Indian cricket analyst Aakash Chopra has opined that though Mitchell Starc’s sudden retirement from T20Is ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup next year has surprised him, he reasons that the pacer can be occasionally expensive with his economy in the shortest format.
Legendary Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game, which got widespread reactions from the cricket fraternity. This was because the ICC T20 World Cup is to be played next year, as the Aussies have also lined up several T20I series in the next few months.
Aakash Chopra’s uncommon opinion on Mitchell Starc’s T20I retirement
Former Indian player Aakash Chopra has also expressed the same astonishment on learning of Starc’s sudden call for retirement; however, he has also acknowledged the fact that the pacer is often hit for too many runs.
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In a video shared on his YouTube channel, the former Indian opener was asked whether Mitchell Starc’s decision to retire is the right call, to which he replied, saying:
“I am a little surprised. Mitchell Starc could have played the World Cup and said goodbye after that, but he didn’t wait for the World Cup. To be fair, he hasn’t played too many T20Is. He is an absolute gun bowler, but he is also someone who can be very expensive from time to time. You see how and wow with him many times in the shortest format,” he added.
“Australian and English Cricketers don’t say goodbye to the Ashes so early” -Aakash Chopra
In the same video, later, Chopra also opined that Starc’s early retirement call from T20Is might be to prolong his red-ball and one-day careers, highlighting the significance of the Ashes and World Cups for Australians.
“Everyone has their own choice, and I feel the Australian and English cricketers don’t say goodbye to the Ashes so early. It’s a question of tradition. They are hard-wired in such a way that the Ashes are very, very important, and the ODI World Cup is very, very important. That’s how you grow up,” he said
Mitchell Starc was sold for INR 11.75 crore in the last IPL mega auction, while the season before that, he was acquired for INR 24.75 crore. Hence, Chopra cites that making money is not a big deal nowadays in the game.
“You have T20 leagues to earn money. So that could be a thought process. The thought process that is right for them might not be right for us, but you should keep playing Test cricket as long as you can because too many ODIs aren’t played these days,” Chopra observed.
Aakash Chopra is unconvinced by the Test retirement of Indian veteran cricketers
Despite being asked about Mitchell Starc’s T20I retirement, Chopra cannot get over the buzz over Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma‘s retirement from Test cricket. He, hence, went on to say that he doesn’t feel that Rohit and Kohli should have stopped playing Tests since ODIs are not played much nowadays.
“Personally, I am still not convinced that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did the right thing by leaving Tests. In my opinion, they should have continued playing Tests and left ODIs if they wished, because ODIs don’t happen much. Otherwise, they could have continued playing ODIs as well. They had already left T20Is,” Chopra said.
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While they may have faced extinction 66 million years ago, our collective fascination with dinosaurs has meant that iconic species, such as T.rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus, are just as, if not even more recognisable than animals living today, says Will Newton.
However, these weren’t the only dinosaurs that once called Earth ‘home’. There were hundreds more that, when compared to our childhood favourites, stand out – not because they were bigger, toothier, or fiercer, but because they were incredibly strange, even by dinosaur standards.
If at any point while reading this article you think, ‘this dinosaur looks too strange, it can’t possibly be real’, just remember that platypuses, pangolins, and blobfish are real-life animals and not the works of a child armed with a set of crayons and a vivid imagination. Mother Nature works in mysterious ways and has been creating weird (and wonderful) animals ever since life first emerged.
From shaggy, sail-backed giants with rakes for hands to bird-like pipsqueaks with wings made of skin rather than feathers, here are 10 of the strangest dinosaurs that ever lived…
Weirdest dinosaurs in the world
Deinocheirus
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Looking like a cross between a duck, a camel, and an extinct ground sloth, Deinocheirus is a particularly peculiar dinosaur whose size and bizarre mix of features belies its somewhat mundane lifestyle.
Instead of pursuing giant herbivorous dinosaurs across great plains like its meat-eating theropod cousins did, Deinocheirus spent most of its life wading in stagnant ponds. It’s thought it used its large, rake-like claws to dig and gather plants and its duck-like bill to filter any other small foodstuffs from water, including fish.
At 11m in length and nearly six-and-a-half tons in weight, Deinocheirus is the largest ornithomimosaur (ostrich-like dinosaur) currently known to science. It was discovered in 1965 in rocks belonging to the Nemegt Formation in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. This rock formation is roughly 70 million years old and has yielded remains of many other types of dinosaurs, including ankylosaurs, sauropods, hadrosaurs, and tyrannosaurs.
Deinocheirus, like other ornithomimosaurs, was probably covered in shaggy, hair-like feathers and based on the structure of its caudal vertebrae it may have even sported an extravagant tail fan of bird-like feathers.
However, unlike other ornithomimosaurs Deinocheirus wasn’t particularly renowned for its speed. Its legs were relatively short and its back-end was very robust, suggesting it moved rather slowly.
This may have made it a target for large contemporary predators like Tarbosaurus – there’s evidence of bite marks on several Deinocheirus bones that have been attributed to such an attacker. That said, Deinocheirus had size on its side and fully grown would have had very few natural predators.
Ubirajara
This small, 1m-long dinosaur is not only strange in terms of its appearance, but also in terms of its discovery.
Initially described in a 2020 study, Ubirajara was later declared invalid after it became apparent that the fossils it was described from had been illegally exported from its country of origin, Brazil, back in 1995.
Ubirajara has since been repatriated and is now on display at the Plácido Cidade Nuvens Paleontology Museum in northeastern Brazil, but the study describing it and where it falls in the wider dinosaur family tree has not yet been re-published, shrouding it further in mystery.
Nevertheless, from photographs of the holotype specimen we know that Ubirajara was feathered and possessed never-before-seen spear-like feathers emerging from its shoulders. It’s this unique feature that prompted authors of the now withdrawn 2020 study to name it Ubirajara, which in the local Tupi language means ‘Lord of the Spear’.
Based on its appearance, Ubirajara has been informally placed in the Compsognathidae family – a group of small, carnivorous dinosaurs that were remarkably quick and agile and are thought to have hunted equally speedy lizards. It lived roughly 115 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous, a short time after its proposed sister species Sinosauropteryx from Mongolia lived.
