England’s Lionesses are looking to make history when they face Spain in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday.
After their stunning 3-1 victory over hosts Australia this week, the Lionesses will now be aiming to become the first senior England football team since 1966 to lift a World Cup.
But as excitement builds across the country, fans of the women’s game have been left disgruntled by the news that Prince William, president of the Football Association (FA) and as such responsible for promoting the sport both nationally and internationally, would not be attending the final at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
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The FA said a trip down under had never been planned despite the chance of England reaching the final. But the lack of royal attendance could prove controversial after the Royal Spanish Football Federation announced that Spain’s Queen Letizia and her 16-year-old daughter Sofia will be at the game, “to show, once again, the royal household’s support for national football”.
Meanwhile, in the US, leading Republican presidential hopefuls, including Donald Trump, former vice-president Mike Pence and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, kicked off their campaigns at a traditional state fair last weekend.
Trump, the former president, showed he would “not concede even a moment of the spotlight” to his rivals, said The New York Times. He was given “a much warmer reception” than his main challenger DeSantis, who has “struggled to connect with voters in more unscripted moments” and was even booed by the very Trump supporters he “hopes to win over”.
To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest developments in the news and other global events, put your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week.
1. Ancient graves believed to have belonged to Knights Templar from the 12th century have been rediscovered in which English county?
Worcestershire
Staffordshire
Gloucestershire
Herefordshire
2. What type of health hazard is currently increasingly rapidly in the UK?
Bed bugs
Measles
Influenza
Lice
3. Harrison Ford has had a new species of which animal named after him?
Crocodile
Snake
Bat
Elephant
4. Which airline hit the headlines after charging an elderly couple £110 to print new boarding passes?
British Airways
EasyJet
Aer Lingus
Ryanair
5. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out a Brexit-style referendum on which 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge?
Introduction of a points-based immigration system
Net zero by 2050
Freezing tuition fees
Keeping the pension “triple lock”
6. In this week’s World Cup semi-final against Australia, which Lioness scored the decisive third goal?
Lauren Hemp
Ella Toone
Alessia Russo
Rachel Daly
7. Candidates for the Republican presidential nomination headed to which campaign-opening state summer fair last weekend?
Iowa
Indiana
Idaho
Illinois
8. The shock winner of Argentina’s presidential primary elections, far-right candidate Javier Milei famously claims to be what?
A tantric sex coach
A male stripper
A penis model
An erotic masseur
9. The Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation after several items were found to have been “missing, stolen or damaged” from which major museum?
Natural History Museum
British Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Wallace Collection
10. Michael Oher, the real-life subject of Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side”, has accused his adoptive parents Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of what?
White saviorism
Concealing communication from his birth parents
Getting him to sign papers making them his conservators
Selling personal stories about his wife to the press
1. Staffordshire
Historian Edward Spencer Dyas said eight ancient graves in the churchyard of St Mary’s, in Enville, Staffordshire, could belong to Knights Templar, members of a medieval religious military order. The researcher said the discovery means the 12th-century church could be “one of the most nationally important churches in the country”.
2. Bed bugs
Pest control company Rentokil has reported a 65% year-on-year increase in bed-bug infestations. The rise has been attributed to the popularity of recycling furniture, as well as a resurgence of travel since the pandemic.
3. Snake
Harrison Ford has had a species of Peruvian snake named after him – the Tachymenoides harrisonfordi – in honour of his environmental work as vice-chair of Conservation International. Ford’s legendary Indiana Jones character famously fears snakes, but the actor said he likes serpents and “found a quick kinship with this one”. For more stories from the stranger side of life, subscribe to our Tall Tales newsletter.
4. Ryanair
Ruth Jaffe, 79, and her husband Peter, 80, were forced to pay the fee after they “accidentally downloaded their return boarding passes instead of the outgoing ones for a flight to France”, reported The Guardian. The couple told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that the airline’s “confusing” website design had led to the error. Find out more on this week’s episode of The Week Unwrapped.
5. Net zero by 2050
MPs from the Conservative right and so-called “Red Wall” Tories are among those pressing Sunak to commit to a vote on the issue, but the PM told ITV News that “most people are committed to getting to net zero”.
6. Alessia Russo
The reigning European champions will play in their first ever World Cup final, taking on Spain on Sunday after defeating Australia 3-1. The game will mark the first time any senior England football side has reached a World Cup final since 1966.
7. Iowa
Donald Trump, his former vice-president Mike Pence and Florida governor Ron DeSantis kicked off their bids for the Republican presidential nomination at the state fair in Iowa last weekend. Although the caucuses are not until January, the Iowa State Fair is a “rite of passage for presidential candidates”, said John McCormick at The Wall Street Journal.
8. A tantric sex coach
Javier Milei sent the value of the peso plummeting when he pulled off a landslide win in the primary elections. The far-right economics professor “shot to daytime TV fame” in the 2010s, said The Guardian, as a self-described “tantric sex coach who spoke openly about his preference for threesomes”.
9. British Museum
After “what is believed to be the largest breach of security in a decade”, said The Times, the British Museum announced yesterday that an employee has been dismissed and will face legal action. No arrests have yet been made and the museum is conducting an independent review into what happened. “The irreplaceable items” that were “taken from the vaults” include gold jewellery, semi-precious gemstones and glass dating from the 15th-century BC to the 19th-century AD, said The Telegraph.
10. Getting him to sign papers making them his conservators
The ex-American football star has claimed that unlike in the Hollywood version of events, the Tuohys did not adopt Oher. Instead, they lied and got him to sign papers making them his conservators. The family has said they are “devastated” by the allegations, which they deny.
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Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.
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