Xabi Alonso has agreed to take over at Chelsea and will face off against compatriot Mikel Arteta in the Premier League next season

Former Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso will do battle with compatriot Mikel Arteta in next season’s Premier League after agreeing to take over at Chelsea. Granit Xhaka is in the rare position of having played under both bosses and has already spoken about the differences between the pair.

Xhaka was part of Arteta’s FA Cup winning squad in 2020, playing the full 90 minutes of a victory over Chelsea at Wembley. He spent seven years in north London before joining Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 and won a domestic double in Germany at the first time of asking.

Arteta and Alonso were both at early stages of their respective coaching careers when they worked with the Swiss midfielder. Even with that context, though, there was a visible difference between the two which was most visible in Alonso’s willingness to be more flexible with his formations.

“Mikel has his philosophy and that’s it,” Xhaka told the PFA in 2024. “You know this always change the sides, the free man, let him jump for example.”

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He continued: “Even to play always with a back four and never change to a back five for example, or never change like a 4-4-2 with two proper strikers. So you had this 4-3-3, with one six and two eights.

“Xabi is a little bit different. I think that Xabi can play a back four, but he can play as well a back five… What he wants is always two number sixes, not running everywhere or more of the time be in the position.

“But I think that if you are a coach you need your own philosophy, your own tactical, your own ideas. Of course you can always change one or two [things] but you can’t change so many things about it you know?”

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

The Chelsea job will be Alonso’s first in English football and first since he left Real Madrid just a few months into his three-year contract at the Bernabeu. He has signed a four-year deal with Chelsea, who had interim boss Calum McFarlane in the dugout for their FA Cup final defeat after dismissing Liam Rosenior in April.

“Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in world football and it fills me with immense pride to become manager of this great club,” the new Blues manager said after his arrival was confirmed. The 44-year-old has signed a four-year contract at Stamford Bridge and will take over on July 1.

“From my conversations with the ownership group and sporting leadership, it is clear we share the same ambition,” Alonso continued. “We want to build a team capable of competing consistently at the highest level and fighting for trophies.

‘”There is great talent in the squad and huge potential at this football club and it will be my great honour to lead it. Now the focus is on hard work, building the right culture and winning trophies.”

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Manchester United have struck a deal for Michael Carrick to continue as manager

It could be a busy week of announcements at Manchester United after Michael Carrick agreed a deal to stay on as permanent manager.

Carrick was brought in for the remainder of the campaign following Ruben Amorim’s January exit and has overseen a marked upturn, with United sealing Champions League qualification with three games to spare. With the managerial situation sorted, many fans’ attention will now turn to the summer transfer window, which could be a busy one at United.

While United have made great strides under Carrick, it’s clear the squad needs to revamp if they are to mount a title challenge next season. Beyond transfers, there is the not-so-small matter of the coaching team to iron out.

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Carrick’s backroom team has included Steve Holland, Jonathan Woodgate, former United player Jonny Evans and goalkeeping coach Craig Mawson, with all four potentially staying on.

Holland spent 11 years as Sir Gareth Southgate’s assistant manager, first with England Under-21s and then the senior team. He has been praised for his work as United’s number two.

Carrick said: “Steve’s been fantastic. He’s got an awful lot of experience and seen pretty much everything before. He’s gone through it in some good times and in some more challenging times.

“He’s a very wise man, Steve, and says things that really are important at the right time. I think just general calmness and composure around for everyone. I think with all the staff, there’s the dynamics of bringing something a little bit different.”

Evans has been another key figure over the last few months. Following his retirement from playing, Evans took up the position of head of loans and pathways at Carrington, but the appointment was short-lived as he stepped back in December, only to return to help Darren Fletcher during his caretaker manager stint.

Carrick subsequently retained him on his coaching staff, praising the Northern Irishman for the work he has done on set-pieces. There are suggestions that a set-piece specialist, like former United coach Andreas Georgson, could be brought in to complement the group, but Evans is set to remain.

Former Leeds and Real Madrid defender Woodgate was hired, having been part of Carrick’s coaching team at Middlesbrough. Carrick likes having Woodgate around because he “challenges and pushes” me.

Mawson, who initially joined United from Burnley in 2019, is the only member of the coaching team left from Amorim’s reign. He was promoted to senior goalkeeping coach following Carrick’s arrival and is likely to be retained in the role. The futures of all four could be confirmed soon.

