Not so, Washington kept insisting. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott formally assured Britain and France that the United States was not helping the Muslims. The Pentagon and the CIA denied they were sharing intelligence. Washington continued to obey the arms embargo, though it no longer helped to enforce it. The congressional options briefing had been required by the same law that compelled Bill Clinton to stop enforcing the embargo; the Pentagon warily pointed out that arms aid to the Muslims would require U....

The bears have become yet another species on the list of inconvenient animals in this part of America, right up there with the trash-picker possums and, of course, those loathsome shrubbery eaters, the deer. My favorite bear anecdote was the animal accused of getting physical after a man had proffered a bagel to get the bear to stick around for a photograph. The bear wanted more. What I want is an answer to this question: who gives a 250-pound wild animal baked goods?...

But Putin, it turns out, may be a less than perfect pitchman for his anticorruption campaign. New revelations are focusing attention on a murky episode from his past in St. Petersburg, a city known to many Russians as the country’s “criminal capital.” The indictment of a onetime business associate in Western Europe on charges of money laundering and fraud is raising serious questions about Putin’s former role in the affairs of a mysterious Russo-German property-development firm....

Blame Annie Leibovitz. The photographer-to-the-stars shot Moore in lace undies, spike heels and a slinky peignoir before going for the all-in-all. The photos were then put before VF Editor in Chief Tina Brown, for whom controversy has become as common as a cover on The Real Madonna. “I was immediately drawn to it,” says Brown. “To me, it’s as beautiful as any of the great Madonnas or a Picasso.” VF staffers were all for it, though one editor calls it “our eloquent naked preggo issue....

The FBI backed out of Smirnov’s Waco strategy, and the crisis ended in blazing disaster. But psychological-warfare experts on all sides still dream that they will one day control the enemy’s mind. And in a tiny, dungeonlike lab in the basement of Moscow’s ominously named Institute of Psycho-Correction, Smirnov and other Russian psychiatrists are already working on schizophrenics, drug addicts and cancer patients. You’ve heard of subliminal advertising, right? The psychiatric community generally agrees that subliminal perception exists; a smaller fringe group believes it can be used to change the psyche....

Reassuringly, the percentage of Americans confident about winning an unarmed fight goes down, the larger the animal. Most Americans—72 percent—believe they could beat a rat in a fight, which despite the rodent’s large teeth, could perhaps be feasible. However, some foolhardy people still believe they stand a chance against some of the scariest animals in Animal Kingdom, such as the grizzly bear, and the crocodile. So, are they right? Newsweek asked experts about some of the most fearsome animals on the list, and here is what they said....

The contrast between the two projects could not be clearer. Keystone would link the U.S. with a reliable ally and trading partner, Canada, and would be built by a Canadian company using American workers. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline being built by the Russian state-owned monopoly Gazprom would hand strongman Vladimir Putin a geopolitical weapon. Guess which one President Biden punished? Keystone The Keystone XL pipeline would move crude oil from Canadian oil fields to American refineries....

The two have now rightfully earned their place in Hollywood’s most unlikely friendships, joining the likes of Lauryn Hill and Zach Braff, Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson and Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. Since their unlikely Twitter exchange, Penn and Cardi’s friendship seems to be going from strength to strength and fans of the YOU star and award-winning rapper cannot get enough. Newsweek has a full look at the timeline of Penn Badgley and Cardi B’s friendship....

Chelsea to have unbeaten PL season - 100/1 Having sold Nemanja Matic to Manchester United for £40 million, Antonio Conte is keen to bolster his midfield ranks before the end of the transfer window. The sales of both Matic and Nathaniel Chalobah have left the Premier League champions short of options in the middle of the park, despite the arrival of Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco. And Conte is keen to secure England international Drinkwater as soon as possible, with the Blues kicking off their title defence against Burnley on August 12....

There will be eight more weeks of AAF action, plus playoffs, which extend the season to April 27. After every week, we’ll take a look at the results and rank each team based on performance. AAF Week 2: Box scores, stats from Alliance games First, the scores from Week 2: — Birmingham 12, Salt Lake 9 — Arizona 20, Memphis 18 — Orlando 37, San Antonio 29 — San Diego 24, Legends 12...

The hashtag was started by a Twitter user on the eve of the anniversary. They wrote: “tomorrow marks 19 years since the passing of aaliyah. as a fandom, tomorrow at 6pm est, lets all change our pfp [profile picture] and header for 24 hours. within those 24 hours, the fandom will share their memories & stories of aaliyah using the tag #Aaliyah19Years on ig [Instagram] & twitter as well as streaming her music some type of way....

That connection helped No. 4 Michigan State avoid a letdown in a 35-21 victory against Air Force on Saturday. Burbridge put on a show with eight catches for 156 yards and three touchdowns in a breakout performance. Cook finished 15-of-23 passing for 247 yards and four TDs. MORE: SN Week 3 picks | Top 25 roundup | Week 3 photos The Spartans improved to 3-0. Here are four quick hits from Michigan State’s win....

The Magic forward threw down a vicious, between-the-legs 360 dunk during a Wednesday night San Francisco Pro-Am game. MORE: NBA free agent tracker MORE: How to ensure every slam dunk contest is as good as 2016’s OK, so it wasn’t a sanctioned NBA game, or even a summer league game. But still, it was an impressive athletic showing. With feats like this, Gordon will have a lot more eyes on him in next February’s dunk contest than he did coming into this year’s contest....

The documentary takes an extended look at the life of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who in 2015 was found guilty of murder in the first degree for the death of Odin Lloyd. The charge carried a sentence of life in prison without a possibility of parole. In 2017, Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell and was seen hanging by his bedsheets. His death was ruled suicide by hanging....

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the Blue Jays leading 2-1, Judge was plunked on the elbow guard by the first pitch of the at-bat. With a base open at first, it was easy to speculate that the pitch might have been intentional as it took the bat out of Judge’s hands and set up a force out at any base. When Judge was hit, he was clearly frustrated — as, it appeared, was Manoah — but the Yankee dugout was even hotter....

Judge has been a shell of his regular-season self in the opening two games of New York’s ALDS vs. Cleveland. On Friday, Judge was stuck with the much-maligned golden sombrero, whiffing four times against the Guardians. MORE: Bob Costas mixes up Shane, Justin Bieber during Game 2 telecast It was the latest in a series of abysmal playoff showings against Cleveland by Judge: the outfielder now has four, four-strikeout game in his playoff career, all against Cleveland....

“One of the biggest things you want at training camp is seeing the young part of your team come up while the veterans help fill that gap,” McCarthy told Sporting News. “When your best players are your best people, you have a great opportunity for success with your program. He emulates that to the highest power. “The gifting he does for the practice squad at Christmas. He gives all the rookies his phone number to make sure they can reach him....

That doesn’t mean he’s an automatic for his fourth MVP. The Packers quarterback has ascended to the top of the MVP favorites list for 2021, leading a pretty thin field of hopefuls, as the Packers continue their dominating march to the NFL playoffs. But some off-the-field stuff may sway the opinions of writers who vote for the highest individual award in the sport — or, at least, Rodgers may believe so....

The Packers quarterback has long been one of the NFL’s best players, but since 2020, he has taken his game to a whole new level. As it turns out, there is always . . . mushroom for improvement. Rodgers revealed last August that he has experimented with ayahuasca on more than one occasion. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic drug that’s popular with, well, people who are into psychedelic drugs. Its effects are wide-ranging, and apparently turning someone into a superhuman football player is one of them....