GIVE YOUR BRAIN A WORKOUT WITH EXTRA PUZZLES IN LIFE

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about Meta’s new social media app. In Money “I’m not nasty; I'm brutally honest.” In Life Rodman

USA TODAY
THE NATION'S NEWS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023 | 1A
ORLANDO RAMIREZ/
She made history as
youngest player drafted
in National Women’s
Soccer League. She has
sights set on World Cup
title. In Sports

USA TODAY SPORTS

As family WAR IN UKRAINE

court fails, Crucial Crimean bridge

too many
kids die blown up a second time
Warning signs often
missed in custody cases
Ken Alltucker
USA TODAY

In 2021, Rashawd Hines knew he

had to act when his son cried each time
before returning to his mother’s house.
So the Lakeland, Florida, man wrote
a letter to a Polk County clerk’s office in
Florida requesting a family court hear-
ing to gain full custody of Jayden, just
2. In the letter, Hines wrote he feared
for the safety of his boy, but the court
did not immediately act on his request.
Less than two months later, Jayden
suffered blunt-force trauma while un-
der the care of his mother’s boyfriend.
He had bruises all over his body, cuts
and bruises to his liver, brain bleeding
caused by a head injury and a human
bite mark on his forearm, according to
the medical examiner’s autopsy.
The boyfriend, Alegray Damiah
Jones, was charged with first-degree
murder and aggravated child abuse in
the boy’s April 2021 death. Jones
pleaded not guilty, and the case is
pending in Polk County Circuit Court.
An attorney representing Jones did
not return requests for comment from
USA TODAY.

The Kerch Strait Bridge connects the Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia and is a lifeline for the Russian military in
southern Ukraine. Russia says Ukrainian special forces using drones attacked the 12-mile bridge. OSTOROZHNO NOVOSTI VIA AP

Russian security official urges ‘inhumane steps’ to retaliate

Rashawd Hines has pushed for
stricter child protections after
the death of his son, Jayden.
PROVIDED BY RASHAWD HINES
Nearly every six days in the U.S., a
child is killed amid a custody dispute,
family court lapse, or other mishaps.
Each death is a tragedy. Collectively,
these cases reveal a national crisis in
the family court system that regularly
misses warning signs and exposes too
many kids to abuse and death, advo-
cates say.
The San Rafael, California-based
nonprofit Center for Judicial Excel-
lence’s report released Monday found
944 children were killed by a divorcing
or separating parent or another paren-
tal figure since 2008. Family courts in-
See FAMILY COURT, Page 2A
INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL EDITION
This is a special edition of USA TODAY designed and
edited for readers around the world. Additonal
content and late-breaking news and sports scores
can always be found at usatoday.com.
¡¿H¢\ApB-740337¿+(c)o
John Bacon and Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY
Authorities in Moscow blamed Uk-
raine for an apparent attack Monday
on a key bridge that connects the occu-
pied Crimean Peninsula with southern
Russia and has become a symbol of
President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
It is the second time in less than a
year that the 12-mile bridge across the
Kerch Strait that connects the Black
Sea and the Sea of Azov has been
attacked. Russia’s Investigative Com-
mittee described the strike as a “terror-
ist attack” and said it was carried out
by Ukrainian special forces using na-
val drones. Two people were reported
killed in the explosion.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for
Ukraine’s military intelligence, de-
ELECTIONS 2024
In diverse GOP field, Scott walks a fine line
Phillip M. Bailey
USA TODAY
Sandra Green says she is not aware
of ever having been called any of the
slurs associated with Black voters who
cast their ballots for Republicans.
The 54-year-old Texan, a life insur-
ance representative, said her faith and
clined to comment on Monday’s ex-
plosion. But, he said, “the peninsula is
used by the Russians as a large logistical
hub for moving forces and assets deep
into the territory of Ukraine. Of course,
any logistical problems are additional
complications for the occupiers.”
The blast may have been a “planned
provocation” by Russia, Ukraine South-
ern Operational Command spokesper-
son Natalia Humeniuk said.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman
of Russia’s Security Council, urged the
Kremlin to retaliate with “targeted and
quite inhumane steps” against those in-
volved in the attack.
“Their own homes and the houses of
their relatives should be blown up,”
Medvedev said, adding that Russian
authorities must “search for and wipe
out their accomplices.”
Also Monday:
h A deal brokered by the United
Nations and Turkey that allows Ukraine
to export crucial grains and other food-
stuffs via its Black Sea ports was set to
expire after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said Russia was canceling the
agreement because his country was not
being allowed to export its food and fer-
tilizers. The West denies claims Russian
shipments were being held up.
h Hundreds of patients and staff
were evacuated from a Kyiv hospital
after reports that bombs had been
planted at the facility.
h The Russian Defense Ministry has
begun removing commanders from
some of the military’s most effective
units, probably because of insubordina-
tion, the Washington-based think tank
Institute for the Study of War reported.
early stages of the campaign.
“What I like about Tim Scott is that he
can engage people and articulate solu-
tions that don’t necessarily pit people
against each other,” Green said.
Scott is unwavering in his optimism
that race relations in America have
improved in comparison with years past
as he searches for an opening in the

