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Brooklyn's socialist state Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher declared this week that shoplifters have a right to swipe items like soap and toothpaste from local drugstores without getting arrested because they have a "biological need" to steal those items. She suggested shoplifting should be legalized

while joined at a news conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court by other lefty pols and anti-jail advocates. "We are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by."

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Lefty loon lawmaker says thieves have 'biological need' — so let them shoplift!

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Toss ugly trash-can plan, says UES big

Upper East Siders are trashing NYC Mayor Mamdani's push to eliminate nearly 30,000 parking spaces citywide and plunk tens of thousands of massive garbage containers streetside — saying it would turn the posh neighborhood into "Dumpsterville."

The towering, UFO-like metal trash containers (right) — called "Empire Bins" — would line up like "permanent walls" block by block, creating eyesores that

would attract graffiti, choke out lighting and potentially cause safety concerns at night, warned Valerie Mason, who chairs Manhattan Community Board 8.

"We are concerned about the resulting 24/7 visual blight, and perhaps even more significant than the effect on our quality of life, we are concerned about public safety, especially at night, as ambient light from street traffic, which helps illuminate the sidewalks,

may be blocked by these tall and wide non-transparent containers," wrote Mason in the board's Aug. 7 letter to Sanitation Department officials.

Mason demanded the city provide the public extra time to weigh in on the program.

Sanitation spokesman Vincent Gragnani defended the program, saying "leaving trash bags in stinking mounds" was unacceptable. Rich Calder

Robert Miller

Window-guard furor around kid tragedies

By TINA MOORE, Police Bureau Chief, RICH CALDER and ADRIANO TORRES

Four children have plummeted from city windows in the past five months, a disturbing trend that has some politicians calling on Mayor Mamdani to "focus on the basic, everyday issues" facing New Yorkers instead of "needless political theater."

All four children survived. Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) pointed out that the mayor "campaigned on making life better for tenants."

"But instead he's spent the last eight months yapping about [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and taking credit for things that were put in place before he ever came into office," Ariola said, adding that Mamdani should stop the "needless political theater."

The most recent fall happened Monday in The Bronx when Dylan Moquete, who turned 5 in July, was critically injured when he tumbled out the family's fifth-floor window at 30 Buchanan Place, police sources said.

The child's mom left the day before to travel to the Dominican Republic — and he was being watched by his 22-year-old sister, police sources said.

Dylan crawled out the window at 7 p.m. while his sister was cooking in the kitchen and believed he was in bed, the sources said.

The boy landed on the pavement 50 feet below, and was taken

to New York-Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition.

"He has multiple fractures," said a family friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"Thank God his vital organs were not affected," she said. "The trash that was there . . . cushioned his fall. He is out of danger."

Noncompliant

The friend said the boy was able to get out of the window because the guard wasn't installed right.

None of the apartment's windows was compliant with the 50-year-old city law that requires window guards in all windows that aren't emergency exits in apartments where children under 10 live, a Health Department spokesman said.

The windows "were not properly guarded as required because they allowed a space of more than

4.5 inches," the spokesman said. The other cases include:

A 5-year-old autistic Bronx boy tumbled out of a third-floor window at 484 E. 167th St. on April 6 in Morrisania. There was no window guard because the window faced a fire escape, officials said. The mother told reporters she had asked her landlord for a window gate, which is removable, but he refused.

A 3-year-old girl fell from a second-story window at 64-06 Myrtle Ave. in Glendale, Queens, around 6:45 p.m. May 27. The homeowner was not required to follow the window-guard rule because it's a two-family home and the law applies only to multiunit buildings.

A 1-year-old boy fell from a fifth-floor window at 593 Oak Terrace in Mott Haven on July 17, cops said. The baby, who didn't live at the address, was alert and conscious when first

responders arrived.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) says that during the fiscal year that ended June 30 — which included the first six months of the Mamdani administration — it issued at least 5,868 window-guard violations. That's a 17% drop from the previous fiscal year when HPD reported 7,045 violations.

City Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens) told The Post the city should do a review to determine if its window-guard law is being enforced properly.

"Four children falling from windows in just a few months is deeply troubling, and the city should immediately review whether existing window-safety laws are being properly enforced and whether any gaps need to be addressed," Wong said.

"Instead of fixating on international or national politics and TikTok videos, this administration needs to focus on the basic, everyday issues of governing that may not always be flashy or grab headlines, but matter enormously to New Yorkers."

A city Health Department spokesman said, "We have not seen an increase in window falls this year compared to the last five years. For over 50 years, New York City's window-guard laws have helped prevent countless falls. Before the law went into effect, hundreds of children fell from windows each year.

"That number has remained in the single digits for at least the last five years."

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Keke's a ray of sunshine

She's lovely and "unstoppable!" Emmy-winner Keke Palmer radiates bold but cool beauty Saturday at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, where she hosted a Creme of Nature's "Unstoppable on the Vineyard" wellness seminar.

It's 'swing' time in the sexy South

Life is a swing — and these are the best places to enjoy the ride.

A new list from adult retailer LoveHoney has revealed the best US states for swingers, and a trio of southern states is on top.

The list analyzed each US state using nine factors, including Google search interest for swinging-related terms, the number of swingers clubs, swinger-related Reddit activity, bars and hotels per capita, and the percentage of married residents in each state.

The list doesn't tell you how many swingers are in each state, but rather looks at public data that indicates a state's level of interest and openness to the practice.

Florida topped the list, boasting 148 swingers clubs — the most in the country. The state has a bustling swingers community on Reddit, according to LoveHoney.

Texas and Georgia round out the top three. The Lone Star State has the second-highest number of swingers clubs, while Georgia has club availability, high search interest and Reddit activity.

Fourth on the list, Nevada has the highest level of swingers-related search interest.

Tennessee, California, Pennsylvania, ranked sixth overall, but the Golden State has the largest swingers Reddit community in the country. New York, Ohio and Michigan round out the top 10. Way back was New Jersey at 29 and Connecticut at 36. Christopher Edwards

IT'S THE WRONG 'MOVE' Cohabiting breakups

By ANGELA BARBUTI

Their exes drove them up the wall — and out the door.

Women's horror stories of moving in with their boyfriends were featured in a recent study, which concluded that three in five Americans say cohabitation doomed their relationships. Amy relocated to Forest Hills, Queens, from Georgia to live with her significant other, but quickly realized romance was out the window.

"I thought we'd get our own apartment, explore the city and start our lives together. What I didn't realize was that I was actually moving in with his parents in Queens," Amy said in the study compiled by SharkNinja.

It got worse when Amy realized that her beau, Dan, could actually afford his own apartment — but just didn't want to leave the nest.

"He just really wanted to keep living with his parents. He was incredibly lazy, and everyone secretly called him 'Dirty Dan' behind our backs," she said.

Financial stressors

"Between him being a grown man who still acted like a child and me being so far from home, the relationship ultimately didn't work out."

The survey, which polled 2,000 Americans, found that 51.7 percent cited financial stress as a major source of their arguments with their romantic partner-turned-roommate.

Sarah of the Upper West Side was blindsided when she discovered her man only moved in with her so he could pocket the extra cash he was earning on the side — while she was paying their rent.

"I thought my boyfriend had officially moved in with me. Meanwhile, he was actually trying to

HOME HELL: Women told a new study that moving in with their boyfriends often led to constant fights.

get money from his landlord because there was a wasp nest in his apartment," she said.

"He convinced his landlord, and apparently his super, that he needed to vacate, and somehow this turned into him getting money to stay somewhere else. For about two months, I thought we were starting our life together in New York, and I was paying rent while he was pocketing the extra cash from his apartment."

A whopping 45.7 percent of those surveyed said their fights with significant others revolved around household responsibilities and task division.

Raven of the East Village reached her breaking point when she realized that her partner of four years wouldn't lift a finger around the house after they had finally moved in together.

"He genuinely believed certain chores were 'women's work,' while I was also paying all the rent and watching him make zero effort to find a job," she lamented.

Another issue that causes domestic disputes is a misalignment of lifestyle and daily routines, 43.4 percent of those polled reported.

Myah of Williamsburg said that her ex's routine included begging her to return to their apartment after they'd already broken up.

"And, like an idiot, I'd move back in," she said.

New York Post, Sunday, August 16, 2026 nypost.com

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CBS star in 'sex harass'

Ex-co-worker lawsuit

By DANIEL FARR

CBS star Matt Gutman is facing a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit as his turn behind the "CBS Evening News" desk helped deliver the struggling network a ratings boost.

The 48-year-old was sued Friday by former ABC News field producer Samira Said, who accused him of making inappropriate sexual remarks during two assignments several years ago.

In one alleged incident, Said claims Gutman (inset) began rating the appearance of a female correspondent while they were waiting in a line during an assignment.

Gutman "initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent's appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes," according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

'Wrongful' axing

Other male crew members allegedly joined the conversation and tried to get Said to weigh in.

She refused and told them the discussion was inappropriate, according to the suit.

Said claims a second incident occurred while she and Gutman were covering an event for a movie release.

The two disagreed about whether they should leave the work site, and Gutman allegedly made an inappropriate remark about Said.

"In front of multiple co-workers, Gutman responded

by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city," the suit said.

Said alleges the comments reduced her "professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype."

Said named Gutman, ABC News and parent company The Walt Disney Co. as defendants.

The allegations against Gutman are part of a broader wrongful termination lawsuit against ABC.

Said, who worked as an ABC News field producer for four years, claims she was wrongfully fired last year after dealing with mental health issues.

Health woe

She accuses ABC of violating California's Fair Employment and Housing Act by failing to provide accommodations.

Said had been assigned to cover the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where she was required to interview child survivors who had witnessed their classmates being killed.

After the assignment, Said requested a short leave, but was denied, according to the suit. A psychiatrist later approved medical leave.

Gutman declined to comment to The Post. Representatives from ABC and CBS did not respond to request for comment.

Gutman spent 17 years at ABC News, primarily reporting from Los Angeles, before joining CBS News in January.

Additional reporting by Ross O'Keefe

State assemblywoman

By RICH CALDER and GEORGETT ROBERTS

It's her "steal" of approval. A Brooklyn socialist lawmaker declared this week that shoplifters have a right to swipe items like soap and toothpaste from local stores without getting busted — because of their "biological need" for the products.

State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher strongly suggested shoplifting should be legalized while joined at a news conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday by other lefty politicians and criminal justice advocates with Court Watch NYC. The group claimed it monitored 360 arraignments over four days and found more than half were for misdemeanor offenses.

"Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you're stealing those things, you need them," said Gallagher, who reps Greenpoint and other sections of woke northern Brooklyn.

"And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need."

'It's foolish to think'

The card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America said she would continue to push for "treatment-not-jail" punishments — all but ignoring that first-time shoplifting offenders rarely get jail time and that lack of enforcement pushed by lefty lawmakers like herself statewide has forced many drugstores to lock products in plastic cases.

She and other politicians at the event also called on fellow socialist Mayor Mamdani to follow through on his campaign promise to end "broken windows policing" tactics by NYPD cops that target quality-of-life crimes like graffiti and fare evasion.

Shoppers on Saturday at Food Universal supermarket in The Bronx's Co-op City told The Post they were

Brigitte Steber

WARNING! SHOPLIFTERS!

SCENES FROM SHOPLIFTING: Above, The Post witnessed a man grab a bottled drink in a Hell's Kitchen Rite Aid, tell cashiers he was taking it and walk out without paying. Below, at Food Universe Marketplace in Manhattan, a store manager and a shoplifter square off and shove each other after the manager confronted the thief. Left, this poster was made to help employees at a Key Food store in Astoria, Queens, flag potential shoplifters.

aghast over Gallagher's remarks.

"It's foolish to think one should not be punished for stealing. It is a crime," said Rev. Susan Webb, 68.

"Mamdani can implement that in his [city-run grocery] stores, so if you don't have the necessities, you can go there and get them for free."

Sanctioning retail theft will also drive up crime stats, which as of Aug. 9 show retail theft down 14.7% and petit larceny down 5.4% compared to last year at this time, according to the NYPD.

Jeanette Mack, a 49-year-old academic adviser, agreed, saying Gallagher and other far-left official's soft-on-crime policies are "ridiculous" because "they are enabling [shoplifters]

instead of helping them."

"People are going to feel entitled because they know they can walk in and walk out and nothing will happen," she said.

'Becomes a free-for-all'

"Allowing people to shoplift with no consequence is wrong. I'm a single mom, and at one time I had four jobs. I would never think of stealing anything," Mack said.

"They already closed a Rite Aid around here. Now I'm worried that if they put that in place, they are definitely going to close this supermarket, and I would suffer because I'd have to drive to somewhere else in-

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pushes free passes for shoplifting

DSA IDEALS 'STEAL'LY BAD

stead of walking. And gas price nowadays, that's another thing." Edwin Pichado, 33, a manager for the supermarket, said Gallagher is living in a fantasy world. "Rent is high," he said. "You have to pay workers, utilities. Goods going out, but no money coming in. We cannot run a busi-

ness like that. If they see that you do nothing, they'll keep coming back. They tell their friends, and it becomes a free-for-all."

'Devastating to stores'

Conservative lawmakers scorched the latest remarks by

Gallagher, who has a long history of unhinged comments and behavior since being sworn in January 2021, including using a GoFundMe campaign to raise dough for her cat Roland's emergency surgery bill.

"People like Emily Gallagher try to obfuscate reality because

they want to enable this very activity," Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) wrote on X.

"They know it's devastating to retail stores and that's the point — they're communists and want to use crime to force these stores to close. It's social justice."

"Soon enough we'll be hearing

She's a crazy cat lady

Socialist Brooklyn Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher's history of bizarre remarks and actions extends far beyond her demanding free soap and toothpaste for all. They include:

• Using a GoFundMe campaign in October 2021 to raise money for her cat Roland's emergency surgery bill.

• Racking up dozens of traffic and parking tickets despite pushing an anti-car agenda in Albany.

• Allegedly blocking constituents from posting comments she doesn't like on her social media pages.

• In 2003, while she was still a student at Ithaca College, she boasted about mooning a couple she spied having sex, and throwing a "homeless party," among other immature antics, in an online journal that was revealed during her 2020 campaign.

• Attending an anti-Israel phone bank in 2024 sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, whose leaders have espoused vile antisemitic rhetoric and are under investigation by Virginia's attorney general for potentially funding terrorists.

—Rich Calder

MAKE A CLEAN GETAWAY: State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher suggested some shoplifting — such as for soap — should be made legal during a news conference on Thursday.

about the need for government-run drug stores to replace the shops they drove out of business," she added.

'A major dope'

Former Queens Councilman Robert Holden was even more blunt.

"[Gallagher] is a major dope," wrote the moderate Democrat.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told The Post that Gotham businesses are already struggling to keep their lights on — and politicians "now advocating for thievery is going to push even more of them to close shop."

"This is the kind of backwards, left-wing lunacy I would expect from someone who values the rights of criminals more than those of business owners," Ariola said.

"Policies that Gallagher is pushing are exactly what's driving so many of them away."

Gallagher did not return a request for comment.

Emily Assembly

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Model says she's being evicted for it

Stalker sent nude pix: suit

By SONYA GUGLIARA

A New York City fitness model claims her unhinged stalker sent raunchy photos of her to hundreds of neighbors in her high-end apartment building — and now her landlords want her out.

Samantha Skolkin, a former professional bodybuilder with more than half a million Instagram followers, claims she was tormented for a year by her ex-photographer Steward Noack, who allegedly became obsessed with her after she rejected him, according to a $1 million lawsuit against her landlord in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Noack, 54, allegedly mailed photos from her OnlyFans to her parents and to about 400 fellow residents at a posh apartment building in Midtown, where rents go for over $5,400 per month, on multiple occasions throughout 2024, according to the filing. Skolkin and the NYPD. The Post is withholding the building's address due to the victim's safety concerns.

The perp was caught on surveillance camera at least three times — wearing hoodies, masks and, on one occasion, latex gloves — as he mailed packages from a US Postal Service office in Manhattan, investigators said in a criminal complaint.

"It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me," Skolkin, 36, told The Post. "It's just a f-king nightmare. The amount of people who saw

CREEPY: Fitness model Samantha Skolkin (right) claims that her ex-photographer Steward Noack (inset) became obsessed with her after she rejected him. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Stephen Yang for NY Post

them — my parents — it was awful."

The alleged creep started sending the intimate snaps showing Skolkin engaged in sexual activity he stole from her OnlyFans to the unsuspecting recipients in 2024, per the Aug. 1 complaint.

Noack allegedly labeled envelopes and packages pretending to be Skolkin, her relatives, her building's management and Amazon to get her parents and neighbors to open them, according to evidence reviewed by The Post.

Two vile packages sent to her parents in silver gift boxes had black ski masks covered in a white substance to look like semen.

Noack was arrested and charged with unlawful publication of intimate images, criminal impersonation, aggravated harassment, dissemination of unlawful surveillance image and stalking in January and May 2024, according to police. In March 2025, Noack pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a sweetheart plea deal

with the office of soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The lawsuit claims that following Noack's stunt, the building locked Skolkin out of its rent-payment portal and refused to renew her lease. Then an eviction notice was filed in July.

A spokesperson for the building said the suit lacks "any factual basis" and is "entirely without merit." Noack and his lawyer did not return a request for comment.

No more of those summer nights

No shoes, no shirts, no teens... no problems.

A Jersey Shore beach town banned all unaccompanied minors from nighttime activities in a crackdown on dangerous gatherings that have led to brawls and underage drinking.

The Cape May City Council unanimously voted to implement curfews, cutting off access to beaches at 8 p.m. and from any other public space after 10:30 p.m.

"The Cape May Police Department would like to remind residents, visitors, and families about several new city ordinances designed to help keep our beaches, promenade, and community safe," officials said Thursday.

Cape May Mayor Zachary Mullock said the new rules were enacted to stop troublemakers from other parts of the Jersey Shore.

"We really wanted to make sure we didn't become the after-party to some of the other towns that have already made this move," Mullock said, according to WPVI.

"After 10:30, we all know it's not normally the best stuff that happens then, so to me, honest as a parent myself, I think there's a good thing," he added.

Several arrests have been made in recent months due to fighting and underage drinking overnight in the city, the outlet reported.

Other portions of the Shore have been inundated by rowdy youngsters as part of the viral "teen takeover" trend. Nicholas McEntyre

Tesla crashes into NJ kitchen

A Tesla driver dramatically barreled into a New Jersey home Friday morning and ended up in its kitchen after the man behind the wheel suffered a medical episode.

The 2026 electric vehicle (right) plowed through a closed garage door and into the home's kitchen on Fri-

day at around 11 a.m., the South Brunswick Township Police Department confirmed on X.

A 68-year-old man was behind the wheel of the Tesla and suffered "minor injury," according to the police department.

Fortunately, no one was home at the time of the

crash, NJ.com reported.

It is not immediately clear whether the Tesla was engaged in self-driving mode at the time of the wreck.

The driver "suffered a medical condition" before the crash and was transported to a local hospital.

A small gas leak was also reported at the home fol-

lowing the collision.

Nearby homes were briefly evacuated and code inspectors will determine when the home is safe to be reoccupied, according to the outlet.

The Post reached out to the South Brunswick Township Police Department for more information.

Ella Morrison

JSS@unlockHQ

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LENA WEISSBROT Screed justifies killing.

Luigi fan

aims vile posts at vic widow

One of the Luigi Mangione fangirl "journalists" lashed out at Brian Thompson's widow in a sickening social media screed after the object of her obsession pleaded guilty to murder.

Lena Weissbrot, one of the three deranged fangirls called the "Mangionistas" who were given press credentials by the Mamdani administration, reposted horrifying comments about Paulette Thompson — justifying the killing of her husband and suggesting she was complicit in murder.

"Oh the comment section does not disappoint on this reel! A plurality of people feel exactly like I do," Weissbrot wrote on an Instagram story followed by reposting a series of low-lights from keyboard communists in the comments section.

"[I] know, id cry too if my husband was responsible for millions of people dying due to denied claims for life-saving treatment," read one reposted comment.

"Maybe the wife of the CEO could give away some of their riches to people who can't pay their medical bills," another comment read.

"You talking about the woman that was living a privileged life on the backs of the sick and dying?" another comment read.

"Luigi is a hero. Brian Thompson denied CANCER patients treatment. Private health insurance CEOs kill is [sic] every day," another comment read.

"Federal pardon from the next good president, or free him during the revolution," one internet radical wrote.

Shane Galvin

TEEN'S HEROISM

By KATHERINE DONLEY

A heroic 13-year-old girl survived four gunshot wounds and desperately phoned 911 during Chad Hickman's deadly rampage in Michigan, police and friends said Saturday.

The teen — identified as "Bella" in a Facebook post Saturday by David Everitt, a person claiming to be her grandfather — miraculously reached for the phone to alert authorities around 11:40 a.m. on Friday after being shot and witnessing Hickman, 39, kill her mother and brother in their South LaChance Road home.

The deranged gunman heinously killed five people in Missaukee County's Lake Township before turning up dead in a wooded area, police said.

"Bella" remains the only surviving victim.

Call stirs manhunt

Police have only identified the victims in that house — the first of Hickman's three murder hits — as a 45-year-old man, 40-year-old woman and 16-year-old boy, but have not yet released any names.

The Everitt family took to social media to mourn their loss, identifying two victims as Amanda Everitt, 40, and her son, 16-year-old Eric.

"Amanda and her son eric went home to be with god and our granddaughter Bella is clinging to life in a Grand Rapids hospital," David Everitt, Amanda's father, wrote in a heartbreaking tribute on Facebook.

"This was a cowardly act by a evil person and I hope hell gives him his due," the grieving dad added.

"God be with you Amanda and Eric and prayers for Bella who while shot 4 times still managed to call 911 and identify the shooter. She is a hero."

The teen was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but she has since been stabilized, police

announced Saturday.

Hickman's ex-wife, Katie Frye, also hailed the courageous survivor as a hero who "saved many more lives" when her call ignited the manhunt for the gunman — who had a prior conviction for child abuse and several allegations of domestic violence lodged against him.

It is not clear what relationship Hickman had with the Everitt family, but records show that both parties owned homes just half a

mile away from one another on the same stretch of South LaChance Road.

Bloody trail

Hickman, who had a large tattoo of a gun on his thigh, appeared to be living on another property on Bagley Street that police had cordoned off and were investigating Saturday.

After targeting Everitt and her children, Hickman killed a 53-

year-old unidentified male at another home in Missaukee County, cops said.

He then went into a wooded area near Whitlock Lake with his final victim, a 29-year-old unidentified female, whose body was found alongside his.

None of the victims were his children, Frye confirmed on social media. Investigators did not confirm whether Hickman took his own life — and the motive for the massacre remains a mystery.

DC 'deface' wacko: Golf carts are evil

A woman charged with defacing the World War II Memorial in DC with graffiti calls herself a "homeless freedom fighter" in bizarre, paranoid videos before she allegedly spray-painted the monument.

In a series of rambling posts leading up to the devious act she was charged Friday with committing a

day earlier, Melissa Farris claimed she is under federal wiretap, and spoke about "golf carts with people shooting my house from the vacant property next door in Kentucky."

"I fled for my life," she claimed in one Facebook post. "I was shown the federal wiretap. I know that it's on," she said.

She faces felony charges of depredation against property and destruction of veterans' memorials and was being held Friday.

Farris, 41, also accuses the feds of malfeasance of either $2.5 billion or $2.6 billion including "incidentals" — and says the government should be forced to fund favored programs as punishment.

These include "nerf guns and scooters" for orphans in Detroit, as well as "dog beds and supplies" in Lucas County, Ohio, and a "jet for the Make a Wish Foundation."

"I tried to blackball the government," she says, before referencing treble damages for convicted fraudsters.

In another video she performs what she described as a "dance party" in front of the White House.

She also complains about a $9.6 billion Biden administration Energy Department grant for building a trio of battery manufacturing plants for Ford electric vehicles.

Geoff Earle

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Socialist 'Squad' gaining numbers

The House of Representatives' socialist "Squad" could soon start looking more like a platoon.

With a wave of far-left candidates winning recent Democratic primaries across the country, the radical group is certain to expand — and wield far greater influence — after the November elections, critics say.

The Squad will likely go from seven current members to 14. Two virtually guaranteed additions after the midterms are, like "Squad" founder AOC, from the Big Apple.

Claire Valdez — who vowed to implement nationwide rent control if elected to Congress — easily won the primary in June for New York's 7th House District, and the general election is considered a formality in the blue district that includes Bushwick and other parts of Brooklyn being labeled the "Commie Corridor."

Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, a radical who attended an anti-Israel rally the day after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, won her primary in June and is considered a shoo-in to win New York's 10th Congressional District, which represents Harlem.

Elsewhere across the country, other prospective "Squad" members include:

■ Nielat Kiros, a 29-year-old Gen Z socialist who knocked off a 15-term establishment Democrat in Colorado.

■ Adam Hamawy, an AOC-endorsed Princeton plastic surgeon, who won his primary in an overwhelmingly Democratic New Jersey district. Hamawy, 56, who's backed by Justice Democrats, the group that helped launch AOC, traveled with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh" convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot, when he was a medical student.

■ Frederick Haynes, a 65-year-old pastor from Texas, who easily won his March primary. He has positioned himself to the left of Jasmine Crockett and was also endorsed by Justice Democrats.

■ William Lawrence, a 36-year-old Michigan activist who co-founded the radical Sunrise Movement and once gushed over Hasan Piker — calling him "the man" — clinched the primary.

Geoff Earle

Spotted walking shared pet

By GEOFF EARLE and GABRIELLE FAHMY

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's extraordinarily public social media posts about freezing her eggs are nothing more than hard-boiled politics, critics told The Post.

The 36-year-old socialist lawmaker's dramatic videos about her fertility treatments appeal to a critical slice of voters — women ages 35 to 49 — who could hold the key to a 2028 presidential run.

"It is her way to move into the . . . older women, rather than just the young under-34-year-olds," said Andrew Smith, who runs the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.

The important 35-49 female demographic includes those who "are hearing that biological clock ticking more loudly," he added.

Last weekend, an overalls-clad Ocasio-Cortez laid out the "ingredients" to jab her stomach on her East Elmhurst, Queens, kitchen counter in one of a series of Instagram videos for her 9.7 million followers.

'Relate' to women

"Welcome to my cooking show, today we're making eggs," she quipped.

"Don't be weird about this, even though I know all of you will be," she cautioned, acknowledging she was cracking political norms on her initial video.

She stressed the financial toll of saving for treatments and said that, after shopping around, she will have a bill of $8,000-$9,000.

Critics immediately pounced. "AOC is freezing her eggs at 36 because she wants to try to 'relate' to women when she runs for President in 2028," wrote conservative activist Laura Loomer on X.

"She knows freezing eggs at 36 when you've been engaged for 4 years is a lost cause. So she

Pol's 'shot' at '28'

DEMO VIDEO: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes shots to prep to freeze her eggs in what observers say appeals to the key demo of women ages 35-49.

Hatches plan for WH bid

wants a sob story about infertility when she does decide to run for president," she scoffed.

The videos kicked off speculation that Ocasio-Cortez had split with her longtime beau Riley Roberts, which the socialist lawmaker has not denied.

IVF a winning issue

Her unusual choice to administer shots to herself on camera comes as Pew polling shows IVF is a winning political issue, with 79% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans saying access to it is a good thing.

Ocasio-Cortez cleans up among young voters, winning 43% of those under 34 according to a UNH polliast month. But she gets just 18% of those 35-49.

Democrats dismissed the notion of an ulterior motive, cheering the "egg-cellent" decision.

"I love seeing more people take ownership over their lives to make the decisions that are right for them — whether it's through egg freezing, IVF, or something else," Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) told The Post. "Sharing our personal journeys is the first step to normalizing these experiences."

Ocasio-Cortez routinely rates among the top four Democratic candidates nationally.

"It could be her time. She's a real force of nature," said Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. "She's a smart politician. From the get-go she has always built a political base and expanded that base."

Lefty Alexandria's gonna run: Don

President Trump is predicting AOC will try to succeed him in the White House, but threw her in with other left-wing candidates trying to ditch their earlier radical positions that are now causing political heartburn.

"I think so," he told Fox News in an interview during his trip to Long Island Friday when asked about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who recently re-

vealed in videos she is freezing her eggs — prompting new speculation about her political ambitions for higher office.

He was asked about the 36-year-old democratic socialist lawmaker's statement Sunday that "woke 1.0 was crazy," in a remark that distanced her from comments that have been bedeviling left-wing Democratic candidates like holiday-hating Fran-

cesca Hong in Wisconsin. "But if you really look at it, they're all saying the same thing," Trump told Fox correspondent Alexis McAdams. "All of the things that they said they're now trying to disavow."

Trump, who stressed illegal immigration in his 2024 comeback, predicted AOC would get hung up on her support for "sanctuary cities." Geoff Earle

By JENNIFER BAIN and GABRIELLE FAHMY

He's hit a ruff patch!

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's ex Riley Roberts was spotted for the first time Saturday since news of the power couple's split — walking their shared dog Deco outside of the socialist lawmaker's Queens apartment.

The Post spotted Roberts, 38, around midday, looking sallow in a black long-sleeved shirt and camo shorts with army green Birkenstocks, as he emerged from the East Elmhurst three-bedroom apartment they shared together with the beefy, 6-year-old French bulldog.

Sporting a Knicks cap, sunglasses and earbuds, he took a lonely, 20-minute jaunt with Deco before returning to the apartment.

Ocasio-Cortez's jettisoned beau had not been seen since news of their breakup broke Tuesday, after the socialist lawmaker embarked on a public journey to freeze her eggs.

It's not known whether Roberts still lives with his former fiancée or if the elusive web developer has moved and was simply walking the dog as a favor to the rumored 2028 presidential contender, who's been busy this past week filming non-stop videos for her 9.7 million Instagram followers about her fertility treatments.

'Back seat to career'

Ocasio-Cortez, 36, and Roberts reportedly broke up in February because she was too successful for the Arizona-born web developer, sources told the Daily Mail.

"Rare is the man who is able to put himself in the back seat to his wife's political career," said a Capitol Hill source who socialized with the couple, adding that Ocasio-Cortez's political star rose so quickly it may have created a "very, very toxic" power imbalance in their relationship.

"The marvel is that it lasted as long as it did."

"I've never seen them together," one man who lives in the apartment building told The Post on Saturday. "I see him here still."

The pair, who were pictured dining out together in Midtown at Black Iron Burger joint in May, have stayed close friends, the sources told the outlet.

"They eat together a lot. They are close friends, but it's no longer a romantic relationship," said a former Democratic operative.

A third source, identified as a former AOC staffer, said the two "reminded me a little bit of my grandparents in their affectionate nature."

---

in first sighting since quiet breakup

"So when it was working, it was beautiful," the ex-staffer continued. "You know when people get together young. Life is life. Life happens. I hope they're happy."

Neither has publicly confirmed the breakup. Ocasio-Cortez told The Post, "I don't comment on my private life," when asked outside her apartment Wednesday.

The couple had been together 15 years, first meeting through a student discussion group when

they attended Boston University. Roberts proposed in April 2022 during a trip to Puerto Rico, with AOC proudly touting her "zero emissions ring," but she stopped wearing it after October 2023.

Arf Deco

The one-time "it" couple — who made a splash at the 2021 Met Gala when Ocasio-Cortez showed up in her infamous "Tax

the Rich" dress — bought their purebred pooch Deco in 2020, naming him after the early 1900s art movement.

"We decided to name him after one of Riley & I's favorite design styles: Art Deco — which also is inspired by themes of optimism & social and technological progress and is a fixture in iconic NYC architecture," she then told her Instagram followers.

Deco made regular appearances

on the couple's Instagram, like a happy Christmas 2021 snap of all three in matching outfits.

Breed resentment

When they got Deco, the couple attracted the wrath of animal rights group PETA.

"We really couldn't believe our eyes... with the millions of homeless dogs out there, you apparently chose to buy a purebred

puppy instead of adopting one from an animal shelter," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk wrote in a scathing letter to AOC in January 2020.

"French bulldogs are inbred in order to produce 'breed-specific traits,' which cause health problems that many people who will be influenced by your purchase won't be able to afford to address."

jbain@nypost.cin

Brigitte Stetzer for NY Post

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10

HE LOVES TO HATE

By ADRY TORRES, SONYA GUGLIARA, TINA MOORE and SOFIA POZNANSKY

The unhinged lunatic who stormed into a Manhattan synagogue is a deranged serial robber who sources say told cops "F-k the Jews" after the hate-filled attack — but his aunt bizarrely claims he wants to be Jewish.

Larry Montes allegedly barged into Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street on Friday around 6 p.m. during a Shabbat service — unleashing chaos on the peaceful place of worship.

The 46-year-old assailant allegedly slugged a 63-year-old woman, headbutted and spat on a 65-year-old security guard who tried to intervene and broke two religious candles valued at $20,000.

"He was being very boisterous, screaming and yelling," during the incident, a police source said.

The Bronx man was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime.

"I have spoken with the rabbi of the synagogue, and I'm relieved that no one was seriously injured," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement, adding NYPD resources are ramped up

HATE AND RUN: Larry Montes is accused of barging into Central Synagogue (right) in Manhattan and causing chaos, including punching a 63-year-old woman — but his aunt claims he wants to be Jewish.

Crazed temple menace 'wants to be Jewish'

around the house of prayer. Montes' aunt Myriam Montes, who lives in Puerto Rico, told The Post that she believes he's gone off the rails.

'He's had issues'

"I feel terrible about what happened to this young man — my nephew. He's had issues regarding religion, but he didn't act the way he should have," she said in Spanish.

"He's mentally traumatized because of his desire to belong to that religion [Judaism] — that's what he's said. Given what happened, he might not have been in his right

mind; he's mentally traumatized." Myriam, who hasn't spoken with Montes in about three months, said his infatuation with the religion seemed to "escalate."

"I told him he had to be careful with that because those things are sacred — you have to approach them seriously," she explained. "He wanted to keep studying because it seemed like he had a dream he was pursuing."

She also blamed his mental state on childhood trauma. His mother died during childbirth and he had trouble coping with what happened to her, she claimed.

Montes' Facebook is flooded with posts about Israel and Judaism.

Laz C. Reese for NY Post

One image depicts two hands, one covered in the Puerto Rican flag and the other covered in the Israeli flag, reaching toward each other, while another picture reads: "Keep Israel in your heart."

He's also reposted videos that slam anti-Israel Mayor Mamdani, including a clip of a woman comparing Mamdani to an Iranian dictator.

Mamdani, who has been slammed for his lackluster responses to antisemitism in the city, condemned Friday's attack.

"This was a horrible attack at Central Synagogue yesterday evening," Mamdani said during a press conference Saturday.

Oh, Flock! Tech firm 'license' to snoop

No Flockin' way. The "Have I Been Flocked" site compiles Flock audit logs and allows drivers to see if their license plate has been run by law enforcement agencies' Flock camera systems.

If a person's license plate pops up on the database, it means not only that their license plate was photographed but that an operator on the Flock system searched the database for that license plate using the Flock application or website, the site says.

Included in the audit log is the stated reason someone in law enforcement gave to look up a license plate, according to the site.

The database does not show when or if your vehicle passed one of the Flock Safety cameras.

Those searching Flock databases are not necessarily police officers, and showing up on the site does not mean a person was under investigation, the site notes.

The database of "audit logs" is built through FOIA public record requests from 6,586 different agencies across the country, though some information may be outdated or incomplete, according to the site.

Flock is a private, for-profit technology company that operates over 120,000 AI-powered cameras that actively record vehicle data from public spaces and share the data with police departments and local governments.

Backlash against the camera system is mounting, with opponents citing privacy concerns. Shane Galvin

Gotti kin can't kick 'the can' Ore-gone goats back home

John Gotti's grandson is finally behind bars for his long-delayed COVID-19 fraud scheme sentence after failing to donate his kidney to his sickly mother by a Brooklyn judge's deadline. Carmine Agnello, 40, self-surrendered on Aug. 10 and kicked off his 15-month sentence at the Federal Corre-

tional Institution Fairton in New Jersey, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

The grandson of the notorious Gambino crime head was initially ordered to start his sentence June 20, but he got a two-month reprieve so he could undergo an Aug. 3 organ transplant procedure for his mom,

Victoria Gotti. But that date came and went, and Agnello still had his kidney.

He sought extensions, telling the court his mother was battling a severe infection. But the judge ruled that without any surgery on the books, Agnello couldn't avoid his fate any longer. Sonya Gugliara

They're baaaa-ck where they belong.

The two sneaky goats who tried to hitch a ride on a public bus in Portland, Ore., have been returned home to their owner.

Billy the Kid and Billy the Goat were identified as the mischievous pygmy goats whose wild fare evasion ef-

fort was caught on camera, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) said.

The agency confirmed that the opportunistic duo made it home safely after their head-turning ordeal went viral on social media. Since their great escape, the owner reportedly fixed

the gate to their pen to ensure "the adventurous goats are safe and sound," TriMet said Thursday.

Newly-released footage shows the goats stealthily embarking just as the doors were closing, shocking fellow commuters Tuesday morning.

Ella Morrison

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Michael Goodwin

mgoodwin@nypost.com

THE woke fever has broken, and the movement is wounded. But in the spirit of Mark Twain's line that "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," ignore any claims that the mob of radical leftists rampaging through our politics has been defeated.

The impetus for the premature obituaries is a single race in Wisconsin where a wacky socialist squandered a huge lead and lost by a narrow margin to a more-centrist opponent in the Democrats' primary for governor.

The oddities of the contest are too many to draw comforting conclusions from the outcome. They start with the fact that Francesca Hong, a member of the state assembly, lost by just 3,800 votes despite a history of calling for canceling Thanksgiving and defunding the police.

The victor, a black county executive named David Crowley, had dropped out of the race and then re-entered it. He had the support of just 7 percent in a late poll, but analysts say most undecided voters swung his way in the final days, giving him the nomination by less than half of a percentage point.

So hold the celebrations. Woke is wounded, but very much alive and still capable of doing more damage to America's cohesion and leading gullible young minds into the weeds of society and the fantasies of revolution.

Like a contagious disease that turns its victims stark raving mad, it was born out of a hatred for Donald Trump after he had the nerve to defeat Hillary Clinton for the Oval Office in 2016.

Sen. Bernie Sanders ran far to the left of Clinton in the Dem primaries, but she controlled the party apparatus.

As the nominee, she played the dirtiest dirty trick ever with the fictional Steele dossier, and had no political heirs after her stunning defeat.

Instead, it was Sanders' radical platform and energized youthful following that crowned him the godfather of woke.

His most durable and dynamic offspring is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who pulled off a stunning upset in a 2018 congressional primary in Queens, and won the general election.

That might have been the apex of the movement, but it got a huge second wind with the George Floyd killing by Minneapolis police in May of 2020.

The burning, looting and murders that followed were widely excused by Dems and the media

MIND VIRUS: Progressive politicians (from far left) such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Francesca Hong and Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have a history of making wild far-left statements.

'Woke' down but not out

as legitimate responses, which helped to birth a movement for racial reparations and defunding police forces across the nation.

The opportunistic Black Lives Matter organization tapped white guilt for millions, but turned out to be mostly a fraud. That and the predictable crime surges following enforcement retreats and loony legal changes helped cool the anti-police fever.

Joe Biden's presidency was inert, except for his insane open border policy and willingness to play footsie with crime and domestic radicals. His administration tried to racialize every dispute, but proved incompetent at that and in repairing the COVID-ravaged economy.

'Moved away'

Trump's comeback triumph in 2024 appeared to herald a fundamental shift to the right, but a year later, the leftists pulled off their biggest coup with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City's mayor.

A Democratic Socialist who had embraced the defund the police mantra and the call to close all prisons, he added another sickening dimension to his tool kit: hating Israel.

He and Ocasio-Cortez, known everywhere as AOC, became the darlings of the movement and put New York in the vanguard of crazy.

Because reality offers a harsh education, Mamdani is having a tough time doing his first job and, as foreign born, is not eligible for the White House.

AOC is a different story: Senator, president — the world seemed to be hers for the taking.

And still could be because she appears to be growing up politically, and in other ways.

Her decision to go public with a video giving herself an injection in the process of freezing her eggs, suggests a new dimension to her public persona, along with the news that she and her boyfriend ended their engagement.

But for my money, the most significant revelation involves her latest views on what it means to be woke.

In an interview with ABC News, she said she and others had "moved away" from statements they made during the COVID madness, especially on cutting police budgets and closing prisons.

She quotes a city councilman as saying that, 'Woke I was crazy'... especially during COVID.'

Looking back, she said, 'I think

that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful.'

Then she acknowledged a new reality: 'When we talk about crime today, it's fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime... I think that we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible.'

She underscored the point by adding, 'rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.'

'Sellouts'

She's not alone in coming to that realization. After James Talarico, a flaky Dem running for Senate in Texas, backed away from some of his weird history, a former Biden aide, Yemisi Egbewole, said on CNN that, 'Peak woke got weird. It's OK to say that!'

Mamdani, asked for his views on AOC's comments, told reporters that 'Sometimes what you believe in can change. I've made it very clear that I do not believe in defunding the police and I will not be defunding the police.'

Sounding like a conventional official of either party, he added that

'to me, delivering critical public safety also looks like working with our police department alongside many other partners.'

He went on to cite record lows in murders and shootings on his watch, saying this 'is how we measure public safety.'

Some who remain in the throes of revolution are very unhappy with AOC and Mamdani for moving away from their radical positions.

In a scorching essay, Guardian columnist Derecka Purnell warns that the two New Yorkers 'backtracking on the defund movement puts organizers at risk.'

She essentially calls them sellouts who are too comfortable in their positions and doubts their sincerity in the first place. Writing that 'Woke I represents a political baptism in shallow waters,' she says many people 'were swept up in an emotional online conversion toward the radical, romantic rhetoric of defund the police.'

She continues: 'I know the power of the feeling of being connected to an idea that can offer relief and salvation' and said the two New Yorkers 'appeared at an altar of abolition during a global movement that condemned policing. It was a vibe.'

Now she tells us.

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AP | Reuters | Getty Images

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12

PHOEBE'S FUNNY BUSINESS

No shortcut for Gates daughter to rule world

By MEGAN PALIN

Under-fire Phoebe Gates once belonged to a secretive, invitation-only Stanford class called "So You Think You Can Rule the World?" where students are "taught how to identify vulnerabilities in systems of power," The Post can reveal.

Years before her shopping startup, Phia, was hit by allegations it exploited illegal loopholes, billionaire Bill Gates' daughter, now 23, was among a hand-picked group of Stanford students in a secret society who study how power works — and, according to one former student, how to "hack" it.

The unofficial 10-week course, nicknamed "Rule," isn't publicized, has no enrollment code and accepts just 12 students — six men and six women — at a time. They meet weekly to debate money, power and "the underlying incentive structures and frameworks that govern how the world works," according to The Stanford Daily.

Getting in requires a referral from a former student and an intense interview process.

Candidates are asked to recommend their most accomplished male and female peers, while founder and instructor Justin Lewis-Weber — who personally selects the final dozen — grills applicants about their ambitions and beliefs.

One former student told the Stanford Daily the goal was to teach students "how to essentially hack any kind of power structure or bureaucratic structure and get what they want in a system of people."

Another described Lewis-Weber's entrepreneurial philosophy as "hackier" and "more opportunistic."

"It's more about identifying the vulnerabilities or loopholes," the former student claimed. "I think he's less concerned with the ethics of it all and the problem-solving elements."

Both Gates and Lewis-Weber did not respond to The Post's request for comment.

There is no evidence the class had anything to do with Phia's alleged dodgy affiliate practices.

But Gates didn't leave the Rule network behind at Stanford.

'Cookie stuffing'

Former Rule students frequently go into business together, and Gates has recruited for Phia through the class, according to a student interviewed by the Stanford Daily. However, her Stanford pal and Phia co-founder, Sophia Kianni, was not a member of the group.

The lessons Gates absorbed at Stanford have gained an interesting new perspective this week.

Phia — the AI-powered shopping startup Gates and Kianni launched in 2025 — is embroiled in a scandal over allegations its

browser extension took credit, and commissions, for online purchases it didn't actually generate.

Testing by Bloomberg, affiliate-marketing researcher Ben Edelman and Capital One Shopping found Phia's browser extension tagged its users with cookies which made it look like the app was referring customers who actually came from elsewhere.

The practice, commonly called "cookie stuffing," has previously resulted in federal wire-fraud prosecutions. However, Gates and Kianni have not been charged with any crime.

Legal experts told The Post this week that criminal prosecution — let alone anything approaching wire fraud's theoretical 20-year maximum sentence — appears unlikely and civil court claims and repayment demands are a more realistic outcome.

When asked about the practice, Phia blamed it on a software issue — which it said it had (somewhat handily) discovered just 24 hours earlier. However, internal messa-

PHIA'S FOUNDERS: Phoebe Gates (with hair up) and Sophia Kianni first came up with the idea for their shopping app while studying at Stanford.

Getty Images (3), phoebegates / Instagram (2)

NEW MAN: Phoebe recently announced she got together with her childhood sweetheart, Chaz Flynn, who she first met at school in Washington.

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13

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14

THE BATTLE FOR IRAN

BLACK WIDOW

Iranian killed 10 hubbies in 20 years

By GEOFF EARLE

Her final date will be with the executioner.

A serial spouse-slayer nicknamed Iran's "Black Widow" has been sentenced to death after a lethal marriage spree that left at least 10 husbands in the graveyard over two decades.

