Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Minnesota deny Rodriguez has rare muscle wasting condition

    Minnesota deny Rodriguez has rare muscle wasting condition

    Veteran Colombian playmaker James Rodriguez is at the center of swirling health rumors that have been firmly rejected by his current club, Major League Soccer side Minnesota United. The 34-year-old, who boasts a decorated career spanning European giants Real Madrid, English Premier League outfit Everton and his national side Colombia, was recently hospitalized after falling ill during an international fixture, sparking widespread concern across the global football community.

    Rodriguez first displayed visible symptoms of illness during Colombia’s 2025 March 29 international friendly against France, a match that ended in a 3-1 defeat for the South American side. Immediately after the match, the midfielder was admitted to hospital for three days to receive treatment for severe dehydration. He finally made his return to Minnesota United’s training complex on Monday to begin a gradual return to football activity.

    Following his hospitalization, the Colombian Football Federation released an official statement on April 2 confirming that Rodriguez was being monitored for an underlying medical condition unrelated to his football career, while adding that his medical outlook remained favorable. Despite this reassuring update, unsubstantiated rumors began circulating widely across social media platforms, and were picked up by some United States media outlets, claiming the midfielder was suffering from rhabdomyolysis – a rare and potentially fatal muscle-wasting disorder.

    Rhabdomyolysis, a condition that can be triggered by extreme overexertion, causes muscle tissue to break down and release toxic fibers into the bloodstream, which can in turn cause permanent kidney damage or even death if left untreated. However, Minnesota United has pushed back firmly against these claims in an official statement issued by the club.

    “The club and our medical professionals can unequivocally state there has been no clinical or laboratory evidence of rhabdomyolysis,” the MLS side said. Since his return to the training ground on Monday, Rodriguez has completed a supervised low-intensity return-to-activity session, and his progression back to full group training will be managed step-by-step by the club’s specialist medical team to protect his long-term health.

    A seasoned international, Rodriguez made his Colombia debut back in 2011, and has gone on to earn 124 senior caps for his country to date. Since joining Minnesota United in February 2025, he has made two appearances in MLS competition as he settles into his new role in the North American league.

  • Laughter, tears: historic day for astronaut Jenni Gibbons in Houston

    Laughter, tears: historic day for astronaut Jenni Gibbons in Houston

    On a momentous Monday inside NASA’s Houston mission control center, Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons stood at the center of a landmark moment for human space exploration, remotely guiding her Artemis II crewmates through their groundbreaking voyage around the Moon. Handpicked as the mission’s backup astronaut, Gibbons spent months training alongside the four primary crew members: NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. On flight day, her core role was managing real-time communications between ground teams and the crew as they checked off a long list of historic milestones during their lunar flyby.

    In an exclusive interview with AFP, Gibbons shared her firsthand account of the emotional, electric atmosphere inside the control room, more than 50 years after humanity first reached the Moon. The air was thick with tangible, contagious excitement, she recalled, a once-in-a-generation moment punctuated by tears, warm hugs, and unbridled laughter. “Every flight controller in that room grew up inspired by the Apollo missions, and many have spent their entire careers working toward this day,” Gibbons explained. “When the crew called down their descriptions of the space and views around them, the energy in the room was unmatched.”

    Over the course of nearly seven hours, the Artemis II crew fixed their gaze on the lunar and deep space landscape outside their capsule windows, shattering long-standing records and making modern space history. Most notably, the team broke the 54-year-old distance record set by Apollo 13, which had stood as the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth. When Artemis II reached its maximum distance from our home planet, it clocked in at 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) – more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) farther than Apollo 13’s 1970 record. “That moment was so special,” Gibbons said. “At one point, people were crying, people were hugging, people were laughing out of joy. It’s one of the most cherished moments of my entire career.”

    When asked why this lunar flyby will go down as a defining chapter in space exploration history, Gibbons outlined two key breakthroughs beyond the distance record. First, all previous Apollo missions flew much closer to the Moon than Artemis II, meaning the crew experienced a unique perspective of Earth that no human had ever witnessed firsthand. The flyby also brought the crew to the far side of the Moon, where terrain features had never been illuminated for direct human observation during the Apollo era. “We’ve mapped these areas with remote imaging before, but this is the first time human eyes – the most sensitive cameras in existence – have been able to observe these landscapes directly,” she noted.

    One specific observation from the crew stood out to Gibbons above the rest: thanks to the timing of the mission’s launch and unique orbital mechanics, the crew witnessed a solar eclipse as they completed the final leg of their lunar flyby. The alignment of the Sun, Moon, and capsule allowed the team to see faint deep space and lunar features that are usually hidden by bright sunlight, including fine details of the Sun’s corona as it passed behind the Moon. The crew carried eclipse glasses for safe viewing, a small detail that Gibbons says helps connect their out-of-this-world experience to eclipse watchers here on Earth.

