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As of April 15, 2026, there were 47 exchange-traded funds with names that featured the terms “AI” or “artificial intelligence,” or to which Morningstar had assigned its “Artificial Intelligence” thematic tag.Some of those ETFs are plays on the large-language models themselves, others on the infrastructure, hardware, and data that make the chatbots and agents go. Still other ETFs leverage AI to pick securities. Here’s the list of the 47 AI-related ETFs I assembled: The average AI-themed ETF is around three years old, the oldest being the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ; 9/12/2016 inception date), the youngest the AI Data Center REIT & Infrastructure ETF (RCKZ; 4/14/2026). Most AI-themed ETFs have come along since 2022.Even though they’re fairly new, these ETFs have been popular with investors. Collectively, they recently held around $25 billion in net assets, thanks to strong demand: As a group, the ETFs hauled in more than $10.0 billion in net flows over the past 12 months, $7.7 billion over the second half of last year alone. All told, they’ve gathered a cumulative $19 billion of net inflows since the first debuted in 2016.Performance: It’s ComplicatedHow have these ETFs performed? It’s been mixed. On the plus side, the average AI-themed ETF has topped the S&P since 2016. But that hasn’t been good enough to beat the Nasdaq 100 Index over that span.That average return also masks significant variation in the performance of the underlying AI-themed ETFs. To illustrate, here is the difference in rolling one-year returns between AI ETFs at the 25th and 75th percentiles. There was a 17-percentage-point difference between the haves and have-nots in the average one-year period, a gap big enough to drive a truck through. That dispersion is about 3 times wider than the return difference you’d find among large-blend funds and even exceeds that of funds assigned to Morningstar’s “technology” fund peer group. Parsing ‘AI-Themed’What’s given rise to these wide performance disparities? Though most of these ETFs fly under the same AI banner or invest in resources and capabilities that are central or at least adjacent to the technology, they aren’t monolithic. For instance, take the largest AI-themed ETF by net assets, Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology (AIQ). That ETF spreads its assets across more than 80 stocks and thus doesn’t concentrate too much in its top names. Contrast that with TrueShares Tech, AI, and Deep Learning ETF, which holds only 20 or so stocks and, as such, loads up on its top picks, which have routinely soaked up two-thirds or more of the portfolio. Those differences appear to explain the large gap between the two ETFs’ returns since August 2022, which has seen the Global X ETF gain around 20% per year versus only 9% annually for the TrueShares ETF. The Global X ETF hit pay dirt with names like Netflix, SK Hynix, and Samsung, none of which the TrueShares ETF held during this period, and avoided trouble in reeling stocks like Figma, Relay Therapeutics, and Prime Medicine, all of which figured into the TrueShares portfolio at various points along the way.The point isn’t to dwell on what might have gone right or wrong for a pair of ETFs that share a similar name but rather to note these differences matter. And judging from the correlation of each AI-themed ETF’s returns to the return of the average fund, it appears those differences are fairly widespread. TakeawaysYou Don’t Need ThisI probably should have led with this, but I don’t see a compelling reason for anyone to go out of their way to invest in a thematic strategy like AI ETFs. And the reason is simple: If you’re investing in a diversified portfolio like an index fund, you’re probably already participating in that theme, and all others for that matter. Anything beyond that is likely to be redundant and pile on extra risk you don’t need. Careful What You Wish ForTo those who would say, “Yeah, but I want to dial up my exposure to the theme,” I would ask: What makes you think it’s not already priced in? A rule of thumb I use is to assume that by the time an emerging technology, concept, or theme has reached my attention, it’s thoroughly mainstream. Kind of the investing equivalent of the Groucho Marx quip, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”I’ve already written about the yawning gap between the return of the average dollar invested in thematic ETFs and those ETFs’ aggregate returns. What caused such a wide gap to open between the two? Inopportunely timed purchases and sales by investors, who too often bought high and sold low. End of Story?Themes are all about a story that’s still in the process of unfolding. In the case of AI, it’s a mass-consumer adoption and build-out story in which the technology is said to herald a new era of unheard-of innovation and productivity. That’s stirring, for sure. But have you worked out how, when, or how that story might end? You can’t reasonably be expected to have figured that out—the heads of the frontier AI labs aren’t even sure how it’ll end. Which makes it all the more important to have evaluated what fundamental change in the theme-based strategy you’re considering would trigger you to cut or sell the stake outright. Know What You’re BuyingThat’s a good segue to this—you’re not buying a narrative, you’re buying a stake in businesses that will generate cash flows in the future. The timing and magnitude of those cash flows, we don’t know. The price other investors will be willing to pay for that stream of cash flows is even less certain. Also, that basket of stocks could change in the future depending on how the theme-based strategy concerned works. The price that the portfolio fetches today reflects the market’s collective assessment of those stocks’ worth. What is your view? Why do you expect those stocks to appreciate? What’s the fundamental explanation for that appreciation? What does the market have wrong? Get Your Hands DirtyEven if you get all the way to the end—you’re undeterred by the portfolio overlap, you think you got in early, you’ve worked out a scenario in which you’ll sell, you’ve formed a sturdy fundamental thesis for why it’s a worthwhile investment, you just think I need to lighten up—you’ve still got to drill down to figure out what makes a strategy tick and how that differs from competing options. As this article underscores, those details—what qualifies as “AI,” how many investments the ETF holds, how it weights those stocks, how long it holds them, when and why it might sell them, what it might replace them with—can matter a great deal. But given the sheer multitude of these vehicles and the various ways they operate, you might need a large language model to keep it all straight.Switched OnHere are other things I’m reading, writing, or listening to:Remembering Mark MobiusMorningstar’s annual “diversification landscape” paper is out“The Accidental Star Manager”The Both (Self-titled)I guess I’m what you call an “Ella fella”Don’t Be a StrangerI love hearing from you. Have some feedback? An angle for an article? Email me at jeffrey.ptak@morningstar.com. If you’re so inclined, you can also follow me on Twitter/X at @syouth1, and I do some odds-and-ends writing on a Substack called Basis Pointing.

One employee at Vercel adopted an AI tool. One employee at that AI vendor got hit with an infostealer. That combination created a walk-in path to Vercel’s production environments through an OAuth grant that nobody had reviewed.Vercel, the cloud platform behind Next.js and its millions of weekly npm downloads, confirmed on Sunday that attackers gained unauthorized access to internal systems. Mandiant was brought in. Law enforcement was notified. Investigations remain active. An update on Monday confirmed that Vercel collaborated with GitHub, Microsoft, npm, and Socket to verify that no Vercel npm packages were compromised. Vercel also announced it is now defaulting environment variable creation to “sensitive.” Next.js, Turbopack, AI SDK, and all Vercel-published npm packages remain uncompromised after a coordinated audit with GitHub, Microsoft, npm, and Socket.Context.ai was the entry point. OX Security’s analysis found that a Vercel employee installed the Context.ai browser extension and signed into it using a corporate Google Workspace account, granting broad OAuth permissions. When Context.ai was breached, the attacker inherited that employee’s Workspace access, pivoted into Vercel environments, and escalated privileges by sifting through environment variables not marked as “sensitive.” Vercel’s bulletin states that variables marked sensitive are stored in a manner that prevents them from being read. Variables without that designation were accessible in plaintext through the dashboard and API, and the attacker used them as the escalation path.CEO Guillermo Rauch described the attacker as “highly sophisticated and, I strongly suspect, significantly accelerated by AI.” Jaime Blasco, CTO of Nudge Security, independently surfaced a second OAuth grant tied to Context.ai’s Chrome extension, matching the client ID from Vercel’s published IOC to Context.ai’s Google account before Rauch’s public statement. The Hacker News reported that Google removed Context.ai’s Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store on March 27. Per The Hacker News and Nudge Security, that extension embedded a second OAuth grant enabling read access to users’ Google Drive files.Patient zero. A Roblox cheat and a Lumma Stealer infectionHudson Rock published forensic evidence on Monday, reporting that the breach origin traces to a February 2026 Lumma Stealer infection on a Context.ai employee’s machine. According to Hudson Rock, browser history showed the employee downloading Roblox auto-farm scripts and game exploit executors. Harvested credentials included Google Workspace logins, Supabase keys, Datadog tokens, Authkit credentials, and the support@context.ai account. Hudson Rock identified the infected user as a core member of “context-inc,” Context.ai’s tenant on the Vercel platform, with administrative access to production environment variable dashboards.Context.ai published its own bulletin on Sunday (updated Monday), disclosing that the breach affects its deprecated AI Office Suite consumer product, not its enterprise Bedrock offering (Context.ai’s agent infrastructure product, unrelated to AWS Bedrock). Context.ai says it detected unauthorized access to its AWS environment in March, hired CrowdStrike to investigate, and shut down the environment. Its updated bulletin then disclosed that the scope was broader than initially understood: the attacker also compromised OAuth tokens for consumer users, and one of those tokens opened the door to Vercel’s Google Workspace.Dwell time is the detail that should concern security directors. Nearly a month separated Context.ai’s March detection from the Vercel disclosure on Sunday. A separate Trend Micro analysis references an intrusion beginning as early as June 2024 — a finding that, if confirmed, would extend the dwell time to roughly 22 months. VentureBeat could not independently reconcile that timeline with Hudson Rock’s February 2026 dating; Trend Micro did not respond to a request for comment before publication.Where detection goes blindSecurity directors can use this table to benchmark their own detection stack against the four-hop kill chain this breach exploited.Kill Chain HopWhat HappenedWho Should DetectTypical CoverageGap1. Infostealer on employee deviceContext.ai employee downloaded Roblox cheat scripts; Lumma Stealer harvested Workspace creds, Supabase/Datadog/Authkit keys.EDR on endpoint; credential exposure monitoring.Low. Device likely under-monitored. No stealer log monitoring at most orgs.Most enterprises do not subscribe to infostealer intelligence feeds or correlate stealer logs against employee email domains.2. AWS compromise at Context.aiAttacker used harvested credentials to access Context.ai’s AWS. Detected in March.Context.ai cloud security; AWS CloudTrail.Partially detected. Context.ai stopped AWS access but missed OAuth token exfiltration.Initial investigation did not identify OAuth token exfiltration. Scope was underestimated until Vercel disclosure.3. OAuth token theft into Vercel WorkspaceCompromised OAuth token used to access a Vercel employee’s Google Workspace. Employee had granted “Allow All” permissions via Chrome extension.Google Workspace audit logs; OAuth app monitoring; CASB.Very low. Most orgs do not monitor third-party OAuth token usage patterns.No approval workflow intercepted the grant. No anomaly detection on OAuth token use from a compromised third party. This is the hop no one saw.4. Lateral movement into Vercel productionAttacker enumerated non-sensitive env vars (accessible via dashboard/API), harvested customer credentials.Vercel platform audit logs; behavioral analytics.Moderate. Vercel detected the intrusion after the attacker accessed customer credentials.Detection occurred after exfiltration, not before. Env var access by a compromised Workspace account did not trigger real-time alerting.What’s confirmed vs. what’s claimedVercel’s bulletin confirms unauthorized access to internal systems, a limited subset of affected customers, and two IOCs tied to Context.ai’s Google Workspace OAuth apps. Rauch confirmed that Next.js, Turbopack, and Vercel’s open-source projects are unaffected.Separately, a threat actor using the ShinyHunters name posted on BreachForums claiming to hold Vercel’s internal database, employee accounts, and GitHub and NPM tokens, with a $2M asking price. Austin Larsen, principal threat analyst at Google Threat Intelligence, assessed the claimant as “likely an imposter.” Actors previously linked to ShinyHunters have denied involvement. None of these claims has been independently verified.Six governance failures the Vercel breach exposed1. AI tool OAuth scopes go unaudited. Context.ai’s own bulletin states that a Vercel employee granted “Allow All” permissions using a corporate account. Most security teams have no inventory of which AI tools their employees have granted OAuth access to.CrowdStrike CTO Elia Zaitsev put it bluntly at RSAC 2026: “Don’t give an agent access to everything just because you’re lazy. Give it access to only what it needs to get the job done.” Jeff Pollard, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, told Cybersecurity Dive that the attack is a reminder about third-party risk management concerns and AI tool permissions.2. Environment variable classification is doing real security work. Vercel distinguishes between variables marked “sensitive” (stored in a manner that prevents reading) and those without that designation (accessible in plaintext through the dashboard and API). Attackers used the accessible variables as the escalation path. A developer convenience toggle determined the blast radius. Vercel has since changed its default: new environment variables now default to sensitive.