Lauren Hemp, Georgia Stanway and Alex Greenwood have given England a significant pre-Euro 2025 boost by returning to the squad after injury for the upcoming Women’s Nations League matches.
Manager Sarina Wiegman has been without several key players during the Nations League campaign so far, so will welcome the return of the key trio for the games against Portugal on 30 May and Spain three days later.
Their inclusion in the squad – which is the final international camp before Wiegman finalises her Euro 2025 squad – suggests they are likely to travel to Switzerland for the tournament.
Manchester City forward Hemp, 24, last played for England in the 2-1 friendly victory over South Africa in October.
Despite missing five months through injury, she still finished the Women’s Super League (WSL) campaign with the most assists (eight).
City captain Greenwood, 31, has missed England’s last four matches but started November’s 0-0 draw with the United States and came on as a substitute in the 4-3 defeat against Germany in October before her injury.
Both players – who were part of the Euro 2022 squad – started City’s final two league games of the season having returned from injury in April.
Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway, 26, has not yet returned for her club but Wiegman is keen to give her more time on the training ground.
Chelsea forward Lauren James is still not selected as she recovers from the hamstring injury that forced her to miss the end of the WSL campaign.
England’s defence of their European title kicks off in seven weeks’ time with their opening match against France on 5 July.
Wiegman has previously expressed concern at the lack of game time for some of her returning stars, including Hemp, Stanway and Greenwood.
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur’s Ella Morris has been called up from the Under-23s squad for the first time, alongside Aston Villa’s Missy Bo Kearns, who is recalled.
Striker Michelle Agyemang, who spent this season on loan at Brighton from Arsenal, retains her place in the squad after scoring a stunning goal 41 seconds into her debut in a 3-2 defeat by Belgium in April.
Getty Images
Full England squad:
Goalkeepers: Mary Earps (Paris St-Germain), Hannah Hampton (Chelsea), Khiara Keating (Manchester City), Anna Moorhouse (Orlando Pride).
Defenders: Millie Bright (Chelsea), Lucy Bronze (Chelsea), Jess Carter (Gotham FC), Niamh Charles (Chelsea), Alex Greenwood (Manchester City), Maya le Tissier (Manchester United), Esme Morgan (Washington Spirit), Ella Morris (Tottenham), Leah Williamson (Arsenal).
Midfielders: Grace Clinton (Manchester United), Missy Bo Kearns (Aston Villa), Fran Kirby (Brighton), Jess Park (Manchester City), Georgia Stanway (Bayern Munich), Ella Toone (Manchester United), Keira Walsh (Chelsea).
Nicola Peltz and Victoria Beckham haven’t always been the best of friends, and one ‘obsessive’ move from Brooklyn’s wife has set the duo back even further after years of drama
Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham are on the outs with his family(Image: Getty Images)
Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham are more detached from his family than ever, after years of tense relations. The couple got married in 2022, but it hasn’t always been an easy ride for them – particularly due to Nicola’s rumoured beef with Victoria Beckham from Day One of the relationship.
Nicola, 30, and Victoria, 51, are said to have fallen out dramatically during the wedding planning process, when David Beckham’s wife found it “difficult” to take a back seat as the Peltz family took control of the nuptials. Things came to a head with huge drama surrounding Nicola’s wedding dress, which was originally supposed to be designed by Victoria. When fans were shocked to see Nicola in Valentino couture instead, she suggested that her mother-in-law was actually the one to let her down.
She explained: “Well, I was planning on wearing Victoria’s wedding dress. I was truly so excited to be able to wear a design that my future mother-in-law created. We connected to start designing the dress, and then a few days went by and I didn’t hear anything. Victoria called my mom and said her atelier couldn’t make it.”
This isn’t the only time fashion has seemed to divide Nicola and Victoria, and one other outfit choice made by the heiress is said by insiders to be the strangest move she’s made to send a coded message to Brooklyn’s mum.
An insider close to the Beckhams called Nicola ‘obsessive’ and ‘bizarre’ for copying one of Victoria’s most famous looks without her knowledge(Image: affinitypicture / BACKGRID)
In February 2024, Nicola was photographed wearing a blue and white Dolce & Gabbana biker jacket, while holding onto Brooklyn’s hand during a day out. The unique jacket easily caught the eye, and fans quickly recognised it as exactly the same piece that Victoria had worn in the terraces of Old Trafford as she watched Manchester United be crowned Premier League champions in 2001.
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At first it was assumed that the jacket might be a sign of Victoria’s acceptance, with Vogue theorising that Nicola had been “granted access to her mother-in-law’s personal archive of noughties fashion”. This turned out not to be the case, and sources close to the Beckham family say that Victoria did not give her nod of approval.
One source claimed: “If not obsessive, it was definitely the most bizarre behaviour especially given relations weren’t the greatest anyway in the wake of the wedding.”
Victoria first wore her iconic jacket in 2001 and Nicola sported the same garment years later in an attempt to make a ‘sweet’ emulation(Image: Daily Mirror)
According to friends of Nicola, her own mum bought her the jacket in September 2023 “not knowing Victoria had worn it”. Despite it being one of Victoria’s most iconic looks, Nicola is said to have thought it might be a way to get closer to the fashion designer.
