London: British eurosceptic Nigel Farage said on Monday that his new Brexit Party's victory in the European election should spur Britain to leave the European Union even without a divorce deal.
His call was echoed by many senior Conservatives, stung by their party's humiliating defeat.
Farage's single-issue party and pro-EU forces combined to trounce Britain's two dominant political parties in the European Parliament election, as angry voters blamed the ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party for the country's Brexit impasse.
With complete results announced on Monday, the Brexit Party had won 29 of the 73 British EU seats up for grabs and almost a third of the votes. On the pro-EU side, the Liberal Democrats took 20 per cent of the vote and 16 seats – a dramatic increase from the single seat in won in the last EU election in 2014.
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The opposition Labour Party came third with 14.1 per cent, followed by the pro-European environmentalist Greens, who captured nearly 12.1 per cent. The Conservatives – apparently blamed by voters for failing to deliver Brexit in March as planned – were in fifth with under 10 per cent of the vote.
The election leaves Britain's EU exit more uncertain than ever, with both Brexiteers and pro-EU "remainers" able to claim strong support. The result raises the likelihood of a chaotic "no deal" exit from the EU – but also the possibility of a new Brexit referendum that could reverse the decision to leave.
A triumphant Farage said he doubted the Conservatives, who are seeking a new leader, would be able to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc on the currently scheduled date of October 31.
"The Conservative Party are bitterly divided and I consider it to be extremely unlikely that they will pick a leader who is able to take us out on the 31st October [deadline]," Farage said.
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He said his party – which currently has no members and no policies apart from leaving the EU – would "stun everybody" in the next British general election if the country didn't leave the EU on time.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is stepping down as Conservative leader next month after failing to deliver Brexit, said the "disappointing" result of the European vote "shows the importance of finding a Brexit deal, and I sincerely hope these results focus minds in Parliament."
But the election instead is likely to harden the uncompromising stance of the candidates vying to succeed her. On Monday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid became the ninth Conservative lawmaker to enter the race for the top job.
"First and foremost, we must deliver Brexit," he said.
Boris Johnson, the current favourite to replace May, tweeted: "The message from last night's results is clear. It is time for us to deliver Brexit."
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Most businesses and economists think leaving the EU with no agreement on departure terms and future relations would cause economic turmoil and plunge Britain into a recession. But many Conservatives think embracing a no-deal Brexit may be the only way to win back voters from Farage's party.
Labour paid for a fence-sitting Brexit policy in which it dithered over whether to support a new referendum that could halt Brexit. Some senior Labour figures said after the party's weak performance that it must now firmly back a new referendum on Britain's departure from the bloc.
Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has long resisted a new referendum, but Labour economy spokesman John McDonnell suggested that might change.
He said the best way of stopping a damaging no-deal Brexit was "going back to the people in a referendum, and that's what I think our members want."
Robbie Farah has been given the ultimate leave pass – granted permission to watch his beloved English Premier League giants Liverpool take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final in Spain this weekend.
Wests Tigers are enjoying the bye this weekend, which allowed the club pin-up to sneak off to the other side of the world to watch the epic showdown in Madrid.
It's understood the only proviso for Farah is he be back for training by Monday, less than 24 hours after the showpiece match is played.
The Tigers' next match is when they host Canberra on Friday week at Bankwest Stadium.
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Farah is a Reds fanatic and took to social media to share his excitement about the once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The 35-year-old is also behind Two4Seven, a sports travel company he plans to spend more time on once he retires from the NRL.
The Tigers were prepared to grant Farah his wish because of his professionalism. The mid-season trip would also double as a mid-season freshen up.
As Farah prepared to fly out for Europe, his Tigers teammate Ryan Matterson started training with the NSW Blues after being drafted in as the 18th man.
Tigers coach Michael Maguire was hardly surprised Matterson, who won a premiership with the Sydney Roosters before he joined the joint venture, had popped up on Brad Fittler's Blues radar.
"He's been brilliant, he's brought a professionalism to our organisation and it's a reward for what he's been doing,'' Maguire said.
"He'll play a major part in the Wests Tigers rising to where we want to go.
