A coalition of Democratic lawmakers are asking tech giant Palantir to turn over details of their contracts with the Trump administration amid reports the data company has been given lucrative contracts that could allow it to assemble a database on Americans.
The New York Times reported last month that Palantir is in discussions with numerous government agencies for use of its technology that analyzes data, including the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.
According to the lawmakers, the company “is enabling and profiting from serious violations of Federal law by the Trump Administration, which is amassing troves of data on Americans to create a government-wide, searchable ‘mega-database’ containing the sensitive taxpayer data of American citizens.”
According to The Times, Palantir has taken in more than $113 million in federal government spending under President Trump, as its Foundry data and analytics technology is already in use at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The unprecedented possibility of a searchable, ‘mega-database’ of tax returns and other data that will potentially be shared with or accessed by other federal agencies is a surveillance nightmare that raises a host of legal concerns, not least that it will make it significantly easier for Donald Trump’s Administration to spy on and target his growing list of enemies and other Americans,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter signed by six other colleagues.
“This potential ‘mega-database’ at the IRS and elsewhere also raises myriad potential violations of privacy laws designed to strictly limit those who can access the tax return records of individuals and businesses.”
The letter goes on to cite prohibitions in both the Internal Revenue Code and the Privacy Act of 1974, noting that tax returns can only be access for limited purposes while privacy laws also limit information sharing between agencies.
Palantir has said it is building no such database.
“Palantir is not building a master database. Palantir is neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens. No amount of parroting of this false accusation will make it true. We are committed to America, regardless of which party the American people have voted into office. This should be obvious given our continuous work with the government for nearly 20 years,” the company said in a statement.
It cast the request as being based on “an incorrect and speculative article.”
And in a swift response letter to the lawmakers that was also shared on X, it said it takes privacy seriously and is aware it must comply with “legal and ethical boundaries.”
“Palantir’s software is built at every stage to uphold, not undermine, legal and regulatory protections as well as the ethics and standards that help institutions govern the appropriate uses of powerful technologies. Americans are entitled to better government. We object very strongly to The New York Times, or anyone, portraying technology and privacy as opposing forces; we believe that, done well, they reinforce each other,” the letter states.
Lawmakers nonetheless ask for a suite of information from the company, including a breakdown of all government contacts, whether they’ve sought assurances on any legal liability or offered to cover legal fees for any of its workers.
“Does the company have a ‘red line’ for potential violations of human rights, U.S. law or international law by the Trump Administration that would result in Palantir terminating its services for the U.S. government?” the lawmakers asked.
Although there has been no official announcement, Sega has revealed that it’s discontinuing support for nine retro games that were ported to iOS and Android several years ago. Before that happens, the company has made all the games completely free and removed all in-app purchases, as spotted by Android Authority.
The list includes the following titles, which are still available for download through Apple’s and Google’s mobile app stores:
The discounted titles have been recently updated with a pop-up message explaining that “support for this game will be discontinued, but you can continue playing offline!”
The games were originally ported to iOS and Android through Sega’s Forever program, which was discontinued in late 2023. Several years ago the company removed several games, including Phantasy Star Classics, from the Google Play and iOS app stores, and it’s expected that these nine will also eventually be removed, although Sega hasn’t specified when that will happen. However, any games that have already been downloaded and installed on a tablet or mobile device can still be played even after they’re delisted.
Ryan O’Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He’s also the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game’s Analytics Revolution.”
And just like that, the transfer window is closed.
Now depending on where you’ve been for the past few weeks, you might be asking yourself two questions:
1. Is that a “Sex and the City” reference? 2. Wait, what?
To the first question: Of course it is. Bring back Samantha.
And to the second: With the Club World Cup kicking off this past weekend and set to stretch all the way through mid-July, FIFA gave all of the leagues with teams participating in the tournament the opportunity to briefly open their transfer windows ahead of schedule.
So, the window was open from June 1 through June 10. It then opened back up for the Premier League on June 16, with everyone else around Europe starting again July 1, and will close again on Sept. 1.
There has already been quite a bit of official and unofficial action — and almost all of it came from the richest clubs in the world. Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Manchester City have spent significant sums of money on multiple players. Chelsea signed someone because, well, duh, it’s Chelsea. And Manchester United appear dead set on remaining Manchester United.
It’s still a few days before the official start of summer, but we’ve already learned a lot about all of these teams. Here’s what we know, from what we’ve seen so far.
Liverpool: They want to run — and win
Liverpool have technically only signed one player so far, spending €40 million to land Bayer Leverkusen‘s 24-year-old right wing-back Jeremie Frimpong. But ESPN reported last week that the club had agreed to another deal with Leverkusen: €117 million — with add-ons potentially going up to €136 million — for 22-year-old attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz. On top of that, it seems likely they’re going to eventually add Bournemouth‘s 21-year-old left back Milos Kerkez.
To start, that’ll be somewhere in the €200 million range for three players … for the team that just won the Premier League with four games to spare. While Liverpool’s ownership can’t compete with the likes of Manchester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in terms of raw spending power, they will clearly spend if they think they have found the right player.
Liverpool broke the transfer records for a defender and a goalkeeper respectively — and that brought them Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker. They clearly feel the same way about Wirtz, but they were willing to spend significantly more on him because he is only 22 and plays one of the premium positions in the sport.
Now it’s still a huge risk to lock up this much money on one transfer. Combining Wirtz’s estimated salary and transfer fee, the move will cost Liverpool around €45 million per year. He could simply get hurt, not like playing in England, not translate his game to Premier League, or fall prey to any of the other many reasons transfers fail. He has to be a superstar for this deal to be a success.
But as Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman put it a few years ago: “If you’re always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent.” Players such as Wirtz who are still years away from their peak but already producing at a superstar level become available once every two or three years. And even more rarely do they want to live in Liverpool. Unless you’re Real Madrid and you can convince players to run down their contracts then come sign with you, you can’t acquire a player such as Wirtz for an “efficient” amount of money.
So, what might the acquisitions of Wirtz, Frimpong, and Kerkez tell us about the vision for the future version of Liverpool? It’s still not quite clear how these players fit together tactically, and there will still be a few more shoes to drop. But they all fit a very similar physical profile: they run fast.
For all of his supreme technical skill, Wirtz is just as good off the ball. He is as good at running into areas to receive forward passes as he is at dribbling forward or making those passes himself. Per PFF FC, Wirtz made 88 high-speed runs per 90 minutes (20 to 25 kilometers per hour), along with 25 sprints (more than 25 kilometers per hour). Only Luis Díaz sprinted more often for Liverpool last year (28), while no one matched Wirtz’s output of high-speed runs.
Frimpong and Kerkez are even more impressive without the ball.
Among defenders across Europe’s Big Five top leagues, only three sprinted more often per 90 than Frimpong at 28 sprints — and only nine players recorded a higher max speed than his 35.23 kilometers per hour. While Kerkez’s peak outputs can’t match those of Frimpong, his raw totals are even better. He is one of only two defenders across the Big Five leagues — along with Crystal Palace’s Daniel Muñoz, who is one of the most athletic full backs/wing backs in the history of the sport — to sprint at least 1,000 times this past season. And Kerkez is one of only three to make at least 3,000 high-speed runs.
In Wirtz, Liverpool have a player who can contribute at a star level while Mohamed Salah and Van Dijk are still around — and he then can become the guy once they’re gone. And in Frimpong, and possibly Kerkez, you have two guys who can fill all of the gaps created by the physical decline of the team’s two best players, as well as replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson long-term. If these signings indicate anything, it’s that Liverpool wants to win now — and in the future.
Manchester City: Don’t worry, Rodri will fix everything
Ultimately, Manchester City’s 2024-25 season ended up looking quite similar to Liverpool’s 2020-21 campaign: the one when Van Dijk tore an ACL. A year after winning the title, both teams finished third: Liverpool with a plus-26 goal differential and 69 points, City with a plus-28 and 71.
In 2021-22, Van Dijk came back healthy, and Liverpool nearly won the quadruple. Based on City’s signings so far this summer, it seems as if they’re banking on the same thing happening with Rodri in this upcoming campaign.
City’s biggest issue last season was that whenever they lost the ball, they were completely hopeless. It looked as if they were playing the video game FIFA but the turbo button on their controller was broken. Teams would just run over, around and through their midfield if they were ever able to generate even a tiny head of steam.
