In a boost to England’s preparations for the Euro 2025, Chelsea forward Lauren James has returned from a hamstring injury to play against Jamaica.
The 23-year-old is expected to start in England’s final friendly on Sunday at 17:00 BST since he hasn’t played for either club or nation in three months.
When France face France in their group opener on July 5, Sarina Wiegman’s side will face off in Switzerland to defend their European title.
“We can manage that a little bit,” she said. “She will likely come off the bench.”
She performed incredibly well during the training sessions. She was able to handle and recover from stress.
“She gave a really good performance,” she said. We’re just getting started right away, she’s ready. She’s entering a game for the first time in a while.
She must move past that, she says. Then we’ll proceed with the tournament from there.
Before being sent off in the final-16 defeat to Nigeria, James was one of England’s stars in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final. He had three goals and three assists in the group stages.
Jess Carter, the defender for England, expressed confidence in seeing James back in training and said it was “exciting” to see her make a statement at the tournament.
She has almost returned as a new player, according to Carter, which is what I find most impressive.
She appears so young and sharp. Playing against her is difficult. Good luck to anyone who encounters her in a tournament.
Carter, a defender for Gotham FC, wants to start alongside Wiegman in the starting XI, but he claims the squad’s level of competition is “great.”
There is no way to be complacent, they say. Every training session and game, you must perform at the highest level, because failing to do so will likely lead to a bad outcome, Carter said.
From June 2024 to date, the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has taken 353 suspects into custody for various illicit drug-related offenses.
A total of 3, 125, 875 kg of various hard drugs, including cannabis sativa and psychotropics, were seized by the agency.
The state commander of NDLEA, Ali Umar, disclosed that the command also identified and destroyed cannabis sativa farms in eight local government areas of the state to mark this year’s UN International Day of War against drug abuse and illicit trafficking.
He reaffirmed that the organization must win because they have 53 illegal drug dealers convictions, which have resulted in varying jail terms for some of the defendants, some of whom are still awaiting trial.
Read more about the court’s arrests of 14 Chinese for internet fraud and cyberterrorism in Lagos.
“Three in four suspects, out of which 18 were women, were successfully apprehended by the command.”
The command was successful in obtaining 53 illicit drug dealer convictions in total, with the federal high court, Jalingo, and various jail sentences for the other cases still pending.
The commander cited the communities’ inability to provide useful information on drug dealers as one of their problems.
Most painfully, communities enjoy staging mob attacks on police during operations to shield criminal elements and increase state insecurity.
The commander claims that there are other issues, including a lack of housing, operational logistics, treatment, counseling, and a rehabilitation facility.
He emphasized that the state has a strong, cordial relationship with all of its sister security organizations, particularly those that deal with suspect transfers, intelligence sharing, and exhibits to their respective jurisdictions.
The command recorded a total seizure of 1, 275, 538 kg of various hard drugs, including cannabis sativa and psychotropic substances (the latter weighing 1, 046, 934 kg, the latter weighing 228. 604 kg, and the latter destroying farmland in the local government areas of Gembu, Yorro, Ibi, Zing, Takum, Kurmi, Ardo-Kola, and Karim Lamido).
During the first meeting of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s recently downsized vaccine panel, the group voted to stop recommending flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a vaccine preservative.
In a lengthy June 24 X post that preceded the meeting, Kennedy, who spent two decades as an anti-vaccine movement leader, described thimerosal using terms such as “toxic” and said hundreds of studies identify it as a carcinogenic “potent neurotoxin”. He also said there are high doses of mercury in flu shots recommended to pregnant women and children.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices’ (ACIP) two-day meeting on June 25 and 26 included discussion of vaccines containing thimerosal before its vote on flu vaccines.
ACIP is an independent group which provides vaccine recommendations the CDC director reviews and decides whether to formally adopt. Earlier in June, Kennedy dismissed 17 ACIP members, replacing them with seven new members, including people who’ve expressed doubt about vaccine efficacy and promoted anti-vaccine falsehoods.
Doctors and scientists who study vaccines have been researching thimerosal’s use for decades. Here’s what we know about the vaccine preservative and its removal from flu vaccines.
A nurse prepares a flu shot from a vaccine vial at the Salvation Army in Atlanta, February 7, 2018 [File: David Goldman/AP]
What is thimerosal?
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used in some vaccines.
