Puerto Rico produced a big upset at the World Baseball Classic on Wednesday night with a 5-2 win against the Dominican Republic. But it came at a cost.

While celebrating the win with his teammates, New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz suffered a right knee injury and was taken off the field in a wheelchair.

Puerto Rico’s players – including Díaz’s brother, Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Alexis – were in tears as they watched the righter-hander leave the field.

The freak injury could be bad news for the Mets, as well as for Puerto Rico.

The Mets said Díaz, who agreed on a five-year, $102 million contract with the team last year, had “a full-thickness tear of the patellar tendon” and would undergo surgery on Thursday.

“It comes to a certain point that it gets bigger than the game and something very unfortunate happened,” Puerto Rico center fielder Kiké Hernández told reporters after the game.

“As excited as we were about the game and all that, it’s one of our brothers and some of us grew up together. It’s really easy to set aside the game and worry about us as humans.

“It definitely doesn’t feel in there [the clubhouse] like we just beat the Dominican Republic to advance.”

Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina said he “didn’t know how to act” and “what to say” when he looked up from the dugout to see Díaz on the ground after the celebrations.

“When you see a guy there who works so hard like Edwin on the ground like that, it’s sad,” Molina told reporters.

Puerto Rico faces Mexico in the quarterfinals in Miami on Friday with the winner playing Japan next week.

“Let’s rewrite history … the dream continues!” said Napoli’s Twitter page.

And no wonder – 18 points clear at the top of the Serie A table, the Partenopei is cruising to its first domestic league title since the heady days of Diego Maradona in the late 1980s.

But Luciano Spalletti’s team doesn’t seem set on just dominating Italian football; Napoli is also turning up the heat on Europe’s elite.

On Wednesday, Napoli comfortably beat Eintracht Frankfurt – last year’s Europa League winners – 3-0 in the Champions League, thanks to goals from two of its stalwarts, a brace from Victor Osimhen and a penalty from Piotr Zieliński.

In doing so, it advanced to the quarterfinals with a 5-0 victory on aggregate over two legs. The seven other teams in Friday’s draw for the last eight are probably hoping not be paired against Napoli.

‘We have no limits’

Nobody expected this season. Not even the most hardened of Napoli fans could have predicted that after 26 games of the season, the team would be easing to its first title in over 30 years, banishing years of heartache and falling short.

However, thanks to the previously unheralded Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a central European midfielder axis – Zieliński and Stanislav Lobotka – and the prolific Nigerian forward Osimhen, Napoli has become one of Europe’s top teams playing an exciting brand of attacking football.

The 64-year-old Spalletti is not known for being a serial winner, but his Napoli team’s attacking verve has consistently overwhelmed opposition with a majesty fit for champions in waiting.

It has only failed to score in three games this season in the league, scoring two or more goals on 20 occasions.

Osimhen is Serie A’s top scorer with 19 goals while Kvaratskhelia – who is playing in his first season for Napoli – has scored 11 and provided nine assists in the league. The Georgian’s thrilling performances have earned him comparisons to Maradona and the nickname “Kvaradona.”

Combined with a stingy defense – lead by summer-signing Kim Min-jae – which has kept a league-leading 13 clean sheets, Napoli’s rivals have been playing catch up all season.

Napoli’s Champions League campaign began with an emphatic 4-1 win over last year’s runners up Liverpool in the opening group game, scoring four in 47 blistering minutes, with Osimhen also missed a penalty.

Spalletti’s team went from strength to strength in the Champions League, recording more impressive wins against Rangers and Ajax both home and away.

Excluding the final group game against Liverpool, which Napoli lost 2-0 having already guaranteed its qualification to the last 16 round, the Italian team’s first five matches in the section ended in five wins, as the Partenopei scored 20 goals and conceded four.

“We want to enjoy the moment and look ahead. It’s a great win,” Osimhen said after beating Frankfurt. “We are rewriting the history of this club. We keep dreaming, we have no limits!”

On her first date with Augustin Pasquet, Michelle Young found herself weaving through the streets of Paris on the back of his moped.

As they headed down the Champs-Élysées, Michelle snapped a photograph with her digital camera. In the distance, she captured the striking Arc de Triomphe. In the forefront, Augustin lifted his fingers in the peace symbol. In the moment, Michelle felt exuberantly happy. She didn’t know where the evening would go, but she knew she’d treasure that feeling.

“A lot of that footage was just taken along the Seine, with the lights of Paris. And so even if he was unintentionally on a date, it was still a magical introduction to France.”

“I didn’t know the word ‘date’,” he says today, laughing. “A date is a very Anglo-Saxon idea. For me, I’d met someone, there was a good connection and I was meeting her again in Paris.”

A meeting in Bolivia

Michelle and Augustin’s story had begun six months previously, thousands of miles away from the streets of Paris, in Bolivia, in South America.

It was 2009. Michelle was 26 and at a crossroads. She’d abandoned an unsatisfying job to play cello in a Brooklyn-based indie rock band and wasn’t sure where life was heading.

“I grew up in a pretty classic Taiwanese American household. Excellence in everything you do is expected and I had fulfilled my cultural destiny already by then by going to Harvard and going to the Juilliard School for Music,” Michelle says.

“But I had never done anything that was not planned out or pre-ordained for me. When I quit the only industry I had ever worked in, I was pretty lost.”

Amid that uncertainty, travel became Michelle’s escape. She went backpacking around Southeast Asia. Then, in summer 2009, she embarked on a trip through South America with her bandmates.

“I love everything about backpacking. There’s an openness that comes with traveling with no plan, with only your essentials, spending as little money as possible, and in a lot of cases, traveling alone. The people you meet have a similar openness,” says Michelle. “I wasn’t looking for love, but I was looking for adventure.”

Michelle and her friends traveled through Peru first, and then onto La Paz, Bolivia. From there, they explored the foothills of the Amazon and admired the Bolivian salt flats before arriving in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Traveling through Bolivia was an amazing experience, but plans went a little haywire when one of the group had her passport stolen. An impending move on to Brazil was put on hold as Michelle’s friend attempted to resolve the situation.

At this impasse, some of the group flew back to the United States, some headed to Argentina. As for Michelle, she booked a couple of beds in a Santa Cruz de la Sierra hostel for herself and her passport-less friend, happy to wait out the uncertainty.