“Modern controls get deployed, but if legacy tokens or keys aren’t retired, the system quietly favors them,” Merritt Baer, CSO at Enkrypt AI and former Deputy CISO at AWS, told VentureBeat. 3. Infostealer-to-SaaS-to-supply-chain escalation chains lack detection coverage. Hudson Rock’s reporting reveals a kill chain that crossed four organizational boundaries. No single detection layer covers that chain. Context.ai’s updated bulletin acknowledged that the scope extended beyond what was initially identified during its CrowdStrike-led investigation.4. Dwell time between vendor detection and customer notification exceeds attacker timelines. Context.ai detected the AWS compromise in March. Vercel disclosed on Sunday. Every CISO should ask their vendors: what is your contractual notification window after detecting unauthorized access that could affect downstream customers?5. Third-party AI tools are the new shadow IT. Vercel’s bulletin describes Context.ai as “a small, third-party AI tool.” Grip Security’s March 2026 analysis of 23,000 SaaS environments found a 490% year-over-year increase in AI-related attacks. Vercel is the latest enterprise to learn this the hard way.6. AI-accelerated attackers compress response timelines. Rauch’s assessment of AI acceleration comes from what his IR team observed. CrowdStrike’s 2026 Global Threat Report puts the baseline at a 29-minute average eCrime breakout time, 65% faster than 2024.Security director action planAttack SurfaceWhat FailedRecommended ActionOwnerOAuth governanceContext.ai held broad “Allow All” Workspace permissions. No approval workflow intercepted.Inventory every AI tool OAuth grant org-wide. Revoke scopes exceeding least privilege. Check both Vercel IOCs now.Identity / IAMEnv var classificationVariables not marked “sensitive” remained accessible. Accessibility became the escalation path.Default to non-readable. Require a security sign-off to downgrade any variable to accessible.Platform eng + securityInfostealer-to-supply-chainKill chain spanned Lumma Stealer, Context.ai AWS, OAuth tokens, Vercel Workspace, and production environments.Correlate Infostealer intel feeds against employee domains. Automate credential rotation when creds surface in stealer logs.Threat intel + SOCVendor notification lagNearly a month between Context.ai detection and Vercel disclosure.Require 72-hour notification clauses in all contracts involving OAuth or identity integration.Third-party risk / legalShadow AI adoptionOne employee’s unapproved AI tool became the breach vector for hundreds of orgs.Extend shadow IT discovery to AI agent platforms. Treat unapproved adoption as a security event.Security ops + procurementLateral movement speedRauch suspects AI acceleration. Attacker compressed the access-to-escalation window.Cut detection-to-containment SLAs below 29-minute eCrime average.SOC + IR teamRun both IoC checks todaySearch your Google Workspace admin console (Security > API Controls > Manage Third-Party App Access) for two OAuth App IDs.The first is 110671459871-30f1spbu0hptbs60cb4vsmv79i7bbvqj.apps.googleusercontent.com, tied to Context.ai’s Office Suite.The second is 110671459871-f3cq3okebd3jcg1lllmroqejdbka8cqq.apps.googleusercontent.com, tied to Context.ai’s Chrome extension and granting Google Drive read access.If either touched your environment, you are in the blast radius regardless of what Vercel discloses next.What this means for security directorsForget the Vercel brand name for a moment. What happened here is the first major proof case that AI agent OAuth integrations create a breach class that most enterprise security programs cannot detect, scope, or contain. A Roblox cheat download in February led to production infrastructure access in April. Four organizational boundaries, two cloud providers, and one identity perimeter. No zero-day required.For most enterprises, employees have connected AI tools to corporate Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Slack instances with broad OAuth scopes — without security teams knowing. The Vercel breach is the case study for what that exposure looks like when an attacker finds it first.

And that’s a good thing.
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A decorated veteran pilot, aerospace engineer and defense researcher was killed in a plane crash in South Carolina last week, raising questions about whether incident is related to the deaths and disappearance of 11 scientists tied to nuclear and space research. James “Tony” Moffatt, 60, was flying with his wife Leasa, 61, and sons Andrew, 30, and William, 28, on a Mooney M20 single-engine aircraft returning home to Huntsville, Alabama, from North Carolina when the aircraft went down around 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to FOX 54. The plane was reportedly traveling to Union County to refuel when it crashed, killing all four passengers. Authorities have not yet released a cause of the crash as the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration continue to investigate the incident.NASA COORDINATING WITH RELEVANT AGENCIES IN MISSING SCIENTIST PROBEMoffatt is the latest scientist with ties to aerospace research and NASA to make headlines, with the deaths and disappearances of 11 individuals with similar backgrounds raising concerns.His son, Andrew Moffatt, was also an up-and-coming researcher at the time of his death. The 30-year-old was a research engineer and scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Research and Engineering Support Center.The elder Moffatt earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech in 1988 and previously studied as an experimental test pilot in the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, according to FOX 54. Following his 21-year military career, Moffatt reportedly worked as a payload and flight crew support specialist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Astronaut Office, where he participated in 14 Space Shuttle ISS construction missions.RETIRED AIR FORCE GENERAL VANISHES IN 1-HOUR WINDOW FROM HOME, GUN AND WALLET MISSINGAfter retiring from the Army in 2008, Moffatt founded aerospace consulting firm Moffatt Systems Inc., and later served as a Principal Research Engineer at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Research Center, FOX 54 reported. GOT A TIP?He also reportedly worked on the Army’s Degraded Visual Environment Mitigation program and the Next Generation Unmanned Aircraft System technology demonstration.Moffatt’s experience draws parallels with several of the scientists who have either died or been reported missing since 2022.STRING OF SCIENTIST DEATHS, VANISHING FUELS EXPERT TALKS OF SHADOW OPS AND SILENCED SECRETS: ‘VERY SERIOUS’Michael David Hicks, 59; Frank Maiwald, 61; Nuno Loureiro, 47; Jason Thomas, 45; Amy Eskridge, 34; and Carl Grillmair, 47, all died between 2022 and 2026. Monica Reza, 60; Melissa Casias, 53; Anthony Chavez, 79; Steven Garcia, 48; and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, were all reported missing throughout 2023 to 2026, with each of their disappearances occurring under suspicious circumstances.Both Reza and Eskridge shared similarities with Moffatt relating to their NASA-based research, with Reza disappearing when she was the director of materials processing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).Additionally, several of the scientists worked within defense labs – mirroring Moffatt’s experience as the founder of aerospace consulting firm Moffatt Systems Inc.Moffatt’s two sons were also engrained in similar scientific fields at the time of their deaths. Andrew Moffatt served as a research engineer and scientist at UAH’s Research and Engineering Support Center, according to FOX 54.FOLLOW US ON XWilliam Moffatt reportedly worked in the information technology industry, and recently earned his Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate certification and held CompTIA Security+ and Linux+ credentials.The disappearances and deaths of the 11 scientists have gained the attention of politicians in Washington, with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., warning that “something sinister” could be involved.GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL”We’ve put a notice out to the Department of War, the FBI, NASA, and the Department of Energy. We want to know everything they know about what happened with these scientists, because those four agencies were predominantly the ones these 11 individuals were affiliated with,” he said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “We want to try to piece this together.”On Monday, NASA announced it would work alongside other federal agencies to investigate the incidents.CLICK HERE FOR MORE US NEWS”NASA is coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stephens wrote on X. “At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat. The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as it becomes available.”Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has also vowed to look into the various occurrences.”I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half,” Trump told reporters last week. “I just left a meeting on that subject.”The White House, U.S. Army, Pentagon and NASA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment regarding whether Moffatt’s death is being investigated alongside the 11 scientists’ deaths and disappearances.Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have introduced a new self-propelled howitzer to combat Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon as a defensive weapon against Hezbollah attacks.Ro’em, the Hebrew word for thunder, could play an important role if the 10-day fragile ceasefire breaks down between Israel and Hezbollah. A second round of talks aimed at disarming Hezbollah between the ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel are slated for Thursday in Washington D.C. The ceasefire went into effect Thursday.Ehud Bibi, Chief Artillery Officer for the IDF, told Fox News Digital that “The Ro’em brings a new capability to the Artillery Corps and the IDF as a whole, reshaping how firepower is employed on the battlefield. This marks a historic milestone, introducing a new era of more precise, faster, and more flexible fire enabling us to support troops on the ground more effectively.”LAWMAKERS QUESTION WHETHER US MOVING FAST ENOUGH TO CAPITALIZE ON HEZBOLLAH’S WEAKENED STATEAccording to the IDF statement, “During the activity, the troops conducted precise artillery fire on several Hezbollah anti-tank and surface-to-surface missile launch positions, from which attacks had been launched against IDF troops. The firing was effective, achieving operational results and introducing new artillery capabilities, thereby reducing the threat posed to IDF troops and Israeli civilians.”The IDF said the launches were purely defensive attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists during the truce. The howitzer can fire roughly 40 kilometers (about 25 miles). A team of three IDF soldiers operate the Ro’em.Elbit Systems stated on its website that it’s “capable of automatic loading and laying of the gun system, rapid in-and-out action times and high rate of fire. It offers a protected cabin for a crew of three.” Adding that, “Depending on the mission, SIGMA is capable of automatically selecting and loading the required projectile, propellant and fuze and laying the gun to optimally engage targets.” Also known as SIGMA, the Ro’em is produced by South Carolina-based subsidiary of Elbit Systems of America.Hezbollah violated a previous November 2024 ceasefire, which was brokered by the U.S., when it launched missiles into Israel on March 2 in response to the joint Israel-Iran war on Iran’s regime. The Lebanese government and the Lebanese Armed Forces failed to adhere to a deadline in 2025 to disarm Hezbollah.The United Nations Security Council resolution 1701 also required that Hezbollah be disarmed following the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon.MACRON UNDER FIRE OVER IRAN, HEZBOLLAH POLICY AS TRUMP ADMIN HOSTS ISRAEL-LEBANON TALKSAccording to an IDF statement sent to Fox News Digital about the modern howitzer, last Tuesday, “Troops from the 282nd Fire Brigade of the Artillery Corps, led by the ‘Ro’em’ branch at the Mali (Ground Training Center) Fire Center, conducted… their first operational firing using the “Ro’em” howitzer, in support of IDF troops operating in northern Israel.”The statement continued that “The ‘Ro’em”’is a new howitzer recently introduced into IDF service, bringing advanced and innovative capabilities to the battlefield. It significantly increases the rate of fire, enables engagement at longer ranges compared to existing systems, and provides enhanced mobility and maneuverability in the field.Hezbollah attacks on Israel since March 2 resulted in the killing of 2 civilians and 15 Israeli soldiers. Reuters reported that Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty figures.Lebanese authorities report that nearly 2,300 people in Lebanon have been killed since March 2. Those figures don’t differentiate between Hezbollah terrorists and civilians.Speaking at a Memorial Day event for the country’s fallen troops, the country’s defense Minister Israel Katz pledged to ensure that Israelis in the north, who have faced massive aerial attacks from Hezbollah, will be secure.”Even as we gather here to honor our fallen, after weeks of determined operations by IDF forces in southern Lebanon, our commitment to the residents of the north remains clear and unequivocal, to bring them security,” Katz said. He noted that “If the Lebanese government continues not to fulfill its obligations, the IDF will do so through continued military activity.”Reuters contributed to this report.

