He may have dropped more than a hint as to his future plans on March 25. That’s when Messi played an inspired match at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires, captaining his team to a 3-0 win over Venezuela in the final home World Cup qualifier of the 2022 World Cup. It was as if Messi sensed the special occasion, because he had a man-of-the-match performance and one of his best games of the season for club or country....

One of the world’s greatest players is rarely caught in emotional outbursts, but the penalty-kick shootout to decide Argentina’s semifinal against Colombia did it. After Colombia’s Yerry Mina saw his attempt stopped by Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, Messi celebrated it at the center circle with his teammates. “Dance now! Dance now!” is what the lip readers spotted him saying in reference to an extended dance that Mina did in a penalty shootout win over Uruguay in the previous quarterfinal round....

The arc feels too narratively perfect to trust. Elite sport is always more brutal than it is blissful. But then Messi is the player who has treated us to more moments of perfection than any other. Perhaps it was always building to this point? The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that reference to the “greatest ever.” But what about the final to end all finals, Messi’s date with destiny?...

The veteran center is known as one of the league’s dirtiest players. Raiola, the longest-tenured Lion, has violated safety-related playing rules six times since 2010 and was suspended for Week 17 this season after jumping on the leg of Bears defensive tackle Ego Ferguson. Raiola was also fined $10,000 last month after he punched Patriots defensive lineman Zach Moore in the back of the head. Raiola attempted a cut block on Moore just three plays later and admitted it was retaliation for the Patriots stretching their lead to 34-9 late in the game instead of kneeling on the ball....

The Lions confirmed on Wednesday that Blough – who was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in May before being traded to Detroit – would be making his maiden start due to injuries to starting and backup quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Jeff Driskel. Blough’s bow was one to remember, with the 24-year-old’s first pass completion leading to a 75-yard touchdown for Kenny Golladay. VIDEO: David Blough’s WOW throws from first NFL start...

BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter The Malaysian FA (FAM) Disciplinary Committee on Friday announced its verdicts on a number of disciplinary cases following their meeting on Wednesday, March 21. Kedah players Liridon Krasniqi and Baddrol Bakhtiar have been suspended and warned respectively, for their conduct in their Super League match against Perak on February 7. Liridon has received a two-match suspension including an automatic one-match suspension that has been served, as well as a RM1,500....

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Murkowski addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that Alaska has become one of the nation’s hotbeds for new infections. “We are leading the nation right now in our COVID rates. We’re separated enough geographically, but through the advantages of air travel and road travel, we mix, we mingle, we get around, and the virus knows no bounds,” Murkowski said during her speech....

On July 17, United and Ajax announced they had reached an agreement for the transfer of Lisandro Martinez. The defender has joined the Red Devils for an initial fee of €57.37 million (approximately £48.8m/$57.9m), and on July 27 the club confirmed a deal had gone through with the defender signing a contract until 2027. Martinez follows Tyrell Malacia and Christian Eriksen in joining Ten Hag’s squad, which is looking a little bloated in defence....

Lithuania recently declared a state of emergency because of the surge of migrants from Belarus. This past Friday, Lithuania started building a double barbed-wire fence Friday along the Belarus border that will run for 342 miles and cover most of the 423-mile border, at a cost of $48 million, according to Lithuanian authorities. The country has also set up tents to accommodate the growing number of migrants. Lithuania has talked to the governments of the countries where the migrants came from and with transit countries in order to “curb the [illegal migration] process that is being supported by the Belarusian regime,” Nauseda said....

Her game Wednesday night attracted the largest audience for the event on ESPN, the network said Thursday. The 8-1 loss by Davis’ Philadelphia team to Las Vegas earned a 3.1 rating and was watched by an average of nearly 5 million people, up 155 percent from the corresponding game last year. The 13-year-old Davis rose to a national celebrity after becoming the first girl to pitch a shutout at the LLWS....

What is both/and thinking? How does it compare to either/or thinking? Smith: As parents, partners, employees and leaders, we’re caught in tug-of-wars. Do we prioritize work or family, current targets or learning new skills, social or financial needs? Facing a dilemma, we typically make a choice: A or B. We then stick with that choice. This either/or thinking can be helpful in the short run. Yet it limits our options....

An emergency shutdown of the pipeline went into place Wednesday night after a leak in northwest Kansas just south of the Nebraska border triggered alarms. The pipeline was still closed on Friday as crews isolated the affected segment and contained the oil’s downstream migration, according to a tweet from Canada-based pipeline company TC Energy. The news of the leak launched oil markets into a panic, and prices saw a 5 percent jump before retreating, according to a report from CNN Business....

The company filed a recall report earlier this week which said that the cars’ Airbag Control Unit could come in contact with a memory chip on the vehicles’ circuit board which could in turn affect the electrical units that control the airbag’s deployment. “Circuit damage may result in deactivated airbags that will not deploy in a crash,” the report stated. The issue was first reported in Korea last July....

The automaker partnered with NFT platform Sweet and The Petfinder Foundation, to launch 10,000 Robo Dog NFTs, available on a first-come, first-served basis on Friday. Ninety percent of all primary sales proceeds from the offering will benefit The Petfinder Foundation. The remaining 10 percent of profit is written into the smart contract on the blockchain, so whenever a Robo Dog non-fungible token (NFT) across the series is resold on a participating secondary market, The Petfinder Foundation will also benefit with funding for additional pet adoptions....

The minivan has been around since the 1980s, when modern minivans began to be offered by Chrysler, however the 1936 Stout Scarab is considered the minivan pioneer. In 2000, minivans hit their sales peak selling 1.4 million units that year, however that number has since dropped with the growing popularity and versatility of SUVs. “Designing the minivan is probably the biggest challenge an automotive designer can have,” Tom Kearns, vice president and chief designer at Kia told Newsweek....

That was Kurt Warner’s goal every time he stepped up to the plate at recess during a game of kickball. Kick it as hard as possible, the former NFL quarterback would tell himself, and hope it flies past the outfielders and hits the elementary school. “If you could get it to the school with that ball, it was a big kick,” Warner told Sporting News. “I remember doing that a couple of times....

A Massachusetts State Police spokesperson told the New York Post four campers at Camp Lenox in Berkshire County came across the remains at about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The campers who found the body were identified as juveniles, a state police spokesperson told Newsweek. Once the campers found the body, they returned to camp to notify their counselors, who then alerted police, the spokesperson said. The Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire district attorney’s office responded to the call and found the body “in a state of decomposition” in a wooded space within the town of Becket, the office told Newsweek....

This has led to people becoming “disconnected from the botanical world” of plants when understanding flora has become crucial to ecology. Even students starting masters’ degrees in biology lack a “basic” ability to identify plants, the new study claims. Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency of the United Kingdom reveals just one student graduated in plant science for every 185 who graduated in other life science degrees between 2007 and 2019....