Australia’s Matthew Dawson thought his Games were over after a freak accident but a bold decision ensured he will still be part of a team chasing a medal It has been 20 years since the Kookaburras, the Australian men’s hockey team, have won an Olympic gold medal. But so badly do the current cohort want to improve on their agonising silver medal in Tokyo, downed by Belgium in an extraordinary, protracted shoot-out, that some squad members have taken to drastic measures. Like cutting off a finger. Two weeks ago, Kookaburras defender Matthew Dawson was participating in a warm-up match in Perth wh ..read more

Over 160,000 attendees in a key demographic ‘answered the call’ on Thursday, with nearly $8.5m raised for Harris Following the success of a virtual call to mobilize Black women voters for Kamala Harris, a similar event with more than 160,000 attendees was held on Thursday aimed at white women, and appeared to break records. White women will be a key demographic for the Democrats to win over this election ..read more

Five highlights of an innovative, and very wet, Olympic opening ceremony in Paris The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games – the first ever to be organised outside a stadium – has unfurled on the Seine River against a spectacular backdrop of the capital’s most celebrated monuments. Here are some takeaways ..read more

Hammersmith Apollo, LondonPlayed at the volume of a pantomime, this makeover of the fairytale favourite is flatly unadventurous You might have walked into the Emerald City. The art deco auditorium of Hammersmith’s Apollo is bathed in green light, the stage dressed with a curtain of ivy. But we’re meeting an ogre not a wizard and, this being Shrek, he’s in the outhouse taking a dump. There’s plenty more toilet humour to come in this revival of Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2008 musical, based on the 2001 Oscar winner and William Steig’s book, now in London after a UK and Ireland tou ..read more

Social media platform uses pre-ticked boxes of consent, a practice that violates UK and EU GDPR rules Elon Musk’s X platform is under pressure from data regulators after it emerged that users are consenting to their posts being used to build artificial intelligence systems via a default setting on the app. The UK and Irish data watchdogs said they have contacted X over the apparent attempt to gain user consent for data harvesting without them knowing about it ..read more

Singer, who hasn’t performed onstage since 2020 as a result of her health, brought down the house with a breathtaking take on an Edith Piaf classic The casual sports fans of the world endured four hours of rambling, chaotic, rainy pomp and circumstance along the Seine on Friday evening for one reason: to possibly see Céline Dion return to the stage. The 56-year-old French Canadian singer has not performed in over four years, owing to a rare, incurable neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome. Despite struggling with uncontrollable muscle spasms extreme enough to break ribs, Dion, a t ..read more

An armada of boats carrying athletes along the Seine, dangling dancers and parading drag queens – all under torrential rain The Paris Olympic Games opened on Friday night with a high-kitsch, riverside spectacle, as an armada of boats carried athletes along the Seine, dancers dangled from high poles, drag queens paraded on bridges and the Olympic rings lit up the Eiffel Tower – all under unrelenting, torrential rain. France had promised its opening ceremony would be the biggest open-air show on Earth. More than 300,000 people watched from the riverside and bridges – and hundreds more stood at w ..read more

Dutchman fears repeat of last season’s injury woes Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee have joined this summer Erik ten Hag is concerned that Manchester United need to “catch up on squad depth” with the manager worried that the 60-plus injuries his side suffered last season could happen again due to the load on players. United have already signed the defender Leny Yoro and forward Joshua Zirkzee this summer. The manager is also pursuing a full-back – Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui is a target – plus a defensive midfielder, with Paris Saint-Germain’s Manuel Ugarte of interest ..read more

Former US president criticises vice-president after she said she would ‘not be silent’ about suffering of Palestinians Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris’s statement on the Gaza war “disrespectful” before a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Florida to discuss the conflict. Harris, the US vice-president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, had seemed to mark a change of tone on the Israel-Gaza war on Thursday after her own meeting with Netanyahu, when she declared she would “not be silent” about the suffering of Palestinians ..read more

Too often this series the captain’s wicket has led to flurry of dismissals but his predecessor dug in to avert a collapse First ball of the Test, Chris Woakes bowling to Kraigg Brathwaite. It pitched a little short, and the West Indies captain dabbed it into the ground and ran. It felt a little ambitious, if only for a moment – by the time Woakes had extended and diverted his follow-through to reach the ball both he and the batters knew the risk had paid off. Was this, perhaps, a sign that West Indies had come out on the front foot, having won the toss, determined to impose themselves on the g ..read more