Refereeing is basically a nightmare now. Is it really a huge surprise a Premier League official should end up brutalised and spitting toxins on a sofa?

Farewell then, David Coote. You were the one who looks a bit like a hungover version of Ross from Friends. Let’s take a look at your best bits. Not sending off Jordan Pickford for an attempted amputation at Goodison Park. Not sending off Fabinho for performing on-spec achilles keyhole surgery on Evan Ferguson at the Amex.

Plus of course, the decision to let yourself be filmed propped up on a sofa, saying all the bad stuff out loud, and in the process completing the amazing character arc of the English football referee, from taciturn northern master butcher, to the current crop of beleaguered full-time reality TV stars.

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World super lightweight champion reflects on her rematch with Amanda Serrano being the main support to the controversial bout

When Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano were locked in battle during the last round of their first fight at Madison Square Garden, on a fevered night in April 2022,, I could not help myself. Alongside an entire row of ringside reporters, I stood up to watch the final minute of a riveting contest. Suddenly oblivious to the march of our urgent deadlines and the etiquette of remaining above such raw human emotion, we were swept away by the courage and determination of both women in one of the greatest fights ever staged at the Garden .

“It was only afterwards, when you’re looking back and hearing people’s reactions that you think: ‘Gosh, that was a huge moment for women in boxing’,” Taylor says now. “You’re hearing stories of young girls being inspired by that night and how people are calling it historic. It’s then that you just say: ‘Wow, that was an amazing night..’

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National Portrait Gallery announces £15,000-winning portrait that conveys atypical image of motherhood

A portrait documenting an unconventional and “imperfect” example of motherhood has won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.

The National Portrait Gallery has named the British photographer Steph Wilson as winner of the 2024 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize for her portrait Sonam. The photographer, who works between London and Paris, wins £15,000.

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The Girls creator is set to adapt Michael Lewis’s bestselling 2023 book on the controversial FTX founder

Lena Dunham has been tapped to write a new movie on the rise and fall of the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried .

According to Variety , the Girls creator will adapt Michael Lewis’s 2023 bestseller Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon for Apple and A24. Bankman-Fried, once seen as the poster boy for crypto, was convicted of fraud last year and sentenced to 25 years . At one point, he was the 41st richest American, according to Forbes.

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António Guterres says global heating is super-charging disasters, and Cop hears warning of ‘inflation on steroids’

This year has been “a masterclass in human destruction”, the UN secretary general has said as he reflected on extreme weather and record temperatures around the world fuelled by climate breakdown.

António Guterres painted a stark portrait of the consequences of climate breakdown that had arisen in recent months. “Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops,” he said. “All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change.”

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No reason given for departure of Nadhmi al-Nasr, longtime CEO of $500bn project launched by Mohammed bin Salman

Nadhmi al-Nasr, the longtime chief executive of the $500bn Saudi development project Neom launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has departed, according to a Neom statement issued on Tuesday that did not give a reason for the departure.

Prince Mohammed has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom’s PIF sovereign wealth fund.

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• ATP Finals updates from the evening session in Turin
• De Minaur on brink of exit | Send Katy an email

We’ve already had a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon men’s doubles final today – and the result was the same too, with Britain’s Henry Patten and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara defeating Australia’s Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Patten and Heliovaara are through to the semi-finals with a match to spare, because Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic have just beaten Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, saving a match point in the second set before winning a match tie-break 10-8, with the late drama warming the crowd up nicely for Sinner v Fritz.

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Profits beat forecasts, but a 17% fall in share price since executives were detained by Beijing may be hard to shake

In the world of two weeks ago, AstraZeneca’s share price would have probably enjoyed a strong day on the release of Tuesday’s third-quarter numbers. The profit figure beat forecasts and the UK pharmaceutical company raised its guidance for growth in full-year revenues and earnings from “mid-teens” to “high teens”.

Meanwhile, Pascal Soriot, the chief executive, unveiled a $3.5bn (£2.7bn) investment programme in the US and talked bullishly about prospects in AstraZeneca’s biggest market. It all sounded like another confident step in the march to take global revenues from $46bn in 2023 to $80bn by 2030.

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Ombudsman’s report on death of Katie Simpson, 21, adds to concerns at levels of gender-based violence in Northern Ireland

The Police Service of Northern Ireland “failed” the family of a 21-year-old woman after her death two years ago in Derry, initially treating it as suicide rather than a suspected murder, the police watchdog has said.

The report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland comes amid renewed concerns that gender-based violence is not being taken seriously enough in the region with the highest rate of femicide per capita of all nations in the UK and in the island of Ireland.

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