A Dominican judge ruled Monday that Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was criminally responsible for the sexual and psychological abuse of a minor, though he will not serve a sentence.

Judge José Antonio Núñez said the court found Franco had also been the target of extortion and blackmail by the minor’s mother, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually trafficking her daughter.

“It seems contradictory to declare criminal responsibility and at the same time exempt him from punishment. The court has granted Wander Franco a judicial pardon due to the particular circumstances that made him a material victim, but not a legal one,” explained Núñez.

The judge justified the judicial pardon as a “logical and legal reasoning.”

“Thank God for everything,” Franco expressed as he effusively embraced his mother, Nancy Aybar, and other family members who accompanied him in court.

Franco was arrested in January 2024 after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time and transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.

After the ruling, Franco left the courthouse alongside his lawyer, Teodosio Jáquez, and briefly answered reporters’ questions, saying, “I feel calm,” and asking his fans to “continue supporting me and trusting in me.”

Franco also said he personally had not contacted the Rays but that his lawyers surely had.

“We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,” Major League Baseball said in a statement.

Franco attorney Jáquez said: “We don’t have the physical sentence in our hands, but he was exempted from punishment because the president of the court established that he was also a victim and because he is exempted from punishment through judicial pardon.”

The full sentencing will be June 16.

“When we have the full sentence in hand, we will give you more details,” Jáquez said. “He was exempted from punishment and we think that’s fine, but we need to have the sentence in hand.

In November 2021, Franco signed an 11-year, $182 million contract with the Rays, but his career was upended when authorities in the Dominican Republic announced in August 2023 that they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Franco was 22 at the time.

Six months after his arrest, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list, which cut off the pay he had been receiving while on administrative leave.

Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils bid farewell to the French Open. (AP Photos)

The curtains came down on two of the most beloved careers in modern tennis as Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils played their final matches at French Open on Monday, bringing an emotional close to more than two decades of memories on the Paris clay.Monfils’ farewell stretched close to midnight on Court Philippe-Chatrier, where the 39-year-old Frenchman lost a dramatic five-set battle to compatriot Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0. Earlier in the day, 41-year-old Wawrinka bowed out after a four-set defeat to Jesper de Jong.Both veterans, who made their Roland Garros debuts 21 years ago, are set to retire at the end of the season.For Monfils, the goodbye carried the emotion of a hometown hero taking one final bow. Chants of “Ga-el! Ga-el!” echoed through the packed stadium as fans celebrated one of the sport’s greatest entertainers. Even while battling fatigue in the Paris heat, Monfils continued to thrill the crowd with spectacular winners and trademark theatrics.After fighting back from two sets down, however, he ran out of energy against an opponent 14 years younger. Following the match, Monfils was joined on court by former Davis Cup teammates Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon during a heartfelt ceremony.Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz praised Monfils in a tribute video, calling him “a true inspiration” and “a great person off the court.” An emotional Monfils also thanked his wife, Elina Svitolina, crediting her support for helping him continue his career.Wawrinka’s farewell carried a different weight — that of a champion reflecting on one of the greatest underdog careers of his era. The 2015 French Open winner received a standing ovation after his loss, with fans applauding one final time for the Swiss star whose thunderous backhand once conquered the sport’s biggest names.“It’s hard to say goodbye to you here,” an emotional Wawrinka told the crowd. “It’s because of Roland Garros that I wanted to become a tennis player.”Wawrinka’s remarkable career included three Grand Slam titles, all won against world No. 1 players — including victories over Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in major finals. Alongside Roger Federer, he also helped Switzerland win Olympic doubles gold and the Davis Cup.

Jannik Sinner will start his first bid to complete the career Grand Slam at Roland Garros on Tuesday, with Coco Gauff getting her French Open title defence under way. World number one Sinner is the overwhelming favourite in the men’s draw in the absence of injured rival Carlos Alcaraz. He will be hoping for a comfortable victory in his first-round tie against French wildcard Clement Tabur in the night session on Court Philippe Chatrier, after a gruelling, albeit successful, clay-court season.

The Italian clinched his sixth successive Masters title at the Italian Open earlier this month, completing the set of all nine 1000-level trophies, adding to tournament wins on clay in Monte Carlo and Madrid.

Sinner will be playing at Roland Garros for the first time since his agonising loss to Alcaraz in last year’s final, in which he led by two sets and missed three championship points.

