Rangers head coach Russell Martin says Nico Raskin will not be in the squad to face Hearts this weekend despite his situation being “resolved”.
The Belgian international was left out of the Ibrox side’s 0-0 draw with Celtic before the international break, during which he scored for his country in a 6-0 win over Kazakhstan.
The 24-year-old was one of Rangers’ best players last season but has fallen out of favour under the former Scotland defender.
“He won’t be in the squad tomorrow,” Martin explained.
“We have a lot of conversations, as we do with every player, but he’s back training with the squad, which is a good step. And now, like every player really, he has a duty to make sure that he earns the trust of all his other team-mates and the coaching staff and the staff in the building to help us win football matches.
“It’s the same for every player here. He obviously played for his country during the week.”
Martin is still waiting for his first Premiership win as Rangers head coach following four draws opening his league tenure.
But despite Raskin, who joined from Standard Liege in 2023, being one of the key players since coming to Glasgow, there appears no rush to usher him back into the squad.
“We have to be on the pitch with trust and feeling and clarity and that’s it,” said Martin.
“And I think the most important thing is that Nico knows why, the players know why, and we all move forward.
“It is resolved because he’s still here and he’s training with the group now, so it’s fine. It’s never a personal thing, it’s always professional. My job is to do what I feel is best for the team, for the club. It’s not about me, it’s not about Nico, it’s about everyone.
Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter final: Ireland v France
Venue: Sandy Park, Exeter Date: Sunday, 14 September Kick-off: 13:00 BST
Ireland back row Aoife Wafer will make her first appearance of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Sunday’s quarter-final against France in Exeter.
Co-captain Edel McMahon, however, misses out through injury.
Wafer, 22, who will join English side Harlequins after the tournament, missed the pool stages as she recovered from knee surgery in July.
The 2025 Six Nations player of the tournament initially remained at home to continue her rehab when Ireland departed for England, joining up with the squad only after their opening win over Japan.
“She’s a class player. We’ve all wanted to see her back on pitch. She’s been desperate to get back out there and give some of herself to the cause that we’re undertaking,” said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand.
“She’s worked incredibly hard behind the scenes and there’s been an incredible amount of support for her in getting her back to this point.
“We’re fully confident she’s fit and ready. She’s desperate to get on the pitch, now it’s just time to let her go.”
Wafer’s return to the side for the first time since April is one of two changes to Bemand’s starting XV from last week’s loss to New Zealand.
She takes the place of McMahon, who plays her club rugby for Exeter, after the flanker left last week’s defeat early in the second half with a knee injury.
“Edel misses out through injury is the long and short of it,” added Bemand.
“We’ll miss her leadership. We’ll miss her ability to go and bank people in defence.”
In the other change from the 40-0 reverse against the Black Ferns, Fiona Tuite comes in for Grace Moore in the back row.
Moore is named among the replacements, with Claire Boles not in the 23, and in a final change on the bench Enya Breen is named in place of Nancy McGillvray.
Stacey Flood and Eve Higgins, who also sustained injuries against New Zealand, are fit to start at full-back and inside centre respectively.
Loose head prop Niamh O’Dowd retains her place in the starting side with Ellena Perry named on the bench after being ruled out on the morning of last week’s concluding pool fixture.
In the hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, details about his attacker remained elusive, and social media users and live TV commentary filled the void with false information.
As of late afternoon on September 11, the day after the shooting at Utah Valley University, where Kirk had been speaking, authorities did not have the shooter in custody and had not released any suspect’s name.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation agents “have been working around the clock in coordination with our law enforcement partners,” FBI special agent Robert Bohls said during a news conference on Thursday. “We are and will continue to work nonstop until we find the person that has committed this heinous crime and find out why they did it.”
Two people were taken into custody on the day of the shooting, but neither was the culprit, and both were released.
The FBI released images on Thursday of a “person of interest” and asked the public for help identifying the attacker.
Here’s a rundown of what didn’t happen, despite claims to the contrary.
No evidence the sniper might have been a Kirk supporter
About an hour after the shooting, before Kirk’s death was announced, political commentator Matthew Dowd suggested during an MSNBC broadcast that the sniper could have been a Kirk supporter.
