Monthly Archives: September 2021

Less than two weeks after her incredible, historic run at the US Open, Emma Raducanu has split with her coach.

Raducanu, the 18-year-old who won the US Open earlier this month after entering as a qualifier, split with her coach, Andrew Richardson on Friday.

Richardson, a former Davis Cup player, had coached Raducanu for two years when she was competing at the youth level, and joined her on a short-term deal ahead of the US Open.

At the time, I thought Andrew would be a great coach to trial so we went to the States but never did I even dream of winning the U.S. Open and having the run I did, and now Im ranked No. 22 in the world, which is crazy to me, she said, via The Associated Press.

Raducanu beat Leylah Fernandez in straight sets to win the US Open earlier this month, which made her the first qualifier in tournament history to do so. She didnt drop a single set in the entire tournament, either, in what was a truly dominant run through Arthur Ashe Stadium.

She is now ranked No. 22 in the world, despite the US Open being her second grand slam event ever.

That immediate rise, she said, was a big part in why she wanted to split with Richardson. Though she doesnt have a new coach in mind, she knows that she wants someone who can help her navigate the highest level of tennis.

Im looking for someone who has been at that level and knows what it takes, she said, via The Associated Press. And especially right now because Im so new to it, I really need someone to guide me whos already been through that.

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Emma Raducanu splits with coach just two weeks after winning US Open - Yahoo Sports

The killing of Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old London teacher who police believe was murdered on a five-minute walk from her house to a pub last Friday, has sparked a renewed outcry over violence against women in the U.K., while also putting a spotlight on the disparity in coverage of cases involving people of color.

A 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder, London's Metropolitan Police announced Thursday. Detectives also released images taken from surveillance cameras of another man they would like to question in the case. The investigation in ongoing.

According to authorities, Nessa left her house just before 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 to meet a friend at a bar in nearby Pegler Square. Her body was found in a park the next day.

"Sabina's journey should have taken just over five minutes, but she never made it to her destination," Detective Chief Inspector Joe Garrity said in a statement. "We know the community are rightly shocked by this murder as are we."

Nessa lived with her father, a chef at an Indian restaurant.

No mother or father should have to go through this, her sister tweeted. May Allah grant my parents ease.

In an appearance on "Good Morning Britain" Thursday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that it was time to "make misogyny a hate crime."

Nessa's death comes six months after the murder of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old white woman who went missing after leaving a friend's house in South London. Her body was found a week later, and a police officer pleaded guilty to her kidnap, rape and murder.

Sabina Nessa, Sarah Everard. (Met Police, Facebook)

Everard's killing prompted an outpouring from women across social media sharing harrowing experiences of sexual assault, and put the U.K.'s epidemic of harassment against women in the global spotlight. According to data released by the U.N. Women U.K. in March, 97 percent of British women between the ages of 18 and 24 said they had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces.

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The intense media interest in Everard's murder also prompted criticism about coverage of similar cases involving women of color. The same questions are now being raised in the wake of Nessa's killing.

"It is quite astounding that the Sabina Nessa murder is not dominating the news," tweeted Hannah Al-Othman, a journalist for the Sunday Times.

"The muted press reaction and lack of public outcry for Sabina Nessa demonstrates, once again, that not all victims are treated with the same respect and reverence," tweeted Mandu Reid, leader of the U.K. Women's Equality Party.

The treatment of Sabinas death has not been on the same level as others, and time and time again we see how victims from Black and [minority] communities do not receive the same level of attention and support, Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Womens Aid, told the Guardian newspaper. It is simply not good enough, and it has to change. Sabinas death is as unacceptable and shocking as that of any other woman, and our headlines, TV coverage and outrage in our social media posts should reflect this.

The debate over U.K. coverage of the Nessa case comes as the case of Gabby Petito has drawn widespread media attention, particularly in the United States.

Petito's body was found in a remote camping area in Wyoming Sunday, nearly three weeks after the 22-year-old's fianc, Brian Laundrie, returned home to Florida from their cross-country trip without her.

Laundrie, who was named a person of interest by police, was last seen on Sept. 14, when he told his parents he was going to a nearby nature reserve to meditate. His parents reported him missing three days later, and police have been scouring the 24,565-acre reserve for him.

Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie. (Facebook)

The wall-to-wall coverage of the Petito case has also prompted criticism of news outlets for not covering similar cases involving people of color.

Some critics have suggested the Petito case is a classic example of "missing white woman syndrome," a phrase coined by the late journalist and PBS NewsHour co-host Gwen Ifill to describe the medias fascination with missing white women while ignoring cases involving people of color.

The Petito family certainly deserve answers and justice, MSNBC host Joy Reid said on air. But the way the [Petito] story has captivated the nation has many wondering: Why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?

Gabby Petito. (Instragram)

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Debates sparked by Gabby Petito case echo in 28-year-old London teachers killing - Yahoo News

Nearly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the federal eviction moratorium designed to keep struggling tenants in their homes as COVID-19 surges anew, assistance is slowly going out to millions of people behind on their rent.

More than $2.3 billion in federal emergency rental assistance went out in August to some 420,000 households, the most of any month to date since the money was made available, according to the Treasury Department.

Despite the uptick in disbursements, however, millions are still living in fear of being evicted in the near future. To date, $7.7 billion in payments have been made to help those in need, out of the $46 billion that was approved last December and March.

