Despite persistent talk of James Harden’s future dominating NBA headlines earlier this year, the veteran guard’s situation has quietly shifted away from trade speculation and toward a straightforward negotiation: finalizing a new multiyear contract to remain with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team he joined midseason in a blockbuster February trade.

Harden, 36, was dealt to Cleveland from the Los Angeles Clippers at the trade deadline in exchange for Darius Garland and a 2026 second-round pick, a move that reshaped the Cavaliers’ championship ambitions almost overnight. Months later, rather than facing renewed trade rumors, Harden finds himself working through the terms of a new deal with the same organization that acquired him.

Why Harden is technically a free agent

Harden’s contract included a $42.3 million player option for the 2026-27 season. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Harden declined that option on June 29, opting instead to enter negotiations with Cleveland on a new multiyear contract. That decision technically placed him on the open market as an unrestricted free agent, even though virtually all reporting on his situation has centered on a return to Cleveland rather than any serious interest from other teams.

The move mirrors a familiar pattern in Harden’s career. He has declined player options and re-signed with the same team on multiple prior occasions, including with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022, when he agreed to a below-market deal specifically to give the team more roster-building flexibility.

Deal framework reportedly already in place

According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, the framework and dollar amount for Harden’s new contract with Cleveland were already worked out between the two sides as of early July, even as the deal had not yet been formally signed. The delay appears tied less to any disagreement over terms and more to how the rest of the league’s offseason dominoes fall.

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported that Harden is prepared to remain patient while Cleveland waits to see where LeBron James ultimately signs in free agency, since a smaller starting salary or an additional contract year for Harden could give the Cavaliers more financial flexibility to pursue James while still keeping their existing core roster intact. Harden has been described as one of the more vocal recruiters trying to bring James to Cleveland, actively lobbying for the future Hall of Famer to join the Cavaliers as part of his own free agency deliberations.

A strong market expectation Harden stays put

Prediction markets have consistently shown a heavy lean toward Harden remaining in Cleveland. According to reporting from Heavy.com, the probability of Harden staying with the Cavaliers stood above 90% on prediction platform Polymarket as recently as mid-July, even as those odds have shown some minor fluctuation amid the broader uncertainty created by James’ still-unresolved free agency decision.

The Cavaliers have already taken steps to lock in other key pieces of their roster this offseason, signing guard Donovan Mitchell to a new four-year contract extension in early July, a move that came just before reports of Harden’s own pending extension gained momentum.

How Harden ended up in Cleveland

Harden’s arrival in Cleveland followed a turbulent stretch with the Clippers, where his desire for a contract extension longer than the two-year, $82 million deal he had signed in the 2025 offseason reportedly led the team to explore trade options. A source close to the situation told The Stein Line’s Marc Stein and Jake Fischer at the time that the situation was “all about a contract extension,” as talks with Cleveland around a Harden-for-Garland swap developed in the days leading up to February’s trade deadline.

Once in Cleveland, Harden played a significant role in the Cavaliers’ postseason push, including several clutch performances that helped lift the team during their playoff run, before Cleveland was ultimately swept by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite that early playoff exit, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported afterward that the organization intended to bring Harden back, with the expectation that any new deal would be structured to help keep the team below the NBA’s second luxury tax apron.

A career marked by frequent moves, but not this time

Harden’s NBA career has included stints with six different franchises, along with a long history of forcing trades away from teams, including Houston, Brooklyn and Oklahoma City, when he grew dissatisfied with his role or a team’s direction. That history made his midseason arrival in Cleveland notable in its own right, and it has added a layer of intrigue to how differently his current situation has unfolded, with reporting suggesting mutual desire between Harden and the Cavaliers to continue the partnership rather than any indication of discord.

Reflecting the shift in tone surrounding his free agency, recent coverage of Harden has focused less on where he might be traded next and more on how his eventual contract terms might be structured to help Cleveland pursue other stars, a dynamic that stands in sharp contrast to the trade rumors that dominated his time with the Clippers earlier this year.

With the framework for Harden’s new deal reportedly already agreed upon, the primary remaining variable is timing, specifically, how the Cavaliers’ offseason plans, including any potential pursuit of LeBron James, ultimately play out. Once James makes his free agency decision, expected in the coming days according to recent reporting, Cleveland is expected to move quickly to finalize Harden’s new contract, closing the book on what has otherwise been one of the more anticlimactic resolutions to a star player’s free agency in recent memory, especially compared with the trade speculation that surrounded him for much of the past year.

Ford is planning to integrate Apple software into its next-generation fleet of electric vehicles, which will, in turn, help power hands-free driving technology.

