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🌵 Trump allies win big in Arizona President Trump's candidates cruised in two of Arizona's marquee primaries yesterday: Rep. Andy Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chair and fierce Trump ally, won the GOP's nomination for governor by 58 points (73% to 15%) over the more scandal-prone Rep. David Schweikert and will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Former NFL kicker Jay Feely, also backed by Trump, beat back a more right-wing challenger for the competitive 1st Congressional District. Physician and former state Rep. Amish Shah leads the Democratic primary so far. State Senate President Warren Petersen will now face one of the more vigorous Democratic attorneys general who has been challenging the Trump administration in court: Kris Mayes, who won her 2022 race by just 280 votes.

💰 Trump's new tariff playbook Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios The Trump administration could soon fire its next tariff salvo — possibly this week — with new duties expected to emerge from investigations covering roughly 60 trading partners under an expanding mix of legal authorities, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. Why it matters: Just days before a temporary tariff authority is set to expire, the White House is still finding ways to pursue President Trump's tariff agenda despite its legal setbacks. The next escalation would arrive as renewed conflict in the Middle East pushes energy prices higher — an awkward backdrop for a White House seeking to ratchet up tariffs without reigniting inflation. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC to "expect to see some action soon" from an investigation into whether countries are doing enough to block goods made with forced labor. The Financial Times reported that the administration is weighing tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on imports from a slew of nations as soon as this week — a major expansion of Trump's tariff agenda. 🎨 The big picture: After the Supreme Court struck down the president's emergency tariffs earlier this year, the administration replaced many of them with a 10% global levy under Section 122 of the Trade Act — a temporary authority that expires Friday.

🏛️ Charted: Trump's exit rate Data: Partnership for Public Service. (Includes departures of Cabinet department officials nominated during the same administration. Excludes U.S. attorneys, U.S. marshals and ambassadors.) Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios Senior Trump administration officials are leaving office in record numbers 18 months after Inauguration Day — outpacing even the churn from President Trump's first term, according to data from the Partnership for Public Service. 27 Senate-confirmed officials within the Cabinet departments have left their positions, nearly 2 1/2 times the number from Trump 1.0. With departures piling up, Trump has been slow to nominate replacements. He has made fewer Senate-confirmed nominations than any president since Reagan, shifting more posts to acting officials who skip Senate confirmation. More data.

⚖️ Trump doesn't plan to block Tate extradition President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio aren't planning to block the extradition to the U.K. of the Tate brothers, the notorious "manosphere" influencers accused of rape and human trafficking, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: Andrew and Tristan Tate were part of the coalition of hyper-masculine social media voices advocating for Trump when he was reelected in 2024. The brothers have reported connections to two of Trump's sons and have had support from top Trump advisers. Officially and publicly, Trump and his administration have kept the Tates at arm's length because of their sordid reputations. "The U.S. has an extradition treaty with the U.K. and the administration intends to honor it in this case," a senior administration official told Axios. U.S. marshals arrested the Tates in Miami on Saturday after British authorities issued 38 new sex-crime charges against the brothers, bringing the total combined counts against them to 59. 🔎 Behind the scenes: Those who know Rubio's thinking say the secretary, a conservative Catholic who fought as a U.S. senator for stronger human trafficking laws and protections for victims, isn't inclined to help the Tates. "Marco thinks these guys are scum," said one source. "Now if the president overrules him, which I don't think is likely, he's got a problem." A source familiar with Trump's thinking said the president wants nothing to do with the brothers. "The Tates want to pretend they were responsible for the president's victory [in 2024], but they weren't part of our strategy and the president doesn't know them," a former Trump campaign adviser said.

💪 AI giants flex in Washington 👀 What we're watching: Axios has learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will meet with lawmakers and the White House next week to discuss the company's upcoming model, GPT-6, which unleashes huge batches of AI agents to work together persistently and relentlessly on complex tasks. This will test President Trump's willingness to slow advanced models with Chinese competition rising. Go deeper. Anthropic plans to spend at least $40 million on midterms, committing another $20 million this morning to Public First Action, which supports candidates across the spectrum who support AI safeguards, Axios' Maria Curi reports. Go deeper: OpenAI and Anthropic unite against open models.

