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Australia news live: Bunnings topples Woolworths as most trusted brand; autumn heatwave to scorch southern states
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Comparisons between 14 largely retired environmental protesters unfurling banners in Queensland’s parliament and the January 6 US Capitol riots are “odious”, one of the protesters has said. On Thursday, Queensland’s parliamentary ethics committee handed down its findings, which cleared Greens MP Michael Berkman of inciting or encouraging the Extinction Rebellion protest in November 2022, but described his conduct as “disgraceful”. Fourteen people aged between 24 and 88 face the possibility of jail, if convicted, over their brief but raucous protest in which demonstrators unfurled banners with anti-fossil fuel slogans from the public gallery of parliament, interrupting question time with chants of “end fossil fuels now” and “stop coal, stop gas” for about three minutes. In an interview with ABC Brisbane, Berkman later expressed shock at news the activists faced charges – not laid in more than 30 years – of disturbing the legislature during a protest. He said the charges were “a really scary indicator of where we are up to”, and later posted on social media that the protesters were “absolutely right”. Read more on this story from me and my colleague Eden Gillespie, here: Related: ‘Outrageous and disgusting’: Greens MP condemns comparison of Queensland climate protests to US capitol riots Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey fends off preselection challenge The results are in and the Nationals deputy leader, Perin Davey, has fended off a preselection challenge and will keep her Senate spot at the next election. The numbers are not confirmed as yet, but Davey came out on top, putting to bed the challenges surrounding her parliamentary career. Updated at Advocates call for ‘more than platitudes’ as Australian women faced with ‘impossible choice’ between domestic violence and homelessness Continuing from our last post: The report notes that lack of access to safe housing prevents many women from escaping violence and pushes women back to violent homes. Kate Colvin, CEO of Homelessness Australia, said: Thousands of Australian women are faced with an impossible choice - return to a violent home or confront homelessness. This is not a decision anyone should be forced to make, yet it’s happening more and more. Pathways to safe housing are the missing piece in the government’s response to family violence, but can be addressed in the new five-year national housing and homelessness agreement that will soon be released. This International Women’s Day it would be refreshing to see more than platitudes. We would like firm commitments to improve a desperate, parlous situation that puts the lives and safety of too many women and girls at risk. Updated at New report shows 45% of homeless women and girls seeking assistance are fleeing domestic and family violence A new report has revealed a growing crisis of women and children fleeing domestic and family violence into homelessness, prompting calls for an urgent funding package to provide pathways to safe housing. Homelessness Australia’s state of response report for International Women’s Day analyses Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data and found 45% of women and girls seeking homelessness assistance do so due to family and domestic violence. It finds that over the last decade: The number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car at the end of homelessness support more than doubled, from 1,041 to 2,428; and The number of women and children couch surfing at the end of support more than doubled from 3,465 to 7,214. In the past year alone, the number of women and children sleeping rough or in a car after receiving homelessness support increased by 23%. Updated at Following on from our last post, the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has posted this video on the mass coral bleaching occurring across the Great Barrier Reef: An important update about the Great Barrier Reef. pic.twitter.com/DHbl9u3h3h— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) March 8, 2024 Updated at Fifth mass coral bleaching event in eight years hits Great Barrier Reef, marine park authority confirms The Great Barrier Reef is in the grip of a mass coral bleaching event driven by global heating – the fifth in only eight years – the marine park’s government authority has confirmed. The authority, together with scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, have completed aerial surveys across 300 reefs over two thirds of the reef, with more to come. The authority said in an update: These surveys confirm a widespread, often called mass coral bleaching event, is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef. Read the full story below: Related: Fifth mass coral bleaching event in eight years hits Great Barrier Reef, marine park authority confirms Updated at Melbourne’s west yet to see promised public transport reform Tomorrow will be 1,000 days since Victoria’s bus plan was released, with advocates arguing little has been done to ensure Melbourne’s west has a fast, frequent and reliable bus service. In 2021, Victoria’s Labor government committed to a bus plan that promised to create a bus network to Victoria’s public transport needs and demands, including route reforms and improved accessibility and safety. The lack of frequent and direct bus routes has been particularly difficult for communities such as those in Wyndham in Melbourne’s west, advocates say. In Hoppers Crossing, for example, the average bus trip takes four times longer than the same journey by car. According to the government’s bus plan, 2023 was supposed to see the implementation of reforms to transform Victoria’s bus network to align it with growing demand. Sustainable Cities spokesperson Elyse Cunningham said: Victoria’s bus plan has no solid timeline, and no solid funding commitments. They’ve been sitting on this plan for 1,000 days, but the people of Melbourne’s west are still stuck waiting for better buses, and taking hours to get to uni, work or the shops. In a cost-of-living crisis, families in the west are spending hundreds of dollars more on petrol just to get where they need to go. Updated at Full review to come into accidental release of inmate from correctional facility, NSW premier says The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has commented on reports from earlier this morning that a man was accidentally released from a correctional facility yesterday, and located in a Bondi hotel this morning. Minns told reporters in Sydney that there would be a full review to determine what went wrong: There’s over 12,000 inmates across Corrective Services in the state ... when you put it against the mid-90s when there was over 100 inmate escapes or accidental releases per year, it’s well down. But any inmate that’s released accidentally or earlier than they should be, is a major concern for Corrective Services and we want to make sure we get it right. Earlier, Corrective Services said the man was released from Long Bay correctional complex due to an “administration error following a court appearance”, which is now being investigated. - with AAP Updated at NSW veterans minister says Jack Fitzgibbon’s death at RAAF base a ‘tragedy’ New South Wales’ veterans minister, David Harris, has released a statement on the death of soldier Jack Fitzgibbon in a parachuting incident. Related: Soldier Jack Fitzgibbon dies after parachute incident during training at RAAF base in Richmond Harris wrote: This is a tragedy. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult time and extend our deepest condolences. Our thoughts are also with those who served alongside Lance Corporal Fitzgibbon – his friends and colleagues in uniform – and the broader defence community. His service and sacrifice on behalf of our nation will not be forgotten. Updated at Good morning from Canberra As you read this, the Nationals deputy leader, Senator Perin Davey, is fighting for her political survival as the NSW branch decides its senate ticket positions. Davey is fighting off a very strong preselection challenge from federal secretary Juliana McArthur and academic and agricultural physicist professor David Lamb. Davey recently came under fire for appearing to slur her words during a senate estimates hearing. While she admitted to having two wines before the evening hearing, she said a medical incident five years earlier was to blame. We expect to hear the result very soon. Insurance claim tally nears 20,000 after Victoria thunderstorms Nearly 20,000 insurance claims have been lodged following the severe thunderstorms that lashed Victoria last month. In February, intense rain hit Melbourne’s outer suburbs, causing flash flooding and fallen trees, all while bushfires were still burning. During the storms two transmission towers collapsed and about 500,000 lost power. The Insurance Council of Australia says claims for the storm have risen to 19,932. About 85% of claims are related to homes and contents damages. About 9,170 claims for damaged contents have been lodged, totalling $10m. Nearly 30% are already closed. The estimated cost of the storm has reached $104m, the ICA said. CEO Andrew Hall: These storms caused extensive damage across Victoria and show us just how quickly and unexpectedly extreme weather events can occur. The significant number of claims reflects the severity of the event, and insurers are working hard to support customers affected by this event. Updated at Hot weather ahead for Melbourne and Adelaide Speaking of sweltering weather: Melbourne is in for a very hot weekend, with temperatures in the high 30s forecast until Monday. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the city is forecast to hit a maximum of 39C on Saturday, 38C on Sunday and 38C on Monday – before dropping down to a max of 26C on Tuesday. Yesterday, the Bureau issued a heatwave warning for much of Victoria this weekend, and said: Severe heatwave conditions are expected to peak across the long weekend with a prolonged run of heat. The expected passage of a trough on Tuesday should bring relief from the south. Melbourne is included in the warning, and other locations likely to be affected include Ararat, Ballarat, Edenhope, Hamilton, Leongatha, Melton, Moe, Mallacoota, Traralgon and Warragul. Meanwhile, Adelaide is forecast to hit a maximum of 40C on Saturday, with temperatures remaining above 30 for much of next week. The city has a maximum forecast of 38C on Sunday, followed by 38C on Monday and 34C on Tuesday. A heatwave warning has also been issued for southeast parts of the state, including Adelaide. Like with Victoria, a trough on Tuesday is expected to bring some relief. As well as Adelaide, the following locations across South Australia are set to be affected by the heatwave: Kingscote, Maitland, Mount Gambier, Mount Barker, Murray Bridge, Narracoorte, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie and the Barossa Valley. Updated at Victoria urged to add cooling and insulation to minimum rental standards NGO Sweltering Cities, along with 50 doctors and health organisations across Victoria, are calling on the government to follow through on its commitment to putting cooling in the minimum rental standards. Sweltering Cities executive director Emma Bacon has said: In just a few weeks, the government will begin its public consultations on updating the rental minimum standards with cooling and insulation. We need to ensure that the standards are fit for purpose in reducing the risk of heat related health impacts for renters. Heatwaves kill more Australians than all other environmental disasters combined. Renters are more likely to live in homes with no insulation or air con, so are at higher risk of heat related illness on hot days and during heatwaves. As we face increasingly hotter summers, the Victorian Government has the opportunity to make a real difference for residents across Victoria who are baking in dangerously hot homes. Updated at We flagged earlier that it is the ten-year anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. For the full story on this, including Australia’s offer of support for a renewed search, Elias Visontay has you covered: Related: MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary Updated at ‘It’s shifted remarkably’: Wong hopeful on more women in politics The foreign minister, Penny Wong – who became Australia’s longest-serving female cabinet minister on Wednesday – says while there has been progress on the number of women in senior positions, there is still a long way to go. Marking International Women’s Day, Wong said there had been significant change to how women have been treated in politics since she first entered the Senate in 2002. She told Adelaide radio station 5AA: It’s shifted remarkably, actually … it does make a difference when you have this many women in a cabinet. There are many more women on both sides of politics, there are many more women in senior positions and I think that has changed things. We’ve still got some way to go, but it’s certainly better than it was. Wong said she remained optimistic about the next generation of women wanting to enter politics: Girls these days and younger women these days have a sense of their right to aspire to whatever they wish to be and to do, and they are not willing to accept some of the barriers and prejudices. Young women are that empowered, and it’s wonderful to see. I mean, they are fearless. Does the world enable that? Not as fully as we want, but I think we’re well down the path, and I’m very hopeful about the next generation of feminists and young women. – from AAP Updated at PM posts to social media celebrating Australian government ‘where women are the majority’ In a post to social media for International Women’s Day, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he is “proud to lead a government that is over 50% women”. It’s the first time Australia has had a government where women are the majority. I’m so proud to lead a government that is over 50% women.It’s the first time Australia has had a government where women are the majority. And with more women at the table, we’re delivering for women across the country. pic.twitter.com/y40DJrHFsV— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 7, 2024 Albanese wrote that on IWD, “we reaffirm our commitment to gender equality and look for new ways to do better.” Updated at Driver charged after interstate truck pursuit from Queensland to NSW A man has been charged after a truck was pursued across state borders from Queensland to New South Wales, allegedly hitting two police vehicles en route, before it was stopped near Moree overnight. Officers in NSW were alerted by Queensland police around 6pm yesterday that a table-top truck, allegedly laden with a stolen bobcat, had crossed the border at Boggabilla and was travelling along the Newell highway. NSW police were told the truck had been followed by Queensland police and a 27-year-old senior constable had sustained minor injuries when his vehicle was allegedly rammed at Millmerran. Police attempted to intercept the truck 100km north of Moree but will allege the driver ignored directions and continued south, “frequently crossing to the incorrect side of the highway”, a statement said. A pursuit was initiated and road spikes were deployed north of Moree. One front tyre deflated on the truck, but the driver continued south. A fully marked police caged-truck, positioned to block northbound traffic as a precaution, was also clipped by the truck, police said. The truck continued and later hit a power pole, dislodging the bobcat and bringing powerlines down. But the truck drove from the scene. The truck eventually stopped 30km south of Moree, “with the front nearside wheel ground down to the steel hub”. Police arrested the alleged driver, a 24-year-old man from Quirindi. He was taken from Moree district hospital for assessment and mandatory testing before being transferred to Moree police station. He was charged with using an offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention, driving while licence cancelled, receiving property stolen outside NSW, negligent and predatory driving, and driving recklessly/furiously or speed/manner dangerous. He has been refused bail to appear at Inverell local court today. Updated at Bill Shorten says he will not ‘pile in’ on Sam Kerr case Bill Shorten was asked about Sam Kerr while on the Today Show earlier, who has dominated headlines this week. According to sources with knowledge of the case, Kerr allegedly called a UK police officer “a stupid white bastard” during a dispute over a taxi fare in southwest London on 30 January last year. She is set to face trial in the UK over the alleged comment, but according to reports, her legal team is planning to have the charge downgraded or dismissed at an April hearing. Shorten said he isn’t going to “pile in and be judge, jury” when Kerr has said she’s not guilty: I’m just going to let her case take its way through. I’m not going to join in on that. But the case, it appears, has brought up some memories for Shorten he would rather forget: There’s one [sledge I’ve had] which I still remember. I was going for a jog; I was going for a jog on a country road. And this old digger, you know, he would have seen his 90th birthday already. And I’m running along, not Chariots of Fire speed, but nonetheless. And he rolls down the window. He rolls down the window and says, “and you can’t even effing run either!” Anyway, I just want to say, that bloke, I’ve never forgotten you. Updated at Simon Birmingham says MH370 disappearance investigation should be renewed The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, said a renewed commitment is needed for investigation efforts into missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, on the ten-year anniversary since its disappearance. As Daniel Hurst reported yesterday, the Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he was “inclined to support” the reopening of an investigation into the missing flight, while speaking in Canberra. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said Australia is supportive of any renewed efforts to find MH370, according to AAP. Writing on X today, Birmingham said: 10 years since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The memory of those lost remains vivid. We honour the 239 passengers, including 6 Australians who boarded that fateful flight. As we pause to remember, let’s renew our commitment to the pursuit of truth, the families who continue to seek answers, & the tireless efforts of search & investigation teams worldwide. Updated at Cranbrook principal Nicholas Sampson resigns The headteacher of the prestigious Cranbrook school in Sydney has resigned after it emerged he had known that a current Cranbrook teacher had engaged in “extremely concerning past conduct” while at a previous school and kept him in his position. An emergency meeting of the school council was held yesterday to investigate Nicholas Sampson’s response to the incident. Geoff Lovell, the president of the school council, wrote in an email to parents at the school: The circumstances of the matter and subsequently Mr Sampson’s failure to disclose the matter to the current school council … have led to an irrevocable breakdown of trust between the headmaster and the school council. The school council communicated this to Mr Sampson and this morning received his resignation. Updated at Opposition leader Peter Dutton has also paid tribute to soldier Jack Fitzgibbon. Speaking on the Today Show, Dutton noted that Jack’s parents – former Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon and his wife, Diane – would be “devastated beyond words”, and that the regiment “will be heartbroken”. Dutton said he had texted Joel yesterday, and has also reached out to defence minister Richard Marles. He’ll be feeling it not only as a friend and … former colleague of Joel’s, but also as defence minister. You feel each one of those incidents and you have a special burden that you carry as defence minister, and Richard will certainly be feeling that. Dutton was defence minister from March 2021-May 2022. Updated at Rishworth pays tribute to son of former MP who died in RAAF base incident Amanda Rishworth paid tribute to soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who died in a parachuting incident. She said the incident is “hitting home really hard”. My thoughts are with Joel and his family and also all those in the ADF. A training incident such as this would have huge reverberations through those colleagues that perhaps were first responders and those that were around him. So, it’s absolutely tragic news and a reminder that serving in the defence force comes with risk. And I’d just like to acknowledge Jack’s service to our country and really, though, mainly today, is my thoughts are with his grieving family, which is an absolute tragedy. Updated at Government has employed 17 full-time equivalent frontline domestic violence workers out of promised 500, Rishworth says Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Amanda Rishworth was asked about claims from the Coalition the government has only employed two of the promised 500 frontline domestic violence workers it promised in 2021. She said the government has 17 full-time equivalent workers on board, but “we do need to work hard” to employ more workers. She added that the states and territories have received two funding payments towards this and the government is working with them to recruit staff. But I am disappointed that Sussan Ley has turned this into a political football. Of course, if they had been re-elected, we wouldn’t have seen any money for national partnerships, any money for these workers. We put the money in our budget and we’re working with the states and territories through paying them to employ these workers and get these workers on the ground. Updated at ‘Still a lot to do’ on gender equality, social services minister says after status of women report card released The minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier today, discussing the release of the second annual status of women report card. This was released yesterday, in time for International Women’s Day, today. Host Michael Rowland noted that Australia is now ranked 26 globally for gender equality, compared to 43rd in last year’s report, and that 26% of women recently reported experiencing sexual harassment at work. Rishworth responded “there is a lot still to do” to ensure not only economic equality for women, but also that they feel safe in our society. Speaking on violence against women, Rishworth said one area the government is focused on is holding perpetrators to account. That’s something that victim-survivors have said they want us to hear, changing the attitudes of men and boys, but also making sure that perpetrators are held to account for their behaviour. Men that choose violence do get held to account, so there is a lot of work going into that. One of the biggest challenges in addressing attitudes towards women is online influences, Rishworth said. There are many online influences that are encouraging negative stereotypes towards women and encouraging violence against women, people like Andrew Tate. And so we need to be tackling that with alternative, healthy role models so that we do not see that the progress we’ve made in terms of the attitude toward violence against women actually go backwards in the next generation. Updated at Bunnings replaces Woolworths as Australia’s most trusted brand Bunnings has overtaken Woolworths as Australia’s most trusted brand, breaking the supermarket’s three-and-a-half year stronghold, according to new research from Roy Morgan. Bunnings lost its title as Australia’s most trusted brand to Woolworths in May 2020, but since October 2022 has shown a strong recovery. Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine, said Bunnings is a brand with “a vast reservoir of goodwill” and its reputational strength is fed by “dramatically more trust than distrust”. The research found that Australians’ distrust in companies has grown over the past year, with reasons including “corporate greed, poor customer service, unaffordable prices, dishonesty, unethical practices, and poor privacy practices”. Both major supermarkets fell in the latest rankings: Woolworths slipping one place to second, and Coles slipping two places to fifth. Aldi (third), Kmart (fourth) and Bunnings (first) each rose by one place. Apple came in at sixth, followed by Toyota, Myer, Big W and Australia Post consecutively. Australia’s top five most distrusted brands were Optus, followed by Facebook/Meta, Qantas, Telstra and News Corp, according to the research. This was followed by Medibank in sixth, then Amazon, TikTok, Twitter/X and Nestlé. Updated at Arrest of man in relation to Samantha Murphy’s death has brought some ‘closure’, Ballarat mayor says Ballarat mayor Des Hudson says the arrest of a 22-year-old man in relation to the death of missing woman Samantha Murphy has brought some closure to the community. Related: Samantha Murphy: Victoria police allege man murdered Ballarat woman in ‘deliberate attack’ Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Hudson said there has been “many questions” and an outpouring of community concern over the past month about what happened to Murphy, who “set off for an early morning run on Sunday morning, and then just didn’t come home to her family”: I think the fact that Sam was a mum, had young kids, or young teenagers, and just disappeared without any trace, it really sparked the emotion of our community and communities from everywhere … Samantha will never come home to her family [and] they will never have a beautiful mother, a beautiful wife to be with them as [they] go forward. Hudson said that rumour-mongering and “speculation” has been “hurtful” for those involved, urging people to allow the investigation to “follow through to its natural conclusion”. Hopefully in that we will get the answers to what happened to Samantha Murphy. Updated at MH370 mystery endures a decade after disappearance Australia is supportive of any efforts to find the missing flight MH370, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said. A decade on from the disappearance of flight MH370, families and loved ones of its 239 passengers are no closer to finding answers. The Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014 on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Six Australian citizens and one New Zealand resident of Western Australia were on board. Australia’s sympathies remained with the families and loved ones, Wong said. We recognise their ongoing heartache and grief without the answers they seek. As Daniel Hurst reported yesterday, the Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he was “inclined to support” the reopening of an investigation into the missing flight, while speaking in Canberra. Australia was ready to assist the Malaysian government, Wong said: While the searches have not been successful, and families continue to endure such heartache, the effort to find MH370 demonstrates the close cooperation between our countries through difficult times. The Australian government is supportive of all practical efforts to find MH370. – with AAP Updated at Man located at Bondi hotel after accidentally being released from correctional complex A man who was accidentally released from a New South Wales correctional facility has been located in a Bondi hotel this morning. Police said in a statement that the 30-year-old man was seen leaving the facility in Matraville about 1pm yesterday. Police located the man at a hotel in Bondi around 6am this morning. He has been taking to Waverley police station and “arrangements are being conducted to return him to the correctional facility”, police said. Corrective Services NSW said the man was released from Long Bay correctional complex due to an “administration error following a court appearance”, which is now being investigated. Updated at Scooter rider dies in crash in Sydney A scooter rider has died following a crash at North Ryde in Sydney this morning. New South Wales police said that just after 5am, emergency services were called to an intersection in North Ryde after reports of a crash involving a car and a motorised scooter. The rider – who is yet to be formally identified – was treated by paramedics who performed CPR, but died at the scene. The male driver was taken to Ryde hospital to undergo mandatory testing. Officers established a crime scene and an investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the crash. Updated at Ten-year-old girl leaves ICU after car crash on the way to Taylor Swift concert The 10-year-old girl who went into a coma following a horror crash on her way to see Taylor Swift has left the intensive care ward. Freya Pokarier suffered serious injuries when the SUV her mum was driving collided with a semi-trailer, suffering brain injuries, a damaged pelvis and broken leg. The crash occurred while the family was driving from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for the first night of the Eras tour. Her 16-year-old sister Mieka died at the scene and the mother has since been discharged from hospital. Karleigh Fox, Mieka’s godmother, began a GoFundMe page for the family. An update, penned by Freya’s mum yesterday, says that Freya has left the ICU and has moved to a rehabilitation ward: We are yet to see her beautiful eyes open, however, she has shown some really positive signs that she may be hearing her loved ones. She said things are progressing “one day at a time”, but any movements are “exciting and bring hopes of progress”. Updated at ‘Not everybody is aligned to the FCAI’s narrative’: Polestar spokesperson says other industry players could ‘take a stand’ Polestar spokesperson Laurissa Mirabelli said the company had not had any conversations with the FCAI after suggesting they were poised to quit. I think it’s a given, given Tesla’s move yesterday. I haven’t received any calls from the peak body either. I think that they are also just waiting for our response and for us to take the next … move from here. And does Polestar expect more companies will leave the FCAI? Mirabelli: I don’t know how that will land. I thought that perhaps it would only be the electric vehicle companies that would take a bit of a stand but I understand that there’s other industry bodies or industry players who are still assessing their own position because obviously, not everybody is aligned to the FCAI’s current narrative … There are some companies that are going to be able to meet these standards, and we can see that there are companies, even those that are suggesting that they can’t meet the standards, who are meeting them elsewhere in the world. Updated at Vehicle emissions standard would not be ‘that far from business as usual’: Polestar The FCAI said it had encouraged successive governments to introduce an efficiency standard for more than a decade, but not the kind that the government has proposed. If the government was to adopt the standards as proposed by the FCAI, Mirabelli said this would not be “that far from business as usual”. Mirabelli noted the transport sector is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and is “on track to become the largest” – with passenger cars and light commercial vehicles accounting for 60% of this. So we have to address it. There are health issues, there are cost issues … There are other things to consider here, not just what importers want to do. We don’t have a local manufacturing industry any more, we’re not protecting anybody. We have to determine, you know, what kind of cars are we letting into this country and what’s best for Australians? Updated at Polestar says proposed standard about ‘cap on emissions’ for fleets, not ‘cherrypicking’ Q: So you don’t think that some of Australia’s most popular cars will see price increases under the proposed vehicle efficiency standard? Polestar spokesperson Laurissa Mirabelli: Well, I think it’s a different thing. It’s about a cap on the overall emissions of the brand’s entire fleet, it’s not about cherrypicking different products within a lineup and saying, well, that car is going to increase by x [amount]. The idea is that you’re trying to find balance, you’re trying to determine, you know, of your high emitting vehicles, are they over or are they under the target? And of your low emitting vehicles, how does that all balance? So it’s not about one car or another, it’s looking at the entire fleet. Updated at Polestar may join Tesla in quitting auto lobby FCAI over ‘false’ claims about vehicle emissions standard Automotive manufacturer Polestar says it is “poised to leave” Australia’s main auto industry lobby group, one day after Tesla quit. Yesterday, Tesla announced it was quitting the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), asking the consumer watchdog to investigate what it says are the organisation’s “demonstrably false claims” about the impact of the Albanese government’s clean car policy. You can read the full details from Adam Morton below: Related: Tesla quits major Australian auto lobby over its ‘false claims’ about government’s clean car policy Laurissa Mirabelli, a spokesperson for Polestar, told ABC radio today that the FCAI’s campaign against the government’s proposed vehicle efficiency standard “really doesn’t represent our position” on the shift to electric, and that the campaign has done “serious damage to consumer perception and trust”. Polestar is currently a member of the FCAI. Mirabelli said that when you look overseas, the price increase that FCAI has been touting just has not been seen. There’s no reason why Australia wouldn’t be able to introduce cost effective solutions to meet this standard, and closer to home, the Grattan Institute has actually said that they don’t think the prices will increase more than average of 1% and that even if that happens, the lower fuel and maintenance costs are really going to make consumers better off in the long term. Updated at Good morning, and happy Friday. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be bringing you our live coverage today. See something that needs attention? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s get started. Updated at State funeral to be held for Lowitja O’Donoghue in Adelaide Hundreds of mourners are expected to mark the loss of Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue at a state funeral in Adelaide today, AAP reports. The Yankunytjatjara woman, who played a key role in the 1967 referendum, lobbied the Keating government to recognise Indigenous land ownership through native title laws and advised on the apology to the stolen generation, will be remembered at a ceremony at St Peter’s Cathedral. She died on 4 February aged 91 on Kaurna Country in Adelaide with her immediate family by her side. She gained prominence after becoming the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at Royal Adelaide hospital in 1954. After being denied the opportunity because of her Indigenous heritage, she successfully lobbied then-premier Thomas Playford to win her right to admission, setting her on a lifelong path of fighting for equality. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described her as one of the most remarkable leaders the country had known. O’Donoghue became the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990. One of her greatest achievements was lobbying the Keating government to recognise Aboriginal land ownership through the Native Title Act. The non-profit Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation was set up in 2022 to continue her legacy. Her family has asked mourners to donate to the foundation in lieu of flowers. Updated at Could the Coalition make nuclear power work? We’ve already mentioned our piece today looking at some of the problems that might stand in the way of the Liberals’ new policy of building nuclear power stations in Australia. You can read environment writer Graham Readfearn’s full piece here: Related: The Coalition wants nuclear power. Could it work – or would it be an economic and logistical disaster? And the wider issue of what policies the Liberals will actually run on is the issue tackled in today’s Newsroom edition of the Full Story podcast. Gabrielle Jackson talks with head of newsroom Mike Ticher and national news editor Patrick Keneally about how the Dunkley byelection exposed the problem. Listen here: Related: Newsroom edition: the Liberal party’s policy problem - podcast Welcome Good morning and welcome to our end-of-week news blog. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best of the overnight stories before my colleague Emily Wind gets into the main business. One of the big stories of the day will be the court hearing in Sydney where the company at the centre of the investigation into contaminated mulch will try to have an order preventing it from making mulch products quashed. In documents lodged with the court, the parent company of Greenlife Resource Recovery will point out today that the NSW environment court cannot be certain that the contamination took place at its facilities, and complain about the order’s “unjustified impact” on its business. The Coalition appears set to commit itself to a policy of building nuclear reactors across Australia to replace ageing coal-fire generators. But is it practical? Graham Readfearn assesses the challenge. The identity of the 22-year-old man charged with the murder of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy could be revealed today as the search continues for her body. The Scotsburn man appeared in Ballarat magistrates court on Thursday but his name was concealed because his lawyer argued releasing the name could cause prejudice to the man’s right to a fair trial. That will be challenged at hearing at the court today, AAP reports. We’ll have all the details as the story develops. And hundreds of mourners are expected at St Peter’s Cathedral in Adelaide today for the state funeral of Aboriginal rights trailblazer Lowitja O’Donoghue. More on that coming up.
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New Zealand v Australia: second Test, day one – live
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WICKET! Williamson lbw b Hazlewood 17 (New Zealand 84-5) Blundell uses a delightfully retro old Kookaburra. It could be the Ridgeback or maybe even the Bubble. Childhood memories of Alec Stewart twirling away with that between deliveries in the 90s. Blundell gets a lesser spotted single to rotate the strike. Hold on… could be a HUGE wicket here! Hazelwood jags one back into Williamson and it pins the bearded one right in front. Umpire Nitin Menon raises the finger! Has he hit it? Williamson sends it upstairs but does not look confident. Sure enough there is no edge and four reds – OUT! Hazelwood snares Kane Williamson! A clinic from Josh Hazlewood#NZvAUS— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) March 8, 2024 31st over: New Zealand 83-4 (Williamson 17, Blundell 0) Cummins is too short once again to Williamson. He’s too good a player to miss out when runs are few and far between. Cut for four. Cummins readjusts and sends down four dots at box height. Williamson plays late with soft hands to see out the over. 30th over: New Zealand 79-4 (Williamson 13, Blundell 0) Hazlewood has been sublime today. He has 3-18 from ten overs. I don’t think I can recall a bad ball (Unless I was distracted by my Walnut Whip binge…) Tom Blundell is the new batter. New Zealand need a partnership. WICKET! Mitchell c Carey b Hazlewood 4 (New Zealand 79-4) Daryl Mitchell off the mark with a doozy. Hazlewood is driven on the up down the ground for four. What a response! Hazelwood brings his length back a touch and the ball climbs and moves away late on Mitchell who follows it and gets a thin edge through to Carey. Corker of a ball to get early in your innings, Mitchell knows as much, a rueful glance over to Williamson as he departs. 29th over: New Zealand 75-3 (Williamson 13, Mitchell 0) Cummins drops short and Williamson doesn’t miss out – a cut shot has enough legs on it to just beat a chasing Nathan Lyon to the boundary rope. 28th over: New Zealand 71-3 (Williamson 9, Mitchell 0) Hazlewood lands it on a pocket square outside off stump. Mitchell is up to it, positive in footwork and solid in defence. Another maiden. Frugal start to the session. Ian Smith wasn't happy with Rachin Ravindra's dismissal in the last over before Lunch.@imarAust #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/lCw9oEFd3R— SEN Cricket (@SEN_Cricket) March 8, 2024 27th over: New Zealand 71-3 (Williamson 9, Mitchell 0) Cummins to start from the other end, bowling to Kane Williamson. Two titans of the modern game going head to head. A tussle ensues. Cummins is full and in the channel on off stump. Williamson is solid in defence. After six balls they call it a truce. A maiden. 26th over: New Zealand 71-3 (Williamson 9, Mitchell 0) Hazlewood to Mitchell, first ball of the session. Beats him with a beauty. Starting as he left off, just outside off stump with a hint of away movement. Josh Hazelwood has four balls to finish in his over after snaffling Ravindra on the stroke of lunch. Let’s play! Looks a beautiful day in Christchurch. Afternoon session about to begin. Kane Williamson and Daryl Mitchell will beat the crease for the Kiwis and they are going to have to have a scrap on. Spectators in Christchurch are permitted to stand right on the edge of the wicket square during the lunch break and get a fantastic view of the pitch. Junior cricket is also played on the outfield on most weekends.They do things differently (better) in New Zealand!#NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/VkvWx9TfaH— 🏏Flashscore Cricket Commentators (@FlashCric) March 8, 2024 I really enjoyed Tanya’s piece on day one in Dharamshala. You will too: Related: England chug along before masterly Kuldeep makes the wheels fall off | Tanya Aldred Lunch: New Zealand 71-3 Josh Hazlewood the pick of the bowlers, he has 2-14 off 7.2 overs. The visitors will enjoy their sustenance that bit more. New Zealand safely negotiated the first hour but as is often the case, the Aussie bowling line up found a way. WICKET! Ravindra c Khawaja b Hazlewood 4 (New Zealand 71-3) Loosey Goosey! Ravindra falls in the final over of the session! A really loose drive to a wide and full Hazlewood delivery sees him nick to the safe hands of Khawaja at 1st slip. Ravindra is livid with himself, as well he might be. A poor shot. Australia follow him off the field – the final act of the session complete. Updated at 25th over: New Zealand 71-2 (Williamson 9, Ravindra 4) A patient Williamson waits for Starc to stray too straight and picks him off the pads through midwicket for three. Ravindra gets a meaty edge wide of point and the batters scamper another three. 24th over: New Zealand 65-2 (Williamson 6, Ravindra 1) A nervous looking Ravindra gets off the mark with a flick off his pads to fine leg. Sun beating down in Christchurch now. Williamson hangs back in the crease and turns his wrists on a length ball into the on side. One more to the total. 23rd over: New Zealand 63-2 (Williamson 5, Ravindra 0) Williamson gets on the front foot and drives Starc away for a couple through the covers. Ten minutes or so til lunch, Australia will be very happy with their morning’s graft if they winkle another out before then. 22nd over: New Zealand 61-2 (Williamson 3, Ravindra 0) Gut punch for Tom Latham who looked so good this morning. Hazlewood got a ball to just straighten enough and it really was the thinnest scratch on the bat. Top bowling, Latham didn’t do much wrong. Rachin Ravindra is the new bat. He’s such an exciting talent. Don’t do that though! A flat footed waft outside off nearly sees him perish off Hazlewood’s final ball. WICKET! Latham c Carey b Hazlewood 38 (New Zealand 61-2) Tiny feather of an edge through to Carey and Latham has to go! Updated at 21st over: New Zealand 61-1 (Latham 38, Williamson 3) Shot! Tom Latham drives Starc away handsomely through the covers for four. That boundary takes Latham to sixth place on the all time Test run scorers list for New Zealand. The man at number one is stood at the non-strikers end. Four more! A thick but controlled edge from Latham runs away wide of gully. 20th over: New Zealand 52-1 (Latham 29, Williamson 3) Latham drops and runs into the covers to bring Williamson on strike. Oooft! Marsh beats him with a full ball that nibbles past the edge. Goes full again and Williamson drives away in compact fashion to pick up three runs. Fifty up for New Zealand. 19th over: New Zealand 47-1 (Latham 27, Williamson 0) In walks Kane Williamson in his 100th Test match. The Hagley Oval rings with applause. Half an hour until lunch, crucial passage in this match coming right up. WICKET! Young c Marsh b Starc 14 (New Zealand 47-1) Young gets a leading edge off Starc and it is a great grab from Mitch Marsh at third slip! Updated at 18th over: New Zealand 47-0 (Latham 27, Young 14) Mitch Marsh find his radar and joins the dots. A maiden. This just made me laugh. Cameron Ponsonby is well worth a follow or whatever it is you do these days? A fine writer and budding broadcaster. Decent left-footed five-a-side footballer too. Engine. All left-arm wrist spinners are moronspic.twitter.com/Qa7T5HiDj9— Cameron Ponsonby (@cameronponsonby) March 7, 2024 17th over: New Zealand 47-0 (Latham 27, Young 14) Mitch Starc comes back into the attack and whangs down a wild ball that soars away over Carey and away for five wides. 16th over: New Zealand 41-0 (Latham 26, Young 14) Will Young tucks in! Mitchell Marsh is into the attack and he serves up a short and wide loosener that Young pounces on. The batter stands tall and punches from his tippy toes away through point for four. There's something wonderfully relaxing about Tests in NZ @Jimbo_Cricket. I think it's the level of cooperation on show: hard, but fair cricket with more smiles than snarls; crowds trusted to find their own space on the banks; and respectful applause for friends and foes alike.— Gary Naylor 85 (@garynaylor85) March 7, 2024 Updated at 15th over: New Zealand 36-0 (Latham 26, Young 10) Cummins would have wanted at least one wicket in the first hour after winning the toss and sticking the Kiwis in. Latham has looked good whilst Young has been becalmed and had that let off from Travis Head at short leg. This pitch is a belter. I think Pat may have misread it badly when electing to bowl first. #NZvAUS— Sulli (@SulliAU) March 7, 2024 Will you tell him or should I? 14th over: New Zealand 35-0 (Latham 26, Young 9) Young clips Lyon away for a single and that’s the sole action of the over. Time for a walnut whip Drink! I meant a drink. 