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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Greece and Macedonia strike deal on name dispute Greece and Macedonia have reached an agreement in their long-running dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic. Senior officials from both the EU and NATO have welcomed the agreement. Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FRYOM) on Tuesday announced an historic agreement to resolve a decades-long name dispute that has hampered relations between the two countries and left Macedonia with its rather unwieldy formal name.

Ministers from the both countries agreed on "Republic of Northern Macedonia" as the Balkan countryʼs new official name. Greeceʼs Alexis Tsipras andMacedoniaʼs Zoran Zaevannounced the agreement shortly after speaking by phone. Tsipras went on to tell Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos during a televised meeting: "Iʼm happy because we have a good deal which covers all the preconditions set by the Greek side."

Italy stands by decision to reject boat of migrants as row with France escalates Italy has remained firm in its decision to shut its ports to a ship carrying more than 600 migrants. But Rome insisted it is still willing to help asylum-seekers — under certain conditions. Italy said on Wednesday that it stood behind its decision to reject port for the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius following sharp criticism from French President Emmanuel Macron, but added it would continue to allow Italian vessels carrying shipwrecked migrants in its ports. "We will not change (our position) on ships belonging to non-governmental organizations," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is the head of the antiimmigrant League party in Italy, said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "Ships belonging to foreign organizations and flying foreign flags cannot dictate Italyʼs immigration policy."

133/2018 • 14 JUNE, 2018

USA, Canada and Mexico to host 2026 FIFA World Cup The North Americans beat out a competing bid from Morocco

Members of world footballʼs governing body FIFA have voted to award the right to host the 2026 World Cup to the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The World Cup is to return to North America for a fourth time after FIFA members voted to award the right to host the2026 tournamentto a joint bid from theUnited States, Canada and Mexico. The North American bid beat competition fromMorocco,which was hoping to become just the second African country to host soccerʼs biggest international tournament. The "United" bid received 134 of the 203 votes cast at the FIFA Congress in Moscow, while Morocco polled 65. "Thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026," Carlos Cordiero, the president of US Soccer told the delegates from more than 200 member nations following the vote. "Football today is the only winner." Breaking News USA, Canada and Mexico to host 2026 FIFA World Cup Members of world footballʼs governing body FIFA have voted to award the right to host the 2026 World Cup to the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The North Americans beat out a competing bid from Morocco. The World Cup is to return to North America for a fourth time after FIFA

members voted to award the right to host the2026 tournamentto a joint bid from theUnited States, Canada and Mexico. The North American bid beat competition fromMorocco,which was hoping to become just the second African country to host soccerʼs biggest international tournament. The "United" bid received 134 of the 203 votes cast at the FIFA Congress in Moscow, while Morocco polled 65. "Thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026," Carlos Cordiero, the president of US Soccer told the delegates from more than 200 member nations following the vote. "Football today is the only winner." This was the first World Cup vote since 2010, when the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively. This was also the first time that every FIFA member nation apart from the four nations involved in the bids was given a vote on the issue. Hosting rights for previous World Cups had been awarded by what was then a 24-person FIFA Executive Committee.

Berlinʼs SPD wants to fund porn to fight sexism Berlinʼs SPD has come up with a scheme to publicly fund feminist porn and distribute it for free via public broadcasters. The party wants to cater to teens who look for porn online, but donʼt always like what they find. Like most of her friends, 20-year-old student Franzi started watching porn when she was 13. "The women are so loud in porn that I felt like my partner would think I wasn’t enjoying it when we were having sex, because he would have also watched porn and would expect moaning of some sort," she says. An absence of female agency is another thing she takes issue with. "It normalizes acts like men cumming on your face and breasts, and makes girls think that they have to do certain things. For example, most girls I grew up with thought that blow jobs were just a given. Basically, male gratification is made to seem much more important than female gratification."

