Murphy on England dreams, twin bond & Wembley glory

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Newcastle United winger Jacob Murphy is having the season of his career.

The 30-year-old helped the club he supported as a boy to their first trophy since 1969 when they shocked Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.

His eight goals and 11 assists in the Premier League have him touted for a first England call-up.

Murphy has been talking to BBC Football Focus about everything from his twin Josh to the Carabao Cup final to his international ambitions.

On growing up with twin Josh

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Murphy’s twin brother Josh plays for Championship side Portsmouth.

The pair were both born in London but moved to Norfolk as children and joined Norwich at under-12 level.

They both bounced around various EFL clubs for a bit – with Jacob joining Newcastle in 2017.

Both of them have enjoyed arguably the best couple of years of their career. Josh scored twice in the 2023-24 League One play-off final for Oxford against Bolton Wanderers – and was named Pompey’s player of the season recently.

“It’s a weird one,” said Jacob. “Everyone else in a career in football has to do it alone.

“I was lucky that I had Josh, we’ve always been each other’s biggest support – all the way through, even going back as early as someone to practice with in the garden.

On joining his boyhood club

Murphy’s family are from the north east of England so he grew up as a Magpies fan even though they lived hundreds of miles away.

His route to St James’ Park was a circuitous one, with loan spells at Swindon Town, Southend, Blackpool, Scunthorpe United, Colchester United and Coventry City from Norwich before his 2017 switch to the Magpies.

“Everyone needs their own individual journey of weird and wonderful things to find themselves,” he said.

“You have a crossroads situation where your career will go one of two ways. I vow to always choose the better path.

“My agent let me know Newcastle were interested. I was like ‘come, on let’s get this done’.

On finding his top form

Murphy had two loan spells in the Championship in his first three seasons at Newcastle – with West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday.

His career has been somewhat of a slow burner. Until this season he had not scored more than four Premier League goals in a season.

“I do have targets but I never try to force it,” said Murphy.

“I always let it come to me if I’m doing the correct things. That’s how the universe works, it’ll always find you. This season been finding me.

On the Wembley win

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Murphy was part of the Newcastle team that beat Liverpool 2-1 in the Carabao Cup final in March – and set up Isak’s goal to make it 2-0.

That was the Magpies’ first trophy since the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969 – and their first domestic one since the 1955 FA Cup.

Murphy also played in the 2023 Carabao Cup final, which Newcastle lost to Manchester United.

“Wembley was amazing,” said Murphy. “The feeling was a lot different this time compared to when we were runners-up a couple of seasons ago.

Murphy on his England dream

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Murphy has not played for England at any level since the 2017 European Under-21 Championship.

He reportedly turned down a chance to change his international allegiance to Nigeria, where his biological father is from, earlier this year.

And he is hoping for a first senior call-up this summer by Thomas Tuchel. He was given encourgament by Magpies team-mate Dan Burn, at the age of 32, making his England debut under the German during the last international break.

“Dan has not only been a really good friend but he’s been a great inspiration for myself and a lot of people in the dressing room,” said Murphy.

“To see him getting the accolades and for people to really appreciate him as a player at 32, that is added incentive.

“Dreams of playing international football can still be there. Credit to the new manager for putting faith in Dan at such an age. Hopefully people at 30 aren’t being overlooked. 30 is the new 25!

“It’s something I can see. But I know taking care of my club form is going to give me the best opportunity to represent my country.”

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The Giro d’Italia’s race for pink is anyone’s guess

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The white smoke may have finally appeared above the Vatican in Rome, but Italy’s great bike race will see a miasma of pink dance across the Eternal City when the race concludes there in three weeks’ time.

While the new Pope has been elected, the chosen one to wear pink as winner of the Giro d’Italia is as unclear as last year’s win by Tadej Pogacar was predictable – the living legend deciding a 10-minute winning margin was enough not to bother defending his title.

But if a race doesn’t need a top star, it’s the Giro: sun, sea, sand (or white chalk), snow and often torrents of rain greet the peloton year in year out in what is the sport’s most unpredictable Grand Tour.

