Lionel Messi’s summer move to the US has been a huge success for his club, Inter Miami. But for fans, it looks like it is about to have one very significant downside – ticket prices are skyrocketing to as much as three times last year’s value. A sports journalist at the Miami Herald tweeted that of the fans she had spoken to so far, season ticket prices had as much as tripled on last year’s value. It comes as Messi’s arrival in Miami has provided a significant boost to the MLS club. His performances on the pitch have already helped Inter Miami win their first ever trophy, the 2023 Leagues Cup. And off the pitch, it looks like he will have an even bigger impact. Commercial director Xavier Asensi said last month that the club expects record revenue in 2024, three times more than originally projected. According to Yahoo Sports, the figure is expected to exceed $200m, which would be the largest revenue figure ever for an MLS club. That looks set to be propped up by fans, in a move which has prompted widespread criticism online. One person said: “Inter Miami rewarding fans who stuck with them through the opening seasons of some pretty dire football by doubling or tripling their season ticket price.” Another added: “Terrible. The fans who have been there are the ones who should be rewarded in this new era of Inter Miami. Not extorted or pushed out. Classless.” According to the Miami Herald, the cheapest season ticket in 2023 was $485 in the north stands. That equated to $28.50 per game for 17 home games. That same section will cost $884 in 2024, which is $52 per game. Meanwhile, a $3,600 ticket in the lower-level midfield club section for the current season is now going to cost $7,650, or $450 per game. Those seats include access to a lounge area with premium food and beverage options. Premium lounge packages are being advertised at $42,840 to $45,900. One person who purported to be a season ticket holder reported an even bigger hike on last season’s price. They tweeted: “My 2023 season ticket plan was $6,802.00 for two seats. “The price they quoted to retain my seats is $30,600.00 “This makes Inter Miami the most expensive soccer ticket in the world with what I can only assume is the biggest year over year price increase ever.” They added: “Outrageous.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Israel Adesanya defends his middleweight title against Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC 293 tonight. Adesanya regained the title in April by knocking out his old kickboxing rival Alex Pereira, five months after the Brazilian took the belt from Adesanya. The Nigerian-New Zealander will look to get his second run as champion off to a good start tonight, as he fights Strickland in Sydney. While Adesanya, 34, has proven divisive among fans, American Strickland has courted greater controversy in recent years. The 32-year-old claimed in 2021 that he would like to ‘kill’ an opponent in the ring one day, but it has not stopped him from getting the greater share of cheers in Australia this week. While he will be the apparent fan favourite at UFC 293, Adesanya is the betting favourite, with his counter-striking expected to be too slick for the game but limited Strickland. Follow live updates from the UFC 293 main event and under card, below. Read More Why Israel Adesanya vs Sean Strickland may turn ugly, quickly Fans tear apart Tyson Fury over claim that Francis Ngannou poses tougher test than Oleksandr Usyk UFC rankings: The Independent’s pound-for-pound fighters list

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Our taste in fine art can develop from a very early age, researchers have said, after they found babies as young as four months can demonstrate artistic preferences. When shown landscapes by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, psychologists at the University of Sussex found both babies and adults mostly favoured the same paintings, with Green Corn Stalks (1888) proving to be the most popular. The team at the university’s Sussex Baby Lab also uncovered that infants liked paintings that had more edges – such as those featuring leaves or branches – and curved lines. In their findings, published in the Journal of Vision, the researchers said aspects of artistic preferences may be hardwired from an early age. Our study also appears to have identified features of adult aesthetics that can be traced back to sensory biases in infancy Philip McAdams Philip McAdams, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex and lead author on the paper, said: “It was fascinating to find that babies respond to the basic building blocks of the paintings, such as edges and colours, and that these properties could explain large amounts of why babies look at, and adults like, particular artworks. “Our study also appears to have identified features of adult aesthetics that can be traced back to sensory biases in infancy. “Our findings show that babies’ visual systems and visual preferences are more sophisticated than commonly thought.” For the study, which was in collaboration with children’s sensory brand, Etta Loves, the researchers recruited 25 babies, aged four to eight months, and 25 adults. The babies sat on their parent’s lap while 40 pairs of images, featuring landscape paintings by Van Gogh, were shown on a tablet. Adults were also shown the same paintings and asked which image in the pair they found to be more pleasant. Recordings showed babies looked longer at the Van Gogh landscapes that adults also rated as most pleasant. These paintings featured high colour and lightness contrasts as well as lots of the colour green. The most preferred Van Gogh painting was Green Corn Stalks whilst the least preferred was Olive Grove (1889). But researchers also found small differences in the artistic tastes between adults and babies. For example, they found that infants preferred paintings that contained the most edges and curved lines, which the adults did not seem to favour. Professor Anna Franklin, head of the Sussex Colour Group and founder of the Sussex Baby Lab, and lead author on the paper, said: “We’ve been amazed by how much the young babies responded to the art. “Although newborn babies’ vision is very blurry, our findings demonstrate that by four months old, babies can see well enough to look longer at some paintings than others, and can pay attention to many of the artistic details.”

The Indian government decided to restrict the export of rice due to rising domestic prices and fears of a shortfall in the next crop yield