World

Australia dominated the first half and capitalised on the Kiwi Ferns’ errors to win 34-10 and clinch the trophy.

Winger Jaime Chapman collected a hat-trick as Australia crushed New Zealand 34-10 on Sunday with an emphatic first-half performance to clinch their fourth consecutive Women’s Rugby League World Cup title.

Two tries in the opening five minutes did the damage, and there were four more before half-time to send the Jillaroos to the break with a commanding 34-6 advantage.

Despite applying pressure, they were unable to add to their score as the humid conditions in Brisbane took their toll and errors crept in.

But Australia had done enough to ensure a fourth straight title, beating the Kiwi Ferns in the final each time, to reinforce their status as the sport’s powerhouse nation.

“I want to thank the Kiwi Ferns. It’s been such a great rivalry for so many years now, with so much respect between the two of our teams,” said Australia captain Isabelle Kelly, now a three-time World Cup champion.

“To my team … I’m just so humbled and honoured to be able to lead you guys. This has definitely been a dream come true, and I knew that we could get the job done.”

Before Australia’s global rise, New Zealand won the World Cup in 2000, 2003 and 2008.

“We didn’t quite get the job done today, but we are going to assert dominance back into this jersey,” said New Zealand skipper Raecene McGregor.

“The best of the Kiwi Ferns is yet to be shown, so stay with us.”

New Zealand had won only one of their previous 12 Tests against the Jillaroos dating back to 2017, and they were under the pump immediately.

A knock-on near the New Zealand try line just two minutes in allowed Australia to spread the ball wide, and Chapman dived over in the corner for her 11th try of the tournament.

With all the momentum, Australia pressured New Zealand into another mistake and capitalised, with Shaylee Bent crashing over for their second converted try.

Midway through the first half, they were 18-0 ahead, with another Chapman special on the back of a lightning break.

A sensational solo effort from Jessica Sergis stretched the lead further, with the five-eighth shrugging off three tackles to sprint the length of the field.

New Zealand finally got on the board when Shannon Mato barged across, but Chapman’s third came after she burst through two tackles to race away, putting Australia back in full control before Tamika Upton added a sixth before half-time.

Australia started strongly in the second half with only some desperate Kiwi defence keeping them at bay.

But it was a much tighter affair, with New Zealand’s Mackenzie Wiki crossing in the dying seconds for the only try of the half.

Australia (34) 34

Tries: Chapman 3, Bent, Surgis, Upton Goals: Southwell 5

New Zealand (6) 10

Tries: Mato, Wiki Goals: Kiria-Ratu

Jaime Chapman’s grin after acrobatically diving over in the corner said it all. Her second try of the match and Australia’s third – the World Cup final put to bed inside 15 minutes.

The red-hot Australian winning machine blew New Zealand away in the first half as they cantered to a record fourth World Cup title – and fourth in a row – with a 34-10 win in Brisbane.

Making light work of the blistering conditions, which necessitated a drinks break in either half and an extended interval, the Jillaroos ran in six tries to the Kiwi Ferns’ one in the opening 35 minutes, including an initial burst of 24 unanswered points and a hat-trick for Chapman.

Record books were consulted at the break, with Australia on course to challenge New Zealand’s 58-0 winning margin from the 2003 final. But the two sides neutralised one another during the second period, New Zealand maintaining their record of not conceding after the break at this tournament – and bagging a consolation try – albeit with Australia long out of sight.

The undisputed dominant force in women’s rugby league, Australia are now unbeaten in 16 World Cup matches – a run stretching back to July 2013.

Aside from a brief first-half scare against Fiji in the semi-finals, who became the first side for 13 years to open the scoring in a World Cup game against Australia, it has been a serene procession to the title, scoring 306 points while conceding just 30.

It was a ruthless first-half performance from the Jillaroos, who capitalised on the field position presented by a succession of errors and ill-discipline from New Zealand- combined with some sluggish defending – for their opening three tries.

Chapman overpowered three defenders on the left wing to open the scoring after just 125 seconds and produced a flying finish from a sharp offload in the same area after Shaylee Bent had sliced through New Zealand’s defence from close range for Australia’s second.

After Jess Sergis went the length of the field for Australia’s fourth, albeit with a suspected forward pass in the build-up, Shannon Mato dived over as New Zealand profited from back-to-back infringements from the hosts.

However, normal service quickly resumed, with Chapman evading multiple tackles as she ran 60 metres to complete her hat-trick before slick handling down the right wing allowed Abbi Church to feed Tamika Upton on her inside for a simple score under the posts.

Head coach Jess Skinner’s decision to select Jesse Southwell ahead of Jocelyn Kelleher at stand-off paid off, as she nonchalantly kicked five of her six conversions, including two from the left touchline.

Australia went completely off the boil in the second half, with Tarryn Aiken – denied by a try-saving tackle from Georgia Hale – producing their only scoring opportunity of note.

New Zealand, to their credit, vastly improved when defending on the front foot but remained frustrating in attack, completing barely half of their sets due to repeated handling errors, loose passing, and a consistent failure to feed stand-off Chantay Kiria-Ratu.

Mackenzie Wiki’s 70th minute try was a deserved, if futile, reward for their second-half efforts.

When Ateez first arrived in Los Angeles from South Korea in 2018, they were aspiring K-pop idols who were still only learning their craft and unsure what the future had in store for them.

From humble beginnings training at Movement Lifestyle and Millennium Dance Complex, Ateez have gone on to headline arenas and stadiums across the city and established themselves as one of the biggest K-pop groups in the world.

The eight-member K-pop unit — made up of Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho — have headlined festivals, accumulated billions of streams and transcended the genre with viral songs and dances such as “Bad” and “Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers).”

Marking another milestone in their careers, Ateez headlined their first outdoor festival in L.A. with the inaugural two-day K-pop music festival 82 World at Los Angeles State Historic Park in October.

Following their performance, Hongjoong, San, Mingi and Jongho of Ateez sat down with The Times to discuss their comeback with their 15th mini-album, “Golden Hour: Part.6,” out Friday.

The excitement about the album was palpable, as San and Jongho couldn’t hold back their dance moves while discussing songs like “Up” and “Drip.” The album sees Ateez experiment with genres, such as heavy trap, while incorporating familiar elements that have made them so popular over the years.

How was the performance at 82 World?

San: It’d been over a year since our last show in L.A., so it was special, and the fans were full of energy as we hadn’t seen them for so long.

How have these big performances, like 82 World or headlining at BMO Stadium, helped you grow as performers?

San: I think the most important thing that we’ve gained from these big performances is confidence. We have been performing on bigger stages and meeting more Atiny — the fandom name — and this made us enjoy performing more.

Did this feel like a full-circle moment, as you’re headlining a festival in the city you trained in?

Hongjoong: We have been to L.A. a lot of times, but this is the first time we’ve had a big outdoor performance in L.A. This felt like a full-circle moment. Also, the fact that we got to perform “From” at the end of the show, which is a song that we made in L.A., made it even more special.

What are your memories of recording “From”?

Hongjoong: When we recorded “From,” it was our pre-debut song, so it was before all of this happened. So getting the chance to perform this in front of the fans who we thought about whilst writing the song made it even more special.

What did you learn from training in L.A. that perhaps you couldn’t have just picked up in Seoul?

Mingi: The thing that I learned the most in L.A. is about showmanship. There’s a lot of freedom and happiness on stage.

How did you feel that freedom in the studio when recording in L.A.?

Mingi: Rather than in the studio, it was something I learned to express whilst on stage. But as we travel to different countries and cities, I picked up bits and pieces from each place, so it wasn’t just from L.A.

What energy does L.A. bring you?

Jongho: It’s not just the concerts; it’s the fact we have beautiful weather in L.A., too, and that gives me a lot of energy. Also, on my way to the concerts, I love looking at the beautiful scenery, and everything here is a little bit brighter.

Did you have any favorite places you liked to go while training?

Hongjoong: When we first came to L.A., we were just there to train, so we didn’t really go to any special places. We would just go to places near the dance studio to get sandwiches during our break. We would just try anything during that time.

