No UK government ministers or officials will attend the Winter Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies after Russian and Belarusian athletes were invited to compete under their national flags.
Six athletes from Russia and four from Belarus will be directly representing their countries – rather than competing as neutrals, as athletes did at last month’s Winter Olympics.
This will mark the first time a Russian flag has been flown at a Paralympic Games since Sochi 2014, with sanctions previously imposed firstly because of a state-sponsored doping programme, and then because of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lifted its partial ban on athletes from the two countries competing at the Games.
A government spokesperson said: “We strongly oppose the decision of the International Paralympic Committee to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own flags at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.
“We have been clear that the Russian and Belarusian states should not be represented in international sport while the barbaric full-scale invasion of Ukraine is ongoing.
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Sports Minister Stephanie Peacock will be in Cortina purely to support British athletes but was never scheduled to attend the opening ceremony.
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, attended the opening ceremony of last month’s Winter Olympics.
On Wednesday, the IPC told BBC Sport that it had been informed that athletes from Ukraine, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland will boycott the opening ceremony.
Germany’s Paralympic Committee has also said that its team will feature in a pre-recorded broadcast section of the event, but will not be in the Parade of Nations, in order to express solidarity with Ukraine.
England 246-7 (20 overs): Bethell 105 (48); Pandya 2-38
India won by seven runs
Jacob Bethell’s thrilling century was not enough as India pipped England by just seven runs to seal a spot in the T20 World Cup final in a high-scoring thriller in Mumbai.
Needing 254 for victory – a record in this competition – after being flogged around Wankhede Stadium, Bethell hit a scarcely believable 105 from 48 balls to threaten one of England’s all-time white-ball victories.
The 22-year-old, the rising star of English cricket, kept England afloat from 63-3 and 95-4 and took boundaries from the final two balls of the 17th over to leave 45 to get from the final three.
The Wankhede Stadium crowd, jubilant when Sanju Samson earlier crashed 89 from 42 balls, had become increasingly nervous but the great Jasprit Bumrah remained calm through the tension, conceding only six from the next over.
Sam Curran was caught for 18 in the 19th – Hardik Pandya also holding his nerve – and Bethell was unable to get 30 needed from the last alongside Jamie Overton.
He was run-out attempting to keep the strike and England, despite three sixes by Jofra Archer when the game was all but done, finished on 246-7.
India were also boosted by two sensational catches by Axar Patel, first to dismiss Harry Brook and then a relay effort to see off Will Jacks, but England will rue a crucial drop by Brook.
In the third over he put down Samson on 15 – a mistake India punished by piling up the highest T20 score ever made against England.
It means co-hosts India will play New Zealand in Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad.
England beaten but Bethell defiant
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At halfway, this had all of the hallmarks of a calamitous England white-ball defeat.
A dreadful dropped catch by Brook, 37 boundaries conceded, and a crowd set to celebrate a huge win into the Mumbai night.
The result is still the same but Bethell ensured England’s tournament ends with an entirely different complexion than what could have been.
The left-hander played inventive scoops, powerful drives and elegant flicks and when he departed the stage the crowd rose to him.
Had England lost heavily here, the scrutiny on coach Brendon McCullum would have ramped up given this tournament follows the Ashes defeat in Australia.
A tale of three catches
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To pin the defeat on Brook would obviously be unfair.
His chance was a simple opportunity driven flat to the England captain at mid-on but he was also not backed up by his bowlers as boundaries came in India’s innings at will, albeit on the flattest of pitches with cruelly short boundaries.
The irony was clear, though, when Axar charged back from extra cover and leapt to dismiss the England captain for seven.
Jos Buttler followed for 25 – he was scratchy again – and Tom Banton 17, only for Bethell to resurrect the chase in the company of Jacks.
Axar struck again, however, by running around at deep mid-wicket and tossing the ball athletically to Shivam Dube to end a partnership of 77 in 39 balls.
Credit also must go to the remarkable Bumrah, who nailed yorkers and delivered slower balls under pressure, and finished with 1-33 amid the carnage.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy bore the brunt of Bethell’s assault, including three sixes in a row, and was hit for 64 in four overs.
