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The Detroit Lions arent engaged in trade talks to deal quarterback Matthew Stafford because doing so right now would be financially crippling and a reversal of a contract restructuring done just months ago.

Late last season, the Lions and Stafford converted a $6 million roster bonus into a signing bonus. It was a salary-cap sleight of hand that means Staffords cap hit this season is $21.3 million if he plays in Detroit and $32 million if he is traded or cut.

What front office, let alone a front office with a win-now mandate to keep its job, is going to deal a good starting QB and handcuff itself financially just months after creating the handcuffs?

None. Not even at a franchise that has won just a single playoff game since 1957.

That didnt stop WDIV-TV in Detroit on Wednesday from reporting Stafford was on the trading block, citing sources close to both the Lions and Stafford.

Nor did it stop Staffords wife, Kelly, from going on Instagram and noting above a story that suggested the Los Angeles Chargers could be a possible destination that, Well, if Detroit is done with us I could stay in Cali.

100% False!! Lions general manager Bob Quinn responded via text message to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

And so it appears that this was much ado about nothing. The Lions denial might not mean much, but $32 million in dead money does.

None of this necessarily means Stafford shouldnt be dealt its just he shouldnt be dealt this offseason.

If the Lions wanted to set a bold path forward, they would follow the lead of the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and draft their quarterback of the future now while still retaining their starting quarterback of the present.

Matthew Stafford isn't going anywhere, but the Lions need to develop his successor. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

In K.C., that meant trading up in the 2017 NFL draft to take Patrick Mahomes 10th overall and then having him sit and learn from established starter Alex Smith for a season. (Mahomes played in just one game, a Week 17 win when the Chiefs had already clinched a playoff spot).

Even though the Chiefs were in the middle of a prolonged run as a playoff team and title contender (they had won 23 games combined in 2015-16 behind Smith), the franchise was forward thinking.

The most valuable thing in the NFL is not a great quarterback, but a great quarterback on a rookie salary that allows a team to surround said quarterback with lots of talent.

You always have to think a few years ahead, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.

The Lions went 3-12-1 last season and have the No. 3 pick in the NFL draft. Stafford, 32, has been their quarterback for 11 mostly fruitless seasons. Hes good. Hes isnt necessarily the problem in Detroit. Hes more likely a solution. Hes expensive though.

Mahomes cap hit in Kansas City in 2020 is just $5.2 million, a fraction of Staffords in Detroit.

If a team has a top-five pick in the NFL draft, then it should spend the entire scouting process figuring out what quarterback it should select. Its by far the most important position on the field. Any top-five selection not used on a quarterback should be defended with some kind of iron-clad reason (all the QBs stink; the team already has a franchise QB on a cheap deal).

Otherwise, trade the pick to a team that wants a quarterback.

Running backs and cornerbacks maybe even edge rushers such as Chase Young out of Ohio State arent generally worth it. At least not if a QB is available.

Which brings everything to Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has received positive medical feedback three months after a massive hip injury ended his college career. The hip placed a question mark on a guy with the talent to be the No. 1 pick overall.

Its possible that a team trades up with Washington at No. 2 overall to get Tagovailoa (LSU QB Joe Burrow is the presumed No. 1 overall selection to Cincinnati). If not, and Tagovailoa falls to No. 3, then the Lions should go the Chiefs route.

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Take Tua and sit him behind Stafford, who was on pace for about 5,000 yards and 38 touchdowns before injuries halved his season.

One year of full rehab can only help the hip. The chance to sit and learn worked not just for Mahomes, but other guys who werent immediate starters such as Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

If Detroit likes what it sees, then one year from now trade Stafford. If Stafford plays like he normally does, then hes worth a haul in draft picks at least a first- and second-rounder and probably more than that. His dead cap number lessens and within another season, Detroit will have all sorts of flexibility and draft picks to build around Tagovailoa.

Stafford, a good soldier in Detroit, might actually get the chance to win in his career. He has been fiercely loyal to the Lions, but a change of scenery isnt the worst thing either.

No, its not a full-proof plan. Tagovailoa may not pan out. Or he may never be healthy. This is a team that has done almost nothing for over six decades though. Its clearly embarked on far worse ideas.

Kansas City had a playoff team and it traded draft picks to go get Mahomes. That looked like a gamble. Detroit has the No. 3 pick and is just a listless, drifting ship. What isnt a gamble at this point?

So sorry to Kelly Stafford. No California sun for you. At least not this winter. Check back a year from now though.

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How to fix the Lions: Keep Matthew Stafford and draft Tua Tagovailoa - Yahoo Sports

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.s stock surge is taking a toll on another hedge fund manager as Tom Clauguss GMT Capital suffered losses last month after betting against the electric-car maker.