He is on a 29-match winning streak and has not lost since a defeat by Jakub Mensik in Doha in February.

“Everyone is trying to beat (me), but that’s also the most normal thing,” said Sinner.

“You need to be ready. Best-of-five matches, they are a bit different.

“It gives you a little bit more time to understand how to beat a player, and even if you have a wrong start, then potentially you can find a way in.”

Tabur will be playing in the main draw of a Grand Slam for only the second time at the age of 26, after a first-round loss to Corentin Moutet as a qualifier last year.

The world number 171 has lost all of the other six qualifying matches he has played at the majors.

Gauff faces Townsend

Gauff begins her defence of the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen against fellow American Taylor Townsend.

The women’s fourth seed has struggled for consistency since beating Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s title decider in Paris, but did reach the Italian Open final before losing to Elina Svitolina.

Gauff could reach at least the quarter-finals for a sixth successive year at Roland Garros, where she has by far her best record in Grand Slam events.

“Whenever I come to this tournament, I don’t even think about my past results here,” she said.

“It’s obviously different thinking about last year, but, I don’t know, last year feels like 10 years ago.”

Townsend won her only previous meeting with Gauff at an ITF event in Charleston seven years ago, when her opponent was a 15-year-old qualifier.

Sabalenka appeared poised to be a strong favourite for the French Open when she completed the ‘Sunshine double’ by emerging victorious at both Indian Wells and in Miami in March.

But the world number one enters Roland Garros with question marks around her form after a Madrid Open quarter-final loss to Hailey Baptiste and another shock defeat in the third round against Sorana Cirstea in Rome.

She believes she will be fresh, though, when she starts her latest tilt at a maiden French Open title, facing Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain.

“I struggled at the beginning of the clay court (season) physically, to be honest, but right now I feel 100 percent,” Sabalenka said.

“We did a great recovery. We focused on recovery and making sure that I’m healed everywhere and I’m ready to go.”

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, a potential last-16 opponent for Sabalenka, plays Laura Siegemund of Germany, while the Philippines’ Alexandra Eala faces a tough test against 17th-seeded teenager Iva Jovic.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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IPL 2026 News | Shami’s Sensation Leads Lucknow to First Win of Season

The New York Knicks are your 2026 Eastern Conference champions. For the first time since 1999, they will play in the NBA Finals, and if they win four more games, they’ll hoist their first championship trophy since 1973. The Knick drought has never been in more danger than it is today. Of course, the hardest part still remains.

On the other side of the country, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are playing a Western Conference Finals series that many assume will wind up serving as the true Finals. They were the two best teams in the regular season. They have two of the best players in the NBA in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama. Either of them will be favored in a matchup with the Knicks.

That series still has a ways to go. The two sides are tied 2-2. The series will shift back to Oklahoma for Game 5 on Tuesday, so the defending champions do have home-court advantage, but they’re severely shorthanded at this point. Both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell missed Game 4 due to injury. Without them, the Thunder have really struggled to generate offense.

We don’t yet know who the Knicks will be playing in the Finals. We do at least know when the Finals will tip off. The Knicks, for the second consecutive round, will have a lengthy gap between games as the Finals begin in more than a week. Fortunately for the exhausted Western Conference champions, they will at least get a few days to recover from this brutal series before hosting New York for Game 1. Here is the schedule for the 2026 NBA Finals.

2026 NBA Finals schedule

Wednesday, June 3

• Game 1: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Friday, June 5

• Game 2: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Monday, June 8

• Game 3: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Wednesday, June 10

• Game 4: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Saturday, June 13

• Game 5*: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Tuesday, June 16

• Game 6*: Knicks vs. Thunder/Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

Friday, June 19

• Game 7*: Thunder/Spurs vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC/fubo

2026 NBA Finals odds

Odds as of May 25 via FanDuel

• Thunder: +100
• Knicks: +220
• Spurs: +270

The last NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden was Game 5 in 1999, which came on June 25. When the Knicks host Game 3 in two weeks, it will be the first Finals game at MSG in 9,845 days. If the Spurs are able to win the West, it will set up a rematch of the 1999 Finals, which San Antonio won in five games.

The Knicks have won 11 straight playoff games in dominant fashion. They have not lost since Game 3 of their first-round series vs. the Hawks on April 23.

