NewsBeat

Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka update ahead of Arsenal vs Sunderland | Football

Published

3 seconds ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka update ahead of Arsenal vs Sunderland | Football

Timber and Saka missed training this week (Picture: Getty)

Mikel Arteta has provided injury updates on Jurrien Timber, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Sunderland.

The Gunners head into the weekend after an excellent pair of results following their setback against Manchester United, thrashing Leeds United last weekend before booking their place in the Carabao Cup final with a win over Chelsea.

Injuries have been a concern, however. Saka withdrew from the Arsenal starting XI during the warm-up shortly before kick-off at Elland Road, also missing the visit of Chelsea midweek. Noni Madueke started ahead of him in both games.

Odegaard played 61 minutes against Leeds but picked up a ‘niggle’ that afternoon that saw him left out of the squad midweek.

The duo were not pictured in training on Thursday with Jurrien Timber also absent.

Speaking ahead of the visit of the Black Cats, Arteta revealed the Dutchman is ‘fine’, suggesting he is fit to start on Saturday.

While Saka is ‘much better’, Arteta suggested this weekend will come too soon for him.

Get your football fix

Don’t want to miss the week’s biggest football stories? Metro’s exclusive football newsletter, In The Mixer, is your essential guide.

From the latest transfer rumours and managerial moves to analysis of the biggest games and a lot more, our experts have you covered.

Sign up here, it’s an open goal.

‘His hip is much better, and hopefully very soon he will be with us,’ Arteta said.

Odergaard however is set to miss out again with his manager explaining he is still ‘a few days away’.

More to follow

MORE: Tim Sherwood tips Man Utd to hijack Liverpool transfer move for £100m star

MORE: Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon injury update ahead of Newcastle vs Brentford

MORE: Leon Goretzka responds to Arsenal offer after failed January transfer

Source link

NewsBeat

US officials helped marine adopt an Afghan war orphan despite government objections

Published

11 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

US officials helped marine adopt an Afghan war orphan despite government objections

The judge wanted everyone in the courtroom to know that when he’d signed a war orphan over to an American Marine he thought it was an emergency — that the child injured on the battlefield in Afghanistan was on death’s door, with neither a family nor a country to claim her.

A lawyer for the federal government stood up.

“That is not what happened,” she told the judge: almost everything he’d believed about the baby was untrue.

Kathryn Wyer, a Justice Department lawyer representing the federal government, corrected Fluvanna County Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore at a hearing on Nov. 11, 2022. The judge, who allowed an American Marine to adopt an Afghan orphan, had believed Afghanistan gave up finding her family, but the country was still searching, and eventually united the girl with relatives.

This group had gathered 15 times by then, in secret proceedings in this small-town Virginia courtroom to try to fix what had become an international incident. Fluvanna County Circuit Judge Richard Moore had granted an adoption of the orphan to U.S. Marine Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, while the baby was in Afghanistan, 7,000 miles away.

Now the U.S. government insisted the baby’s fate had never been the judge’s to decide; officials in President Donald Trump’s first administration had chosen to unite her with relatives months before Moore gave her away, according to once-secret transcripts of the November 2022 hearing.

Thousands of pages of those transcripts and court documents were recently released as a result of The Associated Press’ three-year fight for access after a 2022 AP report about the adoption raised alarms at the highest levels of government, from the Taliban to the White House. The newly released records reveal how America’s fractured bureaucracy allowed the Masts to adopt the child who was halfway around the globe, being raised by a couple the Afghan government at that time decided were her family, in a country that does not allow non-Muslims to take custody of its children. The documents show the judge skipped critical safeguards and legal requirements.

Mast, who cited a judge’s orders not to speak publicly about the case in declining requests to comment, has said he believed — and still does — the story he told Moore about the girl, and insists he acted nobly and in the best interest of a child stuck in a war zone with an uncertain future.

Along the way, high-ranking military and government officials took extraordinary steps to help him, seemingly unaware that others in their own agencies were trying to stop him.

“The left hand of the United States is doing one thing,” another judge later said, describing the dysfunction, “and the right hand of the United States is doing something else.”

The documents reveal that the court and federal government have blamed each other for the legal predicament. The Justice Department has said what happened in this rural courthouse threatens the nation’s standing in the world and appears as an endorsement of child abduction.

“I’ll probably think about this the rest of my life whether I should have said, sorry, that child is in Afghanistan. We’re just going to stand down,” Moore said at the hearing three years ago. “I don’t know whether that’s what I should have done.”

AP Illustration/Nat Castaneda

A remarkably quick adoption

The baby was orphaned in September 2019 when U.S. Army Rangers, along with Afghan forces, raided a rural compound. The baby’s parents were killed. She was found in the rubble, about two months old, burned and with a fractured skull and broken leg. U.S. troops scooped her up and took her to the hospital at Bagram Air Base in Kabul.

Children stand in front of a home destroyed during a Sept. 5, 2019, night raid by U.S. forces in a village in a remote region of Afghanistan, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

American servicemembers fell in love with her there, as she recovered. She was a symbol of hope in a long, grinding war.

The raid that killed the baby’s parents targeted transient terrorists who came into Afghanistan from a neighboring country, the records show. Some soldiers believed she might not be Afghan and tried to make a case for bringing her to the U.S.

