The Los Angeles Clippers are digging in against allegations that the franchise circumvented the NBA’s salary cap to pay star forward Kawhi Leonard, with a source close to the organization saying the team is prepared to fight the claims through arbitration if necessary as an NBA-commissioned investigation continues.

The controversy centers on Aspiration, a now-collapsed sustainability-focused financial company that investigative reporter Pablo Torre has alleged the Clippers used to funnel payments to Leonard beyond what the league’s salary cap rules permit. Torre’s reporting first brought the allegations to widespread attention last season, and his continued coverage has kept pressure on both the team and the league to address the claims.

The dispute has taken on added significance in recent weeks after a planned trade sending Leonard to the Toronto Raptors was paused amid the ongoing NBA investigation into the allegations. Speaking to Baxter Holmes of ESPN, a source associated with the Clippers organization said the team continues to firmly reject the allegations of salary cap circumvention. According to the source, the team’s determination extends to a willingness to pursue the matter through formal legal channels rather than accept any findings without a fight. “The Clippers remain adamant that they did not funnel money to Leonard through Aspiration, and one source close to the team with knowledge of the investigation said that it would ‘fight that to the end,’ including through arbitration,” according to the report.

The NBA has hired Wachtell Lipton, a prominent New York-based law firm, to conduct the formal investigation into the allegations against the Clippers. Should the investigation ultimately find the organization violated league salary cap rules, the Clippers could face significant sanctions from the NBA, with league officials widely expected to seek penalties severe enough to serve as a deterrent against similar conduct by other franchises.

The length of the ongoing investigation has itself become a subject of speculation among fans and league observers, with some interpreting the extended timeline as a potential signal about what investigators may or may not have uncovered. A separate anonymous source with close ties to Wachtell Lipton pushed back directly against that kind of speculation, according to the same ESPN reporting. “One source with knowledge of the investigative process cautioned against the idea of any outside parties having inside knowledge of Wachtell Lipton’s findings to date — or of anyone trying to speculate as to whether the length of the investigation signals what the law firm has or hasn’t found,” the report stated.

Wachtell Lipton has been investigating the Clippers and the allegations surrounding Leonard’s compensation since September of last year, according to the reporting. Investigations of this nature are typically conducted with a significant degree of confidentiality, a practice generally intended to prevent potentially implicated parties from taking steps that could compromise the integrity of the inquiry or withhold relevant information before investigators have completed their review.

The scrutiny facing the Clippers comes at a particularly high-profile moment for the broader NBA offseason, with the league’s attention largely consumed by other major storylines, including LeBron James’s high-profile decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers after a lengthy free agency process. That move has generated its own wave of coverage and fan reaction, including one Sixers supporter who went viral this week after intentionally sunburning a tribute to James onto his back while waiting for an official jersey to arrive. Speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer about the stunt, the fan, identified as Joey Abel, explained his unconventional approach. “I was just like, ‘How can I get a LeBron James jersey as fast as possible?’ And for some reason, that’s where my mind went,” Abel said.

Even amid the broader offseason attention on player movement across the league, the Clippers’ ongoing legal exposure over the Leonard allegations represents a significant institutional risk for the franchise, given both the financial penalties that could follow a finding of wrongdoing and the reputational damage that would come with a formal determination that the team violated the league’s competitive balance rules. NBA salary cap regulations are designed to maintain a level playing field among franchises by limiting how much any single team can spend on player compensation, and violations are treated as serious infractions given their potential to distort competitive fairness across the league.

The Clippers’ ownership, led by Microsoft co-founder Steve Ballmer, has not issued extensive public comment on the specifics of the Aspiration allegations beyond the organization’s general denials relayed through sources close to the team. Ballmer has been a prominent and hands-on owner since purchasing the franchise in 2014, and any finding of wrongdoing in the Leonard case would represent a significant setback for an ownership group that has invested heavily in building the Clippers into a consistent championship contender, including the construction of the team’s dedicated Intuit Dome arena.

