Alun Wyn Jones, the record cap-holder in international rugby, has announced his retirement from the international game at 37-years-old. Jones played 170 times for Wales and the British and Irish Lions across an international career lasting 17 years. The announcement makes Jones the second Wales rugby player to retire in four days, after Justin Tipuric retired from international duty.
Tejay Fletcher, the mastermind behind the £100m iSpoof fraud platform, has been sentenced in the UK to over 13 years in prison at Southwark Crown Court. Fletcher's website offered subscribers digital tools enabling them to pose as bank staff so as to scam their victims, many of whom were UK bank customers. Prosecution noted losses in excess of £43m in the UK alone from iSpoof's activities. Fletcher personally received bitcoin worth £2m from the scam and was found to have a Lamborghini, two Range Rovers and a Rolex when arrested.
Wales flanker Justin Tipuric has retired from international rugby with immediate effect, less than four months before Wales' World Cup opener against Fiji. Tipuric made his international debut in 2011 and played an integral role in Wales' teams for more than a decade, helping the country win four Six Nations titles, including two Grand Slams. Tipuric was recently named in a 54-player preliminary training squad for the tournament by head coach Warren Gatland.
Health professionals missed warning signs that Zara Radcliffe, a woman with schizophrenia, was experiencing rapid deterioration before she killed an 88-year-old man in a Co-op in Penygraig, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in May 2020, according to an independent review requested by the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board. The report said Radcliffe's contact with mental health professionals began in 2016, and she was known to a range of services. It also said Radcliffe's parents raised concerns over aspects of their daughter's care, but they were estranged from mental health and other professionals. The report made seven recommendations.
Wales will be without two of its most experienced players, flanker Justin Tipuric and lock Alun Wyn Jones, for the Rugby World Cup in France after both players announced their retirements from international rugby. Tipuric retired on Friday, while Jones confirmed his own retirement the following day. Jones is the game's most capped player with 158 appearances for Wales and 12 for the British and Irish Lions, but age – he is 37 – has now caught up with him. Wales head coach Warren Gatland had named both Tipuric and Jones in his squad of 54 players for the World Cup. Gatland must juggle the challenge of replacing almost 250 caps worth of leadership as well as taking the team he is trying to reshape in a new direction without losing the core elements that delivered three Six Nations Grand Slams and a World Cup semi-final in the past decade. Jones will play one final match for the Barbarians at Twickenham before his retirement takes effect.
Oxford University's decision to support freedom of speech over its 'snowflake' students is an indication that the tide may be turning in favour of free speech, according to this opinion piece. The move comes after certain members of the student union attempted to stop Professor Kathleen Stock, a feminist, from speaking at the Oxford Union. The 'same group have been defeated' along with the 'woke companies intent on ramming their marginal and often extremist beliefs down their customers' throats,' writes Allison Pearson in the Daily Telegraph. Her critique is also aimed at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their claims that they were victims of a 'near catastrophic car chase' in New York last week.
Birmingham's South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) appears to be successfully helping talented cricketers to avoid "slipping through the county net", according to The Guardian's Ali Martin. A little over two years ago, the England and Wales Cricket Board revealed that players of south Asian descent made up 30% of recreational cricketers in England and Wales but just 4% of professionals. In this season's first-class cricket alone, the SACA has seen three graduates make their debuts in the County Championship, with seven having graduated and signed professional contracts to date.
Network Rail is to spend £1bn to make the any adaptations to the UK rail system needed to mitigate the impact of climate change. Measures to shore up embankments and improve drainage will be among the weather resilience initiatives supported by the funds, more than double the £500m spent on such measures over the past five years. The company will also allocate £600m to make the rail network more environmentally friendly, for example by reducing carbon emissions and enhancing biodiversity around tracks. However, the company cautioned that spent carefully over the five year period to 2029, areas of infrastructure including tracks will deteriorate. The firm will continue to prioritise safety-critical areas such as signalling.
The announcement comes after the UK government pledged £44.1bn for rail infrastructure for 2024 to 2029. The amount is an 8.1% increase on the current period’s budget, but represents a smaller-than-inflation rise. The rail system has faced significant challenges from increasingly frequent and severe flooding and the lessening of embankments’ stability due to drought. A report by regulator the Office of Rail and Road said Network Rail was behind on inspections of key infrastructure such as bridges, meaning safety and reliability are open to risk.
Alun Wyn Jones, the 37-year-old Ospreys lock, has retired from Test rugby after earning 158 caps for Wales Rugby and making 12 British and Irish Lions Test appearances. His decision comes after Wales flanker Justin Tipuric, who earned 93 caps, also announced his retirement from the international stage. Both players had been named in a 54-player preliminary training squad for the World Cup, and their departure less than four months ahead of Wales' opener against Fiji will be a major blow. Jones is regarded as one of Wales' greatest-ever players.
England women's national football team player, Ella Toone, has said that despite injuries to key players Leah Williamson and Fran Kirby ahead of the World Cup, England are still well-equipped to prosper against teams such as Australia and New Zealand. Although maintaining fitness and endurance is challenging for athletes, Toone says she is optimistic. England are one of 10 teams that have automatically qualified for the tournament in 2023, held jointly across Australia and New Zealand. However, there are currently no plans in place to ensure equal pay between men and women players competing in the tournament.
A convicted neo-Nazi's website Purity And Decadence remains active despite his prison sentence for hate crimes, with new content posted as recently as Friday, according to media reports. James Allchurch, 51, from Gelli in Pembrokeshire, goes by the name Sven Longshanks on the site, ahead of Edward I, after ordering the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. Counter-terrorism police confirmed that only material that met a criminal threshold could be removed, however media lawyer Steve Kunewicz suggested that the content could also be shared online. The site is hosted by Epik Holdings, associated with far-right sites including InfoWars, owned by American Alex Jones.
