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  • Immigration raids linked to significant California job losses, analysis finds

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    Each month, Edward Flores crunches the numbers. And each month he grows more and more certain of the stark impact of federal immigration raids on California’s economy.

    Flores found that the number of people reporting private sector employment in California in late May and early June fell by 3.1% — a drop so significant it was exceeded in recent memory only by the employment downturn during the COVID-19 lockdown.

    The associate professor of sociology and faculty director of the UC Merced labor center based his analysis on U.S. census data from those months and published his findings over the summer.

    Flores has repeated the analysis for each month since June, with the exception of October, when the federal government shut down and for the first time in some 50 years did not collect these data.

    The employment decline grew further, with a 4.9% decrease in the first week of July — 742,492 fewer workers.

    Numbers somewhat bounced back in August, after a U.S. district judge temporarily banned roving patrols of immigration agents from stopping people based on the color of their skin, language spoken or vocation. But from May to September, private sector employment fell by 2.9%, Flores said in his latest report.

    “We are seeing a pretty persistent trend,” Flores said. “It really underscores the urgency with which our elected officials and policymakers should be devising ways of mitigating the economic harm that is occurring as a result of immigration enforcement actions.”

    The analysis shows an outsize effect on noncitizen women, whose reported employment plummeted about 8.6%, or 1 in 12 out of work after raids began to roil Los Angeles in early June.

    But citizens also showed a marked decline. From May to July, California citizens accounted for the largest share of the decline in private sector workers, about 415,000 people. But the analysis showed that the decline affected noncitizens more, with their numbers dropping by 12.3%, as compared with the 3.3% decline among citizens from May to July.

    California wasn’t the only part of the U.S. to experience an employment downturn linked to immigration enforcement, Flores said.

    In August, hundreds of National Guard troops flooded the streets of Washington, some in armored vehicles, as the federal government also deputized local police in its patrols, citing a need to crack down on out-of-control crime, even though data showed crime in the city was down.

    In that month, the number of those reporting work in the private sector in Washington, D.C., decreased 3.3%, according to the UC Merced analysis. When federal control of local police in Washington ended in September, the district saw a 0.5% increase in private sector work.

    These large declines were not seen in the rest of the country, where the number of private sector workers remained stagnant most months or saw slight increases.

    Economists say what’s clear is that the U.S. population of immigrant workers is shrinking, after more than 50 years of growth, which will have consequences for the economy.

    In January 2025, there were 53.3 million immigrants living in the U.S., making up close to 16% of the country’s population, according to the Pew Research Center. By June, the nation’s immigrant population had decreased by more than a million, to 51.9 million — and that decline has probably continued.

    Giovanni Peri, a professor of international economics at UC Davis, said he expected to see major effects on sectors with an immigrant-heavy workforce, including construction, restaurants and personal services.

    Large numbers of deportations are one factor, he said, but besides that, some will decide against immigrating to the U.S., while others already in the country will choose to leave.

    Still others will stay home, scared to go to work — particularly in cities hit hard by raids.

    “Immigrants are a very important part” of the workforce, he said. “We expect to see less growth of employment. That will be a sign both that immigrants are not coming and maybe some are leaving.”

    Flores, the UC Merced researcher, advocates for policies such as cash relief or expanding access to unemployment insurance, which undocumented immigrants are denied despite contributing payroll taxes. Such policies, giving low-income families spending power, not only would provide much-needed relief but also would help inject money into the local economy.

    “It’s the holiday season right now. There are so many families that don’t know how to put food on the table or pay their next bill,” Flores said. “As a public, we should be concerned with what is happening to people’s stability during these times.”

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    Suhauna Hussain

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  • Exclusive: 12 investors dish on what 2026 will bring for climate tech | TechCrunch

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    This was supposed to be the year that climate tech died.

    President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have done their best to dismantle the Biden administration’s hallmark industrial and climate policies. Even the European Union has begun to ease off its most aggressive goals.

    And yet, as the year closes, the receipts provide a different view of climate and clean energy investing in the U.S. and Europe. Instead of tanking, venture bets in the sector remained essentially flat relative to 2024, according to CTVC, far from the slide some had expected.

    That resiliency is due in part to continued threat of climate change. Perhaps a bigger contributing factor is that many climate technologies have become either cheaper or better than the fossil fuel alternatives — or are on the cusp of being so.

    The incredible cost reductions of solar, wind, and batteries continue to fill climate tech’s sails. Not every new technology will follow the same path. But it does provide evidence that fossil fuels aren’t invincible and ample opportunities to fund companies providing cleaner, cheaper replacements do exist.

    Data centers continue to dominate

    Last year, I predicted that 2025 would be the year that climate tech learned to love AI and its thirst for electricity, one that has largely borne out. It’s not entirely surprising — for the climate tech world, cheap, clean energy is its cornerstone.

    Interest in data centers has only increased in the last year. And investors TechCrunch surveyed were nearly unanimous in their agreement that data centers will remain at the center of the conversation in 2026.

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    “They are creating their own financial ecosystem, and there is enough actual momentum in current AI efforts that I don’t see the hyperscalers pulling back in 2026,” Tom Chi, founding partner at At One Ventures, told TechCrunch.

    “I’m still hearing about an ever increasing concentration of effort and focus on data centers virtually every single day in meetings, especially with corporates,” Po Bronson, managing director at SOSV’s IndieBio, told TechCrunch.

    In 2025, data centers were obsessed with securing new sources of power. But Lisa Coca, partner at Toyota Ventures, thinks they’ll adjust their focus for 2026. “The 2026 data center energy conversation is likely to shift from demand to resilience and the need to accelerate plans to decouple from the grid,” she said. Decoupling could solve some challenges that data centers face, namely in resistance from grid operators and the public, who are increasingly worried that the new loads are driving up their electricity prices.

    There will still be the need for more power, though, and investors saw geothermal, nuclear, solar, and batteries as having benefited from the boom. “Zero-carbon generation is already among the cheapest sources of power, and growing demand for both grid-scale and distributed batteries is accelerating cost reductions faster than expected,” said Daniel Goldman, managing partner at Clean Energy Ventures.

    Investors also acknowledged the AI bubble might burst; some voiced skepticism about whether it would drag the energy sector down with it.

    “Could a bubble burst in 2026? Sure,” said Kyle Teamey, managing partner at RA Capital Planetary Health. But it’s not likely to affect infrastructure plans, he added. “The spending for 2026 is already budgeted. The train has left the station.”

    Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures, thinks the data center bubble might burst in 2026 or early 2027, but that no such bubble exists in electricity generation. “We still need a LOT more power, and we’ll use that — no build-out bubble there … yet.”

    Outside of AI and data centers, Anil Achyuta, partner at Energy Impact Partners, said reindustrialization will take more of the spotlight this year. “We need to rebuild supply chains for systems that require multiple components and complex flowsheets,” he said, citing robotics, batteries, and power electronics as examples.

    The continuing quest for power

    Thanks to the drumbeat of new data center announcements, energy-related startups have gotten a boost this past year, perhaps none more than those working on nuclear fission. In the last few weeks, nuclear startups have announced rounds totaling over $1 billion, leading to speculation that many will SPAC or go public through a traditional IPO in 2026.

    “Nuclear everything is in vogue right now,” Teamey said.

    But it will take a while for nuclear power to make a dent in electricity demand. In the meantime, tech companies and data center developers have been turning to solar and batteries as inexpensive, rapidly deployable power sources. Grid-scale batteries, in particular, have been a major beneficiary, seeing record-setting deployments in 2025. As alternative battery chemistries like sodium-ion and zinc come to market, they stand to lower costs and drive further adoption.

    “We’ll see growth in 2026 with new plays on [battery] chemistry and business models.” said Leo Banchik, director at Voyager. “One of the key lessons from earlier failures was scaling gigafactories before proving demand or achieving better unit economics than the status quo. The new wave is more disciplined.”

    Several investors felt geothermal would step in to help fill the void in the coming years. It helps that investors see enhanced geothermal as a relatively mature technology that’s ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026. 

    “Geothermal will be hot on solar’s heals in terms of new generation,” said Joshua Posamentier, managing partner at Congruent Ventures. “Natural gas assets are growing pretty linearly. There’s not much new capacity in turbine manufacturing coming online, and they’re selling everything they can. Geothermal will go geometric.”

    And while AI is helping to drive demand, companies and technologies that think beyond the data center will benefit the most, said Laurie Menoud, founding partner at At One Ventures. “Data centers are one demand driver, not the whole market.”

    Which startup is most likely to go public in 2026?

    Not everyone was in agreement or would proffer a guess. But among those who did, several said nuclear or geothermal startups were most likely to go public, either via IPO or SPAC. 

    The name mentioned most was Fervo, the enhanced geothermal startup that recently raised a $462 million round. The company is widely seen as a leader in the sector and is in the midst of building a 500-megawatt development in Utah that should serve as a template for future power plants. Tapping the public markets would give the company more reserves to tackle additional projects.

    Beyond data centers, investors are interested in a range of technologies and sectors, including critical minerals, robotics, and software to manage the electrical grid.

    “We should be paying more attention to grid execution as a category,” said Amy Duffuor, general partner at Azolla Ventures. “The quiet winners are companies that make interconnection, planning, and deployment faster software, hardware, and supply-chain solutions that help utilities actually move projects forward.”

    Resiliency and adaptation will be big themes in 2026, according to Coca of Toyota Ventures and Posamentier of Congruent Ventures. Achyuta at EIP zeroed in on one potential application: robots that bury electrical transmission lines quicker and more cheaply than humans, mitigating wildfire risks and increasing the grid’s reliability.

    Beebe, at Obvious Ventures, said that EV trucking would also be an area to watch. “One of the biggest pieces of news of 2026 is going to be the release and specs behind the Tesla Semi. The range and pricing of that vehicle will change that industry in ways as powerful as the Model S or 3.”

    AI, of course, is likely to play a role in climate tech’s transformation. “We will see massive innovation where AI meets the physical world in 2026 on both the infrastructure and consumer app layers,” said Matt Rogers, founder at Incite and Mill. “Combining AI with smart hardware and physical infrastructure will ensure the transformation of trillion-dollar industries from manufacturing to life sciences to food systems.”

    But it might also pay to keep an eye on technologies that have already been written off, said Bronson at SOSV. “When investors finally get tired of a sector and come to the conclusion it won’t pan out, that’s when the real breakthroughs finally happen,” he said.

    Dive deeper

    Below are the detailed comments from the investors who replied to TechCrunch’s survey, listed in alphabetical order. Click the link to jump to a specific response.

    Anil Achyuta, partner at Energy Impact Partner

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Reindustrialization beyond data centers will be a major theme. We need to rebuild supply chains for systems that require multiple components and complex flowsheets. For example, supporting next-generation robotics to address labor shortages and national security concerns will require integrated supply chains. Batteries, power electronics, fuel cells, gas turbines, and even home building are examples of end markets/technologies where parts of the value chain will need to be reindustrialized.

    Another area to watch is AI-driven physical science. While companies like Zanskar (predictive AI for geothermal) and Fabric8Labs (generative cooling for data centers) have shown promise, we haven’t seen many visible breakthroughs yet. That said, the talent pool working on these problems is impressive and could lead to exciting developments.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    Gas turbines provide firm capacity and remain the option for many large players deploying data centers. Beyond that, batteries — particularly sodium-ion — represent one of the most economical and near-term solutions at the grid-scale. I am bullish about the progress in this technology, and pairing solar with batteries (as companies like Peak Energy are doing) continues to be a highly attractive approach. Next-gen geothermal is also showing a good amount of promise but the timelines are like that of nuclear, potent but will take about a decade to bring full capacity online.

    In addition, algorithmic solutions to unlock new power using existing infrastructure (e.g., Gridcare, ThinkLabs AI) and optimize workloads (e.g., Emerald AI) can further enhance grid efficiency. There are also other innovations worth noting in bringing more power, such as applying optical coating to transmission lines to reduce losses being advanced by AssetCool (an EIP portfolio company).

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    Fervo Energy, Commonwealth Fusion, Redwood Materials would be my personal guesses, but I could be wrong.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale storage are already being deployed and will accelerate significantly in 2026. Another technology to watch is solid-state transformers (note Heron Power is an EIP portfolio company). The industry is advancing faster than expected and scale similarly to semiconductors, though at-scale production might take longer.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    One emerging trend is the underground build-out of transmission lines. Advances in robotics could enable a rapid, cost-effective approach that significantly reduces wildfire risk and, in turn, mitigates the substantial carbon emissions associated with such events.

    Distributed power, heat, and computation are the last class of trends we are curiously tracking for 2026.

    Leo Banchik, director at Voyager

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Data centers will keep driving record power demand as AI workloads scale. Despite talk of overbuild, we’re unlikely to see much stranded capacity — as compute gets cheaper and more available, we’ll keep finding new uses for it. The interesting shift is hyperscalers differentiating between clean power sources — firm vs. intermittent, location, and additionality — rather than just headline megawatt-hours. This is already playing out in bespoke offtake deals and on-site supply strategies.

    Fission and geothermal should see continued momentum from both private capital and federal support. Fusion will likely attract increased federal support as geopolitical competition intensifies, though we’re still many years away from high-capacity-factor grid-scale deployment.

    Natural gas peaker alternatives will gain traction too — using new turbines and modular designs with integrated carbon capture as grids manage new peak demands from AI.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    Solar and battery build-out will continue given their strong economics. For dispatchable, 24/7 baseload power, we’ll see growth in fission, geothermal, and peaker alternatives like modular gas turbines with integrated carbon capture. There’s also a grid-edge opportunity worth watching: large facilities procuring dedicated baseload on-site rather than adding to grid congestion.

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    Most likely fission or geothermal. These companies have raised substantial capital and built strong offtake agreements with hyperscalers and utilities. With multibillion-dollar project pipelines and the need for continued growth financing, several could pursue public markets in 2026.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Energy storage deployment is accelerating across residential, commercial, industrial (including data center backup), and grid-scale applications. Domestic supply chains, including second-life battery systems, are gaining traction for stationary storage. We’ll see growth in 2026 with new plays on chemistry and business models. One of the key lessons from earlier failures was scaling gigafactories before proving demand or achieving better unit economics than the status quo. The new wave is more disciplined.

    Industrial heat pumps and thermal storage systems for steam and process heat are becoming cheaper to operate than gas boilers in many regions and applications, especially where waste heat is available and electricity prices are favorable.

    We’ll also see more growth in critical minerals and battery materials projects — lithium, rare earth, magnesium refining; battery component and cell manufacturing; copper recycling — maturing with federal support as supply chain security becomes a strategic priority.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    Software and AI enabling physical infrastructure: real-time factory intelligence that improves energy efficiency and manufacturing yields, AI-based design tools that speed up product development cycles, grid management software that orchestrates intermittent renewables with storage and dispatchable power.

    Companies taking a clean-sheet approach to reimagining foundational technologies — a SpaceX-style rethink of components once considered solved problems. Motor designs that eliminate rare earth dependencies, grid infrastructure like transformers with modern manufacturing techniques, advanced materials processing that significantly reduces costs while improving quality. Improvements in robotics help to enable these cost curves, making U.S. manufacturing economically viable where it wasn’t before.

    Lastly, dual-use climate technologies with superior unit economics that happen to strengthen domestic supply chains. Defense and industrial policy are backing these not for climate reasons, but because they deliver cost advantages and supply security.

    Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Data centers will again dominate. But there will be a lot more talk of a build-out bubble (in data centers, not electricity generation). We will live with the dual reality of too much money/debt spent on data centers, and the speculation bubble will likely burst (maybe early 2027). But at the same time, we’ll still need a LOT more power, and will use that — no build-out bubble there … yet.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    For power generation: geothermal in the near-term. Fission in the mid-term. Fusion in the 10-year-plus long-term. For actual siting: The above technologies can be sited anywhere, but mainly western states for geothermal. For batteries — PJM [the grid that covers the mid-Atlantic west to parts of Illinois] and Texas.

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    Venture-backed: Fervo

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Geothermal and grid-scale batteries.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    Grid software and EV trucking. One of the biggest pieces of news of 2026 is going to be the release and specs behind the Tesla Semi. The range and pricing of that vehicle will change that industry in ways as powerful as the Model S or 3.

    Po Bronson, managing director at SOSV’s IndieBio

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    I’m still hearing about an ever increasing concentration of effort and focus on data centers virtually every single day in meetings, especially with corporates. To some extent this is from “picks and shovels” companies who don’t want to get commoditized so they’re strategizing how to be a bigger player/more integrated rather than just a component that’s purchased. 

    A related phrase I hear more frequently is power density and/or specific power (power to weight), as a load of corporates are anticipating or planning how their energy divisions branch into robotics. Duncan Turner here is our expert. 

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    I don’t have a climate tech company in my portfolio going public in 2026. Tidal Vision is targeting 2027. That’s my closest. I don’t want to opine on other VC’s portfolio companies, even though I have my feelings, because I shouldn’t open my mouth where I’m only partially informed.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    For larger scales in 2026, my fastest scaling companies are Tidal Vision and Voyage Foods, which has taken over a General Motors plant in Ohio. 

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    On what to pay more attention to, I’ll toot Duncan’s horn here again — what he’s doing with the Plasma Forge is IMHO going to be super compelling and make everyone study at night. 

    One last note is my consistent feeling that it’s when investors finally get tired of a sector and come to the conclusion it won’t pan out that the real breakthroughs finally happen. I learned this lesson back in 1999 when we were all wondering if the search space was going to be won by Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, or Infoseek. 

    I do feel like that’s happening in my personal portfolio. I said this to AgFunder recently, but when the VC world asks about winning sectors, there’s a presumption that the sector will be so hot that there will be multiple winners. Most markets don’t have multiple winners, and the sector doesn’t win; just one company wins. 

    Tom Chi, founding partner at At One Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    There will be a lot more around data centers in 2026. They are creating their own financial ecosystem, and there is enough actual momentum in current AI efforts that I don’t see the hyperscalers pulling back in 2026. 

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    Budgets for hyperscalers are in the $50 billion to $100 billion range, which encompasses power, chips, and much more. The chips are expensive enough that folks are willing to pay a bit more to get power on the grid sooner as the losses from chip depreciation are greater than most things you could incrementally add to your power scale-up budget.

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    IPO market still a bit murky, and most folks don’t telegraph exactly when they will go public.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Folks like Fervo are at an interesting inflection point. One of our portcos Provectus Algae is also at an interesting point.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    We’ve had a pretty big pendulum swing away from the more capital-intensive work in industrial decarbonization that aren’t in AI. They are still critical for our collective future, even if out of fashion for a few years.

    Lisa Coca, partner at Toyota Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    In our view at Toyota Ventures, the 2026 data center energy conversation is likely to shift from demand to resilience and the need to accelerate plans to decouple from the grid. 

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    We believe that the biggest investment opportunities are in firm, dispatchable, and scalable carbon-free energy. We have actively invested in technologies that support increasing baseload power, both geothermal and nuclear, through portfolio companies such as Rodatherm and Natura Resources. For critical grid flexibility, we are backing advanced, long-duration energy storage battery technologies with an investment in e-Zinc. 

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    We anticipate that nuclear power will continue to lead the way in terms of IPOs and SPACs in 2026.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Challenging question since we believe it is more a function of how, and if, the capital stack continues to evolve. There is a healthy number of climate tech companies across multiple sectors that are on the cusp of deploying at a larger scale. The biggest hurdle is securing FOAK financing to de-risk the all-important step of advancing from first of a kind to nth of a kind.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    Our team expects resiliency and adaptation will continue to reign strong in 2026. The Toyota Ventures portfolio illustrates this: BurnBot addresses wildfire mitigation, ZymoChem bolsters supply chain resilience with sustainable materials, and Alora creates adaptable resource solutions.

    Amy Duffuor, general partner at Azolla Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    My prediction is that the energy conversation shifts from generation of power to how fast power can actually be delivered. Interconnection timelines, permitting, and physical grid constraints continue to be a bottleneck and data centers will increasingly rely on hybrid strategies that blend grid power, storage, and demand flexibility to hit timelines.  

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    One opportunity is at grid-ready sites, like places with existing transmission and substation. Anything that shortens interconnection timelines creates outsized value right now because access to the grid is scarce. Also interested in wireless transmission of power even though it’s in the early stages.

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    There has been a lot of talk about Fervo Energy…!

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Long-duration energy storage technology companies, which will move from initial pilots to demos to repeatable deployments. We’re particularly excited about our portfolio company Noon Energy. 

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    We should be paying more attention to grid execution as a category. The quiet winners are companies that make interconnection, planning, and deployment faster software, hardware, and supply-chain solutions that help utilities actually move projects forward.

    Daniel Goldman, managing partner at Clean Energy Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    We expect to see an acceleration of deal making in the data center/hyperscaler space consisting of the following: 

    1. Structured power off take agreements with a mix of behind-the-meter and utility-related infrastructure to bring optimization around pricing and reliability;
    2. More action at the federal, ISO/RTO, and state level to accelerate deployment of energy assets while balancing tariff structures that avoid burdening voting consumers with increased costs;
    3. M&A in the technology optimization area, including resources such as geothermal, nuclear, critical minerals and downstream hardware and software products enabling the digitalization, decarbonization and distribution of energy supplies and load management, a key area of our focus and that which venture capital in general is quite focused on. 

    While we don’t expect an overall “bust cycle” for data center and hyperscaler development activities, we do expect some rationalization of development and implementation of efficiency options to reduce capacity needs. 

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    The greatest near-term opportunity — and challenge — lies in improving the grid itself. Grid modernization through digitalization, decarbonization, and decentralization will unlock cost savings, optimize existing infrastructure, and better integrate significant distributed energy resources — probably not saying anything new here. Zero-carbon generation is already among the cheapest sources of power, and growing demand for both grid-scale and distributed batteries is accelerating cost reductions faster than expected. 

    We expect this trend to continue despite recent policy shifts in the IRA and there are hundreds of venture capital-backed companies that can have a material impact on the grid as they scale-up and see more adoption rates in the market. Disruption is here!

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    Factorial appears to be a leading candidate following its plans to de-SPAC in 2026. Its trajectory illustrates that companies with strong customer traction in large markets, clear cost and performance advantages, and rapidly scaling revenues are well-positioned for the public markets. (This SPAC market contrasts with the 2020 one where entrants such as QuantumScape did not have meaningful revenues and perhaps were ill-prepared for public markets.)

    Watch out for more companies hitting public markets on hype, instead of good fundamentals. 

    Beyond Factorial, several companies in energy storage, generation, and critical minerals are approaching scalable revenue levels to access low-cost of capital public markets (a real benefit), though in the minerals sector we may see growth in mergers and acquisitions precede any public offerings in 2026.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Projects in energy storage, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), critical minerals, and material manufacturing facilities across the energy supply chain will see significant investment in the U.S., with manufacturing tax credits and attractive market opportunities still available notwithstanding federal policy headwinds. 

    In 2025, we extensively evaluated and developed new risk transfer solutions for FOAK project developers. We see commercial lenders and private credit starting to lean more heavily into this space with the support of insurance underwriting and catalytic capital. We expect to see more projects and more debt financing  for early commercialization, which up until this point has only trickled in. This is the key enabler of the greater scale we need across the industry.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    For western markets to compete with China’s manufacturing and increasingly innovation prowess, financial innovation is CRITICAL. Global markets need to deploy $3 trillion to $9 trillion per year through 2050 on climate related technologies and implementation of projects if we hope to reduce global temperatures and compete in these markets internationally. Global spending on climate related investment was only $2 trillion in 2024 and is on a path for a similar amount in 2025. 

    To increase the rate of deployment, we must convince public and private investors that the risk-return balance is favorable to deploy capital across the climate capital stack — early-stage venture, growth-stage venture, private equity, commercial lending and private credit, and infrastructure. Our sector is not attracting enough capital; in simple terms, risks need to decline or returns need to increase. 

    We see opportunities to use risk-sharing mechanisms to optimize capital stacks and lower the cost of capital for new technology projects, which also brings them down the cost curve faster. Promising solutions include technology and performance risk insurance, surety bonds for managing construction risks, pooling off-take agreements among buyer groups (e.g., hyperscalers for clean power or airlines for SAF), filling gaps in construction financing, and more. Clean Energy Ventures’ spent time during 2025 identifying new risk transfer solutions working closely with our counterparts in the finance and insurance sectors. We believe 2026 will see more innovative financing solutions enabling faster scaling of climate technologies.

    We should also be paying very close attention to cost curves. The impact of AI is showing up but not being widely reported in climate tech. Inside large companies and small startups the benefits of AI are driving costs down, allowing faster innovation at complex facilities and in supply chains. This is apparent in chemicals, mining and refining, power generation and grid optimization, manufacturing (steel, cement), recycling and waste management, and more. 

    We are only at the embryonic stage of seeing the impact of AI on the cost curves in a wide range of commodities and industries. As we talk about the upward impact on power prices driven by AI infrastructure requirements, we need to keep in mind that AI will also radically transform industries globally and reduce cost of production.

    Laurie Menoud, At One Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Yes, there’s been massive excitement around everything connected to data centers, energy generation, storage, transmission, cooling. But from a VC perspective, building and scaling data centers isn’t a startup timeline. It’s a decade-long struggle of permits, substations, and grid upgrades. To put numbers on it, hyperscale data centers take 3 to 6 years to permit and connect in the US today. In some markets, interconnection alone can exceed 5 to 7 years. So in 2026, I expect to see continued traction for energy companies that are not only tied to data centers but can expand into commercial and industrial use cases and front-of-the-meter applications. Data centers are one demand driver, not the whole market. 