values have always leaned conserva-
tive, even when she didn’t vote Repub-
lican during the Clinton administra-
tion. But she is keenly aware of how
Black Republican voters and elected
officials are sharply criticized as being
subservient to white people.
“I think it’s a power play, and those
words are used to keep Black people in
line or in check, but to me it’s kind of
demonic,” she said.
©COPYRIGHT 2023 USA TODAY Green said that as she begins to pay
a division of Gannett Co., Inc.
closer attention to the 2024 presiden-
“Minority voters are trending toward
the Republican Party,” South Carolina
Sen. Tim Scott says. “That’s great news.”
CHARLES KRUPA/AP
tial contest, she is increasingly im-
pressed with South Carolina Republican
Sen. Tim Scott, who is leaning into
debates about race in America in the
wide array of Republican candidates for
president.
At a campaign stop in Iowa in May, he
accused Democrats of weaponizing
race-related issues “not for progress, for
power.”
The South Carolina lawmaker jumps
at opportunities to contrast his world-
view with that of Democrats. He jousted
with the liberal hosts on “The View,”
who criticized him for not standing up to
See GOP, Page 3A
2A ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY
Wildfires trigger more air quality warnings
Isabelle Butera, John Bacon
and Doyle Rice
USA TODAY
Unrelenting smoke drifting down
from nearly 1,000 Canadian wildfires
triggered air quality alerts over vast sec-
tions of the U.S. and was expected to
last through Tuesday, forecasters
warned Monday.
The National Weather Service said
Canadian wildfire smoke will “remain in
the picture” through Tuesday as winds
sweeping down from the Canadian Prai-
ries continue to funnel more smoke into
the northern High Plains, the Midwest,
Great Lakes, central Tennessee, North
Carolina and into the Northeast.
“Smoke concentrations should di-
minish over parts of the heartland on
Tuesday but may still cause poor air
quality along the East Coast,” weather
service meteorologist Peter Mullinax
wrote.
In Cleveland, the Air Quality Index
reached 159 early Monday, putting the
city’s air solidly in the unhealthy red
zone. Chicago at 154 and Pittsburgh at
151 were not much better, and Indian-
apolis was at an unhealthy 143 .
More than 80 million Americans
facing heat alerts
The smoke warning comes as more
than 80 million Americans faced heat-
Family court
Continued from Page 1A
volved in these cases often miss signs of
trouble and put children in harm’s way
through decisions that prioritize paren-
tal visitation even in cases where there
are signs of abuse, advocates say.
The nonprofit said its review of fam-
ily court actions found 137 deaths were
preventable homicides. In these cases,
the Center for Judicial Excellence found
evidence that a protective parent
sought to restrict an abusive parent’s
access to the underage victims, or that
there were risk factors that should have
been detected by a trained judge or child
advocate.
Other deaths involved “system fail-
ures,” the center said, such as law en-
forcement or child protective services
failing to enforce a court order to pre-
vent an abusive parent from accessing a
child.
“There is a crisis in the family court
system that is putting children in dan-
ger,” said Kathleen Russell, executive di-
rector of the Center for Judicial Excel-
lence. “When a child is murdered, the
system failed. It’s irrefutable evidence
that something went wrong.”
Prioritize children’s safety
Russell’s organization researched
and compiled a list of child homicides
from news reports and databases such
as the National Gun Violence Archive.
No government agency tracks this infor-
mation, so Russell’s organization com-
piled the tragic cases and will share
findings with federal and state lawmak-
ers.
Deaths vary by year. The report
found child deaths range from a low of
24 in 2008 to a high of 83 in 2011. There
were 64 deaths in 2022, the most since
77 kids were killed in 2016. The Center
for Judicial Excellence reported 30
deaths this year through the end of
June.
Gun violence was the leading cause
of death for these kids, accounting for
445 homicides, followed by blunt force,
stabbing, strangulation/asphyxiation
and drowning. Fathers were accused in
71% of cases, mothers in 17% of cases
while others were implicated in 12% of
cases.
The center said the report likely does
not capture all U.S. child deaths caused
by parents or parental figures because
cases were primarily detected through
news reports, independent database
checks and interviews with parents
willing to share their stories. The center
also said it does not have the resources
to check the court records of all 944
cases in the nonprofit’s database. As a
result, the center warned “there are like-
ly many more preventable tragedies”
The report also highlights problems
and recommends changes to family
courts to prevent such tragedies from
occurring.
Some suggested fixes:
h Custody and visitation decisions
should prioritize children’s safety over
shared parenting.
h Train judges and family court per-
sonnel to recognize signs of abuse, ne-
Smoke from two brush fires burning
west of the San Gorgonio Pass obscure
the evening sun in Palm Springs, Calif.,
on Friday. TAYA GRAY/ USA TODAY NETWORK
related weather alerts Monday morn-
ing. Triple-digit temperatures were set
to impact residents from Texas to Cali-
fornia, the weather service said.
Heat advisories, watches and warn-
ings have impacted nearly 100 million
people, or almost a third of Americans,
over the past 30 days as summer tem-
peratures kick in across the country.
Temperatures in some desert areas
were predicted to soar past 120 degrees
during the day and remain in the 90s
overnight. This week, forecast temper-
atures in the Southwest range up to 100-
glect, or otherwise dangerous situa-
tions.
h Use evidence-based tools to iden-
tify risk and potentially lethal situa-
tions.
h Provide free legal counsel for low-
income parents who are involved in cus-
tody proceedings.
h Better coordinate and communi-
cate risk across agencies and organiza-
tions such as courts and child protec-
tion services with professionals such as
school staff or health care workers who
must report abuse.
Last month, in a report to the United
Nations Human Rights Counsel, an offi-
cial warned family courts tend to dis-
miss histories of domestic violence and
abuse when deciding custody cases.
Reem Alsalem, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on violence against women,
said courts tend to default to shared
custody, a decision that could expose
children to “lasting harm.”
Judicial experts concede there’s
room for improvement in the family
court system. David B. Katz, a Superior
Court judge in New Jersey, is president
of the National Council of Juvenile and
Family Court Judges. He said judges
and court workers should be trained on
how to detect “red flags” that might in-
dicate signs of domestic violence or
abuse.
He said it’s important for judges and
court workers to collect good informa-
tion from parents or others involved in
custody disputes. That can be challeng-
ing when a person is unfamiliar with a
court’s procedures or jargon and does
not have the resources to hire an attor-
ney. A common example, Katz said, is a
parent whose current or former partner
violates a restraining order, but the par-
ent does not share that information
with a judge because they don’t think
it’s relevant.
Still, he said it’s important for deci-
sion-makers to learn from cases when
children or harmed or killed. Many
states have formed fatality or near-fa-
tality review boards to examine such
cases.
“You have to look at these cases,”
Katz said. “You have to be willing to have
constructive, hard conversations.
That’s how we learn.”
‘I remember how cold his hair felt’
For mothers like Hera McLeod, tragic
circumstances have fostered a resolve
to change laws to better protect kids in
abusive situations. She pushed for 2022
Maryland legislation that requires new
judges and magistrates presiding over
abuse cases to complete 20 hours of
child abuse and domestic violence
training.
McLeod become an activist after her
15-month-old son Prince was killed by
his father more than a decade ago. In
2017, Joaquin Shadow Rams was con-
victed of capital murder and sentenced
to life in prison. A judge concluded
Rams planned to kill his son when he
took out more than $500,000 in life in-
surance policies.
McLeod had split from her ex-fiancée
after troubling signs emerged. But a
family court judge granted Rams unsu-
pervised visits to Prince over McLeod’s
objections.
110 degrees, even reaching 115 in parts of
California, Nevada and Arizona.
“Record-breaking heat is expected
each day through mid-week in the Four
Corners states (Arizona, Utah, Colora-
do, and New Mexico) from Texas to the
Lower Mississippi Valley, and South
Florida,” Mullinax wrote. “Daytime
highs will routinely reside in the triple
digits in the Desert Southwest and deep
in the heart of Texas.”
Heat advisories, excessive heat
warnings and excessive heat watches
were in place in California, Nevada, Ari-
zona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Texas,
Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Okla-
homa and Florida.
Northeast could see
more flooding
High moisture in the air combined
with a slow-moving cold front from the
west will cause heavy showers and
storms in the mid-Atlantic and North-
east on Tuesday, according to the Na-
tional Weather Service. The soil in the
Northeast is already highly saturated
with water following heavy flooding in
Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont
last week, according to the weather ser-
vice. This increases the risk of flash
flooding in those areas.
The Weather Prediction Center has
issued a moderate risk of flash flooding
for the New England area. Residents
Prince McLeod, 15 months, was killed
in 2012. His father was convicted in
2017. PROVIDED BY HERA MCLEOD
Weeks later on an unsupervised vis-
it, Rams called 911 and said Prince had
stopped breathing due to a seizure.
Prince was hospitalized and declared
dead the next day. The medical examin-
er’s autopsy concluded Prince drowned.
But Virginia’s chief medical examiner
overturned the finding a year later and
changed the cause of death to “undeter-
mined.”
During Rams’ trial, medical experts
for prosecutors said seizures are com-
mon in boys Prince’s age and not fatal.
Experts testified that the toddler likely
suffocated.
“The only thing everyone could agree
on was that Prince’s father induced a
suffocation event, either by water or
some other form of suffocation,” McLe-
od said.
When she learned Prince was hospi-
talized, McLeod hoped to “walk in the
hospital room, and he would look at me
and we’d hug,” she said.
Hours passed before she was allowed
to see her son as hospital staff attempt-
ed to stabilize or revive him. When she
finally was allowed to approach him,
she ran her fingers through his curly
hair.
“I remember how cold his hair felt,”
she said. “My entire body turned to ice.
Even before the doctor said anything to
me, I just knew. He’s not here anymore.”
Her anger turned to resolve. She
vowed to advocate for children, women
and family court reform. She testified
before Congress and before state law-
makers. She shared her story.
That’s why detailing the 944 children
who have been killed by a parent or pa-
rental figure is important for the law-
makers, judges and the public to see,
she said.
“As the parent whose kid is one of
these numbers, I want him to be count-
ed,” McLeod said.
‘Children need to be protected’
Child advocates warn children can be
harmed quickly following an adverse
court decision.
In 2021, New Jersey resident Breanna
Micciolo filed for an emergency hearing
to get full custody of her son, Corey. She
shared warning signs of abuse with the
court. But a judge rejected her request to
gain full custody of her son.
NEWS
should be cautious of impassable road-
ways, overflowing creaks and possible
mudslides. States from Virginia to
Maine are all included in the slight risk
area.
Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
flooding leaves 5 dead, 2 missing
At least five people died and a 9-
month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister
remained missing after they were swept
away by fast-rising floodwaters on a
Pennsylvania road on Saturday, officials
said.
“It’s very possible” there could be
more victims, Bucks County coroner
Meredith Buck told the Bucks County
Courier Times, part of the USA TODAY
Network.
Showers and thunderstorms likely
Numerous showers and thunder-
storms will engulf portions of the Mid-
west, Ohio Valley, Northeast, and Flori-
da through Tuesday, the weather ser-
vice said.
On Tuesday, severe weather was also
possible in the Middle Mississippi Val-
ley and Lower Ohio Valley, where storms
could produce damaging wind gusts,
large hail and flash flooding.
Contributing: Jo Ciavaglia, Michele
Haddon, Liam Price, J. Staas Haught;
the Associated Press
“The court (sent) me a letter saying
that my order was denied, that they felt
my son was safe and that he wasn’t go-
ing to have any irreparable harm,” Mic-
ciolo said.
A day later, while under his father’s
care, Corey, 6, suffered injuries that
landed him in a hospital. He died from
his injuries on April 2, 2021.
Less than a year after Corey’s death,
an expert witness concluded the boy
died from blunt force impact to the
chest and abdomen, according to the
Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Corey’s father, Christopher Gregor,
was charged with murder. No trial date
has been set and he remains in custody
at Ocean County jail, prosecutors said.
“Since becoming aware Corey was
part of their family, my client and his
parents made every effort to receive
custody and in fact did receive full cus-
tody of Corey,” said Mario F. Gallucci,
Gregor’s attorney.
Russell, of the Center for Judicial Ex-
cellence, said it’s important to track
cases and share details with lawmakers
who might not be aware of how often
children face dangerous and lethal situ-
ations.
Her group pushed for federal legisla-
tion called Kayden’s Law, named after
7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, of Bucks
County, New Jersey, who was killed by
her father after he was awarded partial,
unsupervised custody. The law aims to
bolster state courts’ efforts to detect and
handle domestic violence and child
abuse allegations.
Most divorces and separations never
end up before a judge and are settled
amicably, she said.
But for contentious cases, the report
punctuates what domestic violence ex-
perts and researchers have known for
decades – divorce or separation can be a
lethal time for family members suffering
under domestic violence and coercive
control.
“Children need to be protected when
their parents are going through the fam-
ily court system,” Russell said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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NEWS
Tweak to help erase student loan debt
Error correction means
relief for 804,000 people
Alia Wong and Nirvi Shah
USA TODAY
A tweak to how the federal Education
Department calculates student loan
payments, intended to correct past er-
rors, means about 804,000 people will
have the balance of their loans erased
over the next few months.
The outstanding debt, worth about
$39 billion, is what’s left of these bor-
rowers’ loans after the equivalent of 20
to 25 years’ worth of payments.
Although the Biden administration
took a hit last month when the Supreme
Court undid its plan for large-scale stu-
dent loan forgiveness – the defunct pro-
posal would have forgiven debt for more
than 40 million borrowers – Friday’s an-
nouncement is the latest in a stream of
messages touting the many ways it has
helped people escape their student
debt.
The how and why of new relief
The Biden administration said last
year that it would make a one-time ad-
justment to borrowers’ payment histor-
ies to ensure they are getting all the
credit they should.
“At the start of this administration,
millions of borrowers had earned loan
forgiveness but never received it. That’s
unacceptable,” Education Department
Undersecretary James Kvaal said. “To-
day we are holding up the bargain we of-
fered borrowers who have completed
GOP
Continued from Page 1A
Republican policies that opponents say
hurt people of color, and pushed back
against former President Barack Oba-
ma’s criticism that Black Republicans
often downplay racial inequality.
The moves are part of a larger “sun-
rise” strategy to distinguish Scott from
other GOP contenders, one the lone
Black Republican in the Senate believes
is resonating with some nonwhite
Americans because they feel taken for
granted by the Democrats.
“I think minority voters are trending
toward the Republican Party. That’s
great news,” Scott told USA TODAY.
“I think having candidates like Joe
Biden say that ‘You can’t be Black if you
don’t vote for me’ is a part of the un-
fortunate and intended pressure on
minority voters to stay a part of what is
perceived by the radical progressives as
their voters.”
Republican voters in 2024 have the
most diverse field of presidential con-
tenders in history with Scott and others,
such as former Rep. Will Hurd, political
commentator Larry Elder, and former
Gov. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramas-
wamy, both of whom are the children of
Indian immigrants.
The slate of nonwhite Republicans
running for president and other higher
offices, however, comes amid a conser-
vative-led backlash against diversity,
equity and inclusion policies and teach-
ing about race and slavery in school
curriculum.
Coupled with the blockbuster Su-
preme Court ruling prohibiting affirma-
tive action in college admissions, Black
Republicans are facing intense scrutiny
as polling shows a growing pessimism
among Black voters about the country’s
racial progress and attitudes.
Scott and other conservatives of col-
ors’ commentary on race, often delivered
before largely white audiences, have
thrust Black conservatives to the fore-
front of the political debate as many ask
if their rise represents a genuine shift
among minority voters or an attempt to
suffocate demands for racial justice.
The question of ‘linked fate’
Black Republicans are often derided
by liberal opponents as either colorblind
dupes or, at worst, traitors to their race
who have turned their back on their
community.
Experts say there are important dis-
tinctions, however, that are rarely
talked about to explain their political
outlook.
“We know that Black political ideol-
ogy is far more complex than the vast
majority of Black adults who vote Dem-
ocratic,” said Kiana Cox, an associate at
the Pew Research Center.
Cox co-wrote a survey in 2022 that
found many overlaps among all Black
voters regardless of party affiliation in
decades of repayment.”
The borrowers involved in these
plans for forgiveness include those with
Direct Loans or Federal Family Educa-
tion Loans held by the department, in-
cluding Parent PLUS loans.
A longstanding option for student
loan borrowers has been to enroll in a
payment plan that aligns payments
with their income. Some people with
those plans, however, have struggled to
get credit for those payments. Others
who were eligible never participated.
Another long-standing criticism of
these plans: While they can make the
monthly payment more affordable, they
stretch out the life of the loan, and in-
terest often accrues faster than borrow-
ers can pay it off.
An investigation by NPR last year un-
covered mismanagement of the pro-
gram by loan servicers and the Educa-
tion Department.
The Student Borrower Protection
Center said it was grateful for the Biden
administration’s work to correct the
problems but called the student loan
system “dysfunctional” and said there is
more work to do.
“Make no mistake – over 804,000
people are receiving relief with this ac-
tion because of 804,000 failures – and
this is only the tip of the iceberg,” said
Persis Yu, the group’s executive director
and managing counsel. “Now our lead-
ers need to finish the job. We look for-
ward to the administration’s ongoing ef-
forts to enact further relief efforts and
ensure they include defaulted borrow-
ers – those who have truly fallen be-
tween the cracks and who have been
continually left behind.”
Republican Winsome Sears, who broke
barriers in 2021 when she was elected
lieutenant governor in Virginia, says
real issues matter more than race.
ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel
Cameron, who’s now campaigning
for governor, believes Black voters
are seeing the Republican Party as
more in line with their values.
MATT STONE/USA TODAY NETWORK
terms of income, ethnic pride and dis-
crimination.
Sixty-six percent of Black Republi-
cans in the survey said their ancestry is
“extremely or very important part of
their personal identity.” That matches
the roughly 65% of Black Democrats
who said they same.
Likewise, 79% of Black GOP voters
said they have experienced racism in
their life, which mirrors the 80% of their
Democratic counterparts.
Where the partisan divide begins
appear within the Black community,
Cox said, are in three key areas.
The study shows Republicans are less
likely to attend a predominately Black
church than Democrats by about 12%.
About 6 in 10 Republicans said being
Black is an extremely or very important
part of how they think about them-
selves, which is less than the roughly 8
in 10 Democrats who said the same.
But the biggest factor, experts say, is
how GOP voters in Black America view
USA TODAY ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ 3A
In the coming days, borrowers will
receive notices if they are a part of the
group whose debt will be canceled. Bor-
rowers who fear a tax liability or who
have other concerns about loan forgive-
ness will have the option to opt out.
If borrowers don’t opt out, their re-
spective loan servicers will be told
about the plan to eliminate the out-
standing debt after Aug. 12, and borrow-
ers will in turn be notified by their ser-
vicers that their balances have been for-
given.
Many of the borrowers affected are
likely 50 or older. About 9.2 million bor-
rowers fall into this category.
Biden thwarted but still under
pressure to deliver
