U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has met with Papua New Guinea leaders to discuss developing the Pacific Island nation’s military strength and deepening security ties, as the U.S. competes with China for influence in the Indo-Pacific region

The first major cup draw for the 2023/24 season takes place on Thursday ahead of the new campaign starting, with English Football League clubs set to find out how they will start life in this year’s Carabao Cup adventure. All 72 EFL sides feature in the first round, which is split into north and south sections for purposes of the draw. The victors will be joined by 12 Premier League teams in the second round, before the remaining eight join in at the third-round stage. For now though it’s all about the lower league sides and the start of their journey, on the day they also discovered their league fates with the 23/24 fixture lists revealed. Manchester United won the competition last term but now another opportunity for silverware arises, with League Cup round one matches starting from week commencing 7 August and the final set for Wembley on 25 February 2024. Follow the Carabao Cup first round draw live below: Read More Opening day fixtures 2023/24: Every Championship match in first round of games Opening day fixtures 2023/24: Every League One match in first round of games Carabao Cup 2023/24 fixture dates and schedule revealed

Toulouse president Damien Comolli insists that his club’s use of data is the reason behind their success rather than “football wisdom”. The entire football operation of the Ligue 1 club, who beat Liverpool in the Europa League last week, is entirely driven by data, from player and manager recruitment to which set-pieces to use in a match and when. It is bearing fruit as promotion from Ligue 2 in 2022 was followed by success in last season’s Coupe de France, which earned them their ticket to European football this season. And Comolli, who worked at Tottenham and Liverpool as sporting director, believes all their success comes from their use and understanding of the data. “Our whole football operation is driven by data, whether it his how we recruit a coach or sign a player, the way we play, the way we attack, the way we defend, from where we shoot, from where we cross, where we press,” Comolli said at Web Summit in Lisbon. “We try to optimise the wage bill and transfer budget using data. Data is part of our culture. “Where we gain a competitive advantage is we have decided to stick by data compared to the football wisdom. We are very disciplined at it. “At the moment we are struggling in the league, doing well in Europe. But with underlying data, we don’t look at results. “The day after the game, none of the pages of the match report will contain the result. It will show the underlying data, why we lost or why we won. “We need a bridge between the mathematics and science and the football people. Those individuals that can translate the data that is applicable to coaches and understandable to everyone, that bridge is absolutely key.” The use of data and artificial intelligence is quickly becoming more prominent in today’s game and Comolli believes it will have a big impact in the future of the game. He thinks that it will be particularly important in injury prevention. “In the last four seasons our player availability for per game has been at 95 per cent, the highest in France,” Comolli added. “We are constantly using data to measure player’s loads, we are are using AI to measure in-game data. “In the future it will help coaches make better decisions, when to make a substitution, when to make a tactical adjustment or not make one. “We played at Anfield, we were losing 4-1, our best striker was still on the pitch and we had a game a few days later. I messaged the analyst, ‘Why is he still on the pitch?’. “His data was showing he was in the red, so we brought him off. He went on to score in the next four games, maybe if we played him for longer he would have got injured or fatigued.” Read More No end to pursuit of the world’s best players, Saudi Pro League official says Basketball coach says sport can play big role in developing skills of youngsters Newcastle, Man Utd and West Ham target Leverkusen defender Chelsea ‘robbed’ by ‘embarrassing’ referee in Real Madrid draw, fumes Emma Hayes On this day in 2011: Martin Johnson resigns as England team manager Anthony Joshua sees Otto Wallin as stepping stone on way to title fight

The Women's Aid report suggests that Andrew Tate's content promotes hatred against women and girls among young boys

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Marvel’s latest series, Secret Invasion, is making waves on the internet – though the studio may not be best pleased when it finds out why. Director Ali Selim was greeted with anger from fans after revealing that the opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence. However, he said that the idea of using AI for the sequence, designed by Method Studios, fit into the themes of the show. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He said: “When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it – it just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?” Selim admitted that he does not “really understand” how the AI works, only that he was interested in it. He said: “We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.” The resulting social media backlash was largely around the fact that using AI likely meant graphic designers and animators, who usually craft opening credits, were cut out of the loop. The revelation comes as the Writers’ Guild America is on strike after negotiations with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed. Part of the negotiation was over protecting writers against the use of AI in the creative process. It means that over the last two months, the use of AI to replace humans in creative jobs has been at the forefront of discussions around the strike. Jon Lam, a storyboard artist, wrote on Twitter: “This is salt in the wounds of all Artists and Writers in the WGA strike.” Another person wrote: “I really loved the first episode of Secret Invasion but them using AI ‘art’ for their intro is just wack. Do better Marvel.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Associated Press got a rare glimpse of jailed publisher and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai