lifts

England Under-21s have proved they have the fight to defend their European title.

The mass brawl at the final whistle, coupled with a brilliant Euro 2025 quarter-final victory over Spain on Saturday, removed any doubt these Young Lions could be a soft touch.

Charlie Cresswell promised pre-game there would be no lack of fight from England after their limp 2-1 loss to Germany and the Young Lions lived up to the billing.

Cresswell was at the heart of protecting his team-mates, with players willing to fight for each other following a late challenge on Tino Livramento seconds before the final whistle sounded on their 3-1 victory.

Similar scenes followed England’s Euro 2023 final victory over Spain and the defending champions are not willing to let their title go quietly.

They now face the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Wednesday after a performance full of class, style, guile and fight.

“There’s better ways to build camaraderie,” manager Lee Carsley joked afterwards. “But we had something similar in the final [in 2023]. Emotions run high in those scenarios, you don’t want anyone to get sent off or throw a punch.

“You can see what it means to the players, we probably have to give them a bit of leeway. Thankfully it didn’t go over the top, it’s still not nice to see. We are always trying to encourage younger players to take up football but the passion was just a bit much.”

James McAtee, scorer of England’s early opener, also epitomised the mood, the Manchester City midfielder ready and willing to dish it out.

He said: “We were the two big teams in the tournament, so them kicking off, we can’t just sit back and just let them do it. We have to give them a bit back, so I’m happy with the boys.”

SUNRISE, Fla. — Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing back after allowing the late tying goal.

Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left in the third period, before Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to send it to overtime. Three of the first four games of this final have needed extra time to be settled, the first time that has happened since 2013 and fifth time in NHL history.

Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams — sent the series back to Western Canada all even. Game 5 of what’s turning into a classic back-and-forth series between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday night in Edmonton.

The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006.

Edmonton is very much in it now, even after it looked like it would be blown out of the series. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a back-breaker.

Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured.

Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the first 18 shots he faced and paving the way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first power play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with another shot up high and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with less than five minutes left in the second.

With Draisaitl in the penalty box to start the third, Oilers were on their heels for several minutes and relied on Pickard to keep the score tied. He turned aside every shot he faced until Walman fired the puck past Bobrovsky to silence a vast majority of the crowd and incite a roar out of the Edmonton fans among those in attendance along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Panthers fans had one more chance to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them again.

With Hockey Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist also in the building, the Oilers made sure they would not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 in the final like they did last year. They forced Game 7 then but ultimately fell short, with Florida winning the Cup for the first time in franchise history.

Now each of these teams is a couple of victories away from being champions.

SAN DIEGO — There was a one-handed finish. A slow stroll out of the batter’s box. And a leisurely, long-awaited trip around the bases.

It’d been a while since Teoscar Hernández last admired such a momentous home run ball.

It was a sight the struggling Dodgers had come to sorely miss.

Ever since returning from an adductor strain last month, Hernández had endured one of his coldest stretches at the plate since joining the Dodgers last year. He was batting .171 over 20 games since his mid-May return to the lineup. He had just three hits in 38 at-bats over his last 10 contests.

His struggles, which also included only one home run since April 28, had become so pronounced that they finally reached a tipping point ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, with manager Dave Roberts moving Hernández out of his customary cleanup spot in the batting order in favor of hot-hitting catcher Will Smith.

“I love him in the four [spot] when he’s right,” Roberts said pregame. “But clearly the last few weeks, he’s been scuffling.”

With one swing in the top of the sixth, however, Hernández finally started to look right again.

In what was a tie game at Petco Park, on a day first place in the National League West was up for grabs, Hernández delivered the decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres, belting a three-run home run to straightaway center that sent the club a pivotal series victory.

Hernández’s sixth-inning at-bat was everything his recent trips to the plate hadn’t been during his weeks-long slump.

He finally got ahead in a 2-and-0 count — something Roberts had noted was a rarity for the 32-year-old slugger of late, in large part because of his inability to punish mistakes in his hitting zone.

“Balls that he should move forward, he’s not,” Roberts said. “And with that, there’s more chase, because he’s getting behind.”

And when Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada did serve up a mistake over the plate, Hernández didn’t miss it, clobbering a 2-and-1 fastball down the middle for a 420-foot drive that broke open the game.

The Dodgers (41-28) got other heroics in Wednesday’s rubber-match triumph, one that gives them a two-game lead in the division over the Padres (38-29).

Ben Casparius gave up just one run in a four-inning start, replacing originally listed starter Justin Wrobleski in what could be a permanent move to the starting rotation for the rookie right-hander (or, at least, until the rest of the Dodgers’ banged-up pitching staff gets healthy in the coming months).

