Absorbing Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry set for next chapter
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are meeting for the second successive Grand Slam men's singles final
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There are a number of factors which turn an exciting rivalry into an epic, enduring duel that transcends the sport.
The core talent. The blend of personalities. The gripping encounters on the biggest stages.
The tussle between Italy's Jannik Sinner and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz - ranked one and two in the men's game - has all those components.
It also has arguably the most important ingredient: each player being pushed to a greater height by the other.
On Sunday, the pair will meet again in the Wimbledon final - where Sinner aims to win his first title and Alcaraz bids for a rare third in a row.
A renewal of their acquaintance at the All England Club comes just 35 days after Alcaraz beat Sinner in an all-time classic French Open final.
Asked about their rivalry, Alcaraz said: "I'm not going to say I'm feeling like when Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer] are playing.
"But I'm feeling like it is a different energy when we are facing each other than other players."
Sinner, 23, and 22-year-old Alcaraz have created a duopoly in the men's game over the past two seasons.
Because of his brilliance, Sinner has remained the world number one - despite serving a three-month doping ban this year in a case which rocked the sport.
The pair have gained a grip on the Grand Slam tournaments, winning the past six majors between them.
Their epic French Open battle was another demonstration of how the absorbing rivalry - which the ATP Tour has long pinned its hopes on filling the Federer-Nadal-Novak Djokovic void - could be a blockbuster for years to come.
"You cannot compare what the 'Big Three' did for 15-plus years. [Our rivalry] is not that big yet," said three-time Grand Slam champion Sinner, who is aiming for his first non-hard court major.
"This is the second consecutive Grand Slam that we are in the final and playing each other - I believe it's good for the sport.
"The more rivalries we have from now on, the better it is, because people want to see young player going against each other."
The quality, excitement and tension of the recent Roland Garros final accelerated interest in the pair.
Alcaraz fighting back from two sets down - and having saved three championship points - to win a five-setter in over five hours has whetted the appetite for Wimbledon.
The five-time major champion expects to be pushed "to the limit" again at the All England Club.
"It's going to be a great day, a great final. I'm just excited about it," he said.
"I just hope not to be five and a half hours again. But if I have to, I will."
Ice versus fire - the 21st century version
The contrasting personalities are reminiscent of another pair who created a rivalry which continues to endure almost 50 years later.
Bjorn Borg was the 'ice' compared to John McEnroe's 'fire' and there are similar characteristics in Sinner and Alcaraz.
Sinner is ice-cold during matches and little appears to faze the mild-mannered Italian - on or off court.
He was able to stay sanguine during the doping controversy and has also moved on quickly from the brutal nature of his French Open defeat.
"We keep talking about the fact that he's got really good self-awareness and puts everything into perspective," Sinner's coach Darren Cahill told BBC Sport.
"I think that's part of the reason why he's been able to do what he's been able to do here.
"I would have been heartbroken after losing a final where I had match points, but he sees the big picture really well and is why he's able to bounce back so quickly."
Alcaraz is not as combustible as the famously volatile McEnroe. But he does possess a more colourful side than Sinner.
He bellows 'Vamos' when big moments go his way in matches and also regularly shows his emotion by breaking out into beaming smiles.
The natural warmth and authenticity of the Spaniard, plus his array of stunning shot-making, makes him relatable to fans.
"He's got the X-Factor - he's a performer," American great Billie Jean King told BBC Sport.
Who's got the advantage?
Sinner has been the dominant player on the ATP Tour for the past two seasons, winning 98 of his 109 matches (90%) and lifting nine titles.
In the same timeframe, Alcaraz has won 102 of his 120 matches (85%) and claimed nine titles.
But it is the Spaniard who is dominating their head-to-head record.
The triumph on the Paris clay was his fifth straight victory over Sinner, extending his dominance to eight wins from their 12 career meetings.
"When Sinner brings his A game there is no-one that can beat him - other than Alcaraz," said seven-time major champion McEnroe, who is a BBC Sport analyst during the championships.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Sinner won their only previous meeting at Wimbledon, back in 2022 when he won 6-1 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 in the last 16
"On the other hand if Alcaraz doesn't bring his A game then Sinner will win every time. So it's going to be extremely interesting."
Alcaraz has moved through the gears nicely at the All England Club and goes into the final - unlike Sinner - having suffered no injury problems over the past fortnight.
After beating Djokovic in the semi-finals, Sinner said the elbow injury he suffered in the fourth round against Grigor Dimitrov would provide "no issues" on Sunday.
"I will give a slight edge to Carlos as a favourite because of the two titles he's won here and the way he's playing and the confidence he has right now," seven-time champion Djokovic said.
"But it's just a slight advantage because Jannik is hitting the ball extremely well.
"It's going to be, again, a very close match-up like we had in Paris."
Palestinians seeking food and other supplies near an aid distribution site in May
The Nasser hospital in southern Gaza has said 24 people have been killed near an aid distribution site.
Palestinians who were present at the site said Israeli troops opened fire as people were trying to access food on Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there were "no known injured individuals" from IDF fire near the site.
Separately, an Israeli military official said warning shots were fired to disperse people who the IDF believed were a threat.
The claims by both sides have not been independently verified. Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza.
Footage seen by the BBC later on Saturday showed what appeared to be a number of body bags at Nasser hospital's courtyard surrounded by nurses and people in blood-stained clothes.
In another video, a man said people were waiting to get aid when they came under targeted fire for five minutes. A paramedic accused Israeli troops of killing in cold blood.