Albania debuts in Friday’s Grand Partenza

Before any of the top British riders dream of Rome on 1 June, they have to hit completely unknown roads as the race begins for the first time in Albania on Friday.

Riders take on two hilly stages and a time trial there before hopping across the Adriatic sea to Italy for three days of racing to Naples on the flat as sprinters such as Olav Kooij, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen begin the battle for the cyclamen points jersey in the south of the country.

Map of the Giro d'Italia 2025Giro d’Italia

Pidcock’s big chance

At 25 Tom Pidcock is in his prime and in the hotseat as leader of his new Q36.5 team, for which he has already won the Saudi Tour this year and come close to winning some of the sport’s most prestigious one-day races, including Strade Bianche in Tuscany.

Refreshed and revitalised after a controversial departure from Ineos Grenadiers, one of cycling’s most expansive – and expensive – talents finally has a chance to prove what he has always threatened to do since breaking through in 2021: “To show I can win a Grand Tour.”

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Yates brothers could lead by example

But Pidcock is not the only one with a new challenge on the mind this year. Ever-present twins in the Italian Alps and Dolomites over the years, Adam and Simon Yates have never really fully been in competition to win the pink jersey.

But now the planets have aligned for what could be a final tilt at winning the race for the now 32-year-olds.

Both great climbing talents, Adam rides for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, often as a super-domestique for Pogacar’s attempts to win the Tour de France, but here he is unleashed. Simon does the same job for Pogacar’s main rival Jonas Vingegaard in France for Visma Lease a Bike, but he too has a chance to make history here, alone.

And as the more decorated of the two, with 10 Grand Tour stage victories and the 2018 Vuelta a Espana’s red jersey on his palmares, does he think he has the edge?

“It’s exciting to play a similar role to what my brother would do. Me and my brother are always very competitive in races,” Simon said earlier this season. “But we’ve not raced against each other as much as you would think.

“That’s going to change. We’ll have to see who comes out on top.”

Given there are now a record 34 British riders in this year’s top level World Tour, the potential for success could be greater than the golden era of Team Sky and the presence of the legendary Mark Cavendish.

But making your mark at a young age is never easy at the top level.

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Who are the Giro d’Italia favourites?

There are five previous winners in the peloton who could extinguish British hopes. But none sit above the Giro’s mysterious ways.

Ineos’ Colombian champion Egan Bernal (2021) is still rebuilding after life-threatening injuries, and EF Education-Easy Post’s Richard Carapaz (2019) has struggled late on in Grand Tours when the Ecuadorian’s peers have pushed on.

Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (2023) has the most Grand Tour wins in the field having also won four Vueltas, but at 35 is he at the same level? Plus he has a younger and possibly hungrier team-mate in Australia’s Jai Hindley, who still has plenty to prove since he won in 2022.

Could we see a first British winner since Tao Geoghegan Hart in 2020? Looking at the origins of the competitors the Giro has long since ceased to be a purely Italian affair.

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Doctor Who’s Julian Holloway’s will revealed as supermodel daughter snubbed

Doctor Who’s Julian Holloway has left a huge fortune to his stepson, snubbing his daughter, Sophie Dahl. The star, who died in February this year, aged 80, following a brief illnessleft £493,917 behind, which was later reduced to £480,891 following deductions.

Sophie and his stepdaughter Kate Gregory were left £25,000 each, while his stepson left the bulk of his £500,000 fortune to his stepson, Joel Gregory. Joel was also appointed as the administrator of Julian’s will. Joel and Kate are the children of his second wife, Debbie Wheeler.

In his will, Julian stated that he wanted his ashes to be scattered at Sudbrooke Park Golf Club in Surrey or Lord’s Cricket Ground in Westminster, London. Sophie, Julian’s only child, was born following a brief relationship he had with Roald Dahl’s daughter, Tessa, in 1976.






Sophie Dahl has been left just £25,000 by her dad
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PA)

The late actor found fame in 1961 after appearing in the movie, Dentist on the Job, before going on to appear in the Carry On franchise in various roles, including Simmons in Carry On Doctor, Major Shorthouse in Carry On Up the Khyber and Adrian in the 1970 movie, Carry On Loving.

