Britain

Great Britain earned their first win of the 2027 Fiba World Cup qualifiers with a 90-82 victory over Iceland.

GB were beaten on the buzzer in an 89-88 defeat by Lithuania in their Group D opener last Thursday but were much more in control against the Icelanders at the Laugardalsholl in Reykjavik.

The scores had been level at 17-17 at the end of a competitive first quarter between two sides separated by just three places in the Fiba rankings with GB 43rd to Iceland’s 46th.

However, GB seized the initiative and had an 18-point cushion at 69-51 heading into the final quarter.

Iceland reduced the deficit to eight points with one minute 47 seconds left on the clock, but GB held their nerve after a timeout to kill the home side’s hopes of a late fightback.

Carl Wheatle led the way for GB with a game-high 22 points while Myles Hesson and Quinn Ellis chipped in with 17 and 16 respectively.

Martin Hermannsson top scored for Iceland with 18 points while Tryggvi Hlinason collected 17.

All four teams in the group will face each other twice in the first round of the qualifiers before the top three qualify for the next stage.

Imran Sherwani, who led Great Britain to hockey gold at the 1988 Olympics, has died at the age of 63.

He scored twice in the final as GB beat West Germany 3-1 in Seoul – his second goal prompting a famous reaction from BBC commentator Barry Davies, who said: “Where were the Germans? But frankly, who cares!”

Sherwani was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019.

Rich Beer, chief operating officer of Great Britain Hockey, said: “Imran Sherwani will forever be remembered as one of the true icons of England and Great Britain Hockey.

“His talent, leadership and humility inspired generations of players and fans alike.”

Sherwani represented GB and England a combined 94 times, and worked as director of hockey at a school in Staffordshire.

He came from a sporting family – his father played hockey for Pakistan and his great uncles played for Stoke City and Port Vale.

A fan-favourite presenter returned to Good Morning Britain on Friday after several weeks away

Good Morning Britain fans were delighted as a beloved star made their return to the ITV show on Friday (November 28).

During this morning’s instalment of the popular show, Kate Garraway was accompanied by Rob Rinder as they brought viewers the most recent news stories from Britain and beyond. It signals Rob’s comeback to the programme following a break of several weeks.

They were accompanied in the studio by Charlotte Hawkins, who managed the remainder of the day’s bulletins, whilst Laura Tobin delivered regular weather updates live from Austria.

Upon witnessing Rob’s comeback to the programme, numerous GMB watchers swiftly flocked to social media to express their joy, reports Wales Online.

“Glad to switch on to @robrinder, best presenter on the show, go get ’em Rob,” one viewer posted on X (formerly Twitter), with another commenting: “Brilliant to have Rob Rinder on this morning.”

A third declared, “Yay, Rob’s back!” with another likewise posting: “Nice to see Rob on.”

On today’s show, Rob and Kate discussed Labour’s U-turn on a key pledge for workers after they abandoned a promise to give all employees the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day of employment. Business groups say it’s a crucial change.

They also anticipated a decision on whether the go-ahead will be given for a nationwide programme to screen millions of men for prostate cancer.

Plus, the duo met the everyday heroes aiming to top the charts, and revealed what could be Britain’s most Christmassy house.

However, ITV viewers couldn’t help but share their complaints minutes in as they didn’t understand why Laura was presenting the weather segment from the Austrian mountains instead of the studio.

“Scores of weather presenters and accompanying TV crews have travelled to Austria to talk about climate change,” one person wrote.

Another added: “Why is Laura in Austria to tell us about the UK weather? I thought we had to watch our carbon footprint?” while a third said: “Laura flew to Austria to discuss climate change on top of a mountain.”

A fourth fan echoed the sentiment, saying: “The show’s climate activist has pointlessly travelled to Austria. Think of the carbon footprint you’ve used, Tobin.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am

A discussion about the budget was rapidly descending into an argument when Susanna Reid was forced to interrupt Good Morning Britain to reveal some devastating news

Good Morning Britain‘s Susanna Reid was forced to interrupt a heated discussion about the budget as heartbreaking news came in. The ITV morning show host said the news brought back “awful memories”.

Susanna and the shows’ guests were talking about the “smorgasbord” of tax rises expected in the budget and the presenter seemed to be getting irate about the vague language being used to discuss it, frustratingly calling it all “semantics”.

But she soon had to stop the discussion to reveal some breaking news. “We’ve got some news coming out of Hong Kong,” she started. “Where a fire is engulfing a residential building.”

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As live footage came in of the building burning, Susanna found the fire difficult to talk about. “Wow, goodness me, these are live pictures. They bring back awful memories don’t they?”

She couldn’t help drawing parallels between the Hong Kong fire, where several people are trapped inside, and the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in 2017.

The fire at Grenfell resulted in 72 deaths and a public inquiry was started to establish what happened and how such a disaster can be prevented in the future.

The inquiry, which only ended in February this year, found that there was a chain of failures across government and the private sector led to Grenfell Tower becoming a death trap in the event of a fire, as the cladding and insulation were failed fire safety tests.

