Last Thursday evening I stood in a pub off Brewer Street with a pint in one hand and an elbow on the bar, talking with an old friend that I regularly find myself taking over the media world with.

By the second pint we had solved the skills crisis, where Spurs will finish next season and I’d advised him on his new electric car purchase. The doors were open, the crowd had spilled politely onto the pavement, and for ninety minutes the British economy was doing exactly what it says on the tin.

However, it turns out I was part of the problem. Buried in Westminster City Council’s new draft licensing policy, out for consultation until five o’clock this evening, is a desire for West End venues to swap “open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking” for seating, table service and the ordering of food. Vertical drinking, for those who have not kept up with the literature, is standing up with a drink. In a pub.

The council has since insisted there is no plan, and never has been, to ban standing up in a Westminster pub, which is what organisations always say once a consultation catches fire. But the draft statement of licensing policy says what it says, and licensing policies are not mood boards. They are the criteria against which every new licence and variation is judged. If the policy smiles upon seated table service, applicants will promise seated table service, and the West End will get it by increments, one genuflecting application at a time.

Even Downing Street felt moved to intervene, declaring that busy pubs full of people talking to each other are “not a public nuisance, it is British life, and it is thousands of jobs”, while Sadiq Khan complained that you cannot run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset. When No 10, the Mayor and every publican in Soho find themselves in furious agreement in the second week of August, something properly daft is afoot.

And we know this particular species of daft, because we lived through it. Cast your mind back to the winter of 2020, when the finest minds in Whitehall convened to determine whether a scotch egg constituted a substantial meal, and honest citizens ordered plates of chips they had no intention of eating in order to drink a pint lawfully. Nobody voted for the substantial meal rule. It seeped out of guidance, and within a fortnight it was the law of the land in everything but statute. Vertical drinking is the scotch egg’s second coming: a rule about furniture pretending to be a policy about safety.

What Westminster is really proposing is to become the aunt with the wedding seating plan. Everyone has met her. She has decided, with laminated certainty, that the day will go better if nobody is permitted to circulate. You will sit here, beside your assigned stranger, and you will have your allocated fun between the starter and the speeches.

And the reception dies on its feet, or rather in its chairs, because everything good at a party happens standing up: the introductions, the gossip, the flirtation, the job offer scribbled on a napkin. The pub is Britain’s reception venue, and Soho is the top table. Sit it down and you kill the mingle.

Business readers will recognise both halves of the disease. The first is capacity economics. A wet-led pub sells space by the square foot, and a drinker standing at the bar occupies perhaps a third of the footprint of one marooned at a table, while being served faster by fewer staff. Mandate seats and you cut Friday night’s capacity by a third and add a waiter’s wages to every round, in a trade where the BBPA already counts two pubs a day calling last orders for good and £1 in every £3 taken over the bar goes to the Treasury before a single bill is paid.

The second is regulatory creep: rules that arrive dressed as “encouragement” in guidance documents, which no minister ever has to defend because no minister ever proposed them.

A fortnight ago in this column I suggested that the nation’s dawdling diners should eat up and give the table back, because a restaurant sells seat hours. A pub is the mirror image. Its product is proximity: strangers, upright, two deep at the bar, in the only institution Britain has ever built for the purpose. With licensed venues already going dark at three a day, the West End’s problem is not that too many people are standing in its pubs. It is that soon there may be nothing left to stand in.

The consultation closes at five o’clock today, and I intend to mark the deadline in the traditional way: upright, elbow on the bar, talking nonsense to a stranger and in this instance I hope that I don’t end up as an extra in TOWIE.

Richard Alvin

Richard Alvin is a serial entrepreneur, a former advisor to the UK Government about small business and an Honorary Teaching Fellow on Business at Lancaster University.

A winner of the London Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the year and Freeman of the City of London for his services to business and charity. Richard is also Group MD of Capital Business Media and SME business research company Trends Research, regarded as one of the UK’s leading experts in the SME sector and an active angel investor and advisor to new start companies.

