When the 2028 Summer Olympics kick off in Los Angeles, a Russian team could be among the competitors for the first time in more than a decade. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has lifted its suspension of Russia’s Olympic organization, which had been in place since 2016. Many are angry at the prospect of Russia rejoining the international competition, especially amid its ongoing war with Ukraine.

What was the IOC’s decision?

The IOC “provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee that had been in effect” since October 2023, the group said in a statement, because it wanted to “ensure a fair opportunity for participation” by Russian athletes. The suspension is also being lifted because Russia is “no longer trying to claim regional sports organizations on Ukrainian soil” as part of the Russian Olympic Committee, said The Athletic. Russia must also abide by anti-doping measures since the country “systemically organized a doping program to pump up their athletes” during the 2014 Winter Games.

But there is also a “lack of confidence in the global sporting community relating to the return of Russian athletes to international competition,” the IOC acknowledged. As a result, the “decision in relation to the display of the Russian flag, anthem, colors or any identifications for the Olympic Games at the appropriate time” will be made in the future, said the IOC, as will any decisions on potentially hosting international events in Russia. Russian officials will also still not be invited to Olympic events.

Olympic officials have stated that they no longer want to punish Russian athletes for their country’s decision to invade Ukraine. “We wanted to ensure all athletes have the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games and not be held responsible for their government’s actions,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry said during a press conference. “But we’ve also been very clear that we do not condone any violence and war around the world.”

What does this mean for the 2028 Olympics?

The IOC’s decision represents a “significant step for bringing Russian athletes, who have struggled with their country’s pariah status on the world stage, back into the international fold after several years,” said The New York Times. The choice to potentially reintroduce Russia to the Olympics will be a “highly controversial decision by the IOC and one likely to be condemned by European countries in particular,” said the BBC.

But “many within the IOC were also mindful of the current geopolitical landscape, and accusations of double standards if the sanction against Russia was maintained, while other countries that have launched military action against other nations escape punishment,” said the BBC. Others say that Russia’s ban should only have ended when the country pulls out of Ukraine, and that allowing it in the 2028 Olympics “risks emboldening President Vladimir Putin and handing him a propaganda win.”

So while the IOC’s decision does mean Russia “could compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” said Politico, Russian participation in the games will not come without backlash, including from Ukraine. The IOC’s choice “sends a deeply concerning signal to the international community,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on X. “We also call on international sports federations to maintain the existing restrictions on representatives of the aggressor state, in line with their commitment to protecting the integrity and values of international sport.”

“The only thing more riling than a referee’s interference in a sports event is a politician’s,” said Sally Jenkins in The Atlantic. The red card issued against US star striker Folarin Balogun for “stepping on an opponent’s ankle” during the World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, was a “terrible call”. But Fifa’s regulations “couldn’t be clearer”: a red card means “automatic suspension for the next game”.

Instead, the tournament organisers “magically lifted” the 25-year-old’s suspension in time for the host team’s last-16 clash against Belgium on Monday, after a phone call by Donald Trump to “his good friend Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa”.

The US president later thanked Fifa for “doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice”. The world governing body has given “such a feeble procedural explanation” for the reversal that the “entire sporting globe” is “incensed over the garbage-y scent of an inside job”.

A ‘balanced measure’

“Reviewing the legal consequences of red cards in football is nothing new in the modern game,” Mohammad al-Kamali, chair of Fifa’s disciplinary committee, said in a statement. The red card was “not overturned”; its effects were suspended “based on an explicit provision of the applicable regulations” in what he called a “balanced measure”.

Fifa’s disciplinary code allows the judicial body to decide to “fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure”, opting instead for a probation, said The Independent’s senior sports writer Kieran Jackson. Balogun has essentially received a “suspended sentence”, active for one year.

There is a “high-profile precedent”: Cristiano Ronaldo was banned for three games after his red card against the Republic of Ireland in November’s qualifiers. The Portugal captain had the latter two bans “suspended” too. But Fifa was “widely condemned for that decision”, too, which came a week after Ronaldo, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, visited the White House with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Still, no one can claim Trump “fails to advocate for American interests with a doggedness that borders on obsession”, said Nicole Russell in USA Today. I’m not surprised he made the call, nor should anyone be – this is just “Trump being Trump”: a World Cup red card was “never going to be the exception”. But Infantino “could have said no”.

‘Crossed a red line’

Critics say this latest episode is “symptomatic of deeper problems at Infantino’s Fifa”, said the Financial Times’ sports editor Josh Noble. They argue its decision-making is “increasingly designed to further political and commercial goals”.

European governing body Uefa said the decision to suspend Balogun’s ban “crossed a red line”. Sorry, but “we crossed that line a few moral galaxies ago”, said The Guardian’s Marina Hyde. Maybe when Infantino was “butching it out in the photocall at Trump’s Gaza Peace Summit For Ghoulishly Rapacious Businessmen”, certainly when he “inaugurated the auto-satirical Fifa peace prize and awarded it to Trump” just a few months before the war on Iran.

Even former Fifa president Sepp Blatter (who somehow managed to be cleared of corruption charges on appeal last year) is thundering that “red cards are not overturned by political phone calls”. Blatter suggesting Infantino is corrupt? “If irony could kill, we could be looking at a bloodbath”.

The US’s exit from the tournament “allows this rotten case to be quickly brushed under the rug”, said The i Paper’s chief football writer Daniel Storey. But it has “slipped a viper into the tent of football’s governance and started a civil war between Fifa and Uefa”, and all for the host nation to lose 4-1 to a “barely functional Belgium team”. During this tournament, the US national team had gained fresh admiration from supporters and new levels of interest from a “football-sceptic population”, but now that “reputation has been torched”.

What happened

FIFA Sunday lifted U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension from a red card he drew during last week’s 2-0 World Cup win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The unusual decision means that Balogun, the top U.S. scorer in this tournament, can play in today’s knockout round-of-16 match against Belgium. Shortly after FIFA announced its decision, news organizations reported that President Donald Trump had called FIFA President Gianni Infantino following the match and asked him to review Balogun’s suspension. “Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said on social media Sunday.

Who said what

Balogun’s red card was one of the World Cup’s “most controversial and consequential decisions,” The Associated Press said. But FIFA’s “extraordinary” decision to reverse it was the “first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup did not result in a suspension.” It is “highly unusual for a head of state to intervene in a soccer disciplinary matter with FIFA’s top official,” The Washington Post said. FIFA “insists that the decision was an independent one made by its 18-person disciplinary committee,” Politico said, though it didn’t say if there was a vote.

What next?

Belgium’s soccer federation said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s apparent violation of its own rules and was “investigating all potential options” to “protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport.”

After scoring tickets to see your favorite team, you are going to need to book somewhere to stay if you don’t live nearby. The cold, hard facts: The best accommodations are always within walking distance.

You can enjoy the game, stay for every inning or quarter and not worry about leaving early to beat the lot-exiting traffic. These seven hotels are close to — and in one case, in — some of North America’s biggest sports venues. They’re not just convenient, though. They are straight-up great stays.

The Anthem Hotel, Inglewood, California

The thrill of the game continues at The Anthem Hotel. This vibrant hotel is in the “lively” Stadium District, next to Intuit Dome and down the street from SoFi Stadium and Kia Forum, said The Points Guy.

All of the comfortable rooms were recently renovated and are decked with blackout curtains. There are also, for an immersive experience, themed suites that celebrate L.A. basketball and soccer. Cool off in the “massive” pool, and enjoy cocktails at the colorful Soundwave Pool Bar or rooftop Tom’s Watch Bar. (rates from $130)

Caravan Court, Arlington, Texas

A historic motor court, aka a vintage roadside motel, has been revamped for the modern age. Caravan Court’s well-appointed rooms come with stocked Smeg refrigerators, Nespresso coffee makers, smart TVs and wireless charging pads.

AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field are short walks away, so before and after the games you can swim in the hotel pool, relax in a private cabana and hang in the Idle Hour Social Club or Elora Sky Club rooftop lounge. (rates from $152)

Carté Hotel, San Diego

Petco Park is a fast walk — or even quicker trolley ride — from Carté Hotel. The sleek property features several odes to San Diego landmarks, starting with the heated saltwater pool inspired by the Balboa Park Lily Pond and gazebo honoring the Botanical Building.

Head to The Rooftop for craft cocktails and live music with a side of fantastic city views. The bar’s game day menu features all the bites you want to eat while watching sports. You know the ones: buffalo wings, cheeseburgers, beer-battered fries and other edible kin. (rates from $232)

Fidelity Hotel, Cincinnati 

The spectacular 1913 Beaux Arts Gwynne Building has been transformed into Fidelity Hotel Cincinnati, the city’s newest lodging. The sophisticated rooms and suites feel like home, with plush couches and beds.

Oversized windows look over downtown, and Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds, is right around the corner. When it’s time to eat, there are two restaurants to choose from: the full-service Gwynne and grab-and-go Cora’s All Day Café. (rates from $143)

Hotel Commonwealth, Boston

The Hotel Commonwealth’s Fenway Park Suite is a mere 507 feet from the legendary stadium, bringing guests as close to the action as possible. Fans will appreciate the one-of-a-kind decor and furnishings, including original seats from the ballpark, an authentic scoreboard and a coffee table signed by Red Sox players. From the balcony, there’s a direct view into Fenway, which is a five-minute stroll away. Hotel Commonwealth occupies an entire block in Kenmore Square and is known for having “comfy” mattresses and “warm” service, said Condé Nast Traveler. (rates from $362)

The Rally Hotel, Denver

Guests at The Rally Hotel love its “rare mix” of “sports excitement and luxury amenities,” said Rolling Stone. Adjacent to Coors Field, the property offers “quick access” to Colorado Rockies games and McGregor Square’s restaurants and stores.

Rooms are “stylish” and “upscale,” featuring curated art and one-of-a-kind furnishings, and the rooftop pool boasts impressive city views. At check-in, guests are greeted with a glass of Coors Banquet or seasonal wine, and additional amenities include ice cream during the hotel’s social hour and access to s’more kits and roasting tools. (rates from $253)

Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, Toronto

You can’t beat the sights from Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel. It’s inside Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and several accommodations peer directly into the field.

From inside The Rawlings Room, guests can watch the action unfolding a few feet away. That could include batting practice and warm ups, or the big game itself. The hotel’s Sportsnet Grill also offers a great vantage point of the stadium, with floor-to-ceiling windows and plenty of big-screen televisions broadcasting every inning. (rates from $265)

When the San Francisco Giants recently held Pride Night, said Hannah Keyser in CNN.com, three of the team’s pitchers decided to make a “culture war” statement. JT Brubaker, Landen Roupp, and Ryan Walker scribbled the numbers of Bible verses next to the rainbow-colored logo on their themed caps to protest the celebration of the Bay Area’s large LGBTQ+ community. The three Christian pitchers could have simply opted not to wear the rainbow cap, as a fourth Giants pitcher chose to do, but instead they decided to express their religious beliefs about homosexuality. Major League Baseball issued a mild warning that the players had violated a rule against personally modifying on-field attire without prior approval, saying its reminder “had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message.” Still, MLB’s response sparked outrage on the Right. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused the league of religious discrimination, and the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation. “Trump won,” chimed in Vice President JD Vance. “We don’t have to do this anymore.”

Tell that to the hypocritical left, said Becket Adams in National Review. Sportswriters and progressives promptly portrayed the pitchers as “villains.” But it wasn’t long ago that another San Francisco athlete, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, refused to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality against Black men. His demonstration was far more “conspicuous” than what the three Giants did. For expressing his views, Kaepernick was celebrated as a “civil rights hero.” Actually, said Scott Ostler in The San Francisco Standard, Kaepernick paid dearly for kneeling during the anthem. He was vilified by conservatives and “blackballed from the NFL at age 29,” ending his career. That was wrong, just as it would be wrong to punish these baseball players for “their peaceful protest.”

As a gay sportswriter, I don’t object to professional athletes showcasing their homophobia, said Jason Page in MS.now. It serves as a necessary reminder that “the fight for acceptance isn’t over.” Just look at what’s happening around the U.S., said Drew Atkins in USA Today. Polls shows that support for LGBTQ+ rights is regressing “after nearly two decades of growth.” So far this year, “nearly 800 anti-trans bills have been filed across 43 states.” A 2025 report “revealed that 1 in 10 LGBTQ youth attempted suicide.” In Donald Trump’s America, it is “a frightening time to be openly queer.”

Wimbledon fortnight is underway with a record prize pot of £64.2 million, but this has done little to assuage the sport’s “increasingly mutinous” players, said The Observer.

Tennis is “having a moment”. It's jettisoned its “gentlemanly image” to become a “global cultural phenomenon”, but this also means its stars want a “bigger slice of the pie”.

What are the protests about?

The players want a larger ratio of revenue to acknowledge their contribution towards the financial successes of the tournaments, with “more money trickling down the draws”, said the BBC.

Specifically, they are calling for the prize pots of the four Grand Slam tournaments to be increased to 16% of each one's revenues, rising to 22% by 2030. Wimbledon’s new prize money is equal to 14.4% of its revenues,

They’re also concerned about welfare issues, including how much the Grand Slams contribute to pension, healthcare and maternity pots, and they want better consultation on questions such as scheduling, late-night finishes and prolonged tournaments.

Several star names had planned to limit their contractual media commitments to a “symbolic” 15 minutes per match day during the first week of the tournament, said The Independent. The 15 minutes referred to the prize money and the fact they were getting less than 15% of the overall tournament revenue.

But leading players will return to normal media duties following what they describe as “constructive meetings” with the All England Club. Though they have warned that the “underlying matters remain unresolved”.

Why is it so controversial?

Wimbledon announced a 20% increase in prize money, taking the “total sum of the pot” to £64.2 million only a couple of weeks ago, said the BBC. The All England Club has said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the threat of players’ action, and the broadcaster's pundit Andrew Castle said the players were being “tone deaf”.

Some of the game’s biggest names, including last year's Wimbledon winner Jannik Sinner, have threatened boycotts. Others include Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka, the women's world number-one, but with career winnings of $65m and $49m respectively, plus “lucrative” sponsorship deals, they would be “just fine if the money remained the same”, said The Observer.

But it can be a “slog” for lower-ranked players, whose winnings must fund their coaches and travel in a sport that “spans continents”, leaving them “barely breaking even”. “We don’t do it for ourselves,” said Sabalenka, “we do it for the rest of the players who are suffering to even hire a coach.”

What next?

The players welcomed Wimbledon’s “commitment to return with specific proposals” addressing their concerns, while promising to “carefully evaluate the proposals once received”. In return, the players said they will provide Wimbledon with further information it has requested.

Wimbledon argues that the players’ representatives underestimate the costs of running tournaments and staging important warm-up events.

The dollar has long been the world’s primary currency, giving the U.S. unusual sway over international affairs. But China’s yuan is emerging as a small-but-growing competitor, with consequences for American power and influence.

What did the commentators say?

China is building an “alternative financial system” designed to weaken the United States’ “power to dictate world affairs,” said The Wall Street Journal. The dollar is still used in 80% of international trade, and that dominance has given U.S. governments a “big advantage in policing global business.” But transactions conducted using Chinese currency allow some businesses and rival countries to evade the U.S. banking system. That is how Iran earned up to $43 billion in oil revenue in 2024 despite restrictive American sanctions. And such examples are growing in number: The yuan’s share of global finance has “tripled over the past five years,” still well behind the dollar but ahead of the euro.

The yuan is emerging as a “more important part of the global financial system,” Robin Harding said at the Financial Times. But it does not yet threaten the dollar’s dominance, in part because “China’s economic model depends on its own relentless accumulation of dollar assets.” Beijing “wants to buy oil in its own currency,” but it also wants to maintain its “massive trade surpluses” with the rest of the world, and those transactions are conducted in dollars. There is “little sign of the dollar losing control of the global financial system.”

Beijing “cannot decree demand” for the yuan, Agathe Demarais said at Foreign Policy. While China has “made genuine progress in building alternative financial channels” to U.S.-dominated systems, it “cannot translate its rising global trade footprint into greater use of its currency.” That is because China puts strict controls on the use of the yuan outside the country, making it “costly and impractical” for foreign firms to use. Absent a “massive shock,” it is unlikely the world will “embrace Chinese financial channels.”

Beijing “doesn’t need to displace the dollar” to weaken U.S. dominance over global finance, said The New York Times. But having an alternative “could expand China’s influence in a financial crisis.” And some countries will welcome that alternative. “There is a desperate desire in the world to escape the clutches” of the America-dominated system, Cornell University’s Eswar Prasad said to the outlet.

What next?

The dollar is still the “dominant currency” for loans to “developing economies,” said Reuters, but there are signs of change. Kenya last year agreed to convert its debt to China (for loans to construct a railway) from dollars into yuan to “cut borrowing costs.” Now countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan and Zambia that have taken loans from China Eximbank are considering similar restructuring, and the bank is “encouraging — and in some cases requiring” national borrowers to “borrow in yuan rather than dollars.”

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has often seemed less welcoming to outsiders than it used to. But the World Cup is showcasing the country’s grassroots hospitality and prosperity to visitors from abroad.

What did the commentators say?

Many international soccer fans were worried about “visa access, high costs, gun violence” and other issues ahead of this year’s World Cup, said Reuters. Visiting teams and their fans have instead “flooded” social media with posts revealing a “warm welcome from Americans” as well as a “distinctive culture” awash in “free soda refills” and “chicken wings dipped in ranch dressing.”

Host cities across the United States have witnessed an “unlikely romance between everyday Americans and squads from around the world,” said The New York Times. While polls show the U.S. global reputation “has dipped in recent years,” the visitors are discovering American communities have “all kinds of estimable traits.”

“Welcome to the World Cup of U.S. hospitality,” Jack Butler said at The Wall Street Journal. There is a “long tradition” of foreign visitors being “deeply affected” by their visits to the United States. Now international soccer fans are “showing America’s greatness in real time.” They are “also amazed by America’s material abundance.” Buc-ee’s and Bass Pro Shops have been featured in viral videos and so has Chicago deep-dish pizza. America’s vastness “contains multitudes.”

U.S. residents are welcoming the world “even when their government has failed to do so,” Juliette Kayyem said at Early Warning. Events like the World Cup “represent a kind of soft power that America has been increasingly unwilling to exert” and had seemingly been lost. The world’s “dismal view of America” has been reflected in declining tourism numbers, and the damage “may not be repaired in a single summer.” There are signs of hope, however. “Americans are proving better diplomats than their administration.”

The Trump administration has been hard at work “besmirching America’s cultural attractiveness,” Daniel Drezner said at Drezner’s World. The World Cup is offering a different vision. It is the American people, not their government, who are “reminding the rest of the world that this country still has a lot of attractive values.” That may not matter to world politics in the short term, but it offers a “hopeful reminder that in just a few years America can be great again.”

What next?

The Department of Homeland Security is “easing its restrictions” on the Iranian national team, said The Associated Press. The team has been staying in Mexico and playing its matches in the U.S., with American authorities mandating the team return quickly to its home base after play is complete. Iran will now be allowed into the U.S. two days before its next match.

The team had “complained about the travel restrictions” for much of the tournament. “We are here for football, not politics,” Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said to reporters, per the AP.

‘If America wants soccer’s passion, it should start with soccer’s past’

Nedra Rhone at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“In the U.S., new soccer fans of the 21st century fit into two categories: immigrants and their direct descendants and the highly educated,” says Nedra Rhone. In “Europe, South America and Africa, soccer has historically been the primary national sport with influence on politics, social mobility, national identity and international reputation.” While Americans “will never have the deep history with soccer that fans from other countries have, we can learn from and respect the sport’s influence on human and civil rights.”

Read more

‘Keep cameras out of the Supreme Court’

Ben Sasse at The Wall Street Journal

The Senate Judiciary Committee “unanimously advanced legislation last week that would require TV cameras in Supreme Court proceedings,” but “they shouldn’t turn the Supreme Court into a sister circus,” says former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). Cameras “turn conversations into performances.” It is “key to why Congress doesn’t work — and can’t be allowed to poison the judicial branch.” The Supreme Court “wasn’t designed to reflect the will of a majority or embrace the popular opinions of the day.”

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‘Old people run America. And that’s a problem.’

Samuel Moyn at The Boston Globe

Americans “live under gerontocracy — a form of government of, by and for the old people,” says Samuel Moyn. This era “has the most elderly presidents ever elected,” while “Congress and the judiciary are also old folks’ homes.” But the “problem is deeper than aged politicians.” Gerontocracy is “actually a story of elder civic power.” It “doesn’t much matter how old the politicians are if old people still control the system.” Voters “can enact a series of policies to limit that power.”

Read more

‘Why “China First” will fail’

Patricia M. Kim at Foreign Affairs

As the United States “retreats from global leadership and challenges the norms it once fostered and the order it once upheld, the world is waiting to see whether Beijing steps up,” says Patricia M. Kim. But China is “not trying to replace Washington as a global leader or take on the burdens traditionally associated with superpower status.” Beijing “instead seeks global reach without entanglement, partnerships without binding obligations and great-power status without the burdens of leadership.”

Read more

The best golf resorts don’t just offer world-class courses. They’re also a sanctuary where you can relax away from the fairways with a pampering spa treatment, delicious meal or countryside stroll. The hotels on this list promise all that and more, with a wide range of activities to keep the entire family entertained – and stellar service to boot.

Viceroy at Ombria, Portugal

Situated among the rolling Algarve hills, Viceroy at Ombria offers guests some of the “prettiest views” and “top-tier dining options”, said Conor Keenan in Golf Monthly. Located around half an hour’s drive from Faro airport, the property has established itself as a “resort with a golf course, rather than a golf course with a resort”. It is designed to be “accessible” for new players while catering to those who are “more capable longer hitters”. To unwind after a round, guests can relax in the private outdoor heated pool, indoor thermal pool as well as Finnish sauna and salt steam room. The property has “plenty to do for non-golfers” such as hiking, cycling and exploring the “tucked away villages dotted around the valleys”.
viceroyhotelsandresorts.com

JA Mar Hall Golf & Spa Resort, Scotland

This might be the “grandest airport hotel in the world”, said Antonia Quirke in Condé Nast Traveller. The “terribly scenic” resort is a 10-minute drive from Glasgow airport and sits on the southern banks of the River Clyde. Designed in 1828 by Sir Robert Smyrk, the architect who worked on the British Museum, the property houses an 18-hole golf course and spans 250 acres. Few experiences can compare to enjoying “the timeless beauty of the volcanic Old Kilpatrick Hills” while playing the fourth hole. In 2025, the resort underwent an extensive refurb but it has retained its “spirit of Victorian ambition and adventure”. The property has a state-of-the-art spa and guests can enjoy “excellent” food made with “farm-to-plate ingredients” at the Dining Room and indulge in a fancy tipple at the “fantastic” cocktail bar.
jaresortshotels.com

Camiral, A Quinta do Lago Resort, Spain

“Perched among rolling hills” and five minutes from Girona airport, Camiral “exudes excellence and quiet luxury”, Harry Fletcher in The Independent. There are two “blockbuster” golf courses. The Stadium, host of the Spanish Open and the Catalunya Championship in 2022, is a challenging course with “real bite”. The other is the “more playable” Tour course. The resort will also host the 2031 Ryder Cup. After the golf courses, the biggest attraction is the impressive wellness centre and “tastefully designed” rooms with "nods to Spanish art”. As for dining, guests can head to Origin for a “memorable” meal that celebrates “local ingredients". And in the Lounge Bar you will find a “well-stocked” collection of spirits, “including Macallan and Lagavulin whiskies”.
camiral.com

Big Cedar Lodge, Missouri, US

This 4,600-acre property sitting on the edge of Table Rock Lake gives you the chance to play under the “powder blue Missouri Ozarks sky”, said T.J. Olwig in Travel + Leisure. The “newest thrill” in the resort’s "ever-expanding golf playground” is the Cliffhangers: an “unconventional” course that features “cliff-hugging switchbacks and a maze of showy cart path water crossings”. The lakeside cottage feels like staying in a “chic mountain chalet” complete with a large living room, open kitchen and “towering stone fireplace”. If that doesn’t sound relaxing enough, a visit to the Cedar Creek Spa can do the trick; there are four saltwater pools and a “comfortable indoor pool for cooler days”. The lodge boasts 13 restaurants and bars, including the Buzzard Bar, which offers “burgers, live music, and a drink on its lakeside patio”. Guests can also take a lake swim or enjoy the water with the “pedal boats, canoes, and kayaks”.
bigcedar.com

As rabid fans pack stadiums for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, some of the tournament’s most contentious issues are not about what the players say or do but what they wear. Several countries have put themselves in the crosshairs of political debates regarding their team jerseys, and in some cases FIFA has been forced to intervene.

Colombia

Colombia’s iconic yellow soccer kit became “embroiled in the country’s bitterly disputed presidential election, sparking debate over whether the yellow shirt should be used at political rallies,” said The Associated Press. Abelardo de la Espriella, the right-wing presidential candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump, turned the Colombian jersey “into his campaign’s official attire,” said The New York Times, with thousands of de la Espriella’s supporters donning the athletic wear.

Sen. Iván Cepeda, de la Espriella’s leftist opponent, “slammed his rival’s choice of apparel, accusing him of stealing a national symbol,” said the AP. But despite Cepeda’s anger, the sea of yellow jerseys seemingly propelled de la Espriella over the finish line, as he appeared to narrowly defeat Cepeda in the June 21 election, becoming Colombia’s president-elect.

Egypt

Egypt is playing in the World Cup with a major change to their uniforms, as their jerseys are “not bearing the stars commemorating their seven Africa Cup of Nations victories, following a reminder from FIFA,” said ESPN. The Egyptian national team typically wears jerseys emblazoned with the stars to “recognize each of their continental triumphs,” but such a display is not allowed by FIFA.

FIFA’s being involved in the stars’ removal marks a shift from normal procedure. Typically, the “accompanying of stars to commemorate historical honors on kits is at the discretion of national teams themselves, with different national federations opting to interpret the guidelines in different ways,” said ESPN. But for the World Cup, FIFA told the Egyptian team that stars may only appear on jerseys to “commemorate victories in the competition itself.”

Haiti

Haiti’s 2026 World Cup outing marked the team’s first appearance in the tournament in 52 years. Though the team was eliminated early, the jerseys generated plenty of buzz. The team was forced to alter their jersey design after FIFA “deemed certain elements to be too political in nature,” said The Guardian. FIFA’s issue was with the “shirt’s right hip, which depicted silhouettes inspired by the Battle of Vertières and the Haitian Revolution.” One of these silhouettes represented Haitian revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

Many supporters were angry that FIFA forced Haiti to adopt the change. FIFA’s decision is part of an “effort to discredit the Haitian Revolution,” and the “mere implication of Dessalines, standing alongside his fellow revolutionaries, was enough to elicit a backlash,” Julia Gaffield, a history professor at William & Mary College, said at The Conversation. Despite FIFA’s decision, the jersey has “become a fan favorite” and is still sold on the manufacturer’s website.

Mexico

Mexico is one of the three co-hosts at this year’s World Cup, but even hosts can spark drama. The nation’s iconic green jersey “brings back the Aztec calendar design that was popular in the 1990s,” said The Associated Press, but the manner in which the jerseys were made sparked an uproar among some indigenous Mexican artists.

The jerseys were “embroidered by hand by 150 Nahua women high in the mountains of central Mexico, in a tiny town called Naupan,” said The New York Times, but activists have accused the manufacturers of “exploiting the Nahua women while profiting off their image.” There are “murky details behind the Adidas collaboration with the artisans of Naupan,” Luz Valdez, a Mexican activist and influencer, said in a translated TikTok video. The artists were reportedly “not even allowed to use their traditional sewing method.”

ITV has been accused of “unwitting sexism” after placing expert pundit Emma Hayes in a “bureau-meets-countryside-kitchen” set for its World Cup coverage, said The Times.

Hayes, the Londoner who is head coach of USA women and who won seven league titles with Chelsea, has been given an analysis slot during the new hydration breaks in World Cup matches and was in ITV’s Brooklyn studio for England’s victory over Croatia.

In “relegating” Hayes to using chalk and a blackboard, rather than the more customary interactive digital tools, on a set resembling a kitchen, ITV bosses have risked “reinforcing sexist stereotypes”.

Katie Bailiff, chief executive of charity Women in Film & TV, called it an “ill-conceived, damaging creative decision”, which has led to significant online criticism.

‘Intellect shone’

Hayes’ analysis has been “one of the triumphs of the tournament so far”, said Football365. ITV has “adroitly” leaned into her strengths by making the segment “as lo-fi as humanly possible”. Her blackboard insights gave “infinitely more value” than the “empty, lazy” cliches we are used to from the channel’s “tacticos”.

Her greatest asset is how “lightly she wears her vast and extensive knowledge”, digesting the game “without waffle or potential for bafflement” under intense time pressure.

The chalkboard set-up makes sense, said Molly Hudson in The Times. Hayes’ communication skills have helped her to the “pinnacle of the women’s game”. TV coverage is now “dominated by high-tech screens for analysis” by former players, so using the “classic prop for football managers” – especially one at the heart of the evolving game – is understandable. And she can add one more line to her “lengthy list of achievements”: she is the “woman who made hydration breaks fun”.

ITV has “bravely tried to innovate”, said Felix Keith in The Mirror. The BBC, who made the decision to broadcast from Salford, have “chosen to stick with what they know”, filling the time with back-and-forth between the commentator and co-commentator. But rather than copying their competitor, or using the breaks to “pump in another few minutes of adverts” like their American counterparts, ITV has given the stage to one of the world’s best managers to “educate us”.

Despite looking “a bit cheap”, the set had a “retro” feel and was “a bit of a throwback”, said Kathryn Batte in The Telegraph. It has been “genuinely refreshing” to see Hayes’ return after her absence from the 2022 men’s World Cup. ITV’s only failing is giving Hayes such a “short window” and not “maximising the air time of one of the best pundits at the tournament”.

‘Hung Hayes out to dry’

“Hayes’ ­intellect shone,” said The Times. But she was hampered by the ITV’s vision of an “old-school, retro, jumpers-for-goalposts vibe”. Without the “gizmos and graphics” afforded to her male colleagues, her “acute and informative” analysis was reduced to resemblances of “noughts and crosses”. “Lose the blackboard. She deserves better.”

Hayes is one of the “most decorated tacticians in world football”, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. But ITV’s decision to give her a “kitchen-esque backdrop” turned her insightful segments into “pure, uncut meme fodder”. The “inherently sexist optics” of positioning a female pundit in an “almost-kitchen” has “played into the hands of misogynist trolls”.

Hayes offers a “class of punditry that football sorely needs”. She stands alongside other established female commentators such as Karen Carney, Ellen White and Alex Scott who have bright careers in the field – “as long as ITV doesn’t put them in a kitchen, that is”.

“If you drew a Venn diagram of Emma Hayes’ critics and the fragile folk who cry ‘snowflake’ about others”, you would have drawn a circle, said Michael Hincks in The i Paper.

“The optics are awful from the World Cup broadcaster.” The lack of foresight to see that a “tinpot” chalkboard and kitchen setting would cause this much online furore is “naive”. It’s as if “someone ran to the nearest shop when realising drinks breaks equals more studio time”. The result is that ITV has “hung Hayes out to dry”.

‘What a 150-year-old oak teaches about Juneteenth’

Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post

The “white oak in my backyard is living history,” as it has “been standing for about a century and a half, dating to the end of Reconstruction,” says Theodore R. Johnson. With “trees, as with history, what is measured matters as much as how.” Juneteenth “signifies both the end of slavery and the rebirth of a nation.” But the “majority of Americans don’t celebrate,” and that “makes it harder for the idea of a second founding to take root.”

