Red Sox

Alex Bregman opened his options this weekend when he was asked about his preference where he would love to play within the Red Sox -infield this season.

“I just want to play wherever the team helps to win,” Bregman told reporters on Sunday. “I will leave this decision to AC [Alex Cora]And I will just do what he tells me and try to be there every day, work hard and get ready. “

Although Alex Cora signaled at the beginning of this winter that Bregman could make a simple change to the second basis (and only nine games around the second).

Although this change to the third Rafael -Devers would force either to switch to ie or the first basis, Bregman would help to consolidate Boston's bad infield defense -especially after winning a gold glove at the position with Houston in 2024 .

The push from devers to DH could only concentrate a win-win situation for all parties only on beating, support a defensive lack of the process and at the same time restrict part of the wear that hindered the 28-year-old. Star in the last seasons.

But Devers spoke on Monday in Fort Myers with reporters to remain in third place after Bregman's arrival.

“The third basis is my position,” Devers told reporters. “It is what I played. I don't know what your plans are. I know we had a conversation. I made it clear what my wishes were and whatever happens from here, I don't know. “

When asked what he would say if the team insisted that he was playing to play to take Bregman, Devers replied: “No.”

He was then asked to clarify Daveeson Perez by Red Sox employee and translator.

“As I said, it is my position and I will not only change out of a mood.” Devers said how transcribed by Jen McCafrey.

Devers admitted that he had held a conversation with Alex Cora and the Chief Baseball Officer Craig Wroclow, shortly before the signing of the BREGMAN was officially done due to alternating positions.

“You asked me the question of how I feel about you, and yes, I gave you the answer that I just gave: No,” said Devers and later added that it was a “surprise”. “I am someone I believe in the word of people, and I take it to heart and yes, it was very surprising that they would suggest it.”

Cora was asked whether there were potential promises or guarantees that were granted to the team after signing a 10-year contract extension of $ 313.5 million with the team on the third basis in January 2023.

“Different people here. There is another leader here. Chaim is now in St. Louis, ”said Cora regarding Chaim Bloom, who from October 2019 to September 2023 acted as Chief Baseball Officer from Red Sox.

Despite the change of leadership from Bloom to Wroclaw, Devers admitted that he had not expected to alter the positions At nine years left of his current contract.

“I don't know what the change caused,” said Devers. “But I do know that I even have worked very hard on my defense over time. I even have the sensation that I had a very good 12 months last 12 months. You know, I even have quite a bit more to offer. But I definitely have the sensation that it was really good last 12 months and I hope to proceed doing it. “

Despite Devers' comments, his defense in the hot corner was still a problem – since he has led the AL in third place in every single season since 2018.

Although his 12 mistakes last year since his debut in 2017, the devers still released one Negative 6-outs above average Last season. Bregman ended the last season with Houston with plus-6-outs.

Despite Dever's open comments, Cora emphasized that all the installation decisions are far from being set in stone – especially with Boston, who still wants to see whether Kristian Campbell deserve the top prospect Kristian Campbell in the second basis outside the camp can.

“It is currently too early to say that Raffy will likely be a DH or the third basis will play, or that Alex will likely be a second Baseman or the third basis will play,” said Cora. “There is competition here and I think flexibility and versatility are enormous for us.

“We have some talented boys. We will take the very best roster to Texas [for Opening Day]. “”

Cora added that he would proceed to talk to devers if they struggle to search out out where he most closely fits in Boston's revised defense in 2025.

“I will talk to Raffy, we will continue to work and we will make decisions about what we need to win the department,” said Cora. “I and Raffy have an awesome relationship. This is something through which I will definitely set: 'Hey man, that's the baseball page of it. We are still Raffy and Alex. '

“I've been with this child since November 2017. It is a component of the business. We will proceed to work. Decisions are made on the idea of the duty plan construction. That is the truth of it and we’ll proceed to speak. “

Finishing fifth and still standing on the Formula 1 podium meant an unusual end to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for George Russell.

On the opposite side of the rostrum was Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver who had already been on the rostrum on Sunday evening after recovering from nineteenth on the grid to complete third behind Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.

Standing between Russell and Leclerc in his white and black racing suit was Sonny Hayes, the experienced racing driver from APXGP.

