After being omitted from the 2012 and 2016 summer Olympics, baseball and softball both returned to the world’s biggest sporting event this summer. In all, six teams vied for the baseball gold medal, and some of the usual suspects were in the field. The U.S., Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Israel and the Dominican Republic competed for the top spot on the podium. Japan, the host country, has often been considered home to one of the best national teams in the world, but it is still searching for that first gold medal to hang....

Angle and the WWE are reportedly negotiating for a return, reports Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com. According to the report, Angle’s contract with TNA Wrestling has expired and he is officially a free agent. WWE officials made him an offer to return on a full-time basis, but that’s something the 45-year-old Angle is not interested in because of the various injuries he has endured during his career. MORE: Jim Ross on his bucket list | WWE Raw results...

To most people, “doping” sounds like ’70s slang for smoking pot. But in the world of sports, it means using performance-enhancing drugs–anything from too much caffeine to steroids–to gain an edge in competition. The World Anti-Doping Agency, the oversight body for sports-doping control, announced it had conducted drug tests on 3,639 summer and winter athletes over the past year and that only 27 had tested positive. “Ninety-nine-point-five percent of the athletes are playing fair,” declared Dick Pound, the optimistic president of WADA, whose motto is “Think positive, test negative....

On the controversies that surround subjective judging: Judgment are always questionable and they produce big emotions. There’s nothing more emotional than a decision that goes against your country. This [official] may be wrong. If the person is wrong in good faith, you have to accept it. If the person is cheating, you have to correct it. On figure skating’s mandate to change: We respect totally the autonomy of the federations and respect the initiative launched by the International Skating Union....

As a result, we all go into 2022 facing health and economic uncertainty. This is the definition of self-defeating policy. But it is not too late to change course. In large parts of the global north, 60-75 percent of people are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and roll-out programs are reaching those considered low-risk, including children. Rich countries are also doubling down on booster programs to prevent their health systems from becoming overwhelmed....

Frank, of course, was terribly in love with Grace Kelly. And there was never a girl he couldn’t get if he wanted. Of course, she regarded him as a nice kid from Hoboken. At the time he was just fascinated with her. Oh, it was obvious. Just obvious. Well, I don’t think he’d ever known anyone as well-bred, quite frankly. I mean, her father may have been a bricklayer, but those nuns did their job....

President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have both stated support for the immensely popular program, through which 65 million Americans currently receive retirement and disability benefits, but the two candidates have a different perspective on what changes need to be made. Trump inadvertently pushed Social Security into the 2020 spotlight when he signed an executive order calling for a “payroll tax holiday” for the millions of employees who pay into the system....

After a tough breakup, someone might say, “Once bitten, twice shy. ” sadly to explain why they’re hesitant to start dating again. If a friendship ended up on bad terms, but one party wants to meet up to apologize, the other person might refuse bitterly by saying, “You won’t catch me anywhere near them. Once bitten, twice shy. ” Your friend: “I just don’t know why you’re so scared of rollercoasters....

That was when Irving dazzled with 32 points in the Rising Stars Challenge before going on to take home the winning trophy in the 3-point contest and making his All-Star game debut, in which he scored 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting. MORE: HOF finalist are announced | Draftstreet: Free All-Star contest | Anthony sure he won’t be traded The headlines were flattering. “Just the Beginning for Kyrie Irving,” one read....

The Amoses sum up the way most Americans make decisions about how many kids to have: some planning, a lot of longing and a little luck. Wanting a child of a certain gender is just one of many factors that influence couples. More important these days, experts say, is having money in the bank. According to the Agriculture Department, it can cost as much as $250,000 for a middle-class married couple to raise a child to the age of 17, and that doesn’t include college (now about $40,000 per year with room and board at private institutions)....

A former (and first female) president of Ireland, Robinson is only the second person to hold her job. Her predecessor was a dud–“a total disaster,” in the words of Joanna Weschler, U.N. representative for Human Rights Watch. Jose Ayala Lasso, who left to become Ecuador’s foreign minister in 1997, was a gentle voice in an arena where, as Weschler put it, “quiet diplomacy is very often counterproductive.” Robinson, a human-rights lawyer by training, brought the same style that defined her high-profile presidency (during which she would march off to such spots as Somalia and Rwanda to focus attention on human-rights issues)....

It was shortly before Game 1 of the 1987 National League Championship Series, with Leonard’s San Francisco Giants due to face the St. Louis Cardinals. And Leonard, a veteran embroiled in a 2-for-21 slump to close the regular season, wasn’t in the starting lineup, with a part-timer named Mike Aldrete in his place. “Boy, you crazy,” Leonard said to no one in particular. Then he went in manager Roger Craig’s office and closed the door....

The deficit hawks, it appeared, had won Round One in the continuing struggle to control the next administration’s priorities. By Clinton’s own pronouncement, the cause of deficit reduction was now coequal with his core program for substantially increasing investment in the nation’s economic future-his campaign promises for a massive overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, tax-subsidized worker retraining, national education reform and all the rest of it. But the truth was, President Bill had no real choice: the deficit, which by one preliminary estimate by the Clinton camp is now trending toward $400 billion for 1994, looms over his political future like the monster from some campy horror flick-The Blob That Ate the Beltway....

The microplate, or rift branch, known as the Victoria plate, is one of several sections of the East African Rift System—a newly developing tectonic boundary, where the African plate is in the process of splitting in two. The Victoria plate is moving counterclockwise, in contrast to the other microplates, Rovuma and Lwandle, further to the south. “The East Africa Rift System has long been recognized as a place of continental break up,” Anne Glerum, a Geodynamic Modeler at the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ, told Newsweek....

The Sprint All-Star race is a bit of a stretch because, really, every race is an "all-star" race in the Sprint Cup Series. MORE: All-Star Race schedule | Winners | Can Danica win fan vote? | Where will Carl Edwards go? Each week all the Sprint Cup drivers compete against each other at different tracks. So having a race that features the top performers in the sport? That happens every week on the Sprint Cup circuit....

Nassib, who plays defensive end for the team, took a personal day away from the team on Wednesday, according to the team’s general manager Mike Mayock. “Let’s be honest, [Nassib is] a community of one that’s openly gay,” Mayock told reporters. “He just said he’s got a lot to process. There’s a lot that’s been going on the last few days. And of course, we support that request.” Nassib’s teammate, tight end Darren Waller, said he also supports Nassib’s need to take time away in light of Gruden’s homophobic, misogynist and racist emails....

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. reached 8 million late last week. On Friday, health officials in 10 states confirmed their largest daily increases in new infections, while the country’s overall single-day jump in cases approached figures reported during the last week of July, amid a nationwide outbreak resurgence. Those 10 states were: Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to a New York Times database....

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is now entering its second week and at least a million people have now fled the country, according to the UN. Lilu Miller, a popular model on the pay-to-view service, who is based in Kyiv, has stopped posting her usual explicit content on the platform in favor of information about the war. “I immediately realized that Russia had started the war, and that this was the point of no return,” she said in an interview with MEL Magazine....