The State Department attempted to make its position clear: The embassy convened a meeting that October with members of the military and the Afghan government to explain that under international law the U.S. was obligated to reunite her with her family, according to documents. State Department officials wrote that Mast, a military lawyer on a short assignment in Afghanistan, attended that meeting.

He’d met the baby for the first time days before and remained determined the child should go to the U.S., according to emails filed as exhibits.

Mast called home, where his wife was with their three sons.

“With us having children of our own, we see how vulnerable and precious children are,” Stephanie Mast testified. “And we wanted to help in whatever way we could.”

Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, arrive at Circuit Court, Thursday, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

The Masts, Evangelical Christians, decided to try to bring her to their home in Palmyra, Virginia.

Mast’s brother, Richard Mast, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, filed a petition for custody in early November, and a Fluvanna County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge quickly approved it. The judge declared that the child was “stateless,” echoing Mast’s assertion that her parents were nomadic terrorists, and the Afghan government would issue a waiver of jurisdiction over her within days.

Afghanistan never waived jurisdiction.

Still the Masts decided custody wasn’t enough. Several days later, Moore, the Fluvanna County Circuit Court judge, got an unusual weekend call from his clerk’s office about a request for an emergency adoption, according to comments the judge made on the bench and records obtained from the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. Custody orders like the one the Masts were granted are temporary, but adoption grants a child an entirely new birth certificate, assigning them new legal parents. Moore said he was told that the girl desperately needed medical care and adoption would help get her on a plane to America.

Though the baby was being cared for by the Defense Department, the federal government insisted it received no notice of Mast’s bid for adoption, the recently released records show. Had it been notified, government lawyers said, they would have told the judge that the child was not stateless, the government was at that time searching for her family and would soon decide she was Afghan and not the child of foreigners. She was also not in a medical crisis: A month before, exhibits show, her doctor described her as “a healthy healing infant who needs normal infant care.”

The Masts have said in court records that they did not mislead the court; they believed that the girl was the stateless daughter of transient terrorists and Afghanistan was neither interested nor capable of caring for her.

Moore did not respond to requests for comment.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, Moore granted the Masts a temporary adoption. Moore ordered the Virginia Department of Vital Statistics to issue a new birth certificate, making her the Masts’ daughter.

Adoption cases usually creep through the court system. Moore granted the Masts the temporary adoption in a weekend.

“Attempting to interfere inappropriately”

Two days later, an email arrived overnight at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul from State Department headquarters. The office had heard that Mast had been granted custody of the orphan, and wanted to know if that was true, the documents show.

Officials who had been working on uniting the girl with her family seemed stunned by the email. An Army colonel later wrote in a declaration that he believed Mast was “attempting to interfere inappropriately.”

Army Col. Joseph Fairfield wrote in a legal declaration submitted in court by the federal government that by late 2019, some military officers were worried that Mast’s efforts “had diverged” from the official U.S. position about what should become of the baby, and he was “attempting to interfere inappropriately.”

Around that time, U.S. officials learned that a man came forward to claim the baby, records show. He told authorities he was the child’s uncle. He said the girl’s father was a local farmer, not a terrorist. His wife and five of their children were also killed. He said it was his family’s duty to take her in.

The Afghan government vetted his story. U.S. officials signed off.

Meanwhile, Mast’s tour ended. He returned home to Virginia, and set up a crib for the baby he was certain would soon be theirs, according to court testimony. The couple quickly found an ally in an aide for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The aide pressed Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Maurer to ask immigration officials to rush documents the child needed to get to the U.S. An attached memo written by another military official pointed to proof of Mast’s claim to the baby: Mast had enrolled her in the military’s health care system as his dependent.

On the application for those benefits, Mast claimed the girl had lived with him in Virginia since Sept. 4, 2019, but she had never been on American soil, a government official wrote in a declaration. Mast also wrote that her injures were a result of child abuse.

The situation worked its way to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He signed a cable, dated Feb. 25, 2020, records show, dismissing the Fluvanna custody orders as “flawed.”

The cable said that any further delay in transferring the child could be perceived as the “U.S. government holding an Afghan child against the will of her extended family and the Afghan government.”

The next day, Mast filed a federal lawsuit to stop the reunification. The judge rejected his claims.

The U.S. put her on a plane to meet her relatives. They wept when they saw her, bundled in pink. The child’s uncle decided his son should raise the baby with his new wife and they quickly came to love this girl like their own daughter, they testified.

The Masts have insisted that this family is not biologically related to the baby and have questioned the process through which the Afghan government vetted them. The Afghan couple had celebrated the first step in a traditional Afghan marriage, a religious bond, but had not yet had a wedding reception, and the Masts argue they were unmarried at the time the child was given to them.

The AP agreed not to name the Afghan couple because they fear their families in Afghanistan might face retaliation from the Taliban. The court issued a protective order shielding their identities.

The Taliban, which now controls Afghanistan, was not in power when that country was making decisions about the child. Since taking over, the Taliban has been critical of what happened to the girl, calling it “worrying, far from human dignity and an inhumane act,” and urged the U.S. to return her to her relatives.

The Afghan couple testified they had no idea that on the other side of the globe an American judge still believed the girl was available for adoption.

Mast told Moore the child was given to an unmarried girl whose relationship to her was unclear. He testified that he maintained the child was the daughter of foreign fighters and suspected the family had ties to terrorism.

Moore said he did not learn that a federal judge had already rejected Mast’s claims to the baby. He would later say he vaguely remembered hearing that something happened in federal court but it didn’t register as important.

