Australia, Spain, France and the United States are among 12 nations who qualified for the next stage of the Davis Cup on Saturday.
Australia, the 28-time champions, came from 2-1 down against Hungary to win both Saturday’s singles matches and progress.
Defending champions Russia have been banned from the tournament following their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The first stage of the finals which will be played in September.
There are 16 teams involved, with Croatia, Great Britain and Serbia having already qualified.
Davis Cup chiefs will decide next week who will replace Russia.
Those 16 teams will then become eight for the quarter-finals in November.
Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian Open doubles champion, won the decisive singles rubber 6-4 6-4 against Hungary’s Zsombor Piros in his first Davis Cup match in seven years.
The 25-year-old won his first ATP singles title in Adelaide in January and then triumphed in the Australian Open doubles with Nick Kyrgios, earning him a recall to Lleyton Hewitt’s Australia team.
“Thank you Lleyton for trusting me, it’s been a long time since I played and to play a fifth rubber at home has been incredible,” he said.
After Hungary won the doubles to go 2-1 up, world number 30 Alex de Minaur beat 35th-ranked Marton Fucsovics 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena to level scores before Kokkinakis sealed the tie in Australia’s favour.
Spain, the six-time champions, advanced with relative ease despite missing the services of Rafael Nadal.
World number 15 Roberto Bautista Agut beat Romania’s Marius Copil 6-2 6-3 to clinch a 3-1 win.
France, 10-time Davis Cup champions, beat Ecuador 3-0 in Pau and the United States, who have won the trophy a record 32 times, eased past Colombia by the same score.
Former UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington claimed victory after a bitter battle with former friend Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 in Las Vegas.
Covington, 34, and Masvidal, 37, faced off in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena in a five-round non-title fight, and it was Covington who proved victorious via unanimous decision after dominating his rival throughout the majority of the 25-minute contest.
The match-up was the culmination of a bitter war of words after their long-time friendship broke down and turned into a heated rivalry.
The pair were formerly close friends and training partners at South Florida gym American Top Team, and were almost inseparable during their early UFC careers.
But a row over Covington’s alleged non-payment of Masvidal’s long-time striking coach Paulino Hernandez saw the pair eventually thrown out of the gym as tensions became too much for gym owner Dan Lambert to manage.
As one of the gym’s most senior fighters, Masvidal eventually returned, but Covington joined rival gym MMA Masters. The rivalry between the pair has simmered ever since.
That rivalry finally came to a head during Saturday night’s clash, where, despite briefly being dropped by a huge Masvidal right hand in round four, Covington walked away with bragging rights after a bout dominated by his wrestling saw him awarded the verdict with scores of 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45.
‘Chaos’ targets next grudge match
After claiming victory in one grudge match, Covington immediately set his sights on another as he called out another former American Top Team fighter, former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier.
“I just took care of Miami street trash. Now it’s time to take care of Louisiana swamp trash!” Covington said.
“Dustin Poirier, you said it was ‘on sight’. Name the site, Dustin!”
A bitterly disappointed Masvidal admitted he wasn’t at his sharpest during the bout.
“I was offbeat with the wrestling. I need to wrestle harder. I was flat-footed today.”
Dos Anjos dominates
Rafael Dos Anjos (right) was fighting an opponent who only stepped in with five days’ notice
The co-main event saw Rafael Dos Anjos claim a one-sided unanimous decision victory over Renato Moicano in their short-notice catchweight contest.
Former UFC lightweight champion Dos Anjos, 37, was originally set to face Rafael Fiziev in a five-round lightweight match-up.
But, after the bout was pushed back a week to allow Fiziev’s visa issues to be addressed, the Kyrgyzstani contender was forced out of the match-up because of a positive Covid test.
With Dos Anjos’ participation on the fight card in jeopardy, Moicano offered to step in to face his compatriot on five days’ notice, and the pair agreed to compete in a five-round catchweight bout at 160lb.
As the fighter with a full fight camp under his belt, Dos Anjos looked noticeably stronger as he dominated Moicano with his superior cardio and wrestling through the early rounds, then dropped his man with a huge head kick in round three as he came close to securing a TKO finish.
Somehow Moicano made it until the end of the round, but he had no answer to Dos Anjos’ relentless pressure as he claimed a landslide victory on the scorecards with scores of 49-45, 49-44 and 50-44.
‘Thug Nasty’ stays unbeaten
Rising featherweight contender Bryce Mitchell extended his perfect professional record with a dominant win over one of the most spectacular strikers in the UFC.
Mitchell, 27, used his superior grappling skills to defeat Brazilian veteran Edson Barboza, 36, via unanimous decision after three one-sided rounds in their main card bout.