    Related to this is the supply of critical metals, which I continue to be very focused on: mining, extraction, refining, and recycling. This is critical not only for data centers (especially copper), but also for EV batteries with lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt. 

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    In places where thermal (coal and gas) and nuclear plants are being retired, because those sites already have high-capacity grid connections. That makes deploying new clean generation dramatically faster. In the U.S. alone, more than 60 GW of coal capacity has retired since 2015, and another 40+ GW is scheduled to retire by 2030. Each retirement frees up a transmission node that took decades to build. Reusing that interconnection is often the difference between a 2-year vs. an 8-year project timeline. And that’s where you could install next-gen nuclear reactors, like Stellaria, that cut long-lived waste, capex, opex, deployment time, and extends fuel use, or geothermal energy like Factor2 Energy, utilizing underground CO2 reservoirs for lower constraints on deployment location. 

    The same is true of industrial sites (chemicals, steel, refineries) that already have oversized grid connections. These sites are trying to expand production, and add storage, and they already have one of the hardest problems solved: interconnection. If you want to electrify heavy industry quickly, you go where the grid already exists. 

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    No one can really know, but the battery recycling and circular critical materials subsector is one I’d watch closely. Lithium, nickel, and cobalt prices are extremely sensitive to geopolitics, and recycling provides a lower-risk, domestic supply for the U.S. 

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Relectrify is deploying their battery systems at commercial production scale in 2026 with a cumulative capacity of 100 MWh. They use cell-level semiconductor circuitry to individually control battery cells at high frequency, directly producing an alternating current waveform. No need for an inverter anymore, which is a direct win on CAPEX, improved usable lifetime battery capacity, and lower OPEX by identifying and replacing malfunctioning cells with precision. It’s happening now.

    And overall, grid-scale energy storage beyond lithium, driven by both AI data centers and renewable growth. Without it, you simply can’t run 24/7 clean power outside of nuclear and hydro. Globally, stationary storage is projected to grow from ~45 GWh in 2023 to hundreds of GWs by 2030. Some of the new technologies are already ready today. 

    Battery recycling and closed-loop supply chains with automakers (recycled lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper going back into new batteries) are also already scaling. 2026 is about acceleration. Ascend Elements has already built the largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in North America, and has now achieved the first production of recycled lithium carbonate. Imports make up the majority of the US supply of lithium carbonate today, mostly from Argentina and Chile. If you can secure your metal supply with lower-cost recycled content, isn’t that a big win?

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    Companies like Chemfinity, that could make domestic metal refining at cost parity with China, and anything tied to mining, extraction, refining, and recycling of critical metals for data centers and EVs. Copper is THE metal for data centers. It’s used in power cables, busbars, transformers, cooling loops. A single gigawatt of data-center capacity requires on the order of tens of thousands of tonnes of copper. And about 40% – 45% of the world’s copper refining is in China, followed by Chile. It’s the same geographical structure as lithium refining and battery precursor chemistry. People talk about energy security. This is what it actually looks like. 

    Joshua Posamentier, managing partner at Congruent Ventures

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Push for growth will continue but attention will shift from flashy gigawatt announcements to construction, commissioning, and dealing with the brutal realities of interconnect and permitting delays. The result will be a huge upwelling of “bring your own generation” and “demand flexibility.”

    The age of ASSPs/ASICs will begin in earnest for AI data centers. GPUs will continue to grow, but the rate will taper in favor of more specialist chips that are far more efficient, especially for inference loads. This will start decoupling data center power consumption from token generation.

    The unit economics of the marquee foundational AI shops will leak. They will not look good. But they will convince investors to support them through their trough of upside down unit economics until they achieve positive unit economics, which will come sooner than expected. But the shine will be off: These will fall into a different bucket than high margin SaaS companies from prior bubbles.

    Data centers will become far better grid participants through flexibility, load shaping, and power quality, and they will be rewarded with far faster interconnect times than other big loads — the more tech they adopt, the faster they’ll get connected.

    We’ll see the first off-grid world-scale data center NTP [notice to proceed, or a letter telling a contractor to begin work]. We’ll also see more NIMBY pushback on proximate data centers because of everything from power costs to size to water use.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    Nuclear fusion! I think we’ll see the first net gain by analysis (i.e., deuterium fusion where it would be Q>1 if it were tritium) in a startup reactor.

    Geothermal will be hot on solar’s heels in terms of new generation with linearly deploying gas assets.

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    SPAC or IPO? Lots in the pipe, pun intended.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Geothermal for electricity and district heating. Friction is still way too high for single site geothermal heat loops to scale much faster than today. Thermal energy storage (load shifting) for industrial applications.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    Robotics (not the humanoid kind) are taking over a huge number of labor-intensive industries; they will impact many industrial, agriculture, waste, and manufacturing operations in 2026.

    Logistics and manufacturing efficiency: electrification, efficiency, onshoring, and AI are pushing on emissions from half of the economy and these sectors are economic, not impact buyers. Give them long-term certainty on lower costs vs. conventional fuels, for example, and you’ll have buyers. This is everything from electrified autonomous trucking to electric autonomous rail and dark terminals.

    Resilience technology is going to really get going. Insurance costs (due to climate risk) are outpacing every other cost for homeowners and impacting commercial operations. Businesses and individuals are going to aggressively begin to invest in resilience in the face of accelerating climate change and extreme weather but also aging infrastructure and a shift from centralized to distributed resource paradigms.

    Matt Rogers, founder at Incite and Mill

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    Data centers will serve as factories for the next phase of AI innovation powering America’s society and economy. I think local governments will step up more in 2026 and challenge hyperscalers to deliver solutions that are more in line with community needs and municipal partnership that allows for swifter construction. Energy affordability is top of mind, and we really need to reverse the trend of 2025 of rising costs.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    The call is coming from inside the house in 2026. In other words, consumers have more impact than anyone thinks. Decentralized infrastructure solutions, including rooftop solar, energy storage, and distributed energy resources, like heat pumps and smart thermostats, are available today. Households can turn them on swiftly, cost-effectively, and without the major disruptions to grids across the nation we are seeing today. It’s faster to permit than building new centralized power plants. 

    If enough people adopt these approachable solutions, America’s grid has a better shot at handling the increased capacity from the data center AI boom.

    There’s also an alignment opportunity hiding in plain sight: AI pioneers and Big Tech companies want a faster, more predictable path to build. Local and state governments want affordability, economic investment, and resilience. Communities are actually in a unique position to trade swift permitting and flexible construction timelines for economic rejuvenation, tax revenue, and job creation from the private sector. 

    By enabling more efficient households with lower utility bills, hyperscalers can access the energy they need to operate AI data centers. Much faster. That’s why this isn’t a moonshot. The opposite, in fact. 

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Mill. We’ll deploy more Food Recyclers, and on a different scale, than ever before. We’re planning more partnerships to encourage more households, businesses, and communities to view food as something to return back to the food system rather than leave for weeks in dumpsters and then years in landfills.

    Robotics is going to attract massive funding and private sector attention in 2026. Simultaneously, builders will move away from the hype around humanoid models towards functional robots designed to handle specific tasks and make life easier. The future of robotics will look more like Roomba than your neighbor Rhonda, which actually bodes well from both an affordability and technology risk perspective.

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    We will see massive innovation where AI meets the physical world in 2026 on both the infrastructure and consumer app layers. Combining AI with smart hardware and physical infrastructure will ensure the transformation of trillion-dollar industries from manufacturing to life sciences to food systems. In order for AI to power the future without tanking grids or negatively impacting communities, it must be paired with physical hardware that solves problems and makes everyday life better for people. We’ll benefit as much from an AI smartphone as we will with an AI-powered waste facility.

    Kyle Teamey, managing partner at RA Capital Planetary Health

    Data centers have dominated conversations about energy in 2025. What should we expect in 2026?

    I think data centers will still dominate in 2026. But I guess I’m a little jaded on this stuff because I was in the last AI cycle — it’s a lot of the same conversation. But the level of investment is orders of magnitude greater. The level of attention is orders of magnitude greater. And so it’s going to take a long while for this to shake out one way or another.

    The spending for 2026 is already budgeted. The train has left the station. Could a bubble burst in 2026? Sure. But that would take a while to be manifested. It’s going to take months to a year perhaps to to really be manifested. You’d have to shut it off midstream and try to claw your money back. That’s pretty hard to do.

    Where is the biggest opportunity to find or place power on the grid?

    This has been talked about a lot, but the data use, the requirements for data, it scales fairly exponentially. Power it scales quite linearly. As a consequence, it’s going to take a long while, I think, for the physical world to catch up to the data demand side. It’s really all of the above. If you can if you can do anything in power generation, power storage, transmission, distribution, if you can improve grid operations — the list goes on and on and on. 

    A bull market in electricity like this, I don’t know how long it’s been, maybe like a century? And so it really, at least to us, it looks like it’s all of the above. Lots and lots of interesting opportunities within that. We’ve seen some companies go public in the like the last 12, 18 months. We probably will see more. I think it’s fair to to think that there will be. 

    Which climate tech or clean energy startup is most likely to IPO in 2026?

    I think power generation is gonna see more public companies in 2026, for sure. There could be a wide, wide variety there. Nuclear everything is in vogue right now. We’ll likely see more of those. Geothermal, we’ll definitely see some of those. And you’ve already got a bunch of interesting players who are in project development and implementation, some of those could go public as well. It’s not just the tech companies, but the folks up and down the value chain.

    Which technologies do you think will be ready to deploy at larger scales in 2026?

    Nuclear fission companies in particular. That could be a bubble for sure, but if some of these companies start succeeding and start getting uh projects built. Every few years these opportunities pop up, and it makes sense that people take advantage of those opportunities to raise some additional cash and grow more rapidly. 

    What trend or technology should we be paying more attention to?

    There haven’t been any technologies I’ve seen recently where I’m like, ‘Oh wow that’s going to change the world, everyone should be looking at that.’ I do think it is more about scaling for a lot of these right now. If you can hit scale quickly, it’s an amazing opportunity. 

    If you look at the the various trends, it’s not just the manufacturing demand. The other driver is the regionalization of everything, which is driving demand for labor, for resources. Fill in the blank, there’s demand for it. 

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    Tim De Chant

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  • Japan Is Overrun With Tourists. This City Wants More.

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    NAGOYA, Japan—The tourists who crowd the bullet trains from Tokyo tend not to disembark at Nagoya as they speed along the so-called Golden Route linking the Japanese capital with Kyoto and Osaka. 

    “Nagoya tobashi,” the locals say. Nagoya gets skipped. The manufacturing hub, which anchors the region that is home to auto giant Toyota, is Japan’s fourth most-populous city and, according to a decade-old newspaper poll that still stings here, number one in dullness. 

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    Jason Douglas

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  • Exclusive | How a Handyman’s Wife Helped an Hermès Heir Discover He’d Lost $15 Billion

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    Nicolas Puech says his wealth manager isolated him from friends and family and siphoned away a massive fortune. Then came the clue that began to reveal the deception.

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    Nick Kostov

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  • Why the song of the summer is nearly 30 years old—and what it has to do with Gen Z’s nostalgic thirst for a ’90’s kid summer’ | Fortune

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    “‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand,” Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls wailed plaintively in “Iris,” which dominated charts from April through July of 1998. He was singing about Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan’s angel/human romance in “City of Angels,” but nearly 30 years later, he was singing to millions more, many of them Gen Z.

    Google Trends’ September 3 newsletter reported that search interest for “iris goo goo dolls” was at a 15-plus year high, and as of the past week it was “the top searched song of the summer.” On Spotify, it was a top 25 global hit for several months running, The Wall Street Journal reported in late August, even reaching as high as No. 15. This phenomenon isn’t just a quirk of algorithms or chance—it’s the product of a larger cultural moment driven by nostalgia and the shifting ways we connect with music. Gen Z, a generation already defined by a keen sense of nostalgia, has popularized the concept of a “90s kid summer,” harkening back to a time before social media and smartphones—the exact time of the Goo Goo Dolls’ biggest-ever hit.

    The viral surge of “Iris”

    Much of the song’s renewed momentum can be traced to viral moments, such as the Goo Goo Dolls’ live performances at major festivals like Stagecoach and on the American Idol season finale. TikTok trends featuring both original footage and covers have also propelled “Iris” to new global streaming peaks, with over 5 billion streams worldwide, far and away the top result for the band on Spotify. Rzeznik told Australian outlet Noise11 that his band has to play live and “that’s how we earn a living.” With “Iris” at the 2-billion stream mark at that point, he added, “You make crap for streaming. People stream your songs and you make no money.”

    John says, “Nobody makes any money out of selling records anymore because nobody buys records anymore. You make crap for streaming. People stream your songs and you make no money. You’ve got to go out and play live. That takes a lot of time. I just think the business has changed so much. Its not as much fun as it used to be. We get to play live and that’s how we earn a living”.