“I guess I assumed it was an administrative thing,” Moore said.

Mast continued to ask Moore to grant a final, permanent adoption.

Lawyers representing the government, the Afghan family and the child would note many defects in these proceedings; the attorney representing the child described the flaws as “glaring.” There is no Virginia law that allows a judge to adopt out a foreign child without her home country’s consent. A child must be put up for adoption by a parent or agency, and this child had never been. The court waived the requirement that the child be present when social services visited the adoptive parents’ home, that someone investigate her history, that whoever had custody be told this was happening.

In December of 2020, Moore granted a final adoption, deeming the Masts the baby’s permanent parents.

“She is an undocumented, orphan, stateless minor,” he wrote, “subject to this court’s jurisdiction.”

‘Is it even lawful for us to take her?’

In Afghanistan, the couple raising the girl received calls from strangers. Mast was working with Kimberley Motley, an American lawyer based in Afghanistan. Motley told the couple that a family wanted to help the girl get medical care in the U.S. But the couple refused to send the girl alone. Motley kept in touch with them for months, according to messages entered as court exhibits. Motley, through her attorney, declined to comment.

In the summer of 2021, the American military withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over. Mast contacted the couple directly, enlisting the help of a translator named Ahmad Osmani, an Afghan Christian who’d moved to the U.S. Osmani considered it his Christian duty to help the Masts, testifying that he believed it would be “a great picture to see a terrorist’s daughter become a believer and glorify God’s name.”

Mast and Osmani told the couple that they could get all three out of Afghanistan.

At the time, servicemembers were frantically evacuating Afghans, mostly those who helped the U.S. and would likely be targeted by the Taliban.

Amid the confusion, Mast asked colleagues in the Marines to add a baby and her caretakers to an evacuation list, the records show, claiming the State Department had sent her to an orphanage. She was living with the Afghan couple, and had never been to an orphanage.

A lieutenant colonel emailed other military officials to start the process of getting the family on a flight out. He didn’t learn that the military had worked to keep Mast away from this baby.

“Is it even lawful for us to take her?” asked a major in the Marines, according to a copy of the email.

Mast, who was copied on the chain, replied: “To clarify, she is completely clear on the Afghan side,” he wrote. “I am very familiar with the requirements after the last 18 months working the legal issues.”

Marine Joshua Mast emailed military colleagues requesting the girl and her caregivers be added to the list of evacuees from Afghanistan during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in summer 2021. One questioned whether it was legal to take the girl out of the country, and Mast assured them it was.

Military officials asked no further questions, and soon the family was on a plane to Germany, where the Masts met them for the first time. The Afghans testified they had no idea the Masts planned to take her. The Masts have said they had tried to explain that they would.

Stephanie Mast testified that when she and her husband arrived in Germany, they “knew we had to speak to them and just tell them the truth.” She tried to explain “sacrificial love.” If the baby came with them, she told the Afghan woman, “she can have the best life possible.”

The Afghan man ripped off the wristband refugees wore and threatened to return to Afghanistan if the Americans tried to take the child.

The Afghan woman later said they convinced her that she’d misunderstood and persuaded them to continue to the U.S., and keep the baby with them.

The Afghans boarded a plane bound for Dulles International Airport, then a bus to Fort Pickett, a military base in Virginia turned makeshift refugee center. Meanwhile, the records show, Mast asked a State Department official he’d met in Germany to help connect him with other government contacts so he could track the family’s arrival.

Emails show employees with multiple government agencies sprung into action, including the State Department. The federal government would later say that these employees, like the military officials who evacuated the family, didn’t know that the very agency they worked for had tried to prevent Mast from taking the girl.

‘It’s like you are kidnapping her’

Rhonda Slusher, a State Department official, answered the phone at Fort Pickett. On the line was Joshua Mast.

He said he was going to come pick up his adoptive daughter, according to a declaration Slusher submitted in court. Slusher said she was told “there was no U.S. jurisdiction to hold the child,” and she should be given to Mast “at the earliest point possible.” Her supervisor instructed her to assist with “the transfer of the child,” she wrote in the declaration.

Mast told Slusher he was concerned the family she was being taken from “were going to be sad,” she wrote.

On Sept. 3, 2021, uniformed officers drove the Afghan family to a nondescript building near the camp’s front gate.

Slusher picked the baby up out of the car seat and insisted she hold her as the family went inside.

There, the Afghan woman later testified, another official, this one from the Department of Health and Human Services, told them: “you are not the parents of this child.”

“It’s like you are kidnapping her,” the Afghan man said.

The Afghan woman came toward Slusher.

“Please give me my daughter,” she said “She is my daughter.”

The Afghan woman testified at a hearing on May 24, 2022, describing how she begged government officials not to take the child away from her. The officials handed the girl to the Mast family, and the Afghans have not seen her since.

The baby cried and squirmed to get back to her, but Slusher wouldn’t let her go. The woman tried to grab the child, but Slusher pulled her hands away. The woman “crumpled to the floor crying.” She lay there for at least five minutes.

Slusher wrote in a declaration that she carried the baby outside, where Stephanie Mast was waiting in the car. Stephanie Mast fed the girl Goldfish crackers before they drove away with her husband.