Richard is also the host of Save Our Business the U.S. based business advice television show.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill is facing a lawsuit from a Minnesota woman who alleges a burrito bowl from a restaurant in the state caused a severe Salmonella infection that left her hospitalized with sepsis.

Kristen Behne filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, accusing Chipotle of strict product liability, negligence and violations of Minnesota food-safety law. She is seeking more than $75,000 in compensatory damages.

According to the lawsuit, Behne ate a chicken burrito bowl from a Chipotle restaurant in Roseville, Minnesota, on June 24. The meal included guacamole, Fresh Tomato Salsa and Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa — all of which the complaint claims contained raw jalapeño peppers.

SALMONELLA OUTBREAK LINKED TO JALAPENOS SPREADS TO MULTIPLE STATES, DOZENS HOSPITALIZED

A Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in San Francisco, California, on Aug. 14, 2025. Chipotle is facing a lawsuit from a Minnesota woman who alleges a burrito bowl caused a severe Salmonella infection that left her hospitalized. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Days later, Behne developed fever, chills, vomiting, abdominal cramping and severe diarrhea, the complaint alleges. She eventually sought emergency care, was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with sepsis.

“Three days later she was in a hospital bed, febrile, tachycardic and septic — a life-threatening complication of the Salmonella infection caused by Chipotle’s grossly contaminated food,” the lawsuit alleges. “She has not been the same since.”

According to the suit, the Minnesota Department of Health classified Behne as a confirmed case tied to a multistate outbreak that has sickened at least 345 people.

“MDH recorded her illness as outbreak-associated, identified the outbreak by name as the Salmonella Javiana outbreak, and classified Plaintiff as a confirmed case,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit alleges Behne continues to experience effects from the illness.

CHIPOTLE CEO SAYS CHAIN IS MAKING ‘MEANINGFUL PROGRESS’ ON A MAJOR CUSTOMER CONCERN

A customer carries a takeout bag and drink outside a Chipotle restaurant in New York on Jan. 12, 2024. The lawsuit comes as health officials investigate a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Plaintiff’s health has not returned to its pre-illness baseline,” according to court documents. “She continues to experience the effects of her acute Salmonella infection and her septic episode, and is at increased risk of well-recognized post-infectious sequelae, including reactive arthritis and post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome.”

The legal action comes as health officials investigate a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.

Chipotle said Tuesday it had removed jalapeños from some restaurants after health officials linked the outbreak to recalled peppers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that 345 people in 27 states had been sickened, including 36 who were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

SYSCO, NATION’S LARGEST FOOD DISTRIBUTOR, HALTED DISTRIBUTION OF MEXICAN LETTUCE AMID CYCLOSPORA OUTBREAK

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Aug. 6, 2022. The CDC said Chipotle and QDOBA stopped serving the affected peppers after being notified.  (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Epidemiologic and trace back evidence identified jalapeño peppers grown in Sinaloa, Mexico, and distributed by Coast Citrus Distributors as the source of the outbreak.

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The CDC said Chipotle and QDOBA stopped serving the affected peppers after being notified. Because the products were removed, the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration said they do not consider the restaurants to pose a current ongoing risk to consumers from this outbreak.

Chipotle and an attorney for Behne could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.

FOX Business’ Brittany Miller contributed to this report.

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Wendy’s has lost its place as America’s runner-up to McDonald’s, ending a six-year run as the second-largest burger chain, being surpassed by a resurgent Burger King.

Burger King reclaimed the No. 2 position as its U.S. turnaround gains momentum, with domestic same-store sales jumping 8.5% in the second quarter. Wendy’s, meanwhile, reported a 7% decline in U.S. same-store sales, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of contraction.

Wendy’s new CEO Bob Wright acknowledged the chain’s problems Friday, saying its competitive edge has weakened as customers have pulled back.

