bet

I may be revealing a secret cherished by columnists the world over, but I admit that among the columns we relish writing the most fall into the “I told you so” genre.

Case in point: In April last year, in a column about the gambling mess ensnaring Shohei Ohtani’s then-interpreter, I warned that the pro sports leagues’ enthusiastic embrace of betting would inevitably produce a major scandal.

“It might not surface in the next months or even years,” I wrote, “but it will happen.”

The calendar, as it turned out, ticked over at 19 months. Last Thursday, federal prosecutors charged National Basketball Assn. player Terry Rozier and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones with fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to fix bets on NBA games. Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was charged in a separate indictment linking him to a Mafia scheme to fix poker games; Jones was also named in that indictment.

The NBA has placed Billups and Rozier on leave. They’re both due to appear in federal court in Brooklyn over the next few weeks to enter pleas, though both have asserted their innocence.

It may not be easy for the league to wash its hands of this mess. All the professional sports leagues spent years shunning gambling as a threat to their public image of integrity before embracing the siren call of big-time sports betting, bringing gambling companies and their ever-increasing customer base into their tents. But the NBA was ahead of the crowd.

In a 2014 op-ed, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver effectively cried “uncle” in the league’s battle against gambling.

“For more than two decades,” he wrote, “the National Basketball Association has opposed the expansion of legal sports betting, as have the other major professional sports leagues in the United States.” The leagues supported a 1992 federal law prohibiting sports betting except in grandfathered venues, such as Las Vegas.

They took a stern position against players and personnel caught betting on their games and their sports, dating to 1919 and the so-called Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series for the benefit of a gambling ring. Major League Baseball hired an austere federal judge, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as its commissioner and gave him unchecked authority to clean up the game. He banned the eight players from baseball forever.

In recent times, Silver observed in his op-ed, the American appetite for sports betting has only risen. Accordingly, he called for legalizing the practice so it could be “brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”

(The 1992 law was overturned by the Supreme Court, and legalized sports betting spread coast to coast.)

Given the subsequent developments, one can tag Silver for his childlike innocence in counting on the government to regulate an industry collecting billions of dollars a year from millions of users while operating with a legal imprimatur.

Silver wrote that among his “most important responsibilities as commissioner of the N.B.A. is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport.”

When I asked the NBA if Silver has had second thoughts about his 2014 op-ed, the league replied, “We continue to believe that a legal, regulated, and monitored sports betting market is far superior to an illegal one operating underground,” and suggested that a single federal regulator would be preferable to the existing state-by-state patchwork, though the activities alleged in the federal indictments almost surely would be crimes in any state. Silver did say during a broadcast interview Friday that the case gave him “a pit in my stomach.”

The league’s ability to monitor the behavior of its own people is questionable. Consider a March 23, 2024, Charlotte Hornets game against the New Orleans Pelicans. According to the indictment, Rozier let the gambling conspirators know that he would take himself out of the game early, allowing them to profit from bets that his stats would fall short of bookmakers’ expectations.

The NBA, alerted by sports wagering companies to “aberrational behavior” involving Rozier in the game, investigated but later said it could find any “violation of NBA rules.”

The NBA can hardly claim to have been blindsided by the new indictments. Only last year, another federal gambling case erupted involving NBA games.

In that case, prosecutors alleged that a gambler named Ammar Awawdeh forced then-Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter to take himself out of a game early. That led gamblers who knew of the arrangement to bet that his stats for the game would fall short of expectations; those insiders made more than $100,000 on their bets, the prosecutors charged.

According to text messages filed with the 2024 indictments, Awawdeh acknowledged “forcing” Porter to participate in the scheme to help clear some of his gambling debts.

Awawdeh engaged in plea negotiations in the case, but the outcome couldn’t be determined. Porter pleaded guilty to related federal fraud charges, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. The NBA has banned Porter for life.

Awawdeh was also named in last week’s indictment over the alleged poker scam.

In recent years, the pro leagues have cozied up to the gambling industry, claiming that their interest is merely “fan engagement” — that is, keeping TV viewers in front of their sets even during blowout games.

Only 11 states bar sports gambling today. They include the customary anti-gambling holdouts Utah and Hawaii, and California, where ballot measures to legalize sports gambling were defeated in 2022. As I mentioned in 2024, the perils of this expansion are manifest.

They’ve created a new underclass of gambling addicts while largely failing to fulfill their advocates’ assurances that state-sponsored and regulated gambling would produce a new, risk-free revenue stream for state and local budgets. The outcomes of some games have come under suspicion even where no evidence of fixing has been found.

The leagues have gone beyond just tolerating gambling; they’ve made partnership and sponsorship deals with the major sports gambling companies. The two leading companies, FanDuel and DraftKings, are official corporate gambling partners of the NBA, National Football League and Major League Baseball.

During broadcasts and steaming of games, it’s common to see in-game statistical projections on-screen — what are the chances of this hitter striking out, or hitting a home run, for instance.

During the seventh inning of Game 2 Saturday, Fox flashed a projection that there was a 36% chance that Yoshinobu Yamamoto would pitch 9+ innings. (He went the distance.)

The only reason to offer such projections is to feed the appetite for in-game proposition, or “prop,” bets. These are fundamentally bookmakers’ estimates. They don’t tell ordinary viewers anything they need to know to enjoy the coming innings, but do give bettors something to chew on before putting money down on the proposition “will Yamamoto pitch a complete game?”

In-game prop bets, as it happens, are like heroin to the vulnerable, offering instant gratification (or dismay). They “may be associated with risky gambling behavior,” according to the National Council on Problem Gaming. Draftkings heavily promotes prop bets on its sportsbook web page.

In a memo issued Monday, the NBA singled out prop bets as trouble spots: “In particular,” the memo says, “proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.”

