Chicago Bears security Jonathan Owens is taking a break from coaching camp to assist his spouse, American gymnastics famous person Simone Biles, within the ladies’s group ultimate on the 2024 Olympics.

The couple was married within the spring of 2023. They’re adjusting to life within the highlight collectively. Owens has been the goal of criticism on social media during the last yr for feedback he’s made concerning the nature of their relationship.

What did Owens say?

Owens and Biles appeared on “The Pivot” podcast hosted by former NFL player-turned-broadcaster Ryan Clark final December.

Through the present, Owens admitted he didn’t know who Biles was when the 2 linked on a relationship app in 2020. Owens was enjoying for the Houston Texans on the time. Biles is a Houston native.

The 2 shortly hit it off and have been engaged in early 2022. Owens mentioned he believed he was “the catch” within the relationship, which kicked off a firestorm of criticism in social media circles.

What does Biles consider the criticism?

The 27-year-old seven-time Olympic medalist — who typically wears an “Owens” necklace when not competing — expressed exasperation when requested by The Related Press earlier this yr concerning the heated rhetoric directed at her husband.

“It wasn’t like defending me by telling me to divorce him,” Biles mentioned.

Biles admits she was initially caught off guard by the blowback. She was sitting subsequent to Owens as he spoke and struggled to know what made her followers upset.

“I used to be actually within the room watching,” Biles mentioned. “I used to be laughing and I’m like, ‘He’s so cute’ as a result of on the finish of the day, there’s nothing mistaken with him saying that he’s a catch as a result of he’s, like, one of the best man I’ve ever met.”

Biles believes his feedback have been “misconstrued” and whereas she acknowledges placing themselves in a public house can go away them open to criticism, she additionally believes there’s a line that was crossed.

“They began being actually imply,” Biles mentioned. “And I used to be like, ‘Whoa, don’t speak about my husband like that. As a result of he’s tremendous candy, he mentioned nothing mistaken.’ However you be taught.”

Is that this Owens’ first time at a meet?

No. Owens has turn into a gymnastics fan during the last yr. He watched her win the U.S. Basic, the U.S. Championships and the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this yr, steadily jotting down his spouse’s rating and the rating of different athletes to maintain observe, all whereas sitting with Biles’ household.

He’s gained a larger appreciation for his spouse’s stardom, perhaps as a result of it’s exhausting to overlook the avalanche of NBC promos that includes her within the run-up to the Video games.

“It’s like everybody’s a gymnastics fan now,” Owens mentioned. “Persons are asking me questions, since you is likely to be strolling across the constructing and see a industrial together with her up there, so it’s simply loopy.”

What’s subsequent for Biles?

Biles tweaked her left calf throughout qualifying on Sunday however is scheduled to compete with the remainder of the five-woman U.S. group throughout Tuesday evening’s group finals because the People attempt to return to the highest of the medal stand after ending runner-up to Russia three years in the past.

Biles will then try and bookend the Olympic title she gained in 2016 within the all-around ultimate on Thursday. She additionally certified for occasion finals on vault, steadiness beam and ground train.

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AP Summer time Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Chicago Bears security Jonathan Owens is taking a break from coaching camp to assist his spouse, American gymnastics celebrity Simone Biles, within the girls’s crew remaining on the 2024 Olympics — however is he in Paris already to look at her compete?

Owens shall be in attendance on the Video games to cheer her on, but it surely seems he was not for her massive debut within the girls’s gymnastics competitors.

Owens shared a collection of pictures to his Instagram story of him rooting on his spouse whereas watching her on tv.

“Let’s go,” he stated in a single video as Biles carried out on beam. “Woo! Let’s go, child. Wanting good, child.”

In one other video, he shared a picture of Biles with the phrase “flawless” alongside a flame emoji and a blue coronary heart emoji.

“No phrases,” one other video learn.

Biles’ mother and father have been seen within the stands on Sunday, nevertheless.

Owens is excused from Bears’ coaching camp from July 29 via Aug. 3, although it is unclear which day he’ll arrive on the Video games. Biles competes once more on Tuesday together with her first likelihood for a medal.

He instructed reporters in Chicago Thursday that he is excited for Biles to have her second.

“I simply take into consideration, how did I get so fortunate that that is my life and I get to see her, , simply somebody that is on the pinnacle of their sport and I get to name this my spouse?” Owens stated.

He famous that whereas he’s nervous for his spouse, his nerves come from a spot of affection.

“Anytime you get nervous it is since you care. It is such a troublesome sport and she or he does issues that nobody else can achieve this I am at all times nervous, praying for her security and praying for a transparent head that she will go on the market and proceed to do what she does,” he stated.