“Today we are clearly not performing at our potential,” he wrote in a statement.

BURGER KING UNVEILS ‘WHOPPER GUARANTEE’ WITH FREE BURGER IF ORDER MISSES THE MARK

Wendy’s rose to prominence in with his famous “Where’s the Beef” ad campaign, but has lost its six-year hold on the No. 2 spot to McDonald’s in the U.S. burger battle. (Photo by ZAMEK/VIEWpress)

“Our traffic, our value proposition and franchisee economics are not meeting our expectations. We have already begun taking action across five areas that we’ve identified to drive the turnaround: rebuilding a quality menu at compelling value, marketing that drives demand, operational excellence, a digital experience that builds frequency, and restaurants as an engine for growth.”

McDonald’s remains the dominant U.S. burger chain by a wide margin, leaving Burger King and Wendy’s fighting for a distant second place.

Wendy’s had surpassed Burger King roughly six years ago, helped by the successful nationwide rollout of its breakfast menu. But its hold on the No. 2 spot has eroded as Burger King poured money into improving restaurants, advertising and its core menu.

Restaurant Brands International, Burger King’s parent company, launched a broad U.S. turnaround effort in late 2022 after sluggish sales. The strategy has included restaurant remodels, increased marketing spending and changes intended to improve food quality and the customer experience.

BURGER KING’S IMPOSSIBLE WHOPPER TO HIT MENUS ACROSS THE US

The new Burger King Whopper is served in a box instead of a paper wrapper. (Burger King / Fox News)

More recently, Burger King has focused on its signature Whopper.

The chain revamped the burger earlier this year, making changes to its bun, packaging, mayonnaise and other elements. Burger King U.S. and Canada President Tom Curtis told The Wall Street Journal that the improvements are helping bring customers back.

“A lot of people are saying they’re coming back for the first time in a long time,” Curtis said.

Burger King has also introduced a Whopper quality guarantee, pledging to remake an order if a customer is unhappy with it and provide another Whopper free on a future visit.

BURGER KING BRINGS BACK FAN FAVORITE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS

A McDonald’s Big Mac meal on June 8, 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand. (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“When we asked guests where we could do better, they gave us a lot of honest feedback, and now it’s our responsibility to act on it,” Curtis wrote in a statement in July. “We’re not going to get everything right every single time, but we’re committed to listening intently and improving every day.

“When guests choose us, they expect high-quality food, orders made the way they asked, and a team that’s there when they need us. That’s what these changes are about. We’re raising the standard in our restaurants, so every Guest feels like they made the right choice.”

Curtis said the chain believes it is taking market share from competitors, including potentially McDonald’s, and sees an opportunity to turn newly won customers into regulars.

“The next generation of burger lovers are being exposed to Burger King, and that means we’ve got runway ahead for years to come,” Curtis told the Journal.

MCDONALD’S SAYS US SALES SLOWED AFTER VALUE DEAL PUSH FELL SHORT

The gains underscore a sharp reversal in fortunes for two longtime rivals that have wrestled with many of the same pressures in recent years.

Both companies navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and rising food and labor costs before confronting increasingly price-conscious consumers frustrated by years of restaurant menu inflation.

Burger King responded with its multiyear turnaround campaign. Wendy’s, by contrast, has faced leadership turnover just as restaurant traffic weakened and beef costs added pressure to its business.

Longtime Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor retired in 2024 after eight years at the helm. Former PepsiCo executive Kirk Tanner succeeded him but left a little more than a year later to become CEO of Hershey.

WENDY’S, MCDONALD’S LAWSUIT CLAIMS BURGER ADS MISLEAD CONSUMERS ON PATTY SIZES

Wendy’s CFO Ken Cook then served as interim chief executive before the company named Wright, the former CEO of Potbelly, to the permanent job in May.

“I returned to Wendy’s because I believe we can fix our issues and I am excited to work with our team and our franchisees to drive a strong turnaround,” Wright wrote in Friday’s release of second quarter results.

