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The 154th Open Championship will be played at Royal Birkdale in 2026, the R&A have announced. The Southport venue has hosted the Open on 10 previous occasions, most recently in 2017 when Jordan Spieth edged out fellow American Matt Kuchar to lift the Claret Jug. Three shots clear of Kuchar heading into the final round, Spieth was a shot behind after his fifth bogey of the day on the 13th,

A group of meerkats is to move into a children’s hospital to give young patients the opportunity to connect with nature. The meerkats from Edinburgh Zoo will live in a new enclosure to be built at NHS Lothian’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) in the Scottish capital. The initiative, said to be the first of its kind outside Australia, is being delivered through a partnership between Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC),

Chelsea striker David Datro Fofana has joined Union Berlin on loan for the 2023-24 season. Fofana moved to the Blues from Molde on a six-and-a-half-year deal in January but has found opportunities limited at Stamford Bridge, making just four appearances and only one start. The 20-year-old Ivory Coast international will now look to gain more first-team experience at a club who have qualified for next season’s Champions League after finishing

Ange Postecoglou will relish the chance to prove people wrong at Tottenham after claiming he has needed to be “faultless” to reach this stage of his managerial career. A coaching journey spanning nearly three decades has taken the Australian from Melbourne to London via spells in Yokohama and Glasgow. Success has followed the 57-year-old, but he is now tasked with a sizeable rebuilding job at Spurs, who have not won

Allegations that a BBC presenter paid a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images are to be put to the head of the corporation. The BBC has suspended a male member of staff after The Sun newspaper reported he paid a young person around £35,000 over three years, from the age of 17, for explicit images. Director-general Tim Davie is due to face the media on Tuesday

Wages have increased at a record rate amid fears that inflation could remain stubbornly high and result in further interest rate rises by the Bank of England. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that average regular pay, not including bonuses, was 7.3% higher in the three months to May compared with the same period last year. It was the same as the revised figure for the previous three months

Two sons of the late singer Aretha Franklin have clashed over her final wishes in an unusual trial that will determine whether a handwritten document found under sofa cushions will count as her will. The Queen of Soul died in 2018 aged 76 without a formal, typewritten will, and five years later her legacy is still tied up in a Detroit court after a niece found different sets of handwritten

Two brothers who were on trial for planning to travel to Afghanistan to join a branch of Islamic State have pleaded guilty to terrorism offences. Muhammad Abdul Haleem Heyder Khan, 21, and 18-year-old Muhammad Hamzah Heyder Khan had been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court since early July, charged with preparing for acts of terrorism. But on Monday the pair pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorism,

The average two-year fixed-rate homeowner mortgage rate has surpassed the levels seen in the aftermath of last autumn’s mini-budget, reaching its highest level in 15 years. The typical two-year fixed-rate residential mortgage on the market reached 6.66% on Tuesday, up from 6.63% on Monday, Moneyfactscompare.co.uk said. The last time two-year rates were higher was in August 2008. On October 20 2022, the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a peak of