    The strange power of a three-decade-old song dominating summer playlists is no accident. As revered music critic Simon Reynolds explored in his influential 2010 work Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past, we live in a time where cultural production is increasingly fixated on recycling the old rather than inventing the new. Reynolds argued that contemporary pop is less about innovation and more about revisiting previous decades, blurring distinct eras, and nibbling away at the present’s identity. He’s far from the only cultural theorist to spot the lure of the recycled hit.

    A few years later, in 2014, the cultural theorist Mark Fisher (who later committed suicide after a long battle with depression) released a book of essays, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Among several memorable phrases, he introduced the concept of the “slow cancellation of the future”: the persistent feeling that time is repeating itself and new ideas are stalling in favor of familiar comfort. According to Fisher, our cultural imagination is increasingly drawn to recycling past successes, not just in music but in film, fashion and art. The result is a present haunted by the ghosts of earlier decades—where the future has faded into a “recycled present” and our ongoing search for novelty is often satisfied by what we already know.

    Gen Z’s 1990s nostalgia

    These ideas play out most vividly in recent consumer trends, especially among Gen Z. For many, the 1990s symbolize an era before smartphones and constant connectivity—a time when summers consisted of bike rides, ice cream trucks, and garden hoses, rather than endless notifications and screen time. The “90’s kid summer” trend reflects a longing for unstructured play and analog fun, with parents and young adults alike trying to recreate the freedom and creativity they associate with the pre-digital age.

    Google Trends reported that “90s summer” reached an all-time high in June and “90s kid summer” was a breakout search in July. It has close similarities to a similar breakout search: “feral child summer,” which encourages parents to stop tracking their kids’ every movement (with technology that was not available in the ’90s). They communicate a yearning for another time with less technology, when “Iris” was playing on a loop over and over on VH1. For Gen Z, who never truly experienced the ‘90s but grew up with its influence, revisiting this past through music like “Iris” is both escapism and rebellion against the anxieties of the digital present.

    When the Goo Goo Dolls, with opener Dashboard Confessional, played Berkeley’s Greek Theatre in September, the emo band’s frontman Chris Carrabba remarked on all the teenagers who were rocking vintage band tees in the crowd. ““Do they even have MTV anymore?” he asked in onstage comments reported by SF Gate. Then he offered an explanation to his audience: “Families used to watch TV communally. It was like large format TikTok.” SF Gate noted that the crowd grew overhelmingly loud for the closing number of the show: of course, “Iris.”

    Nora Princiotti of The Ringer argued on September 3 that the summer of 2025 lacked a defining “song of the summer,” with recent examples including “Old Town Road” and “Despacito” and older classic including “Hot in Herre” Nelly and “Summer Nights” from Grease. She argued that it was a summer “without monoculture,” depriving many contenders from the chance to dominate the airwaves that were available to the Goo Goo Dolls the first time around, in 1998.

    But somehow, “Iris” managed to dominate a different kind of airwave in 2025, emerging as a juggernaut in a manner oddly fitting for a world where Reynolds’ prophecy of retromania is truer than ever. If Mark Fisher was also correct that the future has been canceled, then another Goo Goo Dolls’ lyric, from their 1995 smash “Name,” also comes to mind: “reruns all become our history.”

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    Nick Lichtenberg

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  • CU Buffs-Arizona quick hits: Take a breather, Travis Hunter. Shedeur Sanders, LaJohntay Wester, CU pass rush got this

    CU Buffs-Arizona quick hits: Take a breather, Travis Hunter. Shedeur Sanders, LaJohntay Wester, CU pass rush got this

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    Initial observations from the CU Buffs’ 34-7 win over the Arizona Wildcats in Big 12 play at Arizona Stadium.

    Paging Sean Payton: An onside kick attempt to start the game? Did Arizona head coach Brent Brennan consult the Broncos’ Sean Payton earlier this week? Bold move, to say the least — if not a very bright one. It was almost as if Brennan knew exactly what was coming down the pike. There was no way the Wildcats’ leaky secondary was coming up with enough stops to win this game … unless special teams could steal an extra possession or two. A weird message to send your team before a ball is even snapped. But at least Brennan is a realist.

    Weapons to spare: Who needs a run game when you have Shedeur Sanders and an endless stream of pass-catchers? Certainly not CU against a defense like Arizona’s. Can’t rush the passer? Have problems covering receivers one-on-one or tackling in space? Shedeur and the Buffs will eat you alive, whether it’s third-and-long, third-and-short, or, in the case of the QB’s 14-yard strike to Travis Hunter in the first half, fourth-and-10. So even if the Buffs average 2.3 yards on 22 attempts, as they did in the first half, it’s plenty. They still converted 8 of 11 third downs and put 28 points on the board. By the time everything was said and done, LaJohntay Wester had eight catches for 127 yards. And he’s, what, CU’s third- or fourth-best receiver? Yikes!

    Livingston’s stock on rise: Stats may not be kind to the Buffs defense — CU entered Saturday 94th in FBS in yards allowed and 73rd in points allowed — but the eye test says Robert Livingston’s unit is trending up. And it’s happening at the line of scrimmage — an area that was a notable issue last season. In two of the last three games, CU has bottled up one of the nation’s top rushing attacks (UCF, 177 yards) and harassed one of its most productive passers (Arizona’s Noah Fifita) to the tune of seven sacks, CU’s most since posting eight against Iowa State in 2010. The Buffs now have 16 sacks in their last three games.

    Heisman watch: This was not a day to worry about Travis Hunter’s Heisman Trophy campaign. With CU’s two-way star clearly not 100% after getting dinged in the Kansas State loss last week, Coach Prime did the smart thing, holding Hunter out over the final two quarters as “preventative measures.” CU already had a 28-7 lead, and Hunter’s mortal stat line (54 snaps, two receptions for 15 yards, one tackle) will soon be a mere footnote as long as he delivers a few more superhuman performances down the stretch. (Spoiler alert: He probably will.)

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    Matt Schubert

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  • Nuggets vs. Thunder preseason observations: End of Denver’s bench struggles again in 4th loss

    Nuggets vs. Thunder preseason observations: End of Denver’s bench struggles again in 4th loss

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    The Nuggets remain winless in preseason play with one game remaining after a 124-94 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday at Ball Arena. The last chance to earn a win is Thursday in Minnesota.

    Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook were out this time for the Nuggets, leaving them with a cast of role players to fend off Oklahoma City’s full starting lineup — an inverse of Sunday’s game, when Denver ran the starters for three quarters against Phoenix’s bench.

    Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he had planned to rest Murray for this game even before his knee started bothering him Sunday while warming up.

    What awaits Strawther after outstanding preseason?

    Denver’s clear standout performers this preseason (other than the three-time MVP) have been Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther, both of whom continued to carry the offense during the first-half minutes Tuesday. Strawther made his first five shots, including 3-pointers in rhythm, a driving floater and a couple of buckets in the lane, where he used his footwork or body to go up strong through traffic. He finished with 12 points.

    Most importantly in these four games, he is 8 for 18 from distance, where his teammates have struggled. Christian Braun, who’s expected to start at shooting guard over Strawther, is 1 for 13. That probably won’t change how the rotation will shake out, though.

    “Obviously it’s never going to be just about who’s playing better in a vacuum,” Malone said when asked about the position battle. “It’s always going to be about, yes, who’s playing well, but also who complements that unit. And right now to be honest, I think C.B. and Jamal and Michael and Aaron (Gordon) and Nikola, that’s a group that really complements each other well. I think (Russell Westbrook), when we get Peyton Watson back — and that’s been really hard for us, not to have Peyton — but I think Russ, Julian, Peyton, Dario (Saric) and whoever else, I think that’s a really good complementary group as well. But I will give Julian some more chances to get out there and start and play with that (starting) group.”

    Watson (hamstring) still hasn’t played this preseason, but Malone says the plan is to have him ready for the season opener next Thursday at Ball Arena.

    Nnaji puts together consecutive good games

    As frustrated as Malone was with his team’s collective performance against the Suns on Sunday, he pointed to Zeke Nnaji’s fourth-quarter minutes as one of the few positives.

    Nnaji earned a starting nod Tuesday and built on his productive outing with 11 points, three rebounds, two steals and three blocks, including one against Jalen Williams in space. There were occasional lapses, too — a ball-screen miscommunication leading to an easy dunk in the first half, a ball fake getting him to leave his feet for a blow-by in the second half — but the highlights should be a welcomed confidence boost. Nnaji’s form has looked smoother, too. He buried a couple of 3s Tuesday.

    Before opening tip, Malone gave a candid answer when asked if he believes Nnaji is better at the four or the five, speaking to the general skill set the coach wants to see from Nnaji.

    “I don’t get into all that. I think that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Malone said. “‘Are you a four or are you a five?’ In today’s NBA, you’re a big, you’re a small. … This is not 1980s where it’s three-out, two-in. Zeke’s a big. So go out there and play your game. I mean, is Dario Saric a center in anybody’s eyes? Well, he is for us. So yeah, the whole four (or) five thing, I just don’t really understand.”

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    Bennett Durando

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  • CU Buffs vs. Kansas State quick hits: With Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn lost to injury, Buffs fall short vs. Wildcats

    CU Buffs vs. Kansas State quick hits: With Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn lost to injury, Buffs fall short vs. Wildcats

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    Initial observations from Colorado’s 31-28 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats in a Big 12 showdown in Boulder.

    Wildcats gashing: Kansas State’s primary key to victory was running the rock. In the first half alone, junior DJ Giddens trampled the Buffs for 127 yards on 12 carries, good for 10.6 yards a pop. Ex-Buff Dylan Edwards added 17 yards and a TD. Giddens was untacklable at times, and the CU linebackers and secondary had an especially hard time wrapping up in the second and third levels. KSU continued to pound the football and bleed the clock in the second half, starting with nearly an eight-minute TD drive in the third. A Colorado local, Durango graduate and starting right tackle Carver Willis, helped pave the way for an 182-yard rushing night for Giddens.

    Hunter, Horn hurt: CU star wideout/cornerback and Heisman Trophy candidate Travis Hunter, who has been central in the Buffs’ 4-1 start coming into Saturday, left the game midway through the second quarter with what ESPN reported as a shoulder injury. Hunter caught a 14-yard pass, but was crunched by KSU safety Daniel Cobbs, and immediately left the game. He didn’t return, and sophomore Colton Hood came on in Hunter’s place on defense (and later picked off K-State). On offense, CU also lost wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. to injury in the first half and Horn didn’t return, either. The absence of those two playmakers, especially Hunter, took some explosiveness out of CU’s offense, even if the Buffs managed to put 28 on the board.

    Hood in clutch: No Hunter to play lock-down corner in crunch time? No problem, at least for a moment. Hood came up clutch late in the fourth quarter with an interception and runback that set up CU’s go-ahead touchdown with 3:20 left. On fourth-and-6 at the CU 31-yard line, Avery Johnson’s pass was tipped by Preston Hodge and then corralled by Hood. He ran it back to the KSU 17-yard line, tripping himself up on the grass to come up just short of the pick-six. However, the next drive, Jayce Brown burned Hodge for a 50-yard TD catch.

    Shedeur shines: Once again, the CU QB looked like a top draft pick, despite playing without his two top targets in Hunter and Horn. No. 2 completed 16 straight passes across the second and third quarters — a CU record streak — and willed the Buffs back in the game with his arm despite taking some big hits. His lone blemish was an interception on an overthrow, and his final stat line was videogame-esque: 34 of 40 for 338 yards, three touchdowns and a 186.2 rating.

    Big sacks: Both team’s defensive lines made noise in the first half, as the Wildcats tallied four sacks for minus-49 yards, while CU’s defense had three sacks for minus-29 yards. Kansas State’s pressure also forced an intentional grounding on CU’s last possession of the half that effectively killed the drive. In the second half, the Wildcats continued to bring the heat, especially as the Buffs all but abandoned the run. KSU had two sacks for minus-25 yards over the final two quarters, finishing with six sacks overall. On a third-quarter sack, KSU defensive end Ryan Davis celebrated with Shedeur Sanders’ signature wristwatch move, holding the pose for a few seconds toward the CU crowd.

    KSU QB hurt, returns: The Wildcats also had an injury of their own to dual-threat quarterback, but Johnson’s absence was brief. The sophomore suffered what looked like a side injury on KSU’s opening possession of the second half, following an impressive threaded pass that went for 33 yards to Brown. Senior Ta’Quan Roberson spelled Johnson, who returned to the field later in the drive to throw a one-yard TD pass to Brown that made it a two-score lead. That 16-play, 81-yard drive chewed up more than half the third quarter.