He said Wendy’s recent problems have hurt customer traffic and put pressure on restaurant economics, an increasingly important issue for a largely franchised chain whose operators must absorb higher costs while competing aggressively for value-conscious diners.

Burger King’s improvement also comes as McDonald’s works through challenges in its own U.S. operation. McDonald’s has been revamping its burgers, testing new menu items and looking for ways to improve food quality, service and value.

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Still, Burger King’s move ahead of Wendy’s does not put it close to overtaking the Golden Arches.

McDonald’s accounted for about 48% of the U.S. burger market in 2024, according to Barclays data. Wendy’s held an estimated 11.4% share at the time, compared with about 10% for Burger King.

Britney Spears is opening up about a painful cosmetic procedure gone wrong, revealing in an Instagram video posted Friday that a botched Botox injection left her left eyelid drooping for weeks, while also sharing an emotional message about guilt she carries as a mother.

In the video, Spears, 44, pointed to the area around her left eye and described what happened during the procedure. “He put so much Botox in this left eye that it drooped down like that,” she said, pressing down on her eyelid to demonstrate the effect, according to Yahoo Style Canada. “It’s just now starting to raise up and be normal again.”

A four-week recovery and a warning to fans

Spears said the drooping lasted roughly a month before beginning to resolve. “My eye was down like this for four weeks and it’s now starting to be fine again,” she said, according to Occasional Digest, which reported on the video. She went on to caution her followers directly about the risks of cosmetic injections. “Girls, you have to be careful if you do Botox,” Spears said. “These people and these doctors, they can really f*** your eyes up.”

She extended the warning beyond just Botox specifically, urging fans to be cautious with any medical or cosmetic provider. “Be careful with these people, they try to change your face, they try to f*** things up,” she said. “Be careful with your bodies because it’s yours and you own it.” Spears captioned the post, “You can’t trust anyone!!!”

Not the first rocky Botox experience

This is not the first time Spears has spoken publicly about a difficult experience with the treatment. In August 2023, she described an earlier procedure that left her with visible bruising and swelling, telling fans at the time, “Too many times, these so-called ‘best doctors’ do amazing Botox. Never again in Los Angeles,” according to AOL’s earlier coverage of her remarks. She added that the swelling made her reluctant to appear in public for two weeks afterward, saying she looked like “somebody beat the s— out of me” following what she described as a “reverse effect” reaction.

An emotional message about motherhood

Alongside the physical toll of the procedure, Spears used the moment to share a more personal reflection on her relationship with her two sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden, 19. Posting old photos of the boys on X, she wrote that she felt she had let them down. “In that moment I believed I had failed as a mother,” she wrote, according to Yahoo Style Canada.

Spears described being especially affected by a moment when one of her sons told her he didn’t believe in God, and she apologized broadly for past mistakes. “I wanna tell my kids and people in general that I’m sorry for my mistakes in the past,” she wrote.

She also referenced a painful memory involving her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, saying she once learned they had taken her children to the beach and spent private time with them without her knowledge. She described the experience as leaving her feeling “morally ashamed,” saying she had knelt and cried over it for two months. Spears has spoken previously and at length about the emotional toll of the 13-year conservatorship her father oversaw, telling fans in past posts that she felt she “couldn’t be myself for a long time” during that period and was exploited under the arrangement.

Context: a turbulent stretch since leaving conservatorship

Spears was released from her father’s conservatorship in 2021 after 13 years under the court-ordered arrangement, which had controlled significant aspects of her personal and financial life. Since then, she has used social media extensively to document her life, including frequent dance videos and personal reflections shared directly with fans, often without the involvement of publicists or representatives.

The singer has also faced recent legal trouble. She was given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered into treatment following a reckless driving charge, according to details included in the OSEN report translated by ChosunBiz. Despite the setbacks, Spears indicated in her most recent post that she is focused on personal recovery going forward. “I want to get closer to God again and dream like I used to,” she wrote.