Kolthoum Akbari, 56, confessed to much of the horrific body count, the Mazandaran Province Judiciary's public relations office told Iranian state media last Sunday.

It's unclear how many of her former spouses perished, but the number is as high as a dozen or more and only one is believed to have lived, authorities said.

Most were killed using rubbing alcohol, sedatives and other meds. Authorities speculate the motive is greed, and that Akbari collected gold, cash and other

dowry wealth from her victims.

Her devious run finally ended in 2023 following the death of 82-year-old husband Gholamreza Babaei, according to authorities. He complained to family members that Akbari had been forcing him to take medications, and died shortly thereafter, according to Iranian media.

"I don't know how many I killed. Maybe it was 13 or 15 people. I don't remember exactly. I'd drug them and then use a towel," she said in a confession a year ago, The Telegraph reported.

Ten families opted for qisas, Iran's eye-for-an-eye punishment, while at least one family agreed to accept blood money — diya — rather than a sentence, as

proscribed in Islamic Sharia law.

Her cruel method was to obtain "temporary" marriages, known as sigheh — contractual relationships in Iran that include a dowry and a set period of marriage — with the elderly men before drugging them.

Toxic cocktails

She used ordinary meds like those to treat diabetes, industrial alcohol that she sneaked into drinks, and sedatives, according to Iranian media and Saudi-based Iran International.

Born in the village of Malekabad, Akbari (inset) divorced her first husband, according to Iranian site Faraz Daily. The site said she confessed to killing her

second husband, a man named Alijan, reportedly telling his family members she had endured beatings in the past, and confessed to pouring industrial alcohol into his mouth and suffocating him. Victims were spread around various towns, which kept her from being discovered.

The court handed down 10 death sentences and years for the attempted murder.

Victims' families have until the end of the month to seek an appeal, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The looming state execution, usually done by hanging in Iran, comes after the UN and other human rights groups repeatedly admonished the country for killing political prisoners — Akbari is not one of them — including killing 56 people on dubious national security charges since March.

Islam for the win?

A top Iranian commander boasted Saturday that Tehran's battlefield performance in the ongoing war with the US proved that Islam leads the world.

Since the conflict erupted in February, Iran's military — lobbing missiles at US bases and allied infrastructure in the Gulf region — has demonstrated that "Islam can be made to rule the world," Ahmad Vahidi, who heads the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, exhorted in a message Saturday.

Vahidi applauded the IRGC and other police and military forces — for bringing the US, "the most heavily armed army in the history of the world to its knees."

US and Israeli strikes have taken out much of Iran's political leadership, but the regime remains intact.

In a post on X Friday, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in part, "The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian." Geoff Earle

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15

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FLAGLER DRIVE

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16

Tan man's big identity crisis

Ian Mohr

imohr@nypost.com

Oli Coleman ocoleman@nypost.com Mara Siegler msiegler@nypost.com Carlos Greer cgreer@nypost.com

$3M or 'Beat' offer

A handwritten set of lyrics for The Beatles' "Lady Madonna" is being offered for a staggering $3 million at Gary Zimet's memorabilia dealership Moments in Time. Zimet told Page Six that longtime Beatles road manager Mal Evans had filed the note away somewhere, and when he was fatally shot by Los Angeles police in 1976, his personal belongings ended up in storage and sold off. According to Zimet, Paul McCartney then swooped in and bought the lyric sheet, which was then sold privately and remained with its owner for roughly 40 years. Zimet told Page Six that partial handwritten lyrics connected to "Sgt. Pepper's" songs, among other lyric materials, are available to collectors.

Mons' ter fanbase

HIP fashion brand Monse's Hamptons pop-up drew three royals: Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, Hamptons royalty Sailor Brinkley Cook (above) and rock royalty Alexandra Richards, daughter of Keith. The fashionable trio turned out for designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, previous co-creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, who were feted with a sunset affair at Social Life Magazine editor Deborah Rose's luxe Hamptons residence. Monse dressed Taylor Swift for a surprise performance in Nashville in June.

GEORGE Hamilton has a new romance and is reflecting on life, revealing to us he lost his memory after an undisclosed surgery and had to read his autobiography to remember who he is.

Hamilton, who celebrated his 87th birthday Wednesday, told us that around four or five years ago, he came out of an operation "not knowing who I was." While the doctors said the condition would last a few days, he tells us it took him years, and the famously bronzed actor had to grapple with profound questions about identity.

"I had to read my own biography to learn who I was," he exclu-

sively told Page Six. "And I had to think, 'Do I like this person?' I read it through several times and looked at things from my past, and I wasn't sure if I had done them."

Hamilton published his memoir, "Don't Mind If I Do: My Adventures in Hollywood," in 2008. The "Crime and Punishment, USA" star told us the memories that came back most vividly were from his childhood, "and memories of manners and kindness and people who were together. Resiliency."

Hamilton also told us a story about his brother who died decades ago, interior designer William "Bill" Potter Hamilton, saying he had surrounded him-

self with objects and materialism. However, when George asked him what he would do differently, William told him, "I would love more."

The experiences have led the debonair actor to focus more on values.

"Other things have come and gone, but kindness and good manners and optimism and belief in something more important than our egos is something people probably don't think I think about, but it's most important to me at this age," he told us.

The quintessential Hollywood ladies' man tells us he shares these values with his current girlfriend, socialite Katherine Bryan, whom he has been dating for a year and a half.

Computer amateur right out the Gate(s)

PHOEBE Gates' Stanford classmates are helping Page Six crack the code. Bill and Melinda Gates' 23-year-old daughter may be in hot water over her shopping startup app Phia, and it's raising questions about how qualified she is to run a tech business when her coding experience appears limited. One of Gates' classmates revealed she apparently did not take advanced coding classes at Stanford, as her degree in human biology didn't require it. "Phoebe herself did not have to take a single computer science class. She could have taken classes that involved understanding how computer science works, but it would've been very much around biology research," the source said. Stan-

ford and Gates have not responded to Page Six's request for comment. Gates did take an applied artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship class that helped spark Phia, the shopping assistant app she co-founded with roommate Sophia Kianni. The co-founders were at the center of a scandal last week following a Bloomberg investigation that accused Phia of "cookie-stuffing," a digital sleight-of-hand where a company collects commissions on sales they did not assist with. Phia has disputed some of the findings and says it shut down its "auto drop" feature in July.

Paws in service

THINGS got wild at Sant Ambroseus in Aspen last week when a bear cub crashed the trendy restaurant, causing chaos as it looked for food on — and under — tables. A rep for the hot spot told Page Six the furry intruder "walked in through one of the side entrance doors into the main dining room . . . Luckily, black bears are not inherently aggressive, just food-motivated." We're told police were called but by the time they arrived, a brave employee had shepherded out the four-pawed foodie, who left the (closed, customer-less) bistro bear-handed. "It was inside the restaurant for a total of three minutes," said the spokesperson.

Flamin' hot curry

NEW York's hottest restaurant just got a little too hot. Ambassadors Clubhouse, the notoriously tough-to-book Punjabi spot imported from London, has been temporarily shuttered after a fire broke out Wednesday while the restaurant was closed. An FDNY "all-hands" response was called, and dramatic footage of smoke and flames coming from the entrance quickly made the rounds.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, and a rep tells us the restaurant "looks forward to welcoming guests back soon." The JKS Restaurants venue at 1245 Broadway has become a celebrity magnet since opening earlier this year, with Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri (above) and Fabolous spotted there.

email us: tips @Page Six .com

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Gimme Shelter

JENNIFER GOULD

Evan Joseph

Sales free fall at Billionaire's HQ

As drones circle the 1,396-foot tower and repair work begins at 432 Park Avenue, the 94th floor skypad at the beleaguered building has sold for $22 million, Gimme Shelter has learned — a stunning comedown from its original $33 million ask two years ago, and a $3.75 million gut-punch from the $25.75 million price it went into contract at earlier this month.

The seller is a trust linked to the late teen science prodigy turned philanthropist Roy T. Eddleman, founder of Spectrum Labs, which paid $31.5 million for the half-floor spread in 2019. Eddleman died in 2022 at age 82.

"The $22 million closing is lower than anyone wanted, but a half floor in the building hasn't sold since 2024. This is the new market reality," listing broker Marc Riedel of Serhant told The Post, who shares the listing with Serhant's Jordyn Nusynowitz.

One broker familiar with the sale said a hit like that barely stings for an owner in that tax bracket.

"You write it off, move on and make more money," the broker said. "There are lots of bad deals. At least here you get the joy of living in the building."

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez

once counted among the glamorous residents at 432 Park.

While sale prices at 432 Park keep sliding, rents are doing the opposite — a split brokers describe as the building's Jekyll-and-Hyde reality. A certain buyer no longer wants in, but a certain renter still wants the address, repairs and all.

The same 94th floor unit had a signed lease

with a renter willing to pay $85,000 a month — a building record for a half-floor unit — before a buyer swooped in and signed a purchase contract first, bumping the renter out.

That set off a chain reaction. Unit 66A, also asking $85,000 a month, ultimately rented for

over $90,000. Another unit, 72A, then rented for $85,000. Both 66A and 94A are 4,000-square-foot, half-floor layouts with three bedrooms, three and a half baths and a library.

"I knew I could get $85,000 for 94A, but I didn't foresee others following in the building," Riedel said. "It tested the new reality of rising rents throughout the city."

Two of the three units sold this year went to buyers who already owned elsewhere in the building, sources said.

"It's one of the most hated buildings in New York, but people love it. It's comical,"

one broker said, noting some renters are drawn by friends already living there — including the pull of dinner together at the building's private restaurant, run by Michelin-starred Australian chef Shaun Hergatt.

The sale closed as the building's troubles continue to mount.

On Aug. 4, the building filed a work permit application with the city's Department of Buildings.

The building's condo board declined to comment. Building manager Len Czarnecki also declined, telling Gimme Shelter: "We are in active litigation and will refrain from comment."

Built in 2015 and designed by the late architect Rafael Viñoly, the tower has been dogged by design complaints since it opened. Viñoly once told Gimme Shelter the building "has a couple of screw-ups," including oversized window frames and a layout that put prime front-facing views in the bathrooms rather than living spaces.

The bigger issue emerged last year, when a report warned that concrete cracks could send chunks raining down and potentially render the building uninhabitable without a $160 million renovation — one owners hope the courts will force the developer to pay for.

Residents have also complained of swaying, groaning, leaks, power outages, elevator problems and the sound of trash hurtling

down the chutes at alarming speeds.

The condo board sued CIM Group, Macklowe Properties and the sponsor entity in 2021, citing more than 1,500 construction and design defects, some of which the board's engineering consultant flagged as life-safety issues.

A second suit filed in 2025 alleges CIM and Macklowe knew about facade

cracking during construction and concealed it from buyers and city inspectors; CIM has denied the allegations and is seeking dismissal. The cracking has allegedly caused flooding and corrosion, and elevators have reportedly gotten stuck during high winds.

The drones circling above are surveying the tower ahead of the $160 million repair effort, as the building's DOB work permit application moves forward.

"I would never buy in that building," said one insider familiar with the litigation. "It was built so thin and so tall that it relies on ad-

advanced mechanical measures to stop it from swaying in the wind — that's what caused a lot of the damage."

"Living there is a gamble. It's too dangerous for me to allow any of my relatives to live there. I'm a pessimist. This is a real problem — and they're paying so much to live there!"

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20

Con you believe this?

'Tri'ing to bare UFO vids

The Department of War is investigating the claim that the Air Force is holding back two cellphone videos supposedly showing a 100-foot triangular UFO over a Colorado military base.

Days after The Post revealed the alleged coverup, the agency said it is 'actively investigating' the whereabouts of two videos showing the out-of-this-world aircraft, recorded on successive nights by a service member in 2023, acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said on Wednesday.

'We will release what we find under PURSUE [the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters] on war.gov/ufo,' said Valdez.

PURSUE has been the Trump administration's platform for releasing tranches of UFO files that have garnered billions of website hits.

The two classified clips purportedly show a 100-foot triangular UFO flying near a military base somewhere in Colorado — zooming over mountains and actively camouflaging in clouds, according to sources.

The videos are stored with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in Colorado, file numbers IRR1669S015524 and IRR1669S005024, according to those sources.

Shane Galvin

By SHANE GALVIN

The real weapons of mass destruction may have been caged little green men.

Late former Vice President Dick Cheney oversaw a 'detainment situation' involving live aliens captured from crashed UFOs, according to whistleblower David Grusch.

Grusch (right), a former Air Force officer and intelligence official who testified before Congress in 2023 about alleged secret UFO crash-retrieval programs, made the claims Thursday during an interview with Dr. Phil, saying US officials had communicated telepathically with alien 'pilots' pulled from some of the scores of UFOs — between 25 and 100 — he says are in the gov-

ernment's possession.

'I know people who had direct interactions in a detainment situation, which sounds very Star Trek and sounds very crazy, but it is true,' Grusch said on The Dr. Phil Podcast on Thursday.

'I spoke to a former cabinet member who directly worked the issue for a particular former vice president. You can guess which one, Darth Vader,' said Grusch with a laugh.

Cheney, who served under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, was famously nicknamed 'Darth Vader' for his out-sized power in the administration.

Grusch then described the way

the aliens and humans were able to communicate.

'It is true that it is some sort of consciousness communication. Of course, people call it telepa-

thy. I cannot begin to tell you how it works. But there is some sort of communication like that,' he said.

'I'm as curious as the average viewer on your show on how that works.'

Dr. Phil has recently become a prominent television interviewer of Trump administration officials and figures involved in the UFO disclosure debate.

The famed TV psychologist has been granted early access to the last two tranches of UFO

files released by the administration and has been briefing his audience on the releases since July 14.

'David's story is absolutely a reminder that asking hard questions and getting to the truth is every citizen's right,' Dr. Phil said after the interview.

'You may believe there's something there. You may believe we're alone. You may believe we're not. But you have a right to have information and think critically about it. And you have the right to decide what it means to you; whether it's significant to you and your belief systems or not,' he said.

Cheney died on Nov. 3, 2025, at 84 from complications of pneumonia, cardiac disease and vascular disease.

'Breath' of longer life? Bloody stoic crash pilot

Could a notoriously habit-forming drug be a key to prolonging life?

Dave Asprey, the founder of the biohacking movement, is highlighting research that suggests it could be.

If you've had a nasty allergy or cold that made you horribly congested, you

might have tried Afrin.

The nasal spray is available over-the-counter and can immediately open up your airways.

A warning label says don't use more than three days in a row because the body quickly adapts to the drug and becomes reliant on it to

keep airways free.

'I'm snorting Afrin for longevity. Kidding,' Asprey wrote in an Instagram post. 'That's a bad idea.'

That said, researchers are seeing evidence the drug could be repurposed in the future to keep cells young and functional. Allie Yang

A lucky-to-be-alive Marine pilot covered in blood miraculously walked away relatively unscathed from a fiery fighter jet crash in Washington state and casually said into a phone 'Hey, buddy, I just crashed,' newly released video shows. The battered and blood-

ied pilot, assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Miramar, Calif., is seen on the phone to 911 when he approaches responding deputies on the side of a road near the crash site on June 13, in the footage released by the Yakima

County Sheriff's Office.

'That's an F-18,' the pilot tells the deputies. 'Well, that was an F-18.'

'We were doing circles over the lake, doing some low-level training,' the Marine explained.

'Honestly, I'm a little frazzled.' Ella Morrison

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By SHANE GALVIN

Hamptons fashion entrepreneur Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra said she was being "harassed" and accused of fraud by financier Chris Durnan just days before she was found dead on his boat, texts obtained by The Post reveal.

The 33-year-old Irish-born swimwear designer had Durnan blocked on her phone on Aug. 1, 2025, when he unleashed fiery text messages at her East x East business partner Dylan Grace accusing the pair of fraud.

Nolan-O'Slatarra promised Grace she would meet with Durnan — who had bought roughly 13% of their company in 2022 for $250,000 — to address the claims of financial misbehavior.

"Oh god . . . I'll meet him Monday," Nolan-O'Slatarra assured Grace, according to screen shots of the exchange provided to The Post.

"Can you unblock him for the weekend?" Grace requested. Nolan-O'Slatarra replied, "Did it."

The next day, Nolan-O'Slatarra, who had blocked Durnan from calling her months earlier, complained that Durnan was aggressively messaging her.

"I'm getting harassed," Nolan-O'Slatarra wrote to Grace (near right with O'Slatarra) on Aug. 2. "He won't stop texting me like 10 times."

The Irish-born beauty wrote that Durnan was saying "x-te like you ghosting me" and that Durnan was "looking for attention such a kid."

Two days later, on Aug. 4, Nolan-O'Slatarra met Durnan for a business meeting.

It would end in her death. Nolan-O'Slatarra met Durnan on his boat "Hell in a Bucket" at about 7:30 p.m. at the Montauk Yacht Club and the two took the boat out for a tour and drank champagne at sunset, which was at 8:08 p.m. that night, according to a New York Magazine report.

The pair then returned at

'HE WON'T STOP'

LJ yacht beauty 'harassed to death'

an unknown time to the yacht club and moved to Durnan's other boat, "Ripple," the magazine reported.

Wrongful death suit

What transpired is still the subject of a police investigation.

EMTs who responded to the boat at midnight found Nolan-O'Slatarra dead — cold to the touch and covered in blood with purpling under her nail beds.

She was completely clothed on a bed on the boat, while Durnan was stark naked on the dock, where he had hailed another man, who called 911 and performed

CPR, according to an EMT report obtained by The Post.

Durnan has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with her death, and he has also denied any involvement.

His lawyer claimed to New York Magazine that Durnan ditched his clothes because they were covered in Nolan-O'Slatarra's vomit, but the EMT report made no mention of vomit. His clothes were never recovered.

A photo (above) obtained by The Post showed the pair on apparently good terms in November 2022.

In the image, snapped at roughly the time when he

was investing, Nolan-O'Slatarra and Durnan sit smiling at a table covered in drinks.

Nolan-O'Slatarra's family filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Durnan in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"For months prior to that meeting, Martha had him blocked from messaging and only unblocked him at the request of her business partner to try to assuage Durnan's complaints about the business," said Mike Bowe, lawyer for Brithem LLP, which is representing Nolan-O'Slatarra's family in their suit against Durnan.

"She agreed to meet him. She died at that meeting."

ADDED CONTEXT: Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra said Chris Durnan wouldn't "stop texting" her before she was found dead on Durnan's boat.

Surrogate ma $$ woe

Surrogate McKenna West claims she's hemorrhaging cash after refusing to get an abortion despite the wishes of the baby's biological parents, who allegedly didn't deliver their end of the deal, according to her attorney and a desperate online fundraiser.

The 28-year-old Alaska nurse apparently needs help financing her stay in Dallas, where she fled to

give birth to Los Angeles parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed's biological son Wednesday — despite the couple asking her to terminate the pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart condition at around 20 weeks.

West has vowed to wage a full-throttle legal battle for custody. Georgia Worrell

Tomb raiders on spree

A trio of tomb raiders has crisscrossed the country robbing cemetery mausoleums — including keepsake heirlooms sealed inside their niches, police said.

The suspected thieves — originally from Indianapolis — are wanted in Florida, where they've made 20 successful scores alone, though their spree has stretched from Texas to Buffalo.

Drake Lee Milam, 33, his girlfriend Porsche Bancroft, 32, and her mother Angela Garrett, 52, are the subjects of warrants for the robberies. More than $35,000 was stolen in the Sunshine State thefts, the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's office told The Independent. The sheriff's office did not respond to The Post's request for comment. Daniel Cody

Dolphins 'shell' to hunt

Dolphins have been filmed using shells to ensnare their prey off the coast of Australia, marking the first time this clever tactic has been caught on camera, per a bombshell paper in Marine Mammal Science.

The behavior is called "shelling," when dolphins flush prey into a large empty sea snail shell.

Then it brings the impromptu fish trap to the surface and drains the quarry into their mouths like a fishy oyster shooter. In the dramatic clip captured in 2025, the brainy cetacean can be seen holding a shell aloft, and then dropping it in the water, before snatching up a fish that escaped its calcified prison. Ben Cost

21

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Sunday Today: Breezy in the afternoon with a shower. High 77 to 83. Tonight: Heavy t-storms. Low 68 to 74. Tuesday Mostly sunny. High 81 to 87. Evening Mainly clear. Low 66 to 72. Monday Tomorrow: A morning shower, clearing, humid. High 80 to 86. Tomorrow night: Mainly clear and humid. Low 67 to 73. Wednesday Clouds and sun. High 84 to 90. Evening Partly cloudy. Low 67 to 73.

Almanac YESTERDAY'S CONDITIONS AT CENTRAL PARK THROUGH 12PM Temperature High: 79, Low: 68, Mean: 74 Departure from Normal Yesterday: -3 degrees Precipitation Yesterday: 0.00", Month: 3.33", Year: 26.04", Normal year to date: 30.61" Cooling Degree days yesterday ...9 Total for the month (normal) ...202 (180) Total since Jan. 1 (normal) ...962 (881) Last year to date ...960 **Heat index (at noon, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th, 69th, 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 94th, 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 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531st, 532nd, 533rd, 534th, 535th, 536th, 537th, 538th, 539th, 540th, 541st, 542nd, 543rd, 544th, 545th, 546th, 547th, 548th, 549th, 550th, 551st, 552nd, 553rd, 554th, 555th, 556th, 557th, 558th, 559th, 560th, 561st, 562nd, 563rd, 564th, 565th, 566th, 567th, 568th, 569th, 570th, 571st, 572nd, 573rd, 574th, 575th, 576th, 577th, 578th, 579th, 580th, 581st, 582nd, 583rd, 584th, 585th, 586th, 587th, 588th, 589th, 590th, 591st, 592nd, 593rd, 594th, 595th, 596th, 597th, 598th, 599th, 600th, 601st, 602nd, 603rd, 604th, 605th, 606th, 607th, 608th, 609th, 610th, 611st, 612nd, 613rd, 614th, 615th, 616th, 617th, 618th, 619th, 620th, 621st, 622nd, 623rd, 624th, 625th, 626th, 627th, 628th, 629th, 630th, 631st, 632nd, 633rd, 634th, 635th, 636th, 637th, 638th, 639th, 640th, 641st, 642nd, 643rd, 644th, 645th, 646th, 647th, 648th, 649th, 650th, 651st, 652nd, 653rd, 654th, 655th, 656th, 657th, 658th, 659th, 660th, 661st, 662nd, 663rd, 664th, 665th, 666th, 667th, 668th, 669th, 670th, 671st, 672nd, 673rd, 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817th, 818th, 819th, 820th, 821st, 822nd, 823rd, 824th, 825th, 826th, 827th, 828th, 829th, 830th, 831st, 832nd, 833rd, 834th, 835th, 836th, 837th, 838th, 839th, 840th, 841st, 842nd, 843rd, 844th, 845th, 846th, 847th, 848th, 849th, 850th, 851st, 852nd, 853rd, 854th, 855th, 856th, 857th, 858th, 859th, 860th, 861st, 862nd, 863rd, 864th, 865th, 866th, 867th, 868th, 869th, 870th, 871st, 872nd, 873rd, 874th, 875th, 876th, 877th, 878th, 879th, 880th, 881st, 882nd, 883rd, 884th, 885th, 886th, 887th, 888th, 889th, 890th, 891st, 892nd, 893rd, 894th, 895th, 896th, 897th, 898th, 899th, 900th, 901st, 902nd, 903rd, 904th, 905th, 906th, 907th, 908th, 909th, 910th, 911st, 912nd, 913rd, 914th, 915th, 916th, 917th, 918th, 919th, 920th, 921st, 922nd, 923rd, 924th, 925th, 926th, 927th, 928th, 929th, 930th, 931st, 932nd, 933rd, 934th, 935th, 936th, 937th, 938th, 939th, 940th, 941st, 942nd, 943rd, 944th, 945th, 946th, 947th, 948th, 949th, 950th, 951st, 952nd, 953rd, 954th, 955th, 956th, 957th, 958th, 959th, 960th, 961st, 962nd, 963rd, 964th, 965th, 966th, 967th, 968th, 969th, 970th, 971st, 972nd, 973rd, 974th, 975th, 976th, 977th, 978th, 979th, 980th, 981st, 982nd, 983rd, 984th, 985th, 986th, 987th, 988th, 989th, 990th, 991st, 992nd, 993rd, 994th, 995th, 996th, 997th, 998th, 999th, 1000

Temperature High: 79, Low: 68, Mean: 74 Departure from Normal Yesterday: -3 degrees Precipitation Yesterday: 0.00", Month: 3.33", Year: 26.04", Normal year to date: 30.61" Cooling Degree days yesterday ...9 Total for the month (normal) ...202 (180) Total since Jan. 1 (normal) ...962 (881) Last year to date ...960 **Heat index (at noon, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11st, 12nd, 13rd, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th, 69th, 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 94th, 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 105th, 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th, 110th, 111st, 112nd, 113rd, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, 118th, 119th, 120th, 121st, 122nd, 123rd, 124th, 125th, 126th, 127th, 128th, 129th, 130th, 131st, 132nd, 133rd, 134th, 135th, 136th, 137th, 138th, 139th, 140th, 141st, 142nd, 143rd, 144th, 145th, 146th, 147th, 148th, 149th, 150th, 151st, 152nd, 153rd, 154th, 155th, 156th, 157th, 158th, 159th, 160th, 161st, 162nd, 163rd, 164th, 165th, 166th, 167th, 168th, 169th, 170th, 171st, 172nd, 173rd, 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 179th, 180th, 181st, 182nd, 183rd, 184th, 185th, 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th, 195th, 196th, 197th, 198th, 199th, 200th, 201st, 202nd, 203rd, 204th, 205th, 206th, 207th, 208th, 209th, 210th, 211st, 212nd, 213rd, 214th, 215th, 216th, 217th, 218th, 219th, 220th, 221st, 222nd, 223rd, 224th, 225th, 226th, 227th, 228th, 229th, 230th, 231st, 232nd, 233rd, 234th, 235th, 236th, 237th, 238th, 239th, 240th, 241st, 242nd, 243rd, 244th, 245th, 246th, 247th, 248th, 249th, 250th, 251st, 252nd, 253rd, 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397th, 398th, 399th, 400th, 401st, 402nd, 403rd, 404th, 405th, 406th, 407th, 408th, 409th, 410th, 411st, 412nd, 413rd, 414th, 415th, 416th, 417th, 418th, 419th, 420th, 421st, 422nd, 423rd, 424th, 425th, 426th, 427th, 428th, 429th, 430th, 431st, 432nd, 433rd, 434th, 435th, 436th, 437th, 438th, 439th, 440th, 441st, 442nd, 443rd, 444th, 445th, 446th, 447th, 448th, 449th, 450th, 451st, 452nd, 453rd, 454th, 455th, 456th, 457th, 458th, 459th, 460th, 461st, 462nd, 463rd, 464th, 465th, 466th, 467th, 468th, 469th, 470th, 471st, 472nd, 473rd, 474th, 475th, 476th, 477th, 478th, 479th, 480th, 481st, 482nd, 483rd, 484th, 485th, 486th, 487th, 488th, 489th, 490th, 491st, 492nd, 493rd, 494th, 495th, 496th, 497th, 498th, 499th, 500th, 501st, 502nd, 503rd, 504th, 505th, 506th, 507th, 508th, 509th, 510th, 511st, 512nd, 513rd, 514th, 515th, 516th, 517th, 518th, 519th, 520th, 521st, 522nd, 523rd, 524th, 525th, 526th, 527th, 528th, 529th, 530th, 531st, 532nd, 533rd, 534th, 535th, 536th, 537th, 538th, 539th, 540th, 541st, 542nd, 543rd, 544th, 545th, 546th, 547th, 548th, 549th, 550th, 551st, 552nd, 553rd, 554th, 555th, 556th, 557th, 558th, 559th, 560th, 561st, 562nd, 563rd, 564th, 565th, 566th, 567th, 568th, 569th, 570th, 571st, 572nd, 573rd, 574th, 575th, 576th, 577th, 578th, 579th, 580th, 581st, 582nd, 583rd, 584th, 585th, 586th, 587th, 588th, 589th, 590th, 591st, 592nd, 593rd, 594th, 595th, 596th, 597th, 598th, 599th, 600th, 601st, 602nd, 603rd, 604th, 605th, 606th, 607th, 608th, 609th, 610th, 611st, 612nd, 613rd, 614th, 615th, 616th, 617th, 618th, 619th, 620th, 621st, 622nd, 623rd, 624th, 625th, 626th, 627th, 628th, 629th, 630th, 631st, 632nd, 633rd, 634th, 635th, 636th, 637th, 638th, 639th, 640th, 641st, 642nd, 643rd, 644th, 645th, 646th, 647th, 648th, 649th, 650th, 651st, 652nd, 653rd, 654th, 655th, 656th, 657th, 658th, 659th, 660th, 661st, 662nd, 663rd, 664th, 665th, 666th, 667th, 668th, 669th, 670th, 671st, 672nd, 673rd, 674th, 675th, 676th, 677th, 678th, 679th, 680th, 681st, 682nd, 683rd, 684th, 685th, 686th, 687th, 688th, 689th, 690th, 691st, 692nd, 693rd, 694th, 695th, 696th, 697th, 698th, 699th, 700th, 701st, 702nd, 703rd, 704th, 705th, 706th, 707th, 708th, 709th, 710th, 711st, 712nd, 713rd, 714th, 715th, 716th, 717th, 718th, 719th, 720th, 721st, 722nd, 723rd, 724th, 725th, 726th, 727th, 728th, 729th, 730th, 731st, 732nd, 733rd, 734th, 735th, 736th, 737th, 738th, 739th, 740th, 741st, 742nd, 743rd, 744th, 745th, 746th, 747th, 748th, 749th, 750th, 751st, 752nd, 753rd, 754th, 755th, 756th, 757th, 758th, 759th, 760th, 761st, 762nd, 763rd, 764th, 765th, 766th, 767th, 768th, 769th, 770th, 771st, 772nd, 773rd, 774th, 775th, 776th, 777th, 778th, 779th, 780th, 781st, 782nd, 783rd, 784th, 785th, 786th, 787th, 788th, 789th, 790th, 791st, 792nd, 793rd, 794th, 795th, 796th, 797th, 798th, 799th, 800th, 801st, 802nd, 803rd, 804th, 805th, 806th, 807th, 808th, 809th, 810th, 811st, 812nd, 813rd, 814th, 815th, 816th, 817th, 818th, 819th, 820th, 821st, 822nd, 823rd, 824th, 825th, 826th, 827th, 828th, 829th, 830th, 831st, 832nd, 833rd, 834th, 835th, 836th, 837th, 838th, 839th, 840th, 841st, 842nd, 843rd, 844th, 845th, 846th, 847th, 848th, 849th, 850th, 851st, 852nd, 853rd, 854th, 855th, 856th, 857th, 858th, 859th, 860th, 861st, 862nd, 863rd, 864th, 865th, 866th, 867th, 868th, 869th, 870th, 871st, 872nd, 873rd, 874th, 875th, 876th, 877th, 878th, 879th, 880th, 881st, 882nd, 883rd, 884th, 885th, 886th, 887th, 888th, 889th, 890th, 891st, 892nd, 893rd, 894th, 895th, 896th, 897th, 898th, 899th, 900th, 901st, 902nd, 903rd, 904th, 905th, 906th, 907th, 908th, 909th, 910th, 911st, 912nd, 913rd, 914th, 915th, 916th, 917th, 918th, 919th, 920th, 921st, 922nd, 923rd, 924th, 925th, 926th, 927th, 928th, 929th, 930th, 931st, 932nd, 933rd, 934th, 935th, 936th, 937th, 938th, 939th, 940th, 941st, 942nd, 943rd, 944th, 945th, 946th, 947th, 948th, 949th, 950th, 951st, 952nd, 953rd, 954th, 955th, 956th, 957th, 958th, 959th, 960th, 961st, 962nd, 963rd, 964th, 965th, 966th, 967th, 968th, 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24

Inside the international literary scandal

SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER

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that's 'annoying' actress Natalie Portman

By SARA NATHAN

NATALIE Portman has many close friends in her adopted hometown of Paris — but the acclaimed writer Rachel Cusk is not one of them, sources insist to Page Six.

Nonetheless, the two women are in the middle of a literary scandal that has insiders buzzing from Hollywood to France.

Cusk's novel, "Life of M," out Aug. 25, details a ghostwriter's relationship with a former child star living in Paris as she attempts to write her autobiography.

The former child star sure seems like Portman's doppelgänger — from her failed marriage to her intense Method preparation for the movie "Black Swan" — and it's not the most flattering portrait.

Page Six is told that, despite incorrect rumors that Portman, 45, who is expecting her third child and first baby with her partner, French musician Tanguy Destable, is furious, she does find the book "annoying."

Seen by Page Six, "Life of M" is a thin, 100-page book that unpicks the concept of fame — and you certainly can see the parallels between the Oscar winner and the character M.

"The writer and the publisher are narrowly skating the line of not trying to hide who they make it out to be, even if they don't comment on it," said a top publishing source familiar with the situation.

Book club connection

Portman found fame at age 12 acting in the 1994 film "Léon: The Professional" — a role that has been criticized as uncomfortably sexualized. Cusk's character M was also a child actor and tells the narrator "that starring in a film had immediately brought her childhood to an end."

In April, Portman told Jenna Ortega, while in discussion for "Interview" magazine, that she had endured a "long Lolita phase."

"There's a public understanding of me that's different from who I am," she said. "I've talked about it a little before — about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are on-screen. I felt very scared by it."

At the time "Léon" was made, Portman's mother, Shelley Stevens, stepped in to ensure that certain scenes involving her daughter and her co-star, Jean Reno, who was 44 at the time of filming, were removed from the final movie. A similar situation also happens to M in the book.

For her role as a ballerina in

"Black Swan," which won her an Oscar in 2011, Portman underwent a grueling year of training with the New York City Ballet.

M, too, starred in a film about ballet — for which she trained with "starved and chain-smoking ballerinas."

"Her body began to mimic theirs," Cusk writes. "She became obsessive about her attempts to master certain postures and sequences."

Cusk's character also undergoes romantic turmoil.

"Even love," she writes of M, "has failed to grip her entirely, or perhaps especially love, because it is there that she has felt most distinctly the impossibility of total sincerity."

Portman divorced her husband, ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied, the father of her two children, Aleph, 15, and Amalia, 9, in March 2024 after 11 years of marriage and amid cheating claims.

The writer even alludes to a romance similar to Portman and Millepied's, which sparked on the set of "Black Swan" while he was in a long-term romance with ballerina Isabella Boylston, who was Portman's stand-in on the movie.

There are even small but telling details like when M is described as smiling out from billboards, "wreathed in the pink flowers of spring" — which sounds a lot of Portman's ads as the longtime face of Miss Dior.

A source in the French capital who knows both women told Page Six this week: "Of course Rachel is writing about Natalie!"

"This is how she goes about her writing," said the publishing source. "Rachel steals from people's lives and mines acquaintances."

Portman and Cusk looked friendly in September 2021 when the actress selected the writer's "Second Place" — which was long-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize — for her online book club and hosted an interview discussion with Cusk, calling her "one of my favorite writers."

She later announced Cusk's novel "Parade" as her June 2024 book club pick.

But a source in the know insisted, "They hardly know each other ... they have met maybe five or six times, total. Rachel appeared on Natalie's Instagram book club, and Natalie's always been a fan of her writing, but they don't go out and they don't hang out together."

"Natalie is in an amazing place in her life," the source added. "She has an incredible partner and very close girlfriends; Rachel Cusk is not one of them, contrary to what she might like you to believe."

Indeed, the source alleged, "The idea that they're close friends be-

THEN

NOW

LITERARY ALLUSIONS: In the book "Life of M," author Rachel Cusk's titular actress character is said to have obsessively studied "starved and chain-smoking ballerinas" — similar to Portman's prep for "Black Swan," during which she met her now ex-husband Benjamin Millepied (left). She is now expecting a baby with Tanguy Destable (right).

ing torn apart is a fabrication of a publisher trying to sell a book."

Page Six has reached out to reps for both Portman and Cusk, as well as the publisher.

There's even been online speculation that the actress may have granted the author permission for a roman à clef.

But the star, Page Six is told by multiple sources, in no way colluded with Cusk on the book.

"Yes, both Rachel and Natalie live in Paris. Yes, there are references to 'Black Swan' and 'Léon,' " said the source in the know. "But there is no deep exposé. You don't get to the inner most working of who the character of M is."

'Pretty mean'

For Valerie Stivers, who broke the story, Cusk is "not dismantling Natalie Portman in the desire to be mean."

"She's using Natalie as a literary stand-in for elite culture and elite people and as an opportunity to develop her idea that maybe 'the self' doesn't exist," Stivers, a senior editor at Un-Herd, told Page Six. "Who better than an actress to symbolize that? Is it lies, is it true — it doesn't matter. Cusk thinks we're all actors. She's always playing games with identity."

But, Stivers admitted, "Whether or not Cusk was friends with

Portman, the character, M, is obviously based on her, and has captured something real about Portman's quest to be normal.

"And what Cusk narrator's concludes is that she's not succeeding. Outside of the bounds of art, if they were friends, that conclusion is pretty mean."

'Masses of similarities'

Cusk, who lives in Paris, has won a slew of prestigious literary awards in her career, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Prix Femina étranger and Italy's Malaparte Prize.

Her career is no stranger to controversy. In her first memoir, "A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother" — described by The New York Times as "career suicide" — Cusk described motherhood as "a form of disability."

And her 2009 memoir "The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy" was pulled and pulped shortly after publication — after a tourist recognized a critical depiction of himself in the text and threatened a libel and privacy lawsuit, leading to an out-of-court settlement and the destruction of the first print run.

"Novelists always draw from their own experiences to create characters, and Rachel is no dif-

ferent — she's also one of the best in the business," said the French source who knows both women. "There are masses of similarities between Natalie and M, and that's how it should be."

The friend also points out that Cusk and her publishers have made "absolutely no effort at all" to deny claims that she wrote about Portman.

"Rachel is an artist who is under no obligation — legal or moral — to explain where she gets her inspiration from. All that matters, is that she's written a superb book which will undoubtedly be another bestseller," the friend said.

Aside from a new baby, Portman has new campaigns with Dior and Tiffany coming out this fall. She will star in "The Gallerist" and, early next year, Lena Dunham's "Good Sex."

By the end of "The Life of M," the actress character tells the narrator, "I don't like the way you portray me. You've made it seem like I lack humanity. You've made it seem like I'm unable to love."

For Portman, insiders said, nothing could be further from the truth.

"Natalie is pretty comfortable with who she is. Her friends know who she is," said the source in the know. "I doubt this is keeping her up at night."

Additional reporting by Peter Allen in Paris.

25

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26

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Sheriff 'inept'

Union big: Guthrie case mess

By DANIEL CODY

The Nancy Guthrie case was compromised from the very beginning by the investigating team's lack of experience, a whistle- blower reportedly said, placing the blame on Pima County Sheriff Chris Na- nos' alleged incompetence.

Sgt. Aaron Cross, presi- dent of the Pima County Deputies Organization — the union representing sheriff's deputies — told TMZ Saturday that staff- ers were unqualified for the major case.

The lead detective, who had never worked a homi- cide, "was placed in there nearly immediately," he said, noting that the de- tective was promoted to sergeant three years ago and "very rapidly went in- side from patrol and then

VANISHED: Savannah Guthrie smiles with mom Nancy, who then went missing in Arizona.

was assigned to homicide."

Cross emphasized that the initial mistake after 84-year-old Guthrie's dis- appearance on Feb. 1 came from leadership — in par- ticular Nanos, who was recently slapped with a $176 million suit alleging dangerous incompetence on another case.

"Command, for what- ever reason, decided that despite the fact that he hadn't been in homicide before, he was the right person for that unit," Cross said.

Losing track

In the early stages, in- vestigators suffered from a lack of communication, according to Cross.

"The issue was that there was a lot of duplica- tion of work because we weren't accurately track- ing who had been spoken to," Cross said.

"In my opinion, and the opinions of other detect- ives and many people in the community, the scene was just given up so quickly. I think the next day it was given back to the family."

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I nabbed killer in NYC months before...

Ethan Curreri is a former New York City police officer who arrested Laken Riley's killer for a lesser crime six months before the illegal migrant was released — thanks to New York's sanctuary policies — and moved to Georgia. He was invited by President Trump to speak at the Angel Family event at the White House in February, where migrant victims' families gathered. Curreri is now a an officer with the Juno Beach Police Department in Florida.

I began my law enforcement career with the NYPD assigned to the 113th Precinct in South Jamaica, Queens.

I've walked into many difficult scenes as a police officer, but nothing compares to standing in a room full of broken hearts at the White House.

On Feb. 23, 2026, President Trump hosted the Angel Family Remembrance Ceremony honoring those who lost their lives at the hands of illegal immigrants. The president gave me the opportunity to share the story that connects me to the families of those victims.

In August 2023, my partner and I observed a male recklessly driving a motorcycle with a 2-year-old child. The child was not wearing a helmet, and there were no safety restraints in place. We conducted a routine stop, identified the individual operating the vehicle, placed him under arrest for endangering the welfare of a child and processed him accordingly.

It was a standard law enforcement action, one that officers make every day. I didn't expect to hear anything further about it — until I did.

In late February of 2024, I was watching the news about the brutal murder of a young Georgia nursing student. The suspect's picture flashed on the screen, and I recognized him immediately.

It was Jose Ibarra, the man my partner and I had arrested and booked six months earlier. He was now identified as the man responsible for murdering Laken Riley while she was out for a morning run in a park near the University of Georgia.

My heart sank. I immediately replayed Ibarra's arrest in my mind — what went wrong? Why wasn't he in jail, or deported? Why was he in Georgia?

One thing I felt sure of is that I did my job, yet Laken's life was taken because someone failed to do theirs.

Our justice system is a pattern of a failure. Individuals cycle through the system, face minimal

Allyson Phillips/Facebook, Aaron Schwartz - Post via CNP, Robin Rayne for NY Post

DID HIS JOB: Former NYPD Officer Ethan Curreri shakes hands with President Trump at a White House event remembering people like Laken Riley (above) who were killed by illegal migrants like Jose Ibarra (inset).

consequences and eventually re-offend. Many of these criminal encounters begin as routine, like the one I conducted, and they escalate and escalate until it's too late.

Cops need help

It is the job of law enforcement to arrest criminals — but we need judges, district attorneys and politicians to send them to jail.

The conversation also cannot ignore immigration enforcement. The individual I arrested had entered the country unlawfully and, at multiple points, could have been returned to his home coun-

try. These missed opportunities matter. Federal agencies like ICE are tasked with an already difficult mission: identifying, detaining and removing individuals who are in the country unlawfully and pose risks to public safety. This mission becomes significantly harder in so-called sanctuary cities — like NYC — where there is a lack of cooperation at the local level.

Policies that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities create real gaps in enforcement. Individuals who should be flagged, detained or transferred can instead be re-

leased back into the community. This is not a failure of law enforcement, but a failure of coordination — and it's what cost Laken Riley her life.

Standing in that room at the White House, surrounded by families carrying unimaginable loss, reinforced a simple truth: behind every failure in the system is a human cost. These are not abstract debates — they are real lives, real families and real futures that are changed forever.

Every officer who pins on a badge carries with them a promise, a solemn vow to hold the line between order and chaos, to stand between the innocent and those who would do them harm.

That promise endures on every street corner, in every heartbreaking circumstance, through every failure of the systems meant to support it.

Americans have a responsibility to ensure that the systems meant to protect our communities are pulling in the same direction. Law enforcement cannot stand alone at the edge of justice while inefficient courts, negligent prosecutors and radical policymakers neglect their constitutional duty.

Laken Riley paid for every failure of that system with her life. Her all-too-short life will never be forgotten — and it is now our responsibility to make sure her death was not in vain.

'Cruising' for many bruisings

Cruise ships are supposed to be floating resorts of fun and relaxation, but they can devolve into calamity zones — colliding with whales and icebergs and even tangling with pirates and polar bears.

In 2024, the MSC Meraviglia sailed into Port Brooklyn with a 43-foot whale draped across its bow after apparently striking the massive mammal at sea.

The incident is hardly the only time a dream cruise has turned into a nightmare.

In 2022, the Norwegian Sun hit an iceberg off Alaska — forcing the ship to limp back to port for repairs.

Wildlife caused a bigger furor in Svalbard, Norway, in 2018, when a polar bear attacked a guard accompanying tourists leaving the MS Bremen. Another guard shot the bear; the injured man was evacuated.

Pirates have provided swashbuckling drama.

In the notorious 2009 attack on MSC Melody off Somalia, passengers reportedly hurled deck chairs at pirates attempting to board, while the attackers opened fire. The captain maneuvered away and security officers helped repel them.

One big hazard is other cruise ships. In Cozumel, Mexico, Carnival Glory collided with Carnival Legend, tearing into Glory's stern in 2019. Jeanne Erickson

Teen bust in VSU gunfire

A 19-year-old has been arrested in connection with the shooting that rocked Virginia State University on Saturday morning and left five people wounded, one in critical condition.

The suspect was identified as Camron Harris of Henrico, Va., and he is not a VSU student. Four of the injured are also not students.

The injured ranged in age from 17 to 23. Their identities have not been released.

The one student who was injured has been released from the hospital after receiving medical care.

No information about a possible motive was made public. Daniel Cody, Wires

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SAVED BY A SQUEEGEE

By RICH CALDER

When al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center on 9/11, six strangers found themselves trapped in an elevator in a desperate fight for survival.