GMTs three Bay Resource long-short equity funds, which have roughly $3.3 billion in combined assets, each plunged about 10% in January, Claugus confirmed. Teslas heavily shorted stock soared 55% in the month, helped by the companys second straight quarter of blowout earnings.

Tesla has done a really good job getting to sustainability, Claugus said in a telephone interview. Still, he said, the valuation is detached from reality.

Claugus joins investors including hedge fund managers David Einhorn and Crispin Odey who have held bearish wagers on Tesla as the stock reached records before retreating from the Feb. 4 peak. Some traders have covered their short positions against Elon Musks company, such as famed Big Short investor Steve Eisman, who called the stock cult-like.

The shares gained 83% this year through Wednesday. The stock is up 0.8% at 10:36 a.m. in New York after falling as much as 4.2% earlier Thursday.

Even brief pullbacks in the stock barely slowed Tesla down. The company had a market capitalization of $138 billion at the close of trading Wednesday. It has turned a profit in four of the last six quarters, and Musk accelerated the expected introduction of the new Model Y crossover vehicle, which he predicts will outsell all other Teslas combined.

For Einhorn, whose Greenlight Capital fell 7.6% across its funds in January, the bet against Tesla is mostly expressed through put options, so his firms exposure to the position has shrunk as the stock rallied, Bloomberg has reported.

Odeys flagship Odey European Inc. fund dropped 11.2% in January, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. A short bet on Tesla was its fourth-largest position, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isnt public. A spokesman for Odey declined to comment.

GMT has been short Tesla for a number of years. The position currently amounts to about 4.4% of its portfolio, said Claugus, who started the Atlanta-based firm in 1993. The funds were up 10% to 12% last year, depending on the fund.

Claugus said Tesla was just one factor in last months loss. Long bets on stocks with conservative valuations, largely in the oil and gas and materials sectors, also hurt.

The coronavirus is hitting anything thats cyclical and economically sensitive, so its sort of a worst of all worlds for us, Claugus said. When markets get this overheated I think its a very risky period. The run-up has lasted for a long time and is turning into a little big of a speculative bubble.

Hedge funds overall have had a tough start to the year, with the average manager falling about 0.2% in January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global equity markets fell and bonds rallied last month amid concerns that the spread of the coronavirus will hurt growth.

--With assistance from Nishant Kumar.

To contact the reporter on this story: Melissa Karsh in New York at mkarsh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Alan Mirabella

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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Tesla Bruises Another Hedge Fund With Bearish GMT Facing Losses - Yahoo Finance

WASHINGTON Fresh from handing President Trump a victory in his impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate has moved to install federal judges who have expressed disdain for the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that struck down rules across the South that kept African-Americans from the ballot box.

Overturning voting-rights protections tends to benefit Republicans, who have said states, not the federal government, should decide the particulars of how elections are conducted. Some scholars even believe that weakening the Voting Rights Act ahead of the 2016 election helped Trump win the presidency.

The first of those nominees, Andrew L. Brasher, 38, was formerly the solicitor general of Alabama, a position that allowed him to stake out conservative stances on issues from gun control to reproductive rights. He was confirmed to an Alabama district court last year and, in a rapid elevation, was nominated only months later for a seat on the 11th Circuit court of appeals, which is based in Atlanta. Despite intense opposition by progressive groups, Brasher was confirmed by the full Senate on Feb. 11 in a 52-43 vote.

He is the 188th judge confirmed during Trumps time in the White House.

The other nominee is Cory Wilson, 49, a former Mississippi politician who is now a state appellate judge there. He is currently being considered for a Mississippi federal district judgeship and is expected to face a full Senate vote sometime in March.

The nominations were an opening salvo to 2020, and not a welcome one at that, said Lena Zwarensteyn, an expert on the judiciary at the progressive Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She worried that these two jurists, and others, were advancing really extreme arguments when it comes to voting rights.

Conservatives argue that it is unfair to characterize judges like Brasher for work they did on behalf of constituents they were required to defend in court. When lawyers take litigating positions on behalf of their clients, theyre doing their jobs, says Mike Davis, whose Article 3 Project advocates for a conservative judiciary.

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Democrats, he warned, need to remember that Eric Holder provided free legal services to suspected terrorists. The reference is to pro bono work by Holders firm, Covington and Burling, on behalf of suspected jihadists detained at Guantnamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. Holder served as U.S. attorney general for former President Barack Obama.

Brashers confirmation means that half of the judges on the 11th Circuit are now Trump nominees. None of those judges is African-American, though there are nearly 8 million African-Americans living in the three states it covers.

Wilson, meanwhile, would be seated in the Southern District of Mississippi, which is part of the Fifth Circuit along with Texas and Louisiana. Of the five Trump appointees to the Fifth Circuit, four have been white men.