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‘Trump and Vance’s spin on the Iran agreement is completely incoherent’

Michael A. Cohen at MS NOW

The White House agreed to a “ceasefire extension that met none of its prewar objectives while providing enormous financial concessions to Tehran” and “now, the administration is desperately trying to argue otherwise,” says Michael A. Cohen. Donald Trump “got played by the Iranians, and no one is buying his spin job.” The “most telling sign that the ceasefire deal is a dud is the White House waited until Wednesday to share the text.”

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‘The culture wars in pro sports go on — for now’

Michael Brendan Dougherty at the National Review

The San Francisco Giants “recently held a Pride Night” and “two Christian players wrote Bible verses on their caps,” says Michael Brendan Dougherty. This is “far from the first controversy about Pride celebrations and American sports, and probably far from the last.” The “major sports leagues are perhaps the last relics of 20th-century American mass culture.” There are “fights over the values expressed in these arenas precisely because there is an assumption that they reflect shared American values.”

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‘Federal cap on student aid will hurt nursing workforce’

Jinhee Jeong at The Seattle Times

Some states are “already experiencing a nursing faculty shortage, and the problem will only get worse with the U.S. Department of Education’s Reimagining and Improving Student Education, or RISE, rule,” says Jinhee Jeong. This “excludes post-baccalaureate nursing degrees from the ‘professional degree’ category, and sets nursing students’ loan limits at $20,500 annually.” With the “increasing cost of graduate school, fewer nurses will be able to obtain a graduate degree in nursing, which will significantly worsen the shortage.”

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England captain Ben Stokes and bowler Gus Atkinson will not take part in the Test against New Zealand at The Oval, starting on 17 June, after breaking curfew rules in a Chelsea nightclub following their victory at Lord’s, England Cricket announced last week. Sonny Baker and Jordan Cox will make their debuts as their replacements.

At a press conference at The Oval, managing director of England men’s cricket Rob Key “answered the myriad questions over this whole mess with the enthusiasm of someone in a hostage video”, said cricket correspondent Chris Stocks in The i Paper. And as Key was fielding questions “mere metres away from a row of kegs of beer, the irony was lost on nobody”.

Key confirmed that management were considering a ban on alcohol for a national side that has repeatedly faced allegations of booze-fuelled unprofessionalism.

‘Staggering stupidity’

One of Stokes’ strengths as England captain has been his “capacity to show the way”, said Harry Latham-Coyle in The Independent. Given the additional scrutiny around the team’s culture, it is “scarcely believable” that he would allow himself to end up in a boozy altercation at a Chelsea nightclub.

Coming on the heels of reports of excessive drinking at last year’s Ashes, as well as white-ball captain Harry Brook’s run-in with a bouncer in New Zealand, Stokes’ behaviour shows “staggering stupidity”. The leadership team made a vow that things would be different after the Ashes. “That promise has been broken at virtually the earliest opportunity.”

“I find this beyond staggering,” said Matthew Syed in The Times. Stokes’ actions are born out of “utter, crass and unforgivable selfishness”, the symbol of an English side that is neither “trustworthy” nor “mature”. There is something “seriously wrong with the culture” of the England men’s cricket team. For that reason above all, Stokes’ captaincy is “permanently and irredeemably untenable”.

It is “impossible not to feel sympathy” for Stokes, said Emma John in The Guardian. This is a man who recently celebrated his 35th birthday, had just won the first Test of the summer, had 10 days before the next game and has been “teetotal for the best part of a year” in order to manage his heavy workload. England cricket has a “tradition of shooting itself in the foot”, and the instinct to judge him “for the most meaningless of infractions” has felt “perverse”.

‘Lagging behind’

“Heavy drinking sessions are nothing new,” said cricket reporter Elizabeth Ammon in The Times. “Cricket and alcohol have been intrinsically linked since the sport was invented.” Some players believe that “natural talent is a shield”, protecting them from the effects of alcohol, while excessive drinking can also be a response to the “sheer mental toll of long, isolated tours”. But although the modern cricketer is typically more professional than previous generations, the sport is “still lagging behind” its contemporaries.

“The absurd affair captures a simple truth,” said Tim Wigmore, senior cricket writer at The Telegraph. “Cricket is less professional than other leading sports.” Top England cricketers can be earning in excess of £1 million a year – excluding personal sponsorship deals – but this “surge in salaries” does not reflect “comparable advances” in professionalism.

Naturally, the “sheer brutality” of Test cricket – spending “hundreds of days” away from home and 30 hours per game “under spectators’ glare” – demands a “release”. But international cricket has “not merely tolerated alcoholic excess” as a means of escape, but “celebrated it”.

“Does cricket still have a drinking culture?” said The Athletic. “Yes.” But the situation is “complicated and more nuanced than it sometimes appears”. The game is full of “alcohol-related anecdotes”, and social drinking is “deeply entwined” with the sport. Indeed, at the grassroots level, booze is the “lifeblood” of many clubs, with the clubhouse bar “often central to the community”. But admittedly, and “increasingly at the top level, a compromise has to be reached”.

Major League Baseball remains the only North American professional sport without a ceiling on team spending, due in large part to the fearsome power of its players’ union. But owners have declared their intent to impose a salary cap, setting them on a collision course with the players, who remain opposed to joining their capped peers in football, hockey and basketball.

Baseball has enjoyed a resurgence in attendance and interest of late following rule changes like the pitch clock that have noticeably shortened the overall length of games. Hanging over the upcoming negotiations are memories of the disastrous 1994 labor stoppage that canceled the World Series, leading to a yearslong downturn in attendance and enthusiasm. It remains to be seen whether owners are willing to risk baseball’s new era of prosperity by dying on the hill of a salary cap.

Fans crave a cap

The owners are emboldened by polls that show fans want a salary cap. But perhaps the highest-profile booster for the owners’ position is the U.S. president, who has demonstrated a willingness to intervene in pro sports disputes. “If you don’t have a salary cap you don’t have a sport, because they can’t help themselves,” said President Donald Trump on June 5, per The New York Times. Fellow critics of the current structure note that each of the championships of the 2020s have been won by teams with top 15 payrolls. “The correlation between spending and winning is obvious,” said Andy McCullough at The Athletic.

The failure of the sport’s luxury tax system to dissuade richer teams from spending lavishly means that “we need a realistic framework that addresses the fans’ concerns about competitive balance,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred per Fox Sports. Those concerns have been heightened by the free-spending habits of teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, who have hoovered up the most prominent free agents on the market over the past several offseasons using financial loopholes like deferred salary payments. The Dodgers will pay a $169 million luxury tax on their $417.3 million payroll in 2026 alone, more than the total salary spending of 15 out of baseball’s 30 teams.

“Beneath the shameless posturing” of owners, the “gut instincts baseball watchers have about the state of the game” are “relatively legitimate,” said Lex Pryor at The Ringer. Backed by that fan outrage, many owners “are ready to burn the f---ing house down,” said one senior team official to ESPN.

Journalists and players think it’s a smokescreen

Baseball’s labor war pits owners and fans against not just the players but most baseball journalists. The push for a salary cap “drives me crazy,” said The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal on the Foul Territory podcast. The system is “not perfect,” but “does it need a salary cap that could cost us games in 2027 to be rectified? I still believe the answer is no.” Rosenthal and other salary cap critics point out that wild spending is no guarantee of success, and many clubs operating on a shoestring, like the Milwaukee Brewers, have found ways to win consistently.

For others, the salary cap proposal demonstrates pure greed from owners who are all fabulously wealthy yet perennially crying poor. Forget the details of the “gobbledygook-intensive” initial proposal from owners who are “less savvy businessmen than garden-variety landlords in search of that sweet, sweet passive income,” said Ray Ratto at Defector. “MLB owners want a salary cap just because everyone else in their microclass has one” and because it would inflate the value of their franchises.

Baseball has “just as much, if not more, parity than the salary cap leagues,” and pro-cap sentiment is driven by the reality that “deep down in places people don’t talk about at parties, there’s a feeling that the billionaires in business earned their dollars and the players just won the lottery by being good at a kids’ game,” said Matt Snyder at CBS Sports. Indeed, between 2015 and 2024, 14 different teams played in the World Series, as opposed to 10 in the NHL and NFL championships and just 8 in the NBA.

What happened

President Donald Trump celebrated his birthday by hosting a UFC mixed martial arts cage match on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday night. He kicked off the spectacle by saluting a military flyover alongside UFC chief Dana White on the Blue Room balcony, and ended the night watching fireworks from inside the blood-splattered cage.

Who said what

Using the White House lawn for a “violent sporting event sponsored by light beer and cryptocurrencies was overwhelmingly unpopular, garnering the support of just 31% of Republicans and 11% of independents in a Reuters-Ipsos poll,” The Washington Post said. But the spectators, which included at least nine Cabinet secretaries, “reveled in the unabashed masculinity of the scene,” The Wall Street Journal said, “cheering on fighters as they bloodied each other’s faces.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the fights as a “gift to the American people.” But it was “streamed exclusively on Paramount+,” a subscription service whose “owners have close ties to Trump,” the Journal said.

What next?

Trump “sought to tie the fights to larger celebrations” of America’s 250th anniversary, The Associated Press said. But the event “was so geared toward himself” that fellow G7 leaders “pushed back” their summit in France so he “could attend his cage-match party and then fly to Europe” overnight.

The World Cup kicked off this week – but in the days leading up to it, “no one seemed all that excited”, said Jonathan Lemire in The Atlantic. The tournament will feature 48 nations playing 104 fixtures in 16 cities across the US, Canada and Mexico, and will give a stage to “some of the most famous people on Earth” – from Harry Kane to Kylian Mbappé. Yet for many, it is “surrounded by angst”.

Ticket prices are “astronomical”. Fifa has introduced “dynamic pricing”, so a seat at the final could set you back $10,000, and demand for many matches has slumped. Prices for everything from parking to accommodation have been vastly inflated: Airbnbs near New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where the final is being played, cost up to $17,000 for three nights. America’s relations with its co-hosts are strained, and there are fears of cartel violence in Mexico.

“Hanging over it all is the war in Iran, particularly because it was started by the guy to whom the tournament’s organisers recently awarded a peace prize.”

‘Maga World Cup’

This expanded World Cup will be the largest and most commercially driven in history, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph.

Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, wants “every match to be a money-spinning event” akin to the US Super Bowl: the fans are being treated like a “cash machine”. It’s also likely to be the “most politicised”. There have already been stories of Iranian players and staff struggling to secure visas; and progressives have voiced alarm that America’s immigration agency, Ice, is being used to provide stadium security. As for Donald Trump, he can be counted on to “hijack proceedings” in a cringeworthy way.

Some have already dubbed this the “Maga World Cup”, said Simon Kuper in the FT. But Trump might not see much benefit from it: all 11 of the US cities hosting games voted Democrat in their most recent elections, and there is a good chance of anti-Trump protests at matches.

Hard to mess up

But what of the football itself, asked US Women's National Team head coach Emma Hayes in The Guardian. The favourites for the tournament include Spain, France, Argentina and, yes, England; but much will depend on how well squads adapt to the stifling heat, games at high altitude, and having to play across four different time zones.

Before every major sporting event, “people foresee a nightmare”, said Will Leitch in The Washington Post. And then, when the games begin, everyone just enjoys them. Maybe some things will go wrong. But the World Cup is the one event that captures the interest of the whole planet. It’s hard to make a mess of it, “no matter how hard you might try”.

While countries fight for victory on FIFA World Cup fields in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, an unforeseen competitor is lurking on the sidelines: climate change. Increased heat and humidity could make playing long games outdoors a serious health hazard.

How does heat affect the tournament?

Climate change is “boosting the likelihood of performance-impairing heat during most scheduled World Cup matches (97 of 104),” said an analysis by Climate Central. Among those matches, “nearly half (49) have at least a 50% likelihood of experiencing heat that can impair performance,” and in “26 of those matches, climate change increases the likelihood by at least 10 percentage points.”

It is “pretty safe to say climate change is going to have a mark on this World Cup,” and it is “not just going to be hotter, but it’s also going to increase the humidity as well,” Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior research associate of climate science for Climate Central, said to the Los Angeles Times. Several World Cup locations are expected to exceed 78 degrees Fahrenheit with no internal cooling systems.

Intense exertion in high levels of heat and humidity could have dire health effects. In these conditions, the “body’s normal cooling system begins to struggle,” said Reuters. “Humidity is a ​particular concern, since sweat cools the body only when it evaporates.” In addition, “75% of all the energy that we utilize during exercise gets converted to ​heat,” Chris Minson, a physiology professor and co-director of the Exercise and Environmental Physiology Labs at the University of ⁠Oregon, said to Reuters. “Only about 25% goes to actually doing the exercise.” Excessive sweating because of heat “could lead to dehydration, cramps and increased fatigue,” said Al Jazeera.

How will future World Cups be affected?

As climate change is only expected to get worse over time, there have been “discussions on moving the start of the tournament from June to March or October after 2030,” said the Los Angeles Times. For now, “early kickoffs, cooling breaks, air-conditioned stadiums and regular weather-related delays will necessarily become common features of the tournament.”

High temperatures and humidity are “likely to slow games down,” Ryan Calsbeek, a biological sciences professor at Dartmouth College, said to Reuters. “When athletes have to perform for a very long time, they’re just not going to be able to balance the explosive power of their fast-twitch efforts with the more aerobic long-term efforts of a 90-plus-minute game.”

Not only will the World Cup be affected by climate change, but it will also make climate change worse. FIFA “seems intent on fueling the fire,” said an analysis by the New Weather Institute. It is estimated that the North American World Cup “will be responsible for at least 9.0 million tons of carbon dioxide.” The increased number of participating teams, as well as the expanded geographic area of the tournament, means more people are traveling around and polluting. “Unlike in parts of Europe or Asia, there is a notable absence of low-carbon alternatives such as high-speed rail networks connecting major host cities.”

“Just happy to be here.” That is the category assigned to a host of footballing nations, including Haiti, Panama and newcomers Curaçao and Cape Verde, by the San Francisco Chronicle ahead of the men’s 2026 World Cup.

Unlike the established national teams coming into the competition with “high expectations”, these unlikely contenders have spent decades on the fringes of international football.

“One of the most topsy-turvy weeks in World Cup qualifying history” saw a handful of heavyweight footballing nations fail to qualify, while several “tiny nations reached the finals for the first time”, said ESPN.

Punching above their weight

Fifa’s decision to expand the World Cup finals from 32 to 48 teams has created more pathways for smaller countries to qualify, including first-timers Curaçao, Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan. Many of these nations have spent years building a footballing infrastructure that punches well above their demographic weight.

Despite having a “land mass smaller than the Isle of Man” and a population of 156,000, the southern Caribbean island of Curaçao has relied on “well-drilled organisation” to help its team reach the finals, said the BBC. The team – nicknamed the Blue Family and led by “vastly experienced” Dutch coach Dick Advocaat – is “hard to break down and dangerous in transition”.

Meanwhile, “the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde are swimming in uncharted waters”, but “you wouldn’t want to bet against them” either, said The Guardian. “Physical and happy to defend”, this “eclectic” group of players has worked together “for the best part of half a decade”. Two years ago, they were joined by Rotterdam-born forward Dailon Livramento, who has proven “the missing piece for a team who have a host of talented wide players, but lacked a central presence up front”. Racking up four goals in the qualifying stages, he “has already cemented his status as a legend”.

There is cause for optimism even among the smallest participating nations, said The Athletic: when the women’s World Cup expanded its own group stage in 2023, there were predictions of drubbings, but “the underdogs fared much better than expected”.

Most of the “minnows” are likely to focus on defence against the stronger sides in their group and aim to “keep the scorelines respectable”, before taking a more aggressive stance against their weakest rival, “in the knowledge that a single win in the group stage may take them through”.

‘Real hope’

“For the football-mad boys of Port-au-Prince, the next month promises to be one of unparalleled excitement,” said ITV. Haiti have qualified for first time since 1974, long before the majority of its citizens were born.

Haiti is the poorest country in the tournament and its citizens are the subject of a US travel ban, so attending matches in person is out of the question for most of them. But regardless the nation “is entering the tournament in a spirit of optimism”. For many Haitians, the tournament is a chance to show the world that, “despite its profound challenges, this country can compete on a global stage”.