A pattern of unfiltered social media posts

Friday’s video adds to a long pattern of Spears using her Instagram and X accounts to communicate directly and often unguardedly with fans, ranging from personal struggles to dance videos. Just a week earlier, Spears had shared a separate series of videos showing herself dancing, continuing a habit of posting frequently and without publicist oversight that has become a defining feature of her public presence since regaining control of her personal affairs in 2021.

Representatives for Spears did not immediately respond to requests for further comment on either the Botox incident or her comments about her children.

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans police officer is facing 350 criminal charges after undercover surveillance cameras repeatedly showed him at home during hours his department records indicated he was on duty, in what investigators describe as a wide-ranging overtime fraud case.

Senior Police Officer Brandon Coleman, 39, was arrested Aug. 7 following a joint investigation by Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans Office of Inspector General, which examined discrepancies between the overtime hours Coleman reported and the hours investigators say he actually worked.

Payroll records raise red flags

The investigation began after FOX 8 started examining Coleman’s overtime pay when payroll records showed he was among the New Orleans Police Department’s highest-paid officers. Coleman earned approximately $229,000 from the department in 2025, more than three times his $68,000 base salary, according to FOX 8’s reporting.

Louisiana State Police said Coleman received more than $111,000 in fraudulent overtime payments between December 2024 and December 2025. At his first court appearance, however, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office presented a higher figure, telling Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Juana Lombard that Coleman had collected more than $172,000 he should not have received, according to FOX 8.

Video evidence at the center of the case

Investigators placed undercover cameras to monitor Coleman’s whereabouts and compare them against his submitted timesheets. On July 22, 2025, Coleman’s timesheet showed a shift beginning at 6:25 a.m., but video captured him entering his police vehicle at 10:08 a.m. — more than three hours after his shift was recorded as starting.

Coleman discovered one of the undercover cameras on July 28, 2025. The next day, his records again showed him clocking in at 6:25 a.m., while video showed him leaving his home at 7:41 a.m., according to investigators.

Louisiana State Police and the Office of Inspector General launched their joint investigation in April 2026, reviewing not only discrepancies in Coleman’s reported hours but also differences between the locations listed for some of his overtime assignments and where investigators determined he actually was.

Charges and court proceedings

Louisiana State Police obtained an arrest warrant and took Coleman into custody Aug. 7. He was booked on 325 counts of filing false public records and 23 counts of public payroll fraud, along with one count of theft and one count of malfeasance in office, bringing the total to 350 charges.

Judge Lombard found probable cause on all of the charges at Coleman’s first court appearance. He subsequently posted a $17,000 bond and was released. FOX 8 reported that Coleman is expected back in court Sept. 9.

Coleman’s attorney disputes the allegations

Coleman’s attorney, Bobby Hjortsberg, pushed back forcefully against the charges, calling them “absolutely baseless” and saying the defense has evidence showing Coleman was working during periods investigators question.

Hjortsberg argued that footage showing Coleman at or leaving his home does not, by itself, establish that he was not already performing police work at the time. He said Coleman’s responsibilities included Mardi Gras assignments and citywide duties that did not require him to remain at a police station throughout a shift. The attorney said the defense expects to present physical evidence supporting Coleman’s account of his working hours during the periods in question.

NOPD placed Coleman on unpaid administrative leave following his arrest. Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the department cooperated with the independent investigation and would continue to do so as the case moves forward.

Part of a broader pattern uncovered by investigators

Coleman is the second NOPD officer arrested as a result of FOX 8’s “Unchecked Overtime” investigative series. Former Sgt. Henry Burke was arrested earlier in 2026 in a separate overtime payroll case and was later fired from the department; FOX 8 reported that Burke’s case was subsequently referred to federal prosecutors. Internal investigations involving other NOPD officers connected to the broader overtime review have also continued.

