Overshadowing the Matildas’ return home is the dire state of the domestic league.
As Sam Lewis explains, the A-League Women has stagnated and its players are the lowest-paid professional athletes in the country, according to a report from earlier this month.
(Hyperdub) The dancefloor producer weaves seductive and steely lyrics with their trademark production in a convincing embrace of pop
Sad represents a total reinvention for Ikonika, theproducer, songwriter and singer also known as Sara Chen. Putting their own vocals at the forefront of their music for the first time, Chen becomes a charismatic and haunting pop presence. Sometimes, they play the role of warm R&B vocalist (Listen to Your Heart); at other times, such as on the nervy, hypnotic Whatchureallywant, they’re seductive and steely, commanding the dancefloor over production that draws equally from bass music and South African amapiano.
Ikonika has long been an established presence in underground electronic music. They have been signed to the Hyperdub label for nearly 20 years; muscular, sprightly releases such as 2020’s Your Body and 2018’s The Library Album have contributed to their reputation as a brash, warm-spirited producer. But Sad has the feel of a debut, centring sounds from northern and southern Africa (Chen is part-Egyptian) on tracks like Sense Seeker and Gone. Their lyrics draw on ideas of safety and care, pushing their persona past “party starter” and into more complex territory.
Andriy Yermak said authorities given ‘full access’ to his apartment, and that he is cooperating with the officers, with his lawyers present
Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities are searching properties linked to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
In a post on Telegram, Yermak confirmed the authorities were given “full access” to his apartment, and that he is cooperating with the officers, with his lawyers present.
Libertadores Cup final sees the latest chapter in a rivalry that is dominating the continent thanks to European levels of funding and player recruitment
To the surprise of few and the despair of many, it will be either Palmeiras or Flamengo lifting the Copa Libertadores trophy on Saturday at Lima’s Estadio Monumental. With this year’s final, one of these two Brazilian giants will have won five of the last seven editions, a run that underlines how both clubs have transformed themselves into South American super clubs, reshaping the competitive landscape in the process.
Yet this final is more than another chapter in Brazil’s dominance, broken only by River Plate’s 2018 triumph in the past nine years. It marks the latest peak in a decade-long evolution that has seen Palmeiras and Flamengo grow into institutions with European-scale reach, resources and expectations. Their rise has altered the logic of the Libertadores itself, its transfer market, its competitive balance, even its sense of what is attainable for South American clubs.
The Uzbek won $120,000 and qualified for the 2026 Candidates in Cyprus, which will decide the official challenger for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world crown
Javokhir Sindarov, 19, became the youngest ever winner of the Fide knockout World Cup on Wednesday when the Uzbek teenager defeated China’s Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 in the final at Goa. Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov had been a year younger in 2002, but that World Cup had also doubled as the Fide world championship in a period when the global title was disputed.
Wei was the favourite, but handicapped himself by poor time management in the decisive game. He declined a draw and could have gained a near-decisive edge by 52 g4! when Black’s king is trapped on the back row, and right at the end could have drawn by 57 Kg2! Qh4 58 Rf8+! when White can force perpetual check. Instead, he blundered into a checkmating attack.
SW19 champion baffled by post-match suggestions she should have let Amanda Anisimova win one game in grand slam final as she turns focus to Australian Open in 2026
In the coming months, if and when her schedule allows, Iga Swiatek will make a pilgrimage to London and the All England Club, the scene of her biggest and, she admits, most surprising triumph. In July, the 24-year-old won her first Wimbledon title and sixth grand slam title in all, crushing a hapless Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the final.
It was the undoubted highlight of an up-and-down year for the Pole, who struggled on her best surface of clay but who will end 2025 ranked No 2, her fourth year in a row finishing inside the world’s top two.
The SailGP championship harnesses sailors’ competitive instincts in the cause of sustainability as teams vie to be the greenest of them all
British sailors have always been a belligerent bunch. Francis Drake, Lord Nelson, Admiral Cunningham … and, of course, Sir Ben Ainslie. The most successful Olympian in sailing’s history is also the sport’s equivalent of The Hulk: you really don’t want to make him angry.
So perhaps it’s a good thing that there has been plenty to annoy him this year, not least that acrimonious split from his America’s Cup team owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. In true Ainslie style, it only seems to have made him more dangerous. His Emirates GBR team top the SailGP championship going into this weekend’s grand final. And on Wednesday, they were named 2025 winners of its Impact League, which ranks the racing teams on the contribution they have made to their social and natural environment.