Yemen: Saudi-led coalition launches attack to recapture Hodeidah port city The exiled Yemeni government said the attack will "cut off the hands of Iran, which has long drowned Yemen in weapons that shed precious Yemeni blood." But a regional expert told DW the humanitarian crisis could worsen. A coalition of mostly Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia launched an attack on Wednesday to recapture the Yemeni port city from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

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133/2018 • 14 June, 2018

German prince dies in riding accident The successor to the House of Wettin, Prince Georg-Constantin of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, has died in a riding accident at the age of 41. His family is linked to many of Europeʼs royal houses. rince Georg-Constantin of SaxonyWeimar-Eisenach died Saturday in a riding accident near Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire, England, his family said on Tuesday night. He was the designated successor of the German aristocratic House of Saxony-WeimarEisenach, which is the oldest branch of the House of Wettin. He was 41-years-old. One of Germanyʼs oldest documented noble families, the House of Wettin can be traced back over a thousand years. It split into two main branches in 1485, the Ernestine line and the Albertine line. It has connections to many of Europeʼs royal families, including current monarchs, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and King Philippe of Belgium, both from the Ernestine line.

Germany to miss 2020 greenhouse gas emissions target Economic and population growth are to blame for Germany missing its climate protection target. One of the leaders of the Greens said figures show that Chancellor Angela Merkel has more bark than bite on climate change. Germany is set to miss its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions target by 8 percent, according to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. The German governmentset itself the goal of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels. But a draft government report estimates that the country will only be able to reduce emissions by 32 percent. Officials had previously estimated a shortfall of 5 percent to 8 percent. The document blames "unexpected economic developments and unexpected population growth" for the failure to meet the target. Increased economic activity and strong population growth generally cause an uptick in emissions due to increased use of fossil fuel energy.

"The climate protection report shows a gigantic gap between the governmentʼs words and deeds when it comes to climate protection," the German branch of the environmental protection group WWF said in a statement. "Itʼs a 120-decibel alarm and the government has to show it has heard it."

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Which eurozone members face cold turkey if ECB ends stimulus?

So whoʼll sink and whoʼll swim?

The ECBʼs €2.55 trillion QE program is set to start winding down, with president Draghi likely to signal on Thursday how he intends to turn off the life-support system for the eurozone.

The macroeconomic conditions in the 19-member bloc are clearly conducive to ending the stimulus program, most market watchers believe. Eurozone growth was at its highest since 2007 in 2017, at 2.3 percent, while unemployment fell to its lowest levels in 10 years, 8.5 percent, this March.

But the situation is not unambiguous and the effects will not be felt equally among all members. The European Central Bankʼs (ECBʼs) primary goal of reviving moribund inflation, for example, was only hit this May after several

NATO-member Norway wants to double US troops near Russia Norway will ask the US to double the number of troops stationed in its north and send them closer to its border with Russia. The move could raise tensions with Moscow, though Oslo had said it was not targeted at Russia.

NATO member Norway has said it will ask Washington to send 700 US Marines to its northern region, compared to 330 on "rotation" since early last year. Osloʼs announcement followed a call on Friday by nine nations along NATOʼs eastern flank, including Estonia, Poland and Romania, for a stronger alliance presence. NATO

years of pumping a massive €2.4 trillion ($2.8 trillion) of cash via a process of bond purchases known as Quantitative Easing (QE) into the monetary system. It also came in part due to one-off factors like higher oil prices, whose longenvity is uncertain. "QE was like a shot of morphine into the eurozone sovereign bond market and may have created some complacency among investors and policymakers," Louis Harreau, ECB strategist within Global Markets Research at Credit Agricole CIB, told. has bolstered its defenses in Central and Eastern Europe in response to growing fears, following Moscowʼs annexation of Crimea in 2014. Osloʼs request coincided Tuesday with its filing of a legal challenge to the US tariffs on steel and aluminum at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO).

Chinaʼs ZTE shares plunge as trading resumes Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE has seen its shares shed a staggering 39 percent after the resumption of trading in the company. The plunge came despite the lifting of sanctions by the US administration. Shares in

Turkey opens TANAP pipeline that will bring Azeri gas to Europe Turkey and Azerbaijan have inaugurated the TANAP pipeline that will bring gas to Europe while bypassing Russia. The project has won political support from both the United States and European Union. The presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan have inaugurated a major pipeline that will eventually transport Azerbaijan natural gas to Europe. The $8.5-billion (€7.2 billion) Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, aimed at turning Turkey into an energy hub and diversifying EU natural gas supplies away from Russia. "Our country is now one step closer to its vision to become a hub of regional energy lines thanks to TANAP," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the central city of Eskisehir on Tuesday, dubbing the project "the Silk Road of energy." Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic were in attendance at the ceremony which saw the last section of the pipeline put in place.