The videos have not been verified by the BBC.
Reuters said it had spoken to witnesses who described people being shot in the head and torso. The news agency also reported seeing bodies wrapped in white shrouds at Nasser hospital.
There have been almost daily reports of people being killed by Israeli fire while seeking food in Gaza.
Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip in March, and later resumed its military offensive against Hamas, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the Palestinian armed group to release Israeli hostages.
Although the blockade was partially eased in late May, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, there are still severe shortages of food, as well as medicine and fuel.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, says there are thousands of malnourished children across the territory, with more cases detected every day.
In addition to allowing in some UN aid lorries, Israel and the US set up a new aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying they wanted to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.
On Friday, the UN human rights office said that it had so far recorded 798 aid-related killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF's sites, which are operated by US private security contractors and located inside military zones in southern and central Gaza.
The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid convoys.
The Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise "possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible".
The GHF accused the UN of using "false and misleading" statistics from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
Earlier this month, a former security contractor for the GHF told the BBC he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat. The GHF said the allegations were categorically false.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Nothing until 2014, when an amateur historian uncovered evidence of a mass grave, potentially in a former sewage tank, believed to contain hundreds of babies in Tuam, County Galway, in the west of Ireland.
Now, investigators have moved their diggers onto the nondescript patch of grass next to a children's playground on a housing estate in the town. An excavation, expected to last two years, will begin on Monday.
The area was once where St Mary's children's home stood, a church-run institution that housed thousands of women and children between 1925 and 1961.
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
Many of the women had fallen pregnant outside of marriage and were shunned by their families - and separated from their children after giving birth.
According to death records, Patrick Derrane was the first baby to die at St Mary's – in 1915, aged five months. Mary Carty, the same age, was the last in 1960.
In the 35 years between their deaths, another 794 babies and young children are known to have died there - and it is believed they are buried in what former Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Enda Kenny dubbed a "chamber of horrors".
PJ Haverty spent the first six years of his life in the place he calls a prison - but he considers himself one of the lucky ones.
"I got out of there."
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PJ Haverty, pictured at the garden where investigators will begin their excavations
He remembers how the "home children", as they were known, were shunned at school.
"We had to go 10 minutes late and leave 10 minutes early, because they didn't want us talking to the other kids," PJ said.
"Even at break-time in the school, we weren't allowed to play with them – we were cordoned off.
The stigma stayed with PJ his whole life, even after finding a loving foster home and, in later years, tracking down his birth mother, who was separated from him when he was a one-year-old.
The home, run by the nuns of the Bon Secours Sisters, was an invisible spectre that loomed over him and many others in Tuam for decades – until amateur historian Catherine Corliss brought St Mary's dark past into the light.
Discovering the mass grave
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
Catherine Corliss' shocking findings about the mass grave emerged in 2014
Interested in delving into her family's past, Catherine took a local history course in 2005. Later, her interest turned to St Mary's and the "home children" who came to school separately from her and her classmates.
"When I started out, I had no idea what I was going to find."
To begin with, Catherine was surprised her innocuous inquiries were being met with blank responses or even suspicion.
"Nobody was helping, and nobody had any records," she said.
That only fed her determination to find out more about the children at the home.
A breakthrough came when she spoke to a cemetery caretaker, who brought her to the housing estate where the institution once stood.
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The grotto at the garden above what is believed to be the mass grave. People have left mementoes, messages and items of remembrance
At the side of a children's playground, there was a square of lawn with a grotto – a small shrine centred on a statue of Mary.
The caretaker told Catherine that two boys had been playing in that area in the mid-1970s after the home was demolished, and had come across a broken concrete slab. They pulled it up to reveal a hole.
Inside they saw bones. The caretaker said the authorities were told and the spot was covered up.
People believed the remains were from the Irish Famine in the 1840s. Before the mother-and-baby home, the institution was a famine-era workhouse where many people had died.
But that didn't add up for Catherine. She knew those people had been buried respectfully in a field half a mile away - there was a monument marking the spot.
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
Catherine received a list recording hundreds of children's deaths at the St Mary's institution
Her suspicion was further raised when she compared old maps of the site. One, from 1929, labelled the area the boys found the bones as a "sewage tank". Another, from the 1970s after the home was demolished, had a handwritten note next to that area saying "burial ground".
The map did seem to indicate there was a grave at the site – and Catherine had read the sewage tank labelled on the map had become defunct in 1937 so, in theory, was empty. But who was buried there?
Catherine called the registration office for births, deaths and marriages in Galway and asked for the names of all the children who had died at the home.
A fortnight later a sceptical member of staff called to ask if she really wanted them all – Catherine expected "20 or 30" - but there were hundreds.
The full list, when Catherine received it, recorded 796 dead children.
She was utterly shocked. Her evidence was starting to indicate who was likely to be underneath that patch of grass at St Mary's.
But first, she checked burial records to see if any of those hundreds of children were buried in cemeteries in Galway or neighbouring County Mayo – and couldn't find any.
Without excavation, Catherine couldn't prove it beyond doubt. She now believed that hundreds of children had been buried in an unmarked mass grave, possibly in a disused sewage tank, at the St Mary's Home.
When her findings broke into an international news story in 2014, there was considerable hostility in her home town.
"People weren't believing me," she recalled. Many cast doubt - and scorn - that an amateur historian could uncover such an enormous scandal.
But there was a witness who had seen it with her own eyes.
