The question of whether cricket can crack America, as per the cliche, feels unlikely to be answered (not least on a subscription channel, Willow TV), although this T20 World Cup is not a one-off moonshot, rather one shoulder to the wheel of a broader push.
“The match referee Richie Richardson is older than me,” writes Gary Naylor. “How can he look that good?”
Spacecraft to collect samples from rarely explored area before attempting unprecedented liftoff from ‘dark side’ for trip home
China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe has successfully landed on the far side of the moon to collect samples, state media reported on Sunday.
The lander set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, Xinhua news agency said, citing the China National Space Administration.
There’s the bell! Dubois, looking drier than you normally see fighters right before the first round, gets off to a positive start. He’s holding the center of the ring early and boxing behind a solid jab. Hrgović lands a crisp right cross. Then another. Oh boy. He’s punishing Dubois with the right hand, landing one after the other, turning his aggressive against him. Hrgović has landed no fewer than a half-dozen flush right hands in the first two minutes. Dubois holds on, showing indications of fatigue already.
Daniil Medvedev beats Tomas Machac 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4
Alexander Zverev edges five-setter against Tallon Griekspoor
In Daniil Medvedev’s eight career appearances at the French Open, his performances have ranged from catastrophic to impressive with nothing in between. He continued to build his profile as a contender by returning to the fourth round of the French Open for the first time since 2021 with a hard-earned 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win over Tomas Machac.
As Medvedev has learned to embrace clay-court tennis, still far from his favourite surface, he has compiled a unique record in Paris. The Russian has suffered five first-round losses, including on each of his first four appearances. Each time he has passed the third round, though, Medvedev has reached the second week.
Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law
The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.
Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.
Ukrainians hold 70% of Vovchansk, says army; Zelenskiy in Singapore for security forum. What we know on day 830
A Russian missile strike on residences injured 13 people including eight children in Balakliia town, Kharkiv region, on Saturday, Ukrainian prosecutors said. Prosecutors also announced that recovery operations had concluded at the site of three missile strikes on Friday in the city of Kharkiv, with a death toll of nine, most in a badly damaged apartment building.
A military spokesperson, Nazar Voloshin, told national television on Saturday that Ukrainian forces controlled 70% of Vovchansk, 5km (three miles) inside the border, which Russian troops have been trying to capture.
The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, arrived in Singapore on Sunday to address the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum.
Russian forces fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday morning, hitting energy sites, Ukrainian officials said. The air force said it shot down 35 of the missiles and all but one of the drones. Two thermal power plants were damaged, said their operator, DTEK operator.
Mourners and soldiers have laid flowers at a statue over the St Petersburg grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary leader who sent his forces into Ukraine for Vladimir Putin but then staged a mutiny against the Russian government before being killed when his plane was blown up. Putin, who said grenade fragments were found in the plane’s wreckage, called him a “talented” man who had made “serious mistakes”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has estimated that the number of Russian troops killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak “has now likely reached 500,000”.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has told the BBC that “we have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A” – helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion. “We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.” Estonia’s government has given more than 1% of its GDP for Ukraine’s defence – concerned that Vladimir Putin might also turn his attention to the Baltics to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.
‘We are not going to sleep!’ manager says of celebrations
Jude Bellingham says: ‘Nights like tonight make it all worth it’
Carlo Ancelotti said that Real Madrid’s winning mentality helped them survive a major scare against Borussia Dortmund and claim a record 15th Champions League title.
The German side dominated the first half at Wembley and it required a string of fine saves from Thibaut Courtois, who has spent most of the season out injured, to keep them level at the break. Those missed chances came back to haunt Dortmund, with Dani Carvajal heading home from a Toni Kroos corner 16 minutes from time before Vinícius Júnior made sure of the victory – the ninth successive European Cup final Madrid have contested in which they have emerged victorious.
High streets across the UK are struggling with an epidemic of stealing. What’s behind this sudden crime wave and can anything be done to stop it?
A man leaves a north London branch of Aldi carrying two bags of groceries that he did not pay for. He hadn’t planned to steal, but after becoming exasperated with the slowness of staff attending to the various glitches and alarms of the self-checkout system, and assuming it would go unnoticed, decides to just walk out the door.
He crosses the road and heads towards home. It’s a busy part of town and this kind of thing happens all the time. He doubts anyone in the store even noticed. But a voice calls after him, a security guard has given chase. The man, slightly panicked, doubles down and quickens his pace, pretending not to hear, but the guard keeps shouting, pleading for him to stop. In an attempt to lose his pursuer, the man ducks into a newsagent. The security guard enters, finds the man pretending to browse the fountain pens, and challenges him. “Sir, you didn’t pay for that shopping.”
New ‘liquid biopsy’ will act as an early warning sign to anticipate risk of tumours returning
A new blood test can predict the risk of breast cancer returning three years before any tumours show up on scans in an “incredibly exciting” breakthrough that could help more women beat the disease for good.
More than 2 million women are diagnosed every year with breast cancer, the most prevalent type of the disease. Although treatment has improved in recent decades, the cancer often returns, and if it does, it is usually at a more advanced stage.
Australian actor tells BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs performers should be able to play any role they want
Australian actor Rebel Wilson has said the idea that “only straight actors can play straight roles and gay actors can play gay roles” is “total nonsense”.
The Pitch Perfect star, 44, spoke to radio presenter Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and was asked if women can get away with different jokes compared with men. “I’ve definitely said a lot of edgy jokes, and said them sometimes in very public places like the Baftas,” she said.
The adult film star, who was paid $130,000 as “legal expenses” for her silence about her affair with the former US president, warned the presidential candidate is “completely and utterly out of touch with reality”.
Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside home of Fethullah Gülen when man in SUV approached
A CNN Turkey journalist says a supporter of political movement founder Fethullah Gülen attacked him near the self-exiled figure’s home in Pennsylvania in an encounter that apparently unfolded live on air.
In a video posted Saturday, Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside Gülen’s home, reportedly near the area of Saylorsburg, when a man driving a dark SUV approached him.
After breaking the record for ticket sales last season, Thousand Islands Playhouse managing artistic director Brett Christopher seems to have found a programming formula that works: anchor the season with a couple of popular musicals, complement them with some popular stage plays and ones that make you think, and add a bit of local flavour. Read More
Former England captain will become ambassador for foundation that was embroiled in controversy when Charles was Prince of Wales
King Charles has turned to brand Beckham to help him rebuild the reputation of his main charitable foundation after a cash-for-honours scandal.
Former England footballer David Beckham is to become an ambassador for the King’s Foundation, formerly the Prince’s Foundation, to help promote its work. Beckham met the monarch at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire last month, where he was given a personal tour. The 49-year-old said he was looking forward to exploring a newly discovered shared interest with the monarch in rural skills, nature and the British countryside. They had also swapped beekeeping tips, said Beckham.
It is the competition that Real Madrid like to think they own and the reasons why were mapped out in graphic detail at Wembley. Yet again. Borussia Dortmund brought the punch of the underdog and they played with a stirring liberation in the first half, creating chances and, well, missing them. It was impossible to think they would not regret it.
Madrid reset at half-time and when they started to press, everybody knew they had seen this movie, especially the ending. If Vinícius Júnior was a symbol of Madrid’s travails in the first half – booked for a lunge at the Dortmund goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel; guilty of a lack of conviction, at times – he relocated his game to dazzling effect thereafter.
Group behind New Labour’s 1997 anthem say they don’t want song used again – and they are not alone
The pop group behind Labour’s 1997 victory anthem Things Can Only Get Better has joined many other artists in requesting political parties refrain from using their songs.
Epsom Classic has fallen behind other big meetings in the popularity stakes and the Jockey Club needs to act
If the Melbourne Cup is “the race that stops a nation”, the Derby is fast becoming the poor relation that passes one by. City of Troy’s troubled start in the 2,000 Guineas last month meant all eyes at Epsom Downs were trained on the stall occupied by the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt at the start of the 245th Derby but, outside an industry bubble that seems arrogantly complacent about dwindling public interest in what goes on within its interior, it is difficult to imagine much attention being paid to this impressive victory under Ryan Moore by the British population at large.
