delivers

Ireland are, just about, in with a chance of the title after overcoming a gutsy Wales with a 27-17 victory in Dublin.

But their title hopes hinge on them beating Scotland and relying on out-of-form England beating France in Paris.

Ireland did not hit the heights they had reached in dismantling England two weeks earlier, digging deep for the bonus-point win they needed to keep them in the title conversation.

Wales gave a good account of themselves, and Rhys Carre can look back with pride after a spectacular solo try that saw the prop rumble over the line after a run that started outside the Ireland 22.

“Defensively, Wales were so much better and so much more physical compared to round one,” Sam Warburton told Rugby Special. “They were blown away against England but now they are competitive. They have not won in Dublin since 2012, it was always a tall order but they did well.

“They have found their centre combination, and the front five provided so much of a platform with their ball carrying and hits in defence.

“I was worried they were going to become the 30-point whipping boys but they have turned it around after round one, and I am very pleased.”

Improved performances since the 48-7 defeat by England in round one give Wales some hope of ending their run of 15 consecutive Six Nations losses in their final fixture, although they will host an Italy side buoyed by its historic win over England.

Many fans have been following the story of Punch the monkey after he was rejected by his mother at a zoo in Japan

Naga Munchetty delivered a heartwarming update about Punch the monkey after he was rejected by his mother and bullied by the other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.

On Saturday’s BBC Breakfast, Naga and Charlie Stayt provided a “positive” update about the beloved monkey, who has gone viral on social media.

Charlie began, “Now, you may be familiar with the story of Punch. That’s the baby monkey that was given a cuddly toy.”

As images of Punch appeared on screen, the host continued, “There he is, after he was rejected by his family at the zoo in Japan. A bit worried about him.”

Naga went on, “We have an update there, a positive update. Keepers have gradually been reintroducing Punch to the macaque troop, and it seems he’s parted ways with his stuffed orangutan as one of the adult females has taken him under her wing.

“She grooms him, she holds him. Punch has even been spotted playing with some of the younger members of the troop as well.”

As a video of Punch was shown hanging from a branch, Naga added, “I think it kind of comes a bit more naturally to Punch. He’s doing well.”

“And that’s good to see,” Charlie chimed in.

Viewers also took to social media to share their thoughts on the sweet update, with one writing, “That’s great news – however, can we petition the zoo to change and include some greenery and trees in the enclosure for them? It’s a concrete jungle, and no natural foliage for them.”

Another suggested, “Can the BBC Verify team investigate?”

While a third added, “Aw, I am so glad.”

Elsewhere in the programme, BBC Breakfast spoke with the family of missing student Jack O’Sullivan, with his mother issuing a new heartbreaking plea.

“Even at three, four o’clock in the morning, it could be that somebody has inadvertently seen something and not realised the significance, even after all this time,” Jack’s mum, Catherine, shared.

“But he hasn’t been abducted by an alien, you know, and he’s vanished into thin air. So I genuinely myself, feel that somebody does know more than what we do.”

BBC Breakfast airs daily at 6am on BBC One.

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Lord Alan Sugar’s candidates on The Apprentice had a nasty surprise in the latest episode of the BBC programme as three hopefuls were eliminated from the competition

The Apprentice candidates had a huge shock as Lord Sugar sent three of them packing after a tense boardroom.

The latest episode of the hit series, which aired on Thursday (March 5), saw Megan Ruiter, Carrington Saunders and Andrea Cooper all shown the door in a surprise triple firing.

Megan admitted she was “absolutely devastated” about getting the boot from the BBC show, but Carrington said: “I can say it didn’t hurt as much because it wasn’t just me getting fired. So, it was more of a ‘wow’ moment opposed to something that was entirely sad. It wasn’t until a few days later in when the sadness kicked in.”

Andrea confessed that it was “a terrible task” for her but added: “I’m not saying I was surprised because by my calculations, it could have possibly been a triple firing that week. But if there were only going to be one or two fired, I didn’t think that it should have been me.”