Warning: The following sections contains details some readers might find distressing
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
Mary Moriarty lived in one of the houses built at the site of the home in the 1970s
Mary Moriarty lived in one of the houses near the site of the institution in the mid-1970s. Shortly after she spoke to BBC News, she passed away, but her family have agreed to allow what she told us to be published and broadcast.
Mary recalled two women coming to her in the early 1970s saying "they saw a young fella with a skull on a stick".
Mary and her neighbours asked the child where he had found the skull. He showed them some shrubbery and Mary, who went to look, "fell in a hole".
Light streamed in from where she had fallen. That's when she saw "little bundles", wrapped in cloths that had gone black from rot and damp, and were "packed one after the other, in rows up to the ceiling".
How many?
"Hundreds," she replied.
Some time later, when Mary's second son was born in the maternity hospital in Tuam, he was brought to her by the nuns who worked there "in all these bundles of cloths" - just like those she had seen in that hole.
"That's when I copped on," Mary says, "what I had seen after I fell down that hole were babies."
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
Anna Corrigan discovered her mother gave birth to two boys - John and William - in the home
The bones were not from the famine and the "age-at-death range" was from about 35 foetal weeks to two or three years.
By now, a campaign was under way for a full investigation of the site - Anna Corrigan was among those who wanted the authorities to start digging.
Until she was in her 50s, Anna believed she was an only child. But, when researching her family history in 2012, she discovered her mother had given birth to two boys in the home in 1946 and 1950, John and William.
Anna was unable to find a death certificate for William, but did find one for John – it officially registers his death at 16 months. Under cause of death it listed "congenital idiot" and "measles".
Getty Images/Charles McQuillan
The death certificate for John lists "congenital idiot" and "measles" under cause of death
An inspection report of the home in 1947 had some more details about John.
"He was born normal and healthy, almost nine pounds (4kg) in weight," Anna said. "By the time he's 13 months old, he's emaciated with a voracious appetite, and has no control over bodily functions.
"Then he's dead three months later."
An entry from the institution's book of "discharges" says William died in 1951 – she does not know where either is buried.
Anna, who set up the Tuam Babies Family Group for survivors and relatives, said the children have been given a voice.
"We all know their names. We all know they existed as human beings."
Now, the work begins to find out the full extent of what lies beneath that patch of grass in Tuam.
'Absolutely tiny'
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Daniel MacSweeney, the head of the excavation, has previously been involved in searches for missing bodies in conflict zones around the world
The excavation is expected to take about two years.
"It's a very challenging process – really a world-first," said Daniel MacSweeney, the head of the operation, who has helped find missing bodies in conflict zones such as Afghanistan.
He explained that the remains would have been mixed together and that an infant's femur - the body's largest bone - is only the size of an adult's finger.
"They're absolutely tiny," he said. "We need to recover the remains very, very carefully – to maximise the possibility of identification."
The difficulty of identifying the remains "can't be underestimated", he added.
For however long it takes, there will be people like Anna waiting for news - hoping to hear about sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts and cousins they never had the chance to meet.
Details of help and support with child bereavement are available in the UK at BBC Action Line
Watch: Australia’s mushroom murder case... in under two minutes
For years, from behind a computer screen, Erin Patterson built up a reputation in an online true crime community as a "super sleuth".
Today, she herself has become a true crime obsession.
When three people died – and another fell gravely ill - after eating toxic-mushroom-laced beef Wellingtons at her home in rural Victoria two years ago, her entire life was put under a microscope.
Journalists have descended from around the world to cover her lengthy murder trial, spectators have queued daily to nab a spot in the courtroom, and thousands of people have picked apart details of the case online.
But, despite a jury earlier this week finding her guilty on all charges, the frenzy of speculation and depth of fascination has only intensified.
"It has shades of Macbeth," criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro told the BBC.
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The mushroom murder trial was the biggest case in recent history
It was in one of Australia's smallest courtrooms that its biggest trial in recent history took place.
Over 11 weeks, seven documentary-making teams cast their lens on the tiny town of Morwell. Podcasters here were a dime a dozen. Journalists vied for the six seats reserved for media inside the court each day. Even one of Australia's best-loved authors, Helen Garner, frequently dropped by the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, fuelling rumours that she is preparing to write another best-seller.
Waiting with the sea of tripods outside the building most mornings of the trial was a queue of camp chairs.
Come rain, frost or fog, court watchers – predominantly women, often rugged up in beanies and encased in sleeping bags – watched for the moment the glass doors would open.
Once inside, they would lay a line of belongings – scarves, water bottles, notepads, bags – outside the courtroom entry to reserve their spot.
The Patterson trial heard from more than 50 witnesses
Tammy Egglestone commuted for more than an hour to reach Morwell most days of the trial. "I'm a bit of a true crime fanatic," she explains.
She was in court when it heard evidence that Patterson was once just like her.
Patterson had been an active member in a Facebook group focussed on the crimes of Keli Lane, a woman who was found guilty of killing her two-day-old daughter in one of Australia's most notorious cases.
In 2018, Lane became the subject of a major podcast after writing to a journalist claiming to have been wrongly convicted and begging her to investigate.
At Patterson's trial, one of her online friends Christine Hunt said she was renowned among her peers for her nimble researching and tech skills.
"She was a bit of a super sleuth," she said. "She was highly regarded in that group."
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A Melbourne lane with a mural of Erin Patterson
But as her case unfolded in Morwell, Patterson was also put on trial in the court of public opinion.
