‘Aem Cyanide’ and accomplices indicted

Attempted murder and related charges pressed, prosecutors still reviewing 14 murder cases

‘Aem Cyanide’ and accomplices indicted
Accused serial killer Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, who has come to be known as “Aem Cyanide”, is taken to the Criminal Court on April 26. (Photo supplied)

Prosecutors have handed down the first indictments in the case of Sararat “Aem Cyanide” Rangsiwuthaporn, who is accused of poisoning 14 people to death.

Charges of attempted murder and colluding in theft have been pressed against Ms Sararat, 35, her ex-husband Pol Lt Col Withoon Rangsiwuthaporn, 39, and her lawyer Thanicha Aeksuwannawat, 35. Pol Lt Col Withoon and Ms Thanicha are also charged with helping Ms Sararat avoid arrest and colluding to conceal and destroy evidence. 

The indictments were handed down by the Office of Criminal Cases 5 in the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), a source said on Wednesday.

All three suspects have denied the accusations, the source said.

Prosecutors said Ms Sararat would be denied bail if she requests it. The charges are punishable by high penalties, meaning there is a high chance of the suspect being a flight risk.

Ms Sararat appeared before the court via a video link from the Correctional Institution for Women in the Bang Khen area of Bangkok, where she is being detained.

Pol Lt Col Withoon and Ms Thanicha have also appeared in court. They were released on bail of 100,000 baht each, the source said.

The court has set Oct 2 for evidence examination, requiring the presence of both suspects and victims.

The investigation into the murders started from Ms Sararat’s arrest on April 25 in connection with the death of Siriporn “Koy” Khanwong, one of her 15 alleged poisoning victims.

Siriporn collapsed and died on the banks of the Mae Klong River in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi, where she had released fish while merit-making on April 14 with Ms Sararat. Cyanide was found in the victim’s bloodstream.

Ms Sararat was also reported to have stolen Siriporn’s designer bags, mobile phones and lottery tickets worth 154,630 baht.

Later Ms Sararat was accused of poisoning 15 people with cyanide and killing 14 of them. Police have alleged she pawned the victims’ property and used the money to pay off her ex-husband’s debts.

Police last month wrapped up their investigation into the 14 killings and one attempted murder and began turning over their case files to prosecutors, who are still reviewing the 14 murder cases.

Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn said Ms Sararat faces more than 75 charges — including premeditated murder, attempted murder, theft causing death and forgery in 15 cases that spanned from 2015 to this year.

The crimes were committed in seven provinces — Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Kanchanaburi, Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi, Udon Thani and Mukdahan.

Continue Reading

WP could have probed deeper and earlier into Leon Perera-Nicole Seah affair, but impact on party limited: Analysts

Dr Tan said the opposition would have to “step up their game to find credible people … who are willing to take up the roles and contest within the constituencies”.

Ms Seah’s departure has also reduced the chances of WP wresting East Coast GRC from the PAP, said Dr Izzuddin.

“She was WP’s political trump card to connect with the younger voters and central to the party’s ambitions to make further inroads into parliament by winning more electoral seats in the next General Election due (by) 2025,” he said.

Ms Nydia Ngiow, managing director for Bower Group Asia Singapore, said the opposition party was more “personality-driven” than the PAP, and would be affected by the loss of talent.

“Leon Perera has commanded respect for his persuasive oratorical abilities, while Nicole Seah has drawn younger voters due to her eloquent and down-to-earth personality,” she said.

“Depending on who eventually replaces them, their resignations may make it harder for the WP to attract new voters and portray themselves as a credible opposition party in time for the next elections.”

Ms Ngiow, however, pointed out that Ms Seah and Mr Perera’s affair paled in comparison to the “slew of issues facing the PAP”.

Besides Mr Tan and Ms Cheng’s affair and other recent controversies, Transport Minister S Iswaran is currently being investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.

BOTH PAP, WP ‘NOT FORTHCOMING’

Analysts called for more transparency from political parties, in the wake of scandals that have plagued them in the past few weeks. 

“The PAP has a slightly bigger burden to carry because it’s always said that ‘we are above board, we tolerate no scandals’,” said NUS’ Assoc Prof Chong, noting that Mr Tan and Ms Cheng’s affair was not the PAP’s biggest challenge.

“With the WP, I think there are people out there willing to cut them some slack.” 

