A sharp political clash has erupted between Spain’s leftist national administration and right-leaning regional leadership over the fate of thousands of migrants who remain stranded in the North African enclave of Ceuta, following an unprecedented mass border crossing from Morocco last month. On Monday, Juan Jesus Vivas, leader of Ceuta’s Popular Party (PP) administration, issued an urgent call for the construction of a dedicated detention facility to hold the remaining migrants, clearing the way for faster processing and eventual expulsion from the small Spanish territory. The crisis unfolded on July 30 and 31, when roughly 72,000 migrants stormed the fortified border between Morocco and Ceuta in one of the largest mass border crossings in recent European history. Spanish government data confirms that approximately 70,000 of those migrants have since been repatriated back to Morocco. But thousands remain, among them hundreds of unaccompanied minor migrants who are protected from immediate summary deportation under Spanish and EU law. Currently, these remaining migrants are forced to live in makeshift conditions on Ceuta’s streets, with limited access to basic necessities including food, clean drinking water, emergency shelter and proper sanitation. The small enclave, whose permanent population numbers just 84,000, has seen its public resources completely overwhelmed by the sudden arrival of such a large group of people. The unresolved situation of the remaining migrants has opened a major rift between the central government led by left-leaning parties, and regional governments controlled by the conservative PP and far-right Vox party. Right-leaning regional administrations across Spain have refused to comply with existing legal requirements to accept and resettle the unaccompanied minor migrants from Ceuta, deepening the political deadlock. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Vivas argued that a centralized internment facility for irregular migrants is an urgent necessity to address the current chaos. “A space that acts as an internment centre for foreigners must be set up, where these people can be held and remain confined,” Vivas stated. He emphasized that the facility would allow authorities to speed up deportation procedures and remove homeless migrants from Ceuta’s public streets, describing the current situation as completely “unsustainable” for the small territory. Vivas also pushed back against central government figures, estimating the actual number of remaining migrants is between 8,000 and 11,000, far higher than the central government’s official count of roughly 2,500. The growing public discontent over the crisis boiled over on Sunday, when thousands of Ceuta’s permanent residents gathered for a mass protest to condemn the central government’s handling of the emergency. Protesters argued that the crisis has left the enclave unsafe and abandoned by national leaders. In response to the growing outcry, Angel Victor Torres, Spain’s minister for regional relations, sought to reassure Ceuta’s population that the national government was stepping up its response. Torres confirmed that security force numbers had been significantly increased, including a 40 percent boost in the deployment of the national Civil Guard to the enclave. He added that reuniting unaccompanied migrant children with their family members is the administration’s top priority, but made no mention of plans for further expulsions of the remaining migrants, leaving key questions about the crisis’s resolution unanswered.
标签： Oceania
大洋洲
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Russia bars only anti-war party from elections
On Monday, Russia’s highest judicial body upheld a legal challenge brought by a pro-Kremlin nationalist faction, issuing a ruling that excludes Yabloko, the country’s sole remaining openly anti-war political party, from participating in the upcoming September State Duma parliamentary elections. The decision eliminates the last electoral option for Russian voters who oppose the ongoing 4.5-year military conflict in Ukraine.
“The claims seeking to annul the registration of the federal list of candidates for the State Duma of the ninth convocation, nominated by the Yabloko political party, were granted,” announced Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov from the bench.
Against a backdrop where nearly all of President Vladimir Putin’s prominent political rivals have been imprisoned, forced into exile, or killed, Yabloko stands as the last liberal-leaning political organization still legally operating within Russia’s borders. The party has earned public support from multiple exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, widow of deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny — both Navalnaya and her late husband are officially labeled “extremists” by Russian authorities.
Shortly after the ruling was made public, roughly 100 Yabloko supporters, a majority of whom were young people, assembled outside the Supreme Court building, repeating chants of “Shame! Shame!” to protest the decision. Speaking to the gathered crowd following the hearing, Yabloko party leader Nikolay Rybakov confirmed that the organization would launch an appeal against the court’s ban.
“We have a long way ahead and we have a big and important task: to stop deaths and bring the peace back,” Rybakov told supporters. “Everything we do should be dedicated to that.”