How will “Golden Hour: Part.6” show a new side of Ateez from what we’ve seen recently?

Hongjoong: Of all the “Golden Hour” installments, this feels like the most Ateez and the most representative of what we want to express. We’ve also tried a lot of different genres throughout the “Golden Hour” and “Treasure” series, so we’re bringing them together for this mini-album.

What was that like, experimenting in the studio and bringing all these sounds together?

San: We’re thankful that we have the freedom to try all of these different genres. There was an opportunity to explore the different music tastes of Atiny and what sounds they liked, and that helped us grow as artists. It was a good challenge to experiment.

Congratulations on the eighth anniversary. How does this album celebrate your anniversary, and why is this a special milestone?

Mingi: The fact that we’ve stayed together for eight years is a gift in itself, and we’re thankful for that. Also, we were able to grow together and share these experiences in such a short time, which is a blessing. We are looking forward to our ninth, 10th and 20th anniversaries.

Is there any moment in your eight years that you wish you could relive?

Jongho: Rather than one specific moment, every moment that we’ve been able to live through these eight years has been special. We just want to enjoy every moment and connect with the fans for a long time.

One of the biggest moments must have been your first show, which was at the Globe Theatre in L.A. in 2019. How did that feel?

San: We went in not knowing much. We didn’t know how many people would turn up, but from the first moment we were able to hit the stage and connect with Atiny, we started to feel more confident. Our first show was in L.A., and people from all different cultures and backgrounds were coming from different places. The fact that they were able to sing with us as one and sing in Korean and all our songs from the beginning to the end was a beautiful memory that I still cherish.

You go through lots of training, but what did you learn from that first show that you couldn’t have prepared for?

Mingi: The thing I learned the most was how to connect with the fans and get them as excited as us. It’s like a symbiotic energy. With every concert and every moment, I’m always learning how to get fans more excited, how to communicate with them and make sure they enjoy it from the start until the very end.

Is there anything you wish you had known before debuting that would have helped you prepare differently?

Jongho: We always used to beat ourselves up when things didn’t go as planned, even if it was just a little mistake or it wasn’t as perfect as we had imagined. It meant that we couldn’t always enjoy the moment. Now, we try to enjoy the moment, and then we review our performances afterward and we can adjust that for the next show or project.

How does “Up” reflect the sound and energy of the new mini-album?

Hongjoong: One of the reasons that we were able to get a lot of attention early in our careers was that we had a signature energy in our songs and performances. We think that “Up” carries this same energy, but as we’ve been on this road for eight years, it has a more mature sound. It’s something that people have missed from Ateez, but it is also a culmination of our eight years of experience.

In a similar way, what did you want to express with “Drip”?

Hongjoong: “Drip” has a heavy trap sound that we’ve never really explored before. As we’ve mentioned, “Golden Hour” is all about bringing new sounds and energies.

How did that new heavy trap sound feel in the studio?

Jongho: At first, when I heard the song, I thought, “Oh, my God! How am I going to make my voice match with this rhythm?” But from the moment I hit the studio and started recording, I was taken by the rhythm and started moving along to the beat, and it was a really fun recording experience.

Congratulations on the success of “Bad.” What has it been like to see a song transcend the genre and become so popular?

San: We received a lot of love from “Bad.” With all of that love, we want to give back with better performances. … We want to give back all of the love, support and attention.

There was a great music video with Chase Infiniti. What was it like to work with her on that?

Hongjoong: When we were in the early stages of planning for the music video, we knew that her role was going to be really important for this video, so we were really eager to have her involved. She was very professional and dedicated to always doing her best. She also brought a great energy to the set and gave each one of us really positive vibes. We are really grateful that she was with us and she is a big part of why “Bad” was such a great success.

Collaborating and working with Chase, what new perspective did you learn about Atiny and your fandom?

Hongjoong: Chase was actually the first Atiny to hear the song, as she needed to hear it for the music video. Also, since she had a dancing part, she also needed to look at the performance. She was really excited about it, so we knew the reaction from Atiny would be the same. She was really proud of being an Atiny and was talking about it and happy about being part of the fandom. We are very proud of her and the way that she has been able to grow that much as a great actress. We are really looking forward to what she’s going to do in the future.

Nations Championship

France (21) 21

Tries: Grandidier-Nkanang, Attissogbe, Bielle-Biarrey Cons: Lucu (3)

South Africa (7) 19

Tries: Wessels, Reinach, Marx Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2)

France held on to end their five-match losing run against South Africa at Stade de France with an enthralling 21-19 victory in Paris.

The victory dents the world champions’ hopes of reaching the Nations Championship final and puts Les Bleus in a strong position to top the northern hemisphere standings.

The hosts, inspired by their captain Antoine Dupont, showed their class and skill to score three tries in a frantic first half.

France’s back three of Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey all crossed in a thrilling opening 40 minutes, with Jan-Hendrik Wessels scoring off the back of a maul for the visitors.

The Springboks thought they had a second try on the stroke of half-time but Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try was chalked off after he strayed marginally offside.

Number eight Jasper Wiese was shown a 20-minute red card early in the second half – the third of five cards shown in an incident-packed game – for a dangerous shoulder charge, but it had the opposite effect to derailing the world champions.

With South Africa’s set-piece power proving too much, replacement scrum-half Cobus Reinach and hooker Malcolm Marx scored to set up a thrilling finale.

However, Manie Libbok missed the vital conversion to Marx’s try that would have levelled the game.

With South Africa pushing for a winning score, Bielle-Biarrey produced a huge defensive tackle to force the ball loose, before Dupont, who was named player of the match, gathered possession to help seal the victory.

The result will come as a blow to both England and Ireland, who are in direct competition with France for a place in the Nations Championship final at the end of the month.

Les Bleus, who are six points clear at the top of the northern hemisphere standings, now face Argentina next Saturday, putting them in a strong position to reach the inaugural final at Allianz Stadium on Sunday, 29 November.

Nsqk can hear the connection between Radiohead and Willie Colón. To the Mexican singer-producer, both know when to let the instruments speak as much as the verses.

It’s a fitting observation from an artist whose music moves between electronic production, R&B melodies, rap and distorted guitars. Born Rodrigo Torres de la Garza in Monterrey and raised partly in Texas, the 28-year-old Nsqk — pronounced “Nesquik” — grew up navigating two countries and the expectations that come with belonging to both.

“I grew up in Houston,” he says. “I understand what it’s like to be a second-generation Mexican growing up in the States.” That experience, he explains, helps him connect with collaborators who also know what it means to feel as if they exist between worlds.

His audience has grown well beyond the underground following he garnered in his early experiments with electronic production. After releasing his albums “Roy” (2022) and “ATP” (2024), he sold out two consecutive shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes in 2025.

A date this January at the city’s Estadio GNP Seguros marks another leap in his scale.

In his Oct. 15 album release, “Mosca,” Nsqk is joined by the Chicano experimentalist Jean Dawson on the guitar-driven “Dientes de Fierro,” while indie icon Julieta Venegas lends her silky vocals and synth melodies to “Estar Así Siempre.” Additional cameos include folk balladeers like Pedro Tovar of Eslabón Armado and Kevin Kaarl, with longtime Gorillaz collaborator Stephen Sedgwick handling the mixes.

De Los spoke to Nsqk ahead of his upcoming U.S. tour — which includes a performance at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw fest on Sunday in L.A.’s Dodger Stadium. He spoke candidly about letting his music breathe, finding common ground in the studio and why Mexican identity shouldn’t depend on where someone lives.

When we first spoke, you mentioned EDM producer Porter Robinson as an influence. Where does that influence show up on “Mosca”?
Absolutely. Just the other day, I was listening to “Worlds” again. Everyone has these albums that you discovered at 14 years old, and you listen to them every once in a while because it’s part of you.

I was making these connections: “Oh, I didn’t even realize I was referencing this.” It keeps happening with a lot of my influences. There are certain moments, especially on “Peces Muertos” and some of the more electronic tracks, where you can hear very directly the influence from Porter Robinson and Madeon.

