Griner embraces growing platform at Met Gala months after return from Russia

By Ben Kellerman and Doyinsola Oladipo NEW YORK (Reuters) – American basketball star Brittney Griner stepped onto the red carpet at the star-studded Met Gala on Monday, embracing a larger spotlight months after returning home from detention in a Russian penal colony. The twice Olympic champion has pledged to advocate for the release of other…

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Chess-China’s Ding Liren defies odds to become world champion

By Alessandro Parodi (Reuters) – China’s Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events. Thirty-year-old Ding won the rapid chess playoff by 2.5 points to 1.5, capitalizing on Nepomniachtchi’s mistakes…

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Boxing-USA Boxing barred from IBA events after formal withdrawal

(Reuters) – USA Boxing’s withdrawal from IBA to join a breakaway world body will hurt its members as well as depriving others of opportunities, the Russian-led association said on Thursday. USA Boxing, representing the most successful country in the sport’s Olympic history, announced on Wednesday it had left the International Boxing Association (IBA) with immediate…

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German magazine fires editor over AI ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher

(Reuters) – The publishers of a German magazine that ran an ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher generated by artificial intelligence have sacked the editor and apologised to the Formula One great’s family. Seven-times world champion Schumacher, now 54, has not been seen in public since he suffered a serious brain injury in a skiing accident on…

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Republican-led ban on transgender student athletes passes US House, moves to Senate

By Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican bill intended to ban transgender women and girls from competing in women’s and girls’ school sports, delivering at least a short-term victory to social conservatives. The House passed the measure by 219-203 but it has little chance of passing the…

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