Oryctodromeus
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As a group, dinosaurs aren’t really known for burrowing. This is a behaviour most often associated with mammals and one of the often suggested reasons why they survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 million years ago, while the non-avian dinosaurs didn’t.
However, there is a dinosaur that scientists are confident built and maintained burrows – Oryctodromeus. This labrador-sized animal lived in the Western United States during the Late Cretaceous (~100 million years ago) and belongs to a family of herbivorous, fast-running dinosaurs known as thescelosaurs.
Oryctodromeus was discovered in 2007 after paleontologists unearthed a fossilised burrow in southwestern Montana that contained the remains of three partial skeletons from an adult and two juveniles.
The burrow these dinosaurs were found entombed in closely matched the proportions of the adult specimen, suggesting it had dug out its own home rather than squatted in a burrow made by another animal. A closer examination of the burrow also revealed a pronounced s-bend, a feature some think Oryctodromeus may have deliberately crafted in order to make it harder for predators to enter its home.
Oryctodromeus is the first and so far only non-avian dinosaur that shows convincing evidence of burrowing behaviour. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that there may have been more burrowing dinosaurs, and that some may have even weathered the initial fallout from the asteroid that wiped out the rest of their kin inside their burrows, only to ultimately face extinction years later.
Heterodontosaurus
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No, this isn’t concept art of a genetically modified dinosaur from an upcoming Jurassic Park film, it’s a real-life dinosaur that lived in South Africa during the Early Jurassic, 200 to 190 million years ago.
Heterodontosaurus’ name means ‘different toothed lizard’ and it’s unique amongst other dinosaurs in that it possessed differently shaped gnashers.
In total, Heterodontosaurus had three types of teeth. In its upper jaws it had small, incisor-like teeth followed by long, canine-like fangs that protruded from both its upper and lower jaws. Behind these were a series of chisel-shaped cheek teeth that are thought to have done the majority of the work when it came to eating.
In fact, it’s thought Heterodontosaurus’ sharp front teeth played little role in feeding and were instead used for fighting others of its kind.
There has been a lot of debate surrounding Heterodontosaurus’ diet as a result of its unique dentition. Most palaeontologists agree that it was predominantly herbivorous and used its pointed beak and robust cheek teeth to pick at and grind up tough plant material. However, some have suggested it may have been omnivorous and used its fangs to subdue and kill small prey during high-speed hunts.
It’s believed Heterodontosaurus may have also been covered by hundreds of filamentous, feather-like structures, just like its close cousin Tianyulong. If so, it would have looked a lot like a crazed, two-legged hedgehog in life.
Spinosaurus
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Few dinosaurs are quite as enigmatic as Spinosaurus – the poster child of ‘strange dinosaurs’. This giant, sail-backed theropod was originally discovered in 1912 and later described in 1915 based on the lower part of a jaw, a handful of vertebrae, and several, extraordinarily long neural spines, all found in western Egypt.
Spinosaurus’ peculiarity amongst other large, meat-eating theropods from the Late Cretaceous (~100-94 million years ago) was immediately apparent, but before more work was able to be done on reconstructing this strange dinosaur, the type material was destroyed during a British bombing raid of Munich in World War II.
Some more remains have since been discovered, though whether or not these belong to the originally described type species, Spinosaurus aegypticus, or another is unclear. This ambiguity in terms of fossils, not to mention its affinities with other dinosaurs, has meant that depictions of Spinosaurus have dramatically changed over time.
Once a terrestrial, upright-walking superpredator that may have rivalled T.rex in terms of ferocity, Spinosaurus is now widely thought to have been a specialist, semiaquatic predator that hunted fish. Its long, slender snout, huge dorsal sail, and paddle-shaped tail are all signs that it was built for a life in water, or at least around water. That said, exactly how much time it spent in water and whether it was actually capable of swimming and pursuing fish is heavily debated.
The discovery of more Spinosaurus material will no doubt shed some much needed light on this enigmatic dinosaur, but it will forever be one of, if not the strangest dinosaur of all time.
Parasaurolophus
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As dinosaurs go, duck-billed hadrosaurs are amongst the most familiar and ‘normal-looking’. Some even refer to them as the ‘cows of the Cretaceous’ based on the fact that they were incredibly numerous, gathered in large herds, and – at least morphologically speaking – were rather unremarkable.
Not all hadrosaurs were drab, plant-eating dullards though; the 9m-long, five-ton Parasaurolophus from the Late Cretaceous (~75 million years ago) of western North America stands out from the rest of the hadrosaur crowd thanks to the large, snorkel-shaped crest that adorns its head.
This hollow structure connected to Parasaurolophus’ nasal cavity and is full of winding passages that, when air was blasted through them, created a unique sound.
In the 1980s, palaeontologist David Weishampel made a model of Parasaurolophus’ skull and blew into it. The noise reportedly sounded like that made by a crumhorn – a Renaissance-aged wind instrument that sounds a little bit like how you’d imagine a goose attempting to play a vuvuzela would sound…
Aside from its bulk, Parasaurolophus didn’t have much else going for it in terms of protection, so scientists think it may have weaponised its unique honk and used it to deter predators.
A lone Parasaurolophus honking may have been enough to make a hungry tyrannosaur think twice before approaching. A herd of honking Parasaurolophus, on the other hand, may have produced a honk loud enough to drive said predator away from its hunting grounds entirely.
Miragaia
Connor Ashbridge, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Stegosaurs aren’t exactly known for their long necks, so when scientists discovered remains of an unusual, long-necked species in 150-million-year-old rocks from Portugal back in 1999 they were left scratching their heads.
In total, Miragaia has 17 neck vertebrae, which is more than most sauropods do – a group of dinosaurs renowned for their incredibly long necks. This discovery went against the long-held view that stegosaurs were solely low browsing herbivores with short necks, suggesting that some – Miragaia at least – were capable of reaching leaves from the tops of tall shrubs and trees.
