Top Stories this AM: The NFL's first openly gay player; Yang's mental health gaffe; to catch a pistachio thief

Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.

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What's going on today:

• The NFL's first openly gay player just came out of the closet. Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay on his Instagram account because "representation and visibility are so important." Nassib commemorated his coming out by making a $100K donation to an LGBTQ+ charity.
• Yang's messy comments about the mentally ill. NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang doubles down on comments blaming mentally ill people for New York City's problems. Yang faced backlash last week over comments he made on mentally ill and homeless people during the NYC mayoral debate.
• Now that's a habit. Police arrested a man in California who stole 42,000 pounds of pistachios. Between 2014 and 2017, nut heists resulted in the loss of more than $7.6 million, prompting companies to adopt policies to better track shipments.
• Toxic trash destroys tourism site. A 600-foot 'garbage belt' has taken over a Chinese UNESCO world heritage site and is overwhelming local herders tasked with cleaning it up. Years of trash building up in the tourist-filled region has littered the region with swathes of plastic bags, paint buckets, cans, and even dead sheep and yaks.
• Esports, but make it fashion. Ralph Lauren is trying to make esports players fashion icons in a new campaign featuring Martin 'Rekkles' Larsson. A new ad released by the company features League of Legends star player Larsson on horseback.
• That's all for now. See you tomorrow.