“Nicola. however. did recognise the jacket and thought it was sweet to wear something her mother-in-law had worn,” her pal said. “Nicola has only ever attempted to be close to the Beckhams as she’s close with her own family.”
Victoria appeared to return the copy-cat behaviour last month when she sported a custom corset for her 51st birthday – and the corset was originally designed for Nicola. Nicola wore the corset at the premiere of her film Lola last year, and in April 2024, she shared a throwback photo with Victoria to mark her 50th birthday, writing, “Happy Birthday to my beautiful MIL.” This year, Brooklyn and Nicola didn’t publicly mark his mum’s birthday at all despite Victoria calling out Nicola with the reworn garment.
The fashion wars started when Nicola didn’t wear a Victoria Beckham dress to her wedding as first planned(Image: ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES)
Despite the cryptic behaviour between Nicola and her in-laws, a source has insisted the Beckham family are “keen to heal the rift” between them, and that David has reached out to Brooklyn and will “fly out to see him” if he has to.
“They are going to put this fire out; David has said that he wants the dust to settle and for everyone to talk when emotions have settled down,” an insider told Hello!.
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The same insider claimed Nicola hasn’t shown “respect towards the family” since joining the family. They explained: “Tensions rose at their wedding and that situation has continued; Victoria and Nicola don’t really get along. Over the past few months, Nicola has been causing things to fester and everyone to fall out.”
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Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi has had “urgent” surgery on a serious abdominal injury sustained in last Sunday’s Premier League match with Leicester.
The Nigeria international, 27, collided with the post in the 88th minute of the 2-2 draw at the City Ground as he attempted to get on the end of a cross from Anthony Elanga.
He received treatment on the pitch and was able to continue but was visibly struggling when the match restarted.
“The club can confirm Taiwo Awoniyi has undergone urgent surgery following an abdominal injury sustained during Sunday’s match against Leicester City,” said a Forest statement.
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Awoniyi, who joined Forest from Union Berlin in June 2022, had only been on the pitch for five minutes having come on as a late substitute for Ibrahim Sangare.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis indicated in an Instagram post that his decision to march on to the pitch at the full-time whistle had been in part due to his view on how the injury suffered by Awoniyi had been handled.
“Everybody – coaching staff, players, supporters and including myself – we were frustrated around the injury of Taiwo and the medical staff’s misjudgement on Taiwo’s ability to continue the game,” Marinakis said.
“This is natural, this is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club.”
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) says it is disbanding after more than 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state.
The announcement came after the PKK held its congress in northern Iraq on Friday, about two months after its imprisoned founder, Abdullah Ocalan, also known as “Appo”, called on the group to disarm in February.
For most of its history, the PKK has been labelled a terrorist group by Turkiye, the European Union and the United States. It fought for Kurdish autonomy for years, a fight that has been declared over now.
This is all you need to know about why Ocalan and the PKK have given up their armed struggle.
Who is Abdullah Ocalan?
Ocalan was born to a poor Kurdish farming family on April 4, 1948, in Omerli, Sanliurfa, a Kurdish-majority part of Turkiye.
He moved to Ankara to study political science at the university there, where he became politically active; driven, biographers say, by the sense of marginalisation that many Kurds in Turkiye felt.
By the mid-1970s, he was advocating for Kurdish nationalism and went on to found the PKK in 1978.
Six years later, the group launched a separatist rebellion against Turkiye under his command.
Ocalan had absolute rule over the PKK and worked to stamp out rival Kurdish groups, monopolising the struggle for Kurdish liberation, according to Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, by Aliza Marcus.
At the time, Kurds were denied the right to speak their language, give their children Kurdish names or show any expression of nationalism.
Despite Ocalan’s authoritarian rule, his charisma and positioning as a champion of Kurdish rights led most Kurds across Turkiye to love and respect him, calling him “Appo”, which means Uncle.
What was the armed rebellion like?
Violent.
More than 40,000 people died between 1984 and 2024, with thousands of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkiye into cities further north.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Ocalan led operations from neighbouring Syria, which was a source of tensions between the then-Assad regime and Turkiye.
The PKK resorted to brutal tactics beginning in the late 1980s and early 90s. According to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations from 2007, the group, under Ocalan, kidnapped foreign tourists, adopted suicide bombing operations and attacked Turkish diplomatic offices in Europe.
Perhaps even worse, the PKK would repress Kurdish civilians who did not assist the group in its guerrilla warfare.
Supporters of pro-Kurdish DEM Party wave flags with portraits of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan at a rally for Newroz in Istanbul, Turkiye, March 17, 2024 [Umit Bektas/Reuters]
Did Ocalan change his views?
Eventually, more than a decade after he was caught.
In 1998, Ocalan was forced to flee Syria due to the threat of a Turkish incursion to capture him. A year later, Turkish agents arrested him on a plane in Nairobi, Kenya, thanks to intel received from the US.
He was brought back to Turkiye and handed the death penalty, yet his sentence was changed to life in prison after Turkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 in a bid to become a member of the EU.
