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COUNTDOWN: Harris has just 4 days left to make good on sit-down interview proclamation

The clock is ticking for Vice President Kamala Harris to schedule the formal interview she and her team promised would happen before the end of the month.

After formally receiving the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Harris told reporters on the tarmac in Detroit earlier this month that she wanted to schedule her first formal interview as the party’s nominee before the end of August. Meanwhile, the exact date, time, place and media outlet that will be conducting the interview has remained a mystery, even as Harris’ self-imposed deadline quickly approaches.

With only four days left this month, questions about the interview have been prevalent inside the beltway. Some of those questions include who on the Harris campaign is making the final interview decision, what kind of message Harris will try to send and who will be the figurehead posing the questions to her.

Harris campaign staffers have reportedly been asking journalists who they think the vice president should talk to, according to Politico. The outlet indicated CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and NBC’s Lester Holt were among the frontrunners. There has also reportedly been internal disagreements over how Harris should approach the interview.

With less than a week remaining for Harris to get something on the calendar, some journalists have begun weighing in on the process.

‘I understood why Kamala Harris wasn’t doing interviews before – she was getting her policy proposals hammered out behind the scenes before the convention. But now there are no more excuses. She needs to do interviews, a lot of them. We’re picking a president here. It’s important,’ said political commentator Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, which describes itself as ‘America’s largest online progressive news network.’

‘The fact that there is so much internal turmoil over doing A SINGLE INTERVIEW is itself deeply revealing,’ conservative columnist Marc Thiessen wrote Tuesday morning on X, formerly Twitter. ‘This is not a ‘big decision.’ It exposes their lack of confidence in her and is making something that should be routine into a high stakes event.’

While the pressure on Harris to do an interview is getting greater by the day, some of her supporters have urged her to continue dodging the media. Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said last week that Harris ‘has no f—ing necessity to do interviews right now.’

The same opinion was echoed by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, who told talk show host Bill Maher last Sunday that ‘sometimes it’s just about f—ing winning.’

‘I’m going to vote for her f—ing anyway, no matter what she says in the stupid f—ing interview, so don’t f— s— up,’ Tarantino added.

Harris has been utilizing a lighter than normal schedule since the Democratic National Convention concluded last week, according to Politico, which reported Harris has been using the time to prepare for her upcoming Sept. 10 debate and map out her future media strategy.

Fox News Digital reached out to both the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment. The Harris campaign did not provide a response, but the Trump campaign directed Fox News Digital to a Tuesday press release it put out, which called out Harris for going 37 days without an interview.

‘Kamala is dodging the press for a reason,’ the press release stated. ‘She doesn’t want to talk about her radical agenda.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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How Trump was ‘orange-pilled’ by three bitcoiners in Puerto Rico and the promise of $100 million

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A block away from the neon-lit buzz of Lower Broadway, where honky-tonk pours onto the city’s main drag at all hours, stands the Music City Center, a venue that’s hosted everything from craft beer conferences to a performance by the legendary Dolly Parton.

In late July, the complex filled up for something entirely different. It was the biggest bitcoin conference of the year, and the headline act was none other than former President Donald Trump.

For nearly 50 minutes on a Saturday afternoon in the country music capital, the Republican nominee for president extolled the virtues of bitcoin and spelled out what a second Trump administration would mean for the crypto industry to a packed crowd of conferencegoers who’d spent hours getting through the Secret Service’s tight security protocol.

“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,” Trump declared, in a message targeted to the industry’s bitcoin miners, who secure the network by running large banks of high-powered machines. “We will be creating so much electricity that you’ll be saying, ‘Please, please, President, we don’t want any more electricity. We can’t stand it!’”

The speech, which read like it was straight out of a bitcoiner’s bible, was quite the about-face for an ex-president who three years earlier had dismissed the cryptocurrency as a “scam.” Trump was, no doubt, lured by the potential of huge amounts of donor money from an industry that sees itself as under constant attack from the Biden-Harris administration and the heavy regulatory hand of SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

Trump told the audience in Nashville that he’d raised $25 million in crypto-related funds, a number that CNBC hasn’t been able to independently verify.

Turning Trump from a skeptic into a sudden bitcoin evangelist took the work, behind closed doors, of a small army of bitcoiners and other crypto advocates who were able to maneuver their way into the candidate’s inner circle. In particular, three friends in Puerto Rico came together to try and convince the Republican presidential hopeful of bitcoin’s value, and to eventually make that position loud and clear to a key audience in Nashville.

In bitcoin parlance, Trump was “orange-pilled.” It’s a play on the phrase “red pill” from the 1999 film, “The Matrix.” In the movie, the main character, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), is given a choice of taking a red pill, which offers access to the unsettling truth about the world, or a blue pill, which signifies a false but far more comforting version of reality.

Orange pill refers to bitcoin’s official color and represents a person’s dedication to bitcoin over fiat currencies.

Within the matrix of confidantes, friends, family members and colleagues united in their mission to orange-pill Trump were the trio of Puerto Rico residents: Amanda Fabiano, the shadow chief of bitcoin miners; Tracy Hoyos-López, a former California prosecutor; and David Bailey, CEO of media group BTC Inc. and organizer of the conference in Nashville.