While her friend sorted out her passport issues, Michelle killed time in the hostel. She’d picked it – one of just two options – because her Lonely Planet guidebook said there was a “tropical outdoor courtyard with hammocks and two toucans.” Sure enough, it felt like a green haven, and as an extra plus, it was filled with friendly backpackers.

Among them was a 24-year-old French traveler by the name of Augustin Pasquet.

That summer, Augustin was also making his way through South America with a gang of close friends. They’d started in Argentina, then traveled to Chile and onto Bolivia.

“We had spent like three days in the desert, in SUVs covered in dust and everything and suddenly we were in this beautiful hostel with hammocks, luxurious, lush plants. And then next thing, this charming, charming woman walks by,” recalls Augustin.

When he first spotted Michelle, Augustin was sitting with his friends in a communal area of the hostel.

“I thought she was cute, she walked by and she clearly wanted to engage,” Augustin recalls. “I’m less the engagey-type, so I asked my friend to ask her something, to start the conversation.”

Augustin’s friend obliged, and – somewhat out of nowhere – turned to Michelle and asked in English, “Do you know where the market is?”

Michelle was a little surprised.

“I remember noting that it was really kind of random if that’s the one thing he really wanted to ask me,” she recalls.

But coincidentally she had been to a great market that day, so she obligingly launched into a long explanation of what it was like, and how to get there.

“I realize his question was just a way to start conversation,” says Michelle today. “I guess in a way it did break the ice because I did my usual rambling with far too much detail and color for any answer, displaying a kind of classic American friendliness which some French people find fun.”

Soon Michelle had grabbed a seat at the table and was swapping travel anecdotes with the French boys. They were easy, fun company.

“One guy did catch my eye,” says Michelle. “But he was quieter than the rest.”

This was Augustin, happy to sit back and let his friends do most of the talking, even if he’d been the one to encourage the connection with Michelle in the first place.

The conversation continued into the evening. Michelle, Augustin and Augustin’s friends – later joined by Michelle’s friend after she’d resolved her passport troubles – went out for dinner and then drinks at a nearby bar and restaurant.

Over the course of the evening, Michelle and Augustin realized they were both carrying the same Nikon DSLR camera.

“We both loved our camera and taking photos in general,” says Augustin. Over drinks, they compared photographs and techniques.

“It was fun,” says Augustin.

“We bonded about photography and found that we shared a similar sense of humor,” says Michelle.

They were both intrigued by one another. But neither acted on their feelings.

“It was honestly a very PG experience,” says Michelle.

The next day, Michelle and her friend prepared to leave Bolivia. Michelle’s friends’ passport issues were resolved, and they could finally head on to Brazil.

Michelle and Augustin said goodbye and exchanged Facebook details, just in case there was a chance to reunite at another point on their respective South American adventures.

Plus, Michelle had decided to go to graduate school back in New York, and with that came an opportunity to study abroad in Paris. Now she had a potential friend in France.

A Paris reunion

Michelle and Augustin finished their South American travels without crossing paths again.

Back home in the US, Michelle says she “thought about Augustin from time to time.”

She showed her best friend in New York some photographs of the night out in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Her friend pointed out one of the other guys, suggesting he was the one Michelle should have gone for.

“But I thought, nah, Augustin is the one if it somehow all works out,” recalls Michelle. “I thought he was really cute. I thought we shared a sense of humor – and then the camera thing. So there seemed to be a lot of interests that were aligned. And I liked his energy.”

Back in Paris, Augustin also found himself describing that evening – and Michelle – to a friend. He especially liked how Michelle had been journaling that night, almost in real time, jotting down funny moments in a notebook to remember for later.

Augustin’s friend listened to all of this, and raised an eyebrow.

“He pointed out that I was really into her – he put it in words for me,” says Augustin. He remembers denying it, but it was true Michelle was often on his mind.

Six months passed. Michelle started her graduate school program and began planning her semester in Paris.

She decided to send Augustin a Facebook message asking if he had any tips on the best neighborhood to find an apartment. But Augustin didn’t respond right away, and in the meantime, Michelle sorted her accommodation without his help.

Augustin did eventually reply with a long, detailed explanation of Paris’ arrondissements, or neighborhoods, and where might be best for Michelle to base herself.

When he realized the information had come too late, he encouraged Michelle to get in touch again once she arrived.

When she touched down in Paris, Michelle dropped Augustin a message. She had no expectations, but he invited her to meet for drinks, and suggested they could then head to a dinner party hosted by one of his friends.

“I was definitely really excited to see him again,” recalls Michelle. “And then also really excited to be shown Paris by a Parisian. I think that’s sort of everyone’s dream when they go study abroad.”

“I was very excited to see her again too,” says Augustin. He suggested the two of them meet by a church in the 17th arrondissement. The church was, coincidentally, the place where Augustin’s grandparents had got married.

“It was convenient, beautiful and easy – and not too far from where she was and where we wanted to go afterwards. It was very nice. And we reconnected right away, same energy, we spent the whole time laughing as well,” says Augustin.

“I remember thinking: ‘There could be something here.”

Michelle and Augustin had drinks that night at Parisian institution Chez Georges.

“It captures an idea of Paris,” says Augustin. “It’s a bar and the downstairs has a cellar with arched stones, you just buy red wine or whatever, it’s loud and there’s music – it feels very timeless Parisian in a way.”

From there, the two went to Augustin’s friend’s dinner party. That’s when Michelle ended up on the back of Augustin’s moped, speeding through the streets of Paris.

“I did sense that it was pretty special to be invited to a friend’s dinner on a first date. So that didn’t go unnoticed,” says Michelle.

Augustin’s friends welcomed Michelle into the fray right away. They drank wine, and grazed on oozy raclette cheese into the early hours of the morning. Michelle didn’t speak French at the time, but she enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere.

“I guess nowadays we have the ‘Emily in Paris’ comparison,” she says, joking about her bad French.

For most of the evening, she struggled to work out which of Augustin’s friends were dating.

“I kind of just assumed that if two people were sitting next to each other, and often they were talking quite closely, or were much more tactile than American culture or British culture, I was like, ‘Oh, they must be dating. Those two must be together, you know?””

The fact that they were more often actually dating someone at the other end of the table was “mind-blowing,” says Michelle.

