Shohei Ohtani was batting second as the designated hitter for the Angels against the New York Mets on Friday night in the first game after Los Angeles said the two-way star had torn an elbow ligament

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sought to court Iowa voters as the best alternative to Donald Trump, continuing the

For a man handed a lifeline in Formula One – with an illustrious Red Bull-shaped reward beckoning down the line – it has not quite been the statement return Daniel Ricciardo envisaged back in July. What did that look like? Top-10 finishes with AlphaTauri, perhaps with a memorable overtake or two evoking the Ricciardo of old back onto the grid. But it has in fact been the complete opposite: the only return has been his return to inactivity. Two races in and a hand injury sustained in practice in Zandvoort, north Holland, back in August has seen the affable Australian feature only on the sidelines again. A seesaw seven weeks have followed: while on one hand confirmation of a seat on the grid in 2024 was, rather peculiarly, confirmed in his absence in Japan, his deputy Liam Lawson caught the eye with a string of impressive performances, including a team-best result of ninth in Singapore. So as Ricciardo struts back into the paddock this weekend in Austin, the broken bone in his hand healed, the pressure is firmly on the 34-year-old’s shoulders at his home from home. Affection works hand in hand with Ricciardo and the United States: he loves America, Americans love him. Last year, weeks after his McLaren exit was announced, the sport’s most cheerful character arrived at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on horseback, kitted out in full cowboy apparel. Given his injury hiatus, you’d think no such extravagant entries will be repeated this year. But what he has got back in his hands, as opposed to 12 months ago, is his Formula One destiny. Perhaps fortuitously, too. When Ricciardo left Red Bull for pastures new at the end of 2018, his aspiration was that the grass was greener. Now five years on he is back at Christian Horner’s team, first as a reserve and now at the sister team. A second bite alongside Max Verstappen is what he truly craves. And he has made no secret of that. “Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri… he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat,” said Horner back in July. “That is his goal and objective and, by going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025.” And with talk of Sergio Perez’s seat being under threat at Red Bull amid his struggles, there is a feasible route back to the top-table for Ricciardo. Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has already hinted the Mexican’s future seemingly lies away from Red Bull: most probably in a year, perhaps even as early as before next season. But before heading off any top contenders outside the Red Bull mothership, the Australian first has to prove his worth amid the in-house competition. Given Nyck de Vries’s rapid promotion to a seat after just one race last year, Lawson can feel hard done by that his impressive five-race showing – 13th, 11th, 9th, 11th, 17th – in this year’s slowest car hasn’t landed him a seat in 2024. So Ricciardo needs to better Lawson’s two points in the final five races of this season. He also needs to get the better of his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who has earned just three 10th-place finishes in 17 races this year. That is the minimum. But back stateside, it is the on-track magic and overtaking propensity of near-enough 10 years ago which will catapult him into Red Bull’s second seat conversation. That will be the key, as opposed to any off-track endeavours or kind words with sponsors. F1 world champion of 1997, Jacques Villeneuve, is quoted as saying this week: “I would ask kids who want to be drivers today – do you want it out of passion or because you want to be like Daniel Ricciardo, smiling in commercials?” While a tad harsh – best to smile than frown, no? – it does point to a school of thought that Ricciardo’s charisma is now a bigger pull than his talent. For any driver of any age, that is the ultimate insult. All of them are fundamentally in F1 to race, to scrap for every point and to jockey for every position. Even Ricciardo, who has endured the worst two years of his career since his anomaly of a win at Monza in 2021, remains adamant his world-class skillset is still present. His ambitions, so told to The Independentin July, remain the highest of highs: race wins and even a world championship. But Ricciardo must grasp the opportunity simply having a seat in this 20-driver sport gives and it starts with the cut-and-thrust of the sprint weekend at COTA. Nobody is expecting wins or podiums in the slowest car. But what people do expect is progress – and glimpses of the man of yesteryear. Read More What is a sprint race in F1 and how does new qualifying shootout work? What time is qualifying at the US Grand Prix on Friday? Sergio Perez addresses Red Bull future McLaren confirm first female driver in development programme Daniel Ricciardo to make F1 return at US Grand Prix Netflix reveal star line-up for F1 Drive to Survive vs Full Swing golf match

