Dan

Dan James: Wales winger warns of Norwegian revenge in Oslo

Winger Dan James says Wales proved a point when they beat Norway – but is wary Erling Haaland and his team-mates are now intent on turning the tables.

The Leeds United attacker said that Craig Bellamy’s side were being written off before the eye-catching win in Cardiff last month.

James was on the scoresheet as Wales came from behind to see off the World Cup quarter-finalists, reigniting hopes of staying in the top tier of the Nations League.

It represented the biggest scalp of Bellamy’s reign, ending a winless run of six and quietening some of the rumblings of discontent around the manager.

Repeating the trick in Oslo on Saturday (17:00 GMT) would inch Wales to within a whisker of securing third spot and the boost to Euro 2028 qualifying seedings that comes with it.

In contrast, Norway are on their worst run of form in a decade and in danger of dropping out of the European elite they seemed on course to challenge.

“They’re a great nation and, at home especially, they’ve been brilliant,” said James as Wales prepared for the encounter at Ullevaal Stadion.

“They’re a very hard team to beat and I think after having that win in Cardiff it’s something that they’ve had to take – and they’ll be even more up for this game.”

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Mary Peltola’s campaign reportedly helped recruit second Dan Sullivan

Becky Bohrher and Nicholas Riccardi

The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against. They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan. He made it through the state’s August open primary and is one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for Tuesday’s general election.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment from the Associated Press.

A top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible for the ballot after he declared his candidacy, claiming it was “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. The U.S. Constitution sets out only age, citizenship and residency requirements to run for the Senate.

“Alaskans deserve the truth,” said Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign. “Mary Peltola, her campaign and her senior advisers colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit candidates to deliberately confuse and deceive voters.”

The campaign for Peltola, a former congresswoman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, repeatedly have denied they were involved in any campaign trick.

“The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan,” the organization said in a statement Wednesday. The Times report said DSCC staffers were on texts with the Peltola campaign discussing the second Sullivan.

Legal experts said the report about Democrats appearing to recruit Dan J. Sullivan as a way to potentially confuse voters will have no impact on a lawsuit filed recently by the U.S. Department of Justice. President Trump directed the department to file a lawsuit seeking to halt certification of a possible Peltola win, citing the presence of the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

“It’s a dirty campaign trick, and it’s good reason the Alaska Supreme Court should have permitted the candidate to have been removed from the ballot,” said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor. “But now it’s in the hands of the voters, not litigation.”

It’s not the first time a candidate’s appearance on the Alaska ballot has been questioned. In 2024, the state Democratic Party sued to keep off the U.S. House ballot a man with no apparent ties to the state who is serving time in a federal prison in New York. A divided state Supreme Court allowed him to remain on the ballot. The man is running again, also in the House race, and is on the Nov. 3 ranked vote general election ballot.

The Times story about the recruitment of Dan J. Sullivan is based partly on interviews with Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August amid a campaign shake-up. The newspaper said she tried to retract her comments last week.

As of Monday, 46,204 ballots had been cast in Alaska, according to AP data. Sen. Sullivan is marked on the ballot as the Republican incumbent. The other Sullivan is listed as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation.

Bohrher and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Denver.

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Netflix film chief Dan Lin is out as streamer shuffles executive ranks

Management upheaval at Netflix continued Monday as the streamer’s head of films Dan Lin exited, according to two people familiar with the matter who declined to be named.

Lin was appointed to the position in February 2024 and was tasked with making fewer, better and bigger movies. During his tenure, Netflix rolled out movies including crime thriller “The Rip,” starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and animated hit “KPop Demon Hunters.” His exit arrives as Netflix is going to release highly anticipated movies in theaters in the coming months including David Fincher-directed “The Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” starring Brad Pitt in November and Greta Gerwig-directed “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew next year.

Netflix did not have an immediate response to a request for comment.

Lin’s exit followed massive layoffs at Netflix that began last week, trimming 6% of staff or roughly 1,000 people. Netflix last Thursday announced the company’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria was no longer at the streamer and named her replacement, Peter Rice, a former chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of general entertainment for The Walt Disney Co.

After Bajaria was pushed out, many people in the industry expected Lin would be next, according to sources who declined to be named.

Rice will also oversee the film team until a new film head is announced.

Analysts and investors have raised concerns about Netflix’s growth. In the first half of 2026, hours watched on Netflix increased 2% compared to a year earlier, according to the streamer. Investors had hoped for more robust growth, given that the streamer increased its content budget 11% to $20 billion.

Netflix is profitable and continues to grow its revenue. But analysts say the streamer hasn’t had enough big hits recently and are skeptical about Netflix‘s ability to increase prices and grow its subscriber base if it doesn’t have enough popular content.

Netflix stock has dropped 42% compared to a year ago. By mid-morning on Monday, shares were trading at $69.53, down 1%.

In a note to staff about Bajaria’s exit, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote that he saw an opportunity to take the streamer’s slate to the “next level” especially in the United States and Canada market, “where we have an outsize impact in creating big, buzzy hits that our members love and drive conversation around the world.”

Lin’s role was controversial in Hollywood, as he was named to the role after former Netflix film chief Scott Stuber left. Under Stuber’s leadership, Netflix ramped up its movie production and produced big budget films including 2022‘s “The Gray Man” starring Ryan Gosling but is not ranked in Netflix’s top 10 films of all time. “The Gray Man” cost nearly $200 million to make and at the time was Netflix’s most expensive movie, according to the New York Times.

Lin’s directive to be more budget conscious also irked some people in the industry.

While films released during his tenure including the animated film “Swapped,” as well as action films “Carry-On” and “Back in Action” made Netflix’s top 10 most-watched films list, based on views at the time of their debut, some of his other films were not as successful, analysts said.

Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics, said Netflix’s five most-watched English-language scripted summer movie releases in their first eight weeks posted the lowest average hours watched compared with the streamer’s top five summer releases in 2025, 2024 and 2023, citing Nielsen data.

Analysts and investors are eagerly anticipating Netflix’s third quarter earnings results Tuesday, as executives are expected to address how they plan to move the company forward.

This is a developing story.

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Rangers ‘pop balloon’ at Dundee as Dan Neil gift wastes chance to go top

As far as optimism goes, Rangers were blown full of positive energy as they made the Saturday-night trip to Dundee on the back of seven straight wins.

However, a Dan Neil error felt “like a balloon popping”, said manager Derek McInnes, resulting in the Ibrox side fluffing their chance to move back to the Scottish Premiership summit after a gripping 2-2 draw at Dens Park.

McInnes’ men were punished for a disjointed first half when the impressive hosts went ahead through Bradley Fink, but Badredine Bouanani fired in a leveller just before the break.

Rangers lifted their intensity and level of dominance after the interval and were heading for an eighth consecutive victory when Nicolas Raskin slammed in a long-range stunner.

But a mishit Neil backpass to goalkeeper Ivor Pandur was pounced on by Callum Jones to earn Dundee a deserved point, opening the door for Celtic to extend their lead at the top to four points when they welcome Hearts on Sunday (15:00 BST).

“We’ve made a mistake for Dundee’s equaliser and it was like a balloon popping,” McInnes told BBC Scotland. “We then had to dig deep and go again, and we never quite managed to get to the same levels.

“It does feel like a missed opportunity, but in fairness to Dundee they were good value in the first half – it shows you why they are where they are in the league.

“But we can’t come away from home and have to score three goals to win a game.”

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