“It is worth reiterating that this prolonged tragedy was entirely avoidable. The Trump administration blocked an attempt to unlawfully seize the child from her Afghan family in early 2020,” the Afghan couple’s attorneys wrote in a statement, adding that the Masts were able to take the child only because of America’s messy exit from Afghanistan. “The child and her relatives are victims of a crime and a tragedy no family should ever endure — a stark reminder that this withdrawal continues to have far-reaching and devastating consequences.”

‘A possibly errant adoption’

More than a year after the Masts took the baby home, her fate was before Judge Richard Moore again.

The Afghan couple found a team of lawyers willing to represent them for free, and filed a petition in Moore’s court to challenge the adoption he’d granted. Moore could undo the adoption and give the child back to the Afghan family, or uphold it, and leave her with the Masts.

“I’ve never had a case where I was so uncomfortable with either decision,” he said at the November 2022 hearing, which would be his last hearing in the case before retiring.

The judge listened for five hours as the lawyers for the Afghan couple and the government said that the adoption he’d granted was so riddled with errors it shouldn’t be called an adoption at all.

Moore blamed the federal government — it had known as early as 2020 that the Masts were trying to get the girl and a court in Fluvanna County was involved, and they did not try to stop him from issuing a “possibly errant adoption,” he said.

“Clearly, there were procedural irregularities and deficiencies in this case. There’s no question about that,” the judge said from the bench.

Yet for a year, in hearing after hearing, the primary question became whether the Afghan couple had a right to challenge that adoption at all; whether they were truly her family and if the Afghan government’s decision to give her to them was valid once they arrived in the U.S.

The judge and the Masts’ attorneys questioned them about their origin and upbringing, their relationship to each other and to the child.

Moore repeatedly said he did not believe they were related to the girl, nor was he inclined to consider them parents. He said no court in Afghanistan was involved in determining who should get custody of the child there. The Afghan couple’s lawyers had resisted DNA testing, saying it couldn’t conclusively find a relationship between opposite-gender half-cousins. It was also irrelevant, they argued: After the Afghan government gave the child to them, an American court should not relitigate that choice.

At the last hearing he held in November 2022, Moore said there were many things he wished Mast had told him before he signed the adoption. But he still trusted the Marine.

“There’s no question in my mind. Their total involvement was to save this child,” Moore said.

A week later, Moore published his thoughts on the case in a written document, and reiterated his opinion that “anything they did improper grew” out of the Masts’ desire to help the child.

He was less sympathetic to the Afghans. The Afghan woman testified that she had two Afghan government identifications, one that included her real age and a second she obtained intentionally making herself younger to enable her to enroll in school. They “misrepresented certain facts and lied … for their own purposes,” Moore wrote.

The Masts, too, have described the Afghans as untrustworthy, even threatening. They submitted court records alleging the Afghan man was flagged in a database of suspected terrorists upon entry to the U.S., which they reported to law enforcement. Attorneys for the Afghans responded that the government said in a sealed letter to the court that the man was not the subject of the database entry. The man remains in the U.S. and frequently flies from Texas to Virginia for court hearings.

With Moore’s retirement, the Masts and the Afghans found themselves before a new judge, Claude Worrell.

This courtroom sketch depicts Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, during a Circuit Court hearing before Judge Claude V. Worrell Jr., Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Charlottesville, Va. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

Worrell rebuked the federal government for its “inconsistent” approach, noting it was arguing the baby should be immediately returned to the Afghans, while its own employees had repeatedly assisted the Masts along the way.

It did not take Worrell long to come to a wholly different conclusion than Moore. Worrell wasn’t concerned about biological relationships. What mattered, he said, was Afghanistan claimed her as its citizen, so got to decide her fate.

In March 2023, Worrell voided the adoption.

AP Illustration/Marshall Ritzel

The Afghan couple went outside to a patch of grass in the parking lot and prayed. They thought they would soon bring the baby to their home in Texas, where they’ve kept a bedroom ready for her, decorated with butterfly decals.

The Virginia Court of Appeals has since upheld Worrell’s decision voiding the adoption, and the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court in February 2025. It has yet to issue a ruling. As the years dragged on, the child remained with the Marine and his family.

The Marine Corps held an administrative hearing in October 2024 to determine whether Mast violated military rules. A three-member panel found that he acted in a way that was “unbecoming” of an officer, but that didn’t warrant suspension or other formal punishment.

The federal government has indicated in court in recent months that it is reconsidering its role in the case, and Trump’s second administration could reverse his first administration’s opinion that Mast had no right to the child. The Justice Department did not respond to repeated requests to clarify its current position on the child’s fate.

It has been four years since the Afghan couple has seen her.

In July, she turned 6.

___

AP data journalist Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this report

—-

Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/.

Source link

NewsBeat

US and Iran hold high-stakes nuclear talks in Oman as fears of war continue

Published

19 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

US and Iran hold high-stakes nuclear talks in Oman as fears of war continue

Iran and the United States held high-stakes talks in Oman against the backdrop of a threat of US military action should the two sides fail to reach a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Tehran sent foreign minister Abbas Araghchi to Muscat on Friday to discuss terms of a potential deal with a US delegation, after Washington rushed warships to the region to pressure the regime into talks.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner received Araghchi’s preliminary plan to address the tensions via Omani mediators, though the subjects of discussion remained unclear.

Both sides appeared to be far apart in their positions in the days leading up to the talks, with Tehran also demanding a change in location. Washington pushed to expand talks to cover Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles, support for armed groups and the “treatment of their own people”. Iran insisted it was only open to discussing its nuclear programme.