Exclusive: Jensen defends Chinese AI Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes America has nothing to fear from China's open-source AI models — and everything to fear from the growing campaign to ban them. "These Chinese models are excellent," Huang told me yesterday in an exclusive interview for our "Behind the Curtain" video series. "Open-source models that are excellent should be used." Why it matters: The world's top AI chipmaker says American companies should "absolutely" be allowed to use Chinese models — a direct challenge to Trump officials and the U.S. labs lobbying Washington to shut them out. Among them are Nvidia's own customers, OpenAI and Anthropic, which have accused Chinese rivals of siphoning capabilities from their models and warned that Beijing's open-source surge threatens America's AI lead. Huang rejected the idea that OpenAI and Anthropic should fear open models, arguing they expand the market by giving more people a first taste of AI, while many users will still pay for the convenience, reliability and stronger performance of closed services. "There's no scenario where China runs U.S. companies off the road," he told us. "Zero possibility." Huang sat down with me in Fort Worth, Texas, at the opening of a new phase of an advanced manufacturing plant where Taiwan-based Wistron makes AI infrastructure for Nvidia, showing the U.S. is capable of some of the world's most sophisticated manufacturing. 🖼️ The big picture: The release of Kimi K3 by Beijing-based Moonshot AI has triggered the most intense bout of AI panic since DeepSeek rattled financial markets in January 2025. Kimi combines three qualities rarely seen together: near-frontier performance, dramatically lower prices and open weights that developers will soon be able to download and customize. That combination helped fuel a sell-off of Nvidia and other chip stocks, reviving fears that cheaper, more efficient models could undercut the case for the industry's massive AI infrastructure buildout. Zoom in: Huang says Wall Street and Washington have the Kimi shock exactly backward. "The market misunderstood the impact of DeepSeek the first time," he told Axios, adding that Wall Street has "misunderstood the impact of Kimi again this time." His argument is simple: Cheaper, open models will bring AI to more people and businesses, increasing demand for the chips, data centers and computing power Nvidia sells. "Free AI should be great for hardware," Huang said. "Free AI should be great for chips. Free AI should be great for data centers." 🔭 Zoom out: When it comes to policy, Huang believes restricting open models in the name of national security could leave America more vulnerable. He rejected the "misconception" that downloaded Chinese models create a "backdoor" to Beijing, arguing that companies can customize them and control their access inside secure "sandboxes." Huang suggested openness makes AI more secure, not less, because outside researchers can inspect the models, expose weaknesses and build defenses. "If everything just becomes one single model, one single point of attack, one single source of failure, I think the world is much, much more vulnerable," he said. Huang applied the same logic to American models, and called on Anthropic to make its restricted cyber model, Claude Mythos, available to "everyone" rather than limiting access. Huang argued that companies should harden powerful models through testing and rapid fixes rather than restricting access from the outset. "Mythos should be available as a service," he said. "Remember: Just because Mythos is not available, open models are available anyhow. So I think: Let Anthropic run." "Holding Anthropic back is not in the benefit of the United States," he said. 🔬 Between the lines: Huang sees the AI race itself very differently from Washington, where some Trump advisers have cast China's gains as a five-alarm threat to U.S. dominance. He dismissed the notion that it's "a race with an endpoint": "We're going to continue to use AI forever. The United States is going to be here for a long time. China's going to be here for a long time." 🍿 Watch the first clip.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 22 2003 Jessica Lynch gets hero’s welcome U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 21st Century 2003 Qusay and Uday Hussein killed Arts & Entertainment 2005 “March of the Penguins” released widely in the U.S. Civil War 1864 Battle of Atlanta Cold War 1987 Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles Crime 1991 Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is caught 1934 John Dillinger gunned down European History 2013 Prince George, first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, is born Exploration 1933 Wiley Post flies solo around the world Inventions & Science 1894 First-ever automobile race runs from Paris to Rouen U.S. Presidents 1862 Lincoln tells his cabinet about Emancipation Proclamation World War I 1916 Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco World War II 1942 Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in the United States? There were 79,384 overdose deaths in 2024. That means that for every 100,000 people living in the US, 23 died of a drug overdose. This is the fifth highest the drug overdose death rate has been since data from 1999 became available. https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-drug-overdose-deaths-happen-every-year-in-the-us/country/united-states/? What is the federal government's budget deficit? The federal government’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget deficit is about $1.37 trillion as of June. A budget deficit occurs when the federal government spends more money than it brings in through taxes, customs duties, the sale of assets, and other revenues. When the government has a deficit, it borrows money by selling bonds and other securities in order to pay for it, adding to the national debt. A budget surplus, on the other hand, occurs when the government brings in more money than it spends. https://usafacts.org/answers/what-is-the-federal-governments-budget-deficit-or-surplus/country/united-states/? One last fact The nation’s neighbors are also its biggest trading partners. In 2025, imports and exports with Mexico totaled $971 billion. These primarily included capital goods, such as machinery, equipment, and other production process tools. Imports and exports with Canada, primarily industrial supplies and materials such as oil, chemicals, and plastics used in production processes, totaled $879.9 billion. While the nation’s trade deficit with Canada shrank last year (down $12.1 billion from the year prior), it grew with Mexico (up $22.3 billion).

