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Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet. Yesterday while building out this week’s roundup we had a list that looked very different. Then without warning, Nike and Adidas decided to push a lot of their best releases of the week back, so while this list is still packing eight dope drops, a few of them are repeat re-releases. Overall it’s a pretty slow week — with Nike massively dominating — but as slow as it is we’re still getting three different Air Jordan drops, which would certainly be a big event any other week.

It’s also a strong week for Women’s sizes, with half of the releases dropping as either women’s size exclusives or full-size runs. We love to see that type of gender balance in streetwear! Highlights of the week include the Dunk High ’85s, the Black and Dark Powder Blue low-top Jordans, and the Tom Sach’s designed General Purpose shoe out of NikeCraft. Let’s dive into this week’s best sneakers!

Women’s Dunk High 1985 Barely Rose/Arctic Orange

Vintage sneaker fans will find a lot to love in this retro high-top Dunk. Featuring the classic ’85 silhouette, this sneaker features a rugged unwashed denim upper with raw edge detailing, an eye-catching contrasting stitching, and sits atop an aged midsole for that vintage look.

The sneaker, which is a women’s size exclusive, drops in two beautiful colorways with Barley Rose or Arctic Orange paneling over the white denim upper.

The Women’s Dunk High 1985 Barely Rose/ Active Orange is out now for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Air Jordan I Low Black and Dark Powder Blue

It’s not the Travis Scott Jordan I but it sure does look like one! At the end of the day this is still a Jordan I, so Travis Scott aside, it’s going to be dope and you can even make a case that this is better than the Cactus Jack sneaker it resembles.

Especially if you’re not a fan of Travis’ large backward swoosh and branding. Nike knows this is going to be a big release, so they’ve dropped it in a full-size run and luckily for all of us, they’re priced the same!

The Air Jordan I Low Black and Dark Powder Blue is set to drop on September 28th at 7:00 AM PST in Men’s and Women’s sizing for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

NikeCraft General Purpose Shoe Archive

We covered Tom Sach’s General Purpose Shoe during its initial drop and we’re covering it again because we love the concept. This is a Nike collaboration that is build to last, features a great design, and somehow manages to still be affordable at just over $100, where it could’ve easily asked for double that.

We need more collaborations like this, so props to Tom Sachs for making it happen.

The NikeCraft General Purpose Shoe Archive is set to drop on September 29th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $109.99. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT.

Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Flax

Ye might be embroiled in some drama with Adidas and Gap but Yeezy Brand is still dropping dope colorways of their core designs at a steady clip. We’ve seen the Flax colorway before on other Yeezy models, namely the Foam RNNR and Yeezy Slide, but now the earthy and minimal colorways is coming to the 350 V2.

Featuring a monochromatic design over a Primeknit upper, the 350 V2 Flax harkens back to the early era of Yeezys when Ye was obsessed with drab colorways that resemble different shades of throw-up. For many a Yeezy fan, that’s what we want, as disgusting as it sounds.

For the best fit, order 1/2 size up on this one.

The Adidas Yeezy BOOST 350 V2 Flax is set to drop on September 30th at 8:00 AM PST for a retail price of $230. Pick up a pair via the Adidas Confirmed app or Yeezy Supply.

PALACE x New Balance 580

Yes, we covered this drop last week when it was still a Palace exclusive, but it’s a slow week and this is a dope sneaker, so we’re hitting it again before its official New Balance drop this Friday. This collaboration revitalizes the forgotten 580 silhouette which was a favorite in the Japanese streetwear scene in the late 90s and updates it with two vibrant colorways.

The sneaker features a hairy suede upper with a speckled midsole, debased foxing, and a hidden stash pocket behind the woven tongue. It’s a Palace collaboration, so there has got to be a stash pocket!

The PALACE x New Balance 580 Shaded Spruce and Gargoyle are set to drop on September 30th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $159.99. Pick up a pair at New Balance.

Nike Women’s Air Jordan XII Hyper Royal

We called it a few months back, Nike is focusing in on the double digit Jordans and we’re here for it. This week the Jordan XII is getting a Hyper Royal colorway in women’s sizing. The Hyper Royal features a lizard-skin textured premium leather upper with a blue and black color scheme and a swirling psychedelic print job underfoot and on the insoles.

The Nike Women’s Air Jordan XII Hyper Royal is set to drop on October 1st at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Air Jordan IV Black and Light Steel

As cool as the double digit Jordans are, let’s face it, the best stuff will always be I-VI, so while we’re hyped for the Hyper Royal, we’re even more psyched for this Black and Light Steel iteration of the Jordan 4.