And while state and local programs continue to struggle to get money out the door, cash-strapped small and medium-sized landlords and property owners who have been vilified even as many have gone for over a year without payment have had enough.

In New York, a landlord advocacy group is aiming to block the states ongoing freeze on evictions for tenants facing financial hardships due to the pandemic. The Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) filed a motion this month with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the recently extended moratorium implemented by new Governor Kathy Hochul.

The president of the group, Joseph Strasburg, said the Empire States moratorium, which runs through mid-January 2022, does absolutely nothing to improve on previous measure.

This eviction protection measure was put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis to prevent tenants from losing their home. Yet state legislators have reworked the measure in the wake of the Supreme Courts invalidation of the federal moratorium.

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Under N.Y. 's old policy, tenants who were facing eviction cases could submit a filing to their landlords that attested financial hardship from income loss or say moving would harm their health. That allowed them, in most cases, to avoid a housing court.

However, once the Supreme Court ruled this measure to be unconstitutional, New York state legislators went back to the drawing board, and crafted a new eviction ban.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2020/07/01: Cancel Rent banner drop in Bushwick. Tenants and Housing Activists dropped banners from their buildings and organized a march in the streets of Bushwick demanding the city to cancel rent immediately as the financial situation for many New Yorkers remains the same, strapped for cash and out of work. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

More than 8 million households are behind on rent, according to the latest Census Bureau data from the first half of September. However, some property owners have challenged the idea that all tenants who havent paid rent could not do so, because some were working and either refused to pay, or simply never sought rental assistance.

That notion is supported by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data, which showed that renters credit scores actually jumped by 16 points during the pandemic, compared to 10 points for homeowners with mortgages. Credit scores increased even more for renters with children (25 points) and those earning less than $40,000 (18 points).

The Hochul administration promised several benefits to both landlords and tenants in the new bill, which extends rent assistance through January 15 of next year. Landlords have been given more rights: They can challenge hardship claims, and if theyre deemed false property owners can evict

Yet some property owners are far from impressed.

That's a sham because the courts are closed. I'm being targeted by the city because I have a massive debt, Lincoln Eccles, who owns a 14-unit building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said in an interview.

I'm already in debt to New York City for about $180,000 in property tax. That's not including my operational costs and other ongoing business expenses where I'm already in debt there, Eccles added.

The RSAs new court filings argue that New Yorks new ban is essentially the continuation of the previous one and equally as unconstitutional.

I'm barely scraping by.Lincoln Eccles, New York landlord

It imposes an obligation on the part of the owner to certify under oath in an affidavit under criminal penalties that in fact, the tenant is lying, the RSAs Strasburg told Yahoo Finance Live this week.

It puts the burden solely on the shoulders of the owners and it's really a red herring, he added.

Changes have been made to the former eviction ordinance, but landlords remain skeptical with federal relief dollars still waiting to be distributed.

I have some tenants that have [applied for assistance] and some tenants, it looks like they have put in something so that they can get an eviction protection, but they haven't filed in the documentation, Eccles said.

Still, the burden of proof now lies with landlords, who have to show evidence showing that their tenants are falsely claiming benefits.

So saying we could challenge that when we don't have a court to go to doesnt make any sense and you starve us from funds, said Eccles. I'm barely scraping by.

According to a June Treasury Department report, New York ranked dead last in its distribution of federal rental assistance money from December 2020. Less than 1% had been allocated to landlords.

Roughly over 600,000 households statewide are behind on rent, and each of those owes a rough average of $3,300. Thats a total estimated rent debt of nearly $2.0 billion in New York.

Another concern is already sky-high rent prices, especially in major cities like the Big Apple and San Francisco. Billionaire bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach told Yahoo Finance recently, that once moratoriums are fully lifted, there will be all kinds of consequences that will include rents going way up.

New York officials have highlighted the $2.1 billion Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a pot of both federal and state money aimed at giving aid to struggling tenants and landlords.

But the state has struggled to give out aid, they have been deluged with applications and could not meet the demand.

They put these requirements on it, which are nice in terms of trying to make sure that the exact right person is pinpointed to get the funds, but it creates so many problems in getting the funds that money ends up not getting out to people, Ian Wilder, executive director of Long Island Housing Services, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

While Emergency Rental Assistance Program money has been slow to trickle down to those who need it, the state says rent relief is on the way for those who qualify. But struggling landlords and tenants remain stuck in the middle.

I have to try to figure out what does E.R.A.P really need because it's not really clear, said Eccles.

The website is horrible. It might as well be a DMV website because I've never had success with DMV's, he added. It's the same type of mentality.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

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Why NY's eviction ban 'does absolutely nothing' for landlords as rental crisis drags on - Yahoo Finance

With more than 18 months of the pandemic in the rearview mirror, researchers have been steadily gathering new and important insights into the effects of COVID-19 on the body and brain. These findings are raising concerns about the long-term impacts that the coronavirus might have on biological processes such as aging.

As a cognitive neuroscientist, my past research has focused on understanding how normal brain changes related to aging affect peoples ability to think and move particularly in middle age and beyond. But as more evidence came in showing that COVID-19 could affect the body and brain for months or longer following infection, my research team became interested in exploring how it might also impact the natural process of aging.

In August 2021, a preliminary but large-scale study investigating brain changes in people who had experienced COVID-19 drew a great deal of attention within the neuroscience community.

