept back to my wife and she thought it was a great idea. But She didn't trust everyone that I might trust on my recovery team.
We worked together to choose a set of trusted individuals that we both trusted.
if you've been in recovery for a while, you know that sometimes, especially if you're (HALT) or Stressed your brain will say, you know what we should do? We should do this totally healthy, non-triggering, good for your recovery thing. Most times in later recovery you recognize it as bone headed or stinking thinking. In earlier recovery that may not be easy. Heck sometimes in long term recovery you get an idea that needs to be examined.
My commitment to my partner, was if I wanted to do something and she thought it was unhealthy, I would ask one of these trusted individuals their opinion, then I would make an informed choice based on their opinion.
The idea was that if a thought came unbidden into my head about something I wanted to do, or if something seemed ok to do, I would run it by my partner if there was any doubt.
If we agreed it was ok, then I would do it.
If we disagreed. If she thought, nah, that's not ok, but I thought it was, my responsibility was to run it by one of the trusted advisors before doing it. That was the some total of my responsibility. At that point, my partner would also create a boundary around this thing.
Those trusted advisors that we'd agreed on could agree with me or agree with her, with their reasons, and I would have another opinion to think on before I did the thing.
That pause, that time from when an idea came into my head to when I acted on it, if delayed until I discussed it with my team, may have helped even more than discussing with my team.
I also had to think about talking to my team about something. Sometimes reflecting on what needed to be said was enough to derail any bad actions.
On my recovery team:

• My wife,
• My Pastor
• My Doctor
• My CSAT
• My sponsor
• My fellows

The people my partner trust to help me make good decisions are a subset of that group.
So who's on your team?
https://preview.redd.it/m1wbjvq6z7zc1.jpg?width=612&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82287d90805e76d4c9fcecddde338a01f2595df7
I hope this helps.

It's not about donations, it's not about corporate personhood, and it didn't open some floodgate of corruption.
Let's start at the beginning. In 2002 Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) also known by its sponsors, McCain-Feingold.
The BCRA enacted two main restrictions. First, national parties couldn't fundraise for any candidate outside of the federal reporting statutes and limits. Second, issue ads naming a candidate or politician close to an election were declared electioneering communications which have certain restrictions.
What matters to Citizens United is that incorporated entities could not engage in electioneering communications close to an election. Non-incorporated entities were free to do so.
In 2003 the BCRA's fundraising rule was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in McConnell v. FEC.
BCRA saw its first narrowing in the 2007 case FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc.. The FEC's position was that all issue ads were prohibited before an election (30 days for a primary, 60 days for a general). In a messy and fractured holding, the Supreme Court ruled that ads were still permitted if they actually promoted an issue other than simply endorsing or opposing a candidate.
That's the legal side.
Citizens United is a pro-conservative PAC founded in 1988. They mostly made partisan documentaries. The one at the center of this case is something called Hillary: The Movie for the 2008 election cycle. Because they were incorporated (and it's clearly advocating against a candidate) they feared the FEC would prevent them from showing the movie or showing ads for it. So they sued.
Let's skip ahead to the oral arguments, where the case was really decided.
The deputy Solicitor General, Malcom Stewart, was arguing for the government and the FEC. As the justices kept asking questions one came to the forefront. Let's say a corporation puts out a 500 page book on any topic, but at the end it has one line advocating for a candidate. Could the government prohibit the publication of that book?
Stewart, forced to articulate the logical endpoint of the government's position, said yes. That turned this case from a standard statutory interpretation to a full blown free speech issue. The justices set another date for oral arguments; this time questioning whether they need to overturn McConnell v. FEC and/or the 1990 Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce which was another campaign finance case.
That's too long of an introduction but it's kind of my thing.
We can boil down Citizens United to two core points.

• Is money used for speech (broadcasting ads) equivalent to speech
  
• Can the government restrict speech based on the form of the speaker
  

Let's say the government passes a law prohibiting anyone from buying a gun with currency or trading for one. That's a de facto ban on guns. No court would see that otherwise, and it applies to everything. Including this case.
The second one really seems to get people worked up. Some claim that it granted corporations the same rights as people, though this is completely backwards. There are two classes of rights: individual and group. I have the individual First Amendment right to not have the government restrict my speech. I also have that right as a member of a group. It's both an individual and a collective right. I can pay for a radio ad or I can pool money with my co-workers for a radio ad.
What the BCRA did was declare that a group of people who otherwise would have the collective right to speech no longer enjoyed that right when they were an incorporated entity.
But the First Amendment says nothing about the type of speaker. It only addresses the speech. That's how the 5-4 majority ruled in Citizens United. It's not that corporations have the same rights as people, it's that people don't lose their rights when they're part of a corporation.
Free speech is a broad concept, broader than just the First Amendment. It stands for the notion that speech should be countered with speech. The government banning a book because of one line promoting a political candidate is not what I stand for, and is not what anyone should stand for.

