Author: The Guardian

best games1=) Ireland 24-28 New Zealand; France 28-29 South Africa. World Cup quarter-finals, Stade de France, 14-15 October. Any game will be an unforgettable final.3) Bordeaux Begler 41-42 Harlequin. Chaban-Delmas Stadium, April 13. It’s hard to imagine a more exciting game of club rugby.Most memorable match day experience1) Ireland 13-8 South Africa, Stade de France, September 23. World Cup pool stage. Zombie by the Cranberry still rings in my head, in my head…2) Leinster 22-31 Toulouse (aet) Champions League final, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, May 25. A stunning venue, a glorious stage for first-class rugby.3) England 23-22 Ireland, Twickenham, 9 March.…

Jordan Hatmaker knew something was wrong as soon as she tried to open her parachute. “You’re meant to look up to check: is it there? Is it square? And is it stable?” she says.It was none of those things.This was the second time that day that she and her skydiving coach had leapt from an aircraft 13,500ft above the fields and farmland of Suffolk, Virginia. Hatmaker was 35, a fairly experienced skydiver, just 10 jumps away from securing her skydiving licence.“When you’re spinning around while being pulled to the ground, it’s hard to know exactly what’s happening. I was in…

Björg LilerionLong before Gary Neville’s ‘goal-scoring climax’ against Fernando Torres at Camp Nou or Roy Keane destroying another Manchester United game, there was the real gloating goat: Björg Liller Lean. Situation: Norway came from behind to beat England 2-1 in 1981 World Cup qualifying, and an ecstatic Lillelien started telling us all about it. “We are the best in the world!” he shouted in Norwegian. “This is incredible. England, the home of giants!Bjerg then began making the most of his O-level courses in British History. “Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady…

Conservative rightwingers are planning to present Rishi Sunak with demands for tougher action on immigration and human rights law before the election if the prime minister’s manifesto promises on Tuesday fall flat.Prominent party figures including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are said by Tory insiders to be among those waiting to see how the manifesto is received by the public before they act.In the event Sunak’s launch fails to shift the dial on the Tories’ floundering election campaign, one option under discussion is a press conference next week to set out a series of alternative pledges.They are hoping to capitalise…

Phone service was down. A fuse had blown in the cell tower during a recent storm. Even though my arrival had been cleared with the government of Cherán in advance, the armed guard at the highway checkpoint, decked out in full fatigues, the wrong shade to pass for Mexican military uniform, refused to wave me through. My guide, Uli Escamilla, assured him that we had an appointment and that we could prove it if only we could call or text our envoy. The officer gripped his rifle with both hands and peered into the windows of our rental car. We…

Four American university teachers teaching in China were stabbed while visiting a park, U.S. officials said.Jonathan Brand, president of Cornell College in Iowa, said in a statement that the college’s instructor and a Beihua University faculty member were in a park in northeastern China’s Jilin Province when Monday’s attack occurred. Private colleges in Iowa partner with universities near Jilin City.It was unclear the extent of the group’s injuries and whether the daytime attack was targeted or random.Iowa Rep. Adam Zabner told US media that his brother David Zabner was among a group of people visiting a temple in North Mountain…

South Korea’s military has said it fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, amid rising tensions after Pyongyang sent rubbish-carrying balloons into the South and Seoul retaliated with a loudspeaker propaganda campaign.“Some North Korean soldiers working within the DMZ on the central front briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS] said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the line of control in the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas.“After our military issued warning broadcasts and warning shots, they retreated northward,” it said, adding the incident happened 9…

Isobel Chetwood moved to her dream home on her birthday just over a decade ago. As she wound up a 40-year career in the NHS as a GP practice manager in Stockport, Greater Manchester, she was keen to return to her roots in Cheshire. She settled in a comfortable house in the quiet village of Plumley.Chetwood, 68, lives alone. When she moved in, she found a gardener (“I don’t do dirt down me fingernails,” she says, laughing). He made her a raised bed for growing strawberries, alongside a fence that divided her garden from her neighbour’s. “It was beautiful out…

timeThis World Cup was a joy to watch in the Caribbean as they screened the India vs Pakistan match in a Bridgetown airport bar on Sunday. But while England supporters watched nerve-wracking scenes unfold over a bottle of ice-cold Banks beer before flying to Antigua, Scotland had already made their way to the land of sea and sun, gleefully chatting in old foes’ Last Chance pub. Wait in line for a week.England were beaten by Australia at Kensington Oval 24 hours later, coinciding with Pakistan’s humiliating defeat in New York, with a seven-wicket win over Oman at the Sir Vivian…

Ukraine announced the appointment of Vadym Sukharevskyi as commander of drone forces, a newly created post. Sukharevskyi was already a deputy commander of the armed forces with responsibility for drones. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, decreed in February the creation of a separate branch of the armed forces devoted to drones and the order was endorsed last week by the government. Ukraine’s military said it damaged three surface-to-air defence systems in Russian-occupied Crimea over Monday night. Missiles struck an S400 system in Dzhankoi and two S300 systems near Yevpatoriya and Chornomorske, resulting in “significant losses” for Russian air defences, Ukraine’s general…