• Result is largest margin at any age level of a World Cup

• DiMaria is first to score six at Fifa finals since Haaland

• Tournament is in year two of expanded 24-team field

The United States began their U-17 Women’s World Cup campaign on Monday with a record-setting 17-0 win over Samoa the biggest win at any age level in World Cup history.

The result surpassed the previous record for margin at an 11-a-side World Cup, a 16-0 win by Morocco against New Caledonia in the 2025 U-17 men’s World Cup. Ten players scored for the US, and forward Maddie DiMaria led with six goals in Salé, Morocco.

The Eagles quarterback’s recent health issues highlight how football’s toughness culture puts its players at risk

Jalen Hurts is likely to miss the rest of the NFL season after an ultrasound revealed blood clots in his lungs. Thankfully, he’s now restricted from playing for the immediate future, meaning he won’t be risking serious complications – or even his life – as he did when he played in the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

The quarterback complained to the Eagles’ medical staff of calf pain on 8 October, according to ESPN. The Eagles say Hurts flew to London with the rest of the team and, out of an “abundance of caution”, was given an ultrasound. The test found a superficial clot in his calf. Doing an ultrasound before the flight would’ve been the most prudent thing. The same for making him inactive after the clot was found. But instead, he played in the game on 11 October, as the medical staff and doctors in London agreed “that activity and mobility were important”. Hurts also practiced all last week before a follow-up ultrasound also found clots in his lungs.

The veteran is adjusting to living in Melbourne and playing in the NBL after 12 years spent on the North American basketball rollercoaster

Basketballer Joe Ingles appears as the archetype of the Australian larrikin. There is one box, however, he no longer ticks. The 39-year-old gave up alcohol in 2022 after suffering a serious knee injury, and he has now gone more than 1,500 days without drinking.

“Stopping – that part of it – during rehab was very easy,” he says from Melbourne, after moving back to the NBL following 12 seasons in the NBA. At that point, it was just one aspect of aiding his recovery. Like staying healthy and avoiding junk food.

Defence City, Ukraine’s special support regime for arms makers, now has 63 member companies, the Defense Ministry said in a 19 October release. That is more than double the late-May count, and Euromaidan Press calculations show the newcomers are, on average, much smaller firms.

Ukraine already buys most of its weapons at home. More than 75% of its 2025 weapons procurement budget went to domestic manufacturers. Most new weapons models cleared for military use are Ukrainian too: 892 of the 1,000 authorized from the start of 2026 to mid-June. Defence City is meant to turn that demand into more production capacity, and our calculations suggest it is now reaching smaller producers too.

Who is joining

Each resident’s figure in the ministry’s count is its qualified income, meaning revenue from selling weapons and military equipment. Applicants file details of their defense contracts for the previous calendar year with their application, the ministry’s guide shows. So the combined total changes as members join. It does not track month-to-month sales.

The 63 current residents have a combined qualified income of nearly $2.47 billion. At the end of May, 31 residents had $2 billion, the ministry reported. By July, 45 residents had over $2.07 billion, it added.

By Euromaidan Press calculations, the 32 companies added since May bring about $15 million each on average. The first 31 averaged about $64 million each. The math assumes all 31 early members remain, with unchanged figures. If they do, the newcomers are smaller producers on average, because each figure reflects a firm’s own prior-year weapons sales.

What residents get

The profit-tax break comes with a condition. Residents choose where their untaxed profit goes, but it must go to purposes the tax code allows, the ministry explained. If the money goes elsewhere, the break does not apply.

Residents also get customs incentives and state support to relocate plants and better protect production sites. They can rent state property without an auction. They can also ask to restrict access to sensitive information about them in public registries. Some defense export procedures are simplified too.

Resident status also makes a company eligible to be designated critically important to the defense industry. That lets it defer up to 100% of its staff liable for military service from the draft, the ministry noted.

To join, a company must confirm it meets the legal requirements and file an application with supporting documents. By law, the ministry has 10 working days to decide. If approved, a ministerial order grants the status, and the company enters the Defence City register.

Our writers give their verdicts on the new season, which tips off Tuesday. Who will claim the title? And which youngster will make the superstar leap?

