Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant did everything he could to work his way back from a calf injury, only to suffer an Achilles injury upon his return Monday. For Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, it was a relatable situation.
Leonard told reporters after a 106-105 loss in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals on Monday:
“It’s devastating. You work so hard to get to this point, you know, these are the last games. You see he tried to come out and push himself, but obviously he tried to do a move and I feel bad for him. I’ve been in that situation before. I hope he has a speedy recovery and just gets healthy and hope that he’s going to be OK mentally, just throughout the whole rehab process.
“Like I said before, we work so hard to either play in a Finals or just play in the NBA, and you know, when you’re not playing, you know, it’s hard to wrap your [mind] around it. I’m pretty sure he’s going to attack each day, you know, and get better and come back strong.”
Leonard, then with the San Antonio Spurs, missed the first 27 games of the 2017-18 season due to a quadriceps injury before suiting up. After appearing in just nine games, he would not see the court last season after Jan. 13.
Leonard’s injury created an uncomfortable situation in San Antonio. The team cleared him to play by February 2018, according to ESPN’sAdrian Wojnarowski, but the 2014 Finals MVP did not feel as though he was healthy enough to play, even as the Spurs fought to make the playoffs.
Ultimately, the injury led to distrust and damaged the relationship between the player and the organization enough to where Leonard requested a trade last offseason. Toronto acquired him last July.
Durant, meanwhile, had missed Golden State’s last nine games after exiting Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals with a leg injury. After an Achilles injury was ruled out, he was diagnosed with a right calf strain.
There was no timetable put on a potential return, though Warriors coach Steve Kerrrevealed just more than a week into the recovery process that it was “more serious” than initially believed. Durant later acknowledged it was the most severe calf injury he had dealt with:
95.7 The Game @957thegame
Kevin Durant details his progress as he rehabs from calf injury. #Warriors https://t.co/p4naLTbJix
Kerrmade it known that he was willing to insert Durant into the lineup after just one practice. The issue, though, was that the two-time Finals MVP had not been healthy enough to even practice until last weekend.
Durant participated in practice Sunday, although ESPN.com’sNick Friedellreported it didn’t appear to be anything “substantial.” He showed enough, however, Sunday and Monday to be cleared for Game 5 as the Warriors faced a 3-1 deficit.
Unfortunately, he made it through only 12 minutes Monday before going down with a non-contact injury.
Golden State president of basketball operations Bob Myerssaidafter Game 5 that he didn’t believe anyone was to blame for the injury. But with an MRI scheduled for Tuesday, Durant’s season appears to be all but over.
Like Leonard (who holds a $21.3 million player option for 2019-20), Durant had to weigh the pros and cons of his long-term health as well as his future finances before returning. Durant holds a $31.5 million player option for next season. While he has long been expected to explore his market this offseason, his injury could play a role in his decision.
“We have always feared Elsa’s powers were too much for this world. Now we must hope they are enough,” says the frightened troll, Pabbie, to Elsa, Anna, and the rest of the gang in the new preview for Frozen 2. The official trailer has arrived, and now, it looks like Elsa’s going to be saving the world. And it looks like it’s not just the present, but the past, that’ll be terrorizing our merry band of protagonists. Let’s truly hope that Elsa is enough when the film comes out in November.
The trailer finds Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Kristoff on a journey to stop some kind of evil. What exactly it is, we’re not sure. But it looks terrifying. Elsa tries to use her ice powers to stop a giant wave, only to fail, fall under water, and come face to face with an evil-looking literal sea horse.
Pabbie lets Elsa know that the past isn’t exactly what it seems, and as we’re left to think about this philosophical nugget, we see the gang traveling across vastly different lands encountering pink fires, gigantic walls of fog split by ice powers, and gigantic rocky trolls. Anna utters the last line in the trailer with conviction to the troll when asked to watch out for Elsa. “I won’t let anything happen to her,” she says, furrowing her brow.
