Mark

Speaking prior to the news of Wood’s injury, former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie said he was “concerned about the robustness” of England’s attack.

“Do they have enough work in the bank to be fit and strong enough to bowl consistently high pace across the course of a whole match and then back it up in subsequent matches?” Gillespie told Stumped on BBC World Service.

“That is the big question mark for me.”

Wood’s absence would be keenly felt by England in the day-night conditions at the Gabba – a ground where they have not won since 1986.

England have a poor record in floodlit Tests, having won only two of their previous seven, including three defeats in Australia.

Australia have won 13 of their 14 day-night matches and, in Mitchell Starc, have the best pink-ball bowler in the world.

The pink ball does not behave differently to its red counterpart, but can be harder to see under lights.

Part of Starc’s success in pink-ball matches is the number of deliveries he bowls over 87mph and Wood, England’s fastest option, took nine wickets when he last played a day-night Test against Australia in Hobart in 2022.

Speaking on the For The Love of Cricket podcast, former England seamer Stuart Broad said: “There’s something about the pink ball, you just can’t pick it up quite as well. You get no clues as well, so the seam is black against the pink background, whereas with a red ball and white seam you might see Mitchell Starc’s in-swinger coming back into the stumps or scrambling around.

“It’s just the lights are reflecting off the pink ball so it’s almost like a big planet coming flying towards you.

“It means you’re just judging it from the movement off the surface or reading off the movement of the ball, but at such pace it’s quite difficult to do.”

First American pope urges Catholic Church in Turkiye to serve the most vulnerable, including migrants and refugees.

Pope Leo XIV is set to join the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians to celebrate the historic 1,700-year milestone since one of the early Church’s most important gatherings, on the second day of his visit to Turkiye.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics began his day on Friday by joining a prayer service at Istanbul’s Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

The first American pope has chosen the Muslim-majority Turkiye as his first overseas destination, to be followed by Lebanon in the coming days, as he seeks to be a bridge-builder and a messenger of peace amid raging global conflict.

In Istanbul, police shut down a main artery of the country’s largest city to allow Leo’s entourage to pass. After the church service, he was scheduled to visit a nursing home and meet with Turkiye’s chief rabbi.

Pilgrims packed into Holy Spirit church while dozens more waited excitedly in the courtyard outside in the hope of getting a glimpse of the pontiff, getting up before dawn to be in the front line.

“It’s a blessing for us, it’s so important that the first visit of the pope is to our country,” a 35-year-old Turkish Catholic, Ali Gunuru, told AFP news agency.

Catherine Bermudez, a Filipino migrant worker in Istanbul, told Al Jazeera that she was “very excited” to be chosen as one of the parishioners to greet the pope inside the church.

Visibly moved by his reception at the church, Leo could be seen smiling and looking much more at ease than on Thursday, encouraging his flock not to be discouraged, saying “the logic of littleness is the church’s true strength”.

“The church in Turkiye is a small community, yet fruitful,” he said in his address, urging them to give “special attention” to helping migrants and refugees staying in Turkiye who number nearly three million, most of them Syrians.

Next papal stop in Iznik

Later on Friday, the 70-year-old pontiff will head to Iznik to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops who drew up a foundational statement of faith still central to Christianity today despite the separation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Leo will be flown by helicopter to Iznik where he has been invited by the Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, to join an ecumenical prayer service by the ruins of a fourth-century basilica.

“When the world is troubled and divided by conflict and antagonism, our meeting with Pope Leo XIV is especially significant,” Patriarch Bartholomew told AFP news agency in an interview.

Reports said that Turkish police removed Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1981, from Iznik on Thursday.

Agca – who was released from prison in 2010 – said he had hoped to meet the pope, telling reporters that “I hope we can sit down and talk in Iznik, or in Istanbul, for two or three minutes.”

Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkiye, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.

Nov. 27 (UPI) — The federal government will not participate in this year’s World AIDS Day, a decades-old event to mourn people who’ve died from the disease and raise awareness.

The State Department has directed employees and grant recipients not to use federal funding to commemorate the day, The New York Times reported Wednesday. While employees can still highlight their work on AIDS and other diseases, they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day” in public-facing messaging, the Times reported.

“An awareness day is not a strategy,” Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the department, told the paper. “Under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing.”

However, the Trump White House has issued other proclamations for commemorative days intended to raise awareness about autism, organ donation, cancer and others.

