After a four-month delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball kicks off its regular season Thursday with a 60-game schedule set to be played solely in U.S. stadiums. While many fans are anticipating the return of the game nicknamed the national pastime, there are widespread concerns about the safety of resuming a major sports league at a time when the United States is in the midst of a surge in coronavirus infections with several of the hotspots home to multiple teams. Among the top ten states with the highest per-capita increases in new cases in the past week are Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and California, which together host 11 of the 30 MLB teams. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is set to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Washington as the defending World Series champion Nationals host the New York Yankees in the league’s opening game.  Fauci has been seen often in recent weeks wearing a Nationals mask. “Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title,” the Nationals said in a statement. The Nationals had to get a waiver from the District of Columbia in order to be allowed to host games because local coronavirus restrictions would otherwise not allow such an event to take place. There will be no fans in the stands, something that will be a common sight throughout the league.Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner tries to steal second base against the Baltimore Orioles during an exhibition baseball game, July 20, 2020, in Baltimore. Turner was caught stealing by catcher Bryan Holaday.Major League Baseball’s sole Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, is not being allowed to play its games at home, forcing it to search for a U.S. stadium for those games instead. Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino cited the frequent cross-border travel that would be involved with the neighboring United States. “We understand professional sports are important to the economy and to Canadians,” he said Saturday.  “At the same time, our government will continue to take decisions at the border on the basis of the advice of our health experts in order to protect the health and safety of all Canadians.” The Pittsburgh Pirates said Monday they were in talks with the Blue Jays about Toronto playing its home games in Pittsburgh this season.  Blue Jays General Manager Ross Atkins has said if the team is unable to secure another Major League park for its games, the most likely backup would be playing at its minor league affiliate stadium in Buffalo, New York. Unlike the National Basketball Association, which is housing all of its teams in Orlando, Florida for the rest of its season with strict rules about outside contacts, MLB teams will still travel to other cities to play and players are only being cautioned to practice social distancing and avoid situations that may increase their risk of coronavirus exposure. Players will be administered coronavirus tests every other day and temperature checks twice a day.  On the field, they are banned from spitting, celebrating with high-fives or similar contact, and any players who are unlikely to take part in that day’s game will have to sit in the stands spaced at least six feet apart instead of hanging out in the dugout. The 60-game schedule does feature mostly games within a team’s division, with the rest scheduled to take place in its geographic region in order to reduce overall travel.  For example, Washington will play all of its road games in eastern cities Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Tampa Bay and wherever Toronto ends up. Several high-profile players have chosen to use the opt-out rights in the agreement on return to play reached between team owners and the union that represents players. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jordan Hicks, Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis and Colorado Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond are among those who will not be playing.  The agreement also institutes a few changes to the games themselves.  Teams in the National League that typically have pitchers also participate on offense will instead utilize the designated hitter position that is already standard for American League teams. Also, when any regular season games go into extra innings, each team will begin its turn on offense with a player already on second base. The regular concludes September 27, followed by the league’s usual playoff format. 
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Nicki Minaj has a new release coming soon: her first child.
The rapper took to Instagram on Monday to announce she is pregnant, posting photos of herself with a baby bump. One caption simply read: “#Preggers.”
She also wrote on another post, “Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Overflowing with excitement & gratitude. Thank you all for the well wishes.”
Minaj married Kenneth Petty last year. They first dated as teenagers and reunited in 2018.
Musically, Minaj has also had a winning year, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice. Her remix of Doja Cat’s “Say So” helped Minaj achieve her first-ever No. 1 on the Hot 100, despite releasing multiple hits throughout her career. She also reached the top spot with “Trollz,” her collaboration with 6ix9ine.
 
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Pakistani authorities said Monday that archeologists have begun searching for the remains of a third-century, life-size Buddha statue that was found and destroyed by a group of religiously conservative laborers in the northwestern town of Mardan.The destruction of the rare idol occurred in a village near Takht-i-Bahi (Throne of Origins), which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for being an icon of the ancient Buddhist civilization.Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the site is located arrested four men Saturday after a video showing them vandalizing a Buddha statue with a hammer went viral on social media.“This design or art of sculpting the Buddha dates back to the second or third century A.D., so, it is around 1,700 years old,” Bakht Muhammad, a research officer at the provincial Directorate of Archeology and Museums, told VOA.  Muhammad said the provincial government has directed a team of archeological experts to also conduct a comprehensive survey starting Tuesday into whether more antiquities are in and around the village. He stressed that the area previously has not been listed as a conserved site.It will take about a month before the team is able to share the findings, Muhammad added.“It is not a big deal for us, provided our team is able to recover all parts of the destroyed Buddha. The pieces taken into possession are not enough, and that’s why our team of experts has been tasked to locate the remaining parts,” he said when asked if his department would be able to restore the rare statue. He noted that prosecutors are working to institute a court case against the four men under an antiquities law, saying they could each be sentenced to a five-year jail term, along with a financial penalty of about $12,000 if found guilty.Legal experts note, however, that court cases of this nature usually can take years before a final verdict is issued.Muhammad said the statue was discovered during the construction of a water drain in a privately owned mango orchard, about 12 kilometers from Takht-i-Bahi.“These are illiterate local people who went for the destruction of the Buddha, believing that they would be rewarded by Allah. Their contractor did not even bother to inform the owner of the orchard about the discovery and instead participated in the illegal action,” Muhammad said.Heart breaking.