It was one of the first cultural differences she observed between US and French culture.

“I’ve always appreciated cultural differences. My family’s from Taiwan, I grew up in the US and was born there, but was always part of two cultures,” says Michelle. “And so I remember just taking a lot of it in, trying to figure out the codes of conduct.”

It was a great evening, Michelle says she remembers “laughing a lot, and his friends seemed really fun and very welcoming.”

Augustin echoes this.

“I just felt she was really fun,” he says of Michelle.

Michelle invited Augustin for drinks to repay the favor. This time he was the one to be confused by cultural differences. Michelle didn’t mention she’d also invited a bunch of American and French people she knew, whereas Augustin thought it was going to be just the two of them. He was a bit baffled.

But after that, Augustin invited Michelle for dinner at his place.

“He said, ‘Bring your friends.’ So I did, but not 15 of them. I brought like four. I think from that dinner on that was – that was it,” says Michelle.

“Official dating time,” says Augustin.

Over the next eight months, Michelle and Augustin fell in love in Paris. They spent long days wandering the streets hand-in-hand, and long evenings sharing wine and food and introducing one another to their friends.

They also traveled around France together, to Bordeaux, to Brittany and to the south of France, to Provence.

People always assumed Michelle and Augustin had just met – in France. Friends were always surprised when the couple explained they’d actually met the year before, in Bolivia.

“I always thought our story was a lot more fun than meeting at a bar during a study abroad in Paris,” says Michelle. “Even though that’s a great story, too.”

During her time in France, Michelle got to spend time with Augustin’s family in the French Basque Country.

“They were super welcoming,” she says.

Augustin also met Michelle’s mom when she came to visit her daughter in Paris. The group had lunch in a restaurant near the Louvre art museum.

“She was also very, very kind,” says Augustin. “I felt a stamp of approval.”

Michelle slowly started to pick up some French and settled into her Parisian lifestyle.

But by September, her student visa was up and Michelle had to return to New York.

Transatlantic long distance

“From there, there were definitely a lot of discussions to figure out, how are we going to be able to make this work long distance?” says Michelle.

Michelle’s grad school schedule gave her a bit more flexibility than a nine-to-five, allowing for calls whenever she had a spare moment.

“The flexibility in her schedule really allowed us to maintain this relationship over the phone and Skype, and so that was really great,” says Augustin.

“Then every four weeks, one of us would take the plane to go see each other.”

The couple settled into a routine of sorts, but as time went on, the long distance got more draining. There was no obvious end in sight.

“It was a lot more time not together than together,” says Augustin. “If we wanted this relationship to continue, one of us would have to make a move and go live in someone else’s country.”

At the time, Augustin worked for cosmetics company L’Oréal in Paris. After some months, he started exploring the possibility of transferring to the New York office.

“I definitely liked the energy in New York,” says Augustin. “I had over 15 interviews in the US to get a job there. And finally, on Christmas Eve 2011, I was approved.”

Augustin’s family were very supportive of the move. His parents had lived abroad and instilled an international mindset into their kids. Augustin had also spent a period in Singapore in his early twenties, and had traveled a lot.

And by coincidence, his sister had also recently moved to New York City.

“If anything, I’m assuming they were kind of excited – ‘Okay, cool. We can go see you in New York,’” says Augustin of his parents.

“I do think on my end, my parents were very excited that I had met someone, maybe also a sense of relief, after many dramatic relationships I had in New York. And you know, they come from an immigrant family, where family is really important,” says Michelle. “They really liked Augustin, they were very welcoming when he arrived here.”

Moving in together after almost two years of long distance was “easy,” says Michelle.

“We have great memories of that time,” agrees Augustin.

“It was really nice to close that chapter of the kind of sadness that would come when a long weekend ended when one of us was visiting whichever country,” says Michelle. “It felt like a real stroke of luck that he was able to move here through L’Oréal. It’s not something that everyone can get to do.”

Michelle and Augustin got married in the US in 2014, a celebration that brought together their different cultural influences, sometimes to amusing effect. The Americans, informed that French weddings go on into the next morning, tried their best to keep up with the French guests, who were more used to the copious quantities of champagne.

Michelle and Augustin’s wedding also celebrated their Bolivian meet-cute, and the twists and turns that led them to put down roots in New York.

“The speeches captured our optimism in life,” says Augustin. “We decided to meet again and just see if it works, then do long distance and see if it works, and then I decided to move to New York and see if it works. We gave it a shot at every step of the way, because we’re optimistic and up for adventure, and the speeches definitely captured that.”

Looking back and looking forward

A decade of marriage later, Michelle and Augustin are still based in New York, where they now run a company together, Untapped New York, an online magazine and tour company about discovering the secrets of your own city. They also still love photography, traveling and comparing images they’ve taken.

Meanwhile, Michelle is also working on a book, based on the true life story of a French female spy in the Second World War.

“I likely would not have come across her story at all had I not met and married someone French,” says Michelle, who is now fluent in French.

Michelle and Augustin have two children, who they’re bringing up as bilingual. The couple spend extended summers in France, while back in New York, Michelle’s parents teach their grandkids Tawianese traditions.

Michelle and Augustin love returning to Paris and retracing the steps of their early courtship. They dream about renting a Parisian apartment and embracing the nostalgia of those first dates and those moped rides along the Seine.

But they’d also love to return to Bolivia with their kids. The hostel where they first crossed paths almost fifteen years ago is now a government building, but the bar and restaurant where Michelle and Augustin first bonded over photography and their shared sense of humor is still going strong.

“We are going back there, we are going back to that place, and we’re taking them with us – that’s 100% in the cards,” says Augustin.

Today ,Michelle and Augustin see optimism, adventure and excitement as the cornerstones of their relationship.

“I would say that it has been a constant adventure being with Augustin,” says Michelle. “I think we’ve approached life like that, whether it was planning our wedding, and figuring out how to make it the biggest party possible with all our friends from different cultures and how to mix that. Then having kids, that’s been a real adventure, as well. We’re trying to make that fun and bring them up in a really global way.”

“At the core of who we are together, there’s this idea of excitement, so we say yes to everything usually,” agrees Augustin. “We’re excited about chapters in life, you know, there was a chapter where we weren’t together and now there’s many, many chapters in life and and we try to always approach the new one with excitement and positivity and a sense of adventure that we’re also trying to pass along to our two daughters.”

