Global Pulse

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  • Corgis race, bark and sniff their way to glory at a growing international race

    Corgis race, bark and sniff their way to glory at a growing international race

    On a recent Saturday in Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius, Vingis Park played host to far more than the usual weekend picnics and joggers. More than 150 short-statured, big-personality corgis, alongside their enthusiastic owners from nine countries across Europe and North America, converged for the fifth annual Corgi Race Vilnius — an event that has grown far beyond a casual local gathering to become the largest international corgi celebration on the continent.

    What began as a small 2019 meetup drawing just 40 corgis from a single Lithuanian city has exploded in popularity year after year. This year’s milestone event marked a major first: a competitor traveled all the way from the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the Pembroke Welsh corgi breed famously adored by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Organizer Edvinas Miskas noted that the event’s expanding international reach lends new weight to the city’s playful self-title as Europe’s “corgi capital.”

    “Now that corgi lovers from the breed’s homeland are choosing to come to our event instead of us traveling to theirs, that nickname starts to feel a lot more credible,” Miskas said.

    While many attendees came to watch the 25-meter sprint that serves as the event’s flagship race, the celebration was designed to highlight far more than just the dogs’ running speed. Ninety-four corgis competed across qualifying rounds, semifinals, and a tightly contested final race, where the top three spots were split between international competitors. Taking home first place was American corgi GG, short for Gustave the Girl Dog, who notched another win after a previous first-place finish at a major corgi race in Washington state. Fellow U.S. contestant Mr. Corgington finished a narrow second, just ahead of two-time former champion Moka, a local favorite from Lithuania.

    Outside of the main sprint, the event featured three fun competitions that celebrated corgis’ varied skills and personalities. Thirty-eight corgis took part in a crowd-favorite costume parade, showing off outfits ranging from a full dinosaur costume to formal gowns and custom canine sports gear. It was Amigo, a corgi who has attended every single edition of the race, that won both judge and public votes for his intricately designed knight costume, taking home the top prize.

    In the “smartest nose” challenge, which tested corgis’ scent-tracking skills by asking them to locate hidden treats around the park, two Latvian corgis, Tora and Rusty, shared the first-place title. The most anticipated off-track event, however, was the competition for the loudest bark. The only British contestant at the whole event, 12-year-old Duke from Sedbergh, England, skipped the main sprint due to his age but joined the bark competition, with his owner noting he had spent his whole life training for the challenge. Ultimately, it was second-place race finisher Mr. Corgington who claimed the bark title with a particularly booming, attention-grabbing howl.

    Organizers highlighted that half of all registered corgis this year were first-time competitors, a sign of the event’s growing global popularity among corgi owners. Six dedicated returning corgis — including costume winner Amigo — have attended all five editions of the race, cementing their status as event veterans and fan favorites. For attendees and organizers alike, the event is more than a race: it’s a global gathering of people united by their love for one of the world’s most recognizable and beloved dog breeds.

  • Rain delays start of play on day 2 of 1st test between Sri Lanka and India

    Rain delays start of play on day 2 of 1st test between Sri Lanka and India

    GALLE, Sri Lanka – The opening day of the first test cricket clash between Sri Lanka and India at the iconic Galle International Stadium wrapped up Saturday with India holding a strong position at 288 runs for the loss of two wickets after 73 overs. But the island nation’s seasonal monsoon rains threw a wrench into proceedings on Sunday, completely wiping out the scheduled morning session of day two and delaying the restart of play well into the afternoon.

    After India captain won the pre-match toss and elected to bat first, young opening batter Devdutt Padikkal delivered a career-defining performance, notching up his first ever century in test cricket with an unbeaten 131 runs. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant remained solid at the crease alongside him, finishing day one not out on 27 runs.

    With weather forecasts showing a potential break in the rain later on Sunday, match organizers have drawn up contingency plans to get play back on track. If conditions improve and the wet outfield dries sufficiently, two shortened sessions of around 90 minutes each, separated by a 20-minute tea interval, will be held to make up for lost time. Under this revised schedule, a total of 43 overs will be bowled before the close of day two, provided no further rain interruptions occur.

    Notably, this test match carries extra historical significance: it marks the 50th test match to be hosted at the Galle International Stadium, a venue renowned for its spinning pitches that have shaped the strategy of both competing sides. Heading into the match, both Sri Lanka and India named spin-dominated bowling attacks, a tactical choice tailored to the Galle ground’s famous turning surface that has long favored slow bowlers over fast bowlers.