Department overhauls timekeeping system

In response to the investigative reporting, NOPD expanded its use of biometric time clocks, which require officers to clock in at their specific assigned locations rather than relying solely on manually submitted timesheets. FOX 8 reported that the updated timekeeping system has been credited with reducing the department’s overtime spending by more than $8.3 million during the first six months of 2026 — a 45% decline, according to figures from the Office of Inspector General.

Preventing payroll fraud more broadly

Public agencies and private employers can reduce the risk of payroll fraud by cross-referencing time records against assignment logs, building access records, vehicle logs and other independently generated data rather than relying on submitted timesheets alone, according to guidance highlighted in the case’s coverage. Repeated shifts producing unusually high annual hours, frequent manual edits to time records, or employees consistently earning multiples of their base salary can all warrant additional scrutiny, and organizations are encouraged to ensure supervisors cannot approve unexplained timesheet edits without a clear audit trail.

New Orleans residents and city employees with information about suspected misuse of public funds can report concerns directly to the New Orleans Office of Inspector General, which accepts tips online, by email and by phone, including supporting documentation related to suspected public corruption or payroll misconduct.

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Malaysia — Chelsea wraps up a busy stretch of its 2026 preseason tour Sunday with a friendly against Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta’zim, a matchup that closes out a whirlwind run through Oceania and Asia for Xabi Alonso’s side.

The match kicks off at 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. BST, 8 a.m. ET) at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri, a venue that opened roughly six years ago and sits near the southern tip of Malaysia, close to Singapore.

How to watch in the United States

U.S. viewers can stream the match on Paramount+, with additional coverage available through the CBS Sports Golazo Network, according to Goal.com. The match is also listed on Prime Video’s schedule of upcoming Chelsea fixtures.

How to watch in the United Kingdom

The match will not air on traditional television in the United Kingdom, according to Chelsea’s official website. Instead, U.K. fans can watch through CFC+, Chelsea’s in-house streaming service, which costs £9.99 for a single match or £19.99 for a full annual subscription, according to Yahoo Sports’ listing of viewing options. Sports Illustrated separately listed the CFC+ single-match price at £14.99 in its own coverage, so fans should check pricing directly through Chelsea’s official channels before purchasing.

Streaming options elsewhere around the world

Beyond the U.S. and U.K., additional confirmed streaming outlets include FanCode in India and StarTimes in Nigeria, according to Yahoo Sports. CFC+ is also available internationally beyond the U.K. for fans in regions without a dedicated broadcast partner. Chelsea’s official website noted that the CFC+ stream will not be accessible to viewers located in Malaysia itself, where the match is being played.

Fans can also follow the match through Chelsea’s Matchday Live service on the club’s official app and website, which provides live text updates, statistics and imagery throughout the game, along with confirmed starting lineups once they are announced, according to Chelsea’s official site.

A packed final stretch of preseason for Chelsea

Sunday’s match caps an especially demanding end to Chelsea’s preseason tour. The Blues faced AC Milan barely 24 hours before their meeting with Johor Darul Ta’zim, according to Yahoo Sports, requiring the squad to travel roughly 700 miles between fixtures in a tight turnaround. Chelsea’s preseason slate has also included matches against Western Sydney Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus.

Chelsea opened its preseason tour with a 6-4 win over Western Sydney Wanderers before dropping back-to-back matches to Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus, and most recently fell 1-0 to Milan on Aug. 5, according to Goal.com. Manager Xabi Alonso has used the extensive preseason schedule to continue evaluating his squad ahead of the new Premier League campaign, with a roster that Yahoo Sports described as still more than 30 players deep heading into Sunday’s finale.

A tough test on paper, but Chelsea remains favored

Johor Darul Ta’zim enters the match in strong form, having won three of its last five matches across all competitions. The club’s most recent outing ended in a scoreless draw with Elche on July 24, following a run that included a 14-1 rout of Kelantan and a 7-0 win over Kuala Lumpur City, according to Goal.com. Johor’s only defeat in that stretch came in a 2-1 loss to Al Ahli in the AFC Champions League Elite. Across those five matches, the Malaysian side scored 24 goals while conceding just four.

