Sarina Wiegman has plenty of history with the Dutch national team. Born in the Netherlands herself, she represented the country as a player from 1987 to 2001, earning over 100 caps. She was appointed the assistant coach of the national team in 2014 before eventually getting promoted to head coach two years later. And in 2017, she led Oranje to a European title, winning every match along the way.
England fans, I want to hear from you this evening! Let me know your thoughts on the team selection, who you think will be the biggest threat for England and the Netherlands, as well as any score predictions.
Starmer and Macron are due to attend a more formal summit tomorrow
The BMA strike decision must be a tempting topic for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, which is starting very soon. The Conservatives have repeatedly criticised the government for the way they swiftly settled public sector pay disputes when they took office; they argue that Labour was too generous to the unions, thereby encouraging them to threaten further strikes.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Streeting says he is “disappointed” by the proposed strike, and he insists resident doctors have had a relatively good outcome on pay. He says:
I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.
I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.
He says the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction” and that a strike will “put that recovery at risk”.
He offers to hold meet the BMA to hold talks to avert the strike. He says:
I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.
As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.
Slovenian opens clear gap to rival Jonas Vingegaard
Evenepoel takes stage win in blistering run around Caen
Tadej Pogacar struck the first blow in his rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard, taking the race lead in the 2025 Tour de France, after finishing second to Remco Evenepoel in the stage five time trial in Caen.
Pogacar’s performance exceeded expectations and will have hit home hard on Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a bike team bus, with the double Tour winner now well over a minute behind his Slovenian rival, after only five days of racing.
Hampden Park, Glasgow He’s icy, she’s all sunshine – but the rapper and R&B star’s talents prove perfectly complementary in a historic two-hander
He’s icy and controlled, she’s a beam of sunshine. Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Grand National stadium tour has already broken records as the biggest co-headline tour in history, and they’ve still got five months left on the road. This yin-yang spectacle is a rare chance for fans to see the world’s most influential figures in rap and R&B in one night, and to bask in their chemistry as storied collaborators.
Their sets weave together over three hours, welcoming us first into Lamar’s incisive (and enjoyably irritable) state-of-the-artform address, filmed austerely in black and white, before blossoming into full colour for SZA’s tactile songwriting about exes, bad habits and heart-leaping, interplanetary hope. The contrast is abrupt but high-energy, and when they overlap for duets, everything changes again: Lamar permits himself a broad grin as SZA circles him, looking very much in charge, during the seductive back and forth of Luther.
The systematic destruction of Gaza is hardly a secret. Now, the IDF is posting Facebook ads for bulldozer operators to help demolish the strip
Omer Bartov is an Israeli-American historian and one of the foremost scholars on genocide in the world. He has spent over 25 years teaching a class on the subject. He deals with atrocities for a living, analyzing some of the very worst things that human beings are capable of. And yet even Bartov has said he can’t bear looking at some of the excruciating images coming out of Gaza any more.
What’s happening, Bartov says, is unprecedented in the 21st century. “I don’t know of any comparable situation. Recent estimates show that about 70% of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged,” Bartov says. “The argument that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is conducting a war in Gaza is simply cynical, there is no war in Gaza. What the IDF is doing in Gaza is demolishing it. Hundreds of buildings are being bulldozed every week. This is not a secret, but mainstream media coverage has been insufficient.”
Departure now leaves a question mark about the next chapter of one of the sport’s extraordinary success stories
The removal of Christian Horner from his post as team principal at Red Bull represents both the end of an era in Formula One and, in the short term, the most turbulent period in the team’s history. It carries an import that will be felt right across the sport, a significance in how it played out and what happens next as the team Horner built and led to such enormous success faces an uncertain future.
Horner has been at Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005 from the ashes of Jaguar, a team in no little disarray when Red Bull bought it. Horner was at the helm as it was transformed from an operation of 450 personnel, without so much as a win to their name, to one of 1,500 today that has won eight drivers’ titles and six constructors’ championships, and is one of the most extraordinary success stories in F1 history.
Cameron Munster shook off the death of his father while Josh Papalii saw his child born in the nick of time to help Maroons to Sydney win
Cameron Munster took two deep breaths, then ran on to the turf at Accor Stadium on Wednesday night for the State of Origin decider, four days after his father died.
Once he reached the middle of the field he looked up, seeking strength from the man who made him, now in another place. “I just asked him to use as much energy as he can,” Munster said afterwards.
Bencic sets up meeting with Swiatek after 7-6, 7-6 win
Teenager Andreeva had not lost a set coming into match
In the battle of the parent and the teenager, experience won out. Belinda Bencic is in her first Wimbledon semi-final after containing the 18-year-old sensation Mirra Andreeva and striking a blow for hard-pressed parents everywhere.
Andreeva was the favourite to win this Centre Court tussle after tearing a course through these Championships. She came into the match yet to drop a set and with observers purring about the growth in her game.
At times controversial fashion designer used show as study for ‘La Bourgeoisie’ before move to Gucci in Milan
Kim Kardashian modelling an off-shoulder fake mink coat inspired by Elizabeth Taylor. Nicole Kidman and Kyle MacLachlan nattering on the front row. And an appearance from Mrs Bezos herself.
The stars were always going to align in Paris for Demna’s final show at Balenciaga. And on Wednesday lunchtime, the most controversial and copied designer in modern fashion bowed out after a decade with a show that conformed to the idea of couture as much as it challenged it.
Long-rumoured trip to open course could take place this month after proposed meeting with King Charles shelved
Police in Scotland are gearing up for a possible visit by Donald Trump later this month that is expected to take in his golf resort in Aberdeenshire.
The long-rumoured visit is not expected to include a meeting with King Charles, despite earlier suggestions the US president could meet the monarch at either Balmoral or Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
Design Museum, London From 3D-printed coral reefs to fungal facades and living fabrics grown from roots, this show embraces a future of nature-centric design
‘Even when humans get serious about wanting to talk to dolphins, will dolphins have anything to say to us?” So pondered an issue of Esquire magazine in 1975. “The only reliable way to find out,” it concluded, “will be to build a Dolphin Embassy and look for the response.”
The pages that followed were devoted to a fantastical vision, created by the avant-garde architecture collective, Ant Farm. They proposed a floating multi-species utopia where humans and dolphins could mingle in a watery fantasy, communicating through telepathy. The triangular vessel featured a land-water living room, with chutes enabling dolphins to swim between floors, as well as a shared navigation pod, where one day an “electronic-fluidic interface” would allow both humans and dolphins to steer the ship. The hope was that technological advances would make the project buildable by the 1990s. “Thus far,” the article noted, “no backers have come forward.”
Howard Phillips gave information on then defence secretary Grant Shapps for ‘easy money’, prosecutor says
A retired man passed on the personal details of the then defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to two undercover police officers, believing them to be Russian intelligence operatives, for “easy money”, a court has heard.
Howard Phillips, 65, was struggling financially and in the process of applying for a job at UK Border Force when he was approached by the undercover officers, who were posing as Russian agents called Dima and Sasha, Winchester crown court heard.
Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal terminations, ONS figures show, as provider says women struggling to access contraception
The number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high in 2022, with a leading provider stating that women are facing “significant barriers” in access to contraception.
Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal abortions in the two nations in 2022, up from about two in 10 a decade earlier, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Patrick Bailey chugged around the bases to defeat the Phillies – the first time a game has been won that way since 2016
Patrick Bailey’s entrance into the Major League Baseball record books on Tuesday night began with a tight swing that sent a fastball from Phillies reliever Jordan Romano into Triples Alley.
It ended with Bailey chugging his way around third base then getting mobbed at home plate by his teammates after becoming the third catcher in major league history to hit a game-ending, inside-the-park home run.
Ongoing surge in demand for AI technology fueled stratospheric rise of chipmaker’s value
Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn market value on Wednesday as its stock price continues a years-long stratospheric rise.
Shares of the top chip designer rose roughly 2.4% to $164, benefiting from the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Nvidia’s chips and associated software are considered world leaders for building artificial intelligence products.
Camps are a rite of passage for American parents and children. That’s why the tragedy at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginable
Among the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there’s this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleep-away camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life. They will return every summer. They will learn independence. They will form bonds with people who will one day godparent their children. As an adult, a friend of mine – no kidding – returned to the hallowed ground in Pennsylvania where her summer camp once stood, bought a piece of land and built a house there. Whenever we visited, she’d point out the ruins of the old dining hall down by the lake and get a haunted look on her face.
I mention this because, among the many devastated reactions to the flash floods in Texas last week, there is one that is particular, and particularly acute, to millions of Americans: a gut-level blow of unfathomable loss striking at an experience many consider to be sacred.
Record temperatures and seasonal downpours raise fears of a repeat of the devastating flooding in 2022
Glaciers across northern Pakistan have been melting at an accelerated pace as a result of record-breaking summer temperatures, leading to deadly flash flooding and landslides.
The floods and heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation across the country this summer, killing at least 72 people and injuring more than 130 since the rains began in late June.
