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Bradley Beal buyout with Suns is looming: What I’m hearing about the guard’s future

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The Bradley Beal era in Phoenix appears to be nearing an end.

The Suns and Beal are increasingly optimistic that the two sides will agree to terms on a buyout, league sources tell The Athletic. The move would make Beal an unrestricted free agent.

The goal for the Suns is to negotiate a buyout, waive him and then stretch his remaining salary over five years, which would reduce his annual cap hit on the Suns’ books. The move would not only get Phoenix out of the second apron, a dreaded payroll threshold where only the most expensive teams venture, but also out of the luxury tax altogether.

But the Suns can’t just waive Beal; they need his help.

Because of a quirk in the collective bargaining agreement, Beal, who has $110.8 million and two years remaining on his contract, must give back at least $13.8 million for the Suns to be allowed to stretch him. If he did, Phoenix would then have a dead cap hit of $19.4 million on its books in every season through 2029-30.

Beal, who turned 32 last month, averaged 17.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 50/39/80 shooting splits last season. It may not be so easy for him to find $13.8 million on the open market.

One week removed from the start of NBA free agency, most of the league is without cap space or the necessary exceptions it would take to give Beal that much money on a two-year contract. Various organizations Beal could consider can’t give him that much, either. According to a league source, the list of teams Beal has thought about includes the LA Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks.

The Clippers just agreed to a trade that will send shooting guard Norman Powell to the Miami Heat and bring in high-flying power forward John Collins from the Utah Jazz. The deal opens a starting spot at Beal’s position, but because they used the $14.1 million midlevel exception to sign free-agent center Brook Lopez, they can offer Beal only what they have left of the MLE: a $5.3 million starting salary in 2025-26.

The Lakers could find a way to offer Beal the biannual exception, worth $5.1 million in starting salary.

The Bucks have already used up their exceptions and could offer only a minimum contract.

Meanwhile, the Warriors are stuck in a complicated situation with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga. Golden State would like to find a sign-and-trade to send Kuminga elsewhere but doesn’t have traction on one at the moment, league sources told The Athletic. If a deal is made for Kuminga that doesn’t bring back any money to the Warriors, then they would have access to the $14.1 million MLE, allowing them to offer Beal more money than the Clippers, Lakers or Bucks. But before offering anyone a portion of their MLE, the Warriors must find a resolution on Kuminga, a situation that could continue to drag.

The Suns could find other ways to dip below the second-apron payroll threshold, set at $207.8 million for 2025-26, about $20 million above the luxury tax. They could negotiate a buyout with Beal, waive him, choose not to stretch his money and then trade, say, Royce O’Neale to another team without taking any money back. But a move like that would still leave the team above the tax. And Phoenix, league sources said, is trying to save tax dollars.

The Suns traded for Beal in the summer of 2023, hoping that he, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker could form a formidable big three. It never materialized. They won 49 games their first year together but were swept out of the first round of the playoffs. This past season, the Suns went 36-46, falling short of the Play-In Tournament.

They traded Durant to the Houston Rockets earlier this summer. Beal could be the next to leave.

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)



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Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from enforcing funding ban against Planned Parenthood

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CNN
 — 

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law to defund Planned Parenthood’s health care services.

The order from US District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, blocks the provision’s enforcement for 14 days. The measure would bar Medicaid users from coverage with a health care provider that also provides abortion services.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America – along with Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah – sued the administration earlier Monday, arguing that the funding ban would have devastating consequences across the country.

While the legislation, which Trump signed on Friday, does not explicitly mention Planned Parenthood, the nationwide family planning and health care provider is in its crosshairs. The law prohibits federal funding for providers “primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care” that also provide abortion.

Planned Parenthood has warned that nearly 200 clinics nationwide – which also provide birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screening – could close as a result of the bill’s one-year ban on funds.

Ninety percent of those clinics, Planned Parenthood says, are in states where abortion is legal.

“This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

The bill originally barred funds for ten years, before the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, reduced the measure to one year.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the two local networks celebrated Monday’s order, while warning in a statement of the consequences if the provision is ultimately allowed to take effect.

“Already, in states across the country, providers and health center staff have been forced to turn away patients who use Medicaid to get basic sexual and reproductive health care because President Trump and his backers in Congress passed a law to block them from going to Planned Parenthood,” the groups said. “There are no other providers who can fill the gap if the ‘defunding’ of Planned Parenthood is allowed to stand.”