Seeing all the fruits borne of an incredible summer of player movement. It feels like three years ago that Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to the Heat, because since then, Jaylen Brown and LeBron James went to the 76ers, and a ton of other deck chairs were reshuffled. This is the most intriguing NBA opening week in eons. Claire de Lune

• Washington Commanders 17–23 San Francisco 49ers

• Niners move to 6-0 but are pushed hard by Washington

Brock Purdy threw a touchdown pass, Christian McCaffrey ran for two scores and the San Francisco 49ers held on to beat the Washington Commanders 23-17 on Monday night for their sixth straight win to open the season.

The Niners followed up an emotional win last week at division rival Seattle by building a 20-point lead and holding off the Commanders (1-4-1) with two late defensive stops.

• Tampa Bay beat Guardians to seal ALCS in six games

• 7-3 Game 6 win set up by strong Freddy Peralta start

Freddy Peralta threw 5.1 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers who, like Tampa Bay, are seeking to win their first-ever World Series. A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.

How will the Commanders and 49ers fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

The Commanders’ first task on Monday night against the 49ers will be to keep track of the clock. A week after frittering away a simple game-winning field goal opportunity in overtime against the Giants, Washington’s reward is a trip out west on Monday Night Football to face one of the best teams in the NFL. The 1-3-1 Commanders entered the week with the second-worst point differential in the NFC at minus-34, and it’ll take a herculean road effort for them to avoid falling out of the mix in the mediocre East.

The Niners, meanwhile, are on Easy Street. Their 5-0 start has afforded them a shocking degree of cushion in an NFC West that was expected to be the best division in football but so far looks like San Francisco and everyone else. The defending champion Seahawks and MVP Matthew Stafford’s Rams each dropped three games in the season’s first six weeks. Those included a pair of losses to Kyle Shanahan’s team, meaning the Niners have not just a huge advantage in the loss column but (for now) a head-to-head tiebreaker as well. San Fran could hardly have enjoyed a dreamier start.

• Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse crimes came to light 10 years ago

• Survivors gather at world championships to call for reform

The judge who sentenced the former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar to up to 175 years in jail in 2018 for the sexual abuse of more than 250 women and girls has condemned the lack of meaningful change in the decade since Nassar’s crimes were exposed.

With the World Gymnastics Championships taking place here this week, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said human rights must be prioritised over the desire for sporting success.

• 28-year-old set to miss season after diagnosis

• Tanner McKee has taken over as Eagles starter

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is set to miss the rest of the season after further testing ⁠revealed blood clots had traveled from his leg to his lungs, the team announced on Monday.

Hurts’s condition is considered stable and ⁠he “has no significant ⁠functional limitations,” ​the team said. His treatment for a new diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary ⁠emboli will involve blood thinners, during which time he is unable to participate in contact activities.

US military says Tech Sgt Ian Patterson was killed after he fell from rafters at University of Texas at San Antonio game

The US military has identified the air force service member who died after he fell from the rafters of the Alamodome during a rappelling demonstration before the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)’s home game against Navy on Saturday.

He was Tech Sgt Ian Patterson, a tactical air control party instructor assigned to the sixth combat training squadron, detachment two, at Joint Base San Antonio.

Los Angeles were tipped as a Super Bowl contender after assembling a star studded lineup. Now they’ve lost three of their last four games

The Rams were supposed to be the closest thing the NFL had seen to a superteam in some time. Instead, they’re 2-4, have lost three of their last four games and are last in the NFC West. So much has gone awry, so quickly.

Sunday was rock bottom (for now). The Rams lost to the division’s ugly stepchild, the Cardinals – a team they had beaten in 16 of their last 19 meetings – on a day when Arizona didn’t manage to score a touchdown. They didn’t need to, because Arizona kicker Chad Ryland connected on six field goal attempts, the last one a 43-yarder as time expired. The game was a tale of two kickers, in that the Cardinals had a superb one and the Rams didn’t have one at all. Days after releasing Harrison Mevis following a league-worst four misses in the season’s first five weeks, the Rams came into this game with Blake Grupe, whom they’d plucked off the Jets practice squad. Grupe got hurt covering a kickoff return in the first quarter, leaving the Rams literally kickerless for the duration. (Mevis, a big fella whose nickname is the Thick Kicker, or “Thiccer,” has about 80lbs on the 5ft 7in Grupe.)

