Ukraine war: Putin says Russia does not reject peace talks
Kyiv and Moscow have previously said they will not negotiate without certain preconditions.
2023-07-30 08:50
The Texas town caught in the middle of America's border battle
Eagle Pass is the front line in a showdown over migrants between Texas and the federal government.
2023-07-30 08:16
England confirm Keira Walsh injury in Women’s World Cup update
England midfielder Keira Walsh did not suffer an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Denmark but has been ruled out of the Lionesses’ final group match against China at the Women’s World Cup. Walsh was stretchered off in the Lionesses’ 1-0 win against Denmark and there were fears that the 26-year-old had become the latest star in women’s football to suffer an ACL injury that has ruled captain Leah Williamson and Beth Mead out of the tournament. The Barcelona midfielder was left on crutches after stretching for the ball and catching her studs on the turf, but a scan on Saturday afternoon revealed that the injury was not as bad as it first looked and there was no serious ligament damage. Walsh will be unavailable for the Lionesses when they face China on Tuesday but she will remain at England’s training base while her knee injury continues to be assessed, in a promising sign that she could feature in the knockout stages should Sarina Wiegman’s side progress from Group D. Georgia Stanway is expected to deputise for Walsh at the base of England’s midfield against China, while Laura Coombs, who replaced Walsh against Denmark, could come into the starting line-up. The Lionesses will advance to the knockout stages if they avoid defeat to the Asian champions. More follows Read More How ‘magic’ Lauren James can lead the new Lionesses at the Women’s World Cup England manager Sarina Wiegman reacts to ‘serious’ Keira Walsh injury As Sarina Wiegman solves one problem - a bigger one presents itself
2023-07-29 20:24
South Africa's Julius Malema celebrates 10 years of the EFF
Julius Malema divides opinion like few other politicians but he is celebrating his party's 10th anniversary.
2023-07-29 11:45
Ukraine war: Missile strikes residential building in Dnipro
The top floor of a residential tower block is almost completely destroyed in the strike.
2023-07-29 09:46
An Impressive Travel Laptop: Living With an HP Dragonfly G4
HP’s Dragonfly G4 is, as the name suggests, the fourth generation of a business laptop
2023-07-29 04:20
Niger military coup: What you need to know
After the elected president is overthrown, here’s why it matters for the region, Russia and the West.
2023-07-29 01:59
Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips eyes 2024 challenge to Biden
Moderate Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota has been receiving encouragement to consider challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and will travel to New York City next week to discuss the possibility with donors, Phillips confirmed to CNN.
2023-07-29 00:47
Trinity Rodman: The emerging USWNT talent with a famous NBA father
US Women’s National Team (USWNT) striker Trinity Rodman is seeking to introduce herself on the international stage in Australia and New Zealand after making swift progress at domestic level playing for Washington Spirit, scoring 13 goals in 47 appearances since making her debut in 2021. She will also be seeking to emerge from the long shadow cast by her famous father, Dennis Rodman, one of basketball’s greatest and most eccentric stars who was pivotal to the success of the “Bad Boy”-era Detroit Pistons and to Michael Jordan’s dominant Chicago Bulls team of the 1990s. The star has largely been a remote figure in his daughter’s life as she was raised by her mother Michelle Moyer but Rodman has said she learned the importance of being reactive from watching clips of his performances on the court. “Even if he wasn’t the first guy under the basket or he was next to Shaq [O’Neal], who was way bigger, way taller, he was going to get the rebound,” she said of her father recently. “It was timing, it was anticipation, it was body movement, it was positioning, it was everything. And I think he was so intelligent and I think people take that away. He was a freak of nature. He was an insane athlete, but at the end of the day, he, I think, was one of the smartest players at the time. He knew the game.” Hailing from Newport Beach, California, Rodman, now 21, began playing football at 10 for SoCal Blues, winning four national championships in the Elite Clubs National League before graduating high school and enrolling at Washington State University with the intention of playing for its college soccer side the Cougars, only for her time there to be completely derailed by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently turning professional and signing with Spirit in DC, she made her debut at 18 – scoring five minutes after coming on as a substitute – and has never looked back. Get all the latest Women’s World Cup odds here Rodman was named Rookie of the Year and US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year in 2021 and was nominated for the Ballon d’Or Feminin in 2022 and has since progressed with ease into the ranks of the all-conquering USWNT alongside such greats of the women’s game as Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. She threatens to be the breakout star of this World Cup. Read More FIFA Women’s World Cup fixtures and full schedule Women’s football world rankings: Who could take No 1 at the World Cup? Women’s World Cup TV schedule: How to watch every match today
