Antetokounmpo injured as Bucks beat Pistons

Images courtesy of Getty

Despite the injury to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s two-time Most Valuable Player, early in the match, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Detroit Pistons 113-109.

Antetokounmpo, 30, fell to the floor in the third minute and was helped off the court by his teammates.

The Bucks won their first game by falling to Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, which they had 18 points in the first quarter.

The Bucks won with 26 points in the fourth quarter thanks to AJ Green’s 11 of his 19 assists.

According to Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, “It was a hell of a win.”

We go down early, miss wide open, and make great shots, but we were unable to fall.

Milwaukee is currently in 10th place, while Detroit are still in the top five of the Eastern Conference.

After the Greek power forward had an MRI scan, the Bucks initially believed Antetokounmpo had strained his right calf, but are now awaiting confirmation.

Before the game, rumors broke that Antetokounmpo was “mulling his future with the franchise” via ESPN.

However, Rivers claimed that there had been no exchanges regarding a potential trade.

The Los Angeles Clippers’ 115-92 victory over the Atlanta Hawks ended a five-game losing streak there with 48 points led by James Harden and Kawhi Leonard.

related subjects

  • Basketball

Weekly sports quiz: Which keeper did Haaland score his 100th Premier League goal against?

  • Comments

In the past seven days, Erling Haaland broke records, won the Formula 1 title, and fought back against comeback rumors, there has been so much.

In the most recent edition, about 12% of quiz-takers received full marks. This week, will you be able to pass?

What data are gathered from this quiz?

more tests are available.

    • a day ago
    • September 9
Do you like to test your memory? Take the quiz from last week.

related subjects

  • Football

Weekly sports quiz: Which keeper did Haaland score his 100th goal against?

  • 1 Comments

In the past seven days, Erling Haaland broke records, won the Formula 1 title, and fought back against comeback rumors, there has been so much.

In the most recent edition, about 12% of quiz-takers received full marks. This week, will you be able to pass?

What data are gathered from this quiz?

more tests are available.

    • a day ago
    • September 9
Do you like to test your memory? Take the quiz from last week.

related subjects

  • Football

Most Germans, French see ‘high risk’ of war with Russia, survey shows

According to a survey, the majority of people in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and several other EU member states believe that there is a high likelihood that Russia will start a war against their nation.

Just over half of respondents in nine of the nine surveyed European nations reported that the risk of war was “high” or “very high” in their surveys, according to a poll conducted by Cluster17 in France on Thursday.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

Poland, which was once a part of the Soviet Union and borders Russia, had by far the highest level of war anxiety, with 77 percent of respondents citing a high risk of conflict, according to the survey.

Respondents in Belgium and the Netherlands reported that 59% of respondents saw a high risk of war, with roughly 50% of Germans, French, and Spanish respondents all agreeing.

34 percent of respondents, followed by Portuguese and Croatians, had the lowest risk of war.

Just under half of Europeans surveyed said they viewed Donald Trump as an “enemy of Europe,” up four points from September.

Le Grand Continent, a French-based journal for foreign affairs, published the poll.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Europe’s leaders have been preoccupious about the security situation there.

Following similar actions by Belgium and the Netherlands, France announced last week that it would reintroduce military service, which was discontinued in 1996, starting from January 1 on a voluntary basis.

Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, blatantly cited the action as a response to Russian aggression, warning that Moscow would try to take advantage of any “signal of weakness.”

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, retaliated on Tuesday over proposed changes to a Trump-backed plan to end the Ukrainian war by saying that Russia was “ready” for war.

‘I feared failure’ – why Savage left club that ‘saved’ him

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

“I have to leave the football club if I don’t pass this season.”

As head coach of Macclesfield, Robbie Savage excelled.

In his first managerial role, the former Wales midfielder achieved the aims set out at the start of the 2024-25 campaign as his team won promotion to National League North with six games to spare.

The Silkmen broke the 100-point barrier in the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League as the first team since 2017 to secure promotion from the top seven tiers of English football.

Then, five weeks before the start of the 2025-26 season, Savage abruptly quit Macclesfield and accepted a position in the league above as Forest Green Rovers head coach.