In that study, researchers relied on an existing database called the UK Biobank, which contains brain imaging data from over 45,000 people in the U.K. going back to 2014. This means crucially that there was baseline data and brain imaging of all of those people from before the pandemic.

The research team analyzed the brain imaging data and then brought back those who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 for additional brain scans. They compared people who had experienced COVID-19 to participants who had not, carefully matching the groups based on age, sex, baseline test date and study location, as well as common risk factors for disease, such as health variables and socioeconomic status.

The team found marked differences in gray matter which is made up of the cell bodies of neurons that process information in the brain between those who had been infected with COVID-19 and those who had not. Specifically, the thickness of the gray matter tissue in brain regions known as the frontal and temporal lobes was reduced in the COVID-19 group, differing from the typical patterns seen in the group that hadnt experienced COVID-19.

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In the general population, it is normal to see some change in gray matter volume or thickness over time as people age, but the changes were larger than normal in those who had been infected with COVID-19.

Interestingly, when the researchers separated the individuals who had severe enough illness to require hospitalization, the results were the same as for those who had experienced milder COVID-19. That is, people who had been infected with COVID-19 showed a loss of brain volume even when the disease was not severe enough to require hospitalization.

Finally, researchers also investigated changes in performance on cognitive tasks and found that those who had contracted COVID-19 were slower in processing information, relative to those who had not.

While we have to be careful interpreting these findings as they await formal peer review, the large sample, pre- and post-illness data in the same people and careful matching with people who had not had COVID-19 have made this preliminary work particularly valuable.

Early on in the pandemic, one of the most common reports from those infected with COVID-19 was the loss of sense of taste and smell.

Strikingly, the brain regions that the U.K. researchers found to be impacted by COVID-19 are all linked to the olfactory bulb, a structure near the front of the brain that passes signals about smells from the nose to other brain regions. The olfactory bulb has connections to regions of the temporal lobe. We often talk about the temporal lobe in the context of aging and Alzheimers disease because it is where the hippocampus is located. The hippocampus is likely to play a key role in aging, given its involvement in memory and cognitive processes.

The sense of smell is also important to Alzheimers research, as some data has suggested that those at risk for the disease have a reduced sense of smell. While it is far too early to draw any conclusions about the long-term impacts of these COVID-related changes, investigating possible connections between COVID-19-related brain changes and memory is of great interest particularly given the regions implicated and their importance in memory and Alzheimers disease.

These new findings bring about important yet unanswered questions: What do these brain changes following COVID-19 mean for the process and pace of aging? And, over time does the brain recover to some extent from viral infection?

These are active and open areas of research, some of which we are beginning to do in my own laboratory in conjunction with our ongoing work investigating brain aging.

Brain scans from a person in their 30s and a person in their 80s, showing reduced brain volume in the older adult brain

Our labs work demonstrates that as people age, the brain thinks and processes information differently. In addition, weve observed changes over time in how peoples bodies move and how people learn new motor skills. Several decades of work have demonstrated that older adults have a harder time processing and manipulating information such as updating a mental grocery list but they typically maintain their knowledge of facts and vocabulary. With respect to motor skills, we know that older adults still learn, but they do so more slowly then young adults.

When it comes to brain structure, we typically see a decrease in the size of the brain in adults over age 65. This decrease is not just localized to one area. Differences can be seen across many regions of the brain. There is also typically an increase in cerebrospinal fluid that fills space due to the loss of brain tissue. In addition, white matter, the insulation on axons long cables that carry electrical impulses between nerve cells is also less intact in older adults.

As life expectancy has increased in the past decades, more individuals are reaching older age. While the goal is for all to live long and healthy lives, even in the best-case scenario where one ages without disease or disability, older adulthood brings on changes in how we think and move.

Learning how all of these puzzle pieces fit together will help us unravel the mysteries of aging so that we can help improve quality of life and function for aging individuals. And now, in the context of COVID-19, it will help us understand the degree to which the brain may recover after illness as well.

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This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jessica Bernard, Texas A&M University.

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Jessica Bernard receives funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Preliminary research finds that even mild cases of COVID-19 leave a mark on the brain but it's not yet clear how long it lasts - Yahoo News

On New Year's Day in 2017 the Kansas City Chiefs won their regular-season finale, with Charcandrick West's two touchdown catches from Alex Smith leading the way over the San Diego Chargers.

The Chiefs won the AFC West title that day, taking a tiebreaker with the Oakland Raiders. From that day until Sunday night, the Chiefs held at least a share of first place in the AFC West every single day, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

When the Baltimore Ravens fell on Clyde Edwards-Helaire's fumble Sunday night to seal a win over the Chiefs, Kansas City's streak ended. Not only are the Chiefs not in first place, they're looking up at two teams. The Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos are both 2-0. The Los Angeles Chargers are 1-1.

The Chiefs winning the AFC West has become one of the biggest locks in the NFL. Part of that has been the Chiefs' dominance, but the other part is that the other three division teams have rarely been good enough to make things interesting. This season, they all are.

The Raiders have two quality wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos haven't played a tough schedule, but we can see that Teddy Bridgewater is having a positive impact on the offense. The Chargers lost a last-second game to the Dallas Cowboys, but they'll be a factor too. L.A. has a chance to make things very interesting when it travels to face the Chiefs this weekend.

