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‘The Pitt’ leads with 25 Emmy nominations and ‘Hacks’ breaks record for comedies with 24 LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Pitt” led all nominees with 25 in a dominant sophomore season, while “Hacks” got a graduation party with a record-setting 24 to lead all comedies in its final season as Emmy nominations were announced Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/emmy-nominations-pluribus-beef-hacks-pitt-7d21700a43d7d5da1a662898e3646d46?

👋 Good morning! After 27 consecutive days of World Cup action, the tournament has reached its first off day. Just eight teams, and eight games, remain. In today's edition: Argentina's historic comeback, why the USMNT isn't a contender yet, Djokovic and Ohtani do Djokovic and Ohtani things, jock stocks, the Yahoo Sports Lacrosse Hub, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Mitchell gets the max: The Cavaliers are signing Donovan Mitchell to a four-year, $273 million maximum contract extension that includes a player option for the 2030-31 season, keeping the seven-time All-Star in Cleveland through his mid-30's. ⚽️ Historic viewership: 30 million people tuned in on Fox for the USMNT's loss to Belgium on Monday, making it the most-watched soccer telecast in American history. ⚾️ Rice joins the Derby: Yankees 1B Ben Rice has joined Rays 3B Junior Caminero as the second player to commit to next week's Home Run Derby. Rice is in the midst of a breakout season, with his 26 HR and .941 OPS both ranking second in the AL. 🏈 Kneeland had CTE: Former Cowboys DE Marshawn Kneeland, who died by suicide last fall at the age of 24, has been diagnosed with CTE by researchers at the Boston University CTE Center. "Unfortunately, I was not surprised to find CTE in [his brain]," said the director of the CTE Center. "We have found this progressive brain disease in nearly half of the athletes we've studied who have died before the age of 30." 🇷🇺 Russia ban lifted: The IOC has provisionally lifted its three-year-old ban on the Russian Olympic Committee, paving the way for Russian athletes to compete at the 2028 Games under their own flag.   ⚽️ SURVIVE AND ADVANCE THE INEVITABILITY OF LEO MESSI (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) Facing a 2-0 deficit to Egypt in the waning minutes on Tuesday in Atlanta, Lionel Messi's World Cup career looked as though it might come to a stunning, sudden end. But Messi had other plans, engineering a historic comeback to remind the entire footballing world that he isn't going anywhere just yet. Argentina 3, Egypt 2: The defending champions rattled off three goals in the span of 14 frenzied minutes, becoming the first team in World Cup history to win in regular time despite trailing by at least two goals in the 75th minute or later. First came a Cristian Romero header in the 79th minute, served on a platter by a perfect cross from Messi, whose ninth career World Cup assist broke a tie with Diego Maradona for the most ever. Naturally. Four minutes later Messi scored the equalizer himself on a venomous volley, giving him a record-extending nine consecutive World Cup games with a goal and vaulting him back to the top of the Golden Boot race with eight in this tournament. Safe to say this one made up for his missed penalty in the first half. And finally the game-winner, a 92nd-minute Enzo Fernández header that broke the short-lived deadlock and completed a comeback that even Tom Brady conceded might've been better than the Patriots' 28-3 Super Bowl reversal. Hey, he said it, not us. United under Leo: National pride is typically enough to unite a World Cup squad, but at this stage, that pride is table stakes. Argentina is fueled by an additional source of motivation. "I told [Messi] on the pitch to enjoy it because he deserved it," Lautaro Martínez said in Spanish after the match. "I told him we would keep giving everything, for ourselves, but above all for him, because this is his last World Cup and he has given us so much." Bottom line: Argentina had never won a World Cup match when trailing at half or by two goals. But what was close to becoming a tearful goodbye instead became an emotional celebration for Messi, whose dreams of leading an Argentine repeat live on thanks to what would surely be dubbed "The Miracle at Mercedes"... if not for FIFA's clean venue policies. (Luke Hales/Getty Images) Meanwhile, in Vancouver: Switzerland and Colombia played to a 0-0 stalemate over 120 minutes before the Swiss emerged victorious in penalties, punching their ticket to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1954. They'll join Argentina, Norway, England, Spain, Belgium, France and Morocco in the last eight, which kicks off tomorrow.   🇺🇸 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT WHY THE U.S. STILL ISN'T A WORLD CUP CONTENDER (Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports) The USMNT's magical start to the World Cup came crashing down in Monday's ugly loss to Belgium, and while the old argument that "our best athletes play other sports" is fun on the surface, it belies the fundamental issue holding the U.S. back from being true contenders on the sport's biggest stage. What they're saying: "Our youth soccer in this country is a disaster," former U.S. star Landon Donovan told 'The Rich Eisen Show' last month. "All these youth clubs charge you crazy fees. It's all about winning. The kids get left behind because the clubs want to make money, the coaches want to make money. They want to win and the kids don't develop." Indeed, the annual cost to play elite youth soccer in the United States can reach upwards of $15,000, pricing out plenty of talented youngsters who might otherwise thrive in the beautiful game, if only they could afford to pursue it. Compare that to how it works in most other countries — namely the ones who routinely dominate the tournament the Americans just stumbled out of — where top clubs foot the bill themselves, and it's not hard to connect the dots on where the competitive gap is born. Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo Sports: There's little doubt that the U.S. soccer talent pool would be deeper if LeBron James grew up dreaming to become a center back or if Tyreek Hill was using his speed and acceleration to run onto through balls or stretch the field in counter-attacks. The majority of elite NBA, NFL and MLB players never played high-level soccer as kids. Even those who did, like Odell Beckham Jr. or Nolan Arenado, eventually quit to specialize in other sports. And yet ask those in soccer circles if siphoning talent away from other sports would transform the USMNT into a global power, and the question will inspire plenty of eye rolls. They are quick to point out that skill is the most important quality in soccer, that many global superstars rely on ball control and technical ability rather than speed and strength. At 5-foot-7 and less than 150 pounds, Lionel Messi has been known since childhood as "La Pulga," which in Spanish means "the flea." Croatian playmaker Luka Modrić is only an inch taller than Messi. Spanish phenom Lamine Yamal is 5-10. So are French superstars Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé. For every 6-foot-5 Erling Haaland who dominates by overpowering opposing defenders and winning balls in the air, there are many others who use their decision making and mastery with the ball at their feet to help their teams win. "I just don’t think it's as simple as if we had 10 LeBrons playing soccer, we'd automatically be a better soccer country," former U.S. men's national team defender and current Portland Thorns general manager Jeff Agoos told Yahoo Sports prior to the World Cup. "Soccer is such a skilled sport. It's really hard to control a soccer ball, and it takes a lot of time to learn that skill. I don't think it's always about being bigger, faster, stronger." To Agoos and many others, U.S. Soccer's biggest issue isn't insufficient athleticism. It's how the athletes who do want to pursue soccer have been developed.   💯 STAT SHEET BIG NUMBERS (Matthias Hangst/Getty Images) 🎾 8 straight semifinals Novak Djokovic outlasted third-seeded Félix Auger-Aliassime in a five-set thriller on Tuesday to reach his eighth straight Wimbledon semifinal, breaking a tie with Roger Federer for the longest such streak ever. It's also his record-extending 55th major semifinal (Federer is next, with 46). The 39-year-old will face top-ranked Jannik Sinner on Friday for a spot in the final. More from the All England Club: Coco Gauff defeated fellow American Jessica Pegula to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal, becoming the youngest woman (22) to reach the last four at every Grand Slam since Maria Sharapova in 2007. No. 10 Karolína Muchová (over No. 14 Naomi Osaka) also reached her first Wimbledon semifinal, while No. 2 Alexander Zverev (over No. 13 Jiri Lehecka) reached his first Wimbledon quarterfinal. ⚾️ 300 home runs Shohei Ohtani blasted his 300th career home run on Tuesday in his 1,101st game (with at least one plate appearance), becoming the fifth-fastest player in MLB history to reach the milestone. Only Aaron Judge (955 games), Ralph Kiner (1,087), Ryan Howard (1,093) and Juan González (1,096) got there faster. Becoming legendary: "There is a minor but critical distinction between being the greatest of all time and being the best to ever do it," writes Yahoo Sports' Jake Mintz. "Ohtani is, undeniably, the latter. … [But] home run No. 300 is a reminder that he is crossing over into legend status before our eyes, [providing] an opportunity to appreciate not just what he's doing but also what he has already done." Tolbert is doused after the Royals' victory on Monday. (Amy Kontras/Getty Images) ⚾️ 21st team The Royals pulled off one of the rarest feats in baseball in Monday's 15-1 rout of the Phillies, becoming the 21st team in MLB history to score a run in every single inning. Among the sport's standard rarities, only 20-strikeout games (5) and unassisted triple plays (15) have happened less often, while four-homer games are equally rare (21) and perfect games (24) are slightly more common. And, for their encore… Kansas City followed that up with another slugfest on Tuesday, beating the Mets 16-12 behind, among other things, Tyler Tolbert's second straight 5-for-5 performance. The second baseman, who also went 2-for-2 in the Royals' previous game, has now gotten a hit in an MLB record-tying 12 consecutive plate appearances. 🏀 19 in a row UConn grads Breanna Stewart (Liberty), Paige Bueckers (Wings) and Gabby Williams (Valkyries) were all named starters for this year's WNBA All-Star Game, marking the 19th consecutive edition of the exhibition to feature a former Husky in the starting lineup. The other starters: Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell (Fever), Natasha Howard and Olivia Miles (Lynx), A'ja Wilson (Aces) and Jessica Shepard (Wings). Reserves: The 12 reserves for the July 25 game in Chicago were announced on Tuesday: Angel Reese, Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray (Dream), Nneka Ogwumike and Kelsey Plum (Sparks), Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen (Mystics), Marina Mabrey (Tempo), Courtney Williams (Lynx), Jackie Young (Aces), Jonquel Jones (Liberty) and Dominique Malonga (Storm).   