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France have scored a tournament-leading 14 goals in the World Cup so far but coach Didier Deschamps urged his players on Wednesday to achieve even greater attacking efficiency when they take on Morocco in Thursday's quarter-final. The meeting is a rematch of the 2022 World Cup semi-final, when France ended Morocco's historic run in Qatar, but this time the North Africans are no longer the surprise outsiders but a confident side aiming for the title. ‘We have to be efficient, offensively speaking,’ Deschamps told a press conference. ‘In all the areas both teams have strong assets.’ ‘We are efficient but we could have done better on this front. Sometimes you have six chances and score two goals and sometimes you have two chances and score twice. It is more important to be efficient.’ France edged past Paraguay in the round of 16 with a scrappy 1-0 win courtesy of a Kylian Mbappe penalty. The France captain has seven goals in the tournament, second behind Argentina's Lionel Messi, who has eight. Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola have given France one of the most dangerous forward lines at the World Cup. Morocco eased through their group stage, before knocking out Netherlands and co-hosts Canada, and confirming their status as serious title contenders. ‘Morocco's profile is not the one of Paraguay. We met them four years ago in the semi-finals,’ Deschamps said. ‘They played the AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) final. They have top individuals. They are not here to play. They are here to win. We have to be ready and perform and deliver against this great team.’ Deschamps will need to wait and see whether midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, who has been nursing a muscle injury, will be fit in time for the game. ‘He feels better but I left early from the hotel this morning. I cannot say more. He might take part in training today. All other players they are available,’ Deschamps said. As for France's appeal to have Michael Olise's yellow card in the game against Paraguay rescinded, Deschamps said FIFA had informed them the caution stood. The ruling comes days after the furore caused by FIFA's decision to suspend a match ban after a red card was given to U.S. player Folarin Balogun and following an intervention by President Donald Trump. Source link
The United States said Wednesday it will delist Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a decades-old designation that severely impeded investment, in a new vote of confidence in leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.Secretary of State Marco Rubio notified Congress of the long-expected move, which will be effective in 45 days unless lawmakers take the unlikely step of blocking it.The step came as President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey with Sharaa, a former jihadist who has sought to recast himself as a unifying figure after the 2024 toppling of the Assad family, which ruled with an iron fist for a half century.’This is yet another historic step by President Trump to give the Syrian people a chance at greatness,’ Rubio said in a statement.’Lifting sanctions on Syria will unlock international trade and investment, give Syria a chance to rebuild, and open up a new chapter for the Syrian people,’ he said.Trump's embrace of Sharaa comes despite misgivings from Israel, which has repeatedly launched airstrikes in Syria, one of its historic adversaries.Trump had earlier publicly pressed for Syria to make peace with Israel but went ahead with the delisting decision despite a lack of tangible progress.Rubio said in his statement that ‘a stable, unified Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors benefits not only the region, but the entire world.’Syria is seeking economic support to rebuild after years of brutal war that helped rise to the Islamic State extremist group and generated a major refugee crisis.Meeting in Ankara with Sharaa, who has traded his guerrilla fatigues for a suit, Trump said, ‘He's doing an unbelievable job in unifying Syria. What a job he's doing.”Syria was a mess with what happened with the previous government,’ Trump said. Source link
Key quotes from the 10th day of Wimbledon at the All England Club on Wednesday:”My thoughts are that it’s terrible. I think it’s very, very far from fair play for all the countries involved here, not just for Ukraine. I 100 percent don’t agree with this decision. I just want to go out there and hopefully beat every single Russian I play in Olympics, and that’s it.”– Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk slams the decision to provisionally lift the ban on Russians competing at the 2028 Olympics.”I felt emotions that I’ve never experienced before in my life in that last game. It just seems to get better and better every match. It was incredible playing on Centre Court for the second time and getting a second win. I was very nervous beforehand but I just kept going until the finish line. I just can’t believe it.”– Britain’s Arthur Fery was emotional after becoming the first male wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in 25 years.”It’s OK, you guys can all be for Fery, I understand it. It is going to be an exciting day for both of us. For him, it is a Fery tale story for Arthur Fery. See what I did there! Last year at this time I was practising on the hard court already. It is a dream come true to finally play well at Wimbledon. I hope to play two more matches here.”