(Ghostly International) Sharon Van Etten, Stephen O’Malley, Perila and more transform the duo’s gloomy, sensual songs on an album of covers and remixes
HTRK have been making their gloomy, sensual brand of music, at the intersection of electronic pop and noise rock, for 22 years. To mark the milestone comes String of Hearts, a collection of covers and remixes featuring an all-star cast of friends and collaborators, from next-gen underground favourites like Coby Sey to fellow old-school experimentalists Liars. This brilliant, genre-agnostic record allows you to trace the breadth of the Melbourne band’s shapeshifting sound, echoes of which can now be found all over underground and commercial music, without leaning too hard on nostalgia.
The record spans HTRK’s early hits right up to their most recent album Rhinestones, a period in which they’ve shifted from a darker, industrial palette to warmer territory. Not that you’d be able to tell here: instrumentals are reshaped by Loraine James’s IDM-style glitches and Zebrablood’s atmospheric breaks, while Jonnine Standish’s disaffected vocals are transformed into desperate alien wails by Liars.
In this week’s newsletter: Ultimately, climate progress will come from real-world action, and this year’s summit made some promising strides on that front
Some commentators have called Cop30 a failure. An attempt to insert plans for a route to the phaseout of fossil fuels into the legal text was stymied, consideration of how to improve countries’ emissions-cutting plans was put off till next year, and although developing countries got the tripling of finance for adaptation that they were seeking, it will not be delivered in full until 2035 – and will come out of already promised funds.
Look beyond the headlines, however, and the Cop achieved a great deal more. Take the outcome on fossil fuels – it seems absurd, but until 2023 three decades of annual climate summits had failed to address fossil fuels directly.
This collection of macabre stories set across England explores class, hierarchy and the enduring nature of inequality
Folk horror may have had a dramatic resurgence in recent years, but it has always been the backbone of much of our national storytelling. A new anthology of 10 stories set across England, Bog People, brings together some of the most accomplished names in the genre.
In her introduction, editor Hollie Starling describes an ancient ritual in a Devon village: the rich throw heated pennies from their windows, watching those in need burn their fingers. Folk horror by its nature is inherently connected to class and hierarchy. Reverence for tradition is a double-edged sword – or a burning-hot coin.
The rain stops, the sun shows, another night comes dark and flowing with energy. I don’t sleep; I feel my way through the landscape, the trees that reach and catch my shirt sleeves, holding on to me, saving me from slipping on mossy roots, the unfriendly gorse keeping me at a distance, saying don’t step here, stopping me from tearing my feet on its throne of thorns. Stars alive, alight, I wish you could see them…
First light fattened like a dying star and formed the signature of an industrial town already at toil predawn, its factory stacks belching the new day black, the mills dyeing the forked-tongue river sterile inside that Hellmouth north of Halifax where paternal cotton kings had housed their workers in spoked rows of blind back-to-backs quick to tilt and rot.
Incident north of Tokyo comes after a record 13 deaths from bear attacks in Japan since the start of April
A man has been attacked by a bear in a public toilet in Japan, local media reported on Friday – the latest in a record-breaking wave of attacks this autumn, including those in populated areas.
The victim, a 69-year-old security guard, told police he had noticed the bear, which was 1-1.5 metres long, peering inside as he was about to leave the building in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the early hours of Friday, Kyodo news agency and broadcaster NHK reported.
As navies seek to counter submarines and protect cables, startups and big defence companies fight to lead market
Flying drones used during the Ukraine war have changed land battle tactics for ever. Now the same thing appears to be happening under the sea.
Navies around the world are racing to add autonomous submarines. The UK’s Royal Navy is planning a fleet of underwater uncrewed vehicles (UUVs) which will, for the first time, take a leading role in tracking submarines and protecting undersea cables and pipelines. Australia has committed to spending $1.7bn (£1.3bn) on “Ghost Shark” submarines to counter Chinese submarines. The huge US Navy is spending billions on several UUV projects, including one already in use that can be launched from nuclear submarines.
Lati-Yana Brown’s parents had asked for application to be expedited so she could join them in UK after house ruined
An eight-year-old girl left destitute in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa has been barred from coming to the UK to join her parents.
The Guardian reported on the case of Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown after the hurricane. Her mother, Kerrian Bigby, a carer, moved from Jamaica to be with Lati-Yana’s British father, Jerome Hardy, a telecommunications worker, in April 2023, leaving their daughter to be cared for by her grandmother.
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