The Biden administration has made
it a top priority to reduce the burden of
student loan debt on Americans.
But after last month’s Supreme Court
decision, which concluded Biden lacked
the authority to provide large-scale stu-
dent loan relief through the executive
emergency mechanism he used origi-
nally, he has faced mounting pressure to
provide that forgiveness with other
means.
The day the court issued its opinion,
the administration announced its next
plan of action: working to forgive such
debt through the Higher Education Act
of 1965.
That plan will kick off Tuesday
through a usually dry but in this case
highly anticipated bureaucratic proce-
dure known as negotiated rulemaking.
As part of this process, members of the
public will be able to share their feed-
their personal lives and triumphs com-
pared with those of the whole of the
community. The study found they less
likely to hold a belief in “linked fate,”
which is how much they see their life
connected with the lives of others in the
same group.
Thirty-nine percent of Black Repub-
licans said everything or most things
that happen to Black people in the U.S.
will influence their personal lives, which
is far less than the 57% of Black Demo-
crats who agreed with that statement.
“By and large, we see that Black Re-
publicans, when we look at their views
on racial issues, they tend to have a
more individualistic approach when it
comes to assessing racial inequality and
when it comes to offering remedies for
that inequality,” Cox said.
“So, for example, Black Republicans
are more likely than Black Democrats to
say that if Black people can’t get ahead,
they’re responsible for that.”
Black voters remain skeptical
Leah Wright Rigueur, a historian at
Johns Hopkins University, who has
written extensively about Black Repub-
licans, said studies show even more
conservative-leaning Black voters judge
candidates such as Scott more harshly
than they do white GOP candidates be-
cause they view it as a betrayal.
She said Black voters also take notice
of how nonwhite Republican candidates
avoid delivering their message in their
communities and political spaces.
“That critical mass (of Black support)
will never happen as long as Black audi-
ences feel like the candidate in question
does not have black people’s best inter-
ests in mind, let alone trying to actively
harm them,” Rigueur said.
Scott didn’t address directly a USA
TODAY question on how his discussions
on race often take place in front of al-
most exclusively white audiences. He
instead emphasized that the GOP has
plenty to offer minority voters, such as
supporting funding for historically
Black colleges and universities, or the
advancement of research and develop-
ment on sickle cell anemia.
“So we figured out how to make sure
that we had American solutions to
American problems, not focus simply
on race but focus on economics,” Scott
said.
That is the tightrope most Black Re-
publican candidates walk as they have
seen significant electoral wins even as
opponents call attention to what they
view as their silence on and complicity
with the party’s aggressive posture
against diversity initiatives.
‘So I make history. So what?’
In 2021, Republican Winsome Sears
broke barriers as the first Black woman
elected statewide when she became
Virginia’s lieutenant governor. She
downplayed shattering that glass ceil-
ing, however.
“So I make history. So what? It’s
back on how if at all they want the Edu-
cation Department to use the Higher
Education Act to provide mass forgive-
ness.
But it’s not clear how long that will
take or whether any option created
through the alternate route also will face
a lawsuit.
Other ways Biden has canceled
student debt
The Biden administration already
has provided forgiveness for targeted
groups of people, sometimes using the
Higher Education Act.
Last year, for example, the admini-
stration agreed to relieve the student
loan debt of 200,000 borrowers who
had been defrauded by their institu-
tions, namely for-profit colleges. The re-
lief plan totaling billions of dollars relied
on the Higher Education Act, which
gives the education secretary the au-
thority to “enforce, pay, compromise,
waive, or release any right, title, claim,
lien, or demand” related to its obliga-
tions, including student loans.
Under Biden, the Education Depart-
ment has also significantly streamlined
and expanded access to public-service
loan forgiveness. Such forgiveness, re-
served for people who have worked for
at least a decade in eligible fields such as
teaching and nursing, was partly pro-
vided through emergency levers outside
the Higher Education Act.
And a new income-driven repayment
plan to be unveiled soon will cut pay-
ments to nothing for some borrowers.
Contributing: Chris Quintana, USA
TODAY
done,” Sears told USA TODAY in 2021.
“And now what the people want to know
is: How are you going to govern? What
are your policies? What are your issues?
How are you going to serve us? Because
that’s what this is about.”
A record number of Black GOP candi-
dates ran for Congress last year, and
Republicans saw an increase in minor-
ity voter support. GOP candidates drew
14% of Black voters, up from 8% in the
2018 midterm elections, according to AP
VoteCast, an extensive national survey
of the electorate.
A key test in Kentucky
Republican Daniel Cameron, who is
making a historic bid to be Kentucky’s
first Black governor in 2023, said the
trends reflect a reaction among Black
voters to the Democratic Party, which he
cast as being “captured by far-left
ideas.”
“I think Black people, particularly
Black men, are growing to see that the
Republican Party is more in line with
their values,” Cameron told USA TODAY.
The Bluegrass State will test how
Cameron, and other Black conserva-
tives, navigate controversial questions
of race and their role in shaping those
policies.
Cameron’s candidacy is being met
with stiff opposition from Black activ-
ists at the state and national level, such
as the New York-based social justice
group Until Freedom, which has vowed
to commit resources toward defeating
him over his role as attorney general in
the Breonna Taylor case.
Like other Black Republicans vying
for higher office, Cameron also has tak-
en on liberal opponents, pushing back
in a TV ad against left-leaning activists
who protested outside his home over his
decision not to prosecute the police offi-
cers who killed Taylor while they were
executing a search warrant.
Much like Scott and his presidential
bid, Cameron touts his heritage in front
of mostly white audiences while re-
maining a steadfast conservative on
crime, transgender rights and other
issues.
After coasting to win the GOP nomi-
nation for governor in May, he told
supporters in his victory speech how
anyone who “looks like me … can
achieve anything. ... All that matters is
your values.”
Cameron said his campaign is a re-
flection that those core values and pol-
icy solutions matter as much racial
identity to Black voters, who he said
want good-paying jobs, police to be
funded, and their children to have a
quality education.
But he said he often feels Black con-
servatives are held to a double standard,
and treated more sharply by news out-
lets and other critics than Democratic
candidates when it comes to racial con-
troversies and other cultural issues.
“I often get asked to denounce every
racist comment or behavior,” Cameron
said.
4A ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY
ALABAMA Hoover: A 25-year-old
woman returned home after being
the focus of a two-day search by
police and family members who re-
ported her missing after she stopped
to check on a child who was walking
along a highway.
ALASKA Kodiak: A 7.2 magnitude
earthquake triggered a brief tsunami
advisory for southern Alaska over the
weekend, but the advisory was can-
celed about an hour later, monitoring
bodies reported. The earthquake was
felt widely throughout the Aleutian
Islands, the Alaskan Peninsula and
Cook Inlet regions, according to the
Alaska Earthquake Center.
ARIZONA Peoria: After months of
pushback and legal warnings, Peoria
Unified School District governing
board member Heather Rooks said
she will refrain from quoting Scrip-
ture during board meetings.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A justice
who Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
appointed to the Arkansas Supreme
Court won’t participate in the case
regarding Sanders’ education over-
haul. Justice Cody Hiland recused
from hearing the state’s appeal of a
judge’s ruling that the education
overhaul can’t take effect until Aug. 1.
Hiland did not give a reason for re-
cusing from the case.
CALIFORNIA Death Valley: Long the
hottest place on Earth, Death Valley
put a sizzling exclamation point on a
record warm summer that is baking
nearly the entire globe by flirting with
some of the hottest temperatures
ever recorded, meteorologists said.
Temperatures in Death Valley, which
runs along part of central California’s
border with Nevada, reached 128
degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday at the
aptly named Furnace Creek, the Na-
tional Weather Service said.
COLORADO Windsor: Windsor Lake
reopened to the public over the week-
end after being closed for over a week
because of blue-green algae con-
cerns.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: A man who
was one of four people shot in an
apartment will be charged with at-
tempted murder, home invasion and
other crimes, police said.
DELAWARE Newark: One of the
state’s largest school districts will
move its graduations off the Univer-
sity of Delaware’s campus after the
arrest of one of its students. The
Christina school board moved to cut
the commencement tie – a roughly
$98,000 price tag for the Bob Car-
penter Center, parking lot and Uni-
versity of Delaware security annually.
That security remains under scrutiny
by the board after a student was ar-
rested by university police on Newark
High School’s graduation day.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing-
ton: A developer is facing thousands
of dollars in fines after being accused
of violating the city’s historic preser-
vation laws in the flipping and selling
of a home, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA Sumterville: People were
evacuated from a federal prison camp
for suspected carbon monoxide expo-
sure that sent two employees and
three inmates to the hospital, U.S.
Bureau of Prisons officials said.
GEORGIA Atlanta: The U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice has opened a civil
rights investigation into jail condi-
tions in Fulton County, with officials
citing violence, filthy conditions and
the death last year of a man whose
body was found covered in insects.
HAWAII Oahu: A plan to defuel four
surge tanks containing fuel at Pearl
Harbor-Hickam has been approved,
Hawaii News Now reports.
IDAHO Sandpoint: Two adults and a
child were killed when a freight train
slammed into their car, pushing it off
the road and overturning it, according
to law enforcement. A fourth person
who was in the car survived and was
brought to a hospital, according to
the Idaho State Police.
ILLINOIS Antioch: Carnival rides
were shut down at a community fes-
tival after a 10-year-old boy was
thrown from his seat and seriously
injured, authorities said.
INDIANA Mishawaka: Two leaders
are out at an addiction treatment
center after three recent deaths and
calls by police to remove its license.
The executive director and director of
nursing are no longer working at
Praxis Landmark Recovery, a drug
and alcohol rehabilitation site for
men, the company told WNDU-TV.
HIGHLIGHT: WASHINGTON
Landscape fabric covers the ground at a legal cannabis farm near Brewster,
in north-central Washington state, on July 11. TERRY LEE TAYLOR VIA AP
Olympia: Some legal cannabis growers who were ordered to halt operations in
April over concerns about pesticide contamination are getting back to business.
State regulators lifted the restrictions against five licensees whose products
were determined to have unapproved levels of a chemical related to DDT, a pesti-
cide banned in the U.S. in 1972. The growers didn’t use DDT, but their crops sit on
old fruit orchards where it was used decades ago. The Washington Liquor and
Cannabis Board announced it lifted the holds on the businesses, which are now
taking steps with state financial support to keep the residual pesticide at bay.
IOWA Des Moines: The city is suing
Zora Bar & Rooftop and its owner,
claiming the multi-level bar, restau-
rant and nightclub has caused a
“public nuisance.” The city filed the
lawsuit two days after police officers
responded to calls of shots fired
outside the bar.
KANSAS Topeka: Kansas is one
step closer to sending taxpayer
money to anti-abortion counseling
centers across the state. The con-
tract bidding process began last
week with a request for proposals
for a contractor to run the new
$2 million Alternatives to Abortion
Program.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Employees
at several Louisville-area coffee
shops were on strike Monday, call-
ing for improved wages and better
working conditions.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A man
faces a prison sentence of up to 10
years for his part in a dogfighting
operation. He is the seventh person
convicted in the ongoing investiga-
tion of the operation, the U.S. Jus-
tice Department said in a state-
ment.
MAINE Augusta: A proposal to in-
crease salaries for the governor and
lawmakers cleared the appropria-
tions committee and will be consid-
ered by the Legislature. The bill
would increase the governor’s annu-
al salary from $70,000 to $125,000,
which would align with the salaries
of cabinet members and staff. Law-
makers would see their salaries
grow from $25,000 to $45,000 for
their two-year terms under a sep-
arate bill. The current salary for
Maine’s governor is the lowest in
the country.
MARYLAND Greenbelt: The General
Services Administration announced
changes in criteria for choosing a
location for a new FBI headquarters,
boosting two potential places in
Maryland, which has been compet-
ing with Virginia for the bureau’s
new home.
MASSACHUSETTS Wareham: Two
people died over the weekend when
the dirt bike they were riding collid-
ed with an SUV near a shopping
plaza, authorities said.
MICHIGAN Traverse City: The city
is investigating after a local hair
salon owner posted on social media
that anyone identifying as other
than a man or a woman is not wel-
come at her business.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The city
must enact police reforms in the
wake of George Floyd’s killing, after
a judge approved a settlement
agreement between the city and the
state Human Rights Department.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A man sus-
pected of fatally wounding a teen-
ager in a drive-by shooting and then
evading police for over a month was
arrested by U.S. Marshals days after
surveillance video showed him
throwing contraband over a fence
and into the grounds of a jail, offi-
cials said.
MISSOURI Osage Beach: A small
plane crashed in a wooded area
near the Lake of the Ozarks in cen-
tral Missouri, killing two of the
three occupants.
MONTANA Great Falls: Authorities
said a man on an apartment balco-
ny was yelling threats to “shoot the
place up” toward a farmers market.
“We have identified whom we be-
lieve to be responsible for the threat
and we are working to take that
person into custody,” the police
department said in a statement.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Police said that
two children who went missing
while on a bike ride have been locat-
ed, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A federal jury
convicted a police officer on all
counts of stealing nearly $165,000
during a trio of casino heists, in-
cluding one where he was armed
with a department-issued weapon
that was loaded. Caleb Rogers, 35,
faces life in prison upon sentencing
because he brandished a revolver
during the third casino heist he
carried out in February 2022.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: City
officials have received complaints
about unusually strong odors com-
ing from the city’s wastewater treat-
ment plant on Peirce Island. City
engineer Erich Fiedler said the odor
coming from the wastewater treat-
ment facility has been caused by
“some mechanical issues with one
of the clarifiers.”
NEW JERSEY Newark: The second
of two firefighters who were fatally
injured while battling a massive fire
aboard a cargo ship docked in New
Jersey was posthumously promoted
to captain during his funeral ser-
vice.
NEW MEXICO Alamogordo: A police
officer who was shot in the face
with a sawed-off shotgun after a
foot chase with a suspect has died,
authorities said.
NEW YORK Ogdensburg: The Ro-
man Catholic Diocese of Ogdens-
burg in northern New York said that
it was filing for bankruptcy protec-
tion as it faces more than 100 law-
suits alleging sexual abuse.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: North
Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore
confirmed that his record fifth two-
year term presiding over the cham-
ber will be his last, saying legislative
colleagues have known about his
decision going back a year. Moore, a
Cleveland County Republican, has
served in the House since 2003 and
was first elected speaker in 2015
while succeeding now-U.S. Sen.
Thom Tillis at the job.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Many ques-
tions remained about what led a
gunman to open fire on police offi-
cers as they were responding to a
traffic crash. One officer was killed
and two others were critically
wounded before the gunman was
killed by a fourth officer.
OHIO Columbus: Ohio’s Republican
secretary of state, Frank LaRose,
launched a bid for the U.S. Senate,
joining GOP efforts to try to unseat
Democrat Sherrod Brown next year.
LaRose, 44, is in his second term as
Ohio’s elections chief.
OKLAHOMA Edmond: A Goodwill
location discovered a trove of well-
preserved World War II documents
hidden away in a secret compart-
ment of a donated box.
NEWS
News from across the USA
OREGON Rogue River-Siskiyou Na-
tional Forest: The Flat Fire continued
to grow Sunday, reaching an estimat-
ed 3,000-4,000 acres, fire crews said.
The fire is burning in the Oak Flat
and Agness area, near the confluence
of the Illinois and Rogue rivers.
PENNSYLVANIA Whitemarsh Town-
ship: A freight train derailment early
Monday spurred precautionary evac-
uations, but officials said no injuries
were reported and there was no
known hazard to the public. The 40-
car CSX train, which was operating
on tracks owned by Norfolk South-
ern, derailed around 4:50 a.m. CSX
said at least 16 cars went off the
tracks, but local officials later said 15
cars had derailed.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: State
regulators have hit the pause button
on permitting for a transmission line
that would run up the Sakonnet River
from SouthCoast Wind’s large off-
shore wind farm proposed in ocean
waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.
SOUTH CAROLINA Myrtle Beach:
Visitors at multiple beaches across
South Carolina’s Grand Strand coast-
al strip are thrilled and intrigued by
the ocean’s strikingly blue waves.
Over the past few weeks, the water is
reportedly clearer than usual. Accu-
Weather meteorologist Bob Larson
said people can thank the calm
weather for not mixing dirt, sand and
sediment into the beach waves.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: The fire
department rescued three ducklings
that were stuck in a storm drain near
a highway ramp. “A person who lives
in that area noticed that a mama
duck kept walking around in the
street in the same spot. That person
investigated, found ducklings in the
storm drain,” and called the fire de-
partment for help, Battalion Chief
Calen Maningas said.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Law enforce-
ment statewide reported fewer mur-
ders and other serious crimes in 2022
than in 2021, the Tennessee Bureau
of Investigation’s most recent “Crime
in Tennessee” report shows. And
while slightly fewer crimes were re-
ported, law enforcement solved a
smaller percentage of them.
TEXAS Austin: A First Amendment
group sued Gov. Greg Abbott and
others over the state’s TikTok ban on
official devices, arguing the prohibi-
tion – which extends to public uni-
versities – is unconstitutional and
impedes academic freedom.
UTAH Salt Lake City: State water
managers are celebrating the wet
winter and spring, reporting a major
improvement in reservoir storage.
State reservoirs were 86% full on
average as of Friday, having mostly
filled after the record snowpack levels
of last winter melted off slowly via a
steady spring runoff, according to
managers with the Utah Division of
Water Resources. Last year on the
same date, reservoirs were 59% full.
VERMONT Burlington: Neighbors
who oppose plans for the Higher
Ground music venue to relocate to
space at the world headquarters of
Burton Snowboards have lost their
latest court battle. The environmental
division of Vermont Superior Court
filed a ruling denying residents’ ap-
peals of permits issued by the state
and the city that would allow Higher
Ground to move into the spot.
VIRGINIA Highland County: A wom-
an and her daughter who went miss-
ing while heading to a faith-based
camp in West Virginia have been
located. They spent about four days
in the woods while authorities
searched for them.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The
state will take part in a speeding
enforcement campaign for the rest of
the month, expressing particular
concern about speeding in work
zones, the Charleston Gazette-Mail
reports.
WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin
regulators can’t legally impose envi-
ronmental regulations on factory
farms before they become opera-
tional, two farm advocacy groups
allege in a lawsuit that could dramat-
ically loosen protections against ma-
nure pollution in state waters.
WYOMING Casper: Authorities are
investigating after a vehicle was
found in the North Platte River, the
Casper Star-Tribune reports. No one
was inside the vehicle, according to
the news outlet.
From USA TODAY Network and
wire reports
MONEY
USA TODAY | WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023 | 5A

