Breaking AI & Tech News Analyzed

The Enduring Magic of Baseball Baseball's relationship with superstitions and curses stretches back to its earliest days, with the infamous Curse of the Billy Goat being just one example. When Chicago bar owner William Sianis was denied entry to the 1945 World Series with his pet goat Murphy, he allegedly cursed the team, which then went 71 years without winning another championship. This story, along with countless other rituals and beliefs, forms the foundation of baseball's unique relationship with the magical and supernatural. A New Book Explores Baseball's Mystical Side Author, journalist, and New York Mets fan Addy Baird has chronicled baseball's rich tradition of superstitions in her new book, "The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses." Baird became fascinated with baseball's magical elements while cheering for the Mets, finding herself becoming increasingly superstitious as the team had successful stretches. "I changed the way I acted, things I did, wore, watched, said, ate," she admits, trying to influence the team's performance through her own rituals. Legendary Superstitions and Rituals The book documents numerous baseball superstitions throughout history. Turn-of-the-century managers like Connie Mack and John McGraw relied on human mascots to bring their teams good luck. Wade Boggs famously ate chicken before every game during his career in the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, a Seattle Mariners fan believes that holding a pair of slippers somehow negatively affected his team's performance, while a Tampa Bay Rays fan plays Middle Earth music during difficult innings despite having no interest in Lord of the Rings. Even in softball, superstitions persist—this week it was revealed that a top college player eats ladybugs in the dugout for good luck. The Psychology Behind Baseball's Magic When asked what makes baseball particularly prone to magical thinking, Baird identifies several factors: the presence of luck, the game's unique structure, and its repetitive nature. "Basically, when a sport has fewer instances of scoring, luck is a bigger factor," she explains. Baseball's structure is also distinctive as "one of the only games we play, and the only major North American sport, where the defense has the ball," creating an uncertain environment. The repetitive nature of the game—with batters facing dozens of pitches over a 162-game season—further compounds the uncertainty, creating what Baird calls "a perfect environment for magic to thrive." Baseball's Mythological Foundations Baird connects baseball's structure to ancient mythological patterns, noting that MLB's official historian John Thorn observed that "the form of the game itself mirrors that of the Odyssey." The nine innings represent the hero's journey: starting at home, facing potential failure, and embarking on a journey with the goal of returning home. "The story of this myth is embedded in the game itself. Magic is in its very structure," Baird concludes. This connection helps explain why baseball has developed such rich traditions and superstitions throughout its history. Evolution of Baseball's Magic The book also examines how recent changes to baseball, including sabermetrics and new rules like the pitch clock, might affect the game's magical elements. Initially, Baird believed these changes were killing baseball's magic, but her research revealed a long tradition of people claiming "baseball is dying" since the 1860s. She now believes "the game should evolve, an unchanging thing is a dead thing." Interestingly, she finds that sabermetrics actually "help us to see what makes [baseball] unique, what makes it special, what makes players exceptionally good... Those numbers reveal to us the magic." Baseball's Appeal Beyond the Field Through her research, Baird not only completed a manuscript but also discovered a new career path. In addition to her journalism work, she has become a practicing astrologer. "It was one of my really interesting side quests," she says. "I do readings for people, reading charts." Whether you're a baseball enthusiast or someone interested in magic and ritual, "The Magical Game" offers something for everyone. As Baird explains, "it's a book for people who love baseball, also for those who do not care about baseball at all" and "for the people who love magic, looking at it through a lens they may never have considered before."