By 2013, Ocalan changed his stance on separatism and began lobbying for comprehensive Kurdish rights and greater regional autonomy in Turkiye, saying he no longer believed in the effectiveness of armed rebellion.
This radical shift led to the start of a shaky peace process between the PKK and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), headed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The peace process led to some freedoms for Kurds, yet fighting erupted between the government and the PKK in 2015 due in part to fears that the party was trying to create a Kurdish statelet in neighbouring Syria during its civil war.
At the time, many Kurds from southern Turkiye had left for Syria to help the Kurds there fight against ISIL (ISIS).
In 2015, the AK Party had also formed a new alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which was staunchly opposed to any peace process involving the PKK.
What’s different about this peace process?
In announcing its disarmament, the PKK said it has “completed its historical mission” by “breaking the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and bringing the Kurdish issue to a point where solving it can occur through democratic politics”.
However, analysts argue that there are other reasons behind the decision.
The PKK and its Kurdish allies in the region are more vulnerable than before due to recent developments, according to Sinan Ulgen, an expert on Turkiye and senior fellow at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.
“The reason the PKK gave up its armed struggle has to do with the change in the international context,” Ulgen explained.
US President Donald Trump does not see Syria as a “strategic focal point” for foreign policy and is, therefore, unlikely to keep supporting Kurdish armed groups in the country as it had during the fight against ISIL, he explained.
In addition, the new government in Syria is on good terms with Turkiye, unlike under the now-overthrown Assad regime.
This new relationship could significantly hurt the ability of the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), to operate along the Syria-Turkiye border.
MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greet supporters at a rally while campaigning for the presidential election on May 7, 2023, in Istanbul [Burak Kara/Getty Images]
Will Turkiye follow through?
The political climate seems ripe for that.
Main political parties, such as the AK Party and its rival Republican People’s Party (CHP), have vocally or tacitly supported a new peace process.
But it was the MHP, long opposed to any overtures to the Kurds, that created the window for a new peace process.
In April 2024, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to renounce “terrorism” in front of Turkiye’s parliament in exchange for possible parole.
“The fact it was Bahceli … was kind of unbelievable,” said Sinem Adar, an expert on Turkiye with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWB).
Bahceli’s change of heart is probably to help his coalition partner, Erdogan, run in and win the next national election, experts told Al Jazeera.
Masked Kurdish youths hold a poster of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan during Newroz celebrations on March 21, 2025 in Diyarbakir, Turkiye [Sedat Suna/Getty Images]
Under the constitution, Erdogan cannot run for another term unless an early election is called, which needs 360 out of 600 votes in parliament.
To add the votes of Kurdish delegates from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) to the MHP-AK Party alliance’s votes, “[Erdogan] needs to broaden his political support base in parliament over and above the current ruling alliance”, Carnegie’s Ulgen told Al Jazeera.
What happens to Ocalan now?
It is unclear if he will be released, but his prison conditions could significantly improve, said Ulgen.
He said the government would prefer to gradually increase Ocalan’s freedoms, so it can gauge the reactions of his support base and the broader public.
Many people in Turkiye still view Ocalan as a “terrorist” and blame him for a conflict that has taken the lives of so many.
United States President Donald Trump has offered to join the talks that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin suggested should be held directly with Ukraine, after criticism of the Western “ultimatums” to end the conflict between the two Slavic nations.
Trump said on Monday he was “thinking about actually flying over” to the Turkish city of Istanbul to attend the negotiations expected to take place on Thursday. The initiative was welcomed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but there was no immediate reaction from Moscow.
“All of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Turkey. This is the right idea. We can change a lot,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump publicly asked Zelenskyy to attend, after Putin on Sunday proposed the direct talks following a rejection of a 30-day ceasefire Ukraine and its Western allies insisted should come first.
The Ukrainian leader said he would, but that Putin should also attend in person. On Tuesday, his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak reiterated that Zelenskyy would only meet Putin and no other members of the Russian delegation.
The Kremlin has made no comment on whether or not Putin will travel to Turkiye himself. “We are committed to a serious search for ways of a long-term peaceful settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
If Zelenskyy and Putin were to meet on Thursday, it would be their first face-to-face meeting since December 2019.
I have just heard President Trump’s statement. Very important words.
I supported @POTUS idea of a full and unconditional ceasefire — long enough to provide the foundation for diplomacy. And we want it, we are ready to uphold silence on our end.
I supported President Trump…
Meanwhile, Ukraine said its air defence units destroyed all 10 drones that Russia launched overnight on Tuesday. This is the lowest number of drones that Russia has launched in an overnight attack in several weeks.
The Ukrainian military’s general staff said as of 10pm (19:00 GMT) on Monday, there had been 133 clashes with Russian forces along the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire proposed by European powers was to have come into effect.
Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, was quoted by Zelenskyy as saying the heaviest fighting still gripped the Donetsk region, the focus of the eastern front, and Russia’s western Kursk region, nine months after Kyiv’s forces staged a cross-border incursion.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of attacking its Belgorod region, with the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov saying on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces used 65 drones and more than 100 rounds of ammunition to attack his region in the past day.