MONEYLINE

TAYLOR SWIFT CREDITED FOR

BOOSTING CITY ECONOMIES
The Federal Reserve has found that
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is helping
boost the economy. The Philadelphia
Federal Reserve office said the tour
has helped boost hotel revenue in the
city. The announcement came in the
central bank’s Beige Book, which sum-
marizes how the economy is doing in
U.S. cities. Swift occupied Philly’s Lin-
coln Financial Field on May 12-14.
Other cities have recognized Swift’s
contributions to the economy, in-
cluding Chicago, whose tourism and
marketing arm Choose Chicago said
Swift’s tour run helped set a hotel
record. More than 44,000 hotel rooms
were used each night of the concert,
which ran June 2-4, and $39 million
was generated in hotel revenue.
Fed getting blame for woes,
little credit for inflation wins
Some economists advise seeing if
easing continues without rate hikes
Paul Davidson
USA TODAY
The Federal Reserve’s battle against
inflation reached a milestone last
week, with a report showing that con-
sumer prices rose 3% annually in June,
down from a four-decade high of 9.1%
a year earlier.
Perhaps more critically, a core infla-
tion measure that excludes volatile
food and energy items and is more
closely watched by the Fed finally
eased significantly to 4.8%, according
to the Labor Department’s consumer
price index.
Although that’s still higher than the
central bank’s 2% target, the news
raises a pointed question: How much
“Most of what has happened
has not been Fed related.”
Joseph LaVorgna
Chief U.S. economist of SMBC Group and a former
top economic adviser in the Trump administration
credit does the Fed deserve for lowering
inflation so far?
Some economists ascribe little or
none of the progress on inflation to his-
toric Fed interest rate increases. But the
hikes get blamed for doing some dam-
age: propelling mortgage rates higher;
pushing up rates for car loans, credit
card spending and other consumer pur-
chases; tossing cold water on a high-fly-
ing stock market; and threatening to tip
the economy into recession.
“I don’t think there’s been that much
effect (on inflation) yet,” says Joseph
LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist of
SMBC Group and a former top economic
adviser in the Trump administration.
“Most of what has happened has not
been Fed related.”
Instead, LaVorgna, along with other
economists, point to the unwinding of
pandemic-related supply chain bottle-
necks, a sharp drop in commodity
prices and a pullback in COVID-19-relat-
ed consumer spending binges.
LaVorgna cites what he says are two
key pieces of evidence. Core inflation
began easing in October, several
months after the Fed started hiking in
March. Economists have said rate in-
creases work with a “long and variable
See INFLATION, Page 6A

SAM GREENE/USA TODAY NETWORK Threads

app stitches

BON together a
BUY BUY BABY STORES
HAVING TO SAY GOODBYE
Fans of family supply store Buy Buy
data tapestry
Baby are going to have to say “bye
bye” to the chain. Buy Buy Baby’s par- Users concerned, some

VOYAGE
ent, Bed Bath & Beyond, filed for
bankruptcy and announced the clos- information is ‘sensitive’
ing of its brick-and-mortar stores in
April. As a result, 360 Bed Bath & Be- Marc Saltzman
yond locations and 120 Buy Buy Baby Special to USA TODAY
storefronts will shut their doors for
good. Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual Threads, Meta’s new social media
properties have since been bought at
auction for $21.5 million by Overstock- No passport? No problem app, signed up 100 million new users in
less than a week after its July 5 launch,
making it the fastest-growing app in
.com. Last week, Buy Buy Baby’s plans
to attract a similar deal to save stores history.
ended in failure when prospective Like other social media apps, users
buyer Go Global and Bed Bath & Be- probably barely scanned − or skipped
yond’s lead creditor, Sixth Street Part- − the terms and conditions for what in-
ners, were unable to reach an agree- formation Threads can collect, share
ment, according to CNBC. and sell about them.
Meta probably already had a lot of
information about users because
Threads is built upon its Instagram
FANS COULD GET A CUT platform.
OF A&W SODA SETTLEMENT So how much does Threads already
know about you, and what can it do
People who bought an A&W root beer with that data? Here are a few reasons
or cream soda product with a “Made to be concerned about your privacy:
With Aged Vanilla” label between
February 2016 and June 2023 may be
eligible for a cut of a $15 million set-
tlement the beverage maker must pay
after a court decision. The rebate
results from a class-action lawsuit
claiming A&W Concentrate Company
and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. misled con-
sumers by labeling products as “Made
With Aged Vanilla” when the vanilla
taste is created with artificial flavor-
ing. The company has denied the
claims. Anyone who bought an A&W
root beer or cream soda with the label
“Made With Aged Vanilla” between Threads asks for health and fitness
Feb. 7, 2016, and June 2, 2023, will be data, financial information and a
eligible for a portion of the settle- nefarious-sounding “sensitive info.”
ment. Consumers can file at RootBee- STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
rAndCreamSodaSettlement.com.
Nathan Diller USA TODAY What does Threads collect?

GENE J. PUSKAR/AP FILE
TARGET OFFERS DISCOUNTS
TO TEACHERS, STUDENTS
Educators and families can find back-
to-school discounts at Target. The
retailer is offering a one-time 20%
discount for those registered with the
retailer’s Target Circle App and pro-
vide identification as a K-12 teacher,
teacher at a daycare, vocational school
or early childhood learning center or a
university professor. Target also is
offering college students the same
discount if they are verified through
Target Circle App. Both promotions
run through Aug. 26.
W
hen Chanel Sims graduated college, her mom Social media platforms monetize
rewarded her achievement by treating her user data by selling relevant ads based
on your location and activity, but,
daughter to a trip with Carnival Cruise Line. along with the usual app privacy re-
h But the July 2022 sailing – shortly after her quests like browsing history and loca-
tion data, Threads also asks for finan-
graduation in May – didn’t leave Sims much time to get a key cial information, health and fitness
travel document: her passport. h Sims, now 24, data, diagnostics and a nefarious-
sounding “sensitive info.”
had never gotten one. She tried once before to Many users have voiced concern
study abroad but was dissuaded by long wait over Threads for its 14-point list of data
permissions you’re granting Meta to
times, and traveling internationally for fun use the app. Twitter, by comparison,
wasn’t on her radar. h “I was a broke college stu- has 10 of these.
Sims “I would say it’s at the outer bound-
dent. I wasn’t going anywhere,” said Sims, who aries of what’s usually expected,
lives in Los Angeles and works for a life insurance agency. which is to be expected from its con-
nection to Facebook, a brand long
h Luckily for her, there was an alternative: She sailed with her known for being especially hungry to
family from Miami to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and take in user data and commercialize it
in different ways,” says Dan Ackerman,
back with just her photo ID and birth certificate. h In many the new editor-in-chief at Gizmodo, a
cases, travelers can sail without a passport on round-trip leading technology, science and cul-
ture news publication.
voyages from the U.S. See NO PASSPORT, Page 6A Android users can toggle off some
of the data requests from the app,
GETTY IMAGES
See THREADS, Page 6A
6A ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY
Threads
Continued from Page 5A
while the Apple App Store is “more
take-it-or-leave it,” Ackerman said.
“It also doesn't help that there's no
browser-based fully functional ver-
sion of Threads right now, and so you
have to use the app version,” he said.
Meta declined my request for com-
ment and clarification.
Is Threads data collection
worse than Twitter?
It's not necessarily malicious, sug-
gests Tim Bajarin, a veteran technol-
ogy analyst and chairman of the San
Jose, California-based market re-
search firm Creative Strategies. “Users
should know this Threads data list is
pulled directly from Instagram, and
it's all tied to their advertising engine
when they start to monetize Threads.
“When you sign off on financial info,
for example, they're not looking at
your bank statements or anything,”
Bajarin said.
Rather, Threads collects what
you're posting about and liking, where
you are, and whether you bought
something through a third-party site,
app, or game you logged into using
your connected Facebook/Instagram
ID (usually to avoid creating a new
password altogether).
Bajarin said users are granting Meta
access for future advertising.
“Meta isn't giving you a free app out
of the goodness of their heart − they're
there to make money, which is mostly
from advertising.”
Threads can collect and save this
information, and the data can also be
shared with third-party services that
connect to your Threads profile.
Can you deactivate Threads?
Yes, but you cannot delete it with-
out also deleting Instagram, Bajarin
said.
“Meta built (Threads) on the Insta-
gram infrastructure, on top of the pro-
gram itself, and so it would be very dif-
ficult to uninstall one and not both – at
least the way it's engineered today. ...
They could eventually be spun out to
be completely separate apps,” Bajarin
said.
To deactivate (but not delete) your
Threads account, Adam Mosseri − the
Instagram boss who now spearheads
the Threads app – says you can choose
to hide your Threads profile and con-
tent, delete individual Threads posts
and set your profile to private, as re-
ported by USA TODAY contributor
Jennifer Jolly.
“Threads is powered by Instagram,
so right now it's just one account, but
we're looking into a way to delete your
Threads account separately,” he post-
ed.
Ackerman said the fact that
Threads is built on Instagram is actu-
ally a boon for Meta and users, “as it's
especially easy to sign up for, has no
wait list, and is simple to use.” But “in
order to delete your Threads account
after you sign up, you'll need to delete
your Instagram account, as well,
which reminds me of the difficulty
people had deleting their Facebook ac-
counts in the past, and how there was
a lot of fine print about what data
Facebook would keep unless you
jumped through extra hoops.”
Is the Threads app safe?
Threads is asking for more permis-
sions than Twitter, so it boils down to
your comfort level.
Though some of the privacy per-
missions seem ludicrous – granting
Threads access to health and activity
data and other “sensitive info” on a
smartphone just seems wrong – no
one is forcing users to install and use
Threads or any other social media app
that monetizes its free platform by de-
livering personalized, contextual ads
to you.
Threads is available in more than
100 countries, but perhaps it's no sur-
prise it isn't available in the European
Union just yet: Meta was forced to pay
more than $400 million by EU regula-
tors for forcing users to accept targeted
ads.
Personally, I am using and enjoying
Threads quite a bit but wish there was
more clarity about how my data is col-
lected and used. And I'm disappointed
Meta declined to clarify things.
I select “Ask not to track” on all
iPhone apps to reduce an app's visibil-
ity into my web browsing activity, and
I have a virtual private network, or
VPN, on my computer for extra priva-
cy, but perhaps it's true there is noth-
ing truly free in this world – it's just up
to each person to decide whether the
cost is worth it.
No passport
Continued from Page 5A
Here's what to know.
What is a closed-loop cruise?
Closed-loop cruises are those that
start and end at the same U.S. port and
travel within the Western Hemisphere.
U.S. citizens booked on those sail-
ings can leave and enter the country
with proof of citizenship such as a
birth certificate and – if 16 or older – a
government-issued photo ID, accord-
ing to U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion.
They also can use an enhanced
driver's license, which denotes both
proofs of identity and citizenship,
though those are available only in
Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ver-
mont and Washington for now. Trav-
elers can reenter the country from
Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico
with an EDL, but the documents are
valid for border crossings only by sea
or land.
Travelers under 16 can show an
“original, notarized or certified copy of
his or her birth certificate, a Consular
Report of Birth Abroad issued by De-
partment of State, (DOS) and/or Cer-
tificate of Naturalization issued by
Inflation
Continued from Page 5A
lag,” which Fed governor Christopher
Waller recently put at nine to 12
months.
Also, the economy is still solid,
growing at a 2% annual rate in the first
quarter and an average of 2.6% since
mid-2022. Typically, the Fed slows in-
flation by weakening the economy but
that largely hasn't happened yet, La-
Vorgna says.
Jonathan Millar, a former Fed econ-
omist and now senior U.S. economist
at Barclays, gives the Fed more props
than LaVorgna. He says the central
bank has played a “supportive” role by
affecting consumer inflation expecta-
tions and modestly dampening a hot
job market. But he too traces most of
the gains to the other factors.
“It's very subtle … the way the Fed
affects things,” Millar says. “It's very
hard to disentangle.”
“The Fed's rate hikes do deserve
honorable mention,” says Mark Zandi,
chief economist of Moody's Analytics
The debate isn't merely theoretical.
If the Fed's 5 percentage points in rate
increases since March 2022 – the most
since the early 1980s – haven't had
much effect on inflation so far, perhaps
officials shouldn't be tentatively plan-
ning to raise a key rate twice more this
year, LaVorgna argues.
“Why not wait” and see if inflation
continues to drift down, he asks, rath-
er than further boosting the risk of a
recession that many economists deem
likely by next year?
Others say that while Fed's rate
hikes have yet to bear much fruit, they
will as the fight to lower inflation be-
comes more challenging. The central
bank is widely expected to hike rates
again on July 26.
Supply chain snarls are easing
Economists generally agree the
main reason inflation has slowed is
that supply chain snags have im-
proved.
In the early days of the pandemic,
Americans stuck at home ordered lots
of TVs, computers, furniture and other
goods. Meanwhile, many truck driv-
ers, along with port and warehouse
workers, left the workforce for CO-
VID-19-related reasons. That led to se-
vere product shortages and price
spikes as shipping containers stacked
up at West Coast ports.
Now, Oxford Economics' supply
chain stress index has fallen to about
half its peak early last year, though it's
still above normal.
Most shipping workers are back on
the job. And consumers, no longer
confined to their homes, have exhaust-
ed much of their surplus demand for
new cars, couches and other toys.
Still, perhaps Fed rate hikes have
helped soften consumer demand by
making auto loans and credit card pur-
chases more expensive.
LaVorgna isn't buying it. Although
consumer goods purchases have flat-
tened after peaking in late 2020,
they're still about 7% above where
they would be if the health crisis
hadn't happened, he says, citing gov-
ernment figures.
Yet prices for furniture and appli-
ances were down about 1.5% annually
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Ser-
vices (USCIS),” according to Customs
and Border Protection's website.
Cruise lines may require you to have a
passport anyway, however.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises, for exam-
ple, requires passports for all voyages
no matter the ports of call or countries
visited, and destinations may call for
them as well.
Carnival, which Sims sailed with, al-
lows U.S. citizens to sail without a pass-
port on qualifying cruises but "highly
recommends that all guests travel with
a passport valid for at least six months
beyond completion of travel," according
to its website.
How do I know if I can sail
without a passport?
Cruise lines typically provide guid-
ance for travelers on the requirements
of their sailing, according to Drew Daly,
senior vice president and general man-
ager of travel agency franchise Dream
Vacations. A travel adviser can also help
fill in any blanks.
Cruising without a passport can be
risky. The State Department encour-
ages having one "in case of an emergen-
cy, such as an unexpected medical air
evacuation or the ship docking at an al-
ternate port," according to its website.
If travelers get stuck at a port of call,
there will be “a lot of red tape you have to
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said hikes can have their biggest impact in services
excluding housing, which are mostly driven by labor costs. JACK GRUBER/USA TODAY
in June after notching double-digit in-
creases last year.
“That's mostly not the Fed's doing,”
Millar says.
Commodity prices drop
Prices of commodities such as oil,
wheat and corn soared last year as Rus-
sia's war on Ukraine disrupted supply
networks.
Now, however, those prices have de-
clined significantly because of weaker
demand in Europe and China amid
worldwide recession fears. Also, ship-
pers have found ways to bypass the war-
torn region. That has lowered gasoline
prices that topped out at $5 a gallon last
year and stabilized grocery bills that
were skyrocketing, Zandi says.
Rent increases are slowing
Rent, the biggest inflation driver, is
still rising sharply but gradually coming
off its peak. Average rent increased a
brisk 8.3% annually in June, down from
8.8% in April.
Rent began surging in 2021 as the
pandemic led many people to move into
their own apartments. The easing
health crisis then triggered a wide-
spread return of young adults to large
cities.
But those trends largely have played
out, Millar says.
A large supply of new apartment
buildings is also moderating rent in-
creases, says Jay Parsons, chief econo-
mist of RealPage, a real estate research
and property management software
company.
Rent for new leases fell for several
months, and Parsons expects that to
more significantly affect existing leases
this year.
‘Supercore inflation’ is easing
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said Fed
rate hikes can have their biggest impact
on inflation in services excluding hous-
ing, which are mostly driven by labor
costs. By making it more expensive for
employers to hire and tamping down
economic growth, the Fed theoretically
can slow job growth, thus reducing pay
increases that may get passed to con-
sumers through higher prices.
That inflation measure has softened,
falling to 3.8% in June from a high of
MONEY
get through” to make it home without
one, Daly said.
In those cases, they should contact
the U.S. Embassy and local immigration
authorities, he said. Daly also recom-
mended taking a photo of your govern-
ment IDs, which can be helpful backups
when dealing with officials.
A travel adviser can hold travelers'
hands through the process, though Daly
noted “it's not something that happens
a lot.”
Sims, for her part, was able to easily
get off the ship at ports like Nassau with
just her Sail & Sign card, she said, which
acts as both a room key and means of
charging items to your onboard ac-
count. After showing her birth certifi-
cate and photo ID during the initial
boarding process, she kept them in a
suitcase.
There are other advantages to having
a passport. For instance, the document
gives travelers who don't board their
cruise in time more flexibility to meet
the ship at its next stop. “You can't fly to
Mexico without a passport,” Daly said.
Routine processing of passports
takes between 10 and 13 weeks, and sev-
en to nine weeks for expedited service,
according to the State Department. But
most travelers who book with Dream
Vacations plan their cruises at least six
months out, according to Daly, which
should give them plenty of time to get
one: “So, we still highly encourage that.”
6.6% last September, says Moody's
economist Bernard Yaros.
But LaVorgna says it's not because
rate hikes have curtailed job and wage
growth.
Payroll gains slowed recently but re-
main sturdy and unemployment was at
3.6% last month, just above a 50-year
low, LaVorgna notes Average wages
were up 5.6%, below last summer's 6.7%
peak but well above the pre-COVID-19
trend of about 3.5%, according to the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Rather, prices for services such as
hotel stays and air travel have stabilized
as Americans' pent-up demand for trav-
el and other activities is finally waning,
Millar says. Jet fuel costs also have fall-
en along with oil prices.
The Fed gets some due, Millar and
Zandi say, because job and wage growth
have eased modestly, helping reduce
services prices.
LaVorgna, though, attributes slightly
smaller pay increases to the return of
many workers to the labor force after
pandemic-related absences.
Inflation expectations are stable
Millar says the Fed has a “supportive”
role in bringing down inflation by ham-
mering the message that it's on the case
and won't let price increases get out of
hand, keeping the public's inflation ex-
pectations stable.
That's important, he says, because it
means some workers may not ask for a
bigger raise and landlords may not raise
rent as much because they know they
won't have to pay significantly higher
costs themselves.
Rate hikes’ effect may expand
Although inflation has eased signifi-
cantly, lowering it the rest of the way to
the Fed's 2% goal is expected to be a
tougher slog, Millar says. It will likely
mean slowing price gains for services
like haircuts and car repairs, he says,
and higher interest rates will likely play
a bigger part by dampening job and
wage growth more emphatically.
And as Americans' pandemic-related
cash reserves run dry, higher borrowing
costs will have a larger impact on
spending.
“The jury is still out on how much the
Fed” has contributed to the fight against
inflation, he says.
NEWS USA TODAY ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ 7A

