Amari Williams, a British player, was chosen with the 46th overall pick and chosen by the Boston Celtics to join the NBA.
Tosan Evbuomwan, the Brooklyn Nets’ forward, and OG Anunoby of the New York Knicks, the 23-year-old becomes the third English-born active player in the NBA.
Williams was born in Nottingham, moving to the United States to study at Drexel University and the University of Kentucky before enrolling at Myerscough College in Lancashire.
The 7-foot center was named CAA Defensive Player of the Year three times during his five-year college career with the Drexel Dragons.
Chris Harris, who played for the St. Louis Hawks and Rochester Royals in 1955-56, was the first NBA player to play for the team of British descent.
Jeremy Sochan, the San Antonio Spurs star, was born and raised in the United States, and has played for a number of English clubs, most notably Southampton’s Solent Kestrels.
The Celtics, who are the most successful team in NBA history with 18 championships, now have some much-needed front-court depth.
TV personality and chef, Nadiya Hussain, has opened up about the pressure to be grateful over the years after announcing her decade-long tenure with the BBC has come to an end
The BBC said that it has decided not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya for the time being(Image: BBC/Wall to Wall/Tom Kirkman)
TV chef and former Great British Bake Off champion, Nadiya Hussain, has shared a powerful message about the expectation of “gratitude” she feels as the child of immigrants. Hussain says she is “allowed to feel more than just thankful” after her decade-long tenure with the BBC recently came to an end.
In a new Instagram video, the TV chef said she received a ton of messages from people telling her to be “grateful for the opportunity” and “thankful for how far [she’s] come,” after discussing her disappointment at having her BBC shows axed.
In response, Hussain highlighted the pressure to clamp down on expressing sadness or frustration over the years, at the risk of sounding ungrateful – especially as the child of immigrants.
“My whole life as a child in an immigrant household, I used to think I had to be grateful all the time because I watched my family. Always grateful.
Hussain has opened up about her struggles with anxiety in the BBC doc Nadiya: Anxiety and Me(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
READ MORE: Bake Off icon Nadiya Hussain shares worrying health update and urges others to ‘listen to your body’
“Grateful for being let in. Grateful for having work – even if underpaid. Grateful for safety – even if it meant silence. Always grateful. Grateful even when I feel tired, lonely or disrespected.” She shared that over time the expectation to be grateful began to feel “really heavy” and that it became something she felt expected to wear “like a uniform”.
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“Anytime I voiced frustration or sadness or wanted more, I could feel the invisible pressure. Like ‘how dare you complain?’ ‘Aren’t you lucky just to be here?’”. Now, Hussain says she has learned she’s “allowed to feel more than just thankful”.
“I am a human being and I’m allowed to feel angry when I’m treated unfairly. I’m allowed to want better for myself and for my family. I’m allowed to speak up. I’m allowed to exist.”
“Gratitude has its place, but it shouldn’t be a muzzle,” continues Hussain. Alluding to immigrants and their families she says: “We didn’t come here just to survive. We came here to live, to grow, to contribute, to belong. Not as a guest but as a person who has rights and dreams and dignity just like everyone else.”
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“So no, I won’t always be grateful,” concludes Hussain. “And that doesn’t make me ungrateful. It makes me human.”
In a previous Instagram post in which she announced her ending ties with the BBC, Hussain shared that the TV industry “doesn’t always support Muslim women like me”.
“The BBC have decided that they didn’t want to commission a show. And for me, that was a huge turning point because it’s something I’ve done for the past 10 years.
“I was already on this steady trajectory of change and I was thinking about where I wanted my career to go, and when the BBC decided they didn’t want to commission the show anymore, it really did kind of solidify everything for me, and it made me dig my heels in and think ‘OK, I know where I want to be’.”
Hussain has gone on to front many shows for the BBC since her 2015 Bake Off win(Image: BBC)
The TV chef has fronted several food series for the BBC since winning The Great British Bake Off in 2025 – when the show was on BBC1 – including Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya’s Fast Flavours and Nadiya’s Simple Spices. She also worked on a documentary with the company entitled Nadiya: Anxiety and Me.
A BBC spokesperson said: “After several wonderful series we have made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain at the moment.”
The statement continued: “Nadiya remains a much-valued part of the BBC family, and we look forward to working together on future projects.”
The former owner of Rangers, Sir David Murray, has apologised to fans for his part in the financial calamity that befell the club more than a decade ago.