The Dark Side of Creativity Children’s writers are sometimes cruel, and often damaged. And, as AS Byatt put it crisply when talking about her 2009 novel The Children’s Book: “Writing children’s books isn’t good for the writer’s own children.” Think of Christopher Milne, raging at having been Christopher Robin; Vivian Burnett, dragging Little Lord Fauntleroy behind him; Alastair Grahame, lying down on train tracks. The Trapped Protagonist This is fertile material, as Byatt recognised, for a grown-up book. The American author Melissa Albert, herself a very successful children’s writer, has made it the theme of her first adult novel. The Children’s protagonist is Guinevere Sharpe, who as a grown woman is trapped by a very public version of her childhood. Her mother, Edith, a sort of JK Rowling/Enid Blyton composite, wrote an era-defining run of children’s portal fantasies called the Ninth City series, in which Guin and her older brother Ennis appeared as the named protagonists. The Unraveling of a Family Their marriage turns toxic. Edith is remote and frosty. The loving and boisterous Llewellyn is stricken by an unspecified illness and the light starts to go out of him. And the children, devoted to each other and freed from the necessity of formal schooling, are left to their own devices. Meanwhile, there’s something very spooky about their old wooden house. Occult artefacts surface. Its inhabitants have disturbing dreams. Edith shows up one day with a missing finger. Unraveling the Mystery In the present tense of the novel, meanwhile, Edith and Llewellyn have died in a fire that consumed the house; the sixth and last book in the Ninth City series never got written; and Guin and Ennis, once so close, have been on nonspeakers for two decades. A conceptual artist who builds uncanny installations, Ennis has always refused to talk about his childhood and the Ninth City books – but just as Guin is publicising her memoir, he announces a new show called Mother. The Cost of Creativity What we know about the Ninth City series – that in its universe there’s a vampiric figure called the Architect who steals the dreams of children to build constantly shifting fantasy worlds – casts an ominous shadow over Guin’s story. You get a hunch Albert is saying something here about the creative process, and the cost of it. Edith is a brilliant children’s writer – but she’s not quite right. A Complex but Flawed Novel That bumper crop of mysteries is also a slight weakness of this very readable and intriguing book. There’s simply so much going on that the force of the story dissipates: Edith never comes fully into focus; Guin’s crumbling relationship with her fiance, Hank, though acutely described, struggles to carry the weight it wants to; the ending is a little rushed.

The Comeback That Never MaterializedJust over a year ago, Lizzo appeared on Saturday Night Live, announcing a new album called Love in Real Life in grandstanding style. Wielding an electric guitar, clad in a Trump-baiting T-shirt that read Tariffied, she performed its title track and two other new songs, Still Bad and Don't Make Me Love U. As with her appearance earlier the same week on a late night talkshow – during which she ran into the audience to high-five fans who were yelling "we love you Lizzo!" – it looked very much like a defiant comeback, fit to drag her out of the controversy that erupted at the end of her hugely successful 2023 world tour. Three former backing dancers and a costume designer filed lawsuits against the singer alleging harassment and discrimination: damaging claims given how Lizzo's songs have preached a message of inclusivity, body positivity and self-confidence. Some of the allegations were dismissed by a judge but others are ongoing; Lizzo has refused to settle out of court, saying: "I'm fighting the case because I know that it's not true."The Album That Never WasBut the Love in Real Life single, a pivot towards rock that owed a little to Tom Petty's American Girls – or the Strokes' American Girls-indebted Last Nite if you prefer – failed to make the charts, a far cry from the period between 2018 and 2022 when Lizzo's singles seemed to go multi-platinum as a matter of course. The same fate befell Still Bad, a track much more in the vein of her big hits, prompting a rethink. The album was pulled, Lizzo apparently taking control of her own destiny – "I need to do shit my way". A mixtape that returned her more-or-less to where she started, before pop stardom came calling – punchy hip-hop, albeit tricked out with guest appearances from Doja Cat and SZA – appeared in its place: My Face Hurts from Smiling received mixed reviews and underwhelming streaming figures.A Career at a CrossroadsAll of which means that Bitch, her fifth album proper, lands at a deeply peculiar juncture in Lizzo's career. Given that the public apparently don't want her going rock, nor rapping in the style of her 2013 