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Ohio may provide blueprint for red states

Advocates for abortion Amendment is vague on purpose

rights closely watch The proposed measure would add

proposed amendment
Ingrid Jacques
USA TODAY
Get ready for the next iteration of the
abortion fight: state constitutions. After
the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe
v. Wade last summer, states have con-
trol over how much – or little – they
want to regulate the procedure.
And those battles have played out in
legislatures around the country, with
red states putting strict limits in place
and blue states maintaining wide ac-
cess to abortion. That's what was sup-
posed to happen after abortion no long-
er was protected as a federal constitu-
tional right.
While Democrats in Congress are
turning to desperate, long-shot mea-
sures like reviving the Equal Rights
Amendment to preserve abortion ac-
cess, abortion rights activists are gear-
ing up for a new line of attack – one that
could sidestep Republican legislatures
and governors.
They plan to take the issue directly to
voters.
That fight began last year, with three
states – Michigan, California and Ver-
mont – becoming the first in the country
to pass constitutional amendments
protecting the right to abortion.
And in November, Ohio is expected to
have a similar amendment on its ballot.
Supporters of the amendment turned in
this month what they say are more than
enough valid signatures to get the mea-
sure on the ballot.
Expect both abortion foes and cham-
pions to keep a close eye on the propos-
Activists mark the anniversary of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, by displaying signage in support of
abortion access in front of the Supreme Court on June 23. NATHAN HOWARD/AP
al's success or failure, as it could be a
blueprint for a much bigger round of
amendments in 2024 and beyond.
Lessons from Michigan
Groups that favor abortion access
such as Planned Parenthood and the
ACLU, which backed the successful
constitutional amendment in Michigan,
are hopeful that they can achieve the
same outcome in Ohio. There was never
really a question that liberal states like
Vermont and California would pass
their measures; it was less certain in
Michigan.
Some unique elements were at play
in the Great Lakes State. For one, after
Roe was overturned, the then Republi-
can-led legislature opted to let a dec-
ades-old abortion law that banned
nearly all abortions take effect. And
they made no effort to offer alternatives.
That made voters much more recep-
tive to the amendment, which had fairly
innocuous-sounding language that ad-
vocates claimed would restore provi-
sions of Roe to Michigan. The reality,
however, is that the amendment went
much further than that, opening the
door to strip existing provisions such as
requiring parental consent for minors.
The amendment also drove Demo-
cratic turnout last November, and Mich-
igan voters solidly passed the measure,
along with a full Democratic takeover of
state government – for the first time in
40 years.
What's happening in Ohio is a little
different.
The state has an abortion law on the
books that bans abortions once a fetal
heartbeat is detected, usually around
six weeks. That law hasn't taken effect
yet because it's still tied up in the courts.
Ohio is much more of a red state than
Michigan, too, with a Republican gover-
nor and legislature. That's why if the
amendment passes, Ohio could be a
model for efforts in other red states. A
similar measure is already planned in
Florida for 2024.
language to the Ohio Constitution ex-
plicitly guaranteeing the right of every
individual “to make and carry out one's
own reproductive decisions.”
Although it allows for prohibitions on
abortion after viability, there are broad
exceptions to protect the “patient's life
or health.”
Opponents of the proposal say it's
the vagueness of the language that is
most concerning to them, and they be-
lieve it could strip parents' rights for
consent of a minor's abortion or even
gender reassignment surgery.
Those were many of the concerns
that anti-abortion advocates had about
Michigan's proposal.
“The amendment was intentionally
written using this extremely broad lan-
guage,” says Amy Natoce, press secre-
tary for Protect Women Ohio, the group
seeking to block the amendment's pas-
sage. “It says it would protect an indi-
vidual's reproductive decisions. So no-
where in the amendment do we see the
word ‘adult.' The word ‘woman' doesn't
appear anywhere; there's no mention of
age restrictions.”
Given the ACLU's history of fighting
parental consent, Natoce is worried
about how this language could be inter-
preted, if passed.
The Republican-controlled Ohio Leg-
islature is pushing back against the
amendment with a special election in
August that seeks to raise the threshold
for passing constitutional amend-
ments. That could make it more chal-
lenging to pass the amendment come
November.
Yet it ultimately will be up to Ohioans
to decide how far they want to go to al-
low for abortions and “reproductive
care” in their state.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA
TODAY. You can contact her at
ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter:
@Ingrid_Jacques

Oops! Greene links Biden to popular past presidents

Rex Huppke
USA TODAY
Far-right Republican Rep. Marjorie
Taylor Greene might have accidentally
realized Joe Biden is a good president.
The predominantly ludicrous law-
maker from Georgia did Biden an unex-
pected – and surely unplanned – solid
this weekend in a speech at the conser-
vative Turning Point Action conference
in Florida, telling Republicans that the
Democratic president is fiendishly at-
tempting to make people's lives better.
She compared Biden's “Build Back
Better” plan to President Lyndon B.
Johnson's “Great Society,” an array of
programs from the mid-1960s aimed at
combating poverty in America. Those
programs included Medicare, Medicaid
and food stamps, along with the 1964
Civil Rights Act.
Americans have favorable opinion
of Medicare and Medicaid
Now, I'm just a humble newspaper
columnist, but it strikes me as a curious
political strategy to compare the legisla-
tion of a president you despise and want
to impeach with some of the most
broadly popular legislation in American
history.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey
from March found that more than 80%
of Americans have either a “very favor-
able” or “somewhat favorable” opinion
of Medicare, and that 76% feel the same
about Medicaid.
As Greene talked about President
Johnson, she said, dismissively: “His
BIG socialist programs were the Great
Society ... big government programs to
address education, medical care, urban
problems, rural poverty, transportation,
Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., addresses the Turning Point Action
conference on Sunday in West Palm Beach, Fla. MICHAEL LAUGHLIN/AP
welfare.”
THAT MONSTER! Surely no politi-
cian wants to be associated with help-
ing address education or rural poverty
or transportation!
The last thing voters want is a
president who is – GASP! – helping
Greene continued making the case
for Biden's reelection: “Now LBJ had the
Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build
Back Better, and he still is working on it,
the largest public investment in social
infrastructure and environmental pro-
grams that is actually finishing what
FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and
Joe Biden is attempting to complete.”
OH NO, NOT INVESTING IN SOCIAL
INFRASTRUCTURE! HEAVEN FOR-
FEND! INNOCENT AMERICANS MIGHT
GET HELPED!
As if connecting Biden to popular so-
cial programs wasn't enough, Greene
took the high praise a step further by
looping in President Franklin D. Roose-
velt, one of the most popular presidents
in American history.
I honestly wonder whether a covert
Biden campaign official didn't slip this
speech into Greene's teleprompter
ahead of time.
Of course there were a few mistakes.
She started out by saying Biden and
Johnson are both “Democrat socialists,”
which is an insult to both socialists and
words. She continued the comparison
by saying, “Lyndon B. Johnson was the
majority leader in the Senate, does that
sound familiar?”
It’s Greene, so one has
to expect some lies
It sounds neither familiar nor rele-
vant, as Biden was never majority lead-
er in the Senate.
She also said Biden is trying to “com-
plete socialism,” which doesn't make
any sense, and pointed out that “we are
now $32 trillion in debt.”
The debt has increased by $3.7 tril-
lion midway through Biden's first term,
and it increased by $7.8 trillion in Presi-
dent Donald Trump's one term.
She also lied that inflation is at a 40-
year high (it was last year but has since
dropped for 12 consecutive months to a
two-year low in June, and America now
has lower inflation than any of the other
Group of Seven major industrial nations
nations).
The Biden campaign
should be thanking Greene
Pesky facts aside, the congresswom-
an's attempt to raise Biden's profile to
that of FDR and the president who
launched a war on poverty and created
Medicare was surely appreciated by Bi-
den campaign officials.
If they're smart, they'll take video of
Greene's speech, cut it into a reelection
ad, run it in every market in America
and cash in on the goodwill.
Thanks, Marge!
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex
Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and
Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

“USA TODAY hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation.” – Allen H. Neuharth, Founder, Sept. 15, 1982

Chairman and CEO Chief Financial Officer: Chief Content Officer: Editor in Chief, Vice President/Group Editor, Vice President/Executive Editor,
Gannett Co. Doug Horne Kristin Roberts USA TODAY Gannett Opinion Sports
Michael Reed Terence Samuel Michael McCarter Roxanna Scott
8A ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY
TRAVEL
POCKET GUIDE
GERMANY
10Best Local Experts
take you to the best
spots around Berlin,
Frankfurt, Munich
Andrea Schulte-Peevers
in BERLIN
Robyn Polzin
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GO SEE ...
BERLIN
1. Berlin Wall Memorial
The Berlin Wall may be gone,
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Bernauer Strasse 119
+49 30 467 986 666
2. Stasi Prison
Former inmates lead tours of
the prison where the East Ger-
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Genslerstrasse 66
+49 30 9860 8230
3. Panoramapunkt
For the best bird’s-eye view of
central Berlin, let Europe’s fastest
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this lofty perch above Potsdamer
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See how the Prussian kings
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sailles, framed by a lovely park
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Spandauer Damm 20-24
+49 30 320 911
5. Humboldt-Box
This multimedia exhibit ac-
companies the ongoing recon-
struction of the city’s Prussian
imperial palace, which was de-
molished by the communists in
1950. Humboldt-Box introduces
the future tenants and explains
how the huge building will fit
within the city’s historic center.
Schlossplatz 5
+49 180 503 0707
6. Pergamonmuseum
This crowd-pleaser wows with
monumental antiquities from
Greece, Rome and the Middle
East. Star exhibits include the ra-
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Bodestrasse 1-3
+49 30 266 424 242
Narrow slits
in barriers at
the Berlin
Wall Memori-
al provide
glimpses of
the “death
strip,” where
those fleeing
East Berlin
were often
gunned down.
GÜNTER STEFFEN,
VISITBERLIN
UNEXPECTED
GERMANY
BERLIN
1. Story of Berlin
This museum’s engaging multi-
media trip through the city’s his-
tory culminates with a tour of a
Cold War nuclear bomb shelter.
Kurfürstendamm 207-208
+49 30 8872 0100
2. Tempelhof Park
Tempelhof Airport, site of the
first Lufthansa flight and the Ber-
lin Airlift, closed in 2008. It’s now
open as a beloved city park.
Entrances on Columbiadamm,
Oderstrasse, Tempelhofer Damm
7. Neukölln neighborhood
Catapulted from gritty zone to
vibrant district, Neukölln is per-
fect for DIY exploration. Cafes
like Katie’s Blue Cat invite linger-
ing between stops at vintage bou-
tiques and hipster bars.
Katie’s Blue Cat
Friedelstrasse 31
+49 178 806 9701
8. Jüdische Mädchenschule
A former Jewish girls’ school in
a Bauhaus-era building has
evolved into a cultural hot spot,
featuring cutting-edge galleries, a
museum about the Kennedys and
even stellar restaurants.
Auguststrasse 11-13
+49 030 3300 6070
9. Museum in der
Kulturbrauerei
This exhibit in a former brew-
ery uses original documents, pho-
tographs and objects to peel back
the Iron Curtain on daily life in
communist East Germany.
Knaackstrasse 97
+49 030 4677 7790
PHILIP KOSCHEL, VISITBERLIN
Sunflowers, rather than jets,
aim skyward at Tempelhof.
3. Rembrandt Collection
The 16 Rembrandt works at
the Gemäldegalerie form one of
the world’s largest, most exquisite
collections by this Dutch master.
Matthäikirchplatz
+49 30 266 424 242
MARTINA BERG, GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
10. Bikini Berlin
Browse fashion and design at
Germany’s first “concept mall,” in
a 1950s landmark building with
front-row views of the monkey
enclosure of the Berlin Zoo.
Budapester Strasse 38-50
GO SEE ...
FRANKFURT
1. Palmengarten
Established in 1868, this oasis
in the Westend is Germany’s larg-
est botanical garden. Displays in-
clude more than 13,000 tropical
and subtropical plant species.
Siesmayerstrasse 61
+49 69 2123 3939
2. Hauptbahnhof Station
The busiest train station in
Frankfurt consists of a massive
main vestibule and two adjoining
neoclassical halls made of steel
and glass. Inside are a series of
platforms, shops and food stands.
Am Hauptbahnhof
4. Ramones Museum
Avid Ramones fan Flo Hayler
shares his collection of memora-
bilia in this cool east Berlin
shrine to the punk-rock pioneers.
Krausnickstrasse 23
+49 30 7552 8890
FRANKFURT
5. Long Island Summer
Lounge
Relaxing by day and edgy at
night, this beach bar atop an ur-
ban parking garage is a refreshing
antidote for what ails you.
Park House Exchange, Deck 7
+49 151 6150 9889
6. Festhalle
What do Miley Cyrus, Peter
Gabriel and OneRepublic have in
SBORISOV, GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Marienplatz, above, has
been the main square of
Munich since 1158, al-
though New Town Hall
dates only to 1874. West
of Frankfurt lie the ruins
of Rheinfels Castle, left.
3. Museumsufer
A walk along the Main River’s
Museum Embankment is a must.
Twelve museums sit on a single
tree-lined street, the most nota-
ble being the Städel art gallery.
Städel, Schaumainkai 63
+49 69 605098 232
4. Rheinfels Castle
West of the city, this castle’s
ancient stone ramparts rise over
the Rhine at Sankt Goar. The ru-
ins recall the Middle Ages, while
the restaurant and its lovely ter-
race herald the modern day.
Schlossberg, Sankt Goar
+49 6741 7753
5. Goethehaus
Grand wood staircases take
visitors through the reconstruct-
ed timbered house where the
writer Johann Wolfgang von Goe-
the spent his childhood.
Grosser Hirschgraben 23
+49 69 138 800
6. Gerbermühle
After cycling along the Main
River, relax in the garden at this
16th-century flour mill renovated
as a hotel complex.
Gerbermühlestrasse 105
+49 69 689 7779 0
7. Hauptwache Station
This busy rapid-transit station
resembles an underground city
with its street performers, chalk
artists, international markets, dry
cleaners and even an entrance to
the Galeria department store.
An der Hauptwache 17
8. Kleinmarkthalle
This market hall hosts some 60
vendors selling fresh food, wine
and flowers every day except Sun-
day. Locals like a glass of wine in
the outdoor garten upstairs.
Hasengasse 5
+49 69 2123 3696
9. Römerberg
Heart of Frankfurt’s old town,
this charming central square is
common? All have played this im-
pressive neobaroque-style exhibi-
tion hall, which dates to 1909.
Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1
+49 69 1340 400
7. English Theatre
Delight in a memorable perfor-
mance at this gem of a venue in
the city center. Seating 300, it’s
the largest English-language
theater in continental Europe.
Gallusanlage 7
+49 69 2423 1620
MUNICH
8. Bavaria Filmstadt
The famous film studio where
The Neverending Story, the origi-
nal Willy Wonka and the Choco-
late Factory, Das Boot and many
NEWS
lined with reconstructed half-
timbered houses. Be sure to visit
the Zum Römer, where Holy Ro-
man emperors were coronated.
Römerberg, Altstadt
10. Alte Oper
The Italian Renaissance-style
Alte Oper is Frankfurt’s original
opera house. Can’t make a show?
Linger at an outdoor cafe on
Opernplatz, the Opera Square.
Opernplatz 1
+49 69 1340 0
GO SEE ...
MUNICH
1. St. Peter’s Church
Munich’s oldest church, “Alter
Peter” (Old Peter) is recognizable
by its 91-meter tower, offering
some of the best views of the city.
Rindermarkt 1
+49 89 2102 3776
2. Hirschgarten
This used to be part of the roy-
al hunting grounds. Today it’s the
site of a family-friendly beer gar-
den (Bavaria’s largest), serving
top-notch local food.
Hirschgarten 1
+49 89 1799 9119
3. Odeonsplatz
For photo opportunities, it’s
hard to beat this square in cen-
tral Munich. Odeonsplatz, named
for the Odeon concert hall, is bor-
dered by some of the city’s most
significant buildings.
Odeonsplatz 1
+49 89 222 324
4. Viktualienmarkt
From sausages and fish to ex-
otic fruit, Munich’s open-air food
market boasts the highest-quality
gourmet groceries in town. At its
center lies a beer garden with a
lively atmosphere.
Viktualienmarkt 3
+49 89 8906 8205
5. Alte Pinakothek
The former royal collection of
Old Masters paintings resides
here. Dürer, Rembrandt, Peter
Paul Rubens and El Greco are
among those represented.
Barer Strasse 27
+49 89 2380 5216
6. Marienplatz
Munich’s main square since
1158, Marienplatz is abuzz with
activity and a great place for pho-
tos, with the Gothic Revival-style
New Town Hall in the spotlight.
+49 089 2330 0115
7. Residenz
Take a tour of the former main
royal palace of Bavaria, with its
130 rooms and 10 courtyards.
Residenzstrasse 1
+49 089 290 671
8. BMW Museum
From the earliest BMW en-
gines to modern prototypes, the
permanent exhibit here appeals
to the car lover in all of us and
rolls out fun for all ages.
Am Olympiapark 2
+49 89 125 016 001
9. Nymphenburg Palace
This baroque beauty housed
Bavaria’s rulers beginning in
1675. Perhaps more spectacular
than the palace itself are the 490
acres of formal gardens.
Schloss Nymphenburg 1
+49 089 179 080
10. Asamkirche
A rococo gem, Asamkirche was
built as a private chapel for the
brothers who completed it in
1746. Now it’s open to the public.
Sendlinger Strasse 32
+49 089 2368 7989
Want even more great ideas?
Go to 10Best.com for handy
travel lists, cool pics and hot
tips by Local Experts in popular
destinations around the world.
other movies were made offers
tours and a 4-D theater.
Bavariafilmplatz 7
+49 089 6499 2000
9. Eisbach River Surfing
On the Eisbach’s canal next to
the Haus der Kunst, look for the
spot just off the road where peo-
ple surf year-round — in Munich.
Prinzregentenstrasse
+49 089 2339 6500
10. Kartoffelmuseum
The Potato Museum follows
the starchy vegetable and its vari-
ous uses throughout history, with
special emphasis on its ties to
Munich. The museum is free and
worthy of an hour of your time.
Grafingerstrasse 2
+49 089 404050
SPORTS
MLB power rankings: Mets’
$348M roster hits a low, 3B
Martin Truex Jr. wins at New Hampshire track for
USA TODAY | WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023 | SECTION B first time in 30 NASCAR Cup Series races, 2B
Latest news, results, opinion
24/7 at sports.usatoday.com
See who won and who lost in Major League Base-
ball, plus offseason NFL and college football news

In return:
Smith
wants
Jug back
Adam Schupak
Golfweek | USA TODAY Network

HOYLAKE, England – Cameron

Smith held back tears when he re-
turned the Claret Jug on Monday.
“I thought I was going to do all
right,” he said. “A bit of a moment, I
guess, that crept up on me.”
Smith became the Champion Golfer
of the Year at the 150th British Open at
St Andrews by shooting a final-round
64 to clip Cameron Young and 54-hole
co-leader Rory McIlroy last year.
“It's the coolest trophy ever,” said
Smith, who among other trips took the
trophy back to Brisbane, Australia,
where he grew up and celebrated with
the members at the club where he
learned the game. “Had a ripping
night. For a little country club outside
of Brisbane to have the Claret Jug in it I
think was a pretty cool moment.”
On the night Smith won his first ma-
jor title, Australian Penfolds Grange
wine, tequila and beer were poured
into the Claret Jug, which got quite a
workout in the days and months to
come. What Smith loved most was
seeing the reaction of lovers of golf
when their eyes would meet with the
famed jug:
“It's like they've seen a ghost.”
During his year of having custody of
the trophy that dates back to 1872,
Smith recalled some random moments
when he'd walk into his home office in United States forward Trinity Rodman beats England defender Rachel Daly to the ball in a match in October at Wembley
Florida and be sorting through mail Stadium in London. PETER VAN DEN BERG/USA TODAY SPORTS
and he'd bump into it as surreal.

