⚽️ World Cup qualifying news from the 5pm GMT kick-off
⚽️ Live scoreboard | Subscribe to Football Daily | Mail Billy

Played 7, won 7, conceded 0. Easy as you like for England so far in qualifying. Beyond this group, they’ve now kept nine consecutive clean sheets in competitive matches – only two teams have done that in Europe before.

Spain are the only other team in European qualifying yet to concede a goal. For what it’s worth, Liechtenstein are the only team yet to score.

ATP Finals up date from 5pm GMT in Turin
Sign up for the Recap newsletter | Mail Daniel

These two have met five times in 2025; the Wimbledon final is Sinner’s only win. But the reason Calv thinks he’ll win indoors is that he hits the harder, cleaner shots and, with no interference from the elements or the surface, he can merrily thwack away with no fears.

I do, though, wonder if either will attack the other’s backhand, and how often Alcaraz can haul Sinner to the net. I’m sure Sinner will to plant feet on the baseline and hit to the corners, down the line; Alcaraz will be a bit more flexible, looking to conjure angles both line and cross.

An injury-time goal by Troy Parrott to complete his hat-trick booked Republic of Ireland a spot in the playoffs for next year’s World Cup with a thrilling 3-2 comeback victory over their nearest Group F rivals Hungary in a must-win game in Budapest.

Higher-ranked Hungary just needed a draw to secure second place and led 2-1 at half-time thanks to goals from Daniel Lukacs and Barnabas Varga, but Parrott’s second goal of the night on 80 minutes and last-gasp winner broke the home side’s hearts.

President to overhaul state energy firms after $100m kickback scheme alleged by anti-corruption investigators

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced a plan to clean up Ukraine’s energy sector after an $100m (£76bn) kickback scheme was alleged by anti-corruption investigators, in the worst scandal of his presidency.

Over the weekend, the Ukrainian president announced an overhaul of key state energy companies including a complete change of management at Energoatom, the nuclear power operator at the centre of the alleged criminal scheme.

Gardaí appeal for witnesses and Simon Harris pays tribute to first responders after two-vehicle collision on Saturday

Ireland is in mourning after a road crash killed five people in their early 20s and left three other people injured.

The two-vehicle collision happened at about 9pm on Saturday on a road near Dundalk in County Louth.

Congresswoman, a longtime Trump ally, pushes back on president’s remarks labeling her a traitor and a lunatic

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday called Donald Trump’s remarks labeling her a traitor and a lunatic “hurtful” but said she hopes she and the US president can “make up”, despite stark differences over policy and the release of documents about Jeffrey Epstein.

Greene, a longtime ally and fierce defender of Trump and the Make America Great Again (Maga) base, pushed back against his name-calling, in her first interview since Trump withdrew his support for her on Friday.

Victory was driven by resentment after defeat in their first bout and towards his doubters after failed drug tests in 2022

“I feel like I’m going to go home and cry,” Conor Benn said quietly in the early hours of Sunday morning at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I think I’m going to cry here. Oh man, it’s been hard.”

Despite the surprising ease with which he had beaten his nemesis Chris Eubank Jr over 12 one-sided rounds on Saturday night, Benn’s face was bruised. But his mouth almost crumpled because of a different struggle locked deep with himself. In 2022, Benn tested positive for clomifene twice in separate tests held months apart from each other.

• Defender forced off in second half of Senegal friendly

• Brazil confirm he has returned to Arsenal for treatment

The Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães is a doubt for next Sunday’s north London derby after picking up a thigh injury in Brazil’s friendly win against Senegal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Gabriel was withdrawn after 64 minutes of Brazil’s 2-0 victory, motioning to his manager, Carlo Ancelotti, that he had an issue with his upper thigh as he walked off the pitch.

• Lucas Pinheiro Braathen wins season opener

• 25-year-old switched allegiance from Norway

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made skiing history as he delivered Brazil’s first-ever World Cup victory in a thrilling season-opening race at Levi on Sunday.