Tyrann Mathieu and the Chiefs are in an unfamiliar position in the AFC West after a loss to the Ravens. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Of course, whether the Chiefs win the division yet again depends mostly on the Chiefs. At Kansas City's peak, it's probably the best team in football. But it has been surprisingly rare to see that Chiefs team since the middle of last season.

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Against-the-spread records don't matter in NFL standings, but they can be telling. The Chiefs are just 1-11-1 against the spread since last Nov. 1. They're mostly doing just enough to get by every week. That matters, but elite teams generally have a few blowouts over a 13-game stretch. The only game the Chiefs have won by more than six points since last Nov. 1 was the AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills.

The Chiefs are still great, but it has been a long time since they were wrecking the rest of the NFL. In Week 1, they needed a furious comeback against the Cleveland Browns to win at home. In Week 2 they blew a double-digit lead and lost. If their inability to pull away from anyone lately is a sign, the AFC West race might actually be pretty good. The Chargers still have the highest ceiling, but we can't rule out the Raiders or Broncos. Both have looked good.

The Chiefs still should win the division. They're the best team. But it has been a long time since there was any real intrigue. We might get some this season.

Here are the power rankings following Week 2 of the NFL season:

32. Jacksonville Jaguars (0-2, Last week: 32)

Trevor Lawrence's line Sunday: 14-of-33 for 118 yards. He had a 37.2 passer rating. The Jaguars aren't very good but Lawrence has been part of the reason so far. He has to play better.

31. Houston Texans (1-1, LW: 31)

Tyrod Taylor hasn't been ruled out of Thursday's game yet, but it would be a tough turnaround. The Texans have been very competitive this season, but that job gets tougher if Davis Mills is at quarterback.

30. New York Jets (0-2, LW: 28)

The Jets need something to help Zach Wilson, whether it's an offensive line or a running game or some play-calling that's not putting him in position to force downfield interceptions. He has taken a league-leading 10 sacks. He has five interceptions. The Jets have 20 points through two games. It's not good.

29. Detroit Lions (0-2, LW: 30)

The Lions aren't good, but they have shown some decent signs, whether a comeback to almost tie the 49ers in Week 1 or leading at the half at Lambeau Field on Monday night. Dan Campbell seems like the type of coach who can keep his team engaged, even when the record will look ugly.

28. Atlanta Falcons (0-2, LW: 29)

The Falcons' point differential through two games is minus-49, easily the worst in the NFL. It's not like you can blame the schedule; the Eagles lost right after blowing out the Falcons. It's just a bad team that isn't getting much out of the few blue-chip players it actually has.

27. New York Giants (0-2, LW: 27)

Daniel Jones played well, and if not for an offsides penalty on a missed field goal, the Giants would have gotten a nice win at Washington. Not all is lost, though 0-2 isn't a great place to be.

26. Minnesota Vikings (0-2, LW: 25)

The NFL can be cruel. The Vikings gave up a fourth-and-inches completion to lose in overtime of Week 1. They had a 37-yard field goal to win in Week 2. If they're 1-0-1, they probably are feeling pretty good. Now, they might be wondering if Mike Zimmer is on the hot seat.

25. Cincinnati Bengals (1-1, LW: 24)

Joe Burrow had a rough day, but he doesn't seem like the type who will let that bother him. There are better days ahead for the Bengals, even if they're not there yet.

24. Philadelphia Eagles (1-1, LW: 23)

The Eagles had three plays of more than 10 yards, not including Jalen Hurts runs: Quez Watkins' 91-yard gain in which he didn't score, a 14-yard catch by Dallas Goedert and an 11-yard catch by DeVonta Smith. The Eagles' playmakers around Hurts are better than this, and they'll need to be going forward (as will Hurts).

23. Chicago Bears (1-1, LW: 26)

Justin Fields looked a beat late on most of his throws. But, he was a rookie coming off the bench cold. He should be a lot better in Week 3 with a full week of practice, if he gets the start.

22. Indianapolis Colts (0-2, LW: 21)

When you get zero points on your first two trips inside the 5-yard line then lose by a field goal, there will be regrets. The Colts play at the Titans this weekend, and if they're 0-3 coming out of that they'll be in a hole they might not dig out of.

21. Washington Football Team (1-1, LW: 20)

It was a heck of a win against the Giants, but we need to start wondering when the defense will show up. Daniel Jones had way too much time in the pocket. We'll see what it does Sunday at Buffalo. Washington isn't competing for an NFC East title unless the defense is really good, and it hasn't been yet.

20. Dallas Cowboys (1-1, LW: 19)

Tony Pollard had 109 yards on 13 carries while Ezekiel Elliott had 71 yards on 16 carries. This is why you don't pay running backs top dollar. Regardless, it seems clear the Cowboys have two backs they can trust and use.

19. Tennessee Titans (1-1, LW: 18)

Derrick Henry is from another era, and it's great. No other running back looks like him, plays like him or has anywhere near the workload he does. He had 41 touches and 237 total yards in a win the Titans needed. And if the Titans ask next week, he'll probably do the same thing again.

18. New Orleans Saints (1-1, LW: 7)

Hard to remember the last team that had such a big drop from one week to another. It's arguable the Saints were the NFL's best team in Week 1 and its worst in Week 2. Six first downs, 128 yards? How can you reconcile that with what we saw in the opener against the Packers?