Earlier this year, Bailey promised to turn out $100 million and 5 million votes for Trump. CNBC is told an update on fundraising numbers is coming soon.

Over the Memorial Day weekend at a steakhouse called Bottles in the Guaynabo suburb of San Juan, the three began mapping out a plan as they shared family style dishes.

Here’s how Fabiano recounted the initial exchange to CNBC.

“We were at dinner with a bunch of people, and David was like, ‘Hey, I’ve been talking to the administration, and I want to do a roundtable on mining, Can we chat this weekend?’” Fabiano said.

Bailey had spent months in dialogue with the Trump campaign, swapping bitcoin briefs and messages. He was about to make the 1,600-mile trek to meet the former president for the first time at Trump Tower in Manhattan, and was keen to deliver details of a potentially lucrative fundraiser and a miners working group featuring some of the top CEOs in the industry. It would serve as a prelude for what was to come in Nashville.

Hoyos-López, Bailey’s neighbor, had been recently orange-pilled, and was anxious to help out any way she could in getting Trump to Nashville. She happened to have a contact in the Trump orbit who was willing to make an introduction. Meanwhile, Fabiano’s history in bitcoin mining was important in giving the group street cred.

“Without Amanda, we wouldn’t have had the legitimacy to sell that this is a legitimate business,” Hoyos-López said. “She is the mining queen. She’s got all the miners.”

Hoyos-López added that many miners are former Wall Street executives.

“If you want to be taken seriously, you have to take serious people,” she said. “And it doesn’t get any more serious than miners.”

The Trump campaign didn’t respond to multiple inquiries about Trump’s latest crypto fundraising stats, his changed views on bitcoin and the events leading up to his appearance in Nashville.

Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies are created by miners around the world running high-powered computers that collectively validate transactions and simultaneously create new tokens. Their massive physical presence shows up in the form of sprawling data centers across the globe and offers a tangible image for newbies to understand an otherwise abstract technology.

Fabiano described it as a natural fit “when thinking about how to explain bitcoin to Trump in a way that makes sense.”

Bitcoin often gets a bad rap for the amount of energy it consumes, which is just shy of how much power Egypt uses annually. But as mining requires tremendous amounts of energy, the industry is developing innovative methods of producing and sharing it.

Miners can partner with utilities in a way that allows them to return energy to the grid when there’s excessive demand. They’re also utilizing untapped sources of renewable energy, often concentrated in remote parts of the country, helping to create an economy in areas that would otherwise be dormant. That could all lead to the U.S. becoming a greater producer of energy, which is of particular importance to satisfy the needs of the artificial intelligence boom.

Bailey confirmed that he flew to New York to meet with Trump, but he wouldn’t share specifics about what was said in the meeting. What’s clear is that, soon thereafter, Trump agreed to host about a dozen crypto executives and experts for a 90-minute roundtable in a small tea room at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

That meeting took place in mid-June, two weeks after the dinner at Bottles.

To get Trump on board with the big shindig in Nashville, Bailey, Fabiano and Hoyos-López knew they needed the right mix of people to clearly explain the virtues of mining and to convince the nominee that donations would be large enough to make the event worth his time.

“It was like, ‘Who would we put in the room? Who would be the best people to explain this, right? Who would be willing to put dollars up, kind of put their skin in the game?’ And that was how it all got started,” Fabiano said.

Those who committed to going pitched in $500,000 apiece to a fundraising committee, according to multiple attendees.

Fabiano, who had never previously been involved in politics or campaigning, said the biggest concern among prospective attendees was the fear of appearing partisan. She said ahead of the meeting there was “a prep call for agenda items.”

Fabiano put together a presentation for the Trump team with background material on the miners who would be at the Mar-a-Lago roundtable to show that, “We are real people, and we are real businesses, and you should take us seriously.”

With thunderstorms bearing down on the Atlantic coast, the Mar-a-Lago attendees, including representatives from Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital Holdings, TeraWulf and Core Scientific, forfeited their smartphones to a radio-frequency identification pouch that blocked incoming and outgoing signals. From under a large chandelier, they listened to the former president engage on the nuances of America’s energy deficit, bitcoin mining, AI, and competition with China.

“That roundtable really set off like, ‘OK, this industry is real, and they’re showing up with dollars, and they’re showing up with like, actual smart things to say and agenda items that are important to America,’” said Fabiano.

After years of facing political backlash, Fabiano said she was glad Trump took an active interest in “digging in and learning about why this industry is real” and “why we’re not a bunch of criminals.”

Fabiano and crew knew they weren’t starting from scratch with Trump.

Bailey started talks with the Trump camp in March. In April, Trump launched his latest nonfungible token collection on the Solana blockchain. In May, he became the first major presidential nominee to accept cryptocurrency donations. He’d started talking on the campaign trail about defending so-called self-custody of coins and vowed at the Libertarian National Convention in May to keep Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and “her goons” away from bitcoin holders.

In early June in San Francisco, technologists, crypto executives and venture capitalists paid up to $300,000 per ticket to join a Trump fundraiser that ultimately raised more than $12 million. The more Trump raised, the more he leaned into his newfound support.

