Sir Andy Murray expects dust-up with former Soviet boxer’s son as he bids to progress at Australian Open January 17, 2017 While his opponent is something of an unknown quantity, Britain’s Sir Andy Murray is convinced that Russian teenager Andrey Rublev will come out swinging in a bid to derail his Australian Open campaign. Murray will cross swords with world No152 Rublev, who is the son of a former Soviet boxer, for a place in the third [...]
Is Donald Trump right that Nato is obsolete? January 17, 2017 Mary Dejevsky, a writer and broadcaster, says Yes. Nato was an alliance of the Cold War and became obsolete as soon as the Soviet Union was dissolved. The West’s failure to disband it – or at the very least rename it and reform its purpose – in response to the demise of the Warsaw Pact [...]
Andy Murray struggles with Melbourne heat as world No1 and fellow Briton Dan Evans clear first hurdle at Australian Open January 16, 2017 Top seed Sir Andy Murray admitted struggling with temperatures of 32C in Melbourne after he laboured to victory in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday. Murray, playing his first grand slam match since becoming world No1, beat Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, although the contest was more competitive than the [...]
Chelsea financial results: Exact cost of sacking current Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho revealed January 13, 2017 Sacking Jose Mourinho cost Chelsea £8.3m last season, new financial accounts released by the club have revealed. Yet dismissing the current Manchester United boss following a disastrous start to the season in 2015 proved to be significantly cheaper than the £67m paid to terminate another high-profile deal — the club's kit manufacturing partnership with Adidas. Last [...]
Out-of-depth traders among reasons for the seriousness of last year’s sterling flash crash January 13, 2017 The bank for central banks has today pointed the finger at inexperienced traders as one of the causes of last October's sterling flash crash. On 7 October last year, sterling plummeted around nine per cent against the US dollar in the early hours of trading in Asia, although it bounced part way back again quickly [...]
Editor’s notes: Carney can see what EU officials refuse to: that they need the City January 13, 2017 Mark Carney isn’t the kind of man to lose his temper in public. Perhaps he isn’t even the kind of man to lose his temper at all. Still, if he was ever to come close to doing so it may well have been at this week’s Treasury Select Committee hearing, where he once again came up [...]
Britons head into Australian Open on form as Johanna Konta and Dan Evans continue their march in Sydney January 12, 2017 British No1 Johanna Konta continued her encouraging preparations for next week’s Australian Open on Thursday by reaching only her third WTA Tour final at the Apia International in Sydney. Her progress capped a fine evening for British players at the tournament, after Dan Evans defeated a top-10 ranked opponent for the first time to advance [...]
US intelligence services deny leaking explosive Trump dossier of personal allegations January 12, 2017 The head of the US intelligence services has hit back at US President-elect Donald Trump over claims his department leaked an explosive dossier of claims. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, denied claims that Trump had tweeted that the document had been leaked by one of the organisations under his control. Clapper said: I emphasized [...]
Turkey stuffing: The lira continues to plummet against the dollar on disappointing trade data January 11, 2017 Turkey’s lira has fallen to fresh record lows as the currency continues its precipitous decline over the course of the last year. The lira hit lows of 3.8951 lira to the dollar on Tuesday amid more signs of weakness in the Turkish economy. The dollar had strengthened 1.71 per cent against the lira at the [...]
Lord Coe set to defy select committee request over Russian corruption scandal January 10, 2017 World athletics chief Lord Coe is set to defy a request to reappear before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee despite being summoned to answer further questions regarding his knowledge of IAAF corruption and Russian doping. Chairman Damian Collins called for Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), to face the [...]