Miragaia, like its cousin Stegosaurus, is also covered in plates and spikes. While it may be half the size of its more recognisable relative, it’s arguably ‘spikier’ and has even longer tail spines.
Last year, scientists analysed Miragaia’s tail and concluded that it was capable of generating enough speed and pressure to inflict serious injuries on potential predators. However, its tail spines, while longer than Stegosaurus’, were found to be less robust, meaning Miragaia’s primary weapon was somewhat of a glass cannon that may have broken if it was swung too haphazardly.
There were several bloodthirsty predators that roamed Portugal at the same time as Miragaia, including Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Torvosaurus, but just how often they hassled this spiky stegosaur is unknown.
Brachytrachelopan
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From a long-necked species of a typically short-necked dinosaur to a short-necked species of a typically long-necked dinosaur, this is Brachytrachelopan – a diminutive sauropod that could have comfortably worn a turtleneck sweater.
Standing just over 3m tall, measuring 11m in length, and weighing in at five tons, Brachytrachelopan was indeed small by sauropod standards, but it’s its incredibly short neck that makes it stand out from other sauropods
From the base of its skull to its shoulders, Brachytrachelopan’s neck measures only 2m, making it the shortest of any known sauropod. Its neck is also 40% shorter than those of other dicraeosaurids – a family of sauropods that went against group norms and, over time, evolved shorter and shorter necks.
Not only was Brachytrachelopan’s neck short, it was inflexible too. This has led scientists to suggest that it primarily ate plants that grew low to the ground and maxed out at heights of 1-2m.
Brachytrachelopan lived in Argentina during the Late Jurassic (from 160 to 150 million years ago). Interestingly, this is the same place where, roughly 50 million years later, the largest known sauropod (and the largest known terrestrial animal of all time) also lived – Argentinosaurus.
While it may be the largest sauropod in terms of height, standing more than 20m tall, Argentinosaurus doesn’t hold the title of the ‘longest-necked sauropod’; that title goes to Mamenchisaurus from China, which has an abnormally long neck measuring up to 15m.
Liaoningosaurus
PaleoEquii, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ankylosaurs are already quite strange; most are heavily-built, slow-moving herbivorous tanks that resemble giant armadillos. Now imagine an ankylosaur that was roughly half the size of an armadillo (~30cm-long), dined on fish, and spent a lot of its time swimming.
This bizarre ankylosaur is known as Liaoningosaurus. It lived during the Early Cretaceous (from 125 to 119 million years ago) and was discovered in the early 2000s in northeastern China.
Since its discovery, partial skeletons of 20 Liaoningosaurus have been found, one of which was found with preserved gut contents that suggest it may have eaten fish. A closer look at Liaoningosaurus’ teeth also reveal fork-like ridges on the crowns of its cheek teeth – a clear sign that it was carnivorous, say researchers.
Further studies of its skeleton have put forward evidence to suggest that it may have been partially aquatic, such as a bony belly plate. This may have served a similar function to a turtle’s plastron and protected Liaoningosaurus from underwater attackers, as well as rough substrates.
Not everyone agrees with this interpretation of Liaoningosaurus’ lifestyle, and some even argue that it’s not a valid species; rather a juvenile form of another known species of ankylosaur – Chuanqilong.
Yi Qi
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This tiny, winged dinosaur from the Late Jurassic (around 160 million years ago) is so strange that the word ‘strange’ literally makes up half of its name – qi meaning ‘strange’ in Mandarin and yi meaning ‘wing’.
The first and so far only Yi Qi specimen was discovered in a quarry near Mutoudeng, North China, by a local farmer, and later sold to the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature in 2007.
After careful preparation of the fossil, museum staff uncovered remains of fluffy feathers, adding Yi Qi to the growing list of feathered dinosaurs. They also found small patches of wrinkled skin between Yi Qi’s fingers and the bones in its arms. This suggests its wings were made up by a membrane of skin, like the wings of pterosaurs and bats.
Yi Qi isn’t the only winged dinosaur, Archaeopteryx, Microraptor, and Anchiornis are all similarly small, winged dinosaurs, but it is the only one we currently know of that had membranous wings.
It’s unclear exactly how competent a flyer Yi Qi was, but the lack of large pectoral muscles suggest it probably wasn’t capable of flapping flight. Instead, it’s thought Yi Qi was a specialised glider that soared from tree to tree as it hunted small, flying insects.
As F1 celebrates its 75th anniversary this coming Monza weekend, and off the back of the Dutch Grand Prix, it’s a good time to look at two landmark F1 car designs, both associated with the legendary Niki Lauda.
The Ferrari 312T of 1975 was the car which took then-26-year-old Lauda to the first of his three world titles. The 1985 McLaren MP4/2B was the car in which 36-year-old Lauda won his final Grand Prix – at Zandvoort – before retiring for good at the end of the season. These two cars, respectively 25 and 35 years into the F1 World Championship’s history, show just how fast F1 technology evolved in the intervening decade.
Designed by the genius Mauro Forghieri, the Ferrari was at the cutting edge of 1975 F1. Conforming to the 3-litre F1 in force at the time, it was a beautifully integrated design. Neither turbocharging nor ground effects had yet hit F1, the introduction of both technologies to the category not coming until two years later. The Ferrari 312T was the ultimate iteration of the pre-ground effect, normally-aspirated F1 car.
At its heart lay the flat-12 engine designed by Forghieri and used by the team since 1970. Laying the cylinders down flat (in two banks of six) rather than in the conventional vee positions of rival engines lowered the car’s centre of gravity and allowed a greater volume of air to flow to the underside of the rear wing, boosting downforce.
It had taken some time for Ferrari to fully exploit these two inherent advantages, however. Although the 312B and 312B2 models had won races regularly between 1970-72, the dominant teams of the time were Lotus and Tyrrell, both of which used the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, a brilliant design available to customers off the shelf. Its V8 format made it more compact (and slightly lighter) than the flat-12, and it used less fuel.
Forghieri came to realise that the Ferraris – in having to incorporate the 12-cylinder engine and bigger fuel tanks – were a little longer than ideal, denying them the agility of the best Cosworth cars. Forghieri began to think about how to centralise the car’s mass to give it that same agility despite the long engine.