The Houston Astros capped their fourth straight win with a no-hit shutout on Monday. Tatsuya Imai started and pitched six innings before relievers Steven Okert and Alimber Santa took over to keep the Texas Rangers hitless.

The 9-0 victory marked the MLB’s first no-hitter since Shota Imanaga and two Chicago Cubs relievers combined for a 12-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in September 2024.

The last complete-game no-hitter came in August 2024, when Blake Snell held the Cincinnati Reds hitless.

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Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai throws to the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, on May 25, 2026. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Imai went six innings in the 17th regular-season no-hitter in Astros history and fourth that was a combined effort. Houston also threw a no-hitter in the 2022 World Series when four pitchers combined against Philadelphia.

Okert worked the seventh after Imai got 16 outs over the last 16 batters he faced. He walked three of his first four batters but benefited from a double play in the first inning before settling into a groove.

Santa made his big-league debut in the eighth and retired all six batters he faced. His 24th pitch was a called third strike against Brandon Nimmo that ended it after an ABS challenge by the batter was confirmed a strike.

Houston Astros pitcher Alimber Santa is doused with water after pitching in his major league debut and closing a combined no-hitter against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, on May 25, 2026. (Julio Cortez/AP)

The Rangers were held without a hit for the sixth time, the first since Corey Kluber threw a no-hitter against them for the New York Yankees on May 19, 2021.

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The 28-year-old Imai is in his first big-league season after coming over from Japan.

Imai joined the Astros in January after agreeing to a $54 million, three-year contract. He was a three-time All-Star during eight seasons in Japan, and went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA last season for the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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On the court, Donovan Dent can read the floor like no other.

Off the court, the California kid who proved to be one of the best UNM Lobo point guards of all time still needs some work on reading the room. He just doesn’t seem to get how many people are so interested in what he’s doing.

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Take Saturday, for instance. The 6-foot-2 point guard, who finished his senior season in March at UCLA and recently moved back to Albuquerque, announced on Saturday he would host an inexpensive ($25) pop-up kids camp at ABC Prep Basketball Academy in Old Town.

“I was expecting like roughly 25 to 30 kids,” said Dent.

Monday morning, 120 kids showed up, many with Lobo fan parents, to catch a glimpse of, and three hours of working out with, the Lobo great now known by some as “Coach Dent.”

“I never expected this,” he said with a big smile after the camp concluded, and after he’d signed any and every autograph and took pictures with kids and parents alike.

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He just couldn’t quite figure out why so many wanted to come to his camp.

Also on Saturday, and certainly the more newsworthy part of the weekend for those outside of Albuquerque, Dent seemed to think nobody would be all that interested in what he told the Journal about his plans to get into basketball training and coaching rather than pursuing a professional playing career.

Yeah, he was fairly oblivious as to that being some information the college basketball world might latch onto.

“My phone started blowing up on Sunday about whether I was still playing or not and I couldn’t figure out why,” Dent said Monday. “I guess it was because of the article. It was crazy.”

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As the news started to spread Saturday and then into Sunday about Dent’s comments in Saturday’s Journal article — posted online Saturday, in print on Sunday — Dent was, at least initially, oblivious to it all.

Many Los Angeles-based and national media began citing sources close to Dent that the point guard was retiring. Some cited the Journal. Others just posted the information to their social media accounts without any indication where they learned about it.

To be clear, here is what Dent — a source as close to Dent as the Journal could find for this story — told the Journal on Saturday: “I’m done with pro basketball. That’s why I came back here. I want to give back to the youth and I want to start training. I want to start working in individual training, group sessions, things like that and I want to get started on that out here (in Albuquerque) — young kids, older kids, just help them with their game and I wanted to start it here because Albuquerque gave me so much.”

So, he did.

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He held his first camp on Monday, has another, larger one in Albuquerque July 13-15, and will also host camps in Farmington, Santa Fe and Las Cruces over the next couple months.

The lucrative UCLA experience — reportedly $3 million in total revenue share and NIL compensation to play one season for the Bruins — afforded Dent the luxury of pursuing his next step in the game before most players get that chance.

Sure, maybe people should have noticed he wasn’t taking part in any pre-NBA Draft team workouts or combines, but still, when you hear a guy with lucrative playing opportunities out there isn’t going to pursue them, it’s going to get some buzz.

