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George Martin’s return and Joe Heyes’ form can boost the visitors but Saturday’s match is the ultimate test in rugby

What an emotional rollercoaster these past few days have been for English sport generally. From inglorious run chases at Trent Bridge to early exits at Wimbledon to the great escape against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has been a hectic week and a daunting Test at Ellis Park against the back-to-back world champions South Africa is not the obvious place to find a relaxing antidote.

There is a strong argument that facing the mighty Springboks at a venue where England last won 54 years ago ranks as the toughest proposition of the lot. The strength of the opposition, the altitude factor, the absence of the visiting skipper Maro Itoje … no wonder a mocked-up photo of Harry Kane with a rugby ball tucked under his arm has been gaining some decent traction online.

• World No 1 wins in straight sets against American

• Medvedev in surprise loss against Jan-Lennard Struff

It was after losing in the US Open final last year that Jannik Sinner said he needed to be less predictable if he was to beat Carlos Alcaraz more regularly. Moving forward, finishing points at the net, he added, would help him against all opponents.

For a while in his third-round encounter with Jenson Brooksby here, it seemed as if Sinner had forgotten all about his own advice. With the exception of a bounce smash, he barely ventured towards the net in the first set, happy enough to crank his huge groundstrokes from the baseline instead. In the second set, though, something clicked. The Italian won 11 out of 11 points at the net and even served and volleyed four times, winning all four. Note to self: get forward.

Following their painful defeat on penalties to Egypt, there is a nagging suspicion Australia may not get a better chance to break their duck

Lucas Herrington did not deserve to be the face of this painful defeat. The 18-year-old was already the youngest starter the Socceroos have ever fielded at a World Cup. Now he will be forever connected with one of Australian football’s great tragedies.

Once he missed his penalty kick – his side-footed effort placed too high and into the crossbar – first Awer Mabil ran to him, the gesture acknowledging the pain that will never leave him. When Egypt finished the shootout moments later, Herrington quickly turned his back to the crossbar that did him wrong, and put one arm to his mop of curly hair.

Разбираем актуальный зоопарк нейросетей Google 2026 года: от легковесной Gemini 3.5 Flash до видеогенератора Gemini Omni Flash. Тестируем возможности, показываем примеры сгенерированных видео и фото, ищем баги и рассказываем как использовать ИИ из РФ.

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

From Countdown and Five Go Mad in Dorset to Barbie and White Noise, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 What is the UK’s single most dispensed medicine?
2 Fólkvangr was the alternative destination to where?
3 In June 2026, which pottery firm ended production after 217 years?
4 Which religion’s calendar is determined by moon sighting committees?
5 The Filipino Efren Reyes is considered the GOAT of what indoor game?
6 Which awards were founded by the late Kanya King?
7 Which Cossack inspired works by Byron, Pushkin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky?
8 Which US state is said to have been ruled by six flags?
What links:
9 Black-footed; Fishing; Geoffroy’s; Pallas’s; Sand?
10 Countdown; The Body Show; Brookside; Walter; Five Go Mad in Dorset?
11 Hjalmar Schacht (minister of economics); Franz von Papen (vice-chancellor); Hans Fritzsche (propagandist)?
12 Murchison Promontory, Nunavut; Cape Nordkinn, Finnmark; Cape Chelyuskin, Siberia?
13 Little Miss Sunshine; Barbie and White Noise; The Hurt Locker and Titanic?
14 Adversary; Agent; Garden; History; Pilgrim?
15 Rome, 390BC; Ballantine’s warehouse, Dumbarton; São Pedro de Alcântara prison, Brazil?

In this week’s newsletter: A tour through the moments when American celebrities crossed the ocean and landed somewhere entirely unexpected

Hurrah! Today is the Guide’s 250th instalment, an anniversary celebrated the world over, with concerts and ticker tape parades and 10-part documentaries about its historical significance. You’re probably already a bit exhausted by all the wall-to-wall coverage, in fact. Also tomorrow, the United States of America might be celebrating some birthday or other, though it doesn’t sound like anybody is terribly fussed about it.