Trump has remade federal courts all across the country, but those changes could be especially consequential in the Deep South, where judges helped keep segregation in place, but then later struck segregation down during the civil rights era. Many decades since then, courts have continued to struggle with race, in particular regarding the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave the federal government great powers to supervise elections in Southern states that had previously kept African-Americans from voting.

Fairness of elections was also at the heart of Democrats argument about the just-concluded impeachment inquiry. Trump was accused of pressuring the Ukrainian government to open investigations that would benefit him domestically, but he was acquitted by a Republican-controlled Senate.

Senate Republicans are trying to rig the election at every turn, Nan Aron of progressive organization Alliance for Justice told Yahoo News.

After giving Trump a pass on withholding foreign aid in exchange for interference in the election, they immediately returned to confirming nominees with terrible records, including on voting rights, she added.

As far as the presidents critics are concerned, appointing judges who will roll back voting-rights protections also has long-term effects on elections. Even if the new judges dont help Trump in the near-term, their lifetime tenure on the federal bench could ensure Republican majorities for a generation to come. Bob Moser, author of a book on Southern politics called Blue Dixie, notes that voter suppression efforts have been moving forward in Florida, Tennessee and Texas.

A former solicitor general of Alabama, Brasher has a long history of resisting federal oversight of state election laws. In 2012, he filed a petition in favor of an Arizona law that would require identification at the polls. Voter ID laws, as they are known, tend to decrease participation by poor people and minorities because they are sometimes unable to meet the kind of stringent documentary requirements such laws demand. The brief was signed by some of the most conservative attorneys general in the nation, including Greg Abbott of Texas and Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma.

In 2013, he filed a brief in Shelby County v. Holder, a case in which an Alabama county tried to get out from under the supervision foisted on it by the Voting Rights Act. The Alabama of 2013 is not the Alabama of 1965 or of 1970, 1975, or 1982, Brasher wrote in his brief. He argued that Congress violated the constitution by continuing to treat the state as if it somehow persisted in restricting African-American participation in the democratic process.

Later that year, the Supreme Court decided Shelby County in favor of Alabama, handing conservatives a long-sought victory.

In 2014, he argued Alabamas case against African-American legislators who charged that Republicans created electoral districts that concentrated black voters, depriving Democrats of broad statewide support, a practice known as gerrymandering.

Brasher denied that any gerrymandering took place. A district judge disagreed, writing that the evidence here is overwhelming that the State has intentionally singled out individuals based on race. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme court agreed, rejecting Brashers claim.

Progressives mounted a ferocious opposition to Bashers nomination. For Republicans determined to snuff out voting rights in the courts, Brasher is an ace in the hole, wrote former Florida gubernatorial nominee and voting rights advocate Andrew Gillum in a Tampa Bay Times op-ed.

Wilson, the Mississippi district court nominee, is also in favor of voter identification laws. In a 2013 article for the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala., he complained about the recent mayor election in nearby Hattiesburg, Miss., which a Democrat had won. Wilson, a Republican, complained of voter impersonation and disenfranchised felons voting, a claim frequently repeated by conservative media outlets covering elections.

In his article, Wilson argued that federal oversight was not necessary, while more stringent voting regulations were. They might spend less time chasing agendas that aren't there, he wrote of federal monitors, and more time investigating the voter fraud and other irregularities.

Writing in another op-ed, Wilson argued that Voter ID is a part of ensuring cleaner elections. Studies have found that to not be the case. Wilson blamed both politicians and the media: The Rachel Maddows of the media world have joined the chorus of voter suppression right on cue from Team Obama, he wrote.

Brashers confirmation was not a surprise, and Wilsons record of inflammatory writing may not make a difference. The current chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has previously supported extension of Voting Rights Act provisions. But he is now one of President Trumps closest allies on Capitol Hill and has made confirming Trumps judicial nominees a priority.

The full Senate has sometimes proved more problematic for Trump nominees. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African-American member of the Republican conference, has more or less single-handedly stopped the confirmations of two Trump nominees: Thomas Farr of North Carolina, who had been accused of voter-suppression efforts, and Ryan Bounds, who had published inflammatory articles on race.

But as the vote on Brasher neared, it became clear that Scott was not going to stand in the way. Scotts spokesman, Sean Smith, noted in response to a Yahoo News query that Scott had voted in favor of Brashers confirmation to the district court last year. I have not heard anything to indicate his position has changed, Smith said.

Judicial nominees could potentially encounter resistance from moderate Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for reasons unrelated to voting rights. Collins and Murkowski have both expressed disfavor for judges who want to strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

Wilson has called Roe the result of a liberal activist court and, as a state legislator, has endorsed a number of measures that would make it more difficult for a woman to terminate a pregnancy. As the solicitor general of Alabama, Brasher routinely defended similar measures.