  • Five killed as Russia launches fresh aerial attacks across Ukraine

    Five killed as Russia launches fresh aerial attacks across Ukraine

    After months of stagnant attritional combat along Ukraine’s hundreds-of-kilometer front line, the war between Russia and Ukraine has shifted dramatically to an intense battle of the skies, with both sides trading devastating waves of missile and drone attacks that have left civilian populations caught in the crossfire. This latest round of escalation has even spilled over into neighboring NATO territory, triggering an interception by a allied fighter jet.

    Ukrainian officials confirmed Sunday that at least five civilians were killed and more than a dozen others wounded in a fresh wave of Russian long-range strikes that hit multiple regions across the country overnight. Among the hardest-hit targets was a popular outdoor book market in central Kyiv, where emergency services and firefighting teams rushed to the smoldering site to rescue trapped survivors and extinguish blasts sparked by the incoming missile. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, a repeated pattern in Moscow’s recent aerial campaign.

    Local officials across Ukraine confirmed additional casualties in multiple attack sites: In Kryvyi Rih, a 44-year-old man previously reported missing was pulled dead from the rubble of a destroyed structure, with another civilian killed and 14 steel plant workers left injured. In Zaporizhzhia, two civilians in their 60s died when their residential home was leveled by a strike. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko added that at least six people, including one child, had been injured in strikes on the capital, where air-raid sirens have sounded four times since Saturday night. Zelenskyy noted that the strikes hit Kryvyi Rih and Kremenchuk with ballistic missiles, stating, “Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure.” Across the past week alone, Zelenskyy said Russian forces have launched more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles across 13 Ukrainian regions.

    For its part, Russia claimed all of its overnight strikes targeted military-related infrastructure connected to Ukraine’s war effort. The Russian defense ministry said its attacks on Kyiv targeted a FirePoint facility producing parts for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles and a drone component factory. It also confirmed strikes on the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region, which it says supplies fuel to Ukrainian frontline forces, a Kryvyi Rih steelworks producing weapons components for the Ukrainian military, and a dry cargo vessel off the coast of Odesa that it claims was carrying military equipment.

    The escalation is not one-sided: Overnight, Ukraine launched roughly 600 drones toward the Russian capital Moscow, in one of Kyiv’s largest drone attacks on the city in months. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that air defenses intercepted around two-thirds of the incoming drones, but three people were injured in the attack, and a large warehouse belonging to leading Russian online retailer Wildberries, located 25 kilometers outside central Moscow in Koledino, was directly hit. Amateur video footage from the site shows large flames billowing from the structure and a thick black plume of smoke rising visible for kilometers.

    Wildberries, often described as Russia’s domestic equivalent to Amazon, has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes since July. At the start of the campaign against the retailer, Kyiv confirmed it was targeting the logistics hub because the facility is used to route military supplies to Russian frontline forces, with the goal of disrupting Russia’s military supply chains. Russian defense officials reported that overall, Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones launched across Russian territory in the latest exchanges.

    In a development that underscores the risk of the war spilling beyond Ukraine’s borders, Romania’s defense ministry announced Sunday that a Spanish NATO F-18 fighter jet shot down an unauthorized drone that breached Romanian airspace near the country’s border with Ukraine and Moldova. The drone entered Romanian airspace from Moldovan territory, and was intercepted at 05:01 local time Sunday by the jet, which is deployed to NATO’s eastern flank air policing mission. Debris from the downed drone fell in an unpopulated area of Romania’s Galati region, close to the Ukrainian border, and no injuries or damage to civilian property were reported.

    Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently maintains control of roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory. After more than two years of war, ground advances by both sides along the thousand-kilometer front line have been minimal, turning the conflict into a war of attrition. In recent months, the fighting has increasingly shifted to aerial exchanges, with both side launching long-range missile and drone strikes to degrade the other’s military capacity and disrupt frontline supply lines.

  • Firefighters battle a massive Belgian wildfire, forcing hundreds to evacuate

    Firefighters battle a massive Belgian wildfire, forcing hundreds to evacuate

    A catastrophic wildfire tearing through Belgium’s iconic High Fens nature reserve has become the largest blaze the country has seen in modern history, forcing mass evacuations and prompting an international cross-border rescue effort amid an ongoing regional heat and drought crisis.