Stephen A. Smith might marvel at the skills of golfers and NASCAR drivers, but he praises them with caution.Smith said the professionals are “elite at what they do” but is drawing a line when describing them.On his SiriusXM show, while debating some of the greatest athletes of all time, a caller suggested NASCAR legend Richard Petty, and Smith had no choice but to rant.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”Come on, man. That don’t count. You driving a car!” Smith began, via Awful Announcing. “I’m being honest, it’s a great sport. But come on, bro. Getting behind the wheel of a car is not the same.”You can be behind the wheel of a car in your 60s and 70s for crying out loud.”Smith also insinuated that “just because you gotta walk the course for 18 holes for four days, that don’t make you an athlete.”STEPHEN A SMITH SAYS HE BELIEVES DIANNA RUSSINI AND MIKE VRABEL ARE INNOCENT – FOR NOW”They’re skilled players, they’re elite at what they do. But athletes? Athletes? Are you kidding me? Is walking the latest sport that you want to turn into an Olympic sport? Because I guess that would make them athletic, right?” Smith continued.”Because they can walk. If you’re out there doing stuff that grandmas and grandpas can do, I’m not gonna look at you that way. You’re skilled, you’re phenomenally skilled as a golfer…but that is not an athletic sport.”Smith, though, did make an exception for 15-time major champion Tiger Woods – not necessarily due to his golf skills, but rather just his build and athleticism in general.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Ringo Starr is getting candid about his days with The Beatles, including the one rule the band never broke even as their fame skyrocketed.The legendary drummer revealed the one simple habit that remained unchanged until the very end — they always shared rooms on tour.”You guys were roommates when the Beatles would tour,” host Jimmy Kimmel began during Monday’s episode of his show, prompting Starr to reflect on the band’s early days.PAUL MCCARTNEY CAPTURES THE BEATLES’ ‘INNOCENCE,’ CHALLENGES AMID RISE TO FAME IN NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS”Well, we were always four of us in two rooms,” Starr said. “So, I was roommates with everybody, you know, Paul was roommates with everybody. Depended where they put the suitcases. We just went and shared a room.”The host pressed, asking whether that changed once they became the biggest band on the planet. However, Starr revealed it didn’t.”No, right up to the last day of the last tour—or the last night of the last tour—we shared,” Starr said.Long before private jets and sprawling entourages became standard for global superstars, Starr and his bandmates — Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison — were simply four young men navigating fame together, suitcase by suitcase.PAUL MCCARTNEY REUNITES WITH RINGO STARR DURING FINAL SHOW OF HIS GOT BACK TOURKimmel took the conversation in a more humorous direction, asking, “Wow. That’s really cool. When you visit each other at your homes now, do you get into bed together ever?”Starr laughed, “No. No, not anymore.”But the host pushed one step further with a cheeky question about Starr’s closest sleeping companion outside of the family.”Who would be the man — outside of maybe your family — the man that you’ve slept with the most? Would that be Paul?”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTERStarr replied, “Well, actually, I’d like to tell you I slept with the three of them.”The former Beatles’ drummer shared that he recently saw McCartney perform live and has plans to collaborate on a duet for his upcoming album — a full-circle moment for the two surviving Beatles who are still creating music together.LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSThe legendary artist’s upcoming country album, “Long Long Road,” is set for release April 24.During Starr’s career, he has received nine Grammy Awards and has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once with the Beatles and the second time as a solo artist.Between 1970 and 2023, Starr released 20 solo studio records and four EPs.In 2018, Starr was knighted, and in 2019 he celebrated 35 years of touring with his All-Starr Bands. In 2022, he received an honorary degree as a Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music, and earlier he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame with the Joe Chambers Musicians Legacy Award.

An unexpected setback for the party’s radical wing.
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The sandy path from inherited animus to sanctified bloodshed.
The post When Hatred Becomes Inheritance appeared first on Frontpage Mag.