Iggy Azalea and her NBA-pro fiance, Nick "Swaggy P" Young, have called it quits after two and a half years together.
The "Team" rapper announced the split on Instagram on Sunday with a message that touched upon cheating rumors that surfaced earlier in the year.
WATCH: Iggy Azalea Says Nick Young Will Have "Half a p***s" If He Cheats
"Unfortunately although I love Nick and have tried and tried to rebuild my trust in him, it"s become apparent in the last few weeks I am unable to," the 25-year-old Australian wrote. "I genuinely wish Nick the best. It"s never easy to part ways with the person you planned you"re [sic] entire future with, but futures can be rewritten and as of today mine is a blank page."
Young, a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, issued a more succinct statement on Twitter.
"Single" he wrote.
The duo announced their engagement in June 2015 but the relationship publicly hit the rocks in March when Young, 30, was implicated in a cheating scandal after one of his Lakers teammates, D"Angelo Russell, posted a video to social media where Young talked about being unfaithful.
WATCH: D"Angelo Russell Talks Leaked Nick Young Tape, Iggy Azalea Cheating Rumors
The scandal hit just two weeks after news of the couple"s postponed wedding, which was originally scheduled for the end of the year. Azalea said at the time that touring commitments had forced them to push the wedding off until after the end of the next NBA season.
In April, Azalea opened up about the relationship on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, confirming that the engagement was still on -- flashing her diamond ring -- and telling the daytime host that there was no drama between the two.
"We"re good," Azalea said. "There isn"t [controversy] at home, just on the internet."
I-G-G-Y also sported the engagement ring on her solo outing on the iHeartRadio Awards red carpet -- but days later, she began ditching the sparkler and rumors swirled again. Azalea addressed those rumors with some seeming uncertainty.
"Ya, I guess I"m still engaged, I think so," she told 103.7 KVILat the time. "I know [that] I haven"t called it off, I have to have a talk with him and see how the talk goes. We"re not unengaged yet."
NEWS: Iggy Azalea Releases "Team" Music Video Amid Nick Young Cheating Drama
"But he doesn"t deserve for me to be wearing his ring right now," she continued. "We"re not not engaged, but you have to, like, do some work for me to put the ring back on."
For more of Iggy"s thoughts on the alleged infidelities, check out the video below.
Happy Father"s day 2016: Father"s days wishes, SMS, greetings, E-card, Whatsapp Video from Son
Client Georgia Pacific/Angel Soft Agency Deutsch Pete Favat, chief creative officer, North America; Winston Binch, chief digital officer, North America; Jason Bagley, chief creative officer; Karen Costello, executive creative director; Melissa Langston-Wood, creative director; Ashley Milhollin, copywriter; Dan Rosenberg, art director; Vic Palumbo, director of integrated production; Rachel Seitel, executive integrated producer; Justin Polk, integrated producer; Dave Rocco, music creative director; Eryk Rich, music supervisor. Production Steelhead Eric Kaufman, director; Ted Markovic, exec producer; Jim Brattin, associate producer; Chris Fox, line producer. Editorial Steelhead Ian Paxton, editor; Ted Markovic, exec producer; Jim Brattin, associate producer. Postproduction Company 3 Dave Hussey, sr. colorist; Liza Kerlin, sr. producer. Post/VFX Steelhead Ted Markovic, exec producer; Austin Meyers, director of visual effects; Dennis Kang, motion design director. Music Track: Along The Coastline Daniel Louis Rosen (ASCAP), composer; Score A Score, publisher, master. Audio Post Steelhead Chase Butters, mixer; Ted Markovic, exec producer.
Before Jurassic Park and The Terminator, there was Westworld. Part of a hi-tech amusement park that also included Medieval World and Roman World, it was a place you could live out your historical fantasies among humanoid robotswhich were programmed not to kill. Yeahhhh, that wasnt gonna last. Originally adapted as a kickass sci-fi thriller with Yul Brynner as an unstoppable robot gunman, Westworld also had a sequel and network TV spinoff that didnt fare quite so well. HBO, though, just showed theyre going to relaunch the property in a big way.
Think Game of Cyborgs. Heck, theres even an interactive map like the opening credits of GoT. By the looks of it, more than one of these replicant-like creations will not only transcend programming, but also start to question their existence and mortality, more like Roy Batty than a T-800. Violent delights, as they say, have violent ends. With a lot of s*x in between, judging by all the n***d bodies on display. And now we have to wait until October to see what J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan have cooked up for us. But Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins, plus Evan Rachel Woods Aeon Flux impersonation, have our attention already.