Before the court issued its decision, 22-year-old Yabloko backer Yevgenia spoke with AFP, explaining that she planned to cast her vote for the party to signal to the Kremlin that “we are not satisfied with the current state of affairs”. She added, “We would really like to reach some kind of peaceful agreement so that this special military operation can finally come to an end,” using the official Russian terminology for the full-scale offensive in Ukraine.
As Ukrainian cross-border retaliatory strikes increasingly target Russian infrastructure including oil refineries and e-commerce storage facilities, disrupting daily life for ordinary citizens across the country, Yabloko had centered its electoral campaign on its anti-war peace platform, hoping to resonate especially with younger voter demographics. The party also aimed to channel growing public discontent over widespread internet shutdowns implemented by Russian authorities to mitigate the impact of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Years of growing pressure have been placed on Yabloko and its members, who have faced repeated legal repercussions for their open opposition to the conflict. In a pre-ruling interview with AFP over the weekend, Rybakov shared that approximately 40 of the party’s activists currently face criminal prosecution.
Earlier this year in June, the party’s deputy leader Maxim Kruglov was sentenced to seven years in prison over social media posts criticizing the military campaign, while Lev Shlosberg, head of Yabloko’s Pskov regional branch, was arrested by authorities in 2023. Rybakov himself was issued a fine last December for sharing a photo of Alexei Navalny on social media, a penalty that also disqualifies him from running as a candidate in the September election.
Polling conducted earlier in 2024 placed Yabloko — whose name translates to “apple” in Russian — at just 3% public support, a figure that falls short of the 5% vote threshold required to secure seats in Russia’s lower legislative house. Founded in 1993 by a group of pro-Western former government officials shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yabloko saw modest electoral success in the 1990s. But since 2003, as the Kremlin consolidated control over Russia’s electoral system, the party has failed to win any State Duma seats, with Putin’s ruling United Russia party securing a supermajority in every parliamentary election held since that time.
To date, all diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine have stalled. Putin has maintained hardline territorial demands as a condition for ending fighting, and has repeatedly ruled out any peace negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Despite this official stance, independent public opinion polls show that a majority of Russian residents favor opening peace negotiations with Kyiv.
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Trump insists Netanyahu relationship ‘very good’ despite Gaza rift
U.S. President Donald Trump moved to quell growing speculation of a fractured bilateral relationship on Monday, publicly affirming that his partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains “very good” — days after the Israeli leader openly rejected a Washington-brokered postwar framework for Gaza. The clarification came in response to a reporter’s shouted question at the conclusion of an official event held in the White House Oval Office.
The public rift has built steadily over more than a week, culminating in Netanyahu’s explicit Sunday rejection of the U.S.-led proposal, which requires Israel to begin a phased drawdown of its military forces in Gaza in parallel with Hamas fulfilling disarmament commitments. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving sitting prime minister, is navigating a high-stakes political contest ahead of the country’s October 27 national elections — the first national vote since the devastating October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the ongoing Gaza war. Recent polling shows the leader either neck-and-neck with opposition candidates or trailing in key matchups.
The U.S. Gaza plan faces deep backlash among Netanyahu’s core right-wing electoral base, and influential far-right members of his governing coalition have repeatedly pressured him to reject the proposal outright. Until the recent public split, Netanyahu centered much of his reelection campaign on his close, mutually beneficial relationship with Trump, who has taken historically pro-Israel steps during his time in office, including the controversial decision to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The two leaders aligned closely earlier this year when they launched a joint military campaign against Iran in late February, but their strategic priorities have diverged in recent months. Trump has pushed for a permanent ceasefire and negotiated political settlement to the Gaza conflict, as the protracted war has dragged down his domestic approval ratings and pushed global oil prices sharply higher.
The U.S.-backed Gaza plan represents the next phase of a ceasefire agreement brokered by Washington earlier this year, which has reduced the scale of Israeli military operations in the enclave but failed to end hostilities entirely. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry — whose casualty data is deemed reliable by the United Nations — more than 1,250 Palestinian civilians and fighters have been killed by Israeli operations in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect. The Israeli military has confirmed five of its soldiers have died in the same period.