As the express elevator climbed to its first stop on the 67th floor, American Airlines Flight 11 plowed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., causing the elevator to shudder and free-fall down the shaft.

One of the passengers pushed an emergency button, but the elevator had already plummeted 15 stories before stopping near the 50th floor.

As a choking cloud of thick white smoke that smelled like chemicals began pouring into the cabin, panic wasn't an option — it was a death sentence.

So the six men — including a window cleaner and two Port Authority officials — calmly pooled their brains and their brawn.

Pulled doors open

First, they worked together to open the stuck automatic metal doors with their hands.

But there was no exit on the other end — just a solid wall with the number '50' stenciled on it.

Then, a burst of MacGyver-level ingenuity from someone always on the outside looking in at the WTC.

Window cleaner and Polish immigrant Jan Demczur quickly whipped out the brass squeegee from the bucket by his feet and began frantically pecking at layers of drywall in a circular motion.

Some of the others worked in tandem, punching and kicking the drywall until there was a hole large enough for everyone to crawl out.

They landed in a men's bathroom, where they met firefighters imploring them to leave.

So they rushed down 50 flights

25 YEARS LATER: George Phoenix and Jan Demczur hug while John Paczkowski stands in background in their first reunion since escaping from an elevator in the North Tower on 9/11 (right).

TV series shares 9/11 stories

of stairs and bolted out of the North Tower at 10:23 AM.

Five minutes later, the tower collapsed.

Demczur reunited with two of the men — John Paczkowski and George Phoenix — as part of National Geographic's new docuseries, '9/11 Reunited," which premieres Aug. 21 at 8 p.m. The three-part series can also be streamed in its entirety the following day on Disney+ and Hulu.

Both Paczkowski and Phoenix are filmed warmly embracing Demczur in a meetup at a Manhattan bar, thanking him for helping save their lives.

"Seeing Jan and George again after all of these years reminded me of not only the tragedy of that day and the enduring grief we feel for all who were lost, but also the raw humanity of what we shared, how blessed we are to still be alive, and the responsibility we have to live life to its fullest," Paczkowski told The Post

Reunited

The trio are among 14 survivors of the worst terror attack on US soil in history — which left 2,977 dead — who reunited for the docuseries with rescuers and other

strangers who changed their lives. In the opening episode shared with The Post, both Paczkowski and Phoenix discussed how the Twin Towers had held a special place in their hearts long before 9/11.

Paczkowski, who worked on the 67th floor as the Port Authority's assistant director of operations, said working there was a "dream come true." Phoenix, a PA senior engineer, recounted falling in love with his future wife, Martha, during a date at the WTC's observation deck.

The first episode also features Deborah St. John — who suffered

severe injuries after being struck by debris from the second plane to hit the WTC on 9/11 — reuniting with Stefan Horlacher, a stranger who rushed to her aid, administering first aid on the street amid mass chaos and flagging down an ambulance.

"We knew that there were a significant number of 9/11 survivors who made deeply meaningful connections amid the horror of 9/11 but, for a whole host of reasons, hadn't seen each other since," said director Julian Jones, who created the series in collaboration with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and production company 72 Films.

"In reaching out to the survivors, we became aware that many felt they had things they wanted to say but felt they couldn't — until now. After 25 years, the reunions became a chance for these survivors to say 'Thank you,' to pass on a message, to honor the dead, and to reckon with their past."

rcalder@nypost.com

'Married at First Sight' star dies at 40

"Married at First Sight" star Ryan de Nino has died at the age of 40.

The reality TV star's family told TMZ that he died "suddenly" in New Jersey last week, and that no further information about de Nino's death will be released.

De Nino (left) tied the knot with Jessica Castro in the second season of the matchmaking show in 2015. Castro, who separated from de Nino over a decade ago, confirmed the news of her ex-husband's death.

"Yes, unfortunately it's true. I heard the news yes-

terday," the reality starlet responded to a comment on Instagram.

"It was never my place to say anything, even though I knew prior to it being out in the public. I'm giving his family the respect and privacy that they deserve," she wrote. The couple chose to stay

together at the end of their season of the reality show, but ultimately called it quits in 2015, with Castro filing a restraining order against de Nino.

Castro exclusively told Page Six on Friday that she had "not had contact with Ryan in years so I have/had

no idea what his life entailed."

"However, I do send my sincerest condolences to his family during this very difficult time," Castro continued. "I can not imagine what they are going through. May he rest peacefully." Ella Morrison

National Geographic Virginia Sherwood, AP Photo/Kryn Sarcetta

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30

YOUGANDA BE JOKING

Statue of Bibi kin up near Zo roots

By DOREE LEWAK

This is monumentally awkward. A new bronze statue of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fallen commando brother was unveiled earlier this month in Mayor Mamdani's native Uganda — cementing the lovefest between the African country and the stridently pro-Palestine mayor's favorite foe.

The monument to Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu (top inset) marked 50 years since the famed "Raid on Entebbe," or Operation Thunderbolt, Israel's daring rescue of hostages aboard an Air France plane hijacked on June 27, 1976, by Islamic terrorists at Entebbe Airport.

The hijackers diverted the Paris-bound flight from Tel Aviv with 246 passengers to Uganda, then headed by Israel-hating dictator Idi Amin. The hijackers demanded $5 million and the release of dozens of Palestinian terrorists.

Israel's bold mission — which was made into a Hollywood movie in 1977 — was led by Bibi's older brother, a lieutenant colonel, and saved 102 out of 106 hostages.

The only one military loss was Yoni, who was shot and killed by a Ugandan sniper on July 4, 1976.

The statue of Yoni was unveiled Aug. 1 at the Old Entebbe Terminal during a ceremony attended by several Ugandan military bigwigs, "framing the occasion as a testament to the enduring security part-

nership, mutual trust, and diplomatic reconciliation between Uganda and Israel," according to The Kampala Post.

Mamdani, who was born in the eastern African nation, holds dual US and Ugandan citizenship, and moved to the US at age 7 after being raised in South Africa.

He's come under fire for his repeated vow to arrest the Israeli PM when he's in New York, and issued a reckless video vilifying Netanyahu (bottom inset) and calling him a "war criminal."

"The Mamdani family must be plotzing," joked one "X" user.

"I think we call it poetic justice. I have no doubt this makes the mayor lose sleep, and he hates every moment of it. Too bad," quipped Dov Hikind, former Brooklyn Democratic assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, who, like many in Israel and the diaspora, named his own son Yoni after the fallen commando.

The African country — where the mayor owns four acres in Jinja — has changed since Zo was a kid, beginning with restored diplomatic relations in 1994 and the strengthening of ties in the subsequent decades, making it a steadfast ally of the Jewish state.

The mayor was roasted last week when a resurfaced interview clip revealed an embarrassing "fake" Ugandan accent, with the mayor accused of being a "fraud."

dlewak@nypost.com

News of the World®

MEXICO

They're ready to guac and roll. Operations at Michoacán, Mexico's lead avocado producer, have been resumed after it halted production due to security concerns. After the suspension, the government deployed an additional 300 security operatives and more than 1,500 soldiers to its avocado regions.

CANADA

It's a life-prolonging special de"liver"y.

A 64-year-old Quebec man received North America's first regenerated liver transplant.

Gérard Landry of Nouvelle, who suffered from cirrhosis and liver cancer, was given a new lease on life through technology that allows doctors to treat a donated liver outside the human body before transplanting it.

JAPAN

Citizens don't have to futile search any longer.

Google LLC opened its first directly run store this week in Tokyo.

The shop, which peddles smartphones and offers repairs, is the first one to open outside America.

Located in the Omotesando district, it also allows visitors to use AI-powered tools and make avatars and design virtual spaces.

SOUTH KOREA

It rose above. Seoul's Incheon International Airport surpassed Dubai International Airport as the world's busiest international airport.

The airport handled 38.4 million international passengers in the first six months of 2026, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Airports Council International.

The drop in passengers in Dubai is likely due to the Iran war, officials there say.

Russia's 'on the run' 47 die in Indo quake

Russia suffered some of its most staggering losses of the war in July, while Kyiv made its largest territorial gains in more than a year, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

Moscow's military lost 42,860 men on the battlefield last month, which includes soldiers killed and wounded, the most since January 2025 — and the fourth bloodiest month since the start of the war in 2022.

With casualties allegedly nearing 1.5 million and recruitment becoming an obstacle for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the tyrant could soon be forced to engage in peace talks if he runs out of soldiers, experts have posited.

Ukraine meanwhile says it has liberated close to 300 square miles along the southern front, retaking 26 settlements and placing them back under full Ukrainian control. Gabrielle Fahmy

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, collapsing buildings and homes as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes.

More than a dozen residents were injured, officials said.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit Indonesia's Flores region with a depth of 6 miles at 5:58 a.m. local time.

Its epicenter was 42 miles north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province. The initial quake was followed by several aftershocks.

The head of the National Disaster Management Agency said rescuers have recovered at least 38 bodies, mostly in the three devastated regencies of Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai, including 16 bodies pulled from a landslide in Reok in Manggarai. Wires

AUSTRALIA

A controversial New South Wales coal mine has been granted a six-year extension four months before it was scheduled to shutter.

The fate of MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant mine, which employs 500 people, has been threatened by a local environment group, which voiced its concerns over the greenhouse gas emissions from exported coal.

The mine is still hoping to overturn the court's current block on its 22-year expansion plan.

Angela Barbuti, Wires

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Marvel 'X'-cited for 2028

The 'X-Men' are finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige unveiled the cast alongside Sadie Sink, who will reprise her role as Jean Grey, and director Jake Schreier, during Disney's D23 Showcase event in Anaheim, Calif., on Friday.

Inde Navarrette, who starred in the horror hit 'Obsession,' will take on the role of Rogue and 'Star Wars' actor Adam Driver will play Nathaniel Millbury, an alias for the mutant villain Mister Sinister.

The rest of the newly announced cast includes Broadway's '& Juliet' star Maya Boyd as Storm, 'Heartstopper' star Kit Connor as Cyclops, Jean's love interest, while 'Wolfman' star Christopher Abbott is set as Professor X and 'Ready or Not' star Samara Weaving is Emma Frost.

The X-Men were introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1963 Marvel Comics series 'The X-Men.'

Disney secured the movie rights to the X-Men in its $71.3 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets in 2019. The new 'X-Men' is scheduled for release on May 5, 2028. Adam Silverstein

OnlyFans my only lifeline

'Sopranos' star Drea de Matteo is reflecting on how joining OnlyFans became not only a financial lifeline when she was facing the loss of her home but also an act of defiance against Hollywood.

On Jamie Kennedy's 'Hate to Break It to Ya' podcast Wednesday, de Matteo, 54, said OnlyFans gave her a way to make a living after she became increasingly alienated from Hollywood over her politics and opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

'The OnlyFans page was almost like a political statement on my part,' she said.

Ashley Hume, Fox News

'25 golden child to '26 bomb maker

'ONE Battle After Another' is not only the title of last year's best picture Oscar winner. It's 2026's fortune cookie message for Warner Bros., the studio that made it.

'You will fight one battle after another.'

And lose! The studio's downturn has been sharp and rapid. Hollywood declines often are. But it's made much more noticeable by the Ellison in the room. Billionaire David Ellison's Paramount's acquisition of WB is stuck in legal limbo. He's threatening to leave California. It's a mess.

They're flailing around like a car dealership balloon man.

What a difference a few months make. Last year WB was basking in industry adulation. It had major box-office and critical hits in the smart horror films 'Sinners' and 'Weapons' and an eventual best picture winner in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle.'

Its IP family smash (which also smashed my cerebellum) 'A Minecraft Movie' grossed $961 million. And it notched a string of other boffo successes: 'Final Destination: Bloodlines' ($317 million), 'The Conjuring: Last Rites' ($499 million) and the shiny new 'Superman' ($618 million) all performed.

Studio chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were so confident in their job, they did a media victory lap.

'This was David Zaslav's strategy from the beginning of restoring Warner Bros. to its days of glory, being the home for the world's best filmmakers and putting those films in movie theaters around the globe,' De Luca, brown-nosing, told Deadline.

Er, I certainly hope this isn't David's strategy. Because it's been flop city over in Burbank. Duds and embarrassments galore.

One pending disaster hasn't even hit the screen yet. And might never will.

This week, The New York Times reported that a deal for a sequel to 2022's 'Barbie' — you know, Warner's mega-hit starring Margot Robbie that grossed $1.44 billion — has yet to be reached. The stars and filmmakers want more money and better back-end deals. Duh! And if they can't get their act together, in four months the rights revert back to toymaker Mattel.

Baffling. Hope these bozos don't hardball themselves out of one of their only reliable franchises before their corporate merger is actually approved.

They really don't want to sour their relationship with Robbie.

Their only sizable winner in 2026 so far, despite the loud discourse, was 'Wuthering Heights' ($241 million) with the Aussie actress and Jacob Elordi.

Uncertainty looms

But outside that and of a couple modestly profitable projects ('Lee Cronin's The Mummy' — abysmal — and 'Evil Dead Burn'), it's been 'bombs away!' at WB.

Here's a dossier of the damage: The zero-star torture chamber 'The Bride,' the bungled 'Supergirl' and 'please lobotomize me!' 'Mortal Kombat II.'

'Supergirl' is an especially big problem, because the new DC Studios just got off the ground only to crash on its second flight.

And the best outcome for this weekend's dino flick 'The End of Oak Street' with Anne Hathaway is winding up in the 'marginal success' pile.

I hear you saying, 'But don't

they have a new Tom Cruise movie coming out? And a 'Cat in the Hat?'

Why, yes, they do. That Cruise movie is called 'Digger.' It's an artsy satire from 'Birdman' director Alejandro G. Iñárritu in which Tom plays a cartoony Texas oil tycoon who causes an environmental catastrophe.

That could go over well at the Oscars, but it doesn't take Nostradamus to predict that Americans will turn up their noses.

The animated 'Cat in the Hat' could walk the same golden road as 'The Lorax' ($351 million) or could go hat-in-hand like the disappointing last 'Cat' flick with Mike Myers did 20 years ago.

WB's only sure-ish thing comes out at Christmas: 'Dune: Part 3' with Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. 'Part 2' grossed a decent $715 million in 2024, but it was released in tricky March after strike-related delays.

The holiday time frame will give the final chapter some spice.

For a change, an excellent WB

film hits theaters in two weeks. Only, it's not a WB movie anymore.

That's 'Coyote vs. Acme,' a clever and hilarious 'Looney Tunes' flick that the studio shelved three years ago and took as a tax write-off.

One studio's 'trash' . . .

A new distributor, Ketchup Entertainment, thankfully bought it off them. And the film currently holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes — far eclipsing any Warner release this year.

The movie, which you should see, makes an excoriating jab at its former home right away.

In the story, Acme is depicted as the evil maker of faulty products that do injurious harm.

You can see where this is going. After the WB logo is displayed at the start, the camera zooms in on the fine print: 'A wholly owned subsidiary of the Acme Corporation.'

Yep. That's all, folks!

33

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34

I will right 'red' NY

By RICH CALDER

He's the Bolshevik-buster. Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman is amping up his fight to vanquish socialism from New York, showcasing a new initiative with The Post this week that he says will protect the Empire State now and in the future.

His 'Protect the New York Dream' agenda is a multipronged approach focused on protecting homeownership, merit-based public education, private-property rights and jobs, Blakeman said.

'When [Gov.] Hochul and [Mayor Mamdani] tell homeowners that their success is a problem, tell high-achieving students that merit doesn't matter, and give politically connected organizations greater control over private property, they are undermining the very people who built this state. That ends when I'm

governor,' crowed Blakeman.

Blakeman — who has narrowed the Democratic incumbent's lead to 10 percentage points based on a Siena Poll released Tuesday — said the initiative is in response to a wave of socialist policies such as NYC's controversial new pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes championed by Mamdani with little to no opposition from Hochul.

Property protection

The initiative includes fighting to protect and expand the city's Gifted & Talented programs and specialized high schools — like Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan and Brooklyn Tech — from Mamdani's efforts to phase out merit-based admissions because he believes they deepen systemic inequities.

Blakeman said that, if elected, he'd guarantee students are rewarded for aca-

AUGUST 16, 2026

demic excellence and achievement — and that educational standards would not be lowered.

He's also pledged to protect New Yorkers' right to own, control and sell their properties without government interference.

He pointed out that Hochul's running mate, former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, is a big supporter of the Mamdani-backed 'Community Opportunity for

Purchase Act.'

The stalled Stalinesque legislation is designed to control how private property is sold, and it would slam $30,000 fines on landlords who refuse.

Tax reversal

It requires select 'community land trusts' and other nonprofits providing affordable housing to make first offers to buy residential buildings with

at least three units once they're on the market — and then match competing private-sector offers.

Blakeman also reiterated his desire to reverse high tax burdens and progressive local agendas that he claims are causing businesses and taxpayers to flee to Florida.

Blakeman pledged in May to provide 'historic' financial relief for residents during his first 100 days as governor.

Susan Collins baits foe

Republican Sen. Susan Collins says her Democratic challenger in Maine's high-stakes US Senate race apparently 'struggles to control his temper.'

Collins broke her silence Friday about Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson after a newly resurfaced 1988 police record detailed accusations that Jackson assaulted a man and pushed his longtime partner during a late-night confrontation in Fort Kent, Maine.

Jackson, a one-time logger and a former state Senate president, was chosen a couple of weeks ago by Maine Democrats to replace embattled oysterman Graham Platner, who won the June Democratic Senate nomination in a landslide before imploding and dropping out of the race last month amid rape allegations, which he has denied.

Jackson is challenging Collins in a crucial race that's among a dozen that will determine if the GOP holds onto its slim Senate majority.

Asked about recent reports regarding Jackson, Collins said, 'He's the one that needs to respond to the reports. . . . But I will say that . . . it appears that he struggles to control his temper.' Fox News

Tex. airport wash furor

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday directed a review of state grants to entities operating two major Texas airports after Dallas Fort Worth Airport said it would no longer move forward with a proposal to install Islamic washing stations.

Abbott said the state will review grants to entities operating DFW and George Bush Airport in Houston.

'Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others,' Abbott wrote Friday on X. 'Texas will not allow illegal religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded facilities.'

Fox News

GOPer lagging in poll: I'll sue 'em!

Upstate GOP businessman Anthony Constantino is threatening to sue the pollster behind a shocking new survey that has him trailing his Democratic opponent in his bid to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Constantino, who runs the Sticker Mule company and famously put a huge 'Vote for Trump' sign on the roof of his Montgomery County factory, trails dairy farmer Blake Gendebien by 43%-39%, according to a News Chan-

nel 13/Survey USA poll. Constantino, who also funded a $250,000 bronze statue of President Trump that he gave the president, called the poll an example of 'political corruption.'

'They put out a totally fake poll and they do this for one reason only — to help the Democratic Party fund raise,' Constantino said Thursday in a post on X. 'We're talking to lawyers seeing what can be done.'

A tight race in an open seat more than 80 days

out from a general election isn't unusual — but a close race in such deeply conservative New York territory is telling.

The mostly rural, heavily white district has a 10-point GOP advantage, according to the Cook Political Report. Trump won the district by more than 20 points in 2024.

Democrats have seized on a 7-point national lead over Republicans in the 'generic' poll average compiled by RealClearPolitics. Geoff Earle

UNCLAIMED FUNDS

UNCLAIMED FUNDS

NOTICE OF NAMES OF PERSONS APPEARING AS OWNERS OF CERTAIN UNCLAIMED PROPERTY HELD BY

BANK OF AMERICA

A Public Auction of Unclaimed Property will be held at Doyle, 175 East 67th Street, New York, New York 10022 on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 10 a.m. Preview exhibitions will be held on Thursday, August 13, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Friday, August 14, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Monday, August 17, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Tuesday, August 18, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Friday, August 28, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Monday, August 31, 2026, from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Owners may claim property prior to auction by calling 1-888-311-4710.

WILLIAM R ARNOLD, 25 RANDALL AVE APT 3N, FREEPORT NY 11520-2757 VIVIAN BOTTARI, 975 WYNINGWOOD RD APT 1H, PELHAM NY 10803-3037 GENEVIEVE R BURNS, 31 BAYVIEW AVE, INWOOD NY 11006-2229 SYDNEY R BURT, CHARLES L BURT, 24 CONLON RD, WOODVILLE NY 11575-1507 BRIAN CAMPBELL, 796 GLENWOOD AVE, BUFFALO NY 14211-1336 KENNETH R CATTIN, 147 GLENWOOD RD, BINGHAMTON NY 11905-1601 KENNETH J CICCULLA, 28 N GILMORE BLVD, WAPPINGERS FALLS NY 12590-3706 ODESSA COLLINS, 2312 BEDFORD AVE APT 3L, BROOKLYN NY 11226-5096 ANTONIE P CRITISH, 307 WHITTIER DR, MASTIC BEACH NY 11951-1820 JAMES DICK, 80 COVE RD, OYSTER BAY NY 11771-2417 EARLINE DRINKWATER, 1407 WILLOW BLUFF DR, PFLUGERVILLE TX 76660-5727 ESTATE OF GREGORY BOTTARI, C/O SAGEMARK CONSULTING, 555 WHITE PLAINS RD, TARRYTOWN NY 11591-1509 ANDREA J FERRER, 17 PHIPPS AVE, EAST ROCKAWAY NY 11518-1402 LULA M FINKLEA, PO BOX 54, BELLPORT NY 11713-0054 FRANCISCO N GUMMAN-QUISPE, 1664 WOODBINE ST APT 1L, RIDGEWOOD NY 11385-3527 ROSANNE SINKFINA HARDEN, 22 BUNKERVILLE DR, HUNTINGTON NY 11743-5704 LANA D HERNIS, 975 ERUSALEM AVE UNIT 21, ROOM 204, UNIONDALE NY 11553 BILL JONES, 139 CARMICHAEL DR, ROANOKE RAPIDS NC 27870-9404 DORIS KATZ-MCMANON, 2 ADAMS ST, FLORAL PARK NY 11001-2810 ANDREA MARSHAK, ANDREA M MARSHAK, 6941 28ST ST, FLORAL PARK NY 11004-1111 MARIAN A MCLAUGHLIN, IESSICA CHERUBINO, 3 CENTRAL DR, PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050-2719 THOMAS L MILLER, 257 LAKESIDE RD, NEWBURGH NY 12550-1560 LUCY PETRETTI, RAYMOND PETRETTI, 14703 7TH AVE, WHITESTONE NY 11357-1620 E BETTY PHIPPS, PO BOX 501, SYRACUSE NY 11208-0501 NICHAMAN QUIMBY, 95 MINOT ST, SORCHESTER MA 02122-2015 CYNTHIA ROGER, 56 SUFFOLK RD APT 2, ISLAND PARK NY 11558-2150 JERROLD M ROSENSTEIN, 6756 PINE PLACE BLVD APT 4A, QUEENS VILLAGE NY 11427-2849 GARY SAUNDERS, 124 POINT OF WOODS DR, ALBANY NY 12203-5311 JOSEPH SHERMAN, 4 EDWARDS LN, GLEN COVE NY 11542-3209 PAMELA A SHUCK, KREMMELDENTSOR 508, FURTH GERMANY 64658 MARILYN M MIST, 400 MILL ST APT 1H, BUFFALO NY 14221-1557 PATRICIA M WEBER, 23 BAYING DR, CALVERTON NY 11933-1401 JORGE V WHARTON, JORGE WHARTON, 13729 BENNETT ST, SPRINGFIELD GARDENS NY 11413-2821 THOMAS WHELAN, MICHAEL T WHELAN, THOMAS M WHELAN, 49 ROSE ST APT 402, BRANFORD CT 06405-3754 PAUL WHITE, 100 SANDY DR, AMSTERDAM NY 12010-8101 WILLIAM WOLFE, 21 WINCHESTER AVE APT 1B, YONKERS NY 10710-5821

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OPINIONS & IDEAS

K-12 YOUNGKIN

The French radicals destroying America P. 38-39

ARIZONA Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — along with just about every other Democratic governor across America — are currently blocking over 20 million students from life-changing education opportunities.

Nothing is more important than our kids. Great tools like the Education Freedom Tax Credit put parents where they belong: at the head of the table in their children's educations.

In states that opt in, parents can donate up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting organizations and receive a matching federal-tax credit. That money becomes real K-12 scholarships for tutoring, online classes, educational services for kids with disabilities, transportation services or private-school tuition. And yes, scholarships are even

available to K-12 students enrolled in public schools.

GLENN YOUNGKIN Gov. Hochul has said she will opt in but hasn't taken binding action yet. While she deliberates, 2.7 million New York students are left waiting.

Despite what Hobbs, Newsom, Pritzker, Moore, Shapiro and their teachers-union friends might say, letting parents decide what educational pathway is best for their kids is not a controversial statement. In fact, it's popular. According to Democrats for Education Reform, 61% of Democrats — including 63% of black voters and 68% of Hispanic voters — support these commonsense scholarships.

This is exactly why I was proud to make Virginia the first state in the nation to opt in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit. Today, 30 states have officially opted in. That unlocks opportunity for nearly 31 million kids. But 20 governors, representing more than 20 million kids, have failed to do so. Many have proactively worked to block access to these scholarships. The worst part? Hobbs, Newsom, Pritzker, Moore and Shapiro continue to use deceptive arguments to deny millions of kids in their states this life-changing scholarship opportunity.

Let me clear things up for you governors: The Education Freedom Tax Credit is a no-brainer.

Not one dollar will be pulled from public-school funding. No new taxes. If your state has not opted in by Jan. 1, 2027, participating states will receive your state's taxpayer contributions, while your state's kids and families miss out.

In Arizona, Hobbs is working overtime to keep 1.1 million kids from this scholarship. The Arizona legislature has passed bills to join the program not once, but three times. Hobbs vetoed every single one. This is the same governor who attended private school. She also proposed unwinding Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account program, a powerful tool for school choice. Thanks to Hobbs, when Arizona's taxpayers contribute to the EFTC, none of their tax dollars will benefit Arizona families.

TONGERFUL FOR SCHOOL

Pennsylvania hasn't joined either. Even as Shapiro himself benefited from a private education, he has blocked access for 1.8 million Pennsylvania kids.

Governors: Stop putting politics over the people of your state. You're hurting so many families.

That reality became blindingly clear recently when a mother asked me a question I still can't answer for her: Why would anyone turn down scholarships that cover tutoring, tuition, transportation and services for kids with disabilities? Money that costs state taxpayers nothing and takes nothing from public schools? She doesn't care about

ideology or politics. She was asking why the governor of her state would withhold opportunity from her child.

There's an uncomfortable truth at the center of the school-choice debate: Many people, including these governors, who have benefited from choice personally, are often the ones most determined to deny it to everyone else.

This is why I launched Empowering America's Parents. Our mission is simple: Get every governor in the country to opt in, and compel every candidate for governor to commit to stay in.

If you live in Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania or one

of the other states still blocking opportunity, your governor — and those running to be your governor — will be making this choice for you and your kids right now, often quietly and sometimes with a veto pen. Visit www.empowerparents.us, learn where your state stands, and share this with friends who have a K-12 student.

Our kids deserve leaders who stand up for them, not politicians who stand in their way. Let's stand together for parents and kids.

Glenn Youngkin served as the 74th governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

35

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36

POSTSCRIPT Culture Club

WHATEVER side of the aisle you're on, one thing is hard to deny: the rising Democratic Socialists of America have mastered the art of "vibes." From Hizzoner Zohran Mamdani's cheeky, charismatic campaign videos to Hasan Piker's livestreams, the DSA has sold its gauche ideas with suave style. But its vogue fashion conceals dark messages.

At the College Democrats of America's 2026 Summer Convention, DSA mouthpiece and streamer Hasan Piker appeared in a strikingly militaristic suit — tight collar, broad shoulders, chest pockets, small buttons running top to bottom. One online commenter summed up the reaction: "Dressed like Mao . . ."

The silhouette has a name: the Zhongshan suit — a k a the Mao suit. It's named after Chinese nationalist revolutionary Sun Zhongshan, and it became the standard uniform of the Chinese Communist Party. The drab, military-like cut was a real downer compared to the ornate Manchu style of dress donned by China's past leaders. It was designed to reject both China's history and Western influence.

Every detail of the suit carries ideological weight and symbolism. The four pockets are meant to evoke the CCP's Four Cardinal Principles: socialism, the people's democratic dictatorship, CCP leadership and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

You can see why Piker and the rest of the DSA like the style.

This isn't Piker's first belligerent costume. Prone to mirror selfies and "fit checks," narcissistic Piker has been seen in cargo shorts and button-up shirts with wannabe guerilla-fighter vibes. Throwing Fits, a menswear podcast, called this look "Champagne Socialist Final Boss."

The utilitarian workwear look has been a signal of socialist dressing for

centuries. Whether it be Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin or Fidel Castro, the sartorial sensibility has carried a clear message. Political dress has always doubled as political speech.

Few know that better than Richard Press, grandson of J. Press founder Jacobi Press and heir to a 124-year-old Ivy League tailoring house that has dressed presidents, dandies and diplomats for generations. You can spot the Kennedys and the Bushes in its seriously bespoke attire. Same with President Truman's secretary of state, Dean Acheson — America's "best-dressed politician" ever, according to Press.

When asked who were some of the most consequential dressers in US politics, Press points to two presidents: FDR and heartthrob JFK.

"FDR was marvelously dressed. He expressed his background and democratic aristocracy of America at that time in history," Press told The Post.

"Jack Kennedy represented the quintessential American Ivy League aristocracy in its most democratic way."

A masterful politician knows how to use garb to project political signals. Every suit, pocket, button and tie communicates their principles. Press agrees.

"I don't admire politicians who dress down in public. It demeans their own authority and legitimacy. Wearing a dress suit open without a tie doesn't fulfill the responsibility," Press said.

"We're at a period where menswear

fashion is at total decompression. Nobody really knows what to wear, and they often demean the message they're trying to present by being too downscale."

At the mayor's events, his fans typically dress down, wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Hot Girls for Zohran," a look built to combine coolness and approachability. Who doesn't want to be in the hot-girls club?

Mamdani, meanwhile, dons an unremarkable retail Wall Street-style suit and tie, usually accessorized with a row of silver rings (ironically, a more traditional register of authority). The irony here is laughable: He wants to destroy Wall Street while wearing its uniform.

O.W. Root, the writer of the menswear Substack "The Fitting Room," told The Post that Zohran's jackets "have a soft shoulder, which communicates approachability and strikes a more informal stance, which is, also, of course, more accessible to a public that never wears a suit."

"There are many things to detest about Mamdani, but his jackets aren't one of them," Root said.

Compare this to President Trump, who uses his broad, bespoke Italian Brioni suits to send his own message.

"Trump's suits have a firmer, more structured shoulder which communicates the kind of strength Trump wants," Root said.

Mamdani does dress down on occasion. But rather than catching him in streetwear, you'll see him clad in a traditional South Asian tunic, kurta or very high-neck suit with mandarin collars. Usually paired with pajama-style straight pants, called a churidar — a South-Asian Muslim look Mamdani was even married in.

The rest of the DSA and its fellow travelers are equally deliberate, if not always as subtle. Remember AOC's MET Gala dress, a white gown with "TAX THE RICH" emblazoned on the back in blood-red? That's the only dress many people can recall from the gala. The new socialists know how to make a statement, and what they wear is just one part of it.

Isabella Redjai is the senior social media producer at The Free Press @IsabellaRedjai.

Chatter

'President Trump promised to make America safe again and the data proves he has done just that.'

— WH spokesperson Lauren Bis on the largest year-to-year decrease in violent crime ever recorded

'They don't seem to have done any due diligence.'

— Simon Hedley, plaintiff challenging the city's new pied-à-terre tax

'Don't be weird about this.'

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez goes public with the process of freezing her eggs

'This ain't it!'

— Christine Pelosi on DNC efforts to ban ranked-choice voting

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37

N “Frankenstein,” a living monster is assembled from scavenged human body parts and leftover animal remains. Throw together some chemicals, zap it with lightning, and voilà — it’s alive!

In the real world, building life is infinitely more complicated, but harnessing life’s existing machinery might be key to solving many of our miseries.

Scientists recently buzzed over SpudCell, a “synthetic cell” bioengineered to mimic the functions of living cells. Assembled in the lab from biomolecules such as proteins, lipids and DNA, SpudCell promises many potential therapeutic benefits.

But are we, like Dr. Frankenstein, playing God?

CASEY LUSKIN Synthetic cells could serve as tiny delivery vessels to transport drugs directly into sick tissue. They could be programmed to produce vital medicines, such as insulin, antibiotics and vaccines, within a patient’s body. Imagine artificial cells manufacturing anticancer drugs and then delivering them directly to a tumor — eliminating the need for chemotherapy or other dangerous treatments.

Their potential benefits extend to the stars. Long-term space exploration poses all sorts of medical risks. Artificial cells could heal astronauts when doctors aren’t around. If a space cadet gets sick, all he’d have to do is open a packet of synthetic cells and add water — the necessary medications could be manufactured on demand.

These little wonders could even be deployed into the environment to consume toxic chemicals or clean contaminated water.

What could go wrong?

A lot. For every positive use of synthetic cells, someone out there would create an evil use. Infectious biowarfare capabilities could be apocalyptic. Or consider another foreseeable nightmare scenario where we produce

Scientists creating ‘artificial life’ in their labs promise world-saving discoveries — but are they playing God?

Synthetic SpudCells mimic the functions of living cells. It would be inaccurate to say “it’s alive!” — but the advancement does raise a host of ethical questions.

IT’S ALIVE!

synthetic cells that consumes oil to clean up spills. Everything is going gangbusters. Until the cells find their way into the world’s oil reserves and eat those up too.

The entire balance of nature could be overthrown.

What if synthetic cells have better Darwinian fitness than natural microorganisms, outcompeting earth’s native bacteria? Some have sounded alarms about the possibility of “mirror life” — hypothetical synthetic cells that function like normal bacteria. But their internal enzymes would be flipped compared to all known bacteria. That means our immune systems

— and the rest of nature’s — might not recognize these invaders and would have no ability to combat them. They could devour all existing life.

Could this be our punishment for trying to create artificial “life”?

And the question remains: Should these creations be considered truly alive? If recent reactions to SpudCell are any indication, then the media is eager to hype the inventions as real life.

In response to recent successes by Kate Adamala, a University of Minnesota synthetic biologist, CNN claimed, “Scientists say they have built a cell from scratch for the first time that can feed, grow and repli-

cate like a natural cell.”

But SpudCell isn’t alive — if we mean to describe something that can survive in a natural environment, metabolize nutrients and perpetually self-replicate. And it was hardly made “from scratch.”

The New York Times acknowledged that “SpudCell’s originators do not claim to have created life.” Still, one of the scientists involved called it “a genuine milestone on the road toward” the question of lab-engineered life. Even this is misguided.

Life excels at multiplying. But SpudCell can only survive for a handful of replications before its

machinery degrades and ceases to function. This is because SpudCell cannot produce ribosomes — highly complex biomolecular machines that all living cells make to manufacture proteins. SpudCell must be fed a steady diet of ribosomes — all originally made by other real cells.

SpudCells also lack a functional metabolism. As a result, they must be suspended in a “broth” of biomolecules which allow them to perform fundamental functions.

Another area where SpudCell fails to qualify as life is its inability to fully pass on traits to future generations. As bioengineer Tara Daens stated, “It doesn’t reliably pass on its genetic material.”

None of this negates SpudCell’s impressive abilities, of course. But even if we’re playing God, we can’t become Him.

There’s an old joke about scientists who boast to God that they’ve figured out how to make a man. “We start with some dirt,” they begin, until God interjects, “Hold on — you’ve got to get your own dirt!”

This is the essence of SpudCell: Its creators borrowed all the “dirt” in the form of functional information-rich genes, molecular machinery, and enzymes, stolen from living cells.

SpudCell is a testament not only to the cleverness of man, but also a powerful reminder that life originates only through intelligent design.

Casey Luskin is a Ph.D. scientist and associate director at Discovery Institute.

NUPS ARE UP

Share of Americans who say it is very important for a couple to be legally married if they have a child together

2026 39% 2025 29% 2024 49% Source: Gallup

‘I’m just wondering — why did you cheat on your wife?’

— A town-hall caller asks Texas Sen. hopeful Ken Paxton

‘How was this madness allowed to fester under America’s hospital system?’

— An HHS report finding hospitals billed nearly $120M for gender-related treatments to minors since 2019

‘The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level-four travel advisories for discretionary reasons.’

— Spokesperson on claims that NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji would have a detail on a trip to Syria

DEAD WRONG?

% of US adults who say the death penalty for murderers is . . .

Morally justified:

68%

Morally wrong:

28%

Source: Pew Research Center

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38

POSTSCRIPT Ideology

“THIS is the book that broke the spell of French progressivism,” says Nathan Pinkoski in his foreword to Eric Zemmour’s “The Suicide of France” (Encounter Books). Could it also be the book that breaks the spell of American progressivism?

In May of 1968, France’s far-left sparked a massive social uprising similar to America’s ’68 Summer of Love but even more explosive. Thousands of students, furious with France’s conservative norms, threw up barricades, clashed with police, sparked a massive workers strike and tried to create a total revolution.

DANIEL J. MAHONEY

These radical nihilists worked to bring down France’s decent and free Fifth Republic, lauded faraway Maoist-Communist tyranny, and dismissed the Judeo-Christian traditions of the West. Sound familiar?

Just as America’s leftists have mythologized the 1960s counterculture movement, France’s progressives have mythologized the chaos and destruction of May 1968. The nihilistic radicals’ goal was to overthrow the government. They failed in this at the time, but in the six decades since they have largely achieved their aims.

Zemmour, a journalist and occasional presidential candidate, tells the fascinating and disturbing story of how this liberationist ideology took

over French politics — and how France’s moderates and conservatives were swept up in its elite prestige. This erudite writer has indeed exploded the mythology behind “the quiet revolution that destroyed a nation.” He does so in vigorous and inviting prose.

Zemmour’s book was first published in France in 2014. It was a massive success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. His calls for a return to tradition were decried and twisted by critics who maligned him an extremist and a “demagogue.” But its influence remains strong, and it has now been ably translated into English by Pinkoski — not a moment too soon, as it contains vital warnings for America.

THE French mutiny began on college campuses. Postmodern French theory and its disciples had three goals: “Deconstruction, derision, destruction,” writes Zemmour. Institutions had to be dismantled. “Everything, even the most sacred — especially the most sacred — could and should be mocked.” Nothing could be left standing.

This was all to be replaced by ill-defined and ever more expansive “human rights” tied to transgressive behavior and endlessly proliferating “identities.” Adopting these attitudes became morally obligatory. These youthful revolutionaries adopted the remarkably juvenile slogan “It is forbidden to forbid.” They sought to create “emancipated” human beings severed from the very idea that liberty ought to be accom-

panied by self-restraint.

That ruinous belief spread off-campus and gave rise to a new activism that united collectivist politics with identity politics and crude sexual self-expression. Antiquated national loyalties, onerous moral restraints and a discredited Christian religion — goodbye to all that.

You would expect France’s conservatives to oppose this spiral. On the contrary: They joined in. Charles de Gaulle had established a strong presidential republic in 1958, buttressed by the support of the people. After his death in 1970, his successors caved to the extremists one issue at a time.

First, there was French Algeria. Zemmour is himself of French Algerian descent. De Gaulle had initially sought to keep the colony under French control. He gave up on these prospects, not out of anticolonial convictions, but because he realized in the end that the French people and Algerian Muslims

did not belong to the same civilization and could not indefinitely inhabit the same political community. De Gaulle’s realism on the issue, however painful to the French Algerians, made sense. But the revolutionaries believed it didn’t go far enough. Out of some mix of guilt and naivete, France, even under center-right governments, opened the doors to massive Islamic immigration. As a result, France became increasingly Islamized and today suffers from violent friction between its Islamic immigrant and other communities.

Then there were the domestic issues. The radicals undermined the stable bourgeois family with consequences that have strained the social fabric and body politic. Legal abortion was first introduced by conservatives in 1975. At the time, they denied it would ever become an all-encompassing right. How wrong they were! Today, France has guaranteed abortion as a Constitutional right, the first nation in the world to do so.

Then, in the ’80s and ’90s, French conservatives rolled over as Euro-

pean governance shrank national sovereignty. They capitulated to socialist President François Mitterrand’s erasure of French power and history with the expansion of the European Union. “France is our homeland, Europe our future,” declared Mitterrand. As Zemmour writes, that really meant: “France is our past, consigned to the dustbin of history.”

All the while, the right pretended to be heirs to de Gaulle’s patriotic legacy. This faux Gaullism defended corrupt and ineffectual international institu-

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39

THE GAUL OF IT

tions — the United Nations — more than they protected the vital interests of Frenchmen. De Gaulle was no pacifist and would not have sacrificed French interest for international law.

THE betrayal went deeper in the 2000s. In 2005, the EU tried to impose the cumbersome and illiberal Constitution for Europe on France. That document refused to even mention the Christian dimensions of European history. The French people refused to ratify it.

But in 2007 the supposedly conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy acquiesced to the coercive imposition of the Treaty of Lisbon, which had much the same goals as the rejected constitution. Rather than ask the French people what they wanted in the form of a referendum, Sarkozy pushed it through parliament.

“The death knell sounded for popular sovereignty.”

What’s most alarming for American audiences is that Zemmour convincingly shows how French post-

modernism and American wokeness reinforce each other. Extremist ideas and despotic practices ship back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean in a lamentable display of mutual imitation. Look at the syllabi of today’s American humanities classes. The crazy postmodern Frenchmen Alain Badiou, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze are now the core of these programs.

If French postmodernism helped corrupt the American academy, American anti-racism and political

correctness found their way to France and undermined the commitment to universal “republican values” that was the bedrock of the French nation. A “culture of repudiation,” as Roger Scruton called it, is dominant throughout the Western world. Extreme imitates extreme.

Ironically, many French left-liberals acknowledge that American wokeness has become a parody of itself. They deem it excessively censorious and destructive of the public virtues.

ZEMMOUR’S judgments are sometimes excessively sweeping and thus need to be taken with a grain of salt. He clearly detests Jacobin terror and communist totalitarianism, but he can be too sympathetic to the French revolutionary state. And though his criticisms of American arrogance are not without merit, he understates the advantages that have marked postwar pax Americana.

Zemmour ends his provocative book by observing that people from every continent are returning “to the very essence of their civilization.” Russia is returning to Orthodoxy and the Tsars, China to Confucius, India to Buddha and Islam to the Ummah. American conservatives, he adds, no longer hesitate “to proclaim the greatness of Western civilization, Jewish prophecy and Catholic majesty, Greek rationality and Roman law” against the “suicidal mirages of a nihilistic universalism.”

That leaves “only Europe and the West” — and I would add American woke elites — who are “slow to reclaim their roots, perverted as they are by a corrupted universalism.” About that Zemmour is surely right.

Daniel J. Mahoney is senior research fellow at the Simon Center at the Heritage Foundation and a senior teaching fellow at Hillsdale College.

Conservative politicians in France claim to be heirs to the legacy of Charles de Gaulle (above), but their priorities — including immigration from Muslim nations and acquiescence to the European Union — say otherwise. Such attitudes are now also entrenched in the American left.

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POSTSCRIPT Editorial

NEW YORK POST

AMERICA'S OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY PUBLISHED DAILY NEWSPAPER

Dems Are Crazier Now

Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez make her big egg-freezing announcement to try to bury her "Woke 1 was crazy" debacle?

Because we're realizing we went too easy on her about it: The fact is, the biggest problem isn't how her comment wrote off the left's past toxicity, but how it skips over the many ways in which the entire Democratic Party has grown crazier.

Bad enough that AOC pretends 2020 was just an invigorating time when "the doors were really open" to visionaries who wanted to "entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place," a gimmick that somehow is supposed to make everyone forget Black Lives Matter rioting as well as actual defunding of police.

Not to mention how much of that madness — in particular, the "decarceration" policies that dictate not locking up nearly all criminals — continues to guide public policy in much of Blue America. Nor the widespread adoption of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies that mean naked, extreme racial discrimination.

Somehow, we're supposed to forget all that, just because AOC, now looking at a 2028 presidential run, is trying to look more sober and pragmatic.

But if that were true, then AOC and the rest of the hard left would display some evidence of having moderated their positions, when they're actually crazier than ever.

They've turned hard against Israel, with nearly half of House Dems recently voting to cut off all aid to the Jewish state — and with Ocasio-Cortez herself calling to block funds for the Defense Department (in the middle of a war) because of bizarre

conspiracy theories about Israel taking control of the Pentagon.

Leftist Dems have stopped chanting "Defund the police," but they still want to shift funding away from conventional policing and toward empty "community-based solutions," just as under "Woke 1." Democrats haven't backed off an inch on the craziest "gender" policies, either: Don't dare question "trans rights."

And while "Abolish ICE" sounds like Dems have an issue with how one agency is run, what the still-rising left really means is abolish all enforcement of immigration law: They want to "legalize migration," meaning open borders — and then grant voting rights to everyone.

And of course the Democratic Socialists of America platform calls for eliminating not only the Electoral College and the Senate, but also reducing the president and the Supreme Court to mere tools of a national legislature.

Nor is the regular Democratic Party much better: Supposed moderates like James Carville and Pete Buttigieg are endorsing plans to pack the Supreme Court and make states out of Puerto Rico and Washington DC in order to hand the party four guaranteed Senate seats.