With the trade that would have sent Leonard to Toronto still paused pending the investigation’s outcome, and no clear timeline for when Wachtell Lipton’s review might conclude, the situation is likely to remain a significant storyline for the Clippers organization heading into the coming NBA season, even as the broader league shifts its attention toward training camps and the on-court product following a summer dominated by star player movement across multiple franchises.

A slump sale refers to the transfer of an entire business undertaking as a going concern for a lumpsum consideration, rather than the sale of individual assets and liabilities separately.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) revealed that it will transfer its Truck and Bus Division (MTBD) to its listed subsidiary SML Mahindra Limited for Rs 525 crore, consolidating the group’s commercial vehicle operations under a single entity.

Also Read | SML Mahindra to acquire Mahindra’s truck and bus business for Rs 525 crore

The acquisition is set to be completed on or before January 31, 2027, as per the filing.

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M&M said that the proposed transfer of MTBD to SML was a natural next step, following M&M’s acquisition of a 58.97% stake in SML Mahindra Limited (formerly SML Isuzu Limited) from Sumitomo Corporation and Isuzu Motors Limited.
According to Dr Anish Shah, Group CEO & MD, Mahindra Group, the transaction simplifies Mahindra Group’s commercial vehicle business structure by consolidating truck and bus operations under SML Mahindra, creating a single focused entity dedicated to growth and leadership in the commercial vehicle sector.The group’s truck and bus division is stronger on the heavy commercial vehicles front. M&M will do contract manufacturing of heavy commercial vehicles for SML, as part of the arrangement, from its Chakan plant.

Combined revenues of SML Mahindra and MTBD stand at nearly Rs 6,000 crore, as per public disclosures.

Brokerage Recommendation

JM Financial has recommended a ‘Buy’ on SML Mahindra, setting a target price of Rs 3,800. The brokerage sees up to 16.2% upside potential on the stock, and viewed this acquisition in a positive light for M&M’s standalone business. The brokerage stated in its note that MTBD has historically been margin dilutive, despite turning EBITDA positive since FY24.

The combined business will rank fourth in the domestic truck and bus market, according to JM Financial. The note further stated that the combined entity is expected to benefit from operating leverage, pricing power and synergy realisation, which would outweigh temporary dilution, and management believes the transaction to be EPS accretive for SML Mahindra over time.

Also read: Hated till June, hottest in July! What’s driving the Rs 3.8 lakh crore boom in IT stocks?

SML Mahindra Share Price

After the stock rallied up to 20% on Wednesday, the stock continued the rally and gained over 18% on Thursday, following a previous close of Rs 4565.50. The stock has gained over 15% in this month.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Fear of failure is the biggest barrier to starting a business among 18-24 year-olds, cited by 29 per cent of that age group, according to new analysis of Funding Circle and Premiership Rugby’s Beyond The Pitch research.

Across all respondents, building the right team was the single biggest challenge facing new business owners, named by 22 per cent. The age breakdown shows that headline figure masks a split between younger and older respondents.

Among 18-24 year-olds, building the right team ranked lowest of the barriers tested, on 18 per cent. The order reverses among 45-54 year-olds, for whom building the right team was the number one challenge on 25 per cent, ahead of fear of failure on 19 per cent.

The research also found that adaptability, rather than a “winning mentality”, was the mindset UK adults rated most important for success in both sport and business, on 28 per cent.

That preference differed by gender. Women were more likely to select discipline and consistency as the mindset that matters most, on 28 per cent against 23 per cent of men. Men were more likely to select a winning mentality, on 17 per cent against 10 per cent of women.

The study found 85 per cent of respondents believe that experiencing failure, whether on the pitch or in life, helps prepare someone to run a business. The stigma attached to business failure in the UK has been a recurring theme in debate over the country’s start-up culture.

Views on business and failure vary by age

Just 40 per cent of 18-24 year-olds described running a business as a balance of people skills and financial decision-making, compared with 66 per cent of over-55s, a gap of 26 percentage points.

