Will Unwin got to sit down with Liverpool’s hottest striker.
What other guidance has Slot offered Ekitiké? “Obviously keep my shirt on,” he says with a smile. “I would say he’s on my back, but not for a bad thing. He just wants to help me, so I don’t take that badly. He wants me to give more and more. Maybe sometimes you feel like it’s a little bit too much and you want to complain. It’s a good thing because I think if a coach doesn’t like you, he will not speak to you or not try to get the best of you.”
Back at the ATP finals one year after reaching the last hurdle, Fritz remains a top-five talent. It’s a reminder that a certain major-title drought is not his burden to bear
I would like to have some words with ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler about what he said after Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz, for the 11th straight time, in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, Fowler is American – and sports often lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the continued drought of American men at the majors: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament.
We all love a narrative, myself included. But come on. Even if Fritz had beaten Djokovic for the first time, force of nature Carlos Alcaraz was waiting in the next round, who Fritz has yet to beat in an official match. And if he’d somehow survived that, it would have been defending champion Jannik Sinner in the final, against whom Fritz had lost 10 of the last 11 sets. Alcaraz and Sinner had also split the last seven major titles (and Alcaraz went on to thrash a fatigued Djokovic in the next round). Fritz said in press after the loss that he actually liked his draw, because it presented the opportunity to beat the three best players in the world in succession. Fritz is more than within his right to aspire to the accomplishment; an athlete is meant to believe in themselves. But going into that Djokovic quarter-final who else in their right mind had the drought of American champions on the brain?
The singer was inspired by her mum’s love for Basement Jaxx and spent 69p on Jamiroquai, but what does she put on when she’s feeling down?
The first song I fell in love with
The first song that I remember really feeling inspired by was Good Luck by Basement Jaxx. My mum had all their CDs. Good Luck was the first song I sung for my managers before they took me on board, so I still have a big love for it.
The first single I bought
My mum gave me money to go and buy Feels Just Like It Should by Jamiroquai for 69p from HMV in Oxford Circus. It was the first time I’d bought a physical CD.
Afghan Women United is comprised of players forced to flee their homeland and is another step in beating barriers
“When I step on to the pitch everything else is automatically erased from my mind,” says the captain of Afghan Women United, Fatima Haidari, when asked how football helps her cope with the traumas she has suffered.
“I train, I play, and a fire inside me is lit, not just because of the power that I feel at that moment as a player, but because I feel I have many other girls with me. It’s like I’m taking their hands. Like I’m playing with them. It’s not just for me, and I feel powerful.”
It is a test of Steve Borthwick’s coaching credentials to develop raw speedster Henry Arundell into the player he so obviously can become
Some things never change. Twickenham can always make a hash of the pre-match festivities, Fiji will always take the breath away and there is no substitute for pace in the elite game. If there is one thing that Steve Borthwick takes from this helter-skelter victory over Fiji, it must be Henry Arundell’s 70th-minute try on his first England appearance since the 2023 World Cup. Some way to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
Chasing down Marcus Smith’s grubber kick, Arundell gave Fiji’s outside-centre Kalaveti Ravouvou an enormous head start yet still won the foot race. Suffice it to say he does not lose many and at a stroke, the Pacific Islanders were finally put out of sight. There are plenty of caveats, those who will consider hyping up Arundell’s cameo as getting carried away. He was fresh, having just come off the bench whereas Ravouvou was not. One swallow does not make a summer.
Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites
Drax power plant has continued to burn 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests despite growing scrutiny of its sustainability claims, forestry experts say.
In a bid to exercise absolute power, today’s crop of authoritarian leaders is recruiting – and exploiting – believers
Donald Trump’s crusading threat to invade Nigeria and save Christians from Islamist terrorists is typical attention-seeking. Surely even he must realise that unilateral US military intervention would invite disaster. And he’s got his facts wrong. The threat of Islamist terrorism is real, but it affects Nigerian Muslims as much, if not more, than Christians. There’s no evidence of genocide, contrary to the alarmist claims of US far-right internet warriors. Trump’s intervention was about politics, not faith.
