Captain rejects term used by former Ashes tormentor Mitchell Johnson Tourists begin training with pink Kookaburra ball in Brisbane Ben Stokes has accepted the criticism that followed his England side’s two-day defeat in Perth as part of being in the results business but said he draws a line at the notion his players were “arrogant” in their approach. That particular word was used by former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson in a strongly-worded column for the West Australian newspaper and has been a theme of the wider reaction. Continue reading...

Families are combing hospitals hoping to find their loved ones as about 200 people still listed as missing, and at least 128 killed An outpouring of grief was set to sweep Hong Kong on Saturday as an official, three-day mourning period began with a moment of silence for the 128 people killed in one of the city’s deadliest fires. City leader John Lee, along with senior ministers and dozens of top civil servants, stood in silence for three minutes on Saturday morning outside the government headquarters, where the flags of China and Hong Kong were flown at half-mast. Continue reading...

Trump administration says decisions paused until government can ensure ‘every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible’ The Trump administration has announced it is halting all asylum decisions in the wake of the National Guard shooting in Washington DC, according to a senior immigration official. Joseph Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a post on X on Friday that asylum decisions would be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”. Continue reading...

The first autopen was patented in the 1800s and has been used by many American presidents On Friday, Donald Trump claimed that he will reverse everything that Joe Biden has signed with an autopen. The automated signature machine has been a tool used by presidents at the White House for decades. Continue reading...

He scored twice in 1988 final against West Germany Olympic star was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019 Imran Sherwani, who starred in the Great Britain hockey team that won Olympic gold in 1988, has died at the age of 63, his family have announced. Sherwani revealed in 2021 that had he been diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer’s in 2019, and his family continue to raise awareness of the condition. He represented Great Britain and England 94 times, culminating in scoring two goals in his team’s 3-1 final victory over West Germany in Seoul. Continue reading...

Hernández was convicted in 2024 of accepting millions in bribes to protect cocaine shipments Donald Trump has said he will grand a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges. “I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump said Friday in a post on Truth Social. Continue reading...

Final, first leg: Germany 0-0 Spain Germany had 19 attempts on goal to Spain’s nine Germany dominated the first leg of their Nations League final against Spain on Friday but could not find the back of the net as they were held to a scoreless draw before Tuesday’s second leg in Madrid. The Germans racked up 19 attempts on goal, but Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll was outstanding in the first half, much to the frustration of the home fans. Continue reading...

Pacific lawyer Julian Aguon to be honoured with Right Livelihood award for his work that led to ICJ ruling on climate harm Six years ago, human rights lawyer Julian Aguon received a call from Vanuatu’s foreign affairs minister. The minister had an unusual request – he wanted Aguon to help develop a legal case on behalf of dozens of law students who were seeking climate justice from the world’s highest court. Aguon, a Chamorro lawyer based in Guam, was excited by the opportunity and believed they could clear up legal ambiguities he says had “long hobbled the ability of the international community to respond effectively to the climate crisis.” Continue reading...

Manager much happier with display in 5-3 loss at PSG Spurs hoping to improve home form by beating Fulham Thomas Frank has said he much preferred Tottenham’s “front-footed” performance in their 5-3 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain to their cautious approach against Arsenal a few days earlier. Frank was heavily criticised for fielding a back five at the Emirates Stadium for Sunday’s 4-1 defeat and his side responded with a more ambitious display against the European champions. Spurs led twice before being overwhelmed by Vitinha’s hat-trick. Continue reading...

Head coach backs midfielder to improve further Arsenal visit second-placed Chelsea on Sunday Mikel Arteta is confident the best is to come from Declan Rice as Arsenal prepare for their top-of-the-table showdown at Chelsea on Sunday. The England midfielder was outstanding in Arsenal’s victories against Tottenham and Bayern Munich over the past week and will face the club where he spent seven years before being released aged 14. Arsenal lead second-placed Chelsea by Continue reading...

Under-pressure manager won’t change defensive shape Dutchman considering dropping Konaté for West Ham trip Arne Slot has said he cannot make dramatic changes to arrest Liverpool’s slump given the squad is suited to his system and he has little time on the training ground to implement a new approach. Slot is under increasing pressure before Sunday’s Premier League visit to West Ham having presided over the club’s worst run in 71 years. He has faced calls to drop the under-performing Ibrahima Konaté and Mohamed Salah in recent days, or to shake up his style in an attempt to halt the slide. Continue reading...

‘You have to try things and we didn’t,’ says Guardiola He will recall rested players against Leeds on Saturday Pep Guardiola has accused Manchester City’s players of performing with fear in their 2-0 defeat by Bayer Leverkusen. The head coach made 10 changes for the Champions League match and said those selected had not taken the risks needed to win. After two straight losses, City hope to return to form when Leeds visit on Saturday. Daniel Farke’s side have won once in their past six Premier League games, leaving them in the relegation zone. Guardiola is likely to recall many of those rested from the start on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Mixed messages over captain Pat Cummins’s potential return to bowling in the Ashes are a curiously dismissive attitude towards the paying public You could speculate about whether Cricket Australia deliberately prefers to be opaque about player availability and team plans, or whether it just has a deficiency in communications, but once again the fitness of players and the makeup of the XI is left to be inferred from the selection in the larger squad of 14 players for the second Ashes Test in Brisbane. Normally, a board naming an unchanged squad would not be much news. This time it is, thanks to the possible movement in either direction of Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja, neither of which has now eventuated. Continue reading...

Leftwing party asks members to pick between Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many The leftwing party formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has revealed a shortlist of names for its members to pick from: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many. Ahead of its first conference in Liverpool this weekend, the party is asking its 50,000 members to choose what it should be called, with the result to be announced by Corbyn on Sunday. Continue reading...

Trump baselessly claims his predecessor didn’t sign off on directives himself due to use of autopen machine Donald Trump has declared he intends to cancel most of the executive orders signed by Joe Biden, his predecessor as president of the United States. In a post on social media, Trump claimed baselessly that Biden had not signed off on the orders himself, saying that “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him” by signing his name using an autopen – a signature machine, which has commonly been used by nearly all US presidents since the device’s invention. Continue reading...

Immediate software change on ‘significant number’ of jets to result in disruption to half the global fleet Airbus said on Friday it was ordering an immediate software change on a “significant number” of its bestselling A320 family of aircraft in a move that industry sources said would bring disruption to half the global fleet, or thousands of jets. The move must be carried out before the next routine flight, according to a separate bulletin to airlines seen by Reuters, with the UK’s civil aviation authority warning of “some disruption and cancellations” to flights over the coming days. Continue reading...

David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland, denies involvement after Nathan Gill jailed for taking bribes A former leading member of the group of MEPs headed by Nigel Farage has denied taking money as part of a campaign to promote Russian interests. David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland for four years, was responding after the jailing of his former colleague, Nathan Gill, on charges of being bribed by an alleged pro-Russian asset. Continue reading...

Tracey Smith sent the government minister and MP Ellie Reeves 22 emails and 10 voicemails A woman who tried to summon her MP, the solicitor general Ellie Reeves, to court has been jailed for harassment in London. Tracey Smith sent Reeves 22 emails and 10 voicemails calling her “transphobic” and accusing her older sister – the chancellor, Rachel Reeves – of physically assaulting her at a buffet bar. Continue reading...

Norris third in Lusail, with Russell second on grid Verstappen furious with car after qualifying sixth Oscar Piastri took pole position for the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix. The McLaren driver beat the Mercedes of George Russell into second and, with Lando Norris in third, it was the result the Australian required for his world championship ambitions and means a chance to narrow the gap to the leader Norris. The other title contender, Max Verstappen, was furious with his Red Bull’s erratic performance and will start in sixth. On the first hot runs in Q3 Piastri set the pace with a 1min 20.241sec lap, four-hundredths quicker than ­Norris. However Verstappen was complaining his car was suffering with bouncing through the corners, lacking the stability in the fast turns that had been a strength of the car and an issue he had also experienced in the only practice session. Going off wide on his first run he did not set a competitive time on his first run. Continue reading...