Johor Darul Ta’zim also arrives as the dominant force in Malaysian domestic football, having won 12 consecutive Malaysia Super League titles, according to Yahoo Sports, including a domestic treble in each of the past four seasons. The club has had more modest success in continental competition but did reach the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League last season.

What’s next for Chelsea

Following Sunday’s match, Chelsea will return to Stamford Bridge for Alonso’s first match in charge at the venue, hosting his former club Real Sociedad on Aug. 15, according to Sports Illustrated. Alonso will then oversee his first competitive fixture as Chelsea manager on Aug. 24, when the Blues face Fulham — managed by Alonso’s former Real Madrid and Spain teammate Álvaro Arbeloa — in an early West London Premier League derby.

A note on watching safely

Fans looking to watch Sunday’s match are encouraged to use the official broadcasters and streaming services listed above, all of which hold confirmed rights to the fixture in their respective territories. Availability, pricing and access may vary by region and require an existing subscription or account with the relevant provider.

Wordle players looking for a boost on Sunday’s puzzle have a tricky one on their hands, according to multiple outlets covering today’s game. Puzzle #1877, the New York Times’ daily five-letter word challenge, is proving harder than usual, largely because the answer avoids nearly all of the most commonly used letters in the English language.

Today’s hints, without giving it away

For those who want a nudge before seeing the full answer, several publications offered graduated hints throughout the day. According to Parade, there is one vowel in today’s five-letter word, the puzzle begins with a consonant, and there are no double letters involved. Parade also offered a more specific clue, describing the answer as “the sound of wear and tear.”

The Times’ own WordleBot analysis, relayed through Yahoo, added further detail: the word contains one of the five vowels, has no repeated letters, and does not include any of the five most common letters used in Wordle answers. The Times noted the word starts with the letter C.

GameDaily offered an even more direct description, noting the answer “can refer to a blow or the sound it creates, as well as the act that creates such a sound” — a five-letter noun or verb starting with C, containing one vowel and four consonants, with no repeated letters throughout.

A puzzle that stumped even the pros’ favorite openers

Yahoo’s coverage highlighted just how unusual today’s word is from a solving standpoint. The outlet’s Wordle columnist noted that their typical opening word, ORATE, “struck out completely,” failing to turn a single letter green or yellow and leaving a massive 253 possible answers remaining, according to WordleBot’s analysis.

For players looking for stronger starting strategies going forward, WordleBot’s data suggests CLASP as a notably effective opener for puzzles like today’s, narrowing the field to just 19 possible answers, while PLACE performs even better, cutting the list down to only 10 remaining options.

For future puzzles more broadly, the New York Times’ WordleBot recommends CRANE as one of the strongest overall starting words, according to the Lufkin Daily News. Other commonly recommended openers include ADIEU, STARE and ROAST, each designed to maximize the amount of letter information revealed in a single guess.

Difficulty and average solve time

According to WordleBot’s tracked data cited by Yahoo, the average player needed 3.9 guesses to solve the previous day’s puzzle, Wordle #1876, in both regular and hard mode — giving today’s solvers a rough benchmark for how the game typically plays out difficulty-wise, even though today’s specific puzzle appears to be running tougher than that average given its avoidance of common letters.

Today’s answer

Spoiler warning: the solution to Wordle #1877 for Sunday, August 9, 2026, is CLUNK.

Multiple outlets, including Parade, AOL and Yahoo, confirmed the same five-letter answer, describing it as a word associated with a dull, heavy sound — fitting the “sound of wear and tear” hint offered earlier by Parade and the “blow or the sound it creates” description offered by GameDaily.