Younger respondents were more likely to describe business as mostly about leading and managing people, on 24 per cent against 11 per cent of over-55s.

A similar pattern appeared in views on failure. Those aged 18 to 24 were the age group most likely to say failure builds confidence to take risks, on 41 per cent, but the least likely to say it teaches perseverance over the long term, on 17 per cent against 35 per cent of over-55s.

Over-55s were also more likely to credit workplace experience, rather than sport, as the best preparation for performing under pressure, on 52 per cent against 28 per cent of 18-24 year-olds.

Hiring pressure

The finding that older business owners rank team-building above other concerns sits alongside separate Department for Education research covering 1,500 employers, which found nine in ten English businesses reported difficulty filling skills gaps. That study put 32 per cent of skills gaps at small and medium-sized enterprises in entry-level positions, with specialist roles accounting for a further 29 per cent.

On the other side of the age divide, research published in December by Block and Public First reported that two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds were considering or actively interested in starting a business, against a national average of 40 per cent. That report identified access to finance as the leading barrier, cited by 37 per cent of respondents.

The Beyond The Pitch analysis was based on a survey of 2,023 UK adults.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

A new study suggests that limiting sugar intake during pregnancy and a child’s earliest years may be linked to a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia decades later, adding to growing scientific interest in how early-life nutrition shapes long-term brain health.

The research, published in the journal npj Aging, found that babies exposed to less sugar before and after birth had lower risks of developing dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and anxiety later in life. The study’s authors caution that the findings do not prove that reduced sugar consumption directly prevents these conditions, but they suggest that nutrition during what researchers call the first 1,000 days of life, spanning from pregnancy until roughly a child’s second birthday, may leave lasting effects on the developing brain.

Researchers based in China analyzed health records from 60,394 participants in the UK Biobank, all born between 1951 and 1956. The study took advantage of a rare natural experiment created by strict sugar rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II. Under wartime rationing, adult sugar allowances were close to current dietary recommendations, and children under the age of two received no separate sugar allowance at all. When rationing ended in September 1953, average adult sugar consumption nearly doubled, climbing from roughly 41 to 80 grams per day, while children’s candy consumption more than doubled as well.

That abrupt policy shift allowed researchers to compare health outcomes between people whose earliest years of life coincided with strict sugar rationing and those born shortly after rationing ended, when sugar became far more widely available. Compared with participants who were not exposed to rationing during early development, those whose first 1,000 days coincided with sugar restrictions had a 27% lower risk of developing dementia from any cause and a 46% lower risk specifically of Alzheimer’s disease. The rationing-exposed group also showed an 11% lower risk of depression and a 20% lower risk of anxiety, though researchers found no similar association with Parkinson’s disease.

The protective associations were strongest among participants whose sugar restriction continued after birth, while exposure limited only to the prenatal period in the womb produced few clear differences, apart from a lower risk of anxiety later in life.

To better understand the biological basis for these findings, researchers also examined MRI brain scans from a subset of study participants. Those who had been exposed to sugar rationing after birth showed brains that appeared, on average, 0.39 years younger than their actual chronological age, along with larger volumes in several subcortical brain regions, including the hippocampus and thalamus, both of which play central roles in memory formation and broader cognitive function.

Bing Zhang, a geriatric medicine researcher at Guangzhou Medical University and the study’s senior author, described the significance of the developmental window examined in the research. “The first 1,000 days [is] a critical window when the brain undergoes rapid development and is highly sensitive to nutritional cues,” Zhang told ScienceAlert. Zhang said the larger hippocampal and thalamic volumes observed among sugar-restricted participants could provide the brain with additional structural capacity to withstand age-related decline later in life.

The new findings echo earlier research examining sugar’s effects on brain health. A 2017 study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia similarly linked higher consumption of sugary drinks with lower total brain volume and poorer episodic memory, based on an analysis of cognitive data from 4,276 people and MRI scans from 3,846 participants, though that earlier observational research also could not establish a direct causal relationship.