Former University of Georgia football standout Jalen Carter was sentenced to probation on Thursday for his role in the January crash that killed his teammate and a team staffer.

The crash happened hours after the Bulldogs’ national championship victory parade.

Carter entered pleas of no contest Thursday to charges of racing and reckless driving, according to his attorney, Kim Stephens.

Carter was then sentenced to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and 50 hours of community service and completion of a state-approved defensive driving course, the attorney said.

“Mr. Carter is happy and relieved to get this matter behind him, so now he can do what he needs to do for the NFL draft,” the lawyer said.

“He continues to grieve for the loss of his friends,” Stephens added.

Athens-Clarke County Solicitor General Will Fleenor confirmed the sentence and said Carter’s privilege to drive in Georgia has been suspended for 120 days.

Fleenor, in a statement, acknowledged questions about the severity of the charges and “whether more serious offenses occurred.” He said law enforcement officers evaluated the appropriateness of more serious charges.

“However, after consultation with the District Attorney’s Office, the Solicitor’s Office, and the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, based on the evidence and applicable laws in this case, it was determined that the appropriate charges were the two traffic offenses that were resolved in court this morning,” the statement said.

Carter has been projected as a top pick in the NFL draft next month.

Carter’s teammate Devin Willock and football team staff member Chandler LeCroy were killed in the January 15 crash, which happened hours after the team participated in a parade through campus to celebrate its second consecutive national title.

Carter turned himself in at the Athens-Clarke County Jail earlier this month on charges of reckless driving and racing.

LeCroy was driving a Ford SUV near the campus with Willock and two other members of the football program also in the vehicle, police said. The SUV was traveling “about 104 miles per hour” before it veered off the road and slammed into two power poles and several trees, Athens-Clarke County police said.

Authorities said Carter was driving a separate vehicle and he and LeCroy appeared to be racing.

Police said “both vehicles switched between lanes, drove in the center turn lane, drove in opposite lanes of travel, overtook other motorists, and drove at high rates of speed, in an apparent attempt to outdistance each other.”

Toxicology results show LeCroy, who was driving a university vehicle not authorized for use at the time of the crash, had a blood alcohol concentration of .197 – more than twice the legal limit in Georgia, police said.

Willock was ejected and died at the scene and LeCroy died at a local hospital. The two other passengers in the vehicle were injured, officials said.

Carter was a key part of Georgia’s vaunted defense that allowed the fewest rushing yards per game (77.1) in 2022 and was named to several All-America teams.

On September 22, Carter was stopped for speeding. An officer is heard on body camera footage telling him that he was “reckless,” and issued three traffic tickets

One ticket showed Carter was driving at 89 mph in a 45 mph zone. A second ticket cited him for having “material affixed” to his car which “obstructs vision.” A third citation was for an illegal windshield tint.

Bodycam video from the stop showed Carter in the driver’s seat of a Black Jeep. The officer held up a radar gun showing a speed of 89 mph, according to the video.

Carter is seen on video, expressionless, as the officer named two other UGA athletes who he said he had recently stopped.

“Y’all need to slow down dude,” the officer is heard telling Carter, who didn’t respond.

“Look I don’t know if y’all need to send out a text or something to other teammates, but slow down,” the officer said, adding, “That was reckless.”

“When you’re around your teammates, tell them to slow down,” the officer said.

The officer then tested the tint on Carter’s vehicle – which he said is illegal in the state of Georgia. “The front windshield can’t have nothing on it. No material on it whatsoever, OK?”

“Your break is you’re not going to jail. That’s your break. Because that would make all kinds of news, alright?” the officer is heard telling Carter in the footage.

The player smiled nervously. “You’re getting a ticket for speeding,” the officer said.

The officer added, “Slow down OK. That’s all I ask.”

Gather round, some hot new travel inspo just dropped. TIME magazine has just released its annual list of the World’s Greatest Places, and we’re here to tell you the where, the why and the what behind its picks.

“The list we selected reflects a couple big trends in travel right now: sustainability, and authenticity. Many locations on this list are finding ways to let tourists visit with a more limited environmental impact. And many have responded to travelers’ desire to have unique, local experiences by offering indigenous-led tours or curated home stays.”

Here’s our pick of their picks – and you can see the full list at the bottom of the story.

The Americas

Canada’s Vancouver is known for outdoor adventure but it’s the indoor attractions that are catching TIME’s eye this year. The city just got its first Michelin Guide (the first Canadian city after Toronto to do so) and the Chinese Canadian Museum will open in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown this summer.

The little city of Bozeman, Montana, is “turning into a Rocky Mountain hub,” says TIME, following a rush of pandemic relocation. “Downtown is experiencing a growth spurt, with boutique fitness and yoga studios, alternative health-care outposts … and high-end beauty stores … setting up shop.”

Washington D.C. wins praise for its stylish new hotels and booming arts and culture scene, while Puerto Rico’s Rio Grande offers Americans the chance to visit the rainforest without leaving the country. And there’s more to Guadalajara, Mexico, than mariachi and tequila, says TIME. In November it’ll become the first Latin American destination to host the Gay Games worldwide sporting event.

Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park is the place to go for a puma safari, while the village of Ollantaytambo in Peru’s Sacred Valley deserves to be a destination in its own right, says TIME, rather than just a stopover on the way to Machu Picchu. Visit it for crowd-free ruins, sustainable accommodation options and authentic local restaurants.

Europe

We all know about the mustard, but Dijon, France, has long-standing culinary clout beyond yellow condiments. In 2022, it launched its Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie et du Vin, a mammoth 16-acre site dedicated to the glories of French cuisine.

Italy’s newest national park opened in 2016 on Pantelleria, kickstarting this quiet island’s transformation into a year-round adventure destination. It’s easier to get to now, too: there are new summer flights from Rome and Milan.

Timisoara, Romania, is a 2023 European Capital of Culture and will be celebrating with an array of concerts, exhibits and festivals.

The Albanian town of Berat was a place of refuge for the country’s Jews during World War II and, unusually, the country’s Jewish population actually increased during the conflict. Exceptional hospitality is still key to the local culture, says TIME.