Taking a break from running the F1 team in 1973, he designed an experimental prototype with a very short wheelbase – enabled by moving the radiators from the front and rear to the sides and re-siting the fuel and oil tanks. The distinctive nose of this design earned it the nickname of ‘The Snowplough’. Although it was never raced, the late-season version of the 1973 312B3 race chassis incorporated its side radiator layout.
This became the basis of the 1974 car. It was still labelled the 312B3 but was very different in appearance to the previous year’s machine. It incorporated the side radiator layout but Forghieri had further optimised the layout of the side bodywork to make a bigger gap beneath the rear wing.
The area freed up at the front from moving the radiators was used to fashion a big delta front wing, taking its inspiration from the ‘snowplough’ prototype. It also featured much wider bodywork, as Forghieri had realised from running his 312P design in the enclosed wheel sports car World Championship that the bodywork width could be used to help create more downforce.
The skinny ‘toothpaste tube’ F1 cars of the previous era in the late 1960s/early ’70s had prioritised lowering drag. There was a growing realisation that there was more lap time in using the bodywork to enhance downforce than would be lost to the greater drag. The 1974 312B3 pitched that trade off where Forghieri reckoned would give the best compromise.
It was a big success – comfortably the outright fastest car of the season, with Lauda scorching to nine pole positions in his first season with the team. But although team mate Clay Regazzoni took the title fight to the final round, ultimately Ferrari lost out to McLaren’s Emerson Fittipaldi.
But Forghieri knew there was more performance to be unlocked, if he could centralise the car’s mass even further. The more centralised the mass, the greater agility a car will have. His solution was to turn the gearbox sideways. This transverse layout was acknowledged in the 312T designation.
It made its debut in the fourth round of the ’75 championship and went on to power Lauda to five victories and a comfortable win in the Drivers’ World Championship. Ferrari won the Constructors’ for the first time in 11 years – and would go on to win the following two as well.
Ferrari’s mid-1970s pre-eminence was brought to an end by the advent of ground effect aerodynamics – introduced in 1977 by the Lotus 78. The airflow through the sidepod venturi tunnels which generated the negative pressure from the underfloor was effectively blocked by the Ferrari’s flat-12 layout.
Rather than adapt the flat-12 into a V12 – as Alfa-Romeo did during that time – Ferrari instead concentrated on creating a new turbocharged 1.5-litre V6 engine, which would race for the first time in 1981.
Turbocharging had been introduced to F1 by Renault in 1977. The 3-litre formula regulations in place since 1966 had always allowed for a forced induction engine, but at half the permitted capacity of a naturally-aspirated motor. This penalty was felt to be too restrictive to make a supercharged or turbocharged engine competitive. But Renault thought otherwise – and eventually were proved dramatically correct.
By 1985 the various turbos from Renault, BMW, Ferrari etc were delivering up to 1,500bhp in Qualifying trim, with around 750bhp available in the races. This compared to around 515bhp of the final version of the Ferrari 3-litre flat-12 in 1980. Ground effect aerodynamics had brought similar giant gains in downforce until the governing body stepped in to regulate flat-bottom cars from 1983.
All these developments had intrigued Lauda in his two-year hiatus from F1 in 1980-81. That technical fascination was part of what attracted him to the idea of returning to F1 – for McLaren in 1982.
McLaren had pioneered the use of carbon fibre as the material with which to construct the chassis. It allowed a vastly stiffer chassis for a lower weight than a conventional aluminium chassis – and by a happy coincidence, much better impact protection.
The search for performance had actually contributed to greater safety. This too appealed to Lauda as he prepared to make his F1 return, something which would culminate in his winning a third world title in 1984, in the McLaren-TAG MP4/2. It was designed by John Barnard, who specified the dimensions and layout of the V6 turbo engine to Porsche, the contracted supplier. The motor was labelled a ‘TAG’ in recognition of the funding of it by McLaren’s partner, Mansour Ojjeh’s Techniques Avante Garde company.
For 1985, the MP4/2 was lightly modified to make the MP4/2B. Lauda qualified it at Zandvoort only 10th-fastest but that was not so unusual. The strength of the car was in the race, where the great fuel efficiency of its engine (there was a regulation maximum fuel capacity of 220 litres) allowed Lauda and team mate Alain Prost to use more boost than the thirstier Renault, Ferrari and BMW engines. A decade’s worth of technical progress meant that Lauda’s qualifying time was over 7s faster than his pole time of 1975 in the 312T.
That car had steel brakes and aluminium chassis. This one had carbon fibre brakes and chassis – not to mention around 50% more power and more efficient aerodynamics.
The race boiled down to a no-holds-barred dice between Lauda and Prost. The latter was on his way to his first World Championship but Lauda used all his guile to keep the younger driver behind him to the flag. It was his 25th and final Grand Prix victory.
Leading the charge for the rest of the team in Tokyo are a host of familiar faces, seasoned champions ready to test themselves on the global stage once again.
Paris 2024 silver medallist high jumper Nicola Olyslagers, fresh from shattering the national record and setting a world-leading mark of 2.04m at the Zurich Diamond League, is among the favourites for gold.
“This season has been a great build up for Tokyo,” Olyslagers said in a press release from Australian Athletics. “My life changed forever the last time I competed in Tokyo for the Olympics [when claiming silver], so even sharing that stadium this time with my family and friends will be a moment I’ll never forget.”
Having bested reigning Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the Diamond League final just last week, Olyslagers hopes to finally break through to the top spot for her first major title.
Alongside Olyslagers, the team boasts five other Paris Olympic medallists, including reigning Olympic and world champion pole vaulter Nina Kennedy, discus thrower Matthew Denny, race walker Rhydian Cowley, middle-distance runner Jessica Hull, and former world high jump champion Eleanor Patterson.
But the team’s strength isn’t limited to its established stars.
The inclusion of young talents like Gout, along with eight other medallists from last year’s World Athletics Under-20 Championships, highlights the depth of rising talent within the nation. Claudia Hollingsworth, who recently broke the Australian 800m record, and teenage mile world record holder Cameron Myers are among this exciting new generation.
