ridiculous

For Kane, it was another mesmerising performance that underlined his credentials as the frontrunner for the 2026 Ballon d’Or.

The former Tottenham Hotspur captain, 33, could become the first Englishman since Michael Owen in 2001 to win the prestigious individual award, with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Paris St-Germain forward and current holder Ousmane Dembele among the favourites.

Kane was named on the 30-man shortlist in September, with the winner due to be announced on Monday following a vote by an international jury of 100 journalists.

“He is the clear winner. His numbers speak for themselves. The year he has had has been remarkable,” Arsenal and England midfielder Declan Rice told TNT Sports.

“When you play with him, you realise how good he is, and when you play against him, you see how much of a pain it is.

“He is ridiculous, such a good player, and I am lucky I can play with him, not so lucky I have to play against him.”

By scoring against Arsenal on Wednesday night, Kane became only the second player in Champions League history to find the net in 10 consecutive matches.

The only other player to achieve the feat was five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored in 11 successive matches for Real Madrid between June 2017 and April 2018.

“Kane certainly looks at home at Bayern. He understands the team and its system, and they all understand him. They know that when he gets the ball at his feet, wherever that may be, something good can happen,” Onuoha added.

“I think all the Bayern players are really playing into that, but then Harry steps up and scores a penalty as well.

“Having freedom is probably the best way to describe what he has got playing for Bayern, because he will work hard defensively, which allows him the freedom to be creative when he is in attack. For now, he certainly is thriving.”

Kane’s goal against Arsenal took his tally to 156 in 158 appearances since joining Bayern Munich from Tottenham in 2023.

It was another night to remember for the England captain, but the best could yet be to come, with the Ballon d’Or ceremony in London looming.

“It would be amazing to win,” said Kane afterwards. “The voting closed a long time ago so there’s nothing I can do, just wait and see what happens.”

The National Geographic’s ‘Around the World by Private Jet’ trips take in some of the world’s most amazing destinations including Kyoto, Seoul, Singapore and many more places, but they come at a cost

National Geographic’s new private jet trip is the most expensive holiday I’ve ever seen, and possibly the most ridiculous.

The 23-day private jet trip is a wildlife adventure through Asia and Africa, starting with a welcome dinner in Singapore. You’ll then fly to Borneo to meet orangutans and sun bears before cruising the Kinabatangan River. In India, the journey continues to Jaipur, then Ranthambore National Park to search for tigers.

Next come safaris in Sri Lanka’s Yala and Bundala parks, then the Maldives, and jetting on to Madagascar where Nosy Be offers lemurs, chameleons and snorkelling. In South Africa, Phinda Private Game Reserve brings Big Five safaris, and in Rwanda, guests trek to see mountain gorillas. The trip concludes in Rome before guests are jetted back home.

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And all of that for the low, low price of $144,995 (£108,700) per person, or $6,304 (£4,726) a day. As well as needing more disposable cash than most people will enjoy in a lifetime, there is another big issue with the trip – which is one of five private jet itineraries Nat Geo offers.

Each passenger onboard the chartered Boeing 757, which has been modified to cut the standard 233 seats to 80 business class spots, is responsible for 7,851 kg CO2e (calculated using the Travel Impact Model). By some calculations, the annual “carbon budget” is as low as 700kg CO2e per year. The average Brit produces 8,000kg of CO2e over a year.

As this record-breaking hot and dry summer has made abundantly clear, the Earth is in a perilous position. We’re not just edging but moving closer, rapidly, to breaching and then going well past the 1.5C global warming level set out by the Paris Agreement. This doesn’t mean hot summers on the beach; it means climate breakdown, droughts, famines and heat deaths.

As the UN warns: “Exceeding 1.5°C could also trigger multiple climate tipping points, such as breakdowns of major ocean circulation systems, abrupt thawing of boreal permafrost, and collapse of tropical coral reef systems, with abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts for humanity.”

The Nat Geo trip appears at odds with the company’s own corporate responsibility policy, which states: National Geographic activities, products, and services should be designed in such a way as to minimise negative environmental impacts and optimise positive environmental impacts. This commitment is reflected in the “Sustainability Guidelines” set forth in the Brand Standards Guidelines.

National Geographic did not respond to requests for comment.

