Patriots’ Stefon Diggs faces strangulation and assault charges in Massachusetts

New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with a dispute with his former private chef, police said.News of the charges emerged after a court hearing on Tuesday in Dedham, Massachusetts. Diggs is charged with felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery.Diggs’s lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations”.Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated

Travball emerges, athletics surges, Brisbane basks in success: Australia’s biggest sporting moments of 2025

An Ashes-defining intervention, an NRL showstopper, and new hope forced on the AFL are among our writers’ great moments in Australian sports this yearThe highly anticipated Ashes was quickly torn apart by Travis Head’s cameo at the top of the order that has since turned into a much longer stay. The NRL grand final was another scene for an all-time breathtaking display, as the Broncos joined the AFL’s Lions in making Brisbane the epicentre of Australian sport. Here are our writers’ sporting highlights of 2025.It will be a long time before there is an NRL finals campaign like that of Brisbane in 2025. From an unlikely victory over minor premiers Canberra in golden point, through the dramatic second-half turnaround to end Penrith’s dynasty, to the ultimate destination on grand final day

Cameron Green remains Australia’s golden child but the blessing has become a curse | Brendan Foster

Bazball might be dead, or at least on its last legs, but before its demise it appears to have bewitched cricketing prodigy Cameron Green with its high-risk, at times mindless aggression.Some of the young allrounder’s premeditated shots during the Ashes have made England wunderkind Harry Brook look like their unpretentious former opener, Geoff Boycott.In the second Test, Green was promoted to No 5 and powered his way to 45 while belting England’s short-ball barrage to all corners of the Gabba.Even though his regular backing away towards the leg-stump to counter Brydon Carse’s bouncers was becoming a little reckless and predictable, it didn’t matter because Green was striking the ball so cleanly.Then he started telegraphing his attacking philosophy so early that all Carse had to do was aim at the pegs, because despite Green being two metres tall, his outstretched bat was nowhere near the ball when it smashed into his stumps

The Breakdown | ‘There is no ceiling for these players’: Jamaica targeting 2031 Rugby World Cup

Nigerian influence within English rugby union is strong and getting stronger. But could Jamaican rugby, in time, become just as significant?There is no shortage of talent. Jamaica UK Rugby, a club under the umbrella of the Jamaican Rugby Football Union, has 500 members and counting. There are youth sides and international pathways for sevens and 15s and volunteers, on both sides of the Atlantic, working to help their rugby grow.Phil Davis, a London-based youth coach, approached the Jamaican union in 2021 to see if there was a pathway to the 15s game for a promising young prop called Ben Hatfield

Online school and junior tennis: freedom, focus – and a quiet cost

Elite junior tennis players are flocking to online schools. The model offers flexibility and focus – but raises deeper questions about growth, pressure and childhoodIn a major study released recently in Epidemiology, conclusions were drawn – yet again – regarding how shutdowns and online learning were ultimately very damaging to kids’ emotional and mental health (obviously some cohorts of kids were more affected than others with financial security a big part of the calculation). This is no major surprise as parents and students alike weren’t happy with the remote learning environment.Yet despite this general consensus about online schooling not being as healthy as regular school, a new trend has exploded since Covid: the rapid growth of online schooling for tennis players and other athletes. Parents and their junior athletes feel that by being able to play several hours in the day instead of after school it will accelerate their progress in the sport while still leaving room for academics

Five things England must do to make it two Ashes Test wins in a row in Sydney

Keira Knightley may not spring immediately to mind as a source of inspiration for Ben Stokes’s captaincy but her tactics for dealing with the paparazzi at the height of her fame recalled some of Stokes’s early forays with the armband.Knightley recently explained to Graham Norton that she refused to have anyone follow her, so would stand stock still for hours at a time until the photographers got bored or, better, weirded out. “I do think I freaked them out, they were like: ‘I don’t understand what’s happening here.’”When Brydon Carse came out to bat at No 3 in England’s successful chase in Melbourne, it drew gasps from the crowd in the stadium and saw a spike in social media and texts from those watching at home. “That’s not … Is that Brydon Carse?”Carse made only six runs, largely playing like a man at a silent disco who has his headset tuned to thrash metal