What did you try on “Mosca” that you wouldn’t have trusted yourself to do on “ATP”?
I tried letting the music ride a lot more. During the process, I listened to a lot of Radiohead and U.K. rock. It’s very cinematic. They let the music breathe and let the instruments speak for a while without having to sing.

I was also listening to a lot of salsa: Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Celia Cruz. I never expected that where Radiohead and Willie Colón meet is that they let the music ride. They’ll sing a verse, then let the instruments speak for a minute, two minutes.

That’s something I hadn’t done in my music intentionally. It’s about what I’m saying, but it’s also about what the instruments are saying.

Mexican rapper and singer-songwriter Nsqk (Rodrigo Torres de la Garza).

(Mono Studio (Mexico))

What surprised you about working with Stephen Sedgwick on the album’s mixes?
One of the craziest things about working with him is that everything is analog, everything’s physical. He’ll run his Pro Tools out into this gigantic wall of effects and compressors, amplifiers and limiters. I didn’t even know what everything was.

I do everything on my laptop. To take it somewhere where it’s all physical, at first it was actually kind of weird. We were speaking two different languages. I was trying to explain that I wanted things in a very digital way, but we had to figure out how to do that with his equipment.

What stood out about working with Pedro Tovar of Eslabón Armado on “Mil Problemas”?
He’s an amazing songwriter. He is so quick. It’s a similar experience with Julieta: They’re so good at it that they just sit and start, and they can write a song in five minutes. And it’s an amazing song.

He knows exactly what he wants, and he knows exactly who he is as an artist. The track is not a corrido or sierreño, but it sounds like them. It sounds like his melodies and his chords.

He did the guitar solo and I rerecorded it with my guitarist, who’s a rock guy. Even this guy, a classically trained guitarist, was like: “This is crazy to play.” It’s a completely different approach to playing guitar.

It’s really hard to put into words, but once you see him do it, it makes total sense.

What connects the collaborators you brought together on this record?
You’re not American [enough] for the Americans, not quite Mexican [enough] for the Mexicans. The Chicano experience: I grew up like that.

All of the artists on the record sort of share this cultural duality, where you often feel like you’re in between worlds, and you don’t know exactly which one you belong to.

It’s not that we sat down and talked about it to create the music. But I feel like the reason I connected so well with everyone is that we share that characteristic.

Has returning to the U.S. as an artist changed how you understand that experience?
There’s often this cultural disconnect between Mexicans living in the U.S. and Mexicans living in Mexico. I often see people say, “You’re not Mexican if you don’t live in Mexico.” That’s always felt kind of weird to me because I know what it’s like.

I feel like our culture and our heritage is so beautiful. The fact that it’s so ingrained in the States is amazing to me.

I see a lot on Twitter and TikTok, people fighting about it: “Just because you were born in Chicago, but your parents were Mexican, and you speak Spanish, and you eat Mexican food. But because you don’t live in Mexico, you’re not Mexican.” I see people saying that a lot.

I feel really honored to be able to tour the United States, meet these people and wear the flag on my chest. I don’t feel like we’re any different.

As a Tyler, the Creator fan, what does playing Camp Flog Gnaw mean to you?
It’s an honor. He created this space for much more vulnerable music with all these different influences. He’s a torch carrier for a niche of artists that try to make different music, in a way that’s not necessarily the status quo or the most commercial way to do it.

To be part of the lineup is an honor, but it’s also very motivating. It’s cool that we’ve gotten this far, and that only gives me more energy to keep working.

You’re going from a stadium show in Mexico City to smaller U.S. rooms. What can you do with an audience that close?
Talk to them. It’s a lot easier to see their faces and reactions and literally talk to them.

When I’m onstage, I really enjoy talking to people and making them feel like I’m not just playing my set list for the hundredth time. I’m actually there, I’m enjoying it, I’m seeing them and they’re seeing me.

SEOUL — President Trump will get his wish for a historic meeting among the three most powerful men in the world — Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and himself — at a summit Thursday in southern China.

But Moscow, Beijing and Washington already know their leaders are arriving at the Shenzhen conference with disparate aims.

Trump hopes to focus the meeting on nuclear nonproliferation, urging the Russian and Chinese presidents to work with him to scale back the world’s largest nuclear stockpiles. Putin pressed for the meeting to discuss his ongoing war in Ukraine. And Xi wants to discuss neither, only embracing the idea of the summit to show the world China can help broker peace on the international stage, Chinese officials told The Times.

“That’ll be interesting,” Trump said earlier this week, teasing the trilateral summit before the White House formally confirmed the meeting Friday.

“We’re talking a lot of things, including denuclearization,” he added, “but we’ll be talking a lot of things.”

U.S. officials have acknowledged they do not expect the meeting to result in a breakthrough on arms control. China is openly racing to build up its nuclear capacity — a nonnegotiable policy in Beijing, which sees its arsenal dwarfed by an American stockpile nearly 10 times the size.

“We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement. I would characterize this as the entry point,” one senior Trump administration official said. “This is the beginning of hopefully a conversation that can be productive going forward.”

The Chinese, too, threw cold water on the chances of a breakthrough, with one Chinese official telling The Times the central government saw no benefit to a pause.

“It is a matter of survival,” the official said.

The United States and Russia still command the world’s two dominant nuclear arsenals, with over 5,000 warheads each. China has an estimated 620 — but in catching up, it is developing new warheads with more sophisticated delivery systems.

Moscow, too, is modernizing its weapons, after the Trump administration allowed the last major U.S.-Russian nuclear arms treaty to expire earlier this year.

Though expectations are low for a nuclear breakthrough, Trump doesn’t want to discuss Putin’s priorities, either, the U.S. official added.

“He does not intend to talk about Ukraine in that meeting,” the official said. “China is not really part of that track, so it doesn’t really seem appropriate.”

Ukraine has grown increasingly concerned by Trump’s pressure campaign to force it into concessions to Moscow as he pushes to end the war.

The Trump administration has brought Russian and Ukrainian officials together at a working level to explore the viability of peace talks. But a long-standing U.S. policy on the war — not to negotiate about Ukraine without Ukraine — could be further compromised at a trilateral with Putin and Xi.

The only American business leader confirmed to join Trump in Asia is Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief who was seen as instrumental in the decision last month to restrict Ukraine’s access on the battlefield to Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Musk.

Beijing has struck a careful balance on Ukraine, publicly issuing its respect for sovereign borders — a position popular among Chinese voices who support Kyiv — while giving Moscow diplomatic cover, an economic lifeline and technological support throughout the war.

Their competing agendas could make the summit little more than a spectacle, yet still produce images that hark back to the famous Yalta Conference — held in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula currently occupied by Russia, in 1945 — where Josef Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill carved up a postwar order.

World War II allies Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin meet on Feb. 4, 1945, at the Yalta Conference.

(Associated Press)

The summit on Chinese soil offers Xi a powerful image to broadcast worldwide, demonstrating an emergent superpower can bring together the leaders of two historic rivals in the name of peace.

Putin gets to present himself as a global player, despite the devastation wrought on Russia’s economy and military standing after four bruising years of war.

And it allows Trump to reassert his global relevance after this month’s midterms delivered the worst electoral rebuke to a president in half a century, rivaling the backlash against President Nixon during Watergate.

DP World Tour Championship second-round leaderboard

-5 T Hatton (Eng), R McIlroy (NI); -4 K Reitan (Nor), J Luiten (Ned); -3 M Lindberg (Swe), F Schott (Ger), V Perez (Fra); -2 J Schaper (SA), J Rahm (Spa), D Puig (Spa)

Selected others: -1 E Chacarra (Spa); E A Scott (Aus), C Hill (Sco); +3 T Fleetwood (Eng); +6 A Rai (Eng); +8 P Reed (US)

Full leaderboard

Rory McIlroy is tied for the lead at the halfway mark of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship as he chases a record-equalling eighth Race to Dubai title.

The six-time major winner followed a three-under opening 69 with an up-and-down 70 to join England’s Tyrrell Hatton at the top at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.

Hatton mixed five birdies and two bogeys to shoot 69, while overnight leader Joost Luiten carded a 73 to lie one shot back alongside Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan.

