Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump works behind the counter during a visit to McDonalds in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 20, 2024.
Doug Mills | Via Reuters
Though President Donald Trump visited a Pennsylvania McDonald’s location on Sunday, the fast-food giant is trying to stay neutral in the presidential race.
“As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation in this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President,” the company said in an internal message viewed by CNBC and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter.
Trump learned how to operate a fry cooker and work the drive-thru line during his short shift at a Feasterville, Pennsylvania, restaurant. He used the stunt as an opportunity to take more shots at his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump often accuses Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s for a summer in her 20s, but has offered no proof backing up the claim. Harris has denied the accusation. McDonald’s and its franchisees don’t have all of their employment records for workers dating back to the early 1980s, when the 60-year-old Harris would have worked there, the company said in the Sunday memo.
“Though we are not a political brand, we’ve been proud to hear former President Trump’s love for McDonald’s and Vice President Harris’s fond memories working under the Arches,” McDonald’s said.
Both McDonald’s and the franchisee who operates the location emphasized that the chain opens its doors to “everyone.”
The photo shows a letter outside the McDonald’s verifying it was closed to the public at the time of Trump’s visit.
Lauren Mayk | NBC Philadelphia
“As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community,” franchisee Derek Giacomantonio said in a statement. “That’s why I accepted former President Trump’s request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”
Although McDonald’s publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, it has tried to portray itself as an apolitical brand to avoid alienating customers. It follows a broader shift in Corporate America away from politics or initiatives perceived as ideological.
A number of companies, including Ford, Lowe’s and Harley-Davidson, have walked back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices this year.
And that’s a change that many Americans want; only 38% of U.S. adults believe that businesses should take public stances, down from 48% in 2022, according to a Gallup-University of Bentley study conducted this spring.
But McDonald’s has already been involved with another controversy this election cycle.
In late May, several viral social media posts criticized the burger giant’s affordability, citing everything from an $18 Big Mac meal at a Connecticut location to charts that alleged the chain’s prices had more than doubled over the last five years. Republicans latched onto the controversy, tying a jump inMcDonald’s menu prices to Biden’s economic policy in a bid to win over voters fed up with inflation.
To quell the controversy, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger wrote an open letter and released fact sheets about the company’s pricing.
From the earliest days of her candidacy, one topic has loomed over Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid: her track record with criminal justice reform in the United States.
On Tuesday, Harris — the Democratic nominee for the presidency — had a chance to address some of the criticisms, in a town hall-style interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God.
It was also an opportunity for Harris, the former attorney general of California, to bolster support among the Black community.
While the vast majority of Black voters identify with the Democratic Party, recent polls show their backing for Harris is not as strong as in 2020, when fellow Democrat Joe Biden was running for president.
Harris took the offensive on Tuesday, very quickly steering the conversation towards correcting the record about her candidacy.
“Folks say you come off as very scripted,” Charlamagne began, in the first minute of their conversation. “They say you like to stick to your talking points —”
The vice president immediately jumped in. “That would be called discipline,” she quipped.
It was an apparent effort to draw a distinction between herself and her Republican rival Donald Trump, whose public appearances are often described as rambling.
Harris continued to give sharp rebuttals to criticisms of her public appearance as buttoned-up.
“What do you say to people who say you stay on the talking points?” Charlamagne asked.
“I would say, ‘You’re welcome,’” she replied.
Charlamagne tha God, co-host of iHeartMedia’s morning show The Breakfast Club, speaks to Kamala Harris in Detroit for a radio town hall [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]
Prosecutor past under spotlight
A former prosecutor who became district attorney of San Francisco and then attorney general of California, Harris has long faced scrutiny for her approach to criminal justice.
On the campaign trail this election cycle, Harris’s allies have sought to leverage her background to the Democrat’s advantage, framing the race as a battle between “the prosecutor” and “the felon”.
Trump, after all, has 34 felony convictions to his name, after he was found guilty in May of falsifying business records in relation to a hush-money payment to an adult film actor.
