Griner suffered a small cut when she was attacked by a man while boarding a bus after practice Monday in Shenyang. The man, who followed the players onto the bus, also stabbed one of Griner’s teammates. She was wearing two jackets and wasn’t injured because the knife didn’t go through. “I was thinking I was going to end up stabbed in China and if he got to us at the back of the bus, I was going to have to fight this man with a knife,” Griner said in an email to The Associated Press....

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that “Sheriff Boudreaux has issued an evacuation order for the following residences in the Mineral King area, Gateway, to the Park Entrance including Sycamore Dr.” The post continued, “The area will include Mineral King Rd from Highway 198 to the Oak Grove Bridge, including Crest, Sierra King, Hammond, and Oak Grove. There will be a road closure at Highway 198 at Mineral King Rd....

But here’s the problem: There are no centers among the Eastern Conference’s starters, as fans voted in a starting front line of three small forwards, LeBron James, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. It doesn’t get any better in the West, where they somehow did the same with Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard. MORE: Ranking every NBA All-Star, from Curry to Kobe Clearly, this isn’t like last year’s All-Star Game in New York, when there were two bona fide bigs to handle the opening tip....

There were a lot of international trophies on that field on Wednesday morning, but it wasn’t Nani, Bedoya or Lodeiro that members of the LAFC U-12s turned to for advice. Their presence was great, sure, and their encouragement and celebrations will be memorable for a talented group of youngsters. But the man that commanded their attention, the one who they ran to after each penalty kick, never won a Champions League or Premier League....

Given the type of injury Bryant suffered, his comeback has been nothing short of astounding. Throughout the rehab process, Bryant has been confident his recovery was moving along ahead of schedule. In recent weeks, he has been doing extensive drills in preparation for rejoining his teammates. Bryant's presence was felt on Day 1, according to Lakers guard Jordan Farmar. “That’s a guy whose presence you can’t replace,” Farmar told the L....

At 20, Bryant is already living the modern American dream, a $70 million man on the NBA’s glamour team in the nation’s starriest city. His acrobatic moves make him the envy of teenage boys and his good looks and megawatt smile a heartthrob for teenage girls, ensuring his status as one of the NBA’s premier pitchmen (Adidas, Sprite). While this season, his third, was arguably his finest, he has found himself out of sync–on and off the floor–with his team....

Bayern initially started strongly under their new coach but subsequently endured a run of four games without a win in all competitions to increase speculation about Kovac’s future. The Bundesliga champions have bounced back with five wins in their past six games in all competitions but head to Signal Iduna Park knowing they will trail Dortmund regardless of Saturday’s result. Former Eintracht Frankfurt boss Kovac, though, was calm at his pre-match news conference with president Uli Hoeness having again given his public backing to the coach....

Eintracht Frankfurt boss Kovac, 46, will replace Heynckes next season after Bayern announced a three-year deal for the Croatian on Friday. Tuchel had emerged as one of the favourites to take the reins in 2018-19 after Heynckes – who replaced Carlo Ancelotti in October – made it clear he would not continue beyond this season. That was until Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge revealed the former Borussia Dortmund coach had already agreed to a deal with an unnamed club, reportedly French giants Paris Saint-Germain....

K’Ogalo CEO Omondi Aduda has revealed to Goal that they have agreed personal terms to sign Boniface Omondi from Nzoia Sugar. “We have done everything to secure services of Boniface Omondi. What is remaining now is to get the release letter from Nzoia and that will be done tomorrow (Tuesday). “Omondi is a very creative player and will fit well into our style of play. We will also confirm a number of players, who will leave but on loan....

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that the situation has “reached the point of absurdity,” the Associated Press reported. Russia has repeatedly denied it has plans to invade Ukraine, but Western nations have expressed concerns about an imminent attack as the Russians have amassed over 130,000 troops at the northern, southern and eastern borders of Ukraine. On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that because of the “dramatic accelerating in the buildup of Russian forces,” the U....