His career spanned almost six decades, with him also landing a role in the Doctor Who series, Survival, which was the sci-fi programme’s first original run. Holloway later went on to appear in an episode of the police drama, The Sweeney, as well as programmes including Play for Today, Elizabeth R, Bowler and The Bill.

But he also had an outstanding career as a voice actor, mainly in the United States, where he took on the role of Captain Zed in Captain Zed and the Zee Zone. The star, born in Oxfordshire, also appeared as Bradford Milbanks in the James Bond Jr franchise.






Julian died in February following a brief illness


Julian died in February following a brief illness
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Getty Images)

Julian also voiced Prime Minister Almex and Admiral Kilian in Star Wars: The Clone Wars in eight episodes of the programme. His last acting credit in 2019 saw him play Mr Richardson for two episodes in the British Cold War series Summer of Rockets, which first appeared on screens in May of the same year alongside Adrian Edmondson, Keeley Hawes, and Rose Ayling-Ellis.

Following his death earlier this year, tributes poured in from the entertainment industry, with Miriam Margolyes writing on social media: “Oh I am very sad. Wonderful man. Wishing you and all his family long life. Too many going.”






The actor appointed his stepson as the administrator of his estate


The actor appointed his stepson as the administrator of his estate
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Corbis via Getty Images)

Sarah Douglas, who is best known for Ursa in Superman and Superman II said: “I lost a dear friend yesterday and I’m so, so sad. I have known Julian Holloway since the early 70’s and he has been the best of friends to me all these years. Julian was the wittiest of men and we would laugh and laugh.

“He was a friend through thick and thin, first in London then LA then back home again. He was also the associate producer of the Brute (1977) but I had first met him professionally in 1973 on a BBC drama called Secrets. There will be lots written about him and all his wonderful work but right now he is just a dear and sorely missed friend.”

Stephanie Beacham commented: “Dear dear person, kind and funny. One day he entertained my grandson in his swimming pool while I had to make some calls and helped dress and feed same two year old. A friend. Rest in peace Julian. You will be missed.”

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Timberwolves level series as Warriors miss injured Curry

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The Minnesota Timberwolves cruised to a 117-93 victory over the Golden State Warriors to level their NBA Western Conference semi-final at 1-1 on Thursday evening.

Julius Randle scored 24 points and provided 11 assists in Minneapolis while Anthony Edwards added 20 points and nine rebounds and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 20 points from the bench.

Edwards said the Timberwolves watched footage of game one to help them prepare for the second match in the best-of-seven series.

“We saw that it wasn’t just that we didn’t make shots, it was our defensive pressure and intensity; we didn’t bring it,” he said.

Minnesota started the game on a 25-7 run, but the Warriors closed the gap to 62-55 in the third quarter.

“We looked a lot more like ourselves,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.

“The start was great, that’s what we needed to set the tone. We were pretty consistent with everything other than the beginning of the second half.

“Other than that, it was exactly the response that we needed.”

Jonathan Kuminga led the Warriors scoring with 18 points while Jimmy Butler III tallied 17.

Stephen Curry watched from the bench after he injured his left hamstring in game one. The Warriors point guard is expected to miss at least a week.

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‘Missiles in skies’: Panic in Indian frontier cities as war clouds gather

New Delhi, India — Aqib Parray was standing at a local shop near his home in Jammu, in Indian-administered Kashmir, when all the lights went out late in the evening on Thursday, May 8. Loud bangs followed.

Panicked, everyone on the streets started rushing home, 24-year-old Parray said. From the terrace of his home, he said, “I saw that the missiles were scattered in the skies.” Then his internet also went off. “We have never seen Jammu like this.”

Two generations of Indians and Pakistanis have not witnessed a fully fledged war, with blackouts and the threat of missiles raining on them even if they are far from any battlefield. In 1999, the nations fought a war over the icy heights of Kargil, but the conflict was contained.

Now, as India and Pakistan edge closer to a fully fledged war, millions of people on both sides are witnessing scenes unprecedented in their lifetimes. They include the 750,000 people of Jammu, and millions more in Indian cities that on Thursday evening came under attack, according to the Indian government.