    Who’s who: As has become the norm with Buffs games under Coach Prime, an array of stars were on the CU sidelines on Saturday night at Folsom Field. That list included current Nugget Russell Westbrook, retired former Nugget Carmelo Anthony (who rocked a Peter Forsberg Avs jersey), former Wizards star John Wall, current NBA stars Kevin Durant and John Wall, and rapper Cam’ron. Plus, former CU football stars and current NFL receivers Laviska Shenault and Juwann Winfree were also on hand.

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    Kyle Newman

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  • Rockies Journal: 106-loss Royals went bold, made playoffs. Will Colorado?

    Rockies Journal: 106-loss Royals went bold, made playoffs. Will Colorado?

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    The 2023 Kansas City Royals were embarrassed. A 106-loss season can — and should — do that to a major league team.

    Royals owner John Sherman said something about it. Then he did something about it.

    “It sucked,” Sherman told MLB.com at the end of spring training. “But that’s what motivates you. Sometimes, you need that slap upside the head, right? We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we cannot tolerate something like that again for our fans.”

    So the Royals went big and bold.

    Their aggressiveness stoked a remarkable 30-game about-face (56-106 last season to 86-76 this season), a two-game sweep of the Orioles in the American League wild-card series, and a berth in the ALDS before they fell in four games to the Yankees.

    By beating the Orioles, Kansas City became just the second team to win a postseason series one year after losing at least 100 games. The other was the 2020 Marlins, who snuck into the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 60-game season.

    Rockies fans should hope owner Dick Monfort was paying attention.

    Monfort’s club, which lost 103 games last season and 101 this season, is making some strides toward a turnaround with some young talent on the roster and in the system. But does the will and the wherewithal exist at 20th and Blake to put the Rockies in position for a playoff swing?

    General manager Bill Schmidt and manager Bud Black, who just agreed to return for the 2025 season, are optimistic about the future but not making any promises.

    “Our talent base is getting better,” Schmidt said at the end of the season. “Our depth is getting better. I’m not going to say we’re going from this year to win 95 next year. Our record this year might be similar (to 2023), but we’re going to be a better club.”

    Asked if Colorado can mimic the Royals and the Tigers (who went from 78-84 to 86-76 and the playoffs), Black answered: “Kansas City? Detroit? Anything is possible. When I got here in ’17 … what happened in ’16? (Colorado was 75-87 under Walt Weiss.) And then we made the playoffs. I’m going to say yes. I’m optimistic.”

    But the Rockies aren’t the Royals and Monfort is not Sherman.

    During the offseason, K.C. committed $109.5 million to free agents, the most money in any offseason in franchise history, including free-agent starting pitcher signees Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. They also signed their star shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr., to a contract extension that could add up to $377 million over 14 years.

    The Royals’ first big roster move was signing free-agent pitcher Will Smith for the back end of their bullpen. Smith had been on the roster of the last three World Series champions, with the Rangers, Astros and Braves.

    During the season, when they sensed success was on the horizon, they acquired closer Lucas Erceg and outfielder Tommy Pham.

    The Royals, who had not been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2015, created an effective roster mix. Their postseason roster featured 12 homegrown players, including draftees and international signees. The other 14 players came from trades and free agency. Of those 14 players, 11 had previous postseason experience.

    The Royals are far from a powerhouse franchise. Last season, they averaged just 16,136 fans per game at Kauffman Stadium, ranking 27th in the majors, ahead of only the Marlins and the A’s. This season, the Royals drew 20,473, ranking 26th.

    According to Spotrac, Kansas City’s total payroll this season was $122.5 million, ranking 20th. Last year, it was $96.1 million (23rd).

    After the 106-loss debacle, GM J.J. Picollo immediately began reshaping the front office. He hired Brian Bridges as the new scouting director, promoted Jim Cuthbert to director of pro personnel and strategy, and beefed up the preseason and development department by hiring six new people.

    And so the seeds of a playoff team were planted.

    The Rockies, meanwhile, have some distinct advantages over the Royals. They drew 31,360 fans per home game this season, ranking 15th. Their payroll was $147.4 million (17th).

    The problem is not the Rockies’ failure to spend money; it’s how they’ve spent it. This season, $28 million (19%) of Colorado’s payroll went to the perennially injured Kris Bryant, who played in just 37 games with 155 plate appearances. For the record, that amounts to about $757,000 per game.

    Monfort courted Bryant, who has played in just 33% of the Rockies’ games since signing a seven-year, $182 million contract before the 2022 season, the biggest free-agent deal in franchise history.

    Giving former closer Daniel Bard a two-year, $19 million deal for the 2023-24 season was also a big misstep. Bard, derailed by injuries, did not pitch a game in ’24.

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    Patrick Saunders

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  • How Charlie Blackmon’s career stacks up statistically against other Rockies greats

    How Charlie Blackmon’s career stacks up statistically against other Rockies greats

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    How does Charlie Blackmon stack up against other Rockies all-timers? A look at 13 major statistical categories in which Blackmon ranks within the top five in franchise history.

    Games Played
    1. Todd Helton 2,247
    2. Charlie Blackmon 1,621
    3. Carlos Gonzalez 1,247
    4. Larry Walker 1,170
    5. Vinny Castilla 1,098

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    Offensive bWAR
    1. Todd Helton 54.5
    2. Larry Walker 43.6
    3. Troy Tulowitzki 31.0
    4. Charlie Blackmon 28.7
    5. Nolan Arenado 26.8

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    Hits
    1. Todd Helton 2,519
    2. Charlie Blackmon 1,802
    3. Larry Walker 1,361
    4. Carlos Gonzalez 1,330
    5. Dante Bichette 1,278

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    Home Runs
    1. Todd Helton 369
    2. Larry Walker 258
    3. Vinny Castilla 239
    4. Nolan Arenado 235
    5. Charlie Blackmon, Carlos Gonzalez 227

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    Total Bases
    1. Todd Helton 4,292
    2. Charlie Blackmon 2,953
    3. Larry Walker 2,520
    4. Carlos Gonzalez 2,366
    5. Nolan Arenado 2,227

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    Doubles
    1. Todd Helton 592
    2. Charlie Blackmon 334
    3. Larry Walker 297
    4. Carlos Gonzalez 277
    5. Dante Bichette 270

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    Triples
    1. Charlie Blackmon 68
    2. Dexter Fowler 53
    3. Neifi Perez 49
    4. Larry Walker 44
    5. Carlos Gonzalez 39

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    RBIs
    1. Todd Helton 1,406
    2. Larry Walker 848
    3. Dante Bichette 826
    4. Charlie Blackmon 801
    5. Nolan Arenado 760

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    Runs
    1. Todd Helton 1,401
    2. Charlie Blackmon 994
    3. Larry Walker 892
    4. Carlos Gonzalez 769
    5. Dante Bichette 665

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    Stolen Bases
    1. Eric Young Sr. 180
    2. Charlie Blackmon 148
    3. Larry Walker 126
    4. Carlos Gonzalez 118
    5. Dante Bichette 105

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    Walks
    1. Todd Helton 1,335
    2. Larry Walker 584
    3. Charlie Blackmon 483
    4. Troy Tulowitzki 435
    5. Carlos Gonzalez 417

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    Power-Speed #
    1. Charlie Blackmon 179.2
    2. Larry Walker 169.3
    3. Carlos Gonzalez 155.3
    4. Dante Bichette 137.9
    5. Trevor Story 122.5

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    Win Probability Added
    1. Todd Helton 52.7
    2. Larry Walker 34.7
    3. Dante Bichette 21.4
    4. Nolan Arenado 20.0
    5. Charlie Blackmon 15.8

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    All of Blackmon’s statistics are as of Friday Sept. 27, entering his final series with the club. The outfielder/DH also ranks in the top 10 in club history in several other notable categories such as bWAR for position players (21.2/7th), hit by pitch (110/1st), singles (1,173/2nd), extra base hits (629/2nd), runs created (1,075/third) and sacrifice flies (39/tied for 5th).

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    Kyle Newman

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  • Broncos training camp rewind, Day 1: QB Zach Wilson takes turn in rotation and fans join the party for the first time this summer

    Broncos training camp rewind, Day 1: QB Zach Wilson takes turn in rotation and fans join the party for the first time this summer

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    Attendance

    Did not practice: Physically Unable to Perform list — S Caden Sterns (knee), S Delarrin Turner-Yell (knee) and LB Drew Sanders (Achilles). Non-Football Injury list — RB Blake Watson (muscle strain). Out — OLB Nik Bonitto, OL Nick Gargiulo. Dropped out — S Brandon Jones (hamstring)

    Payton told reporters after practice that Jones “tweaked” his hamstring and was being evaluated. He also expects Bonitto to be back to practice work Saturday.

    QB Race Today

    Zach Wilson did, indeed, get all the No. 1 reps during practice Friday, continuing the rotation that began earlier this week with Jarrett Stidham on Wednesday and Bo Nix on Thursday.

    The Broncos didn’t waste any time, getting a 7-on-7 period and three team periods in during their first full-length camp practice of the summer. Head coach Sean Payton said afterward that the team put a heavy emphasis on third-down situations.

    None of the three quarterbacks turned the ball over in team settings Friday, though Wilson and Nix were each almost picked by corners Riley Moss and Reese Taylor, respectively.

    “There’s things you have to evaluate sometimes,” Payton said. “In other words, the pocket, was it broken down? There’s certain things that can take place that can affect their execution. So when you’re evaluating and breaking down the reps, you have to take all of that into account. I like the way they’re protecting the ball and I think they’re working through their progressions. … They’re getting a lot of looks.”

    Top Play

    On a Friday devoid of big, spectacular plays, beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Maybe you preferred a pretty looking toss play to the left for Jaleel McLaughlin? Or a couple of nice plays on the ball by Moss, the second-year corner? Or the continued, consistent pressure that the defensive line generated? All come with caveats: It’s early and more to the point they’re not wearing pads yet.

    Thumbs Up

    Reynolds’ all-around addition: Wide receiver Josh Reynolds made a couple of plays Friday and is already showing the kind of versatility Denver coveted in free agency. He’s a tall, long receiver, a smooth runner and a willing blocker.

    “He’s flexible, he’s smart,” Payton said. “(Passing game coordinator) Johnny Morton worked with him in Detroit so we had a little bit more knowledge of the player. He loves playing. … He’s been a good addition.”

    Welcome, Bo: Not surprisingly, the rookie quarterback got a big cheer from the crowd on hand Friday. With fans in attendance for the first time since Nix was selected No. 12 overall in April’s draft, it’s no surprise he got a warm welcome considering it’s the highest Denver’s drafted a quarterback since Jay Cutler went No. 11 in 2006.

    Thumbs Down

    Safety net?: The Broncos’ depth at safety is already a question mark with Sterns on PUP. If Jones ends up missing substantial time with the hamstring issue, Payton and company will have to take a realistic look at whether they’ve got enough depth on the roster.

    Dink and dunk: The NFL’s not much of a home-run league these days. Not only that, but Payton talked about the situation-heavy work Friday, the still-early installation schedule and more that is all reality this time of year. Still, the Broncos’ trio of quarterbacks at some point is going to have to show the ability to attack down the field with the ball. That hasn’t shown up much yet this offseason.

    Odds and Ends

    • The evaluation changes dramatically for everyone when pads come on, but some positions more than others. One of the most interesting players to watch: Rookie RB Audric Estime. He’s a load and has looked good so far this week.

    • Early means early — and it’s early — but so far the center battle has not seen as much rotation as the quarterbacks. Luke Wattenberg so far has seen most of the top-group work. We’ll see as time goes along if he’s truly leading or if Alex Forsyth or Sam Mustipher makes a move.

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • Broncos podcast: Previewing 2024 training camp and Denver’s three-man QB competition

    Broncos podcast: Previewing 2024 training camp and Denver’s three-man QB competition

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    Denver Post reporters Parker Gabriel and Ryan McFadden cover key storylines as the Broncos get ready to start 2024 training camp under Sean Payton, including Quinn Meinerz’s massive contract extension, whether Pat Surtain II might be next and how the three-man QB race between Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson sets up in the coming weeks. All that and more on the latest edition of the 1st & Orange Podcast.

    Watch

    Listen

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    Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.

    Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • Experts, analysts share latest on attempted assassination of Donald Trump – WTOP News

    Experts, analysts share latest on attempted assassination of Donald Trump – WTOP News

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    Former President Donald Trump is out of the hospital after an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

    Former President Donald Trump is out of the hospital and recovering after a 20-year-old, who the FBI identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, attempted to assassinate the current Republican nominee during a Saturday evening rally in Burke, Pennsylvania.

    Here’s the latest expert insight, reporting and analysis from WTOP News following the stunning turn of events on Saturday and its ongoing effects in the U.S.

    Related stories

    JJ Greene

    WTOP National Security Correspondent JJ Greene discusses security issues nationwide following the attempted assassination on former President Trump.

    Mitchell Miller

    WTOP’s Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller speaks on the political response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump.