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Trump order pushes for overhaul of childhood vaccine schedule
On a Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a sweeping review of childhood vaccine mandates for K-12 schools, doubling down on a long-debunked call to split the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots. The signing ceremony was attended by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longstanding anti-vaccine advocate who built his public profile around spreading false claims of a link between childhood immunization and autism, a claim that has been thoroughly disproven by decades of peer-reviewed clinical research.
Critics across the medical and public health communities have quickly decried the order as scientifically unfounded and a direct threat to decades of successful public health progress. The policy push also faces immediate structural limitations: the federal government holds no direct authority over school vaccine requirements, which are set independently by individual U.S. states and territories. As outlined in the text of the order itself, the Trump administration can only advise state and local governments to revisit their existing immunization rules for school enrollment, making the measure largely symbolic rather than immediately enforceable.
The order does include one actionable provision: it directs the Department of Health and Human Services to convene a new interagency task force to work with private pharmaceutical manufacturers and international partners to develop and approve separate MMR vaccines, while retaining the existing combined shot as an option. Even if the task force moves forward immediately, leading pediatric health experts warn that full regulatory approval and widespread distribution of separate shots would take more than a decade to complete.
“This entire order is rooted in politics and conspiracy theories, not evidence-based public health,” Alister Martin, New York City’s Health Commissioner, said in a public statement following the signing. “Vaccination recommendations should not be set by the president, and thankfully, they are not. Cities and states retain authority to set their own rules, and here in New York City, we will continue to follow science-based guidance, not politically motivated misinformation.”
Decades of large-scale clinical trials and population-level data consistently confirm that the combined MMR vaccine is safe for children. Public health experts note that the combined formulation delivers faster, broader protection against three dangerous contagious diseases, while also reducing logistical burdens for families who may face barriers to scheduling multiple doctor’s appointments for separate shots. Despite this overwhelming consensus, President Trump used the signing ceremony to repeat a series of inflammatory, unsubstantiated claims contradicting established medical guidance.
Leading national medical organizations have uniformly rejected the administration’s proposals. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), emphasized that the development process for separate MMR vaccines would take more than 10 years to complete under the best of circumstances. “We are advising all pediatric providers and parents to continue following the existing schedule, which uses a vaccine that has 70 years of proven safety data behind it,” added Aaron M. Milstone, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Even some members of the president’s own party have publicly denounced the move. Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician whose decisive vote confirmed Kennedy’s controversial appointment as Health Secretary, posted to social media platform X that the order would only worsen existing vaccine hesitancy and put American children at greater risk of preventable disease. “This executive order is wrong,” Cassidy wrote. “The President does not have the medical expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.”
The latest policy push comes as the Trump administration already saw a prior attempt to overhaul federal vaccine policy blocked by a federal court earlier this year, after major medical organizations successfully argued the administration’s actions violated federal law. A judge issued a stay on the changes pending ongoing legal proceedings.
Monday’s order arrives at a critical moment: as children across the United States prepare to return to in-person schooling for the new academic year, the country is currently grappling with the worst measles outbreak it has seen in 35 years. Public health officials widely blame rising vaccine hesitancy, fueled in large part by anti-vaccine misinformation spread by Kennedy and other allies of the president, for the resurgence of the once-eliminated disease.
Recent polling shows a majority of American voters support evidence-based childhood vaccination requirements, and both Kennedy and Trump had softened their anti-vaccine rhetoric in recent months amid fears that hardline anti-vaccine positions would hurt Republican candidates in the upcoming November midterm elections. Monday’s signing makes clear that rolling back existing vaccine policy and advancing anti-vaccine misinformation remains a core priority of the administration’s public health agenda, as both men continue to endorse the thoroughly debunked claim that immunization causes autism.
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Return of displaced Syrian Kurds to hometown suspended after violence
Months after a landmark reconciliation deal between Kurdish factions and Syrian national authorities that paved the way for the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, plans to repatriate Kurdish residents to their northeastern hometown of Ras al-Ain have been thrown into chaos. The process was suspended just hours after the first cohort of returnees departed for the border town, following a targeted attack on the convoy that ignited mass protests across Kurdish-majority regions of northern Syria.