“There are a lot of people in Trump’s orbit that are fans of bitcoin,” said Bailey. “There are members of his family that are fans of bitcoin. Donald Trump has sold real estate for bitcoin. I just bought a pair of sneakers from him in bitcoin.”

Bailey said Trump’s journey from cynic to fan is relatable. He said Michael Saylor, the billionaire founder of MicroStrategy, was once a skeptic and that he’s been on a personal journey himself for 12 years.

“There is no necessarily single person who’s responsible for orange-pilling him,” Bailey said, of Trump. “I think in terms of him having a 180 on this topic, that is really a very natural thing.”

After months of dialogue with Trump and his aides, Bailey said he thinks the former president’s attraction to bitcoin is that it “represents a transformational opportunity for the country.”

“In that sense, I think it’s kind of a match made in heaven,” he said.

Hoyos-López said the period between the Mar-a-Lago meeting in June and the Nashville conference late last month was “agonizing,” as the group waited for an answer.

The first “yes” from the Trump camp was to the meeting in Manhattan, and the news was delivered by phone to Hoyos-López while Bailey was in Japan. The conference was more than a month out. Hoyos-López said she jumped in her car and drove to Bailey’s house so she and his wife, Emily, could prepare the one suit he had in his closet.

“We couldn’t find any dry cleaners that would have this in time in Puerto Rico,” Hoyos-López said. “We ended up having to get super creative, like putting his suit in the dryer, putting his suit in the sun, steaming it.”

There was a lot of work to be done in a little amount of time.

Soon after the Mar-a-Lago roundtable, Trump said yes to Nashville.

“I’m a criminal attorney, I was a prosecutor, so I’m used to dealing with very big and very emotional moments, but not treating them as such,” Hoyos-López said. “While everyone is excited and celebrating, I’m like, ‘Alright, well, we need to sit down and figure out.’”

Three months earlier, Bailey’s wildest dream was to get Trump to Nashville. He talked about it often with his core group of friends in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with crypto-friendly policies, including huge tax breaks to those who spend at least 183 days on the island each year.

“Never in a million years, did we think we were going to be here,” Hoyos-López said. “Getting a presidential candidate to the Bitcoin Conference was definitely one of the coolest things that I probably will ever do in my life.”

At the conference, Hoyos-López, Fabiano and Bailey worked to stage a second roundtable with Trump. They brought in a wider set of industry participants, including the Winklevoss twins, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick. Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus and some top mining executives were also there, along with a smattering of politicians.

Trump, in his keynote, donned a blue-and-white-striped tie and an American flag pinned to the lapel of his navy blue suit. He declared that a Trump White House would “keep 100% of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future,” and said he would fire SEC Chair Gensler.

To Fabiano, Bailey, and Hoyos-López, the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher, as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris gains momentum in the polls.

“Our industry as a whole will cease to exist if Trump doesn’t win,” Hoyos-López said. “There are some rumors out there that Harris is trying to change her stance on crypto as a whole, and to appear more friendly, but I just don’t believe anything that they say.”

Hoyos-López said she’s now focused on getting out votes and rallying bitcoiners who she says are “single-issue voters.”

“Yes, the money that you get in is very important,” she said. “But what really matters at the end of the day is votes.”

Less than a week after leaving Nashville, Fabiano, Hoyos-López and Bailey were back together closer to home to process all that had happened. They met at a restaurant called Santaella and shared a mix of Puerto Rican tapas, including a personal favorite — goat cheese quesadilla with nuts and honey on top.

“We just sat down and had a conversation about like, ‘Holy crap. We did this,’” Hoyos-Lopez said. “We created the table, and we brought everyone to the table, which is literally what this community is all about.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS
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Clark brushes off ankle injury vs. Atlanta: ‘I look really soft’

ATLANTA — It looked bad at first, but Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark’s tweaked ankle didn’t amount to much in the Fever’s 84-79 win Monday night.

In fact, she didn’t like how she reacted when she looked back at the injury. Clark fell to the ground after getting tangled up with Atlanta’s Nia Coffey around the free-throw line near the 3-minute mark of the first quarter. She writhed on the ground for a couple minutes, and her teammates surrounded her while trainers came out.

‘I saw the replay, and I look really soft,’ Clark said, eliciting laughs from teammate Kelsey Mitchell and coach Christie Sides. ‘It wasn’t that bad of a turn, but it hurt. So sometimes you just need to give yourself a second. If you’ve ever turned your ankle, it just kind of stings for a little bit, so I was good.’

Clark walked under her own power to the bench following her injury, and seemed to get her ankle taped while guard Erica Wheeler subbed in for her. Clark returned to the game to start the second quarter, no limp in sight.

‘(The trainers) were like, ‘You want to go in the back?’ and I’m like, ‘No, just tape it right here, let’s go,’ ‘ Clark said. ‘We’ve gotta keep going, get on with the game. I’ve done it a few times, it is what it is. You’re not a true basketball player if you haven’t sprained your ankles a bunch.’