📈 TICKER TALK JOCK STOCKS: WINNERS AND LOSERS These publicly-traded teams are all significantly outperforming the S&P 500. (Yahoo Finance Alphaspace) The sports and sports-adjacent universe of publicly traded equities is a diverse set of businesses experiencing the present economic moment in very different ways. In this edition of Jock Stocks, we unpack the performance from the first half of 2026, revealing the year's winners and losers at the midway point. 🏟️ Winner: Sports Franchises The institutional interest in sports team ownership has extended into the equity market, as three of the premier publicly traded teams are off to red-hot starts: Madison Square Garden Sports (MSGS: +55.4%), Manchester United (MANU: +44.0%), and the Atlanta Braves (BATRA: +32.5%) have all substantially outperformed the broader market. The Knicks and United both enjoyed successful and commercially lucrative seasons, further bolstering their equity performance. ⛳️ Winner: Golf Two of the first half's biggest gainers were Callaway Golf (CALY: +61.0%) and Acushnet Holdings (GOLF: +48.5%). Callaway has solidified its balance sheet and pure-play business following the TopGolf sale, while Titleist has launched successful new products and capably defended and reinforced its premium brand status. On a macro level, rounds played in the U.S. were up over 5% in Q1, and golf remains well suited to a K-shaped economy, in which affluent consumers continue to spend. Sports gambling stocks have not had a good year. (Yahoo Finance Alphaspace) 🎰 Loser: Sports Gambling From sportsbooks like DraftKings (DKNG: -26.7%) and Flutter (FLUT: -52.5%) to data companies like Genius (GENI: -45.0%) and Sportradar (SRAD: -37.0%), 2026 has been unkind to stocks with sports gambling exposure. The emergence and growth of the prediction markets industry, anchored by Kalshi and Polymarket, have weighed on shares, as have unfavorable outcomes and concerns about plateauing domestic growth. 📺 Loser: Media Many sports-involved media companies have endured a turbulent start to 2026, though their increasingly expensive sports-rights portfolios are not principally to blame. Some of the negative price action is event-driven, as in the case of Paramount Skydance (PSKY: -26.4%) and Fox (FOX: -27.9%), while persistent structural headwinds such as cord-cutting and streaming profitability have weighed on the category broadly. Disney (DIS: -15.4%) and Comcast (CMCSA: -12.3%) have also fared poorly, as has the recently spun-off Versant (VSNT: -20.0%). This story originally appeared in Monday's edition of Yahoo Sports Biz. Subscribe here to receive today's edition of our new newsletter when it hits inboxes a little later this morning.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: WEDNESDAY, JULY 8 Fery celebrates his fourth-round victory. (James Fearn/Getty Images) 🎾 Wimbledon, Quarterfinals On Court 1, it's No. 9 Linda Nosková vs. No. 25 Elise Mertens (8am ET, ESPN2) followed by No. 2 Alexander Zverev vs. No. 6 Taylor Fritz. And on Centre Court, it's No. 12 Marta Kostyuk vs. No. 13 Jasmine Paolini (8:30am, ESPN) followed by No. 9 Flavio Cobolli vs. Arthur Fery. Last Brit standing: The Brits' home championship started very poorly when only four of 19 Britons made it out of the first round, with three of those four promptly losing their next match. Leave it to Fery — the 23-year-old wildcard who grew up in Wimbledon and had never before made it past the second round of a major — to be the last one standing. More to watch: ⚾️ MLB: Yankees at Rays (6:40pm, Prime); Phillies at Reds (7pm, ESPN); Diamondbacks at Padres (10pm, ESPN) … Cincinnati right-hander Chase Burns (10-1, 2.40 ERA) is part of a loaded NL Cy Young race. 🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Sun (7:30pm, USA); Fever at Sparks (10pm, USA) … Minnesota (15-6) is tied for the league's best record, while Connecticut (5-16) has the worst. 🚴 Tour de France: Stage 5 (8am, NBCSN/Peacock) … The first flat stage, spanning 98 miles from Lannemezan to Pau, will give the sprinters an opportunity to shine. Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   🏀 RAPTOR FOR LIFE NBA TRIVIA Lowry during the 2019 playoffs. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) Kyle Lowry signed a one-day contract with the Raptors to officially end his 20-year career with the team where he became a star. Toronto also plans to retire his No. 7 jersey, making him the second player in franchise history to earn that honor. Question: Can you name the only other Raptor whose jersey was retired? Hint: No. 15 Answer at the bottom.   🥍 JUST LAUNCHED INTRODUCING THE YAHOO SPORTS LACROSSE HUB Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S, and through a new partnership with Inside Lacrosse, Yahoo Sports will be able to cover it more thoroughly than ever before. Just launched: The Yahoo Sports website features a new hub dedicated to lacrosse, with in-depth coverage spanning the sport. Readers can expect: Content from Inside Lacrosse, the Premier Lacrosse League, the Women's Lacrosse League, The Lacrosse Network, and USA Lacrosse Magazine. Comprehensive coverage of high school, collegiate, and professional lacrosse, including breaking news, in-depth written stories, video analysis, game highlights, and more. And news from USA Lacrosse — the sport's official national governing body — to help fans get ready for lacrosse's long-awaited return to the Olympic Games in 2028.   Trivia answer: Vince Carter