World AIDS Day has been observed every Dec. 1 since 1988. President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. head of state in 1993 to issue a proclamation on the deadly immune-deficiency disease.

The Trump administration froze foreign aid spending earlier this year. With the approval of Congress, it later slashed about $7.9 billion in international humanitarian aid programs. However, the cuts left funding intact programs that combat HIV and AIDS, as well as other infectious diseases.

An estimated 40.8 million people were living with HIV, the precursor to AIDS, worldwide in 2024, according to the World Health Organization. An estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV last year.

However, the United Nations’ program on AIDS warned on Tuesday of international funding cuts and a waning resolve to address the virus.

A report from the U.N. program noted that some funding has been restored for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative started under George W. Bush that is credited with saving more than 25 million lives. However, the report stated that “service disruptions associated with these and other funding cuts are having long-lasting effects on almost all areas of the HIV response.”

“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we fought so hard to achieve,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement. “Behind every data point in this report are people-babies and children missed for HIV screening or early HIV diagnosis, young women cut off from prevention support, and communities suddenly left without services and care. We cannot abandon them.”

A federal judge has temporarily blocked OpenAI’s use of several monikers, including “Cameos” and “CameoVideo,” for elements of its Sora artificial intelligence video generation products and marketing.

U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee on Friday issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the San Francisco AI giant from using names that are part of an ongoing trademark dispute.

The Northern California judge also set a Dec. 19 hearing to delve further into the matter.

The lawsuit was brought late last month by Chicago-based tech business Baron App, which also goes by the name of its product, Cameo. The eight-year-old firm sued OpenAI, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition.

In its Oct. 28 lawsuit, Baron said it has secured several U.S. Trademark Registrations for its Cameo product, which enables fans to engage celebrities to make personalized videos to wish friends a happy birthday or other greetings.

Snoop Dogg, Tony Hawk, Jon Bon Jovi and Donald Trump Jr. are among celebrities who have participated, connecting with fans through Cameo, the company said in its complaint against Open AI. Cameo said its posts have been popular, attracting more than 100 million views in the past year.

The legal dispute began after OpenAI announced an update to its text-to-video tool Sora in September. The update included the launch of a new Sora feature that it called Cameos.

OpenAI’s fall product update gave consumers on the Sora app the ability to scan their faces and allow others to manipulate their facial images in AI-generated environments. YouTube influencer and boxer Jake Paul, who is an investor in OpenAI, participated in OpenAI’s Cameos’ rollout. In less than five days, the Sora app hit more than 1 million downloads.

“OpenAI is now using Cameo’s own mark, CAMEO, to compete directly with Cameo,” Baron wrote in its lawsuit against OpenAI.

Lawyers for the two companies argued their positions in a Tuesday hearing.

Lee’s decision forbids OpenAI and its “officers, directors and employees from using the mark ‘Cameo,’ or any other mark that includes or is confusingly similar to ‘Cameo,’ ” according to her order. “Defendants are ordered to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not [be] issue[d].”

The temporary restraining order expires Dec. 22.

“While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a Saturday statement. “We would like nothing more than to put this behind us so that we can focus our full attention on bringing talent and fans together as we head into the holidays.”

An OpenAI spokesperson responded in a statement: “We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court.”

The move comes as OpenAI has faced blowback in Hollywood as images of celebrities and dead newsmakers were manipulated without their consent.

A handful of opposition abstentions allowed Carney and minority Liberals to advance a deficit-boosting budget aimed at countering US tariffs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority government narrowly survived a confidence vote on Monday as Canadian lawmakers endorsed a motion to begin debating his first federal budget – a result that avoids the prospect of a second election in less than a year.

The House of Commons voted 170-168 to advance study of the fiscal plan. While further votes are expected in the coming months, the slim victory signals that the budget is likely to be approved eventually.

Tonight, the House of Commons has voted to pass Budget 2025.

It’s time to work together to deliver on this plan — to protect our communities, empower Canadians with new opportunities, and build Canada strong.

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) November 18, 2025

“It’s time to work together to deliver on this plan – to protect our communities, empower Canadians with new opportunities, and build Canada strong,” Carney said on X, arguing that his spending blueprint would help fortify the economy against escalating United States tariffs.

Carney has repeatedly cast the budget as a “generational” chance to reinforce Canada’s economic resilience and to reduce reliance on trade with the US.

