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Columbus Crew vs. Inter Miami in Leagues Cup Tuesday is must-see game

The Leagues Cup tournament continues this week with one of the biggest matches between Major League Soccer teams this year.

Inter Miami will face Columbus Crew in the Round of 16 on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. inside Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio.

It’s not just a trip to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals on the line – there’s some bragging rights involved as well.

Inter Miami is the defending Leagues Cup champion with the best record in MLS this season, despite Lionel Messi’s extended absence due to a right ankle injury. Columbus Crew is the reigning MLS Cup champion, and the Concacaf Champions Cup runner-up. Inter Miami also beat Columbus 2-1 on June 19 – with Messi and Luis Suarez away from the club during Copa America.

“I [was] hoping that Messi can play, because it would be the first time, but it’s not possible at the moment,” Crew coach Wilfred Nancy said Monday about Inter Miami’s star captain.

How to watch Inter Miami vs. Columbus Crew live stream?

The Inter Miami match against Columbus Crew will be available via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Is Messi playing?

No, Messi will be out again, Inter Miami coach Tata Martino confirmed Monday.

Although Messi is no longer wearing a walking boot, Messi continues to train away from teammates with trainers since sustaining the injury in the Copa America final on July 14.

Columbus Crew: What you need to know

The Columbus Crew has played just twice since Leagues Cup began because they received a bye to the knockout stage as reigning MLS champions.

Columbus beat Premier League side Aston Villa 4-1 on July 27 in a friendly, and won their first Leagues Cup game with a 4-0 win against Sporting Kansas City last Friday.

The Crew has also welcomed French midfielder Dylan Chambost, defender DeJuan Jones and midfielder Aziel Jackson at the midseason transfer window.

“Columbus is the best team in the league – by far,” Martino said complementing the Crew after Inter Miami’s 4-3 win over Toronto last Thursday.

Inter Miami: What you need to know

Besides Messi, Inter Miami should be close to full strength.

Suarez, who has scored 12 goals like Messi this season, should be available to play for Inter Miami. He did not play in the MLS All-Star Game in Columbus, or Inter Miami’s last road game in Houston due to knee discomfort despite playing home games during the stretch.

Left back Jordi Alba, who had all four assists in the Toronto win, is also expected to play despite a knock in the last match, Martino said.

Inter Miami will also have midfielders Diego Gomez and Matias Rojas for the Columbus match after both missed the June 19 matchup.

“The mindset is the same. It’s not because Miami that we’re gonna do more. What I try to do with my team is have a good performance against any type of team,” Nancy said. “We know it’s a good time with good players. But the message I have for my team is we have to play every game in a consistent way.”

Which team would winner face in Leagues Cup quarterfinals?

The winner of the Inter Miami-Columbus match will face the winner of Tuesday’s match between Tigres UANL and New York City FC.

Leagues Cup 2024 Round of 16 Schedule

Monday, Aug 12

Seattle Sounders FC vs. Pumas UNAM, 10:30 p.m. ET, (Apple TV; FS1, UniMás)

Tuesday, Aug. 13

Columbus Crew vs. Inter Miami CF, 7:30 p.m. ET(Apple TV)

FC Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia Union, 7:30 p.m. ET (Apple TV)

Tigres UANL vs. New York City FC, 8 p.m. ET (Apple TV; FS1, UniMás)

Cruz Azul vs. Mazatlán, 8 p.m. ET (Apple TV)

Toluca FC vs. Colorado Rapids, 10 p.m. ET (Apple TV)

Club América vs. St. Louis CITY SC, 10:30 p.m. ET (Apple TV)

LAFC vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 10:30 p.m. ET (Apple TV)

Leagues Cup Dates to Remember

Aug. 16-17: Quarterfinals

Aug. 21: Semifinals

Aug. 25: Final, third-place match

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Anthony Edwards gets gold medal-inspired shoe from Adidas

In honor of Team USA’s win in the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Adidas had a gift for guard Anthony Edwards: a custom pair of his shoes.

