Raw’s final build to WrestleMania took place in Atlanta last night.
The show opened with a face-to-face segment with Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H. Stephanie insulted Rousey and how she handles losses, Rousey promised to rip her arm off on Sunday, and things got physical when Triple H hit Angle with a microphone. Rousey turned her attention to Triple H, which allowed Stephanie to put her through a table.
Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns’ last segment before their Universal Championship match closed the episode. Paul Heyman teased that Lesnar would go to the UFC if he loses in New Orleans, then Reigns came out when Heyman called him Lesnar’s bitch. Reigns thought he put down Lesnar after a brawl, but Lesnar laid him out with one F-5 as the show went off the air.
WWE is also heading into WrestleMania without John Cena vs. The Undertaker having been officially announced. Cena called him out one more time last night but again didn’t get an answer.
More coverage from last night —
WOR: RAW, WrestleMania card, WWE Axxess, tons more! 4/3
Three matches confirmed for WWE WrestleMania 34 pre-show
WWE Raw live results: The WrestleMania 34 go-home show
WWE Raw video highlights —
Stephanie McMahon puts Ronda Rousey through a table
Bayley vs. Sonya Deville, Absolution leaves Bayley and Sasha Banks laying
A video package looks at Asuka’s undefeated streak
Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
Paul Heyman laughs at the idea that Roman Reigns will injure Brock Lesnar before Sunday
“Brains Strowman” makes an appearance
Goldust declares himself for the Andre the Giant battle royal, Matt Hardy responds
Matt Hardy vs. Goldust
Raw’s build to WrestleMania ends without John Cena getting an answer from Undertaker
Roman Reigns doesn’t care about Kurt Angle’s peace treaty with Paul Heyman
Elias vs. Heath Slater
Braun Strowman throws Curt Hawkins through a wall
Renee Young interviews Nia Jax about Alexa Bliss and Mickie James’ bullying
Asuka & Dana Brooke vs. Alexa Bliss & Mickie James
Roman Reigns thinks he put down Brock Lesnar, gets laid out with an F-5
Raw fallout: Seth Rollins says he brings his best to the table in big moments
After months of questions, World of Sport Wrestling has resurfaced and is taping television imminently.
The next set of World of Sport tapings will take place over the course of three days, starting on May 10 and running through May 13. All of the tapings will take place at Epic Studios Norwich in Norfolk, England. It isn’t currently known what talent will appear at the taping, though some of the contracted talent for ITV include Dave Mastiff and Grado.
It had been reported in recent weeks in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the ITV contracted talent were told that the World of Sport promotion was looking to run shows again next month, with the idea of running a limited series. ITV has had interest in pro wrestling since taping and airing a pilot episode of World of Sport Wrestling back on New Years Eve 2016. They have not taped television since then, with a planned taping featuring Impact Wrestling talent being postponed back in May of last year due to prolonged contract negotiations.
At the same time, WWE is once again running shows in the United Kingdom. The upcoming United Kingdom Championship tournament will air in June at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
For a decade, Michael Cohen served as Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer, famously saying he would "take a bullet" for the president.
His job was simple: to clean up any problems the business man- turned-presidential candidate ran into.
Now Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight charges relating to unpaid tax and campaign finances, has become Mr Trump’s greatest threat.
From publicly boasting of his loyalty to the US president, Cohen co-operated with the investigation into possible Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
Having tied the last decade of his career personally to Mr Trump, it was an astonishing turnaround from the brash New Yorker.
When the payments first came to light, Cohen was defiant and claimed they did not constitute campaign finance donations.
Michael Cohen 'paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet'Credit:
AP
Cohen also praised Mr Trump’s son, Don Jnr, for being "open, honest and transparent" over his handling of a controversial Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer.
We know now that he had lied about the pretext for the meeting – first claiming it was to discuss Russian adoption and later admitting he was promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
Cohen, 51, grew up on Long Island and graduated from Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School, ranked among America’s worst law schools in several lists.
In 1994, he married Laura Shusterman, the daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant who was a big player in New York city’s notoriously rough-and-tumble taxi business.
Cohen, who started out as a personal injury lawyer, began buying and selling taxi medallions and accumulated a small fortune in Manhattan’s shady taxi badge industry.
But it was his place within Mr Trump’s inner circle that led him into the tangled web of the Russia investigation, headed up by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Cohen was wounded when Mr Trump opted not to give him a role in the White House, reportedly on the advice of his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
Left on the wayside, Cohen made a business out of his personal contact in the Oval Office.