Pinheiro Braathen, who switched allegiance from Norway to Brazil last year, held a commanding 0.41-seconds lead from the first run and weaved his way down through the gates again in an ice-cool second run to claim the landmark win.

• Fitzpatrick wins DP World Tour Championship in playoff

• McIlroy now one behind record for season-long crowns

An emotional Rory McIlroy hailed surpassing Seve Ballesteros by winning a seventh Race to Dubai title as more than he ever dreamed of. McIlroy was beaten in a playoff by Matt Fitzpatrick in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, having staged a dramatic late fightback with an eagle at the final hole.

While his Ryder Cup teammate celebrated a third win in the event, the Northern Irishman clinched the season-long crown to eclipse the late Ballesteros’ tally of six and move one behind record-holder, Colin Montgomerie. McIlroy told Sky Sports: “It’s amazing, I had a conversation with Carmen [Ballesteros’s ex-wife] before I went out to play today and she told me how proud he would have been.

As rainy season fails to bring relief, authorities try cloud seeding – while others across the country pray for a miracle

Water, and its absence, has become Iran’s national obsession. In the mosques of northern Tehran the imams have been praying for rain, while the meteorologists count down the hours until the weather is forecast to break and rain is finally due to fall from the sky.

Forecasts of “rain-producing clouds” are front-page news. More than 50 days have passed since the start of Iran’s rainy season and more than 20 provinces have not yet had a drop. The number of dams that have less than 5% of their reservoir capacity had increased from eight to 32, and the crisis has spread from the central plains right across the country.

Andrew Snowden MP says government ‘must immediate take action’ on failures of anti-fraud benefits crackdown

Calls are being made for an urgent independent inquiry after thousands of families were stripped of child benefit due to flawed Home Office travel data that claimed to show parents going on holidays and not returning.

Andrew Snowden, the Conservative MP for Fylde and the party’s assistant whip, said the government “must take immediate and transparent action” to address the failures of the anti-fraud benefits crackdown.

In the context of spirituality, trauma is a hand grenade. But it can lead to deeper understandings of the world

“Why me?” “Why evil?” and “Why God?”

According to theologian and psychologist Karen McClintock, these are the three key questions that a person will ask of their faith in the aftermath of trauma.

Long after his conviction for sexual abuse, people in royalty, academia, business, journalism and politics sought his ear

He got by with a little help from his friends. From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet none appeared to challenge Epstein over his horrific crimes. If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in spoke volumes.

I was sleep deprived and completely overwhelmed when she stepped in and took charge

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

As a twin mum the work is constant. It is double the love and double the laughs, but also double the illness. Of course, my twins would never get sick at the same time. As one recovered, the other would start showing symptoms.

One day, when my girls were three, one had a vomiting bug. She hadn’t thrown up for 24 hours so I took my chance to do a quick run to the chemist to stock up on supplies. My husband worked away during the week, so I had to manage on my own. I was exhausted, carrying the sick kid in my arms, while walking the healthy one along next to me as quickly as I could.

The comedians on their Bafta-winning sketch show, the reason they split up – and why she reminds him of Diane Keaton

Born in Louth, Lincolnshire in 1969, and raised in Troon, Ayrshire, Ronni Ancona is an actor, writer and impressionist. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and trained as a teacher before turning to comedy. Born in Evesham, Worcestershire, in 1964, Alistair McGowan studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before becoming an impressionist. The pair met on the London comedy circuit in the 1990s. They co-created the Bafta-winning Big Impression, which aired between 1999 and 2003 and became one of the BBC’s most popular sketch shows. Ancona’s new podcast with Hal Cruttenden – Hal & Ronni in Pieces – is available now.

We’re taught from infancy that perseverance is a moral virtue and persistence pays. But what if quitters are happier and healthier?