HER OWN LEGACY

“There was a few moments like
that, I guess,” he said. “It still doesn't
feel real, even a year down the road.
But yeah, hopefully I can get it back. I
want that thing back so bad.”
It's not far-fetched to think he could
be the first repeat champion since Pa-
draig Harrington successfully de-
fended in 2007-08. Smith is coming off
a win at the LIV London event at Cen-
turion Golf Club just two weeks ago.
“I think I'm actually a better golfer
now than what I was last year. I think
the stuff that I had to clean up is pro-
gressing. It's still a little bit of a work in
progress,” he said, noting 5-iron and
up to the driver are the clubs he tends
to lack consistency. “That's an area of
the game that we've worked probably
harder than we have on in the past.”
Smith expressed no regret in mak-
ing his decision to defect to LIV Golf for
a lucrative signing bonus. He's opti-
mistic about the future of golf despite
being unsure what the future holds for
LIV. Smith did show a level of support
for fellow Australian Greg Norman, the
LIV commissioner who lured him to
leave the PGA Tour nearly a year ago.
“I think I've kind of become a bit of a
friend of Greg's, I guess, the last eight
or nine months,” Smith said. “Person-
ally I think he's doing a great job for our
tour. He's looking out for our best in-
terests. That's all you can ask of a guy
that's running the show. Yeah, I'd love
to see him keep on.”
What Smith is really focused on is
regaining possession of the Claret Jug.
Someone during his pre-champion-
ship press conference asked if he was
OK after having to part ways with it.
“Yeah, I'll be fine,” Smith said. “I'll
be able to sleep tonight.”
But he's already joked with his bud-
dies that this is going to be a one-week
separation.
Cameron Smith has joked this is just a
1-week separation from the Claret
Jug. KYLE TERADA/USA TODAY SPORTS
Trinity Rodman’s made soccer history twice. Can she do it again?
Chris Bumbaca
USA TODAY
LEESBURG, Va. – Trinity Rodman
sometimes has to remind herself that
she is not dreaming.
Four years ago, she watched wom-
en's national team stars Megan Rapi-
noe and Alex Morgan win the World
Cup in France. Ahead of the 2023 tour-
nament in Australia/New Zealand,
Rodman – yes, she is the daughter of
NBA champion and Hall of Famer Den-
nis – finds herself calling Rapinoe and
Morgan teammates, feeding them
passes from the left wing.
“To be a part of it, to even talk about
Trinity Rodman in a World Cup and
putting my name with other names, I
can't even wrap my head around it,”
Rodman told USA TODAY Sports in
June, a few days after her 21st birth-
day. “But it's so exciting.”
Rodman is among the youngest of
the 23 players U.S. coach Vlatko Ando-
novksi selected for the World Cup,
which begins Thursday, providing
Rodman an opportunity to show the
country – and the world – there is a lot
more to her than the last name.
Being young nothing new
Being one of the youngest is noth-
Thousands welcome Messi to Inter Miami
Hal Habib
The Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – He
casually strolled onto the stage, wear-
ing a white T-shirt and blue jeans that
had taken more than a few spins
through the washer.
You never would have known he's
the biggest athlete in the world, with
possibly the most recognizable face on
the planet.
And Sunday night, Lionel Messi be-
came South Florida's own.
ing new for Rodman.
The Washington Spirit selected her
second overall in the 2021 National
Women's Soccer League draft, making
Rodman, then 18, the youngest player
ever drafted.
Rodman never even played colle-
giately; she briefly attended Washing-
ton State but the Cougars' 2020 season
was wiped out by the pandemic. And in
high school, she played her freshman
season at Corona del Mar High in New-
port Beach, California, and then trans-
ferred about 16 miles away to JSerra
Catholic School, but she never stepped
foot on the soccer pitch.
With the national team, Rodman has
notched 17 caps following her debut at
the 2022 Concacaf Championship. In
four matches this season (all friendlies)
before a Cup send-off win July 9, she
was tied with Rose Lavelle – who filled
the role of precocious youngster on the
2019 World Cup squad – with three as-
sists.
Being around the USWNT, even
someone 14 years her senior in Rapinoe,
doesn't make Rodman feel younger.
“When you're playing soccer, when
you're all there for the same reasons, it's
hard to even see age,” Rodman said.
“You're all working just as hard and
you're all playing at the same level.”
Rodman credits the veterans for cre-
Inter Miami officially welcomed Mes-
si with a strobe-and-pyrotechnic bash
not seen in these parts since the Heat's
Big Three.
LeBron James took his talents to
South Beach.
Messi is taking his to Commercial
Boulevard.
“I'm so happy to be here,” Messi told
the crowd in Spanish. “I can't wait to
start training and competing. I'm here to
compete, to win, to help the team as I al-
ways did.”
Messi is expected to make his playing
debut Friday night in a sold-out friendly
against Mexican club Cruz Azul. But for
the thousands filling DRV PNK Stadium
despite a vicious early-evening electri-
ating a supportive atmosphere and put
herself in position to make the team, es-
pecially after the injury of Mallory
Swanson, and to potentially crack the
starting 11.
She doesn't necessarily see it that
way yet.
“I think everybody on the outside is
like, ‘Trin's definitely going to make it.'
But in my head I don't see a secure spot
at all,” Rodman said prior to the June 21
announcement she made the World Cup
roster. “I am still working my butt off to
make it there. And once I get there, it's
filling whatever role. I don't expect to
play if I get there, that's my mindset.”
Record contract, rocky start
and ‘ignoring pressure’
Rodman isn't afraid of calling the
start of her NWSL career “rocky.”
Washington Spirit coach Mark Par-
sons is the fourth person to hold the job
in her three seasons with the team.
“I mean, that alone says a lot,” she
said.
The Spirit were one of several NWSL
clubs investigated by the league for
workplace toxicity, with Washington
being referred to as an “old boys club.”
There was an ownership power struggle
See RODMAN, Page 2B
cal storm, the mere sight of Messi was
enough to send them into a frenzy.
“Mes-si! Mes-si! Mes-si!” they
chanted, many showing up in the fam-
ous blue and white stripes of Argentina,
which Messi led to the World Cup title
last year. Get used to seeing him in black
and pink now, although the familiar
No. 10 of course will still adorn his back.
Emotional evening for Beckham
“Please forgive me for feeling a little
bit emotional tonight,” Inter Miami part-
owner David Beckham told the crowd.
“It really is a dream come true to help
See HABIB, Page 2B
2B ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY
Truex Jr. wins for
1st time in 30 NH races
Kelly Crandall
RACER
USA TODAY Network
Martin Truex Jr. finally earned what
had been an elusive victory at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway, and he did
so Monday in dominating fashion.
Truex swept both stages and led 254
of the 301 laps on his way to winning the
Crayon 301.
The victory is his third win of the sea-
son and first at New Hampshire in 30
career starts.
“What we've been able to do here
over the years is pretty remarkable, and
to not win was really getting frustrat-
ing,” Truex said.
“James (Small) and I talked about it
many times. We thought about it all
weekend, talked about it with Christo-
pher (Bell) before the race. He's like,
‘man, you've led more laps here than I've
even raced in Cup.' Just really an awe-
some job by everybody.
“What a race car we had today. Just
proud of the whole team. Pit stops were
flawless. Race car was unbelievable. We
had some challenges throughout the
race and it was a handful at times, but
we just kept our heads down, kept dig-
ging.”
The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
was the class of the field from the drop
of the green flag. Truex took the lead for
the first time on lap 2 and was hardly
challenged for the top spot all after-
noon.
There were two cautions inside the
final 25 laps where the field had a shot at
Truex. The first came with 22 laps to go
for an incident on the backstretch be-
tween Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs and Erik
Jones, and the final flew with 14 laps re-
maining when Christopher Bell spun
and hit the wall in Turn 4.
Truex's margin of victory over Joey
Logano was .396 seconds. Kyle Larson
finished third. Kevin Harvick finished
fourth in his final New Hampshire race.
Brad Keselowski completed the top five.
Rodman
Continued from Page 1B
that ended with Michele Yang assuming
control of the team.
“I've learned so much. I've gone
through a lot. Our team's gone through a
lot. Right now, I'd say we're thriving,”
said Rodman, who was complimentary
of Parsons and his approach to develop-
ing everyone, from the best player to the
last one on the bench.
“As a young player, she had a lot of re-
sponsibility and faced a lot of adversity
with the club and in the league, along
with all the players,” Spirit assistant
coach Angela Salem told USA TODAY
Sports. “She had to grow up a lot quicker
than most and was exposed to some
negative things and challenges early on
in her career.
“What's been incredible is she's been
able to persevere through and bounce
back and still represent this league and
this club and the national team at the
highest level.”
Rodman made history two months
after the Spirit selected her by signing
the first million-dollar contract in
league history.
The hard part for Rodman was trying
to balance how others would feel about
her being the first player to reach that
threshold instead of legends like Rapi-
noe, Morgan or Crystal Dunn.
“I'm not trying to say I shouldn't have
got it, because I did work very hard,” she
said. “But it was hard for me to work
through the fact that all these players
who had put their blood, sweat and
tears in for 10-plus years, who had been
to World Cup and the Olympics, didn't
get it. It was so hard for me to under-
stand. I truly was just like, ‘What? Me?
It took that long?' ”
Almost immediately, she showed
why she was worth the paycheck, scor-
ing off the bench in her first game and
recording an assist in the next.
“Being that it went so well so early, it
was also very hard, because you had the
pressure of, ‘Oh, she proved that she can
keep up. Now she has to keep up,' ” Rod-
man said.
More attention – “Trinity Rodman Is
Dicing Up All These People at 18,” as she
put it – was paid to her. Hard times fol-
lowed and she questioned herself
throughout that rookie season.
“You start to rethink,” Rodman said,
“and you're like, ‘OK, maybe I don't have
it.' ”
Eventually, Rodman realized the
pressure she felt amounted to saying
Tyler Reddick finished sixth, Denny
Hamlin finished seventh and Bubba
Wallace finished eighth. Austin Dillon
finished ninth and Chase Briscoe
rounded out the top 10.
Ryan Blaney finished 22nd, having
watched an opportunity to contend for
a top-five finish disappear when he
was called for running over equipment
on pit road. The infraction – running
over the air hose – happened under the
caution with 31 laps to go when the
team took two tires.
Bell, who started from the pole, fin-
ished 29th after leading the opening
lap of the race but then spending much
of the afternoon fighting from behind
after having to make a second pit stop
at the end of the first stage. After com-
ing off pit road third, Bell returned to
his pit stall because the team was un-
sure the wheels were tight.
In the second stage, Bell finished
10th and climbed as high as fifth in the
final stage. He was running eighth
when he crashed.
Aric Almirola finished 34th after
crashing from the race lead on lap 169.
The right rear wheel was not tightened
on Almirola's car.
Kyle Busch was classified last after
he crashed in Turn 1 when losing con-
trol of his car while trying a new line.
There were 13 lead changes among
nine drivers in Monday's postponed
event, which was caused by weather
Sunday, and eight caution flags.
Up next
The Cup Series shifts to Pocono
Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania,
where Chase Elliott is the defending
race winner – even though he failed to
finish first.
Denny Hamlin had his Pocono win
thrown out and so did runner-up Kyle
Busch because of failed inspections.
Hamlin was the first winner disquali-
fied since 1960.
Contributing: Associated Press
“don't fail.” She shook herself out of the
funk.
“This is going to sound weird,” she
begins, “but I've noticed that the best
thing about pressure is just ignoring it.”
The Rodman family: ‘There’s so
many headlines’
The tattoo of two tulips sprouting
from the ground on her right wrist is
Rodman's favorite.
For one, it is the favorite flower of her
mother, Michelle Moyer, who raised
Rodman and her older brother, Dennis
Jr. (“DJ”). The siblings are extremely
close, Rodman said, mostly thanks to
their mother's lessons that friends and
teammates come and go, but family is
forever.
“You don't damage that,” Rodman
said. “You don't get in stupid fights and
not make up.”
Loyalty is arguably Rodman's most
admirable trait off the field, Salem said,
adding, “She's really easy to talk to.”
DJ Rodman, a year older than his sis-
ter, will play alongside Bronny James on
the Southern California Trojans men's
basketball team this fall after transfer-
ring from Washington State.
“LeBron James' son and Dennis Rod-
man's son on the same court is going to
be insane,” said Trinity Rodman, who
said she has tried to help DJ with his
confidence.
“The amount of time he spends
watching film, the amount of time he
spends watching my dad from years and
years ago – it wasn't even the same type
of basketball. But being from a dad who
rebounded to being a player who can re-
bound, who can take charges, who can
hit threes, who can drive to the basket –
he is trying to be the best,” Rodman said
of her brother. “I think a lot of schools
really wanted him. For him to finally get
the recognition was cool. To see how ex-
cited he was, was the best feeling as a
sister, and it paid off.”
In November 2021, after Dennis Rod-
man attended a Spirit postseason game,
Trinity published an emotional Insta-
gram post of her embracing the five-
time NBA champion.
“My dad doesn't play a big role in my
life at all and most people don't know
that, we don't see eye to eye on many
things,” she wrote. “I go months if not
years without his presence or commu-
nication.”
Moyer kept her and DJ out of the pub-
lic eye in their childhoods, but now that
era of their lives is over. The attention
can be overwhelming at times, Rodman
admits.
Habib
Continued from Page 1B
welcome Lionel Messi to Inter Miami.
Leo, we are so proud that you have
chosen our club for this next stage of
your career.”
Beckham said signing the seven-
time world player of the year was the
culmination of a “10-year journey” to
first land an MLS team, but then to
“bring the best players in the world to
MLS and the great city of Miami.”
As if fans needed another excuse to
latch onto Messi, who thinks nothing
of taking on two or three defenders
and making them look foolish, there's
this: By agreeing to sign with Inter Mi-
ami, he may have given the club and
the region the largest hometown dis-
count in sports history. Messi has long
enjoyed quietly vacationing in Miami,
has two residences here, and turned
down hundreds of millions from Saudi
Arabia to join MLS. He reportedly
could have made more than double the
worth of his $150 million deal.
The magnitude of such a signing
wasn't lost on managing owner Jorge
Mas. “There will always be a before
and after Lionel Messi” for this club,
Mas said.
Club has ground to make up
The “before” isn't pretty. Messi is
joining a club on an 11-match winless
streak, one that is last in the Eastern
Conference with five wins in 22
matches. There are a dozen matches
left, leaving only a sliver of a margin
for error, or Messi's new side will un-
ceremoniously be on the sidelines
when the playoffs begin. Eight wins
might be sufficient to get in the door.
Adding Sergio Busquets, Messi's old
Barcelona teammate and a star in his
own right, can only help. Busquets also
appeared Sunday night.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the next
chapter of our story starts here,” Beck-
ham said.
Make no mistake – Messi's signing
is about much more than the 2023 fate
of Inter Miami, or even MLS. Much like
when Pele joined the North American
Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman (2) reacts after scoring against the OL
Reign during an NWSL game at Audi Field. AMBER SEARLS/USA TODAY SPORTS
“There's so many headlines. People
say so much. But at the end of the day,
I'm here to play soccer. And I want to be
the best I can,” Rodman said. “And if
other people are saying that, that's
great, and I'm hoping that the headlines
are always (positive) and not something
else.”
Taking pride for loving the game
Playing for her youth club team, the
Southern California Blues, at national
tournaments and scoring goals with col-
lege scouts in the crowd, Rodman –
roughly 14 years old at the time – had a
feeling soccer was her future.
Luckily for her, she loves the game.
“Always being in a mental space off
the field to enjoy on the field,” Rodman
said of maintaining that love. “Because
if you're not good off the field – if it's
family, if it's finances, if it's friends, if
it's anything – you're not going to like
being on the field every day. You're not
going to play your best every time you're
on the field.
“I'll never get on the field and dislike
it. I'll never allow myself to get to that
point.”
In February, Andonovksi said he
would like to see Rodman develop a
“ruthlessness” on the attack and gener-
ate multiple scoring chances per game.
“We'll use those moments as learning
opportunities so we can show Trin how
she can be even better,” he said at the
time.
With the Spirit, Rodman plays in the
SPORTS
Inter Miami CF fans hold up Lionel
Messi signs and banners Sunday.
JASEN VINLOVE/USA TODAY SPORTS
Soccer League, a player many call the
greatest is finishing his career in the
U.S. with groundbreaking ambitions.
Messi spent a few minutes with mi-
crophone in hand, addressing the crowd
before turning to the video boards,
which showed a video with VIPs rang-
ing from Steph Curry and Tom Brady to
Gloria Estefan welcoming him to Miami.
So too did presidential candidate Fran-
cis Suarez, who is raffling off suddenly-
hot Inter Miami tickets to benefit his
campaign. Not into politics? You don't
have to be in order to know Lionel Messi
has arrived. Murals with his smiling
face are popping up on various build-
ings in Miami-Dade.
Three hours before the event was to
begin, a throng already waited at the
gates to enter the stadium. Every street
approaching the stadium was motion-
less, such was the traffic jam for a sport-
ing event that wasn't even a sporting
event. Not even the lightning managed
to discourage many, if any. Everyone
came precisely to experience electricity
in the air, you understand.
“Tonight, we're doing this Miami-
style, in the rain,” Mas said. “This is holy
water!”
On this night, Mas and Beckham
could have sold the crowd on just about
anything.
They have delivered on Lionel Messi.
Impossibly, improbably, Lionel Mes-
si.
center forward spot. For the USWNT,
she's expected to play on the left wing,
where she'll be mostly creating scoring
opportunities rather than finish them.
Andonovksi still wants to see Rod-
man's NWSL level of play translate to
the international game.
“She can change the game in a split
second,” he told USA TODAY Sports,
“and that's very welcome in our envi-
ronment.”
Rodman said she has taught herself
how to have the openness and vulner-
ability to be coached but the discipline
and self-esteem to know that every-
thing a coach says doesn't define her.
“Because if I didn't make that team, I
would look at myself and be like, ‘I'm not
enough. I didn't do enough,' ” Rodman
said. “I think now, I've gotten to a place
where I'm doing everything I can.”
That includes making the World Cup
roster and playing whatever role she can
to help the U.S. to a third straight title.
Winning a NWSL championship tops
her 2023 to-do list, however.
“Our team, we've grown into some-
thing I thought we never could be with
the stuff that we went through,” Rod-
man said. “You can tell there is some-
thing special.
“I don't know, I just really want that
championship this year.”
And with all of that to accomplish in
the coming months, what drives Trinity
Rodman to stay focused and succeed?
The answer is quite simple.
“Myself.”
Contributing: Nancy Armour
SPORTS
Surprising Marlins turn into hit show
Gabe Lacques
USA TODAY
Across the major leagues, best-laid
plans, backed by hundreds of millions of
dollars in gaudy investments, are blow-
ing up.
Who knew trading for a singles hitter
and a few bullpen pieces was the an-
swer?
OK, so the Miami Marlins aren’t mak-
ing it that simple.
Yet as general manager Kim Ng en-
tered her third season, she and her staff
diagnosed both the patient – a Marlins
team that struck out too much, that lost
close games late, that simply couldn’t
hit – and the cure.
“Acquire pure hitters,” Ng says.
So they acquired the purest.
Luis Arraez has hovered around the
.400 mark in batting average all season
and has almost twice as many multihit
games (36) as he does strikeouts (20).
The bullpen conundrum? Largely
solved by shipping off a poor-contact
outfield prospect (JJ Bleday) for closer
A.J. Puk and acquiring J.T. Chargois
from the Tampa Bay Rays, at least add-
ing order to the late innings.
The result is a club that has cured
what ailed them, that, with a $96 million
payroll, has outperformed teams with
payrolls of at least a quarter billion dol-
lars – and entered Monday 53-42 and in
a virtual tie for the National League’s
top wild-card spot.
With two weeks to the trade deadline
and 67 games left in the season, the
Marlins are no longer moribund, an op-
eration that’s fully connected from the
machinations in the front office to the
players executing the plan.
“I feel like as a whole, we all clicked at
the same time,” says starting pitcher Je-
sús Luzardo, who has trimmed his ERA
from 6.61 in 2021, when he was traded to
Miami, to 3.29 this season.
“We all said, ‘All right, we’re ready to
go. We’re going to go.’ ”
Turning L’s into W’s
Finding gold within a 69-93 club, as
the Marlins were in 2022, seemed fool-
ish. Yet Ng saw a team that wasn’t too
far away, not when 64 of their games
were decided by one run.
Their record in those games: 24-40.
Bullpen reconstruction was a natural
place to start. So, too, was the manager’s
MLB POWER RANKINGS
Mets’ $348 million roster finds new low
Gabe Lacques
USA TODAY
The New York Mets keep plumbing
new depths. Putting it in perspective re-
quires a trip back in time.
We’re not about to call their 5-1 loss –
sealed with a most embarrassing error –
to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday
the low point of the season. Heck, it’s
only mid-July and there’s no shortage of
horrors that may still befall them. And
they did rally to salvage the finale of the
three-game set Sunday night in extra
innings.
But dropping the first series of the
second half cools any notion that the
All-Star break might provide a reset,
that the most expensive team in base-
ball history would will its way to conten-
tion, and that the breaks might start
falling its way.
Instead, the Mets are simply a 43-50
team, trailing their division by almost
20 games, unlikely to make up the
8 1⁄2 games and vault the five teams
needed for a courtesy playoff invite via
the wild card. Their latest series loss
dropped them to 22nd in USA TODAY
Sports’ power rankings.
Flash back to March, when the air in
Queens featured both a chill and a sense
of hope. Sure, the Mets had just lost
closer Edwin Diaz for the season, but in
our season-opening rankings, they
were tied for sixth with the Philadelphia
Phillies. Save for the almost-equally dis-
appointing Padres, the five other top
teams at the outset – Astros, Braves,
Dodgers, Yankees and Phillies – are ei-
ther in playoff position or acquitting
themselves respectfully.
No, the Mets are an outlier, and un-
less they unload much of the roster at
the trade deadline, will pay nearly
$500 million in payroll and taxes for
that privilege. Barring a rapid and unex-
pected turnaround, the remaining ten-
sion will only be how low they can go.
1. Atlanta Braves (–)
h After getting roughed up by White
Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez reacts after taking a pitch against the
Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. TOMMY GILLIGAN/USA TODAY SPORTS
office, where Don Mattingly wasn’t re-
tained after seven seasons. In seeking
his replacement, Ng could not ignore
her longtime admiration of the St. Louis
Cardinals’ complete teams earlier this
century.
Devil magic, naysayers might call
their 2006 and 2011 World Series titles.
Either way, she found it embodied in 11-
year utility player Skip Schumaker, a
grinder’s grinder, if you will.
“I love that mindset,” says Ng. “That
aggressiveness, that attention to detail
– when you combine all those little
things, can add up to converting some of
those one-run losses.”
Schumaker acknowledges that the
biggest learning curve has come with
delegating and trusting his staff, a com-
mon refrain for first-year managers. But
Ng has seen Schumaker evolve in han-
dling the dozens of personalities in the
clubhouse, in “learning to pull the
strings.”
More often than not, they’re the right
ones: The Marlins are 21-8 in one-run
games and have outscored opponents
145-123 in innings seven through nine.
“The belief started happening when
you start winning really close games
early on,” says Schumaker. “Come-
from-behind wins. Then they start be-
lieving in themselves and trusting each
other that yeah, we can really do this. I
think there’s some young guys that are
Sox, Spencer Strider has given up at
least five runs in five starts.
2. Tampa Bay Rays (–)
h Don’t look back ...
3. Baltimore Orioles (–)
h An impressive sweep of the Mar-
lins. A series win vs. Dodgers will really
get some attention.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (–)
h No pressure, kid: Michael Grove
needs to be effective with Clayton Ker-
shaw out until August.
5. Texas Rangers (–)
h Lead the AL in run differential
(+159), passing the Rays, whom they
host for three games this week.
6. Arizona Diamondbacks (–)
h Swept at Toronto, and suddenly
visits to Atlanta, Cincinnati take on
some urgency.
7. Houston Astros (+1)
h Four of their nine starting pitchers
used are rookies; perhaps a veteran ad-
dition is in order.
8. San Francisco Giants (+1)
h 41-24 since May 2.
9. Miami Marlins (-2)
h Legitimate needs (starter, reliever,
bat(s) ) and legitimate playoff odds as
deadline nears.
10. Toronto Blue Jays (+1)
h Shaping up to be a four-way battle
for two playoff spots with Astros/Rang-
ers, Yankees, Red Sox.
USA TODAY ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ 3B
starting to become real big leaguers
now. They weren’t really sure they were
big leaguers, themselves. I think base-
ball tells you when you’re ready.”
For Luzardo, it has been a process. He
pitched on two playoff teams in Oakland
but regressed in 2020 before the bottom
fell out in 2021; the Marlins landed him
for Starling Marte.
While a change of scenery can help,
Luzardo, a South Florida native, found
answers in his own neighborhood.
Longtime Minnesota Twins reliever
Juan Rincón, one of dozens of Venezue-
lan ballplayers who have settled near
Miami, knew Luzardo since working out
at his high school, Marjory Stoneman
Douglas. In the 2021 offseason, Luzardo
got a message from Rincon: Call me.
They talked for an hour, played catch,
chatted mechanics, but most of all, dis-
cussed mindset.
“That conversation went a long way
for me,” says Luzardo. “I feel like, in my
head, I don’t put as much pressure on
myself. It’s not life or death every start. I
feel like before, if I gave up a run or two, I
felt like it was the end of the world and
the world was crashing down on me.
“Now I just understand, the sun is go-
ing to rise the next morning and I under-
stand if I have a bad game, it’s all right.
“In five days, I’ll go out there and
do it again. I’ve maybe taken some
pressure off myself and going out there
11. Milwaukee Brewers (+1)
h A statement sweep to start the sec-
ond half at Cincinnati.
12. Cincinnati Reds (-2)
h In past four games Brewers held
them to three runs in 36 innings.
13. New York Yankees (–)
h If they really want Shohei Ohtani,
they can beat his team three times this
week and knock them further into sell
mode.
14. Philadelphia Phillies (+1)
h Uh-oh: Bryce Harper getting it go-
ing.
15. Boston Red Sox (-1)
h This space is now a Masataka
Yoshida weekly tribute.
16. Minnesota Twins (+2)
h Carlos Correa has .417 OBP, .871 OPS
batting leadoff.
17. Los Angeles Angels (–)
h Trade deadline approaching night-
mare do-they, don’t-they status.
18. Seattle Mariners (-2)
h .231 team average outranks only the
the Tigers and A’s in AL.
19. Cleveland Guardians (+1)
h Josh Naylor setting high standard
for little brother: .308 average, .844
OPS.
20. San Diego Padres (-1)
h Could have won all four in Philly.
Won just one. The beat goes on.
and having fun.”
Luzardo has struck out 129 in 109 1⁄3
innings this year, and his 2022 turn-
around indirectly helped the Marlins
balance their roster. In short: How to re-
vitalize a sagging offense to accompany
a solid pitching staff?
‘I still believe in batting average’
That was a question Ng batted
around for more than a year, as Luzardo
stepped forward and Sandy Alcantara
won the Cy Young Award and Eury Pérez
lurked in the high minors. Arraez wasn’t
exactly an obsession, but Ng knew the
Minnesota Twins infielder could cure
much of what ailed the Marlins.
It was a stiff cost: Beloved starting
pitcher Pablo López and prospects By-
ron Chourio and Jose Salas. It was also a
“good baseball trade” – big leaguer for
big leaguer, each becoming an All-Star
next season.
Yet Arraez has in many ways tran-
scended the game, his .380 average
more than 130 points better than the
league average.
“I could not tell you we foresaw him
flirting with .400,” says Ng. “That was
the icing on the cake. But when you look
at the way Luis has been utilized by Skip
– whether it’s leading off and getting on
base for those behind him, or he’s used
him in the cleanup spot and Skip has
used him as an RBI guy. It speaks to his
versatility and the trust Skip has in him
to do what it takes to win a game.”
Schumaker believes there’s a trickle-
down effect. The Marlins were 25th in
baseball in strikeout percentage last
season, at 24.4%. Arraez’s arrival
helped them cut that to 21.4%, eighth
best in the majors, while boosting their
OPS from 25th to 17th.
Which is kind of amazing, since Ar-
raez adds little slugging to the equation.
“I think a lot of the young guys were
trying to go for slug, and striking out,
and we believe there’s value in putting
the ball in play,” says Schumaker. “I still
believe in batting average. I know that’s
crazy. A lot of guys feed off (Arraez) and
watch him work.
“If he hits .400, .350 or .380, what-
ever it’s going to be, I just think there’s
so much value he’s brought inside that
clubhouse, more than just chasing
.400.”
In Miami, the unforeseen has been a
most pleasant surprise.
21. Chicago Cubs (+1)
h Cody Bellinger’s red-hot streak is
well-timed.
22. New York Mets (-1)
h Reminder: Max Scherzer and Justin
Verlander have full no-trade clauses.
23. Pittsburgh Pirates (–)
h Is it time to give Henry Davis a shot
behind the plate?
24. Detroit Tigers (+2)
h All-Star Michael Lorenzen might
not be a bad trade fit with Cincinnati.
25. St. Louis Cardinals (-1)
h Just how much trade value do their
non-core dudes have?
26. Chicago White Sox (+1)
h If not for that Ohtani fellow, Luis
Robert would be dredging up the whole
“MVP on a terrible team” debate.
27. Washington Nationals (–)
h CJ Abrams’ two-month look in
leadoff spot a key sample.
28. Colorado Rockies (–)
h Win home series vs. Yanks, disap-
pointing roughly 100,000 Yankee fans.
29. Kansas City Royals (–)
h If they’re hard to watch, at least it
goes quickly – K.C. involved in three of
10 MLB games taking two hours or less.
30. Oakland Athletics (–)
h The record: 25-70. The run differ-
ential: Minus-253. Number of Howard
Terminal explainer packets Oakland
mayor distributed at All-Star Game: 31.
LIFE
USA TODAY | WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023 | 4B