The couple was married within the spring of 2023 and have been adjusting to life within the highlight collectively.

Owens has been the goal of criticism on social media over the past yr for feedback he is made concerning the nature of their relationship.

This is why and what to know:

What did Owens say?

Owens and Biles appeared on “The Pivot” podcast hosted by former NFL player-turned-broadcaster Ryan Clark final December.

Through the present, Owens admitted he did not know who Biles was when the 2 linked on a courting app in 2020. Owens was enjoying for the Houston Texans on the time. Biles is a Houston native.

The 2 shortly hit it off and have been engaged in early 2022. Owens stated he believed he was “the catch” within the relationship, which kicked off a firestorm of criticism in social media circles.

What does Biles consider the criticism?

The 27-year-old seven-time Olympic medalist — who generally wears an “Owens” necklace when not competing — expressed exasperation when requested by The Related Press earlier this yr concerning the heated rhetoric directed at her husband.

“It wasn’t like defending me by telling me to divorce him,” Biles stated.

Biles admits she was initially caught off guard by the blowback. She was sitting subsequent to Owens as he spoke and struggled to know what made her followers upset.

“I used to be actually within the room watching,” Biles stated. “I used to be laughing and I’m like, ‘He’s so cute’ as a result of on the finish of the day, there’s nothing unsuitable with him saying that he’s a catch as a result of he’s, like, one of the best man I’ve ever met.”

Biles believes his feedback have been “misconstrued” and whereas she acknowledges placing themselves in a public area can go away them open to criticism, she additionally believes there is a line that was crossed.

“They began being actually imply,” Biles stated. “And I used to be like, ‘Whoa, don’t speak about my husband like that. As a result of he’s tremendous candy, he stated nothing unsuitable.’ However you study.”

Is that this Owens’ first time at a meet?

No. Owens has change into a gymnastics fan over the past yr. He watched her win the U.S. Traditional, the U.S. Championships and the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this yr, incessantly jotting down his spouse’s rating and the rating of different athletes to maintain observe, all whereas sitting with Biles’ household.

He is gained a better appreciation for his spouse’s stardom, possibly as a result of it is laborious to overlook the avalanche of NBC promos that includes her within the run-up to the Video games.

“It’s like everybody’s a gymnastics fan now,” Owens stated. “Persons are asking me questions, since you is likely to be strolling across the constructing and see a industrial together with her up there, so it’s simply loopy.”

What’s subsequent for Biles?

Biles tweaked her left calf throughout qualifying on Sunday however is scheduled to compete with the remainder of the five-woman U.S. crew throughout Tuesday evening’s crew finals because the People attempt to return to the highest of the medal stand after ending runner-up to Russia three years in the past.

Biles will then try to bookend the Olympic title she received in 2016 within the all-around remaining on Thursday. She additionally certified for occasion finals on vault, stability beam and flooring train.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has agreed to take part in a sufferer interview with the FBI centered on his tried assassination, a bureau official informed reporters Monday.

The interview with Trump could be in keeping with any interview the bureau would conduct for any sufferer of crime below any circumstances, an official mentioned.

The FBI investigation has discovered that tried murderer Thomas Matthew Crooks was a “extremely smart” man in addition to “a loner” with few mates and acquaintances outdoors of his household, and had a rising curiosity in weapons.

His motive remains to be not recognized. The FBI has performed tons of of interviews and requested details about his on-line accounts, together with gaming accounts, from dozens of firms, an official mentioned. His search historical past included searching for details about the tried assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico earlier this yr, in addition to mass shootings and energy vegetation, an official mentioned. Final week, the FBI revealed that Crooks had searched “how distant was Oswald from Kennedy?” concerning the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, a few week earlier than the assault.

The FBI discovered that the ladder Crooks bought earlier than the taking pictures was not taken to the Trump rally, although officers discovered a bloodied receipt for it on his physique. Crooks did seem to have used a drone forward of the assault, though no recorded footage was discovered on the drone, the FBI mentioned.

Crooks fired off eight rounds simply 25-30 seconds after an area police officer tried to confront him on the roof. As NBC Information has beforehand reported, citing the FBI and regulation enforcement, the officer was boosted up above the roof line by a colleague and Crooks pointed his weapon on the officer simply earlier than firing.

Crooks appeared to have fastidiously deliberate the assault forward of the marketing campaign rally and labored to maintain his plans quiet, an official mentioned throughout a briefing for reporters Monday, greater than two weeks after the July 13 try on Trump’s life.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate mentioned Monday that the bureau had been working across the clock on the investigation and that whereas the bureau sometimes doesn’t share common updates about ongoing investigations, FBI officers felt doing so right here was essential for the American public.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned final week within the wake of the assault and after a contentious Home listening to concerning the try. The Senate will conduct its personal listening to this week with the FBI and Division of Homeland Safety.