Harris herself has leaned into that framing. On July 23, shortly after she launched her presidential campaign, Harris struck a contrast between herself and Trump, who faces a total of four criminal indictments.
“Before I was elected vice president, before I was elected United States senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California, and I was a courtroom prosecutor before then,” Harris told a rally in Wisconsin.
“And in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
But critics have blasted Harris for that same history as a prosecutor, with members of both the right and left slamming her policies.
Progressives, on one hand, have criticised her hard-handed approach to issues like student truancy: Harris famously championed a state law that would make parents eligible for a misdemeanour if their child were chronically absent from school without an excuse.
In 2014, Harris also opposed calls to implement an independent system to review the fatal use of force by police.
Critics at the time argued that local prosecutors work closely with police and are therefore unable to be objective when deciding whether to bring charges. Harris, however, said, “I don’t think it would be good public policy to take the discretion from elected district attorneys.”
Her opponents on the right, meanwhile, have accused Harris of being lax on crime and failing to adequately support law enforcement.
Decriminalising marijuana
In her interview with Charlamagne, Harris sought to tamp down on the criticism against her by branding it the product of right-wing misinformation.
“One of the biggest challenges that I face is mis- and dis-information,” Harris told the radio host. “And it’s purposeful. Because it is meant to convince people that they somehow should not believe that the work I have done has occurred and has meaning.”
Charlamagne, for his part, called on Harris to answer several rumours swirling around her campaign.
“One of the biggest allegations against you is that you targeted and locked up thousands of Black men in San Francisco for weed. Some said you did it to boost your career. Some said you did it out of pure hate for Black men,” he said, asking: “What are the facts of that situation?”
Harris refuted the allegations, replying, “It’s just simply not true.”
She then pivoted to her work on lowering penalties for marijuana possession, an issue that disproportionately affects Black men.
A 2020 analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, found that Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for possessing the drug, compared to white people. The report, however, found no significant difference in marijuana use between the two populations.
That difference in arrest rates contributes to higher incarceration rates overall for Black men in the US. The Pew Research Center found that, in 2020, Black adults faced five times the rate of imprisonment as their white counterparts.
Referencing this discrepancy, Harris told Charlamagne that she would decriminalise marijuana on the federal level if elected president.
“My pledge is, as president, I will work on decriminalising it, because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations and specifically Black men,” she said on Tuesday.
Approximately 24 states have already taken steps to legalise small quantities of marijuana for recreational use. But on the federal level, the drug remains illegal, though the Biden administration has taken steps to lower penalties.
In May, for instance, Biden’s Justice Department initiated a new rule reclassifying marijuana as a “schedule III drug”, down from the highest rank under the Controlled Substances Act’s five-tier system.
That reclassification made the drug acceptable for medical use. It also indicated a shift in the government’s position, to acknowledge that marijuana is not as dangerous as the other drugs in its previous category, like heroin.
“As vice president, [I] have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule,” Harris told Charlamagne. “So instead of it being ranked up there with heroin, we bring it down.”
Charlamagne tha God pressed Vice President Harris about her commitment to the Black community in the US [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]
Attacking Trump on ‘stop and frisk’
Harris not only defended her criminal justice work as “progressive”, but she also actively attacked her Republican rival Trump for policies she warned would be detrimental to the Black community.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has championed a crackdown on crime in the US, proposing policies that critics warn could increase the use of excessive force among law enforcement officers — and cause the violation of civil liberties.
Last month, for instance, Trump floated the idea of having “one real rough, nasty day” for law enforcement to address property crime without restraint.
He has also pledged to strengthen police immunity from prosecution and push for increased use of “stop and frisk” policies.
“You have to do a policy of stop and frisk,” Trump told the TV show Fox and Friends in August, envisioning a situation where a police officer recognises a suspect on the street. “Stop and frisk and take their gun away.”
While the US Constitution protects people from “unreasonable search and seizure”, advocates say “stop and frisk” policies allow the police to search suspects in an un-intrusive manner if they have a “reasonable suspicion” they may be armed or dangerous.
