Matthew Brennan became the youngest stage winner in the history of the competition by winning in a sprint on stage three of the Tour of Britain.
The 20-year-old British rider was able to get a leadout from Olav Kooij, his Visma-Lease teammate and race leader, by crossing the line first in the grueling finale of the 122.8 km route from Milton Keynes to Ampthill.
Rui Oliveira and Alberto Dainese from Portugal and Kooij from Holland both placed second and third, with Kooij crossing the line in ninth place.
With his victory, Brennan is now 10 seconds clear of Kooij in the overall classification.
Brennan’s first professional rider victory came in his 12th win of the year.
Brennan told ITV4: “This season has been pretty incredible so far.
“The final few kilometers were very chaotic,” the author said. Numerous people were attempting to advance. We a little bit of a bidet. The guys worked all day, and in the end, we moved up in the final two kilometers.
I seized a chance, followed Olav’s wheel, and that was fantastic. He did a fantastic job of finishing it off.
The riders will travel from Atherstone to Burton Dassett Country Park, where they will finish on a hilltop, before crossing the finish line in Warwickshire.
I believe there will be fireworks tomorrow, Brennan continued. Potentially, there will be a small shake-up of the GC. We’ll see what happens, and it’s something to look forward to.
Remco Evenepoel, a Belgian star, finished in the peloton with Britain’s Geraint Thomas one minute and 29 seconds behind as he wraps up his glittering road race career this week with a win.
results from stage three
1. Matthew Brennan (GB/Visma-Lease a Bike) 2 hrs 35 mins 45 secs
2. Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling)
3. Emirates-XRG (Por/UAE Team) Rui Oliveira
4. (Fra/Israel-Premier Tech) Humo Hofstetter
5. Bel/Lotto’s Milan Menten
6. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Ger/Lidl-Trek)
7. Mahatvz Govekar (Slo/Bahrain Victorious)
8. Tom Crabbe (Bel/Team Flanders-Baloise)
9. Olav Kooij (Ned/Visma-Lease a Bike)
10. Marc Brustenga (Spa/Equipo Kern Pharma)
After stage three, classification generally.
1. Olav Kooij (Ned/Visma-Lease a Bike) 9 hrs 48 mins 40 secs
2. Matthew Brennan (GB/Visma-Lease a Bike) + 10 seconds
3. Alberto Dainese (Ita/Tudor Pro Cycling) + 14secs
4. Tom Crabbe (Bel/Team Flanders-Baloise) + 14 seconds
5. Matthew Wenzel (Lux/Equipo Kern Pharma) + 14 seconds
6. 168 seconds for Hubo Hofstetter (Fra/Israel-Premier Tech) +
7. Sam Watson (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) + 16secs
8. Andreas Stokbro Nielsen (Den/Unibet Tietema Rockets) + 17 seconds
9. Milan Lanhove (Bel/Team Flanders-Baloise) + 17secs
In the days following its deadly attack on a vessel allegedly transporting Venezuelan drug smugglers through international waters, the administration of US President Donald Trump sent a unified message: The United States will not hesitate to strike so-called “narco terrorists”.
“Instead of interdicting [the vessel], on the president’s orders, we blew it up,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
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“And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” he said.
Analysts say this new strategy represents a major escalation in how the US approaches Latin American criminal organisations, one that relies on the public signalling and dubious legal practices that undergirded US attacks across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia as part of the so-called “Global War on Terror“.
With little indication that the Republican-dominated US Congress will be willing to check Trump’s approach, observers warn that Tuesday’s “kinetic strike” that killed 11 alleged members of Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang could open a new phase and theatre for extrajudicial military killings.
“They are repurposing the ‘war on terror’ for entirely new sets of supposed enemies in a way that is radically inappropriate,” Brian Finucane, a senior adviser for the US programme at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
“Now the supposed terrorists are in our own backyard in the Caribbean, and now they say they’re drug smugglers.”
‘Performative and gratuitous’
The public messaging campaign stretches back to Trump’s first term, when he pondered bombing drug labs in Mexico, a pugilistic approach to Latin American cartels embraced by some segments of the Republican Party.
Shortly after Trump took office in January, his administration moved to formalise its rhetoric, designating several Latin America-based cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”. The label increases penalties for collaborators and legal mechanisms to sanction and boost surveillance for designated groups, but does not on its own afford greater presidential power to take unilateral military action.