Yes, sane Democrats demur from embracing all these radical plans, but few dare call out how most of the party is speeding headlong toward Crazy Town. We understand the public's discontent with President Trump and other Republicans, but the problem for voters this fall is that the Democrats refuse to offer anything resembling a sane alternative.

Weep for Our Schools

Texas public-school teacher Darius Williams is right to weep for his English students: Few things could be more tragic than a roomful of 17- and 18-year-olds left illiterate by the schools their parents trusted — or paint an uglier picture of our stifled, stunted future.

Williams went viral last week for his heartfelt Instagram plea over America's dysfunctional public-education system: He found that the kids he was to teach couldn't competently read and interpret two paragraphs — not even answer a basic question he had "basically completed" for them...

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress more than justify Williams' tears of frustration: Houston, where he teaches, sees some 44% of students reading at a "below basic" level in 8th grade (only 20% rate "proficient"); 51% below basic in math. In Baltimore, less than half of 8th graders make the "basic" level in reading less than a third in math. In Chicago, 37% of 8th graders fall below basic in reading and more than

half in math; in Philly, it's 50% and 62%.

This is the result of concentrated indifference from systems that have known for years that students can't read or do math, yet keep moving them along anyway.

Yet the disaster isn't only in inner-city schools; it's everywhere — and the damning results are now showing up at the college level. Per an end-of-2025 report out of UC-San Diego, an elite public university, "Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold."

Berkeley, possibly the world's best public university, has students that can't manage to read more than five pages per day per course. At elite private colleges — Columbia, Georgetown, Princeton and beyond — professors find their students not merely unable to understand and debate complex texts, but unable to read them in full at all.

We're bankrupting our future; all too soon, Darius Williams won't be the only one weeping.

NO MORE MR. NICE HOUSE?

More young men look up to Obama than a religious leader and 12% have been incarcerated — what explains the massive male malaise?

THE common narrative about the troubles facing young men goes like this: A growing number are failing in school, not working or studying, not dating or forming families and not leaving their childhood bedrooms.

They are checked out from social life. Their mental health is poor, their habits are bad — video games, pornography, gambling — and their views are extremist. What happened to America's men?

My peers at the Institute of Family Studies and I surveyed 2,000 young men to hear what they have to say. Our results show a substantial number of young men are struggling mightily. That should worry everyone.

Three common explanations are usually given for male malaise: institutional structure, individual deficiency and socialization.

The structural argument finds by far the most support from our data. The social fabric itself has thinned — a deinstitutionalization, as sociologists call it, that has left our world more formless.

Over time, there has been a sharp decline of prescribed roles, inherited life courses and clear occupational and educational trajectories.

We see what is lost by examining the positive effect of the last remaining American institutions with any strength, the formal-education track.

Men who took this route — college, trade school, apprenticeships — are faring the best. This often does not appear while they were in college or training,

which can be a distressing time. Rather, it comes afterward, widening men's horizons for stable employment, friendships, marriage and community.

But the higher-education pathway is not open to many men — whether for financial reasons, family responsibilities or fear of failure. A sad finding: 43% of young men agreed with the appraisal "I am inclined to think I am a failure."

In today's economy, the focus for many young men is not employment, but a good income. There's a logic to this position. Real wages for young men have stagnated in recent decades. Gig work and the disruption of new technologies have brought further uncertainties.

This is not the old job market, and attitudes have changed accordingly. Many young men do not see a direct relationship between hard work and getting ahead. More than 60% said they feel they have little control over the things that happen to them. They appear to view things as random and circumstantial.

With the lack of institutionalized social forms — churches, volunteer service, and recreation — young men are left to themselves to build relationships. Even worse, only about 60% of our respondents report a consistently present father. Perhaps this helps explain the terrifying statistic that 12% of our young men reported that they'd been incarcerated at some point.

On these points and much else, we find social formlessness to be like a raging storm in which many young men are struggling to find some secure foothold.

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Then there's the problem of individual deficiency. The deficiency argument assumes young men are lost because they are simply apathetic, resentful and nihilistic. But when we asked them, we found nothing of the sort.

Most young men have worthy goals, including marriage, children and financial independence. They value belonging, relationships and respect. In addition, they understand their manly role as requiring responsibility and sacrifices. If they blame anyone for falling short, it is themselves.

Many young men are in a liminal position. On the one hand, they have a sense for what a full life might look like, complete with a loving and productive family.

On the other hand, they are not living that life or even moving toward that goal, and this paralysis is a source of immense distress.

All this is worsened by frequent recourse to online activities such as gambling and pornography consumption. We discovered that 23% of young men gamble daily, and 27% watch porn daily. These habits are associated with greater loneliness and depression.

Although these are self-destructive activities, young men are turning to them as a coping mechanism.

So dismissing these men as simply deficient misses the broader point: These young men want to transcend their circumstances, but can't locate the path to do so.

The rise of formlessness requires young men to be more self-determining. They have to do more with less institutional support than prior generations.

This demands them to be assertive, confident and flexible, while also being emotionally intelligent, sensitive, caring and team oriented.

That's a complex mix. We find that a large majority of men (73%) believe that in recent decades it has become harder to know what it is to be a man. They may be referring to this new combination of required qualities.

Their views of proper manhood are varied. They affirm that no one should be coerced to fit any one model, and when it comes to those they looked up to, mothers (79%) and fathers (69%) led by a wide margin.

Interestingly, the most commonly cited celebrity role models were Barack Obama (54%) and Lebron James (54%). More young men said they looked up to these two than said they looked up to a religious leader (46%). Andrew Tate came in at a worrying 31%.

Considering the views of manhood that young men endorse, it is not readily apparent that they have no vision for masculinity, though many of them espouse troubling role models.

The wider problem is that young people have never been asked to shoulder such burdens of autonomous self-making.

Withdrawing may not be a failure of manhood. It may be a symptom of our collective impoverishment, which asks young men for something that our society no longer helps provide.

Joseph E. Davis is a research professor of sociology and director of the Picturing the Human Project of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.

LETTERS

A real mensch

Kudos to Boy George, whom Andrea Peyser rightly praised for his haunting song, "We Will Dance Again," memorializing the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival victims ("Mensches," PostOpinion, Aug. 10).

Also to John Ondrasik, for his "Superman" rewrite honoring Hamas' hostages, and Sen. John Fetterman, now a lone Democratic Party tribune. However canceled and shunned, they will be honored again, once the current, irrational antisemitic fever finally breaks.

Richard Wilkins, Syracuse

AOC's famous eggs

If "all publicity is good publicity," New York's media creation Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leads the way ("AOC's a bit ova the top," Aug. 10).

Instead of a two-page spread in the paper, perhaps the media should dedicate a sentence or two to her legislative accomplishments, aside from chasing Amazon's 20,000 jobs to other states. One wonders if AOC's frozen eggs are the DSA's edition of "The Boys From Brazil."

Joe Alloy, Yulee, Fla.

Protect our kids

Rep. Mike Lawler's heart-tugging story of Jessica Gorman, whose daughter Sheridan was the victim of someone who didn't belong in the country, was food for thought ("Protect

Killers?," PostOpinion, Aug. 11). When Gorman pleaded with Gov. Hochul to change her absurd law that prohibits local police from cooperating with ICE, she was turned away.

Gorman may have been dismissed by the governor, but now is the time for her to take her story to the people, and come November, every parent can protect their children by voting Hochul out.

Nicholas Maffei, Yonkers

Hard workers

With over 150,000 Haitian immigrants living, working and contributing to the benefit of all in New York City, racist-in-chief President Trump says they must now pack up and leave ("Zo can't aid axed Haitians," Aug. 11).

If Trump and his MAGA base are still dumb enough to believe that Haitians actually eat cats and dogs, the wrong people are being deported.

Bob Canning, Petaluma, Calif.

Work harder, Prez

President Trump needs to change his messaging with respect to the impact of the Iran hostilities on the American public ("Tehran is losing grip on Hormuz," Aug. 13).

Iran is thousands of miles away and we don't see anything in the news except Trump and Tehran trading insults daily. What we do see is sticker shock at the gas station.

Trump needs to work harder to get gas prices down and communicate his efforts to us. Tell-

ing us how good the economy is and that the stock market is great won't be enough to sway voters come November.

Larry Hootnick, Watermill

Reparations Q&A

I find it ironic that almost all of the states considering reparations for slavery are blue states ("Reparation Complication," Howard Husock, Postscript, Aug. 9).

Meanwhile, none of the deepest former slave states of the Antebellum South, which held millions in bondage, are considering reparations for slavery or for the mistreatment of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era.

And how many African-Americans can truly trace their family tree back to slaves held in New York state 200 or more years ago? Should anyone be entitled to reparations even if they don't reside in New York?

Dennis Middlebrooks, Brooklyn

Post your comments on stories at www.nypost.com

E-mail letters@nypost.com, or write to: The Editor, The New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, NY 10036.

Include name, address and daytime phone number. No unverifiable letter will be published. The Post reserves the right to edit all letters.

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POSTSCRIPT Books

REQUIRED READING By Hailey Eber

Under the Falls: A Novel

Richard Russo (Knopf) The Pulitzer Prize-winner's newest hones in on a small town, Stone Mountain. After becoming famous with a band named after the hamlet, prodigal son Tyler Sinclair returns home 18 years later to play a concert, but things take a dark turn with old friends and long-held secrets.

Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail

Earl Swift (Mariner Books) In 1990, in his early 30s, Swift hiked the AT, an experience that transformed him into a more capable, confident man. But he was also haunted by something that happened at the beginning of his journey: He became friends with two other hikers who were brutally murdered weeks later at a Pennsylvania campsite. Now, decades later, he tries to understand what happened to those unlucky men — and how he escaped the same fate.

A Tender Age: A Novel

Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books) In the New York City exurbs in the 1970s, the 10-year-old son of Korean-American immigrants comes of age amidst schoolyard bullying, culminating in a violent summer camp incident.

Brain Defenders: Harness the Power of Your Immune Cells to Protect Your Brain for Life

David Perlmutter (Avery) A neurologist posits that to effectively treat diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and severe depression, we need to focus on the root cause — rogue immune cells in the brain attacking the system they were meant to protect. Perlmutter looks at how improved sleep, fasting, oxygen therapy and other interventions can help.

Conversations with an Executioner: 255 Days Imprisoned with the Nazi who Destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto

Kazimierz Moczarski, translated by Sean Gasper Bye (Steerforth) Originally published in the 1970s in Poland, this is the first complete English translation of Moczarski's account of being imprisoned in 1949 by the Polish secret police and finding himself locked up with a Nazi official who was responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000.

Dreamland: A Novel

Olivie Blake (Tar Books) In the latest from the bestselling fantasy author, a wannabe actress in LA makes a deal with a devilish recluse with industry connections — and a cursed family villa in the Hollywood Hills.

THE JACKAL'S CACKLE

Meet the godfather of global terrorism — known as Carlos — who seduced women and eluded cops for decades

By ERIC SPITZNAGEL

T was the Sunday before Christmas, 1975, and Vienna was covered by a foot of snow.

Just before 11:30 a.m., six strangers stepped off a red tram outside the headquarters of OPEC, the world's most powerful oil cartel, "their long coats and heavy bags casting dark shadows against the snow," writes Joby Warrick in his new book, "The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist" (Scribner, Aug. 18). A trio of reporters staking out the building guessed the group was a delegation from some junior member state.

Minutes later, the strangers pulled submachine guns from their identical sports bags and shot their way through the second floor, killing three people and capturing 62 hostages, including the top oil officials of nearly every petroleum-producing nation on Earth.

Their leader, a handsome young man in a leather jacket and a rakishly cocked black beret, had just emptied his pistol into a wounded Libyan economist. Now he set down his weapon, passed out cigarettes, and grinned kindly at his terrified captives.

"With remarkable aplomb the ice-cold executioner had transformed himself into a charming host," Warrick writes, calling the killer "a terrorist emcee presiding over his own coming-out party."

"I am the famous Carlos!" the gunman announced. "You know who I am."

Almost nobody did, but that would

change fast. Drawing on declassified CIA cables, communist secret-police archives, hours of surreptitiously recorded prison phone calls, and a rare 2025 face-to-face meeting with Carlos himself, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist reconstructs how a chubby Venezuelan playboy became "the first of a breed of international super-terrorists, a larger-than-life outlaw whose deeds spanned four continents," and how scrotal surgery finally brought him down.

Carlos volunteered his body count before Warrick even asked. "I killed 83 people by my own hand," the 75-year-old inmate told the author across a prison table. "Another thousand were killed on my orders."

Whatever his revolutionary pretensions, Warrick concludes, "Carlos was, at his core, a criminal narcissist" who "killed seemingly without feeling, often wantonly."

He was born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in Venezuela in 1949, the son of a wealthy lawyer so devoted to communism that he named his three boys after the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Ilich got the middle name, and his brothers got Vladimir and Lenin.

In July 1970, fleeing a college expulsion, a pregnant girlfriend and his parents' disappointment, the 20-year-old showed up unannounced in Beirut and asked to join the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, then the most feared terror group in the Middle East. Asked how he intended to fight the enemy, the pudgy rich kid seemed puzzled by

A raid on OPEC on behalf of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy (above) made Carlos the Jackal a global celebrity. The press named him after a thriller (inset).

the question. "With weapons!" he declared. The PFLP gave him an Arabic code name, Salim, and shipped him to a Jordanian boot camp.

His new bosses soon discovered his singular gift. "Ilich Ramírez Sánchez could carry himself as though he owned the world," Warrick writes, "even when, as would later be the case, half the planet seemed to be chasing him." He sauntered through checkpoints in a Savile Row raincoat and Nina Ricci neckties, trailing "a faint scent of baby powder, with which he habitually doused himself after his baths," while stash-

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43

ing guns and grenades in the apartments of the many girlfriends he juggled across London and Paris.

French intelligence officers, acting on a tip from his own captured handler, first discovered his name in June 1975. They knocked on the door of a farewell party in the Latin Quarter. Cornered, Ilich pulled a pistol and shot four men in seconds, killing two officers and the handler who had betrayed him, then vaulted a 12-foot wall and strolled off past crowded sidewalk cafés.

POLICE, tearing through his abandoned suitcase, found a fake Peruvian passport in the name of Carlos Martinez.

The nickname came courtesy of the press. Days after the shootings, Barry Woodhams, the live-in boyfriend of one of Carlos's former girlfriends, reopened a briefcase Carlos had left in their London apartment. Inside were pistols, grenades, gelignite and an apparent list of potential targets. Woodhams carried it to the newsroom of The Guardian.

The paper's reporter noted, purely as scene-setting color, that the case had been stashed beside a bookcase holding Frederick Forsyth's assassin thriller "The Day of the Jackal." The novel belonged to the flatmate, and there's no evidence that Carlos ever read it. It didn't matter.

"In just 24 hours, the British tabloids had turned a trivial detail from The Guardian's article into a headline, and then an identity," Warrick writes. "As Carlos the Jackal, he could become the glamorous anti-hero he had long dreamed of being."

Carlos found it flattering. "The Jackal is a very nice little animal, you know?" He later told Sophie Bonnet, a French journalist who spent four years visiting him in prison. "It's a predator, but very pretty."

The book's strangest cameo comes in the mid-1970s, when Carlos scouted a Lebanese mountain resort for a scheme to kidnap and ransom members of a fabulously rich Saudi construction clan. Among the vacationers he sized up was a lanky teenager relaxing with his mother, a 17-year-old named Osama bin Laden.

The OPEC raid, dreamed up by Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy as revenge against his oil-pricing rivals, made Carlos a global celebrity. Austria caved within hours, handing the gang a DC-9 jet and safe passage to Algiers with dozens of VIP hostages aboard. Some hostages asked for his autograph. To one sobbing young secretary, Carlos cooed, "You can go home. You are too beautiful to die."

The Saudi and Iranian oil ministers, marked for execution, instead walked off the plane alive after ransom money changed hands. Carlos put the sum at $50 million and kept most of it, and a retired Israeli intel-

ligence officer confirmed to Warrick that the transfer was real.

His boss was unimpressed. Wadi Haddad, the PFLP's feared operations chief, hauled Carlos before a tribunal in Yemen for sparing the ministers and pocketing the cash. "You are an executioner, and not a movie star!" Haddad thundered, then banished him.

OUT loose, Carlos spent two decades as terror's premier gun for hire, bombing trains and streets for Middle Eastern dictators while living lavishly under state protection in East Berlin, Budapest and Damascus.

By 1994, the patrons were gone, and the Jackal was hiding in Khartoum, drinking and chasing women in a country that publicly denied he existed. The CIA had found him, aided by a mole inside his own gang, a disillusioned Swiss militant earning $3,000 a month under the code name FDBONUS/1. Then fate handed the hunters a gift.

Carlos, 44, was suffering from a varicocele, "essentially a varicose vein in the scrotum," Warrick writes, and his young wife wanted a baby. On Aug. 13, 1994, he checked into a Khartoum hospital for corrective surgery. The doctors would sedate him, and "for a crucial few hours," Warrick writes, "Carlos the Jackal would not be himself."

Hours later, groggy, unarmed, and wearing only pajamas and a bandage, the man who once made his getaway on a gifted passenger jet was carried by Sudanese commandos onto a waiting jet, hooded and handcuffed, and flown to Paris. When he realized he had landed in France rather than Israel or Saudi Arabia, he felt only relief.

"I was so happy. Prison, no problem," he told Warrick. "I am alive."

Three trials and three life sentences later, prisoner No. 11939 holds court at Poissy Central Prison outside Paris, where guards greet him with cries of "Monsieur Carlos!" and, Warrick writes, "the old man still knows how to make an entrance."

When the author visited in March 2025, the aging terrorist complimented a young French prison official on her hair, then asked, "Are you a real blonde?"

He expressed no remorse for any of it. His single regret, he told Warrick, was leaving witnesses. "In Sudan I should have shot those bastards," the Jackal said. "I wouldn't be in prison."

Getty Images (3) Adobe Stock (3)

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez's life of terror as Carlos the Jackal began in 1970 (above) and ended in 1994 when he was captured during scrotum surgery. But he continues to hold court in French prison (inset).

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44

POSTSCRIPT Books

VERY POOR FORM

By ERIC SPITZNAGEL

N 2001, writer Jeff Miller walked into a Massachusetts DMV to transfer his driver's license and walked out as a convicted felon.

At least according to the government.

Miller had never been arrested. But as journalist Annie Lowrey explains in her new book, "The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time — and How to Fix It" (Ecco, out Aug. 25), another Jeff Miller had been born on the same day, in the same state, and later committed crimes "in the penumbra of attempted murder."

To prove he was the non-murderous Jeff Miller, he had to gather his original passport and birth certificate, replace a Social Security card he could no longer find and get New Jersey to issue a letter confirming that, as Lowrey puts it, "Jeff Miller was not Jeff Miller."

The letter worked, until it didn't. Oregon's DMV later flagged him. Border officials detained him after a trip to Canada. Airbnb suspended his account because it doesn't rent to violent felons.

"It would be nice if they would take the effort to figure out that I am not actually Jeff Miller, who is a felon, instead of putting the onus on me," Miller told Lowrey.

That onus is the subject of Lowrey's book. She calls it the "time tax" — "a levy of paperwork, effort, delay, and aggravation imposed on Americans in exchange for rights and benefits that are putatively theirs."

Americans pay it when they file taxes, renew a license, appeal an in-

surance denial, apply for food assistance, or seek a building permit. Federal estimates show Americans spend more than 12 billion hours a year complying with government paperwork requirements. Lowrey writes. That is nearly six eight-hour workdays for every US adult. The American Action Forum values that labor at roughly $430 billion annually.

The problem begins with the sheer sprawl of American government. Lowrey counts at least 91,476 govern-

ments, from the federal government down to school districts, towns, tribal governments and special-purpose entities, each with "its own rules, policies, procedures, and budget."

"Somehow, we all live in a continent-spanning DMV," she writes.

But the burden is not shared equally. "Time taxes comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted," Lowrey writes. Poor, sick and disabled Americans often face the most paperwork at the moment they have the least time, money and energy to complete it.

Marcella Patino, a Utah single mother of three earning $300 a week,

relied on Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance. Her caseworker requested documentation nearly every week, Lowrey reports. Patino had no computer and struggled to navigate the state website on her phone.

"It takes me hours," Patino told Lowrey. "Sometimes, if I submit an application to one program, it messes up the whole entire other set. Then I have to go back and fix all of it."

When Patino changed jobs, Utah mistakenly recorded her as holding both jobs at once and dropped her from Medicaid. She learned about the error in the emergency room. Lowrey calls this a "paperwork vor-

tex," where overlapping programs, constant verification and official mistakes turn "getting out of poverty [into] the job of the impoverished."

Some of the book's bureaucratic demands are so invasive they sound invented. Michigan once required struggling residents to complete a benefits application that ran more than 40 pages, contained 18,000 words and asked more than 1,000 questions. It asked applicants for their weight and hair color. If a single applicant was pregnant, it requested the date, city, state and country where her child was conceived.

"I cannot comprehend why Michigan would ask for this information," Lowrey writes. "Nor can I imagine that many parents were able to provide it."

But bureaucracy is not an immutable law of nature. In Estonia, nearly every public service is available through one secure digital portal. Its "only once" policy means that when a resident gives information to one government office, other agencies can retrieve it. Most Estonians can file a tax return in less time than it takes to microwave popcorn, Lowrey reports.

She acknowledges the comparison is imperfect. Estonia has fewer people, simpler programs and less generous benefits. But Michigan managed a dramatic improvement without moving to the Baltic.

In 2018, the state replaced its notorious benefits application with a version containing 80% fewer words. The average completion time fell from 40 minutes to 16. Successful applications rose from 72% to 94%, while government processing time dropped 42%.

"It worked," former Michigan health official Robert Gordon told Lowrey. "It worked to get more people their benefits, faster."

Lowrey's conclusion is that Americans should not have to become better amateur bureaucrats. Government should stop outsourcing its administrative work to the people it is supposed to serve.

As she writes, "We've got to reclaim our time so we can spend it on things that are truly important."

BUZZ: Page-Turners

Karin Slaughter grew up reading books across every genre. "As a kid, I had terrible allergies, so in the summers my dad would drop me off at the library where I would spend all of my time reading and enjoying the air conditioning," the bestselling author — whose new thriller, "The Secrets We Hide," is out now — told The Post. Here, she share some of her favorite books.

I Came Back For You: A Novel

Kate White (Thomas & Mercer)

"It's a wrenching and raw story about a mother who loses her daughter to a violent crime, and her search for the truth about what really happened," Slaughter said. "This one will keep you turning pages through the night."

Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson (Simon & Schuster) "McCardell was a visionary fashion designer that brought innovation, style and function to her clothing line," said Slaughter. "The story of [her as an] artist is fascinating."

The Calamity Club: A Novel

Kathryn Stockett (Spiegel & Grau) "Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, this is a story about an 11-year-old girl who has been left at an orphanage and is waiting for her mother to come back and collect her," said Slaughter. "It's a big-hearted book with richly drawn and unforgettable characters." — Lindsey Kupfer

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Celebrity Pics of the Week / TV / Horoscope / Puzzles

Sunday Break

"THREE'S COMPANY" By Rich Katz

Across

• 1 Best of the best
• 5 Syrup source
• 10 That partner
• 14 Fistfuls of dollars
• 18 Authorize
• 19 Cookies with a "You asked for it" collaboration with 29-Across
• 20 Surrounding glow
• 21 La Scala solo
• 22 Ron + (Kristen + Alexander Graham)
• 24 Clint + (Francis Scott + Keegan-Michael)
• 26 NYC drama award
• 27 Slangy contraction
• 28 Land between Can. and Mex.
• 29 Peanut butter cup brand
• 30 Sally + (Julia + Philip)
• 34 Like stress balls and fidget spinners
• 35 End of term?
• 36 "Knock yourself out!"
• 39 Suzuki who won nine batting titles in two countries
• 43 Knocked out
• 44 Some reservoir residents
• 48 Barry + (Elliot + Jimmy)
• 51 Nia + (Elton + Tommy)
• 54 Othello's betrayer

• 55 Bulgarian, e.g.

• 56 Endow with, as authority

• 58 Autonomous vacuum
• 59 Utmost degree
• 60 Aligned
• 62 Labors mightily to accomplish
• 63 Grover + (Alton + Helen Gurley)
• 68 Term of endearment?
• 71 Leveraged ___: corporate acquisition
• 72 "Print to" option
• 75 Really sad
• 76 Sound from a kettle or a snake
• 78 Actor Epps
• 80 Island home of the Hana Highway
• 81 (Adam + Minnie) + Helms
• 83 Fiona + (Lemmon + London)
• 85 Speaker brand
• 86 Theater reviewers
• 89 Plug's place
• 90 Channel that rarely fails to make one cry
• 92 Matinee hrs.
• 94 "The Return of the King" king
• 98 Cleary + (Faith + Jonah)
• 104 Small donkeys
• 105 Ballerina's turning point
• 107 Ancient France
• 108 "So Sick" R&B singer
• 109 Keith + (Garfunkel + Carney)

• 111 (Underwood +

• Fisher) + Johnny

• 114 New Mexico art hub
• 115 Santa's specialty
• 116 Leading
• 117 Nikon rival
• 118 Nikon products
• 119 Novelist Emile
• 120 Baking gloves
• 121 Pt. of IMF

Down - 1 Defense witness, often - 2 Basic skateboard trick - 3 Many a Sean McGuire work - 4 Sheepish sort? - 5 Crib accessory - 6 Venues that often have corporate names - 7 Nails, as with snowballs - 8 "U r 2 funny!" - 9 Start at the beginning? - 10 Guitar player's aid - 11 Hawaiian dance - 12 Nest egg letters - 13 Holy - 14 Boat trailers? - 15 Schoolyard retort - 16 Certain hardware store patron, casually - 17 Smart-alecky - 18 Lead-up to a date? - 23 Convertibles - 25 Lotto game - 28 Thrifted, perhaps - 31 Bleak - 32 Spots for scrubs - 33 "ManningCast"

• brother
• 34 In stitches
• 37 "___ well that ends well"
• 38 Smokestack dust
• 39 "Game, set, match"
• 40 Puss, in Paris
• 41 Top temperature
• 42 Skater Midori
• 43 101, for one
• 44 Tricks
• 45 Measures of resistance
• 46 Liberty org.
• 47 Hurdle for a DA-to-be
• 49 Pain relief brand
• 50 Donated
• 52 "Oh, ___ up!"
• 53 Connect
• 56 Williams with five Wimbledon singles titles
• 57 Whirlpool
• 61 Captures
• 62 Completely wreck
• 63 Eggnog spice
• 64 Concede a golden goal, say
• 65 Of all time
• 66 Nose-tapping sounds
• 67 Kind of roast
• 68 Site for film fans
• 69 Lawnmower brand
• 70 Sanskrit honorifics
• 72 Rat or Brat follower
• 73 Team led by Mike Krzyzewski for 42 seasons
• 74 Clenched hand
• 76 Munich mister
• 77 Terse affirmative
• 79 Provide a new

© 2004 Tribune Media Services

Post SU DOKU

You must put a number, from 1 to 9, in each empty box. Each number must appear once in each horizontal row, as well as in each vertical column and in each of the 3-by-3 grids. Super Su Doku, inside, multiplies the challenge — and your enjoyment. For that one, put a number from 1 to 12 in each empty box, making sure each number appears once in each horizontal row, as well as in each vertical column and in each of the 3-by-4 grids. Tips and in-depth strategies at www.SudokuWiki.org. For more Su Doku puzzles, see tomorrow's New York Post.

© Syndicated Puzzles Inc.

Very Easy #7,372						Difficult #7,162						Challenging #568
8	9		5	4		6	7	2				2	5	4
1		6				7		4	6	9			3		7
5		4				6						9
9	6	1	4	7	5	1	4	3				5	3		7	6	2
7		3	6		4	2	9	6	8				7	5	8
4	3	9	7	1	2	8	3	1				1	6	8	3	5
			2		7				1							2
		7		9		9	1	2		5		8		1
7	6		8	3		4	3	1					7	2		4

All Sunday puzzle answers on Page 54

---

46

All Sunday puzzle answers are on Page 54

Kakuro

Place 1 to 9 in each white cell. To choose the right number, you need to work from the clues in around the edge. The numbers below the diagonal lines are the sums of the solutions in the white cells immediately beneath. The numbers above the divide are the sums of the solutions immediately to the right. Rows and columns do NOT have to be unique.

Chess The world's kings

By Andy Soltis

Twenty-year-old Javokhir Sindarov will be the favorite to become the new world champion in a title match this fall. But right now he isn't even the top-rated player in his native Uzbekistan.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the former U.S.S.R. republics became independent nations that are now vying for chess world supremacy.

Uzbekistan, led by Nodirbek

Abdusattorov and Sindarov, is the ninth-ranked country on the international rating list.

Despite the war with Russia, Ukraine is number six, just ahead of Azerbaijan.

Russia ranks fourth in the world, well below the top three — the United States, China and India.

Due to an editing error, last week's chessboard diagram was incorrect. We've got our pawns in order now.

ENGLISH OPENING
Warsaw 2026
Jan-Krzyżef Duda	Radusław Wojtaszek
1 c4	Nf6 13 Ng5 Qe8
2 Nc3	e5 14 Bb5 h6
3 Nf3	Nc6 15 Nf3 Be6
4 a3	d5 16 c4 Ra5
5 cxd5	Nxd5 17 Qc3 Qa8
6 Qc2	Nxc3 18 Bb6 cxb6
7 dxc3	Bd6 19 Rxd6 Na7
8 e4	a5 20 Rxb6 Nxb5
9 Bg5	Qd7 21 cxb5 Rc8
10 O-O-O	Qe6 22 Qxe5 Qa7
11 Kb1	O-O 23 Rxd6 resigns
12 Be3	a4

White to play and win.

M. Suyarov-M. Stoinev

Orosei 2026

Last week: 1 Re2! and 2 Bg5, e.g. 1... Qh1 2 Re7! f6 3 h6!.

Sunday Word Force

AEROBATIC

From the word or phrase above, form at least 26 five-letter words, without using more than one form of the same word. For example, drink or drank, not both.

Bridge

In most systems, the auction is a dialogue: You describe your hand, so does your partner. Eventually, somebody places the contract. I'm all for showing your hand to your partner, but not for bids that benefit only the opponents.

Today's South opened one heart, and North raised to two. South then bid two spades. North wasn't willing to jump to four hearts with his weak hearts and spades, but he tried three diamonds. Why that encouraged South was a mystery, but he bid game.

West led the K-A and a third club. South ruffed, led a diamond to dummy and returned a spade: eight, king. West was sure South had four good spades, so he let the king win. South then took the A-K of trumps, led a diamond to dummy and returned a second spade: jack,

queen. West won and led his last trump, and South lost a spade to West's nine at the end. Down one. (South also fails if he takes only one trump before attacking spades.)

If West wins the first spade and leads a trump, South takes the A-K, leads a diamond to dummy and returns a spade: jack, queen. He can cash his ten and ruff his deuce with dummy's last trump to make his game.

Since North-South were vulnerable, South had more to gain by bidding a speculative game. At his second turn, he should have shot it out at four hearts. When South bid two spades, he showed his spades to the opponents — and made the best defense easy to find. There is an old saying: "The most successful contracts are reached with the fewest bids." Maybe there's something to that.

KENKEN

Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating. The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Trademark KenKen, LLC Distributed by Andrews McMeel

©2026 KenKen Puzzle, LLC www.kenken.com

---

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

BOSSLE is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. © 2026 Hasbro, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

INSTRUCTIONS: Find as many words as you can by linking letters up, down, side-to-side and diagonally, writing words on a blank sheet of paper. You may only use each letter box once within a single word. Play with a friend and compare word finds, crossing out common words.

BOSSLE POINT SCALE	YOUR BOSSLE RATING
3 letters = 1 point	151+ = Champ
4 letters = 2 points	101-150 = Expert
5 letters = 3 points	61-100 = Pro
6 letters = 4 points	31-60 = Gamer
7 letters = 5 points	21-30 = Rookie
8 letters = 6 points	11-20 = Amateur
9 letters = 7 points	0-10 = Try again

Boggle BrainBusters Bonus We put special brain-busting words into the puzzle grid. Can you find them? Find AT LEAST SEVEN WORDS RELATED TO OUTER SPACE in the grid of letters.

JUMBLE CROSSWORDS™

by David L. Hoyt

Sunday Puzzle

BONUS

CLUE: This artist said, "The source of my painting is the unconscious."

© 2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

ACROSS

CLUE

1. Hard to tolerate
2. Impossibly idealistic
3. Monumental
4. Duration
5. Radiant
6. Jane

ANSWER

SEKRMIO UNTPOIA EIPC PNAS NGOWILG DAGOLOL

DOWN

CLUE

1. Material atop a house
2. Public relations slant
3. Diner music machine
4. Widespread slaughter
5. Wedding related
6. Noisy

ANSWER

ROINFGO NISP BUXKEJO RACNGAE LUNTPIA ULOD

How to play

Complete the crossword puzzle by looking at the clues and unscrambling the answers. When the puzzle is complete, unscramble the circled letters to solve the BONUS.

SCRABBLE G R A M S

Hasbro and its logo, SCRABBLE®, associated logo, the design of the distinctive SCRABBLE brand game board, and the distinctive letter tile designs are trademarks of Hasbro in the United States and Canada. ©2022 Hasbro. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A_{1}	E_{1}	I_{1}	U_{1}	L_{1}	R_{1}	C_{3}	RACK 1
A_{1}	A_{1}	R_{1}	R_{1}	W_{4}	D_{2}	B_{3}	RACK 2
E_{1}	I_{1}	I_{1}	S_{1}	L_{1}	B_{3}	V_{4}	Double Word Score RACK 3
A_{1}	A_{1}	I_{1}	T_{1}	R_{1}	B_{3}	S_{1}	3rd Letter Triple RACK 5

PAR SCORE 250-260 BEST SCORE 314

FIVE RACK TOTAL TIME LIMIT: 25 MIN

Super Su Doku

1								6			8
		9	3			12	2		7
4	5	12					10
9		6	1	2	12				10
1	11			5	10		12	3
3	10			9	11			4		2
9	8			10	1			7		12
	4	10		12	9			1		3
5				3	6	4	9		8
							1	8	12
3		4	10			1	11
6		11							2

Wonderword

First read the list of words, then look at the puzzle. The words are in all directions - vertically, horizontally, diagonally, backward. Circle each letter of a word found and strike it off the list. The letters are often used more than once, so do not cross them out. It's best to find the big words first. When you find all the words listed in the clues, you'll have a number of letters left over that spell out the Wonderword.

Accept, Adapt, Appreciate, Bake, Believe, Bike, Breathe, Build, Call, Clean, Coach, Commit, Connect, Cook, Craft, Create, Crochet, Dance, Decide, Donate, Draw, Dream, Drive, Encourage, Evolve, Exercise, Forgive, Garden, Glow, Golf, Greet, Grow, Hike, Hope, Hustle, Hydrate, Imagine, Improve, Journal, Knit, Laugh, Lead, Learn, Listen, Live, Make, Mentor, Move, Notice, Nourish, Nurture, Organize, Overcome, Paint, Party, Pause, Plant, Pray, Prepare, Protect, Read, Relax, Relief, Rest, Rise, Share, Shine, Shop, Shower, Sing, Sleep, Smile, Speak, Stretch, Strive, Study, Swim, Talk, Teach, Thank, Think, Train, Travel, Trust, Wake Up, Wish, Wonder, Work Hard, Workout

EVERY DAY, I ...

SOLUTION: 11 LETTERS

T	A	H	G	U	A	L	N	H	I	K	E	F	D	E	H	C	A	O	C
T	N	F	C	D	A	E	R	E	C	L	E	A	N	I	C	G	L	O	W
K	N	A	H	T	D	E	S	E	T	E	N	I	G	A	M	I	N	C	S
H	K	I	L	R	E	U	T	S	K	C	S	H	O	P	D	N	T	R	H
C	N	R	A	P	A	R	U	A	E	I	W	A	R	D	E	J	R	O	I
A	I	G	A	P	E	H	T	A	E	R	B	O	R	C	C	O	U	C	N
E	H	R	S	Y	D	U	T	S	T	R	T	U	T	E	I	U	S	H	E
T	T	W	G	R	E	E	T	U	H	E	C	P	I	V	D	R	T	E	Z
Y	I	A	C	A	L	L	O	F	C	O	A	M	B	L	E	N	A	T	I
M	S	M	R	I	P	K	C	T	A	D	W	E	W	O	D	A	O	E	N
N	L	G	M	D	R	U	P	O	A	R	L	E	O	V	T	L	V	W	A
E	E	S	N	O	Y	E	E	P	O	I	C	H	R	E	L	I	E	F	G
G	E	T	W	I	C	H	P	K	E	K	O	S	K	F	R	I	M	E	R
A	P	R	S	C	S	R	R	V	A	P	R	I	H	D	L	A	V	F	O
R	E	A	A	I	E	E	E	E	E	W	O	R	A	A	E	O	O	E	W
U	V	I	W	C	L	K	P	K	L	A	T	U	R	R	R	R	G	I	K
O	I	N	I	A	A	S	A	E	T	A	N	O	D	P	G	E	E	O	N
C	R	A	X	B	N	U	R	T	U	R	E	N	M	I	R	K	S	S	I
N	T	R	A	V	E	L	E	A	R	N	M	I	V	L	E	A	D	I	T
E	S	I	C	R	E	X	E	M	O	C	R	E	V	O	M	M	Y	N	R

www.wonderword.com

© 2026 Andrews McMeel Syndication

47

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48

Snaps

By NY Post staff

FAMIGLIA FEELING

Paris Hilton and son Phoenix, 3, bring the sun-stream to their yacht trip in Italy.

ashleytisdalefrench/Instagram

umudiespa/snappsued

'TIS THE SEASON

Ashley Tisdale and husband Christopher French wrap up a day at the beach with daughters Jupiter (left), 5, and Emerson, nearly 2.

jessicaalba/Instagram

HAPPY CUPPLE

Danny Ramirez and girlfriend Jessica Alba begin a fruitful day together at breakfast.

Ahead of turning 60, Halle Berry pawses to reflect with one of her labradoodles.

halleberry/Instagram

HEY DOOD!

---

Sunday Break 49

GQ Images

Jordan Shigka / arenas Images by JFGS/Shigka/Book

PUSHING AHEAD

Anne Hathaway, pregnant with her third child, greets her fans outside "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in LA.

kyliejenner/Instagram

---

50

Snaps

---

Sunday Break

51

dodged/instagram

gigihadid/instagram

gigihadid/instagram

4CRNS, WCP / BACKGRID

DIVING

INTO

SUMMER

Model sisters Bella (left) and Gigi Hadid compare chins on vacation.

SPARK IN THE PARK

Joshua Jackson, 48, kisses model girlfriend Olivia Burgess, 29, at LA's Pan Pacific Park.

---

52

LOOK WHO'S TALKING

THIS WEEK'S GUESTS

TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON 11:35 p.m., NBC Monday: Will Forte, Ariana Madix (above) Tuesday: Michael Strahan, Chase Stokes Wednesday: Fred Armisen, Michelle Monaghan

LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS 12:35 a.m., NBC Monday: Maya Rudolph, Michael Gandolfini Tuesday: Lisa Kudrow, Nicholas Braun Wednesday: Tiffany Haddish, Josh Groban (above)

CBS MORNINGS 7 a.m., CBS Monday: Megan McNamee, Jon Batiste (above) Tuesday: Sarah Gelman Wednesday: Julian Shapiro Barnum, Isla Fisher

Sunday August 16, 2026

SP = Spectrum, C = Cablevision, F = FIOS Movies Sports New

Evening	SP	C	F	6:30pm	7:00pm	7:30pm	8:00pm	8:30pm	9:00pm	9:30pm	10:00pm	10:30pm	11:00pm	11:30pm
2 WCBS	2	2	2	News 6:30pm	60 Minutes		Big Brother		Tracker: First Fire (R)		Marshall: Piya Wiconi (R)		CBS News 11pm	(11:35) Jets Training
4 WHBC	4	4	4	NBC Nightly News	MLB Baseball: Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros from Daikin Park, Live.						Password: Tiffany Haddish & Jimmy Fallon (R)		News 4 New York at 11	News
5 WNYW	5	5	5	(6:00) O'Clock News	Kitchen Nightmares: Borelli's Pizzeria (R)	The Simpsons (R)	Animal Control (R)	Universal Basic (R)	Grimsburg: CrimeCon	The 10 O'Clock News	Sports Extra		FOX Local Futbol HQ	In Depth
7 WABC	7	7	7	ABC World News	America's Funniest Home Videos: Sleep Snafus (R)	The Ultimate Concert	The Princess Diaries (2001, Comedy): A bumbling, young girl discovers that she is a member of a royal family. Julie Andrews. G ★★						Eyewitness News at 11
9 WWOR	9	9	9	(6:00) Chicago P.D.	Chicago P.D.: Fork in the Road	Family Feud (R)	Family Feud (R)	Family Feud (R)	Family Feud (R)	Suits: Admission of Guilt			Suits: Quid Pro Quo
11 WPIX	11	11	11	Paid Program	Police 24/7: On	The Bucket List (2008, Drama): Two terminal cancer patients sneak out of the hospital to meet unfinished goals. Jack Nicholson. ★★					PJX11 News at Ten with Kaity Tong		New York Nightcap	Yankees Nation
13 WNET	13	13	13	(6:00) Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty: Our Sacred Honor		Thomas Jefferson: The Age of Experiments: The Pursuit of Happiness					Downton Abbey: Part Three		The Manners of Downton Abbey
21 WLIW	21	21	21	East Pop	Elvis '56		Great Performances: Josh Groban: An Evening (R)						Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop
25 WNYE	25	25	25	Aktina TV	Buzz (2009)	Profiles	On Story	Day's Work	Her B Idea	Neighbor	Nightmare Theatre
31 WPXN	31	31	31	(6:00) NCIS	NCIS: Watchdog		NCIS: Head of the Snake		NCIS: Gut Punch		NCIS: Sangre		NCIS: Misconduct
41 WXTV	41	41	41	(6:00) Unidos por Venezuela			¿Quién es Mejor?				C.D.I.		Noticias	N Univision
47 WNJU	47	47	47	Noticias	Top Chef VIP		(7:58) Top Chef VIP				Pica y se extiende		Noticiero	Noticias (R)
55 WUNY	55	55	55	Cocono	Inside	The Point	CBS News Sunday Morning (R)			Paid	Judge Judy	Paid	Neighbor	Neighbor
A&E	46	46	46	WWE Rivals	WWE Rivals: Triple H (R)		WWE Rivals (R)		WWE LFG: Meet Myka		WWE LFG: Partners		(11:04) WWE Rivals (R)
AMC	54	43	231	(6:00) Jaws (1975, Thriller) Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw. PG ★★			Walking Dead: Dead City				(10:01) Walking Dead		(11:02) Jaws 2 (1978) ★★
BBCAM	71	101	101	Back to School (1986) ★★	Major League (1989, Comedy) Tom Berenger. R ★★						Major League II (1994, Comedy) Charlie Sheen. ★★
BET	37	54	203	Train Day R	Celebrity Family Feud	Celebrity Family Feud: Selling Sunset	Celebrity Family Feud				Celebrity Family Feud: Salt N-Pepa vs.
BRAVO	18	44	185	Housewives	Real Housewives (R)	Real Housewives Atlanta	Ultimate Girls Trip				Watch What	Real Housewives (R)	Girls Trip
CNBC	15	24	102	Shark Tank	Pro Padel League Live.		Shark Tank				Shark Tank		Shark Tank (R)
CNN	78	25	106	Newsroom	CNN Newsroom	The Whole Story with	Decades in Sports				The Nineties: The One About TV
COMEDY	85	50	105	Seinfeld	Seinfeld	Seinfeld	Family Guy	Family Guy			Family Guy	Family Guy	Family Guy	Family Guy
DISC	66	27	120	(6:00) Naked and Afraid: Shipwrecked		Naked and Afraid: Shipwrecked: Snake Island					In the Eye of the Storm		(11:02) Eye of Storm (R)
DISNEY	49	31	250	(6:15) The Princess and the Frog (2009)		Concert	Wizards	Wizards	Wizards	Wizards	Vampirina		Miraculous	Miraculous
EL	24	51	106	(6:00) The Matrix (1999) Keanu Reeves.		The Matrix Reloaded (2003, Science Fiction) Keanu Reeves. R ★★							The Matrix Revolutions R
ESPN	28	36	70	WNBA Game	WNBA Basketball: Portland Fire at Phoenix Mercury.		NWSL Soccer: Angel City FC at Washington Spirit.						SportsCenter
ESPN2	29	35	74	The Ocho	Banana Ball: Indianapolis Clowns vs. Bananas		30 for 30: Catholics vs. Convicts						30 for 30: Pony Excess
FBN	43	106	117	Cops	Cops	Cops	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)	Cops (R)
FNC	44	26	118	(6:00) The Big Weekend Show		Life, Liberty & Levin	Sunday Night				One Nation		Life, Liberty & Levin (R)
FOOD	50	97	164	Grocery	The Great Food Truck Race: Crowd Crawl, P1		Food Truck Race				Beat Bobby	Beat Bobby	Beat Bobby	Beat Bobby
FREE	38	49	109	The Little Mermaid (1989) Jodi Benson.		Concert	Tangled (2010, Fantasy) Mandy Moore. PG ★★						Cinderella (2015, Fantasy) Lily James.
FS1	400	99	83	Saratoga	ML Pickleball: Newport Beach Playoffs: Sunday Live.		Indycar NICS Replay.						Greatest Games Replay.
FX	10	40	54	World End	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017, Action) Johnny Depp.						Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
HALL		191	240	(6:00) Aussie at Heart (2026, Romance)		The Reluctant Royal (2025, Drama) Andrew Walker.					Bottled with Love (2019) Bethany Joy Lenz. NR
HGTV	64	98	165	Fabulous	Fixer to Fabulous	Holmes on Homes	Maine Cabin Masters				Hunters	Hunters	Hunters	Hunters
HIST	40	47	168	Hazardous	Hazardous History (R)	Hazardous History	Hazardous History				(10:03) The Mega-Brands		(11:05) Hazardous History
IB	23	171	173	The Tapes	The Murder Tapes	Body Cam: I'm Hit	911: Did the Killer Call?				Psychopath	Psychopath	American Monster
LIFE	62	45	100	The Daughter She Left Behind (2026)		The Guest Who Never Left (2026, Thriller)					(10:03) The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave (2026)
MeTV	33	33	3	Collectors	MAS*H	MAS*H	Golden	Golden	Golden		Loves Ray.	Loves Ray.	Family	Family
MSG	27	87	78	United	Club 30		Club 30				United Fight Alliance		NY Giants Post Game
MSG Plus	48	88	80	(6:30) FanDuel Racing							PokerGo High Stakes		PokerGo High Stakes
MSNOW	14	23	103	Weekend	Connect with Jacob (R)	Crooked on MS NOW (R)	The Briefing with Jen				Why Is This Happening?		Why Is This (R)
MTV	20	53	240	Bang	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office	The Office
NATGEO	65	162	124	Smuggler	To Catch a Smuggler (R)	To Catch a Smuggler (R)	To Catch a Smuggler (R)				To Catch a Smuggler (R)		To Catch a Smuggler (R)
NICK	6	121	252	Fallows 1	Harry Potter and the Deathly	Wizards: Part 2 (2011, Fantasy) Daniel Radcliffe.					Bang	Bang	Bang
OWN	173	180	145	48 Hours: Hard Evidence		48 Hours: Hard Evidence					48 Hours: Hard Evidence		48 Hours: Hard Evidence
PARMT	36	56	54	Bar Rescue	Bar Rescue (R)	Bar Rescue: Lights Out					Bar Rescue (R)		Bar Rescue: Crust Issues
SNY	26	60	77	Amazin'	Yeah ...	Yeah ...	Yeah ...	Yeah ...	Yeah ...		Mets Specials: Wright 5		Sports	Sports
SYFY	17	48	100	(6:30) M3GAN (2023) ★★	Escape Room (2019, Drama) Taylor Russell. PG-13 ★★						Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)
TBS	8	39	52	Barbie (2023, Comedy) Margot Robbie. PG-13 ★★							Bang	Bang	Bang
TCM	82	41	240	North by Northwest (1959) Cary Grant.		Gunga Din (1939, Adventure) Cary Grant. NR ★★					Destination Tokyo (1943, Adventure) Cary Grant. ★★
TLC	52	28	159	30 Day	90 Day Fiancé	90 Day Fiancé: It's Better to Bend Than Break					(10:01) Double Lives Of		(11:01) Jay & Pamela (R)
TNT	3	37	51	Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024, Action) Rebecca Hall.		The Librarians: The Next					The Librarians: The Next		Meg 2: The Trench (2023)
TVLAND	85	34	241	Loves Ray.	Loves Ray.	Loves Ray.	Loves Ray.	(9:20) Loves Raymond			Loves Ray.	Loves Ray.	Seinfeld	Seinfeld
USA	16	38	50	(6:00) SVU	Law & Order: SVU	Law & Order: SVU	Law & Order: SVU				Law & Order: SVU		Law & Order: SVU
VH1	19	52	23	(6:30) The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)		Air (2023, Drama) Matt Damon. R							Peetic Justice (1993) Janet Jackson. R
WE	59	42	168	Minds	Criminal Minds	Criminal Minds: Legacy					Criminal Minds		Criminal Minds
YES	53	89	76	Talkin'	English Championship: Liverpool vs Wrexham.		Home Plate	Sportico			MLB Baseball Replay.
HBO	511	301	400	(6:45) Superman (2025, Action) David Corenswet. PG-13							Lanterns (R)		Last Week	Lanterns
MAX	531	371	400	(6:44) Arctic (2019, Action) Mads Mikkelsen. ★★		(8:22) Opus (2025, Thriller) Ayo Edebiri.					(10:06) Stonewall (2015, Drama) Jeremy Irvine. R ★
MGM Plus	595	395		Inception	(7:18) Deep Water (2026, Thriller) Aaron Eckhart. R		The Westies				The Westies		Deep Water (2026) R
PARSHO	551	321	395	Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001) Haley Joel Osment. PG-13 ★★			Gravity (2013, Drama) Sandra Bullock.						Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) R ★★

A sweet deal on home delivery! NYPost.com/JoinUs or call 1-800-552-7678 code: JoinUs Terms & conditions apply. Offer valid for new households that have not had New York Post home delivery in the past 60 days. After the introductory period, your subscription will automatically renew at the then prevailing rate until you cancel. Offer expires 9/30/2026.

