England will limp home from Australia after a humbling 4-1 Ashes defeat but appear likely to stick with the regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, who have vowed to learn lessons from a painful tour.
Bordeaux-Begles's South African back-rower Jean-Luc du Preez says that Northampton will be desperate for revenge for last season's Champions Cup final defeat when the teams meet in the pool stage on Sunday.
Cristian Romero added to the mounting crisis at Tottenham as the Argentine appeared to take a swipe at the club's hierarchy after apologising for their latest dismal defeat.
- New protests, strikes hit Iran as security forces open fire
- Macron accuses US of 'turning away' from allies, breaking rules
Boulevard
Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua paid a moving tribute on Thursday to the two close friends killed in a car crash in Nigeria, labelling them "brothers" and "great men".
January 08, 2026
RECENT NEWS
Confusion reigns over Venezuela's oil industry as US looms
Politics
January 08, 2026
- Russia releases French researcher in prisoner exchange
- Macron accuses US of 'breaking free from international rules'
- US could run Venezuela, tap its oil for years, Trump says
- Nobel laureate Bialiatski tells AFP 'important' to keep pressure on Belarus
The US trade deficit made a sharp and unexpected pullback in October, reaching its lowest level since 2009 as goods imports dropped while President Donald Trump's tariffs took hold, government data showed Thursday.
January 08, 2026
RECENT NEWS
The Spanish government and the Catholic Church signed a landmark agreement Thursday to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy, aiming to settle what officials described as a "moral debt".
January 08, 2026
Russia on Thursday slammed a plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine as "dangerous" and dubbed Kyiv and its allies an "axis of war", dousing hopes the plan could be a step towards ending the almost four-year-war.
January 08, 2026
Former Premier League referee David Coote was given a suspended prison sentence on Thursday after admitting making an indecent image of a child, with the judge describing his "spectacular fall from grace".
January 08, 2026
Politics
Stock markets fell Thursday as an early-year rally ran out of steam, with investors locking in profits ahead of the release of key US jobs data this week.
January 08, 2026
RECENT NEWS
Johannes Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" will be displayed in Japan later this year, the Dutch Mauritshuis museum said Thursday, a rare outing abroad for one of the world's most famous artworks.
Syria's military warned civilians in two besieged Kurdish neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo to leave on Thursday, as it prepared to conduct a fresh wave of strikes targeting Kurdish positions.
French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors Thursday in a show of anger against an EU trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur they fear will create unfair competition, as the government warned against "illegal" protest actions.
Factory orders in long-struggling Germany unexpectedly posted a sharp jump in November, boosted by higher demand for defence equipment as Europe rushes to rearm, official data showed Thursday.
January 08, 2026
Economy
Japanese retail giant Fast Retailing lifted its 2025-26 annual net profit forecast on Thursday, buoyed by a strong performance in mainland China.
January 08, 2026
RECENT NEWS
Equity markets mostly fell Thursday as the rally that has characterised the start of the year paused with investors looking ahead to the release of key US jobs data this week.
Humanoid robots danced, somersaulted, dealt blackjack and played ping-pong at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, but some in the industry are impatient for them to become more useful, not just a promise of things to come.
A Cambodian bank founded by accused scam boss Chen Zhi, who has been indicted by the United States over multibillion-dollar fraud and extradited to China, was ordered liquidated Thursday, Cambodia's central bank said.
French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors Thursday morning in a show of dissent against a free trade deal they fear will create unfair competition.
January 08, 2026
- Olympic champion Zheng out of Australian Open
- England's Brook 'deeply sorry' for nightclub fracas
- New clashes in Iran as opposition urges more protests
- England cricket board launches immediate review into Ashes debacle
- Asian markets mostly down as traders eye US jobs data
- Australia to hold royal commission inquiry into Bondi Beach shooting
- Sabalenka accuses tour chiefs over 'insane' tennis schedule
- Viral 'Chinese Trump' wins laughs on both sides of Pacific