Internationally renowned cinema temporarily closes after audience members complained about being bitten The prestigious Cinémathèque Française in Parishas announced a temporary closure due to a bedbug infestation after sightings of the blood-sucking creatures, including during a master class with Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver. The Cinémathèque, an internationally renowned film archive and cinema, said in a statement it would close its four screening halls for a month from Friday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chancellor says she made ‘fair and necessary choices’ in budget, and was unwilling to make cuts Britain’s wealthy must shoulder the burden of paying to rebuild the country’s “creaky” public services, Rachel Reeves has said, as she warned Labour MPs that leadership speculation was bad for the country. The chancellor said she had opted to increase taxes by £26bn in this week’s budget to improve schools, hospitals and infrastructure, rejecting calls to “cut our cloth accordingly” after a downgrade in productivity forecasts. Continue reading...

Not since 2014 have Liverpool struggled so much, with questions aimed at club directors and the likes of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz “Would you say this is Roy bad or Brendan bad?” was one of the more repeatable questions asked in the Anfield press box in between PSV Eindhoven’s third and fourth goals on Wednesday. The correct answer would have been “Don Welsh bad”, given he was the last Liverpool manager to preside over nine defeats in 12 games, back in 1953-54. But the on-the-spot consensus was “Brendan bad” for reasons that may increase anxiety at Fenway Sports Group as the club’s owners desperately await a recovery under Arne Slot. The Roy Hodgson era, airbrushed from history by some at Liverpool, is too low a base for comparisons with a Premier League champion. There are, however, some parallels between the current Liverpool crisis and the final 16 months of Brendan Rodgers’ reign at Anfield. The 2014-15 season was the last time confidence in a Liverpool manager or head coach began to drain. It was also the last time the impressive development of a Liverpool team – one that went agonisingly close to an unexpected title triumph in Rodgers’ case – not only came to an abrupt halt but veered into a steep decline with several new signings on board. FSG must hope the comparisons go no further, because that decline was precipitated by self-sabotage in the summer transfer window of 2014 and there is no conclusive evidence so far that it has avoided an expensive repeat in 2025. Continue reading...

The Hong Kong tower block fire, Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv, floods in Thailand and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Russia’s president is only interested in a deal on Moscow’s terms. Equipping Kyiv with the resources to fight on is the quickest route to a just settlement As Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day deadline for a Ukraine peace agreement came and went this week, the Russia expert Mark Galeotti pointed to a telling indicator of how the Kremlin is treating the latest flurry of White House diplomacy. In the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a foreign policy scholar close to Vladimir Putin’s regime bluntly observed: “As long as hostilities continue, leverage remains. As soon as they cease, Russia finds itself alone (we harbour no illusions) in the face of coordinated political and diplomatic pressure.” Mr Putin has no interest in a ceasefire followed by talks where Ukraine’s rights as a sovereign nation would be defended and reasserted. He seeks the capitulation and reabsorption of Russia’s neighbour into Moscow’s orbit. Whether that is achieved through battlefield attrition, or through a Trump-backed deal imposed on Ukraine, is a matter of relative indifference. On Thursday, the Russian president reiterated his demand that Ukraine surrender further territory in its east, adding that the alternative would be to lose it through “force of arms”. Once again, he described Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as “illegitimate”, and questioned the legally binding nature of any future agreement. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Capturing the changing landscapes of the 18th century, the rivals transformed British art. The climate emergency gives new urgency to their work JMW Turner appears on £20 notes and gives his name to Britain’s most avant garde contemporary art prize. John Constable’s work adorns countless mugs and jigsaws. Both are emblematic English artists, but in the popular imagination, Turner is perceived as daring and dazzling, Constable as nice but a little bit dull. In a Radio 4 poll to find the nation’s favourite painting, Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire – which even features in the James Bond film Skyfall – won. Constable’s The Hay Wain came second. Born only a year later, Constable was always playing catch-up: Turner became a member of the Royal Academy at 27, while Constable had to wait until he was 52. To mark the 250th anniversary of their births, Tate Britain is putting on the first major exhibition to display the two titans head to head. Shakespeare and Marlowe, Mozart and Salieri, Van Gogh and Gauguin – creative rivalries are the stuff of biopics. Mike Leigh’s 2014 film shows Turner (Timothy Spall) adding a touch of red to his seascape Helvoetsluys to upstage Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1832. Critics delighted in dubbing them “Fire and Water”. The enthralling new Tate show is billed as a battle of rivals, but it also tells another story. Constable’s paintings might not have the exciting steam trains, boats and burning Houses of Parliament of Turner’s, but they were radical too. Continue reading...