Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus have been knocked out of the mixed doubles in the first round at Wimbledon, losing 6-4 6-4 to Luisa Stefani from Brazil and Britain’s Joe Salisbury.
It was an unusual mixed doubles match played on Saturday, in front of a packed crowd on Court 16. Venus had his serve broken in the first game of each set and both times the Kiwis couldn’t get the break back.
Routliffe and Venus had two break points when Stefani was serving at 2-1 in the opening set and after that, the British/Brazilian team didn’t give up another break point.
“They played really well,” Venus said after the match.
“I don’t know what their first serve percentage was (69%), but it felt like we weren’t getting many looks at second serves.
“They were very clinical, they made first serves and their service partner finished a lot of points. They didn’t really give us anything.”
Venus and Routliffe felt there were times when they were getting close to having more break points, but Stefani and Salisbury stayed solid.
“We were on the borderline a couple times of kind of getting going,” Venus said.
“It doesn’t help when you go down a break, they’re playing ahead and they just kept rolling.
“They played well, we were playing from behind a little bit,” Routliffe added.
“But we had chances on Luisa’s serve once, Joe served unreal.
“When you’re guessing where he’s going to go, it’s hard to get that and even when we chipped, he did a really good job of, like, taking overheads. I felt like he finished the second ball really well.”
The defeat ends Routliffe and Venus’s mixed doubles campaign for 2025, leaving Routliffe still alive in the women’s doubles.
On Monday (UK time), Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski will play Irina Khromacheva from Russia and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar for a place in the quarterfinals.
Photo: Victoria Beckham’s BFF steps in to mend bond with son Brooklyn: Source
David Beckham’s wife Victoria and his son Brooklyn Beckham are reportedly at odds with each other.
However, a new report of Closer Magazine established that one of the fashion designer’s close friends has come to help.
Reportedly, Eva Longoria, who is also close to Brooklyn, has come to rescue the mother-son bond.
Spilling the beans on Eva’s role as a mediator between the families, a source told the outlet, “Eva and Brooklyn have always been extremely close. Eva’s known Brooklyn since he was eight and he sees her as a cool aunt figure, turning to her in times of trouble.”
“Eva’s heartbroken by the feud and while she’s obviously been supporting Vic, she’s also reached out to Brooklyn to let him know that she’s here for him,” they added.
In conclusion, the tipster noted about the wife of David Beckham’s tear urged Eva to take action even though she was reluctant to interfere in the Beckham’s family matter earlier.
“As a result, in one of Vic’s tearful breakdowns recently she begged Eva to step in and act as mediator in a desperate bid to try to settle this feud and get Brooklyn to talk to her,” they concluded.
Kartal, who is set to climb to a career-high ranking as a result of her singles run at the All England Club, has her sights on a first Grand Slam quarter-final.
The experienced Pavlyuchenkova, 34, was French Open runner-up in 2021 but has only once made it this far at Wimbledon since her 2007 debut.
Kartal, the world number 51, is ranked one place below her Russian opponent.
British interest also continues in the doubles and junior events.
Joe Salisbury and Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani play Argentine Andres Molteni and American Asia Muhammad in the mixed doubles second round.
Also in that competition, the all-British pair of David Stevenson and Maia Lumsden face eighth seeds Mate Pavic and Timea Babos of Croatia and Hungary respectively, while former champions Neal Skupski and American Desirae Krawczyk are up against American-Russian pair Nathaniel Lammons and Alexandra Panova.
Seventeen-year-old Mimi Xu, who lost to Raducanu in the women’s first round on Monday, begins her girls’ singles campaign against American Thea Frodin first on court 12.
Moe and I met at an obstacle course race in south-western Sydney in 2015 when I was 21. He’s a naturally charismatic guy and, while I wasn’t immune to his charms, I didn’t think of him again until nearly a year later when I saw him on a dating app.
I swiped to say hello and he invited me to go rock climbing. I chickened out at the last minute but a few months later Moe joined the same gym as me. We became fast friends, regularly training and trail running together.
I was at university at the time, living with my parents and dating someone else. I loved spending time with Moe but didn’t register an inkling of romance between us. We slipped easily into a close friendship and were soon having dinner together a few nights a week.