Featuring a stealthy design with steel accents and crimson red branding, the Black and Light Steel features a suede and textile upper atop a steel and white midsole with matching Jumpman logos on the heel and tongue. At the end of the day it’s just a black Jordan 4, but it looks undeniably fresh, so if you’re lucky enough to cop this release this week, it’ll be the highlight of your wardrobe no question.

The Nike Air Jordan IV Black and Light Steel is set to drop on October 1st at 7:00 AM for a retail price of $210. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

LeBron XX Time Machine

I’m not a big enough fan of LeBron’s signature Nikes to know exactly how the Time Machine works as a celebration of LeBron’s career, aside from recognizing some of the colors used here like the green and pink from the LeBron South Beach, but that’s the concept behind this shoe so I’m assuming LeBron fans are geeking out over it.

History aside, it’s a dope design, with a low-top silhouette and some plush cushioning for a functional and stylish pair of kicks that works on the court as well as it does on the streets. My favorite details include the woven upper and the swirling detail on the pink midsole.

The LeBron XX Time Machine I set to drop on September 29th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Believe it or not, there’s yet another new book about Donald Trump, a former president we’ll probably be talking about for a bit longer. This one’s called Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Considering Trump reportedly dubbed her his “psychiatrist,” it’s got quite a bit of new dirt, including that he bragged about not using the same toilet as Barack Obama and that he nearly fired Jared and Ivanka via a tweet.

Haberman also got glimpses into his views on the LGBTQIA+ community. As one can imagine, they’re not great. According to an excerpt obtained by The Daily Beast, famously boorish 45th president had a long history of homophobic behavior. In the early ‘80s, when the AIDS epidemic broke, he would phone reporters to see if people he’d shaken hands with were gay. Men he perceived as weak were called “queer” or “faggot,” if not to his faces. Instead, he would do his bullying safely behind closed doors. He would also brag that he paid an executive he believed to be “queer” less than others.

Trump, who has always tried to present himself as hyper-masculine (with mixed results), was also obsessed with the sexuality of those in his orbit. During a meeting with Mike Pence and former staffer Jason Miller, he said of the latter, “You know how sometimes someone turns out to be gay later and you knew? This guy, he isn’t even like one percent gay.”

And then there’s his response to trans people. Trump was not exactly delicate when discussing this sensitive issue, including when then-adviser Reince Priebus was discussing same-sex bathrooms. In a scenario, Preibus pretended to be a female trans student who wanted to use the girl’s bathroom:

Without missing a beat, Trump said he had a question.

“Cocked or decocked?” Trump asked.

Offering up a “blank stare,” the group was taken aback.

“Decocked?” an unspecified individual in the room responded.

Trump then began making “a chopping gesture.” “With cock or without cock?” he said.

When shocked advisers asked him what difference that makes, Trump shot back, ““What if a girl was in the bathroom and someone came in, lifted up a skirt, and a schlong was hanging out?”

In the meantime, Trump remains the presumptive nominee for the Republican presidential ticket in 2024, which he might have to do from jail.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, arriving as a Category 4 storm. Footage of winds that have reached up to at least 145 mph and city streets under water have been horrifying. Though the state’s southeastern coast was not in the storm’s path, it did produce heavy rainfall all over, including in Jupiter, where Lara and Eric Trump live. Like many, Lara posted a video of the storm. But hers was a little different than most.

As caught by The Daily Beast, the former president’s daughter-in-law shared a brief video of her young son Eric Luke driving through heavy rain in a children’s construction vehicle. Soaked to the bone, he’s seen trying to shield his eyes from the aggressive downpour, all while his mother urges him to keep going.

“Thought we had a clear window, turns out we did some character building instead,” Lara wrote in the caption.

Lara clearly thought the ordeal was funny. Others did not, seeing it as yet another case of the Trump family being sadistic weirdos.

There was also some gallows humor.

Hurricane Ian was expected to depart Florida some time after 5pm. Throughout the nightmarish ordeal, there have been moments of much-needed oddball levity, such as a meteorologist accidentally drawing what looked like a meat and two veg on a map and, of course, the requisite appearance of weather reporter/hurricane enthusiast Jim Cantore.

(Via The Daily Beast)

A few weeks back, super producer Just Blaze was featured on Peoples Party with Talib Kweli. The interview offered an amazing look into the making of some of the great records in the history of hip-hop.