2023-07-28 23:24
Alexandra Popp: Germany and Wolfsburg’s goal-scoring machine in profile
Captain of the German national team since 2019, Alexandra Popp has established herself as one of the stalwarts of the women’s game and the German national side since making her debut in 2010. A full-back-turned-forward, the 32-year-old will be carrying her nation’s hopes on her shoulders at the Women’s World Cup as she looks to avenge their heartbreaking defeat to England in Euro 2022 final last summer. Born in Witten, in western Germany, Popp began her fledgling football career as a student at Gesamtschule Berger Feld in Gelsenkirchen. The elite footballing school trains players for the men’s Bundesliga side, Schalke, with Popp the only female student to attend the school courtesy of a special permit. Having also played for mixed-gender teams at FC Silschede, Popp eventually got her first taste of senior football at Recklinghausen in the fourth tier of German football. Her stay there would last just one year with the then 17-year-old joining top-flight Duisburg in 2008 under the tutelage of the current national team manager, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. Popp would enjoy a hugely successful first season, winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League and German Cup with Duisburg. She would follow that up the following season by retaining the German Cup with the season culminating in Popp making her debut for the senior national team in 2010. After two further years, Popp transferred to Wolfsburg in 2012 where she remains today. Much like her debut season at Duisburg, Popp would hit the ground running at Wolfsburg with a famous treble-winning campaign that saw her side capture the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Frauen-Bundesliga and German Cup. Her career at Wolfsburg went from strength to strength as Popp guided her side to a successful defence of the UEFA Women’s Champions League and Frauen-Bundesliga in the 2013-14 season. Whilst her Wolfsburg side may not have tasted European glory since that 2014 season, they have been the dominant force in domestic German women’s football with her side winning the German Cup for nine-straight seasons while also winning the Frauen-Bundesliga on five occasions. For the national team, Popp has also been a stalwart since her debut in 2010, scoring 62 goals in 128 appearances. Despite missing the final through injury, Popp scored eight goals as Germany went on to retain the Euros in 2013. Get all the latest Women’s World Cup odds here Having lost in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup, the national side would go on to claim gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2019, Popp would become captain of the national side ahead of the World Cup where they fell to Sweeden in the quarter-finals. A heartbreaking injury in the warm-up for last year’s Euros finals prevented Popp from playing as England defeated Germany in extra time. Read More FIFA Women’s World Cup fixtures and full schedule Women’s football world rankings: Who could take No 1 at the World Cup? Germany and Alexandra Popp are out for revenge - the World Cup is the perfect chance
2023-07-28 23:19
Lucy Bronze: England and Barcelona’s legendary right-back in profile
Already one of the true legends of the women’s game, Lucy Bronze has been a regular for England since making her debut in 2013 and has played all across the park, although she is best known as a marauding right-back, overlapping Beth Mead in the Euros to often devastating effect. Born into a bilingual Portuguese-English family in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bronze, now 31, played for Alnwick Town until she turned 12, when FA regulations prevented her from continuing to play for the boys’ team, a matter about which her coach felt so strongly he launched an unsuccessful discrimination case to challenge the rules, reluctant to lose his best player to an outmoded technicality. A multi-talented athlete in secondary school, she played at youth level for Blyth Town and Sunderland, graduating to the latter’s senior squad and winning the FA Women’s Premier League Northern Division in 2008/09 before relocating to the US to enrol at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play for the Tar Heels, a path future LionessesAlessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy would later follow. Get all the latest Women’s World Cup odds here Returning to England to complete her sports science degree at Leeds Metropolitan University, playing for the institution’s women’s team while supporting herself by working at Domino’s Pizza, Bronze then commenced her senior career in earnest with Everton in 2010. After two years, she transferred to city rivals Liverpool where she won back-to-back Women’s Super Leagues, before moving to Manchester City in 2014, where she again won the title and the FA Cup in 2016. She then moved on to France to play for all-conquering Lyon in 2017, winning the Champions League, three successive league titles, two domestic cups and finishing second in the running for the 2019 Ballon d’Or before returning to City for further cup success. A final switch to Barcelona alongside long-time teammate Keira Walsh followed last summer and the Catalans duly won the title and Champions League in Bronze’s debut season. A hugely popular and respected member of the England set up with 105 caps to her name and counting, and an Instagram account for her West Highland Terrier Narla, it could all have been so different for Lucy Bronze. As the daughter of a maths teacher, she had reportedly planned to become an accountant had football not worked out. Read More How to watch England vs Haiti: TV channel and start time for Women’s World Cup opener Women’s football world rankings: Who could take No 1 at the World Cup? FIFA Women’s World Cup fixtures and full schedule
