“The first set happened super quickly, and it’s not a nice feeling, you know, when the points and the games are going, like, very, very fast,” Raducanu said. “I’m glad at least in the second set I was able to get a few games on the board.”

The second set was a marked improvement, and the British No 1 rallied from 4-1 down rather than capitulating entirely, as she has done previously when facing a similar scoreline. While Sierra might not be the same calibre as Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina or Iga Swiatek, who have been at the other end of the court on those occasions, it is worth noting that this is only her second match in more than two months and on her least favoured surface.

Her unforced error count remained high, as she hit 27 in the second set, but Raducanu also hit 15 winners and took six out of nine break points.

It was a dogged effort to drag herself back into the match on two occasions, at 4-1 down in the second set and then again at 5-1 down in the tie-break to give herself a chance at 4-5.

It has been a difficult season overall for Raducanu, who missed more than two months citing the after-effects of a viral illness she contracted playing in Cluj in November. While the majority of that has cleared, she was noticeably coughing into her towel at one point during the opening round match in Paris.

It was when the question was put to her about the number of injury and illness setbacks she faced and the mindset needed to continue that Raducanu became emotional and, with tears in her eyes, said: “It’s very difficult. I think you need a lot of resilience. I think I’m trying my best each day, and I think that’s all I can ask of myself.”

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The judge told jurors: “He is entitled to the same fair trial as everyone else.”

A jury has been sworn in to hear the trial of former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who is accused of a series of alleged historical sexual offences.

The prosecution will deliver the opening address at Newry Crown Court on Wednesday.

Donaldson, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.

READ MORE: PSNI warning to public as Jeffrey Donaldson trial set to beginREAD MORE: Who is Jeffrey Donaldson’s barrister? The KC described as ‘possibly the best of our generation’

The charges include one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency, and span a time period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.

Donaldson arrived at Newry Courthouse in Co Down shortly after 9am wearing a blue suit with a white shirt and green tie.

He was met by his solicitor John McBurney, who accompanied him into the court building.

Police had erected metal barriers at the court entrance prior to his arrival to cordon off the waiting media.

At the start of proceedings, Donaldson replied “yes” when asked by trial judge Paul Ramsey if he was ready for his trial.

He then sat in the dock with his arms crossed, flanked by two court staff, while the process of jury selection began.

Addressing potential jurors, the judge said Donaldson is “well known in public life here in Northern Ireland”.

He added: “He is entitled to the same fair trial as everyone else.”

The judge said the allegations against Donaldson were “of a sexual nature”.

A list of witnesses in the trial was then read to potential jurors.

The judge said the trial was expected to last between three and four weeks.

The jury was then sworn and was told the trial would begin with the prosecution’s opening address on Wednesday.

Donaldson’s wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.

READ MORE: In pictures: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson arrives at court for first day of historical sex offences trial

The 60-year-old is facing a trial of the facts, not a criminal trial, after judge Ramsey ruled her unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds.

The trial of the facts will test the evidence in the case but cannot result in a criminal conviction.

It will be heard by the same jury, with proceedings against both Donaldsons running simultaneously as part of one overall trial process presided over by judge Ramsey.

Jeffrey Donaldson, a former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024.

He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged.

Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into devolved government at Stormont after a two-year boycott of the powersharing institutions.

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

Compensation claims made to the local authority increased by a whopping 141 per cent in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.

Claims to Perth and Kinross Council for damage done to vehicles by potholes more than doubled last year with the council blaming “increasingly wet winter weather” taking its toll on roads.

Compensation claims made to the local authority increased by a whopping 141 per cent in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.

And a quarter of last year’s claims related to roads in just one of the council’s 12 wards – Kinross-shire.

At the March 2026/27 budget meeting, an additional £15 million was allocated to improve Perth and Kinross roads, bridges and pavements.

Announcing the investment, SNP council leader Eric Drysdale said it was “the largest ever level of investment this council has made – creating capacity to accelerate improvements and respond swiftly to weather-related problems”.

However, Cllr Dave Cuthbert has yet to see any evidence any of the big spend in his own Kinross-shire ward.

The Independent councillor has seen figures – released in an Freedom of Information request and shared with the Perthshire Advertiser – which suggest Kinross-shire roads have the worst potholes.

PKC received 86 claims in 2024/25, rising to 207 in 2025/26. So far, it has paid out a total of £735.89 for two claims in 2024/25 and a total of £2172.21 for seven claims in 2025/26.

