In its early phases, Ukraine's counteroffensive is having less success and Russian forces are showing more competence than western assessments expected, two western officials and a senior US military official tell CNN.

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Eniola Aluko still believes England can secure qualification for Great Britain at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Lionesses – who need to finish top of Nations League Group A1 to have a chance at claiming GB an Olympic spot – slipped to third after losing 3-2 in Belgium on Tuesday. Sarina Wiegman’s side, with six points from four games, are three behind leaders the Netherlands and one behind second-placed Belgium. Their final two group fixtures see them play the Dutch at Wembley on December 1 and then Scotland at Hampden Park four days later. Former England and Team GB forward Aluko said: “It is a tough group with the Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland. It is not an easy group at all. I think the Nations League is deliberately competitive. “Really, England have got to win the last two games to have any chance of qualifying, but if any team is going to prove anyone wrong it’s the Lionesses, and they have done so well in the last two years.” Aluko is not doubtful that England – who were World Cup runners-up over the summer, a year on from winning the Euros – could pull through because they “have everything to win those last two games”. She added: “I think sometimes there can be a bit of a hangover from the World Cup where you have a massive high and then come back to normality. “Sometimes it takes players a little bit to get going again. The season only just started again and we are only five games into the Women’s Super League. “Fatigue is not just physical – it is mental as well. There are so many games and so many tournaments. “Frankly, the women’s game is really competitive. On any given day, Scotland can beat England and Holland can beat England – that is the sort of level of competition we are dealing with.” Aluko was speaking after she collected an MBE for her services to association football and to charity on Wednesday. The Prince of Wales, who presented Aluko with her MBE at a ceremony at Windsor Castle, told her “this feels like this is overdue”, and she later said of that moment: “It was lovely and a really, really nice thing to say.” Broadcaster and football executive Aluko’s playing career included featuring at three World Cups, three European Championships and the London 2012 Olympics. She began her career at Birmingham and had subsequent spells at Charlton, Chelsea and in the United States before returning to Birmingham in 2012. Aluko rejoined Chelsea from 2012 to 2018, during which time she won two WSL titles, the WSL Spring Series and two FA Cups. After announcing her retirement from playing in January 2020 following a spell with Juventus, Aluko had stints as sporting director at Aston Villa and Los Angeles-based Angel City FC. The 36-year-old has also worked heavily with charities and organisations such as Charity Water, Common Goal and Unesco. Read More Football fan convicted of racially abusing Rio Ferdinand Welsh rugby still has deep-rooted issues that need to be sorted – Alun Wyn Jones A bit far-fetched – Eoin Morgan dismisses link with England white-ball coach job England star Alex Greenwood well enough to return home after head injury Tiger Woods-designed course gives ‘a lot of options’ ahead of PGA Tour debut Golf, fish tanks, slippy socks and stray balls – freak injuries to cricket stars

Taylor Swift fans have shared feelings of forgetfulness after seeing the pop-star performing on her highly anticipated Eras Tour. Speaking to Time, Jenna Tocatlian, 25, spoke about her experience seeing Swift at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. Speaking about one of Swift’s nightly surprise songs At the concert that Tocatlian attended the song was 'Better Man', but she said: ‘If I didn’t have the 5-minute video that my friend kindly took of me jamming to it, I probably would have told every that it didn’t happen.’ She added that as she waited to leave the stadium, during an hour-long wait, she found it difficult to grasp the reality of a night she had waited so long to experience. ‘It’s hard to put together what you actually witness,’ she told Time. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It seems Tocatlian isn’t the only one experiencing ‘post-concert amnesia’. Taking to social media, many users have shared their inability to recall the events of the show, from small details to even significant parts of the concert. Some described having feelings of guilt after waiting so long to attend the show and leaving without explicit memories. Ewan McNay, an associate professor in the psychology department at the State University of New York in Albany, told Time that the experience may be a result of too much excitement. He explained that ‘this is not a concert-specific phenomenon - it can happen any time you’re in a highly emotional state.’ This is because as a result of feelings of excitement, the body’s stress levels increase, which in turn causes neurons associated with memory to start firing indiscriminately. McNay shared that this makes forming new memories ‘really hard.’ The biological explanation for this occurrence is due to the body seeing excitement as a state of stress. The body then starts pumping out the brain’s favourite molecule for memory: glucose. Because the body thinks it’s stressed, it doesn’t want to waste energy on memory formation. Your vagal nerves, which regulate internal organ functions, also become stimulated as a result of the perceived stress. All this causes the part of your brain responsible for emotional processing - known as your amygdala - to release a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. This helps to categorise memories as having high emotional content, increasing the likelihood that they’ll be stored vividly in your mind. However, McNay goes on to explain that too much of this chemical release can actually invest the process, especially if caffeine or alcohol are included. Which leads to your brain struggling to create and store new memories. For those who want to try and have a better memory of an important event, whether it’s seeing Taylor Swift, or getting married, McNay shared some helpful techniques. He says to try and achieve a ‘semi-meditative state’ and relaxing. He also adds that physical responses such as screaming at a concert tells the body that you must be scared. If you stand still in a more relaxed state, your brain will know not to get too excited, and aid the formation of new memories. 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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Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado on Sunday challenged Americans to approach political disagreements with respect in their mission to elevate "civic dialogue across the country."