The episode saw the candidates head to Egypt to put on corporate away days for paying clients.

One team headed off into the desert for a dune adventure and ended up with a bumpy ride, whilst the other set off on a lagoon tour, which was anything but smooth sailing.

Megan was the project manager in charge of organising the lagoon tour, having said she’d held 25 corporate events in the past.

But she found herself in the firing line after leading her team to a loss of $290 due to the clients asking for a 50% refund for their raw and cold food and their kayaking activity, which left them eating dinner in wet clothes.

Lord Sugar branded it as one of the worst performances in corporate hospitality, later posting on X (formerly Twitter): “I’ve seen some kitchen disasters in my time on The Apprentice, but this one takes some beating. ‘Unbelievable’ is the word.”

The businessman took Megan back into the boardroom for her performance as project manager, with Carrington alongside her after she served up the raw potato wedges. Andrea ended up joining them after she clashed with Kieran McCartney during a successful negotiation.

The trio all fought for their place in the competition but Lord Sugar was unimpressed, declaring there would be a rare triple firing as he showed all three of them the door.

“This is a b***** disaster,” he said. “An absolute disaster. One of the worst performances in corporate hospitality. So you can put that in your CV next.”

The Apprentice airs on BBC One

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President Trump, speaking for well over an hour, shattered the record on Tuesday for the length of a State of the Union address.

Speaking for about 100 minutes, the nation’s leader touched upon a broad range of domestic and international topics, bragged about his accomplishments and awarded the nation’s highest honors to a pilot who participated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a 100-year-old Korean War veteran, and a 32-year-old goalie for the gold-medal-winning Olympic men’s hockey team.

The previous record-holder was President Clinton, famously known for his Southern-twang verbosity. He spoke for nearly 90 minutes during his final State of the Union address in 2000.

The address is prescribed by the Constitution and calls for the president to apprise Congress about the state of the union. Over time the address has become a vehicle for presidents to address the nation’s residents, claim legislative victories and foreshadow upcoming policy goals.

Just over a century ago, President Harding’s and President Coolidge’s addresses were aired on the radio. In 1947, President Truman’s address was the first to be broadcast on television. As viewership grew, the annual speech has taken on greater gravity, leading to notable and controversial moments in American politics.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) famously shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s 2009 address to Congress when he spoke about healthcare policy. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) created a viral moment when she tore apart a copy of Trump’s text after he delivered the State of the Union in 2020.

On Tuesday night, Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Louisiana, was escorted out of the chamber after he held a small sign that read: “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES.”

Feb. 15 (UPI) — The International Space Station is once again fully staffed with the arrival of astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos on Saturday afternoon.

A SpaceX Dragon carried the four Crew-12 members docked to the Harmony module on the ISS at 3:15 p.m. EST and, after leak checks and pressurization between the craft and the station, the hatch was opened about two hours later.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev entered the ISS at 5:14 p.m. EST Saturday afternoon, joining NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev who are already about the orbiting outpost.

“We say welcome to Crew-12 today and we are happy they all arrived safe and sound, Kud-Sverchkov, ISS Expedition 74 commander, said during an arrival event after the hatch opening. “We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. So we are very happy and proud to work as a team here.”

Meir said she was excited to be back on ISS and that the crew is “excited to be here and get to work with Expedition 74.”

Adenot, who is a first time crew member on the ISS, said that seeing the Earth was space was “mind-blowing,” calling it “a very big moment.”

Crew-12 launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 13 for the 34 hour ride to reach ISS and bring the station back to full staffing levels.

Crew-11 returned to Earth early on Jan. 15 because of an undisclosed medical issue with one of the astronauts in the first-ever evacuation of a space crew from the ISS.

During Crew-12’s eight-month-long mission on ISS, the crew will conduct studies on how penumonia-causing bacteria can lead to long-term heart damage, improve on-demand IV fluid generation to verify a system that uses potable water to make saline and will investigate automated plant health monitoring to help develop methods to grow food during space missions, according to NASA.

The crew also has several spacewalks planned during their mission, the agency said.