Things took an unexpected twist during Tuesday night’s Yankees broadcast. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even the game that grabbed attention.

As the YES network cameras focused on Gerrit Cole as he strolled through the dugout in the fifth inning, former Yankees skipper and current analyst Joe Girardi had a sharp exchange with broadcaster Michael Kay.

The reason? Kay used the arm of his glasses to stir his tea.

Kay explained that while Jennifer, the attentive Yankees stage manager, kindly brought him a cup of tea, she forgot to include a stirrer, prompting his unconventional choice.

Girardi did not hesitate to express his disapproval of this innovative stirring method.

“Let’s talk about what you did last half inning,” Girardi said. “You ask for tea, hot tea. Not sure why, I don’t know if you’re cold. And Jennifer was nice enough to give you your tea and your Equal. You steeped, and then you added your Equal. That dissolves, that dissolves! And you stirred it with your glasses.”

Though Girardi argued that the sweetener dissolves on its own and that Kay didn’t need to use his glasses, Kay disagreed. 

Girardi then jokingly asked Kay if he took science classes in school, and Kay said yes, despite Girardi saying that the laws of physics don’t exist in Kay’s house. 

“That’s a first for me, I’ve never seen anyone do that,” Girardi said. “That’s why I was taken aback.”

“If we work together for another 10 years, you’re going to see it a lot,” Kay replied. 

After spending four years with the team as a player, Girardi managed the Yankees from 2008-17, helping the team win its 27th World Series in 2009. 

Before his final season with the club in 2017, Girardi made the playoffs five other times. 

He then became the Phillies manager in 2020 but was fired early in 2022 after a slow start. 

Girardi has worked with the Yankees broadcast team since 2024, and was on the call with Kay for the Yankees 3-2 win over the White Sox Tuesday night.

ROME (AP) — In a landmark judgment, Italy’s supreme court has affirmed that a child born with dual citizenship—Italian and another nationality—retains Italian citizenship even if their parent subsequently naturalizes in another country. This significant legal decision is set to bolster the citizenship claims of descendants of Italian expatriates across the globe.

The court’s ruling resolves a persistent legal quandary known as the “Minor Issue,” which has impacted thousands of cases where ancestry-based citizenship was in question. Many of these cases involve families who emigrated from Italy between the late 1800s and early 1900s, authorities highlight.

Announced Sunday and released to the public on Wednesday, the decision was handed down by the Court of Cassation’s top panel, responsible for clarifying conflicting legal interpretations.

At the heart of this legal conundrum was a debate about whether minors automatically forfeited their Italian citizenship when their Italian parent acquired a foreign nationality.

A restrictive reading of the law, first adopted by the judiciary in 2023, led to the rejection of many applications from subsequent generations. Authorities perceived this as a break in the continuous line of citizenship inheritance.

What the court decided

In its new ruling, the court said that under Italy’s historical citizenship laws, children who were already Italian citizens by birth under the principle of “iure sanguinis,” or citizenship by bloodline, did not automatically lose their Italian citizenship when a parent became a citizen of another country.

The court clarified that children born in countries that automatically grant citizenship at birth — including the United States — retained their Italian citizenship even if their parents later naturalized there. Because they remained Italian citizens, they could pass that citizenship on to subsequent generations.

The ruling represents a reversal of recent practice

Lawyer Marco Mellone, who represented applicants in the case, explained that the ruling reversed a restrictive interpretation that had blocked citizenship claims in recent years, many by U.S. citizens.

What the decision means for people of Italian ancestry

The decision could have broad implications for descendants of Italian emigrants, particularly in North and South America, where large Italian diaspora communities have ancestral ties to Italy. Mellone estimated that several hundred thousand families may have been affected by the restrictive interpretation adopted in recent years.

Legal experts say the judgment is likely to strengthen the position of applicants whose claims were rejected solely because of the Minor Issue and provide authoritative guidance to judges handling pending cases. The ruling could also influence how Italian administrative authorities and consulates assess future citizenship applications.

Whether the Interior Ministry and Italian consulates formally adjust their practices to reflect the court’s interpretation remains unclear. However, decisions issued by the panel — known as the “Sezioni Unite” or United Sections — carry particular weight because they are intended to resolve conflicting interpretations of the law.

Mellone noted that “there’s no one above” the panel, which has only very rarely reversed decisions.

The ruling comes as Italy faces growing demand for citizenship by descent and legal disputes over the scope of ancestry-based citizenship rights.

Separately, a law championed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani that restricts citizenship transmission through more distant generations has been referred to the European Union’s Court of Justice, with proceedings expected next year.

A newly implemented dress code by a Florida school district has stirred discontent among parents as it prohibits girls from donning leggings.

On July 20, Hillsborough County Public Schools, which serves the Tampa Bay area, unveiled the rule disallowing spandex or leggings “unless worn as an undergarment or covered by clothing that extends to at least mid-thigh.”

As a result, middle and high school girls may only wear leggings beneath a large shirt or sweater that stretches to their knees or longer.

This policy has caught parents off guard, causing frustration due to its announcement just weeks before the new school year starts on August 10.

Oleg Martens, a dad of two daughters, has spearheaded a petition in opposition to the dress code, amassing close to 2,200 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

‘I find this rule particularly personal as it targets female students disproportionately,’ Martens wrote in the petition, adding that it appears to violate a different Hillsborough County Public Schools Policy. 

According to the father, that violated policy states: ‘Dress code expectations shall be applied equally to all students and will not be enforced differently based on a student’s body type, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, or any other protected characteristic.’ 

Towards the end of the petition, he wrote: ‘Let us send a strong message to the Hillsborough County Schools Board that this decision must be reversed.’ 

In addition to the petition, the Hillsborough County school board received ‘an onslaught of emails’ from outraged parents, board member Jessica Vaughn told the Tampa Bay Times.

As a result, the board voted to try to amend the dress code at its next meeting. She said she agreed with the emails that said the new policy seems discriminatory towards women. 

‘I think it’s important to be responsive to the public when we get these things,’ Vaughn said.

Chief of Schools Rick Grayes said the policy change resulted from conversations with middle and high school students, who he said ‘brought up their concerns’ about leggings when it came to the topic of dress codes. 

But many parents questioned if that was the case and where the concerns came from.

Martens, the father who organized the petition, told the Tampa Bay Times that he and other parents want to know ‘what data was used, what peer review studies, what empirical data was used’ when establishing the new policy. 

Morgan Thomas, the mother of a seventh and tenth grader, told the outlet that students already contend with restrictive dress codes and have adopted wearing leggings in response to existing restrictions around wearing shorts. 

‘We want to make these kids dress in something that’s totally impractical for the weather, and so they’ve gone to wearing leggings as an alternative, which covers all of the skin,’ Thomas said. 

‘Now they’re saying, “Oh, well, that’s not good enough, now you basically have to wear your father’s oversized T-shirt over your leggings, too,”‘ the mother added. 

Whitney Brewer, a mother with three daughters in the school system, told the Tampa Bay Times that to her, the new policy even comes across as ‘weird, icky almost.’ 

She said she has seen people say that they would not want to have male teachers or students in classrooms where girls are wearing leggings or other skin-tight clothing. 

‘Why are we even thinking about that?’ Brewer asked. ‘Maybe they shouldn’t be teaching if this is a problem… Maybe we teach our sons to focus on school and not worry so much about a girl wearing workout pants and a T-shirt.’ 

The school board will vote on whether to amend the new policy next Tuesday, just six days before the beginning of the school year.