powering

Walker Lyons took his place in the slot and looked right. Lake McRee crouched on the opposite wing and looked left. The two Trojan tight ends had spent all last Saturday night moving around USC’s formations — split out wide, in the backfield, on the line of scrimmage — paving rush lanes and creating mismatches wherever they went.

Now it was third and short, early in the third quarter of USC’s win over Michigan State, and the two of them were on the field together again, forcing the Spartan defense to decide in a hurry just how Lincoln Riley planned to deploy them.

That unpredictability was precisely the point of the position. It’s why the tight end has been a critical tenet of his Riley’s offense since he started as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 2015. No other position, Riley has come to believe, adds more versatility to an offense.

“It’s the one piece that really can truly do everything,” Riley said. “But it’s also the hardest piece to find.”

During his first three seasons as the Trojans coach, Riley struggled to find that unicorn for his USC offense. Let alone two — or even three — at the same time.

In his first season, in 2022, tight ends accounted for just over 3% of the Trojans’ receiving yards. That number rose to 6% in 2023, then 8% in 2024.

But through a spotless first third of this season, tight ends — and Lyons and McRee, primarily — have contributed 20% of USC’s total passing output in 2025. One reason being the availability of McRee, who has battled a multitude of injuries over his college career. Another being that Riley has used more 12 personnel, with two tight ends on the field, this season than he has before at USC.

“It keeps defenses on their toes,” McRee said. “You don’t really know what we’re going to do, run, pass, or do all of the above out of it.”

The use of 12 personnel has generally been on the rise across all levels of football, including in the NFL, where teams have used two tight end sets nearly 24% of the time through three weeks, according to ESPN. At USC, Riley has gone even further than that, utilizing two-tight end sets at least 35% of the time through four games.

It wasn’t hard to see last Saturday night why he’d lean on that particular scheme, as Lyons took off in motion from the slot. The sophomore tight end slowed just before the third-down snap, as if to prepare to run block, then took off sprinting into the flat. At the same time, McRee sprinted through the seam, taking a linebacker with him.

In the backfield, quarterback Jayden Maiava faked a handoff, forcing another linebacker to bite on the run, while Lyons sprinted into the open space the play design had created. Riley’s modern variation of a triple option would work precisely as planned, as Maiava lofted an easy pass to Lyons, who ran 10 yards for his second touchdown in three weeks.

USC tight end Walker Lyons (85) heads onto the field after talking to coach Lincoln Riley.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was just the sort of play that reminded what Riley was capable of as a playcaller with two talented tight ends at his disposal.

“I’ve missed it,” Riley said. “Because I love the matchups, I love what it creates. I’m excited about what that room has become for us. I think that room is just going to get better.”

When he first started as a college football coach, tight ends weren’t so much on Riley’s radar. Mike Leach, his mentor at Texas Tech, didn’t seek out or use a tight end unless he happened to have one on his roster.

It wasn’t until Riley left for East Carolina that he started to tinker more with the position.

“We started to get more creative, especially in the run game and some of the different things we could do off of it,” Riley said.

Those innovations accelerated at Oklahoma, where, as offensive coordinator, he was fortunate to inherit redshirt freshman Mark Andrews in 2015. By 2017, Sooner tight ends contributed more than 31% of the team’s passing offense. Andrews had 958 yards and eight touchdowns that season, the most of any tight end in college football. He now stars for the Baltimore Ravens.

“We started building more [at Oklahoma],” Riley said. “We started studying people. And, yeah, we got to the point where we were playing with tight ends, so much in so many ways, it became a comfort.”

He wouldn’t have the same security blanket at USC. The tight end room he took over was totally depleted of talent.

The Trojans two most productive tight ends from 2021, Malcolm Epps and Erik Krommenhoek, were out of eligibility. Their promising freshman, Michael Trigg, had transferred. McRee was the only returner with any real experience, and he’d only played in four games before redshirting.

“That room was a ways off, in terms of the depth and skillset and talent we had,” Riley said. “It’s definitely taken some time.”

Lyons’ arrival would be a major inflection point. A four-star recruit, he’d come to USC from a high school offense that regularly utilized two tight ends. He was used to having his hand in the dirt, as well as working as a receiver on the perimeter.

During his recruitment, Riley showed clips of all the different ways he used Andrews at Oklahoma. He felt Lyons could fill a similar role.

“All the things that he did with [tight ends] was definitely intriguing,” Lyons said, “and it definitely made an impact.”

The sheer amount that Riley asks of tight ends in his offense would add another hurdle in actually making that two-pronged role a reality. McRee, for instance, has technically lined up in 16 different spots through four games, according to Pro Football Focus.