Neither the office of Collins nor Murkowski responded to a request for comment ahead of the Brasher vote. Both senators voted to install him on the 11th Circuit.

Trump has appointed several judges with records on voting rights similar to those of Brasher and Wilson. Some of those judges have begun to agitate for the kind of lessened federal oversight conservatives have long yearned for.

Earlier this month, as the impeachment trial was coming to an end, a Trump-appointed judge said, in a dissenting opinion, that the Voting Rights Act infringed on states rights. That judge, Lisa Branch, sits on the 11th Circuit. She will soon have an ideological ally in Brasher.

In another dissent on voting rights, Fifth Circuit Trump judge Don Willett argued that states had the right to oversee their own elections, something conservatives want and progressives fear. Willett opened his dissent by invoking Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed African-Americans from slavery.

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Trump is elevating judges who could gut the Voting Rights Act - Yahoo News

Here are the companies the Yahoo Finance team is watching for you today.

Shopify (SHOP) is climbing this morning after posting a big beat on earnings and revenue last quarter. Shopify provides those back-of-the-house services like payment processing and marketing tools for small businesses. It saw revenue soar 47% last quarter and it boosted guidance for the rest of the year. Shopify is up more than 60% in the last 3 months.

Things arent looking good for Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY). The home goods retailer said its same-store sales fell more than5% in December and January, as the company struggles to attract customers to its stores. On the bright side, same-store sales from Bed Baths e-commerce channel grew about 20% in that two month period. CEO Mark Tritton said the company is going through short term 'growing pains' as it tries to modernize the business.

Google (GOOGL) is set to take on the European Union in court today over antitrust fines.The tech giant is looking to overturn the first of three large fines this first one being worth $2.6 billion. EU regulators are saying that Google favored its own shopping ads over those from smaller European companies. The EU has fined Google nearly $9 billion overa decade-long saga.

Good news for Apple (AAPL). China's Foxconn, the company that's a key supplier to the iPhone maker, is looking to restart some of its production facilities soon, according to Reuters.Production lines have been closed in China overthe coronavirus outbreak. Foxconn wants half of its plants up and running by the end of the month and to be at 80% capacity by the end of March.

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Shopify, Bed Bath & Beyond, Google, Apple: Companies to Watch - Yahoo Finance

In a newly released interview with Yahoo Finance, activist and environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. asserted that President Donald Trump has tarnished the reputation of the U.S. around the world.

The criticism from Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, came in response to a question from Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer regarding his view on whether its a good or bad thing that Trump has so many family members working with him.

Kennedy Jr. belongs to another notable American family deeply involved in politics his father, Robert Kennedy, served as attorney general under his brother, JFK, before Lyndon Johnson signed a law interpreted as barring presidents from appointing relatives to their Cabinet.

While Trump doesnt have any family members in his Cabinet, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, both serve as senior advisers. Kennedy Jr., however, says its not a good thing or a bad thing that Trump has family members with him in the White House.

I dont think thats the problem with the president, he said. I think the problem is, number one, he is a bully. And you know, I don't like bullies. And I don't think ... that that's part of America's tradition. I think, in many ways, he's discredited the American experiment with self-governance.

Kennedy Jr. made the comments during a conversation that aired in an episode of Yahoo Finances Influencers with Andy Serwer, a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.

For over three decades, Kennedy Jr. served as a chief prosecuting attorney for top environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Riverkeeper, an organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River. More recently, Kennedy Jr. hasquestioned the safety of vaccinesand campaigned against their use.

In relaying his concerns about Trump, Kennedy Jr. noted that hed worked all over the world and in China for many years. Just a decade ago, Kennedy Jr. noted, China looked to the U.S. as a model of democracy but thats not the case anymore, he says.

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If you go to China today and ask them, do you want a democracy like America has? You ask anybody in the world this, they will say no because why would we want a form of government that can produce leadership of a person who doesn't read books, who's not thoughtful about issues, who's bullying, who ... employs all the dark alchemies of demagoguery? he said. And it's, you know, it's destroying so much about the things about America that I admire and that make us an influence, that make us an exemplary nation.

Since his election in 2016, Trump has antagonized China as well as other parts of the world, at one point calling Chinas president, Xi Jinping, his enemy. He has pulled out of both the Paris climate agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal with a dozen Pacific Rim countries signed by President Barack Obama. Indeed, Trumps policies have sparked worldwide protests, most recently over his administrations decision to launch a drone strike killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

Kennedy Jr. contrasted Trumps reputation overseas with that of his uncle, who was largely beloved both domestically and abroad. While his foreign policy contributed to the Vietnam War, JFK also eased certain foreign tensions during his presidency. Notably, he resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis before it escalated into a full-blown nuclear war.