13th over: New Zealand 34-0 (Latham 26, Young 8) Cummins continues, stitches together a maiden. A quiet first hour at the Hagley but the home side will be happy with their work. Updated at 12th over: New Zealand 34-0 (Latham 26, Young 8) Nathan Lyon on for an early twirl. I hate to use the phrase but that feels like a moral victory for the Kiwis. Indeed, this is the earliest a spinner has ever been deployed at the Hagley Oval. Latham greets him with a paddle for four. Fran in Stroud sends a lovely, wistful message along the wires: “For some reason, matches at the Hagley Oval always make me think of England’s match there in late March 2018. Jack Leach’s debut, and a Bairstow 100, but otherwise not an especially memorable match I don’t think. Usually, following a Test match in Australasia implies freezing December nights at home while the Ashes is played out in baking heat. But this was very different. Spring was in full flow in the UK and our cricket season itself just round the corner. Listening to the commentary on TMS from Christchurch was dreamy as they described the beautiful parkland setting and the cool of the New Zealand autumn just coming in. The vision of it just stayed with me somehow. From memory, the start of play was at three different times in the UK through the course of the Test, as they left their daylight savings time and then we went into BST over the weekend. It feels like such a treat to still have Test cricket going on, with this series and the series in India. Even though I don’t have the stamina to follow coverage through the night. It’s my favourite sporting thing, and I wonder how much longer we’ll have it for. Thanks for your OBO. Have a good one!” 11th over: New Zealand 29-0 (Latham 21, Young 8) Cummins to Young. A single eked behind square. Latham has looked much the more in form of the two openers and he rolls his wrists on a controlled pull shot to pick up three into the leg side. DROP! Travis Head spills Young at short leg, it was a diving chance but Head got a good hand on it and it slipped out of his grasp and onto the turf. A let off for Young. Mike Jakeman is feeling his age. “Hi James, It seems astonishing to me that Tim Southee and Jonny Bairstow have played the same number of Tests. I’m fairly sure that Southee made his NZ debut in 1991, while spiky young tyro Bairstow is still finding his role in the England side.” Southee made his Test debut in 2008, four years before Bairstow. Jonny has missed something like 52 Test matches in that time too. 10th over: New Zealand 25-0 (Latham 18, Young 7) Shackles be gone! Tom Latham unfurls a delicious cover drive, on the up, and it traces away all along the baize for four. 9th over: New Zealand 21-0 (Latham 14, Young 7) Three maidens in a row. Cummins on the button. Pressure cooker starting to hiss quietly. 8th over: New Zealand 21-0 (Latham 14, Young 7) Miserly stuff from Hazlewood, not giving an inch or a sniff of anything to hit. Maiden. Marais Erasmus’ last Test! A few years ago I did a piece speaking to quite few of the elite Test umpires ‘The Men in White Coats’ – it was all men back then. Anyway, to a man they all said how much Marais Erasmus was their favourite colleague. Players, fans and other officials will be said to see him hand in his badge and gun shades and ball-clicker. We are never ever getting back together pic.twitter.com/v7A87cwDXI— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) March 7, 2024 Updated at 7th over: New Zealand 21-0 (Latham 14, Young 7) Cummins replaces Starc after just three overs from the top end. Lack of swing perhaps? Or a change of ends maybe? Searing insight? Young plays a loose shot at a length ball and luckily for him only connects with the fresh Christchurch breeze. Settle down William. A maiden to start from the Aus captain. I’ve just polished off six (miniature, I’m not a monkey, ape animal) walnut whips. Self loathing due to peak in about two minutes. 6th over: New Zealand 21-0 (Latham 14, Young 7) Five dots from Hazlewood, the tall seamer is in the groove. Bop! Latham is on his toes and gets his reward for being watchful, the last ball of the over is a smidge too full and is driven down the ground for four. Updated at 5th over: New Zealand 17-0 (Latham 10, Young 7) A quieter six balls after the special last over from Hazelwood. That was McGrath esque. Metronomic. Masterful. Updated at 4th over: New Zealand 14-0 (Latham 9, Young 5) A single off the inside edge to Latham brings Young on strike and he clips Hazlewood for two through midwicket. Confident start this from the home side. Oooft. Beaten. Hazlewood pitches it on line with the off stump and moves it away late, a whisper from the edge. And again! A carbon copy. Not much Young can do with that. Three times! Hazlewood has it on a string, Young just nods and strolls away to square leg. Last ball of the over… beats him again! Connect Four! What an over from Josh Hazlewood. Updated at 3rd over: New Zealand 11-0 (Latham 8, Young 3) Starc is straight, looking to get one to spear into the pads. Young keeps him out and clips for two into the leg side off the last ball of the over. A perfect ground, Hagley Oval. Bit of breeze, some sun getting through. Cricket time. #NZvAus pic.twitter.com/N5KhhZ4NgS— Geoff Lemon Sport (@GeoffLemonSport) March 7, 2024 2nd over: New Zealand 9-0 (Latham 8, Young 1) Josh Hazlewood shares the new orb. Will Young is watchful, allowing the ball to pass through and defending off the front foot when required. A nudged single off the last ball sees him get off the mark/pinch the strike. “Evening James” And to you, South London’s Andrew Cosgrove. Maybe we are on the same street? “Don’t listen to Wignall. He’s right about gibbons, but baboons very definitely are monkeys. I don’t have anything to contribute to the cricket discussion (yet).” What about a funky gibbon? Billy Gibbons? I’m being a daft apeth. 1st over: New Zealand 8-0 (Latham 8, Young 0) Mitchell Starc begins with the new ball. There’s decent carry and some nice movement in the air too. Tom Latham - face daubed in white zinc – opens the face and runs a length ball wide of gully for four. New Zealand are away. Shot! Nothing more than a defensive push from Latham to an attempted yorker from Starc, the ball evades mid off and runs away for four. Two boundaries off the first over, plenty in it for bat and ball. Richard Hadlee rings the bell and gives a hearty wave, he looks trim and fit, almost like he could do a job with the new ball. Geoff Wignall has put me and my preamble firmly in our place. “Sorry James, but neither gibbons nor baboons are monkeys. They’re apes.” I stand corrected… said the man in the orthpedic shoes. The players emerge under cloudy blue skies for the anthems. Ben Sears looks like a nice bloke. Well, of course he does. Batting first at Hagley Oval after a toss win for Pat Cummins. Ben Sears (Cap #287) to make his Test debut and Tim Southee and Kane Williamson become the fifth and sixth New Zealanders to play 100 Tests 🏏 Follow LIVE in NZ from 11:00am with @TVNZ+, DUKE, @SENZ_Radio. #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/Gvg3BAEWWY— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) March 7, 2024 “Love these Tests!” enthuses Daniel Kalucy in the OBO mailbag. “Perfect timing for those working the late night euro bar job. Which is obviously why they’re held!” Absolutely. I’ll have a Guinness Dan, and chuck in some of Jamie Dornan’s chiselled good lucks for good measure why don’t ya? Oh and a bag of bacon fries. Do you have them? So, New Zealand will have the chance to post a score and set up the game. They’ll have the small matter of Australia’s gun bowling line up steaming in on a green top to negotiate first thing. Best coin toss ever! You could have heard a pin drop as the entire ground went dead quiet. No exageration - zero noise. Followed by a groan from kiwi supporters. #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/rddxMAVKun— Anthony Sherratt (@AnthonySherratt) March 7, 2024 Updated at Teams: Australia unchanged once again. New Zealand have replaced the injured O’Rourke with the debutant seamer Ben Sears. New Zealand 1 Tom Latham, 2 Will Young, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Tim Southee (capt), 11 Ben Sears Australia 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Steven Smith, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood Australia win the toss and will... bowl Pat Cummins calls correctly and sticks the Kiwis in. Ten minutes or so until the toss. More than enough time to dig into this piece about Steve Smith’s velcro mitts and the joy of catching. Written by some quill wielding oik called James Wallace? Related: The Spin | Steve Smith and the unbridled joy of taking catches in Test cricket Me either. It is bright and clear in Christchurch. The pitch has a green hue but don’t be fooled too much by that, it’s normally a belter for the first few days at least. Kiwi bowler Ben Sears looks set to make his debut. Poor old Mitchy Santner. No real intensity in Mitch Santner’s training this morning. Looks like New Zealand are sticking with Scott Kuggeleijn with Ben Sears making his debut #NZvAus pic.twitter.com/OOsOP77FG1— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) March 7, 2024 Tim Southee is excited to see what debutant Ben Sears can bring at Test level ⚡️https://t.co/DEmIYWuHWw | #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/vK6QYvz1sd— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) March 7, 2024 Updated at Preamble Hello and welcome to the day one OBO of New Zealand v Australia from Christchurch’s Hagley Oval. “It is nice to get the monkey off the back” said Ireland’s Test captain Andrew Balbirnie a few days ago after his side notched up their first victory in the format with a six wicket win over Afghanistan at Abu Dhabi’s Tolerance Oval. Ireland’s historic victory came at the eighth time of asking, which is actually pretty darn quick in the grander scheme of things. Seven losses though was enough for Balbirnie to be summoning the imagery and heavy burden of the primate in his post match press conference. Which begs the question: if seven losses on the trot is a monkey (or an ape!) – a medium sized gibbon rather than a burly baboon say – then what exactly is one victory over your neighbouring rivals in the last 30 years? Last week’s 172 run loss to Trans-Tasman rivals Australia only added to New Zealand’s woeful record against their beefier bigger brother. Since their five wicket win in Auckland way back in 1993, the Kiwis have conquered those in baggy green on one solitary occasion – an arse nipping seven wicket win in Hobart in 2011. Forget monkey, New Zealand have a hulking great albatross complete with green and gold bill tethered round their necks, squawking with glee and defecating down their back*. The next five days will see New Zealand get their last chance of sticking one back to Australia in Test cricket for at least a couple of years and what better way to do it than in the game where former and current captains Kane Williamson and Tim Southee reach their 100th Test match? Australia are vulnerable in the batting department, the spotlight particularly is on a chronically out of form Marnus Labuschagne and a sputtering Alex Carey. The bowling though? Australia’s bowling attack is ridiculous. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon have been good enough to bail a mis-firing batting card out time and again over the home summer. There’s plenty to get into then as we tick around to the teams and toss in Christchurch. Play starts at 11am local/9am AEDT and 10pm here in London. Jim here on the tools for the first half of the day before Angus Fontaine tags in later on. Please do Email or tweet @Jimbo_Cricket with your musings and missives. Righto, let’s take the plunge, shall we? *Apologies if you are reading this with your muesli, it is post watershed where I am in the UK. Squawk! Updated at
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Orlando makes Barbra Banda second most expensive female player in world
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Orlando Pride have completed a deal to sign Zambia forward Barbra Banda for the second-highest transfer fee in women’s football. Recruited from Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shengli for $740,000 (£582,128), Banda has signed a four-year contract with the NWSL side. The price tag makes her the second most expensive player in the history of women’s football, following Bay FC’s recruitment of Banda’s international teammate Racheal Kundananji from Liga F side Madrid CFF for $787,600 in February. Related: Copa 71 review – riveting story of Women’s World Cup goes way beyond football “The National Women’s Soccer League is one of the most competitive and strongest leagues in the world so it’s very humbling to get a chance to play in it,” Banda said. “Since my first meeting with the club and the general manager I knew this was a club I wanted to join. I can’t wait to meet my new teammates and start working with them. I hope to help the team in my small capacity to do great things and win a lot of trophies together.” Banda scored 41 goals in 51 games for Shanghai Shengli and won the golden boot in her first season at the club. The forward then burst onto the world stage at the Tokyo Olympics, scoring back-to-back hat tricks against the Netherlands and China. In 2022 Banda scored 10 goals to finish top scorer as Zambia won the Cosafa Women’s Championship. In the run up to the 2023 World Cup she netted twice, either side of a Kundananji goal, as Zambia earned an exhilarating 3-2 win over Germany. At the tournament itself Banda scored Zambia’s second in their final group game, a 3-1 win over Costa Rica, which was their first World Cup win. “It has always been our vision to build the Orlando Pride into an NWSL Championship contender and we believe investment in the world’s best players is a prerequisite for success,” said the Orlando Pride owner and chairman, Mark Wilf. Orlando Pride vice-president of soccer operations and general manager, Haley Carter, added: “Barbra is a natural-born goal scorer and one of the most physically imposing forwards in the world. Turning only 24 years old this month we have every confidence she will be an impact player in our attack for years to come. We are excited to help her grow and expand upon the various layers of her game and cannot wait to see her in purple.”
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Imaginary review – a shoddy and unimaginative creepshow
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It’s yet another sub-par day at the Blumhouse factory, production line operating at full, breakneck speed, yet machinery on the perilous verge of total collapse. The house of horror, behind hit franchises like Insidious, Paranormal Activity and The Purge, has become something of a franchise in itself, a branded string of low-budget films making a high profit, yet quality control has forever been an issue and in the last year or so, it’s barely existed. Related: Ricky Stanicky review – Zac Efron can’t save deeply unfunny bro comedy On the first cursed weekend of January 2023, usually home to the most unintentionally horrifying horror films, M3gan upended critical expectations and scored reviews as impressive as its box office total. But normality soon resumed with a limp Insidious sequel, a junky time travel slasher, a loathed Exorcist reboot, an astonishingly dull video game adaptation and, most recently, a soggy haunted pool horror. Yet somehow, the very worst was yet to come and now here it is, crash-landing into cinemas with an embargo so late, some preview audiences will have already started watching it. Imaginary, teased by an audio-first, cinema-only trailer far smarter than the movie itself, is a shameless grab bag of stolen parts clumsily stitched together with such carelessness, it’s a miracle it’s even getting a theatrical release. The bar might have fallen to its lowest ever point for studio horror but it’s still a surprise to see just how bad things can really get. I was kinder than most about writer-director Jeff Wadlow’s first Blumhouse offering, the gimmicky yet fun franchise non-starter Truth or Dare which worked just about enough in a low stakes kinda way, a Final Destination rip-off for the sleepover crowd. His follow-up Fantasy Island was a disordered mess, trying and failing to do far too much and there’s a similar level of unearned confidence on display in his latest, world-building done with an unsteady hand and an unfocused mind. Things start off in familiar genre territory as a woman named Jessica (played by DeWanda Wise) returns to her childhood home with new family in tow, husband Max (British actor Tom Payne) and his two children from a former marriage. Both Jessica and Max have some sort of trauma in their past – her absent father, his mentally unwell ex-wife – and both are hoping that a new start will help them heal. But when youngest daughter Alice (Pyper Braun) finds an old teddy bear and claims it as her new imaginary friend Chauncey, their dream home becomes a nightmare. While red flags start to fly pretty early on – some bad acting, some even worse dialogue – the build-up is at the very least competent, if entirely derivative, recalling the 2005 Robert De Niro thriller Hide and Seek as well as Poltergeist and M3gan, a child falling into dangerous fantasy dragged deeper by a nefarious presence. But like so many horror films these days, it’s a logline scrawled on a napkin rather than a fully-formed and fully thought-out script and so when the plot inevitably thickens, the cracks turn into chasms and a two-star time-waster descends into a one-star catastrophe. Along with the year’s other Blumhouse misstep Night Swim, Imaginary feels like the sort of bottom-shelf shocker that would have littered video stores decades ago, modernised only by its almost parodic obsession with trauma, the word that has ruined many a horror film of late. The last act, as drip-drip creepiness turns into flash flood chaos, is a laughably incoherent string of question marks – how did they, how could she, what was that – which plays out as if it were being made up on the spot, sloppy enough for a refund, Wadlow and his co-writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland in need of a stern sense-checker. There’s such lumbering gracelessness to how rules are introduced – characters stumbling over nonsensical realisations and reveals – and such shamelessness to how other, better films and shows are copied. There are too many to list but you can feel elements of It, Beetlejuice, Housebound, Come Play, Stranger Things and most obviously Coraline with a visual trick so brazenly similar, legal action should follow. Wise can be a charming presence elsewhere but there’s only so much that can be done with the suffocatingly soapy dialogue she’s lumped with and she quickly gets lost in the murk surrounding her. Even the promise of Betty Buckley playing a mysterious neighbour frantically ranting about demonic mythology isn’t as much fun as it should have been. Wadlow has spoken of his desire to make a four-quadrant horror intended for a broader audience, the likes of which audiences saw more of in the 1980s, operating like a roller coaster that’s exciting in the moment but unlikely to leave a mark. It’s an admirable mission statement and given how self-serious so many horror films can now be, aiming for more fun is no bad thing but Imaginary is far too dumb and ungainly to move at the pace required and bring the thrills it should, a theme park ride that should be closed for repairs. Imaginary is out now at cinemas
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‘Outrageous and disgusting’: Greens MP condemns comparison of Queensland climate protests to US capitol riots
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Comparisons between 14 largely retired environmental protesters unfurling banners in Queensland’s parliament and the January 6 US Capitol riots are “odious”, one of the protesters has said. On Thursday, Queensland’s parliamentary ethics committee handed down its findings, which cleared Greens MP Michael Berkman of inciting or encouraging the Extinction Rebellion protest in November 2022, but described his conduct as “disgraceful”. Related: NSW police drop claim that protest involving Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco blocked ambulance Fourteen people aged between 24 and 88 face the possibility of jail, if convicted, over their brief but raucous protest in which demonstrators unfurled banners with anti-fossil fuel slogans from the public gallery of parliament, interrupting question time with chants of “end fossil fuels now” and “stop coal, stop gas” for about three minutes. In an interview with ABC Brisbane, Berkman later expressed shock at news the activists faced charges – not laid in more than 30 years – of disturbing the legislature during a protest. He said the charges were “a really scary indicator of where we are up to”, and later posted on social media that the protesters were “absolutely right”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Though clearing Berkman of contempt, the ethics committee report into the incident was scathing of the Greens MP. “The effect on democracy of celebrating such behaviour, such as that which occurred when protestors stormed the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021, is all too easy to see,” the committee wrote. “While the Member, no doubt, would be aghast to have his behaviour compared to those Congressmen who celebrated a violent disruption in their own House of Assembly, in reality his actions were little better. Naivety is not a sufficient excuse.” Berkman described the comparison to events in Washington as “outrageous and, frankly, disgusting” on social media on Thursday. “The Committee has labelled the protest and my post ‘immature’, ‘disgraceful’, and an ‘affront to democracy’,” he tweeted. “Supporting climate action and peaceful protest is none of those things. It is a moral obligation that the major parties have chosen to disregard.” Related: Violet Coco is not alone: the climate activists facing jail One of the protesters was Lee Coaldrake, an anaesthetist who is married to former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake, who led a review into the integrity of the public service and Queensland government in 2022. Lee Coaldrake told Guardian Australia the committee’s findings were another attempt to “demonise” climate protesters as “extremists”. “There is just no parallel whatsoever between an attempt to violently overthrow a democratically elected government in the States and what we were doing,” she said. “We were engaging in peaceful protest which is a fundamental pillar of our democracy. “We’re not extreme, we are very rational people who are following the science – and the science is terrifying. “And our politicians are not acting with the urgency and the speed that the scientists are begging of them”. The 14 protesters are scheduled to face court in July.