Verizon Communications said Wednesday it was naming Tony Skiadas as chief financial officer. Skiadas, a 27-year-veteran at Verizon,

Niclas Fullkrug and Julian Brandt dealt Newcastle’s Champions League hopes a potentially fatal blow as Borussia Dortmund completed the double over Eddie Howe’s injury-hit side. Fullkrug’s first-half strike and Brandt’s effort 11 minutes from time secured a 2-0 Group F victory in front of a sell-out 81,365 crowd at Signal Iduna Park to go with their 1-0 success at St James’ Park two weeks ago. But the outcome might have been very different had Joelinton not headed wide from point-blank range at 1-0 amid a concerted fightback by the Premier League side, who have now taken four points from as many games, three fewer than Dortmund. Edin Terzic’s men will nevertheless feel they were good value for their win on a night when they bounced back from a nightmare 4-0 defeat by arch rivals Bayern Munich on their own pitch in determined fashion, to the delight of their famous Yellow Wall. For Magpies head coach Eddie Howe, whose side must realistically take at least a point at Paris St Germain later this month to stand any chance of progressing, it proved a sobering evening as he was forced to abandon his initial plan to field 19-year-old Lewis Hall at left-back at half-time after an early booking left him in severe jeopardy. Hall had stepped into a team left threadbare by injuries in which Tino Livramento started on the right side of a three-man frontline. Hall left himself on a tightrope when he was booked for hauling back Fullkrug after Brandt had played a pass in behind him, and he was relieved to see his sliced effort to clear Brandt’s resulting free-kick loop over his own crossbar. Nick Pope was called upon for the first time to parry Fullkrug’s 13th-minute strike after slick inter-play between Felix Nmecha and Brandt, and he had to be just as resilient three minutes later to repel Karim Adeyemi’s attempt with the home side building momentum. Newcastle edged their way into the game and forced an opening when Kieran Trippier and Hall worked a short corner move, only for the teenager’s driven cross to elude all his waiting team-mates. The visitors’ task grew in difficulty with 26 minutes gone when, having passed up several opportunities to clear their lines, they were punished when Fullkrug stabbed Marcel Sabitzer’s scuffed cross past Pope from close range. Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel dealt comfortably with Fabian Schar’s goal-bound header from a Trippier corner, while the hosts nearly increased their lead nine minutes before the break when Sabitzer lifted a shot wastefully over at the end of a pacy attack. The Magpies had a chance to level on the stroke of half-time when Jamaal Lascelles returned Trippier’s corner across goal, but Joelinton’s header was picked off by Kobel to cap a difficult half for the visitors. Howe made his move at the break when he replaced Hall and striker Callum Wilson with Miguel Almiron and Anthony Gordon and asked Livramento to drop in at right-back with Trippier moving to the left. His side instantly looked better balanced and Kobel had to turn away a dangerous Livramento cross before Almiron scooped a shot wide of his right post, although Pope had to palm away a Brandt snapshot as the hosts responded. However, Newcastle should have been back in it 11 minutes after the break when Bruno Guimaraes played Livramento into space down the right and his cross was perfectly weighted to present Joelinton with a free header, which he planted wide with the goal at his mercy. An increasingly open game left both defences exposed, but it was Newcastle’s which was picked apart with 11 minutes remaining after Trippier’s free-kick had failed to beat the first man. Adeyemi sent the ball upfield to leave Livramento to deal with both Brandt and Sabitzer, and the former kept his cool to draw the defender and fire low past Pope. Read More FA asks Mikel Arteta and Arsenal for observations after referee comments Tragedy chanting causes ‘unbearable pain’ and must stop – Margaret Aspinall ‘Just ridiculous’ – A closer look at Glenn Maxwell’s remarkable double century Wales’ Sam Costelow out until new year with shoulder and hamstring injuries Luton threaten to ban fans involved in ‘tragedy chanting’ during Liverpool match Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: Spurs went down with flag held high but loss hurts a lot

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By Samuel Shen and Ankur Banerjee SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Investors are making a tentative return to China's beaten-down stock markets as