    The crew also made a rare scientific observation while the Moon was fully shadowed: they spotted four to five impact flashes on the lunar surface, created when space material collides with the Moon to form new craters. While Apollo astronauts occasionally reported seeing similar events, such observations are extremely rare and hold high scientific value. “The fact that they saw multiple impact flashes during the flyby is just outstanding,” Gibbons added.

  • JD Vance travels to Hungary days before election, hoping to boost Orbán’s campaign

    JD Vance travels to Hungary days before election, hoping to boost Orbán’s campaign

    On Tuesday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance touched down in Budapest, Hungary, capping a sequence of high-profile displays of backing from the Trump administration for incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a long-time conservative ally who is locked in a tight race that threatens to end his 16 consecutive years in power.

    Orbán, who has led Hungary since 2010, is vying for a fifth straight term at the helm of his nationalist-populist Fidesz party. Ahead of the April 12 general election, most independent opinion surveys put Fidesz more than 10 points behind among committed voters, trailing the center-right Tisza party led by challenger Péter Magyar. This race stands as the toughest electoral test Orbán has faced in two decades, with many political analysts forecasting a possible end to his grip on national governance.

    For years, critics have levied accusations against Orbán that he has systematically consolidated control over Hungary’s state institutions, restricted independent press freedom, and allowed systemic political corruption to take root — all claims the prime minister has repeatedly and categorically denied. Despite this controversy, Orbán has emerged as a defining figurehead for the global far-right movement, drawing widespread admiration from conservative populist factions across the Western world.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly thrown his full support behind Orbán’s re-election bid, and ranks of the MAGA movement have widely lauded the Hungarian leader’s hardline stances on immigration, rollbacks of LGBTQ+ protections, and consolidation of control over domestic media and academic institutions.

    Trailing in polls, Orbán has turned to appearances with high-profile international supporters to shore up his campaign’s momentum, and Vance’s two-day visit marks the most public demonstration of the Trump administration’s all-in commitment to securing an Orbán victory this weekend. During the trip, Vance is scheduled to hold an official bilateral meeting with Orbán before making an unprecedented public appearance at one of the prime minister’s campaign rallies.

    This direct involvement in another nation’s electoral campaign marks a break from longstanding diplomatic norms, where most foreign leaders avoid openly campaigning for domestic political candidates in other countries. The irony of Vance’s visit has not gone unnoticed: Orbán has frequently lashed out at any comment on Hungary’s election from European Union leaders, framing even mild expressions of support for his challengers as an unacceptable violation of Hungarian sovereignty and foreign meddling.

    Vance’s stop in Budapest is far from the first show of U.S. support for Orbán from the second Trump administration. Hungary has long stood at odds with the vast majority of the European Union, refusing to provide military or financial aid to Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, and continuing to import large volumes of Russian energy despite EU sanctions and efforts to diversify away from Moscow-supplied fuel. Last November, following a White House meeting between Orbán and Trump, Hungary secured a rare exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas. In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Budapest, where he openly praised Orbán and highlighted the close ties between the prime minister and Trump, telling Orbán that “President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success.”

    Last month, Orbán hosted the Hungarian iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), drawing dozens of far-right allies from across Europe and beyond, alongside a gathering of the Patriots for Europe, the third-largest parliamentary grouping in the European Parliament. Trump delivered a pre-recorded video address to the conference, reiterating his “complete and total endorsement” of Orbán and calling him a “fantastic guy.”

    The Trump administration’s enthusiastic backing of Orbán aligns with its broader strategy of building close ties with far-right populist parties across Europe, a relationship that has been reciprocated by conservative nationalist leaders from Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Still, Trump’s unconventional foreign policy approach has created tensions in many European relationships in recent months, with disputes over Greenland, Venezuela and Iran straining bilateral ties with multiple U.S. allies on the continent. Orbán, however, has remained one of Trump’s most unwavering international supporters, even echoing the U.S. president’s false claims that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. Shortly before Trump’s second inauguration, Orbán told state-run Hungarian radio that Democrats “took the presidency away from Donald Trump through fraud.”

  • Kon Gob, Yahye Abas: Pair charged over alleged Lygon St machete attack on New Year’s Eve

    Kon Gob, Yahye Abas: Pair charged over alleged Lygon St machete attack on New Year’s Eve

    Two months after a brazen New Year’s Eve group machete attack that left two young men hospitalized with severe injuries on one of Melbourne’s busiest entertainment strips, two of the accused have appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, with one receiving a stern final warning over case delays.

    On Tuesday afternoon, 20-year-old Kon Tong Gob made his first court appearance since being charged over the December 31 incident on Lygon Street, Carlton, a popular pedestrian strip lined with restaurants and bars that was packed with revellers ahead of midnight. To avoid press photography, Gob covered his entire head with a jacket as he entered and exited the courtroom, keeping his face hidden from view.