Sensational Samson stars again
Samson may not have even played at this tournament but for the most unfortunate of circumstances.
He was dropped before the first match after a run of 10 T20s without a fifty but was recalled for the group-stage match against Namibia with Rinku Singh absent following the death of his father.
The 31-year-old has often been viewed as an unfulfilled talent in the international game. No-one is saying that anymore after this knock and his 97 not out against West Indies.
Had Brook taken the catch off Archer, who had dismissed the right-hander three times in their past five international meetings, things could have been different.
Instead, he struck 15 boundaries with elegance, flair and power.
Whatever length England bowled the result was the same. Their lines were too often off, resulting in boundaries being leaked to all sides.
When Samson was finally caught off Will Jacks, who again bowled admirably, after 13.1 overs, 160 runs were already on the board.
India had already promoted Shivam Dube to attack England’s spin and he did so to impressive effect in his 25-ball 43 – hitting Adil Rashid for three sixes and ensuring Liam Dawson was only used for one over.
Extending the Championship play-offs from four to six teams will add more intensity and excitement to the season while giving more teams a chance to ‘get the golden ticket.’
Championship bosses have been reacting to the news EFL clubs have voted to take the play-offs down to eighth place from next season.
The new system is similar to the format used in the National League and means teams finishing from third to eighth will compete for promotion to the Premier League.
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As it stands it means eighth-placed Derby and seventh-placed Southampton would be involved in the play-offs with Rams boss John Eustace in favour of the development.
“It’ll probably help teams who have had a lot of injuries and smaller squads to keep fighting to the end of the season,” he told BBC Radio Derby.
“Teams get different runs of form throughout the season and if you get injury problems and they all come back in the last 10 or 15 games it can have its ups.”
Leicester City head coach Gary Rowett believes it will be attractive to clubs on many fronts but could have its drawbacks.
“From a commercial, monetary and excitement aspect I can understand why people want to add teams to the play-offs – they have been a success although you can argue if team six finishes 25 points behind team three should they have a chance to go up?” he told BBC East Midlands Today.
“So, as a football purist I’m not a massive fan but I understand why clubs would be so keen for more opportunities to get this golden ticket of £150m or whatever it is.
“Sometimes you can change things all the time and the game becomes less and less recognisable but maybe I’m just being miserable.”
Semi-finals will remain as two legs and the final will still take place at Wembley at the end of May and the EFL says there are no plans at this stage to alter the format of the play-offs in League One and League Two.
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Neil Warnock is the play-offs’ most successful manager since they were first introduced in 1987, winning four promotions and thinks it will encourage more teams who may have previously thought their season was over.
“I thought it was a bad thing when it first came in but it turned into a good thing – certainly for me anyway. I finished in every position and got promotion so I don’t think it matters,” he told BBC Sport.
“For mid-table teams after Christmas it gives you more impetus but it makes it more difficult for the teams that finish third or fourth as there’s a bit more opportunity for other people to conquer the top teams.”
Millwall finished eighth in the Championship last season on 66 points with Bristol City claiming the final play-off spot on 68 points.
Third-placed Sheffield United, who lost the play-off final to Sunderland, got 90 points but Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom does not believe it gives sides finishing a long way behind the top teams an unfair opportunity.
“I’ve heard that argument and I can’t believe people are saying it,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire.
“Sunderland were lucky to beat Coventry in the semi-final and then fortunate to beat Sheffield United with a decision that I can’t understand that went against Sheffield United. Sunderland got in the play-offs and are (now) the best of the promoted teams.”
Derby’s John Eustace agrees, arguing teams who finish lower down the Championship would not struggle any more than those who already win promotion.
“Look at the teams that go up, unless they spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds it’s difficult to stay up there so it doesn’t make much difference,” he said.
Birmingham City are currently eight points short of the top six but just two behind eighth place and their boss, Chris Davies says it will make the competition even more interesting.
“I think it’s a good idea in principle and gives more chances to teams like us. For example this season it would make for a close situation for us,” he said.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to turn the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital into another Gaza Strip, as the Israeli military ordered hundreds of thousands of people to immediately leave their homes in Beirut.
