The famed Yamazaki distillery marks its 100th anniversary this year with plenty to celebrate, as Japan's acclaimed aged whiskies command increasingly eye-watering prices thanks to...

In Season 3 of 'Sweet Magnolias', Maddie Townsend, Dana Sue Sullivan and Helen Decatur will face new problems to tackle using humor and friendship

After a 1-2 start for the season, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are already in a bad spot to begin the 2023 campaign. Now a brutal injury update could make it worse.

The use of technology in football has been on the increase over the past few years but none seems to create as much heated debate and questioning as that of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). By and large, it is felt that minor and visible calls are improved across the course of the season with on-pitch referees getting extra help. However, there have been several high-profile incidents of late that have led to clubs, or personnel within them, complaining about the eventual decision or decision-making process, with the most recent coming in the Champions League. Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag felt aggrieved that a number of calls went against them in their 4-3 defeat to FC Copenhagen, including a decision to send off Marcus Rashford for serious foul play. Here’s everything on VAR you need to know, including the latest causes for complaint against it. What has gone wrong? Most recently, Man United complained about Rashford’s red card, given out for stepping across and onto the foot and shin of an opponent in a Champions League encounter. Ten Hag insisted his side had seen three “very debatable” penalties go against them in four games and called his forward’s sending off “very harsh”. In domestic football, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta complained over “unacceptable” errors from on-pitch and VAR officials as his team lost to Newcastle, while Wolves boss Gary O’Neil labelled a penalty decision given against his team and upheld by VAR as “scandalous” - also against Newcastle. Ange Postecoglou suggested recently that clubs have to shoulder part of the blame for long stoppages for VAR, saying: “Some of it is self inflicted because if we come out every week complaining about decisions that is what will happen, every decision gets forensically checked and we will be sitting around for a long time in every game trying to figure out what is going on.” However, it must be noted that the vast majority of these are subjective opinions and where Arteta sees fault, another manager, supporter or, indeed, official may see justification in decision. One incident which was not subjective, but instead a quite clear mistake, came with Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham being ruled out for offside and then allowed to stay disallowed, despite the VAR officials running their processes and showing the forward was onside. The “significant human error” came as a result of the official, Darren England, appearing to forget that offside rather than a goal had been awarded in the first place. To another extreme, Millie Bright criticised the fact there was no VAR in the first edition of the Women’s Nations League, after a clearly offside goal was allowed to stand against England which would have been simple to rule out. Further clear VAR errors which PGMOL have had to apologise for include no penalty being awarded to Wolves against Man United after Andre Onana clattered Sasa Kalajdzic, a Brentford goal against Arsenal not being checked properly with no offside lines drawn and a West Ham late equaliser being ruled out for a foul, where none was apparent. What has gone right? In truth, a lot. It’s overlooked when three or four calls are spot-on, when one causes serious complaint or at least is a subjective call which a majority seem to disagree with. As an example, in the incident-packed Tottenham vs Chelsea fixture, several goals were correctly ruled out for offside through use - or checking - of VAR and the penalty awarded which saw Cristian Romero sent off was also a result of VAR intervention. Generally speaking, these calls that are widely accepted as correct do not get highlighted, partially because the technology exists for that very reason: it’s expected to help officials make the right calls with a second look. That doesn’t mean they don’t occur, though. The Premier League reported that 82 per cent of decisions were correct in the season before VAR was introduced, rising to 94 per cent being correct in 2019/20. What is the process for VAR checks? From the Premier League website: VAR will be used only for “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents” in four match-changing situations: goals; penalty decisions; direct red-card incidents; and mistaken identity. When any of those match situations occur or potentially occur, VAR is constantly rewatching and monitoring match footage from the hub at Stockley Park. If there is a decision to be made, the VAR or Assistant VAR (AVAR) will relay to the referee that play should be halted while checks are made, before recommending either an overturn, a pitchside check of the monitor for the ref or a continuation of play with the on-pitch original decision. The video officials have until the ball goes dead to inform the referee that a check is underway if play is already ongoing. The referee can then either check the monitor or accept the VAR recommendation. Upon reviewing the pitchside monitor, they may then stick with their own initial assessment or overturn the original, before communicating their new decision to the crowd. What have PGMOL said? The refereeing chief of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, Howard Webb, took over the role last year to improve the standard of officiating in the English game and to help oversee a smoother use of technology. PGMOL confirmed to the League Managers’ Association “they are actively looking at how best to incorporate VARs into match-day refereeing teams, to ensure the dynamic between on-field referee and VAR is conducive to producing positive outcomes.” After the Diaz incident, the organisation “acknowledge[d] a significant human error occurred” and brought in additional processes to ensure no repeat happened. They also released the audio of that incident, an “unusual step” according to Webb, “to show everybody what was very quickly pretty apparent to us, a human error and loss of concentration.” Webb has suggested the pool of VAR-specific officials will be increased but Lee Mason presents a cautionary tale. The former referee was appointed a full-time VAR for 2022/23, but departed the role last season after the aforementioned error over Brentford’s goal against Arsenal. Mason, who had already been stood down from the officiating list that campaign previously for wrongly disallowing a Newcastle goal, was labelled a “serial offender” by ex-PGMOL boss Keith Hackett - however, at the start of the current campaign, Mason was re-hired as a referees’ coach for the lower leagues. It is not thought he has ongoing work with VAR but that has not been confirmed by PGMOL, nor why his credentials are suited to guiding less-experienced officials despite having been removed from his post already. Read More What is VAR, how does it work and what are the biggest problems? Mikel Arteta: ‘I’m completely with referees’ Mauricio Pochettino learned lessons from famous battle to mature as manager Unai Emery acknowledges good fortune opened the door for Villa’s victory ‘Great result’ cheers David Moyes as West Ham have another good European night Liverpool angered by VAR as Jarell Quansah goal ruled out in Europa League defeat

Britney Spears had approached Wembanyama outside Catch restaurant at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, hoping to get a selfie with him

About 150 people from families who have lost a loved one to fentanyl poisoning have gathered at the headquarters of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the U.S. faces its deadliest overdose crisis

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian lender Itau Unibanco reported a 14% increase in second-quarter net profit from a year earlier, beating

Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to fume about a bombshell leaked audio tape where he is heard discussing holding onto “secret” classified documents after leaving office – and admitting that he knows he cannot declassify them. In the recording, captured during a July 2021 meeting at Mr Trump’s Bedminster golf club and released by CNN on Monday, the former president is heard boasting and laughing with associates about possessing “highly confidential” military documents about Iran. “These are the papers,” he says. “This was done by the military and given to me.” As the sound of what appears to be papers rustling is heard, Mr Trump references a “big pile of papers” and makes the startling confession that he knows he can no longer declassify the documents because he is no longer president. The former president reacted to the release of the tape in a characteristic rant on Truth Social on Monday night, where he railed against “Deranged Special Prosecutor” Jack Smith and baselessly accused the Justice Department (DOJ) and the FBI of leaking it. “The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and “spun” a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” he wrote. “This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!” Mr Trump offered no explanation for his belief that the tape exonerates him – a belief largely at odds with much reaction to the tape. George Conway, Lincoln Project cofounder and vocal critic of Mr Trump, called the former president a “sociopathic criminal” in response to the newly-obtained audio and called it just “another nail in the coffin” for his growing legal issues. “The special counsel already had Trump dead to rights because we knew this tape existed in some form,” “But to actually hear a former president of the United States committing a felony, probably multiple felonies, on audiotape while laughing about it is something I just – I think it’s just stunning.” He added: “I mean, this man has no respect for rules, no respect for the lives of other human beings, no respect for the country, no respect for the Constitution, no respect for his duties. “He is a sociopathic criminal. And this is just another nail in the coffin.” In the two-minute audio, Mr Trump is heard appearing to indicate that he is holding onto a secret military document about Iran. “Well, with Milley, uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example,” he says. “He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” he says as the noise of papers rustling is heard in the background. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some, this was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff – pages long, look.” “Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret,” he says, to laughter from people inside the room. “This is secret information. Look, look at this. This was done by the military and given to me. As president I could have declassified, but now I can’t.” Mr Trump and the meeting participants go on to joke that Hillary Clinton would “print” out the documents, joking about her “private emails”. “Hillary would print that out all the time, you know. Her private emails,” one staffer is heard saying. “No, she’d send it to Anthony Weiner,” Mr Trump replies, in reference to Ms Clinton’s use of a private email server. The former secretary of state has never been charged with a crime. The audio was recorded on 21 July 2021 at Bedminster during a meeting between Mr Trump, at least two of his aides and people helping Mr Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows with his memoir. The audio was previously revealed in the DOJ’s indictment charging Mr Trump over his handling of classified documents but has never been heard until now. Its release appears to contradict Mr Trump’s claim in a Fox News’ interview that he did not have any documents. Earlier this month, Mr Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges over his handling of classified documents, including national defence information, after leaving the White House. The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday (9 June), alleges that Mr Trump deliberately lied to and misled authorities so that he could hold onto documents that he knew were classified. On at least two separate occasions, Mr Trump then showed some of the classified documents to people not authorised to see them, the indictment alleges. Stunning photos revealed that many of the documents were stored around a toilet, shower and ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and single counts of false statements and representations, and counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation and a scheme to conceal. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse, becoming the first current or former US president ever charged with a federal crime. Mr Trump’s longtime aide Walt Nauta was also charged with six obstruction- and concealment-related charges after he allegedly helped move boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago to Mr Trump’s residence and then lied to investigators about having any knowledge of the handling of the papers. The two men appeared in court together but Mr Nauta did not enter a plea as he did not have legal counsel in Florida. Mr Nauta is now scheduled to appear for his arraignment on Tuesday morning. Read More Trump news – live: Trump fumes about leaked CNN audio capturing him boasting about ‘secret’ papers Trump critics say bombshell secret papers audio has him ‘dead to rights’: ‘Couldn’t be more incriminating’ Trump and DeSantis to hold dueling campaign events in New Hampshire after squabbling over timing Rape accuser files new lawsuit as Trump seethes over 2024 flop – live Where do Donald Trump’s family stand on him running in 2024? Trump revealed to have tweeted classified image from spy satellite

Special counsel Jack Smith expanded his classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, making significant new allegations that Trump and two of his employees attempted to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by the grand jury investigating the mishandling of the government records.

In a campaign event in Florida, Donald Trump tied the recent Hamas attack on Israel to his baseless claims of 2020 election fraud

Poland is holding its largest military parade in decades on Tuesday, in a flex of defensive muscle that comes as tensions rise on the border between the NATO nation and key Russian ally Belarus.

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