– French Open champion Alexander Zverev joked with the crowd on Court One after being told his last four opponent will be Fery, who beat Flavio Cobolli.”We had two matches against each other, actually. Both of those, I was just kind of stunned that I was on the same court with Petra Kvitova. As a kid, I was always looking up to her. When I didn’t really know much about tennis, she was the face of Czech tennis. I would love to follow her in her footsteps.”– Linda Noskova, a semi-final debutant at the All England Club, aims to emulate fellow Czech and former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.”I almost wish I knew before so I could have just prepared to play a match where I was going to be playing through it. I felt like the whole first set I was, like I said, three games in is when I started feeling it. I was already down a break. I was just like panicking, What am I going to do? I just didn’t expect it at all.”– Taylor Fritz was hampered by an unexpected knee injury in his loss to Zverev.”Play a quarter-final against a guy that already played marathon match, many hours on court, ranking lower than me, so I felt like it was a chance to have a good day for me today. Maybe, like my team says, I wasn’t so humble since the first point, but I felt that it wasn’t my day. Can happen.”– Cobolli hinted he underestimated Fery after the Italian ninth seed’s loss to the world number 114. Related Story Source link
Rory McIlroy spent the majority of the past seven weeks in Europe, heading “home” for a combination of rest and prep for the links golf double that begins Thursday at the Scottish Open.McIlroy didn’t exactly keep a low profile during the break in tournament golf. He wore his Masters champion green jacket to the Royal Box at Wimbledon alongside Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and played a round at Royal Birkdale, where next week’s Open Championship will be staged.”Birkdale was definitely just a scouting trip for The Open for sure. I would have liked to have not have it known that I was there but (Nick) Faldo couldn’t put his phone away, so,” McIlroy said with a chuckle. “I love Nick. In fairness, he’s great. I had a good time with him. He walked a few holes with me.”McIlroy said he’s warming up to Renaissance Club in North Berwick, his home base this week at the Scottish Open. It helped to sweep the national opens in 2023, when he followed up the Scottish title with a victory in the Open Championship.He settled in Monday at the same house he’s used the past several years, with Tommy Fleetwood and family next door, in a rapid shift out of holiday mode.”When I first came here, I wasn’t enamored with the course or the place. But as time has went on and I’ve played it more, I’ve started to like it more and appreciate the golf course a little bit more,” McIlroy said. “It’s definitely become a great venue for this tournament.”The links will be loaded with the top-ranked golfers in the world this week, where the weather forecast for the first round — 71 degrees, no precipitation — is anything but Open-like.World No. 3 Cameron Young, who has played the Scottish Open only once, in 2022, when he missed the cut, and No. 6 Collin Morikawa are exceptions among top-ranked players entering the event. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy (second), No. 4 Matt Fitzpatrick (England) and No. 5 Russell Henley bring plenty of star power to Scotland. In 2025, Morikawa missed the cut after rounds of 68 and 76 and finished 123rd overall at 4-over. MCILROY, MACINTYRE PAIRED WITH GOTTERUPMcIlroy and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who won the tournament in 2024, are paired with 2025 champion Chris Gotterup on Thursday. Gotterup held off McIlroy — who tied for second with Marco Penge at 13-under — last July. The trio of past champions go off around 3:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. They’ll start on No. 10 one group behind Shane Lowry, a local favorite who was on a four-day junket with McIlroy and Donald last week.They should be in the clubhouse by the time Spain’s Jon Rahm — ranked No. 11 in the OWGR — hits the track. Rahm, a two-time major winner, is back at the Scottish Open for the first time since 2022 and is one of seven LIV golfers in the field. That’s a topic McIlroy hasn’t backed away from in recent years.”I’ve talked about wanting to have just all of the best players in the world play together,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Yeah, I guess this is a good — and it’s not as if this hasn’t been open to them before. It’s just because Valderrama (on the LIV Golf circuit) was always this week. Having Jon in this event is better for the event than him not being here, and obviously everyone else that’s here, as well. That’s a good thing.” Related Story Source link
US President Donald Trump has altered his journey home following the Nato Summit in Turkiye, adding a stop in the United Kingdom to show off his new Qatari-donated aircraft.He had been due to fly directly to Washington this evening, but announced on Truth Social that he would first head to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, aboard the old Air Force One, to give American troops stationed at the base a chance to see his new plane. It was not immediately clear why he abruptly changed his itinerary.Asked twice, as he prepared to leave Turkiye after his news conference, why he was not travelling on the new aircraft, Trump said “it’s going to go to a couple of bases, so the soldiers can see it” because it’s “magnificent.”Last month, Trump unveiled the new Air Force One, a refurbished Boeing 747 donated by Qatar. This was the first international trip on which the president used the aircraft. Related Story Source link