Asia-Pacific

Australia’s Kangaroo Island was devastated by the bushfires of 2019-2020, with many animals lost, but this wildlife haven is now lush with greenery and signs of recovery and hope are everywhere.

The Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia is a go-to destination for “world-class surfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling,” says TIME, and “just an hour’s fly-time from the capital of Papeete.”

The city of Nagoya is near the newly opened Ghibli Park, Japan’s new blockbuster theme park attraction. But it’s also a great place to surround yourself in nature, particularly during the April cherry blossom season.

South Korea’s resort island of Jeju has long been a domestic favorite, but now the Netflix K-drama “Our Blues” has shone an international light on it, too. It’s a good time to head there before everyone else does.

“Family thrills” are what TIME is celebrating in Phuket, Thailand, while Ladakh, India, has just become home to the country’s first Dark Sky Reserve, in Hanle village.

Middle East and Africa

Aqaba is Jordan’s only coastal city and the region’s stunning landscape appeared as the planet Arrakis in “Dune,” the second installment of which will be released this year.

Musanze, Rwanda, is the gateway to Volcanoes National Park, which has just announced expansion plans and is home to rare mountain gorillas.

Finally, “all odds are on Sierra Leone to explode on the adventure travel scene,” says TIME, and “the vibey coastal capital of Freetown” is sure to be the center of the action.

All of TIME’s World’s Greatest Places of 2023

Tampa, Florida

Willamette Valley, Oregon

Rio Grande, P. R.

Tucson, Arizona

Yosemite National Park, California

Bozeman, Montana

Washington, D.C.

Vancouver

Churchill, Manitoba

Dijon, France

Pantelleria, Italy

Naples, Italy

Aarhus, Denmark

St. Moritz, Switzerland

Barcelona

Timisoara, Romania

Sylt, Germany

Berat, Albania

Budapest

Vienna

Brisbane, Australia

Kangaroo Island, Australia

Dominica

Mexico City

Guadalajara, Mexico

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Pantanal, Brazil

Medellín, Colombia

Ollantaytambo, Peru

Roatán, Honduras

Ladakh, India

Mayurbhanj, India

Kyoto

Nagoya, Japan

Isan, Thailand

Phuket, Thailand

Jeju Island, South Korea

Luang Prabang, Laos

Giza and Saqqara, Egypt

Chyulu Hills, Kenya

Musanze, Rwanda

Rabat, Morocco

Dakar, Senegal

Loango National Park, Gabon

Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone

The Red Sea, Saudi Arabia

Aqaba, Jordan

Jerusalem

Sharjah, UAE

Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia

The skies have been turbulent over the United States in 2023 – and not just because of rogue balloons.

Since the start of the year, there have been a concerning number of high-profile “near misses” as planes involved in airport landing or taking off procedures came perilously close to potential disaster.

And then there’s the turbulence. As all flyers know, bumpy air is a regular feature of plane travel, but not usually, as has been experienced recently, to the violent extent that passengers are hurt.

Plus, details emerged of an incident late last year, in which a United Airlines Boeing 777 plunged toward the Pacific Ocean for 21 seconds just after takeoff, apparently pulling up just 800 feet over the Pacific Ocean as passengers screamed in fear.

The litany of incidents that have clocked up less than three months into 2023 have prompted such concern that this week the US Federal Aviation Administration convened a “Safety Summit.”

Of course, flying remains an incredibly safe way to travel. Commercial plane crashes are nowadays very rare, with approximately 45,000 flights typically completed each day in the US, all without fatality. That’s a number that continues to rise, post Covid.

So, given that the FAA has assembled aviation experts – and US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg – to take a closer look at what’s going on in the US, should passengers be worried?

While officials, still investigating these incidents, and airlines say flyers can continue to board planes with the confidence that the industry’s rigorous safety procedures will keep them out of harm’s way, some say recent events are a warning sign of potential trouble to come.

“These recent incidents must serve as a wake-up call for every single one of us, before something more catastrophic occurs. Before lives are lost,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said to government and industry leaders gathered for the summit on Wednesday.

A string of scary near misses

On paper, it has not been a great year, thanks mainly to the series of headline-making “runway incursions” – essentially near misses between aircraft that made headlines and prompted serious questions about aviation risks.

On January 13, an American Airlines jet crossed a runway at New York’s JFK International Airport as a Delta Air Lines aircraft was taking off.

Ten days later, a United Airlines jet crossed a runway at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport as a cargo aircraft was coming in to land. At their closest, says the FAA, the two were 1,170 feet apart.

February saw a rash of incidents. At California’s Burbank Airport, a Mesa Airlines plane had to make a go-around – essentially an aborted landing – when its crew realized a SkyWest plane was taking off from the same runway. Another go-around incident occurred at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Florida.

Perhaps closest to disaster was an incident on February 4, when FedEx cargo pilots were landing at Austin, only to see a Southwest plane was on the runway, about to take off.

Air Traffic Control had cleared both planes, despite the airport being wreathed in fog. The aircraft came within 100 feet of each other.

In late February, air traffic controllers at Boston averted a crash when a Learjet took off without clearance as a Jetblue flight was coming in to land on an intersecting runway. The JetBlue aircraft “took evasive action and initiated a climb-out,” according to an FAA statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which looks into incidents, is now investigating all six events. It is also investigating a December incident, in which a United Airlines Boeing 777 jet departing from Hawaii plunged towards the ocean after takeoff, coming within 775 feet of sea level.

The FAA, which is also investigating the recent spate of incidents, says it has not found a common cause.

It seems like stories like this are becoming increasingly common. Or are they?

Most incursions are not serious

Data from the FAA published in 2017 showed that reports of runway incursions have been on a largely upward trend since 1997, and steadily rising since 2011. The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), formed in 1997, encouraged a culture of data sharing and no-blame safety reporting.

The number of accidents has remained relatively constant, according to FAA analysis through 2016, and it shows the cumulative risk trending down.

The FAA says most incursions are not classed as serious – few of the 120 or so logged in January 2023 have made headlines. That figure includes all incursions, including those involving general aviation aircraft.

Some, however, can sound terrifying.

These include an event on January 18, in which a Boeing 737 took off from Dallas Love Field without ATC authorization; fortunately no other traffic was involved. And another at Florida’s Treasure Coast International, when a fire truck entered the runway as a business jet was taking off.

