Saudi Arabia asserts its dominance over Esports as MBS arrives in Paris for 'World Cup'

Families are returning to the movies at an open-air cinema in Khartoum, offering residents a brief escape from war.

Frasers billionaire bought Harvey Nichols and increased Hugo Boss stake despite tough times for high-end stores What billionaire doesn’t love to splash the cash on a luxury item? Some may buy watches or yachts, but Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has been snapping up entire brands. Harvey Nichols is the latest bauble to drop into his shopping basket after his company bought the Knightsbridge department store out of administration earlier this month. It sits beside a large slice of Hugo Boss, a chunk of Mulberry, a snippet of Burberry, the remains of Agent Provocateur and the entire Flannels and House of Fraser chains...

Europe’s biggest amateur sports event for children – that has drawn celebrity ambassadors ranging from Sean Dyche to Alastair Campbell – has marked its 30th birthday in Split On a dais overlooking the Adriatic, 20 children are playing chess. Arranged in a circle, they are competing not against each other but against the grandmaster Nigel Short, who passes awkwardly around the group playing one move each time. The children are no slouches, the best young chess players from the Balkans. But, in a twist, they can also call on the support of celebrity coaches. And so we have the unusual sight of precocious chess talents being coached through their games not just by the former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, but by the former Burnley manager Sean Dyche and, in quite the eyebrow-raiser, the rightwing tech billionaire Peter Thiel. This is just one event at the Plazma Youth Sport Games (YSG), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the Croatian city of Split this month. Described by some of its more esteemed visitors as “the Davos of sport”, it brings eminent figures from the world of sport and politics to the Dalmatian coast each summer. More important, it is also the biggest amateur sports event for children in Europe. Just under half a million young people from across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and North Macedonia took part in qualifying for this year’s event. The finals in 10 sports – from chess to 3v3 basketball – are then held over the course of a week in Split. Alongside the competition, children are encouraged to learn lessons in teamwork, collaboration and putting phones away. The organisers describe Plazma as both a sporting event and a “social project”...