On Monday morning, hundreds of families loaded their remaining belongings onto trucks at staging areas outside the provincial capital of Hasakeh, with many telling Agence France-Presse reporters they had waited years for the chance to go home. Among them was 37-year-old Nora Khodor, who described the long-awaited return as “like a dream” after half a decade of displacement. Thirty-nine-year-old Rawda Mohammed added that even confirmation her former home had been completely destroyed did not dim her excitement: “we’re happy to return, and when we get there we’ll see what we can do.”
Jawan Isso, a representative of the Ras al-Ain Displaced Persons Committee, confirmed that roughly 2,500 people made up the first repatriation batch, with a second group scheduled to depart in the following days. In total, more than 100,000 displaced residents from the Ras al-Ain region have submitted applications to return to their pre-war homes. But within hours of departing, the convoy came under attack by unidentified armed groups, Isso said.
In response to the violence, Mahmud Khalil Ali, deputy head of Hasakeh province’s security forces, announced the immediate suspension of all repatriation trips as a precautionary safety measure. “Several of those involved in the attacks were arrested,” Ali said, adding that “these trips will resume as soon as the situation stabilises and full protection is provided for the returnees.”
The attack quickly sparked widespread anger across northern Syria’s Kurdish communities. In the nearby city of Qamishli, an AFP correspondent witnessed hundreds of angry protesters attempt to storm a local security forces headquarters, only to be pushed back by Syrian security officers. Further west in the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane, Syrian state television reported that protesters targeted government administrative buildings and removed the national flag from outside the local security headquarters. Authorities subsequently imposed a full curfew on Kobane as they launched a manhunt for the attack organizers.
Mazloum Abdi, leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who signed the January reconciliation deal with Damascus, condemned the attack on returning families in a post on X. “We understand the angry reactions in the Kurdish street in response to this assault,” Abdi wrote. “At the same time, we call on our people to exercise self-restraint, refrain from being drawn into any irresponsible acts, and preserve our civil and security institutions.”
Ahmad al-Hilali, deputy governor of Hasakeh province, issued a unified condemnation of both the original attack on returnees and the subsequent attacks on state institutions across the region. “A number of rioters have already been arrested in several areas,” al-Hilali said, vowing that there would be “no leniency” toward any actors that threaten “civil peace.”
The current unrest has its roots in the 2019 Turkish cross-border offensive that pushed Kurdish forces out of a 120-kilometer strip of Syrian territory along the Turkish-Syrian border, including Ras al-Ain (known as Sari Kani to Kurds). The operation displaced tens of thousands of Kurdish residents from the region, and international human rights groups have documented widespread looting and seizure of abandoned Kurdish homes by pro-Turkish armed groups, many of whom have since relocated their families to the formerly mixed-ethnicity area. Turkey launched multiple successive offensives against Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria before the December 2024 collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government, which saw new Islamist-led national authorities extend central control across all formerly autonomous regions of the country, including Kurdish-held territories.
Today, more than 13 years after the start of Syria’s civil conflict, the United Nations estimates that 5.5 million people remain internally displaced across the country, many of whom have spent years waiting for the chance to return to their pre-war homes.
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Southern Cross Media shares slump as first results reveal sharp profit drop
Australia’s Southern Cross Media Group, the newly merged entity created from the combination of Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media and the original Southern Cross radio business, has delivered a disappointing first full-year financial result, posting a net after-tax loss and a dramatic slump in underlying profits against a challenging economic backdrop.
The combined media group, whose portfolio includes major assets such as *The West Australian* newspaper and the nationally popular Triple M radio network, recorded a statutory net after-tax loss of $3.8 million for the 2026 fiscal year. On a pro forma basis, which normalises results to reflect the merged structure for comparison with the prior year, net after-tax profit came in at $9.9 million — a 57.6% nosedive from 2025 levels.
The result revealed stark divergence across the group’s three core divisions, with steep declines in television performance partially offset by resilient growth in the audio (radio and digital) segment. Immediately following the release of the results, the group’s shares traded 1.83% lower on opening, falling to $0.54 apiece.
The television division bore the brunt of the downturn, driven by a widespread contraction in free-to-air advertising spending that fell 9.9% across the full year, with market conditions deteriorating sharply in the final fourth quarter. When combined with $13 million in writedowns on existing television content contracts, the television division finished the period in the red.