At the Develop conference in Brighton this week, talk turns from cancelled deals and job cuts to replicating real human experiences and telling stories about diverse characters
For anyone looking to gauge the mood of the UK games industry in 2025, there has been only one place to hang out this week: the bar of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Brighton. It’s in this building that the annual Develop conference has been bringing together developers, publishers, students and journalists since 2006 – and during the three days of talks, roundtables and keynotes, it’s in the bar that everyone meets and unloads their theories and concerns about the state of the business.
This year, after many months of cuts and closures, the mood has been dour. On Tuesday, I spoke to many coders, artists and studio heads who have had games cancelled, staff axed and deals obliterated; several senior developers predicted that the recent savage cuts to staff numbers and game projects will lead to a gaping black hole in the release schedules of many triple-A publishers in late 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to be huge; now it’s looking like the only game in town.
Plan to burn depiction of boat carrying migrants in Moygashel denounced as disgusting and hateful
A loyalist bonfire with an effigy of a migrant vessel and about a dozen lifesize mannequins with lifejackets has been condemned as sick and racist.
The effigy has been placed atop a tower of pallets that is to be burned on Thursday night in the County Tyrone village of Moygashel as part of wider loyalist commemorations in Northern Ireland. Placards beneath the boat state “Stop the boats” and “Veterans before refugees”.
Investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing denounced by party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as ‘harassment campaign’
Police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing that was denounced by the party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as “a harassment campaign”.
The raid came a day after EU financial prosecutors in Brussels said they had launched a separate investigation into the alleged misuse of €4.3m by the former far-right Identity & Democracy (ID) group in the European parliament, which included the RN.
Donald Trump was reportedly caught off guard by the Pentagon’s abrupt move to pause Ukraine weapons deliveries, which the president has overturned. The Associated Press cited three people familiar with the matter, one of whom described Trump as being caught “flat footed” by last week’s announcement. A Pentagon spokesperson denied that the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, had acted without consulting the president. But asked by a reporter on Tuesday who had approved the pause, Trump bristled at the question while he was gathered with his Cabinet. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
Trump on Tuesday voiced his frustration with Vladimir Putin and promised to send Ukraine 10 Patriot missiles, which are claimed to be in short supply. Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said he was getting increasingly frustrated with the Russian leader. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Asked if he wanted to see further sanctions against Russia, Trump replied: “I’m looking at it.” On Monday he said he was “disappointed” with Russia’s president and would send “more weapons” to Ukraine, reversing the Pentagon’s pause.
Russian authorities claimed a Ukrainian drone attack on a beach in Kursk city killed three people, including a Russian serviceman and injured seven. Alexander Khinshtein, the acting regional governor, claimed the Russian national guard member had been trying to evacuate people from the scene because of a drone attack. Khinshtein also claimed a Ukrainian drone hit a hospital in the Kursk oblast town of Rylsk, injuring two people, blowing out windows and setting a roof on fire. There was no independent confirmation and throughout the war Ukraine has denied targeting civilians, with its strikes inside Russia focused on military facilities and personnel, individual senior commanders, and strategic national infrastructure such as fuel depots and refineries.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) will be allowed to set up its own pre-trial detention centres under a bill passed by the lower house of parliament. The power was previously abolished with the demise of the Soviet-era KGB. Lawmakers say its revival is a response to a spike in the intelligence and subversive activities of foreign powers since Russia started the war.
A group of men have been convicted over an arson attack ordered by the banned Russian terrorist group Wagner on an east London warehouse used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine. They went on to plot more arson attacks in London’s Mayfair district and the kidnap of a Russian dissident but were ultimately unsuccessful. Old Bailey judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the convicted men would be sentenced on a date to be fixed in the autumn.
An intriguing sub-plot: Still eligible for the best young rider (under-25) category, Remco Evenepoel is the odds-on favourite to win today’s stage but should the Belgian endure a rare bad day at the ITT office, there’s a decent chance Scotland’s very own Oscar Onley could take the white jersey.
Riding in only his second Tour de France, the 22-year-old from Perth is a highly commendable seventh overall on General Classification but is only 29 seconds behind Kevin Vauquelin, who is currently in possession of the garment and will have plenty of support as he rides today’s ITT on his home roads of Normandy. It’s a tall order but a big performance from Oscar (and a poor one from Remco) could see the Picnic PostNL rider wrestle the white jersey from the Frenchman’s shoulders.
The US justice department has sued California over state policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that allowing them to do so violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.
Our Fed Rate is AT LEAST 3 Points too high. “Too Late” is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs. No Inflation, COMPANIES POURING INTO AMERICA. “The hottest Country in the World!” LOWER THE RATE!!!
ANYBODY BUT “TOO LATE.”
In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.
Anybody would be better than Jay Powell. He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.
Connexion
