If the Chicago Cubs don't get their act together, expect these four players to hit the trade block and these teams to get involved in the action.The Chicago Cubs players have been warned. Team president Jed Hoyer took responsibility while also sending out a message about what may be next fo...

England international Jude Bellingham scored on his LaLiga debut as Real Madrid began their league season with a 2-0 victory at Athletic Bilbao. Bellingham, who joined Real from Borussia Dortmund earlier this summer, scored his team’s second goal eight minutes before half-time. Rodrygo had opened the scoring nine minutes earlier, and it proved a dominant display by Real, with Bellingham at the heart of it. Saturday’s other two LaLiga games finished as draws, with Real Sociedad being held 1-1 at home by Girona and Real Mallorca claiming a point by the same scoreline at Las Palmas. Takefusa Kubo put Socieded in front after just five minutes at the Reale Arena, but Artem Dovbyk’s header in the 72nd minute secured a share of the spoils. Las Palmas went in front through Jonathan Viera’s 29th-minute penalty, but the home side could not hold on to that advantage and Antonio Raillo equalised in the second half. Paris St Germain saw their Ligue 1 campaign begin in frustrating fashion as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Lorient at Parc des Princes. Despite creating numerous chances, PSG could find no way through resilient opposition and will feel it was a case of two points dropped. Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Marco Verratti, meanwhile, who have all been linked with moves away from Paris, were left out of the matchday squad by boss Luis Enrique. And Marseille claimed a comeback victory against Reims at Stade Velodrome, with Vitinha’s 73rd-minute goal securing a 2-1 win after Junya Ito had given Reims the lead and Azzedine Ounahi equalised.

Barcelona player ratings from the clash with Rayo Vallecan in La Liga - 25 November 2023.

Vladimir Putin was reportedly left “paralysed” when the Wagner coup began and no orders were given that day. The mercenary group launched its short-lived mutiny on 24 June, driving its forces towards the Kremlin and preaching open rebellion against Russia’s military leadership – only to abandon its mission just hours later. Now, security officials from Ukraine and other parts of Europe have spoken out, claiming the Russian president was unable to act when he first heard the news. According to intelligence assessments shared with the Washington Post, Mr Putin got a warning from Russian security services that the leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeniy Prigozhin was possibly planning a rebellion, two or three days before it began. But while security was increased at some strategic facilities, such as the Kremlin, including increasing the presidential guard and handing out more weapons, no other action was taken in response to the threat. One European security official, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Washington Post: “Putin had time to take the decision to liquidate [the rebellion] and arrest the organisers. “Then when it began to happen, there was paralysis on all levels … There was absolute dismay and confusion. For a long time, they did not know how to react.” This account of the standoff, which is being viewed as one of the most severe threats to Mr Putin’s presidency in 23 years of his rule, has reportedly been corroborated by officials in Western governments. It’s also consistent with the public comments from William J. Burns, the CIA director, who said that for the majority of the 36 hours when the coup was happening, the military, security services and decision-makers “appeared to be adrift”. According to the analysis, Mr Putin’s indecision shows his fear of countering a warlord like Mr Prigozhin. The Wagner Group leader had played an essential role in the Kremlin’s global ambitions, having previously run troll farms which disseminated disinformation in the US and paramilitary operations in the Middle East and Africa. He then took up the Wagner leader position in the war against Ukraine. But Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied the “paralysis” claims, telling the Washington Post, they were made by “people who have zero information”. European security officials added that Mr Putin’s lack of direction meant local officials were then left to decide what to do. Acting without any clear orders, local military decided not to try to stop the Wagner troops, which were heavily armed, as they advanced towards Moscow. Such lack of action led some people to believe the Wagner troops were acting with at least some agreement from the Kremlin. This was despite Mr Putin’s televised address on 24 June saying he promised there would be tough action against the rebels. The way the events unfolded also shows serious cracks and a worsening divide in Russia’s military and security over how the Ukraine war is being handled. Many individuals in the upper sections of the military and security services have reportedly shown support for Mr Prigozhin’s efforts to overturn Russia’s military leadership. Critics of Russia’s president say his lack of direction during the rebellion has left him a lot weaker. Former colonel in the Russian security services and now an opposition politician in exile, Gennady Gudkov, told the Washington Post: “Putin showed himself to be a person who is not able to make serious, important and quick decisions in critical situations. He just hid.” A month after the coup, thousands of Wagner group mercenaries have arrived in Belarus, prompting Nato member Poland to reinforce its eastern border against the “potential threat” they pose. Between 3,450 and 3,650 soldiers have travelled to a camp close to Asipovichy, a town 230 kilometres (140 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, according to Belaruski Hajun, an activist group that tracks troop movements within the country. Read More Why are Wagner mercenaries in Belarus – and would they try to invade Poland? Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin launches fresh drone strikes on Kyiv as air raid sirens wail across capital Putin signs off law banning Russians from changing gender in latest blow to LGBT+ community The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