    Authorities allege Gob, 21-year-old co-accused Yahye Abas, and a 17-year-old minor carried out the targeted attack outside The Balcony Shisha Bar, which was captured in full by local closed-circuit television. Investigators confirm the two groups involved were already known to one another, and the three offenders fled the scene in motor vehicles after the assault. Two victims, an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old, were rushed to emergency care with serious wounds. All three accused face three identical charges: violent disorder, affray, and intentionally causing serious injury. Two additional men arrested in connection with the case in January – a 19-year-old from Carlton and a 21-year-old from Reservoir – have since been released without any charges being laid.

    During Tuesday’s hearing, Alana Reader, Gob’s legal representative, requested an adjournment of the case. Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge granted a one-month delay but issued an unambiguous final warning that no further extensions would be permitted. “It’s not going to be further adjourned after that date,” Lethbridge told the court.

    Abas also appeared before the court on the same day, and his case was also adjourned following reports he has made a legal deal offer to prosecuting authorities. The court confirmed prosecutors have asked for a four-week window to review and assess the proposal. Both Gob and Abas are scheduled to return to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for their next hearing on May 6.

  • Risks as Sino-Russian ‘Make America Weak Again’ dream coming true

    Risks as Sino-Russian ‘Make America Weak Again’ dream coming true

    Against the backdrop of a deeply fractured 2020s global order, U.S. foreign policy under the re-elected Donald Trump has created unexpected shifts in power that are rippling across every continent. What some analysts have framed as an accidental win for Beijing and Moscow has, in reality, exposed systemic weaknesses across all three of the world’s major nuclear superpowers – and forced U.S. allies in Europe and Asia to confront urgent questions about their own long-term security and resilience.

    The core argument put forward by analyst Bill Emmott, based on his on-the-ground reporting from Japan, opens with a provocative framing: if China and Russia shared a joint strategic slogan today, it would be “MAWA – Make America Weak Again.” From their perspective, a second Trump term has delivered exactly what they hoped for: a U.S. leader whose erratic foreign policy weakens American global standing rather than advancing his stated goal of Making America Great Again. Trump’s ongoing military campaign in Iran has only amplified this effect.

    Contrary to fears that a quick U.S. takeover of Iran’s oil sector would leave Beijing and Moscow cornered, the reality of Trump’s policy has been unmitigated failure for U.S. interests. The stalemate in Iran has already pushed crude oil prices up by more than 50% since the conflict began, delivering tangible economic and strategic gains to both major powers. For China, a weakened Trump means a far weaker negotiating position in bilateral trade talks. When the U.S. president attends the rescheduled Beijing summit in mid-May, he will arrive not as a powerful negotiator, but as a supplicant, still reeling from the 2024 confrontation where Beijing’s threat of a critical mineral export embargo forced Trump to retreat from his planned 145% tariffs on Chinese goods. Beyond trade, China has also gained diplomatic ground: more nations, both wealthy and developing, now view Beijing as a far more predictable and reliable global partner than the volatile United States.

    For Russia, the benefits are even more direct. The surge in global oil prices has rescued Moscow’s public finances, extending its ability to sustain its war effort in Ukraine. Further gains could come from growing transatlantic rifts over Iran: if European capitals clash with Trump over policy, U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine via Europe could shrink, and a frustrated Trump could even cut off all American intelligence and communications support for Kyiv. For Vladimir Putin, who has long aimed to dismantle NATO, any deepening divide between the U.S. and its European allies is a major strategic win – even if Trump cannot follow through on his repeated threats to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance, a step that would almost certainly be blocked by a Republican-led Congress.

    But it is a mistake to frame this shift as a simple zero-sum game where the decline of the U.S. automatically elevates China and Russia. The far more sober reality, Emmott argues, is that American failure in Iran has laid bare that all three nuclear superpowers face profound structural weaknesses that make them far more equal in vulnerability than previously assumed. Russia, despite its vast nuclear arsenal and natural resource wealth, has already endured four years of grinding military failure in Ukraine, gaining only minimal territory at the cost of more than one million dead and wounded troops. China, meanwhile, is trapped by its own long-term economic challenges: slowing annual growth, a shrinking and aging population, and soaring public and private debt – trends that an energy price shock will only worsen, leaving it unable to fully exploit American weakness. As for the United States, its weakness stems from the re-election of a leader who is openly corrupt, has launched an unplanned Middle Eastern military adventure with no clear exit strategy, and is systematically eroding the value of America’s greatest global asset: its web of security alliances across Europe and Asia.

    This new era of widespread great power weakness poses direct and urgent risks to U.S. allies in Europe, Japan and South Korea. If the current short-term energy shock from the Iran conflict becomes a long-term crisis, all these nations will face deep economic damage. Worse, the resulting fiscal pressure will leave them with even less capacity to increase their own military spending – a step that has become increasingly critical to deter coercion from China and Russia, even as dependence on U.S. security guarantees grows riskier.

