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Officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, California and Oregon all said they were planning to phase out masks. They are part of a group of less than ten that currently require most people to wear masks in indoor public places regardless of vaccination status. This list comprises California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington according to the American retiree group AARP. Others may require masks in other situations....

Kings guard De’Aaron Fox has decided to leave the team to focus on taking Sacramento to the playoffs in 2019-20, according to a report from Yahoo Sports, which cites unidentified league sources. Fox is the second member of the team to depart this week, as Rockets forward P.J. Tucker withdrew his name from the roster after suffering an ankle injury. Fox, 21, is one of the NBA’s rising stars and had an impressive sophomore campaign last year....

And that’s exactly what makes FIFA career mode so great. There is nothing more satisfying than rooting out a diamond in the rough, paying peanuts, and turning him into a world-beating superstar. This year is no different, and with football fans now well invested into this year’s edition, we have put together a list of the best players in their positions under the age of 20 that you may have missed in FIFA 18’s Career Mode....

The Premier League is well represented on the list, with Hector Bellerin, Leroy Sane, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Raheem Sterling also making the cut. Many of these players are featured in the FIFA 18 demo released worldwide on Tuesday, allowing gamers to test out the latest edition of the football simulation ahead of its official release September 29. 1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 2. Jonathan Biabiany (Sparta Prague) 3....

A clash of styles, culture and tactics, Italy versus Brazil from World Cup 1982 wrote its own special page in football’s glorious history. And this week FIFA are offering you the chance to relive it all with the launch of FIFA Rewind – a ground-breaking mobile and social first series, which will bring a selection of the greatest games in World Cup history right up into the 21st century....

Despite the ranking system being widely discredited, with observers lobbing up any aberrations to illustrate its flaws, it nonetheless dictated the order of groups for the 2014 World Cup. It is integral to a tournament's integrity and allure that the strongest teams are kept apart in the early stages. So, on that basic count, the FIFA ranking has failed us. FIFA's compulsion to make its rankings relevant has brought us to this stage....

Despite the groups not yet being announced, it is a common sentiment that being the hosts India would get potted in Group A, but the matches for Group A are marked for Navi Mumbai. However, an intervention by the Sports Ministry has meant that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has now sent a request to FIFA to shift the host nation’s matches to the capital. Why Marc Overmars is the wrong man for Arsenal?...

The Mumbai leg of the coveted trophy experience begins on September 6 and ends on September 10. The FIFA Legends will be present at the event and will also participate in an exhibition match scheduled to take place at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai to celebrate the much awaited blockbuster event of the country. 55-year-old Carlos Valderrama, popularly known as ‘El Pibe (The Kid), played in three editions of the FIFA World Cup in a decorated career spanning more than two decades....

It is intertwined with a number of FIFA competitions, meaning that it has a direct bearing on the futures of national teams. However, it has proven controversial and the methods used have been changed on a number of occasions in response to criticism. Brazil 6/1 to win World Cup Indeed, FIFA has indicated that it will once again review the ranking system after the 2018 World Cup, meaning that more changes could be in store....

“It is our historical duty, as the country that voluntarily dismantled its nuclear capacity, to get involved and get Iraqi disarmament without resorting to war,” South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said earlier this week. Pahad is due to leave on a mission to Iraq today. And as he prepares for his trip, he is receiving assistance from a once inconceivable quarter: Roelof “Pik” Botha. Botha, 70, was South Africa’s foreign minister in 1993 when the white-minority government announced it had developed a “limited nuclear deterrent” of seven weapons–but had disarmed them....

Often, time spent implementing machine learning isn’t building the basics of machine learning, as most of the fundamental structure is well solved and available premade. The difficulty lies in preparing data and optimizing the model to make it useful for actual, real-world examples. Implementing truly effective machine learning models may take months and millions of dollars. The process usually involves incredibly long and complex calculations, run either on supercomputers or massive grids of distributed computers on cloud architectures....

Give and take. Very American. As the president noted, no one has unlimited power in the United States. Every institution is subject to checks on its authority. Every person is accountable for his or her actions. Every health-maintenance organization can do whatever it damn well pleases… Oh, well. Exception that proves the rule, I guess. It’s a tribute to their power in Washington: HMOs are the only type of American business that, by law, cannot be sued, so their managers don’t have to worry about such pedestrian notions as give and take....

At least, not yet. These are times of turmoil for the Boy Scout of America, as the unwelcome forces of liberalization let loose in the 1970s are knocking at the door with growing insistence. Michael and William Randall, 9-year-old twins from Anaheim Hills, Calif., who were asked to leave their Cub Scout pack earlier this year for refusing to invoke God in their oath (“I [name], promise to do my best to do my duty to God and my country…”), are suing to win reinstatement....

The international swimming federation announced the rule on Sunday alongside plans to create an “open” category for events for transgender women who want to compete. The policy allows transgender women who transitioned before the age of 12 years old to compete in women’s races. FINA defended the decision, noting “some individuals and groups may be uncomfortable with the use of medical and scientific terminology related to sex and sex-linked traits [but] some use of sensitive terminology is needed to be precise about the sex characteristics that justify separate competition categories....

On the sidelines, Lloyd will wear a crisp, tucked-in shirt with no tie under a blue blazer. He is known around the West Coast for sitting in unorthodox positions, as he did Saturday in the Final Four when the 42-year-old assistant had his feet up on the raised court at University of Phoenix Stadium as he took in the action. MORE: Way-too-early 2017-18 SN Top 25 “Unorthodox” is also probably the best way to describe the way Gonzaga has built its program over the past two decades, to the point it will play for the national championship Monday against traditional power North Carolina (9:20 p....

TV ratings. As if, through the roof. Now, CFP officials must be licking their lips at possibilities for the Jan. 12 championship game. Not only do they have two explosive teams in Oregon and Ohio State, but they see a fan base and TV audience champing at the bit for an extravaganza at Jerry World. TV ratings, they believe, will blow the lid off. MORE: Oregon vs. Ohio State for title | Ducks favored | For city of Oregon, Ohio, name change ahead...

A four-meter-square metal cage sits outside the farmhouse, now filled with ears of corn. In August, when Shang had one of his violent fits, the couple and some neighbors wrestled him to the ground, then locked him up. After a month behind bars, he was released when relatives brought him to Beijing for treatment for schizophrenia. But his parents couldn’t afford to institutionalize Shang; soon he was back home. “He got some pills and so he’s behaving better,” says his mother....

For all his knowledge, Wallfesh found unemployment a profound culture shock. He didn’t shave for six days. At cocktail parties, people would ask how he spent his time: “Depending on how flippant I felt, I’d say, ‘I pull the wings off butterflies’.” And as much as he hated commuting from his home in Stamford, Conn., to New York City, he found that he missed the train ride- “It was like living in Elba,” he says....