Chinese telecoms behemoth ZTE collapsed 39 percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesdayas trading in the company resumed after a settlement with the United States.

Dealing in the firm was suspended in April after Washington said it had banned US companies from selling crucial hardware and software to it for seven years. The decision came after US officials said ZTE had failed to take action against staff violating trade sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The company was fined $ 1.2 billion (€1 billion) last year for those violations. The move in April had put the ZTEʼs future in doubt as it became a key issue in a wider trade spat between the US and China. Eventually a deal was reached to lift the US sanctions, making ZTE to pay a hefty penalty and requiring it to change its entire board of directors.

133/2018 • 14 June, 2018

Germanyʼs Angela Merkel gets support on migration from Austriaʼs Sebastian Kurz There may be disagreement within the German government on how to fight illegal migration. But Angela Merkel seems to have found a potentially valuable ally in her Austrian counterpart, Sebastian Kurz.

Sebastian Kurz may well feel like a guest who turns up to dinner only to find that the host couple have gotten into a fight and arenʼt speaking to one another.

The Austrian chancellor is in Germany for meetings with his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, and German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who are engaged in amajor row over refugee policy. Seehofer would like Germany to begin turning back would-be asylum seekers at its borders, while Merkel insists on finding a European solution to illegal migration that would involve enhanced controls along the EUʼs external borders. "The issue has the potential

to seriously damage Europe," Merkel told reporters as she welcomed Kurz to Berlin, characterizing the protection of the EUʼs external borders as "crucial."

Austria plays a key role in this issue.

Firstly, Germanyʼs border with its southern neighbor would likely be the one most affected by Seehoferʼs idea.

And secondly, Austria assumes the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July and has vowed to make the issue of migration central to its six-month tenure. "Weʼve consciously chosen to focus on the topic of security," Kurz said, saying Vienna wanted to see "more cooperation in Europe."

Putin sympathizer Angela Merkel accuses US of running among local trade surplus if trade calculations are German politicians updated sentenced for election fraud Five local lawmakers have been sentenced for election fraud in western Germany. Among them is a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has drawn criticism for his trips to Crimea and eastern Ukraine. A regional court in the western German city of Osnabrück this week handed down sentences for five individuals — four of them members of the socialist Left Party — found guilty of election fraud. Four of the defendants, who ran for city council in Quakenbrück, Lower Saxony, were given suspended prison sentences on Monday of between seven and 18 months. Among them was Andreas Maurer, who heads the Left Party in the region. He received a suspended sentence of seven months and one week. A fifth individual was ordered to pay a fine for aiding and abetting election fraud. Maurer, a 48-year-old former postman, was born in Kazakhstan and moved to Germany in the late 1980s.

Chancellor Merkel has said trade accounting methods are outdated and need revision. Done differently, figures show the US had a $14 billion surplus rather than $153 billion deficit with the European Union in 2017. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday struck back at US President Donald Trumpʼs repeated

complaints over theUS trade deficit, saying the United States actually runs a surplus with the European Union — if services and certain financial transactions are factored alongside goods into the equation. Current accounting systems for global trade, she said, needed to be updated to alsotake these forms of trade into account.

Germany: Man suspected of preparing attack after police find toxic substance in home in Cologne German police are investigating a 29-year-old man after storming his apartment in the western city of Cologne. Some German outlets report that they found a highly toxic substance. German public prosecutors are investigating a 29-yearold man on suspicion of preparing a "serious act of violent subversion" after police found an "unknown substance" during a raid of his apartment late on Tuesday.

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133/2018 • 14 June, 2018

The trust economy on display at vibrant MoneyConf

Big tech has its critics. Yet at MoneyConf, a major financial technology conference , the operative word is "trust," not a term always associated with the corporate world. Arthur Sullivan reports from Dublin. "Trust me, Iʼm a fintech founder and CEO." It might not quite have the same ring to it as the old line about doctors,but nonetheless that sentiment was discernible at MoneyConf. Right from the start of the day in Dublin when Paddy Cosgrave — CEO of Web Summit, the organizing body behind the event — asked all attendees to turn around and start talking to the strangers around them, trust was the operative word. In many ways, this weekʼs vibrant event reflects the rapid growth that the industry loosely known as "fintech" — that nascent coalition of financial services and tech — has made in a few short years.

