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Updates as County Championship returns Sign up for the Spin | Mail TanyaOver in Leeds, England and Pakistan wade into day two of the Test. Ali Martin was watching yesterday.Last night I heard a radio programme about an amazing young man called Ben West who, after his beloved younger brother Sam took his own life aged 15, started a suicide prevention website called Reasons to Stay. Strangers submit letters for people struggling with their mental health, which are then checked by clinical professionals. Anyone visiting the website gets a new letter, a new message of hope, each time they refresh. It is there for you if you need a helping hand. Continue reading...

Coach had not been heard from in two monthsBaptiste serving a custodial sentence in MoroccoLeon Baptiste, the British Athletics coach who had not been heard from since visiting Morocco around two months ago, is being held in prison in Marrakech, it has emerged.Baptiste, 41, who coaches a number of elite athletes, is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with friends. As of last weekend he had not been heard from since by his athletes or the UK Athletics officials who pay him as a Loughborough-based consultant, with messages to his phone not returned. Continue reading...

The former Sunday Night Football stalwart is now one step from a seat in the US Senate. And she could cause a shock in liberal MinnesotaAs the third leg of NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels and the tart-tongued analyst Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya was a paragon of deference and neutrality for 11 years as an NFL sideline reporter, dutifully relating boilerplate tactics, talking points and injury updates when she wasn’t nodding along to softball interviews or fumbling through hammy production gimmicks for viewers who might have been too offline to get the bit. She was almost pathologically committed to not doing anything to draw attention to herself or her gender in an era when sideline reporting was a fast track to national celebrity. Even her football takes hewed to the middle. (“New Orleans doesn’t want to lose to Atlanta twice in a season …”) Anyone who says they saw the 61-year-old emerging as a rightwing firebrand was watching a different game.And yet here we are. Last week, Tafoya was the decisive winner of Minnesota’s US Senate Republican primary, earning the party’s nomination for November’s general election. Even more striking: she beat back eight challengers, not least Adam Schwarze, the party-endorsed pro-gun, pro-military ex-Navy SEAL, and Royce White, the anti-leftist, anti-trans NBA flameout currently testing WNBA gender norms. Continue reading...

Dutch driver had been linked with Mercedes and McLarenVerstappen: ‘The team is like a second family for me’Max Verstappen has ended speculation about his future in Formula One by signing a new contract with Red Bull that will extend to the end of 2030.The four-time champion had been linked with potential moves to Mercedes and McLaren and had also intimated that he might call time on his F1 career because he was so unhappy with the new regulations imposed this season and they way they have effected his enjoyment of racing. Continue reading...

Early Kick Off show on before Hull v Manchester UnitedMatch previews available free-to-air for the first timeTNT Sports will make the first 30 minutes of their live Premier League broadcasts available on YouTube this season starting with Manchester United’s visit to Hull on Saturday.The pre-Premier League show EKO – Early Kick Off – will be available free-to-air for the first time, as well as on TNT Sports and the streaming service HBO Max. Continue reading...

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan for the second of our Premier League preview podcasts. Continue reading...

Detailed accounts highlight the growing financial might of the elite, and the challenges the rest of the division faceThe financial figures for 2024-25, the most recent season available, for the eight Women’s Super League clubs who published detailed accounts illustrate a growing gulf between the rich and the poor. The Guardian breaks down the key numbers. Note, any figures exceeding £1m have been rounded to the nearest £10,000. Continue reading...

Another left-back has been a priority all summer, but there seems to be no sign of one coming to Old TraffordAfter signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka in 2019, Manchester United’s PR machine boasted they had scouted 804 right-backs before landing on the Crystal Palace player. At the time it felt like an unnecessary brag, designed to convince fans and journalists the club were doing their due diligence when it came to scouting and data.Now, as the search for a left-back to challenge Luke Shaw drags on with less than two weeks of the summer transfer window remaining, there seems to be a lack of credible targets. Continue reading...

Newcastle, Arsenal, Brentford, Everton, Leeds, Coventry, Aston Villa, Hull and Ipswich have all brought in exciting playersBy Opta AnalystAnthony Gordon will be a difficult act to follow at Newcastle, but Touré could be a shrewd replacement. Blessed with electric pace, the 20-year-old is a bit more of an old-fashioned winger in that he predominantly plays from the left and is left-footed. As a result, he was more of a creator than a goalscorer for Hoffenheim last season. Continue reading...

Heeney’s name and image removed from 5th Quarter Camp promotionsBook stores stop sale of children’s series Little Isaac Footy FeverA commercial recalibration around the Sydney Swans and their five stood-down players has begun, after Isaac Heeney was barred from appearing with once proud brands and bookshops spent Thursday morning removing the star’s books from shelves.The decision by the Swans to end the season of the five players for breaching club standards by returning late to the team hotel after drinking has triggered a reaction from brands connected to the group, including Heeney’s own children’s football clinic business which has scrubbed him from promotions. Continue reading...