The major gaming companies have rolled out new ways to keep bettors betting. Smartphone apps, for example. In the old days no one could place a legal sports bet without traveling to Las Vegas, a built-in curb on problem gambling. Today, anyone with a smartphone can place a bet, often without certifying their age or financial resources.

“The advent of smartphones in 2007 and the Supreme Court decision in 2018 opened the door to fully frictionless, 24/7 legal gambling,” problem gambling experts Jonathan D. Cohen and Isaac Rose-Berman wrote recently.

I asked FanDuel and DraftKings if they accepted any responsibility for problem gaming in the U.S. DraftKings didn’t reply. A spokesman for FanDuel told me by email that the company “takes problem gambling seriously and continually works to identify at-risk behavior … including when a customer attempts to deposit significantly more than what they typically do,” or “excessive time on site, chasing losses or signals from customer service interactions.” In those cases, the company sometimes imposes deposit limits or timeouts or can exclude the user entirely.

That brings us to the latest indictments. The feds identified seven NBA games in 2023 and 2024, including the 2023 game in which Rozier allegedly tipped confederates to his decision to bench himself.

Among the others were a 2023 Trail Blazers game in which gamblers were tipped that the team would sit its best players so it would lose, thereby acquiring a better position in the upcoming NBA draft; and two Lakers games in which Jones allegedly tipped gamblers that star LeBron James, a friend since they played together on the Cleveland Cavaliers, was hurt and wouldn’t be playing.

“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight,” Jones allegedly told a contact before the first game, against the Milwaukee Bucks. James sat it out and the Lakers lost. James isn’t identified by name in the indictment, but its description of his roles helped identify him. James hasn’t made a public comment about the case, but he hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.

Can anything stem this tide? The smart bet at this moment is “no.” There’s just too much money riding on the continued expansion of sports betting: DraftKings has more than doubled its revenue since 2022, reaching $4.8 billion last year, and nearly doubling its monthly average users to 3.7 million. FanDuel is owned by a British gambling conglomerate, so its U.S. sports revenue is difficult to parse.

That’s a lot of money to be thrown around promoting more sports gambling, making it harder for governments to regulate and for sports leagues to turn up their noses at the income. Keeping their image for integrity intact in this world of greedy and needy players and voracious gamblers is only going to get harder.

The NCAA picked a hell of a week to get into the gambling business, didn’t it?

Within 24 hours of approving a rule change that will allow student athletes and athletic department staff to bet only on professional sports, the FBI arrested more than 30 people in connection with a major sports gambling and betting scheme. The level of sophistication alleged in one 22-page indictment reads like an “Ocean’s Eleven” script with four New York Mafia families, a current NBA player and a head coach all allegedly involved.

For Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, the news and arrests are a public relations nightmare.

But for the NCAA, it’s a warning.

Since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling paved the way for sports betting, more than 35 states have legalized it, so I understand why the industry no longer feels dirty. But the governing body for more than half a million young athletes must remember nothing will ever sanitize that industry.

A century ago, the Black Sox scandal nearly destroyed baseball in America. Fast forward a hundred years and we find out 16 professional tennis players — including a U.S. Open champion — were fixing matches for gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy. In between, Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose received a lifetime ban for betting on baseball games as a manager and Tim Donaghy, an NBA referee, is busted for betting on games. Last year, former NBA player Jontay Porter was found to have placed several bets on games using another person’s account. We call him “former” because the league banned him for life.

So, if NCAA officials believe it is too cumbersome to enforce its current gambling ban (it is investigating multiple violations across several schools), imagine what life inside the organization would be like without some sort of deterrent.

In fact, no imagination is required. Just read the indictment filed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The FBI alleges the gambling scheme began in 2019, operated across 11 states and involved crime families with origins that date back more than a century.

According to documents, hidden cameras, programmable card shuffling machines and X-ray tables were among the pieces of technology used to steal tens of millions from victims during rigged poker games. Those allegedly involved in the scheme included Chauncey Billups — a Hall of Fame player and head coach of the Portland Trailblazers. Authorities said Billups, who led the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 championship, used his celebrity to lure in victims. In addition, the FBI said Damon Jones, a former player and assistant coach for the Lakers, shared inside information about the health of LeBron James with betters back in 2023. Terry Rozier, an active NBA player on a $100-million contract, was also arrested.

Now consider this: There are roughly 40,000 young men and women who play NCAA basketball and about 8,000 head and assistant coaches leading teams. How confident are you that March Madness won’t take on a different meaning if coaches and players are allowed to bet on games and find themselves underwater? A recent UC San Diego study found internet searches seeking help with gambling addiction increased 23% between 2018 and June 2024.

And while it’s true, the new rule maintains a ban against student athletes and coaches betting on college sports — so there are some guardrails against fixing games — but tilting outcomes is only one possible harm from gambling. The International Tennis Federation found that angry gamblers accounted for 40% of social media attacks aimed at players, with several threats credible enough to be submitted to the FBI. And there is already evidence that college students who aren’t athletes are using student loan money to place bets, and a 2023 NCAA survey found that 14% of U.S. 18- to 22-year-olds bet at least a few times a week.

Another 16% use a bookie.

I repeat: a bookie.

This just feels like a tragedy we can all see coming.

And we’re to believe the NCAA will be equipped to protect student athletes from predators when the Mafia is said to be using professional athletes and X-ray machines to steal from card players who are supposed to know better? The decision-making process for the human brain isn’t fully developed until a person is 25, and the NCAA just voted to let 18-year-olds with “name, image, likeness” money go in the deep water with sharks.

Given what just unfolded in the NBA this week the responsible move for the NCAA would be to pause the rule change — which is to take effect Nov. 1 — and reassess the risks. It’s one thing for sports gambling to cost a pro athlete to lose his career. It would be worse to see addiction or debt obligations steal a young person’s future before it begins.

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On October 09, 2025, Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. disclosed the purchase of 126,532 shares of BND, estimated at $9.32 million based on the quarterly average price.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 09, 2025, Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. bought 126,532 additional shares of Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND -0.07%) during the quarter. The transaction was valued at $9,316,966. The fund now holds 1,935,848 shares in BND.

