• ‘We are going to go properly after them,’ insists wing
• Springboks are world champions but ‘not unbeatable’

The England wing Tommy Freeman has insisted that all-conquering South Africa are only human and vowed Steve Borthwick’s side will take the fight to the Springboks on Saturday.

After four straight defeats and six in seven against tier-one opposition, England face the daunting task of welcoming the back-to-back world champions to Twickenham. England’s last-gasp defeat by Australia saw Borthwick’s side slip to seventh in the world rankings while the Springboks returned to the summit after their 32-15 win over Scotland .

A month ago they were winless and certain for relegation but then in came a charismatic coach for whom every detail matters

Diego Martínez and his players made a pact not to look at the table but this time, as they headed along the cramped passageway, down the stairs, out the little red door and on to the big yellow bus, carrying Telepizzas and turning on phones, they could be forgiven for taking a sneaky peek. They had just beaten Rayo Vallecano 3-1 and, for the first time since August, were not in the relegation zone. It was three minutes after midnight on Friday when they pulled out of Fofo the Clown Street and turned left towards the hotel, another long flight home awaiting the following morning. They were probably still wondering how it had happened, how any of it had, but UD Las Palmas travelled in hope again.

When the bus departed, one player wasn’t on board. Manu Fuster’s mother has been feeding flood victims at her restaurant in Quart de Poblet; now his brother was waiting for him in the car outside, ready to take him home. With a lovely flick of his right foot, he had scored the third, having only been on the pitch two minutes. “It was very special for everything that’s happened, because it’s my first in primera , because it helped us win,” he said before setting off straight for Valencia. “If you’d said we’d be in this position this a month back, we’d have put our heads in our hands. No one bet a duro , five pesetas, on us but things have changed completely.”

Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29

US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“Although under Donald Trump’s leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue,” said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration’s delegation at the annual talks.

Ex-chief medical officer says it is possible she may not have made a public warning over risks

The former chief medical officer for England claimed she had a “strong recollection” of advising the public not to pick up objects they found near the scene of the novichok attack on the Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal , despite there being no record of her making such a statement.

Dame Sally Davies, who was speaking at the inquiry into the Salisbury poisonings in Wiltshire, said she had a recurrent nightmare that a child would find a discarded container of the nerve agent.

This traditional period of inner turmoil is often accompanied by weight gain, cosmetic treatments, ill-advised purchases and new hobbies. But is it becoming a thing of the past?

Name: The midlife crisis.

Age: So it generally happens between the ages of 40 and 60.

The lovable bear’s latest adventure, which stars Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas, alongside the regular cast scored highly at the box office despite tepid reviews

Paddington in Peru, the third film in the hit Paddington series adapted from the books by Michael Bond, has scored the highest opening weekend box office for a British film since No Time to Die, the most recent Bond movie.

Studiocanal, the studio behind all three Paddington films, reports that it took £9.65m at the UK box office over the first three days of its release since Friday, playing to an estimated audience of 1.2m people in 732 cinemas. By contrast No Time to Die, released in 2021 during the pandemic, recorded £21m on its opening three days , after showing in a higher number of venues (772).

Collapsed cryptocurrency company says $1.8bn was ‘fraudulently transferred’ to Binance and its executives

The collapsed cryptocurrency company FTX is suing Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, alleging that $1.8bn was “fraudulently transferred” by FTX management to Binance and its executives.

The lawsuit relates to Binance’s sale of its stake in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s FTX, which it acquired in 2019 but then negotiated to sell back to FTX in July 2021.

• Van Nistelrooy was No 2 to Ten Hag then interim manager
• Amorim meets United executives at training ground

Ruud van Nistelrooy has left his role as assistant coach after the arrival of Rúben Amorim at Manchester United. The Dutchman oversaw three wins and a draw during a spell in interim charge after the sacking of Erik ten Hag but will not be part of the new era at Old Trafford.

Van Nistelrooy, a former United striker, returned to the club in the summer to work under Ten Hag, having left Old Trafford 18 years ago. He had suggested a willingness to stay on under Amorim and see out the remaining 18 months of his deal. United also confirmed the exit of his fellow coaches René Hake, Jelle ten Rouwelaar and Pieter Morel.

State’s holding in former Royal Bank of Scotland down to 11.4%, without need for Jeremy Hunt’s planned £3bn sale

Sometime around spring next year, HM Treasury should finally sell its last share in NatWest, or the Royal Bank of Scotland, as it was. The process will only have taken 17 years. If that feels like an age, it is a shorter timespan than seemed likely only 12 months ago.

At the end of the last year, the government’s stake – 84.9% after the two-stage nationalisation by the last Labour administration in 2008-09 – was still 38%. Now it is down to 11.4% after the latest “directed buy-back”, in which the bank bought shares from the Treasury for cancellation – in this case £1bn-worth.