In Cape Verde, there is a sense of “real hope” that is “widely shared” among the islanders, said Reuters. Bars, restaurants and cafes are “gearing up” for the tournament of a lifetime. One bartender said the World Cup would help Cape Verde gain “more visibility in the world”.

The tournament also presents a significant earning opportunity: “about $10.5 million” (£7.85 million) for getting to the finals, said NPR. Such a cash injection could strengthen “youth development” opportunities and expand “scouting across the diaspora”.

And football is, perhaps “more than most sports”, known for its “shocks”, including when Saudi Arabia beat Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the eventual champions, in a 2022 group match, said Joshua McLeod and Hunter Fujak, sports lecturers at Deakin University, on The Conversation. “Could we see Cape Verde or Curaçao produce an even greater World Cup upset?”

David Sullivan, billionaire owner of West Ham United, has resigned as the football club’s co-chair to fight accusations by seven women of “sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour”.

A joint investigation by The Times and the BBC’s “Panorama” revealed claims that women were offered spots as “regular girls” in the tabloid newspapers he owned if they agreed to have sex with him. Two women were told that refusing would mean “damaging their future modelling careers”.

Sullivan “made a fortune from selling sex in the pre-internet world of adult magazines, films, telephone chat lines and newspapers filled with topless glamour models and teenage girls”, said the BBC. He was known as the “king of porn”.

In a statement released by West Ham, Sullivan, 77, said he “categorically” denies all the allegations, which he characterised as “decades-old”, “factually incorrect and entirely false”.

“Many inside the game will be taking in the news of Sullivan’s departure,” said The Guardian, “and reflecting on how a pornographer managed to rise as high in the modern game as he did.”

‘Immoral earnings’

Sullivan, who was born in Cardiff and whose father was an RAF officer, grew up in South Wales, Essex and Hertfordshire, before being sent to boarding school aged 11. He was “short and shy” growing up, said The Times, and “experimented” with business from an early age, selling football memorabilia to students. “I stopped being shy when I was 22 and started to earn money,” he later said. “Money gives you confidence.”

After studying economics at Queen Mary College in east London and a short period working in advertising, he began selling “glossy prints” of topless models with university friend Bernard Hardingham. “In one week alone they made £26,000, the equivalent of more than £300,000 today.”

In 1973, their success “caught the attention of the authorities” and both were charged with conspiring to publish and post obscene materials and fined £50, said the BBC.

“By 25, Sullivan was a millionaire, and decided to branch into films,” said The Guardian. “Come Play With Me” was the “first, and most successful”, marketed as the “strongest sex comedy film ever produced and distributed in Britain”.

In 1982 Sullivan was convicted of “living off the immoral earnings of prostitution from massage parlours and jailed for nine months”, though he spent just 71 days in prison following an appeal. He has always maintained his innocence. “One headline at the time read: ‘King Porn is caged at last’,” said The Times. But this conviction “appeared to do little to suppress his ambition”.

Further allegations against Sullivan surfaced in a 1981 undercover investigation by the News of the World. Under the headline “Come to bed if you’re seeking a job”, it alleged that Sullivan had asked a woman for sex in exchange for a job, said The Times. Within 15 minutes of meeting reporter Tina Dalgleish, he allegedly asked: “So are you coming upstairs with me for 10 minutes to see what you can do?”

‘Mainstream’ success

Sullivan then turned to more “mainstream” publishing, founding the Sunday Sport in 1986, and five years later the Daily Sport, said the BBC. They ran a “mixture of bizarre, lurid and salacious stories with a steady diet of topless glamour models on many pages”. There was also a “Countdown to 16” feature, where “partially clothed” schoolgirls were shown before a full topless feature on their 16th birthday. The age limit for when models could legally appear topless was raised to 18 in 2004.

In 1993, Sullivan acquired a majority stake in Birmingham City, which was in administration, for £700,000. In 2010, having sold his Birmingham stake, he bought West Ham, alongside David and Ralph Gold, who ran the Ann Summers sex toys and lingerie empire.

Sullivan resigned as co-chair and director of West Ham on Saturday, saying in his statement that he was stepping down to apply his “full energy and attention on fighting these false allegations”. It has since been revealed that Sullivan has been “banned from having contact” with West Ham’s women’s and youth teams since 2023 due to “safeguarding concerns”, said the BBC.

Sullivan retains a 38.8% stake in West Ham, making him its largest shareholder. With a total net worth of £1.1 billion, together with his family, he is the 149th richest person in the UK, according to the 2026 Sunday Times Rich List.

Are Americans ready for “bloody cage fights on the White House’s South Lawn?” asked Jack Crosbie in Rolling Stone. On June 14, President Trump will celebrate both his 80th birthday and America’s 250th anniversary with a card of seven outdoor UFC fights at the People’s House. These mixed martial arts fights, in which kicks to the head, elbows to the face, punching prone fighters, and choke holds are all legal, are big in “the right-leaning manosphere”—and with Trump, who calls it “the greatest sport.” The president—who recently bought stock in UFC’s parent company—is pals with Dana White, the company’s CEO, who has openly allied the sport with Trump. The UFC is “allegedly footing the bill” for the spectacle, which will take place in a temporary arena that can hold some 4,000 fans, with up to 90,000 watching on a screen outside. The Pentagon has placed a casting call for brawny troops in short-sleeve uniforms to help fill the stands, so long as they “meet a certain physical standard.”

The kitschy “Las Vegas–style venue” highlights “just how extensively Trump has remade the White House grounds to his liking,” said Erkki Forster in The Daily Beast. A hulking steel arch that’s nine stories tall and decked out “in patriotic red, white, and blue graphics” has been raised over the stage and seating area. It looms over the torn-up construction site for Trump’s $400 million ballroom, where “the East Wing once stood.” Erecting this garish “monstrosity” is among Trump’s “worst insults” to Washington’s once-dignified architecture, said Zeeshan Aleem in MS.now. But his endorsement of brutality on White House grounds sends an even darker message than the aesthetic desecration: Violence can be glorious and patriotic.

Gladiatorial combat is just one way Trump has turned our national birthday into “a royalist celebration of himself,” said David Frum in The Atlantic. He’s “seeking to emblazon his face on coinage and currency,” displaying “his image on banners in downtown Washington,” repainting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool a garish blue, and gilding bronze horse statues. The 250th celebration should’ve been “an easy layup, a gimme, a chance for a now-unpopular second-term president to reinvent himself as the leader of all of the American people.” But he’s unable to rise above his egomania, and has “made a pitiful shambles of what should have been a glorious moment.”

‘Why gambling won’t ruin sports’

David Bockino at The Boston Globe

Even the “most vocal critics of widespread legalization concede that gambling has always been part of American sports,” says David Bockino. Gambling “wasn’t an inconvenient intrusion upon the nascent American sports industry but rather an essential catalyst — perhaps the essential catalyst — for nearly every major American sport.” This “revelation also suggests that our current sports betting mania isn’t the result of a national attitudinal shift.” People “have always wanted to bet on stuff. Especially young people.”

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‘Texas is America Inc’s new center of gravity’

The Economist

Texas is “establishing itself as America Inc’s new center of gravity,” as “no state receives more business investment or is adding more people to its population,” says The Economist. The “state’s appeal to yuppies is also growing,” and it “seems there is no part of America with which Texas is not competing.” Texas’ cultural “ascendancy” is “making it easier for firms to convince workers to move there,” though “cultivating homegrown talent is a big part of Texas’s economic plan.”

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‘It’s time the US got serious about Canada’

Richard M. Sanders at Newsweek

One of the “more bizarre features of Donald Trump’s second term in office has been the enormous effort he and his senior officials have put into damaging relations with Canada,” says Richard M. Sanders. The U.S. “has some genuine trade issues with Canada,” but the “administration seems locked into a policy of taking shots.” What “seems clear is that diplomacy by insult and provocation, which has characterized the administration’s approach, has only led to suspicion and hostility.”

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‘What a week in the hospital showed me about our broken healthcare system’

Gregg Gonsalves at The Nation

A successful surgery happened “thanks to the miracles of modern medicine,” but it “was no thanks to modern American healthcare,” which is “fundamentally broken,” says Gregg Gonsalves. The “system is sclerotic, and trying to get appointments, even for things I have been told are urgent, is a challenge.” This is a “cry for help that goes unheard and unaddressed year after year.” The “rot deepens in the day-to-day foundation of American medicine, at the level of the physician-patient interface.”

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“I came here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show,” said Laura Siegemund, following her loss to Naomi Osaka in the first round of the French Open. “If other people want to do a fashion show, they can do that.”

Osaka came on court in a black corset and matching pleated skirt to face Siegemund. Though she eventually lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round in a landmark night session, Osaka’s “shimmering gold dress” became even “more eye-catching under the lights”, said The Guardian.

Known for her “elaborate” playing outfits, including a jellyfish-inspired outfit at the Australian Open, Osaka sparked concern that she may “serve as a distraction”. With Wimbledon around the corner, the tennis-fashion debate is likely to intensify.

‘Another language’

Osaka “really knows how to turn a tennis court into a catwalk” and has done so for years, said the Daily Maverick. Though her “court-ure”, which also included an Eiffel Tower-inspired outfit, has been labelled “problematic” by critics, her choice of fashion is “part of how she chooses to be seen”. For someone who has spoken openly about her struggles with anxiety, depression and public communication, her outfits have become “another language”.

The four-time grand slam champion has “never had average tastes when it comes to fashion”, said The Athletic. Her look at the Australian Open – a “dreamy, dramatic ensemble” that was meant to “evoke jellyfish” – “took over cultural discourse far beyond her match”.

Female athletes “don’t want to be known or judged for their outfits alone”, said The Independent, but with less prime-time coverage of their games than male players, it “can’t hurt to turn a few heads and garner extra attention using a bit of tulle and some sequins, right?”

I understand “how annoying it must be for Osaka’s opponents”, said The Times’ fashion director Anna Murphy. Her “ballroom skirt” and “spangled waistcoat” are “more usually seen in ‘Bridgerton’” and “Dancing on Ice”. I appreciate her angle: professional tennis “isn’t for the shy and retiring”, and if you’re on a rumoured $10 million sponsorship deal, “why not milk it”?

Wimbledon has indicated it will go along with Osaka’s “fancy-dress-adjacent thing”, provided what she wears is white. The restrictions are only on colour, not style, “so what’s it going to be for SW19? A snowman? A snowball? A snowballgirl?” But this sets a precedent that could turn the circuit into a “fancy dress party”, inviting others to follow suit. I am “not sure how even I, a fashion journalist, feel about that”.

Fashion ‘embedded’ in tennis

Tennis has “always been a runway” and fashion has “long been entrenched” in the sport, said the Daily Maverick. Osaka’s idols, the Williams sisters, used fashion as a “platform of empowerment”. Serena Williams’ “iconic” 2018 catsuit “became one of the most discussed outfits in tennis history”, while Venus’ “‘scandalous’ cabaret-inspired 2010 look” also “challenged conventions”.

Such pageantry has become commonplace in other sports too, with “paddock fashion” in Formula 1 and “tunnel walks” in US basketball. People are only noticing, and commenting, because Osaka is “using fashion as a form of self-expression on her own terms”.

Outfits worn by Osaka and Sabalenka have “crystallised how deeply luxury fashion has embedded itself in tennis”, said the Financial Times. “Indeed, the relationship between luxury and tennis isn’t new.” Many of the major stars will have a partnership with a high-end brand: Jannik Sinner and Gucci, Carlos Alcaraz and Louis Vuitton, Zheng Qinwen and Dior, British star Jack Draper and Burberry; the list goes on.

Professional tennis is a “visual theatre”, with increasingly viable commercial opportunities. Lacoste, Ralph Lauren and Rolex have all been “intertwined” with the sport, but there has been a dramatic shift in tennis’ “scale and visibility, both as a participatory sport and a spectacle”. Broader participation in the US (up by 54% since 2019, according to the US Tennis Association), and rising broadcast audiences mean tennis has become a “compelling stage” for marketing. Tennis offers a “rare opportunity to speak simultaneously to affluent buyers and aspirational young fans”.

‘The steroid Olympics fell short of its own finishing line’

Anjana Ahuja at the Financial Times

The Enhanced Games in Las Vegas “were informally billed as the ‘steroid Olympics’” and the “edgy experiment was meant to shatter world records and force a rethink of what it means to be the strongest or fastest human on Earth,” says Anjana Ahuja. But the “thing that was most pumped up was the marketing.” The games were “performance enhancement as a kind of DEI initiative — and one that mostly served to make current ‘non-enhanced’ Olympians look more superhuman.”

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‘The Mali crisis could have a dangerous spillover effect’

Mohamed El Hajj Mahmoud El Talib at Al Jazeera

It “has been almost nine months since rebel groups imposed a fuel blockade on Mali’s capital Bamako” and the “present crisis is compounded by the weakening of the Malian state following the 2021 coup and foreign intervention,” says Mohamed El Hajj Mahmoud El Talib. In the “absence of any serious effort to address it, instability could spill over across the whole Sahel region.” The “ongoing humanitarian crisis could trigger a major migration wave toward Europe and North America.”

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‘What if some fears can’t be conquered?’

Katie Arnold-Ratliff at The Cut

When “undertaken with the help of a clinician,” exposure therapy’s “success rate is well-known to be high — estimated at up to 90%,” says Katie Arnold-Ratliff. But “‘success’ in this context means feeling a reduction in fear upon completion of the program, a definition that belies a difficult and underpublicized reality of ET: its positive effects frequently wane with time.” Though “few therapists lead with this truth, many patients chip away at their phobia for years, not days or weeks.”

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‘There’s a simple reason why I’m sure AI won’t achieve consciousness’

Noah Giansiracusa at Slate

AI chatbots “provide a convincing illusion of consciousness, but we know they are just a sequence of lifeless math calculations,” says Noah Giansiracusa. These chatbots are “estimated to have trillions of parameters” but “they are mere formulas.” It is “safe to say that a math formula written on a sheet of paper is not a conscious entity.” There is “no consciousness to discover here when you break down what is inside the machine that is AI.”

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Forty-two athletes, including swimmers, weightlifters and sprinters, will compete in Las Vegas on Sunday in the first Enhanced Games.

Little in sport has “caused as much controversy – nor provoked as many questions – as the Enhanced Games”, said BBC sports editor Dan Roan. “Those behind it claim it is here to stay, and could soon expand to more events and other disciplines.”

But there is another side to the spectacle of juiced-up competitors trying to beat the world record in their discipline. Earlier this year, the company behind the event, Enhanced, launched a range of personalised performance and longevity medicines to sell to the public.

What did the commentators say?

Proponents of the games say the aim is “to challenge sporting norms by allowing athletes to push their potential with legal drugs under strict medical oversight”, said Chris Kenning in USA Today. “The approach is, let’s not be naive and pretend it’s not happening,” said Enhanced CEO Max Martin. “Let’s just take what’s happening in the shadows, put it out in the open.”

But that’s not sensible, say some sports medicine experts. “It’s akin to me saying I’m going to make smoking safe by supervising you while you’re smoking,” Aaron Baggish, professor of medicine at the University of Lausanne, told Yahoo Sports.

Most critics though “overlook the fact that the Enhanced Games is making obvious what society has always quietly accepted”, said Byron Hyde, philosopher of science and public policy at Bristol University, on The Conversation – namely “that most people are willing to watch athletes risk harm when the entertainment is good enough”. Brain trauma is the “potential price of boxing entertainment”, so “why the outrage about pharmaceutical enhancement risks?”

For Baggish, the “primary concern” is the message the event sends to the public that using these substances when taking part in sports “is in any way, shape or form OK. That’s the really scary thing.”

That appears to be one of the goals of the organisers. Aron D’Souza, founder of the Enhanced Games, told The Independent in 2024: “This is the route towards eternal life.” The games will “bring about performance-medicine technologies that then create a feedback cycle of good technologies, selling to the world, more revenue, more R&D, to develop better and better technologies”. Ultimately, “it’s about being a better, stronger, faster, younger athlete for longer. And who doesn’t want to be younger for longer?”