The local authority has denied liability for 75 claims in 2024/25 and 24 in 2025/26. Two claims in 2024/25 are still being reviewed, as are 181 from last year.

Cllr Cuthbert said: “Kinross-shire had 25 per cent of the claims for Perth and Kinross last year.”

Cllr Cuthbert has himself forked out around £400 to repair damage to his car – which he has not submitted a claim to the council for – caused by potholes in Kinross, where he lives.

He said: “I had to replace the full front suspension at huge cost and then a burst tyre. I don’t know which potholes were responsible – because there are so many on my road.”

Cllr Cuthbert said he has also heard of a local cyclist who has had to replace tyres on his bike three times recently because of potholes.

He added: “It’s even more dangerous for cyclists when they hit a pothole because they can get injured.

“One of the potholes on Bowtown Road in Kinross is 75cm in diameter and 35cm deep.”

Perth and Kinross Council said it assesses each claim on an individual basis and that one particular section of the A977 in Kinross-shire – mentioned in “several” claims – has been earmarked for resurfacing as part of the council’s £15 million investment.

A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “Increasingly wet winter weather in Scotland continues to take its toll on roads across the country. We understand the frustrations of motorists, which is why a significant investment in the Council’s roads network was agreed in the 2026/27 budget, set in early March 2026.

“The £15m additional funding runs over a three year period from 2026/2027, and will be used for road surface repairs, footway repairs and maintenance, and repairs to bridges and culverts.

“We continue to carry out routine inspections on our road network so we can determine its condition and where repairs and improvements are most needed in the interests of public safety.

“Each public liability claim we receive is assessed on an individual basis.

“Where payouts are made, these may not occur within the same financial year as the claim was originally submitted so figures for the most recent financial year may be subject to change.

“Several of the claims in Ward 8 relate to a short section of the A977, which is included in our resurfacing programme for the current financial year.”

For Klement, a self-professed “pessimist” who has lived in the UK for 10 years, the research was never about protecting anyone from heartbreak, or winning big on a bet.

Rather, he hoped to reveal the absurdity of trying to predict outcomes.

“This started as an exercise in showing the world a hubris of economists who think they can forecast stuff that they actually have no clue about,” Klement said.

“And now it’s become an exercise in how, if you’re lucky often enough, people will think you’re a guru.”

After his first prediction came true when his native Germany won the 2014 World Cup, Klement imagined running the numbers again in 2018 would expose it as a fluke.

But he predicted correctly with France in 2018 – then again with Argentina in 2022.

“Because I was right three times in a row, people now think that this model is unbeatable and that I obviously will have to be right as well next time,” he said.

It is true that World Cup success is partly determined by known “systemic” factors, such as national population, wealth, climate and Fifa world rankings.

But Klement urges readers of his quadrennial forecast – growing in popularity with each successful prediction – to take its contents with a pinch of salt, since such factors only tell part of the story.

“The other 50% is luck,” he adds.

“Every match – especially when you have these high-quality teams playing against each other that are very similar in skills and quality – it really depends on the form of the day, a ref call, a piece of luck in the sense of hitting the post versus the ball going in.

“Things like that are completely unpredictable.”

Each time the tournament approaches, Klement’s model offers a welcome diversion from his day-to-day work: “In particular in 2026, when there are so many crises, wars and things going on, it is something that makes me feel good and hopefully the readers feel good and gives them a little bit of a distraction from all the kind of bad stuff that is going on in the world.”

But with each accurate prediction, the weight of expectation mounts on Klement, who works as a strategist at investment bank Panmure Liberum.

In the office, Klement faces enquiries from fellow economists around, for instance, how Dutch Tottenham midfielder Xavi Simons’ ACL injury will impact the model?

So in spite of his many disclaimers around the integrity of the forecast, Klement is braced for the tournament kick-off in June.

“I’ve got several colleagues who bet some money on the Netherlands in response to me publishing that note,” he said.

“And if the Netherlands get eliminated from the World Cup, I think the next day I have to work from home.”

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The former Cardiff winger was left with just two packs of nappies on his driveway after the theft

A former Welsh rugby player is appealing for information after his car was stolen from outside his house.

Aled Summerhill, who scored 32 tries in 95 appearances for Cardiff between 2014 and 2024, posted on social media that his Mercedes had been taken from outside his house in the Tonyrefail area as he appealed for help in finding it.