Elsewhere, it remains to be seen what role Travis Binnion will take up going forward, having been promoted from the under-21s to work with the first team.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

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The Woodside viaducts are crumbling – despite tens of millions of pounds being spent on propping them up – and some residents want radical alternatives to be considered.

Glasgow should look to the examples of New York and San Fransisco when it comes to redeveloping a crumbling section of the M8 motorway, a Scottish Labour MSP has said.

Transport chiefs are currently considering what do with the Woodside viaducts – which pass Cowcaddens to the north of the city centre – as the condition of the concrete structures is progressively worsening despite being under constant repair since 2021.

The SNP-led Glasgow City Council last week raised eyebrows after announcing it backed the total demolition of the viaducts and replacing them with a street-level road or “boulevard”.

Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney – a prominent campaigner for improved public transport in the city – told the Record he supports support “a compromise option of replacing the obsolete and ugly viaducts with a more urban boulevard road at surface level”

A final decision on the viaducts rests with Transport Scotland but there is already significant local support for a total rethink of how the motorway interacts with the city centre.

An ongoing programme to temporarily prop-up the viaducts is ongoing but could end up costing taxpayers £152m, with transport chiefs keen to identify a long-term solution.

Sweeney told the Record: “I have been involved in the Replace the M8 project to explore alternatives to the 1970s motorway through the centre of Glasgow for the last four years. I have repeatedly raised the matter with Ministers in Parliament and I also met with Transport Scotland officials at the consultation just before the election.

“I was impressed by their open mindedness about the various options to tackle the complex and expensive problem of the crumbling Woodside viaducts. The structures were actually built higher and wider than is needed, as the planned interchange with the Maryhill motorway along the Forth & Clyde Canal was successfully opposed in the mid-1970s by Labour councillors Vince Cable and John Gray, after a public outcry at the damage caused by the initial phases of the Glasgow Inner Ring Road project.

“Completely removing the trunk road route through central Glasgow would be very difficult to achieve, so I support a compromise option of replacing the obsolete and ugly viaducts with a more urban boulevard road at surface level. It has already been done successfully in San Francisco with the Embarcadero and Octavia Boulevard, as well as in New York City with the new Sheridan Boulevard and replacement of the West Side Elevated Highway.

“As much of the motorway traffic bypasses Glasgow city centre anyway, a large share of it could be redirected from the M80 and M77 round the M73 and M74 with new slip roads, reducing unnecessary traffic flow on a new urban boulevard.”

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The decision in the 1960s to construct a motorway through the heart of Glasgow city centre proved hugely controversial at the time. It led to the wholesale demolition of several residential districts as well as flattening landmark buildings like the Grand Hotel at Charing Cross.

WSP UK, the engineering and professional services firm, was appointed by SNP ministers in January last year to provide technical advice.

A Transport Scotland consultation this spring outlined three options, of which the cheapest was closing that section of the M8 and diverting drivers to the city road network or the M74. This would cost £125 million and take two years to put in place.

Further repairs and reinforcement of the viaducts would take up to three years and cost about £200 million, and replacing the viaducts would take up to four years and cost up to £500 million.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — All four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets collided Sunday during an air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said.

The two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, were performing an aerial demonstration when they collided, said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The crash was under investigation, Umayam said. Base officials said the crew members were in stable condition. No other injuries were reported.

“Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped plan the air show.

Planes fell to the ground together

The base announced it was locked down immediately following the crash. The remainder of the air show was canceled.

Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummeted to the ground near the base about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boise.

The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet with sophisticated electronic warfare systems.

Shane Ogden said he was filming the two jets as they came close together. The video shows the two aircraft appear to make contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their parachutes open. The planes then fall together, exploding into a fireball upon impact as the crew members drift to the ground nearby.

“I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said in a text message. He said he left soon after the crash because he did not want to get in the way of emergency responders.

The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting up to 29 mph (47 kph) around the time of the crash.

Organizers said the air show that includes flying demonstrations and parachute jumps is a celebration of aviation history and a look at modern military capabilities. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron headlined the show both days.

Little room for error

It was remarkable both crews safely ejected, and aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that may have been possible because of the way the planes collided. They appeared to remain stuck together in midair before falling to Earth. Crews usually don’t have a chance to eject in a midair collision, Guzzetti said.