To mark both anniversaries, this week’s Guide is a “special relationship” special, with 25 of the most unlikely US/UK pop-cultural crossovers – those moments where American celebrities find themselves rubbing their stardust, intentionally or otherwise, all over weird corners of British popular culture, or vice versa. Read on for tales of Orson Welles in Norwich and Matt Berry at the Oscars.

You’d think there was nothing new to learn about the glamour model-turned-tabloid sensation. You’d be wrong…

‘Boobs,” says Katie Price, expressionlessly. “I always wanted a boob job. Always wanted them bigger.” Price, 48, places her tiny, tanned hands on the mountainous upper region of her pastel pink sweatshirt, under which lurk the latest results of this glandular restlessness. “I never wanted natural. I wanted stuck-on,” she says. “I wanted fake.” And so it came to pass. Now, 17 or so operations later, here she is, fidgeting on a beige sofa as she discusses the surgeries (“the pain!”), the insatiable ambition, the breakdowns, the flammable thongs, the still-bewildered ex-husbands and all the other stuff that has helped turn her into one of Britain’s longest-running soap operas; every bit of self-generated drama catapulting us, speechless, into the next instalment.

The new four-part series Katie Price: Nothing to Hide (Wednesday, 9pm, Sky Documentaries) promises several cliffhangers of its own. Here, it bugles, is a “revealing portrait” that will “go beyond the headlines”. Oh God, we think, as Price’s eyebrows disappear behind yet another nimbus of synthetic fog (the woman vapes like a furnace). Not again. We have read the unreadable memoirs, endured myriad “tell-all” documentaries and suffered any number of hand-wringing tabloid “exclusives”. Could there really be anything left to know about the woman who has, we are told, “sold every aspect of her life”? The answer is yes, actually, and it is, remarkably, as fascinating and exhausting as its subject.

A quest for the settings that inspired Homer – and Hollywood’s latest blockbuster – turned into a personal voyage of discovery

Swimming ashore from the boat I can see a narrow shingle beach covered in driftwood. There are logs, bamboo canes and the sundried planks of an old shipwreck. The steep climb up the hill behind is not easy. I skirt thick clumps of thorn and abandoned ancient olive trees, scrambling over jagged outcrops of limestone. Every time I curl my fingers into a rocky niche I think about snakes. The only residents, however, are spiders. Their webs are strung between the trees, and so thick and strong that I grab a stick to slash through them. No one has been here for a long time.

Near the hilltop I stumble on a ruined stone building. Who lived here, I wonder? And where have they gone? A few steps further and the land abruptly ends in a vertical white cliff that plummets into an improbably blue sea. Far away, in the haze, there is a stack of Ionian islands and one of them, I know, must be Ithaca.

The first time I saw a show, I felt like I had discovered a new language. It’s since become one of my greatest pleasures

When I was a young girl living in suburban London in the early 1960s, I was looking for ways to find excitement. The first time my mother took me to see the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), I felt a sense of rapture as I realised that the body could say things words could not.

I was yearning for more, and that night at the Royal Festival Hall, I saw glimmers of the world out there waiting for me. Watching the dancers, I felt something shift in me. It was like discovering a new language, one that I immediately wanted to speak.

Politicians brace for constitutional turmoil if Nigel Farage’s party end up in government – or even as a strong opposition

The rise of Nigel Farage has prompted political leaders across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to game the unthinkable: the breakup of the United Kingdom.

Unionists who wish to save the union and nationalists who wish to end it are bracing for constitutional turmoil if Reform UK emerges triumphant – with Farage as prime minister or official leader of the opposition – after the next election.

Popular national pastimes of drinking and football will make post-Mexico Monday a day of sore heads and sleepy children

England are through to the round of 16 in the World Cup and, as is customary in the run-up to a major international footballing fixture, the country may be losing its mind.

Because piled on top of the 60 years of hurt for the men’s team, England fans have another obstacle to overcome with the forthcoming fixture: a gruelling kick-off time of 1am BST.

Politicians brace for constitutional turmoil if Nigel Farage’s party end up in government – or even as a strong opposition

The rise of Nigel Farage has prompted political leaders across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to game the unthinkable: the breakup of the United Kingdom.

Unionists who wish to save the union and nationalists who wish to end it are bracing for constitutional turmoil if Reform UK emerges triumphant – with Farage as prime minister or official leader of the opposition – after the next election.