She ended up playing the rest of the game, amounting to 37 minutes. She scored 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting (4-of-9 from 3), and added seven rebounds and seven assists.

Follow Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

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US Open Day 1: What you missed in year’s final Grand Slam

NEW YORK — The ease with which No. 3 seed Coco Gauff dispatched France’s Varvara Gracheva on Monday, 6-2, 6-0, has been the exception rather than the norm of late.

It’s been a tough summer for Gauff leading up to her U.S. Open title defense.

After a disappointing early exit from the Paris Olympics, she didn’t play particularly well in either Canada or Cincinnati, where she was also defending a title. So while Gauff is certainly capable of a deep run, expectations coming into the season’s final Grand Slam were considerably lower than last year when she arrived as the hottest player in women’s tennis still trying to win her first.

“A couple days ago, somebody commented on my TikTok and said, ‘Why stress yourself out? You’ve won literally and figuratively,’ ” Gauff said in her pre-tournament news conference. “I was like, that’s actually a good perspective. No one can take that from me, so why stress myself over something I already have? I just want to add to that, whether it happens here in two weeks or next year.”

On paper, Gracheva was a matchup that seemed like potential trouble for Gauff if she wasn’t playing well. But it turned out there was no cause for concern. Gauff played well enough to make this matchup uneventful and moves on to face Germany’s Tatjana Maria, the world’s 99th-ranked player, in the second round.

Here are the other storylines you might have missed from a very busy Monday as the U.S. Open got underway:

Match of the day

A couple hours into the match between American Chris Eubanks and France’s Arthur Rinderknech, you could tell it was going to be a wild one. Out on Court 11, chants of “USA! USA!” were ringing out in between points, sometimes even between first and second serve. The momentum was swinging back and forth. The crowd was doing everything it could to propel Eubanks to a win.

Instead, after 3 hours and 49 minutes, Rinderknech prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8).

There wasn’t much of a difference in this one, but here’s one that sticks out: Eubanks, known as a big server, won 77 percent of the points where he landed a first serve. Rinderknech won 80 percent of those points. Small margin, but perhaps a significant difference in a match that was decided by a point here or there.

Biggest collapse

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 champion, doesn’t get a lot of center court assignments these days. Though still a big draw for the fans and capable of beating top opponents when she’s on, Stephens is down to No. 62 in the rankings and seems a bit like a part-time player these days.

So it was curious for her to get placed on Arthur Ashe Stadium to begin Monday’s night session against No. 56 Clara Burel. There was even Internet speculation it might be part of a forthcoming retirement announcement and ceremony. (If that’s the case, nothing came of it Monday: Stephens left the court quickly and didn’t immediately meet with the press afterwards.)

Instead, Stephens’ performance was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Leading 6-0, 3-0 at one point, her US Open ended with Burel inexplicably coming back to win 0-6, 7-5, 7-5.

And Stephens had every opportunity to finish it off. She couldn’t serve out the second set at 5-4. She couldn’t consolidate third set breaks at 2-1 or 4-3, and again had the match on her racquet at 5-4 but failed to close the deal. All told, it’s the third time Stephens has lost in the first round in her last six US Opens. But this one is likely to sting a bit more than the others.

Biggest upset

No. 15 seed Holger Rune, who reached the semifinals in Cincinnati just over a week ago, played a hideous match against American Brandon Nakashima and was dismissed from the U.S. Open in straight sets.

Nakashima, the 23-year-old from San Diego ranked No. 50, easily advanced 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.

No disrespect to Nakashima, who played a solid enough match, but Rune was simply horrendous with just 19 winners to 30 unforced errors, a mere 39 percent of first serves in play and 0-of-6 on break points.

Rune, who was breathing similar air as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner a couple years ago among the young prodigy crowd, finishes the 2024 Slam season with a second-round loss in Australia, fourth-round exists at the French and Wimbledon and now this first-round loss. He has a lot to figure out in the offseason.

Biggest heartbreak

Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-11 American who reached a career-high of No. 17 a couple years ago, was on the verge of pushing No. 18 seed Lorenzo Musetti to a fifth set when the wheels completely came off.

Up 5-3 and 40-0 on his serve in the fourth set, Opelka made several crucial errors to get the game back to deuce. Opelka paid the price, eventually dropping serve with a double fault. Musetti then won 12 of the next 13 points to close out the match.

It’s not a surprise that Opelka, 26, isn’t back in top form yet. Considered one of America’s rising stars, he only recently returned to the tour after two injury-plagued years, including surgeries on his hip and wrist. Possessing one of the game’s biggest serves, Opelka came back after Wimbledon and showed some decent flashes of form, winning five of his 10 matches. He had a real chance Monday to notch an upset here but fell apart in hard-to-watch fashion when he couldn’t close the fourth set.

Goodbye ceremonies

Though Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman will play more matches before they officially retire, the tournament held short ceremonies commemorating each of them for playing their final U.S. Opens. Thiem, the 2020 champion, lost 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to No. 13 seed Ben Shelton, while Schwartzman’s game went completely flat against Gael Monfils after he won the first set.