McIlroy, who is guaranteed to equal Colin Montgomerie’s record haul of eight season-long crowns with victory this week, sits four shots ahead of Race to Dubai leader Eugenio Chacarra.

The Spaniard, who won three times earlier this season to lead the standings entering this week, birdied his final two holes to finish one under.

“I think it’s been a bit eye-opening to see the scoring the first two days,” said world number two McIlroy.

“I don’t think the wind is supposed to be as up over the weekend, so the scoring might be a little bit better.

“As I said, the scoring this week, because of this course set-up, just isn’t as good as in previous years. I’ve been coming back to the golf course for 15 plus years, and you just associate this course with pretty low scoring.

“And then when it’s not, you just have to reframe what is a good score. Anything in the 60s, it seems, this week is a good score.”

England (28) 50

Tries: Coyd 4, Hawkins 2, Brown 3 Goals: Hawkins, Collins 6

France (22) 38

Tries: Bourson, L Hivernat, Dore, Guttadoro, Denuwelaere 3 Goals: L Hivernat 3, N Clausells 2

England can now paint the final rung on their dressing-room ladder gold.

On Friday in Wollongong, Australia, they became the first nation to lift the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup on three occasions with a peerless display to defeat France 50-38.

And just as they did four years ago, Tom Coyd’s wheelchair side have delivered a triumph to offset the disappointment felt by the men’s and women’s teams.

This was always going to be close. The only surprise was that 12 points separated the wheelchair game’s two powerhouse nations.

Since Tom Halliwell’s last-gasp try secured a 28-24 win in Manchester in 2022, England and France had met on four occasions, with both winning twice.

In the build-up to this tournament, and during it, England spoke of a desire to win the trophy – rather than defend it. It was a choice of language that spoke of a positive approach. They did what they set out to do on the sport’s biggest stage.

Joe Coyd – who scored four tries, including the opening two of the match – and Jack Brown, who finished with a hat-trick, will grab many of the headlines but there were heroes draped in white all over the Wollongong Entertainment Centre.

A thunderous encounter was punctuated by bruising collisions, heavy chair smashes and running repairs being made to equipment that included the reconstruction of a set of goalposts – as emotions threatened to boil over on more than one occasion.

Those facets, married to some outrageous moments of skill, all contributed to a nerve-shredding contest that delivered a super advertisement for the wheelchair game.

Hawkins, who recently became the first player in any form of rugby league to win three successive Golden Boots – awarded by the IRL to the best player in the world during the calendar year – lived up to his billing.

The Halifax wing provided some wonderful moments, including two tries, and he superbly evaded two French defenders before laying on a score for Brown as the contest swing England’s way before the break.

Having started in the ascendancy, courtesy of two Coyd tries, England were in danger of losing momentum – an early flashpoint threatening to shift the match towards France as Mason Billington was penalised for shoving Leo Hivernat to the ground.

France capitalised with a try in the corner from Jeremy Bourson. Damien Dore, Hivernat and Florian Guttadoro all crossed before a wonderful England response.

And even when Dany Denuwelaere scored to underscore France’s whirlwind start to the second half, England immediately regained control as Hawkins acrobatically grounded the ball in the right corner to restore their six-point advantage.

They never looked back from that point on. And they have a third World Cup to prove it.

FIFA says its ‘security assessments’ for the 48-team tournament remain unchanged after US Soccer pulled out.

FIFA says the Under-17 World Cup in Qatar will kick off as scheduled on November 19, despite the United States’ decision to withdraw its team from the tournament.

US Soccer withdrew its national team citing safety concerns, but the sport’s global governing body, which is hosting the tournament in Qatar, confirmed on Thursday that its plans remain unchanged.

“The safety and security of all participants and fans remain paramount. As with all FIFA tournaments and events, we are in close contact with the relevant authorities and ‌‌‌‌are looking forward to the tournament kickoff in Qatar,” FIFA told Al Jazeera in a statement hours after the USA’s announcement.

“In recent months, Qatar has successfully hosted several international events,” it added.

Qatar hosted two major international tournaments in the past two weeks.

MotoGP’s Qatar Grand Prix was successfully held on 8 and the FIP Padel World Cup 2026 concluded on the same day.

With a week until the Under-17 World Cup kicks off, FIFA confirmed that its security assessments “remain unchanged” and that no new ⁠⁠⁠⁠developments affecting the security situation around the tournament have occurred.

“FIFA understands that US Soccer’s decision was made in light of the existing US ⁠⁠⁠⁠Level 3 travel advisory,” it said.

In a letter sent to players, the US Soccer Federation ⁠⁠⁠⁠said it was cancelling the team’s pre-tournament camp and its participation in the event “in light of current circumstances”, according to the Reuters news agency.

The US State Department updated its advisory for Qatar last month, urging Americans to reconsider travel because of the risk of armed conflict.

The update referred to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including strikes on civilian ‌‌‌‌airports and critical infrastructure.

“The well-being of our players and staff will always be our top priority,” the US federation’s letter said.

The 48-team Under-17 tournament runs from November 19 to December 13. USA had been due ⁠⁠⁠⁠to open against Montenegro on November 21 before ⁠⁠⁠⁠facing Chile and Algeria in Group J.

Actor Irma P. Hall, the former educator who pivoted to acting in her late 30s to star in films including “Soul Food,” “The Ladykillers” and “Meet the Browns,” has died. She was 91.

Hall died Tuesday in Dallas surrounded by her loved ones, her family announced Wednesday in a statement. Her family said the actor leaves behind a “remarkable legacy” that spans from her memorable characters on screen, her time as a teacher early in life and her role as a church leader in Dallas in her final years. A cause of death was not revealed.

“She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” Hall’s daughter Irma Hall Crayton said in the statement. “My mom used to always say, ‘To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.’ And she was just that to many people.”

Hall, who was born in Texas and raised in Chicago, is best known to film fans for portraying scene-stealing, elderly types. She was Big Mama, the matriarch of the central Joseph family, in George Tillman Jr.’s 1997 “Soul Food,” starring Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox and Nia Long as her three daughters. That same year she shared the screen with Kevin Spacey and John Cusack as witchy healer Minerva in Clint Eastwood’s Savannah-set “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” In the Coen brothers’ “The Ladykillers,” Hall was the religious and aging widow who rents a spare room to a deceiving “professor” (Tom Hanks) and his band of criminals posing as musicians (Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst).

She earned numerous accolades for her work, including an NAACP Image Award for her work in “Soul Food” and a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for “The Ladykillers.”

“I’ve always found older women extremely interesting. In fact, as a child I’d be playing outside and when they couldn’t find me, they’d just start knocking at all the old people’s doors,” Hall recalled to The Times in 1996. “My mother used to say I was probably the only child that was born wanting to be old.”

Hall’s acting career spanned from the mid 1970s to the 2010s and also included roles in the 1998 film adaptation of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” starring Oprah Winfrey, 1996’s “A Family Thing” with James Earl Jones and Robert Duvall, the TV series “Hap and Leonard” alongside “The Wire” star Michael K. Williams and Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns.”

She sharpened her ability to play older in TV, film and theater by channeling the women in her life and studying elders’ behavior, she told The Times in 1996. She made it a habit to visit nursing homes, speak with their residents and study their physicality from their gestures to their gaits.

“I practice little things like that all the time because I love to play old people and I don’t ever want them to be embarrassed or ridiculed by my performance,” she recalled at the time.

Irma Dolores Player was born June 3, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas. Her father was a saxophonist during the big-band era and her mother was a housekeeper. She returned to Texas for college, graduating from Texas College in Tyler. She remained in her birth state to work as a teacher in poor, segregated schools before her unexpected pivot to acting in her late 30s. She taught foreign languages and ultimately taught theater.

Actor-director Raymond St. Jacques discovered Hall after hearing her read poetry and cast her in his 1973 film “Book of Numbers,” paving the way for a decades-long career that would endear her to generations of TV and film audiences.

“I want to tell their stories so profoundly that no one will ever forget these characters,” she told the Dallas Morning News of her characters in 2017. “I don’t care if they don’t know who Irma P. Hall is.”