If you go to any capital in the world, you'll see there is a boulevard named after John Kennedy. There are hospitals, schools, or universities. The biggest statue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is one of my uncle, he said. ...You will not find ... any boulevard in any nation in the world, named Donald Trump.

Additional reporting by Max Zahn.

Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance.

Read more:

Climate change is cost of societys addiction to coal and oil, Robert Kennedy Jr. says

Samantha Power on Iran: This could get ugly very quickly

Melania Trump is doing a wonderful job fighting bullying: Kathy Ireland

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Trump has discredited the American experiment: Robert Kennedy Jr. - Yahoo Finance

Verizon and its subsidiaries, including Yahoo, have become known for massive data breaches, privacy blunders, and oddly named web entities, but now the internet service provider has launched a whole new search engine without Yahoo branding, one that it says will definitely not share your search results with advertisers or tailor results based on your search history.

On its ad-supported OneSearch platform, users can search the internet with increased confidence, knowing your personal and search data isnt being tracked, stored, or shared with advertisers, according to a statement from Michael Albers, head of consumer product at Verizon Media.

Ads on OneSearch will be generated based on keywords, not cookies, and there will be a self-destruct option for search results to be purged after a certain period. Search results will be generated by Microsofts Bing browser.

As consumers tire of having their every move tracked online, there are a growing number of browsers that claim to preserve users privacy, including Brave and DuckDuckGo, and ad- and tracker-blocking extensions like Ghostery.

If Verizons track record with search and privacy wasnt so spotty, this might be a welcome addition to the growing field of privacy-based browsers. When it combined AOL and Yahoo into Oath in 2017, Verizon was clear about its plans to use its network to target ads. And in 2016, the company paid a $1.3 million fine to the Federal Communications Commission for its use of super cookies that tracked users on their networks via their cellphones without asking for permission or providing an opt-out option. And dont forget Yahoos famous hack, where all 3 billion of its customers accounts were breached in 2013.

Why Verizon is introducing a new search engine brand when it already owns Yahoo is not clear, but as VentureBeat notes, Yahoo owned the oneSearch name long before it became part of Verizon.

According to the OneSearch privacy policy, search results will only be personalized based on location, which it will collect from IP addresses. OneSearch says that it will separate IP addresses from users and their search results.

Excerpt from:

Verizon introduces OneSearch a new privacy-focused search engine - The Verge

Crypto exchange giant Binance has announced two major partnerships with subsidiaries of Yahoo Japan. This is big news for the industry.

According to a company blog post Z Corporation, a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan, and TaoTao has begun negotiations with Binance for strategic partnerships in the Japanese market.

The significance here is that these two firms are affiliated with Yahoo Japan which has been far more successful than its US counterpart.

Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao was quick to point this out;

Many non-Japanese may not understand the significance of this. TaoTao & Z-Corp are subsidiaries of Yahoo Japan. YJ has been independent from Yahoo US for a long long time and is doing well. It is 48% owned by Softbank.

Z Corporation Inc. (Z Corp), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Z Holdings Corporation which is the Softbank subsidiary formerly known as Yahoo Japan Inc. TaoTao Inc. is a Japanese licensed cryptocurrency exchange and a portfolio company of Z Corp.

The collaboration will enable Binance to enter the Japanese market offing trading and crypto services in a fully regulated environment. The announcement added through Binances cutting-edge technologies, the two firms will collaborate with the Financial Service Agency to ensure full regulatory compliance in the Japanese market.

Japans government clearly doesnt want its citizens to get burned and has made every effort to foster a safe crypto trading environment. Earlier this week the countrys financial regulator, the FSA, proposed lowering the leverage rate limit of cryptocurrency margin trading from 4x to 2x.

According to reports, the proposal would be a first for Japanese regulators involving the rate of crypto margin trading.

Not a week goes by without Binance rolling out new crypto trading pairs, fiat on-ramps, investment products or new offices.

So far this month the worlds most popular crypto exchange partnered with global fiat on-ramp solution Banxa to support Australian Dollars, Euros, and British Pounds.

It also opened fiat gateways for five new European currencies. Czech Koruny (CZK), Bulgarian Leva (BGN), Romanian Lei (RON), Polish Zloty (PLN), and Swedish Krona (SEK) were added to the list.

In Asia, it opened a Thai baht on-ramp through Thailands leading regulated digital asset exchange, Satang.

This latest development is big news for the crypto industry, especially in Japan which is already streets ahead of its western counterparts in terms of digital asset services.

What do you think about Binances expansion plans in Japan? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter: @cz_binance

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Crypto Exchange Binance to Partner With Yahoo's Japanese Divisions - Bitcoinist

President Trump is ratcheting up the pressure on Apple (AAPL) to unlock two iPhones used by the suspect in a shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in December.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements."