Beirut, Lebanon: Lebanese citizen and permanent United States resident Nizar Zakka, who was imprisoned for years in Iran, has been freed and is on his way back to his native Lebanon, officials confirmed.
Zakka is set to return to Beirut on Tuesday, alongside Lebanon’s General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim, who accompanied the former prisoner on a government jet.
Ibrahim told Reuters news agency the release was not based on a wider prisoner swap. He also denied information disseminated by semi-official Fars News Agency, which reported that Zakka would be transferred to Hezbollah.
General Security confirmed Zakka’s imminent return and said he was set to meet Lebanese President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace.
Zakka, an information technology expert, disappeared in Tehran while attending a state-sponsored conference in September 2015.
According to a statement by his lawyer, Zakka was last seen leaving his hotel in a taxi to the airport to return to Beirut. But he never boarded his flight. In November 2015, Iranian state television announced Zakka was in Iranian custody and accused of espionage.
The statement claimed that Zakka, who graduated from the Riverside Military Academy of Gainesville in Georgia, had “deep links” with US military and intelligence agencies.
In 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $4.2m for espionage.
Release campaign
In the statement published on Iran’s Mizan News Agency on Tuesday, Iran judiciary spokesperson Gholam Hussein Esmaeili said Zakka’s release was in line with Iran’s Constitution, which allows for the conditional release of prisoners sentenced up to 10 years, if they had served at least a third of the sentence and shown good behaviour.
The spokesperson also mentioned key ally Hezbollah’s request to expedite his release. The conditions of Zakka’s release were not specified.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Aoun have yet to comment on the developments. However, Aoun’s office told Al Jazeera that an official statement will be made upon Zakka’s arrival in Beirut.
Zakka was held at Tehran’s Evin prison, a facility established in 1972. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other rights groups have reported allegations of torture and ill-treatment there, including solitary confinement and denial of access to medical care.
Zakka’s family and friends, who have been campaigning for his release, have claimed he went on hunger strike numerous times and was tortured.
Sarah Fallah, a Lebanese lawyer who represented Zakka, told HRW in March 2016 that Iranian authorities refused to let her visit her client.
Over the past four years, Zakka’s family members have repeatedly called on the Lebanese government to negotiate for his release.
The US government has also been vocal in calling for Zakka’s release. Both the Congress and the Senate passed resolutions in 2017 calling for the unconditional release of US citizens and residents held in Iran, including the Lebanese national.
More recently, in December 2018, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley endorsed and republished a letter by several families of held US nationals and residents in Iran, including Zakka’s relatives.
In his first game back since suffering a strained calf in Game 5 of Golden State’s second-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, Durant scored 11 points in 12 minutes before going down:
McCollum and the Blazers Snapped Postseason Losing Streak for “Jennifer”
Stars Invest in Plant-Based Food as Vegetarianism Sweeps NBA
The NBA Got Some Wild Techs This Season
Jarrett Allen Is One of the NBA’s Hottest Rim Protectors
Wade’s Jersey Swaps Created Epic Moments This Season
Westbrook Makes History While Honoring Nipsey Hussle
Devin Booker Makes History with Scoring Tear
29 Years Ago, Jordan Dropped Career-High 69 Points
Bosh Is Getting His Jersey Raised to the Rafters in Miami
Steph Returns to Houston for 1st Time Since His Moon Landing Troll
Lou Williams Is Coming for a Repeat of Sixth Man of the Year
Pat Beverley Has the Clippers Stealing the LA Shine
LeBron Keeps Shredding NBA Record Books
Young’s Hot Streak Is Heating Up the ROY Race with Luka
LeBron and 2 Chainz Form a Superteam to Release a New Album
Wade’s #OneLastDance Dominated February
Warriors Fans Go Wild After Unforgettable Moments with Steph
Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks
Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans
ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes
Right Arrow Icon
In the wake of KD’s injury, the Warriors managed to hold off the Raptors for a 106-105 win to cut the series deficit to 3-2 and force Game 6.
