Wildfires have raced through Maui in Hawaii, destroying part of a historic town on the island

England midfielder Rhyce Ramsden admits amputee football has opened doors he did not realise were accessible to him. The Everton player has just completed arguably the most successful couple of weeks of his life after scoring twice in the FA Disability Cup final victory over Portsmouth, just days after helping the national team win their first title since 1990. He has already come a long way since getting on his first flight with the England team just six months into his journey in amputee football. “I was 16 and had been playing for six months as an amputee when I got called up to go play in the 2017 Euros in Turkey,” Ramsden told the PA news agency. “Before playing football I’d only ever been on a plane once and been to one other country. “Now I travel the world – I’ve been to Europe, I’ve been to America, Mexico, it’s just a bit surreal what has happened. Playing in front of 42,000 in Besiktas’ stadium was a good experience.” Ramsden sports a floppy centre-parting and headband like Manchester City winger Jack Grealish and, while comparisons were made after his performance at the weekend, there were no post-match celebrations to match the treble winner’s party stop in Ibiza. “I got asked on Saturday when we won the FA Cup if I was going on a three-day bender, but I was back in work in Monday – that was the biggest reality shock,” he added. “Someone put out a post saying, ‘It’s the one-legged Jack Grealish’, but I wanted to reply saying, ‘No, he’s the two-legged Rhyce Ramsden’.” Someone put out a post saying, 'It's the one-legged Jack Grealish', but I wanted to reply saying, 'No, he's the two-legged Rhyce Ramsden' Rhyce Ramsden Ramsden was born with a tumour above his right knee which resulted in amputation at five months old. That did not prevent him playing sport alongside his able-bodied friends, but he admits once he joined the amputee football “family” things changed. “I used to play football with my prosthetic in net for school and one day a coach came down and showed me a couple of clips of amputee football,” he said. “I went to a training camp wanting to still be a goalkeeper, but in amputee football you have to be an arm amputee to be a goalkeeper so I had to get used to being outfield and once I started playing outfield I stopped wanting to be a goalkeeper straightaway. “Even if you don’t play sport there is always a place for you. “There are kids and adults who have lost their legs recently, who never mind playing don’t think they will walk again. “Then they come down and try it and next thing you know they’ve got the bug. “Even if you think the worst is going to happen, that’s not the case, always think positive, get yourself involved.” Ramsden is in good company at Everton as they have six England representatives in the team, who play seven-a-side games which last 50 minutes. Among his team-mates is Steve Johnson, Everton’s disability manager who was world amputee footballer of the year in 1999, has played in three World Cups and scored an extra-time winner against Brazil in the 1990 World Cup final, England’s last tournament success before their recent Nations League triumph in Poland. “I first started in 1987 and then there wasn’t social media, so it was just pitches in limb centres and finding players was a real challenge, but it has grown, social media has helped quite a lot,” said Johnson, who has been involved at Everton since 2003. “Everton has a long history working with disabled people, but we have to generate a lot of those funds ourselves. “The FA put a lot of resources into promoting the women’s game and that needs to happen for disability football, not just amputees, to get them challenging for trophies at major competitions.” Everton in the Community’s disability programme engages more than 200 disabled adults per week and over 400 disabled children and young people each year, offering competitive opportunities for 11 pan-disability and specific impairment teams for children and adults that are available to males and females. “It is open for anyone who wants to take part, it’s not set in stone. We recruit wherever we can,” said Everton Amputees manager and EitC disability co-ordinator Mark Dolan. “The pathway is there to go and play for England. We have various different players along the path and Rhyce is an example of one of the up-and-coming players at England.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Josh Tongue gets late breakthrough as Australia dominate at Lord’s Sir Nick Faldo: LIV Golf won’t survive proposed deal with governing bodies Alessia Russo fully focused on England after ‘tough’ summer of transfer talk

Google says it’s rolling out its AI-powered chatbot Bard across Europe and in Brazil, expanding its availability to hundreds of millions more users

New Hampshire is in open rebellion

Here's a breakdown of the top five settings to make your aim better in Apex Legends.

