Trevor Bauer, a pricey free agent pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers and winner of the 2020 NL Cy Young Award, was suspended several weeks ago following allegations that he had sexually abused a woman in the spring of 2021. According to reports, Bauer had choked her almost to a point of losing consciousness and had also beaten and raped her.  Bauer, through his legal team, has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the encounters were consensual.

The controversy surrounding the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan continues as the country has declared another state of emergency and banned spectators from the Olympics. Japan recently just lifted a state of emergency due to the pandemic as the number of new COVID-19 cases had significantly dropped. This brought hope that the delayed 2021 Olympics would have a relatively normal festivities, but due to a significant rise in new COVID-19 cases Japan was forced to re-instate the state of emergency as well as ban spectators.