    To understand how allies are processing this new reality, Emmott spent a week in Japan consulting with government and business leaders on the impact of the Iran war, drawing three key lessons that apply equally to Europe. The first is cautiously reassuring: even though the U.S. has redeployed military forces from Asia to the Middle East, weakening deterrence against China, Japanese leaders broadly agree that Beijing will not risk an invasion or blockade of Taiwan. China’s own internal weaknesses, including an ongoing anti-corruption purge of senior People’s Liberation Army generals and the examples of Russian failure in Ukraine and American failure in Iran, have reinforced Beijing’s caution about taking major military risks.

    The second finding, however, is far more worrying: for the first time since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 81 years ago, open public debate has begun in Japan over whether the country should develop its own independent nuclear arsenal. This shift reflects multiple overlapping anxieties: widespread fear that the Iran war will spark a global wave of nuclear proliferation as nations seek to defend themselves; growing uncertainty about the reliability of the American nuclear umbrella that has protected Japan (and much of Europe) for decades; and questions over whether the Trump administration’s demand that allies take more responsibility for their own defense extends to nuclear capabilities. For decades, U.S. administrations have blocked allied efforts to develop nuclear weapons, particularly in South Korea, but that long-standing taboo is now breaking down. The very fact that this debate is happening signals a broader acceptance that the world has grown far more dangerous, and old rules and taboos can no longer be trusted. Currently, the Japanese nuclear discussion remains smaller than the open debate already underway in France and Germany.

    The third key finding mirrors the challenges facing Europe: Japanese government and business leaders are largely paralyzed by uncertainty over how long and how severe the current energy price shock will be. While they have avoided stoking public panic, they acknowledge that decades-long national energy plans – which still prioritize fossil fuels – will need to be completely rewritten. The main alternatives under consideration are expanded nuclear energy, geothermal power, and greater investment in wind and solar. Currently, wind and solar combined account for only around 13% of Japan’s electricity generation (most of that from solar), far below the 40-50% share common across most European countries, held back by resistance from established domestic business interests.

    Despite these profound challenges, Emmott notes that both Japanese and European leaders recognize that while their vulnerability is acute, a path to greater resilience exists. Rapid technological progress and the spread of diverse global supply chains for energy and critical commodities mean that vulnerability can be reduced over time – but only if action is taken now. Delaying planning until tomorrow or the 2030s is not an option: the time for allies to build their own resilience against global shocks, including those originating from the current White House, is immediate.

  • ‘He won’t miss a beat’: Rival tips Bronson Xerri to come out firing in his return game, Dragons make major changes for round six

    ‘He won’t miss a beat’: Rival tips Bronson Xerri to come out firing in his return game, Dragons make major changes for round six

    The National Rugby League’s next round of fixtures is bringing a wave of dramatic lineup changes across the competition, headlined by speed centre Bronson Xerri’s shock recall to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs starting side. Xerri will get his first start of the season outside of the opening round in Las Vegas this Thursday, when the Bulldogs face off against competition heavyweights and title favourites Penrith Panthers. He will replace captain Stephen Crichton, who is currently sidelined recovering from an AC joint injury.

    Xerri’s path back to the starting 13 has been anything but smooth. After being dropped to reserve grade following the season opener, speculation quickly mounted that the winger could seek an immediate release from his contract to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Things grew even more tense on Good Friday, when Crichton picked up his early injury, but Ciraldo opted to leave Xerri on the bench instead of slotting him into the starting lineup. Instead, the coach shifted five-eighth Burton to left centre and called Sean O’Sullivan up into the halves.

    Now that he has earned his shot against the league’s top side, Penrith centre Paul Alamoti says he expects a fired-up, hungry performance from the returning Bulldogs speedster. “I think we’ll see a lot of fire and a lot of energy from him, and rightfully so,” Alamoti told reporters ahead of the clash. “The position that he’s been in, that’s what I’m expecting from him: someone who is hungry on the field, who is locked in on every single play. He won’t miss a beat.”

    For the unbeaten Panthers, the lineup news is far less chaotic, with hooker Mitch Kenny returning to the side fresh after serving a suspension.

    Down the coast at St George Illawarra Dragons, the club has announced a major overhaul of its halves pairing for a must-win upcoming clash, following a messy performance against North Queensland Cowboys last round. Kyle Flanagan is back in the starting seven just weeks after suffering a sickening head knock, slotting back into the number seven jersey. Big-money off-season signing Daniel Atkinson, who struggled with a poor kicking performance against the Cowboys, will shift to five-eighth to accommodate Flanagan’s return.

    Dragons captain Clint Guthrie will miss the next several weeks with a hamstring injury, opening the door for Tyrell Sloan to step into the fullback position, where he will add much-needed attacking speed to the side. On the wing, Setu Tu will come in to replace suspended forward David Fale.

