Author: James Martin

Leeds swept aside Swansea 4-0 to claim a seventh-consecutive Championship victory, moving above Southampton and into second spot while equalling their biggest win of the season. The hosts were left facing an uphill battle that proved well beyond them after Crysencio Summerville and the former Swansea striker Joël Piroe struck inside the opening 10 minutes. Wilfried Gnonto added a brace to make it four goals in as many games, with Daniel Farke’s side maintaining their push for an automatic promotion spot in style. Southampton had not lost in the league since 23 September but their 22-match unbeaten streak came to…

Tennessee state legislators moved on Tuesday to advance a bill that would ban people from taking minors for an abortion without parental permission – an act that the bill has dubbed “abortion trafficking”. If someone illegally “recruits, harbors, or transports a pregnant unemancipated minor” for an abortion, they could face three to 15 years in prison under the proposed bill, which has now advanced out of a state house subcommittee after a hearing. Although Tennessee already bans almost all abortions, as do more than a dozen states across much of the southern and midwestern United States, abortion opponents remain frustrated…

David Cameron will discuss strengthening Ukraine’s defences and finances against further Russian aggression with European partners in light of the continuing threat of the US Congress refusing to provide further financial support. The foreign secretary is due to visit Bulgaria and Poland before meeting a host of European foreign ministers at a security conference in Munich on Friday. The UK has not abandoned hopes Washington will agree to extra aid, and believes the Biden administration has the leeway to provide some aid regardless of Congress. But Lord Cameron will raise how the European countries, including Poland, can increase defence production…

On these type of evenings Manchester City are like The Terminator. A relentless foe that refuses to be cowed no matter what comes at them. It was Copenhagen’s courage in answering the sparkling Kevin De Bruyne’s opener with Magnus Mattsson’s leveller, the Belgian then creating Bernardo Silva’s second. All of these goals were plundered before the interval. Before and after De Bruyne was the prime City personification of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the Hollywood blockbuster whose epithet “I’ll be back” could be applied to the irresistible 32-year-old. At Copenhagen’s Champions League home games the Boomtown Rats’ I don’t like Mondays…

Ausnet, which covers the outer northern and eastern suburbs, and eastern Victoria, says its online outage tracker is “currently experiencing overwhelming demand”. You can view the full list of outages here, but some notable impacts include: 22,173 without power in Beaconsfield 17,753 in Ferntree Gully 13,594 without power in Bairnsdale According to Powercor’s outage map, it has 11,726 unplanned power outages. 19,659 United Energy customers are without power, and 102 Jemena customers are affected. Tim Rourke, a director of Energy Networks Australia and chief executive of electricity suppliers CitiPower and Powercor, told 3AW Melbourne just earlier: By the end of…

Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature 29 min: City, having briefly lost their momentum in the wake of Grealish’s departure, rediscover their rhythm. Pass, ping, pass, probe, pass. Suddenly they shift up three gears at once, Doku crossing from the left, Haaland whistling a fierce overhead kick high and wide. Had that gone in, the net was heading off towards Sweden. 27 min: Ah, there’s some better news for City. Foden took a whack but is fine to continue. 26 min: Foden is down now. City’s early mood…

With the launch of the Internal Revenue Service’s new Direct File website — which will compete with paid tax prep software by offering a new free filing platform for some taxpayers — some advocates are touting the experiment as an overdue step toward a broader reform to simplify taxes. They point out that filing taxes is both free and much easier in many other countries. For example, at least 47 nations offer an option unavailable in the United States: The government fills in some information on a citizen’s tax return, known as “pre-population,” saving residents some of the trouble of…

Minister announces $14.4m for emergency food relief Josh Butler Social services minister Amanda Rishworth has announced $14.4m for emergency food relief programs nationwide. In recognition of Australians going through “hard times”, with spiralling numbers of people reaching out to food banks in this cost of living and housing crisis, the government says it is “strengthening the support available for Australians experiencing financial crisis”. Rishworth’s announcement includes funding to be shared between 192 Commonwealth-funded emergency relief providers and all three Commonwealth-funded Food Relief providers. The minister said there had been “increased demand for their services”, and that the services also…

It was mid-afternoon on Pakistan’s election day, sources say, when military intelligence began to realise that things on the ground were not going as planned. Mobile services, including the internet, had been suspended across the country on the pretext of security issues. Those aware of the decision-making said the real reason was to keep voter turnout low, making the results much easier for Pakistan’s powerful military to “manage” and, most importantly, keep supporters of the former prime minister Imran Khan away from the ballot box. The strategy failed. With Khan behind bars, having received three separate jail sentences of more…

home game The Paris Saint-Germain manager, Luis Enrique, was reluctant to talk about Kylian Mbappé before Wednesday’s Champions League match with Real Sociedad. Mbappé has been nursing a sore left ankle and was an unused substitute in Saturday’s league game against Lille. Asked on Tuesday if Mbappé was ready to start in the first leg of their last-16 contest, Luis Enrique replied with a terse “yes”. “He could have played four days ago if it was a final,” the coach said. “But since it wasn’t, it wasn’t worth taking the risk.” The 25-year-old’s contract runs out at the end of…