Apple and Ford announced Thursday that Apple Maps will be included in the automakers’ new Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) platform through the use of Apple’s MapKit for Automotive SDK. Ford’s UEV will debut with a midsize electric in 2027, and buyers won’t need a separate Apple subscription to use the software in the vehicle.

The UEV will harness that tech to give drivers turn-by-turn directions with the use of natural language, giving them real-time traffic and incident information, as well as a search function that uses detailed place cards and routing options.

The partnership will also see Ford use road-level data from Apple Maps in the development of the company’s next-generation BlueCruise hands-free driving capability, as well as its in-house autonomous driving tech.

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Apple’s MapKit for Automotive SDK provides road-level information to help automakers develop self-driving technologies, and the company said the tool uses the same privacy practices as Apple Maps, noting that it doesn’t collect users’ location details and activity in a way that can be linked to the individual user.

“Apple Maps delivers the best map experience in the world, and we’re excited to bring the power of Maps’ navigation technology to Ford’s innovative Universal Electric Vehicle Platform,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of services and health.

“With our new MapKit for Automotive SDK, we’re bringing Maps further into drivers’ daily lives, giving them an incredibly accurate and easy-to-use navigation system that is seamlessly integrated into Ford vehicles.”

FORD REHIRES EXPERIENCED ENGINEERS AFTER AI MISSES THE MARK

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company’s next midsize EV will be priced around $30,000 and “redefines what advanced technology can be – simple, useful and truly attainable for more customers.”

“We’re proud to embed Apple Maps’ navigation and mapping technology directly into our Universal Electric Vehicle Platform alongside our Ford app, a full suite of software and next-generation BlueCruise, all enabled by a new zonal architecture,” Farley said.

“Apple Maps has delivered a world-class product, and we’re honored to be among the first to embed it directly into a vehicle, helping define intuitive, capable driving.”

APPLE TO INVEST $30 BILLION IN US CHIP MANUFACTURING

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
AAPL	APPLE INC.	321.66	-4.23	-1.30%
F	FORD MOTOR CO.	14.14	-0.26	-1.80%

Latitude AI, Ford’s wholly owned subsidiary focused on autonomous driving, is developing the company’s in-house advanced driving system. The Ford Large Driving Model supports a range of self-driving capabilities and has been derived from millions of miles of real-world driving data, the company said.

Ford and Latitude are designing both the hardware and software to be easily scalable across the automaker’s lineup of vehicles.

The company indicated that work “is vital to Ford and Latitude’s mission of democratizing autonomy and delivering a compelling experience at an attainable price point on the UEV Platform.”

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IBM CEO Arvind Krishna set the record straight over fears of a long-term tech slowdown, revealing that one-third of the major enterprise deals delayed during a rocky second quarter have since returned to the company.

Speaking on “The Claman Countdown,” Krishna explained that a major semiconductor price increase forced enterprise clients to briefly divert spending toward physical servers.

While that spending shift hurt IBM’s upfront software sales, Krishna said artificial intelligence remains a major growth driver and that delayed deals are already coming back.

“One-third of all the deals that fell out of the second quarter have already come back. So, that gives us a signal, maybe not proof yet, but a signal that that was indeed just a deferral for a few weeks, not a destruction,” Krishna said Thursday. 

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The statement comes one day after IBM cut its full-year revenue growth forecast from over 5% down to 4% to 5%.

Earlier this month, IBM issued an earnings warning after prices for chip hardware spiked nearly 60%. The increase prompted many Fortune 100 companies to prioritize purchases of physical hardware, leaving less money for their software budgets. That led many clients to delay software purchases from IBM, contributing to a decline in the company’s stock.

“When those are going up at 60% year over year, people are worried, and that’s the classic inflation that if it’s going to go up that much, I need to buy that now,” Krishna said. “And, so, I redirect my CapEx to that side.”

But Krishna said the slowdown was only temporary as companies took time to get through on their software orders. Still, he said the company is working to prevent this in the future by shifting its sales strategy.

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While 80% of IBM’s software revenue comes from subscription contracts, 20% comes from upfront purchases, which was what was hit by the client delays.

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“We have to focus more on growing the 80 and not depend on the 20% growing fast,” Krishna said. 

He emphasized that the company is also doubling down on quantum technology, highlighting its recent acquisition of quantum research lab HRL Laboratories. He said the move positions IBM to lead a new market.

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“We think quantum is an incredibly important technology for national security but also for economic advantage,” the IBM CEO said.

“So, now we’re sort of increasing our total investment and increasing the different alternate technologies that we have inside our portfolio, which only then increases the chances that we are one of the winners and are quantified. I think I’m now going to up my estimate to where quantum by the end of the next decade is likely going to be a trillion-dollar impact on the industry.” 