What else to know

The increased stake in BND brings the position to 13.89% of 13F AUM.

Top holdings after the filing:

• VV (Vanguard Large-Cap ETF): $212,202,112 (20.5% of AUM)
• BND (Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF): $144.03 million (13.9% of AUM)
• VEU (Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF): $101.80 million (9.8% of AUM)
• USIG (iShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF): $45,560,981 (4.4% of AUM)
• SPTL (SPDR Portfolio Long term Treasury ETF): $45.52 million (4.4% of AUM)

As of October 8, 2025, shares were priced at $74.28, up 0.32% for the year; the one-year alpha versus the S&P 500 was -14.13 percentage points BND’s annualized dividend yield was 3.79% as of October 9, 2025

Company overview

Company snapshot

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) is one of the largest fixed income ETFs, offering investors comprehensive access to the U.S. investment-grade bond market. The fund tracks a broad, investment-grade, taxable U.S. bond index and invests at least 80% of its assets in bonds included in the index.

Its portfolio is composed primarily of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds with maturities over one year, selected through a sampling process to closely match the index’s risk and return characteristics.

BND serves institutional and retail investors seeking broad, cost-efficient access to the U.S. fixed income market.

Foolish take

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) continues to attract institutional interest as investors seek stability and income in an uncertain rate environment. The bond fund‘s broad reach across the U.S investment-grade bond market gives it unique appeal in times where equities are choppy amidst U.S China trade tensions and yields remains elevated.

BND’s offering spans over 11,000 securities, blending U.S Treasuries, corporates and mortgage backed bonds into one of the most diversified fixed income portfolios available. Its current yield near 3.8 offers steady income while maintaining credit quality and moderate duration risk. For Voya advisors, building exposure through a low-cost and transparent vehicle such as BND shows a deliberate focus on resilience and disciplined asset allocation. 

While short-term rate movements can influence bond prices, BND’s scale and efficient structure marks a dependable core holdings for both institutional and retail portfolios. As markets shift toward a lower-rate outlook, BND stands out as a practice way to capture broad bond exposure and steady total returns over time. 

Glossary

Assets Under Management (AUM): The total market value of assets a fund or investment manager oversees on behalf of clients.

13F: A quarterly report filed by institutional investment managers to disclose their equity holdings to the SEC.

Dividend Yield: The annual dividend income an investment pays, expressed as a percentage of its current price.

Alpha: A measure of an investment’s performance relative to a benchmark, indicating value added or subtracted by active management.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): An investment fund traded on stock exchanges, holding a basket of assets like stocks or bonds.

Investment-Grade: Bonds rated as relatively low risk of default by credit rating agencies, typically BBB/Baa or higher.

Sampling Process: A portfolio construction method where a subset of securities is selected to closely match an index’s characteristics.

Mortgage-Backed Securities: Bonds secured by a pool of home mortgages, with payments passed to investors.

Asset-Backed Securities: Bonds backed by pools of financial assets, such as loans or receivables, other than mortgages.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Reportable Assets: Assets that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as those reported in a 13F filing.

Stake: The amount or percentage of ownership an investor holds in a particular security or fund.

On Tuesday, Oriental Harbor Investment Master Fund disclosed selling 59,274 shares of ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ -1.88%) in an estimated $5.4 million trade, according to a recent SEC filing.

What Happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Oriental Harbor Investment Master Fund sold 59,274 shares of ProShares UltraPro QQQ during the quarter. The estimated transaction value was $5.4 million. The fund’s TQQQ position now stands at about 1.2 million shares, valued at $124.2 million.

What Else to Know

Following the sale, TQQQ represents 9.6% of the fund’s reportable assets under management.

Top holdings after the filing:

• NASDAQ:NVDA: $236.2 million (18.3% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:GOOGL: $224.1 million (17.4% of AUM)
• NYSEMKT:FNGU: $144.6 million (11.2% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:TQQQ: $124.2 million (9.6% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:META: $99.5 million (7.7% of AUM)

As of Tuesday’s market close, shares of TQQQ were priced at $101.13, up 33% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 by 20 percentage points.

ETF Overview

Company Snapshot

• TQQQ’s investment strategy seeks to deliver daily performance consistent with the fund’s objective through the use of financial instruments.
• Underlying holdings are composed of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
• The fund structure is non-diversified.

ProShares UltraPro QQQ is an ETF that seeks daily returns consistent with its investment objective by tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index. By employing financial instruments, the fund aims to achieve its daily return objective.

Foolish Take

Hong Kong–based Oriental Harbor Investment Master Fund pared back its position in ProShares UltraPro QQQ last quarter, selling roughly $5.4 million worth of shares. Despite the reduction, TQQQ remains a core holding, accounting for nearly 10% of the fund’s reported assets. The ETF continues to rank just behind Nvidia, Alphabet, and FNGU, reflecting the fund’s deep concentration in leveraged and technology-driven strategies.

TQQQ, which seeks three times the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index, has soared 33% in the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 by about 20 percentage points. Its top underlying exposures—Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon—mirror Oriental Harbor’s own equity bets, creating both alignment and amplification across the portfolio.

While leveraged ETFs like TQQQ can magnify gains, they also heighten risk when markets turn volatile. For Oriental Harbor, trimming the position may be a prudent rebalancing move after strong returns, especially given its already substantial exposure to the same megacap tech names through direct holdings and other leveraged funds like FNGU. The strategy suggests discipline, not retreat, as the fund locks in profits while maintaining a high-conviction tilt toward tech-fueled growth.

Glossary

ETF: Exchange-traded fund; a pooled investment fund traded on stock exchanges, similar to stocks.

UltraPro: Indicates an ETF aiming for leveraged returns, typically providing a multiple of the daily performance of an index.

Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of assets a fund manages on behalf of investors.

Non-diversified: A fund that invests a large portion of assets in a small number of holdings, increasing concentration risk.

Leveraged ETF: An ETF using financial instruments to amplify returns, often targeting a multiple of an index’s daily performance.

Dividend yield: Annual dividends paid by an investment, expressed as a percentage of its current price.

Underlying holdings: The individual securities or assets that make up a fund’s portfolio.

Nasdaq-100 Index: An index of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Daily return objective: The fund’s goal to match or multiply the performance of its benchmark index each trading day.

Financial instruments: Contracts such as derivatives or swaps used to achieve specific investment outcomes.

Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a specific benchmark or index over a given period.

Reportable assets: Assets that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as those reported to the SEC.

On October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC disclosed a buy of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) shares, an estimated $6.01 million trade based on the average price for Q3 2025.

What happened

According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC increased its stake in Novo Nordisk, adding 102,629 shares during the third quarter. The estimated trade size was $6.01 million, calculated using the average closing price for the period from July 1 through September 30, 2025. The updated holding stands at 116,973 shares.

What else to know

This transaction was a buy, raising Novo Nordisk A/S to 2.8% of the fund’s 13F reportable AUM as of Q3 2025.

Top holdings after the filing:

• NYSEMKT:SCHQ: $18.93 million (8.2% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:BKAG: $13.22 million (5.7% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:SCHP: $13.10 million (5.6589% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSE:DELL: $10.14 million (4.3781% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:SPHY: $10.09 million (4.3568% of AUM) as of Q3 2025.

As of October 6, 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S shares were priced at $59.65. This price reflects an underperformance of 65.4 percentage points relative to the S&P 500 over the past year.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Novo Nordisk:

• Offers pharmaceutical products focused on diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, rare blood disorders, and hormone replacement therapies, as well as medical devices such as insulin pens and smart diabetes solutions.
• Generates revenue primarily through the development, manufacturing, and global distribution of branded prescription medicines and medical devices, with a strong focus on chronic disease management.
• Serves healthcare providers, hospitals, and patients in Europe, North America, Asia, and other international markets, targeting individuals with diabetes, obesity, and rare diseases.

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare leader specializing in diabetes and obesity care, with a robust presence in rare disease therapeutics. The company leverages extensive research and development capabilities to deliver innovative pharmaceutical products and smart medical devices. Its scale, diversified product portfolio, and global reach provide a strong competitive position in chronic disease management.

Foolish take

Carolina Wealth Advisors’ $6 million addition to its Novo Nordisk holdings is noteworthy as it grows the holding from a 0.5% position to a 2.8% stake in the firm’s overall portfolio.

This purchase makes the Ozempic and Wegovy maker the 11th-largest holding overall in the firm’s portfolio, and its sixth-largest stock holding.

With five bond and treasury ETFs making up 28% of Carolina Wealth’s holdings, this ballooning Novo Nordisk stake stands out.

Novo Nordisk’s shares have dropped nearly 60% from their highs in the last two years, so this could be a well-timed acquisition.

After receiving immense fanfare for its obesity and diabetic drug breakthroughs, the company’s price-earnings (P/E) ratio soared to 50 as the stock hit new all-time highs in 2024.

However, with revolutionary breakthroughs like these — paired with the subsequent fanfare — comes competition. Now the market has Novo Nordisk trading at a much more reasonable 19 times earnings as it tries to gauge just how much of its leading market share the company will be able to hold on to.

Ultimately, if investors believe in Novo Nordisk’s ability to maintain its leadership advantage and build upon its pipeline of promising treatments, today’s valuation could be a bargain — and Carolina Wealth is piling in.

Glossary

13F AUM: Assets under management reported in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings, covering U.S. equity holdings by institutional investors.
Reportable AUM: The portion of a fund’s assets under management that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as Form 13F.
Quarter (Q3 2025): The third three-month period of the 2025 calendar year, covering July 1 to September 30.
Stake: The ownership interest or position held in a company, typically measured by the number of shares owned.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, usually ranked by market value or percentage of total assets.
Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, such as the SEC, disclosing financial or investment information.
Underperformance: When an investment’s returns are lower than a benchmark or comparable index over a specific period.
Chronic disease management: Ongoing medical care and treatment strategies for long-term health conditions, such as diabetes or obesity.
Pharmaceutical products: Medications developed and manufactured for diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of diseases.
Medical devices: Instruments or apparatuses used in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of medical conditions.
Smart diabetes solutions: Technology-enabled tools, such as connected insulin pens, designed to help manage diabetes more effectively.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

If you’re thinking of relocating for retirement, you have some big decisions to make! First you should weigh the pros and cons to see if relocating is really your best move. Yes, you can end up with a lower cost of living, but will you be far from loved ones, and can you handle that?

Next, you’ll need to choose your destination. Once you choose it, it can be smart to just try living there for a few months or a year, to see how good a fit it is.

Image source: Getty Images.

We’ve got reports on the best states to retire in and the cheapest states, as well. The best states include Florida, Nebraska, Maryland, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The least costly states include Pennsylvania, Iowa, Tennessee, Nevada, and Texas. Remember, though, that the most affordable states could have features you don’t like, like poor access to good healthcare or tough winters or summers. And the best states might cost a little more than you’d like.

If you’re wondering which cities to consider, you might focus on the states that seem best for you and then check out which towns in them get the highest marks. Or search online for lists of great retirement cities.

One such list, from U.S. News and World Report, featured the following top five cities for retirees: Naples, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia; New York City, New York; Sarasota, Florida, and Boise, Idaho. I’ll state the obvious here: They are very different places. Virginia Beach’s recent median home value was $376,063, while Naples’ was $1.2 million. Sarasota has a population of 56,000, while New York City’s tops 8 million.

Make a list of your most important factors — such as climate, affordability, healthcare access, taxes, crime, recreational opportunities, etc. — and see which cities best fit your needs.

