Thailand’s top court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen. She accepted the decision, after being accused of violating the constitution with remarks about a deadly May border clash that sparked protests in Bangkok.
James Horwill has a theory that the Sea of Red, certainly by the third Test, gets a bit salty.
“The Lions fans aren’t the best at blending in,” says Horwill, who skippered the Wallabies on the Lions’ last visit in 2013.
“Some of them I don’t think bought anything else apart from a Lions jersey last time.
“They’re probably packing light, saving on the airfare – not paying for checked luggage for a three-week vacation. “
The arrival of the Lions and their supporters, along with 2027 and 2029 Rugby World Cups and the 2032 Olympic Sevens, has been pegged as a ‘golden runway’ of events to get union on the up Down Under.
To really achieve lift-off though Australia needs winning Wallabies.
“The expectation of our national team is that they win and win regularly,” Horwill explained.
The bookies are less confident – the Lions are heavy favourites. But Horwill sees areas where they can be exposed.
“Depending on how [Wallaby head coach] Joe Schmidt goes with selection, I think we might have size in the back five [second and back rows],” he says.
In contrast, the Lions have plenty of back-row options, but their squad prioritises mobility, speed and athleticism over heavy-duty gain-line ball carriers.
Schmidt, meanwhile, has called up 6ft 8in lock Will Skelton, whose 22-stone frame comes at defences at a surprising pace.
Horwill likes the balance the hosts have struck.
“In Rob Valetini and Harry Wilson we have two genuine world-class eights,” he said.
“I think Fraser McReight will be the starting number seven and he is a difference maker for us.
“He’s an out-and-out fetcher but also is that link between the forwards and the backs.
“On the northern hemisphere tour last year, the only game McReight didn’t play was the defeat against Scotland and Australia just didn’t have the same flow, understanding or functionality.
Jake Gordon or Nic White may start at scrum-half, but Horwill says Tate McDermott could be a star turn as the tourists tire in the final quarter.
“Tate has had an excellent Super Rugby season. He is probably the best nine in the country, but his ability to attack teams with his feet might come into play as a replacement,” says Horwill.
“You could play a gameplan to tire out the Lions and then bring on Tate in the last 20 to 30 minutes to attack those fringes and pick off the defenders around the ruck, which he does so well. “
The last time the Lions toured Australia, Israel Folau, playing his first game of international rugby, scored two tries in Australia’s narrow first-Test defeat.
“Izzy was the most naturally freaky sort of athlete that I’ve ever played with,” says Horwill.
“Wherever we put him around the field, someone would have to mark his aerial threat – sometimes double mark him – and that would then create opportunities for others.
“Izzy just made everything look so easy, he moved and jumped so effortlessly for a big guy and Joseph’s got a lot of that about him. “
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii – Australia’s 6ft 5in big-money import from rugby league – was inspired by Folau as a boy, and the 21-year-old has shown similar aerial ability.
With the Lions looking unconvincing in the battle for the skies against Argentina and struggling to regain kick-offs against Western Force, he will be chasing and leaping hard.
“Wherever Joseph is you are going to see defenders bunching around that area – maybe there’s an opportunity to kick elsewhere and get a bit of ascendancy,” says Horwill.
For all the interest in England flanker Henry Pollock’s supersonic ascent to the upper reaches, Australia have their own bolters.
Corey Toole was part of the Australian sevens team that finished fourth in the Olympics in Paris a year ago, but 11 tries in the Brumbies’ 16-game run to the Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals have given him a shot of stepping on to the biggest stage in the XV-man game.
And Max Jorgensen, the 20-year-old son of former Wallaby Peter Jorgensen, is back from an ankle injury in time to contend on the wing as well.
“The one thing you have got in Australia’s back three is genuine pace,” says Horwill.
“Corey Toole has got real gas and he has certainly bulked up a lot over the past year. He barged over Damian McKenzie to score against the Chiefs in that Super Rugby semi-final – if he does get an opportunity he is really exciting.
“Jorgensen is the sort of prodigious talent we’ve been building around.
This will be the first series since 2013 that Horwill has watched from the southern hemisphere after he followed a stint at Harlequins with a degree at Cambridge University.
“I just probably didn’t appreciate how big it was – the enormity and the importance of it to the fans, and the importance of selection to the players,” said Horwill.
“Football’s number one, it’s everywhere, but for this period, the Lions is on the front and back pages.
“I was living In Putney in London and for that first Test against New Zealand in 2017, I walked along the street at 8am and every pub in Putney was red. “
Horwill will be playing host to his own Lions tourist this year. Wales centre Jamie Roberts, who scored the final try as the Lions ran away with the third deciding Test 12 years ago, was at Quins with Horwill.
“It’s funny how the world works,” says Horwill.
“That third Test is probably the only in my international career that I would like to have back for another run at it.
“Back then, in 2013, we probably never thought we’d be playing together, let alone become quite good friends.
“He was a great guy to have around at Quins and more importantly been a good mate since.
New Brentford manager Keith Andrews tells BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel that he is “not fazed” by the “enormity” of his new job.
Andrews has been appointed as the Bees head coach on a three-year deal following Thomas Frank’s departure to Tottenham, having joined the club last summer to work under Frank as the club’s set-piece coach.