She became water-cooler talk in workplaces around the country, gossip among friend groups, and the ultimate topic of debate online.
Thousands of people theorised over a motive for the crime, provided commentary on bits of evidence, and even alleged corrupt forces were behind the case – much of the discussion unfounded, almost all of it in breach of laws designed to give defendants a fair trial.
Memes filled social media feeds. On Google Maps, someone created a restaurant listing at Patterson's home address. Others shared trial bingo cards they had created for those following it closely.
Throughout the week the jury was considering their verdict, sequestered in a hotel to protect them from the maelstrom, the question everyone had was: what were they thinking?
"What are they doing in there?" one lawyer was overheard asking in a Morwell café on day four of deliberations.
Ms Egglestone has spent hours commuting to see the trial evidence in person
With jury members bound by strict secrecy requirements, we will never know.
"In the US, they can interview jurors after a trial," criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro told the BBC. "We can't get into the heads of jurors in Australia… so it's really hard to know what they're thinking has been and why they've come to that conclusion."
That leaves a massive vacuum for members of the public to fill with their speculation.
People like Ms Egglestone pondered: if the poisoning was intended to kill, wouldn't Patterson have planned and executed it better?
"I've come in here [as] Switzerland," Ms Egglestone clarified, calling the discourse around the case "very pitchforky".
"And a lot of them are using hindsight reasoning. 'If I was in that situation, I wouldn't do this, this and this.' Well, you don't know what you would do in that situation."
But people like her were drowned out by the hordes proclaiming Patterson guilty.
Many said it was her lies that convinced them. Some claimed the evidence showed a clear lack of empathy and concern for those who died.
"What really gave her away was wearing white pants when she had 'gastro' and needed to go to hospital for it!" one person posted, referring to CCTV footage of her movements in the days after the lunch, which was played at the trial.
Watch: CCTV and audio shown to court in mushroom trial
Already, the case has inspired a television special, a silver screen drama series, a bevy of podcasts, several documentaries and a handful of books.
"It has those typical cliché things that make true crime sell," Ms Egglestone said, explaining why she and flocks of others have become obsessed with the case.
"The fact that she did take out family members... [she's] white, female, financially stable, you know. And they're all church people."
For David Peters, seemingly benign circumstances surrounding the crime – and the fact it was in his local area – drew him in: "The fact that it was a family sitting down to do something you would consider to be safe - have a meal - and then the consequences of that meal..."
Several people tell the BBC the case reminds them of the frenzy over Lindy Chamberlain's notorious trial in 1982. She was falsely convicted of murder after her infant daughter Azaria was taken from an outback campsite by a dingo.
It's no coincidence that both of those cases centre around women, criminology researcher Brandy Cochrane tells the BBC.
The world has long been fascinated by women who kill – in no small part because it contradicts their traditional "caring" gender role, they explain.
Those stereotypes also cast a shadow on Patterson's time in court.
EPA
"She's expected to act in a particular way, and she's not," says Dr Cochrane, a lecturer at Victoria University.
"It's like, 'Oh, obviously she's guilty, she's not crying the whole time' or 'Obviously she's guilty, she's lied about this'. The legal system in and of itself treats women very differently."
Away from the ghoulish spectre of the trial, there's anger – albeit dwindling – among the communities where the victims are from over the way the case has been dissected, local councillor Nathan Hersey tells the BBC.
Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson were respected and adored by many in the South Gippsland region, he says, but it feels like they've been forgotten.
"This has been an extremely high-profile case that's brought a lot of attention, often unwanted through to our local community.
"[And] some people haven't had that humanity… they've certainly lost focus that for people, there is a loss, there is grief."
Laura Strang, 25, from Oban, Scotland saves money by booking at the last minute.
She even booked her honeymoon just two days before they flew.
"We got married on the 21st of June and waited until the 23rd of June to book a holiday for June 25th.
"We had two weeks in Mexico because it was cheaper than two weeks in Europe."
Laura and her husband Sam Gledhill, 27, paid £1,200 each for 14 nights all-inclusive in Cancun.
"I would say we saved thousands of pounds, based on reviews," she says.
"Ten nights in Spain was coming up the same or more expensive. It's a 10-hour flight over to Mexico so it's a little bit crazy, that."
She says she and her husband have previously booked holidays within a few days of flying to Tenerife, Salou and Marrakesh and have saved money each time.
"Choosing not to go all-inclusive can save money but that depends on the country," says Laura.
"We found Mexico quite expensive when going out and about [so all-inclusive made sense], but you could probably save money in Spain by going half board."
'We travel off-peak and look for kids go free places'
Nathan Hart and his fiancee Cassie Farrelly estimate they saved £3,300 by searching for a holiday that offered a free child's place and going outside school holidays.
They have booked a 10-day all-inclusive holiday in Spain's Balearic Islands at the end of September with their three-year-old twin daughters Alba and Luna.
The couple from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales recommend using the filter option on some of the biggest travel agency websites.
"When searching you can see which places offer one free child place, choose a range of locations and sort by lowest price," says Nathan.
"We found an exceptional hotel for £800 per person plus one free child place, so that's already an £800 saving.
"As well as that, on the booking page you can see a calendar showing the difference in price for the holiday on different dates."
Nathan says when he compared the same holiday in August it was double the price.
"That would have been completely unaffordable for us.
"I now completely understand why parents with older kids travel inside school term time and it's absolutely something we will have to consider when our girls are older."
Parents who take their children out of school for holidays during term time risk being fined, and repeat offenders could face prosecution.