JOSE MOURINHO takes his Benfica side to Stamford Bridge for Tuesday’s Champions League showdown with former club Chelsea.

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Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chase their losses
• Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry or depressed
• Gamcare – gamcare.org.uk
• GambleAware – GambleAware.org

Read our guide on responsible gambling practices.

For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to gamstop.co.uk to be excluded from all UK-regulated gambling websites.

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Billionaire Bill Ackman is one of the most widely followed investment managers on Wall Street. His Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund has outperformed the S&P 500 in 2025. It’s up 22.9% as of the end of August, compared to a 10.8% gain in the benchmark index during that period.

Ackman’s outperformance stems from taking advantage of opportunities when the market temporarily undervalues certain stocks. He holds only a handful of positions in the fund, and he typically buys and holds them for a long time. Even better, he and his team are happy to share the details on social media and investor calls, making it relatively easy for average investors to follow along.

In May, Pershing Square disclosed that it had bought another member of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks. Its first Magnificent Seven stock, Alphabet (GOOG -0.72%) (GOOGL -0.73%), has been a longtime holding for the hedge fund, and represents one of its biggest holdings. While the new addition isn’t quite as large as its stake in Alphabet, it presents another great opportunity for those following Ackman’s investing style.

Image source: Getty Images.

A magnificent new position

The stock market saw some very big swings at the start of the year, which were exacerbated in early April by President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements. While the stock market was moving wildly, it presented several great opportunities for investors that could follow Warren Buffett’s timeless advice: “Be greedy when others are fearful.”

To that point, Ackman saw the chance to pick up one stock he’s been studying and has long admired. Amazon (AMZN -1.20%) shares fell on fears that tariffs would negatively affect its retail business, and that a slowing economy would produce less demand for its cloud computing services. Ackman and his team freed up capital by selling Pershing Square’s entire position in Canadian Pacific Kansas City to buy the stock.

Ackman got a steal of a deal. He said he bought shares at 25 times forward earnings estimates. While there was a lot of uncertainty at the time about whether those earnings estimates would need to be revised downward, Ackman had confidence that Amazon was well worth the price. In fact, he thinks the stock is still undervalued. “Although the company’s share price has appreciated meaningfully from our initial purchase, we believe substantial upside remains given its ability to drive a high level of earnings growth for a very long time,” he wrote in his letter to shareholders last month.

Here’s why Ackman may continue to hold Amazon shares for a very long time.

Two great category-defining businesses

Amazon essentially has two businesses: Its retail operations and its cloud computing platform. Ackman believes both still have room to benefit from long-term growth trends and opportunities for margin expansion.

On the cloud computing side, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest public cloud provider in the world. It now sports a $120 billion run rate, and it’s about 50% bigger than its next-closest rival. It’s also tremendously profitable already. The segment sports a 37% operating margin over the past 12 months. To put that in perspective, Alphabet’s Google Cloud has an operating margin of less than half that (although it’s gaining leverage as it scales).

Despite Amazon’s large run rate, there’s still ample room for growth in both the near term and long term, according to Ackman. Amazon’s management has struggled to build out capacity fast enough to meet the surging demand from artificial intelligence customers. It’s spending over $100 billion on capital expenditures this year (some of that related to its logistics network), and management says that demand continues to outstrip supply growth. That situation is echoed by Alphabet’s management and other hyperscale cloud providers.

In the long run, Ackman expects more enterprises to move from on-premise computing to the cloud. He points out that just 20% of IT workloads are currently using cloud computing, but he expects that to invert over time, to 80% of workloads being in the cloud.

On the retail side of the business, Ackman points out that Amazon isn’t the only retailer affected by tariffs. In fact, it may be better suited to navigate the environment, as it sports a wide selection of goods. Amazon’s ability to offer reliable and convenient delivery on a growing number of items gives it an advantage over competitors.

That advantage is only improving as it continues to build out its logistics network and warehouse technology, and reduce costs. That allows it to get more items to more customers faster, all while decreasing its fulfillment expenses. Ackman points out that Amazon’s logistics improvements led to a 5% reduction in per-unit shipping costs last quarter. He thinks further improvements could lead it to double its retail profit margin from 5%. That’s a huge profit on a $550 billion business.

While Amazon shares have climbed significantly since Ackman established Pershing Square’s position, investors shouldn’t shy away from the stock at this higher price. The long-term trends favor Amazon’s businesses, and it’s a leading player in both.

ITV viewers were left less than impressed by the latest You Bet On Tour episode – and promptly called out Oti Mabuse’s victory.

The game show – which is a re-boot of the 80’s series – initially saw Holly Willoughby, 44, teaming up with Stephen Mulhern to front it as it arrived on the broadcaster.

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Yet the new spin-off – which sees Stephen going solo after Holly quit ahead of a full series commission – features a host of famous faces instead.

It sees ordinary people across the UK take on a host of huge challenges in an attempt to win £5K.

A revolving celebrity panel then place their bets on which team they think will succeed.

On Saturday, Oti Mabuse came out top – yet viewers weren’t convinced.

The drama was started after the final challenge, which saw rowing team Cool Runnings bet that they could complete their 2000 metre challenge quicker than the Olympic Rowers squad.

Strictly champ Oti was pitted against McFly singer Danny Jones and former Olympian Greg Rutherford.

Both Danny and Oti backed red team Cool Runnings – who ultimately came out on top – with the dancer then being crowned the overall celebrity champion of the episode

The outcome sparked an outcry on social media, with one fan posting on X: “Absolute fix #youbet.”

Another wrote: “100% fix.”

One bluntly branded the episode: “Absolutely s**t!!!!!!!!”

Another surmised: “THIS is fucking abysmal.”

The Sun has gone to ITV for comment.

ALL CHANGE

Earlier this summer, the full line-up for You Bet On Tour came to light.

