Fast bowler James Anderson has been rested for England’s third Test against Sri Lanka and replaced by Stuart Broad.

Batsman Jonny Bairstow also returns in place of injured all-rounder Sam Curran for the Test that begins on Friday.

England have already clinched the three-match series after winning the first two Tests.

Broad and Bairstow have not featured in the series while Anderson and Curran have each taken one wicket with the latter making a second-Test fifty.

Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, has bowled only 41 overs in the series on pitches more suited to spinners.

Neither Anderson or Curran have taken a wicket since the first innings of the first Test and in the second Test in Pallekele none of Sri Lanka’s 20 wickets fell to an England seamer.

Anderson, 36, told BBC Sport he has felt like a “spare part” during the series and he “understands” the decision to rotate the team to allow Broad to play.

“With the winter we have ahead it makes sense for Stuart to get some cricket,” he said.

“We have what will be a tough tour in the West Indies and it could be a long period without him bowling.

“To have a game under his belt is good for him and for the team.”

More to follow.

Image: John Lamparski/WireImage/Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images/mashable composite

If you were wondering how Stephen King’s feeling about the current state of politics, look no further than his most recent tweet.

On Tuesday, the horror author took to Twitter to blast Trump with what is perhaps one is his most no-holds-barred posts of the year so far (admittedly there are quite a few of these to choose from, but it’s got to be up there).

Here’s the tweet, which at the time of writing has been shared around 12,000 times:

So let’s break that down. In the first part, King is presumably referring to the controversial statement Trump released about Saudi Arabia earlier in the day. The second part refers to Trump’s defence of his daughter Ivanka over the recent news of her using a personal email account for White House business. The “AG” reference is to Trump’s Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who is currently facing his own problems related to his financial past. And the very last bit speaks for itself.

Still, political turmoil aside, at least the horror master is enjoying Thanksgiving.

Gunmen have kidnapped an Italian volunteer worker and wounded five others, including young children, as they opened fire in Kenya’s southeast coastal region of Kilifi, police said.

The unidentified attackers, armed with AK-47 rifles, fired indiscriminately at residents at around 8pm local time (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday in the Chakama trading centre in Kilifi county, about 80km west of Malindi town, the National Police Service said on Twitter.

“The gang … abducted an Italian lady aged 23 years who is a volunteer of Africa Milele Onlus, an NGO operating in the area,” it posted on Wednesday.

The wounded included a 10-year-old who was shot in the eye and a 12-year-old who was hit in the thigh, police said. They were all taken to hospital, with one in serious condition.

The kidnapped woman has been identified as Sylivia Constanca, who was working for the small Italian charity, according to local media. 

The National Police Service wishes to inform the public that last evening at about 8pm, a gang of men armed with AK 47 rifles attacked Chakama Trading centre in Chakama, Makongeni sub location in Kilifi county, about 80 kilometres west of Malindi town. 1/6

— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) November 21, 2018

The motive for the attack is not yet clear, police said, as officers were pursuing the attackers.

“We assure the public that we are sparing no effort in tracking down the criminals and rescue the victim,” the National Police Service said.

The attackers spoke Somali and opened fire on people fleeing the scene, witness Chad Joshua Kazungu told Reuters news agency.

“There were three attackers and they targeted the Italian lady,” he said.

Another unnamed witness told Kenyan TV channel KTN News that the attackers grabbed the woman as she came out of her room to find out what was going on.

“Their aim was to get money but they took off with her to the river and, before leaving the village, they started shooting in the air and they shot one woman and four boys,” the witness said.

Suspected members of al-Shabab, an armed group based in neighbouring Somalia, have launched several attacks in recent months in which Kenyan soldiers have been killed, but those attacks have all taken place in Lamu County, which is north of Kilifi and borders Somalia.

“We cannot rule out their [al-Shabab] involvement, but we are investigating,” a senior police officer told Kenya’s Capital FM News. 

The armed group was also responsible for the 2013 attack on a shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, in which nearly 70 people were killed.

Somali-based fighters have been blamed in the past for a spate of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenya’s coast.

Kenya said it was prompted to send troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab after the kidnappings of four foreigners.

One of the foreigners, a cancer-stricken quadriplegic Frenchwoman kidnapped off a Kenyan resort island, died in captivity in Somalia.