Forest Green Rovers have appointed former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage as their new manager, after Steve Cotterill was sacked last week.
Savage, who played for Leicester, Derby, Blackburn and Birmingham among others during his career, has been managing non-league side Macclesfield FC since 2024.
Cotterill’s departure from the National League club was confirmed on Thursday, after the side missed out on promotion through the play-offs last season.
“I feel I have an opportunity to develop a squad to create an attacking brand of football – an aggressive form of football to try and get Forest Green back into the EFL,” Savage said in a club statement.
Forest Green finished third in the National League last season but were beaten by seventh-placed Southend in the play-offs on penalties, to miss out on a place in the Wembley final.
Savage links up with former Wales team-mate Mark Bowen at the Bolt New Lawn, who was appointed Forest Green’s director of football last month. They have not disclosed the length of his contract.
His son, Charlie Savage, also had a spell on loan at Forest Green during the second half of the 2023-24 campaign, scoring one goal in 15 games.
The appointment is the 50-year-old’s first in management in the top five tiers of English football.
However, last season he won promotion to the National League North with Macclesfield – where he has had an association since 2020 – during his first campaign in charge, with the club clinching the Northern Premier League Premier Division title with six games to spare.
Savage said at the time it would take “an awful lot” for him to leave for another club.
Savage won the first of his 39 caps for Wales in 1995 after beginning his playing career at Manchester United, although he failed to break into the first team at Old Trafford.
He went on to play more than 600 games across the EFL and Premier League in a 17-year career, which began at Crewe, before he signed for Leicester in 1997, where he played more than 200 games and won the League Cup.
He played for Birmingham before joining Blackburn in a deal worth £3m in 2005 and ended his career at Derby in 2011.
Aged 45, Savage made a brief one-game comeback for non-league outfit Stockport Town in 2019 but has predominantly been working as a media pundit.
A man charged with the murder of four students in the northwestern US state of Idaho is set to plead guilty this week to avoid the death penalty, according to a lawyer representing a victim’s family and a relative of another victim.
Bryan Kohberger has agreed to the deal with prosecutors, Shanon Gray, a lawyer representing the family of one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, said on Monday, adding that his clients were upset about it.
Kohberger, 30, is accused of the stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13, 2022.
“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho,” Goncalves’ family wrote in a Facebook post. “They have failed us. Please give us some time. This was very unexpected. ”
Gray said prosecutors informed the families of the deal by email and letter.
They spoke with the prosecution on Friday about the idea of a plea deal and explained they were firmly against it, the Goncalves family wrote in another post.
But by Sunday, they received an email that “sent us scrambling” and met with the prosecution again on Monday to explain their views about pushing for the death penalty.
“Unfortunately all of our efforts did not matter. We DID OUR BEST! We fought harder than anyone could EVER imagine,” the family wrote.
“After more than two years, this is how it concludes with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families on the plea’s details,” the family added.
A change of plea hearing was set for Wednesday, but the family has asked prosecutors to delay it to give them more time to travel to the court.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, about 9 miles (14km) west of the University of Idaho.
He was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home.
The King was greeted with pipes, drums and bows and arrows as he kicked off his annual week in Scotland. Charles, 76, was given a Royal Salute and Guard of Honour as he inspected The Royal Company of Archers, The King’s Bodyguard for Scotland, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
He arrived at the palace in a helicopter after Buckingham Palace announce plans to axe the Royal Train. Yeterday, James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse, described the move as an example of the royal household applying “fiscal discipline” in its drive to deliver “value for money”.
On the visit, Charles took part in the Ceremony of the Keys – an official welcome to the Scottish capital. The Lord Provost Robert Aldridge presented the Keys to King who returned them for ‘safe keeping’.
The Lord Provost said to the King: “We, the Lord Provost and the members of the City of Edinburgh Council, welcome Your Majesty to the Capital City of your Ancient and Hereditary Kingdom of Scotland and offer for your gracious acceptance the Keys of Your Majesty’s good City of Edinburgh. “
The King replied: “I return these keys, being perfectly convinced that they cannot be placed in better hands than those of the Lord Provost and Councillors of my good City of Edinburgh. “
The King, wearing a suit with Company of Archers tie, was also given a Guard of Honour by The King’s Bodyguard Scotland (Royal Company of Archers).
Music at the official welcome in Scotland was provided by The Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and Pipes and Drums of 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Renditions included ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)’ by the Scottish duo Proclaimers and ‘Counting Stars’ by One Republic. Also on Parade was the Balaklava Company, 5 SCOTS and the High Constables of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Around 250 people were invited as a thank you for their work in the local community watched the ceremony from the palace garden. Later today, the King will also preside over an investiture ceremony at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Those receiving honours will include artist Barbara Rae, who was awarded a damehood for services to art in the New Year Honours, and Scotland’s most decorated Olympian, Duncan Scott, who becomes an OBE for services to swimming.
Swimmer Stephen Clegg, who won two gold medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris and becomes an MBE for services to swimming, will also attend.
The monarch traditionally spends a week based at the Palace of Holyroodhouse each year in what is known as Holyrood Week or Royal Week in Scotland.
Later, the King and Queen will host guests at a garden party at the palace, alongside Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.