In contrast, the group’s audio division posted solid gains that helped soften the broader financial decline. Total audio revenue climbed 1.4% year-on-year to reach $429.9 million, with double-digit growth in digital audio revenue hitting $6.5 million, enough to counteract softness in traditional advertising for both metropolitan and regional radio broadcasting.
The group’s publishing division also faced headwinds, with total revenue slipping 3.1% to $187 million as advertising revenue contracted and subscription revenue stayed flat compared to the prior year. Across all divisions, Southern Cross reported total annual revenue of $1.9 billion, representing a 4.5% decline from the previous year. Weaker advertising markets across all segments delivered a $125 million hit to the group’s top line.
Despite the weak headline financial results, company executives highlighted bright spots in audience and digital growth. Southern Cross noted that it expanded total audience reach across its television and audio platforms over the fiscal year, with digital revenue across key platforms including 7plus, Listnr, and *The Nightly* delivering double-digit annual growth.
Rohan Lund, who was appointed chief executive officer of Southern Cross in May 2025, acknowledged the challenging trading environment that shaped the full-year result. “Trading conditions were difficult, particularly in television through Q4, and revenue came in below where we expected,” Lund said in a statement accompanying the results. “Share gains and cost discipline partially offset that, and EBITDA finished above our revised guidance.”
Lund struck an optimistic tone about the merged group’s long-term position, noting that the newly combined business now reaches more than 20 million Australian consumers each month. “Each of our three businesses – television, audio and publishing – strengthened its market position during FY26,” he added. “While we expect conditions to stay subdued, our focus doesn’t change: bring Australians together through content they love and trust, turn that connection into audiences that work for advertisers and run the business with discipline and unity.”
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Top cop offers major condition update on colleague who was stabbed
Two weeks after a brutal stabbing attack left a South Australian female police officer with serious neck injuries, state police have confirmed the public servant may face additional surgical procedures in the coming months as her recovery continues. The officer, identified only as Jessie, was rushed to hospital following the July 29 assault in Elizabeth East, a residential suburb located on Adelaide’s northern outskirts. Immediately after the alleged attack, responding officers shot the 27-year-old male suspect, who has since been formally charged in connection to the incident.
At a Monday press conference focused on monthly state crime statistics, Acting Assistant Commissioner David O’Donovan of South Australia Police (SAPOL) shared the latest update on the officer’s road to recovery. “Jessie is recovering well, she is receiving continued specialist medical treatment but it is too early in her treatment to understand the full effects of the physical injury,” O’Donovan told reporters. “The one thing we can’t rule out is that she will be facing further surgical procedures in the future.”
O’Donovan also noted that beyond the clear physical harm of the attack, the traumatic experience has left lasting psychological impacts, meaning Jessie faces a long, gradual recovery process. He confirmed that SAPOL has mobilized full support resources for both the officer and her family to help them navigate this challenging period.
The suspect, who did not appear in person, recently faced the Elizabeth Magistrates Court via a remote phone hearing. He faces multiple serious charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault, and has been remanded in official custody until his next scheduled court hearing in November.
O’Donovan’s update on the stabbing came alongside the release of new SAPOL crime data that paints a troubling picture of growing violence against frontline police in the state. The recently updated figures show a 27% year-over-year jump in assaults on officers, rising from 620 reported incidents to 790. These attacks run the gamut from physical assault such as kicking, punching and biting, to the increasingly common act of spitting on officers.
“Spitting is becoming quite a prevalent and quite a disgusting thing for people to do at police officers, and it is not okay,” O’Donovan emphasized. “This is absolutely not okay to be doing that towards our people. We will respond appropriately and these people will absolutely face the full weight of the law.”
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Experts warn of no rate relief ahead of the RBA’s meeting
As Australia’s Reserve Bank (RBA) prepares to announce its latest cash rate decision on Tuesday afternoon, financial experts are issuing urgent warnings that mortgage holders across the country should prepare for prolonged financial strain, with little to no relief on the horizon even if the central bank holds rates steady.