But, said The Economist, “the real purpose of the games is to push the limits of what the public sees as the acceptable use of performance-enhancing drugs”. The event is taking place “at a time when concerns are being raised over the medicalisation of Western society”, said Roan. Social media and ‘looksmaxxing’ are being “blamed for fuelling demand for weight-loss injections, cosmetic treatments and performance substances”.

What next?

The Enhanced Games “speak to a vision of the future in which medicines, rather than being simply used to treat disease, can extend human longevity and enhance well-being”, said The Economist.

But on Sunday, the athletes involved will effectively be the guinea pigs for this idea, albeit ones who have “burned bridges, risked their future livelihoods or their health”. And with the launch of Enhanced’s consumer business, “more and more people may soon be wagering their bodies on a chance to roll back the clock”.

Many questioned whether Pep Guardiola could hack it in the rough and tumble of the Premier League when he became Manchester City’s manager a decade ago.

Could his brand of beautiful “tiki-taka” football, refined in Barcelona and developed at Bayern Munich, cut it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?

Ten years on and his record speaks for itself: six Premier League titles, including one secured with over 100 points and another as part of a historic treble; the Champions League; three FA Cups; five League Cups; the Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup. It makes him the second most decorated manager in Premier League history behind Sir Alex Ferguson. Now, with rumours of his departure at the end of the season, the question of his legacy has arisen.

‘Level of tactical complexity has soared’

As his mentor Johan Cruyff did as manager of Barcelona, Guardiola has “created a legacy that has changed the face of football at every level in England”, said BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty.

During his time at City, Guardiola “has not just shaped elite football and the game in the league’s pyramids” but “has had an impact at every level down to grassroots, where even junior coaches adopt his strategies”.

“His success goes beyond just the many wins,” said The Sun. “It is embedded into the very foundation of the game in England now.”

Even semi-professional teams now play out from the back. Goalkeepers will pass into danger rather than go long. The rigid formations of old are gone. Defenders sometimes play as strikers. “Kids are growing up with these roles more defined than ever” and “the level of tactical complexity has soared”.

To understand the extent of Guardiola’s impact you need only glance around at the other elite managers working in the game today. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who this season delivered the club’s first Premier League title in 22 years, cut his teeth as Guardiola’s assistant at City, as did former Chelsea boss and likely successor at the Etihad, Enzo Maresca. PSG boss Luis Enrique worked under him at Barcelona, as did new Chelsea manager Xavi Alonso in Munich. Current Bayern boss Vincent Kompany was City’s talismanic captain for years under Guardiola.

‘Lingering question’

There is no doubt City’s Abu Dhabi ownership “more than got its money’s worth”, said The Independent’s Miguel Delaney, but there is “another way to think about Guardiola”.

Whether it was having Lionel Messi in his prime, taking charge of already Treble-winning Bayern, or the immense resources he was handed at City, “the one purely football caveat in Guardiola’s sensational record” is “he’s never really had to work anywhere where he’s had to compromise”.

The other “lingering question” concerns City’s “bludgeoning power” and how, “Guardiola’s prodigious gifts aside, they were able to acquire it in the first place”, said Oliver Brown in The Telegraph. The seemingly never-ending Premier League investigation into 115 charges of financial irregularity has hung over the club, and “for years Guardiola has had to deny suggestions of an asterisk being placed alongside their achievements”.

As for the future, replacing Guardiola “will be no easy feat”, said The Athletic. He has “set the standard so high, both for fans of Manchester City and for those of us judging from the outside, that anything short of sustained brilliance could easily seem underwhelming. Mediocrity would feel like disaster.”

Conservatives have long gone after what they perceive as discrimination against whites in hiring and have now found their latest target. The Florida attorney general sent the National Football League investigative subpoenas over alleged civil rights violations in its hiring practices. The issue centers on a longstanding NFL rule, and an investigation by Florida could have wider implications for diversity in sports.

‘Raises more questions’

The escalation began when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) issued a letter to the NFL earlier this year, alleging that its Rooney Rule violates Florida’s civil rights laws. The rule, in place since 2003, requires all NFL teams to “interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coach, coordinator and general manager jobs,” said Politico. Though his letter led the NFL to alter some of the diversity language on its website, Uthmeier claims the league didn’t go far enough with its changes, resulting in him doubling down with the May 13 subpoenas.

“We appreciate how quickly the NFL changed its website in response to our letter and capitulated on some of their discriminatory hiring quotas,” Uthmeier said on social media. But the NFL’s response “raises more questions about the Rooney Rule, and we look forward to their cooperation with the investigative subpoena.” The subpoenas are Uthmeier’s way of “keeping pressure on the NFL after he previously gave the league a May 1 deadline to scrap the Rooney Rule,” said Politico.

The NFL showed no signs of capitulating. The league’s diversity efforts are “consistent with both Florida and federal law,” NFL General Counsel Ted Ullyot said in a responding letter. The Rooney Rule “doesn’t impose any hiring quotas or mandates nor does it even limit who may be interviewed,” and “diversity of the candidate pool, both on the field and off, is also a critical part of the NFL’s success.” The league itself “does not permit the consideration of race, sex or any other legally protected characteristic in any hiring decisions or employment actions.”

‘An existential challenge’

Florida’s subpoenas are “just the latest target of MAGA backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” said NPR. While the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule has been “panned by many, including coaches, former coaches, the NFL Players Association and football fans,” continued legal pushes could represent an “existential challenge” to the NFL’s hiring practices.

Legal challenges could also expand to other areas of the NFL beyond the Rooney Rule. Uthmeier’s subpoena targets “many of the NFL’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including a now-discontinued mandate that required teams hire a minority offensive assistant,” as well as the “league’s diversity accelerator program” and a rule related to compensatory draft picks if a “minority assistant coach or executive a team developed is hired away,” said ESPN.

Uthmeier’s threats “echo a broader campaign waged by the Trump administration,” said NPR. They come as the White House and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have “now made tackling discrimination against white people, especially men, a priority.” While there could be implications for the NFL, the effect of the legal challenges could also be seen beyond sports. The head of the EEOC has repeatedly “warned employers that even in the interview selection process, they should not take into consideration a candidate’s race, sex or any other protected characteristic” of the Civil Rights Act.

Hearing that one football club has spied on another “conjures images of classic, covert espionage”, said the BBC. But, as Middlesbrough have found out, sometimes it’s “not that difficult”.

The English Football League has charged Southampton with spying on their opponents two days before the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final on Tuesday. Middlesbrough claim the supposed spy was a Southampton analyst observing a training session.

Southampton then beat Middlesbrough in extra-time of the second leg to progress to the play-off final at Wembley, but the Middlesbrough manager, Kim Hellberg, has accused them of trying to cheat in what has become known as “spygate”.

‘Understandably incensed’

Southampton have launched an internal review to “ensure that all facts and context are properly understood” before “conclusions are drawn”, said chief executive Phil Parsons. “Given the intensity of the fixture schedule and the short turnaround between matches, we have requested time to complete that process thoroughly and responsibly.”

But the club have “not tried to fight the accusation that they tried to gain an unfair advantage”, said The Telegraph. They reportedly claimed the analyst was “acting on his own initiative and had not been instructed to travel to Rockliffe Hall hotel, adjacent to Boro’s training ground, to spy on Kim Hellberg and his players”. Middlesbrough, though, were “understandably incensed” after their media team “caught the spy lurking near some bushes with professional surveillance equipment”.

Boro have also “been led to believe by whistleblowers that this is not the first time Southampton have spied on their opponents’ training sessions”.

Cases of spying were “practically unheard of” until 2019, said the BBC, when Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa admitted he had sent a member of staff to spy on “every team they played that season”.

At that time, there was no specific regulation against spying; “bullish” Bielsa “even paid the fine himself”. The EFL then introduced rule 127: “no club shall directly or indirectly observe (or attempt to observe) another club's training session in the period of 72 hours prior to any match”.

That’s what Southampton have been charged with breaching, as well as rule 3.4: clubs must “act towards each other with the utmost good faith”.

But perhaps the “most high-profile case of spying” was during the 2024 Olympics in Paris, when New Zealand’s women’s football team spotted a drone above their training session before their game against Canada. French police found its operator: a member of Canada’s staff.

That it was Canada who “performed such an egregious breach of the rules”, a country “known for its people being polite, respectful, laidback and just terribly nice”, added to “the ironic drama”, said The Athletic.

‘Tainted triumph’

Back in the Championship, “spygate 2.0 has become the biggest crisis in play-off history”, said The Independent. And it risks being “Spygate £200 million”, the potential value of a place in the Premier League, if – as predicted – Southampton beat Hull in the final at Wembley on 23 May. If they do, it will be a “tainted triumph”.

The EFL is in an “impossible position”; Southampton would usually have 14 days to respond to the charges, but the EFL has asked the independent disciplinary commission to fast-track the case, given the time pressure. There are also “logistical issues as well as moral ones”.

The “nuclear option” – expelling Southampton from the play-offs – creates “an almighty mess”. But finding them guilty and fining them would cost far less than the prize for promotion, which isn’t likely to “assuage Middlesbrough”.

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough are in “limbo”, continuing to train in case they have to take Southampton’s place in the play-offs. Southampton or the EFL could also appeal any verdict, but Middlesbrough cannot, although they could pursue legal action.

Some Southampton fans are planning to go to Wembley “dressed as hedges or carrying binoculars”. But for Boro and the EFL “this is no laughing matter”.

‘Congress must secure the future of college sports’

Charlie Baker at The Hill

College sports “represent a way for talented high school athletes to reach a new level of athletic competition, while also pursuing a degree,” says NCAA President Charlie Baker. But “no internal reform — no matter how fast it moves — can on its own provide the permanent legal foundation required to stabilize the student-athlete experience.” The SCORE Act “would address the most pressing legal challenges in a narrow manner, while also securing essential student-athlete protections into federal law.”

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‘When children’s rights become revenue for profiteers’

Jim Sandman and Michael Lukens at The Philadelphia Inquirer

For-profit companies “have already turned immigrant detention into a profit center despite public outrage,” say Jim Sandman and Michael Lukens. Now “they’re setting their sights on a new way to fatten their wallets: immigrant children.” Companies “are eyeing this” as a “source of enrichment for themselves. If we allow the ‘profitization’ of legal aid, the outcome is clear: children will be harmed.” The “implications of letting profit drive how legal services are delivered to kids will ripple for many years.”

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‘The Guardian view on ceasefires that aren’t: Israel never stopped killing in Gaza — allies must reject any escalation’

The Guardian editorial board

“In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed more than 800 people since the truce there was declared in October,” so this is “not a true ceasefire but a de-escalation,” says The Guardian editorial board. There is a “bizarre and chilling contrast between Israel’s swift investigation and punishment of soldiers who showed disrespect to statues of Jesus in Lebanon and the lack of even basic accountability — never mind justice — when Palestinians are abused, killed or disappear.”

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‘Will Planned Parenthood stay defunded?’ 

John Gerardi at the National Review

On July 4, the “one-year provision that defunded Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to expire,” and Republicans will “need to answer some difficult questions about their political and policy priorities as they face a stark choice: fight to extend this defunding, or abandon the issue for the foreseeable future,” says John Gerardi. But “continuing to defund abortion providers might be stuck behind other GOP legislative priorities.”

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Kimi Antonelli is too young to legally buy a drink in the US, said Giles Richards in The Guardian. But by the end of the Miami Grand Prix, the 19-year-old Italian had “most assuredly earned a stiffener”. Still in only his second season in Formula One, the Mercedes driver held firm in the face of “immense pressure” from last year’s champion, McLaren’s Lando Norris, to notch up his third straight victory.

In both his previous wins, in China and Japan, Antonelli greatly benefitted from his Mercedes car having a big pace advantage over its rivals, said Tom Cary in The Daily Telegraph. Miami, however, was a more even affair, with the likes of McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari having recently made upgrades that “closed the gap significantly”. That makes Sunday’s victory – which was founded on a successful undercutting strategy – all the more impressive.

Many predicted that Antonelli’s British teammate, George Russell, would be the dominant driver this season, said Jonathan McEvoy in the Daily Mail. But the Italian, to whom Russell was “meant to offer mentorship”, is proving a “mighty big thorn in his race overalls”. In Miami, Russell finished fourth, and now trails Antonelli by 20 points. “The Hard Rock Stadium track is not one Russell likes, so perhaps this should be filed as a minor setback.” But unless he improves, it may look like a “harbinger of things to come”.

What happened

LIV Golf, the PGA Tour rival launched in 2021 with financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will lose that funding at the end of this season, The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations reported Wednesday. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi PIF, is stepping down as LIV chair, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Who said what

LIV Golf “will announce details of its strategic path forward” on Thursday, including new leadership and “a push to secure new, long-term financial partners,” CNBC said. LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil told TNT two weeks ago that if PIF funding ended, he would “work like crazy to create a business plan to keep us going.” But most likely, the Saudi withdrawal “sounds the death knell for the upstart that sowed chaos in professional golf,” the Journal said. It will be “nearly impossible” for LIV to carry on in “any resemblance to its current form after the Saudis lost billions on the endeavor.”

What next?

Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and other pro golfers who “abandoned the PGA Tour for nine-figure guaranteed contracts are now facing an uncertain future,” USA Today said. The “mainstream golf world” has already made clear it “isn’t ready to simply welcome them back,” the Journal said.

When the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in June, it may be missing something important: fans. Several factors, including political unrest and high transportation costs, are causing host cities across the United States to worry that the presumed economic bump from the World Cup may not occur.

What did the commentators say?

Eleven U.S. cities will be hosting World Cup games: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. These cities are dealing with everything from “labor strife and high ticket prices to geopolitical turmoil and culture-war politics fanned by President Donald Trump,” factors that are “turning the event into a nationwide stress test for the governmental institutions charged with pulling it off,” said Politico.

Many were hoping the World Cup would provide a “triumphal turn in the international spotlight,” but it is instead becoming a “case study in the local hazards of staging a spectacle at a moment of global disruption,” said Politico. Cooling forecasts are largely due to “ticket prices, inflation fears and anti-American sentiment,” said the Financial Times. Many hotels are reflecting this reality: Room rates for game days in “Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco have dropped about a third from their peak earlier this year.”

FIFA originally predicted the World Cup would give the U.S. a $30.5 billion economic boost. But the “demand has certainly not been at anywhere near that level,” Vijay Dandapani, the president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, said to Forbes. International soccer fans were expected to provide a lifeline, as they typically “spend four times as much as domestic travelers,” said the outlet. But it is “unclear if foreign visitors will come in the numbers necessary to drive the promised economic boost.”

The White House’s “‘America First’ agenda and rhetoric have also fueled widespread perceptions that the country is unwelcoming,” said The Athletic, causing many international soccer fans to rethink their plans. The potential presence of immigration officers is worsening things for Europeans. The Trump administration’s immigration agenda has created “heightened anxiety about travel and attendance for both fans and teams,” said Politico. The tension is especially increased for Iran, as the ongoing war “has raised questions about whether that country’s squad will even play.”

Transportation has additionally played a role, especially in cities where the cost of living is higher. In Massachusetts, a game day train trip to the stadium near Boston will cost $80. In New Jersey, where the New York City-area games will be played, a ride will be $150. This is over an 11 times increase from the standard $12.90 train fare in New Jersey. FIFA is also charging an average of $175 for parking at most venues nationwide.

What next?

Trepidation over hosting the games in the U.S. “could be sufficient motivation” for global fans to “hold off until 2030, when the tournament will take place in Spain, Portugal and Morocco,” said the Financial Times. Amid growing tensions, the head of Norway’s soccer association has also called for Trump to be stripped of his recently awarded FIFA Peace Prize. But FIFA officials seem not to be too worried. The organization is “confident that the event will be a resounding success for everyone involved, all the participating teams, the fans from all around the world and the hosts,” FIFA spokesperson Bryan Swanson told Politico.

On many stretches of water in Britain over the summer months you will find people “wielding their paddles like modern-day Argonauts”, said The Economist.