The real turning point came in April, when the FBI raided his home and offices and seized hundreds of items – on the back of information handed to them by Mr Mueller.
A row over who should cover his legal fees followed, leaving Cohen uncertain his loyalty would be more cost-efficient than turning on his former boss.
Cohen initially said he used his own money to pay the porn star and was not reimbursed. Mr Trump, who first denied knowing anything about the payment, has since conceded that Cohen was paid back.
But Cohen’s case became an embarrassment and a threat to Mr Trump. The president declared early on that the investigation was all about Cohen’s private business, with nothing to do with him.
The suggestion his allegiances had changed emerged when a secret recording Cohen made of the pair discussing a hush-money payment to Ms McDougal was leaked to the press.
In a complete change in rhetoric, Cohen told the press his "first loyalty" was to his family and country – not Mr Trump. Faced with a lengthy stretch in prison, Cohen has now pointed the blame squarely at his former boss.
What happens if Donald Trump is impeached and who would be the next president?
He testified in court that Mr Trump "directed him" to commit a crime by making payments to two women – with the express intention of influencing the election.
His lawyer, Lanny Davis, said a key factor in Cohen’s decision to turn on the president had been Mr Trump’s press conference in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin.
He said: "I can tell you that Helsinki was a significant turning point as he (Cohen) worried about the future of our country,"
Mr Davis said Cohen had been alarmed when he saw the president "aligning" with Mr Putin and "that shook up Mr Cohen".
He added: "From taking a bullet for Donald Trump, in the statement that he made, to seriously worrying about his unsuitability as president after he became president…it was an evolutionary process, a painful process."
Trusted with Mr Trump’s most sensitive issues for 12 years, Cohen went on to be an invaluable witness for Mr Mueller’s team.
Mr Mueller said Cohen had gone to "significant lengths to assist the Special Counsel’s investigation".
A suspected British drug lord goes on trial on Monday in Paris for allegedly masterminding a plot to flood Europe with cocaine.
Nottingham-born Robert Dawes, 46, denies charges that he ran an operation that smuggled 1.3 tons of cocaine, worth £45 million, to France on a flight from Venezuela in 2013.
Two other Britons, named as Nathan Wheat and Kane Price, are also charged with involvement in trafficking, along with three Italians allegedly linked with the Camorra, the feared Naples-based crime syndicate.
Accused of being one of Europe’s biggest drug smugglers, Dawes was arrested in 2015 at his palatial villa on Spain’s Costa del Sol, nicknamed the “Costa del Crime”.
The arrest followed an international undercover operation initiated by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which exposed a network of corrupt European officials and security flaws with serious implications for terrorism.
Four agents of France’s anti-trafficking agency, OCRTIS, posed as corrupt baggage handlers at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to intercept 31 suitcases containing cocaine belonging to “ghost’ passengers that arrived on a flight from Venezuela.
They found evidence indicating that Dawes and his British associates had organised the shipment using encrypted phones.
Wheat, allegedly using the alias of Marcus, set up a meeting at the Eiffel Tower with French undercover agents.
Prosecutors said Wheat gave instructions for the cocaine to be delivered in four batches of 300 kilos. The first load was intercepted at the German border and all the suspects were arrested in France in 2013 except for Dawes.
The hunt for the suspected kingpin then began in earnest in a joint operation by the NCA and Spain’s anti-trafficking agency.
His eventual arrest was seen as the NCA’s biggest success since it was created in 2013 by Theresa May, then home secretary.
But a shadow was cast over the case with the arrest last year of François Thierry, the former head of the French agency OC, suspected of complicity in drug smuggling. He has denied the accusations but remains under investigation, although no charges have been brought against him.
Mr Thierry is to appear as a witness in the Dawes case and is expected to face a grilling from defence lawyers over his investigatory methods and wiretaps.
Bugs placed in a Madrid hotel recorded Dawes allegedly boasting to a representative of a Colombian cartel that he could smuggle drugs though most European airports and ports, using a network of corrupt officials, prosecutors said.
Bakersfield police have commented on the dog attack that has put Shinsuke Nakamura on the shelf.
They have issued the following statement:
“On Monday, June 25, 2018, officers of the Bakersfield Police Department Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Team were conducting a protective sweep of the Rabobank Arena in preparation for the WWE Live Summerslam Heatwave Tour” the statement says.