2023-07-28 22:57
As Sarina Wiegman solves one problem - a bigger one presents itself
You could say England rode their luck, except that’s only because it keeps going against them. It feels the fate of this entire campaign is that just as Sarina Wiegman solves one problem - in this case through the genius of Lauren James - a bigger one presents itself. The European champions, at last, looked exactly that as well as potential world champions as the England manager got her system right to secure this 1-0 win over Denmark, only to quickly lose their one irreplaceable player. It had such a huge effect, not least on poor Keira Walsh herself. Wiegman and the rest of England will now wait for news of what this injury is, as she clearly motioned to her knee. Until then, the question will weigh there over whether you can win a World Cup without Walsh, Leah Williamson and Beth Mead. Wiegman at least has the burgeoning James, who gave one of those vintage landmark performances a young talent does in winning a World Cup game with a moment of brilliance. Her early goal was sumptuous. It is surely almost certain now to put England into the last 16, as they otherwise battled to a second successive win. That isn’t to be overlooked but it’s been a grind so far. The other side to that is that this can be good for campaigns. It’s how Spain, as an example, got through the men’s World Cup in 2010. There can be that sense of a side just learning to graft through, to answer questions. The main issue, though, is that Wiegman possibly faces the biggest question of all. How many times can she keep refitting this team in the face of absences to keep it at champion level? Until there is actually confirmation of Walsh’s injury, it is almost futile to speculate, beyond the discussion of the facts. The 26-year-old immediately knew something was wrong, as she could be seen signaling that she had to come off as she motioned to her knee. It didn’t look good. The great frustration, that is almost always the case in these situations, was that it happened from something so innocuous. Walsh reached for a ball near the centre circle. That did point to one of the only weaknesses in England’s game up to that point. As against Haiti, they had been that bit looser at the back. The other frustration was that it had been the only issue with England up to then. They looked so much better than in that first match. The first 25 minutes were a hugely convincing period of football. There was obviously the benefit of finally having 90 minutes of competitive football to hone them, something that has been a factor in a lot of this World Cup. The better squads have felt the effects of not playing proper games for two months. There was more to it than that, though. With Wiegman going for the typically innovative move of putting the Women’s Super League top scorer at left-back, and with James on the left, there was so much more balance to the side. It looked like it fit again. In her more natural position, James knew exactly where to go, what areas to create real danger in. That was illustrated within minutes, as she got the ball just outside the box and curled the most divine strike around Lene Christensen. It was no less than England deserved. The mood was right. The approach was forceful. They looked a threat in every move forward. It seemed like a statement victory - like that which Spain, Germany and Brazil have offered - could be on. The only slight concern was how those issues remained at the back. There’s just that greater laxness. It didn’t help the confidence around this that Rikke Marie Madsen almost scored with Denmark’s first meaningful attack. The turn to create the chance was admittedly supreme, and it required something so mercurial to make it happen. It was more how fragile the lead seemed, as against Haiti. The mood soon changed entirely, as Walsh went down. It became a different game. Denmark sensed some opportunity. England just sought to get through it. This was entirely understandable. They’d lost their one tactically essentially player and felt her anguish. They’d lost their system. It asked a lot of the players. By the end, they were trudging through, Denmark doing all the running. One overlap produced the cross that almost undermined all of England’s efforts. The ball was flighted so invitingly for Amalie Vangsgaard, whose header bounced off the other side of the post. It was a let-off. It was also another test passed, if just about. It could be said England were lucky. The squad might point to everything else happening around them. They can also, almost certainly, point to a last-16 place top of the group. Read More England vs Denmark LIVE: Women’s World Cup latest score as Lauren James curls in Lionesses opener BBC pundit slams Women’s World Cup pitches after Keira Walsh injury – ‘It’s not good enough’ England lose the one player who is impossible to replace England manager Sarina Wiegman reacts to ‘serious’ Keira Walsh injury Why Keira Walsh is irreplaceable for England Bethany England: The Lionesses’ overlooked attacking threat in profile
2023-07-28 20:48