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Sunday Break

53

DECIDER

8

THINGS TO WATCH

WHEREVER YOU WATCH

For more on your favorite TV and films, visit decider.com

John Johnson/HBO Max

'Lanterns' is HBO' and DC Studios' next Sunday night triumph

1 LANTERNS New episodes premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max

By MEGHAN O'KEEFE

IT'S 1996 and a young John Stewart (Cairo Cash Lee) is watching "60 Minutes" without his father's permission. The iconic newsmagazine has landed a doozy of a scoop: the very first sit down with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), aka Earth's very first Green Lantern. When he's finally asked how he earned the mantle Green Lantern, he says, "It's only one question... Are you afraid?" There's only one right answer and it's "no." When John's strict father arrives home, the television set is turned off, and John is led outside. The young child dutifully stands up against a bullet-pocked shed wall as an apple is placed on his head. His father then points a gun, William Tell-style, at John and asks, "Are you afraid?" "No, sir," is John's almost defiant response. The boy doesn't so much as flinch as a

bullet flies and a piece of fruit instantly turns into apple sauce crowning his head. This is how "Lanterns" begins, establishing Hal Jordan as the first man to wield a cosmically-powered Green Lantern ring on Earth and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as someone forged, from a young age, to follow in those heroic footsteps. The only problem, when we jump ahead to when Hal is tasked with training an adult John to be his backup, is that Hal doesn't want to give the ring up to anyone. The even bigger problem? John's "training" is about to get derailed by a murder mystery involving secret aliens, a vast paramilitary compound, and a couple of stone cold hotties (played by Kelly Macdonald and Poorna Jagannathan) in the small Nebraska town of Rushville. The easiest way to sum up HBO's "Lanterns" is that it's basically pairing two of the most popular "Green Lantern" characters — Hal Jordan and John Stewart — together in a story that's loosely, yet obviously, inspired by "True Detective" Season 1. An older, more jaded, beat detective and his younger partner find themselves pulling on the threads of a weird murder mystery, only to find it leads to unspeakable horrors and major ethical quandaries. Magically, this potentially hokey set up works for "Lanterns," thanks in part to the fantastic chemistry

of series stars Chandler and Pierre. Chandler's Hal Jordan is arrogant, annoying, and utterly lovable. Pierre imbues John Stewart with his unmistakably cool aura, transforming what could be a boring boy scout into a complex portrait of a man holding back the hurricane that's churning inside him. Even better than watching Chandler and Pierre bounce off each other onscreen is watching them interact with their beguiling love interests. Hal Jordan immediately takes a shine to Rushville's married sheriff, Kerry Kane (Macdonald). Meanwhile, John decides to have a little fun with a local woman named Zoe (Jagannathan) who busts his balls at the local bar. The one problem I have reviewing "Lanterns" is that it's impossible to delve into why it really works without divulging details that HBO has told journalists are massive spoilers. Co-created by showrunner Chris Mundy, "Lost" and "Watchmen" alum Damon Lindelof, and celebrated comics writer Tom King, "Lanterns" works best not when it's hewing close to tried and true tropes, but when it subverts our expectations of what a superhero-led story can be. While "Lanterns" comes with plenty of nods to the comics, you don't need to do homework to keep up with what's going on. It's a beautifully crafted drama for adults..

2 AVERAGE JOE

Wednesday, Paramount+ The sophomore season of this action-comedy thriller series sees the return of Deon Cole's (right) Joe Washington.

3 COCKTAIL WARS Tuesday 10 p.m., E!

"NSYNC alumni Joey Fatone and Lance Bass (above) host a new mixology competition series, which sees three mixologists face off against each other in each episode.

4 IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA

Monday 9 p.m., FXX/FX/Hulu The Paddy's Pub gang is back for Season 18 of the beloved sitcom, which features 10 episodes.

5 LION Wednesday 9 p.m., Nat Geo

Watch Kio, a lion cub, set out on his journey to become king in this four-part documentary.

6 OUTER BANKS

Thursday, Netflix John B. (Chase Stokes, right), Sarah (Madelyn Cline, far right), and the other Pogues take on their last adventure in the fifth and final season of the teen drama.

7 THE DYNASTY: UCONN HUSKIES Friday, Apple TV

This three-part docuseries dives into the storied University of Connecticut women's basketball program under head coach Geno Auriemma (left).

8 CONAN O'BRIEN MUST GO

Friday, HBO/HBO Max Comedian Conan O'Brien (right) travels to India, The Netherlands, Morocco, and The Philippines in Season 3 of his travel series.

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54

Sally Brompton Daily Horoscope

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS AT SALLYBROMPTON.COM

LEO (July 24-Aug. 23)

Don't waste your time on people whose outlook on life places them several rungs lower than you on the optimism scale. The fact is you don't need their help anyway — you know what you want, you know where to get it and nothing else matters.

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23)

Conflict of some kind is inevitable over the next few days, but don't let it cause a major split with people you will have to collaborate with in the weeks and months to come. Leave your personal differences at the door and work as a team.

LIBRA (Sept. 24-Oct. 23)

Whatever it is you were recently held back from doing, you will now get the green light to proceed. But don't go racing ahead at such a speed that you risk making a wrong move. There's no rush, time is very much on your side.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22)

You have never been the sort to take the kind of risk that looks more likely to fail than succeed, and there is no reason why you should change your ways now. Be smart and stick with the odds, because a small return is better than a loss.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 - Dec. 21)

Before you head out to make your mark on the world, take a few minutes to look ahead and identify any potential obstacles you may encounter along the way. A little bit of planning now could save you a lot of trouble later on.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 - Jan. 20)

Ignore what is going on in the wider world and focus on what is taking place in your every-

day environment. The planets indicate there is big money to be made from allying yourself with the latest trends in technology, so move with the times.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 - Feb. 19)

You may have struggled to get your act together of late but now you can see why the universe held you back for a bit. It was because you needed to learn certain lessons, and now that you have, there will be no stopping you.

PISCES (Feb. 20-Mar. 20)

Don't try too hard to impress those you work alongside this week, because no matter how hard you try, they will still find fault with what you do. Make it look as if you could not care less what they think of you. Bet-

ter still, make it the truth.

ARIES (March 21-April 20)

If you put yourself about a bit over the next few days you may be surprised how much you manage to get done and how many people are eager to assist you. With the Sun and Jupiter on your side, everyone wants to be your friend.

TAURUS (April 21-May 21)

You're not about to let other people talk you out of doing something that feels right for you on a professional level. The more they cast doubt on your ability to succeed, the more motivated you will be to show them they are wrong.

GEMINI (May 22-June 21)

Be open about what you need

over the coming week because if you keep your thoughts and feelings to yourself, others will assume that you don't want their help. You can never have too many friends, especially those in high places.

CANCER (June 22-July 23)

Your rivals will do a lot of talking this week, but hardly a word of it will be worth listening to. You have already worked out what they are up to and what they are trying to hide, and none of it should give you cause for concern.

BIRTHDAY SUNDAY

The only danger this year is that you could be a bit too pushy for your own good. You may possess loads of self-confidence, but employers and senior colleagues need to see you can be humble as well. Then, they'll welcome you into their team.

Sunday Break puzzles answers

Su Doku

Super Su Doku

Sunday Crossword

Very Easy #7,372

Difficult #7,162

Challenging #568

Kakuro

KEN KEN

Jumble

ANSWERS: 1A-Inksome 6A-Utoplan 8A-Epic 9A-Span 11A-Glowing 12A-Goodall 2D-Roofing 3D-Spin 4D-Jukebox 5D-Carnage 7D-Nuptial 10D-Loud 8-Jackson Pollock

Boggle Brain Busters Bonus

STAR, MOON, ORBIT, COMET, NEBULA, PLANET, ASTEROID

SCRABBLE GRAMS SOLUTION

PAR SCORE 250-260

TOTAL 314

Sunday Word Force

Wonderword answer: AFFIRMATION

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PostBusiness

THE WEEK'S WINNERS

NEW YORK YANKEES

MLB's most valuable team strikes a $2.6 billion financing deal with Apollo in one of the largest private capital infusions into a franchise in recent years.

BOB IGER, JOSH KUSHNER

Ex-Disney boss and the CEO of Thrive Capital team up to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $12.5 billion.

JENSEN HUANG

Nvidia's CEO partners with Wall Street firms to raise more than $500 billion to fund the buildout of AI infrastructure.

LOSERS

PHOEBE GATES

Bill Gates' daughter was reportedly accused of "cookie stuffing" at her multibillion-dollar startup, an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

RANDALL LANE

A top editor at Forbes is fired after he reportedly raked in $6 million from a company that does business with the publication.

STUBHUB

Shares tank as profit was wiped out after a disastrous World Cup partnership.

HOT H'WOOD IRONY

Lefty media execs want merger deal done

THE lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance's $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery could chase away a key source of funds for California's Democratic Party — namely, the deep-pocketed executives who run Big Media, The Post has learned.

Most of the workers in this ecosystem — the directors, screenwriters, stagehands and the reporters at the companies that combine entertainment with news gathering (like Warner, Paramount, Disney and Comcast), you name it — far outnumber the honchos and are reliable Democrats. But the real money for financing campaigns — and Dem coffers on the national level as well — comes from the top.

All of that could change, I am told, since California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a group of lefty AGs filed suit to break up Paramount's WBD deal. Specifically, media and entertainment moguls, — many of them on Bonta's home turf in Hollywood — are calling for the AG to reach a settlement with Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison, according to sources.

It's the reason why you hear more mainstream state Dems calling for a settlement as well. To be clear, it isn't because of any great love for Ellison, the upstart movie producer who, with the help of billionaire father Larry Ellison's bank account, has been gobbling up ever-larger media giants for the past three years.

Rather, it's pure self-interest — survival, actually. These execs see the writing on the wall: cord cutting is eating away at profits and revenues from cable bundles. People go to the movies less — far less — and streaming services are a tough business, too. Meanwhile, Big Tech is looming with troves of cash amassed from gadgets, social networks and search engines to fuel expansion into entertainment.

In other words, media and entertainment need to consolidate because their survival is in danger — that is, unless you want Amazon, Apple or tech-heavy streaming giant Netflix owning the entire viewing world (how's that for antitrust).

The fact is, combining smaller

companies like Paramount and Warner is the test case for survival in a business where Big Media and Entertainment are hobbled by balance sheets impaired by debt and lack of scale.

Or as one top media executive — a longtime Democrat — put it: "If this one guy [Bonta] can stop a deal like this, it's game over for the industry. Why would we support this?"

Wary of far-left tilt

Granted, I haven't conducted a proper survey on this thesis with scientific markers and percentage-point margins of error. I did, however, put in a bunch of calls to reliable sources who know this terrain well. What they tell me is that the typical media executive isn't the DSA voter Bonta seems to be appealing to. These are people who would be comfortable with Bill (or Hillary) Clinton, and Barack Obama when he indulged the centrist side of his ID.

The sources are progressive mainly around social issues, don't mind paying some of those high taxes to live in Cali, but are growing wary of the far-left tilt of the party. The homeless situation in LA and

other California cities is a factor. The inept governance of politicians like LA Mayor Karen Bass is another. On top of it all, lower-cost venues without endless homeless encampments are offering incentives to shoot movies on their turf.

Yes, the insiders' biggest concerns involve economics. And now a bunch of emerging lefty Dem polls like Bonta are acting purely politically, seemingly clueless about one of the state's biggest businesses, employing some 700,000 people and producing $70 billion in tax revenues each year.

The pure-politics worry from the Hollywood C-suite comes from its legal counsel, who see no merit — like zero — in Bonta's claim that consumers will be screwed by the merging of these companies and that by breaking up the merger, jobs somehow will be preserved.

Without consolidation, the Warner studio faces uncertainty given its debt load and lack of scale. Ditto for Paramount unless David Ellison can convince his dad to keep feeding his ambitions because its core business is even more troubled than WBD's.

They all believe Bonta wants to be governor, sees his opening in the

state's progressive wing, and is using the case to gain name recognition — and do a little Trump bashing because of Larry Ellison's friendship with the president.

As they've pointed out, the lawsuit puts Bonta and his team of recalcitrants, which includes NY AG Tish James, to the left of the European Union and the UK regulatory apparatus, some of the least deal-friendly types on the planet.

And they're making their voices heard. That's why you hear current California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the frontrunner to replace him, Xavier Becerra, calling for Bonta to enter settlement talks. That's why all these folks, albeit quietly, are supporting David Ellison's threat to take Paramount out of California to a place that actually wants the industry to survive, unless Bonta gets reasonable and drops his demands for spinning off vast pieces of Warner as the cost of doing a deal.

The bet in Hollywood is that pressure on Bonta will prevail and there will be a settlement. Still, if you're playing Kalshi or Polymarket on this one, also remember that this isn't Clinton's or Obama's Democratic Party.

55

Reuters

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56 New York Post, Sunday, August 16, 2026 nypost.com ENPLOYMENT FINANCIAL Financial Analyst (New York, NY) Perform quantitative analysis of current & past financial mkt. data & performance, analyze stock performance & forecast trends; evaluate portfolio risk, project potential risks, & limit potential losses & volatility; prepare & present investment analyses & recommendations to mgmt & investment Genes. Reg. Back. deg. in Finance - 18 mos. exp. $87,339/year. Email resume to Univerz Securities LLC, at info@univerz.us GENERAL HELP WANTED Correspondence Clerk-New York Under regs. supervision, prepare, process, & manage correspondence related to ESL programs & student services; review correspondence in Russian, maintain records. High School or Foreign Equin + Fluent Russian Reg. $46,678/YR. Send ftr/re to J & J Campus, Inc. 248 W 35th St., #2N, New York, NY 10001 Attn: MGR Food Preparation Worker. Assist w/ food preparation for a Japanese restaurant. Perform kitchen support duties & prep. Manual & delivery food orders. Sal. $33,925/yr. Resume: Takau, Inc. 427 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10024 Baker - F/F6 mos exp to create potters, shop recipes to heat on menu. $38,584.00/YR. Resume to 7AP 267 Columbus Ave New York, NY 10023. Attn: Mr. Uchua PROFESSIONAL Director of Strategic Account Management wanted by Alfa in Melville, NY to map processes, incl. both current & future state mapping of Acct Mgmt & Executing & system dependencies. Gather procurement regrets & strategy, process, tool, & template design cross continental skills in rounds of major online. Only procurement & operational cost performance measures, indicators, & reporting tools to track performance. Engage in procurement negotiations across the network of a major airline w/ various levels of suppliers. Engage in stakeholder mapping, incl engagement strategy through implement, Prep presentations, first analysis, & submissions for approvals to internal stakeholders. Backcharge, or foreign equiv. in Communications, Bus, or a third field, 5 yrs of exp in the job off or similar consulting role. Also resp 5 yrs exp (may have been gained concurrently) w/ I. Reviewing & revising procurement agreements, 2. Running competitive RFP processes, 3. Risk assessment exercises, 4. Negotiating supplier contracts, contract renewals, & addendums, & 5. Prep's of annual procurement budgets with corporate guidelines. Salary $157,000 annually. Mail resumes to Attn: Amber Cucumano, Director, HR Global Operns, at 265 Broad Hollow Rd, Fl.1, Melville, NY 11747 or apply online at https://ats.raping.com/accommodations-plus-international/jobs/bioge/if

56 New York Post, Sunday, August 16, 2026 nypost.com

Gastricks

nypost.com

EMPLOYMENT

FINANCIAL

Financial Analyst (New York, NY) Perform quantitative analysis of current & past financial mkt. data & performance, analyze stock performance & forecast trends; evaluate portfolio risk, project potential risks, & limit potential losses & volatility; prepare & present investment analyses & recommendations to mgmt & investment Genes. Reg. Back. deg. in Finance - 18 mos. exp. $87,339/year. Email resume to Univerz Securities LLC, at info@univerz.us

GENERAL HELP WANTED

Correspondence Clerk-New York Under regs. supervision, prepare, process, & manage correspondence related to ESL programs & student services; review correspondence in Russian, maintain records. High School or Foreign Equin + Fluent Russian Reg. $46,678/YR. Send ftr/re to J & J Campus, Inc. 248 W 35th St., #2N, New York, NY 10001 Attn: MGR

Food Preparation Worker. Assist w/ food preparation for a Japanese restaurant. Perform kitchen support duties & prep. Manual & delivery food orders. Sal. $33,925/yr. Resume: Takau, Inc. 427 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10024

Baker - F/F6 mos exp to create potters, shop recipes to heat on menu. $38,584.00/YR. Resume to 7AP 267 Columbus Ave New York, NY 10023. Attn: Mr. Uchua

PROFESSIONAL

Director of Strategic Account Management wanted by Alfa in Melville, NY to map processes, incl. both current & future state mapping of Acct Mgmt & Executing & system dependencies. Gather procurement regrets & strategy, process, tool, & template design cross continental skills in rounds of major online. Only procurement & operational cost performance measures, indicators, & reporting tools to track performance. Engage in procurement negotiations across the network of a major airline w/ various levels of suppliers. Engage in stakeholder mapping, incl engagement strategy through implement, Prep presentations, first analysis, & submissions for approvals to internal stakeholders. Backcharge, or foreign equiv. in Communications, Bus, or a third field, 5 yrs of exp in the job off or similar consulting role. Also resp 5 yrs exp (may have been gained concurrently) w/ I. Reviewing & revising procurement agreements, 2. Running competitive RFP processes, 3. Risk assessment exercises, 4. Negotiating supplier contracts, contract renewals, & addendums, & 5. Prep's of annual procurement budgets with corporate guidelines. Salary $157,000 annually. Mail resumes to Attn: Amber Cucumano, Director, HR Global Operns, at 265 Broad Hollow Rd, Fl.1, Melville, NY 11747 or apply online at https://ats.raping.com/accommodations-plus-international/jobs/bioge/if

Business Analyst. Connect Consulting Services INC. Job Location: 29-21 24th Ave, Arizona, NY 11302. 40 hour s/week, $75,000/year. Job Duties: Collect financial and operational data to support analysis; Conduct cost, pricing, and profitability analyses; Analyze data to develop solutions; Prepare reports for process and system improvements; Collaborate with management and staff to implement new procedures; Review forms and records to recommend efficiency and compliance; Support documentation and record management processes to ensure accuracy, organization, and accessibility of information. Job Requirements: Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in a related field, 6 months of experience in a related field; Travel is not required. To apply, send your resume to: A ANWAR@connectaxes.com.

PROFESSIONAL

Business Development Manager @ DirectMed Inc. (Glen Cove, NY) Direct sales, mktg. products, Proptenders, proposals & quotes. Organize sales visits. Mobil floor for items. Sales training in use of sick & product lines. Collect & analyze data on demand to identify demand. Forecast & track mktg & sales trends, analyzing data. Product strategy risk resp. & prototype. Report sales & suggest improvements. Regs. Bachelor's in Bus. + 48 mos. exp. as Bus. Mgr. or Bus. Specialist, USP, FDA, ISO & CE MARR resp. for med. devices & Class I, II & III med. devices, AutoCEL mold flow & 3D modeling & s/wave. Comp. 3.102.482.00/yr. Apply mail resume to 98 Pratt Oval, Glen Cove, NY 11542

Automotive Dealers Relationship Manager (Mineola, NY). Conduct mkt. research & data analysis; analyze mkt. trends, customer demographics & sales data, develop strategies to improve customer retention, dealer relationships & profitability, lead competitive position, coordinate w/ dealers on mktg. initiatives for pre-owned vehicle operations. Reg. Bachelor's in Marketing + 6 mos. exp. $61,797/year. Email resume to Zing Auto Inc., at: tz@zingauto.net

Human Resources Specialist for Hexen Technology Inc., F/T in New York, NY. Support HR functions such as recruitment, onboarding, employee relations, performance mgmt, compliance, training, benefits admin, & HR budgeting. Use analytical methods to support staffing, performance, training, budgeting, & other personnel decisions. Maint personnel records, coord employee deces & benefits matters, ensure compliance w/ laws & policies, & monitor HR budgets & resource use. Must have a Bachelor's Degree in Economics & 6 mos rhd working exp. $61,797/yr. Email resumes @aeneffinancscopy.com

Gannett Design Coordinator. Newline Fashion Group in New York, NY. Coordinate garment design projects; develop project management strategies to enhance creativity and productivity; conduct market research; coordinate mood board and color palette creation; maintain tech packs and specifications. Req'd from ter degree in Fashion Design, Design Management, or a closely related field; and proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Canva, and a high-computer 3912.00/year. Resume to: Newline Fashion Group, Attn: #872493, 247 W 38th St., 15th Fl., New York, NY 10018

Growth Marketing Specialist New York, NY. Run digital mktg campaigns across Instagram, Facebook, & TikTok. Optimize mktg funnels & CRM to drive engagement & client retention. Manage local mktg. Google Maps presence, & online reviews; Support content creation & influence collab'ns. Track performance metrics & report on campaign results. Req 2 yrs exp in mktg, digital mktg, or rhd field. $61,800/yr. Send resume to: Vitaly Kolozky, MVA NYC LLC, 69 Reade St., New York, NY 10007

Public Relations Specialist. Help drive board visibility & execute our communications strategy. Draft press releases, pitches, & media materials. Coordinate media outreach & promotional events. Track campaigns strategy & performance. Align messaging w/marketing & operations. Sal. $36,282/yr. Resume: Takau, Inc. 427 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10024

Instructional Assistant (NY, NY) $44,000/yr. Assist instructors in prep & updating instructional materials for CPA Exam prep courses, support instruction & rhd duties. Bachelor in Acctg. Finance or rhd, & 1 yr exp in acctg. auditing, or finance-rhd roles; Passed all CPA exams or hold CPA license of a state. Mail res: Honging Executive Placement Inc., 1120 6th Ave, Rm 4064, NY, NY 10036

NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

UCC PUBLIC SALE NOTICE

PLEASE MAIL NOTICE TO ME, UPC Portfolio LLC, customer to interest to: Aon Bank ("Second Party") will offer for sale of public auction (the "Sale") (1) 100% of the limited liability membership interest (the "Membership Interests") in 12 F 72" LLC, a New York limited liability company ("Pledged Entity"), held by Edward S. Costan, Steven Costan, Robert Costan, and 12 East 72" Manager LLC (each, a "Guerin," and collectively "Guerin") as set forth in that certain Pledge and Security Agreement dated August 25, 2023 (the "Pledge Agreement"). In addition with (2) all cash payments in land, principal, interest, fees, commissions, reimbursement, and other payments of any land and all instruments, subsidiaries, exchanges, and replacements made pursuant to the Articles of Organization and Limited Liability Company Agreement of Pledged Entity, in each case relating to the Membership Interests in Pledged Entity (the "Collateral Proceeds"). Inquiries with the Membership Interests (the "Collateral")

The Sale will take place on October 6, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time in compliance with Uniform Commercial Code Section 9-410 both (i) at North Neck & Howard LLC 1407 Broadway, 19th Floor New York, NY 10018 and (ii) virtually no online video conference. The UPC address and password for the online video conference will be provided in all registered participants.

The Sale is being made in connection with the foreclosure on a pledge of the Collateral to the Second Party by Grantors under the Pledge Agreement, pursuant to which Grantors have granted to Second Party a first penalty item on their Collateral as security for a loan in the original principal amount of 25 (20) 000 (the "Loan") from Aon Bank (preliminary to interest to Second Party) to Pledged Entity and Steven Costan (hypothesis "Borrowers"). The Loan was made pursuant to that certain Note dated August 25, 2023, entered into between Aon Bank and Borrowers (the "Note") and pursuant to that certain Loan Agreement dated August 25, 2023, entered into between Aon Bank and Borrowers (the "Loan Agreement"). It is the understanding of Second Party that without representation or warranty of any kind by Second Party as to the accuracy of the following: that the Loan is in default.

Round upon information provided by Borrowers, it is the understanding of Second Party that without representation or warranty of any kind by Second Party as to the accuracy of the following: that (i) Grantors own the Membership Interests, (ii) Pledged Entity is the owner of certain real property located at 12-14 East 72nd Street, New York, New York (the "Property"), (iii) Pledged Entity's principal assets are the Property and certain related rights, and (iv) the Property is encumbered by a mortgage lien granted by Pledged Entity as security for the Loan made pursuant to that certain Consolidated, Amended and Restated Writings, as approved of Loans and Rents, Security Agreement and Return Filing dated August 25, 2023 (the "Writings").

An author datado for the Sale (the "Datado") is available at the following link http://www.12fund72eddotl.com. The Datado will include certain relevant information that Second Party assumes concerning Pledged Entity Borrowers, the Loan, and the Mortgage (including the "Dividend Materials") as well as the Terms of Sale for Public Auction relating to the Sale of the Collateral ("Terms of Sale"). Access to such information will be conditioned upon execution of a confidentiality agreement which can be found on the Datado. To participate in the auction, prospective bidders must confirm their ability to satisfy the Requirements in the manner described in the Terms of Sale, and obtaining such confirmation, such qualified participants will be provided a URL and password enabling access to the video conference for the Sale. No information provided, whether in the Datado or otherwise, shall constitute a representation or warranty of any kind with respect to such information, the Collateral or the Sale Participants are encouraged to review all Dividend Materials and perform such due diligence as they direct necessary in advance of the Sale.

The Collateral will be offered in a single list. The Collateral is being sold directly on an "ACIS AND WHERE" (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (55) (56) (57) (58) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) (64) (65) (66) (67) (68) (69) (70) (71) (72) (73) (74) (75) (76) (77) (78) (79) (80) (81) (82) (83) (84) (85) (86) (87) (88) (89) (90) (91) (92) (93) (94) (95) (96) (97) (98) (99) (100)

There are specific requirements for any potential bidder in connection with obtaining information, bidding or the Collateral and purchasing the Collateral (collectively the "Requirements"), including without limitation, complying with: (1) the Loan Agreement and other documents executed in connection with the Loan, the Mortgage and other Loan documents executed in connection with the Loan, including, without limitation, in each case any requirements contained therein for a sale and transfer of the Collateral; (2) the Pledged Entity's governing documents, and (3) the Terms of Sale

Second Party reserves the right to seek uninterested reasonable information from prospective bidders and require a showing of financial ability from prospective bidders prior to the date of the Sale. If a prospective bidder is a special purpose entity or an entity with creditworthiness that is, in Second Party's reasonable judgment, insufficient to support the requirements herein, Second Party reserves the right to require additional credit support in the form of a guaranty by a creditworthy affiliate of such prospective bidder or other appropriate credit support.

The Collateral includes unregistered securities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Second Party reserves the right to restrict participation in the Sale to prospective bidders that represent that the Collateral will not be sold, assigned, pledged, disposed of, hypothesized or otherwise transferred without the prior registration in accordance with the Securities Act and the securities laws of all other applicable jurisdictions, unless an exemption from such registration is available. Second Party may, prior to the sale described herein, assign all of its right, title and interest in and to the Loan to an affiliate, and in the case of such assignment the assignee shall be considered the "Second Party" for all purposes hereunder. Second Party reserves the right to credit bid, set a maximum interest price, report all bids and terminate or adjourn the sale to another time. All bids (other than credit bids of Second Party) must be for cash with no financing conditions and the securities holder must deliver immediately available good funds (1) for the Required Deposit (as defined in the Terms of Sale) on the date of the Sale, and (2) for the balance of the purchase price for the Collateral and the closing date prescribed by the Terms of Sale. The winning bidder must pay all transfer taxes, including fees, stamp dates and similar taxes as may be required to be paid under applicable law in connection with the purchase of the Collateral.

Questions may be directed to Brett Rosenberg, Senior Managing Director at J.L. Capital Markets at (212) 812-5926 or Brett Rosenberg@3.com.

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NFL Exhibition

Week 1 - Saturday

Minnesota 13, Giants 10 Buffalo 29, Carolina 14 Chicago 34, Cleveland 10 Jacksonville 24, New Orleans 20 L.A. Rams 20, Kansas City 12 Baltimore 24, Philadelphia 7 Dallas 17, Seattle 7

Week 2 - Thursday

Las Vegas at Houston, 10pm San Francisco at L.A. Chargers, 10pm

Friday

Jets at Pittsburgh, 7pm Carolina at Jacksonville, 7:30pm

NFL Exhibition

Vikings 13, Giants 10

Minnesota	3	0	10	0	-	13
Giants	0	10	0	0	-	10

First Quarter

Min: FG Reichard 35, 9:25.

Second Quarter Nyg: Fields 15 pass from Dart (Sauls kick), 13:32. Nyg: FG Sauls 46, :00.

Third Quarter

Min: FG Reichard 54, 8:32. Min: Price 1 pass from Wentz (Reichard kick), 4:04.

First downs 15 11 Total Net Yarns 238 201 Rushes-yards 47-111 27-70 Passing 127 111 Punt Returns 4-35 3-40 Kickoff Returns 2-50 4-96 Interceptions Ret. 1-6 0-0 Comp-Att-Int 16-26-0 16-21-2 Sacked-Yards Lost 1-4 4-29 Punts 6-42-333 6-48-667 Pumblers-Lost 0-0 2-0 Penalties-Yards 7-49 7-45 Time of Possession 29:27 30:33

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Minnesota, Claiborne 12-34, Bell 2-27, A Jones 3-27, Mason 3-17, Scott 2-6, McCarthy 1-1, Je. Jefferson 3-0, Wentz 1-(minus 1), N.Y. Giants, E.Gray 8-20, Skattebo 4-19, D.Miller 5-14, Bankston 3-6, Tracy 2-5, Winston 2-3, Singletary 3-3. Passing: Minnesota, Wentz 9-14-0-81, McCarthy 4-7-0-34, Murray 2-3-0-10, Brosner 1-2-0-6, N.Y. Giants, Winston 8-9-0-89, Allen 5-8-2-45, Dart 3-4-0-26.

Receiving: Minnesota, Price 4-51, Fleming 3-10, Nesbit 2-13, J. Jones 1-17, Lang 1-12, Addison 1-8, Yurosek 1-7, Scott 1-6, Felton 1-5, Breitman 1-2, N.Y. Giants, Fields 3-34, E.Gray 2-12, Liang 1-11, Beckham 2-6, Singletary 1-40, Cambre 1-20, R.Miller 1-14, Berrios 1-9, Johnson 1-6, Hodgins 1-2, Gipson 1-1.

Golf

PGA Tour-FedEx St. Jude Championship

At TPC Southwind; Memphis, Tenn., Purse: $20 million; Yardage: 7,288; Par: 70

Third Round

Scottsy Schaeffer	68-61-68 197 -13
Sam Burns	67-70-62 199 -11
Sanggal Hill	66-66-67 199 -11
Tommy Fleetwood	66-68-68 202 -8
Jake Knaup	65-79-67 202 -8
Brian Harman	70-64-69 203 -7
Si Woo Kim	70-68-65 203 -7
Hideki Matsuyama	66-70-67 203 -7
Alex Moran	71-66-66 203 -7
Viktor Hovland	68-64-72 204 -6
Tom Kim	69-72-63 204 -6
Kurt Kitayama	65-71-66 204 -6
Patrick Cantlay	69-66-70 205 -5
Wyndham Clark	69-66-70 205 -5
Wichita Echeveria	68-66-71 205 -5
Chris Gettinger	66-70-69 205 -5
L.T. Perkins	71-68-66 205 -5
Adam Scott	66-70-69 205 -5
Matt Fitzpatrick	70-67-69 206 -4
Jordan Spieth	65-69-72 206 -4
Nick Taylor	69-68-69 206 -4
Jacob Bridgeman	69-70-68 207 -3
Florence Condy	71-66-70 207 -3
Rickie Fowler	68-71-66 207 -3
Jackann Kohan	71-70-66 207 -3
Maverick McNealy	68-70-69 207 -3

DP World Tour - Danish Golf Championship

At Great Western, Portsmouth; Purse: $2.8 million; Yardage: 7,314; Par: 72 Third Round

Romani Langasque	69-66-67 202 -14
Yarhan Zhou	69-67-67 203 -13
Anthony Ruzner	69-64-71 204 -12
Matthew Jordan	68-67-70 205 -11
Carole Surratt	69-66-70 205 -11

LPGA Tour-The Standard Portland Classic

At Columbia Education Country Club; Portland, Ore.; Purse: $2 million; Yardage: 6,541; Par: 72

Third Round

Sophia Schubert	67-66-67 200 -16
Arpichaya Yuboi	66-66-68 200 -16
Jenny Thibaut	68-67-67 202 -14
Na Rin An	69-68-66 203 -13

WNBA

East	W	L	Pct.	GB
Indiana	22	12	.647	—
Atlanta	21	12	.636	( \frac{1}{2} )
Liberty	24	14	.611	( \frac{1}{2} )
Washington	20	14	.586	( \frac{1}{2} )
Chicago	12	22	.353	10
Toronto	10	23	.303	( 11\frac{1}{2} )
Connecticut	8	25	.242	( 13\frac{1}{2} )

West	W	L	Pct.	GB
x-Minnesota	29	7	.806	—
Golden State	24	9	.727	( 3\frac{1}{2} )
x-Las Vegas	24	12	.667	5
Dallas	20	15	.571	( 8\frac{1}{2} )
Portland	14	20	.412	14
Phoenix	13	22	.371	( 15\frac{1}{2} )
Los Angeles	12	22	.353	16
Seattle	7	29	.194	22

x-clinched playoff spot

Saturday

Liberty 62, Connecticut 75 Washington 80, Los Angeles 70 Minnesota 92, Las Vegas 87

Sunday

Chicago at Seattle, 5pm Indiana at Atlanta, 5pm Portland at Phoenix, 7pm

Monday

Dallas at Golden State, 10pm

Liberty 82, Sun 75

Liberty

	Min	FG	FT	0-10	0-5	0-5	0-5
Allent	29.27	2-5	0-0	5-5	0-5	5-6
Stewart	32.43	3-12	4-4	0-4	2-1	11
Jones	34.41	9-16	3-2	3-11	2-4	23
Adler	25.46	4-8	0-0	0-0	4-3	8
Johannes	30.35	6-9	0-0	0-2	5-2	17
Gardner	15.14	3-4	0-0	0-3	1-2	7
Xu	12.18	1-3	0-0	0-1	1-2	2
Faulthoua	11.22	2-6	5-5	0-2	1-1	8
Malley	7.36	0-2	0-0	1-2	2-1	0

Percentages: FG .462, FT .818. 3-point goals: 13-27, 481 (Johannes 5-8, Jones 3-7, Allen 2-4, Gardner 1-1, Faulthoua 1-2, Stewart 1-2, Xu 0-1, Adler 0-2). Team rebounds: 8. Team turnovers: None. Blocked shots: 4 (Johannes, Malley, Stewart, Xu), Turnovers: 12 (Stewart 4, Jones 3, Johannes 2, Allen, Adler, Faulthoua). Steals: 3 (Astier, Johannes, Stewart). Technicals: None.

Connecticut

	Min	FG	FT	0-10	0-5	0-5	0-5
Burke	21.13	2-7	3-3	1-1	1-0	7
Miller	32.18	3-13	4-4	0-7	3-3	12
Nelson	28.02	7-9	7-7	3-10	0-3	21
Lassie	30.44	4-11	1-2	1-3	6-2	10
Lego-Walker	31.48	5-14	0-0	3-5	4-2	14
Rivers	21.00	2-5	3-3	0-4	2-2	6
Angloma	12.57	1-3	1-2	1-2	1-2	1
Beers	11.58	0-1	2-2	1-3	0-1	2
Jackson	5.49	0-2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0
Korepkens	4.13	0-2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0

Totals 200.00 24.67 19.22 9.35 17.17 75 Percentages: FG .358, FT .864. 3-point goals: 8-25, 276 (Lego-Walker 4-9, Miller 2-6, Burke 1-5, Lazan 1-5, Jackson 0-2, Korepkens 0-2). Team rebounds: 10. Team turnovers: 2. Blocked shots: 7 (Angloma 2, Lego-Walker 2, Rivers 2, Beers). Turnovers: 10 (Lazan 3, Leger-Walker 3, Burke 2, Beers, Rivers). Steals: 4 (Burke 2, Beers, Leger-Walker). Technicals: None. Liberty 19 27 15 21 - 82 Connecticut 27 10 19 19 - 75 A: 8,911 (9,323). T: 1:54.

CFL

Canadian Football League

East Division

---

NEW YORK POST ACTION

Post Time: 1:10 p.m. scangialos@nypost.com

Saratoga

Analysis by Vic Cangialosi

Lock of the Day Outfielder (9th) Lock Record: 13 for 27 (48%) Meet Record: 72/288 $473.24

1 1/8 miles; $105,000; alv; 3up

A last-to-first winner at Churchill, ZAPRIDER may repeat that performance in the Sunday opener. Gets a pace to chase and proven at this longer distance. Alvarado picks him up for Dale Romans. CRESCENDOS REIN won handily, wire-to-wire at Finger Lakes. He's now 4 for 6 but has never raced this far. Prat rides for Baker. SENEGAL walked home last of 9 after a troubled trip. 1 for 7 at the distance. The win at and Aqueduct last winter.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Zaprider(L),126	J Alvarado	1-8-6	Romans	5-2
2	Caddlemaster(L),126	J Ortiz	1-2-6	Rice	6-1
3	Senegal(L),126	R Santana, Jr	9-3-2	Morley	5-1
4	Judge Boushay(L),121	M Franco	2-1-2	C Brown	2-1
5	Crescendo's Rein(L),126	F Prat	1-5-1	Baker	9-5

2 1/8 miles(T); $105,000; alv; 3up

Two turns on the turf to back-end the double. CARC BROTHERS has won all 3 starts by 3 or more lengths, racing longer and shorter. Again for Atras. CALVINS RIDE is 1 for 8 grass after missing by a length. Winner 4 of previous 6, but on synthetics. BLUE PILL is 1 for 14 on grass. Midpack 6th at 28-1 last out. 3rd best, lone start at this distance. Extreme exotics value.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Oat Coutour(L),126	J Alvarado	5-2-4	Englehart	6-1
2	Wiltowered(L),126	F Prat	3-2-2	Clement	4-1
3	Six Fortyfive(L),126	L Saez	1-2-9	Dini	10-1
4	Blue Pill(L),126	R Santana, Jr	6-11-8	Ferraro	30-1
5	Carc Brothers(L),126	M Franco	1-1-1	Atras	4-5
6	Calvin's Ride(L),126	J Ortiz	4-5-1	Rice	3-1

3 5 fur; $125,000; alv; 3up(f)

We watched Chad Browns LIMES DON'T LIE finish 5th, a couple of lengths back of Kelly Browns SHES A GAMER who was 3rd. Prat on Limen Don't Lie; Alvarado on Shea A Gamer. COASTER was a last-to-first winner at Oaklawn. Moves higher. Tough spot catching top 2. Santana rides.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Limes Don't Lie(L),126	F Prat	5-2-3	C Brown	5-2
2	She's a Gamer(L),126	J Alvarado	3-1-2	Breen	9-5
3	Coaster(L),126	R Santana, Jr	1-2-8	Moquett	9-2
4	The Big Calhouna(L),126	K Carmouche	6-3-7	Rice	8-1
5	Next On Stage(L),126	M Franco	1-8-3	Rice	2-1

4 1/16 miles(T); $115,000; mdn; 2YO

Two-year-olds on the turf. Changes for GREENWELL after a distant 5th. Dirt to turf; sprint to route for Casse. J Ortiz stays on; so do we. Choice over first time starters REAL RESTRAINT (Walsh/Gaffalione/Authentic). DIGHIFF (Pletcher/France/Justify) and RELATED PARTY (Brown/Prat/Not This Time).