Navalny—long one of the most prominent pro-democracy opposition figures in Russia and a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime—fell ill last month while traveling from Siberia to Moscow. He had been in Siberia campaigning for local elections there. Russian authorities eventually allowed Navalny, 44, to be transported from Russia to Germany for treatment. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Navalny had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, the same type that has previously been used to attack Russian dissidents abroad....

Prigozhin, who is nicknamed Putin’s Chef, admitted in September to founding the Wagner Group, a notorious mercenary group that is fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine and has been accused by Western governments of human rights abuses in Africa and elsewhere. In its latest assessment the ISW, a U.S.-based think tank, said Prigozhin was creating rifts in the Russian government “by publicizing the so-called ‘Wagner line’ of fortifications in northeastern Ukraine, which appears misaligned with Kremlin-led narratives on the course of the war....

The comments by Peskov come as NATO war games in the Black Sea continue to irk Moscow and as Russia tested the readiness of its air defence systems in Crimea, near the location of the alliance’s drills. “Nobody—I mean our American comrades—has abandoned plans to contain Russia. This cannot but have negative consequences,” Peskov told Russia’s Channel One on Wednesday. Peskov said that he did not expect an immediate change to Moscow-Washington ties following the June 16 Geneva summit, saying that “there is a certain inertia,” reports Russian news agency Tass....

The sanctions come as punishment for Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2020 election and the SolarWinds hack of federal agencies that the Kremlin has since denied. “We have repeatedly warned the United States about the consequences of its hostile moves that are dangerously raising the level of confrontation between our countries,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Thursday. “This course of action does not serve the interests of the people of the two leading nuclear powers that bear historical responsibility for the fate of the world....

This legislation follows Texas’ abortion law, which leaves enforcement up to private citizens instead of prosecutors and criminal charges, the Associated Press reported. Noem’s proposed law would punish anyone aiding in an abortion with fines over $10,000 and makes no exception for rape or incest, although it stipulates that a man who commits such acts cannot sue. Noem’s proposal joins other anti-abortion measures, including an executive order blocking telemedicine abortions, that the governor has pushed in an effort for the state to have the “strongest pro-life laws in the books,” the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported....

Appearing on the network’s “Speak for Yourself” with Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock, Leahy calmly addressed her confrontation with Ball on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” in which the father of NBA Draft prospect Lonzo Ball said Leahy had “something coming to you” for being a “hater” toward his Big Baller Brand. WATCH: Why LaVar Ball went after Leahy Ball also disdainfully turned his back on Leahy while giving her a “Talk to the hand” gesture....

The request was made in a statement Tuesday, where the chain asked that only law enforcement carry firearms into its stores. “Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers,” Jessica Adelman, group vice president of corporate affairs, said in a statement. “We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence....

Messi won the 2021 Golden Ball on Monday night after another stellar year for club and country that saw him score 42 goals while getting his hands on Copa del Rey and Copa America honours. MORE: Final Ballon d’Or results However, Kroos does not believe that the Argentina international, who joined Paris Saint-Germain after leaving Barcelona in the summer, should have finished ahead of some of the other names in the final vote....

Maybe the NHL’s lawyers were watching, too; that apparently the case in 1999, according to former showrunner Mike Scully. The episode “The Last Temptation of Krust” features Krusty the Clown bombing with an audience, then going on a “bender to end all benders” that features the Stanley Cup. And vomit. Some nerds at league office didn’t appreciate that, according to Scully, who was tweeting the episode as it aired on Monday morning....

Recently-promoted Super League side Kuala Lumpur (KL) have released their preliminary squad list for the 2018 season. Only 26 men have been listed in the team at the moment, which means that the City Boys have four slots left out of the maximum 30 players. Three foreign players have been retained from the 2017 season; talismanic Brazilian striker Guilherme de Paula and his compatriot Paulo Josué, as well as Uzbekistani defender Boburjon Akbarov, their Asian import quota....