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Walmart’s quarterly sales and profits smashed expectations on Thursday — one day after Target said its revenue dropped for the first time in six years as a result of customers negative reaction to its Pride Month collection.

Walmart’s earnings release showed that e-commerce increased a whopping 24% in the 13-week period ended July 28, buoyed mostly by pickup and delivery orders placed online.

Sales at stores and digital channels open for at least a year were up 6.4% — well above the 4% Bloomberg analysts expected — and international net sales increased 11%, to $27 billion.

Foot traffic was also up 2.8% across the Arkansas-based discount retailer’s portfolio of 10,500-plus locations.

The gains prompted Walmart to raise its annual profit forecast for the second straight quarter.

“We like our position for the back half of the year,” Walmart’s longtime chief executive, Doug McMillon, said in the earnings report.

Strong revenue was attributed to increased grocery sales, though McMillon pointed out that there were also encouraging results across general merchandise, especially at Sam’s Club, where membership income climbed 7%.

The Post has sought comment from Walmart.

Retail rival Target, meanwhile, lowered its profit goal for the full year after a dismal quarter where sales, foot traffic and inventory dipped.

The losses were attributed to consumers’ “negative reaction” to its Pride collection, which included tuck-friendly women’s swimwear and LGBTQ-friendly gear for infants and children that particularly outraged many shoppers.

Targets CFO Michael Fiddelke addressed the Minneapolis-based retailer’s disastrous rainbow-clad collection in an earnings call on Wednesday, saying: Traffic and top line trends were affected by the reaction to our Pride assortment.

Sales at stores and digital channels open for at least a year were off 5.4% from a year earlier, according to Targets Q2 earnings report released Wednesday, while digital sales slipped 10.5%.

Fiddelke said on the call that the retailer couldnt quantify the impact the Pride collection alone had on comparable sales.

Targets revenue for the three-month period ended July 29 was $24.8 billion 4.9% lower than this time last year and worse than the companys predictions.

The figure was slightly under the $25.2 billion economists expected, though the dip isnt surprising considering Targets stock lost nearly $14 billion as the Pride Month controversy grabbed headlines.

Though Walmart also offered items in celebration of Pride — part of its “Pride & Joy” collection — it seemed to fly under the radar of conservative pundits who, at the time, were accusing Target of grooming children with its merchandise, which included a childrens book titled Twas the Night Before Pride, and a handful of T-shirts donning LGBTQ-friendly slogans, like live laugh lesbian.”

Target responded to the backlash by yanking some of its Pride items off shelves and relocating its celebratory displays father back in stores.

The move then caused Pride supporters to condemn the company for falling victim to extremists, leading to a boycott from customers on both sides of the political aisle.

Walmart, meanwhile, refused to make any changes to its LGBTQ+-friendly merchandise despite the fierce criticism Target was experiencing.

We have merchandise that we sell all year that supports different groups, Walmart chief merchandising officer Latriece Watkins said at the start of Pride Month in June. In this particular case, we havent changed anything in our assortment.

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Politics

NAYG lawsuit against Galaxy was ‘lawfare, pure and simple’ — Scaramucci

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<div>NAYG lawsuit against Galaxy was ‘lawfare, pure and simple' — Scaramucci</div>

<div>NAYG lawsuit against Galaxy was ‘lawfare, pure and simple' — Scaramucci</div>

The New York State Attorney General’s (NAYG) recent legal action against Galaxy Digital over its promotional ties to the now-collapsed cryptocurrency Terra (LUNA) was unfair and an abuse of the legal system, says SkyBridge Capital and founder Anthony Scaramucci.

“It’s LAWFARE, pure and simple due to an obscure but dangerously powerful New York law known as the Martin Act,” Scaramucci said in a March 28 X post.

Martin Law can “open the door for abuse”

“The law has no need to prove intent, creating a low standard of proof that can open the door for abuse like this. It shouldn’t exist,” he said.

New York’s Martin Act is one of the US’s strictest anti-fraud and securities laws, allowing prosecutors the power to pursue financial fraud cases without needing to prove intent. The NAYG alleged that Galaxy Digital violated the Martin Act over its alleged promotion of Terra, with Galaxy Digital agreeing to a $200 million settlement.

According to NAYG documents filed on March 24, Galaxy Digital acquired 18.5 million LUNA tokens at a 30% discount in October 2020, then promoted them before selling them without abiding by disclosure rules. 

Scaramucci reiterated that Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratz was under the impression everything he was saying about Luna was true, as he had been deceived by Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon.

Law, New York, United States, Terra

Source: Amanda Fischer

Meanwhile, MoonPay president of enterprise, Keith Grossman, said he had never heard of the Martin Act and had to look it up using AI chatbot ChatGPT.

“It is so broad and essentially is the essence of lawfare,” Grossman said. “Sorry you got caught in the crosshairs of it, Mike,” he added.

Related: Sonic unveils high-yield algorithmic stablecoin, reigniting Terra-Luna ‘PTSD’

The filing alleged that Galaxy helped a “little-known” token, referring to LUNA, increase its market price from $0.31 in October 2020 to $119.18 in April 2022 while “profiting in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano said he isn’t familiar with the details of the lawsuit but vouched for Novogratz, calling him a “good man” who has devoted a lot of time and money to helping others.

The Terra collapse is one of the crypto industry’s most infamous failures. In March 2024, SEC attorney Devon Staren said in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that Terra was a “house of cards” that collapsed for investors in 2022.