Mariah and Moe in 2017
As my trust in our friendship deepened, I opened up to Moe about the problems in my relationship. At a dimly lit Indian restaurant in Liverpool on a cool autumn night I poured my heart out. My unhappiness felt like a shameful secret I’d been keeping from everyone, even myself, but I felt no judgment from Moe.
I have always had a tendency to get stuck in tricky feelings, becoming frozen by all the ways I could handle a situation. I hate the idea of getting things wrong. That evening Moe was so sage and understanding, all my misguided shame melted away. I could suddenly see a way forward. His ability to help me untangle myself is still one of the things I appreciate most about him.
That relationship ended not long afterwards and, while I was adamant Moe and I were strictly platonic, we were training and eating dinner together every day and bought puppies from the same litter. There were raised eyebrows among our friends and family, who assumed we were an item. I was in full-blown denial. I didn’t know what anyone was talking about – we were just mates!
In early October 2017 we wrapped up training as usual but, when Moe asked me to join him for dinner, his tone was different. The intensity of his voice and the look in his eyes ignited such nervousness in me that I turned his request down. But something had clicked, I knew I was on the precipice of a life-altering moment. I had to sleep on it.
Mariah and Moe on their wedding day at Uluru in 2020
The next night, in our sweaty gym clothes, we headed to a local Vietnamese spot. I was twitching with nerves and, as the meal ended, the whole scene started to feel like a romance novel. Out the front I could hardly look Moe in the eye and, as I made a move for my car, he reached out and pulled me close. When he looked at me I knew I was about to have the last first kiss of my life. It was incredible.
In a way nothing had changed but at the same time everything had. It was humbling to realise that everything we were was already there, I had just been oblivious to what it could become.
By Halloween I knew I’d marry him and our son was born a year later. As I battled through pre- and postnatal depression my default was to disappear into myself. That old shame came knocking again. But as usual Moe was the calming, reassuring presence I needed. When I revealed how unwell I truly was, it was his quiet, steady support that got us all through.
We were married in 2020, in an intimate ceremony at Uluru, and two years later made a tree change to Young, Australia’s cherry capital, with our son and our border collies, Banjo and Nina.
Even now, I still blush thinking about our first kiss.
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away.
In contrast to all that, many investors prefer to focus on companies like NZX (NZSE:NZX), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While profit isn’t the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it’s worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.
We’ve found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.
Generally, companies experiencing growth in earnings per share (EPS) should see similar trends in share price. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. NZX managed to grow EPS by 13% per year, over three years. That’s a good rate of growth, if it can be sustained.
Top-line growth is a great indicator that growth is sustainable, and combined with a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin, it’s a great way for a company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. The good news is that NZX is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 3.4 percentage points to 25%, over the last year. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in our book.
In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings and revenue, over time. For finer detail, click on the image.
NZSE:NZX Earnings and Revenue History July 5th 2025
See our latest analysis for NZX
Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want to check this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for NZX.
Insider interest in a company always sparks a bit of intrigue and many investors are on the lookout for companies where insiders are putting their money where their mouth is. That’s because insider buying often indicates that those closest to the company have confidence that the share price will perform well. However, insiders are sometimes wrong, and we don’t know the exact thinking behind their acquisitions.
In the last twelve months NZX insiders spent NZ$48k on stock; good news for shareholders. This might not be a huge sum, but it’s well worth noting anyway, given the complete lack of selling.
The good news, alongside the insider buying, for NZX bulls is that insiders (collectively) have a meaningful investment in the stock. As a matter of fact, their holding is valued at NZ$38m. This considerable investment should help drive long-term value in the business. As a percentage, this totals to 7.7% of the shares on issue for the business, an appreciable amount considering the market cap.
As previously touched on, NZX is a growing business, which is encouraging. In addition, insiders have been busy adding to their sizeable holdings in the company. These factors alone make the company an interesting prospect for your watchlist, as well as continuing research. You should always think about risks though. Case in point, we’ve spotted 1 warning sign for NZX you should be aware of.
Keen growth investors love to see insider activity. Thankfully, NZX isn’t the only one. You can see a a curated list of New Zealander companies which have exhibited consistent growth accompanied by high insider ownership.
Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
All it can take is a phone call. That’s what Qantas learned this week when the personal information of up to 6 million customers was stolen by cybercriminals after attackers targeted an offshore IT call centre, enabling them to access a third-party system.