The athletic apparel brand revealed a gold medal-inspired edition of Edwards’ signature shoe, the AE 1, at a party it hosted at the Westfield Forum Des Halles in Paris. The shoe has many of the same features as the base version of the AE 1 but with a main color of gold, white sole and black on the heel, tongue and laces.

Edwards is currently the face of Adidas’ basketball brand, and the company released his first signature shoe – the aforementioned AE 1 – in December. Its early reviews praised the shoe’s comfortable feel, unique design and high quality.

The gold medal-inspired version of the AE 1 appears to be a 1-of-1 exclusive shoe for Edwards, but Adidas has already announced new colorways for the shoe in the near future.

The company already released the ‘Mural’ colorway on Aug. 5. In addition, the AE 1 Low Year of the Snake will release in January, while a release date for the ‘Slime’ colorway is still to be announced.

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

Anthony Edwards gold medal-inspired Adidas shoe

Take a look at the custom golden shoe that Adidas made in honor of Edwards’ gold medal win with Team USA:

Noah Lyles clarifies comments on Edwards’ shoe event

Notably absent from Edwards’ shoe event on Sunday was Noah Lyles, a fellow Adidas athlete and 2024 Olympics gold medalist.

In an interview with Time published in June, Lyles seemed to call out both Edwards and Adidas. The sprinter seemingly took offense to the apparel brand using Edwards’ shoe event as an incentive during contract negotiations with Lyles.

‘You want to do what?’ Lyles said to Time. ‘You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe? No disrespect: the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?”

The interview moment went viral once again after Lyles didn’t appear for Edwards’ event with Adidas in Paris on Sunday. The sprinter took to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday to clarify his earlier comments and his absence from the event, which he said was due to ‘prior engagements.’

‘There is a rumor going around that I did not go to [Anthony Edwards’] shoe release because he didn’t deserve it,’ Lyles wrote. ‘That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements. Congratulations on Becoming an Olympic champion!’

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Felicitations, Paris! You have won the Olympic Games

PARIS — Merci beaucoup, Paris.

When these Summer Games were awarded seven years ago, there was no way the International Olympic Committee officials could have known how badly they would be needed. How desperate the world would be for an excuse to let loose from the melancholy that lingers from the COVID pandemic. How essential it would be for a respite from the divisiveness that seems to be everywhere.

For 17 days, what is arguably the world’s most beautiful city was also its most joyous. Amazing athletic feats took place with landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Grand Palais serving as the backdrop. The stands, so eerily silent at both the delayed Summer Games in Tokyo and Beijing Winter Olympics, were once again filled with raucous fans.

In the streets and cafés and Metro stations, people from all over the world mixed and mingled. Hearing your own language, or seeing your flag on someone’s cheek, was all it took to start conversations. People who would be separated by icy silence if the topic was politics or social justice issues found common ground in the greatness of Simone Biles and Steph Curry, Leon Marchand and Rebeca Andrade.

And just weeks after an election that magnified the troubling fractures threatening France’s ideals of equality and fraternity, its people came together to raise their voices as one in cheers of “Allez!” and choruses of La Marseillaise.

“France is beautiful. And when we’re all together and when we unite, it’s a wonderful sight,” Thierry Henry, the hero of France’s illustrious 1998 World Cup team and now coach of its Olympic men’s soccer squad, said after Les Bleus fell to Spain in the final.

“People from the get-go wanted to support us,” Henry added. “We lost tonight but they kept singing. They kept supporting us.”

The Paris Games were not perfect. Nothing that involves humans, with their agendas and egos and greed, ever is.

The grand plan to clean up the Seine did not quite come to fruition, though the triathlon and marathon swimming were held in it nonetheless. Homeless people were moved out of the city center. Right-wing vigilantes unleashed their hate on two female boxers, ignoring both facts and decency. The International Olympic Committee punished Jordan Chiles for the wrongdoing of gymnastics officials, stripping her of her floor exercise bronze medal on the final day of the Games.