On this occasion, it was another O’Brien horse, Los Angeles, who played up at the start before finishing third behind his stablemate and Ambiente Friendly. In other stall-related shenanigans, the Richard Hannon-trained Voyage unceremoniously ejected his pilot as the starting gates opened under cloudy grey skies.
You’ll Never Walk Alone. It’s an anthem for Borussia Dortmund as well, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most terrace-friendly ditty is currently ringing around Wembley. Up in the posh seats, the aforementioned Kloppo sings and sways in the emotional style. A pfenning for all of the conflicting thoughts running through the head of the former Liverpool boss right now. He looks healthy and happy and about ten years younger. Premier League management is a job of work all right.
Dortmund have Jurgen Klopp, so Real need a celebrity fan of their own in attendance. Step forward Jay-Z, who is at Wembley to support his Roc Nation Sports client Vinicius Júnior. In other news, the Wembley turf is looking lush, so while Jay-Z has 99 problems … no, you deserve better than that. I’m sorry for even thinking about it.
Culturally and linguistically diverse communities account for just 15% of organ donations made in 2023, but advocates say the more diversity among donors the better
When doctors told Mili Udani there was nothing more they could do to treat her seven-year-old son Deyaan’s brain haemorrhage, her “world came crashing down”. Only a week earlier they had been enjoying a holiday to see family in Mumbai when he began complaining about headaches.
After three doctors declared Deyaan brain dead, Udani’s cousin asked her if she had thought about organ donation. The question suddenly brought back a memory from a few weeks earlier.
An Australian discovery has added weight to a long-held theory about the painful condition – but relief for most patients is still elusive
After enduring years of experimental and unhelpful treatments in Australia to treat her chronic urinary tract infections, Grace* took the drastic measure of flying to the UK to seek help for symptoms so painful she “could barely walk down the street”.
While common and uncomplicated cases of the infections, known as UTIs, are usually easily treated with a short course of antibiotics, this often does not work for chronic, recurring cases like Grace’s. Left untreated, UTIs can cause permanent kidney damage and life-threatening infections.
Roberto Meza Mont and Craig Ruddy had been together a decade when their relationship reached a crossroads. Then two brazen reptiles showed them the way forward
Craig and I locked eyes on a Sydney street a couple of days after the 2001 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I was 23, new to Australia from Peru, and still shaking off the cobwebs of a conservative Catholic upbringing.
To me, Craig looked like someone from another planet: a lean, strong frame, curly beach-blond hair and a smile that seemed to light up the whole city. My English was basic but our shared sense of humour cut through the language barrier.
Priya* hoped a short getaway to south-east Asia would repair her marriage.
It was planned after months of abuse and coercion at the hands of her husband – which began almost immediately after arriving in Australia – that became so bad she feared leaving their Melbourne home, she says.
Actor, who played campaigner Alan Bates in TV drama, calls Horizon scandal a ‘Hitchcockian nightmare’ at Hay festival
The post office operators prosecuted in the Post Office Horizon scandal have “extraordinary dignity” after living 20 years in a “Hitchcockian nightmare”, according to actor Toby Jones.
Jones played Alan Bates, a former post office operator and leading campaigner for justice for staff wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls caused by faulty software, in the ITV drama that put the scandal back in the spotlight.
Twelve-year-old among eight now bailed after attack on teenage girl reported in Newark on 25 May
Four more boys including a 12-year-old have been arrested on suspicion of the rape of a teenage girl in Newark.
Nottinghamshire police received a report that a teenage girl had been attacked on Yorke Drive playing fields, Nottinghamshire, between 5.30pm and 7pm on 25 May.
Former Australian prime minister issues warning that young men’s thinking on the issue is going backward
Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has said global progress on gender equality is “really glacial and slow” as she warned that it is going backwards among young people.