Stephen Mulhern’s career so far

The presenter is a mainstay on various ITV shows, but how did he become one of Britain’s most well-known faces?

Stephen first gained an interest in magic and tricks from his father who taught him as a kid.

After performing at Butlins, he became the youngest member of the Magic Circle and even made an appearance on Blue Peter in a piece about Harry Houdini.

His career started in Children’s TV when he presenter the show Finger Tips in 2001.

After four years, he launched Tricky TV on CITV in 2005, which he presented until 2010.

During this time, he was handpicked by bosses to front the ITV2 spin-off for Britain’s Got Talent.

He presented Britain’s Got More Talent until the cancelation of the companion in 2019.

But it’s not all bad news for Stephen who is known for his duties on a number of quiz shows.

In for a Penny, a format originally launched on Ant & Dec‘s Saturday Night Takeaway was launched the same year.

Before, he was chosen by bosses to host Catchphrase in 2013 and has been fronting the show ever since.

Other huge shows he presented for ITV included Big Star’s Little Star, Rolling In It and the reboot of Deal Or No Deal.

He also made regular appearances on This Morning in ‘The Hub’ segment between 2011 and 2014. 

After the Philip Schofield scandal rocked ITV, he was chosen to reunite with his former CITV co-star Holly Willoughby as the host of Dancing on Ice.

It was revealed how Big Brother hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best will appear on the series as will soap star brothers – Ryan and Adam Thomas.

BGT judge Alesha Dixon is also on the bill with BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball and Rylan Clark also expected to appear.

Comedian Eddie Kadi, Loose Women favourite Judi Love, Olympian Greg Rutherford and comedians Johnny Vegas and Josh Widdicombe will also play their part.

The series comprises of six full-length episodes as well as an additional Christmas special which was filmed in Cambridgeshire.

The festive episode will air in December and filmed at Kimbolton Castle.

That episode will feature This Morning’s Alison Hammond, comedian Rob Beckett and actor Nick Mohammad.

Meanwhile, speaking about the series, host Stephen said: “I’m absolutely thrilled that You Bet! is back – and this time we’re hitting the road!

“Each week I’ll be joined by a top celeb panel, as our challengers take on some brilliantly bonkers and amazing challenges.

“With the title of You Bet Champion on the line, it’s going to be unbelievable from the start.”

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MANCHESTER CITY host Manchester United on Sunday with both clubs looking for a result to springboard their season.

To mark the Super Sunday contest, our team of betting experts has put together a 14/1 Bet Builder for the encounter, courtesy of Betfred.

And there’s more – new customers who sign up with Betfred and place a £10 bet on football will receive £50 in free sports bets.

Find The Sun’s betting publishing principles here

How to claim..

Betfred welcome offer

1. Visit the Betfred website HERE*
2. Register an account using the link provided
3. Deposit £10 using a Debit Card
4. Place your first bet of £10 or more on any qualifying Sportsbook markets, at odds of Evens or greater
5. Once that bet has settled, Betfred will credit your account with £50 in Free Bets

Man City vs Man Utd tips

Our Bet Builder selections: Double chance – Draw/Man Utd, Bruno Fernandes to score, Casemiro to be carded and Erling Haaland 2+ shots on target.

Here’s why we’ve made those selections..

• Double chance – Draw/Man Utd: United have won the last two times they’ve visited the Etihad and are actually unbeaten in their last four games against City – inside 90 minutes anyway. United have been made into a joke team so far this season, yet sit a point and few places above toiling rivals.
• Bruno Fernandes to score: Got off the mark for the season with that 97th minute penalty winner against Burnley. That coming after a miss at Fulham in league game prior. Usually man for big occasion and has three goals in 11 league games against Cityzens.
• Casemiro to be carded: Booked in two of last three games after yellow at Craven Cottage then on international duty with Brazil against Chile. Sat out second game on break due to suspension but should come in from start here and midfield battle key.
• Erling Haaland 2+ shots on target: Norwegian superstar has been on fire and added to it with FIVE goals in one international game when away in break. Started season well too and obviously main man for City.

*New customers only. Register, deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply.

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Players placing bets on games is taboo. Innumerable sports fans were educated on this point in 1989 when hits king Pete Rose received a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for betting on games while he was a manager.

Or upon watching “Eight Men Out,” the 1988 film about MLB’s Black Sox Scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series.

Or from recent incidents, including Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley’s suspension in 2022 for a year for betting on NFL games and Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban in 2024 for betting on NBA games, giving gamblers confidential information and taking himself out of a game to affect bets.

Rose’s ban was rescinded this year, but not until after he died, with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred reasoning that the lifetime part of the ban was no longer applicable.

Former Lakers guard Malik Beasley presumably can take solace in being alive Friday when he learned that he is no longer a target of the federal gambling investigation that his attorneys said harmed his reputation and cost him millions in potential earnings.

Attorneys Steve Haney and Mike Schachter told ESPN that they were informed by the court conducting the investigation that Beasley is not suspected of gambling on NBA games during the 2023-24 season.

“Months after this investigation commenced, Malik remains uncharged and is not the target of this investigation,” Haney told ESPN. “An allegation with no charge, indictment or conviction should never have the catastrophic consequence this has caused Malik. This has literally been the opposite of the presumption of innocence.”

It was reported one day before the official start of free agency in June that Beasley was under investigation by the Eastern District of New York. And, yes, Beasley was a free agent after averaging 16.3 points a game with the Detroit Pistons and setting a franchise record with 319 three-pointers.

Result? The three-year, $42-million contract the Pistons had on the table to bring back the 28-year-old nine-year veteran was rescinded. Other suitors turned their backs as well.

Two months later, most teams have spent the money for free agents. The maximum Beasley can re-sign with the Pistons for is one year and $7.2 million. Several other teams can offer a similar or slightly more lucrative deal, but Beasley likely will sign a one-year deal.