In speaking out, he was massaging a key domestic constituency, not acting from genuine, God-fearing concern for “our cherished Christians” in a land he’s never visited. Christian nationalist votes helped clinch Trump’s two presidential victories despite the obvious insincerity of his professed beliefs. His support among white evangelical Protestants is much higher than the average – 72% in April, compared with 40% among all US adults. Trump’s histrionics about Nigeria were primarily for their (and his) benefit.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Half of UK public unaware of contribution made by 2.5m British Asian members of armed forces who served in second world war
British Asian families are being urged to record the experiences of relatives who fought for Britain for “future generations” as data reveals half the British public don’t know that Indian members of the armed forces served in the second world war.
The My Family Legacy project, backed by the Royal British Legion, is building an online archive of Asian veterans’ experiences to raise awareness of the shared histories and sacrifices of Britain’s diverse communities.
Disasters, riots, gangsters and construction … early 20th-century Chicago is seen here through the lens of the pioneering Japanese-American photojournalist, poet and artist Jun Fujita. His life and work is covered in Behind the Camera by Graham Harrison Lee, published by Hat & Beard Press, with an accompanying exhibition planned in Los Angeles next year
Parenthood can seem an impossible dream for many, and online sperm donor groups offer a solution, but they can be a murky world
A man going by the name “Rod Kissme” claims to have “very strong sperm”. It may seem like an eccentric boast for a Facebook profile page, but then this is no mundane corner of the internet. The group where Rod and other men advertise themselves is a community where women and couples come, in many cases, to fulfil a lifelong dream: parenthood.
There is a growing number of online sperm donor groups on social media. They offer people the chance of parenting children in an unregulated, dangerous but surprisingly straightforward way.
From flea markets in Berlin to thrift stores in Athens, a vintage shopping veteran picks her favourite places to shop for preloved bargains and unique souvenirs
A city as celebrated for its quirkiness as Berlin is almost duty-bound to deliver on the flea market front – plus, many of its shops close on Sundays, making market browsing the natural retail fix.
Australia defend crown with 40-8 win against Kiwi Ferns at CommBank Stadium
High-flying Robinson scores spectacular try as Jillaroos showcase class
The Jillaroos have sent another reminder of the gap between them and the rest of the world, defending their Pacific Cup crown with a 40-8 win over New Zealand.
One year out from a home World Cup and after a season that began with a 90-4 drubbing of England in Las Vegas, Australia again showed their class on Sunday afternoon.
Gregory Bovino was called out by a judge only two days earlier for lying about being assaulted by a protester
A border patrol chief claimed on Saturday that his agents came under fire in Chicago while conducting immigration enforcement operations, just two days after a federal judge said that he had lied to her about having been struck by a rock during a previous confrontation with protesters in the city.
Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, said on social media that his agents had been “shot at”, and subjected to “vehicular assaults, physical assaults, impeding, violent mobs, vehicular blockades”, for a number of hours.
Commerce department expected to add about 700 more items with steel content to levy list at request of US firms
Businesses around the world are steeling themselves for another round of Donald Trump’s tariffs, this time on goods ranging from bicycles to baking trays, as US industry embraces a call for more products to tax on import.
Small, medium and large American companies have asked the US Department of Commerce to add about 700 more items to an August list of 407 products already facing extra tariffs because of their steel content, which hit items such as Ikea tables with metal nuts and bolts and German combine harvesters.
Eleanor Gittens, 107, and Lyle Gittens, 108, of Miami met at a basketball game in 1941 and have been married for 83 years
A Miami husband and wife who recently attained the title of world’s longest-married couple say they managed that feat just by loving one another.
“We love each other,” Eleanor Gittens, 107, said to LongeviQuest when the website specializing on people who are in their second century of life asked what was the secret to her 83 years of marriage to her husband, Lyle.
The changes would make it easier for American firms to obtain key minerals, delivering on what the White House said the two countries had agreed to at last month’s summit.
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