    Across at Brisbane Broncos, captain Adam Reynolds has been named in the starting side despite exiting last week’s match early with a groin injury. Reserves back Tom Duffy has been named on standby to step into the side if Reynolds is ruled out unfit pre-match. Blake Mozer has been named on the bench to replace the injured Ben Hunt, while Jesse Arthars will get the start at fullback after superstar Reece Walsh was ruled out for at least a month with a fractured cheekbone.

    Speaking ahead of his first start in the fullback role, Arthars said he was not feeling added pressure filling in for the representative star. “I don’t feel the pressure. Obviously we are two different players and I just want to bring my strengths,” Arthars said. “I am sure the boys will have faith in me, and that is something I want to repay to my teammates and to Madge (coach Michael Maguire) for picking me and trusting me.”

    Josiah Karapani is returning to the Cowboys starting lineup on the wing after missing last round over disciplinary issues, and he will go up against Brisbane’s Arthars. Cowboys centre Braidon Burns is still in doubt after leaving last week’s match with an ankle injury.

    For Sydney Roosters, the side is getting two key playmakers back this round: enforcer Victor Radley returns after serving a club-imposed suspension, while prop Spencer Leniu is back from a hamstring injury. Hugo Savala will step into left centre to replace the injured Billy Smith.

    Elsewhere across the league, Brandon Smith has finally received medical clearance to make his season debut for the Melbourne Storm after spending the opening weeks of the year sidelined with a lingering calf injury. For the Canberra Raiders, Jed Stuart will start on the wing in place of Xavier Savage, who is out with an ankle injury. At Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Mawene Hiroti has been named to replace injured centre Jesse Ramien, who will go up against the Roosters’ new starting centre Savala. The Storm have also welcomed outside backs Moses Leo and Jack Howarth back into the squad after extended time on the injury list.

    New Zealand Warriors will be without starting five-eighth Luke Metcalf for multiple weeks with a hamstring injury, with Chanel Harris-Tavita stepping into the playmaking role to replace him.

    Parramatta Eels are facing a crisis of injuries after a bruising Easter Monday loss, with four key players ruled out of the next round: Bailey Simonsson, Sean Russell, Jonah Pezet and breakout rookie Apa Twidle are all unavailable. Araz Nanva will make his first grade debut on the right wing, while Ronald Volkman has been named starting five-eighth, with starting centre Will Penisini hopeful of a return from his own injury issue.

    Finally, Jeral Skelton has been recalled to the starting wing for Wests Tigers ahead of their clash against Newcastle Knights, who will be without star centre Bradman Best, who is out with a groin injury.

  • Why Real Madrid tie could make or break Kane’s Ballon d’Or hopes

    Why Real Madrid tie could make or break Kane’s Ballon d’Or hopes

    As European football’s biggest club competition enters its decisive quarter-final stage, one of the sport’s most hotly anticipated individual prizes is already reaching a defining early crossroads. Harry Kane, the prolific England captain who has rewritten the goalscoring record books this season, could become the first British footballer to lift the Ballon d’Or in 25 years – but an unexpected ankle injury has thrown his historic bid into question just days before Bayern Munich’s crucial first-leg tie against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.

    No player across the top European leagues can match Kane’s output in the 2025-26 campaign: the striker has notched 53 goals in just 45 appearances across both club and country, a remarkable return that has already cemented his status as one of the game’s all-time greatest goalscorers. Yet Kane himself acknowledges that sheer individual goalscoring form will not be enough to secure football’s most prestigious individual award. The 31-year-old was forced to sit out Bayern’s dramatic 3-2 Bundesliga win over Freiburg at the weekend, leaving the club and its fans waiting anxiously for updates on his fitness ahead of Tuesday’s 20:00 BST kickoff. Having ended his long personal trophy drought by winning the Bundesliga with Bayern last season, Kane knows additional domestic silverware in Germany will not be enough to sway Ballon d’Or voters.

    In modern football, the Ballon d’Or has increasingly become an award that rewards team success as much as individual brilliance. Contrary to the original vision of the prize, which was created to honor standout individual performances, a major team trophy – whether the Champions League, World Cup, or a top continental championship like the European Championship – is now widely viewed as an unwritten prerequisite for lifting the golden ball. Kane will get two shots at securing that required title this year: this month’s Champions League run with Bayern, followed by the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America this summer, where he will captain the England national side. But the Bayern clash offers arguably his clearest and earliest path to building a winning case.

    Bayern have been in devastating form all season, racking up 37 wins from 43 matches across all competitions, but their European campaign will rise or fall on the form of their talismanic striker. Speaking to media back in November, Kane summed up the modern reality of the Ballon d’Or race: “I could score 100 goals this season, but if I don’t win the Champions League or the World Cup, you’re probably not going to win the Ballon d’Or. It’s the same with any player. You have to be winning those major trophies.”