Have you ever heard yourself saying “I’m going to do this if it kills me”? As the pensioners at my gym can attest, it’s what I hiss every time I’m there, attempting slowly and laboriously to get myself a millimetre closer to doing the splits.

But what if it actually is killing me? Not the groin strain, problematic as that is, but because I’ve just read in New Scientist that giving up is good for you, while grinding on isn’t. One study showed that people who “struggled to disengage from unfulfilling goals” had higher levels of cortisol and inflammatory molecules. “The result,” the article explained, “could be a heightened susceptibility to all kinds of conditions, including cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.” In addition, “goal disengagement” – giving up – correlated with a lower risk of headaches, constipation and eczema; it may even protect against infection. Of 131 older adults, those who scored highly on a giving up scale (asking how easily they stopped fixating on unfulfilling goals and pivoted to others) got fewer colds.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

They say “good fences make good neighbours”, presumably meaning that the stronger the boundary between you and people you need to deal with, the more robust the relationship. Is this really true? Jamila, via email

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Why do we feel nostalgia? And why do some things trigger it more than others? Jules, Fife

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

I always used to dream of the past
But like they say yesterday never comes
Sometimes there’s a song in my brain
And I feel that my heart knows the refrain
I guess it’s just the music that brings on nostalgia for an age yet to come
Ah nostalgia for an age yet to come
Nostalgia for an age yet to come
About the future I only can reminisce
For what I’ve had is what I’ll never get
And although this may sound strange
My future and my past are presently disarranged
And I’m surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come

Minister from islands facing extinction is one of few delegates directly calling out Trump’s climate policies

Of all the representatives from 193 countries present at the crucial UN climate talks in Belém, Brazil, only one has summoned the courage to take the stage and publicly denounce the absent and hostile Trump administration: the climate minister of tiny Tuvalu.

On Monday, Maina Vakafua Talia told leaders and diplomats at the Cop30 summit that Donald Trump had shown a “shameful disregard for the rest of the world” by withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement.

Zelenskyy says Nataliia Khodemchuk is victim of ‘new tragedy caused by Kremlin’, four decades after disaster

The widow of the first Soviet engineer to die in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion was killed on Friday in Russia’s massive drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Nataliia Khodemchuk as the victim of a “new tragedy caused by the Kremlin”, nearly four decades after her husband, Valerii, was killed inside Chornobyl’s nuclear reactor number four.

• Andersen, Højland and staff member ill before showdown

• Danes need draw and Scotland must win to reach finals

A sickness bug has disrupted Denmark’s plans for their make-or-break World Cup qualifier with Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday. Brian Riemer, the Danish head coach, has admitted he is concerned over the situation amid fears the ailment will spread further before kick-off.

Joachim Andersen and Rasmus Højland missed Denmark’s surprising draw with Belarus on Saturday evening due to illness. The result in Copenhagen meant Scotland’s 3-2 loss to Greece was immaterial for Steve Clarke’s side. Scotland trail Denmark by a point in Group C as the teams prepare to meet in the final fixture. A draw will be sufficient for Denmark but the backdrop is fraught.

‘Less expensive and time consuming’ model helps with fast and accurate predictions, possibly saving lives and property

When then Tropical Storm Melissa was churning south of Haiti, Philippe Papin, a National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist, had confidence it was about to grow into a monster hurricane.

As the lead forecaster on duty, he predicted that in just 24 hours the storm would become a category 4 hurricane and begin a turn towards the coast of Jamaica. No NHC forecaster had ever issued such a bold forecast for rapid strengthening.

Just like Italy’s fashion capital, this saffron-hued dish is elegantly simple and very rich

Risotto alla milanese is, like the city it calls home, elegantly simple, but very rich. The saffron that gives the dish its striking colour is rightly expensive (it takes about 150 flowers to produce a mere gram), but you don’t need much and, though it’s often served alongside osso buco, I think it makes a fine meal on its own with a bitter-leaf salad.

Prep 5 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4