As Trump buyouts shake offshore wind industry, states hope developers stay in the game President Donald Trump has shown the immense power of the executive branch to stymie offshore wind development, as nearly all projects are in waters where federal agencies operate as the landlord. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/08/repub/as-trump-buyouts-shake-offshore-wind-industry-states-hope-developers-stay-in-the-game/? ps:What's he afraid of? That people will see that we can use clean energy??

11th Circuit crushes Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’ at state universities Instead of the state determining what will be taught in university classrooms, students must be free to hear and consider even officially disfavored ideas presented to them by professors, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/07/eleventh-circuit-crushes-floridas-stop-woke-act-at-state-universities/? Another Amendment 3 challenge filed by bipartisan pair of former legislators Florida’s bid to dramatically change its property tax system is being hit with another legal challenge, this one from a bipartisan duo of former elected officials who maintain a proposed constitutional amendment is full of “political platitudes” and not factual statements informing the public what it would do. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/07/another-amendment-3-challenge-filed-by-bipartisan-pair-of-former-legislators/?

Trump’s Jaw-Dropping Secret Threat to U.S. Ally Is Leaked The president suggested he would nix a 118-year-old agreement. President Donald Trump threatened to drop a diplomatic bomb on Canada at the height of his crazed “51st state” ramblings, according to insiders. Trump began publicly flirting with the idea of absorbing Canada into the U.S. in late 2024, and it soon became a hallmark of his second term. He would refer to then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “governor” and said he would use “economic force” to achieve his imperialist fever dream. Towards the end of his tenure, Trudeau, who was replaced as PM by Mark Carney in March last year, faced sinister threats from Trump in private phone calls, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. In one call, Trump reportedly straight-up threatened to nix a 118-year-old agreement that helped pin down and officially mark parts of the U.S.-Canada border on maps and on the ground. In April 1908, the Boundary Convention was signed by the United States and the United Kingdom, which at the time handled Canada’s foreign affairs because Canada was a self-governing British Dominion. Trump didn’t care for its history, reportedly telling Trudeau, “I tear that up, and your whole country unravels.” It is unclear whether Trump understands the convention, however, as it didn’t create the U.S.-Canada border—it simply clarified and marked parts of it. Even if the U.S. tried to withdraw from it, the border would still exist because it is primarily established by earlier treaties, including the 1818 and 1846 agreements.However, the act would have triggered a diplomatic crisis with tension already high because of Trump’s economic warfare and endless rambling about taking over Canada. Trudeau’s envoys were tasked with dissuading Trump from enacting this approach in any tangible way. At one Mar-a-Lago dinner, it was pointed out to him that Canada, as a mega-state of the U.S., would lean Democrat. Trump reportedly replied that it could be split into two states, one red and one blue. When Carney replaced Trudeau, he set about strengthening ties with European partners and China in a bid to reduce reliance on the U.S. The White House has been contacted for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-jaw-dropping-secret-threat-to-us-ally-is-leaked/? ps:Pathetic!!!!!

New poll reveals sharp divides among US Jews over Israel and Gaza As Israel’s actions continue to divide America’s Jewish communities nearly three years into the latest war in Gaza, a new AP-NORC poll reveals that some of the biggest gaps are between religious and secular Jews. Read more. What to know: About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways. Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical. Only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. About one-quarter believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some human rights organizations and vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. But Jews with a religious affiliation are more supportive of Israel's actions than secular American Jews. About 4 in 10 religiously unaffiliated Jews say Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians, and only about 2 in 10 see Israel’s current operations in Gaza as justified. The vast majority, 74%, say they are “not too” or “not at all” emotionally attached to Israel, a sharp contrast from other Jewish adults.

Danish PM says her country is ‘ready to defend’ Greenland as Trump demands control Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday her country is “ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory” after President Donald Trump again insisted that the United States should control Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory. Read more. Why this matters: World leaders are at a NATO summit in Turkey meant to be a show of strength and unity. Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland could put at risk the entire future of NATO. The organization is not designed to deal with threats from within. It normally focuses on outside threats such as that posed by Russia. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Trump says again that US should control Greenland Photos of Trump at NATO summit in Turkey Why Trump wants control of Greenland Live updates: Trump meets world leaders Succession fight is already underway as calls mount for Platner to drop out of Maine Senate race WATCH: Mamdani says Platner should drop out McConnell speaks to Republican leaders as speculation swirls about his health, remains hospitalized Democratic-led states face backlash over National Guard deployments in Washington ABC fights back against FCC regulators in dispute over ‘The View’