The growing credence being lent to cryptocurrencies, the increasingly detailed plans being made in mainstream business circles around blockchain technology and machine learning and the growing strength of a wave of innovative fintech companies working in areas from banking to secure payments has given the area considerable heft. Hence the reason why this is the first topic to be given its own individual conference spin-off by the Web Summit people. Yet perhaps conscious of the scandals that have bedevilled tech giants such as Facebook and Google in recent times, and naturally of the perfidious forces behind the 2007 financial crisis, the elites of the fintech world are preaching a creed of faith as they look to muscle in further on the traditional financial market.

Can plastic recycling solve the fast-fashion problem?

Fashion firms are tapping into growing public outrage at plastic pollution by offering snazzy garments made from old water bottles and other waste. But will it catch on — and can it make a difference? Old fishing nets, plastic bottles and threadbare tires are generally consigned to the landfill, or end up in our oceans. But one ecominded fashion firm is turning that waste into jackets, sneakers and flipflops in a rainbow of hues. "Plastic pollution is a huge topic right now — also within the industry," Carolina Álvarez-Ossorio, spokeswoman for Ecoalf, said speaking in the Spanish companyʼs new Berlin store.

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Tesla slashes 3,000 jobs in costcutting endeavor US electric carmaker Tesla has announced it will cut about 9 percent of its global workforce to enhance profitability. CEO Elon Musk insisted that Model 3 production would not be affected by the move.

Chief Executive Elon Musk said Tuesday his company was cutting some 9 percent of jobs across the company. Teslaʼs latest annual filing last December showed it had 37,543 full-time employees. He added the move was meant to help bring down costswithout endangering the critical ramp-up of Teslaʼs Model 3 sedan production. Musk noted the

Germans worried about never-ending emissionscheating scandal German politicians and business leaders are increasingly worried about the long-term impact of the domestic carmakersʼ emissions-cheating scam.

Dieselgate doesnʼt look like itʼs going to die down anytime soon. A growing number of German policymakers and representatives of business organizations fear the countryʼs ongoing Dieselgate scandal will have a lasting negative impact on Germany as a business location."The emissions-cheating scandal and the ensuing or looming bans of diesel cars in some cities are creating a lot of uncertainty among German businesses," the president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Eric Schweitzer, told the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday. Schweitzer said it would be wrong to believe that the scandal had only hit carmakers.

"The drop in the value of diesels has also affected many small and mediumsized companies across the nation," he pointed out, with many firms not being able to use their fleets during recalls and necessary software updates.

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Time to scrap the G7 The messy quarrel over the G7 communique serves nobody. So why not scrap these summits altogether? After all, the four-decadeold event is an anachronistic format anyway, says Felix Steiner.

Germanyʼs Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron should take matters into their own hands and scrap G7 summits. And who could object to that? These annual gatherings, bringing together leaders of the worldʼs biggest economies, are a Franco-German invention. Germanyʼs former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and French President Valery Giscard dʼEstaing established the summit in the 1970s – so why would their elected successors not be entitled to disband the club? Doing away with the huge summit would not be a great loss for humanity. After all, what was originally conceived in 1975 as a gathering for casual and confidential talks on economic matters has transformed into an annual mega event. Today, summits are held in out of the way locations for fear of protesters, while the 1,000 journalists in attendance interpret leadersʼ every gesture and facial expression live on the air.

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cuts were part of a simplification scheme promised last month and affecting the carmakerʼs management structure.

"As part of the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 percent of our colleagues," Musk said in an email to staff.

Toyota invests record sum in ridehailing firm Grab

Toyota has announced it is pumping $1 billion into Grab, the leading ride-share company in Southeast Asia. Initially cautious about ridesharing, Japanʼs top automaker is now aggressively playing catch-up.