The latter is deemed “category A” – the most serious of runway incursions, “in which a collision is narrowly avoided,” according to the FAA. And there’s been a recent uptick in those cases. Both 2022 and 2021 saw seven of them – up on three in 2019 and four in 2018, according to the FAA’s runway incursion database. However, there were 22 category A incidents in 2007, the peak in the past two decades.

Most of the incursions involving commercial airliners that have made headlines this year are not yet entered into the FAA database. The agency did not provide specifics about how those incidents will be categorized.

“The vast majority of runway incursions are not serious occurrences,” the FAA said in a statement. “However, reducing the risk of them occurring remains one of the FAA’s highest safety priorities and is a shared responsibility that encompasses pilots, air traffic controllers and airport vehicle drivers.”

While incident numbers might not be on a dramatically upward trajectory, they are causing alarm. In February, acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen sent a memo to the agency instructing staff to “stare into the data and ask hard questions.”

Nolen renewed that call at the summit on Wednesday.

Among the questions he posed for consideration by the assembled experts: “In light of these recent close calls and the attention being focused on even the most routine of go-arounds, are we emphasizing efficiency over safety? How much of what we see can be attributed to the sudden resurgence in demand following the pandemic?”

He said that over the past 25 years the industry has made “enormous strides” in its ability to scour data and identify risks before they manifest into serious incidents or accidents, but he called on members of the aviation industry to discuss “concrete steps” to make the system safer.

“America’s aviation safety net is strong, our goal, our obligation, is to sew those threads even tighter,” Nolen said.

System under pressure

It’s about time, say some who work in the aviation industry amid fear that cuts made during the pandemic, plus a lack of scrutiny, have compromised America’s long safety culture in aviation.

The United States’ last fatal accident was in 2009, when Colgan Air flight 3407 crashed while flying from Newark to Buffalo, killing everyone onboard.

The NTSB investigation declared it to be pilot error, citing pilot fatigue as a factor.

The FAA revised duty times for pilots as a result, cutting them to a maximum of 14 hours, down from 16, including eight hours of flying. Minimum rest times rose from eight to 10 hours.

Cargo pilots can work slightly longer hours, despite sharing the runways with commercial pilots.

And whereas previously airlines have stayed well within them, some are now asking pilots to work closer to the maximums.

Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents 15,000 AA pilots, says that, since the pandemic started, the pressure on pilots is at an all-time high. The union is in ongoing negotiations with the airline.

“We’ve seen the system under pressure for well over a year, it was just a question of time before it was going to manifest itself in incidents,” he says.

“Thankfully there’ve been no accidents – yet.”

Pilot fatigue and shortages

Tajer cites a shortage of pilots caused by Covid lockdown layoffs as part of the problem. Last May, United CEO Scott Kirby said that there “simply aren’t enough pilots.”

A February 2023 analysis by management consultancy Oliver Wyman estimated a “supply gap” of 18% of the US pilot workforce.

As a result, airlines have increased pilot hours – to within legal levels allowed by the FAA, but surpassing pre-pandemic schedules, says Tajer.

“We are exhausted. Fatigue doesn’t happen in a moment – it can be chronic and that can affect your next flight. It’s like running an engine at its maximum all the time. At first it looks good, but over time things start to crack and leak. That’s what we’re seeing now.”

At the same time, he says, airlines are cutting back on training. In 2020, AA switched from retraining pilots every nine months, as it had done previously, to every 12 months – the FAA minimum standard.

“We have the best, most expertly trained pilots in the business who are unwavering in their mission of operating a safe airline for our customers and fellow team members.”

Staffing – of positions including pilots, air traffic controllers and ground crew – was frequently cited as a pressure point among industry leaders at the summit. As was the importance of adequate training for both those who are new and those who are returning after absences brought on by the pandemic. The loss of experienced workers was also a key concern.

“With about half of our nation’s qualified pilots facing their mandatory retirement within 15 years, we are going to be training and hiring tens of thousands of new pilots over the next two decades,” said Faye Malarkey Black, president and CEO of the Regional Airline Association.

“And it is extremely, extremely important when we’re doing this that we focus on building the right foundation from the start.”

Nicholas Calio, president and CEO of trade group Airlines for America, said US carriers have hired 100,000 new workers with a strong emphasis on training.

‘A job that requires colossal concentration’

Terry Tozer, a British former airline pilot and author who now comments on safety, sees systematic issues with US aviation protocols.

“America is a very aviation-orientated country,” he says. “[Airports] pack a lot of traffic in… and if you put everyone under pressure, a cock-up [mistake] is more likely.”

In particular, “the American air traffic control system is very pressurized,” he says, pointing out that in the UK and the European Union, air traffic control workers get longer downtime.

“Covid seems to have exacerbated the situation – there’s an issue with staffing levels, and that usually adds pressure on the people at the coalface. It’s a job that requires colossal concentration.”

FAA regulations state that air traffic controllers can work no more than 10 hours a day (including two hours overtime), and get regular breaks.

Last summer, an airline industry trade group claimed the East Coast network was “crippled” due to lack of ATC staff.

“Unfortunately, we have a staffing issue right now as air traffic controllers. We are 1,200 certified professional controllers less now than we were 10 years ago,” Rich Santa, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said at the summit.

Nolen said the FAA is on pace to hire 1,500 controllers this year and 1,800 next year.

As both pilots point out, the good news is that all we’ve seen so far are incidents, not accidents.

“So you could argue that the system works,” says Tozer. “But the safety margins have been eroded a little.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is working to establish a requirement that aircraft have longer duration cockpit voice recorders.

The announcement comes after the agency held an emergency “safety summit” Wednesday following a series of near-collisions on US runways.

The FAA said it is “initiating rulemaking that will require Cockpit Voice Recorders to capture 25 hours of information.” Currently, the cockpit voice recorder, which is one of two so-called “black boxes” on an aircraft, captures only the most recent two hours of sound in the cockpit.

The rulemaking process can take multiple years, and the agency added it would welcome intervention from Congress on the matter. The FAA has previously said it did not pursue regulations in this area because it had other priorities.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said cockpit audio recordings are not available in all of the runway incursion incidents it is investigating because more than two hours passed before the recordings could be retrieved.