17. Los Angeles Chargers (1-1, LW: 10)

Justin Herbert is still a young quarterback, something that gets forgotten because he has been so good. His two interceptions came in Cowboys territory, including one into the end zone. You're not going to make those mistakes and win in the NFL, and the picks cost the Chargers a shot at what would have been a nice win.

16. New England Patriots (1-1, LW: 15)

Josh Uche, a second-round draft pick last year, did little as a rookie. This season he's off to a fast start with three sacks, including two Sunday. He could be a big piece for the Patriots this season, and maybe for a while.

15. Miami Dolphins (1-1, LW: 13)

It's hard to know what to do with the Dolphins. Had they lost 35-0 with their starting quarterback that would have been a big blow, but Tua Tagovailoa exited with bruised ribs after four passes. We'll check back with the Dolphins when they have Tua healthy again. A Week 3 game against the Raiders is very interesting.

14. Carolina Panthers (2-0, LW: 22)

Sam Darnold will get a lot of attention, but it's the defense that needs more respect. This is a really exciting unit with what looks like a top-end pass rush. The Panthers made life miserable on the Saints' offense. Keep an eye on Carolina as this could be a playoff team.

13. Green Bay Packers (1-1, LW: 14)

Through six quarters, when the 0-1 Packers trailed the Lions at halftime of Week 2, it looked scary for Green Bay. The Packers still need to get better on defense, but it was a step forward. And at least a win. It would not have been a fun week in Green Bay at 0-2.

12. Cleveland Browns (1-1, LW: 11)

Odell Beckham Jr. is still out, having not fully recovered from his torn ACL. Jarvis Landry has a sprained MCL, and that's not an easy injury for a receiver. Until the Browns get their top two pass catchers back, the offense could be one dimensional.

11. Buffalo Bills (1-1, LW: 9)

Because the offense gets the attention, and the Bills have lost a game, their defense isn't getting enough credit. It has played very well two straight weeks. A lot of Sunday's shutout was the Dolphins losing starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to injury, but Miami still had an NFL offense. Once the Bills' offense really takes off, Buffalo still could reach the heights expected of it before the season thanks to a stifling defense.

10. Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1, LW: 8)

The offense seems stuck. You can't pin all of Sunday's loss, with just 17 points, on Ben Roethlisberger, but the passing game wasn't great. Pittsburgh, who drafted running back Najee Harris in the first round, never got a running game established. And when the defense gives up 382 yards passing, it's not going to turn out well.

9. Denver Broncos (2-0, LW: 16)

Courtland Sutton's huge day is a great sign for the Broncos. Eventually they'll get Jerry Jeudy back from a high ankle sprain, and they have a fun group of skill-position talent. The defense is good too. This is an interesting team, and since they play the Jets on Sunday, they're likely going to be 3-0.

8. Baltimore Ravens (1-1, LW: 12)

The Ravens were looking at starting 0-2 from a weird overtime game and a last-second loss to the Chiefs after a great comeback. A loss Sunday night would have been devastating but rookie Odafe Oweh knocked loose a fumble and recovered it. It's way too early to say that saved the Ravens' season, but it might turn out to be true.

7. Las Vegas Raiders (2-0, LW: 17)

When we hear so-and-so is the "most underrated player," they're usually not underrated at all, just under the radar for whatever reason. Derek Carr really is underrated. He keeps playing good, solid football, and he's off to a fantastic start this season. He's much lower on those quarterback ranking lists than deserved. It's time to give Carr some long-overdue credit.

6. Seattle Seahawks (1-1, LW: 5)

The Seahawks lose in overtime to fall to 1-1, and they're all alone in last place of the NFC West. They're No. 6 in these power rankings (not going to penalize them too much for an overtime loss) and yet the fourth NFC West team on this list. This is going to be a tough division.

5. Arizona Cardinals (2-0, LW: 6)

The good news is that playoff teams need to win when they don't play their best. This wasn't the Cardinals' best. Kyler Murray made some bad mistakes and the defense wasn't close to as good as it was in the opener. The Cardinals needed a missed 37-yard field goal to win. But they won. That'll matter in a few months when the playoff field is set.

4. Kansas City Chiefs (1-1, LW: 1)

It's not like a loss at Baltimore is bad. It stinks for Clyde Edwards-Helaire that it'll be on him for his late fumble, but he hasn't built up enough goodwill for everyone to forgive and forget. He has been nowhere near the playmaker the Chiefs thought they were getting in Round 1 of the 2020 draft.

3. Los Angeles Rams (2-0, LW: 4)

Cooper Kupp had a magnificent day and posted a dominant 9-163-2 line in the win. There will be weeks it's Robert Woods' turn or Tyler Higbee turns in a big game, but Kupp is going to put up a monster season.

2. San Francisco 49ers (2-0, LW: 3)

The offense carried a Week 1 win. In Week 2, it was a defensive gem. At some point both sides will both dominate for a stretch. About the only issue for the 49ers now is finding a healthy running back to face Green Bay in Week 3.

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-0, LW: 2)

Is Tom Brady really going to set a single-season touchdown record at age 44? It sure seems like the Buccaneers are making that a goal because Brady is throwing it early and often. What he's doing at this age is something we'll be talking about decades from now.