“During the sweep, the EOD Team, which consisted of an explosive detection trained canine team and bomb technicians entered an area of the arena where an employee of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was present. The canine entered the room to sweep for the presence of any explosive material. As the sweep took place the WWE employee was accidentally bit by the canine. The employee sustained an injury to his lower left leg. Medical aid was immediately summoned to the scene and the employee was transported to a local area hospital for medical treatment.”
It was reported yesterday afternoon that Nakamura was bitten by a police dog, rendering him unable to compete in a planned match against Jeff Hardy for the United States championship on SmackDown. His status for this weekend’s shows in Japan is also currently up in the air. There is no current timetable for a return.
Police in Strasbourg have shot dead the gunman who went on the rampage in the eastern French city’s Christmas market on Tuesday night.
Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister, said Strasbourg-born Cherif Chekatt, 29, was killed in a gunfight in Neudorf, the same suburb where he was last seen on the evening he killed three people and wounded 12 others.
Sources close to the investigation said police had acted on a tip-off from a woman who had crossed the suspect on Thursday afternoon and contacted the police after noticing he was wounded.
Speaking at the scene, Mr Castaner said a special ground unit of three police officers saw a man fitting the suspect’s description walking down the road at 9pm.
"They called to him and at that moment, he turned to face the officers and opened fire. So they immediately riposted and neutralised the assailant,” he said.
"My thoughts are with the victims, the wounded, and their loved ones. I am thinking of the security forces who were deployed. I am proud of you," he added.
A photograph released by French authorities showed a man with dark, deep-set eyes, black hair, a short beard and a mark on his forehead.Credit:
Police Nationale
French special police forces secure an area during a police operation in the Meinau district after the deadly shooting in StrasbourgCredit:
Reuters
Emmanuel Georg of the SPG police union said that while officers suspected he was in the area, they said it was “chance that a team came face to face with him” when he emerged from a building.
Locals and bystanders at the scene cheered and shouted “bravo” to police.
Roland Ries, the mayor of Strasbourg, said the neutralisation was "good news" and would help the city return to "normal life”. Visited by two million every year, Strasbourg’s Christmas market will be open to the public once again on Friday after being shut since the attack.
French President Emmanuel Macron thanked security forces in a tweet and vowed: "Our commitment against terrorism is total."
He earlier expressed "the solidarity of the whole country" towards the victims.
"It is not only France that has been hit… but a great European city as well," he added, referring to the seat of the European parliament in the eastern French city that lies on the border with Germany.
The Islamic State’s propaganda agency claimed the slain gunman was one of its “soldiers”, though experts said this was likely opportunistic.
Some 720 police and gendarmes were involved in the search for Cherif Chekatt, 29, who vanished after a gun attackCredit:
Christophe Ena/AP
More than 700 French security forces had been trying to trace Mr Chekatt since the bloodshed on Tuesday, when he is suspected of shooting and stabbing shoppers at the city’s popular annual market.
The fugitive Strasbourg gunman had an Osama bin Laden poster in his prison cell a decade ago and said he shot victims at point-blank range to "avenge brothers in Syria" and to kill "infidels", French reports said on Thursday.
The police raid followed the declaration of French authorities that they would take Mr Chekatt dead or alive and brought to an end a massive manhunt in Strasbourg and the surrounding region, as well as across the nearby border with Germany.
France had earlier issued a wanted poster of the 29-year-old local who has 27 previous convictions for theft and armed robbery and served sentences in French, German and Swiss jails.
The poster of Chekatt, who was wounded in an exchange of fire with security forces, included the warning: "Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene."
The photo shows a bearded man of North African descent with a blemish on his forehead due to frequent prayer.
At least five of the victims of his Tuesday night killing spree remain in a serious condition.
The third fatality, Afghan national Kamal Naghchband, died from a gunshot wound to the head he sustained while holding his young son in his arms. The 45-year-old, who fled the Taliban for 15 years before obtaining asylum, had been in a coma since the shooting.
Strasbourg's famed Christmas market remained shut on Thursday while the gunman was still at largeCredit:
Christophe Ena/AP
Witnesses told investigators that Chekatt had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greater) as he opened fire on the Christmas market shortly before 8pm on Tuesday night.
Chekatt was placed on a terror watch list in 2015 and had been monitored closely in recent months. However, according to Le Monde, he had slapped a picture of late al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on his prison wall as early as 2008, when he was 19 years old. “His radicalisation dates from before his time in prison,” a source close to the investigation told the paper.