It is the latest in a series of cyber-attacks on large companies in Australia involving the personal information of millions of Australians, after the attack on Optus, Medibank and, most recently, Australia’s $4t superannuation sector.
The Qantas attack came just days after US authorities warned the airline sector had been targeted by a group known as Scattered Spider, using social engineering techniques, including impersonating employees or contractors to deceive IT help desks into granting access, and bypassing multi-factor authentication.
New technology brings old methods
While companies may spend millions keeping their systems secure and software up-to-date to plug known vulnerabilities, hackers can turn to this form of attack to target, often, the weakest link – humans.
Social engineering is not new. It predates the internet, involving tricking someone into providing compromising information.
The most common way people would see social engineering in practice is through phishing attacks – emails that are designed to look official to lure unsuspecting people into providing their login and passwords.
The phone-call version of social engineering, known as vishing, can be more complicated for the attacker, requiring research into a company and its employees, and tactics to sound convincing over the phone to get the unwitting worker to let them in.
The arrival of easy-to-use artificial intelligence products, including voice cloning, will only make this easier for attackers.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s most recent data breaches report, covering the second half of 2024, noted a significant rise in reports of breaches caused by social engineering attacks, with government agencies reporting the most, followed by finance and health.
The Qantas breach – that compromised information including names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and frequent flyer numbers – in isolation might not in isolation lead to financial loss, but the growing number of data breaches in Australia means hackers are able to collate data collected across the breaches and potentially launch attacks on unsuspecting new targets.
Data breaches causing more data breaches
In April, the nation’s superannuation funds became aware of the dangers of hackers collecting compromised login details from other breaches to gain access to super accounts, in what is termed credential stuffing.
The industry was fortunate only a handful of customers suffered losses, together approximately $500,000 – likely a combination of the funds locking down systems, and the high proportion of fund holders who have yet to reach the age where they can access their super.
The Albanese government, however, has been warned that the attack was a canary in the coalmine for the financial sector. In advice to the incoming government in May – released this week under freedom of information laws – the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) warned super assets were at risk.
“Cyber-attacks at large superannuation funds, that look likely to increase in scope and frequency, highlight that capability in the management of cyber and operational risks must improve,” Apra said.
“While the number of member accounts that had funds fraudulently withdrawn was small, the incident highlighted the need for this sector to uplift its cybersecurity and operational resilience maturity.
“This need will only grow as the sector increases in size, more members enter retirement and the sector takes on greater systemic significance with inter-linkages to the banking sector.”
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Apra had warned the sector in 2023 of the importance of multi-factor authentication – something some of the funds had failed to implement before the April attack.
The regulator said there were also sustained cyber-attacks on banking and insurance businesses, and third-party providers that were “continuing to test resilience and defences as attackers develop new technologies and approaches”.
Who is most at risk?
Healthcare, finance, technology and critical infrastructure, such as telecommunications, were most at risk from cyber threats, according to Craig Searle, global leader of cyber advisory at global cybersecurity firm Trustwave.
“The technology sector is uniquely exposed due to its central role in digital infrastructure and interconnected supply chains,” he said. “An attack on a single tech provider can cascade to hundreds or thousands of downstream clients, as seen in recent high-profile supply chain breaches.
“Overall, the sectors most at risk are those with high-value data, complex supply chains, and critical service delivery.”
Searle said attackers like Scattered Spider deliberately targeted third-party systems and outsourced IT support, as seen in the Qantas breach, representing a risk for large companies.
“The interconnected nature of digital supply chains means a vulnerability or misconfiguration in a partner or contractor can trigger a domino effect, exposing sensitive data and operations far beyond the initial breach,” he said.
Christiaan Beek, senior director for threat analytics at cybersecurity firm Rapid7, said third-party systems had become an integral part of many organisations’ business operations and, as a result, were increasingly targeted by threat actors.
“It’s essential for organisations to apply the right levels of due diligence in assessing the security posture of such third-party systems to reduce the risk of their information being compromised.”
Searle said organisations needed to shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity, apply software patches promptly and enforce strong access control such as multi-factor authentication.
Beek agreed organisations needed to be proactive, with executives held accountable for cybersecurity in their organisations, as well as board oversight.