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Captain (L),123	E Zayas	5-4-4	Casse	15-1
2	Suspend,123	J Alvarado	5-4-4	Mott	8-1
3	Culpable,123	R Santana, Jr	4-4-4	Pletcher	10-1
4	Jersey Guy,123	K Carmouche	3-4-4	Giddings	8-1
5	Real Restraint,123	T Gaffalione	4-4-4	Walsh	7-2
6	Vintage Velocity,123	J Velazquez	4-4-4	McPeeck	10-1
7	Dignity,123	M Franco	4-4-4	Pletcher	8-1
8	No Law,123	K Davis	4-4-4	Leaf III	30-1
9	Greenwell,123	J Ortiz	5-2-4	Casse	5-2
10	Related Party,123	F Prat	4-4-4	C Brown	5-1
11	Warrior At Heart,123	T Gaffalione	6-4-4	Beckman	12-1
12	Roughkin,123	J Lezcano	4-4-4	Mott	6-1

5 fur; $42,000; clm($20,000); 3up

One hit wonders. SEEKERS HOPE (1 for 21) was a wide 3rd of 7. Moves lower for Rice. DUCKY MEDWICK (1 for 7) led, settled for 3rd racing

a mile. Route to sprint; 1st time gelding; Saez on; blinkers off. MAJESTIC ARC (1 for 33) is 0 for 15 at this distance but 2nd best last 3 starts.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Ducky Medwick(L),126	L Saez	3-4-4	Sumners	7-2
2	Lexington Pike(L),122	R Santana, Jr	1-2-8	Catalano	10-1
3	Sports Hero(L),126	C Elliott	10-5-3	Ryerson	12-1
4	Seeker's Hope(L),126	M Franco	3-7-7	Rice	8-5
5	Majestic Arc(L),126	K Davis	2-2-2	Shivmangal	9-2
6	Mo Spice(L),122	S Gonzalez	9-11-6	Rodriguez	15-1
7	Red Miller(L),126	D Davis	2-4-5	Terranova II	6-1
8	Waltin' on an unimply day(L),122	K Carmouche	3-2-1	C Martin	8-1

6 1/16 miles(T); $115,000; mdn; 2YO

More 2YOs, many making career debuts. We will take PERMANENT RECORD. Chad Brown trains the Euro-bred colt for Klaravich. Sired by New Bay; ridden by Prat. GOT TOUGH ran evenly for 3rd. Stretches longer if we're off turf. HILTS (Spendthrift/Stall/Saez/Vekoma). NOT EVER (Clement/France/No May Never) and AMPLIFIED (Pletcher/Santana/Happy Saver) can also win at first asking.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	E Z Speaker,123	J Castellano	4-4-4	Casse	8-1
2	Not Ever(IRE),123	M Franco	4-4-4	Clement	7-2
3	Bring Cash,123	T Gaffalione	4-4-4	Pletcher	12-1
4	Justifiables expense,123	J Alvarado	4-4-4	Mott	15-1
5	Chambered,123	J Ortiz	4-4-4	McPeeck	12-1
6	Hilts,123	L Saez	4-4-4	Stall	12-1
7	Casino,123	J Velazquez	6-4-4	Casse	6-1
8	Amplified,123	R Santana, Jr	4-4-4	Pletcher	8-1
9	Let Em Know,123	E Zayas	6-4-4	Beckman	15-1
10	Permanent Record(GB),123	F Prat	4-4-4	C Brown	4-1
11	Roscoe Goose,123	K Carmouche	4-4-4	Mott	6-1
12	Got Tough,123	Rider TBA	3-4-4	LaRose	2-1
13	Motawali,123	J Alvarado	3-9-4	Mott	4-1

7 7 fur; $41,000; mdn; clm($20,000); 3up

Flying finishes for PRIVATE FLIGHT to hit the board last 3 starts, latest at this distance. 0 for 10 but gets up in time today for Rice/ Carmouche. INSTANTLY was 6th, then 7th on turf. Moves lower to make dirt debut for Walden. J Ortiz on the wildcard. And REBALANCING makes a quick switch to the dirt after debuting last of 7 on grass. Prat rides for Brown; blinkers on.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Thundertaker(L),122	C Elliott	11-2-4	Atras	12-1
2	Bootsy's a Rascal(L),122	T Gaffalione	7-7-4	Schettino	15-1
3	Rebalancing(L),122	F Prat	7-4-4	C Brown	3-1
4	Private Flight(L),126	K Carmouche	3-2-2	Rice	2-1
5	Instantly(L),122	J Ortiz	7-6-4	Walden	5-2
6	Go Dharma(L),122	R Santana, Jr	5-6-3	Chatterpaul	20-1
7	True Adirondacker(L),122	J Castellano	4-6-8	Potts	20-1
8	Turbo Launch(L),122	M Franco	10-3-2	Rice	5-1

8 1 mile(T); $110,000; alv; 3up

SMOOTH BREEZE Dirt to turf for Abreu. A couple of lengths short racing comparable company on the Aqueduct lawn. WHITTINGTON PARK MTO. Has 3 wins over the wet. MO TRUMP Dirt to turf as well. Strong 3rd, this level/distance last grass start. Taggy's INSPIRATION/MAILIE and Rice's JACKS WORLD both enter off victories, racing a mile at Saratoga, pulling down identical figs. Jacks World was 4th behind inspeightofcharlie at the Big A.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Cable Ready(L),126	J Lezcano	2-5-4	Dixon	15-1
2	Shared Success(L),126	T Gaffalione	3-1-5	Begg	15-1

3	Jack and Jim(L),126	M Franco	6-1-1	Motion	5-2
4	Inspeightofcharlie(L),126	J Ortiz	1-5-2	Taggy	7-2
5	Jack's World(L),121	F Prat	1-5-4	Rice	5-1
6	Smooth Breeze(L),126	J Castellano	5-5-4	Abreu	4-1
7	Funny Factor(L),121	J Velazquez	6-7-1	Walden	12-1
8	Truman's Commander(L),121	E Zayas	1-4-9	Casse	12-1
9	Mo Trump(L),126	C Elliott	7-3-8	Ferraro	10-1
10	Terminal Velocity(L),126	L Saez	9-1-5	Bartkowski	20-1
11	Clear Conscience(L),126	M Franco	6-5-6	Kantarnaci	8-1
12	Coronair(L),126	R Santana, Jr	4-11-3	Morley	10-1
13	Concorde Spirit(L),126	K Carmouche	8-3-2	Rodriguez	4-1
14	Shadow Dragon(L),126	J Ortiz	5-6-5	Abreu	5-1
15	Whittington Park(L),126	Rider TBA	3-2-7	Noda	9-5

9 5 1/2 fur(T); $225,000; Mahony; 3YO

The feature is the Grade 3 Mahony. OUTFIELDER traveled to Ascot and ran home 5 lengths short in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. Won previous pair; both stakes; under Johnny V. BID DESTROYER was a fast closing 2nd behind REBEL WITH A CAUSE in the My Frenchman at Monmouth. Clement gets Prat back on Big Destroyer, Rebel With a Cause is 2 for 3 on turf. The loss was to Outfielder. LEARNTODISCOVER was last of 12 before getting up to win the Quick Call here in July.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Rebel With a Cause,122	J Castellano	1-4-1	Robson	8-1
2	Outfielder,122	J Velazquez	1-1-14	Ward	1-1
3	Oscar's Hope,122	J Alvarado	6-3-2	LaRose	8-1
4	Intricate Spirit,124	M Franco	5-1-9	Clement	6-1
5	Big Destroyer,120	F Prat	2-1-4	Clement	5-1
6	Learntodiscovers(GB),124	T Gaffalione	1-4-4	Walsh	6-1
7	Stradale,120	J Ortiz	4-6-2	Asmussen	8-1

10 6 1/2 fur; $45,000; clm($16,000); 4up

LOTSA TROUBLE has been 3rd best, last 3 starts. A win for Harkie? PROJECTABILITY Turf to dirt for Rice. Won 3 in a row on the dirt at Aqueduct in the spring. Worthy fave. ON THE LEDGE returns to the dirt as well. Won by a dozen lengths at the Big A in April. Carmouche replaces Elliott who stays on MR SKYLIGHT.

PH	Horse Wt.	Jockey	Last 3	Trainer	Odds
1	Lotsa Trouble(L),123	H Harkie	3-3-3	Kantarnaci	9-2
2	Projectability(L),123	R Santana, Jr	7-4-3	Rice	5-2
3	Principi(L),123	J Castellano	4-5-1	Potts	6-1
4	Farm Team(L),121	S Gonzalez	4-2-3	Kantarnaci	6-1
5	Mr Skylight(L),123	C Elliott	3-5-5	Falcone	10-1
6	On the Ledge(L),121	K Carmouche	6-5-3	B Brown	5-1
7	Screaming Uncle(L),121	K Davis	4-7-4	Charlerie	12-1
8	Stewie(L),121	M Franco	6-5-6	Friedman	8-1
9	Neuschwanstein(L),121	J Lezcano	4-6-8	Romero	15-1
10	Graywing(L),123	F Villa Pino	8-5-11	Jones	30-1

PLAY OF THE DAY

Road Show ($3.74) got us off to a good start but it was all downhill from there. Free Verse (6-1) got a piece, finishing third, but Vacation Dance (10-1) and Tawny Port (11-1) ran off the board. After all that we lost $4.10 on the day. One play Sunday. Bet $20 to win and place on Lotsa Trouble in Race 10.—Vic Cangialosi

Saratoga Results

FIRST-6 fur; $54,000; clm($30,000); 3up	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

SECOND-6 fur; $115,000; mdn; spl wt; 2YO	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

FOURTH-1 mile; $105,000; alv; 3up (f&m)	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

FIFTH-1 mile; $105,000; alv; 3up (f&m)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

SIXTH-6 fur; $115,000; mdn; spl wt; 2YO	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3

TENTH-5/6 fur; $205,000; alv; 3up	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

EIGHTH-6 fur; $115,000; mdn; spl wt; 2YO	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3

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58 New York Post, Sunday, August 16, 2026 nypost.com

AL Standings

East W L Pct. GB *WGB L10 Streak Home Away Tampa Bay 74 48 .607 - - 8-2 L-2 41-20 33-28 Yankees 68 55 .553 6 1/2 +7 5-5 L-3 31-27 37-28 Boston 66 57 .537 8 1/2 +5 4-6 W-1 29-31 37-26 Toronto 61 64 .488 14 1/2 1/2 7-3 W-2 33-32 28-32 Baltimore 60 63 .488 14 1/2 1/2 5-5 W-2 32-30 28-33

Central W L Pct. GB *WGB L10 Streak Home Away Chicago 64 58 .525 - - 5-5 W-2 37-24 27-34 Detroit 60 63 .488 4 1/2 1/2 5-5 L-2 32-30 28-33 Cleveland 60 64 .484 5 1 3-7 W-1 29-32 31-32 Minnesota 60 64 .484 5 1 4-6 L-2 32-30 28-34 Kansas City 50 74 .403 15 11 3-7 L-1 29-30 21-44

West W L Pct. GB *WGB L10 Streak Home Away Houston 63 61 .508 - - 5-5 L-1 31-30 32-31 Texas 61 63 .492 2 1/2 5-5 W-1 32-27 29-36 Seattle 58 66 .468 5 1 3-7 W-1 33-29 25-37 Los Angeles 49 75 .395 14 12 6-4 W-1 29-35 20-40 Athletics 48 75 .390 14 1/2 1/2 3-7 L-1 22-40 26-35

*WGB: Games behind third-place team in wild-card race

Saturday Toronto 4, Yankees 1 White Sox 4, Detroit 3 Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 3, 10 inn. Cleveland 6, San Diego 1 Seattle 10, Houston 5 Boston 4, Pittsburgh 0 Philadelphia 9, Minnesota 1 L.A. Angels 1, Kansas City 0 Texas 5, Athletics 3 Sunday Yankees at Toronto, 1:37 Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 12:15 Boston at Pittsburgh, 1:35

White Sox at Detroit, 1:40 San Diego at Cleveland, 1:40 Philadelphia at Minnesota, 2:10 Texas at Athletics, 4:05 Kansas City at L.A. Angels, 4:07 Seattle at Houston, 7:20 Monday Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 6:05 Detroit at Pittsburgh, 7:05 Arizona at Boston, 7:10 Athletics at Kansas City, 7:40 Atlanta at Minnesota, 7:40 White Sox at Cubs, 8:05

NL Standings

East W L Pct. GB *WGB L10 Streak Home Away Toronto 4, Yankees 1 White Sox 4, Detroit 3 Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 3, 10 inn. Cleveland 6, San Diego 1 Seattle 10, Houston 5 Boston 4, Pittsburgh 0 Philadelphia 9, Minnesota 1 L.A. Angels 1, Kansas City 0 Texas 5, Athletics 3 Sunday Yankees at Toronto, 1:37 Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 12:15 Boston at Pittsburgh, 1:35

AL Standings

East	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Tampa Bay	74	48	.607	-	-	8-2	L-2	41-20	33-28
Yankees	68	55	.553	6 1/2	+7 1/2	5-5	L-3	31-27	37-28
Boston	66	57	.537	8 1/2	+5 1/2	4-6	W-1	29-31	37-26
Toronto	61	64	.488	14 1/2	1/2	7-3	W-2	33-32	28-32
Baltimore	60	63	.488	14 1/2	1/2	5-5	W-2	32-30	28-33
Central	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Chicago	64	58	.525	-	-	5-5	W-2	37-24	27-34
Detroit	60	63	.488	4 1/2	1/2	5-5	L-2	32-30	28-33
Cleveland	60	64	.484	5	1	3-7	W-1	29-32	31-32
Minnesota	60	64	.484	5	1	4-6	L-2	32-30	28-34
Kansas City	50	74	.403	15	11	3-7	L-1	29-30	21-44
West	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Houston	63	61	.508	-	-	5-5	L-1	31-30	32-31
Texas	61	63	.492	2	-	5-5	W-1	32-27	29-36
Seattle	58	66	.468	5	1	3-7	W-1	33-29	25-37
Los Angeles	49	75	.395	14	12	6-4	W-1	29-35	20-40
Athletics	48	75	.390	14 1/2	1/2	3-7	L-1	22-40	26-35

Saturday

Toronto 4, Yankees 1 White Sox 4, Detroit 3 Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 3, 10 inn. Cleveland 6, San Diego 1 Seattle 10, Houston 5 Boston 4, Pittsburgh 0 Philadelphia 9, Minnesota 1 L.A. Angels 1, Kansas City 0 Texas 5, Athletics 3

Sunday

Yankees at Toronto, 1:37 Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 12:15 Boston at Pittsburgh, 1:35

White Sox at Detroit, 1:40 San Diego at Cleveland, 1:40 Philadelphia at Minnesota, 2:10 Texas at Athletics, 4:05 Kansas City at L.A. Angels, 4:07 Seattle at Houston, 7:20

Monday

Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 6:05 Detroit at Pittsburgh, 7:05 Arizona at Boston, 7:10 Athletics at Kansas City, 7:40 Atlanta at Minnesota, 7:40 White Sox at Cubs, 8:05

NL Standings

East	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Atlanta	73	50	.593	-	-	5-5	L-2	41-23	32-27
Philadelphia	66	58	.532	7 1/2	-	5-5	W-2	32-30	34-28
Miami	63	61	.508	10 1/2	3	5-5	W-1	38-25	25-36
Washington	60	65	.480	14	6 1/2	5-5	L-2	27-36	33-29
Mets	55	69	.444	18 1/2	11	7-3	W-2	27-34	28-35
Central	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Milwaukee	76	48	.613	-	-	5-5	W-1	41-22	35-26
Chicago	72	52	.581	4	+6	7-3	L-1	36-25	36-27
St. Louis	62	61	.504	13 1/2	3 1/2	6-4	W-1	32-34	30-27
Cincinnati	59	63	.484	16	6	5-5	L-1	30-32	29-31
Pittsburgh	60	65	.480	16 1/2	6 1/2	3-7	L-1	31-31	29-34
West	W	L	Pct.	GB	*WGB	L10	Streak	Home	Away
Los Angeles	74	50	.597	-	-	5-5	L-1	37-25	37-25
Arizona	66	58	.532	8	-	6-4	W-2	36-27	30-31
San Diego	66	58	.532	8	-	7-3	L-1	37-26	29-32
San Francisco	51	72	.415	22 1/2	14 1/2	3-7	W-1	29-32	22-40
Colorado	49	74	.398	24 1/2	16 1/2	4-6	L-1	27-32	22-42

Saturday

Mets 5, Washington 4 St. Louis 8, Cubs 4 San Francisco 7, Colorado 1 Miami 8, Cincinnati 4 Cleveland 6, San Diego 1 Milwaukee 4, L.A. Dodgers 1 Boston 6, Pittsburgh 0 Philadelphia 9, Minnesota 1 Arizona 10, Atlanta 3

Sunday

Washington at Mets, 1:40 Arizona at Atlanta, 1:35 Boston at Pittsburgh, 1:35 Miami at Cincinnati, 1:40

San Diego at Cleveland, 1:40 Philadelphia at Minnesota, 2:10 St. Louis at Cubs, 3:15 Colorado at San Francisco, 4:05 Milwaukee at L.A. Dodgers, 4:10

Monday

San Diego at Mets, 7:10 St. Louis at Cincinnati, 1:40, 1st gm. Miami at Philadelphia, 6:40 St. Louis at Cincinnati, 6:40, 2nd gm. Detroit at Pittsburgh, 7:05 Arizona at Boston, 7:10 Atlanta at Minnesota, 7:40 White Sox at Cubs, 8:05 L.A. Dodgers at Colorado, 8:40

Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1

Yankees	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Grisham cf	3	0	0	0	1	0	2.23
Rice dh	4	0	0	0	0	2	2.51
Ramos ff	4	0	0	0	0	1	2.44
García lb	4	0	1	0	0	2	2.78
Jones cf	3	1	1	0	0	1	2.16
Chisholm lb	3	0	0	0	0	1	2.14
Lombard ss	2	0	1	1	0	0	2.65
McMahon lb	3	0	0	0	0	1	2.17
Wells c	3	0	1	0	0	1	1.80
Caballero pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.41
A.Sánchez c	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.71
Totals	29	1	4	1	2	9	5

Toronto	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Baltimore cf	4	1	2	0	1	0	3.14
Lukes cf	3	0	1	1	0	0	2.66
Kirk dh	3	0	1	1	2	0	2.70
J.Sánchez ff	1	0	0	0	2	1	2.61
Straw pr ff	2	0	0	0	0	1	2.22
Okamoto lb	4	0	1	0	0	1	2.27
Giménez cs	4	1	1	0	0	1	2.39
Valenzuela c	3	1	0	0	0	2	2.25
Smith lb	2	0	0	0	0	2	2.12
Clement ph 2b	2	1	2	0	0	0	2.83
McAdoo lb	4	0	2	2	0	1	2.20
Totals	32	4	10	4	5	9

Yankees	010	000	000	-	1	4	0
Toronto	001	000	124	-	4	10	0
LOB: New York 3, Toronto 12, 2B: McAdoo (1), RBIs: Lombard (3), Kirk (22), McAdoo 2 (7), Lukes (22), 3B: Jones (6), CS: Garcia (23), S: Lukes 2, Runners left in scoring position: New York 1 (Wells); Toronto 7 (Straw 2, Valenzuela, Okamoto 4), RISP: New York 1 for 3; Toronto 4 for 15, Runners moved up; Lukes, GIDP: Wells, DPI: Toronto 1 (McAdoo, Giménez, McAdoo).

Yankees	IP	H	R	R	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Fishner	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	12	3.48
Tiedemann	1.2	2	1	1	0	2	27	5.40
Woods	2.1	0	0	0	1	2	29	6.00
Richardson	2.1	0	0	0	1	2	29	6.00
Flukarty	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	9	3.81
Miles, W, 5-2	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	10	3.12
Rogers, H, 26	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	15	1.57
Variand, S, 28-29	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	13	1.26

T: 2:44. A: 42,580 (39,150).

Giants 7, Rockies 1

Colorado	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
McCarthy df	4	0	1	0	0	1	2.96
Carrigg cf	4	0	1	1	0	1	2.91
Moniak dh	3	0	0	0	0	1	2.65
Amador ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	2.00
Rumfield lb	4	0	0	0	0	1	2.91
Castro lb	4	0	1	0	0	1	2.62
Veon rf	3	0	0	0	0	2	2.22
Norby lb	3	0	1	0	0	1	2.00
Sullivan c	3	0	0	0	0	1	2.41
Tovar ss	3	1	1	0	0	1	2.09
Totals	32	1	5	1	0	11

San Francisco	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Gilbert cf	4	2	3	3	1	1	2.43
Devers dh	5	1	1	1	0	0	2.44
Eldridge lb	4	0	1	1	0	0	2.46
Lee rf	3	1	2	0	1	0	2.93
Basale 2b	4	0	1	0	0	0	2.80
Cavanaugh c	3	1	0	0	1	0	2.39
Hill ff	3	0	0	1	0	1	2.00
Kennedy 3b	3	1	1	0	0	0	0.67
Koss ss	4	1	1	0	0	2	2.95
Totals	32	7	10	6	3	5

Colorado	001	000	000	-	1	5	0
San Francisco	001	600	00x	-	7	10	0

LOB: Colorado 4, San Francisco 7, 2B: Norby (13), Devers (20), HB: Gilbert (6), off Lorenzen, RBIs: Carrigg (31), Gilbert 3 (28), Hill (1), Devers (66), Eldridge (31), SF: Hill, Runners left in scoring position: Colorado 2 (Sullivan, Rumfield); San Francisco 2 (Basale 2), BISP: Colorado 1 for 4; San Francisco 3 for 6.

Colorado	IP	H	R	R	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lorenzen, L.	3.2	4	6	6	3	1	82	7.08
McAlister	0.1	3	1	0	0	0	15	3.86
Gordon	4.0	3	0	0	0	4	63	5.55
San Francisco	IP	H	R	R	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Webb, W, 8-7	6.0	4	1	1	0	7	80	3.50
Seymour	2.0	1	0	0	0	3	24	6.23
Smith	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	10	2.96

T: 2:26. A: 35,069 (41,915).

Mets 5, Nationals 4

Washington	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Crews rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	2.14
Chaparo 1b	2	2	1	1	1	1	2.11
Ortiz ph-1b	1	0	1	0	0	0	0.306
House 3b	4	1	1	0	0	0	2.42
Abrams ss	4	0	0	0	0	0	0.280
Ford c	3	0	0	0	1	2	2.13
Jac Young cf	4	0	2	0	0	1	2.251
Life dh	4	0	0	0	0	2	2.47
Nycesc 2b	4	0	1	0	0	1	2.28
Pinckney ff	2	1	1	0	0	1	1.300
Totals	32	4	7	4	2	11

Detroit	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Torres 2b	4	0	3	1	0	0	2.68
Lee 3b	3	1	1	0	0	0	2.66
Keith ph-3b	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.64
Dingle dh	4	0	0	0	0	3	2.59
McGonigle ss	3	0	0	0	1	0	2.84
Valencia c	4	1	2	2	0	1	2.404
Torkelson 1b	4	0	0	0	0	2	2.30
Malgen ff	2	0	0	0	0	0	2.73
Clark ph-cf	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.59
Baez cf-lf	3	0	0	0	0	1	2.78
Jalks rf	2	1	1	0	0	1	2.50
McKinstry ph-rf	1	0	0	0	0	1	2.18

Chicago	IP	H	R	R	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Kay	5.1	6	3	3	1	4	86	4.01
Hicks, W, 2-1	1.2	0	0	0	0	3	23	3.19
Taylor, H, 10	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	13	3.14
Boston, S, 5-8	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	13	3.14

Miami	001	110	045	-	8	14	1	1
Cincinnati	002	020	000	-	4	8	1
E: Ruiz (3), Marte (1). LOB: Miami (1), Cincinnati 5, 2B: Cassie (13), Pauley (9), McLain (16), Bieday (13). HR: Marsee (7), off Singer; Mack (12), off Singer; Hayes (5), off Gusto; McLain (11), off Gusto. RBIs: Marsee (29), Mack (36), Hernández 3 (49), Pauley 2 (14), Conine (28), Stewart 2 (91), Hayes (8), McLain (29). SB: McLain (14), Cassie (5). CS: Ruiz (5). SF: Pauley. S: Edwards. RBIs: Miami 4 for 1B: Cincinnati 2 for 6. DP: Cincinnati 1 (Stewart, De La Cruz, Stewart).

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Guardians 6, Padres 1

San Diego	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Tatis rf	2	1	0	0	2	1	279
Cromsworth 2b	4	0	1	0	0	1	222
Machado 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	213
France 1b	2	0	0	0	0	1	296
Merrill rf	3	0	0	0	0	2	244
Campusano dh	2	0	0	0	1	1	313
Hays 1f	2	0	0	0	0	1	241
Shorts ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	210
Bowen 1f	0	0	0	0	0	0	147
Bognerts ss	3	0	0	0	0	0	221
Fermin c	3	0	0	0	0	2	191
Totals	26	1	1	0	3	11

Cleveland	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Kwan 1f	4	2	2	1	0	0	268
Delมสด dh	4	1	2	0	0	0	286
Ramirez 2b	3	1	1	0	0	0	232
Adell rf	4	0	2	1	0	2	234
Martinez pr-rf	0	0	0	0	0	0	240
Lowe 1b	4	0	1	0	0	1	269
Genoa ss	3	1	0	0	1	1	294
Bazzana 2b	3	0	1	0	1	2	237
Bailey c	4	0	1	0	1	1	186
Halpin cf	4	1	1	0	0	1	223
Totals	33	6	11	4	2	9

San Diego	100 000 000	-	1	1	2
Cleveland	110 020 20s	-	6	11	0

E: Cromsworth 2 (7). LOR: San Diego 2, Cleveland 6. 2B: Ramirez (15), Adell 2 (20), Bailey (5), Kwan (15). RBIs: Adell (67), Bailey (24), Kwan (21). Runners (38). SB: Halpin (9), Kwan (9). CS: Tatis (13). SF: Ramirez. Runners left in scoring position: San Diego 1 (Campusano), Cleveland 4 (Lowe, Halpin, Kwan, Genao). RSF: San Diego 0 for 2; Cleveland 2 for 11. DP: Cleveland 1 (Ramirez, Bazzana, Lowe).

San Diego	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Proaia	1.0	1	1	1	1	1	1	3.48
Hart, L. 0-3	1.0	1	1	1	1	2	2	2.20
Vázquez	5.0	7	4	4	1	5	9	4.30
Canning	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0.50

Cleveland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Castillo, W. 9-5.0	1.1	1	1	3	7	8	7.80
Holderman	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	16.2.39
H. 10
Gadillo, H. 24	1.1	0	0	0	0	2	15	3.48
Sabrowski	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	10	3.44

T: 2:27. A: 35,153 (34,788).

Phillies 9, Twins 1
Philadelphia	AB	R	H	BI	BB
Schwarber dh	5	0	0	0	0
Turner ss	3	1	1	0	1
Crawford ph-cf	1	0	0	0	0
Harper rf	4	1	2	0	1
De La Cruz pr-lf	0	0	0	0	0
Arrasz 2b	4	2	1	1	0
Bohn 1b	5	2	5	1	0
Sosa lf-ss	4	1	1	2	1
Stott 3b	3	1	1	3	2
Realmuto c	3	1	1	2	0
Diablo s	0	0	0	0	0
Hill cf-rf	5	0	1	0	0
Totals	37	9	13	9	6

Minnesota	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Martini 1	5	0	1	0	0	2	241
Buston cf	3	0	0	0	2	2	260
Jeffers c	4	1	1	0	1	1	286
Lewis 1b	4	0	1	0	0	2	242
Bell dh	4	0	1	0	0	0	253
Keaschall rf	4	0	2	0	0	1	268
Lee 3b	4	0	1	0	0	2	245
Kreidler 2b	3	0	0	0	1	3	228
Culpepper ss	4	0	2	0	0	1	238
Totals	35	1	9	1	4	14

Philadelphia	010 070 001	-	9	13	0
Minnesota	000 001 000	-	1	9	0

LOR: Philadelphia 9, Minnesota 11. 2B: Bohm 3 (22), Martin (17), Keaschall (18), Culpepper (1), Jeffers (12), Lewis (20). HR: Stott (9), off Prieligo. RBIs: Realmuto 2 (40), Arrasz (50), Bohm (64), Sosa 2 (30), Stott 3 (57), Lewis (44). SF: Realmuto 2. Runners left in scoring position: Philadelphia 4 (Hill 3, Arrasz); Minnesota 6 (Jeffers, Lewis, Kreidler, Lee 2, Buston). RSF: Philadelphia 3 for 11; Minnesota 1 for 14.

Philadelphia	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Luceros, W. 1/4 6.2	7	1	1	2	9	109	3.23
McFarlane	1.1	1	0	0	1	3	22	2.70
Shogart	1.0	1	0	0	1	2	18	4.61

Minnesota	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Prieligo, L. 3-6 5.0	8	8	8	4	6	94	5.34
Frederhorn	1.0	2	0	0	0	1	16	2.77
Morris	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	23	2.98
Mercer	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	12	2.17
Hoffman	1.0	1	1	1	1	0	17	3.91

T: 2:47. A: 29,218 (38,544).

Mariners 10, Astros 5

Seattle	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Donovan 3b	5	0	3	3	0	0	263
Anzazena 1f	5	0	0	0	0	2	275
Azazene dh	5	0	2	0	0	1	257
Rodriguez cf	5	2	2	0	0	0	259
Mayler 1b	5	2	2	0	0	3	267
Young 2b	5	3	4	0	0	0	262
Raleigh c	5	0	0	0	0	1	156
Robins rf	4	2	2	2	1	0	264
Rodden ss	4	1	1	1	1	3	250
Totals	43	10	15	10	2	10
Houston	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Peña ss	4	1	1	0	0	0	288
Alvarez dh	3	1	0	0	1	0	321
Paredes 3b	4	1	3	2	0	0	260
Varsho cf	4	0	1	0	0	1	233
Alteco 2b	4	1	2	1	0	1	245
Walker 1b	4	0	0	1	0	2	236
Yamemell 1f	3	0	0	0	1	2	224
Smith rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	223
Vázquez c	2	1	1	1	0	1	216
Adelph	0	0	0	0	0	0	218
Diaz c	1	0	0	0	0	0	251
Totals	33	5	8	5	2	8

Seattle	040 100 023	-	10	15	0
Houston	110 000 021	-	5	8	2

E: Altuve (5), Peña (9). LOR: Seattle 4, Houston 1. 2B: Carcione (18), Rodden (2), Peña (14). 3B: Robles (2), Altuve (2). HR: Young (15), off Blanco; Vázquez (6), off Hancock; Paredes (16), off Ferrer. RBIs: Young 4 (56), Robles 2 (9), Donovan 3 (12), Rodden (3), Altuve (18), Vázquez (24), Paredes 2 (67), Walker (71). 5B: Robles (8). CS: Tramemell (1). Runners left in scoring position: Seattle 4 (Anzazena, Raleigh, Carcione, Naylor); Houston 2 (Tramemell 2). RSF: Seattle 7 for 21; Houston 3 for 7. Seattle 1 (Rodden, Young, Naylor); Houston 1 (Pena, Walker).

Seattle	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Hancock, W. 7-7.0	5	2	2	2	8	97	3.30
Ferrer	1.0	2	2	2	0	0	13	3.71
Dominguez	1.0	1	1	1	0	0	12	4.64

Houston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Wrenick, L. 2-1 4.0	7	5	5	1	6	81	5.16
King	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	24	3.88
Blanco	4.0	7	5	5	1	3	59	7.71

T: 2:44. A: 34,664 (41,000).

Diamondbacks 10, Braves 3

Arizona	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Northam dh	5	0	1	0	1	2	221
Carroll rf	3	1	2	0	2	0	248
Weylomo ss	5	0	0	0	0	1	249
Moreno c	4	3	3	1	1	0	309
Moreno c	5	1	1	0	0	2	215
Barrosa cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	202
Aronado 1b	4	3	2	4	1	0	243
Tawa 1b	5	1	2	1	0	2	238
Vargas 2b	5	1	1	3	0	0	266
Waldschmidt cf-rf	4	0	1	1	1	1	275
Totals	40	10	13	10	6	8

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Aculta rf	4	1	2	1	0	0	244
Baldwin dh	4	1	1	0	0	0	274
Olson 1b	4	1	2	0	0	0	264
Albis 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	252
Harris cf	3	0	0	1	0	2	288
Kim ph	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Dubbin ss	4	0	0	0	0	0	262
Thomas 1f	3	0	1	0	0	1	231
Riley 3b	3	0	0	0	0	2	221
Murphy c	3	0	0	0	0	0	229
Totals	33	3	6	3	0	5

Arizona	033 000 103	-10	13	0
Atlanta	200 000 001	-3	6	0

LOR: Arizona 9, Atlanta 3. 2B: Kepler (7), Carroll (26), Moreno (25), Baldwin (9), Munson (18), Olson (10). 2B: Carroll (15). HR: Aronado (19), off Holmes; Aronado (20), off Guter; Vargas (8), off Young; Acuña (13), off Rodriguez. RBIs: Aronado 4 (52), Tawa (26), Waldschmidt (16), Moreno (55), Vargas 3 (59), Acuña (31), Harris (38), Kim (4). SB: Nordtwar (2). Runners left in scoring position: Arizona 3 (Perdomo 3); Atlanta 2 (Dublin, Acuña). RSF: Arizona 5 for 12; Atlanta 1 for 9.

Arizona	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Borbezi, W. 13-4.0	5	2	2	0	5	96	2.71
Loáisiga	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	9.279
Gioliel	1.0	0	0	0	0	10	3.63
Abner	1.0	1	1	0	0	13	6.28

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Molten, L. 7-5.32	6	6	6	3	3	65	3.82
Mederos	1.1	1	0	0	0	2	29	3.66
Suter	3.0	4	1	1	0	49	3.91
Young	1.0	2	3	3	2	3	32	8.03

T: 2:43. A: 39,693 (41,149).

Red Sox 4, Pirates 0

Boston	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg
Boston dh	5	0	0	0	0	2	245
Nimmo rf	4	1	1	0	0	0	271
Seager ss	4	1	2	1	0	2	203
Langford 1f	4	1	3	2	0	0	256
Duran 3b	4	0	0	0	0	0	2.266
Carter cf	4	1	1	0	0	2	195
Burger 1b	1	1	1	0	0	1	1.234
Wynns c	2	0	1	0	0	1	1.248
Kelenic ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	235
Diaz c	0	0	0	0	0	0	232
K.Lapsec 2b	4	0	1	1	0	0	0.267
Totals	35	5	11	5	1	10

Boston	010 000 003	-	8	0
Houston	010 000 003	-	8	0

LOR: Texas 5, Athletics 7. 2B: Burger (18), Nimmo (28), Carter (10), Bolte (10), Heim (15), Williams (12). HR: Langford (14), off Ginn: Bolte (8), off Gorn. RBIs: N.Lapso (31), Seager (10), Langford 2 (33), Kelenic (6), Bolte 3 (35). CS: Langford (2), Wolnes (2). S: Wynns. Runners left in scoring position: Texas 3 (Pederson 2, Duran); Athletics 5 (Butler, Geist, Muncy, White, Bolte). RSF: Texas 3 for 6; Athletics 1 for 8. DP: 1 (White, Williams, White).

Texas	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Gore, W. 7-9	5.2	8	3	3	2	5	99	4.45
Stooth, H. 11	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	1.2	89
Junis, H. 15	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	8	2.63
Latz, S. 24-27	2.0	0	0	0	1	2	26	1.77

Athletics	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Ginn, L. 8-7	6.0	8	4	4	0	7	94	3.53
Busto	1.2	1	0	0	0	2	26	4.35
Blewett	1.1	2	1	1	1	1	22	2.77

T: 2:40. A: 10,070 (14,014).

Tennis

Western & Southern Open

At Lindner Family Tennis Center; Cincinnati; Purse: $9,415,725; Surface: Hardcourt reddosy; Saturday seedings in parentheses:

Men's Singles - Round of 64
Paulo Colloili (7), Italy, def. Moomir
Kochunovic, Serbia, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Molito Daniel Valinjo Paraguay, def. Valentin Vacherot (15), Monaco, 6-3, 6-3.
Alejandro Tabilo (22), Chile, def. Jau- Lennard Struff, Germany, 6-3, 6-4.

---

60

NEW YORK POST ACTION

The POST Line

MLB Sunday American League
Favorite	Money Line	Underdog
Yankees	$100-120	BLUE JAYS
METS	$139-166	Nationals
RAYS	$123-146	Orioles
White Sox	-106-111	TIGERS
Rangers	$117-140	ATHLETICS
ANGELS	$134-155	Royals
ASTROS	$113-134	Mariners
BRAVES	$108-129	Diamondbacks
Marlins	$105-125	REDS
CUBS	$133-159	Cardinals
GIANTS	$115-138	Rockies
DODGERS	$139-166	Brewers
Red Sox	-101-118	PIRATES
Padres	-106-111	GUARDIANS
Phillies	-105-112	TWINS

WNBA Sunday
Favorite	PTS (O/U)	Underdog
Sky	1.5 (178.5)	STORM
DREAM	2.5 (188.5)	Fever
MERCURY	5.5 (176.5)	Fire

College Football Saturday, Aug. 29
Favorite	PTS (O/U)	Underdog
Tcu	7.5 (47.5)	North Carolina
USC	38.5 (60.5)	San Jose State
VIRGINIA	5.5 (53.5)	Nc State
STANFORD	5.5 (49.5)	Hawaii
FLORIDA ST.	31.5 (52.5)	New Mexico St.
UNLV	6.5 (57.5)	Memphis
*game held in Dublin, Ireland
Home team in CAPS

SPORTS SHORTS

SOCCER: Red Bulls fall in Atlanta

Fafà Picault scored the go-ahead goal in the 82nd minute, Tristan Muyumba scored for the second consecutive game, and Atlanta United rallied to beat the Red Bulls 2-1 on Saturday night in Atlanta to snap a seven-game winless streak.

Emil Forsberg gave the Red Bulls (7-8-4) a 1-0 lead with a goal in the seventh minute.

MLB: Brewers top Dodgers

Joey Ortiz and William Contreras hit two-run homers, and the Brewers beat the Dodgers 4-1 in a battle of division leaders.

● In Detroit, Andrew Benintendi had two hits, including the go-ahead single in the seventh inning, and the White Sox defeated the Tigers for the second straight day, 4-3.

● In Houston, Cole Young homered and tied a career high with four RBIs to lead the Mariners to a 10-5 win over the Astros.

● In Cleveland, Joey Cantillo and three relievers combined on a one-hitter, leading the Guardians to a 6-1 win over the Padres. Cleveland became the third AL franchise to reach 10,000 victories, joining the Yankees and Red Sox.

NFL: Bills earn win at new stadium

Josh Allen passed for 111 yards and one touchdown and the Bills opened Highmark Stadium with a 29-14 victory over the Panthers in a preseason game at Orchard Park, N.Y.

● The Seahawks and cornerback Devon Witherspoon have agreed to a four-year, $132 million contract extension, with $101 million guaranteed, a person with knowledge of the deal told the Associated Press.

ETC.: Makhachev wins at UFC 330

Welterweight champion Islam Makhachev set the UFC record for consecutive victories, defeating challenger Ian Machado Garry via decision at UFC 330 in Philadelphia for his 17th win in a row.

In the first of two championship fights, Mackenzie Dern successfully defended the 115-pound championship in her first title defense with a unanimous decision victory over Gillian Robertson.

● In Memphis, Scottie Scheffler settled in after a rough start for a 2-under 68, giving him a two-shot lead over Sam Burns and Sungjae Im going into the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

STITCHES

Respect your Elder, take Braves

The Diamondbacks visit Hotlanta. Arizona's Michael Soroka returned from the IL (left glute strain) and shut out the Rockies at home for 4 1/2 innings. Soroka had trouble on the road prior to the injury, his ERA jumping from 2.92 to 4.54. The Braves go with Bryce Elder. The Mets showed no respect for Elder, scoring seven runs on 10 hits. Elder had allowed five runs in his previous 24 innings. The Snakes are 29-31 on the road. The Braves are 41-22 at home. Can't trust Soroka's glute, so the gluten-free Stitches

will bet $50 on Elder and the Braves.

We played two road favorites on Saturday. They both ... wait, let me double check ... yep, they both won. Jesus Luzardo pitched 6 1/2 innings. Bryson Stott hit a three-run homer. Alec Bohm went 5-for-5. The Phillies pplotted the Twins 9-1. Then Sonny Gray tossed seven shut-out innings to pick up his 15th win. Red Sox blanked the Bucs 4-0. Winner, winner chicken dinner! Down -477 gaciaparras. stitches@nypost.com

TOP PLAY

Mets won't get off Scott free vs. Nats

By DYLAN SVOBODA

Christian Scott will take the mound for the Mets on Sunday against the Nationals. The right-hander has been a small bright spot in a season with few of them for the hapless Amazin's, but the Nats may be catching him on a downswing, just like they did earlier this season.

In mid-May, just before he turned his 2026 season around, Scott had a shaky start at best in the nation's capital.

Scott allowed three earned runs on four hits with three walks and a hit batter across just four frames.

He allowed just one earned run over his next three outings, but he's back to looking like his back-of-the-rotation self from 2025 of late.

Over his past four starts, Scott has posted a 5.30 ERA, bringing his season-long ERA all the way up to 3.45.

Aside from a decent strikeout rate, no part of Scott's game has looked particularly solid, having allowed 22 hits and walked seven batters over that stretch.

If that trend holds, that's plenty of traffic for a strong Washington offense.

Despite a losing record, the Nationals have been perhaps the best-hitting team in baseball this season, scoring an MLB-leading 665 runs and hitting 177 home runs heading into Saturday's play.

That makes this less of a bet on Scott

getting shelled and more of a wager that Washington can take advantage of a few mistakes by a struggling arm over five or six innings.

The Nats should have enough opportunities to scratch across the two earned runs needed to cash this modest number.

THE PLAY: Christian Scott to allow more than 1.5 earned runs

Pitching Form

	(Game time)	2026		'26 vs OPP		CAREER vs OPP		LAST 3 STARTS		ERA
		W-L	ERA	*REC	W-L	ERA	W-L	IP	ERA
Yankees	Weathers (L)	5-7	3.70	12-11	0-1	10.24	1-1	1-0	18.2	0.48
Blue Jays	Cease (R)	7-5	2.40	14-8	0-1	9.00	1-3	0-0	18.0	2.00
Nationals	Irvin (R)	2-6	5.79	7-7	0-0	4.50	2-4	0-2	13.2	7.90
Mets	Scott (R)	3-3	3.45	12-5	0-0	6.75	0-0	0-1	15.0	4.80
Red Sox	Sandoval (L)	1-1	3.30	5-1	0-0	0.00	1-0	1-1	16.0	3.38
Pirates	Skenes (R)	9-11	3.88	9-16	1-0	1.50	1-0	0-2	14.0	5.79
Padres	Mize (R)	4-7	3.38	6-12	0-1	2.70	1-1	0-1	15.1	6.46
Guardians	Bibee (R)	4-12	3.99	7-18	0-0	0.00	1-1	0-2	19.1	4.66
Phillies	Painter (R)	2-8	6.27	4-11	0-0	0.00	0-0	1-0	15.1	2.93
Twins	Kremer (R)	2-4	5.25	4-5	0-1	6.00	0-1	1-1	16.0	5.62
Orioles	Rogers (L)	7-8	4.21	11-11	0-1	17.18	1-1	1-1	16.0	4.50
Bays	Peralta (R)	5-9	5.33	12-12	0-0	0.00	1-0	0-0	13.2	7.90
White Sox	Burke (R)	7-6	2.98	9-11	0-0	1.69	1-0	0-1	17.1	1.56
Tigers	Anderson (R)	4-4	3.91	2-2	1-2	10.13	2-2	0-0	10.1	1.74
Rangers	Bradford (L)	0-1	2.38	1-1	0-0	0.00	1-0	0-1	15.0	2.40
Athletics	Lopez (L)	5-4	5.38	6-10	0-0	3.60	0-2	0-0	17.1	2.60
Royals	Cameron (L)	6-8	4.45	6-16	1-0	4.26	1-0	1-0	21.2	2.08
Angels	Johnson (R)	2-6	6.71	4-7	0-0	0.00	0-0	0-1	13.1	4.73
Mariners	Woo (R)	8-8	4.15	11-12	1-0	3.00	3-2	1-1	17.0	2.65
Astros	Brown (R)	3-2	3.68	6-6	0-0	0.00	1-4	1-1	16.2	4.32
O'Backs	Soroka (R)	8-3	2.92	10-6	1-0	1.80	1-0	0-0	12.1	0.73
Braves	Elder (R)	8-7	4.03	13-10	0-1	0.00	0-1	2-1	18.0	4.50
Marlins	Pérez (R)	6-9	3.39	9-12	1-0	3.60	2-1	1-1	18.0	2.50
Reds	Lodolo (L)	3-2	4.86	4-9	0-0	0.00	3-1	1-0	15.0	4.20
Cardinals	Dobbins (R)	2-3	3.40	2-4	0-0	5.00	0-0	1-2	17.1	1.56
Cubs	Cabrera (R)	5-4	5.10	9-5	0-0	0.00	0-2	2-1	14.2	5.52
Rockies	Hughes (R)	0-4	5.61	0-6	0-0	0.00	0-0	0-2	14.1	9.42
Giants	Tidwell (R)	0-0	2.78	0-2	0-0	0.00	0-0	0-0	14.1	3.14
Brewers	Henderson (R)	6-2	2.88	8-3	1-0	0.00	1-0	2-1	18.0	2.50
Dodgers	Skubal (L)	7-6	2.93	10-8	0-0	6.00	2-0	0-1	17.2	4.08

• REC: Won-lost record of pitcher's team in games he has started.

