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Spain beat Netherlands to reach World Cup Semis
Teenage winger Salma Paralluelo came off the bench to score a 111th-minute winner as Spain beat the Netherlands to reach the Women’s World Cup semi-finals for the first time.
Mariona Caldentey had appeared to give Spain the win in normal time when she slammed home an 80th-minute penalty via the post after Stefanie van der Gragt handled in the box.
Van der Gragt went from villain to hero by smashing home a stoppage-time equaliser – but Paralluelo found space in the area in extra time to put Spain’s women into their first major semi-final for 26 years.
The Netherlands, runners-up in 2019 where they were beaten by the USA in the final, were outplayed for long periods although they should have taken the lead seconds before the winner, when Lineth Beerensteyn fired over from yards out.
Paralluelo, 19, then received the ball from Jenni Hermoso, kept her calm in the box and struck perfectly in off the left post to become Spain’s youngest scorer at a Women’s World Cup – and their newest star.
“It means everything for me, it was a unique moment, great euphoria… I’m extremely happy,” Paralluelo said.
“We went to extra time, but the team kept on believing,” said coach Jorge Vilda. “They played on an extraordinary level, all the players, and it was a match with a lot of emotional decisions, and the goal from Salma, it was sheer joy.”
Spain will play Japan or Sweden, who meet in Auckland at 08:30 BST on Friday, in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
(BBC Sports)
Supreme Court Justice Murdu Nirupa Bidushinie Fernando was officially sworn in as the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka before President Anura Kumara Dissanayake today (02) at the Presidential Secretariat.
She assumes office as the 48th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, succeeding Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, who recently retired. Her appointment received approval from the Constitutional Council.
She began her career at the Attorney General’s Department in 1985, rising through its ranks to become Deputy Solicitor General in 1997 and Additional Solicitor General in 2014. With over three decades of service as a State Counsel, she was appointed to the Supreme Court in March 2018.
As the most Senior Supreme Court Justice prior to her appointment, she has played a significant role in shaping Sri Lanka’s legal landscape. She also served as Senior Additional Solicitor General at the Attorney General’s Department, demonstrating a distinguished career in public service.
Murdu Fernando earned her Bachelor of Laws degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.
The event was attended by Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake.
Jayden Seales registered astonishing figures of 15.5-10-5-4 as West Indies bowled out Bangladesh for 164 on the second day of the second Test at Sabina Park. Seales’ bowling figures were the most economical in Test cricket since 1977 (minimum 60 balls). In response, West Indies lost Mikyle Louis early but Kraigg Braithwaite and Keacy Carty took them to 70 for 1 before bad light forced early stumps for the second successive day.
It was Shamar Joseph, though, who first rocked the Bangladesh innings. At one stage, the visitors were 83 for 2. In the next 34 balls, they collapsed to 98 for 6 as Shamar picked up three of the four wickets to fall.
He first ended a patient stand of 73 between Shadman Islam and Shahadat Hossain by castling the latter for 22. Soon after, he had Jaker Ali caught behind with a short ball. The batter was late on the pull; he top-edged it onto his shoulder and the ball lobbed behind the stumps for an easy catch to Joshua Da Silva.
In his next over, Shamar found the outside edge of Shadman to provide Da Silva his fourth catch of the innings. In between, Seales had Litton Das caught at first slip for 1.
After lunch, however, Shamar and Alzarri Joseph overused the short-ball ploy against Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam. The two batters hung around for 116 balls and added 41. Eventually, Taijul fended a short ball from Alzarri to third slip.
Seales then snared the last three wickets for five runs. Taskin was the first to depart. He tried to pull a short ball but the edge flew behind the stumps. Da Silva leapt and parried it towards second slip where Alick Athanaze dived backwards to pouch it with both hands.
Seales had Mehidy top-edging a hook into the hands of fine leg in the same over before uprooting Nahid Rana’s leg stump to wrap up the innings.
The Bangladesh seamers also started miserly, giving away only 16 runs in the ten overs before tea. After tea, Rana breached the 150kph mark multiple times and had Louis caught behind for 12.
Taijul also found help from the surface. Neither Brathwaite nor Carty could get him away. Seven of Taijul’s ten overs were maidens but he could not pick up a wicket.