The issue, however, is far more complicated than Apple simply unlocking the suspected shooter's iPhones. Thats because creating a so-called "backdoor" for a single iPhone instantly opens every other iPhone on Earth to the risk of attack. And even though Apple relies on Trump's tariff exceptions, the company is unlikely to change its mind.

While Apple has refused to unlock the phones used by accused Pensacola shooter Mohammed Alshamrani, the company has said it has given the government access to Alshamrani's iCloud account, and other documentation.

Why not unlock the iPhones then?Because every iPhone runs on Apple's iOS software. And if Apple were to attempt to unlock the phones used by Alshamrani, the company would have to purposely break iOS, creating a way to access all data stored on the devices.

But since the iPhones used by Alshamrani are, more or less, the same as those owned by you or me, any exploit Apple creates to unlock his phones, would work just as well on our phones.

"It's similar to, you know, why don't we just make it so that every single combination lock in the world that's made, the police have a combination they can input to get themselves into any lock," explained Justin Cappos, professor of computer science and engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

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"And why don't they have that? Because as soon as criminals figure out how to use that, then you're in trouble."

That's where the idea of some kind of "backdoor" falls flat. There isn't a single method that law enforcement can use to access all iPhones, or any devices for that matter, that will stay secret for long.

"Many people in the security community have expressed serious concerns about introducing a backdoor, as it is very difficult to monitor its use and contain the effects of any leaks e.g., someone leaking access to the backdoor," explained Petros Efstathopoulos, global head of research, NortonLifeLock Research Group.

In the world of cybersecurity criminals, hackers, and other malicious actors are constantly probing every piece of software they can find for weaknesses they can exploit to access your data, or take over your device.

Companies like Apple are, at the same time, continuously working to patch any potential flaws they find in their software to harden their defenses. The iPhone is especially secure, because Apple tightly controls its software compared to say Android, macOS, or Windows devices.

But because flesh and blood humans craft the operating systems we use, they are bound to introduce errors. Hackers then create viruses and malware, etc. that can exploit those errors to crack into your computer or other device.

And no matter how hard tech companies work to keep their devices and software safe, they'll always be one step behind the bad guys.

Purposely introducing a weakness into Apple's iOS, then, would make it all the easier for hackers to break open any iPhone they want.

"Apple is being very smart to say we don't want our phones to be hackable," Cappos said. "We don't want our phones to be weak. We want to protect someone who blogs about what's happening in Hong Kong. We want to protect anyone who uses our phone to have the right to privacy."

There's also the question of how foreign governments could abuse iPhone access, Cappos said.

"If you really, really trust your government in the United States and whoever is in power, you may be okay with law enforcement having a way to do this. But how do you handle situations when the Chinese government is asking for this? How do you handle situations when the Iranian government is asking to use this backdoor?"

Trusting the U.S. government's ability to keep the keys to every iPhone on Earth safe isn't a wise move either if past is precedent.

Take for instance, the National Security Agency's EternalBlue Windows exploit. The tool, developed by the NSA, was used to gain access to and take remote control of Windows PCs.

But EternalBlue became public in 2017 when a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers stole it from the agency, and released it to the world. From there, it was used to create the WannaCry virus and a slew of other pieces of malware, which continue to wreak havoc across the globe.

Importantly, EternalBlue was a tool the NSA developed by taking advantage of a then-unknown weakness in Windows. Now imagine what would happen if Apple purposely created a weakness in iOS, and you begin to understand why it could be such a dangerous move.

Every hacker would instantly begin poking at the operating system in an effort to access that weakness and attack as many iPhones as possible.

"As demonstrated by many cases in the past, if confidential information such [as] instructions or code allowing access to the backdoor mechanism is leaked, then everyone using that particular phone brand may be attacked," explained Efstathopoulos.

"This has obvious legal implications as well as practical implications on peoples lives, including physical safety."

What's more, the government has already proven it can break into iPhones without Apple's help. After the company refused a court order to give the Department of Justice a means to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters in 2016, the FBI announced it was able to break into the phone using a third-party tool.

Apple has made significant security improvements to iOS since then, which likely killed the avenue of attack used by that tool, but if the government was able to use a third party before, it stands to reason that it could do so again.

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Got a tip? Email Daniel Howley at danielphowley@protonmail.com or dhowley@yahoofinance.com, and follow him on Twitter at@DanielHowley.

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Trump's Apple threat would put every iPhone on Earth at risk - Yahoo Finance

Baseball Hall of Fame voters have had their morality tested in recent years. The same writers who wrote lovingly about the home-run surge in the 90s now have to grapple with the idea of voting suspected steroid users like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens into the Hall of Fame. Or, in Manny Ramirezs case, voters have to decide whether multiple positive tests should keep out one of the best hitters of his era.

