Julian Alvarez was picked in 83 match-day squads last season. Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Phil Foden played in 72 games. Cristian Romero traveled more than 160,000 kilometers for international games.

In comparison, Erling Haaland had a summer break without a national-team tournament and has started the season fresh with a flurry of goals for Manchester City.

Before 2012, Matt Stutzman couldn't get a job. Then, he became a Paralympian.

It changed his life for the better, as it has for other veterans of the Games. But he, like other athletes who have experienced the growth of the Paralympics, still think it will take years more of promotion and hard work by athletes with disabilities to get something like equal footing with able-bodied athletes.

Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33.

The country's sports minister said authorities must do more to combat gender-based violence.

Despite her well-paying tech job, Li Daijing didn't hesitate when her cousin asked for help running a restaurant in Mexico City. She packed up and left China for the Mexican capital last year, with dreams of a new adventure.

The 30-year-old woman from Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, hopes one day to start an online business importing furniture from her home country.

Donald Trump is promising to make America the "crypto capital of the planet" if he returns to the White House. Fulfilling that promise would likely pay off for him personally.

Amidst his run for president, Trump has launched a new venture to trade cryptocurrencies that he's promoting on the same social media accounts he uses for his campaign. His two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are also posting about their new platform, called World Liberty Financial, as is his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is married to Eric and also serves as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning voters in the battleground state of North Carolina that they could lose jobs if Republicans weaken a signature Biden administration law that encourages investments in manufacturing and clean energy.

Yellen says that Republican-dominated states like North Carolina are greatly benefiting from tax incentives under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and that eliminating them would be a "historic mistake," according to a draft of a speech she will give Thursday at a community college in Raleigh. The Treasury Department released the remarks ahead of the address.

NATO member Turkey has applied for membership in the BRICS bloc of developing economies, a senior Kremlin official said Wednesday, as Russia and China seek to counter the West's global influence.

Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs aide, told reporters that Turkey has submitted an application "for full membership" in the bloc that Russia this year chairs, and it will be considered.

Top U.S. military leaders will be in Germany to discuss Ukraine's wartime needs as Russia has conducted one of its deadliest airstrikes in the conflict and Ukraine presses its offensive in Russia's Kursk region.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host a meeting Friday at Ramstein Air Force Base of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, made up of military leaders from more than 50 nations that have regularly provided funds and weapon systems to bolster Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel must keep open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt, digging in on his stance on an issue that has threatened to derail cease-fire efforts.

Netanyahu's comments came as the United States is developing a new proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release, hoping to break a long deadlock and bring an end to the nearly 11-month-old war.

French President Emmanuel Macron named the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, as France's new prime minister on Thursday after more than 50 days of caretaker government.

The appointment of the 73-year-old Barnier follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who might be able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by Macron's opponents to quickly topple the new government that Barnier will now put together and lead.