Schwartzman has long been a fan favorite as one of the smallest players on tour, listed generously by the ATP at 5-foot-7. Though he never came particularly close to winning a major, he got the absolute maximum out of his talent including three deep runs at the French Open, two quarterfinal appearances at the U.S. Open and four ATP titles.

Unfortunately, Schwartzman’s game deteriorated in recent years and his ranking has slipped to No. 244. He’ll continue playing until next February when the tour comes to Argentina, his home country. But he said the 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 loss on Grandstand court was a special way to finish at a tournament that had a big impact on his career.

“U.S. Open 2017 was the first time I felt like I was a great player and I become top 30 for the first time, and after that my tennis improve a lot and felt great always coming here,” Schwartzman said. “I’m happy how I did here and how the crowd treated me all these years. At the end I was struggling but I think it was great, this journey here in the U.S. Open. It was great every single moment.”

Notable matches Tuesday

No. 10 seed Jelena Ostapenko vs. two-time U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka
2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu vs. recent French and Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini
No. 14 seed Tommy Paul vs. Lorenzo Sonego, who won the Winston-Salem title Sunday
No. 19 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime vs big-time Czech prospect Jakub Mensik
No. 24 seed Arthur Fils vs. 18-year-old American Learner Tien

Follow Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

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5 NFL QBs under most pressure entering 2024 season

Several NFL quarterbacks are under immense pressure to perform this year as Week 1 fast approaches.

Can 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers rebound from an Achilles injury and lead the playoff-deprived New York Jets to the postseason? Will the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson ever be able to regain the form he had with the Houston Texans? Is Daniel Jones running out of chances in the Big Apple?

NFL cuts: Live updates as Tuesday’s 53-man roster deadline looms

It’s a quarterback-driven league. Quarterbacks receive the biggest contracts and garner most of the attention. USA TODAY Sports ranks the top five quarterbacks under the most pressure entering the 2024 regular season (plus an honorable mention):

1. New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers

The Jets have the NFL’s longest active playoff drought at 13 seasons, with their last appearance coming in 2010. Pressure is on Aaron Rodgers to rid the Jets of the dubious stat.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The pressure intensified after Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles injury just four plays into his Jets tenure in 2023. One can’t expect the veteran to regain his four-time MVP form coming off an Achillies injury, but the Jets desperately need Rodgers to reclaim his status as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. New York bolstered its offense around Rodgers with the additions of tackles Tyron Smith and Morgan Moses, and wide receiver Mike Williams. Plus, the Jets should once again have a formidable defense under defensive-minded head coach Robert Saleh.  

2. Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson

The Browns have received diminished returns since they signed Deshaun Watson to a record-breaking five-year, $230 million contract.

A shoulder injury limited Watson’s 2023 season to just six games. Consequently, Cleveland’s offense performed more efficiently with Joe Flacco under center as the veteran led the Browns to a postseason berth.

In 12 total games as a Browns QB, Watson’s completion percentage (59.8%), yards per game (184.8) and passer rating (81.7) are all well below his marks through four seasons in Houston.

3. New York Giants QB Daniel Jones

Daniel Jones was picked off twice in his 2024 preseason debut, his first game back from a 2023 season-ending ACL injury.

Giants coach Brian Daboll inherited Jones when he was hired in 2022. Jones has thrown 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions since Daboll became head coach.

Many expected the Giants to target a quarterback with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. New York instead elected to give Jones some help with wide receiver Malik Nabers, a star out of LSU.

Jones is signed through the 2026 season, but he’s running out of chances.

4. New Orleans Saints QB Derek Carr

Derek Carr’s 25 touchdown passes to just eight interceptions seems good on the surface, but the veteran quarterback’s first season in New Orleans was up and down. Saints fans booed Carr at times over his performance.

The Saints restructured Carr’s contract this offseason to free up salary cap space. The quarterback is signed through the 2026 season. But the Saints drafted Spencer Rattler in the fifth round of the 2024 draft to compete with Jake Haener for the team’s top backup QB spot. If his preseason performances are any indication, Rattler could be Carr’s successor sooner rather than later. The Saints will also utilize gadget player Taysom Hill at quarterback.  

5. Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins

The Falcons signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal during free agency in March and then drafted his heir apparent the very next month.

The Falcons’ decision to draft Michael Penix Jr. No. 8 overall in the 2024 draft suggests Cousins may not be in Atlanta for the duration of his four-year contract — whether the Falcons want to admit it or not.

Penix impressed in training camp and in the preseason. It’s Cousins job for now, but Penix is waiting in the wings.

Honorable mention

Pittsburgh Steelers QB Russell Wilson

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said during the offseason that Russell Wilson was in “pole position” to be the team’s starter. Fast forward to now, and Wilson is in the midst of a quarterback competition with Justin Fields. Wilson is rumored to win the QB battle, but can he hold off Fields the entire season? This could be the last year Wilson is viewed as a starting-caliber quarterback after being run out of Denver following two forgettable seasons.

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Classic car sales stall in Monterey auctions as new generation takes charge

Auction sales during Monterey Car Week fell 3% from last year, as a shift from older to newer cars left a pileup of unsold classics from the 1950s and 1960s.