Beasley posted a SnapChat story Aug. 6 before he had been exonerated, and he couldn’t help but sound bitter.

“People are judging me,” he said on the video. “Have I made some mistakes in my life? Yes. Am I proud of those mistakes? No. I’m human, but I know what I know… I just gotta stay positive, stay low key.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’m ready to destroy anything in front of me to prove again that I belong in this league. For those who know me, I work too hard. I work every day. I put basketball before anything.”

Beasley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of threats of violence and was sentenced to 120 days in jail in 2020. The NBA suspended him for 12 games. The three-point-shooting expert played 24 games for the Lakers in the 2022-23 season, averaging 11.1 points a game.

Beasley drew the attention of the gambling investigation when a sportsbook detected heavy betting on his statistics beginning in January 2024, according to ESPN.

A Jan. 31 game involving the Milwaukee Bucks — the team Beasley played for at the time — raised suspicions, according to ESPN’s gambling industry source. The odds on Beasley recording fewer than 2.5 rebounds shortened significantly at sportsbooks leading up to the game. Beasley, however, finished with six rebounds, and those suspicious bets lost.

JAKE PAUL says he was set to earn $100MILLION against Canelo Alvarez – and planned to bet $2m on himself to win.

The YouTuber-turned-boxer and Mexican great were close to sealing a shock deal to fight on May 3 in Las Vegas.

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But Canelo walked away from talks to instead sign a four-fight deal with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh – KOing Paul’s huge payday.

He said on the Iced Coffee Hour podcast: “How much would I have made? Like $100million (£73m).”

Paul even planned to back himself for $2m (£1.4m) on himself in a bid to boost his earnings 20 fold.

He said: “Against Canelo I was going to bet like $2m on myself…

“I would probably have been like a +1000 (10/1) underdog so whatever the maths is – if I would’ve bet $2m I would have made like $20m.”

Fighters are allowed to bet on themselves to win in the state of Nevada – where the bout was scheduled for.

Paul’s last fight in November saw Mike Tyson controversial come out of retirement aged 58 as 100 MILLION watched on Netflix.

But after talks with Canelo collapsed, Paul instead signed to fight ex-middleweight world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, 39, on Saturday.

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Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

JAKE PAUL’S controversial boxing career rolls on this weekend with the Problem Child facing boxing royalty in Anaheim, California.

Paul will face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, a highly-decorated former world middleweight champion.

The Mexican, 39, has fought just once in the last four years but has the best boxing resume of any fighter to step into a ring with Paul – bar Mike Tyson, who was aged 58 at the time they fought.

Watch Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr LIVE on DAZN PPV

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Canelo, 34, meanwhile beat William Scull, 32, in Riyadh in May to regain his undisputed super-middleweight world titles.

And he now defends them against unbeaten American Terence Crawford, 37, in their September 13 super-fight in Vegas.

Paul, 28, claimed he was blocked from boxing Canelo in a bid to restrain his earning potential.

He said: “They don’t want him to fight me because I have people who dislike me in the sport and don’t want to see me succeed and win and be the biggest name in the sport.”

That Scottie Scheffler is the prohibitive favorite to win the U.S. Open this week at historic Oakmont Country Club surprises no one. He’s the top-ranked golfer in the world, winning three of his last four starts, including the PGA Championship.

That Scheffler deleted his Venmo account because bettors continually clicked the pay/request link on the mobile payment app and rudely demanded that he reimburse them when he didn’t win probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, either.

“I think everybody hears from fans whether they have a financial benefit or anything in their outcome,” Scheffler told reporters at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. “That’s why I had to get rid of my Venmo, because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn’t win. It wasn’t a good feeling.”

Scheffler chuckled nervously when he said it, but athletes getting harassed by folks who lost money betting on their performances isn’t a laughing matter.

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law that had prohibited most states from allowing sports betting, abuse toward athletes from bettors who blame them for their financial losses has soared. Gambling on sports is now legal in 39 states.

Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks said recently that their families have received death threats on social media.

A man who lost money May 10 when McCullers gave up seven runs while recording only one out in a loss to the Cincinnati Reds threatened to “murder” McCullers’ two young daughters. Police traced the threats to an intoxicated man overseas who had lost money betting on the game.

“I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with,” McCullers said in an understatement. “There have been many, many threats over the years aimed at me mostly … but I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public they’re going to stab my kids to death. Things like that are tough to hear as a dad.”

Hendriks posted on his Instagram story that he has received death threats while struggling to regain his form after missing nearly two years because of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Tommy John surgery.

“Threats against my life and my wife’s life are horrible and cruel,” Hendriks wrote. “You need help. Comments telling me to commit suicide and how you wish I died from cancer are disgusting and vile. Maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate your life’s purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families.

Hendriks later explained to reporters why he responded on social media.

“With the rise of sports gambling, it’s gotten a lot worse,” he said. “Unfortunately, that tends to be what it ends up being — whether it be Venmo requests, whether it be people telling you in their comments, ‘Hey, you blew my parlay. Go [f—-] yourself,’ kind of stuff.”

Some gamblers believe they can impact the outcomes of competition through harassment. FanDuel banned a man in Philadelphia after he bragged on social media about intimidating three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a Grand Slam Track meet two weeks ago.

“I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win,” he wrote on a post that included a screenshot of two bets on FanDuel.

Thomas responded by posting, “This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults — anybody who enables him online is gross.”

College athletes are also targets, especially during high-volume betting events such as March Madness and the College Football Playoff.

The NCAA is lobbying for states to ban proposition bets on the performances of individual college athletes, saying it creates a temptation to compromise game integrity.

College athletes have long been considered more susceptible to taking money from gamblers than pro athletes because they are amateurs. That will soon change because of the passage last week of the House settlement, a revenue-sharing model that will allow universities to directly pay athletes up to $20.5 million per year.
Not to say paying college athletes will insulate them from disgruntled gamblers. The NCAA will continue to press for laws that could ban bettors from state-licensed sportsbooks if they are found guilty of harassment.