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Operator

Good day, everyone, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Equity LifeStyle Properties Second Quarter 2026 results. Our featured speakers today are Marguerite Nader, our Vice Chairman and CEO; Patrick Waite, our President and CEO; and Paul Seavey, our Executive Vice President and CFO.

In advance of today’s call, management released earnings. Today’s call will consist of opening remarks and question-and-answer session with management relating to the company’s earnings release. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

Certain matters discussed during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements in the meanings of federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainty. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.

In addition, during today’s call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our

There is a particular kind of Monday that is supposed to be boring, and thank God for it. Kettle on, radio grumbling about the M25, the machinery of the country turning over with all the drama of a filing cabinet. That is how it is meant to go. Not this week.

Because on Monday, while the rest of us were getting on with the unglamorous business of a normal week, our new Prime Minister was making an entrance. Andy Burnham did not walk into Number 10 so much as arrive at it, chin up, grin wide, working the cameras with the swagger of a man strolling into a villa in Mallorca rather than a draughty Westminster terrace with a famously temperamental boiler.

And here is the part that stopped me cold. This was not a leak. It was not some cruel edit stitched together by a bored teenager with too much time and a grudge. This was posted, deliberately and proudly, to Downing Street’s own official TikTok account, scored, captioned and cut for maximum engagement by the very communications machine that is meant to be running the country. The Prime Minister’s first act in office was not a statement to the House. It was a Tok.

@ukgov Welcome @Andy Burnham ♬ A hot new bom shel enters the vila – Bella

It was, unmistakably, a villa entrance. I am not the target audience here. I am old. I am not of the TikTok generation. I am not on TikTok. I have never once said “my type on paper”. But you do not need to be fluent in reality television to read the choreography. The pause on the threshold. The knowing look to camera. The body language of a man who has been told there are lenses on him and intends to make the most of it. This was not a Prime Minister turning up to do a job. This was a bombshell entering the villa, and he knew it.

Once you have seen it, you cannot unsee it, and the format is horribly generous. If Number 10 is the villa, the whole grammar of government rearranges to fit. The Cabinet no longer sits, it lounges, twenty-odd ministers arranged around the pool in factor 50 and coordinated swimwear, red boxes balanced on their knees, glistening. A phone buzzes on the decking. Somebody bolts upright, clutches it to their chest and shrieks the four words that now run the country: I’ve got a text. The nation is given roughly twenty minutes to get ready, and a recoupling, which you and I would call a reshuffle, duly begins by firelight.

The fire pit, naturally, is the Despatch Box, the place where new couplings are announced and the freshly single are walked off into the night with a wheelie suitcase and a haunted expression. Cobra convenes around it too, everyone weighing the Strait of Hormuz over a sharing platter. Casa Amor becomes a reshuffle away-day, the Chancellor flown somewhere warm and introduced to a villa full of hungrier backbenchers, purely to test whether his head is turned by a better offer at the Treasury. The old challenges, once a matter of eating something unspeakable for a text, are now solemnly rebranded as fiscal events.

And the demotions are pure Love Island. Nobody is sacked outright, that would be far too clean. The minister who has displeased the producer is simply sent to top up the factor 50, left to redden quietly on a lounger with no portfolio and no signal, until the public forgets he was ever a contender. Then, every so often, the music swells, a returning bombshell struts back in behind a pair of sunglasses, and everybody already coupled up feels their stomach drop. We call that a leadership contest.

The mechanics match because the incentives match. Love Island runs on dramatic arrivals and the ever present threat of eviction, on the iron certainty that whoever struts in on Monday will be dragging that suitcase down the stairs before long. Which, if you have watched British politics this past decade, you will recognise less as entertainment than as a documentary. Our new man understands the genre completely. The entrance is everything, the exit comes for everyone, and he has simply had the nerve to stop pretending otherwise and lean into the tan.

Here is where the business reader, who has indulged the metaphor this far, sits up. The entrance has a bill attached, and it is not a small one.

Mr Burnham is our seventh Prime Minister in a decade. Seven. If a company had run through seven chief executives in ten years, no bank would lend it a fiver and no serious investor would return its calls. Within hours of the villa entrance, the new man mused aloud about seeking “any flexibility” in the borrowing rules, and the bond market did what bond markets do to improvisation. Gilt yields, already among the highest in the G7 and stuck near their peaks for weeks, twitched up again. The pound softened. He had posted a Tok. The market posted a reply. Nobody in the City was charmed by the walk-in, because the City does not price charisma. It prices predictability.