Disclaimer: this is an old story. I've been out of the Army for like 2 and a half years now.
All the way back in 2013 when I first got to my unit, my sponsor was a man name PFC P. Not actually his name, but it's what everyone called him as his name was really hard to pronounce. He and I got close. Close to the point I'd call him a friend... or at least friend adjacent.
He was was a pretty vulgar and over the top guy with a grotesque sense of humor that I adored. He and I would joke with each other about all sorts of things I won't go into detail about. He and I also hung out from time to time to get lunch together or see movies together. Just chill out.
He soon promoted to SPC and then less than a year later promoted to SGT and was also my team lead. This is when his behavior began to change with me. From my perspective, it seemed like only me. Some of it I felt was fair. I wouldn't call him "sergeant" or stand at parade rest for talking to him which he'd scold me. Fair enough.
Other behaviors got weird. He'd criticize me for being unprofessional with my jokes even though they seemed about the same as when he was a junior enlisted, he'd smoke me A LOT for things which got less than funny after the 15th time he did, and he pushed me to do shit like Ranger School, Best Squad Competition, and Combatives, I failed Ranger School, BSC, and injured myself but did pass Combatives and later went onto pass 2 and 3 which was cool. He'd volunteer me for details WAY more than the other members of my team. One time, he counseled me for being like less than 5 minutes late for a closeout formation on Friday so I had to check in with fucking Staff Duty at 0800, 1200, 1500, 1700, and 2100 on a fucking Saturday in my OCPs, yet one of my battles was late for fucking everything every fucking day and he didn't seem to care.
I also noticed his attitude changed with me. He went from being playful to harsh as hell with me. He'd not smile when looking at me anymore, he'd yell at me a lot at PT to like run faster or push myself harder which he did not do with other members of the team, and not joke around with me anymore. He also stopped wanting to do things with me outside of work like go to the movies or play online games with me. He was all business, yet would STILL joke with some other guys there. I then started to wonder why he hated me. Was I a bad soldier, was it because I'm a woman, or something else? I grew resentful at this change in behavior toward me.
One day in the MP, he made some kind of off color joke with some guys there and I was at my limit. I knew that kind of joke was something he'd not do with me, so I yelled at him. I told him he was being a bad NCO for being so unprofessional. Yes, I did it in front of everyone. He got upset at me and told me to drop which I said no, I got up in his face and then asked to speak to him in private. He just nodded and agreed to talk to me.
We went somewhere private and I aired out my grievances with him basically saying all of this here with him and how it made me feel like I'm being singled out. He said that he saw potential in me and wanted me to be better than him. I thought this was BS because he seemed to down on me, so then I told him I didn't like this and it made me feel disrespected. We argued back and forth until I told him, "I hate you! No, not you as a sergeant, you as a person, P!"
He gave me a look that broke my heart. He looked horribly distraught and saddened by my remark. In a shaky voice he just said that he would leave me alone from here on out. He was only at the unit again for like a month before he PCS'd and indeed he left me alone, but I felt like an asshole for what I said to him.
I complained about my issues with some of my battles later and one told me that P was being pushed to not be quite as "buddy buddy" with people by our PLT SSG who was a former fucking drill sergeant. I then also thought maybe he really was pushing me to be better and I was just being whiny. That thinking this had anything with me being a woman was probably just me being sensitive.
I actually saw him again earlier today. I went back onto my old post to visit a PX and saw him there. He's an SFC now. I recognized him and he did me because he grimaced when he saw me. Yup, he recognized me after 10 fucking years and I felt like a huge fucking asshole. Clearly he's still sore about it.
So yeah, am I wrong here? Was he being unfair or was he trying to actually make me a better soldier and I was just whiny?

I received my 4th refund yesterday for Burberry Cardholder purchased from Designer Unlimited LLC. His statement in the video where he stated sellers get up to 3 offenses before WN takes action is false. I am one buyer with 4 refunds back-to-back and he is still on selling. WN policies should be applied to all sellers. No special treatment/circumstances should be given. It should not be overlooked.
I am just a buyer who has been observing everything on the platform and the actions of the named sellers are very disturbing.

1. They are in each other lives more than usual. Sponsoring giveaways and cheering each other on. GROSS and FAKE.
   
2. Using intimidation or mocking tactics aren't going unnoticed. Harrison and Caitlin with the FBI get up is childish. This just makes it more obvious you are guilty.
   
3. The high-end giveaways, signs of distraction. Let's give a luxury piece to cover and distract, let's make everyone think we are great and honest.
   
4. Interviews....why do an interview now? You see these actions when a celebrity is in the shitter and trying to make themselves look good. Recovering their image.
   
5. MODs...obvious Schill bidding, just saying. BTW, learn how to use the /hide option so others don't see your comments.
   

There are thousands of people watching, hundreds in the each live. Keep in my mind, there are supporters, there are viewers who just want to see what is going on and there are viewers who want to seek the truth.
These named sellers, you are not going unnoticed, you are being noticed in the light of GUILTY. So please stop thinking and treating the viewers as stupid and uneducated.