LIFELINE TELEVISION

ANDREW NELLES/USA TODAY NETWORK

MAKING WAVES
JASON ALDEAN

Jason Aldean’s latest tour has gotten

off to a bumpy start. The country
singer, who launched his Highway
Desperado tour without incident on
Friday, was forced to halt and post-
pone his second show in Hartford,
Connecticut, on Saturday after suf-
fering heat exhaustion during his
performance. On Sunday, Aldean
posted a video message to social
media, telling fans he’d received IV
treatment, but was feeling “a lot bet-
ter.” “It was pretty intense last night,”
Aldean added. “Anybody that was at
the show knows how hot it was. I
knew it was coming. I was trying to
get through as much of the show as I
could, and eventually I knew it wasn’t
going to happen and I was trying to
just get off stage and figure out what
was going on.”

Jesse Watters is set to take "Primetime" to Fox News' 8 p.m. time slot. PROVIDED BY ROBERT MILAZZO/FOX

Fox News testing the

IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
WHO’S CELEBRATING TODAY
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is 41. Kristen
Watters in prime time
Bell is 43. Vin Diesel is 56. Bryan Alexander USA TODAY

HOROSCOPE | SANCTUARY
More: www.sanctuaryworld.co
Aries (March 21-April 19). Heart on
fire? The Leo moon has you super
focused on your desires. The push
feels strong.
Taurus (April 20-May 20). You need a
home environment that reflects your
authentic self. The Leo moon may
propel you to make an update.
Gemini (May 21-June 21). Your mind
may be a little extra today. Uncon-
scious dialogues firing up? Step back
for awareness during the Leo moon.
Cancer (June 22-July 22). The harvest
you’ve been wishing for is growing.
The Leo moon has you looking at what
you’ve accumulated thus far.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22). Your happiness
is of utmost importance. Is life pro-
gressing the direction your heart in-
tended? Take stock with the Leo
moon.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Need a time
out? Treat yourself to rest during the
Leo moon. You may need to catch up
with yourself.
Libra (Sept.23-Oct. 23). Change is
necessary for growth. Feel into your
hopes and wishes. What has to shift
for them to manifest?
Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Strength
may be needed now to have success
in relationships. Can you be gentle
and firm at the same time?
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Have a
lot on your plate? The Leo moon intu-
itively shows you how to take care of it
all.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You may
want control. Does this help or hinder
the collaboration process? Assess
when to take the lead.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). The great-
est growth comes through relation-
ships. The Leo moon has wisdom to
share on how to be authentic.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20). Feeling
challenged? The Leo moon may
prompt you to stick up for yourself.
Confidently communicate your posi-
tion.
“Jesse Watters Primetime” will finally live up to its name. h The Fox News host “I’m not
won the conservative commentator golden ticket last month: He was announced competing against
as the successor to Tucker Carlson’s coveted 8 p.m. EDT time slot after Fox Tucker; I’m not
abruptly fired the firebrand superstar Carlson in April. h “Jesse Watters Prime- competing against
time” will move an hour later from his previous slot at 7. But it’s all the difference anyone. I’m not
in the world for the rising Fox News star, 45, who started as a production assistant
going to go out
in 2004 and got his big break conducting ambush interviews on the then-top-
and chase ratings.”
rated “The O’Reilly Factor.” h As Watters prepares to anchor a revamped evening
Jesse Watters
lineup Monday, just don’t call his career rise “remarkable.” See WATTERS, Page 5B
MOVIES
Caviezel hears ‘Sound’ of controversy
Marco della Cava Is ‘Sound of Freedom’ based on a
USA TODAY true story?
So far the summer’s box-office ti- “Sound of Freedom” draws upon the
tans feature wholly predictable stars real life of Tim Ballard, a U.S. Depart-
and titles. There’s Harrison Ford in his ment of Homeland Security agent who
final “Indiana Jones” installment, is credited with saving countless chil-
Chris Pratt and the “Guardians of the dren, largely from outside the U.S., from
Galaxy” gang, and Spider-Man swing- traffickers who force them into prostitu-
ing across the “Spider-Verse.” tion rings aimed at pedophiles.
Far less expected is the impressive In 2013, Ballard started the nonprofit
showing of Jim Caviezel and “Sound of group Operation Underground Railroad,
Freedom.” which according to its website, “directly
The outside-of-Hollywood entry in responds to international government
the summer sweepstakes about a fed- requests to develop intelligence and as-
eral agent tackling child sex trafficking Jim Caviezel plays Tim Ballard in sist to carry out rescue efforts.” In 2020,
took in $27 million this weekend, ac- “Sound of Freedom,” a movie based on Vice News published reports critical of
cording to Comscore. That makes Ballard's real-life fight as a federal the organization.
“Freedom” the second most-popular agent to rescue children from sex Ballard advised President Donald
movie in the country, behind Tom traffickers. PROVIDED BY ANGEL STUDIOS Trump in 2019 on trafficking issues.
Cruise’s top-grossing “Mission: Im-
possible - Dead Reckoning Part One” Who funded ‘Sound of Freedom’?
(which took in $56.2 million for the critics contend it’s a recruiting tool for
three-day weekend). “Freedom,” the far right. “Sound of Freedom” was shot in 2018
which also stars Bill Camp and Mira Brandon Purdie, head of theatrical largely with funding from Mexican in-
Sorvino, has earned $85.5 million do- distribution at Angel Studios, which re- vestors, according to The New York
mestically since its release July 4. leased the movie, attributed the success Times. Its writer and director, Alejandro
But “Sound of Freedom” already is to word of mouth. “We’re deeply grate- Monteverde, is from Mexico. The film
as much a political football as it is an ful to AMC, Cinemark, Regal, and all our originally was slated for release by 20th
unlikely cinematic success. The film is theater partners - and their hard-work- Century Fox, but Disney shelved the
generating buzz among conservatives ing theater staff members - for working project when it acquired the studio in
and liberals not so much for its content with us to accommodate the surging de- 2019.
- both ideologies agree child sex traf- mand for this film and having the cour- Angel Studios then stepped in to dis-
ficking is the height of immorality - age to release ‘Sound of Freedom’ during tribute “Sound of Freedom.” The Provo,
but for comments made by its star. the busiest movie season of the year,” Utah-based company said it raised
Fans say the movie speaks to an audi- Purdie said.
ence underserved by Hollywood; Here’s what to know about the film: See FREEDOM, Page 5B
LIFE
STREAMING
Hulu sets Ashley Madison’s affairs in order
Erin Jensen
USA TODAY
Ready for a dalliance with “The Ash-
ley Madison Affair”?
The three-part docuseries, now
streaming on Hulu, traces the origins of
the first dating site for married people.
Launched in 2001, the website aimed
to be a space for those who wanted to
step out of their marriage to connect
discreetly. Male members paid for cred-
its needed to send messages to women
who could sign up for free. The site fa-
cilitated adultery, and its unapologetic
CEO Noel Biderman caused quite the
stir; so did its antagonistic advertising.
One ad put a photo of Hillary Clinton
with the text “New adventures. Start
with … AshleyMadison.com” Another
showed a wedded couple as zombies go-
ing through the motions of marriage.
The wife transforms into her former self,
only after signing up for Ashley Madi-
son.
“Our approach to creating ads was
more for the shock value, and the crazier
they were, the better.” Chris DeCham-
plain, a former employee, says in the do-
cuseries. The company got its own sur-
prise when hackers leaked customers’
information in 2015. Here’s what to
know from the docuseries, including
revelations about Biderman’s scandal-
ous personal life.
A supposedly monogamous
Biderman seeks escorts
Biderman consistently disputed any
criticism of his service. While appearing
on Tyra Banks’ talk show, he was intro-
duced to a man whose wife cheated via
Ashley Madison. Biderman took no
blame and told the guest: “You need to
learn to communicate with (your wife)
better and find a relationship that works
for the two of you. That has nothing to
do with me.”
On a Canadian business-focused
show, Biderman claimed his service
“saves millions of marriages.” He added,
“People don’t want to leave their mar-
riage; that’s why they have an affair.”
Biderman and his wife, Amanda, who
posed as a model for Ashley Madison
Watters
Continued from Page 4B
“I would have to correct you,” Watters
says, smiling, displaying his trademark
cheeky TV persona during a Zoom call
from his New Jersey home. “It’s much
more than a remarkable rise. It might be
the greatest rise in the history of cable
television, going from the building
basement to 8:00.”
“I’m not going to put words in your
mouth,” Watters adds to underline that
he was joking. “But some people have
said that.”
People might not have said exactly
that about Watters, who will continue to
moderate “The Five” at 5. But love him or
loathe him, it’s impossible to deny Watt-
ers’ ascent after just a year and a half
hosting “Primetime.” Watters edged out
household names such as Laura Ingra-
ham, whose show will replace his at 7
(moving from 10); Sean Hannity, who
remains at 9; and Greg Gutfeld, whose
late-night “comedy” show moves an
hour earlier, to 10.
“Putting Watters in the key 8 p.m. slot
was a good move by Fox News, and I
don’t agree with a lot of his politics,”
says Howard Polskin, who chronicles
conservative media on his website, The
Righting. “He’s a new face, but he’s
road-tested. He captivates with enter-
tainment value and subject knowledge,
Freedom
Continued from Page 4B
about $5 million from thousands of an-
gel investors to market the film.
The PG-13 movie is only in theaters
and is showing on nearly 3,300 screens
nationwide. On its website, Angel Stu-
dios encourages fans to “pay it forward”
and buy tickets for those interested in
the movie but who can’t afford a seat.
What are critics saying about
‘Sound of Freedom’?
“Sound of Freedom” has a 79% fresh
rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 100%
audience score. Audiences gave it an A+
on CinemaScore. In a largely positive re-
view, Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote,
Former Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman and his wife, Amanda, in this 2012 photo. MARK BLINCH FOR USA TODAY
ads and was by his side during inter-
views, claimed they were monogamous.
But Biderman’s emails released in the
hack showed he had been unfaithful. He
expressed interest in escorts and a pref-
erence for 18- and 19-year-olds. He re-
signed as CEO in August 2015.
Hack outs customers seeking
discreet affairs
DeChamplain says security for Ash-
ley Madison was too relaxed. Just weeks
before Biderman’s ouster, some staff
members received a message from a
hacker group self-identified as The Im-
pact Team, threatening to leak custom-
er information if the website wasn’t
shut down. Paul Keable, who was Ash-
ley Madison’s chief strategy officer, says
the there was no thought given to fold-
ing the company.
A month later, on August 18, 2015, the
hackers followed through on their threat
and released customer data including
the names of its members. Josh Duggar,
formerly a star of TLC’s “19 Kids and
all delivered with a wink to the audi-
ence.”
The next test is seeing whether the
new force can bring back Carlson’s rat-
ings, which typically averaged more
than 3 million viewers a night, and lifted
the still-top-rated cable news network’s
entire prime-time viewership. Evening
ratings have plummeted more than 32%
since Carlson’s departure, and are down
47% among the 25-to-54-year-old audi-
ence favored by advertisers.
Watters says he was “shocked” by
Carlson’s sudden firing (”I didn’t see
that coming”) and insists he doesn’t
know details about “how it all went
down.” He declines to discuss any con-
tact he’s had with Carlson, who has
started an opinion show on Twitter:
“That’s personal,” he says. “I was an ad-
mirer of Tucker; he’s been a trailblazer.
It was tough to see him go. But this is a
business. And things happen in this
business. They’ve happened before.
And I’m used to it.”
As the permanent replacement,
Watters says he plans to bring the same
mix of news, opinion, political commen-
tary and segments that are “a little tab-
loid” to his earlier slot. His latest obses-
sion is pontificating on the investigation
into the cocaine found in the White
House on July 2. He’ll still offer light-
hearted “fun” segments.
“I’m not competing against Tucker;
I’m not competing against anyone. I’m
not going to go out and chase ratings,”
“Let’s assume that, like me, you’re not a
right-wing fundamentalist conspiracy
theorist looking for a dark, faith-based
suspense film ... you needn’t hold ex-
treme beliefs to experience ‘Sound of
Freedom’ as a compelling movie that
shines an authentic light on one of the
crucial criminal horrors of our time, one
that Hollywood has mostly shied away
from.”
In contrast, Nick Allen, writing for
RogerEbert.com, says the movie is too
preoccupied with its overarching mes-
sage, noting, “If ‘Sound of Freedom’
were less concerned with being some-
thing ‘important,’ it could be more than
a mood, it could be a movie.” And Rolling
Stone critic Miles Klee called the film a
“superhero movie for dads with brain-
worms,” while The Guardian critic
Charles Bramesco took “Sound” to task
for being “QAnon-adjacent.”
USA TODAY ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ 5B
Counting,” was among them.
So far, the Impact Team has not been
identified nor faced any consequences.
The removal of bot accounts,
and Ashley Madison today
The Ashley Madison business model
dictated that the more enticing the
women on the website, the greater po-
tential there was for profit. So the com-
pany created fake profiles to intrigue
their male customers. According to the
docuseries, the company added 22,000
female bot accounts in 2013. While sub-
sequent increases in revenue cannot be
exclusively attributed to the fake ac-
counts, the company’s revenue went
from $71 million in 2012 to $180 million
in 2014, the documentary says.
After an investigation by the FTC and
a lawsuit by members alleging decep-
tive business practices, the company
brought in Ernst & Young to verify that it
had rid the platform of bot accounts. So
far, Ashley Madison has survived its
controversies and is still in business to-
says Watters. “We’ve been very success-
ful at 7:00. The show is not going to
change. I’m not going to change.”
That news will be welcomed by his
fans, and spurned by a growing audi-
ence of detractors (mostly “Democrat
liberals”) who take daily offense to
Watters’ bombastic conservative
stances. Even his mother, child psychol-
ogist Anne Watters sends critiques.
“If my mother doesn’t disagree with
what I’m doing, then I’m doing some-
thing wrong,” says Watters, who adds
that she was “very stressed” when he
broke the news about the promotion.
“She’s worried for me, and happy for
my career,” he says.
Watters has stepped over lines. In
2021, Anthony Fauci called for Fox News
to fire him after comments to conserva-
tives to “ambush” the nation’s top infec-
tious disease expert and “go in for the
kill shot.” (Fox backed Watters, saying
he was “using a metaphor for asking
hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci.”)
But Watters defends his combative
TV style.
“I’m not nasty; I’m brutally honest. In
cable TV you have to be blunt, concise,
direct, and go right to the bone,” he says.
“I might be controversial in the main-
stream media, but a lot of Americans
don’t see me as controversial. A lot of
Americans think of me as right.”
Watters says he doesn’t see, or seek
out, the blowback directed at him. “I
don’t read about myself. I don’t read so-
What are Caviezel’s beliefs?
Jim Caviezel, who played the title role
in Mel Gibson’s 2004 “The Passion of
the Christ,” recently appeared on Steve
Bannon’s podcast.
During the segment, Caviezel made
mention of “adrenochrome,” a hormone
that QAnon adherents say global elites
harvest from child victims as an alleg-
edly life-extending elixir. “Couple of
years ago, I’m talking about adreno-
chrome, you can’t say that word,” he
said.
As the credits roll on “Sound of Free-
dom,” Caviezel appears as himself on
the screen.
He says he hopes the film will be seen
as “the ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of 21st cen-
tury slavery.
“We believe this movie has the power
to be a huge step forward toward ending
day. The docuseries says that as of 2021,
the website had 75 million members
around the globe.
Where is Noel Biderman now?
Sunny Hostin, co-ost of ABC’s “The
View” and a former federal prosecutor,
says Biderman is living in Canada and
describes his occupation as entrepre-
neur. His website is equally vague.
According to producers, Biderman
declined to comment on his time at Ash-
ley Madison. The docuseries includes a
statement from the former CEO’s attor-
ney that describes him as “a committed
husband and father. Mr. Biderman was
also the victim of a crime, like the cus-
tomers of Ashley Madison whose public
information was hacked and publi-
cized,” the statement says. “While Mr.
Biderman understands the differences
between himself and those customers,
he – like many of them – have in the in-
tervening years attempted to move on
and repair the damage to his life and re-
lationships.”
cial media. I don’t read comments. I
don’t even Google myself anymore,” he
says. “I don’t care what people say.”
When asked about the potential that
his new higher-profile position might
earn him a “Saturday Night Live” send-
up, Watters expresses surprise.
“You think I could be lampooned on
‘SNL’? Well, I hope whoever plays me is
handsome and somewhat articulate,” he
says. “People say David Schwimmer is
my doppelganger, that I remind them of
Ross from ‘Friends.’ Personally, I think
I’m better-looking.”
It’s a good discussion for laughs, but
Watters is focused on grinding out suc-
cessful TV and getting to the weekend
with wife Emma DiGiovine and new-
born Georgina Post Watters, his fourth
daughter.
“I’m not taking anything for granted,”
Watters says.
Others before him have been felled
from the throne, including his former
boss O’Reilly, who was forced out in 2017
following charges of sexual harassment.
and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who was
forced out in 2016 amid sexual harass-
ment lawsuits.
“The thing about television is your
career could end like that. Say the wrong
thing; do the wrong thing. New manage-
ment can come in, they could say, ‘This
guy stinks. Goodbye,’ ” says Watters.
“I’m trying to go show by show. Then it’s
my weekend. And then I do it all over
again.”
child trafficking.”
What is QAnon?
QAnon is described by the Southern
Poverty Law Center as an “umbrella
term for a sprawling spiderweb of right-
wing internet conspiracy theories with
antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ elements
that falsely claim the world is run by a
secret cabal of pedophiles who worship
Satan and are plotting against President
Trump. ... QAnon believers falsely claim
the cabal is abducting children to kill
them and harvest their blood for a
chemical known as adrenochrome,
which is used to extend their lives.”
“Sound of Freedom” does not men-
tion QAnon or any issues that are politi-
cally partisan.
Contributing: The Associated Press
6B ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY LIFE

USA TODAY
USA TODAY CROSSWORD
CROSSWORD
EDITED Amanda Rafkin
Numbers More puzzles: puzzles.usatoday.com
Want solutions? answers.usatoday.com
Feedback: feedback@usatoday.com
BY Jared Goudsmit

ALBACORE SUDOKU
SUDOKU
ACROSS
1 “It’s a ___ come true!” Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x2
6 “Snowy” wading box contains the numbers 1 through 9 (no repeats). box contains the numbers 1 through 6 (no repeats).
bird
11 Get married
14 In style again
2 9 1 5
15 Not taut 3 6 7 6 2 4 1
16 “Barry” channel
17 Skin-soothing
remedy enjoyed in 8 4 2 1 6
a tub
19 ___ Dhabi 6 5 2 4 3 6 1 2
20 “Stop Kiss,” for
example 8 1 3 5 2
21 Metal found in old
paint 8 3 1 6 5 3
22 Sacred ceremonies
24 Modify DIFFICULTY RATING ✮✮✮
✩✩
26 Feature of many
6 9 Tuesday’s Answers
annual Pride 8 1 9 7 6 2 3 5 4 3 6 1 2 5 4
celebrations 9 2 8 2 3 4 5 1 8 6 7 9 4 2 5 1 6 3
27 Meal in a basket, 5 6 7 3 4 9 8 1 2
maybe 1 8 5 4 7 1 9 5 3 2 6 8 5 3 2 6 4 1
30 Many dorm room 9 2 6 4 8 7 1 3 5 6 1 4 3 2 5
7/19 DIFFICULTY RATING ✮✮✮✩✩ 3 8 5 1 2 6 4 9 7
beds SUDOKU FUSION 1 5 6 4 3 2
31 Revises 1 9 3 8 7 4 5 2 6
ON YOUR PHONE 6 5 8 2 9 1 7 4 3 2 4 3 5 1 6
32 Smile from ear to © Andrews McMeel 7/19
puzzles.usatoday.com © Andrews McMeel 7 4 2 6 3 5 9 8 1 7/18
ear 66 Didn’t sit 26 Mountain lion 49 Bellybutton
34 Edge of a skirt 67 Big jumps 27 Cacio e ___ (pasta 50 Green pasta sauce
37 Your stuff, in more dish) 51 Gave five stars to,
ways than one DOWN 28 The ___ of March say
41 Computer key for 1 ___ tower 29 Big top
KENKEN KUBOK 16
53 Sandwich topped
exiting (amusement park 30 Infant with tzatziki
42 Like a messy callig- ride with a free-fall) 32 The Monkees or 55 Zilch Kubok 16 By Davide Coppo
Difficulty:
EASY
rapher’s hands 2 Not fake Gorillaz 56 Paper fastener
43 Unfounded bit of 3 Jazz singer James 33 Caribou relative 57 Bitter brews
gossip 4 Six-legged insects 35 Four-award feat 60 Decay
44 Flip over with a military name completed by Viola 61 “u crack me up”
47 Move to the trash 5 One of the Three Davis in 2023
folder Stooges 36 “A ___
48 Available at a 6 Tien Tran’s coincidence!” Tuesday’s Answer
discount character on “How 38 Number of
50 Hunt for prey I Met Your Father” tracks on Curtis
52 Not glossy 7 Spoil Mayfield’s
53 Wheel with cogs 8 Rainbow ___ (Mario “Super Fly”
54 Coricancha builder Kart course) 39 Got larger
58 Wide road (Abbr.) 9 Rough guess (Abbr.) 40 “Look! It says
59 Fortuneteller’s tool 10 Capital of Iran ‘___’ on the
62 “The Little Red ___” 11 “How unfortunate!” ceiling!”
(fable) 12 Receded 45 Reassuring
63 Rich dessert 13 Dump liquid over touch
often made in a 18 “Ugly Betty” actor 46 Puts in office
springform pan Mapa 47 Cartoon
64 Nostalgic tune 23 Irritate explorer who 1. Each row and YESTERDAY’S
65 Computer key 25 Japanese soup says “Come on, 7/18 column must
SOLUTION Solution to Tuesday’s puzzle
seldom pressed by also known as vamonos!” CROSSWORDS contain the
numbers 1 Enter the missing
itself omiotsuke 48 Nebraska city ON YOUR PHONE through 4 numbers from
Answers: Call 1-900-988-8300, 99 cents a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-320-4280. get our crossword app (easy) or 1 1 to 16 without
though 6 repetitions so
(challenging)
without that the sum of
TXTPERT repeating. the four numbers
in each row and
2. The numbers column is the
1
TXTPERT Today’s theme within the
Religion
1
M
2
D A M P E R heavily outlined same as the
Across Down 3
A I R boxes, called corresponding
2 3 4 5 1. 64647837 1. 6277 Use the cages, must
S U
circled number.
2. 746 3. 686 phone
combine using
4. 7673 4. 728766 keypad to 4 5
decode the
S E M I T O N E the given ©2023 Kubok. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. 7/19/23
6 6. 4678455 5. 785748 operation (in All rights reserved.
clues. B O
7. 22846542 6. 4626 For example: 6 7 8 any order) to
2 could be A, H E L I L T
B or C ... and
produce the target numbers in the top-left
7
5678 could
U A L I corners.
9 10
7/18

be LOST M U T E C U E
7/19

© USA TODAY and Rich Coulter Yesterday’s solution

3. Freebies: fill in single-box cages with the
number in the top-left corner.

Words BONUS CROSSWORD

WORD
WORD ROUNDUP
ROUNDUP K N R J Q N V K P AWN
By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek 7/19 C I V O O N N Q U E E N
Find and Circle: I D N T O U V T E X A S
Four chess pieces ☑☐☐☐ U K O G M K M A I N E L
Three eight-letter mammals ☐☐☐
© Andrews McMeel

Two parts of an atom ☐☐ B R L P E L E P H A N T

Two General Motors brands ☐☐
Two U.S. states ☐☐ P J I E L E C T R ON R
Tuesday’s answer: GALLON QUART LITER PINT / DIAMONDS HEARTS R H Z H E D G E H OG H
SPADES CLUBS / KAYAK RADAR TENET MADAM / OCEAN CANOE /
DELTA C H E V R O L E T L R T

QUICKCROSS
QUICKCROSS UP
UP &&DOWN
DOWN WORDS
WORDS
By John Wilmes 7/19 By David L. Hoyt and Russell L. Hoyt 7/19

Deal (with) 1. FIELD

2.
Russian mountain range
3.

Fishhook point 4.
5.
Otherwise
6.
Three-dimensional GROUND
© Andrews McMeel

7.
square
Clues: Tuesday’s Answer
By mouth
1. It’s used as livestock feed PET PROJECT
Tuesday’s Answer
2. Tamale shell PROJECT RUNWAY
Golf goals 3. They go with salsa RUNWAY MODEL
P H I L 4. Contributes MODEL CAR
German river 5. Where to find Quincy Market
R A C E CAR CARE
6. Oldest city park in the U.S.
7. Foundation for CARE FOR
E L O N QUICKCROSS understanding FOR SALE

P E N S ON YOUR PHONE PLAY ONLINE

7/18 puzzles.usatoday.com PUZZLES.USATODAY.COM © Andrews McMeel

© WIGGLES 3D GAMES
DON’T QUOTE ME®
Businessman Rearrange the words to complete the quote.
Howard Newton BUT DID DID FAST FORGET JOB WELL
offers this advice.
PEOPLE ___________ HOW ________ YOU ________ A ________,
________ THEY REMEMBER HOW ________ YOU ________ IT.
7/19

Tuesday’s Answer: “Cinema is a matter of what’s in

the frame and what’s out.” - Martin Scorsese

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek
Unscramble these Jumbles,
Get the free JUST JUMBLE app • Follow us on Twitter @PlayJumble

one letter to each square,

to form four ordinary words.

NEETV

TOPIA

RAWIND

SNETOF
Now arrange the circled letters
©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
All Rights Reserved. suggested by the above cartoon.