The NTSB recommended the 25-hour standard after a 2017 incident where an airliner attempted to land on a runway occupied by several other aircraft at San Francisco International Airport. It said in its 2018 report that the lack of cockpit recordings hampered its investigation.

The board has also identified more than a dozen other events since 2003 where investigators have been unable to listen to key audio because of the limited memory of the recorders.

A litany of incidents – including violent turbulence that left passengers injured and a 2022 incident where an United Airlines Boeing 777 plunged toward the Pacific Ocean – prompted this week’s summit. And since the start of the year, there have been a troubling number of high-profile “near misses” as planes involved in airport landing or taking off procedures came perilously close to potential disaster.

Following the summit, the FAA said they will also “establish an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to explore how to make greater use of data gathered by the airplane and its systems.”

During a regular appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday, longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said his intention is to continue playing in the NFL – specifically for the New York Jets.

However, Rodgers said “decision day” has yet to arrive.

“I think since Friday, I made it clear that my intention was to play and my intention was to play for the New York Jets,” he added.

The four-time league MVP won Super Bowl XLV in 2011 and has spent his entire 18-year professional career with the Packers.

“[From] my side – love, appreciation and gratitude for everything that Green Bay has done for me,” Rodgers said.

“So much love and gratitude and just heart open for Packers fans and what it meant to be their quarterback.

“And also the reality of situation – it is what it is – the Packers would like to move on. They’ve let me know that in so many words. They’ve let other people know that in direct words,” Rodgers added.

“And because I still have that fire and I want to play and I would like to play in New York, it’s just a matter of getting that done at this point.”

Rodgers said he was thankful for the recent time spent in the “darkness” at an Oregon facility specializing in self-reflection isolation.

When he entered the “darkness,” the 39-year-old said he was 90% sure he would retire as a Packer, but when he emerged “something changed.”

The quarterback added he had no bitterness toward the Packers.

If Rodgers does join the Jets in a trade, it would be reminiscent of a previous move involving a well-known quarterback and these two teams.

In 2008, the Packers sent Brett Favre to the Jets after 16 seasons with Green Bay, going on to play just one season with the New York team.

Vinícius Jr scored the goal that secured Real Madrid’s 14th European Cup last May, and this season his brilliance has continued to light up the team’s Champions League campaign.

The supremely talented 22-year-old – widely considered one of the world’s best players – has six goals in seven matches in Europe and another eight in La Liga, but he has also become a repeated victim of “hate crimes” in Spain, according to a players’ union.

Ahead of the derby against Atlético Madrid in January, an effigy of Vinícius was hanged from a bridge in Madrid, while racist slurs have been caught on camera during Real’s matches at Osasuna, Mallorca, Real Valladolid and Atlético.

As of yet, there have been no punishments handed down by Spain’s leading football authority – the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) – or any local prosecutors, but investigations into some cases are still ongoing.

Instead, LaLiga can only pass on any incidents of abuse to RFEF committees or regional prosecutors, who deal with them as legal cases before sporting punishments are handed out.

LaLiga says it gives out the ‘Fan’s Handbook,’ written in collaboration with the Club Supporters’ Federation, in stadiums before each season starts, highlighting which practices should “represent the values” of football.

It also sends a ‘Player’s Handbook’ to every player before the start of the season, encouraging them to be respectful and to report any racist or violent behavior they witness.

“So it is the State, the Justice and the Security Forces [police and Civil Guard] who must investigate and act immediately in the face of this type of event,” the AFE said. “Then, within the sports field, there is a disciplinary code that also contemplates possible sanctions for this type of conduct. We want to insist that what happened with Vinícius is a hate crime, which is criminally prosecuted.”

Piara Powar, the executive director of the Fare Network, an organization set up to combat discrimination across European football, says football leagues and authorities in Spain are “washing their hands” of these incidents.

Then, either through disinterest or a lack of understanding of football and the gravity of these incidents, local prosecutors are not adequately dealing with the investigations, Powar says.

“In Spain, this structure has been allowed to develop over the years and it hasn’t been challenged,” he says. “You often have an individual judge, who is linked to a local authority or a regional authority, who then sits as a quasi-judicial figure instead of a disciplinary committee or regulatory commission, which is what happens in other countries.

“Often, the individuals taking them are then completely disconnected from football and completely disconnected from the implications of their decisions, and often apply a mixed standard of evidence to them based partly on a criminal standard and partly on a civil standard – and the two standards are very different.

“So you have these cases that are being constantly dismissed and when they are passing the judgment on them, the sanction is usually a minor fine that has no impact at all.”

Powar says the way football and legal authorities in Spain deal with incidents of racist abuse at matches has led to the “system falling apart” in the country.

“It’s not effective, it has never been effective and some people treat it as a joke, but nobody relies on it as a reliable intervention that’s going to create a change,” he adds.

“I think you genuinely have an FA [RFEF], who either through disinterest or just through not understanding what they need to do, who are not doing anything themselves.

“We now need to move to a centralized template to assist the way UEFA is looking at how FAs are conducting the disciplinary regulations, how they’re enforcing them and making sure that the processes are fit for purpose.”

‘Racist campaign against Vinícius’

Incidents of players being racially abused by fans have tarred numerous LaLiga matches this season.

Instances of racist abuse directed at Vinícius make up eight of these cases and four – including three involving the Real star and one involving Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams – have been archived without a punishment being handed out.

In addition to the local Madrid prosecutor choosing not to issue any punishments because they only “lasted for a few seconds,” other reasons from regional prosecutors for not trying cases include “could not identify the perpetrators,” “does not seem to be” covered by the penal code and “do not cross the line for a penal breach,” LaLiga said.

When asked to explain how it failed to identify the fans who racially abused Vinícius at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium on October 24, 2021, the Barcelona prosecutor said they are not able to reveal details as the investigation is private.

“In other cases, the investigation has been successful, such as the racist insults to Iñaki Williams [in January 2020] where the prosecution, after the investigation was carried out, filed a complaint and described it as a hate crime. It is currently awaiting a trial date.”

Powar says for a football regulatory case to take three years, “particularly a very simple one,” proves how “the system is failing in Spain.”

“These hearings should be heard by a committee of the FA, independently appointed, and they should be heard within days, if not weeks,” he adds.

“That is how this system should operate and then the sanction that results is implemented during the season, very quickly and the principles of natural justice are respected, but as it is, the victims are being failed.”