Susanna described “plumes of grey smoke” coming out of the Hong Kong building and said local fire departments were “battling” to put out the fire and save the people inside.

Kevin Maguire, who was on the show to talk about the budget, said: “You’ve just got to hope that there are lots of exits and that the outside windows have been fitted properly so unlike Grenfell, the fire can’t go outside.”

After the Grenfell fire, it was found that the fire was able to move more easily between the interior and exterior of the building as the windows’ surrounds were made of materials that were less resistant to the heat. The windows themselves were an insufficient size when they were refurbished, necessitating larger surrounds.

Good Morning Britain soon turned back to talk about the budget. Andrew Pierce said he thought Rachel Reeves would be sacked after the budget.

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“It’s been tough to deal with at times and it’s made me not want to be playing and competing at times throughout the year,” he said.

“It’s definitely a lot in the stomach – you feel sick to your stomach. I’ve been struggling to sleep and then, because of the feeling in the stomach, struggling to eat well, eat enough.

“It’s almost like a feeling of dread – that something bad is going to happen.”

He may allow himself an occasional social hit but will otherwise switch off from tennis until the spring.

Salisbury has plenty of plans in place, including a safari in Kenya, a skiing trip with his girlfriend’s family, and Christmas at home – which is not always possible for tennis players before a season which starts in Australia in early January.

The current world number 10 played the whole of this season with fellow Briton Neal Skupski, and even though they did not win a title, they were runners-up at six events including the French Open, the US Open and last week’s ATP Finals in Turin.

“I wouldn’t say it affected my tennis that much,” Salisbury said of his anxiety.

“We’ve played well, especially the past six months. I feel like I’ve dealt with it well and managed to get myself into a good enough state on court to perform well in most of the matches that I have played.

“But I think it’s taken an extra toll emotionally and mentally to do that. It’s meant that it’s just not been enjoyable being at a lot of the tournaments that I have played.

“I haven’t spoken to too many people about the struggles that I have had – mainly my team, friends and family, so not too many people in the tennis world.

“I think a lot of people don’t want to share too much because they don’t want other people to know about that, when you are having to go and compete against them.

“But to be honest I don’t really mind if people do know. I’m sure it’s something which a lot of other people are having to deal with and I don’t think it would have any impact on me, as if anything over the past year it’s made me mentally stronger than before.”

British officials say they’re enforcing tougher policies for asylum seekers, including ending refugees’ automatic right to settle permanently in the UK. As Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands explains, the overhaul comes as polls show growing concerns about immigration.

Great Britain’s women began their EuroBasket 2027 qualification attempt with a 85-64 victory over Switzerland in Manchester.

The hosts trailed 22-12 after the first quarter, before scoring 32 points in the second to lead by six at half-time.

Britain pulled away after the break to secure a dominant victory in their opening Group D match in the first round of qualifying.

Holly Winterburn hit a game-high 26 points for the hosts at the National Basketball Performance Centre.

Britain face Austria in Vienna on Saturday, before playing Norway in Bergen on Tuesday. The return legs will all take place in March.

The top two teams from each of the seven groups will advance to the second round of qualifying, alongside the three highest-ranked third-placed sides.

Nov. 9 (UPI) — Britain, France and Germany have announced that they will deploy anti-drone teams to Belgium after a wave of recent unidentified drone incursions.

Last week, authorities suspended flights at airports in Brussels and Liège after unidentified drones were spotted in their airspace, as well as over a military air base. Previous drone incursions were spotted over other NATO countries.

The British Defense Ministry said Sunday that it had agreed to deploy a specialist counter-drone unit from the Royal Air Force Regiment, following France and Germany.

“Working with NATO allies, we stand ready to counter hybrid threats and keep skies safe,” the British Defense Ministry said.

Belgium’s Defense Minister Theo Francken thanked Britain for the decision in a post to social media.

“The deployment of a U.K. anti-drone team in Belgium strengthens our collective security and showcases our unity in countering hybrid threats,” he said. The message mirrored those he sent Friday after Germany and France made similar announcements.

Britain’s top general Richard Knighton told the BBC on Sunday that Francken had asked for the assistance last week and that personnel and equipment were already on their way to Belgium.

While the origin of the drones has not been verified, NATO nations believe Moscow may have ordered the drone incursions, Knighton said.

Francken said Saturday that “quite a few people on social media” seemed to be annoyed that eyes were turning to Russia after the drone incursions.

“But evidently, Russia is a plausible suspect. The other European countries that experienced this all stand firmly behind Ukraine. Coincidence? Could be. But could also not be,” he said.

“Russia certainly has the capabilities to organize such operations. And for just as long, Russian hacker collectives have been waging a hardcore cyberwar against our networks.”

And so, Francken said, looking toward Russia “isn’t abnormal” and Moscow’s possible involvement can’t be ruled out.

“Yet quite a few people feel called to do exactly that. This would be ‘impossible’ work of Russia, they pontificate,” he said. “What do they base this on? And all those others claiming the drone flights are staged, or don’t exist at all, and are deliberately exaggerated to sow panic?”