Medieval World and Roman World look like they may be saved for future seasons, however. But were pumped nonetheless, especially since it looks like everyone will swear like its Deadwood again, and since weve never really gotten closure on that whole deal, resurrecting it with robots is fine by us.
Are you ready to visit Westworld? Whats your gunslinger fantasy? Let us know in comments!
With a one-under in his final round Sunday, Dustin Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania to clinch the first major victory of his career with an overall score of four-under.
After sinking his birdie putt on No. 18 to wrap things up, Johnson had an opportunity to share the special moment with his fiancee, Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, and their son, Tatum.
Aggrego"s Matthew Schwerha shared an image of the whole family together:
It was fitting that Johnson was able to celebrate his first major with his son on Father"s Day, as the PGA Tour pointed out:
He told the media after his victory that this Father"s Day is at the top of his list, per the PGA Tour:
The moment melted the heart of CBS Sports" Jamie Erdahl:
Johnson will also bring home a big paycheck for his family, winning $1.8 million for his performance at Oakmont. According to ESPN.com"s Darren Rovell, he"s done pretty well in his career:
There was plenty of controversy, though, as Johnson received a one-stroke penalty because his ball moved while he was setting up to putt on No. 5. The problem was that the USGA did not make the decision to penalize Johnson until after the round was over.
That won"t matter much now for the winner, who can get his celebrations underway with his loving family.
Anton Yelchin killed: Star Trek actor crushed by 2.5 ton jeep at Hollywood home - TomoNews Photo LeBron James celebrated after the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, on Sunday. Credit Gary A. Vasquez/Reuters
(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)
Good morning.
Heres what you need to know:
On the campaign trail.
Donald Trump is replacing his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as he prepares for a tough general election race.
Hillary Clintons campaign is searching for a running mate who could click with, but not outshine, its candidate. Democrats are uniting on expanding Social Security.
Gun control measures await Congress.
Four proposals two sponsored by Republicans and two by Democrats are expected to fail today in a replay of the voting in December, after the attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
Several moderate Republicans are working on a compromise measure, but they and Democrats face an uphill fight because of the threat of opposition from the National Rifle Association.
Photo Firearms displayed at the National Rifle Association Convention in Louisville, Ky. in May. Credit Ty Wright for The New York Times
Orlando, one week later.
The Justice Department will release partial transcripts of conversations between the police and the Orlando gunman on the night of the attack. Those who knew the assailant describe a man who was always agitated and always mad.
About $7 million in donations are going directly to family members and survivors in Orlando, where the night life is slowly picking back up.
Photo Tens of thousands of people attended a vigil on Sunday for the victims of the Orlando massacre. Credit Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated Press
Sixty-five million displaced.
More people have been forced by conflict to leave their homes than ever before in recorded history, the U.N. said in a report released today.
A champion for Cleveland.
The Cavaliers became the first team to rally from a 3-1 series deficit in the N.B.A. finals by beating the Golden State Warriors, 93-89, Sunday night.
It was the first major title for the city since 1964.
Fathers Day.
Sunday was Fathers Day, and letters written long ago by Barack Obama Sr. reveal a young Kenyan whose ambitions helped change the course of U.S. history.
President Obama told us last month that his fathers absence had left him struggling as a teenager to figure out what it meant to be a man.
Severe heat wave.
Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix will have triple-digit temperatures today. Phoenix topped out at 117 degrees on Sunday.
Photo The so-called Sherpa fire has burned about 8,000 acres in Santa Barbara County. Credit David Mcnew/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
The heat will most likely worsen a major wildfire in Southern California.
Business
If you have $1, you can be a Goldman Sachs customer. Thats a sea change for the elite Wall Street institution.
The proportion of recent law-school graduates who find work as a lawyer is down 10 percentage points since its peak of the last decade.
The IEX Group some of whose leaders were featured in Michael Lewiss Flash Boys won approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a new stock exchange.
Over the Weekend
Thomas Mair was charged in the killing of Jo c*x, a British member of Parliament. Ms. c*x had been urging Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in the Brexit referendum on Thursday.
President Obama and his family toured the Yosemite and Carlsbad parks. He said national parks were already being damaged by climate change.