In the high-powered clip above, Kweli noted when it comes to Pete Rock, MCs like Mecca and the Soul Brother but producers prefer The Main Ingredient. Just Blaze said while at Rutgers University he came across the latter album late, through a friend that worked at a local record store.

“It quite literally, as a young producer changed my life probably more so than any other body of work from that era.”

Pete Rock’s production dominated and redefined the sound of the 1990s on the East coast, moving away from the classic breakbeat sound that opened the door for a lot of early rap music. Rock infused innovative jazz and rare soul loops that arguably altered the DNA of what most of the world knew as hip-hop. During that time, if you didn’t have at least a remixed single by Pete Rock, you couldn’t be considered hot.

“I loved the fact that you had these hard, technically advanced beats, but he was in a whole different pocket than what you would expect,” Just says about Rock. “To me, that’s one of the things that made it beautiful.”

Listen to deeper insights from Just Blaze on People’s Party with Talib Kweli and co-host Jasmin Leigh. And watch the first episode of Just Blaze’s new Uproxx show, Fresh Pair, with sneaker customizer Katty Customs, below:

Way, way back in the 1980s, Vanessa Williams became the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America, and (surprise!) not everyone was thrilled about it. Williams faced a wave of racist, anti-woman nonsense that culminated in her being blamed for Penthouse publishing nude photos of her without her permission. This double violation saw her crown stripped from her after her body was exploited, and the whole ordeal will be told as a limited series for Sony TV. Fortunately, Williams is involved alongside executive producer Neil Meron (Chicago, Hairspray).

“This project is incredibly personal to me,” Williams told Deadline. “There are so many inaccurate and untrue accounts of the events surrounding this period in my life, and as a mother, and as a Black woman, it is important to me that my truth be told and be documented from my perspective. This is not just a story about racy photos, it is about misogyny and racism and I want to shine a light on that for future generations. I was not only able to survive what could have been a career-ending scandal, but rose above it and have achieved a body of work I am extremely proud of.”

The project comes only a few years after the Miss America Pageant publicly apologized to Williams, and amid a wave of series like Pam & Tommy and Mike which re-examine and/or recontextualize public figures from the 1980s and 1990s. The good news here is that, finally, Williams will be in charge of her own story.

(via Deadline)

The last time we got an album from The Big Pink, it was 2012 — and the world looked very different. iPhones had home buttons, “Gangnam Style” flash mobs were all the rage, and TikTok was a song by Kesha, not a $200 billion app. But now, a decade later, The Big Pink are back and they’re armed with a new collection of songs and a renewed purpose.

“We were trying to get the songs written as quickly as possible and we neglected the essence of The Big Pink in the process,” the band’s vocalist Robbie Furze says about their 2012 album Future This. The seemingly endless cycle of touring and recording had killed their passion for music and the band decided to take an indefinite hiatus. But then, an opportunity to open for Wolf Alice in 2018 reignited the Furze’s creativity. “[Touring] gives you a tangible feeling on what it means to be a musician,” he says.

Now, they’re gearing up to drop a whole new batch of dreamy and galvanizing music with their third album The Love That’s Ours, which drops Friday. The music is a result of restored sense of identity that came from a decade of life, love, and asking the big questions. Songs like the wistful single “Rage,” speak to taking back your own power, while others like the piano-led “Safe And Sound” cope with loss. The Love That’s Ours also includes collaborations by Furze’s friends and fellow musicians like The Kills’ Jamie Hince and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner.

Celebrating the upcoming release of The Love That’s Ours, The Big Pink’s bassist Charlie Barker talks to Uproxx about The White Stripes, Hello Kitty, and doing the splits in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music

Real loud hot vibes.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Essential.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Rio de Janeiro.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

There are many people, Patti Smith is one of them. I love her relationship with words.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

In Mexico City, a seafood restaurant called Mariscos Mi Compa Chava.

What album do you know every word to?

The White Stripes’ Elephant.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

The Cure at Leeds in 2012.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

I normally wear baggy clothes but tight-fitted clothes look way better on stage

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

I don’t use Twitter, I like following artists: @guild_of_calamity @blitzcadet @mabgraves.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“Nightcall” by Kavinsky.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“80s popcorn song.”

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Morphine’s Cure For Pain.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

My own bed.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I have hello kitty tattooed on my palm. It’s the only thing I believe in.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Eminem.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Sh*t, I’ve had a ton of really nice things done for me. My girlfriend had a ring made for me with both our birthstone gems in it. My best friend stitched words on to some clothes for me. My friends produced my EP for me.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Look inwards.