Tuesday, May 07
📷 Good morning! The S&P 500 gained over 1% Monday. Disney headlines a big Tuesday for quarterly results, releasing its report card before the bell — an early day for the California-based company.
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And once again, tune into Yahoo Finance Live to catch our folks on the ground at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California. (And make sure to keep scrolling for a dispatch from Executive Editor Brian Sozzi.)
What we're watching
📷 Disney reports results: Disney will report second quarter earnings before the bell Tuesday. With its high-profile proxy fight behind it, the company returns its focus to other significant challenges, including the transition to streaming profitability. Investors will be watching any news about an ESPN streaming platform, Disney+ subscribers, and any possible updates about CEO Bob Iger's succession plan. Its stock is up 28% over the last year.
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📷 2024's best three-day period: The S&P 500 notched its best three-day run of the year, closing 1% up Monday, as commentary from numerous Fed officials added to the good feelings brought on by the April jobs report.
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📷 Fed officials saying the right things: After April's hawkish commentary from a slew of Fed officials before the quiet period, central bank members are once again telling investors what they want to hear. New York Fed president John Williams and Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin gave investors hope for 2024 rate cuts by soothing rate hike worries on Monday. Williams said specifically that he thinks cuts will happen this year. But, of course, the officials reiterated the central banker mantra: They will be looking at the totality of data as it comes.
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📷 A busy day of corporate results: Tuesday features a busy corporate calendar besides Disney. Lyft, Reddit, Match Group, Twilio, TripAdvisor, Ferrari, Crocs, BP, Celsius, Rivian, EA, and IAC also feature on the calendar. Something for everyone. And as you can read about in our Takeaway, Reddit has a new way to field questions on its earnings call — its own product.
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📷 Companies are, in fact, earning: We're not done yet with Q2 earnings season, but with 80% of the S&P 500 results recorded, it's safe to say companies are doing far better than expected. As our Josh Schafer writes, the 5% earnings growth companies have reported for Q1 is the most in nearly two years and consensus estimates expect that growth to continue. Even if companies are being lauded a little less and punished a little more in the stock market for exceeding or missing expectations, the fundamentals are improving.
Morning Brief is written and edited by Ethan Wolff-Mann. For the web version, click here. Follow all the action throughout the day on Yahoo Finance and on the Yahoo Finance app.
What we're reading
📷 New EV tax credit rules mean cars with Chinese materials won't qualify —but there's a catch.
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📷 Lucid stock down on Q1 loss, and confirms Gravity SUV on track for 'late 2024' launch.
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📷 Social Security just passed Medicare as the government's most pressing insolvency risk.
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📷 Robinhood gets new legal threat from SEC as crypto crackdown continues.
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📷 FAA opens new probe into Boeing 787 inspections.
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📷 US banks report weaker loan demand, Fed survey says.
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📷 Palantir raises 2024 forecast on robust AI demand.
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📷 Why losing NBA media rights would be 'a big negative' for Warner Bros. Discovery.
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📷 Apollo CEO Marc Rowan: A soft landing for the economy has been achieved. (Disclaimer: Apollo is Yahoo's parent company.)
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Reddit's first quarterly report follows Elon Musk's lead
Today's Takeaway is by Myles Udland, Head of News.
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On Jan. 30, 2019, Elon Musk launched one of his more unheralded innovations in the business world: He began Tesla's earnings conference call with questions from retail investors.
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On Tuesday, Reddit, whose message boards helped fuel the 2021 meme stock rally, will report its first quarterly results since going public and launch its own innovation of a sort, taking questions from the investing public that will be posted, but where else, on Reddit.
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Since Tesla's call back in 2019, we've seen several companies take a different approach to explaining their results since going public.
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Robinhood, to no one's surprise, has been at the forefront of remaking these quarterly updates, beginning their own calls with questions from retail investors. The company will report its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.
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In 2021, Robinhood also acquired Say Technologies, the company behind say.com, the service that powered shareholder-submitted calls for Tesla back in 2019.
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Coinbase, which, like Robinhood, made its public market debut in 2021 with a focus on its retail users and investors, began its call last week with questions from shareholders.
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And AMC, one of the most prominent companies in the meme stock craze, mixes in several questions from shareholders during its quarterly call. Its meme stock counterpart GameStop, for its part, hasn't taken questions from analysts or shareholders following quarterly results since December 2020.
And taking questions from investors isn't the only way conference calls have changed through the years.
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Years before Tesla's move to bring in shareholder questions, Netflix began its own innovation in the space, tasking a single analyst or IR exec with hosting what it calls an "earnings interview." The company continues the practice today.