Boosted by the Covid pandemic, the rise of stand-up paddleboarding has been sharp. One survey estimated that 4.5 million Britons had tried SUP, and people of all abilities now flock to rivers, lakes, canals and the coast to soak up the sun on their boards.

As summer fast approaches here are some of the best spots around the UK to explore by paddleboard.

Bala Lake, Snowdonia, Wales

With its “charming canals, rivers and dramatic coastlines”, Wales has many great paddleboarding locations, said Portia Jones in Wales Online.

Bala Lake, also known as Llyn Tegid, is the country’s largest natural lake at more than four miles long and a mile wide, and it “boasts the most inviting, clear water for paddling”. Bala Lake is also “famed for its impressive mountain scenery, rare wildlife and excellent fishing opportunities”.

Bala Watersports offers paddleboards to rent and you will need to collect your permit from the lake warden’s centre before taking to the water. There’s no need to stick to paddleboarding; there are plenty of opportunities for sailing, canoeing and wild swimming too.

Kingsbridge, Devon, England

The five-mile stretch of Salcombe Estuary and its surrounding rivers is “beautiful”, said Abigail Butcher in The Telegraph. Devon’s trademark “lush rolling hills” meet “clear and blue” water “lined with sandy beaches”. The wildlife is worth watching out for too, with regular sightings including seals, herons and egrets, and even basking sharks.

Most of the routes are suitable for “complete novices”, while expert paddlers can sign up for the “SUP the Creek” race in October – an annual event that includes a variety of challenges.

Portrush, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland

Paddleboarding in the sea can feel daunting, but not on the Causeway Coast, said Lisa Drewe in The Times. Beginners can start in the “sheltered waters” and “calm conditions” of Portrush Harbour, and those with more confidence can progress to trace the coastline past Ramore Head and the Skerries Islands. These spots reveal “glimpses of marine life”, and seagulls “wheel overhead”.

Again, equipment can be picked up on arrival at Portrush Surf School, and Freedive NI offers guided tours along the Causeway Coast, with sea cave explorations included. The workouts deserve a reward too, with plenty of cafés and pubs in the area to follow a long day on the water.

Regent’s Canal, London, England

Don’t fancy the open water? For an alternative in the heart of the city, head along the canal between Paddington and King’s Cross, said London’s The Standard. The waterway offers a “seamless blend of the contemporary, historic and wild”, giving you a “unique view of the capital’s industrial heritage”.

On the way, you pass “charming” Little Venice, “vibrant” Lisson Grove and a “scenic green stretch” next to Regent’s Park. Later on, the sights of Camden Market and Gasholder Park promise a lovely balance between the buzz and tranquillity of London.

Isle of Wight, England

Just a hop, skip and jump away from the mainland, the Isle of Wight has so many fresh- and salt-water paddle options, said Lisa Joyner and Rosie Stagg in Country Living. Compton Bay, tucked away on the west coast, is one of the island’s “best-kept secrets” with its “seaside promenades, chalky cliffs, rolling hills and sandy beaches”. You can also combine the on-water exploration with fossil hunting, surfing or wildlife watching.

Just along the coast is Freshwater Bay, closer towards the western tip. This has become something of a “magnet” for paddleboarders. Its “brilliant pebble beach” is popular all year round for swimming, walks and boating.

What happened

A humanoid robot called Lightning won a half-marathon in Beijing on Sunday, beating his robotic competitors and the human runners in a parallel race by completing the 13-mile course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds — nearly seven minutes faster than the world record set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Who said what

The victory of Lightning, built by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, marked a “significant step forward from last year’s inaugural race,” when the winning robot “finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds,” The Associated Press said. The “remarkable feat” was also a “big stride for China in its technological rivalry with the U.S.,” CNN said.

China already has “more robots at work” than “the rest of the world combined,” The New York Times said. Beijing also recently hosted the first Humanoid Robot Games, featuring “plenty of running, kicking and punching,” though the robots “also flailed around, crashed and fell over many times.”

What next?

The leap forward in China’s humanoid engineering “is genuinely impressive,” Oregon State University robotics professor Alan Fern told the Times. But it’s “much less obvious” how a robot winning a half-marathon “translates into productivity and ultimately, profitability.”

“Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” wrote LIV Golf’s chief executive, Scott O’Neil, in an email to staff on Wednesday night, hours after an emergency meeting in New York over a “seismic” funding announcement.

“But what about beyond this season?” said The Telegraph. O’Neil’s email was an “attempt to calm ferocious speculation” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is “pulling the plug” on the franchise, a project into which it has already sunk $5 billion (£3.7 billion).

With the future of the controversial tour under threat, a change in Saudi Arabia’s investment priorities could spell the beginning of the end for its sporting soft power.

‘Dying days’

“Farewell, LIV Golf, we hardly knew ye,” said The Independent. Four years after initiating a “prolonged and ultimately pointless civil war” with the PGA, “LIV is dead, or at least in its dying days”. There had been “signs of creaking” for some time now, with major stars like Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed departing, and “more would surely have followed, given time”. Fundamentally, though, the tour couldn’t ever quite “shake” the sense that the players were “doing it for the money”.

LIV Golf was “supposed to be the breakaway tour that changed golf as we know it”, said BBC Sport. Though it “certainly managed to disrupt the status quo” with the help of an “eye-watering” amount of money from the PIF, it has failed to make returns. The tour’s net losses have totalled more than “more than $1.1 billon (£810 million) since it was established in 2021”; even O’Neil admitted that the tour would not be profitable for another “five-ten years”.

If they ever make a documentary about LIV, “it will look a lot like the one about that calamitous Fyre Festival”, said Sean O’Brien on TalkSport. The dominant narrative is of Saudi Arabia trying to buy “disruption, influence, and a seat at the table with professional golf’s establishment”. Some of the game’s big names who rejected offers to join the tour, such as Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler and Ryder Cup and recent Masters winner Rory McIlroy, have been shown to be “on the right side of history”. McIlroy, in particular, was thought to have turned down an offer in excess of Jon Rahm’s reported £500 million contract. In the end, the tour’s only purpose was to “make rich men absurdly richer”.

Changing world

The change in Saudi Arabia’s stance comes as the PIF announced a new five-year strategy on Wednesday to make up a budget deficit of $73 billion. It is expected to “narrow” its funding focus and take stock of a “decade-long spending splurge”, said the Financial Times. One thing’s for sure, the Kingdom’s apparent coldness towards LIV Golf “will reverberate through professional sport”.

The focus for Riyadh has always been money, and diversifying its economic interest away from oil, said The i Paper. Though there was enthusiasm from “golf-mad” PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan, “all that matters” to Saudi sovereign Mohammed bin Salman – “who wouldn’t know a five-iron from gridiron” – is return on investment.

For a while, the soft power of sport was a “critical driver” in Saudi Arabia’s repositioning, but the “world has changed since then”. Criticism of the country’s approach to human rights has, “if not washed clean off”, then at least “shunted down the list of global concerns”, while the Iran war has “reinforced the strategic and diplomatic importance of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East”.

This is unlikely to mean a complete retreat from the sporting world, however. The Kingdom is still a major investor in F1 and football, including as hosts of the 2034 men’s World Cup. For now, Riyadh will focus on events that “serve a PR purpose” or “promise a return on investment”. “Golf falls outside both metrics.”

‘Congress has a rare chance to stop warrantless searches’

Noah Feldman at Bloomberg

As Americans “worry about total government surveillance in the age of AI and ICE, Congress has a rare opportunity to protect them from warrantless government searches,” says Noah Feldman. FISA Section 702 is “set to expire,” and the law “effectively permits the government to collect the private information of Americans indirectly.” A bipartisan bill “would close the most important loopholes in the current law.” Congress “can turn the public’s distrust of government surveillance” into “something productive.”

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‘Jackie Robinson’s legacy is more than a symbol. It’s a responsibility.’

Scott Reich at the San Francisco Chronicle

Jackie Robinson Day is “one of the most powerful traditions in American sports,” says Scott Reich. For “one day, the number is the same.” Jackie Robinson’s number, 42, “becomes everyone’s number.” But “while it’s easy to honor a number, it’s harder to fully appreciate what it signifies.” Robinson “did not simply break baseball’s color barrier,” he also “stepped into a country that had not yet decided whether it was ready for him.” His uniform “gave him a platform; he chose to use it.”

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‘Massachusetts health reform at 20: a model for what government can do’

Maura Healey and Mitt Romney at The Boston Globe

In 2006, Massachusetts politicians “came together to answer a question that long seemed unthinkable in Washington: Could we make health care coverage a reality for all?” say Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). Massachusetts “proved to the nation that the answer was a resounding yes.” The “lessons of that day went well beyond the policy.” It was a “demonstration of what is possible when leaders of all perspectives come together, set aside partisanship and focus on solving real problems.”

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‘GOP food stamp work requirements hit just as jobs dry up’

Whitney Curry Wimbish at The American Prospect

Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill, trade wars and actual wars are coming together to maximize hunger in America,” says Whitney Curry Wimbish. The GOP’s “new work requirements for food stamps began in February, forcing more people to work at least 80 hours a month to get the benefit.” At the “same time, jobs are harder to find,” especially “low-wage jobs that food stamp beneficiaries should be able to turn to for the new requirement.”

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Cheering on your favorite sports team while watching games from the couch is fun. But everyone knows it’s even better to cheer the team on in person. In these sports-centric destinations, the thrills exist inside — and outside — the stadiums and arenas.

Arlington, Texas

You’ll want to play ball in Arlington. A 2026 World Cup host city, it’s also the home of the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, one of the “most impressive dome stadiums in the NFL” with the “largest retractable roof” and “largest high-definition screen” in the league, said Fox Sports.

Visitors can go behind the scenes on a guided stadium tour, stepping into exclusive areas and learning more about the facility’s contemporary art museum. Round out your Arlington experience by hitting a Texas Rangers or Dallas Wings game, experiencing the immersive International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, and enjoying an evening at the Texas Live! dining and entertainment complex.

Boston

With its “championship teams, iconic stadiums and passionate fan base,” Boston is tops for sports fans, said Travel and Leisure. Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is Major League Baseball’s oldest ballpark, dating back to 1912.

You can take an hour-long tour or the 75-minute version that brings you to the field level. For those on a time crunch, the park offers Fenway in Fifteen, a quick quarter-hour journey around the beloved stadium. All of Boston’s teams and their biggest stars are honored at TD Garden’s Sports Museum, featuring exhibitions on the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox, and sculptures of Larry Bird and Ted Williams.

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Football and Green Bay go hand in hand. The city has a “deep-rooted sports culture” that is “highlighted” by the Green Bay Packers, said WalletHub. Tickets to games at the “iconic” Lambeau Field are often a “reasonable” price because the team is a nonprofit franchise, and being surrounded by the Packers’ loyal and “enthusiastic” fans adds to the experience. Consider going all out and tailgate, or watch the game while enjoying cheese curds and wings at Stadium View Bar, bratwurst at Johnsonville Tailgate Village or bloody marys at Anduzzi’s Sports Club.

Kansas City, Missouri

In Kansas City, “new sports find a warm welcome” and “sports history has a place of honor,” said writer David Von Drehle at The Washington Post. The Kansas City Chiefs may have the most name recognition, but there’s also the Kansas City Current women’s soccer team and a “baseball team with a couple of World Series trophies,” aka the Kansas City Royals.

This summer, Kansas City will be a World Cup host city, but its “fingerprints” will be on the entire tournament; games are being played across the U.S. in “stadiums designed by architects from Kansas City, the world capital of sports stadium design.” No trip to the city is complete without a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which “delightfully” showcases how athletes serve as “engines of culture and social progress.”

Los Angeles

Yes, there are nearly a dozen major sports teams based in Los Angeles, including the storied Dodgers, Lakers and Kings, plus new powerhouses like Angel City FC. But LA and its environs are also known for pickup basketball games in the park, impromptu soccer matches in neighborhood fields and beach volleyball games that last for hours.

When you’re not at a match (or joining a game with locals), tour the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, go surfing, hike the famous Runyon Canyon loop or show off your athletic prowess at Highland Park Bowl, a lovingly restored 1927 bowling alley where “old pinsetters serve as chandeliers,” said the Los Angeles Times.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

When it comes to supporting women’s sports, the Twin Cities can’t be beat. Both the championship-winning WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and PWHL’s Minnesota Frost draw enthusiastic crowds, and the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers women’s hockey team has “one of the best fan atmospheres anywhere,” said The Athletic. If you want to watch a game in a more intimate environment, head to A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis, the first sports bar in the Twin Cities that shows only women’s sports.

Philadelphia

Whatever the game, you can find it in Philly. This is one of the “most impassioned sports cities in the country,” said Axios Philadelphia, and one of four locations in North America that is home to an MLB (Phillies), NFL (Eagles), NBA (76ers) and NHL (Flyers) team.

They all play at the Philadelphia Sports Complex, where nearly 400 events are held every year at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field facilities. Expect to get caught up in “contagious enthusiasm,” whether that’s at an Eagles game where fans “unitedly sing ‘Fly, Eagles, Fly’ after every win” or on the street, where you’ll likely run into people who “incessantly shout ‘Go Birds’ at passerby.” For the full experience, time your visit so you can attend an “epic” watch party or tailgate, where “everyone’s invited.”

What happened

The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced that transgender women athletes will be barred from competing in women’s events starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The announcement ends “months of speculation” over how the governing body would address one of the “most contentious issues facing global sports,” The New York Times said. It was the IOC’s “most consequential” decision since Kirsty Coventry took over as the organization’s first woman president last June.

Who said what

“Eligibility for any female category event” at any IOC event is “now limited to biological females,” the IOC said in a statement. Any athlete who wants to compete in a women’s category must take a mandatory one-time gene test to determine if they have a Y chromosome. “We know that this topic is sensitive,” Coventry said. But the “science” conducted by the IOC’s “medical experts” shows that “biological males” have inherent physical advantages, and “at the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat.”

Critics warned that the new policy “extends beyond transgender athletes and could subject all women competitors to invasive scrutiny,” Advocate said. The “potential” for “increased ‘gender policing’ of all female athletes” is “unwelcome,” said Outsports. The French Olympic Committee said the genetic tests “raise major ethical and scientific concerns” and also “practical difficulties,” since French “bioethics laws and the civil code” prohibit their use.

What next?

The IOC’s policy is “widely expected to be adopted by international sports federations and become a universal rule for competitors in female elite sports,” Reuters said. But it also “can — and likely will — be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” The Associated Press said. Any challenge would examine the “science underpinning IOC research which was not published” on Thursday.

When the crack of the bat signals opening day for the 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) season today, there will be a new addition to the diamond: robot umpires. The technological change has been fiercely debated among sports enthusiasts for years but has finally made its way to the big leagues. It marks one of the biggest changes in the history of modern baseball.

What are robot umpires?

While the term makes it sound like robots are replacing the game’s human umpires, this is not the case. The robot umpires aren’t on the field. Instead, they are a “network of specialized cameras set up in every ballpark to track the baseball’s exact location,” said The New York Times. The system, officially called the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, will allow teams to challenge balls and strikes.

Each team starts the game with two challenges it can use throughout the game. By tapping his head, a pitcher, catcher or batter can request to “summon the robot umpire and see whether the human behind home plate missed a ball or strike call,” said the Times. A successful challenge allows the team to reuse a challenge, but after two incorrect challenges, the team “loses the power altogether.”

MLB is not the first baseball league to adopt this technology. It has been tried in minor league baseball for several years and was also tested during the 2025 MLB All-Star Game. This “testing, which started in 2021, led to Triple-A players in 2023 using ABS challenges three days a week and a full ABS system, with every pitch adjudicated by computer, the other three,” said ESPN. Following positive feedback in the minor leagues, MLB announced last year it would adopt the ABS system.

Why is this such a big change?

It allows players and managers to do what is typically forbidden in baseball: argue balls and strikes with the umpire. Doing so has generally led to ejection from the game; last season, at least “61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches (99 of 161) were related to ball/strike calls,” said The Associated Press, though this figure also “included what MLB counted as inappropriate comments and conduct, and throwing equipment in protest.”