What’s the last show you went to?

There was a guy playing covers in the pub the other night in Padstow. It was great fun.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Cat In The Hat.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I can do the splits.

The Love That’s Ours is out 9/30 via Project Melody Music. Pre-order it here.

Parenting isn’t always easy. I don’t think there’s a single person on this planet that would proclaim it’s easy to parent a child and to parent that child well. But there’s an additional layer to trying to be a good parent when you’re also struggling with addiction. Hayden Panettiere knows that struggle all too well and recently went on Red Table Talk to discuss her life and the difficult decision she had to make when it came to parenting her daughter.

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Panettiere has a 7-year-old daughter that she shares with her ex-husband Wladimir Klitschko, a world heavyweight boxing champion from Ukraine. When discussing her daughter on Red Table Talk she revealed that she signed over full custody to her ex-husband while she was struggling with her sobriety. While Panettiere feels she had little choice at the time due to how it was presented, she also explained her decision wouldn’t have changed because it was best for her daughter at the time.

Panettiere isn’t the first person to have to make a decision around caring for her child and caring for herself, it’s a common thing that many parents struggle with. You don’t have to be a parent in recovery to have an idea of how difficult that decision is for someone. A common theme in mom groups online is the guilt that comes with taking time to care for yourself so you can properly care for your children, so having to make a decision like that on a larger scale is heartbreaking.

Addiction in America is a real problem, whether it be something harder like methamphetamine and opioids, or something that seems innocuous like “mommy wine culture.” It’s an issue that hundreds of thousands of people face a day, and sometimes it results in people giving up their children by choice or by force. No matter which way a parent comes to be without their child, it’s difficult, so Panettiere sharing her story so publicly can only help others who are struggling with the decision.

Admitting that you’re not in the place to take care of your child is powerful because you’re saying “I love my child enough to not intentionally or unintentionally cause them harm due to my addiction. I love them enough to care for myself so I can show up how they need me.” There’s strength in that decision and if we as society can talk about that more, it could be life-changing for those struggling with addiction.

Panettiere pointed how publications would make it seem that she simply gave her child away as if there wasn’t deep thought and heartbreak in the decision. But there shouldn’t be stigma attached to a mother doing what’s best for her child, even though there is, and with the stigma comes guilt. No parent should feel guilty for taking care of themselves, even if it means they have to step back from being an active parent.

No matter if you’re a celebrity or a suburban parent that has difficulty maintaining sobriety, a healthy parent who visits when they can is better than one that lost the battle of addiction. Everyone wants to root for people to get sober, but we also have to stand behind them when they make the difficult decision to step away from parenting to put all of their focus on healing. Respecting the entire process may save lives and end stigmas.

Caron Butler is on his second career in basketball, following up a 14-year playing career in the NBA with a foray into coaching as an assistant with the Miami Heat.

Along the way, Butler has also looked to use his platform to impact the community, highlighting his journey from the streets of Racine, Wisconsin where he was arrested for drug and gun possession as a minor to the NBA, and fighting for criminal justice reform throughout his career. Most recently, Butler published the first book in a new series aimed at middle grade kids titled Shot Clock, which tells the story of a kid who loses his best friend to police violence and looks to carry on his legacy through basketball.

It’s a story close to Butler’s heart, as the star lost a number of friends growing up in Racine and sought refuge on the basketball court, while also seeing the impact sports figures can have in impacting change in the community. Recently, Butler spoke with Dime over Zoom about the inspirations for the book, the importance of showing real, tangible stories of success, and what he’s learned in his young coaching career and why he’s encouraged seeing more opportunities open up on benches for former players outside of just player development roles.

Why was important to you to try to tell this story and bring something like Shot Clock to kids?

I think that I was going through the process of when I had this AAU traveling team and I was thinking about all the adversity that these kids was going through in real time. And I was thinking about people putting limitations on them, the subtraction of lives and their reality, and what was happening with people dying that was close to them — young people — and then they were still having to put their best foot forward and try to go out and play on this traveling basketball team at a high level.

And then also thought about them going to school, them being in a community and what that looked like. I saw them become the now, the new ancestors. I saw them leading in an amazing way. I saw them speaking out. I saw them also leaving the county, leaving their respective city and seeing different things and start believing that they can be anything, where limitations was placed on them for quite some time because they just felt like it was a cap on their potential. They couldn’t be anything outside of what was happening in that community. And then I wanted to just shine light on it. I wanted to tell these stories. I wanted to give some type of hope, give some type of relief, and also just give like a lot of solutions to some of the problems that I witnessed in real time.