Andrew Faichney, Australian Athletics General Manager High Performance, believes this team reflects a broader shift in the sport’s landscape. “We’ve witnessed a real shift, not just in performance, but in national relevance,” Faichney explained.
“This team reflects that change. They’re world-class athletes with the results to match, but just as importantly, they’re carrying the momentum of a sport that has so much belief behind it.”
With all five national relay teams qualified for the first time ever, Team Australia is poised to make a significant impact at these World championships.
LIMASSOL (Cyprus) – Bosnia and Herzegovina came to FIBA EuroBasket 2025 without one of their stars in Dzanan Musa.
But the Dragons have been buoyed in Cyprus by their loyal fans, who the players call their sixth man and desperately want to give them a reason to travel to Riga for the Final Phase.
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“They were better than us the last few games for all the aspects of them pushing us.”
Jusuf Nurkic about the fans
Bosnia and Herzegovina boosted their chances of making the Round of 16 on the fourth day of games in Group C as they upset Greece 80-77 to give them a 2-2 record.
And a massive reason for Aziz Bekir’s team getting the victory were the faithful supporters cheering the whole game.
“I like to say they were better than us the last few games for all the aspects of them pushing us. Having the fans behind you the whole game singing, it was a great atmosphere and I am super happy we got a win for them,” star big man Jusuf Nurkic said.
The team’s point guard John Roberson said the energy is crazy and the fans create a great atmosphere.
“The support and the fans give us the extra boost. They are our sixth man and we really appreciate all the support,” Roberson said.
Bosnia and Herzegovina have won two games in Limassol, but they also have struggled at times on the court. Still one thing the team can always know is the fans will be there.
Their main goal in this EuroBasket is to finally advance from the Group Phase – something they have failed to do so in the last nine appearances since doing so in their debut in and finishing eighth.
And veteran forward Adin Vrabac hopes the team can give that achievement to the fans.
“These people who come here to support us deserve more than just today’s win (over Greece). They deserve a second round and to go to Riga with us and have the best result in history,” Vrabac said.
Check out the game report
Bosnia and Herzegovina survive late scare to end Greece’s unbeaten start
“We have a good team and we came here without our best player (Musa). But we came here with 3 or 4 thousand people and our fans and this is a win for them,” added Kenan Kamenjas.
Bosnia and Herzegovina still have a major task ahead of them as they take on Georgia in the deciding game for who books the remaining Round of 16 tickets.
“I know they will be there for the Georgia game for another boost and we will need them there,” Roberson said.
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“They deserve a second round and to go to Riga with us and have the best result in history.”
Vrabac on the fans.
Bosnia and Herzegovina have one more major motivation to reach the Round of 16. And that is their absent star Musa, who missed the tournament due to health reasons.
Musa starred for his country at the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers; averaging 22.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. That came after he collected 21.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per contest at FIBA EuroBasket 2022.
Nurkic said it’s ‘super hard’ not playing with Musa, who he teams up to form the Dragons’ leadership duo.
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“We’re going to have his back here and he’s going to cheer for us.”
Jusuf Nurkic about Dzanan Musa
“When you’re missing that big of talent, somebody who can score 20 points in a game, somebody who can make your defense guard him and guard me at the same time, so we know what we’re missing, but at the same time through the history of our country when it was the hardest time we come together the biggest,” Nurkic said.
“For sure, he’s the future and it always sucks to lose someone like that. We are always cheering for each other and we’re going to have his back here and he’s going to cheer for us.”
Nurkic and co. hope they can hear those boisterous fans once more in Riga later this week.
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Space-efficient and secure, with Kensington lock support and the ability to link two units for handling AI models up to 405 billion parameters.
BERLIN, Sept. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Acer today introduced the Veriton GN100 AI Mini Workstation, a compact yet powerful computer designed to run large AI models locally, minimizing dependence on cloud services and helping reduce associated costs.
The device is built on the NVIDIA® GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, delivering up to 1 PFLOPS of FP4 AI performance. This powerhouse combines next-generation CUDA® cores, fifth-gen Tensor Cores, and 20 Arm-based CPU cores, backed by 128 GB of unified system memory and 4 TB of NVMe M.2 SSD storage. This robust configuration enables server-grade performance in a mini-PC form factor.
The Acer Veriton GN100 includes the NVIDIA AI software stack, providing a full stack solution for AI developers. Developers, researchers, data scientists, and students can leverage common frameworks and tools such as PyTorch, Jupyter, and Ollama to prototype, fine-tune, test, and deploy large language models locally or seamlessly scale out to any accelerated cloud or data center infrastructure.
Thanks to the NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NIC, users can link two Acer Veriton GN100 units to scale up and work with AI models reaching up to 405 billion parameters. Connectivity and security are also prioritized, with Wi-Fi 7, four USB 3.2 Type-C USB ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet jack, and a Kensington lock ensuring robust protection and seamless system integration.
Pricing
The Acer Veriton GN100 AI Mini Workstation will be available in North America starting at USD 3,999; in EMEA starting at EUR 3,999, and in Australia starting at AUD 6,499.
Exact specifications, prices, and availability will vary by region. To learn more about availability, product specifications and prices in specific markets, please contact your nearest Acer office via www.acer.com.
For all the official announcements and product images, visit the IFA 2025 Press Kit site.
Specifications
Name
Acer Veriton GN100 AI Mini Workstation
Model
GN100
Operating System
DGX Base OS & NVIDIA AI Software Stack
Processors
20-core Arm-based processor, up to 1 PFLOPS of FP4 AI performance
Graphics
NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip
Memory
128 GB LPDDR5x Coherent Unified System memory
Storage
Up to 4 TB M.2 NVMe with self-encryption
Audio
HDMI multi-channel audio output
Ports
Four USB 3.2 Type C, HDMI 2.1b, RJ-45 connector, NVIDIA ConnectX-7 Smart NIC
Networking
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.1 or above
Network Interface Card
NVIDIA ConnectX-7 Smart NIC
Security
Kensington lock, Local AI Model Execution (data privacy)
Dimensions/Weight
150 (W) x 150 (D) x 50.5 (H) mm (5.91 x 5.91 x 1.99 inches)/ less than 1.5 kg
About Acer
Founded in 1976, Acer is one of the world’s top technology companies with a presence in more than 160 countries. The company continues to evolve by embracing innovation across its offerings, which include computers and displays, while branching out to new businesses. Acer is also committed to sustainable growth, exploring new opportunities that align with its environmental and social responsibilities. The Acer Group employs over 9,000 employees that contribute to the research, design, marketing, sales and support of products, solutions, and services that break barriers between people and technology. Visit www.acer.com for more information.