Right now, household budgets across the nation are stretched to their absolute breaking point, according to industry analysis from personal finance comparison platform Finder. Nearly 40% of Australian mortgage borrowers reported struggling to meet their monthly home loan payments as of June, a figure that has stayed elevated amid persistent cost-of-living increases. Taylor Blackburn, Finder’s personal finance and insurance specialist, said the current climate leaves no room for complacency, urging borrowers to “batten down the hatches” for tough times ahead.
For borrowers able to adjust their loan terms, Blackburn says refinancing to lock in a lower interest rate remains the most effective step to reduce monthly financial pressure. For those already at the end of their financial rope, he encouraged homeowners to reach out directly to their lenders to discuss available hardship support, such as temporary repayment holidays, noting that necessity drives flexible solutions for struggling households. A surprise rate hike this week, he added, would only pour more fuel on an already raging fire: the three rate increases implemented by the RBA in three of its four 2026 meetings have already pushed the cash rate up 75 basis points to the current 4.35%, adding an extra $350 per month to repayments for the average $700,000 mortgage.
While a majority of economic forecasters predict the RBA will hold the cash rate at 4.35% this week, Finder home loans expert Richard Whitten warned borrowers against interpreting a pause as the end of rate pressures. “Interest rates are as high as they’ve ever been in recent history, and with higher house prices, this makes repayments incredibly expensive,” Whitten explained. Nearly half of the economic panel surveyed by Finder still expect at least one more rate hike before the end of 2026, with 44% of experts forecasting additional tightening before the RBA wraps up its fight against inflation.
The RBA has been working for months to pull annual inflation back into its target range of 2 to 3%, but official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows inflation rose to 3.6% in the 12 months to June 2026, moving further away from the central bank’s goal. Housing costs have been the single biggest driver of this inflation, jumping 6.8% year-on-year, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages and recreation and culture, both up 3.3% annually. This dynamic creates a devastating double burden for mortgage holders: high inflation pushes up the cost of everyday essentials at the same time it keeps interest rates – and monthly home loan repayments – elevated.
Blackburn noted that the RBA has signaled it may adopt a wait-and-see approach this week to give previous rate changes time to work through the economy, and to assess whether ongoing inflation is being driven by factors outside of cash rate policy. Still, for the 38% of homeowners already struggling to make their mortgage payments, any additional rate increase would deliver a cruel new blow at a time when cost-of-living pressures are already hitting every aspect of daily life for Australian households.
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‘False sense of security’: Finals come early for the Bulldogs and Bunnies in epic clash on Friday night
With just four weeks remaining in the regular NRL season, the race for the top eight has reached a fever pitch, as two of Sydney’s most storied clubs, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and South Sydney Rabbitohs, prepare for a do-or-die showdown that will largely shape their post-season fates on Friday night. Though the finals series itself is still a month out, the stakes of this Accor Stadium clash could not be higher: with a slim two-point gap separating the two 2014 grand finalists on the competition ladder, the loser will face an uphill battle to secure a spot in the finals, thanks to punishing remaining fixture lists for both sides.
South Sydney currently holds the narrow advantage over the Bulldogs, having held on for a hard-fought win against the Parramatta Eels last week. In contrast, Canterbury suffered a gut-wrenching late loss to the Sydney Roosters, surrendering a 10-point lead in the final 10 minutes of play after the Roosters crossed for two late tries to steal the victory. Reflecting on the defeat, Bulldogs prop Max King opened up about the mixed emotions running through the club this week.
“There are two sides to how we’re all feeling right now,” King explained. “Obviously, there’s a lot of disappointment. We didn’t put out our best performance — we had too many dropped passes, too many unforced errors that threw our rhythm off. To be up 10 points with just 10 minutes left to play and walk away with a loss is incredibly frustrating. That’s two competition points we absolutely should have had. But even with that loss, there’s confidence too: we went toe-to-toe with one of the best sides in the league, fresh off their 82-point rout of the North Queensland Cowboys. We know we can match it with any team in the competition when we play our best footy.”
The blockbuster has been framed as a virtual elimination final by both camps, given the difficult run home each side faces after Friday’s clash. Canterbury still has fixtures against the in-form St George Illawarra Dragons, ladder-leading Penrith Panthers, and defending premiers Brisbane Broncos left to close out the season. For South Sydney, their remaining schedule is equally challenging: they face a red-hot New Zealand Warriors side fresh off an upset win over Penrith, followed by a match against Gold Coast Titans, before closing out the regular season with a grudge match against their cross-city rivals the Roosters.