Continue Reading

Afghanistan: Women protest against beauty salon closures

Women protestingContributor

Women in Afghanistan have held a rare protest against the Taliban’s decision to shut female beauty parlours and salons.

Women shouted “work, bread and justice” while they were gathered in the capital city, Kabul.

Taliban guards responded with water cannons, and some protesters said stun guns were also used against them.

Women’s rights have been increasingly restricted since Taliban rulers returned to power in 2021.

Around 50 women took part in the protest on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency.

The Taliban have given businesses one month from 2 July to close thousands of beauty salons across the country.

They said the wearing of wigs and the practice of eyebrow-plucking were against Islamic values and parents were wasting money on beauty parlours when couples get married.

The decision further restricts the spaces accessible to Afghan women, who are already barred from classrooms, gyms and parks. More recently, the Taliban also banned them from working for the United Nations.

The closure of all beauty salons will lead to the loss of 60,000 jobs, Afghanistan’s chamber of commerce said.

Beauty salons were last shut when the Taliban ruled between 1996 and 2001. They stayed open after the Taliban retook power two years ago following the withdrawal of US forces, but shop windows were often covered up and images of women outside salons were spray painted to hide their faces.

The Taliban’s restrictions on women, which include strict dress codes and limits to them travelling alone, have continued despite international condemnation.

There have been minor sporadic protests against measures introduced by the Taliban, but any form of dissent is being crushed.

You may also be interested in:

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Continue Reading

Government recovering S.2 million in overpayments for COVID-19 grants

RENTAL CASH GRANT, RENTAL SUPPORT SCHEME

In addition to the JSS, IRAS managed two rental grant schemes, namely the RCG and RSS. The RCG was announced in May 2020 to mandate equitable co-sharing of rental obligations among the government, landlords and tenants.

The RSS was introduced a year later in May 2021, solely for commercial properties as they were more affected by tightened measures during the Phase 2 Heightened Alert period.

In the report, AGO noted that IRAS quickly developed a property tenant-occupier network model that leveraged its existing IT infrastructure and data to facilitate automatic grant disbursements. That enabled IRAS to process a large number of disbursements within a short period of time.

Multiple checks were also put in place to ensure the correct grant allotments and disbursements, including built-in controls in the system and independent checks by its internal audit – prior to grant disbursements – to identify discrepancies and duplicate allotments for follow-up.

But the AGO highlighted that there was no documentary evidence of approval on risk assessment for the RCG. Without such documentary evidence, there was inadequate assurance that the risk assessment and consideration of key factors were approved by MOF prior to the implementation of RCG.

The evaluation of rental grants could also be improved, the AGO report said. There were lapses in 55 allotments, including the wrong evaluation of grant eligibility, incorrect computation of grant amount and inadequate substantiation of the evaluation.

As a result, there were estimated excess and shortfall in grant disbursements totalling S$8.01 million and S$0.48 million respectively.

In a separate press release, MOF and IRAS said they have taken immediate rectification steps where relevant.

“On documentation, MOF and IRAS acknowledge that there is scope to improve the documentation of processes and risk assessments,” they said.

“While documentation may not have been complete due to fast-moving developments and time constraints then, MOF and IRAS affirm that each decision was duly deliberated and will ensure better documentation for future schemes.”

The authorities added that they have taken steps to investigate and recover the overpayments.

“MOF and IRAS acknowledge, as part of good governance, that there is scope for the internal processes highlighted in the AGO report to be further tightened and strengthened,” they said.

“We have since put in place additional policies and procedures to do so. These, coupled with the strong teamwork and can-do spirit that undergirded the design and delivery of COVID-19 schemes, will help us learn, improve and better prepare for future crisis situations.”

Continue Reading

New, thin-lensed telescope could see far beyond James Webb

Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today.

I am an astronomer who studies astrobiology and planets around distant stars. For the last seven years, I have been co-leading a team that is developing a new kind of space telescope that could collect a hundred times more light than the James Webb Space Telescope, the biggest space telescope ever built.

Almost all space telescopes, including Hubble and Webb, collect light using mirrors. Our proposed telescope, the Nautilus Space Observatory, would replace large, heavy mirrors with a novel, thin lens that is much lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than mirrored telescopes.

Because of these differences, it would be possible to launch many individual units into orbit and create a powerful network of telescopes.

