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Authorities in Paris have launched a hate speech investigation after the Olympics opening ceremony artistic director Thomas Jolly filed a complaint, alleging he was the subject of death threats.

Jolly filed the complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office Tuesday, four days after the opening ceremony. In the complaint, he said he had been defamed and endured “public insults.’

France’s Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes will lead the investigation, as the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Jolly is “the target of threatening messages and insults on social networks criticizing his sexual orientation and his wrongly-assumed Israeli roots.”

The opening ceremony has been a source of controversy and scrutiny, featuring scenes of drag queens and another homage to a festival honoring the Greek god Dionysus that many thought was a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting ‘The Last Supper.’

The online backlash caused organizers of the 2024 Paris Games to apologize earlier this week.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

‘Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance,’ Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps said. ‘We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.’

Barbara Butch, a French disc jockey who performed during the drag queen scene, also filed a complaint, saying she has received death threats and social media abuse.

‘On behalf of the City of Paris and in my own name, I would like to extend my unwavering support to Thomas Jolly in the aftermath of the threats and harassment he has been subjected to in recent days, which have led him to lodge a complaint,’ Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said in a statement. ‘During the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly carried our values high. Paris was proud and honored to count on his talent to celebrate our city and tell the world what we are all about.

‘Yesterday, today and tomorrow, Paris will always stand by artists, creation and freedom. ‘

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SAINT-DENIS, France − Team USA women’s discus thrower Veronica Fraley let it fly in the right frame of mind Friday, but it didn’t fly quite far enough. Fraley’s best throw among three went 62.54 meters (205.2 feet), leaving her ranked 13th in qualifying, one spot short of a 12-team field for medal finals at the Paris Games’ Stade de France venue.

As recently as a couple days ago, she wasn’t sure the right frame of mind would even be possible.

The Vanderbilt student, who will graduate later this month with her second masters degree, made news via social media Thursday with some honesty about her personal finances that proved to stir the right people. She took to her X account to reveal that Vanderbilt had only assisted with 75% of her rent, and rapper Flavor Flav and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian came to the immediate rescue with a pledge to get Fraley’s shortfall covered. As it turned out, they not only covered her rent for the month, they picked up the tab for the remainder of the year.

Fraley expressed thankfulness for the support, but without unpaid rent weighing on her, she still came up slightly short. Things looked promising after her first and best throw, but she didn’t improve on the 62.54 on her two subsequent throws. Meanwhile, the remaining competitors in Group B slowly pushed her out of contention. Entering the third and final throws for Group B competitors, Fraley was holding onto the 12th and final qualifying spot until Portugal’s Irina Rodrigues posted a 62.90 to knock her out of the top 12 with Fraley’s final throw still pending. She needed to finish with a 62.64 to climb back into the qualifying field, but recorded a 60.95 to bring her first Olympic experience to an end.

She declined to speak to reporters following the disappointing finish.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

The standard for automatic qualification was 64.0 meters. Medal finals of the women’s discus throw will be held Aug. 5.

Fraley, 24, recorded top-20 finishes in the discus throw at the World Championships in 2022 and 2023. Earlier this year, she won the 2024 NCAA Championship in discus with a throw of 63.66.

Team USA’s Valarie Allman qualifies for discus finals with ease

Fraley wasn’t the only Team USA women’s discus thrower competing Friday; Valarie Allman, competing in Group A, wasted no time qualifying with a robust throw of 69.59 on her first attempt. With a No. 1 world ranking, it was no surprise. Her lone throw of the day was the best of anyone, and one of only six in either group to break the 64-meter mark for automatic qualification to the finals. Allman won gold in the discus at the Tokyo Games in 2021 with a throw of 68.98 meters. Team USA’s Jayden Ulrich failed to qualify.

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.

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Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision on former President Trump’s immunity claim in the federal election interference case, the matter has been officially returned for a trial.

This is standard court procedure. A month after the Supreme Court’s July 1 decision, the case has been formally remanded to the appeals court, which will then return it to Judge Tanya Chutkan.