Abbate mentioned the bureau was amassing information however was not centered on figuring out failures by regulation enforcement that day, saying that kind of research was higher left to others.

“Everything of the FBI is dedicated to uncovering the true information, the reality about this assault on former President Trump and the homicide of Mr. Comperatore and the harm to others as properly,” Abbate mentioned, referring to Corey Comperatore, a rallygoer who was killed within the assault. Two others had been wounded.

FBI Director Christopher Wray informed Congress final week that “there’s some query about whether or not or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel” that hit Trump’s ear in the course of the assassination try, including gasoline to conspiracy theories concerning the taking pictures.

FBI Agent Kevin Rojek, who runs the Pittsburgh workplace, mentioned Monday that Trump was struck with a bullet, whether or not or not it’s a complete or fragmented bullet, echoing a press release from the bureau issued Friday after Wray’s congressional testimony.

Rojek mentioned that Crooks appeared to have “made important efforts to hide his actions.”

Rojek mentioned Crooks gave the impression to be “a loner,” and one other official mentioned there was no indication that Crooks had any psychological well being therapy or institutionalization.

The FBI has had problem entering into a few of Crooks’ accounts due to his use of encrypted apps, a bureau official mentioned.

“Encryption has been a problem for us right here on this investigation,” mentioned FBI official Bobby Wells.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Venezuela’s electoral authorities have declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner in Sunday’s presidential election, however the opposition can be claiming victory within the race.

It is establishing a showdown as overseas leaders maintain off on recognizing the outcomes.

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In the meantime Venezuelans right here in Chicago are watching carefully.

Sunday, the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance rallied to deliver consideration to the essential election.

They’re in assist of opposition chief Edmundo Gonzalez hoping he’ll unseat Maduro who has been in energy for 12 years.

They are saying the end result might decide if individuals keep or resolve to go away their homeland to return to the USA.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have left looking for alternatives overseas and have come to the us which has had a big effect on the migrant disaster.

“Lots of them haven’t been capable of finding a greater life,” demonstrator Ana Serafin mentioned. “As a matter of truth, a lot of them have died looking for a greater life, so as we speak, we actually need these elections to occur in probably the most pacific method attainable, probably the most democratic method attainable for us to search out the liberty that Venezuela deserves.”

RELATED: Blinken says US has ‘severe issues’ about introduced results of Venezuelan election

Sunday evening there have been a number of automotive caravans within the Loop and an enormous celebration at Grand and Kedzie avenues as exit polling confirmed President Maduro on the verge of dropping.

However that modified within the hours forward as Maduro was ultimately declared the winner.

Gonzalez now saying all election guidelines have been violated because the opposition questions the voting tallies.

In the meantime, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin posting on x final evening that the regime should respect the individuals’s votes and never steal one other election.

Shortly after midnight, the Nationwide Electoral Council mentioned Maduro secured 51% of the vote, overcoming the primary opposition candidate, Edmundo González, who garnered 44%.

However the electoral authority, which is managed by Maduro loyalists, did not instantly launch the tallies from every of the 30,000 polling cubicles nationwide, hampering the opposition’s capacity to problem the outcomes after claiming it had knowledge for under 30% of the poll bins.

The Related Press contributed to this report.

Few groups from any nation in any Olympic sport which have exhibited the sort of dominance that the US has in ladies’s basketball for a technology.

The American ladies have gained the gold medal in 9 of the previous 10 Summer season Olympics, together with every of the previous seven. It’s not simply that they’ve gained — they’ve performed so with relative ease. In these seven gold-medal video games, a stretch going from 1996-2020, the U.S. has by no means gained by fewer than 11 factors in what ought to theoretically be its hardest, best matchup of the complete event. On their method to a gold medal on the 2020 Summer season Olympics in Tokyo three years in the past, the People gained their six video games by a mixed 96 factors, a median of 16 factors per contest.

Heading into the 2024 Paris Olympics, that aura of superiority hasn’t waned.

2024 PARIS OLYMPICS:Comply with USA TODAY’s full protection right here

With a star-studded roster headlined by A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, each two-time WNBA MVPs, the U.S. enters the famed worldwide competitors as a heavy favourite to earn its eighth consecutive gold medal.