Toyota said on Wednesday it was investing $1 billion (€850 million) in Asian ride-sharing company Grab, with the Japanese carmaker looking to expand beyond its core business and get a foot in the door of the mobility services sector. Initially, the maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models had not shown much interest in ridesharing,but has been trying to catch up in recent years. Its $1 billion deal with Grab is the biggest single investment by a carmaker in a ride-sharing service so far. In a statement, Toyota said the deal was "aimed at achieving connectivity for Grabʼs rental car fleet across Southeast Asia and at rolling out various connected services throughout the region that utilize vehicle data" stored by the carmaker.

133/2018 • 14 June, 2018

Take a first peek at Budapest’s 2018 pop-up park Hello Wood builds a creative pop-up park in Budapest for summer

Hungary’s Hello Wood organisation first constructed an eyecatching pop-up park of creatively crafted wooden benches in central Pest’s often-underused Városháza Park in 2017 – and we are happy to report that passers-by will once again be free to lounge on wildly curvaceous seats in the same site this summer.

Over the weekend, We Love Budapest noticed that several new Hello Wood structures were already in place at this open space by Deák tér, with more building materials piled up nearby to indicate that this year’s pop-up park will be bigger and more colourful. The extra-experimental carpenters of Hello Wood were originally inspired to fill Városháza Park with functional art pieces after noticing how this central Buda-

pest square was usually empty. When designing the long wavy benches that filled the pop-up park in early July of 2017, the primary goal was to welcome the public into this urban oasis.

Their efforts worked wonderfully – all summer long, people filled these intriguing lounge areas where the artful benches provided a variety of options to take it easy for awhile, whether sitting upright to read or lying back to sunbathe.

New Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw celebrates national drink Poland has long been been synonymous with vodka around the world, but the countryʼs first museum devoted to the national beverage will finally open in Warsaw on June 12.

Polish vodka has been drunk by kings and peasants, used as a medicine, and during World War II even served to bribe the occupying Nazi German forces. Now a museum is opening in Warsaw devoted solely to the 500year history of the Polish national al-

coholic beverage. Housed in a 19thcentury vodka factory that has been abandoned for decades, the museum is located in the heart of the former working-class Praga neighborhood that is currently being regenerated.

"Our museum is a tribute to the history of vodka production in Poland, a history spanning more than 500 years," Andrzej Szumowski, president of the Polish Vodka Association, told reporters on Wednesday.

A 7,000-meter-tall mountain — simulated in a laboratory This mountain has no peaks and offers no beautiful views — it is located inside a research facility in Cologne. Two mountain climbers have volunteered to spend four weeks there, under extreme atmospheric conditions.

Ralf Dujmovits is the only German mountain climber who made it to all 14 mountains that are taller than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). Since mid-May, he and his wife — Canadian climber Nancy Hansen — have been living on top of a very special 7,000-meter-tall mountain: in an area of only 110 square meters and located in Cologne, Germany, not much above sea level. DW-Sports journalist and passionate climber Stefan Nestler is covering the experiment of the two at the Envihab — a medical research laboratory of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

English-Language Daytime Science Camps Center of Scientific Wonders (Csopa)

6/12/2018 - 8/31/2018 The fascinating Center of Scientific Wonders in Budapest now awaits children aged between 8 and 12 with exciting English-language daytime science camps. Kids who wish to dig deeper into the nature of sciences and art can get an insight into what it is like working in a laboratory, at an interactive exhibition, or at a scientific auditorium while they also get a chance to spread the wings of their creativity. The camps include plenty of playful events like workshops, experiments, physics shows in various themes, teambuilding games, arts-and-crafts activities, sports games, and several sweet surprises that will certainly sneak a smile on the faces of little ones.