🛶 Pic to go! Photo: Rich Gaffin A panoramic view of Diablo Lake in the mountains of North Cascades National Park in Washington state, captured by reader Rich Gaffin of Burke, Va. Rich writes: "The great parks all have their unique grandeur and beauty. That said, I've been to 50 parks so far, and there are a few lesser known ones that really stunned me. Among these is North Cascades."

A tech innovator and an old guard general are the focus of Ukraine's political crisis One is a tech-savvy drone innovator with no military experience who became Ukraine’s youngest defense minister six months ago and was credited with contributing to successes in defending against Russia's 4-year-old invasion. Read More.

Turkish deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan The deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition announced plans on Tuesday to create a new political party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Read More. The Bosphorus: A waterway of work and life in Istanbul, in photos As the sun sets over Istanbul, commuters hurry aboard ferries crossing the Bosphorus while many others are just beginning their workday along the busy waterway that divides Europe and Asia. Read More.

Senate panel advances Jay Clayton's nomination to lead US intelligence agencies The Senate Intelligence Committee has advanced the nomination of Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, along party lines. Read More.

⚽️ 1 sports thing: Longest "goooooooool" calls Data: Telemundo. Chart: The Athletic. Used with kind permission Spain's decisive extra-time goal against Argentina on Sunday spurred one of Telemundo's longest "gooooooooool" calls of the World Cup, The Athletic reports. It lasted 44 seconds, counting all three bursts. 🇨🇼 The longest overall: 52 seconds, after Curaçao — the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup — scored a tying goal against Germany early in the tournament. Telemundo announcer Andrés Cantor tells The Athletic: "It was Curaçao's first-ever World Cup goal, and I immediately understood what that meant." Hear the calls (Athletic gift link).

⛔️ The Trump administration is halting more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota until they take more steps to investigate questionable claims, federal officials said today. Go deeper. 🏅 The White House Correspondents' Association is giving awards to Secret Service Police Officer Victor Gonzales and the staff of the Washington Hilton for "exceptional service" after a gunman tried to storm its annual dinner in April. Go deeper. Appeals court reverses decision that freed pro-Palestinian Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi A federal appeals panel has reversed a lower court decision ordering the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, opening the door to the re-arrest of a student protest organizer whom the Trump administration has spent more than a year trying to deport. Read More. Appeals court upholds White House adviser Peter Navarro's contempt of Congress convictions A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld White House adviser Peter Navarro's convictions for defying a subpoena for records from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters. Read More.

⚡️ Catch me up Graphic: National Hurricane Center 🌊 Tropical storm warnings and watches are in effect from parts of Florida to Louisiana as Tropical Storm Bertha skirts the Gulf Coast this week. More from Axios' Carlie Kollath Wells.

🍏 Apple eyes new upgrade program Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Apple is planning to launch a new leasing program for iPhones and other gadgets, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. 📱 Apple Upgrade will offer 24- to 36-month leases, potentially with lower payments than current options. Users can choose to pay off their devices early, or return them at the end of the term. Apple is working with buy-now, pay-later platform Klarna on the service, which comes after price hikes on many Apple products amid tariffs and the AI-fueled computer-memory crisis. Gift link.