Bulldogs utility Kurt Mann noted that every remaining match for his side carries the same pressure as a finals fixture, with the club sitting on the cusp of the top eight. “It kind of already felt like a finals game last weekend, so there’s no secret about how high the stakes are this week,” Mann said. “We need a strong month over these next four weeks, every single game is going to have that finals-level intensity for us. We know we’ve got a tough run home, and we need to get results if we want to make the eight.”
While a tough closing fixture list would rattle most sides, Mann argued that challenging matches against top competition is the best preparation for a deep finals run, rather than easy games that create a false sense of security. The Bulldogs have already proven they can beat the league’s best this season, notching wins against both the Panthers and Warriors already this year.
“You don’t want easy games leading into finals, because that gives you a false sense of how tough the post-season is going to be,” Mann explained. “If you earn your spot by beating top-four side after top-four side, you know exactly what it takes to get it done when it matters. We’ve already shown we can beat any team in the competition when we’re at our best. We were pretty unlucky to lose to the Roosters last week — I thought we’d done enough to get the win, it just slipped away at the end. But on our day, when we play to our potential, we can beat anyone.”
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Sensational Ingebrigtsen back with more European gold
BIRMINGHAM, UK – The 2024 European Athletics Championships delivered one of the most dramatic comeback stories in modern track and field on Monday, as Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen capped a 324-day layoff following Achilles tendon surgery with a sensational gold medal in the men’s 5000m, extending his record to seven career European Championship titles.
The 25-year-old Norwegian delivered his signature devastating final sprint to cross the finish line in 13 minutes 15.29 seconds, securing his status as the most decorated male athlete in the history of the European Athletics Championships. Ingebrigtsen has remained undefeated at the continental event since his breakout 1500m/5000m double as a teenager at the 2018 Berlin Championships, a streak that looked seriously in doubt after he underwent surgery following a disappointing 10th-place finish in the 10000m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Monday’s race marked Ingebrigtsen’s first competitive outing since that 2023 race, and even the athlete himself admitted he never expected to return to the top step of the podium so quickly. “Coming from the lowest of lows to be European champion again means the world to me. Not even I believed it could happen coming here,” Ingebrigtsen told reporters after the race. “I doubted myself every day coming in to this and every minute leading up to the last lap today, but I’m always hoping to do my best.”
Germany’s Florian Bremm took silver, while France’s Etienne Daguinos claimed bronze. Daguinos paid tribute to Ingebrigtsen’s legacy, calling him “a legend of our sport. We knew if he’s here tonight it was because he is good shape.”
Ingebrigtsen’s fairy tale comeback headlined a day of standout results at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, which also saw home-crowd favorite Amy Hunt claim gold in the women’s 100m. Hunt clocked 11.00 seconds to secure victory, holding off Poland’s Ewa Swoboda (silver) and Belgium’s Delphine Nkansa (bronze). Defending champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain finished out of the medals in fifth place.
Dutch shot put star Jessica Schilder made history of her own, securing a third consecutive European women’s shot put title with a winning throw of 20.73m on her final attempt. Schilder’s win made her the first woman to win three European titles in the event since Soviet Union icon Nadezhda Chizhova claimed four straight golds between 1966 and 1974. Teammate Jorinde van Klinken took silver with a personal best 19.64m, while Germany’s Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye (now Yemisi Mabry) rounded out the podium with 19.50m.
“This was the easiest (of the three European titles). There was quite a gap with the other competitors,” Schilder said after the win, adding “I will never get tired of this feeling, I will never get bored of winning these medals.”
Italy matched the Netherlands’ one-two finish in the men’s shot put, where defending champion Leonardo Fabbri successfully retained his title with a throw of 22.31m. Zane Weir took silver for Italy, while Sweden’s Wictor Petterson claimed bronze.
Norway closed out the day with another gold, as three-time 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm anchored the Norwegian mixed 4x400m relay quartet to victory. Amalie Iuel, Andreas Ofstad Kulseng and Henriette Jaeger joined Warholm to clock a new championship record of 3:09.62, finishing ahead of Great Britain and the Netherlands.