The proposal includes a near doubling of Canada’s deficit to 78.3 billion Canadian dollars ($55.5bn) with major outlays aimed at countering US trade measures and supporting defence and housing initiatives. The prime minister has insisted that higher deficit spending is essential to cushion the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. While most bilateral trade remains tariff-free under an existing North American trade agreement, US levies on automobiles, steel and aluminium have struck significant sectors of the Canadian economy.

According to Carney, a former central banker, internal forecasts show that “US tariffs and the associated uncertainty will cost Canadians around 1.8 percent of our GDP [gross domestic product]”.

The Liberals, a few seats short of a majority in the 343-seat House of Commons, relied on abstentions from several opposition members who were reluctant to trigger early elections. Recent polling suggested Carney’s Liberals would remain in power if Canadians were sent back to the polls.

Carney was elected to a full term in April after campaigning on a promise to challenge Washington’s protectionist turn. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party, the official opposition, has been wrestling with internal divisions since its defeat, and leader Pierre Poilievre faces a formal review of his performance early next year.

Poilievre has sharply criticised the government’s spending plans, branding the fiscal package a “credit card budget”.

The left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) has also expressed concerns, arguing that the proposal fails to adequately address unemployment, the housing crisis and the cost-of-living pressures faced by many Canadian families.

NDP interim leader Don Davies said the party accepted that blocking the budget would push the country back into an unwanted election cycle, explaining why two of its MPs ultimately abstained.

It was “clear that Canadians do not want an election right now … while we still face an existential threat from the Trump administration”, he said.

“Parliamentarians decided to put Canada first”, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said.

Polling before Monday’s vote suggested Canadians broadly shared this view. A November survey by the analytics firm Leger found that one in five respondents supported immediate elections while half said they were satisfied with Carney’s leadership.

A game-winning trick play from the Baltimore Ravens’ Mark Andrews and a stunning catch by the Los Angeles Chargers’ Keenan Allen top the best plays from week 11 in the NFL.

READ MORE: Broncos go 9-2 and Sanders plays for Browns – NFL round-up

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It’s election night in Robert Icke’s “Oedipus,” a modern retelling of Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” that must be the buzziest, if not the chicest, Broadway offering of the fall season.

The production, a prestigious London import that opened at Studio 54 on Thursday under Icke’s smart and sleek direction, stars a charismatic Mark Strong in the title role. His elegant and urbane Oedipus, a politician on the cusp of a momentous victory, prides himself on not playing by the old rules. A straight talker who has made transparency his calling card, he frequently veers off script in paroxysms of candor, to the chagrin of Creon (John Carroll Lynch), his brother-in-law who has been steering the campaign to what looks like a landslide victory.

But “count no mortal happy till / he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain,” as the chorus intones at the end of Sophocles’ tragedy. There is no chorus in Icke’s version, but the sentiment holds, as Oedipus unravels the puzzle of his identity with the same relentlessness that has brought him to the brink of electoral triumph.

Anne Reid, left, and Olivia Reis in “Oedipus.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

A birther conspiracy has been raised by his political opponent, and Oedipus, speaking impromptu to reporters on-screen at the start of the play, promises to release his birth certificate and put an end to the controversy. What’s more, he vows to reopen an investigation into the death of Laius, the former leader who died 34 years ago under circumstances that have allowed rumor and innuendo to fester.

Oedipus calls himself Laius’ “successor, the inheritor of his legacy,” and in true Sophoclean fashion he speaks more than he knows. Jocasta (Lesley Manville in top form), Oedipus’ wife, was married to Laius, and so Oedipus is occupying his predecessor’s place in more ways than one.

In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus confronts a plague that has been laying waste to Thebes. In Icke’s drama, which had its premiere in Amsterdam in 2018, the pathogen is political. The civic body has fallen ill. Oedipus sees himself as an answer to the demagogic manipulation that has wrought havoc. The water is poisoned, economic inequality is out of control and immigrants have become an easy target. Sound familiar?

Icke’s Oedipus has an Obama-level of confidence in reason and reasonableness. His direct, pragmatic approach has seduced voters, but has it deluded him into thinking that he has all the answers? Oedipus is an ingenious problem solver. Puzzles entice his keen intellect, but he will have to learn the difference between a paradox and a riddle.

Mark Strong, left, and Samuel Brewer in “Oedipus.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

His daughter, Antigone (Olivia Reis), a scholar who has returned for her father’s big night, ventures to make the distinction: “One’s got a solution — one’s just something you have to live with?” But Oedipus is in no mood for academic hairsplitting.