“You’ve got to know protections, route concepts, run game — like, you really have to know it all,” Riley said.

Lyons admits it was overwhelming at first.

“But it’s great now,” he says.

The feeling is mutual for Riley, who knows how rare it is to have two tight ends to build an offense around.

“But when you get it,” he said, “it could be really powerful.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan visited Capitol Hill just weeks after Inauguration Day, with other administration officials and a singular message: They needed money for the White House’s border security and mass deportation agenda.

By summer, Congress delivered.

The Republican Party’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law July 4 included what’s arguably the biggest boost of funds yet to the Department of Homeland Security — nearly $170 billion, almost double its annual budget.

The staggering sum is powering the nation’s sweeping new Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, delivering gripping scenes of people being pulled off city streets and from job sites across the nation — the cornerstone of Trump’s promise for the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Homeland Security confirmed over the weekend ICE is working to set up detention sites at certain military bases.

“We’re getting them out at record numbers,” Trump said at the White House bill signing ceremony. “We have an obligation to, and we’re doing it.”

Money flows, and so do questions

The crush of new money is setting off alarms in Congress and beyond, raising questions from lawmakers in both major political parties who are expected to provide oversight. The bill text provided general funding categories — almost $30 billion for ICE officers, $45 billion for detention facilities, $10 billion for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — but few policy details or directives. Homeland Security recently announced $50,000 ICE hiring bonuses.

And it’s not just the big bill’s fresh infusion of funds fueling the president’s agenda of 1 million deportations a year.

In the months since Trump took office, his administration has been shifting as much as $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other accounts to pay for immigration enforcement and deportation operations, lawmakers said.

“Your agency is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Noem during a Senate committee hearing in the spring.

The senator warned that Homeland Security would “go broke” by July.

Noem quickly responded that she always lives within her budget.

But Murphy said later in a letter to Homeland Security, objecting to its repurposing funds, that ICE was being directed to spend at an “indefensible and unsustainable rate to build a mass deportation army,” often without approval from Congress.

This past week, the new Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, along with a subcommittee chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, requested a briefing from Noem on the border security components of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, which included $46 billion over the next four years for Trump’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“We write today to understand how the Department plans to outlay this funding to deliver a strong and secure homeland for years to come,” the GOP lawmakers said in a letter to the homeland security secretary, noting border apprehensions are at record lows.

“We respectfully request that you provide Committee staff with a briefing on the Department’s plan to disburse OBBBA funding,” they wrote, seeking a response by Aug. 22.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Associated Press the department is in daily discussions with the committee “to honor all briefing requests including the spend plan for the funds allocated” through the new law.

“ICE is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity,” she said. “This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss.”

Deportations move deep into communities

All together, it’s what observers on and off Capitol Hill see as a fundamental shift in immigration policy — enabling DHS to reach far beyond the U.S. southern border and deep into communities to conduct raids and stand up detention facilities as holding camps for immigrants.

The Defense Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies are being enlisted in what Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, calls a “whole of government” approach.

“They’re orienting this huge shift,” Bush-Joseph said, as deportation enforcement moves “inward.”

The flood of cash comes when Americans’ views on immigration are shifting. Polling showed 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a “good thing” for the country, having jumped substantially from 64% a year ago, according to Gallup. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now.

At the same time, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has slipped. According to a July AP-NORC poll, 43% of U.S. adults said they approved of his handling of immigration, down slightly from 49% in March.

Americans are watching images of often masked officers arresting college students, people at Home Depot lots, parents, workers and a Tunisian musician. Stories abound of people being whisked off to detention facilities, often without allegations of wrongdoing beyond being unauthorized to remain in the U.S.

A new era of detention centers

Detention centers are being stood up, from “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida to the repurposed federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and the proposed new “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. Flights are ferrying migrants not just home or to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison but far away to Africa and beyond.

Homan has insisted in recent interviews those being detained and deported are the “worst of the worst,” and he dismissed as “garbage” the reports showing many of those being removed have not committed violations beyond their irregular immigration status.

“There’s no safe haven here,” Homan said recently outside the White House. “We’re going to do exactly what President Trump has promised the American people he’d do.”

Back in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, emerged from their private meeting saying Trump administration officials were “begging for money.”

As Graham got to work, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a leading deficit hawk, proposed an alternative border package, at $39 billion, a fraction of the size.

But Paul’s proposal was quickly dismissed. He was among a handful of GOP lawmakers who joined all Democrats in voting against the final tax and spending cuts bill.