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Culture

Events Horizon: what’s happening in Budapest – June 2018 There are so many major things going on in June that you shouldn’t miss. In this events round-up, we bring together all of the important happenings taking place in and around Hungary’s capital in the upcoming weeks, so you can plan the month ahead. Get out there and enjoy everything that Budapest has to offer! Brain Bar Generali Childrenʼs Island Lenny Kravitz Downtown Beer Festival Danube Carnival A38 concerts Etyek Summer Picnic Budapest Summer Festival Kolorádó Festival Billy Elliot – The Musical Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Night of the Museums Red Bull Air Race The Red Bull Air Race fills Budapest’s skies with extreme aerobatic stunts performed by some of the world’s most daring pilots right above the river, using the fastest, most agile and lightweight racing planes. This air show generally exceeds any expectations, because in addition to flying between floating checkpoints, the planes pass beneath the Chain Bridge, amazing the crowd of spectators lining the length of the riverside. A combination of high speed and extreme manoeuvres make this race an unparalleled visual spectacle that everyone can enjoy between June 23rd and 24th, over the Danube in the city centre.

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133/2018 • 14 June, 2018

Golf: Patrick Reed defeats top-tier competition to win Masters

The world number 24 beat out three rivals in the top ten to take home the $2 million prize. The man dubbed "Captain America" compared himself to golfing "legends" like Tiger Woods. Patrick Reed beat his countrymen Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth, as well as rival Rory McIlroy, to win the first major title of his career at the Masters on Sunday. The 27year-old finished with a 15-under 273, beating out Fowler who was one stroke behind.

Sergio Garciaʼs 13-shot Masters nightmare

Is eSports about to be recognized as a sport in Germany?

Politicians in Germany are mulling recognizing eSports as a sport. Their decision would have wide-ranging repercussions in the gaming industry in the country and further legitimize the digital sport phenomenon. eSportsʼ continued growth has pushed competitive gaming ever-more into the public eye. This has sparked a debate about gaming’s role within German society, and whether eSports should be officially classified as a sport. And it is looking increasingly like it will. Chancellor Angela Merkelʼs grand coalition of her Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to recognize eSports as a sport as part of the coalition agreement they reached earlier this year.

However, the legislation necessary to do so has not yet been passed. "eSports were long considered a niche topic, generally only discussed by experts. It has now reached a tipping point where it has become a meaningful topic to all of society and cannot be ignored," Konstantin von Notz, deputy chair of the opposition Green Party in the lower house Bundestag said.

Julen Lopetegui sacked as coach of Spanish national team The Spanish football association has fired the coach of its national team

The move comes just hours after Real Madrid announced that it had hired Julen Lopetegui as their next head coach.

The Spanish football association (RFEF) announced the sacking of national team coach Julen Lopetegui in a press conference on Wednesday. "We thank Julen for everything that he has done, because he is a great person, who is responsible for us being in Russia," the head of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales, said. "However, we must fire him." The move comes just two days before Spain are to open their World Cup campaign against Portugal - and just hours after Real Madrid announced that the 51-year-old Lopetegui would take over as their new head

coachimmediately after the World Cup. "I understand that Real Madrid want to have the best of coaches but the national team belongs to all of Spain and this is not the way to do things," added Rubiales. Lopetegui was appointed Spainʼs coach in July 2016 and never tasted defeat in the job, leading the team through 20 unbeaten games ahead of the World Cup. La Roja are among the favorites to lift the trophy this summer but this astonishing upheaval, so close to the tournament, could have a negative effect on the players.

How clean is Russian football?

Sometimes golf doesnʼt go your way.

But for defending Masters champion Sergio Garcia, things went rapidly from good to to very, very bad in the first round on Thursday. Hereʼs the breakdown of Garciaʼs nightmare 15th. Sergio Garcia didnʼt know what to say after hitting five balls into the water on the 15th hole of the 2018 Masters. "I donʼt know what to tell you," said the defending champion, who finished with a record-breaking nine-over par round of 81.

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Weeks before the World Cup, some open questions still remain regarding the host nationʼs team. Was there systematic doping in Russian football? Some indications suggest as much, but nothingʼs proven as yet.

German investigative journalist and doping crusader Hajo Seppelt can travel to Russia after all. His World Cup visa was ultimately approved — following an intervention from the German government — after Seppelt had at first been declared persona non grata in Russia, which

would have prevented him from traveling there for the tournament.

Yet this might not be the end of the story. Seppelt is likely to be questioned by a Russian investigative committee on arrival if he does travel to the World Cup. The committee has said it wants information pertaining to its investigation into Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov, the former head of the anti-doping agency in Moscow, who was a key whistleblower for Seppelt in a documentary aired on German public broadcaster ARD in January.