Zhang pointed to metabolic and inflammatory pathways as possible mechanisms underlying the association between early sugar exposure and later brain health. “Early high sugar intake predisposes to insulin resistance and chronic low-grade inflammation, both of which are well-established risk factors for dementia,” Zhang explained, though he noted that these specific mechanisms were not directly tested within the current study, and the brain images were captured at only a single point in time, meaning they cannot definitively establish that early sugar restriction caused the structural differences observed.

Despite the study’s design not amounting to a randomized clinical trial, researchers argued that the abrupt, externally imposed nature of the rationing policy’s end offers stronger evidence than a typical observational nutrition study, since it created a natural division between exposed and unexposed groups that was not driven by individual dietary choices. “We are quite confident that sugar restriction itself is a major driver,” Zhang said.

The research team accounted for factors including participants’ birth location, socioeconomic status and genetic background in their analysis. Even so, several limitations remain. The end of sugar rationing coincided with broader social and economic changes in postwar Britain that the study could not fully separate from the effects of sugar exposure specifically, and researchers were unable to determine precisely how much sugar individual mothers and children in the study actually consumed. The UK Biobank population is also predominantly white and generally healthier than the broader population, a factor that may limit how widely the findings can be applied to other groups. Additionally, only 307 participants in the study developed dementia during the follow-up period, including 123 diagnosed specifically with Alzheimer’s disease, meaning the risk estimates are based on a relatively small number of confirmed cases.

Zhang acknowledged that a single study of this kind is unlikely to immediately reshape official nutrition guidelines, but said the findings support existing recommendations to limit added sugar during pregnancy and early childhood. “This is not only about immediate health,” Zhang said. “It is a long-term investment in brain health decades later.”

This is a sensitive topic for many readers, particularly those with a personal or family history of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Anyone with specific questions about nutrition during pregnancy or early childhood, or concerns about dementia risk, is encouraged to speak with a doctor, pediatrician or registered dietitian rather than relying on findings from a single study to guide personal health decisions.

The South Yorkshire business has developed a global fast track service that caters for the increasingly time sensitive demands of its customers

Media services firm Zoo Digital says it is now at the right size to drive profitability and cash generation following significant turnaround efforts.

The Sheffield-based provider of localisation services for TV and movie content – including dubbing, subtitling, mastering – has issued full year results for the 12 months to the end of March, showing narrowed operating losses of $1.6m, down from $6.5m, and adjusted ebitda growth from $1.1m to $4m. Revenue fell 14.7% to $42.3m, but Zoo – which also has offices across the world – says its restructuring is now completed and it is tuned in to new opportunities from the major content-makers.

In recent years the company’s key customer base has undergone a major shake-up in the move from making of traditional TV shows to streaming services. Zoo’s business had been “storming ahead” until the market was upended, prompting an restructuring effort that has removed somewhere between £12m-£14m.

Three years into the rightsizing, Mr Green says Zoo’s customers are now emerging with new requirements including faster turnaround of localisation services. Zoo is using its global network of offices to offer a 24/7 “fast track” service for customers which can offer dubbing within 24 hours and subtitling within three hours – which is said to be a dramatic reduction in typical industry timelines.

Speaking to BusinessLive, CEO Stuart Green acknowledged the past three years had been a tough time for Zoo, but said it was now turning a corner. He explained: “We’ve rightsized our platform and reshaped the business, so we’re no optimised for profitability and generating cash. We’ve obviously embraced AI – we’re a tech company at heart so this is the stuff we love and are really good at.”

He added: “Quality and authenticity of the work we do is still of paramount importance. You can’t just cut corners and do some quick AI subtitles and think that’ll be OK in the market because that will turn customers off, they won’t watch it and it’ll be a disaster.