“It appears to be a pilot issue to me. It doesn’t look like it was a mechanical malfunction,” he added. “Rendezvousing with another airplane in formation flight is challenging, and it has to be done just right to prevent exactly this kind of thing.”

The pilots who perform at air shows are among the best, but there is little room for error, said John Cox, an aviation expert and CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

“Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance,” he said. “The people who do it are very good and it’s a small margin for error. I’m glad everybody was able to get out.”

This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a hang glider pilot died in a crash during an air show performance.

In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed while attempting a maneuver. The pilot, who was not hurt, was able to steer the plane away from the crowd and eject less than a second before it hit the ground.

The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the roughly 200 events held annually in the U.S.

John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Council of Air Shows, said that there used to be an average of 3.8 deaths a year at U.S. air shows from 1991 to 2006. That number has been steadily improving and since 2017 there have been an average of 1.1 deaths per year, even including a crash in Dallas in 2022 that killed six when two vintage planes collided.

There were no air show deaths in 2025 or 2023, and a spectator hasn’t been killed at an air show in the U.S. since 1952.

“Safety wise we’ve enjoyed really an unprecedented term of few accidents,” Cudahy said.

Investigators may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened in Sunday’s crash because the crews of both planes survived and will be able to tell investigators what they saw and experienced before the collision. The Navy will lead the investigation, so there won’t be as much information shared publicly as in civilian crashes.

The Iran war has led to the cancellation of some air shows this year at bases where military units are flying missions related to the conflict.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed. ___

This version has been updates to reflect that International Council of Air Shows President John Cudahy corrected himself to say there were no air show fatalities in 2023, not 2024.

The new changes have been made in reaction to third-party test booking sites, which allowed users to book several driving tests at once.

This created a black market where certain customers could book multiple tests and sell them to other learners at large markups.

Gary Whittle from the Bolton Institute of Advanced Motorists said: “I think it’s a good thing.

“As I understand it, people have been using computer programmesto book a lot of tests, and then they have sold them at quite outrageous prices.

“The government stopping it seems like a good idea to me.”

The new laws aim to stamp out the third-party websites that people were using to bulk-book the tests.

The new rules are designed to combat price gouging (Image: solols from Pixabay)

This should make it more difficult for people to price-gouge other learners wishing to take the test.

“It won’t be possible to book large numbers of tests – I think it is a good move forward,” said Gary.

Not only will it affect price gouging and scamming, the new measures aim to reduce waiting times.

“It should help the backlog shouldn’t it, if people can only book one test.

“It’s a move forward which will help people who are wanting to take the test and not wanting to wait.”

Simon Lightwood, UK Minister for Roads and Buses, said: “This government inherited record waiting times and a huge backlog of learners waiting for tests, with the system seeing too many people paying over the odds to third-party touts.

“But we’re taking action and seeing results, delivering almost 2 million tests over the past year, more than 158,000 extra tests since June 2025, and military driving examiners now on the ground helping boost capacity across the country.

“These new rules put learners back in control by stopping others from snapping up tests and reselling them for profit, helping make the system fairer and ensuring tests go to the people who genuinely need them.”

TWO people have been rushed to hospital after a horror crash saw a car flip on its roof and fuel spill across a major motorway.

The emergency services were called just before 9pm to the eastbound carriageway of the M62 on Sunday evening.

The motorway was closed between J21 for Milnrow and J22 for Denshaw following the incident.

Two people were taken to hospital by paramedics.

Their condition is not yet known.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said: “Just before 9pm on Sunday 17 May, fire crews were called to reports of a road traffic collision on the M62 eastbound between junctions 21 and 22.

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“Two fire engines from Rochdale and Hollins stations were quickly mobilised to the incident.

“Firefighters helped right one of the vehicles, which had overturned onto its roof, and made the area safe.

“Two people were taken to hospital by North West Ambulance Service.

“Fire crews were at the scene for about an hour.”

Diversions were put in place following the accident, with the eastbound side of the motorway completely closed.

Highways officers managed the traffic with a number of police vehicles in attendance.

A statement from National Highways said: “The M62 in Greater Manchester is closed eastbound between J21 (Milnrow) and J22 (Denshaw) due to a single vehicle collision which occurred shortly before 21:00 on 17th May.

“As a result of the collision, a large amount of fuel has spilled across the carriageway.

“Emergency services are in attendance, along with National Highways Traffic Officers who are assisting with traffic management.