July 8, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. At the NATO summit in Turkey today, President Trump put the cease-fire with Iran into doubt. “To me, I think it’s over,” he said. We’ll start with that. Then we’ll look at the mess in Maine, with the implosion of Graham Platner’s campaign for the Senate. Some of the links in this newsletter are free to read. You just have to log in to our website or app (which is also free). Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, and President Trump. Doug Mills/The New York Times A threatened cease-fire The United States and Iran traded strikes last night, about a month after leaders of both countries signed a preliminary cease-fire deal. The American military said it had hit 80 targets across Iran after Iran attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil and gas shipping route. In response, Iran said it had targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. The preliminary truce was intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow longer negotiations toward permanently ending the war. Both goals are in question now. The price of oil spiked after the attacks — and jumped again after Trump’s remarks. Read the latest news. Inside Iran Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times Millions of people have come out to bid farewell to Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The photograph above, by Arash Khamooshi, shows a crowd on Monday in Tehran, where supporters so packed the route that the truck carrying Khamenei’s coffin could only inch forward. The Times has annotated details on the photo to help explain the remarkable scene. Click the image above to see. Graham Platner Sophie Park for The New York Times The mess in Maine The Senate campaign of Graham Platner, a Maine Democrat, oyster farmer and former Marine combat infantryman who has been running to flip a Republican-held seat, appears close to its end after a series of scandals culminated this week in an accusation of rape. Democrats high and low — in Maine and across the country — have called for the political neophyte to end his campaign and make room for a different candidate before the Monday deadline for him to withdraw from the ballot. Even Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of Platner’s earliest and most stalwart supporters, backed away from the candidate yesterday afternoon, saying, “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.” The main super PAC for Democrats running for the Senate said it would redirect $24 million in advertising to other states if he remained. Who could replace him in this critical race to determine control of Congress? Platner, who has denied the allegation that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend, hasn’t yet stepped aside. But Democrats in Maine are starting to clash over the question as progressive and moderates gear up to pick his successor. It’s unclear how the state party might go about doing so, but options include a pop-up convention or a statewide caucus in late July. My colleagues who are covering the race in Maine say that several candidates are being discussed, many of them losers in previous races. They include Troy Jackson, a Republican turned progressive who was president of the Maine Senate; Nirav Shah, a moderate who ran Maine’s public health agency; and Shenna Bellows, a former director of the A.C.L.U. of Maine who is now Maine’s secretary of state. You can read about them here. (One polling firm even floated one of Maine’s most famous sons, the actor Patrick Dempsey. Some 52 percent of voters in its survey regarded McDreamy favorably.) Progressives, including Platner, want to continue with a progressive candidate. Platner, after all, won the primary over Gov. Janet Mills, a moderate two-term Democrat who withdrew more than a month before the election. “To the Democratic establishment: This is not your opening,” one said. According to other Democrats, though, the next nominee should not have anything to do with Platner. As a state senator put it on social media on Monday afternoon, “Any connections to Platner will doom that person’s campaign from the very beginning.” An official with the Maine Democratic Party said last night that Platner would have “no role” in the selection process. Read more about the clashes here. To the polls Voters casting ballots in Portland, Maine, last month. John Tully for The New York Times Just over a week ago, The Times published the results of a poll of likely Maine voters that we conducted with The Portland Press Herald and Siena College. The results showed Platner with a narrow two-point lead over Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent, in a head-to-head challenge for the Senate. But for the Platner campaign, the poll also suggested that his past — his death’s head tattoo, his history with women — could be suppressing his chances of electoral success. When those surveyed were asked which party they wanted to control the Senate, 54 percent said Democrats, compared with 42 percent who preferred Republicans. That’s a difference of 12 points, not two. Yesterday I talked to Michael Cooper, our politics editor, about that. Did voters in our poll want a regular-degular Democrat as their Senate candidate, and not someone weighed down by so much baggage? “That’s a premise that’s going to be tested here,” Coop told me. “As we’re learning in real time, there’s no such thing as a generic Democrat.” More on Platner’s fall Whoever replaces Platner will probably enter the race as a modest favorite over Collins, writes Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst. “We’re sad and disheartened, because we had so much believed in his message”: Among Platner’s supporters in Maine, disappointment was the mood of the day. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Senator Mitch McConnell being escorted onto the Senate floor last month. Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been hospitalized since mid-June. His office has not offered details about his condition, but two Republican leaders said yesterday that they had spoken with him recently. The Trump administration is demanding that states transition to paper ballots and verify citizenship of voters or risk losing tens of millions in federal terrorism-prevention funds. Faculty members at Yale Law School are trying to stop a settlement between the university and the Trump administration over admissions, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Around the World Marine Le Pen Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader in France, said she would run for president next year, after a court upheld an embezzlement conviction but let her seek public office. Prince Harry lost a lawsuit against the publisher of a tabloid in Britain that he accused of unlawfully invading his privacy. People in Venezuela are risking imprisonment by expressing public rage over their government’s response to the recent earthquakes. Other Big Stories An ICE agent shot and killed a man from Mexico during a traffic stop in Houston, the agency’s acting director said. Last year, a mother in Idaho said she had found her twin toddlers dead in their bed and blamed vaccines. An anti-vaccine group co-founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quickly embraced her. But prosecutors now tell a different, darker story: The mother has been charged with murder. OPINIONS The New York Times Dozens of Americans spoke with Times Opinion about one of the hardest jobs they’ve ever taken on: caring for an aging parent. Click the video above to learn their stories. What lesson is there from the Graham Platner disaster? Heed the warnings you might not wish to hear, Michelle Goldberg writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS A snow room. TechnoAlpin We’ve made the stories in this section free for you, once you log in. Enjoy! Beat the heat: The next big thing for the ultrawealthy? Snow rooms. They can even put one on a yacht. Uphill battle: Estonia won the war against fentanyl. But the drugs that came next were even worse. This Bud’s for you: Budweiser really wants to make it in Germany, as “Anheuser-Busch Bud.” But Germans aren’t interested. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was late night hosts joking about Trump’s 250th celebration. SPORTS World Cup Argentina advanced via a late comeback over Egypt, scoring three goals in the match’s final 15 minutes to win 3-2. Lionel Messi and company will play Switzerland, which survived a nervy 0-0 tie against Colombia and won in a penalty shootout. Wimbledon Novak Djokovic, a champion at Wimbledon seven times, survived a five-set, five-hour epic match against Félix Auger-Aliassime to advance to this year’s semifinals. Coco Gauff won her first Wimbledon quarterfinal in three sets against a fellow American, Jessica Pegula. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist. Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Furikake, the Japanese seasoning of dried seaweed and fish mixed with sesame seeds, salt and sugar, is known in my family as “shake.” It’s excellent sprinkled over rice, but it’s also a brilliant partner in this egg salad sandwich. Big flavors and loads of umami: soft-cooked eggs folded with mayo, Dijon mustard, pickle juice, minced red onion, chopped dill and a load of shake, with everything nestled into soft, white milk bread, oh my. That’s dinner! TODAY’S NUMBER $1 billion — That is how much damage a single hour of hail over a midsize city can cause, shattering car windshields, denting hoods, cracking shingles and punching holes in the side of homes. “Insurers now flag hail, not tornadoes, as the primary catalyst for the rising cost of living in the American heartland,” writes Judson Jones, who covers weather for us. ALL YOU CAN EAT In Las Vegas. Roger Kisby for The New York Times There were around 70 buffets along the Las Vegas Strip back in 2019, when The Las Vegas Sun called them the city’s “regional cuisine.” Now there are only half a dozen. Tejal Rao, one of our restaurant critics, took their measure, sending us some beautiful sentences from the dining room at Bacchanal, in Caesars Palace: If GLP-1s really are reshaping the national appetite — shrinking it, quieting it — the excesses of the ultimate all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet might seem like an anachronism. But it doesn’t look like the twilight of the buffet when you’re sitting in Bacchanal, feeling the gravity of the 25,000-square-foot dining room shift as a cook refills the crab station with hot Norwegian snow crab legs. More on culture The New Museum, the contemporary art center that reopened with twice the gallery space in Lower Manhattan this year, announced a new leader: Massimiliano Gioni, its longtime artistic director. William T. Vollmann’s new novel about the C.I.A. seeks to explain what led to 9/11. It runs 3,000 pages. Tom LeClair, reviewing the book for The Times, calls it a “monsterpiece.” Late night hosts called a foul on Trump after his World Cup intervention. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Indio Solari at his last public concert, in 2017. Luis Abdala/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Discover the music of Indio Solari, the Argentine rock star who died this summer at 77. Read his obituary and then jam out to his biggest hit, “Ji, Ji, Ji.” Clip on this ace pocketknife tested by the apple-peeling box openers at Wirecutter and join me in the culture of “everyday carry.” (Remove before going to the airport, please!) GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was lapboard. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

