unchanged

England have named an unchanged team for the Women’s Rugby World Cup final against Canada on Saturday at Twickenham.

John Mitchell has opted to stick with the same starting XV and replacements who overcame a slow start to defeat France 35-17 in the last four.

Zoe Aldcroft captains the Red Roses in their seventh straight World Cup final.

England have not won the tournament since 2014, losing the past two finals to New Zealand.

Star full-back Ellie Kildunne, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison, Amy Cokayne, Aldcroft, Abbie Ward and Alex Matthews all retain their spots from the starting XV defeated by the Black Ferns three years ago.

The Red Roses, who are on a record 32-Test winning run, have not lost since that defeat at Eden Park.

They went into that match having won their previous 30 games, and are up against an in-form Canada side on Saturday.

Kevin Rouet’s side, ranked number two in the world, have looked a class above all their opponents this tournament and delivered a remarkable semi-final performance to comfortably defeat New Zealand and reach their first World Cup final since they lost to England in 2014.

Canada are semi-professional, and have had to crowdfund nearly a third of the budget for their World Cup campaign – they are currently at 95% of their million-dollar fundraising goal entitled Mission: Win Rugby World Cup.

England have been professional since 2019 and are favourites to lift a home World Cup in front of an 82-000 capacity, sold-out Twickenham.

Saturday’s crowd will surpass the 58,498 who watched England beat France at the same stadium in the 2023 Six Nations – the previous record for a XV-a-side match – and the 66,000 who watched the women’s rugby sevens at Stade de France during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“Our staff and players have worked hard to reach this stage of the tournament,” Mitchell said.

“Playing a World Cup final at Allianz Stadium [Twickenham] in front of a record 82,000 is a significant milestone for the sport.

“We are well prepared for the challenge against Canada. It is number one versus number two in the world, and we know the contest will demand a full 80 minutes. Our focus remains on staying in our process and executing effectively.”

Since taking over the role as head coach in 2023, Mitchell has built depth by rotating his squad regularly to build two strong teams.

Holly Aitchison impressed off the bench at inside centre in the semi-final win, while former England World Cup-winner Kat Merchant called for Lucy Packer to start at scrum-half over Natasha Hunt.

But Mitchell as expected has gone for consistency in selection instead of making a big call to unsettle his preferred matchday 23.

His side defeated Canada by nine points when they met in the WXV1 last year in Vancouver.

The small town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire has been described as a “gem” and a “charming” place to visit, with a bustling market square and a selection of independent shops

This delightful UK town featured in Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small, with the hit programme recently wrapping up filming across Yorkshire for its sixth series.

Nestled between the North Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales lies the quaint town of Thirsk, now renowned for its appeal and “wonderful” character.

Perfectly positioned near Harrogate and Ripon, Thirsk can be reached via the A19, close to the major north-south A1 route.

The official Visit Thirsk website revealed that international visitors continue to be “impressed by the warm and friendly welcome of the residents of this gem of a town”.

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York Press’s tourism team noted: “Thirsk has a charm of its own, essentially unchanged and uninfluenced by the world. It centres around a bustling cobbled market square, dominated by the town clock, with its Monday & Saturday markets” that stretch back to Medieval times, reports the Express.

Residents and holidaymakers can find everything from handcrafted keepsakes to fresh produce along its high street packed with “incredible, independent shops” and dining spots, according to Visit Thirsk Town.

Meeting visitors’ tastes, the town boasts beloved cafés, restaurants and pubs, ideal for a traditional English breakfast, Sunday roast, or classic Northern pint.

York Press’s top recommendations include Yorks Of Thirsk, The Pantry and Tea Time Cafe for a delicious treat. Thirsk is not just a market town, it’s also the home of author James Herriot (Alf Wight), famed for his literary series All Creatures Great and Small.

The series, penned under the name of Wight, has been picked up by Channel 5 to celebrate Yorkshire’s diverse wildlife. And if that wasn’t enough, Thirsk is also home to a historic country racecourse, established in 1855 and described as a “beautifully maintained paddock [with] idyllic country charm,” according to the town’s website.

Take a stroll along the Cod Beck River or challenge yourself with a hike on Hambleton Hills or the moorland tracks of The Drove Road and The Swale Way that run from Boroughbridge to Kirby Stephen. Keep an eye out for the legendary White Horse of Kilburn perched on Thirsk’s hills and marvel at the sandstone homesteads that look like they’ve been lifted straight from a novel.