On the heels of consecutive losses to fall into a 3-1 series hole, Durant seemed to give Golden State the emotional and physical boost it needed. The Warriors held a 39-34 lead at the time of his injury and were clearly outplaying Toronto on its home floor.
KD’s exit easily could have deflated the Warriors, as Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala helped escort Durant to the locker room while he was in obvious pain:
Instead, Golden State began to build on the lead, and it led by six both at halftime and entering the fourth quarter.
The Raptors stormed back and led by six with 3:28 left in regulation, but the Warriors struck back. Three consecutive triples (two by Klay Thompson and one by Curry) put Golden State back on top and gave it a lead it would not relinquish.
McCollum and the Blazers Snapped Postseason Losing Streak for “Jennifer”
Stars Invest in Plant-Based Food as Vegetarianism Sweeps NBA
The NBA Got Some Wild Techs This Season
Jarrett Allen Is One of the NBA’s Hottest Rim Protectors
Wade’s Jersey Swaps Created Epic Moments This Season
Westbrook Makes History While Honoring Nipsey Hussle
Devin Booker Makes History with Scoring Tear
29 Years Ago, Jordan Dropped Career-High 69 Points
Bosh Is Getting His Jersey Raised to the Rafters in Miami
Steph Returns to Houston for 1st Time Since His Moon Landing Troll
Lou Williams Is Coming for a Repeat of Sixth Man of the Year
Pat Beverley Has the Clippers Stealing the LA Shine
LeBron Keeps Shredding NBA Record Books
Young’s Hot Streak Is Heating Up the ROY Race with Luka
LeBron and 2 Chainz Form a Superteam to Release a New Album
Wade’s #OneLastDance Dominated February
Warriors Fans Go Wild After Unforgettable Moments with Steph
Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks
Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans
ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes
Right Arrow Icon
Even after the win, the biggest talking point seemingly focused on whether Durant was rushed back into the lineup too soon. Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated detailed the two-time NBA Finals MVP’s workout regimen leading up to Game 5:
Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpearsESPN
Kevin Durant was doing two-a-day workouts in his efforts to return to the Warriors, a source said before Game 5.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers addressed the media after the game, and while he expressed his belief that every precaution was taken to ensure Durant was ready to play, he also put the blame on himself for allowing it to happen:
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Bob Myers fighting back tears talking about KD’s injury: “I don’t believe there’s anyone to blame…if you have to, you can blame me.”
While Durant still figures to be a highly sought-after commodity on the open market, teams have to take into account the severity of an Achilles injury and how difficult it can be to recover from it. That is especially true of Durant, who will be 31 years old by the time the 2019-20 season begins.
Recovery timetables for a torn Achilles vary depending on the player, but for the sake of comparison, it took DeMarcus Cousins just short of one calendar year to return to game action after tearing his Achilles.
Cousins, who tore his Achilles on Jan. 26, 2018 while with the New Orleans Pelicans, signed a one-year deal with the Warriors, sat out nearly three months and then appeared in his first game for the Warriors on Jan. 18, 2019.
Given the timing of Durant’s injury, it is within the realm of possibility that he could miss the entire 2019-20 campaign, which means the team that signs him can’t necessarily rely on him making an immediate impact.
The Salvator Mundi has been the focus of intense debate over who actually painted it [Drew Angerer/Getty]
A Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece, whose whereabouts has been a mystery since it sold in 2017 for a record $450 million, has turned up in an unlikely place, according to Artnet.com.
“Salvator Mundi” is being kept on superyacht Serene owned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the publication reported Monday, citing two “principals involved in the transaction” that it didn’t identify.
Another Saudi prince was said to have purchased the 500-year-old painting on MBS’s behalf at a 2017 Christie’s auction, the New York Times reported previously. Christie’s declined to confirm that report.
The Saudi government’s Center for International Communication didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The yacht’s location as of May 26 was in the Red Sea off Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Sinai Peninsula, according to Bloomberg ship tracking data.