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This past weekend, many investors spent hours listening to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett hold court with shareholders inside a basketball arena in Omaha, Neb. Berkshire has never hosted quarterly earnings calls.
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Over the years, the rules have considerably changed regarding how analysts can interact with company management and how companies communicate with the investing public.
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In short, more people have more information, and fewer people know anything special.
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Corporate communications has boomed. Sell-side research has dwindled. And the research arms of financial firms now resemble media companies, complete with newsletters, podcasts, and their own personalities.
When Musk took his first question from shareholders, the appeal was immediately apparent.
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According to a transcript from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the first question was about "service," which Musk had already addressed "at length," according to Tesla's IR head Martin Viecha.
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The next question resembled much of the fare executives are accustomed to responding to from Wall Street analysts — "How are you feeling about demand right now across the product line?"
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In the five years since this call, the rise of the retail investor and the "meme stock" movement has continued to reshape this quarterly ritual. And Musk, for his part, has turned holding a colorful earnings call into an art form.
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Perhaps it's fitting, then, that at the end of Tesla's earnings call last month Viecha announced that it would be his last.
Chart of the day
If you chart the S&P 500's rough April, there's a notable bottom on Friday, April 19. It was the last day before the Fed's quiet period when its officials went silent.
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And while the correlation between a muted Fed and happier market might be somewhat spurious — many other factors drive the market — Bank of America put a fresh new chart to something we all know instinctively: In the world of markets, no news is good news.
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In this chart, BofA's equity and quant strategy team tracked the median weekly returns against key macro releases like GDP, CPI, PMI, FOMC meetings, retail sales, and jobs reports.
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"Since 2014, the S&P 500 has risen 0.6% during weeks with no key macro data releases vs. +0.2% in other weeks on a median basis. So no news is typically good news for stocks," the team, led by Ohsung Kwon, wrote. "Historically, the equity market has favored quiet macro weeks."
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Unlike the VIX vs. S&P 500 relationship, which shows an inverse relationship between volatility and stock prices, this chart speaks more directly to what actually causes that volatility: uncertainty. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is stressful.
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And in weeks with fewer macro readings to be uncertain about, like this one, stocks have fewer reasons to stray from their historical path up and to the right.
Dispatch from Milken: Top CEOs see risks in investing in the Magnificent Seven
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — What's a glitzy investing conference without a little Mag Seven banter?
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"The risk is simple — those stocks don't do well," Avenue Capital Group founder and CEO Marc Lasry told Yahoo Finance at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday.
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Lasry was answering a question about the risk of overcrowding into tech names such as the Magnificent Seven.
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"What has happened is when people are nervous, they invest in things that they know really well and they believe are going to be around," Lasry added. "But I don't know what happens in the next year. I do know on the credit side, you've got all these opportunities."
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The former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Lasry has been investing in credit markets for more than four decades, giving him a reported net worth of $1.9 billion.
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So suffice it to say, Lasry has seen a few investing cycles and market crazes.
And the Mag Seven could be viewed as a craze.
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Altogether, the Mag Seven were responsible for about 37% of the S&P 500's 10.2% gain in the first quarter, according to data from S&P Global Indices. In 2023, the cohort constituted roughly two-thirds of the S&P 500's advance.
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The optimism on the group reflects profit enthusiasm on everything from Nvidia AI chips to Microsoft's Copilot productivity tool.
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But with investors now more closely scrutinizing the Mag Seven amid higher interest rates, shares have come back down to earth.
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Explained Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, "I'm not in the stock picking business. But very few people come in every day and try to buy 45 or 50 P/E stocks. It's just not what we do." (Disclosure: Apollo Global Management is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.)
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"I look at the broader trend. We used to have 8,000 public companies. We now have 4,000 public companies," he added. "People think most of the action is in public markets. 80% of companies over a hundred million of revenue and 80% of employment is in private companies."
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— Brian Sozzi, Executive Editor

