By Stella Qiu SYDNEY Asian shares advanced and the dollar fell on Thursday after a well-flagged U.S. rate

New Zealand have reset from their thrilling win over Ireland to prepare for Friday's World Cup semi-final against Argentina with the pain of losing four years ago at...

Max Verstappen compared Formula One’s £500million Las Vegas Grand Prix to the fifth tier of English football – and suggested the sport’s new generation of fans are only interested in partying. Verstappen will start from second place for Saturday’s 50-lap race on the strip after Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari on pole position with a dazzling lap under the Las Vegas lights. F1 has sold the sport’s Sin City comeback after four decades away as the greatest show on Earth, but fans witnessed just eight minutes of practice on Thursday after a drain cover broke free and tore a hole into the underbelly of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. A delayed second practice – which concluded at 4am on Friday local time – took place in front of empty grandstands after angry spectators were turfed out to comply with local employment laws. An estimated crowd of 70,000 watched qualifying on Friday night while organisers had been expecting 100,000 attendees each day. Earlier this week, Verstappen criticised F1’s maiden street race on the strip as “99 per cent show, and one per cent sport”. And in the moments after qualifying, he took another swipe at the event. “Monaco is Champions League and this is National League,” he said. “I feel like the show is important, but I like emotion. When I was a little kid it was all about the emotion of the sport that I fell in love with and not the show. As a real racer the show shouldn’t matter. “An F1 car does not come alive on a street circuit. It is not that exciting. It is about proper race tracks. And when you go to Monza and Spa, these kinds of places have a lot of emotion and passion, and for me seeing the fans there is incredible. When I jump in the car, I am fired up. I love driving at these kind of places. “I understand fans need things to do around the track, but it is more important that they understand what we do as a sport. Most of them just come to have a party, drink, see a DJ, or a performance act. “I can do that all over the world. I can go to Ibiza and get completely s***-faced and have a good time. People come here, but they become a fan of what? They want to see maybe their favourite artist and have a few drinks with their mates, and then go out and have a crazy night. “But they don’t understand what we are doing, and they don’t understand what we are putting on the line to perform.” John Legend and Kylie Minogue were among a number of high-profile artists to perform in a dazzling 30-minute Superbowl-style show here on Wednesday, designed to kick-start the penultimate round of the season in style. Verstappen and his fellow drivers were introduced to the crowd via an elevating platform. Verstappen, who secured his third world title in Qatar last month, later said he felt like a “clown”. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he continued: “As a little kid I grew up wanting to become a world champion. More time should be invested into the actual sport, and what we are trying to achieve. “The sport should explain what the team has done throughout the season, and what they are working for. That’s way more important than having these random shows all over the place. I am not passionate about that. I like passion and emotion. “I love Vegas, but not to drive an F1 car. I love to go out, have a few drinks, throw everything on red and be crazy, but emotion and passion is not there compared to the old-school tracks.” Despite starting behind Leclerc when the lights go out at 10pm local time here on Saturday (6am Sunday GMT), Verstappen will be favourite to take his 18th win of the season. George Russell will line up from third but Lewis Hamilton will start only 10th. Hamilton, who finished half-a-second behind team-mate Russell, said: “I was lacking confidence and grip. I struggled. “Yesterday, the car felt better and I was more competitive and I made changes overnight and it didn’t feel great today. I have got a lot of work to do.” Read More Toto Wolff fuelled by ‘personal anger’ to help Lewis Hamilton win eighth title On this day in 2010: Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest ever F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton ‘counting down days’ to end of season after another poor race Max Verstappen thwarts Lando Norris’ bid for first F1 win with sprint victory F1 2023 season race schedule: When is the Las Vegas Grand Prix? Verstappen criticises Vegas GP: ‘Monaco is Champions League, this is National League’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was left laughing and speechless after Fox News's Maria Bartiromo pointedly asked him "what happened" to his presidential campaign. During an interview on her show Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo referenced a Politico article titled "Failure to Launch" that highlighted an assessment from a surrogate for Mr DeSantis who admitted "we are way behind" in polling. “What’s going on with your campaign?” Bartiromo asked. “There was a lot of optimism about you running for president earlier in the year. … What happened?!” Mr DeSantis met the question with nervous laughter before he composed an answer denying that anything had gone wrong, according to Mediaite. “Maria, These are narratives,” Mr DeSantis answered. “The media does not want me to be the nominee. I think that’s very, very clear. Why? Because they know I’ll beat [President Joe] Biden. But even more importantly, they know I will actually deliver on all these things." He then expounded on a number of his policy initiatives that he believes scares the media into trying to undermine his campaign. Mr DeSantis insisted that his campaign was a work in progress, and said he intended to keep fighting to come out on top in the Republican primaries. “I never expected to just snap fingers and all of a sudden, you know, you win seven months before anyone happens,” he said. “You got to earn it and you got to work. And it requires a lot of toil and tears and sweat. And we’re going to do that.” The numbers tell a different story, as Bartiromo pointed out; she referenced a Fox News poll showing Mr DeSantis behind his chief rival, former President Donald Trump by 34 points. She also asked Mr DeSantis if he planned on participating in an upcoming debate on 23 August. “Of course, I look forward to doing it,” Mr DeSantis said. “I think really, Maria, that’s when people are really going to start paying attention to the primary. I think up to this point, a lot of that has been about some of these legal cases. And I think a lot of the voters concern about that and understandably so.” He said the debate would open the door to policy issues that he believes will win him more support among the nation's Republican voters. “We’re going to be able to talk about the vision, and I look forward to doing it,” he said. “So I’m glad we’re going to get started.” Mr Trump has a different view of the race, claiming in a flurry of Truth Social posts made Saturday evening that Mr DeSantis was looking for an off-ramp. “Ron DeSanctimonious is desperately trying to get out of the Presidential race, while at the same time saving face for 2028, where he has been greatly damaged,” the former president said. He then mused about whether or not he should even bother debating Mr DeSantis and his other challengers, citing — and exaggerating — his polling lead. “Maybe I should enter the debates," Mr Trump said. "But, then again, when you have a 40 to 50 point lead over the field, maybe I shouldn’t???” Read More Gavin Newsom urges DoJ to investigate Florida over ‘unconscionable’ transportation of migrants Florida Republican lawmaker accused of sexually harassing two male staffers Cillian Murphy responds to ‘homophobic’ video shared by Ron DeSantis campaign

Google is honoring the late dancer, choreographer and LGBTQ+ icon Willi Ninja with a Google Doodle.

Survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan prayed for their dead loved ones in the devoutly Catholic Philippines on Wednesday as they commemorated the 10th anniversary of a storm that killed...

The US Military Academy at West Point is being sued for its race-based admissions policies by the same group that won a landmark case against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Supreme Court over affirmative action earlier this year, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

USA Basketball is back atop the FIBA men’s world rankings even after failing to medal at the World Cup

Iraq’s prime minister has visited injured patients and the families of victims in northern Iraq days after a deadly wedding fire killed around 100 people, as two more people died from their injuries

Southampton kicked off their bid for an immediate return to the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday in the opening game of the...

The Miami Hurricanes gave themselves a short window to celebrate a dominant 38-3 win over Miami (Ohio) in their season opener

Terry Martin thought the rubies in the slippers were real gems, but they were in fact made of glass.