    The inferno, which was first detected as it expanded rapidly in eastern Belgium near the German border, had already scorched more than 27 square kilometers of protected heathland and peat bog by Sunday — double the size of the previous record-breaking 2011 fire that burned through the same protected ecosystem. The challenging landscape of the High Fens, with its mixture of dry, flammable heath and deep peat deposits, has severely hampered containment efforts for emergency crews.

    When shifting winds pushed thick toxic smoke toward populated areas on Saturday, local officials ordered 600 residents across two nearby municipalities in Liège Province — Waimes and Bütgenbach — to evacuate immediately. Tourists visiting the popular natural reserve were also told to leave the high-risk zone, and a local gymnasium was set up as a temporary emergency shelter for displaced people. As of Sunday morning, authorities confirmed no residential structures had been damaged by the fire, but the blaze remains dangerously close to populated neighborhoods, and heavy smoke continues to blanket the region. Officials have issued a strict order for non-emergency personnel to avoid the fire zone, noting that excess civilian traffic could block access for response vehicles and slow ongoing firefighting operations.

    To scale up response efforts, Belgium activated the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to request support from other member states. “The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, announced on the social platform X. In response to the call, Sweden dispatched two specialized water-bombing aircraft, while the Netherlands and the Czech Republic each contributed additional firefighting helicopters to join the two helicopters already operated by Belgian federal police. In total, more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed to the fire line, including firefighters from both Belgium and neighboring Germany, police officers, military personnel and civil protection workers.

    The wildfire follows weeks of record-breaking high temperatures and minimal rainfall across Western Europe. Belgium recorded another round of extreme heat earlier this week, with temperatures hitting 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) across parts of the country on Friday. The dry conditions have turned vegetation across the region into tinder, increasing wildfire risk dramatically.

    The cross-border impact of the blaze has already prompted emergency precautions in Germany. Local authorities in the German border town of Monschau warned overnight Saturday that the fire front was just 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the German border, and placed local firefighting units on high alert. Early Sunday, officials ordered temporary evacuation for three outlying districts near the border, citing unavoidable health risks from drifting wildfire smoke.

    The Belgian blaze is part of a wider pattern of extreme wildfire activity across Western Europe this summer. In southwestern France, firefighters have spent days battling a separate wildfire that has burned 17 square kilometers of pine forest in the Landes region. Local prefect Gilles Clavreul reported Sunday that the fire had not seen any major new flare-ups overnight, noting that “the situation is developing rather favorably.” Around 650 residents have already been evacuated from the Landes area, and this blaze marks the third major wildfire to hit the region’s vast pine forests this summer, following two large outbreaks in late July. Just last month, a massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned more than 420 square kilometers of land, forced 220,000 people to evacuate, and spread toward the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux.

  • Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia

    Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia

    In one of the most extensive aerial offensives launched by Kyiv since the start of the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine deployed hundreds of drones across Russian territory on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and widespread damage in its wake. The large-scale coordinated attack marked a sharp escalation in Kyiv’s increasingly frequent deep strikes into Russian soil, a campaign that has accelerated steadily through 2024.

    Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones during the overnight assault. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that roughly 600 of the unmanned aerial vehicles were detected heading toward the Russian capital, with roughly one-third of those intercepted and destroyed before they could reach targets within the Moscow region itself.

    Local Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed one fatality from the attack: an 83-year-old man who died when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a private residential property. Vorobyov also added that the strike ignited a large blaze at a warehouse operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic e-commerce retail giant, located in the town of Podolsk. Footage and images shared by local Russian media outlets showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the burning facility, visible for miles across the area.

    Further south, in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, a multi-target drone strike involving more than 150 drones left five people dead, according to regional Governor Yury Slyusar. The assault damaged multiple residential properties and a local railway station, and ignited an uncontrolled forest fire that spread across adjacent woodland areas.

    This latest large-scale attack aligns with a clear shift in Ukraine’s military strategy in 2024. Over the course of this year, Kyiv has ramped up the frequency and scale of strikes inside Russia, using a combination of long-range missiles and mass drone swarms to target key Russian infrastructure including military production facilities and energy hubs. Wildberries warehouses have emerged as an increasingly common target: repeated strikes on the retailer’s storage sites have destroyed billions of dollars worth of stored goods, and brought the direct impact of the war to ordinary Russian civilians, nearly four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Hours after Ukraine’s drone offensive, Russia launched retaliatory strikes across multiple Ukrainian cities, leaving three people dead and multiple more injured. In a post to social media Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others. A third fatality was recorded in the northern city of Sumy, Zelenskyy added. A separate Russian strike on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv ignited multiple fires across the city and left six people with injuries.

    “Wherever Russian ballistic missiles can reach, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in his statement. “Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued across many regions – the Russians have launched another wave of drone attacks.”

    The ongoing escalation of cross-border strikes follows months of increasing long-range attacks by both sides, as the war enters its fifth year. For the latest full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, follow the Associated Press’ ongoing reporting hub.

  • Mass drone attack on Moscow as Russian strikes kill three in Ukraine

    Mass drone attack on Moscow as Russian strikes kill three in Ukraine

    In a sharp escalation of the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, simultaneous large-scale attacks across both countries left multiple people dead, dozens injured, and critical infrastructure damaged over the weekend, with the conflict spilling over into NATO member territory for the second consecutive day. Two sides have exchanged deadly strikes, amplifying fears of broader regional instability amid the 4-year-old full-scale conflict.

    Officials from Moscow confirmed that the Russian capital faced a sustained overnight barrage of hundreds of drones, in what regional authorities described as one of the largest coordinated drone assaults on the capital in recent history. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin released incremental updates throughout the overnight attack, confirming that Russian air defense systems intercepted more than 600 drones targeting the capital, with roughly 200 of the unmanned aerial vehicles shot down within the broader Moscow region. Six people were wounded across the region in the attack, and a direct drone strike on an industrial facility in Podolsk sparked a large fire at a warehouse operated by major Russian online retailer Wildberries. Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed the details of the strike in an official statement.

    This attack is part of Ukraine’s increasingly frequent targeting of Wildberries-linked logistics and storage facilities across Russia, a strategy Ukrainian officials have framed as a legitimate response to repeated Russian bombardment of Ukrainian civilian towns and critical infrastructure. Since mid-July alone, Ukrainian forces have struck roughly 20 Wildberries warehouses and associated buildings across Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has openly stated that Ukraine’s deep strikes inside Russian territory, which target both storage facilities and energy infrastructure like oil refineries, are intended to disrupt and weaken Russia’s war-driven economy, which underpins its invasion capabilities.

    Simultaneously with the Moscow drone assault, Russian forces launched a wave of ballistic missile and drone strikes across multiple major Ukrainian cities, killing three civilians and wounding more than a dozen people, according to Ukrainian officials. Fatalities were recorded in two regions: two people were killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, and one additional fatality was reported in Kryvyi Rih, President Zelenskyy’s hometown. More than 20 people were injured across five regions: Kyiv, Brovary, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, and Dnipetrovsk.

    Local defense council head Oleksandr Vilkul reported that Russian forces struck two key industrial sites in Kryvyi Rih. In Kyiv, regional authorities triggered a nationwide air raid alert just before 2 a.m. local time, with multiple loud explosions reported across the capital minutes after the alert was issued. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko quickly confirmed the city was under ballistic missile attack and urged all residents to stay in designated shelters. Fires broke out in two of Kyiv’s central districts, Obolonsky and Holosiivskyi, following the strikes. Central Ukrainian city Kremenchuk in the Poltava region was also targeted, though local officials have not yet released details of casualties or damage from the attack. Russia has maintained near-daily bombardment of Ukrainian territory across the country since launching its full-scale invasion in early 2022.

    Beyond the direct fighting between the two nations, the conflict has spilled over into neighboring eastern European NATO territory twice in as many days, raising new security concerns for the alliance. Romania’s Ministry of Defense announced that a Spanish NATO F-18 fighter jet operating in the country shot down an unidentified drone that breached Romanian airspace near the country’s border with Ukraine and Moldova. Debris from the downed drone fell in an unpopulated area of Romania’s Galati region, located close to the Ukrainian border, and no injuries or civilian damage have been reported. At the time of publication, the origin of the drone remains unconfirmed.

    NATO-allied countries bordering the conflict zone have reported an increasing number of stray drones breaching their territory in recent months. On Friday, NATO confirmed that alliance fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace. The Latvian Ministry of Defense stated that this marked the second drone shootdown in the country’s airspace in a single week. Tensions between Romania and Russia have already escalated over repeated airspace breaches: in July, Romania expelled a Russian embassy staff member, framing the move as a firm response to repeated unauthorized drone incursions. Prior to the expulsion, Romanian defense forces shot down three drones on three consecutive days within its territory.