Total sales at this year’s five car auctioneers in Monterey, California — RM Sotheby’s, Broad Arrow, Gooding & Company, Mecum and Bonhams — fell to $391.6 million this year from $403 million in 2023, according to Hagerty, the classic-car insurance company. That followed a decline of 14% last year compared with the peak of 2022.

Of the 1,143 cars up for sale, only 821 sold — marking a 72% sell-through rate, according to Hagerty. The average sale price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s average of $477,866.

Experts say wealthy collectors still have plenty of money to spend and are feeling confident given the recent rise in the stock market, but the types of cars they want are changing. There were simply too many similar cars at too many auctions to generate strong prices and sales.

“It’s saturation,” said Simon Kidston, the founder of Kidston and a leading advisor to wealthy car collectors. “When I walked around the auctions and saw so much similar ‘product,’ I asked myself if any of them had thought about what they or their rivals already had consigned, and if the cars were vying for the same buyers. Add to that the fact that many entries had already been in dealer windows for months or years which always feels like sloppy seconds.”

At the same time, a new generation of collectors driving the market — mainly Gen Xers and millennials — prefer cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The 1950s and 1960s classic cars that powered the market for decades and are popular with baby boomers are pouring onto the market and failing to find buyers.

The sell-through rate in Monterey (or the percentage of cars that actually sold on the auction block) was an anemic 52% for pre-1981 cars priced at $1 million or more, according to Hagerty. The sell-through rate for cars less than 4 years old was a much stronger 73% — proving that young collectors are now in the driver’s seat.

Hagerty’s Supercar Index of sports cars from the 1980s through the 2000s is up over 60% from 2019, while the Blue Chip Index of 1950s and 1960s Corvettes, Ferraris, Jaguars and other storied classics is down 3%.

Granted, a small number of rare, true masterpieces will still fetch high prices. The top car of the week was a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that sold at RM Sotheby’s for $17 million and the runner-up was a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider that’s one of only five in existence.

Yet the broader changing of the guard in classic cars, especially as many older collectors start selling off or downsizing their collections, is likely to weigh on prices for older cars for years.

“From an auction perspective, the market continues to take a breath while we transition from what was hot, think Enzo-era Ferraris, the so-called full classics as well as ’50s and ’60s sports racers, to the ascendant modern supercar class,” said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. “The divergence between older and newer cars has accelerated.”

Some say high interest rates are also putting pressure on the classic-car market. At the lower end of the market, many buyers had been using financing to buy cars and build their collections. At the high end, rising rates raised the opportunity cost of buying a classic car.

“People think, ‘Instead of that million-dollar car, I could be earning 5% maybe 10%’ if you’ve got a great manager,” Kidston said. “That, more than anything else, makes people think twice. A collector car is partially investment. There’s no other single reason for the increase in the value of collector cars over the last 40 years than the investment angle.”

1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider — $17,055,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider — $14,030,000 (Gooding & Company)  
1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider — $12,985,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1969 Ford GT40 Lightweight — $7,865,000 (Mecum)
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion Coupe — $7,045,000 (Broad Arrow Auctions) 
1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider — $5,615,000 (RM Sotheby’s) 
1995 Ferrari F50 Coupe — $5,505,000 (RM Sotheby’s) 
1955 Ferrari 857 S Spider — $5,350,000 (Gooding & Company)  
1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Alloy Coupe — $5,285,000 (RM Sotheby’s)  
1958 Ferrari 250 GT TdF Coupe — $5,200,000 (Gooding & Company) 

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Business

Walmart issues recall of apple juice sold in 25 states over elevated arsenic levels

Walmart and a Dutch manufacturer are voluntarily recalling apple juice sold under Walmart’s ‘Great Value’ brand because of elevated levels of arsenic.

According to a notice updated Friday on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, the recalled products were sold in states on the East Coast and in the southern United States, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They came in 8-ounce sizes and sold in 6-pack plastic bottles.

The notice indicates the arsenic levels, at about 13 parts per billion (ppb), are slightly above the 10 ppb deemed safe to consume by the FDA. The agency designated the recall as Class II, meaning it may cause temporary or ‘medically reversible’ adverse health consequences, but where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.

“The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority,” Walmart spokesperson Molly Blakeman said in a statement. “We have removed this product from our impacted stores and are working with the supplier to investigate.”

Refresco said it was aware that certain shipments of its apple juice contained inorganic arsenic levels ‘slightly above’ the FDA’s guidance, and that as a result they were being voluntarily recalled. It said it had not received any reports of complaints or illnesses.

‘The safety of consumers and the satisfaction of our customers are our top priorities,’ the company said. ‘We are working diligently to address the situation.’

Inorganic arsenic can usually be traced to contaminated drinking water, according to the FDA. Unlike naturally occurring arsenic, which is widespread at low levels, regular exposure to or consumption of inorganic arsenic can cause cancer and birth defects.

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Sports

Another Romania appeal: Chiles not only gymnast fighting for Olympic medal

Jordan Chiles isn’t the only gymnast still fighting for a bronze medal from the floor exercise final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and the Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the federation announced Monday. They are challenging the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s rejection earlier this month of Voinea’s complaint that she was wrongly docked 0.10 points for going out of bounds during the floor final.