A blue planet with clouds.
Exoplanets, like TOI-700d shown in this artist’s conception, are planets beyond our solar system and are prime candidates in the search for life. Photo: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center via The Conversation

The need for larger telescopes

Exoplanets – planets that orbit stars other than the Sun – are prime targets in the search for life. Astronomers need to use giant space telescopes that collect huge amounts of light to study these faint and faraway objects.

Existing telescopes can detect exoplanets as small as Earth. However, it takes a lot more sensitivity to begin to learn about the chemical composition of these planets. Even Webb is just barely powerful enough to search certain exoplanets for clues of life – namely gases in the atmosphere.

The James Webb Space Telescope cost more than US$8 billion and took over 20 years to build. The next flagship telescope is not expected to fly before 2045 and is estimated to cost $11 billion. These ambitious telescope projects are always expensive, laborious and produce a single powerful – but very specialized – observatory.

A new kind of telescope

In 2016, aerospace giant Northrop Grumman invited me and 14 other professors and NASA scientists – all experts on exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life – to Los Angeles to answer one question: What will exoplanet space telescopes look like in 50 years?

In our discussions, we realized that a major bottleneck preventing the construction of more powerful telescopes is the challenge of making larger mirrors and getting them into orbit. To bypass this bottleneck, a few of us came up with the idea of revisiting an old technology called diffractive lenses.

A cross section of two lenses, with the one on the left showing a jagged surface and the one on the right a rounded surface.
Diffractive lenses, left, are much thinner compared to similarly powerful refractive lenses, right. Photo: Pko / Wikimedia Commons

Conventional lenses use refraction to focus light. Refraction is when light changes direction as it passes from one medium to another – it is the reason light bends when it enters water. In contrast, diffraction is when light bends around corners and obstacles. A cleverly arranged pattern of steps and angles on a glass surface can form a diffractive lens.

The first such lenses were invented by the French scientist Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1819 to provide lightweight lenses for lighthouses. Today, similar diffractive lenses can be found in many small-sized consumer optics – from camera lenses to virtual reality headsets.

Thin, simple diffractive lenses are notorious for their blurry images, so they have never been used in astronomical observatories. But if you could improve their clarity, using diffractive lenses instead of mirrors or refractive lenses would allow a space telescope to be much cheaper, lighter and larger.

A person holding a round, thin piece of glass.
One of the benefits of diffractive lenses is that they can remain thin while increasing in diameter. Photo: Daniel Apai/University of Arizona, CC BY-ND

A thin, high-resolution lens

After the meeting, I returned to the University of Arizona and decided to explore whether modern technology could produce diffractive lenses with better image quality. Lucky for me, Thomas Milster – one of the world’s leading experts on diffractive lens design – works in the building next to mine. We formed a team and got to work.

Over the following two years, our team invented a new type of diffractive lens that required new manufacturing technologies to etch a complex pattern of tiny grooves onto a piece of clear glass or plastic. The specific pattern and shape of the cuts focuses incoming light to a single point behind the lens.

The new design produces a near-perfect quality image, far better than previous diffractive lenses.

A triangular piece of glass with subtle etchings reflecting in the light.
A diffractive lens bends light using etchings and patterns on its surface. Photo: Daniel Apai / University of Arizona, CC BY-ND

Because it is the surface texture of the lens that does the focusing, not the thickness, you can easily make the lens bigger while keeping it very thin and lightweight. Bigger lenses collect more light, and low weight means cheaper launches to orbit – both great traits for a space telescope.

In August 2018, our team produced the first prototype, a 2-inch (5-centimeter) diameter lens. Over the next five years, we further improved the image quality and increased the size. We are now completing a 10-inch (24-cm) diameter lens that will be more than 10 times lighter than a conventional refractive lens would be.

The power of diffraction

This new lens design makes it possible to rethink how a space telescope might be built. In 2019, our team published a concept called the Nautilus Space Observatory.

Using the new technology, our team thinks it is possible to build a 29.5-foot (8.5-meter) diameter lens that would be only about 0.2 inches (0.5 cm) thick. The lens and support structure of our new telescope could weigh around 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms).

This is more than three times lighter than a Webb-style mirror of a similar size and would be bigger than Webb’s 21-foot (6.5-meter) diameter mirror.

A spherical object in space with a lens on one side.
The thin lens allowed the team to design a lighter, cheaper telescope, which they named the Nautilus Space Observatory. Photo: Daniel Apai / University of Arizona, CC BY-ND

The lenses have other benefits, too.

First, they are much easier and quicker to fabricate than mirrors and can be made en masse. Second, lens-based telescopes work well even when not aligned perfectly, making these telescopes easier to assemble and fly in space than mirror-based telescopes, which require extremely precise alignment.

Finally, since a single Nautilus unit would be light and relatively cheap to produce, it would be possible to put dozens of them into orbit. Our current design is in fact not a single telescope, but a constellation of 35 individual telescope units.

Each individual telescope would be an independent, highly sensitive observatory able to collect more light than Webb. But the real power of Nautilus would come from turning all the individual telescopes toward a single target.

By combining data from all the units, Nautilus’ light-collecting power would equal a telescope nearly 10 times larger than Webb. With this powerful telescope, astronomers could search hundreds of exoplanets for atmospheric gases that may indicate extraterrestrial life.

Although the Nautilus Space Observatory is still a long way from launch, our team has made a lot of progress. We have shown that all aspects of the technology work in small-scale prototypes and are now focusing on building a 3.3-foot (1-meter) diameter lens.

Our next steps are to send a small version of the telescope to the edge of space on a high-altitude balloon. With that, we will be ready to propose a revolutionary new space telescope to NASA and, hopefully, be on the way to exploring hundreds of worlds for signatures of life.

Daniel Apai, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona

Disclosure: Daniel Apai receives funding from NASA, NSF, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He works for The University of Arizona.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Continue Reading

How Chinese-Australians see Australia’s foreign policy

Since the Lowy Institute’s first “Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities” survey was published in 2021, Australia’s relations with China have undergone significant upheaval. 

The Covid-19 pandemic, the rupture in Australia–China relations, the election of a Labor government and the turbulence in both countries accompanying their re-openings after their Covid-19 lockdowns have placed Chinese-Australian communities in the public spotlight.

Chinese-Australians and their association with Beijing have come under the microscope from the Australian government, media and the public — often in intensely political circumstances.

While the Labor government has eschewed megaphone diplomacy with China — an approach favored by the former Coalition government — certain parameters have been set for the way Australia views and engages with China.

Still, Chinese-Australians have welcomed the political re-engagement between Australia and China.

The “Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities” survey report released in April 2023 shows that 37% of Chinese-Australians think Australia-China relations will be a “critical threat” to Australia’s vital interests in the next 10 years – a 14% drop since 2021.

The greater sense of optimism about Australia-China relations coincides with more positive feelings towards Australia in general. For example, 92% of Chinese-Australians say Australia is a “good” or “very good” place to live in the 2023 survey.

Chinese students strolling at an Australian university. Image: EAF

Chinese-Australians trust Australia most to act responsibly in the world, reinforcing their growing connections to Australia. Meanwhile, their sense of belonging to China and the Chinese people has declined, dovetailing with a drop in trust in China. Now less than half of the Chinese-Australian population has confidence in China’s President Xi Jinping.

Intense debates about China are now mainstream in Australian politics and this has placed Chinese-Australians in an uncomfortable position.

News headlines warning about the prospect of war do not align neatly with Chinese-Australians’ threat perception. Six out of ten Chinese-Australians say China is unlikely to be a military threat to Australia in the next 20 years.

Seven in ten Chinese-Australians believe Australia should remain neutral in the event of a military conflict between China and the United States – a view shared by only half of the Australian population. 

Yet there are differences within the Chinese-Australian communities. Of those born in mainland China, 73% say Australia should remain neutral compared to 65% of those born in Australia and 61% of those born in Hong Kong.

But the headlines and aggressive political rhetoric about China homogenizes and reinforces public perceptions about China and inadvertently, Chinese-Australians.

The political rhetoric about China has changed under the Labor government. But more work needs to be done to create a cohesive Australian society in the face of persistent discrimination and negative portrayals of China and ethnic Chinese in the media.

The evolution of the Australia-China debate and its impact on Chinese-Australian communities show that foreign and defense policies and national security should not be treated as separable from domestic politics. Public discussions about such policies have a quantifiable impact on a large proportion of Australia’s population.

How Australia should navigate the intersection of national security and social cohesion with China is uncertain. Increasing cultural and linguistic diversity among Australia’s national security and intelligence community could help.

Australia’s Chinese diaspora and their bicultural skills should be channeled as an asset into helping navigate the Australia-China relationship.

Workforce diversification is not a new argument and some will contend that it will not change Australia’s basic orientation when it comes to national security. But from a technical expertise perspective, Australia’s intelligence community is lacking cultural and linguistic diversity

Government departments involved in managing Australia-China relations appear to be ill-equipped for the strategic moment when only 1.2% and 1.7% of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff and the defense workforce respectively are proficient in Mandarin.

Diversity in key intelligence institutions creates “a synergy of different perspectives” to address complex issues that can increase the array of policy options available to governments. Australia could start seeing Chinese politics in a more nuanced way rather than as a pyramid where President Xi sits on top. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet and greet at the Bali G20 Summit on November 15, 2022. Image: Twitter

There is a lot of policy entrepreneurialism at the local level in Chinese politics and local officials often conduct government affairs that subvert the complete control of the Chinese Communist Party.

Perhaps those who make calculations about China’s role in Australia’s region will see that a myriad of interests shape China – and that a one-size-fits-all policy does not suffice when managing Australia-China relations – if they accept that China is more complex than Xi and the Chinese Communist Party. 

Greater cultural and linguistic diversity in government will ultimately shape how Australia sees Chinese-Australian communities too. They are pluralistic and diverse with skills that can benefit the nation.

The lack of diversity across key Australian public and international facing institutions presents huge obstacles when addressing the complex nature of Australia’s relationship with China, let alone with the world.

Jennifer Hsu is Visiting Senior Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW and is the author of Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities and was previously the Project Director of the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence Project at the Lowy Institute.

This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

Biggest Women’s World Cup set to get under way

<!–<!–
Women’s World Cup 2023: Tournament in Australia and New Zealand to get under way – BBC Sport

<!–<!–
<!–<!– <!–<!– <!–<!–
<!–<!– <!–<!–
<!–<!– <!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!– <!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!– <!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–
<!–<!–

Hosts: Australia and New Zealand Dates: 20 July-20 August
Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website & app. Full coverage details; Latest news

The waiting is almost over. The biggest Fifa Women’s World Cup – featuring European champions England and debutants the Republic of Ireland – will finally get under way on Thursday.

Australia and New Zealand are co-hosting the ninth edition, which for the first time will feature 32 nations including defending world champions the United States.

It is the first Women’s World Cup with two co-hosts.

New Zealand launch the tournament against Norway at Eden Park (08:00 BST kick-off) before Australia play the Republic of Ireland at Stadium Australia, Sydney, on the same day (11:00 kick-off).

Organisers hope the opening two games will attract an aggregate crowd of 100,000 fans.

It is on course to be the most-watched Women’s World Cup, with more than 1.3 million tickets bought in advance for the 64 matches at 10 venues across nine cities.

Organisers are targeting a record two billion television viewers for the 2023 edition, a figure that would double the audience that watched the 2019 World Cup in France.

“The future is women. Thanks to the fans for supporting what will be the greatest Fifa Women’s World Cup ever,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

As well as the Republic of Ireland, seven other nations are making their debuts at this World Cup – Vietnam, Zambia, Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines and Portugal.

While the United States – who are chasing a fifth world title – are the number one side in the world, Zambia lie 77th and are the lowest ranked team at the tournament.

The final takes place at Stadium Australia on 20 August (11:00 kick-off).

World Cup of firsts

This Women’s World Cup has been labelled the biggest women’s sports event ever to be staged. One thing is certain: the tournament will be huge in terms of showcasing – and growing – women’s football around the world.

For the first time, Fifa will directly pay players at the Women’s World Cup. Amounts increase for the deeper that teams progress, ranging from about £24,000 per player for the group stage to just over £200,000 allotted to each champion.

These are significant sums at a time when the average salary in the women’s game worldwide is £11,000, according to last year’s Fifa benchmarking report. Overall prize money has increased from £23m in 2019 to £84m.

In another first, referees will announce the reasoning for video assistant referee (VAR) decisions to fans in stadiums and television audiences via a microphone and loudspeakers.

As at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, referees are also encouraged to stop time-wasting, so added time is likely to be lengthy while long goal celebrations will also extend stoppages.

Meanwhile, captains will be permitted to wear armbands with messages about inclusion, gender equality and peace after rainbow armbands were not allowed at the men’s tournament last year.

None of the eight available armbands, however, explicitly advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion.

A graphic showing the Republic of Ireland's group matches at the 2023 Women's World Cup

Who will win this Women’s World Cup?