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NEW YORK POST ACTION

Home Team Lineups HOME AWAY

TODAY Aug. 16	MON Aug. 17	TUE Aug. 18	WED Aug. 19	THU Aug. 20
Toronto 1:37 YES 660 AM 101.9 FM	NO GAME	Baltimore 6:35 YES 660 AM 101.9 FM	Baltimore 6:35 Prime Video 660 AM 101.9 FM	Baltimore 6:35 YES 660 AM 101.9 FM
Washington 1:40 SNY 800 AM	San Diego 7:10 SNY 800 AM	San Diego 7:10 SNY 800 AM	San Diego 1:10 SNY 800 AM	NO GAME
NO GAME	NO GAME	Chicago 9:00 ESPN	NO GAME	NO GAME

Saturday	Friday
Preseason: Miami 4:00 WNBC 4 101.9 FM	Preseason: Pittsburgh 7:00 WCBS 2 104.3 FM

Wednesday	Today	Sunday, Aug. 23
Nashville SC 7:30 Apple TV	Phila. Union 6:00 Apple TV	Angel City FC 8:00 ION

Today's Sports on the Air

MLB BASEBALL
Noon	Orioles at Rays	NBCSN, Peacock
1:30 p.m.	Diamondbacks at Braves	MLBN
1:37 p.m.	Yankees at Blue Jays	YES, 660 AM, 101.9 FM
1:40 p.m.	Nationals at Mets	SNY, 800 AM
3 p.m.	Cardinals at Cubs	ABC
7 p.m.	Mariners at Astros	NBC, Peacock
MEN'S SOCCER
9:55 a.m.	English FA Community Shield: Arsenal vs. Manchester City	ESPN
11 a.m.	EFL Championship: West Ham United at Burnley	CBSSN
3:15 p.m.	Coppy Italia: Mantova at Lazio	CBSSN
6 p.m.	Philadelphia Union at NYCFC	Apple TV
7 p.m.	USL League One: Richmond Kickers at Union Omaha	CBSSN
WNBA BASKETBALL
5 p.m.	Fever at Dream	ESPN
7 p.m.	Portland Fire at Mercury	ESPN
NWSL WOMEN'S SOCCER
9 p.m.	Washington Spirit at Angel City FC	ESPN
GOLF
6 a.m.	DP World Tour: Danish Golf Championship, Final Round	Golf
Noon	PGA Tour: FedEx St. Jude Championship, Final Round	Golf
2 p.m.	PGA Tour: FedEx St. Jude Championship, Final Round	CBSSN
2 p.m.	LPGA Tour: The Standard Portland Classic, Final Round	Golf
3 p.m.	USGA: 2026 U.S. Amateur, Final	NBCSN
4 p.m.	USGA: 2026 U.S. Amateur, Final	NBC
5 p.m.	PGA Tour Champions: Boeing Classic, Final Round	Golf
TENNIS
11 a.m.	ATP/WTA Cincinnati Open: 2nd Round	Tennis
WOMEN'S COLLEGE SOCCER
Noon	Ohio State at Clemson	ACCN
MEN'S LACROSSE
1 p.m.	PLL: Maryland vs. Philadelphia	ABC
SOFTBALL
8 p.m.	Athletes Unlimited All-Star Cup	MLBN
AUTO RACING
8:30 a.m.	NTT IndyCar Series: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham: Warmup	FS2
10 a.m.	FIM Motocross World Championship: MX2	CBSSN
Noon	NTT IndyCar Series: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham	Fox
HORSE RACING
1 p.m.	Saratoga Live	FS1
4:30 p.m.	FanDuel Racing	MSGSN
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
1 p.m.	AVP: Manhattan Beach Open	CBSSN
4 p.m.	AVP: Manhattan Beach Open, Finals	PIX11
SWIMMING
2 p.m.	USAS: Pan Pacific Championships	NBC

ODDS & ENDS

NFL Odds to win 2026 Coach of the Year

COACH	ODDS
John Harbaugh	+650
Jesse Minter	+850
Kevin Stefanski	14/1
Kellen Moore	14/1
Joe Brady	15/1
Ben Johnson	15/1
Brian Schottenheimer	16/1
Robert Saleh	16/1
Klint Kubiak	17/1
Jim Harbaugh	19/1
Dan Campbell	22/1
Liam Coen	22/1
Kyle Shanahan	22/1
Aaron Glenn	25/1
Todd Monken	27/1
Dan Quinn	27/1
Mike McCarthy	27/1
Kevin O'Connell	27/1
DeMeco Ryans	27/1
Shane Steichen	27/1
Zac Taylor	28/1
Sean McVay	33/1
Mike McDonald	33/1
Matt LaFleur	33/1
Mike LaFleur	35/1
Dave Canales	40/1
Jeff Hafley	40/1
Todd Bowles	50/1
Andy Reid	60/1
Nick Sirianni	65/1
Sean Payton	80/1
Mike Vrabel	80/1

Favorites to win 2026 Comeback Player of the Year

PLAYER	ODDS
Patrick Mahomes	+185
Jayden Daniels	+450
Kyler Murray	+600
Aaron Donald	+900
Malik Nabers	12/1
Daniel Jones	12/1
Micah Parsons	14/1
Travis Hunter	25/1
Nick Bosa	25/1
George Kittle	25/1
Fred Warner	25/1
Cam Skattebo	28/1

Favorites to win 2026 Protector of the Year

PLAYER	ODDS
Penei Sewell	+500
Joe Alt	+800
Tristan Wirfs	+900
Trent Williams	12/1
Creed Humphrey	14/1
Garett Bolles	14/1
Quinn Meinerz	15/1
Lane Johnson	15/1
Chris Lindstrom	18/1
Quenton Nelson	18/1
Jordan Mailata	20/1
Rashawn Slater	22/1
Andrew Thomas	25/1

BET SMART

By MIKE TURAY

Expectations are extremely high for John Harbaugh and the new-look Giants coaching staff this season, so much so that FanDuel Sportsbook lists Harbaugh as the favorite (+650) to win NFL Coach of the Year.

The Super Bowl-winning coach is tasked with stabilizing a Giants organization coming off yet another dismal season that ended with a 4-13 record and a last-place finish in the NFC East.

He looks to replicate the turnaround last year's winner, Mike Vrabel, orchestrated with the Patriots, jumping from the divisional cellar to 14 victories and a Super Bowl berth.

However, several other candidates are lurking in the odds, including the man taking over for Harbaugh in Baltimore, Jesse Minter.

Minter sits with the second-shortest odds at +850, while Kevin Stefanski and Kellen Moore both carry 14/1 odds. Many are high on Moore and New Orleans, viewing Tyler Shough and the Saints as a legitimate threat to win the NFC South.

Further down the board, newly promoted Bills Coach Joe Brady and Bears coach Ben Johnson are each listed at 15/1. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and Titans coach Robert Saleh, formerly of the Jets, each carry 16/1 prices.

Rounding out the top 10 are Raiders coach Klint Kubiak at 17/1 and Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh at 19/1, before the market truly widens with remaining candidates listed at odds of 22/1 or higher.

Let's dive into two names to sprinkle a wager on ahead of Week 1:

Zac Taylor, 28/1 (DraftKings)

Taylor and the 2021 Bengals made a magical run to the Super Bowl, followed by an AFC Championship appearance the following season, when they lost to the Chiefs.

Since then, the Bengals have been marked by disappointment, injuries, and defensive mediocrity.

This is the moment for Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Chase Brown to make a major impact in the AFC North.

On defense, the additions of Dexter Lawrence, Boye Mafe and Jonathan Allen boost the line.

With a favorable schedule that includes the Browns twice as well as matchups against the Titans, Dolphins, and Falcons, Cincinnati is poised for a strong season.

It wouldn't be surprising to see Taylor's name emerge as a potential COTY nominee if all things go according to plan.

Dave Canales, 40/1 (BetMGM)

The Panthers secured their first NFC South division title in over a decade and ended last season with an 8-9 record.

Canales has successfully breathed new life into the franchise as Carolina certainly gave Matthew Stafford and the Rams a run for their money in a wild-card playoff thriller before giving up a go-ahead touchdown with 38 seconds left.

Offensive Rookie of the Year winner Tetairoa McMillan provides reliable hands that have significantly accelerated the growth of Bryce Young by providing him a true go-to target.

Though the loss of second-round draft pick Nic Scourton during training camp is a blow to the defensive unit, the front office made a splash earlier this offseason by signing former Eagle Jaelan Phillips to a lucrative four-year, $120 million contract.

The NFC South remains a wide-open race, and even with a tougher schedule, placing a small wager on Canales to further reshape the Panthers' identity in Year 3 at the helm is a gamble I think is worth taking.

mturay@nypost.com

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62

IRREGULAR JOE

In the third of a six-part draft preview series, Fantasy Insanity takes a look at quarterbacks. Next week: running backs.

EVERYBODY loves Christian McCaffrey, when he is healthy. The problem is, too often, he isn't.

In McCaffrey's nine-year career, he has played 112 out of a potential 149 games. That equates to missing roughly 25 percent of all his games. So if you're calculating at home, the dirty, too-simple formula would project him to only play 12-13 games this season.

Of course, our formula is a little more complex, and incorporates regression toward the mean, but still, not great.

CMC therefore is often cited as a risky fantasy pick based on his questionable durability.

That makes Joe Burrow the Christian McCaffrey of quarterbacks.

Burrow, like CMC, is great when he is healthy. Over the final six games last season, he was QB3. Problem is, he was out Weeks 3-12. In his six seasons, he has missed roughly 25 percent of his team's games. Sound familiar?

When healthy, he's great: QB3 in 2024, QB4 in 2022, QB8 in 2021, his sophomore season.

But he often is not: Missed nine games last season (QB29), missed seven in 2023 (QB25) and was sidelined for six in his rookie 2020 season (QB25).

But fantasy drafters love potential. It is always more exciting to reach for a high ceiling than settle for a high floor. Add to that the fact that players who finish strong have added appeal, and Burrow was QB3 over the final six weeks of last year's regular season.

So if you thought maybe you could get a draft discount on the Madman's favorite triage hero, you are mistaken.

Burrow's average draft posi-

Despite injury history, Burrow solid option

tion has him as the fourth QB off the board, behind just Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Drake Maye. That means Burrow often gets picked ahead of Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams and others.

Now, you can make an argument that Burrow is a better fantasy QB than pretty much any of those slotted behind him — maybe even one or two going ahead of him.

For example, it isn't like Daniels is a pillar of health. He missed 10 games last year. In fact, in his two-year career, he has been sidelined for a larger percentage of his team's games (30 percent) than Burrow or CMC.

Hurts lost his top receiver (A.J. Brown) this offseason. Plus, he relies heavily on rushing scores for fantasy production, and his touchdowns were almost cut in half last season (down from 14 in 2024 to 8 in 2025). Normally, QBs don't start scoring more rushing TDs as they get older, so we might have seen the last of Hurts' double-digit rushing TD seasons.

Williams is still largely unproven, entering just his third season. And he also lost one of his top targets (DJ Moore).

We all are still waiting for the Trevor Lawrence or Justin Herbert breakout year. Dak Prescott is ... Dak Prescott. And suddenly we're already near Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield draft territory.

So maybe Burrow isn't overpriced after all? After all, you could argue he at least should be ahead of Maye. After a ho-hum rookie season, Maye was a force last year. But like Williams, it is a small sample size. Plus, many people will point to an incredibly soft schedule that aided that rise.

Heck, even Jackson has missed at least four games in three of the past four seasons.

But look, if you do go Burrow, you will need to also grab a legitimate backup option, just in case history repeats itself. We like the value you can get for Bo Nix, a dual-threat option with a new receiving weapon in Jaylen Waddle. Even later in the draft, a motivated Baker Mayfield is the best kind of Baker Mayfield, giving him the highest upside of late-round options.

Don't get hung up on injury narratives. If looking for a QB around Round 5, add some pep to your squad. Grab a cup of Joe.

dloftis@nypost.com

Better not panic under QB pressure

WHEN sitting in your fantasy football draft room, few decisions shape your roster structure quite like deciding when to target your starting quarterback.

Knowing when to strike and when to exercise patience will allow you to maximize value at the position without sacrificing essential depth across the rest of your starting lineup.

There is no denying the allure of the top-tier quarterbacks. Superstars like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson will cost you a premium early round draft pick. Yet, it is exceptionally difficult to argue against making that move.

If you miss out on the top guys, do not overreact. Instead, be patient and target the value in the middle rounds.

Justin Herbert enters an intriguing new setup with offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel calling the plays, a brilliant coaching mind who once had Tua Tagovailoa lead the entire league in passing yards.

Caleb Williams boasts staggering upside in his own right, especially after head coach Ben Johnson boldly told the media he wants to break the NFL record for a team's points-per-game total.

Trevor Lawrence remains sneaky valuable as a runner, already sitting tied for third in quarterback rushing touchdowns over the past five seasons while leading an emerging offense orchestrated by Liam Coen, one of the premier coaching minds in the game today.

If you fail to get one of those middle-round quarterbacks, it is far better to shoot for pure upside late in the draft rather than settling for a boring, low-ceiling game manager. Kyler Murray and Tyler Shough represent dynamic late-round options.

Whether you strike early or let the draft come to you in the later rounds, staying disciplined in your approach ensures you won't overpay while still securing league-winning upside.

Howard Bender is the head of content at Fantasy-Alarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning "Fantasy Alarm Radio Show" on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to Fantasy-Alarm.com for all your fantasy football news and advice.

Insanity insider The Madman's DVQ rates the top quarterbacks:

Rank. Player	TM	POS	DVQ	ADP
1. Josh Allen	BUF	QB	71.0	24.3
2. Lamar Jackson	BAL	QB	72.1	46.2
3. Joe Burrow	CIN	QB	95.2	56.8
4. Jalen Hurts	PHI	QB	101.7	70.0
5. Drake Maye	NE	QB	105.3	54.6
6. Caleb Williams	CHI	QB	109.4	81.7
7. Jayden Daniels	WAS	QB	113.4	64.0
8. Bo Nix	DEN	QB	115.6	105.4
9. Trevor Lawrence	JAX	QB	116.0	86.7
10. Dak Prescott	DAL	QB	116.6	86.2

DVQ identifies the pick in the draft at which each player's projected point value meets his draft value.

Rank. Player	TM	POS	DVQ	ADP
11. Patrick Mahomes	KC	QB	119.6	105.8
12. Brock Purdy	SF	QB	123.5	104.8
13. Justin Herbert	LAC	QB	126.5	87.9
14. Baker Mayfield	TB	QB	129.1	131.2
15. Jaxson Dart	NYG	QB	132.5	91.9
16. Jared Goff	DET	QB	132.8	116.2
17. Matthew Stafford	LAR	QB	187.4	100.9
18. Kyler Murray	MIN	QB	197.5	136.5
19. Tyler Shough	NO	QB	200.8	135.0
20. Daniel Jones	IND	QB	204.8	165.6

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History! Cards rook homers in first 3 at-bats

By ANDREW CRANE

Talk about a first impression. Joshua Báez, the star prospect called up by the Cardinals on Friday, made history during his MLB debut Saturday, launching home runs in his first three at-bats as St. Louis beat the Cubs 8-4.

Báez became the first player in league history to hit three homers in his debut, according to MLB's Sarah Langs, and he provided the boost the Cardinals expected when they brought up the outfielder — ranked as the organization's No. 3 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline — for the regular season's stretch run.

"It's just unreal," the 23-year-old Báez said. "To not only get a hit, but three home runs? It's crazy."

His afternoon started by taking the first pitch he saw in the majors — a four-seam fastball from Chic-

ago starter Matthew Boyd — 449 feet to center field.

In his second at-bat, Báez waited, getting to a full count to lead off the fourth frame before sending a 77 mph changeup over the left field fence.

That second homer already put him in the conversation for a historical debut, as he became the ninth player in MLB history to collect two homers in his debut, according to Langs.

But Báez, the Cardinals' second-round pick in 2021 out of Dexter School in Massachusetts, kept going and hit his third homer off Boyd to the opposite field — just tucking the ball over the fence at Wrigley Field to drive in Alec Burleson and extend St. Louis' lead to 6-3.

With a chance at a fourth homer in the eighth, Báez lined out to left field.

Báez, 23, led Triple-A with 34 homers across 103 games with Memphis.

Banks shows signs of life

By RYAN DUNLEAVY

Deonte Banks might need his slate cleaned again.

Left for bust after the past two seasons, the former first-round pick has shown signs of reviving his once-promising career during Giants training camp under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson.

But practice isn't meaningful if it doesn't translate to games, and the handsy Banks committed two illegal-contact penalties (one declined) while starting and logging 23 defensive snaps Saturday in a 13-10 pre-season loss to the Vikings. He also returned a kickoff 27 yards.

"The first one I had bad eyes, that was on me," Banks said. "The second one, I don't know what you want to do there. But I'm not a ref."

Perhaps no one on the roster needed the fresh start that head coach John Harbaugh advertised more than Banks, who fell so far that he didn't play a single defensive snap in Weeks 13 and 14 last season.

"They gave me a real reset," Banks said. "I feel like this scheme fits me well. I love [Wilson's] energy. They want me to be me, be great at what I do — playing man [coverage], being

GIANTS NOTES

aggressive. Stay consistent."

Banks did not allow a catch and made two tackles, including one on fullback Max Bredeson on the game's second play after the Vikings ran to the perimeter in his direction for 18 yards on the first play. Banks' effort wasn't lacking as it had been at times in previous years.

"I feel like I've always been a confident guy, but I'm just ready to go compete and do what I do," Banks said. "I'm just trying to keep going and play my best football."

► Vikings S Jamal Adams — the former Jets star — suffered a non-contact knee injury and was carted back to the locker room. It is sure to stir up the MetLife Stadium turf-monster debate.

"Initial exam does not look good," a "crushed" head coach Kevin O'Connell said. "Don't want to confirm anything until we see the [MRI] on that."

► WR Braxton Berrios was the No. 1 punt returner (two for 30 yards) and a starting kickoff returner alongside Banks.

Former Knick Stoudemire takes place in Hall of Fame

SOFT LANDING: Amar'e Stoudemire took a chance on playing with the Knicks when few wanted to come to New York and wound up in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Reuters

That's Amar'e

By JARED SCHWARTZ

It was fitting that this was the summer in which Amar'e Stoudemire became a Hall of Famer.

For a generation of younger fans, he was the first star who made the Knicks relevant again after years of anguish. He was officially inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, just over two months after the Knicks won the championship.

At the moment, the Knicks are as relevant as ever. In many ways, the championship and Stoudemire's induction completed the long-term journey that he started.

"New York, the Garden, there's nothing like it," Stoudemire said in his speech. "When you hear MVP chants every night, they're chanting your name, the arena is rocking, New York is the No. 1 place to play. And I know that as a player. But before I got there, no one else wanted to go to New York. So that's why I was like, 'The Knicks are back, and we're gonna do this.' It was good to see those guys win the championship this year."

As a 27-year-old superstar in his prime, Stoudemire signed with the Knicks in 2010 — after the Knicks had just gone 29-53. That

same offseason, LeBron James and Chris Bosh went to the Heat.

At the time, stars were avoiding the Knicks and their dysfunction. But Stoudemire, after emerging as one of the league's best bigs with the Suns, embraced it.

"You walked into the Garden when nobody else would," Carmelo Anthony said in a tribute video posted by the Knicks, "and told the whole league the Knicks was back."

Stoudemire spent four-plus seasons with the Knicks, who made the playoffs his first three seasons with the team — after the franchise had reached the postseason just twice the previous 10 years. During his first year with the team, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team and set a franchise record by scoring 30 or more points in nine straight games.

The Knicks traded for Anthony midway through Stoudemire's first season with the team. The two led the Knicks to the second round in the 2012-13 season, but never quite reached the massive expectations for the duo. Stoudemire was plagued by knee injuries, which cut his prime short.

Stoudemire was a six-time All-Star and rookie of the year. He

made All-NBA First Team once and the Second Team four times.

There was another lull for the franchise after Stoudemire and Anthony's Knicks tenures were over, but they are now the place to be for stars.

"I wanted to bring players to New York to experience what I experienced in the city," Stoudemire said. "We were able to bring in Carmelo and I think the energy of having me there showed the rest of the league, hey, New York can be a destination place."

It's poetic that Stoudemire was enshrined in the same class as Mike D'Antoni, who coached him with both the Suns and Knicks.

D'Antoni spent four seasons with the Knicks, leading them to a playoff berth in 2010-11 — their first since 2003-04.

"New York's a special place," D'Antoni said Saturday.

Doc Rivers, Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw, Mark Few and Joey Crawford were the other inductees in this year's class.

As the Knicks continue to celebrate their championship, two important figures who helped put them back on the map are now enshrined in immortality.

jschwartz@nypost.com

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64

RETOOL TIME

Forgoing full-on rebuild, Rangers have eyes on return to postseason

By MOLLIE WALKER

In about a month or so, the Rangers will enter training camp with a refreshing blend of franchise veterans, completely new faces and a heap of young and eager prospects looking to establish themselves at the NHL level.

It had to be an active offseason after missing the playoffs for a second straight year.

Under a retooling banner, president and general manager Chris Drury made enough moves to give his team a different look and feel going into the 2026-27 season. The reconstruction of the team, however, was not extensive enough to solicit a reprieve from expectations.

The Blueshirts expect their series of transactions this summer to move the needle on their pursuit of returning the Stanley Cup to Manhattan. Anything less than at least returning to the playoffs would be deemed a failure.

BEST MOVE

Drury stated the obvious when he said defense was a focus for him this offseason, but it was encouraging to hear the former Rangers captain acknowledge the attention it needed — and act on it.

The Rangers are expected to have a brand new second pair with Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson, who should bring much-needed mobility and break-out skills to the back end.

Transitioning up the ice was a serious issue last season, and the dropoff in defensive capability from the top pair was significant.

By acquiring Durzi as part of a three-piece return for Vincent Trocheck, Drury maximized the Rangers' top trade chip at the time into one half of their biggest need. Plus a top prospect in Cole Beaudoin — a former first-rounder in 2024 — and a third-round pick in 2027.

Pettersson cost Drury a first-round pick in 2030. Though the pick is top-10

protected, this is the type of move that indicates the organization's intentions going into this season. The willingness to part with such an asset that far down the line very well could be some other general manager's issue.

Subsequently shipping Will Borgen to Boston then rectified the mistake of signing the right-handed defenseman to a five-year, $20.5 million contract in the first place. It also shed salary and opened up the necessary lineup space for the new Durzi-Pettersson duo.

WORST MOVE

Depending on how this season shakes out, this title could go to many different transactions.

If J.T. Miller can't rise to meet the second-line center workload, trading Trocheck may be it. If the Rangers gravely struggle to produce offensively again, trading Artemi Panarin may be it. If the team faceplants in a third consecutive campaign, choosing to retool instead of rebuild may be it.

Without the Rangers playing a single game yet, giving up a 2028 fourth-round pick (and AHLer Kalle Vaisanen) for goalie Joonas Korpisalo could classify as such right now. If Dylan Garand can't serve as an adequate backup, however, Korpisalo may be one of their more crucial acquisitions.

Should Garand seize the backup role convincingly, the Rangers might have to risk losing Korpisalo on waivers. That would mean their draft capital sacrifice was for nothing.

Of course, Korpisalo's addition creates healthy competition within the roster. But after passing over Garand for a recall earlier last season — when he was under the impression he was positioned as the third-string goalie — the Rangers should consider the relationship going forward.

BIGGEST QUESTION

Training camp will be utilized to settle many of the Rangers' specific

lineup questions, but the biggest one for the organization is much more overarching.

Do the original nuts and bolts of this team — Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Vladislav Gavrikov, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafrenière, Braden Schneider and Miller — have what it takes to win a Stanley Cup?

At a time when the president/GM has set the team on a retooled path, the only question that matters is if the foundation already in place was ever capable of it in the first place.

Otherwise, this time spent tweaking and readjusting in limbo will have been a waste.

WHAT'S LEFT

It's difficult to get specific until this blend of veterans, new faces and revamped prospects actually takes the ice and sees how they stack up against the other 31 teams in the NHL.

Should Zibanejad and Miller, the Rangers' top two centers who are on the wrong side of 30, lose a significant step, that becomes a pressing matter moving forward. Should Lafrenière put forth another frustrating and inconsistent campaign, a reevaluation of his future will be due.

As the team currently stands, another top-six and/or middle-six addition certainly would be useful and elongate the lineup. Oliver Bjorkstrand is a perennial 30-50 point scorer, but it is yet to be seen if he can carry that over to New York.

mwalker1@nypost.com

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Now & later

Islanders make sure they don't sacrifice future success without giving up on upcoming season

By ETHAN SEARS

The Islanders enter the upcoming campaign needing to prove that 2026-27 won't merely be a bridge season. That mission begins in earnest when they break ground on training camp in just under a month.

At the front office level, just about everything they did this offseason looked like it was focused on keeping the decks clear over the long term, with the Islanders set to have tons of salary cap space available next summer along with a promising group of prospects who will be a year further along in their development.

Players and coach Pete DeBoer, though, will want to break a playoff drought that threatens to reach three years — and no doubt will believe they have what it takes to do so.

BEST MOVE

There's not a lot to choose from — Matias Maccelli and Vitek Vanecek were the only NHLers signed, and both were one-year deals — so we'll go with something else entirely and say Mathieu Darche's best move was his forbearance.

The inconvenient fact of the matter is that there wasn't much available in free agency, and the Islanders aren't at a point where it would have made sense to push their chips into the middle of the table via trade. So this turned into an offseason in which the general manager was, mostly, biding his time.

The Islanders didn't sign any free agents for longer than a year, and they kept all their prospects, who undoubtedly will be much of the focus this season. They're set to have approximately $40 million of cap space next sum-

mer, and the lure of playing alongside Matthew Schaefer ought to help bring players to Long Island as the team moves into the next phase of its build.

Darché's patience may result in a frustrating season, but it gets the Islanders closer to being real contenders over the long term.

WORST MOVE

Letting captain Anders Lee walk was, probably, the right move over the long term. At three years and $5.4 million annually, it was the sort of contract the Islanders are better off avoiding for a 36-year-old, and they've got the receipts to prove it.

As a short-term matter, though, it's pretty hard to argue the 2026-27 Islanders will be better without Lee. It's not just his production, as the 42 total points Lee had last season is ultimately replaceable. It's also his leadership and ability to play in front of the net.

The Islanders haven't been a team that scores enough greasy goals for a long time, and without Lee, their best player at doing so isn't even immediately clear. Maybe Emil Heineman can take some steps in that direction.

Maccelli was the only forward the Islanders signed who looks like a lock to make the NHL roster, so in that sense, he is Lee's replacement. For this to really work, though, it's on Brayden Schenn to produce at a much higher rate than he did after being dealt to Long Island at the deadline last season. If he ends up on the wing, then Schenn is probably the most like-for-like player on the roster in terms of replacing Lee.

BIGGEST QUESTION

There's a lot, but the biggest is what sort of impact Pete DeBoer will have in Year 1. With a blue line that's completely unchanged from a year ago, any change in the Islanders' defensive acumen will come from the new system, as well as factors like better injury luck and player development.

That's a heavy task for a head coach. It was as recent as 2024 when the Islanders went into training camp thinking that a full season of Patrick Roy behind the bench would be the biggest factor helping them to contend. At the end of that season, Lou Lamotiello was fired as general manager.

DeBoer has a much longer track record than Roy, and a great history of improving teams in year one. He's as accomplished as a head coach can be without having won a Stanley Cup. The Islanders were toward the bottom of the league last season in just about every defensive metric, though, relying heavily on Ilya Sorokin to keep them in games. That's also not the exception so much as a recurring issue under multiple head coaches.

Still, that's why DeBoer was hired, and it's what he'll be expected to fix.

WHAT'S LEFT?

Given the Islanders' reliance on the development of their prospects, a new coach and players returning from injury, the answer to this will ultimately depend on how many of those bets hit, and to what extent.

At least on paper, though, the Islanders look like they'll struggle with a lot of the same elements as the past few seasons. This roster doesn't look like it has enough scoring. The bottom six is lean. The right side of the defense is thin enough that DeBoer is already entertaining the idea of moving Schaefer over from the left. And however the backup goaltending situation shakes out, you would bet on Sorokin hitting the 55-game mark for the fifth straight season.

Really, the question is whether the Islanders can get to the trade deadline in a position to add. Darche is unlikely to deviate heavily from a long-term plan that looks like it will hit fifth gear next summer, but he showed at the previous deadline that he's willing to try and give the Islanders a boost in the playoff race if they deserve one.

esears@nypost.com

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66

By ANDREW BATTIFARANO

As much as baseball has evolved throughout its long history, the basic framework of the major league game has been written in the rulebook since the turn of the century.

The mound stands at 60 feet, 6 inches from the plate. The bases are anchored 90 feet apart. The regulation game lasts nine innings (minus that COVID blip).

But if you ask 10 people one particular question about the sport, you might get 10 different responses.

What counts as a swing?

"It's been such an ambiguous rule forever since Little League," David Cone, the former Cy Young Award-winning pitcher and current YES Network analyst, told The Post. "I used to hear 'don't break your wrist' or different criteria for what's a swing or not. I've heard things like 'the intent,' the intent to swing was there. All sorts of things, and nothing ever really made sense."

The official rulebook simply states that a swinging strike occurs when a pitch is "struck at by the batter and is missed." Nothing is written about how far a bat has to travel or if there needs to be any intent from the hitter.

But now, Major League Baseball could be one step closer to ending that lack of clarity over what constitutes a swing — and a checked swing.

The Triple-A Pacific Coast League in early May deployed a check-swing challenge system in addition to the automated ball strike (ABS) challenges that have become a staple during big league games this year.

The system, which has been used in the Low-A Florida State League since last year and previously was tested in the Arizona Fall League in 2024, uses the same Hawk-Eye technology upon which ABS relies, meaning that cameras in the ballpark can quickly determine how far a bat traveled on any given swing.

According to MLB.com, a swing "will be called when the maximum angle between the bat head and the bat handle is greater than 45 degrees." So if the top of the bat extends past the imaginary 45-degree angle, it is deemed a strike, and if it does not, it is considered a ball.

The hitter, catcher or pitcher can challenge a check-swing call, much like in ABS. An animation of the swing quickly appears on the stadium's scoreboard to show whether the bat head moved past that 45-degree plane — which runs parallel to the first-base or third-base line, depending on whether a hitter bats righty or lefty.

Each team will start a game with two challenges that can be

SYSTEM IN ACTION

WHO'S WINNING REVIEWS?

64.2

BATTERS 9-for-14 overturned

Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets' first 58 games with the system

25

CATCHERS 1-for-4 overturned

FEWER STRIKEOUTS

Strikeouts declined 3% during the system's 2025 Florida State League test.

New check swing challenge being tested in minors

used for ABS or a check-swing, but can't use both on the same play.

Such a system could end what sometimes feels like a vibes-based call by a first-base or third-base umpire to determine whether a hitter actually swung at a pitch.

Right now, the check-swing challenge is just in a data-collecting phase. Plenty of rules changes in recent years have been tested in the minor leagues

— and in MLB partner independent circuits such as the Atlantic League — only to be discarded before they see the light of day at the major league level.

Giants outfielder Drew Gilbert became the first player to use the system in the AFL in 2024 when he successfully overturned a check-swing strike to draw a walk. The former Mets prospect jokingly said he was the "first victim" of its setup, saying he was dubious of the system because of

how far the line of demarcation was for something to be considered a swing. He would be curious if MLB ever made tweaks to the system.

"I think it kind of goes along the lines of ABS as well," Gilbert said. "It's a hard job as an umpire. Those swings happen so fast. So you never want to see them guessing because these guys are really good at what they do, and it's just hard to be right all the time."

HOW EXISTING SYSTEM WORKS

HIGH-SPEED CAMERAS Hawk-Eye cameras (also used for ABS) track the bat during a checked swing.

THE MEASUREMENT The system calculates the maximum angle between the bat head and handle.

THE CALL Past 45° is a swing and strike. At 45° or less, it's no swing and a ball.

THE CHALLENGE Teams have two ABS/ check swing challenges per game. The batter, catcher or pitcher can challenge the call. If the challenge is won, the team keeps its challenge.

THE DISPLAY Scoreboard animation is used to illustrate the Hawk-Eye findings.

MIXED

Veteran minor league skipper Scott Hennessey, now in his second year as manager of the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets, said the new swing system, though not something that gets challenged frequently in his experience, has clearly changed what gets called.

"It's almost like guys are almost having to [take] a full swing almost sometimes," Hennessey said of what a check-swing strike looks like now in the PCL. "Now,

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“it would be good to get it right and to have a clear rule and take it out of the judgment or interpretation of what a swing is or not because it has been so ambiguous.”

— David Cone

NO SWING

TESTING GROUNDS

• ● Pacific Coast League (since May)
• ● Florida State League (since May 2025)
• ● Arizona Fall League (in 2024)

REVIEWS

they’ll call it and guys will challenge it, and you’re just not getting the swing like you used to.”

Hennessey’s anecdotal observations align with the data MLB got from its first full usage of the system in the FSL. Hitters got a small but noticeable advantage: strikeouts went down 3 percent in 2025 with the challenges. In data provided by the OKC Comets from their first 58 games with PCL check-swing technology, batters went 9-for-14 on chal-

change calls (64.2 percent overturn rate). Catchers went 1-for-4 (25 percent).

In the first few weeks of the check-swing-challenge era, Hennessey said it was a big topic of discussion around home plate as umpires and opposing managers met to exchange lineup cards and go over ground rules.

“Man, you’ve got to go a long way,” Hennessey recalled as being the refrain in the confabs. “You got to really get out there

for it to be a strike, and I think everyone was surprised at that.”

Triple-A Mariners catcher Jakson Reetz, who has both successfully and unsuccessfully used the check-swing challenge this year with the Tacoma Rainiers, said there’s a duality for him — being aggressive as a hitter challenging a check-swing strike and less so a called ball from behind the plate.

Reetz said if he were to tweak the system, he would make the front edge of home plate the

line to pass — instead of the 45-degree angle — and go back to the rules that were used at Triple-A two years ago that allowed teams to challenge more frequently.

“I like to let it rip early,” Reetz said. “In 2024, we had three [ABS] challenges, now there’s two.”

In his view, teams have been more reluctant to use the check-swing challenge because of the total number allotted to them per game.

Cone, whose 1988 Mets clinched the NL East on a check-swing strike call, applauds MLB for giving the check-swing challenge a look. But he added he would like to see further changes that might keep things on an even playing field for pitchers.

“[The 45-degree line] probably is a little too far, and I think that might be by design a little bit to help the hitters out, considering that the batting averages have gone down, that the pitching and the velocity is up. It’s harder to hit than it ever has been,” Cone said. “Major League Baseball wants more offense, wants more action. Hence the pitch clock and you know all the rules that they’ve implemented or talked about have been designed towards action and maybe tilted towards the hitter a little bit, because it feels like pitchers and technology and analytics have really benefited from pitch design and high-speed cameras. So I get the impetus for it.

“But, for me, a sense of fairness for the pitcher would be if the bat completely penetrates the strike zone. For me, it was always about the front of home plate, sort of like a plane up from the front of home plate, almost like an end zone in the NFL.”

Particularly in the minor leagues with three-man umpiring crews (including just two in the field) at the upper levels, Reetz said there is a benefit to having additional challenges to aid umpires who might not be in the best position to make correct calls.

“I do have sympathy for them,” Reetz said. “[If] you have runners on and there isn’t an umpire at first, [the umpire is] at second making the call.”

Headlines and pundits this summer had plenty to say about video assistant referee (VAR) during the World Cup and whether soccer’s review system had gone too far in its scope of what could be given a second look.

Baseball’s ABS, however, has received near-universal praise for its speed and ability to get a call right for its one intended purpose. Cone doesn’t believe that adding in a refined check-swing challenge would encroach on the integrity of the game, but would go a long way in helping define what’s long been a subjective call.

“There has to be a balance, but I think any time there’s a potential call that could end the game, that if it’s reviewable, that it would be good to get it right and to have a clear rule and take it out of the judgment or interpretation of what a swing is or not because it has been so ambiguous,” Cone said.

“So I’m a fan of clearing that part up.”

— Additional reporting by the California Post’s Evan Webeck abattifarano@nypost.com

Instagram @jamboree

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68

LOCKING IT DOWN

By MADELINE KENNEY

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — There was a feeling of “oh no, not this again” Saturday afternoon when the Connecticut Sun cut the Liberty’s lead to one point in the fourth quarter.

Just two days earlier, New York narrowly avoided what would’ve been a historic collapse after conceding 40 points to the Los Angeles Sparks in the fourth quarter.

But Marine Johannes put on a show to help propel the Liberty to an 82-75 win.

LIBERTY SUN 82 75 Summary Page 56

After a New York timeout and with the shot clock winding down, Johannes drilled a signature one-legged shot from downtown to give New York a four-point lead.

That much-needed 3-pointer in what was a close game not only ignited a 10-2 Liberty run but also marked the start of an electric stretch by Johannes.

On the Liberty’s next possession after the end-of-the-shot-clock 3, Johannes fed Jonquel Jones, who drove it all the way in for a layup.

Later in the quarter, Johannes made another wild 3-pointer while on the move.

She also whipped a pass to Rebecca Allen, who made a shot from the corner as the Liberty rebuilt their lead to 10.

Johannes’ theatrics — as they often do — left her teammates in amazement.

“I could tell that she was locked in,” said Jonquel Jones, who set a season high with 19 first-half points. “I could kind of feel some of the things that she was going to do before she did it, but to kind

of see it happen in real time was amazing. When she’s playing like that, she’s just unbelievable.”

But the Johannes highlight that stood out to Breanna Stewart was the driving layup that gave New York the 78-66 lead.

“She got all the way downhill and continued to attack it until they stopped her and they just never did,” Stewart said. “So it’s great to see her being aggressive like that. And we need her as we continue to go through this push.”

Johannes started in place of Sabrina Ionescu, who’s day to day

with a left foot injury. She finished with 17 points and five assists.

She also made a big defensive stop on Charlisse Leger-Walker down the stretch.

“We needed her,” DeMarco said. “And those are the kind of plays she can make. And at times, I know she can get down on herself, too ... For her, it’s just having the confidence to believe in who she is and the way she can play pick-and-roll, the way she can pass.”

The Liberty may rely on Johannes more, as Ionescu’s status for Tuesday’s game in Chicago is un-

known. But Johannes closing out a game like she did Saturday should be a major boost for her confidence.

“I know that I also have to stay ready when they need me to be more aggressive, they need me for something else,” Johannes said. “But tonight, I was feeling good.”

Saturday wasn’t the best showing from the Liberty. They struggled early and trailed 27-19 after the first quarter.

Jones led the Liberty on a bounce-back in the second quarter as Stewart struggled to

get going.

Jones finished with a team-high 23 points and 11 rebounds for her 15th double-double this season.

Jones’ efforts helped the Liberty regain control of the game, but it was Johannes who led New York across the finish line.

“[The Sun] had a good run but we know we had to stay together,” Johannes said. “We are also learning from the last game. It’s never going to be easy. We are not going to win every game by 20 or 30, but I think we did a pretty good job staying together today.”

By MADELINE KENNEY

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Jonquel Jones joined her teammates for a huddle after Saturday’s 82-75 win against the Connecticut Sun.

On her way off the Mohegan Sun Arena court, she stopped to take a selfie with a fan. Then, she dapped up another fan and high-fived a few more children on her way to the visitors locker room.

With the Sun relocating to Houston next season, Saturday was the last time

Liberty stars soak in one last visit to road venue

the Liberty were guaranteed to play at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Jones made the most of her last time on the floor in front of the fans who supported her through the first six years of her WNBA career. She set a season high with 19 first-half points. She finished with a team-high 23 points and 11 rebounds for her 15th double-double this season.

It was a sweet final chap-

ter in a place where she established herself as one of the WNBA’s best centers.

“Clearly, a lot of memories here, a lot of great people,” Jones said. “Sad to see the Sun go but excited to really see what things will turn into and it’ll be my first time to be able to visit Houston and all of that stuff next year.”

Jones sat out the Liberty’s June 8 game in Connecticut after falling ill before tipoff.

Prior to the game, though, she was honored at center court as part of the team’s celebratory “Sun Legends” campaign. Her jersey is pinned on an arena wall alongside other franchise greats, including Alyssa Thomas, Tina Charles and Curt Miller.

On Saturday, she soaked in the atmosphere one last time.

“Just one of those franchises that for me has a

special place in my heart,” Jones said. “So it felt good to get the win tonight to come into an atmosphere that can be tricky at times and sometimes hard to win in. And I think we did a really good job of weathering their runs and some of the things that they were doing and being able to come out on top.”

Breanna Stewart, who won four championships at UConn, echoed Jones’

sentiment.

“Anytime coming here knowing that getting support from Husky fans and things like that is really special,” Stewart said. “It’s tough to see the team go but like I just said, it’s exciting to see what’s coming. I like that we had a lot of our fans for us today ... but yeah, a lot of great memories here and happy that the last one was a win.”

mkenney@nypost.com

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Yankees might have to ease up on overworked hurlers before playoffs

ARMS BEST

BEDNAR Career-high workload pace

HEADRICK MLB-high 25 appearances since June 20

All stats entering Saturday

BLACKBURN MLB-high 31/7 relief innings since June 20

LET'S discuss the interconnectivity of a few items that loom over the final quarter of this Yankees season:

1. This version of the Yankees doesn't score enough, and they particularly don't score early. There is such an obvious before and after photo for this offense from when Aaron Judge was active and since he has been out with a fractured rib.

Among Judge's assets is being an elite force in the first inning. He has homered in more than 8 percent of his first-inning plate appearances. His 1,042 OPS is sixth-best all-time (minimum 500 plate appearances) behind Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Mark McGwire and Lou Gehrig.

Through 59 games and May 31, Judge had seven homers in the first inning with a 1,192 OPS, and the Yankees led the majors in opening-frame OPS at .893 and were second in runs with 44.

Since Judge's absence began June 1 over the next 63 games, the Yankees had nine first-inning homers as a team, had the second- fewest runs at 20, and were last in the majors in batting average (.167), on-base percentage

(.216) and OPS (.551).

The absence of Judge not only removes his bat, but his presence, which seems to elevate those around him who can be best supporting actors against unnerved pitchers. Without him, the culprits trying to compensate are far ranging, but Trent Grisham often bats leadoff and had a .292

first-inning OPS since June 1, the worst among those with 30 plate appearances in the frame.

The Yankees basically are applying no

pressure on pitchers from the outset with even the threat of scoring — for example, their first-inning walk percentage dropped from 10.9 with Judge to 5.8 since. That decline means not just fewer base runners but fewer pitches expended.

What has increased is ... 2. Duress on their own pitchers. The lack of scoring has put every-pitch urgency on the Yankees staff because there is so little (if any) margin for error. Plus, to win when the run scoring is so absent, Aaron Boone has to go to his best relievers redundantly to try to secure the victories that are possible.

The Yankees had particularly cratered offensively since June

20. Before that they were an AL-best 46-28 with the majors' second-most runs (386). They went into Saturday 22-26 since with the second- fewest runs in that time (160) — before this season the Yankees had not scored so little in a 48-game span since 1990, which had the franchise's worst record since 1913.

What has this meant stress-wise on their staff? Consider, for example, that Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler had combined for 19 starts in that span going into Schlittler's Saturday outing. They had thrown a combined 1,773 pitches — not one came with the Yankees having scored five or more runs while they were on the mound. In 10 starts, Cole had thrown zero pitches with the Yankees even having scored four runs in this period.

Twenty-seven of the 210 batters Schlittler faced in this time came with the Yankees having scored four runs. But 23 of those came July 29, when Schlittler took the mound at Rate Field with a 4-0 lead against the White Sox, then the Yankees did not score again until plating an automatic runner in the 11th inning en route to losing in 12 innings.

Cole and Schlittler are representative of a rotation that pretty much has the game on their arm every pitch. And among starters, Cole is returning from Tommy John surgery, Schlittler and Ryan

Weathers are going to finish way beyond any previous workload, and Max Fried and eventually Carlos Rodón are returning from in-season arm injuries.

In the pen, since June 20, Boone's best lefty setup man Brett Headrick led the majors in appearances (25) and his best righty setup man Paul Blackburn led in innings pitched (31/2). Neither has ever pitched a full major league season as a reliever. David Bednar is on pace to blow by his most games and innings in his career.

But what can Boone do when every win is so precious and the margin is so narrow?

3. He is not there yet, but Boone might have to punt some games and play for October. The Yankees went into Saturday their furthest back this year, 6 1/2 behind the first-place Rays.

Now, the Yankees trailed Tampa Bay by 5 1/2 games through May 22, caught the Rays by June 7 and led by 3 1/2 by June 17. The Yankees were 6 1/2 games behind Toronto on Aug. 23 last year and rallied to finish with the same 94 wins as the Blue Jays — though Toronto won the division by winning the season series tiebreaker.

So the Yankees do not want to surrender ... yet. But if this lead opens further or stays static into September, they must prioritize the big picture as long as they remain comfortably in playoff

position (they had an 8 1/2 lead on a postseason spot through Friday). If they can get and — vitally — stay healthy, the Yankees still arguably have the best roster in the AL and can get to the World Series as a wild card with no home-field edges.

In that scenario, they can back off their main pitchers to freshen them for October. They can give Clarke Schmidt and either Weathers or Will Warren more tests to see if they can handle all that comes with relieving. They can (if they all return) give plenty of at-bats to Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton to see if this struggling offense can get whole and peak in October. And Boone can gain more time with various parts, including newcomers Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos, to see what are the best defensive alignments and lineups against lefties and righties.

Because of the lack of offense, and surges of the Rays in front of them and the Red Sox behind them, the Yankees have been in playoff mode for weeks now. Perhaps that is sharpening them for huge games ahead. But it is also possibly prematurely emptying the tank of the strength of the team — their pitching.

