Author: News Polite

New England Patriots players see ‘same intensity’ from 70-year-old Bill Belichick – NFL Nation

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL:

1. Same ol’ Bill: Bill Belichick at 70 years old. Same as it ever was.

There were several takeaways from the media’s first look at Patriots spring practice last week, but perhaps nothing rates more significant than this:

As Belichick attempts to do what no head coach in the history of the NFL has done — win a Super Bowl after his 70th birthday — his tank looks full. Belichick at a Patriots 2022 practice looked no different than a 2012 practice, or one in 2002.

In fact, he might have been more involved with some of the fundamental teaching that is at the core of spring practices.

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“I’ve always said, when people ask me what’s Bill like, that he’s the model of consistency,” said Patriots safety and captain Devin McCourty, who has been with the team since 2010. “Showing up to your job every day, having the same attitude, the same messaging, and being able to do that over and over again is hard.

“He continues to come in here, Day 1 of OTAs, for however many years it is, and it’s the same intensity.”

This marks Belichick’s 48th season in the NFL and 28th as a head coach (including his stint in Cleveland from 1991 to ’95). His passion for the fundamentals, details and every facet of football still percolates, as evidenced by one moment in practice when he pulled practice-squad receiver Malcolm Perry aside, flashed his hands in front of him, and discussed how Perry should attack the ball.

Perry probably won’t be on the 53-man roster when the season begins, but there’s a chance he’s called on at some point to help the Patriots win a game.

It was peak Belichick.

“It’s fundamentals, doing the right things, the small things over and over again. He never slips up on that,” McCourty said. “This being my 13th year, I’ve seen that over and over again. It’s hard to replicate, but I think getting an opportunity to play for him as a player has made me a better player.”

Belichick has some notable challenges to conquer, and his heavy involvement with the offense in Monday’s practice amplifies it. Quarterback Mac Jones is a promising second-year player, but without coordinator Josh McDaniels, there is a significant transition on the coaching staff with Joe Judge working with quarterbacks and Matt Patricia the offensive line.

No coordinator or playcaller has been named, but it was obvious at practice that Belichick, Judge and Patricia are sharing the role until further notice.

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1:19

Tedy Bruschi weighs in on the Patriots not naming an offensive coordinator yet.

Is there a concern that Belichick could be spread too thin? Perhaps, but those around him don’t see it.

“I’d say the thing about Coach, even though he’s older, I don’t even think he sleeps,” inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo said. “He wears multiple hats. You never know where you’re going to find him.”

2. Develin’s visit: The Patriots might be de-emphasizing the traditional fullback position in their offense (per former New England fullback Jakob Johnson), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t welcoming those who play the position to Gillette Stadium. Early last week, former Patriots fullback James Develin (2012-19) was a guest of the club, and he addressed players in a full-squad meeting.

Develin is a three-time Super Bowl champion. His football journey — playing defensive end at Brown University, joining the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz of the Arena Football, then the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, before gutting it out on NFL practice squads for multiple years as a fullback — is a story of perseverance that any current player could benefit from hearing.

3. Mac’s blind side: With starting left tackle Isaiah Wynn not at voluntary offseason practices last week, veteran Trent Brown flipped to that side, with swing tackle Justin Herron elevated as the top right tackle. Brown was excellent at left tackle in 2018, before playing right tackle upon his return to the team in 2021. Could Wynn’s absence be the opening to return Brown to left tackle permanently, especially when considering the valuable chemistry he’s developing with left guard/first-round pick Cole Strange? At the least, it’s a question Belichick and O-line coaches Patricia and Billy Yates are probably asking.

4. Wynn in retrospect: Wynn is a good example of the challenges for teams in having to decide on the fifth-year option for first-round picks after just three seasons. When the Patriots decided to pick up Wynn’s option in May 2021, it guaranteed Wynn a salary of $10.4 million for the 2022 season. The Patriots’ decision-making seemed reasonable at the time, considering the premium position Wynn plays. But given the linemen the team now has in place, one wonders if there is some internal regret, as Wynn’s $10.4 million cap charge could create some much-needed space.

