Wales laboured to a 1-0 win over international minnows Liechtenstein to keep alive their hopes of World Cup qualification.
Jordan James claimed his first Wales goal from close range after Liechtenstein’s assorted collection of full-time players, office workers and students had held out for over an hour. James wheeled away in delight with his obvious relief shared by 3,000 Wales fans filling three sides of the Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz.
Optimism! Agitation! Anticipation! Panic! As a world of possibility opens up in front of Scotland, Ewan Murray takes a cross section of the squad’s mindset.
Scotland make six changes to the side that scraped past Belarus at Hampden last month. Craig Gordon, 42, who hasn’t played competitive football since May, replaces the absent Angus Gunn in goal. Grant Hanley, John Souttar and Aaron Hickey come into the defence, while Ryan Christie and Lewis Ferguson go into the midfield. Anthony Ralston, Kenny McLean, Jack Hendry and Scott McKenna drop to the bench, while Billy Gilmour is injured.
Long before we’d met, I had heard a lot about a guy called Tom Box. I knew he was an Australian living in the South Island of New Zealand. I was in Wellington, and there’d been a few occasions when I’d travelled to the South Island for raves or anarchist conferences where some of the folks had gone to Tom’s place – but I splintered off somewhere else.
Then one day, in 2007, I was at a punk gig when a mutual friend said, “Oh, do you know Tom Box? He’s over there. He’s just moved up to Wellington.” There in a sea of black-clad punks, jumping up and down at the front of the mosh pit, was this guy in a pale blue Star Trek uniform. To me, as a person unfamiliar with Star Trek, he looked like he was wearing pyjamas. This was my first vision of him, but we didn’t talk at all that night.
You did a whole book on Australia, and have travelled here a bit since – what’s the number one tip or recommendation you’d give someone coming for the first time?
Get out and walk! I mean, maybe not through the outback, but if you’re in any of the cities, walk. I do that wherever I go. And I love to just go off and explore without knowing where I’m going, without a map or any preconceived ideas. I think it’s the best way to discover a place, and it has the great virtue that if you turn a corner – say in Sydney – and there’s suddenly the Harbour Bridge, you feel as if you’ve discovered it. There’s a real feeling of exhilaration, I think, in that. But also, you discover little cafes and hidden corners and odds and ends.
A callow Australia side confirmed in defeat by Venezuela that the head coach needs his big hitters back before facing Colombia in New York
A day before Australian football looked to its past, Tony Popovic sent out a side to face Venezuela focused on its future. Nineteen years and 364 days ago, the Golden Generation defender had been part of the side that defeated Uruguay in a shootout to end 32 years of heartbreak and send the Socceroos back to the promised land. Two decades on, here he was in the dugout of Shell Energy Stadium, tinkering and experimenting before a sixth-straight World Cup for Australia.
Popovic had named an XI with three debutants – the most in 12 years – and a player in Nestory Irankunda that hadn’t been born when John Alosi scored that famous penalty.
Influential musician who created Americana hits had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia
Todd Snider, the influential alt-country singer-songwriter who created Americana hits such as Alright Guy, has died at 59.
His passing was shared through announcements on his official social media accounts. Although no cause of death was provided, his family shared on Friday that he had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia.
Once escapees from the pet trade, Los Angeles’s feral parrots have become a vibrant part of city life, and could even aid conservation in their native homelands
A morning mist hung over the palm trees as birds chattered and cars roared by on the streets of Pasadena. It was a scene that evoked a tropical island rather than a bustling city in north-east Los Angeles county.
“It feels parrot-y,” says Diego Blanco, a research assistant at Occidental College’s Moore zoology lab, nodding to the verdant flora that surrounds us: tall trees and ornamental bushes with berries.
Borthwick’s side clinch a perfect 10 of successive wins
A perfect 10 wins in a row is a reliable indicator of a team on the rise. What England really craved, though, was a statement victory to underline just how far they have come in the past 18 months or so. And on a dull grey November afternoon they finally secured it, beating a disappointed New Zealand for the first time in south-west London for 13 long years.
They deserved it, too, storming back from 12-0 down to claim the kind of result that rewards all the painstaking hard work of both the players and the management. There were four English tries in all, including two in the final half hour from Fraser Dingwall and Tom Roebuck, as Steve Borthwick’s team become only the ninth England side to cut the All Blacks down to size.
As Alan just mentioned, there are far more Wales fans than Liechtenstein ultras in the compact Rheinpark Stadion tonight. There are a few boos for the hosts’ national anthem – although it probably doesn’t help that it’s the same tune as God Save the King.
“Evening from Vaduz,” writes Alun Pugh. “Sweet Caroline being played by a tone deaf DJ, and being booed from three sides on the ground. Quite right too.” Reclaim it, I say – Sweet Caroline is for everyone (who’s had two to three pints).
From Texas and Iowa to Arkansas, faith leaders are wading into politics to counter the rise of Christian nationalism
He grew up on a farm in Indiana, the son of a factory worker and eldest of five children. He studied at Liberty, a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, and recalls wearing a T-shirt expressing opposition to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Two decades later, Justin Douglas is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.
Police believe device was deliberately planted near frontbench to disrupt proceedings, prompting heightened security in parliament
Police have arrested two men in connection with a mobile phone hidden in the House of Commons that was reportedly planted there to play sex noises during prime minister’s questions.
The phone was found near the frontbench during a routine sweep of the chamber. It is believed to have been intended to interrupt the keynote weekly showdown between Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch in September.