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NFL Power Rankings: Maybe this is the season someone challenges Chiefs in AFC West - Yahoo Sports

In her new drama The Starling, Melissa McCarthy plays a grocery store clerk engulfed in grief after the death of her young daughter a tragedy that's lingering traumatic effects have landed her art teacher husband (Chris O'Dowd) in a psychiatric hospital.

In Matt Harris's original script for the film, which was circulating around Hollywood for years after landing on the Black List for best unproduced screenplays in 2005, McCarthys main character was a man whose wife was institutionalized.

The Starling's gender-flipping calls to mind another project McCarthy was involved with in recent years 2016s Ghostbusters, which famously rebooted the beloved action-comedy series with four female leads, also including Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. Though the Paul Feig-directed film was generally well-received by critics and still has a strong following, it notoriously became a flash point for toxic fandom, with angry and oftentimes blatantly sexist fans of the original films angrily railing against it and bullying its co-star Jones off of social media with racist attacks.

Five years later and in the lead-up to a new Ghostbusters release (November's sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which reportedly ignores the events of the 2016 film) McCarthy reflected on the vitriol their film received in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment.

Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters (Sony)

"There's no end to stories we can tell, and there's so many reboots and relaunches and different interpretations, and to say any of them are wrong, I just dont get it," McCarthy told us (watch above).

I don't get the fight to see who can be the most negative and the most hate-filled. Everybody should be able to tell the story they want to tell. If you don't want to see it, you don't have to see it."

McCarthy is proud of the approach The Starling director Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures) took in recognizing how and why the film's parental roles could be reversed.

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"This one was a wonderful switch," she says. "This was Ted's idea. He said when he read it, he was raised by a single mother, he was like, 'I didn't buy the woman falling apart. In his life, it's always been the females that have kind of kept it together and kept trudging.

"I also think a man could be vulnerable and broken in a way that we've not traditionally seen."

The Starling premieres Sept. 24 on Netflix.

Watch the trailer:

-Video produced by Stacy Jackman and edited by Luis Saenz

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Melissa McCarthy reflects on 'Ghostbusters' backlash 5 years later: 'I don't get the fight to see who can be the most hate-filled' - Yahoo...

The vast majority of money managers remain cautious on cryptocurrency investing, despite some big name investors putting their money behind digital coins, according to one analyst.

Speaking at Yahoo Finances All Markets Summit Plus, Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton said crypto adoption still remains in the "very early stages" with limited institutional money flowing into the space.

We're kind of at the very low end of that curve, right? That could accelerate to the upside, she said. That goes not just for individuals but institutions as well, especially pension funds is one source of major assets out there. Really which have not largely been deployed to cryptocurrencies now.

More than half of the worlds largest banks now have exposure to crypto, either through direct or indirect investments in projects related to digital currencies and blockchain, according to Blockdata. But more conservative wealth managers, including state and local pension funds, have largely remained on the sidelines, concerned about the price volatility and regulatory uncertainty clouding the industry.

Earlier this month, two Virginia public pension funds announced they were seeking approval for a $50 million investment in a fund that buys digital tokens and cryptocurrency derivatives, becoming one of a few pension funds to publicly announce they are jumping in.

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I think when we get there, we will see that greater liquidity and sort of tighter spreads, if you will, influence them in a positive way such that there will be less volatility, said Stockton. But we found that using the charts and the technical indicators at our disposal that the cryptocurrencies are really minding support resistance levels. So while there is expected volatility, we have ways to manage risk to navigate those short-term swings by identifying key levels, and combining them with indicators that measure things like momentum and overbought oversold readings.

Adoption among retail traders have accelerated at a faster rate, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The price of bitcoin alone has increased nearly 500%, from March 2020. The ease with which investors can now buy digital coins, through platforms like Coinbase (COIN), Paypal (PYPL), and Robinhood (HOOD), have also led to increased exposure. A recent study by the University of Chicago found that 13% of Americans traded crypto over the last 12 months, compared to 24% who invested in stocks.

Regardless of adoption rates, Stockton sees a "long-term uptrend in crypto." Despite a recent sell-off triggered by Chinas central bank banning all crypto transactions, and fears around the Chinese property market, Stockton said crypto assets have held on to key resistance levels, signaling support in the market.

Bitcoin has tended to outperform when they're collectively going lower and [crypto assets] do tend to remain directionally in step, she said. So even though you can always find sources of outperformance and underperformance, you'll find that most [coins] are all up on the same day and all down on the same day and I think that that is something that we can depend upon.

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita

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Crypto is in the early stages of a long-term upward trend: Analyst - Yahoo Finance

Amazon (AMZN) is giving away $40 million in credits for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform to help address health care inequities. The goal is to reach populations around the world with limited access to health services and to analyze data from underrepresented groups to better understand how inequality affects peoples health.

What weve seen over the past 18 months is customers, researchers, all working diligently to solve the COVID-19 pandemic, and now weve got the opportunity on the other side of this to address some of the other fundamental things, the inequities, that we discovered that the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare, Max Peterson, VP of AWS worldwide public sector, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday.

The tech industry has made health care one of its next big investment targets, with giants from Facebook and Apple to Microsoft and Google investing in the sector through either consumer products like the Apple Watch to the availability of commercial health services technology.

Amazons AWS is the global leader in cloud computing, accounting for 31% of total worldwide cloud spending in Q2 2021, according to Canalys.