Trump says US-Lebanon flights can resume, pledges help for that country after meeting its president WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pledged to help Lebanon “a lot” during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country’s leader, Joseph Aoun, who came to push for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-president-hezbollah-trump-aoun-israel-e0364d0334c2f4d888d2b3970c9fe5b1? MAGA chiefs gather to plot midterms Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios President Trump's top political advisers are meeting this afternoon to review polling, messaging and strategy ahead of the midterms, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. The meeting is the second in what is becoming a series of regular conclaves to coordinate the GOP, its candidates and Trump's political operation. Trump won't be there. But several top MAGA shot-callers will be present, including... Tony Fabrizio, Trump's longtime top pollster. James Blair, Trump's hands-on political operations chief in charge of executing a midterm plan. Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff and Trump's longest-serving political adviser. Cabinet officials (except Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's in Manila on official business). 💰 The big picture: Trump's super PAC and the Republican National Committee are sitting on about $530 million, and now his team is figuring out how, when and where to deploy it. That doesn't include what insiders say is hundreds of millions of dollars more in Trump's dark-money political nonprofit, Securing American Greatness. 📉 Republicans acknowledge that it'll be tough to keep the House as Trump's poll numbers bottom out amid rising gas prices and the war in Iran. But Trump operatives argue that voters are wary of Democrats' progressive overreach — and they think this election will be about who Americans hate more, not who they love. 🪂 Yes, but: Trump is fighting political gravity. Polls show that voters believe the economy is in lousy shape — and that they're blaming Trump. A Trump operative involved in today's meeting tells Axios: "The Trump tax cuts have saved people real money, and the president is keeping Americans safe. ... We have the manpower, the message and the money to make that clear." Go deeper.

French lawmakers approve a sweeping social media ban for children under 15 PARIS (AP) — France banned children under 15 from using social media on Tuesday, becoming the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms as concerns grow worldwide over the harmful effects of digital content on kids. https://apnews.com/article/france-social-media-ban-macron-94abd981ccea85138af314cfb1ea62cf?

Judge Gives Blunt Warning to Trump Goons in Reflecting Pool ‘Vandal’ Case The president is caught between fixing the mess he’s made and punishing the people he blamed instead. A D.C. judge has lambasted Donald Trump’s Justice Department goons over their efforts to blame someone else for the mess his administration has made of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Judge Todd E. Edelman, an Obama appointee, warned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, 75, on Monday that the Trump administration is “operating at its own peril” in the way it has handled its case against David Hearn, 67, a former Olympic canoeist. Trump, 80, and Pirro have accused Hearn of vandalizing the D.C. landmark after the president’s botched $16 million attempt to turn its waters “American flag blue” succeeded only in transforming the pool into a slimy green monstrosity. The renovation deal went in part to a Trump ally with a criminal history and no prior record of federal contracting work. “The Reflecting Pool, so badly damaged by Deranged Vandals, has been emptied as the massive slash gets repaired,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday. “The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX,” he added—presumably referring to Hearn rather than the algal film that has covered the pool in recent weeks. Hearn’s attorneys filed a motion on Thursday to have the case against him thrown out, arguing that Pirro had failed to preserve the government’s key evidence against him. The DOJ accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping up parts of the pool lining, which they claim led to the runaway algal bloom. “Despite the importance of the pool liner to the case, in the brief period since June 19, 2026, the same government that presented and returned the indictment against Mr. Hearn has fenced off the scene, begun draining the pool yet again, and publicly announced its intention to repair the very liner whose condition is at issue,” they wrote. Hearn, who competed for the United States in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of destruction of property. He told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours after touching a piece of the lining of the pool that had detached “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.” “The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” he told the network. The Washington Post reports that Judge Edelman denied Hearn’s attorneys’ motion to have the case dismissed outright but asked prosecutors to account for the current status of work at the site. They could not, telling the court that they were unsure whether the evidence against Hearn had been preserved. Edelman, who set a trial date for September 28, also asked why the Trump administration could not “maintain the status quo” for the rest of the week to avoid access to evidence becoming an “issue at this trial,” according to News From the States. The judge also urged the “government to not do anything further” on the pool before denying Hearn’s motion to dismiss the case, the outlet reports. Edelman called the motion “entirely premature” but did not prohibit Hearn’s attorneys from filing another motion to dismiss going forward. Edelman conceded that the prosecutors, “personally, are not in control” of renovations at the Reflecting Pool. He added that “there may well not be any prejudice,” meaning the case could still go ahead, even as he warned that the government was endangering its chances of a successful prosecution. The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-gives-blunt-warning-to-trump-doj-goon-jeanine-pirro-in-reflecting-pool-vandal-case/?