debut Lizzobangers, nor indeed making the kind of music they were buying in their millions three years ago, the question of what they actually do want has presumably hung heavy over its making.Musical Identity CrisisLizzo hasn't come up with a definitive answer. Bitch tries a bit of everything, from pastiching Tame Impala on Happy 2 Be to making clipped new-wave rock decorated with Cure-like guitars on She Stole My Man; Sexy Ladies is a girls-night-out-soundtracking reiteration of the old body positivity message. This scatter-gun approach makes Bitch a disjointed listen.The Subdued ToneMoreover, there's something oddly subdued about its tone, whether it's dabbling in 80s retro – Don't Make Me Love U brings to mind the arena-rousing keyboard hook from Tina Turner's The Best, but renders it into a distant, affectless backing vocal – or delving into jazzy R&B; on Too Nice. The vibraphone-heavy beat on the latter is fantastic, rich in small-hours atmosphere, but the actual song feels nondescript: it only really comes to life in its dying moments, when Lizzo stops singing and starts playing a flute solo. The title track interpolates the chorus from Meredith Brooks' 1997 pop-grunge hit of the same name, but somehow flattens it in the process. Crooned over smooth, G-funky R&B;, it feels stripped of its fiery power, less of a snarl and more of a shrug.Equivocal LyricsThe lyrics often seem similarly equivocal. You don't want for apparent references to Lizzo's recent woes – "I hope it makes you happy to hurt somebody else", "the thing about depression, you think your life is over", "you'd still be working at the mall if it wasn't for me" – but they ultimately feel neither pugilistic nor racked, just confused and sore: "I have feelings too," she sings on piano ballad A Toast.Highlights Amidst the StruggleNot everything here is underwhelming: Whose Hair Is This is a great southern soul pastiche, home to an impressively raw vocal and a snappy plot twist at the end of the lyrics; That Grrrl employs an old-school Chicago house bassline to energising effect. But what's definitely lacking is an unequivocal pop smash, the kind of thing that Lizzo once seemed to be able to write to order.A Changing Cultural LandscapePerhaps that's inevitable. One of the reasons Lizzo hit so big in the first place was that she made pop music that perfectly captured a zeitgeist, and that zeitgeist has moved on: the era of body positivity has been displaced by the era of Ozempic and Mounjaro; the kind of post-pandemic, post-Trump optimism embodied on 2022's About Damn Time now sounds like a transmission from a distant lost age. We're living in a different world now, and Bitch suggests Lizzo has yet to work out how to respond to it: "I'm doing my best," she sings on A Toast, which feels like the most telling lyric of all.

The Encounter with the 'Queen of Trees' I breathe in the bluebells as a blackcap sings. At the crescendo, a flash of yellow breaks up the blue – a brimstone butterfly flies up to my face, then moves back, approaches, then draws back, repeating the fluttered action until I follow. A Moment of Connection in the Forest Together, we weave through fresh-scented firs before my companion flits away and I realise that I have come further into the forest than intended. My feet start to throb and the wind, as the sky grows overcast, brings a chill. I see the leaves of a vaulted canopy stir overhead and feel the softest carpet of fallen catkins underfoot. Although the threat of rain urges me forwards, a tree, an imposing common beech, makes me stay. The Majesty of the Common Beech Looking up through the domed crown, I think of the beech’s moniker as the queen of British trees. The long-living, high‑growing beech can grow over 40 metres tall and – with age, perhaps spanning multiple centuries – provide habitats for deadwood specialists like wood‑boring insects and hole‑nesting birds. This tree’s girth speaks of a long life that I find myself imagining; how many winds have run through the leaves, how many birds have been held in the branches, how many foot‑sore humans have found relief sinking into fallen catkins? A Shared Moment with a Tawny Owlet Thinking myself alone, it takes a confused moment to disentangle my eyes from another’s, to realise that – deep in the tree’s crevice – a tawny owlet is watching me. My eyes take small circuits around the white patches of the bird’s face: first the beak, then over the left eye, the right, then back again. I blink. It blinks. I blink. It blinks. We are reaching some kind of accord. A Peaceful Goodbye I move back a little and wait. Every now and then, its eyes meet mine. It blinks. I blink. It would be easy to fall asleep, as no doubt it was before my approach. But I know that I cannot stay. As I edge away, I mutter thanks to the brimstone for taking me on a different route, for leading me to this sheltering beech and the secrets that it keeps.