But of all those players, none deserves more scrutiny than Curt Schilling. On a ballot filled with suspected and confirmed steroid users, Schilling is the most controversial player up for induction.

The baseball case for Schillings induction is easy. Over 20 seasons, Schilling was one of the most accomplished pitchers in baseball. He was a six-time All-Star, three-time World Series winner and arguably the best postseason pitcher of his era. By Jay Jaffes JAWS metric, Schilling did enough on the field to warrant a spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Despite all that, Schilling is the least deserving of the candidates to be seriously considered for the honor. The 53-year-old has spent the last few years rapidly disqualifying himself from the conversation by spreading hateful speech and dangerous rhetoric.

And yet, Schilling still finds himself trending in the right direction. As of Friday, Schilling has appeared on 79 percent of 2020 ballots, according to Ryan Thibodauxs fantastic Baseball Hall of Fame ballot tracker. While Schillings percentage will decline once private ballots get released, this is the best chance Schilling has at being inducted into the Hall.

His induction would be an egregious mistake. A vote for Schilling is confirmation that none of the abhorrent language hes pushed since his retirement matters. Schilling isnt held accountable for spreading hate speech or dangerous views. Instead, he gets rewarded with the largest possible platform and the most prestigious title in baseball. Its a slap in the face to the marginalized groups Schilling has targeted over the past couple years. It tells those communities baseball doesnt care about them, and turns those fans away from the game. A vote for Schilling confirms that baseball will not only accept, but reward horrible, hateful people.

While Schilling had been outspoken about his political beliefs during his playing career, he began to veer in a far more extreme direction once he retired and started working for ESPN. Schilling was suspended by the network in August 2015 after tweeting out a graphic that compared Muslims to Nazis. He was fired by ESPN in April 2016 after sharing a transphobic meme on his Facebook page. Schilling had been warned by ESPN multiple times that his conduct on social media violated the networks policy.

Months later, Schilling shared another tweet in which he applauded a shirt advocating for journalists to be hung. The following year, Schilling then working for Breitbart interviewed congressional candidate and white nationalist Paul Nehlen. Schilling agreed with and endorsed some of Nehlens opinions during the interview, which Breitbart quickly deleted in an effort to distance itself from Nehlen.

For a brief moment, it looked as though Schillings comments would doom him. Months after Schilling endorsed the journalists tweet, he lost support in his quest for the Hall of Fame. Schilling received 45 percent of the vote in 2017, a sign that there would be consequences for his words.

That was short-lived. Schilling saw his voting percentage rise to 51.2 percent in 2018 and 60.8 percent in 2019. Those increases came after Schillings podcast with Nehlen. The Hall of Fame voters were willing to punish Schilling when they felt slighted, but managed to look the away when others were attacked. Even more voters have taken that approach this time around.

Those who continue to cast votes for Schilling justify that vote in a couple ways. They argue that men with histories of questionable off-the-field behavior are already in the Hall of Fame, ignoring the fact that they dont have to keep that trend alive. They argue that they cant punish players for what they did off the field despite invoking the character clause to keep out suspected steroid users. But when more serious issues come into play, voters suddenly forget they can invoke the character clause. You only see voters use it when discussing Bonds alleged steroid use, not his multiple domestic-violence accusations. The character clause only gets used when voters find it convenient.

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The voters who use those justifications to support Schilling are only doing so to rationalize a bad decision. If they can find a loophole that allows them to conveniently ignore all the awful things Schilling has said, they dont have to grapple with the consequences of making him a Hall of Famer.

That line of thinking is, of course, deeply flawed. Voters cannot simply put Schilling in the Hall of Fame and then ignore everything that happens once hes there. Getting into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor a baseball player can achieve. Upon induction, that player is celebrated by thousands, gives an inspirational speech about his life and is forever immortalized in Cooperstown. It tells fans Schilling is a player deserving of adoration.

On the off chance Schilling doesnt make it this year, hes set up to eventually receive the honor. Players approaching the final years of eligibility usually gain votes in a last-ditch effort to get them in before they fall off the ballot.Schilling is in his eighth year of eligibility. Candidates remain on the ballot for 10 years before they lose eligibility.

Schilling doesnt deserve that push. It would ignore all the vitriol and hate hes pushed the past couple years. It taints the Hall of Fame, making it a worse, less inclusive place.

Voters can continue to rationalize their vote by telling themselves nothing Schilling has done away from the field matters, but they know thats not true. The hatred Schilling has spread matters more than anything he ever accomplished on a baseball field.

Every vote that pushes Schilling close to induction is complicit in both normalizing and rewarding his reprehensible behavior.