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‘We can be a role model’: the activism of Hazara women in regional Australia
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Zara Khademi fled Afghanistan in the late 1990s when the Taliban attacked the capital of Kabul. “They were looking for the Hazara people,” she says. “My daughter was four and my son was 18 months. We had to walk through the mountains at night until we reached the (Iranian) border.” After living in Iran for three years, Khademi arrived in Australia in 2001, initially settling in Sydney before moving to Shepparton in Victoria’s north-east in 2008. And while she left her homeland more than 20 years ago, the situation in Afghanistan, particularly for women and minority groups including the Hazara people, hasn’t changed. If anything, it continues to worsen. In February, Khademi co-founded the Goulburn Valley Afghan Women’s Association Shepparton, a space for the region’s Afghan women to have a voice, support each other, and encourage younger people to take on leadership roles. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Greater Shepparton has the highest Afghan population in regional Victoria, with 1,144 Afghans calling the town home as of 2021. The community has been growing since about 2005 when many arrived to work on the region’s fruit farms. Working in educational support and as a multicultural aid, Khademi says it’s important for the association to inspire Afghan girls to “really celebrate their achievements”. “They’re not allowed to study in Afghanistan so we need to build their hopes, build them to a place where they can reach whatever they want. “For the past 100 years the Hazara people have been pushed back from education and society but now they are in a place where they can reach freedom. We can be a role model for our younger generation.” On Friday, International Women’s Day (IWD), the association will rally with national refugee support groups Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR), Women for Change and volunteer network Azadi-e Zan, to launch a 12-month campaign raising awareness about the persecution faced by women and girls in Afghanistan. The campaign aims to spotlight the increasing oppression, and the escalating reports of ill-treatment, arrests and detention since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Mansfield’s Hamida Samar arrived in Australia almost one year ago on a humanitarian visa. She says RAR, which sponsored her visa, “saved my life”. The 26-year-old worked as a police officer and for the Ministry of Defence. After the Taliban returned, she lived in fear of being kidnapped, raped or imprisoned. “The situation is always getting worse and worse,” Samar says. “The best way is to leave Afghanistan. “Please don’t forget us. Don’t turn your back on us. Australian people are our last hope.” The new association plans to establish Australia’s first Afghan-founded RAR group. Most of these groups are founded by white Australians. “There are other groups in Shepparton that look at welfare and wellbeing, but RAR takes on a more political role which is more appropriate for us and we also want to be able to network with the other RAR groups in our geographic area,” the association’s co-founder, Rabya Jamshaid, says. “We think that’s important.” RAR Afghan subcommittee convener, Marie Sellstrom, says the regions have much to gain from the leadership of newly arrived migrants and the exchange of cultural practices and experiences. “We support and work with many different ethnic communities, but this then becomes a group who is showing leadership and hopefully it will prompt more people to join. “Mansfield is quite monocultural, but the two Afghan families have made such a difference to our community. It’s been fascinating.” Former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, congratulated the association for its “leadership and support”. Australia’s 2023-24 humanitarian program will accept 20,000 refugees. The situation in Afghanistan, particularly regarding the Hazaras, Shia community, women and children, has been identified as a priority. Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community
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Fifth mass coral bleaching event in eight years hits Great Barrier Reef, marine park authority confirms
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The Great Barrier Reef is in the grip of a mass coral bleaching event driven by global heating – the fifth in only eight years – the marine park’s government authority has confirmed. The authority, together with scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, have completed aerial surveys across 300 reefs over two thirds of the reef, with more to come. “These surveys confirm a widespread, often called mass coral bleaching event, is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef,” the authority said in an update. Researchers and scientists told the Guardian they were devastated by the bleaching, particularly in the reef’s southern section where corals hundreds of years old were severely bleached. Dr Roger Beeden, the chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said: “We now have widespread often called mass coral bleaching across the surveyed reefs.” He said the bleaching was being driven by global heating and an El Nino climate pattern. In-water surveys were ongoing to understand the severity of the bleaching, he said, and in the past the reef had shown resilience. The Great Barrier Reef – the biggest coral system in the world – is about 2,300km long, covers an area bigger than the size of Italy and is made up of about 3,000 individual reefs. Widespread mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef was first seen in 1998 and happened again in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now in 2024. Ocean temperatures around the world have been the highest on record for almost a year and the US government’s Coral Reef Watch program has said the planet is on the cusp of a fourth global mass coral bleaching event, with reefs in the Atlantic, pacific and potentially the Indian Ocean all bleaching. The world’s most southerly coral reef, at Lord Howe Island off Australia’s New South Wales coast, is also being hit be bleaching. In July, the World Heritage committee will consider if the reef should be placed on a list of sites “in danger” after concerns over the impacts of climate change and pollution and sediment running into the reef’s waters. Scientists have been warning since the 1990s that as global heating took hold, the world’s coral reefs would be among the earliest ecosystems to be impacted. When corals bleach due to higher than average ocean temperatures, they expel the algae that lives inside them and gives them much of their nutrients and colour. If temperatures fall, corals can survive but scientists say they tend to be more susceptible to disease and struggle to reproduce. In extreme cases of heat stress, corals can die. Dr Neal Cantin, senior research scientist at Aims, said: “We now need to combine the spatial coverage captured from the air with in-water surveys to assess the severity of coral bleaching in deeper reef habitats across the different regions of the Marine Park.” According to Coral Reef Watch data, the heat stress on corals in the reef’s southern and central region has been the highest on record, and the second highest in northern areas. Diana Kleine, project manager of Coral Watchat the University of Queensland, has been at Heron Island off Gladstone in the reef’s south. “It’s devastating. Unbelievable. The water was way too warm. Heron has escaped bleaching several times but this year it has hit so hard,” she said. Coral Watch had observed four metre-wide boulder corals that take hundreds of years to grow bleached bone white. Lyle Vail, co-director of the Australian Museum’s Lizard Island Research Station in the north of the reef, said corals started to show heat stress in early February. He said: “It’s devastating. Pretty much all of the heat sensitive corals in the shallow waters have bleached.” He said a small number of corals had died. The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said: “We know the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide is climate change. The Great Barrier Reef is no exception. It’s essential we do everything we can to protect this amazing place for our kids and grandkids. “We know Australians, especially local communities and businesses along the Reef, will be concerned by this news. The health of the reef is vital for the 64,000 people who rely on it for work, and the plants and animals that call the reef home.” She pointed to the government’s legislated target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, an improved 2030 target, and $1.2 bn investment to help the reef adapt to climate change and improve water quality. Richard Leck, WWF-Australia’s head of oceans, said there was particular concern for the southern areas of the reef that had not been badly bleached since 2016. “Unless we see a significant drop off in temperatures in the next few weeks, the risk of significant coral mortality is high,” he said. “Five mass bleaching events in eight years shows that climate change is putting tremendous pressure on the reef.” He said the federal needed to sharply raise its ambition on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and Queensland needed to do more to cut deforestation rates. Dr Lissa Schindler, reef campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “This is a huge wake-up call for Australia and the global community that we need to do much more to address climate change, which is driving the marine heatwaves that lead to coral bleaching. “Australia’s current target of a 43% cut in carbon pollution by 2030 is consistent with a 2C warming pathway, which equates to the loss of 99% of the world’s coral reefs.”
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The US will build a port off Gaza to get aid to Palestinians. Too little, too late?
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The US plan to build a floating port off the Gaza coast is a bold move, reminiscent of the Mulberry harbours built after D-day in Normandy, but there are serious concerns that what relief it brings will be too little too late for Palestinians facing starvation. “When we talk about the sea route, it’s going to take weeks to set up and we are talking about a population that is starving now. We have already seen children dying of hunger,” said Ziad Issa, the head of humanitarian policy at the ActionAid charity. Related: Biden to announce US will build port on Gaza shore for large-scale aid delivery US officials have presented the plan as Washington taking leadership and “not waiting for the Israelis”, but the Israelis will still have a say on how effective it is in delivering aid, especially in the north, where the threat of famine is most imminent. Israeli inspectors will be in the Cypriot port of Larnaca, scrutinising cargoes of aid going into southern Gaza, and the inspections will provide Israel a tool with which to regulate the flow in the name of security vetting. That might be harder for Israel to do when dealing directly with US military logistics officers rather than aid officials, but there are many other ways the Israeli government, a coalition that includes ministers who oppose any aid entering Gaza, can play an obstructionist role. “People say this is a complex situation, but it’s very simple,” Issa said. “Israel is not allowing aid to get to the Gaza Strip.” The plan involves US military engineers building a floating pier off the Gaza shore, on which shipborne food aid can be unloaded from ships from Larnaca, and a causeway for it to be driven onshore. The question is, then what? Most of Gaza’s population, most of whom have been displaced several times over, are not concentrated at the beach. “Who is going to distribute it?” asked Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior aid official in the Biden administration, and now president of the Refugees International aid advocacy group. “The aid organisations’ presence in northern Gaza is pretty close to zero because the Israelis have wanted everyone out and then have been restricting access to the north ever since.” The proposed maritime aid corridor, Konyndyk said, “doesn’t obviate the problem of obstruction by Israel, but rather than being a problem at the entry point, now it’s going to be a problem at the distribution stage”. “You need drivers that don’t exist, trucks that don’t exist feeding into a distribution system that doesn’t exist,” he added. In the short term, it might involve communities near the shore distributing the food among themselves. To get assistance around the strip would not just require trucks and drivers but also some sort of security, as desperation has taken over and looting is rife. The Israeli army has escorted some small NGO food deliveries, but an attempted delivery on 29 February on the outskirts of Gaza City ended with the deaths of at least 115 Palestinians after Israeli soldiers opened fire after people rushed for the food trucks. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that most of the casualties had been caused by a crush, but UN officials and doctors said the overwhelming majority of injuries were gunshot wounds. “Even if there is a ceasefire, it is going to be very messy for the initial period, because the security apparatus that used to exist has collapsed, the clan structures and community leaders who would provide assurances and safety have also been very splintered,” Konyndyk said. “And from what we saw in the incident last week, the Israeli military is not a reliable security guarantor.” “It’s very tough and I think it’s worthwhile to try this,” he added. “I think they’re going to be figuring a lot of it out as they go, and I think that’s OK. I’m in favour of anything that helps at this point.” “But let’s also just be realistic about why this is necessary, and it’s necessary because of five months of obstruction of access in the north by the IDF and five months of intentional degradation of humanitarian capacity in the strip,” Konyndyk said. “And frankly the US has tolerated that for five months.”
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The MH370 families seeking closure, justice and a fresh search
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Ten years on, Jiang Hui still hopes he will one day find the answer to what happened when his mother disappeared in 2014. “My mother was a very normal person. She came from a working-class family. She was very resilient, persistent,” says Jiang, 50, from Beijing. His mother, Jiang Cuiyun, was a 72-year-old retired picture editor and had just been on a holiday in Malaysia. She was one of 153 Chinese citizens onboard flight MH370. Jiang now tries to embody those tenacious qualities of his mother in his decade-long search for answers. His quest for closure has seen him sell his house and quit his job as an IT manager to campaign for the victims full-time. He now relies on his savings. He has travelled the world, including to Madagascar, where he found a piece of possible debris in 2016. In Malaysia, Grace Nathan thinks of her mother, Anne Daisy, during significant life events such as her wedding and the birth of her sons, and still speaks of her in the present tense. “My children resemble her; I see a lot of similarities,” says the 35-year-old from Kuala Lumpur. “They are both very jovial and I think that’s from her.” Nathan says she has come to terms with the fact that she may never see her mother again, but when it comes to the emotional side of things, she says she has simply not been able to bridge that gap. ‘It took me 10 years to get this hearing started’ In a court in Beijing, Jiang and the families of more than 40 other Chinese passengers are suing the airline and related companies, including German insurer Allianz, Boeing and Rolls-Royce. The first trial, at Chaoyang people’s court, concluded on 6 December last year after only 10 days of hearings. No date has been given for a verdict. Related: Timeline of the search for MH370 – a visual guide “I am really disappointed in the Chinese legal system,” Jiang says. “The legal nature of this case is not that complicated. I can’t comprehend at all why it would take so long –more than a decade.” Some families want compensation, ranging from 10m-80m yuan ($1.4m-$11.2m). Some, like Jiang, simply want a fund restarted that would offer a reward for new information. “The search could very soon have tremendous progress. The bounty could provide critical momentum.” But despite his steadfast belief that more of MH370 can be found, Jiang is “not very optimistic” about the lawsuits. Similar efforts in Malaysia and the US have failed, in part because of disagreements about accountability and jurisdiction. In 2018, judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the US dismissed a lawsuit from relatives on the grounds that the disappearance was “at its core a Malaysian tragedy”. “It already took me 10 years to get this hearing started,” Jiang says. “It really reflects that the courts are not sufficient in their determination. It is mistreatment in terms of justice.” Grace Nathan in Malaysia remains resolute in her quest for answers and justice. She emphasises how international cooperation – 14 nationalities were represented onboard – and corporate responsibility can help fund further searches. “Malaysia has never come out to say it is a budget issue,” she says. “But even if it is, that is really one of the easiest obstacles to overcome because there were so many nationalities onboard the plane, China being the world’s second-largest economy.” On Sunday, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterated Malaysia’s position that it was willing to reopen an investigation if there was compelling new evidence. Transport minister Anthony Loke said he was ready to meet the US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to discuss a new search after it submitted a proposal to the government. Nathan hopes this is a step in the right direction. “This is an optimistic move... No search can guarantee the finding of the plane, [but] if we don’t try we will never know.” Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was the flight supervisor on MH370, has long been frustrated by the lack of search activity, even if only to prevent another tragedy. She is now awaiting the results of any meeting with Ocean Infinity. “We are happy that the announcement was made. It’s a step in the right direction for them not to forget about it or keep silent,” she says. However, Fuad Sharuji, the crisis director for Malaysian Airlines when MH370 was lost, is more cautious. “I’m very happy to note that Ocean Infinity has graciously offered to search for MH370 at ‘no-find, no-fee’ basis. However, I’m rather sceptical that the new search area would result in a positive find..” ‘The Malaysian government has delayed justice’ The victims’ families in China have organised themselves into a rare collective able to express their grief and anger publicly. That is because most of their ire is directed at Malaysian, rather than Chinese, authorities. Related: MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary “I am disappointed in the Chinese justice system, but even more angry with the Malaysian justice system,” says Jiang, who also accuses Malaysia of actively impeding the relatives’ quest for justice. “The Malaysian government has delayed justice,” he says, referring to the fact that the government allowed the airline to be restructured in a way that frustrated the ability of families to sue the company. In 2015, Malaysia Airlines was nationalised following months of financial difficulties over MH370 plus another disaster, the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine. A restructuring process followed, in which the legal liabilities arising from the loss of MH370 were not passed on to the new entity, Malaysia Airlines Berhad. Dr Ghouse Mohd Noor, a friend of MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is critical of the Malaysian government’s handling of the investigation, accusing it of self-interest, and has called for accountability. “The government is only working for what they think is best for their political purposes … with their decisions influenced by the expected outcome that would benefit the ruling government,” Noor says, in reference to claims of early efforts to use the tragedy to smear Anwar, who was opposition leader at the time. Jiang and the other relatives have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems. “It’s not only the original incident. The reluctance and the nonchalant attitude of the Malaysian government and the other companies, it’s really causing a secondary level of damage,” he says. The families of more than 100 of the Chinese passengers have accepted compensation from the airline, with settlements reportedly ranging from 2.5m to 3m yuan ($349,000–$418,000). But Jiang has never considered accepting the offer. The settlement specifies that there is no duty to continue the search, he says, and “that is not in my best interest”. Like many of the families, Jiang has faced financial difficulties. He estimates he’s spent 30,000-40,000 yuan investigating MH370. Other families have struggled to pay medical bills, he says. Although initially supportive of the victims’ families, the Chinese government has been cautious about the potential diplomatic fallout. Some relatives feel Beijing should put more pressure on Kuala Lumpur to continue the search. When the court proceedings in Beijing began in November, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the government was paying “high attention” to the lawsuits, but declined to comment further. Meanwhile, the families continue to cope as best they can, with their minds sometimes filling in the gaps where the mystery endures. For Jacquita Gonzales and the family of her missing husband, Patrick Gomes, there is little respite, even at night. “An aunt that brought him up said she had a dream he was drenched from head to toe and he said to her, ‘I’m sorry but I tried my best.’ “Knowing the kind of person Patrick is, he would have done his best to help everyone onboard.” Additional research by Tau Yang and Tzu Wei Liu
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Government failing targets to fix UK railway system, watchdog reports
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Government plans to overhaul the country’s ailing railway system are significantly delayed while promised savings have yet to be achieved, according to a highly critical report by the government’s spending watchdog. The National Audit Office (NAO) assessment of how ministers’ plans were progressing found the government had failed to meet any of the 12 “high level benefit” targets it set for rail in 2021. It also revealed that the government had not delivered the £2.6bn savings it promised by 2024/25, instead forecasting that only three-quarters of the target would be achieved. In 2021 the government published its white paper on rail reform, which included setting up Great British Railways, an arms-length body intended to provide a “guiding mind” to oversee the management of the network. At the time it had intended to have set up GBR by early 2024, as well as establish a new operating model and introduce new passenger service contracts. However, the NAO said that these, and most of the government’s other commitments, remained either a work in progress, or completely paused. Of the 12 high-level benefit targets, which focused on issues ranging from finances to customer performance, none had been give a green rating, which would indicate they were on track. Five had been rated red, while the remaining seven were rated amber. It also found that none of the necessary legislation had been passed, despite 21 of the 62 commitments in the white paper requiring a change of law before they could be completed. The 2022 queen’s speech included plans to introduce legislation by the end of the parliament that would allow structural changes to support the reforms. However, this was pushed back by the government, and the king’s speech last year did not include any mention of rail reforms, further pushing back legislation. The NAO report found the governance arrangements for the programme had been “complex and ineffective”. Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “The speed at which DfT intended to move on a complex set of reforms gave it too little time to plan, build agreement and deliver.“DfT should work more closely with organisations across the rail sector to help improve collaboration and culture ahead of any structural changes; clearly understand what it wants to deliver and then set out realistic plans for achieving its objectives.” Andy Bagnall, chief executive of Rail Partners, which represents private sector rail organisations, said that the rail sector needed a “root and branch” review but without legislation, the plan would remain “stuck in the sidings”. A DfT spokesperson said: “We have laid out a clear plan for the industry’s future under Great British Railways in our recently published draft Bill and we are now pressing ahead with improvements that will benefit millions of customers like expanding pay-as-you-go ticketing, piloting simpler fares, and announcing a target for rail freight growth.” Separately, the DfT revealed on Thursday that delays on England’s road network were now higher than before the pandemic. Its statistics show the average delay on England’s motorways and major A-roads last year was 10.5 seconds per vehicle per mile.This was up from 9.3 seconds in 2022 and 9.5 seconds in 2019, before the coronavirus crisis. The average speed on the network was 57.0mph in 2023, down from 58.1mph during the previous year and 58.0mph in 2019. The RAC head of policy, Simon Williams, said: “It’s very concerning to see delays on our most important roads increasing to above pre-pandemic levels and average speeds dropping.“With more people than ever working from home at least part of the week and no growth in the number of cars on the road since then, we’re struggling to see what the cause can be other than roadworks. A DfT spokesperson said: “This government backs drivers, which is why we’re getting on with our plan to invest over £24bn into our roads to reduce congestion, improve road safety and grow the economy.”
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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
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United must match ambition with effort Bruno Fernandes lamented that last week’s Manchester derby defeat came down to “individual quality from the players of City”. Difficult to argue with, but the most frustrating part of United’s loss was the failure to commit for the full 90 minutes. At 2-1 down even some senior players had their heads down and appeared to show a lack of effort in the final 15 minutes. Never mind individual quality, that in itself is unforgivable. And that attitude only drives future opponents on. Jordan Pickford has said he is confident that Everton will outrun Erik ten Hag’s side on Saturday. “For me, I think [with] the intensity and the workrate the lads give out, the running stats. I think we will be able to get after them. We will be able to run all over them.” Yara El-Shaboury Manchester United v Everton, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT) Luton keen to dash Palace’s expectations Until they were breached by the unlikely figure of Timo Werner at Tottenham last week, the optimism of Oliver Glasner’s opening win over Burnley had Crystal Palace fans dreaming of achieving Premier League safety with plenty to spare. “A great job over 60-70 minutes,” said the manager. Collapsing to a 3-1 defeat against Spurs, especially considering Burnley’s poor form –retrenched expectations for Palace. Beating Luton can go some way to restoring confidence and pull the rope away from Rob Edwards’ team, whose confidence might be ebbing. Losing to Aston Villa last week after clawing level from two goals down could end up serving as a microcosm of Luton’s spirit in adversity falling short. Defeating Palace in November, a first home league win at Kenilworth Road, was an essential part of Luton’s upturn. It will need to be repeated if Glasner’s team and others can be dragged back into trouble. John Brewin Crystal Palace v Luton, Saturday 3pm Hughes will be big loss for Bournemouth A big story broke at Bournemouth this week, with confirmation their technical director, Richard Hughes, is to move on at the end of the season. Aside from Eddie Howe, arguably no individual has been as influential in shaping the club in the top flight as Hughes, the former midfielder who played under and then worked closely with Howe. It was Hughes who drove the appointment of Andoni Iraola, who has impressed after a tough start, and is the architect behind their recruitment, including the eye-catching arrivals of exciting talents such as Alex Scott, Milos Kerkez and Illia Zabarnyi. Hughes, who is highly respected across the game, will hand over the baton to Simon Francis, another former player, who has worked as his assistant for the past three years. Such joined-up thinking has been in short supply at bottom club Sheffield United for a while. Ben Fisher Bournemouth v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm Small squad hurting Wolves’ big dreams After three wins on the spin, Wolves suffered a hiccup at Newcastle last time out with a jarring 3-0 defeat. It was the kind of game where almost everything that could go wrong did, with José Sá and Pedro Neto forced off through injury. The good news for Gary O’Neil is that those substitutions were both precautionary but the bad is he is still without a bona fide striker. Nathan Fraser, a 19-year-old academy forward, is their only recognised No 9 with Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-chan possibly sidelined until May due to hamstring issues. So light are they on numbers, Wolves named the 15-year-old defender Wesley Okoduwa on the bench at St James’ Park. Wolves are targeting a European berth that seemed beyond them at the start of the season but, ultimately, their thin squad may sabotage those plans. BF Wolves v Fulham, Saturday 3pm Havertz thriving in Arsenal’s push for summit Kai Havertz finally seems to have found his place at Arsenal and adapted to the rhythm of the Premier League. Doubts were raised about his ability after an overall underwhelming stint at Chelsea and poor performances early in the season did not help. But Mikel Arteta’s faith never wavered and he’s finally reaping the rewards. In Arsenal’s last three Premier League matches – thumping wins against Burnley, Newcastle and Sheffield United – Havertz has five goal involvements, equalling the number in the previous 32. The German is thriving and he, along with the team, seem to prefer being hunters than the hunted. It was around this time last year where Arsenal, who were top of the table, started to crack. They finally have a chance to go top again and this time they must not let the pressure get to them. With Liverpool and Manchester City playing each other on Sunday, Arsenal can leapfrog the pair with victory over Brentford. YE-S Arsenal v Brentford, Saturday 5.30pm A big battle in race for Champions League When the team news dropped 75 minutes before kick-off at the Johan Cruyff Arena on Thursday, it offered a major indication of Unai Emery’s thinking and quite how significantly he views Tottenham’s visit to Villa Park on Sunday. John McGinn, the captain, in-form forward Leon Bailey and full-backs Matty Cash and Alex Moreno began the game on the bench, with 20-year-old midfielder Tim Iroegbunam given his second start, almost two years after his full debut. Spurs trail fourth-placed Villa by five points but have a game in hand so a home victory would establish a welcome buffer between them and their nearest challengers for a Champions League place. Villa won the reverse fixture in November courtesy of Pau Torres and Ollie Watkins goals and a repeat would be priceless. BF Aston Villa v Tottenham, Sunday 1pm New faces waiting in West Ham wings West Ham have some talented youngsters and it was a shame that David Moyes did not bring any off the bench during his side’s recent win over Brentford. It was 4-1 after 69 minutes and George Earthy, Ollie Scarles and Divin Mubama were waiting in reserve. However Moyes erred on the side of caution. He needed a win after a bad run of results and the closing stages became nervy after Brentford pulled a goal back. However it would be good to see Moyes give his young players a taste of first-team action if West Ham are in a similarly dominant position against Burnley on Sunday. Jacob Steinberg West Ham v Burnley, Sunday 2pm Will Clattenburg grab limelight again? Whether Mark Clattenburg emerges into the Amex Stadium mixed zone, handily placed next to its dressing rooms and press conference facilities, may depend on whether Nottingham Forest feel they get a fair toot of the referee’s whistle at Brighton. After last week’s 99th-minute concession to Liverpool, the Gladiators’ TV star’s appearance in the City Ground’s mixed zone raised the eyebrows of even the most time-served reporters. A role as Forest’s “referee analyst”, appointed by the owner, Evangelos Marinakis, after a friendship struck up when the Durham card-waver was working as the Greek Super League’s referees chief appears the latest – and not necessarily welcome – development in modern football’s determination to re-referee each match. That Clattenburg and other former officials have such colourful post-reffing careers and live increasingly public lives is another dimension to the Premier League’s extended universe. Add all that to the growing pile of unforeseen circumstances the introduction of VAR has brought to the game. JB Brighton v Nottingham Forest, Sunday 2pm Will City banish their Anfield demons? Anfield gets to Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, and Anfield knows it. The all-conquering City manager has won only one of his eight visits since taking over at the Etihad in 2016 and that 4-1 rout, while a significant moment in wrestling the title back from Liverpool in 2021, was played against the backdrop of an empty stadium due to the pandemic. In a full, frenzied arena, as will be the case on Sunday, Guardiola’s record at Liverpool reads: lost, lost, lost, drawn, lost, drawn, lost. It is a place where Liverpool pressure, refereeing decisions, missed penalties and spells of unrewarded dominance have broken Guardiola’s temperament, and where his reputation for unnecessary tinkering has had foundation. The City manager has spoken of the need for his champions to focus only on what they can control in their pursuit of an unprecedented fourth Premier League title in succession. A cold-eyed approach in the white heat of Anfield, where Jürgen Klopp’s leaders are unbeaten in 29 matches in all competitions, would not only tilt the title race in City’s favour but would represent a departure for them. Andy Hunter Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday 3.45pm Newcastle’s leaky defence faces stern test Newcastle’s previous trip to London did not go well, a 4-1 drubbing by Arsenal exposing a multitude of flaws and leaving Eddie Howe open to questions over his future. But the response has been decent. Newcastle reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup by beating Blackburn on penalties and they will hope that last weekend’s emphatic 3-0 win over Wolves is a sign of things to come. To secure European qualification for a second consecutive season, though, the consistency of old has to return. Newcastleare still conceding too many goals. They have only kept three clean sheets since the turn of the year and will be without Kieran Trippier against Chelsea, who remain dangerous in attack despite being weighed down by weaknesses in other areas. JS Chelsea v Newcastle, Monday 8pm Pos Team P GD Pts 1 Liverpool 27 39 63 2 Man City 27 35 62 3 Arsenal 27 45 61 4 Aston Villa 27 22 55 5 Tottenham Hotspur 26 16 50 6 Man Utd 27 -2 44 7 West Ham 27 -4 42 8 Newcastle 27 12 40 9 Brighton 27 5 39 10 Wolverhampton 27 -3 38 11 Chelsea 26 1 36 12 Fulham 27 -3 35 13 AFC Bournemouth 26 -12 31 14 Crystal Palace 27 -15 28 15 Brentford 27 -11 26 16 Everton 27 -8 25 17 Nottm Forest 27 -15 24 18 Luton 26 -17 20 19 Burnley 27 -35 13 20 Sheff Utd 27 -50 13
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Cryptic crossword No 29,325
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You be the judge: should my best friend get a dog when he works such long hours?
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The prosecution: Janette The poor dog will spend five days a week living with the sitter. So what’s the point of having one? I don’t think my best friend, Pádraig, should get a dog because he works too much. I have a dog myself and know how much it entails. He’s a corporate lawyer who works all the hours God sends, and I just don’t think he will be able to give the dog the life it deserves. Pádraig is very diligent and hardworking – work is his life. He’s had several high-powered jobs and I’ve seen him get quite stressed. Sometimes, when he’s got a lot on, he can work until 3am for weeks on end. I don’t think he has the time or space for a dog. He wants a puppy but I just think: you can’t handle it. When I got my puppy I was working from home during lockdown with my partner. We were at home all the time so it was easy to train our little pug. With Pádraig, I feel the opposite will happen. He’ll be dropping the dog off at a dog-sitter five days a week while he goes to work. What is the point in that? The dog won’t even know him. I flagged how expensive this dog-sitter will be, but Pádraig said he has so much money it doesn’t actually matter I think it’s cruel because the dog will probably prefer its life with the dog-sitter, as that’s where it will be spending most of its time. Pádraig will be traumatising a young dog by dragging it between two homes in its formative years. I also flagged how expensive this dog-sitter will be, but Pádraig said he has so much money that doesn’t actually matter. He also wants a big dog that he can take out when he goes for runs, so he’s after a Hungarian vizsla. I don’t have a problem with people choosing dogs that suit their lifestyle, but Pádraig hasn’t found a suitable breeder and says he will just buy a puppy off someone online when he sees a good price. I think this is irresponsible as a lot of these online breeders don’t always wean the dogs from their mother properly. Pádraig isn’t really taking any of my concerns seriously. He says he will make the dog fit around his lifestyle and that I should stop worrying so much. I just don’t want him to make a mistake, and don’t want to see his poor puppy neglected and confused. The defence: Pádraig I will make changes to the way I work – I’ve wanted a dog my whole life It’s unfair to say I haven’t made plans to accommodate a dog in my life. Even though I work long hours, I will make changes to my lifestyle. I will work from home more to make sure the puppy gets used to me and is well trained. I will also arrange day care for a few days a week. Contrary to what Janette says, day care will help my puppy become well socialised, as there will be other dogs there. I have also spoken with lawyer friends at work and they say dog ownership is completely achievable: if you want a dog and you are willing to show enough love, you will make it work. I have lots of friends who are prepared to help out and look after the dog while I’m away, too. The breed that I’m choosing, the vizsla, is a very active dog and I’ll take it out with me wherever I go. Janette doesn’t do this with her dog – she’s left it at home for hours, so she can’t really talk. Running is my main hobby so a vizsla is the perfect fit. When it’s 18 months old or so, you can take them on pretty long runs and they can keep up, so that will be fun. The dog will be slotting into my life as it is, but I am going to be more accommodating I have wanted a dog my whole life but it has just never seemed like the right time. I used to think, “I’ll do it when I quit my job.” But even though my work has been stressful at times, I won’t be quitting anytime soon, because the money is too good. The dog will be slotting into my life as it is, but I am going to be more accommodating. Janette is well-meaning, but she has also left her dog with friends – a year or so after getting it, she went off travelling for months. I think that’s worse than me getting my dog accustomed to a life of moving between me and a dog sitter from the get-go. I won’t be going off for weeks at a time because of my work. I pointed out that this would make me a more responsible dog owner than she is, but Janette disagreed. It’s like the battle of the dog lovers. But I do think I’ll make an excellent owner. And if anything goes wrong, I will just pay someone to fix it – I’m rich, after all. (Just joking – but not really.) The jury of Guardian readers Should Pádraig call off the dog? Pádraig seems to think dog ownership can be outsourced at his convenience. He says the dog will go everywhere with him, but that’s only feasible with a well-trained dog. Training is a relentless task and he hasn’t got the time – and no amount of money can fix a sad dog.Rachel, 34 A puppy will require near constant attention while awake – the first six months are exhausting as they need consistent training and company. A dog shouldn’t just slot into your life – you must be willing to change your routine to ensure your dog is happy and healthy. A highly active dog coupled with a workaholic owner who thinks that two days of doggy day care is enough, is a recipe for disaster.Alice, 27 Pádraig has considered how a dog will work with his life and is willing to organise extra care to make sure it’s happy and socialised. Sending a dog to day care is not cruel or neglectful as Janette suggests, it’s responsible dog ownership – unlike her leaving her dog with friends for months.Aphra, 25 Pádraig sounds willing to make changes to his life. But he still seems focused more on what a dog can provide for him rather than what he can provide for the dog.Daniel, 32 It seems like Pádraig is looking for a reason to drop the focus on work so much, and this dog could be it. I agree it’s wrong to leave a dog on its own for hours at a time, so if he has the money for a dogsitter then he should use one. James, 30 Now you be the judge In our online poll, tell us: should Pádraig call off the dog? The poll closes at 10am GMT on Thursday 14 March Last week’s result We asked whether Lily should stop taking cuttings of plants in the park. 65% of you said Lily is guilty – she needs to nip this behaviour in the bud 35% of you said Lily is not guilty – there’s no need for an argument to take root
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Biden to announce US will build port on Gaza shore for large-scale aid delivery
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US forces will build a temporary port on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, Joe Biden will announce in the State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians. “We are not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership,” a senior US official said on Thursday, reflecting growing frustration of what is seen in Washington as Israeli obstruction of road deliveries on a substantial scale. The scheme will take several weeks to put into action, however, carrying the risk of supplying too little relief, too late. While aid experts welcomed it as a step in the right direction, they said it was a less effective way of getting aid into Gaza than the US using its leverage to make Benjamin Netanyahu’s government open more land routes to more humanitarian assistance. “This just shows the lengths to which President Biden is being forced to go to avoid actually putting meaningful pressure on Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior aid official in the Biden administration, now president of the Refugees International aid advocacy organisation. The temporary pier will be built by US military engineers operating from ships off the coast of the old Gaza City port in the Rimal district, aid sources said. US troops would not need to step ashore, but could build the floating dock from ships offshore, according to US officials. The aid deliveries will be shipped from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, which will become the main relief hub. “Tonight, the president will announce in his State of the Union address that he has directed the US military to undertake an emergency mission to establish a port in Gaza, working in partnership with like-minded countries and humanitarian partners,” the official said. “This port, the main feature of which is a temporary pier, will provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day.” Biden’s announcement on Thursday night will be followed by a joint statement by the countries and humanitarian organisations involved in the sea corridor. One of the nations involved is the United Arab Emirates, but it is unclear whether they would offer troops to secure the aid bridgehead. Aid groups have said that efforts to deliver desperately needed supplies to the beleaguered territory have been hampered by difficulties coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order. Related: Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, UN rights expert says In his State of the Union speech, Biden will also announce the opening of a new land crossing into the occupied and devastated coastal strip. Biden has been fiercely criticised within his own party for the failure to open up Gaza to humanitarian aid, with a famine looming and 30,000 Palestinians dead already since the start of war on 7 October. The UN said in February that more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation”. It said without action widespread famine could be “almost inevitable”. Israeli officials will be able to conduct inspections of the aid shipments in Larnaca, administration officials said. “We will coordinate with the Israelis on the security requirements on land and work with the UN and humanitarian NGOs on the distribution of assistance within Gaza,” a senior official said. “Initial shipments will come via Cyprus enabled by the US military and a coalition of partners and allies. This new significant capability will take a number of weeks to plan and execute. The forces that will be required to complete this mission there are either already in the region or will begin to move there soon.” The White House said that the operation would not involve boots on the ground, as the port and its temporary pier could be built from off the coast. “The concept that’s been planned involves the presence of US military personnel on military vessels offshore but does not require US military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or causeway facility that will allow the transportation and humanitarian assistance ashore,” a senior official said. Israel “fully supports” creation of such a facility, an Israeli official told Reuters. The independent US senator Bernie Sanders welcomed the proposal, but said the obstructionism of the Israeli government “led to this incredible situation, in which a US ally is using US weapons and equipment to block the delivery of US humanitarian aid”. He added: “And now American taxpayers have to pay even more to build a port to get aid into starving people, because Israel won’t let it be driven safely and efficiently across the border.” Until now, the only land access routes for food aid into Gaza have been at the southern end of the strip, at Rafah and Kerem Shalom, but the flow of assistance has rarely been more than a trickle in relation to the vast needs of 2.3 million Palestinians. Fewer than 100 trucks a day are getting across. Looting has become one of the problems hindering deliveries, but Israeli inspections have led to many truckloads of aid being rejected if they contained anything from a long list of prohibited goods. There has also been a lack of coordination, with aid convoys with official permission to go to northern Gaza being turned back by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. US officials believe Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing different wings of his coalition – in which extreme rightwingers oppose any aid deliveries – with a compromise that only lets in a token amount. “The president has directed that we look at all options, that we not wait for the Israelis and we are pursuing every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza. So we will do it by air, by sea, by land – however we can get the maximum amount in,” a senior US official said. US military transport planes, acting jointly with the Jordanian air force on Thursday, made a third airdrop of food aid over Gaza in a week, bringing the total of US military-style rations dropped to nearly 113,000. However, each airdrop is typically equivalent to a handful of truckloads of food, and nowhere near enough to meet the needs of a population on the brink of starvation. “In order to avert a famine, we need huge volumes of assistance. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people. Airdrops are not an option for averting famine,” said the deputy executive director of the World Food Programme, Carl Skau, who appealed for a sea corridor to be opened. The White House said that Israel had also agreed to open a third road crossing into Gaza, giving more direct access to northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is the most imminent. “Over recent days at our request, the government of Israel has prepared a new land crossing directly into northern Gaza. This third crossing will allow for aid to flow directly to the population in northern Gaza that is in dire need of assistance,” an administration official said. James McGoldrick, the interim UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, confirmed on Thursday that the Israeli army had “given the green light” for use of a military road leading from east to northern Gaza.
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Rupert Murdoch, 92, to wed retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, 67
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Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged for a sixth time, it emerged on Thursday, this time to Elena Zhukova, a retired scientist. Related: Rupert Murdoch met Rishi Sunak five times in 12-month period Murdoch’s office announced that the 92-year-old is set to marry Zhukova, a 67-year-old retired molecular biologist, according to the New York Times. Last April, news reports emerged of Murdoch dating Zhukova just four months after he ended his two-week-long engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, a 67-year old conservative radio host. Invitations for Murdoch’s wedding, which will be held at Moraga, his California vineyard and estate, have already been sent out, the Times reports, citing a representative for Murdoch, who has been married four times before. Murdoch met Zhukova through a large family gathering hosted by his third ex-wife, Wendi Deng, whom he stayed married to for 14 years before filing for divorce in 2013. Her 42-year-old daughter, Dasha Zhukova, is a Russian-American art collector and philanthropist who was previously married to Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch and former owner of the Premier League football club Chelsea. News of Murdoch’s latest engagement comes just five months after he announced that he was stepping down from his media empire, which he built after his father handed him his first newspaper. Murdoch’s publicly traded and New York-based company News Corp owns hundreds of local, national and international digital news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and Sky News Australia, as well as book publisher HarperCollins. The media mogul boasts a net worth of $8.96bn, according to Bloomberg. Murdoch’s new fiancee previously worked as a molecular diabetes specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, the New York Times reports. Zhukova, who originally hails from Russia and once described her family as being part of the “usual, normal Moscow intelligentsia”, was married to Alexander Zhukov, a Russian-born British billionaire energy investor. Murdoch’s last wife was the former supermodel Jerry Hall, whom he divorced in 2022. His other previous wives were Wendi Deng, Anna Murdoch Mann and Patricia Booker. He has six children. The wedding this summer will come after a year of setbacks for the Murdoch empire in 2023, including a $787.5m settlement between Fox News and the voting equipment company Dominion. The settlement ended a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 US election.
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‘We need to do a deal’: PGA Tour’s Webb Simpson calls for LIV Golf agreement
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A player director of the PGA Tour has admitted it would be “very dangerous” for the organisation not to complete a deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Webb Simpson, speaking after the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, believes the “good of the game” would be harmed if the PGA Tour does not form an alliance with LIV Golf. Last June’s framework agreement between golf’s existing tours and the PIF has resulted so far in the creation of a new commercial entity, PGA Tour Enterprises, which a US sports ownership conglomerate has invested $1.5bn in. The PIF remain on the outside pending regulatory approval. LIV, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, has continued to coax players from the PGA Tour. Related: McIlroy saves latest lightweight Netflix series that exposes golf’s stark divisions | Ewan Murray Recent noises, including from Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, have suggested the PGA Tour can now operate without PIF’s assistance. Simpson offered a cautionary note. “Very dangerous,” Simpson said of that possibility. “I think we’re in a position where we want to do the right deal. We don’t want to just do a deal because we’re afraid that the LIV tour might recruit more players. That’s certainly a fear. “But I think it’s obvious [we need to do a deal]. The writing is on the wall. We’re not in a position where we need to do a deal for money. We need to do a deal for the good of the game. And for the health of the PGA Tour long-term. That’s my hope. “One thing I’m certain of is fans, players, media, sponsors alike all feel strongly that the game is divided. The game has been divided for a year and a half now. The game misses the personalities of LIV. I think the game misses the personalities of LIV and the PGA Tour playing together.” This week’s PGA Tour event at Bay Hill plus next week’s flagship Players Championship will take place minus the Masters and US PGA Champions – Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka – who both now play under the LIV banner. “I don’t know what they [LIV and PIF] want,” Simpson added. “I don’t know what the players playing for LIV want. I think they’re very happy where they are. I think they’re very happy with the decisions they’ve made. But I’ve heard from enough people who have grown a little distasteful with the current state of golf. When you come to big tournaments like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, you want to know the guy who won beat most or all of the best players.” Simpson admitted no PGA Tour player director has communicated directly with the PIF. “We probably should have talked to them already,” he said. Shane Lowry shot to the top of the leaderboard on day one in Orlando. The Irishman, who conceded his Bay Hill record is “horrific” posted a six-under-par 66. “Maybe that’s the kind of score I need to shoot to just give myself the confidence to go out and play my game around here,” said Lowry.
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Australian women are chalking up some wins in the workplace – yet our male leaders remain out of touch
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This International Women’s Day, ladies, put out your cupcakes for the 9-to-5 white collar working week. Recent changes to Australia’s industrial relations laws and public sector bargaining agreements suggest we just might be achieving some real progress towards more gender-equal workplace structures – and the blokes who have run the economy for the last 150 years are having a collective fit of the vapours. First came the “right to disconnect” legislation as part of the government’s agreement with the Greens to pass the closing loopholes bill. This, according to the business lobby, will “kill” workplace flexibility. Apparently, if workers don’t want to answer their telephones or respond to emails when they are having dinner with their families or reading bedtime stories, they can forget about going to the dentist or picking the kids up from school, because “flexibility cuts both ways”. Really? Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of workers who have worked permanent shifts on casual contracts for years, or to parents who have been forced back to the office after finally achieving some semblance of a work-life balance in the wake of Covid lockdowns. Related: Some people are desperately averse to hard data – the gender pay gap is no exception | Van Badham So who is really out of touch here? Last week’s data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) revealing the real gender pay gap in Australia’s largest companies showed that a huge part of the reason women suffer an income penalty of up to 30% compared with men is that the big money goes to those who can outsource their unpaid domestic work to others (almost always their wives) and work long hours in the office in a full-time role. That’s how you climb the ladder to senior roles in the “white collar” industries that pay high salaries. A vast proportion of women don’t even try to work in offices once their children come along. Despite more Australian women than men now graduating from university, they still make up the majority of workers in the grossly underpaid and casualised retail, hospitality and care workforces, as these are the jobs that can most easily be fit in around the domestic work and care responsibilities that still fall overwhelmingly to women in heterosexual partnered households. When women do work in offices on a 9-to-5 schedule, they are much less likely to be promoted to management and executive roles, primarily because they “choose” to work part time. This choice, of course, is due to the fact that schools operate from 9am to 3.30pm and women are still the most likely to be doing the drop-offs and pick-ups. They are also more likely to do the grocery shopping, cook meals, do laundry and take on the mental load of running a household. And as they get older, they are the ones who take time out again to care for ageing parents or other family members who are sick or disabled. Do the men running most of Australia’s businesses get this? Do they even understand the contribution women make to the economy? Comments by the business lobby about “those who have no choice but to be at work – truck drivers, plumbers, teachers, paramedics, factory workers, chefs, doctors” suggest not. Other than teaching, every one of those professions is dominated by men. Women often choose teaching because it fits with their kids’ school hours. They don’t “choose” the other jobs in this list because the structure of those workplaces makes it impossible for them to look after their families. Yet more evidence that the highly paid men who dominate both business and our economic discourse utterly fail to consider the needs of women came in an astonishing piece by former deputy chief medical officer of Australia Nick Coatsworth this week. Working from home, he said, is “likely to be bad for your health” because it leads to more stress and a sedentary lifestyle – no walking or cycling to and from the office or the train, less movement while working because you only have to get up to go to the toilet, and you can’t exercise at home on company time. Related: If politics is personal, is it any wonder young women are becoming more progressive? | Julianne Schultz Again, who is out of touch here? Any working woman with responsibilities at home will tell you we don’t have time to walk or cycle to work – we have to drop the kids on the way to and from the office, so we are rushing, often in the car. When we do work at home, we get up from our desks multiple times a day to put on a load of washing or unload the dishwasher or greet the grocery delivery driver at the front door. (Each of these tasks, by the way, takes five minutes: less than you’d spend on the “water cooler chat” that Coatsworth thinks so valuable.) As for time to exercise, don’t make me laugh. There’s a multitude of evidence showing that women don’t exercise because they don’t have the time, and if they get any time, they are too exhausted after pulling a double shift – one in the office and one at home. The UN theme for International Women’s Day this year is “Invest in women: accelerate progress”. If the stale, pale males who represent the interests of big business and employers in this country can’t keep up with the long-overdue progress in workplace practices that is finally under way then, frankly, we’ll all be better off when they accelerate into retirement. Emma Dawson is executive director of Per Capita
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MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary
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Australia has offered the Malaysian government support for a renewed search for MH370, on the 10-year anniversary of the aircraft’s disappearance. On Friday, Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, and transport minister, Catherine King, said the government’s “sincere sympathies” remained with the loved ones of those who were onboard. “Despite coordinated efforts to locate the missing plane over the last decade, those who lost loved ones have not had the answers they seek. We recognise their ongoing heartache and grief,” the ministers said in a statement. “Australia coordinated what was one of the biggest search operations of its kind in history when the aircraft disappeared, searching over 3 million square kilometres above the water and more than 120,000 square kilometres under the water, sadly without locating the missing aircraft,” they said. “The Australian Government is supportive of all practical efforts to find MH370. Australia stands ready to assist the Malaysian Government if it considers that Australian agencies are able to offer technical information as a result of their involvement in previous searches,” the ministers said. Related: ‘We need to go again’: Australian who led MH370 search joins calls for fresh effort to find plane The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 departed Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014, bound for Beijing with 12 crew and 227 passengers on board – including seven Australians. About 40 minutes later it disappeared from the radar and its fate remains unknown. On Sunday the Malaysian government said it was in talks with the US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to discuss a new search. The company says it is willing and able to return to the search and has submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government. The Malaysian government initially did a surface search in the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca. But electronic blips picked up by satellites indicated the plane had turned around, flown until it ran out of fuel, then plunged into the Indian Ocean between Western Australia and Antarctica. At that point Australia took over, with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) leading the Indian Ocean underwater search effort from May 2014 to early 2017. Australian agencies also involved in the search included the Defence Force, Australian Maritime Safety Authority, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
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State of the Union: what to watch for as Joe Biden addresses the nation
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President Joe Biden will address a joint session of Congress Thursday night in his last state of the union speech of his presidential term. He’s expected to highlight his legislative record in office, with the rapidly-approaching election raising the stakes. How to watch Biden’s State of the Union address: Biden’s state of the union address is scheduled for 9pm ET/6pm PT tonight – 7 March – and will be broadcast on most major news networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. It will also be carried by CSPAN and streamed live on the White House website here. What to watch for: Biden will likely portray this election as he did in 2020: a contest between democracy and Trump, whose authoritarian rhetoric has escalated since he lost the 2020 election to Biden. Biden has been consistently been polling behind Trump and will likely cast himself as the last line of defense against autocracy. It is unclear how Biden will position himself on foreign policy. His administration faces mounting pressure from the right to abandon its support for Ukraine, which for more than two years has been fighting a Russian ground invasion. And he faces calls from a progressive anti-war movement to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign. During his speech, Biden is expected to announce the creation of a port on the coast of Gaza to deliver more aid to the besieged enclave. A week ago, Biden and Trump made dueling visits to the US-Mexico border, underscoring the centrality of immigration policy to the 2024 race – and the shift to the right that Biden and other Democratic politicians have made on the issue. During his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Biden called on Trump to support the bipartisan bill to restrict immigration on the southern border, which is languishing in Congress. How, and if, Biden speaks about immigration, will be a prelude to his approach during the months ahead on the campaign trail. This speech will also offer Biden an opportunity to address abortion rights, an issue that has mobilized Democratic voters since the supreme court decision protecting abortion access, Roe v Wade, was overturned. An Alabama supreme court ruling in February that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law – threatening to cut off access to in vitro fertilization there – brought concerns about reproductive healthcare access back to the fore. Biden has expressed his personal misgivings about abortion on religious grounds, but has defended Roe v Wade. What notable guests are attending? Among Biden’s guests in attendance will be Latorya Beasley, whose second round of in vitro fertilization was canceled following the Alabama supreme court ruling on IVF, and Kate Cox, who was forced to flee her home state of Texas to seek an abortion. Beasley’s experience, the White House said, is “yet another example of how the overturning of Roe v Wade has disrupted access to reproductive health care for women and families across the country”. Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, will join Beasley, Cox and first lady Jill Biden in a “viewing box” in the House gallery. Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were invited but declined to attend. Related: Who is Katie Britt? Alabama senator to deliver rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union The House speaker, Mike Johnson, will also have guests in attendance, including family members of people thought to be taken hostage by Hamas and family members of service members killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Johnson also invited the parents of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia. Who is delivering the rebuttal? Katie Britt, a first-term senator from Alabama – and the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate – will deliver a rebuttal to Biden’s address. Britt is a rightwing Republican and a staunch Trump supporter. In the wake of the Alabama court ruling on frozen embryos, Britt defended IVF services and is expected to counter Biden’s talking points on reproductive health.
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Matt Dufty’s late try gives Sam Burgess’s Warrington victory over Hull KR
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Sam Burgess will know that nothing is won at this stage of a rugby league season but a month into his first head coaching role, you suspect he will be satisfied, if nothing else, with the way his Warrington Wolves team are progressing. Burgess has made no secret of his desire to strengthen the mental resolve of a side who undoubtedly possess the ability to challenge for silverware but last year limped their way through to the end of the season. That change was evident in key moments here as the Wolves made it three consecutive victories at a place where few teams will come and win in 2024. Related: Confusion reigns in Super League as new rules and legal case cast shadow | Aaron Bower Hull Kingston Rovers, like Warrington, have aspirations of a tilt at the Grand Final this season. This absorbing contest, in which the lead changed hands no fewer than five times, could have easily gone either way. But in the end a Matt Dufty try nine minutes from time, and some spirited defending in the final moments when Rovers were piling on the pressure, proved enough to get the Wolves over the line. “It was a great game,” Burgess said. “Both teams were good, both teams had their moments of energy swings and we managed to clinch it at the end. I didn’t think it would be that close but I’m really proud of the players, I felt they got what they deserved.” It is now three wins from four after defeat at Catalans on the opening weekend and while they are far from the finished article, there are promising signs in the impact Burgess had so far. Burgess has introduced a number of younger players into his squad and one of those, the teenage half-back Leon Hayes, was influential here, as was full-back Dufty, who not only scored the winning try but had a hand in almost everything the Wolves did well in attack. Dufty’s creativity helped open the scoring, with a wonderful pass that enabled George Williams to touch down. Hayes then kicked through for Matty Ashton to make it 10-0, but Rovers hit back. Tries from Tyrone May and Ryan Hall were both converted by Jez Litten to make it 12-10, but Warrington responded with two tries as half-time approached. First, Hayes and Lachlan Fitzgibbon teed up Toby King to put the visitors back in front before Dufty broke from deep and kicked ahead for Connor Wrench. Both conversions were missed to leave Warrington’s lead a slender six, but the momentum of the contest could have been far different had Rovers not spurned two glorious opportunities either side of the break. James Batchelor should have scored when it was 12-10, but he dropped the ball in the act of scoring, before a wonderful break from Mikey Lewis wasn’t finished by Rovers to leave them ruing what might have been. “I’m gutted for the players,” their coach, Willie Peters, said. “Most of the time you put that effort in you win. I can’t fault the effort.” The opening 20 minutes after half-time were certainly cagey but Rovers eventually struck when Oliver Gildart crossed, and then a stunning pass from May opened up a gap for Tom Opacic to touch down in the corner. The eight points from the two tries were enough to make it 20-18 in Rovers’ favour but crucially, James Batchelor missed both attempts at goal. You wondered if that would eventually prove decisive and the answer arrived with nine minutes remaining. Warrington had largely been ineffective in attack for large periods of that second half but the one moment they did have, they took full advantage of it to seal their victory. A wonderful move direct from the scrum involving Hayes and Williams allowed Dufty to cut through and touch down. The Australian almost turned from hero to villain when he dropped a kick with seconds remaining to hand Hull KR one last chance but the Wolves held firm with the kind of endeavour and spirit that perhaps underpinned the impact Burgess is wanting to have at this club in the months and years ahead. So far, so good.
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Cranbrook school principal resigns over allegations he knew about teacher’s ‘extremely concerning past conduct’
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The headteacher of the prestigious Cranbrook school in Sydney has resigned after it emerged he allegedly knew one of his teachers had engaged in “extremely concerning past conduct” and kept him in his position. An emergency meeting of the school council was held on Thursday to investigate Nicholas Sampson’s response to the incident. “The circumstances of the matter and subsequently Mr Sampson’s failure to disclose the matter to the current school council … have led to an irrevocable breakdown of trust between the headmaster and the school council,” Geoff Lovell, the president of the council, wrote in an email to parents at the school on Friday. “The school council communicated this to Mr Sampson and this morning received his resignation.” Related: MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary “The allegations do not involve past or present Cranbrook students. The Senior School teacher involved was immediately placed on leave pending the School’s further assessment of the matter,” wrote Lovell. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Guardian Australia understands the “past conduct” related to graphic emails sent by the teacher to a former student when the student, from a previous school, was an adult. The teacher was investigated by police at the time and found not to have engaged in criminal behaviour, it is understood. The teacher was also investigated by a team from the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, which concluded the teacher had engaged in “no reportable conduct”, meaning his behaviour did not need to be reported to the Office of the Children’s Guardian, according to a source familiar with the AISNSW report. Guardian Australia has not seen a copy of the report but understands it suggested Cranbrook could examine whether professional boundaries had been violated. The teacher exchanged graphic sexual emails with a woman in her early 20s who had been a student of his when he worked at a previous school. In them, he allegedly talked about sexual fantasies about her and her classmates, according to the source familiar with the AISNSW report. The emails were sent while the teacher was working at Cranbrook and were reported to the police, the AISNSW, the teacher’s former school and to Cranbrook. Sampson was aware of the incidents but kept the teacher in his position, the school council said. The council said it became aware of the allegations against the teacher on Thursday. AISNSW said on Friday that Cranbrook engaged its services in 2015 to conduct an investigation into three “potentially reportable conduct allegations” made against one of its staff members. “These matters are obviously highly confidential. Every alleged victim and every alleged person subject of allegations has a right to a rigorous and unbiased investigation,” the association said in a statement. “AISNSW has a team of qualified and experienced child protection investigators, including ex-police detectives, and works closely with the Office of the Children’s Guardian and police when conducting investigations on behalf of schools. “AISNSW investigated the allegations and provided its findings to the school. At all stages of the investigation, the school remains the decision-maker. AISNSW’s findings were reviewed and upheld by the NSW Ombudsman.” This is not the first time Sampson has been accused of mishandling complaints against a staff member. Sampson appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016 in relation to his handling of an incident while headmaster at Geelong grammar school. In 2004, Sampson was informed that one of the teachers, Jonathan Harvey, had allegedly sexually abused a boy in the 1970s. Harvey was later found guilty of sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy. The commission criticised Sampson for keeping Harvey in his job for several months after learning of the allegation, paying Harvey to retire early, and writing him a glowing letter praising his “outstanding service”. The latest incident comes at the end of a difficult week for Cranbrook which was the focus of an ABC Four Corners investigation on Monday. The program included interviews with former staff and students who claimed the school had a toxic culture, including bullying, sexual harassment and sexual abuse. After the episode aired on Monday night, Cranbrook school council issued a statement saying: “The council has considered in detail the matters raised by the ABC and remains fully supportive of the headmaster and the school’s leadership.” “Cranbrook takes all allegations of abuse, and its duty of care to its students, extremely seriously and follows relevant and mandatory reporting processes in relation to these matters,” the school council said. “We acknowledge survivors and their stories.” Sampson and the teacher were approached for comment via Cranbrook.
