Archive June 19, 2025

Super League leaders Hull KR hammer Castleford

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Castleford Tigers (0) 0

Hull KR (20) 48

Impervious Super League leaders Hull KR defeated Castleford Tigers to claim their best-ever season opener.

The Robins, who won the Challenge Cup earlier this month, now have won 14 of their first 15 league games as a result of victory in West Yorkshire.

In the opening 40 minutes, Jack Broadbent, Noah Booth, Tom Davies, and Arthur Mourgue had the best of luck.

As the visitors kept their feet on the ground, Jai Whitbread and Peter Hiku added more scores, and Booth, Davies, and Broadbent all crossed again.

Wigan travel to Wakefield on Friday, four points clear of Willie Peters’ men, who are currently fourth.

Cini, Simm, L Senior, Wood, and I are Castleford Tigers. Senior, Asi, Milnes, Amone, Horne, Singleton, Lawler, Mellor, and Atkin.

Westerman, Griffin, Hall, and Hill are the interchanges.

Mourgue, Davies, Hiku, Broadbent, Booth, Lewis, May, Sue, Litten, Hadley, Whitbread, Batchelor, Minchella, and others in Hull KR.

Luckley, Tanginoa, Brown, and Leyland are the exchanges.

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Sinner suffers worst loss by ranking since 2023

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The world number one lost to 47th-ranked Alexander Bublik in the second round of the Halle Open, putting a strain on Jannik Sinner’s Wimbledon preparations.

The ranking ace lost to Kazakhstan’s Bublik, his worst defeat since August 2023, to Defending Champion Sinner, 3: 3 6-3, 6-4.

Since August 2024, Sinner has lost to other people’s world rankings, including Carlos Alcaraz.

The defeat also ended the Italian’s 66-game winning streak against non-top-20 opponents.

In her first grass-court match of the season, French Open champion Coco Gauff lost to Wang Xinyu from China 6-3, 6-3.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka defeated Swiss Rebeka Masarova in a two-day match in Berlin, 6-2 7-6 (8-6).

Before bad light forced play to be halted on Wednesday, the Belarusian won the first set.

After falling to Gauff in the French Open final on Thursday, Sabalenka bounced back to win the match straight.

After beating Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 7-6, 7-5, Sabalenka will face Kazakh Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals.

Russian Diana Shnaider defeated her in 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3, according to Marketa Vondrousova, who won the Wimbledon title in 2023.

Andrey Rublev, a Russian, was another big name at the Halle Open, losing to Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who had already won three matches, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (8-6).

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Liam Gallagher in ‘freefall’ and fleeing to Spain to retire until key intervention

A new book A Sound So Very Loud reveals how Liam Gallagher was on the verge of moving to Majorca to retire like the gangster played by Ray Winstone in the 2000 movie Sexy Beast – until his partner made him see the light

Liam Gallagher was in ‘freefall’ until Debbie’s intervention (Image: Getty Images Europe)

To borrow a catchphrase from Liam Gallagher, we are all about to witness a comeback of biblical proportions. In exactly two weeks, the Gallagher brothers will take to the stage for the first night of the Oasis reunion.

More than 1.4 million tickets have been sold across 17 UK dates for the tour, 16 years after the Britpop favourites’ acrimonious split.

But according to a new book, the reunion might not be happening at all if it wasn’t for Liam’s fiancee, Debbie Gwyther.

In Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain’s new Oasis book, A Sound So Very Loud, the former recalls meeting Liam in a London pub in 2016, two years after his group Beady Eye disbanded.

And he says we have Debbie to thank for persuading Liam to keep performing. Ted says: “In the pub, over pints, Liam explained what had been going on for the past two years.

“Since he’d dispensed with the intricate management scaffolding that keeps rock megastars afloat, he’d spent a while in freefall.”

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Ted says that just like the gangster played by Ray Winstone in the 2000 movie Sexy Beast, Liam also considered retiring abroad.

He explains: “He had tumbled out of the bubble to such an extent that for a while, he considered jacking it all in and moving to Majorca, living ‘Sexy Beast-style’. Debbie, who had previously worked at Beady Eye’s management company, put paid to that.”

READ MORE: Diana Ross opens up in rare interview – ‘My five children really take care of their mum’

Liam Gallagher with partner Debbie
Liam with partner Debbie (Image: Getty Images Europe)

The book reveals how Liam listened to Debbie’s wise, albeit harsh advice.