Brief scores:
West Indies 70 for 1 in 37 overs (Craigg Brathwaite 33*, Nahid Rana 1-28) trail Bangladesh164 in 71.5 overs (Shadman Islam 64, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 36; Jayden Seales 4-05, Shamar Joseph 3-49) by 94 runs
[Cricinfo]
Countries have failed to reach a landmark agreement on tackling plastic pollution after more than two years of negotiations.
More than 200 nations met in South Korea for what was meant to be a final round of talks.
But deep divisions remained between a group of nearly 100 “high ambition” countries calling for plastic to be phased out and oil-producing nations who warned this would affect the world’s development.
“The objective of this treaty is to end plastic pollution not plastic itself, plastic has brought immense benefit to societies worldwide,” said the Kuwait negotiators in the final hours.
In 2022, the world’s nations agreed that a global treaty was needed to tackle the issue of plastic pollution particularly the impacts on the marine environment – and this should be completed within two years given the urgency of the issue.
Since 1950, more than eight billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally but less than 10% has been recycled, estimates the United Nations. .
This has led to millions of tonnes entering the world’s oceans and seas, posing serious risks to posing serious risks to wildlife and their environment. Birds, fish and whales can become injured or killed if they become entangled in plastic debris or mistakenly ingest it, leading to starvation.
Plastic is also produced from fossil fuels, and is currently estimated to be responsible for 5% of global emissions – so efforts to restrict it could also help with efforts to tackle climate change.
The meeting in Busan, South Korea, was meant to be the final fifth round of negotiations but after late night talks countries were unable to resolve their differences missing their key two-year deadline.
“A few critical issues prevent us from reaching a comprehensive agreement,” said the talks’ chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso on Sunday – the final day of talks.
Although many issues are being discussed the key split is around Article 6 – whether there should be a commitment to cutting how much plastic is produced, or just try and reduce plastic waste by increasing efforts to recycle.
A group of 95 countries have emerged, including the UK, European Union, African Group and many South American nations, who are calling for Article 6 to be a legally binding pledge to reduce production levels.
“We carry the weight of expectations of our citizens who are counting on us to protect them and the environment to protect it from the plastic pollution crisis,” said Camila Zepeda, Mexico’s chief negotiator, who spoke on behalf of this group at the final meeting.
“We must do everything in our power to meet this expectation.”
Her speech was meet with strong applause across the room, but a group of oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and Russia pushed back strongly.
The demand for oil across most sectors is expected to fall from 2026 as countries move to cleaner technologies like electric vehicles – but plastic is seen as one of the remaining growth markets. This may explain why these countries are particularly concerned about any global target to cut production levels.
“Attempting to phase out plastic rather than addressing the issue of plastic production risks undermining global progress and exacerbating economic inequality,” said Salman Alajmi, a Kuwait delegate.
India also voiced its concerns with including any commitments to cut production of plastic on the basis it could impact its right to development.
Environmental charities and scientists expressed their deep disappointment that the talks had collapsed and raised concerns about the influence of the fossil fuel industry.
InfluenceMap, a think tank, found that the petrochemical industry intervened dozens of times on the treaty via company statements, social media and consultation responses, and 93% of those were unsupportive of efforts to cut production levels.
But the report did highlight that these efforts were outweighed by positive support from key manufacturers of plastic products like Unilever, Mars and Nestlé who want consistent global regulation on the issue.
Jodie Roussell, global public affairs lead for sustainability at Nestlé, said of the talks’ collapse: “Disappointingly, consensus among all nations remains elusive, which further delays critical action to end plastic pollution.
“It also fails to deliver the certainty that business needs to mobilise investment and scale solutions.”
It is now expected that countries will reconvene next year to try and get an agreement, but Eirik Lindebjerg, global plastics policy manager at conservation charity the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), told the BBC that the group of 95 should go ahead with their own treaty.
“I think the political reality is that most countries in the world want this – that is the positive thing we can take from this. Those countries shouldn’t accept anything less than what they are asking for, there are already so many that a treaty would have a massive impact on ending plastic pollution and that option should be on the table.”
[BBC]
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