SnS MAG

Martin Chivers, soccer, 1945-2026

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Sports figures we lost in 2026

Wilburn was 62.

Television station WMC in Memphis reportsthat the Memphis Fire Department responded to a fire call in Orange Mound, Tenn., around 2 a.m. Friday morning. Firefighters found a victim unresponsive in a rear hallway. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A standout defensive back at Ole Miss, Wilburn was selected in the eighth round of the 1985 NFL draft. He spent the first five years of his NFL career in Washington, where he led the NFL with nine interceptions in 1987 and was named first-team All-Pro.

Wilburn recorded an interception of Denver quarterback John Elway in Washington's 42-10 victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl 22.

Wilburn also played for theCleveland Brownsin 1992 and for two seasons with thePhiladelphia Eaglesin 1995 and 1996.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Super Bowl champion DB Barry Wilburn dies in Tennessee house fire

Atlanta Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr. was arrested in Miami Saturday following a domestic dispute with Los Angeles Sparks forward Rickea Jackson, according to police.

Pearce crashed his car during a police chase while trying to avoid arrest, according to Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez.

Following the police chase, Pearce was arrested Saturday evening and charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated stalking, all connected to domestic violence, according to online records. He was also charged with aggravated battery of an officer, fleeing or eluding police with lights and siren and resisting an officer without violence to his person.

The nature of Pearce and Jackson's relationship was not immediately clear.

Pearce is an NFL rookie who was picked in the first round of the 2025 draft by the Falcons. In a statement, the Falcons said they were "aware of an incident" involving Pearce in Miami.

"We are in the process of gathering more information and will not have any further comment on an open legal matter at this time," the statement read.

Video circulating on social media and confirmed by the Doral Police Department showed Pearce being tackled to the ground and taken into custody by multiple officers.

Representatives for Jackson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jackson was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks as the fourth overall pick in 2024, going on to create a name for herself in the WNBA averaging 14.7 points in 38 games in the 2025 season.

Pearce is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is expected to have his first court appearance on Sunday.

Tatum is still recovering from rupturing his Achilles tendon last May during a playoff series with the New York Knicks. Tatum still has several benchmarks to clear from his recovery and there remains no timetable for his return, ESPN reported. NBA insider Chris Haynes reported on Jan. 29 thatTatum is considering sitting outfor the entire 2025-2026 season.

Charania reported that Tatum wants to come back as close to 100 percent as possible. Last season, Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists.

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Part of Tatum's reluctance to return has been how well the Celtics have played without him. The Celtics are second in the East at 34-18 and currently on a five-game winning streak.

"That's something I contemplate every day," Tatum said on thePivot Podcast. "More so about the team, if or when I do come back this season, they would've played 50 some-odd games without me. So they have an identity this year or things that they felt have clicked for them, and it's been successful, right, third or second team in the East up to this point. So there is a thought in my head that's like, how does that work or hows does that look with me integrating myself off an injury and 50-60 games into a season? There could obviously be some challenges and it is a thought, like damn? Do I come back or should I wait? It's something that I honestly, recently in the last two weeks or so, just kind of contemplate every single day."

Jaylen Brown is also in the midst of a career season. He is averaging 29.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists. Brown was recently selected for his fifth All-Star Game.

Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have also increased their scoring numbers, with both guards scoring over 17 points per game. The team also acquired big man Nikola Vučević in a trade with the Chicago Bulls.

Lebanon Building Collapse

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

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The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon's second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards.

Lebanon's Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state's expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of "blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security," and said it is "not an isolated incident."

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.

The protesters "demonstrate 'against the Olympics,' causing these images to end up on televisions around the world. After others cut the railway cables to prevent the trains from leaving," Meloni said in a statement on Facebook, adding that thousands of Italians are working to keep the Games running smoothly, many of whom are volunteers.

"Solidarity, once again, with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals," she said.

Italy's transport ministry said it has opened a terrorism investigation into the synchronized sabotage of railway lines in northern Italy on Saturday, the first day of the Games.

No one has claimed responsibility, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The alleged sabotage first hit the central Bologna hub, which governs rail traffic between northern and southern Italy, around 6 a.m. Saturday when it was still dark out, ANSA reported. It then struck Pesaro-area trains along the Adriatic coast.

Infrastructure was burned or cut to cause the sabotage in both cases, the news agency said.

The transport ministry didn't provide details, but said it would seek millions of euros in compensation from the perpetrators. Thousands of passengers were impacted by the hourslong delays.

In Milan, Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon on Saturday evening at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near aWinter Olympicsvenue. The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence ofU.S. agents in Italy.

The skirmish comes days after Meloni's governmentapproved a security decreethat allows police to detain people for up to 12 hours when there are reasonable grounds to believe they may act as agitators and disrupt peaceful protests. Opposition lawmakers criticized the measure as an attack on freedom of expression.

Peaceful protest is legitimate, but "we draw a line at violence," International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said during the IOC's daily media briefing. "That has no place at the Olympic Games."

Police on Saturday held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.

At the earlier, larger demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anthem against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Beforehand, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that's housing around 1,500 athletes.

The demonstration coincided with U.S. Vice President JD Vance's visit to Milan as head of the American delegation. Vance and his family visitedLeonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper"closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of ICE agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at theforefront of the immigration crackdownin the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.

The demonstration on Saturday followedanother one last week, when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.

Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents' presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in U.S. diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.

AP Olympics:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Morgan McSweeney said he took responsibility for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, 72, to Britain's most important diplomatic post in 2024.

"The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself," McSweeney said in a statement. "When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice."