Hayes is the fictional character played by Brad Pitt in “F1,” the Warner Bros. and Apple-produced film that has established itself within the F1 world over the past two seasons. APXGP, Pitt's fictional team owned by Javier Bardem's character, has been given a full garage setup at races and has its Mercedes-designed cars lined up on the grid. The sport has put a lot effort into making this essentially the most realistic racing film ever made.

A second podium ceremony was held on the Sunday after the race in Abu Dhabi to capture some scenes, all in front of fans who had been told to remain of their seats after the race for a probability to be within the film .

Abu Dhabi marked the top of on-location filming for “F1”. The project is scheduled to release on June twenty seventh in North America and June twenty fifth in the remainder of the world next yr and is steadily moving towards completion.

“We're going to stay here the rest of the week doing pickups and then we'll be in the editing room,” Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of “F1,” said on a select media panel Sunday The athlete. “About two thirds of the film has already been edited. This will be the last race where we can do this together and we will watch it.”

Immersing yourself on this planet of F1 gave Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski, who worked together on Top Gun: Maverick, the right opportunity to make the film as realistic as possible. Ahead of the British Grand Prix in July, a teaser trailer was released for the primary time, introducing a number of the current drivers and team bosses and giving a taste of what the in-car footage might seem like. Similar to the fighter jets in “Top Gun: Maverick,” much of the footage in “F1” attempts to present the audience as near the experience of an F1 automobile as possible.

The input from the drivers – particularly Lewis Hamilton, who serves as a producer on the film – was crucial, Bruckheimer said.

“They were very open about their experiences, what they went through to get to Formula 1, (even their) superstitions,” Bruckheimer explained. “We took the little things a rider did against those superstitions and Brad has that in his character.

“Lewis keeps us honest. Lewis watches every race and says, 'In that corner you wouldn't be in second gear, you'd be in first.' He is available in there and may hear the engine and the shifting and every thing like that.”

“One of the large things we're doing with that is we wanted the races to be real,” added Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services. “Lewis helped enormously. It's always about the story because that's what it is, but we wanted the racing scenes to be really authentic and authentic and I think that's what we captured. Lewis did a great job.”

Pitt and Damson Idris, who plays Hayes' young teammate Joshua Pearce, went through extensive training and testing to drive the APXGP cars used in the film, which are scaled-up versions of F2 cars. Pitt and Idris were on location in Abu Dhabi to film the final round of race footage and even photobombed some of the teams' end-of-year photos in the pit lane on Thursday. The paddock has taken on the project of filming in a living, breathing sports environment.

One consequence of operating during a Grand Prix weekend, particularly in front of fans, is that clips of filming have inevitably leaked onto the internet. Scenes such as the podium in Abu Dhabi or Pitt's celebration with the Mexican flag in front of the Foro Sol stadium section in Mexico have already appeared. But both Bruckheimer and Cue were certain that nothing had emerged that would reveal key plot details.

“When you're on the set of a movie and also you see a clip of it, you’ve got no idea what the hell is happening,” Cue said. “It’s not like it was filmed in sequence, is it? These little things… I saw on YouTube how Brad passed out in Las Vegas or whatever, but you have no idea what the context is or before. I actually think all of it helps.”

In particular, the nature of that scene, in which Pitt “passed out” on a mat on the main straight in Las Vegas last month, was not something that Cue felt had exaggerated the film's dramatic element too much.

“I saw a man running out of a fire in real Formula 1,” he said, referring to Romain Grosjean’s 2020 accident in Bahrain. “I believe fainting is pretty real.” Whether it was crash sequences or even the scenes on the race track, producers said everything in “F1” was inspired or referenced by moments in the sport's history.

“Many of the incidents in the film are based on real events,” Bruckheimer said. “Everything Brad does on the track, the little tricks he does, drivers have done at different races over the decades. Because he doesn't have the fastest car and isn't the fastest driver. He has to use clever tactics to keep up with these other drivers.”

Completion of filming on location in Abu Dhabi got here later than planned after the actors and writers' strike in Hollywood last yr put filming on hold. But Bruckheimer said there was never a moment when the project gave the impression to be at risk.

“We’re very lucky because we had a whole section of second-unit photography hired, the second-unit director,” he said. “So when both strikes hit, we didn’t need the writers. We didn't need the actors. Joe Kosinski, our director, shot the entire second unit during the strike. So when we came back, all we had to do was shoot the actors. We were very lucky that it worked out that way.”