Al-Shabab has since carried out numerous attacks in Kenya, saying it is vengeance for the country’s troop presence in Somalia.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Fernando Alonso: the F1 great who couldn’t catch a break – part three of five

Luca Di Montezemolo was Ferrari president throughout Fernando Alonso’s time with the team, and he remembers him, Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda as “the three best drivers I have seen in the Ferrari team”.

“What I appreciated about Fernando is he was always a fighter, a fighter, a fighter,” Di Montezemolo says.

Alonso joined Ferrari after a two-year sojourn back at Renault. Twice in his first three years at Maranello, he lost out on the championship at the final race. Each time, he had got himself in that position despite not having the fastest car.

“From mid-2010 to 2014,” one Ferrari insider said, “Fernando was the best driver in the world. There’s no argument about that.”

Those championship defeats were very difficult to take.

In 2010, after overhauling a 47-point deficit and then taking the championship lead with a remarkable victory in the soaking gloom of South Korea, the team made a mistake in calling him in for an early pit stop at the final race in Abu Dhabi. He got stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, which was faster on the straight, and finished seventh as Vettel won in his Red Bull and grabbed the title from under Alonso’s nose.

Two years later, it was even more galling.

In the fourth-fastest car, Alonso led the championship for much of the season, taking three outstanding victories along the way in Malaysia, Valencia and Germany. He was overtaken by Vettel in a burst of four consecutive wins by the German in a run of races in Asia in the closing stages of the season. But Alonso lost the title only because of two instances of bad luck.

He was taken out at the start of both the Belgian and Japanese Grands Prix: in Spa by Romain Grosjean’s flying Lotus after the Frenchman tangled with Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren; at Suzuka when the front wing of Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus punctured his left rear tyre.

Had only one of those incidents not happened, Alonso would have been champion.

“Despite not having the best car, the team did fantastic work,” Di Montezemolo says. “So I am sad that the combination between Ferrari and Alonso – who for me is still one of the two or three best drivers in the world, even now – didn’t work. For nothing, for a few details, a few elements.

“If he had won just one championship with Ferrari, he would have entered into history – 2010, 2012, he was able to win twice.

“Having said that, I have a very good memory of Alonso because he was able to put Ferrari on the top, win or not win, for four seasons.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari’s team boss from 2008-14, adds: “The car was not really very strong and despite that he was able to come very, very close to winning the title with Ferrari because of a lot of things he did as a driver. And therefore, even if it is not correct to say that in life, he was very unlucky.”

Domenicali says 2012 was especially difficult to take: “To achieve that situation with the level of performance we had on the car was remarkable.

“That’s why it was really very difficult at the end of the season to see, after such a fight with not really a good car, to be in that position and to lose not because it was your fault, but because you were in a place where you shouldn’t be.

“I remember when there was the shunt with Grosjean, first corner at Spa, we said, ‘OK, things are happening.’ Then it was a big sense of frustration when, immediately after, we had the same situation in Japan with the tyre cut by Kimi in the first corner.

“That was really a very difficult moment. But it was even worse in India, where [Vettel won again and] there was this feeling of: ‘Come on, this is not possible, recovering 60 points on the other side because of something you can really not fight.’ The emotions were quite high at all levels.”

The seeds of Alonso’s departure from Ferrari were sown right there.

‘He is a guy who needs the support of the team’

Domenicali says: “Fernando was really motivated to make sure he won with Ferrari. In the most difficult moments, he had that objective very clear in his mind, and that kept his motivation very high. He was always trying to push for all the details.

“So he was very interested in what was happening in Maranello. He was always connected with his engineers, and he had a very good relationship with his group of people. That was very special and it was important for the guys. And he had a very good relationship with all the world around Ferrari.

“In the period I was there, he tried to do everything to make sure he could win.

“He always pushed very hard in all conditions. Of course, he is a driver who really understands what racing is all about and he is a guy who needs the emotional support of the team. That was very important for him.”

Domenicali says Alonso’s reputation as being difficult to manage, someone who drove the team apart, is “unfair”.

“There are people with different personalities, of course,” he adds. “When you have someone who is – how can I say? – a very strong force, you need to manage the fact that he has a great personality. You need to handle it. It is something you need to work on with all the big drivers.