And to be clear, Dent does still train daily and is staying in top shape. And he will be playing in the $2 million, winner-take-all TBT (The Basketball Tournament) in July as the captain of The Enchantment, a primarily UNM Lobo alumni team (there are also a couple NM State Aggies playing and a couple of players with New Mexico ties who didn’t play for either UNM or NMSU).

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So, is he really done playing basketball? Is that “R” word that so many used over the past 48 hours to describe his status in basketball (“retire” never appeared in a Dent quote or in the Journal’s article on his decision to get into coaching and training) an accurate one in Dent’s mind?

The Journal asked again on Monday in response to all the social media chatter, if he really meant it.

More specifically: “Is there a chance that one day you’ll still play basketball at a professional level?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about that,” Dent said. “All I’m thinking about right now is doing what I’m doing right now (at the kids camp), and that’s not a pro career. So, I guess people can say I’m retired as of right now.”

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OK, then. Nice and clear.

As for the camp…

First off, Dent after the camp said there were 93 kids in attendance. Turns out that was just the online number he saw. Some in-person paying campers — a couple dozen, in fact — pushed the total to 120, according to Brandon Mason, President of ABC Prep where the camp was held in Old Town and where several current and former Lobos regularly work out and train in the offseason. That number has included Dent over the past year when not at UCLA.

The camp was controlled chaos — probably a few too many kids for that setup than ideal, but certainly a learning moment for all — and got handled, as Dent noted, thanks to so many of the players and coaches at ABC Prep. Those included prep star Brandon Mason Jr., a top-70 nationally ranked high school recruit for the Class of 2027, and Bella Hines, the Albuquerque native who was a top 100 recruit last year, played this past season at LSU and has transferred to TCU.

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As for the kids in the camp? It was everything Dent could have hoped for.

“Absolutely, it made me so happy,” Dent said. “I appreciate everyone who came out today, especially on short notice. They had high energy, everyone just had a lot of fun. That’s all I can ask for. It was a great time out here.”

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.

Rabindra Dhant, 27, will walk into the Galaxy Arena in Macau on May 28 and do something no Nepali fighter has ever done: compete in a Road to UFC tournament, two wins away from a UFC contract.After trying for a few years, Dhant has got his big opportunity with Road to UFC – a win-and-advance tournament offering top MMA prospects from across Asia-Pacific a direct path to the UFC, and he will be taking on Kimbert Alintozon of the Philippines in the Quarterfinals.Ask him what it felt like to be selected for Road to UFC Season 5, and he will not give you the answer you expect.“Indifferent,” he says, through his coach and interpreter Diwiz Piya Lama while speaking to TimesofIndia.com. “This is not the first year we tried. As a team, we had been pushing for this for probably the second or third year running. So when it finally happened, it felt like a step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. He’s been putting the work in the gym. It’s a job. Just a job he’s got to keep doing.”It’s a calm and measured response, even though he stands at the cusp of history. No Nepali has ever signed a UFC contract. No Nepali fighter has ever competed at this level of the sport’s global infrastructure. Dhant is, by any measure, in unprecedented territory for his country, yet when asked about pressure, his response remains unchanged.“The questions are putting more pressure on him than the fight,” Lama says, laughing. “He feels no pressure from the fight itself.”The Making of Nepal’s Top MMA ProspectDhant’s journey to the doorsteps of UFC tells a lot more about his mindset ahead of the biggest night of his career.Coming from Bajhang, a village in far-western Nepal, where there is no visibility for the sport, Dhant has had a tough and long journey that took him to India at a young age, doing manual labour, and an office job of serving tea and cleaning. MMA was never in the picture, but karate training at odd hours kept him going quietly, without family support or institutional structure.The results, however, were anything but quiet.He went 15 fights unbeaten across Indian regional amateur circuits. He won the Indian National Amateur MMA Championship back-to-back in 2019 and 2020, a feat that should have made him eligible for the World Amateur Championships.However, Nepal’s MMA infrastructure at the time was not equipped to send a fighter to an international amateur competition. He had qualified, but he simply could not go.“It was a salty phase,” he says, through his coach and interpreter Lama. “He had put in the work, won two tournaments back to back, and it counted for nothing on the international stage.”Then came a lucrative offer. Recognising his talent, he was given a way out: to assume Indian citizenship, compete internationally, and build a career on a more resourced platform. He turned it down. He decided to keep his Nepali passport.“Thank God he didn’t do that,” Lama says on his behalf, breaking into a laugh. “Right now, with where things stand, people would have burned us alive.”Diwiz Piya Lama: The Coach Who Backed HimLama, who has been Dhant’s voice throughout this interaction, has also been his guiding light. A jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai practitioner based in Kathmandu, Lama saw Dhant fight and decided to invest in him personally. Lama funded a training camp at the Fairtex Gym in Thailand, covering the costs out of his own pocket. It proved worth his while.In September 2023, Dhant made his ONE Championship debut in Bangkok, defeating Russia’s Torepchi Dongak by TKO in the third round. He became the first Nepali fighter to win a bout in ONE Championship. Then in August 2025, at Matrix Fight Night 17 in Greater Noida, he stopped unbeaten Indian bantamweight champion Chungreng Koren in the third round to become the first Nepali to win a major international MMA title.“The win was more important than anything else,” he says, when asked about the reception that followed – meeting the Mayor of Kathmandu, a cash reward, and recognition.“If he had lost, there would have been no President, no Mayor, no Minister. At the end of the day, it’s the win and the task at hand. These side quests don’t really mean much.”His original opponent, Australia’s Matty Iann, withdrew injured before the bout. Filipino fighter Alintozon, a 7-3 bantamweight with six finishes on his record, stepped in on short notice. Dhant’s preparation, he says, required no dramatic overhaul.“He didn’t train so specifically for Matty that an entire system needed to change. He did his due diligence and kept doing what he was doing. No drastic change.”Despite the accolades, Dhant is grounded, and as he says, it’s a job. A win moves Dhant to the Road to UFC semifinals. Two wins deliver a UFC contract: the first in Nepal’s history. So what does winning in Macau on May 28 mean to him?“A stepping stone towards what he’s destined for.”Watch Road to UFC (Day 1) – Round of 16 – Day 1 ( Rong Zhu vs. Martinez) on May 28th 2026 at 3:30 PM IST live and exclusive on Sony Sports Ten 1 SD & HD.