In a video shared online on Thursday, Smotrich warned that the Dahiyeh area would soon look “like Khan Younis”, a city in southern Gaza that has been decimated in Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the enclave.
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“The southern suburbs will become like Khan Younis,” the Israeli minister said.
Smotrich’s threat came just hours after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order for several areas of southern Beirut, sending residents scrambling to gather belongings and quickly leave their homes.
In a post on social media, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered people out of the Burj al-Barajneh, al-Hadath, Haret Hreik and Shiyah neighbourhoods.
“It’s unprecedented that the Israeli army would order this forced evacuation order for the southern suburbs of Beirut,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from Beirut, noting that more than 400,000 people live in the area.
“There isn’t really anywhere for them to go quickly,” Smith said of the Lebanese families that have been forced to flee. “There’s gridlock on the roads as people try to move out, but how Israel thinks all of those people are going to leave quickly is difficult to understand.”
Israel’s forced evacuation order in Beirut comes a day after the country issued a similar directive for all of southern Lebanon, spurring a wave of mass displacement.
Intensified cross-border fighting resumed on Monday after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.
The Israeli military has launched a widespread aerial and ground assault against its northern neighbour, bombing areas across southern Lebanon and Beirut in what it says is a campaign against the Lebanese armed group.
For its part, Hezbollah stepped up its military operations over the past days, saying it is responding to “Israeli aggression” against the country.
The group has launched dozens of rockets and drones at Israel, and targeted Israeli troops stationed inside Lebanese territory.
Traffic after Israel’s forced evacuation orders for Beirut’s southern suburbs [Claudia Greco/Reuters]
Death toll surpasses 100
The conflict has left Lebanese civilians reeling, with humanitarian groups warning that Israel’s offensive will have dire consequences for a population already devastated by a steady barrage of Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.
On Thursday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 102 people have been killed and 638 others wounded across the country in the wave of Israeli attacks.
Tens of thousands of people also have been displaced across Lebanon, according to government figures, with many families from southern Lebanon seeking safety in already overcrowded shelters in Beirut.
Flights at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport also were suspended on Thursday amid the Israeli threat of further attacks on the Lebanese capital.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel’s forced evacuation order for hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon “raises serious risks of violations of the laws of war”.
“Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani [River] to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags and fears for the safety of civilians,” Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at HRW, said in a statement.
“How are older people, the sick, and people with disabilities going to be able to evacuate immediately? And how will their safety be guaranteed as they leave?”
Beirut traffic surges after Israel’s forced evacuation order for the city’s southern suburbs [Khalil Ashawi/Reuters]
Trump declared ‘major combat operations’ on social media. Will this reshape the region for decades?
The US-Israeli war with Iran is here, and so is the information war. We track how “major combat operations” were announced and sold on Truth Social, the echoes of the Iraq war, and what claims about “threats” and “self-defense” mean for the Iranian people. With Tehran confirming Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death and its retaliation unfolding, we examine the start of a war that could reshape the region.
In this episode:
Imran Khan, Al Jazeera Senior Correspondent and Anchor
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke, Marcos Bartolomé, Noor Wazwaz, and Sonia Bhagat, with Spencer Cline, Catherine Nouhan, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by David Enders and Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
Pop superstar Britney Spears was released from police custody Thursday morning after being arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated near Los Angeles, according to legal filings and US media reports.
The 44-year-old singer was arrested Wednesday night and booked into custody by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of DUI (driving under the influence), several entertainment news outlets said, citing police sources.
Sheriff records showed Spears had been released at 6:07 a.m local time and a court appearance had been set for May 4.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable. Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law,” a representative for Spears said in a statement to entertainment outlet Deadline.
“Hopefully, this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”
Spears had phenomenal early music success with late 1990s hits like “…Baby One More Time” but has largely stepped back from music in recent years.
In her 2023 memoir “The Woman in Me,” Spears insisted she never did hard drugs and that she did not have a drinking problem, but admitted that she was taking Adderall, the ADHD medication.
Following a public breakdown in 2007, Spears was placed under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie Spears, who controlled her money and her personal life, even as she continued to perform high-profile concerts.
The conservatorship was dissolved by a Los Angeles court in 2021, after a groundswell of public support to “Free Britney.”
