Alyssa Healy hits 17 boundaries as she makes her second century of the tournament, to help Australia demolish Bangladesh by ten wickets in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
MATCH REPORT: ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup – Australia v Bangladesh
Meghan Markle has raised eyebrows after a hidden detail in her latest Instagram post points to her royal title.
In her brand new social media post, Meghan shared a highlights reel of her time in Washington DC, where she was a speaker at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit.
The clip shows the duchess being driven past the US capital’s most recognisable sights before she arrives at the venue for her appearance and talks on stage before catching a plane back to California.
Early in the clip as Meghan arrives to speak at the summit, a suitcase can be seen pulled through a hotel, with a bag placed on top, bearing the initials ‘DS’ – thought to relate to her royal title Duchess of Sussex.
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Earlier this year, Meghan became embroiled in controversy in a row over using her HRH title, which appears to go against an agreement with the late Queen.
Both Meghan and Prince Harry gave up their HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) titles when they stepped down as senior royals in March 2020. But in a podcast interview, a picture is shown of a gift card Meghan sent to a friend that read: “with the compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex”.
The bag appearing to show Meghan’s monogram comes after she appeared to take yet another subtle swipe during her appearance at the summit, when she was quizzed on her business plans.
Since they sensationally stepped back from royal life, the Sussexes have signed lucrative deals with the likes of Netflix, while Meghan has launched her As Ever brand, fronted a podcast and had her own lifestyle show.
But at the conference, the Duchess said five years ago, which ties in with her and Harry’s move to the US, “it was a very different situation” – and in what could be seen as a jab at her former life, she added her only plans were to “nest and heal”.
She told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell: “You know, Archie was so little, and I had just got pregnant with Lili around that same time, so we were nesting – nesting and healing.
“And also, I don’t know, I had the bandwidth at that time to think about what the big picture dream was. There was no plan.
“It was just, let’s get through these next couple of years, create community, which was always so important to both of us in our new environment.”
“I was probably in Birkenstocks and sweats like the rest of us, especially during Covid, or just barefoot at home, but I was making a lot of jam, so it ended up becoming the thing that really was my passion project.”
Meghan’s appearance at the summit yesterday came at a busy time for the Duchess. She travelled solo to Paris for the Balenciaga show on October 4, ahead of a string of appearances last week with the Duke of Sussex in New York.
And Meghan also admitted that she flew home to California from Europe for just one day before heading to New York, because she needed to see her “babies”.
Meghan said she made a 6,000-mile dash home for a brief reunion with Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, instead of heading straight to the Big Apple.
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to relocate FIFA World Cup 2026 matches set to be played next year in suburban Boston, after suggesting that parts of the city had been “taken over” by unrest.
Foxborough, Massachusetts, home to the NFL’s New England Patriots and about 48km (30 miles) from Boston, is set to stage matches as the US cohosts the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Trump was asked about Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat whom he called “intelligent” but “radical left”.
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“We could take them away,” Trump said of the World Cup games. “I love the people of Boston, and I know the games are sold out. But your mayor is not good.”
Trump has previously made similar threats against San Francisco and Seattle. He repeated his Boston threats on Wednesday.
Trump has previously suggested he could declare cities “not safe” for the 104-game football tournament and alter a detailed hosting plan that FIFA confirmed in 2022. It includes games at NFL stadiums near New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
World Cup host sites aren’t up to Trump. The 11 US cities – plus three in Mexico and two in Canada – are contracted with FIFA, which would face significant logistical and legal issues to make changes in the eight months before the June 11 kickoff.
“It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” the football body’s vice president Victor Montagliani said earlier this month at a sports business conference in London.
The organisation seemed to soften its stance somewhat on Wednesday, saying in a statement that “safety and security are the top priorities at all FIFA events worldwide” and noting that precautions are “obviously the governments’ responsibility, and they decide what is in the best interest for public safety”.
“We hope every one of our 16 Host Cities will be ready to successfully host and fulfil all necessary requirements,” the FIFA statement added.
Trump has insisted that “if somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni – the head of FIFA who’s phenomenal – and I would say, ‘Let’s move into another location’, and they would do that.”
The president meant FIFA head Gianni Infantino, a close ally. Trump said Infantino “wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it very easily”.
Speaking on a local podcast on Wednesday, Wu questioned how Trump could take away the games with less than a year to go. She said most everything is already “locked down by contract” so no single person “even if they live in the White House currently can undo it”.
“There’s no ability to take away the World Cup games,” Wu said. “There’s no real threat when it comes to saying cities are so unsafe that they can’t host the games.”
Among the seven matches that will be played at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough will be five group stage matches, one match in the round of 32, and a quarterfinal match on July 9, 2026. The news of so many big games was a surprise to local organisers.
“The later in the tournament, the more eyeballs,” said Mike Loynd, head of Boston’s World Cup organising committee, when the schedule was announced last year. “For us, it’s just a matter of excitement. … For us, it’s a perfect schedule. I don’t think FIFA could have done a better job.”
The tournament is expected to bring $1.1bn in local economic impact, create over 5,000 jobs, and generate more than $60m of tax revenue throughout the region, according to organisers. They also expect that more than two million visitors will come to New England throughout the tournament’s 39-day span.
Gillette Stadium is operated by Robert Kraft, who owns the NFL’s New England Patriots and Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.