You can see it in this chart. City allowed the fewest shots in the league, but the quality of those shots — as measured by expected goals per shot or npXGA — was the highest in the league. Overall, five teams allowed fewer xG than City last season.
Yet it seems as if City view the solution to this problem as some combination of “keep even more of the ball” and “score even more goals.” So far, they’ve signed midfielder Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan for €55 million, full back Rayan Aït-Nouri from Wolverhampton for €36.8 million, and attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki from Lyon for €36.5 million.
One thing they all have in common: good-to-great attacking production. Reijnders finished fourth in Serie A among traditional midfielders for a combination of expected goals and expected possession value added. In other words, how much value did you create before the shot and how valuable were the shots you got for yourself? Only Atalanta‘s Éderson, Inter Milan‘s Nicolò Barella, and Napoli‘s living deity Scott McTominay finished higher.
Aït-Nouri scored four goals and added seven assists for a bad Wolves team. Outside of moving the ball forward with passing, he contributed at an above-average level or better among full backs in all aspects of possession play.
And, well, Cherki has long been one of my favorite players in Europe. More than two years ago, I wrote the following words: “He’s also already way too good to be acquired for anything less than only the best teams in the world can afford.” And, well, City just got him for the going rate of an impact sub. Only two players aged 21 or younger created more value in possession across the Big Five leagues this season:
You can see how this all works from a holes-filling perspective: City haven’t had a genuine full back since João Cancelo and manager Pep Guardiola had a falling out. Aït-Nouri fixes that. Reijnders’ ability to make runs into the box evokes some memories of Ilkay Gündogan. And Cherki’s passing is as good as pretty much anyone this side of Kevin De Bruyne, who recently left for Napoli on a free transfer.
The problem, though: none of these guys are great athletes or great defenders.
Aït-Nouri had his best season as a pro once he was moved to wing back and had less defensive responsibility. He’s fast, but we still haven’t seen him play at a consistent level of high intensity. And Reijnders and Cherki are genuinely below-average defenders at their positions.
To get max value out of Reijnders, you need him running into the box; and for that to work, you need other players to cover for him. And with Cherki, you need other players to cover for him because he just gives you almost nothing without the ball. Throw all of these guys into the mix and City are going to be even worse defensively than they were last season.
In other words: for these players to fit together, Rodri better be fully recovered by the time the Premier League starts on Aug. 16.
Real Madrid: They want it to be easy
They almost did it again. Almost.
Last summer, Real Madrid got Kylian Mbappé to run down his PSG contract and join the club without a transfer fee. This summer, Real Madrid got Alexander-Arnold to run down his Liverpool contract and join the club without a transfer fee.
But then they got impatient. Liverpool didn’t have to release Alexander-Arnold from his contract until it expired on June 30, but the Club World Cup started on June 14. So, rather than wait two weeks, they paid Liverpool €10 million to bring him in early. This doesn’t feel like the result of a protracted, complicated negotiation. It feels like the amount of money you throw at someone to get them to shut up and make the deal. It’s also only 1% of their annual revenue — an absurd collection of words for multiple different reasons.
In addition to Alexander-Arnold, Madrid signed the best young center back on the market and the best teenage prospect available. Dean Huijsen is Spanish and just turned 20 in April. He was fantastic in his single season with Bournemouth and had a €59.5 million release clause in his contract. Madrid activated the clause, offered Huijsen a massive raise and the deal was done before last season even ended.
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Huijsen reflects on ‘dream’ Real Madrid transfer
Dean Huijsen speaks about his move to Real Madrid and whether he wants to wear the No. 4 jersey.
It was a similar story with River Plate‘s 17-year-old Franco Mastantuono. It seemed as if he might be headed to PSG, but Madrid was his dream club. So, as the reporting goes, his agents dragged their feet and eventually Madrid came through with a bid to match his €45 million release clause. A few days later, he was signing with Madrid. Unlike with Alexander-Arnold and Huijsen, Real are letting Mastantuono stay with River Plate through the Club World Cup. Presumably, this made it easier to secure the deal.
When you have more official revenue and spending money than every other club in the world and you’re the dream club of so many of the best young players in the world, this whole team-building thing should be easy. Credit to Real Madrid for exploiting all of the different ways to make it so: waiting for players to come to them, activating release clauses and acting fast on players who send them a signal.