‘ORDERED, on the court’s own motion, that this case be remanded to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion,’ the Aug. 2 filing reads.

In the coming days, Judge Chutkan is expected to establish a schedule for the parties to discuss the application of the SCOTUS ruling in the ongoing prosecution. Open court hearings are anticipated, after which the judge will determine the extent to which the Special Counsel’s evidence can be used in the trial.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.

In a 6-3 decision, the Court sent the matter back down to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The ruling came shortly after a New York jury found Trump guilty on all counts of falsifying business records in the first degree stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges last summer.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment. 

This is a developing story.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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The former campaign manager for former President Obama, David Plouffe, has joined Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and the newly minted Democratic nominee has retained the entire leadership team of President Biden’s re-election effort. 

Harris on Friday secured the Democratic presidential nomination, weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago begins on Aug. 19. 

The vice president’s campaign, now in full swing, will include the members of President Biden’s suspended re-election campaign and a number of experienced Democratic operatives who will aid in her effort to beat former President Trump in November. 

Jen O’Malley Dillon, who worked as Biden’s campaign chair, has agreed to stay in the top role, reporting directly to Harris. Dillon is expected to run the campaign from the original Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Julie Chávez Rodriguez will remain campaign manager, with Rob Flaherty continuing his role as deputy campaign manager. Quentin Fulks will continue his role as principal deputy campaign manager, and Michael Tyler is continuing his role as communications director. 

Harris’ campaign has also brought on Liz Allen, who will serve as chief of staff for Harris’ yet-to-be-named running mate, and Megan Rooney as head speechwriter. 

Brian Fallon, who was previously the director of public affairs for Obama’s Justice Department, a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 national press secretary, will also join the Harris campaign as a senior adviser for communications. 

Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager, will serve as the senior adviser on the ‘Path to 270’ and the strategy moving forward. Plouffe will suspend his consulting work for TikTok and his podcast while advising the campaign, according to a source. 

Jen Palmieri, who ran communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as Obama’s White House communications director, will also join the Harris campaign as an adviser for second gentleman Doug Emhoff. 

Other senior-level consultants joining the team include Mitch Stewart, who will serve as a senior adviser for battleground states, and Terrance Woodbury, who will watch polling. 

The top consultants are not expected to work out of Wilmington. 

David Binder is also expected to take a leading role in polling and research with the existing team. 

The Harris campaign has also added a new paid media strategy and will continue its work with Blue Sky, Conexion and Truxton and expects to work with GMMB. Fulks is expected to oversee that program. 

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge came onboard as a campaign co-chair and will expand her role to include outreach and strategy, while her co-chair, Rep. Cedric Richmond, will continue his work as a longtime adviser to Harris. 

Sources close to the campaign said the team is in place to ‘scale and manage what is coming’ in terms of the intensity of the volume and work that comes with a general election season. 

Sources said the moves also reflect an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to the final stretch before the November election. They said the Democratic Party is ‘united.’ 

The built-out team was named after Harris secured the nomination Friday. 

‘I am so proud to confirm that Vice President Harris has earned more than a majority of votes from all convention delegates and will be the nominee of the Democratic Party following the close of voting on Monday,’ DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.

Harris, on a call Friday with supporters, said, ‘I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States.’

She emphasized that ‘the tireless work of our delegates, our state leaders and staff has been pivotal in making this moment possible.’

The news came amid a virtual roll call for the nomination, which the DNC kicked off Thursday and lasts through Monday.

And while the nomination of Harris was never in doubt, the vice president was the only candidate to qualify for the presidential nomination roll call. It marks a historic milestone in the nation’s history with Harris becoming the first woman of color to lead a major political party’s national ticket.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

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And then ….. all of a sudden….. things are heating up. Lots of (downside) market action in the past week.

Let’s see what sector rotation and RRGs can tell us.

The RRG at the top is a daily RRG, as recent price action has significantly impacted near-term rotations.