“With things that are going on with the rotation — and obviously the way Ben’s performed, being a former starting pitcher — we like this kind of transition right now,” Roberts said of Casparius, who had been serving as a swingman in the bullpen for most of the season. “What that means after today, we’ll see … Potentially there’s a chance to continue to build him up, which right now makes sense.”

Michael Conforto, meanwhile, got the game tied at 1-1 with an opposite-field homer in the fifth, marking just his second long ball since April 5.

Even in the sixth inning, Hernández wasn’t alone. With one out, Freddie Freeman legged out an infield single, despite playing through not only his gimpy right ankle but also “a little quad thing” Roberts said he has been dealing with in recent days. Then, Smith reached base for the first of three times on the day by drawing a key one-out walk.

Four pitches later, both preceded Hernández on his trot around the bases after he came through with his go-ahead swing.

The Padres didn’t go away down the stretch. A Hyeseong Kim throwing error led to one run in the sixth, trimming the Dodgers’ lead back down to two runs. Then in the seventh, the command problems that plagued recently activated reliever Michael Kopech during his minor-league rehab stint last month reared their ugly head, with the right-hander issuing three-straight one-out walks in the seventh to load the bases.

Anthony Banda, however, escaped that jam in a continuation of his recent return to form (he has given up just three runs over his last 13 outings). Tanner Scott maintained his own recent turnaround with a scoreless eighth inning (giving him five consecutive scoreless appearances) before Alex Vesia emerged for his third save of the season in the ninth.

EDMONTON, Canada — Brad Marchand scored on a breakaway in double overtime and the defending champion Florida Panthers punched back against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Final rematch, winning 5-4 on Friday night to even the series.

Marchand’s second goal of the night 8:04 into the second overtime allowed Florida to escape with a split after Corey Perry scored to tie it with 17.8 seconds left in the third period and Stuart Skinner pulled for an extra attacker. Each of the first two games in this final have gone to overtime, for the first time since 2014 and just the sixth time in NHL history.

Much like last year and the playoff run to this point, Sergei Bobrovsky was dialed in when he was needed the most, making some unreal saves while stopping 42 of the 46 shots he faced. His teammates provided the necessary goal support.

Along with Marchand, Sam Bennett scored his postseason-leading 13th goal and NHL record 12th on the road. Seth Jones scored into a wide-open net after some spectacular tic-tac-toe passing, and fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tied it with a shot through traffic that Stuart Skinner almost certainly did not see.

Kulikov’s goal came after Florida controlled play for several minutes in the second, hemming Edmonton in its zone shift after shift and piling up a 34-13 advantage in shot attempts during the period. Marchand’s overtime goal was his 10th career goal in the final to lead all active players.

Game 3 is Monday night as the teams traverse the continent and play shifts to Sunrise.

The Panthers wrested home-ice advantage away from the Oilers by splitting the first two, rebounding from a Game 1 overtime loss and asserting they won’t go quietly against Draisaitl and Connor McDavid looking like they’ll do everything in their power to hoist the Cup for the first time.

Of course, those stars had their moments. They assisted on Evan Bouchard’s goal when coach Kris Knoblauch put them on the ice together, and McDavid stickhandled through multiple defenders in highlight-reel fashion to set up Draisaitl scoring on the power play.

There were a lot of those — 10 in total — after officials whistled 14 penalties, including three in the first four minutes. Each team had a few calls it was not happy with, though most of that evened out over the course of the game.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton and the never-say-die Indiana Pacers pulled off yet another last-second comeback, this time on the NBA’s biggest stage.

Haliburton’s 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds left gave Indiana its first and only lead of the game, and the Pacers stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-110 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals after a comeback for the ages.

“Man, basketball’s fun,” Haliburton said. “Winning is fun.”

Especially like this.

The Pacers turned the ball over 25 times, trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter against a team with the best home record in the NBA and had no answers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the NBA MVP who led all scorers with 38 points.

But they had the league’s new Mr. Big Shot, who has now had one of these moments in every series the Pacers have played in these playoffs.

— April 29, Indiana trailed Milwaukee 118-111 with 34.6 seconds left in overtime. Haliburton scored with 1.4 seconds remaining and the Pacers won 119-118.

— May 6, Indiana trailed Cleveland 119-112 with 48 seconds left and won 120-119. Haliburton got the winner with 1.1 seconds to play.

— May 21, Indiana trailed New York 121-112 with 51.1 seconds left in regulation. Haliburton sent it to overtime on a jumper with no time on the clock; Indiana won 138-135.

Now, this.

“We’ve had lots of experience in these kinds of games,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

The Pacers were down by 15 with 9:42 left, their rally the biggest in the fourth quarter of a finals game since Dallas also came from 15 down to beat Miami on June 2, 2011.