“Traffic caught within the closure is in the process of being released past the scene of the incident on the hard shoulder.

“Service providers are in attendance to assist with the clean-up of the carriageway and recovery services are also in attendance to recover the vehicle involved.”

In an update from National Highways, it said the J21 eastbound entry slip road had now re-opened.

Two people have died in China’s southwest region of Guangxi after a 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday morning, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.

One person has been missing and more than 7,000 residents have been evacuated from Liuzhou city after the earthquake damaged buildings and disrupted transport services.

Search and rescue operations have been launched since the earthquake hit the city of Liuzhou in the early hours of Monday, according to Chinese state media.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC) the earthquake struck at a depth of 8km at 0.21am local time in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

There were two confirmed deaths, while one person remained missing, state broadcaster CCTV and state news agency Xinhua reported. Four people were taken to the hospital, although none suffered life-threatening injuries.

CCTV said 13 buildings collapsed following the quake, prompting large-scale evacuation efforts across affected areas of the city.

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Greggs, Costa, and Simply Fresh have been confirmed as tenants in the station’s brand new building, which finally opened to the public today (Sunday, May 17). 

The sausage roll chain will take up the largest shop in the concourse at 148 square metres, followed by Simply Fresh, which will boast 79 sq m of space. 

Costa will take up a 36 sq m kiosk near the exit to the two new platforms, which is also expected to have a small seating area with tables and chairs. 

The new Costa at Darlington Station (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

New signs have now gone up in the windows of each store teasing their arrival – although it is not currently known when each store will open. 

This will mark Greggs’ ninth store in the town, with the pastry chain having shops on Northgate, High Row, the Cornmill Shopping Centre, Skinnergate, and at Morton Park. 

The new Greggs at Darlington Station (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Coffee firm Costa – which has sites on Northgate and on Sainsburys on Victoria Road – already has one kiosk within the historic station. 

It is not yet known whether the current kiosk in the station will remain once the new shop opens in the new concourse.

For Simply Fresh, an upmarket and healthy firm known for focusing on local and best of British products, this will be its first shop in the town. 

The new concourse is arguably the standout of the major £140m redevelopment project, complete with its new entrance and 650-space car park. 

Simply Fresh at Darlington Station (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

An elevated walkway connects the new concourse to the existing historic station, which has also been given a facelift and will soon boast a modernised western entrance.

The extension to the station has been designed to “mould the historic grandeur of the Grade-ll listed station” with modern facilities and waiting areas. 

The overhaul is intended to improve reliability and capacity on the East Coast Main Line, improving the frequency and reliability of trains along the line and across the region.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority has contributed £43million to the overhaul while Network Rail and the Department for Transport put in £96million.

Missiles were thrown at cops and two officers were badly injured during the carnage.

Glasgow City Council has slammed the ’embarrassing’ scenes in the city centre as Celtic fans celebrated winning the league.

Around 3000 Hoops fans descended on the Trongate area after Celtic clinched the league in the dying moments of the campaign despite a warning from the council to stay away.

The situation quickly turned ugly and riot cops were called in after missiles – including glass bottles – were launched in the direction of officers.

Some cops were targeted while they assisted with a medical emergency. The force has since confirmed that of the two injured officers, one cop suffered a “significant” facial injury during the carnage while the other was left severely bruised.

A total of 14 arrests have since been made – ten of which were related to Celtic fans gathering in the Trongate area following the match, while four were at the stadium itself. Three members of the public required hospital treatment.

Glasgow City Council said the thugs let down their ‘city, club and fellow fans.’

A spokesperson said: “After the title deciding match at Celtic Park, the vast majority of fans celebrated in the right way. Fans also overwhelmingly observed the request to stay away from Trongate or moved on quickly. “However, the behaviour of some people in the aftermath of yesterday’s match was, quite frankly, an embarrassment. They let down the city, their club and their fellow fans. “Those involved – yesterday and over recent years – know the impact that they have on local communities and businesses. They do not care. We will continue to offer whatever support we can to the city’s clubs to facilitate safe and sustainable celebrations that will be meaningful to fans. “We have regularly met with the police and Celtic for nearly a year to discuss the relationship between the city and Celtic, including victory celebrations. We expect those meetings to continue in the coming weeks. “But, right now, it is time for those who go out of their way to cause damage and disruption to be held accountable. After a significant clear-up operation, temporary road closures were lifted around 11pm on Saturday night.”

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