The sheer volume of betting makes policing the harassment and intimidation of athletes an enormous challenge. This year, it was estimated that $3 billion was legally wagered on the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), an increase of about 10% from 2024.

In an attempt to be proactive about harassment ahead of March Madness, the NCAA posted a public service announcement video titled “Don’t Be a Loser.”

“There’s losing and then there’s being a loser. Game time comes with enough pressure,” the video said. “Way too often, people are betting on sports, losing, and taking it out on the athletes. Only a loser would harass college athletes after losing a bet, but it happens almost every day.

“Root for your team, get crazy when the buzzer sounds, but don’t harass anyone because you lost a bet. It’s time we draw the line and put an end to the abuse.”

Scheffler drew the line by deleting his Venmo account, which had become just another means for gamblers to communicate with a prominent athlete. His career earnings exceed $150 million, according to Spotrac, but he said a handful of bettors had paid him “maybe a couple bucks here or there” via Venmo after he won tournaments and presumably lined their pockets as well.

“That didn’t happen nearly as much as the requests did,” Scheffler added.

Published on
06/06/2025 – 6:42 GMT+2

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In three hours on Thursday, shares in Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company plunged by more than 14% in a stunning wipeout, as investors dumped their holdings amid a bitter war of words between the president and the world’s richest man.

By the end of the trading day, $150 billion (€139bn) of Tesla’s market value had been erased — more than what it would take to buy all the shares of Starbucks and hundreds of other big publicly traded US companies.

The disagreement started over the president’s budget bill, then quickly turned nasty after Musk said that Trump wouldn’t have been elected without his help. Trump then implied that he may turn the federal government against Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on his social messaging service Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

The drop on Thursday partially reversed a big run-up in the eight weeks since Musk confirmed that Tesla would be testing an autonomous, driverless “robotaxi” service in Austin, Texas, this month.

Investors fear Trump might not be in such a rush to usher in a future of self-driving cars in the US, and that could hit Tesla.

“The whole goal of robotaxis is to have them in 20 or 25 cities next year,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, said. “If you start to heighten the regulatory environment, that could delay that path.”

He added that there’s a fear Trump is not going to play ‘Mr Nice Guy’ anymore.

However, Trump’s threat to cut government contracts could be aimed more at another of Musk’s businesses, SpaceX. The privately held rocket company has received billions of dollars for sending astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, providing launches and doing other work for NASA. The company is currently racing to develop a mega-rocket for the space agency to send astronauts to the Moon next year.

A subsidiary of SpaceX, the satellite internet company Starlink, appears to also have benefited from Musk’s once-close relationship with the president.

On a trip with Trump to the Middle East last month, Musk announced that Saudi Arabia had approved Starlink for aviation and maritime use. Though its not clear how much politics has played a role, a string of other recent deals in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and elsewhere has followed, as Trump has threatened tariffs and sent diplomats scrambling to please the president.

One measure of SpaceX’s success: A private financing round followed by a private sale of shares in recent months reportedly valued it at $350 billion (around €325bn), up from an estimated $210 billion (about €195.3bn) a year ago.

Now all that is possibly in danger. Tesla shares got an even bigger lift from Musk’s close relationship with Trump, initially at least.

After the presidential election in November, investors rushed into the stock, adding more than $450 billion (€418.5bn) to its value in a few weeks. The belief was that the company would see big gains as Trump eased regulatory oversight of Tesla. They also bet that the new administration would embrace Musk’s plans for millions of cars on US roads without drivers behind the wheel.

After hitting an all-time high on 17 December, the shares retreated as Musk’s time as head of a government cost-cutting group led to boycotts and a hit to Tesla’s reputation. They’ve recently popped higher again after Musk vowed to focus more on Tesla and its upcoming driverless taxi launch.

Now investors aren’t so sure, a worry that has translated into big paper losses in Tesla stock held by Musk personally.

Supreme Court finds no factual basis for Ronen Bar’s dismissal, highlighting irregularities and lack of formal hearing.

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s decision to fire domestic security chief Ronen Bar was “unlawful”, marking the latest twist in a bitter power struggle between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the country’s justice system.

The top court “ruled that the government’s decision to terminate the head of the Shin Bet’s tenure was made through an improper and unlawful process,” its ruling said on Wednesday.

It also said that Netanyahu had a conflict of interest in moving to get Bar fired, as the Shin Bet was also conducting a probe into alleged ties between the prime minister’s close aides and Qatar.

The two men have traded accusations and barbs over deep-seated security failures surrounding the Hamas-led October 7 attack.

Netanyahu first said he would fire Bar due to a breakdown in “trust”, suggesting it was linked to October 7, which then led to the Gaza war. But Bar said Netanyahu’s decision was motivated by a series of events between November 2024 and February 2025.

In the unclassified part of the court submission, Bar said Netanyahu had told him “on more than one occasion” that he expected Shin Bet to take action against Israelis involved in anti-government demonstrations, “with a particular focus on monitoring the protests’ financial backers”.

The Shin Bet head also said he had refused to sign off on a security request aimed at relieving Netanyahu from testifying at an ongoing corruption trial in which he faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust.

The court said the decision to dismiss Bar was made without “a factual basis” and without giving him a formal hearing before firing him, according to a report by the Times of Israel.

Wednesday’s ruling noted “irregularities” in the process that led to Bar’s sacking, as well as “a disregard for fundamental principles regarding internal security.”

The Israeli cabinet voted to dismiss Bar in March, triggering mass protests and accusations of autocratic pursuits by the far-right government.

The High Court of Justice halted the decision until a hearing could be held. Several groups, including opposition politicians, had filed petitions with the court against the government’s decision.

In April, the government revoked the decision to fire Bar a day after he said he would step down.

Following Bar’s decision to quit the job, Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling said that “this announcement puts an end to the [legal] procedure.”