  • A bus crash in Hungary kills 12 people, police say

    A bus crash in Hungary kills 12 people, police say

    A devastating early-morning highway accident has left 12 people dead and multiple others injured after a passenger veered off the roadway and overturned in a roadside ditch in eastern Hungary, local law enforcement confirmed Sunday. The collision unfolded at approximately 1 a.m. local time, roughly 87 miles (140 kilometers) to the east of Hungary’s capital city of Budapest, according to initial police accounts.

    The passenger bus involved in the crash carries Polish registration plates, investigators confirmed. Based on early evidence gathered at the crash site, law enforcement officials have stated that the most probable cause of the incident is driver drowsiness, with the operator likely falling asleep at the wheel before losing control of the vehicle.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar publicly addressed the tragedy in a statement posted to his official Facebook page, updating that at least 10 of those injured in the crash were in serious condition. Magyar extended his deepest condolences to the family members and loved ones of the 12 people who lost their lives, and also offered formal recognition and gratitude to the first responders and rescue teams that were rapidly dispatched to the remote crash site to extract survivors and provide emergency care.

  • Twelve killed as Polish bus veers off Hungarian motorway

    Twelve killed as Polish bus veers off Hungarian motorway

    A devastating early-morning road accident has left 12 people dead and multiple others injured after a Polish tourist bus veered off a major Hungarian motorway and crashed into an adjacent ditch in the early hours of Sunday local time. The crash unfolded around 1:00 a.m. local time — equal to 23:00 GMT Saturday — along the M3 motorway, a critical transportation corridor that links Budapest, Hungary’s capital, to Nyíregyháza, a major city in the country’s northeast. Following its departure from the roadway, the bus overturned, leaving dozens of people trapped inside and underneath the vehicle.

    Preliminary investigations from law enforcement indicate the crash occurred because the bus driver fell asleep while operating the vehicle. The driver has since been taken into police custody pending further formal investigation into the incident.

    As of the latest updates from Hungarian state media, rescue crews including firefighters have successfully pulled 35 of the 57 passengers on board, plus both of the vehicle’s two drivers, to safety. According to Hungary’s state-run news agency MTI, first responders faced challenging working conditions in the immediate aftermath of the crash: before heavy cranes could arrive on site to lift the entire 24-tonne bus, crews worked frantically to raise the vehicle’s rear axle to reach people trapped underneath the chassis.

    Hungary’s national ambulance service confirmed the breakdown of injuries among those involved in the crash: one person remains in critical, life-threatening condition, nine people are suffering from serious injuries, and an additional 37 people have been treated for minor wounds.

    In the hours following the tragedy, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar released a statement extending his deepest and most sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the crash. He also shared public wishes for a full and speedy recovery for all those who were injured during the incident.

  • Bangladesh thrash Australia for historic win

    Bangladesh thrash Australia for historic win

    In one of the most shocking upsets in the history of Test cricket, ninth-ranked Bangladesh has defeated the world’s top-ranked Test side Australia by nine wickets on the fourth day of the opening match of their two-Test series in Darwin, securing the nation’s first ever Test win on Australian soil.

    The result cements this victory as the most consequential win in Bangladesh’s 26-year history of Test cricket, a milestone made even more remarkable by the challenges Bangladesh overcame to claim the upset. Entering the match missing two of their star fast bowlers, Nahid Rana and Shoriful Islam, to injury, the side had also suffered a demoralizing 54-all-out defeat in a warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI just days prior, and had been handily beaten by lowest-ranked Zimbabwe in a one-off Test in Harare back in June. None of these setbacks, however, derailed the Bangladeshi side’s focus across the four days of play.

    After Bangladesh posted a solid first innings total of 426, powered by century-maker Tanzid Hasan Tamim (101), 84 from captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, and a gritty 65 from spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Australia’s attack led by Josh Hazlewood (6-89) could not prevent the underdogs from claiming a substantial first innings lead. Left-arm seamer Hasan Mahmud then tore through Australia’s first innings, taking 6 wickets for just 55 runs to bundle the hosts out for 198, putting Bangladesh firmly in control from the earliest stages of the match.

    Australia’s second innings saw a valiant fight from all-rounder Cameron Green, who notched his third Test century on home soil amid recent public criticism over his position in the national side. But Green’s 104 was not enough to turn the tide: Miraz delivered a devastating five-wicket haul (5-66) on day four, dismissing key Australian batters including talisman Steve Smith, captain Pat Cummins, and leading spinner Nathan Lyon. Mahmud wrapped up the innings by removing Green, leaving Bangladesh with a modest target of just 57 runs to claim victory.

    Though Hazlewood removed opener Tanzid for a duck early in the chase, Mominul Haque’s unbeaten 30 and Shadman Islam’s 25 guided Bangladesh across the finish line, with Haque cutting Beau Webster to the boundary for the winning runs. The moment triggered wild celebrations from Bangladesh’s players and coaching staff, who had achieved a result many considered impossible.

    Mahmud, who finished with match figures of 9 wickets for 111 runs, was named Player of the Match for his dominant performance with the ball. Speaking after the win, Shanto called the upset the biggest victory in Bangladesh’s cricketing history across any format. “I’m very happy, proud of myself and the way the boys played. We did a lot of hard work,” Shanto said, adding that a shift in mindset among the team’s fast bowlers had been key to the result. “Five years ago, pacers didn’t want to play Tests. But we’ve been playing lots of Test cricket and they are giving importance to Test format. Seniors like Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque have encouraged them to play more Test cricket.”

    Australian captain Pat Cummins offered no excuses for the defeat, acknowledging that Bangladesh had outperformed his side in every department of the game. “They outplayed us in all facets, they were patient and disciplined,” Cummins said. “I thought our prep was spot-on, no excuses.” Veteran cricket commentator Jim Maxwell described the result as one of the most embarrassing defeats Australia has ever suffered in Test cricket, while Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman publicly congratulated the team in a social media message, saying the nation was eagerly waiting to welcome the side home with their historic win.

    This result marks only the second time Bangladesh has beaten Australia in Test cricket, with their first win coming at Mirpur in 2017. The two sides will now turn their attention to the second Test of the series, which is set to begin on August 22, with live ball-by-ball commentary available for UK listeners on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds.

  • Debutant hero Imogen Brown seals stunning Swans comeback against Adelaide Crows

    Debutant hero Imogen Brown seals stunning Swans comeback against Adelaide Crows

    The 2026 AFLW season kicked off with one of the most dramatic opening round comebacks in recent memory on Sunday afternoon, as the Sydney Swans overcame a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to secure an eight-point victory over the Adelaide Crows at Unley Oval. The win marks the first time the Swans have ever beaten Adelaide, and delivers a dream start for newly appointed head coach Colin O’Riordan’s tenure at the club.

    Adelaide controlled the bulk of the contest, building a game-high 15-point lead just before halftime and holding a comfortable advantage heading into the final quarter. But the Swans flipped the script completely in the final 15 minutes of play, holding the Crows scoreless for the entire fourth quarter to clinch a memorable 61-53 win.

    Two late goals from veterans Cynthia Hamilton and Holly Cooper flipped the scoreboard on its head, putting Sydney up by just two points with minutes left on the clock. Pressured deep in their attacking half, the Crows attempted a risky centre drive to find an equalizer, but a costly turnover put 21-year-old Sydney debutant Imogen Brown in position for the match-clinching score. Brown calmly slotted the goal to seal the eight-point result, capping off one of the most impressive opening-round turnarounds in recent AFLW history.

    Sunday’s clash also highlighted the impact of off-season recruiting for both clubs, with high-profile new additions and top draft picks stepping up to deliver standout performances. For the Crows, 18-year-old number five draft pick Chloe Bown made an immediate impression in her senior debut, proving a constant offensive threat up forward and contributing to eight of Adelaide’s 18 total scores for the day. Her dominant showing has already put her at the top of the conversation for the league’s Round 1 Rising Star nomination, and suggests she will be a core piece of Adelaide’s forward rotation for seasons to come.

    Sydney’s big off-season acquisition also delivered on expectations immediately, with two-time premiership winner Taylor Smith kicking three first-half goals in her first game wearing the Swans guernsey. Smith was lured north to Sydney during the off-season trade window, adding elite attacking firepower to a forward line already anchored by three-time All-Australian Chloe Molloy.

    Adelaide captain Ebony “Noffy” Marinoff put on a masterclass even in defeat, returning to her signature dominant form in the middle of the ground. The 2024 Club Best and Fairest winner racked up 27 disposals and orchestrated nearly all of the Crows’ best attacking moves throughout the afternoon. If Marinoff maintains this form through the 2026 season, she is already on track to claim a second Best and Fairest award for her club.

    The final scoreline reflected the tight, back-and-forth nature of the contest: Adelaide Crows finished at 7.11 (53), while the Sydney Swans closed out the game at 9.7 (61). The upset win sends an early warning to the rest of the competition that the Swans, under their new coaching regime and boosted by elite off-season additions, are a serious contender in 2026.