Carlisle coached those Mavericks. And, well, here he is again.

“That’s a really good team,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “Credit them for not only tonight but their run. They’ve had so many games like that that have seemed improbable. And they just play with a great spirit and they keep coming. They keep playing.”

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 19 points. Obi Toppin scored 17, Myles Turner had 15, and Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each had 14.

Jalen Williams had 17 and Lu Dort scored 15 for Oklahoma City, which was 36-1 at home with 15-point leads this season.

Game 2 is at Oklahoma City on Sunday night.

Oklahoma City led by 15 early in the fourth when Carlisle called time and subbed out all five players, seeking a spark. It worked. The Pacers outscored the Thunder 15-4 over the next 3:26 — getting within 98-94 on a three by Turner with 6:16 left.

They weren’t done. And in the final second, they found a way. Again.

“We had control of the game for the most part,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now, it’s a 48-minute game. And they teach you that lesson more than anyone else in the league — the hard way.”

EDMONTON, Canada — Leon Draisaitl scored on the power play in overtime, Stuart Skinner made 29 saves and the Edmonton Oilers erased a multigoal deficit to beat the defending champion Florida Panthers 4-3 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final rematch on Wednesday night.

After Tomas Nosek’s penalty for putting the puck over the glass, Draisaitl’s goal 19:29 into OT sent the home fans into a frenzy and made sure the Oilers would not start this series like they did a year ago, when they fell behind three games to none.

For a while, it looked like they would at least start out trailing. Draisaitl’s goal 66 seconds in was followed later in the first period by Sam Bennett deflecting a shot in past Stuart Skinner after falling into him.

Edmonton’s Kris Knoblauch unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference, with the NHL’s situation room ruling that his own player, Jake Walman, tripped Bennett into Skinner. The resulting penalty paved the way for Florida’s Brad Marchand to score the go-ahead goal on the power play.

Bennett scored his second of the night early in the second period to put the Panthers up 3-1. They entered 31-0 over the past three playoffs since coach Paul Maurice took over when leading at the first or second intermission.

With Connor McDavid leading the way, the Oilers rallied. Fourth-liner Viktor Arvidsson brought the crowd back to life early in the second, and fellow Swede Mattias Ekholm — playing just his second game back from an extended injury absence — tied it with 13:27 remaining in regulation off a perfect pass from McDavid.

At the other end, Skinner made a handful of saves that were vital to keeping the Panthers from extending their lead or tying it late in the third. Florida counterpart Sergei Bobrovsky did the same, in between derisive chants of “Sergei! Sergei!” that followed goals he allowed.

Skinner was greeted with friendlier chants of “Stuuuu” after saves, including one in the first minute of overtime on a quality scoring chance. Bobrovsky stone-cold robbed Trent Frederic nine minutes in but eventually cracked.

Game 2 is Friday night in Edmonton before the series shifts to Sunrise, Fla., for Games 3 and 4.

Decision paves way for the country’s largest Muslim party to participate in the next general election, expected by June next year.

Bangladesh has restored the registration of the country’s largest Muslim party, more than a decade after it was banned by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Sunday’s Supreme Court decision means the Jamaat-e-Islami party can now be formally listed with the Election Commission, paving the way for its participation in the next general election, which the interim government has promised to hold by June next year.

Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer Shishir Monir said the ruling would allow a “democratic, inclusive and multiparty system” in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

“We hope that Bangladeshis, regardless of their ethnicity or religious identity, will vote for Jamaat and that the parliament will be vibrant with constructive debates,” Monir told journalists.

The party had appealed for a review of a 2013 high court order cancelling its registration after Hasina’s government was ousted in August by a student-led nationwide uprising.

Hasina, 77, fled to India and is now being tried in absentia over her crackdown last year, described by prosecutors as a “systematic attack” on protesters, which according to the United Nations, killed up to 1,400 people.

Key leader freed

The Supreme Court decision on Jamaat-e-Islami came after it overturned a conviction against ATM Azharul Islam, one of the party’s key leaders, on Tuesday.

Islam was sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami supported Pakistan during the war, a role that still sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today.

“We, as individuals or as a party, are not beyond making mistakes,” Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafiqur Rahman said after Islam’s conviction was overturned without specifying what he was referring to.

“We seek your pardon if we have done anything wrong,” he said.

The party’s members were rivals of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League, who would become Bangladesh’s founding president.

Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.

In May, Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of legal proceedings over its crackdown on last year’s mass protests.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has taken its first concrete action to deliver sanctions relief for Syria, following a surprise policy pivot earlier this month.

On Friday, the US Department of the Treasury announced sweeping relief to an array of individuals and entities, which it said will “enable new investment and private sector activity consistent with [Trump’s] America First strategy”.