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.

The ASEAN region is often cited as a successful example of regional cooperation. The ASEAN regional bloc consisting of 10 South East Asian countries — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It was founded in 1967 with the founding members of the organisation being Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

ASEAN’s economic achievements

The South-East Asian regional bloc has also been an engine of global growth. Even amidst the economic challenges in recent years, the average growth rate of the group was well over 4% in 2024. While Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam recorded growth of over 5%, Vietnam was the star performer growing at over 7%. According to forecasts, Vietnam is likely to comfortably surpass 6% growth in 2025 and 2026. While the foundations for these successes have been laid over decades, one of the reasons for the economic progress of these nations has been their ability to adapt to geopolitical and economic changes.

The ASEAN region has benefited significantly from globalisation, especially countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.If one were to look at regional trade within the ASEAN group, it was estimated at $3.5 trillion.  ASEAN, which has robust economic relations with US and China, has also focused on enhancing trade with non-member countries.

ASEAN has also excelled in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In 2023, ASEAN’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows exceeded $200 billion (230 billion). Thus, the regional bloc has emerged as the largest recipient of FDI in developing regions. The star performers, in terms of drawing FDI, in recent years of the ASEAN region have been Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. While earlier the successes of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia drew international attention in recent years it is Vietnam’s economic success which has begun to draw attention. The successes of these countries can be attributed to investor friendly policies, increasing focus on R &D and tech, their geographical location and as mentioned their deftness in dealing with the changing landscape. So far, most ASEAN nations have steered clear of getting embroiled in geopolitical wrangling between China and the US. In recent months, several ASEAN countries have expressed their concern in the context of the downward spiral of ties between both countries.

ASEAN Soft Power

Apart from robust economic performance, the ASEAN grouping has also been reasonably successful in promoting their Soft Power. According to the Brand Finance Soft Power rankings 2025, Singapore ranked 21 globally was ranked the highest in the ASEAN region. It would be pertinent to point out, that rich and diverse culture of the region along with a tourist friendly eco-system has resulted in ASEAN being a preferred destination from tourists across the world. Apart from Singapore and Thailand, other popular tourist destinations in the region are; Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of Indian tourists visiting the ASEAN region.

 One of the strong components of ASEAN power has been tourism. According to estimates, the ASEAN region was able to attract 123 million tourists in 2024. Six ASEAN countries — Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Myanmar — are also proposing a joint visa initiative dubbed as “6 countries, 1 destination”. This will be a common visa like Schengen. The idea was proposed by Thailand, which is heavily dependent upon tourism and believes that this initiative would give a further boost to tourism.

Some countries have also been able to draw international students. With western countries becoming more inward looking, there is scope for ASEAN countries like Singapore and Malaysia to attract international students. Singapore has emerged as a popular destination for students due to some of its higher education educations being highly ranked as well as the career avenues in that country. Malaysia received over 80,000 student application from international students – this was a 25% increase from 2023.  Both ASEAN countries could become especially attractive destinations for more South Asian students for whom countries in the Anglosphere have been favoured.

ASEAN member states reaction to Trump’s imposition of tariffs

ASEAN nations have expressed their scepticism regarding the deterioration in US-China ties, since they have close economic ties with both.  Apart from this, all have been extremely critical of tariffs and are looking to diversify their relationships. The Singapore PM, Lawrence Wong, while commenting on the recent tariffs announced by US President, Donald Trump said:

“..the recent Liberation Day announcement by the US leaves no room for doubt,…It marks a seismic change in the global order.”

ASEAN interest in BRICS in a changing situation

In the changing situation, it is likely that more ASEAN countries will also explore membership of BRICS+. Indonesia had joined BRICS in January 2025 as a member, while other ASEAN member states – Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam – joined as observers in October 2024. Indonesian foreign minister, Sugiono after joining BRICS had said that it’s decision to join BRICS+ was a reiteration of its independent foreign policy. Other ASEAN countries are also exploring the possibility of entering BRICS.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as mentioned earlier the ASEAN region has so far reaped the dividends of globalisation and a reasonably stable relationship between US and China for very long. The current geopolitical and economic situation is likely to pose significant challenges for the ASEAN region. Apart from internal contradictions within the Bloc, global uncertainty due to US policies during Trump 2.0 are likely to be a major challenge. While all eyes are on the economic impact of the current global turbulence, it is important for ASEAN to focus on ‘Soft Power’, since the region has specific potential in areas like tourism and education as has been discussed earlier. It remains to be seen whether ASEAN can effectively use “Smart Power” to deal with the changing global landscape.