Plus, these players all make sense on this roster. I still have no idea what incoming coach Xabi Alonso is going to try to do with the team. He definitely will have more tactical ideas than the normal Madrid manager does. But beyond wanting to keep the ball, his three years at Leverkusen aren’t a big enough sample to tell us what he’s going to try to do at a new club, with a very different collection of players.
However, one of Madrid’s biggest problems last season was their inability to progress the ball up the field in any kind of systematic way. Well, Alexander-Arnold is a ball-progression system unto himself. And Huijsen was a brilliant ball carrier and passer as a teenager in the Premier League, the hardest league in the world in which to progress the ball. Mastantuono is more of a project — he literally has made only 16 league starts for River — but his passing and dribbling were out of this world for a player at his age.
I write this basically every transfer season, and it remains true after the early-June mini-window: Chelsea Football Club are building a collection of undervalued players who only accidentally resemble a soccer team. If there’s a young player available who they can either sign for what they view as a below-market rate or whose contract will allow them to financially engineer a better accounting balance, they’re going to do it.
The 22-year-old scored 12 goals last season for one of the worst teams in the league. He is English and is a product of the Manchester City system. Players who tick all of those boxes tend to go for more than what Chelsea paid to free Delap from his contract.
It’s just hard to see how he fits in at Chelsea. He’s big and fast — but not faster or a better runner, creator or shot getter than Nicolas Jackson. And at Ipswich, Delap never really generated a high number of shots or a high number of anything, really, other than dribbles. Perhaps he’ll develop and play up in a team with better talent around him and more of the ball. But to really see Delap as a contributor on a Champions League team, it requires a lot of projection.
Now that’s fine. And teams should be willing to make midsize bets on prospects they think might develop or retain their transfer value. Delap is one of those players — but Chelsea already have so many of those players. You can’t build an entire team out of those players, but that’s not going to stop this new ownership group from trying.
Manchester United: Aiming for 10th place
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was supposed to fix this when his INEOS acquired a minority stake in Manchester United in 2023 and took control of football operations.
INEOS was supposed to realize that this team wasn’t remotely close to competing for a Champions League place, let alone a league title. It was supposed to stop trying to win now and instead try to win four or five years from now. It was supposed to create a culture that was agnostic of the manager. Yes, the coach mattered, but given the average manager only lasts for two years, at most, the path to sustainable long-term success wasn’t a transformative coach but rather a transformation of the club’s on-field vision.
One of the cheat codes to fast-track a championship and fulfill that vision: a homegrown player who becomes a superstar. Per some estimates, Liverpool saved close to €150 million from not having to go out and acquire Alexander-Arnold. Arsenal are probably getting even more from Bukayo Saka, given that he plays the premium position in the sport. These kinds of players basically give you €100 million extra to invest in the rest of your team.
I’m not saying Alejandro Garnacho will ever hit the same level as either Alexander-Arnold or Saka, but Garnacho is quite easily United’s best in-house prospect. Here’s where he ranked among all players 20 and under across the Big Five leagues for that expected goal and possession value number mentioned earlier:
And yet it seems as if the club — particularly manager Ruben Amorim — have decided to move on from the Argentina international because of off-field or interpersonal issues. You’d think that a club with a healthy culture would be able to handle a theoretically immature but incredibly talented 20-year-old. You’d also think Garnacho provides way more value to Manchester United than Amorim does.
But let’s say it was impossible to keep Garnacho with the team because of maturity issues or whatever. Well, then I have a hard time understanding how replacing him with €74.2 million worth of Matheus Cunha is the answer.
With Wolves, Cunha had a number of his own controversies this season — with opponents, opposing staff and his own fans. Plus, he is six years older than Garnacho. And while Cunha was a much more valuable player this past season, I’m not sure there’s any reason to believe he’ll be more effective in the future.
Why? Well, he scored 15 goals — but they came on just 8.65 xG:
The gap between goals and expected goals for Cunha was the third largest in the league, so he’s likely to regress back toward a more average level of finishing this season. A better representation of what to expect from him on the attacking end would be something like his non-penalty expected goals and assist rate per 90 minutes across his Wolves career. That number: 0.46, just a couple of ticks below the 0.49 that Garnacho has posted in his three seasons at United.