    Devlin Barrett

    Devlin Barrett, Washington Post Law enforcement reporter speaks on law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Ivy Lyons

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  • Maxxxine isn’t just paying homage to exploitation thrillers — it is one

    Maxxxine isn’t just paying homage to exploitation thrillers — it is one

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    “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ―Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

    Ti West’s Maxxxine, the third movie in the horror trilogy West started with 2022’s X and Pearl, features an early scene where a man’s naked scrotum is graphically popped under a stiletto heel, then crushed underfoot. It’s a close-up shot, handled with presumably practical effects and squirm-inducing anatomical specificity. There is, obviously, a lot of screaming. It’s the kind of shot designed to make audiences squirm, flinch, cross their legs protectively — and possibly also laugh, because it’s so grotesquely over the top. And it’s the kind of moment that makes thoughtful genre fans wonder exactly where the line is between exploitation-film homage and just plain exploitation.

    Maxxxine is a reference-packed movie, like X and Pearl before it. All three movies pay homage to previous eras of cinema: X, set in 1979, is a visual and narrative throwback to ’70s slashers, particularly The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Pearl, set in 1918, is patterned after classic ’50s musicals and Disney movies. And Maxxxine, set in 1985, takes a lot of its visual and narrative cues from ’80s horror-thrillers — particularly Brian De Palma’s Body Double, though sex-soaked revenge dramas like Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 get their nods, too.

    Photo: Justin Lubin/A24

    But where X is more interested in characters and the philosophies of fame, sex, and pornography than movies like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Pearl isn’t a musical or family-friendly movie, there’s no significant distance between Maxxxine and the kind of sleazy, slobbery, violence-savoring films it’s referencing. (Though there’s a world of difference between it and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which West repeatedly quotes in his shots and sets throughout the whole trilogy.) The film doesn’t come across as ironic, satirical, or like a thoughtful analysis or commentary. It’s the first of the three that could actually be considered a new entry in the genre it’s referencing.

    That shift isn’t a positive step. Maxxxine is sharper, slicker, faster-paced, and more direct than the other two films in the series, and it’s certainly entertaining, for those who can stomach its purposefully challenging, envelope-pushing gore. But this time around, it feels like West has, as Kurt Vonnegut would put it, become what he was formerly just pretending to be. That isn’t just a matter of taxonomy, irrelevant to everyone but nitpickers and librarians trying to figure out which shelf Maxxxine goes on. It winds up affecting the story in some frustrating ways.

    This chapter of the story finds X survivor Maxine Minx (Mia Goth, the trilogy’s anchor) living in Hollywood, working in adult films and at a strip club while auditioning for studio movies and trying to break into the mainstream. She gets that break from director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki, looking more like a Robert Palmer Girl than ever), an iconoclastic director whose horror movie The Puritan has earned her a breakout shot at a bigger-budgeted Puritan II. Maxine gets cast as the lead, but her big moment is threatened by a series of distractions, some of which could end her life as well as her career.

    Maxine (Mia Goth) struts across a Hollywood parking lot outside a movie soundstage, with a row of other auditioners lined up in chairs behind her, in Maxxxine

    Photo: Dons Lens/A24

    There’s a local serial killer at work, dubbed the Night Stalker, who’s targeting young, attractive women like Maxine. Avuncular, slimy detective John Labat (Kevin Bacon, devouring all scenery within reach, and making it look delicious) is trying to blackmail her on behalf of a hidden client, threatening to out her to Texas law enforcement as the one person who knows what happened during the events of X. As cold and self-possessed as Maxine seems, she has PTSD in the wake of those events, and she’s having shattering flashbacks. And a couple of L.A. cops (Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan) are also chasing her, suspecting she knows something about how two of her co-workers ended up tortured, branded with pentacles, murdered, and dumped in a local pond.

    The Night Stalker plot thread was inspired by a real-life notorious rapist and murderer, and the torture-victims-dumped-in-public detail similarly echoes one of Los Angeles’ most horrifying and memorable crimes, the Black Dahlia murder. But the visual and narrative treatment of all of these threads is pure exploitation movie. The story certainly features a fair bit of violence enacted on men, from that rape-revenge-movie moment with the punctured scrotum to a couple of memorably ghastly deaths. But Maxxxine spends much more time on women being threatened, victimized, and commoditized, stalked and leered over and judged by male predators, tied up and tortured and dropped naked in public.

    It’s all familiar enough material that it runs together, no matter how abruptly and aggressively West cuts between his close-ups of agonized female corpses. What makes it a story is Maxine’s response to living in this kind of oversexed, raw environment — and Maxxxine frequently lets her down. West writes her as a ruthless, ferocious survivor willing to do anything for fame, then repeatedly takes her fate out of her hands and gives it to other people instead. He gives her a touch of vulnerability with those flashbacks to her past traumas, but he casually drops that part of the narrative once it’s been useful for injecting a few sudden shocks into the film.

    Maxine (Mia Goth) stands outside a store with a bright neon-yellow “adult movies” sign and police “crime scene do not cross” tape strung up in an X across the door in Ti West’s Maxxxine

    Photo: Justin Lubin/A24

    Above all, Maxxxine never really fills in the blanks that would make Maxine more than a focal point for different kinds of lurid violence. She doesn’t escape her problems via particularly clever or surprising choices. She confronts the film’s ultimate predator, but in a way that only brings out more information about him, not about her. The film’s climax sidelines her. And the buildup to that climax is full of sequences meant to feel cool, edgy, horrifying, or thrilling on their own, but without a sense that they’re part of an evolution or progression. Stuff happens to and around Maxine — horrifying, gross, exploitative things — but the screenplay seems more interested in those in those things than it is in her.

    X and Pearl both have their flaws, but they also both let Goth’s characters (Maxine in the first case, earlier obsessive fame-seeker Pearl in the second) speak at length about who they are and what they want. In both cases, those sequences are queasy, fascinating, and memorable. And they’re part of what sells this trilogy, besides the memorable splashes of graphic violence and the weird, dark humor that permeates all three movies. Maxxxine literally gags Goth at a crucial moment so West can focus more on bloody mayhem than on anything she has to say for herself.

    And that leaves Maxxxine feeling unbalanced compared to the other two films, like it isn’t really about the central character so much as it is about how much sordid grotesquerie West can pile up on the screen. It’s more tuned into fulfilling its audience’s presumed hunger for sex, blood, and violation than fulfilling any particular plot arc for Maxine herself. That kind of focus on transgression and titillation defined the films West is channeling this time out. But until now, this series has just felt like West is nodding to his influences, while still fulfilling his own discrete goals. With Maxxxine, it’s more like he’s trying to supplant them, without putting anything new on the table except better effects and a bigger budget.

    Maxxxine opens in theaters on July 5.

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    Tasha Robinson

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  • Microsoft clearly still cares about Game Pass. Exclusives? Not so much

    Microsoft clearly still cares about Game Pass. Exclusives? Not so much

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    Last week, I posited that the Xbox showcase on June 9 would be the most important in the history of Microsoft’s gaming division. If it wasn’t, that could be because this slick prerecorded show couldn’t possibly compete for historical impact with, for example, the garbage fire that was the 2013 Xbox One reveal event, or the bungled E3 show that followed it. It was confident and smooth in its orchestration, impressive in a way that was almost calming after the awkward anticlimax of Summer Game Fest two days earlier. But it was still immensely significant: for its indication of the seismic publishing power Microsoft now holds, for the questions it answered about Xbox’s future, and for the questions it didn’t.

    In fact, the two most telling bits of news emerged outside the boundaries of the show itself. The first was the confirmation, more than a week before the show, that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be released on Game Pass on day one. The second, which was not mentioned by Microsoft during its showcase but slipped out in a press release alongside it, is that Doom: The Dark Ages (one of the biggest first-party reveals of the event) is also coming to PlayStation 5.

    Between them, these two facts spell out Microsoft’s strategy quite clearly: Game Pass is everything, and Xbox consoles aren’t. Microsoft is doubling down hard on its subscription service, and bringing its new, almost terrifying might as a game publisher to bear on the Game Pass catalog. But the company had little to say about Xbox hardware, and its attitude to console exclusivity for Microsoft-owned games remains ambivalent at best.

    Doom: The Dark Ages’ PS5 version was quietly the most significant news of the night.
    Image: id Software/Bethesda Softworks

    After the shock release of four former Xbox exclusives on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch earlier this year, many Xbox fans were looking to Sunday’s showcase for explicit reassurance that Microsoft was still investing in Xbox consoles by getting its vast army of first-party studios to make exclusive games for them. That reassurance did not come. In fact, Xbox console exclusivity was not mentioned once. The words “coming to Xbox Series X and PC” appeared as much at the end of trailers for games in storied Xbox franchises like Fable and Gears of War as they did for multiplatform releases from third-party publishers like Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. There was no attempt at differentiation on this score.

    Reports indicate that Microsoft has “no red line” internally when it comes to which of its games it will consider for release on other platforms, and the wording (or lack of it) used on Sunday shows that the company is keen to keep its options open. It’s striking that Microsoft chose to open the showcase with two heavy hitters that’ll be available on PlayStation: Black Ops 6, which was already slated for PS5 (per Microsoft’s Call of Duty deal with Sony), and Doom: The Dark Ages, which wasn’t.

    The Dark Ages’ PS5 release is a clue to how Microsoft intends to handle exclusivity in the short term, at least as far as games from Bethesda, Activision, and Blizzard are concerned. Speaking to IGN after the showcase aired, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said, “Doom is definitely one of those franchises that has a history of so many platforms. It’s a franchise that I think everyone deserves to play. When I was in a meeting with Marty [Stratton, id Software studio director] a couple years ago, I asked Marty what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to sell it on all platforms. Simple as that.”

    Spencer’s explanation — as well as Microsoft’s handling of Minecraft — suggests that Microsoft does not intend to make previously multiplatform game series exclusive. It’s a strong indication that Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls 6, for one, will get a PlayStation release. For everything else, it’s an open question. It might seem unthinkable that Gears of War: E-Day or Fable will come out on PS5, but nothing said (or unsaid) on Sunday indicates that that’s off the table.

    Title cards for 16 games above the words “Play day one with Game Pass”

    Microsoft is keen to ram home Game Pass’ value to subscribers.
    Image: Xbox

    As far as Game Pass goes, however, Microsoft could not have been more emphatic. “Play it day one with Game Pass,” boomed the stinger on the end of trailer after trailer after trailer. Of the 30 games, expansions, and updates featured in Sunday’s showcase, 20 will go straight to Game Pass. Of those 20 Game Pass titles, 13 come from Microsoft-owned studios; nine are scheduled to debut in 2024, eight in 2025, and three have no release windows yet.

    Call of Duty, Doom, Gears of War, State of Decay, Perfect Dark, Fable, Indiana Jones, STALKER, Flight Simulator, Avowed… all coming to Game Pass as soon as they’re released. There are blockbuster shooters and role-playing games, strategy and sim games, wistful indies, and, thanks to partnerships with companies like Kepler Interactive and Rebellion, a good helping of AA Eurojank (perhaps the ideal kind of Game Pass game).

    In a way, it’s more illustrative to look at what from the showcase won’t be coming to Game Pass. Those 10 titles include big third-party franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Assassin’s Creed; a handful of smaller third-party games; and expansions for Starfield, Diablo 4, The Elder Scrolls Online, and World of Warcraft. Selling DLC for Game Pass-included titles like Starfield, Diablo 4, and TES Online is a big part of the Game Pass business model, so you could still consider those titles under the Game Pass umbrella. (World of Warcraft is the outlier here as the only Microsoft-owned game featured that isn’t on Game Pass at all — and indeed, the only one not available on Xbox consoles.)

    If Microsoft has doubts about the commercial viability of console-exclusive releases in the long term, it certainly doesn’t seem to have those doubts about Game Pass. With subscriber numbers seeming to have plateaued (according to Microsoft’s rarely released figures), and with the presumed considerable loss of revenue resulting from rolling a guaranteed seller like Black Ops 6 into a subscription service, many were wondering if Microsoft’s “Netflix for games” approach made economic sense. It’s possible that this debate has been ongoing in Microsoft until recently: Black Ops 6 developer Treyarch told Game File’s Stephen Totilo “it wasn’t that long ago” that the studio was informed that the game would launch on Game Pass. But taken as a whole, the showcase was a resounding vote of confidence in the service, and an indication that it will go on to provide great value to subscribers through 2025 and beyond.

    An image of a white all-digital Xbox Series X, a white Series S with 1 TB of storage and a black Series X with 2 TB of storage

    New Xbox console variants with more storage were announced with little fanfare.
    Image: Xbox

    After its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is now the third-biggest gaming company in the world by revenue — and arguably the biggest in terms of intellectual property and publishing might. Sunday’s showcase demonstrated quite convincingly how it intends to fill those massive boots: dozens of solid-looking games in famous, fan-favorite franchises, stretching far into the future. Quality and quantity. The surprise inclusion of a few long-gestating titles that had reportedly been stuck in development hell, like Perfect Dark and State of Decay 3, seemed like a pointed message that Microsoft can be trusted to keep all these projects on track, despite its spotty record in studio management.