5. Mac’s accountability: Jones’ leadership continues to evolve, and one example from Monday’s practice highlighted the point. When one player makes an error, Belichick often sends the entire unit on a lap as a punishment; practices might be voluntary, but running a lap isn’t. So when Jones appeared to have a mental breakdown at the line of scrimmage, which seemed to affect the offense lining up correctly, he called out loudly to everyone that it was on him before taking off for a full-unit lap.

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1:49

Dan Orlovsky questions the New England Patriots’ offensive plan going into the season.

6. Trade intel: The Patriots’ draft-day trade in which they shipped a 2022 third-round pick (No. 94) to the Carolina Panthers for a 2022 fourth-rounder (137) and 2023 third-rounder was a result of Belichick’s aggressiveness. As shown by the Panthers’ in-house video team, Belichick called the Panthers to gauge their interest in the pick and asked for their 2023 second-rounder in the process. Can’t hurt to ask for the moon, knowing the counteroffer is probably where things ultimately land.

7. Classy Belichick: When Belichick met with reporters last week, he opened by publicly sending condolences to the family of Patriots Hall of Famer Gino Cappelletti. He had also done so privately a few days prior by attending Cappelletti’s wake, a classy gesture.

8. Fisch in town: Former Patriots quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch, who spent the 2020 season with the team, was back in town last week and a guest at practice. He enters his second season as University of Arizona head coach. This is the time of year when the Patriots host various college coaches, and there can be valuable information exchange/learning opportunities for both sides.

9. Russey on radar: The Patriots have had at least one undrafted free agent make the opening-day 53-man roster in each of the past 18 seasons — the third-longest streak in the NFL behind the Chargers (25) and Colts (23) — and University of Houston center Kody Russey is a leading candidate to continue the streak. Consider that the Patriots hosted Russey on one of their valuable 30 pre-draft visits at Gillette Stadium, and also guaranteed him $180,000 (most among undrafted players signed by the team). With starting center David Andrews not yet fully cleared as he recovers from shoulder surgery, the 6-foot-1, 301-pound Russey has a nice opportunity this spring to make a favorable impression.

10. Did you know? The Patriots are scheduled to play four straight prime-time games — Nov. 24 at Minnesota, Dec. 1 vs. Buffalo, Dec. 12 at Arizona and Dec. 18 at Las Vegas — for the first time in team history. The last team to play in four straight prime-time games was the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Bybit’s Red Bull Racing NFTs, crypto-F1 partnerships, more

Crypto has taken over the world, and Formula One was no exception to the disruption. From NFTs and fan tokens to multi-year partnerships, the crypto community continues to support the F1 landscape in numerous ways.

Monaco Grand Prix 2022 saw F1’s fastest pit crew, Oracle Red Bull Racing (ORBR), partner with crypto exchange Bybit to launch ORBR’s 2022 NFT collection — minted over the Tezos blockchain. The limited-edition NFT collection is made available via an auction, wherein bidders get to collect digital collectibles representing various aspects of Red Bull’s past, present and future.

Speaking to Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said that F1 has a symbiotic relationship with crypto as the partnerships between the two industry pulls in young investors into the F1 fan base:

“Formula 1 is the challenger of the norm, and that really goes well with crypto. […] It’s a really huge synergy we see.”

Max Verstappen’s F1 car sporting the Bybit logo. Source: Cointelegraph

Parallelly, Bybit premiered “The Search for the Next Level,” a film starring Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio “Checo” Pérez — (spoiler alert) circled around the launch of the new RB18 car.

Aston Martin F1, too, signed a multi-year partnership deal with crypto exchange Crypto.com for exploring fan engagement and investment initiatives. Crypto.com NFT marketplace continues to be the go-to place for Aston Martin NFT airdrops and limited-edition collectibles.

This year crypto giant Binance partnered with Alpine F1 Team to issue NFT airdrops and collectibles. Taking fan engagement to the next level, Binance conducted an event on May 20, allowing one fan to experience the life of an Alpine F1 mechanic.

