Ben Coles writes for The Telegraph:

“The balance isn’t right,” begins Ben Youngs, a scrum-half who has enough England caps (127) and has put up enough box-kicks – thousands, probably – for you to pay attention.

England are coming off back-to-back one-point wins in the Six Nations, when it looked as though they were stuck in the habit of losing those tight matches. “We won the game and people are still upset about it,” loosehead pro Ellis Genge sighed last week.

As noted by Youngs, at half-time France and Scotland must have been in the Allianz Stadium away dressing room wondering how on earth they were not further ahead. To England’s credit, how they scrapped and adapted in those second halves to come out on top felt like positive growth. But beyond any criticism? Of course not.

“England found a way and you have to commend that. You need that fight, that dog,” explains Youngs. You can sense there is a “but” coming... “It was a tough watch at times. I will never shun beating Scotland but, equally, I get why people are frustrated. The people who come to Twickenham will have a club and are familiar with their club’s players, so when they see them out there [with England] they think ‘I don’t really recognise that guy’. That is where the frustration comes.”

‘It was boring playing for Eddie Jones’

Youngs understands it because he has lived it, as a scrum-half under first Eddie Jones and then Steve Borthwick. As he explains: “You have to understand Steve’s psyche. He is a risk-averse coach, he tries to mitigate all risk of losing a Test match.”

Under Jones, England adopted such a heavy kick-first strategy that Youngs makes a frank admission about that time. “It was boring to play in.”

This is why he sympathises with England’s current scrum-half Alex Mitchell, describing the free-running, attack-minded Mitchell everyone is used to from Northampton Saints, and the version dutifully doing his bit in the kicking game for England while attacking with the handbrake on, as being like “two different people”.

Harry Randall, the zippy Bristol and England scrum-half, is another example, sending up box-kicks when, as Youngs notes, that is not his strength. “His speed of ball is exceptional. He is there to take people on, lift tempo, bring that zest and speed of ball, finding runners. That is his game.”

What is that like, I want to know, having to suppress those instincts to stay loyal to the system.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2025/03/04/ben-youngs-steve-borthwick-risk-averse-england-box-kick/

The Telegraph reports:

Sir Keir Starmer has asked the Law Commission to fast-track new contempt of court rules to prevent a repeat of the Southport riots.

The commission, which advises ministers on new laws, will make proposals within six months on what information law enforcement agencies should be able to publish about suspects behind attacks such as Axel Rudakubana’s murders of three young girls in Southport last summer.

The new rules follow concerns from three of the main policing bodies that current rules on contempt of court – which are designed to ensure any suspect receives a fair trial – risk leaving an information vacuum that could be filled by “unchecked misinformation and disinformation”.

In evidence to the commission, Counter Terrorism Policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing warned that this could lead to “a febrile environment where the risk of disorder breaking out is higher”.

“We do not believe an exhaustive list of information that can be released would necessarily be workable because every decision would depend on the circumstances of the case,” they said.

“But we do believe there is room to offer stronger reassurance in cases where a tipping point has been reached and where releasing information that could help counter misinformation and disinformation to address public safety risks would be helpful.”

In a report on Tuesday, the Law Commission said it had been asked by the Government to “expedite” its recommendations on issues relating to the Southport attack and would seek to provide an answer to the concerns by autumn.

The riots were partly blamed on false claims circulating on social media that the Southport attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat across the Channel. Other false rumours suggested the killer had been on an MI6 watchlist.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/04/police-contempt-of-court-rules-southport/

The Telegraph reports:

North Korea could have more nuclear weapons than the UK by 2035 thanks to technical assistance from Russia, analysts have warned.

The country currently has an arsenal of around 50 nuclear warheads but that could surge to 300 within a decade as Russia pays back Kim Jong-un for the troops that Pyongyang sent to fight the war against Ukraine.

North Korea could “very probably” already detonate a nuclear weapon over a US city and its alliance with Moscow means that it is only going to increase its offensive capabilities, according to Ankit Panda, an expert on North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Mr Panda told Radio Free Asia: “The area where I think the Russians can really help them is with guidance computers, cruise missile manoeuvring, cruise missile control and potentially even countermeasures.”