Hall later lived in Chicago, where she cared for her parents and pursued an award-winning theater career. She also dedicated her efforts toward nurturing upcoming talent in her home state, co-founding the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre, and served as a longtime member of and church mother at Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas.

Hall’s survivors include her daughter. A celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

DESCRIBED as “ruthless, calculated and manipulative”, the depravity of Russell Brand has appalled the nation as every chilling detail of his sex attacks played out in court.

By his own admission, he was a “hedonist” and “an exploiter of women” who used his celebrity status and every emotional tool in his arsenal to achieve what he considered to be “my birthright” – having an “orgasm”. 

Brand, who was jailed for 10 years and six months this week, said he had “dedicated a lot of [his] life” to “beyond reckless philandering” – acts that saw him be “persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting” and even pretend to be gay to sleep with women. 

Now, in the wake of him being convicted for three sexual assaults and one rape, more questions have emerged about this master of manipulation and what else he sought to control. 

It has been speculated that even his romances may have had a calculated nature behind them – apparently benefiting his career, status, wealth or a combination of them all.

Most notable in this theory is his relationship with Katy Perry. Before dating and then marrying the popstar, all within the space of 10 months, an ex-girlfriend claimed Brand told her his aim was to find a world-famous girlfriend in order to make him a global superstar. 

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At the time in 2010, Brand was famous in the UK for his stand-up specials, hosting Celebrity Big Brother spin-off Big Mouth and had parodied himself in films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek and St Trinian’s. 

But the comedian was barely known stateside and no doubt, a relationship with Perry – who was quickly becoming the world’s most famous popstar thanks to mega hits I Kissed a Girl, Hot N Cold and Teenage Dream – would help him to achieve that. 

Brand himself admitted that he “pushed to get married early” due to feeling “inadequate and insecure” and according to Perry, he longed to be “an equal” both in their relationship and to be seen as one by the outside world. 

But this determination to be considered on the same level manifested itself in a dark way. It led him to “mock her and be mean behind her back,” according to one source, who claimed he “just couldn’t cope with her star eclipsing his”.

It also led him to share a deliberately unflattering, make-up free photo of Perry to his 1.8million followers on Twitter, now known as X, in 2010 – an act decreed as “cruel”, “mean” and “disrespectful” by fans. 

While Brand deleted the snap within 48 minutes of posting, it had already gone viral and exposed his wife to bile from online trolls across the globe, who eagerly branded her “ugly” among other hurtful comments. 

A source who knew the couple told The Times that Brand “found himself resenting her success” while “her career rocketed” and his was waning – most notably after his film Arthur, which he had been “given full rein on”, flopped at the Box Office in 2011.

Brand would later admit he “didn’t handle [their] marriage very well” due to his insecurity and loneliness while Perry was “pursuing her dream of … becoming the world’s most famous pop star”. They divorced in 2012. 

Yet the romance with Perry wasn’t the only time Brand has faced claims of having weaponised his love life for fame and financial gain.

Back in 2006, Brand’s career was still in its early days. He was a BBC Radio host, presenter on Big Brother Efourum – later known as Big Mouth – and had appeared on shows like Richard & Judy, Kings of Comedy and The Bill. 

That soon changed after he was photographed with world-renowned supermodel Kate Moss following a one night stand and the subsequent war of words in the love triangle involving them and Libertines frontman Pete Doherty. 

The publicity from those snaps coupled with the attention garnered from fuming Doherty calling him a “hairy t***” and “no replacement”, gave Brand’s star a huge bump. 

A year on from their romp, Brand had made a whopping 19 appearances on TV shows including on The Royal Variety Performance, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year and Soccer AM.

He had also presented The BRIT Awards and released his first memoir My Booky Wook.

Brand would also capitalise from the Moss tryst by boasting about it in his second autobiography, My Booky Wook 2, where he described Moss as like “an angel of my own devising”.  

Prior to those feats, Brand seemed keen to distance himself from bad boy, lothario image and paint himself in a more wholesome light by claiming he was ready for lasting love.

He told the Mirror in 2006 about having sworn off sex and his master plan: “I’d like to settle down and have children.”

Yet at the same time, Brand – who claimed to have deleted 784 numbers from his phone to avoid temptation – ferociously flirted with his female interviewer.

When asked how long his abstinence, then at 22 days, would last, he replied: “Is that an offer? Because it’s incredibly indiscreet!”

Brand would later tell her: “You’re quite attractive and it’s making me think I should maybe face the other way a bit more.

“I think it’s the tights, your hair, the cleavage, the boots. And you’re all cute and blushy and Northern and sweet.”

Brand would tell her “blushing is an indication of sexual availability” and quizzed her about cheating multiple times, including asking: “Are you faithful at the minute?”

That was the same year, that Brand was accused of drugging and raping a 20-year-old student at an Edinburgh flat he was renting.

Brand denied any knowledge of the 2006 claims and, later, his friend Trevor Lock was charged with rape. The case was later dropped by police and prosecutors. 

He also started dating future wife Laura Gallagher – then a 19-year-old art student, while he was 31 – that same year. They broke up in 2007 after he cheated on her multiple times.

The next known relationship was with Perry, who he spent two years married to before dumping her and demanding a divorce via text message in 2012. 

A source, who knew the couple, claimed the split followed his struggles living stateside and dealing with “her star eclipsing his”.

They added: “He was becoming more disillusioned spending time in Hollywood and the failure of Arthur – a project he had been given full rein on.”

That year Brand returned to the UK and appeared to be attempting to reestablish himself as a British icon, with performances including at the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

He appeared in a BBC documentary about substance abuse and addiction – which drew heavily from heroin and sex addictions, made a comeback comedy tour called Only Joking and even briefly dated Spice Girl Geri Horner.

The romance was over in less than two weeks but was so intense that the singer and Brand apparently spent three days looking at houses together in North Devon, according to a source.

At the time of the split, Horner said: “It’s been a whirlwind. All I want is to be in a loving relationship. Is he my ideal man? I’m choosy. I want someone who’s trustworthy, sweet and kind.”

By 2014, Brand had reinvented himself again as an activist – following a scandal-hit relationship with Jemima Goldsmith, the then-editor of political magazine The Spectator.

Post Brand’s conviction, she claimed to have suffered “violence, coercive control and abuse” during their year-long romance. She has not reported those claims to the police.

Their split followed an alleged 2014 “violent incident”, which ended with her having to “call the police to have him removed from my house”. 

Prior to the break up, there was more trouble linked to a masseuse hired by Brand, who claimed she was treated “like a prostitute” and was “the victim of wrongful and criminal conduct” – which the couple denied. 

The case was investigated by police but no charges were brought. Masseuse Szilvia Berki was taken to the High Court, where she had no legal representation and would be bankrupted by the £50,000 legal costs she was forced to pay.

She was subjected to a type of gagging order called an anti-harassment injunction, which prevented her from speaking about the case.

While the case was all unfolding, Brand was painting himself as a man of the people and campaigner. 

He released a book titled Revolution, which criticised capitalism and claimed democracy was broken. 

He joined housing and anti-gentrification protests and a group of young mothers who refused to leave their homes after being issued with eviction notices after funding was cut at their hostels. 

Then in 2015, when the case with masseuse Berki was settled, he started dating future wife Laura for a second time – a woman he married two years later and had three kids with.

Recalling how Brand came back into her life, Laura told Grazia in 2020: “My ex had literally moved out of our flat that day, and I was heartbroken, with mascara running down my face

“A friend dragged me out on a walk to the canal in east London, where I’d never been in my life, and as we came on to the footpath, Russell was standing there, like he’d organised it.”

Laura would remain a bedrock who has stood by him through the claims of abuse in Channel 4’s Dispatches in September 2023 and the many police interviews that would follow. 

In the lead up to those years, Brand had already started to raise doubts about the government, police and media online.

He began sharing dangerous myths that the Covid-19 jabs posed a risk to health and peddled anti-establishment narratives.  

Six months after the documentary came out, Brand was baptised in the River Thames by TV adventurer Bear Grylls in a Christian rebrand that would endear him to religious worshippers in America and the UK. 