Two years later, in 2010, he actively sought to proselytise other inmates and threatened them if they were not assiduous enough, it said.
He had been on a terror watch list and closely monitored for the past few months but authorities said there was nothing to suggest he was about to strike.
According to Le Parisien, he told a taxi driver he forced to drive him out of Strasbourg’s city centre on Tuesday at gunpoint that he had killed his victims at point blank range in the head to avenge “brothers in Syria” and to punish “infidels”.
The driver only escaped with his life because he had signs that he was a practising Muslim in the car.
Police n Thursday detained two of his sisters for questioning after bringing in his parents and two brothers, one of whom is on a terror watchlist.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister announced on Saturday that he would step aside, paving the way for his sacked predecessor to regain the position and end a political impasse that has paralysed the government and threatened civil unrest for the past seven weeks.
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s resignation signals the end of turmoil that began in October when President Maithripala Sirisena triggered a constitutional crisis by abruptly sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe, and appointing Mr Rajapaksa as his replacement.
The country was facing the threat of a looming government shutdown with doubts surrounding its ability to repay $1.5 billion due to bond holders by January 10th without an effective administration in place.
Mr Rajapaksa held a multi-religious service at his home where he signed a letter backing down from the post of prime minister controversially conferred on him on October 26.
The 73-year-old ex-president vowed to make a comeback at local council elections.
Sri Lanka's disputed prime minister Mahinda RajapaksaCredit:
AP
"There is no doubt at all that the people who stood by us since 2015 will continue to support us in the future as well," he said addressing his close associates. "We will bring the forces opposed to the country down to their knees by organising the people."
His aides said he was returning a fleet of limousines he had used since his disputed appointment.
President Maithripala Sirisena triggered the political turmoil by sacking Mr Wickremesinghe.
Empty seats during a parliamentary session in Colombo, Sri LankaCredit:
AP
But Mr Wickremesinghe refused to step down insisting that his sacking was illegal, leaving the Indian Ocean nation of 21 million people with two men claiming the premiership.
Mr Rajapaksa was then defeated in a no-confidence motion on November 14.
However, the following day, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ruled that he would recognise neither man as prime minister, leaving Sri Lanka effectively without a government.
The country was left heading for a government shutdown as parliament failed to approve spending for 2019 and credit rating agencies downgraded its debt amid fears of a sovereign default.
Mr Rajapaksa’s son Namal had announced on Friday that his father – who as president ended Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009 amid allegations of grave human rights abuses – was throwing in the towel "to ensure stability".
The main opposition bloc to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party dramatically split on New Year’s Day, leaving the centre-Left Zionist Union without its most prominent politician, just four months out from an election.
Avi Gabbay, Labour’s leader, announced on Tuesday that the party would run independently, without the smaller Hatnua movement of Tzipi Livni, former foreign minister.
"I hoped and believed this alliance would bring about our blossoming, a real connection and we would complement each other. But the public is smart, saw this is not the situation and distanced itself from us," Mr Gabbay said, recognising the Zionist Union’s weak showing in recent opinion polls.
The move appeared to catch 60-year-old Ms Livni, a former peace negotiator with the Palestinians and current leader of the opposition in parliament, by surprise.
"I’m not responding. I will make my decisions. Thank you," she said, and then left the room.
Benjamin Netanyahu sits among Likud party MPs Gilad Ardan (L) and Yisrael Katz (R) during a parliament session in Jerusalem on December 26Credit:
AFP
At a news conference later in the day, Ms Livni said she would continue to lead Hatnua into the election, although the party has just five MPs in the 120-member parliament, compared with Labour’s 19 and Likud’s 30.
"What is more important than Labour parting ways with Hatnua is to leave the path on which this government is leading us, so we will be able to separate from the Palestinians," she said, referring to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Zionist Union bloc has lagged behind Likud in recent polling, where it was predicted to capture only eight to nine seats compared with the 24 it holds in the current parliament.
Opinion polls predict Likud will win the election Mr Netanyahu called for April 9, taking between 27 to 31 seats – enough to lead a Right-wing coalition, despite three corruption investigations against him.
An Israeli UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter performs during a graduation ceremony of Israeli air force pilots at the Hatzerim Air Force base in Israel's Negev desert Credit:
AFP
Mr Netanyahu has fought off multiple corruption allegations that have plagued him for the last year.
His party has only grown in popularity as regional threats to the Jewish state increase.