That brought an end to a four-year association with Macclesfield and a remarkable journey alongside best friend and club owner Robert Smethurst – the beginnings of which were witnessed in the 2021 BBC documentary Robbie Savage: Making Macclesfield FC.

We are taken behind the scenes as Savage begins his management career at the club he helped found in a new BBC iPlayer follow-up to 2025.

Robbie Savage follows players, staff, and supporters through a promotion-winning campaign.

Robbie Savage: Managing Macclesfield FC

Watch on iPlayer
Getty Images

After Macclesfield Town’s National League exit and closing in the High Court in September 2020, local businessman Smethurst purchased the club’s assets and sold them a month later.

Macclesfield FC was born and Smethurst brought in long-term friend Savage as director of football.

The organization’s stadium was in disrepair, the team had no players, and there was no league to play in. In time for the 2021-22 season, when they ranked ninth in English football, Metthurst and Savage needed nine months to create a club from scratch.

The pair assembled a squad that won promotions in each of their first two seasons, but momentum was halted in 2024 with a Northern Premier League play-off final defeat by Marine.

Robbie had to step up as the manager at that point, according to Smethurst.

Following the defeat, Boss Michael Clegg left the team, and Savage was named as the club’s head coach a day later.

“We’ve been through so much together. He is now the boss, Savage continues.

“Until the play-off final, I never, ever, ever wanted to be a manager.” This season I can’t fail”.

In the new documentary, Savage approaches management with a duck-to-water attitude. The former Premier League player believed his team could continue winning the entire season without losing. Macclesfield won 17 games without losing.

His squad bought in to that, and we hear from a number of players about Savage’s style of management.

Star striker Danny Elliott says, “He’s quite different from what you might think he’s like.” He shows great concern.

“Robbie understands us”, forward D’Mani Mellor adds.

The Silkmen won promotion to the sixth tier, which they did with a comeback victory over Bamber Bridge, but they did not have an “invincible” season and lost just three matches.

According to Smethurst, “He’s proven to be an unbelievable manager.” “I’m so proud of him”.

For the first time in my life, I feared failure.

Macclesfield players celebrate promotionGetty Images

In her hit Someone Like You, Adele sings of love, loss and moving on in the aftermath of a relationship ending.

Such a scenario was soon to be faced by Macclesfield.

Savage received an offer from Forest Green resounding in recognition of his success with Macclesfield.

Not only did Macclesfield lose their manager, but his assistant John McMahon and three players went too, as Tre Pemberton, Neil Kengni and club captain Laurent Mendy followed Savage to Gloucestershire.

Savage claims in the documentary that he has always had open and honest communication with Rob. I called him and said I had the privilege of speaking with a club. Rob said ‘ you have my blessing, go and smash it’. That was all I needed to hear.

Smethurst is obviously happy for his friend to succeed, but Savage’s exit quickly leaves him feeling hurt.

“It’s like losing my left arm”, he says. The league had just been won. Why he was going didn’t make sense.

” Sav had loads of opportunities to leave, I didn’t think it would ever happen. I believed we were together in something. Our goal was to restore this football team to League Two.

“Now he’s gone it does feel very different, but nobody can ever deny what Sav did for this football club”.

The pair are reunited at the conclusion of the documentary when Smethurst visits Savage at his new club.

Before arriving at Savage’s office, they give each other a hug and stroll through the training facilities.

“We were all on such a high”, Smethurst tells him. We had a few budget disputes, spent a lot of time looking at players, and we were entering the summer.

It seemed as though the heart had been ripped out of the middle because it happened so quickly.

“People genuinely believed that you were going to be with us forever. The fans’ reaction to how quickly it happened was both the speed and letdown.

Savage claims he wasn’t aware the backlash was as bad as he had anticipated.

“It makes me sad”, Savage says. I want to “pop in” whenever I drive past. Because it was our club, it hurts. We built it from nothing.

Because we were together, I could have continued working there for five years. For the first time in my life, I feared failure. The stress was too big, I felt so much responsibility and it took over my life. I can concentrate solely on being a football manager here.

Forest Green are currently fourth in the National League, one point behind them having lost only once this season.