Still, as far as Olympics go, Paris came as close to perfection as it gets.

‘Paris showed us a good time,’ A’ja Wilson said after the U.S. women won their eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal Sunday night. ‘The hosts did well.’

The decision by organizers to use existing venues and Parisian landmarks as venues was inspired. Fans and athletes alike flocked to beach volleyball, marveling at the sand court at the base of the Eiffel tower. The park at Place de la Concorde was a magnet for spectators, both for its views and the multiple sports that took place there.

People who wanted to check the Louvre off their bucket list got the added bonus of seeing the cauldron in the Tuileries Garden, a balloon whose presence was made even more majestic by its rise and descent each day.

One of the goals of Paris organizers was to bring sports to the people, and their success will make future hosts pale by comparison.

Having most of the events in the city, and putting them in close proximity to a train system that was both expansive and dependable, made what is normally a sprawling and cumbersome footprint manageable. Wanted to check out swimming, fencing, skateboarding and gymnastics? All in the same day? No problem! Didn’t have tickets? If you kept your eyes peeled as you strolled along the Seine, you might have happened upon a cycling race.

‘Since the beginning, we had one vision with Paris 2024: to organize sports in the city and really combine the emotion of sport with the emotions of our city, our landmarks, and iconic venues,” Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, said Saturday.

“That’s probably what we are most proud of. It’s been a vision since the beginning.’

But perhaps the best thing about these Games was the relaxed atmosphere. Fears about terrorism and overbearing security never came to pass, thankfully. After the tight COVID restrictions in Tokyo and Beijing, athletes were delighted to finally get the entire Olympic experience.

Missing the Paris Games? Us, too. Sign up for USA TODAY’s Daily Briefing for news to fill the void.

Wilson, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Scottie Scheffler were just a few of the athletes who made sure they got to witness Biles’ greatness in person. Biles was in the crowd to watch Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone shatter her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles. LeBron James brought his wife and daughter to the women’s gold-medal game.

And spectators, shut out from the Games since 2018, were just happy to be here. In person. Enjoying the sports and the sights and everything in between.

“There are always things that could be improved, and we have had issues day-in and day-out to resolve,” Estanguet said. “But if someone had told me 10 years ago, five years ago, one year ago, or even on the eve of the opening ceremony that things would go this way, I would have completely said, ‘Sign me up.’”

‘No regrets,” he added. “None at all.’

For anyone. Except maybe for future hosts, who now have a near-impossible standard to meet thanks to these magnificent Paris Games.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

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Why did PGA Tour golfer stop playing in middle of final hole Sunday?

Aaron Rai won his first PGA Tour title on Sunday, claiming a two-stroke win at the Wyndham Championship.

But the tournament didn’t officially end as darkness fell on Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.

That’s because Matt Kuchar bizarrely stopped playing after hitting his tee shot on the 18th hole, opting to mark his ball in the pine straw 212 yards from the hole and walk the course with the other players in the last group as they completed their rounds.

‘It has been a really bizarre sequence of events,’ said CBS Sports analyst Trevor Immelman as the network’s broadcast came to a close.  

Kuchar led the tournament after 36 holes, but was out of contention at 11-under when he stepped to the 18th tee to conclude a marathon, 36-hole day stemming from weather delays due to Tropical Storm Debby.

With the sun already set and visibility declining, tournament officials informed Kuchar, Chad Ramey and Max Greyserman that rather than blow the horn to suspend play, they would be allowed to finish the hole then or complete it the next day.

In an apparent attempt to finish quickly, Kuchar unknowingly hit into the group ahead of him, one that included Rai – who led Greyserman by one stroke at the time.

‘Why did he tee off on 18 when the fairway wasn’t clear? To me that was the egregious error,’ Golf Channel’s Paige Mackenzie later said. ‘It was completely disrespectful.’

After Kuchar’s ball landed left of the fairway, he informed officials he would finish his round Monday morning – even though he had no chance of advancing to the PGA Tour’s playoffs. As things turned out, Rai birdied the final hole to push his lead to two strokes and Greyserman closed with a par to finish second.