Cointelegraph previously reported on the overall crypto-F1 partnerships as of March 2022.

A few prominent collaborations active during the Monaco Grand Prix 2022 are Ferrari and blockchain firm Velas, Mercedes and crypto exchange FTX, and Alfa Romeo and Shiba Inu (SHIB) inspired meme token Floki.

Related: Blockchain, crypto set to take sports industry beyond NFT collectibles

A recent study conducted by fintech giant Deloitte concluded uncovered the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to open up new markets and revenue opportunities for the sports industry:

“A nexus will form around sports collectibles, ticketing, betting, and gaming. We are just beginning to see its [cryptocurrency’s] potential, as well as the new markets it could lead to.”

The study also highlighted the possibility of new markets that allow “fractional ownership of season tickets and suites and a reinvention of the ticket resale process.”



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6 Nightmare on Elm Street References in Stranger Things

Stranger Things season four was certainly a return to the Netflix series’ horror roots.

In fact, Stanger Things star Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harrington, warned E! News’ While You Were Streaming that the new installment—out May 27—may be too “disturbing” for younger viewers.

“Kids will be scared,” he promised at the time. “Kids will have nightmares.”

And season four definitely lived up to the hype, as it introduced a new villain reminiscent of A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger.

Now, this isn’t the first time that creators Matt and Ross Duffer have paid tribute to ’80s horror classics. In previous seasons, we’ve seen references to Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Halloween, Day of the Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Poltergeist, among others.

However, this time around, A Nightmare on Elm Street was the muse, inspiring not one, not two, but six separate references to Wes Craven‘s 1984 slasher.

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As Boris Johnson Stumbles, Labour Struggles to Offer a Clear Message

LONDON — When Boris Johnson hit energy companies with a windfall tax last week as a way of providing more aid for struggling consumers, it was a bittersweet moment for the opposition Labour Party, which had been promoting just such a plan for months.

For once, Labour could claim to have won “the battle of ideas.” But at a stroke, Mr. Johnson had co-opted the party’s marquee policy and claimed the credit.

This might have been a moment of opportunity for Labour. Mr. Johnson’s leadership has been in jeopardy because of a scandal over illicit lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street — missteps highlighted by a civil servant’s report last week that said senior leadership “must bear responsibility” for the failure to follow the rules.

But some political analysts think Labour should focus less on the “partygate” scandal and more on outlining a clear agenda to British voters, who face rising inflation and a possible recession.

Now out of power for 12 years, Labour has lost the last four general elections, including a thrashing in 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn, a left-winger and the party’s leader at the time, was crushed by Mr. Johnson’s Conservatives.

John McTernan, a political strategist and onetime aide to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that while Labour had made a decent recovery under the current leader, Keir Starmer, it had not yet “closed the deal” with the electorate.

“It looks like modest progress because it is modest progress” said Mr. McTernan, while adding that it was still a “massive rebalancing” after the 2019 defeat.

He praised the advances made under Mr. Starmer, but said the party still had work to do if it hoped to install a Labour government in place of the Tories. “This is the year the tempo has to pick up,” he said.

And while the Conservatives lost badly in recent local elections, Labour has made only limited progress, with smaller parties doing well.

Mr. Starmer suffered a setback recently when the police reopened an investigation into whether he, too, broke coronavirus rules. He promptly promised that he would resign if he were fined by the police — in contrast to Mr. Johnson, who suffered that fate in April but refused to quit.

But whatever Mr. Starmer’s future, the Labour Party has yet to draft a convincing message to win back rust belt regions that abandoned it in the last election and that — judging by the local election results — remain to be convinced.

In the 2019 general election, parts of England that for decades had voted for Labour switched en masse to the Conservatives, allowing Mr. Johnson to recast the political map just as Donald J. Trump did in the United States in 2016.

Since then, Mr. Starmer has junked much of Mr. Corbyn’s socialist agenda, posed frequently alongside the British flag to illustrate his patriotism, taken a tough line against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and become the first Labour leader in more than a decade to visit NATO.