Gillard cited recent polling by King’s College London’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, which showed that 51% of respondents believe that men are doing too much to support gender equality, while 46% think that men are now discriminated against.
Myra Coutinho-Lopez, 82, who had dementia became confused at bank counter, leading to altercation with Courtney Richman, 26
A 26-year-old woman who killed an elderly pensioner with dementia during a row over a long queue at a bank has been given a suspended sentence.
Courtney Richman had been waiting behind 82-year-old Myra Coutinho-Lopez when the argument began on 6 December 2021 at a branch in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, a court heard.
With a vote on the technology looming, it’s debatable that the search for accuracy is worth the sacrifice of spontaneity
On Thursday, Premier League clubs will vote on Wolves’ proposal to scrap video assistant referees. The motion will almost certainly not achieve majority support, never mind secure the 14 votes out of 20 needed for it to pass. But what it may do is to shift the Overton window and lead to a serious review of VAR, an assessment of where it works and where it doesn’t. And that is something that is long overdue.
Consultation is unfashionable in the modern world. Politicians of all stripes act too often in effect by fiat, and that is as true in football as anything else. VAR was imposed for the 2018 World Cup with minimal research or conversation and accepted almost everywhere without anybody really investigating the consequences.
New poll gives Labour its biggest lead since Liz Truss meltdown as ‘Tory towns’ gain most from new funds
The Tory general election campaign hit more trouble on Saturday as Rishi Sunak faced accusations of using levelling up funds to win votes and Labour opened its biggest poll lead since the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss.
As Sunak tried to fire up his party’s campaign before the first crucial TV debate with Keir Starmer on Tuesday, it emerged that more than half of the 30 towns each promised £20m of regeneration funding on Saturday were in constituencies won by Tory MPs at the last election.
Idaho case marked by Daybell and girlfriend Lori Vallow Daybell’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death Saturday for the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho in a case marked by his and his girlfriend’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday.
The sentence was handed down after an Idaho jury unanimously agreed that imposing the death penalty would be a just resolution to the triple-murder case. The sentence marks the end of a grim investigation that began with a search for two missing children in 2019. The next year, their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s eastern Idaho yard.
Russell T Davies channels Black Mirror in a story of AI, shallow social media, and posh white supremacy. But, naturally, with added slug monsters
“Oh my hopscotch!”, as Lindy Pepper-Bean might say. The on-screen lead for much of this episode, Callie Cooke, is surely one of the most dislikeable human characters Doctor Who has ever produced. She is vain, shallow, self-absorbed and manipulative, and not afraid to cause her idol, Ricky September (Tom Rhys Harries), to die, and then lie about it. Regardless of the presence of the slug monsters, she is undoubtedly the villain of the piece.
It was strikingly stylised, and unusual to see an episode of Doctor Who mostly colour-graded to be pastel pinks and blues until the final subterranean act. The obvious target was the vacuousness of much of social media, but writer Russell T Davies struck out at wider themes, including the idea that AI might come to hate humans, and the arrogant privilege that comes with being, as Ruby Sunday put it, the “rich kids”. The inhabitants of Finetime had been sent off to a posh offworld boarding school and apprentice scheme for the wealthy and conventionally attractive, where they mostly partied. “Some of us get eaten” was both factually true for the story, and a bleakly observant pun for the viewer. Some people do get Eton.
The Tories and Labour are forking out more than ever on social media ads, but going viral isn’t easy. We speak to influencers and strategists about the messages and memes
Why would you hold an election in November? The question came from digital marketing guru Mike Harris and was asked in a message to his friend, Labour’s campaign manager, Morgan McSweeney, earlier this year. Digital advertising is more expensive in October and November because the internet is swamped with ads for Christmas and Black Friday, said Harris, the founder of communications agency 89up. Why not pick a cheaper time of year?