'I swapped my London flat for a Spanish villa'
May Burrough works in central London. But her flat is too small to have lots of people to stay, so last October she invited some close friends to a five-bedroomed villa with a pool on the Costa Brava, Spain.
She estimates it would normally have cost around £3,500 to rent a house like that. But she used a home-swapping site and only paid €100 (£85) - for the cleaning fee - plus around £250 on transport.
Although she saved money on the villa, May and her friends did splash out on food and drink, such as oysters and wine from the region.
"We really had a lush time at the house because we were like, 'well, we're not paying for the accommodation!'"
Because finding someone to do a straight swap with can often be tricky, the Home Exchange site she uses allows her to earn credits by letting people stay in her one-bedroom flat, and then spend them elsewhere.
"It does take a bit of effort. I put valuables away, you have to change the bedsheets, cleaning every time. But it is fully worth it," says May.
She says the site is a bit clunky to use, but she loves what it allows her to do, for an annual fee of around £170.
Recently she booked a one-night stay in Vienne, France so she could go to a concert.
"A hotel was going to be mega-expensive. So I booked a room in someone's home and left in the morning."
'I use my credit card to get loyalty points for flights'
Ebrahim Paruk, 35, from Nuneaton near Coventry in Warwickshire saves money on flights by saving up Virgin Atlantic credit card points.
He does his best to collect as many points as possible.
"I pay for everything I can with the card," he says, including his bills, weekly petrol, and weekly groceries.
"These are day-to-day necessities that you have to buy, so you might as well get a reward," he says.
Describing himself as "the biggest football fan you will probably ever find", he started doing it as a way of going to the major international tournaments.
The best saving he made with the points was a return flight to Düsseldorf to watch Germany v Denmark in the 2024 Euros - he saved £400 on his £800 flight.
To add to the saving, he won the match ticket and hotel accommodation in a competition, meaning the whole trip cost him a total of £500.
Now he uses the same method to save money when booking holidays for him and his wife.
'I house sit and get to see the US'
Annmaree Bancroft is a single mum of a three-year-old and has been house sitting with him 11 times.
Their first time was looking after two dogs for a week in a house in Scarsdale outside New York City.
This year they will be going back there for a few days, this time as friends of the homeowner. Then they will stay on for three more weeks in the US, without paying for any overnight accommodation, thanks to further housesitting stints in Connecticut and Brooklyn.
The cost of the holiday will be the £1,435 she is spending on flights, plus travel between cities and spending money.
"A lot of parents think that once you have a child, you can't travel," says Annmaree.
"That is just not true. There are these alternative ways now to travel and make it affordable."
If you do choose to house sit, it is recommended that you use a reputable site. Annmaree uses the online platform Trusted Housesitters, which charges a membership fee for sitters of £99 to £199 a year.
'We're staycationing in the UK'
House sitting may also be an option for those choosing not to go abroad.
Kayleigh Pennel-Price lives with her partner, two children, aged two and four months, and their golden retriever Kofi in Wiltshire.
She had looked into a family holiday through the traditional means but calculated that it would cost around £3,000 to go on a foreign holiday for a week.
Instead, the whole family is going house sitting in a small village in Buckinghamshire for two weeks.
They will be staying in a home with a sauna, swimming pool and a private woodland, to look after two Yorkshire terriers, booked through the website HouseSit Match.
"We mostly plan to just stay there," says Kayleigh, who thinks the whole trip could cost £250.
"We love both abroad and UK holidays, but we don't like to leave our dog," she says. "And with the two babies, abroad is a little harder."
While more people are tuning in for episodes, it's Love Island's socials that are really turning heads this year
Love Island is back for its 12th series - and it's not just the villa that's had an upgrade.
After falling audience figures in recent years, the number of us tuning in is returning to series eight levels - the year that delivered Love Island icons like Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Indiyah Polack and Tasha Ghouri.
But if daily episodes are our type on paper, social media is the bombshell that's turning heads.
Figures from ITV shared with BBC Newsbeat suggest the series' growth on socials is outstripping the success it's having on TV.
Analysis by the BBC found that Love Island's official accounts had gained 1.8m followers since the start of 2025, with 1m of those on TikTok.
Ex-islander Diamanté Laiv tells BBC Newsbeat the short-form updates are much more appealing than committing to the nightly TV show.
"I'm a very busy person, so I don't really have the time to sit down every day for an hour and just watch people kiss," she says.
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Series 11 islander Diamanté Laiva watches clips online but hasn't committed to the full series
Diamanté, who appeared in series 11, says she's not surprised millions are keeping up to date on their phone.
"It's more popular online because everybody's online, it's easily accessible. Every 10 scrolls on TikTok is something Love Island-related, so you can't really avoid it."
She's not alone in staying away from streaming the episodes in full.
But that's still a fraction of the 13m following various official accounts online.
On TikTok there's been an explosion in Love Island content - with view counts for individual clips outstripping viewing figures for whole episodes.
Dramatic or funny moments from the show proper tend to perform well, but reactions, analysis, and debriefs - where content creators recap whole episodes in a few minutes - also notch up big numbers.
According to data gathered by the BBC there have been more than 87,000 TikTok uploads with a Love Island or Love Island UK hashtag so far in 2025.
For the whole of 2024, the same data suggests that figure was just below 40,000.
ITV/Shutterstock
Producers promised the ITV reality series would have more drama and twists than ever before
Anthony, better known as "giletslays", is one of many content creators who have been feeding that growth.