This change “should in theory make everyone better off,” as it will give teams an “appeal in the event of a potential blown call at a crucial moment,” said Vox. As is the case with AI, some are worried about the bigger changes robotic umpires could have. Once “you’ve conceded that the machine is the final authority on whether a call is right — which is exactly what baseball has done here — you’ve quietly eliminated the case for having the human there.” And if they are there, the “human behind the mask doesn’t stay independent.”

Despite this, most players and managers don’t seem to have an issue with the change — for now. “I’m in favor of anything that allows our technology to play in this game,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash said to the AP. “We have so much of it. Why not use it?” Even people formerly around the game agree. “I really like the ABS,” Jim Leyland, a retired manager who led four MLB clubs, said to the outlet. “I think it’s going to be great for the game.”

‘Girls’ sports are getting more physical’

Alexandra Moe at The Atlantic

Physical contact in “women’s sports remains controversial,” but girls “seem to be more interested than ever in contact,” says Alexandra Moe. At U.S. high schools “last academic year, more girls played on teams for wrestling than field hockey, gymnastics or dance.” Girls’ “participation in such sports is growing so quickly in part because it’s starting from a small denominator,” and may “appeal to a rising cultural sense that women and girls can — and should — bulk up.”

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‘Meta’s smart glasses are a privacy risk invisible to Chicagoans’

Yunus Emre Tozal at the Chicago Tribune

Meta’s “smart glasses problem is a legibility problem,” says Yunus Emre Tozal. Walking through a city “today, you cannot tell who around you is recording.” This is “not a hypothetical privacy risk. It is an active data pipeline running through one of the most documented failures of AI labor ethics on record, operating at scale in every city where 7 million pairs of glasses are being worn.” This is “not a privacy feature. It is a design decision.”

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‘The era of US dominance in economic warfare is over’

Nicholas Mulder at the Financial Times

Iran’s “threat to shipping in the Gulf is widely seen as an asymmetric retaliation against the U.S. and Israel,” says Nicholas Mulder. But Iran “has actually replicated a tactic that America has long practiced in its use of sanctions: it has turned a key chokepoint in the world economy into a weapon to compel its adversary to de-escalate.” America previously “had an effective monopoly on major sanctions,” but the “end of the unipolar era in economic warfare” is here.

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‘Ukraine and the EU need a fresh start’

Ivan Nagornyak and Fredrik Wesslau at Foreign Policy

Four years “after Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union, one conclusion is inescapable: The EU’s normal model for enlargement is not fit for purpose,” say Ivan Nagornyak and Fredrik Wesslau. The EU’s “accession process — rigid, technocratic and slow — was designed for peacetime, not for a country fighting a war of survival and rebuilding a shattered economy.” But “any interim model for Ukraine must be a stepping stone to full membership, not a substitute.”

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What happened

Venezuela beat Team USA 3-2 on Tuesday night to win its first World Baseball Classic title, with Eugenio Suárez’s ninth-inning tiebreaking double topping Bryce Harper’s eighth-inning two-run home run. The championship game, in Miami’s loanDepot Park, capped the sixth edition of the 20-nation event, which is held every three years. As the heavily Latino crowd cheered Venezuela’s win in Miami, thousands of people also celebrated in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

Who said what

“Thirty million people around the world were watching this game today,” Venezuela captain Salvador Perez said after the game. “The World Series, as you all know, is one of the most important championships in the major leagues, but when you fight for your country, that goes beyond.” Team USA captain Aaron Judge, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, said his teammates “put on this uniform, signed up to go out there and get a gold medal,” and “we just fell short.”

This year’s Team USA was “the greatest collection of American baseball players ever assembled for the World Baseball Classic,” bringing together “All-Stars and MVPs and future Hall of Famers,” said The Athletic. But “despite the gaudy statistics and lucrative contracts,” the team “lacked cohesion and performed as less than the sum of its parts.” Venezuela was overshadowed ahead of the tournament by the U.S., Japan and the Dominican Republic, the only other Latin American team to win the WBC, in 2013. But Venezuela’s “success was not that surprising,” The Associated Press said, given that 63 Venezuelan-born players “appeared on Major League Baseball opening-day rosters last year.”

What next?

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, declared Wednesday a National Day of Joy, giving everyone but essential workers the day off. Team USA — which has only won one WBC championship, in 2017 — will get its next shot at the title in 2029.

What happened

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) on Tuesday filed criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing the online prediction marketplace of “running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law.” The 20-count indictment alleges that Kalshi illegally accepted bets on sporting outcomes, political events and election results, among other “unlicensed wagering.”

Who said what

“Arizona will not be bullied into letting any company place itself above state law,” Mayes said in a statement. The criminal charges, the first filed by a state against Kalshi, mark a “new front in a high-stakes legal battle over whether prediction markets should be subject to the same rules as gambling companies,” The Associated Press said. President Donald Trump, whose son Don Jr. is a “strategic adviser” for Kalshi, has thrown his “support behind the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry.” Several other states have sued Kalshi and its rival, Polymarket.

The Arizona lawsuit “comes less than a week” after Kalshi filed a preemptive suit, asking a federal judge to rule that its wagers are “not gambling but instead something more akin to trading futures on commodities,” the Arizona Capitol Times said. The company argues its “contracts” can only be regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, “out of reach of state authorities.” CFTC chair Michael Selig appeared to agree, calling the Arizona suit a “jurisdictional dispute” that is “entirely inappropriate as a criminal prosecution.”

What next?

The outcome of the legal actions in Arizona and “at least nine other states” could have “sweeping implications for how sports betting — which makes up roughly 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume — is regulated in the U.S.,” the AP said. Legal experts predict the dispute over prediction markets “has a good chance of making its way to the Supreme Court,” Axios said.

This summer’s controversy-laden men’s Fifa World Cup took on a whole new layer of jeopardy when the US, the main co-host, attacked Iran, one of the competitors.

The football tournament, hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico and due to kick off on 11 June, had already been beset with criticism. There were worries about logistics and infrastructure, calls for a boycott over Donald Trump’s travel bans, and fears about fans’ safety in a US where Ice agents have been sweeping into cities for violent immigration crackdowns. Fifa itself has also been under fire – for its president Gianni Infantino’s sycophancy to the US president, and its “strategic partnership” with Trump’s Board of Peace.

Now Iran’s participation has been thrown into doubt by the war in the Middle East. Fifa seems unwilling to grant the Iranian football federation’s request to relocate its US fixtures to Mexico, and Trump has already said it would not be “appropriate” for the Iranian players to take part “for their own life and safety”.

Will Iran participate?

“When Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to the United States,” said Mehdi Taj, the president of Iran’s football federation, on the Iranian embassy in Mexico’s X account.

Moving Iran’s fixtures to Mexico would be logistically tricky but not unprecedented. But then there’s the issue of the knockout stages: if the US and Iran both finish as the runner-up in their group, they would play each other in the last 32. Should Iran decide to withdraw, they would be the first qualifying team to do so since 1950.

As the schedule currently stands, Iran’s first group fixture is against New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June. New Zealand told The Athletic that it is continuing to “monitor the situation” but is making plans to play Iran “until we hear otherwise”.

What about other Middle Eastern teams?

Iraq has a chance to qualify for its first World Cup finals since 1986 but it needs to win a play-off against either Suriname or Bolivia on 31 March – in Mexico. With airspace currently closed over the Middle East, it’s hard to see how the Iraqis can travel to their match.

The Iraqi team coach, Graham Arnold, has called for the play-off to be postponed, and the country’s football chief, Adnan Dirjal, has, has written to Fifa to explain the “difficulty of the journey”. In the meantime, he has made plans for the team to travel Mexico by private plane, according to the BBC.

What else is a concern?

There are worries that Ice officers will be deployed at US World Cup venues, for security purposes. And there is alarm about the wave of violence in Mexico since the death of a cartel boss in Jalisco state. Guadalajara, the state capital, is due to host four games.

Last month, the EU Sports Commissioner, Glenn Micallef, urged Gianni Infantino to “help safeguard fans”, said Politico. He has since asked again as violence escalates in the Middle East but said there has been “no further communication from Fifa”. It’s “legitimate” to seek assurances from a “public security point of view”, particularly as “one of the hosts of this biggest sporting event in the world is party to a war,” he told the news site. “Let’s say there’s room for more clarity.”

Fifa also has “a lot to answer for” on its role with the Trump-backed Board of Peace, said Micallef. It may have pledged $75 million for football infrastructure in Gaza, but Europe would “prefer to partner up” with organisations that “respect the international rules-based order, like Unesco and Unicef” on such sports-related projects.

Safety and security at the World Cup is a “top priority”, said a Fifa spokesperson. We are “confident that efforts being made by Canada, Mexico and the US will ensure a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for everyone involved”.

Max Dowman made football history on Saturday. Running from his own half, he fired into an empty net to secure Arsenal a 2-0 win over Everton and become the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League.

But afterwards, in the “ecstatic dressing room, the man of the match wasn’t there”, said Miguel Delaney in The Independent. That’s because Dowman “isn’t actually the man of the match”, but a child. The midfielder, aged 16 years and 75 days, isn’t allowed in the same dressing room as the adults, and gets changed in his own space near the referees’ room.

‘Never left alone’

Dowman “probably cannot even remember a time when he was not skipping past opponents with a ball at his feet”, said Sam Dean in The Telegraph. There has been “a buzz” around his name for years. He was scouted when he was just four; at 13, he became the youngest player to represent Arsenal’s under-18s; at 14, he was the youngest to play for their under-21s. He also played for the England under-17s at 14, and started training with Arsenal’s first team. Earlier this year, he became the youngest player in Champions League history and the youngest starter for Arsenal.

There are “clear rules in place” for minors playing adult football, said BBC Sport. Dowman has to change in a separate room from his teammates, before going into the main changing room for pep talks. The teenager, who is due to sit his GCSEs this summer, divides his non-playing time between a private tutor and school. One member of Arsenal’s security team is “assigned to stay close to Dowman at all times”.

“In the eyes of the law, he is still a child,” said former Leeds United welfare officer Lucy Ward. “He looks and behaves like an adult, he’s in an adult environment and scores goals for Arsenal, but the law says that he is treated as a child until he is 18.” Dowman is “never left alone with anyone” who hasn’t been cleared by a DBS check. His parents must give consent when he travels for an away match, and he has to have a chaperone. “He doesn’t want to stand out – he just wants to fit in – but these safeguarding measures are in place for young players.”

‘Right temperament to deliver’

Last season, Dowman was “so far ahead of his opponents and teammates that he was almost playing a different sport”, said Dean in The Telegraph. It was obvious he had “outgrown youth football”. If Premier League rules hadn’t prevented him from playing for the senior team last year, “he might have broken through even earlier”.

In January, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta likened the teenager to a young Lionel Messi. That was after Dowman signed a pre-contract agreement with the north London club (his father handled the negotiations). A professional deal will follow when he turns 17 in December.

“For all the skill, though, you need to have the right temperament to deliver” at that age, said Sky Sports. For every wunderkind who went on to a glittering senior career, there are “players who fell through the trapdoor of promise”.

“He doesn’t seem to be fazed by the occasion or the moment or the context or the opponent,” Arteta said on Saturday. “I’ve seen a lot of players with talent but at 16, very few that can cope with that level of demand.”

Dowman’s goal will “go down in Arsenal folklore”, said Sky Sports. The “touch of the head” to gain control of the ball, the “physicality” required to get past Everton left-back Vitalii Mykolenko, and the touch that sent midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall “to the shops”. It took Arsenal closer to their first Premier League title in two decades, but it looked like Dowman “had been doing that for years”.

“I just felt it was a magical moment for Max Dowman, a magical moment for Arsenal and absolutely it stopped me in my tracks,” said football pundit Gary Neville. “This kid does look different.”

It has become a rarity to watch any stretch of television or online video content without being exposed to at least one ad touting the ease and convenience of online gambling. But as prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket vie for dominance in the growing field of online betting, one place has emerged as a thorny challenge to their spread: Utah.

With its long history of deep Mormon conservatism, this traditionally red state is now a local leader in bucking a MAGA-led movement to facilitate e-gambling’s growth. But with Utah’s Republican governor leading an effort to regulate digital prop-betting on sports, some of the biggest names in app-based betting are fighting back, setting up a legal battle with hundreds of years of cultural history behind it.

Federal regulators face an ‘onslaught’ of state challenges

The proliferation of online prediction marketplaces with “no state oversight” operating “even in states that ban gambling” has raised “bipartisan alarms, especially related to sports gambling,” said Stateline. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), led by Trump appointee Mike Selig, filed an amicus brief claiming his group has total authority to regulate prediction markets against the “onslaught” of state challenges. “To those who seek to challenge our authority in this space, let me be clear. We will see you in court,” said Selig, currently the sole member of the five-seat body, in a brief video statement.

Prediction market operators like Polymarket and Kalshi argue that their platform for making proposition bets on “specific in-game events rather than final outcomes” places their work in the realm of “federally regulated derivatives rather than gambling products,” said Financial Feeds. In late February, Kalshi fired a “pre-emptive strike over predictive markets” by suing Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox. The lawsuit claimed Kalshi feared the state would “imminently bring an enforcement action” barring the company from “offering event contracts for trading on its federally regulated exchange,” said Fox13. Despite Utah’s constitutional ban on gambling, Kalshi, in its suit, said its prob-bet contracts are “subject to exclusive federal oversight, and — critically — they are lawful under federal law.”

‘Destroying the lives of families and countless Americans’

Cox’s conflict with prediction markets comes amid a larger debate among regulators and lawmakers about “whether those markets constitute finance or gambling,” said The Associated Press. Utah, for its part, has “already made up its mind.” For more than a century, Utah has featured “no casinos, no lotteries and no racetracks that allow bets,” a prohibition “rooted in the conservative ideals of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” With Utah poised to enact legislation “intended to undercut prediction markets,” the move positions a conspicuously conservative state “not known for picking fights” on the “frontlines of a cultural, political and economic battle sweeping the country.”

The prediction markets Selig is “breathlessly defending are gambling — pure and simple,” said Cox in a video rebuttal to the CFTC. Prediction markets are “destroying the lives of families and countless Americans” and have “no place in Utah.”

Prediction market regulation is the “first major issue in which Cox has clashed with Trump” during his second term, the AP said. That’s not wholly unexpected, given the degree to which gambling “goes against a sense of work ethic, a kind of fair exchange” central to how many residents think about about themselves “in terms of Utah identity, and certainly Latter-day Saint identity and ethics,” said Patrick Mason, a Utah State University professor of Mormon history and culture, to the AP.

Although “real-money online casinos” remain illegal across Utah, various alternatives are being used “at a rate that surprises even industry analysts,” said the Standard Examiner. Sports betting may, for the time, remain banned, but analytics-minded residents turn to prediction markets to experience the “depth and excitement these analysis tools offer,” thereby “scratching that itch without crossing the line legally.” The pivot from cultural interest in brick-and-mortar casinos to digital betting alternatives “that feel more like Candy Crush than Caesars Palace” has helped “soften” resistance to online casino-style gaming, “even in a conservative state.”

To date, “different courts have ruled in different directions” on whether or not prediction markets constitute overt online gambling, said The Salt Lake City Tribune. With cases in the Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal, it’s likely that “we’re headed for the Supreme Court to decide this ultimately, but it’ll probably take years.”

The winter months in Europe are dominated by skiers heading for the Alps. But before you “(snow)plough on with your usual ski holiday booking”, why not see what else is out there to scratch the adrenaline itch, said Rhiannon Batten in The Times.

If there was one thing to take from the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina this year, it’s that snow sports can take many, many forms. Here are some of our top recommendations for your upcoming coolcations across Europe.

Skijöring in Switzerland

The country’s “sporty mountain resorts” have always offered “far more than just downhill skiing”, said National Geographic. As you can imagine with such isolated Alpine communities, traditionally “getting from A to B in winter has often required ingenuity”.

Enter “skijöring”, also known as “horse-powered skiing”. The sport was exhibited at the first Winter Olympics, in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Try it for yourself in the Alpine resort village of Arosa, where a “horse-drawn sleigh takes riders from railway station to hotel”.