Magazine: Arbitrum co-founder skeptical of move to based and native rollups: Steven Goldfeder

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Sports

Betts revels in walk-off HR after emotional week

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Betts revels in walk-off HR after emotional week

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts watched his drive sail over Dodger Stadium’s left-field fence late Friday night, and the emotions spilled out of him as if he had delivered a walk-off in October, not March. An emphatic raised finger was followed by a forceful fist bump, then an emphatic toss of his helmet and a deafening roar as he pranced toward his teammates at home plate.

Betts hadn’t just sent the Los Angeles Dodgers to an 8-5, come-from-behind victory over the Detroit Tigers on the same day their World Series rings were distributed. He hadn’t just given the Dodgers their first 4-0 start to a season since 1981. He had done so in the wake of a debilitating illness that caused him to shed almost 20 pounds and often made him wonder if he could muster the energy to provide moments like this.

“That was super special,” Betts said. “I know it sounds super selfish, but more for me. I was really proud of myself for coming in and playing underweight. Not that it’s a big deal playing underweight, but just the fight that I’ve kind of been through — the ups and downs, and the nights I’m just crying because I’m sick, and my wife’s there holding me. That’s where the emotion comes from.”

As the Dodgers prepared to fly to Japan and begin their season last week, Betts, who had spent the past four months pouring himself into the arduous task of becoming an everyday shortstop, struggled to keep food down.

He didn’t play in either of the team’s first two regular-season games against the Chicago Cubs from Tokyo Dome and was instead sent home early. He was supposed to play in the Dodgers’ exhibition opener against the Los Angeles Angels the ensuing Sunday, but he was a late scratch. Vomiting persisted. By that point, Betts’ weight had dropped from 175 pounds to 157.

But a day later, Betts started to turn a corner. He played five-and-a-half innings in the Dodgers’ exhibition finale Tuesday, then faced live pitching during the off day Wednesday. By the time the home opener came around roughly 24 hours later, Betts was back to feeling like his normal self. And on Friday, he made his presence felt.

With one out in the sixth, Betts recorded just the second hit off former Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, then came around to score on Freddie Freeman‘s tying two-run homer. In the bottom of the eighth, he hit what would have been the game-winning home run had the Tigers not come back to tie the score in the top of the ninth.

In the 10th, Betts capped a five-run inning by coming up with runners on second and third and the score tied, working the count full against Beau Brieske, then turning on a low changeup and sending it 376 feet.

“Just given what he’s been under the last couple weeks, and still to go out there and be ready, and not be 100 percent, and still give us everything he has, coming up huge — I can’t say enough about Mookie,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Betts is just the second player to hit multiple go-ahead homers in the eighth inning or later since the franchise moved to L.A. 67 years ago, according to ESPN Research. The other was Andre Ethier, who did the same on Aug. 2, 2015 — at about four inches taller and roughly 50 pounds heavier.

“I didn’t lose much strength, relative for my weight,” said Betts, who has since regained eight pounds but would still like to add another eight more. “I’m still pretty strong. But obviously as you add on more weight you can add on more strength. Right now I’m just having fun hitting 160-pound homers.”

Betts’ homer capped an epic two-day stretch for a Dodgers team that opened its season more than 5,000 miles away and is still coming off the high of its first full-season championship since 1988.

On Thursday, iconic rapper Ice Cube drove a Dodger Blue Chevy Bel-Air along Dodger Stadium’s foul territory with the World Series trophy strapped to the passenger seat, then brought it onto the field with the team lined up along the third-base line. On Friday, each of the Dodgers’ coaches and players walked onto a makeshift stage by the pitcher’s mound to receive gaudy championship rings decorated with 343 diamonds and 129 sapphires.

Amid all the pomp and circumstance, the 2025 Dodgers, seen as one of the most talented teams ever assembled, continued to win. They breezed past the Cubs in Japan without Betts and Freeman, then came back to the United States and snuck past the Tigers thanks in large part to a pitching staff that stranded 11 baserunners. On Friday, they fell behind twice and kept coming back.

“It kind of feels like we’re just picking up where we left off last year,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “There’s still a whole lot of fight on this team. There’s no give up.”

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Science

NASA to Launch Three Rockets in Alaska to Study Auroral Substorms’ Impact

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NASA to Launch Three Rockets in Alaska to Study Auroral Substorms’ Impact

An important mission is set to take place in Alaska. It aims to understand how auroral substorms impact the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Three rockets will be launched within a short window to observe the movement of air and changes in composition at high altitudes. Scientists seek to determine whether the heat from auroras causes vertical movement or if waves spread the energy across a wider area. The findings could improve space weather forecasting, which is crucial for satellites and communication systems.

Study Objective and Launch Plan

According to the reports from the experiment titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events (AWESOME), the rockets will be launched from Poker Flat Research Range. The facility, located 20 miles north of Fairbanks, is managed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks under a NASA contract. The launch window is open from 24 March to April 6.

A four-stage rocket and two two-stage rockets will be used. The first two will release tracers at specific altitudes to study wind movement. The third rocket will release vapour tracers at five different altitudes. The tracers, in pink, blue and white, should be visible for up to 20 minutes. Ground cameras will capture the data under specific lighting conditions.

Scientific Goals and Observations

Mark Conde, a space physics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, leads the project. The experiment aims to determine how auroras affect air movement. One theory suggests vertical convection plays a key role, while another proposes that acoustic-buoyancy waves cause a broader atmospheric impact. The research could reshape current understanding and refine space weather models.

A team of graduate researchers will monitor the launches from various sites in Alaska, including Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, and Toolik Lake. The results may provide better insights into how auroral events alter atmospheric conditions and influence satellite-dependent technology.

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