He's been making videos about the latest series for his 170,000 followers, and some of his Love Island takes have had millions of views.
Anthony says the real draw of Love Island has always been the discourse on social media.
But to take part you need to be up to date, and a nightly show can feel like too much of a long-term commitment for some.
"Sometimes if people miss a couple of episodes they feel they're too far behind to catch up," says Anthony.
Super-fan Harriet Fisher, who's been watching Love Island since series one, agrees TikTok has become the go-to place for updates.
She says the US version of the show, which has overlapped with the UK edition this year, is "popping off" on the app, and believes this has boosted interest in Love Island overall.
"The way that people are engaging with reality TV and Love Island in general is obviously changing," she says.
"It needs TikTok and social media to survive, to gain viewers.
"It shows that viewers of old can stay engaged, but also get those new viewers in."
But those new viewers are forming a very different relationship with the contestants, Diamanté warns.
ITV/Shutterstock
Yasmin Pettet has become a standout islander on socials, largely due to her great posture
Traditionally, audiences have spent whole series getting to know islanders over one-hour episodes.
Even then, contestants have never been shy about blaming selective editing for making them look bad.
But on social media, with character arcs compressed into bite-sized clips, Diamanté worries fans aren't getting the full picture.
"Conversations are being pulled and tweaked so I feel like it makes it even more orchestrated," she says. "It kind of takes the reality out of the reality TV."
Grace Henry, Cosmopolitan's acting entertainment and lifestyle director, agrees that watching the show via social media fundamentally changes the experience.
"We have to be mindful that these are short clips and clips can be taken out of context," she says.
"We're never going to see the full picture of how someone is and things change very quickly in there."
But Grace thinks online notoriety could work in aspiring reality stars' favour - even if it means audiences spend less time with them.
Grace Henry
Grace Henry has been reporting on the latest series of Love Island for Cosmo
She singles out Yasmin Pettet, nicknamed YasGPT online, as one islander who's been able to connect with audiences this year.
Videos of Yas giving posture lessons have been viewed more than a million times on TikTok and gained tens of thousands of likes on Instagram.
"We will still have those people and we will have a connection to them, but they will just come around differently," says Grace.
"It will be based on viral moments and whether they do something big that becomes a meme or a social media moment."
Diamanté agrees and thinks social clips might even be a better way to build a following than being popular on the series.
As well as reaching more people, she says "more brands are seeing it and that's the aim of the game".
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Valery Gergiev seen conducting an orchestra at Moscow's Red Square in 2018
Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has been barred from European stages ever since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A close ally of Vladimir Putin for many years, the director of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Russian state theatres has never spoken out against the war.
But a region of southern Italy has now invited Gergiev back to Europe, signalling the artist's rehabilitation even as Russia's attacks on Ukraine intensify.
Vincenzo de Luca, who runs the Campania region, insists that the concert at the Un'Estate da REfestival later this month will go ahead despite a growing swell of criticism.
"Culture… must not be influenced by politics and political logic," De Luca said in a livestream on Friday. "We do not ask these men to answer for the choices made by politicians."
The 76-year-old local leader has previously called Europe's broad veto on pro-Putin artists "a moment of stupidity – a moment of madness" at the start of the war and announced that he was "proud" to welcome Gergiev to town.
Getty Images
Russia's President Putin (R) pins a medal on conductor Gergiev (L) at the Kremlin in 2016
But Pina Picierno, a vice-president of the European Parliament, has told the BBC that allowing Gergiev's return is "absolutely unacceptable".
She calls the star conductor a "cultural mouthpiece for Putin and his crimes".
Ukrainian human rights activist and Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk said the invitation by the regional government was "hypocrisy", rather than neutrality.
Russian opposition activists have also condemned the director's sudden return. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, wants his concert cancelled and is calling on Italy's interior ministry to ban Gergiev's entry to the country.
GEORG HOCHMUTH/APA/AFP
Valery Gergiev has been shunned by European orchestras since the full-scale war began
Before Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, the virtuoso Gergiev was a regular visitor to stages in Italy and across Europe, despite his closeness to Putin.
His long and illustrious career includes stints at the London Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic.
But the invitations to Europe stopped abruptly on 24 February 2022.
Hours before the first Russian missiles were launched at Ukraine, Gergiev was on stage at Milan's La Scala opera house. Urged then by the city's mayor to speak out against the war, Gergiev chose silence.
He was promptly dropped from the bill.
Abandoned by his manager, despite calling Gergiev "the greatest conductor alive", he was then fired as chief conductor in Munich and removed from concert schedules across the continent.
That's why the invitation from Italy is so controversial.
Pina Picierno, who is from the Campania region herself, says her call to stop the event is not Russophobic.
"There is no shortage of brilliant Russian artists who choose to disassociate themselves from Putin's criminal policies," she told the BBC.
The European MP, who says she has received threats for her work exposing Russia's hybrid warfare, warns that allowing Gergiev to perform would be both wrong and dangerous.
"This is not about censorship. Gergiev is part of a deliberate Kremlin strategy. He is one of their cultural envoys to soften Western public opinion. This is part of their war."
Pasquale Gargano/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (centre) welcomed Ukraine's president and first lady to a conference in Rome last week
The cultural controversy erupted in a week when Italy was hosting heads of state from all over Europe to reaffirm their support for Ukraine and discuss how to rebuild the country once the war is over.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been a strong and consistent critic of Vladimir Putin from the start. But her culture ministry is one of the backers ofUn'Estate da RE, which has invited Gergiev.