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17-minute read.

summarized segments from PM Pashinyan's 4-hour-long press conference

PASHINYAN: Over the last several years we came to realize that certain issues were incompatible with the idea of having an independent and sovereign Armenia. Certain agendas were shown to have a predetermined outcome with the goal of preventing Armenia's development as a state. I have shared details on numerous occasions. It became necessary to review Armenia's development strategy and the need to develop the "Real Armenia".
Today Armenia has and must have an independent foreign policy. Armenia's internal policy is driven by the will of the people.
The purpose of the existence of the Republic of Armenia is not to serve "historical justice". Its purpose is to establish personal freedoms, happiness, and prosperity for its citizens and diasporans who wish to repatriate.
We must have social justice in Armenia based on the idea of assisting those in need so they can have the skills and jobs necessary to make a living independently.
We must deepen our relations with neighboring Georgia and Iran, control and reduce the hostility with Turkey and Azerbaijan, and integrate with regional communication routes. The Crossroads of Peace logistics project would promote Armenia's integration into economic routes and reduce the likelihood of conflicts in the future.
In the area of defense, we are diversifying our foreign relations, reforming the army, and we need to implement and comprehensive defense system.
To be able to diversify foreign relations [closer ties with the West & the delivery of Indian weapons through the territory of Iran or Georgia], Armenia's stance must be based on legitimacy [no territorial claims against Azerbaijan]. We will never be able to diversify our relations or use the diversified relations effectively without having a position based on legitimacy.
The army reforms must also be based on legitimacy, and its purpose must be the protection of Armenia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. There will be no army reforms [Western advisory & assistance] if our stance is not based on legitimacy.
The economic development, which is a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals, must be based including on the development of human capital in Armenia.
The implementation of all of the above requires peace. The peace agenda has been a priority for us, partly because the mechanism of guarantees [by Russia] didn't work. Only peace can guarantee Armenia's security. The peace agenda is a tool to ensure Armenia's security.
We must create the conditions for peace, and we have launched that process in Tavush. The border posts installed in Tavush are "security guarantees" and we must do everything possible to strengthen those guarantees and multiply them. //
Border Commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on April 19 to reproduce the borders based on the 1991 Almaty Declaration. During the upcoming meeting in Kazakhstan, foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will discuss the inclusion of this principle in the larger peace agreement, said Pashinyan.
The demarcation is conducted based on the latest USSR maps that hold de jure power. That's the principle. They avoid pointing to a map from a specific year because each section of the border could have de jure maps prepared in different years. Pashinyan offered journalists to meet off the record to share more details about the de jure maps. He said it can't be publicized in order not to jeopardize the ongoing delimitation process.
Why are the parties delimiting the borders from the ground up instead of simply using the delimitation work carried out in 1988, during the final years of USSR? Pashinyan says the 1988 efforts were not legally finalized and "didn't have time" to undergo the necessary procedures to go into effect, hence the need for a new process.
PASHINYAN: Today we are using maps that reflect the borders between Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the Tavush process, we have chosen a path to exclude the possibility of a war. This isn't just about Kirants and Tavush, this is about the Republic of Armenia.
The border delimitation aims to make the possible war illogical, unlikely, and not worthwhile. Some 90% of the work is complete. The further it goes, the more illogical a war becomes. We are delivering on our 2021 promise of taking steps to establish peace.
This is the first time in history that we create security guarantees ourselves, no matter how challenging it is. This is part of being a sovereign state, when you face your own issues and make sovereign decisions to resolve your own issues. This is a major political and socio-psychological shift for Armenia. //
Pashinyan said it's necessary to ensure that Armenia is not viewed as an "occupier" of Azerbaijani villages, and explained why it was important to launch the delimitation from Tavush:
PASHINYAN: We are talking about actual [4 Soviet-era Azeri] communities where people lived. The escalations in 2021-2022 caught the interest of the international community, and sadly, on international platforms, the aggression against Armenia was "justified" including with the use of those Azerbaijani villages. It was both surprising and unfortunate that in a situation [20121-2022] when we thought we were the "plaintiff", we became the "defendant". We were asked whether we recognize each other's territorial integrity or not. "Then what is the problem that's preventing you from resolving the issue of these villages?" So we are launching the delimitation from Tavush to avoid a new war.
Critics and I look at this through different lenses. They talk about "surrendering trenches great for defense", and I'm talking about preventing a war so you won't even need to use those trenches. Today there is a process, including by the clergy, to stop the process of developing guarantees for peace, to stop the process of strengthening Armenia's sovereignty. There will be a war if we don't delimit these 4 villages. I'm confident that this was/is the goal of certain forces that wish to create conditions to allow them to hijack power so they can make some other decisions for Armenia [Tatarstan].
Are you paying attention to what the opposition members are saying? One of their leaders went on air and questioned the expediency of holding free and legitimate elections because they - and certain external forces [in Russia] - understand that they can't win power through legitimate elections so they need to destabilize the situation by inciting a new war so they can hijack power without elections. This is their plan:
(1) Derail the border delimitation and incite a war that will lead to the occupation of Armenian territories.
(2) Use that to overthrow the government.
(3) Install an illegitimate marionette government.
(4) De facto dissolution of Armenia's sovereignty and statehood, ahead of its de jure dissolution.
Who are the supporters of this process [rally against delimitation]? Narco-barons hiding in Russia [Panama Papers' Mihran Poghosyan]; criminal elements recruited by foreign intel agencies or at a minimum people acting under their influence; the former NSS chief Arthur Vanetsyan who was recorded on tape, which wasn't published in full, with the rest of the tape being kept to ensure he served their interests. What could be in the unpublished portion of the conversation? Could we find out one day that Vanetsyan was illegally negotiating with Kocharyan's son-in-law Mikael Minasyan to register part of the Zangezur copper combine's shares under his brother's name [Context: Pashinyan has accused the ex-regime of illegally appropriating the shares of Armenia's largest miner. There was an investigation by an independent media outlet about Vanetsyan's involvement in Zangezur. This was before the recent partial nationalization.]
These are the people who claim they are worried about the homeland today. Why don't they return those illegally obtained shares if they are worried about Armenia? It is inevitable. I want to inform you that these shares will belong to the Republic of Armenia. These illegal assets will be seized and returned under the ownership of the Republic of Armenia. //
Pashinyan vented about the quality of journalism in Armenia, accusing outlets of spreading unverified information as facts and not attempting to ask him directly for clarification when they were given the opportunity during one-on-one meetings.
PASHINYAN: You read these articles about my family members visiting somewhere and returning home with a "submarine", but when the opportunity is presented, these outlets never ask me to clarify whether it was true. Why don't you grill me right now for using a submarine to travel from Gyumri to Yerevan? It's as if these articles are being written for the sake of saying something rather than presenting facts. //
Back to borders.
PASHINYAN: Today the Border Commissions are tasked with reproducing the border on the ground. They are not engaged in politics, geopolitics, or proving the other side wrong. They are reproducing the de jure borders. In the Kirants section, 8 border markings have been clarified and installed. The other 3 are more sensitive [might pass through a house] and more detailed work will be done because, in those 3 points, every centimeter will matter. It has to have a centimeter precision. It's a laborious task but the problems of Kirants residents are our problems, my personal problems. For them, we have to come up with realistic and satisfactory solutions, even if not "ideal" solutions. We are reviewing the property ownership records as well. //
Pashinyan said he had to organize this press conference on May 7 instead of May 8 - the day when he became the PM - because tomorrow he has to visit Russia for the EAEU economic meeting during which he will also meet Putin. He said a number of issues have accumulated on the AM-RU agenda that need to be discussed.
The permanent housing assistance package for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees is being drafted and will be ready soon. Pashinyan said the refugees will receive help to build or buy housing, or a mortgage subsidy if they have already purchased a house. For refugees who are unable or do not wish to take part in the aforementioned programs, they will receive assistance in the form of social housing, meaning they will live for free but won't own it.
The amount of housing subsidy will be in the ֏3M-֏5M range, per family member. So a family of 6 would receive $41,000-$77,000 depending on the geographic location of their choice.
While speaking about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, Pashinyan repeated that after 2016, the resolution package on the table required: the abolition of the governing system in Nagorno-Karabakh, the return of Azeris to Nagorno-Karabakh, the joint control of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenians and Azeris, no independence, and the lingering possibility of war.
PASHINYAN: We had to surrender all of that, and even then there was no guarantee there wouldn't be a war because there would be no final resolution. This outcome was predetermined. Nevertheless, the Armenian people are overcoming the mentality of being a [Russian] fortpost today. This creates the groundwork for a lasting statehood for Armenia. Today we see the horizon after overcoming all these tragedies. Since taking office in 2018 I had the feeling that Armenia was in a deadlock. Today, for the first time, I feel that we have overcome that, thanks to the delimitation in Tavush. We are the ones creating the "guarantees" for us. //
When asked why he won't take part in Russia's May 9 celebrations, Pashinyan said he visited last year and that Armenian leaders don't have a record of attending every year.
Regarding the recent ban on Russian propagandist Solovyov from Armenian airwaves and possibly a wider ban on Russian channels, Pashinyan said foreign programs must respect Armenian laws:
PASHINYAN: Can you imagine the broadcasting of a channel in Russia that uses a similar language towards Russian law, the state, and its government? Do you think the channel would exist even if they used 5% of the same language? The AM-RU media agreement requires respect for Armenia and its interests. Since we have friendly relations with Russia, we can ask nicely once and twice, then demand once and twice, and if it's still ignored, they will all be shut down in Armenia. We are serious about defending Armenia as a sovereign state. I can GUARANTEE you, guar-an-tee, that these foreign channels won't be aired in Armenia if they continue to ignore these demands. It appears we have asked twice, demanded once, so there is one more "demand" left. //
QUESTION: Russia and Azerbaijan demand a Russian-controlled corridor from Armenia, citing the 9th paragraph of the Nov 9 statement.
PASHINYAN: (1) The other paragraphs of Nov. 9 were ignored. (2) The 9th paragraph is not about connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan. That's the impression they are trying to create, but the 9th paragraph is in reality about the unblocking of ALL communication routes in the region. Azerbaijan has yet to unblock any of the routes for Armenia. Name one route that Azerbaijan has unblocked. We, on the other hand, proposed the installation of border checkpoints to establish connections, including between Azerbaijan and Nakhijevan. Azerbaijan is refusing to take advantage of this opportunity. Azerbaijan says if we don't give them a corridor they will build a route through Iran. Our response is that we are ready to provide a road similar to the one provided by Iran. There is not even a "hint" in the 9th paragraph that limits Armenia's sovereignty.
(3) There is an attempt to create the impression that under the 9th paragraph, a 3rd party [Russia] must guarantee the security through the territory of Armenia. Quite the contrary; it directly states that Armenia shall guarantee the security of connections.
