Potassium mining project in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest divides Indigenous tribe

This week in Aspen marks the debut of Shaun White's Snow League. It's a four-contest circuit that the retired three-time Olympic gold medalist hopes can alter the trajectory of halfpipe snowboarding. White's league promises $1.6 million in prize money, and $50,000 first prizes for men and women. It also offers Olympic qualifying points with the Milan-Cortina Games less than a year away. Top names competing this week include defending Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano on the men's side and Maddie Mastro for the women. White says he sees the league as a long-needed way to bring the best riders together more than every four years for the Olympics.

Cam Fowler is back to play in Anaheim for the first time since the Ducks traded the longest-serving and highest-scoring defenseman in franchise history to the St. Louis Blues less than three months ago. Fowler insists he feels no bitterness or disappointment about the way his 14 1/2 seasons in Orange County ended, and he is likely to receive a boisterous welcome when the Blues face the Ducks. Fowler had been a mainstay on the Ducks’ blue line since 2010, when the team selected him with the 12th overall pick. The Ducks traded him to St. Louis in December.

Every player in the top two divisions of men’s soccer in France will have “WO=MAN” written on the back of their jerseys instead of their names this weekend. The French league initiative is centered around International Women’s Day on Saturday. It started Friday with Toulouse’s home game against Monaco. It was continuing on Saturday and Sunday with the other teams in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. The LFP says the “WO=MAN” message highlights “the importance of gender equality not only on the field, but also in the stands.” LED panels around the pitches will display “WO=MAN” and official match balls have the motto written on them.

In the fast-changing world of college basketball, some things remain constant. Saint Mary’s, the small school in San Francisco’s East Bay region, keeps piling up wins at the rate that only the blue bloods of the sport can match. The Gaes are ranked 21st in the country after winning back-to-back outright regular season titles in the West Coast Conference and head into the conference tournament with a chance to become the first team to repeat as champions other than Gonzaga since Pepperdine in 1991-92.

JuJu Watkins scored 31 points, Kiki Iriafen added 21 and each grabbed 10 rebounds in their first Big Ten Tournament games, leading No. 2 Southern California to an 84-79 victory over Indiana. The Trojans are 3-0 in Indiana this season and have won eight straight. They'll face either fourth-seeded Maryland or fifth-seeded Michigan in Saturday's first semifinal. Yarden Garzon made five 3-pointers and led the Hoosiers with 23 points. The Trojans struggled to pull away until Talia von Oelhoffen and Watkins made back-to-back 3s late in the fourth to give USC its largest lead of the game, 77-68.

Chloe Kitts had 25 points and 10 rebounds and No. 5 South Carolina held off a furious second-half rally from Vanderbilt to win 84-63 on Friday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 15 off the bench and Sania Feagin added 13 points for South Carolina, which has won five straight. Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, the Southeastern Conference’s top seed, appeared plenty motivated to win a third straight tournament title. They came out of the gates strong, shooting a blistering 67% from the field in the first half to build a 48-23 lead at the break.

The NBA fined DeMar DeRozan $25,000 on Friday for publicly criticizing officials after the Sacramento Kings' loss to the Denver Nuggets. “The refs were terrible,” DeRozan said after the 116-110 loss on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee. The Nuggets had 30 free throws to 14 for the Kings. That included a 13-4 difference in the fourth quarter in which Denver outscored Sacramento 32-17.

Former major league outfielder Tyler Naquin says his attempted comeback as a right-handed pitcher was over a year in the making. Naquin played the outfield for four different major league teams from 2016-23. He has signed a minor league contract with the Guardians in hopes of making it back to the big leagues as a pitcher. Naquin says he started working out as a pitcher in January 2024. The 33-year-old Naquin says he hasn’t pitched in an actual game since throwing in a scrimmage while playing for Texas A&M in 2010. He said he also pitched in high school.

Tennessee will hold its spring game in the usual scrimmage format on April 12. Coach Josh Heupel said creating a big stage this time of year benefits development. The Volunteers’ spring game attracted more than 58,000 fans in 2023. Neyland Stadium’s spring-game capacity was reduced to 10,000 last year because of a renovation project and the limit will be about 45,000 this year. Heupel said it's important for young players to experience playing in front of a big crowd before the fall. Schools such as Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas and Southern California have scrapped their spring games this year.