Mitchell effectively neutralised Barboza’s knockout threat by taking his man to the mat and dominating the exchanges on the ground.
The Arkansas native’s dominance was reflected on the scorecards, with all three judges giving ‘Thug Nasty’ victory with scores of 30-25, 30-26 and 30-27 to take his unblemished career to 15-0.
After his victory, Mitchell pledged to use his platform, and his earnings, to help sick children in his home state.
“Arkansas, I love you to death. For 10 years, you’ve have had my back, and I’ve not done a damn thing for y’all,” he said.
“I’m about to show you all I’m not just good at hurting people. I can help people. Half of my fight purse, $45,000 (£34,000), is going to Arkansas children with medical conditions, who have no hope. We will be their hope. In the name of God, these children will be healed.”
Best of the rest
Former middleweight contender Kevin Holland began a new chapter as a UFC welterweight with a second-round finish of Brazilian veteran Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira.
Texas native Holland, 29, made a stuttering start as Oliveira started well, but Holland was fully dialled in by the start of the second round.
‘Trailblazer’ came flying out of his corner, rocked Oliveira with a big right hand, then finished him with ground strikes 38 seconds after the restart to earn his 22nd career victory and his first in the welterweight division.
In the first main card bout of the night, Moldovan heavyweight Serghei Spivac needed just half a round to finish American Greg Hardy.
Spivac, 27, suffered a first-round TKO defeat by England’s Tom Aspinall last September, but bounced back in style against Hardy to claim the 14th win of his career via first-round ground and pound.
Football clubs, players and fans across England came together to send messages and gestures of support for Ukraine on Saturday.
Banners, cards, pennants and TV screens in the blue and yellow halves of the Ukrainian flag proclaiming ‘Football Stands Together’ were displayed at Premier League games.
Two blue and yellow wreaths were laid on the pitch by Chelsea and Manchester City before the start of the Women’s Continental Cup final at Wimbledon’s Cherry Red Records Stadium.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn widespread international condemnation and the football community took the opportunity to demonstrate its opposition to the conflict and promote peace.
Team captains wore blue and yellow armbands, while players and coaching staff joined supporters in a minute’s applause to show their backing for the Ukrainian cause.
At some grounds, including Leicester’s King Power Stadium, bucket collections were made to aid victims of the conflict.
The images and scenes will be seen worldwide via the Premier League’s international broadcast partners, though Saturday’s games are not being shown in China, which is a close political ally of Russia.
Manchester City’s Ellen White and Chelsea’s Millie Bright carry wreaths on the pitch before the Women’s Continental Cup finalLiverpool fans sang the club’s anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ twice before the Premier League game with West Ham and held up a banner in the colours of the flag of UkraineBrighton, wearing their third-choice yellow and blue kit in solidarity with Ukraine join in a minute’s applause as Newcastle fans unveil a bannerLeicester and Leeds players took part in a minute’s applause before Saturday lunchtime’s Premier League gameSouthampton supporters took blue and yellow Saints scarves to Aston Villa to show their solidarity with UkraineBucket collections were made at grounds including Leicester’s King Power Stadium to aid humanitarian efforts during the conflictLeicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel wore a blue and yellow captain’s armband, as all 20 Premier League skippers will do this weekendBurnley and Chelsea players displayed their backing for Ukraine before kick-off at Turf MoorA young Wolves fan joins in the efforts to promote peace before Wanderers’ Premier League game against Crystal Palace at MolineuxThese Newcastle supporters donned Ukraine shirts, scarves and a flag to demonstrate their support before the game against BrightonNorwich players including goalkeeper Tim Krul wore warm-up shirts emblazoned with the Ukrainian flag before their game with BrentfordAston Villa and Southampton players take part in a minute’s applause for Ukraine before kick-off
Real Madrid came from behind to beat Real Sociedad and go eight points clear at the top of La Liga.
The visitors led through a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty after 10 minutes with what would prove to be their only shot.
Eduardo Camavinga and Luka Modric scored brilliant goals from long range for Madrid in quick succession.
Karim Benzema, who had two goals disallowed, scored a penalty and substitute Marco Asensio sealed the win from Dani Carvajal’s cut-back.
France veteran Benzema, who is La Liga’s top scorer, has scored 20 league goals for the fourth campaign in a row.
It looked as if his luck was out when he had a goal ruled out seconds after Camavinga’s opener – and then another in the second half by the video assistant referee – both for offside.
But the VAR ended up helping him score when it gave a spot-kick for a foul on Vinicius Jr which Benzema coolly slotted home.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Madrid, who have not lost a home game in La Liga this season, took advantage of second-placed Sevilla drawing 0-0 at Alaves on Friday.
Real Sociedad, who would have gone third with a win, remain sixth in the table.
Thomas Tuchel criticised Chelsea supporters who sang owner Roman Abramovich’s name during a minute’s applause for Ukraine before their 4-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor.
Avramovich announced his decicion to sell the club amid heavy scrutiny following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some Chelsea fans chanted Russian Abramovich’s name throughout the game, and were booed by Burnley fans.
“It’s not the moment to do this,” Chelsea manager Tuchel said.
“If we show solidarity we show solidarity and we should do it together.
“We take the knee together. If an important person from our club or another club unfortunately dies we have a minute of respect.
“It is not the moment to give other messages. It’s the moment to show respect. We want to do this. As a club we need our fans to commit to this minute of applause.
“We do it for Ukraine and there is no second opinion about this situation. They have our thoughts and our support and we should stand together.”
Some Chelsea fans chanted Abramovich’s name throughout the match
As well as the pre-match applause, banners, cards, pennants and TV screens in the blue and yellow halves of the Ukrainian flag proclaiming ‘Football Stands Together’ were displayed at Premier League games on Saturday.
Abramovich, 55, is alleged to have strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has denied.
Tuchel was speaking after third-placed Chelsea beat Burnley thanks to a Kai Havertz double and goals from Reece James and Christian Pulisic, all of which came in the second half.
A Chelsea spokesperson echoed Tuchel’s sentiments in a statement.
“The club’s very firm view is that moments of respect or recognition should always be honoured by everyone present,” it read.
Abramovich has been at Chelsea for 19 years since taking the club over in July 2003, during which time they have won 19 major trophies.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Saturday said 600,000 candidates have so far registered for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The board also said it would blacklist any vendors or its agents who violate its rules for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise.
The Registrar of the board, Prof Is’haq Oloyede, stated this in Ibadan on Saturday, while monitoring the registration process at some centres.
Oloyede, said he was impressed and satisfied with the registration process at the centres visited.
“There are few places where it could be better but here at the University of Ibadan, it has been very excellent.
“Some CBT centres, vendors and agents will be blacklisted, the implication is that if you do not follow the rules, you do not have the right to our accreditation,” he said.
Oloyede stated that part of the quality assurance mechanism was to allow a candidate to see who is registering him/her.
“The purpose of that is that a candidate sits in front of the screen for about six to seven minutes and he or she will be seeing the large picture of the person registering.
“It is possible that if there are problems, the person will be able to recognise the person who registered him or her.
“But, If you minimise that picture and that candidate cannot identify you in case of a problem, that is a violation of one of our rules.
“Follow the rules you need not think for us because we have a purpose for what we are doing,” the registrar said.
On those selling above the official price of N4700, Oloyede said: “If someone who is vending the pin at the particular place is selling consistently more than N4,700, those registering here (at a particular centre) ought to know and if not, then we will hold them responsible for not being vigilant because it is within their premises.
“But we will not hold them responsible for the charges because every pin sold, we know the vendor, so we could trace the vendor, we call E-transact or System Spec Remita, but all of them at the face value they will sell at N4,700.
“But their agents may collect more than that, like a woman that collected more and pocketed N1000 by selling the form at N5700; because Etransact will not sell above N4,700, but the agents are exhorting them.
“That is why we say, vendors must know their customers, those who are their agents.
”Therefore, if your pin is sold a quarter above N4,700, we will hold you responsible and that is why we invited three banks yesterday and mobile money operators and gave them warning.
“We also gave them evidence that their agents are fraudulent and we have blacklisted those agents who would never be allowed to participate in any activities of JAMB because we know their names and NIN.
Oloyede said the implication of the blacklist is that “when the person is blacklisted our server will not allow him or her work anywhere related to JAMB.
“And, even if the person wants to be a student, our server will tell us to mark the person as someone who is not to be trusted. So we will now tell the university that this person you want to admit this is his or her record.”
He said as of the time of the monitoring exercise about 600,000 candidates have been registered out of the target of 1.5 million.
The registrar said going by the pace of the registration process, if there is no disruption, no serious candidate would be left out by March 26 when the registration will close.
He noted that the board has put measures in place to consolidate on past gains in the use of technology.
“We are also checking our system to be sure that it is doing OK and so far so good. We are trying to consolidate only adding one or two additions in the examination site this year,” Oloyede said.
Also, Deputy Registrar, University of Ibadan, Francesca Ayodele, overseeing the CBT centre at the Distance Learning Centre of the institution, said the CBT centre in UI has been having smooth operations.
“And, as you know UI is a very creditable institution so we are leveraging the good name of the institution. The regulation is going on peacefully,” she said.
Nigerian National Commission for Colleges of Education said it has added Early Grade Reading into the 2020 edition of the Nigeria Certificate in Education Minimum Standard.
The Executive Secretary, NCCE, Prof. Paulinus Okwelle, disclosed this at the opening of a four-day Southwest Zonal Pre-Service Sensitisation Early Grade Reading Workshop, organised by NCCE at the Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Okwelle who was represented by the Provost, FCE, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Dr Rafiu Soyele, said the essence of the workshop was to salvage the dwindling state of reading skills in the society, particularly at the early school stages.
“The expectation of the ES is that the Early Grade Reading project will go a long way in impacting positively on the Federal Ministry of Education’s strategic plans to rebuild basic education in Nigeria and at the same time address the issue of poor reading skill among early grade Pupils,” he said.
A facilitator from Creative Associates, Nurudeen Lawal, noted that the United States Agency for International Development had been supporting education and assisting young graders to develop an interest in reading. He said, “Reading performance is low worldwide and so USAID deemed it fit to improve reading culture among youngsters.”
The Universal Basic Education Commission has lamented that there is shortage of teachers in government schools across the country.
The Executive Secretary, UBEC, Hamid Bobboyi, made the remark at a recent interactive session with the beneficiaries of the 2020/2021 Federal Teachers’ Scheme project in Lagos State, held at the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board.
The Federal Teachers’ Scheme intervention programme was established by the Federal Government in 2006 to assist states address the shortage of teachers at the basic education level.
Bobboyi, said there were some government-owned primary schools, especially in the northern part of the country, with only one teacher in the entire school.
“We have shortage of teachers and we need to get more qualified and competent ones. We don’t want the Federal Teachers’ Scheme participant to go too,” he said.
He also warned that the scheme might eventually collapse as funding to sustain the programme was not forthcoming.
“This is a programme we are just pushing to ensure it does not collapse. But, unfortunately, at the end of the day it still has to collapse because the Federal Government through the budget office said after the expiry of this programme in 2022, they said that any organisation that is receiving statutory transfer cannot access any funds from any other source in the budget.
The Federal Teachers’ Scheme is not funded directly by UBEC; its funding comes from the SDGs. Funding the next batch will be an issue except we can fund it from other sources.”
Bobboyi lamented that the scheme which gulped about N1.9 billion for the 2021/2022 set (3,962 teachers), could not pay the teachers more than N30,000 minimum wage, which he said was equivalent to $50.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of Lagos SUBEB, Wahab Alawiye-king, said Lagos State was passionate about providing quality and quantitative education not only at basic but at all levels for the people of the state.
He said that was the reason the state government came up with different programmes, including EKO Excel, Zero Project, Living no child behind, at a basic level, among others as references.
The Chalk Sound, also known as Chalk Sound National Park, is an impressive natural lagoon easily recognizable for its small rocky islands in shallow brilliant turquoise water, located on the Providenciales Island of the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Located more precisely on the southwest coast of Providenciales Island, the Chalk Sound is approximately 5 km (3 miles) long, and became an interesting place at the beginning of 20th century when the Irish George Silly farmed sponges in the sound, as well as running a lobster and turtle cannery.
This unique, serene and colorful sound, dotted with tiny, lush and fertile islands is the perfect spot for a family getaway, due to the fact that no motorized boats are allowed, and instead one can kayak and explore the wealth of the islands, or even snorkel around and witness the richness of the underwater world.
Whatever is to be chosen, there will be no regret afterwards since the experience will be an intriguing and sometimes once in a lifetime opportunity.
There are also different birds and plants, however, the exclusive villas along the edge of the sound are for those who require a small paradise or getaway from the busy and polluted cities.
Either way, Chalk Sound National Park will offer peace and tranquility from the Turks and Caicos Islands which is yet to be discovered, experienced and further more fully enjoyed.
Before the Russian invasion , Ukrainian drone enthusiasts flew their gadgets into the sky to photograph weddings, fertilize soybean fields or race other drones for fun.
Now some are risking their lives by forming a volunteer drone force to help their country repel the Russian invasion.
“Kyiv needs you and your drone at this moment of fury!” read a Facebook post late last week from the Ukrainian military, calling for citizens to donate hobby drones and to volunteer as experienced pilots to operate them.
One entrepreneur who runs a retail store selling consumer drones in the capital said its entire stock of some 300 drones made by Chinese company DJI has been dispersed for the cause.
Others are working to get more drones across the border from friends and colleagues in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.
“Why are we doing this? We have no other choice. This is our land, our home,” said Denys Sushko, head of operations at Kyiv-based industrial drone technology company DroneUA, which before the war was helping to provide drone services to farmers and energy companies.
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