If Manchester United are going to make a serious run at a major trophy again, it’s not going to be for another four or five years. By then, Garnacho will only just be entering his prime years, while Cunha will be entering his 30s.
The pair’s latest announcement comes after Megan welcomed her in March. MGK announced the news on Instagram with a black-and-white video of him holding her hand at the time, writing, “She’s finally here!! Our little celestial seed.”
The “My Ex’s Best Friend” rocker also shared how he and his musician friends, including Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker, composed an instrumental track for the birth. Indeed, he shared that Megan gave birth to TK name into 432 Hz, a soothing frequency. He wrote, “What an epic journey. Praise God.”
Their newest addition to the family joins MGK’s 15-year-old daughter Casie—who he shares with ex Emma Cannon—and Megan’s kids Noah, 12, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, 8, from ex-husband Brian Austin Green.
British number one Jack Draper made comfortable progress to the last 16 at Queen’s with a 6-3 6-1 victory over American Jenson Brooksby, while top seed Carlos Alcaraz also advanced.
Spanish world number two Alcaraz was pushed well by determined lucky loser Adam Walton but got the job done in the end with a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) victory.
Draper and Brooksby were meeting for the second time this year, with Draper beating the 24-year-old at Indian Wells in March.
On that occasion Draper had to recover from going 4-1 down in the first set but there was no such trouble this time as he broke Brooksby’s serve in the seventh game before grabbing the double break to seal the set.
It was once again sweltering conditions in west London with the temperature at 26C when Draper and Brooksby entered the Andy Murray Arena, but the addition of a gentle breeze would have made things more palatable for the players.
But Draper still had no desire to hang around too long on court.
He broke Brooksby on his first service game and continued his momentum after a pause in play for a medical issue in the stands to get a second break and seal the win.
Draper, who wrote “Good to be home” on the television camera afterwards, will next face Australian Alexei Popyrin for a place in the quarter-finals.
The 23-year-old is hoping to emulate Murray and win at Queen’s Club. Murray’s success as a five-time singles champion there has been honoured this year by having the venue’s centre court named after him.
“Can’t get rid of this guy,” Draper joked about playing in the Andy Murray Arena. “Andy is an unbelievable guy, someone I’m very inspired by and I wouldn’t be where I am without him.
“I definitely miss him on the Tour. Thank you Andy, this court deserves to be named after you.”
In other action on Tuesday, American sixth seed Ben Shelton was stunned by lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech of France 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4).
The Frenchman will next play Reilly Opelka of the United States after he beat Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
Czech Jiri Lehecka saw off Australian fifth seed Alex de Minaur 6-4 6-2 to progress to the last 16, while American Brandon Nakashima needed thee sets to overcome Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France 6-7 (10-12) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says immigrants in America need to treat the country as if they’re houseguests and do everything they can to “keep things clean.”
“I just think the world of the great kind of history that we have with immigrants in America,” the bodybuilder-turned “Terminator” star-turned-California’s former Republican governor said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View.”
“But the key thing also is, at the same time, that we got to do things legal — that is the important thing,” Schwarznegger, who was born in Austria before immigrating to the U.S. in 1968, said when asked by “View” co-host Joy Behar whether he had a “visceral reaction” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
“Those people that are doing illegal things in America, and they’re the foreigners, they are not smart,” Schwarzenegger, 77, said.
“Because when you come to America, you’re a guest, and you have to behave like a guest,” he continued.
“Like when I go to someone’s house and I’m a guest, then I will do everything I can to keep things clean, and to make my bed and to do everything that is the right thing to do rather than committing a crime, or being abusive or something like that,” the “FUBAR” actor said.
Immigrants come to the country, Schwarzenegger said, to “use America for the great opportunities that America has in education, in jobs, creating a family, all of those kind of things.”
“Then you have to think about, ‘OK, if I get all of those things from America, then I have to give something back,'” advised Schwarzenegger, who became a U.S. citizen in 1983.
“You have a responsibility as an immigrant to give back to America, and to pay back America, and to go and do something for your community for no money whatsoever,” he said.
“Give something back to after school programs, Special Olympics, or whatever it is — make this country a better place.”
Schwarzenegger also weighed in on mass demonstrations in Los Angeles by anti-ICE protesters and President Trump recently saying he would support arresting Gavin Newsom (D) following a dare by the California governor to White House border czar Tom Homan.