The Climate Policy Reversal in Blue States Democratic-led states are eroding their climate policies, as red states are scaling up their clean energy deployment. California on Friday scaled back its cap-and-invest program, offering more than $3bn in free pollution allowances to polluting companies. Earlier the same week, New York weakened its groundbreaking climate law, delaying a plan to regulate carbon from 2024 until 2028 and reducing emissions-slashing targets. Rhode Island's governor, meanwhile, is attempting to roll back aggressive clean-energy programs. The Economic Justification vs. Climate Imperative The moves come as Donald Trump's administration withdraws clean energy incentives and energy savings programs, and as energy prices spike across the country amid trade disruptions stemming from the US-Israeli war on Iran. Proponents have said the changes are necessary to suppress electricity costs, but climate advocates say that view is short-sighted and misguided. "Using affordability as a cudgel to weaken climate policy is a major error that will not solve either crisis, ultimately amplifying both," said Johanna Bozuwa, executive director of the Climate and Community Institute, a left-leaning thinktank. "Extreme weather and fossil-fuel dependency directly inflate costs – for food, energy, transportation, housing, and health – across the economy for working people." American Public Opinion on Climate Change Polls show most Americans are concerned about the climate crisis. An annual poll from Gallup, published in April, shows that 44% of American adults say they worry "a great deal" about global warming – one of the highest levels of concern since 1989, when the poll was first conducted, behind only 2020 and 2017. About 65% of registered voters in the US also think global heating is driving up the cost of living, according to a report published in December by Yale University and George Mason University. Red States Lead Clean Energy Buildout In contrast to many Democratic-led jurisdictions, red states have tended to dominate renewable energy deployment in recent years. In terms of growth of utility-scale renewables, states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election made up eight of the top 10 in the year to March, according to Energy Information Administration data. Indiana tops the list of states with the most clean energy capacity growth in that timeframe, followed by Kentucky and Utah. More broadly, though, it is Texas that has emerged as the country's leading clean energy superpower, despite its strong ties to the oil and gas industry and unsuccessful attempts within the Republican-led legislature to curb the growth of wind and solar. Texas leads the country in wind energy production, followed by fellow red states Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas, and in March overtook California in utility-scale solar, too. The Paradox of Climate Leadership Meanwhile, the states scaling back their emissions-cutting policies have long called themselves climate leaders. When Governor Gavin Newsom of California extended his state's cap-and-invest program last year, he said: "We're doubling down on our best tool to combat Trump's assaults on clean air … by making polluters pay for projects that support our most impacted communities." The changes could end up giving more money to the fossil fuel producers and distributors who have been increasing consumers' energy prices amid the Iran war, said Bahram Fazeli, Policy Director with Communities for a Better Environment, a grassroots organization in California. "There's no reason to think that giving them more free allowances will actually help motivate them to lower gas prices more," he said. Long-Term Economic Implications New York advocates are also skeptical about whether the weakening of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act – which the state touted as among the strongest climate laws the country – will deliver long-term benefits. The state legislature last week reached a deal with Governor Kathy Hochul to remove a 2030 mandate to cut planet-warming pollution by 40% from 1990 levels, instead including language to aim for a 60% by 2040 if it is "feasible and cost effective" to do so. "Even though you might see bill savings initially, that's going to come at the cost of locked-in, higher energy costs in the future, as the grid has to procure more energy that would otherwise have been saved," Anna Johnson, a senior policy manager State at American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, told Baltimore's NPR affiliate WYPR; she estimates that the moves could ultimately increase households' electricity costs by $592m. The True Cost of Inaction The climate crisis itself also costs for working people, said Mar Zepeda Salazar, legislative director of the national environmental justice coalition Climate Justice Alliance. "You can lower costs on paper by weakening protections, but the bill still comes due," she said. "It just shows up in emergency rooms, insurance premiums, utility bills, lost wages, and disaster recovery – that families pay, not industry."

The Biofuel Demand SurgeDemand for biofuels is likely to leap by nearly a third this year as countries seek alternatives to expensive oil. The US, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and others have opted to increase biofuel use as the price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.Projected Growth and Environmental ConcernsIf oil supplies remain constrained, demand for biofuels could increase by 70% by 2030, according to estimates from the Transport & Environment (T&E;) thinktank. Biofuels, from oil-bearing crops and grains, currently supply about 4% of the world's transport energy demand. Expanding biofuel production without competing with food crops for land and fertiliser would be difficult to achieve, and reaching 20% of global road fuel from biofuels would require an area the size of South Africa.The Food Security ImpactThe expansion of biofuels comes at a time when fertilizer supply has been constrained by the war and prices have soared, leading to rises in the price of staple foods for some of the poorest people in many parts of the world. Biofuels compete with food crops for land, while globally about one in every 20 tonnes of fertiliser is used to produce crops for fuel. In some countries it is a lot more: a tenth of fertiliser use in the US is for biofuels, and a fifth in Indonesia.Historical Precedents and Future ProjectionsThough it is not possible to say exactly how far the expansion of biofuels could lift food prices, experts suggest it could be significant. In the food crises of 2007-08, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that biofuel use contributed between 40% and 70% of the increase in maize and soya bean prices. The US is already forecasting that food prices will rise this year by between 2.2% and 4.7%, largely owing to the impacts of the war in Iran.Sustainable AlternativesEncouraging the switch to electric vehicles could reduce demand for biofuels, as generating renewable energy is a far more efficient use of land than growing crops for fuel. Solar panels covering just 3% of the land currently used for biofuel production would generate the same amount of energy, and because of the higher efficiency of electric vehicles, that would be enough to power a third of the global car fleet.