But critics warn that “stop and frisk” has been used to racially profile people and harass them without warrant or cause. Some “stop and frisk” policies have therefore been struck down as unconstitutional.
Harris zeroed in on Trump’s support for “stop and frisk” in Tuesday’s interview.
“My opponent”, she said, would have “a formalised stop and frisk policy, for which he has said, if a police department does not do it, they should be defunded”.
“There is so much at stake” this election, she added, pointing to the potential risks for the Black community, which has been disproportionately targeted by such policies.
Pressure on Harris
Harris’s appearance on the radio town hall with Charlamagne came one day after the Democratic candidate made another major overture to Black voters, releasing an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men“.
That agenda outlined plans for decriminalising marijuana, promoting cryptocurrency and providing one million “forgivable” loans for Black entrepreneurs.
If elected, Harris would be the first woman — and the first person of mixed Black and South Asian descent — to win the White House.
But while she carries a majority of support among Black Americans, some pollsters see concern in how her numbers compare to the 2020 election. In that race, President Joe Biden carried 90 percent of Black votes, according to a survey from The New York Times and Siena College.
By contrast, only 76 percent of the Black electorate plan to vote for Harris, Biden’s vice president, in this year’s election. That’s a significant drop — and the poll showed even lower numbers among Black men.
Only 69 percent backed Harris, compared to 81 percent of Black women.
Trump has tried to make gains in that demographic — and he has even publicly questioned Harris’s identity as a Black woman.
During her town hall on Tuesday, Harris faced questions about her commitment to the Black community. One caller asked her about her “lack of engagement” with the Black church.
Harris refuted that claim too. She replied that she had grown up in the Black church.
“So first of all, that allegation is of course coming from the Trump team, because they are full of mis- and dis-information,” she said. “They are trying to disconnect me from the people I have worked with and that I am from, so they can try to have some advantage in this election.”
An icon of ASML is displayed on a smartphone, with an ASML chip visible in the background.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Shares in semiconductor equipment maker ASML fell 16% on Tuesday, after the Dutch company published financial results a day early, issuing disappointing sales forecasts.
ASML’s share plunge led the critical semiconductor firm to lose 48.7 billion euros ($52.99 billion) in market capitalization in a single day, according to CNBC calculations using LSEG data.
The move also pulled other chip stocks lower, with Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom all falling after the report.
Netherlands-based ASML on Tuesday said it expects net sales for 2025 to come in between 30 billion euros and 35 billion euros ($32.6 billion and $38.1 billion), at the lower half of the range it had previously provided.
Net bookings for the September quarter were 2.6 billion euros ($2.83 billion), the company said — well below the 5.6 billion euro LSEG consensus estimate. Net sales, however, beat expectations and reached 7.5 billion euros.
“While there continue to be strong developments and upside potential in AI, other market segments are taking longer to recover. It now appears the recovery is more gradual than previously expected,” company CEO Christophe Fouquet said in the earnings release.
AMSL
ASML said that the early publication of its results was the result of a technical error that led to erroneously publishing the report on a part of its website.
Wall Street analysts had turned more cautious on the company — a critical supplier to the broader semiconductor industry — in the lead-up to the earnings.
China concerns
ASML is facing a tougher business outlook in China due to U.S. and Dutch export restrictions on shipments.
ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines are used by many of the world’s largest chipmakers — from Nvidia to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — to produce advanced chips.
ASML Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said Tuesday that he expects the company’s China business to show a “more normalized percentage in our order book and also in our business.”
“We do see China trending towards more historically normal percentages in our business,” Dassen said, according to a transcript of a video that was also released a day early.
“So we expect China to come in at around 20% of our total revenue for next year. Which would also be in line with its representation in our backlog.”
In its June-quarter earnings presentation, ASML had said that 49% of its sales come from China.
‘Clearly disappointing’
In a note published following ASML’s results on Tuesday, analysts at Bernstein said the weaker-than-expected order book and a disappointing 2025 outlook were “likely to overshadow decent Q3 results.”