Amazon is giving away $40 million in AWS credits to combat health inequity. (Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The AWS credits will go to organizations that focus on three main areas including telehealth; understanding and addressing socioeconomic and environmental factors that impact peoples health, and ensuring data from underrepresented groups are included in medical studies.

The first will focus on getting health care to underserved areas. Amazon says that could include bringing telehealth to underserved regions and enabling remote patient monitoring.

Telehealth took off during the pandemic to help patients see their doctors in non-emergency medical situations without risking exposure to the coronavirus.

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Peterson says that an increase in telemedicine could address a lack of health resources in regions that dont have any available medical professionals, which is the case for roughly half the worlds population.

In addition to remote health care, Amazon will provide the AWS credits to organizations that look to address social determinants of health, or things ranging from the availability of healthy food to safe housing to clean air.

This will allow companies that leverage technology to harness AWS services to be able to look into the broader socioeconomic environmental factors that play a role in [health], Peterson said.

The pandemic made it clear that a number of factors ranging from economic stability and food insecurity can make for worse overall health outcomes. COVID-19 hit communities of color particularly hard, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death rate from COVID-19 was twice as high for Black people than whites and 2.3 times as high for Hispanic patients.

The AWS effort will fund research into improving the diversity of available medical data, with the goal of improving outcomes for underserved people.

By using and analyzing things like global averages and health statistics, we think that our customers and our partners will be able to create new data sets that increase representation of underserved or underrepresented communities so that we have more accurate data sets for health about race, ethnicity, gender, and disability," Peterson said.

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Why Amazon is giving away AWS credits to promote health equity - Yahoo Finance

Public health officials agree that vaccination is key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite the fact that 55 percent of the population of the United States is fully vaccinated with 64 percent having received at least one dose many remain hesitant, with some pointing to potentially dangerous side effects or adverse reactions. While medical professionals stress that both are extremely rare, some people will experience them and, understandably, many of these people are eager to share their stories.

Many experts, who acknowledge that vaccines can have any potential side effects, stress that these rare reactions must be weighed against the realities of COVID-19 and that stories about them should not scare people away from receiving what can be life-saving shots.

John Stokes, a 21-year-old senior and student athlete at Tennessee State University, is one such person who says that he had an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.

In a since-removed TikTok posted earlier this month, he explained that he was hospitalized with myocarditis an inflammation of the heart and a previously known potential reaction to the vaccine shortly after receiving his second shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Stokes, who filmed the video from his hospital bed, was ultimately told that he was ineligible to continue to play at least the fall portion of his senior golf season, as he was warned against elevating his heart rate.

A student athlete developed myocarditis after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. (Getty)

Before TikTok removed the video, it had received 4.5 million views, as well as hundreds of thousands of likes. Stokes, who denies the video violated any of TikToks community guidelines, filed an appeal to have the video reinstated, which the social media platform allegedly denied. Many commenters applauded Stokes for telling his truth, some of whom made it clear that they had no interest in ever receiving the vaccine.

Stokes tells Yahoo Life that he received his second COVID-19 vaccine shot on Aug. 31. Shortly after, he says, he developed common, temporary flu-like side effects, which included body aches. However, his chest pain, which he initially likened to a gas-like feeling, soon got worse.

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I told my parents something wasnt right, and we called the doctor, Stokes says. He told me to go to the ER. They diagnosed me with myocarditis, and they told me it was from the vaccine. I was hospitalized for several days after.

While in the hospital, Stokes says his heart initially hurt so much that he was unable to sleep. He was monitored by doctors and given Tylenol and a second anti-inflammatory agent whose name he was unable to recall. His doctors, he explains, did not want to give him additional medication and advised him to rest. Eventually, the extreme pain subsided, though he says he still has chest pain that is, however, more manageable.

It is easy to see why Stokess story would read as a warning against the vaccine. He is a young, seemingly healthy college athlete, whose time on the golf course was seemingly shortened after receiving the inoculation. (Stokes tells Yahoo Life that the concern about playing golf specifically focused on carrying heavy equipment long distances during tournaments, and he says that he was informed that even game-time nerves could negatively affect his heart.) Stokes says he is now an advocate against mandates from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and says he is unhappy that TikTok has seemingly censored his story, despite it being the truth.

Yet many medical professionals are concerned about how quickly Stokess video circulated not because he was sharing misinformation but because stories like this, especially those that come with a call to action to reconsider the vaccine, can give people false sense of the real risks.

Dr. Eric Stecker, chair of the American College of Cardiology Science and Quality Council, tells Yahoo Life: It is very natural and appropriate to wonder whether the risk of myocarditis is worth taking, when the risk of critical illness or death is very low for people under age 30. The key is to recognize that the risk COVID-19 poses to adolescents and young adults is far from zero. In fact, because the Delta variant is so transmissible and vaccination rates in younger age groups are low, ICUs across the country are filling with younger patients than they did at any point in the pandemic.

Stokess experience may make people feel uncertain or even scared, but Stecker stresses that the data is still on the side of getting vaccinated.

The CDC has analyzed the risk-benefit trade-off and found that for every million doses administered of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for people ages 12 to 29, approximately 6 deaths, 138 ICU admissions, 560 hospitalizations and 11,000 infections from COVID-19 will be avoided, he notes. This comes at the cost of 39 to 47 cases of myocarditis, almost all of which are mild and do not cause long-term heart problems. Strictly considering myocarditis risk and ignoring the other severe problems from COVID-19, people under 25 years old are 7 to 37 times more likely to get myocarditis from infection with COVID-19 than they are from the vaccine.

