CATEGORIES

Infantino to avoid scrutiny with virtual 2026 draw

Gianni Infantino will avoid any scrutiny of the controversial decision to give the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia next month after Fifa opted to stage the qualifying draw for the 2026 tournament as a virtual event.

Gordon heeds England's call as no-shows hinder Carsley

While a depleted side face tricky tests against Greece and Ireland, there will be big opportunities for some

Lawrence caps quick Chelsea comeback after Agnew's early strike

Chelsea's aspiration of claiming this season's Women's Champions League was hardly in danger as Murphy Agnew handed Celtic a shock lead.

Paul's big-money fight is a circus but the YouTuber is no clown

Despite the absurd persona, his business savvy and support of female fighters must be acknowledged

Tyson offers reminder of boxing's glory days before weary return

Former Baddest Man on the Planet is reflective but determined in open workout as he gears up for inglorious fight with YouTuber, reports

Lineker leaves second BBC presenting role

Gary Lineker has stepped down from his role as presenter of Sports Personality of the Year (Spoty), the BBC has confirmed.

Coe pulls no punches with his IOC pitch

Sebastian Coe has promised to introduce an \"uncompromising and clearcut\" policy to protect women's sport and to look into awarding prize money to all Olympic medallists if he is elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) president.

Slade vows 'not to shut up shop' against Springboks

England are looking to banish their autumn frustrations at South Africa's expense this Saturday and have vowed \"not to shut up shop\" against the reigning world champions.

Meeting of minds: Cricket societies keep faith during testing times for domestic game

\"Is this the right place for the cricket meeting?\" I enquire. \"It is,\" one of them replies. \"And I'm guessing by the fact you're half the age of anyone else coming tonight that you're the guest speaker.\"

'Salads don't win scrums' Nché is icing on the Boks' front-row cake

A member of South Africa's 'Bomb Squad', loosehead was crucial to World Cup win in 2023 and is a hero back home

Klarna to float in New York in another snub to London stock market

The buy now, pay later company Klarna has filed for a flotation in the US, a move that marks another blow for the London market.

Debt-stricken P&O Ferries spent £47m on mass sackings in 2022

P&O Ferries spent more than £47m on sacking hundreds of UK seafarers in 2022, according to its long-overdue accounts that will be published in the coming days.

Just Eat to sell US arm Grubhub for loss of more than $6.5bn

The food delivery company Just Eat Takeaway is selling Grubhub to the delivery-focused restaurant chain Wonder for $650m (£510m), only four years after buying the US app in a multibillion-dollar tie-up.

Reeves to lay out plans to merge pension pots of local authorities

Rachel Reeves will announce plans to merge local government retirement schemes into \"megafunds\" as she tries to revive long-running efforts to reform the public pension system.

Thames Water should explain its murky logic on fundraising

Congratulations to Thames Water: it is not going bust early in the new year. Probably.

Creditors back £3bn package designed to save Thames Water from collapse

Thames Water has gained support from its top-ranking creditors to proceed to the next stage of securing a £3bn emergency funding package intended to stave off its collapse for at least a year.

Thousands of jobs at risk as Homebase collapses into administration

The struggling DIY chain Homebase has collapsed into administration, leaving thousands of workers facing an uncertain future, despite the purchase of the bulk of its stores by the owner of the homeware retailer The Range.

Trump's win will hit offshore wind investment, firm warns

Donald Trump's election victory has increased the risks of investing in offshore wind projects, a German energy company has warned, even as a UK developer said his return to the White House could help bolster Britain's renewables sector.

Key measure of inflation in US rises for first time since March

A key measure of US inflation has risen for the first time since March, underlining its bumpy ride down to lower levels.

Darknet dealing Russia's click and collect drugs industry

At any one moment in towns and cities across Russia, thousands of drug packages lie buried in the ground, attached by magnets to lamp-posts or taped underneath window sills, waiting to be picked up by their intended customers.

Naval officer accused by Kyiv of war crimes killed in Crimea car bombing

A senior Russian naval officer was killed in a car bombing in Crimea yesterday, marking the latest in a series of targeted attacks on Russian military personnel and pro-Kremlin figures in occupied Ukrainian territory and inside Russia.

Macron to visit Notre Dame before cathedral's reopening

As firefighters doused the embers of the blaze that threatened to destroy Notre Dame Cathedral on 16 April 2019, Emmanuel Macron promised that the church would be restored and made \"more beautiful than ever\" within five years.

Schools shut and people evacuated as torrential rain returns to Spain

Authorities in eastern and southern Spain have closed schools and begun evacuating residents as the country was hit by further torrential rains two weeks after catastrophic floods killed at least 215 people and unleashed a bitter political blame game.

Swedish firm rebuked for using C-word in vaginal health advert

The Swedish advertising ombudsman has criticised a company for using the C-word in posters to promote vaginal nutritional supplements, saying the use of the \"gross profanity\" is offensive to consumers.

'I've lost everything Drought fuels hunger in southern Africa

Emmanuel Himoonga paced his dry field, picking up stalks of maize that had been bleached almost to bone white. The 61-year-old chief of Shakumbila, a mainly agricultural community of about 7,000 people roughly 70 miles west of Zambia's capital, Lusaka, had seen droughts before. But since 2010 they have been happening once every three to four years, instead of every five years.

Chinese ask questions over delayed reports of fatal attack

After a 63-year-old man rammed his car into a sports centre on Tuesday in Zhuhai, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 others, questions have swirled on Chinese social media about why it took the authorities so long to reveal the details.

South African farms breeding tigers for sale in Asia, says report

The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger parts, according to a report by the animal welfare charity Four Paws.

Top Unrwa official says plan to shut agency is unrealistic and would add to suffering

Israel's plan to close the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to Palestinians, its director of operations in Gaza has said.

Scholz delivers plea for German unity ahead of confidence Vote

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has defended his decision to oust his finance minister, which has led to the breakup of his government, arguing that to have kept the alliance going would have been at the expense of national stability and international security.

Apple faces near-£3bn lawsuit over cloud storage 'monopoly'

Apple is facing a near-£3bn lawsuit over claims it breached competition law by effectively locking millions of UK customers into its cloud storage service at excessive prices.