“I think the most important thing is, when you are in a leadership position like that, is that you are inclusive and that you work together with everybody,” Schwarzenegger told co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin when asked how he would approach the situation in the Golden State if he was still governor.
“It means that you have to work together with local government, the state government and the federal government they have to work together rather than fighting each other.”
Calling for comprehensive immigration reform, Schwarzenegger said: “Democrats and Republicans have to come together and solve this issue if they really want to be public servants. If they want to be party servants, and be party hacks and be tied to their ideology, then it won’t happen.”
“But if you want to make this country better, and if you want to improve this country and improve the situation of people’s lives, and bring the prices down and all of this, you will go and serve the people of America.”
A prolonged conflict between Israel and Iran may do more than rattle energy markets. One argument on Wall Street is that it could push the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates sooner than expected.
“A sustained rise in oil prices could cause the Fed to strike a more dovish tone,” Oxford Economics chief US economist Ryan Sweet wrote in a recent note to clients, arguing that an extended oil shock could dent demand and potentially spill over into an otherwise resilient labor market.
That’s because, historically, sudden spikes in oil prices tend to cause only a temporary rise in inflation that the Fed usually overlooks. But with the economy already softening, a persistent surge could pose a bigger threat to growth and jobs than to inflation itself.
“The economy has slowed and is vulnerable to anything else going wrong, including a sudden and persistent increase in oil prices,” Sweet said. “If the Fed views the hit to the economy and the labor market as greater than the temporary boost to inflation, the central bank could signal that it’s open to cutting interest rates sooner.”
On Tuesday, oil prices rallied, with international benchmark Brent (BZ=F) rising above $75 a barrel after President Trump called for Tehran residents to evacuate and rebuffed the idea of an Israel-Iran ceasefire.
That contrasted with optimism on Monday, when the Wall Street Journal reported that tensions between Iran and Israel had eased, sparking a rally in US equities and stabilizing crude oil prices following last week’s biggest price surge in three years.
Sweet, whose baseline forecast is that the Fed will deliver its first rate cut in December, noted it may take weeks before markets gain a clearer sense of the direction of oil prices.
But unless the organization has somehow hidden an entire domestic mobile device supply chain right under our noses, this is virtually impossible. The T1 Phone, as it’s called, lists some decent midrange specs like a 6.8-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate screen. Offering it for $500 as soon as this fall? That would take a miracle. Case in point: a company called Purism makes a device called the Liberty Phone, which sources many of its parts from US companies and assembles it here. The cost? $2000, and you won’t find something as luxurious as an OLED panel there.
More likely the T1 will be a white label device with most or all of its production handled by a Chinese ODM, or original design manufacturer. These dozen or so companies are responsible for as much as 44 percent of smartphone shipments globally, largely handling budget models while OEMs like Samsung and Huawei focus on producing their own high-end devices.
So, which of these budget phones is closest to the pin? Because we love a good mystery, Verge staff spent the past 24 hours combing the likes of Amazon and GSMArena trying to piece it together.
With just a dubious set of specs to go on, we’ve narrowed it down to a handful of devices that might fit the description. Is the real T1 Phone somewhere in the mix? Will it be a customized version of one of these devices built to the Trump Organization’s specifications? Was this all a silly waste of time because this phone does not and will never exist at all? Who can say? In the meantime, leave a comment and let us know if you figured it out.
We found this one on Amazon through a rigorous search process, by which I mean we typed “Big Android phone” into the search bar. It’s the spitting image of an iPhone, or at least looks like someone used a rendering of a rumored iPhone and added the word DOOGEE to it. The camera array looks about right, and the screen is the correct size. It also claims to run Android 15. But it comes with a 6250mAh battery, which is bigger than the 5000mAh cell in the T1 that was initially described as a “long life camera” on the product page. Someone eventually fixed that yesterday, I guess.
We’ve got another iPhone imitator here, and this one has the right RAM and storage combo, plus its 6.78-inch screen matches the description. But it’s a 90Hz panel, and the T1 Phone claims to have a 120Hz display. The Ulefone also has an ultrawide camera, which the T1 seems not to have. But can’t you picture it in Mar-A-Lago Gold? Wouldn’t it be just fetching?