Cue said that while it “delayed things a little bit,” there was “no doubt about it” and even felt the beyond regular time was useful. “You can argue that having more time always helps,” Cue said. “For example, we were able to come here twice and film more than we would have liked.”

Just as Netflix's “Drive to Survive” docuseries helped Formula 1 reach a younger, mainstream audience when it debuted in 2019, the game hopes “F1” could have the identical impact. Bruckheimer felt that the need of the paddock and the game as an entire had led to such a collaboration over the past two years.

“The fans were really phenomenal,” Bruckheimer said. “They embraced us and were really kind to Brad and the movie itself, the things they tweeted about the movie. They realized the impact a film can have on a sport.

“The drivers were not exposed to certain markets. I mean these guys are rock stars, let's face it, they're the 20 best drivers in the world. And they will be made available not just to the Drive to Survive audience, but to everyone.”

They're pretty smart, very social, and really expressive. Does this mean that dogs can have an unrecognized ability to truly talk on to humans?

A brand new study from UC San Diego and its partner universities suggests there are more reasons than ever to explore this query.

In a paper published Wednesday within the journal PLOS ONE, researchers explain that dogs trained with soundboard buttons were capable of understand certain recorded words, equivalent to “play” and “outside,” within the context through which they were spoken. They were capable of accomplish that with none physical or verbal cues.

“The dogs responded appropriately to the word,” said Federico Rossano, a cognitive scientist at UCSD and lead creator of the study.

“This is a first step in assessing whether dogs understand what they are doing when they press these buttons,” he said.

Rossano was referring to easy and widely used soundboards, which often have round buttons with a word or symbol on them. When the buttons are pressed, a pre-recorded word is played.

In recent years, many individuals have trained their dogs to make use of soundboards, repeatedly exposing the animals to different words. In some cases, the dogs press a button after an individual asks them an issue, equivalent to, “Do you want to go outside?”

In other cases, dogs press a button without being asked, appearing to specific a conscious interest or desire.

Many people take videos of the dog's behavior and post them on YouTube, TikTok and other social media sites, where they generate enormous interest. Some videos claim or imply that dogs are essentially talking to humans once they press the sound buttons, a claim that bothers scientists who say the animals often reply to physical or verbal cues.

The study, led by UCSD, required scientific rigor.

In one other experiment, citizen scientists did the identical thing with 29 dogs in a house setting. Participants were supervised remotely by the research team.

Both experiments involved many dog ​​breeds, from beagles and golden retrievers to poodles and terriers.

The experiments were a part of a broader effort by UCSD's Comparative Cognition Lab and other institutions world wide to raised understand how and what dogs understand and communicate. Part of the continued work involves studying every button a dog presses within the hope that it would reveal something useful, particularly in regards to the animal's health.

“We see dogs using buttons in ways that suggest they are angry, happy, frustrated or excited,” said Rossano, who appears in “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” a documentary Now Play on Netflix.

“I hope to learn not only something about their psychology, but also something that will benefit the animals,” he said.

Originally published: August 29, 2024 at 04:53

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

Phil Donahue, whose groundbreaking daytime talk show established an unforgettable television genre, has died. He was 88 years old.

Donahue, the “King of the Daytime Talk Shows,” was the primary to involve viewers in a chat show, often for a whole hour with a single guest.

“Only one guest per show? No band?” he recalled being asked frequently in his 1979 memoir, “Donahue, My Own Story.”

With its format, “The Phil Donahue Show” was clearly different from other interview shows of the Sixties and have become a trendsetter in daytime television, where it was particularly popular with female audiences.

The show was later renamed “Donahue” and launched in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967. Donahue's willingness to tackle the hot-button social problems with the day was immediately evident when he invited atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair as his first guest. He later broadcast programs on feminism, homosexuality, consumer protection and civil rights, in addition to tons of of other topics.

The show was syndicated in 1970 and ran on national television for the following 26 years, earning the show and Donahue as host 20 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award in 1980. The show featured radio-style calls, which Donahue greeted along with his signature query, “Is the caller there?”

The show's final episode aired in 1996 in New York, where Donahue was living along with his wife, actress Marlo Thomas, on the time of his death. The two had been married since 1980. Donahue had five children, 4 sons and a daughter, from a previous marriage.

Donahue briefly returned to television in 2002, hosting one other “Donahue” show on MSNBC. The network canceled it after six months because rankings were too low.

