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Tucker Carlson is not prone to gushing. But every so often, someone impresses the Fox News host enough with their intellect that he has to give credit where it’s due. While interviewing Andrew Yang for his daytime talk show Tucker Carlson Today, Mediaite notes that Carlson took a few moments to lavish some praise on… Ted Kaczynski. Yes, the Unabomber. The math professor-turned-hermit who spent nearly two decades living in the woods and mailing homemade bombs to dozens of people.

So just how did a conversation with Yang, who is best known for his plan to give every American adult $1,000 per month as part of his 2020 presidential bid, turn toward domestic terrorism? It all comes back to Yang’s recent decision to cut ties with the Democratic party and form his own third party: the Forward Party. When Yang expressed his concern that a two-party system is not tenable, Carlson agreed—and noted that:

“Ted Kaczynski, I have to say, has written very convincingly on this. The Unabomber. Bad person, but a smart analysis, I think, of the way systems work. His argument is that large organizations order time morph into purely self-preservation projects. A big system in the end protects itself and that’s kind of all it does.”

We’d like to think that Kaczynski was listening and appreciated the shout-out, but he’s serving out a life sentence for killing three people with his homemade explosives and injuring nearly two dozen more.

(Via Mediaite)

After months of teasing, Charli XCX is finally kicking off a new era. A month ago, she got things started with the new single “Good Ones,” and now she has brought the track to TV with her performance on The Tonight Show yesterday.

In the song’s original video, Charli finds herself dancing through a goth funeral before making her way to cemetery and continuing to strut her stuff among the headstones. Her Fallon performance is essentially a re-creation of the latter scene, as she performs the track in a spooky, smokey graveyard setting.

Unlike the previous night’s Tonight Show performance, Jimmy Fallon didn’t join Charli XCX’s band.

Charli previously said of the song, “This song is essentially about always kind of running away from people who are good for you and running towards the people who are dangerous, you know? Kind of going for bad people and maybe it’s because they’re a bit more fun and exciting… but also bad for you. And I think that’s something that everyone’s sort of been through at some point, maybe… I hope its not just me.”

Watch Charli perform “Good Ones” above.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The NBA kicked off its preseason this week and fittingly, like a younger sibling tagging along, Jr. NBA Week will start Saturday. It’s the seventh year that Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls, has devoted a week to celebrating and promoting some of its unique partnerships and initiatives, and this year, the focus is on getting kids back on physical courts.

“I’ll say in particular this year, we felt an urgency to focus on expanding opportunities for boys and girls to participate in our sport and to make sure we were providing access in an equitable way,” David Krichavsky, Senior Vice President and Head of Youth Basketball Development at the NBA says over the phone. “And that really comes off the experience of the past 18 months and the COVID-19 pandemic, when sports were taken away from young people. And really, the experience of the past 18 months as well shined a bright light on the lack of equity across communities, including access to sport.”

It was in examining where that lack of equity stemmed from that helped to guide Krichavsky and Jr. NBA to partnerships with Girls Leadership and Laureus Sport for Good, along with the new initiatives with these organizations designed to remove barriers to participation in youth basketball.

One especially troubling statistic emerging from the pandemic’s effect on youth participation in sports overall is that kids from low-income houses are quitting sports at six times the rate as those from high-income homes. By the age of 14, girls drop out of sports twice as often as boys. As such, the partnership with Girls Leadership, a non-profit leadership development organization that teaches girls to exercise the power of their voice, feels especially urgent.

“We have had, since 2018, our Her Time to Play program, which is a program in partnership with the WNBA to provide girls opportunities in the sport of basketball and women increased opportunities to coach youth. And we’ve had a tremendous amount of success with that program,” Krichavsky says, adding, “but have a new partnership with Girls Leadership that’s intended to provide enhanced curriculum, also very much focused on social and emotional learning and leadership development.”

That program is targeted to reach 20,000 girls over the next NBA season, increasing and enriching girls and young women’s engagement in sports. One part of that enrichment is poised to come from an effort to go full-circle on who youth first encounter organized play from. In partnership with Laureus Sport for Good, an organization focused on improving the lives of young people through sports, Jr. NBA will launch an online training program for youth basketball coaches, organizers, and educators focused on curriculum that includes social and emotional learning, leadership, and player-coach relationships.