Voinea’s appeal is the latest twist in a convoluted case that has caused an international furor given Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal on the final day of the Paris Olympics despite having done nothing wrong. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee have said they are also planning an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, citing procedural errors by the CAS and video evidence that refutes the premise for CAS’ ruling.

Chiles initially finished fifth in the Aug. 5 floor final, her 13.666 putting her behind Ana Barbosu and Voinea. The Romanians each scored 13.7, but Barbosu placed higher because of a better execution score. Cecile Landi, who is Chiles’ personal coach in addition to being the U.S. coach in Paris, appealed Chiles’ difficulty score, arguing she had not been given full credit for a tour jete, a leap.

A review panel agreed, and the additional 0.100 elevated the American ahead of both Romanians into third place. Romania appealed to CAS on Aug. 6, challenging the timing of Chiles’ appeal. CAS ruled Aug. 10 that Chiles’ appeal was submitted four seconds too late and told the International Gymnastics Federation to re-order the standings.

2024 Paris Olympics: Follow USA TODAY’s coverage of the biggest names and stories of the Games.

The following day, the IOC ordered Chiles’ medal to be reallocated, making Barbosu the bronze medalist. Though USA Gymnastics said it has video showing, conclusively, that Landi submitted the appeal in time, the IOC considered the matter settled and Barbosu received her medal Aug. 9.

But according to Voinea and the Romanians, all of this would have been a moot point had Voinea not received a deduction for going out of bounds, which replays show she did not do. Without the 0.10 out-of-bounds deduction, Voinea’s score would have been a 13.8, putting her ahead of Chiles – both her initial score and the one after the appeal – and Barbosu.

Voinea and Romania appealed her score to CAS, but the tribunal rejected it, saying it was a ‘field-of-play’ decision. Though Voinea had filed an inquiry during the competition, it was for her difficulty score, not the out-of-bounds call. Asking CAS to reverse it after the fact would be to second-guess the judges, the tribunal wrote in its reasoned decision, issued Aug. 14.

‘The decision as to whether a 0.1 deduction was appropriate is a textbook example of a ‘field of play’ decision, one that does not permit the arbitrators to substitute their views for that of the referee,’ CAS wrote. ‘It warrants the non-interference of CAS as it entails the exercise of judgment by the referee, based on expertise in the ‘field of play’.

‘Whether the judgment is right or wrong, it cannot be reviewed.’

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Caitlin Clark overcomes injury scare in Fever’s win over Dream

What started off as a scary night turned into a victory for Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.

The star rookie overcame an early injury while her team powered past the Atlanta Dream 84-79 on Monday night. Clark had 19 points.

Just seven minutes into the game, Clark attempted to get through a screen when it looked like she rolled her left ankle. She immediately went down on the floor and screamed in pain.

Clark stayed on the floor as she held her left ankle. Training staff came to the court to assist her but she walked off on her own power to the Fever bench. She was getting her ankle looked at on the bench during a timeout and as play resumed.

Clark did not head to the locker room and remained on the bench as the quarter ended. The injury didn’t appear too serious as she was back in the game for the start of the second quarter and scored on Indiana’s first possession of the frame. After the game, Clark said the injury wasn’t a big deal and her ankle just needed to be taped.

‘I saw the replay and I look really soft,’ she joked. ‘It wasn’t that bad.’

Outside of Clark’s injury scare, it was a great night for Indiana. The Fever opened the game on an 8-0 run to take a lead it never relinquished. Aliyah Boston established her dominance in the paint early and Kelsey Mitchell continued to dazzle all over the offensive end. Indiana led by as many as 18 points.

Despite being outside of the playoff picture, Atlanta had been one of the best teams since the end of the Olympic break. The Dream had won their first three games in August before losing the Phoenix Mercury on Friday.

But the Dream are one of the worst offensive units in the league, and the struggles were evident on Monday. Atlanta is last in the WNBA in points per game (75.8) and field goal percentage (41%), and the team shot 37% against Indiana. The Dream made a late push in the fourth quarter, cutting it to a two-point game and had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but weren’t able to convert. Indiana is now 3-0 on the year against Atlanta.

Mitchell was the leading scorer on the night with 29 points. Boston also had a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards.

Of course, the Caitlin Clark effect is still running high. The Dream play their home games at Gateway Center Arena, which has a capacity of 5,000. But with Clark and company in town, the team moved the contest to State Farm Arena, home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, which has a capacity just under 17,000.

The arena was filled, and the demand was so strong that standing room only tickets were sold. The Dream announced the attendance for the contest was 17,608, making it not only the biggest crowd for a Dream game, but the highest attended WNBA game in the state of Georgia.

Caitlin Clark stats 

Clark finished the night with 19 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals, one block and two turnovers. She shot 6-for-14 on the night and 4-for-9 from beyond the arc. With her four made threes, Clark now has 85 made 3-pointers in her rookie season, tying Dream guard and 2022 first overall pick Rhyne Howard for most 3-pointers by a rookie. 