    Historical data backs up that assessment. Since 2006, nearly 80% of Ballon d’Or winners have claimed the award in a year where they also lifted either the Champions League or a major international tournament. Only two all-time greats – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – have bucked that trend in the past two decades: Messi won in 2010, 2012 and 2019 despite Barcelona exiting the Champions League at the semi-final stage in each of those years, while Ronaldo claimed the 2013 prize when Real Madrid also bowed out at the same stage. In more recent seasons, the trend has grown even stronger: 10 of the last 11 Ballon d’Or winners have won the award after a Champions League or major international title, with every winner over the past five years following this pattern.

    A 2022 rule change has only reinforced this dynamic. Prior to 2021, the award honored performances across a calendar year, straddling two club seasons. Now, it is aligned to a single August-to-August club campaign in Europe, putting even greater focus on end-of-season trophy runs. While the 100 top international journalists who vote for the award are instructed to consider individual talent, class and fair play alongside team achievements, it is the team success factor that consistently proves decisive.

    Tuesday’s Bernabeu clash carries extra weight for Kane because it pitches him directly against his closest rival for the 2025 Ballon d’Or: Real Madrid’s own star striker Kylian Mbappé. Like Kane, Mbappé has never won the award, but he is enjoying a sensational debut second season in Spanish football, notching 38 goals and 43 total goal involvements across all competitions this term – totals that place him second only to Kane among players in Europe’s top five leagues. Also yet to win a Champions League title, Mbappé currently leads this season’s competition scoring charts with 13 goals, just four short of matching the single-season tournament record.

    Beyond his club form, Mbappé, the France captain, has already notched 12 World Cup goals in his career, putting him within striking distance of Miroslav Klose’s all-time record of 16. If he leads Real Madrid to Champions League glory this month or fires France to World Cup glory this summer while breaking that record, his Ballon d’Or credentials will become nearly unbeatable.

    Mbappé is far from Kane’s only competitor this year. His own Bayern team-mate Michael Olise, a London-born winger who joined the club from Crystal Palace in 2024, has emerged as a key player for France over the past 12 months, notching a leading 24 assists across all competitions this season to cement his own case. Lamine Yamal, the 18-year-old Barcelona sensation who finished second in last year’s Ballon d’Or voting, has continued to go from strength to strength for La Liga leaders Barcelona and World Cup favorites Spain, breaking a raft of age-related records and in line to become the first teenage winner of the award if he continues his form.

    Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior and Barcelona’s Raphinha are often overshadowed by their more high-profile team-mates Mbappé and Yamal respectively, but a strong World Cup performance with Brazil could catapult either into late contention. The North American World Cup also offers a final swansong chance for the sport’s two greatest modern icons: eight-time winner Messi and five-time winner Ronaldo. While both now play outside Europe, they have been eligible for the award since 2007, and their candidacies will stand or fall almost entirely on how they perform for their national sides this summer.

    For Kane, the history of British Ballon d’Or winners offers both inspiration and reason for caution. Only seven British players have ever won the award, and the last to do so was Michael Owen for Liverpool back in 2001 – exactly a quarter of a century ago. The first ever Ballon d’Or went to England’s Stanley Matthews in 1956, and the 1960s saw a golden run for British winners, with Manchester United’s iconic “Holy Trinity” of Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best claiming the prize in 1964, 1966 and 1968 respectively. Kevin Keegan, who won back-to-back Ballon d’Or awards with Hamburg in 1978 and 1979 after moving from England to Germany, offers a particularly relevant template for Kane’s current bid.

    Owen’s 2001 win came after he led Liverpool to three domestic cup titles and scored a famous hat-trick for England in a 5-1 World Cup qualifying win over Germany in Munich. Since 2001, the award has been dominated by players from Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, who have produced 15 of the 23 winners in that period. Only three British players have made the top three in that time: Frank Lampard (second in 2005), Steven Gerrard (third in 2005) and Jude Bellingham (third in 2024). Another point of concern for Kane is that no Ballon d’Or winner has played for a German club since Matthias Sammer won it for Borussia Dortmund in 1996, though Robert Lewandowski was widely considered a deserving winner with Bayern in 2020 when the award was controversially canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    For fans eager to follow the action, full highlights of every Champions League quarter-final first leg will be available from 22:00 BST on Wednesday via BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. A special edition of Champions League Match of the Day will also air on BBC One at 22:40 BST on Wednesday, recapping all the action from the week’s ties.

  • AFL 2026: South Australian great Mark Ricciuto suspects Zak Butters is all but out of Port Adelaide

    AFL 2026: South Australian great Mark Ricciuto suspects Zak Butters is all but out of Port Adelaide

    As one of South Australia’s most respected Australian Football League legends, Brownlow Medallist and eight-time All Australian Mark Ricciuto has delivered a stark assessment of Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters’ future at the club, claiming there is a 99% likelihood the young gun will depart for Victoria at the end of the current season.