Thus, Boone has a tricky fine line to navigate the rest of this season.

joel.sherman@nypost.com

69 New York Post, Sunday, August 16, 2026 nypost.com

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70

WALK-OFF, THIS WAY

Surging Lindor delivers game-winning single as Amazin's rally past Nats

By MIKE PUMA

The Mets' season has hardly been a party, but celebratory moments are still worth celebrating.

One such snapshot was Francisco Lindor at second base Saturday, swarmed by teammates after smashing a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning for a 5-4 Mets victory over the Nationals at Citi Field.

"It's been a tough year for everybody here, but [the young players] are seeing that the year is not done," Lindor said. "We have got to fight to win."

The victory was the Mets' eighth in 11 games since the trade deadline. It was also their most dramatic over that stretch, with a contribution from Jorge Polanco, whose ninth-inning single helped fuel the winning rally.

Polanco had been 0-for-3 with two strikeouts to that point and heard boos from a home crowd far

from satisfied by his .424 OPS this season.

Francisco Alvarez's RBI double against Yovanny Cruz tied the game before Lindor delivered his

first walk-off RBI this season.

"It felt like Stearns did a good job, it's just we didn't perform at the beginning," Lindor said, referring to president of baseball operations David Stearns' roster construction. "Now we're in a situation where guys are performing, playing better and everybody who has been in the organization from the beginning and the guys that weren't, they were acquired by the front office."

Lindor, after drawing a leadoff walk in the eighth, was thrown out at second trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt. He apologized to interim manager Andy Green in the dugout.

"That's a championship-caliber player," Green said. "That is what you want out of your whole team,

and I think we have seen that time and time again."

Lefty reliever Jeffy Yan, in his Citi Field debut, performed his strikeout dance three times over 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

"I felt really welcomed today," Yan said of the fan reaction.

Sean Manaea was victimized by one pitch, a sweeper that Brady House hit off the left-field foul pole in the sixth for three runs, snapping his streak of four straight quality starts. Overall, the left-hander allowed four earned runs on six hits and two walks over 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts.

Jared Young's two-run double in the first inning got the Mets started after Brad Lord walked the bases loaded to start his afternoon. A.J. Ewing, Lindor and Carson Benge drew the walks before Young delivered his latest clutch hit.

He began the day with an .889 OPS over his previous 30 games, giving the Mets stability at first base. Young was 15-for-36 (.326) with runners in scoring position entering the day.

Andrés Chaparro homered leading off the fourth to slice the Mets' lead to 2-1. Manaea worked ahead 0-2 in the count before throwing a four-seamer that Chaparro crushed beyond the left-field fence.

Manaea plunked Andrew Pinckney in the sixth and walked Chaparro before House lofted a sweeper to left field that hit the foul pole for a three-run homer that gave the Nationals a 4-2 lead.

Benge homered leading off the bottom of the inning against lefty reliever Tom Cosgrove.

Benge's arm helped save the Mets a run in the seventh: his strong throw to the plate easily nailed Pinckney attempting to score from third on Dylan Crews' fly ball to right. The assist was Benge's sixth this season.

"I didn't think he was going to go on that one, but I still know I have got to finish the play and got to go quick," Benge said. "So, after I saw him kind of running after I let go of the ball, I was kind of excited for it because I knew he would be out."

mpuma@nypost.com

STRIKE A POSE: Even though the postseason is a pipe dream, the Mets were able to celebrate something Saturday with a walk-off win thanks to Francisco Lindor's heroics against the Nationals. Robert Sabo (2)

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Robert to left, making way for rook in center

By MIKE PUMA

Luis Robert Jr.'s next stop is left field.

With the Mets looking to receive more action for rookie A.J. Ewing in center field — the position he figures to play for the foreseeable future — Robert is scheduled to start in left Sunday for the first time in his major league career, according to interim manager Andy Green.

METS NOTES

"I think he has confidence he's ultimately going to be fine there," Green said before the Mets rallied past the Nationals at Citi Field, noting that Robert took pregame reps at the position with outfield coach Gilbert Gomez.

Green expects Ewing (who lately has played mostly in left) will go from playing center field once every three games to twice every three games. Robert would still get every third start in center.

The Mets hoped to trade Robert before the deadline, but a deal never materialized, leaving them with two center fielders. Ewing got his opportunity this season after Robert went on the injured list in April and has played the position at a high level.

► Kodai Senga indicated to Green during the last trip that he was fine to pitch a second straight day if needed. The right-hander wasn't needed, but it served as a message to Green that back-to-back appearances shouldn't be an issue for Senga, who has shifted to the closer's role with Devin Williams on the injured list. Senga earned his second save in as many chances Friday.

"Assuming he feels good, a back-to-back is imminent if the situation arises," Green said. "I don't feel pressed to force it just to say he threw back-to-back. It's going to happen, so if it doesn't happen today or this week, I am not bothered by it. We'll let the games determine how he is used."

► Carson Benge has reached base in 18 straight games thanks to his 1-for-2 effort against the Nationals on Saturday, the second-longest such streak by a Mets player this season. Juan Soto reached base in 18 straight games from March 26 to May 2 (with an IL stint in the middle).

ON DECK

vs. Nationals Sunday, 1:40 p.m., SNY, WHSQ (880 AM)

RHP Christian Scott

2026 stats: 3-3, 3.45 ERA

Career vs. WSN: 0-0, 6.52 ERA

Last start: Mon., at ATL: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER

PITCH BREAKDOWN

49% 23% 17% 4-Seamer Sweeper Cutter

RHP Jake Irvin

2026 stats: 2-6, 5.79 ERA

Career vs. NYM: 2-4, 4.70 ERA

Last start: Tues., vs. CHC: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 5 ER

PITCH BREAKDOWN

28% 24% 22% 4-Seamer Curveball Sinker

UP NEXT

MONDAY: vs. Padres, 7:10 p.m., SNY, WHSQ RHP Nolan McLean vs. RHP Walker Buehler

TUESDAY: vs. Padres, 7:10 p.m., SNY, WHSQ LHP Zac Thornton vs. LHP Robbie Ray

INJURY REPORT

■ Juan Soto (calf) and Devin Williams (shoulder) both intend to play again this season but are still weeks away from potentially rejoining the team.

Run-starved Yanks need slumping Rice to get cooking again

By GREG JOYCE

TORONTO — The reasons for the Yankees offense death-spiraling over the past two months are spread up and down the lineup.

But among the more notable culprits has been Ben Rice not producing like the Ben Rice from earlier this season.

Before going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts Saturday in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays, the slugging first baseman still came into the game with the fifth-highest OPS in the American League at .883 and the third-most home runs with 32. But over his past 21 games, he was hitting just .130 (10-for-77) with a .494 OPS and two home runs, coinciding with a team-wide slump.

Going back even further, over his past 46 games, he was batting .193 with a .694 OPS and 10 home runs.

"Definitely been going through it here in the second half," manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday's game at Rogers Centre. "Just getting under some balls or getting on top of balls. Just got to make sure he gets on a line."

Rice hit a 105.4 mph flyout to center field in his first at-

YANKEES NOTES

bat Saturday and later flew out to the warning track in right field, a day after barreling up four balls in another 0-for-4 effort.

"I've felt increasingly good," Rice said. "Over the last couple series, I feel like the swing has felt good and I'm hitting some balls hard, not getting rewarded for it. Just got to keep going. That's literally the only thing you can do is just keep going. It's all you can do in this game."

► Saturday was a grind for Cam Schlittler, but he still turned it into 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball while striking out seven and walking three. He finished the day with a 2.19 ERA, keeping pace in the AL Cy Young race before his biggest threat — Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease — takes the ball for Sunday's series finale. Cease enters the start with a 2.40 ERA in 20 2/3 fewer innings than Schlittler.

► While Cody Bellinger (hamstring strain) is on track to begin a rehab as-

signment next week, Boone was mum on when that might be the case for Giancarlo Stanton (calf strain). The veteran DH did not make the trip to Toronto, instead staying back at Yankee Stadium to continue his running progression, which now includes the bases — the stage where Stanton re-injured himself in June.

"I know he hit out on the field [Friday] again," Boone said. "But I don't know when he would be ready to start something."

► The Blue Jays placed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the seven-day concussion injured list Saturday after he left Friday's game early following a collision with George Lombard Jr.

► Boone said he spoke to the league on Friday night and Saturday morning about his ejection in the series opener — tossed by home plate umpire Vic Carapazza for arguing balls and strikes — which appeared to be among the tamer (at least initially) of his 50 career ejections. After Friday's loss, he called it a "tired toss" by Carapazza.

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Bats silent again in latest loss at Toronto

By GREG JOYCE

TORONTO — Perhaps because there is not much else he can do at the moment, Aaron Boone sat in his office Saturday after another familiar loss and pointed to his lineup card.

"I'm looking at these names, [they're] all capable of doing really big things for us," the Yankees manager said.

And yet, in the same breath, he acknowledged the other reality they are facing.

"This is who we got," Boone said. "These are our guys."

And more often than not lately, regardless of who they are facing or which names are in the lineup, they have not been good enough.

Once again, the Yankees were shut down Saturday, this time being four-hit by a parade of seven Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS 4 1 Boxscore Page 51 relievers in a 4-1 loss on an otherwise beautiful afternoon at Rogers Centre.

Including the playoffs, the Yankees (68-55) are just 3-11 north of the border dating back to last year, but they can't hit in any country these days. Since June 20 — a few weeks after Aaron Judge last played a game — the Yankees have averaged just 3.3 runs per game. It has been worse of late, scoring just three runs over their past 27 innings — resulting in three losses that dropped them to seven games back of the Rays entering their Saturday night game — and scoring two runs or fewer in 10 of their past 15 games.

"Of course, you're going to go through ups and downs in a season — I'd say we definitely wouldn't ever expect it to go so long," Ben Rice said. "But with that being said ... we're going to come out of it. Once we get rolling, hope to start stringing more wins together."

Before this series — which will end Sunday with the resurgent Blue Jays (61-64) throwing their ace, Dylan Cease — the Yankees had gone 5-1-1 in their past seven series, four against playoff teams. And yet, even most of their wins have been excruciating, nail-biting games in which their offense has mustered just enough to narrowly avoid wasting quality starting

pitching.

That was not the case Saturday, with Cam Schlittler becoming the latest victim, as the Blue Jays broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning off Brent Headrick then added two insurance runs in the eighth off Tim Hill.

"Having some of the right at-bats, but then at the back end of the game, just shut down and kind of went silent again," Boone said. "Broken record. Obviously, we know we got to be better."

Asked about what he could do to get his offense going, Boone responded that he could "maybe shake up the order a little bit here and there," which sounded more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And there is no magic bullet sitting on the bench — instead it resides on the injured list, in the form of Judge (who just started playing catch Friday), Cody Bellinger (who could be back by next weekend) and Giancarlo Stanton (who has been out since late April and remains a mystery for when and in what form he will return).

Saturday, they got off to a solid start when their two youngest hitters in the lineup, Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. strung a single, stolen base and single together to create a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

But they did not have another hit until the seventh inning, when Luis García Jr. led off with a single, just to be promptly erased as he was caught stealing second base. García stole just four bases with the Nationals this season but Boone cited Blue Jays rightly Spencer Miles being slow to the plate and trying to "exploit" that to make something happen.

BABY STEPS: Sidelined since the end of May with a right rib fracture, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge played catch Friday, marking a significant benchmark. But manager Aaron Boone was reluctant to say what the next steps will be in Judge's rehab, keeping the star as a highly paid cheerleader for now. Jason Szenes (2)

Montefiore Einstein

Official Hospital of the New York Yankees

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JURY STILL OUT

Judge throws, but star's return to Yankees is no closer to being decided

By GREG JOYCE

TORONTO — As the clock ticks down on the regular season, Aaron Judge took another step toward beating it.

The Yankees slugger played catch Friday for the first time in his comeback from a right rib stress fracture, a small but significant benchmark that represented the start of baseball activities with six weeks left in the regular season.

Aaron Boone, who treats injury updates on his captain like highly protected state secrets, said he did not know what was next for Judge, or even if he would be throwing again Saturday. But it was at least a start, nine days after new imaging of the rib showed enough healing to clear him for outdoor running and upper-body work in the weight room.

"Hopefully continue to progress through this week and we'll see what else gets introduced," Boone said Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre. "I talked to him [Friday] and it was a good day."

The Yankees have been loath to put any kind of timeline on Judge's return, other than that they expect him back this season. But Tricia Whitaker, the sideline reporter for Apple TV, which broadcast the game Friday night, reported that Boone said Judge might need a month to get back.

When asked about that timeline Saturday, Boone squirmed around an answer.

"It might have been, 'Could be,'" Boone said. "I don't know. If things progress well, that could be in play, yes."

Swinging a bat would seem to be the biggest potential hurdle for Judge, given his injury,

though it remains unclear when he might introduce that.

Boone said Judge did not have to undergo new imaging to allow him to start playing catch, and while there is still more healing to go, there was "nothing on the schedule for now" in terms of another round of imaging.

"He hasn't done any baseball things for a while," Boone said. "There's a lot more to do still."

Judge, who has not played a game or swung a bat since the end of May, has insisted all along that he will be back at some point this season. But after Saturday, there are just 39 games left in the regular season, and the runway continues to get smaller with still plenty of hur-

dles left to clear for the back-to-back AL MVP.

"We expect him back," Boone said. "But we're in the early stages of baseball activities. Hopefully things continue to go well."

The Yankees need them to because they sorely miss Judge, with their lineup largely cratering without him over the last two months. They have also been without Cody Bellinger, who could go on a rehab assignment by next week, and Giancarlo Stanton, who is back to running the bases again in his recovery from another calf strain (the first one sidelining him since late April).

But no single hitter changes the Yankees lineup like Judge.

Since he last played a game, entering Saturday, the Yankees ranked 26th in runs per game (3.8), 30th in batting average (.219), 30th in on-base percentage (.285) and 28th in OPS (.671). In the process, they have lost their lead atop the AL East and began Saturday trailing the Rays by 6 1/2 games, with the more realistic goal being fending off the Red Sox (three games clear of them) for the top AL wild card.

For Judge to join them in that fight, he will still have to check off plenty of boxes.

"There's still healing to go," Boone said, "but he's at the stage where he's able to start ramping up."

gjoyce@nypost.com

Montefiore Einstein Official Hospital of the New York Yankees

■ Aaron Judge (right rib stress fracture) played catch Friday, his first baseball activity since last playing a game May 31.

■ Giancarlo Stanton remains back at Yankee Stadium going through his progression of running the bases, but it is still unclear when he might be ready to play in rehab games.

ON DECK

at Blue Jays Sunday, 1:37 p.m., YES, WFAN (660 AM, 101.9 FM)

LHP Ryan Weathers

2026 stats: 5-7, 3.69 ERA

Career vs. TOR: 1-1, 6.75 ERA

Last start: Tue. vs. SEA; 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER

PITCH BREAKDOWN

25% Changeup 23% 20% Sweeper

RHP Dylan Cease

2026 stats: 7-5, 2.40 ERA

Career vs. NYY: 1-3, 5.84

Last start: Tue. vs. BOS; 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER

PITCH BREAKDOWN

37% 30% 11% 4-Seamer Slider Changeup

UP NEXT

TUESDAY: at Orioles, 6:35 p.m., YES, WFAN TBD vs. TBD

WEDNESDAY: at Orioles, 6:35 p.m., Prime, WFAN TBD vs. TBD

Montefiore Einstein

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New Giants tight end Isaiah Likely catches up with Post columnist Steve Serby for some training camp Q&A:

Q: Explain your X/Twitter handle @DaGorilla4.

A: (Laugh) Going in high school, everybody was wanting to be the King of the Jungle, aka a lion. At the time, I just felt like since everybody wanted to be a lion, I've never seen a lion go toe-to-toe with a gorilla. So that's why I used to call myself 'The Gorilla.'

Q: And the '4' is because that's when you started playing football?

A: Yeah.

Q: On the field, do you take on the personality of a gorilla?

A: I do. I feel like when I'm out there, I try to be as upfront, sturdy and feisty as a gorilla can be.

Q: How else would you describe your on-field mentality?

A: Calm. As fiery and lit I be in the game, whether it's amping up the sideline, the crowd, players, just being also to the point where if something bad goes around, how fast can we shut down the negativity to be able to put positivity back? Having that calm demeanor takes stress off the offense, the quarterback, the OC [offensive coordinator], head coach, to be able to just get things back on track.

Q: If you were going to build the perfect tight end, what trait or traits would you take from Isaiah Likely?

A: Really my competitive nature. Obviously, there's a lot of great tight ends, everybody has things they do well, things they do at an elite level. But I feel like when I'm in between those white lines, can't nobody stop me from being me, for real.

Q: Does Darren Waller remind you of you at all?

A: I talk to Darren a lot. I don't really necessarily say he reminds me of me. I feel like I do things kind of unique compared to a lot of people. Obviously, I try to take bits and pieces from a lot of players, a lot of TEs around the league, but definitely watch a lot of Darren film.

Q: What things do you do that are unique?

A: I feel like a ball in my hand, I feel like can't nobody tackle me, and that's just the mindset I have every time I catch the ball, whether it's a flat route or it's a seam ball or a go ball, I always in my mind feel like the first man can never tackle me. And always, when you see green grass, go get six.

Q: What makes Jaxson Dart swaggy?

A: You guys see it, he has charisma on the field. When he scores touchdowns, when he

SERBY'S SUNDAY Q&A WITH ...

Isaiah LIKELY

throws a big play, he'll let it be known that he's comfortable in his own skin, he's comfortable having that chip on his shoulder being the franchise quarterback here, really just showing them that he's here to stay, and that he wants to win.

Q: What are your expectations for him learning this new offense and how long will that take?

A: I feel like he does a great job day in and day out. Nobody's ever gonna be perfect, great players have bad days, but they just know how to bounce back quicker. So that's usually what I tell him even if we have a bad day in training camp, sometimes I have bad days, too, it's just how can we watch the film to get better, how we get on the same page? 'Cause at the end of the day, you're here for a reason, you're elite at what you do, and they trust you and

everybody on this offense and in the building trusts you to be you every day. So really just going out there and reminding yourself every play, good or bad, that you're Jaxson Dart, the starting quarterback.

Q: What kind of ball does he throw?

A: A catchable ball, every time.

Q: What would you tell Giants fans about how bright his future is here as their franchise quarterback?

A: Jax lives and breathes ball. I clown him for as much as he does on social media. It's always ball when he calls my phone, whether it's 5 in the morning or 12 a.m. at night.

Q: How does this team stack up with your Ravens teams?

A: I feel like we're young and talented, obviously. A lot of I

guess, like, vets that are very young on this team. Brian Burns is 28, 29, Mane's [Tremaine Edmunds] probably 28, 29 as well. A.T. [Andrew Thomas] is 29, somewhere around there. Quite a young older vet crowd. Obviously they've played a lot of games. And in Baltimore, the vets were really vets. They were about 32, 33. I played with as old as Calais Campbell [36 in 2022]. So just taking that aspect and understand that everybody here is really hungry for wins. Obviously, in the past, the Giants haven't been a very playoff-friendly team, hearing the stories about it. So trying to bring a winning culture here, trying to see everybody's fire in their eyes to really get better day in and day out.

Q: You see fire in their eyes? A: Absolutely, day in and day out.

Q: You heard the stories about what in the past?

A: How the seasons prior have been. Obviously, I haven't been here for the last four years, so hearing the seasons prior, hearing basically like how their day to days was, whether it was practice, meetings, etc., and then how it's so much more different now that [coach John] Harbaugh's here.

Q: What are some Harbaugh sayings in the meeting room.

A: Really just having a 1-0 mentality day in and day out. Always keeping the major details really just ... simple. At the end of the day, winning football's winning football, and how do you get to that point? And it's stacking hard days day in and day out, and really just being yourself day in and day out.

Q: Does he use humor in the meeting rooms?

A: For the most part. Obviously, he'll be a little serious, but he'll throw in a smile here and there.

Q: Any jokes?

A: Yeah, he jokes. I can't really name a joke off the top of my head, but he definitely has some.

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Q: Is he funny?

A: Yeah. It's like — I don't want to say grandpa humor — but it's like an older crowd humor, but he definitely gets a chuckle out of me every now and then (smile).

Q: OC Matt Nagy.

A: Well-spoken. Knows a lot about the offense, knows a lot about offense in general. Really just trying to put best players in their best positions to be able to show their talents, and be able to play everybody in the positions to be able to put a lot of points on the board.

Q: What drives you?

A: I'll say family, and then myself. I feel like the biggest motivator you should ever have in your corner is you 'cause nobody's gonna love and critique you as hard as you are yourself. Really just knowing every time I look in that mirror there's always something to get better at and always remember as much as you critique yourself to show yourself as much love.

Q: Why do you wear No. 9?

A: My favorite number was four, I learned that four was retired coming here, so when I got here, I wanted to pick a number that was kind of sentimental to me, and then I realized in 2022, I was the ninth tight end taken. So I was like, 'That's a good reason to get this number.'

Q: Did that motivate you?

A: I'll say in the moment. Looking back on the draft, obviously I was a little upset (fourth round, 139th overall), but I never tried to question what God has in store for me or the plan that He has going in front of me, so I just put my head down and told myself, like, 'Just make them regret it or make them remember why they'll always remember your name at the end of the day.'

Q: You had a visit before the draft with the Jets.

A: I came in with one of my best friends, Lewis Cine, another player, Jermaine Johnson. Saw their whole facility, talked to the OC, DC, owners, GMs. I liked it, but I'm here now (laugh).

Q: Did you think they were interested enough to draft you?

A: At the time I did, but I've learned quick and in a hurry in this league that you never know.

Q: Didn't Ray Lewis once compliment you on your stiff-arm?

A: (Laugh) Yeah. My guy Ray. I talked to him quite a bit when I was over there in Baltimore. Always told me I was a great competitor, I never shied away from the moment, and that he loved watching me play.

Q: Why do you wear gray sweats in practice without pads?

A: I love wearing sweatpants in general. I usually roll up my sweatpants when it gets a little hot, and I like the Capri vibe. It's

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: New Giants tight end Isaiah Likely and QB Jaxson Dart (6) will try to form a connection this season. Corey Sipkin (2)

something I've been doing since rookie year.

Q: Could you have been an NBA player?

A: (Laugh) Not at 6-4½. I don't think I would be able to run around with Steph Curry all day.

Q: You played three positions in high school.

A: I did. I'm probably — not probably — I am the best basketball player on this team. But it's definitely levels when it comes to basketball (laugh).

Q: Hoops has helped you as a football player.

A: High-pointing a basketball is the same thing as high-pointing a football. Trying to go for a rebound, trying to go for a dunk, just being able to jump and land as safe as possible, and obviously playing on a football field when you high-point a ball just being able to stay on your feet and be able to have run after catch.

Q: Describe your wife Melanie. A: The GOAT. We eloped. Love of my life. Would do it all over again just to see her smile again.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Jesus Christ, my grandmama [Madea], my daddy.

Q: Tell me about Madea.

A: That's my GOAT. She was like my first superhero. She raised my momma, which is my next superhero. But she was the fire in everything I did. She was probably always the hardest on me when it came to sports, whether it was good or bad. She was always my No. 1 supporter, and she had my back like no other. She didn't care. I could have gotten sent home for missing homework or something, and she'd always give me an excuse in

front of anybody, but no, when I got home I always got in trouble, but she had my back through thick and thin.

Q: When did she pass?

A: In February [2025].

Q: Favorite movies?

A: 'Friday,' 'SpongeBob' — that hits home when he sings Goofy Goobers — 'John Q,' with Denzel Washington.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: Chicken fingers and french fries.

Q: You are confident that the best is yet to come.

A: Absolutely. I feel like I've barely even scratched the surface on what I can do in the league, and then obviously having the injury [foot fracture] I had last year, just being able to have both feet back up under myself, no pun intended, just being able to go out there and remind everybody what I do at an elite level.

Q: What do you think of playing on the big and bright New York stage?

A: I love playing in front of any crowd, home or away. I feel like when I'm in between them white lines, I put on a show regardless. So it's just me being me and having fun when I'm out there.

Q: Are you Likely or unlikely to be a fan favorite?

A: I'll say Likely. I try to be myself every day, every play, every moment. I just try to be where my feet are, and try to put a smile on everybody's face I come across.

Q: Goals?

A: Just to go out there and win. I feel like when you're out there winning ... all the accolades that I want for myself will happen.

MetLife fans help OBJ feel at home again

By RYAN DUNLEAVY

One of the loudest cheers Saturday at MetLife Stadium came in between two nondescript second-quarter carries by Dante Miller.

What happened? Odell Beckham Jr. checked into the game for the Giants for the first time since Dec. 2, 2018.

'It was everything I was expecting it to be,' Beckham told The Post after the Giants lost 13-10 to the Vikings in the preseason opener. 'Just the love to be able to be back here in a place I've done special things. It was a special moment with a lot of emotions going into it, so you kind of have to check them and make sure you don't burn too much energy too early.'

Making his first appearance in a Giants uniform since he was still a phenom, Beckham soaked in the pregame juice as fans shouted his name in the corner of the end zone where he caught passes and bobbed his head during warmups. He ran over and hugged his son, who is part of the inspiration for his return to the Giants and the family message that 'Beckhams don't quit.'

'Any time he is in my presence, it's like the world stops for me,' Beckham told The Post. 'It's like there is no noise. It's my safe place. Seeing him now understand everything that's going on, I want to be the best role model I can for him. Along with him, it's also for myself. There were a lot of battles that were fought to get back here.'

Once the game started, Beckham played mostly with the sec-

ond-team offense in his bid to make the 53-man roster. He had two catches for 6 yards on three targets and remained on the field deep into the third quarter.

'[The ovation] was fun,' Harbaugh said. 'I love Odell. What he's doing, what he's fighting for, I don't know how it's going to turn out. It's going to turn out the way it turns out based on what happens.'

Beckham was streaking free toward the end zone for what could've been a metaphorical roof-blowing moment late in the first half, but Jameis Winston completed an 8-yard pass to Malachi Fields on the other side of the field.

Beckham appreciates the cheers, but finds it uncomfortable when other people deserve the spotlight. 'The love kind of makes it hard because of other people, they are like, 'What are they cheering for?' he said. 'I just want to give them everything I've got.'

Brandon Allen replaced Winston in the third quarter and threw an undercut interception on his first pass targeting Beckham. Head coach John Harbaugh subjected Beckham to a test of stamina and his body's ability to respond to physicality because he sat out all of last season.

'It's just a day-by-day thing,' Beckham said. 'I feel good as far as my body, knowing what I can do. It's just going to be making the most of the opportunities that come your way.'

Notes / Page 63

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Odell Beckham Jr. (left) is tackled after making a first-half reception against the Vikings on Saturday. It was his first appearance in a Giants uniform since 2018, and he's working to secure a roster spot this summer. Noah K. Murray

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THE JETS FAME IT

We can see Klubnik should be backup QB, even if Glenn can't yet admit it

ARON GLENN did his best to keep up the facade after Friday night's preseason opener.

The Jets coach was fielding question after question about how rookie quarterback Cade Klubnik performed in his first game and surely Glenn could sense the excitement building around the fourth-round pick.

"Don't get it twisted at all, we're still in a competition," Glenn said. "This is just the first preseason game and those guys are going to continue to fight it out and I look forward to that. But I'll tell you what, I was

happy and proud with the way he operated." Glenn has to say this. We don't.

The internal competition for the backup quarterback spot with the Jets is over. Klubnik wins by TKO over Bailey Zappe and Brady Cook. This is not about Klubnik going 5-for-7 for 56 yards against the Buccaneers. It is about how unfazed he was finding out the day before he would be starting the game with players he has barely gotten practice reps with. It is about how he carries himself with a confi-

dence that makes him feel more like 32 instead of 22. Klubnik has it.

Call it what you want. Glenn called it "moxie" after the game. The kids would call it "aura." It is that hard to define quality that is like the old Supreme Court definition of obscenity — you know it when you see it.

"He doesn't really seem like a rookie, which is a great thing," veteran center Josh Myers said. "He's confident in the huddle. He's confident in his decision-making at the line of scrimmage, his cadence, all that stuff. It's been good."

The real question about the Jets quarterback situation this summer has not been whether Klubnik is a better option than Zappe or Cook. It has been whether general manager Darren Mougey needs to swing a trade or scour the waiver wire for a veteran option who shakes loose at the end of camp.

It is fair to question whether a fourth-round rookie is ready to be one play away from stepping in for starter Geno Smith. But Klubnik is no ordinary rookie and he really is no ordinary fourth-round pick.

Klubnik has played in so many big games that he has poise coming out of his pores. This is a player who was the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country after winning three state championships at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. He came off in the ACC Championship game as a freshman at Clemson and delivered a win. Klubnik played in big game after big game for the Tigers, including a College Football Playoff game in 2024.

"I think, for me, that although I'm a young player, I think I'm poised and I don't feel like I get really flustered from big games and big moments," Klubnik

said Friday night.

Something went wrong for the entire Clemson team in 2025, Klubnik included. He had injuries and the team struggled around him. That is what led to him dropping to the fourth round. But the Jets, led by offensive coordinator Frank Reich, fell in love with Klubnik on their visit with him. Spend five minutes with Klubnik and you can see why.

"He has some moxie to him. He's very confident," Glenn said. "He's confident in his arm. He's confident in his ability to elude and make plays with his feet. And his ability to be able to come out and operate with the first group the way he did, to me, I thought was outstanding."

I had thought that the Jets were taking a risk considering having Klubnik as the backup. I figured they would add a veteran at some point. Now, I think they should ride this out with Klubnik.

The Jets were burned by not having a better backup quarterback in 2023 when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into the season. I think if something happened to Smith early in the season and he was going to miss extended time, I'd add a veteran to the room to go along with Klubnik.

But I would have faith in Klubnik to get through two or three games if Smith had a minor injury. I also think he needs the practice reps that a backup gets. While we only see games, the coaches can evaluate him running the scout team each week and figure out just what they have.

There are two more weeks of training camp and two more preseason games for Klubnik to erase any doubts.

Glenn can maintain there is still a competition. The rest of us have joined the Klub. brian.costello@nypost.com

KLUB' KID: Jets fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik showed Friday why he was the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country for Clemson, displaying the moxie and confidence of a signal-caller who has been in big moments and the limelight before. AP: Imagn Images

By BRIAN COSTELLO

It has been 11 months since the Jets were able to see running back Braelon Allen in a game. He did not disappoint in his return.

Allen broke a 31-yard touchdown run Friday night against the Buccaneers in one of the most encouraging highlights from the game for the Jets. Allen is returning from a

Allen's return could give Gang Green 3-headed

knee injury that ended his season after just four games last year.

Tight end Jeremy Ruckert threw a key block on the touchdown and was one of Allen's excited teammates.

"I was super happy for him, but not a surprise for

us," Ruckert said. "We get to see everything he does behind closed doors, how much work he puts in, how much he takes care of his body. I think it was good for the world to see his hard work pay off and he's still building in the right direction. He's going to be

huge for us this year."

If the Jets have a healthy and productive Allen, they could have a nice 1-2 punch at running back with Breece Hall. Jets coach Aaron Glenn said he hopes to have a three-headed monster at running back with Hall, Allen and

Isaiah Davis.

"We all saw his ability to actually press the hole, right?" Glenn said. "Put his foot in the ground and get vertical and then run away from people. The speed that he's always had, that's really showed up. It's really good to see it. I'm happy

for him. I'm proud of him. Listen, we're all rooting for that player."

Center Josh Myers said the team exploded on the sideline when Allen broke free.

"In here, we all know the type of player that he is and what he's capable of," My-

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monster at running back

ers said. "Obviously, it's been a really hard year for him. There's nothing worse than getting injured and being out, especially for that period of time. I think the whole team ... and I think you could probably feel it a little bit, the whole team was just so

pumped for him. He deserves it. He's a great dude."

► NT T'Vondre Sweat passed his physical Saturday and will be removed from the non-football injury list. Sweat has not practiced in training camp

yet due to a hamstring injury. The expectation is that Sweat will ramp up this week and could practice next week. The Jets acquired Sweat in March in a trade with the Titans and Sweat is expected to be a key piece of the Jets defense.

Tall Fields could give Giants sizable advantage one day

CANT teach tall. But you can use it to your advantage. That is precisely what the Giants did to notch their first and only touchdown in Saturday's preseason opener. It was more than a modicum of improvisation by Jaxson Dart that got the whole wild play in motion, and it was the physical attributes of Malachi Fields that punctuated Dart's effort with points.

"I was just ready to get out there, ready to play, I was juiced up," Fields said after his NFL summer debut. "I wouldn't say nerves, just excited to get out there."

He excited the sparse crowd and everyone associated with the Giants.

Most teams need someone who is not expected by the masses to be a difference-maker to make a difference, at one point or another. It is way way too early to know for sure if Fields will be that someone for the Giants. He is off to a strong start, though, and the entire offense's identity as a bigger, more powerful unit can lean on what Fields brings to the field.

If Fields did not stand 6-foot-4, it would have been folly for Dart, under duress, to try to get the ball to him in the left corner of the end zone early in the second quarter on a Chamber of Commerce Saturday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. Dart missed the previous two snaps paying a visit to the medical tent for a concussion check — he got leveled on a blindside hit by blitzing safety Jay Ward — and returned to the action facing second-and-12 from the Vikings' 15-yard line.

Under immediate pressure, Dart spun and rolled to his left and, throwing against his body, fired into the end zone, the pass intended for Fields. The rookie was not open. The ball floated high enough to sail over the reach of Ivan Pace, a 5-10 linebacker. All Pace could do was look skyward into the bright blueness to see Fields fully extending his arms into the air to make the grab.

"He was able to find a hole in the defense and he went to exploit it, and when you have a defender who's trailing and you have a guy who's as big as him, just give him a chance and he's gonna make a play," Dart said.

He made a play and proudly held the touchdown-catch football in his arms in the locker room.

It was a high-degree-of-difficulty scoring play, and an offense cannot make a living relying on such high-wire displays. This was a case of two players (Dart and Fields) rising above the Xs and Os to simply make a play that was anything but simple.

Fields was not the primary target at the snap.

"At first it was just like a shallow crosser, I was just a little piece of the route tree," he said, "and then I saw [Dart] break the

pocket, start scrambling so I just turned up, saw it was a little guy and then Jaxson just gave me a chance."

Throw it up there to the big guy. "The value of a contested catch, a big receiver in the red zone," head coach John Harbaugh said. "That's really what that is. That's one of the reasons we drafted him. That's one of the things he does exceptionally well. He's getting better at so many things. That was a heck of a play."

Fields raised his stock in 2025 at Notre Dame after four years at Virginia. For general manager Joe Schoen, it was a case of "if at first you don't succeed, try again." He traded up into the third round in 2023 to take Jalin Hyatt at No. 73 overall. That has been an abject failure. Three years later, Schoen again traded up into the third round to nab Fields, at No. 74 overall.

Hyatt was all speed and not much else. Fields has the size and appears to be more than that. Late in the second quarter, he used his body placement and route running to get inside his defender to slant over the middle for an 8-yard pickup on third-and-5. That kept alive a drive that ended with Ben Sauls' 46-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to put the Giants ahead 10-3 in a game they lost 13-10.

Fields finished with three catches for 34 yards and the Giants' lone touchdown. He is a lock to make the regular-season roster. It is not as if the wide receiver position is teeming with proven excellence. After Malik Nabers, who will Dart want to seek out? Darius Slayton? Calvin Austin III? Darnell Mooney? Will Odell Beckham Jr. even make the squad?

It might be a tall order to expect Fields to make an impact as a rookie. What we saw in his first outing is he has the size to rise to the occasion.

paul.schwartz@nypost.com

GREAT HEIGHTS: The 6-foot-4 Malachi Fields hauls in a touchdown pass over the 5-10 Ivan Pace Jr. on Saturday at MetLife Stadium. Image Images

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HAVE NO FEAR

Dart gives Giants fans a scare then delivers a thrill in opener

By RYAN DUNLEAVY

Jaxson Dart had Giants fans — and maybe head coach John Harbaugh — holding their breath in fear.

And then exhaling in exultation. Playing in the preseason opener Saturday against the Vikings despite the risk of injury, Dart finished the first quarter lying on the turf after taking a bone-jarring hit from a human speeding locomotive. He went into the sideline blue medical tent for a concussion check in the most dramatic moment of the Giants' 13-10 loss at MetLife Stadium.

"My feeling in that moment was, 'We need to block better,' Harbaugh said. 'That's one [blitz] that should be picked up.'"

It was impossible for bystanders not to think about the worst-case scenario — Dart missing regular-season games — after Tyrone Tracy Jr. was late to pick up front-side blitzer Jay Ward, who drilled Dart in the torso. Dart's helmet didn't bounce off the turf in the typical warning-sign way.

"I really respect the rules and the thought behind the NFL keeping players healthy and reviewing things," Dart said, "but at the same I'm still puzzled by me just feeling like every time that I get hit I find my way in there. I'm still trying to wrap my head around [it]."

There was no reason for the fiery Dart to take another snap — especially against Brian Flores, one of the league's most aggressive defensive coordinators — but that's not how he operates.

Dart re-entered a "meaningless" preseason game after missing two plays — one a third-and-18 conversion — and immediately made something out of nothing by throwing a 15-yard touchdown pass.

"I never thought that I was going to be taken out," Dart said. "I'm going to keep playing until they tell me I'm not. I want to be out there."

Dart rolled left out of a broken pocket and threw a jump-ball to 6-foot-4 rookie Malachi Fields to give the Giants a 7-3 lead and finish up what was a 14-snap appetizer for the regular season.

"I heard he said after [that] he just got the wind knocked out of him," Harbaugh said. "So, he was fine. We were in the heat of battle. I didn't think too much about it. He walked by me, he looked at me [nodded] and I looked like that [nodded] and he ran on the field. That was what it was. But to see him go out there and throw a touchdown pass, I thought was pretty darn cool."

Teammates noticed Dart's will. "He's a tough guy, so I knew he was go-

ing to hopefully get right back up," full-back Patrick Ricard told The Post. "He's a competitor. I thought it was really cool for him to go back out there because some guys take a big hit like that and are like, 'I'm done.' He wanted to go back and finish the drive — and he did."

So, the two main elements of Dart's rookie season were back on display: Off-script playmaking and injury concerns, though Harbaugh did not barge into the

medical tent like his rules-breaking predecessor Brian Daboll. Credit to Fields for an impressive route adjustment when he saw his quarterback in trouble.

Dart finished 3-of-4 passing for 26 yards with two third-down conversions to Isaiah Likely.

Harbaugh started Dart despite sitting left tackle Andrew Thomas, entrusting second-year pro Marcus Mbow with Dart's blindside.

"I felt like the other guys playing together was important, especially with Jaxson out there," Harbaugh said. "He's going to be that much better for the regular season that he would have been if he hadn't played those games. And we got out of it healthy. So, it worked."

The first hiccup for Dart happened on the first drive, when third-string center (and fill-in starter) Bryan Hudson's snap to the left hip threw off the timing of a receiver screen to the opposite side of the field. Dart caught the ball but then spun through air before firing wildly in complete.

On third-and-10, Dart pump-faked, tried to scramble, lost his footing on a cutback and was sacked by Dallas Turner, who beat Mbow. No one would've blinked if that was the end of Dart's day, but he got one more series against the Vikings backup defense.

Jameis Winston filled in for two snaps while Dart was undergoing his sixth sideline concussion evaluation in the past 365 days. He only has been diagnosed with one concussion.

Saturday's injury scare was a football play and not the continuation of recklessly initiating contact or refusing to slide. With Winston briefly at the helm, Devin Singletary moved the chains with a 40-yard catch-and-run screen pass. Then Dart talked his way back into the game and walked the walk.

rdunleavy@nypost.com

CAN'T KEEP A GOOD DART DOWN: Quarterback Jaxson Dart had a wild day in his preseason debut Saturday, taking a hard hit from the Vikings' Jay Ward (left) and heading to the concussion tent before returning to throw a touchdown to wide receiver Malachi Fields in the Giants' 13-10 loss to the Vikings. Bill Kostroun, AP

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Giants takeaways

■ Of all the football sins the Giants committed in 2025, the inability to stop the run was the most egregious. This first outing was uninspiring. In the first half, Vikings running back Aaron Jones averaged nine yards per attempt and Jordan Mason averaged 5.7 yards. Defensive linemen D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris and linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and Brian Burns did not play.

■ Cornerback Deonte Banks earned strong roster consideration during training camp, but needs to translate that success to preseason games. He failed to do so in his summer debut. Early in

the second quarter, Banks had a holding penalty declined, then lobbied for an offensive pass interference call on Jeshaun Jones but was instead flagged for illegal contact.

■ Braxton Berrios could have called for a fair catch in the first quarter but instead hauled in Johnny Hekker's 44-yard punt and expertly made the first Vikings pursuer miss. Berrios, a former All-Pro returner with the Jets, completed a tidy 15-yard return, displaying his special teams value. Berrios later tiptoed the left sideline for another 15-yard punt return.

— Paul Schwartz

ON THE glorious first day that he would coach the New York Football Giants, John Harbaugh learned he is not immune to the concussion police who continue to surveil his new franchise quarterback.

Down went Jaxson Dart, and hard, on his back. Hearts raced all across MetLife Stadium and beyond.

Deja Blue Tent all over again. A new reality in the John Harbaugh Era.

Too much of a reality still for Jaxson Dart.

Dart, victim of a blitzing Jay Ward helmet to the chest when Tyrone Tracy Jr. missed his block, was prone on the ground briefly for what seemed like an eternity as Giants offensive linemen checked on him.

"I knew he was fine," Harbaugh said.

But the franchise quarterback of the New York Football Giants was ordered to be sent to that all-too-familiar blue medical tent, the sight of which marred his rookie season, to check for a concussion.

"If a normal QB takes that hit, I'm sure not much is gonna be said about it," Jermaine Eluemunor said after Vikings 13, Giants 10, "but when you play in New York and you're Jaxson Dart, some people are gonna make it bigger than it actually is.

"I guess that's just the reality we live in right now. People are gonna blow things up that don't necessarily have to be blown up."

Dart and the Harbaugh Giants are now forced to walk the fine line between the concussion police's noble better-safe-than-sorry mantra and the raging competitive fires of tough football men playing a violent sport.

"I really respect the rules and the thought the NFL has of keeping players healthy and reviewing things," Dart said, "but at the same time, I'm still puzzled by it just feeling like every time that I get hit, I (chuckle) find my way in there, which at times, I still try to wrap my head around. That's all that I'm gonna say about that situation."

I asked Harbaugh if he was surprised when Dart was sent to the blue tent.

"Honestly, I was," Harbaugh said, "but I would say their job is to err on the side of player safety so I can't argue with that either."

Dart (3-for-4, 26 yards, zero rushes) was quickly cleared. "I heard he said after he just got the wind knocked out of him, so he was fine," Harbaugh said.

His feelings when Dart took that hit? "My feeling in that moment was we need to block better," Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh had no inclination whatsoever to keep Dart in moth-

UNDER HIS OWN POWER: Jaxson Dart walks off the field after being sent to the ground on a sack in the first quarter of the Giants' 13-10 loss to the Vikings on Saturday in their preseason opener. AP

balls. Dart is learning a new offense. Opening Night against the Cowboys is four weeks away.

"I never thought that I was gonna be taken out," Dart said. "I'm gonna keep playing until they tell me I'm not playing. I want to be out there."

And after a 40-yard Jameis Winston checkdown to a zigzagging Devin Singletary, Dart was back

doing a signature Dart thing: flushed left, throwing side-arm, targeting towering rookie Malachi Fields, who plucked the ball off the top of Ivan Pace Jr. for a 15-yard TD.

"We were in the heat of battle, I didn't think too much about it. ... He walked by me, looked at me, he was like this (nod) and I went like that (nod) and he ran on the field," Harbaugh said. "To see him go out there and throw a touchdown pass I thought was pretty darn cool. I was excited about that. Made me happy."

Harbaugh is the one who must continue to protect Dart from himself before the concussion police can act, and in Harbaugh They Trust, from John Mara to Dart on down to Giants fans desperately seeking their Savior.

Harbaugh is paid to make the tough decisions. But this was an easy one for him. If he believed

for a second he was placing Dart in harm's way, even in a preseason game, you better believe he would have kept him on the sideline.

Harbaugh had seen enough of what he wanted to see and Dart was replaced by Winston on the next possession.

The sight of John Harbaugh, standing for the first time in front of their team, standing where Tom Coughlin last stood in 2015, coaching their team, at their stadium ... for Giants fans, this was Harb-AWE.

"I got season tickets this year because of that. We're ready to rock and roll (laugh)," Rob Gariano said in his Eli Manning jersey, standing next to 5-year-old son Max in a Dart jersey, and laughed.

"I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Jason Hornlein said. "You're getting John Harbaugh, similar to Tom Coughlin. He comes from a military background it sounds like. I think we needed that. No more Popsicle breaks or water breaks."

It was a special moment for Harbaugh. He mentioned a text from his wife, Ingrid, and said: "This is a beginning in our life. I feel that way for the organization and I feel that way for the team, the guys, and I feel that way for our coaches, I feel that way for our families, and for me personally."

"It was a good start." Blue skies are always preferable to a blue tent.

sserby@nypost.com

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NEW YORK POST Sports

AUGUST 16, 2026

QB Jaxson Dart gave Giants option a heart attack, leaving the field after a sack during the preseason opener Saturday at MetLife Stadium. But he returned two plays later and connected with rookie WR Malachi Fields for a TD in a 13-10 loss to the Vikings — the first Big Blue game with John Harbaugh on the sideline.

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