MBS reportedly bought the Serene for $500m [Phil Walter/Getty]
While the high seas may not be the best place for a fragile Old Master painting, it’s not uncommon for the super-wealthy to decorate their yachts with trophy art. Joe Lewis hung Francis Bacon’s “Triptych 1974 – 1977,” worth an estimated $70 million, on the lower deck of his yacht, the Aviva.
“Salvator Mundi,” whose provenance has been questioned, will remain aboard MBS’s 439-foot (134-meter) Serene until the Saudis create a planned cultural hub in the Kingdom’s Al-Ula region, Artnet said. The project was in an “exploratory phase,” a spokesman for the commission overseeing the plan said in December.
Experts at the Louvre have attributed the work to Da Vinci’s workshop, rather than to the artist alone, according to a published report. Celine Dauvergne, a spokeswoman for the Louvre, declined to comment on the painting’s attribution, but said the Paris museum has asked to borrow the work for an October exhibition.
Nearly 600 plant species have disappeared from the wild in the last 250 years, a new research project found.
The study published by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on Monday said 571 plant species have vanished from the environment – twice the number of mammals, birds, and amphibians combined that have been wiped out.
“Most people can name a mammal or bird that has become extinct in recent centuries, but few can name an extinct plant,” said Aelys M Humphreys, assistant professor at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences at Stockholm University.
“This study is the first time we have an overview of what plants have already become extinct, where they have disappeared from, and how quickly this is happening.”
According to the research, the extinction of seed plants is occurring at a faster rate than the normal turnover of the species.
Deforestation, farming
On average, 2.3 species have become extinct each year for the past 2.5 centuries – 500 times faster than what it would be under natural conditions.
The main cause of the mass plant extinction is the destruction of habitats by human activities, such as cutting down forests and converting the land into fields for farming, the study said.
Hawaii stands out as having the most recorded extinctions, followed by the Cape provinces of South Africa and Mauritius, with Australia, Brazil, India and Madagascar also being among the top regions.
Scientists called the results alarming as millions of other species depend on plants for their survival.
“Plants make the infrastructure of ecosystems as well as give everybody food and air. So without plants everything else will go too, and we don’t even understand exactly how all life is dependant on one another,” Maria Vorontsova, a plant taxonomist, told Al Jazeera.
WATCH: How should plants be protected in a changing world?
Tuesday’s report wasn’t the only plant study raising alarms.
It identified industrial farming and fishing as major drivers of the crisis, with the current rate of species extinction tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the last 10 million years.
“We have reconfigured dramatically the life of the planet,” said Eduardo Brondizio, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University, who co-chaired the report.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (left) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are at loggerheads over the intensity and speed with which Democrats investigate President Donald Trump. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Differences between the speaker and Judiciary chairman over how to hold President Donald Trump accountable are breaking into the open.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, two longtime allies, are clashing over whether to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump — a sign of how toxic the split over Trump has become for House Democrats.
Nadler has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry, but the speaker, backed by the majority of her leadership team and her caucus, has maintained that impeaching the president would backfire on Democrats without meaningful Republican support. And there is no sign that Trump’s GOP firewall is cracking.
Story Continued Below
Pelosi and Nadler, two veterans of the impeachment drama surrounding President Bill Clinton 20 years ago, appear to be drawing opposite lessons from that experience. And the divide between the two lawmakers is illustrative of what all Democrats are grappling with as they respond to Trump’s efforts to stonewall congressional investigations into his personal conduct, finances and policy moves.
“I think they are articulating the different impulses within the caucus, and also within each of us,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said of Pelosi and Nadler. “It’s not entirely clear what to do.”
“Put yourself in the position of somebody in the House of Representatives today,” added Raskin, a Judiciary Committee member who wants to launch an impeachment inquiry. “There are a million factors to deal with. And we’re dealing with the most lawless, corrupt presidency of our lifetime. So what is the right time to respond? It’s not entirely clear.”