(4) The 9th paragraph makes no mention of any part of Armenia becoming outside of the reach of the Armenian government and being "controlled" by Russia. It's written that Russia oversees the transport connection. What does that mean, you may ask? Pay attention to the Russian government decree adopted after the Nov. 9 statement, because it clarifies what the 9th paragraph says. The Russian decree instructs Russian agencies to "oversee the implementation of transportation guarantees provided by Armenia". In other words, the subject that provides the guarantees is Armenia, not Russia. This doesn't even mean that Russia must be present on the ground to oversee this, because it's possible to oversee the process by receiving regular reports from Armenia that Armenia is delivering the guarantees [Relevant: In 2022-2023 Armenia's NatSec Armen Grigoryan suggested that Russia could use "cameras" to oversee the process remotely. It appears Pashinyan today supports even less direct involvement by Russia, in the form of "regular reports", whatever that means.]
PASHINYAN (continues): There can be no comparison between this and the Lachin corridor. They are completely different. The Lachin corridor, under Nov. 9, was a territory with a specific width that had to remain under the direct control of Russian peacekeepers. Those who accuse us of violating paragraph 9 are making baseless claims. They must admit that this is an attempt by them to coerce an unacceptable concession from Armenia that is not described in paragraph 9. That is the truth.
There is a Lachin corridor in the Nov 9 statement. Is there a Lachin corridor on the ground today? It doesn't exist. Why?
There is a "line of contact" between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the Nov 9 state. Is there a LoC on the ground today? Where is it?
The Nov 9 says there is Nagorno-Karabakh. Where is Nagorno-Karabakh today?
The Nov 9 says there are peacekeepers that will ensure the security of the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Did they? They did not. Where is the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh today? //
Regarding the delimitation of 3 problematic areas in Kirants where the border could pass through a couple of houses.
PASHINYAN: Kirants is my homeland. I grew up in these areas and my children spent their vacations there. We regularly visit Kirants and other villages with family without disclosing it. Do you know why I do not oppose delimiting the border even if it causes controversy and property issues for some residents? Because we were finally able to reach an agreement around the principle for the delimitation of the entire AM-AZ border, welcomed by the international community. We cannot throw away the hard work and the principles of delimitation.
There can be no external "security guarantees" for Armenia. Armenia itself must forge those "guarantees" with its own efforts. That is what we are doing today. These are the "security guarantees" that you asked for Kirants and Tavush. This is part of the peace agenda. //
When asked about police brutality, Pashinyan acknowledged some problems but said a legal force should be used when appropriate, citing the recent clearing of university campuses in the US. Pashinyan said the government has launched a process to clarify the rights and responsibilities of officers so they will avoid investigations and prosecutors while the public will be treated fairly.
Pashinyan accused "failed religious leaders" of attempting to pursue a political agenda.
PASHINYAN: They failed to connect people and God. There are sadly many ranking churchmen, not all, who failed. You can talk to them dozens of times and they will never make any mention of the Bible or verses from the Bible. They are focused on business dealings, cement and concrete transportation, customs clearance, moving money from one account to another, public transport ownership, comparing the latest model of Mercedes with the old model, etc. Who are these people?
I'm not really surprised that they are involved in politics because they have no place in the religious world; it's just not for them. I doubt they have read the Bible in full. Based on the language used by them, you can tell they haven't opened the New Testament for quite some time, and they don't possess the nuances of the gospel. I say this not as a Prime Minister but as a man who believes in God. I speak as a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Our church leaders have failed in their mission. I'm probably the last person in Armenia who says this; everyone knows that's the case.
They are bored of religion, they want to be in politics. Under the old regime, the church members had their "quotas" [monopolistic privileges] to conduct business. Import and export of cars, Bentleys, Lexus, Mercedes... yev ayln. Today everyone is free to do business, which means economic competition for these church leaders. This sums up the whole story.
They say the "temple" [opposition] will defeat the "street" [Pashinyan's 2018 revolution]. How will the temple defeat the street? Who is on the streets? It's the citizens of Armenia. How do they plan to defeat the street? The people's will is unstoppable, and people want peace. Those who preach war are destined to fail. // [Should Pashinyan resign and lead the church? Leave your insightful opinion in the comment section below.]
When asked why he visited daddy Erdogan's inauguration ceremony but not papa Putin's, Pashinyan revealed that he didn't receive an invitation from Putin, but even if there was one, he said would likely miss it because of today's press conference.
When asked whether the church leader Garegin Beta should step down, Pashinyan said the Government should not interfere in those matters.
PASHINYAN: Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that Catholicos Garegin B is leading a political movement today. That is very obvious. Today we know the purpose of this movement from the spokesman of the church who said the goal of this movement is to bring back the former regime. This strategy was mentioned by the leader of Armenia Alliance [Robert Kocharyan] on how to use the church to replace the government. A churchman said he has the blessing of the Catholicos to proceed with the process. That means Catholicos is the real leader, with the primary beneficiary being Robert Kocharyan. This isn't even an assumption, this is based on their public statements.
We are aware that some members of the clergy oppose this process. You remember how there was a movement "New Armenia, new Catholicos" after the 2018 revolution. They attempted to accuse us of being behind it, but in reality, not only we did not sponsor it but we were against that process because we didn't believe the Government should meddle in those affairs. //
HOST: This just in. The administrative head of village Kirants was allowed to visit the border marking sites. During a follow-up interview with the press, he said their expectations have been met and exceeded, and that it's more positive than what they expected.
PASHINYAN: During my recent trip to Kirants, the scenario I presented to the residents was the worst-case scenario. I also informed the residents of Kirants about the positive aspects of the delimitation and the possible economic benefits. I won't rush to make more statements and politicize the work of the Border Commission. The head of the administrative district of Kirants is actually a member of a [recently formed] working group adjacent to the Border Commission [Context: Village mayors were invited to oversee the Commission's work to ensure transparency for residents].
source,