Liam explains: “She just told me to stop being a d**khead. She got me out the house, introduced me to new people outside my world, got me doing new things.”

The book adds: “She also firmly reminded him that he was the greatest rock ’n’ roll frontman of his generation, he was only 43 and there was lots of mileage left on his engine.

“Perhaps he just needed to work with different people – which is exactly what he did, going to LA and collaborating with songwriter-producers Greg Kurstin, Andrew Wyatt and Dan Grech-Marguerat, demoing and recording new songs, some of which Liam played via Debbie’s laptop when we were drunk in the pub, miming the words and dancing as I listened through headphones, giving them a thumbs-up.”

Liam, 52, and Debbie, 41, his former personal assistant, got together in 2014 – the year Liam divorced his second wife, former All Saints singer Nicole Appleton.

He was married to actress Patsy Kensit from 1997 to 2000 and has four children – Lennon, 25, with Patsy, Gene, 23 with Nicole, and two daughters, Molly, 27, with singer Lisa Moorish and Gemma, 12, with journalist Liza Ghorbani.

A Sound So Very Loud
Hotly-anticipated new book

Liam’s period of self-doubt came after five years with Beady Eye. The band formed in 2009 and was made up of Liam, former Oasis members Gem Archer and Andy Bell and drummer Chris Sharrock.

They released two albums, Different Gear, Still Speeding in 2011 and BE in 2013 – but neither enjoyed anything like the success of Oasis. Both reached the top 5 in the UK album chart, but they had just one top 40 single with The Roller in 2011.

A Sound Very Loud – dubbed the inside story of every song Oasis every recorded – also details other interactions the authors had with the band.

Ted was with the NME when he went to Camden, North London, with the band in May 1994, three months before Definitely Maybe came out. He took them to famous boozer The Good Mixer, which was often frequented by musicians.

“Liam immediately spied Graham Coxon of Blur at a table and marched up to him, bombarding the introverted guitarist with aggressive bonhomie,” Ted writes. “‘You’re him out of Blur!’ he boomed. ‘Good band… sh*** clothes though’.

“They met again at the urinal, where Liam jostled the mid-flow Coxon, splashing his strides.

“An upset Graham complained to the landlord, who foolishly ushered Oasis out forever.”

Later, the Gallaghers and their entourage got into a row at a rock venue with “several dozen fans of a long-forgotten techno-punk group” who played that night.

Ted writes: “Confusingly, this dispute became physical and a bundle of goths, record company employees and perhaps some Gallaghers ensued.

“Once more, Oasis were shown the door, bringing the curtain down on our evening tog-ether. So I wombled off into London’s orangey black, swaying at the night bus stop at 2am, wondering when the next night out with the Gallaghers might be.”

Last week, Noel, 57, told pals the band sounded good in rehearsals.

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He and Liam will walk on stage together for the first time since 2004 on July 4 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. There will also be dates in Manchester, London and Dublin on the UK leg of the tour.

  • A Sound So Very Loud: The Inside Story of Every Song Oasis Recorded by Ted Kessler & Hamish MacBain is published by Pan Macmillan on July 3 costing £25 for hardback – ebook and audiobook also available. Preorder book here

Real Madrid forward Mbappe released from hospital

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Kylian Mbappe, a Real Madrid player, has been discharged from the hospital following a gastroenteritis treatment.

The France captain, 26, had a fever and was unable to play in Wednesday’s 1-1 Fifa Club World Cup draw against Al-Hilal in Miami.

Real announced on Thursday that he had an “acute case of gastroenteritis,” but later confirmed that he had been released.

He has since returned to Palm Beach, Real Madrid’s training facility.

According to a club statement, “Mbappe will continue receiving specialized medical care and gradually resume his team activity.”

Sunday at 20:00 BST, Real will play Pachuca.

Mbappe might be able to play again for Real’s final group game against Salzburg on June 26 if he doesn’t recover in time.

In his first season at Real after leaving Paris St-Germain on a free transfer, Mbappe scored 43 goals in all 56 games.

At the conclusion of the La Liga season, Xabi Alonso took over as manager after taking over as manager.

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What are the risks from Israel and Iran’s nuclear capabilities?

Conflict in the Middle East raises global concerns about nuclear risk.

Israel claims that its main objectives are to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, despite being widely believed to do so.

What are the risks from this conflict, and what are both sides’ nuclear arsenals?

Presenter: Laura Kyle

Guests:

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Director Dan Smith

Sahil Shah, a policy analyst for nuclear weapons, is based in London.