Flying is a particular problem, as currently, most people don’t fly. 80% of people have never flown. As the world gets richer and more people step aboard a plane, emissions will soar. As other sectors decarbonise, aviation keeps growing and polluting more.

The independent Climate Change Committee projected that aviation’s proportion of UK greenhouse gas emissions will increase from 7% in 2022 to 9% in 2025, 11% in 2030 and 16% in 2035.

Katie Thompson, CEO and founder of environmental aviation charity Bumprints, is a former commercial jet pilot and private jet industry worker who now refuses to fly.

“I started looking at climate and everything changed. No one talks about it in the aviation industry; it’s a complete elephant in the departure lounge. You study a lot to be a pilot, but the whole time, climate was never mentioned. You know a lot about weather, but the whole topic of climate change is completely absent,” Katie told the Mirror. “It’s easier not to talk about it. You fall in love with the world by travelling in it, but then you have to protect it.”

Katie argues that the National Geographic private jet trip is at odds with the organisation’s ethos. “If you really care about wildlife, you need to think about what’s happening to their habitats. It’s 100% human-induced warming that’s causing devastation and the sixth mass extinction. Then you connect the dots between your life choices and what’s happening. If you added up the carbon of just that trip, it would blow through hundreds of people’s annual budgets,” she said.

“Booking this kind of holiday is so completely out of line with that. It’s really hard to justify this. I am jealous because I want to go on this trip, but I couldn’t. Some people are still living as if we’re in the 1970s and this felt like a future problem.”

Katie urged people to be more conscious passengers, in part by checking the predicted emissions of different services on Google Flights. These can vary considerably on the same route, with some three times lower than others.

Striker takes fire for where and how he has chosen to recover from a knee injury as his return to play could come as early as Saturday.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has slammed criticism of star striker Kylian Mbappe, calling the attacks “ridiculous”.

The French captain has come under fire for spending his time recovering from a left knee injury in France and Switzerland rather than Madrid. He suffered a hyperextension of the joint while playing in a Nations League match against Turkiye on September 25.

The 27-year-old was also pictured at the entrance of a Parisian nightclub and photographed on a bicycle when he was in Switzerland.

Some fans claimed it was a deliberate snubbing of Mourinho, who only days before had said players should avoid skiing or riding bicycles to avoid injury.

“Are these criticisms over the top? They are ridiculous,” Mourinho said at a news conference on Friday on the eve of Real’s La Liga home match with Villarreal.

“All the players who were obliged to be present every day for their recovery were here.

“Mbappe came, like the others, to undergo scans in order to be diagnosed.

“He then went to see a specialist in France because he has history with his knee, which we cannot ignore.”

Mourinho, whose side lost to Atletico Madrid in their last match and already lag six points behind bitter rivals Barcelona, is never one to shy away from a confrontation and tackled each of the criticisms against Mbappe.

“Problems involving football are not sufficient for you,” the 63-year-old Portuguese coach told reporters.

“Therefore, you have raised the issue of the discotheque, which in fact was not one because it was used for a private event for Fashion Week.

“As for the bicycle in Switzerland, it was in a hotel made up of small houses which makes them available so guests can ride to the communal areas, and you would have us believe he was competing in the Tour of Switzerland.”

Mbappe, who returned to training on Wednesday, could feature on the pitch as early as Saturday. Mourinho shrugged off the potential of a hostile reception for Mbappe against Villarreal, reiterating that he was “certain” the all-time World Cup record goal scorer has fulfilled “his obligations to Real Madrid”.

It is not the first time this season that Mbappe has been subjected to attacks by fans.

The Ultras Sur, a Real Madrid supporters group linked to the far right and banned from the Santiago Bernabeu, took issue with him last month.

They were furious that before a Real Madrid match, Mbappe, alongside Vinicius Jr and fellow Frenchman Ibrahima Konate, partially rolled up T-shirts bearing the words “We are all Ceutans“, which was intended to be a message of support for people in the Spanish territory bordering Morocco.

Ceuta, a Spanish North African exclave, has been grappling with a migration crisis.

Mbappe was also criticised earlier this season over his choice of a location for recovery from a previous injury, which led to an online “Mbappe Out” campaign by some Real fans.