“If you’ve spent millions – hundreds of millions – making some content, there’s no point spoiling the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar by just doing some cheap localisation – you need to do it to a very high standard. That has not changed and our customers are still expecting the very best.

“But they’re moving into new areas which are really turning the streaming services into the new form of TV. Where you used to subscribe to something like Netflix to watch movies and TV series, now you can watch sports, daytime TV and live stuff, and time sensitive stuff.

“That’s broadening their offering to help tempt subscribers but it also introduces types of content that require very quick turnaround – so when they’re made, they need to get on the platform very quickly.”

Zoo Digital says it will see profit progression during this year. It told investors trading had been strong across the first quarter of its 2027 financial year.

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Wordle players facing a tricky puzzle on Thursday can find help here, with hints and the full solution for game number 1,867, the daily word puzzle from The New York Times.

The word puzzle, which challenges players to guess a five-letter word within six attempts, has built a devoted daily following since its rise to viral popularity in 2022. Today’s puzzle proved trickier than average for many players, according to data from the New York Times’ WordleBot, which tracks how the average solver performs each day. WordleBot recorded an average completion time of 4.1 moves for Thursday’s puzzle, whether played in the standard or hard-mode setting.

For players looking for hints before jumping straight to the answer, several clues can help narrow down the possibilities without giving away the solution entirely. The word features water as a central theme, referring to a narrow, often inclined channel or chute designed to carry water, either in natural settings such as ravines or in man-made systems including logging operations, irrigation infrastructure and, most commonly today, water park attractions.

Structurally, today’s word contains two vowels among its five letters and begins with a consonant. There are no double letters anywhere in the word, meaning each of the five letters used appears only once. The word functions grammatically as a noun. For those wanting one final hint before the reveal, the word can specifically be associated with a theme park water ride, a usage many players may recognize even if the term feels somewhat unfamiliar outside of that specific context.

Today’s Wordle answer is FLUME.

A flume refers to an artificial channel, often elevated or inclined, engineered to carry water from one place to another, historically used extensively in mining, logging and irrigation to transport water, logs or other materials using the force of flowing water. In modern usage, the word is perhaps most widely recognized in connection with “log flume” amusement park rides, in which passengers travel through a water-filled channel before a steep, splashing drop, a ride style found at theme parks around the world.

Puzzle strategy writers who cover Wordle daily noted that today’s word was not among the most commonly used in everyday vocabulary, making it a moderately challenging solve for players without specialized knowledge of the term’s meaning. One writer covering the puzzle for Tom’s Guide described starting with the word ORATE, a common opening guess chosen because it contains several of the most frequently occurring letters in five-letter English words, and noted that only the letter “E” registered as correctly placed on the first attempt, leaving 101 possible remaining answers before further guesses narrowed the field.

Wordle strategy guides commonly recommend a similar approach for players struggling with the daily puzzle: begin with an opening word that tests several common vowels and consonants simultaneously, then use the resulting feedback, letters marked in green for correct placement, yellow for correct letters in the wrong position, and gray for letters not present in the word at all, to systematically eliminate incorrect possibilities across subsequent guesses. Players are also generally advised to avoid ruling out the possibility of repeated letters too early in a puzzle, since Wordle answers do sometimes feature the same letter twice, even though today’s specific answer did not follow that pattern.

Wordle, originally created by software engineer Josh Wardle before being acquired by The New York Times in 2022, has remained one of the most popular daily word games worldwide, spawning a broader ecosystem of related puzzles now published by the Times, including Connections, Connections: Sports Edition, Strands and the Mini Crossword, all of which are typically released and refreshed at the same time each day alongside the main Wordle puzzle.

Players looking to maintain their daily Wordle streak, a feature the game uses to track consecutive days of play, can find today’s puzzle and previous archived puzzles through the official Wordle website. The New York Times also continues to publish daily hints and strategy guidance across its games section for players seeking assistance without immediately revealing the day’s answer outright, a resource that has become a regular part of many players’ daily puzzle-solving routine.