But perhaps the crown jewel is skijöring across the “sparkling Lake St Moritz”. With winter walking, ice skating and snowshoeing also on offer, Switzerland offers “some of the most diverse ways to have fun on frozen water”.

Wolf tracking in Abruzzo, Italy

Wolves have been “making a comeback” in Italy, said Batten. As a result of rewilding drives in Abruzzo National Park, visitors have the “chance to find out more about this keystone species” and its historical links to the region.

With trips available to Apennine Wolf Museum, the more adventurous can also embark on “hikes, snowshoe expeditions and torchlight forays into the surrounding mountains in the hope of sightings and to listen to the howling”. On your return, traditional “homemade pasta, proper pizzas and cups of rich hot chocolate” are the perfect way to warm up after your adventure.

Hiking in Germany

“It’s a mystery as to why the spectacular landscapes of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in eastern Germany remain so under the radar,” said Annabelle Thorpe in The Guardian. This is a hiker’s dream, with “sandstone cliffs, dramatic gorges” and “flat-topped mesas”.

There is a famous self-guided walking tour through the region – known as “Saxon Switzerland” – which “takes in quiet villages of timber-framed cottages and dense pine forest, cloaking the peaks that sweep up to the sandstone spires”. Starting in Bad Schandau, “home to the spectacular, 11-metre-high Kuhstall rock gate and the beautiful Lichtenhain waterfall”, it provides plenty of opportunity to indulge in the area’s culinary delights. Expect piles of Spätzle, sausage and lentil soup, and marzipan cakes at traditional “Berggasthofs”, or mountain inns, en route.

Northern Lights tours in Norway

“Watching the ethereal Northern Lights as they dance across the skies is possibly one of the most awe-inspiring activities you can enjoy on a snow holiday,” said Jo Blyth in Country Living. Alta in the far north of Norway is nicknamed the “Northern Lights city” for a reason. It is one of the best places in the country to see the aurora borealis, so consider embarking on a tour to “discover the magic of Norway’s fjords, villages, and coastal towns in their winter glory”.

North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive and patriarchal countries, dominates in a surprising arena: women’s football.

The hermit kingdom became a powerhouse after the regime invested heavily in the women’s game as a tool of soft power and propaganda. The youth team still excels internationally, but after losing the Asian Cup final to Australia in 2010 the senior team “all but disappeared from global competition”, said The Guardian.

Now, the Eastern Azaleas are back in the tournament, playing their opening match against Uzbekistan in Sydney tomorrow. Invigorated by a “new generation of youth World Cup winners”, they are “hoping to return to the summit of Asian football”.

Rise and fall

At Fifa’s annual congress in 1986, the Norwegian delegate “demanded the creation of a World Cup for women”, said The Guardian. North Korean officials, so the story goes, were “inspired”. They returned to Pyongyang with a plan to use women’s football as a “tool to reassert their collapsing power on the world stage”.

Like China, the government saw sport as an opportunity to “strengthen their international profile”. Under Kim Jong Il, the women’s game “became a proxy platform” for North Korea’s political agenda. The government introduced development programmes in schools, built new facilities and even had teams in the military where players trained full-time at the state’s expense. That investment “paid off almost immediately”.

Between the 1990s and the 2010s, North Korea had one of the world’s best women’s football teams, winning three Asian Cup titles and more trophies across the continent. Then Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 and, like his father, made competitive sport a “key policy priority”, said Jung Woo Lee, senior sport lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, on The Conversation. Any victory on the global stage “helps boost nationalism among the country’s people”. As North Korea grew more internationally isolated, sport became one of the only avenues through which it could assert itself.

But in 2011, a major doping scandal “put the brakes on this success”. Five players tested positive for a banned steroid at the Women’s World Cup in Germany. North Korea had a “bizarre excuse”, said The Times, claiming they had been “struck by lightning” and given a traditional Chinese medicine of deer musk gland, which caused the positive tests. Fifa was “not persuaded”.

North Korea was banned from the 2015 World Cup, then failed to qualify for the Asian Cup in 2018 and the World Cup in 2019. Tightening sanctions also made it impossible for players to sign overseas contracts. Then, when the pandemic hit, North Korea shut its borders and withdrew from both tournaments.

The missing decade

During the senior team’s missing decade, the youth teams flourished. The regime has “developed a sporting powerhouse of young girls”, said The Observer.

In 2013, it opened a state-run elite training facility to develop talent. At the Pyongyang International Football School, young girls are “selected, developed and educated following a highly disciplined and scientific approach”, said DW.

The first generation of graduates from that school are the reigning under-20 and under-17 World Cup and Asian Cup champions, and have won five of these titles since 2020. They have “cemented their status as the dominant force in women’s youth football”.

Their success is “the product of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening national pride and boosting the country’s international standing”, said Lee. Domestically, the regime uses the popular sport of football as a “propaganda tool to glorify their leaders and also how great their country is”, Lee told DW.

Many North Korean media reports say that players under a communist regime “do whatever they can, even if they’re physically exhausted”, said Lee. “Then they directly compare those mentalities with capitalist countries.” When those athletes are exhausted, they are substituted.

“That psychological element has seemingly given the team an edge, but beyond a strong sense of patriotism and years of disciplined work lies the motivation of a life-changing reward.” The regime can give players living in poorer rural areas, where food and healthcare shortages are common, a chance of a far better life in Pyongyang. It’s like “winning a lottery”, said Lee.

It remains to be seen whether North Korea can qualify for the senior women’s World Cup in Brazil next year. But this year’s Asian Cup, said The Guardian, will be “the best glimpse yet of whether this old, unlikely superpower of women’s football is rumbling back to life”.

Competitive sports are a reliable foundation on which to build solid comedy and drama. The great thing about these eight superb shows is that you don’t need to know much of anything at all about sports to enjoy them.

‘Sports Night’ (1998-2000)

Creator Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived but beloved cult classic followed the hosts and producers of a fictional nightly sports recap show trying to compete with ESPN’s pioneering “SportsCenter.” Josh Charles starred in a breakout role as the show’s co-host Dan Rydell, alongside Casey McCall (Peter Krause), as the pair and executive producer Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) chase the ESPN ratings behemoth.

Looking back, it is truly hard to believe that ABC saddled the series and its witty, fast-moving dialogue with a laugh track in its first season. A show “populated by characters whose jobs define who they are,” it was “full of walk-and-talks, clipboards and very important meetings,” said Ciara Moloney at Paste Magazine. The result was “unadulterated Sorkin — with all of his strengths and none of his weaknesses.” (Prime Video)

‘Friday Night Lights’ (2006-2011)

Adapted from the hit 2004 film, “Friday Night Lights” is an intimate look at a Texas high school football team and one of the last truly magnificent network television shows before the streaming era gave us the concept of “prestige TV.” Kyle Chandler is the show’s moral center as Coach Eric Taylor, whose team is the pride of fictional Dillon, Texas. Connie Britton plays his wife, Tami, and the strength of the pair’s performances covered up for some uneven acting from the high school ensemble. The first season of the show was “great in the way of a poem or painting, great in the way of art with a single obsessive creator who doesn’t have to consult with a committee and has months or years to go back and agonize over line breaks and the color red,” said Virginia Heffernan at The New York Times. (Prime Video)

‘The League’ (2009-2015)

Fantasy sports are an enormous, if niche, industry, and FX’s “The League” might be the only sports show ever to focus on a group of friends and their sometimes relationship-wrecking obsession with this odd little hobby. Mark Duplass stars as Pete, the reigning champ of the titular fantasy football league when the show starts, and Katie Aselton is a consistent standout as football savant Jenny, who competes in the league with her husband, Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi).

Featuring “time-honored elements of screwball comedy,” the best humor in this fantastic series comes not from the league but “from equal opportunity humiliation that is the basis of their friendships,” said David Wiegand at SFGate. Like the amoral gang in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” no one in “The League” ever grows or learns — and that’s part of the fun. (Disney+)

‘Eastbound & Down’ (2009-2013)

Washed-up major-leaguer Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) returns to his hometown to take a job as a substitute gym teacher after yapping his way out of professional baseball in creators Ben Best, Jody Hill and Danny McBrides’s cringe-inducing HBO Max comedy. The show’s gamble is that rather than a redemption arc, Powers’ “very public crash and burn is only the beginning of his downward spiral,” said Wired, exacerbated by him having the “capacity to care about and even love others, but he’ll sacrifice anyone if it means he can step back into the spotlight.” Harboring dreams of returning to baseball, he crashes with his brother Dustin (John Hawkes) and tries to reconnect with high school flame, April (Katy Mixon). (HBO Max)

‘GLOW’ (2017-2019)

The 1980s-set “GLOW” gave us three superb seasons of wrestling and drama before Netflix axed it. Alison Brie is Ruth Wilder, an aspiring actress in Los Angeles whose career is going nowhere. She accepts an invitation to audition for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, where she is cast along with her estranged friend, Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin), and directed by aging film director Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), who looks like he would rather be literally anywhere else.

But when Ruth takes on the moniker “Zoya the Destroya” she transforms her professional life and finds a path she can really throw herself into while trying to repair the damage to her relationship with Debbie. Together their exploits create a “quiet and simple masterpiece that deserves to be the most popular show on television,” said Matt Gannon at TV Wasteland. (Netflix)

‘Brockmire’ (2017-2020)

A decade after a drunken, on-air meltdown caused him to lose his job as a major league baseball announcer, Jim Brockmire (Hank Azaria) returns stateside to take a job with the woebegone, minor league Morristown Frackers. The team’s owner, Jules James (Amanda Peet), thinks that hiring the washed-up Brockmire will put her team and its rust belt town on the map.

This somewhat familiar set-up is elevated by the show’s surreal sense of humor, as well as by the foul-mouthed Brockmire’s endless antics. The show works “both as a snapshot of this aging oddity of Americana and a universal story about a washed-up person coming to terms with himself,” said Sonia Saraiya at Variety. (Netflix)

‘Ted Lasso’ (2020-)

When it debuted on August 14, 2020, the world was six months into the miserable Covid-19 pandemic, and the Apple TV+ dramedy was not only a poignant, low-stakes lifeline for millions of viewers, it also put the relatively new streamer on the map with its first big hit. Jason Sudeikis plays the title character, a U.S. college football coach who agrees to accept a bizarre job offer to manage a fictional English Premiere League soccer team, AFC Richmond.

Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) acquired the team in a divorce from her gross ex-husband and wants to run it into the ground to spite him only to find that she can’t resist Lasso’s aw-shucks charm and that his leadership sparks a renewal led by veteran star Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein). Sudeikis’ Lasso is “practically impossible not to like,” said Nick Harley at Den of Geek, and the “easy charms of a well-executed, feel-good sports story make it a breezy, low-effort watch that just about anyone can enjoy.” (Apple TV+)

‘Heated Rivalry’ (2025)

This discourse-driving hit is set during the Obama years (Yes, 2017 is now the stuff of period pieces) and depicts a secret, steamy romance between Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two young stars who break into fictional Major League Hockey at the same time for different clubs. Early in the series, their romance takes place mostly in hotels as the pair struggle with how they might be perceived if word gets out, especially the Russian Rozanov, whose home country is considerably more dangerous for gay men than Hollander’s.

The sex is “plentiful, quite explicit, and, I’ll say it, pretty hot,” said Naomi Fry at The New Yorker. But a bigger “part of the pleasure for viewers” is the “show’s plainspoken articulation of desire, when the love that dare not speak its name finally does.” (HBO Max)

The Premier League has turned a “tactical corner”, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. Corners and set-pieces generally are back in fashion, much to the annoyance of some fans who claim they are the antithesis of the beautiful game.

Clubs are employing specialist set-piece coaches, and players are celebrating winning corners, allowing them to perform their well-rehearsed routines in front of goal. After years of “strategy and technique”, and the dominance of patient, possession-based football, fans are concerned that packed penalty areas and the all-in wrestling between opposing players is ruining the spectacle of the English game.

‘It doesn’t feel right’

Most of what goes on from dead-ball situations “is not strictly against the rules per se”, but it’s a question of optics, said Football 365. Players can stand where they want, and have no obligation to move to allow others to challenge for the ball. The issue is that when “12-14 players” are all doing the same thing in such an enclosed space, it “jars with what the game is supposed to be. It doesn’t feel right.”

Tony Pulis, who managed Stoke City and Crystal Palace in the Premier League in the late 2000s and 2010s, was known for his “pragmatic” approach, he said on the BBC. “I was seen as a dinosaur for my focus on dead-ball situations and long throws”, but “I knew back then how important they were”.

Premier League leaders Arsenal have led the way in the resurgence of set-pieces. Their 37 league goals from corners since the start of the 2023-24 season far eclipsing the next-best 26 by German side Borussia Monchengladbach out of all teams in Europe’s top five leagues.

Some people are “snobbish” about the role of set-pieces in the game, said Pulis, but “the expectation, and the pressure they put on the opposition, is amazing”. Ignore the inevitable criticism, “what matters is winning”.

The “suddenness” of the change in approach from English teams has been “remarkable” but this “present trend will fade away”, said Wilson in The Guardian. The obsession with possession-based tactics, as well as widening financial inequality, has led to opposition teams defending in a compact “low block”, feeling unable to compete skill-wise. A “reversion to something more physical” in the game certainly poses a threat, but in a game of tactical cycles “this too will pass”.

‘Action is needed’

Some scenes in the recent game between Everton and Manchester United were an “absolute disgrace”, said Martin Samuel in The Times. We have grown used to a “melee of grabbing, holding, pushing, pulling, grappling, backing in” penalty areas. The game has become dominated by a “supposedly unsolvable wrestling issue” and fans are not happy about it.

Nothing is being done to safeguard the “beautiful game”. Governing bodies “obsess over trivia and the trivial”, exemplified by the International Football Association Board prioritising things like five-second countdowns for goal-kicks. “No group is less qualified to decide on football’s rules than Ifab”, and it has already made a “mess” of video replays, offside and handball rulings.

“Enough already,” said Graham Scott, a former Premier League referee, in The Telegraph. Corners are “ruining the spectacle” of football with all the “wrestling, grappling and holding”, but referees have a “nearly impossible job to decide who is truly to blame”. Occasionally, a clear pull or obstruction in the fracas around the six-yard box is “black and white, but there are more than 50 shades of grey in between”. With fans having little “appetite” for lengthy VAR delays, officials must “walk a tightrope” to decide what is “fair and foul”.

So “action is needed”. To try to fix the issue, “I would imitate hockey by forcing teams to place a certain number of players in the other half” to reduce congestion. In a “more radical move”, defenders could be inside the six-yard box and attackers outside it when a corner is taken, separating them entirely.

What happened

The 2026 Winter Olympics concluded in Italy Sunday with a closing ceremony in Verona’s 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater. Verona is about halfway between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the two host cities for the Games, and people in the stadium watched via video link as the Olympic flames were extinguished in each city’s cauldron. In the final competition of the Games, the U.S. men’s hockey team beat Canada in overtime Sunday to win their first Olympic gold medal since 1980.

Who said what

“Thank you Italy, for these magical Games,” International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said, in Italian, at the closing ceremony. “You delivered a new kind of Winter Games and you set a very high standard for the future.” If the “opening ceremony emphasized the unprecedented spread-out nature of these Games,” The Athletic said, “the closing ceremony brought them back together.” It “opened with a whimsical tribute to Italian lyric opera,” and included aerial ballet, Italian rock and a DJ set, before ending with a light show, The Associated Press said.

Italy won its highest Winter Olympics medal count ever — 30, including 10 gold — putting it in third place behind Norway (41 medals, including 18 gold) and the U.S. (33 medals, including 12 gold). It was a “Winter Olympics to remember,” with “drama, thrills, moments of hilarity and plenty of gripping medal action,” CNN said. And the concluding “frenetic” men’s hockey final was “an instant classic.”

What next?

The Winter Olympic baton “now passes to the French Alps, which are expected to follow a similar blueprint of using multiple existing winter sports venues in 2030,” Reuters said. But first, the Milan Cortina Paralympics will begin March 6 with an opening ceremony in the same Verona Arena, and Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.