This is your last chance to shop for the best deals in mobile innovation technology at unbeatable prices. These deals are available only until 07 September 2025, so you have limited time left to enjoy these massive discounts on Samsung mobile devices, tablets, wearables and other accessories.
This year’s Blue Tag Salehad a big focus on mobile phones, tablets and smartwatches. And South Africans still have a chance to grab unbeatable deals of up to 40% on Samsung’s most innovative mobile devices that include the Galaxy S24 FE with 128GB. Samsung’s smartphones are designed to integrate with your other Galaxy devices, such as smartwatches, buds and other smart devices – creating a connected user experience.
You can also take advantage of the best offers in health and fitness products such as the Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch 7 and the Fit3. These wearables will allow you to stay fit and connected at awesome prices. With Galaxy Watch Ultra, you can enjoy Samsung’s ultra-wearable experience and, this can become your personal wellness coach that’s power-packed and always bright – redesigned to fit you better.
Also, you can explore the best of Samsung’s cutting-edge tablets that will supercharge your productivity with Galaxy AI in your hands. This selection of mobile devices on sale right now will inspire smarter, intelligent connections and greater wellness in your life. This Blue Tag Sale is especially for those looking to upgrade their smartphones and also score a sleek tablet. You can even grab the latest smartwatch or treat yourself to new wireless buds.
So, use thisopportunity to upgrade and save up to 40% on a select range of innovative Galaxy phones, tablets, smartwatches and other accessories that include the following:
Smartphones:
Galaxy S24 FE (128GB) – Was R14 999, now R9 999 (Save R5 000)
Galaxy A26 – Was R4 999, now R4 499 (Save R500)
Galaxy A16 – Was R3 499, now R2 999 (Save R500)
Galaxy A05s – Was R2 899, now R2 499 (Save R400)
Galaxy A06 – Was R2 299, now R1 999 (Save R300)
Galaxy A05 – Was R1 899, now R1 699 (Save R200)
Tablets:
Galaxy Tab S10FE 5G – Was R12 999, now R9 999 (Save R3 000)
Galaxy Tab A9+ 5G – Was R4 999, now R3 999 (Save R1 000)
Galaxy Tab A9 LTE – Was R2 999, now R2 499 (Save R500)
Wearables & Accessories:
Galaxy Watch Ultra – Was R12 999, now R8 999 (Save R4 000)
Galaxy Watch 7 44mm BT – Was R4 999, now R3 999 (save R1 000)
Galaxy Fit3 – Was R1 299, now R999 (Save R300)
Galaxy Buds3 – Was R3 999, now R2 999 (Save R1 000)
Galaxy Buds FE – Was R1 699, now R999 (Save R700)
Samsung Battery Packs – Was R699, now R499 (Save R200)[1]
The Samsung Blue Tag Sale’s special offers are available nationwide. So, from mobile phones that allow you to connect with loved ones at all times, to tablets that elevate your productivity – these deals are still up for grabs at participating retail stores and online.
You can now browse Samsung’s extensive range of services, cellphones, tech and accessories online. But, there’s limited stock (and time); so act fast! Don’t miss out on these amazing products at amazing prices — shop in store any Samsung stores or participating retailers[2] online on Samsung and Samsung Shop App[3].
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Disclaimers:
[1] Terms and Conditions apply.
[2] Pricing limited to only BTS participating retailers.
[3] Recommended Resale Price. Prices may vary per participating retailer
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
AI Pro bundle worth $240 is available for Pixel 10 Pro users for free.
Access features like Gemini 2.5 Pro, Veo 3, NotebookLM, and more.
The base Google Pixel 10 variant isn’t included in this offer.
Google’s new Pixel lineup includes the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. These are among the most advanced phones right now, and Google is leaving no stone unturned to convert iPhone users. Apart from the new MagSafe-like PixelSnap feature, the company is targeting Apple Intelligence’s missed opportunity with a free Google AI Pro plan to sway Apple fans.
Also: I replaced my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with the Pixel 10 Pro XL for a week – and can’t go back
Google is offering its AI Pro plan, worth $240, for free to users who purchase and activate a Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, or Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Unfortunately, the offer isn’t available for the base Pixel 10 variant.
As a result, if you spend $999 or more on a new Google phone, you are eligible to subscribe to a one-year Google AI Pro plan for free. Samsung offered a similar deal with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and Z Flip 7 FE, but it was a $120 offer, so it was limited to six months.
The Google AI Pro plan bundles enhanced features like access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Veo 3 for AI-generated videos, 2TB of cloud storage, and previews of upcoming AI tools. It typically costs $20 a month, but Google will cover a year’s worth of membership for free if you buy one of the new Pixel 10 Pro smartphones.
How to get Google AI Pro plan for free with Pixel 10 Pro
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
To redeem the Google AI Pro plan offer, you need to download the Google One app on your new Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, or Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Make sure you log in with the Google account that you want the subscription associated with. Once done, the offer page should appear automatically with terms and conditions, which you have to accept.
Also: Everything announced at Made by Google 2025: Pixel 10 Pro, Fold, Watch 4, and more
Notably, the Google AI Pro plan offer is not available to Google One users who:
Are subscribed to an add-on
Are subscribed to a higher-tier plan than the one being offered
Are on a family plan who are not the plan manager
Have a subscription through a third party or affiliate
You can redeem this Pixel 10 Pro offer by Oct. 31, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Unless canceled earlier, Google AI Pro will charge $19.99 after the trial ends, so make sure you cancel it after a year of use if you don’t find value in it. Google says you can cancel anytime, and no refunds will be initiated for partial billing periods.