"His inclusion wasn't a surprise. He's ready for that space. Working with a number of guys in and around Origin, he's well suited to that arena.''
Tigers skipper Moses Mbye was also picked in the No. 14 jumper for Queensland.
Bruce Stewart gave his family his usual "loving farewell" when he left on Monday morning for work, but he never made it there.
The 44-year-old father-of-two left his home on Potts Street in Ryde about 7.30am, heading in his 2002 blue Holden Astra sedan towards the high school in Sydney's western suburbs where he works as a teacher librarian.
His wife, Melissa Stewart, said he "made brief contact with some close friends before not responding to any calls or messages, which is very, very unlike him."
Police have since issued a missing person alert for anyone who may have seen him.
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"We are asking the public to please keep looking for him, and contact police immediately if they can help," Ms Stewart said on Tuesday morning.
"We are distraught. He is our world, a devoted father and husband, adored by all who know him, and we are desperate to find him."
Mr Stewart is described as being Caucasian in appearance, about 185cm tall with short light-coloured hair and cropped beard with flecks of grey.
The vehicle he was driving has faded blue paint with NSW registration CA29HZ.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of Mr Stewart, they are urged to contact police at Ryde Police Area Command, or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A mother and her four children are dead after a head-on crash with a truck near Kingaroy, north-west of Brisbane.
Police said a southbound Nissan station wagon smashed into a northbound truck on the Bunya Highway near Kumbia, 220 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, about 7.20pm on Monday.
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The station wagon pulled out to overtake a truck and hit an oncoming truck and both vehicles "went up in flames" upon impact, according to police.
One of the children, a young girl, was rushed to Kingaroy Hospital in a critical condition and later flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital, but she died during the flight.
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The mother, a 35-year-old woman from the Hervey Bay suburb of Eli Waters, and the three other children, all aged under 10, were declared dead at the scene.
The truck driver, a 47-year-old man, was taken to Kingaroy Hospital suffering from minor injuries and shock.
"This is a catastrophic incident scene, it’s certainly one of the worst accidents I’ve ever seen, it’s just a tragedy for everyone involved," a police spokesman said at the scene.
Queensland Ambulance Service assistant commissioner Stephen Zsombok said his "seasoned" medics described the scene as "horrific, extremely traumatic and very unsettling".
The Bunya Highway was expected to remain closed for most of Tuesday with local diversions in place.
The Forensic Crash Unit was investigating.
Last week, six lives were lost during 48 hours on Queensland roads.
The state's road toll for the year has climbed to 83 fatalities. Near the end of May during the previous five years, the road toll was: 92 (2018), 86 (2017), 96 (2016), 95 (2015) and 83 (2014).
A prominent businessman from the southern tablelands, who claimed to offer "white-collar…logistics advice" and "board" experience in a major international drug trafficking operation, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to import the second largest cocaine seizure in Australian history.
Rohan Peter Arnold, 44, was apprehended during a dramatic gunpoint arrest in a Serbian hotel in January last year, over his role in the importation of 1.28 tonnes of the illicit substance, hidden inside hollow prefabricated steel on a container boat in April 2017.
His co-accused, Tristan Waters, 34, and David Campbell, 48, were also detained by local Serbian authorities during the arrest.
The 44-year-old Murrumbateman man had been facing five potential life sentences for five charges linked to his alleged role in the drug importation.
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However less than two weeks ago he appeared before Sydney's Central Local Court, having cut a deal to plead guilty to a single offence of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, cocaine, between January 18, 2017 and January 16, 2018.
The four remaining charges against him, which included importing and attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, and attempting and conspiring to possess such a drug, were dropped.
It is understood the four related charges were discontinued in view of Mr Arnold's plea of guilty, at the discretion of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
On the single conspiracy charges, Mr Arnold still faces a possible maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
A well-known stockyard director and steel importer with multiple business interests, Mr Arnold has been in custody ever since his arrest and subsequent extradition from Serbia last year, which included an extraordinary sightseeing tour of Paris under federal police escort during his journey back to Australia.