Tuesday, though, will feature a key step that all Democrats can agree on: The full House will vote on empowering committee chairs to enforce subpoenas issued to top current and former Trump administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn.
The resolution will, in part, allow the Judiciary Committee to sue Barr and McGahn in federal court to secure former special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report and underlying evidence from his Russia investigation, as well as McGahn’s public testimony.
But a majority of Democratic members of Nadler’s committee favor impeaching Trump, which puts intense pressure on the chairman for more drastic action.
Pelosi and other top Democrats argue that most in their party don’t support such a move, especially with no significant GOP support. Even if the Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach Trump, the Republican-run Senate would probably acquit him, they argue, meaning that Trump would not only remain in office but that the move could potentially embolden the GOP base and result in the president’s reelection.
Nadler and Pelosi sparred over the issue during a private meeting last week. Nadler again pushed the speaker to support an impeachment inquiry, but she refused, saying she’d rather see Trump“in prison.”
Some Judiciary Committee members are hinting at a more serious divide between the two lawmakers. But senior Democratic aides consistently downplay any tension between them.
“I think Chairman Nadler has done a very good job, particularly considering the parameters under which he has to work,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), one of the caucus’s most fervent supporters of impeachment. “There are quite a few.”
Tuesday’s vote — the first enforcement mechanism to hit the House floor since Mueller’s report was released nearly two months ago — is unlikely to calm tensions, even as House Democrats continue to secure key victories in federal court and in their negotiations with the Justice Department over access to Mueller’s files.
That’s in part because Pelosi’s allies are using those wins as evidence that their current strategy is working — and that impeachment isn’t necessary yet.
“We’re winning as it relates to the strategy that we’re pursuing, and the fact that the Department of Justice has agreed to provide documents and allow inspection of a more unredacted version of the report means we should stay the course,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a member of the Judiciary panel. He was referring to adeal the committee struck with the Justice Department over access to some of Mueller’s “key” underlying evidence about possible obstruction of justice by the president.
At the core of the conflict is a sharp disagreement between Pelosi and Nadler over the intensity and speed with which Democrats investigate Trump and how that decision will reverberate in next year’s election.
Pelosi speaks frequently about how she empowers her committee chairmen — allowing them to make decisions about what legislation they pursue and how they run their respective panels.
With Nadler’s panel, however, she has been much more personally involved in the committee’s decision-making process, according to multiple sources, even compared with panels such as Oversight and Intelligence, which are also pursuing potentially explosive investigations targeting Trump.
The speaker’s allies, though, assert that Pelosi has been hands-off with the Judiciary Committee except when it comes to her disagreement with Nadler over impeachment. Opening an impeachment inquiry, as Nadler has advocated privately to Pelosi, would be the equivalent of “jumping off a cliff,” according to a source close to the speaker.
The squabble has put a strain on what has generally been a cordial and respectful relationship.
They have served together in the House for nearly 30 years. Nadler, a New Yorker, backed Pelosi, who is from California, when she challenged Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), now the No. 2 Democrat, in their bitter battle to become House minority whip in 2001, a critical moment in her rise to the speaker’s chair. The alliances forged then still resonate today and creep into nearly all internal caucus politics.
Pelosi, in turn, stayed out of the race between Nadler and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a close ally of the speaker, to become the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in 2017. Pelosi’s silence was interpreted as a gift to Nadler and a blessing for him to take over the gavel after the resignation of Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) amid a sexual harassment scandal.
In the seven weeks since Mueller’s findings were made public, House Democrats have been focused almost exclusively on battling the Trump administration over how much of the Mueller report lawmakers can view; when and whether Mueller testifies; the conditions of Barr’s testimony; and other process-related fights.
Those protracted legal battles were out of Nadler’s control, due in large part to the Trump administration’s unwillingness to comply with congressional subpoenas. Nadler addressed the administration’s recalcitrance during Monday’s hearing with Nixon White House counsel John Dean and former federal prosecutors.
