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Dream serve up lunchtime rout of Valkyries to force historic WNBA finals Game 7

The Atlanta Dream had no intention of letting a matinee become their curtain call.

Facing elimination at a lunchtime tipoff, the Dream overwhelmed the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 on Thursday afternoon to force a decisive seventh game in the WNBA finals, rediscovering their offensive touch just as their title hopes were threatening to slip away.

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© Photograph: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

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Trump and His Aides Helped Bolsonaro Flee Brazil and Enter U.S.

President Trump ensured Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost a presidential election in Brazil and faces multiple criminal investigations there, could enter the United States, U.S. officials said.

© Ricardo Arduengo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Flávio Bolsonaro after arriving at Opa Locka airport near Miami on Wednesday.
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Bears swing big and trade two first-round picks for star Titans DT Jeffery Simmons

  • Struggling Tennessee get haul of picks for tackle

  • Chicago are chasing first Super Bowl title since 1985

The Chicago Bears have acquired All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons in a blockbuster trade with the Tennessee Titans, a person familiar with the deal told the Associated Press on Thursday.

The Bears sent their first-round picks in 2027 and 2028, along with a fourth-rounder in next year’s draft, to the Titans for Simmons and a fifth-round selection in 2028.

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© Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP

© Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP

© Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP

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The low-budget Brewers won the World Series – and exposed baseball’s biggest lie | Howard Bryant

Milwaukee’s first World Series championship is a rebuke to baseball’s oligarch class, whose insistence that small-market teams cannot compete has been laid bare as fiction

For the entirety of the 2026 baseball season, the overlords of the game have stood on the single position that what has now happened could not happen, and the result was a year that has been treated like an appetizer for the main course of the offseason: the shutting down of the game until the players, after 40 years of resistance, finally agree to a salary cap. The insistence that the game had been predetermined undermined the Milwaukee Brewers, who spent 149 days this season atop the standings.

Baseball dismissed Milwaukee’s 22-0 demolition of Seattle on 18 August, the 20-0 waxing of Cincinnati a month later, and the comprehensive dusting of their division – their fourth consecutive National League Central title and fifth in six years – by 14 games. Baseball’s owners, at their persuasive best, would have their paying customers believe that the Brewers’ franchise-record 103 regular-season wins also were an illusion, or worse, the dreaded outlier, even though Milwaukee have won 770 games since 2018, the fourth-most in all of baseball. Even when Milwaukee exhaled and made the Dodgers look old in a stirring four-game sweep, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the owners’ position remained unchanged.

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© Photograph: Elsa/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elsa/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elsa/Getty Images

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Rodman rule has been revised but the fight to keep stars in the NWSL goes on | Moving the Goalposts

Gone are the eight criteria to be a High Impact Player so clubs can spend their money on whomever they want – and the solution makes sense

When Washington plays Chicago this Sunday in DC, “Rowdy Audi” will probably be full. It will also be full when the post-season starts, should they lock up their top-four position with a positive result on Decision Day. Equipped with an accessible stadium in a big city, a proud fanbase and a formidable roster rife with players qualifying for the High Impact Player (HIP) rule’s initial criteria (including Trinity Rodman, who gave the rule its moniker), the Spirit hold sway in the attendance charts.

But starting next season, everyone on the Spirit will qualify for the “Rodman Rule”. So will every player in NWSL. Announced Friday, NWSL settled a grievance with the league’s Players Association, who argued that the initial criteria violated federal labor law.

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© Photograph: Jay Biggerstaff/NWSL/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jay Biggerstaff/NWSL/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jay Biggerstaff/NWSL/Getty Images

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The NFL has a host of Hall of Fame caliber receivers. But which one is the best?

Quarterbacks in 2026 have a series of dazzling weapons at their disposal. We rank the best of the receivers in the NFL at the moment

NB: We have restricted the list below to players in their prime years, so excellent, older receivers such as Mike Evans and Davante Adams have been left out.

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© Photograph: Michael Owens/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Owens/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Owens/Getty Images

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Australia strike late to restrict South Africa to 140-4, just 40 runs ahead, on the third day of men’s third Test– as it happened

An Inglis century and a flurry of wickets late in the day has Australia in control as South Africa close the third day on 140-4, leading by 40 runs in their second innings.

93rd over: Australia 338-4 (Inglis 90, Carey 54) Jansen wakes up Carey with a shorter ball. He gets the ball angling into the left-hander before ending the over with two more bouncers. Maiden.

92nd over: Australia 338-4 (Inglis 90, Carey 54) Wiaan Mulder takes the ball for South Africa. Have to think Kagiso Rabada is still feeling below full fitness as he stands in the field with his side desperate for an early breakthrough or two. Gerald Coetzee dives over the ball at mid-on and it races away to the boundary. It was an exquisite straight drive from Inglis and Coetzee got an unlucky bounce. But that is two little slices of misfortune that have already struck the Proteas today.

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© Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

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A three-year-old soccer prodigy went viral. The adults have already let him down

From Ms Rachel to Roc Nation, the internet embraced a Florida toddler. Police records reviewed by the Guardian complicate the story – and raise troubling questions

There is real tragedy in this week’s story of the three-year-old Florida boy whose parents claimed he was so good at soccer that police were called to do what opposing defenders couldn’t. But it doesn’t lie where the outrage cycle wants you to think. It’s broader, implicates more people, and to me, is far more depressing.

You may have seen the video by now. Here was a toddler with fabulous soccer talent, running end-to-end and scoring goal after goal against opponents who have seemingly just found their feet. The cameraman, later identified as the child’s father, loudly and proudly cheers his son on. Way to go, kid.

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© Photograph: Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images

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Milwaukee Brewers close out Tampa Bay Rays to end 57-year wait for first World Series title

  • Brewers win first championship with 4-1 win in Game 5

  • Misiorowski hurls five and two-thirds scoreless innings

  • Contreras named World Series MVP after batting .381

The Milwaukee Brewers captured their first World Series crown on Wednesday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 to complete a four-games-to-one victory and end more than half a century of waiting for baseball’s biggest prize.

Rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt drove in two runs and Jacob Misiorowski pitched five and two-thirds scoreless innings as Milwaukee put the finishing touches on a charmed season that began in spring training with championship ambitions and ended with the first title in the franchise’s 58th year.

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© Photograph: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

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