How Wordle works, for newcomers

Wordle challenges players to guess a five-letter word within six attempts, with color-coded tiles indicating whether a guessed letter is correct and correctly placed (green), correct but misplaced (yellow), or not in the word at all (gray). The game, created by software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, surged in popularity before being acquired by the New York Times, which now offers it for free on the Times Games website and app alongside puzzles including Connections, Strands and the Mini Crossword.

Players who missed today’s puzzle or want to review past solutions can consult the official Wordle archive, which stores previous answers for those looking to catch up or track word patterns over time.

Sunday’s edition of the New York Times’ Connections puzzle, game #1155, is testing players with a mix of physical actions, playful rearrangements and nostalgic references, according to multiple outlets covering today’s game — a combination several solvers described as satisfying but occasionally deceptive.

How Connections works

Connections challenges players to sort 16 seemingly unrelated words or phrases into four hidden groups of four, with each group linked by a shared theme, wordplay pattern or category. The puzzle is color-coded by difficulty, running from yellow (easiest) through green and blue, up to purple, which is typically the most challenging and often relies on the least obvious connection. Players are allowed up to four mistakes before losing the round.

According to TechRadar, players don’t strictly need to solve the purple category outright, since it can often be deduced by process of elimination once the other three groups have been correctly identified.

Today’s 16 words

Sunday’s puzzle presented players with the following 16 words and phrases: SHIFT GEARS, JURY DUTY, SPACE OPERA, LABYRINTH, CAPS FOR SALE, ESCAPE ROOM, NEO-NOIR, COURSE-CORRECT, BAD DREAM, BUDDY COP, CORDUROY, CHANGE TACK, MADELINE, RECALIBRATE, SPAGHETTI WESTERN and GOODNIGHT MOON.

Hints for each category

For solvers looking for a nudge before the full reveal, TechRadar offered the following category hints:

Yellow: Take a new path
Green: Bedtime stories
Blue: Types of films
Purple: In need of an exit strategy

Parade offered similar guidance in its own coverage, describing the categories as covering situations that are hard to get out of and classic stories read to children, along with hints like “strategize,” “like Ride Along or Blade Runner” and “like a maze.”

Today’s full answers

Spoiler warning: the complete solution to Connections #1155 is below.

Yellow — Take a Different Approach: CHANGE TACK, COURSE-CORRECT, RECALIBRATE, SHIFT GEARS

Green — Classic Children’s Books: CAPS FOR SALE, CORDUROY, GOODNIGHT MOON, MADELINE

Blue — Movie Subgenres: BUDDY COP, NEO-NOIR, SPACE OPERA, SPAGHETTI WESTERN

Purple — Things People Try to Get Out Of: BAD DREAM, ESCAPE ROOM, JURY DUTY, LABYRINTH

TechRadar’s Johnny Dee, who solved today’s puzzle with a perfect score, described his solving process, noting he initially locked in the children’s book category around GOODNIGHT MOON and MADELINE before setting it aside to explore other groupings first — what he called deciding to “take a different approach” to match the yellow category’s own theme.

Bonus: Connections Sports Edition

For sports fans looking for an additional challenge, the Times also offers a sports-themed spinoff called Connections Sports Edition, currently in beta through a collaboration between the New York Times and The Athletic. According to Word.Tips, Sunday’s Sports Edition puzzle, game #691, included categories covering equipment that comes in pairs (ski pole, shin guard, soccer cleat, ice skate), common sports injuries (tennis elbow, hip pointer, shin splints, turf toe), notable sights at Fenway Park (Green Monster, Citgo sign, Pesky Pole, Lansdowne Street) and Premier League stadium venues (City Ground, Old Trafford, Stadium of Light, Stamford Bridge).

Where to play

Both Connections and Connections Sports Edition are available for free through the New York Times Games website and mobile app, alongside the publisher’s other daily offerings, including Wordle, Strands and the Mini Crossword. A new Connections puzzle refreshes at midnight local time each day, meaning solvers in different time zones may be working through different puzzles at any given moment.