As the sun rose again on Monday, Kuchar was the only player back out on the course to make the results official.

He hit his second shot on the green and parred the hole to finish in a tie for 12th, earning him $134,695.

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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State Department cries false over WSJ report claiming US offered Venezuela’s Maduro amnesty

The State Department on Monday denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the Biden administration had offered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro amnesty in exchange for him stepping down from his 11-year reign.

‘That is not true,’ Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during the question-and-answer portion of a press briefing Monday. ‘We have not made any offers to Maduro or others since this election.’

Patel’s comments were in stark contrast to claims made by ‘three people familiar with the Biden administration deliberation[s]’ regarding secret meetings held in Doha, Qatar in June and September 2023 between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

Details following the meetings have been scarce, though reports released last year indicated that chief adviser to Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez, and the White House National Security Council’s former senior director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan González, met at least twice to discuss an array of issues on top of the alleged amnesty proposal, including sanctions relief, according to a document posted by Maduro to X. The U.S., however, has never verified this information. 

The Wall Street Journal report further suggested that Maduro’s top officers facing judicial indictments over offenses relating to charges of conspiring to export cocaine to the U.S., could also see amnesty agreements. 

The State Department did not return Fox News Digital’s questions regarding the Wall Street Journal report, though a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council echoed the department’s claims.

‘Since the July 28 election, we have not made any specific offers of amnesty to Nicolás Maduro or others,’ Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant Spokesperson to the National Security Council Vanessa Vidal Castellanos told Fox News Digital.  

‘In coordination with our partners, we are considering a range of options to incentivize and pressure Maduro to recognize the election results and will continue to do so, but the responsibility is on Maduro and the Venezuela’s electoral authorities to come clean on the election results,’ she added. 

According to the report, an amnesty proposal was allegedly floated as a way to incentivize Maduro to step down before his term was set to end.

But Maduro was reportedly unwilling to ‘discuss arrangements where he would have to leave office’ — a position he has only doubled-down on since the national election last month.

Despite international calls for the Venezuelan president to step aside amid mounting evidence that shows he lost to opposition leader Edmundo González, Maduro has refused to relinquish his power. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed those calls last week and said, ‘In the days since the election, we have consulted widely with partners and allies around the world, and while countries have taken different approaches in responding, none have concluded that Nicolás Maduro received the most votes this election.’

‘Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.’

The UN General Assembly has offered to mediate the election results as a third party to resolve the growing unrest in Venezuela.

Despite mounting pressure to step down, Maduro’s regime has arrested thousands of protesters and dissidents, maintained military loyalty and has elected the pro-Maduro Supreme Court to resolve any election disputes. 

Maduro’s position on leaving office is reported to be ‘unchanged.’

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Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons into Jordan as region braces for possible retaliatory strike

Israel on Monday accused Tehran and its Palestinian terrorist proxy Hamas of smuggling weapons into Jordan and the West Bank to destabilize those areas as the world braces for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday that a ‘serious and dangerous situation is unfolding in Iran.’ 

Katz alleged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Units are collaborating with Hamas operatives in Lebanon to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan ‘with the aim of destabilizing the regime.’ 

From there, Katz said, the weapons are smuggled into the West Bank, flooding areas like Judea and Samaria where there are refugee camps, ‘with dangerous weapons and large sums of money – aiming to create a pro-Iranian Islamic terror front.’ 

Katz said Iran’s effective control of these refugee camps in the West Bank leaves the Palestinian Authority ‘powerless to act.’ 

‘We must take terror hubs like the Jenin refugee camp and carry out a thorough operational campaign to dismantle the terror infrastructure in the camp,’ Katz said, calling such a plan ‘a shared interest of Israel, many regional states, and the entire free world – to halt the spread of Iran’s axis of evil.’ 

Katz’s statement comes as Israel is bracing for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month. 

Israel was immediately blamed for the assassination after pledging to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state, which killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage. 

Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon also late last month confirmed the death of Faud Shukr, its ‘No. 2’ commander who was involved in the 1983 Beirut bombings of a Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. military personnel. 

This comes as mediators United States, Qatar, and Egypt have been pushing for ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas to end the 10-month war. 

Mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its Oct. 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel would withdraw from Gaza. Talks have been expected to resume Thursday.

On Monday, France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement endorsing the plan, while calling for the return of scores of hostages held by Hamas and the ‘unfettered’ delivery of humanitarian aid.

The statement was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It also called on Iran and its allies to refrain from any retaliatory attacks that would further escalate regional tensions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Iran beware: US moves these 6 top of the line strike options into position in the Middle East

Hurry up. America’s top shooters are moving into position to target Iran.  With Sunday night’s announcement hastening the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and moving the submarine USS Georgia under U.S. Central Command’s control, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is making sure U.S. Central Command is prepared to attack Iran, and/or its proxies, if Tehran strikes Israel in the next few days.

Air Force F-22 fighter jet pilots have already unpacked their bags at a Middle East base where they arrived Aug 8.  Here are more top shooters under Central Command’s operational control – that we know of. 

The guided missile submarine USS Georgia

It’s very unusual for the Pentagon to make announcements about secretive submarines. But then, theUSS Georgia is a very special vessel.  Powered by a nuclear reactor, the USS Georgia began life as an Ohio-class ‘boomer’ designed to carry nuclear weapons, then underwent a high-tech conversion into a conventional guided-missile attack submarine.  Now she can carry an astounding 154 precision Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles.  And SEAL teams with mini-submarines.  Add in a highly advanced communication suite, and USS Georgia can stare down Iran all by herself. 

The USS Georgia was already on exercises in Europe and is positioning in the Eastern Mediterranean. Her Tomahawk missiles have roughly a 1,000-mile range, which equates to good coverage well into Iran.  The most modern Tomahawks also accept targeting updates while in flight, giving commanders maximum flexibility to act on fresh intelligence. 

Eight U.S. Navy destroyers

That’s six in the Persian Gulf, and two more in the Red Sea, per a count from the Washington Post on Aug. 2.  Crews from ships like USS Laboon have been whacking Houthi drones, missiles and unmanned boats for months.  The DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers can fire Tomahawks, too, as but the destroyers will have some of their vertical launch tubes loaded with Standard Missiles for air defense across the region, as seen when Iran attacked Israel back in April. 

Two aircraft carriers

Austin ordered the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to speed up its transit from the Pacific to the Middle East, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is already running sustained flight operations.  Nuclear-powered carriers can charge ahead at 35 knots per hour without slacking off, since they don’t refuel.  The Middle East crisis has compelled Central Command to keep a carrier in the Red Sea area almost non-stop for 10 months and it has required four carriers – Ford, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Lincoln – to meet the tasking. Moving the Lincoln actually leaves the Navy one carrier short in the Pacific. 

A squadron of F-35C carrier jets flown by Marines

Austin touted the F-35Cs on the Lincoln by name on Sunday, because these stealthy, carrier-based jets have tremendous radar and other sensor capabilities known to intimidate Iran.  In an unusual twist, it’s a U.S. Marine Corps squadron flying the F-35Cs.  Other Marines fly the F-35B vertical take-off and landing variant with amphibious ships.  But this squadron, the ‘Black Knights’ of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA 314, trains and flies as part of Carrier Air Wing 9.  (Don’t look so shocked.  Marines flew from carriers in World War II and Korea.)

F/A-18EF Superhornets

Yes, the very jet flown by Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’  Carrier Air Wing 11 on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt has three F/A-18E squadrons.  They have been busy day and night with air patrols against Houthi aggression in the Red Sea and doing their part in knocking out Houthi drones, missiles and unmanned boats. 

Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles

This ground-attack variant of the F-15 air superiority fighter is affectionately known as the ‘Mud Eagle’ and has been operating quietly in theater for ages. The F-15Es are true fighter-bombers, and their most experienced pilots have thousands of combat hours from the anti-ISIS war.  The two-seat F-15Es carry air-to-air missiles, a gun and ‘any nuclear or conventional weapon in the USAF inventory.’ Just so you know, Iran.

Austin’s choice to deploy America’s top of the line strike options serves two purposes. The first, obviously, is to deter Iran and constrain Iran’s tactical options as the mullahs mull their retaliation plans.  But the specific choice of these forces is to provide Central Command with capability for sustained, precision strikes against military targets in Iran or among Iran’s militia groups.

Don’t forget that U.S. B-2 bombers can reach any spot on the globe.  Also, B-1 bombers were used by Central Command in attacks on Syrian targets. I would not be surprised to see the B-1s in action again with their joint stand-off missiles.

Beyond this, expect Britain, France, regional allies like Jordan, and others to have forces in play.

Of course, China is taking note of this firepower display. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a statement on Saturday supporting Iran’s ‘dignity’ and right to self-defense, whatever that means.  Iran is the center of Mideast terror and China is Iran’s top ally. 

Gen. Erik Kurilla at U.S. Central Command will soon have all he needs to defend, deter or strike back. 

As they strive to keep a lid on this crisis, we owe a big debt of gratitude to the American men and women making these crisis deployments in the Middle East. 

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Last-minute summer travelers are finding the best deals in years

Held off on taking a summer vacation? You may still be able to squeeze in one on the cheap.

Record numbers of travelers have been flooding airports since the pandemic, but U.S. airlines now face a surplus of empty seats after racing to add capacity. Many are slashing prices to fill them, making bargain flights more readily available than they have been in years, travel agents and industry experts say.

Tourists near Monastiraki Square in Athens, Greece, on July 31, 2024. Nikolas Kokovlis / NurPhoto via Getty Images

“Deals are easier to find this summer since prices are already so low,” said Hayley Berg, lead economist at the travel booking site Hopper.

Flights overall were at least 5% cheaper as of June than the year before, government inflation data shows. Hopper estimated domestic airfares for August are down about 6% since a year ago, and it flagged supercheap domestic round-trip deals this month — like $69 for Chicago to Baltimore and $82 for New York to Nashville.

And it’s not just airfares — costs are cooling off for car rentals and hotel rooms too. They were down roughly 6% and 3% year over year, respectively, in the federal data and are now about flat in most cities on Priceline.

For clients with a little flexibility in their travel dates, I’ve been able to get very low airfare for last-minute trips.

Ashley D’Aristotile, owner of Flyaway Travel

The discounts expand the map for late-season travelers and coincide with a broader value push this summer. Restaurant chains from McDonald’s to P.F. Chang’s are dangling promotions to hang on to frugal customers. The gambit is largely working, with major retailers’ recent sales helping prop up consumer spending and the economy as a whole.

Vacation-planning procrastinators are having better luck this year.

On July 26, Debra Banton, 61, and her 26-year-old daughter Rachel booked a trip overseas departing in two weeks.

“We usually plan way in advance, never last minute,” said Banton, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina. But Rachel works full time while attending school, leaving little down time, and since she’s never been to Europe and is getting married next May, they figured now’s their best shot.

“With just four weeks’ planning time, I was able to secure the last few rooms at some fabulous resorts in Greece and get them a great deal on business-class air to Athens,” said Kimberly Hilliard, their Annapolis, Maryland-based travel adviser with Front Porch Travel.

While prices typically come down heading into the fall, the current end-of-summer season is a “unique window” for travelers who haven’t booked far in advance, said Jesse Neugarten, the CEO and founder of Dollar Flight Club.

The flight alert site said the average international airfare from the U.S. over the next three months is $401, and the average domestic flight costs $212 — collectively down an average of 29% from the same period a year ago.

“For clients with a little flexibility in their travel dates, I’ve been able to get very low airfare for last-minute trips,” said Ashley D’Aristotile, the owner of Orlando, Florida-based Flyaway Travel.

Lousson Smith, a flight expert at the travel site Going, agrees: “At this point in the summer, if you’re flexible, you can find something really nice under $150 nonstop from major markets, but anything under $200 this late in the game is a decent deal.”

While the costs of U.S. flights to Europe soared during the post-pandemic travel boom, Hopper estimates international airfares have fallen 9% since last summer. Round trips from Boston to Dublin, for example, have been going for as low as $415 this month, Hopper said, and there are $461 options between Chicago and Paris.

Domestically, the Southeast is seeing some of the best bargains, according to Priceline, with both Miami and Nashville making its “most affordable” list for August.

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Trump Media reports $16 million loss for quarter as revenue falls

Trump Media, the social media company whose majority shareholder is former President Donald Trump, on Friday reported a net loss of more than $16 million for the most recent financial quarter, mostly due to legal expenses, as well as consulting and licensing expenses.

Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app often used by the former president, also reported that its already meager revenue dropped by 30% for the three months that ended June 30, compared to the same period last year.

The stock price of Trump Media, which trades under the DJT ticker, has fallen sharply from a high of more than $71 per share shortly after began publicly trading in late March following a merger with a so-called special purpose acquisition corporation. Trump Media stock closed at $26.21 per share Friday afternoon, a decrease of .49%.

The company has a market capitalization of nearly $5 billion, an extraordinarily high valuation given its very modest sales.

In its 10-Q filing Friday afternoon, Trump Media reported a loss of $16.37 million for the quarter ending June 30, compared to a $22.8 million loss for the same quarter in 2023.

About half of the loss for the past quarter was due to legal expenses related to Trump Media’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., the company said.

“Additionally, the Company incurred $3.1 million of IT consulting and software licensing expenses, primarily related to its software licensing agreement to power its new TV streaming service,” Trump Media said in a press release.

Revenue for the most recent quarter was just $839,000, compared to $1.2 million for the same quarter last year.

“A significant portion of the decrease was attributable to a change in the revenue share with one of our advertising partners, in connection with an agreement intended to improve the Company’s short-term, pre-Business Combination financial position,” Trump Media said in its 10-Q filing.

“Additionally, revenue has varied as we selectively test a nascent advertising initiative on the Company’s Truth Social platform,” the company said.

Trump Media said it ended the quarter with $344 million in cash and cash equivalents, with no debt.

“The Company believes its strong balance sheet will enable the expansion and refinement of its new TV streaming platform, Truth+, which was launched in August 2024 on the Company’s custom-built content delivery network (‘CDN’),” Trump Media said in a press release.

“With its strong balance sheet and zero debt load, the Company believes it has sufficient working capital to fund operations for the foreseeable future,” the company said.

Donald Trump, who is the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio are set to face the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in November’s election.

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Wealthy investors find opportunities in stock market sell-offs

Wealthy investors and family offices shied away from stocks leading up to market swings this week, but many saw the drop in prices as an opportunity for tax savings and estate planning, according to wealth advisors.

Private banks and wealth managers say their clients have been reducing their stock holdings for over a year as part of a broader shift from public to private markets in light of recent concerns about an overheated tech sector.

According to a UBS family office survey, family offices have 35% of their portfolios in private equity — the largest of any asset class — compared with just 28% in equities. A Deloitte survey found that family office holdings of equities fell from 34% to 25% from 2021 to 2023, while their private equity jumped from 22% in 2021 to 30% in 2023.

When stocks tumbled Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 3%, wealthy investors neither panicked nor jumped in to buy, according to several advisors. They did have a lot of questions.

“The common question from clients was ‘What’s going on?’” said Sean Apgar, partner and co-head of portfolio and wealth advisory at BBR Partners, which advises ultra-wealthy clients. “It was more out of curiosity; there was no real motive for action.”

Apgar said the clients BBR advises — most worth hundreds of millions or billions — don’t react to short-term market events given their long investing horizons. Yet they did want to be educated about the market moves, the Japanese carry trade, the growing recession fears and rate cut odds. For his clients, their investment plan is still their investment plan. 