But the party has yet to define itself with a clear new vision to British voters, and Mr. Starmer, a former chief prosecutor, has little of the charisma that distinguishes leaders in the mold of Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson.

Even he accepts that Labour is not yet in a solid, election-winning position.

“I always said the first thing we needed to do was to recognize that if you lose badly, you don’t blame the electorate, you change your party,” Mr. Starmer said in an interview this year after meeting with voters at a town-hall meeting at Burnley College in northwestern England. “We have spent the best part of two years doing that heavy lifting, that hard work.”

Yet Labour’s task is huge.

In 2019, the Conservatives captured areas like Burnley, in Britain’s postindustrial “red wall,” and Labour polled poorly in Scotland, once another heartland, losing out to the Scottish National Party. Looming changes to electoral boundaries are likely to favor the Conservatives in the next general election, which must take place by the end of 2024 but that many expect next year.

So Labour is hosting a series of town-hall meetings where uncommitted voters are asked what would lure them back to the party.

After the gathering in Burnley, Lisa Nandy, a senior member of the Labour Party, reflected on the project to mend what she called “a breakdown in trust” between Labour and its traditional voters.

“It broke my heart in 2019 when I watched communities where I grew up and that I call home turning blue for the first time in history,” said Ms. Nandy, referring to the campaign color used by the Conservatives. She represents Wigan, another former industrial town, speaks for Labour on how to spread prosperity to areas outside England’s prosperous southeast, and knows that her party has work to do.

People at the meeting in Burnley liked the idea of cutting energy bills by placing a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas firms, said Ms. Nandy, speaking before the government announced the plan. Yet few at this time knew this was one of Labour’s main policy proposals.

“The question is, why don’t they know this is what we have been saying?” Ms. Nandy lamented earlier this year, referring to voters.

The reason, she thinks, is that politicians spend too much time in London and too little “on people’s own territory having conversations with them about things that matter to them.”

Labour is also reaching out to a business community whose ties to the government have been strained over Brexit rules that pile mounds of extra red tape onto many exporters. At a digital meeting with businesses in the Midlands, Seema Malhotra, who speaks for Labour on business and industrial issues, heard a litany of problems, including customs bureaucracy, inflation, rising energy and wage costs, and supply-chain difficulties.

“I don’t think anyone is expecting full policy across the board until the time of the next election,” she said. “A lot of what we need to do is about rebuilding our relationship with the country and setting out our values, and people need to get to know the Labour Party again.”

“Whilst people are prepared to listen to Labour again, we cannot be complacent,” she added. “Many people have yet to feel that we have fully moved on from the past enough to now trust us. We have work to do on continuing to demonstrate that our party has changed.”

Some analysts argue that what Labour really needs is a sharper message.

“I know so many progressives who think that politics is like a football game: If you have a 10-point plan on health and your opponents only have a five-point plan you win 10 to 5,” Mr. McTernan said. “You don’t.”

Instead, he added, “You have to say: ‘This is Britain’s big challenge. Labour is the answer. Here’s why and here’s how.’”

To succeed, the party needs to convince people like Ged Ennis, the director of a renewable energy company that equipped Burnley College with solar panels. He has voted for Labour and the Conservatives over the years, but opted for the centrist Liberal Democrats in 2019.

Mr. Ennis said he had been convinced that Labour was keen to listen but confessed to having a hazy picture of Mr. Starmer’s politics. “I think what he needs to do is to be brave and to be really clear about what he wants to deliver,” he said.

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NBA stars react to Real Madrid winning UEFA Champions League

Rudy Gobert and Real Madrid’s striker Kerem Benzema. Photo: Rudy Gobert/Instagram

As the NBA Playoffs are one game away from the Finals, European football season is also reaching its penultimate stage. Yesterday Real Madrid and Liverpool squared off at UEFA Champions League Final at Stade de France in Paris. It was the Spanish giants that won the title thanks to a goal by Vinicius Junior.

Several NBA stars attended the game, most notably LeBron James, Kevin Love and Rudy Gobert. The French center had four of his fellow countrymen in this game as well as a couple of French speaking Belgians. He shared photos of him with Madrid’s Kerem Benzma (France), Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois (Belgium).