Teflon Don has become Felon Don, but the US constitution has no objection to him holding the highest office
It was the moment America, or at least America’s politicians and media, had been waiting for. It was the day justice finally caught up with Donald Trump. The former president’s manipulation of the 2016 election, by hushing up a sex scandal that threatened his chances, and his attempts to discredit a criminal justice system intent on punishing him, was famously thwarted. It was an all-time presidential and judicial first, a historic result that transformed Teflon Don into Felon Don, thanks to a jury of 12 ordinary men and women and a brave prosecutor, Alvin Bragg.
Looked at another way, however, last week’s much anticipated dramatic denouement of the criminal trial of the New York playboy, billionaire and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate may turn out to be less pivotal than anticipated. According to the US networks, most Americans tuned out weeks ago, not least because cameras were barred from the Manhattan courtroom. One not untypical public survey found that 67% of respondents said a conviction would make no difference to how they voted this autumn. The 34 guilty verdicts were an overnight sensation. But they may not significantly shift the political dial.
Campaign starts against Scotland with the Yorkshireman set to play an influential role in ensuring team hit all the right notes
But for a slip on the golf course, a cruel twist of fate that led to a cruel twist of a left ankle and a pretty sickening compound fracture, Jonny Bairstow might well be a fifth member of the England squad with two white-ball World Cup winners medals. As it is, the Yorkshireman goes into this T20 World Cup defence still looking to add to the 50-over title he was so central to back in 2019.
Slated to open in Australia two years ago, only for that incident on the tee to offer Alex Hales a route back in, Bairstow has now been repurposed as a firebrand No 4 after the peppy arrivals of Phil Salt and Will Jacks alongside Jos Buttler in the top three.
Flags were stolen overnight from prominent local traffic circle in Carlisle amid wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in US
Police are investigating the theft of more than 200 Pride flags in Carlisle, Massachusetts, that occurred just before Pride month – and amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ measures from US legislatures.
In a statement released on Friday, the Carlisle police department announced that it is investigating the theft of the flags, which were taken out of a prominent local traffic circle earlier in the week.
Prime minister claims victory but opposition dismisses poll results as fixed and unscientific
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led alliance is projected to win a big majority in the general election that concluded on Saturday, TV exit polls said, suggesting it would do better than expected by most analysts.
Most exit polls projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for a simple majority. A two-thirds majority will allow the government to usher in far-reaching amendments to the constitution.
After massive TV success in the US, the creator of Gavin & Stacey is about to appear on the London stage. But why do British audiences find him so hard to love?
James Corden is back in the UK and characteristically busy. Last year, the 45-year-old left his job as Los Angeles-based chat show host of The Late Late Show on CBS. A Christmas special is planned for Gavin & Stacey, the acclaimed BBC sitcom he created with co-star Ruth Jones. There’s talk of reviving One Man, Two Guvnors, the National Theatre’s critically lauded hit comedy that transferred to Broadway, winning Corden a Tony award in 2012.
And later this month, Corden will appear at London’s Old Vic in a short run of Joe Penhall’s new play, The Constituent, helmed by the theatre’s artistic director, Matthew Warchus. Corden’s first stage role since One Man, Two Guvnors, it’s seen as something of a departure (a gamble) for Corden – a serious work about the escalating risks of public service in politics.
French Open match ended in an embrace, reflecting a wider trend in what was once a tensely competitive locker room
As Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa stood by the player entrance to Court Philippe-Chatrier in anticipation of their French Open third-round match, they waited in perfect silence. There were no jokes exchanged and no small talk. This was business. The pair entered the court and put on a show, battling hard until the end.
Away from their numerous on-court battles, which have included three matches in the last three months, Sabalenka and Badosa refer to each other as best friends. It was not until the Tie Break Tens exhibition event before Indian Wells in 2022, while both players were ranked inside the top 10, that they connected. While they are hardly the first friends to compete on the court, their relationship seems reflective of the shifting dynamics in the WTA locker room.
US representative and failed contender for president says Kathy Hochul should grant pardon ‘for the good of the country’
The outgoing Democratic US representative who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.
Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas representative, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.