“Iran enters diplomacy with open eyes and a steady memory of the past year,” said Mr Araghchi on Friday, ahead of talks. “We engage in good faith and stand firm on our rights. Commitments need to be honoured.”

Tehran’s foreign ministry said late in the afternoon that talks had concluded “for now”. It was unclear if or when they might restart.

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with Oman’s foreign minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi on Friday (Omani Foreign Ministry/AFP via G)

The US has sought to get diplomacy back on track after discussions last year were upended by Israel striking Iran, followed by the US bombing of key nuclear facilities.

Relations were further strained in January as Donald Trump threatened the regime with action over its brutal crackdown on antigovernment protests.

Iranian current and former officials said earlier this week that the country’s leadership fears that US strikes could push protesters back onto the streets and break the regime’s grip on power.

Speaking on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Iran that the US still retained the option of force if discussions break down.

“While these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that the president has many options at his disposal, aside from diplomacy, as the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world,” she said.

In a show of defiance, Iran’s state TV said hours before the talks that “one of the country’s most advanced long-range ballistic missiles, the Khorramshahr-4,” had been deployed at one of the Revolutionary Guards’ vast underground “missile cities”.

The US moved the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region amid heightened tensions with Iran (US Navy)

Iranian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated this week that Tehran was open to reining in uranium enrichment – a condition the US demands and that the regime has publicly defended as its right. The US accuses Tehran of using its nuclear programme to develop the capability to produce weapons, something Iran has long denied.

Lawyers in Iran were still fearful that the regime was waiting to see the outcome of talks before deciding whether to execute citizens arrested over the unrest last month.

Several legal experts told Indy Persian ahead of talks that the country has seen a sharp increase in raids on the homes of protesters in recent weeks, with a dramatic rise in demand for the death penalty.

“My assessment is that they are waiting to see how things settle with Trump, and if the risk of a military strike subsides, they will execute thousands. Even in recent weeks, however, we have received reports of the secret execution of several detainees,” said one defence lawyer in the northern Mazandaran province.

The US and Iran previously held talks towards reaching a nuclear peace agreement last April. The enrichment of uranium became a recurring issue as the US said they had to give it up, and Iran said it was their right to pursue.

Two days before talks were due to resume, Israel carried out strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, commanders and nuclear sites. The US later joined in, bombing key nuclear facilities deep underground. US intelligence concluded at the time they had likely only set Iran’s work back by a matter of months.

Source link

NewsBeat

James Milner is the ultimate pro.. he even used to pick up bar tab even though he didn’t drink in quest for perfection

Published

27 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

James Milner is the ultimate pro.. he even used to pick up bar tab even though he didn't drink in quest for perfection

GARETH BARRY was no ordinary footballer.

Amassing 653 appearances in the Premier League takes some doing.

But even he raised an eyebrow at the dedication shown by James Milner in trying to overhaul his milestone.

Milner, who turned 40 last month, will equal Barry’s Prem appearance record if he plays for Brighton against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Despite being team-mates at two clubs — Aston Villa and Manchester City — not to mention England, it took a few days away on a golfing holiday to really provide proof of Milner’s commitment.

It was not sufficient for Barry, now 44, to see what his fellow midfielder got up to on a daily basis on the training ground.

RAD MOVE

Spurs make three changes to Champions League with major snub to returning star

TURBO

Win a stunning VW Tiguan + £5,000 or £35,000 cash from just 12p with our code

No, it was away from the game where the amiable Barry was given his first real insight into how his team-mate was going to wring every last ounce out of his football career.

Barry, along with a few friends and Milner, went for a bit of R & R — playing some rounds of golf and then staying on at the ‘19th hole’.

But teetotal Milner, while happy to tag along, was not there just for the giggles.

Barry told SunSport: “Every footballer who has had any career in the Premier League has worked hard. There aren’t any shortcuts.

BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS

“You have to put it in. It takes a lot of effort to maintain any kind of level — especially for so long in the Premier League.

“But I realised just how far James was willing to go when we went on a short golf trip together with a few friends.

“I can’t remember where we went but we would play a round of golf and then head to a restaurant for dinner.

“We’d have a couple of drinks and James would come with us. But he doesn’t touch alcohol.

“Usually, we left him to pick up the tab in the morning when he got up first!

Source link

NewsBeat

Life lessons: former Olympian Aimee Fuller on what life so far has taught her

Published

33 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Life lessons: former Olympian Aimee Fuller on what life so far has taught her

As the 2026 Winter Games launches tonight the former Team GB Olympic snowboarder and TNT presenter reflects on what has shaped her life beyond the slopes

My morning ritual is …

Movement and coffee. I love to move. It’s my time that I always protect for myself. No matter if I’ve got a 6am start or 10am start somewhere, I’ll always do something. It could be a little walk, yoga, a run or a kickboxing session, but I always move before I turn up somewhere. That’s my headspace and my happy place.

I feel optimistic about …

Our chance of doing well at this year’s Winter Olympics. We’ve got a really great team – there’s great strength and depth in a range of sports.

What makes me angry …

People being late. It’s disrespectful of people’s time.

If I wasn’t a snowboarder and broadcaster, I’d have liked to become …

A weather woman. I’m fascinated by the weather. It’s played a huge role in my career. I like the idea of standing there, bringing good news and good vibes to people across the country when the weather is good.