🇻🇪 State Department's Venezuela blowup The Trump administration's official position about Venezuela's exiled opposition leader is simple: Don't help María Corina Machado gain entry to her home country. But Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau didn't appear to get the memo, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Landau is suspected of twice miscommunicating U.S. policy to two countries about Machado, according to seven senior administration officials. Why it matters: Landau's alleged freelancing roiled the State Department for two days and led to internal arguments, international confusion and increased tensions with Machado supporters. 🥊 "There's a widespread belief that Landau went rogue," one of the sources told Axios. "And the evidence supports that belief." Said another: "Marco isn't happy" with Landau, who's second only to Marco Rubio at the State Department. 🔭 Zoom in: The controversy erupted after the June 24 earthquakes that rocked Venezuela and killed more than 3,500 people. Machado, living in exile in the U.S. without a valid Venezuelan passport, wanted to return to Venezuela to help with relief efforts. But administration officials interfered with her travel plans, telling Axios last week that they amounted to "gross political opportunism" that would hamper recovery and relief efforts. The intrigue: Landau, 62, is a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and the son of a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. He's suspected by senior administration officials of opposing U.S. policy toward Caracas and being too close to Machado's inner circle. Keep reading.

📉 Chip stocks slide Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios Chip stocks were hammered yesterday despite reassuring news from a major player — extending their recent slide into a second week, Axios' Pete Gannon writes. Samsung, the world's largest memory-chip maker, reported explosive revenue growth, but its shares immediately fell. Investors are worried the AI boom that's been driving up chip prices can't keep growing this fast forever. The sell-off continued in the U.S., where memory stocks like Micron (-4.7%) and SanDisk (-7.3%) were slammed. Get Axios Business Suite: 3 daily newsletters.

Republicans juice "red wall" spending Republicans are dramatically boosting campaign spending on Senate races in red states that, until recently, looked safely out of Democrats' reach in the November midterms, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes. Why it matters: The GOP — alarmed by recent polls and voting trends — is juicing its efforts in Ohio and Iowa to reinforce a Senate "red wall" they believe can block Democrats' path to a majority in the chamber. The clearest evidence yet: One Nation, the conservative nonprofit aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is reserving $28 million in TV advertising in Ohio and $11 million in Iowa, according to plans obtained by Axios. Republican candidates are locked in tough races in those states less than two years after President Trump won both by double digits. 🔬 Zoom in: Republicans are especially worried about Ohio Sen. Jon Husted's unexpectedly competitive race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has outraised Husted by more than 2 to 1. Keep reading.

Trump declares ceasefire "over" President Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran dead, saying negotiations may continue but dismissing them as a "waste of time." "I think it's over," he said today at the NATO summit in Turkey. Oil quickly jumped 6%. Why it matters: Both sides are launching attacks three weeks after signing a peace deal Trump described as "unconditional surrender." The deal is unraveling. Any sense of calm in the region has evaporated, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. Trump spoke hours after the U.S. conducted a new round of strikes on Iran, retaliation for renewed Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said of Iran: "I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum … As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them." 🛢️ By the numbers: The price of oil skyrocketed after Trump's comments, with the global benchmark Brent crude jumping 6% to nearly $79 in morning trading. At those levels, it's back above prewar prices after dipping just below. Get the latest.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 8 1951 Paris celebrates 2,000th birthday Paris, the capital city of France, celebrates turning 2,000 years old. The City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1853 Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay 1898 Con man “Soapy” Smith killed in Skagway, Alaska 1990s 1994 North Korea’s “Great Leader” dies Asian History 1950 MacArthur named Korean commander Cold War 1954 Colonel Castillo Armas takes power in Guatemala Crime 1914 Labor activist and singer Joe Hill sentenced to death Sports 2000 Venus Williams wins Wimbledon for the first time Vietnam War 1969 First U.S. troops withdrawn from South Vietnam 1959 First Americans killed in South Vietnam World War I 1918 Ernest Hemingway wounded on the Italian front World War II 1941 German general’s diary reveals Hitler’s plans for Russia

US carries out another round of strikes on Iran after Trump says ceasefire is over DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. carried out another round of strikes on Iran on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump said that recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signaled the end of the fragile ceasefire. https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-war-oil-july-8-2026-fee04dcea661c08de12c04914ff2751b?

Well you can't trust trump to hold to any agreement, especially when it's just a charade! Besides Iran isn't any better! He's got no plan and has no clue what to do. Should've left it alone, everyone but Israel's PM liked the original plan that Obama and the US had made with Iran, but it was working just fine!