Sir David, who sold the Ibrox side for £1 to businessman Craig Whyte, presided over Ibrox when the club gave £47m in tax-free loans to players and staff between 2001 and 2010.
Under Mr Whyte’s ownership the Rangers business went into liquidation in 2012 – a year after the sale.
“Of course I’d apologise,” he said. “I’m not one of these people who run a company and hide.
“It was a terrible moment, and I apologise to all the staff, good people, and I know many of them to this day.
What were the facts?
SNS
What was known as the “big tax case” centred on the club’s use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs).
EBTs, which were also used by other clubs, enabled Rangers to pay £47m to players, managers and directors between 2001 and 2010 in tax-free loans.
HMRC argued the payments were earnings and should be taxable.
Two tribunals in 2012 and 2014 had previously found in Rangers’ favour but the Supreme Court ruled in favour of HMRC after an appeal in 2015.
The case unfolded against a backdrop of financial meltdown for Rangers.
Years later, Mr Whyte was charged and cleared of taking over the club by fraud.
A court heard that his takeover of Rangers was sealed with a pound coin being tossed across a table in Sir David’s office.
At the time, Mr Whyte had agreed to take on obligations which included paying an £18m bank debt and £5m for players.
PA Media
Challenged on whether it was morally acceptable to deprive the NHS and other public services of funds so millionaire footballers could pay less tax, Sir David replied: “They didn’t do anything illegal.”
“Footballers are getting paid too much. Not just at Rangers, everywhere,” he went on, adding: “It’s avoidance. People do that.”
Sir David denied that the trophies Rangers had won in this period were tainted by the tax arrangements and also denied that the scheme amounted to buying success, or financial doping.
Sectarianism, steel and Sir Sean Connery
PA Media
Sir David made his name in the steel industry, forming the company Murray International Metals Limited by the age of 23.
In 1988, he purchased Rangers for £6m and went on to see the club win 15 league championships and 20 domestic Cups.
He and manager Graeme Souness signed the club’s first high-profile Catholic player since World War Two – Mo Johnston, who previously played for Celtic – in 1989.
Reflecting on sectarian tensions in Glasgow, which he described in his book as “vitriol”, Sir David said the continued singing of sectarian songs at Ibrox was not acceptable.
“There’s no place for that in society,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right and I’ve said that and I lost some of the support of the Rangers fans by saying that.”
He also told BBC Scotland News about a business proposal offered to him by media mogul Robert Maxwell in a phone call one day.
Murray told BBC Scotland News: “He said I am thinking of buying Celtic, we could put Rangers and Celtic together as one and they would be a big force.
SNS
The businessman also called for an inquiry into the Scottish government’s involvement in the sale of two steel processing plants in Lanarkshire to the tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.
The sale was backed by a £7m support package from the Scottish government.
Sir David claims ministers rejected his rival bid to purchase the business because it was potentially incompatible with state aid rules, and criticised Mr Gupta’s management of Liberty Steel in the years since.
The Scottish government it had “acted quickly” to support the transaction, adding: “This intervention sustained over 100 jobs at Dalzell and retained steelmaking capacity in Scotland.”
SNS
Elsewhere in his book, Sir David describes in detail the car accident in 1976 that led to his legs being amputated at the age of 24, a year after founding his metals business.
On the way home from a game of rugby in his fibreglass Lotus, a tyre blowout sent him off the road and into a tree.
Sir David described how fellow rugby players stopped to help him, using their ties as tourniquets before he was taken to hospital for life-saving surgery.
“None of us know how tough we are until the time we find out how tough we are,” he said.
“I had a young son of several months old and a boy of two. I’d a young wife. My father had just passed away. I could only go one way. I couldn’t fail. I have a responsibility,” he added.
Another chapter in the autobiography is dedicated to Sir Sean Connery, who was a close friend of Sir David’s.
The book describes how the pair travelled to Dunblane in the aftermath of the murder of 16 children and their teacher in the Scottish town on 13 March 1996.
“It was after the terrible news up there that Sean wanted to visit it. And I took him up with some flowers, and quietly he stood for a minute and put some flowers at the school gates. A very difficult moment,” said Sir David.
Fighters are set to receive compensation payments ranging from $100,000 to more than $1m from the UFC’s antitrust lawsuit settlement, according to the law firm handling the case.
In October, the UFC agreed to pay £281m to former fighters who competed in the MMA promotion between 2010 and 2017.