Luka Doncic, who was a star for Real Madrid’s basketball team before coming over to the NBA, celebrated the win of his beloved team on Twitter. He tweeted the number 14 which is the number of Champions League titles that Madrid has won. “Its so nice to be a REAL MADRID fan!😊,” the Slovenian superstar added in another tweet.

Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid also joined the celebrations by tweeting ‘HALA MADRID.’

Trae Young also watched the game. “Vini Jr so cold !! Omg🤯⚽️” was his tweet.



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LeBron James, Kevin Love attend UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Liverpool

LeBron James, Kevin Love at UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at Stade de France in Paris. Photo: kevinlove/IG

Lakers superstar LeBron James, who is a minority owner of an English football powerhouse Liverpool, attended UEFA Champions League Final in Paris between his team and Real Madrid. He was joined by a group of friends, including fellow NBA star Kevin Love.

Unfortunately for the four-time NBA champions, it was Los Blancos that celebrated the win (1-0) and their 14th European crown thanks to a goal by Vinicius Junior.

James posted photos on Instagram of him and his friends in attendance of the game. “Used to rock a throwback, ballin’ on the corner/Now I rock a tailored suit, lookin’ like a owner. 🤷🏾‍♂️👑. Just words of factual life events!” LeBron wrote on his IG post.

Love also shared a photo of the whole group at Stade de France:



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Erik Spoelstra on what makes Kyle Lowry so valuable to the Heat

Kyle Lowry played a major role in the Heat’s Game 6 win over the Celtics that pushed the Eastern Conference Finals to seven games.

The 36-year-old point guard scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists in 37 minutes of play. Miami’s head coach Erik Spoelstra praised the former NBA championship for his leadership.

“I can’t say enough about Kyle and his veteran leadership and poise,” he said. “It means so much to us and you can’t put an analytic to it what it means to your team of the feeling of calm and confidence that he can give everybody.

“And that’s orchestrating our offense, it’s just those timely moments during key times of the game where the ball needs to go here it needs to go. And then sometimes he’ll just make a big-time play at the end of the clock. Something that he’s never maybe practiced or attempted before.

“He just has a flare for the moment. He’s one of the all-time clutch players in this league. He just knows how to manage a game. You’re playing in an environment like this [Boston] with the stakes it’s great to just have a Hall of Fame quarter back that just kind of keeps everybody calm.”

During this year’s playoffs Lowry is averaging 7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 28.4 minutes over 9 games so far.

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76ers’ Georges Niang on Tyrese Maxey: “I think we found a perennial All-Star”

The 21-year old point guard Tyrese Maxey is becoming one of the most talented players of the Philadelphia 76ers. His awesome skills can’t be unnoticed and his contribution to numerous victories of the team is vivid.

He elevated his numbers from his rookie year last season – from 8 points in 15.3 minutes per game to 17.5 points in 35.3 minutes per game. The sophomore stepped up even more during the playoffs as he averaged 20.8 points in 40.4 minutes per game.

His teammate Georges Niang thinks that Maxey is a perennial All-Star in the making. “He’s just a joy to be around,” he said about the point guard on SiriusXM Radio. “Not only is he a tremendous player, but he’s an even better person. His energy is contagious. We joke about around the facility we have if Tyrese has ever had a bad day because his hair is always flopping around, smiling, laughing, yelling.

“His development this year is something I’ve never seen in all my years of basketball. It’s not like I’ve been in the NBA a long time, but the fact that he came in and playing spot minutes the year before and then gets thrown into the fire tell you, like, the only name that I heard for the first three months of the season was Doc [Rivers] screaming ‘Tyrese! Tyrese!’ just completely hammering him.”

Niang remembered that Maxey dealt well with the pressure he received from his head coach and managed to excel on the court while many others would have crumbled.

“I think we found a perennial All-Star. The kid is so talented: he has blazing speed, he shows it on both ends of the floor. He can shoot the ball at an elite level, and off the dribble, and he continues to work as if he’s walk on out of big-time college.