A former n**i guard at Auschwitz was sentenced to five years in prison for being an accessory to at least 170,000 deaths.
A former Vanderbilt University football player was found guilty of rape, and the interim police chief of Oakland, Calif., resigned amid a growing s*x scandal.
A Colorado mother yanked her son from a mountain lions grip.
Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open golf tournament.
Finding Dory was the North American box office winner. Its $136.2 million in estimated weekend ticket sales set a record for a Pixar film.
Catching up on TV: Weve got episode recaps for Game of Thrones, Veep, Silicon Valley and Outlander.
Noteworthy
Inspired.
NASA has unveiled plans for an experimental all-electric airplane.
A construction worker learned in a taxi that he was owed $50,000.
And its now possible to walk on water (at least for a couple of weeks).
In memoriam.
Anton Yelchin, 27, was an actor in the reboot of the Star Trek movies. He was killed when he was pinned by his car in his driveway.
Recipe of the day.
Shrimp roasted with hot honey comes together in minutes, making it an ideal after-work meal or extremely speedy appetizer.
Back Story
Sometimes its best to cut your losses. Thats what an oil company was thinking at the end of 1967, after a year of digging holes in the North Slope of Alaska that came up dry.
But on a final try, it found what was the largest oil field in the U.S., the day after Christmas. That gift began to pay off on this day in 1977, when the Trans-Alaska Pipeline started to pump oil.
The 800-mile pipeline, quickly built after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, carried the lifeblood of Alaskas economy from the edge of the Arctic to the ice-free port in Valdez, the nearest city for oil tankers to transport oil.
The four-foot-wide tube of half-inch-thick steel zigzags across three mountain ranges and about 800 rivers and streams. Because it carries warm oil, half of it runs above ground on trestles to avoid melting the surrounding soils permafrost.
The North Slope where it can get so cold that workers are advised against wearing contact lenses because they can freeze and stick to the eye has produced as much as one-fifth of the nations oil; today, its about 10 percent.
But those workers, and indeed all Alaskans, dont have to pay personal income or sales taxes.
The state collects a royalty and a production tax for every barrel. That pays for most of the state government and the multibillion-dollar Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays dividends to residents about $2,000 per person annually in recent years.
Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning.
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WWE"s (NYSE:WWE) falling television ratings suggest the company"s popularity is also declining, but Google Trends, house show attendance and merchandise revenue show otherwise.
There was a strong relationship between Google interest in WWE and WWE Raw TV ratings up until about 2013, when Google interest started to bow in the opposite direction of declining ratings.
When we take WWE Raw"s Live+SD TV ratings and average them by month, then standardize them like Google Trends metrics (by standardizing the highest instance as 100), then we see an interesting picture.
We see the correlation between the two data sets from 2008 to present is 0.2689, indicating a weak relationship between Raw"s TV ratings and Google interest in WWE across that time. (By the way, the correlation result for this and the other examples discussed later are exactly the same if we take the original non-standardized TV ratings dataset; standardizing the TV ratings data set to a standard of 100 changes nothing.)
If we look at just January 2008 through December 2013, though, the relationship is strong. For those years, Google interest and Raw TV ratings correlated well.
But if you look at the relationship after that point, you can see that the two data sets went in opposite directions.
What happened? The first thing you can point to is the launch of the WWE Network on February 24, 2014. But if you look at the graph at the top of this page again, you can see the correlation peaked and began disintegrating about in the middle of 2012, well before the launch of the WWE Network. Subscribing to the WWE Network, while it does give you access to thousands of hours of WWE content, it doesn"t give viewers access to episodes of Raw (or Smackdown) until 30 days after they originally air.
It"s plausible that the slight increase we see in WWE on Google is due to the product"s increasing presence throughout the internet and social media. It"s also plausible that a genuine decrease in popularity is masked by an increase in such activity. As I"ll discuss later, though, other metrics don"t corroborate a decline in popularity over recent years.
The graph for WWE"s Google Trends itself looks like this:
Click to enlarge
Source: Google Trends
That"s worldwide interest. If you look at interest just in the U.S., it"s very similar.
But what is the Google Trend metric? "Measuring search interest in topics is a beta feature which quickly provides accurate measurements of overall search interest," according to Google. When you measure interest in a search topic (such as WWE), Google"s algorithms "count many different search queries that may relate to the same topic". So when you select "WWE - professional wrestling company", Google is not just counting the search string "WWE" but lots of other strings that are related. It"s also important to understand the value Google Trends reveals isn"t an absolute unit; it"s a relative value, with the highest instance of interest standardized as 100, and all other instances compared to that standard.