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Freiburg 1-0 West Ham, Benfica 2-2 Rangers, and more: Europa League – as it happened
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Thank you for joining me. Here is the report from Lisbon. Related: Rangers squander lead twice as Goldson gifts Benfica Europa League draw Philippe Clement: “I am not happy. I think we were really close to rewriting happy against a team who have never lost a Europa League game at home. I am really proud of my team. We did all the right things, scored good goals and were unlucky with the goals we conceded. “Every showed great character and gave everything to get this good result.” Jacob Steinberg was in Germany for Freiburg 1-0 West Ham. Related: Gregoritsch gives Freiburg first-leg lead as West Ham denied late penalty Tom Lawrence: “We dug deep but we had some chances that we should have done better with. “We will give it our all at Ibrox. I don’t think they will like to come to Ibrox.” Michael Owen “it looks unnatural but it is natural”. I think he is talking about the handball. Europa Conference League full times Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 PaokMaccabi Haifa 3-4 FiorentinaServette 0-0 Viktoria PlzeňUnion Saint-Gilloise 0-3 Fenerbahce Full time: Benfica 2-2 Rangers A hard-fought result for Rangers. Should be a cracking second leg. Benfica 2-2 Rangers: Di Maria flies into a challenge on Souttar. Somehow gets away without a booking. Full time: Marseille 4-0 VillarrealMilan 4-2 Slavia Prague Benfica 2-2 Rangers: I would think Rangers would take the draw. Benfica 2-2 Rangers: Five minutes of added time in Lisbon. Full time: Freiburg 1-0 West Ham West Ham are made to pay for failing to take chances. Freiburg 1-0 West Ham: NO PENALTY GIVEN AFTER FOUR MINUTES OF REVIEW! Updated at Freiburg 1-0 West Ham: Still waiting … this is why VAR is all a bit shit. The ref is off to the monitor … Freiburg 1-0 West Ham: Personally I would find it a very harsh decision to give it. Soucek knocks the ball up onto the defender’s hand. This is taking an age. Go look at the monitor, mate. Freiburg 1-0 West Ham: THERE IS A VERY LATE CHECK FOR A PENALTY FOR HANDBALL. WEST HAM PENALTY? Benfica 2-2 Rangers: Di Maria picks out an unmarked Otamendi with a corner but the centre back gets under the ball and heads over. Freiburg 1-0 West Ham: Four minutes of injury time in which to find an equaliser … Benfica 2-2 Rangers: The match is looking pretty open at the moment. There could be another goal in Lisbon soon … Benfica 2-2 Rangers: Di Maria lifts the ball to Neres in the box but Goldson does well to get there first. Benfica 2-2 Rangers: What Rangers need is fresh legs and Clement is preparing three sets. Jack, Roofe and McKinnon are being readied. Updated at GOAL! Freiburg 1-0 West Ham (Gregortisch, 81) Sallai shoots and Gregortisch taps home. Freiburg’s Michael Gregoritsch slots the ball home to open the scoring against West Ham. Photograph: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images Updated at Benfica 2-2 Rangers: Benfica counter and Rafa Silva pulls back for Di Maria but his finish is a poor one. GOAL! Benfica 2-2 Rangers (Goldson og, 67) An unfortunate leveller. Updated at Oooooh that’s nice from Auba. That's lovely from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang! 👌Pepe Reina never stood a chance!#UEL pic.twitter.com/5SmsaJmBsg— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 7, 2024 Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Ward-Prowse has a good chance on the edge of the box but needs to shoot with his left foot and cannot generate the power nor accuracy. Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Leonardo is on for Cabral. Updated at Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Gregoritsch has a good chance but heads straight at Fabianski. Not a classic. Marseille 4-0 Villarreal: GOAL! Aubameyang gets a second against the Spaniards who are down to 10. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Takes aim from 40 yards but his free-kick drifts wide. Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Bah takes a touch inside the box and then leaps into the air somewhere near Lawrence’s outstretched leg. It is a comical dive. The referee and VAR once again laugh it off. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Bowen shows some nifty feet and cuts inside before taking aim for the far post but Atubolu pulls off a superb save. Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Tavernier whips in a corner from the right but Benfica clear. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Paqueta has to do better. Kudus lifts a cross to the back post but the Brazilian heads up and over. Updated at Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Once against Benfica are ramping up the pressure on the Rangers goal. It could be a tiring second half for the visitors. “Neither side of the Prague derby will be encouraged by results so far today,” says Joe Pearson. “Sparta got hammered by Liverpool, and now Slavia are two goals and one man down at the half against Milan. Woe to the Czechs” Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Neres has another fine chance but Tavernier throws himself at his feet to block. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: YELLOW CARD! Pacqueta flies into a challenge for no reason on the touchline nor is it his first poor challenge. Benfica 1-2 Rangers: Can Rangers hold onto this scoreline? They are going to battle, that’s for sure. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Bowen lifts a cross to the back post for Pacqueta who waits for the ball to reach him but Doan gets back just in time. The resulting corner is swung to Mavropanos who heads against the post. West Ham should be ahead. Updated at Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: A deep free-kick into the box sees Sallai tumble in the box in the vicinity of Coufal. Freiburg want a penalty but all they get is a booking for Sallai. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Sallai goes for the spectacular but his bicycle kick whacks into Soucek’s thigh resulting in the ball dribbling towards goal. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Kudus drops a shoulder and cuts inside but his shot is straight at the goalkeeper. The drama was so late in Lisbon that we are back playing at the other matches … Kári Tulinius emails: “Freiburg v West Ham has been a match between two counter-attacking teams that are very good in set-piece situations. This is a case of the immovable object meeting the immovable object. Not even the purists will have enjoyed that half of football.” Andy Hunter’s report from Liverpool in Prague. Related: Núñez double fires Liverpool to 5-1 win at Sparta Prague but Konaté limps off Europa Conference League half-time scores Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 PaokMaccabi Haifa 2-1 FiorentinaServette 0-0 Viktoria PlzeňUnion Saint-Gilloise 0-1 Fenerbahce Europa League half-time scores Benfica 1-2 RangersMarseille 3-0 Villarreal Milan 3-1 Slavia PragueFreiburg 0-0 West Ham GOAL! Benfica 1-2 Rangers (Sterling, 45+4) Sterling taps in at the back post after good work down the left. Updated at GOAL! Benfica 1-1 Rangers (Di Maria, pen, 45+2) Butland is booked for his delaying tactics but Di Maria scores from the spot. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: PENALTY! The corner catches Souttar on the arm. It flicks off his head from the corner but really it is not a penalty. Naturally, the referee has awarded it. A bit of a nonsense for me. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: There is a check for a handball for a penalty but frankly if it is award it would be hilarious. There is a lengthy discussion between officials and the referee goes to the monitor. I am not so sure … Benfica 0-1 Rangers: A corner reaches Rafa Silva on the edge of the box, he lines up a strike as Yilmaz charges out to him to deflect the shot. The resulting corner is once again whipped to the front post and causes plenty of havoc before Butland claims. The goalkeeper is forced into another save soon after when Neves pings a shot across goal. Rangers holding on here. Lundstram is down with a head injury. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Down the other end Sterling gets past Aursnes and into the box. He tumbles over in front of the Benfica man and calls for a penalty but, like Di Maria, there is nowhere enough in it. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Di Maria does a lovely turn in the box and gets a shot away but there is no power in it. Goldson tries to block the shot leading to a clash with Di Maria who rolls around for no obvious reason. The fans think a penalty should be awarded but they are as deluded as Di Maria. The VAR has a quick look, chuckles to himself and rightly awards nothing. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: YELLOW CARD: Sildillia bashes into Alvarez to stop an attack and is carded. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Yilmaz wins a corner on the left. The Turk takes it but against it does not meet the first man. Rangers need to make more of these situations. Milan 1-0 Slavia Prague: GOAL! Giroud makes the most of Slavia being down to 10 men after Diouf’s sending off. Updated at Benfica 0-1 Rangers: It is pouring down in Lisbon! Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Dessers battles his way through to the Benfica midfield and defence. He reaches the edge of the area and the ball runs loose to Sterling who is scythed down. Tavernier lines it up … but hits the wall. Marseille 2-0 Villarreal: GOAL! Mosquera puts the ball into the back of his own net. Propia Puerta! Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Nice work from Freiburg opens up West Ham but Höler fires the ball straight at Fabianski. Down the other end Bowen has a good chance but makes poor contact on a Kudus cross and sends a shot wide. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: YELLOW CARD! Sterling overstretches to win the ball and catches Otamendi in the process. The centre-back is hilariously overdramatic. What a ludicrous individual Otamendi is. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Aursnes takes aim for goal but his shot is deflected wide. Another Di Maria corner is whipped into the front post but once again Rangers deal with it. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: All very even in Germany where the crowd is the most entertaining thing on show. Updated at Marseille 1-0 Villarreal: GOAL! Veretout opens the scoring. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: The hosts are getting back on top once more in Lisbon. Cabral spins in the box but his shot is blocked by Yilmaz. The resulting corner is headed clear by Goldson. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Yilmaz shows Di Maria who is boss, blocking out his cross for a corner. The Argentinian sends the ball over everyone but Neres cannot make sufficient contact at the back post. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: A solid discussion in the commentary box about the beauty of knowing when to stand still as a football. David Silva was always great at this. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Neres goes down in the box under a challenge from Sterling. The Brazilian desperately thinks the non-foul merits a penalty but he is having a laugh. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: A superb double save from Butland keeps Rangers ahead. First blocking from Neres and then Cabral. Yilmaz whips in a corner from the left but it does not get further than the front post as Benfica head clear. Updated at Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: Bowen whacks a cross along the six-yard line but the goalkeeper is there to catch before Kudus can get a touch on the ball. Benfica 0-1 Rangers: Sterling intercepts a pass then gets whacked by Neres to earn Rangers a free-kick. Are Benfica a little rattled? GOAL! Benfica 0-1 Rangers (Lawrence, 7) After such a strong start from the hosts, it is Rangers who have the lead thanks to the former Manchester United man, heading home from 10 yards. Updated at Peter Oh emails: “Is it just me or does ‘Servette - Viktoria Pilsen (Plzen)’ sound like someone behind a bar just placed a tall glass of golden suds and a napkin in front of you?” I await someone giving me a pint. Benfica 0-0 Rangers: Neres flashes a shot at goal but Butland does well to save. Benfica have a couple of corners in quick succession. Di Maria whips one towards goal but Lundstram heads clear. Benfica 0-0 Rangers: The hosts are dominating the early period and putting Rangers under pressure. Clement’s side might need to increase the tempo here because Benfica are looking a little sharper. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: The Germans chuck a few crosses into the box in quick succession but Mavropanos is not worried about them, heading each one clear. Benfica 0-0 Rangers: There are plenty of seats available in Lisbon. Maybe Rangers are not the draw they once were. Freiburg 0-0 West Ham: It is a lively atmosphere in Germany. The hosts are trying to pass the ball around the back but it is an unsuccessful concept, leading to the goalkeeper kicking it out for a throw. Updated at Kick off The whistles do peep around the continent. Ben Fisher on a quiet night in Amsterdam. Related: Villa and Ajax down to 10 men as Konsa and Gooijer see red in goalless draw A difficult night for Brighton in Rome. Ed Aarons was there. Related: Lukaku on target as Roma destroy Brighton’s Europa League dreams Philippe Clement: “I expect a storm, a reaction [from Benfica]. They have a lot of quality and they have never lost in the Europa League at home. It is a nice challenge for us to play against a team of that level.” Liverpool defeated Sparta Prague 5-1 in Czech Republic. I think it is fair to say they are very much through to the next round. Klopp will make some changes next week for sure. West Ham played Freiburg in the group stage winning both games, which is an indication that they have the Germans’ number. They must be bored of facing them. Football finance is all the rage. Related: Football Daily | Spurs, Chelsea and Leicester re-enter the finance subset chat My only trip to the Estadio da Luz came when I was on holiday in Lisbon. There was no football on but they have a bar open in the stadium and you can have a pint overlooking the pitch. It was lovely on a hot day. Jacob Steinberg on the Hammers (mainly Lucas Paqueta). Related: West Ham must make most of Lucas Paquetá’s genius while they still can | Jacob Steinberg Starting lineups: Benfica v Rangers Benfica: Trubin; Aursnes, António Silva, Otamendi, Bah; João Neves, Florentino; Di María, Rafa Silva, Neres; Cabral Subs: Samuel S., André Gomes, Diogo Spencer, T. Araújo, Morato, A. Carreras, Kökcü, J. Mário, Tiago Gouveia, Rollheiser, M. Leonardo and Tengstedt Rangers: Butland; Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Yilmaz; Lundstram, Diomande; Sterling, Fabio Silva, Lawrence; Dessers. Subs: McCrorie, K. Wright, Jack, Roofe, Davies, Barisic, King, Raskin, McCausland, Yfeko, Fraser, McKinnon. Starting lineups: Freiburg v West Ham Freiburg: Atubolu, Sildillia, Ginter, Gulde, Günter, Höfler, Doan, Eggestein, Höler, Grifo, Sallai Subs: Muller, Uphoff, Szalai, Weisshaupt, Keitel, Kubler, Adamu, Muslija, Philipp, Makengo, Rohl, Gregortisch West Ham: Fabianski; Coufal, Mavropanos, Zouma, Emerson; Soucek, Alvarez; Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Paqueta; Bowen Subs: Areola, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Ings, Johnson, Phillips, Antonio, Mubama, Earthy, Anang, Orford, Casey Preamble After the fun of the early evening kick-offs, we head into the late night action. For those of a British persuasion the interest comes in Lisbon where Benfica host Rangers, while West Ham have travelled to Freiburg (again). Elsewhere, Marseille host Villarreal which should be a fun tie in the Europa League. Benfica will be a good barometer for Rangers to find out where they stand on the continent. They have plenty of talented young players who will undoubtedly move in the years to come but with plenty of experience mixed among the tearaways. Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamendi provide a little bit of Argentinian glitz and experience to the formula. They come into the match off the back of a 5-0 pummelling at Porto, so will be desperate to bounce back. This is the business end of the European football calendar but the Europa Conference League is offering little to whet the appetite. Here’s to a fun night. 8pm GMT kick offs: Europa League Benfica v RangersMarseille v Villarreal Milan v Slavia PragueFreiburg v West Ham Europa Conference League Dinamo Zagreb v PaokMaccabi Haifa v FiorentinaServette v Viktoria PlzeňUnion Saint-Gilloise v Fenerbahce Updated at
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Liverpool owners hope to lure Michael Edwards back for post-Klopp rebuild
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Liverpool’s owners met Michael Edwards in Boston on Sunday in their attempts to convince the club’s former sporting director to shape the post-Jürgen Klopp era at Anfield. Fenway Sports Group’s principal owner, John W Henry, and president, Mike Gordon, were among the senior executives who held talks with Edwards about returning to the club he left in 2022. The 44-year-old, a consultant at the sports advisory business Ludonautics, is regarded by FSG as the ideal candidate to lead Liverpool’s transition when Klopp steps down after nine hugely successful years as manager this summer. However, the club’s owners will need to offer a more powerful role than sporting director to tempt Edwards back. Related: Núñez double fires Liverpool to 5-1 win at Sparta Prague but Konaté limps off Edwards has rejected numerous approaches from clubs, including Chelsea, since ending a 10-year association with Liverpool and playing a key role in the club’s transformation under Klopp. He turned down an initial approach from FSG in January regarding resuming his career as Liverpool’s sporting director and is likely to want total control in a more far-reaching position, such as head of football operations, to accept the invitation to return. Edwards would be expected to head the recruitment and analytics departments. He would lead the appointments of any new sporting director and Liverpool’s manager, with Xabi Alonso the front-runner to succeed Klopp. The club’s new football structure is expected to take shape in the coming weeks. FSG’s concerted efforts to rehire Edwards demonstrates its conviction that he is the best person to shape Liverpool’s next era. The owners have been searching for a permanent sporting director since Julian Ward, Edwards’ former right-hand man and replacement, unexpectedly announced he would be leaving in the summer of 2023. Jörg Schmadtke was brought in as a temporary measure to assist Klopp’s rebuild last summer and departed at the end of the January transfer window. Klopp’s decision to leave has changed the requirements for the new sporting director, from one who could work alongside a well-established manager to dealing with a period of transition. Alonso is the leading candidate for the Liverpool manager’s job but the Premier League leaders, unlike Bayern Munich, wish to respect his attempts to win the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen rather than enter a public courtship of their popular former midfielder. Alonso is acutely aware of Liverpool’s interest but the Sporting coach Rúben Amorim, who has other suitors, is also under consideration.
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Steve Borthwick’s England feel ‘weight’ of shirt before tough Ireland test
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Steve Borthwick believes the England jersey has been weighing heavy on his players as they seek to salvage their Six Nations campaign against Ireland on Saturday and suggested inconsistent team selections during Eddie Jones’s reign were a contributing factor. As England prepare to face what Borthwick believes is “the best team in the world”, the head coach has made three changes to the side that lost 30-21 to Scotland last time out, with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso handed a first start and Alex Mitchell and George Martin coming into the team. Borthwick might have gone further but Marcus Smith has been deemed ready only for a place on the bench after returning from a calf injury, while George Furbank stays at full-back with Freddie Steward again omitted. Instead, the head coach highlighted the importance of the “continuity of selections” when attempting to ease the burden on his players. Related: ‘I couldn’t tell you what we are:’ England’s search for identity goes on | Gerard Meagher It is a telling remark, coming not long after the former England wing Jonny May revealed the anxiety that goes on behind the scenes with players fretting over their places on a weekly basis, though Borthwick has just once in his tenure named an unchanged starting XV, and in the backs only George Ford and Henry Slade have been constant fixtures in this Six Nations. “We know that against Scotland there were errors,” Borthwick said. It’s probably the first time in a while that I’d seen the weight of the shirt feel heavy on the players. As a player and in teams I’ve been part of, I saw a lot of players feel the weight of that shirt and feel the scrutiny the team was under. “The environment we want to create is supportive of the players and we understand that mistakes are going to happen. What I’m after is a response to that. What do we learn from it? How quickly do we move forward from it? If you look at the game this weekend, what a game for the shirt to lift you up. What a game for Twickenham to add fuel to the team. What a game to add every ounce of energy and fight that’s within the players together, when you are going to be tested against the best team in the world.” Asked how he can lift the weight on his players, Borthwick added: “I think we try to make an environment where the players enjoy it, where we know mistakes are going to be made, but it’s about continuing to do the right things. I back the players. Yes we made errors [against Scotland], we’re disappointed in the performance and we’re disappointed in the result. But I also think this is a group of players that have made enormous progress over the last year, and now we’ve started the next step of the journey in this Six Nations. “The continuity of the selections, it’s an important factor. When I track this back … the continuity of selection over the last few years has potentially not always been as evident and it’s not always helped the team to have lots of changes regularly. “I’ve looked closely at what’s happened with the England team in previous cycles. I’ve looked closely and compared. Things like continuity and cohesion of selection. We can all see at times that’s not really been the case. You see England has done well, generally, when they’ve had a club side that’s been dominant and has had a large number of players coming from one team.” Ireland, meanwhile, welcome back Hugo Keenan against England but will be without lock James Ryan for the remainder of the Six Nations. Keenan has recovered from a knee problem which ruled him out of the 31-7 victory over Wales and replaces Ciaran Frawley in the only change to Andy Farrell’s starting XV. Ryan, who has been reduced to a peripheral role during the championship, suffered a “freak” bicep injury in training on Wednesday and the second row will sit out the trip to Twickenham, in addition to next week’s finale against Scotland. Garry Ringrose is fit after a shoulder injury but must wait for his first international appearance since the World Cup due to the impressive form of midfield pair Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki. Ireland, who are chasing successive grand slams on the back of bonus-point wins over France, Italy and Wales, could retain their title with a game to spare with victory in south-west London but Farrell warned against any complacency. “I don’t get involved with the criticism at all,” he said of England’s performances so far in the championship. “I look at the individuals, the way that they’re playing, the coaching staff that they got, the plan that they’ve got, a fantastic side that is going to be preparing to give it everything they’ve got at the weekend. “That makes them unbelievably dangerous, we just prepare for them to be at their best and if that’s the case it’s going to be one hell of a battle. If they’re at their best, you expect them to be as hard as anyone in world rugby to beat.” England15 George Furbank (Northampton) 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter) 13 Henry Slade (Exeter) 12 Ollie Lawrence (Bath) 11 Tommy Freeman (Northampton) 10 George Ford (Sale)9 Alex Mitchell (Northampton) 1 Ellis Genge (Bristol)2 Jamie George (Saracens)3 Dan Cole (Leicester) 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens)5 George Martin (Leicester) 6 Ollie Chessum (Leicester) 7 Sam Underhill (Bath) 8 Ben Earl (Saracens) Replacements: 16 Theo Dan (Saracens) 17 Joe Marler (Harlequins) 18 Will Stuart (Bath) 19 Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins) 20 Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins) 21 Danny Care (Harlequins) 22 Marcus Smith (Harlequins) 23 Elliot Daly (Saracens) Ireland15 Hugo Keenan (Leinster)14 Calvin Nash (Munster)13 Robbie Henshaw (Leinster)12 Bundee Aki (Connacht)11 James Lowe (Leinster)10 Jack Crowley (Munster)9 Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)1 Andrew Porter (Leinster)2 Dan Sheehan (Leinster)3 Tadhg Furlong (Leinster)4 Joe McCarthy (Leinster)5 Tadhg Beirne (Munster)6 Peter O’Mahony (Munster)7 Josh van der Flier (Leinster)8 Caelan Doris (Leinster)Replacements16 Ronan Kelleher (Leinster) 17 Cian Healy (Leinster) 18 Finlay Bealham (Connacht) 19 Iain Henderson (Ulster) 20 Ryan Baird (Leinster) 21 Jack Conan (Leinster) 22 Conor Murray (Munster) 23 Ciaran Frawley (Leinster) Ireland, meanwhile, welcome back Hugo Keenan against England but will be without lock James Ryan for the remainder of the Six Nations. Keenan has recovered from a knee problem which ruled him out of the 31-7 victory over Wales and replaces Ciaran Frawley in the only change to Andy Farrell’s starting XV. Ryan, who has been reduced to a peripheral role during the championship, suffered a “freak” bicep injury in training on Wednesday and the second row will sit out the trip to Twickenham, in addition to next week’s finale against Scotland. Garry Ringrose is fit after a shoulder injury but must wait for his first international appearance since the World Cup due to the impressive form of midfield pair Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki. Ireland, who are chasing successive grand slams on the back of bonus-point wins over France, Italy and Wales, could retain their title with a game to spare with victory in south-west London but Farrell warned against any complacency. “I don’t get involved with the criticism at all,” he said of England’s performances so far in the championship. “I look at the individuals, the way that they’re playing, the coaching staff that they got, the plan that they’ve got, a fantastic side that is going to be preparing to give it everything they’ve got at the weekend. “That makes them unbelievably dangerous, we just prepare for them to be at their best and if that’s the case it’s going to be one hell of a battle. If they’re at their best, you expect them to be as hard as anyone in world rugby to beat.”