“He just works and I think this is going to be another huge summer for him and I can’t wait to see where it takes us because with the ball in Tyrese Maxey’s hands we can get a lot of stuff done..”

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UK to hold days-long bash to celebrate queen’s 70-year reign

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LONDON — Britain is getting ready for a party featuring mounted troops, solemn prayers — and a pack of dancing mechanical corgis.

The nation will celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne this week with four days of pomp and pageantry in central London. But behind the brass bands, street parties and a planned appearance by the aging queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palac e lies a drive to show that the royal family still remains relevant after seven decades of change.

“The monarchy is not elected, so the only way in which a monarch can demonstrate consent is not through the ballot box, but through people turning out on the streets,” said Robert Lacey, the historical adviser on “The Crown″ series. “And if the monarch turns up on the balcony and waves and there’s no one there, that’s a pretty definitive judgment on the monarchy.

“Well, when it comes to Elizabeth, the opposite has been the case. People can’t wait to mass and cheer together,” he added.

And the royals, sometimes criticized as out of touch with modern Britain, want to show that their support comes from all parts of a society that has become more multicultural amid immigration from the Caribbean, South Asia and Eastern Europe.

As part of the jubilee pageant, dancers from London’s African-Caribbean community will don costumes of giant flamingos, zebras and giraffes to re-imagine the moment in 1952 when Princess Elizabeth learned she had become queen while visiting a game park in Kenya. Another group will recall the queen’s 1947 marriage to Prince Philip and celebrate weddings around the Commonwealth with Bollywood-style dancing.

The jubilee is an opportunity for the royals to demonstrate their commitment to change and diversity, something the queen has embodied as she traveled the world over the last 70 years, said Emily Nash, royal editor of HELLO! magazine.

“She’s been everywhere and she has engaged with people from all walks of life, from all creeds and colors and faiths,” Nash said. “I think it’s easy to see, in the sort of pomp and pageantry, perhaps more of a lack of diversity. But if you look at what the royal family actually do, the people they engage with, the places they go to, I think it’s perhaps a little unfair to say that it’s not as diverse as it could be.”

If the depleted stock at the Cool Britannia gift shop is any indication, the jubilee has caught public attention. The shop around the corner from Buckingham Palace has run out of Platinum Jubilee tea towels. Spoons are sparse. Mugs are in short supply.

And it’s not just foreign tourists who are buying all things Elizabeth. Visitors from around the U.K. are also hunting for jubilee mementos, said Ismayil Ibrahim, the man behind the counter.

“It’s a very special year,” he said. “They’re celebrating it as a big event.”

The question for the House of Windsor is whether the public will transfer their love for the queen to her son and heir, Prince Charles, when the time comes.

It is a problem that stems, in part, from the queen’s unprecedented reign, the longest in British history. The only monarch most people have ever known, she has become synonymous with the monarchy itself.

Since assuming the throne after the death of her father on Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth has been a symbol of stability as the country negotiated the end of Empire, the birth of the computer age and the mass migration that transformed Britain into a multicultural society.

The shy woman with a small handbag, a trailing corgi and passion for horses presided over an era that spawned Monty Python, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols. People who thought they knew her thought wrong — as evidenced by her star turn as a Bond Girl at the 2012 London Olympics.

Yet through it all, the queen has built a bond with the nation through a seemingly endless series of public appearances as she opened libraries, dedicated hospitals and bestowed honors on deserving citizens.

Susan Duddridge feels that connection. The administrator from Somerset will dance in the Platinum Jubilee pageant, 69 years after her father marched in the queen’s coronation parade.

“I think it’s amazing that the country always comes together when there’s a wedding, a royal jubilee, whatever the royals are involved in,” she said. “We love the queen!’’

The past two years have highlighted t he monarchy’s strengths as the queen alternately consoled a nation isolated by COVID-19 and thanked doctors and nurses battling the disease.