The analysts added that ASML’s lowered guidance indicates that “the delayed cyclical recovery and specific customer challenges are weighing heavily” on 2025 expectations.
Analysts at Cantor, meanwhile, said the downbeat outlook for ASML was “clearly disappointing” and will weigh on semiconductor stocks. However, they added that, “in no way shape or form does the company’s updated outlook indicate any change in the AI growth story.”
LA CROSSE, Wis. – It’s that time of year when the Gateway Area Council conducts its annual popcorn sales fundraiser.
Local Scouts across the Coulee Region will be out in front of stores and going door to door selling a variety of popcorn products and flavors.
Scouting America’s Fall 2024 Popcorn Sale runs Sep. 20 to Oct 30.
This year’s popcorn flavors feature the Classic Caramel Corn, Kettle Corn, Caramel with Seas Salt, Peanut Butter Cup, Cheddar Cheese, Sea Salt Splash and many others.
Proceeds from the sales fund Gateway Area Council scouting activities that include campouts, field trips, pinewood derbies, program materials and awards.
Scouts also earn prizes depending on their sales such as a free week at Camp Decorah, some fun at Jump State Park, a retro fan/lantern combo, plus patches and pins.
For more information, check out the Gateway Area Council website HERE—> Popcorn Sale
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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on July 3, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
U.S. stocks jumped on Monday after investors bought the dip following Wall Street’s worst week of the year, betting that a likely Federal Reserve rate cut later this month would bolster a slowing economy. Technology shares, among the hardest-hit stocks last week, were Monday’s top performers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 484.18 points, or 1.2%, to close at 40,829.59. The rebound comes after the 30-stock index lost more than 1,200 points last week. The S&P 500 gained 1.16%, ending at 5,471.05, after posting its worst week since March 2023. The benchmark also broke a four-day losing streak.
The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.16% to end at 16,884.60, following its worst week in more than two years. Nvidia‘s 3.5% gain helped lift the tech-heavy index. The artificial intelligence darling lost 14% last week.
Outside of tech, retailers, banks and industrial shares also mounted a comeback as investors believe a rate cut would give a boost to the flagging consumer. JPMorgan Chase, Costco, Amazon and Boeing were among the winners on Monday.
S&P 500, 1 month
“I do think you have a little short-term bounce here — we were a little bit oversold last week. However, the markets are very focused on how the economy is going to be now, rather than what inflation is going to do and what the economy is going to do,” said Sarat Sethi, managing partner at Douglas C. Lane & Associates. “When the uncertainty starts building … first thing you do is take some money off, especially since you’ve had such a good run this year.”
Investors are awaiting two key inflation reports that could further inform the Fed’s rate decision on Sept. 18. August’s consumer and producer price index reports are slated for release Wednesday and Thursday morning, respectively. Traders see it as a certainty the Fed will cut by at least a quarter point.
Monday’s rally comes after the stock market suffered serious losses to kick off its first trading week of September, which is historically a tough month for equities. These declines came as the August jobs report stoked fears of a slowing labor market. The S&P 500 averages a 0.7% decline in September, the worst track record of any month, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
Palantir and Dell Technologies popped 14% and 3.8%, respectively, after S&P Dow Jones Indices said late Friday the stocks will join the S&P 500.
Correction: Last week, the S&P 500 posted its worst week since March 2023. An earlier version misstated the year.
Brittney Griner composed herself in the restroom. All she needed was a moment before she was ready to celebrate.
Then the opening notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. Tears streamed down Griner’s face as she stood on top of the medal stand with her third Olympic gold medal around her neck.
2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games
“This gold medal is going to hold a special place amongst the two others I was fortunate to win,” Griner said.
In her first international tournament since returning from a nearly 10-month detention in Russia, Griner helped the United States to a historic eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. After being released through a prisoner swap, receiving letters from fans worldwide and getting the opportunity to return to basketball, Griner had a feeling her eyes would start to water a little bit on the podium if the United States won. But the depth of emotion she felt as she wiped tears from her eyes after the anthem seemed to surprise even her.