The habit that has served me best in life …

Being kind, being open and not being judgemental. Until you’ve really met someone or spoken to them or spent any time with them, you don’t know who they are.

The habit I’ve successfully kicked …

I haven’t had Mentos for at least four days. They’ve become a personal nemesis. It’s my best friend’s fault. She got me some mint ones, then some fruit ones, and I eat them too much. But I’m trying…

Until you’ve really met someone or spoken to them or spent any time with them, you don’t know who they are

My sources of joy are …

Friendship, travel, health… The best time you can have is free time, when there’s no clock or boundary stopping you from living in the moment and being with the ones you love.

At the start of my career, snowboarding was such a creative outlet and I loved being on the mountain. Towards the end of my career, that definitely changed. There’s pressure – your career is on the line, there’s money involved and sponsors, and that changes the dynamic. But that was where I found space and freedom initially.

When things get tough I …

Either go for a really long run and work it out in my head, or I speak to my family.

The book I wish everyone would read …

The Gladiator Mindset by [English swimmer] Adam Peaty. He didn’t have an easy run but he’s been at the top of his game. It shows you that anything is possible and that life is a choice. Things aren’t going to always be pretty but it’s discipline that keeps you turning up time and time again.

‘I’ve learned, through snowboarding, to never be defined by one thing in life,’ says Aimee Fuller

The big thing I’ve changed my mind about in life …

I’ve learned, through snowboarding, to never be defined by one thing in life. I will never be defined as a snowboarder because I’m so much more than that, just like every person I meet – they’re not just one person. You should never be defined by one thing.

What keeps me awake at night …

Excitement for life and living. Last night, I struggled to sleep because I was so excited for today and my plans for tonight. I’m surprising my best friend – I’ve put her face on a billboard in Leicester Square – and then I’m going for steak and chips with my mum.

The thing that motivates me most of all …

Showing up for myself. We all have good days and bad days. You can always turn it around. Many days, I’ve woken up and I’m, like, “What am I doing?” But then you show up for yourself – you go for a little run, you remove the pressure, and, before you know it, you’ve turned it around. It’s always a choice.

A lot of people in life don’t care about you, so you need to make sure you spend time with those people who love you

My parents taught me …

My mum and dad are so solid. My dad is probably better in a crisis and my mum is great for day-to-day chat. They’ve both had a major impact on my career. Some of the one-liners my mum said to me changed my life and my attitude forever. They were never pushy parents, but I was in a really tricky position for qualifying for my first Olympic Games, because I was ranked about 70th and I needed to get into the top 12, so I said to my mum “I’m not going to go to the pre-Olympics press day because I’m not going to the Winter Olympics, as I haven’t qualified.” And she said “You’re going unless someone tells you otherwise.” My mindset switched. It changed my focus. I learned resilience from my mum.

I have this theory that …

You’re a product of your environment. The people around you matter so much, so make sure that the people you’re around and spend time with day-to-day are people you love. A lot of people in life don’t care about you, so you need to make sure that the time you spend on this planet is with those people who love you. You are nothing without the people around you.

I’d like to tell my younger self…

That dreaming during physics class about snowboarding manoeuvres was definitely the right decision.

Aimee Fuller will be reporting on-site from the Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina 2026 for TNT Sports from Feb 6-22

Image: C1 Media

Support solutions in 2026

At Positive News, we’re not chasing clicks or profits for media moguls – we’re here to serve you and have a positive social impact. We can’t do this unless enough people like you choose to support our journalism.

Give once from just £1, or join 1,800+ others who contribute an average of £3 or more per month. Together, we can build a healthier form of media – one that focuses on solutions, progress and possibilities, and empowers people to create positive change.

Support Positive News

Source link

NewsBeat

Northern Ireland roads record 49,000 defects in last three months alone

Published

46 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Potholes and other surface defects are more likely to appear due to severe weather conditions

Around 49,000 defects have been recorded on Northern Ireland roads in the last three months alone, it has been revealed.

The Infrastructure Minister said this is close to half the total for the whole previous year, with recent severe weather taking their toll on the roads network.

In addition to the 40 resurfacing schemes announced after the Minister’s December Monitoring allocation, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has launched a £7.85million Winter Recovery Road Fund to tackle the impact of recent severe weather conditions have had across our network.

Minister Kimmins said: “I am all too aware that the recent storms, prolonged rainfall, ice and snow have all taken their toll on our roads, and I have been working to identify and secure funding to address the problem. Today, I can confirm that I have established a £7.85million Winter Recovery Road Fund to allow an urgent and direct focus on repairing the surface defects which are causing the most concern.

“The winter period has taken a severe toll on the road network. To put the current situation in context, 49,000 defects have been recorded in the last three months alone, which is close to half the total for the whole of the previous year.

“Given the scale of the damage caused, it is not possible to address every issue in the short-term. However, in addition to securing the additional funding being announced today, I have also asked my officials to also explore every avenue to maximise our available workforce capacity to ensure we are doing as much as we can as quickly as possible.

“I am committed to doing all I can to improve our roads and the Winter Recovery Road Fund will allow vital repairs to the worst affected areas to be carried out in a focused way and completed as soon as possible.”

Potholes and other surface defects on the roads are more likely to happen at this time of year. When it rains, water enters small cracks and freeze–thaw cycles expand and break apart the surface. Heavy or prolonged rain damages the underlying layers, reducing a roads load‑bearing capacity leading to potholes, rutting, and surface deformation.