It would appear the car was taken in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

In a Facebook post, the 31-year-old said: “Tonyrefail area be vigilant some scruff bag stole our car last night from the drive.

“Grey Mercedes A class. KS17 HMX.

“Left us the babies nappies from the car though.

“If any one has seen or heard anything please let me know.”

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In a statement by South Wales Police, they confirmed they are “investigating the theft of a Mercedes A-class from an address in Tonyrefail.

“The car is believed to have been stolen between 6pm on Monday May 25 and 8:00am on Tuesday May 26.”

Summerhill left the Arms Park club after decade at the end of the 2023/24 season, after being offered reduced terms to stay in the Welsh capital.

Given the financial uncertainty in Welsh rugby, Summerhill admitted at the time that he was taking a gamble in leaving Cardiff, but remained determined to continue his career in professional rugby.

Initially, the former Wales under-18s international had been interested in a move to either Japan or France.

However, he admitted last year that he decided to look closer to home after his wife became pregnant.

Recently, Summerhill has taken up a new role as one of the Welsh Rugby Union’s regional engagement officers for the Rhondda area.

Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here and our WhatsApp channel here for all the breaking news.

“Heading to Europe? We’ve got you.” That was the initial response when I asked Trainline about a journey from Leicester to Paris on 1 June.

Logistically, the trip is simple. A one-hour East Midlands Railway nonstop to London St Pancras International. On arrival, through the ticket gates, down the escalator and straight into the Eurostar check-in area. So, Trainline, what timings and fares can you offer?

Not so fast, says the normally cooperative app. “You have to split your booking into two parts.”

The Trainline instructions are:

Yes: in the year 2026, Europe’s leading rail retailer cannot sell tickets from British cities outside London to Paris. Not only that, but the prospective passenger must work counter-intuitively. They are supposed to commit to a Eurostar train for the second half of the journey before organising the first leg – with no coherent picture of costs and connections from their starting point.

Until three decades ago, life was much easier for the international rail passenger starting in the UK. So says “The Man in Seat 61”: international rail guru, Mark Smith.

“It was simple, but not necessarily competitively priced,” he has been telling The Independent’s daily travel podcast.

“For almost the whole of the 20th century, right up until the 1990s, you had a kilometric tariff – a very simple mileage, kilometre-based tariff in every country.

“Every national rail operator gave every other national rail operator two things: a table of distances between all their border points and stations, and a set of tariffs for how much dosh they wanted for 100, 200, 300 kilometres.

“Using this, every national rail operator, including British Rail, could compile a set of through fares from, in our case, London, to any major cities they liked: Rome, Seville, Moscow, Helsinki, Stockholm.”

The fare was simply calculated by adding together the legs of the journey: the British Rail price for the boat train to Dover, the Sealink ferry crossing to Calais, the fare across France to the Swiss border, and so on.

Tickets were valid for two months, and fully flexible. You could break your journey anywhere during the ticket’s validity.

“If you wanted a reservation, that was separate – you had to call on the French or German computer based in British Rail at Victoria,” recalls Mark – who, in a previous life, actually ran that London terminus for BR.

There was just one price – which was fine while airlines were charging ridiculous prices, such as £200 one way from London to Nice.

But then along came easyJet and dynamic pricing, with fares as low as £39 from Luton to the French RIviera. (Today the same journey can be made for £1 less if you are flexible about departure dates.) By controlling costs and adjusting prices according to demand, the airline could make a profit and entice passengers away from trains to planes.

“Those fully flexible fixed-price tickets were dinosaurs,” says Mark. “The railways had to adopt their own yield-managed dynamic pricing. So you need to book each train in that train company’s ticketing system to find whatever the price is for that train.”

“That’s how we’ve got the fragmentation today. There are no through tickets from London to Rome. It’s a Eurostar ticket to Paris, an Italian or French ticket from Paris to Milan, then a Trenitalia ticket or Italo ticket from Milan to Rome.

Starting this summer, EU President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking to make seamless international rail travel a reality.

“One journey, one ticket, full rights”, is the headline from Brussels. “To create a smoother travel experience for passengers and advance the EU’s climate objectives, the Commission proposes measures enabling single-ticket bookings across multiple rail operators.

“In the event of missed connections during multi-operator rail journeys, passengers with a single ticket will benefit from new, full passenger rights protection, including assistance, rerouting, reimbursement and compensation.”

In other words: if you buy multiple tickets together in a single transaction – for example through Trainline – you would be considered from a passenger rights’ point of view to have a through ticket. Were you miss to a connection because of delays earlier in the journey, you could switch without penalty to the next available service.

The Man in Seat 61 cautions: “Before we get a bit carried away and thinking there’s someone who is going to set a through ticket and through price from Stockholm to Barcelona, that’s not going to happen.

“A journey from Stockholm to Barcelona will still be composed of the price from Stockholm to Copenhagen, the price from Copenhagen to, Cologne, the price from Cologne to Paris, and the price from Paris to Barcelona. But the idea is twofold. First of all, there will be a better exchange of information allowing you to book this series of tickets seamlessly.

“Secondly, it’ll be a sort-of-virtual through ticket. At the moment, if you buy three tickets to get from A to B to C to D, you are protected for a missed connection and a delay within each ticket, but not where tickets change over – which is, of course, precisely where you need the protection.”

Mark has concerns that these virtual through tickets will be primarily sold through independent rail retailers such as Trainline and Rail Europe, which may not be able to include all the options the operators offer – such as reserving a space for a dog or a bike, or choosing a specific seat. But he deems the concept “undoubtedly a good thing”.

Due to our bold decision to leave the European Union, the new rules will not apply to journeys starting in the UK. So, back to that Leicester to Paris ticket.

I carried on to see what the fares would be. The good news: one Eurostar train from London to Paris is available for £114. The bad news: it’s the final departure, arriving in the French capital barely half an hour before midnight. Want to arrive in Paris before 9pm? Cheapest ticket, £180. Yes, one way, and that’s without the ticket from Leicester.

At this point a rational traveller from the “City of Kings” to the “City of Light” will probably opt to hop off a southbound stopping train at Luton Airport Parkway and fly instead. EasyJet has a choice of two flights Paris under £50: one at lunchtime, one early evening.

Airlines must be constantly grateful to face such lacklustre competition from European rail operators.

Read more: Does the HS2 reset mean anything new for the railways?

Coronation Street’s Paula Wilcox has made it clear she’d be up for returning to the ITV soap.

The actress, who is 76, joined the cast in 2020 as Tim Metcalfe’s (Joe Duttine) mum Elaine Jones.

Shortly after Tim was born, Elaine left the family home because of the abuse Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) was inflicting on her.

Previously called Phillipa, Elaine was prevented from leaving and taking Tim with her. She divorced Geoff, changed her name, and eventually settled in Bolton.

Elaine made her way to Weatherfield after reading the article about Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) attacking Geoff and being imprisoned afterwards.

With time, Elaine connected with Yasmeen, who was also being abused by Geoff. Elaine gave evidence against their abuser in court, helping to exonerate Yasmeen.

After Geoff’s death, Elaine spent a great deal of time rebuilding her relationship with Tim. She chose to leave the cobbles in 2023 for Scarborough, after discovering partner Stephen Reid (Todd Boyce) had taken out a life insurance policy in her name.

Due to the fact Elaine hasn’t been killed off, it gives her the opportunity to pop back to Weatherfield to see Tim and Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor) at any time.

And it’s something star Paula Wilcox would definitely be up for doing!

‘If there’s a terrific storyline, I’d love to go back. I loved working with Joe and Sally’, the actress told the Mirror.

‘They were so good, so much fun and so clever. There’s no reason why Elaine couldn’t come back. She’s still Tim’s mother after all. He can’t get rid of her!’.

Tim and Sally may need all the support they can get soon, as a new storyline will begin for them.

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Producer of the show Kate Brooks recently teased the drama that lies ahead for the beloved characters.

‘There’s a massive story for Sally and Tim that comes to the to the fore, and it’s a story that tests them as people, test them as a couple, but tests them as foster parents as well’, she explained.

‘It’s a bit of a curveball, and it comes from slightly left field, but absolutely upends their lives. It’s how they navigate that situation going forward. Sally and Tim are so beloved, and I just adore them. And it’s seeing them in a slightly different position than what we’ve seen them in before. 

Kate also revealed: ‘That story will also dovetail further down the line with a Christina story. Christina and George are a really great, strong couple in the show. It’s those friendships alive. There’s a connection there as well.’

With fans speculating that the plot may involve Tim discovering that he’s the father of a child his abuser Trisha gave birth to, could Elaine make a return in an attempt to support her son?

MORE: Coronation Street’s Olivia Frances Brown ‘splits’ from TV star fiancé

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