“The best thing clients can do right now is sit back and feel good about the investment plan we put in place with them long ago, with expected volatility and corrections along the way,” Apgar said.

The drop in prices last Friday and Monday also offered a chance for wealthy investors to take advantage of tax benefits and gift strategies.

William Sinclair, head of the financial institutions group and the U.S. family office practice at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said a growing number of clients have so-called “separately managed accounts,” discreet accounts designed to hold a specific group of assets or stocks. With separate accounts, clients can more easily sell stocks that have declined in value and realize losses they can use to offset capital gains from their winning stocks, known as “tax-loss harvesting.”

With some Big Tech stocks down 15% or more over the past month, wealthy investors are selling at a loss, reaping the tax benefits and buying the stock back at a later date to retain their position.

“For taxable clients, the biggest inflows have been in tax loss harvesting strategies,” Sinclair said.

Others are using the price swings for estate planning. Under the current rules of the estate and gift tax, married couples can transfer up to $27.22 million to heirs and family members, while individuals can transfer up to $13.61 million. With the gift and estate exemption amount scheduled to expire at the end of next year, many wealthy investors are working to give away the maximum before the expiration.

Gifting stocks that have declined in value carries more benefits, since it allows investors to gift more stock under the exemption amount.

“Say you have a stock that was worth $100 and now it’s worth $80, you can transfer that lower value to the next generation, assuming the assets will eventually appreciate again,” Apgar said. “So you’re taking advantage of the depressed values. Tax advisors get generally excited about these environments because it opens up new opportunities.”

One group of clients that’s more sensitive to the recent bouts of volatility is made up of corporate founders and top executives. Since they often have a large portion of their wealth tied up in one company stock, advisors can help them structure complex hedges — such as variable prepaid forwards and exchange funds — to help dampen the blow of big stock declines. The stock decline of the past week highlighted the benefits of so-called “collaring” structures to many founders and CEOs. 

“People in these roles, in the C-suite, know that their job, as well as career, is going to center on the stock,” said Jennifer Povlitz, division director at UBS Wealth Management U.S., which advises many clients with concentrated stock positions. “So the financial planning part has to be a consideration.”

While the S&P 500 is still up roughly 10% this year, after gaining 24% in 2023, ultra-wealthy investors and family offices are continuing to shift more of their money into alternatives, especially private equity. Many see private companies as more stable and profitable over the long term compared to equities — especially after days like Monday. And they can have more impact on management with direct stakes in private companies. 

“Most family offices are so invested in alternatives, hedge funds, PE and real estate, that they aren’t moving their investments around anyway,” said Geoffrey von Kuhn, an advisor to several of the nation’s largest family offices.

Richard Weintraub, family office group head of the Americas at Citi Private Bank, said family offices have been moving their money to longer-term investments — which can grow over decades or generations — with less volatility. Along with private equity and venture, the big trend among family offices is direct deals to buy stakes or control of private companies.

“The larger family offices, so $10 billion plus, are deploying capital into operating companies they can hold in perpetuity and pass down generation to generation,” Weintraub said. “Like building the Buffett model.”

He added that the stock swoons of the past week “reinforced the idea of making that shift toward private investments.”

Michael Pelzar, head of investments at Bank of America Private Bank, said high-net-worth investors are still catching up to family offices when it comes to private markets and alternatives.

“In general, I think high-net-worth investors are under-allocated to alternatives,” Pelzar said. “We see this [volatility] as a catalyst to enable high-net-worth investors to continue to broaden their portfolio. I think that after this week there will be more open-mindedness when it comes to alternatives, whether in PE or real estate.”

Advisors say that when it comes to the overall investing environment, the biggest worries of high-net-worth investors are about geopolitical risks and fiscal spending. Jimmy Chang, CIO for Rockefeller Global Family Office, said the most common question clients are asking is not about stock market volatility but about the impact of government debt and deficits.

“They want to know the implications for tax planning and also for the economy and the market,” he said.

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