Many people – particularly those who are pregnant or breastfeeding – encounter warnings about consuming mercury, such as in seafood. But those warnings are about methylmercury, which is found in certain kinds of fish and is known to be toxic to people when consumed at high levels.
Thimerosal contains ethylmercury – a single-letter difference that might not sound significant, but is.
Human bodies can break down and excrete ethylmercury quickly, meaning it is less likely to cause harm. By contrast, methylmercury is more likely to accumulate in the body and cause harm.
In vaccines, thimerosal is added to prevent harmful microbes such as bacteria and fungi from growing in vaccine vials.
“Introduction of bacteria and fungi has the potential to occur when a syringe needle enters a vial as a vaccine is being prepared for administration,” the CDC’s website said. “Contamination by germs in a vaccine could cause severe local reactions, serious illness or death. In some vaccines, preservatives, including thimerosal, are added during the manufacturing process to prevent germ growth.”
Thimerosal has been at the heart of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism for 20 years.
In 2005, Kennedy wrote an article co-published by Rolling Stone and Salon that alleged leading health agencies including the CDC and US Food and Drug Administration had colluded with vaccine manufacturers to conceal a study that found thimerosal “may have caused autism in thousands of kids”. Scientists and researchers said Kennedy’s argument was inaccurate and misleading. Continued research has found no link between thimerosal and autism. Kennedy’s article was removed from Rolling Stone, and Salon retracted it in 2011.
In 2015, Kennedy wrote a book opposing thimerosal’s use in vaccines.
Which vaccines use thimerosal?
Thimerosal is not used in the vast majority of vaccines.
All vaccines the CDC routinely recommends for children age six or younger are available without thimerosal.
Children receiving the routine paediatric vaccine schedule “can get completely immunised without any thimerosal-containing vaccines”, said Dr Mark Sawyer, a paediatrics professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and a paediatric infectious disease physician.
Some childhood vaccines have never contained thimerosal. These include the measles, mumps and rubella – or MMR – vaccine, the varicella or chickenpox vaccine, the inactivated polio vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines – including all childhood vaccines – as of 2001, the CDC said.
Thimerosal is still used in vaccines today, but not as widely.
The preservative is in only a small fraction of influenza vaccine vials, specifically the multi-dose vials that constitute a small portion of the US flu shot supply, Dr Jake Scott told PolitiFact. Scott is a Stanford University School of Medicine infectious disease specialist.
The FDA said thimerosal use has declined as vaccine manufacturers have developed more single-dose vaccines that do not require preservatives.
Scott said the CDC lists 12 influenza vaccine formulations for the 2024 to 2025 flu season, which will also cover the 2025 to 2026 season because no new flu vaccines have been licensed. Of those 12 vaccines, just three are multi-dose vaccines that contain thimerosal at 25 micrograms – equal to 25 millionths of a gram – per dose, he said.
CDC’s supply data shows single-dose, thimerosal-free syringes make up about 96 percent of the US flu vaccine supply, leaving roughly 4 percent as multi-dose vials, Scott said.
“Single-dose syringes are the default for paediatrics and prenatal care, so real-world exposure is even lower,” he said.
Because flu vaccines with thimerosal constitute a small portion of the influenza vaccine supply, public health experts told The Washington Post the committee’s vote to stop recommending them would have a limited impact, although it could make flu shots more expensive and less accessible in some parts of the US.
What does research show about thimerosal?
Because anti-vaccine activists’ focus has centred on whether thimerosal causes autism, numerous scientific studies have investigated a potential link and found no causal relationship between the preservative and autism.
When scientists evaluated thimerosal’s potential impacts and risks they found:
Giving infants vaccines containing thimerosal “does not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants” as the ethylmercury “seems to be eliminated from blood rapidly via the stools” after vaccination.
Three controlled and two uncontrolled observational studies “consistently provided evidence of no association” between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.
“No scientific evidence exists that thimerosal-containing vaccines are a cause of adverse events among children born to women who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy.”
Vaccine researchers told PolitiFact that thimerosal was removed from vaccines out of an abundance of caution, not because research proved that thimerosal was unsafe.
Thimerosal was removed from vaccines because people thought it might cause problems, said Rachel Roper, a microbiology and immunology professor at East Carolina University. But ultimately, “studies were done and it was shown to be safe”.