“I know sometimes people said he was putting negative pressure on the team. But when you have a champion, you have to understand his sensitivity and his point of view. And it was up to me and the team to handle that.

“He was very unlucky not to win the title because I do believe he deserved that. And of course with a title, the history of that period would have been changed dramatically.”

A slow loss of faith

“Fernando was always very correct, tried to push the team to improve,” Di Montezemolo says. “But he entered in crisis with himself in his mind in the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014.”

Things began to go downhill in the summer of 2013 as Alonso started to question whether Ferrari would ever be able to deliver him a car in which he could win a third world title.

At the start of the season, Ferrari’s car was not absolutely competitive, but it was gentle on tyres, which were especially sensitive in early 2013, and Alonso won two of the first five races.

By the time of the eighth race, the British Grand Prix, Alonso was second in the championship. He was already 36 points behind Vettel – but closer than he had been to the lead than at the same point in 2010.

The Silverstone race saw a series of major tyre failures. Pirelli responded by making the tyres more robust. Ferrari’s competitiveness fell back, and Alonso’s frustration grew.

In July, his management held talks with Red Bull. Alonso believed a contract would be forthcoming. But it never materialised and, according to a Ferrari insider, Alonso’s mood was dark over the weekend of the Hungarian Grand Prix as a result.

After the race, an Italian TV interviewer asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He replied: “La macchina degli altri” – meaning someone else’s car.

Di Montezemolo was livid. He arranged for a press release to be put out the following day – Alonso’s actual birthday – saying he had phoned his driver to wish him a happy birthday, but also to “tweak his ear” for his “latest comments”.

Di Montezemolo professes not to remember that incident now, but he does say: “Sometimes for me it was necessary to work on him to avoid a situation where some declarations, some ideas, started because he wanted to win, [and] could create problems in the team.

“I disagree when somebody says: ‘Alonso is a driver that destroys, no, creates troubles in the team.’ No.

“For sure, the biggest difference between Michael Schumacher and Alonso is that Michael in the best and in the worst moments was always very, very close to the team.

“Fernando is a guy that in comparison with Michael is more concentrated on himself than on the atmosphere of the team.

“This doesn’t mean he is not good for the team. But I was obliged to work a lot with him on his mind, on his attitude. Because for him it was more easy to make criticisms. Not outside, but inside the team sometimes, when it is better to be more close with the team to avoid somebody in the team going: ‘Oh, but Alonso is not happy.’

“Fernando was not against the team. Not. But in the worst moments he was more looking at himself, [he had] more doubts: ‘What do I have to do? Maybe my race driving is not at the best. Maybe the engine designer…’ More conscious of himself than the team.”

He doubted himself as a driver?

“No,” Di Montezemolo says. “‘What can I do in this team to be more competitive? Maybe’ – I give you an example – ‘I have to change my race engineering, maybe it is better to convince Domenicali to change the engine guy. Maybe it is better to say to this boy I don’t want to see you any more in the pits.’

“He was more doubtful regarding the overall competitiveness of the team, but always, always very strong, very pushing, trying to do from himself the maximum even in the difficult conditions.”

That summer, Domenicali became concerned that Alonso would take a break from F1 at the end of the year. Ferrari had kept Massa as his team-mate at the end of 2012, despite misgivings about his performance, to keep Alonso happy. But they had already committed to dropping the Brazilian at the end of 2013.

So, with fears Alonso might quit, Domenicali felt he could not risk having two drivers with no experience of the team – and he re-signed Raikkonen as an insurance policy if Alonso was to walk away.

There was one final meeting with Red Bull. At the Belgian Grand Prix in late August, Alonso sat in a car at Spa airport with team boss Christian Horner and technical chief Adrian Newey and discussed a move.

In the end, it came to nothing. Alonso stayed at Ferrari for 2014.

On track, he set his mind to destroying Raikkonen, and he achieved it, out-qualifying him 16 to three at an average of more than a half a second a lap, and being beaten by him in a race only once on merit all year.

But off track, Alonso was increasingly not sure that staying at Ferrari was a good idea.

Di Montezemolo says: “In his mind, he was thinking: ‘Maybe this is not the best moment to stay in Ferrari because maybe McLaren can be better, maybe (Nico) Rosberg can leave a seat at Mercedes’ – that was two years before Rosberg signed the new deal with Mercedes. ‘Maybe I can go to Red Bull.’ He started to think about other possibilities.”

The Puppy Cube mirrors what is playing on mobile, and projects it onto a larger surface. There is even a horizontal mode for big screen viewings. The device looks ideal for creative work, presentations, or just sitting back and taking in some entertainment.

While it might come with a bit of a price tag, it is pretty versatile.  

Wales manager Ryan Giggs was scathing in his criticism of his “complacent” players after their humiliating 1-0 friendly defeat in Albania.

Tuesday’s loss in Elbasan was Giggs’ fifth in nine matches in charge.

Wales wasted several chances before conceding a second-half penalty, which Bekim Balaj converted to condemn the visitors to defeat.

“They let themselves down,” said Giggs. “The performance was not good enough and we got what we deserved.”

“We controlled the game in the first half, but we thought it was going to be too easy. We were too complacent. Concentration wasn’t there.”

While Giggs recognised he and his side only had themselves to blame for the embarrassing result, Wales were not helped by some dubious refereeing decisions.

Albania midfielder Taulant Xhaka was lucky not to be sent off after headbutting David Brooks, and it was Xhaka who was brought down by Harry Wilson for the match-winning penalty.

Wilson should then have had a spot-kick of his own when he was seemingly fouled by Migjen Basha, only for referee to Dejan Jakimovksi to award Wales a corner.

“I don’t think the referee or his decisions had anything to do with the result,” said Giggs.

“We should have been out of sight by then so I don’t want to put any blame on the referee.”

This was meant to be a night of celebration for Wales and Chris Gunter, who was making a record-breaking 93rd appearance for his country.

He captained the side for only the second time but the occasion was spoiled by Wales’ dismal defeat.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t mark it, this unbelievable achievement, with a positive result,” said Giggs.

“Chris will be disappointed but, overall when you look outside this game, what he’s done for Wales, what he’s done for Welsh football is amazing.

“It might be a record that never gets beaten.

“It’s a true show of how dedicated he is, how much he loves playing football, he looks after himself and he deserves all the plaudits he gets for breaking the record.”

Interpol has elected Kim Jong Yang of South Korea as its next president, the international police body said on Twitter.

Kim, who had been serving as acting president, was elected for a two-year term at the body’s annual congress in Dubai.

The South Korean’s election is a blow to Moscow’s efforts to reserve the position for a Russian candidate, who was strongly opposed by the US, Britain and other European nations.

The election of Kim comes after former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei resigned after he was detained in China in September on bribery and corruption charges.

Meng disappeared in China for 13 days before his arrest was made public in October.

China’s Ministry of Public Security said that Meng’s suspected corruption and violation of laws “gravely jeopardised” the ruling party and the police, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

Authorities also said Meng was in this situation due to his own “willfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself”.

France, which hosts Interpol’s headquaters in Lyon, received Meng’s resignation as president of Interpol with immediate effect, according to the international police agency.

Meng’s wife, Grace, said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to their native China.

Making her first public comments on the issue, Grace Meng told reporters in Lyon that she thought the knife was her husband’s way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

She said she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on September 25. Grace also said four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying: “Wait for my call.”

She read a statement during her press conference in Lyon, but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her two children.

Meng is a senior Chinese security official as well as president of the International Criminal Police Organisation.

When the final whistle blows at Twickenham on Saturday it will mark the end of not just England’s autumn campaign, but Ian Robertson’s 47-year career at the BBC.

The former Scotland fly-half, whose playing career was cut short by injury, has called many of the sport’s most memorable moments, including famously describing Jonny Wilkinson “dropping for World Cup glory” as England clinched the crown in 2003.

He was also the man providing the soundtrack as Scotland clinched famous Grand Slam victories over the Auld Enemy in 1984 and 1990.

On Wednesday at 20:00 GMT, Matt Dawson hosts a BBC Radio 5 live programme celebrating 73-year-old Robertson’s career and featuring interviews with rugby greats Jonny Wilkinson, Francois Pienaar, David Campese and Gareth Edwards, plus former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Here are a selection of their tributes.

England’s World Cup-winning fly-half Jonny Wilkinson had not heard Robertson’s commentary before being played it during his interview:

“The way he described the drop-goal against Australia in that World Cup final shows the power of commentary.