🏗️ The Center for Climate Integrity released a new report this month detailing how the oil and gas industry colluded to promote the lie of natural gas as a clean alternative to oil, “despite knowing that it is a significant source of air pollution and a major contributor to climate change.”

Gusher. The Trump administration’s escalation of the war with Iran once again has Americans paying more at the pump, leading to a massive windfall for oil companies — even as the industry slashes jobs and reaps the benefits of reduced wartime regulations. After briefly dropping in June, the price of a gallon of gas hit $4 this week, up from $3.14 one year ago, as affordability becomes a major issue in the 2026 midterm elections. The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies reportedly raked in more than $30 million in excess profits every hour when gas prices spiked at the start of the war. And in the coming weeks, U.S.-based oil firms are expected to report their best quarterly profits in years. 📉 Still, despite increased production, employment in the oil and gas industry has fallen sharply, with Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Imperial Oil collectively shedding tens of thousands of jobs. In 2016, U.S. oil and gas extraction jobs employed 187,300 people. By June of 2026, that number had fallen to 114,500. 🫠 Under pressure from the U.S., the European Union will waive penalties for oil and gas companies that violate methane emissions laws for the next three years. The European Commission said the fee waivers are necessary to “avoid supply disruptions” caused by “the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.”

👋 Good morning! I miss the World Cup. Welcome to the club: Nolan Arenado got his 2,000th career hit on Monday, joining Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve, Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado as the only active players to reach that milestone. In today's edition: Grass vs. turf, Sox win again, Guardians tee off on Ryan, study on Gen Z sports fans, golf's global champions, time is a flat circle, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES ⚾️ 14 in a row: The Red Sox rallied for a 6-5 win over the Orioles on Monday for their 14th straight victory, the second-longest winning streak in franchise history. With another win tonight, they'll match their longest ever, set in 1946. 🎓 Manuel is stepping down: Michigan AD Warde Manuel will step down at the end of the year after being implicated in an internal investigation into the saga surrounding head football coach Sherrone Moore's firing. Don't expect Manuel's exit, or Michigan's nonsense statement explaining it, to fix the school's culture problem. 🏀 Miles' big night: The WNBA-best Lynx (21-6) won their sixth straight game on Monday behind the best game of Olivia Miles' young career. The ROY frontrunner put up 32 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, joining Candace Parker (2008) as the only rookies with those numbers in a game. 🌽 Is this heaven? Iowa and Kansas will face off in an exhibition this fall at Field of Dreams ballpark in Dyersville, Iowa, becoming the first Division I college baseball teams to play at the field originally constructed for the iconic 1989 film. ⚾️ Speaking of which: MLB's third Field of Dreams Game is fast approaching, with the Phillies and Twins playing there on Aug. 13 in throwback uniforms they unveiled on Monday.   🏈 PITCH PERFECT NATURAL GRASS IN THE NFL: #WORTHTHECOST? (Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images) By the time you've read this, there's a chance that the immaculate pitch at MetLife Stadium has already met its end, displaced for its artificial-turf replacement. The players who will take to that field in the coming months are the ones most upset about it. #WorthTheCost: On Saturday, NFL players voiced their displeasure with the temporary nature of the natural grass at some World Cup host venues. Their #WorthTheCost movement reignites a long-raging debate about the artificial turf that carpets half of the league's stadiums. 92% of NFL players prefer natural grass, and the installation of natural grass for the World Cup presented a high-profile opportunity to highlight what they view as an inconsistency in ownership's position. The players' preference stems primarily from injury concerns, with the NFLPA insistent that artificial turf causes a higher incidence of non-contact lower-extremity injuries. What does the data say? Does artificial turf actually increase the incidence of injuries? It depends who you ask. Pre-2020, the data supported the notion that players were worse off on the fake stuff. Data collected between 2012 and 2018 showed a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on artificial turf. By the turn of the decade, the numbers started to shift. The gap in incidence narrowed toward near-equality in 2021 — a result the NFLPA viewed as an anomaly — before reverting to prior norms in 2022. Worth noting: Studies differ in their conclusions. Some have found a higher incidence of injuries on turf and a higher likelihood of those injuries being season-ending. Others contend that the differences in injury rates are not statistically significant. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Follow the money: Why are owners reticent to install natural grass and placate their valued employees? Money, of course: Turf offers revenue upside and cost savings that grass can't replicate. Generally, venues can host a greater volume of special events (think: concerts) on artificial turf than on grass, which requires a longer post-event recovery period. Fewer events means less revenue. And owners of the artificially-turfed stadiums have busy calendars they'd rather not pare down. The grass isn't greener: Solutions at some of the world's most advanced soccer facilities raise as many questions as they do answers. Both Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Real Madrid's renovated Bernabéu feature retractable natural-grass pitches stitched with synthetic fibers. Beneath Tottenham's retractable pitch lies an artificial playing surface used for NFL games and special events. The club generated £32 million ($43M) in revenue from other events in 2024-25. Despite the cutting-edge nature of the construction, both Madrid and Tottenham are exploring whether the retractable pitches — and the shallower soil they use — are causing a concerning uptick in injuries. Bottom line: Though NFL players are adamant that their safety is worth the financial trade-off, NFL owners presiding over turf are unlikely to concede that it meaningfully heightens risk, particularly given the dollars at stake. Want a clue about the strength of their convictions? Look no further than the immediate removal of the World Cup's natural grass.   ⚾️ HOMER HAPPY JOE RYAN'S HISTORICALLY BAD NIGHT (Jason Miller/Getty Images) Twins righty Joe Ryan, a two-time All-Star who is unquestionably one of the best pitchers in the American League, had himself a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night on Monday in Cleveland. Launch pad: Ryan allowed six home runs in Minnesota's 13-4 loss, tied for the most by any pitcher in a single game in MLB history. That's historic any way you slice it; it was also incredibly unlikely. Ryan, an All-Star both this season and last, entered the game with a 2.85 ERA and just 10 HR allowed through his first 20 starts. He left it with a 3.38 ERA and — checks math — 16 HR allowed. The Guardians, meanwhile, entered the game with the third-fewest homers in the majors before teeing off on Ryan. And two of their six long balls were the first two of rookie outfielder Petey Halpin's career after he'd come up empty in his first 39 MLB games. Achilles' heel? Ryan, a six-year veteran with a sterling 3.65 lifetime ERA, does have an odd penchant for such blowups. Indeed, this was his third career game allowing 5+ HR, the most of any pitcher in MLB history. Ball don't lie: As if Ryan's outing weren't strange enough already, let's add one more wrinkle. On June 30, his ERA ballooned to 3.36 after a clunker in which he allowed 6 ER in a single inning following a botched grounder. It was originally ruled a hit, but a week later was changed to an error, bringing his ERA back down to 2.85. On Monday, he gave it all back. Ball. Don't. Lie.   📈 NEW STUDY HOW GEN Z ENGAGES WITH SPORTS (Chart: Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports; Data: Acceleration Community of Companies/USC Annenberg School) Sports fandom comes in many different shapes and sizes, and while the prevailing narrative regarding Gen Z has long been one of a cohort that seemingly lacks interest in sports, recent findings suggest they're merely engaging in their own unique way. New report: The latest study from Acceleration Community of Companies, in collaboration with USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, was published last week, exactly two years before the Opening Ceremony of the LA28 Olympics. Findings were drawn after surveying 2,154 Gen Z adults (currently aged 18-29) and conducting focus groups. The key takeaway: Sports themselves are not the main draw for this generation, with nearly half (49%) of Gen Z fans saying they've become interested in a new sport or athlete via some sort of ancillary content like fashion, relationships, scandals or TV shows (chart above). If the inherent love of the game is the front door, think of this more like the side door. Examples include one respondent who's now "obsessed" with F1 after seeing photos of Charles Leclerc and his wife, who were "so cute." Or another who became a Dodgers fan because the Twitch streamer they watch always has the game playing during his streams. The same is true of live sporting events, which nearly three-quarters (78%) of Gen Z fans say they have attended or would attend primarily for the surrounding experience, such as concerts, brand activations and fan festivals. Big picture: Old-school fandom does still exist, with 26% of Gen Z identifying as die-hards. But 48% fall in the middle ground (following athletes, trends or highlights more than specific teams) and 25% would rather follow an athlete's personal story than watch them compete. The real kicker? Just 8% stay off their phones while watching sports.   ⛳️ MAJOR SEASON GOLF'S GLOBAL CHAMPIONS Ryan Fox and his new best friend, the Claret Jug. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images) For just the second time in men's golf history, dating back to the inaugural Masters in 1934, the year's four major winners all hail from different countries. 2026: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (Masters), England's Aaron Rai (PGA Championship), USA's Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open), New Zealand's Ryan Fox (The Open) 2010: USA's Phil Mickelson (Masters), Germany's Martin Kaymer (PGA Championship), Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell (U.S. Open), South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen (The Open) Sorry, Uncle Sam: This was the first year since 2014 with fewer than two American major champions, which is particularly shocking considering how well the best Americans performed. 10 of the 14 golfers who made all four major cuts this year are American, including four of the five whose cumulative score to par in those events was better than -10. Of those five, only McIlroy (-11) won this year, while Americans Scottie Scheffler* (-20), Sam Burns (-20), Xander Schauffele (-13) and Cameron Young (-11) combined for 10 top-10 finishes, but no wins. For the sake of comparison, the lone American who did win this year — Clark — missed the cut at the PGA and Open Championships, and finished T21 at the Masters. Sometimes, you just get hot. *Scottie's ridiculous: Scheffler has finished inside the top-five in more than half (11) of the 20 majors he's competed in since 2022, and has nearly as many wins (4) as finishes outside the top-10 (5) in that time.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: TUESDAY, JULY 21 (Duane Burleson/Getty Images) ⚾️ Dodgers at Phillies The battle of NL contenders continues tonight in Philadelphia (6:40pm ET, TBS) after the Phillies won Monday's series-opening slugfest, 10-7. One-two punch: Zack Wheeler, who along with last night's starter Cristopher Sánchez forms the best one-two punch in the league, takes the mound tonight for Philly. Though Wheeler (somehow) wasn't an All-Star, he's in the midst of another Cy Young worthy campaign, going 10-1 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 4.7 WAR — second only to Sánchez (5.5) among all pitchers. More to watch: 🚴 Tour de France: Stage 16 (7am, Peacock) … The second time trial of this year's Tour travels 16 miles from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains along the Swiss border. 🏀 The Basketball Tournament: Round 1 (7pm, FS1) … The action continues in the $2 million tournament. Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   👟 MILESTONE TRACK TRIVIA (Norman Potter/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Josh Kerr's record-breaking mile (3:42.66) over the weekend came 72 years after the once-unthinkable four-minute mile was first broken by the man pictured above. Question: What is that man's name? Hint: RB. Answer at the bottom.   🇪🇸 VAMOS! TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE (Giphy) In 2010, Spain won the World Cup and Rafael Nadal became the youngest man in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam. In 2026, Spain won the World Cup and Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam. Vamos!   Trivia answer: Roger Bannister

Epstein abuse Roza Gilles was an 18-year-old model when Jeffrey Epstein abused her for the first time — while he was serving jail time. Her story — which she is publicly sharing in full for the first time with CNN — offers a vivid window into the unusual parameters of Epstein’s controversial 2008 Florida plea deal for soliciting prostitution from a minor that authorized him to spend much of his sentence outside of jail. That arrangement allowed Epstein to continue abusing young women like Gilles even as he was serving his 13-month sentence. Read more. WATCH: Survivor details Epstein abuse that began during his jail time

Florida Democratic Party votes to oppose property tax amendment The Florida Democratic Party has voted to formally oppose Amendment 3, the measure designed to expand the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes and set the state on a path towards eliminating those taxes. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/20/florida-democratic-party-votes-to-oppose-property-tax-amendment/? Florida disaster fund spent more on immigration than all 2025 missions combined The DeSantis administration spent nearly two-thirds of Florida’s emergency fund last fiscal year on fighting illegal immigration, dwarfing spending for severe weather, international rescues, and other emergency missions for which the fund was created. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/20/florida-disaster-fund-spent-more-on-immigration-than-all-2025-missions-combined/?