Mr Arnold's guilty plea comes almost eight months after he made an unsuccessful application for bail in the Supreme Court, during which the court heard extensive details about the alleged importation from China and how it ended with dramatic scenes in Serbia.
In March last year it was revealed Mr Arnold had walked into a trap carefully laid by Australian Federal Police, who had utilised an undercover operative while conducting ongoing surveillance of the group ever since seizing the shipping container when it arrived in Australia in 2017.
When the group did not receive the container they had been expecting, the undercover operative led them to believe it had mistakenly been delivered to New Zealand, before luring them to a meeting in Serbia under the guise they could retrieve the cocaine for $3 million.
Instead the men found themselves face down on the carpet of a Belgrade hotel lobby, as their meeting was stormed by local police.
Mr Arnold's various business interests and experience in property development, the steel industry and the livestock trade were purportedly key to his alleged involvement in the importation.
"I do not fit the stereotype of the normal here … I am a white-collar, successful businessman, where I sit on a number of boards,” he allegedly wrote in an encrypted messaging chat group between syndicate members in 2017.
“Throughout my involvement I have tried to … get this group to make decisions like a board … right now we have a board at war with each other … While my fingerprints are not directly on the project … I have given logistics advice … [so] the manufacturer may potentially come looking for my blood.”
Mr Arnold is still listed as the director and secretary of nine companies, many of which hold his name, including Arnold Consulting Services Pty Ltd, Arnold Trading Pty Ltd and steel manufacturer Arnold Contracting (NO2) Pty Ltd, formerly S4Steel Pty Limited, which is currently under external administration.
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Stephen John Hundy was appointed as liquidator in August last year, following Mr Arnold's arrest, after which it appeared to cease trading.
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Mr Waters and Mr Campbell remain before the courts, with both men yet to enter a plea. Mr Waters will next appear at Central Local Court on July 24.
James Murdoch has signalled plans to have "precisely zero" involvement in his family's remaining businesses following the sales of 21st Century Fox and Sky, in a historic split of the world's best-known media dynasty.
The comments to friends inform a new book, The Battle for Sky, which chronicles the rise of Britain's dominant pay-TV operator and the struggles of the Murdoch family to gain full control over it.
The book describes how James and his father Rupert Murdoch, now 88, quashed opposition from his elder brother Lachlan to break-up and cash in a global entertainment empire built over three decades.
Sky was sold to US cable giant Comcast in a £30 billion ($55 billion) auction last October, while Disney acquired most of 21st Century Fox in a $US71 billion ($102 billion) merger that changed the shape of Hollywood as it comes under attack from Netflix and other tech giants. The sales triggered a $US2 billion payday for each of the Murdoch children and are expected to trigger James's departure from the family business.
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He has made clear he opposes the populist politics of Fox News, which is now under Lachlan's control and the central asset of a "new Fox" in which he plays no part. James is for now still on the board of News Corp, publisher of The Sun, but is focused on Lupa Systems, a new investment vehicle.
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The Battle for Sky includes a foreword by Mark Thompson, the former head of the BBC, who discusses his role in campaigning against the News Corp bid for Sky that was ultimately destroyed by the phone hacking scandal.
Mr Thompson reveals his secret meeting with Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, and his decision to sign a letter opposing the takeover without approval of the BBC Trust.
Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate has some unconventional advice for businesses looking to export products to China.
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"Go see a fortune teller, get yourself a photo with the president and you’ve nailed it," Ms Holgate told an audience of small businesses at Australia Post's Crossborder Ecommerce Expo last week.
That advice stems from Ms Holgate's own, remarkable experience when she was chief executive of vitamins company Blackmores and was invited by then prime minister Tony Abbott to attend the G20 in Brisbane in 2014.
Ms Holgate's sales team urged her to try and get a photograph with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the high profile summit of global leaders, in a bid to boost Blackmores' sales in China. At the time, the company was generating sales of under $1 million for the year despite spending around $10 million in the country on staff and marketing.
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Advice from a fortune teller
"Because everyone told me I didn’t stand a chance, I went to a fortune teller," Ms Holgate said. "The fortune teller told me I had to wear a piece of green, so I wore a white dress with a green necklace".