And predictability is the one asset this government keeps setting fire to. Eight in ten small business owners were nervous about a Burnham premiership before he had signed a single thing. With Bank Rate still parked at 3.75 per cent and every mortgage, overdraft and asset finance deal in the land keyed off those same jittery gilts, the cost of the performance is not abstract. It lands on the 5.5 million small firms that make up 99 per cent of British business, as a dearer loan and a shorter planning horizon. A shorter horizon is how firms stop hiring and start hoarding cash against a rainy day a little grown-up calm might have prevented.

This is the thing every half-decent founder learns the hard way. The entrance is not the business. I have watched entrepreneurs pour a fortune into the launch, the brand film, the influencer with the drone, and next to nothing into the boring machinery of delivering the thing they actually sold. They optimise for the arrival. And a million views is a vanity metric. It is not revenue, it is not margin, and it will not refinance a single pound of the national debt. The market, patient and merciless, waits for the operations. The bond market is the only follower that has ever mattered, and it does not care how well the video performed.

I wrote here only last month that Burnham would be wise to take a rival’s counsel rather than trust his own showmanship, and nothing about Monday has changed my mind. The advice stands. Britain does not need a bombshell. It needs a boiler that works.

So I will not be tuning in for the recoupling. But the new resident should remember the one rule the villa never breaks. The islander who plays to the camera instead of doing the graft is always the first to get the text. And in this series, the public vote is counted in the bond market.

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Shares of BlueStone Jewellery rallied another 7% to Rs 832 on the BSE on Thursday, extending their winning streak to a third straight session and taking gains to 36% over the period. The buying momentum follows a strong Q1 performance, with the company reporting a net profit of Rs 14 crore, compared with a net loss of Rs 21 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company said its standalone revenue rose 48.8% year-on-year to Rs 733 crore. Same-store sales growth stood at 39% YoY during the quarter, while standalone EBITDA increased 134.6% YoY to Rs 55 crore. The company added 12 stores in Q1FY27, taking its total store count to 352 across 139 cities.

The company said the performance reflected resilient consumer demand and the relevance of its portfolio across different price points. Operating leverage continued during the quarter, with the EBITDA margin improving by 273 basis points from a year earlier. After reporting its first full year of positive reported PAT in FY26, BlueStone continued its profitability trajectory into FY27.

The company added that the “performance is particularly satisfying as it came despite the rise in custom duty on gold from 6% to 15%, reflecting the structural drivers we have consistently spoken about – a portfolio that stays relevant across price points th rough design and technique innovation.”

What to expect post Q1 results?

Systematix has maintained a Buy rating on BlueStone Jewellery with a target price of Rs 832, level the stock clinched today. The brokerage expects the company to add around 75 stores annually and expand its total store network to 571 outlets by FY29E.

Also read:Q1 surprise sends jewellery stocks shining 40% in a month. Will the surge last in next quarters?

The brokerage said the expansion plan appears achievable, subject to sustained consumer traction and continued brand strengthening. Its revenue estimates factor in an age-cohort framework, under which store productivity improves as outlets mature.
Stores that were more than three years old accounted for 27% and 46% of the network in FY25 and FY26, respectively, and this proportion is expected to rise to 56% in FY28E and 60% in FY29E. Systematix expects the average store age to increase from 2.3 years in FY25 and 2.7 years in FY26 to 3.6 years in FY28E and 4 years in FY29E.The outlook beyond the June quarter also remains constructive as leading players continue to project strong long-term demand.

“The strong start to FY27 by market leaders reinforces confidence in the sector’s demand outlook. Within our coverage universe, we prefer Titan Company and Bluestone Jewellery as our preferred picks over the next 12–18 months,” Pankaj Kumar, VP Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities, told ETMarkets.

Anil shares a similar view, saying the growth momentum appears sustainable beyond Q2, although the pace will depend on gold price movements and consumer sentiment. Stable gold prices should support demand, as jewellery purchases are typically influenced more by price volatility than by absolute price levels. He also believes initiatives such as gold exchange and recycling programmes will improve affordability and customer engagement.

Importantly, the second half of the year is typically stronger for the industry, supported by the festive season and the peak wedding period. If gold prices remain relatively stable, leading organised jewellery retailers should continue delivering healthy growth over the coming quarters.

Going forward, investors will closely monitor management commentary, festive season demand and the pace of store expansion, all of which are likely to shape the sector’s performance over the coming quarters.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is facing a fresh round of criticism from some social media users after Australian tabloid reports suggested behind-the-scenes friction with a “MasterChef Australia” judge during the filming of her upcoming guest appearance, even as multiple sources close to the production have publicly denied any serious conflict occurred.