Also: College students can get Google’s AI Pro plan for free now. Here’s how
The latest Google Pixel 10 phones offer a range of AI features, including the new Magic Cue, Camera Coach, and more. Google is banking on Gemini’s extensive suite of AI features to leave a lasting impression on your daily workflow, and hoping it’ll make you spend $20 per month after the offer period ends.
We’ve unveiled the All-Star fantasy team of the week; the top performers in each position in round two.
Jorja Miller made an appearance for the second week running, and is part of a forward pack that is represented by eight different nations.
Feel like you’re missing out? You can join the Rugby World Cup 2025 fantasy league by clicking here.
Japan feeling the love
The familiar sight of the Japanese players bowing to the crowd after a game has become an iconic part of rugby and in particular the Rugby World Cup.
It seems that the players themselves are loving the mutual feeling of appreciation at RWC 2025.
“Even after the matches, when we went around to greet the fans, everyone stood and cheered us on, which made me feel very emotional,” said Kotomi Taniguchi.
“We always say to each other, ‘We are so grateful. What a wonderful country this is’ as we bow to the crowd.”
Key stats of the round
It’s that time of the week where we test your knowledge of rugby along with your knowledge of something else. And today that something else is classic Christmas films.
Specifically, how long they are and how that compares with the length of time England’s tryline has not been breached at Rugby World Cup 2025.
All will be revealed on that if you click here, as well as finding out how some of the most frugal defensive teams aside from England have gone about barricading their doors at the tournament.
‘Halse a natural footy player’
Emily Chancellor was full of praise for young Wallaroos sensation Caitlyn Halse when speaking to the media on Tuesday. Halse has scored four tries already at #RWC2025, and team-mate Chancellor is not surprised.
“I love watching the way she has grown over the last three years at the Waratahs, from a kid with a hell of lot of talent but not a lot of self-belief move into a player who is backing herself, executing and enjoying it,” Chancellor said.
“The confidence that she’s built playing in the gold jersey over the last two years is unreal to see. She truly believes in what she’s doing. She has good communication and a good skill set but she’s also a natural footy player.
“I remember her watching one of the boys doing a banana kick in training and then after five minutes of trying it before the session, in the session she pulled out this epic end-over-end banana ball bounce that swung off the field, with no fear of failure. There’s this natural ability.”
Black Ferns mentally enter the knockouts
We may still be just over a week until the quarter-finals kick off, but New Zealand have taken the attitude that their knockouts are starting early.
The Black Ferns face Ireland in Brighton on Sunday, with the winner taking the top seed in Pool C and therefore the better seeding and potential route in the knockouts.
“Every game from now on, we believe it’s a final, Kennedy Tukuafu said. “We want to make sure we don’t show all our cards but make sure that we nail the moments that we do get.”
You can read the full story on RugbyPass here.
And finally… what it means to Samoa
Samoa coach Ramsey Tomokino was asked during a press conference what it means for his team to be representing the country at Rugby World Cup 2025.
Tomokino was visibly emotional as he described the scenes from when the team got off the bus before their game against England.
You can see his response in the video below:
You can still get tickets to Samoa’s final game of Rugby World Cup 2025 against USA in York on Saturday by clicking here.
If Kurt Schaer was completely honest, his first thought when his wife started having hot flashes and night sweats was that she could “just suck it up.”
It can’t be that bad, he thought to himself: “You’re having a bad day. You’re feeling sick, we get sick, too. Just maneuver through it.”
His father taught him that a husband provides, a wife takes care of children. Emotional equity wasn’t built in their home.
The couple had survived infidelity and rebuilt their lives as marriage coaches. They lived through the death of their teenage son in a car accident and became grief leaders. But when Schaer watched his wife Denette suffer from perimenopause symptoms that grew to sharp mood swings, forgetfulness and extreme fatigue – he couldn’t bear losing the woman he’d known for three decades.
“I needed to find compassion and empathy,” Schaer, 49, says. “Nothing in life I would have my wife walk through by herself. I had to figure how to help.”
He set the thermostat in their Tampa home to 69 degrees, built what he calls a wind tunnel of fans above his wife’s side of the bed and bought a white noise machine to block out the irritating way his breathing sounded. He did laundry and other chores; many he admits that he should have been doing all along. He learned about hormone therapy.
“But most important,” he says, “I listened.”
Just as Gen X and millennial women are changing the way they approach perimenopause and menopause, piercing through the cultural zeitgeist, so are their husbands and partners. Bro fitness podcasts are now talking about hormones and strength training. Men are joining their wives for medical appointments, going to menopause retreats, and making TikTok videos and documentaries. They are doing so with both a sense of urgency and sometimes humor. One man even named his wife’s menopause symptoms “Agnes” to remind them that it is part of his wife, but not all of her.
But the process by which men are approaching menopause in this generation is akin to other ways they are defining masculinity. Or, at the very least, exploring how they have understood what it means to be a man. Maybe masculinity still does mean taking care of and protecting your partner, being the breadwinner and remaining stoic all the same. But just like the men who understood changing a diaper in the 1990s didn’t take away their manliness, so can participating in their spouse’s emotional needs.
This evolution in masculinity, where vulnerability and authenticity are valued, moves away from the restrictive path in which the men interviewed by USA TODAY were raised. It’s not just changing them, but their marriages.
Women are welcoming men to the menoconversation
Perimenopause and menopause shouldn’t simply be discussions in a gynecologist’s office, says Tamsen Fadal, who wrote “How to Menopause.”
And yet it was almost always relegated to the exam room, somewhere with stirrups in sight.
It’s not only about the body temperature changes. There’s the so-called “menobelly.” The irritability or walking into a room only to forget why seconds later. Oh, and a plummeting sex drive, which almost always makes women spiral into shame.
“This can create conflict in the relationship if you don’t bring men into it,” Fadal says.
There are few studies on how men view menopause, but one of the most recent shows that almost three of four men now say they talk with their partner about menopause. These men also discuss treatment options, according to Menopause, the Journal of the Menopause Society.