Finucane saw Tuesday’s strike as the latest drive in a campaign to shift public perception of Latin American criminal gangs from profit-driven criminal entities to coordinated foreign actors seeking to destabilise the US.
It is a message that dovetails with Trump’s portrayal of migrants travelling to the US as violent criminals, which has further underpinned his domestic deployment of federal agents across the country.
Finucane described the US strike as “performative and gratuitous use of military power”.
“For decades, the US Navy and Coast Guard worked together on interdicting vessels, stopping them at sea, taking the purported smugglers into custody and prosecuting them through law enforcement channels,” he said.
“There is no indication of why that wasn’t possible here. So the blowing up of this vessel was entirely unnecessary. It was also literally performed in the sense that Trump posted on Truth Social a video of the attack, essentially a snuff film.”
‘Blow them up’
For its part, the US administration has offered few details on why the military used deadly force, beyond blatantly pointing to the message it sends to drug smugglers.
Speaking on Fox News on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Tren de Aragua was seeking to “poison” the US with drugs.
“It won’t stop with just this strike. Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate,” Hegseth said.
He maintained that the Trump administration was certain of the identities of those on board the attacked vessel, without providing further details of the strike.
Rubio, speaking during his visit to Mexico, said simply that stopping and arresting drug smugglers – known as interdiction – had proven ineffective. He said the targeted smuggling boat was heading to Trinidad and Tobago, with the drugs likely bound for the US.
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” Rubio said.
Trump, speaking from the White House on Wednesday, said there were “massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and everybody fully understands that”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference at the Mexican Foreign Ministry in Mexico City, Mexico, September 3, 2025 [Jose Mendez/EPA]
Alleged gang members may not be the only intended audience, according to Nathan Jones, a nonresident scholar in drug policy and Mexico studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas.
“I think the signalling may be more important to governments in the region, particularly the Mexican government,” said Jones, noting that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to strike a careful balance between cooperating with the Trump administration and protecting her country’s sovereignty.
Following reports that Trump had authorised the military to target certain Latin American cartels in August, Sheinbaum said that any US “invasion” was “off the table”.
A day after the strike, Rubio visited Sheinbaum in Mexico, with the pair agreeing to boost cooperation to target cartels.
“They don’t want those types of US military kinetic operations happening on their sovereign territory,” Jones said.
“So they’re going to be taking affirmative steps, certainly symbolically, to show the Trump administration they’re doing everything we can on this.”
Domestic legal justification
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has not yet elucidated its justification for the strike under domestic US law. Any legal authority remains, at best, extremely murky, analysts said.
Throughout the “Global War on Terror”, US presidents have relied on a mix of executive power and Congressional actions to justify – often tenuously – strikes on targets outside of active conflict zones.
Under the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war, but presidents can unilaterally take some military actions prior to receiving congressional approval. The limits of those actions have been heavily debated.
Many of the aerial attacks and drone campaigns that defined the past two decades relied on the so-called Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in 2001, which gives the president authority to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against entities and individuals behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Even under the widest interpretation of the legislation, it would not apply to Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has dubiously claimed is directly aligned with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, or other criminal gangs.
The US president’s constitutional war powers, meanwhile, typically apply only to alleged “combatants”, not alleged criminals, the International Crisis Group’s Finucane explained.
“Being a drug smuggler, by itself, does not render you a combatant or an enemy fighter,” Finucane said.
“And if they don’t fall into that category for law of war purposes, then they’re civilians. And the intentional targeting of civilians is a war crime.”
Praise from Republicans
Presidential war powers also require reporting to Congress and intelligence briefings related to underlying justifications. Congress can then pass legislation to rein in the president’s actions.
But to date, many top Republicans have so far indicated little appetite to do so.
Instead, they have leaned into Trump’s rhetoric, with Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch on Tuesday praising what he called Trump’s “decisive action towards these criminals”.
Senator Tom Cotton echoed Trump’s language in his praise, hailing the strike against “terrorists”.
Democrats have, in turn, been relatively muted in their response, although the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has called for the administration to “brief Congress immediately and spell out its legal justification, if they have one, for this strike”.
All told, the Trump administration appears to be “trying to normalise something that is illegal”, according to Adam Isacson, the director of defence oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
That carries several risks, including dangers for civilians such as fishermen and migrants who travel in international waters. It also raises the spectre of strikes on sovereign territory or regional escalation.