(Answers tomorrow)
Jumbles: PROUD WOULD SPOKEN ADJUST
Yesterday’s
Answer: When audiences watched Spielberg’s 1975 film
about a great white shark, — JAWS DROPPED
LIFE USA TODAY ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ 7B

9 LETTER
WORD
FOR
AVOIDING
INTIMACY
8B ❚ WEDNESDAY JULY 19, 2023 ❚ USA TODAY NEWS

WEATHER WEATHER ONLINE

USATODAY.COM

Below 10 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110+
WEDNESDAY’S FORECAST THURSDAY’S FORECAST
RUSSIA
FINLAND

NORWAY SWEDEN KAZAKHSTAN Ulan Bator

Reykjavik St. Petersburg 74/50pc
58/51pc Oslo 69/57pc Almaty MONGOLIA Vladivostok
ICELAND Bergen 66/49sh Helsinki 91/69pc Urumqi 76/66c
54/51r 70/53t 100/73pc
RUSSIA UZBEK. Beijing N. KOREA
ESTONIA KYRGYZ. 100/78h
Aberdeen Stockholm Pyongyang
62/47pc Gothenburg 65/51t 93/71s
TURKMEN. TAJIK.
SCOTLAND 61/52pc S. KOREA JAPAN
Riga LATVIA
Kabul ASIA Xian
CHINA 94/75h Seoul
Edinburgh 97/67s 92/73h
66/50pc 70/49sh Tokyo
NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN Osaka 86/74pc
IRELAND Newcastle DENMARK Copenhagen LITHUANIA Islamabad Lhasa 91/74s
Galway Belfast 63/48sh IRAN 86/79t Changsha Shanghai
67/54pc Minsk Kathmandu 77/54pc 86/80t
65/49pc 65/48pc 92/82t
IRELAND Manchester 72/53sh PAKISTAN 88/71t
67/51sh New Delhi
Shannon Dublin Hamburg NEPAL Dhaka Guangzhou Taipei
95/84t
65/50pc 65/47pc Birmingham 68/53t 94/83pc 92/80r 96/78t
Amsterdam Warsaw BELARUS Karachi Hanoi
69/50t GERMANY Berlin 95/86pc Kolkata 88/78t TAIWAN
69/53t 82/57pc BURMA
WALES ENGLAND 76/59t 92/81t Hong Kong
NETH. POLAND LAOS 91/83r
London Brussels Bonn Mumbai Rangoon Da Nang Manila
72/55t 77/56t 85/80r INDIA 86/77t
73/55pc Krakow THAILAND 90/77t 91/78t
Prague Bangkok VIETNAM
BELGIUM 80/56t
82/59t UKRAINE 92/79t CAMBODIA GUAM
Hagatna
Le Havre LUX. CZECH REP. Phnom Penh Ho Chi Minh City 87/79r
Frankfurt
68/58pc 81/57pc Munich Bratislava SLOVAKIA 91/78t 90/78t PHILIPPINES
Paris
90/67t
80/57pc Zurich 83/58pc Vienna SRI LANKA
MALAYSIA
83/58pc HUNGARY
EUROPE Salzburg 89/67t
MALDIVES
82/59pc AUSTRIA Budapest Singapore Balikpapan
SWITZERLAND 89/66t ROMANIA 86/78t 87/77t
Bordeaux Venice SLOVENIA
81/59pc 93/71pc
Lyon Milan CROATIA PAPUA NEW
SERBIA Jakarta INDONESIA
87/63s 95/69pc GUINEA
FRANCE Florence Belgrade 92/75h
Santiago de Compostela Marseille BOSNIA
99/73s 97/67s Sofia Port Moresby
77/55s 99/74s
95/64s 86/74s
ITALY MONT.
Ajaccio Dubrovnik KOSOVO BULGARIA
Rome Cairns
Madrid 93/70s 92/79s Skopje
PORTUGAL 94/73s 82/66s
103/70s 101/66s MAURITIUS Broome
Tirana MACEDONIA
SPAIN Barcelona 100/69s 87/58s
Lisbon 87/75s Naples Alice Springs
ALBANIA
83/63s 95/76s 77/44s
Cagliari Brisbane
Valencia GREECE AUSTRALIA
Palma 106/76s 70/46s
94/76s
Seville 99/75s Perth
Faro 104/71s 62/53pc
Sydney
83/67s Athens
Palermo 70/48s
100/80s
95/83s
Algiers Tunis
97/74s Melbourne Canberra
108/79h 57/44sh 54/35pc
Rabat
84/69s
ALGERIA TUNISIA
MOROCCO

c Cloudy f Fog i Ice r Rain sf Snow flurries sn Snow w Windy Note: The forecast highs are for the 24-hour period of that
dr Drizzle h Haze pc Partly cloudy s Sunny sh Showers t Thunderstorms day. Low-temperature forecasts are for the upcoming night. Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather Inc. ©2023

CLOSE-UP FORECAST
AMSTERDAM AUCKLAND BANGKOK BEIJING BERLIN BRUSSELS CAIRO COPENHAGEN DUBLIN FLORENCE FRANKFURT HONG KONG
High Hazy, very Sunny, A stray Partly Sunny, Very
WED T-shower THU THU T-storms THU WED T-shower WED T-shower WED WED WED WED WED THU Rain
clouds hot hot shower sunny hot warm
69/53 92/79 76/59 72/55 91/83
62/54 100/78 100/79 67/54 65/47 99/73 81/57
Morning Showers A few Partly Sunny, Partly Stray
THU Shower FRI FRI T-storms FRI T-storms THU THU Shower THU Very hot THU THU THU THU FRI
rain around showers sunny hot sunny t-storm
69/54 91/79 85/72 72/53 102/80
57/47 73/56 66/54 63/49 97/71 78/59 92/82
Partly Mostly Showers Clouds, A few A little Sunny, Stray
FRI SAT SAT Rain SAT Rain FRI FRI FRI Very hot FRI FRI FRI FRI Some sun SAT
sunny sunny around sun showers rain hot t-storm
89/79 85/72 101/77 77/55
68/55 58/46 72/57 70/53 66/53 64/54 95/71 91/82

JAKARTA JERUSALEM JOHANNESBURG LONDON LOS ANGELES MADRID MANILA MEXICO CITY MILAN MOSCOW MUNICH NEW YORK
High Sunny, Partly Sunny, Stray Stray Showers Very Stray
THU WED WED Sunny WED WED WED Very hot THU WED WED Hot WED WED WED
clouds hot sunny warm t-storm t-storm around warm t-shower
67/42 103/70 95/69
92/75 93/71 73/55 87/69 91/78 80/57 69/55 83/58 85/73
Partly Sunny, Partly Mostly Stray Showers Partly A P.M.
FRI THU THU THU Shower THU THU Hot FRI T-storms THU THU Hot THU THU THU
sunny hot sunny sunny t-storm around sunny t-storm
73/54 97/65 90/79 93/70
91/76 93/70 58/38 90/65 81/57 71/53 79/54 85/72
Mostly Sunny, Mostly Mostly A little Showers Partly
SAT FRI FRI Cooler FRI FRI FRI Sunny SAT T-storms FRI FRI T-storm FRI FRI FRI T-storm
sunny hot cloudy sunny rain around sunny
53/42 92/65 90/80 86/68 82/70
92/76 93/72 71/54 91/66 81/57 71/55 75/55

PARIS RIO DE JANEIRO ROME SEOUL SHANGHAI ST. PETERSBURG STOCKHOLM SYDNEY TAIPEI TOKYO VIENNA ZURICH
Partly Showers Hot, An A.M. Sunny, Very
WED WED WED Hot THU THU Rain WED WED T-storms THU THU T-storms THU Humid WED T-storms WED
sunny around humid shower nice warm
94/73 86/80 65/51 96/78 86/74 89/67
80/57 73/66 92/73 69/57 69/47 83/58
Partly Hot, Sunny, Cloudy, A P.M. Hot, Partly Very
THU THU Shower THU FRI FRI T-storms THU THU FRI Breezy FRI FRI Humid THU THU
sunny humid hot breezy shower humid sunny warm
72/66 92/82 65/46 86/74
80/60 92/73 93/75 67/57 65/50 97/77 84/62 82/58
Partly Partly Sunny, Heavy A little A few Plenty of Stray Partly
FRI FRI FRI SAT T-storms SAT FRI FRI SAT SAT SAT Humid FRI T-storms FRI
sunny sunny hot t-storm rain showers sun t-shower sunny
87/77 88/76 78/62
80/56 76/65 92/75 94/82 67/55 67/51 63/46 96/80 76/57

WORLD FORECAST USA FORECAST

EUROPE WED THU WED THU
WED THU Strasbourg 85/59pc 82/58pc Buenos Aires, Argentina 55/49c 60/57pc Seattle
Aberdeen, Scotland 62/47pc 60/48sh Tallin 68/54t 67/52sh Calgary 76/54h 78/54c 85/59s
Athens 100/80s 99/78s Tirana 100/69s 101/69s Cancun, Mexico 92/78t 92/78t
Barcelona 87/75s 86/75s Valencia/Aeropuerto 94/76s 92/75s Caracas, Venezuela 92/76t 91/76h Portland
Belfast 65/48pc 63/50sh Venice 93/71pc 89/72s Cozumel, Mexico 91/79t 91/78t 93/62s Boston
Belgrade 97/67s 87/67pc Vienna 89/67t 84/62pc Fort-de-France 88/79w 89/78sh Minneapolis-St. Paul 84/70pc
Bergen, Norway 54/51r 59/50sh Vilnius, Lithuania 70/52sh 70/51sh Halifax, Nova Scotia 72/65t 77/64c 89/64t
Bern 83/57pc 83/58pc Warsaw 82/57pc 69/53sh Lima, Peru 71/66s 72/67s
Bilbao 76/62pc 76/63t Montreal 81/62sh 83/66pc New York
Birmingham, England 69/50t 67/50pc ASIA / OCEANIA Nassau, Bahamas 91/81t 92/80pc 85/73pc
Bonn 77/56t 75/56pc THU FRI Philipsburg, St. Maarten 91/82s 91/81s Chicago
San Francisco 84/69pc
Bordeaux 81/59pc 80/60pc Adelaide 57/43r 57/44pc Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 95/79t 94/81t 65/57pc
Bratislava 90/67t 85/61pc Alice Springs Airport 77/44s 68/36s Punta Arenas, Chile 36/32c 40/26w Washington
Denver 89/73pc
Bucharest 95/70pc 91/67t Bali 82/76pc 84/76pc Quebec 80/57sh 82/61s 90/62t
Cadiz, Spain 98/69s 89/62s Broome Bilingurr 87/58s 87/63s Quito, Ecuador 68/44pc 68/44pc St. Louis
Caen 73/53pc 70/51pc Cairns Airport 82/66s 82/67r San Jose, Costa Rica 86/71t 85/69t 86/74pc
Cagliari 106/76s 104/76s Changde 94/80r 96/80t Santo Domingo 93/76t 94/76s Los Angeles
Cardiff 70/52pc 68/53pc Changsha City 91/79c 95/81c Sao Paulo 62/56r 64/55c 87/69s
Dresden 80/57pc 75/53sh Christchurch 51/35r 47/39c Toronto 79/63pc 78/64r
Dubrovnik 92/79s 92/80s Colombo 87/80sh 88/80t Vancouver 77/59s 77/59s Phoenix Atlanta
Duesseldorf 75/56t 75/57pc Da Nang 90/77t 92/78t Winnipeg 70/55r 80/55pc 117/92s 91/76t
Edinburgh 66/50pc 64/48sh Darwin 88/68s 89/74pc Dallas-Fort Worth
Faro, Portugal 83/67s 86/65s Dhaka 94/83pc 95/82sh AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST 105/80s
Figari 100/77s 97/74s Guangzhou 92/80r 95/80t WED THU
Geneva 89/60pc 86/63pc Hagatna, Guam 87/79r 87/80t Abidjan, Ivory Coast 83/77c 83/76pc
New Orleans
Genoa 85/75s 87/76s Hanoi 88/78t 92/78t Abu Dhabi 106/87c 109/88s Houston
96/78s Miami
Glasgow 66/48pc 64/49sh Ho Chi Minh City 90/78t 86/76t Accra, Ghana 85/75pc 86/76pc 100/78s
90/81t
Gothenburg, Sweden 61/52pc 62/53sh Hobart 58/39c 55/42s Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 72/55r 70/56sh
Hamburg 68/53t 67/52sh Karachi 95/86pc 94/85c Alexandria, Egypt 90/74s 93/75s
Helsinki 70/53t 68/51sh Kathmandu 88/71t 85/70t Algiers, Algeria 97/74s 100/76s
Innsbruck 84/58t 79/58pc Kolkata 92/81t 93/82t Amman, Jordan 97/74s 97/74s WED THU WED THU WED THU
Krakow 80/56t 74/52sh Kuala Lumpur 87/76t 90/77pc Ankara, Turkey 87/56s 91/61s Albany, N.Y. 84/61s 86/67t Fargo, N.D. 80/58w 78/56pc Philadelphia 88/72pc 88/72t
Kyiv 79/61s 80/59t Kyoto 91/73r 93/76pc Baghdad 113/84h 116/88h Albuquerque 100/75pc 98/73t Fort Myers, Fla. 95/77t 93/78t Phoenix 117/92s 118/91pc
Las Palmas 83/74w 82/74w Lhasa City 77/54pc 77/54pc Bahrain 108/94c 107/94s Allentown, Pa. 85/64pc 86/68t Grand Rapids, Mich. 85/64pc 80/61t Pittsburgh 83/65pc 84/65t
Le Havre 68/58pc 66/57pc Macau 87/82t 90/81t Beirut 88/77s 88/77s Anchorage 62/52r 63/51pc Greensboro, N.C. 87/70t 84/70t Portland, Maine 81/62t 79/64pc
Lisbon 83/63s 79/63s Mumbai 85/80r 88/81t Cape Town, S.A. 57/45sh 62/35s Atlanta 91/76t 95/76pc Hartford, Conn. 88/65t 88/68t Portland, Ore. 93/62s 89/60s
Lucerne, Switzerland 81/60pc 82/60pc Nanchang City 93/81t 95/82c Casablanca, Morocco 92/69s 87/66s Atlantic City 83/71pc 82/72pc Honolulu 84/77r 89/77sh Providence 88/69pc 84/66t
Luxembourg 77/54pc 75/58pc New Delhi 95/84t 96/84t Damascus, Syria 104/68h 104/67h Austin 103/76s 101/75pc Houston 100/78s 100/78s Raleigh, N.C. 89/72t 89/73t
Lyon 87/63s 87/64s Noumea 74/63pc 72/62pc Dar es Salaam, Tanz. 85/68sh 89/69pc Baltimore 88/72pc 88/71t Huntsville, Ala. 92/75t 94/76t Rapid City, S.D. 93/63t 77/56t
Malaga 103/85s 100/77s Osaka 91/74s 94/76s Harare, Zimbabwe 73/46s 74/48s Baton Rouge 100/79s 101/80pc Indianapolis 85/70c 89/65t Reno 96/62s 101/64s
Manchester 67/51sh 65/51pc Pago Pago 89/77pc 89/74r Istanbul, Turkey 90/72s 93/74s Billing, Mont. 84/59s 85/60pc Jackson, Miss. 98/75s 97/75pc Richmond 86/70t 90/69t
Marseille 99/74s 96/72s Perth 62/53pc 66/46pc Kabul 98/66s 97/67s Birmingham, Ala. 96/79s 96/77t Jacksonville 97/75pc 96/75pc Rochester, N.Y. 79/57pc 84/64r
Milan 95/69pc 93/70s Phnom Penh 91/78t 88/77t Kinshasa, Congo 82/67pc 82/67pc Boise, Idaho 100/68s 102/67s Kansas City, Mo. 86/69c 88/66pc Sacramento 96/63s 102/62s
Minsk 72/53sh 72/52t Pyongyang 93/71s 94/73pc Kuwait 119/84h 120/88s Boston 84/70pc 79/68pc Knoxville, Tenn. 82/72t 84/72t St. Louis 86/74pc 94/68pc
Monte Carlo 86/75s 88/74s Rangoon 86/77t 86/77r Lagos, Nigeria 85/77sh 85/76t Buffalo 81/62s 84/66r Las Vegas 111/87s 113/86s Salt Lake City 94/69pc 97/72pc
Naples 95/76s 94/76s Sapporo 81/65pc 84/64pc Luanda, Angola 77/68s 77/67pc Cedar Rapids, Iowa 86/64pc 85/59s Little Rock 103/78pc 101/76pc San Antonio 103/77s 102/77s
Nice 86/78s 88/76s Singapore 86/78t 88/79t Lusaka, Zambia 73/51s 76/54s Charleston, S.C. 97/78pc 97/77t Louisville 84/73t 89/74t San Diego 77/71pc 79/65pc
Oslo 66/49sh 68/50sh Tianjin 97/77h 86/74sh Luxor, Egypt 109/81s 110/80s Charlotte 88/73t 89/73t Memphis 96/80pc 95/78pc San Francisco 65/57pc 72/55pc
Palermo 95/83s 93/82s Vladivostok 76/66c 79/67c Mecca, Saudi Arabia 114/88s 115/88s Cheyenne, Wyo. 83/60t 66/50t Miami 90/81t 92/80t San Juan, P.R. 92/81w 92/80s
Palma 99/75s 93/75s Wellington 56/47sh 53/48w Mombasa, Kenya 83/71sh 84/73pc Chicago 84/69pc 86/66t Milwaukee 81/69pc 83/63t Sarasota, Fla. 94/79t 95/79pc
Prague 82/59t 75/55pc Wuhan City 90/79t 90/81t Nairobi, Kenya 76/55c 79/56c Cincinnati 84/70t 88/68t Minneapolis 89/64t 80/61t Savannah, Ga. 99/78pc 99/78pc
Reims 79/51pc 79/58pc Yokohama 85/73t 85/74pc Nicosia, Cyprus 103/75s 102/75s Cleveland 83/65pc 83/68t Mobile, Ala. 95/77s 94/77c Seattle 85/59s 84/57s
Reykjavik 58/51pc 58/51c Rabat, Morocco 84/69s 81/66s Colorado Springs 85/60t 78/57t Myrtle Beach, S.C. 92/78pc 92/77t Shreveport, La. 98/76s 99/76pc
Riga 70/49sh 70/51sh AMERICAS Tangier, Morocco 88/73s 83/69s Columbia, S.C. 94/76t 93/78t Nashville 91/76t 90/72t Spokane, Wash. 91/65s 97/65s
Salzburg 82/59pc 78/57pc WED THU Tbilisi, Georgia 89/65s 92/70s Columbus, Ohio 86/69pc 84/67t New Orleans 96/78s 96/80pc Syracuse, N.Y. 81/60s 86/67r
Santiago de Comp. 77/55s 73/55pc Acapulco, Mexico 91/77pc 92/78pc Tehran, Iran 97/77s 100/82s Concord, N.H. 86/58t 85/61pc Norfolk, Va. 91/75t 88/73t Tampa 94/81t 93/80pc
Sarajevo 97/63s 88/64t Belize 90/78t 88/77r Tel Aviv, Israel 92/76s 92/76s Dallas-Ft. Worth 105/80s 103/82pc Oklahoma City 100/74s 94/72pc Topeka 88/71pc 93/67pc
Sevilla/San Pablo 104/71s 99/67s Bermuda 82/77t 85/76t Tombouctou, Mail 107/85s 107/84w Daytona Beach, Fla. 91/76t 91/75t Omaha 83/66pc 83/61pc Tucson 111/85pc 110/85t
Skopje 101/65s 99/65t Bogota 67/50t 68/51t Tripoli, Libya 101/76h 103/76h Denver 90/62t 78/55t Orlando 93/77t 94/76t Tulsa 105/79pc 95/72pc
Sofia Intl Airport 95/64s 91/66t Brasilia, Brazil 83/58h 78/57pc Tunis, Tunisia 108/79h 104/77h Detroit 84/66s 85/63t Palm Springs, Calif. 117/86s 118/87s Washington, D.C. 89/73pc 88/72t
St. Petersburg 69/57pc 67/57c Bridgetown, Barbados 86/79pc 89/79s Zanzibar 82/73sh 85/72s El Paso 109/80s 109/80s Pensacola, Fla. 93/81pc 94/81pc Wichita 94/74pc 92/67pc

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of the story and why it matters to you.*