    Butters is entering the final stretch of his existing contract with Port Adelaide based at Alberton, and his impending free agency has already triggered widespread speculation of a heated bidding war for his services when the off-season transfer window opens. According to industry rumours, the Western Bulldogs hold the strongest position to secure Butters’ signature, as the player has openly shared his goal to relocate closer to Darley, his rural Victorian hometown.

    In comments shared with media this week, Ricciuto outlined the two stark paths Port Adelaide’s list management team now faces. The first option involves ramping up a massive contract offer to convince Butters to stay, potentially pushing his annual salary as high as AUD 2.5 million – well above the AUD 2 million figure widely cited as the going rate for star players at Melbourne-based clubs. The alternative would see the Power cut ties, capitalise on the transfer market to secure a package of high-value early draft picks, and accelerate a full team rebuild ahead of the upcoming entry of the Tasmanian AFL team, which will reshape future draft allocations.

    “All I can go on is what I hear from everyone across the industry, and everyone says he’s probably a 99 per cent chance of going,” Ricciuto said. “I don’t know what the list managers at Port Adelaide will do – they might chuck an extra half a million a year on top of any existing offer, but who knows? They could also choose to let him leave, pocket the draft picks, and push forward with their rebuild. Chad Cornes has raised questions about Mitch Georgiades potentially departing too; if both players leave this off-season, Port could walk away with four or five top-round picks before the Tasmanian team entry adjusts the draft structure. I don’t know what will end up happening, but if you follow the rumour mill, the rumour mill says he’s gone.”

    Beyond his analysis of Butters’ future, Ricciuto also shared his assessment of his former club, the Adelaide Crows, heading into their upcoming Round 5 Gather Round clash against Carlton this Thursday night. The Crows currently hold a 1-3 win-loss record after dropping three consecutive close matches against the Western Bulldogs, Geelong and Fremantle – a start that has left many fans concerned about the team’s trajectory this season.

    Ricciuto, however, urged supporters not to hit the panic button just yet, noting that Adelaide’s slow start comes against an unusually tough opening schedule. “I think they’ve played four really good sides, had a couple of slow starts and their midfield is perhaps a little bit down as well,” he explained. “The team’s ball movement has been a talking point, so I think they’re probably only playing at 70 to 80 per cent of their full capability right now. They’ve still been competitive with the top teams in the competition, so I think there’s a lot of upside with this Adelaide group. I certainly wouldn’t be panicking, but I’d want to see some improvement in form from the players who are currently underperforming. That’s not uncommon for anyone in the competition – anyone can hit a form slump, but as long as you put in the work on the training track, you turn things around eventually.”

    Ahead of this year’s Gather Round hosted in South Australia, Ricciuto has also thrown his support behind the “Always respect, always DrinkWise” public health campaign, urging footy supporters flocking to Adelaide for the blockbuster weekend of football to prioritise responsible drinking and look out for their fellow fans.

    “It’s a big weekend Gather Round, it’s a good time, there’s lots of people in Adelaide, lots of interstaters,” he said. “I think the key thing is to drink alcohol in moderation and making sure you’re remembering Gather Round for the right reasons. There’s a lot of passion in footy, in close games, in big moments, so just do everything in moderation.”

  • Taiwan opposition leader makes first China visit since 2016

    Taiwan opposition leader makes first China visit since 2016

    In a landmark move marking the first visit by an incumbent leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party to mainland China in a decade, Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson Cheng Li-wun landed in mainland China on Monday. Cheng, who assumed the KMT’s top leadership post last year, confirmed she happily accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping for the six-day trip, framing her visit as an effort to build a “bridge for peace” across the Taiwan Strait.

    Cross-strait communications have been partially frozen by Beijing since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office as Taiwan’s president. Beijing cut the formal exchanges after Tsai refused to accept the 1992 Consensus, which endorses the one-China principle.

    During her visit, Cheng is scheduled to travel across three major Chinese cities: Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing, with a planned meeting with President Xi expected in the final stretch of the trip. While the KMT has historically held warmer cross-strait ties with the Chinese Communist Party compared to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, analysts note that Cheng’s eager approach to this visit marks a clear shift from the more cautious stance adopted by her recent KMT predecessors.

    The timing of the visit comes as growing skepticism toward the United States has spread among sectors of Taiwan’s public, a shift largely driven by inconsistent signals from former president Donald Trump on U.S. policy toward Taiwan and ongoing uncertainty stemming from the Middle East conflict, according to William Yang, a Northeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group, a non-profit global think tank.

    Yang explained that Cheng is positioning this visit as an opportunity to demonstrate her ability as a political leader to sustain constructive cross-strait exchanges and work toward de-escalating long-running tensions between the two sides. For decades, Beijing has maintained its position that self-governed Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, stating it will eventually reunify the island with the mainland and not ruling out the use of military force to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, a large share of Taiwan’s population identifies as a distinct sovereign nation.

