Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sophie Molineux led their teams expertly, and Australia v India at Lord’s felt like a final

It’s easy to understand why Beth Mooney was chosen as player of the tournament after her magnificent innings in the final. Also in the running must surely be Danni Wyatt-Hodge, whose hundred on the opening night at Edgbaston set the tone for a confident campaign by England (at least until they ran into the Australian juggernaut in the final).

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It ended with a goal from a tall, slightly ungainly figure driving through the centre-forward position – but perhaps not the one that the narrative demanded. In stoppage time, Mikel Merino ran on to Ferran Torres’s through-ball and, with impressive calm after a scrappy game that had largely lacked it, rolled the winner past Diogo Costa. He celebrated, as he had after his winner against Germany at the Euros two years ago, with a run around the corner flag, echoing his father’s celebration after scoring for Osasuna in Stuttgart in 1991.

At the other end, an actual centre-forward slumped. For Cristiano Ronaldo, this was the end. As the final whistle blew, he stood staring bleakly into the middle distance, mortality having caught up with him at last. He is the only player ever to score in six different World Cups, but he will not score in another one. At 41, the tournament is finally all over for a player whose longevity has been a marvel.

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• Celeste Amarilla called striker a ‘colonised Cameroonian’

• French Football Federation to file criminal charges

France’s Kylian Mbappé has hit back at a Paraguayan senator, describing her ⁠as a “despicable woman” after she launched a racist attack on him. Mbappé’s ⁠penalty proved ​the difference in an ill-tempered match as France beat Paraguay 1-0 in Philadelphia on Saturday to advance ⁠to the quarter-finals.

Celeste Amarilla wrote a long tirade on X, describing Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to ⁠pass himself off as French” and as a “brute who had not learned to ​write”. Paraguay’s players should have ‌slapped him after the ‌match, she added.

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Democratic candidate for Senate, who has faced series of scandals, denies allegation reported by Politico

A woman has accused Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, of sexual assault, according to an exclusive report by Politico.

Jenny Racicot, 41, dated the oyster farmer former marine veteran and alleges he forced her to have sex despite repeated objections.

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Mr Mikage (ミスター御影） posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

ARLINGTON (ANP) - Europees kampioen Spanje heeft de kwartfinales bereikt van het WK voetbal. De ploeg van bondscoach Luis de la Fuente won in de achtste finales met 1-0 van Portugal. Invaller Mikel Merino maakte in het volgepakte Dallas Stadium in de eerste minuut van de blessuretijd de winnende treffer.

Spanje neemt het in de kwartfinale op tegen de winnaar van het duel tussen België en de Verenigde Staten, dat om 02.00 uur begint in de nacht van maandag op dinsdag.

Het was de 42e confrontatie tussen Spanje en Portugal, de buurlanden die tot de gastlanden behoren van het volgende WK in 2030. Spanje is de wereldkampioen van 2010, Portugal haalde nooit de finale op een WK. De derde plaats in 1966 blijft het beste resultaat.

Het was de 233e interland voor de Portugese vedette Cristiano Ronaldo. Het was zijn laatste WK-wedstrijd, na zes WK's.

Spanje kreeg vroeg in de wedstrijd een levensgrote kans op de 1-0, maar Mikel Oyarzabal schoot de bal in vrije scoringspositie naast. De Portugese doelman Diogo Costa behoedde kort daarna zijn ploeg voor een achterstand. Hij stopte eerst een inzet van Lamine Yamal en tikte daarna de bal na een uithaal van Álex Baena uit het doel.

Hoewel Spanje wat beter was en iets dreigender, kreeg Portugal ook kansen om te scoren. Ronaldo leverde een schot af dat stuitte op de handschoenen van de Spaanse doelman Unai Simón. De keeper moest ook ingrijpen bij een kopbal van João Félix en een soort van omhaal van Ronaldo. Een afstandsschot van Nuno Mendes ketste af op de lat.

Vroeg in de tweede helft raakte Mendes zodanig geblesseerd dat hij niet verder kon in de wedstrijd. Spanje profiteerde niet van het verdwijnen van de belangrijke Portugese linksback. Lamine Yamal kwam wel vaker door over de rechterflank, maar hij was slordig in het afgeven en afwerken.

In het laatste kwartier nam de druk van Spanje weer toe, maar de combinaties voorin leken geen doelpunt op te leveren. Tot de extra tijd. Die was nog maar net begonnen, of Ferran Torres vond Merino, die de bal hard in de touwen schoot. Bernardo Silva maakte vlak voor het eindsignaal nog bijna gelijk voor Portugal, maar zijn kopbal ging net over.

Microsoft is laying off about 4,800 employees, including 1,600 from Xbox, as it restructures around AI investments and tries to reset its struggling gaming business. "Our business is changing because the world around it is changing. The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here," said Amy Coleman, EVP and chief people officer at Microsoft. "Our customers' needs are shifting, the business models that serve them are shifting, and that means the work itself -- what we do, where we focus, and how we're organized -- has to transform too." She continued: "Companies don't get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it. That means we will need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate so we can have the greatest impact for our customers." TechCrunch reports: Coleman stressed that the roles being eliminated today "are not being replaced by AI," but noted, "what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done." "Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves," Coleman wrote. [...] Speaking about the Xbox layoffs, Coleman said little: "We are restructuring to position the business for long-term success. Engineering teams across the company will also evolve their structure and priorities to meet customer needs and innovate for the future."

Of today's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox. In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." "Our business today is not healthy," Sharma wrote. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses." She added that Xbox made bets like its monthly subscription service Game Pass, alongside moves to grow its portfolio of content and invest in multi-platform, among other attempts to breathe life into the business. None of those strategies grew at the expected pace, leading to the core business weakening even as Xbox added more teams and investment. "And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history," Sharma said. "We must reset Xbox."

As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects. Specifically Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to independent studios, according to Sharma. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are coming under new ownership with funding to complete and grow some of their more popular games. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox is also flattening management hard, cutting the current 14 management layers to no more than five, but ideally three. As part of this major organization redesign, Xbox is making longtime executive Helen Chiang chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss authority across content, hardware, platform, and services. Xbox's restructuring plan centers around narrowing focus by dropping sprawling creative bets that don't produce platform-scale returns, and instead homing in on core strategic pillars like Mojang and King, the businesses behind Minecraft and Candy Crush.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MeFi's own Maciej Cegłowski (Pinboard, Idle Words) has a new Substack newsletter, Mars For The Rest of Us, where he investigates "the prospects and practicalities of exploring Mars in our lifetime." He's a Mars skeptic in a field full of (rocket) boosters, digging into the human physiology and life support problems that need to be solved before humans can make the years-long journey to Mars. This includes serious investigation about space toilets, Italy's quest to make a decent espresso in space, and how antiperspirant fumes nearly triggered an ISS evacuation.

(Many of the posts are partially behind a newsletter paywall, but there's lots of great free space nerd content.)

Just dropped a couple of days ago: Lane 8’s Summer 2026 Mixtape (4 hours long). Also available on Soundcloud.