Glastonbury headliner Neil Young has made a dramatic U-turn over his headline performance, taking place at the Pyramid stage later today.
Earlier this week the BBC said that at the artist’s request, Neil Young’s set would not be shown live on the BBC on Saturday night. But now the singer has had a change of heart.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are delighted to confirm that Neil Young’s headline set from Glastonbury on Saturday will be broadcast live to audiences across the UK on the BBC.”
It will be on iPlayer’s Pyramid Stage stream from 10pm, as well as BBC Two and Radio 2. Our on-demand plans continue to be finalised.
It came after we told how a BBC schedule of live sets released to the public omits Young, while mentioning headliners such as Charli xcx and Doechii who play other stages on Saturday.
Young announced last year he would play Glastonbury in 2025, only to retract his decision upon learning of the BBC’s involvement, but then later changed his mind. BBC presenter Colin Paterson explained earlier week: “I asked [event co-organiser] Emily Eavis what was going on and she says she does not believe that Neil Young’s set will be broadcast by the BBC.
“There’s been all kinds of backstage wrangling and negotiations, but as things currently stand, Neil Young’s headline set on Saturday night will not be broadcast by the BBC. Instead, they’ll be showing Charli xcx.”
When Young played Glastonbury in 2009, only five songs were televised. Speaking at the time Mark Cooper, then executive producer of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, said: “Neil Young’s career has been conducted on his own terms. They believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist. They have decided to make one song available online over the weekend to give a flavour of his set. That’s Rockin’ in the Free World and that’s their decision. You probably won’t find too many Neil Young performances available freely on TV or online.”
In another development, fans are now fearful after his last two European shows in Bergen, Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark, were hit with sound problems.
Fans complained about a poor vocal mix. Some were also unhappy that on at least one of those shows, Neil didn’t have any large screens for fans to see the action from the back of the crowd.
BBC bosses are said to be treading carefully after the star pulled out of the festival earlier this year citing concerns about the BBC’s “corporate control”.
He said in January: “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in. It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “We aim to bring audiences as many performances as possible from the Pyramid Stage, and our schedules and plans continue to be finalised, right up to and during the festival.” Young has voices his concerns made principled stands recently. He blocked his music from Spotify for two years, saying a podcaster on the platform had spread vaccine misinformation.
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Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka hit a tee box marker into the crowd before withdrawing from the first round of the LIV Golf event in Dallas.
The American, 35, smashed his club into the ground then struck the marker on the left of the tee towards a small group of fans after a poor tee shot on the ninth hole at Maridoe Golf Club.
The marker did not appear to hit anyone.
Koepka pulled out on six over par after playing eight holes.
He was replaced by Mexican reserve Luis Carrera for the remainder of the round, with their combined score counting towards their team Smash GC’s score.
LIV said Koepka can return for the second and third rounds but his score would contribute only to his team’s.
Players compete individually and for teams at LIV events.
They tee off at the same time on different holes, known as a shotgun start.
Koepka, who has won five times on the LIV tour, missed the cut at the Masters in April and the US PGA Championship in May, and finished tied for 12th at this month’s US Open.
Speaking about his form after the first round of the US Open, he said: “I would say from the first weekend in April until about last week, you didn’t want to be around me.
” It drove me nuts. It ate at me. I haven’t been happy. It’s been very irritating. “
According to officials, a suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen soldiers and the injuries of dozens of people.
According to a local media outlet, Khyber Chronicles, which cited security sources, the attack occurred on Saturday at Khadi Market, Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
13 people were killed when the attacker reportedly detonated explosives close to a vehicle used for bomb disposal, according to security officials.
According to the report, the attack also caused at least 24 injuries to at least 24 personnel, including 14 civilians.
A local government official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province district of North Waziristan separately reported to the AFP news agency that a suicide bomber had rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy.
Among the injured are children.
Six children were injured when the roofs of two houses collapsed as a result of the explosion, according to a police officer posted in the district.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the single-day attacks on security forces in recent months was one of the deadliest.
The Pakistani military did not respond right away.
The Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group, a branch of the Pakistan Taliban, or TPP, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Since the Taliban’s rule over Kabul in 2021, violence has increased significantly in Pakistan’s border regions, with Islamabad accusing its western neighbor of allowing attacks against Pakistan, a claim the Taliban refutes.
According to an AFP count, about 290 people have been killed in attacks on the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan since the start of the year, mainly security officials.