The main takeaway is the concentrated risk-off rotation, with Technology and Consumer Discretionary rotating into the lagging quadrant. To offset the nose-dives in these two sectors, many others came floating to the surface on a relative basis.

Utes Lead, Tech Lags

Looking at the price performance over the last five days (snapshot Friday, 8/2, 1:30 pm ET), we see the defensive sectors rising to the top of the table, while the more offensive sectors are found at the bottom. Investors are flocking to the safe havens of Utilities, Consumer Staples, and Healthcare. The odd ones are Real Estate and Communication services (META is certainly helping here).

The real damage for the cap-weighted S&P 500 comes from Consumer Discretionary and Technology.

Equal Weight Sectors Paint a More Realistic Picture

The RRG showing the equivalent equal-weight sectors paints a pretty clear picture. Three sectors are shooting deeper into the lagging quadrant: Consumer Discretionary, Energy, and Technology. Utilities and Healthcare are making the opposite move into leading. The remaining sectors are mixed around the 100 level on the JdK RS-Momentum scale.

This paints a more realistic picture at the sector level, which is less impacted by mega-cap stocks, but it confirms the rotation we also see in the cap-weighted sectors. RISK OFF.

Is the BIG ROTATION over?

For a few weeks, it was all about the “BIG ROTATION,” the move from large caps into small caps.

I discussed this two weeks ago in this video for StockChartsTV and asked whether that market segment would be big and strong enough to prevent the S&P 500 from falling.

At that time, the rotation was clearly visible, and SPY was holding up above support near 550, so there was no massive “outflow” of money from the S&P 500.

When the market moves lower, by definition, money is flowing out of it. When the market moves higher, new money is put into stocks. When (sector) rotation takes place while the market remains stable, the money is moved around between sectors.

At first, investors pulled their money from mega-cap and large-cap stocks and moved it to other sectors and segments (small caps). But now, money is actually leaving the market.

Interestingly, more money leaving the market seems to come from the small-cap segment.

Large and Small Both Go Down, But at a Different Pace

The RRG shows the ratios between cap-weighted large-cap sectors and cap-weighted small-cap sectors. It uses $ONE as the benchmark to visualize the movement between large- and small-cap sectors.

All tails are on the left-hand side of the graph, indicating that these ratios are in downtrends, meaning large caps are underperforming small caps. But the improvement over the last five days is rapidly becoming visible. All these tails are curling back up, indicating that the downtrends (meaning a preference for small caps over large caps) are starting to level off and improving.

The chart above shows this ratio for XLK:PSCT in combination with an RSI(9). The sharp move lower from the 4.979 peak has come to rest near the developing support line around the levels of the previous lows while the RSI is executing a positive divergence.

Pretty much all of these ratios are showing similar charts.

Hence, on a relative basis, large-cap stocks seem to be making a comeback, but only because they are dropping less fast than the small-caps.

In reality, small-cap technology stocks are dropping like a stone.

And so are large-cap technology stocks, only a little less.

When you are a long-only investor with a capital preservation benchmark, don’t be fooled by RRG tails that are turning upward or rotating into the leading quadrant.

Where it all comes together.

This chart was snapped Friday, 8/2, at 2:30 p.m. ET. The bounce from wherever it will come is very likely to give us more clues about the near future. I would not be surprised to see some “Wham Bam, Thank You, Ma’am” short covering, taking the market a little up from its lows.

What happens from there will be our guide going into next week.

The area between 533 and 537.50 will likely start to serve as overhead resistance, while the way down is now open to the 517.50-520 area.

#StayAlert and have a great weekend. –Julius

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge has overturned a jury’s $4.7 billion verdict in the class-action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers against the NFL and has granted judgment to the NFL.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez ruled Thursday that the testimony of two witnesses for the subscribers had flawed methodologies and should have been excluded.

“Without the testimonies of Dr. [Daniel] Rascher and Dr. [John] Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages,” Gutierrez wrote at the end of his 16-page ruling.

The jury on June 27 awarded $4.7 billion in damages to residential and commercial subscribers after it ruled the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package on DirecTV of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons.