“This is turning up the heat on the frog in hot water and making it a few degrees hotter, and seeing how many members of the Republican leadership go along with it,” Isacson said.
According to club president Ryan Duckett, the millions that the sale of the The Hundred franchises will bring “game changers” to Derbyshire and the English language as a whole.
Following the earlier this year sale of the eight franchises for a total of £520 million by the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to private investors, the Division Two side is expected to receive more than £24 million.
Derbyshire will receive around $17 million next year, with a further $7 million anticipated over the next five years, according to Duckett, who confirmed Derbyshire will receive around $ 17 million already in each county.
Duckett told BBC Radio Derby, “There is money there that will allow us to create a truly sustainable future.”
Derbyshire will receive a significantly larger windfall than the club has ever been able to generate in a single season thanks to the club’s $17 million investment in the upcoming year.
Money received from the ECB’s central fund has been Derbyshire’s main source of income in recent years.
The ECB contributed £3.2 million of the £5.8 million to the club’s most recent financial statements, which cover the 12 months leading up to December 31st, 2024.
As “guiderails” imposed by the ECB when awarding the money out do not allow the money to go directly to the playing squads, the millions that will now pour into the County Ground will go toward major facility upgrades and other projects.
According to Duckett, the money will “future proof” the county and, in turn, strengthen the team on the field.
According to Duckett, “the money you put will help you grow your business,” which in turn allows you to spend more on players and put money into our men’s and women’s programs.
Derbyshire are already working on upgrading the lighting in their County Ground home, and improvements to the stadium’s outfield, outfield, and drainage are also on the agenda.
It’s not necessarily going to help you increase your revenue in the near future, Duckett said. “As a professional cricket club, it’s the right thing to do.”
“We will look to invest in facilities that will allow us to grow in the future.”
As the four-day contest enters its twelfth month, Derbyshire is still on the lookout for promotion to the top flight of the County Championship.
The season’s conclusion also coincides with a growing uncertainty over what the red-ball game will look like on a national level in the future.
If any changes are put in place, a long-discussed revamp appears to have been postponed until 2027.
However, a decrease in T20 Blast games has already been approved, which Duckett claims the club was against but has come to accept.
He continued to say that a rise in One-Day Cup games is still a possibility going forward.
“It’s about trying to balance all the different stakeholders, from the standpoint of the players’ interests to those of the members,” Duckett said.
The One-Day Cup has been incredibly well-liked, and even when some of the stars from The Hundred were unavailable, there has been some incredible cricket [this season].
“We had some underwhelming results, but the crowds were fantastic and some brilliant matches.” A number of counties are certainly pushing for more content in August, particularly those that don’t have the resources to host the many.
In the first game of the Women’s Super League season opener on Friday, Sam Kerr might make her first appearance for 20 months.
Since training camp in January 2024, the Australian striker has an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury.
As the reigning champions begin the 2025-26 WSL season, Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor announced Kerr’s inclusion in the squad to face Manchester City.
Bompastor said, “I’m not sure if she will start or not.
In 75 WSL games for Chelsea, Kerr has scored 58 goals. She played a significant role between 2020-21 and 2022-23 during her three prior WSL titles, winning between 2020-21 and 2022-23.
In Bompastor’s first season as Chelsea manager, in which the Blues won the domestic treble and became the first team to finish a 22-game WSL campaign unbeaten, Kerr was forced to play all of her injuries.
Bompastor is pleased that she is now able to return as she recovers from a number of injuries elsewhere in her senior squad.
Due to injuries suffered during Euro 2025, right-back Lucy Bronze and winger Lauren James will miss the start of the season while left-back Mayra Ramirez will not play until the new year after having hamstring surgery.
Both made their debuts for England in the Euros final, when Bronze revealed that James had a broken shin while she had been playing alongside James, who had an ankle injury that forced her to miss the first half of the first half against Spain.
Although she did not blame England manager Sarina Wiegman or any other player for their continued injuries, she did acknowledge that they were a real problem.
According to Bompastor, “I have a good relationship with Sarina, and I texted her congratulations on winning Euro 2025.”
The Chelsea manager described the situation in which both Bronze and James were trapped, adding, “I was a player. I would have followed suit. However, with this circumstance, it is not ideal to have these two players.
She claimed that setting a timeframe for both’s return was “difficult,” but they would undoubtedly be delayed by “a few weeks.”