A countdown clock marks the time until the election results will be announced. That hour, as audiences familiar with the original tragedy already know, is when Oedipus will discover his true identity.

Merope (Anne Reid), Oedipus’ mother, has unexpectedly turned up at campaign headquarters needing to speak to her son. Oedipus fears it has something to do with his dying father, but she tells him she just needs a few minutes alone with him. Thinking he has everything under control, he keeps putting her off, not knowing that she has come to warn him about revealing his birth certificate to the public.

The handling of this plot device, with the canny veteran Reid wandering in and out of the drama like an informational time bomb, is a little clumsy. There’s a prattling aspect to Icke’s delaying tactics. His “Oedipus” is more prose than poetry. The family dynamics are well drawn, though a tad overdone.

Mark Strong and the cast of “Oedipus.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

Reid’s Merope and Reis’ Antigone, ferocious in their different ways, refuse to play second fiddle to Manville’s Jocasta when it comes to Oedipus’ affections. Manville, who won an Olivier Award for her performance in “Oedipus,” delivers a performance as sublimely seething as her Oscar-nominated turn in “Phantom Thread.” Endowed with a formidable hauteur, her Jocasta acts graciously, but with an unmistakable note of condescension. As Oedipus’ wife, she assumes sexual pride of place, which only exacerbates tensions with Merope and Antigone.

Oedipus’ sons, Polyneices (James Wilbraham) and Eteocles (Jordan Scowen) are given personal backstories, but there is only so much domestic conflict that can be encompassed in a production that runs just under two hours without interruption. And Polyneices being gay and Eteocles being something of a philander would be of more interest in an “Oedipus” limited series.

When Sophocles’ tragedy is done right, it should resemble a mass more than a morality tale. Oedipus’ story has a ceremonial quality. The limits of human understanding are probed as a sacrificial figure challenges the inscrutable order of the universe. Icke, who views classics through a modern lens (“Hamlet,” “1984”), is perhaps more alert to the sociology than the metaphysics of the tragedy.

Oedipus’ flaws are writ large in his rash, heated dealings with anyone who stands in his way. Icke transforms Creon into a middle-of-the-road political strategist (embodied by Lynch with a combination of arrogance and long-suffering patience) and blind Teiresias (a stark Samuel Brewer) into a mendicant psychic too pathetic to be a pariah.

Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in “Oedipus.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

But Oedipus’ strengths — the keenness of his mind, his heroic commitment to truth and transparency — mustn’t be overlooked. Strong, who won an Olivier Award for his performance in Ivo van Hove’s revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” exposes the boyish vulnerability within the sophisticated politician in his sympathetically beguiling portrayal.

Wojciech Dziedzic’s costumes remake the protagonist into a modern European man. Yet true to his Ancient Greek lineage, this Oedipus is nothing if not paradoxical, suavely enjoying his privilege while brandishing his egalitarian views.

The production takes place on a fishbowl office set, designed by Hildegard Bechtler with a clinical and wholly contemporary austerity. The furnishings are removed as the election night draws to its conclusion, leaving no place for the characters to hide from the unwelcome knowledge that will upend their lives.

What do they discover? That everything they thought they understood about themselves was built on a lie. For all his brilliance, Oedipus was unable to outrun his fate, which in Icke’s version has less to do with the gods and more to do with animal instincts and social forces.

When Oedipus and Jocasta learn who they are to each other, passion rushes in before shame calls them to account. Freud wouldn’t be shocked. But it’s not the psychosexual dimension of Icke’s drama that is most memorable.

The ending, impeded by a retrospective coda, diminishes the full cathartic impact. But what we’re left with is the astute understanding of a special kind of hubris that afflicts the more talented politicians — those who believe they have the answers to society’s problems without recognizing the ignorance that is our common lot.

Mark Selby beat defending champion Mark Williams 6-5 in a final-frame decider to reach the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions in Leicester.

In a high-quality opening between two of the greats – who hold seven world titles between them – Wales’ Williams took the first two frames with breaks of 77 and 114.

England’s Selby responded with two half centuries and a wonderful break of 136 as he reeled off the next four frames to lead 4-2, before Williams replied by edging three hard-fought frames to go 5-4 up.

However, Leicester-born Selby compiled a timely 95 to win the 10th frame and enjoyed a run of 55 to seal a thrilling victory.

The 42-year-old told ITV4: “It was mad towards the end. I felt like I had played really well to go 4-2 up. Mark did what he does, he dug in, showed his class, came back and the next minute I am 5-4 down and my head is spinning.