The duchess is set to appear as a guest judge on “MasterChef Australia” this Sunday, July 26, at 7 p.m. local time on Channel 10. Her segment was filmed in April during a visit to Australia with her husband, Prince Harry, and will feature Meghan emphasizing seasonal ingredients and personal storytelling as she challenges contestants to prepare a “dish fit for a duchess” using a selection of produce and pantry items she curated herself.

What the reports allege

Australian magazine New Idea reported that tension developed on set when several contestants reportedly gravitated toward series judge Poh Ling Yeow for feedback and reassurance rather than directing their attention to Meghan as the episode’s headline guest. According to one unnamed source cited by the outlet, “It was a bit awkward at times. You could tell Meghan was wondering what was going on.”

A separate point of friction reportedly involved Yeow introducing Meghan as “royalty” during the segment, despite Meghan and her team having asked producers beforehand not to use that word, according to Sky News reporting cited by multiple outlets. In a promotional clip for the episode, Yeow can be heard saying, “We’ve had royalty in the MasterChef kitchen before, but no one like this. All the way from sunny California, please welcome to MasterChef Australia, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.” Sky News reported that the introduction left Meghan “very frustrated,” which in turn reportedly left Yeow feeling upset about the moment.

Sources close to production push back on the characterization

Despite those reported moments of friction, several unnamed sources cited across multiple outlets have downplayed any suggestion of a serious rift. One insider told reporters that the issue had little to do with Meghan personally, saying Yeow “felt she had been unintentionally drawn into a royal protocol issue she never intended to be part of” and had wanted to reach out and apologize directly, but was advised by producers to let the matter be handled through standard production channels.

Another source explicitly rejected the idea that real tension existed on set, telling outlets, “There was no tension whatsoever, but it did feel like everyone was working hard to create those picture-perfect TV moments.” A third source offered a lighter take on the dynamic between the two women, describing Yeow’s high-energy, joke-filled personality as not always landing as intended when paired with Meghan, but characterizing any friction as minor. “It wasn’t major drama, just a few awkward moments during filming that were adjusted in the final edit,” the source said, adding, “Meghan was a great guest, and we feel very lucky she agreed to appear on the show.”

Public reaction has been more pointed

Despite those efforts to downplay the situation, the story has generated notable pushback from some viewers on social media, many of whom referenced past allegations involving Meghan’s treatment of staff during her time as a working royal. One Instagram commenter wrote that the “bullying allegations” pattern had become repetitive, adding that “she can’t even go on a show without trying to create issues about random things.” Other social media users echoed similar sentiments across platforms including X, with some questioning why the story kept recurring around Meghan’s public appearances.

It’s worth noting that the characterization of the on-set moments as “bullying” originates largely from social media commentary and headline framing rather than from any on-the-record accusation of mistreatment made by Yeow, her fellow judges or MasterChef Australia producers.

What the judges themselves have said

Speaking separately about Meghan’s approach to the episode, Yeow described the duchess as having been clear and intentional about what she wanted from the segment. “This was actually quite clear about wanting to get to know the contestants better,” Yeow said, describing Meghan’s interest in hearing personal stories from the competitors. “And she said, you know, you know these guys, but I don’t, so I really would like to see some stories and, yeah, food that’s gonna show us their personalities.”

Fellow judge Sofia Levin offered a positive reflection on Meghan’s connection to food as a home cook and gardener. “She’s a home cook and she’s a gardener herself,” Levin said. “So, when you think about it, you know, we’re getting more and more connected to our food.”

What to expect from the episode

Meghan will appear alongside judges Poh Ling Yeow, Sofia Levin and Jean-Christophe Novelli for the episode, with judge Andy Allen absent due to the birth of his son. During filming, Meghan reportedly told contestants that “there is a lot of pressure in that kitchen,” adding that she prefers cooking in “a really relaxed fashion” and encouraging competitors to “keep a sense of humour about it, and to cook from the heart.” She also spoke about cooking as an expression of care for the people in her life, saying that food is “how I show my nurturing and love for my friends, family and my kids.”

Context around the visit

Meghan and Harry’s April trip to Australia marked their first joint visit to the country since their 2018 royal tour, and included humanitarian and mental health-focused engagements alongside Meghan’s MasterChef appearance. The guest judging segment, recorded in Melbourne, was teased extensively in the show’s promotional material ahead of Sunday’s broadcast.

With the episode set to air this weekend, it remains to be seen how the final edited version portrays the interactions between Meghan and the judging panel, and whether that broadcast will do anything to settle the competing narratives that have circulated in Australian and international tabloid coverage in the days leading up to its release.