Flooding can also erode sub‑base materials, damage embankments, and block drainage systems, creating long‑term water damage. Adverse weather speeds up both surface wear and structural fatigue, increasing maintenance needs and reducing the lifespan of the road.

Speaking on other measures to help the condition of our roads, the Minister continued: “I want to raise the standard of maintenance across the network, ensuring that interventions are timely, durable, and delivered to consistently high specifications. I launched the new Road Maintenance Strategy in December which recently closed for public consultation and I hope that people took the opportunity to respond.”

The Minister concluded: “The Winter Recovery Road Fund will allow additional repairs on the worst of our weather-impacted roads. This short-term boost is coupled with the longer-term strategy that will provide greater detail to inform strategic decision making.

“This will also continue to be supported by the ongoing reporting of potholes and surface defects via the online portal and I encourage the public to do this. Maintenance staff will continue to inspect and make-safe defects by working to address the highest priority defects as fast as possible, in accordance with our policy to ensure the safety of the travelling public.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Source link

NewsBeat

Six Nations 2026: England lose Immanuel Feyi-Waboso to injury for Wales opener

Published

53 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso running with the ball during an England training camp. He has short black hair and is wearing a green bib with a blue training top and shorts.

England: Steward; Roebuck, Freeman, Dingwall, Arundell; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, George, Heyes; Coles, Chessum; Pepper, Underhill, Earl

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Rodd, Davison, Itoje, T Curry, Pollock, Spencer, M Smith

Wales: Rees-Zammit; Mee, James, B Thomas, Adams; Edwards, T Williams; Smith, Lake (capt), Griffin, D Jenkins, Beard, Mann, Macleod, Wainwright.

Replacements: Belcher, Carre, T Francis, Carter, Plumtree, Deaves, Hardy, Grady.

Source link

NewsBeat

Bolton ranking in Britain’s best large towns revealed

Published

59 minutes ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Bolton ranking in Britain’s best large towns revealed

The town ranked 11th out of the ‘Best 25 biggest towns in Britain’, according to newly published rankings by The Telegraph travel writer Chris Moss.

Moss scored each contender out of 10 based on architecture, attractions, culture, dining, and overall appeal.

Bolton received a score of six out of 10, placing it in the top half of the list and ahead of several larger or more widely known urban centres.

Moss said: “Bolton’s peak production year was 1929, when 216 cotton mills and 26 bleaching works were operating.

“It’s a town shaped by both industrial greatness and post-industrial challenge.”

He described Bolton as “a typical post-industrial town, with a lot of dead mills, windy spaces and underused facilities”, but noted it is not without promise.

He also referenced English writer JB Priestley’s 1934 travelogue English Journey, in which Priestley wrote of Bolton: “The ugliness is so complete that it is almost exhilarating.

“It challenges you to live there.”

He also claimed Bolton was “Too hard, too Yorkshire. [???]

“But a ghost of former greatness.”

While acknowledging the lasting impact of deindustrialisation, Mr Moss highlighted ongoing regeneration efforts, such as the transformation of the town’s listed Market Hall into a shopping and dining destination.

Mr Moss said: “Though chain restaurants will never replace the perfume and vitality of fish and fresh veg.”

He also touched on the town’s historical significance across multiple industries, not just cotton.

He said: “Mining, chemicals, heavy engineering and rope-making also played key roles in its development.”

His assessment of Bolton appeared in The Telegraph as part of a broader comparison of England’s largest towns, published amid the Government’s call for submissions to become the UK’s first official Town of Culture in 2028.

Three finalists, one small, one medium, and one large, will be shortlisted, with the overall winner set to receive £3 million and two runners-up £250,000 each.

He also pointed to Ye Olde Man and Scythe as a “secret sight.”

The pub is historically significant as the place where the Earl of Derby (whose family once owned the pub) was killed in 1651.

Bolton’s mid-table ranking reflects both its rich industrial history and the challenges it continues to face.

Elsewhere in Moss’s list, Blackpool took the top spot, while Watford finished last.

Other northern towns also featured prominently, including Rochdale and Stockport.

As the UK hones in on its first official Town of Culture, rankings such as Mr Moss’s serve to highlight both the proud heritage and modern challenges faced by some of England’s most iconic towns.

Bolton’s inclusion in the upper tier of the list, alongside ongoing investment in regeneration, may help support its case for further national recognition.

Source link

NewsBeat

Japanese city cancels cherry blossom festival launched to lure tourists – as it’s too successful | World News

Published

1 hour ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

The view of Mount Fuji from Arakurayama Sengen Park. Pic: AP

A Japanese city has cancelled its famous cherry blossom festival, citing concerns over high tourist numbers.

Fujiyoshida, about 62 miles (100km) west of Tokyo, has cancelled its annual Arakurayama Sengen Park Sakura Festival after a decade, according to local media.

The festival normally runs in early April to coincide with the blooming of the city’s iconic pink cherry blossoms.

But Fujiyoshida mayor Shigeru Horiuchi has announced the festival will not run this year to “protect the living conditions and dignity of all of our city’s residents”.

A vantage point in Arakurayama Sengen Park has gained popularity on social media sites like Instagram due to the stunning view of a snow-capped Mount Fuji.

“For the city of Fujiyoshida, Mount Fuji is not just a mere tourism resource, but a part of our lifestyle,” the mayor said, according to news outlet Japan Today.