The Return of Mira Murati to the Public StageMira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI and current CEO of Thinking Machines Lab, has made her first major media appearance in approximately 18 months, sitting down with Bloomberg in San Francisco. This rare public appearance comes as Murati's company, which has been operating largely in the background, seeks to establish its presence in an increasingly competitive AI landscape.Thinking Machines' New Approach: Interaction ModelsDuring the interview, Murati previewed what Thinking Machines is calling "interaction models," described as a fundamentally different kind of AI interface. Unlike the traditional turn-based, prompt-and-response dynamic common in most AI products today, the company's models are designed to process continuous streams of audio, text, and video in 200-millisecond intervals. This approach aims to capture the nuances of human communication—including interruptions, mid-thought corrections, and pauses—in something closer to real time.Murati emphasized that this approach aligns with her lab's core thesis that the path to powerful AI runs through closer human collaboration, not around it. She was careful to frame it as a first step rather than a finished product, declining to specify a release date.The Competitive AI LandscapeThe timing of Murati's public return is strategic. While Thinking Machines has spent the past year and a half operating in the background—raising capital, hiring researchers, and shipping one product, Tinker (an API for fine-tuning open-source AI models)—its competitors have grown more omnipresent. OpenAI, where Murati spent six years as CTO, remains constantly in the news cycle. Anthropic has gained significant momentum, and Elon Musk's xAI has been folded into SpaceX ahead of what is expected to be a massive public offering.In this environment, Murati acknowledged that staying heads down has diminishing returns, and at some point, a company must make noise to remind the market it exists.Reflections on OpenAI's Leadership CrisisMurati also addressed the chaotic week in November 2023 when OpenAI's board fired Sam Altman, and she became interim CEO—an event referred to internally as "the blip." She expressed clarity about her decisions during that period, stating that protecting the mission and team guided her choices even as the situation appeared to be unraveling externally. Murati claimed the company would have "imploded" without her involvement during those five days and their immediate aftermath.In retrospect, she acknowledged she would have pushed harder for more information, a better transition plan, and more transparency. When asked if she still trusts her former boss, she sidestepped the question, instead focusing on her broader concern about the concentration of consequential decisions in too few hands across the industry.Talent Challenges and Compensation CultureChang pressed Murati on the departures of several high-profile researchers from Thinking Machines in recent months, a subject Murati has largely avoided in public. She explained that building a frontier AI lab from scratch compresses years of normal organizational volatility into months. Regarding compensation—the nine-figure packages that have become standard in the AI talent war—Murati suggested it isn't usually the whole story behind talent decisions."When I wake up in the morning, I am not thinking about how to kill the competitor," Murati quipped, drawing audience laughter and highlighting her competitive approach to building rather than destroying.The Future of AI and Human AgencyWhen asked about the future of AI and its impact on humanity, Murati pushed back on both inevitable dystopia and inevitable utopia scenarios. She argued that neither outcome is predetermined and that the current period will determine which direction things go. However, she warned that if humans "take their hands off the wheel too soon," the future will look very different, and not better.Born in Albania and speaking with a slight Eastern European accent, Murati emphasized the importance of maintaining human agency in AI development, reflecting on concerns about mass job displacement and potential misuse of AI for harmful purposes like creating chemical weapons.