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‘It’s a penalty’: Moyes fumes at spot-kick snub as West Ham go down to Freiburg
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The burning sense of injustice that coursed through West Ham after being denied the chance to wipe out Freiburg’s slender advantage should not make them look past the failings that left their hopes of salvaging a draw from the first leg of this last-16 tie dependent on the whims of a referee with a curious interpretation of the handball law. Admittedly the fury that greeted Alejandro Hernández not awarding a penalty after Noah Weisshaupt blocked Tomas Soucek’s attempted shot with an outstretched arm deep into stoppage time was understandable. The home crowd roared, perhaps as much out of disbelief as jubilation, and David Moyes fumed. The initial check by the VAR had taken an age and it seemed inevitable that the decision would go against Freiburg when the Spanish official ran over to the pitchside monitor. Related: Rangers go back to Ibrox level despite Goldson own goal in Benfica thriller “I think it’s a penalty,” Moyes said. “Nowadays if you have two hands above your head, it is a penalty. If it was a free-kick for a push, he never restarted the game with that. If he kicked it on to the arm, it is a really poor clearance. With Uefa, if anything hits your arms they tend to give penalty kicks.” Even so West Ham, who were guilty of too many bad choices throughout a disappointing 1-0 defeat, will only have themselves to blame if they exit the Europa League at the London Stadium next week. Nothing summed up the lethargy more than the only goal of a poor game coming when Edson Álvarez lost the ball with nine minutes left and the Freiburg substitute, Michael Gregoritsch, tapped into an empty net after eluding West Ham’s increasingly vulnerable centre-back, Kurt Zouma. It was hard to tell that West Ham were favourites following their wins over Freiburg during the group stage. Moyes raged at their passing for much of a forgettable first half. They created little after Jarrod Bowen volleyed wide from Mohammed Kudus’s cross. Lucas Paquetá repeatedly losing possession was not a good sign. There was no control in midfield. Kudus toiled on the right and James Ward-Prowse did nothing in open play. Yet Freiburg, who are ninth in the Bundesliga after a patchy run, lacked conviction. Roland Sallai spurned two chances and Lucas Höler shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski. West Ham perked up at the start of the second half. Paquetá headed over and Konstantinos Mavropanos hit the woodwork after Noah Atubolu flapped at Ward-Prowse’s corner. Space appeared on the counterattack. A combination between Paquetá and Kudus released Bowen, who drew an excellent save from Atubolu. Yet the game remained bitty. West Ham had to make a change at left-back, Aaron Cresswell coming on when Emerson Palmieri went off with a groin injury, and Freiburg stirred after Ward-Prowse shot tamely. Gregoritsch headed straight at Fabianski after coming off the bench. West Ham’s focus faded. They played themselves into trouble, Álvarez giving possession away. Freiburg pounced, Sallai shot from the left and Zouma failed to notice Gregoritsch lurking in the six-yard box.
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Kathryn Scanlan wins Gordon Burn prize for novel Kick the Latch
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American author Kathryn Scanlan has won this year’s Gordon Burn prize for her “desperately consumable” novel about horse training. Kick the Latch is based on a series of interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer from the midwest. The novel is “a thundering achievement, liberated from hard lines of genre and form by a laser-focus on not just excavation, but building of voice,” said judging chair and journalist Terri White. Scanlan said it is “a thrill and an honour to receive this prize, which is unique in its recognition of work that plays with form, style and genre”. She was announced as the winner at a ceremony in Newcastle, Burn’s home city, on Thursday. She wins £10,000 and the opportunity to go on a writing retreat at Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire. “In a series of vignettes drawn from transcribed conversations between Scanlan and Sonia, the reader encounters dilapidated trailers, racetracks, backs of vans, long hours, brutality, beauty and joy,” wrote Wendy Erskine in her Guardian review of the novel. “Sonia’s voice is unsentimental and humane, alert to absurdity and human frailty.” The prize recognises fiction and nonfiction books that “push boundaries, cross genres and challenge readers’ expectations” and that show an “affinity with the spirit and sensibility” of Burn’s “literary methods”. Burn, who died in 2009, wrote 10 books including the novels Alma Cogan and Fullalove. “Kick the Latch is a rare beast, setting out with a premise that feels neatly bordered but revealing itself almost immediately to be a desperately consumable piece of literature, pushing boundaries in terms of form and structure but never becoming inaccessible,” said judge and journalist Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. Los Angeles-based Scanlan’s first novel, Aug 9 – Fog, was a reworking of an elderly woman’s diary found at an estate auction. Her short story collection, The Dominant Animal, was published in 2020. Related: Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan review – secrets of the racetrack Judge and author Sheena Patel said that Kick the Latch is a “remarkable novel” of “tender, sparse and muscular” prose. “A worthy winner for this prize, you all need to read it.” Kick the Latch was chosen over six other shortlisted titles: Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll, If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery, Wifedom by Anna Funder, O Brother by John Niven, Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan and Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq. “The choice of subject, the method, the execution – it was all perfect in a book that deserves to be on record as an award-winner,” said judge and journalist Andrew Hankinson. Previous winners of the prize include Benjamin Myers, Peter Pomerantsev and Hanif Abdurraqib. Last year, Preti Taneja won for her examination of the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, Aftermath.
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England hope ‘Super Manny’ can help break cycle of underachievement
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It is not just England who are seeking to put the past behind them. In Australia they have conducted a lengthy review into the Wallabies’ failed World Cup campaign and come up with a list of recommendations almost as long as the Great Barrier Reef. Along with a massive “unapproved” overspend of A$2.6m [£1.34m], it emerged the players felt there was a lack of transparency about team selection and insufficient clarity around training. Ring any bells? Back in 2017-18 when Eddie Jones was in charge of England, the Rugby Football Union ended up making more than 60 redundancies after a budget blowout of around £900,000. And in that 2018 Six Nations, England trailed in fifth, their worst finish in 31 years. Those who pay little heed to history’s lessons are, as they say, doomed to repeat them. Related: ‘I couldn’t tell you what we are:’ England’s search for identity goes on | Gerard Meagher The review into England’s latest campaign has yet to be written but, as and when the RFU’s top brass convene, there is a risk of some serious deja vu. Lose to a rampant Ireland on Saturday and England, now under the coaching leadership of Steve Borthwick, will be on course for a fourth underwhelming Six Nations season in a row. As Borthwick and others have discovered, this cycle of underachievement – in stark contrast to Ireland’s consistent upward graph – is mighty hard to rectify overnight. At the very least it requires a catalyst: either a striking result or a talented newcomer. In part Borthwick’s selection tweaks, with George Martin and Alex Mitchell returning, reflect the reality of his side’s underperformance against Scotland at Murrayfield. They would love to bounce back with a statement win but, for that to happen against this ultra-organised Irish side, they need something – or someone – capable of transforming the stadium vibe in a split second. Step forward, then, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, the country’s most athletic medical student, who is due to make his first Test start on the right wing, with Tommy Freeman shifting over to the left. A little over 10 months ago, on 23 April to be precise, Feyi-Waboso was playing in the back three for Taunton Titans in their final National One fixture against Leeds at the mighty Veritas Park. Now here he is starting at Twickenham, an inspiring role model for ambitious young backs everywhere. They felt much the same about him at Taunton as England currently do: a likable, level-headed young man with lashings of natural talent. The big difference between then and now is his physique: when he reappeared in an Exeter singlet at the start of this season, having spent an intensive pre-season in the gym, he looked every inch the top pro athlete. Super Manny? There are any number of cautionary tales that could be lobbed in at this point. Ollie Hassell-Collins was capped twice only to be summarily discarded. Henry Arundell was England’s golden boy as recently as the last World Cup; now he is playing in France and currently ineligible for his country. Joe Cokanasiga? Max Malins? Ollie Thorley? Adam Radwan? Ruaridh McConnochie? England, over the past five or six years, have been quicker to blood young thrusters than back them. Borthwick, though, clearly likes what he sees in the 21-year-old and the Exeter wing’s decision to opt for England over Wales, where he was born, is already bearing fruit. His try at Murrayfield, ghosting in so late the Scottish defence were left clutching at shadows, illustrated the instinctive timing that sets class players apart and even missing training to sit a medical exam last week has not fazed him. “I sense he’s a guy who takes things in his stride,” Borthwick said. “He’s a really calm and composed character. Each challenge that has been thrown towards him, he’s risen to that level and I expect he’ll do the same again on Saturday. After I told him he was starting, he thanked me numerous times then asked: ‘What do you want from me?’ My message was: ‘I want you to get the ball in your hands as many times as possible.’” Having also discovered that Feyi-Waboso is a talented pianist – “We’re yet to find something he’s not good at but we’ll keep trying,” promised Borthwick – the next trick is to get England’s backline playing more of the right notes in vaguely the right order. Counter Ireland’s strong kicking game, compete fiercely at the breakdown, disrupt their set piece and stop the visitors’ attack at source and could England orchestrate something special? While Ireland are looking to become the first nation to win back-to-back grand slams this century, rare is the Six Nations crown without at least one thorny moment.
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Israel to compete at Eurovision song contest after changing lyrics to its entry
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Israel will be allowed to compete at the Eurovision song contest after changing the lyrics to its song, organisers have confirmed. Eden Golan, representing Israel at this year’s competition, originally submitted a ballad called October Rain, widely thought to reference the Hamas attacks of 7 October. However, the entry was barred on the grounds of breaking rules on political neutrality. After initially pledging not to alter the lyrics, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, responsible for choosing the country’s entry, later agreed to amend the song following the Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s call for “necessary adjustments” to ensure it could take part. The national broadcaster said: “The president emphasised that at this time in particular, when those who hate us seek to push aside and boycott the state of Israel from every stage, Israel must sound its voice with pride and its head high and raise its flag in every world forum, especially this year.” The updated version of the song, now titled Hurricane, will be shared this weekend. In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the contest, said: “The EBU can confirm that the official submission from its Israeli member Kan has been deemed eligible to compete in the Eurovision song contest in May. “The contest’s reference group, its governing board, made the decision to accept the song Hurricane for the upcoming competition after careful scrutiny of the lyrics. “It was agreed that Hurricane met the necessary criteria for participation in accordance with the rules of the competition.” The original lyrics of October Rain – written in English – were published on Kan’s website last month. They included the lines: “There’s no air left to breathe” and “They were all good children, each one of them”. Earlier this week, Belgium’s French-speaking culture minister, Bénédicte Linard, called for Israel to be banned from Eurovision as long as the war in Gaza continues. “Just like Russia has been excluded from competitions and Eurovision following its invasion of Ukraine, Israel should be excluded until it puts an end to its flagrant violations of international law, which are causing thousands of victims, especially children,” she wrote on X. Linard also told the Belgian parliament on Wednesday that she would ask public broadcaster RTBF, which is organising Belgium’s entry to Eurovision, to voice the concerns to the EBU. Her Flemish counterpart, Benjamin Dalle, agreed that an Israeli suspension would be appropriate while so many Palestinian civilians were suffering, according to a report by Flemish broadcaster VRT. Artists in several countries have called for Israel to be suspended from the contest. In December, Iceland’s Association of Composers and Lyricists issued a statement saying Israel’s military action in Gaza made its participation incompatible with an event “characterised by joy and optimism”. In Finland, a petition signed by more than 1,400 music industry professionals accused their national broadcaster Yle of double standards, saying it was among the first to demand the ban on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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James sinks Manchester City to set up Chelsea v Arsenal Continental Cup final
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Chelsea reached the Women’s League Cup final for the fifth time in succession with a slender victory over Manchester City. Lauren James’ early goal was enough to see them set up a meeting with Arsenal on 31 March despite coming under significant pressure from their title rivals. It was a dogged performance from Emma Hayes’ side that ended City’s scintillating run of 12 wins in all competitions and hopes of lifting the treble. The Chelsea manager praised her side’s “gutsy” performance as they reached yet another domestic final. “I felt like that was a Chelsea standard,” she said. “If you’re going to suffer without the ball, we had to make it difficult … I think the team as a whole deserve credit for just digging in. We weren’t at our best, but we know how to do this.” Related: ‘The pressure is on’: Racheal Kundananji on being the world’s most expensive female footballer Gareth Taylor named an unchanged lineup from Saturday’s win over Everton, a predictable occurrence with a set of players who have remained eye-catchingly consistent. Hayes made three changes, with Sjoeke Nüsken dropping into defence to replace the cup-tied Nathalie Björn while James returned from suspension and Melanie Leupolz came into the midfield. James, the focal point of so many of Chelsea’s attacks, struck in the eighth minute. Breaking through the City defence, the 22-year-old ran on to Mayra Ramírez’s pass and slotted past the helpless Khiara Keating. It was a lead the visitors had desperately sought and having gained it they seemed content to let the hosts have possession. The frustration of the City players was clear to see as they struggled to break down Chelsea’s compact setup, managing just one shot on target in the first 45 minutes. Hayes’s gameplan had played out perfectly as they went in ahead. The one blow, however, was the early substitution of Ramírez, with the striker forced off with what looked like a muscle issue. It is a position they can ill afford to suffer another loss in after Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel’s recent anterior cruciate ligament injuries. It was inevitable that City would up the tempo and they dominated the second half as Khadija Shaw outmuscled various members of Chelsea’s backline on successive occasions. She was denied by a series of superb stops from Hannah Hampton, the last line of Chelsea’s creaking defence, who thwarted the WSL’s leading goalscorer twice before producing an impressive stop to keep out Lauren Hemp’s effort from point-blank range. As the clock ran down, Taylor looked to his bench. As much as they threw at the Chelsea goal, however, they could not find an end product despite a late penalty shout. It was far from Chelsea’s prettiest performance on Hayes’s watch but it mattered little. As the whistle blew, they celebrated a confidence-boosting victory and a place in the final, with hopes of a quadruple still very much alive.
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Emma Raducanu off to impressive start at Indian Wells with confident win
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Emma Raducanu moved into the second round of Indian Wells with a composed performance and no significant problems, confidently closing out a 6-2, 6-3 win over the qualifier Rebeka Masarova. A much tougher battle against Dayana Yastremska, the 30th seed, awaits Raducanu on Saturday. Related: ‘I can’t lie to myself’: Rafael Nadal forced to withdraw from Indian Wells “Super important for me to get through that. It’s one of the trickiest tournaments conditions-wise because it varies so much. I dealt with that really well and overcame a really tough opponent who is dangerous in these conditions,” Raducanu told Sky Sports Tennis, referencing the notoriously slow, high-bouncing and windy conditions in the desert. After failing to win a game in the opening set of her loss to Anhelina Kalinina in Doha last month, this time Raducanu was sharp from the first point against Masarova, a big serving but extremely inconsistent Spaniard ranked No 96 in the rankings. She returned well, finding good depth on her strokes while exposing Masarova’s poor movement with her early ball-striking and ability to move the ball around the court with precision and pace, particularly with her backhand. In contrast to her ultra-aggressive approach in the Middle East, Raducanu played with greater patience, choosing when to attack from inside the baseline more carefully. At 3-0, though, Raducanu dropped serve with three double faults and offered Masarova an opportunity to recover. Still, she worked through her struggles and eventually her greater consistency and mobility made a clear difference as she battled through a tough service game at 3-2 before easing through the set. The second took a similar turn, with Raducanu again establishing a 3-0 lead, only for her to lose focus and the set to become significantly more difficult. But with the first under her belt and Masarova’s confidence waning, Raducanu was strong in the decisive moments and she sealed the victory on her fourth match point. “I really enjoy playing in America, some of my best results have been here, so I am very happy to be back. I really appreciate all the love I was receiving,” Raducanu said. This is a notable week for Raducanu as she looks to rise back up the rankings following her eight-month layoff as she recovered from surgeries to her wrists and ankles in April. Last year, Raducanu defeated two top 20 seeds to reach the fourth round in Indian Wells, one of her best results since winning the US Open. She now has to defend those points or face a further drop in the rankings. Having started the week facing a potential drop from her current standing of No 250 to around 340, Raducanu’s victory moves her to around 315. Raducanu, though, says she is currently not focused on her ranking. Between her appearances in the Middle East and California, she spent weeks training back home at the LTA’s National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. Rather than playing a fuller schedule, she believes she needs to prioritise her development as a player at this point in her career. From Friday, the seeded players will enter the fray in both the men’s and women’s draws after each had received a first-round bye. For Raducanu, this means an opportunity to demonstrate any progress she has made in training over the past few weeks against top opposition. Her next opponent, Yastremska, started the year by reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Caroline Wozniacki arrived at Indian Wells still trying to find momentum in her surprise return to professional tennis, her 5-6 record reflective of her struggles. She took a positive step forward, however, by reaching the second round with a 7-6 (6), 6-1 win over Zhu Lin. She will also test herself against a highly-ranked player next as she faces Donna Vekic, the 25th seed, on Friday. Simona Halep has announced she will make her return to professional tennis at the Miami Open in 10 days following the news her four-year doping ban had been reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing the former No 1 to return to competition immediately.
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