“What we thought was a really important point of opportunity and expansion for us,” Krichavsky says, noting Jr. NBA’s existing suite of resources developed to support coaches, “was giving coaches tools to develop their players off the court. And so this online training with Laureus has really focused on social and emotional learning, and helping coaches educate their players around issues like leadership and mental health and building empathy and collaboration with their teammates.”

Krichavsky referred to the new initiatives with Girls Leadership and Laureus Sport for Good as two pillars out of the groundwork his team used to develop Jr. NBA’s new partnerships and their desired impact, with the third being perhaps the most important.

“The third pillar really comes from the fact that schools give us the greatest opportunity to reach the largest number of youth,” Krichavsky stresses. “We’ve had a number of programs in the school setting previously, but we’ve doubled down on that commitment and we’ll be reaching an additional 3,000 elementary and middle schools in the year ahead, again with enhanced resources and curriculum to support basketball in the PE setting, as well as the afterschool setting.”

It makes sense — to reach the youth who have been shut out of sports over the course of the pandemic, whether through barriers to access or as fallout of fielding the pandemic itself, the most direct way is to bring basketball to them. To do so, Jr. NBA uses an existing network of non-profits to help identify schools across the U.S. with basketball programs that are looking to do more.

It’s on that note that I’m prompted to ask Krichavsky, personally, what excites him most about these new initiatives and the work Jr. NBA is doing. His answer is two-fold, and fits the ethos of these new partnerships and initiatives perfectly, though it’s entirely personal.

He immediately touches on the concentrated efforts in these programs to reach and impact girls, adding that he’s a dad to two young girls himself, and brightens as he notes that Jr. NBA’s first in-person event since the pandemic began will be taking place Sunday, the day after Jr. NBA Week starts, with an outdoor event in New York at Brooklyn Bridge Park focused on play in accordance with the NBA’s health and safety protocols as well as life skills and off-court development.

“All the kids will be masked and we’ll be playing in accordance with the protocols designed by our NBA health and safety team,” Krichavsky says, noting that as successful as Jr. NBA At Home program was, “we’re all very, very excited to get back out there and hear the bouncing ball in person.”

Spice Girls are planning to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Spice. They recently inked a deal with Universal Music group’s Bravado division, and according to Music Week, they will be responsible for their brand, merchandising, direct-to-consumer products and campaigns, touring, as well as their retail licensing and distribution. The band unveiled their first line of merch, entitled “Wannabe 25,” on their website. Items for sale include a special mug, an anniversary hoodie, and a vintage “Wannabe” t-shirt. The prices for these products range from about $16 to $68

There’s also, of course, a re-release a 25th-anniversary reissue of Spice. The new project, titled Spice25, will be curated by the band themselves and be released on October 29 as a 2CD set. Music Week also notes that the band’s deal with Bravado marks the first time in two decades licensing rights across all channels were assigned to a single partner. The new partnership will see new products and capsule collections delivered globally to retailers.

“We are so excited to be working with Bravado again, especially in this our 25th anniversary year and are looking forward to collaborating with the team,” Spice Girls said in a joint statement about the partnership. Richelle Parham, president of global e-commerce and business development at UMG, also spoke about the partnership.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Spice Girls, to create new and exciting product lines and to expand the band’s connection directly with their loyal superfans,” Parham said, before adding, “Bravado will work closely with UMG operations around the world on the launch of Spice 25 and beyond, to expand their legacy and cultural impact for years to come.”

The Golden State Warriors are hoping to get themselves back into title contention this season after two years of being out of the playoffs. There’s plenty of reason for optimism with Stephen Curry is coming off of a season where his performance down the stretch earned him MVP buzz and Klay Thompson’s eventual return to the lineup after ACL and Achilles injuries cost him the past two seasons.

Last year also saw the return of Draymond Green seemingly being everywhere, all the time on defense, which will again be critical to the Warriors regaining contender status. Part of Green’s value is the way he flies around and covers for mistakes others make, but this also leads to him living on the edge of being in control. We have seen on plenty of occasions what can happen when he loses that control, and unfortunately for Austin Rivers, that happened on Wednesday night in preseason action between Denver and Golden State when the Nuggets guard took a flying knee from Draymond to the ribs on a closeout.