After speaking with BBC Sport in which the Lionesses player claimed she had struggled with fan criticism while recovering from an injury at the Euros and that she was afraid of racism after missing a penalty, Bompastor also praised James for her bravery.
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Ben Collins
journalist for BBC Sport
39 Comments
NFL 2025 season
Dates: 4 September 2025 – 8 February 2026
The NFL has been shocked by Micah Parsons’ massive trade from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers.
The defensive star stated last month that he wanted to leave Dallas following a long-running contract dispute.
And his wish was granted just one week before the new season began.
The 26-year-old replaces TJ Watt as the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback after signing a four-year deal with the Packers worth $ 188 million (£139 million).
The decision cements Green Bay as a contender for the Super Bowl, according to BBC pundits who are shocked the Cowboys allowed a player in his prime to join one of their rivals.
It’s like trading Mahomes, but it’s “a generational talent.”
Presenter Mark Chapman described the Parsons deal as “one of the most astonishing trades” in recent years in a statement on BBC 5 Live.
According to NFL pundit Phoebe Schecter, “Micah Parsons was the guy the Cowboys were building their defense around.”
“You should have traded him away a week before the start of the season,” he said. Jerry Jones continues to make that soap opera.
The controversial and charismatic owner of the Cowboys, who won three Super Bowls in the 1990s but has overseen 30 years of underachieving, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
Dallas, for instance, has only managed one play-off victory in its last four seasons despite having one of the NFL’s most devastating pass rushers. Only four players have compiled a total of 52 sacks since the Cowboys signed Parsons in 2021 (including him).
The defensive end played 12 of 13 games last season, including 4.5 against the Washington Commanders, Briton Efe Obada’s former team.
Obada, who is currently without a team, called Mike Parsons a “game-wrecker.” He wrecked our games last season, despite the fact that we had been practicing for him all week, and I’ve seen him do it firsthand.
He writes, “It’s insane how he sends offensive coordinators.” I don’t understand it, just pay your guys. It’s similar to trading Patrick Mahomes. “Green Bay received a fantastic one.
Parsons has also been assigned to a different NFC Conference team, which has seen progress since Aaron Rodgers’ Packers starting quarterback position was replaced in 2023.
According to BBC broadcaster Anthony Wootton, “the Packers had a weakness in defense,” It seems absurd that you have all but strengthened one of the teams in your conference.
Because of his other-worldliness, Mike Parsons is a guy offensive coordinators have to plot against and quarterbacks have to watch out for. He has taken the Packers to a whole new level.
Bengals to be helped by burrow?
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In his first two seasons as a starter, Love has helped Green Bay reach the play-offs. Since the Packers have an established quarterback under their belt, the 26-year-old has switched from his rookie contract to a big-money deal.
The Whole 10 Yards, Green Bay, were listed among nine teams in their “Super Bowl window” at the start of the BBC iPlayer season.
The Packers’ main rivals in the NFC are the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Commanders, and Philadelphia, who are defending champions, are seen as one team from each conference reaching the big game.
Kansas City, the AFC champion after being denied a historic victory in February, and the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills both have MVP-winning quarterbacks in their ranks.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ defense made up for the team’s play-off defeat from the previous season. The Bengals are still in the early stages of their Super Bowl preparations, with quarterback Joe Burrow leading the league in receiving yards and touchdown passes and Ja’Marr Chase taking the receiving triple crown.
Broncos and Rams “seem to be coming,” they say.
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The Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams are both in contention for the Super Bowl, and their injuries over the past year suggest that the 49ers’ window has now come to an end, according to some commentators on The Whole 10 Yards.
NFL reporter Matt Miller reported that the team is “coming off a disappointing year.” They have the tools to be a perennial contender, but they must stay healthy, with head coach Kyle Shanahan, quarterback Brock Purdy, and defensive end Nick Bosa.
NFL reporter Ian Rapoport said he “wouldn’t be that surprised” if the Bengals made a play-off run after the Rams defeated them in the Super Bowl three years ago.
He claimed that they had one of the best defenses last year and were “kind of up and coming.” They’re coming up and going this year, I don’t know. They are, in fact, here.
Denver’s quarterback Bo Nix is entering his second season after leading the Broncos to the playoffs for the first time since winning the Super Bowl in 2016.
Rapoport continued, “The Broncos appear to be coming.” Bo Nix appears to be more superior than anyone else, according to head coach Sean Payton, who was skeptical of him. They appear to be breaking into their window.