“The novel tactics observed by modern-day cybercrime groups escape the typical confines of security management programmes,” he said. “The no-limits approach of these criminals pushes us to rethink the typical boundary of defence, in particular surrounding social engineering and the ways in which we can be taken advantage of.”
Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Need some answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition? Sitting here in Seattle, I was proud to nail the yellow category immediately (I might have had to move if I didn’t get it right.) The green category wasn’t too tough, but the others were more difficult. Read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: The bluest skies you’ll ever see…
Green group hint: And now it’s pouring.
Blue group hint: Empire State hoops.
Purple group hint: QB’s CV.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Seattle teams.
Green group: Seen during a baseball rain delay.
Blue group: Members of the New York Liberty.
Purple group: Teams Baker Mayfield has played for.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is Seattle teams. The four answers are Kraken, Mariners, Reign and Seahawks.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is seen during a baseball rain delay. The four answers are grounds crew, lightning, ponchos and tarp.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is members of the New York Liberty. The four answers are Cloud, Ionescu, Jones and Stewart.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is teams Baker Mayfield has played for. The four answers are Browns, Buccaneers, Oklahoma and Texas Tech.
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year.
As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:
iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display
iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch display
Given the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and longer battery life. Nothing new.
It has been rumored that the Pro Max model will go one step further this year, though.
In March, it was rumored that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be approximately 5% thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, likely in order to accommodate a larger battery. This would result in the iPhone 17 Pro Max having even longer battery life compared to the iPhone 17 Pro, which is not expected to be any thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro.
It was recently rumored that the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s battery capacity will reach the 5,000 mAh mark, up from 4,676 mAh for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
The thickness rumor originated from Ice Universe, an account with more than 1.5 million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The account has previously shared accurate information about future Apple products.
In some years, the Pro Max gets some camera features before the Pro, but that is not expected to be the case this year. Both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to be equipped with a trio of 48-megapixel rear cameras, along with an upgraded 24-megapixel front camera. No camera differences have been rumored yet.
It was initially rumored that the iPhone 17 Pro Max might have a smaller Dynamic Island compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and earlier models, but it was later reported that such a change might not be happening until next year. Even if it does happen this year, one source said the smaller Dynamic Island would be on all iPhone 17 models.
All in all, the iPhone 17 Pro Max might be pretty similar to the iPhone 17 Pro, beyond its larger screen and even bigger lead in battery life.
SANTIAGO (Chile) – Colombia will play in the Qualifying Tournaments for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 after defeating the Dominican Republic 81-53 in the first classification game of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025. With the win, the South Americans guaranteed at least a sixth-place finish in the tournament held in Santiago, Chile.
From the second quarter onward, Colombia paved the way for victory with high defensive intensity and solid shooting efficiency. The team will now play for fifth place against the winner of the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico matchup.
Turning point
The Colombian side put together a 16-0 run at the start of the second quarter to take a 19-point lead (36-17), and from there, it was smooth sailing. Head coach Luis Cuenca was able to rotate his lineup and give play time to 11 of the 12 players on the roster.
TCL player of the game
Center Yuliany Paz was the standout performer, recording a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. The Indeportes Antioquia player from the Colombian league shot 50 percent from the field and added four blocks. With that, she tied Miranda Ayim (Canada) as the all-time blocks leader in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup (since 2003), with 32, pending Kamilla Cardoso’s (Brazil) performance later in the day, as she sits at 30.
It was Paz’s first career double-double in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup, setting new personal highs for both points and rebounds. Her previous bests were 12 points and 11 boards.
For the Dominican Republic, Cesarina Capellán stood out with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Stats don’t lie
Colombia outrebounded the Dominicans 56-49 (a new team record for the Colombians in an AmeriCup game), dished out more assists (23-8), and delivered an all-around solid performance, shooting 41 percent from the field compared to just 26 percent for their opponents.
Bottom line
Colombia will head to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Qualifying Tournaments, aiming to qualify for the second time in its history. The only previous appearance came in 1975 when the country hosted the event.
With one more win in the classification stage, Colombia would match the fifth-place finish achieved in the last three editions of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.
They said
Yuliany Paz emphasized that the team came in focused and determined to keep their World Cup dream alive.
“We knew this was a very important game for us because playing in a World Cup would be a dream. Today, the team needed my points and my rebounds, and everything worked out well,” said the center at the postgame press conference.