Eight missiles were fired from Pakistan-origin drones towards Jammu and nearby areas of Satwari and Samba, also targeting military stations in Udhampur and Indian Punjab’s Pathankot, said India’s Ministry of Defence. India says they were all brought down with no casualties.

Shortly after, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied that the country had targeted any locations in Indian-administered Kashmir or across the international border.

Yet the mounting anxiety across cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir close to the frontier with Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir is real. Seventeen days after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam, and two days after India hit at least six Pakistani cities with missiles, the prospect of a war looms over communities close to the border.

‘Sleepless nights’

Soon after dusk, authorities in Indian Punjab issued complete blackout orders in several districts, including its capital city of Chandigarh, and Jalandhar, Pathankot and Mohali.

Sabarpreet Singh, a 46-year-old businessman from Amritsar, Punjab’s second-largest city, said he is learning to react during sudden blackouts. “Things are changing very quickly. I have not been able to sleep at night,” he said. “I’m thinking of leaving the city with my children [and wife]; they are scared when sirens go off.”

Late on Wednesday, a blackout was imposed in parts of Kutch, in Gujarat; and in bordering areas of Rajasthan, where the border with Pakistan goes through the Thar Desert.

The situation is much more dire along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Both armies traded heavy artillery as civilian injuries and deaths continued to rise. Amid gunfire, India has moved to evacuate thousands of people, who now sleep in shelters overnight.

“There were attempts to target military sites in Jammu, including the defence airport,” a local intelligence official told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media. “We have confidence in [Indian] defence systems, however, the security situation is deteriorating. We are monitoring every moment closely.”

That India should be on edge is understandable, said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

After India struck deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on May 7, killing at least 31 people – “terrorists” according to India, civilians (including two children) according to Pakistan – Islamabad and its military are under immense pressure to respond forcefully, he said.

“Pakistan was bound to retaliate. Neither the government nor the civil society in Pakistan was willing to de-escalate without a response,” Donthi said.

‘Senseless belligerence’

In a media briefing on Thursday, New Delhi said that Pakistan had earlier that day attempted to “engage military targets” in several cities in India and Indian-administered Kashmir, including Srinagar and Amritsar, using drones and missiles.

While Indian officials said that forces “neutralised” these attempts, New Delhi said it responded by targeting Pakistan’s air defence systems at several locations, including in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-biggest city.

Islamabad said its air defence system brought down 25 Indian drones overnight in several cities, including Lahore and Karachi. At least one civilian has died, and five people were wounded, the Pakistani military said.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri reiterated on Thursday that any forthcoming Pakistani attack would be responded to by New Delhi. He insisted that India was merely responding to escalation by Pakistan, also referring to the Pahalgam attack as “the original escalation point”.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by denying any attacks on India or Indian-administered Kashmir, noting, “Any escalation based on false pretences will be met with full resolve and determination.”

Referring to global calls for restraint and de-escalation, Sumantra Bose, a political scientist focusing on the intersection of nationalism and conflict in South Asia, said, “The situation needs an urgent intervention by the international community, with effective diplomatic efforts to de-escalate.”

“There is no support in the world for this senseless conflict,” said Bose, which he said, “has been rather mismanaged – and should never have been allowed to get to this point.”

“Things have gotten out of hand very quickly and it is looking to get worse,” he said, reacting to the drone warfare and the alleged attacks on Jammu. “In the escalatory spiral, it is just retaliations; an endless loop of retaliations from both sides.”

Later on Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “We are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels.”

Acknowledging that Pakistan wants an “independent investigation” into the Pahalgam attack, Bruce said that the United States wants “the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end.”

However, Indian Foreign Secretary Misri had already rejected the calls for an independent investigation earlier in a media briefing, citing “no confidence in the Pakistani establishment for cooperation”.

The Trump administration, Donthi said, had, at least until May 7, “appeared willing to let the situation unfold between India and Pakistan”.

“Unless the US and other international powers intervene more proactively to defuse the situation, it could lead to a full-blown war,” Donthi told Al Jazeera.

Bose, the political scientist, argued that “it is already a state of war.”