But its frailties were also on display as the 96-year-old monarch buried her husband and was slowed by health problems that forced her to turn over important public duties to Charles. That came amid the all-too-public tensions with Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, who made allegations of racism and bullying in the royal household, and the sordid allegations about P rince Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Against this backdrop, the jubilee is also part of the effort to prepare the public for the day when Charles takes the throne. Now 73, Charles has spent much of his life preparing to be king and battling a somewhat stuffy image that wasn’t helped by his ugly divorce from the still-adored Princess Diana.

Charles reportedly may play a key role during the first event of the jubilee weekend, taking the salute of passing soldiers during the annual military review known as Trooping the Colour. The queen will attend the more than 400-year-old ceremony that marks her official birthday if she feels ok, but will decide on the day.

Elizabeth, who only recently recovered from COVID-19 and has begun using a walking stick, has given Charles an increasingly important role as the public face of the monarchy. Earlier this month, he stood in for his mother when what the palace describes as “episodic mobility problems” prevented her from presiding over the state opening of Parliament.

Still, in the days afterward, she t urned up at a horse show, opened a subway line and toured the Chelsea Flower Show in a chauffeur-driven royal buggy — a sort of luxurious golf cart.

“There is no blueprint for a reign of this length and, subsequently, I think the palace and courtiers are having to improvise all the time,” said Ed Owens, a royal historian and author of “The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public 1932-1953.”

“In the case of Elizabeth II, we haven’t had a monarch this elderly who has reigned for so long and is so meaningful to so many people having to essentially transfer her role to the next in line.’’

But don’t expect the queen to leave the scene any time soon.

Robert Hardman, biographer and author of “Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II’’ said he expects to see an even bigger party four years from now when Elizabeth turns 100.

“A 100th birthday raises the intriguing prospect: Will she send a card to herself?” Hardman mused, referencing the queen’s tradition of sending a personal birthday card to anyone who reaches that milestone. “I’m looking forward to that debate in 2026.”

Follow all AP stories about Britain’s royal family at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.

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Identity is the antidote for DEXs’ regulation problem

Regulators from Europe, the United States and elsewhere are busily hammering out details on how to designate decentralized exchanges (DEXs) as “brokers,” transaction agents or similar entities that affect a transfer and cooperate with each other. The U.S. called for multinational cooperation in its executive order on responsible digital asset development, as did the European Union with its recent Financial Stability and Integration Review. And that is just what’s publicly accessible. 

Behind the scenes, the whisper of regulation is getting louder. Did anyone notice that all the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements have been laid on smaller centralized exchanges in exotic locations over the past two months? That was the canary in the coal mine. With the aforementioned designation and cooperation, DEXs will start to feel regulator heat soon.

Yes, regulations are coming, and the main reason why DEXs will hardly survive the coming storm is their proclaimed lack of ability to identify the users using and contributing to liquidity pools. In conventional financial circles, rendering services without proper KYC procedures is a big no-no. Not tracking identity allowed Russian oligarchs to use the Hawala payment service to anonymously move millions of dollars leading up to the war in Ukraine, so regulators are justifiably concerned about DEXs. For most DEX enthusiasts, KYC sounds like an insult, or at least, something that a DEX is fundamentally incapable of doing. Is that really the case, though?

Related: Crypto’s impact on sanctions: Are regulators’ concerns justified?

DEXs are actually pretty central

Let’s start with the anatomy of a DEX, and we’ll find that they aren’t even as decentralized as one may think. Yes, DEXs run on smart contracts, but the team or person that uploads the code on-chain usually gets special admin-level privileges and permissions. Additionally, a known, centralized team usually takes care of the front end. For example, Uniswap Labs recently added the ability to scrub known hacker wallets, removing tokens from their menu. While DEXs claim to be pure code, in reality, there is still a more-or-less centralized developer team behind this ethereal entity. This team also takes in any profits to be made.

Furthermore, an in-depth look at the way users communicate with permissionless chains reveals more centralized choke points. For example, last month, MetaMask was unavailable in a few regions. Why? Because Infura, a centralized service provider that the on-chain wallet relies on for an Ethereum API, decided so. With a DEX, things can always play out in a similar way.