Starmer is facing a political storm and questions about his judgement after newly published documents, part ofa huge trove of Epstein filesmade public in the United States, suggested that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the U.K. government's business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis.

Starmer's government has promised to release its own emails and other documentation related to Mandelson's appointment, which it says will show that Mandelson misled officials.

The prime minister apologized this week for "having believed Mandelson's lies."

He acknowledged that when Mandelson was chosen for the top diplomat job in 2024, the vetting process had revealed that Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued after the latter's 2008 conviction. But Starmer maintained that "none of us knew the depth of the darkness" of that relationship at the time.

A number of lawmakers said Starmer is ultimately responsible for the scandal.

"Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions," said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party.

Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, has not been arrested or charged.

Metropolitan Police officers searched Mandelson's London home and another property linked to him on Friday. Police said the investigation is complex and will require "a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis."

The U.K. police investigation centers on potential misconduct in public office, and Mandelson is not accused of any sexual offenses.

Starmer hadfired Mandelsonin September from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties. But critics say the emails recently published by the U.S. Justice Department have brought serious concerns about Starmer's judgment to the fore. They argue that he should have known better than to appoint Mandelson in the first place.

The new revelations include documents suggesting Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis. They also include records of payments totaling $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 from Epstein to accounts linked to Mandelson or his husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

Aside from his association with Epstein, Mandelson previously had to resign twice from senior government posts because of scandals over money or ethics.

Starmer had faced growing pressure over the past week to fire McSweeney, who is regarded as a key adviser in Downing Street and seen as a close ally of Mandelson.

Starmer on Sunday credited McSweeney as a central figure in running Labour's recent election campaign and the party's 2004 landslide victory. His statement did not mention the Mandelson scandal.

Four years of Russian bombslanding on Kharkiv, reducing their homes to rubble. Four years of war that destroyed the appliance and lighting business run by Kolesnik's father, Igor. Four years of drones flying over the head of his brother, also named Igor, who enlisted in the Ukrainian army following the Russian invasion in 2022.

"It seems like it's been a lifetime," Kolesnik said.

Yet thanks to a GoFundMe set up with modest expectations in January, shortly after Kolesnik qualified forthe Milan Cortina Gameswith his ice dance partner, Emilea Zingas, the wait ended Saturday. Family members Snezhana Kolesnik and Irina Kobchenko were able to fly to northern Italy to watch Kolesnik participate in the Winter Games this week.

Earlier that day, Russia had carried out its latest major attack, one involving hundreds of drones and 32 ballistic missiles.

"I'm just so, so thankful," Kolesnik told The Associated Press after a practice session at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, where he'll open competition with the rhythm dance Monday night. "They wouldn't have been here without everyone's help."

The goal had been $25,000, and that was easily surpassed by the time Kolesnik's family landed in Milan. The 24-year-old plans to use any money left over to help cover training and coaching costs after the Olympics.

"We never expected that much," Zingas said.

The path from Ukraine to US

Kolesnik came to the U.S. in 2016 for a tryout with renowned coach Igor Shpilband. But he soon learned how difficult it can be for an immigrant when, after a brief return to Ukraine, he was denied re-entry. He eventually secured a long-term visa to train in the U.S., but he was largely on his own until his mother, Svitlana, joined him about three years ago.

Kolesnik's father remained in Ukraine to care for his grandmother, while his older brother ultimately headed off to war.

Given what his family has endured, it makes sense that Kolesnik is againstRussian athletesat the Milan Cortina Games. Several were vetted for connections to the Russian military and cleared to compete, including figure skatersAdeliia Petrosian and Petr Gumennik, who will be considered neutral athletes.

"To me, they're a terrorist country," Kolesnik said. "They're killing Ukrainians every day. Until the war is over, they have no place."

Kolesnik, who obtained his U.S. citizenship last summer, told the AP he has learned to compartmentalize what is happening in Ukraine with life in America. When he's not training with Zingas, he works at the Novi Ice Arena in suburban Detroit.

"When the war just started," he said, "it was definitely affecting my life drastically, especially my skating life. I was just trying to pour all the feelings, all the emotions I had into skating, and this is not a good way of training. I wanted it so bad, to be successful.

"But all of this happening outside of skating life was affecting me, so I learned through sports psychology the way to block it. I have to go out there, tell the story, focus on my job, and whatever happens outside of skating is outside of it."

Zingas and Koesnik both said they use figure skating as an escape.

"You have to remember this war is really close to his heart," Zingas said. "Every day he gets sent videos and messages about friends dying or getting injured. It's not an easy thing. For the last four years, every day, he's had some big weight put on him."

Watching an Olympic dream

While Kolesnik was able to fly two family members from Ukraine for the Olympics, his mother made the brutal choice to stay behind in Michigan. She wouldn't have had an issue getting to Europe, he said, but returning to the U.S. could have been a problem.

"Our lawyer advised us that it was not a good idea," Zingas explained. "She has a visa and all the right paperwork, but they've heard stories about people having all the right paperwork and something happens, and they get denied entry anyway."

Kolesnik's mother has a visa through 2027, but he is hoping to secure a green card so she can stay indefinitely.

"They're so proud of me, especially my dad," Kolesnik said. "My mom wasn't so supportive of my figure skating dream. My dad was always behind it. He sent me to the U.S. to follow my dreams. My mom wanted me to choose a different path, something more safe, but my dad knew when I was growing up that I would rather go skating than do anything else."

Now, Kolesnik is getting to do it on the biggest stage in the sport.

With some of his family on hand to watch.

AP Olympic coverage:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics