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Bill ConnellyAug 21, 2025, 07:00 AM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.The big-ticket items for his season are easy enough to piece together. We know we’re probably in for another three-team title race in the Premier League between Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City; they have, after all, vacuumed up the top three spots for the past two seasons and the top two for six of the past seven. We know it’s probably Barcelona vs. Real Madrid in LaLiga, considering they’ve combined for 19 of the…
With Eberechi Eze heading for boyhood club Arsenal after the Gunners stole a march on north London rivals Spurs – who looked certain to sign him – what’s the full story in yet another dramatic saga in one of the most memorable transfer windows ever? At the start of Wednesday morning, Tottenham believed they had a deal agreed for the 27-year-old to join them for £67.5m, including add-ons. But then in stepped Arsenal – who had previously had an interest in the England winger – to gazump them at the final hurdle.It leaves Gunners fans delighted, their left-wing problems seemingly…
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — The fire burned for about nine hours, billowing smoke and scorching the wooden trestles of a nearly 75-year-old railroad bridge that spans the Marys River in Corvallis, home to Oregon State University. Long after the flames died out, Michelle Emmons, a local environmental advocate, could still smell the noxious stench of charred creosote — a chemical preservative used to treat outdoor wooden structures.The bridge is owned by Portland & Western Railroad, which says it made repairs after the 2022 fire. Emmons wanted more.“It was most alarming to us to see that there were still rail cars…
The number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, a research group said Thursday, a major increase that still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some critics of immigration.The Pew Research Center’s closely watched gauge rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some 6 million who were in the country with some form of legal protection. Trump has stripped many of those protections since taking office in January. Pew, whose estimates…
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Mexico, Guatemala and Belize have announced plans to create a huge reserve of tropical forest spanning across the three countries. Pushing out criminal gangs and protecting the land from ranchers, miners and loggers won’t be easy. The nature reserve announced last week and called the Great Mayan Jungle Biocultural Corridor would stretch across jungle areas of southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations, encompassing more than 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares). It would become the second largest reserve in the Americas, behind only the Amazon.In interviews this week, the environment ministers…
James OlleyAug 21, 2025, 06:07 AM ETCloseJames Olley is a senior soccer writer for ESPN.com. Read his archive here and follow him on Twitter: @JamesOlley.Follow on XEmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsVillarreal are close to signing Chelsea defender Renato Veiga for a fee in the region of €30 million ($34.9m), sources have told ESPN.Veiga, 22, only joined the Chelsea last summer in a deal worth around €14m from Basel and made just one Premier League start before spending the second half of the campaign on loan at Juventus.Sources said Villarreal will pay an initial €25m with a further €5m in add-ons.Renato Veiga struggled…
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in July as homebuyers were encouraged by a modest pullback in mortgage rates, slowing home price growth and the most properties on the market in over five years.Existing home sales rose 2% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.01 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.Sales edged up 0.8% compared with July last year. The latest sales figure topped the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.Home prices rose on an annual basis for the 25th consecutive month, although the rate of growth continued…
A matter of weeks after captaining Derby to promotion from Sky Bet League One in May 2024, Conor Hourihane was released upon the expiry of his contract.At 33, and having played 85 of a possible 92 league matches during his stay at Pride Park, signing the former Republic of Ireland international was an attractive proposition. But, on a personal level, he found himself at a crossroads – did he continue playing? Or was it time to start exploring the next chapter? Image: Hourihane captained Derby to promotion from League One in 2023/24 In the end, he was able to combine…
The most talked about player in Germany right now is not Bayern Munich’s new signing Luis Diaz nor is it perennial top scorer Harry Kane. Both netted as Bayern won the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup but all eyes were on the striker still wearing a Stuttgart shirt.Nick Woltemade is a target for Bayern after a fine first season at Stuttgart during which he scored 17 goals before going on to become the top scorer at the European Under-21 Championship in the summer. He made his senior debut for Germany just before that. Such things do not go unnoticed at Bayern, as…
James Dobson, a child psychologist who founded the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family and was a politically influential campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, died on Thursday. He was 89. Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson launched a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents and started Focus on the Family in 1977. He became a force in the 1980s for pushing conservative Christian ideals in mainstream American politics alongside fundamentalist giants like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. At its peak, Focus on the Family had more than 1,000 employees and gave Dobson a…