“The ability of someone to translate the immensity of an event to people who are not at the event.

“I was there, and I am more nervous listening to that than I was kicking the ball over the posts.

“We had a relationship that evolved and developed, in a way relaxed, throughout my career.

“At the beginning there’s a lot of people talking about media training, how to hold yourself and what to say.

“Much later on it became a pleasure to just sit down and chat, because you can hear in his voice when he’s commentating just a genuine love for the game.

“As I got older he was more open to poking me with a bit of fun. When you walked into a media room, you could hear Robbo immediately. His voice would rise above everyone else’s, you knew where he was and what he was up to and who he was speaking to.

“He owned the room.”

England’s World Cup-winning scrum-half Matt Dawson, whose first commentary alongside Robertson was England’s 76-0 defeat by Australia in 1998: “That was the first time I met you as a commentator and you bet me £50 that England would lose by more than 40 points.

“That’s the first thing you said to me when I sat down and put my headphones on, and I gave you this look of total disgust and shook your hand in some kind of deluded annoyance.

“We lost 76-0 and I just remember as I was getting up thinking ‘how on earth do I go downstairs and talk to the players?’ you shook my hand and said ‘good luck in the next two weeks against New Zealand’.

“There was that twinkle in your eye of ‘you’re going to get battered again, my friend’ and I just knew there was something very special.

“I am incredibly lucky to have worked with you, so much has been said of your generosity, your spirit is absolutely incredible. How you get on with all people is amazing.

“I am going to miss all those lovely descriptive words that millions of us have enjoyed over the years, brightening up lounges, cars, gardens. It’s just been incredible.”

South Africa’s 1995 World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar: “I hope you still remember me because it’s just over 23 years now that I had the privilege to meet you when the Rugby World Cup came to South Africa.

“I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done to make the game of rugby better, your passion, your insights, your love for the game, was profound.

“But even better than that was your giving back. I don’t know if a lot of people know how much you have given back to communities, societies, and to charities through the course of your career.

“When you have that cathartic moment and think back on your life, it was a job very well done.

“Make sure when you’re in Cape Town, we have a glass of wine.”

Australia’s 1991 World Cup-winning wing David Campese: “Robbo must be the only Scotsman who gets up there and takes the mick out of the Poms and gets away with it, because everyone loves him. If I say something everybody would rip into me.

“At the World Cup in 2003 I had my birthday on the Sunday and Robbo turned up in the middle of a park to join in the celebrations. People like that you always keep in contact with. That’s why rugby is such a unique sport.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was taught by Robertson at school: “You really are one of the greats. After over 40 years your tone and your take is going to be sorely missed and I am sure that iconic voice, that I remember so well, will be remembered by many more for years to come as the voice of rugby.

“It was a privilege to be taught by you and joy to listen to you in later life. I remember our time at school together, you were running the first XV so I was way down the pecking order, but I was a fly-half and you were the person who taught me how to kick properly and to sell a dummy – and in politics, that’s been pretty useful!”

Wales and British Lions legend Gareth Edwards: “I have spent so many wonderful hours late into the night after matches and at charity matches swapping tales with Robbo.

“One of the things I have never forgiven him for was coming back from the 1971 tour to New Zealand with the Lions, and Robbo knew everybody in the racing fraternity including Ian Balding.

“I remember Ian approaching us and saying ‘boys, we have got to buy a leg in this horse’.

“We called it British Lion but he ended up coming nowhere.

“I told everyone ‘don’t put any money on him whatsoever!’ But when Robbo speaks you listen.”

Stephen Colbert has slammed Trump’s “pardons,” and they’re not all the Thanksgiving kind.

After lightly roasting the president’s antics during the annual turkey pardon, The Late Show host turned his attention to the bigger “pardon” on everyone’s minds.

Colbert pointed out that the CIA is preparing a report that is expected to connect the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

But the president jumped in first on Tuesday, issuing a White House statement “standing with Saudi Arabia.”

“Apparently you can kill a Washington Post journalist and the president don’t give a damn,” said Colbert on Tuesday night.

The Late Show host then moved to lambast a section of Trump’s statement in which he wrote, “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”

“Did Donald Trump just knowingly provide cover for a murderous autocrat?” Colbert asked. “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.”