“It is true that fact witnesses have been ordered by the White House not to appear before this committee,” Nadler said. “But we’ll get them.”
Still, Democrats on the committee have privately complained that the process battles do little to educate the public, and even Monday’s hearing with Dean barely made a splash. Instead, most news networks carried coverage of a fatal helicopter crash in New York City on Monday.
“Obviously that’s not going to be effective if they didn’t see that,” acknowledged Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a Judiciary Committee and leadership member who supports opening an impeachment inquiry.
“I’ve expressed my personal opinions to the speaker,” Lieu said. “It will be a decision that the speaker and the caucus makes. And I respect that decision. In the meantime, I’m going to hold these hearings [and] educate the American people about the report.”
Judiciary Committee Democrats largely remain united behind Nadler, saying privately that they recognize he is in an impossible position — caught between a majority of the panel’s Democratic members supporting an impeachment inquiry and the speaker remaining steadfastly opposed.
“To some extent they’re on the same page,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Judiciary member and Pelosi ally, said of the disagreement between the speaker and Nadler. “But the American people have to get there. And as of now, as Democrats, the White House has been able to distract and hide from the Mueller report because we have a president and an attorney general who are co-conspirators in depriving the American people of the real facts.”
Ruben Neves has hailed Cristiano Ronaldo as football’s “best ever” player following Portugal’s 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the UEFA Nations League final.
Per Joe Edwards of the Express and Star, the Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder said: “I can’t see anyone better than him. Cristiano is the best. He showed that in the semi-finals and again (in the final). We are lucky to have him in our team.”
Asked if Ronaldo is the greatest in history, he added: “Of course, yes. For me, he’s the best ever, and I’m a really lucky guy to play with him.”
The Mirror‘s John Cross was quick to praise the Juventus forward after Portugal lifted the inaugural Nations League trophy on Sunday:
John Cross @johncrossmirror
Cristiano Ronaldo is just amazing. Incredible talent, even stronger winning mentality, has made Portugal European champions and now Nations League winners.
Their victory continued a remarkable record for Ronaldo in finals:
The 34-year-old had a quiet game for Portugal against the Netherlands, and it’s worth remembering he sat out the entire group stage of the Nations League, so he played no part in getting them to the finals.
He did bag a hat-trick against Switzerland in the semi-final, though:
His efforts took him to 88 goals for Portugal—only Iran’s Ali Daei has more international goals in the men’s game—and he has netted an astonishing 601 times over the course of his club career, too.
Though Ronaldo went off injured in the first half of the 2016 UEFA European Championship final, in which Portugal beat France 1-0 after extra time, the fact that he has now won two international trophies has added yet more fuel to the endless debate on whether he or Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is better:
Messi’s Argentina have fallen short in the 2014 FIFA World Cup final and the Copa America final in 2015 and 2016.
The two players’ respective trophy hauls—international or domestic—should not have too much significance in such a debate, though.
As important a role as the pair have in collecting silverware, there are other factors at play when it comes to a team’s success or failure, so it’s too simplistic to boil down to the size of their trophy cabinets.
Messi will hope to end his run of disappointment on the international stage when Argentina compete in the Copa America this month. As for Ronaldo, he’ll hope to help Portugal defend their European title next year at Euro 2020.
Whether they do or not, it makes little difference to their remarkable abilities as footballers.
Iran has followed through on a threat to accelerate its production of enriched uranium, the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said on Monday, departing from his usual guarded language to say he was worried about increasing tension.
The assessment comes at a time of sharply increased US-Iranian confrontation, a year after Washington abandoned an international agreement that imposed curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of financial sanctions.
Washington tightened sanctions on Iran from the start of May, ordering all countries and companies to halt any imports of Iranian oil or be banished from the global financial system. It also dispatched extra troops to the region to counter unspecified threats from Iran.