The jury of five men and three women found the NFL liable for $4,610,331,671.74 in damages to the residential class (home subscribers) and $96,928,272.90 in damages to the commercial class (business subscribers).

Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could have been liable for $14,121,779,833.92.

It is not the first time the NFL has won a judgment as matter of law in this case, which has been going on since 2015.

In 2017, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell dismissed the lawsuit and ruled for the NFL because she said “Sunday Ticket” did not reduce output of NFL games and that even though DirecTV might have charged inflated prices, that did not “on its own, constitute harm to competition” because it had to negotiate with the NFL to carry the package.

Two years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case.

It is likely the plaintiffs will again appeal to the 9th Circuit.

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – This has been great, but something is missing.

Sure, the American men’s golfers at this week’s Olympics tournament, like other countries, have been wearing the same outfits and the Team USA hats.

But they aren’t a team. Not really. Not when it counts.

They are competing for an individual prize only. Short of practice rounds together earlier this week, the Americans’ routines haven’t been different from any other golf tournament.

There’s no camaraderie, and that’s a shame.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

“Once the tournament starts,” Scottie Scheffler said, “I think it’s best for us to stick to our normal routines, and that’s what we’ve been doing this week. Guys aren’t going to stick around and cheer me on at 18 because they’ve got to get ready for their round tomorrow.”

It’s good that top golfers have been experiencing all that an Olympics has to offer beyond prize money. It’ll keep them coming back and open to format changes that might have been a tougher sell a decade ago.

They’ve learned that the Olympics aren’t like any other golf tournament. It shouldn’t be set up like one.

A team aspect needs to be added to this.

Here’s my proposal:

For both the men’s and women’s competitions, keep the same field of 60. Play three rounds from Wednesday to Friday to decide the individual medalists. Then go down the leaderboard and start pairing up the top two golfers from each country. The first eight nations to have two players paired up based on the best scores get to advance those two players into a bracket for the weekend.

Then it’s match play foursomes.

Quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday. Matches for the gold and bronze medals on Sunday.

For example’s sake, if we did this and seeded teams by scores using the first two rounds of this Olympics, here’s the matchups you’d get:

United States (Xander Schauffele/Scottie Scheffler) vs. Denmark (Thorbjorn Olesen/Nicolai Hojgaard)
Spain (Jon Rahm/David Puig) vs. Belgium (Thomas Detry/Adrien Dumont de Chassart)
Japan (Hideki Matsuyama/Keita Nakajima) vs. South Korea (Tom Kim/Byeong Hun An)
Great Britain (Tommy Fleetwood/Matt Fitzpatrick) vs. Italy (Guido Migliozzi/Matteo Manassero)

Who’d have a problem with this?

You’re not messing with any golfer’s calendar outside of this week, which would be a major hindrance to any mixed-team event combine men’s and women’s players. You’re not asking anyone to play too much. You’re not tilting the scales toward countries like the USA that’ll qualify more than two players.

You’re also making the final individual holes much more important for golfers already out of medal contention, and causing them to cheer on their teammates, because you need two players to shoot well enough to make it. The final team in the above example – Denmark – didn’t have a player within seven shots of the lead right now.

You’re offering another opportunity to win medals, which is why the golfers are here in the first place.

“I would love the chance to have a team aspect just because it’s another chance for a medal,” Fleetwood said this week. “I would like more chances other than one.”

Beyond that, the match-play portion would be a blast. It would instantly be the most popular part of the golf competitions every four years. And it would be exclusively Olympic, new and unique and fun.

Golf needs more that’s new and unique and fun.

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@gannett.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

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PARIS − The Italian female boxer who quit 46 seconds into her fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif expressed regret for not shaking Khelif’s hand following the controversial bout Thursday at the Paris Olympics, according to a published report.

‘Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else,’’ Italy’s Angela Carini told told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. “I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.’

Carini also said, “All this controversy makes me sad’’ and that if she could meet Khelf again she would “embrace her.’’