Catherine, Princess of Wales is set to be among those attending services to mark Armistice Day on Tuesday.

Catherine will be at a ceremony held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, with a two-minute silence at 11:00 GMT to commemorate the end of World War One and to remember those who have died in all wars since.

Her husband, the Prince of Wales, will also deliver a video message to young people, sharing his views on the importance of wearing a red poppy and to say that “remembrance is for everyone”.

William’s message to children across the UK is to be played out at the Royal British Legion’s Remembrance Assembly on Tuesday morning.

The virtual event brings together children aged between nine and 14 in schools, libraries, home education and other learning settings across the UK.

“Armistice Day is an important time for us to stop and reflect – it is a reminder that remembrance is for everyone,” the prince will say.

“When we remember, we connect with service in a personal way.

“We learn from the courage of others, and we carry their stories forward, so they are not forgotten.

“It’s not just about the past – it’s about shaping who we become in the future.

“Remembrance teaches us empathy, resilience and responsibility.

“And when we wear a red poppy or take a moment of silence, we are saying, ‘Thank you. We have not forgotten, and we will not forget’.”

Meanwhile, the service in Staffordshire will feature the reading of a specially commissioned poem by the arboretum’s poet in residence, Arji Manuelpillai.

“A Sonnet For Us All captures the stories etched into the hundreds of memorials within the National Memorial Arboretum, it invites people to listen, reflect and consider the emotion that was the inspiration for these sculptures,” Mr Manuelpillai said.

“These human connections, and the gentle responsibility to carry love forward, are themes that resonate not only with me, but also with HRH The Princess of Wales, for whom the importance of service and compassion lies especially close to the heart.”

Later on Tuesday, William will join the King and Queen at Windsor Castle where a reception will honour veterans who served in the Pacific during the Second World War.

The event, which the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Gloucester will also attend, continues the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of VJ Day – or Victory over Japan Day.

Drew Brees is in at Fox Sports.

Mark Sanchez is out.

The network announced Friday that Brees, the MVP of Super Bowl XLIV, has been hired as an NFL game analyst. He will join play-by-play announcer Adam Amin in the booth starting Nov. 16.

Amin had previously been paired with Sanchez, who is facing a felony battery charge after a physical altercation with a 69-year-old truck driver in Indianapolis last month. Sanchez, who was stabbed in the abdomen during the incident, has not been on the air since then, and a Fox Sports spokesperson told The Times on Friday that he “is no longer with the network.”

“There will be no further comment at this time,” the spokesperson added.

Sanchez has been charged with a level five felony of battery involving serious bodily injury as well as two misdemeanors — unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication — after an Oct. 4 scuffle with Indiana resident Perry Tole.

Sanchez was in Indianapolis that weekend to cover the Colts’ game against the Las Vegas Raiders. According to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Sanchez threw Tole toward a wall and also onto the ground during the altercation, while Tole sprayed Sanchez with pepper spray and eventually stabbed him.

Tole spent two days in the hospital after suffering a deep laceration on his left cheek that his attorney said affected his ability to speak. On Oct. 6, Tole filed a civil lawsuit against Sanchez, alleging he had suffered “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function, other physical injuries, emotional distress, and other damages” as a result of the 38-year-old former NFL player’s actions.

Fox Corp. was named as a co-defendant in the case.

Sanchez remained in the hospital for a week after the incident. He was excused from attending an Oct. 22 pre-trial conference for his criminal case, as his attorney said he was still recovering from his injuries. The trial is set to begin Dec. 11.

With Brees, Fox has replaced Sanchez with one of the NFL’s all-time greats at quarterback. Brees played for the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints during his 20 years in the NFL and is second behind Tom Brady in many of the league’s passing records, including touchdowns and yards. In his first year of eligibility, he is among the 52 modern-era players under consideration for the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

“Drew is one of the best to ever play the game, and we couldn’t be more excited to have his prolific credentials and unique insights as part of our coverage on Sundays,” Brad Zager, president of Production and Operations at Fox Sports, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome him to the Fox Sports family.”

Upon retiring in 2020, Brees called games on NBC for one season. More recently, he has appeared on in-studio shows on various networks and is slated to be part of Netflix’s coverage of Christmas Day games for the second year.

“I appreciate the opportunity Fox has given me in the booth and with their team,” Brees said in a statement. “I hope my passion for this game is reflected in the knowledge and insights I provide to the fans each Sunday.”