He was born Phillip John Donahue on December 21, 1935, right into a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Cleveland. When Donahue was a baby, they moved to Centerville, Ohio, where he lived across the road from Erma Bombeck, who later became a humorist and columnist.

Donahue was a 1953 graduate of St. Edward High School, a Catholic boys' school in Lakewood, and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a business degree in 1957. He later rebelled against the church and left it, but wrote in his book that “a little piece” of his faith would all the time stick with him.

After a series of early jobs in radio and tv, Donahue was invited to maneuver a former radio talk show to Dayton television station WLWD in 1967. It moved to Chicago in 1974, where it remained for years before ending up in New York.

The show featured conversations with spiritual leaders, doctors, housewives, activists and entertainers or politicians who happened to be on the town. He said the show's formula for achievement was a glad accident.

“It may have taken three full years before any of us realized that our program was special,” Donahue wrote. “The style of the show had evolved not by genius but by necessity. The well-known talk show heads were not available to us in Dayton, Ohio. … The result was improvisation.”

This gave the show a freedom that continued at the same time as it rose to number one in its class.

With his personable style and gray hair, Donahue boxed with Muhammad Ali. He played football with Alice Cooper. His guests gave cooking classes, taught breakdancing and, more controversially, talked about “mansharing”, life as a mistress, lesbian motherhood or – with the assistance of collected video material that led to broadcasts being banned in some cities – how natural births, abortions or reverse vasectomies are carried out.

A stop on the Donahue became a must for major politicians, activists, athletes, business leaders and entertainers, from Hubert Humphrey to Ronald Reagan, from Gloria Steinem to Anita Bryant, from Lee Iacocca to Ray Kroc, from John Wayne to Farrah Fawcett.

Outside of his famous talk show, Donahue pursued several other projects.

During the Cold War within the Eighties, he collaborated with Soviet journalist Vladimir Posner on a groundbreaking television discussion series. The US-Soviet Bridge offered simultaneous broadcasts from the United States and the Soviet Union, allowing studio audiences to ask one another questions. Donahue and Posner also co-hosted a weekly roundtable discussion show, Posner/Donahue, on CNBC within the Nineties.

Donahue also co-directed the 2006 Oscar-nominated documentary film “Body of War.”

Originally published: August 19, 2024 at 6:55 am

World News

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their return to power at a former U.S. air base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, but there was no mention of the country's plight or promise of hope for its suffering population.

Under blue skies and brilliant sunshine in Bagram – once the epicenter of the American war to oust the Taliban and search out the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks – members of the Taliban cabinet praised achievements corresponding to strengthening Islamic law and constructing a military system that ensures “peace and security.”

The speeches were geared toward a global audience and called on the diaspora to return and the West to interact and cooperate with the country's rulers.

“The Islamic Emirate has eliminated internal differences and expanded the framework for unity and cooperation in the country,” said Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir, using the term the Taliban use for his or her government. “No one is allowed to interfere in internal affairs and Afghan soil will not be used against any country.”

None of the 4 speakers spoke concerning the challenges Afghans face of their day by day lives.

Decades of conflict and instability have brought thousands and thousands of Afghans to the brink of hunger and starvation. Unemployment is high.

The Bagram parade was the Taliban's largest and most provocative since they regained control of the country in August 2021.

Among the roughly 10,000 men were high-ranking Taliban officials corresponding to the acting Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob and the acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. The supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was not present on the parade. Women weren’t allowed to attend.

The Taliban said foreign diplomats also attended, but didn’t say who.

Aid organizations warn that humanitarian aid within the country is severely underfunded as economic collapse and climate change destroy many livelihoods.

They say that Afghans, especially women and girls, will suffer unless there’s more diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. No country recognizes the Taliban because the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

The parade was also a possibility to showcase a few of the military equipment left behind by U.S. and NATO-led forces after many years of war: helicopters, Humvees and tanks.

Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorbike formation carried the Taliban flag.

The Taliban have declared Wednesday a national holiday.

Earlier this 12 months, a spiritual coach and Reiki healer named Zen Oasis posted a video on TikTok explaining the thought of ​​the “shadow self” to her 167,000 followers.

“I sat down and wrote down all the things I couldn't stand about people. The things that really made me angry, like, 'yuck, yuck,'” she said, raising a hand in disgust. “Then I looked at this really long list and picked out my top five and just thought, 'You know what? That's me. That's how I am all day.'”