Clark is also creeping up the list for most points in a WNBA season by a rookie. She now has 539, which puts her in 15th place. First is Seimone Augustus, who scored 744 points in 2006 with the Minnesota Lynx. 

The win makes it three wins in the last four contests for Indiana has now won three of its last four games and improves to 14-16 on the season. The Fever are currently sitting in the No. 7 seed in the WNBA, which would clinch their first postseason berth in eight seasons. Indiana’s next game will be Wednesday night against the Connecticut Sun.

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US top general says tensions in Middle East have ‘somewhat’ eased amid new Iranian threats

Concerns over an all-out war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have eased, according to comments made by U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to Reuters on Monday, but statements issued by Jerusalem and Tehran suggest otherwise. 

Brown met with top Israeli officials in Tel Aviv to discuss ongoing security issues facing Jerusalem just one day after the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Sunday – during which hundreds of rockets and drones were fired by the terrorist group at northern Israeli military positions.

Jerusalem said it too had fired a series of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds after 100 warplanes took to the sky to preemptively hit thousands of rocket launchers reportedly positioned to fire upon Israel.

Despite the heavy fire that was exchanged, relatively few deaths were reported, with three Hezbollah militants and one Israeli soldier killed in the day’s events, which concluded by mid-morning Sunday. 

When asked if the threat of a large-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah – which is backed by Iran – had abated, Brown replied, ‘Somewhat, yes.’

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said the Sunday operation was ordered in response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr at the end of July, reported Al Jazeera. 

But the terror group and Iran have pledged retaliation for one other killing that also occurred late last month when Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated while visiting Tehran, though Israel has never claimed credit for the attack.

‘You had two things you knew were going to happen,’ Brown told reporters in detailing the two acts of revenge pledged by the Israeli adversaries. ‘One’s already happened. Now it depends on how the second is going to play out.’

‘How Iran responds will dictate how Israel responds, which will dictate whether there is going to be a broader conflict or not,’ Brown added. 

Brown’s cautious optimism that a broader conflict had so far been avoided remains at odds with how Israel and Iran are viewing the current tensions.

Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, responded to the Sunday exchange of fire and warned that ‘revenge against the Israeli entity is inevitable’ following the death of Haniyeh. 

‘What we witnessed yesterday is only part of that revenge,’ he confirmed, according to a report by the Arab news outlet Al Mayadeen English. ‘[Iran] will decide how and when to take revenge and will not fall into the trap of media provocations initiated by the enemies.’

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday also warned that ‘Iran’s aggression has reached an all-time high’ and said Israel and the U.S. must expand their joint defenses.

Gallant further emphasized the threat Iran poses in its continued pursuit of developing nuclear capabilities, adding that Jerusalem and Washington must work to stop Tehran’s military from gaining nuclear weapons. 

On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there were no ‘barriers’ in communicating with the ‘enemy,’ which some news outlets interpreted as a potential signal that Tehran may once again engage in nuclear talks with the West. 

‘We do not have to pin our hope to the enemy. For our plans, we should not wait for approval by the enemies,’ Khamenei said, according to The Associated Press. ‘It is not contradictory to engage the same enemy in some places, there’s no barrier.’

The AP report said this rhetoric echoed comments made in the lead-up to the 2015 deal made between Iran, the U.S. and other Western nations.

But Khamenei also warned that ‘the enemy’ could not be trusted. 

Talks with Iran over its nuclear development collapsed after the U.S. withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Trump administration in 2018 – a move Tehran has since claimed voided their commitments to the agreement.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in June that Iran is not believed to possess nuclear weapon capabilities, though it has enriched uranium to levels just short of weapons-grade standards.

While any new deal with Iran appears unlikely, another ‘historic’ deal between the U.S. and a Middle Eastern nation, Saudi Arabia, may be on the horizon, Michael Ratney, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said Monday. 

‘While we came very close and are very close on very important elements of this agreement, it is important that we finalize all of it together, and with that we would have a history-making agreement between the U.S. and Saudi,’ he told Saudi news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat, according to a translation reported by Al Arabiya English.

Ratney said the agreement would encompass several issues like bolstering the strategic partnership between Washington and Riyadh, enhancing military agreements and strengthening economic ties.

But it also includes efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel – a push first launched throughout the Middle East under the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords. 

Washington, under both the Trump and Biden administrations, has held the belief that improving Israel’s ties in the Middle East could better secure it from terrorist organizations as well as the Iranian regime – which is often at loggerheads with several Sunni nations. 

‘We are in a complicated region and there are a lot of complexities to the agreement itself, but we will do it as quickly as possible,’ Ratney reportedly said.

The U.S. ambassador said the Biden administration and Riyadh support the establishment of a two-state solution when it comes to stopping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear he does not support Palestinian statehood. 

‘We fundamentally believe that Palestinian statehood needs to come through a political process, through negotiations between the parties, not through any other means,’ Ratney said. 

‘In the meantime, the deep priority is to stop the violence in Gaza, to stop the misery of the people of Gaza, to move forward with our efforts toward a cease-fire, to release Israeli hostages, and to end this conflict to find ways to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance in Gaza,’ he added.

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