    But Xbox hardware only got the briefest mention, in the form of three new console configurations and a promise that “we’re hard at work on the next generation.” The rumored handheld announcement did not materialize. And exclusivity remains a glaring open question.

    Regarding Microsoft’s position in the broader game industry, it seems we have our answer: It’s now a publisher first, a subscription platform second, and a console hardware platform a distant third.

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    Oli Welsh

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  • 9 games that need to be at Summer Game Fest or it’s so over

    9 games that need to be at Summer Game Fest or it’s so over

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    We are so back. And by “we,” I mean video games. At a half-dozen slickly produced promotional events over the next week, games will be teased in the form of captivating cinematic trailers with promises to push the medium forward.

    The annual Summer Game Fest extravaganza, host Geoff Keighley’s replacement for E3, kicks off the promotional activities on Friday, June 7. The rest of the weekend is also filled with similar hours-long events from Xbox, Activision, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital, and other organizers who have rallied smaller, indie-created games for a combined show of force.

    There’s an expectation that the annual parade of trailers for exciting new games will include plenty of games that won’t be out for many months, if not years, after their unveilings. To be clear, that happens every year. And I’m here to remind you that there are countless unreleased games that were announced with gusto at similar events in years past — some of which have slipped from the public consciousness, and we’re convinced that if they don’t show up in a meaningful way over the next couple weeks, it’s so over.*

    *It’s not really over, especially given the volatile state of the video game industry. But we’re getting pretty worried/impatient about the following games and honestly hope they show up, look great, and will be critical and commercial successes — all of them.

    Monolith’s Wonder Woman game

    Announced in 2021, developer Monolith Productions promised to bring its patented Nemesis System from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor to a game based on Wonder Woman. We were excited about it, even with the taste of Wonder Woman 1984 relatively fresh in our mouths, but haven’t heard a peep about the game since then. DC’s approach to video games based on its characters has changed since the announcement of Wonder Woman, and we remain hopeful that Monolith can capture the magical feeling of battling wisecracking Orcs in a game that gives us control of Diana Prince and her golden lasso.

    Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell remake

    Another announcement that dates back to 2021? Ubisoft Toronto’s plan to remake the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The new Splinter Cell promises to take advantage of 20 years of technical innovations and to rework parts of the game’s story “that may not have aged particularly well,” creative director Chris Auty said in 2022. Showing off the Splinter Cell remake at Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase would go a long way to appeasing longtime Xbox fans, with a deeper dive ideally poised for Monday’s Ubisoft Forward event. Just sayin’.

    Skate. (Skate 4)

    Credit to Electronic Arts: The publisher and development team, Full Circle, has been very transparent about the development of the next Skate game — which is called skate., not Skate 4, officially — and opened up playtesting to in-progress versions of the game. But please give us the new Skate already! How about a release date? Barring that, can I get a beta key? I want to flump, too.

    Capcom’s Pragmata

    It’s been four years since Capcom revealed Pragmata at Sony’s big unveiling of the PlayStation 5. Pragmata’s been delayed several times since then, and the last we heard about it was when Capcom pushed it back indefinitely. Is Pragmata joining the increasingly long list of games coming in 2025? It’s starting to feel like it.

    Rare’s Everwild

    We’re nearing the five-year anniversary of Everwild’s unveiling. Eighteen months later, we learned that developer Rare had reportedly rebooted the game with “a complete overhaul of the game’s design and direction.” Frankly, we just want to find out what Everwild even is — especially since Rare has proven that given the right development resources, it can turn good games into great games.

    Transformers: Reactivate

    Call me an idealist, but I’m always willing to give a Transformers game the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes you get an unexpected surprise — a Transformers: Devastation, if you will. So when Splash Damage teased Transformers: Reactivate in 2022 with a moody cover of Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive,” I was immediately on board. But we haven’t heard much about the cooperative online action game since, and that’s a shame. I’ve been in transform-and-roll-out mode for the past 18 months and I’m concerned.

    Perfect Dark

    Announced at 2020’s The Game Awards, developer The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot promised to revive a long-dormant franchise and serve as a cornerstone of the Xbox Series X’s lineup of game exclusives. But the studio and owner Microsoft have said very little about their new Perfect Dark and what we can expect from Joanna Dark’s return. We continue to wait for it, alongside Xbox Game Studios’ Avowed, Contraband, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, and State of Decay 3.

    Kingdom Hearts 4

    We’re now two years out from the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 4, a reveal timed to the Square Enix-Disney role-playing game franchise’s 20th anniversary. It increasingly looks like we’ll have to wait for Kingdom Hearts’ 25th birthday to actually get our hands on Sora’s next adventure. Given how long it’s taken Square Enix to realize its Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy — to say nothing of its next mainline Dragon Quest game — we don’t actually expect to see Kingdom Hearts 4 showing up any time soon. There’s a painful dose of reality.

    Hollow Knight Silksong

    It’s not happening, is it? Any time soon, I mean. That’s fine. Everything’s fine.

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    Michael McWhertor

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  • Nuggets GM Calvin Booth on 2024 offseason: “We can use a little bit more talent”

    Nuggets GM Calvin Booth on 2024 offseason: “We can use a little bit more talent”

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    As a longer-than-expected offseason tips off for the Denver Nuggets, team officials want to be sure they separate from what coach Michael Malone calls “the emotional reaction to losing” before any major decisions are made.

    “I think you always want to take time to let everything sink in and go back and take a quality look at everything that happened during the season,” general manager Calvin Booth said, “and then make decisions from that point.”

    As those reflections begin, Booth, Malone and team president Josh Kroenke addressed several topics during a 34-minute news conference Thursday. Chief among them: Do the Nuggets need to find a way to upgrade their roster?

    It was telling that Booth focused heavily on advancing the development of Denver’s youngest players.

    “I think (the 2023 draft picks) need more seasoning,” he said. “They need to get in the gym. They need to play Summer League. They need to get stronger. Obviously, maybe in our top seven, we can use a little bit more talent. Maybe there’s a way to upgrade one or two positions. … Get a guy that’s a more accomplished NBA player for whatever (roster) slot they’re taking. But I don’t see anything that’s, like, crazy out of sorts for our roster.”

    All indications from the extensive availability were that Denver isn’t rushing to make drastic changes to its roster. Booth doubled down on his previously stated team-building philosophy, which involves continuity achieved through drafting and developing to fill out the fringes of an expensive championship roster. He acknowledged the need to address the bench this offseason, potentially even with outside acquisitions, but it’s clear the Nuggets would prefer to rely on home-grown depth.

    That Kroenke later expressed faith in the starting lineup — despite its poor showing against Minnesota — was among multiple signs that Denver isn’t rushing to shop Michael Porter Jr. as a trade piece this summer. Malone also rebutted Porter’s own comments taking blame for the early exit.

    “We think we still have the best starting five in basketball, even though we fell just short this year,” Kroenke said. “Could have gone either way up until the last few minutes. So we don’t think we’re far off.”

    Here’s a look at some of the other topics addressed Thursday:

    Will Nuggets cross second apron to keep Kentavious Caldwell-Pope?

    Booth said: “We spend a lot of time looking at the second apron and all this other stuff. I think for me personally, it’s win a championship, one. Two, we have to look at the overall financial picture. And three, second apron. And I know the second apron is daunting, and there’s all kinds of restrictions, but I don’t think that’s first on our priority list. KCP’s been a great addition the last couple years. We obviously would love to have him back. We’re gonna take a hard look at what that looks like.”

    Analysis: Denver’s roster payroll already exceeds the luxury tax line and the first tax apron, resulting in a list of penalties imposed by the new collective bargaining agreement. If Kentavious Caldwell-Pope exercises his $15.4 million player or if the Nuggets re-sign him in free agency, they’ll trigger the second apron next season — meaning even more penalties. But Booth’s comment Thursday indicated that won’t be what stops Denver from retaining Caldwell-Pope.

    Kroenke also said that while he’s cognizant of the long-term consequences of existence in the second apron, he’s comfortable going there to make the most of a Nikola Jokic-led roster.

    Alignment between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth

    Booth said: “We’ve talked about this a lot upstairs. The general manager, front office job oftentimes is to make sure the long-term view is something that we’re satisfied with. And Coach Malone’s down there in the trenches trying to win every night. And a lot of times, those things are aligned, but sometimes they ebb and flow away from each other.”

    Malone said: “I’m thinking how do we win the next game? That’s my job. And Calvin as a GM is thinking about how do we win the next couple of years? That’s his job. And Josh is overseeing all that and understanding how to piece all that together.”

    Analysis: When Booth and Malone made these comments, they were answering separate questions about different topics. So this has clearly been a theme within the organization in the days following the Nuggets’ second-round exit.

    The franchise needs its general manager and head coach to be on the same page in order to maximize all 15 roster spots during the regular season. Most of what that boils down to is Booth’s aforementioned dependence on drafting and developing against Malone’s reluctance to trust young players with extended minutes. (That’s not a tendency that’s exclusive to one NBA head coach.)

    Nikola Jokic’s backup big men

    Booth said: “We’ll get a great chance to evaluate Vlatko (Cancar) this summer. … If (Slovenia is) able to get out of those qualifiers in Athens, he’ll be available to play in the Olympics, and I believe he’ll be playing in those qualifiers. … Zeke (Nnaji) is a young player. He brings energy to the game. He gives effort every night. He’s trying to grow into both sides of the ball. I think originally we drafted him to be a four. He’s ended up playing a lot of five. I don’t think it matters as much off the bench, but there are certain matchups where it becomes a little bit more problematic. But he has to get better. He has to be ready for his opportunities when they come. I think he’s gonna have a good NBA career.”

    Analysis: Cancar missed the entire 2023-24 season after tearing his left ACL during a national team game last summer. His contract has a $2.3 million team option this offseason. The Nuggets need affordable salaries like his, but it would be difficult to justify holding onto him if his health continued to be an issue. If he’s able to make his return in international competition (and maybe even play against Jokic or Jamal Murray in France), it’ll be a huge boost.

    As for Nnaji, his four-year, $32 million contract signed last October has aged controversially due to his lack of playing time. Booth seems to prefer Nnaji as a backup four instead of a backup center to Jokic, but if that’s the case, it still leaves a roster hole at the five. (Especially if DeAndre Jordan doesn’t return.) Nnaji’s contract is tradable until it isn’t. If the Nuggets become a second-apron team, they won’t be able to aggregate salaries such as his to get back a larger AAV.

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    Bennett Durando

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  • Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ 11th straight win over Lakers: “Don’t get bored with success”

    Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ 11th straight win over Lakers: “Don’t get bored with success”

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    LOS ANGELES — They showered Darvin Ham with boos as the coach was introduced before opening tip. They bombarded him with more pointed chants before time expired in an otherwise lifeless building.

    “Fire Darvin!”

    But is this Ham’s fault? D’Angelo Russell’s? The bench’s? All of the above? The Nuggets have infiltrated Los Angeles and sowed instability within an American institution. The Lakers’ superstar foundation is crumbling under the overwhelming pressure of Denver’s starting lineup, which is on the verge of securing a second playoff sweep of Los Angeles in as many seasons.

    “To beat a team like that in the first round, who I think if seeded differently, they could make it to the Western Conference Finals or something like that, it’s definitely a challenge,” Peyton Watson said. “But we’re up to it every time, and we love going out there and winning games.”

    With every successive win — every identical win — the unthinkable becomes closer to reality. The Nuggets might just own the Lakers.

    If they finish the job Saturday in Game 4, they’ll accomplish what not even the Steph Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors could, eliminating LeBron James via sweep two years in a row. Golden State needed five games in 2017.

    “They do not have a weakness offensively,” James said. “… Definitely one of the better teams that I’ve played in my career.”

    Maybe Denver will need five games in 2024. But if there’s any reason to believe that now, it’s this: The Nuggets are clearly a danger to themselves in this matchup. They are prone to stretches, even entire halves, of complacency against an opponent that can’t hold a lead against them. The ongoing 11-game win streak features six double-digit comebacks.

    “I think in this job as a coach, you always have to put on the hat of, ‘We have to fight human nature.’ And how do you do that when you’ve beaten a team 10 times in a row?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before Game 3, a 112-105 victory. “… Well, we’ve been down 12, we’ve been down 20. We’ve lost the first quarter of both games. We’ve been down at halftime in both games. That’s cool in your home building when you have that crowd behind you, but now it’s just us.”

    Those turned out to be hollow words. Denver spotted Los Angeles an 8-0 lead that grew to 12 before everyone other than Aaron Gordon decided to take Game 3 seriously.

    What followed was a 24-point swing between the second and third quarters. Like clockwork.

    “To be honest, I think every game is tougher and tougher,” Nikola Jokic said. “You can see, they were up 20 in Denver, in Game 2. They were up 12 today in the first half. But yeah, I think it’s really hard to play against the same team over and over again. You kind of get bored with the style of the play or whatever. So you just need to — especially for us, because we won the last three — just trust what we are doing and don’t get bored with success. Because it can (go) wrong really quick.”

    Michael Porter Jr. (1) of the Denver Nuggets knocks down a mid-range jumper over Anthony Davis (3) of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets’ 112-105 win at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

    The Nuggets are so bored of this matchup that they’ve inadvertently become thrill-seekers, dangling a win in front of the Lakers every night only to pull it out of reach at the last second when Anthony Davis tries to snatch it.

    Moments of redemption for the Lakers are short-lived against Denver. Davis’s dominant first half against Jokic in Game 2 was forgotten because he didn’t score in the fourth quarter. Russell’s 23-point bounce-back was superseded by his scoreless Game 3. In the first and third games, he combined to shoot 6 for 27.

    The variations of a Los Angeles second unit have failed to take any advantage of Jokic’s rest minutes. Before Game 3, Taurean Prince was the only Lakers bench player who’d scored a point in the series. Nothing from Spencer Dinwiddie. Nothing from Gabe Vincent.

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    Bennett Durando

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  • Shōgun is a great war epic that never actually shows us any war

    Shōgun is a great war epic that never actually shows us any war

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    [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the end of Shōgun.]

    Just before he’s forced to commit seppuku in the final moments of Shōgun, Yabushige demands to know how Toranaga’s plan to overthrow Ishido will play out. At this moment, Shōgun shows us a glimpse of tens of thousands of soldiers across five armies amassed on a battlefield. The entire series has seemingly been building up to this point — the training of the cannon regiment, Toranaga’s half-brother shifting his alliance, the Regents all signing a declaration of war — and yet just before the battle is set to begin, Ishido is delivered a note letting him know that the heir’s army will abstain from the battlefield. Without the heir’s banner, the other Regents will turn on him before the battle even begins. But this is just Toranaga’s plan; Shōgun never actually shows us any war.

    It’s subversive never to have any war in a historical war epic, with Toranaga’s subversion delaying his impeachment vote (and any declaration of war) until the ninth episode. Most movies or TV shows in the genre set up the narrative to give the viewer a satisfying and violent conclusion to the tension that’s been building, like the final stand in The Return of the King, the faceoff in Braveheart, or even the last stand of The Last Samurai (which is also about a Western military man landing in Japan, and shares some crew with Shōgun). In essence, no matter how brutal and bloody the fight is, an explosive battlefield is the natural climax to the story arc. These movies and shows also often land on one implied conclusion: War, no matter how disgusting it may be, is a justified, even virtuous endeavor.

    But while the war genre often posits a “good side” to root for over the evil one, Shōgun complicates the conception with Toranaga, who spends most of the series plotting in the background toward an alliance with key adversaries rather than preparing to fight them. Toranaga is cunning, ruthless, and willing to sacrifice his closest friends if it means he can avoid an all-out war. His motivations are what make Shōgun such a compelling show — while at the same time forcing audiences to reexamine their expectations of a historical war epic.

    For Toranaga in Shōgun, there’s only one evil side: war itself. In his final speech to Yabushige, Toranaga describes his dream: “A nation without wars. An era of great peace.” Key to his calculus, however, is his willingness to sacrifice those dearest to him to achieve this peace. From the moment Ochiba returned to Osaka, Toranaga had been prepping Mariko (and her thoughts about death) to make a final appeal to gain allegiance from the heir’s army. And, knowing since the pilot that Yabushige was bound to betray him, Toranaga’s orchestration of Mariko’s sacrifice was his personal trolley problem — only in his version, the question is between sacrificing one life or setting 10,000 trolleys against another 10,000 trolleys on the same tracks.

    Photo: Katie Yu/FX

    Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) standing and looking at a zen garden in a still from Shogun

    Photo: Katie Yu/FX

    In other shows, this setup wouldn’t quite work. Audiences are used to war being a mass of bodies hacking and slashing and shooting each other with the idea that sacrifice is necessary and just as long as both parties are armed. Individual deaths of beloved characters, however, are usually framed as the face for the heaps of lost lives. But Mariko walked into Osaka with a plan. With how close she came to committing seppuku, her sacrifice is likely one of the potential outcomes of the plan she discussed with Toranaga. When she willingly absorbs the blast of the bomb through the door, it’s absolutely heart-wrenching for the viewer and Blackthorne. His grief on screen, along with Father Alvito’s and Buntaro’s, is devastating to see unfold in the finale. In most media properties, the audience would walk away wishing the character was saved in time from their terrible fate, forced to be content with the revenge in their name. In Shōgun, we’re asked to accept her decision and not demand a bloodbath as retribution.

    In this light, Toranaga seems ruthlessly Machiavellian, since he seems perfectly fine with innocent death. When Uejiro the gardener removes the rotting pheasant and is put to death by the village as a smokescreen to protect his spy, Toranaga treats Blackthorne’s distress as childish. Similarly, when the Erasmus is sunk at the end of the series, Toranaga routs the whole town of Ajiro, sticking severed heads of fishermen on a sign as punishment for the destruction of the boat — even though it was he, personally, who hired the men who spread gunpowder across the deck of Blackthorne’s beloved ship. Even his son’s graceless death is only audibly acknowledged by Toranaga as a way to buy time and delay the oncoming war.

    Avoiding war seems to be Toranaga’s top priority throughout the series, though he never fully states it outright until his final confrontation with Yabushige. Throughout the show, he declines to share his feelings publicly, instead letting other characters in his council lead discussions — even if he’s manipulating their moves from behind the scenes. When his oldest friend and advisor threatens seppuku, Toranaga stands by his decision to surrender to Osaka, knowing that Hiromatsu’s death will set his battle-averse plans in motion. Even in his final interaction with Yabushige, who demands to know if Toranaga plans to reinstate the shogunate, triggering a return to a single military ruler for all of Japan, he forgoes the chance to monologue: “Why tell a dead man the future?”

    Shōgun is sparing but decisive about the horrors of war that Toranaga wants to avoid. Violence is efficiently brutal in the world of the show. Even in the flashback to Toranaga’s early glory days, Shōgun is careful not to valorize war or his part in it; while his own soldiers brutally behead fallen enemies lying in bloody piles of limbs on the battlefield, a young Toranaga looks on, unwavering in his demeanor. Threatened by the arrival of Ishido’s main man Nebara Jozen in episode 4, Toranaga’s son Nagakado makes the rash decision to unload their newly minted cannon regiment on the interlopers. As the cannons in the distance roar, the camera cuts quickly to Jozen, his men, and their horses being torn to shreds in some of the goriest effects put to television. While there is a fair amount of swordplay skirmishes throughout the series, this cannon demonstration is one of the only depictions we get of mass warfare, and the results are truly terrifying. Amid the viscera, the audience can actually hear the feet of Nagakado’s men squelch in the blood-soaked mud as they creep in to finish everyone off. Compared to the hand-to-hand combat we’ve seen in the woods, where men drop from a single slash or stab, this preview of war is significantly more gruesome, particularly when you add in the full rifle regiments.

    Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) holding up a piece of paper

    Photo: Katie Yu

    Shōgun is careful to avoid the glorious charge into battle, upending the viewer’s relationship to political struggle. When Hiromatsu commits seppuku to protest Toranaga’s surrender to Osaka, he does so to prevent Toranaga’s other generals from sparking their own uprising. Toranaga clearly wants to stop him but can’t, the way Hiromatsu would do anything for him and must. Later, Toranaga reveals that he knew Hiromatsu’s actions would spark Yabushige and Blackthorne to head to Osaka on their own, which allows him to send Mariko with them as part of his true plan. Toranaga’s pained stoicism in this scene is revealing, and the tears in his eyes are the first time viewers see his facade crack. Even if Toranaga carries the weight of every death in service to his cause, he’s still unwavering in his ultimate goal.

    That brings us back to Mariko’s standoff at the Osaka castle gates. As she tries to fight her way forward with her naginata, she’s relentlessly beaten back by Ishido’s men. After her defeat, she declares her intention to commit seppuku publicly for not being able to fulfill Toranaga’s orders, and it’s that moment that primes Ishido to release the Regents and their royal court as hostages — not her actual fight. In her actual fight, just before she picks up her own polearm, we see the pointless death of her armed escorts again and again as Ishido’s men slaughter them. Even when it looks like they may turn the tide, Mariko’s guards are cut down by arrows from men stationed on the castle walls. The battle is over in seconds, ending with one of Toranaga’s men bowing to Mariko while being speared directly through the heart from behind.

    It’s hard to ignore the message of intentional protest by death. For those not directly involved, war — particularly period warfare like Shōgun — tends to be a tragedy that occurs in a faraway place, out of sight and out of mind. Even if her men remain nameless, Mariko’s sacrifice instead places tragedy immediately on the doorstep of Japan’s capital in the most unavoidable way possible. When looking to calculate what the cost of war is, it’s no longer a tally of nameless soldiers dying far away. It’s now the immediate loss of someone everyone in the show — and of course, the audience — holds dear to their hearts.

    And the audience spends the entire last episode dealing with Blackthrone’s grief and acceptance. Shōgun defies the natural story arc by ending with a whimper; it’s in that precise moment of audience discomfort that viewers are forced to reckon with how much they want to see violence play out on screen, and perhaps even contend with how readily they are willing to accept war in real life.

    In a way, Shōgun is both a critique of war and of the media’s portrayal of it. But the show is always clear that every decision demands some sort of sacrifice. “It’s hypocrisy, our lives,” Yabushige states, cliffside, as Toranaga draws his sword to second his seppuku. “All this death and sacrifice from lesser men just to ensure some victory in our names…” Yabushige in this moment exists almost as an analog for the audience, questioning Toranaga’s methods. “If you win, anything is possible,” Toranaga replies, echoing a sentiment uttered by Blackthorne earlier. And winning, Shōgun seems to imply, can happen before war even breaks out.

    Shōgun is now streaming in full on Hulu.

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    Jesse Raub

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  • Broncos like young core of cornerbacks, edge rushers, but there’s still room to add at both positions

    Broncos like young core of cornerbacks, edge rushers, but there’s still room to add at both positions

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    After Broncos general manager George Paton fielded nearly a dozen questions about the quarterback position during the team’s pre-draft news conference Thursday afternoon, he was asked about other areas of need.

    Throughout the draft process, many experts have had Denver drafting an edge rusher or cornerback with the 12th pick. And though Paton is confident in the depth at both positions, he didn’t shy away from the possibility of adding to either spot.

    “You are always looking at those types of positions,” Paton said. “If someone falls in your lap, you’re going to take them.”

    It’s hard to find quality edge rushers and cornerbacks, Paton reasoned. Players like Von Miller don’t walk through the doors every day. But at the same time, the talent the Broncos have at both position groups is young with room to grow.

    Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, who is entering his third season in the league, had eight sacks in 2023 after recording 1.5 as a rookie. Jonathon Cooper had a team-best 8.5 sacks, while Denver should benefit from having Baron Browning at full strength entering the new year.

    At cornerback, Patrick Surtain II, 24, has established himself as one of the best in the league. Meanwhile, Ja’Quan McMillian played at a high level in the nickel spot during his sophomore campaign.

    But questions remain. How will Drew Sanders fare if Denver switches him from inside linebacker to the edge? Can Damarri Mathis bounce back after getting benched in the middle of last season? Will Riley Moss be able to live up to the team’s expectations after playing three snaps at outside cornerback as a rookie?

    In a division where the Broncos have to face two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert twice a year, they might not be able to afford to take that gamble, especially since they have the potential to draft a premier player at either position in the first round.

    “Whether it’s quarterback, edge or cornerback, you know what they are. They are a premium,” Paton said.

    When veteran Fabian Moreau took over as Denver’s starting cornerback, he held his own. But there were moments where he lacked the speed to keep up with certain wide receivers. Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell — who could be available at No. 12 — does, and he can make plays on the ball. He completed the 40-yard at the scouting combine in 4.33 seconds while recording 18 pass breakups in his final season with the Rockets.

    Denver used its last first-round pick to draft Surtain in 2021, and it traded up to take Moss in the third round of last year’s draft. But the possibility of having two lockdown cornerbacks could be intriguing for a defense that finished 22nd in passing yards allowed (233.6 per game) last fall.

    When it comes to edge rushers, NFL draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said in a conference call on Thursday that he thinks Alabama’s Dallas Turner, Florida State’s Jared Verse and UCLA’s Laiatu Latu are the top three players. Depending on how the top of the draft shakes up, either one could fall into Denver’s lap.

    Even though Bonitto and Cooper improved, the Broncos were 29th in pressure percentage (18.2%), 20th in sack percentage (6.8%) and tied for 21st in team sack totals (42), according to Pro Football Reference.

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    Ryan McFadden

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