Who can be main the People in that quest? Right here’s what it’s essential know in regards to the U.S. ladies’s basketball coach, the workforce she’ll oversee and the historical past of the place:

Who’s teaching ladies’s USA Basketball within the 2024 Paris Olympics?

The U.S. ladies’s basketball workforce on the 2024 Summer season Olympics in Paris can be led by head coach Cheryl Reeve, the pinnacle coach and president of basketball operations for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.

Since taking up because the franchise’s head coach in 2010, Reeve has led the Lynx to 4 WNBA championships and two extra WNBA Finals appearances. Reeve is tied for essentially the most titles by a coach in WNBA historical past, sharing the excellence with Van Chancellor, who gained 4 consecutive championships from 1997-2000 with the since-dissolved Houston Comets. In Reeve’s earlier 14 seasons as head coach, Minnesota has missed the WNBA playoffs simply twice. She gained two different championships as an assistant coach for the Detroit Shock in 2006 and 2008.

She is a three-time WNBA coach of the 12 months and gained the league’s government of the 12 months award in 2019.

Along with her WNBA achievements, Reeve has vital expertise on the worldwide stage.

She has labored with USA Basketball in some type since 2013. She was an assistant coach for every of the previous two Olympics, teaching below Geno Auriemma in 2016 and Daybreak Staley in 2020. The U.S. basketball groups for which she has both been a head coach or an assistant coach have gone a mixed 75-4.

Since assuming the reins because the U.S. head coach following the Tokyo Video games in 2021, she has helped the People proceed to roll by means of worldwide competitors.

The U.S. went 8-0 in the course of the 2022 FIBA World Cup and by no means gained a sport by fewer than 15 factors. It gained the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship video games by a mixed 95 factors, with its 83-61 victory in opposition to China setting the file for the most important margin of victory within the gold-medal sport within the occasion’s historical past. The People since went on to go 3-0 within the 2024 FIBA Ladies’s Olympic Qualifying Match.

Now, with the Olympics on the horizon, Reeve and her workforce will look to proceed that dominance in Paris.

“I really feel actually excited,” Reeve mentioned in Could to Minneapolis TV station KARE. “It is nonetheless sort of surreal — stuff nonetheless going to be sort of pinching myself. Is that this actually occurring? We perceive that there is a previous — a storied previous, a dynasty previous — to USA Basketball. However we weren’t all on these journeys collectively. That is our journey.”

Duke head coach Kara Lawson, Texas A&M head coach Joni Taylor and longtime WNBA head coach Mike Thibault, now the overall supervisor of the Washington Mystics, will function Reeve’s assistant coaches for the Olympics.

REQUIRED READING:USA Basketball will not handle tweets from coach Cheryl Reeve that referenced Caitlin Clark

USA Basketball ladies’s workforce roster 2024

With Wilson and Stewart main the best way, the U.S. ladies’s basketball roster for the 2024 Summer season Olympics in Paris options the largest names within the sport.

Every of the 12 gamers on the roster has made a minimum of two WNBA All-Star video games and is 26 years previous, giving the workforce a stage of expertise and serving to to supply some rationalization as to why burgeoning younger stars like Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark weren’t included for this Olympic cycle.

Right here’s the total U.S. ladies’s basketball roster for the Olympics:

• Guard: Diana Taurasi, Phoenix Mercury
• Guard: Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty
• Guard: Jewell Loyd, Seattle Storm
• Guard: Chelsea Grey, Las Vegas Aces
• Guard: Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces
• Guard: Jackie Younger, Las Vegas Aces
• Guard/ahead: Kahleah Copper, Phoenix Mercury
• Ahead: Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty
• Ahead: Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Solar
• Ahead: Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx
• Heart: A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
• Heart: Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury

USA Basketball ladies’s coaches

Reeve would be the eleventh coach to guide the U.S. to the Olympics since ladies’s basketball was first performed as a medal sport in 1976.

If historical past affords any steering, this would be the 57-year-old Reeve’s solely time main her nation within the Olympics. Solely Auriemma has been the U.S. ladies’s basketball head coach in a number of Olympics, having performed so in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Since 1984, just one coach has did not win a gold medal.

Right here’s each head coach who has led the U.S. ladies’s basketball workforce within the Olympics:

• Billie Jean Moore: 1976
• Sue Gunter: 1980*
• Pat Summitt: 1984
• Kay Yow: 1988
• Theresa Grentz: 1992
• Tara VanDerveer: 1996
• Nell Fortner: 2000
• Van Chancellor: 2004
• Anne Donovan: 2008
• Geno Auriemma: 2012-16
• Daybreak Staley: 2020
• Cheryl Reeve: 2024

* The U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer season Olympics in Moscow