A life sized statue of Buddha was discovered in a construction site in Takhtbhai, Mardan recently.
However, before the Archaeology dept was informed about it, the contractor had already broken it into pieces as the local molvi warned him that he would lose.. pic.twitter.com/nWHHzkOxe7
— Ahsan Hamid Durrani (@Ahsan_H_Durrani) July 18, 2020The accused could be heard in the video discussing the size of the statue, with one of them saying, “It’s a standing doll. It’s a female. … Look, she is wearing earrings.”“Her name is carved here. This is the shirt,” said an old man sitting on the statue and removing the dirt from its belly.“Is this a Hindu or Westerner (statue)?” another man asked.“Hindu. This is Gautam Buddha,” replied his partner before all of them congratulated each other.Foreign tourists, particularly from Japan, Korea and Sri Lanka, routinely visit Takht-i-Bahi and other Buddhist sites to pay homage.Founded in early first century, the Buddhist monastic complex of Takht-i-Bahi is exceptionally well-preserved and is located on high hills, typical of Buddhist sites, according to UNESCO. 
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Rapper Kanye West, in his first event since declaring himself a presidential candidate, ranted against historical figure Harriet Tubman on Sunday, saying the Underground Railroad conductor “never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people,” comments that drew shouts of opposition from some in the crowd.West delivered a lengthy monologue, touching on topics from abortion and religion to international trade and licensing deals, before a crowd in North Charleston, South Carolina. Whether he is actually seeking the nation’s highest office remains a question.Tubman is one of the most respected figures of 19th century America. An African American who escaped slavery, she helped enslaved Black men and women travel north to freedom and fought for the Union during the Civil War. She later became a supporter of women’s suffrage.  On abortion, West said that while he believes it should be legal, financial incentives to help struggling mothers could be a way to discourage the practice.”Everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars,” he said as an example.Wearing a protective vest and with “2020” shaved into his head, the entertainer appeared on a livestream of the event. Several hundred people gathered in a venue, where gospel music played before West’s appearance.The event was reportedly for registered guests only, although a campaign website had no registration or RSVP information.Speaking without a microphone, West became tearful at one point while talking about his mother, who died following plastic surgery complications in 2007.West missed the deadline to qualify for the ballot in several states, and it was unclear if he was willing or able to collect enough signatures required to qualify in others. Last week, he qualified to appear on Oklahoma’s presidential ballot, the first state where he met the requirements before the filing deadline.West needed to collect 10,000 signatures by noon Monday to appear on the South Carolina ballot, according to state law. The entertainer tweeted out a list of locations around the Charleston area where petitions could be signed. Email to an address purportedly associated with the campaign was not returned Sunday afternoon.West, who is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, initially announced his candidacy on July 4. 
 
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Amber Heard began giving testimony at Britain’s High Court on Monday against ex-husband Johnny Depp, who she has accused of abusing her both physically and verbally during their tempestuous relationship.
Depp, 57, is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, at the court in London over an April 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.” The Hollywood star strongly denies abusing Heard. He was at the court to hear Heard’s evidence.
In the first session of her testimony that is expected to last for three days, Heard denied accusations that she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker as well as being controlling and abusive herself.  
She also described an incident in January 2015 in a hotel room in Tokyo over a prenuptial agreement between herself and Depp, and suggested there was an argument about it.
“There was an argument in a hotel room in Tokyo that resulted in Johnny kneeling on my back and hitting me on the back of the head,” she said.
In written testimony released as she took to the witness box, Heard said she worried Depp would kill her at various times during their relationship that saw her enduring “punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking.” She also said “some incidents were so severe that I was afraid he was going to kill me, either intentionally or just by losing control and going too far.”  
According to the 34-year-old Heard, Depp “explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship” and that he blamed his actions on “a self-created third party” that he referred to as “the monster.”  
Heard has been present throughout the trial, watching the proceedings as her ex-husband gave evidence over five days.  
She is facing questioning over 14 allegations of domestic violence that The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers is relying on in its defense of the April 2018 article.
Depp and Heard met in 2009 on the set of the film “The Rum Diary,” which was released two years later. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
The Sun’s defense relies on the 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and the couple’s downtown Los Angeles penthouse.
Depp claims Heard was the aggressor during their volatile relationship, which he has likened to “a crime scene waiting to happen.”
In nine days of testimony at the High Court, judge Andrew Nicol has heard from Depp and from several current or former employees who have backed his version of events.
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