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Khelif landed one punch — to the face fo Carini, who abandoned the fight and then failed to acknowledge her opponent in a bout that fueled controversy over gender eligibility.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting were disqualified from the women’s 2023 World Championships. But the IOC have said two boxers met all criteria to compete against the women at the Paris Games and have noted both Khelif and Lin participated in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Said Carini, “If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.’’

But the controversy continued to simmer Friday when Lin began competition in the featherweight division.

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Shooting his way to a silver medal at age 51, Yusuf Dikec of Turkey isn’t one to succumb to the pressures of high-level competition.

A member of his country’s Olympic delegation dating back to 2008, Dikec helped score Turkey’s first-ever medal in shooting earlier this week by teaming with Sevval Ilayda Tarhan in the mixed team 10-meter air pistol.

But the way he did it earned him a worldwide legion of new fans

Casually competing without any specialized eye or ear protection, Dikec became one of the viral sensations of the 2024 Paris Olympics − with many social media posters comparing him and his demeanor to characters played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in the movie ‘Pulp Fiction.’

Dikec reacts to his newfound fame

The silver-haired Dikec stood out from his fellow competitors in many ways. Most pistol shooters wear visors, large ear protectors and goggles with blinders to help them reduce glare and minimize distractions. Dikec, however, opted for only his prescription glasses and small yellow earplugs (that weren’t visible in many of the viral photos of him).

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Even the common practice among pistol shooters of firing with their non-shooting hand tucked in a pocket was seen as part of Dikec’s nonchalant charm.

‘I didn’t anticipate such a level of recognition,’ he told Turkish media as he returned home. ‘Since I shoot with my both eyes open, I don’t find the equipment very comfortable.’

After finishing 13th in his individual event, Dikec said his Olympic career isn’t quite over. He and Tarhan both told reporters they’re looking forward competing again in the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

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PARIS – A second Olympic boxer at the center of controversy over gender eligibility stepped inside the ring at the Paris Games Friday.

Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan won her opening bout in the women’s competition as the issue of gender and eligibility criteria continued to generate anger and confusion. Capitalizing on her length and quickness, the 5-foot-10 Lin beat Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova on points by unanimous decision.

Lin and Imane Khelif were disqualified from the 2023 world championships for reportedly failing gender eligibility criteria at an event run by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

But this week the IOC said the boxers met criteria to compete at the Paris Games and pointed out both boxers participated in the Tokyo Games in 2021. The IOC said the two boxers were victims of arbitrary decisions by the IBA, which disqualified Lin and Khelif after they won medals at the 2023 world championships.

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2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

For at least three rounds of boxing Friday, the focus returned to the ring as Lin took on Turdibekova.

About a minute into the first round, Lin’s headgear came off during an exchange with her opponent, revealing her hair to be in a bun atop her head. After her coach got Lin’s headgear back on, the fight resumed and Lin showed more aggression, smothering the 5-6 Ubekistani with punches and winning the round on the card of four of the five judges.

Turdibekova caught Lin with a solid right in the second round, and Lin responded with a barrage of punches and won the round on the cards of all five judges. The Ubekistani fighter landed a couple of solid shots in the third round but Lin still controlled the action and clearly won the fight.

Lin did not stop to talk to reporters after the fight. Not did Turdibekova, who was in tears after the bout.

When it ended, it the outcome was decisive: only a one judge awarded a single round to the Uzbekstani fighter.

Outrage flared Thursday when Imane Yehlif of Algeria won her opening bout in the welterweight division at 146 pounds. She landed only a single punch – to the face of Italy’s Angela Carini, who quit 46 seconds into the fight.

The outcome and scene, with Carini weeping inside the ring and after the fight, triggered a storm of outrage online. Jake Paul, an honorary coach for the U.S. Olympic boxing team, called the situation ‘sickening” in a post on his X account.

Yehlif is scheduled to fight Saturday against Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the quarterfinals.

Lin is scheduled to fight Sunday against Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva in the quarterfinals

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