Republicans' Maine offensive Republicans are preparing to welcome a potential Graham Platner replacement in Maine's Senate race with $8 million in negative ads, aiming to introduce the new Democratic nominee to voters on their own terms before Democrats can. Why it matters: Republicans are doing something Democrats wish they could: Move on from Platner. The progressive candidate, who said yesterday he is taking time to "reflect" on his next steps, remains officially in the race and is looking to leverage his status as the Democratic nominee to influence who could replace him. Republicans, meanwhile, see an opening: three weeks to prepare a campaign against a Democratic nominee who will have little time to introduce themselves to voters. 🚗 Driving the news: Pine Tree Results, the super PAC backing Republican Sen. Susan Collins, raised $10.5 million during the first half of the year — matching what it raised during the same period in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter. The group pulled its anti-Platner ads today and has $8 million in cash on hand to define a likely fresh Democratic nominee for voters during a compressed campaign. Among the donors to the pro-Collins super PAC is Blackstone president Jon Gray, a longtime Democratic donor. He contributed $250,000 well before Politico and CNN reported sexual assault allegations against Platner. 📢 What we're hearing: Platner appears to be using whatever sway he might still have to try to choose his successor. "Graham still has to make the decision to leave the ballot. And folks are pretending that he has. And he has not," a person familiar with the campaign's internal discussions said this morning. "[It's] very clear that he cares about the movement more than the party." Another person close to Platner's adviser, Morris Katz, said Katz has discussed suspending the campaign with Platner and planned to meet him in Maine today to tell him it's not a question of whether he drops out, but when. The same person said Platner has told his team he built a movement and won a record-breaking number of votes, and he does not want his successor to be a "corporate" Democrat. 🤔 Between the lines: There have been conflicting accounts of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering. The New York Post reported today that a source said Katz is "still recommending Platner stay in the race." Katz responded on X that "no one in campaign deliberations or familiar with my thinking is talking to" the Post. Zoom out: Platner's implosion in Maine is scrambling the spending calculus for both parties, with consequences that could stretch as far as Alaska. Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has publicly paused its spending in Maine to pressure Platner to exit the race. If Platner stays on the ballot, the $33 million the super PAC has reserved for Maine would likely be redirected to emerging Democratic pick-up opportunities, including Iowa, Ohio and Alaska. 💰 The intrigue: That shift could benefit Senate candidates such as former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska. Progressive energy is also likely to flow toward Abdul El-Sayed's Senate campaign in Michigan, where he is in a high-stakes showdown with Rep. Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination. The bottom line: Platner's indecision is fueling anxiety throughout the Democratic Party and exposing a divide between progressives and the party establishment that leaders had hoped to bridge before November. — Hans Nichols and Holly Otterbein

Trump Rips Female Ally He Thirsted After for Rejecting Him After lashing out at NATO and renewing his claim that the U.S. should control Greenland, the president took aim at Italy’s right-wing prime minister. Donald Trump has escalated his public spat with Italy’s prime minister, complaining she “just wasn’t there for us” as he sought to justify a bizarre post suggesting that she needed a restraining order. After landing in Turkey ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump continued to test the 77-year-old alliance with members—even renewing his claim that Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.” He also hit out at NATO members more broadly, including Italy and its right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni. Weeks after claiming Meloni had “begged” him for a photo at the G7 summit in France last month, Trump on Sunday reposted a meme of Meloni looking up at him, as though she was eager for his attention. “Restraining Order Needed,” the caption said. Asked by reporters on Tuesday to explain the post, Trump insisted Meloni was “a nice person,” but their relationship took a turn after she refused to throw her country’s weight behind his war in Iran. “I didn’t put a heavy press on her, but she refused to get involved,” he lamented, sitting alongside Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “So it soured my relationship with her a little bit. But I like her, I think she’s a nice person, actually. But I think she made a mistake… She just wasn’t there for us, and I wasn’t happy about that.” The swipe marks the latest twist in an increasingly strange relationship between two leaders who were once held up as ideological allies. Meloni, one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders, has maintained cordial relations with Trump since his return to office. She visited the White House earlier this year, has praised his efforts to end the war in Ukraine, and has largely avoided publicly criticizing his administration. But Italy stopped well short of endorsing Trump’s decision to launch military strikes against Iran, instead pushing for diplomacy alongside other European allies rather than publicly backing the U.S. operation. Trump’s frustration spilled over after the G7 summit when he claimed that Meloni “begged” him to pose for a photo. Within minutes, Meloni took to her socials with a strong denial and a reminder to the president that “Italy and I do not beg.” Soon after, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani pulled out of a planned trip to Washington, raging that Trump had offended all of Italy. As revealed by The Daily Beast’s newsletter The Swamp, the diplomatic spat also left administration officials and global diplomats seething privately after a U.S.-Italy business and innovation forum scheduled for Miami collapsed in the wake of the feud. The June 22 event was set to be held at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio slated to headline alongside a roster of corporate heavyweights, government officials and diplomats from both countries. “The president couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” one exasperated source complained, summing up the mood inside parts of the administration. The latest post about Meloni came as he also took aim at America’s broader alliance with Europe. Discussing NATO, Trump questioned the value of allies who failed to support U.S. military action against Iran. “We’ve invested trillions of dollars in NATO, and I say that’s fine, but you’d think that they would be very willing to do something to help us, and they really didn’t,” he said. “We didn’t need any help at all, and in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they’d be there, because I’ve long said that we helped them, but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us,” he added. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-rips-female-ally-he-thirsted-after-for-rejecting-him/? ps:What a pathetic little man!!