Since then Brand has peddled false theories about the ‘mainstream media’, claimed those who spoke out are often silenced and pushed extreme far right theories. 

It led to fans championing his cause outside of Southwark Crown Court throughout his trial – including one group with a banner that read: “Christ was crucified for telling the truth, Russell is the truth”.

Those worshippers will likely continue to cast doubt upon the three sexual assault and one rape convictions that a jury found Brand guilty of last week. 

But for all of the many faces adorned by Russell Brand, it was not enough to prevent his past from catching up with him. 

Yesterday, he was sentenced to nearly 11 years imprisonment and will have to serve at least seven years before he can be considered for parole.  

Upon his release, Brand will no doubt emerge as another new man and with another grand plan to rise to fame once more. 

The most famous 15-minute cruise around a miniature world is almost ready for its holiday close-up. Disneyland’s It’s a Small World Holiday opens Friday, and it’s a seasonal delight, a bright and wintry jaunt to the North Pole and then around the globe and back.

Closed from just before Halloween, the attraction has undergone nearly two weeks of round-the-clock work, with set dressing during the day, and maintenance and facade work at night. Hours before the boat ride was to be refilled with water on Monday afternoon, Disneyland team members gave me a walkthrough, providing me with a rare peek behind the scenes. As a devotee of Mary Blair and Rolly Crump, so much so that It’s a Small World is my favorite ride at the park, I was eager to see the attraction from a new perspective.

Here’s just some of what I learned as I strolled the dry waterway and took a brief jaunt into the ride’s attic, a maze of wooden paths with vintage automations and a handful of small openings into the magical world below.

If you’ve been on the ride during the regular season, you’ve glided right past the holiday fixtures without knowing it

Troy Romero, a Disneyland stage technician, left, and David Miller, director of entertainment tech services, give a tour of It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Disneyland teams of late have been focused on reducing ride downtime, and last year the It’s a Small World team was able to trim the refurbishment time from 18 days to 14 days. This was mostly accomplished by adding and shifting crew hours, but It’s a Small World is a delicate attraction, with the vast majority of its wooden set pieces dating to the mid-1960s. Navigating around such a fragile work is difficult, especially with much of the holiday version of the attraction stored on the ride itself.

That means that for most of the year, guests are gliding right past the Christmas-heavy overlays. They’re stationed behind the facades or tucked on the floor just under the elevated flume.

It’s a Small World Holiday is a Disneyland tradition that began in 1997.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Snowflake lights that glisten near the start of the attraction, for instance, had been kept in the South America section until someone suggested simply laying them down when they’re not in use. It’s a simple fix that has saved hours of time lifting props over and around set pieces. Additionally, four snow animals in the finale were previously housed in Africa, but have been moved closer to their winter homes, eliminating the process of lifting the animals or dissembling and reassembling set pieces to traverse around the attraction. That also means less risk, both to the staff and the delicate scenery.

Reducing the closure period by four days may not sound like much, but David Miller, Disneyland’s director of entertainment tech services, says that equates to 74,000 more guests being able to ride the attraction.

Miss the old finale of the Main Street Electrical Parade? A piece of it lives on in the Asia section

Details from the Asia section of It’s a Small World.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

In 2022, Disneyland changed the finale of its Main Street Electrical Parade. Gone was a patriotic float at its end, one in which fireworks twinkled over a red, white and blue tapestry. Those fireworks, however, found a new home. They now reside in the Asia section of It’s a Small World Holiday. Look for them near the end of the room, off to the left above a translucent, glowing dragon.

“We want to make sure we’re leveraging what we’ve got,” Miller says. “So when our finale float changed, the fireworks were moved and brought over to help us celebrate the season.”

Guess the weight of the candy arch

A Christmas critter in It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

One of the largest set pieces in It’s a Small World Holiday is the Christmas tree in the Europe section of the park, a towering monument of glowing candles and glistening ribbons that is replacing a chess board. The metal and aluminum tree is then raised in parts, all seven of them. The top is placed first, and each section is affixed underneath until it takes shape. A heavy piece, the back of the tree is wired up into the attic to ensure it stays in place.

But it’s not the heaviest set piece in the Europe section of the attraction. That would be the candy arch, detailed with candy canes, gingerbread and frosting. While Miller didn’t know its total weight, just the top of that arch is more than a ton. As one can imagine, moving it is no easy feat. It’s stored nearby, and slotted into place by a series of stitched-together chain motors. Theme park attractions often utilize tricks of old-fashioned theater, such as painted Styrofoam or hollowed-out wood. But not here. “It is built to withstand much,” Miller says.

“Funny thing, I heard one of the riggers say, if there was an earthquake, I’d run to the candy arch,” says Georg Schanz, an entertainment tech manager with the resort.

Numerous scents are piped in throughout It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Anyone smell gingerbread?

As boats glide under the candy arch, don’t be surprised if you start craving a cookie. That’s because Disneyland is piping in a gingebread aroma. There are at least five scents throughout It’s a Small World Holiday, says Schanz, but the gingerbread was the only one I detected, so you’re on your own to count the rest.

Elvis is back in the building

A small Elvis Presley toy stands on a surfboard with Lilo and Stitch.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

A guest favorite of It’s a Small World Holiday is the tiny Elvis Presley figure affixed to a surfboard featuring the characters of Lilo and Stitch. The Elvis toy only comes out for the holiday edition of the attraction. The figure was not part of the initial design of It’s a Small World Holiday, and was added, Miller says, by a stage technician.

“Every once in a while there are little moments that can influence an attraction,” Miller says.

Watch the bells in the opening room

The bells inside It’s a Small World Holiday are outfitted with motion sensors.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

One of the most complex builds of It’s a Small World Holiday is actually its opening scene, which the team calls the “hello room.” Composed of mostly flat figures — toy soldiers, a rocking horse, doll-like characters holding balloons — it may not look like one of the most intense scenes to construct, but these are large wooden pieces that have to navigate places with low ceilings. This space alone takes three days to empty and repopulate.

Pay attention to the bells that lead out of the room and into the North Pole. Those operate only by motion sensors as a boat approaches.

A holiday adornment for nearly every doll — all 300 of them

The It’s a Small World dolls are ready for the holidays.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

The brightly lit finale — an explosion of whites and lights — is another tricky scene to construct. That’s because each and every doll in the room is touched up. Disney says there are about 300 dolls on the entire ride, and it feels like a large percentage are in this closing scene. “Every doll in here gets something,” Miller says of the grand finale room. “Whether it’s holly, a choir book or just a sparkle, every doll in here gets something.”

Consistency from year to year is important. That’s why the entire ride is 3D-scanned. The teams can call up a room to compare images from earlier editions. “It’s a lot like a real estate tour, where you see little point-to-points throughout the house,” Miller says. “That helps us make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

Like a real estate tour? I know I’m ready to move in. We just may have to turn down the music, though.

This week in SoCal theme parks

Christmas decorations have arrived at the Disneyland Resort.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

• Christmas is upon us. Disneyland’s holiday season begins Friday, although many of the decorations are already in place. Come the end of the week, however, there will be new foods to sample, and a number of returning shows. Don’t miss the terrific “¡Viva Navidad!,” or “World of Color — Season of Light,” back after a hiatus due to Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
• Calling all Tinker Bell fans! “Tinker Bell’s Neverland Adventure: An Illuminated Adventure” opens Friday at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates. The illuminated night walk will take guests on a journey through numerous locales from the fairy tale, ranging from the rooftops of London to the Lost Boys’ secret hideout to Captain Hook’s pirate ship. The trail is designed for all ages.
• A new pass for Universal fans. Universal Studios Hollywood has introduced a new “Diamond Pass,” now its highest tier annual passport. Selling for $999, the pass has no blockout days and includes daily access to the park’s line-skipping express pass as well as a ticket to after-hours events Halloween Horror Nights and Fan Fest. The pass also includes access to an Universal VIP tour.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

—

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Scott McTominay has revealed he received treatment to correct an irregular heartbeat two days before Scotland’s World Cup win over Haiti in June.