ANCHORAGE — Vladimir Putin is lavishing praise on President Trump ahead of their high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday, thanking his host for “energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting” in Ukraine over three years since the Russian leader attempted to conquer the country.

Trump, at the White House, also expressed optimism ahead of the talks, telling reporters he believes Putin “would like to see a deal” after suffering more than a million Russian casualties on the battlefield.

Yet Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday that Putin’s war aims remain “unchanged.” And an aggressive Russian advance along the front lines this week provided evidence to military analysts that Moscow has no plans to implement a ceasefire.

It was a day of diplomatic maneuvering ahead of an extraordinary visit from a Russian president to the U.S. homeland, and the first audience Putin has received with a Western leader since the war began.

“It’s going to be very interesting — we’re going to find out where everybody stands,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the very near future.”

Putin’s positioning ahead of the summit, and Trump’s eagerness for a deal, continue to fuel worries across Europe and in Ukraine that the Alaska negotiations could result in a bilateral agreement designed by Moscow and endorsed by Washington that sidelines Kyiv.

In London, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, offering support for Trump’s effort while placing the onus on Putin to “prove he is serious about peace.”

“They agreed there had been a powerful sense of unity and a strong resolve to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” 10 Downing Street said in a statement.

Trump said the Alaska summit, to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, is meant to “set the table” for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky that could include himself and European leaders.

Journalists stand outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Thursday ahead of Friday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

But addressing reporters, Trump suggested that denying Putin dominion over all of Ukraine — and allowing him to hold on to the territories he has seized militarily — would be concession enough from Moscow. The president had said in recent days that land “swapping” would be part of an ultimate peace settlement, a statement rejected by Kyiv.

“I think President Putin would like to see a deal,” Trump said. “I think if I weren’t president, he would take over all of Ukraine.”

“I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” he added.

Russian state media reported Thursday that Putin had gathered his advisors to inform them of “how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going.”

Trump, “in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said.

But U.S. efforts to get Russia to halt the fighting have proved futile for months, with Moscow pressing forward in an offensive that has secured incremental gains on the battlefield.

“Putin thinks that he is winning this war militarily,” said Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project, which collaborates with the Institute for the Study of War to produce daily battlefield assessments on the conflict. “He’s also confident that Western support for Ukraine, and particularly U.S. support, will break, and that when it does, Ukraine will collapse, and he’ll be able to take control of the whole thing.”

“It’s been his theory of victory for a long time,” Kagan said, “and it’s a huge part of the problem, because he’s not going to make any concessions so long as he’s confident that he’s winning.”

Russian incursions along a strategic portion of the front line, near a crucial Ukrainian logistics hub, spooked Ukraine’s supporters earlier this week. While serious, Kagan said that Russia does not hold the territory, and said that the conditions for offensive Russian operations had been set over the course of months.

“The Russians continue to have the initiative, and they continue to make gains,” he added. “The first step in changing Putin’s calculation about the war is to urgently help the Ukrainians stop the gains.”

Zelensky, after meeting with Starmer in London, said that he and the British leader had “discussed expectations for the meeting in Alaska and possible prospects.”

“We also discussed in considerable detail the security guarantees that can make peace truly durable,” Zelensky said, “if the United States succeeds in pressing Russia to stop the killings and engage in genuine, substantive diplomacy.”

Trump and Putin plan on arriving of the U.S. airbase within moments of one another, and are expected to meet on the tarmac before retreating into a private meeting.

Afterward, Trump and Putin will take questions from the press, the White House said.

July 16 (UPI) — The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Wednesday that wholesale prices didn’t change in June, making predictions of tariff-boosted inflation murky.

The bureau’s Producer Price Index, or PPI, summary stated that, once seasonally adjusted, “final demand was unchanged in June.”

Final demand prices increased 0.3% in May after declining by 0.3% in April. Without adjustment, the index for final demand rose 2.3% from June 2024.

There was a 0.3% rise in June on prices for final demand goods, but that was offset by a 0.1% decrease in the index for final demand services.

When Wednesday’s numbers are compared with the upward totals from Tuesday’s consumer price index release, the data currently shows that President Donald Trump’s tariffs may only be making a negligible impact on the American economy, and on the costs for goods and services.

One indication that the tariffs may not be economically painful at this point is the Index’s goods category, where duty-sensitive communication equipment posted a gain of only 0.8%.