The painstakingly slow process in Spain appears all the more convoluted when compared to a recent case in England, in which a local court handed down a three-year ban to a fan just three months after he had shouted a racist slur at Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling.

Esteban Ibarra, the president of the Movement Against Intolerance, a Spanish organization that aims to educate on discrimination and track incidents of racist abuse in football, called the archiving of the Vinícius case at the Camp Nou by local authorities “inconceivable.”

“We flatly deny that Spain is a racist country, but we affirm that there are numerous racist behaviors in our country,” Ibarra added in a statement on the organization’s website.

“We maintain that there are plenty of racist incidents, which have not been stopped when there is relevant legislation and sufficient law, policing and institutional capacity to put an end to this ignominious behavior.

“The racist campaign against Vinícius began a long time ago.”

The Spanish Penal Code says racist acts – relating to ethnicity, race or national origin – that “harm the dignity of people” through “contempt” or “humiliation” can carry a punishment of six months to two years in prison.

Spain reports its hate crimes to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), whose records show there were 1,802 hate crimes recorded by police in 2021 – the most recent data available – with 192 cases leading to prosecutions and 91 to sentences.

Compare that to England and Wales, where there were 155,841 hate crimes recorded by the police in the year ending March 2022, a 26% increase on the previous year.

Another case that has been “provisionally archived” is that of Vinícius at Mallorca on March 14, 2022, in which the Mallorca prosecutor says it was unable to identify the perpetrator.

The prosecutor explains that while cases of racist abuse are “absolutely rejectable” and “typical of profane and despicable attitudes,” under Spanish law incidents “do not always inevitably entail a criminal response.”

However, the prosecutor pointed to two cases in 2023 – another involving Vinícius and one involving Villarreal’s Samu Chukwueze – in which they have successfully identified the offender and are currently in the “judicial investigation phase.”

“When this phase is completed, the existing incriminating elements will be evaluated and the existence or not of a possible crime of discrimination will be specified,” they said.

Last month, the National Sports Council of Spain proposed a €4,000 fine and a 12-month ban from entering football stadiums for the Mallorca fan identified for abusing Vinicius at the match on February 5 this year, but the punishment is yet to be handed out.

“We understand that these types of events must be prosecuted and condemned,” the AFE said.

“We are in favor of penalizing this behavior. Society in general reproaches this type of behavior. The culprits must be found, brought to trial and sentenced.”

Individual clubs can take action against any supporters they believe to be guilty of directing abuse towards players, but these instances are rare.

This season, only Valladolid has taken such action, suspending the season tickets of a dozen members it identified with the help of the police.

In a statement, Valladolid said the events that occurred were “typified as racist and intolerant,” but the club still insisted that it “does not consider its fans to be racist.”

Vinícius has used his platform numerous times this season to call for more action to be taken by authorities, but his pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears.

“‘As long as skin color is more important than the brightness of the eyes, there will be war.’ I have this sentence tattooed on my body,” Vinicius Jr posted on Instagram earlier this season in response to what he described as racist criticism from a TV pundit.

“You can’t even imagine. I was a victim of xenophobia and racism in a single statement. But none of this started yesterday.

“The script always ends with an apology and an ‘I’ve been misunderstood,’” he said. “But I’ll repeat it for you, racist[s]: I will not stop dancing. Whether it’s in the Sambadrome, in the Bernabéu or wherever.”

Media storm

Powar says he has noticed a theme in the Spanish media that intends to apportion part of the blame for the racist abuse to Vinícius himself, which often insinuates that the Brazilian “brings it upon himself” with the way he plays or celebrates goals.

Last September, Pedro Bravo – a leading agent and president of the Association of Spanish Agents – compared Vinícius to a monkey on a football program.

And earlier this month, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left dumbfounded when a reporter asked him if he thought Vinícius’ “provocative behavior” on the pitch had led to the racist abuse.

Still only 22, Vinícius has quickly developed into one of the world’s most talented players.

Known for his dazzling skill and flair, Vinícius’ dancing goal celebrations have also become famous in Spain and in his native Brazil.

It was after another one of these celebrations that Bravo said Vinícius should “stop playing the monkey.” In response, the Madrid superstar insisted he was “not going to stop” celebrating his goals with dancing.

“Part of the discourse – and I’ve seen that in editorials in Spanish newspapers in the last months – is that people say what’s happening is wrong, but he also has to carry some of the blame,” Powar says.

“That has fed itself and Vinícius is now getting racially abused very explicitly at every match.”

The AFE says racism should be viewed as a societal issue in Spain, rather than one that just concerns football and last month held a meeting with the Movement Against Intolerance to begin forming a plan on how to tackle racist abuse at matches moving forward.

In a mission statement, the two organizations said they will begin working together on campaigns and training to educate and raise awareness about the “scourge” of racism in football.

Additionally, they will also appear jointly in criminal cases against incidents of racist abuse and report incidents that they believe should be investigated to the Hate Crimes Prosecutor.

Given the convoluted nature of the process in Spain and a system “riddled with a sense of issues being kicked into touch,” Powar says, it seems – for now at least – players will be left waiting for some time to receive justice – if it ever arrives.

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant has been suspended by the NBA for eight games without pay for “conduct detrimental to the league,” officials announced Wednesday.

The punishment follows an incident where Morant was seen in an Instagram Live video holding a gun at a nightclub outside Denver.

The league said an investigation “did not conclude that the gun at issue belonged to Morant, was brought by him into the nightclub or was displayed by him beyond a brief period. The investigation also did not find that Morant possessed the gun while traveling with the team or in any NBA facility.”

The suspension includes the five games Morant has already missed since the incident and Memphis’ games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

He will be eligible to play Monday in a home game against the Dallas Mavericks.

Morant met Wednesday with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

“Ja’s conduct was irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous,” Silver said in a statement. “It also has serious consequences given his enormous following and influence, particularly among young fans who look up to him.

“He has expressed sincere contrition and remorse for his behavior. Ja has also made it clear to me that he has learned from this incident and that he understands his obligations and responsibility to the Memphis Grizzlies and the broader NBA community extend well beyond his play on the court.”

Earlier this month, the police department in Glendale, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, said the agency would not recommend charges against Morant.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the number of games Ja Morant has missed.