“It may sound a bit trite,” she said, “but for me it was the best way to see the things I can't see in myself.”

The Videowhich has been viewed over 36,000 times, is just certainly one of over 48 million videos on the social media platform exploring the topic of shadows, and further evidence of a widespread resurgence of fascination with Jungian style.

“People are really unsure about the world and its future development and they come to Jung because they want to find solutions,” says Christophe Le Mouel, director of the CG Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

At a time when conversations about self-discovery have gotten increasingly loud, the analyst’s theories in regards to the collective unconscious, archetypes and shadows are increasingly influencing the work of social media-savvy healers, therapists and life coaches. They are also the inspiration for brand spanking new Tarot-like card decksthought-provoking Etsy Prints and the recently published “The Shadow Work Journal” that is old more than one million copies This is thanks in part to a highly successful TikTok marketing campaign.

63 years after his death, Jung’s ideas – especially the concept of the “shadow” – are currently receiving a number of attention.

“When I read his work, I thought: Man, this stuff is 100 years old, but it touched me so deeply,” Zen Oasis said in a phone conversation. “It helped me summarize what I already knew intuitively.”

How did Jung define the shadow? And why is the idea experiencing a revival today? To find out more, I called Lisa Marchiano, a Philadelphia-based Jungian analyst and co-host of the popular podcast “This Jungian Life,” which itself has more than 50,000 subscribers, and author of the new book “The spark of life.”

In an interview, Marchiano discusses how Jung defined the term shadow, why we all have one, and the reasons for people's renewed interest in the concept.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is the shadow self?

If it refers to Jung's concept of the shadow, I will say that he did not use the term “shadow self.” He was talking about the shadow.

The shadow is the part of us that we have denied. Jung once said the shadow is everything we don't want to be. It's something we think we aren't. “Oh, we're not like that.” “I'm not like that.” Well, actually we are, we just don't have a conscious relationship with those parts of us. But we could, and this is the really constructive part of it, become curious about the shadow.

Is it a fundamental idea of ​​Jungian psychology?

Jung had so many insights that have entered everyday language. Shadow is one of them, but also synchronicity, introversion and extraversion, the collective unconscious. But shadow is certainly a fundamental idea of ​​Jung's. He believed that shadow work was actually the first part of the work of analysis and the work of what he called individuation, because it is the entry point into the depths.

Does everyone have a shadow?

In Jungian theory, we all have a shadow and it has two components. There is a personal shadow and then there is the collective shadow. For simplicity, I will mainly talk about the personal shadow.

Where do our shadows come from?

So we're born with a ton of potential, and as we grow up and develop a healthy, functioning ego, we find that there are parts of ourselves that we need to push aside. That's normal. It's necessary. It's healthy. It happens to all of us. Some of what gets relegated to the shadows are things that could really be a problem in a collective society, like aggression or greed. But a lot of what gets relegated to the shadows could also be more constructive.

How can we recognize what lies in our shadow?

In every family there is usually something you shouldn't be. In some families you absolutely can't be lazy and if you sit around watching TV that is the worst thing and means you are lazy. In other families you might not be impractical or moody. In my family you couldn't be immodest or boastful. When thinking about your shadow, it can be helpful to ask yourself what was the one thing you weren't allowed to be in your family. This is often a clue to what might be in your shadow.

Why is it useful to examine your own shadow?

When the shadow is completely unconscious, we tend to project it. If you are really angry at someone else, you have to ask yourself, “Where is that in me? What is it about that in me?”

The other reason it is helpful to do shadow work is that much of the shadow is actually full of vitality and energy that we can use in the service of life and growth. Jung is said to have once said that 99% of the shadow is pure gold.

To use myself as an example, I thought, “I can't be the focal point, I can't seek attention, I actually have to be very humble.” But when I pulled myself together a little bit and did my shadow work, my ability to put myself at the forefront turned out to be very invigorating and exhilarating and that helped me in my career.

How do you start shadow work?

The first answer to that is to become curious about what lies in the shadows. Pay attention to what really upsets you. When do you react with excessive indignation toward someone or something? When do you notice that sense of self-righteousness and that enormous arrogance that comes with being righteous and on the right side of history? It might be good to say, “Hmm. Wait a minute. Who am I hating at once? And where might that be in me?”