I’ve seen your story told in a number of places and something you mentioned is being able to see that there’s other stuff and other opportunities out there. How important is that when you when you talk to, especially young guys as they come into the NBA? How much do you talk to them about why it’s important to be in the community and show that to kids, and show the different paths that you can take, and that there is something outside of maybe just that local environment that they only see?

Well, I think seeing something as real can have a real impact on you, as opposed to someone telling you. And I’ll give you an example from me and my professional career, what I’ve seen is that when I was a rookie and I came to Miami and I was getting told like all the pros and cons of the NBA and how you need hard work, you got to have this type of disposition, and if you stay dedicated, determined, and disciplined, this will happen for you, success will follow. And by year two, I was traded and I didn’t know what to think of that. And then all of a sudden I go to the Lakers and I’m with Kobe Bryant and I see all these things happen in real time. All the things that I was being taught in Miami, I saw it happen real time with a person that … it was tangible. Like, I can see him, I can see the success and I can see the rewards, the fruits of his labor, everything.

Fast forward to community stuff and stuff that happens in real life. I wanted to show people that if you work hard these things can happen. If you have dreams, follow through and you can obtain anything. But you know some of the realities that we live in is very real, like people will get subtracted out of our lives. And there’s solutions to that, too, it’s a way to deal with it. It’s people you can talk to, it’s a platform that you have that you can voice your opinion. I want kids to know that it’s real people out here that’s been through these paths and walks of life and solutions to all those problems.

And specifically with what we’ve seen in the last few years, I think it really reached a fevered pitch with the George Floyd protests and everything that happened then around police reform and criminal justice reform. How do we continue to make sure that that doesn’t get pushed to the periphery as we deal with other problems and things, because there was such a big fervor in that moment, how do we make sure it’s not just a moment and that there’s continued progress and these continued conversations throughout communities, trying to make substantial changes?

Just like anything else, you keep it at the forefront of discussion and conversations, new content that’s created on television. You keep it at the forefront, you keep it visible so people can see it, they can talk about it constantly, because it is a norm. And that’s another reason why I chose to do this book is because when I think about 2020, and I think about the different generations of people that was on the front line, it was a lot of young people out there. I mean, I think about most viral videos that I’ve seen, it was young people speaking truth to power. It was people just speaking from the heart and knew exactly what the hell they was talking about.

And I was like, you know what, it’s important for stories like this to be told, like Shot Clock. And also, just to pivot real quick, I was thinking about the core curriculum that was available for us when I was growing up. And you know, books like Great Gatsby, Outsiders, To Kill A Mockingbird, Gone With The Wind, amazing stories, but I couldn’t relate to a lot of the things that was in those books. And I wanted to create something that people from all walks of life can dive into and relate to.

Right. I think we’ve seen it, especially with young guys as they come into the league now, there seems to be, from a younger age — and I think it comes from social media and the recognition of the platform earlier on — guys seem to be more cognizant of their ability to speak out and their understanding of the platform they have. What have you seen in the league and how guys take these more forward roles in the community, in big conversations like this from when you started in your NBA career to now?

Well, before, I think that it was just business, business, and then business. Now I think it’s business and then it’s, “Holy shit, we have to have empathy and then we have to speak truth,” because predominantly a large percentage of our league is Black and brown. And people care about things, you have access to social media, Twitter, like, once you draw a line in the sand and say anything about anything out there, they’re like, “Well, why are you not speaking on that?” And I think everyone understands this from this perspective.

I’ve been heavily active, and an active participant in this space, for over 20 years of my life, but I think that once that the NBA and all these major entities drew a line in the sand when you saw us in the Bubble, when you saw social equity and all these different things on the back of jerseys. We stood on the right side of justice, but therefore, you have to educate and inform each other constantly because this is the position that you took. So going forward, it has to remain that way, you know what I mean? You can’t pivot and say, “All right, it was just cool, then I don’t want to talk about it.” Like, no, no, no, this is what it is going forward, and so forth.

And kind of going back to what we talked about with, you know, if you actually see it in action, you can believe it in a different way. We’re seeing now half the league now has Black head coaches, and we’re seeing more Black GMs and executives in front offices. What have you seen in what that opens up to former players like yourself, and just seeing more opportunities like that to go from being a player to staying in basketball and having opportunities like that? And how important is that to continue to growing the league and giving opportunities to guys?

