Venezuela’s food crisis takes a toll on baseball talent pool

Simone Biles' bid for a record six gold medals at the Tokyo Games ended abruptly on Tuesday (July 27) when she dropped out of the women's team final after one vault and watched as the United States surrendered their title to Russia. It was a stunning and disappointing start to the Olympics for the U.S. women, who had expected to dominate the final as they had not been beaten in a major team competition since 2011. But the entire event was turned on its head in an instant when Biles, the world and Olympic all-around champion, completely mistimed her opening vault to earn a low score of 13.766.

Baseball fan Masamitsu Takahashi opened his "izakaya" bar-restaurant in 2013, when Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics. Never had he imagined that, eight years later, he would be watching Japan beating the USA in the quarter-final there all alone. Other bars have decided to stay open despite the state of emergency, but Takahashi says he prefers "to avoid the situation deteriorating to the point where there isn't even baseball".

Roger Federer will miss the upcoming U.S. Open and be sidelined for many months because he needs more knee surgery, an operation that the Swiss great said on Sunday will give him a "glimmer of hope" that he can resume his glittering career.

Key Venezuelan opposition figure Freddy Guevara, arrested for "treason" and "terrorism" last month, was released Sunday -- days after the start of new talks between the opposition and government.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced a mental health initiative for players on Tuesday, with the main draw of the U.S. Open kicking off next week.

Venezuela's government and opposition agreed on some key points during the negotiations in Mexico. But there is still "a long way to go," according to the leader of President Nicolas Maduro's team.

Mexico is presenting itself as the new champion of Latin American integration. To do that, it appears willing to embrace the continent's isolated autocratic leftist leaders. But it's a risky move.

For the third time in 13 years, Venezuela has slashed zeroes off its inflation-battered currency, the bolivar. This time, it will shed six zeroes, for a total of 14 since 2008. With that, a million bolivars have overnight become one -- still the equivalent of about 25 US dollar cents. Venezuela's central bank announced the move last month to simplify transactions, with consumers scrambling to make payment for even the most basic goods or services. According to private sector estimates around two thirds of transactions in the country now happen in US dollars. Old banknotes now worth almost nothing have become children’s toys or lie discarded in streets around the country. The once-rich oil producer is battling its eighth year of recession and hyperinflation that reached nearly 3,000 percent in 2020 and more than 9,500 percent the year before, according to central bank figures.

Congo Mirador was once an idyllic spot: a community of homes on stilts that seemed to float on the calm waters of a lagoon in western Venezuela. Now, the community is inundated with mud, a victim of silt generated by the Catatumbo river.

A long line people form at the New York airport on the day the United States eased restrictions.

Thousands of musicians are hoping to have set a record by performing as part of the world’s largest orchestra.

The United States reported nearly 1 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, the highest daily tally of any country in the world and nearly double the previous U.S. peak set a week ago as the spread of the Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing.