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Mbappé, now 27 and entering his third year as France captain, admits the shift from star player to team caretaker feels "strange" but rewarding. Approaching his 100th cap, the Real Madrid forward says he now prioritises the collective over personal glory.He highlighted that the squad possesses more talent and potential than in 2022, noting that if current form continues he will soon surpass Olivier Giroud’s 57‑goal record, sitting just one goal behind the veteran after a recent strike against Brazil.France’s recent friendlies in the United States underscore that confidence. A 2‑1 win over Brazil saw Dembélé feed Mbappé for the opener, with Hugo Ekitike adding a second, while a 3‑1 victory against Colombia featured first‑time scorer Désiré Doué and a crucial header from Marcus Thuram.The attacking depth is now a hallmark of Didier Deschamps’ side. Alongside Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, Rayan Cherki and Hugo Ekitike rotate fluidly across the front line, offering creativity and unpredictability that render the old “Mbappé‑Giroud foil” obsolete.Defensively, the team showed signs of vulnerability. Misplaced passes and missed tackles were evident, though Maxence Lacroix earned his first cap against Colombia and impressed enough to stake a claim for the World Cup roster.Logistical hiccups also featured in the US tour. Coach Deschamps complained about lengthy airport checks and a mid‑match cooling break that disrupted momentum, describing the three‑minute pause as “not ideal” for teams on the verge of breaking down opponents.Despite these concerns, the camp’s mood remains optimistic. Mbappé believes the squad can “aim high,” while Deschamps continues to fine‑tune his final selection, aware that a wealth of attacking talent alone does not guarantee tournament success.

Unilever, the maker of Marmite and Hellmann's mayonnaise, has agreed to a $44.8 billion deal to combine its food business with US-based McCormick. The deal, which is forecast to result in $600 million of annual cost savings by the end of the third year, will give Unilever majority control of the new company.Under the agreement, McCormick will pay Unilever $15.7 billion in cash and the equivalent of $29.1 billion in shares for most of Unilever's food arm. The new company will combine brands such as Knorr and Pot Noodle with McCormick's condiments and spices, including French's mustard and Cholula hot sauce.Unilever will control 65% of the new spin-off, while McCormick executives will lead the combined company. The deal marks the end of nearly a century of Unilever selling food products in competition against big rivals such as Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, and PepsiCo.The remainder of Unilever, valued at about £100 billion, will focus on beauty, personal care, and home products, repositioning it to compete directly with large household and personal care companies including L'Oréal, Beiersdorf, and Estée Lauder.

Middlesex Cricket Club is facing a revolt from a group of former players, including Mike Gatting, the former England captain, over the club's leadership and performance. In an open letter to members, Gatting and his co-signatories, such as Desmond Haynes and Mark Ramprakash, have expressed concerns about the club's direction, highlighting a lack of transparency and cricketing knowledge among the leadership. The letter, which is a clarion call ahead of the club's annual general meeting on 15 April, states that Middlesex was once a byword for excellence in the game but now risks 'drifting towards irrelevance.' The group criticizes the club's cricket setup, describing it as 'a mess' and notes that only one person with first-class experience occupies a board position, while only two such former players appear on any of the club's committees. The club has faced significant challenges, including relegation to Division Two of the County Championship for the third straight season and financial issues, with disbursements from the England and Wales Cricket Board accounting for around 60% of their income. Middlesex is also the only first-class county not to own their own ground. The group of former players is urging members to attend the AGM and seek answers from those responsible, emphasizing the need for change to prevent the club from being left behind. This intervention is part of a broader trend, with other clubs like Sussex and Lancashire also facing pressure from former players over their leadership and performance.

Kenyan marathon runner Albert Korir, the 2021 New York City Marathon champion, has been handed a five-year doping ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). Korir admitted to using a banned performance-enhancing drug, specifically the synthetic form of erythropoietin (EPO), which stimulates red blood cell production.The ban, which runs from January 8 until January 7, 2031, was reduced from six years due to Korir's early admission and acceptance of the sanction. The 32-year-old athlete tested positive during out-of-competition tests in Kenya in October.Korir has had a notable career, winning the 2021 New York marathon in a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 22 seconds. He also came third in the 2023 New York marathon with a personal best time of 2:06:57. Additionally, he won the Ottawa Marathon in 2019 and 2025.This sanction comes as part of Kenya's ongoing efforts to clean up its image in athletics, following a string of doping scandals. Over 140 Kenyan runners, mainly long-distance athletes, have been sanctioned for drugs offences since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Recently, Kenya handed out its first lifetime ban to marathon runner Beatrice Toroitich and a six-year ban to 10km record holder Rhonex Kipruto in June 2024.

Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia extended his perfect start to the year with a commanding win at the USA MotoGP in Austin on Sunday. The Italian rider led all 20 laps at the Circuit of the Americas, showcasing his exceptional skill and bike performance.Bezzecchi crossed the finish line 2.036 seconds ahead of his teammate Jorge Martin, who secured second place. Pedro Acosta rounded out the podium with a third-place finish, bouncing back from a penalty that dropped him to eighth in Saturday's sprint race.This victory marked Bezzecchi's third consecutive win of the year and fifth straight dating back to last season. With this achievement, he became the third Italian rider to win five consecutive races, joining the ranks of Hall of Famers Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini. Additionally, Bezzecchi is the first rider to win the first three grands prix of the season since Marc Marquez in 2014.Bezzecchi's win also saw him reclaim the lead in the MotoGP standings with 81 points, four points clear of Martin. The victory was a significant bounce-back for Bezzecchi, who had a difficult sprint race on Saturday, finishing outside the top 10 after a crash.“This is amazing,” Bezzecchi said in a post-race interview. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting a day like this after yesterday, because it wasn’t easy, and I made a mistake, and it was important to bounce back. Luckily, my team, my squad, was very close to me, and they gave me the motivation to try to bounce back.”“But anyway, I wasn’t expecting a race like this, and I’m so happy – I really can’t describe my emotion right now. Very, very happy and proud.”

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is embroiled in a desperate bid to avoid a financially ruinous slide into the Championship. The club's current predicament is a result of internal sabotage, leadership burdens, and immense dissatisfaction among the rank and file. With only seven games remaining in the Premier League season, Spurs are searching for their third head coach of the season, having already seen off Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor. The club's hierarchy appears to be acting with a sense of urgency, but their approach has been chaotic and improvisational, with one ill-judged managerial appointment following another. Roberto De Zerbi, currently managing Brighton, has emerged as a potential candidate, despite reservations from three separate fan groups due to his public backing of Mason Greenwood during his time at Marseille. De Zerbi's managerial CV is marked by occasional incidents of insubordination, making him an unconventional choice for a team in crisis. However, he is believed to be interested in taking over at Spurs, albeit preferring to do so in the summer. The club is reportedly offering him tempting financial inducements to take the reins immediately and navigate the team through the relegation battle. The stakes are high, with Spurs currently hovering just one place and point above the drop zone. A winless season so far in 2026 has put the club on the brink of disaster. The next managerial appointment will be crucial in determining the club's fate, and fans will be anxiously waiting to see if the hierarchy can make the right decision.

Lonely lives, falling between the gaps, are at the heart of this 1935 psychological thriller by Rodney Ackland, adapted from Hugh Walpole's novel. It's an atmospheric period piece, but isn't entirely a stretch to reflect on our own concerns about solitude in an ageing population.The three ladies in an English cathedral town are without partners, families or much of an income. They eke out their genteel poverty in a rickety boarding house. They weren't raised to work; Miss Beringer, in desperate need of a job, can only imagine becoming a paid companion or, possibly, flower arranging.In Brigid Larmour's finely etched production, irritable passions ferment beneath the frowsty knits and beads. The characters are prey to spite and greed, nerves and night terrors. Voices are tremulous; eyes glance at a fearful future.Beringer is the new lodger: Catherine Cusack, whittled by anxiety, timidly nibbles on a scallop-edged biscuit. She is welcomed by Julia Watson's Mrs Amorest, flustered but keeping up appearances. Down to her last £10, she writes into the void to a long-absent son.The third lady is Agatha. Fruitily overblown in the novel, that's how Edith Evans played her in 1935. Abigail Thaw makes her disconcertingly eccentric: forbidding in jet black, she mocks and snaps at quivering Miss Beringer. She covets Beringer's one cherished possession – a translucent chunk of amber from a beloved female friend.It's a play of cross-hatched conversations and melodramatic plotting. Larmour's design team help turn the screw: the dank-toned house and clothes in tones of moth and cobweb, a bitter wind blowing.Ackland's plays about rackety lives are increasingly revived. He, Walpole and John Gielgud, the play's original director, were all queer artists, and it's tempting to imagine them drawn to these lives on the margins of British society. Though these ladies don't so much rage against the dying of the light as wait, fearfully, to be snuffed out.

Congo-Brazzaville authorities have taken a significant step in their pursuit of Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the embattled president of the country's football federation, Fecofoot. An Interpol arrest warrant has been requested following his conviction for embezzling $1.1m in funds provided by FIFA.Mayolas, along with his wife and son, was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this month for their roles in the embezzlement. The funds, part of FIFA's COVID-19 relief plan in February 2021, were intended to support the country's football community. However, the trio fled the country weeks before the hearing, with investigators suspecting they may be hiding in Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The embezzlement scandal involves $500,000 earmarked for the Congo women's team. According to allegations, only $20,000 of the allocated funds was actually paid out. Mayolas has denied all allegations, calling them a conspiracy. This is not the first time Mayolas has faced scrutiny; in 2015, he and other officials received six-month bans from FIFA for ethics violations related to gifts and benefits.The situation has led to significant repercussions for Congo's football community. The country was banned from international football due to third-party interference, resulting in the forfeiture of World Cup qualifiers against Tanzania and Zambia. While Congo has since been reinstated, the scandal continues to cast a shadow over the sport in the region.

The UK government has imposed a significant fine of £390,000 on Apple Distribution International (ADI), a subsidiary of tech giant Apple, for violating sanctions against Moscow. The breach occurred when ADI made two payments totaling over £635,000 to a Russian streaming service, Okko, which was owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.ADI, based in Ireland, is responsible for selling Apple products in Europe and the Middle East. The payments were made through a UK-based bank from an ADI bank account in Britain. The fine was imposed by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the UK's sanctions watchdog.According to OFSI, ADI voluntarily disclosed the payments, and the fine was imposed after settlement talks. The watchdog noted that ADI had no reason to suspect that the payments would breach sanctions. However, OFSI emphasized that non-UK companies can be found in breach of sanctions if they use UK financial institutions to conduct payments.The case highlights the importance of robust due diligence frameworks for companies to monitor their client and customer base. Using third-party sanctions screening firms, as ADI did, carries risks. An Apple spokesperson stated that the company takes sanctions compliance extremely seriously and is constantly working to enhance its compliance protocols.The fine is a significant development in the enforcement of sanctions against Russia, which were imposed following the country's invasion of Ukraine. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, was among the first Russian companies to be added to the UK's sanctions list after the invasion.