He added that this would “just improve the reliability of North Korea’s manufacturing standards for missile systems”.

‘Mutual vulnerability’

Mr Panda said it is likely that Kim, the North Korean dictator, will continue to modernise and expand his nuclear forces to reach a condition of “mutual vulnerability”, whereby Kim feels sufficiently confident that in a crisis the US and its South Korean ally will not be able to eliminate all his nuclear weapons.

To reach that level of stable deterrent, Mr Panda said it will mean an increase from the estimated 50 warheads that Kim presently possesses.

Mr Panda said: “I think by the mid-2030s, we might be looking at a North Korea with 300-plus nuclear warheads.”

In comparison, the UK is believed to have 225 warheads at present, France has around 290 and the US approximately 5,800. Russia is the greatest nuclear power at present, with some 6,375 weapons, but China is understood to be investing heavily in nuclear weapons.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/04/north-korea-to-have-more-nuclear-weapons-than-uk-2035/

Telegraph Sport's Jeremy Wilson sat down with Jakob Ingebrigtsen for an exclusive interview:

“I have a responsibility to see what the human race possibly can do,” says Jakob Ingebrigtsen who, between mouthfuls of cake and a huge sandwich, has been trying to convey the drive behind a story of family obsession that is perhaps the most compelling in world sport.

The question had been simple – “why do you love running?” – and, as his usually quick-thinking and incisive mind went searching for the answer, an acute sense of destiny seemed to sweep over.

By his own reckoning, Ingebrigtsen has been training professionally since the age of “four or five”. At 12, he was already lifting weights, running twice a day and covering upwards of 100 kilometres a week. By 16, he had become the youngest person to run a four-minute mile. Now 24, he is the holder of five world records, two Olympic gold medals, two world titles and 21 European Championship golds. Plenty of good judges believe that he will become the greatest endurance runner in human history. And yet this still feels less about the pursuit of medals, records or money and more about being the youngest by almost eight years of three exceptional running brothers.

The significance here is that a unique system overseen by their father Gjert had been honed following its ultimate experiment by the time Jakob was born in the year 2000.

“Growing up, getting better and better – it’s not a privilege but it’s a duty I have with our history, my training base, and all the time that me, my family and my team have put in, to see where the limit actually is,” explains Ingebrigtsen.

“So it doesn’t automatically stop when I break the records if I don’t feel like I have reached the potential. It doesn’t really have anything to do with anybody else. We have built our philosophy and training from the ground up.

“I will never feel motivated or unmotivated… because it is irrelevant. I’ve always felt a responsibility to do it 100 per cent. I feel a duty to see how fast I can run to show everybody what is possible in our time. That is the goal.”

Read the full interview: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2025/03/04/jakob-ingebrigtsen-my-duty-to-see-how-fast-humans-can-go/

From The Telegraph:

Rwanda is demanding that the UK pay £50 million for its cancelled deportation scheme in an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Rwandans have sent a formal notification invoicing the Government for the £50 million it originally agreed to forgo when Labour announced it was scrapping the scheme within days of winning the election.

However, the Rwandan government says the UK has still failed to formally terminate the agreement – allowing it to claim the payment even though not a single migrant has been forcibly deported to the eastern African state.

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, suspended aid to Rwanda last week and threatened further sanctions over military action by Rwanda-backed group M23 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a statement, Yolande Makolo, the spokesman for the Rwandan government, said the UK had breached the “trust and good faith” between the two countries by its “unjustified punitive measures to coerce Rwanda into compromising our national security”.

She also accused Lord Collins, the UK minister for Africa, of making comments that “misled the public, fuelled the DRC propaganda machine and undermined the ongoing African-led peace process”.

“We are therefore now following up on these funds, to which the UK is legally bound,” she said.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/03/rwanda-bills-uk-50m-cancelled-migrant-deportation-scheme/

From The Telegraph's Sam Dean:

Andrea Berta, the former Atletico Madrid transfer guru, is believed to be among the potential candidates to replace Edu Gaspar as Arsenal’s sporting director.