And then we just proceed to be open to it. Where could we be just a little greedy, just a little selfish? Where could we behave in a shady way?

Why do you’re thinking that this concept is currently so popular?

I believe there's a timeless quality to Jung's ideas. They keep coming back, with recent freshness and interest. I definitely think The Shadow Work Journal helped with that originally, but why did it spread so quickly? Why did it have such a surge in the favored imagination?

I believe people appreciate Jung's ideas and return to them because they feel there’s simply an inherent truth in them.

As a Jungian analyst with years of coaching, does it worry you that these ideas are circulating on social media?

Jung said our ability to do that work could make the difference between the survival of humanity. And given our polarization, I'm unsure I disagree with that. So in some ways, it's very gratifying to listen to this sort of language permeating social media.

But I do know that things will be trivialized, simplified and adjusted on social media, so I'm not without concerns. One of my concerns is the concept that shadow work is something you possibly can just do and leave behind. It doesn't work like that. You're at all times working on the shadow – you possibly can't make it go away. What you possibly can do is grow to be more aware of it.

The war in Ukraine has seen many twists and turns over the past 27 months. The first yr was largely defined by the Russian army's high-profile missteps, from tankless tanks stranded on the side of the road to the redeployment of Russian soldiers to Donbass after a failed try to take Kyiv. Then got here Ukraine's swift counteroffensive in Kharkiv in September 2022. By November 2022, the Ukrainians were so high on the list that U.S. intelligence picked up rumors that Russian generals were discussing deploying tactical nuclear warheads.

Since then, nonetheless, the situation for Ukrainians has continued to deteriorate. The capture of Kherson in November 2022 was the high point of Ukrainian progress. Since then, the battlefield situation has slowly recovered to Russia's advantage. Moscow has regained more territory previously two months than Ukraine did during its entire counteroffensive last yr. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is frustrated with Russia's current operations in Kharkiv, which has prompted Washington to loosen up its ban on the usage of US weapons to attack targets inside Russia.

All this results in the inevitable query: when should Ukraine shift its strategy from total military victory to sufficient peace?

The worst kept secret of the war

For many, even talking about the opportunity of a diplomatic agreement with Russia is blasphemy. Russia is, in spite of everything, the aggressor, invading a sovereign neighbor and committing countless atrocities. Its president, Vladimir Putin, is needed by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Ukraine is the victim, the logic goes, and forcing it to sit down down on the table with its tormentor leaves a bitter aftertaste.

All of this may increasingly be true to some extent. But international politics is just not an ethical contest – it is usually an unpleasant, hard-fought exchange of blows between states by which the perfect is never attainable.

So far, Zelensky has insisted that Ukraine won’t negotiate with Russia until the country withdraws its troops from every inch of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation for greater than a decade. Zelensky's 10-point peace plan, which calls for an entire withdrawal of Russian troops, Russian compensation for war damage and the prosecution of Russian soldiers for war crimes, is effectively a give up document for Moscow. Zelensky will reiterate those terms this month when dozens of nations gather in Switzerland for a so-called peace summit.

But this plan, while desirable, is just not credible. Given the present state of war and Putin's willingness to sacrifice Russia's future to defend the roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory his forces currently occupy, Zelensky's position is nothing wanting delusional. This is one among the worst-kept secrets in diplomacy, and behind the scenes the Biden administration probably recognizes this too.

It is, in fact, highly unlikely that the White House would openly state this obvious fact. First, it might cause extreme tensions between Washington and Kyiv at a time when either side are working to carry Ukraine's defense lines. Second, the US would embarrass Zelensky by essentially calling his peace proposal a pointless exercise. And the impact on morale throughout the Ukrainian army may very well be significant – who would risk their life for a draw?

What will it take?

But none of those considerations outweigh the facts on and off the battlefield – and whether we prefer it or not, those facts now favor Russia. Although Russia's losses are high – the British Ministry of Defense estimates that 465,000 Russians have been killed or wounded up to now – the Russian government is preparing for a war that might last years. Putin is steadily sending soldiers to war – about 30,000 Russians join the ranks every month – and offering lucrative bonuses and perks to entice more young men to hitch. Despite severe U.S. and European Union sanctions, Russia has managed to divert its crude oil east (mainly to China and India), funneling tens of billions of dollars into the treasury. The Russian economy is supporting the war effort, just because the war is supporting the Russian economy.