Maybe it’s the marble accents on this one, but I feel like this is a strong contender. This one has the headphone jack and the right-sized 6.8-inch screen, though it’s a 90Hz panel. There’s the Bold K20 too, which conveniently already comes in a gold finish. It would look right at home next to a bunch of gold spray painted decor from Alibaba.
Jamal Collier is an NBA reporter at ESPN. Collier covers the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and the Midwest region of the NBA, including stories such as Minnesota’s iconic jersey swap between Anthony Edwards and Justin Jefferson. He has been at ESPN since Sept. 2021 and previously covered the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune. You can reach out to Jamal on Twitter @JamalCollier or via email Jamal.Collier@espn.com.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton insisted on playing through a sore right calf in the second half of Indiana’s 120-109 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, despite concerns at halftime after he aggravated the injury during the first quarter Monday night.
Haliburton went to the locker room early in the game before returning in the second quarter with his calf wrapped. He finished the game, but his production was limited. He scored four points, matching the lowest scoring total of his playoff career, and finished without a field goal for the first time in his playoff career, going 0-for-6 from the field.
“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete, help my teammates any way I can.
“I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play.”
Haliburton limped off after his postgame news conference following Game 2, with what was later revealed to be a right ankle injury. On Monday, he acknowledged this injury was in the “same area.”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said it was clear Haliburton was not 100% but did not expect him to miss any games, especially with Indiana’s season on the line following Monday’s defeat.
The Pacers now trail 3-2 in the series. Game 6 is Thursday in Indianapolis.
“[Haliburton’s] not a hundred percent,” Carlisle said. “There’s a lot of guys in the series that aren’t.
“This is a lifetime opportunity. Not many guys are going to sit, even if they are a little banged up. If you’re injured, that’s a different story. But we’ll evaluate everything with Tyrese and see how he wakes up tomorrow.”
Haliburton had six total drives in Game 5, according to tracking by GeniusIQ, his fewest in a game this postseason and tied for the second fewest in a playoff game in his career.
But he still did his best to make an impact, adding six assists and seven rebounds in 34 minutes.
“Just trying to keep pace in the game, impact whatever way I can,” Haliburton said. “Try to get the ball to guys in the right spots if I can.”
Still, it will be hard for the Pacers to pull off an upset over the Thunder if Haliburton is limited. They are 6-7 this postseason when Haliburton scores 20 or fewer points (8-0 when he scores more than 20).
“He’s a fighter,” said Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, who led the team with 28 points. “He’s been our rock all year. He’s a big reason why we’re here. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong, but I know he’s fighting and he’s going to give us everything he’s got.
“One thing he showed, his resiliency. He showed that all year. We can continue to count on him to keep fighting. I admire that from him, just because I know that it’s hard. We’ve got a couple of days. Take care of our bodies, rest well and be ready for Game 6.”
Even with Haliburton limited Monday night, the Pacers rallied from a double-digit first-half deficit to cut the lead to 95-93 with 8:30 remaining in the fourth quarter. However, the Thunder went on a 25-16 run to end the game.
Indiana finished with 22 turnovers, which led to 32 points for Oklahoma City.
“We feel like we did a good job in the second half of putting pace in the game, and really getting out and running,” Haliburton said. “We thought we did a better job of that in the second half, but we have to really cut down on the turnovers. The turnovers are really killing us right now, especially the first half. We know we can be better there.”
Monday’s loss was the first time all postseason the Pacers have dropped back-to-back games, ending a streak dating back to March. Resiliency is something Indiana has prided itself on throughout this playoff run.
Haliburton said the Pacers are going to have to tap into that again to keep their season alive.
“We’ve had our backs against the wall many different times over the last two years and had to find different ways to win,” he said. “The way that this year has gone, nobody said this was going to be sweet.
“It’s kind of poetic that we’re here. We’ve got to be ready to go for Game 6. Our backs are against the wall. It’s a really tough team. … Everybody has to be prepared. It starts with me, and we’ve all got to be better. That’s just point-blank, period.”
Liverpool: They want to run — and win
Manchester City: Don’t worry, Rodri will fix everything
Real Madrid: They want it to be easy
Chelsea: Value, value, value
Manchester United: Aiming for 10th place