A senior MP from Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, Alfredo Antoniozzi, has described Gergiev as "simply a great artist".
"If Russians have to pay for the mistakes of their president, then we are committing a kind of cultural genocide," he argued.
Last month, Canada formally barred Gergiev from entry and declared it would freeze any assets.
But the European Union has shied away from formal sanctions against the conductor, who has avoided voicing open support for the war.
Gergiev has been a vocal supporter of Putin since the 1990s, later campaigning for his re-election and backing Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
He was handed management of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, in addition to the Mariinsky Theatre, taking over from a director who signed an open letter against Russia's war.
Gergiev is a state employee, but in 2022 an investigation by Alexei Navalny's team uncovered properties in several Italian cities that they say he never declared.
They also alleged he used donations to a charitable fund to pay for his own lavish lifestyle.
The activists argued that was Gergiev's reward for his public loyalty to Putin.
The BBC has so far been unable to reach the conductor for comment.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission, Eva Hrncirova, has clarified that the Un'Estate da RE festival is not receiving EU cash: it is financed by Italy's own "cohesion funds".
But she added that the commission urged European stages not to give space "to artists who support the war of aggression in Ukraine".
In Campania, the artistic director who crafted this year's festival programme declined to comment. A spokesman was confident Gergiev's performance would go ahead, though – despite the controversy.
"Yes," he assured the BBC. "For sure."
Additional reporting from Rome by Davide Ghiglione.
In a long social media post, President Trump praised Attorney General Pam Bondi and told his followers to “not waste Time and Energy” on the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Heartburn is a burning sensation felt behind the breastbone. It is a symptom that is commonly linked to acid reflux and is often triggered by food, particularly fatty, sugary, spicy, chocolate, onions, citrus, and tomato-based products. Lying down, bending, lifting, and performing certain exercises can exacerbate heartburn. Causes include acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), damage to the esophageal lining, bile acid, mechanical stimulation to the esophagus, and esophageal hypersensitivity. Heartburn affects 25% of the population at least once a month. Endoscopy and esophageal pH monitoring can be used to evaluate heartburn. Some causes of heartburn, such as GERD, may be diagnosed based on symptoms alone. Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and avoiding fatty foods, can improve heartburn. Over-the-counteralginates or antacids can help with mild or occasional heartburn. Heartburn treatment primarily involves H2 receptor antagonists and proton-pump inhibitors. (Full article...)
... that weightlifter Ri Suk, after returning from a four-year absence from competing internationally, then set eight world records in a single competition?
... that Shakira's Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 was only released in some Middle Eastern countries, and even then without the song "How Do You Do", which was deemed blasphemous?
The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird found in warmer parts of the Americas. North American birds may disperse to South America, where it is resident. Its bare head and neck are dark grey and the plumage is mostly white, with black on the tail and part of the wing. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has a feathered head and a yellow, not black, bill. The wood stork nests colonially in wetlands, building its one-metre-diameter (3.3-foot) nest in trees; the breeding season starting when water levels drop. The clutch of three to five eggs is incubated for around 30 days, and the chicks fledge 60 to 65 days after hatching, although many die during their first two weeks. The chicks are fed fish while the adult also eats insects, frogs and crabs as available, foraging by touch in shallow water. This wood stork was photographed with a Yacare caiman in the Pantanal, Brazil.
Investigators have uncovered a chilling discovery in the preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash which killed 260 people in June.
Just seconds after takeoff, both the 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner's fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the "cut-off" position, starving the engines of fuel and triggering total power loss. Switching to "cut-off" is a move typically done only after landing.
The cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why he "did the cut-off", to which the person replies that he didn't. The recording doesn't clarify who said what. At the time of takeoff, the co-pilot was flying the aircraft while the captain was monitoring.
The switches were returned to their normal inflight position, triggering automatic engine relight. At the time of the crash, one engine was regaining thrust while the other had relit but had not yet recovered power.
Air India Flight 171 was airborne for less than 40 seconds before crashing into a crowded neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, marking one of India's most baffling aviation disasters.
Investigators are probing the wreckage and cockpit recorders to understand what went wrong just after takeoff. The Air India flight climbed to 625 feet in clear weather before losing location data 50 seconds in, per Flightradar24. Saturday's 15-page report offers early insights.
The investigation - led by Indian authorities with experts from Boeing, General Electric, Air India, Indian regulators, and participants from the US and UK - raises several questions.
Investigators say the lever-lock fuel switches are designed to prevent accidental activation - they must be pulled up to unlock before flipping, a safety feature dating back to the 1950s. Built to exacting standards, they're highly reliable. Protective guard brackets further shield them from accidental bumps.
"It would be almost impossible to pull both switches with a single movement of one hand, and this makes accidental deployment unlikely," a Canada-based air accidents investigator, who wanted to remain unnamed, told the BBC.
If one of the pilots was responsible for shutting down the switches, intentionally or not, it "does beg the question: why... pull the switches to the off position," Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline accident investigator and aviation expert at Ohio State University, said.
"Was it intentional, or the result of confusion? That seems unlikely, as the pilots reported nothing unusual. In many cockpit emergencies, pilots may press the wrong buttons or make incorrect selections - but there was no indication of such a situation here, nor any discussion suggesting that the fuel switches were selected by mistake. This kind of error doesn't typically happen without some evident issue," he told the BBC.