    While the United States officially recognizes Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China rather than Taipei, it has remained Taiwan’s largest provider of military arms for decades. In recent years, Trump has publicly stated that Taiwan should fully compensate the U.S. for any security protection it receives against mainland China. Just one week before Cheng’s arrival in mainland China, a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers visited Taipei to push Taiwan’s legislature to pass a proposed $40 billion special defense budget, which is currently stalled in the opposition-controlled legislative body.

    The invitation from Xi to Cheng also comes roughly one month before Xi is set to hold a scheduled meeting with Trump during Trump’s visit to Beijing on May 14 and 15. According to Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist at Australian National University’s Taiwan Centre, Beijing’s move to hold a cordial dialogue with Taiwan’s main opposition party is a strategic step to weaken arguments in favor of expanding U.S.-Taiwan defense cooperation.

    This strategic positioning, Sung added, will allow Beijing to prioritize negotiating trade and economic agreements with the U.S. during Trump’s visit, rather than being forced to center the meeting on cross-strait disputes.

    For Cheng and the KMT, the visit carries clear domestic political benefits ahead of Taiwan’s upcoming local elections scheduled for later this year. Though Cheng launched her political career as a pro-independence advocate, she has worked in recent years to build a public reputation as a cross-strait peacemaker. Yang notes that Cheng is attempting to navigate a careful middle path between Washington and Beijing, strengthening her own domestic leadership standing while highlighting that current Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has failed to restart official engagement with mainland China.

    However, Cheng’s conciliatory stance toward Beijing has faced significant backlash within Taiwan, according to Chong Ja-Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore. Chong explained that many Taiwanese voters view Cheng as an unprincipled opportunist who prioritizes her own political survival and advancement over core issues, a public perception that is reflected in opinion polls showing low public confidence in her leadership.

    “That also means that she is willing to wheel and deal,” Chong added. “Who this benefits, and how much, are the bigger questions that remain unanswered.”

  • ‘Morale boost’: NASA carries out Moon mission during tough year for science

    ‘Morale boost’: NASA carries out Moon mission during tough year for science

    In a moment decades in the making, NASA’s long-awaited Artemis II mission reached its dramatic milestone this week, as four astronauts guided the Orion spacecraft on a close swing around the far side of the Moon. While the mission unfolded 240,000 miles from Earth, hundreds of agency staff packed into Houston’s historic Johnson Space Center White Flight Control Room on Monday to capture a celebratory group photo, their grins reflecting the excitement of a feat not accomplished by American astronauts in 50 years. For thousands of NASA team members who have spent years, even decades, developing the Artemis program, this successful lunar flyby comes at a uniquely challenging moment for American scientific research. The Trump administration has ushered in sweeping cuts to federal science spending, frozen long-planned projects, and reduced agency workforces across the sector. Just one week before Artemis II reached its lunar milestone, the White House tabled a new budget proposal that would slash NASA’s overall operating budget by 23%, with deep cuts to the agency’s core science programs. Space policy analyst Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies notes that NASA has navigated these severe headwinds to deliver on one of the nation’s most high-profile exploration goals. “It’s been under very challenging circumstances,” Swope told Agence France-Presse, affirming that the mission team has delivered on its promise despite widespread resource cuts. For the scientists and engineers who built the Artemis program, the successful mission has been far more than a technical achievement — it has been a much-needed injection of institutional morale. Exploration scientist Jacob Bleacher, who has worked on the initiative for more than a decade, called the milestone a “massive positive moment” for the entire agency. Speaking from Johnson Space Center’s Science Mission Operations Room, Bleacher described the experience as surreal. Most current NASA staff and the majority of the American public were not alive during the 1960s Apollo Moon landing era, turning the iconic lunar missions into a distant historical myth rather than a living, ongoing achievement. “This is my generation’s first chance to step up and really do this,” Bleacher said. “I like to think about it as walking through a doorway into how humankind explores the solar system going forward.” Amanda Nahm, a program scientist based at NASA Headquarters, echoed that sentiment, saying the mission’s progress has already offered a substantial “morale boost” for staff across the agency. “We all work at NASA because of this — and I think it’s helping remind us that our base mission is this hard, exciting exploration — seeing new things, trying out new things we’ve never done before,” Nahm said. “I think it will hopefully reinvigorate us all.” For the four astronauts on board Artemis II, the weight of the moment has not been lost on the crew. Mission commander Reid Wiseman emphasized that the mission’s success belongs to the thousands of ground staff who prepared for the flight over years of work. “We just feel like we’re lifted up by the team that supports us, and you just sort of execute the plan,” Wiseman said as the crew traveled away from Earth. “A lot of people telling us how to work this and manage this vehicle, and a lot of great training, and you just kind of go step by step, which I think is pretty remarkable, what this team can do. It really highlights their excellence.” The Artemis program’s ultimate goal — set by the Trump administration, which has pushed for a crewed lunar landing before the end of the second presidential term in 2029 — remains on the horizon, but this first crewed lunar flyby in a generation has already renewed momentum for a program navigating significant political and budgetary headwinds.