Are Google Trends a reliable indicator of WWE"s popularity? Let"s look at Google Trends data for two similar businesses: Total Nonstop Action and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Click to enlargeSource: Google Trends
TNA is another pro wrestling company. Its decline in popularity and financial health is consistent with the Google Trends graph above.
TNA has been on cable TV with national exposure since 2005. Most of the time since 2005, it has been the number-two pro wrestling company in the country, albeit a very distant number-two to WWE. TNA was broadcast on Spike from 2005 to 2014. The peak in Google interest shown on the graph above coincides with January 4, 2010, when TNA loaded up their program in a move to Monday night to go head-to-head with Raw, scoring their highest TV rating ever, in a short-lived attempt to recreate the Monday Night Wars. After losing their deal with Spike, TNA moved to the lower profile Destination America for all of 2015 until that relationship was ended as well and it ended up on PopTV beginning 2016: a deal that provides them with no rights fees, only ad revenue. While ratings declined, the company"s financial welfare has reportedly declined as well. There are regular reports of talent and production crew members not being paid on time. Just recently, their live pay-per-view broadcast and television tapings had to be saved from cancellation by last-minute financial backing.
Click to enlarge
Source: Google Trends
UFC is the most popular mixed martial arts promotion in the world. UFC 196 in March of this year scored 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, nearly the highest in the company"s history. UFC President Dana White said it was the most successful event the organization ever promoted. That event coincides with the spike seen on the graph above for that time period. If the show only did 1.5 million buys, though, it"s interesting that UFC 100, which drew 1.6 million in July 2010, only drew 62% as much interest on Google.
What about other WWE metrics?
A decline in live event attendance in addition to TV ratings would be a more worrying sign for WWE"s popularity. But attendance over the last several years has been stable.
WWE reported in their Key Performance Indicators a 6,100 average for North American attendance for 2016 Q1, which is right on par with the norm.
2016 Q2 results will probably be released in early August. House show attendance sourced from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for Q2 through June 11, shows attendance for those non-televised events is at a low point, with an average of 3,779 attendees per show.
John Cena is WWE"s lone proven difference-maker, among those who regularly work house shows. He"s been off of all house shows so far this year due to injury. He"s scheduled to return to regular touring beginning June 29. Investors should watch to see if WWE indeed reports a low North American live attendance average for Q2, which I would expect. And if WWE does so, investors should watch for whether there"s a recovery in Q3 and Q4 with Cena back on tour. If live attendance does not recover, that would point to a genuine decline in popularity, and other key areas of their business might suffer.
However, as the chart above shows, the decline in TV ratings over the long-term does not yet coincide with any long-term decline in either house show attendance or live attendance overall, which has fluctuated but remained stable. Nor does the decline in Raw"s ratings coincide with a decline in attendance for Raw tapings themselves, which have gone up slightly in the last few years -- again, as sourced from the Observer:
2014 WWE Raw attendance average: 9,5712015 WWE Raw attendance average: 9,6772016 WWE Raw attendance average (through June 13): 10,304
Merchandise revenue, if anything, has increased thanks to more online sales (all filed by the company under "WWEShop", whether they occur on WWEShop.com, Amazon or elsewhere).
In light of the fact that Google searches are up, house show attendance is flat, Raw attendance is slightly up, and merchandise revenue is up, I don"t believe WWE is declining in popularity. TV ratings are the only key metric in a genuine decline; reasons for that will be discussed further below.
In all this evidence, though, there is room for an argument that WWE has become more of a niche product over the last several years. It"s possible Google searches are up because the same number of people or fewer people are just searching WWE-related topics more often. It"s possible that merchandise revenue is up, not because more unique customers are buying, but because customers are buying more units and/or more expensive items. House show attendance being flat, but attendance to the more prestigious Raw events being slightly up is consistent with a fan base that is becoming more ardent. Developments like the WWE Network and the success of the NXT brand, which both appeal strongly to the most ardent fans, are clues as well. Investors should watch whether this pattern grows more over time.
All that said, WWE is in a quandary in regards to its lucrative TV rights fees and declining ratings. Television rights fees are the company"s largest revenue source. Because of that, TV ratings are still important.