Getty Images
Air India Flight 171 crashed into a crowded neighbourhood in Ahmedabad
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the US's NTSB, echoed a similar sentiment: "The finding is very disturbing - that a pilot has shut off the fuel switch within seconds of flying."
"There's likely much more on the cockpit voice recorder than what's been shared. A lone remark like 'why did you cut off the switches' isn't enough," he said.
"The new details suggest someone in the cockpit shut those valves. The question is, who, and why? Both switches were turned off and then restarted within seconds. The voice recorder will reveal more: was the flying pilot trying to restart the engines, or the monitoring one?"
Investigators believe the cockpit voice recorder - with audio from pilot mics, radio calls and ambient cockpit sounds - holds the key to this puzzle.
"They haven't identified the voices yet, which is crucial. Typically, when the voice recorder is reviewed, people familiar with the pilots are present to help match voices. As of now, we still don't know which pilot turned the switches off and back on," said Mr Goelz.
In short, investigators say what's needed is clear voice identification, a full cockpit transcript with labelled speakers, and a thorough review of all communications from the moment the plane was pushed back from the gate to the time it crashed.
They also say this underscores the need for cockpit video recorders, as recommended by the NTSB. An over-the-shoulder view would show whose hand was on the cut-off switch.
Before boarding Flight 171, both pilots and crew passed breathalyser tests and were cleared fit to fly, the report says. The pilots, based in Mumbai, had arrived in Ahmedabad the day before the flight and had adequate rest.
But investigators are also zeroing in on what they describe is an interesting point in the report.
It says in December 2018, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) highlighting that some Boeing 737 fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged.
While the issue was noted, it wasn't deemed an unsafe condition requiring an Airworthiness Directive (AD) - a legally enforceable regulation to correct unsafe conditions in a product.
The same switch design is used in Boeing 787-8 aircraft, including Air India's VT-ANB which crashed. As the SAIB was advisory, Air India did not perform the recommended inspections.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
A cockpit of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, operated by Air India at an air show in India
Mr Pruchnicki said he's wondering whether there was a problem with the fuel control switches.
"What does this [bit in the report] exactly mean? Does it mean that with a single flip, that switch could shut the engine off and cut the fuel supply? When the locking feature is disengaged, what exactly happens? Could the switch just flip itself to off and shut down the engine? If that's the case, it's a really serious issue. If not, that also needs to be explained," he said.
Others, however, aren't convinced this is a key issue.
"I haven't heard of this which appears to be a low-profile FAA issuance. Nor have I heard any complaints [about the fuel switches] from pilots - who are usually quick to speak up. It's worth examining since it's mentioned, but it may just be a distraction," said Mr Goelz.
Capt Kishore Chinta, a former investigator with India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), wonders whether the switches tripped because of a problem with the plane's electronic control unit.
"Can the fuel cut-off switches be triggered electronically by the plane's electronic control unit without movement by the pilot? If the fuel cut-off switches tripped electronically, then it's a cause for concern," he told the BBC.
The report says fuel samples from the refuelling tanks were "satisfactory". Experts had earlier suggested fuel contamination as a possible cause of the dual engine failure. Notably, no advisory has been issued for the Boeing 787 or its GE GEnx-1B engines, with mechanical failure ruled out for now pending further investigation.
It also said that the aircraft's Ram Air Turbine (RAT) had deployed - a clear sign of a major systems failure - and the landing gear was found in "down position" or not retracted.
The RAT, a small propeller that extends from the underside of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, acts as an emergency backup generator. It automatically deploys in flight when both engines lose power or if all three hydraulic systems register critically low pressure, supplying limited power to keep essential flight systems operational.
"The deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) strongly supports the conclusion that both engines had failed," Mr Pruchnicki said.
A Boeing 787 pilot explained why he thought the landing gear was not retracted.
"These days, every time I take off in a 787, I notice the landing gear retraction process closely. By the time the gear handle is pulled, we're already at about 200ft (60.9m), and the entire gear retraction process completes by around 400ft - roughly eight seconds in total, thanks to the aircraft's high-pressure hydraulic system."
The pilot believes the one flying had no time to think.
"When both engines fail and the aircraft starts going down, the reaction goes beyond just being startled - you go numb. In that moment, landing gear isn't your focus. Your mind is on one thing: the flight path. Where can I put this aircraft down safely? And in this case, there simply wasn't enough altitude to work with."
Investigators say the crew tried to recover, but it happened too fast.
"The engines were switched off and then back on. The pilots realised the engines were losing thrust - likely restarting the left one first, followed by the right," said Mr Pruchnicki.
"But the right engine didn't have enough time to spool back up, and the thrust was insufficient. Both were eventually set to "run", but with the left shut down first and the right too late to recover, it was simply too little, too late."
President Donald Trump has announced that the European Union and Mexico will face a 30% tariff on imports to the US from 1 August.
He warned he would impose even higher import taxes if either of the US trading partners decided to retaliate.
The announcement was made in two letters posted on Trump's Truth Social website. Similar letters were sent this week to several other countries.
The 27-member EU - America's biggest trading partner - said earlier this week it hoped to agree a deal with Washington before 1 August.
In the letter to European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Trump wrote: "We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with the European Union, and have concluded that we must move away from these long-term-large, and persistent, trade deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-tariff, policies and trade barriers."
"Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal," the letter added.
The EU has been a frequent target of Trump's criticism, and in April Washington announced levies of 20% on European goods.
In 2024, the US trade deficit with the bloc was $235.6bn (€202bn; £174bn), according to the office of the US trade representative.
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