This is, I guess one could say, vintage Draymond, as his propensity for legs flailing about became a huge story back in 2016 when he was suspended for a game in the Finals for it. This is Green’s essence though, selling out so fully on a contest in the preseason that he can’t help but try to do anything to stop Rivers once he recognizes it’s a shot fake, even if that thing is sticking his leg out and ultimately kneeing Austin in the ribs.

Rivers would stay down for a bit, understandably, and Green was handed a rare preseason flagrant for a move that would’ve looked more at home in the Octagon than on the basketball court. Maybe it bodes well for the Warriors that Green is back to living on that knife’s edge, but Rivers was the unfortunate recipient of what happens when he falls to the wrong side.

Earlier this year, Diplo was sued by his ex-girlfriend, Shelley Auguste, for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud. She alleges that the producer “recorded video of their sexual encounter despite her telling him she didn’t want that” and attempted to “coax her into a threesome with a girl she believes was underaged at the time.” The lawsuit was filed after the producer requested a restraining order against her and alleged she was engaging in revenge porn.

Diplo has yet to respond to the allegations of sexual assault, but that changed on Wednesday when he posted a lengthy message to his Instagram page. He referred to Auguste as “SA” and called her “a stalker [who] scammed her way into my life and tried to extort me for millions and then sued me when she didn’t get what she wanted.” He added, “I will keep this story easy to read because I know the Internet has a short attention span and it was my goal to never address a stalker.” He then went on:

I will refer to her as “SA” (and you can find anything easily online). She was an obsessed fan of mine, and after I relinquished all contact with her, it appears that her only purpose in life has been to disrupt my work, my business, harass me and my close friends and attack me and threaten my family. To be clear, SA was not a minor when I had conversations or sexual intercourse with her. Her own text messages admit this. More on this below.

I had a night of consensual sex with her. Basically, SA reached out to me and I declined a few times but at one time decided to meet her. After that experience, we had exchanged texts for a few months, there was small talk, sexual flirting, she would send me pics and videos.. Eventually it got too much to handle and I stopped contact with her when I realized she had started to become obsessed with me. It began as a nightmare of almost three years of her harassing and threatening me and my family and friends.

SA would offer her friends and other people to have sexual experiences with, and that’s when I began to get suspicious that she was engaging in criminal activity, and was possibly a call girl.

Diplo later explained how he was forced to block “a few accounts” that he believed belonged to SA and “thought she was out of my life” as a result. He then shared how he was affected by an alleged instance of SA stalking him. “One time I just hid in my neighbor’s house and ignored her. I don’t think she could physically harm me, but I was afraid she was going to harm herself,” he wrote. “We always took the high road when dealing with her. We tried to deal with her in court and help her find help. Our detective had found out she had a previous restraining order against her in Florida after we rounded up many of her fake accounts.”

He concluded his message by writing, “I am not this person and I won’t be extorted by anyone no matter how stinging the press can be.” He adeded, “The past 2 years I’ve never been bothered by these rumors if anything it has made me stronger and smarter, all of my friends and partners have never questioned me and that was what has been important to me. The people in my life know me for who I really am.”

You can read Diplo’s full statement in the post above.

The draconian anti-abortion law signed into law in Texas in late August — and then held firm by the right-leaning Supreme Court — was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Wednesday night, reports The New York Times. The law, which banned the procedure after a mere six weeks — before most women even know they’re pregnant — was met with condemnation, some of it very creative. But for now, at least, those against the law can breathe a sigh of relief.

The decision came from Judge Robert L. Pitman, a Federal District Court judge in Austin. The Biden administration, via Attorney General Merrick Garland, had sued the state of Texas to halt the law. Pittman agreed. In a 113-page ruling, he declared that “the State of Texas, including its officers, officials, agents, employees and any other persons or entities acting on its behalf, are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing Texas Health and Safety Code.”

After Texas asked that they be allowed to appeal the ruling before it takes effect, Pittman had a simple response. “The State has forfeited the right to any such accommodation by pursuing an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right,” he wrote.