“However, the flipside of that beautiful scenery is that our residents’ peaceful lifestyles are being threatened, and I strongly feel that this has become a crisis situation.

“My first priority is to protect the living conditions and dignity of all of our city’s residents. For that purpose, we have made the decision, after 10 years, to bring the Sakura Festival to an end.”

Fujiyoshida launched the festival 10 years ago in order to draw more tourists to the city, Japan Today reports, but the festival has since gained too much popularity.

Residents have complained about increased traffic congestion, littered cigarette butts and tourists trespassing on private property – or even urinating or defecating in residents’ gardens.

Japan has seen the number of tourists soar to more than 39 million in 2025, an increase from almost 37 million in 2024, according to figures from the Japan National Tourism Organisation.

The spike was propelled in part by the favourable currency conversion available to tourists because of the weakening of the Japanese yen.

Fujiyoshida has acknowledged that cancelling the festival will likely not be enough to deter crowds of tourists visiting the park that usually hosts the festival during spring.

The lines of visitors looking to snap a picture in front of a five story pagoda and cheery blossom trees against the backdrop of Mount Fuji can often snake down the hill, images on social media show.

Nearby towns have in the past erected a view-blocking barrier to deter tourists, introduced an entry fee for hikers and capped their daily numbers, according to The Japan Times.

Source link

NewsBeat

‘British Airways asked for my dad’s death certificate for refund but he was still alive’

Published

1 hour ago

on

6 February 2026

By

NewsAdmin

Liz was left in shock after she said she was told she would have to produce her dad’s death certificate for a refund

A daughter was left horrified when she said British Airways refused to refund her £3,500 flight without receiving her dad’s death certificate – despite him being still alive. Liz Horne was on holiday with her husband Nevil Horne, 63, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on November 29 when she was told that her dad was gravely ill.

The 61 year old was 10 days into her three-week getaway when she decided to get the first flight back to Bristol to be by the side of her 88-year-old dad Kevin Duvall. Liz, who had already paid £3,500 for two business-class tickets back to the UK, contacted BA to see if she could swap her seats for an earlier flight.

However, while on the phone to customer services, the semi-retired PA claims she was told she would have to fork out for new tickets and send over his death certificate to receive a refund. Horrified, Liz says she explained to the operator that her dad was in fact still alive, branding the slip-up as ‘shocking and insensitive’.

Liz ended up paying £2,500 for two tickets back to the UK, returning home just two days before her dad sadly died on December 1st after battling dementia for six years. Grief-stricken, Liz said she spent the following days organising a funeral while liaising with BA about her refund for the original tickets.

Liz claims she had to send her father’s death certificate over to BA four times while making multiple calls and emails to BA over her repayment. Liz claims the experience has made her resolute in never flying with the airline again – claiming it’s ‘not the great British institution [she] thought it was’.

British Airways admitted that the customer’s experience ‘fell short of expectations’ and they were in touch with her to resolve it. Liz, who lives in Bristol, said: “Dad had been in a nursing home for a number of years. I saw him a couple of days before I left for Thailand and he’d been his normal self.

“This was a bucket list trip for me. I’d always wanted to go to Thailand. We were in Chiang Mai and I got a call from my sister to say there’s no point in coming home but dad’s not going to be long. I was shocked, I’d only seen him a few days before. I processed it for a minute and thought I need to go and be with him.”

Liz rang her airline British Airways immediately to see if she could move her and her husband’s return flight to a different date. However, Liz claims BA told her this would not be possible, and instead advised her to book two new tickets and claim a refund after sending across her father’s death certificate.

Liz said: “They said on the phone ‘send us the death certificate and then you’ll be able to make the claim’. And I said ‘but he’s not dead yet’. It was unlikely he was going to make it – he was incredibly frail, [but] I suppose it was possible. He was responsive, my sister was telling him I was coming home.

“I was obviously shocked when they said that. It was quite shocking. I think I was quite numb. It was rather insensitive. There wasn’t any empathy, there didn’t seem to be that basic care. It might’ve been language – I know that English wasn’t their first language but even so, that wasn’t great.”

After forking out £2,500 for two flight tickets back to the UK, Liz made it home in time to say goodbye to her dad before he died two days later. However, Liz claims she’s still awaiting a refund despite sending her father’s death certificate over ‘four times’ in the last month.

Liz said: “There was just a lot of insensitivity and bureaucracy. I’d sent the death certificate on four occasions and still got asked to send it again. They agreed they could refund the £3,500 on the phone but I haven’t seen the money yet.

“I had to arrange a funeral and all these extra stresses going on besides BA. There’s been a lot to deal with. BA just added to all those stresses. I later found out that there’s a bereavement line that BA should’ve referred me to and they would’ve sorted it.

“I’ll never fly BA again after all the stress and anxiety they have added to an already very difficult time. I chose BA because of the name – I thought I could trust them. They’re known to me but now I know it’s not the great British institution I thought it was. You’re paying a lot of money for a flight – you want something you can rely on.”

A British Airways spokesperson said: “We know how stressful it must be to receive difficult news about a family member whilst abroad, and our teams work very hard to get people home as quickly as possible when this happens. On this occasion, our customer’s experience fell short of expectation, and we are in touch with them directly to resolve this matter.”

Source link

WordUp News

Film crew spotted at Selby Livestock Auction Mart

You may like

Leave a Reply Cancel reply