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Barca one step from final thanks to Messi & Suarez Much was expected of Barca’s summer signings. However, Andre Gomes and Paco Alcacer have struggled so far, while Lucas Digne looks like a back-up option at best. Those players may need more time to settle and adapt. Not so Umtiti, however - he has slotted in seamlessly to the Blaugrana back line. In La Liga, the former Lyon defender has featured 10 times - nine as a starter - and Barcelona have won all of those matches....

This week, things are a little different with teams playing for their lives in Week 17. MORE: Week 17 NFL picks from Las Vegas | Worst NFL moves of 2015 So who is the public on this week (as of Friday afternoon), and should you be with or against it? Jets at Bills The Jets are on an 0-4 ATS run against the Bills and haven’t covered in Buffalo since 2011....

Sound unconventional? Consider the facts. Along with the United States, Europe still indisputably dominates as the most powerful twin turbine of the global economy. Transatlantic commerce accounts for close to 60 percent of the world’s trade and investment, worth $2.5 trillion in GDP annually and employing some 12 million workers. U.S. investment in the tiny Netherlands is twice that in Mexico and 10 times as much as in China. That’s not news, of course....

Nothing to argue with there. The large increase in students participating in service is one of the best developments of the 1990s, and schools have seemed to encourage the trend. So I was surprised to find that many prestigious colleges and universities talk a big game, but shirk their responsibilities in this area, particularly when it comes to transforming work-study into service-study. Some are so hypocritical–and so anxious for cheap student labor to wash dishes and shelve books–that they are in clear violation of federal law....

Personally, I don’t think we need the “advice and guidance” of the Saudis right now. Last time I checked, 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were still Saudis, and Saudi Arabia was still funding hate-filled Islamic schools known as madrassas all over the world. The Saudi government claims that it does not directly fund these jihad factories, but the Saudi religious foundations that do fund them have close ties to the royal family....

Now I’m not exactly a dispassionate person on this subject. I grew up on Chicago’s North Side in the 1960s and 1970s, six blocks from Wrigley Field. Starting when I was 9 years old, my mom would pack me a brown-bag lunch and give me $1.50 for some listlessly performed chores, and I’d head to the park with my friends Billy and Casey in time for midmorning batting practice....

Caffeine-based stimulants such as NoDoz and Red Bull are safe in moderation. But steer clear of products containing ephedra (a.k.a. ma-huang). This herbal stimulant, which raises blood pressure and heart rate, has caused several deaths in recent years. Prescription stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall are also best avoided unless your doctor prescribes them. Though useful for treating attention problems (and less dangerous than cocaine or methamphetamine), they can foster depression and dependency when abused....

Snapchat+ launched on Wednesday, offering users the chance to gain access to “exclusive” content for $3.99 a month. The launch of this new model was joined by another addition to the app—Beyoncé. Her arrival on the app prompted many of her fans to do the same, sharing that they had joined Snapchat as well with a print screen on Twitter. It also raises questions about the timing of her official arrival on the social media app with Beyoncé’s latest single “Break My Soul” released earlier in June and her album, Renaissance due out on July 29....

Anatomy of the Biceps Your biceps muscles are located in the front of your upper arms. They course from two heads (hence the name “biceps”) near your shoulder joint. The short head of the biceps arises from the coracoid process of your shoulder blade. The long head of the biceps originates from the supraglenoid tubercle of your shoulder joint and is encased in a synovial sheath. This sheath provides lubrication to the tendon and allows it to glide and slide normally in the front of your upper arm....

Late Tuesday, Regeneron announced the company has signed an agreement with the U.S. government for the purchase of 1.4 million doses of its monoclonal antibody treatment. The next morning, Eli Lilly announced it will supply the U.S. with 388,000 doses of etesevimab to complement doses of bamlanivimab the U.S. government already purchased with the intention that the two COVID-19 treatments be taken in conjunction. Monoclonal antibodies are being administered under an Emergency Use Authorization because they’ve shown promising signs of helping prevent people with COVID-19 from needing to be hospitalized....

The spending bill provides for more than $15 million for administrative expenses for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Trust Fund, which provides funding for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. That program is designed to “compensate vaccine-related injury or death petitions for covered vaccines administered on or after October 1, 1988,” according to the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). Republican Representative Dan Bishop pointed to that section of the omnibus spending bill as part of a series of tweets on Tuesday that offered a critique of the government funding plan....

The Transportation Department will permit port authorities to allot any money leftover from grant projects to help remedy the supply chain woes, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Georgia Port Authority, for example, can use $8 million to transform its inland facilities into container yards, which would open up more space for ships to dock at the port and ultimately expedite the journey for goods to their intended destinations, the AP reported....

Iran executed journalist Ruhollah Zam, 47, who it accused of supporting mass protests against the regime in 2017. Zam had been living in exile in France until 2019, when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bragged of having lured him back to Iran by way of Iraq. Antony Blinken—nominated to be Biden secretary of state—and Jake Sullivan—nominated to serve as national security adviser—both condemned the killing on Twitter and vowed to hold Tehran to account for this and other abuses....

Following their first face-to-face summit since the Democrat was elected president two years ago, Biden said at a news conference in Bali that he and Xi had an “open and candid” conversation about each other’s intentions and priorities. The three-hour talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Indonesian resort were scheduled with the aim of ensuring the intense U.S.-China rivalry doesn’t spiral out of control. “We’re going to compete vigorously, but I’m not looking for conflict,” said Biden, who went into the meeting wanting to establish respective “red lines” with China’s president....

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez detailed the campaign’s use of “sub-ethnicity modeling” in a conference call with reporters on Sunday. Democrats hope that boosting voter turnout efforts in specific Hispanic communities, such as Democratic-leaning Puerto Ricans, will improve their chances in battleground states like Florida. “That is indispensable,” Perez said, according to The Miami Herald. “Our communities … we share a language, but we have a tremendous diversity of experience....

As the World Health Organization probes the roots of the pandemic, the White House has commissioned its own investigation led by the U.S. Intelligence Community and backed by National Labs into how the disease first emerged in late 2019. The findings are expected by late August. In announcing this 90-day inquiry last week, Biden said he had “specific questions for China.” Newsweek has since learned these questions included calls for Beijing to quit withholding key data that could potentially avoid upcoming disasters, and a call for the People’s Republic to take greater part in a global effort to get to the bottom of how the ongoing pandemic began....

The state’s Senate runoff races have garnered heightened national focus due to the impact they will have on the outcome of control in the Senate: if Democrats win both the seats then it will be split 50/50. The tiebreaking vote would then go to the Vice President Kamala Harris, boosting the Biden administration in pushing its agenda through Congress. “We all know what’s going to happen if McConnell holds the Senate....

The Politico/Morning Consult survey released Wednesday found 46 percent of registered voters would support the eventual Republican candidate compared with 37 percent who would back Biden for a second term. Among independent voters—a key voting bloc for Biden in 2020 that he’s lost support with over the course of his first year in office—the generic Republican candidate would have a 20-point lead over Biden. But the poll also showed Biden faring better with prominent GOP figures....

Biden penned a New York Times op-ed in March 2016—just weeks after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia—which accused Senate Republicans that year of neglecting their “Constitutional duty” by stonewalling President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee until after the November general election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cited a so-called “Biden rule” as justification for delaying Merrick Garland’s nomination, pointing to a 1992 Biden speech that demanded President Bush wait until after that year’s election to appoint a Supreme Court replacement....