Wearing her green necklace Ms Holgate chatted with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew McKenzie and ANZ chief executive Mike Smith as they waited to enter the G20 event.
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"[Mr Joyce] said ‘Who do you want to meet tonight?’ He wanted to meet Barack Obama, Mike Smith from ANZ said Angela Merkel," Ms Holgate says. "I said ‘I only just need a photograph with Xi Jinping’. He said ‘You are off your head, he will be covered by security guards’. I said ‘Tony Abbott promised me I am going to meet him’."
However much to Ms Holgate's dismay, attendees were forbidden from taking electronic devices including phones into the event.
"I had this white dress on… it had one of those slip pockets," Ms Holgate said. "I don’t know how it happened, my mobile phone jumped out of my handbag, into that slip pocket … just as I got through security and handed my bag in."
In what Holgate describes as "a miracle", Mr Jinping arrived at the room and Mr Abbott beckoned her to meet him.
"Tony turns to the president and says ‘She wants a photo with you, she has her phone in her pocket’," Ms Holgate said. "Now forgive me Aussies, anyone who has Asian blood will understand what I did next. Tony said ‘Pass me your phone, I’ll take the photograph’. I said ‘Tony, no, I think I would like two leaders not just one’. So I passed the phone to Alan Joyce and Alan Joyce took the picture."
The following week, Ms Holgate visited China with the Blackmores board, where team members had distributed the photo widely. At Shanghai Pharmaceutical, a local chemist retailer which sells Blackmores products in China, the photo of Ms Holgate with Mr Abbott and Mr Jinping was blown up to "the whole size of the whole wall".
That year Blackmores sales in China reached $50 million and the following year they surged to $500 million."Was it the photograph or was it wearing a piece of green?" Ms Holgate asked the audience.
Speaking at the expo with Chinese fortune cookies provided at the entrance and a koala mascot dressed in Australia Post livery, Ms Holgate outlined her advice to small businesses looking to export to China and South East Asia.
Push for small business exports
Australia Post's research shows 60 per cent of Australian businesses which sell online don't sell overseas. Of those that do export overseas, only 15 per cent sell to China with most selling to the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
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"If I am frustrated about anything its that there are incredible opportunities not just in China," Ms Holgate said. "We are in the best possible space and yet we still don’t have enough Aussie companies really expanding in the region."
With Australia Post's revenue from letters continuing to plunge, falling 10 per cent to $1.1 billion for the second half of 2018, ecommerce is increasingly important for the post office as well as small businesses.
Annette Carey, Australia Post's executive general manager for for international services, said exports from Australian businesses are "absolutely critical" to Australia Post.
"You have domestic ecommerce and Australia Post has a really strong network," she said. "We are using that internationally as a hook with our Australia Post Global business and strategy to integrate into our Australia Post Global platform to offer us the best lines in China."
Ms Holgate said while the China Australia Free Trade Agreement is "very important" it doesn't assist small businesses with the restrictions going through China's ports.
"Health products, food products trust me you cannot get those products simply into the retail market," Ms Holgate said. "To sell into the retail market often they say you have to test your product on animals. There is a fantastic opportunity in the retail market but the biggest opportunity is through the free trade zones."
Ms Holgate warned small businesses not to discount their products.
"Do not fall in a trap to the wonderful Chinese distributor who wants to invest in your business because he is just going to buy your stock and discount it," she said. "You fall into a world of pain. Don't make the same mistakes some of us have already done. Keep your price at a premium."
Ms Holgate recommended small businesses engage Chinese university students studying in Australia.
"You don't have to spend a fortune on consultants," she said. "We are small and medium businesses, we have to use our cash carefully. Just go down to the local university and you will find fantastic young people with all the skills and knowledge. Don't waste your money on marketing agencies get yourself some students who know how to use WeChat."
She also plugged Australia Post's joint venture with China Post as a simple way to export to China.
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"We are the only company in Australia that has a joint venture with the Chinese government," she said. "We now have customs inside the warehouses and the ports. This is a significant benefit to anyone trying to bring product into the country."
Lessons from Blackmores
Ms Holgate recommended businesses look to poach staff from Austrade and said when she was at Blackmores she recruited the head of Austrade for China.
"Steal from Austrade and EFIC [Export Finance and Insurance Corporation] and your business will go a long way," she said. "These organisations are full of very good people."
Ms Holgate established Blackmores as a wholly owned foreign entity ('WOFE') to enter China, a structure she descried as "worth the pain".
"I personally am not into big joint ventures, not in life or business, it is hard enough being married to someone," she said. "Imagine how hard it is having a JV in a foreign country. Going the WOFE route is the route to go."
Ms Holgate also touched on the challenges Blackmores faced when in 2016 the Chinese government tightened restrictions on health and food products, including the company's infant formula, with little warning or notice.
"That was an interesting moment in time," she said. "My honest view was you have to persevere and stay there and keep investing in the challenging times as well as the good times."
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Diversification is important Ms Holgate said.
"Don't put all your eggs in the China basket," she said. "I just think it is a huge opportunity, it does take huge perseverance."
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The weather at Randwick on Saturday had a touch of spring about and so did racing as a number of handy gallopers made a quiet May meeting into one to be remembered regarding form.
From the first race when Prince Fawaz beat favourite Reloaded, to Deprive’s remarkable response to a daring Rachel King ride to charge to victory, there were plenty of horses for blackbooks.
The ATC has got the programming of this meeting right and it gives an insight into the Brisbane group 1s to close the season but also gives horses on the rise a chance to finish their preparation on a high.
Prince Fawaz and Reloaded are likely to fight out the JJ Atkins in a couple of weeks at Eagle Farm and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Nobu and Carif again quinella the Queensland Derby after their battle up the straight on Saturday.
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Michael Hawkes said Renewal would be put away for the spring after another win to lift in the ratings to place where he can challenge for an Epsom.
“He has always been a horse we knew was good, we just had to wait for him to mature and the best thing for him is to have spell now because he will come back better,” Hawkes said.
Behind him, Noire was good enough under top weight running into fourth to suggest she will be a big factor in the Tatts Tiara. Chris Waller used a similar preparation with her last year but her rating didn’t allow her a chance at the group 1. She will be there this time around.
Waller will also send the new 1500m track record holder at Randwick, Kolding, to Brisbane for the Queensland Guineas, but beyond that he looks a group 1 prospect at a mile.
He races in the Neville Morgan colours and is unbeaten in three starts since being gelded.
Imports Wolfe and Master Of Wine are only just finding their feet in Australia but both have good futures. Gai Waterhouse will attempt to qualify Wolfe for the Cups through the Brisbane Cup in a fortnight, such is her opinion of him, but don’t forget the runner-up, which will continue to improve.
Joy of winning overflows online
The joy of racing, and winning, was on show as Steel Prince won his place in Melbourne Cup via a photo finish in the Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
Damien Oliver was hoisted on the shoulders of the owners after weighing in as owners realised a dream.
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That celebration might have got the gold medal for the weekend but on Twitter Bjorn Baker's response to winning the Grand Prix Stakes with Fun Fact was also good.
However, it was bettered by the owners of Prince Fawaz, who watched their two-year-old win before a wedding.
Military Zone out of Stradbroke
The weights for the Stradbroke are released on Monday but Peter Snowden has decided not to chase the $1 million prize with impressive Fred Best Stakes winner Military Zone.
Snowden will stick to a plan to allow the talented three-year-old, which also won the Hawkesbury Guineas this preparation, to grow and furnish.
“He’s still very immature. He’s still another preparation from being where you want to see him,” he said on Brisbane radio.
“For me, I think he’s this time next year, autumn or winter, sort of horse until he’s really there.”
Graham seeks ton and ready to shine
North Coast apprentice Ceejay Graham made a flying start to her loan period, with Peter and Paul Snowden riding a winning double at Gosford on Saturday.
Graham is closing on 100 winners after just three years in the saddle and Peter Snowden believes she can make her mark in the provincial and metropolitan areas.
“She is a very well-balanced rider and horses run for her,” he said. “It is a good time to come to Sydney because at this time of year she is going get more opportunities with the Brisbane carnival on.
“We are going to support her and I think she will be busy because she has a good reputation.”
Graham’s first winner of Sydney stay was Soul Soldier in the China Horse Club silks at Gosford.
Callandar race day offers a priceless lunch
There are only a couple of tables left for the second Matt Callander charity race day function at Rosehill on Saturday.
The popular Callander lost his battle with brain cancer just under two years ago and the race day luncheon for more than 900 supports the Mark Hughes Foundation, the Muldoon Foundation and Sivan Arul Foundation.
There will be several auction items including a legends lunch at Flying Fish for eight guest with champion trainer Chris Waller, NSW State of Origin coach Brad Fittler, Kenny Callander, Ray Hadley and John Singleton.
Offering a unique co-operative take on the genre alongside a great story-led Adventure mode, Team Sonic Racing is a fast, fun and fully-featured mascot racer; even it isn't always the smoothest ride.
This is Sumo Digital's third Sega-themed racer, following Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing in 2010 and the multi-vehicular Transformed in 2012. But this time all the action takes place on the track, rather than in the skies or on the water, with the transformation gimmick replaced by a new system that sees racers divided into teams of three.
Working as a team is really at the core of the game, even when you're playing on your own, to the point that if you happen to play an exhibition race with teams disabled you'll notice the basic driving is very straightforward and kind of boring.
In a standard race, with four teams of three, actually drifting around corners and staying on the track is not your main focus. Instead you'll want to keep an eye out for your teammates so you can draft behind them for a slingshot boost, blast them back up to speed if they spin out, or save them from enemy attacks.
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Teamwork plays into the item system too. If you pick up a missile, bomb or boost, you can choose to use it yourself or trade it to a teammate in need. Grabbing a traded item can result in powerful variants you won't find on the track on your own, and the three different types of drivers (speedy, technical or powerful) can pick up exclusive items that other types can only get from trading.
All of these team actions fill up a meter that will eventually let you activate an ultimate power, which means brief invulnerability and increased speed for your whole squad. Your place on the podium is decided by adding the results of each member on your team, meaning it's no good coming first if they get lapped, so constant use of team actions is generally the best way to ensure victory.
Aside from teamwork, the other big change from the rest of the series is that TSR is focused purely on the Sonic franchise, meaning there's nothing from other classic Sega games like Alex Kidd or Golden Axe, and so only four of the 15 playable characters will likely be recognisable to anyone who isn't a die-hard hedgehog fan. (Sorry Zavok.)
But while it's true that some of Sonic's characters are plain bad (Big the Cat, Rouge, actually everyone from the Adventure games) or painfully forgettable (Silver the time-travelling hedgehog), there's also a lot of charm here. The game leans on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Eggman, but the likes of Blaze and Vector are great designs that don't get as much love as they deserve. I also appreciate that the characters all banter and address each other directly as you race, playing off their established relationships and rivalries.
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The game's marquee mode is called Team Adventure, and it's a neat collection of races and objective-based challenges that also follows a cute (but, if you like, totally skippable) Sonic narrative. The levels actually offer a serious challenge at higher difficulty levels, while a star-based rating system means you don't need to win every race to proceed (but you might have to come back later). It's a great alternative to the standard Mario Kart setup of just plowing through the levels, and it's playable co-operatively with friends, which is a nice touch.
Playing nets you credits you can turn in for "mod pods", a very lootbox-esque system that thankfully doesn't take real money. Pods might include consumables (i.e. starting a race with a special item) or new car parts and paint jobs for one of the racers.
Fans of Mario Kart will find a lot familiar in Team Sonic, despite the teamwork gimmick. Most of the items you can pick up are directly inspired by similar items in Nintendo's franchise, while the Grand Prix, Exhibition and Time Trial modes work near identically. But this is certainly a less polished game than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The tracks here can feel very generic (there are 12 new, nine returning tracks), and the mix of racers, enemies, items, effects and speech bubbles can make the levels difficult to read at times, which is only worsened when you activate the ultimate boost. For something that is supposed to be a reward for good teamwork, it sure does send me careening blindly into walls and off platforms a lot.