“My country fought for me to get back and I was able to bring home gold for my country,” Griner said. “There’s just no greater feeling being here on the highest stage that you can be on.”
American Brittney Griner wipes a tear after hearing the national anthem following the United States’ Olympic gold-medal win at Bercy Arena Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Griner averaged 7.3 points and 4.3 rebounds off the bench during the Olympics. She scored four points in the final that came down to the final shot as the United States survived for a one-point victory over France. No matter how much she played throughout the tournament, Griner was energetic and engaged with her teammates, encouraging them on the sideline in timeouts and hyping them up on the court.
“When you think of someone that’s a warrior, that’s a trooper, that’s going to be there no matter what and is going to be consistent and a true professional, it’s BG,” Olympic most valuable player A’ja Wilson said. “She showed that tonight. She shows that always.”
Griner has made her reintegration to everyday life look seamless. She returned in December 2022 and appeared at major events, including the Met Gala and the Super Bowl. She was back on the court for the beginning of the 2023 WNBA season and played in 31 games while averaging 17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds. She published a book detailing her experience in the penal colony where she worked making military uniforms.
But U.S. head coach Cheryl Reeve knew she needed to keep checking on Griner. Griner was supposed to participate in the team’s Olympic qualifier games in Belgium in February, but she “maybe just needed a little more time,” Reeve said.
“More than what she thought.”
Boarding the international flight was a big moment for Griner, longtime teammate Diana Taurasi said. The first train ride, Griner said, was difficult. The last train she rode overseas was a prison train.
“When you see BG around the team, her outward [looks like] she’s OK,” Reeve said. “You know that inside, there’s a lot going on there, but she always presents as her very best version of herself despite all that she’s been through. And she is thankful to be here.
Reeve repeated it for emphasis: “She is so thankful to be here.”
Griner credits therapy for helping her get back onto the court. She praised her teammates for support throughout the Olympics in France, which began in Lille, a city near the northern French border near Belgium, and ended in Paris where the team played three knockout rounds.
After surviving the toughest test of them all — a physical France team fueled by its home crowd — Griner hugged her wife, Cherelle. She plans to celebrate the win by taking a photo of the couple’s newborn son with the gold medal. Then Griner will get back to work.
The Phoenix Mercury return from the WNBA Olympic break with back-to-back games on Aug. 16-17.
The “World’s Fastest Man” will have an unexpectedly quick exit from the Paris Olympics.
Just hours after finishing third in the 200m final, considered to be his strongest event, Noah Lyles said that he seems to have run his last race in these Games. It also comes after his mother shared with NBC Olympics that Lyles had tested positive for COVID.
“I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics. it is not the Olympic I dreamed of but it has left me with so much Joy in my heart. I hope everyone enjoyed the show,” Lyles wrote in an Instagram post. “Whether you were rooting for me or against me, you have to admit you watched, didn’t you? 😉 See you next time.”
Lyles was next scheduled to compete in the men’ 4x100m relay final on Friday, but it appears he will not be a part of that foursome.
It’s been an eventful five days for Lyles. He came into the Olympics talking a big game, and he delivered right off the bat, winning the men’s 100m final Sunday evening.
Lyles was the favorite to win the 200m race as well, as he is considered the best in the world in it, but could not deliver another gold, instead finishing third with a time of 19.70 seconds. That was behind Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who took the gold with a time of 19.46 seconds, and teammate Kenneth Bednarek’s time of 19.62 seconds, which was good for second.
U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles was unable to compete the Olympic double, but did earn a bronze in the men’s 200m for the second straight Olympic Games. Lyles, who has asthma, ran the race despite testing positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
But soon after the race was finished, his mother said he had tested positive for COVID earlier in the week. Lyles needed medical attention after the race, but it wasn’t clear what the issue was or if it was related to his COVID diagnosis. Commentators said Lyles was seen taken off from the track in a wheelchair by medical personnel after the race.