The indexes for goods such as residential electric power and gasoline, as well as for canned, cooked, smoked or prepared poultry, and for tree nuts and meats did move up, but the price for chicken eggs dropped a whopping 21.8%.

Other indexes that fell include those for plastic materials, thermoplastic resins and natural gas liquids.

However, the less-than-negative totals haven’t allayed concerns by Fed officials, who remain concerned about how tariffs will affect the U.S. economy. They do feel that the American economy is in a strong position, which means they will wait on any changing of rates.

June 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Federal Reserve held key interest rates steady Wednesday but said it still sees the possibility of two cuts later this year, with expectations that President Donald Trump‘s tariff policies will spike inflation and slow economic growth.

The Federal Open Market Committee kept its borrowing rate in the 4.25%-4.5% range where it’s been since December.

Earlier Wednesday it had been highly expected that the Fed would leave interest rates unaltered. However, the committee indicated that two cuts by the end of the year were not out of the question, with a chance of four future interest rate cuts being a possibility by 2027.

“The Fed’s main message at the June meeting will be that it remains comfortably in wait-and-see mode,” Bank of America economist Aditya Bhave said in a statement earlier in the day.

The Fed reported on inflation trends and other data in the midst of economic uncertainty.

Economic experts pointed to future so-called “stagflationary” economic pressures with the likelihood of the nation’s GDP pushing at a pace of more than 1% and inflation as high as 3%.

“Uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished but remains elevated,” according to the FOMC, adding how it was being “attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate.”

The uncertainty stems not only from the unpredictable application of tariffs and ongoing trade volatility caused by them, but also from world events likely to have an effect on U.S. financial markets such as the Iran-Israel war.

“Investors should focus on [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell’s take on the softening labor data, the recent benign inflation prints and the risks of persistent tariff-driven inflation,” Bhave added.

Earlier, Wall Street economists had believed the Fed would keep interest rates in the 4.25% to 4.5% range.

The Fed has not cut interest rates so far during the Trump administration. Despite President Donald Trump aggressively pushing Powell to cut interest rates, he has declined, saying there is too much uncertainty in financial markets, largely because of tariffs that have been imposed and threatened.

The central bank held rates steady despite backlash from US President Donald Trump.

The United States Federal Reserve has left its benchmark rate unchanged despite mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to cut rates.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it will leave its short-term rate unchanged at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent.

The central bank’s decision was largely in line with expectations, and it has not cut interest rates since December.

The decision comes as policymakers weigh signs of a weakening economy. US retail sales numbers fell more than expected in its report from the US Department of Commerce yesterday. Last week’s jobless claims report from the US Department of Labour came in at its highest in eight months at 248,000.

However, the last jobs report showed the unemployment rate was steady at 4.2 percent, indicating the labour market, while slowing, remains fairly stable.

“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. Uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished but remains elevated,” the central bank said in a statement.

“Fed Chair Jerome Powell has little urgency to ease. But if any easing were to have occurred, it would have been hugely stimulative, and would have lowered US debt interest expense,” Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, told Al Jazeera.

Policymakers are looking at the looming and consistently shifting changes to Trump’s tariff policies as well as the escalating tensions in the Middle East. While oil prices were on the decline before Israel’s attack last week on Iran and its retaliatory strikes, the concerns about a closure of the Strait of Hormuz as tensions escalate have fueled concerns that prices could go up in the coming weeks.

Trump criticises Powell

Before the rate announcement, Trump expressed disappointment in the central bank’s decision to hold rates steady in the past few months.

“Powell’s too late,” he said, referring to his desire for rate cuts. “I call him ‘too late Powell’ because he’s always too late. I mean, if you look at him, every time I did this I was right 100 percent, he was wrong,” Trump said.

He added that he “may have to force something” but it is not clear what Trump meant by that.

He also suggested that he should lead the central bank. “Maybe I should go to the Fed,” Trump said. “Am I allowed to appoint myself at the Fed? I’d do a much better job than these people.”

Powell’s term is set to expire next May, and Trump has recently walked back his rhetoric on firing the central bank head.

“What I’m going to do is, you know, he gets out in about nine months, he has to, he gets fortunately terminated … I would have never reappointed him, [former President Joe] Biden reappointed him. I don’t know why that is, but I guess maybe he was a Democrat … he’s done a poor job,” Trump said.