But the biggest disappointment is that, while the game performs well in single-player, playing with two to four players in split screen mode takes a huge toll on the framerate and makes the game uncomfortably juddery. I found this on both the PS4 and Switch versions of the game. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed down the line with an update, because the team focus makes this a great option for couch co-op.
Performance issues aside there's a lot to enjoy here, and I only liked the game more as I dove into the deep vehicle customisation, refined my strategies for keeping AI teammates out of last place and explored the surprisingly varied online multiplayer modes. It's not perfect, but as a racer for Sonic fans or a multi-platform alternative to Mario Kart, it's a really good time.
Team Sonic Racing is out now for PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Switch and Xbox One.
Retour Sur Terre (Back To Earth) was the headline on the Roland Garros program. It saluted Roger Federer's first appearance on the French Open's crushed brick, known to the locals as terre battue, since he lost to Stan Wawrinka here in the 2015 quarter-final.
To watch Federer, though, was to acknowledge that his extra-terrestrial gifts remain intact. He seemed to float above the court as he eliminated Lorenzo Sonego in only 101 minutes: 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Federer does not see himself as a leading contender for this title, he said afterwards. But we can be confident that no one is looking forward to facing him.
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"It's nice to be an outsider," Federer said.
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"It relaxes you on the bigger points maybe, or it relaxes you subconsciously as you walk through the grounds and go to practice and go to the press room.
"This is not a show I'm putting on," Federer added. "This is the truth. I really don't know how far I can go in this event, and I am very happy with my first round. It was a really good performance, I thought, from my side for not having played here for as long as I did."
Four years is a long time in tennis – especially at a venue where several stadiums have been either demolished or renovated since Federer's last visit.
But there was no sense of a settling-in period; quite the reverse, in fact, as he broke serve twice in the first 12 minutes to rush in to a 3-0 lead.
Sonego is an earnest Italian with a hint of a young Rafael Nadal about him. He has a bandanna to hold back his floppy black hair, a chesty grunt and a lasso forehand. Only the right-handedness and the skinny build spoiled the comparison – along with the one-sidedness of the scoreline.
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Despite competing hard in sets two and three, Sonego was left bemused by Federer's variety of spins and angles. He also had to put up with the indignity of a winning drop shot played against his serve.
Just entering and exiting the new-look Court Philippe Chatrier must have felt like a tonic for Federer, who received celebratory chants and a standing ovation both times.
He arrived clad entirely in white, as if he had taken a wrong turn on the way to Wimbledon, before disrobing to reveal the Uniqlo kit that has been compared to a parcel delivery uniform. It takes a special clotheshorse to make beige look bold, but he just about pulled it off.
"I feel that the public missed me, and I missed them, as well," said Federer after the match.
"After not playing here for many years, there was some buzz, which I could feel on the central court when I was training and when I was playing today.
"So it was rather cool, rather pleasant, and I really loved the welcome I got on the court. I hope that it continues like this."
"Roger, Roger" chants echoed around the packed 15,000-seater Philippe Chatrier centre court even before the first serve had been made.
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As he dominated the opening two sets, a fan shouted from high in the stands, “Pas trop vite, Roger” (“Not too fast, Roger”), the crowd laughing in unison.
Federer could only leave after dozens of selfies and autographs as little children and grown-ups alike screamed "Roger, please" to get his attention.
"The reception I got today was crazy. It was really nice to see a full stadium for a first round like this. It was a beauty. So I'm very, very happy," Federer said, who was escorted by several bodyguards amid dozens of ecstatic fans to his post-match press conference.
Federer's reappearance helped lift the French Open's Sunday start, which is often a rather drab affair. Most of the leading players want to squeeze out extra training before entering the fray over the first two days of this week.
If Federer proved to be the exception, one suspects that he has hatched a cunning plan. Given the extra physicality of clay-court tennis, recovery may prove to be a bigger challenge for him this fortnight than outright performance.
And as he mentioned, his early arrival meant that he wouldn't have to play again for 2½ days.