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When it comes to professional wrestling, surprises truly unexpected, jaw-dropping events are hard to come by. Over the past 25 years, fans of the medium can most likely count on one hand the moments where they were genuinely left in shock and awe by what transpired in front of them.

The major exception to that notion comes every January as WWE holds arguably its second-biggest pay-per-view of the year, the Royal Rumble.

Beginning in 1988, the event was built around an over-the-top-rope battle royale between 30 men (Female performers have sporadically appeared in the Rumble and, starting in 2018, received their own version of the match).

For more than three decades, the matchs structure has remained mostly unchanged.

The match starts with two entrants and at regularly timed intervals, another participant enters the ring. There is no limit to the number of participants in the ring at once and the only way to be eliminated is to be tossed over the top rope and having both feet touch the ground this rule results in some of the most fun moments in the matchs history, just ask Kofi Kingston.

Simply put, at some point every year the match becomes controlled chaos, with the winner earning a championship opportunity at that years WrestleMania.

The beauty of the Royal Rumble is that WWE purposely leaves some of the matchs participants unnamed. The air of unpredictability has resulted in several shocking moments, mostly in the form of injured stars making their triumphant return, a la John Cena in 2008 and Edge in 2010.

In January 2016 however, the Royal Rumble match featured a much different type of surprise, the third participant in the match wasnt a superstar returning from injury nor was he a talent that was working with the then-developmental NXT brand.

The entrant was A.J. Styles.

You have to think about it all, Styles told Yahoo Sports. Not only is it one of the biggest pay-per-views in WWE, its WWE in general. It was my first time under contract, working for a company that is easily the biggest in the world. Was I a little nervous? Oh yeah. Was anybody going to remember A.J. Styles? I had worked at this little place in Orlando, I was in Japan a lot, so I was a little nervous because I didnt know what to expect.

To hardcore wrestling fans, Styles coming to WWE was viewed as a near impossibility. At 38 years old, Styles was a well-known and respected veteran of the industry. Its rare someone with the stature and reputation Styles had garnered doesnt find him or herself in WWE at some juncture in their career, but to that point the Georgia native had worked primarily with competitors TNA and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Styless celebrated run with NJPW had just ended earlier that month and, while it was known he was leaving the promotion, booking pre wrestlings hottest free agent into the Royal Rumble match needed to be something that was pulled off perfectly and covertly.

In retrospect, having Styles enter in one of the earliest possible positions made absolute sense. Fans who knew him would instantly become more engaged in the match, and those who were unfamiliar with his work were able to get a close-up look before the ring became too crowded.

I was in a position that gave me the opportunity to really shine, Styles recalled. When I walked out for the Royal Rumble, there was only one man in the ring. I went No. 3 and the spotlight was on me. The fans had no idea whose music was playing and then when they figured out who it was, it was even more exciting because they had no idea what would happen and they had no idea that AJ Styles was coming to WWE.

Styles was also able to get his own anxiousness out of the way early.

It couldnt have been any better. Once I step into the ring, those jitters and that nervousness goes away, that doesnt exist anymore. Walking down the aisle, yes, youre still feeling it.

Despite this being Styless first match with WWE in his career, there was little to no learning curve for the veteran star when it came to the technical aspect of the job. Traditionally, professional wrestlers will call the match while in the ring. This process entails one of the athletes essentially choreographing the match in real time. The participants will always know the outcome and will discuss major spots, but its on them to figure out how to get there.

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In the Royal Rumble, where there can be more than a dozen people in the ring at once, this is a near impossibility.

The way the match plays out is a little of both [forms of planning], Styles said. I had an idea of what was going to happen and what we were going to do, but once you get into that match, there are so many guys in there, you dont know who you are going to face when youre in there. Its unexpected. I had been in the business for 16, 17 years at that point so I was comfortable, all things considered.

Styles would last nearly 29 minutes in his first Royal Rumble, good for the 4th longest time in the hour-long match. It was his introduction to WWE and, while he didnt earn the spot in the main event of WrestleMania that April, Styles quickly skyrocketed to stardom in Vince McMahons company.

The three Royal Rumble events since his debut, Styles has either been WWE champion or challenged for the top title in the company, meaning he hasnt taken part in the pay-per-views signature match. This year, nearly four years to the day since his surprising debut, Styles gets another shot at winning the iconic match.

A.J. Styles is seen during an episode of "Monday Night Raw" on January 13, 2020. (Photo courtesy of WWE)

For me, even right now as we speak, Im excited because Ive only done one in my career in WWE, Styles said. I think it would be cool to be in it again because of the stature of the pay-per-view. We know WrestleMania is the biggest one, but which one comes second? I dont know. I find that more people think that the Royal Rumble is second. Its a big deal.

Royal Rumble takes place on January 26 at Minute Maid Park in Houston and can be seen on the WWE Network starting at 7pm ET.

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