Iran responded with a threat to increase its enrichment of uranium, saying it was up to European countries who still support the nuclear deal to save it by finding ways to ensure Tehran receives the economic benefits it was promised.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, whose agency is responsible for monitoring Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal, said Iran was now producing more enriched uranium than before, but it was not clear when it might reach the stockpile limit of 300 kg set in the pact.
“Yes, [the] production rate is increasing,” he told a news conference on Monday when asked if enriched uranium production had accelerated since the agency’s last quarterly report, which found Iran compliant with the nuclear deal as of May 20.
He declined to quantify the increase.
“I am worried about increasing tensions over the Iranian nuclear issue,” he said, adding he hoped “that ways can be found to reduce current tensions through dialogue. It is essential that Iran fully implements its nuclear-related commitments”.
‘Highly explosive situation’
Iran said last month it was still abiding by the deal but would quadruple its production of enriched uranium – a move that could take it out of compliance if stockpiles rise too far.
Washington’s European allies opposed its decision last year to abandon the nuclear deal, reached in 2015 between Iran and China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
They have promised to help Iran find other ways to trade, although with no success so far. All major European companies that had announced plans to invest in Iran have since called them off for fear of US punishment.
Germany, France and Britain have since set up a special-purpose trade vehicle called INSTEX, designed to allow payments to Iran that would legally bypass sanctions. It is yet to be launched.
During a visit to Tehran on Monday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the European signatories to the nuclear pact were doing their “utmost to prevent the failure of the deal”.
“The situation in the region here is highly explosive and extremely serious,” Maas told a news conference alongside Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“A dangerous escalation of existing tensions can also lead to a military escalation.”
INSTEX was a new instrument and not straightforward to put into effect, Maas told reporters, adding: “But all the formal requirements are in place now, and so I’m assuming we’ll be ready to use it in the foreseeable future.”
“Reducing tension is only possible through stopping the economic war by America,” he said. “Those who wage such wars cannot expect to remain safe.”
‘Wrong direction’
In his meeting with Maas, President Hassan Rouhani blamed the US for the soaring tensions and called on the European signatories of the deal to “resist the economic war on Iran imposed by America”.
“This war … will never be beneficial for any country and the Iranian people will resist these pressures and bullying behaviours,” Iran’s state TV quoted Rouhani as saying.
The European partners had not done enough to provide Iran with alternative ways to trade, he said.
“We have not seen any serious measures taken by the Europeans in the past year despite their fairly good political stance,” Rouhani said.
In Washington, Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the IAEA findings showed “that Iran is going in the wrong direction and it underscores the continuing challenge Iran poses to international peace and security”.
She added the US would not support any payment mechanism that allowed countries or businesses to conduct transactions with sanctioned Iranian entities.
Washington says the nuclear deal should be expanded to cover other issues including Iran’s missile programme and its role in wars in the region.
European countries argue that while they share those concerns, it would be harder to address them without the nuclear deal in place.
Iran has ruled out any negotiation over its ballistic missile programme and its activities in the Middle East, where Tehran has been involved in proxy wars with Saudi Arabia for decades.
With those four words in a brief, emotional press conference after Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Golden State Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers confirmed the basketball world’s worst fears about Kevin Durant and turned the NBA upside down in every way imaginable.
Durant was spectacular in his first game in just over a month, scoring 11 points in only 12 minutes and draining all three of his three-point attempts during the Warriors’ season-saving 106-105 win over the Toronto Raptors.
But that was before he got hurt shortly into the second quarter. Now, he will undergo an MRI on Tuesday morning, the results of which will reverberate around the league in countless ways, both now and into the future. No injury could possibly be more widely and devastatingly impactful than this one, to this player, on this team, at this time.
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Warriors believe MRI will confirm Kevin Durant has torn right Achilles tendon, per @ramonashelburne https://t.co/ZuOM2q16Sp
The future of the Warriors dynasty has hung in the balance all series—all season, really—as Durant’s upcoming free agency cast a shadow over everything they did.
After he suffered a right calf strain midway through the second round of the playoffs, Golden State finished off the Houston Rockets in six games and swept the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals. The ensuing chatter that the Warriors didn’t need Durant, or even that they were better without him, was nonsense. This was laid bare as they ran up against a deep, talented Raptors team that built a 3-1 Finals lead heading into Monday night.
Meanwhile, Durant’s return was put off repeatedly as his camp and the Warriors’ medical staff decided he wasn’t yet ready to play. He returned to practice for the first time Sunday and, less than 24 hours later, made his return to the court in a do-or-die Game 5.
And then it was all over.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images
It’s fair to ask questions about the handling of Durant’s injury from all sides. It goes without saying he badly wanted to play, to prove that the Warriors do need him, to put the focus back on the court rather than on what will happen when free agency begins July 1. But none of these decisions are made in a vacuum; Durant’s manager, Rich Kleiman, and the Warriors front office, coaches and training staff are responsible for his well-being, and one or all of those parties should have thrown themselves in front of his desire to play.
Placing the blame on one of these groups is impossible without knowing the full extent of the process through which he was cleared. However, they had a collective responsibility to prevent the disaster scenario that occurred Monday.
The best-case outcome for allowing Durant to play after missing a month and only participating in one practice was simply to avoid a re-injury while extending the series another week. The worst case? Well, here we are.
Durant won’t be playing again for the Warriors anytime soon, and he likely won’t be playing anywhere else next season, either.
The likes of the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers have spent months—years, in some cases—preparing their free-agent pitches, rosters and cap sheets to lure Durant away from the Warriors. Doing so would end one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the sport and shift the league’s balance of power away from the Bay Area.
Durant is one of a small handful of players who can make any team a contender through his mere on-court presence, and the questions about his long-term future with the Warriors have been obvious all season. This summer’s free-agent class is the most loaded since 2010, but Durant was to be the headliner.
Noah Graham/Getty Images
He’ll still likely get a max contract, whether from the Warriors or one of those teams. Players of Durant’s caliber are worth that risk even when coming off one of the worst injuries an athlete can suffer.
But depending on the official severity of the injury, Durant’s impact next season will be limited—if he plays at all. Any team that signs him will be doing so with the 2020-21 season in mind. In the meantime, the loss of arguably the best player in the world, potentially for a full year, is the NBA’s nightmare scenario.
Regardless of whether Durant re-signs with the Warriors, this postseason has revealed what this version of the two-time defending champions looks like without Durant, and they’re eminently beatable. With Klay Thompson also due for a huge new contract and Draymond Green’s next deal coming up a year after, Myers will have limited resources to bolster the bench around his superstar core.
The Western Conference is suddenly wide open.
Whenever Durant does return to the court, be it late next season or in the fall of 2020, there’s no telling how he’ll look. Will he be the unstoppable scorer, dead-eye shooter and defensive terror he’s been for the past 12 years?
There isn’t an extensive history of players as talented as Durant coming back good as new from Achilles injuries. He turns 31 in September, which should be the middle of his prime. Now, one of the best players of all time and a no-doubt future Hall of Famer will have the tail end of his career irrevocably altered. One of this generation’s great success stories may now become one of its great what-ifs.
Amid all this, the Warriors and Raptors still have a Finals series to complete.
If Golden State can somehow overcome the seemingly insurmountable loss of Durant, come back from a 3-1 deficit and win its third straight title, it will be one of the gutsiest, most impressive comebacks in NBA history. The odds are long, as the first five games of this series have shown both how undermanned Golden State is without Durant and how versatile the Raptors are.
Durant wanted to be the Warriors’ savior. It’s probably too late for that.
Instead, he, the Warriors and the rest of the NBA are now left to deal with the aftermath of a day no one hoped would ever come.
Sean Highkin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. He is currently based in Portland. Follow him on Twitter at @highkin.
https://t.co/n5nkorEBUW
Daily Trends Hunter 