A goal against PSG is proof on the scoresheet of what can be seen on the teamsheet: at long last, Reyna is getting consistent minutes

For an entire four-year cycle, to write about Gio Reyna was to write about his potential – especially the nagging feeling that it was going unfulfilled. Once hyped as possibly the greatest prospect in US men’s history, a series of injuries kept him from simply taking the field, much less making his mark on it.

Since his emergent 2020-21 season, when he logged nearly 2,000 Bundesliga minutes running alongside Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, and Jadon Sancho, Reyna finished each of the ensuing five seasons without even cresting 630 league minutes. “Rotational” became a generous descriptor for his role at Nottingham Forest on loan, and then last season with Borussia Mönchengladbach. Still, Gregg Berhalter and Mauricio Pochettino kept involving Reyna with the US squad based on that pesky potential – betting that, on his day, he still had the raw talent to do what few compatriots could.

The reunion between one of the best players of his generation and the team he helped make an NBA champion is an opportunity to change narratives

When Kawhi Leonard became a Toronto Raptor for the first time in the summer of 2018, he looked shellshocked. “There’s just more questions you have to ask me in order for me to tell you about myself,” he said, introducing himself to an organization and city he reportedly had no interest in joining.

Leonard had fallen out with his former team, the San Antonio Spurs – one of the most respected franchises in professional sports – due to differences in opinion about an injury that had limited him to just nine games in the 2017-18 season. The Los Angeles native had hoped to end up in southern California, but instead the Raptors risked it all by swapping franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan for one year of an injured, malcontent Leonard. It worked: Leonard led the Raptors to their maiden championship on the back of a historic playoff run, averaging 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals en route. Leonard won his second finals MVP to go alongside the one he had claimed with the Spurs when he helped them to the title in 2014.

• Sacramento guard to undergo surgery and will miss entire season

• Former No 1 draft pick has been attempting to revive his career

Ben Simmons faces a monumental task to revive his NBA career after another devastating injury setback put his comeback attempt with the Sacramento Kings on hold. The Australian will undergo surgery after scans revealed he tore his right achilles tendon during a live drill at practice, just three days out from Sacramento’s season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The 30-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Kings in an attempt to revive his career, but will now miss the entire season. It is another massive setback for the three-time All-Star, after five years battling a series of significant injuries and mental health concerns.

• Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 Cleveland Guardians

• Rays lead best of seven series 3-2

• Drew Rasmussen shines over seven innings

Tampa Bay’s Jonny DeLuca figured it was going to be a quiet day for the outfielders with Drew Rasmussen on the mound for Game 5 of the AL Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians.

With the way Rasmussen quieted the Guardians’ offense on Sunday, that made for a perfect evening.

• Injury-riddled Philadelphia fall to defeat

• Chicago hold off Atlanta comeback in QB’s return

• Cardinals beat Rams with final play of game

Bryce Young threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns to Tommy Tremble, and Chuba Hubbard ran for 120 yards and a score to lead the Carolina Panthers (3-2) past the injury-riddled Philadelphia Eagles (2-4). The Panthers had little trouble in the second half picking apart the Eagles, who were missing quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley. Hurts is on injured reserve and will miss at least four games with a blood clot in his calf. Tanner McKee started for Philadelphia and finished 26 of 45 for 215 yards and a touchdown.

How will the Dallas and Green Bay fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

The Cowboys are trying to get off a treadmill on Sunday, having sequenced a loss, a win, a loss,a win, and then another loss through their first five games. Dallas’s magnetic attraction to staying within a game of .500 has so far not crushed them in the NFC East, where no team has more than three wins and the presumptive-favorite Eagles are floundering in the early season. It may well not take more than nine wins to claim the East this year, but the Cowboys have to start stacking them at some point.

Their task Sunday in Green Bay will be a tough one. The Packers have had substantial injury problems but looked rejuvenated in putting a 31-7 beating on the Bears last week. While Chicago playing backup QBs Tyson Bagent and Case Keenum might explain their low point total, the Green Bay offense looked like a revelation. Now the Pack get to face a Dallas defense that lost to a rookie QB 10 days ago and has yet to keep an opponent under 20 points. Can the Cowboys show some mettle on the road?

• Officer fell from rafters during pregame display

• Man treated on field before being taken to hospital

An Air Force officer has died after he fell from the rafters of the Alamodome before the University of Texas at San Antonio’s home game against Navy on Saturday.

The officer, who has not been named, was taking part in an event to celebrate UTSA’s Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans night. He fell on to the field while rappelling down from the stadium rafters. He was treated on the field before being taken away on a stretcher. He later died from his injuries at a local hospital. Nellis Air Force Base said he was part of the 6th Combat Training Squadron. The unit helps train military members to rappel down from helicopters.

• Texans beat Jaguars 34-31 in thriller at Wembley

• Week six: Seahawks 14-17 Broncos

Speaking to how good they are against the run, the Jaguars have gone 22 games without allowing a rusher to go for more than 75 yards. Good luck, Woody.

Texans 0-0 Jaguars 11:08, 1st quarter

Ukrainian drones struck St. Petersburg’s oil terminal, a fuel depot, an Ozon distribution center, and a VK data center overnight, setting off fires across the city, monitoring channels reported. Russian outlet Meduza called it apparently the largest attack on the city and Leningrad Oblast since the war began. Russian officials acknowledged fires, damaged homes and substations, and power cuts.

Russia keeps fighting along the front while bombarding Ukrainian cities and the grid behind it. Ukraine’s long-range drones, in turn, target the oil exports and logistics that fund and supply that war, and Russia’s Baltic oil ports have been hit repeatedly this year. St. Petersburg is a symbolic place: Russia’s so-called second capital and Putin’s hometown.

Oil terminal and fuel depot on fire

Ukrainian forces struck the Petersburg Oil Terminal with FP-1 drones, starting a fire, Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point said. The company described the terminal as one of the region’s largest, handling 12.5 million tonnes of petroleum products a year, including for export.

St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov acknowledged fires at the terminal and in four city districts, adding that Pulkovo airport had restricted flights. By morning, firefighters were still battling blazes at the terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot, and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district, he wrote. He claimed one person was killed and five injured. Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ reported that the Ruchyi depot had been burning since the night.

Ozon hub, VK data center, and a bridge

An Ozon distribution center in Kolpinsky district caught fire after the attack, the company said, Russian independent outlet Astra reported. Astra’s open-source intelligence analyst described it as one of Ozon’s busiest fulfillment centers in northwestern Russia, covering up to 79,000 m².

FP-1 drones also hit a VK data center in Novosergiyevka, Leningrad Oblast, causing serious damage, Fire Point said. VK acknowledged a drone attack on the site but claimed its services were working normally. Leningrad Oblast Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko claimed air defenses downed 145 drones over the oblast alone. He acknowledged damage to the data center’s transformer equipment and warehouse complex, and minor damage to the Vostochnaya substation. Two other substations in Yanino went offline, cutting power to about 20,000 people, he said.

A drone also hit the cable-stayed bridge over the Korabelny fairway, part of a toll highway linking the city’s north and south, Exilenova+ reported, adding that the extent of the damage was still being clarified. The channel also reported a fire near a Russian Aerospace Forces radar company outside the village of Kaporskoye.

To reach St. Petersburg, Ukrainian drones had to cover 1,000 km across four Russian regions guarded by air defenses and electronic warfare, said Serhii Beskrestnov, adviser to Ukraine’s president on defense technology.

“And these are not cruise missiles with special systems, these are drones that fly at speeds of up to 200 km/h,” he wrote.

Strikes resume after a one-sided truce

The same night, Russia hit Ukraine’s grid again, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy counted 76 Russian strikes on energy since the ceasefire was announced. US President Donald Trump declared the truce on 11 October. Ukraine paused its refinery strikes for three days at Washington’s request, but Russia struck a Kharkiv power plant within hours and kept hitting the grid. Zelenskyy then said Ukraine was resuming strikes on Russian oil and would stop again only in exchange for more US interceptors for its Patriot systems. Trump called the renewed strikes “a disgrace” and said he found Zelenskyy “more difficult to deal with than Putin.”

Ukraine has hit the St. Petersburg area before. In July, drones set fire to Wildberries warehouses near the city. In August, Ukraine began striking Ozon hubs, starting in Samara Oblast. The hubs move dual-use goods such as electronics and drone components.

• Di Guglielmo scores first NWSL goal in 1-0 victory

• Gotham denied chance to clinch NWSL Shield

• San Diego secure top-four seed as Angel City rally

Lucia Di Guglielmo scored her first National Women’s Soccer League goal and the Washington Spirit clinched a playoff spot with a 1-0 victory over Gotham FC on Saturday.

In other NWSL action, the San Diego Wave beat the North Carolina Courage 2-1, Angel City FC defeated the Denver Summit 3-2 and the Kansas City Current shut out the Utah Royals 2-0.

• Fundora lands decisive blow at 2:59 of final round

• Champion makes fourth successful title defense

• 6ft 5in fighter targets undisputed crown at 154lb

Sebastian Fundora kept his pursuit of an undisputed championship on track with a second to spare.

Fundora stopped Ermal Hadribeaj with a left hand at 2:59 of the 12th round on Saturday night at the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to retain his WBC super welterweight title.

• Rays defeat Guardians 7-3 to level ALCS at 2-2

• Díaz seals victory with ninth-inning home run

• Tampa Bay and Cleveland meet again on Sunday

Jonathan Aranda’s single led to two runs in the seventh inning when the ball got by right fielder Chase DeLauter, Nick Martinez pitched five and one-third innings for his first postseason win and the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 on Saturday night to even the AL Championship Series at 2-2.

Game 5 of the best-of-seven matchup is Sunday in Cleveland before the series shifts back to St Petersburg, Florida, on Monday. There is no off day for travel after Friday’s game was postponed by rain.

• Alex McPherson’s 34-yard kick seals 27-24 upset

• Georgia lose two interceptions and late fumble

Alex McPherson kicked a game-winning 34-yard field goal as time expired and Auburn, led by quarterback Byrum Brown’s dominant running game, upset No 1 Georgia 27-24 on Saturday.

It was the second straight week the top team in the AP Top 25 lost to an unranked opponent after then-No 1 Texas fell to Oklahoma last Saturday. Auburn’s win meant the team ranked No 1 in the AP Top 25 lost in consecutive weeks for the first time since October 1990, according to Sportradar.

• Eagles star sidelined by blood clot in his calf

• Hurts sustained injury against Rams on 4 October

• Super Bowl MVP must miss at least four games

Quarterback Jalen Hurts was placed on injured reserve on Saturday, two days after the Philadelphia Eagles revealed he had a blood clot in his calf.

Hurts was initially ruled out on Thursday for the Eagles’ upcoming game against Carolina. The Eagles said at the time that Hurts had been injured when he took a cleat to his calf during their game against the Los Angeles Rams on 4 October.

As the WNBA finals kick off Saturday in San Francisco, the pro-LGBTQ+ sports fanbase push a message of inclusion in the face of anti-trans attacks

• Sign up for WNBA 30: a free women’s basketball newsletter

At Wilka’s Sports Bar in lower Manhattan, a crowd of mostly LGBTQ+ fans was fired up during a WNBA playoff game between the New York Liberty and the Atlanta Dream. When the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones blocked the Dream’s star forward Angel Reese at the basket, then chest-bumped her – leading teammates to separate them – the bar erupted in cheers. One fan quietly joked: “Now kiss!”

“I love strong women, and I love supporting strong women,” said August, a trans organizer and Liberty fan who asked to go by their first name for privacy reasons.

How will Brentford and Liverpool fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

Brentford are flying high in the Premier League as one of just three teams still to suffer defeat this season, although Keith Andrews surely wants his team to convert some of their draws into wins.

Liverpool, on the other hand, return to league action after last weekend’s humbling home defeat to Manchester City. Andoni Iraola’s side responded by putting six goals past Lask in the Champions League, but the Reds are lacking balance.