Kraft served as honorary chair of the United Bid Committee to help bring the World Cup back to the US. In a 2024 interview on the podcast The Breakfast Club, he described himself as a “social friend” of Trump beginning in the 1990s shortly after he purchased the Patriots. He said in that interview that the only donation he’d ever made to Trump was a “strong donation to his inauguration” following his 2016 election.
But Kraft also gifted the president a diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring during his first term after the Patriots won the NFL’s championship to cap the 2016 season. Sitting presidents typically receive gifts from sports teams during celebratory White House visits — a personalised jersey is standard — but Kraft gave Trump a ring as well, the team confirmed at the time.
Kraft decided after the team’s April 2017 visit to have a ring made for Trump so he would have something special to display in his presidential library, the team said. But Kraft said in that same 2024 Breakfast Club interview that he hadn’t spoken to Trump since the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.
Boston and its mayor have been frequent targets of the Trump administration for much of the year.
Trump and his allies have focused their attacks on the city’s so-called sanctuary city polices and how much police should support deportations. In September, the Trump administration sued the city, arguing its sanctuary city policies are illegal under federal law and the city’s refusal to cooperate with immigration authorities has resulted in the release of dangerous criminals who should be deported.
The Trump administration has already deployed US National Guard troops to Washington and Memphis, and efforts to do so in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, have sparked legal fights. Democratic and Republican leaders across Massachusetts have pushed back against the National Guard deployment in Boston, and Wu, who is running unopposed for re-election, often cites the city’s historical low crime rates.
The BBC has said Gregg Wallace is not “entitled to any damages” in response to his High Court claim alleging that the broadcaster and one of its subsidiaries caused him “distress and harassment”.
Last week it was revealed Wallace, who was sacked from BBC’s MasterChef earlier this year, is claiming up to £10,000 in damages from BBC and BBC Studios Distribution following his axe from the show. The former TV chef has claimed they allegedly caused him “distress and harassment” by failing to disclose to him his personal data.
He was dismissed from the show following an independent investigation into historical allegations of misconduct. The report found 45 allegations of misconduct were substantiated, including inappropriate language and humour.
In its defence filed at the High Court, Jason Pobjoy KC, for the BBC, said: “It is denied that the claimant has suffered any distress or harassment as a result of the responses of the BBC.”
He continued, according to PA: “It is denied that the claimant is entitled to any damages, interest or other relief, whether as pleaded or otherwise.”
The broadcast also denied that Mr Wallace has “suffered any distress or harassment” as a result of its responses. While documents also allege Wallace failed to give the BBC prior notice of his intention to file legal proceedings.
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“The biggest issue that’s very acute in the childhood period though is things like developmental delays.”
Emma Raducanu completed a half-century of matches in a season for the first time in her career.
They included a semi-final showing in Washington, plus a quarter-final in Miami and a last-16 appearance on the Rome clay at WTA 1000 level.
There were also chastening defeats by the world’s elite on the Grand Slam stage and a frustrating conclusion in Asia with illness, a bad back and missed match points.
But the British number one’s decision to curtail her season two weeks early, and miss events in Tokyo and Hong Kong because of lingering sickness, is a sound one.
Raducanu has contested 22 tournaments this year, and was also in Auckland and set to play on New Year’s Eve before withdrawing because of her back. That is more than enough.
She now has 11 weeks to recover, rest and train for the 2026 season.
Physically, the 22-year-old has proved a lot more robust – even if her back is becoming a familiar foe.
It cost her vital preparation time last December and was a regular irritation on the clay and grass before stopping her in her tracks at the Ningbo Open this week.
“Structurally I’m more prone and susceptible to picking up things like this,” Raducanu said of her back in May.
There were many periods this summer when she looked a top-20 player. Her serve has become a more potent weapon, with the longer motion offering the potential for greater power and precision.
Of Raducanu’s 22 defeats, only seven came against lower-ranked opponents, with three in the past month alone.
But beating the very best, who often possess greater power, has proved beyond her so far.
She lost 10 of her 11 matches against top-10 players in 2025, the exception being a victory over Emma Navarro in Miami in March.
She was very competitive against world number one Aryna Sabalenka on Wimbledon’s Centre Court – and took her to a third set tie-break in Cincinnati – but there was little room for encouragement elsewhere.
After a 6-1 6-2 loss to ninth seed Elena Rybakina at the US Open, Raducanu reflected on where she needs to improve to change the narrative.
“My serve – it’s been better, but I think it can get better [still],” she told BBC Sport.
“The ball after the serve as well, so I’m ready for a fast return. I think that’s where I still have some big work to do.
“I think starting the point is extremely important when you are playing at that kind of level.”
Raducanu developed an unfortunate habit in Asia of failing to convert match points.
Last year’s Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova saved three against her in Seoul, and then world number five Jessica Pegula did exactly the same in Beijing a week later.
More concerning, though, was the way Raducanu faded in the deciding set of those matches. Against Pegula, Raducanu went for broke and subsided quickly.
Raducanu and Roig are planning a pre-season training block at the end of the year, and 2026 could begin with the United Cup team competition in Sydney and Perth.
As Raducanu is now all but certain to finish the year as British number one, she and Jack Draper will be GB’s team if they take up the opportunity to play in the tournament.
Ranking points will be on offer and could yet be crucial as Raducanu, the current world number 29, tries to squeeze among the 32 seeds for the Australian Open later that month.
As well as helping her learn how to conjugate Spanish verbs in the back of the car on the way to work, Raducanu has credited Roig with a “confident and calm presence that rubs off when I am on court”.
Time to work through changes on the practice court has been limited so far because of the sport’s frenetic schedule.