Perimenopause, the time leading up to the menopause where a woman’s period stops, can last up to 10 years and include a fluctuation in hormones. It can present with symptoms ranging from frozen shoulder to achy joints and often women suffer for years before diagnosis.
These are men who grew up with fathers who ignored menopause. These are men who now are realizing their mothers went through this and they didn’t even know.
After all, there’s a silence that had always accompanied women going through menopause. If they dared asked for help, it was about masking symptoms − and feelings − in order to please others. It was to not draw any more attention to the fact that they were aging.
These also are men who see that while divorce rates overall are dropping, divorces among adults 50 and older are increasing. Seven in 10 women blame perimenopause or menopause for the breakdown of their marriage, according to a survey in the United Kingdom by the Family Law Menopause Project and Newsom Health Research and Education.
Welcome to the ‘menodivorce’. Why women aren’t sweating marriage in a sea of hot flashes
Fadal helped make “The M Factor,” a documentary about menopause. When it was screened earlier this year, the majority of audiences were women. Then she noticed a shift.
“Women were starting to bring their husbands or partners to help them understand this,” she says. “Half of the population will go through menopause, and we need the other half to understand it.”
Finding his vulnerability in talking about menopause
Jesse Robertson was driving home from his sales job when he heard menopause expert Dr. Mary Claire Haver on a health podcast.
He was astounded by how often women are misdiagnosed, the misunderstandings about hormone therapy, and his own ignorance. So, he posed a question on his parenting TikTok account this summer: “Do women want husbands to talk to them about menopause?”
Hundreds of women told him they wanted men to learn more. The husband and father of two shifted his videos to menopause and perimenopause. He approaches it not as an expert, but someone learning along with other men.
While it has grown his audience and given him a sense of pride in helping others, there’s been another more important transformation.
It has brought him closer to his wife of 17 years.
“It’s allowed me to have more vulnerable conversations with her,” says Robertson, 47, who lives in the Minneapolis area. “If I can talk to her about this, something sensitive, personal, and kind of uncomfortable for me, we can talk about anything.”
Bell Hooks, the late author and cultural critic, said that even the most loving of couples fall into the trap of avoiding emotions and projecting expectations onto the other person. It’s a comfortable game, one that has furnished endless aisles of self-help books. Women are from venus. Men are from mars, right?
To love, she said, men and women must be willing to hear each others’ truths without punishment or exception.
Now Robertson hears from men and couples who are watching his menopause videos together.
“It isn’t just women who have to go through it,” he says. “It’s something that partnerships have to go through.”
Men need to learn more and stop being (expletives)
Todd Maxwell was scrolling through his phone when he came across one of Robertson’s videos describing symptoms that sounded like his wife: fatigue and brain fog, frozen shoulder, and mood swings.
“I think this is what you might have,” he told her. “Perimenopause.”
She was only 40. When she told doctors, they discounted her symptoms, blaming the shoulder issues on exercise and the fatigue on their four children.
When she had confided in Maxwell about hot flashes, he says he had made jokes about it. “It was awkward, and I didn’t know what to say,” he says. “I should have been more understanding.”
They separated this summer.
“I told her that I’m really sorry it took me this long to realize that I could have been more helpful,” says Maxwell, 47. “Men need to learn more and stop being (expletives.)”
Maxwell, an oil lineman, lives in a small town in Alberta, Canada. He grew up believing men don’t show emotion. Sharing how he felt, he thought, feel could only add to his wife’s burden.
He threw himself into being the kind of father that he never had – the kind that goes to hockey games and listens. But, he says, he didn’t put that same energy into understanding his wife.
Until now. He started therapy. He’s reading books and watching videos to learn more about perimenopause.
“Now if I want to talk to my wife about how I’m feeling, I write in my journal. I take a walk,” he says. “I think about her feelings, what she needs. I want to be here for her, for my daughters and my sons.”
Men need to understand menopause is more than mood swings
When Dave Maher began training women over 40, he saw that no matter what they ate or how much they exercised, they weren’t losing weight.
It was also about hormones and estrogen, things that change drastically during perimenopause and menopause.
“It’s insulting for us to tell midlife women to just eat less and move more,” he says. “Women have been gaslit and lied to and suffered needlessly.”
Woman in menopause prescribed antidepressants in medical blunder
Leslie Ann McDonald knew something was wrong when she started skipping workouts and sleeping after school drop-offs.
unbranded – Newsworthy
Perimenopause and menopause treatment is about health and longevity, not simply feeling better. It’s about decreasing risks for Alzheimer’s and heart disease, about building strength to stay out of an assisted living facility. It’s about the quality of the last third of a woman’s life. As Maher learned more, his business shifted to helping women better understand and get treatment – from hormone therapy to nutrition – in midlife.
“Men need to understand it’s not just mood swings,” says Maher, 41. “It’s the collapse of estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. Women need this to be healthy – for their hearts, their brains. Men need to wake up. This affects their wives, sisters, and daughters.”
She was prescribed antidepressants But this mom was in menopause and needed another drug.
Becoming a better man
In some ways, Schaer’s wife’s perimenopause helped him better understand himself. And, he hopes it is making him a better husband.
“My generation of men was taught, ‘Bro, work hard. Come home. Try to make your kid’s sports games if you can’ and you’re golden,” he said. “But that’s not enough.”
In his role as a marriage coach, he sees women who want their husbands to change, to evolve. And men who often still want to come home to “the girl they married.”
(Even if she’s 48.)
Schaer wants to help them learn what he has, in many ways the hard way over decades. That the act of giving love is what makes you better, it’s what isn’t just for your partner, it’s also what changes you.
“You are going to step up and learn to love in ways you didn’t know you could,” he says. “I love my wife more today than when I met her. I have learned that the love we have has been refined.”
Every time Schaer learns a new symptom, behavior or health issue with menopause, the same thing always happens. He musters just enough courage. He gets in the pain with Denette.
And when he does, on the other side of that love, there’s just more love.
Laura Trujillo is a national columnist focusing on health and wellness. She is the author of “Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter’s Search for Truth and Renewal,” and can be reached at ltrujillo@usatoday.com.
