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Perhaps the most painful messages I receive come from young Iranians who are part of Iran’s secretive LGBTQ community. They fear for their lives, especially if the government or neighbors discover their sexual orientation. The fear comes from the Iranian Ayatollah regime’s strict Shiite Islamic prohibition against homosexuality. Those deemed gay, lesbian or transgender are subject to arrest, torture or execution for their sexual preference by the regime’s authorities....

The latest effort seeks to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to “non-addictive” levels. In concert with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Biden administration announced a new proposed rule last week that would establish a maximum amount of nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products in 2023. The rule will take some time to implement and will undoubtedly trigger several rounds of legal action from tobacco companies....

Part of the spending proposed in the bill is to go toward expanding broadband internet access. According to a fact sheet the White House released on Wednesday, the administration’s goal is to give all Americans access to high-speed internet that is both affordable and reliable. A senior administration official who referred to internet as the “electricity of the 21st century” explained some of the plan’s details during a conversation with reporters on Tuesday evening, before the bill was officially announced....

Ahead of the House vote, Biden told reporters last week that he “hope[s] that the [January 6 select] committee goes after them and holds them accountable,” referring to those, like Bannon, who have refused to comply with the subpoena to testify before the January 6 committee. When asked if they should face prosecution, Biden said, “I do, yes.” The president’s remarks raised concerns that he was applying political pressure to the department led by his appointee Attorney General Merrick Garland....

It’s not as if they can’t. On Inauguration Day, the State Department hosted a Twitter account for the “U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.” It didn’t last long. After a report by Adam Kredo at The Washington Free Beacon, the account restored its previous title. Let’s begin with the Middle East, where there is a lot to consider building on. The region has broadly reassessed its security and economic needs....

“I’m sure we’ll talk at some point,” Biden said on Friday, when asked by a reporter about his response to Putin’s offer to parlay in real-time. The Russian president issued the proposal in response to fury in Moscow over Biden agreeing with the characterization of Putin as a “killer” and demanding he “pay a price” over allegations his government interfered in the 2020 U.S. elections during an ABC interview aired Wednesday....

An analyst said politics and the policy that flow from growing worldwide interest in electric vehicles are likely to boost Tesla’s immediate prospects. “A Biden White House and blue Senate is a very bullish political backdrop and a potential ‘game changer’ for Tesla and the overall EV sector in the US, with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards over the next few years,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, said in a research note....

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted August 3 through 11 found that Biden is leading Trump 53 percent to 42 percent. Biden now leads by double digits, an increase from June’s poll that had put him at an 8-point advantage over Trump. The number of Americans who believe the coronavirus is a real threat has significantly risen over the past few months, the survey found. A total of 71 percent of respondents said they feared the virus—a statistic which comes as Trump continues to downplay its severity....

Indeed it is. But here’s another reason to wage that battle. A growing body of evidence is implicating obesity as a major risk factor for a seemingly endless roster of diseases: certain cancers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, diabetes and gallbladder problems—even Alzheimer’s disease. When it comes to obesity and the brain, where you carry your weight may be a bigger risk factor for cognitive decline than how many extra pounds you’re packing....

“That game – it was grimy out there,” Shazier said. “That’s how we like to play. Once they started yacking and all that, we knew that’s the game we like to play. We fight during practice. Once we knew the game was going to come out like that, we were just ready to go.” MORE: 5 lessons learned from Steelers-Bengals | BENDER: It could be worse for Cincy Chippy. Grimy....

Right now Wynonna, 31, has a particular need for attention. It’s not that she’s two months pregnant with her second child–heck, aside from staying off her Harley, she hasn’t altered her life much yet. And it’s not that her marriage to Arch Kelley III, a Nashville businessman and the father of baby-to-be plus her 1-year-old son, Elijah, is imminent. (It happened one week later, on Jan. 21.) No, the thing that is bothering Wynonna is quite simple and small....

Americans in the field include Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Keegan Bradley, Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker, winner at last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am. MORE: Riviera leaderboard | This season’s Tour winners Sergio Garcia leads the international contingent that includes Vijay Singh, Hideki Matsuyama and Luke Donald. Canada’s Graham DeLaet was off to a strong start, with Mike Weir and David Hearn also competing. The quality of this week’s competition is no surprise....

Worse, Musk’s closeness with the Cyberspace Administration of China raises important questions about whether Musk, who has a Giga factory in China and has taken over $1 billion in loans from the country, has fallen prey to China’s Military Civil Fusion disclosure laws. And the stakes are high: Is Musk supplying China with classified information he gains by working with the U.S. space program and other national security-sensitive projects?...

The B1G proof: The conference set a revenue record in 2018 at $759 million that shattered its previous mark with a 48 percent jump. The figure also exceeded the previous benchmark set by the SEC by almost $100 million, USA Today reported Wednesday, citing the Big Ten’s new federal tax return for the fiscal year. The staggering amount, even in today’s high-dollar world of major college athletics, represented a jump of just slightly less than a quarter-billion dollars from 2017, when the Big Ten reported $512....

Michigan State beat Stanford 24-20 in the 2014 Rose Bowl. Wisconsin had a 24-7 lead in the third quarter against LSU. Then a full-scale collapse led to a Badgers’ loss against the Tigers. That lowered the Big Ten’s record to 17-41 against ranked nonconference opponents since 2007. Predictable nickel-dime cheap shots followed. “So good to see that nothing has changed with Big Ten football,” ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum wrote on Twitter....

On Thursday, the Big Ten announced its men’s college basketball schedule for the 2022-23 season and there was one game that jumped off the page in particular. On February 14, 2023 — otherwise known as Valentine’s Day — Michigan will travel to take on Wisconsin in the Kohl Center for the first time since the two teams engaged in a postgame brawl last February. On a day that is supposed to be all about love, can Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard and Wisconsin associate head coach Joe Krabbenhoft put the past behind them?...

This week, expect the opposite. Indiana’s notorious high-scoring offense will go against the Buckeyes’ 57 points per game, and Michigan will try to match Ohio State’s 58 points against Rutgers. MORE: Week 6 bowl projections Here’s how to watch all the Big Ten games this week. All times ET. Saturday, October 8 Iowa at Minnesota, 12 p.m., ESPN2 Maryland at Penn State, 12 p.m., BTN BYU at Michigan State, 3:30 p....