The process of finding a replacement for Edu, who left the club in November, remains ongoing but is now entering its final stages. Sources insist that a final decision has not yet been made.

Interim sporting director Jason Ayto is another candidate for the role and is known to be a well-regarded figure at Arsenal, where he has risen through the ranks since first joining as a scout.

Former Newcastle United and Manchester United director Dan Ashworth is also thought to be in the mix, while former Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky has said he is “aware” that he features on the club’s radar.

Italian reports have said that Berta, who is Italian, was also in contention for the role of sporting director at AC Milan but that he now will not be joining the Serie A club.

Berta started his career in football at Italian side AC Carpenedolo before moving on to Parma and then Genoa. In 2013 he was appointed the technical director at Atletico, before he was then promoted to sporting director in the summer of 2017.

During Berta’s time at the Spanish club, where he worked with long-serving manager Diego Simeone, Atletico won the Copa del Rey, two league titles, the Spanish Super Cup, the Europa League and the Uefa Super Cup.

Article link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/03/03/andrea-berta-arsenal-director-transfers-atletico-rodri/

The Telegraph reports:

China is developing a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier which would be larger and more advanced than any existing vessel in its fleet, in an attempt to keep pace with the US navy.

The new supercarrier would allow fighter jets to be launched from four parts of the flight deck, as opposed to its current ships which can only facilitate three, according to new satellite imagery reviewed by NBC News.

That would match the capability of USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the US navy.

Images from the Dalian shipbuilding facility in northeast China show tracks or trenches in the snow, which appear to be related to a new catapult launch system.

Analysts said that while the images don’t show construction under way just yet, they are an indication that China is moving forward with its ambitious plans.

“We think this is them testing equipment and layouts for the upcoming Type 04 carrier,” Michael Duitsman, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the US, told NBC.

China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012 and its second, the Shandong, was launched in 2017. Both use the “ski-jump” method, which involves a ramp at the end of a short runway to propel the planes upward.

The country’s third and most advanced carrier to date, the Fujian, launched in 2022 and was upgraded with electromagnetic catapults, which are more similar to the systems used onboard US ships.

All three of China’s carriers are conventionally powered, unlike the upcoming one, which experts believe would be powered by a nuclear reactor given its size and capacity.

The tracks seen in the latest satellite images run at convergent angles, which experts say resemble the configuration of existing American supercarriers that have four electromagnetic catapults.

Mr Duitsman said that it seems likely that China’s new carrier would resemble the USS Gerald R. Ford.

China already has the largest navy in the world, with 370 military vessels, but America, with 291 vessels, has more big ships.

The Gerald Ford is one of 11 supercarriers in the US navy.

Rumours have circulated for years that China is preparing to build a Type 04 carrier. However, Beijing has refused to confirm any reports and very little information has been made public.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/03/china-building-nuclear-powered-aircraft-carrier-rival-us/

From The Telegraph:

Five years ago – before cancer, before Oprah, before becoming King – the then Prince Charles spoke of his hopes of being a “peacemaker”.

“I have spent much of my life trying to bring people together,” he said. “I try.”

After an extraordinary row at the White House, now, finally, is his chance to broker peace on a global scale and, in doing so, cement his legacy as King Charles III.

The King, whether he entirely chose to be or not, now finds himself at the centre of a triangle that seems to hold the fate of the Western world in its hands: President Donald Trump, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Trump counts the King as a friend. Charles has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, meeting Mr Zelensky and his wife twice before. Sir Keir, his third prime minister, sees him at least weekly for counsel.

With the two presidents smarting from a “showdown” at the White House that horrified Europe and left Russian state media cheering, Sir Keir must now walk a diplomatic tightrope he could not have prepared for.

A mediator is needed, and fast.

The King, who is still undergoing cancer treatment, finds himself in the frame.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/03/02/this-is-kings-chance-peacemaker-legacy-craves/