Dr. Nathan Anderson, a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, says that while the exact reason for myocarditis post-vaccination has not yet been confirmed, this kind of myocarditis may be easier to recover from than myocarditis caused for reasons other than an immune response.

We dont know for certain why the mRNA vaccines may cause myocarditis. However, inflammation, which is the root cause of myocarditis, is an immune system reaction, and since the vaccination is intended to train your immune system to recognize an invader by provoking an immune response, it makes sense that an overreaction within the immune system can result in other effects, he explains. In fact, the most common cause of myocarditis in America prior to the coronavirus pandemic was viruses that cause mild illness in the vast majority of people; but in a small number of people, for unclear reasons, they either infect the heart muscle or provoke a hyper-response in the immune system which results in myocarditis. In very severe myocarditis cases, the virus actually replicates within the heart muscle cells, damaging them directly. These cases are often much more difficult to treat than cases related to immune response.

Yet data points, no matter how thoroughly researched, do not have the appeal of a passionate video. That is part of the reason why TikToks Team Halo was created: The social media campaign, organized by the United Nations and the Vaccine Confidence Project, was established in order to build trust in COVID vaccines and cut through the noise surrounding them.

Team Halo member Dr. Siyab Panhwar, who made a video in response to Stokess initial post about myocarditis, stressed that the risks from the vaccine are extremely rare, while the potential risks from COVID itself are much, much worse.

The answer is overwhelmingly in favor of the vaccine, he explains. The mandates are more complicated they are more a political issue than a medical issue. I believe people should make their own decisions, but having properly assessed the data and their risk.

Team Halos Jess, a registered nurse who posts under the name @jesss2019 on TikTok, worries that fear will cloud facts.

Even though his story is sincere, the message and the way its put out can cause fear, she notes. What vaccine-hesitant viewers are not realizing is the perspective. Is this a risk with the mRNA vaccines? Yes. Is it a rare risk? Absolutely."

Ultimately, some people will be left in a far worse position than if they had chosen to be vaccinated, she warns.

"There are people who are COVID long-haulers, in their 30s, who are now on a ton of heart medication or had valve replacements," she says. "Were not seeing those kinds of heart issues with the vaccine but were seeing it with COVID-19.

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A student athletes TikTok went viral after he developed myocarditis from the vaccine. Heres what experts want you to know. - Yahoo Life

This article originally appeared on Simply Wall St News.

The share price of Snap Inc. ( NYSE:SNAP ) rose to yet another new all time high of $83.54 on Friday. The stock price is now up more than 800% in just over 18 months, and 30% since the company released second quarter results two months ago. Some investors may be wondering if the stock price has now run too far, and whether its realistic to expect further upside.

The good news for shareholders is that Snap still appears to be trading at a modest discount to its intrinsic value which we calculate in detail below. This calculation is based on analyst forecasts which have been rising consistently since 2018.

See our latest analysis for Snap

To estimate Snaps fair value, we are using the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for Snap

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take into account two stages of a company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

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A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

2029

2030

2031

Levered FCF ($, Millions)

US$902.1m

US$2.01b

US$3.84b

US$5.41b

US$6.98b

US$8.45b

US$9.74b

US$10.8b

US$11.8b

US$12.5b

Growth Rate Estimate Source

Analyst x8

Analyst x6

Analyst x1

Est @ 40.76%

Est @ 29.13%

Est @ 20.99%

Est @ 15.29%

Est @ 11.3%

Est @ 8.51%

Est @ 6.55%

Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 7.1%

US$843

US$1.8k

US$3.1k

US$4.1k

US$5.0k

US$5.6k

US$6.0k

US$6.3k

US$6.4k

US$6.3k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St) Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$45b

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period.For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.0%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 7.1%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF 2031 (1 + g) (r - g) = US$13b (1 + 2.0%) (7.1%- 2.0%) = US$252b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r) 10 = US$252b ( 1 + 7.1%) 10 = US$127b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value,which in this case is US$172b.The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.Compared to the current share price of US$83.1, the company appearsa touch undervaluedat a 23% discount to where the stock price trades currently.Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

NYSE:SNAP Discounted Cash Flow September 27th 2021

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued.

Interestingly, the current share prices of other social media stocks like Facebook ( Nasdaq:FB ), Twitter ( NYSE:TWTR ), Pinterest ( NYSE:PINS ), Alphabet ( Nasdaq:GOOG ) are also trading at similar discounts when valued using analyst forecasts. Social media is one industry that analsysts are almost uniformally bullish on.

Snap will be releasing third quarter earnings in about a month's time. When a company is trading at a discount it should provide a margin of safety if earnings are lower than expected - although the company has beaten estimates in 11 of the last 12 quarters. Analysts typically update their earnings forecasts after each quarters results are released, which results in our fair value estimate updating too.

Other Solid Businesses : Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NYSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here .

Simply Wall St analyst Richard Bowman and Simply Wall St have no position in any of the companies mentioned. This article is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

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Snap (NYSE:SNAP) Appears to Still be Reasonably Valued Despite Meteoric Price Performance - Yahoo Finance