He yesterday feted his rapprochement with Sunni Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, as part of his bid to form an bulwark against Israel’s number one foe – Iran.
Israel’s attorney general is expected to announce his decision on whether to charge Mr Netanyahu in the coming months. The premier would not be required to step down if indicted, although could face political pressure to do so.
Indeed, the prime minister said on Tuesday that he would not resign in the event of his indictment.
"Imagine what would happen if a prime minister is ousted before the hearing is finished, and then after the hearing they decide to close the case. It’s absurd. It’s a terrible blow to democracy," he said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Mr Gabbay’s decision is the latest realignment ahead of the election and more are expected.
On Saturday, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, two right-wing ministers, announced they were splitting from their Jewish Home party to form a new one that they hope will attract a mixture of secular and religious voters.
Trips to the tropical island paradise of Bali are about to get a little easier for British travellers, with Garuda Indonesia preparing to launch the first non-stop flights from the UK.
The direct service will start on January 22, replacing Garuda’s existing route from Heathrow to Jakarta. Outbound flights will leave London at 955pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, touching down at Bali Denpasar at 915pm the following day.
There’s a curious catch, however. Travellers returning to the UK will not be offered a non-stop service; they will be required to fly first to Jakarta.
Garuda’s solitary UK route has had a remarkably varied history. The flag carrier relaunched its indirect service from Gatwick to Jakarta – via Amsterdam – in 2014 after a long hiatus. It switched the departure airport to Heathrow the following year, stopping in Singapore instead of the Netherlands.
In October 2017 the route became non-stop, but then in October 2018 it was scrapped entirely in what was described as a “restructure”. Just one month later it was back in the sky, however, with the latest change adding a somewhat confusing coda.
Tickets for the inaugural direct service, a lengthy flight of 15 hours and 35 minutes on board a Boeing 777, are available for £519. A return journey one week later, featuring a short hop to Jakarta on a 737 before the main haul to London, takes an extra three hours. Total cost: £933.
While the Garuda service is the quickest way for Britons to reach Bali, indirect services offer far more cost effective options. For the same dates (January 22-29) fares can be found for as little as £423 with Turkish Airlines (stopping in Istanbul).
Flopping here is about to get easierCredit:
GETTY
Why visit Bali?
The island’s draws – beaches, temples, rice paddies and volcanoes – are famous. Perhaps too famous. Indonesia welcomed more than 15 million overseas tourists in 2018 – up from around 2.2m in 1990. And around 1 in 3 of those went to Bali.
The surge in visitors has caused environmental problems. Late in 2017 Bali declared a “garbage emergency” after several of the country’s most popular beaches were inundated with a rising tide of plastic waste. Workers sent in to Jimbaran, Kuta and Seminyak beaches, among the busiest, were carting off up to 100 tons of junk each day at the peak of the clean-up.
It isn’t only tourists to blame – fly-tipping by indifferent residents is a major factor – but they certainly aren’t helping matters.
How arrivals to Indonesia have soared
So consider somewhere else. According to a 2002 survey by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, there are 18,306 other Indonesian islands to try. We recommend Sumba. Natalie Paris writes: “This remote outpost, an hour’s flight from Bali, is now accessible thanks to Nihi Sumba, a luxury resort that takes the best of the island’s fascinating tribal culture and accommodates guest in lodges built like Sumbanese houses, with distinctive, tall thatched roofs that poke up above the treetops like witches’ hats.”
Which other new flight routes are launching in 2019?
If Bali isn’t your bag, but you want to take advantage of a new non-stop flight, there are plenty of other options.
BA will become the only European airline with a direct service to Charleston, a fabled former colonial city and gateway to South Carolina’s beaches and unsung Congaree National Park, in April.
Congaree National ParkCredit:
GETTY
The Japanese city of Osaka is also being added to BA’s route map this spring (from March 31), offering travellers a chance to discover the temples and gardens of Kyoto, 15 minutes away by bullet train.
“And yeah, but there’s so many times, Sir Alex, and it used to bug me big time in training, that he shouted, ‘Hit the target, make the goalkeeper make a mistake’ when I missed the target.
“But as soon as that ball left my foot, I knew if it’s a good finish or a bad finish.
“And if it just hit the post and out, I knew that just a slight millimetre to the left or to the right on my boot would make that ball go in.
“So quietly in my mind, I said, ‘shut up you, I know what I’m doing’. And that that would go in on Saturday.”