Sinner wins 7-5, 6-2 to reach final for third year in row
Defending champion chasing his sixth ATP title of season
Jannik Sinner continued his total dominance of the indoor season as he held off an admirable early challenge from Alex de Minaur before bulldozing his path into the ATP Finals for a third consecutive year with a supreme 7-5, 6-2 victory, extending his winning record against the Australian to 13-0.
Sinner continues to perform at an astounding level that has allowed him to rapidly rise the list of all-time great’s. In a season that included a three-month doping ban between February and May, Sinner will attempt to win his sixth ATP title of the year in his 10th final. The 24-year-old has won 30 consecutive indoor hard court matches and 14 matches in a row after his recent triumphs at the Vienna Open and Paris Masters. He has also won 18 consecutive sets at the ATP Finals.
Bangkok had earlier said it was suspending ceasefire, accusing Cambodia of laying landmines along the border
The US has put pressure on Thailand to recommit to a ceasefire with Cambodia, warning trade talks could be halted as Washington seeks to keep a Donald Trump-brokered truce agreement from falling apart.
Earlier this week, Thailand said that it was suspending the ceasefire deal, accusing Cambodia of laying fresh landmines along the border, including one it said wounded a Thai soldier on patrol, who lost a foot in the explosion.
Just as Storm Claudia tore through the north-west the previous evening, Manchester City blew Manchester United away at the Etihad. It was a statement 3-0 victory for Andrée Jeglertz’s side thanks to goals from Rebecca Knaak, Bunny Shaw and Lauren Hemp. It was one that truly announced their title credentials as they consolidated their place at the top.
In contrast, it was a result that signalled back-to-back WSL defeats for Marc Skinner’s side for the first time since May 2024, leaving them seven points off the league leaders. Their ability to juggle domestic and European football with a thin squad has been hotly discussed and it always felt like this was the week that would truly test this capability. Unfortunately for the visitors, they looked fatigued, the historic win against PSG clearly having taken a toll.
Business secretary Peter Kyle says appeal of far-right parties like Reform due to ‘their dogma of disruption, division and despair’
Nigel Farage is “today’s incarnation of the politics of Enoch Powell”, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said at the Co-operative party conference.
Kyle described Reform UK as “far right”, while stressing that boosting economic growth was needed to “build an economy and a politics that people can trust to deliver for themselves, their families and their communities”.
Seemingly identical signatures appeared on clemency orders, which White House blamed on technical error
The Trump administration’s clemency drive is coming under scrutiny after the justice department this week replaced pardons posted online that bore strikingly similar copies of Trump’s signature with others that are distinctively variable.
The corrections came after online commenters seized on the similarities in the president’s signature granting “full and unconditional” pardons to seven men, including to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon, on 7 November.
As party’s rise fuels fears over future visa rules, people share how the lives they have built are in jeopardy
As Reform UK soars in the polls, Britain’s migrant communities are facing an uncertain future.
The party has announced a swathe of hardline immigration policies, including its plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain – the right to settle permanently in the UK after five years of residence.
Venezuelan-born Jose Barco detained upon early release from prison following attempted murder conviction
An army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who served two tours in Iraq was deported on Friday morning from an immigration detention facility in Florence, Arizona.
Arizona state representative Raquel Terán told Fox 10 Phoenix that Jose Barco, a Venezuelan-born veteran whose family fled Cuba as refugees, was deported at 4am from Arizona.
First set: Sinner 1-1 De Minaur* (*denotes next server)
Ooohs and aaaahs from the crowd on a lovely first point, with slicing and dicing and drop shots and lobs and eventually a De Minaur winner, which lands bang on the baseline. Even the Italians are applauding the Australian. “Just another 80 of those will do,” quips Laura Robson on commentary. And look, look: 0-15 morphs into 0-30 and 0-40. Sinner hasn’t been broken this week at all. He fends off the first bp with an unreturned serve; De Minaur slaps into the net on the second. Another snarling serve and it’s deuce. Then advantage Sinner and game. Sinner maintains his perfect record.
PM makes opposition to support for Ukraine central to Fidesz campaign as it loses ground over cost of living crisis
Hungary’s prime minister has kicked off a weeks-long “anti-war roadshow”, turning criticism of European support for Ukraine into an early campaign message before next year’s elections.
Viktor Orbán’ is scheduled to stage an event in five cities before the end of the year, and started with an assembly on Saturday in the north-western city of Győr.
Cooke, who worked for the Observer for 25 years and was described as its ‘backbone’, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year
Tributes have been paid to the journalist and critic Rachel Cooke after her death from cancer.
Cooke, 56, was diagnosed with the illness earlier this year and died on Friday. She worked for the Observer for 25 years, where she was described as “the backbone of the paper”.
Funeral for fossil fuels held as part of ‘Great People’s March’ calling on governments to step up climate efforts
The streets of Belém echoed with indigenous chants, classical Brazilian songs and calls for environmental justice on Saturday as tens of thousands of people marched to demand urgent action on the climate and nature crisis.
Activists from around the world converged on the Amazonian host city of COP30, urging negotiators to ramp up ambition.
American Mikaela Shiffrin laid down a marker for the Olympic season ahead by obliterating her rivals to easily win the opening Alpine Ski World Cup slalom race on Saturday.
The 30-year-old was in a class of her own, going quickest on both her runs to win by 1.66 seconds for her ninth career win in Levi and a record-extending 102nd World Cup victory.
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