The lawsuit claimed the UFC supressed athletes’ ability to negotiate other promotional options and estimate 1,100 fighters were affected.
Of that total figure, 97% of them have applied to receive funds from the settlement, Berger Montague announced.
“It is anticipated that 35 fighters would net over $1m (£727,755); nearly 100 fighters would net over $500,000 (£364,000); more than 200 fighters would recover over $250,000 (£182,000); and over 500 fighters would net in excess of $100,000 (£73,000),” a statement said.
The UFC are in the midst of another antitrust lawsuit, Johnson v. Zuffa, led by more of their former athletes.
Fighters from 2017 to the present day are seeking damages and a change to the UFC’s business practices, including the contracts they insist on.
The antitrust lawsuits had sought up to $1.6bn (£1.25bn) in damages.
The UFC merged with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in 2023 to form the TKO Group.
The UFC’s international fight week is currently under way in Las Vegas, with Ilia Topuria fighting Charles Oliveira for the UFC lightweight title at the T-Mobile Arena.
In a stunning first-round match at Wimbledon, Emma Raducanu will face Mimi Xu, a youngster from England.
British No. 1 Raducanu, who is 38th in the world, was given a difficult-looking draw after falling just short of the championship seeding.
The path for world number four, who faces Argentine’s 38th-ranked Sebastian Baez, is also challenging.
Novak Djokovic, a seven-time champion and contender for a 25th consecutive major singles title, could face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
In the second round, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and British qualifier Oliver Tarvet could face off against him because he is still a college player in the United States.
Barbora Krejcikova, the women’s champion last year, will start her title defense against Phillipines’ Alexandra Eala, who pulled out of Eastbourne this week with a thigh injury.
The singles draws of Raducanu and Draper are the highest total since 1984, leading 23 British players overall.
British women have a lot of draw all the time.
In the second round, if Raducanu defeats 17-year-old Xu, she will face either Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion, or McCartney Kessler, the 32nd seed.
In the third round, the 22-year-old might face Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s number one.
The two other British teenagers who were given wildcards, Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic, also received tough draws against seeded opponents.
Leylah Fernandez, the 29th seed in Canada, is the opponent Klugman, 16, who Raducanu memorably defeated to win the US Open in 2021.
Stojsavljevic, the 16-year-old junior champion, will face American Ashlyn Krueger, the 31st seed.
In the women’s singles draw, 10 British players are paired against seeded opponents, making up half of the total.
Paula Badosa, the ninth-seeded Spanish player, and Katie Boulter, who Raducanu replaced as the nation’s top player earlier in June, have been drawn.
Draper is eager to receive some famous names.
It marked a significant moment for Draper when he regained his position as world number four following his semi-final run to the Queen.
As fourth seed, Draper was guaranteed to stay out of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, who had already been the heavy favorites to win the title, until at least the semi-finals.
However, Draper was quick to warn against overdoing the seeding until the draw was held, and he has proven to be correct.
In the second and third rounds, Draper could face Marin Cilic, a 2017 finalist, and Alexander Bublik, a 28th seed, in the same match as Baez.
In the final eight, the Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik faces the looming threat of sixth seed Djokovic or Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur, who is a huge server who could pose a serious threat on grass.
British number two Jacob Fearnley will face popular Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca, while 2022 semi-finalist Cameron Norrie will face veteran Spanishman Roberto Bautista Agut, who also advanced to the top four in 2019.
Who are the other Britons facing?
Men’s singles:
[WC] Pedro Martinez (Spa) vs. George Loffhagen
[WC] v. Tommy Paul (US) 13] Johannus Monday
[WC] Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Arg) v. Jack Pinnington-Jones
[WC] vs. Jay Clarke [WC]
[20] vs. Arthur Fery [WC] Alexei Popyrin (Aus)
Hubert Hurkacz (Pol) vs. Billy Harris
Henry Searle v. Ethan Quinn (US) WC
Oliver Crawford v. Mattia Bellucci (Ita) [WC]
Single women:
Dalma Galfi (Hun) vs. Harriet Dart [WC]
[WC] Caty McNally (US) v. Jodie Burrage
[WC] Yuliia Starodubtseva (Ukr) v. Francesca Jones
In a stunning first-round match at Wimbledon, Emma Raducanu will face Mimi Xu, a youngster from England.