LONDON Tesla topped a list of the most shorted large-cap U.S. stocks for a third month consecutively in

Apple is planning a new version of its AirTags trackers – but they might not arrive for some time, according to a new report. The company launched its AirTags in April 2021. Since then they have attracted some criticism but also proven popular as a simple way for iPhone owners to track the location of objects such as bags and keys. There have been few rumours about a possible new version of the trackers. But Apple is planning one, according to a report from usually reliable Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo. But those new trackers will not arrive until late next year or even later, he reported. The company is not planning to put the second-generation AirTags into mass production until the fourth quarter of 2024, he reported. It is unclear what features the new version could have. But Mr Kuo suggested that one change would be better integration with Apple’s upcoming augmented reality headset, the Vision Pro. “I believe that spatial computing is a new ecosystem that Apple wants to build, using Vision Pro as the core to integrate other devices, including AirTag 2,” he wrote. That would presumably include ways of allowing the Vision Pro to show the location of AirTags overlaid on top of the real world, for instance. But it might also bring more deep integration. Apple has long been working on ways to allow for its devices to understand where others are in space, which might rely on some of the same technology currently found in the AirTags. Apple’s AirTags have been met with a largely positive reception, and there are few obvious opportunities for improvement in a new generation. But they did receive some heavy criticism for enabling stalkers to track people by placing AirTags on them without their knowledge – which led to a number of changes, including more messages alerting people when a tracker appears to be moving with them. Read More The iPhone 15 is going to help Apple achieve one very big dream New iPhone might have a mysterious button on its side – and this is what it could do iPhone users urged to check their photo library amid fears they could be deleted

Tough look for the NCAA.

A jury in Illinois has ordered Chicago-based Conagra Brands to pay $7.1 million to a Pennsylvania woman who was badly injured in 2017 when a can of cooking spray ignited in a commercial kitchen at her workplace and set her aflame

The Baltimore Orioles have promoted outfielder Colton Cowser to the major leagues

HONG KONG Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, has sold 820,500 Hong Kong-listed shares of

Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys has had her say on the recent controversial changes to Twitch, which has seen the streaming platform face an online backlash. Earlier this week, Twitch changed its branded content guidelines and faced immediate pushback from content creators. The changes impacted how users could advertise sponsorships as well as banning them from multi-streaming to “Twitch-like” platforms. Just a day later, Twitch revealed that they were removing the new guidelines after receiving widespread criticism. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Yesterday, we released new Branded Content Guidelines that impacted your ability to work with sponsors to increase your income from streaming. These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately,” a statement read. “Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income. We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors – you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business. “We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change.” Despite the apology, users have continued to hit out at Twitch. Pokimane has now spoken about the direction streaming could take in future, and urged users to pursue new routes to get what they deserve for their content. “I feel like because content creation is becoming so saturated [and] we often have trouble relying on the platforms we use, the future is direct to consumer paid content (patreon, onlypans, consumer goods, etc),” Pokimane wrote. “Cut out the middle man and get proper compensation for what you make/do!” she added. “Social media platforms will obviously always be used, but I think people will start looking at them as tools to gain exposure instead of being the way to make money,” the streamer went on to say. It comes after the CEO of Twitch, Dan Clancy, personally apologised during a recent stream for the abandoned changes to guidelines and said the company had “messed up”. “Let me just go straight to the point. For those who don’t know, we recently released this branded content policy. I won’t go through all the details,” he said recently. “We got a lot of negative pushback and the bottom line is we messed up. It’s on us and I apologise for that.” 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.

Although the audience loved his personality and look in 'Gunsmoke', James Arness wasn't always so sure of himself when it came to his height