The Napoli midfielder recently underwent an ablation procedure – a minimally invasive operation to correct irregular heart rhythms – in Manchester.

At the World Cup, the 29-year-old was was put to sleep to correct his heartbeat and was given the all clear to play in the opening 1-0 victory over Haiti in Massachusettes.

“I had to go and get the shock on my heart,” the former Manchester United player, who also also played the 90 minutes in the losses to Morocco and Brazil, said.

“I was two days before the Haiti game. You’ve prepared so well. I was in such good condition and then something like that happens. You’re thinking, ‘how is this happening to me’?

“You have to get on with it, that’s the cards that you’re dealt in football. Sometimes, things don’t go your way.

“I was 100% [fit], but obviously, whenever you’re sat in a hospital bed two days before the first game of the World Cup about to get put to sleep, it’s not ideal, is it?”

ATLANTA — Former President Biden writes in his White House memoir that Donald Trump, at once his predecessor and successor, has deeply damaged the country and world with an administration determined to “tear down institutions and inflame hatreds.”

And the 83-year-old Democrat said the 80-year-old Trump’s years of lies about his 2020 defeat to Biden and the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol should “follow him to his grave.”

Biden’s sweeping indictment comes in the first excerpt of “Promise Me, America,” published Monday by the Atlantic. The 46th president’s full memoir is set for a Nov. 17 release. Biden said that while doctors are encouraged by his response to cancer treatment, his activities promoting the book will be limited because of his health.

“Donald Trump led an insurrection,” Biden wrote of the attack by Trump supporters as Congress met to certify the 2020 election won by the Democrat. “His goal was to remain in power after the American people had voted him out of office.

“The rioters weren’t ‘peaceful protesters,” he wrote. “They came armed to stop the official certification of a legitimate election.” He chided Trump for later issuing more than 1,500 pardons of the offenders.

“To this day, Trump and his supporters continue to preen and posture like they’re supporters of law enforcement,” Biden wrote. “Here’s my view: You don’t get to turn a blind eye to cops being punched, speared, sprayed, and brutalized and call yourself a friend of law enforcement. What Trump did on January 6, 2021, should never be forgotten. It should follow him to his grave.”

Biden also laments Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and his aggressive reversal of many of his policies, especially those intended to address climate change.

“All presidents must confront a feeling that their legacy is vulnerable to the pendulum of politics and the whims of their successors,” Biden wrote. “In my case, that feeling was magnified by the dismissive and destructive nature of Donald Trump, who seemed unable to tolerate the idea that someone else’s accomplishments might be worth building on rather than tearing down.”

The memoir’s release comes on the heels of Biden’s fellow Democrats trouncing Republicans in the midterm elections, securing stunningly broad House and Senate majorities and flipping control of several statehouses in a comprehensive rebuke of Trump’s second presidency. But Trump’s return to power two years earlier was itself a rejection of Biden’s one White House term, and many voters still harbor skeptical views of his presidency and his party.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Biden pitched his memoir as the best way he can explain his presidency, “the challenges we faced, the decisions I made and why I made them.”

During his four years in office, Biden confronted the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, and he worked to restore global alliances that Trump frayed. But he faced widespread concerns about his age, and he abandoned his reelection bid after a disastrous June 2024 debate with Trump. Dogged by lingering inflation and other concerns, Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, lost to Trump that November.

Months after leaving office, Biden announced that he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He opened up about his condition in his Sunday social media post, saying he “won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped” and urging people to let the book speak for him.

Biden said his doctors “continue to be encouraged by how I’ve responded to treatment.” But, he acknowledged, “Some days are better than others. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down.”

In the excerpt, Biden recounts an unusual Oval Office meeting with Trump days after the 2020 election — well before the Jan. 6 riots.

“‘You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,’” Trump said, according to Biden.

Trump even commented “that he’d been relieved he didn’t have to run against me,” Biden added.

Public polling at the time Biden dropped his reelection bid showed him trailing Trump, and Democrats pushed for him to yield out of fear that he could not win.

Biden said he used the meeting to give Trump “a tour of the world,” including the Ukraine-Russia war, NATO alliances, Israel and Gaza and China-U.S. relations. Biden said Trump “focused on the personalities” of world leaders rather than the substance of international relations.

He said that two-hour meeting left him worried Trump would indeed dismantle much of his presidency. He wrote that Trump’s opening weeks — his Day One executive orders and everything that followed — confirmed his worries about a “crueler government” that “tried to tear down institutions and inflame hatreds” and a president who “took a wrecking ball to our traditions.”

The memoir’s title echoes an earlier Biden book, “Promise Me, Dad,” that he wrote about his son Beau’s cancer and death — a parallel that implicitly acknowledges the former president’s age, condition and the reality that he may not have a long post-presidency to see the direction of the country and the evolution of his legacy.

In that first book, released between Biden’s vice presidency and his 2020 presidential bid, he explained that the title came directly from a father-son conversation around Thanksgiving in 2014.

“Promise me, Dad. Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right,” Biden recalled Beau saying. Beau Biden died six months later.

In his Sunday post, Biden repeated an argument he made often when campaigning and during his presidency, saying the U.S. is unique because it was “built on an idea” that “all of us are created equal.”

“Promise me, America,” he concluded, that “we’ll never forget it.”

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

The English Football Association, Team GB and England Netball are among major organisations to back the Equal Sport Project – a new initiative aimed at improving equality and making the UK world leaders for women and girls’ sport.

Recent research by Sporting Insights found that fewer than 1% of women working in sport believe gender equality has been achieved across the industry, while more than half believe they are paid less than men for carrying out the same role.

Consequently, the Equal Sport Project has identified five areas where improved leadership, investment and action will have the greatest impact in bringing equality for women and men across sport. These are:

Several organisations have already made pledges based on the above, including Aquatics GB and the FA prioritising female leadership programmes, while Sport England and UK Sport have committed to working with their funding partners to ensure their governance is designed by men and women, for men and women.

The Youth Sport Trust, meanwhile, has committed to support schools in recognising and challenging stereotypes as well as develop male allies to champion gender equality in PE, school sport and physical activity.

The project is also backed by the UK government, with sports minister Stephanie Peacock saying: “We have seen progress in women and girls’ sport, but there is still a long way to go.

“Like the Equal Sport Project, this government is backing women’s sport at every level, from hosting the 2027 Tour de France Femmes Grand Depart and bidding to host the 2035 Fifa Women’s World Cup, to investing £400m in grassroots sport facilities, doubling priority access to football pitches for women and girls and chairing the Women’s Sport Taskforce.

“We will work closely with the Equal Sport Project and encourage all organisations to get involved. Together we can make the UK a world leader in women and girls’ sport.”

Goalkeeper: Hannah Hampton (Chelsea, England).

Defenders: Lucy Bronze (Chelsea, England), Alex Greenwood (Manchester City, England), Mapi Leon (Barcelona/London City Lionesses, Spain), Irene Paredes (Barcelona, Spain).

Midfielders: Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona, Spain), Alexia Putellas (Barcelona/London City Lionesses, Spain), Ella Toone (Manchester United, England)

Forwards: Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride, Zambia), Claudia Pina (Barcelona, Spain), Alessia Russo (Arsenal, England)

The 2030 edition of the World Cup will be held in the US and the Pacific Islands.

The five host cities are yet to be confirmed, but the men’s and women’s tournaments will run concurrently, as they are with this year’s tournament, which is currently being held in Australia.

World governing body International Rugby League (IRL) said the aim was to expand the sport’s reach to new countries.

“This is a strategy to maximise the interest of broadcasters, government partners and fans in the current World Cup, which has regularly broken records for crowds and the number of television viewers,” IRL chairman Tony Grant said at the board’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney.

“At the same time we want to take advantage of opportunities that are opening up in new frontiers where the Rugby League World Cup hasn’t previously been played.”

Grant said the men’s World Cup would expand from 10 teams to 12, while the women’s event would consist of 10 instead of eight.

The format of the 2026 World Cup has come under scrutiny for jumping from the group stage to the semi-finals.

However, that structure appears to have been retained for the 2030 tournament, which will be played over five weeks in five cities.