“That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide;” Pittman added, “this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”

The law, colloquially known as SB8 (Senate Bill 8), has been widely seen as a volley towards the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal nationwide. As such, even the temporary reprieve was met with much rejoicing.

https://twitter.com/SRuhle/status/1445920288370274308’

Though some reminded people that it might not last that long.

(Via NYT)

The Chicago Sky are headed to the WNBA Finals, where they will meet the Mercury or the Aces — with Phoenix having a chance to punch their ticket on Wednesday night. Chicago finished off a 3-1 series win over the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday with a dominant performance against the league’s No. 1 seed, cruising to a 79-69 win that didn’t really feel as in doubt as the 10-point margin would indicate.

Leading the way for the Sky was none other than Candace Parker, who showed out with 17 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, doing a bit of everything for Chicago en route to the win. Parker was seemingly everywhere on both ends of the court, getting blocks and buckets inside, while also applying ball pressure on the perimeter, starting fastbreaks, and launching threes.

It was the type of performance in an elimination spot that WNBA fans have come to expect from the legend, who had plenty of help from her co-stars on the Sky. Courtney Vandersloot had it going early, pouring in 19 points to lead the Sky in scoring, lighting Connecticut up from three-point range early as they kept going under on screens to the dismay of just about everyone watching who wasn’t a Sky fan.

Also getting in on the fun was Kahleah Copper, who had 18 points and six rebounds in the win as she continues to be one of the breakout stars of the postseason in helping push Chicago to the Finals, showing off incredible handles and finishing skill once at the rim.

On the other side, league MVP Jonquel Jones had 25 points and 11 rebounds, trying to do every thing she could to keep the Sun in the game and force a Game 5, but it just wasn’t enough to withstand the onslaught from the Sky.

Chicago will sit back and watch the second semifinal out West to see if they’ll be able to book a flight out soon, as the 6-seed will need to take a third straight series as the road team if they are to win their first championship in franchise history.

The NBA has seen an incredible percentage of players get vaccinated as the preseason has gotten underway, as 96 percent of the league has had at least one shot. There are a few holdouts still, most notably Kyrie Irving, and those players are going to face similar testing protocols and restrictions to movement while on the road as a year ago, while vaccinated players will have those restrictions mostly pulled off.

In some markets, players won’t be able to play home games if they aren’t vaccinated, which is currently the predicament the Nets find themselves in with Irving and are now facing a difficult decision about whether they can deal with him being in and out of the lineup as a part-time player. San Francisco and now L.A. also have vaccine mandates for those who live and work in those cities, but the only city where visiting players who aren’t vaccinated will face tougher restrictions is Toronto.

The NBA has gotten clearance from the government to have teams fly in and out of Toronto to play games this year, avoiding another relocation to Tampa, but for the small percentage of unvaccinated players, they will have to be on their best behavior. As Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Wednesday night, any unvaccinated player who leaves their hotel for anything beyond a team activity (so, a practice or game) will face criminal charges that could bring a six-month prison sentence.

That is quite the penalty and will require teams with any unvaccinated players to be sure those players are aware that they aren’t facing just a suspension or fine from the league for breaking protocol, but real punishment and criminal charges if they do so in Toronto this year.

Preseason basketball is rarely all that noteworthy on a national scale, as most big names are either in street clothes on the bench or are simply trying to get a little run in, find their flow, and stay healthy.

However, in Atlanta on Wednesday night we got a rare, legit highlight out of the preseason contest between the Hawks and Cavs in the fourth quarter when John Collins, who for some reason was still in the game, threw down a vicious alley-oop, and-one dunk on top of a late rotating Jarrett Allen.

There are few players in the NBA who are better at producing poster dunks than John Collins, as he rather famously put his playoff dunk over Joel Embiid on a t-shirt to wear to the next game, and on this occasion, Collins caught Allen napping a bit, and if you come over late on a Collins alley-oop, it’s best if you don’t come over at all. Allen not only had the indignity of getting dunked on but picked up a foul as well for just sort of wandering into Collins’ way and bumping him on the attempt.

It’s not often you get the bar for dunk of the season set this high in the preseason, but the recently well-paid Collins made his presence felt in a big way.