“As we saw Noah Lyles being taken off there in a wheelchair, I ran down underneath the stadium to try to find where he was. I ran into his mom, Keisha Caine Bishop, who was distraught trying to find him as well. We found Noah Lyles in medical there being tended to,” NBC Olympics’ commentator Lewis Johnson said.
The mother confirmed the diagnosis from two days ago, but Lyles opted to run anyway. He said he never considered not running in the race.
“Yeah, I woke up early about 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning and I just was feeling really horrible,” Lyles said. “I knew it was more than just being sore from the 100. You know, woke up the doctors and we tested and unfortunately, it came up that I was positive for COVID. My first thought was not to panic…And we just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much, quarantined off. And I’d definitely say it’s taken it’s toll for sure, but I’ve never been more proud of myself.”
It’s the second straight Olympics the virus has played a major role in Lyles’ trip to the Games. He also won the bronze in the Tokyo Olympics, and he has said the empty stands and a year delay before the Games led to depression that he said hampered his performance and inspired his road to Paris.
Watch U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles win the men’s 100m at the Paris Olympics.
“It was really weird and awkward, not our favorite. None of us liked it,” Biles told reporters after finishing fifth of eight on the beam despite having qualified in second place.
Although it might seem counterintuitive, gymnasts often prefer noisy arenas, even on an apparatus as precarious as the 10cm-wide beam, since it helps the athlete to focus more on the task at hand.
“Honestly, we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels most like practice,” Biles said.
While several gymnasts are seen competing simultaneously on multiple apparatus during the team and all around finals, the format of apparatus finals means only one individual competes at any given time.
It adds to the pressure as each performer is keenly aware that every set of eyes in the arena is centered upon them.
“You could feel the tension in the room. I mean, the crowd shushing us for cheering like we were, we didn’t like that because it’s just so silent in there,” Lee, one of four finalists to suffer a fall off the beam, said after placing sixth.
Caroline Marks and Tatiana Weston-Webb headed into the gold medal bout having persevered through two drastically different semifinal rounds.
Marks won by the slimmest of margins, delivering a clutch wave as time expired to tie the score. However, since her last wave was the highest of the heat she took the tiebreak win over France’s Johanne Defay, exacting revenge for her teammate Carissa Moore, whom Defay knocked out in the quarterfinals.
Weston-Webb, on the other hand, had an incredibly easy semifinal round. Her opponent, Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, made a massive mistake early on, receiving a priority interference and a significant penalty: She would only get to count one wave score. Weston-Webb calmly served up a pair of five-plus rides to clinch her spot in the gold medal match with nearly half of the period remaining.
The women were hoping for gorgeous waves in the gold medal final after seeing the men receive pristine sets. They had to wait a little longer than expected, though, as the first major score opportunity didn’t arrive until nearly halfway through the gold medal final.
It was Marks that struck first, entering with a tardy drop that allowed her to stall right in the pit of the barrel. She disappeared for a moment before bursting through the foam for a clean exit and a 7.50.
Once she had set herself up with the lead, the American’s IQ took over. Marks recognized the scarcity of hollow swells rolling in and played priority throughout the latter half of the final. She padded her advantage with some decent rides when she could and blocked Weston-Webb when the few larger waves came through.
In the final moments, she tried to put it away with a huge score, but a wipeout left the door open for the Brazilian. Weston-Webb found the wave she’d been waiting for and dropped in to try to steal the match. The barrel never formed though, and she adapted to string together a few great turns and took the wave for as long as she possibly could, beaching herself on the shallow reef.
Needing just a 4.68 to win the gold, the surfers both anxiously awaited the score announcement after time ran out. Eventually, the loudspeakers announced a 4.50 — just shy of what Weston-Webb needed to take over the lead.
With another tight victory secured, Marks arrived back to shore on the shoulders of her coaches, draped in the American flag as an Olympic champion. At just 22 years old, she became the latest Olympic champion in women’s surfing.