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JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.
Ben Collins
journalist for BBC Sport
39 Comments
NFL 2025 season
Dates: 4 September 2025 – 8 February 2026
The NFL has been shocked by Micah Parsons’ massive trade from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers.
The defensive star stated last month that he wanted to leave Dallas following a long-running contract dispute.
And his wish was granted just one week before the new season began.
The 26-year-old replaces TJ Watt as the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback after signing a four-year deal with the Packers worth $ 188 million (£139 million).
The decision cements Green Bay as a contender for the Super Bowl, according to BBC pundits who are shocked the Cowboys allowed a player in his prime to join one of their rivals.
It’s like trading Mahomes, but it’s “a generational talent.”
Presenter Mark Chapman described the Parsons deal as “one of the most astonishing trades” in recent years in a statement on BBC 5 Live.
According to NFL pundit Phoebe Schecter, “Micah Parsons was the guy the Cowboys were building their defense around.”
“You should have traded him away a week before the start of the season,” he said. Jerry Jones continues to make that soap opera.
The controversial and charismatic owner of the Cowboys, who won three Super Bowls in the 1990s but has overseen 30 years of underachieving, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
Dallas, for instance, has only managed one play-off victory in its last four seasons despite having one of the NFL’s most devastating pass rushers. Only four players have compiled a total of 52 sacks since the Cowboys signed Parsons in 2021 (including him).
The defensive end played 12 of 13 games last season, including 4.5 against the Washington Commanders, Briton Efe Obada’s former team.
Obada, who is currently without a team, called Mike Parsons a “game-wrecker.” He wrecked our games last season, despite the fact that we had been practicing for him all week, and I’ve seen him do it firsthand.
He writes, “It’s insane how he sends offensive coordinators.” I don’t understand it, just pay your guys. It’s similar to trading Patrick Mahomes. “Green Bay received a fantastic one.
Parsons has also been assigned to a different NFC Conference team, which has seen progress since Aaron Rodgers’ Packers starting quarterback position was replaced in 2023.
According to BBC broadcaster Anthony Wootton, “the Packers had a weakness in defense,” It seems absurd that you have all but strengthened one of the teams in your conference.
Because of his other-worldliness, Mike Parsons is a guy offensive coordinators have to plot against and quarterbacks have to watch out for. He has taken the Packers to a whole new level.
Bengals to be helped by burrow?
JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.
In his first two seasons as a starter, Love has helped Green Bay reach the play-offs. Since the Packers have an established quarterback under their belt, the 26-year-old has switched from his rookie contract to a big-money deal.
The Whole 10 Yards, Green Bay, were listed among nine teams in their “Super Bowl window” at the start of the BBC iPlayer season.
The Packers’ main rivals in the NFC are the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Commanders, and Philadelphia, who are defending champions, are seen as one team from each conference reaching the big game.
Kansas City, the AFC champion after being denied a historic victory in February, and the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills both have MVP-winning quarterbacks in their ranks.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ defense made up for the team’s play-off defeat from the previous season. The Bengals are still in the early stages of their Super Bowl preparations, with quarterback Joe Burrow leading the league in receiving yards and touchdown passes and Ja’Marr Chase taking the receiving triple crown.
Broncos and Rams “seem to be coming,” they say.
JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.
The Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams are both in contention for the Super Bowl, and their injuries over the past year suggest that the 49ers’ window has now come to an end, according to some commentators on The Whole 10 Yards.
NFL reporter Matt Miller reported that the team is “coming off a disappointing year.” They have the tools to be a perennial contender, but they must stay healthy, with head coach Kyle Shanahan, quarterback Brock Purdy, and defensive end Nick Bosa.
NFL reporter Ian Rapoport said he “wouldn’t be that surprised” if the Bengals made a play-off run after the Rams defeated them in the Super Bowl three years ago.
He claimed that they had one of the best defenses last year and were “kind of up and coming.” They’re coming up and going this year, I don’t know. They are, in fact, here.
Denver’s quarterback Bo Nix is entering his second season after leading the Broncos to the playoffs for the first time since winning the Super Bowl in 2016.
Rapoport continued, “The Broncos appear to be coming.” Bo Nix appears to be more superior than anyone else, according to head coach Sean Payton, who was skeptical of him. They appear to be breaking into their window.
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