“We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or – so we have no idea about this,” Dowd said.
While the attacker remains at large, there is no evidence that the person was a Kirk supporter or someone celebrating.
State and federal authorities said a sniper fired a single shot from a high-powered bolt-action rifle that was later recovered in a wooded area outside the university campus. A university spokesperson said law enforcement believes the person fired from the roof of a building some distance from Kirk.
Dowd was fired hours later for his comments, which also included statements about Kirk using “hateful words” that led to “hateful actions”. MSNBC and Dowd both apologised for the rhetoric.
Orem Mayor Dave Young speaks at a candlelight vigil for Kirk at a memorial in Orem City Center Park, Orem, Utah [AFP]
George Zinn was taken into custody, but is not the attacker
Immediately after the shooting, videos of a bald man being dragged away by law enforcement officers circulated widely on X. People sharing the videos said the man’s name was George Zinn.
Zinn was initially taken into custody, authorities said, but he was released and charged with obstruction by police.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Zinn disrupted events in the past and has a criminal record dating to the 1980s. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told the newspaper that Zinn was often arrested “on suspicion of trespassing” and was “politically conservative, leaning libertarian”.
Michael Mallinson, a 77-year-old Canadian man, was not the shooter
An image of a different bald man also went viral.
An X post with more than 992,000 views said, “The assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk was allegedly carried out by Michael Mallinson, a member of the Utah Democratic Party, Fox News reported”.
That claim was unfounded.
Mallinson said he is a 77-year-old retired banker “who lived and was in Toronto”, The New York Times reported after interviewing him. The rumour may have originated from an X account impersonating a Fox broadcast affiliate, The Times reported.
The fact-checking website, Lead Stories, found that the image was posted in 2020 on X by an account with Mallinson’s name. That account was unavailable on September 11.
A meme has been recycled for almost a decade to push disinformation about the identity of mass shooting suspects in the US and abroad. The meme features a real-life comedian whose name and photos have repeatedly been used by internet hoaxers. Once again, after Kirk’s death, the meme circulated on social media.
“Charlie Kirk shooter and Palestinian sympathizer Sam Hyde identified as shooter,” said a September 10 X post showing an image of a man with a rifle.
Another X post on Wednesday shared a video of the same man with a gun and footage of him shooting outdoors. The caption said: “Video of Charlie Kirk shooter now surfaces after the incident and the shooter is identified as Samuel Hackmann. Watch as he warns about the devastation he will be causing.”
The video and images show Samuel Hyde, now 40, a comedian. One of the images of Hyde with a rifle is from a 2016 YouTube video that has been removed.
The video in the X post was originally posted on Facebook in 2020 with the caption, “self-defense situation”, and it is not related to the Kirk assassination.
Candles and flowers are placed near an image of Charlie Kirk [Jim Urquhart/Reuters]
Video of a gunman ‘escaping’ is from July in Nevada
On Thursday, an X user shared a video saying it showed “Charlie Kirk’s real shooter escaping after the shooting”. The post gained 9.5 million views.
But a reverse image search showed the video was taken from a different incident that happened in July, and in another state.
Dewah Fabrice Teh, Sports writer, Cameroon and Ian Williams, BBC Sport Africa
Emmanuel Eseme is not your usual world-class sprinter.
A former amateur footballer who played in goal, the Cameroonian did not switch to athletics until he was 24.
Now 32, he has spent most of the intervening years balancing sprinting with his job as an environmental engineer.
He is currently based in Portugal having joined Sporting CP, most famous for its illustrious football team but a multi-sport club which Eseme represents in meetings wearing its famous green and white striped kit.
He has even adopted the celebration of one of its former players, copying the mask made by Viktor Gyokeres, which sees the Arsenal striker cover his mouth with interlocking fingers after he scores.
“I liked the way he played. He was strong, very determined,” Eseme told BBC Sport Africa.
“I didn’t know the meaning of his mask, but then I decided to give a meaning.
“[It] looks similar to the pirate mask. And when pirates go somewhere they change the happenings of everything, and I believe that’s what I’m doing in athletics.
“I’m going there as that pirate, that game changer.”
Eseme was “really happy” to receive a video message from Gyokeres congratulating him on qualifying for last year’s Olympics in Paris.
“It just motivated me to keep on going harder,” he added. “To be able to represent the mask.”
Building on Mbango’s golden legacy
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Only one Cameroonian athlete has ever won a medal at the World Championships, with triple jumper Francoise Mbango claiming silver in both 2001 and 2003.
Combined with her Olympic gold medals from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, she remains a hero to many.
But Eseme is worried about the subsequent lack of international success which now stretches over nearly two decades.
“The problem is it has been many years since she [Mbango] registered that performance and young people don’t really know what she has done.
Eseme, who recently became a father, spoke to the BBC after training at the Olembe Stadium in the Cameroon capital Yaounde, a multisport complex initially built to host matches at the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
While football still dominates in his home country, he says the infrastructure available to athletes has improved, allowing greater consistency.
“Before I went to Europe, I had that kind of a problem,” he said, explaining how football could previously block his access to facilities.
“Today we have more than one track on which we can train.”
But Eseme believes more can be done, particularly around training coaches.
“We have a lot of coaches who are passionate about the sport. I think we just have to give them that possibility to dive deeper.
“And we should also introduce sports medicine in Cameroon.
“It’s one of the parts of my training in which I spend so much and I think that’s what’s really helping me to progress.”
While Eseme does not enjoy being recognised out in public – often wearing a hoodie and cap to avoid being spotted – he is happy to be a role model.
“If I had started earlier, maybe Cameroon would have been talking of an Olympic champion, the world champion,” he said.
“So that’s what I’m trying to inspire into the younger generation – start right now.
‘I believe Africa is going to take over’
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Eseme’s season so far has been mixed, having missed the indoor campaign through injury.
He then recorded top-six finishes in the opening four 100m races of the Diamond League calendar, clocking a season’s best of 9.99 seconds in Rome, just short of his personal best time of 9.96secs.
In July, he recorded a new national record in the 200m, but injury has again curtailed his ability to race properly since that point.
“I’ve been training, though not in full force,” he admitted.
“But I still have goals for Tokyo. I want to represent my country as best as I can.”
Having suffered with injuries and visa issues around other global showpiece events, he admits that he has found it tough to deal with the setbacks.
“I was really affected,” he said, before also confessing that he worries people will think “he is just faking it because he’s scared”.
Someone who might offer support is South African sprinter Akani Simbine, the former African 100m record holder who has agonisingly finished fourth in the past two Olympic finals.
“Sometimes, when I have some doubts, he’s always there to [say] ‘OK, this is how it works’,” revealed Eseme.
“He’s the one who held my hand and showed me the way things happen in the athletics.”
Simbine did win a silver medal at last year’s Games in Paris as part of South Africa’s 4x100m relay team, a feat matched by Botswana in the men’s 4x400m.
With 10 African men reaching the semi-finals of the 100m in Paris – including Letsile Tebogo, who would go on to win 200m gold, Eseme is convinced African sprinting is on the rise.
“I believe Africa is going to take over,” he said.
“With everything that’s happening with Tebogo, Akani, we are seeing that it’s possible to achieve all those things.”
And despite his age, Eseme believes he can be part of the revolution.
“A lot of my opponents have been doing this sport for 15 years. I’ve been doing track and field for eight years,” he said.
“I may not be young, but in terms of the work the other athletes have undergone, the work their muscles have undergone, I believe my muscles are still fresh and I’m still growing progressively.
“The Jamaicans, Americans, South Africans, they are not from space. They are not super-humans.
Chelsea striker Liam Delap could be sidelined until December after sustaining a hamstring injury against Fulham before the international break.
Delap was replaced just 14 minutes into the 2-0 victory over the Cottagers and manager Enzo Maresca said he will be unavailable for 10 to 12 weeks.
The Blues are hopeful the 22-year-old could return in November, offering a boost for the busy festive period, after avoiding the need for surgery.
Delap joined the Blues from Ipswich for £30m in June and has featured in all three games this season.
Chelsea recalled striker Marc Guiu from a loan spell at Sunderland the day after Delap picked up the injury to provide cover amid uncertainty over Nicolas Jackson, who joined Bayern Munich for £70.5m the following day.