France's World Cup Preparation Takes Unexpected TurnFrance brushed aside concerns after suffering a surprise 2-1 defeat by Ivory Coast in a World Cup warm-up match, insisting the setback would serve as a useful reminder rather than a cause for alarm ahead of the tournament. Didier Deschamps' side led through a superb first-half goal from Rayan Cherki on Thursday, but were overrun after the break as Guela Doue and Amad Diallo turned the game around for the Elephants in Nantes.Key Moments in Nantes FriendlyThe match showcased contrasting halves of football for France. The defending champions dominated the opening 45 minutes, taking the lead through Cherki's clinical finish. However, after halftime, France made numerous substitutions and lost control of the contest as Ivory Coast's pace and intensity overwhelmed them. The Elephants' equalizer and subsequent winner demonstrated their potential to challenge established nations in international competitions.France's Experimental ApproachWith France opening their World Cup campaign against Senegal in New York on June 16, several key players were rested after last weekend's Champions League final triumph. Midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni emphasized that the result should be viewed in the context of preparations rather than as a warning sign."It's a pity to lose but we're in a preparation phase, we stay confident," Tchouameni said. "There is no conclusion to draw from this game, even if we had won it. We will be ready."Defender Lucas Hernandez also played down the significance of the defeat, noting the numerous substitutions made during the match."We always want to win but we're in a phase of preparation and there were a lot of substitutions," Hernandez said. "We're in good spirits."Tournament Implications and LessonsDeschamps admitted his side had lost control of the contest after an encouraging opening 45 minutes and warned that France would face opponents with similar qualities in the United States."A defeat is never pleasant, even if we did some good things in the first half," Deschamps said. "In the second half we made a lot of changes but that's no excuse. We were not as good after the break and they brought a lot of pace. We will face the same type of team on June 16."The France coach suggested the result could prove useful if it prevented his players from becoming complacent before the tournament."It's a reminder, if we needed one, not to think we're better than we are," he said, with Cherki adding: "It's a little warning, and I can tell you we're not going to the World Cup thinking we're favourites but we're going to crush everyone."Outlook for France's World Cup CampaignDespite the unexpected defeat, France appears focused on their upcoming challenge against Senegal. The match against Ivory Coast, while resulting in a loss, may provide valuable lessons for a team that has been among the favorites in recent international tournaments. The experimental nature of the squad and the opportunity to test different combinations against a competitive African side could prove beneficial as the tournament progresses.

The Premiership Women's Rugby Expansion Plans Several clubs, including Bath, have registered their interest in joining England's Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR). The expansion of the top flight has no concrete timeline, but the possibility of the league growing has thrown up different discussion points. How will non-professional players deal with travel if a club from another home nation is introduced? Will the expansion aid international competition? And how do players feel about it? The Expression of Interest Phase The expression of interest phase was just an 'exploratory' process and not a formal application to join the league. The move is part of the PWR's 10-year plan to grow a sustainable and competitive league. The top flight is widely renowned as the best women's club rugby competition in the world with international talent such as Ireland's Aoife Wafer, New Zealand's Alana Borland and Canada's Sophie de Goede involved. However, the league has just nine teams after Worcester Warriors' demise in 2023. The Financial and Logistical Requirements In order to raise their hand and show interest, sides had to meet certain criteria. The list included £1.2m of annual rugby programme investment, facilities that meet PWR competition, broadcast and training standards and being able to field a squad of 45 to 55 players. Welsh, Scottish and Irish unions are interested and English clubs have also said they are. The men's Prem champions, Bath, have gone on the record to confirm their interest, outlining that they would need investment in the player pool and a robust business plan in order to progress sustainably. The Impact on Non-Professional Players Clubs had a deadline of 30 April to notify the PWR of their interest with the next steps of expansion uncertain. What we do know is that the league has ruled out the possibility of expansion for the 2026-27 season but are open to making the league bigger in future. This initial step has caused a debate in women's rugby circles. One of the main issues is potential travel implications for those who are not professional players. A large majority of PWR players have jobs outside rugby, which would mean they could not frequently take off a Friday or Monday as travel days for their league commitments. The Future of Women's Rugby The possibility of having a Welsh team in the PWR is something the country's players would embrace, according to the Wales scrum-half Keira Bevan. 'All of us want to come and play in Wales,' she said. 'I am with Bristol at the minute and I have another year with them and then after that I don't really know what my rugby career will look like. If that was an option I think a lot of the girls would definitely look into it.' The International Implications Increased competition on an international stage is an element of a potential expansion that excites the Exeter Chiefs head coach, Steve Salvin. He said: 'If there is an opportunity to make the league stronger, why not? We are in a position where England are far and away the strongest team in world rugby and that is credit to them, they have put the work in to get themselves into that position. But people get addicted to sport through jeopardy and whenever England are winning games by 50, 60 points, we are not going to get that jeopardy.'