Elon Musk’s plan to build an “everything app” is underway. After rebranding Twitter to X, the tech billionaire encouraged users to rethink the “whole concept” of what the platform is. Before he even purchased Twitter in October 2022, Mr Musk said that buying the site was an “accelerant” to creating a super app akin to China’s WeChat, India’s PayTM and Indonesia’s GoJek. These apps offer users the ability to not just make posts, but also send and receive payments, watch and listen to content, and even access services like booking taxis or ordering food deliveries. Earlier this month, Mr Musk reportedly secured money-transmitting licenses in three US states, suggesting it is already preparing to become a payments business. Linda Yaccarino, who took over as the chief executive of Twitter last month, gave more details about what the new X app will become, tweeting on Sunday that the rebranding was part of the company’s goal to “transform the global town square” beyond a social network. “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” she tweeted. “For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfil our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.” X did not respond to a request for further information from The Independent about when such changes might take place. Shortly before his takeover of Twitter was complete, Mr Musk tweeted: “Twitter probably accelerates X by three to five years, but I could be wrong.” Mr Musk has had access to the X.com domain since 2000, during which time he was working on PayPal. Before rebranding Twitter, the website simply showed the letter ‘X’, but now redirects to Twitter.com. Earlier this year, Twitter changed its business name to X Corp to align with Mr Musk’s “everything app” vision, but social media experts have questioned whether such a concept could ever work outside of Asia. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” industry commentator Matt Navarra said at the time of Mr Musk’s takeover. “Super apps, as they are known in the industry, are not a new thing. They’ve been hugely successful in Asia, but have not really caught on elsewhere. Could Twitter form part of a super app that lets you buy goods, chat to friends, get news updates, book a taxi etc.? Sure. Can Elon Musk make it work? Possibly. Will Elon actually do it? Who knows. He seems to have commitment issues.” Others have raised concerns about whether ditching the Twitter brand and associated bird logo could further damage the platform’s reputation, which has been under heavy scrutiny since Mr Musk’s takeover last year. “By changing Twitter’s app name, Elon Musk will have single handedly wiped out over fifteen years of a brand name that has secured its place in our cultural lexicon,” Mike Proulx, a research director at advisory firm Forrester, told The Independent. “This is an extremely risky move because with ‘X,’ Musk is essentially starting over while its competition is afoot.” Read More Twitter rebrands to X as part of Elon Musk’s plan to create an ‘everything app’ Twitter no longer exists as a company Twitter rebrands to X as part of Elon Musk’s plan to create an ‘everything app’ DMs may come to Threads soon as app’s user base grows to one-fifth of Twitter’s Twitter in negative cash flow due to 50% drop in advertising revenue, says Elon Musk

I don’t know about you, but weekender bag content has had my TikTok algorithm in a chokehold lately. My FYP has been taken over by creators gushing over their favorite travel bag that help them dodge cabin luggage fees. Don’t get me wrong: these carryalls seem more or less adequate, but if you want my honest opinion? The majority of them don’t look very well made and are severely lacking in terms of appearance. There is one bag that does deserve the hype, however. Enter the Etronik Duffel Bag.

World champion Max Verstappen has given his support to rival Carlos Sainz after the Ferrari driver was hit with a ten-place grid penalty at...

The former treasurer of rapper Kanye West’s unsuccessful but still legally extant 2020 presidential campaign resigned on Monday, accusing right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannpopolus of committing potential campaign finance violations while working on the rapper’s White House bid last year. Patrick Krason, the campaign’s former treasurer, alleged in a pair of letters to the Federal Election Commission that Mr Yiannopoulos “submitted falsified invoices for expenditures that would be deemed unlawful” and committed a “potentially serious criminal transaction,” according to the documents, which were obtained by Politico. While working for the West campaign, Mr Yiannopoulos was paid nearly $10,000 in November for the “domain transfer” of a potential Kanye 2024 website, a purchase which he made using a credit card belonging to the campaign of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, in whose office Mr Yiannopoulos previously served as an intern, according to federal election filings reviewed by The Daily Beast. The Greene campaign reported an expenditure on a web hosting site the same day worth $7,020, according to the filings. Mr Yiannopoulos has denied any wrongdoing on behalf of either campaign, telling The Daily Beast a “junior staffer” working for him used the wrong credit card to make the purchase. “The truth is a junior staffer made an error with the stored credit cards on a third-party vendor GoDaddy account, picking the one ending 2032 instead of 2002,” he said in a statement to the outlet. “The accident was quickly rectified and the correct card charged. I have apologized privately to Marjorie for the mixup.” The Independent has contacted Rep Greene’s office for comment. In November, West said he had plans to run for president in 2024, though he hasn’t formally filed paperwork declaring his candidacy. The rapper has been largely quiet since the end of 2022, in which he made a series of highly antisemitic remarks and was dropped by major partners like Adidas. Mr Yiannopoulos was previously fired from the West campaign following the rapper’s infamous Mar-a-Lago dinner with Donald Trump and a Holocaust denier, but was rehired last week to serve as the campaign’s political director. Last month, a documentary filmmaker who had previously worked with West said the rapper and fashion designer wasn’t showing very much interest in his previously announced 2024 campaign for president. “I just want to be left alone,” the filmmaker reported the rapper as saying. Read More Adidas breakup with rapper Ye, lost Yeezy sales hit earnings Kim Kardashian tearfully discusses her silence throughout Kanye West’s ‘lies’ in new Kardashians trailer Milo Yiannopoulos fired from Kanye campaign

Amanda Davila was reportedly using her cell phone with both earbuds in her ears while she was supposed to be looking after children on the bus

Sunday's football transfer rumours include Jadon Sancho, Toni Kroos, Bruno Guimaraes, Scott McTominay, Andre Trindade, Jude Bellingham, Santiago Gimenez & more.

Kiki Rice scored 24 points and No. 2 UCLA held off No, 6 UConn 78-67 Friday in the Cayman Islands Classic