Joao Pedro also joined the west London club from Brighton earlier in the summer and is likely to be Maresca’s preferred option to lead the line.
Delap was Ipswich’s leading scorer last season – registering 12 times in the Premier League – and played 37 times.
Meanwhile, forward Cole Palmer is pushing for a return when Chelsea travel to Brentford on Saturday (20:00 BST).
The England forward missed victories over West Ham and Fulham with a groin injury.
“Cole took part in the session yesterday for the first time, not the entire session,” Maresca said.
“We have one more session this afternoon and we are going to try with him to see if he’s OK, otherwise he will be out tomorrow.
“He is recovering from an injury. When he is available, we need to manage him because of the amount of games.”
‘Not in my hands’ – Maresca on charges
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Chelsea have made a positive start to the 2025-26 campaign, picking up seven points from their opening three games, but there was disappointing news off the field on Thursday.
The Football Association charged Chelsea with 74 alleged rule breaches related to payments to agents between 2009 and 2022.
The alleged rules breaches, which pre-date Maresca’s arrival at the club, concern agents, intermediaries and third-party investments in players.
“I know from the club that they are satisfied about the process,” Maresca said when asked about the charges.
“Personally, I have nothing to add. I have no idea, to be honest. I want to focus on the pitch, something I can control.
At least 51 people have been killed during violent anticorruption protests in Nepal this week, and thousands of prisoners who escaped during the chaos remain on the run, according to police, as the country’s former Chief Justice Sushila Karki appears set to be appointed interim prime minister.
Police spokesperson Binod Ghimire said on Friday that those killed so far this week included 21 protesters, nine prisoners, three police officers and 18 others, without elaborating. Another 1,300 people were injured as police fought to control crowds.
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The announcement comes as political uncertainty engulfs the nation, with Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel and army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel preparing to meet later on Friday with Karki and a leading youth activist.
Ghimire added that more than 12,500 prisoners who escaped from multiple jails countrywide remain on the run. “About 13,500 prisoners had escaped – some have been recaptured, 12,533 are still at large.”
The dead included prisoners killed during or after their escape in clashes with Nepalese security forces.
Some of the fugitives have reportedly tried to cross into India, where scores have been apprehended by Indian border forces.
Nepal’s army, which has imposed a curfew, said that it had recovered more than 100 guns looted in the turmoil, with some protesters seen brandishing automatic rifles.
“Sushila Karki will be appointed interim prime minister,” a constitutional expert consulted by Paudel and Sigdel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency.
“They [Gen Z] want her. This will happen today,” the source added, referring to the “Gen Z” protesters whose name derives from the age of most participants.
Karki is “seen as an anticorruption voice, so she’s acceptable to a lot of the Gen Z groups that have been firing up this movement, because corruption has been a big issue,” said Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the capital Kathmandu. “But while she’s popular with them, she’s not necessarily popular with other groups … so she’s seen as a consensus candidate.”
Karki’s appointment is likely to be formally made after a meeting at Paudel’s residence, rescheduled to Friday afternoon from an initial time in the morning, according to a Gen Z source involved in the talks.
McBride, however, said that uncertainty remains over whether Karki can serve as an interim prime minister if she’s not a member of parliament, adding that this raises the prospect of Nepal dissolving its parliament or even overturning its constitution.
“But what is for sure is that Nepal is in for a long period of political uncertainty,” McBride said.
The president’s office and the army spokesperson did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
On Monday, the 21 protesters were killed in a police crackdown on demonstrations against a government ban on social media, corruption and poor governance.
On Tuesday, protesters set the parliament ablaze, KP Sharma Oli resigned as prime minister, and the army then took charge of the streets.
Wedged between India and China, Nepal has grappled with political and economic instability since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, while a lack of jobs drives millions to seek work in other countries and send money home.
Shops began reopening on Friday, among signs that normalcy was returning in Kathmandu, with cars in the streets and police personnel taking up batons instead of the guns they carried earlier in the week.
Some roads stayed blocked, though streets were patrolled by fewer soldiers than before.
Authorities began handing the bodies of loved ones killed in the protests to mourning families.
“While his friends backed off (from the protests), he decided to go ahead,” Karuna Budhathoki said of her 23-year-old nephew, as she waited to collect his body at Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital.