Trump Hit With Devastating Poll as Republicans Lose Faith As the midterms loom, Republicans don’t need reminding that it’s the economy, stupid. Even more Republicans now think the economy is headed in the wrong direction. An affordability crisis is now in effect, according to 95 percent of Americans, as high gas and grocery prices hammer people’s wallets. The new Harris Poll revealed that just 27 percent of Republicans think the economy is traveling in a positive direction, down from 49 percent in February. In February, just 22 percent of Republicans thought the economy was getting worse, but that number has now shot up 16 points to 38 percent in the latest poll, conducted for The Guardian. Democrats have become further entrenched in their belief that the economy is not moving in the right direction, up to 71 percent from 62 percent in February. Independents, meanwhile, aligned far more closely with Democrats than Republicans, swinging 10 points since February up to 63 percent. The drop in confidence comes after President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, which had massive knock-on effects for the global economy. At the center of the catastrophe is the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran successfully closed. It tied up about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, driving gas prices up toward $5 a gallon at the pump nationwide. It also led to fertilizer shortages, which have and are expected to continue to have knock-on effects for the cost of farming, and ultimately groceries. Meanwhile, 49 percent of Republicans said that the cost-of-living crisis will not be solved by the federal government. Overall, two-thirds of Americans felt the same way. Despite some positive economic signs, such as a strong stock market and a stable labor market, Americans in rural areas said it had become increasingly difficult to find work, the new study found. Some 41 percent of people in rural areas thought job opportunities were disappearing, compared with just 28 percent in urban areas. Meanwhile, the U.S. only added 57,000 jobs in June, half of the 115,000 forecast, according to the latest jobs report. The drop in confidence in the economy—often cited as the single most important factor in deciding elections—comes just months before the midterms. The GOP is clinging to narrow margins in both the House and the Senate, and most predictions suggest that the Democrats are likely to make gains. Republicans are beleaguered, too, by a historically unpopular president in Trump. The 80-year-old has sunk to astonishing lows in his approval ratings. CNN’s poll of polls pitched his mid-June approval at just 37 percent. In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: “With oil and gas prices plummeting following President Trump’s [memorandum of understanding] with Iran, overall inflation is set to fall and real wages are set to rise.” “As trillions in investments continue pouring into American industry and the Administration’s broader agenda of tax cuts and deregulation continues taking effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come,” Desai added. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hit-with-devastating-poll-as-republicans-lose-faith/? ps:Even if his approval ratings are going down, it shouldn't bother the elections, the gerrymandering that has been unleashed will probably offset trumps bad approval ratings!! Besides he's not running!!!

Well that didnt take long, looks like 'Peace' on one side then 'War' burst out again on the other side of the Middle East... "Trump threatens Iran and says truce is over, as Iranian minister warns of 'fearless' response" https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c17y1vnn2qxt

Yes, my guys tended to do that, but then you have a hard time with getting support for any issues. It works but its like changing from Samsung Android phone to Apple IPhone IOS, takes a while to learn the ropes.

"We are loud, we are proud and we know that we are on the right side of history. God is walking with us each step of the way. For more info on the Adventist queer community who is not apologizing for being genuine, contact me at: info@sdakinship.org" Kinship spokesman Loud, proud, unapologetic-- the attitude of homosexuals who should be beating their chests and asking for mercy. If the church at the individual, local church, and administrative level doesn't take action against these people, they won't stop until their goals are achieved. One of those goals is involving SDA youth in alternative sexual expression.

Years ago [1990s], I started working in the West Hollywood gay community as an infusion R.N. At that time, there were a few gay organizations working to draw attention the AIDS problem as well as serve those afflicted. There was AIDS Project Los Angeles [APLA], AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power [ACTUP] Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [GLAAD], and others. These groups included militant, activists as well as more professional public relations types. Some of the methods they devised in those days to draw attention to homosexuals in the world are now being brought into Adventism to normalize homosexuality in the denomination. Kinship is especially active in this endeavor. They are no longer simply a support group. Their agenda has become more militant, openly advocating/promoting homosexuality. In addition to lobbying for SDA youth to be introduced to the gay agenda, a more recent post on Spectrum issued an open challenge to the church and heterosexual community to "do something" about the gay agenda in Adventism: "The Seventh-day Adventist church is what it is only because of the queer, LGBTQIA+ members that helped shape it. We are here. We are queer. We will always be here. The church can try to ignore us, but we comprise more than 10% of the membership. Heterosexual members continue to pump out queer babies… gay, trans, and non-binary. Thank-you. Erton Köhlner should ask to speak with SDA Kinship 2 so he can better understand what he is refusing to deal with. We are not invisible and we will not be silent to make Erton and others more comfortable. We are loud, we are proud and we know that we are on the right side of history. God is walking with us each step of the way. For more info on the Adventist queer community who is not apologizing for being genuine, contact me at: info@sdakinship.org" The SDA church was not shaped by queer members. Church members are not "pumping out" queer, trans, and non-binary babies. In church, we shouldn't be comfortable with men/women who perform unspeakable acts upon one another as long as they remain unrepentant. Charming or not, homosexuality is "unclean." "We are here, We are queer, We will always be here" is a modification of an activist slogan which stated "We are here. We are queer. We are coming for your children." What is going on now in the denomination is right from the gay playbook on normalizing homosexuality in the world. The SDA church has now become a target. The militant homosexual types, campaigning for the normalization of the gay/lesbian agenda should be banned from the congregations. They shouldn't "always be here" if "here" refers to the church.

There was never, in the history of ancient Israel, a question of IF God would save, the only question was "when", when would this happen.