British No. 1 Raducanu, who is 38th in the world, was given a difficult-looking draw after falling just short of the championship seeding.
The path for world number four, who faces Argentine’s 38th-ranked Sebastian Baez, is also challenging.
Novak Djokovic, a seven-time champion and contender for a 25th consecutive major singles title, could face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
In the second round, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and British qualifier Oliver Tarvet could face off against him because he is still a college player in the United States.
Barbora Krejcikova, the women’s champion last year, is set to face 20-year-old Filipino Alexandra Eala in her title defense. She withdrew from Eastbourne this week due to a thigh injury.
The singles draws of Raducanu and Draper are the highest total since 1984, leading 23 British players overall.
Seven of the British contingent’s have already climbed the world rankings, with Tarvet the only qualifier and 15 handed wildcards.
British women have a lot of draw all the time.
In the second round, if Raducanu defeats 17-year-old Xu, she will face either Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion, or McCartney Kessler, the 32nd seed.
In the third round, the 22-year-old might face Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s number one.
The two other British teenagers who were given wildcards, Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic, also received tough draws against seeded opponents.
Leylah Fernandez, the 29th seed in Canada, is the opponent Klugman, 16, who Raducanu memorably defeated to win the US Open in 2021.
Stojsavljevic, the 16-year-old junior champion, will face American Ashlyn Krueger, the 31st seed.
In the women’s singles draw, 10 British players are paired against seeded opponents, making up half of the total.
Paula Badosa, the ninth-seeded Spanish player, and Katie Boulter, who Raducanu replaced as the nation’s top player earlier in June, have been drawn.
Draper is eager to receive some famous names.
Images courtesy of Getty
It marked a significant moment for Draper when he regained his position as world number four following his semi-final run to the Queen.
As fourth seed, Draper was guaranteed to stay out of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, who had already been the heavy favorites to win the title, until at least the semi-finals.
However, Draper was quick to warn against overdoing the seeding until the draw was held, and he has proven to be correct.
In the second and third rounds, Draper could face Marin Cilic, a 2017 finalist, and Alexander Bublik, a 28th seed, in the same match as Baez.
In the final eight, the Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik faces the looming threat of sixth seed Djokovic or Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur, who is a huge server who could pose a serious threat on grass.
British number two Jacob Fearnley will face popular Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca, while 2022 semi-finalist Cameron Norrie will face veteran Spanishman Roberto Bautista Agut, who also advanced to the top four in 2019.
Who are the other Britons facing?
Men’s singles:
[WC] Pedro Martinez (Spa) vs. George Loffhagen
[WC] v. Tommy Paul (US) 13] Johannus Monday
[WC] Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Arg) v. Jack Pinnington-Jones
[WC] vs. Jay Clarke [WC]
[20] vs. Arthur Fery [WC] Alexei Popyrin (Aus)
Dusan Lajovic (Srb) vs. Billy Harris
Henry Searle v. Ethan Quinn (US) WC
Oliver Crawford v. Mattia Bellucci (Ita) [WC]
Single women:
Dalma Galfi (Hun) vs. Harriet Dart [WC]
[WC] Caty McNally (US) v. Jodie Burrage
[WC] Yuliia Starodubtseva (Ukr) v. Francesca Jones
Analysis of home support is not to be understated.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
The 23 Britons have drawn seeds, but only four will face lower-ranked foes in the first round, and only four have already done so.
Boulter and Kartal draw terrible matches, with Kartal facing top-seeded Badosa and Ostapenko, who holds two grass-court titles to her name.
And Raducanu, who has already defeated two top-100 players on the grass this summer, will be very cautious.
Only four players, including Fearnley, Draper, Evans, and Raducanu, will have a higher ranking than their opponents in their first round matches, and Fearnley will face Brazilian hotshot Fonseca.
Other notable first-round matches
Images courtesy of Getty
Men’s singles:
full draw
Single women:
What is the process of drawing at Wimbledon?
by BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team
Before the draw, seedongs are distributed to the top 32 players in the men’s and women’s singles rankings.
The top seed would be the one with the highest ranking, and so on, according to how the seedings correspond to their world rankings. However, if, for example, the world number 10 withdraws from the tournament, the world number 11 will take their place as the tournament’s top 10th seed.
Due to the nature of the draw, seeded players won’t be able to meet another seeded player until later in the tournament.
With 128 players each singles draw, 96 players, including wildcards and qualifiers, are unseeded.