Three pool rounds have been designed to mimic a ‘Magic Round’ format before the semi-finals and finals take place in different locations.

The IRL has proposed that Samoa and Tonga be promoted to Tier One nations alongside Australia, England and New Zealand.

Samoa became the first Pacific country to play in a World Cup final in 2022, while they and Tonga both reached the semi-finals of this year’s tournament.

The 2030 Wheelchair World Cup will take place at the same time, but will be held in France, while the 2034 tournament will be hosted in Europe.

Eligibility rules have also been updated so that a player may represent their nation of heritage if they, a parent, a grandparent or a great grandparent were born there, following a detailed submission from the Cook Islands.

Both men’s and women’s finals of the 2026 tournament are being contested between Australia and New Zealand in Brisbane on Sunday.

Australia’s men have won the past three World Cups, while their women are playing in their fifth successive final.

Ali, who fled Somalia’s civil war and settled in London, won the controversial split-decision fight against American Kreps to claim IBO and WBF junior featherweight belts.

Ramla Ali, a British Somali boxer whose life story is the subject of a new film, has realised a long-held dream and won her first world title to claim two vacant junior featherweight belts in the United States.

The 36-year-old landed the biggest titles of her career by winning the IBO and WBF belts in a controversial split-decision victory over American fighter Mikiah Kreps in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday.

The nail-biting nature of the 10-round contest should not have come as too much of a surprise as the duo are former sparring partners and ended the night with an expression of mutual respect.

“Mikiah, I want to share this victory with you because you pushed me for 10 rounds,” an emotional Ali said while addressing her opponent, whom she stopped from exiting the ring after being declared winner.

“I kept saying I’m so tired because your work rate was next level. I don’t know how I kept up, so thank you for being such a great boxer.”

The 30-year-old Niagara Falls native reciprocated the emotion. “I respect you,” Kreps said as both fighters wrapped an arm around each other.

During the fight, Ali had Kreps on the canvas in round three, but she was behind her younger opponent in the overall punch count at the end of the fight.

The outcome of the fight caused controversy from the moment the referee lifted Ali’s arm when the decision was announced.

According to the official punch statistics from the fight, Kreps outlanded Ali by 115 blows to 78 and the American was also way ahead in the power shot count.

One judge scored the bout 98-91 for Kreps but the other judges saw the fight differently and gave Ali the decision win with scores of 97-92 and 96-93.

Veteran promoter Lou Di Bella wrote on social media, “Mikiah Kreps won that fight and it wasn’t even close. Stevie Wonder could see that.”

From Somalia’s civil war to world champion

The external noise would have mattered little to Ali who dropped to her knees when the scores were announced.

Ali and her family are no strangers to adversity, having settled in London in 1992 after fleeing Somalia during its civil war.

Years after picking up the sport as a teenager in East London, Ali became the first Somali boxer to compete at the Olympic Games when she represented the country of her birth at Tokyo 2020. She later became the first Muslim woman to win an English amateur boxing title.

Ali’s journey has provided the inspiration for the movie ‘In the Shadows’ starring Top Boy actor Jasmine Jobson.

The fighter lost her father earlier this year and said she stayed up all night prior to the fight, wishing he would have been around to see her in the ring.

“My father passed away in May so I was really emotional,” she said in a post-fight interview with All The Smoke Boxing.

“Every round, I kept going to my corner to tell my coach I couldn’t do it anymore because I was physically exhausted. I boxed through my skin and I’m glad I got the victory.”

Ali’s career has always been multi-dimensional. As a model and Unicef ambassador, she has projected her voice beyond sporting arenas.

“I can’t put into words what this means to me and what this means to all of Somalia,” she said, fighting back tears, while standing inside the ring.

“I’ve hopefully inspired so many young girls and boys out there to dream big and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

Ramla Ali secured her first world title at the age of 36 after defeating Mikiah Kreps in a split-decision victory in Arlington, Texas.

The win is a crowning moment for the Briton, who fled a war-torn Somalia as a child before going on to become an Olympian, activist, author and now the WBO and IBF super-bantamweight champion.

With her biopic about her remarkable life just released, Ali fulfilled a dream long in the making and that seemed far away when she was swept aside by Yamileth Mercado in her first attempt two years ago.

An emotional Ali fell to her knees in tears as she was confirmed the winner with scorecards that read 97-92, 96-93 and 98-91 in her favour, dedicating the victory to her late father.

“When we were in the changing room, my coach said, because my dad passed away in May, ‘Do this for him’,” Ali said.

“That’s where those emotions came out at the end, because I did it for my dad.”

“I can’t put into words what this means to me and what this means to all of Somalia,” she added.

“I’ve hopefully inspired so many young girls and boys out there to dream big and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

As Ali wept, there was devastation for Kreps who was convinced she had done enough to win the contest.

For Samoa, a second successive World Cup ends in defeat by Australia, after being beaten 30-10 in the final four years ago.

The two nations have met six times, with Australia winning all six.

But this one hurt more. Samoa clearly felt they could win, as their ultra-aggressive Siva Tau war dance pre-match proved – getting right in the Australian faces, even forehead to forehead in some cases.

But they were aggrieved by some debatable refereeing decisions, including two disallowed tries – Crichton in the first half, then Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow denied with 10 minutes to go after contact between Manuleleua and Liam Martin was deemed illegal.

It bubbled over shortly before the break, when Spencer Leniu was sin-binned for dissent by Australian referee Adam Gee.

“You guys saw the game. You report on it,” was Samoa coach Ben Gardiner’s terse response to questions about the decisions.

On whether his side cost themselves with a lack of discipline, he said: “I’m not quite sure.

“On the back of some of the penalties that were given, we just didn’t react very well. There was one thing into another and then a try. It made it difficult to be able to fight back from that.

“And then to be down by 18 points, 20 points at half-time, to chase back from that… I thought we did well in the second half to fight back.

“But then again, we scored a try and gave up another one straight away. We bounced off too many tackles in that early period, missed too many tackles in the game in general.

“That had nothing to do with the emotion. That’s a Test match, that’s what you do. It’s physical, there’s push and shove, stand your ground.”

Abu Dhabi Championship final-round leaderboard

-23 J Rahm (Spa); –21 T Hatton (Eng); -19 R McIlroy (NI); -17 F Laporta (Ita); -16 B Wiesberger (Aut), A Ayora (Spa), D Puig (Spa); -15 J Schaper (SA)

Selected others: -14 N Kimsey (Eng), M Jordan (Eng); -13 S Bairstow (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng), A Sullivan (Eng); -12 E Ferguson (Sco); -11 E Chacarra (Spa); -10 A Rai (Eng); -9 M Wallace (Eng); -4 P Reed (US)

Full leaderboard

Jon Rahm fired a final-round 67 to clinch a two-shot victory over England’s Tyrrell Hatton at the Abu Dhabi Championship.

It was a first victory for the two-time major winner since he announced his departure from LIV Golf, and a first win at a DP World Tour event in four years.

The Spaniard, in his first tournament since the birth of his fourth child last month, produced six birdies with just one dropped shot on Sunday to finish clear of Hatton with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy another two strokes further back.

“It means a lot. It’s been quite a while to play well in the DP World Tour,” Rahm told Sky Sports.

“Except a shot on 17, as far as I’m concerned, I played a pretty flawless back nine. It was really solid, never in danger of making a bogey except that one hole.

“After everything that has gone on, some poor play and some battles mentally with a lot of noise, to come back out after a bit of a break and a new addition to the family, it’s pretty special.”

Having finished at the very bottom of the leaderboard at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in his last appearance, Rahm joked that going “last to first” was especially pleasing.

For McIlroy, his third-placed finish was enough to ensure he goes into next week’s season-finale at the DP World Tour Championship sitting second in the Race To Dubai standings as he seeks a record-equalling eighth win.

The 37-year-old, who was given a two-shot penalty in his first round, leapfrogged American Patrick Reed and now trails only Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra in his bid to match Colin Montgomerie’s eight season-long titles.

Despite starting the week outside the top 50, Rahm’s victory ensured he remained in the hunt too should he be able to go back-to-back in Dubai.