Under new manager John Rooney, Macclesfield are 14th in National League North but have games in hand that could push them towards the play-offs, and are through to the second round of the FA Cup.

Savage tells Smethurst, “I wouldn’t be sitting here if you hadn’t given me the opportunity to manage the first team.” Therefore, I owe you everything for my management career.

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

Savage may have left Macclesfield, but his success on the field will be remembered as well as his team’s success.

Savage and Smethurst resurrected the area, giving the town a football team, and significantly improving the quality of life there.

“We’ve built a monster”, Smethurst says in one scene. We have “a large number of employees, 38 teams, 800 students in our academy, an international program, weekend tournaments, a bar, and a gym,” according to the statement.

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

In one scene, Smethurst explains that when he bought the football club he was in a “really bad place” and close to losing his life through addiction.

Smethurst continues, “The football club was amazing for me to rebuild my life.”

My life was saved by it. It’s given me a direction, it’s given me a purpose. I adore the fans, the people, and the town.

He thanks Savage for assisting him in becoming sober, and he is especially appreciative of his wife and family.

“I’ll never forget how much Robbie helped me and what he has done for me”, he says.

JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.

When Smethurst made the announcement to step down as owner and give control to the club’s board in October 2025, he remarked how he had “struggled” without Savage.

The pair continued to support one another for the duration of their relationship thanks to the friendship.

As well as the footballing challenge, being a recognisable football personality added to the daily stresses that Savage had to confront.

Savage claims that being a player and manager is “part and parcel of being me.”

In the documentary, footage of opposition supporters kicking Savage at him as he stands a few meters away from them is shown.

He explains how he would take a colleague wearing a bodycam to away games “to protect me and my family”.

Savage claims that the abuse I received as a player “made me a pantomime villain.” However, it can occasionally turn into a very hostile environment in non-league football when the fans are so close to you and alcohol is permitted.

” I’m supposed to stand there and just take it and if I give it back, what will be put out is my reaction, not why I reacted. “

However, the former champion of Derby County, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, and Leicester City looks back on his time there fondly.

Savage asserts that what we have been through together is more than just a football team.

” It’s mentally helped save me after football and I think it’s saved Rob’s life, I really do.

related subjects

  • Football
  • Macclesfield

More on this story

    • 12 November 2021
    Robbie Savage in Macclesfield FC dugout.
    • 31 October
    Forest Green Rovers boss Robbie Savage (left) with club owner Dale Vince.
    • 14 October
    Forest Green Rovers Football Club manager Robbie Savage

US will expand social media, work history vetting for H-1B visas

More social media checks are being conducted as the US expands its vetting process for applicants seeking highly skilled H-1B visas, as well as those who work in fields like misinformation and disinformation.

On Thursday, the US Department of State mandated that all H-1B applicants and their dependents make all of their social media profiles public so that they “don’t intend to harm Americans and our national interests.” Following a similar requirement in July that all student visa applicants must publicly update their social media profiles, this is made.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

H-1B visas allow US businesses to employ foreigners with “speciality” knowledge, typically in academic or technical fields like medicine, technology, finance, and engineering. The H-1B offers a path to immigrating to the US, despite being categorized as temporary visas.

According to an internal cable obtained by the Reuters news agency, the State Department will also examine H-1B applications for work in fields that promote “free speech” censorship.

For any work in “misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance, and online safety,” or “social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression,” consular staff are required to review applicants’ LinkedIn and employment histories.

Any accompanying family members and H-1B visa renewal applicants are subject to the new regulations.

You should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible, the cable said, “if you find evidence that an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States.”

The US State Department, which previously supported international projects aimed at verifying facts and combating misinformation and disinformation, is departing from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Since his January return to the White House, US President Donald Trump has taken action to ease what he perceives as restrictions on “free speech,” which are typically those of conservative voices. Following the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, Trump himself was previously removed from X, formerly known as Twitter. Elon Musk, a free speech skeptic and tech billionaire, purchased the platform in 2022, and he was reinstated.

Signing an executive order that outlaws “federal censorship” of free speech was one of his first as president. The US State Department threatened in May that it would impose a ban on foreigners who had worked to impose restrictions on free speech on US citizens, including by pressuring US tech companies to impose rules on social media content.