Today's USMNT news includes the remarkable reports that Gregg Berhalter is set to return to his role as head coach for the Stars and Stripes.Elsewhere, Folarin Balogun has been linked with Inter Milan and Jozy Altidore could be on his way to Greece.USMNT news: Gregg Berhalter returnsThe USM...

The United Nations’ World Food Program is appealing for $19 million to provide emergency assistance to tens of thousands of people affected by a series of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that has rocked western Afghanistan

SAO PAULO A second teenager has died following a school shooting in southern Brazil, the hospital said on

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

Bacteria could be used to improve the fertility of lunar soil to allow us to live on the Moon, scientists have said. The breakthrough new study combined three different bacteria on lunar soil to see how it would affect the growth of a plant – and found that it dramatically helped improve the fertility of material taken from the Moon. Adding the three bacteria to the soil helped the researchers grow the planet, which was a relative of tobacco named benth. The bacteria work by increasing the amount of a kind of phosphorus in the soil. That is a major nutrient for plants and adding more of it means that plants will grow more easily and populous. Previous studies have shown that it is possible to grow cress using lunar soil. But it has been found to be difficult to support plants, and studies have shown that it is actually worse than volcanic ash from our own planet. What’s more, lunar soil has less nitrogen, which is required to grow plants. What phosphorus there is also comes in a form that cannot be used by plants. If we are to live on the Moon, therefore, scientist will have to find new ways to grow plants. And the researchers suggest that the breakthrough trio of bacteria could be a key step towards that aim. That in turn will help support life in future lunar bases, the researchers note in a new study published today. The work is described in a new paper, ‘Phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria improve the growth of Nicotiana benthamiana on lunar regolith simulant by dissociating insoluble inorganic phosphorus’ published in Communications Biology. Read More One of Saturn’s moons found to have all ingredients essential for life Nasa gets ‘puzzling’ data back from spacecraft exploring distant object Telescope reveals stunning images of the universe as it has never been seen before

Dental aligner company SmileDirectClub Inc. filed for bankruptcy four years after raising $1.35 billion in an initial public

Jurgen Klopp confirms Thiago Alcantara has suffered an injury setback in his attempt to return for Liverpool.

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Chelsea defender Reece James has been charged by the FA for an alleged altercation with a match official

Fortnite OG ends on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, at 11:30 p.m. ET before Fortnite Chapter 5 launches on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023.

College football realignment rumors: Florida State has a problemThe college football landscape is changing again. The only question is whether Colorado's move to the Big 12 was an aftershock of USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten or a foreshock of more seismic changes.Florida State is appa...