The US State Department, meanwhile, concurrently issued a waiver to a 2019 law, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, that would “enable our foreign partners, allies, and the region to further unlock Syria’s potential”.

Trump surprised the international community when, on May 13, he pledged to remove sanctions placed on Syria during the leadership of its now-ousted leader, President Bashar al-Assad.

Friday’s announcements mark an initial step towards that goal, as Syria recovers from abuses under al-Assad’s government and 13 years of civil war.

“As President Trump promised, the Treasury Department and the State Department are implementing authorizations to encourage new investment into Syria,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Syria must also continue to work towards becoming a stable country that is at peace, and today’s actions will hopefully put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous, and stable future”.

Sanctions relief is critical for Syria to move forward. The United States is issuing a Caesar Act sanctions waiver to increase investments and cash flows that will facilitate basic services and reconstruction in Syria. We support the Syrian people’s efforts to build a more…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 23, 2025

Trump first unveiled his plans for sanctions relief during a tour of the Middle East in mid-May. He said lifting US sanctions would give Syria “a chance at greatness”, since the restrictions left the war-torn country economically isolated.

“It’s their time to shine. We’re taking them all off,” he said from Riyadh.

Shortly after, Trump met and shook hands with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who had only recently been removed from the US’s “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” list.

Appeal for relief

Calls for sanctions relief had grown following the fall of al-Assad’s government last December. As head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, al-Sharaa spearheaded the offensive that led to al-Assad fleeing the country, bringing the civil war to an end.

The war, which first broke out in 2011, had left Syria’s economy in tatters.

As many as 656,493 people were killed during the conflict, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and a 2020 report from the United Nations estimated that the country suffered total economic losses of about $442.2bn in the first eight years of the war alone.

Sanctions have further dampened Syria’s economic outlook, making it difficult for countries with ties to the US to conduct business there.

Since taking power in December, Syria’s interim government has argued the ongoing sanctions, largely imposed during al-Assad’s rule, would slow development and cause further instability.

Trump’s announcement earlier this month buoyed hope for many Syrians of a new path forward, although the extent of the relief had remained unclear.

Earlier this week, the European Union also announced it had lifted sanctions against Syria.

Friday’s sanctions relief in the US applies to the “the Government of Syria … as in existence on or after May 13, 2025”, according to the Treasury Department.

The reprieve also applies to several previously sanctioned transportation, banking, tourism and fossil fuel entities.

Transactions related to Russia, Iran and North Korea remain under US sanctions.

One of the biggest hurdles, however, is the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a law that was passed in 2019, during Trump’s first term.

It included broad sanctions that targeted al-Assad’s government and its allies and supporters for atrocities committed against civilians.

The act was named after a former Syrian military photographer and whistleblower who smuggled out of the country a cache of images showing torture and mass killing at detention centres run by al-Assad’s security forces.

But since the law was passed by Congress, it will likely take an act of Congress to completely lift its restrictions.

The president, however, can issue temporary waivers to the law, which is what the Trump administration did on Friday.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver will last for 180 days, in order to “increase investments and cash flows that will facilitate basic services and reconstruction in Syria”.

“We support the Syrian people’s efforts to build a more hopeful future,” Rubio said.

SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run 430-foot walk-off homer to centerfield to give the San Diego Padres a comeback 6-4 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.

Tatis dropped the bat emphatically and watched the ball fly after he connected on a cutter against Angels closer Kenley Jansen (0-2), who took the loss.

Padres reliever Jason Adam (4-0) earned the win with a scoreless ninth.

Matthew Lugo hit a pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh to give the Angels a 4-2 lead. Lugo’s homer followed an RBI double in the seventh by Jo Adell, igniting a three-run rally after the Angels had two outs and no baserunners.

Angels starter José Soriano gave up two unearned runs and four hits in seven innings.

Padres starter Dylan Cease pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and five hits while striking out 10.

The Padres ended their two-game losing streak and finally beat the Angels, who had won their last four games over San Diego dating back to last season.

Key moment

With the score tied 4-4 in the ninth, Elias Díaz earned a full count walk to lead off the inning against Jansen. Tatis followed with his walk-off homer.

Key stat

Padres hot-hitting Jackson Merrill came into the game with six straight multihit games and hits in 14 of his last 15 games. Merrill was 0 for 4 Tuesday, including two deep flyouts to the wall. Tatis has hit safely in 23 of his last 26 games.

Up next

The Angels’ Randy Vásquez (2-3, 3.76 ERA) starts Wednesday night in the finale of the three-game series. Kyle Hendricks (1-4, 5.30) will be on the mound for the Padres.