CNN has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for comment.

Earlier Monday, anti-abortion advocates quickly railed against Planned Parenthood’s suit.

“Planned Parenthood’s desperation is showing as they run to the courts again to fix a crisis of their own making,” said Susan B. Anthony’s Pro-Life America director of legal affairs and policy counsel Katie Daniel.

Planned Parenthood is also battling the Trump administration in court over cuts to a federal teen pregnancy prevention program. Lawyers for five Planned Parenthood networks argued in a federal District of Columbia court this June that administration’s changes to the program, including limits on language around diversity and equity, were vague and could bar Planned Parenthood from providing longtime services.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.



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Melting glaciers and ice caps could unleash wave of volcanic eruptions, study says | Climate crisis

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The melting of glaciers and ice caps by the climate crisis could unleash a barrage of explosive volcanic eruptions, a study suggests.

The loss of ice releases the pressure on underground magma chambers and makes eruptions more likely. This process has been seen in Iceland, an unusual island that sits on a mid-ocean tectonic plate boundary. But the research in Chile is one of the first studies to show a surge in volcanism on a continent in the past, after the last ice age ended.

Global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels is now melting ice caps and glaciers across the world. The biggest risk of a resurgence of volcanic eruptions is in west Antarctica, the researchers said, where at least 100 volcanoes lie under the thick ice. This ice is very likely to be lost in the coming decades and centuries as the world warms.

Volcanic eruptions can cool the planet temporarily by shooting sunlight-reflecting particles into the atmosphere. However, sustained eruptions would pump significant greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and methane. This would further heat the planet and potentially create a vicious circle, in which rising temperatures melt ice that leads to further eruptions and more global heating.

Pablo Moreno-Yaeger, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, who led the research, said: “As glaciers retreat due to climate change, our findings suggest these volcanoes go on to erupt more frequently and more explosively.”

The research, which was presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Prague, and is in the final stages of review with an academic journal, involved camping high in the Andes, among active and dormant volcanoes.

Detailed work on one volcano, called Mocho-Choshuenco, used radioisotope dating to estimate the age of volcanic rocks produced before, during and after the last ice age, when the 1,500-metre-thick Patagonian ice sheet covered the area. Analysis of the minerals in the rocks also revealed the depth and temperature at which the rocks formed.

This data revealed that thick ice cover had suppressed the volume of eruptions between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago, allowing a large reservoir of magma to build up 10-15km (6.2-9.3 miles) below the surface. After the ice melted, from about 13,000 years ago, the pressure on the magma chamber was released, gasses in the liquid or molten rock expanded and explosive eruptions followed.

“We found that following deglaciation, the volcano starts to erupt way more, and also changes composition,” said Moreno-Yaeger. The composition changed as the magma melted crustal rocks while eruptions were suppressed. This made the molten rock more viscous and more explosive on eruption.

Iceland has experienced eruptions linked to the melting of its glaciers and ice caps. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

“Our study suggests this phenomenon isn’t limited to Iceland, where increased volcanicity has been observed, but could also occur in Antarctica,” he said. “Other continental regions, like parts of North America, New Zealand and Russia, also now warrant closer scientific attention.”

Previous research has shown volcanic activity increased globally by two to six times after the last ice age, but the Chilean study was one of the first to show how this happened. A similar phenomenon was reported via the analysis of rocks in eastern California in 2004.

A recent review by scientists found there had been relatively little study on how the climate crisis had been affecting volcanic activity. They said more research was “critically important” in order to be better prepared for the damage caused by volcanic eruptions to people and their livelihoods and for possible climate-volcano feedback loops that could amplify the climate crisis. For example, more extreme rainfall is also expected to increase violent explosive eruptions.



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Apple just added more frost to its Liquid Glass design

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Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language just got a little more… frosted. In the third iOS 26 developer beta, Apple dialed back the transparency of navigation bars, buttons, and tabs that once allowed you to clearly see the content beneath them.

Apple already toned down the glassiness of Liquid Glass after many users complained that it was too transparent and made it more difficult to see certain options, like the icons inside the Control Center. This most recent beta makes Liquid Glass elements even more solid, likely as a way to improve readability. Still, some users see the change as a reversal of the flashy, glass-like design that Apple showcased at WWDC.

This is still just a developer beta, so it’s likely that Apple will continue to make tweaks before it releases iOS 26 to the public in September.



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