None of that is to say that Zelensky should raise the white flag. Nothing is inevitable in war; the side that makes territorial gains this week could pull out next week. The $61 billion in recent U.S. aid to Ukraine is just just coming to light, and Ukrainians will need to see if the most recent tranche allows them to make up lost ground. Any diplomatic agreement can even depend upon Putin – if the Russian president refuses to truly compromise, there won’t be much left for Ukraine to discuss.

But it’s gone time for observers of this war and the US politicians involved in it to desert their illusions of total military victory. Like most wars in history, this one will end through a diplomatic process that neither side might be particularly keen on. The only query is how exhausted Ukraine and Russia could have to be to finally start serious negotiations.

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune. ©2024 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Celts

While answering questions on the rostrum at NBA Finals Media Day, Jayson Tatum was asked concerning the criticism he faced during Boston's playoff run.

“You've probably been the most scrutinized player this postseason,” Gary Washburn told Tatum.

“I think so,” Tatum said with a smile.

“You were probably the most scrutinized player this postseason…”

“That is what you think?”

Jayson Tatum talks about coping with criticism during this postseason run pic.twitter.com/W1oHDfIFsF

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) June 5, 2024

A superstar like Tatum have to be scrutinized critically, especially as the very best player on the Celtics team that already has 64 wins and is now seeking to win a title.

But Tatum and a few of his teammates faced harsh criticism throughout the postseason, especially from national media.

In the last two weeks alone, Tatum has heard Kendrick Perkins say Jaylen Brown is “the best player on the Celtics,” and Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd has said he would select any NBA star aside from Devin Booker and Anthony Davis over Tatum within the fourth quarter of a vital game.

Even after each Tatum and Brown led Boston to the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons following a sweep of the Pacers, several comments from ESPN personalities prompted former Celtics player Leon Powe and current forward Oshae Brissett to defend them on social media.

One notable claim was that a smiling Tatum was not joyful for Brown after the latter was awarded the “ECF MVP” award for his game against the Pacers.

Given all of the vitriol that has been thrown at him in recent weeks, Tatum was asked how much this discussion bothers him, especially in terms of things that transcend mistakes and omissions on the sector.

This would be the dumbest ESPN segment of the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown era. And that's saying something.

“When Jaylen Brown won the award, the rest of the team just went crazy, they were so genuinely happy for him. And they didn't seem to believe that the same was true for Jayson Tatum.” pic.twitter.com/3LGv7lBs1w

— GEORGE (@ItsGeorgeyy) May 29, 2024

“I think it's more than me – it's my mother, my grandmother, my family and my friends,” Tatum said. “They are more affected by this than I am. I understand if [Tatum’s son] Deuce would make it to the NBA, people would talk about him every day, and as a father, I wouldn't be able to separate the superstar from the child.

“My mom could have taken it a bit of harder than I did. But I don't take it personally, right? It was just an extended break without NBA basketball, in order that they needed to overanalyze every little thing and give you something to discuss. Did it get boring? Yeah. But you already know, it's the Finals. They wouldn't discuss me if I wasn't good, so… Try to take something positive out of it and alter the channel.”

Brown has been open about his image and possible insults he has faced this postseason, particularly his non-selection to the All-NBA and All-Defense teams this season.

Brown has maintained this attitude and cautious attitude towards his reputation for years.

“You get to some extent where you've been under scrutiny for portion of your profession long enough that it becomes normal,” Brown said. “Then it just rolls off you. At least that's what I can say for myself. I don't know if Jayson feels the identical way.”

“It's been that way my whole profession, in a way. I got booed after I got drafted, after which I got told I used to be overpaid, after which I got told I used to be overpaid. It's been that way my whole profession. It just becomes one other headline.”

Tatum and Brown are far from the first NBA stars to come under scrutiny during their careers – and they won’t be the last.

But their teammate Jrue Holiday is convinced that neither Tatum nor Brown allowed these comments to hinder their development into two of the best players in the NBA.

“I mean, everyone seems to be under scrutiny, right? When I used to be in Milwaukee, it was about Giannis [Antetokounmpo] not getting enough help. … The pressures JB and JT are under are different,” Holiday said.

“I've told them this before, but it surely's really impressive how they conduct themselves, how they continue to be skilled, how they still come to each game and do what they do. I find it extremely impressive how they do it.”