Brooks Koepka ready for his debut at The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland. Brooks Koepka is definitely competing in this week’s Genesis Scottish Open, no matter what you might have heard.The five-time major winner was as surprised as anyone when news broke over the weekend that he had withdrawn from the tournament at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.The confusion only lasted a few hours until organizers confirmed Koepka had been granted a sponsor’s invitation, but not before he spent Sunday scrambling to find out what was happening.”Yeah, there was a bit of a panic … I called my agent, Blake Smith, in a bit of a panic. Because I got a few text messages that I had withdrawn,” Koepka, 36, said at a press conference on Wednesday.Koepka, who withdrew from last month’s RBC Canadian Open with a hand injury after the third round, said he looked on the PGA Tour app on his phone to double-check the news.”Probably first time I used it in a while, since it got downloaded in my phone. I didn’t see any name, either, and I was in a little bit of a panic,” he said. “I knew (my agent) was out in Vegas. It’s 7 a.m. in Vegas. Probably not going to reach anybody. There was a few, probably two hours of complete panic of what had gone on. I couldn’t figure it out.”Koepka has six top-20 finishes this season but has not played since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last month. DEBUT AT THE RENAISSANCE CLUBKoepka continues his transition from LIV Golf and a world tour type of schedule with his first appearance in Scotland’s national open since 2015. This will be his debut at The Renaissance Club, but finding a comfort zone in his return to a PGA Tour playing schedule hasn’t brought an ounce of regret, Koepka implied.”I think I’ve been most pleased with — this is probably going to come across a little selfish, but just the happiness that I have. Maybe a weight lifted off my shoulders, or it’s not — kept it a secret for a little while. So it’s not the easiest thing,” he said.”But I just see the happiness. I look at I’m able to be around my son a lot more. Jena is able to be around and they are able to travel to a lot more events. Things like that, that stuff brings me happiness.”Whether I play good or whether I play bad, I walk off the 18th green, my wife and son are standing right there and, it’s cool, no matter — my son doesn’t care if I shoot 80 or 65, he doesn’t know the difference. It’s ‘Da-Da’; he goes that way and runs towards me. That’s cool. Having them around has been amazing and takes a little bit of the pressure way from when you’re playing.” Related Story Source link
Decathlon CMA CGM Team’s Dutch rider Olav Kooij cycles to the finish line to win the 5th stage of the Tour de France ahead of XDS…
Arthur Fery became the first man to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals as a wildcard in 25 years after the Briton extended his fairytale run with a stunning victory against Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday.Fery swatted aside French Open finalist Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 6-0 in a quarter-final rout that delighted the partisan crowd on Centre Court.The 23-year-old is the first British wildcard to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in the Open era.Fery faces French Open champion Alexander Zverev on Friday for a place in Sunday's final.’It gets better and better every match. It's incredible. I just can't believe it,’ Fery said.’I was very nervous beforehand but I just kept going until the finish line. In that last game I felt emotions I have never felt in my life.’The world number 114's astonishing run has him positioned to follow in the footsteps of flamboyant Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, who beat Pat Rafter to win Wimbledon as a wildcard in 2001.Incredibly, Fery is just two victories away from emulating Ivanisevic and becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Andy Murray in 2016.He is the third-lowest ranked man since 1985 to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals, after world number 237 Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 and world number 125 Ivanisevic in 2001.He is also the first British man to make the last four at Wimbledon since Cameron Norrie in 2022 and only the fifth in the Open era.’I beat Flavio earlier this year. It was a boost of confidence, even though this was my first time in the quarter-finals,’ he said.’I'm so happy. I'm just going to keep going and see where that takes me.’Fery's jaw-dropping rise comes after he had won just two matches at Grand Slams in his career prior to this year's Wimbledon. He had never been past the second round of a Grand Slam in his four other appearances at the majors.Fery's run is all the more remarkable as he was unable to play singles for part of 2025 because of a bone stress injury in his arm that hindered him for 18 months. A blur of energyInjury issues aside, Fery has been to the manor born in the plush surroundings of Wimbledon. Fery's wealthy father Loic is the president of French football club Lorient, while his mother Olivia enjoyed a distinguished tennis career, winning two singles titles and playing at the French Open.Fery moved from France to London as a young child and went to school in the Wimbledon area. He needed a wild card to enter Wimbledon this year after losing in French Open qualifying and the second round at the Australian Open.Fery announced himself as