The last time the United States lost a World Cup game was in 2011 when they were defeated on penalties by Japan in the final in Frankfurt, Germany.

Since then they have won 13 out of 14 on the global stage and they head into this edition chasing a record third successive success following triumphs in 2015 and 2019.

However, boss Jill Ellis has stepped down since guiding the Stars and Stripes to World Cup glory in France in 2019, while two-time World Cup and Olympic gold medal winner Carli Lloyd has ended her international career.

With 14 of the 23 players appearing at their first World Cup, and Megan Rapinoe – regarded as a genuine American icon – announcing this will be her fourth and final World Cup, will there be a changing of the guard at the top of women’s football?

England’s unforgettable Euro 2022 success has rightly placed them in conversations when it comes to predicting World Cup favourites.

However, injuries have hit hard and the Lionesses are without several key players including Beth Mead, who was named Euro 2022’s best player and won the Golden Boot award given to the tournament’s top scorer.

Spain have the best women’s player in the world in Alexia Putellas, while two-time winners Germany have a strong and experienced squad.

France are led by experienced manager Herve Renard, while co-hosts Australia will be backed by large crowds and have Chelsea’s prolific forward Sam Kerr.

Controversial build-up

Olympic champions Canada are also hoping to go deep in the tournament, but they are one of several nations whose World Cup preparations have been disrupted by domestic issues.

Spain and France have also made headlines in recent months as rows between players and federations have escalated, although France’s issues appear to have been resolved with the appointment of Renard.

Jamaica – and even Nigeria’s head coach – have taken action or called out their federations over issues such as pay, resources and personnel.

England’s players are frustrated with the Football Association over its stance on performance-related bonuses.

Meanwhile, the South Africa squad selected by coach Desiree Ellis did not participate in their final warm-up fixture on home soil before leaving for the World Cup, meaning a back-up team, which included a 13-year-old girl, was hastily assembled to face Botswana in order to avoid a fine.

A graph showing England's group matches at the 2023 Women's World Cup

Six World Cups and counting

With 32 teams at this edition, – up from 24 in 2019 and 16 as recently as 2011 – there are 736 players at this World Cup.

Three of those players are appearing at the tournament for a sixth time – Marta (Brazil), Onome Ebi (Nigeria) and Christine Sinclair (Canada).

Having turned 40 in May, defender Ebi is the oldest player in Australia and New Zealand.

But she still trails Brazil’s Formiga, who holds the record as the oldest player to take part in the competition at 41 years and 112 days in 2019.

Meanwhile, there are a number of players who are barely out of high school.

South Korea’s Casey Phair, 16, will become the youngest ever player at a Women’s World Cup if she appears in either of her country’s first two group matches against Colombia or Morocco.

A growing injury list

The United States, Netherlands, England, France and Canada are among the nations who will be without key players due to injury.

As well as captain Becky Sauerbrunn (foot), the United States’ injury list includes forward Mallory Swanson (torn patellar tendon), midfielder Sam Mewis (knee) and forward Christen Press (knee).

Vivianne Miedema, the all-time Netherlands leading scorer, is out with anterior cruciate ligament damage – the same injury that has prevented England’s Leah Williamson and Mead from taking part.

Attacking midfielder Fran Kirby (knee) is also missing for the Lionesses.

France are deprived of midfielder Amandine Henry (calf), five-time Champions League winner Delphine Cascarino (ACL) and striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto (ACL).

Another player ruled out because of an ACL injury is Canada forward Janine Beckie.

How to follow on the BBC…

The BBC is your destination for coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With 33 live games on BBC TV and iPlayer, alongside coverage of the key matches on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, football fans can enjoy the Australia and New Zealand Women’s World Cup wherever they are.

With first pick of the last-16 stage, the BBC will show England’s first knockout game if they make it past the group stage.

The BBC is the only place you can watch both semi-finals on 15-16 August. The final, on Sunday, 20 August, will be broadcast by both the BBC and ITV.

Top Stories

Continue Reading

Rasel Catering fined S,800 for multiple hygiene lapses, leading to 345 cases of food poisoning

After the suspension was lifted in December last year, MOH and SFA said: “The company has disposed all ready-to-eat food, thawed food and perishable food items, and cleaned and sanitised their premises, including equipment and utensils, and disinfected food preparation surfaces, tables and floors.” Rasel Catering’s food handlers and food hygieneContinue Reading