Some people say that DEXs are more decentralized by virtue of being open source, meaning any community is free to fork the code and build their own DEX. Sure, you can have as many DEXs as you want, but the question is about which ones manage to bring more liquidity to the table, and where users actually go to trade their tokens. That is, after all, what exchanges are for in the first place.

Related: DEXs and KYC: A match made in hell or a real possibility?

From a regulatory standpoint, an entity facilitating such trades can be seen as a “broker” or a “transfer agent” regardless of whether it is open source or not. That is where most regulations are heading. Once identified as such, DEXs will take major fire unless they can comply with a wide array of requirements. These would include getting a license, verifying user identities and reporting transactions, including suspicious ones. In the U.S., they would also have to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and freeze accounts upon request from the authorities. Without all of that, DEXs are likely to go under.

The identity-and-KYC issue

Since DEXs claim they are decentralized, they also claim that they are technologically incapable of implementing any identity verification or KYC controls. But in truth, KYC and pseudonymity are not mutually exclusive from a technological standpoint. Such an attitude reveals, at best, laziness or an unhinged push for lower costs, and at worst, a desire to profit from dirty money being moved around.

Arguments that a DEX is unable to do KYC without creating a honeypot of personal information lack technical merit and imagination. Multiple teams are already building identity solutions based on zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic method that allows one party to prove it has certain data without revealing that information. For example, proof of identity can include a green checkmark that the person has passed the KYC, but does not reveal personally identifiable information. Users can share this ID with a DEX for verification purposes without the need for a centralized repository of information.

Since their users don’t have to pass a KYC, DEXs become part of the puzzle when it comes to ransomware: Hackers use them as a major hub for moving bounty. Due to the lack of ID verification, DEX teams are unable to explain the “source of funds,” meaning they can’t prove the money doesn’t come from a sanctioned territory or from money laundering. Without this proof, banks will never issue a bank account for DEXs. Banks require information on the origins of funds so they don’t get fined or have their own license revoked. When DeFi can easily be used for criminal activity, it makes a bad name for crypto and pushes it further away from mainstream adaptation.

DEXs also have a unique and single-purpose suite of software, Automated Market Making or AMM, which allows liquidity providers to match with buyers and sellers, and pull in or determine a price for a given asset. This is not general-purpose software that can be leveraged for multiple use cases, as is the case with BitTorrent’s P2P protocol, which moves bits quickly and efficiently for Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and video pirates. An AMM has a single purpose and produces a profit for teams.

Verifying user identities and checking that money and tokens are not illegal helps ensure some level of protection from cybercrime. It makes DeFi safer for users and more feasible for regulators and policymakers. To survive, DEXs will have to eventually admit this and adopt a level of identity verification and prevention of money laundering.

By implementing some of these solutions, DEXs can still deliver on the promise of DeFi. They can remain open for users to contribute liquidity, earn fees, and avoid relying on banks or other centralized entities while remaining pseudonymous.

Related: Want to weed out ransomware? Regulate crypto exchanges

If DEXs choose to ignore the regulatory pressure, it can end in one of two ways. Either more legitimate platforms can continue to adapt to growing government scrutiny and rising demand in crypto from more mainstream investors, who require usability and security, thereby leaving stubborn DEXs to die, or alternatively, unadaptable DEXs will move into the gray market of far-flung jurisdictions, tax havens and unregulated cash-like economies.

We have every reason to believe the former is a much likelier scenario. It’s time for DEXs to grow up with the rest of us or risk being regulated to death along with the shadier ghosts of crypto’s past.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Bob Reid is the current CEO and co-founder of Everest, a fintech company that leverages blockchain technologies for a more secure and inclusive multi-currency account, digital/biometric identity, payment platform and eMoney platform. As a licensed and registered financial institution, Everest supplies end-to-end financial solutions, facilitating eKYC/AML, digital identity and regulatory compliance associated with money movement. He was an advisor to Kai Labs, the general manager of licensing at BitTorrent, and vice president of strategy and business development at Neulion and DivX.

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