an All England Club cult hero with a brilliant five-set victory over former world number three Grigor Dimitrov in the last 16. No wonder the famous grass verge where fans gather to watch matches on a big screen at the All England Club has already been dubbed 'Arthur's Seat' after previously being known as Henman Hill and Murray Mount.Cobolli, who made it to the Roland Garros final in June, seemed uncomfortable from the start against Fery.Complaining about the raucous pro-Fery crowd and grumbling about a champagne cork popping as he was about to serve, the Italian world number 10 was no match for the effervescent underdog.Fery has been riding a wave of emotion since fighting back to beat Zizou Bergs in five sets in the third round and once again he was a blur of energy on the baseline, taking the first set on his first break point.Showing no sign of nerves, Fery kept the pressure on Cobolli and took the second set in a tie-break. With the temperature approaching a blistering 34C, Fery was the coolest man on Centre Court.He raced through the third set and collapsed to the turf in disbelief after clinching the biggest win of his life with an ace. Source link
The Kingdom of Bahrain has strongly denounced the Iranian attack on the Saudi tanker “Wedyan” and the Qatari tanker “Al Rekayyat” while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.It stressed that this act is unacceptable, as it jeopardizes the security of international navigation and global energy supplies and amounts to a grave breach of the provisions of international law, UN Security Council Resolution 2817, and the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, in addition to vitiating de-escalation efforts and the entrenchment of regional security and stability.In a statement, the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs reemphasized that the Kingdom of Bahrain stands in full solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar in all measures they pursue to safeguard their security and critical interests.The Ministry reiterated its call on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibility and take a resolute position to prevent the recurrence of Iranian sinful assaults and ensure the unrestricted freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz without imposing any illegal tolls.It further stressed that weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz for economic pressure, extortion, and disrupting safe transit through international waterways must be rejected under the provisions of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).The statement indicated that these instruments are fundamental pillars of energy security, food and medical supplies, and the flow of international commerce, which ultimately help consolidate security, stability, and prosperity in the region and around the world. Related Story Source link
West Indies completed their first home Test series triumph for two years when the second and final match against Sri Lanka petered out into a tame, rain-affected draw on the last day at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Tuesday.Needing victory to square the series after a crushing innings loss in the first Test a week earlier at the same venue, the tourists declared their second innings at 251 for nine just after lunch, setting their hosts the daunting target of 302 in less than two sessions for a sweep of the two-match duel. However, the West Indies’ opening pair of John Campbell and Brandon King put together an unbroken opening stand of 89, interrupted first by a brief shower and by longer, sustained precipitation which extinguished any prospect of an outright result either way.Fulfilling the often bewildering and tedious formalities of the traditional game in situations like this, play resumed in late afternoon for 40 minutes of aimless cricket when the match was called off as a draw with the West Indies at 109 with loss. Both Campbell and King were unbeaten on 51 apiece.West Indies’ last Test series win on home soil was a 2-0 hammering of Bangladesh in 2024 when comfortable victories were achieved at this venue and then at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia.Their last series victory over Sri Lanka was in 2003 at home when they prevailed 1-0 in a similar two-match contest.Starting the final morning at 92 for two in their second innings, an overall lead of 142, the Sri Lankan overnight pair of Dinesh Chandimal and Kamindu Mendis made intentions clear from the outset.They looked for every opportunity to score to give captain Dhananjaya de Silva a realistic option of at least trying to declare to force a series-saving victory.Mendis fell to Jayden Seales for 44 while Chandimal continued to play his shots, the former captain getting to 71 off 107 balls with two sixes and four fours before he was next out,Kavem Hodge coming up with an excellent diving catch at backward-point off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph.Wickets fell at regular intervals thereafter with the Sri Lankans continuing to take chances in seeking to accelerate the scoring.As a result, all six bowlers used by West Indies captain Roston Chase, including himself and part-time spinner Hodge, were able to benefit from the risk-taking. Joseph had the best figures of two for 44. Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 549 for 9 dec (Udara 188, Dinusha 92, Seales 2-98, Shamar 2-98) and 251 for 9 dec (Chandimal 71, Alzarri 2-44) drew with West Indies 499 (Greaves 180, Hope 112, Asitha 5-130) and 109 for 0 (Campbell 51*, King 51*) Related Story Source link