Following a controversy-filled offseason, Stefon Diggs is back at it. The veteran wide receiver has gotten a lot of people talking in the last couple of months for football and non-football reasons, and it seems that won’t be stopping soon as he prepares for the 2026 NFL season.

On Monday, a video of the four-time Pro-Bowler’s intense offseason training surfaced online. Diggs, who remains without a team after being released by the New England Patriots in March, was seen doing push-ups with two weight plates placed on his back by his trainers.

The clips quickly went viral among NFL fans, generating a lot of reactions mocking Stefon Diggs. While he appears to be putting quite a lot of work into the private training session, many fans were not impressed with his effort, sparking a series of classic social media trolling.

Workout videos like this have become signature content for Diggs on social media over the years. They are often focused on highly intense off-season conditioning, agile route-running drills and high-energy gym sessions, enabling him to showcase his footwork and athleticism.

Fans’ reaction to the latest highlights Stefon Diggs unique place in the NFL ecosystem. He’s become one of the players in the league whose every action, on and off the field, generates a lot of attention and reaction from fans.

Here’s a look at some of the reactions online:

Analyst links Stefon Diggs to the Pittsburgh Steelers

Stefon Diggs remains one of the top available free agents this offseason. In an article published on Monday, Christopher Knox of Bleacher Reports is linking the wide receivers to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is despite the complete overhaul they’ve done on the offense this offseason.

“The Pittsburgh Steelers finally re-signed Aaron Rodgers, and the quarterback has admitted that this will be his final NFL season,” Knox wrote. “If Pittsburgh hopes to make Rodgers’ last ride a memorable one, it should add a little more to its receiving corps.

“DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. should make a solid receiver duo. However, rookies Germie Bernard and Kaden Wetjen are unproven, and Pittsburgh’s overall receiver depth is lacking. Adding a vet like Hopkins or Stefon Diggs would help give the Steelers a playoff-caliber offense.”

Diggs had a successful 2025 season with the Patriots, recording 85 receptions on 102 targets for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns. This means he will be looking for a prominent role in his next team. With the presence of DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. in Pittsburgh, there’s little chance he will accept going there.