To say, though, that WWE"s declining ratings are just an example of declines throughout television is skirting the issue. There are a number of critical subtleties:
Live sports ratings for the NFL, NBA and MLB, as well as mixed martial arts promotions, UFC and Bellator, are all stable if not strong in recent years. True, ratings for scripted programming are largely down. I think WWE is a hybrid of both live sports and scripted programming, so if all other things are equal, the "all ratings are down" effect should be afflicting them less so than other scripted entertainment and more so than other live sports.
Some think cord-cutting is affecting WWE"s ratings. But the ratings shouldn"t be affected by cord-cutting, because the ratings metric takes into account the percentage of households the channel is available in that view the program, so that homes that no longer have access to cable channels like the USA Network (the home of Raw and Smackdown) aren"t part of the equation.
Click to enlargeSource: Chris Harrington
Raw"s move from a two- to three-hour format in 2012 is indeed taking a toll. The anecdotal as well as the quantitative evidence suggests viewers are exhausted by the longer program. The third hour of Raw is the least viewed of the three almost every week.
Some say WWE"s strong push of digital and social media (e.g., the WWE Network, clips on YouTube and Facebook of everything that happens on Raw and Smackdown, next day VOD of Raw and Smackdown on Hulu, etc.) is cannibalizing the older media: television. I considered this a few weeks ago. Cannibalization of that kind must be happening to some degree, but it"s hard to say to what extent.
Last, but most importantly, WWE hasn"t created a difference-making star in over ten years: John Cena being the last one. Roman Reigns is the company"s new hope, but he"s been rejected by at least a portion of the fans, and has yet to show he makes a positive difference to any of the company"s known business metrics. The emergence of a new difference-making star to the level of past stars like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or The Rock, would blow all of these other caveats away; star power would override the winds of changing media and ratings would rise. The company"s inability to create stars in the last ten years has been its greatest shortcoming; until it remedies that problem WWE will always fall short of its true potential.
The Google Trends graphs in this article show ratings completely stopped correlating to Google searches certainly by early 2015. From there, ratings continued to decline, but Google interest didn"t. In fact, Google interest has gone up while ratings have gone down. The conclusion to draw from this is that ratings are no longer a reliable indicator of product interest. Of course, if genuine interest in WWE dramatically increased, we would see a renewed correlation between Google Trends and ratings.
"Ratings don"t matter" is the wrong conclusion to draw. From week-to-week, big changes in ratings still mean something in regards to interest within a small window, but over longer periods of time, they don"t. It would also be wrong to say that because ratings are down 10% from last year, there"s now 10% less interest in the WWE product. But most crucial, ratings do matter to TV partners who rely on WWE to sell ads and improve their rankings among other networks.
What will the future hold for the company"s TV rights fees -- 35% of all revenue in 2015 -- if ratings continue to slide? The next deal with major partners like NBCUniversal will likely happen around 2018: providing a few more years for ratings to sink further, or for WWE to cultivate a true star.
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
ALLENTOWN - Monday will bethe longest day of the year and the first day of summer. It"s certainly going to feel like it in the Lehigh Valley, with temperatures expected to spike into the low to mid 90s.
The National Weather Service says the surge of warmth that really began building on Father"s Day will ease quickly, but not before temperatures surge into the 90s once again. Unfortunately, the conditions that made for a comfortable Sundaywill not be duplicated. Instead, warm and more humid air has built over the area and will only continue to climb.
The weather service says an advancing cool front is expected to cool things down, with partial cloudiness andscattered showers and thunderstorms overnight tonight.
Tuesday is expected to bring a mix of clouds and sun. The weather service says a stray shower or thunderstorm is possible as highs climb into the upper 80s.
Meteorologists say Wednesday is expected to be warm, but humidity levels will become more comfortable. Highs should be in the mid to upper 80s before thunderstorms really cool things off on Thursday.
Is the warm weather a sign of things to come? The Climate Prediction Center recently released its three-month outlook of temperature probability, and the Lehigh Valley is expected to trend above-average over the next three months.
Here"s theextended forecastfrom the National Weather Service:
Today:Sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight:A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. Southwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tuesday:A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Sunny, with a high near 85. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tuesday Night:A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 9pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Light northwest wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Wednesday:Sunny, with a high near 83. West wind 6 to 14 mph.
Wednesday Night:A chance of showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Thursday:A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Thursday Night:A chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