former ambassador-at-large Edmon Marutyan released a video praising the Armenian church for its "liberal values", criticizing the Pashinyan administration for a "Bolshevik" campaign against the church

Marukyan is upset that the ruling faction accuses the church leaders of being "Russian agents" and for dismissing them without engaging with them.
Marukyan says it's normal for the church to be in politics and for deeply religious figures to be members of the government. He brings the example of Donald Trump, who is selling Bibles for a buck; Erdogan, whose party is deeply religious; Israel, whose coalition has right-wing religious figures; the United Kingdom, which has Bishops, etc.
In related news. Former Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan has joined the anti-delimitation march organized by the ARF/church.
source, source, source, source, source, [կանսեռվա]

mayor of Tavush village Kirants about the ongoing delimitation process

REPORTER: Eight border markers have been installed. Where are they, what's the latest news?
MAYOR (Kamo Shahinyan): I've seen the markers. There is a height called Khachi located right on the cross. They moved the border about 25 meters down from there, for which we are grateful to whoever was able to accomplish this. Some of the territory went under our control, and some under Azerbaijani control.
The "nose" part is what's left, the area immediately neighboring the village, the most difficult part. The 9.5 hectares that we were supposed to lose were moved down the river; not a centimeter of land belonging to us passes through there. On the back side, there are 3 personal properties and if you draw the line straight they will be inside Azerbaijan but they said they plan to curve the line. With this technique, we can maintain control of our lands.
REPORTER: Where is the most problematic area?
MAYOR: The bridge and the [area immediately next to the village where the border protrudes into the village]. Most of the work has been done near other markers. Moreover, some of the areas that were part of Azerbaijan under the 1985 map went to our side.
Near the Gholi Chal area, we were expecting them to draw the line to pass through our side of the river, but it passes on the Azeri side.
Most of the concern is with the "nose" and the personal properties of villagers in this area. As of right now, there is no Armenian-owned registered property that has fallen under the Azeri side as long as they curve that aforementioned area instead of drawing a straight line.
Do you see this large 9-hectare orchard? Not one centimeter of it goes under Azeri control.
REPORTER: Is that Ms. Karine's property?
MAYOR: Yes, people. Ms. Karine's lands remain under her control. I'm satisfied with how it's been handled so far.
REPORTER: [The groups were home today]. Is it possible they have frozen the activities on the nose section to distract you and buy some time? Because you are assuming a responsibility, you are presenting this in a positive light...
MAYOR: I'm telling you what has been done so far. I'm not the one to provide guarantees. They are going to deploy people [border guards] near the border markers to protect the area. For now, I think they will deploy NSS agents.
REPORTER (Azatutyun): So we haven't made concessions at this time?
MAYOR: We have not made concessions. There are only 3 land plots with uncertainty and it depends on how curved the line will be. That is the latest. It's going normal so far. //
In other news. Opposition outlets reported that Azerbaijani special forces were seen in village Kirants. It turned out they were Armenian agents. The ruling party accused the opposition of recklessly amplifying the anxieties of the residents.
source,source,

mayor of village Voskepar about the ongoing delimitation

REPORTER: What was lost during the delimitation near Voskepar? Did any territories of Voskepar go under Azerbaijani control?
MAYOR: No part of Voskepar has gone under Azeri control.
REPORTER: How did the border change after the installation of border posts?
MAYOR: Do you really think people knew where the border was BEFORE this process? The process is so far in line with our expectations and understanding. There are areas where we keep more than we thought we would. Azeris moved further back in some locations so instead of a 120-meter distance it turned out to be 170.
REPORTER: What about the army positions?
MAYOR: We have not left any of the positions.
REPORTER: In other words, there has been no damage as of now and you are not displeased with the demarcation works?
MAYOR: I'm not displeased with the work so far.
REPORTER: In that case, why was there a noise generated by the opposition and the church, why did people take to the streets?
MAYOR: Ask them, but I support the fight against unilateral concessions to protect our lands.
source,

Donald Trump defends Azerbaijan's good boy U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, accused of taking $600,000 in bribes to promote pro-Azerbaijan and anti-Armenian legislation

Trump claims without evidence that Cuellar is under attack for wanting to defend the southern U.S. border.
source,

Armenia will receive $100 million from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development to fund the Government's economic reform plan

efficiency of the labor market and sustainable development

source,

Yerevan State University has a cleanroom certified under ISO 7: VIDEO

It's being used for nanotech and semiconductor research, practice for students, and projects funded by grants.
video,

Armenia will host the World Weightlifting Championship in 2027: VIDEO

It will be the first major Olympic sports to be held in Armenia.
video,

foreign trade stats: Q1 2024

Exports 2.7x ($4.4B)
Imports +76% ($4.7B)
source, source,