Well, I think it’s unlimited possibilities. Now, all those positions come with a lot of hard work to get even an opportunity to get those positions, not just because you Black or brown, but it’s because you’re more than qualified, probably overqualified. But I think that it opens up … you’re dreams of really anything is possible. Like, I see it, I’ve seen like the transformation in real time where it was probably two coaches that looked like me on the sideline and everyone else was player development. And then now you see it, and it’s like, oh man, I was just playing with that guy, and he got hired on. You see a diverse group of front office people and you can see folks from all walks of life and it’s like a melting pot.

So it’s like, I’ve witnessed this transition and growth in this particular area, just imagine what it’s going to look like going forward. And also I think that our Association is so transparent, and I think we have the best commissioner in all of sports where he listens. He listens to the voices of everyone and it kind of organically happens from him just having empathy and just listening. I think that’s extremely important.

For you personally, you’ve been on the on the Heat staff for a bit and you obviously get to work with somebody who has won championships and has done it from a young age to now where he where he’s a grizzled vet as a coach in Erik Spoelstra. What have you been able to personally learn from him about — you mentioned Kobe with the grind and I know Spo is a grinder as a head coach — about what it takes to be successful in this role now?

Yeah, just checks and balances, from the top to the bottom. Spo has been nothing but a great mentor to me. He lets me spread my wings. He lets all of us under him spread their wings, but also, he gives us proper guidance, and he puts us in a position to just be extremely successful. He gives us room to learn. But he also pours into us and educates us in the process. He’s just one of the best basketball minds I’ve ever been around, hands down. And from a leadership standpoint, he knows when to move the needle. He knows when to poke, he knows when to do all those things, and I just love soaking in that that knowledge and learning from him over the years.

A series of leaked phone calls made by Russian soldiers in the early days of the Ukraine invasion and recently obtained by The New York Times paints a grim picture of what life on the ground is really like for Putin’s army.

According to the report, soldiers who were part of the March campaign to take Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, disobeyed orders by making dozens of phone calls home to friends and family members via unsecured cell phones. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies intercepted the calls, and The NYT spent two months translating and verifying their authenticity. What they reveal is a damning account of how Putin’s generals have handled the invasion.

Just weeks into the campaign, soldiers complained about a lack of direction and heavy losses suffered because of incompetent leadership.

Some claimed they weren’t even told they would be leaving the country to “liberate” Ukraine, instead believing they were shipping out for training camp.

Others complained about the lack of food and equipment, claiming rations were running low and soldiers were trading in rusty armor and weaponry for Ukrainian models.

The men relayed they’d witnessed hundreds of deaths with some saying large percentages of their own units had been wiped out in the early days of the fighting. Others were shocked at the number of corpses piling up in city streets in the Bucha region, saying they were given free rein to kill civilians and dump their bodies in a nearby forest.

But, likely the biggest sign that Putin is losing this war is the criticisms launched at him by his own military. Despite facing harsh penalties for speaking badly of the Russian president and his operation in Kyiv, many soldiers slammed Putin for starting a war he won’t be able to win.

These recordings are likely just another nail in the Kremlin’s coffin at this point, but they’ll hopefully bolster the position of Russian civilians, who are already protesting a recent “partial mobilization.”

(Via The New York Times)

Whenever The Weather Channel reporter Jim Cantore arrives in your town, seek shelter. The death-defying meteorologist made landfall in Florida on Wednesday where he immediately got to work battling the massive winds from Hurricane Ian. Never content to report from the sidelines, Cantore stood in the middle of the street as Ian pummeled Tampa with heavy rains and winds up to 155 mph. There was so much debris that Cantore got hit with a tree, one of several, that came flying down the street.

After taking a hit from the wayward tree, Cantore began slowly making his way to the sidewalk as his colleagues urged him to come in. Naturally, Cantore repeatedly said he was fine even as he struggled to remain upright while holding onto a street sign that was already bending in the wind. (There was already a sign on the ground next to him, making his situation look even more tenuous.) Fortunately, Cantore eventually made it to safety, but it was only a matter of time until he was back out there in the punishing winds.

As Hurricane Ian continues to move across the state, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, it will be interesting to see how many times Cantore will stare death in the face while Floridans wisely shelter in place.

You can see more people marveling at Cantore’s love for standing in hurricanes below:

(Via Gifdsports on Twitter)