Ice cream makers in the UK have reduced their variety of flavours due to increases in ingredient and production costs, with many likely to offer only traditional flavours. Many businesses have reduced production to save money, but the lack of variety may result in fewer sales. Some customers have suggested makers raise the prices of certain flavoured ice creams, acknowledging the costs of ingredients such as nuts. The UK government has pledged to support people and businesses “through these difficult times”, with over 400,000 people in Wales receiving £301 from the government in the last few weeks.
Rishi Sunak's bright red socks, featuring the logo of a Hiroshima baseball team, have sold out in Japan and online. The £8 socks caused a run on sales after they were featured on local media. Sunak wore them while having dinner with the Japanese Prime Minister and since then, the Hiroshima region has sold out of them. The designer of the product said they had not received any orders or enquires from the UK beforehand and is overwhelmed by the international exposure.
Labour has claimed that more than 23,000 people died in emergency departments (A&E) in England due to record waiting times. The data was obtained through freedom of information requests. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine had warned that long waiting times can have “catastrophic consequences for patient safety and mortality”. NHS trusts provided data to Labour which appears to confirm a total of 23,316 lives were lost in emergency departments. Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the figures "were shocking and concerning, and the system was clearly not working as it should."
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated that "cars in New York are not really my priority" in response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s team having claimed they avoided a "near catastrophic car chase" in the city. Harry and Meghan were followed by paparazzi after attending an awards ceremony with the Duchess’s mother, Doria Ragland, as per a spokesman for the couple. The New York Police Department said that there were no arrests, injuries or reported collisions, but reports say that numerous photographers "made their transport difficult" on Tuesday evening.
The incident sparked criticism from royal fans who claim that the paparazzi “learned nothing from Diana” following the tragic car accident that killed Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. The royal couple’s security guard and cab driver have given differing accounts of the chase. A spokesperson for the royals claimed that a “near catastrophic” car chase unfolded after the couple and Ms Markle’s mother attended an awards ceremony in New York City. The “two-hour-long” chase reportedly resulted in multiple near collisions involving “other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers,” the spokesperson said.
Opera gloves, stretching past the elbow, have become the must-have accessory for 2022. Celebrities such as Emily Maitlis, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Billie Piper have embraced the trend and opera gloves frequently appear amongst Beyoncé's outfits for her Renaissance tour. Genevieve James, whose company Cornelia James once exclusively supplied Queen Elizabeth's gloves, credits the costume drama trend, spurred on by shows like Downton Abbey and Bridgerton, as leading the resurgence of evening gloves. Paula Rowan, another glovemaker, described elbow-length gloves as a way to "finish" an outfit and a great way to add a pop of colour while transforming a look.
The number of patients in England dying in hospital A&E departments rose by a third to over 23,000 people in 2022 compared with 2019, according to Labour analysis of figures obtained under freedom of information laws from 62 NHS trusts. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has previously identified 23,000 “excess patient deaths” due to long waits in A&E in 2022 alone. Last year, almost 350,000 people waited over 12 hours in A&E before admission and more than 1.6 million patients waited more than four hours, against an interim Government goal of 76% by March 2024.
A fan of Wrexham AFC from Patagonia is raising funds to travel 7,000 miles to attend a game at the Racecourse stadium next season. David Mardones became a fan of the Welsh football team after being introduced to them by a Welsh friend and has since joined the Y Wladfa Wrexham fan group. The Welsh community in Argentina's Welsh-speaking region still speaks Welsh, 150 years after the land was originally settled by Welsh pioneers who established Y Wladfa, which is home to 2,000 to 5,000 Argentinians speaking Welsh.
The UK Government's £1bn Eco+ scheme, dubbed the Great British Insulation Scheme, will run until March 2026 and is aimed at retrofitting thousands of the least efficient homes in the lowest council tax bands. While the scheme will mainly focus on cheaper measures, such as loft and cavity wall insulation, some experts argue that more substantial solutions are necessary, in particular "enhanced incentives for people to swap their gas boilers for low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps”. Estimates suggest households could save approximately £310 per year. According to advisory unit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, while the boiler upgrade scheme is set to run until 2028, the vouchers could run out of before then due to increased demand.
Katie Taylor faces Chantelle Cameron in ‘huge boxing event for Ireland’ as national hero attempts to become a two-weight undisputed world champion
CNN
23-05-20 12:22
Irish boxer Katie Taylor will make her professional fighting debut in her native Ireland on 20 May, opposing world champion Chantelle Cameron in Dublin's 3Arena stadium. However, the event, which is one of the most eagerly awaited boxing bouts of the year, is also being seen as a key moment for the sport in the country. Boxing promotions were suspended in Ireland after gunmen killed one person during a weigh-in for a fight in a Dublin hotel in 2016.
Before the incident, MTK Global, the boxing agency that trained Cameron and with ties to Daniel Kinahan, had been involved in Irish boxing. The US Treasure Department has described Kinahan as the leader of the “a murderous organisation involved in the international trafficking of drugs and firearms" and in 2021, MTK Global ceased operating.
Four international boxing promotions have since taken place in the country, but Taylor's fight is by far the biggest. With tickets costing up to €1,500 ($1,616) for VIP packages, the chair of the Boxing Union of Ireland, Mel Christle, says the bout between Taylor and Cameron could be the biggest event of of its kind ever held in the country.
